AN: I'm putting a brief recap of Omega XVIII here so you don't have to read that story to understand this one but it is suggested. Do not read the recap if you haven't read Omega XVIII and plan to, it will ruin the story. If you have already read it, you can skip the recap and go straight on to the chapter.
Heart's True Side
Omega XVIII recap:
Group of Nobodies calling themselves the Beta Organization kidnap Sora and several other heroes to make an army of human-form Nobodies and bring back the original Organization. Riku and the others manage to free a few, who then help free Sora. Riku and Kairi are also taken captive, but also freed quickly. Among the Beta's are a group of four neutrals called the Omegas.
One Omega is defeated and two leave the Organization, their personal goals met. The third betrays the Organization and kills the leader taking over. His goal is to kill the Black King and become the ruler of the Dark Realm. He kills the Black Queen to gain the power but Sora and the others, with the aid of the other Omegas, the two who had left the Organization and a third, the fifth and last member of the group, fight and defeat him. The resurrected Organization is killed in the fight.
The Black King showed his face and dealt the wounding blows to the traitorous Omega, allowing Sora to finish him off. The Omegas show themselves to be heroes, one teaching Sora new abilities and all of them telling of a prophecy. They also give Sora six of the eight Legendary Keyblades (Rock Breaker, Flare Bright, Wolfsbane, Belladonna's Kiss, Soulripper, and Blackhowl) and tell him the last two (Ragnarok and Masamune) can only be used by the Keymaster. The keybladers hope Sora will fulfill this prophecy, to be the Keymaster and finally kill the Black King. While the mages (Merlin etc.) look into the prophecy to see if it can be Sora, the Omegas take the keybladers for training.
Sora gets mental training where he meets six of his seven other selves (the seven parts of the personality; Courage, Knowledge, Honor, Friendship, Anger, Truth, and Love). All three also get intense physical training in a special room that has time flow differently. They are trained by a man named John.
After the training the mages decide that Sora is as close as they can get to the prophecy and take him to the battlefield, where he must fight alone. The mages and Omegas watch, and the White King and Queen arrive to watch the bout as well. Sora challenges the Black King but is barely holding his own. John arrives and aids Sora in the fight. It is revealed that John fought the Black King to a draw previously, and the White King made the keyblades because John could not win.
The Black King delivers a mortal wound to Sora and sends him flying. Sora is sent to his other selves and just before dieing realizes and admits he loves Kairi as she admits out loud that she loves him, neither hearing the other. He is then brought back to life by the White Queen, who states she can resurrect someone at the moment of death if they are worthy. Sora achieves his ultimate form and reenters the fight, gaining Masamune and Ragnarok as he fights.
John sacrifices himself to give Sora the chance to defeat the Black King, which he takes and wins the fight. Sakura states she can only bring someone back once so John remains dead. Sora returns to the others and the White King and Queen introduce themselves to him, the White Queen passively placing a spell on Kairi. Sora is told that to seal off the realm he must be on the other side, with all the legendary keyblades, and lock the door, while Riku and Kairi lock it form this side.
Sora's selves are removed from him so that he will not suffer in the Dark Realm, because he can never return. Riku reluctantly agrees though Kairi is fine with it. The spell placed on her was to take Sora from her heart, so instead of love she hates him. This is because the princesses of heart, if working together, could open the door, but if Kairi hates Sora she'll never agree to bring him back. Sora is locked away and the worlds are sealed off, only one gummi ship, which the Omegas give to Riku, can still travel between them. The Heroes are returned home and all is well. Except in the Black Castle of the Black King a being is putting into motion some sort of plan that will surely disrupt all peace…
Chapter 1: Bright Darkness
19. Kairi was now 19 years old, or rather, she will be tomorrow. She was currently on the second largest island of the small chain of isles that made the Destiny Islands. It was the island she always played on growing up, and where all her best memories were, at least, her beset memories from this world. It's been three years since she was last off world, and just over two since she last saw her best friend, Riku.
She currently wore light tan shorts that went just past her knees, a pink short sleeve top with a white hood and white gym shoes. She wore a golden bracelet on each wrist, and Sora's crown charm was still at its place around her neck, though to her mind it belonged to Sakura, the White Queen. Her hair was just as red as ever and went just past her shoulders; it was currently tied back, due to her current activity of training with her keyblade.
She practiced everyday; Sakura had warned that danger wasn't gone, even if darkness was, and so Kairi was determined to be ever ready. Of course, that didn't stop her from getting startled and loosing her balance when the loud boom of an engine roared overhead. Kairi looked up form the ground where she currently lay to see a gummi ship she recognized immediately, and knew who was flying the instant she did.
Kairi hopped to her feet and started after the ship as she watched it land, Destiny's Promise vanishing in a white light as she ran. The ship touched down on the beach and by the time the door opened to let its occupants off Kairi had reached it. She waited outside the ship, rather impatiently so, for her friend to appear. When the man stepped out of the ship Kairi had to do a double take, he was barely recognizable, but it was still Riku.
His unkempt silver hair was long, though not to his shoulders, reminiscent of his younger days. He wore John's coat and had apparently had good use for it. He wore black combat boots and blue denim pants that, like the coat, had been put through their paces. His white undershirt seemed to not know the damages he had, and Kairi suspected the delay in him getting off the ship was caused by him having to find a new shirt.
There was a black katana on Riku's left hip, and John's sword at the back of his waits, where John wore it. On the right side of Riku's sword belt was what looked like a sword handle, but it had no blade or crossbar. But the thing that stood out most about Riku was what made Kairi do the double take, there were three scars that crossed his face, two ran parallel from under his right eye to the left side of his chin, and the other ran from the left side of his forehead to left side of his mouth. None of these scars went over an eye, but the two crossed his nose.
"Hey Kairi, happy belated birthday," Riku said with a grin as he hopped off the ship.
Kairi ran up and hugged her friend "Hey to you too, and my birthdays not 'til tomorrow," she said with a grin.
"Yeah, but I still missed last years," Riku said with a shrug as the two separated.
"So, how are thing at home?" Riku asked as he started walking towards the Poupu tree.
Kairi, however, stayed put trying to see into the ship, squinting her eyes in an attempt to see through the darkness, "Where is she?" she asked.
Riku turned to her with a confused look on his face, "She who?"
"The girl who kept you away from home so long, you know, your girlfriend, or is she a wife?" Kairi added the last part as she turned to look at Riku with a sly look on her face.
Riku put a hand to his forehead and groaned "will you ever grow up?" before turning back and continuing towards the tree.
Kairi laughed as she ran to catch up with Riku and they made their way to the tree in humored silence. When they reached the tree Kairi filled Riku in on what happened on the islands while he was gone, which was pretty much nothing at all. Riku then filled Kairi in on what he did while he was gone. The first thing he did was to go to the word of all their friends, everyone they met during their three adventures. The Omega's gave him John's sword, the people of Chad's world gave him a special katana and taught him how to use it, Naruto taught him some special techniques, and Krillin taught him how to fly though this ability seemed to only work on certain worlds.
Someone form Aarkan's word gave Riku a seal that could instantly transport him to any part of Aarkan's world that he's been to, and even to any world he's visited while he had it. He then revisited every world he ever went to with the seal so he could use its transportation. He went to a few different world that were in the middle of wars, and found himself fighting in many of those wars, one such war is where he got the sword handle, he called it a lightsaber, and showed Kairi that when he turned it on a blue beam of light came from the tip. It was nearly nightfall by the time Riku finished his tale.
"Wow, you've done a lot in two years, I'm kinda jealous," Kairi said watching the sun set.
"Yeah, but you said you didn't want to come, you wanted to stay here," Riku said with a shrug.
"I know, and I'm glad I did, some parts would have been fun, like meeting everyone again, but I would have hated the wars," Kairi said looking over at Riku.
"Yeah, I know, I kinda figured I'd end up in a few anyway," he said with a weak grin.
"So, what was John's home world like? You never mentioned it, I thought you said it would be your first stop when you left," Kairi said after a long pause.
"Yeah, it was, but I never landed," Riku said in a quite voice.
"Too scared?" Kairi asked giving Riku a concerned look.
"No, there was nowhere to land, the world's gone, there's nothing at the site in the gummi," Riku said turning his gaze to the stars.
Then he saw something, something he hadn't seen for years, something he had only seen once in his life, and it brought bad news with it. Riku kept his gaze to the sky, and slowly rose to his feet, as he did Kairi became aware of what he was doing and got to her feet as well, though her eyes remained on Riku.
"What is it, what's going on?" she asked glancing at the sky, as she did she saw what Riku was watching.
Kairi can't count how many shooting stars she's seen, how many wishes she's made upon them, but she's only seen something remotely like this before, and it was good news when she did, but she knew it brought the bad before it brought the good. Up in the sky, seen in the dark of night, were two shooting stars.
When Riku last saw more than one shooting star at once it broke Destiny Islands and separated him from his friends. When Kairi last saw more than one shooting star at once it was Destiny Islands being brought back from destruction, though she never saw its destruction, when Riku described it to her, it seemed to happen in a similar way to its reforming.
"What do you think it is? It can't be another gummi ship, can it?" Kairi asked her fear evident in her voice.
"No, if it was a gummi breaking the seal it'd be hundreds of falling stars," Riku said.
"Well, these aren't really falling, maybe were fine," Kairi added hopefully.
"I don't know, the almost look like they are falling…" Riku said watching the two white lights critically.
As they watched it became apparent and obvious that they were falling towards the two. Both took quick actions, Riku grabbing up the items he had shown Kairi as she ran straight for the gummi ship. The two made it inside the ship with time to spare, once Riku was on board Kairi took off and steered them around, staying in the atmosphere but getting out of the path of the stars.
The two watched in silence as the stars slammed into the ground on the island they just left. Kairi pulled the ship around and landed in the water at the docks by her rowboat. They both got out, Kairi holding Destiny's Promise while Riku held his lightsaber, the blade retracted.
They approached the twin impacts together, both being cautious of what the stars may truly be. Riku slowed to a near crawl when he saw what the stars really were, and Kairi froze completely.
"Are those what I think they are?" She asked tentatively.
"Yeah, they're keyblades," Riku said not taking his eyes off the blades currently stuck in the sand of the beach.
"I know that, I meant, are they the ones I think they are?" Kairi asked walking closer to the blades.
"Soulripper and Belladonna's Kiss. Two of the legendary keyblades," Riku said with a nod at each blade when he said their names.
"They were with Him though, they were with him when he was sealed away," Kairi said watching Riku as he put his weapon away.
"Yeah, Sora had all eight legendary's with him when we sealed him away in the darkness," Riku said with a slight pain as he remembered his friend, and what Kairi currently thought of the boy.
"Then… does this mean he found a way out? Is he back?" Kairi asked in a slightly angered tone.
"I hope not, cause if he found a way out, the darkness might come back too," Riku said as he reached Belladonna's Kiss, the closer of the two keys.
Kairi didn't respond to that, she just watched as Riku reached out to touch the blade and instantly pulled away as if burned.
"What's wrong?" Kairi asked as she approached Riku, her keyblade gone.
"It's ice cold," Riku said eyeing the blade before turning to Soulripper and touching it with his other hand to the same effect, "and that one's burning hot."
"I guess that means we can't move them," Kairi said looking back and forth between the two.
"Not now at lest. It's pretty late, maybe in the morning they'll be better tempered," Riku said before starting for his ship.
"You gunna come back to the other island, meet back up with everyone?" Kairi asked as she caught up with Riku.
"Tomorrow, I don't wanna knock on sleeping doors," Riku said as they reached the ship, "you're welcome to sleep on board if you want," he said as he reached the door to the ship.
"No, I should probably head back home, unlike you I'm missed when I gone to long," Kairi said with a small smile.
"Ouch," Riku mocked grabbing his chest in pain, "alright, I'll see you tomorrow then, we'll check out the keyblades first thing."
Kairi nodded and saluted, "Yes sir!" before getting into her boat and heading back to the larger island.
Riku shook his head, gave one last look at the two keyblades, and entered the ship. He left the door open, knowing Kairi would be up and on the island before he was. Riku was proven right early the next day as Kairi's little boat arrived at the island and she made her way towards the ship. She reached the door and saw it was open, taking it as an invitation inside Kairi walked into the ship and towards the living quarters.
It had been years since she had been on this ship, or any gummi ship for that matter, yesterday didn't count because she was in the cockpit the whole time, and even then was for only a few minutes. As Kairi walked through the ship towards the room Riku used she saw the definite marks of the ship being his home for years.
Kairi knocked on the door to the first cabin she reached and after hearing no response she went inside, though stopped in the doorway at what she saw. This was not the cabin Riku was staying in, but it wasn't left useless. The walls were covered with several weapons and pieces of armor, racks and display mounts cluttered the floor with a collection that would rival most armories.
"Like the collection?" a voice sounded from behind Kairi making her jump slightly. She turned to see Riku standing there in his pants and undershirt, a smile on his face.
"Just caught me by surprise is all, I would have thought the keyblade was enough," she said stepping further into the room Riku following her.
"The keyblade is perfect against the darkness, but outside of that it's just another weapon, and an oddly handled one at that. I'm not saying I never use it, but I never show it unless I need to, it's more of a last resort," Riku said as he followed behind Kairi as she looked at the weapons and armor he had.
"Well those look familiar," Kairi said pointing at two lightsaber handles. "Why do you have three of them, or is one the one you showed me?" Kairi asked as Riku walked towards the sabers.
"Luke gave me one, and said the mark of a master is making one for yourself. I made the one I carry, he gave me that one," Riku pointed to the right of the two sabers and grabbed the left one, "and I made this one for you, happy birthday," he said as he tossed the saber to Kairi.
Kairi was startled by the throw but still caught the saber and looked it over, "did you really make this for me?" she asked looking back at Riku.
He nodded, "Yeah, just don't turn it on inside, I don't wanna damage anything in here," he said looking around, as was thus caught by surprise when Kairi grabbed him in a hug.
"Thank you, it means a lot that you made this for me," she said before letting go of Riku and looking the saber handle over once more before placing it on her belt.
Riku smirked at her before turning and going deeper into the room, "it's no problem really," he said before turning, "you can head outside, I'll be right there," he added as he walked in-between the racks and displays.
Kairi nodded her understanding and left the ship turning her saber on to learn that it was pink in color. A few minutes later Riku came out, he had no weapon on his belt, and his coat was also off, but he had a black sheathed katana in his right hand. When he reached Kairi he held the katana out to her, "the lightsaber is for the birthday I missed, this one's for today."
Kairi just looked at the blade, and hesitantly reached out for it, "what… what does it do?" she asked as her fingers closed around the sheath.
"Remember the one Chad's friend gave me, I asked for a second one for you. It's got special powers that develop as you get a stronger bond with it," Riku said letting go of the blade.
"Bond?" Kairi asked not taking her eyes off the sword.
"Through meditation, I'll show you the methods and all that later, lets deal with the keyblades first," Riku said turning towards the two keyblades but froze as soon as he faced them.
A black portal had opened on the beach on the other side of the keyblades. A large man in black plate armor stood in front of it, facing Riku and Kairi. His eyes were pure black as was the hair that reached his shoulders. There was a large axe on his back and he held the helm for his armor in his right arm.
"You don't have to worry about dealing with the keyblades, we'll take care of them," he said while grinning.
Riku and Kairi stood and watched as two more walked out of the portal, though the portal did not vanish. The second one out was smaller than the first, though still a full grown man. He wore a hooded overcoat similar to the organization one, but still distinctly different. The hood was down showing his tan skin and pure black eyes. His head was shaven and he wore a cloth over his mouth.
"Ah, finally, I was beginning to think your senses were wrong, it took us all night to find these," he said as he walked around the left of the first man, stopping beside him when he noticed Riku and Kairi, "oh look, spectators," he said with a laugh.
The third to leave was the smallest of the three and he also stood out the most. Unlike the other two who were dressed in full outfits the third man was dressed in rags and scraps of cloth, haphazardly stitched and pieced together to cover him. Random places had gaps in them and some gaps were larger than others. Like the other two, he was dressed fully in black, the sleeves of his shirt ended around the elbows and he wore fingerless gloves. He also had a cloth over his mouth but his extended behind him and hung down to his waist. His hair was somewhat spiky and dark brown, his eyes were glowing yellow and his skin a deathly pale white.
The third said nothing as he walked out of the portal and showed no sign of surprise at seeing Riku and Kairi, almost as if he expected them to be there. Neither he nor the second man had any apparent weapons on them, but they had just arrived and already stated they were here for the keyblades.
"Whaddaya say; do we get to play a bit before heading back?" the second man asked.
"I don't object, but I'm sure Siv would, it being counter productive and all," the large man said with a slight annoyance.
The smallest man merely let out what Riku could only guess was a growl; the voice was so rough and animalistic. Both of the other two men looked at the smallest in a slight alarm.
"Alright then, I get the other," the large man said with a wide grin as he looked at Riku.
"Hey man, no fair! It was my idea!" the second man said looking at the large man.
Riku found it somewhat odd, the first man was the largest, noticeably and sizable larger than the second or third, and yet the second man would challenge him over the smallest. Riku could only wonder what power the smallest had to warrant no objections. At that point Riku noticed the large man was eyeing him so he started edging closer to Kairi, and that's when he realized what the smallest said, it wasn't a growl, he was calling dibs, dibs on fighting Kairi. Either because she was a girl, or the only of the two of them armed, but Riku was going to change that quickly.
"Kairi, hand me the saber, it looks like were in for a fight," Riku whispered to Kairi.
Kairi nodded and handed the lightsaber to Riku before fastening the katana belt around her waist and drawing the blade, "looks like I get to test this out today," she said with a slight grin.
"No, screw this, if I don't get a kill here we're done," the second man said before moving swiftly forward, grabbing Belladonna's Kiss and bolting back through the portal.
"Damnit Xah! We need to bring both together," the large one shouted as the second vanished into the portal. Cursing a few more times the large man walked forward to take Soulripper but Riku moved quickly to meet him at the blade, lightsaber on.
"The other acted before we could react, but you're not getting both keyblades," Riku said firmly as he reached the large man.
"Listen kid, because of Xah's stupidity I ain't got the time it'll take to kill you, so just back off," the large man said as he reached for the keyblade.
Riku acted fast and swung the lightsaber over the handle of Soulripper stopping the large man from grabbing it. The large man sighed, put his helm on and drew his axe. Riku took a swing at him while his hands were occupied but the man dodged the attack with unexpected ease. Once the axe was in the large mans hands the edge of each blade began to glow red, the same was a lightsaber glowed.
"You still wanna do this kid. I don't mind killing you, but I ain't got the time, and neither does your girl," the large man said gesturing behind Riku.
Riku didn't look, but he started to circle the large man so he could keep an eye on him and see Kairi. When he did see Kairi she wasn't moving, suspended in the air in a pulsing transparent blue sphere, her katana was on the ground before her.
"Thanks Siv," the large man said before grabbing Soulripper and bolting for the portal, he was too close to it and to far from Riku by the time Riku realized what happened.
As soon as the large man was gone the sphere around Kairi vanished and she fell to the floor but managed to land on her feet. Riku looked over at the smallest man, apparently named Siv, and now the last of the intruders left. He had made no motion of casting a spell on Kairi; his hands were still at his sides, as they were when he left the portal.
Riku rushed over to Kairi as soon as she landed, "are you okay?"
"Fine, I just wasn't expecting that, he made no motion to cast," Kairi said as she picked her katana back up.
Riku looked over at Siv, "what's your game, what do you want, what are you trying to do?" he demanded.
Siv looked back at the portal before looking towards the two again and reaching into an apparent pocket and pulling out a shiny object that he tossed towards Riku and Kairi. It landed where the keyblades were, to far for either to see what the object really was.
Then the voice came again, the growl voice, it wasn't as harsh as last time, Riku could understand it much better as he spoke. Kairi looked at Siv blankly as he growled but Riku was listening hard, trying to interpret what he was saying. When he was done talking Siv turned and walked through the portal, it closed behind him.
"What was that, did you understand him?" Kairi asked and Riku nodded, "well, what did he say?" she asked in a nearly demanding voice.
"That story is done, its final chapter written. We are now in the pages of a new tale," Riku said, his eyes on where the object Siv threw was.
"How could you understand that?" Kairi asked looking back where the portal was.
"I'm not sure I did, that's what I think he said," Riku said before walking over to where the object was, "Kairi…"
Kairi rushed over to Riku and froze when she saw the object, instinctively grabbing the charm around her neck, "is… is that?"
Riku nodded as he knelt down to pick the item up, "yeah, it is…"
"Then, was that him?" Kairi asked kneeling down next to Riku.
"I'm not sure," Riku said as he fingered the golden crown charm in his hands, the charm that Gandalf gave Sora before he entered the realm of darkness. It wasn't unnerving that Siv had it, Sora could have easily discarded it in the dark realm, not needing its powers any longer, or if its powers ran dry. It was the blood stains on the charm; a red blood that heartless did not posses, which made Riku fear for his friend.