Kingdom Hearts: The Outcasts
Author's Note: I wrote this fiction many, many years ago. Therefore be aware of minor plotholes, inconsistencies, OOCness and things like that. Also, I wrote this before Birth by Sleep came out.
Prologue
Kingdom Hearts, the Heart of All Worlds. So many people have tried to use the Heart for evil because in the Heart there is so much darkness, but the Keyblade Master said Kingdom Hearts is Light. I wish so much for him to be right…
All worlds in the universe are connected, even if the residents are always kept separate, they all share one sky and one heart. Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all worlds, but when someone tries to use Kingdom Hearts for evil it turns to darkness and releases the Heartless, those without hearts who seek out to steal the hearts of others. It is during this time that the worlds connect even more than ever and residents can travel from world to world. This is so the Keyblade Master, the one with the strongest heart of all, can reseal the world and seal Kingdom Hearts, bringing it back to normal, severing the literal ties between the worlds but strengthening their inner ones. It is never easy for him to seal Kingdom Hearts, for each time the Keyblade Master is summoned, he always suffers some great tragedy. Yet inevitably some force once again tries to use Kingdom Hearts.
This time was no exception.
The strongest bond between Kingdom Hearts and all worlds is located in Hollow Bastion, the kingdom once ruled by Ansem, once known as Ansem the Wise. He had accidentally discovered Kingdom Hearts by stepping through the Keyhole in his world, and let the Heartless out. He became obsessed with the Heartless and lost himself to the darkness. He was defeated by the Keyblade Master and over the years Hollow Bastion returned to normal, but the Keyhole and its fallibility remained. And this was well known to the figure now standing in front of it. The figure smiled to itself as it looked at the keyhole located in a lab in Hollow Bastion's once mighty castle, long since abandoned and overgrown since the last threat to the Heart of All Worlds. The hooded figure stepped through and found itself shrouded in darkness, a darkness wanting desperately to take control of the figure's heart.
That was unnecessary, darkness had long taken over this being's heart, the living darkness around felt that and bowed to the figure's power. With no sound except the tapping of the figure's heels, it came closer and closer to a set of doors engraved with a strange symbol. In a hollow unnatural voice the hooded figure raised its arm and spoke, "O Kingdom Hearts, Source of All Darkness, Open to Me and Give me Your Power! The Power of Darkness!"
Silently the two great doors swung slowly open and the figure stepped inside and looked around. The darkness inside started to take shapes and forms of strange and twisted looking creatures. The figure let out a sound of disgust, it had hoped that by entering it would be able to absorb the Heart's power, but besides the creatures, nothing had changed. The figure took a few more steps forward, hoping to find something of use beyond the next shadow. Nothing!
The figure snarled and turned to leave when it noticed a shift in the shadows. At first the being figured it was only one of the Heartless, and thought nothing of it, but then
began to observe, that unlike the Heartless, this shadow had recoiled away from the figure.
"There you are," the being said cruelly, "No one ever said that's what you'd look like,"
The other figure in shadow took another step back, clearly fearing this caped being more than any of the Heartless it shared its residence with. Without warning, the caped figure charged the shadowed being. The shadowed being dashed out of the other person's way and ran desperately for the door out of Kingdom Hearts.
"You may get away, but the Heartless obey ME now!" the caped being shouted and motioned for the heartstealing beings to chase the figure, "Run all you like but I will eventually get you,"