Mario lands in Palm Beach, getting out of the gummi ship and looking around, the royal document in hand.

People are bustling about, going thier ways, some going into the Lux Resort. "Welcome to the Lux." The doorman says to some people who go threw.

Mario is silent before he sighs and approaches the door, entering the Lux Resort.

The Lobby of the Lux is a wide beautiful space, a few people at the desk. There are only two women at the desk. One a brunet and the other had silver hair, she looked young though. Maybe to young to be Lydia. All are wither attenting to someone are are on a call, but that doesn't stop them from helping the people checking in.

Mario is silent again before he approaches, holding up the document. "Er, I was ordered to take a vacation."

"Thank you for calling." The girl says before pressing a button on her headphones. "By whom?" She asks Mario.

"Princess Mariya," he says, offering the document for verification.

The girl looks at the envelope for a moment. She turns to the door behind her. "Lydia." She says.

A middle-aged woman with orange hair comes out from the back, in a official-looking uniform. She goes to the girl. "Yes, Kisa?" She asks.

Kisa hands Lydia the envelope. "Says Princess Mariya sent him on vacation." She says before attending to another customer.

Lydia opens the envelope, and reads it over. She goes to the key rack and grabs one. "Do you have any bags?" She asks Mario as she jumps over the desk.

"Do the ones under my eyes count?" Mario asks, chuckling a little and then sighing since his joke wasn't really funny. "No, no bags."

Lydia chuckles. "Follow me." She says before heading to the elevator. She pulls out a Royal Knight symbol from her pocket as she goes into it and puts it before a scanner. Something beeps. Once Mario was in the elevator's doors shut, and it begins going up. Lydia puts th symbol back in her pocket.

Mario waits silently, watching the floors tick by over the door as he wonders how far this elevator goes.

The Elevator stops at level ten, but it wasn't even close to the top from the look of it. She hands Mario a room key and he envelope as her phone rings. "Your room number is 20, if you have trouble finding it just ask around. There wil be an info packet in your room." She says before answering her phone.

Down the hall trying to open her door, was Xamira. She sighs and rubs her head.

Mario nods and walks down the hall, seeing Xamira. "Hey, Xamira. What are you doing here?"

"De-stressing myself. This dor...not helping." Xamira says before trying the key again. The door opens. "Finally." She mutters.

Mario nods. "I see. Well, I guess I have some de-stressing of my own to do." He then goes down the hall to his door, opens it, and steps inside. Closing the door, he looks around to inspect his room.

The medium-sized room has a queen-sized temperpedic bed, the most up-to-date shower known to man, a 5 ft wide closet, and a jacuzi tub. On the bed was the info packet Lydia was talking about.

"Wow..." Mario mutters as he now takes a look at the info packet.

The info packet is simple, telling of the resorts features, its spas, pools, and cafeteria. It also tells about the boardwalk, and its various shops. It even says Royal Knights get disconts at the stores!

"Hmm..." Mario ponders as he reads the packet, trying to figure out what he would do first. He finally decides to go see the shops first, wondering what there would be to see. He locks his room up and, a small bag of munny in hand, he descends the hotel and heads for the shops.

Xamira joins him at the boardwalk, a red and black purse over her shoulder. "Weren't you sapposed to go to Alageasia with Mariya and Axel?" She asks.

The boardwalk was amazing, lined with every kind of shop known to man. Even a shop for a gummi ship.

"Mariya kinda forced me to go on vacation," Mario states when he hears Xamira. "In fact, it was a royal order." He then looks around, examining the shops. "So what would you recommend here?"

"Well depends. I need to get a swim suit and a towel for the pool. Apparently your not sapposed to use the bath towels. There are some nice resteraunts to." Xamira says. She sighs. "You looking for anything specific?"

"Hm...not really," Mario says, "But I might take a look anyway." He then enters a few shops, emerging after buying some swimming trunks, a towel, and a few trinkets.

Xamira gets a half red half black one piece swim suit, a red towel, and a pair of sunglasses she then goes to the book store, looking threw their selection.

Mario skips the book store, instead deciding to hit the pool. He returns to his room shortly and drops off his goods before changing and going to the pool, towel in hand.

The indoor pool is an olympic-sized indoor pool, feet depths ranging from four to 12 feet. Complete with diving board. There is a door to the right of the four foot depth, on it was 'Royal Knights Pool', a scanner ext to the door. Maybe Mario should check it out.

Mario sees it and, curious, goes over and scans his symbol.

The door opens, and inside is basicy the same as the regular indoor pool, except there's a jacuzi tub, a few girl royal knights sitting inside it. There are a few guys but they are all swimming in the pool, racing one another. Theres a door on the other side of the poo, probably leading to the Knights outdoor pool.

Mario is silent before he simply passes through to the outdoor pool and getting a chair there.

A brown haired girl was the only one in the pool, she seemed to be enjoying herself. A few guys were by the fence, watching someone on the other side.

Mario notices both the girl and the guys, but he pays no mind as he sits down on a chair and lies back, relaxing.

Eventualy the gus give up on whatever they were looking at and go back to swimming in the pool.

Mario remains in his chair, falling asleep after a while.

A resort personel comes in after a report from the girl in the pool and picks Mario up. He then takes him into the resort and scans Mario's Royal Knight symbol in the elevator and the elevator goes up. It stops at level ten, and The man looks Around.

"Hey is he okay?" Xamira asks, seeing them, trying to get into her room again. A few bags were in her hand.

"Yes mam, he's fine, do you know him?" He asks.

"Yea he's a friend of mine. He's in room 20."

The man nods, and goes to Mario's room, using his key to open the door. He puts Mario on the bed and goes out. "Thank you miss."

"Hold up, I have a complaint. My door won't open." Xamira says.

"Ack, 16...that one is always givig people trouble." He says before opening her door. "Pack your thngs, we'l get you another room on this floor."

Xamira nods and goes in her room.

Mario soon wakes up an hour later, a bit surprised when he finds that he's back in his room. "...Odd." He soon gets up, getting back into his normal clothes and then decides to go down to the boardwalk to walk around.

Its late afternoon now and Xamira is moving her things to the room next to Mario's. She's humming a tune, that sounds odly familiar.

Mario walks along the boardwalk, pausing to look out over the water as he takes in the serenity of this place.

The ocean is beautful. The cleanest water one has seen. a few people are swimming in the water, enjoying themselves. The roar of the waves is calming, and a few couples could be seen, walking the waterline. The sun isc setting in the distance, and the lights of the boardwalk are starting to turn on.

Mario is silent as he observes the scene, noticing the setting sun a moment later. Silently, he steps into a nearby alley, remains hidden until after the sun has set, and reemerges after changing one way and then back.

"Hey!" Xamira shouts. "Get back here!" Xamira can be seen chasing a man in a black hoodie, who had her purse.

Mario sees this as he emerges from the alley, quickly rushing out and attempting to tackle the man. "Not so fast!"

The man is tacked down, and his hood falls off, revealing him to be a pale-faced boy with blonde hair and red eyes. His jacket was open, and a strange tattoo was on his chest, which was exposed. It looked like an upside down cross with wings sticking out of it. "Get off me!" He says, glaring. He notices Mario's symbol. "Crap...a Knight...guess I'm going to prison huh?"

"You got that right." Xamira says, looking angry. "Thanks Mario."

Mario nods and quickly lifts the man up to stand him up yet restrain him. "Xamira, if you could please go to get someone to take him away?" He then looks to the boy. "Now tell me why someone such as yourself is making off with other people's things instead of something more productive? ...And legal."

Xamira nods, and picks up her purse before heading back to the hotel.

The boy says nothing, only tries to get free.

Mario sighs. "Look, you're not going to get away, so don't bother. Just go ahead and tell me why you did it."

A teen-aged girl with pinkish hair appears, her eyes are red also. She sims a pistol at Mario. "Let him go."

"Lexi, get out of here." The boy says.

"I'm not leavin you Lucas." The girl says keeping her focus on Mario. "Let him go and back away slowly."

Mario looks at the gun, silent before sighing. "Really. You're going to shoot me. And here I thought I was going to get a vacation." His grip on the boy remains firm, however.

"Let him go now." Lexi says, looking angry.

"Lexi, he's got a chick getting other Knights, go!" Lucas says.

Lexi looks at Lucas. "I'll get you out." She says before putting the gun in a leg holster adn running off.

A moment later Xamira and a Knight come running. "You okay?" She asks. Did Xamira have a vision of Mario getting shot?

Mario nods. "Fine. An accompliance of his," he says, referring to the boy, "was here a moment ago, though. Threatened me, but retreated after he told her to go since you were on your way."

The knight cuffs Lucas. "Well well, well done he's been wanted for some time now."

"Wanted?" Xamira asked.

"He and a pink-haired girl are hired assassins and thieves. They're wanted in a few worlds." The Knight says.

Lucas looks angry, glaring out to the beach.

"Alright, lets go." The knight says before taking Lucas into a gummi ship.

Xamira sighs. "Sorry about ruining your vacation." Xamira says once the gummi ship is gone. "Don't you have something to ask me?" She asks.

"Eh...not that I know," Mario states as he looks back out toward the beach. "And who said my vacation was ruined? I think of this as nothing but a speed bump."

Xamira sighs. "Well you know the answer anyway." She says, folowing his gaze. "He ruined mine...cut my purse strap and the don't have any decent ones here."

"Hm...sorry to hear," Mario states. "Wish I could sew."

Xamira sighs. She straightens up, and gets her 'vision face'. She has it for a moment or so, then blinks. "They're gonna catch that when she tries to break her boyfriend out." She says. "I'm goin back to the hotel." She says ad starts walking back.

Mario nods and sighs, looking back out over the waters.

Everyone has left the beach and all is calm. The waves roar gently. You could tell why this was a popular vacation spot, the waters could calm the tenest of persons.

Mario is silent, enjoying this, before soon feeling tired and returning to his room for the night. He soon falls asleep.

In the morning, people are getting up and going to breakfast. The staff in the kitchen are hard at work making the various breakfast items.

Mario wakes up that morning and descends to the cafeteria as well.

Everyone is sitting at tables, all the knights were at one table, laughig at some joke. Xamira is sitting by herself, eating what seems to be texas french toast.

There is a long buffet at the front of the room, offering any breeakfast foods known to the universe. A few staff members are standing by, ready to help if needed.

Mario approaches the buffet, gathers some food, then sits with Xamira to eat.

"Hey." Xamira says. She sips her orange juice. "Heads up, Axel might ask you to be his best man. I kept getting him asking you and him not asking you this morning, so I can't be sure."

"I see..." Mario says, sipping his juice and eating his breakfast. "Well, I'm still not sure. Fact is that I just don't see myself standing in a tux before the alter, even if I'm just the best man. Maybe it's because I've fought the Heartless for three years now. Maybe it's because this is a new experience for me. I don't know, though..."

Xamira smiles. "You'll be fine. Just watch you don't step on Mariya's feet. You'll get used to it."

"Yeah..." Mario then sighs and finishes his breakfast, then excuses himself before leaving for his room. He then changes back into his swimming trunks and traverses down to the pool.

Xamira sighs. She finishes her breakfast and does the same, only going to the non-knights pool.

No one is at the pool yet, so all is quiet in the room, the only sound ids the jacuzi jets flowing.

Mario is silent before he sighs, dipping into the pool and descending below the water, holding his breath and remaining there for a minute for no reason.

Xamira lies down her towel adn lleans back on the chair, ot ready to go in the pool quite yet. She relaxes, and closes her eyes.

Mario surfaces a moment later and, needing another soak, dives down again.

Xamira eventually goes to the diving board and jumps in, before doing some laps.

Mario soon resurfaces and sighs, now floating on his back as he thinks.

Xamira eventually relaxes as well floating in the water.

After a while, Mario gets out the pool, having had enough of it, and leaves to head for the beach, if there was one.

Just passed the boardwalk is a beautiful beach. It isn't crowded at the time, and only two girls are swimming in the water, a few peole lying on thier blakets or towels. A few lifeguards stand waching the waters and the two girls, but they dont seem concerned about sharks.

Mario sits down on the sand, watching the scene and seeming calm. Then, he blinks, noticing what seemed like storm clouds far off across the ocean. "Guess a storm's rolling in," he says, and after confirming that it did seem to be slowly getting closer, he gets up and returns to his room to change, not wanting to be out in the rain.

Everyone leaves the beach and the pool before it starts raining. Xamira is going in her room, drying off her hair with her towel. She seems to be glad to have had her room changed.

Mario goes to the main lobby afterward, looking outside at the storm and seeming uneasy. This was not a Heartless storm, and yet...it seemed so unnatural and unexpected.

The staff didn't seem worried about the storm, apparently it was normal.

Xamira goes in her room and turns pn her sterio, turning to a classical music station.

Mario is silent before sighing, finding no basis for his concerns. He turns to return to his room.

Suddenly, a gust of wind slams into the windows, shattering them and blowing anything or anyone too close to them away.

Mario finds himself thrown across the lobby, slamming into a wall and almost getting crushed by a sofa that was blown away as well. He yelps after the impact, a bit dazed afterward and wondering what happened.

Suddenly, the wind shifts, and it creates a vortex. Anything at the edges were blown away and repelled, but in the center, the wind pulled anything within with a strong suction force.

Unfortunately, Mario was in the center of this vortex. He panics as he is pulled toward the shattered window, and finding nothing to grab onto, he summons his Shadow Blade and rams it into the floor, creating a temporary anchor to cling to. However, the wind suddenly grows in power, and unable to bear the stress, the floor gives out around the Shadow Blade. Mario is flung through the frame, through the air, and onto the beach.

Mario lies there for a minute, dazed, confused, and sore. He soon manages to get up, rubbing his sore spots and brushing off the sand as he now comes to the realization that the storm had suddenly grown much worse. Where it had been a simple rainstorm earlier, thunder crashed in the clouds, lightning struck the ground, and rain came down as hard as hail. This storm could no longer be ruled as normal.

The hotel is in panick, and the staff tries to calm people down. Xamira falls to the floor, clutching her head, recieving thousands of visions at once.

The trees are swaying in different directions, almost being puled out of the ground and collapsing.

Mario glances around, looking at what is happening. "What is all this?" he yells.

"That...would be me."

Mario freezes, turning around to see Bleach standing at the waterline, lowering his hood and smiling eeriely.

Mario grimaces. "But why? What do you have to gain from this?"

Bleach smiles a little more. 'Nothing...and everything."

Mario, mad now, summons both Shadow Blades. "End this now."

"Oh, it'll end," Bleach says, summoning both of his Twilight Blades. "In fact, it will all end today. Either I will kill you or you will kill me. A fight to the death, either way."

They stand there, facing-off for a few minutes. Then, they charge at one another, and the battle begins.

Xamira sits up, the visions slowing. She gets up and leaves her room shutting the door behind her. She then runs to the beach, hoping to help Mario.

After ten minutes of exchanging blows, the two exchange strong blows and knock each other way. Squared off again, they stare each other down.

Finally, Bleach speaks. "I will admit that your skills have improved, but you are still no match for me. Let me show you my true power." Bleach then raises his hand. Instantly, the sky crackles with thunder as white Nobody lightning comes in waves from Bleach's hand, forming a giant dome around the two.

Mario panics, sheltering his eyes as a bright light goes off, and when he can see again, he finds that they are in-

"Alageasia?" Mario inquires.

---

Outside the dome, however, is not Alageasia. It is all a mere illusion within the dome, but nevertheless, it effectively keeps people trapped inside or isolated outside.

Xamira arrives at the beach ad mutters something. She then summons her keyblades and attacks the dome.

The dome doesn't even seem scratched, instead letting off a shockwave in retalitation to keep anyone from interfering.

---

Mario stares, looking around as he recognizes the area as Trojenheim; more specifically, it is the location where Mario and Durza had fought and where Durza was slain.

Mario now glares at Bleach. "What is this? How are we in Alageasia?"

Bleach chuckles. "Fool. This isn't really Alageasia; it is but a realm conjured from your memories, one of several where you have fought hard and to the death. It is only appropriate that those scenes of your life should be relived." With that, he charges again.

Mario quickly regains his bearings and attacks back, clashing with Bleach and exchanging blows one after another.

Xamira is shocked and falls to the sand, grimancing. She holds her head again, the visions returning.

The two separate, again sliding to halts as they face each other.

Bleach then smiles, and suddenly, his robe distorts before Nobody lightning rips out of his back, forming into a pair of giant wings. With several flaps, he gains altitude, looking down at Mario with a smile.

Mario's jaw drops. "You can fly? ...I want to fly!"

Bleach smiles and then dives toward Mario, barely giving him time to dodge and parry. He then flies off before Mario can counterstrike, rushing in several more times and only managing to hit Mario once. After he is hit (mostly by accident) on the last dive, he then snaps his fingers. Instantly, Alageasia melts away and is replaced by the top of the Empire State Building in New York.

Xamira is still clutching her head, and lets out a cry of pain.

Mario and Bleach soon reach another standoff, striking again and again and making no major progress. After a third strike, Mario gets lucky and manages to slash through Bleach's wings.

Bleach grimaces, landing as his shredded wings disappear, turning to Mario, the world melts away again, this time revealing the stage of the Opera Populaire. He smiles once more. "That's it. Make this interesting!" he yells, throwing off his robe now to reveal himself in a color-muted version of Mario's clothes, and without hesitation, the two clash once more, determined to end this.

Xamira manages to sit up, but still clutching her head.

The two clash once more, and as they come to a standstill, facing off again, the world melts away one last time, revealing not a place that Mario is familiar with but one that Bleach is familiar with. It is the top of the tallest spire of the Castle that Never Was.

Both pant, exhausted from the prolonged battle. Finally, Mario grimaces. "One final blow. That's all I've got."

Bleach nods in agreement. "Same here. This ends here..."

The two stand there, both ready to leap, then they dash toward one another. Blades raised and drawn back, they close the gap, and with one great swing, they swing their Keyblades at one another, both yelling, "Zanteskutsen!"

The attacks clash. The world is thrown into chaos, and then melts away as the dome fills with light.

---

Outside, the dome suddenly shakes, cracking as light and darkness leak out, then suddenly, it explodes. Debris of the destroyed dome flies everywhere, diappearing shortly after contact.

As the dust settles, Mario and Bleach can be seen standing across from each other, their backs to one another. A long moment of silence endures. Then, a pair of Keyblades hit the ground, then vanish. And one of them falls.

Bleach.

Bleach gasps, clutching his midrift as he tries to keep himself together, but he knows that it is pointless; it had been a death blow. Even now, he was starting to fade away into nothing. Bleach, fizzling away ever so little, glances over his shoulder at Mario, who is now looking over at him. He is silent, then smiles. "...You...fought well..." Then, he collapses, and disappears.

Xamira gets up, the visions ending and gos over to Mario. "You okay?" She asks.

Mario doesn't respond, seemingly expressionless. Then, as if he was simply hit with a light wind, he tips, Shadow Blades falling from his hands and disappearing, and collapses. As he lies there, darkness envelops his body, and slowly, he starts to disappear.

Xamira, panics. She hesitates, though, unsure what to do. "Crap.." She mutters, before thinking what to do.

Mario, however, is beyond help at this point. After a prolonged moment, his body finally disappears, and as the darkness parts, a glimmer of light can be seen: Mario's heart. Slowly, it rises into the sky, soon disappearing into the storm clouds above that had since stilled. A light rain falls, drops splashing onto the only thing remaining of Mario, his knight's crest.

Mario was gone.

"No..." xamira whispers, tears falling down her cheeks. She picks up the knights crest, and heads back to the hotel. Once there she is stopped by Sora and Kairi, who had been called to the scene.

"Xamira....what happened?" Sora asks.

Xamira shows him Mario's knight symbol. "Mario...."

"Oh no.." Kairi says, looking sad. "Should we call Mariya back?" She asks. "She'll want to know...they were friends."

Sora shakes his head. "We'll leave it up to her." He says before dialing Mariya's umber, finding he can't get threw, he calls Axel.