Chapter 1: Alone

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

He stood over the cliff looking down into the dark crevice that was just below him, all inviting and waiting for him to just jump into it. It wanted to take him into its embrace and crush him in its rocky arms, spreading his blood all over and basking in it, giving him a deep embrace in return, the deepest embrace he would ever feel. It was all waiting for him and he was just standing there staring at it as he looked down into the crevice that had a love for those who gave it their life, it was the one thing that made the crevice warm so any person who gave it their warmth was the equivalent of mother. There was an unknown time period that passed between his viewing of the crevice to the time when someone placed their hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts. He turned to the smiling white haired youth that had placed his hand on his shoulder to check on him, he could see how his face looked in the reflection of his eyes, he didn't like it either.

"Hey Sora, are you okay," asked Riku as he looked at his friend with great concern for the boy, but Sora couldn't find words to describe the strangeness and mystery that lay within his thoughts. "You've been acting strange ever since you got back from that place, but you don't seem to want to tell any of us what you've been thinking about. Kairi is especially concerned with how you think and I don't get why you wouldn't tell her."

"There are just some things that you can't explain," replied Sora as he looked back at the crevice and noticed the darkness that seemed to be moving along it. "Every time I destroy one of them another appears, and every time I do that I can't help but think or wonder about where it all goes."

"The King told me about your fight with that one man, the one in black, Seven," said Riku as he tried to get Sora to face him, but the spikey-headed youth wouldn't look at him. "What did he tell you when you fought him?"

"Nothing, it's just been nagging me on how he could be so powerful and yet he has a keyblade just like me," lied Sora and Riku knew it was a lie, he had known his friend long enough to tell that, but he felt it was best to let him be. Sora was still thinking about the fight between him and the enigma known a Seven back at the Coliseum"

FLASH BACK BEGINS

Sora watched as Hercules tried to fight off the menacing figure that stalked towards him, but the mighty hero had spent too much time fighting monsters with no rest that over time he was too tired to stop him. Without a single show of effort, the mysterious figure in a black hooded cloak brought Hercules to his knees and then knocked him out of his way as he strode towards the crowd of on lookers. At first Sora thought it was a member of Organization XIII, but it couldn't be because he had defeated every last member, or at least he believed he had done that. This one wielded a keyblade, which was unheard of for a member of Organization XIII save for Roxas, but he could see the keyblade in the figures hand. It was the very same keyblade that Ansem had wielded during his fight with Sora, the keyblade of darkness.

"I don't know who you are, or if you are with the Organization XIII, but I will not allow you to get away with whatever your planning," said Sora as he jumped to his feet with his keyblade ready and Donald and Goofy both at the ready right alongside of him, but the figure was not intimidated by this in the least bit.

"Well I'm not part of the Organization, but I do admire their fashion sense," said the figure as he took a step on an empty seat and pointed his keyblade at Sora's friends and started mumbling something. "Now then, I don't want them interfering any time soon."

Donald and Goofy both seemed to freeze right in their stances and they started turning a shade of grey that was something like stone before they were turned into stone completely. Sora looked in shock at his friends and then back at the laughing figure as he reeled his keyblade back then hacked at Sora with a mighty swing. Sora was able to defend himself but the random and powerful attacks of the figure were a bit more than he was used to. He might have lost to him had it not been for the sudden help of another friend of his, Auron, leaping in to cut at the attacker. The attacker backed up and smirked at Auron before he cast his fire spell sending flames spinning around him, forcing Auron to jump back and then he swung his keyblade with an intent to kill, but all he came up with was air as Sora pulled Auron before he could get hit by the attack and then Sora jumped in for an attack. The attacker was able to defend himself quite well, even counterattacking a few times, but as Auron and Hercule both got into the fight, the attacker didn't seem to be holding up so well as he was almost hit by attacks multiple times.

"Well I suppose this is as good a time as any to use it," said the attacker as he pushed a large destructive orb into the groundcausing the three heroes to be knocked back, Hercules hitting a wall and Sora being pushed back into the stadium seats, while Auron managed to keep his footing. "Good, one left standing, even if it is a tired old man."

"Well then why don't you come and see how tired this old man really is," said Auron as he put his sword over his shoulder and waited for the attacker to make the first move.

The attacker lunged at Auron, pausing mid-lunge to feint on one side and then whirled around with his keyblade aimed high, but Auron still managed to block it before being forced back into another wall and he successfully parried each attack before pushing the attacker back. With a wild howl, the attacker stabbed at Auron continuously and then backed up to call on a blizzard spell. Auron cut the spell in half but was surprised to find the attacker waiting for him and he felt the hard boot in his stomach as he was kicked into one of the statues and his own blade thrown in his direction to catch his collar before he fell off.

"I think it's time for you to nap now, grampa, but I'll play with you later," said the attacker as he finally removed his hood, revealing black hair that was very similar to Riku's own hair and his face looked a lot like Riku's. "Well I think I should be going now, before the cavalry arrives, but in the mean time Sora, get stronger by killing many heartless. Nobodies carry no darkness and the only thing that makes you stronger is that darkness that you take from them. I'll be waiting for when you are truly ready to fight me, but remember, think dark thoughts."

"How are you so strong and what do you mean," asked Sora as he struggled to get up, but he felt a foot on his back and he looked up to see the grinning enigma, whom he now assumed was a nobody.

"I'm strong because I have killed many heartless and was born of darkness, therefore I get more stronger by absorbing darkness than you do," replied the nobody as he sat down on one of the ruined seats.

"Absorb darkness?"

"You don't know? You're keyblade is a natural conductor of darkness and light, it even absorbs darkness for the wielder to make them stronger! You didn't realize that."

"Who are you," asked Sora as he looked at the nobody and before the nobody left he replied, "Zeven."

FLASH BACK ENDS

"If you only knew what I'm really afraid of, Riku," whispered Sora as clenched his fist and held his hand in front of his face. "This darkness inside of me, it keeps on getting worse with every heartless I destroy and I've been a heartless once so I've already had a close brush with the darkness, but now with every heartless that I kill I get closer to the darkness inside. I don't know if I'm strong enough to come back from the darkness once it has a hold of me."

"I didn't have the strength either," replied Riku as he turned away from Sora and looked out at the setting sun as it went down over the horizon of the mountain. "It was you that saved me from the darkness, when I couldn't think of anything you were able to beat it out of me, Sora. I'm sure that if you ever turned to darkness, that Kairi would beat it out of you as well."

"What if I hurt her though?"

"Sora, the more you worry the more pain you cause us and the more you refuse to spare yourself of it, the more pain it will cause us as well."

"The Hedgehog's Delimma," said a voice from behind them. The two teenagers turned to see Cloud staring at both of them while leaning against his buster sword. "The hedgehog is cursed to have needles on its back that prevent it from getting close to the one it loves so must get far, while on the other hand, the hedgehog needs love to feel good and thus you have another pain from the inside. The closer you are to someone the more pain you cause each other, but the farther you are from that person the more pain you cause yourself."

"You would know all about that pain," said Sora as he brushed his hand along one of the spikes in his hair and they found that Cloud was nodding as he stood up straight, pulled his sword from out of the ground and started walking off.

Zeven watched the two observe the other one leave and he then turned his focus onto the keyblade master that he wanted to kill. Not just wanted, craved to kill the boy, he needed it to escape his own fate or else the one he was trying to avoid would catch up with him. Fate wasn't very kind to anybody and that especially included Zeven, but he could live with how cruel life was, he wasn't sure that Sora could do the same. He let out a sigh of despair at the fact that he had to stoop so low just so he could escape the fate of having to fight the knight who was destined to kill him or so that's what the old woman had told him. The world around him was quiet without the single sound of anyone living near, but he could sense that there was something near him or at least in the vicinity of himself. He stood up and was immediately surrounded by heartless, causing him to smirk a bit before he called up his own keyblade and destroyed the heartless.

"I see, so you've found me on this world to and your still using that puppet of yours," said Zeven as he looked up at the sky in the direction that he felt his nemesis moving from. "Go on ahead and try to find me, I'll be miles away from here and that boy will be dead soon, I will see to that. I have to see to that because we both know that I could never kill you brother, both by skill and by the fact that I cannot bring myself to kill my little brother, but you could kill me little brother. You'd kill everyone, wouldn't you, Xenahort?"