Kingdom Hearts

Re: Venture

Civaruxa: Hello there, everyone! So very sorry for not putting this on for a while since I said I would, but I have had trouble getting my computer to work.

Xarayla: About time.

Axel: Get it over with!

Civaruxa: Okay, okay! I'm hurrying! And…there! The finishing touches are done. Here it is, the more-than-likely-not-long-awaited Kingdom Hearts Re: Venture first chapter! *computerized fanfare plays and Axel gives a thumbs down*. In a review, based on this chapter and the music videos I have prepared, tell me Pathway A or Pathway B depending upon where you want it to go. The first video may either be A or B, and the same for the second, so choose carefully. Oh, and whenever you hear a battle section, a Dive to the Heart, or other such KH thingy, feel free to hum or think of any of the tunes from the games.

In the World That Never Was where the heart may not prevail

A boy shall arise for darkness bright;

A girl of many forgotten trails

Shall meet with him one night.

The two will soon lose and to lose is to find

And lost in the heart is the strength of the mind

And then out shall be put his sun,

And a lantern shall contain his light,

Two friends to the ends

Of earth he shall wend

For this journey shall end at only a beginning,

And what is to lose but to find?

I've been having these weird thoughts lately…

Like…am I alive?

This seems so much like a dream…but I can feel it too…

I have been here before…

But why?

I don't care if you skip this section, but it's pretty good. Insert cool music video set to Utada Hikaru's Sanctuary (if you can, I'd recommend that you play the songs in the background while you read this. Even if you don't have it downloaded, you can still listen to this one from KH2 or 358/2 Days):

Remember, Vacurai.

"There's one advantage to being me—something you could never imitate."

You are not alone.

"My friends are my power, and I'm theirs!"

Light and dark will bow to you—

"Right, Ventus?"

and you will close the door.

"Vacurai."

"Yeah?"

"Do we have…hearts?"

"I don't know. If there is something there…inside us…then we'd feel it…right?"

"True enough. What do you think, Lilith?"

"Mm—hmm. Sounds good to me."

Vacurai closes his eyes, and opens them a moment or two later. (Waah—wahh…wahh—wahh…) He summons Full House with a flourish, and Xarayla, the girl across from him, holds a conductor's baton. They clash violently, then parry each-other's attacks and roll away. In between the two we see stars falling; they are red, green, and blue in the shape of Wayfinders. The thirteen thrones of the Organization appear, but they are crumbled and a single hooded figure sits in the remaining unbroken seat with Vacurai, who is also wearing the cloak and coat. Suddenly, we switch to when new members come into XIII, and Zexion sits in the center seat by himself. Vacurai and Xarayla stand at the base, weapons drawn, and the Nobody runs down his throne, lexicon blazing. Vacurai runs to meet him, and when they battle in midair he looks like Sora for a moment.

Castle Oblivion fades into existence from grains of sand. It flashes once as The Land of Departure Castle, then Ventus's throne pops up and we see Aqua's feet walk towards it. Everything goes dark and Roxas's name appears in white, straight up and down, shooting apart suddenly. Then Larxene, then Marluxia, Luxord, Demyx, Axel, Saix, Zexion, Lexaeus, Vexen, Xaldin, Xigbar and Xemnas; but, after a moment of nothingness two words appears. (Dun, dun da dun dun dun dun da dun dun dun da dun dun dun dun da dun,)

Civaruxa. (Sieve-ah-rux-a)

Xarayla. (Zahr-I-la)

(I watch you, fast a-sleep,) Sora and Namine pinkie shake; and Roxas attacks Axel. Suddenly, we see Roxas's heart release, and it floats through the darkness until it collides with a surface—and the ground turns into a turqoise Station of Awakening. (All I fear…means nothing…) The background becomes white, and Lilith and Prism whisper something on each side of the screen. Vacurai hangs from a ledge in the aforesaid gray wasteland, about to fall; a brown-and-gold set of armor grabs his other hand and hauls him up. They draw their weapons, charge at eachother, and the symbol XIII flashes white, counting backward slowly. The countdown moves to the corner of the screen, and Sora grasps for Riku's hand. He cradles Kairi in his arms, and then let's go of her hand as Riku says "Take care of her." He pushes open the doors to Castle Oblivion, and his body switches to his older self, then Roxas, and then Civaruxa. Xarayla stands right beside him as they walk through the halls, and when they reach the large World Door a cloaked figure stops their progress. "Soon…the lack of your heart will save many more than your heart could have saved you."

"What do you mean?"

"Find out for yourself."

The cloaked figure disappears and a World Card is in his place. A card that reads "The Crossroads." Civaruxa holds it up to the door and it flashes as the two step through.

On the inside is a world of brass. The first hall holds Aqua and Xehanort fighting; the second is filled with older Riku and Sora battling Xemnas; the third has Roxas and the Clocktower. In the fourth hallway is a multi-colored Darkside; and through the next door is a platform exactly like the one under Radiant Garden. The two burst through, followed by a blue wispy girl, and draw their weapons on account of seeing a shadow floating down from the sky. It has Xehanort's gray Keyblade in its hand, and when the shadows dispel it is a brown-haired boy. The group attacks the monster from all sides, but everyone is thrown back except for Civaruxa.

They parry each-other's attacks. "Who are you?"

"Your doom."

Vacurai jump strikes, and in the slash of his Keyblade we see the throne from before; but Ventus is not in it, a red-head is. Aqua walks up to him and looks him over. "Is this boy lost too? Maybe I should give him some protection." She materializes a Kingdom Key in his hands, searching him once more. "Not all who wander are truly lost."

"You seek answers, am I correct?"

A red-head stands in the tide on Destiny Islands as Xemnas materializes and walks toward the down-cast wielder. "I don't need answers."

"Yet I can give them."

The letters V-a-c-u-r-a -i appear in transparent blue and swirl around wildly until Xemnas waves his hand and a golden X stops them moving.

The boy looks up and blinks. "Civaruxa."

"That is right...the new you."

Vacurai stumbles, seemingly having been pushed, and falls backwards; but the ground turns bluish-black and disappears. He floats through the darkness with his eyes closed, and with a flash of light he says something.

"Right, Ventus? I'll be back… and Aqua and Terra will be there, too."

Insert cool music video set to Utada Hikaru's Simple and Clean:

Vacurai floats through the darkness. As the song begins in the background, we show the three Wayfinders rotating around Ventus until a flash of light transforms him into younger Sora. He dispels the darkness by summoning his Keyblade and charging at Maleficent; the camera spins around once and then Riku is in the place of Sora. After he lands a strike or two, Aqua parries the possessed Terra, and they backflip away, revealing a white room with a throne in the center that is occupied by Ventus. Sora shakes Namine's hand, elbows older Riku in the stomach, and then his younger self releases his heart.

('You're kidding me,') Vacurai's eyes open.

He is in a gray wasteland with a white-haired girl with blue tints in her hair (Xarayla) facing him, and both Xarayla holds a set of cards. They clash violently, and when Vacurai jumps backwards he charges with a brown haired boy on his left and a black-haired woman on the right.

The scene switches to the Twilight Town Clock Tower. Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas sit eating sea-salt ice cream; they turn into Roxas, Axel, and Xion, but Xion, who sits on the end, slowly disappears. We show the other four minus Roxas; and Lilith, Leal, Vacurai, and Prism sit eating ice cream on the palm tree on Destiny Islands.

(How far are we into the theme song? Nowhere near done? Grr…) At sunset, Xehanort's gray Keyblade falls out of the sky and impales itself in Destiny Islands, and glowing Unversed swarm out of it, threatening to take over the world until Leal picks it up. He swings at Vacurai, knocking his weapon out of his hand and planting his foot on his chest. ('When you walk away, you don't hear me say, "please, oh baby, don't go."' This one stretches to the next quote.) Vacurai rolls to the side, retrieving Full House, and points it skyward as the background turns white. The three Wayfinders rotate around the Keyblade, turning it into the Wayblade (brown Wayfinder set into the hilt, blue Wayfinder keychain, half of the green Wayfinder the keytip, and the rest is curvy and colored to match the Wayfinders.) Vacurai points the Wayblade at Ventus in the throne, and a beam of light shoots out, engulfing everything. ('Simple and Clean is the way that you're making me feel tonight, it's hard to let it go')

We see the bottom of Lilith's mouth say something, and then on the other side the same happens with the raven-haired lady. ('Hold me, whatever lies beyond this morning is a little later old,') Vacurai clings onto a ledge in the aforesaid wasteland, and he is about to fall when a suit of armor helps him up. The armor suddenly dissipates, and a pink door pops up out of nowhere, which Vacurai proceeds to enter. ('Regardless of warnings, the future doesn't scare me at all, nothing's like before,')

('Hold me,') Once inside, a blue wispy woman appears at his side. They are now in a bronze room, running toward the door at the end. In the next room are two Disney characters (your choice) dealing with something, and through all of the next five rooms there are more characters. Some are fighting, some are lost, some are trying to escape a monster. ('Whatever lies beyond this morning is a little later old,') When they push through the last wall we come out onto a metal platform like the one in Hollow Bastion. A shadowy figure descends upon Vacurai and they tussle. ('Regardless of warnings the future doesn't scare me at all, nothing's like before,') The ground shatters, and Vacurai floats through the darkness. (badda-badda-baa…sorry about that.)

It was dark. Really dark. Dark enough to swallow me whole. But that didn't matter. I was more concentrated on the lovely floating feeling that passed through my whole being as I sank through the depths, twisting and spinning around in slow motion…

I connected with ground and stood up.

Where—? The sentence stopped dead inside me. It had no way to finish, no way to start over and no way to end. My foot moved of its own accord, and suddenly the surface beneath me was bathed in light. When it disappeared, the floor was made of turquoise stained-glass and spread out for at least thirty feet. On the right side of the gigantic circle was me. A picture of me, that is. I had my eyes closed and I held a Full House, a Keyblade. The hand guard was a hexagon of cards; the keychain was a heart symbol; the blade was a wand; and the tip was the top of a top hat.

Keyblade. How do I know that?

I shrugged the idea off and returned to the image. Around my head were pictures of people: an orange haired man; a wild, white haired young woman; Leal and Lilith took up the next two a black haired girl was in the third one; and in the last two circles were stars. The left side of the large platform was occupied by a purely blue lady with hair of the same tinge. Her eyes were closed too, and she had a Keyblade with a round gray hand-guard, a straight copper rod for the blade, and a jagged, golden key tip that reminded me of a crown.

"I remember you…your name is Vacurai."

The words had dropped out of the air. There was no sound to the voice, but I could still understand what it said.

"Something is not right. You shouldn't be here—you don't have a heart."

Of course I have a heart!

"You just think you do. You were born without a heart, but I had to be created to keep you alive."

Who are you?

"I can't say. Just remember that I'll always be here, and you can always count on yourself."

The area around my hand flashed, and I held up my weapon. I had a sense that everything was wrong; and apparently I was right. A sharp, glowing figure popped up out of the ground, followed by another and another and another, until I was surrounded. They were about waist-high, but they were certainly dangerous and it took a second for me to realize that I had to defend myself. "Bring it on!" I shouted, swinging my Keyblade wildly.

They swarmed toward me, and I slashed at them. I got a scratch across my arm, but it only made me mad so I destroyed the monster with a jumping strike as it vaulted at me. "Hyaah!" Another swipe and a second disappeared. I hopped onto one and struck it repeatedly, while it trampled the remaining four underfoot. The thing bucked me off and I landed on my rear, but now the odds were even. "One left? Honestly, I thought this would be more of a challenge." My Keyblade whistled through the air, dissolving the monster and returning to my hand.

I expected the mystery person to congratulate me, but no one spoke. At the northern edge (at least, I thought that was north) nine or ten stain-glass squares led to another circle in a curvy pattern. The pathway was nowhere near safe, seeing as there were large spaces between a few, but I wasn't afraid of anything so I ran towards them and jumped over the gaps. More of those beings from before tried to stop me, but I hacked until they were gone and continued.

The second circle was pink. Not my ideal choice, but whatever. The picture here was of a large, also pink door, with elegant handles. Next to it was a heart shaped like my keychain. The left half was yellow and purple while the right was light blue and dark blue, yet the shades didn't clash. On the large doors other side was a giant key. I guessed it was also a Keyblade; the stairs disappeared, leaving me trapped. After frantically searching for them I turned back around, but this time the picture of the door was three dimensional and three cloaked figures stood in front of it.

The first removed his hood. He was brown haired and very tall, and I realized he was speaking:

"Darkness lies in every heart, but with darkness comes light. The only thing that sustains our World is an equal balance of both forces, and very few have the same inside themselves. There have been those who have wanted total darkness, and those who wished for light. But, since neither can co-exist without the other, the battle has always been equal. Some have tempted fate to prove they are strong. Others have done it for mere curiosity. I cannot truly say what path is correct. But you will forge your own way, as the ones before you have."

The second one was a blue-haired young lady that was also tall. She smiled at me.

"Don't be afraid of the journey. It will be tough; you will meet new friends and perhaps some old ones. There will be near unconquerable hardships, impossible sadness, and battles you will lose; but don't be afraid. Both Light and Dark will guide you, sustains you, and aid you."

The third one did not show his face, but I could see a sprig of blonde hair sticking out. He had a different kind of aura to him, like he was just a ghost of some sort. He seemed to have the most effect on me.

"And don't forget-"

They parted as I stepped up to the door.

"Light and Dark will bow to you—

and you will close the door."

I pulled on the handle.

When I stepped out I was back on the first station. There was nothing here, though, except me and my shadow. I wandered around for a few minutes trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next; then, an earthquake shook the ground, nearly knocking me off my feet as I spun around.

A glowing…thing stood poised, ready to attack. It was made of three-dimensional shapes—elongated diamonds for arms and legs, sticks for fingers and feet, a square for an eye-less head, and a triangle with an "X" carved in it for a midsection. I drew my Keyblade, swinging it out behind me, and charged. Before I could get there, though, the monster disappeared.

I looked over the edges, wondering where it could have gone, when a semi-truck rammed into me and I rolled, my face connecting painfully with the glass; and then it had me in its grasp. I shouldn't have been able to do anything with my arms beneath its stick fingers, but I twisted up onto the arm. I nearly fell off as I ran along the diamonds, yet I made it to the head and swiped and slashed for all I was worth.

"Come on! Can't hit me, can you? Ha ha!" I swung around the head, jumping back down to the ground. My enemy (if you could call something like that a being, much less an enemy) separated into several parts and shot at me, some on fire, some frozen. I tried parrying them, but they cut right through me at hyper-speed and disappeared.

There was pain in my back and I was flying upwards. The stick-thing—now whole again—had apparently thrown me up into the air and he looked like he was going to take a swing. A surge filled my limbs and I did a backflip, still in the air, and threw Full House at my attacker. It struck him in the head, returned to my hand; and light filled the sky.

The station was whole again. My enemy was stretched out flat, and I took the opportunity to deal damage. After a few moments the monster stood up, posing in some strange way, and small swirling portals opened around me. Out popped smaller versions of the monster, about my height, but still just as dangerous. I cut them down to darkness, wondering why they hadn't put up a fight.

Suddenly, white glaring eyes appeared all around me, blinding me and making my head hurt; and in the corner of my vision I could see two diamonds spinning towards me. I mustered all my strength, jumped as high as I could, pointed my Keyblade to a hole in the wall, and fired a bright beam inside. The eyes disappeared, and my enemy stood in front of me once again.

"You think something like that can stop me? Ha! Playtime's over!" He charged at me, bending his body, but I sliced and hacked at him as he contorted and stretched. Two fingers gripped my feet as I flipped on my side in the air, and I kicked out, free again. I rolled backwards, dodging the bolts of light, and vaulted sideways. My weapon spun around me, and I shouted to the winds "Burden of Light and Dark!" An orb of light shot towards the enemy while black shards of dark flew down from the sky and struck it.

I covered my ears as the thing roared and staggered a bit.

You…you are not worthy of a Keyblade! I will be back…and then I will exact my victory!

The monster dissolved into nothingness.

"Whew! That was…that was…whew…" My shadow stretched and grew, but it wasn't because of the light...it was…real now. Before I knew it, the darkness had collected in a puddle at my feet. It rolled up my ankles, to my waist, and I flailed and struggled; but it closed over my head as I screamed and blacked out.

Remember, Vacurai.

"Being a Keyblade Master is all I've dreamed about."

You are not alone.

"Together, always."

Light and Dark will bow to you—

"My friends are my power, and I'm theirs!"

And you…

…will close…

…the door.

Civaruxa: So, what do you think? This is my first Dive to the Heart, but it isn't where I first learned of the Keyblade.

Demyx: Wow…that was…boring!

Vacurai: Oh, come on! I thought I did pretty good.

Xarayla: I guess I have to ask you viewers to review, so Civaruxa can get an honest reaction to how bad he was.

Civ: Hey!