Kingdom Hearts III: The Dying of the Light

Part 1: Rise

I do not own kingdom Hearts, whish I did then 3D would have been way different.

AN: Hey guys, I told you I'd figure this AN stuff out. Anyway I'd like to thank my Beta reader Atma-Stand for taking a look at this first chapter for me. Since this is my first Fic I want this to be the best it can possibly be for you all so I'll try to update and edit chapters as soon as possible.

And with that ENJOY!

Chapter 1: Fall

Kairi stood on the balcony of the Mysterious Tower staring out into the abyss of stars above her. Her gaze locked on a single star for a moment before jumping to the next one lingering again before repeating the process. She leaned on the balcony's railing putting her head in her hands as she sighed, breaking her stargazing she looked downwards towards the tracks that seemed to hover in the air outside the tower's lawn mumbling something before a friendly voice brought her back to reality.

"You know if you stay out here every night you're going to catch a cold dear."

Okay… more like scared her out of her fucking mind but the fairies had that effect on her. I mean they could fly around the room without being seen by anyone at all and had a nasty habit of talking right into someone's ear when they wanted to get your attention.

Quickly composing herself, Kairi turned to see Merryweather hovering just below her eye level with a semi concerned, semi amused look on her face.

"Are you alright dear, I hope I didn't frighten you?" she said still trying to hide her amusement from the redheaded teen. "I'm okay" she replied before tucking a few stray locks of her hair behind her ear. "I didn't think anyone else was up, well anyone aside from master Yen Sid that is."

Merryweather nodded her head in agreement since everyone who lived in the tower knew that ever since that catastrophe of an exam that Master Riku took part in six months ago Yen Sid hardly ever left his office. The only times she and her sisters had seen him leave was on the rare occasion that he made an appearance at dinner or the even rarer occasions when he was instructing Kairi.

No, something else was troubling her though she could see it clear as day even in the dim lantern light that lit up the balcony. This wasn't the first time she or her sisters had seen her on the balcony, staring at the sky for hours before shuffling back to her room when she was too exhausted to continue.

Almost as if she had read the fairy's mind Kairi began to speak, "I'm worried, about what's going to happen you know…" She turned back to the stars and gazed on one in the distance that flickered every so often.

"Master Yen Sid doesn't leave his room, and he barely teaches me anymore… not to mention that the King hasn't been visiting as often as he used to." "It doesn't take a genius to realize something big is happening, and if the amount of stars going out is any indication whatever it is… is going to be really bad."

Kairi turned to Merryweather as she leaned back on the railing running her hands through her wind swept hair trying to (and failing miserably) make it look decent amidst the bone chilling wind.

Merryweather was not fooled by her story as she had seen her share of teenage troubles with Aurora as she was growing up, and she would not be fooled again!

"Is that really all that's bothering you dear?" "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but take it from a little old fairy with a few years under her belt it isn't healthy to keep everything bottled up." "The longer you do, the worse it makes you feel."

Kairi looked at the tiny fairy resting on her hand staring at her with that look that she remembered only her grandmother using and immediately felt guilty about lying to her. Kairi started biting her lip and shuffling her feet racked with guilt until she finally started spilling her guts to the now amused fairy 'the old granny stare, hah ha! Works every time…'

"The truth is…that….well I mean…what I meant to say was…that I…I…ACHOOOO!"

The gust of wind produced by Kairi's sneeze sent the fairy flying as she instantly brought her hands to her face in case she sneezed again.

"Goodness! Come now Kairi you need to get inside or else you're going to catch your death out here." In a puff a smoke Merryweather reverted to her normal size and started dragging Kairi back into the tower conjuring a light blue blanket for the girl once as they passed through the corridor.

"I'm sorry about all this I didn't mean to make everyone worried about me"

Kairi covered herself with the blanket rubbing her arms as they walked; trying to regain some feeling in her body as they quickly approached her room. Merryweather stepped in front of Kairi and waved her finger at her as she tried to act as stern as she possibly could. "Oh hush, it's my fault as well dear if I didn't start blabbering on the porch you wouldn't have been outside as long."

Kairi couldn't help but giggle at the fairy as she opened the door to her room and walked inside "Its fine really, a good night's sleep and I'll be good as new. Thank you for the blanket by the way it was very thoughtful of you." Kairi began to close the door just as Merryweather tried to open her mouth "Well goodnight then Merryweather, see you in the morning"

Merryweather stood outside the closed door wringing her hands as she spoke "Kairi… if there is anything you would like to talk about… anything at all please tell us."

"After all we're all family here" With that she heard the audible click of the lock and looked down as she walked away from the now sealed room. "Goodnight dearie."

"Well that went about half as good as expected didn't it Merryweather?"

Kairi ignored most of what the little fairy was saying form her position on the other side of her door, tuning people out was a skill she had started practicing whenever someone tried to talk to her about how she felt.

"After all we're all family here…"

Kairi's breath hitched in her throat for a moment before her hands flew towards the enchanted lock and sealed the room.

Kairi went to her dresser on the opposite side of her sparse room and pulled out the top drawer, her knees buckling under the heavy weight as she gently placed it on the ground. Reaching into her hiding pace she pulled out a roll of cloth and unfolded it until she held its contents in her hands.

The rope she used was starting to unravel in places and the shells had long lost their luster but the design she had painted all those years ago was still there as clear as the skies back on their island. Clutching her lucky charm to her chest she let herself fall back onto her bed throwing the blankets over herself as tears started flowing down her cheeks.

"Please come back" she whispered "this place is so empty and cold without you here. I mean everyone is nice and my training with master Yen Sid is okay… Riku even started acting like himself again that's great right?" "I'm supposed to be training so we can all fight together and that means you won't be out there alone anymore…" "But if that's the case then why does it all make me feel so empty I just wish I…I..." She could feel her eyelids growing heavier and heavier as the fairies sleeping spell began to activate. Slowly she let the spell take hold, causing her to drift into an almost peaceful slumber. Her tears however continued to fall right up until she had lost consciousness and with a quiet whisper Kairi fell asleep.

"Sora…"

Meanwhile on the other side of the tower

"I'm worried about her sisters" Merryweather said as the three fairies made their way through the tower, "She's already been through enough these past few years and with Xeahanort back from the dead its only going to get worse."

Her sisters Flora and Fauna, both nodded in agreement with that fact. The three of them had seen firsthand what Xeahanort's meddling could do to a world and the idea of there being thirteen of him around had been the subject of many if not all of their own nightmares.

"Well" Flora said as she opened the door to Master Yen Sid's study "At least Aurora was asleep when Maleficent and those nasty unversed attacked. I don't think any girl that age should have to deal with this much pressure." "It's simply not natural. Not in the slightest."

"What do you think Fauna?"

Fauna stopped moving Yen Sid's books around the room and paused for a moment taking a deep breath before answering; yes the stress of everything was even starting to get to her. Making the usually chatty fairy quieter than a mouse these past few months…

"I believe sisters that we're forgetting everyone else at the moment, after all everyone here is under the same amount of stress." "Especially Master Yen Sid he might not say it out right but he still blames himself for what happened during the exam."

Fauna quickly resumed her task and with a flick of her wrist all of the various scrolls and ancient tomes flew back to their proper spots on the shelves. Several of which ended up landing on top of Merryweather, who had shrunk down to clean the cobwebs in the shelf's corners. With a poof she returned to her larger size taking several books with her,

"That's not the point Fauna!" "Granted that this is a very stressful time for everyone but at least they have way of dealing with it." "Take us for example." She said as she finished fixing the shelves she destroyed.

"The three of us keep ourselves busy with the day to day chores, Master Riku trains every day from dawn till dusk, Master Yen Sid busies himself with these books even Lea does…" "Um. What is it that Lea does again?"

"Sets fires on the lawn." Flora replied from the rafters.

"Yes, sets fires on the lawn." "Kairi has spent every waking moment when she's not training either on that terrace or locked away in her room." "Now I don't know about you two but in my opinion the only way she's going to be happy again is if a certain brunette comes walking down that hall picks her up and…"

"Drags her back to her room and locks the door?" Fauna said with a grin as she floated above her sister. "FAUNA!" the two fairies shouted as they blasted her with magic causing her to fall back down to the floor. "I cannot believe you just said that, that was so…so …lewd!" "You've been talking to Lea again haven't you?" Flora said sternly. Fauna simply dusted off her gown and continued to work brushing off her sister's embarrassed rage as she replied. "Well he keeps burning his coat so somebody has to fix it, besides that's not the worst thing he's said."

With a wide grin Fauna beckoned them closer so she could whisper to them the next moment all three of them were holding their sides laughing hysterically at her story. "So…so wait a moment wait a moment." Flora said waving her hands at her emerald cloaked sister "Was that story actually true?" Fauna could only nod she was laughing so hard "Oh, that poor Demyx I'd hate to see him in such a state." "Oh who am I kidding I would hah hah hah!"

For a brief moment the stresses of the day vanished with their shared laughter and brought forth a single ray of sunshine in their otherwise dark days. For a moment the three good fairies felt alive again with no worries or stress to bother them as they laughed at Fauna's tale. Sadly though it would be the last one they would have for quite a while.

"You three seem to be enjoying yourselves at this late hour now aren't you?"

The room suddenly dropped to subzero for the three fairies as Yen Sid appeared in the doorway, the dark bags under his eyes appearing to grow even darker, before he silently strode across the room towards the windows behind his desk. In all their years of service to the keyblade master they had ever seen him in such a freighting state.

"M-Master Yen Sid." Merryweather managed to choke out amongst the suffocating atmosphere "Is everything alright?" As physically impossible as it was the room seemed to grow even colder as Yen Sid stood silently stroking his beard in thought. Suddenly the painful silence was broken as he finally replied to the curious trio. "No, my friends it is most certainly not. In fact I believe that it is so far from alright that a word hasn't been invented for it yet." Normally Yen Sid's monotonous voice helped ease their minds when it came to combating the forces of darkness across the worlds.

Yet now his voice was like a cold hand slowly grasping their hearts, the feeling of dread slowly pumping through them did little to ease their troubles. With that the three sisters collectively came to the same conclusion…Whatever was about to happen next would be something that would haunt them for the rest of their days.

"I'm calling an emergency meeting go and gather everyone in the tower immediately."

And they were right…

Kairi's Room later that night

The fairies sleep spell was very different than the one their horned counterpart used on Princess Aurora many years ago. This spell was full of love and only the purest of magic possible essentially garneting the recipient a peaceful, nightmare free, sleep.

Despite the magic however, mere minutes after she fell asleep Kairi began to toss and turn on her bed. Her brow was damp with sweat and scrunched together every so often, her arms and legs thrashed violently as if she was fighting in her sleep. Whatever haunted her dreams was stronger than the enchantment the fairies placed upon her and just as quickly as she fell asleep Kairi bolted from her slumber screaming.

She looked around the room once inspecting every corner before doing it again just to make sure that the nightmare was truly over. "God damn it not again" she whispered as he held her head in her hands, "That's the third one this week." "Why…why won't it just stop!?" Kairi started to shake and she knew what was coming next, shortly after she escaped them she would remember... and that was always the part that hurt her the most.

It always began the same way, they would always be home sometimes they'd be standing on the beach other times in front of a small house by the shore. It didn't matter to her, he was there he was home...

And …she… couldn't… move.

She would realize it as soon as he started to walk away, her feet were frozen in place and every time she tried to speak nothing happened. Sora would always walk away from her and she couldn't do a damn thing about it. This was a nightmare she could deal with it's the next part that made her truly afraid.

All she could see was Sora, Sora and her fighting together, laughing together and doing a few things that made her blush redder than her hair together but it always ended the same way. At some point a Keyblade was thrust through his chest and all she could see was Sora lying on the ground dead blood pooling around him. Splattered across his face and coating her hands as she cried over him. If that wasn't bad enough her dreams just so happened to repeat constantly as she slept.

She usually woke up by the fifth time they did…

"It was just a dream Kairi" she said as she began to rock herself back and forth on the bed her taking deep breaths as she moved. After a few moments to calm herself down she turned to the clock on her night stand, the glowing red numbers formed a faint 2:30. 'Great, now I'll never get back to sleep. Stupid nightmares just once I want to dream of something good' she thought as she stumbled out of her bed, her mind may be fully awake but apparently the rest of her body didn't get the memo, and made her way to the bathroom.

The cold water felt good on her face not only did it wake her up but it also got rid of the disgusting sweat that made her hair stick to her face after each nightmare. "Okay Kairi" she said to her reflection in the mirror "Its 2:30 in the AM and you're wide awake. What will you do?" She stood still for a moment simply listening to the drip of the faucet before sighing and exiting the room. "Like that was ever going to work." She said disappointed as she sat on the edge of her bed contemplating what task she could busy herself with in order to go back to sleep.

'I could try and finish those magic training drills that Donald gave me last time I was here, no last time I tried that I made a hole through the wall of the tower.' Kairi started tapping her fingers against her thigh as her brow scrunched together 'Maybe I should clean my Keyblade, yeah it's been a while so it's probably due for a little touch up'.

"Alright deep breath Kairi… just breathe" holding her hand palm up in front of her, her Keyblade Destiny's Embrace flashed into existence its sparkling appearance and vibrant colors bringing a smile to her face, as well as reminding her why she's never cleaned her Keyblade before. "Right magic sword… it cleans itself" she sighed as she fell back on to the bed "Now what am I supposed to do?" She stared at the Keyblade in her hands for a while before letting it disappear in a flash of light "well I guess there's only one thing left to do." She sighed as she left the bed and headed towards her dresser "Training time."

If there was one thing she hated doing alone in the mysterious tower it was training. Now don't get the wrong idea she loved training not only did it make her Keyblade skills stronger but with every new callous she gained or exercise she mastered she grew that much closer to Sora's level. That was when she had an instructor showing her the ropes when it was just her it was a complete mess. She knew nothing of swordplay let alone fighting when she trained alone she spent more energy trying to remember where and when to swing against an imaginary target than actually improving her form. Sometimes she wondered if she was really cut out for the whole Keyblade wielder thing or that Kingdom Hearts was playing a cruel joke on her.

She honestly hoped it was the former…

She lost her train of thought however as she passed the main hall and heard voices coming from the dark hallway. She had seen enough horror movies back home on Destiny Islands to know that trying to figure out where the noise was coming from was a very very bad idea.

Naturally she did it anyway…

After a few minutes she saw a light coming from Yen-Sid's office and she could hear the voices a lot clearer than before however she was still a ways away and with the door closed she could only hear pieces of their conversation. "You can't be serious!" an all too familiar voice said in a hushed tone, that one was Riku. "I know it may seem farfetched but I have been combating the darkness far longer than you and I am telling you Master Riku that it is the only way." That was Yen-Sid although he sounded harsher than usual, the conversation picked up quickly after that and it took all her concentration to separate the voices from each other.

"Farfetched more like crazy if you ask me!" squawking noises followed 'definitely Donald, and if he's here then…' "Garswh I'm with Donald on this one Master Yen-Sid" 'there's goofy' she thought with a smirk Sora would be so impressed with her eavesdropping skills when he came back. Although Goofy's tone sounded more upset than when he usually got into an argument which made her start to worry she took a few more steps down the hall to hear more just in case.

"But it's not right!" Riku shouted a dull thumping noise following shortly after; he just hit something…hard. She took a few more steps.

"Now calm down now Riku, no need to get all worked up." A high pitched voice said after Riku's outburst 'that's the king!' Kairi's eyes widened after hearing Mickey's voice if he was here something HAD to be going on. She took a few more steps. "Fuck that" she said before sprinting down the rest of the corridor towards the door.

Riku was here, so was the King and the top two members of his guard and she thought she heard the fairies at one point as well. Everyone who either lived or trained in the tower was here, and for some reason she wasn't invited to their little get together and she wanted to know why.

Before she could reach the door she felt someone grab her from behind, panicked she tried to scream but another pair of hands had covered her mouth. She was about to bite down on her attackers hands when a little ball of red light floated in front of her it was Flora, then that meant that Fauna and Merryweather were the ones holding her back. "Kairi dear you must listen to me" Flora said as he nervously fluttered around her head "Something is about to happen, something very very bad." The other two fairies had released Kairi and started to push her towards the other side of the hall each one of them with a look of serious and fear etched onto their faces.

"What's going on Flora?" Kairi asked as she started to pull away from them, their odd behavior starting to scare her. "Flora!" Kairi whispered harshly to the little fairy who instead of answering her had turned away from her and focused on the hall ahead of them. "Fauna?" Kairi turned to the green fairy to her left and received the same response, she started fighting their hold on her arms as fear and panic began to take over. With that she turned to the fairy on her right and for the third time that night asked the same question "Merryweather" Kairi stated panic evident in her voice "What. is. going. on?" Merryweather stopped and paused for a moment and after a few seconds of silence she answered.

Kairi's eyes widened in shock and tears started to form rapidly, trailing down her face as Merryweather answered her. The kind fairy's words cut through her like a knife as her world became quiet.

After that she ran.

Yen-Sid's Office

"I asked you to gather everyone in the tower" Yen-Sid said as he turned to the fairies, his irritation showing in his voice "Where is Lea?" Hoping to avoid conflict Riku answered from his position in the back of the room the three fairies silently thanked him.

"He's not here Master Yen-Sid, you sent him to Radiant Garden this morning to pick up supplies from Merlin." Yen-Sid leaned back in his chair taking a moment to recall exactly what he had sent Lea to get in Radient Garden before he began stroking his beard again "Ah, yes thank you Master Riku." With that Yen-Sid waved his hand in front of him releasing a wave of bright blue magic that coated every inch of the room before fading away. The old Sorcerer stood up and moved over to the window with painfully practiced ease before he spoke again "No matter I'll personally fill Lea in on the details when he returns".

Master Yen-Sid had pulled out a huge book from one of the shelves and began flipping through it taking about how Xeahanort and his forces were still at large and how many worlds disappeared recently. This was usually how these meetings went, Yen-Sid would pull out the book write down which worlds were lost and which worlds were willing to fight with them.

But he could really care less, I mean he did care about the worlds and he worried about his friends constantly but much like Sora, Riku knew that unless one of their friend's worlds was either attacked by a member of the Organization themselves or a planet wide heartless invasion they could hold their own.

What pissed him off however was how Master Yen-Sid was handling the whole situation. Sure he was a little rattled that Xeahanort had managed to hijack the mark of mastery exam he could understand that fine. After six months however he started to get restless, instead of actually traveling the worlds helping others prepare for the coming war or better yet trying to find/stop the members of the Organization before they grew too powerful to stop Master Yen-Sid had confined him and Kairi to the Tower for 'training purposes'. Hell the only person here who could actually leave when they wanted was Lea and that was only because he could use the corridors of darkness. To be honest it irked him to know end…

His train of thought was derailed however when his gaze caught the movement of Mickey's hands. The subtle nervous movements were a form of code he and the King had used while they traversed the lands of darkness years ago. Quickly catching on to the King's message Riku moved his hands in response 'Have you guys heard from Sora at all? We haven't heard from him in weeks.'

'No' the mouse signaled 'last we heard from him he was still handling heartless in Traverse Town.' 'I don't see Kairi anywhere did Yen-Sid send her with Lea?' Riku gently shook his head in response causing the small king to frown 'I see the fact that he didn't ask for Kairi means somethings going on.' Riku quickly glanced back up at Yen-Sid he hadn't noticed before since he wasn't looking but the old sorcerer started to look the part. He had more grey in his beard than when he met him a year and a half ago and his shoulders started to slump showing how tired he was simply sitting in his chair. Not to mention how pronounced the dark bags under his eyes became over the past few weeks in his opinion he looked like a college student after pulling an all nighter.

In short he looked wrecked…

Quickly signaling the King for his attention Riku started to sign again 'Do you have any idea what could get Master Yen-Sid so worried? I'm not gonna lie the guy looks like shit.' Mickey made a single motion with his two fingers effectively ending their conversation Riku had only seen that signal twice while they traveled. It was a warning for when they came across something extremely dark and dangerous. Whatever had Yen-Sid scared had Mickey starting to worry and if the freaking king of Disney Castle was scared of something it wasn't a good sign.

The sound of a book slamming shut brought Riku's attention, as well as the rest of the groups, back to the Sorcerer "As you all are well aware we are at war with the darkness and as a result we the Keyblade wielders have saved countless worlds from the darkness." "However with the fall of Organization XIII and the return of Xeahanort we face an even greater threat than before. Even if we are able to prevent the remainder of the worlds from falling into darkness as long as Xeahanort is able to gather his thirteen darkness's the X-blade will reform."

"We simply cannot allow Xeahanort to re-forge the X-Blade if he succeeds he will use Kingdom Hearts to engulf everything in his twisted darkness, which as a guardian of light I simply cannot allow." "Okay, nothing new there" Riku replied as he moved towards the desk "My question though is why the hell is Sora not here?!" "I mean he's the one who took on Xeahanort and beat his ass twice so if anyone could make a plan to stop his wrinkly bald ass it would be him". The sorcerer's gaze moved towards the surface of his desk his knuckles going white from his grip on the arm rests. Everyone in the room was quiet, waiting for what his next words would be.

After a few moments Yen-Sid's head moved back up and he locked his gaze with Riku's "That Master Riku is precisely why Sora isn't here."

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop as Yen-Sid continued, the tension in the room preventing them from speaking. "There is only one way to stop Xeahanort's quest for the X-blade we, as the forces of Light must remove one of his chosen pawns."

"Permanently"

Mickey was the first one to respond "Surely Master you can't be seriously considering this!" "I have your majesty and it is the only way to end this war before it truly begins."

"Umm your majesty…what's he talking about?" Goofy was rubbing his hands together nervously as he asked the question to his king.

"In order to stop Xeahanort from creating thirteen copies of himself Master Yen-Sid wants to kill one of his vessels." The king said in dismay, his shoulders slumping as he spoke.

"All right, all right" Riku said waving his arm dismissively "I'm not a big fan of this but if we have to kill one of his vessels I vote we kill Braig… Xigbar… you know the ponytail pirate guy." While Donald and Goofy shared a chuckle at the nickname Mickey's gaze was still glued to the floor "Hey it's not like he doesn't have it coming. That guy's a dick anyway."

"THAT'S NOT WHAT HE MEANT RIKU!" Riku and the others were shocked at the kings outburst never had they seen Mickey lose his temper even in the heat of battle. His small body was shaking in an attempt to contain his obvious rage and it was only through gritted teeth that he continued. "You don't understand Riku once… once Xeahanort places himself in a vessel they can't be destroyed…well at least not permanently." "If we did this we would have to destroy a vessel that hasn't been filled with his darkness yet."

"But what does that even mean!" Riku shouted towards the trio "How are we even supposed to find one of his vessels! I don't think you've noticed but we have enough trouble as it is tracking his current vessels much less an empty one! It's not like one of his vessels is just sitting out in the open you…" Riku's eyes went wide in realization as his arms slowly fell to his sides. Mickey turned away knowing that Riku figured it out just like he did."You're joking right… you can't… you just can't." His voice was little more than a whisper yet it was easily heard by all in the small room

"I'm afraid Master Riku that this is no joke." Yen-Sid said calmly as he slowly leaned forward in his chair "In order to prevent the X-blade's formation and to save Kingdom Hearts we must destroy Xeahanort's next vessel."

"We have to kill Sora."