DISCLAIMER: For the last time on this part...I don't own Kingdom Hearts.

Chapter 25

Plots and Errors

"You poor simple fools!"

-Maleficent

Gentai was frozen in place upon hearing those words. Had he really caused so much trouble for Maleficent over the past year that she would threaten them all with destroying his home world? He knew that she couldn't use the Heartless to do so because they had sealed the Keyhole which meant that she was most likely going to slaughter everyone on the planet. He didn't know how she could possibly attempt to do that in her lifetime but only one true thought was racing its way around the race track in Gentai's head: he had to stop her. Without a single word to his friends and companions he whipped around and began to walk away.

"Gentai! Where are you going?" Sora called out to his receding back as Gentai walked away, deaf to the very loud pleas coming from his friends. "Gentai!" Sora ran forward as fast as he could and quickly caught Gentai by the shoulder and held him there. Gentai attempted to struggle free but Sora's grip was too tight on him.

"Let me go!" Gentai demanded, now gripping Sora's hand tightly and trying to wrench it off of his shoulder so that he could keep moving.

"What are you planning to do?" Sora asked him and Gentai knew Sora would not let him go until the boy came clean and answered the question.

"Where do you think I'm going?!" Gentai yelled in frustration with such a biting tone that Sora actually backed off. "Maleficent is threatening my entire world and you think I'm just going to stand by and let her do so? I don't think so! I'm saving my world and my parents!" He didn't tell them that it was pretty much all he had left other than Demora and to see them go would be almost heart breaking.

"Gentai…you don't need to do this alone." came Riku's voice, softer than usual, perhaps differing only based on the situation. Gentai shot his traveling companion of a year a look that was welling up with tears and anguish. Riku knew he needed to do this, if not for his family or his world then for himself.

"I'm not going to ask you all to put your lives in danger because of me." Gentai said with determination and resolve but Sora was the first to speak up for the group.

"Don't you get it yet Gentai?" Sora said, walking forward and placing his hand once more on the boy's shoulder. This time however it was a lighter touch and Gentai could understand that only kindness was flowing from this man's hands. "We're friends and we always stick together, okay? No matter what happens, through the thick and thin. As me, Donald, and Goofy always say: All for one and…" Everybody else joined in to say the creed.

"ONE FOR ALL!!!" Gentai looked around at all of his friends, even if he barely knew them. From Donald who was standing there with a smile on his face and a stubbornness that showed he wouldn't go anywhere if he wasn't allowed to help Gentai. To Goofy who let out a small "a-hyuck" and rubbed his nose slightly. Then to Sora who was beaming at him with the brightest complexion known to man kind. To Kairi who was glowing and brimming with kindness almost as much with Sora. To his good friend Riku who had a smirk of defiance on his face that indicated clearly he would not accept the word "no" for an answer. He looked at King Mickey whose smile was the mere offerings of assistance. And at long last his eyes reached Demora who smiled at him and seemed to pour forth all the love she had for Gentai into that single stare. She stepped forward as Sora drew away and took his hands.

"No matter what, we're here for you, all of us." Demora said before she kissed him. Riku rolled his eyes along with Donald while Goofy and Mickey smiled to themselves. Sora and Kairi merely held hands as they looked at the happy couple. Eventually, after the need for air became great they split apart and Demora stared her boyfriend in the eyes. "We're going with you and we'll beat this witch." Gentai nodded, glad that he had indeed found help that would last and stay with him for a lifetime. He fixed all of them with a look of determination that spoke volumes.

"We're gonna take down Maleficent. Are you ready for a rumble?" Gentai yelled and, as per usual, Sora, Donald, and Goofy sprung into the air shouting that they could defeat the witch. They had done it once before and they could do it now. Mickey took this moment to speak up as to an overall battle strategy.

"I think we should only take one ship." Mickey told them all with a fierce look on his face. "It would be too difficult to master coordination and timing with our Gummi Ships getting there if we took two. I'll send the message onto the Pearl for auto-pilot back to Disney Castle. I'm hoping we won't need it anymore." All of the members there agreed. Sora summoned his Keyblade and was about to beam them onto the ship before he thought of something.

"This is your show Gentai. Beam us up!" Sora said proudly. Gentai gave him a look of disbelief, but when Sora kept staring straight at him Gentai knew that it was time for him to do this. He summoned his magnificent black and white Pale Twilight Keyblade into his hand and raised it up to the sky. But before the beaming sequence took place, Sora said one more thing. "Let's kick some Maleficent biscuit!" Kairi giggled at that and soon they were beamed aboard the Gummi Ship. As soon as all of their eight pairs of feet hit the floor of the Gummi Ship both Sora and Gentai set off for the cockpit.

Sora knew that Gentai did at least have some skill at flying a Gummi Ship but he wasn't exactly sure how much skill the boy had. All he knew was that Gentai had survived during four attacks on his ship…though he was only piloting for one of them. When they reached there, Gentai quickly brought up the star chart and Sora began looking at it.

"So where's your world on this map?" Sora asked, trying to find the right dot that represented the world of Agradar. Gentai quickly spotted it and tapped it. A small information reading came up and Sora decided to read it, despite the hurry they indeed found themselves in.

Agradar; the planet of science and technology. Founded very long ago it was one a primitive land until the father of technology Mortic Glamfrine began to research weaponry and soon created a wide arsenal. Now with two continents and five separate islands, this was once one land but due to events has been split into many small pieces.

"That's my world for you…" Gentai said and he input the coordinates into the computer. Sora watched him doing this and he knew that the boy had skill. The only reason they were taking the Gummi Ship was because of Demora, Donald, and Goofy, all of whom couldn't use the handy Keyblade portals.

"We're putting it on warp drive, I'm guessing?" Sora asked his younger friend and a devilish smile passed over Gentai's features and Sora could only worry about what that meant.

"I don't think so…I'm taking this to my level." He quickly toggled some switches and the ship slowly pulled out of orbit. Agradar was only a small ways of them past the Castle of Dreams so Gentai knew that it wouldn't take too agonizingly long to get there…but he was still worried. Sora was getting more tense by the second. Sure, Gentai was moving slowly now but they were just getting out of orbit. His fears proved correct, for the instant they were a good distance away from the Castle of Dreams, Gentai set the Gummi Ship forward faster than any warp drive could carry them, even on the new super-fast Falcon Nova model.

"Gentai, you're going to fly her apart at these speeds!!" Sora yelled, his frustration and slight fear going into every overtone of his voice. Gentai snapped him a blazing look that almost made the Keyblade Master back off.

"Then I'll fly her apart!!" Gentai said and Sora knew there was a streak of defiance in him. Then he snapped his look straight back to the screen that displayed what was in front of him in space. "Besides, I don't think we'll have a problem…Gummi blocks may be solid but they have a wonderful spring back and aren't easily melted or frozen allowing them to be durable at maximum speeds." Sora thought they were moving too fast at this point for any conscious thought as his head was partially swimming so he moved to the door out of the cockpit.

"Right…if you need me, I'll be asking Riku for details about your trip the past year." Gentai heard the door whoosh both open and close. Then he continued to pilot the ship meanwhile turning his thoughts inward. He had to save his family. He hadn't seen them in over a year, not since he had gotten his Keyblade and he was absolutely sure that his parents would want to see him again at least one more time before they died. But he couldn't let that day be today. Whatever Maleficent was trying to get back at him for he wasn't going to allow it to happen.

But deep down, he knew exactly what Maleficent wanted him for. He knew what she wanted revenge on him for. He had scorned her too many times in the past. Somehow she saw the makings of darkness in his heart despite its ever-blossoming light and she wanted to manipulate what she conceived was there, just like she had with Riku. But Gentai would never join her cause after everything she had done to the worlds. He had never joined Zexion as Tom had and he never would have willingly joined Terra a year ago. That wasn't who Gentai was. He was a simple kid with a weighty destiny…and today he was going to fulfill it at last.

As he neared his own world he saw the radar indicating approach in five minutes based on the speed they were going. Gentai began to pull back a bit on the thrusters so they wouldn't be going so fast that they'd overshoot the world by a wide margin. The ship slowed down to normal speed just as they reached sight of Agradar. At last, Gentai was able to gently bring the ship into orbit around the world and he ran to the beaming devices. All of his friends were standing there on the beaming devices. He said a quick prayer for the future and flicked the switch, beaming them down to the world below.

What Gentai saw appalled him. Dead corpses littered the ground, crossbow bolts were implanted in many of their hearts and some seemed to have been stabbed by a sword or otherwise burn marks covered their entire bodies. The corpses almost made many of the members gag. There was something about a dead body that nobody wanted to see. Most of the victims of Maleficent's reign of terror often had their hearts stolen and so the physical evidence of their body was completely erased from existence. But not this time. This time the bodies were still there, still scarred, still lifeless.

Blood spattered some of the deathly pale corpses, remnants of when the crossbow bolt had hit them in their chest. Riku's senses hit a near overload by the smell of death and the fetid darkness swarming around the land there. The smell reached all of their noses and they cringed from it, tears beginning to form in Gentai's eyes at the fact he was already too late to save this place. The buildings were still intact but Gentai could see that the forest where Hikaru had lived was burned down, and the last remnants of his existence other than a mention in the Radiant Garden study were now long since gone. But then Gentai saw two forms among the dead and scarred. A black, raven haired woman with green eyes similar to his own. And a man with short brown hair.

The pair of them were only a few feet in front of him and upon seeing them he gave a sharp intake of breath as though he was hit by an invisible something. He bent over them and examined them…knowing immediately who they were. His parents were before him, completely passed on. Gentai wanted to weep for what had happened to them, what had befallen them. He had wanted so desperately to save his parent and his world but now they were gone in a wink. And it was a wink that Gentai would never be able to just blink twice and have it go away…ever. The light had left them; the only bit of light remaining was now within their son who had returned only a moment too late.

There was a great rushing noise and the realm in which they were standing or kneeling was lit with an ethereal green light as the witch herself with her Huntsman appeared near them. Many of them prepared to fight by summoning their weapons but even Maleficent had some moral principle left and did not make any move as Gentai grieved over the death of his parents. But even Gentai knew that she had come and now he was angry beyond contempt and beyond despair.

"You…" he seethed, all his anger and emotion filling his heart with an unbridled rage. "You think you can just come in here and do as you please?!" Maleficent threw the pathetic boy a smirk and he shook his head in absolute rage. "No…NO!! This ends TODAY!!" Gentai ran at Maleficent before anyone could stop him. He leapt into the air and was about to come down upon the witch when suddenly he was blocked by a dark shield. Gentai saw the Huntsman's crossbow issuing a strange aura, creating the shield which was preventing him from reaching his target.

"Step away, whelp." the Huntsman said, every inch of malevolence within his body now displayed in his voice. Gentai scowled at him with unimaginable fury and Maleficent now smiled.

"Dear boy, our game has been much too fun." She then flicked her finger and Gentai went flying backwards, hitting the ground in a tumble. He knew he had no broken bones and the only thing currently injured was his pride. He quickly stood up and Sora gave him a look that inquired about his status. But he ignored it, focused only on his rage.

"What did I ever do to you?!" Gentai screamed out with all the rage imaginable in the world.

"You caused me trouble far too much, first by scorning my offer, then by eliminating my Hellfire Club and then by sealing all of the Keyholes." Maleficent chuckled evilly. "I believe it is payback time dear boy."

"What are you planning to do Maleficent?!" Mickey cried out and even Riku had joined in that chorus.

"While you were toying around on other worlds with the princesses…as I so knew you would, my Huntsman and other members of my club were replicating Xehanort's machines from beneath the castle due to the schematics we had found long ago. But we are changing its function. They shall not create Heartless but they shall amplify the darkness which will power me enough to spread destruction in this entire land." Maleficent explained to them, certain that victory was only a short way off.

"You're not gonna get that chance!" Gentai yelled, baring his Keyblade before him.

"Gentai, control your anger." Sora said calmly even though he himself was bubbling with rage deep inside. But Gentai wouldn't hear it and instead rushed again. Maleficent began to cackle.

"Oh, I'd love to chat, but I've got to put on a SHOW!!!" Maleficent raised her arms at the final statement and gale-force winds blew as flames began to spread. The Huntsman touched a small remote control device and suddenly the flames spread even further. Gentai stumbled and fell as the flames began to spread. One of them grazed over his shoulder and created a small burn on his right arm. Both Sora and Kairi dashed forward and grabbed the young teenager, dragging him away from the witch.

"We can't win this now!" Kairi yelled as the flames grew even stronger. Sora nodded in agreement as the howling was so loud they could barely even hear themselves think. However, without thinking, all the members of the team who knew how to cast magic quickly erected a reflect shield around them. And while the green and eerie flames were enough batter the shields and not reflect onto the user, they were lucky the shields did not once back.

None of them knew how long they held on like that. Some say it was mere minutes while others said it was hours. All they knew was that when at last the wind stopped howling and the green flames stopped blazing, there was no sign of Maleficent or the Huntsman. Indeed, there was no sign of anything at all. All of the houses and the forests, the farms and the people were gone. Every sign of technology that there ever was or had been was completely obliterated. And as the Keyblade wielders and their companions stood there viewing the carnage that had come about with Maleficent's first great victory they knew…

There was no going back.

THUS ENDS

PART I: ADVENTURE

OF

TWISTED SOULS

TO BE CONTINUED IN…

PART II: CONVOLUTIONS

Author's Note: Boo-yah! Or not…I know, it was a very sad ending wasn't it (and short) and shows that things can only get crappier from here on out. That means the complete sign is not a lie. Will Gentai be able to handle the devastation of what has happened? What will the Keyblade wielders do now? Well, I can't answer these questions for you yet because it would totally ruin the story. I know it is sad but that is the way it has to be…no, the way it was meant to be. I hope that all of you, my few readers, will still continue to read and enjoy the journey of these characters into Part II.

In the meantime, I do have homework for you…1) Watch Treasure Planet and the movies Sky High clearly they are both by Disney. 2) Listen to the track "Like A Dog Chasing Cars" on The Dark Knight soundtrack. And 3) Listen to the piece "Lord of the Castle" on the KH OST Complete. That should enrich your reading into Part II. That will probably be a good 20 chapters and will blow your mind…I hope. But I will not post for another two weeks so in the meantime, mull over that sad ending, put me on Author Alert, review and now and forever, Dare to Be Silly.

P.S. I would like for you to, in your reviews, tell me what you think of all of my characters' characterizations so I know for myself how well I'm crafting them for my purposes.