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Yeah, but Fish was amazing.

Are you allowed to go to the living room (or wherever you keep your TV)? You could watch a movie. Do you have books or manga you've been wanting to read? The best time is when you're sick. Drawing or writing is good if you're feeling creative. Doesn't even have to be good, it's just a time-waster. Grab some old toys and have the Ultimate Battle on Mount Bedcovers. Learn how to pick locks. Learn how to use the quadratic formula. Learn sign language. Fall sleep. Have some soup. And the Ultimate Battle continues, this time on the Floor Valley. Brush your dog. Brush your cat. Take a nap. Learn how to throw cards.

Lots to do when you're stuck in bed.

I don't know. This is probably a poor casting choice. Static is a very expressive person. Lots of facial expressions.

But we'll see.

I'm glad you're enjoying it so far! And yeah, It was a good line. Not one of mine, unfortunately. That credit goes to Arrow.

Whoops. Totally forgot to post this. Heh. There you go.

Warning. This chapter contains non-canon material and Riku. That is all.

Spoiler: Chapter 7: The Light Meets the Dark

The world seemed to stand still. It was Hollow Bastion all over again! Chest throbbing and eyes streaming, Sora could only watch helplessly as Hood's entire form became still, then slumped as if all the fight had gone out of him.

It was all Batman could do not to break down right then and there as the horrific scene played in front of him. The quiet couldn't have lasted more then a few seconds, but it seemed like torturous hours as the full weight of what just happened unfolded in Bruce’s mind.

Nightwing broke the surreal silence. His voice, panicked and desperate, cried, “Jason!”

He fell slowly. Batman was closest and caught him before he hit the ground. Sora was still stumbling his way towards them when the Bat's hand rested on Hood's cheek and, almost gently, he said, “No. Don't leave. You can't do this to me again. Jay...” Nightwing arrived and dropped to his knees, grabbing one of Red Hood's hands.

Hood's body was already starting to glow. “Not like this is the first time. And hey, least I'm not alone this time.” He let out a weak smile, his eyes becoming dreamlike. There was a moment of silence where the two Bats just stared, hoping, and then a light exploded from his chest, where Xehanort's blade still rested. Flecks of white danced around his form, followed by a wave of darkness that devoured them. Looking up, Red Hood took a final shuddering breath and Sora watched as his heart, a mixture of light and darkness, broke away from his fading form and float upwards, shattering into thousands of shimmering diamonds.

Batman and Nightwing could only sit in shock, hands still positioned as if they were holding a body, grasping a hand. Sick déjà vu crept over them.

Jason Todd was gone.

“No.” Sora whispered hoarsely. He was still very light headed, and was desperately trying to put the events of the last twenty seconds together. Heart beating wildly, he swayed on the spot, nausea raising its head threateningly.

Suddenly a wild inhuman roar tore across the room. Batman was flying through the air and had Xehanort's neck in his hands. The older man spluttered and choked, but he still had a malicious grin stuck on his face.

“What the HELL have you done to him?!” Batman snarled. “What have you done to my son?!”

His voice was a mixture of hysterical desperation and uncontainable rage. With a single swift movement he slammed the man against the wall hard, but loosened his death grip just enough to allow Xehanort to speak.

“Looks like you've lost Batman,” he gasped. “How tragic, the protector of an unforgiving city like this couldn't even protect his partner’s heart from being consumed by darkness.”

Bruce ground his teeth together, trembling with rage. His grip was instinctively tightening. Xehanort's Keyblade appeared in his hand but Batman merely grabbed the man’s wrist, twisting and nearly breaking it in the process. Nightwing who had been standing frozen, staring unblinkingly at the spot Jason had occupied seconds earlier, turned suddenly and ran over to Batman. He touched the man’s shoulder, who gave a jolt and tore his gaze away from the struggling villain, glancing at his son. When his gaze returned to Xehanort, his hand once again slackened, very slightly, but enough.

“Awwwww,” came a falsely moved voice from the back of the warehouse. Joker seemed to be awake again and enjoying himself as he watched the proceedings.

Everyone ignored him.

Sora, successfully casting a Cure on himself, walked slowly over to join the other three. He was angry, very angry. Red Hood was gone, and even though Sora understood it wasn't his fault, he felt guilty that he was unconscious while Red Hood had been fighting Xehanort. If he were there, fighting beside him, maybe none of this would have happened... He looked down, eyes stinging, as he stopped next to Nightwing.

“I want a straight answer.” Batman ground out. “Tell me where Red Hood went, or I swear I will beat the information out of you.”

“Well that's easy my dear man.” wheezed Xehanort. “He's right behind you.”

The trio of heroes whirled. In the middle of the room, darkness seemed to coalesce. As it gathered, a dark silhouette formed. It had Jason’s build and height but no colour. Only blackness. Until its head formed. It covered itself in a red helmet, a white starburst on the forehead and a jagged line for the mouth to open. It opened its eyes, glowing yellow in the dim light of the warehouse. The mouth opened and an inhuman scream echoed in the chamber.

Across the room, Joker put on a pout. “Poo. That birdy really doesn’t know how to stay dead.” Another moment of consideration, his mouth curved into its signature smile. “Oh well. I’ll just have to kill him again. Maybe I can stretch it out this time.”

Snarling, Batman turned back to his captive, probably to ask “What have you done to him” or something along those lines, but Xehanort was gone.

His voice filled the room, despite being nowhere in sight. “I would love to stay, but I have more pressing matters. My vessel needs to be found before it reappears. Farewell.” And the not-Jason creature attacked.

Sora readied his Keyblade and charged, only to be grabbed by Nightwing and pulled out of not-Jason’s attack. The blow cracked the concrete. “What are you doing Sora? We can’t attack him, Xehanort said that was Jason!”

“That’s why we need to attack him!” Sora dived forwards again, not-Hood dodging the swing of his Keyblade. “If we can defeat him, his heart will be released and then when we defeat his Nobody, Hood will be a whole person again.” Something Nightwing had said stopped him. “Wait. Jason? You said that before too.”

Nightwing smacked his forehead. Oops. “Yeah, Red Hood’s real name. And Xeha-guy said Jason was already a Nobody. How does that work?” Reluctantly, Nightwing threw himself into the battle. It wouldn’t be his first time fighting his wayward brother.

“Yeah. See, when someone loses their heart, the heart becomes a Heartless and the body and soul becomes a Nobody. Physically, they’re almost identical to the original. They remember their past lives, but they can’t feel emotions. Sometimes though, a Nobody can grow a new heart.” His words flowed out smoothly, despite the battle. Fighting a Heartless, even one as skilled as not-Hood, was easy compared to fighting Xehanort. He was glad Riku had made him memorize the Nobody-explanation that Yen Sid had written. Who knew it would come in handy in this situation? “Something must have happened to Hoo- Jason to turn him into a Nobody. But eventually, his longing for what he had or for something better caused a heart to grow in him.”

Batman paused in his fighting, stunned. This explained so much about his second son over the past few years. His hostility at his explosive return and his eventual rehabilitation and return to the family. Nobodies came back almost physically identical to the original? Jason had had a white streak in his hair that hadn’t been there before. He stared at the creature in front of him. “So this thing is Jason’s heart?”

The Keyblade wielder nodded. “Sort of.” Block a strike, parry. “It’s his heart, but it’s surrounded in darkness. If we can beat it, we can get his true heart out. Then we just need to catch it before it returns to Kingdom Hearts.”

“What happens if it does?” Nightwing twirled his escrima stick, smashing it into not-Jason’s mouth.

Sora paused to scratch his head, considering the question. “Nothing much. But according to Axe- ummm… Lea, the only reason it took so long to come back was because his heart had been in Kingdom Hearts for so long.” Not-Jason took another swing at him. He dodged, smashing his Keyblade into the Heartless’s spine. “But I have to be the one to land the finishing blow. If it’s defeated by anything other than a Keyblade, the heart will return to darkness and form another Heartless later.”

Batman grabbed his not-son’s arm, twisting it up behind its back. “So all we have to do is subdue it?” Acting quickly, he grabbed the other arm and fell with the creature to the floor, effectively pinning it. Sora took his cue, moving forward to stab it.

Not-Jason twitched at the blow, then started dissolving. A glowing light emerged from the body, floating upwards faster than Batman had expected. He reached and missed. A streak of black and blue above him snatched the light from the air.

Landing as softly as he could, Nightwing looked at the light in his hands. It was small, but bright and warm. He dropped to his knees at the sight of it. “This is Jason?” He turned to Sora and Batman, staring at the light from over his shoulder. “This is my little brother?” At Sora’s nod, he turned back to the light. Wait, not completely light. There was a shadow in it. “What’s this?”

Sora crouched down for a closer look. “Just a bit of darkness. Everyone has some. Well, everyone except the Seven Princess of Heart. And Ven, from what I hear.”

Reassured, Nightwing held the light out to Batman. As gently as he could, he transferred his brother’s heart to their father and stood up. Bruce needed a moment, so he went to call Gordon to pick up Joker and Two Face.

The light danced on his face, but Bruce knew he would rather see the mischievous glint in Jason’s eyes. “How do we get this back to him?” Sora seemed to be the expert, so Batman asked him. He resolved to learn all he could about this later though.

Crossing his arms, his eyes twisting up into a look of concentration, Sora replied, “Well… We’d need to find his Nobody. Problem is I don’t have the equipment to track where it’ll appear, and no way to get back to the gummi ship…” His eyes brightened a half second later. “There! That green circle! That’ll get us there!”

Following Sora’s pointing finger, Batman’s eyes widened slightly. There was a glowing circle of light on the floor which definitely hadn’t been there before. Balancing Jason’s heart in one hand, he fished a portable scanner out of his belt.

“Yeah, Commish. Warehouse 42 by the pier. Thanks.” Nightwing ended his call, glancing back at Batman. He rolled his eyes. Give him his son’s heart, literally, and the man scans a green light thingy. Of course. He went to go check on Red Robin and Robin.

The boys were walking towards the hole in the wall, Tim supporting Damian, who seemed to have a sprained ankle. Damian scanned the room as soon as he entered, narrowing his eyes. “What happened? Where is Todd?” Dick started, then hesitated, which only infuriated the youngest Robin. “I demand you tell me Grayson! Or so help me, I will inform Pennyworth of your eating habits!”

“Alright, alright! Just… calm down a second.” And stop threatening my cereal. Quickly, he gave them the abbreviated version. Their reactions were pretty unsurprising. Damian grew angry at the idea that anyone would dare to attack a member of the Wayne family, even one as lowly as Todd. Tim descended into thoughtful silence, probably figuring ways to defend against Keyblades and planning how to get Jason back.

After a minor tantrum from Damian involving savagely attacking a wooden support beam, they walked to the green circle. Sora was explaining to Batman, “So this Point is basically a health station. It heals all injuries instantly, without having to worry about reopening. It also restores magic, but that’s just for me. It can also teleport us to the gummi ship. My friend Riku is there. He can track where Jason will show up!” Now that he knew Jason’s real name, he refused to go back to calling him “Hood”. Briefly, he wondered what the other’s names were. Jason had called Nightwing “Dick” and Robin had called Red Robin “Drake”, but he didn’t know if those were their first names, last names, nicknames or fake names. He’d wait until they told him. He did wonder why they kept it secret though.

Batman stared at the light in his hand, then up at his other sons. “Let’s go boys.” Then he stepped into the light.

There was a slight sensation of falling, before Batman found himself in a small brightly coloured room. He glanced around at the odd block like technology that seemed to make up the ship. He had never seen something so simplistic looking before. As the others began appearing behind him, he saw a boy with silver hair, and who had to be a few years older than Sora, sitting at a type of control panel. Screens were littered in front of the young man, information of various sorts flashing across the constitutionally flickering boxes. Surprisingly, the boy didn't look back or even flinch as the party materialized one by one in the ships cockpit. He seemed to be immersed in some information on the screens. Had he had a way of knowing they would be coming?

“Looks like you made a ridiculous amount of new friends again Sora.” He said accusingly, but not without some humour mixed into his tone. “I'm guessing you messed up and need my expert help yet again.”

The boy in question walked forward, passing Batman and stopping next to his friend. “Hey, that was a crazy hard mission. I think you were trying to get back at me for the pie incident the other day.”

This time Riku did flinch, then laughed. “Maybe I was. But I thought we promised to never mention it again. So moving on, I suppose the reason you're here has something to do with that heart your big scary friend is holding over there.”

He indicated Batman with a shrug of his left shoulder and a glance behind him.

“Yup!” chirped Sora. “We gotta find his Nobody and defeat it.

“Ah, you want to make him whole again.” Riku said nodding his head wisely. “And let me guess who turned him into a Heartless in the first place. Xehanort?”

“Who else?” Sora said bitterly. “This guy we need to make whole, he was way too strong to be taken down by a common Heartless. I bet you would have trouble defeating him Riku.”

The boy snorted. “Keep dreaming. Just because you're a weakling doesn't mean I follow suit.”

“Hey!” Sora burst out.

But before he could finish his sentence, Riku held up his hand and typed a few keys into the ship’s computer with the other. Sora pouted and crossed his arms annoyed.

“Let’s see, a Nobody, powerful enough to be like one of Organization XIII’s. Hmmmm. “

As he typed, there was a cough from behind and Sora was brought out of his sulk. “Sorry guys.” He apologized giving the Batfamily a quick glance. “These are my friends I met in Gotham, Riku. There's Robin, Red Robin, Nightwing, and Batman. They’re all really good at fighting. We've taken down loads of Heartless together.”

Riku nodded at Batman who nodded back. The two seemed to speak the same broody language.

With a loud beep the computer seemed to finish its search. Riku tapped a screen and brought forward a map of brightly coloured dots. One dot in particular was flashing much more exuberantly then the others. “That's your man.” said Riku, reclining in his chair. “He is at an area called... Crime Alley. Sounds like a nice place.”

“He would be there.” Piped up Nightwing from the back.

“Alright!” Sora exclaimed briskly. “Sorry to just drop in and run Riku, but we gotta get to Ja- uh, Red Hood before he moves again.”

Riku dismissed this with another wave of his hand. “Go finish the job I gave you and help your friend while you’re at it, you lazy excuse for a Keyblade Wielder.”

Before anyone could say anything else, he had pressed a button and they were all vanishing from sight.

I think it's how you put it together with other stuff. Like, this shirt is just a plain coloured T, but add this sweater or this hat or this belt and suddenly, it's awesome. It's something you have to either figure out via trial and error or learn theory on it.

I don't know. It's not my area of expertise. I'm definitely a "function over fashion" kind of person. Everything I own is comfortable, or I don't wear it.

Have you ever considered spicing up your own clothing? I sometimes take a plain shirt, then iron a stencil onto it and bleach it. It's a good way to get a design that you like onto a shirt without having to look everywhere for it.

Girls have more clothing choices, but guys have more practical clothing. A typical girls clothing store has tight shirts that ride up when you move, jeans with pockets too small to hold lip balm, sweaters too thin and tight to hold out the smallest breeze, and shoes that you have to learn to walk in or risk breaking an ankle. The material is normally thinner and clingy, so I get little holes in my tops when I put them through the wash. Thanks but no thanks, I will get my jeans from the men's pile.

Men's sizes make more sense too. Jeans are measured in Waist X Leg length. No having to guess if I'm a 10 or a 12 and whether that's petite, regular or plus.