Disclaimers: Danny Phantom, Skulker, Vlad © Butch Hartman

Sora, Axel, Riku, Kairi, Hayner, Pence, Olette, Cid, Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, 'Possessor' Heartless, Darkside, Nobodies, Heartless © Kingdom Hearts © Sq/Enix

Vonnix, Nexidal © My sister, Gremblin. She will burn you alive if you steal him/them. And I'm not kidding, either. Seriously.

Myxra © Twilight101

Kirex © Syuveil

Xyrzeh © Shining Zepher

Xalara, Mendirax, Naxan, Erradexn, Stanzix, Harintex, 'Camview' Nobody © Myself.

Toad (Daxot) © X-men/X-Men Evolution © Marvel

Edward Elric, Envy © Fullmetal Alchemist © SquEnix/Hiromu Arakawa

Balthier, Vaan, Fran, 'Magicite', 'Auracite', Nalbina, Balfonhiem, Rabanastre, ETC... © Final Fantasy XII/ FF-XII: Revenant Wings (Magicite: Various Final fantasies) © SquEnix

Rodney McKay, Atlantis, Wraith, Weir, Radek, Puddlejumpers © Stargate (SG1, SGA) © MGM

Chiro © Super Robot Monkey Team... © ?

Atlantica (and all related) © The Little Mermaid © Disney

Rayquaza © Pokemon © ? (Can't remember at the moment)

Volvagia © LOZ:OOT © ?

Altair © Assassins Creed © Ubisoft (Awesome game. Play it. Seriously. The end is a giant DaVinci code that'll leave ya tearing for more!)

Authors notes: Holy crap. Talk about slow updates. I'm soooo sorry... First I couldn't write cause my horrible Compy got a virus, then I needed to figure out what the chapter was even gonna be about and how it could tie in with future workings. (NEWYEARINTERMISSION!) I then had to get my wisdom teeth pulled -ohgodthesickandhunger- , and if all that wasn't enough, Karma had to get on my ass (I have a nasty habit of NOT wearing my winter jacket) and gave me a horrible over-the-school-break cold.

Also, I have no idea how Hayner addresses older men he doesn't know. 'Mister' was pretty much just thrown in for lack of information.

The afternoon sun glowed calmly over Twilight Town. In the distance, Vlad could see a train moving slowly across a bay, toward the station he sat on. Well, the Clock tower of the station he sat on, anyway. It had been quite some time since Clockwork had told him to wait for Danny. He was growing impatient, and was on the verge of going off to find the boy himself. All-powerful keyblade incarnation or not, Danny had no reason to keep him waiting for so long. Of course, the boy didn't know Vlad was waiting, so he technically had no room to speak.
He sighed. Recently, patience was not his forte.

He jumped slightly and straightened as a noise was heard to his left. Looking, he saw three kids ambling around the side of the clock tower, all holding blue ice cream bars of some sort. He recognized one of the children as Hayner. The others must've been the 'gang' Hayner had mentioned in their last encounter. But while Vlad looked upon the group with a studying sort of interest, Hayner and his friends looked slightly surprised and uncomfortable.

"Oh, hey Mister." The boy turned to his friends. "Guys, this is the old man I told you about." Vlad stiffened at being called old. Just because one has white hair did not mean they were aged. 'Look at Daniel, for petes sake!' He thought. 'The boy has hair as white as the snow, and he's only 14! Granted, half the time it's black, but still...!'

"What's your name, Mister? You never told me before." Vlad relaxed again, leaning once more against the Clock tower walls.

"My name is Vlad." Hayner smiled and nodded.

"OK. Well, this is Olette, and Pence." Vlad nodded.

"It's nice to meet you." The two children he had just met looked at each other, some of there worry about him seeming to disappear at his introduction. Olette turned to him.

"Hayner said you know Sora. If you don't mind me asking, how?" Vlad chuckled.

"How? How not. He's apparently been hanging out with an acquaintance of mine, young Daniel Fenton." Recognition flashed through Hayners eyes.

"Wait... I think I know who you're talkin' about! That kid that was here a couple days ago! He had black hair and weird cloths, never really talked to anyone. Just wandered aimlessly through town." Hayner held his chin in his right hand before speaking again. "He had eyes as blue as Sora's." Vlad chuckled.

"Yes, that's Daniel. And I'm not surprised he didn't talk to anyone. His friends often got him into trouble, and vise-versa." Suddenly, a greenish portal appeared in the distance on the only set of tracks that wasn't used. It seemed misty, and it reminded him of a ghost portal, only without the machinery that was used to keep it constantly stable. He looked further down the track, away from the portal. A purple and gold train could be seen, ambling slowly towards the open portal with no apparent driver, or passengers for that matter. It's design reminded him of a portrait he'd seen elsewhere in this town; of a mouselike creature dressed as a king. His name was Mickey, if memory served.
Vlad knew at once that if he was to make it through that portal before the train moved through it -possibly triggering it to close- he would have to move fast. Walking would not be an option.

"Hayner." Vlad said, without taking his eyes off the train as he carefully stood up. Hayner cocked an eyebrow.

"Yeah?"

"You must promise, you and your friends, not to tell anyone about what you are about to see. It's gotten me into enough trouble back home, I don't feel like getting overly-noticed here, as well." Hayner nodded, an oddly understanding glint in his eyes. "Good." Without another word, Vlad jumped off the tower, letting his 'ghost half' take him over as he blasted toward the greenish, misty portal that led to who knew where. He smiled faintly at hearing the reaction from the three behind him awed, surprised and excited all at the same time. but it quickly cut off as he flew out of hearing distance, and through the strange portal.

Almost at once, the only thing he sensed was nothingness. It felt like when you sat too long on one of your body parts; that inside pins-and-needles feeling, with eventually numbing. Except this time, it was on the outside. Mix that with the feeling that you couldn't move at all. That's what he felt.

The minute Vlad could see again, he noted to himself that he was apparently in a medieval office of sorts, containing a table, several bookshelves and a rather obvious wizards robe -dangling from a hook on the wall-. However, it appeared to not have been used in quite some time; dust coated it in a fine yet visible layer. In fact, the dust coated most everything in a fine yet visible layer, indicating that the room hadn't had any kind of contact for months, possibly even years.
On the desk, Vlad noticed an oddly clean book. It was rather thick, and seemed to exude an air of magic. And as if by that very substance, it opened approximately to the center of the book, glowing a moment before having a few paragraphs of writing visible on it. He walked over, carefully stroking the book once before glancing at what the pages read.

'-The Story That Shouldn't Be-

The Door is pulled by an unknown force
Toward the first Key that locked it
Though once enemies
They will cooperate to achieve a common goal
Along the door, one Key will die
But another will rise and fly
And three more will resurrect from Nothing'

Vlad sighed lightly as he read the odd poem-like entry. It seemed to imply that 'The Door' -that 'Sora' child, likely- and the 'First Key' -probably Danny- were enemys before, but would become friends now, and would cooperate to defeat a common enemy. One of 'The Doors' friends would die, but another would become stronger through it. 'Three more will resurrect from Nothing' likely refered to himself, Danny and Guidance; whom Vlad had spoken with before. But there was another entry on the books pages, so he read on.

'-The Story Yet to Come-

The time will come
When Light and Dark will intertwine
Forced to fight a Shadow of Balance
The unaccepting Door
Will find his friend in the Endless
And the Keys
Forced finally to join them all
Will the Dark find freedom in the donated Heart?
Only the Light of Darkness
Will hold the Key to Healing'

Vlad cocked an eyebrow. This one was a little vague, if not confusing. Light and Dark intertwining? What were these 'Endless' that the poem mentioned? And who or what was the Shadow of Balance' it said would be fought? Perhaps that thing that Clockwork said wouldn't be held for much longer? But what was this about the Dark and donated Hearts? Oh well. He would look into that later. After all, it was 'yet to come'.

Vlad turned, jumping as a silvery-white portal almost the same shade as a Dusk opened up in front of the large door behind him. It seemed as if this portal was the way out. Not out of the Tower, but wherever the first portal had placed him; when he looked out of the window, it looked as if the tower was floating atop a sea of orange clouds. He turned again, figuring that if noone was left to tend to this strange tower, certainly nobody would miss the seemingly magical book that apparently knew the future.
He grabbed it, closing it and tucking it under one of his arms as he sauntered towards, and ultimately through the silver portal.

0o0o0o0

I could only stare as the silver, music-themed blade plunged toward me. Certainly, it was not time to die? I mean, I was a Keyblade! Granted, I had only barely discovered this, but still! Didn't I have some kind of ability that could save me from death?

I closed my eyes, forgetting in my panic that I could turn intangible, and quite easily dodged this kind of attack almost daily back home. But instead of a piercing pain, I only felt the aura of another body close to my own. Cautiously, I opened my eyes again, only to see the faded white and sand blown robes of an older man, who held a blade of his own and was using it to block Stanzix's. Stanzix's blade twitched and the other man, in one swift movement, kicked Stanzix's blade arm out of his way, slashed the Nobody's knee, then shoved his sword through Stanzix's heart. He pulled him close, seemed to sniff the Nobody, then tossed him away, turning to me after sheathing his sword. He spoke rapid Arabic, so I couldn't understand a word. The man seemed to realize this, and while helping me to my feet, pointed to himself and said one word, assumedly his name.

"Altair." He said. I pointed at myself. It was a childish way of telling someone your name, but efficient if you didn't know the other persons language.

"Danny." The man nodded, looking around at the carnage, and almost at once darting around to help the others of our group back to their feet. I turned to join him, but stopped as I heard Stanzix call out softly. Not enough to get Altair's attention, it seemed, but enough to catch mine. Carefully, I walked over.

"Please listen...!" I scoffed.

"Why? Why shouldn't I just get our new friends attention, and let him finish you off?" I looked at the wound he bore. It wasn't big, but it was spouting off some odd black, thorny material that seemed to disappear upon hitting the air surrounding it. He looked around once before speaking, as if he didn't want somebody to hear him.

"Because I have information valuable to you!" I thought for a moment. What exactly did I have to lose by wasting time with Stanzix? I certainly couldn't heal wounds. I could dress them, no problem, but Magic wasn't yet my forte, and I never could fix up cuts and the like very well. Plus, this man was not human, and I had never seen any blood come out of the creatures called Nobodies.

"Fine. Not like it'll cost me anything." Stanzix panted for a moment before speaking again.

"Neh... Nexidal. Did he tell you-?" I cut him off, knowing what he was gonna say.

"About the bunch of Organization Thirteen members that planned to rebel, before Xemnas caught them?" Stanzix chuckled.

"Yeah... that." I cocked an eyebrow.

"What about it?" I started slightly, looking away as Stanzix coughed up 'blood', only barely resisting the urge to try and heal him. Valuable information or not, if I healed him, the unofficial villains guidebook of cliches (1) stated that that course of action would give Stanzix leave to up and run away. Which would be bad, as we likely wouldn't be able to pull this off again.

"I was one of them." I could've broken my neck with how fast I looked back at him.

"Then why d'you keep attacking us?!"

"Because of... what Xemnas promised me." I groaned. Not this again. That was rule 12 in the villains guidebook of cliches. If the main villain has minions with undying loyalty, you can be sure they've been bribed. Stanzix must've been able to read the look in my eyes, because he shook his head 'no' and spoke once more. "Not a heart, not paradise, no!" I looked at him, curious. What else did the man have to offer besides infinite life and paradise?

"Then, what?" Stanzix looked away.

"My... brother...." I paused for a moment, taken by surprise.

"You have a brother?" Stanzix, however, shook his head 'no'.

"Not anymore. He was t-turned into... a Nobody a long time ago... It got him killed. Xemnas made me swear loyalty... after he promised to revive my brother. His name was Myde." I narrowed my eyes.

"That name sounds familiar." The dying man chuckled.

"Sora should know him. Anyway... I can't tell you... who else was in on the rebellion... But I can say that Xemnas made similar offers to the rest... of them. Only two other members are true to the rebellion now... Nexidal is one of them. I don't know who the other one is..." I looked around. The others seemed to be getting on well. They looked like they'd wake up soon.

"Anything else?" I asked. Stanzix nodded.

"Yeah. It's about Naxan... When you're fighting her, watch her shadow... It's not just a reflection caused by light... Ignoring it could mean your death." My eyes widened. That sounded important. I was glad I decided to hear the man out, now. I made to help Altair out, but a tug on my leg told me Stanzix wasn't yet done. "One more thing... It'll mean nothing now, but I gotta say it anyway... When you get to that world that Sora refuses to save, look for Altomare in Cadmium Slums. He'll help you." Finally, Stanzix's essence seemed to have had enough, and he faded into nothing, leaving behind only a stained bit of ground and some personal words that meant nothing to me.

"Man, I haven't felt this bad since my first fight with Gilgamesh..."(2) I turned around when I heard Vaans voice. The others were awake, it seemed. I put Stanzix words away into the back of my mind and walked over to them.

"Stanzix is dead." I announced, earning many a happy face. For some reason, it felt slightly bad to see all that happy radiating off the fact that somebody had died. Villain or not, even the bad guys deserved a bit of pity.

"We gonna... gonna f-IInd that 'keyhole'... now, or LAAter...?" I smirked slightly, holding back a laugh at how Edward spoke. As he had taken the brunt of Stanzix's energy blast, he had also taken the most damage. At the moment, he sat down on the sandy, cobblestone road, Altair bandaging him up. He wasn't at all trying to be being gentle, so the boys voice changed pitch randomly when he spoke. I opened my mouth to speak, but was cut off by Balthier, who marched authoritatively between everyone.

"Ah, but we can't find something that's already been found, now can we?" He said, earning more than a few confused looks. "This 'Keyhole' is what we've been hunting after this whole time, right? In a game, one fights bosses before he reaches his goal. I do believe we've just done such. The bosses are gone, and what, pray tell, is our goal?" He pointed towards a ship docked in the distance. "The Strahl. It appears to me that the old girl holds exactly what Danny and Sora've been looking for. Now come." Too lazy to retaliate, the group stood -albeit, shakily-, following through the ruined building towards the dock that held the ship.

Once there, Sora was not surprised to not see any sign of a Keyhole. I, as well, couldn't sense one. -not that I could before-

"So what now?" I asked. I was answered by cannon fire to my back, knocking me over as the blast continued onwards, connecting with the wall and creating a sort of portal-like space in which a very obvious keyhole sat. I made to move toward it, but stopped as the inside of my left pocket burned. Quickly, I reached inside, pulling out something I had forgotten. Guidance's keychain. Curious, Sora looked over at me, slightly amused, curious and happy at seeing the keychain. He walked over to me.

"Is that a keychain?" I nodded. "Why not try equipping it?" I blinked, lost.

"What?" Sora seemed unfazed, and continued.

"When I get a new Keychain, I put it on Kingdom to see what it looks like, and what it's effects are. Maybe if you concentrate, you can 'equip' that one in the same manner." I looked down at it. It was certainly worth a try.

"How do you do it?" I asked him.

"Well, I normally just put it on, but for you, you'd probably have to concentrate on changing shape, or something..." I blinked, smiling a little.

"Like how I do when I turn into my ghost form...!" Sora nodded, slightly confused.

"Well, do get on with it, then. I'd rather like to have all this Heartless nonsense done and over with, at least here in Ivalice. As if travelers get enough trouble from regular beasts..." I nodded toward the slightly peeved sky pirate, closing my fist around the small, warm orb and pulling it close to my chest. I closed my eyes, digging into my soul and feeling around my swirling energies, finding my ghost abilities but not waking them. I pushed and prodded my soul a bit more, before finding a touch of something I had encountered once before, in a dream not long after recovering from the Ghost Portals shock. Exploring around it, I discovered it was a huge, and immense, but dormant power. Carefully, I reached out to it, trying out the tactics I had used while trying to master transforming into my ghost self. Much to my surprise, it reached out to me, feeling around the odd new energies trying to make contact with it. It felt around me, pausing as it found the dying flame that was the Guidance keychain.

"A new... power... I will... grant you..." It whispered, feeding life into the keychain I held, transforming it into energy not unlike that of my ghost self. It was quick, taking no more than a few seconds before retreating back into itself, becoming dormant once more. However, the new energy flowed and ebbed, urging me to use it. It was not at all shy; pushing and prodding, almost excited at what was going on. I moved forward, making first contact. The energy accepted me quickly, nearly ten times faster than my ghost energy had. As if I was supposed to wield it. I felt my 'being' changing, and was immediately spewed back forth into reality, a pair of energy rings, golden in color, moved both up and down my body, morphing me into a form that felt far more right than my ghost self. The first voice I heard speak was Chiro.

"You look like an Angel..." He said softly. Beside him, Altair was looking upon me with equal awe. I looked myself over. My hair was white, like in my ghost form, but had a more golden tone to it rather than a silver one. A pair of wings jutted from what I assumed were my shoulder blades, and looked to be more for show than actual flight. The shirt and pants I wore were a swirling mixture of golds, yellows, and a few very light, pastel-y purple colors, and seemed to be constantly fading into nothing at the ragged, torn-up and frayed ends. I wore a cape of similar make and color, though it had a distinctive red-gold-yellow coloration, and faded into nothing at the frayed ends, like my shirt and pants. For some reason, I reached up and touched my ears, finding that they had gained a delicate point to them, like Dans. I had a feeling my eyes had changed color, as well.
Suddenly, I could feel the energy of everything around me; it came in a brutal pounding, and I staggered as I attempted to regain my balance.

"Whoa..." I muttered, shaking my head as I roughly held the ability back. "This'll take some getting used to." Beside me, Sora chuckled.

"C'mon, you need to lock the keyhole, so we can get going." I turned to him, nodding before moving up to the swirling space in front of me. Sora nodded, gesturing into it."It's alright. Some keyholes are inside a Neutral zone, where only certain beings can find them. Like Keybearers, or Heartless." I gulped, smiling at him for a moment before carefully walking into what Sora had called a 'Neutral zone'. Instantly, the way out shut behind me, and I was marauded by an immense new energy. Much to my surprise, it spoke.

"Oh, you are young... Younger than the last one..." I raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Younger than who?"

"Him... That last one that sealed us up... It seems so long ago, now. We can't remember very well."

"Do you mean Sora?" The energy laughed softly.

"No... But that boy reminds us of Him very much." I took a step forward.

"If you don't mind my asking... What are you?" It laughed again.

"Nothing, Everything. I am Heart and I am Soul, I am Light, as well as Dark. You however, are none of these, but all of them at once; more commonly known to us as Balance..."I swallowed my confusion as I stepped closer to the keyhole.

"I'm supposed to lock this."

"Ohh... Yes, yes... Keys need to lock. I hold you no further... We are eager to get back to the eternal rest, and watch of our people..." It quickly fell silent, it's presence disappearing as I pressed my hand to the keyhole floating in front of me, willing it to lock, and smiling as it obeyed, with less resistance than before. Almost at once, I found myself standing a few feet in front of my friends, Sora smiling at me.

"Did you lock it?" I smiled back, eagerly reverting back to my human form.

"Yup." I frowned slightly. "Have... you ever been talked to when you locked those kind of keyholes?" Sora frowned back.

"No, never. Why? What happened?"

"Some weird energy kept talking to me. It said that I was 'younger than the last one that sealed it'. It knew who and what I was." The others looked worried. Sora however, sighed, apparently relieved.

"If I could guess, I'd say that it was Ivalice you were talking with." Balthier cocked an eyebrow.

"Well that's new, then." He gestured to Danny. "I've never known a landmass, of all things, to be sentient." He shrugged, turning away to look his ship up and down. "Oh, well. I've encountered stranger things." Sora chuckled, waving the group toward the exit. I sighed, clutching the small pouch dangling around my neck. How long would I have to wait for it to open?

0o0o0o0

Once we had arrived at the Ship, Balthier and Vaan had pulled everyone off to the side for a moment. It appeared as though Balthier wanted to tell the group something important.

"Alright. Now, I realize you and your friends require help in reaching your goal, but I would prefer it if I stayed behind, here on Ivalice and helped exterminate the rest of those heartless creatures. Besides." He turned to Sora. "Aren't people supposed to stay oblivious to the other worlds in existence out there? What better way then not going to them?" Suddenly, he turned to Chiro. "I've been curious. Your world. Is it alright? You've been awfully depressed and quiet since that band of merry men captured you." The small boy shook his head.

"I'm not sure. I know that the Heartless attacked. They broke into the Super Robot, then after a while, all I could see was black. I thought it was the Skeleton Kings doing, at first. Then I woke up in a prison, with all the others." Vaan frowned.

"Well, hey. Why not stay with us until Sora can find out if your worlds still out there? I'm sure the realm wouldn't mind a little relocation." Chiro smiled, nodding before turning to Sora.

"Is it okay with you?" Sora chuckled.

"I don't mind. Plus, I'm sure Vaan could use more help." As we all walked back into the ship -sans Balthier and Chiro- Sora turned, yelling out to the trio as the hatch began to close. "I'll come and get you when I find it! What's it called?" Chiro smiled.

"Shuggazoom!" If Chiro had said any more, it was killed off by the Gummis engines.

I turned to the remaining people.

"So, where to now?" As I spoke, Edward looked the group over, seriousness flooding his face.

"My world. Amestris."

(1) - No such thing. I made it up on the spot for comic relief.

(2) - That's actually a personal sort of reference; on my first fight with Gilgamesh, I got my ass handed to me. It's a hard fight on the first go.