KINGDOM HEARTS: Disc Five:

Towards The Ultimate Fantasy

Chapter 1: Chris Talonflight: Sweet Life

THEN:

"Yuffie," I said as I had said the night she had first started to have feelings for me. "Yuffie, will you kiss me?"

She smiled, and laughed, and almost cried—and kissed me, still laughing. She pulled away, and beat her fists on my chest.

"What?" I asked, surprised.

"You can't do this to me! I can't feel all this at once!" Yuffie laughed.

"Then just feel this."

I kissed her again, softly, slowly drawing her in, and in the pleasant blur of minutes that followed, we built out passion. Thoughts came buzzing like flies, but I ignored them. As our kisses became more heated, those thoughts, all thoughts, dimmed into the background and disappeared altogether beneath the scents of lavender and faint sweat and her breath, and the feel of her weight on my lap and her hands on my body and my hands on her. She moved her hips against me.

I jumped to my feet. Eyes wide, I cleared my throat.

"The bedroom can't be far." I said. "If you can wait five minutes-"

Yuffie grabbed me. We didn't wait.

NOW: 13 MONTH'S LATER.

I stood on the balcony of my friend's apartment in New York City.

Not having to work today, I could do as I pleased. Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and I were registered guardians of Hollow Bastion. Since Hollow Bastion was only rarely under attack, they were usually making free money. It wasn't that hard to pass the tests they had. Honestly, I think I did better then them.

I was visiting my friends in Reality, or rather, Earth, as my friends called it. I had been born here in New York, but since then I had spread my wings, and somehow ended up in the universe of Kingdom Hearts.

My friend Nudge poked my leg, asking for food. Smiling at him, I reached into a pocket, and pulled out the remains of a candy bar. That was one thing I missed about Earth: the food. Somehow, I missed plain Dominoes Pizza.

Nudge, a tame, overpowered shadow, was my best friend, with the exception of David Frostmourne, and my wife Yuffie. He was about the size of a Pikachu Pokémon, small enough to sit on my shoulder comfortably. His antennae were straight, with only a single, 45 degree turn near the end. Around his neck was a white collar. Nudge had picked it out himself. While Nudge had a pleasant and active personality, he was a fierce and deadly fighter, and had saved my life on numerous occasions. Nudge was extremely overpowered for a shadow heartless. He had singlehandedly taken down three giant heartless on his own: one Darkside, one Guard Armor, and a Leechgrave. He was kind to anyone he deemed his friend, but to my good friend David Frostmourne, my girlfriend Yuffie Kisaragi Stromwind, and me, he was devoted, although with me he was loyal to a different degree altogether. It was like he was my little brother/puppy.

David Frostmourne was a veteran of many impossible missions. He had worked for King Mickey nearly all of his life. Whenever I saw him, I was reminded of my old life on Earth.

That life was gone for good. When our world had been taken over by heartless and destroyed, I, along with several of my friends, had ended up in Traverse Town, with a few people named Leon, Aerith, Cid, and Yuffie. My friends and I had gained several powers: my friend Rodney had gained a broadsword and the power of lightning; my friend C had gained a Demyx Guitar and control over water; and my last friend Ashley had gained the keyblade Lurebreaker. Rodney had been captured by a powerful Dark Inquisitor named Johnson, who had plotted along with the villains of various worlds to gain control of Kingdom Hearts, the sum total of all hearts that have been freed by a keyblade. Johnson had turned Rodney into a hybrid human-cyborg, and set him against us. Rodney had eventually broken his hold on him, and had returned to our side.

Yuffie and I had met the same day that I had arrived in a world called Traverse Town. We had developed a relationship, and I still bore her parting gift: my legendary healing Materia Curagala.

C and Ashley were the only two of my original friends who lived on Earth. Unlike me, they had families to return to; lives they had to live; college they had to attend. I wasn't interested in college or the glamour's of life on Earth anymore. Now that I had been married to Yuffie for two exciting months, I had been living in a house in Hollow Bastion, working alongside Leon and Aerith as Guardians of Radiant Garden, or, the GRG. I received income from killing heartless, and for guarding specific areas. For a person of my talents, that was easy. Rodney, however, I wasn't sure about. He had family and friends back on Earth, but he was kept from returning for a very sad reason: he was no longer fully human. He had been turned into a cyborg by Johnson.

As I looked out over the skyline, fingering my Materia, I wondered what my life would have been like had things been… different. Yuffie had given me this Materia, along with a Materia that could be changed into anything. I had transformed it into a Curagala Materia. A Curagala spell was one step up from a Curaga, and only Yen Sid himself could cast the spell. I remember that I had gone to Yen Sid's castle directly, and he had made a copy of my memories as payment for casting the spell. He had said that he was going to write a book, because my memories from my previous excursion had been so intriguing. I couldn't argue with that.

Over a year before, I had lived on Earth, a world separated from the worlds of fantasy. Then the Heartless had come, and had destroyed my world, sending it through the torn veil between Fantasy and Reality to merge with Kingdom Hearts. I had fought my way through several other worlds, along with my friends: Ashley, Rodney, and C.

At the end of my journey, we had encountered our greatest enemy so far: a man who called himself Johnson, who had wielded the power of darkness. I later learned he wasn't human, but a hybrid human-heartless-Universed known as an Inquisitor. I had faced him in combat at the end, and barely defeated him. He had died when he tried to summon the power of Kingdom Hearts. It had killed him instead. However, the door to Kingdom Hearts had been opened, and there was only one way to close it. Johnson had created a replica of me using power contained in the mysterious fortress known as Castle Oblivion, and the replica had rebelled against him and joined me. The replica agreed to be sealed inside Kingdom Hearts along with the King of Disney Castle, King Mickey. Their Keyblades, weapons that could lock and unlock worlds, combined with the power of my own keyblade, had locked Kingdom Hearts, and ensured that it could never be accessed from that point again... or so I hoped. My friends Ashley and C had been returned to our world when the door was locked, because re-locking the door would cause all of the worlds that had been destroyed to return to their place, which was, in their case, Earth. Another friend, David Frostmourne, had been returned to his world of Disney Castle: or so I hoped, but I had since suspected that Frostmourne had no true home.

After I had been left stranded in the Endless Abyss after locking Kingdom Hearts, I had managed to escape. Creating portals of darkness was no problem when you were in the realm of darkness, after all. I had ended up in a place which I knew, from my previous knowledge, was the remains of the world called The Land of Departure. There was a strange castle there, called Castle Oblivion, which worked on your memory in strange ways. The farther up I went towards the top of the castle, the more memories I would lose. However, I had to do it: a group of Nobodies, known as Organization XIII, had sent a few of their members there. I had no way of returning to Castle Oblivion once I left it, so I had to take my opportunity to slay a good half of their members. In the process, I had become friends with the humanoid heartless Ansem. When I reached the top, I had lost my memory completely. Namine, a nobody whom I suspected was Yuffie's nobody (Since Yuffie seemed to be taking the place of Kairi for the most part, and her heart had been removed at Hollow Bastion when Johnson kidnapped her to lure me to him), put me to sleep for a year while she fixed my memory. That was where things got complicated.

When I had been battling Johnson, I had been forced to turn into a heartless. Because of my singular powers of darkness, I escaped form the Heartless condition, but I still had my nobody created. I had no idea what my nobody had done in the intervening year between my falling asleep and my awakening, but I knew that only my nobody could have awakened me from that sleep, since he contained my final pieces of memory. I assumed that he had gone through the events of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

I had woken up in Twilight Town. After travelling through a few worlds, and finding that some of my other friends had become Heartless and Nobodies (namely John/Nhoxj, who had PSI powers; Juan/Xanju, who had twin scythes; and Delorian/Nexus, who manipulated illusions, smoke, and glass [making a perfect opportunity for me to use my smoke and mirrors joke]), I wound up in Hollow Bastion, and was briefly reunited with Yuffie. However, when I was tricked into believing that Xanju had been killed, I succumbed to the darkness.

Frostmourne had arrived in time to save me, but I was unconscious for a few days. When I woke up, I found that Yuffie had been kidnapped by Organization XIII. On my way to their castle, I was reunited with Rodney, C, Ashley, Ansem, Nhoxj, Xanju, Nudge, another tame heartless named Trufflehunter, the King, and, surprisingly, my nobody, Xsirch. He had escaped again from my body when I had become a heartless temporarily in Hollow Bastion. He ended up joining me.

After getting Demyx and Axel to defect from the Organization, we were also reunited with Frostmourne and Namine, as well as Yuffie. Frostmourne and Yuffie had at this time gained keyblades.

To make a long story short, by the time we got to Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, we had six humans, four Nobodies, three Heartless, and one mouse (Demyx had run away, and Axel had been killed). Fourteen people.

I sighed. After we had killed Xemnas, Ansem had gone to rule the realm of darkness. The king and Frostmourne had gone back to Disney Castle. Rodney had become Cid's partner in intergummi commerce. Donald and Goofy had never left Disney Castle. C and Ashley had returned to Earth. Nhoxj and Xanju had gone to the World That Never Was, and rebuilt a non-evil Organization themselves. Nexus/Delorian had apprenticed under Ansem/Xehanort's Heartless for a while, and was now residing in Traverse Town. Trufflehunter had gone with him. Xsirch and Namine had gone to live in Twilight Town. Demyx had decided to live in Atlantica. Nudge, Yuffie, and I had gone to live in Hollow Bastion/Twilight Town/Traverse Town, since we had the deeds to houses in all three worlds.

I summoned my keyblade, Last Chaos, in my hand. I had had the power of darkness. I had recently also discovered that I had some talent for the light as well. When I was in my most desperate moments, my keyblade would suddenly change, and instead of being a bat-winged keyblade, it would become an angel-winged keyblade.

"Something wrong?" A voice asked. C was sitting on the couch, playing Call of Duty 7.

"Nah." I shook my head. "Just tired."

"You've been here since five A.M., dude." C laughed.

"Only because I was busy kicking your ass in COD." I smirked.

Formerly, I, C, Rodney, and Ashley had been Kingdom Hearts nerds. Then we had found out that it was all coming true. Needless to say, we didn't really want to keep playing them after that. We had had enough sights of Xemnas and Ansem to last us for a good while.

I stretched. "It's been good seeing you, man." I gave C a pound. He paused his game, and said goodbye. Then I opened a portal of darkness and left the house.

I emerged in my house in Hollow Bastion. Nudge appeared a second later from his own dark portal. Yuffie was waiting on the couch.

The room was lit only by a few candles. The bed, instead of its usual white-blue sheets, was velvet red. There was a fire in the fireplace. Yuffie was wearing a red bikini, with a miniskirt. The soft moonlight was shining through the sliding glass doors to the pool. I could feel my adrenalin beginning to stir within the pit of my stomach as I caught sight of Yuffie in her outfit. My breath caught, and I couldn't help but let my eyes flick over her body. Why would I hesitate, anyway? This is my WIFE.

"Are you all right?" She asked.

"Yeah." I smiled. I leaned down and kissed her. Even after two months, we still had that newlywed glow, according to Rodney and Leon. "I am now."

Nudge shook his head, and disappeared through a portal. He had a habit of doing that when I was having a romantic moment.

Yuffie smiled, and kissed me back. Her arms wound around my back. She pulled me down on top of her. I smelled her hair.

"Is that a new perfume?" I asked. Yuffie giggled an affirmative.

"I like it." I smiled, and Yuffie wrapped her legs around me. Lifting her, I carried her to the bedroom. Yuffie's arms intertwined behind my head, and she licked my neck, flicking her tongue across the smooth contours of my neck.

With a little bit of dark tendrils, I shed my clothes while still carrying Yuffie. In seconds, all I was wearing was my boxers. I could almost hear her heart beat as she begun to run her hands up my back, hiding her face within my chest, taking in my scent. I had sometimes caught her doing so while I slept. Her hands on my back moved to my chest and abdomen, moving down to my groin in a seductively slow pace.

When we reached the bedroom, I lay her down on the bed, straddling her. In a flash, she rolled me over, and she was on top.

I woke up in my bed; Yuffie snuggled up to me, her head resting on my chest. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace whenever I was with her. Her playful personality, her beautiful eyes, her beautiful face, her sensual body…

All right, enough. I said mentally. I have to go to work.

I got up and stretched. Yuffie still slept in the bed, oblivious.

After a shower, I entered the kitchen. Food had never been a problem for us, considering that Yuffie was a ninja who could live off the land anywhere, and I was a teenager from New York who had often had to fend for myself for dinner. Eggs, steak, pasta… you name it, I'd make it.

I glanced around, and saw Nudge sitting on top of the table. My little friend either had a sixth sense that enabled him to tell exactly when I woke up, or he (as I suspected) never slept. Come to think of it, I thought, DO heartless even sleep?

Dismissing thoughts of such foolishness from my mind, I exited my house. Outside was parked my white Fenrir motorcycle, the same model as Cloud Strife's, but white instead of black. I had also added a few red splashes for visual effect.

I hopped onto my motorcycle, Nudge leaping up behind me and taking a firm grip on my belt. I vividly remembered the first time Nudge had ridden with me; he had forgotten to hang on, and had ended up flying off of the bike on a sharp turn.

I shuddered to think of anything happening to my friend. He was like a combination little brother and puppy.

I raced through the streets of the slowly awakening town. There was work to be done, heartless to kill, and people to save.

A blur of darkness to the left caught my eye. Heartless? I wondered. Ever since we had killed Xemnas, the heartless had been more subdued. Maleficent hadn't yet begun her next play for power, so I didn't have to worry about her yet.

I let go of the handlebars with my right hand. Steering with my left. In my right hand I summoned my sword Soul Eater. I could also use a Keyblade, but I still wasn't used to handling the larger weapon with one hand while still driving a motorcycle; so I kept to the smaller bat-winged sword of darkness.

I had always wondered why I had the power of darkness. Sure, it was strong, but wasn't darkness supposed to be evil, and Light was supposed to be good? So why give me the power of darkness if I was one of the good guys?

Of course, I still did have my recently budding light powers… but they were nowhere near as reliable as my darkness powers. No matter how hard I tried to use the light, it seemed only to manifest when I was about to die… which had happened quite a few times in the past year.

I maneuvered the bike into a sideways slide. I saw a brief glance of a pair of glowing yellow eyes, and a pair of antenna. I lashed out, and my sword sliced through the Soldier Heartless, causing it to dissipate into black smoke. Damn Neoshadows.

I thought back to my previous experiences. There were many inconsistencies with the game and the real thing. The element affinities, for instance. According to the video game, using an element against someone with an affinity for that element only made them stronger. However, I and the dark lord Johnson had engaged in a battle of darkness in the Endless Abyss, and I had killed him with darkness. I killed heartless with the darkness. My friend, C, had beaten Demyx with water.

I put such thoughts out of my mind. We had long since realized that nothing would be exactly as it had been in the game. Nobodies did feel some emotions, it was just very hard to detect them. Sometimes, a person who was becoming a heartless would remember things about themselves (Like Sora did in Hollow bastion when he became a heartless), and they wouldn't be like the rest. The progenitor of the Heartless was the Universed, but the progenitors of the light and darkness that created the Universed were beings known as Inquisitors. There once were beings of pure light, the opposite of heartless and Universed, known as Harbingers. Ansem/Xehanort's Heartless had turned to the good side.

I resumed driving, and eventually wound up in the center of Hollow Bastion, in the Headquarters of the Guardians of Hollow Bastion.

The other Guardians, Cid, Merlin, Leon, Aerith, Tifa, and Cloud (Yuffie as well, but it was her day off).

"Hey guys!" I said. "How's everything?"

"You're late." Merlin grumped.

"Sorry. Ran into some Heartless on the way in. Had to take them out." I apologized.

"This isn't the time to discuss that." Leon said. His face was grim. "We have something on our long range scanners. It just appeared an hour ago. You should have a look."

"Show me." I said. Leon tapped at the big computer, and a scene appeared on the moniter screen.

It was a large, oscillating vortex in the middle of Gummi space. The vortex was white, with traces of purple darkness inside it. At the center, was a rotating flat diamond shaped thing. The Diamond shifter through smoke.

"What is it?" I asked.

"It looks like a portal." Another voice said. Everyone visibly jumped. I turned around quickly, my Keyblade appearing in my hands.

"You sure are jumpy." The short figure laughed.