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Thunk!

Sora's head jerked forward at the force of the impact, and he stumbled slightly, startled. Dammit! He had been about to coax Kairi into returning with the others, too--

Hey.

The voice was vaguely familiar, and Sora whirled around snappishly, not appreciating being hit on the head. At all. "HEY! What was that for?!"

Despite his surprise, however, Sora was glad to see the boy again. They weren't really friends; more like acquaintances, really, but he had been decent enough to give up the Trophy to him. Focusing on the rest of the other boy's sentence, Sora nodded, rubbing his head. Was there going to be a bruise there later? Oh well.

"The Gummi Ship is over there," Sora continued, pointing. "I'm gonna get you guys out of this place, but," change in plan. Sora had just found out that Xemnas was in Traverse Town, too. "I'll need to go look for--"

There he was.

A soft sound not too far away from them had garnered Sora's immediate attention, and he turned to see the ex-Organization leader kneeling in front of the doors. For a moment, he frowned, remembering Riku's terrible scars, and he had to remind himself that this was probably not the same Xemnas anymore...

Even then......

Heartless!

It was not even a big one, really. With a few quick strides and a summon of the Keyblades, Sora had gotten rid of the Heartless quickly, destroying it before it could really attack the other man.

"Xemnas?" Sora asked quietly. He tugged sharply on the jacket, the strange mix of both fear, uncertainty, and anger that rose within him at the sight of the man giving him strength. Tugging it back, he swallowed those feelings down and mustered a smile. No. The real Xemnas wouldn't look this wretched.

"Hey, it's okay now," Sora spoke, his Keyblades dissipating as he handed the other man his jacket. Throwing an almost pleading glance in Kairi's direction - he knew Kairi always had a way of handling people very well - he continuted, "I'm getting you guys outta here. C'mon!"

"Sora....is that...?" it was. Xemnas. Something was off, though...he looked scared...and lost. This wasn't the man they faced in the World that Never Was. Kairi looked at Sora and nodded. She walked over to Xemnas, "Hey, were going to get you out of here. I'm Kairi and that's Sora." she pointed to Sora, "Do you know your name..? Where you come from?"

She didn't know what to expect, if Xemnas remembered who he was...would he be the same evil villian? Or someone entirely different? From the looks of it, it seemed Sora was thinking the same thing. It was risky dealing with him...but they couldn't just leave him there for the heartless.

((so sadly short....Sorry, guys.))

Seifer eyed the ex-Organization member in fear. At first glance, the teen thought the older man was someone's mentally-slow relative, a baby-sitting charge that had been forced on the teens as condition for going out that night. A better look changed all that. Although he still seemed slow, Xemnas's imposing physical presence struck fear in the wannabe knight's heart. The blond gripped his club tightly, like a toddler would hold a security blanket during an especially frightening time.

"We're going? All right!!!" He sauntered past the other teens, following the direction Sora was going to the gummi ship, all the while trying to give off an air of confidence that hid the rampant fears running through his mind. Every few steps, he gave a quick glance to the side, hoping that his parents weren't in the area, ready to catch him deliberately breaking their rules. When he got to the door to the gummi garage, he pushed it open with an exagerated swagger....and his jaw dropped at the sight of the ship.

"What th-.....What the hell is that??"

Sora really, really didn't have time to explain the finer construction points of his Gummi Ship at this point in time. Okay, it basically looked like a few glorified blocks stuck together, but truly, it was more formidable than it looked, and after many, many modifications, Sora had made sure that it was as perfect as it could get, and he wasn't going to complain. Especially considering the fact that the Gummi Ship could kick interstellar butt if it put its mind to it.

To add to that, he'd received information that Riku was in trouble back at Radiant Garden, and he desperately wanted to be back there for his best friend - or whatever they were now, really.

"Just get on, Seifer." Sora responded quickly, his gaze flicking to the others who were still with him. Namine, Demyx, and Kairi; they all had to get on, too. It might probably be a bit of a squeeze, considering that there were technically two adults with them, but it would have to do.

"Come on, guys." Without any further ado, he headed into the cockpit with Xemnas, beckoning for the others to follow.

Sora grinned at Seifer proudly at his statement, and nodded expansively. "Of course! How'd you think I got here?"

It was really fortunate that the other boy had not asked about the his almost nonexistent skills in piloting the ship, really, which meant that he was spared from lying.

Well then, it seemed like Seifer wasn't really such a jerk after all, considering he had given up his seat to the girls. Well actually, Sora hadn't really thought of him as unpleasant, really. Seifer had given up his Cup to Sora and his two friends, an action which automatically constituted as 'all right' in his book.

In his opinion, Seifer just had an abrasive personality and was hard to get along with at first, but Sora had the idea that once one knew him better, it was a different thing entirely. He'd met people like that before, once or twice, so he more or less knew how they worked.

It was a rather tight squeeze, considering Xemnas' and Demyx's size, but it had to do. Stepping over to the controls, Sora turned back to them and grinned, gesturing for the boy to come over. "Ready, guys? C'mon, Seifer, I'll show you how this works!"

As the rest of the group filed in, the small, cramped cockpit became even more crowded. Although Seifer was content with giving the seats to the girls, he was mildly uncomfortable with being so close to the strange older man and the annoyingly effeminate younger man. That's the one thing that pisses me off more than anything....guys who can't remember what lies just below their waist. When Sora offered to show how the ship worked, he instantly jumped up and moved over to the control panel.

Damn, there's a lot of buttons on this thing..... He looked over at the younger boy, and was surprised that he appeared to be almost just as confused. Maybe instead of asking whether this piece of junk could fly, I should have asked if he could fly it. After watching Sora blindly punch at a few buttons, he took a small step back. "Hey, um, once you get this thing going, I'll help out. But I'm a little lost on what you're doing......"

From his new seat, the teen noticed he had an excellent vantage point at the girls he had given up his seat to, which he fully took advantage of. Based on his observations, they both seemed to be just a little younger than himself and apparently were close friends with the Keyblade Bearer. The blonde seemed to be the younger of the pair, and she exuded what he sensed to be a dual nature of both innocence and mystery, while the older redhead, though just as innocent, seemed to be more straightforward.

Well, I don't think Sora can have both....and the other guys don't seem too interested..... "Hey ladies, having fun yet?"

Hearing Xemnas' panicked scream, Sora jumped slightly, then turned back to reassure him. "No one's going to kill you, Xemnas. Relax, okay? We're getting out of this world to meet the others in Radiant Garden!"

He flashed a small smile at the older man; he looked so helpless that Sora couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Sure, he had done nasty, unforgivable things to Riku and his friends in his time, but...

When Seifer spoke, he had his immediate attention. Especially when he was addressing Kairi. And Namine. Somehow, Sora didn't think that Roxas would be very happy when he found out that Seifer was hitting on the girl of his dreams.

And right now, Sora was about to personally go over and wring his neck for flirting with Kairi like that. What the hell?!

"Hey, Seifer! Leave them alone already!" Sora snapped disagreeably as he brought the Ship up. They would be reaching Radiant Garden in a short while, if everything went well.