Heart, Body, and Soul
Heartless. Nobody. Hollow. Just when the balance of the worlds is restored, a new enemy threatens the Kingdom of Light once again. Sora, Kairi, and Riku scramble to stem the flow of Hollows before the worlds are overwhelmed.
A heart that balance light and darkness. A body with the strength of will to survive. And a soul, the existence of life. Every living creature on every world possesses these three components.
First came the Unversed, dark beings produced of a heart split cleanly into two halves. These extensions of the half of darkness vanished when the two halves were rejoined, ultimately resulting in eternal slumber.
Second came the Heartless, hearts consumed by darkness. The embodiment of darkness continued to seek out other living hearts, hearts that breathe and feel and strive for a purpose.
Third came the Nobodies, remnants of the bodies vacated by Heartless. These entities persisted in living on even without hearts, becoming individuals in their own right; those with stronger wills were able to maintain their original form, while other weaker-willed subjects lost their shape and were manipulated by higher Nobodies.
The fourth is just beginning to spill into the worlds. The soul of the being, the spirit of life that allows the body to exist. Whether the heart leaves the body as a Heartless or a pure pink sphere of energy, whether the body dissolves away or lives on as a Nobody—the soul continues to drift aimlessly until it is found and guided into the afterlife. Most souls eventually pass on to the next world; however, those laden with ambitions or regrets are unable to move forward, and, if left to fester too long on their world, may reform into the final enemy.
The Hollows.
A blast of black dust showers Kairi as Destiny's Embrace shears through a row of Shadows. The soot that sticks to the sweat dripping down her forehead stings in her eyes. In precaution, she raises the hilt of the short Keyblade so that the shaft protects her torso while she attempts to wipe the grime from her eyes. A claw clinks off her block, and a strange power surging from the Keyblade to her mind causes her to instinctively thrust forward in a powerful payback. Another Heartless explodes.
"Way to go, Kairi!" cheers Sora from somewhere to her far right, and, even though she can't see him (or anything, for that matter), she can picture the Disney-perfect happy-hero grin plastered across his face.
Her Keyblade provides her a sense of the spatial orientation of her enemies, but that isn't enough to compensate for the black gunk that is still trying to seep into her eyes. As static electricity begins to crackle along her fingers and the swinging keychain, she shouts to her comrades, "CLEAR?"
Two whooshes of air, then two replies of confirmation. One is bright as the clear blue sky above them, the other as solid and tranquil as the stone beneath. "Clear."
Kairi swings her Keyblade into the air. The keychain smacks her in the face on the way up, and she winces. "Thundara!"
Around her, a hail of lightning bolts touch down. The air hums with electricity and crackling heat. Her auburn hair flies haphazardly in all directions, each seeking to release its buildup of electrons. Though she can feel the air ionizing around her and Heartless disappearing in puffs of smoke, she doesn't flinch. When the final bolt disappears in a flash, she wipes the crusted black free from her eyes and immediately looks around for her friends.
In front of her, Sora and Riku are making quick work of the remaining Soldiers and Fat Bandits. Neither seems to break a sweat, but, since Kairi is so exhausted, she taps into the magic held within Destiny's Embrace and casts a group Cure.
In the few seconds that Sora glances up in surprise at the green flower unfolding above his head, Riku darts into Sora's territory on the palace wall of Agrabah and cleans up the rest of the Heartless. "Hey, those were mine!" Sora protests as Riku slings The Way to Dawn over one shoulder.
"Too slow," Riku smirks.
"I was distracted."
"Distracted by what?" Kairi calls indignantly. When Sora's face freezes in immediate, frantic apology, Kairi lets out a short laugh. "Seriously, Sora, I'm not offended."
Riku punches Sora on the shoulder a little harder than necessary, knocking him off balance. "Don't be so uptight. Loosen up a bit."
"Hey!" Sora yells, regaining his balance. "I'm always loose. Loosey caboosey. That's me."
Kairi grins as her two best friends launch into another never-ending argument, which will probably end in another no-hold-barred sparring match. In the meanwhile, she digs into one of the millions of pockets in her pink miniskirt and pulls out a tiny mirror.
She looks absolutely awful. Black soot is streaked all over her face, running down in rivulets from her eyes like a bad application of mascara. Her eyes still water from the dust stuck behind her eyelids; but here in Agrabah, water is an extremely precious resource, and it'd be wasteful to even wash her face. Her hair is more brown than red, darkened by Heartless residue, and much of it is still slightly suspended above her scalp from leftover static electricity. Only her deep blue eyes are unchanged, and they stare back at her with a playful sparkle.
She's holding her own in Heartless cleanup. Sora and Riku didn't even look over at her to double-check her progress. Well, Sora looked over only ten or fifteen times; Riku was the one who trusted her to take care of herself. He was the one who gave her Destiny's Embrace in the first place, when Sora had been overwhelmed in the Castle That Never Was. Together, she and Riku blasted through the last waves of Heartless (or more like he blasted and she supported) to reach the Keyblade Master.
And, when Sora needed two companions to traverse the worlds for Heartless and Nobody cleanup, Riku lobbied for her addition to the team. Kairi wasn't about to lose Sora and Riku again, despite Sora's strong disagreement on the matter; but when Riku joined her side, Sora gave in.
And now she's been to seven worlds. Seven worlds she never knew existed! Each world with its own culture, traditions, food, and experiences. In each world, she's gained scars and muscle and technique, the ability to wield Destiny's Embrace with greater skill, the memories formed with friends that she'll hold close to her heart forever.
This wild, dust-streaked image reflected in the mirror before her? She wouldn't trade that image for the world.
Before Kairi snaps the personal mirror shut, she sees a brief glance of white-blond hair framing an anxious face. A sense of foreboding fills her as she stares at the now shut mirror. Danger. Something is coming. Something bad is going to happen.
The air shimmers with heat as her eyes scan the palace walls. The town within is sheltered from sandstorm damage, but it's the middle of the day now and temperatures are sky high. The world's residents are all staying indoors, probably murmuring about the strange people outside crazy enough to stand in the full power of the desert sun. Kairi's sweating buckets, yet Sora and Riku, now exchanging light barbs and light strikes with street sweeper brooms, still haven't broken a sweat. She notices the glint of a spherical, ice blue crystal nestled an armband on Sora's wrist; a parting present from somebody called Yuffie.
Something draws her eye to the palace gates, set above the rest of the city streets so that, even though she and Sora and Riku are in the poorer slums, she has a full view of the exotic palace where Princess Jasmine resides. At first, she doesn't see anything but shimmering heat waves, but then something stirs. Something huge. It's so huge, it completely blocks the palace gates.
Kairi feels the hairs on the back of her neck rising. Whatever it is, it's masking its presence. It doesn't want to be seen. She can barely see it as it is, only features distinguishable by curved heat-wave-like projections. The air is bulging, contorting, twisting the longer she stares at it. She can see a definitely shape now—rotund, with a wrinkled expression, and an ancient aura that she can just… sense.
"Sora," she calls. Immediately, Sora's crouching next to her, excessively alarmed. Riku is frozen in an awkward position in the middle of the street, the street sweeper broom held comically above his head for a killing blow.
"What's wrong?" Sora asks in concern. He smells clean and fresh with a tint of perspiration.
Kairi doesn't look at him. If she looks away from the strange apparition standing in front of the palace gates, she'll lose the image. And losing sight of the target is a bad idea. She points instead. "Do you see something? In front of the palace gates."
Sora follows her finger, staring intently into the distance. Riku joins them, and she smells the shampoo in his silvery hair. After a while, Sora links his hands behind his head and shrugs. "Nope."
"What are you looking at?" Riku asks.
"There's something… big. It's just standing there," Kairi says eloquently. "I can't see it that well either, though."
Sora pipes, "Are you sure it isn't just my beautiful, happy face you're longing—"
Before he can stick his spiky head into her face, Kairi firmly plants a hand on his skull and forces him into the ground at her feet. The entire time, she keeps her eyes trained on the apparition in front of her. "No, I'm serious. Even if you can't see it, don't you feel it?"
A pressure in the air. That's what it feel like, emanating from the… thing standing guard in front of the palace.
Riku nods gravely. "So you sense it too."
The confirmation only increases her ability to see the specter, and she gasps as a definitely outline pops into existence. Moving, breathing, crouching in front of the palace gates protectively. Sora ceases his exaggerated choking on sand beneath her feet to lie still as the silence stretches on.
"There's something there," Kairi breathes finally. "There's definitely something there. I can almost see it."
"Are you sure?" Sora asks again, jumping to his feet in a flash. "I still don't see anything. Just a lot of heat waves. Hey look! Another group of Heartless! Oh wait, just a caravan."
"I feel it too," Riku murmurs. "Should we get closer? Maybe then we can Scan for it."
Only Riku looks at Sora for the final decision. Kairi would too, except she's got her eyes fixed on the ghostly apparition a mile away.
Sora glances at Kairi, then at Riku. "I think we should triple-check the streets to make it clear that the Heartless aren't welcome here. Especially since Jasmine plans on parading through the main street this evening. There'll be so many hearts jammed together that any Heartless packs within a ten mile radius will want to come."
Kairi's eyes widen, but she doesn't turn to address her friends. "That thing is just sitting in front of the gates. If we don't chase it off, Jasmine won't even be able to get out of the palace." Riku murmurs in agreement.
Sora's brow furrows in deep thought. "I don't see anything, don't feel anything, don't spooky-wooky sense anything… but I trust both of you. Let's check it out."
The moment they clear the walls of the wealthy district and enter the palace grounds, Destiny's Embrace picks up on the target, solidifying Kairi's vision. Suddenly, she can see much more of the ghostly image shifting in front of them. Judging from Riku's sudden intake of breath, she figures he must see it too.
"I see," Riku states simply, slowly down. Sora glides another twenty feet before turning around.
"Do you guys see anything yet?" he asks anxiously. Both Kairi and Riku are staring at some point in space, somewhere in front of the gates. He just sees the gates. And the palace. nothing else.
Kairi, on the other hand, can see the entire thing: a wizened parody of a Sultan, judging from the frayed, weathered robes the reptilian creature is wearing. The figure is no longer humanoid, but rather feral, crouching over onto its hands and feet. Though its skin is a diseased, rotten gray, its limbs are thick and muscled, able to support the creature's barreled body. But most prominently, the creature has two defining characteristics. Its face is hidden behind a mask creased in a million wrinkles, all of them turned downwards at the edges for an overall wrathful expression. And, in the place where a normal human heart should be, there's only a gaping black hole.
Unconsciously, she recoils and whimpers, automatically sliding into a defensive stance as taught to her by Sora. Sora notices and runs back to them, pulling Oathkeeper out of thin air in a flash of white light. "What is it?" His own Keyblade jerks, and, whirling around, Sora's eyes fix onto the creature's chest cavity. "Uhhh… I see… a black hole?" he says in confusion.
Kairi blinks. When she opens her eyes, the spirit is still there. It's translucent, though that may only be because of its massive size. It glances over them but doesn't move to attack, only surveying them with a somewhat dimwitted intelligence. "N-Nobody?" she asks timidly. The hole in its chest implies the lack of a heart, but no Heartless she's seen ever exhibited that quality. And the mask… she can't remember a Nobody that wore a mask. Plus Nobodies never exhibited this strange pressure. Not a physical pressure, but something that she feels pressing down against her mentally.
Riku shakes his head. "It doesn't emit the same aura," he denies. "Heartless, Nobodies… they all have a different sense of darkness, a different scent. This is completely different."
Unsure of what action to take, all three simply stare at each other: worried Kairi, determined Riku, clueless Sora.
In a dark, empty hall sits an unmoving man, his face obscured by shadows prevalent in the room. His fingers lie draped motionlessly over the edge of the armrest of his simple white throne. Nothing in his body moves. Nothing in the gigantic black throne room moves. Even the only other man standing slightly to the right of the throne doesn't twitch a muscle; his intense emerald-green eyes set within a starkly white face never look away from his superior on the throne.
Finally, the man on the throne smiles. His fingers curl into a fist.
The monster in front of the three friends rises to its feet. Even Sora gasps as the figure turns slowly, kicking up small poofs of dust, and simply phases through the palace gates. As it stalks slowly through the walls, a long tail unwinds itself and swings lazily on the ground, sending up clouds of sand and dust into the air. Its frayed clothes crackle ominously as it disappears into the palace, leaving the echoes of a muttered name.
"Princess… princess…"