Double Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts nor Disney. This is also the last time I'm going to write this because I hope by now you've gotten that I don't own anything. Thanks!

A/N: I wonder where Van is. At least he's okay though. Anyway, hopefully this story is starting to draw you in! This chapter has a bunch of plot devices in it and it is very important to setting up the rest of the story. I wanted to say sorry though that it's taken twelve chapters to get here. I originally planned on taking this story in a totally different direction, but it wasn't as good a story, so I hope you like where I'm taking this now. Please read and review! Thanks!

Chapter XIII: Search and Rescue

I can't believe we still haven't found anything. Roxas and I have been walking around this huge plain forever, but it just seems to keep getting bigger. We have to find Van some way or another.

"We're never going to find him. He could be so far away by now." I look over at Roxas who's beside me.

"Come on Roxas! Cheer up! We've just got to keep looking!" I give him a huge smile. Hey! Why is he rolling his eyes at me, oh well at least he eventually smiled back. Thing is though, I'm not really sure if we are going to find him. He could be walking the wrong way looking for us. Or something worse might've…you know what, best not to think about it. Whoa, gah…the whole place is shaking; it must be another one of those turtle things. Wagh! Ugh…great now I have to pick myself up off the ground.

"You alright there Ven?"

"Yes, Roxas and it's not nice to laugh at other people when they fall like that." I brush away some the dirt on me, but he keeps on laughing. Dang it, now I'm laughing too!

"Aww, come on Ven it was funny and you know it!" I scowl at him, but for some stupid reason I can't stop laughing.

"Fine, but we need to find Van."

"I can't think of anywhere he would've gone. I mean, we were all hit by…whatever that thing with wings was, so he must've landed nearby."

"Do you think he might have landed in that big canyon we saw?"

"The one back where we started?" I nod. "That's a lot of walking…"

"I don't think we'll find him over this way though."

"You're probably right…" Roxas sighs as he looks back all the way we came…

"Roxas…why don't we just use our gliders…"

"Why didn't we think of that earlier?!" I can't believe we didn't, but eh…we'll get over it. Besides, now we know!

"So Serah, how are we supposed to get to Eden from here?" Tobi looks up to the floating city, like I do.

"There's a train that…"

"You there!" Who just said that? Uh oh…why are they surrounding us? We didn't do anything wrong…did we? I look over to Tobi. He looks just as confused…crap. What are we supposed to do? Whoa! What is Serah doing?

"Come on Sora!"

"Wait up Tobi!" I grab my Keyblade and charge in behind them both with Donald and Goofy just behind.

Ugh, I should've killed that flying whatever when I had the chance. Then I wouldn't be stuck searching for Ven this whole time. Not really sure what we're supposed to be doing here anyway. I haven't seen any of those Chaos things that Yen Sid told us about. This is so stupid. I don't even know where I am on this planet. All that's around me are these walls of rock, sort of like those ones at the Keyblade Graveyard…where…not going to think about it. The only life I've found are these worthless little slugs that took two seconds for me to kill. Even Tobi could've gotten rid of them in ten. Pathetic. Where is he?

"Are you sure this was a good…agh…idea, Serah?" These soldiers keep coming from everywhere! I can't even really see Serah, I don't think she even heard me. Oh no not again!

What's going on? Why is everything so dark? What was that? It sounded like a…Tobi! Why isn't anything coming out of my mouth? Why can't I move? There was the bell again. Every time it goes off, there's this bright blue light that surrounds us. Whoa…what is that? It's this huge thing…agh! What did it just shoot at us? Now, I really can't move. These wires are holding my arms back. Ow! Ack…that really hurt. It just shot one at my stomach and now it really burns…gah…like really bad. Whoa…

Ugh…my head…and my stomach…ugh it hurts so bad. Where…are…

"Tobi? Is that…are you…"

"What was that?" I try to focus my eyes on Tobi, but I'm having a tough time. "Wait…where…is everyone?" Me and Tobi have managed to push ourselves off of the ground, but only to our knees. I'm okay with that though. My head's kind of spinning.

"Donald and Goofy…they're…gone…where…"

"I found them, kupo!" That was Mog! Where is he?

"Oh thank goodness, I was so worried. What happened to you two? Where are Donald and Goofy?" I jump…okay, bad idea…it's going to take a second for me to get my head straight again. I think Tobi was smarter to stand up slowly.

"What do you mean? They aren't with you? Where did you go?" Maybe I should've spaced my questions out a little more.

"No. You both vanished and then they were gone."

"Look at his hand, kupo." What's Mog talking about there's nothing on my…oh wait…they're talking about Tobi. That can't be very good. He has this small little mark on his right hand. It's glowing bright blue. That was where that thing hit him. Does that mean…I hope not. I start to pull my shirt up and I hold my breath. Oh no, whatever it is, I've got one too, right near my belly button…

"The mark of a l'Cie."

"Roxas! I see something down there in the canyon. It might be Van!" I sure hope it is. Roxas and me fly down into the canyon. That's definitely him! Who else has that dark hair? Crap…that's why he's not moving. There's this big thing that has him trapped near a wall. Even Van can't take that alone. "Roxas, he's right there!" I'm not going to wait for him to respond. I've got to help him. About fifteen feet from the ground I jump off my glider and roll onto the ground. As I stand up I grab my Keyblade. "Sometimes I wished you just stay with the group!" Despite the circumstances I manage a smile, which he actually matches.

"Lecture later. We've got bigger problems!" Wow, this thing looks even bigger from down here, if that's possible. Whatever. Focus. Be fast Ventus. Get in there, strike, get back. Remember you're going to be a master. You can do this. With Roxas and Van we've got this thing surrounded. It's going dow…what the? It…it's standing up, like a person!? How is it? Gah! It just ripped a saw from its back! "Run!" Despite how freaked out I am, I listen to Van's command.

"We're a little stuck!" Yikes! That thing really can swing that saw. At least we could all jump!

"What're we going to do?!" Just as I say that this fireball explodes on the back of this thing.

"Why don't you pick on someone your own size?" The thing is turning around to look at this new voice. Whatever, I'll take it!

"Follow my lead!" Whoa, this woman…with pink hair…comes running around to our side of the monster. She starts slashing at the thing with surprising results. I don't know who these people are, but their taking out this thing with magic that I've never seen before and it looks like it's working. They have it down in less than a minute. Wow.

"Could've been worse." How many people are there? That makes three…actually now there are…six people…

Either our lives just got a whole lot easier or a whole lot more complicated.

A/N: So did you all like it? I want to thank Seraphicfox2515 and Xaccemflare for their ideas! They were very influential on this chapter!

T/N: Well, it might be good for your story, but now I'm a l'Cie?! Who does that help?

Sora's Note: Hey me too!

A/N: See that's what I get for letting you talk Tobi!

T/N: It's not my fault! You were the one that let him talk, not me.

S/N: Hey, I'm right here you know!

A/N: Alright, well I'm just going to take these two away. I hope you liked the story though!

S & T/N: Bye!