Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cartoons and movie stars, and all other forms of life that exist in this or any crazy world, the time has finally come for the next chapter in the saga of the Keyblades Unleashed Series! This. Is. The big debut. Of...Kingdom Hearts Keyblade Legion! And now, give it up for your host, the epic builder, the crossover-crafter, the awesome lyokoMARVELanime!

[audience applause]

AN: Yeah, that's right! We back with Kingdom Hearts in the Keyblades Unleashed series baby! And speaking of said series, let's hear it for some of the main cast of this story, because our man Roxas and the lovely Xion are in da house today!

[audience applause as Roxas and Xion both wave hello]

Roxas: Glad to finally be here, and great to be in one of your stories full-time again, lyoko.

Xion: Same here, and I'm even more excited over the fact that I'm gonna be a good guy right from the start this time. I really hated being the villain in Keyblades of Future Past.

AN: So you keep telling me. Every. Single. Chance. You can.

Xion: [laughs sheepishly as she rubs the back of her head]

AN: But you know I still love ya anyway, right? Right. I mean seriously, how can someone not love Xion? Her canon story is so great, save for the very sad ending, and everyone feels like she should have gotten a better deal out of the hand she was dealt. Plus, she's just so cute! I mean, look at her! Look at this girl and tell me that you don't think she's cute!

Xion: [Poses with a cute expression just as the author is mentioning all of that]

AN: See?! Look, look, look at that! How can you not call this girl cute when you see that?

Roxas: All right, we get it! You've got a fanboy crush on Xion.

AN: Do not, and you really shouldn't criticize, player.

Roxas: Hey! I am NOT a player! Why would you...

AN: Two girls, boy! TWO girls! [points at Xion and a picture of Naminé]

Roxas: It's not like that's my fault! People can't make up their mind about which girl I should be paired with, or which pairing they like better. And nobody say anything about the pairings that involve me and Axel, or any other guy for that matter. I'm not gay!

AN: Ahem, we here at lyokoMARVELanime studios would just like to say that we do not have a problem with people who are gay. Merely the way that some people will try and make two characters gay (such as Roxas and Axel, or Sora and Riku), merely because they either try to read too far into a few simple acts of friendship when there is nothing to read, or because they just refuse to tell the difference between an act of friendship and one of romance. You are entitled to your own opinion of course, but just know that we are of a different one.

Anywho, I know some of you who have read the previous story, Kingdom Hearts Dual Keys, have a lot of questions that you likely wish for me to answer, and honestly, I probably would answer them right here and now, but I feel like you've all waited for far too long for this story to come out, so why make you wait any longer? I'll probably just provide you all with what answers I can in the ending note or something.

Xion: Aren't you going to show off another parody song that you thought up for this story?

AN: Not yet! It's still too soon to unveil that! Wait a couple more chapters or so before asking me to play that.

Xion: Okay, fine.

AN: Ahem, now with that out of the way, let's get this show on the road, or as Darkwing Duck would say, let's get dangerous!

Roxas: Yeah, I don't really think that works here.

AN: Matter of perspective and opinion.

I do not own anything from Kingdom Hearts or any other franchise mentioned in this story.

Chapter I

Normally when one is having a bit of restless sleep, it usually because something rather simple is bothering them, they are especially excited about something, or because of a bad dream, and it's not really all that uncommon for everyone to find themselves in such a state from time to time. However, while dreams were a big part of the problem for a certain resident in Twilight Town, there was something about the things his subconscious was showing him that made him think that they were not just mere dreams. As he slept, he saw images that he did not recognize, but still somehow felt familiar to him, like he had experienced them and forgotten, and whenever someone spoke, he only got small snippets of the conversation, and sometimes, sentences that were left unfinished. From what he could remember, this had happening on and off, but recently, the dreams had started to become a little more frequent, and more than that, they were become clearer as well. And this is just a few examples of what this boy was seeing in the dream he was having right now…

A boy with brown, spiky hair found himself staring up at a clear blue sky with a shinning sun with the faint sounds of seagulls from somewhere around him. Upon sitting up, he glanced around to see that he was right back to the beach on the Play Island where he had initially laid down for a nap, much to his relief, and after letting out a deep yawn, he lay down once more in the hopes of a much more peaceful nap. At least that was what he would have tried to do, had his vision not suddenly found itself being filled with the face of…

"Whoa," he exclaimed as he bolted upright once more, and he then turned to see a redhead girl still standing over him with her hands on her knees, lightly laughing at his startled response to her presence. "Gimme a break, Kai—!"

The scene changed in a way that was when the picture goes bad on an old television when it did before the girl's full name could be heard, and showed a boy with silver hair running along the beach against the spiky haired boy, clearly racing each other. "Giving up already," the silver haired boy teased before the scene changed again to show both boys and the girl watching the sunset as they sat on a tree that looked like it had grown in a sideways direction. "If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one," the silver haired boy asked.

Any answers that could have been given were lost to more, fuzzy images flashing past the mind's eye, until it settled on the image of the boy looking at a childish looking self-portrait of himself and the girl from before looking at each other, while the boy seemed to be giving the girl a star. "This world has been connected," someone suddenly said from behind him.

"Wh-Who's there," the boy called out, turning to see a stranger in a dark cloak.

"Tied to the darkness…" the stranger continued, and then the scene changed again, this time showing the boy glancing up at the girl as she stood beside him on the dock while they watched the sunset.

"Sora, don't ever change," the girl requested before she appeared to think about something for a minute. There might have been something between the two points, but it was clearly skipped over for some reason. "Hey, Sora, you know how you said that you had a really weird dream yesterday during your little nap? Well, I think I had a pretty weird one too just last night."

"What about," the boy questioned.

"I'm not really sure. I remember seeing a lot of people with weird swords, and they were all fighting against these monsters that were destroying everything around them. I didn't recognize most of the people fighting the monsters, but I could've sworn that I had seen at least one or two of them somewhere before…"

"Well, did you get a good look at them?"

"Not really, at least not beyond what I already told you," she admitted. After thinking for a minute though, she then added, "Although, there is one other thing I do remember…"

"Yeah? What's that?"

"I'm pretty sure that one of them was a woman…and that she had blue hair…I think…"

Once again, the scene shifted, just like it had before, and it showed a dark sky with the silver haired boy standing before the spiky haired one, who was apparently named Sora, his hand held out to him, as if beckoning him to come with him. "The door has opened…" the silver haired boy's voice could be heard saying, the dialogue obvious being something he had said earlier since the dream did not show his lips moving at all.

"What," Sora asked.

A minute later, the scene began shifting a lot more frequently, varying between a bad television picture, and that of several numbers in computer code, only pausing to show the spiky haired boy looking up at a massive, dark monstrosity of some kind that looked like it was a living shadow, while the voice of the cloaked stranger spoke out. "You understand nothing."

The scene shifted one last time, before showing the cave from earlier, as a massive door behind the redhead flew open and pushed her towards Sora, who had to raise his arms to shield himself from the strong winds that came out from the door. "Sora," the girl's voice seemed to softly call out in a drowsy sort of tone, while the dream showed her being blown towards Sora until she seemed to pass right through him.

That was the last thing that a teenage boy with blonde, spiky hair and blue eyes saw before he finally awoke and sat up in his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he did. He glanced about his room for a moment, taking in the rather simple appearance of its otherwise messy state, as he whispered, "Another dream about him…" The sound of a clock tower's bell then grabbed his attention prompting him to turn and open the window next to his bed so that he could let in some fresh air, or at least as much fresh air as one could get in a city like the one he currently lived in. "Good morning Twilight Town," the boy smiled in soft greeting while the sounds of trains arriving at the station could be heard in the distance, but that smile quickly became replaced with a look of worry when he glanced over to his alarm clock to see what time it was. "Oh nuts! We're going to be late!"

His new realization was all the prompting that the blonde needed to spring right up from his bed and start changing out of his simple, grey and white pajamas and into his usual attire for the day. Just as he had finished slipping on a black, high-collared jacket over his usual grey t-shirt, and his black and beige colored pants, he remembered that there was still someone else he had to get up, and quickly dashed out of his room as he grabbed a second jacket, which was white with several black block designs, and a grey hem on each sleeve. Once he had arrived at the door to the room right next to his, he rapidly knocked on it, just in case the person inside was already up and getting dressed. After receiving no answer in response, he opened the door to see that the room's occupant was still sleeping, bundled up in several blankets as they snoozed the day away, something that the blonde was not going to be having right now.

"Xion, it's time to get up," the blonde stated as he rushed over and gave a few nudges to the shoulder of the person buried in the blankets.

"No. I don' wanna," a girl's voice drowsily replied.

"Well you gotta! We overslept," the blonde exclaimed, starting to pull back the covers until the girl's head was exposed, revealing her very lightly tanned face and messy black hair to the world.

"Then lemme sleep som'more," Xion begged as she feebly fumbled to pull the covers back up again. "It's summer, Roxas, and tha means no school, so we don't gotta be nowhere early. Which means Xion sleep more. So let Xion sleep."

"How about no, because we do gotta be somewhere! Remember? We told Olette and the guys that we were going to meet them at the Usual Place today," the now identified Roxas reminded her, barely suppressing an eye-roll at the brunette's lazy speech pattern.

"Olette's the only one who'll care if we late or no," Xion retorted in reply before burying her head under a pillow as if to block out any more noise from the blonde that was bothering her.

Roxas was about ready to give up, as evidenced by how he threw on his white jacket, and fixed the collar so that it was folded back, allowing the world to see the red pleated design that was on its inside. Just after he had done so though, he smirked a little bit and slowly crept over to Xion once again, fishing out his Magi-Phone, the latest model smart phone on the market from Imagineer-Works, and scrolling through his playlist of songs before he found the one he was looking for. When he settled himself next to the bed, he held the phone up to Xion's head, hit play, and at once, a catchy little theme tune started playing from the phone's speakers.

"Life is like a hurricane here in Duckburg. Race cars, lasers, aeroplanes! It's a duck-blur!

Might solve a mystery, or rewrite hist'ry! DuckTales! Oo-woo-oo!

Every day they're out there making DuckTales! Oo-woo-oo!

Tales of daring do bad and good luck tales! Oo-woo-oo!"

"DUCKTALES IS ON," Xion cheered before the song could get much further, springing up from her bed and scampering for the TV in her room as fast as lightning. It was not until she saw that the television was off that she realized what had just happened, and she immediately turned an upset look that was more cute than it was intimidating at the person behind said trick. "I wish you'd stop doing that, Roxas. It's mean!"

"Well then you shouldn't leave it as the only way to get you out of bed almost every morning, Sis," Roxas laughed, nearly forgetting why he was trying to get Xion up in the first place. Almost. "Now come on! Get dressed while I make us a quick breakfast so we can get going already."

"All right, all right, but not until you're out of my room," Xion sighed, dropping her pout and shoving her brother out the door so she could have some privacy while she changed.

The minute the door closed behind him, Roxas turned back and warned, "Just so you know, if you're not downstairs by the time I've finished fixing breakfast, I'm going to be coming back in there to make sure you haven't gone back to bed, and I won't knock next time, either."

"Yeah, yeah. I know the drill," Xion called back in reply as she stripped off her black night gown and grabbed her own daily attire from her closet. "But you know, most people would be a little disturbed that your perving after your innocent, twin sister, Bro."

Roxas merely rolled his eyes at the girl, having heard that joke before, and knowing that Xion's teasing was not anywhere near serious in that regard, and he simply left his sister to do whatever she did as she got dressed in the morning so he could head to the kitchen. Knowing they were in a hurry today, Roxas did not bother making anything too big for breakfast, and opted for a couple simple bowls of cereal, toast and milk. He left a tub of butter and a jar of jelly out on the table in case Xion wanted either or both on her toast, and by the time he had finished pouring two glasses of milk, his brunette sister came into the kitchen and plopped herself down into her usual seat at the table. Roxas smiled in approval at her before taking note of how she was decked out in her own usual attire of a light blue tank-top beneath a sleeveless, black vest, sea-green shorts, and tan socks that reached her knees. Like him, Xion left her shoes at the door of the small house that their guardian let them live in on their own, which, if one were to glance over at the entrance, were varying shades of red. The two quickly scarffed down their respective meals before they headed for the door to grab their shoes, and the minute that Roxas had fastened the red straps on both of his grey and black sneakers, the two set out, locking the door behind them.

Another glance at his sister allowed Roxas to see that Xion had loosely wrapped a short, white scarf around her neck, and he could not help but smile a little. Normally, one would have said it was silly for her to be wearing such a thing when it was so warm out, but it was just something that Xion always had on her, so no one really saw the point. Besides, Roxas was not one to talk about odd accessories, since he wore a black-and-white, checkerboard wrist band on his left wrist, while his left index finger was adorned with a plain black ring, and left middle finger a white one. If anyone thought that was weird, Roxas always defended himself by saying it just emphasized how much he liked the simple colors of black and white. Besides, it was not like Twilight Town ever got too terribly warm in the summer time. The city was named as such because it was always twilight, aside from when it was actually the appropriate time of day for it to be as such, and then night time afterwards, so even the beaches were just barely warm enough to get away with wearing the typical summer attire.

Anymore thoughts about his or his twin sister's attire were put out of his mind as he and Xion started racing for the spot where they and their friends always met up to hang out, hoping that they had not missed too much of whatever vacation plans they were running with today because of how late they had slept.

It turned out that the twins were not as late as they thought they were going to be, but apparently, they did still miss something by not showing at the same time as the rest of their friends. According to Hayner, a blonde boy that wore camouflage-print capris, a black muscle shirt, and a short, sleeveless, grey vest, their old bully, Seifer, the leader of the town's self-proclaimed "disciplinary committee," had gone around and started accusing their group of stealing from everyone in the town. Naturally, Hayner was far from thrilled about this, and Roxas suspected that it had very little to do with his long-time rivalry with Seifer either, a feeling that Xion and all of their friends shared, seeing as they were not too fond of the information that Hayner had just informed them of.

"Man, doesn't that just tick you off," Hayner asked the gang, collectively when he finally finished his recounting of the rumor.

"Yeah, that's just wrong," his best friend, Pence agreed. Pence was a heavy-weight boy with black hair, and brown eyes, who dressed in short-sleeved, white shirt, which he wore a red jersey over, blue jeans, blue and white shoes, and a black headband with grey lining. The one thing that everyone knew the most about Pence though, was that he always had his camera on him, because he wanted to make sure he got photos of all the best memories he shared with his best friends. There were various other reasons, sure, but that was the chief among them all.

"Seifer's gone too far this time," Olette nodded along with them. The only other girl in the group aside from Xion, Olette had brown hair and green eyes, and was always sporting her signature orange tank-top with white floral designs, khaki-colored capri pants, orange socks, and cream and yellow shoes with black laces. More than that though, she often served to be the most level-headed of the twins' three friends, being the one who usually got Hayner and Pence to reign it in before they did something stupid, and who always made sure that they knew when it was time to stop playing and start working, at least when it came to school or when they needed to do a few odd jobs to earn some money. If Hayner was Roxas's best friend of the bunch, Olette was definitely Xion's.

Speaking of the dark haired girl, it was at that moment when the three went silent that she and her brother realized that the others were looking to them for their opinion now, but considering that they had already said it all, Xion and Roxas could only nod in agreement with them. That was apparently good enough for Hayner, as he immediately grinned before he jumped up from his seat so he could start pacing as he voiced his thoughts aloud. "I mean, it's true that stuff's been stolen around town, and we've got a score to settle with Seifer and everything," Hayner admitted. "So if he wants to think we did it, I can't really blame him. See…that's not what really bugs me. What REALLY bugs me is that he's goin' around tellin' everybody we're the thieves! Now the whole town and their mothers are treating us like the Klepto Club! Have you ever been this ticked off before in your life, 'cause I haven't. Nuh-uh, NEVER."

"Clearly," Xion murmured with an amused smile. She was just as upset about the whole thing as Hayner clearly was, but she found his angry ranting to be a little amusing sometimes. This was one of those times. There was just something about Hayner when he got mad like this that she found a little funny, but when he actually started doing something or getting mad for a really serious reason, that quickly went away. A moment later, her brow scrunched up in thought before she whispered to Olette, "What's a klepto?"

Olette could not help but giggle at Xion's innocent question, but Xion did not have a problem with it. She was well aware that there were times when she seemed like a little kid whenever she asked certain questions. "It's short for kleptomaniac, which it basically the word for someone that can't keep themselves from stealing things."

"Oh, got it," Xion nodded, now able to sympathize with Hayner's anger a little more than before.

"Now, with the vocabulary lesson out of the way…what to do about this mess that Seifer's put us in," Hayner cut in, growling Seifer's name when he did while he punched a fist into his open palm.

At that point, the whole room went quiet, indicating that the group was thinking about the matter very seriously, but having a hard time coming up with ideas. Eventually, everyone's gaze ended up on Roxas, much to the blonde's mild surprise. Xion was not sure why that was the case though, since her brother almost always had some idea on how to handle a situation, at least as far as she could remember. If you were to ask her, Xion thought that Roxas should not be too surprised by everyone looking to him for ideas on their course of action any more, given how often it happened. "Uh, well…" Roxas muttered as he shook off his surprise at becoming the center of attention. Just when the others began to think he did not have an idea, he finally came up with something and said, "We could find the real thieves. That would set the record straight."

"Hey, that sounds fun," Pence agreed, getting up to grab his camera so that he could get photographic evidence of the event.

"It sounds dangerous to me," Xion corrected. "What if this guy or girl is dangerous? I don't want anyone to get hurt. Maybe it would be better if we let someone like the police handle this."

"And who's to say that the police won't eventually try to arrest us because they believe the lie," Roxas asked. "If we want to prove our innocence, then we should do it ourselves, Sis."

Xion had to admit there was a certain truth to what her brother said, so she nodded in agreement with him and left it at that. That was still not enough for Hayner though. "What about Seifer," the blonde asked.

"First, we gotta clear our names," Roxas insisted. "Once we find the real culprit, everyone will get off our backs."

"And it would make getting back at Seifer a lot easier if people knew he was lying about us being the thieves," Xion added on, just as Hayner was about to growl in frustration. When he heard that, Hayner immediately smiled at the thought, and nodded in agreement with Xion, earning her another smile from her brother, but all smiles quickly vanished after Pence suddenly finished checking over his camera and collection of pictures.

"Oh no! They're gone," Pence cried in disbelief. "Our — are gone!"

Xion and Roxas both quirked an eyebrow at the sudden gap in Pence's last sentence, and from the look of things, it was not intentional either, as Pence was clearing his throat in an attempt to say the word that should have been in his last sentence. It did not really seem to register to the other two yet, because somehow, they seemed to know just what it was that Pence had said, as indicated when Hayner asked, "All our —, gone!"

Hayner was quick to start following Pence's lead in trying to say the missing word, and had just as much luck getting it out too, much to everyone's shock, and Olette soon revealed that she was unable to say the word either when she asked, "You can't say —? Why not?"

"But you do understand what I'm saying right? Our — are gone," Pence stated.

"Stolen," Roxas mused aloud, pulling the attention back on to him. "And not just the —. The word —! They stole it too!"

"Oh come on, Roxas. That's just silly. How can somebody steal people's ability to say a word," Xion argued.

"I don't know, but do you have a better explanation for this," Roxas inquired.

"Well…um…" Xion had to pause and think for a few minutes before she finally sighed and admitted, "No, not really. But that doesn't make it any less weird that somebody out there could actually steal the word —."

"What kind of thief is that," Hayner questioned. "Seifer could never have pulled that off."

"Gee, ya think," Xion sarcastically asked.

"No need to get smart, Xion. If anything, it's time for some recon," Hayner quipped in return, and with that, he turned and led Pence and Olette out into the alleyway so that they could all head into town and start looking for some clues.

"Hey! Wait for us," Roxas called out before he and Xion started after them. He barely got more than two steps out though before he was suddenly overcome with a feeling of dizziness, and he suddenly found his world going black as he dropped to the ground.

"His heart is returning," a deep, baritone voice seemed to say in Roxas's mind. "Doubtless he'll awaken very soon."

Roxas was about to try and question the voice as to what it was talking about, or where it had even come from, but for some reason, he felt as though the speaker was now gone just as suddenly as he had came, and he started coming around a minute later, almost like he had just woken up in bed from a weird dream. Of course, there was a huge difference between his soft, comfy bed and the hard pavement he had fallen face-first onto, but any pain that he felt from his fall went ignored when he spotted Xion lying on the ground just a few feet from him, apparently passed out. "Xion! Hey, Xion! Are you okay," Roxas called out as he rushed to her side and started trying to shake her awake like a responsible brother.

Xion groaned softly for a moment before she finally pushed herself up on to her knees and replied, "I…I think so."

"What happened," Roxas asked.

"I don't know. One minute I was about to follow the others with you, then you suddenly stopped and looked like you were about to lose your balance, and I suddenly felt a little dizzy," Xion recounted as she rubbed her forehead in attempt to help her recall any other details and relieve the pain from the fall. "I think…I thought I heard someone talking in my head too. Something about someone waking up soon and their heart returning, but I'm not too sure."

Now Roxas was getting weirded out. First their mystery thief seemed to have stolen their ability to say the word photo, then he and Xion both passed out at nearly the same time for no apparent reason, and now they had both heard the exact same voice, or at least the same message that the mystery voice he heard had said, while they were unconscious for that brief time? Those were all smack dab on the list of things that one would consider not normal, but before he could ponder it any further, they both heard Olette calling out for them to hurry up, indicating that the others were already well ahead of them. Any more thoughts on the new mystery were put on the back burner after that, and the twins quickly chased after Olette so that they could join their other friends in heading into the main part of town.

The five friends were all eager to begin their investigation and clear their names, so they immediately went to the one place where they could best do that: the Tram Common. Easily the largest part of the main town, the Tram Common was where everyone mostly went to when they needed to get some shopping done, along with a good deal of other things that you could not do anywhere else in Twilight Town, assuming you did not live in one of the apartment buildings that were also in the area. The fact that there was a free tram circling around the area made getting around a lot easier too, but today, it was also the same place where Roxas, Xion, and their three friends were finding a lot of folks that were less than thrilled to see them.

The thief had struck a great number of places in Twilight Town, and while the gang in general was being treated with suspicion a good, for the most part, it was just Roxas and Xion who were viewed as the prime suspects for some odd reason. This was new information for the five friends, as they all thought that Seifer's little rumor had all five of them targeted, but given what a few people had said when the five talked to them, it seemed that a big reason that everyone was so suspicious of Roxas and Xion was because they believed that no one else would want what was taken aside from the two of them. They did not really get much more than that until after they helped the woman at the candy shop find her missing cat, and they quickly learned that she too was missing some very important pictures. Not only that, but like the five of them, she was unable to actually say the word photo, but they could still tell what she was saying like before. Xion tried to say that they were just able to tell because of context clues or lip reading, but Roxas had immediately dismissed that idea since it did not explain why they could not actually hear or say the word when someone said it.

"Looks like the culprit is going around stealing —," Hayner noted as they stepped away from the candy store.

"And not just —, but the word —, too," Olette added, continuing with their repetition of facts that they had gathered so far today.

"This definitely isn't your average thief," Pence finished.

Xion hummed in thought for a moment, still skeptical about the idea that someone could steal a word like that, until she finally asked, "Do you guys think that Seifer might know something about all of this? I mean, you did say he was the one who started accusing us in the first place, so what if he learned something and kept it to himself so that he could better pin the blame on us?"

"Only one way to find out: we gotta talk to him," Roxas decided.

"No way! He'd sooner try to beat us up as 'justice' so that he'd look good to everyone in town," Hayner protested.

"But if he does know something about the thief's true identity, then we gotta at least ask," Roxas reasoned, and he was not going to hear any further arguments against the matter. "C'mon! To the Sandlot!"

The five all raced off in the direction of the area that Roxas had mentioned, all knowing that Seifer and his gang were going to be there, be it because they were practicing for the upcoming Struggle tournament, or just because they liked to hang out there more than anywhere else in Twilight Town. Despite the name, there was not really all that much sand in the Sandlot, but most people called it that for some reason that most people did not really remember. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was just a large open area where everyone gathered for some of the town's special events like tournaments and such, but at the moment, the five were not really all that interested in reasons behind the names for areas of their home town. All they were interested in right now was three kids that were gathered by the blank bulletin board like they were trying to find something that should have been posted there. When said kids turned to face them and leveled angry glares at all five of the friends, they quickly gained an idea on what they were looking for.

"Thieves," the lone girl of the three quietly accused, while the shortest of the bunch, a small kid that was dressed like some kind of wizard ducked, with his head hidden deep beneath his hat and the large collar of his coat behind her the big guy. This girl with steel-blue, almost silver hair, reddish-brown eyes, one of which was always hidden behind her bangs, and decked out in a blue, sleeveless jacket and Capri pants with irregularly placed pockets, was Fuu, and Xion always found her to be a bit odd, mostly because of how she almost always said no more than one or two words when she spoke. There was soft spoken, and then there was barely speaking at all, and if you asked Xion, Fuu tended to lean more towards the latter.

"That was low, y'know," Fuu's larger friend, named Rai growled. Rai was rather tall and muscular for his age, and the latter tended to show quite a bit since he was always wearing his dark orange tank top. His baggy dark sweat pants also made it seem like his legs were even bulkier than they actually were at times, but Roxas insisted that any other kind of pants would have been like skinny jeans to Rai, so it made sense that he always wore them. Now do not misunderstand; Roxas did not like Rai anymore than the rest of the "Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee," but he did feel like it was necessary to defend the big guy's fashion choices since he could remember seeing him struggling to find some clothes that were his size at the store once. The only thing that bugged Roxas about Rai more than his attitude and the way he finished every sentence by saying "y'know," were his sideburns. He honestly thought that such large, bushy things just seemed so out of place on someone that was practically the same age as him, and would make it a point to make fun of them a little bit from time to time.

The shortest kid, named Vivi, only shook his head at the five, but he did not say anything. In all honesty, Vivi was the one member of Seifer's gang that the five had the least problems with. Xion often got the feeling that Vivi only hung out with them because he thought that it would help him become a little tougher, or braver, or some other ridiculous notion, because the poor little guy had was not the most open around people, even less so before he started hanging out with Seifer. Several times when she was around him alone, she could swear that she saw a small blush shine out from the shadows he hid his face in while he stuttered in an attempt to talk to her. Roxas and the other guys all teased her by saying that Vivi had a crush on her, but Xion dismissed that idea every time by countering with the fact that if it was true, he probably would be hanging out with them more than Seifer. Right now though, there was not going to be any such teasing, as Hayner immediately stepped to the front of their group so that he could meet the accusations with a bit of rash action.

"Oh yeah? You guys are the ones who started the rumor," Hayner challenged.

"Nice comeback there, Blondie," a new voice mocked in retort, and the twins turned to see that the ringleader of the so-called disciplinary committee had now arrived and joined in on the fun. Seifer himself was a bit taller than either of them or their three friends, and was always sporting a blue crop-top vest with white lining underneath a white, sleeveless jacket that reached down to his ankles. His baggy, dark colored pants were always tucked into black combat boots, and his blonde hair was constantly hidden beneath a black beanie. Many times when they actually did come to blows with Seifer, Roxas would sometimes grab the brim of his hat and pull it down over Seifer's eyes, blinding the taller boy and opening up a few advantages for him, a tactic that Xion would often use as well on the rare occasion that she got into an actual fight with Seifer herself, and right now, they were both very tempted to do just that, though in this case, it would be to hide the smug glare he was throwing at the five of them.

"What'd you say," Hayner growled in response to Seifer's earlier comment.

"Here we go," Xion sighed with a not-so-discreet eye roll, a sentiment that Roxas shared since he was both annoyed by Seifer's presence and how bent out of shape it made Hayner.

Seifer did not seem to care too much about Hayner though, as he was more focused on something else, and they did not have to think too much to guess what that was. "You can give us back the — now," Seifer demanded, while Roxas and Xion both had to suppress the urge to groan at how yet another person was suddenly unable to say the word that had apparently been stolen.

"Yeah! You're the only ones who would take it, y'know," Rai agreed with his boss.

"That was undeniable proof that we totally owned you lamers," Seifer accused, barely seeming too phased by how Roxas and Xion were both glaring at him the whole time. "So what did you do? Burn it?"

The five remained silent, knowing that trying to convince Seifer that they were not the thieves would be like trying to talk water into not being wet. "We didn't do anything with them because we didn't take your stupid —," Xion suddenly snapped, so clearly, most of them were content in just glaring the bully down.

Seifer just smirked at the dark haired girl before he scoffed, "Ha, not that we need some — to prove that you're losers."

"Pretty sure you do, actually, seeing as everyone around here knows that any one of us could mop the floor with you any day of the week," Roxas retorted with a smug look of his own, one that Xion almost perfectly matched as she crossed her arms in confidence.

"Why you little-," Seifer started to say as he prepared to charge the blonde. His charge was halted though when one of his cronies offered up an idea that he just could not resist.

"Replay," Fuu suggested as simply as you please.

Seifer's first response was to laugh with prideful arrogance before he dropped into a fighting stance and cheered, "Now you're talking!"

Hayner and Roxas were both quick to do the same, while Pence and Olette jumped back a little, since they did not want to get into a fight if they could avoid it. Xion on the other hand remained completely neutral, as she was still a bit undecided for the moment. Sure, she liked the idea of putting Seifer and his buddies in their places, but she would have preferred to resolve things without coming to blows if it could be helped. After all, this was not just some random brawl for bragging rights, at least not at the moment, but she still felt like doing this would make Seifer be able to make his little lie a bit more convincing whether they won or lost this face-off. Then again, she was even less fond of her brother and friends getting beaten up over nothing, so she would gladly throw a few punches if it became necessary.

Seifer was not done throwing out insulting comments though, as he decided to add one last thing before things really got heated. "I guess if you get on your knees and beg, MAYBE I'll let it slide."

Roxas knew that any hesitation his sister still had was gone the minute Seifer had said that, considering that Xion was not one to let her friends humiliate themselves like this, especially to someone like Seifer, but instead of charging to deck Seifer in the face like he thought she would, Xion slowly stepped into the space in between the two sides, took a deep breath, and got down on her hands and knees, looking like she was going to do as Seifer requested. While Roxas and their friends found her actions to be unbelievable, Seifer's crew just laughed haughtily at them, thinking that they had gotten the best of at least Roxas's twin sister, but she quickly proved them wrong when she suddenly sprang forward, grabbed a nearby Struggle bat that had a larger hand guard than the others, and swung it right into Seifer's gut, much to his surprise.

While Vivi beat a hasty retreat, Rai and Fuu quickly moved to engage Xion in order to pay her back for her little sneak attack, but Xion was too quick for them, and easily avoided both of their reaches, leaving them open for when Roxas joined and delivered his own attacks using the simple, default version of the Struggle bat that he had scooped up from the ground seconds earlier. After seeing that both twins were now armed and ready to fight, Fuu quickly joined Vivi in getting clear, while Hayner, Pence, and Olette stepped to the side so that they could watch the show that was about to unfold. Only Rai remained in the middle of the impromptu arena along with Seifer, and like that, a tag-team brawl was underway. Despite the fact that they had each been bested by the twins before, Seifer and Rai did not seem to be the least bit worried, but instead, just continued smirking confidently as they each held their own combat stances to show they were ready as well, with Seifer now wielding his own Struggle bat that Roxas knew he was never without, and Rai taking up the typical battle stance of a boxer.

If he were to be honest, Roxas did have to give Seifer points for being confident, but he was far from worried. He could take Seifer alone any day of the week, and he could handle both the local bully and Rai almost as easily, but that was not the main reason for the wide smirk on his face. The reason why he was smirking so widely was because he was not facing these two alone; he was facing them with Xion right beside him, and nearly everyone in Twilight Town would tell you that no one stood a chance against the twins when they were working together in anything. This was especially true in the case of any fights that they both got themselves into, because when they fought together, it was almost like watching a perfect dance. They were always flowing as if they were one in body and mind, and covering any weak points or disadvantages that the other had like it was second nature to them, and this time would prove to be no different.

Rai was the first of the two to be reminded of the twins' combined strength, as he recklessly charged forward to try and land a punch on Roxas. He never reached his target, as Xion had easily slid across the ground and tripped him up with a quick swing at his lower legs, leaving Rai open for when Roxas rushed in and slapped him hard across his chest with his Struggle bat. Before Rai could recover from the coordinated strike, Xion came at him from behind, and knocked him over the head with her bat, effectively removing him from the fight, as he insisted that he could not properly fight with a headache like the one he had just gotten. Seifer let out a short growl at Rai's poor show, and Xion could have sworn that she heard him mutter something that sounded like an insult towards his friend, earning the taller kid even more of her ire, as shown when she did not wait for Roxas and just charged Seifer.

Seifer easily parried Xion's upward swing, and was about to knock her back when the girl ducked down at the last moment, and allowed Roxas to freely swing at Seifer. The strike may have come rather close to hitting Xion, as she could tell by how the wind whipped at her hair as Roxas's bat had flew over her head, but she was not too concerned. After all, she knew that her brother would never hurt her, and that was without the fact that he was so hesitant to train her in how to Struggle when she asked for the first time. That confidence in her brother also served to help her know when he wanted her to move without even needing him to give her any kind of silent signal, so when Roxas jumped to the side, Xion knew that was the moment she needed to spring forward and attack Seifer safely. The two kept up this tag-team effort, easily overwhelming Seifer like he was a Struggle rookie instead of a tournament regular, and before long, Seifer was knocked flat on his back by one final, combined strike from the twins.

"So, what was that you were saying about begging for forgiveness," Xion mocked with a grin as she shoulder her borrowed bat, with Roxas grinning as he held his own bat at his side.

The taller blonde merely scoffed in retort, while he let his cronies come to stand in front of him as if to defend him from any further attack. "Seifer's…not feeling so hot, y'know," Rai tried to insist. "Besides, two against one is completely unfair, y'know!"

"You do remember that it started out as two-on-two until your buddy decided to use you as a meat shield after you just rushed in like an angry bull, right," Roxas questioned, though it was pretty obvious that he was not serious.

While Rai was ready to charge and make another attempt at hitting Roxas, Fuu merely held out one arm in front of her larger friend and leveled both him and the twins a look as she decreed, "Tournament decides."

"Fine with us. We'll mop the floor with any of you whenever, wherever," Xion decreed, letting her grin grow a little wider as she did so that she could show how eager she was for the upcoming Struggle tournament to come.

At that point, Pence called out to the siblings, and they immediately turned to see that their friend had his camera ready so that he could forever immortalize their victory once again. Upon realizing this, Roxas let a small smile cross his face, while Xion let her grin become much more friendly as she threw up the universal hand sign for peace with her free hand just seconds before they heard the camera shutter go off. Glancing back at Seifer, allowed them to see that he was trying to hide his face, but everyone would still know who it was if they ever saw the photo, seeing as Seifer was the only person to dress in the way that he did, and everyone knew that Seifer was the only one who was stupid enough to try and challenge the twins so recklessly. When Pence lowered the camera, he grinned at the siblings and gave them a thumbs-up to show that he got it, but their happy moods soon gave way for surprise as something suddenly appeared and seemed to fly around Pence for a few minutes before it grabbed his camera and began to slink away, almost like a snake, save for the fact that it seemed like it was trying to cartwheel away from them in some odd way.

It took a moment for Pence to realize that his camera was no longer in his hand, but when he did, they all started to draw the same conclusion as him. "Was that…" Hayner started to ask.

"The thief," Olette finished for him.

"Considering he just swiped Pence's camera right in front of our eyes, I'd say it's a safe bet," Xion reminded them.

"Well we can't just stand here! After him," Roxas shouted, and he and Xion both immediately gave chase with their three friends right behind them. The five did not stop running until they were back in the Tram Commons again where they lost sight of the thief. Whoever this sneaky little creep was, they had to give him credit for being so slippery and fast, but it turned out that he was not fast enough, as Xion soon caught sight of him again.

"There he is! He just went through the hole in the wall that leads to the woods," the black haired girl exclaimed, and she was immediately leading the chase once more with Roxas hot on her heels. Although, if they had stopped for a few seconds, they would have noticed that the others were not following behind them, but instead, had seemed to have suddenly gone completely still, almost as though someone had suddenly frozen them where they stood.

As Xion and Roxas continued to chase the thief through the woods, they continued to catch glimpses of his attempts at escaping, and they had to admit, whoever this sneaky punk was, he was quite the agile individual. They saw him jumping off the sides of tree trunks like a ninja doing wall jumps, swinging through the air, and performing all other kinds of acrobatic feats that most would consider impossible for the average human. Despite all of that though, it did not stop the siblings from figuring out where the thief was running off to; though, that was mainly because there was only one place in these woods where anyone could run to, and the only place where anyone could actually hide: the Old Mansion. No one ever actually went there, mostly because there was always talk about how it was haunted or something, but at the same time, it was hard to ever remember a time when someone had actually lived in the mansion, or when people called it anything other than the Old Mansion. Whatever the case though, the thief was heading there right now, and no amount of acrobatic skill could possibly get him through the locked gate that led inside.

Roxas honestly believed that the thief was not going to get into the mansion, and while she was skeptical of the idea, given what they had seen this individual do so far, Xion soon found that he was right, because it turned out that they managed to corner their target right at the gates of the mansion. "All right, tough guy. There's nowhere left to run, so give us back what…you…stole…whaaa," Xion started to demand before she finally got a good look at their suspect and immediately trailed off in bewildered surprise.

"What the heck is that thing," Roxas asked when he came to a stop next to his sister seconds later, just as shocked by the sight of the thief as she was.

Standing before them was the farthest thing from a human being that either of the two had ever seen, and that was not just because of its silver-light grey skin, the fact that it did not seem to have any eyes or a mouth, or even how its feet and hands were nothing more than small, single points. Another thing to note about this thing was how it seemed to sway around like it was being blown in the wind, and how they could faintly see black lines running up the sides of its body, pulsing with a faint, eerie light. On top of its flat-topped, cylindrical head, they could see an odd symbol that looked like someone had taken the top half of a heart and stuck it on the bottom of a pointed cross. They could also see a zipper where its mouth could have been, which was currently closed up. The creepiest thing about whatever this strange creature though, was that when it did speak, it felt as though it was speaking into both of their minds, and despite the odd language it seemed to use, they could still somehow understand it.

"We have come for you, My Liege and Lady," the creature declared.

"Huh," Roxas gasped.

"Again, wha…" Xion repeated. "Wait, did this thing just call…"

The raven haired girl's question went unanswered, as they both then had to watch as the zipper on the creature's head came undone, revealing a grey, sharp-toothed mouth, and it then let out an odd sound that seemed similar to a roar of some kind. The next thing either of the twins knew, the creature was flying right towards them, though whether it was to attack or to grab them, they did not know or care. All they knew was that they did not want to get anywhere near this thing if they could help it, so they immediately dived to either side, and out of its way. When it realized that its targets had evaded it, the creature turned its attention to Xion and dove after her, and when she realized that she could only move but so far in either direction, Xion readied the Struggle bat she still had on her so that she could attempt to either block or fight it. The bat did little good though, as any attacks she threw at this thing seemed to either do no damage or just went right through it, and while a quick spin around the creature did seem to stun it for a little while, she was still unable to render any injury to it. In the end, Xion could do not even do anything to protect herself when the creature finally batted her aside, making her lose her grip on the bat as she flew across the field and nearly hit her head on a tree that was directly behind her.

"XION," Roxas cried out, and he immediately set an angry glare on the thing that dared to hurt his sister as he charged it with his own bat. Roxas's attempts at hurting this thing were about as effective as Xion's, but he was still able to keep clear of the beast all the same. Most of his attacks were really just to keep its attention on him so that his sister could recover, but all the same, Roxas was hoping that at least one strike would at least injure this thing somehow.

Despite Roxas's best attempts though, nothing he did could hurt whatever this thing was, and he was now getting more than a little annoyed by the fact that none of his hits seemed to even slow it down. Sure, he could leave it disoriented by a few last minutes reversals that put him behind the thing, but that was not going to be enough to get rid of it and Roxas was not too eager for this thing to stick around for too much longer. Her brother's efforts to either evade or harm the creature was the first thing that Xion saw when she managed to lift herself off the ground, and the second thing, was the creature finally landing a blow on Roxas that knocked him off his feet, and like her brother, Xion was not at all fond of seeing others hurt people she cared about.

"Leave my brother alone, you freak," Xion shouted, but instead of running towards the creature as she retrieved her dropped bat, Xion did something that no one would have expected. She threw her right hand out towards the creature like she was throwing something at it, and the minute that her open palm was facing the silver being, several shards of ice suddenly rocketed out of her palm and blasted the thing into the wall surrounding the premises of the Old Mansion.

The list of shocked surprises just did not seem to end for the twins today, but if they had to assign a top spot to any of the surprises they were facing, Roxas and Xion would definitely say that the girl's sudden use of incredible powers was the winner. "Xion, did you just…but how could you've…How'd you do that," Roxas stuttered once he finally got over his surprise.

"I-I don't know. I just…reacted," Xion shrugged in reply before she looked down at the hand that she had just shot out a blast of ice from, as if she could figure out what she had just done. When a strange noise reached her ears, Xion looked towards the source and saw that their enemy had managed to recover from her surprise attack, but it was definitely moving a little slower, and shaking a bit like it was cold. "Roxas!"

Hearing the distress in his sister's voice when she cried out and pointed behind him, Roxas immediately turned to see what had her so worried and immediately let out another annoyed groan when he saw the ice blast had not gotten rid of whatever this strange thing was. "Ah come on," Roxas groaned. "It's no use. How do you get rid of this thing?"

"Don't ask me," Xion shrugged as she moved to stand beside her brother. Thinking she could try and do what she did before again, she aimed her hand at the creature, before flexing her fingers a few times as if to encourage another ice attack to come out, but nothing happened. Not even a small blast of cold air came forth, and considering that little surprise was the only way that they had managed to hurt this thing up until now, Xion was understandably worried. Once again though, she was quickly overcome with surprise when a strange glow suddenly surrounded Roxas's bat, and then several lines of ones and zeroes that were similar to lines of computer code.

Roxas took notice of this as well, and the two watched as the code lines finally coalesced into a simple flash of light, transforming his bat into something that they were not expecting at all. They could clearly tell that it was a weapon of some kind, but it was not like any weapon they had ever seen before, and for one very good reason. The thing that had taken the place of the bat in Roxas's hand looked like a giant, silver skeleton key, with crown shaped teeth, a bright gold guard around its black handle, a blue rain guard, and a long silver chain extending from the hilt that had a token on the end that looked like three circles that were meant to form a head with big ears. "What the heck," Roxas gasped as he studied the odd weapon, only to feel it jerk around in his hand before it made him aim its tip directly at the creature in front of them. "What is this thing?"

Xion was about to give another unsure answer, but the more she looked at the weapon her brother was holding, the more captivated she became, until she felt a single word run through her mind that she slowly voiced aloud. "Key…blade…"

"What did you say, Sis," Roxas asked, but he had to put it aside for the moment, as the creature was on the attack again. Taking a battle stance once again, Roxas waited for the creature to come around and attempt another attack. When the creature got close enough, Roxas spun around to its back, leaving it stunned once again, and took his chance to attack, swinging the large key at the creature's back. To his surprise, the weapon actually dealt the creature a serious blow, as it seemed to let out a pained sound the minute that Roxas had struck. Another two or three strikes allowed Roxas to realize that he was not imaging things, and this sword, this Keyblade was actually proving harmful to the creature, and he had to smirk as it seemed like the fight had now turned in their favor.

Xion shared that same smirk with her brother, dropping into a simple martial arts stance so the thing would know that she was still in the fight too, but she never got the chance to try another attack on the creature suddenly seemed to break apart and vanish completely. The two only looked on at the spot where the strange thing had just been, until the Keyblade in Roxas's hand glowed once more and vanished into the odd lines of code that it had come from, leaving Roxas empty handed. "Seriously, what just happened here," Roxas asked as he flexed the hand that had previously held the Keyblade.

"Not sure," Xion shrugged, and then she noticed several things floating down to the ground like fallen leaves. "Hey, look," she cheered before she rushed over to retrieve the fallen items. "I think that thing dropped something."

Roxas was soon by his sister's side so that he could properly study the items in question, and he could not help but smirk a little when he saw what they were. "Well, I guess this would explain why everyone thought we were the thieves."

"What's this," Hayner asked a little while later when the twins had met back up with the rest of the gang at the Usual Spot, studying one of the pictures that Roxas and Xion had brought back with them for some reason. The twins had explained that these were the very pictures that the thief had stolen, and that they had managed to get them back, but unfortunately, the thief had gotten away. The picture that Hayner was currently looking at showed Roxas and Xion standing right outside the armory shop with Biggs behind the counter.

"We were his first customers after he took over the shop," Roxas explained. "So we took a picture together."

"It's a really nice photo," Olette complimented, and she immediately gasped in surprise when she realized what she had finally been able to say along with the others.

"Hey! You just said 'photo,'" Pence cheered, glad to see that they had gotten the word back along with the pictures.

"While I'm glad that we've got that we can now say 'photo' again, I think there's a more important matter we need to address," Hayner cut in before any mini-celebrations could start up. "So Roxas, Xion, tell us about the picture thief."

The twins in question exchanged a brief, hidden look between themselves at that question. Before they had come back here, they had agreed that it would be better to keep quiet about the identity of the thief and the strange powers that they suddenly found themselves in possession of, but they knew that their friends were going to bring this up sooner rather than later. Luckily, they did manage to come up with a good cover story and just told the other three that the thief had already gotten away when they found the pictures. "Not much to say. The pictures were just lying there," Roxas replied with a shake of his head. He hated lying to their friends like this, but it was not like they would believe the truth about what had happened. He and Xion were still having a hard time believing it themselves.

"Although, before he slipped away, the thief called me and Roxas 'My Liege and Lady,'" Xion added, feeling that it was okay to mention that detail.

"'My Liege and Lady,'" Olette repeated. "Do you think that this person might have known you two?"

"No clue," Xion shrugged. "I'm pretty sure I'd remember if either of us ever hung out with someone who steals from others though."

When all eyes turned to Roxas, the blonde simply shrugged and said, "Don't look at me. I didn't even get a good look at him."

"Then how do we prove we weren't the ones who took 'em," Hayner demanded with a sigh. At least until he glanced down at one of the other pictures. This one just had Roxas in it, but it was the other individual in the photo that had caught Hayner's attention. "It's a GIRL…"

"You look happy, Roxas," Olette teased when she saw the photo.

"Do not," Roxas retorted, knowing exactly what the two were implying when they said that.

"Yeah, come on you guys. You know how Roxas is when it comes to girls," Xion reprimanded, but given her teasing tone, Roxas knew what was coming next. "He's got this idea in his head that no girl is worth the trouble of so much as flirting with unless he actually feels a connection that makes him think that she's 'the one.' He's a total romantic nut."

"Oh thanks, Sis," Roxas playfully snapped as he swatted his arm at Xion in payback, earning a laugh from her and the others.

"Hey wait a minute…That's it," Pence suddenly cheered, interrupting everyone's moment of laughter. "The thief must've been stalking Roxas and Xion!"

Everyone was quiet after hearing that for a moment until Roxas and Xion finally both shouted, "WHAT?!"

"No, really. I mean, didn't anyone else notice that all the pictures are of either Roxas, Xion, or both," Pence pointed out. To emphasize his point, he immediately gathered up all the pictures and held them out for everyone to see. The first one was of Xion standing outside the candy shop with the elderly owner. The second was a more humiliating one of Roxas down on the ground while Seifer and his gang stood over him looking smug, and if one were to look a little closer, they would have seen Olette holding an angry Xion back from retaliating against the bullies in the background. A third picture showed Xion and Roxas standing side-by-side with their arms around each other's shoulders and wide smiles ,while Xion's free hand was flashing the peace sign, followed by a fourth one of Xion and Olette posing like a couple of models as they showed off some new clothes, and a fifth that showed Roxas and Hayner practicing for the Struggle tournament. The final picture helped run the point home, as it showed a group photo of their whole gang together, right outside the gates of the Old Mansion.

"Ohh! So that's why everyone thought it was us," Olette gasped in realization.

"You mean Seifer didn't go around accusing us after all," Hayner asked.

"Hey, can we go back to the part about 'the thief was stalking Roxas and Xion'?! I think we should be a little more concerned about this than you guys seem to be," Roxas shouted, incredulously, honestly baffled that his friends were not a little more concerned for his and his sister's wellbeing.

"Sorry, Roxas, but you have to admit, it does make a lot of sense, and the pictures are all of either you, Xion, or both," Pence shrugged in apology. He then had to smile a little when he thought of something else. "Hey, wouldn't it be weird if the thief wanted to steal the real Roxas and Xion, or something?"

"C'mon, get serious. Why would anyone wanna steal a bonehead like Roxas," Hayner joked in response.

"Oh, thanks," Roxas complained, though it was obvious he was being completely sarcastic, and he was soon laughing right along with the others afterwards. At least, most of them were laughing it off, but Xion on the other hand looked like she had just heard something very worrying, and after another minute or so, she latched on to Roxas like she was afraid he was going to disappear at any moment, ending the laughter. "Xion," Roxas questioned, only to stop when he realized she was shaking a little. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"They…They can't take us," Xion whispered. "I can't…I won't let them take my brother away from me. I don't want them to get us."

For a moment, the others all thought that she was still joking around, but when they heard her speak and saw how she was trembling, they knew that she was being completely serious. More than that, but from the tone of her voice, she seemed to be really scared too, like the idea of someone coming after them in order to take them away to some other place or taking Roxas away from her frightened her to the core. "Hey, hey! Calm down, Sis. No one's going to take me away. Not from you, our friends, or anyone else," Roxas reassured her, soothingly.

"Yeah, lighten up, Xion. It was just a stupid joke," Hayner promised.

"Yeah, sorry for even bringing it up. I didn't know it would upset you this much," Pence added.

"Everything's okay, remember? The thief's gone and he was just taking a few photos of you guys. I doubt he would actually want to steal either of you," Olette said.

It took another minute or so, along with Roxas giving her a soothing hug with a pat on the back, but Xion did finally relinquish her vice-grip on her brother and calmed down. She still had to take a few deep breathes before she could properly speak again, and looked to the others before she said, "Sorry guys. I know it was a dumb joke, but I just…I don't know what came over me."

"Hey, don't worry about it. We all know how much you care about your brother," Olette promised, with Pence and Hayner nodding along in agreement.

Xion gave the three a smile of thanks for that, and when she turned around to see Roxas giving her a reassuring smile of his own, her relief only grew even more. The tender moment was brought to close shortly afterwards, when they all heard the town clock going off to signal that the end of the day was upon them. Hayner, Pence, and Olette all bid the twins a fond goodbye before they left for their homes, promising to return the missing photos to their rightful owners if they passed by any of them along the way, and after straightening up the Usual Spot real quick, Roxas and Xion departed as well. Just as they had stepped out of their regular hang-out, they had to pause and block the sun's glare from their eyes, and for a moment, both twins could feel an odd presence, not nearby, but somewhere deep within themselves.

"Where…am I," a voice that neither of them recognized seemed to call out in their heads.

"Who's there," Roxas mentally questioned.

"How are you in our heads," Xion added.

"Who are you," the voice replied to both of them.

Before either of the twins could answer, a second, more mature voice cut in and spoke to all three of them. "You will all find out those answers and more soon enough. I promise."

Just like that, the presence that the twins were feeling was gone, along with the two mystery voices, and they could not help but look around in an attempt to find whoever those voices belonged too. They did not see anyone though, but for some reason, they both felt like they knew who those unknown individuals were. A quick exchange of looks between the two siblings confirmed that they were both feeling the same thing, and while it was freaking them out a little, Roxas was able to regain a cool head and suggest that they were probably just tired. Xion had to agree with him after a minute, and joined him in a much more fast-paced trek for home than they had originally intended, more eager than before to get to sleep. She just had to hope that she was not plagued by anymore dreams of that strange boy with spiky hair, otherwise, she was not sure how peaceful her rest would be.

"Restoration at twelve percent," was the report that came from a computer that rested beneath the Old Mansion of Twilight Town, or rather, the real Twilight Town, and at its controls sat a man in a rather complex outfit. He wore a long, red cape with yellow edges and a quadrate cross cut taken out at the chest, which exposed a similarly oblong white symbol on his pitch-black shirt. Over this shirt, he wore grey, segmented armor over his sides and abdomen, while his legs were covered by long black cloth lined with yellow. The cloth covering his legs had several brown straps pinned to the front for no reason that any of the three before him could see, along with a yellow sash that held three brown pouches, descending diagonally from his left hip. His light colored sleeves and the dark colored scarf were probably the most normal looking pieces of his attire, while around his head, he wore several red bandages that covered his entire head, save for one bright orange eye and his mouth. This man, known as DiZ, was the creator of the virtual Twilight Town that Roxas and Xion unknowingly inhabited at this very moment, and at the moment, it was his responsibility to keep them safe. Of course, if it were up to him, it would only be long enough for the true Keyblade hero to regain what he had lost to the two, but one of his current associates had made it quite clear that he could not exercise any form of harm against the two kids, regardless of his opinions of the girl or the boy's kind.

At the moment, one of his other associates was the only other person in the room, but he kept his head hidden beneath the hood of his black coat, effectively hiding everything about his appearance from all the worlds, and he was there as both an assistant to DiZ, and as the eyes and ears for at least one or two of the masked man's other associates. Not that either of the other two knew this fact, but it was not his place to tell either of them. Right now though, he was a bit more interested in the most recent development in the virtual Twilight Town.

"Organization miscreants," DiZ growled. "They've found us."

"But…why would the Nobodies steal photographs," the man in black questioned.

"Both are nothing but data to them," DiZ explained. "The fools could never tell the difference. I had to mute the word 'photo' from the system just to be sure that they would not discover the difference." He then let out a tired sigh before he muttered, "We are running out of time. Naminé must make haste."

Glancing to what appeared to be a life monitor, the hooded figure could not help but agree with DiZ on this, but there was still something he was puzzled about. "What about the girl? I thought Naminé's erasing of her memories would keep her from remembering how to use magic, while your program would only allow them to use it if you felt it became necessary for them to do so."

"It would seem that her powers of magic are greater than either of them realized. In fact, some of her more powerful, personal memories have had a small effect on the new personality that Naminé gave her before we sent them into the virtual world. That is why she suddenly became so worried about the wellbeing of herself and Roxas," DiZ reasoned. He then paused to rub his chin for a minute and said, "Perhaps this is also proof that it was unwise let her continue to exist. Think of the damage she could do if she had ever reached the full power that the Organization had intended her to reach…"

"You're not going to destroy Xion or Roxas. I thought I had made that very clear after I first agreed to help bring them here," a new voice interrupted, making the two turn to see who had just arrived in the lab. The figure in question was clad in a form-fitting, full suit of armor that was colored steel blue, gold, and black with several red lines decorating it. The steel blue helmet had a pair of horns that swept backwards and angled up diagonally, while his face was hidden behind a dull gold, almost black visor, and to complete this new appearance, he also had a flowing, steel blue cape billowing out from the shoulders of his armor.

"Ah, I was not expecting you to return so soon. Have you already finished gathering the information you required," DiZ greeted pleasantly.

"I've gathered as much as I could, and that will have to do. I could sense that my first apprentice and our friends were close to awakening, so I made it a point to come back here as fast as I could to make sure that you remembered your part of our agreement, DiZ," the armored man replied, his tone short and clipped.

"You really trust me that little," DiZ asked in a tone of false hurt. "And I thought that we were friends."

"We are not. Not so long as you remain the way you are now. Just remember, if we are to truly stop the Organization, we will need Roxas, Xion, and even Naminé all with us, and alive. After all, it was Naminé's choice to help us, and it was Roxas and Xion who decided to come to us, because they honestly wanted to help restore Sora."

"They already are helping us. They are the tools to bringing back your apprentice after all," DiZ tiredly explained, clearly having had this argument before with the armored man.

"They're much more than that. You yourself have admitted that Naminé and Roxas are not like other Nobodies, and the same goes for Xion, and far beyond the obvious," the armored man countered.

"If you truly think so, Master Ventus," DiZ finally sighed in defeat, seeing that he was not going to get anywhere further than he already had in this argument. Which was absolutely nowhere at all. The Keyblade master truly believed that these three Nobodies were not only unique in their creations and statuses, but also in so much more. He just had not explained how he knew this.

"I don't think. I believe," Ventus corrected, finishing the conversation the same way he always had before, and with a flourish of his cape, he turned to leave for one of the rooms upstairs, further demonstrating that he was not leaving the Old Mansion at all until DiZ had finished his work in the way that they had agreed upon.

DiZ knew that the Keyblade master did not trust him, but that was not going to deter him from his work. He had said that he would provide any and all assistance that he was able to provide for restoring Sora, and he was going to follow through on that process by any means necessary. What did it matter if a single puppet made of memories and a couple of Nobodies were destroyed in the process? It was not like they were ever meant to exist in the first place. Regardless of this, Master Ventus seemed to think otherwise, and DiZ knew that if he were to try and follow through with what he wished to do with the three, it would mean he would be facing his end, and not just at the hands of Ventus either.

Ventus's Journal Entry 1:

Wow. How long has it been since I last made an entry in this journal? Almost ten years or so? Well apparently it's long enough for me to start over at "entry 1", so that probably means something, huh? Ah well, either way, it doesn't change the fact that a lot has happened since my last entry into this thing, so I'll try to just keep it as short as I possibly can before going into more recent events. Well, for starters, I finally met up with those two special friends that are destined to become great Keyblade masters, and one of them is now officially my apprentice. That one being Sora, and while I did help Kairi get started on her training, I honestly believe that her master is meant to be Aqua. I just hope that Kairi hasn't let herself get rusty since I last saw her. Anyway, I've taught Sora a lot in regards to being a Keyblade wielder, and I probably would've taught him something more complex, but to be fair, we were a little busy at the time saving the worlds from darkness, and boy did they need the help. The dwellers of darkness known as the Heartless were destroying worlds left and right, all under the command of Maleficent and Xehanort's Heartless, who came to refer to himself as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and if they were not stopped, all the worlds would be lost forever. Thankfully, with the help of the friends we made across the worlds, Sora, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and I were able to put a stop to Ansem's plans, and set things right, but the job was only half done.

While Kairi returned home to the recently restored Destiny Islands, Sora joined me, Donald, and Goofy on a new quest: to find the door to the light that would help us to save Mickey, Riku, and Aqua from the Realm of Darkness. It would only be after we've found those three again that we would finally return home and be able to rest peacefully. Sure, we did not really know where to look, and our options in doing so are more than a little limited since our gummi ship, the Kingdom was destroyed, but we did have a solid clue on where to look. I just wish that the other three had been a bit more patient and waited for me before they chased down another lead.

Now, after they had gone and fallen into a trap that wiped out and modified the memories of our last adventure together, a new friend of ours has had to place them into special pods so that she could reverse the damage, while in the process erase all memories of their time at the world that had once been my home: Castle Oblivion. That doesn't mean the group who set this trap is going to just sit back and watch though. So, while Naminé's working to restore Sora and the others to who they were before the trap, it's up to me to keep an eye on what this Organization XIII is doing. The only catch is that I now have to wear my armor 24/7, otherwise they'll be able to know what I'm up to, but that's a small price to pay. If they really are as dangerous as Naminé says, then we'll need every advantage we can get to stop them, and I know for a fact that it will be up to us to stop them. It's just part of who we are as people, and part of the job as wielders of the Keyblade.

AN: Well, how about that folks? Day one of the summer vacation, and we can already see several changes, huh? Biggest example: Xion's still alive (Duh), and it going through it all right alongside Roxas. Hooray! Plus we also see the return of Ven's Journal in this story, and I can promise you, it will be quite different this time around in comparison to the last story. You'll see what I mean later on when we get deeper into the story. Maybe sometime after certain other Kingdom Hearts characters start to show up.

Xion: Um, maybe you want to answer those reviews from the final chapter of Duals Keys before you go any further?

AN: Ah, what the heck, sure. Well for starters, for all of you who were wondering about the changes we would see this time, there's your first glimpse. I know some of you are still wondering how Roxas and Xion both got away from the Organization, and how it seems like Xion does not need to disappear so Sora can come back like before, but this is still just the first chapter, and that's actually part of one of the big mysteries that the two will face later on down the line. They'll get the basic gist of things in due time, but for now, you'll have to settle for your own imaginings and see if I prove or disprove them later on when the answers start to form. Also, to everyone who guessed about the series name's origin, no, it had nothing to with Sonic the Hedgehog. I just went with whatever I thought sounded best at the time, and that was it. Plus, it was also because of how I ended both Dual Keys and Keyblades of Future Past with that little "Unleashed" line at the end of their final chapters. I mean, didn't any of you guys catch that?

Ven: Ahem, I'd just like to address our old pal "Dragon Rider 66", regarding his comment about how I did not hear Sora, Donald, and Goofy slip away in the middle of the night so that they could fall into the Castle Oblivion trap? In my defense...I was tired, worn out from a major battle that would decide the fate of all the worlds, and just went through a huge emotional moment just hours earlier, man! I can't help it if I basically ended up being completely knocked out the minute I laid down to get some sleep at long last, and that's without accounting for all the running we did after we started chasing after Pluto!

AN: Okay, Ven. I think we get the point. Sorry about him. He's still a little touchy over the fact that he's basically had to wear his armor non-stop for several of the first few chapters of this story, and for the duration of that year where Naminé was fixing Sora's memories. Well that, and the fact that he's not paired up with Aqua in my other Kingdom Hearts story, Hearts of Avengers...

Ven: Not true!

AN: Dude, I saw you and Terra get into the glaring contest. Don't deny it! Ahem, anyway, to "The Keeper of Worlds", while your suggestion for exploring unknown pasts of certain Nobodies, and the example you provided is intriguing, I'm afraid that I'm not going to be going too deeply into that, mainly because of how we've now learned how Larxene is another one of Xehanort's thirteen darknesses. (Seriously, does anyone else think that Xehanort might be more messed-up in the head than we originally thought because of that, or is it just me?). Sure, I like the idea, but there's already so much happening in this story, that I don't think I would even have room for that.

Moving right along to our old pal "Monkey D. Conan", I reassure you, old friend, Aqua and Kairi will in fact be joining in on the main action much earlier than Kairi originally did in the canon version of KH2, but it won't be right at the start of the new journey. Just give it a little while. And Riku's fate, while similar to the original, was slightly different this time around, but we won't be revealing any details of that for some time.

Any other answers to the questions that you all posed, I cannot answer at this time, because they would be giving away spoilers for certain events that happen later on in this grand epic of a tale. But I will go into some detail on what we saw here today. First off, in case it wasn't obvious, Ven's journal entry this time was basically serving as that moment in a TV show where we would have gone "Previously in the Keyblades Unleashed Series...", but I promise, the next time we see an entry from our favorite blonde master's journal, it will go into detail on something we don't already know about from reading this series.

Next up is the matter of Xion's wardrobe. I doubt that I really need to explain why the change up, because as we all know, every time Xion's appeared in the canon timeline of Kingdom Hearts, she's always, always, always wearing that damn Organization XIII coat. Not that it's entirely a bad thing, they do look like nice coats, when they're being worn by one of the good guys, but after seeing Roxas with his Twilight Town get-up, can anyone really be faulted for wondering what Xion's casual attire would look like? If you're want a visual of Xion's attire, just look at the cover art for this story. She's rockin' it in that picture, and let me tell you, that was not easy to make.

Xion: I really liked it, myself. Made me feel a little more human, if you know what I mean, and not like just some Organization drone or flunky.

Axel: Hey! I'm right here!

Xion: And you've been shown to have at least one other outfit. I've only ever had that damn coat! Just let me have this. Besides, I look awesome!

AN: She's not wrong you know. Oh, and by the way, while most of the dialogue and events that took place here were similar to that of the game, I did in fact work in one or two bits from the manga, just for the fun of it. Mainly ones that most people know about.

Roxas: What about that whole bit at the beginning with the "DuckTales" theme song?

AN: Eh, I just wanted to have that in there for the fun it would add. Btw, "DuckTales" in this series is like more of a documentary about Scrooge McDuck's past adventures, both his own, and the ones he shares with Huey, Dewey, Louie, and the rest of the DuckTales gang, so don't worry about the continuity conflicts too much. Other than that, if either Roxas or Xion seem the slightest bit OOC, that's likely because of the continuity changes that have taken place, or the work of our favorite memory sorceress.

Naminé: I think you mean witch.

AN: I know what I said, and I'm sticking to it. Honestly, I just can't help but think that calling you a witch is just mean and ugly, and let's face facts, you've already got enough people who are or have been like that to you.

Naminé: Aw, thanks.

Roxas: Ahem. [throws warning look at the author] My girlfriend. You no touchy.

AN: Dude, chill out. There's nothing wrong with me giving her a completely honest and innocent compliment. And I believe you mean your girlfriend in this series. Despite what I think, I'm pretty sure that no one's really made it official one way or the other if your with Naminé or Xion yet.

Roxas: Well...uh...shut up!

AN: Can't. I've still got a few things to say before we wrap things up for this chapter. In case it wasn't already obvious, that second voice that Roxas and Xion heard their heads at the end of the chapter was Ven's. So, no need to guess about that. We all already know that the first one was Sora's voice too, right? Well, that's enough of that. It's time we rolled on to the most important part of these ending notes. Onto the Preview!...

Roxas and Xion continue to have odd dreams about the boy named Sora, but now, they find themselves seeing other things too. These being events that pertain to themselves and their time as members of a group of people that all wore black coats. What exactly it means, neither of them could say for sure, but it's all irrelevant to them, because they intend to have as much fun on their summer vacation as they can. The next day, they all start working as hard as they can to gather up some munny for a trip to the beach, something that Roxas and Xion are both especially excited for. Can they get all of the money they need before the day is done, and just how many more mysteries will they stumble upon? Find out for yourself, next time.

Ya see? We're really getting into things next time, and we're gonna see something in the dreams other than the events of the last story too. Maybe that'll start to give you a few ideas on what did or didn't change in 358/2 Days, huh? But for now...

Please read and review, and see ya real soon!