"Well, yes," spoke Emperor Michael Sideros, "find various sources of Light, then search for Ascot's Heartless, and then turn Ascot back into a Human. You see, Leo's plan is to reconstruct the X-Blade and open a way to Kingdom Hearts, but if we have the X-Blade's creator and wielder by our side..."

"And, yes," Maria di Italia answered Fredrick, "of course we'll pay you. In fact, we are just about to say that you are going to get your weight in silk and golden munny...as a downpayment. While as for Seth, well if he wants, we can forego his downpayment and instead promise him our support for seeking his mysterious objective." She then turned to Emperor Michael:

"Now, can you explain to them about the Princesses of Heart, dear?" A nod from the [i]Basileus[/i], and:

"There are seven women, not necessarily actual princesses, who have hearts of pure Light that cannot be corrupted by the Darkness. This is because these - non-literal - Princesses of Heart are actually the Light Half of the X-Blade, scattered across worlds and timelines. These seven women cannot be turned into Heartless, although they can create Nobodies, and more importantly, they can transform Heartless back into Humans with a touch."

"Your job, is to go to these seven worlds, the seventh of which is a mystery, and find the Princesses of Heart, and then [i]after[/i] those seven worlds, go to the Tomb of Ascot, which can be found by Mai's Keyblade, and turn Ascot back into a human."

"All potential help will be given you, including a Gummi Ship of your own, and we ourselves will be mustering a fleet to escort you, along with 30,000 men and women, just in case we encounter Non-Heartless enemies, which Leo and the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness can throw at us -"

"Dear," said Maria, "you haven't explained what exactly are the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness..."

"Oh, right," Michael XIII Sideros said. "Well, the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness, which I think Tocsax mentioned before, are Leo's organization. They're an attempt to artificially create the 'dark half' of the X-Blade and have them attack or fuse with the Seven Princesses of Heart to create the X-Blade anew. They're also all incarnations of Leo, either his past self from another timeline, himself from the present, his Nobody and his Heartless, and people from The Circle that he has possessed. And of course, they're Keyblade Wielders, too."

[@Double][@Nightknight][@SMS]