[center][b]Chapter 4: Respects to a Hero[/b][/center]

[i]Land of Dragons, Imperial City, Emperor's Palace[/i]

Four hours had passed since the tragic Battle of Traverse Town when Kaith finally reappeared in the doorway, almost limping. He had a very large broadsword on his back, held there by magnetic forces in the armor. This sword had a blue, crystalline blade that radiated pulses of azure power. It was stolen from a man in the world of Greece, and had enormous amounts of energy, including the ability to absorb more energies. He needed this as their way to kill Reaper, with hos Darkness-induced healing and self-resurrection.

A large dropship was still broken down in the courtyard outside. The natives knew it would do no good to leave there, but requests from the heroes had led to their leaving it alone.

The women had gone to Destiny Islands using incredibly roundabout ways of travel to avoid detection by Omega. Apparently they had told the news, because the Dawn Walker Riku was completely silent and unwilling to talk to anyone.

Kairi, the Princess of Heart from Radiant Garden who lived in Destiny Islands for most of her life, on the other hand, had not stopped sobbing in all of the time since receiving the news. Ele, Olette, both Graces and both Kynthias were in a room alone with her, trying their best to soothe the other of Namine.

While he did feel for her, Kaith was too busy to consider that kind of thing. The recent news from Greg--who was now either borderline catatonic or in an uncontrollable rage depending on what was said around him--and Kynthia had forced him to make his emergency trip to the world of God of War. Sain and his partner Kira were still processing the data from Dolor's memory drive. If they were right, it would probably include a timetable for Omega to work against, a way to end this war much quicker. And with the Blade of Olympus...his plan was borderline suicidal at best if everything did not go perfectly. It was also borderline suicidal if they [i]did[/i], but that was beside the point. With Reaper's new powers and the loss of Sora, he thought they were out of options. He was so going to [i]kill[/i] him when he learned, though.

The captain stepped past the silver-haired remaining Keyblader who was sitting next to the door to his new office, head in his hands and completely motionless. "Excuse me." He ignored the responding glare, letting Riku move out of the way of the door and walking in to put away the massive sword that was their new hope.

The room was not very big. There were cameras and Rapture turrets, assembled by them for Sain to operate for security purposes. A Rapture gene bank to switch Plasmids and gene tonics, though only he used it. A map was spread out on a table, showing the worlds they knew of, and having some other names written on the sides. Greek Omega symbols were written in red over many world pictures, and beside some names. The World That Never Was. Radiant Garden. Neverland. Castle Oblivion. Olympus Colosseum. Pride Lands. Halloween Town. Deep Jungle. Wonderland. Agrabah. Amestris. Haven. Albion. And now, as Kaith marked off with a sigh, Traverse Town. It was unknown if 100 Acre Wood even existed anymore, and Space Paranoids was as good as gone.

As he put down the Blade against a wall, he heard Sain speak. [i]"Hey, cap. We finally deciphered some of it. Not pretty, let me tell ya. 'Specially the stuff about how things ended out for Jake and Alucard. Death's Hand 2.0. Then there's you. Ouch, buddy. I mean, best m--"[/i]

"Cut to the chase." Kaith definitely did not want to know the psychological torture at Diana's hands that he had narrowly avoided with the time travelers' intervention.

[i]"We've got some timing down pat. Some of his plans, but we're still trying to fund out when he did this stuff. Puts you on a limit."[/i]

"What is it?"

[i]"Spires. They're building Chimeran Spires."[/i]

"What are they aiming at?" This news worried the captain. It lessened the amount of time they had.

[i]"Every currently known, non-Omega, Kingdom Hearts world. They're attacking everything."[/i]

---

Derest was pacing back and forth, holding his head. First all of these problems with all five of Tsered, now this loss of their base and the original hero of these worlds, as told in the games by that time, at least. Thus was rapidly running out of control. They had nothing going right. Why did Kaith run off? Something about a sword. Didn't seem to think about Sora at all.

Hayner slammed a fist against a wall in anger. "We have to hit them back. Stop them. He would want us to keep fighting, bring these guys down."

The Twilight Town native could not even move before Greg tackled him, a far cry from his previous depressed unresponsiveness in a corner. Both fell to the ground, the assailant gripping his target by the neck with his left hand and punching with his right once, twice, three times in the face before Isaac could drag him off. "He's not just some casualty, he's my friend, damn you! I thought he was yours too!"

Hayner stood slowly, shaking his head to clear it before lunging at the Aselian, only stopping because he had to struggle against the grip of Seifer Alamsy on his arms from behind to get at him. "Get off! Let me at him!"

"He's right," the leader of the Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee said. He looked to the elder Zivaku with a smirk. "Nice one, by the way."

"You little--" Hayner turned, aiming a punch at his rival that was quickly dodged to the side.

"Calm down!" Isaac told his brother. "We need to think! Maybe we can--"

Greg wrenched himself from the grasp of Reaper's past, rounding on him. "This is your fault! If you hadn't gone to get the Darkness--"

"Anything to blame it on me, huh?" Isaac was getting sick and tired of the constant blame. Blame for things he did to Kynthia, that he could handle. But blame for things he hadn't done, for things that would never be? That was too much. "He let it go. She seems to be trying, too! I admit, I bound her. I caused a death indirectly. But this? I didn't kill Sora! Reaper did!"

[color=purple]"All of you be [i]quiet[/i]!"[/color] Jake was getting sick of this infighting. It really wasn't helping his Tsered-induced headache. [color=purple]"Greg, right? Sora was your friend. We get it. But causing a brawl won't bring him back. Isaac, you may not have done it, but part of this is your fault. Admit [i]that[/i]."[/color] The dhampir turned to Hayner and Seifer. [color=purple]"Hayner, I know we need to fight back, but without paying respects, we're not much better than them. Alamsy, you might be right about Hayner, but provoking him? Not. Helping!"[/color] He took a deep breath. [color=purple]"Now then. If you're all done bickering like little schoolkids, we might need your help doing something actually useful. Like digging a grave, making a coffin. Okay? Okay."[/color] Alucard's host threw his arms up in the air as he turn around to go sit down against a wall. [color=purple]"Am I the sane one? I don't know if that's sad or scary, since I've got six--count 'em--six other personalities in my head, up to five of whom probably would have no qualms with killing you all, if I'm right."[/color] Only then did he sit down.

All of the heroes stopped, walking apart, each in their own huff except for Seifer, who seemed more or less calm. It was then that Kaith walked into their room, Ephraim watching him from a ways out of the doorway.

"Listen up, guys. We need to move forward, double speed." The semi-SPARTAN II heard the objections, but continued regardless. "If we fail, Sora's death will have been for nothing. The more Sain and Kira uncover, the more I see we're on a time limit. If we're going down, I'd prefer it be in honor than binding and torturous death. What depends on who." There was a noticable silence, more than had been in some time. "We don't have time to do anything but a quick burial. Reaper's going to--"

He was cut off by renewed hysterics from Kairi, as well as the sebsequent very quiet attempts to calm her from the same room. She had been listening, apparently. No wonder it had been so quiet.

Derest pushed past him, walking out with a disgusted look on his face. [color=purple]"I don't have time for this crap now. I'm going for a walk."[/color] Then he was on his way toward the exit to the palace, only briefly glancing at Ephraim on the way.

Kaith watched the boys, who had made a point of no longer listening to him. Giving up on the attempt at a motivational speech, he walked back toward his room.

---

Kaith, his helmet on the table, was looking over the data they had decoded when he heard a knock at the door. "Yeah?" No audible response, so he stood up, walking to the door.

A fist is generally not thought of as the greatest thing to see first upon opebony a door. Especially not when the opener gets punched shortly after, followed by two hands gripping the collar of the by-then staggering person and dragging him to a nearby wall before pressinghis back against it with a rough grip on the collar. This is just what Kaith learned firsthand before the assailant spoke.

"I should make you pay for that. All of it." Ephraim let go with his right hand, punching again at the chest of Greg's future and causing yellow sparks to be necessary to recharge the partly damaged shielding. When Kaith opened his mouth to speak, the Original Interference continued. "Don't you even start! One more stunt like that, even one, and I'm leaving. I can get lucidity in my allies to fight this, too. You were honestly going to leave him back there, weren't you? This wasn't the first thing you've done. What about almost making Vivi use Doomsday in prehistoric Guardia last week, huh? Was that supposed to be sane and rational?! And that time you tried to leave Derest in Atlant--"

"He could handle hims--"

"He's not Darucard! We all have our limits! He did too, didn't he? You can't use that logic when he ended up [i]just as bad as Sora![/i]"

"What is this about, then?" Kaith retorted. "Just a few heroes? Is that why you're doing this?"

"Just a--" Ephraim scowled deeper. "He was your friend, too. Did you forget that? We all know you have personal reasons to fight. So do we. [i]Just a few heroes?[/i]" Purple sparks ran up and down his free arm for several seconds before he calmed down. "You want me to spell it out for you, Gregory? Destiny Islands. Radiant Garden. Twilight Town. Pride Lands. Space Paranoids. The Land of Dragons. Olympus Colosseum. Port Royal. Halloween Town. Beast's Castle. Atlantica. Disney Castle. Timeless River. [i]Need I go on?[/i] There are even mire worlds I wasn't around for. Yes, I remember them all." The vice grip was released, and the younger man stepped back, still glaring daggers. "He may be just another hero to you now. But try to tell those worlds that he is. Sora was a hero, a true hero and friend, and the others deserve a chance to say their goodbyes, not just dump him in a grave and be done with it. I realize we need to hit him back hard, but I'm not being an a** about it. Me and the others from your timeline's future, we owe him a lot more than that." He started for the door. "And so do you." He slammed it hard behind him as he left Kaith speechless.

[i]"I have a way to fix up your Lot,"[/i] Sain stated, his voice then becoming caustic. [i]"Thanks for giving me the guts to do it, jerk."[/i]

"Wha--" Before Kaith could finish, a tranquilizer dart from a camera hit his neck. "What...are...you...do....ing..." He staggered back and forth, then fell back into unconsciousness, a large Gatherer "Little Sister" needle extracting his red ADAM. It would take a few minutes to sort out the problematic strains. Enough to prepare the services several Interferences seemed to be calling for.

---

The casket, provided by the Emperor as thanks for earlier aid to his empire, had been lowered into the ground. It was time to pay last respects. Kaith did not seem to be conscious at the moment. Nobody was asking why, but he was unharmed according to Sain.

Many heroes went up to the grave to speak. Greg. Kynthia. Isaac. Leon and the rest if the Restoration Committee. Hayner and his gang. Seifer's Disciplinary Committee. Goofy and Donald. More. Riku went up close to the last.

The Dawn Walker just stood over the grave, his eyes closed. He did not seem like he could say anything. The friend of the dead boy stepped away, Kairi coming to the body.

She opened her mouth to speak, but her words stopped in her throat, tears rushing down her face. "I...I can't do it. I just can't!" She broke down completely, sobbing until Kynthia and Olette came to her sides, gently leading her away with their own sadness and concern clear on their faces.

Ephraim was last. He stepped to the yet-to-be covered grave. "I... Ah... Oh, nevermind. I can mourn later." He turned to the others. "Why the heck are we holding back? Why in the world can they do this to us without penalty? [i]Why aren't we going all-out on them!?[/i] We should be using everything we have, every little trick up our sleeves! To hell with the rules - they've killed off a true hero. We need to put our heads together and figure something out. We can do it. We're the best. Do any of you understand that? We're the best. There's no one else to turn to but us. But we need to work together. So we need to stop wasting time, right?"

The hero of seven adventures started to move away...but stopped. "There's a lot of double agendas going around amongst the future selves... but believe me when I say that you can count on me. I'll use up every ounce of magic in my body before I let another one die." Again, he started to move away. "And I don't care what anybody says. I'm gonna assassinate Reaper with a Chronos Break at the first opportunity. Screw him."

Silence. Though the message was similar to Kaith's, the others did not object. They knew that Alexander's future was right. Moping would not revive the user of the Kingdom Key. They did have to hit this army right back. They had held many worlds in safety. It could be possible to save them all, stop Omega. Maybe. They had to hold out the hope.

Hayner stepped forward. "I'm in."

Riku did likewise, nodding.

One by one, the heroes came forward. Anthromorphic or human, teenaged or adult, all came up. All but a select few.

Dolor was reluctant. He did not actually care about this force very much. They'd kill him if he told what he had done. Little Sister kidnapping was bad enough, but the Flood? On the other hand, Reaper wasn't a big fan either, and neither was Phantom, most likely. So he shrugged, joining the others.

Kairi was very quiet. She needed time to mourn. Everyone understood that. He was dead, not coming back. Her sobbing lessened, and her shimmering eyes looked to Ephraim. "We do this...for Sora?" she asked cautiously, only barely audible.

The Original Interference sighed, his serious gaze softening. "Yeah. For Sora."

She stepped forward as the group, with the exception of Dolor, repeated the call. This wasn't an army. Far from it. But these people were the best they had. They were the heroes of the worlds.

It was time to take them back.

---

Kaith was starting to wake up from his tranquilization about an hour after the makeshift service ended. Greg, Ephraim, Hayner, Seifer, and Riku had covered the grave.

Sain was finished with the ADAM work. All traces of Lot 111, as well as the control Plasmid Elena developed, were out of it all, the information on each stored in the AI's mind, his database. Using some security bots, a feeder tube was now attached to the arm of Greg's future, slowly putting the ADAM back to avoid him going into shock.

The Haloverse-born artificial intelligence was reading over some code, his voice coming from Kaith's computer as he did so. [i]"What am I supposed to do with this? Their internal workings? How's that gonna help? Fischer's useless if his death just made this come i--"[/i] Dead silence.

Pence was walking outside the room, and heard the voice from within.

[i]"Wait a second... No way. No freakin' way. How did he...? The guy's a genius! Anyone else'd think it's just regular coding! Just a switch that, and...ha! This is amazing! Fischer, you rock!"[/i] A nearby camera looked around, then straight at the red-shirted boy. [i]"Hey, Pence! Come in here for a sec. I need you for something."[/i]

"Um...okay." The Twilight Towner entered the room, which apparently was unlocked. Doing his best to ignore the groaning, half-conscious man on the floor, he came to the computer with the small, holographic form of a twenty some-odd man on the keyboard, with short hair and a business suit, his entire body a bright blue to show his joy. "What is it?"

[i]"Data crystal chip in the computer. Just grab in and take me out to the dropship outside. It still has that mushroom-shaped doohicky on it, right? Working?"[/i]

Pence nodded, taking the computer chip out as the holographic form of Sain's casual avatar ceased to be visible. "But I thought that was useless. You said it yourself."

From the chip came the AI 54-1N's now-disembodied voice. [i]"Things change, kiddo. Get me in that uplink. I just got our ace in the hole, if that big glowy sword ain't it already. I think that is, by the way. The one thing we'll need if we're gonna survive this war, the assault Karsath's planning."[/i]

"What?"

[i]"An army."[/i]