Kingdom Hearts 2: 2nd sequel to the Legendary 8th Princess of Heart

Chapter 66: Nobodies Revealed

"What is it?" I ask.

"Something...smell...familiar..." says Stitch.

Curious on what he could mean by that, I walk up to the monument, summoning up my courage and step through it, only to find myself outside.

"Harmony!" I hear Sora exclaim with worry.

"Are you out of your mind!?" Madison questions from the other side.

"Sorry for the worry, but you guys might want to see this!" I exclaim.

The others all take my example, stepping through the monument, and joining me outside.

"Who'd have thought that that monument would lead us out here?" Okita rhetorically asks.

"You think the other monuments lead to other parts of the castle?" Kairi asks.

"Who knows? There are only two in tact, including the one we just stepped through, and the rest are all broken," Madison points out.

I then notice a strange green bream of light in the sky, directed towards Kingdom Hearts. "What's that?" I ask, pointing to the green beam.

"It's Kratos, the King and Diz--I mean, Ansem the Wise," Riku says.

"So Diz WAS Ansem the Wise all along!" Madison exclaims.

"You knew?" Saito asks.

"Not until recently. I had my suspicions when I used the computer at Twilight Town that helped get us here. It looked like it was built more recent, but the computer's technology definitely seemed to be made of similar stuff like the one at Hollow Bastion," Madison explains.

"They must be higher up. We better hurry," Riku says.

"Let's try the other monument and see where it leads," Hijikata suggests.

Just as we start to backtrack, one of the Organization members, Luxord, appears. Without a word, he snaps his fingers, separating me, Madison and Sora from the others as huge cards surround them, creating some sort of barrier. The huge cards then spin around for a little. Whatever Luxord did, our friends disappear the moment the cards part from each other.

"You!" Sora exclaims, recognizing Luxord.

"What did you do to our friends!?" Madison questions.

"Now, shall we play a game?" Luxord asks, ignoring Madison's words. He then holds up a bunch of cards in each hand. But instead of ordinary cards, they all show images of our trapped friends. "They must be very dear to you. I'm getting jealous," letting their emotions get the better of them, Sora and Madison try to attack Luxord, hoping that defeating him will help set our friends free. "Just a--N-n-n-n-No! Defeating me won't bring your friends back!" hearing that, I try to hold back Madison and Sora, to get them to halt their attacks so that we can hear what Luxord has to say. "Didn't you hear me? We're going to play a game. Do you accept the challenge?"

Seeing as how Luxord has our friends trapped, and we don't know much about what he's capable of, we might have no other choice but to comply to his challenge. Madison, Sora and I share a look and nod our heads, knowing what we need to do.

"What kind of game?" I ask.

"The first to run out of time is the loser!" Luxord declares, then goes on to explain the rules.

The 'game' Luxord had in mind is not like any game that Madison, Sora and I are familiar with. Two timers hung in the air above us, one for Luxord, and the other for me, Sora and Madison. We needed to outsmart Luxord at his own game through a game of cards. Some cards were explosive, while others had a clock on them.