Hello and welcome to my new story! This time KIngdom Hearts and if you are already a fan of mine don't worry about those other two stories I'll update as soon as I get off my writers block for those two :P. Okay first off since this is a Kingdom Hearts story we will need keyblades, so what better way to get keyblades than a keyblade design contest starting this chapter. I will announce when it is over and when the winners have been declared. Second of all I will be including dictionary entries for any KH terms you are unfamiliar with. Without further ado I welcome you to the story Kingdom Hearts: Radiant Destiny.

Capter 1: A Princess' Dive

"Where am I?"

This voice sounded bewildered or even frightened. It belonged to a girl who at the moment was completely shrouded in darkness. She was completely alone. Then without warning a light began to emerge from her chest and then began to spread around her into a pink, circular stained glass floor with a large heart on it surrounded by many other stylized hearts.

""What is this?"

The light not only illuminated the floor but her features as well. She had dark red hair that hung down to a bit past her shoulders. She had a pale complexion, and violet blue eyes which matched her name Kairi meaning sea village. Her clothing consisted of a pink, strapless mini dress over a white halter top with a black hood. The dress was adorned with three zippers, two of which were decorative. She also sports three black bracelets on one wrist, a black belt reminiscent of suspenders, lilac sneakers, and a notebook shaped pouch.

"This is all so strange," Kairi said as she walked towards the edge of the floor. She looked down only to see a black abyss' likely awaiting her descent into it. She backed away slowly fearful of what might happen if she did fall.

The red-haired beauty slowly turned around to see that her shadow was extending from beneath her. Then the shadow itself detached from Kairi and began to rise out of the ground. At first it appeared as nothing more than a black blob, then the blob seemed to shed a skin of some kind. The cloak or skin now gone, it was easy to see the figure of a girl who looked just like Kairi herself albeit darker. Her skin was a sickly gray rather than an actual complexion, her hair was jet black, as was her dress like Kairi's. Her eyes were covered by her bangs. The clone cupped her hands in front of her and began to create a dark energy in her hands.

"Hello? Who are you?" Kairi yelled.

Her question went unanswered as the dark look-a-like formed the energy into a completely black keyblade with a curvaceous handle, and long shaft. The teeth were in the shape of an infinity symbol inside a cut out heart. The copy then advanced menacingly towards Kairi.

"Stop! Stay back!" Kairi yelled stepping back.

The clone pressed on not heeding Kairi's command.

"Stay ba-"

Kairi was cut off as she realized her mistake, but it was too late. When she took that last step backwards she had begun to fall into the deep abyss. She closed her eyes and began to fall farther and farther still. Then she felt her body become lighter rather than heavy. Then she felt the rush stop all at once and she opened her eyes to see she hadlanded on another stained glass floor this time it was a scarlet version of the previous platform. She began to relax until she looked up to see white stairs that lead to the previous platform, and standing on one of the stairs was her dark doppleganger. Kairi picked herself up off the floor and stared defiantly at her double.

"I said stay back!" Kairi screamed even louder.

The copy didn't listen yet again and began her descent down the stairs before eventually reaching the platform. The minute her feet touched the platform she rushed at Kairi. The red haired princess braced herself before lunging towards the ground to evade the attack. The slash from the keyblade did nothing but stir up air. the clone then whipped around to thrust the keyblade into the floor only to create a clang of metal against glass as Kairi dodged once again by scooting back on her bottom. Kairi jumped up and jumped back to gain her distance.

"Kairi you have to fight."

Kairi paused for a moment when she heard these words. She thought they came from her double, but dismissed this thought. The words were breathy almost quiet. Kairi then clenched her fist realizing the voice was right. She had to fight. She had only one idea' but she wasn't sure how well it could work.

"It's worth a shot," she thought.

The Dark Kairi began her assault on Kairi once more, but this time Kairi braced herself and a look of courage spread across her face.

"I...I will fight you!"

*CLANG*

Kairi had opened her eyes from closing them afraid of what might happen had she failed in her attempt. She saw her Destiny's Embrace keyblade in her hand, its sunset colored shaft defending against the strike from her doppleganger. With one swift swing from her keyblade, she ended the clash and pushed her double back.

"Very good"

Kairi thought she heard the same voice again for a moment, but dismissed the thought. She now needed to focus on the battle at hand. Kairi sprinted in on the copy intent on striking her down. The dark copy did the same and they clashed yet again. The only difference being that the Dark Kairi gained the upper hand. She slowly began to push Kairi back. Kairi cold feel her feet sliding on the ground. Kairi, determined, jumped out of the way and did several backflips before landing gracefully gaining her distance. Once more, she rushed at her copy this time thrusting her keyblade towards the doppleganger intent on impaling her. Her copy blocked it using her own shaft and launched herself into the air. Kairi could only look up at her now out of reach clone.

"Darn."

The clone then came down hard hoping to strike Kairi. Kairi cartwheeled out of the way just in time to avoid the strike. She had a look of triumph on her face before looking down to see the floor was cracked and falling apart. She looked to the edge of the platfrom to see floating white steps and quickly ran towards them. She made it just in time as the whole floor fell apart into shards of glass and fell towards the darkness. She quickly followed the path of the steps as another platform came into view. She quickly followed the steps as they ended onto the new platform which was a sky blue version of the previous two. She thought she had seen the last of her copy after that ordeal, but to her surprise her dark double had reappeared by means of teleportation. This time the doppleganger stood still, and rather than rush at Kairi she simply raised her keyblade and pointed it at Kairi. Kairi was bewildered at first before a black ball flame began to form at the tip and fire itself at her. Kairi reacted quickly and dodged the ball of flame with ease.

"No way!" Kairi exclaimed in surprise.

"Kairi quickly you can do the same"

There it was again. That same quiet, breathy voice. Kairi repeated the copy's movements and lifted her keyblade towards her opponent. Then at the tip a silvery blue light emerged from the tip and formed it self into a chunk of ice and shot towards the dark double. The clone simply used her keyblade to shatter the ice.

"Whoa, how in the world did I do that?" Kairi tried asking the voice, but there was no response.

"Well then, let's go."

Kairi repeating the same technique over and over again firing chunk after chunk of ice at the dark doppleganger. Each time she simply batted them away. The clone seemed to be getting annnoyed at this point. After dodgning the last one, she lifted her keyblade to the "sky" and called down a bolt of black lightning. Kairi sidestepped and just barely evaded the lightning, but the copy wasn't letting it stop there she called down bolt after bolt of black lightning and each time she dodged them.

"Heh gotta be quicker," she teased, but truthfully she was beginning to get tired. Then she saw the stairs appear behind her clone. She saw her opportunity and sprinted past her clone managing to evade her latest lightning strike and heading towards the steps as their path lead her further down into the darkness. This time the stairs lead to a gold version of the previous platforms. She skidded to a halt and looked around for her clone and eventually spotted her appearing from a dark hole.

"Alright, I don't know who or what you are, but you don't scare me! Bring it on!" she called out taking her battle stance.

The double seemed to listen to this command and rushed at her once more, and Kairi did the same. She charged at full speed and clashed yet again. They appeared to be at a standstill until Kairi caught something. Her clone began materializing another keyblade in her other hand,ut Kairi didn't let it deter her. She parried the first keyblade and spun out of the way of the second letting it cut through the air.

"You don't scare me!" she yelled.

They went at it again and it was even more fierce than before. Kairi wasn't giving an inch as she fought. One swing, two swings, three swings, each with more fury than the last. The doppleganger blocked them all with ease. She took her dual keyblades and began slashing back in forth and in hopes of hitting Kairi. It wasn't easy, but she dodged each one of the strikes and responded with her own swipes of the keyblade. One could feel the ferocity behind the strikes. Neither of the two were giving an inch.

"I won't give in!" Kairi said rushing at her copy forcing her all the way to the edge with her continuous strikes.

"Take this!"

Kairi grasped her keyblade and flipped backwards gaining distance and threw her keyblade like a boomerang. The clone had little space to dodge and opted for a frontflip in the air to land behind Kairi. Kairi caught her keyblade as it came back and turned around preparing to continue the battle. She watched in surprise as her clone released one of her keyblades from her hand and it began to float and fly toards her. Kairi stood her ground and blocked it skillfully as the black clad Kairi ran in on the pink clad one.. She took her other keyblade and began assaulting her with the airborne one as well as the on ein her hand. The clone thrust her empty hand in Kairi's direction and the floating keyblade followed suite and shot towards Kairi. Kairi managed to evade it just in time, but while she was distracted the clone had run in to slash her with the other keyblade, but dodged the oncoming strike. Kairi then rushed back at her copy only to be knocked back by the floating keyblade. The floating keyblade under the influence of the copy then began to swing back and forth on Kairi in an attempt to strike her down. Once more she was deadlocked with the floating keyblade only this time she had nowhere to go as the was trapped against the edge. She began to relax a little when the keyblade let up and flew into the air until she saw the copy run at her. She had to think quick and an idea came to her. Of course she had to initiate it quick if she didn't want to be impaled by both keyblades. She absentmindedly took a step back to realize that there was a step there. She turned around to see there were more steps and began to run down them to escape. Then she spotted her next destination a silvery-white version of her previous arenas.

"There, that's where it's gonna end!" shesaid to herself.

The princesss finally made it to the platform and began to search frantically for her double. To her surprise she hadn't appeared. Kairi began to relax until she spotted a person, a girl to be exact. She had her back to Kairi. Kairi could only see the girl's blonde hair draped over her left shoulder, her white lacey dress that reached her mid-thighs, and white sandals. The red-head began to walk closer and closer. Kairi rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. WHen she was at least arm's length away the girl turned around. She had the same blue eyes as Kairi and pink lips. She had a similar pale complexion to Kairi.

"Namine?" Kairi asked warily.

As a response the girl smiled and got down on her knees to touch Kairi's keyblade. The weapon began to glow. Kairi looked puzzled for a moment. She looked down at her keyblade, then up at Namine. Kairi started to speak, but stopped when the blonde began walking away and seemed to dissolve into many sparkles of light.

"Wait!" Kairi called out, "Come back!"

The scarlet haired girl slowly began to sit down on the floor before she realized the floor had turned from the silvery-white to a black color. Kairi stopped herself and gritted her teeth. She looked across the platform to see her dark copy had appeared again, but this time both keyblades were floating by her side.

"This is where it ends!" Kairi called out.

She started to rush the copy, but the copy, or rather the keyblades were faster than her a sped towards her. Kairi couldn't block them both and tried to evade them, but was struck by one of the keyblades in the stomach. Then the next one struck her again sending her keyblade flying out of her hand and her skidding across the floor. The doppleganger just calmly began walking towards her as the two keyblades began assaulting her once more, tossing her into the air, and striking her continuously before knocking her back down into the ground. The dark Kairi had made it to the weakened Kairi and kicked her hard sending her sliding across the floor and to a halt. The double then raised her hand up in the air as the two dark keyblades aimed at Kairi and began charging dark energy at their tips. Kairi tried in vain to get up, but was stopped as she realized a dark hole had opened up beneath her and had her trapped

"No," Kairi said to herself," not here."

The dark copy bent down and whispered into Kairi's ear words that would echo in Kairi's ears as the Keyblade's fired their beams of darkness at Kairi and she became swallowed up by the darkness.

"Your heart is mine..."

Darkness.

Alrighty everyone how was that? Okied dokie tell me in your reviews and don't forget the keyblade contest opens now. Include name and desgin please. Thanx read and review please. Cya soon ;)