A/n: Sorry it took a bit longer to update--I couldn't find the notebook with my plot sin it. xD After two days, I found it in a drawer where I must have thought it would be "safe". I'm trying to piece together the end of this fanfiction, and I don't think it will take too long--assuming I can find said notebook.

I don't know about you guys, but I like Nalani's Keyblade wielding ability; Actually, I just really like her Keyblade. I might draw it by hand, but I think I did it pretty well on the computer. :3 Onto the chapter.

Disclaimer - Don't own Kingdom Hearts.

XII: Are the Birds of a Feather that Clever?

The first thing that Nalani noticed when she exited the portal was the amount of white that they seemed to be surrounded by. "It's so bright," She whispered, catching a glimpse of the pink doors as Aidan prodded her forward with his sword.

There were some blurs in her peripheral vision--a black blur and a slightly yellow one. "Ah, so you've found the answer to the experiment. What have you concurred?" (A/n: Like Mr. I Concur--be jealous, readers, Mr. I Concur knows a lot about this fanfiction. ;D xDD) Cane said, approaching Nalani and Aidan, with his eyes on Perfect Killer. (A/n: The name of Nalani's Keyblade if I haven't mentioned it yet.)

Nalani pointed the Keyblade at him. "Where are we? Tell me that first."

"Nalani!" Stefa gasped as her shadow knocked her a good four feet away. "A Keyblade..." She added in a voice of awe as her best friend scrambled to her side.

Stefa's arm had a deep cut, and it looked like there was black rising from the skin. There was also black rising from her stomach. Nalani didn't need to ask what was going on as the shadow approached them again. "Your... heartless?" She turned her head back to Cane and shouted. "What's going on, Cane?"

Cane pushed his messy, dirt brown hair out of his eyes and grinned maliciously at them. "You no longer have a way to contact your friends, so I may as well inform you... about your home."

The atmosphere around Stefa and Nalani became much colder at the mention of Jewel's Grove. "What have you done?" demanded Stefa, grabbing the white powder in her hands as she scrapped at the ground.

"Jewel's Grove has a power..."

xxxxxx

The ruins of the city that they were standing in, wandering aimlessly through, was probably magnificent at one point. "It's important to remember that we're still in End of the World." Arach announced although he looked like he was ready to take off in the direction of home.

"You're right." Laurence agreed, but he simply continued to stare at the broken windows of the large buildings. A gentle breeze tossed around their hair, and Holly waved them all in the direction of the ocean.

Elie was suddenly very jealous of the three ex-Dark wielders for having such a beautiful home world. "Jewel's Grove sucks in comparison, doesn't it?" Quince half-laughed as they passed through a large, iron gate and came to the beach. "Now what?" He added as he turned toward Arach, the unspoken leader.

He put up a finger and opened his mouth but was interrupted by clapping. "Feeling a little nostalgic?" Cina asked, smirking.

"How do we restore this world?" Holly hissed as she brandished her Keyblade at him; Cina was completely unfazed.

"Simple," He replied, holding out his hand, and summoning his Machine keyblade. "Defeat me."

"I've been waiting to hear that one." Quince remarked through gritted teeth as he ran at his 'older brother'.

Elie hung back, confused. She had been caught up with the events that had passed and, even though her older cousin was a jerk, she couldn't will herself to attack him. 'Way to grow a conscience, El.'

Cina chuckled at Quince as he sidestepped the latter's blind assault. "You fool, do you really believe that I'm your brother?"

Quince almost fell headfirst as he slid to a stop on the sand. "If you're not, then who are you?"

"Your brother's copy." Cina winced; Laurence's Keyblade poked through his stomach.

"What a shame," began Laurence as he twisted the Keyblade around, "You're kind of cute. Just kind of."

Holly's Keyblade lightly hit her brother's back. "Now's not a good time, Laur." Cina's body began to dissolve like his body had been covered in acid.

"What a shame. You're still too late." Cina stated lazily, smiling as his body began to bubble.

Quince bent over the carbon copy of his brother with a frown. "Too late for what?"

"Everything." laughed Cina before his body seeped into the sand and disappeared. The distorted world wavered and a bright white light started over the ocean before engulfing them.

xxxxxx

Following the release of the final captured heart (and death of the final shadow), Sora and the others appeared in what looked like the Radiant Cemetery's version of World Terminus. Kind of. The light was a light purple/pink and each pillar was white and looked like it was made of marble. Otherwise, it did look a lot like World Terminus.

Sora gestured for them to follow him through the blue terminal of light as they appeared on the first pillar. When they reached the fragmented world, Roxas immediately recognized it as the ruins of Oogie's mansion in Halloween Town. "Wow. Lots of memories here." He remarked to the others as they strolled to the middle of the now empty area.

Gargoyles, Chimeras, Wight Knights, Graveyards, and Grand Ghosts appeared almost instantly. "I wonder where Jack, Sally, and Santa are. I hope they got to another world." Kairi mused as she took out a nearby Grand Ghost.

"I'm sure they're fine." Riku replied confidently as he began to work on a Chimera. After five minutes, he was still working on the same Chimera that had summoned a number of Gargoyles.

"Funny how they still appear in their respective worlds." Sora said as he took out one of the Gargoyles that had its sight set on Riku. Kairi, Naminé, and Roxas had finished all of the other heartless by that time and elected to help Riku and Sora. "Geez, this thing has a lot of health!" He growled through gritted teeth after unleashing a combo on the Chimera.

Roxas cast a thundaga spell on the Heartless, finally killing it. "Where's the nearest exit?" asked Naminé, her memory of the place having failed her. Once again Sora led the way. Naminé remembered the rest of the way once they were wading in the water.

They reappeared on the same pillar as before after exiting Halloween Town through the water. This time, the terminal that had led to it was purple. One by one, they walked into the next portal and were transported to the next pillar with another blue terminal.

"Don't forget that a lot of worlds were swallowed by light," Kairi reminded everyone. "This could take a while."

The next world they appeared in was nothing more than a forest. A really big forest. "Isn't this King Stefan's Castle?" Roxas asked, recognizing the look of the forest. Sure enough, the Castle was just a few feet away, too.

"This is strange," Riku murmured more to himself at first, "but... Halloween Town still hasn't reappeared on the map even though we supposedly restored it. Why do you think that is?" Sora tried his best to poke his head over his taller friend's shoulder, then settled for standing beside him.

"That is weird, and I bet it has something to do with Cina and them..." Sora played with the idea in his head, but he couldn't figure out what they could have done.

"It's different to drown a world in light," Naminé spoke up. "When you drown it in darkness, it's the heartless that go after the world's heart. Maybe when a world is drowned in light, it doesn't lose its heart? That must mean that someone took it..."

Roxas turned toward Sora. "Do we have to exterminate the heartless to leave?" When Sora shrugged and headed for the only exit (the Castle's entrance), a horde of Heartless appeared in front of him.

"I take that as a yes, Roxas." Sora answered with a grin before hurling his Keyblade at one of the Knights riding on a horse Heartless.

xxxxxx

"For whatever reason, Jewel's Grove is the most powerful of all worlds, and I plan to use that power," declared Cane, his grin becoming more demented with each word he spoke.

For the time being, Reixka was distracting Stefa's shadow, but she continued to fall in and out of existence--something that she didn't even do when she was around Stefa although she should have. "What are you planning to use that power for?" Nalani slowly questioned almost not wanting to hear the answer.

Cane looked at her like she was crazy. "Perhaps if you studied Jewel's Grove heart, you would understand. I will harness the power of its heart to make myself a Keyblade powerful enough to wipe out all Keyblade wielders!"

Nalani was only slightly put off by his maniacal behavior. "Jewel's Grove's heart only? It's powerful enough alone to make that dumb Keyblade of yours?"

Cane groaned. "Do I have to spell out everything for the two of you? They sure don't choose Keyblade wielders by their brains now, do they?" He paused for a moment of satisfaction as he took in the girls' angry expressions. "I've been having my Luces and my underlings go to different worlds and drown them in light. It wasn't just a wake up call for the lot of you--I've taken the heart of each world that was sent to the Radiant Cemetery."

"So even if someone went to the Radiant Cemetery and 'restored' the worlds..." Stefa trailed off.

Cane nodded, obviously pleased that they were catching on. "The world would leave that place, but it still would be out of existence without a heart--It would be like a Nobody, I suppose."

She couldn't be sure, but Stefa could almost swear that she heard her Nobody say something along the lines of: "Golly gee, really?"

Cane continued to beam something awful as if he had earned a prize, but Nalani was shocked by his stupidity. 'Simple, old fashion strategy: Get the villain to monologue long enough to stop him.' "You do realize that even if you wipe all of us out more Keyblade wielders will rise to take our places, right?" The smile on Cane's face abruptly turned to a frown: No, he hadn't thought of that.

He recovered with a chuckle. "It doesn't matter. Once I have my new Keyblade, I can instantly destroy them and anyone else who dare question my rule."

"And you're planning to rule all of the worlds? Geez, that's something a first grader would want." murmured Stefa as she forced herself to her feet. Her Heartless had just slashed at Reixka, knocking her off of her feet. The heartless turned and set its sights on Stefa, running forward in that twitchy way that Shadows tended to. Nalani turned her attention back to Cane; It was her job to keep him distracted, then.

"The whole reason I need you to tell me what makes a Keyblade wielder a Keyblade wielder is for the greater good, I assure you." Cane said in the most reassuring tone possible.

It still didn't stop Nalani from snorting uncharacteristically. "Yeah, right. You have the Heartless that can take away that ability--why don't you tell me?" Cane's eyes narrowed and for a long time, the only sound was the clashing of Keyblades.

Farkas and Aidan remained standing off to the side, watching the physical and verbal fights. Kaeli was standing a bit farther away from them with her eyes glued to the giant pink doors. There was the oddest shape of what looked like a heart around it through the cloudy 'sky' of the realm. (A/n: It's kind of like End of the World, the way you can see Kingdom Hearts around the Door to the Darkness. Only in End of the Earth it's more smokey than it is cloudy.)

'Kingdom Hearts is light!' That boy she had met in the Radiant Garden, Sora, had said that once, hadn't he? Even though Cane insisted that the pink door was not the door to the light, Kaeli begged to differ. Kingdom Hearts was light meaning that, if it really was right there, invisible to Cane's eyes, its light would still shine through the doors if she bid it to do so. If she did that, it also meant...

Her eyes trailed back over to Stefa who was completely failing at defeating her Heartless. The darkness in that girl's heart ran so deep that she couldn't defeat it. Kingdom Hearts could only do it. It was no or never. Everyone except the boys were in the path of the doors. Well, at least it would be entertaining to see what would happen to Cane.

With a determined expression, Kaeli walked before the doors and flung out her arms, ignoring Aidan's shouts for her to 'come back'. "Kingdom Hearts, hear me now! I am nothing more than your radiance in human form, so grant my humblest of wishes. Kingdom Hearts, use your light to block out this darkness and return the hearts to their respective worlds." She thrust a blue Sceptor into the air.

"Stop now, Kaeli!" Cane's voice was abruptly concerned, and Nalani soon realized why. Sitting in the glassy container on the top were several hearts that Nalani could only guess were the hearts of worlds because they were so big. "Kaeli!" The luce in human form continued to ignore him although she was wearing a huge grin.

"Kingdom Hearts, show us your light!" The pink doors flew open as if Kaeli had spoken the magic words. The bright light that exploded out of the doors dissolved Stefa's heartless within seconds of touching it. Cane had to pull himself out of the way of the light even though he had a hard time seeing through the light.

Everyone else shielded their eyes, and Kaeli smiled. The tainted light inside of her faded and became bright white again. She turned toward Stefa and Nalani with a smile, whether or not they could see her. Then, Kingdom Hearts also dissolved her body and dragged the remaining light back in.

xxxxxx

There were no other worlds that were taken over by darkness, so they took the terminals until they reached a green terminal. "Wow, where is this place?" Elie asked although she didn't really expect to receive an answer.

Holly shrugged. "No clue, but I suddenly feel much better." She remarked before collapsing on the log that they had appeared next to.

"And for once it isn't your imagination; I feel it, too." Laurence added, half-laughing as his sister hit his arm.

Arach's expression was more or less expressionless though it was clear that he was at least a little worried. "We can't rest now. Come on, let's keep going..." Groaning, Holly followed after him through the trees. They went through another light portal and found themselves standing before a terminal that looked like fire.

"Yikes." Elie murmured as she lifted the collar of her t-shirt. "That's kinda hot. I wonder if it'll burn us..." Everyone's eyes fell on, of course, Quince.

He lifted up a hand in mock surrender as Elie made a grab for him and walked through the terminal; He did not appear anywhere else. "I think this is the end of the line." Laurence mused before following after Quince.

Quince began to walk down the hallway as he heard more footsteps join his own. "Talk about obsessed," He said to himself as he spotted the Heartless emblem up ahead. "This must be Ansem--I mean, Xehanort's Heartless' lab." He took another step forward and three Invisibles appeared. "Jesus!"

"Yes?" purred Laurence as he came up behind Quince, who jumped.

Quince threw his Keyblade at one of the Invisibles. "I'd rather go out with one of these Heartless than you, Laurence. Besides, I'm straight."

Laurence shrugged lightly before throwing his Keyblade at the same Invisible. A pink heart floated through the ceiling. "That can be arranged."

xxxxxx

Leading the group once again, Sora went through the Castle's doors and reappeared in the terminals. He made to step into the next portal but was stopped by Naminé grabbing his shoulder. "Look." She breathed, pointing at the other terminals. The purple lights flashed and became clear blue meaning that all of the worlds had been restored.

"I wonder what happened." Sora remarked unnecessarily as everyone else was thinking the same thing.

"Let's hurry." Riku suggested before hurrying into the next portal. Sora frowned, a bit peeved that Riku was leading now. Nonetheless, he followed Riku as he ran into all of the portals until the very end. There was a strange, pink terminal in front of them now. Riku and Sora exchanged glances before entering this next terminal.

They appeared in a place similar to the beginning of End of the World. Except that the overall appearance was different. There was what looked like a blood red sun during a sunset. The frozen water was red/orange, reflecting the look of the sunset, and the rock formations were red like volcanic rock. "This is... different. I hope we can reach Kingdom Hearts through here." Sora stated before taking a step forward.

A white light engulfed them as a red gravity-like ball captured them. "Just like End of the World." Sora said in a sour voice as they found themselves face to face with a Behemoth, but not one that Sora had seen before. This Behemoth had flames on it with its horns red (the center one being blue). Its nails were green and, except for the fire print on it, its skin was black.

"A Destroyed Behemoth," Riku explained when Sora appeared to be confused. "No different than a regular one. I really hate these things, but Hades loves 'em." Way to Dawn appeared in his hand, and he jumped up at the blue horn.

xxxxxx

"Find anything important?" Arach asked Laurence and Quince as they stepped out of the main lab as soon as the doors opened.

Quince gave him a peeved look. "Besides a poem that triggered the arrival of more Invisibles and caused the doors to slam shut leaving me to be trapped in a room with Laurence? Nope." He rubbed a cut on his arm from one of the Invisibles.

"I think you owe me a thank you; I saved you from that Invisible that was about to clock you on the head." Laurence reminded the brunet.

"Thank you." Quince growled as Arach led them back out through the burning hole in the wall.

"That's what I like to hear." Laurence beamed as they reappeared on the same pillar. "I thought this was the end of the line?"

"It is," Elie responded as she pointed at the terminal they had just come out of. It looked icy now and had cold air coming off of it. Arach had already jumped in.

Holly threw her hands in the air. "Will we ever get the chance to rest?" Despite her complaints, she jumped into the hole, too.

They began to fall as soon as they landed in this next area. There were dark clouds and a big volcano though it looked dormant now. "This must be Bald Mountain. Where's the Chernabog?" Quince asked once they began to float in the air. "And I wonder how that happened." He added, referring to the fact that they were now floating in the air.

"I guess no one ever bothered to revive him," replied Holly. "Good. Now, let's go." She gravitated toward the volcano which suddenly erupted! (A/n: Just kidding, guys. No way am I bringing Chernabog back. Oh, no. xD) She descended without getting hurt by anything all the way to the bottom of Bald Mountain and into another bright light.

The hallway that they appeared in was kind of on the creepy side. Although no heartless appeared as they headed for the next bit of light on the other end of the hallway, there were things like beheaded dolls, withered trees, and other broken objects of sorts. Still, there were no Heartless, so they weren't worried.

Their relief at not fighting Heartless was short-lived, however. In the next room (with a green floor that looked like it could have been icy) there was another Arch Behemoth waiting for them. "I am going to shoot myself if we have to face one more of these!" Elie shouted before running at the Behemoth with a seriously pissed off expression. Arach, Laurence, and Quince hung back while the two very pissed off girls started slashing at every bit of the Arach Behemoth that they could reach.

The Arch Behemoth appeared to be truly frightened by them. It whimpered and began to back away, but that only made the girls' job easier. Once it was cornered, they attacked its horn like there was no tomorrow until its horn broke and the captured heart was freed.

Dark Balls, Invisibles, and Angel Stars appeared, but one look from Elie and Holly caused them all to disappear. "Let's go!" Holly shouted at the three boys. They quickly followed the two girls, fearing their wrath. The Heartless emblem on the other side of the room instantly disappeared and revealed a portal. This portal was more like a one-sided window as they could see the green room through it in the Final Rest room.

Once again, the group felt instantly healed as if the pure water dripping down from the ceilings had some sort of healing effect on them. "If there's a Behemoth behind this door, someone's going to die." Elie announced as she flung open the pink doors in this room. Much to everyone's relief, there was not a Behemoth behind the door.

Actually, all that was beyond the door was a long, icy trail and darkness. "Are we really truly in the Dark realm now?" Holly asked no one in particular.

Any Heartless that might have appeared did not--probably because of the anger radiating off of Elie and Holly. "So... we follow this trail until...?" Elie trailed off.

"There. Look." Quince pointed at the heart shape not too far off. The door to darkness probably would have been there, too, had it not been for the last battle with Xehamnes. (A/n: 'Least... I think that was his name. xDD) There wasn't just a heart there, there was a sudden white light, too.

Arach ran toward the light. "Let's hurry before it disappears on us." Although their legs were aching, the rest of the group ran after him, praying that the light wouldn't fade.

xxxxxx

About twenty Heartless fights later, Sora and the others were at the very beginning of the Radiant Cemetery, but that was where it ended. "We came all this way for nothing. There's no way to get out of here..." Riku, always quick to be pessimistic, stated dully.

Kairi shook her head. "Riku, if you really want something, there's always a way to get to it. Just believe." Her words were so corny that Sora and Riku may have laughed under other circumstances. For the time being, Riku nodded with his hands balled up in fists.

'Believe. Believe... Believe what? I feel like a moron...' Kairi and Naminé's joint gasps gave Riku good reason to open his eyes again. There was a light portal in front of them. Maybe these things really did work out. "You did it, Riku!" Kairi cheered, half-laughing at her friend's surprised expression.

"We should probably, you know, go before it fades. Right?" Roxas joked, grinning. Finally, some hope.

They entered the portal and were surprised that it had really worked. They were standing on an icy trail that stretched on for miles before and behind them. Only, there was a set of huge pink doors in the way. "Everything's so bright..." whispered Sora, stating the obvious once again.

They had really made it. Cane, Aidan, and Farkas looked at them with their mouths hanging open, obviously equally surprised. "This must end! Farkas, Aidan, take care of them!" ordered Cane, his face a little red.

"It's about time." Roxas remarked as Two Across appeared in his hand.