DISCLAIMER: I own nothing to do with this story save for plot lines or OCs and this holds for all of it, so don't ask me again.

Kingdom Hearts

Lineage of the Key

Book I of The Existence Trilogy

From the Darkness they shall arise

To give birth from earth to sea

And within our hearts there is light

To create a lineage of the key

Prologue

Those Who Wield…

The world was collapsing around him. Or at least he thought it was. He had only been a young boy, crawling out into the world and his new role. Gentai Tanaka, the boy who had loved school, who had loved his friends, his family, and had it all torn away from him in life to wield a mysterious something, was now staring at the fourth man who died that day. If you could say that disappearing into nothing was dying.

Gentai had been a young boy, living his own streets on the world of Agradar until a man known as Hikaru came and took him away telling all the stories about his new and mythical weapon: the Keyblade. All of them had told him he was the Key of the Future, whatever that meant. He hadn't asked for this. But he found great friendship in all his suffering; Hikaru, though not wielder of the Keyblade himself, trained Gentai to be strong no matter what came.

And Gentai had to be strong, if not for someone else, then for himself.

Hikaru had told him that the Keyholes were still in danger and that's why Gentai had to go and clean up the mess. And Gentai performed that duty with aplomb. But every time he sealed a Keyhole he would see visions: visions of people he had never known but had heard about. Sora, Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey. Those were their names. The memories had scared him at first, but he eventually began drawing upon those memories for some type of inner strength. He had traveled to many worlds and found that Zexion, a member of the former Organization XIII had somehow survived or came back to life and was seeking revenge on the one who stole it all from him: Riku.

Gentai couldn't understand any of it, until he met both Riku and Kairi who were searching for Sora who had been kidnapped. Then it happened: Hikaru, was Kairi's brother, and son of Ansem the Wise. Kairi couldn't believe it, no one could; even when they confronted Zexion and freed Sora. But Gentai's strength was beginning to wane. He had fought and killed his best friend who betrayed him; saw his mentor die before his eyes despite the fact that he learned he now wielded a Keyblade after all.

Then when all was dwindling for Zexion, the Cloaked Schemer decided to kill Riku, but Sora's selflessness stopped the blow and hit him instead. Gentai, all sense forgotten in his rage, attacked Zexion. It didn't kill him but somehow Gentai had given him a heart. Unable to cope with the emotion it destroyed Zexion forever.

But Sora was dying. His breathing was shallow and harsh. Riku was on one knee, looking at him and Kairi was fiercely holding his hand. Gentai looked at the trio, together for so long, only to be split apart. If only I had been fast enough, Gentai thought and he stabbed his Keyblade into the ground. He was only fifteen but he still understood loss. They…didn't deserve it. They had been through so much and yet they were only 21.

"Sora…" Riku said to him as Sora was gasping, coughing up lots of blood. "Why did you…?"

"I can't…have you dying on me buddy…" Sora said, trying to give a small chuckle but Gentai could tell it only hurt him more because he choked and stopped. Gentai could also tell that the two of Sora's best friends (one of them his lover) were crying. Despite Riku looking hard as a rock, seeing his best friend die was a blow to his heart.

"But now you're gonna die on us…" Riku said and Sora didn't answer, unable to respond to that. Gentai picked up his Keyblade and walked over to the trio and he could soon feel the tears pouring down his eyes. He had only known Sora personally for about an hour but he felt the pain all of them were feeling. And it's my fault! Gentai wanted to kick at something but soon he heard his name.

"Gentai…" Sora breathed and Gentai bent down low next to him. Sora took his free hand and grasped Gentai. "Don't…blame…yourself…" Gentai shook his head as tears fell down his face. "You…are…the one." Sora let these last two words escape in a quick breath. His eyelids fluttered open and close as he tried to focus on Gentai. He then seemed to summon most of his energy to simply tell Gentai what he said next without a break in breaths. "You are the key of the future. You will open the door…Don't let it end this way…" But Sora trailed off and his eyes flickered again.

Gentai looked at him and felt his hand tighten on the grip of his Keyblade. First Hikaru and then Sora. Sora turned his gaze slowly to Kairi who was crying the most out of the three of them.

"Don't go Sora!" Kairi cried. "You can't leave yet, not now!"

"Our hearts…are always…connected…" He took a little more of his strength to lift Kairi's hands over his heart. Kairi cried even harder. Sora looked into her eyes and mustered up his final courage to tell her the words she already knew but needed to be said again. "Kairi…I…lov-"

But his words were cut off as the final amount of energy faded from his body and his once blue eyes turned to black. Kairi laid over his body and cried for a little before Riku lifted her up and moved Sora's body next to Hikaru's. He nodded to Gentai who used his Keyblade to light magical flames around the two former Keyblade weilders as Kairi cried into Riku's shoulders. Then it began to rain as the worlds cried. Their beloved Keyblade Master was gone. And Gentai, who had always felt a burden somehow, could perceive everyone's reactions.

In Radiant Garden, Leon felt the subtle change in the air as the clouds moved in and began to wash over the planet. Even Aerith, and Yuffie felt the change. Mickey sensed it too but neither he, Donald, or Goofy could believe it. Even Maleficent, Sora's long time enemy felt burdened by the loss.

And as the rain fell upon them washing away everything, Riku looked at Gentai.

"It wasn't your fault Gentai, it was only Zexion's." But Gentai said nothing, only staring at the burning bodies.

"I won't let it end this way…" Gentai said. He looked to the crying sky as thunder began to roll across the worlds. Then Gentai let out an ear-splitting scream of rage and anger that echoed all over. To a man with a Gunblade in radiant Garden, to a mouse with his companions on a Gummi Ship, to an evil sorceress, to the denizens of many worlds. And to a man, clad in armor on a ship in the sky who knew: after seventeen years of waiting in darkness, the time had come.

Author's Note: So there is the beginning of The Existence Trilogy. There was a story planned before this one but I wrote this first instead because my heart wasn't into it and soon I'll be writing that too. Gentai is my own OC who I decided would have originally given Sora, Riku, and Kairi a break, but I guess not huh? Yeah, Sora died, but don't worry, if you seen my next stories then you'll knw that I'm not so cruel as to kill off the hero forever. But in either case, the future will hold some awesome and nasty surprises and for people who have been keeping up with KH news you might know who the character I mentioned at the end was. Well, hope you enjoy and please review even though the story is finished.