Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

The Imbalance of Reality

By

Daniel Wood

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Kingdom Hearts, its characters, worlds, items etcetera. The events in this story and New Era of Darkness are not part of official continuity. Kingdom Hearts, KH: Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts 2 are joint productions of Square-Enix and Disney. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is written primarily for fun.

However, the following characters, Jaron, Adam, Sharak and Terron, are my own original creations. They are copyrighted and owned by me. Please do not use without my permission.

Note: Needless to say, you don't need to have read the New Era of Darkness to read this. But naturally, it does help.

Foreword

Well, I said if there was ever going to be a sequel to New Era of Darkness, I would be the one writing it.

So here we are again.

At the time, when I was writing my first-ever fan fiction on my favourite PS2 game, I was quite proud of myself for having finished such a thing. Doubtless, the greatest thrills for any writer are when they finally finish something they worked so hard on, and then they discover that their work is deemed good enough to be shown to the world.

Looking back at it now, I'd say that I probably tried to do much with New Era of Darkness. Because of my inexperience as a writer at that time, I now feel as though that there was stuff I could've written better and that because I changed things so drastically from Kingdom Hearts i.e. making Ansem a good guy, bringing all the characters together, instead of keeping them apart, and overlooking a few details, I felt as though what I had done kind of hurt the story.

Don't get me wrong. I'm very proud of what I wrote, and I'm glad that I introduced Jaron, the Saviour, Sharak, the source of all darkness, and Adam, the Saviour's brother, to you all, and that I was able to actually write a story that people approved of.

I learnt a lot from writing New Era of Darkness. I learnt how to refine my skills and picked up some useful tips along the way. Much has changed since I wrote my first fan fiction. Since leaving college, I've been spending my time writing reviews/articles for websites, letters to magazines etc. At the moment, I'm currently a member of a writer's forum, working on another fan fiction (as well as this one) and I've spent the last two years working on a really major project that you'll know about in good time.

Now, since I completed the first Kingdom Hearts back in January 2003 (it's been too long!), I hungered for more. The ending took me completely by surprise, and I'm not ashamed to admit that the poignancy really touched my heart and soul. That along with the secret ending, Another Side, Another Story, made me want the next game now. As no doubt other KH fans felt that way.

Learning about the Japanese special edition, Final Mix, and all the nice extras, such as the extra documents in Ansem's report, the Showdown of Fate between Cloud and Sephiroth, the untold tales of Riku, Sora's memories, and of course, the epic confrontation with the Unknown/Enigmatic Man, really inspired me, providing me with fresh material to use for a later story.

However, I knew that I would have to decide, whether or not to follow on from the happy ending of New Era of Darkness (those who read my fan fic will remember I had indeed left an opening for a sequel) or start afresh. With Chain of Memories being the next KH game on the horizon, the official story would obviously have to be taken into account. The trouble was I didn't know how to incorporate elements of the story I had written into a sequel based on Chain of Memories.

When I finally got my hands on the game, I was amazed at how brilliant the story was. Playing through this fantastic game with both Sora and Riku really got my imagination working, and I was soon able to come up with an idea.

And here it is.

After deciding not to start afresh, but to follow on and stay true to the fact that things are not always what they seem, I came up with the plot that I hope works and I hope you all enjoy.

I would just like to say a huge thank you to those who took the time to read New Era of Darkness and provide me with feedback. I really appreciated all your kind comments and I would also like to say a huge thank you to the one who asked me if I was going to write a Chain of Memories fan fiction (you know who you are). That inspired me to do this.

And finally, I would like to say sorry if I didn't respond to any feedback sent to my old e-mail address. Back in 2004, my computer and e-mail account screwed up in a way I didn't expect and it took me ages to get back online. If you wish to send any old feedback again, then feel free to send it to me again via my NEW e-mail address and I'll get back to you.

Thank you all for reading what I have to say and I hope you enjoy this latest instalment.

Daniel Wood (8th November 2005)

EDIT: For those of you who may not quite follow, New Era of Darkness was originally put on another site, and I had originally wrote this sequel for that same site but they discontinued their fan fic section.

Hope you enjoy this!

DCWood (19th January 2006)