Just a little thought ...
Culmination of Xehanort
In the far reaches of Interspace, on the barren, desolate world of the Keyblade Graveyard, where Bearers of Old had devastated themselves and existence itself, a malicious figure in a white coat looked over the broken ground with sadistic glee.
Xehanort, the wayward, mad Master. The composer of this wonderous symphony.
From his perch upon a low cliff, the broken forms of his myriad enemies littered the battlefield. The Wayfinders' corpses lay clustered together, embracing each other even in death. The former Nobodies, members of his faux-Organization huddled in fear and hopelessness. The Masters, Eraqus, Yen Sid, and Mickey, stood firm even as they reeled from injury and exhaustion. And in the center stood that unending thorn in his side, Sora, and his friends.
Around Xehanort lay his Seekers scattered. His Heartless and Nobody, the worthless Braig and corrupted Saix, the time-displaced fusion of himself and Terra, all strewn across the battlefield.
But that wasn't his concern. He had far larger aspirations.
Xehanort hardened his willpower, molding the power of his Keyblade into an orb of pulsing Darkness. He lifted his hand, forcing it to fly into the clouds above. The clouds, just as they had thirteen years ago, parted to reveal the shining visage of a heart-shaped moon.
The fabled Kingdom Hearts.
Xehanort opened himself up to the power of the Heart of All Worlds, the source of All Hearts. In essence, the heart of all that existed. The source of all power and wisdom. The treasure behind the first Keyblade War. And now it would finally be his!
He felt his body reacting to the pull of Kingdom Hearts, like the gravity of a world. He felt his fleshy shell fading away, just as similar to when he had unlocked his own heart as it was different. He felt his core, his heart, soaring toward the great moon. And now, for the culmination of his plans! His heart began to merge with Kingdom Hearts, his identity washing away …!
Xehanort came back to himself in a whirling tapestry of Light and Darkness, strands and threads of each woven together in an intricate and inseparable balance. A gap in the tapestry formed the space where he had come.
Xehanort looked down to find himself a spectre of himself, a transparent image of his prime. He glowed with a violet aura, the resonance of the Darkness that comprised nearly the entirety of his heart.
Xehanort looked to the tapestry of balance and his lips stretched into a rictus grin, a look of triumphant madness. He reached out for the power … and stopped at the sense of … a presence behind him.
Xehanort whirled around to find someone else here.
The figure before him, at the opposite end of the cavern, appeared male. His face had an ageless look, anywhere between his late teens to the onset of middle age. His hair was like ebony and cut short, his skin faintly tanned. And his eyes were the deepest brown, bordering on black. His attire was split down the middle in white and black, a shirt and slacks covered by a blazer.
And all around him hovered an immutable sense of force, of sheer unadulterated power.
"Xehanort," the figure greeted. "We finally meet."
"Who are you?" Xehanort asked. He had a fledgling idea, but it couldn't be true.
"I am …" the figure seemed to pause in thought, "... the Heart. I am what your kind have forever called 'Kingdom Hearts'."
So it was true! This must be how Kingdom Hearts chose to appear to him, a form that his human mind could comprehend. Xehanort's fierce grin returned. "Well, Kingdom Hearts, now is the time." He reached out to touch it, to harness that power, to learn all that there was and ever would be to know. "Shall we?"
Kingdom Hearts narrowed its eyes, the gesture somehow more frightening than anything he had ever seen.
"Arrogant child," Kingdom Hearts spat. The surrounding tapestry seemed to close in, to crowd around them. "Even if you could handle what I am, I would never stoop so low as to grant you the barest hint of what I am!"
Xehanort's eyes widened in surprise, before they narrowed in outrage. How dare this entity refuse him! After everything he had done to reach this moment … he would not be denied! Xehanort focused the Darkness in his heart and sent it flying, to forge a link and siphon its power. He had practiced this, and perfected it. He would not be denied!
But the Darkness dispersed within mere feet of him, fading away into the flow around them. And the visage of Kingdom Hearts looked utterly serene, as if he hadn't even batted away a fly.
"And further still you prove your folly," he said. "I am the Heart of All Worlds, the Core of All Hearts. I know all of them, feel all of them, just as I feel you, Xehanort. I have felt the suffering and chaos you have wrecked upon the worlds and its denizens as if it were my own." His lip curled in revulsion. "And i have experienced the madness that taints you yourself."
Kingdom Hearts' glow grew brighter, the sense of its power amplifying by growing magnitudes. "You are a stain upon the worlds, a toxin infecting reality itself, Xehanort." His fists clenched as true righteous anger tinged its voice. "You have never been, and never will be, worthy of me!" Xehanort felt the edges of his heart fraying, burning away by the mere presence of such power.
"And now, you will reap what you have sown!"
Sora felt tears cascade down his cheeks as Xehanort disappeared in a cloud of glistening dust. They had failed. Xehanort had won. Everything they had striven for had been for nothing.
He felt a faint pressure around both of his hands and glanced in turn at his friends. Riku's mouth was set in a determined line, Kairi's a faint, tranquil smile. Kairi leaned her head on his shoulder, weaving their fingers in a familiarly intimate gesture. Riku clapped him on the shoulder and stood firm, ready for whatever may come.
And the light around them … shifted. Sora looked up to see Kingdom Hearts' blazing glow shining brighter than ever. Columns of light, like sunbeams, descended upon them all and lifted them from the ground. Sora gasped as he felt his wounds closing, his strength returning. His body began to glow, to fade like it had when he had unlocked his heart.
He felt the pull of Kingdom Hearts drawing him in ...
Sora floated in a silvery void, wondering what was happening. He sensed a faint presence behind him and turned to find an ageless man smiling at him. The man lifted his right arm and placed his fingertips against Sora's chest, right over his heart.
"Have no fear, Sora," the man said. "Rejoice, even. For the Adversary is no more." His smile widened. "If anyone is truly worthy, it is you. But I know you have no desire for what I have." It was one of the reasons he was worthy. "Rest now, for your journey is finally at its end." The man began to fade away. "Now go home, and rejoin your friends."
Sora's eyes fluttered open to find the blazing sun shining down on him. A haze seemed to surround him, clouding his thoughts as he sat up. With a wide yawn, he prepared to lay back down and return to his nap. And he flinched at the sight of someone looking down on him.
"Whoa!" He looked back up to see Kairi giggle, the sound the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. "Gimme a-" Sora paused as a sense of deja vu settled, and then the memories came flooding back.
"Kairi, what happened?" he asked.
Kairi gave an apologetic grimace and a simple shrug of the shoulders. "I have no idea. Kingdom Hearts began to grow, it lifted us all up and healed us, and then … we all woke up here." Her lips twitched in the beginnings of a frown. "Well, most of us." She turned to gesture to all the others.
Roxas and Namine sat on the edge of the pier, just as Sora and Kairi had during the last sunset before all this had started. The two had their fingers woven as Namine rested her head against Roxas's shoulder, his own resting against her. Sora couldn't help but smile at that; after everything they had been through, he was happy they had a moment of peace.
Sora looked around to catch the sight of Riku and Xion on the islet, sitting together on the leaning paopu tree.
But that was all.
Aqua, Terra and Ven were not here, nor Lea or the King, or Yen Sid or Eraqus. Or any of the other scores of his friends who had rallied to fight alongside them. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to be afraid. Some instinct, a sense of them all, assured him that they were where they all belonged. They were home. They were happy.
And, really, that's all that mattered.
Kairi sat beside him on the beach and observed his expression with curious eyes. "Sora, is everything okay?"
Sora smiled wide, that utterly cheesy, simply Sora grin that made her heart melt. "Yeah, Kairi." He took her hand and lay back down on the sand, Kairi joining him and cuddling against him. "Everything's just fine."
Unseen to all, but resonating with them nonetheless, stood an ageless figure clothed in white and black. With a faint grin, he faded away.
Perhaps now, he could sleep without worry. Peace had finally come to the worlds.
Just a brief little one-shot. The idea came to me and I wrote it out in less than an hour. What'd y'all think?
*I based the visual appearance of Kingdom Hearts on Tetsuya Nomura, the fricking creator of the Kingdom Hearts franchise! Look him up! He's in his late forties and could pass for a twenty-year-old.
*The culmination was somewhat inspired by Fullmetal Alchemist.
Leave a review guys! What do you think will happen at the end of the fabled Kingdom Hearts III?
Thanks for reading! And may your Muse never waver!