Kingdom Hearts; The Twilight Keeper

Chapter XXI; Treasures

The unease in Yuki's heart had barely begun to fade when they found themselves once again surrounded by trees and vines. For a moment it seemed like the jungles in the worlds before it. Yuki was going to guess they didn't know this world, any more than they had the previous world. 

She stopped in her tracks staring up at the large clocktower just past the treeline. Yuki had never seen the clocktower itself before, but she had heard enough stories to know exactly what world this was. It was one she had visited herself, though only for missions from The organizations.

"I thought they only went after outlying worlds," Y said, turning as she looked around the jungle. 

"I guess they had to get Yen Sid's attention somehow," Yuki said, her eyes not leaving the clocktower. It looked so different than the one in Twilight Town. Even so, it sent her spiraling to memories of their clocktower. "And this world served that purpose."

"Hm, I'm not sure why they'd pick this world though," X said. "Neverland doesn't seem to fit into the rest of the worlds little themes they had going."

Yuki nodded in agreement. Every world had fit in so neatly. Always fighting to change something. Their fate, change what choices they had made, any number of things. Even the last world was fighting to right past wrongs.

"But it does," Y said. Yuki turned to Y as X quirked a brow.

"Oh?"

"Never facing the truth. Never growing up," Y said. She paused for a moment, as if that was enough to explain why this world. She received only looks of confusion. "It's running away from what must happen to all of us one day."

"And that is?" Yuki asked. Y smiled weakly and looked to the clocktower.

"We get caught in the hands of time."

Yuki felt her breath catch. She hadn't put much thought into that, but she knew it wasn't wrong. Time had always seemed like something she had never had enough of. It never occurred to her just how long they had been caught in this scheme. X and Y had been even longer, and despite their appearance, they had lived so much longer than she had. And time was catching up to them slowly.

"Hm, I suppose we do," X agreed, almost wistfully.

"Well," Yuki said, stopping herself before she could let her mind race any faster. "I guess we have to find our way to the tower."

"Why so sure?" X asked, frowning as he turned to face Yuki.

"Sora's stories," Yuki said easily. "That's where the keyhole was."

"Naturally," X said with a smirk. "Trust him to do my job for me."

"Y," Yuki said, fighting off her own smile. "The lights remnant?"

"Yeah, follow me," Y said, giving a short nod.

She led them away from the tower, deeper into the jungle around them. After making their way through the Heartless that blocked their path, they stopped at a gnarled tree in the center of a clearing of sorts. Yuki could almost recognize it, she had probably seen this part of the world before. But exactly what this tree was she couldn't remember.

Y searched around the tree for only a moment before she found the light's remnant. She stood straight, holding a dagger in one hand. She looked at it almost unimpressed.

"Not what I was expecting," Y said. Yuki nodded, it was certainly the first she could understand fully.

"Certainly a first," Yuki agreed. "But that was Peter Pans, wasn't it?" Y nodded, shifting the dagger so she held it as if she were going to use it. She stared down at it for a moment, lost in her thoughts.