I do not own kingdom hearts, or any of the worlds. Maybe one day, but that day is a long time away.
Chapter i: Reawakening
Lightning flashed over the renewed castle of Radiant Garden, the clouds swirling malevolently over the peak of it's tower.
It had only been a few days since the defeat of Xehanort's nobody, and life went on as it did before the man had opened the world borders. Civilians walked the streets once more, and even in only a few days, the town around the castle had expanded.
A little rain wasn't going to stop them from recovering the prosperity the heartless had destroyed.
Lightning flashed again, followed by a deafening roar, echoing over the barren landscape.
Unnoticed in a deep canyon, the rocky floor collapsed as the lightning struck, vanishing into the darkness of the cave below.
Lightning flashed again, and countless yellow eyes burst open, the shadows soon swarming out of their hiding place, heading towards the castle once known as Hollow Bastion once again.
And behind them, a hand seeped in darkness latched onto the edge of the crevice.
XXXX
It was dusk again, reminding Riku and Sora, the two Key blade bearers, of what they've gone through. As best friends, they'd separated before, but Sora reunited their trio of friends...speaking of which, where was...
"Hey guy's!" Came Kairi's voice, as she ran across the bridge. "Look at this!"
The two jumped off the bent Paopu tree, as she got to them, and Sora took the bottle from her hand, noticing the crest on the note.
"It's from the King!"
He popped it open and took out the message, unrolling it and reading rapidly.
Riku moved to behind Sora to get a better look at the message, reading it with Kairi over Sora's shoulder. The note was indeed form the king.
Dear Sora, Riku and Kairi
I'm sorry to pull you back into this war against the darkness, but we need the power of the keyblade...your three key blades. The heartless have re-emerged once again, and even as you read this are infesting Radiant Garden. We believe an as of yet unknown force has found Xehanort's machine, as detailed in his reports.
Only the power of the key blade is truly effective against them, and they must be stopped before they develop the ability to travel to other worlds again, or it will be Ansem and Xemnas all over again. By the time you get this letter, two friends Sora knows really well should have arrived at your world.
King Mickey
"Friends of mine?" wondered Sora before it clicked. "Goofy! Donald!"
Almost as if they had been called, the Gummy ship appeared in the horizon, speeding towards their island. Within seconds, it was besides the rock that connected to Destiny Island, looking just like it did the day he first saw it, the dome opening up.
"Come on! Who knows how many there are now!" Yelled Donald from the Controls as Goofy pressed a button that made two extra seats pop into existence.
"The Garden has already been evacuated" added the shield wielder.
Without waiting to think, they all ran up the Gummy ships wing, and into the Cockpit, the dome lowering before they could sit down, and the ship blasting out of the world before they could buckle up.
Time between worlds was strange...and confusing, almost as if it was a world itself, only without rules of physics hindering it. So there was really no way of measuring how long the trip to radiant garden took, or why the obstacles they passed were different from the ones they were used to...of course, it could be because this was the first time they actually traveled from their own world.
And even between worlds, Radiant garden looked terrible, the super deformed image of it being darkened and crawling with moving shadows. As they pierced into the image and went to land, they saw how bad it really was...it was nearly a flood of crested shadows, crawling through the streets, and the rocky terrain around the city. The castle looked untouched.
"Alright, Kairi, since the town looks to be the best off, you and the two goof balls here will take care of it" Commanded Riku, him pulling out his PathtoDawn Key blade.
"Hey!" Objected Sora, Goofy, and Donald at the same time.
Riku sighed. Why was he surrounded by...oh yeah, they wouldn't be his friends if he thought them normal. "I meant just Goofy and Donald"
Sora blinked. "Oh"
"And I'll take the wastelands. Sora, you take the castle, alright?"
"Right"
Feet before the ground, the Gummy Ship vanished to where ever it was kept while they were on a world, and the hit the ground.
"Let's do this!" cried out Kairi, as the group split up.
He stood before the door to the castle that was once called Hallow Bastion before he knew it. "You know, it hasn't changed much", half expecting a response, shaking his head when he remembered they were off helping Kairi.
He shuddered. Because the heartless came from the castle... "RIKU!"
He growled angrily. Why did Riku tell him to take care of all the heartless in the castle, most likely the majority? He shoved the feeling down. He was the Key Blade Master. Most likely, Riku had assumed there'd be more outside of the town.
...just like he was assuming there'd be more on the inside of the castle.
"Alright then, Let's do this"
Raising the key blade to the door, he focused on it's power to open any lock, grinning as he heard the click.
"Let's hope I'm Wrong!" he cried, taking the handle with his other hand and pulling it open, watching as every shadow in the room looked directly at him, a sea of a thousand thousand yellow eyes from countless holes in the ruined room.
He cursed a little. They all had crests...so the machine was working a lot more effectively then he thought it would. He looked sadly at the kingdom key...it could probably do the job, but it would take too long.
Suddenly, the perfect key blade for the situation occurred to him, and he dug into his pockets, even as the first of the shadow's began to charge for him. What he pulled out was a haunted looking mini trophy, connected to what seemed to be a chain ghastly skulls.
Jumping back, as a heartless attacked where he stood only a moment before, he replaced the chain, pocketing the crown.
Almost immediately he felt the terrible power of the Fatal Crest flow through the key blade to him, the Skeletal Dragon Blade taking form out of a dark distortion of the Kingdom's Crown.
He shivered a little. Though useful, it was borderline dark, possible only light because that was what his key blade was.
But the one thing it did was give him the strength to keep swinging until he had nothing left to swing with...or at.
And so he charged into the swarm of Crested Shadows, swinging the blade chaotically, this way and that, taking down each one with a single strike...but inside he was disgusted with the way it felt when the blade 'cut through' these artificial heartless.
The feeling of a blade slicing through them was like slicing though garbage mixed with Molasses. It couldn't be described as anything except terrible...
Twisting around as he spun and stuck a heartless that was trying to take him out, he shuddered. It was so nasty...
He ducked under another Crested shadow, and swung at it without thinking. But it needed to be done.
He turned his entire focus onto the fight...and groaned. He was surrounded. "This'll teach me to zone out in a fight" Letting more of the key blades power flow into him, he roared as he charged, no longer taking them out one at a time.
Cutting seven in half with a single stroke as they attacked, he quickly spun around, and ducked under a few more, an upward slash taking care of them as he brought the Key blade back above his head to take out another.
An explosion at the moment of contact sent Sora flying back. He hit the ground Hard, actually flipping from his back to his front as he rebounded into the air before a second not as hard landing, sliding a few more feet before stopping.
As the ringing left his ears, he looked at where he had stood...at the large crater that took up a lot of space near the door.
"What...what was that?" he wondered out loud...it looked like a normal crested shadow...only...only... how was it different?
It's eyes had been red! That was what was so different about it!
Casting a quick Curaga, he glanced around the room, almost surprised to find it empty. Not wanting to give them time to regroup, he tore for the next room, slicing through the first few waves of heartless before they even knew he was there.
He shuddered at the repulsive Garbage feeling every time the keyblade sliced through a fake shadow, while he made sure to land his most powerful swing on the red eyed one.
And then he tore for the next room and cleared it out, and the next, and the next, and...
By the time he found his self swinging at his own shadow, he realized that the heartless were all gone.
Looking at his surroundings, he closed his eyes trying to remember the room...a portal on one side...Rik...
His eyes burst open. This was the room he sacrificed his heart in, for Kairi...and it was exactly the same as his memories, including that swirly portal...thingy.
He sighed...last time he went through it he fought a behemoth...
Not like it was difficult for him to fight, it was just annoyingly resiliant.
Forcing his suddenly weary limbs to move slowly to the portal, he paused only to cast Curaga, and he felt his strength go back up...
Strange...it didn't go up as far as he expected...
With a mental shrug, he guessed it was some magic immunity thing he was developing from using it too much and put it out of mind.
Soon standing at the Portal entrance, Sora looked at the shimmering energy as it spun this way and that, not really spinning but spinning...it was confusing.
Cautiously raising his hand, he reached out with a single finger to touch it... the area just beneath the tip seemed to stop, and hold still.
Suddenly, the energy exploded outwards, silvery strands grabbing him, and pulling him in before he could even react. Panic filled the Key blade bearer as he felt it try to strangle/drown him, and he tightened his grip on the blade, thrashing about as the energy faded away...and he was on the floor at the foot of a large staircase, the walls around him made of the 'heartless' pipes Maleficent had formerly added to the original castle.
XXXX
The other four fighters were surprised when the Castle above them started to distort and twist, a single tower shooting up and piercing through the thick black clouds that suddenly filled the sky. Even from the distance, they could see swarms of Heartless climbing through the hole in the sky...they had failed.
But something was more important then that.
"SORA!"
All four glared back at their current opponents to finish them...and found them gone, only dark particles floating into the sky remaining.
Without pausing, they turned and ran for the tower. They could think of the event later after they made sure their friend was all right. Nevermind that he was the most powerful of them.
Of course, their concern was merited. He was in the center of the spacial distortion, and even if he could make it out unscathed, they had no opponents to fight.
XXXX
Sora was breathing heavily as he ran up the stairs, trying to keep away from the swarm of crested Heartless behind him. Every few moments, he would turn, and slash through a few before numbers became an issue, and then he ran, not wanting to be outnumbered and surrounded.
Exhausted as he was, he couldn't help but wonder why there were very few types other then fake shadows.
Spinning around again, he twisted awkwardly around, a shield to stab deep into the dark energy that made up the defenders body. It felt strange, as always, like stabbing through molasses, or some unnaturally thick syrup , though unlike the crested shadows, he could endure it.
Strangely enough, neither Kairi, nor Riku, or even the king felt much resistance in the heartless when he tried to explain what he hated most about the heartless, besides the fact they stole hearts. Now that he thought about it, it was the same with the nobodies, though with more of an airy... molassesy... feeling.
A shield bashed him in the head hard enough to knock him out of his thoughts. If a defender was able to hit him that easily...
Calling forth the power of the Keyblade, he cast a Thundaga, bolts of magic lightning clearing the crowds a little, before turning tail, jumping over a small magic pockmark in the ground.
Running up stairs was really hard...he hated it. He really needed to learn how to float like in Final Form, which regrettably required his friends to sit on the side lines so to speak.
And so the chase went on, maybe for an hour, maybe for only a second, but all he knew was that he stopped to fight many times, casting spells until he couldn't remember how to from a killer headache, slicing and running till his lungs and arms burned, and fatigue made it almost impossible to run.
And yet behind him, though slowly falling behind, where the heartless. Looking back, he noticed that they were all in various stages of Fatigue, some of the Defenders that were there were actually stopping, and panting for breathe...
Strange...shaking the thought off, he turned his head back towards where he was running, and yelped...the stairs stopped, suspended over the long...very long...very very long...extremely long drop in the center. Barely balancing on one foot, he threw himself back. Just in time for a door to slam down onto the last step.
Looking back at the approaching heartless, he had no hesitations to opening the door, and slamming it behind him.
Sora sighed in relief as the first thing he noticed was no heartless. Besides the fact the only way in or out of the empty room was the door he leaned against, and the only thing in the room a covered object on the other side of the room, he felt like he could recover in it.
"Stupid Heartless, Stupid numbers..." he growled as he searched his pockets for any healing item he hadn't used to help recover for round two against the swarms.
So it's to be expected he was taken by surprise by a sudden voice.
"Foolish Child...Why do you go against your True nature" Came a strange yet familiar voice, in a bad way, from the empty room.
"What? Who's there" Yelled Sora, immediately taking up the key blade, and jumping away from the door.
"I'm surprised you don't remember me" mused the voice, though the tone said that he was not surprised at all, as a figure walked out from behind the covered object, crossing the distance till he was half way between the object and the Key blade Wielder, the Organization cloak he wore missing the chain and the two charms.
He had long silver hair, the left side hanging over the side of his face, the right being completely swept back. His right eye was Amber, a symbol of corruption by the darkness, and his skin to that side was the normal pale of a human...while the left was made of darkness, a single yellow eye peering at him...but the human side was completely one hundred percent recognizable.
"Ansem!..or Xemnas!...whoever you are!"
The man chuckled, "Indeed, I am both...for when one kills the heartless, the heart seeks the Nobody, and vise versa. With the nobodies in that nobody world, that was where the hearts gathered, and inevitably formed Kingdom Hearts. And when both are slain, there is nothing to prevent the prison for the heart, and the prison for the body to become one once more.
"But as one again, I have remembered what I had done before my memories were wiped. And what I know is the manipulations that led to this war my old self made"
He looks at Sora Intently, "You were never meant to hold that key blade. The one who held the destiny to save the world was the one who fell to the darkness...your friend, Riku"
"I don't believe you!"
"He who knows nothing, understands nothing...just like you Sora...Here, fractured as I was after you defeated me, not just once but twice, I remembered what I was before the true Ansem gave me my destiny", he shook his head, walking towards the back of the room, "No, what I believed was my destiny"
He gestured towards the covered object. "Underneath this is a mirror...only it is an artifact on the level of Kingdom Hearts" He smiled sadly, putting a hand on the cloth. "It shows what one truly is, distorting reality so that that is what the one who looks into it becomes"
"And you...you will know what you are. YOU WILL KNOW THE TRUTH",Ansem's grin had suddenly went Insane, and he ripped off the sheet, moving out of the way of the front as though...
A beam of bright energy shot out from the exposed mirror, piercing through the wall behind Sora before he even had a chance to finish the thought, let alone see what was happening.
Pain pierced through his body, and in sheer agony he cried out, tears leaking from eye's he wasn't sure were there anymore from intense light. Unable to stand, he fell to his knees, the intense pain causing the key blade to drop from his grasp.
And then Sora could see, the pain gone. The hole in the wall let in chilled winds, biting through the clothes Sora wore like they were nothing. Through the hole was the pitch blackness of true darkness.
"What was that!" Shouted the key blade bearer, before stopping, wondering why the words sounded so strange.
"The truth...doesn't it hurt, Sky? To realize that everything you know is a lie...your parents, your position...even your gender?" Ansem said calmly, before gesturing towards the mirror. "And, for now, to you, this is only a mirror, until your true self changes once more"
Sora looked at the mirror, positive nothing had changed...and tried to back away. "No!"
"Yes. This is your truth...as told in the Diary of my old self"
In the mirror, a girl in ragged clothes similar to what Sora's had been copied every little movement the Key blade bearer did. Her hair wasn't spiky, but it was the fact that the eyes, her eyes, were the same.
A
A quick glance at her hand told her that she did look just like what it showed in the mirror. It was smaller, and more delicate then what she was used to.
"As a side note, who someone is comes from the heart. So no matter how one changes the body, their heart remains the same. And to the skill of my old self, changing your gender was nothing"
"Then change me back" she cried, grabbing the key blade, and charging at the man who had ruined her life several times. Seconds before it would have hit, it disappeared in a shimmer of light. "What..."
"AHH!", She screamed as her hand burst into pain...she fell to the ground, gripping her burning hand. Tears formed in her eyes as pain even beyond the transformation filled her.
"The key blade has abandoned you, it's temporary wielder, Sky" he looked at her with pity, though she didn't notice as her thrashing stopped, "And your true body cannot stand the light"
"Because of you, the true key blade bearer could only access a single aspect of it, and that girl you believed Namine was the nobody of, the only other person close enough to be a replacement wielder, had just lost her heart, making her ineligible"
"But her body did not disappear, and become a nobody. That's how nobodies are formed. But the organization, is different, us willingly giving our hearts to the darkness lets us keep out mind and memories, like you did for that girl...and like Riku did before the key blade went to you"
"Only you turned Riku away from the darkness, and his darkness fled, bringing his heart back. The body becomes a being of darkness, and yet that girl never lost hers...curious"
"But your destiny is darkness...the fact the key blade abandoned you should tell you that"
Laying on the floor, Sora was crawling away from the half darkness man, hate at what he'd done to her filling her being. She felt...tired...and weak, fatigue ten times greater then anything she'd ever felt with the key blade filling her body.
It was hard to believe that the key blade did so much for her...but it had left her. Just like Riku had abandoned her and Kairi for the darkness...
She looked down at her hand and winced...the flesh was scorched black from the light, and angry red skin surrounded it, painfully throbbing, agonizingly and in a hateful beat.
"I...I don't believe you" she whispered, her defenses against his words shattering even further as she mentally reached helplessly towards her link to the key blade, only to find whatever was there cold and dead. Or rather, she found nothing.
Xehanort sighed, and gave her a look of sorrow. "I'm sorry that this was the way you had to find out, but there was no other way"
He held a hand down to her level. "Let's get you all fixed up, My..."
"ANSEM!!"
Both looked back towards the door to see Riku charge through the door, nearly hitting Xehanort with a strike that would have cleaved him in two along with Sora's leg had the man not grabbed her hand and dragged them out of the line of fire.
"How nice. A second reunion" he softly grinned, letting go of Sora's arm as he faced the Keyblade wielder.
Ignoring him, Riku growled, "Where's Sora?"
"Hmm?"
You heard me, now where is he?
Xehanort sighed. "How many times must I explain this? Once was more then enough, and Sora suffered enough from one explanation I don't think she could stand the second"
"THEN DIE!"
Without waiting for a response, knowing that somehow with words alone he'd be tempted back to the darkness, he attacked.
And Xehanort dodged every strike, retreating further and further into the room. The man seemed to be breathing hard within a few seconds, letting all see that he had no practice in a fight with this body, even as he ducked under a swing, and jumped back from a low strike to land hard next to the mirror.
"You have infinitely improved from your twilight road...the true road of the key blade" he panted, placing a single hand on the cloth that somehow had been placed back over the mirror.
"Don't let him pull the cloth off!" She shouted, just as the remaining three entered the group just in time to see the clothe get pulled off as Riku went to strike him down. The hated blast of light burst once more from the mirror, and she felt herself push away from it in panic, her hand almost exploding in pain from the sight of light.
Her jaw dropped as the light faded, and almost nothing had changed...if anything, he seemed more like who he was then before. It wasn't fair. She struggled to get up with one hand, and started walking to her friend.
"What was that supposed to do?" Demanded the 'True' Keyblade wielder.
Xehanort simply looked at him oddly. "For one supposedly between the light and the dark, this mirror should change you. I guess you really are completely free from my influence"
Confused, the too just looked at each other, before Riku nodded, pointing Soul Eater at him, not noticing as Sora crept up to him.
"Riku! To the side!" Kairi's voice pierced the air, and Sora barely was able to dodge his first strike.
"Kairi! Goofy! Donald! He's weak enough that you guys could take him easy" shouted Riku, as his second strike against the former key blade wielder gouged deeply into the floor.
His third brushed against her burnt arm, and pain screamed in it, as the force behind the blow sent her spinning.
"Stop attacking! I'm not with him" she panted, her body without the power of the key blade enhancing it unable to continue. "It's me, don't you remember"
...
"Don't you remember..." Said a black haired girl, who reminded him of Sora somehow, in an organization XIII cloak, as he watched from a distance in a conversation between her and a blond in another cloak.
"It's coming back, but... not really" Roxas had said. Roxas! That was the name Sora's No...body.
Nobody's...those without bodies, who didn't exist, yet also without hearts. They were...they were...the enemy! He could remember them again!
Riku looked at her, his eye's telling her he had no intention of showing mercy anymore, "See you, Nobody!"
Completely unable to dodge the next attack, the power she used to hold sliced through her as she tried, the follow up slamming against her head...and she knew no more.
Suddenly, Xehanort was there, holding her body before it hit the ground, his own covered in miner burns and scratches.
Opening a portal, he held Soul Eater down with the false key blade he had summoned during his fight with Kairi, however short. He looked at Riku sadly.
"This wasn't supposed to happen"
And he was gone, the fake key blade left behind, dissolving from the short Contact with the real one.
Next Chapter:
"I have made another mistake..."Xehanort.
Sorry that I haven't updated, but I've had stuff to do. I'll get the next chapter out, hopefully before any readers who haven't grown tired of this story already do. I've been playing Kingdom Hearts, the first one...and I have a genius idea, involving two certain optional bosses.
Stay tuned, and please return.