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Written and completed in Fall-Winter of 2008

KINGDOM HEARTS III

Three armored warriors are standing in the middle of a barren wasteland, surrounded by hundreds of key blades. Suddenly two men, an old, bald headed man dressed in black-red and another completely dressed in black armor with red stripes, arrive and attack the three armored warriors, shredding their armor as the battle goes. The three armored warriors are revealed to be teenagers, students of the key blade, and are overwhelmed by the villains. Then the old man seemingly summons Kingdom Hearts above them while King Mickey cautiously watches from a distance.

Over twelve years later Sora awakes from a dream (of the aforementioned battle) and looks out the window. After he goes back inside his room we close in to the moon, which is revealed to be a space station housing various ships. There, Leon and a team of Final Fantasy characters try to negotiate with the Queen of the station about their situation with Maleficent and her new armada, which she obtained after Sora defeated Organization 13 in the previous game. Then they are attacked by Heartless, lead by Pete. The Queen agrees to allow others to travel between worlds now, not just the key blade bearer, and Leon and his team travel to Destiny Islands where Sora, Kairi and Riku are.

Pete travels back to Castle Oblivion and tells Maleficent of Leon's plans. Here it's revealed that Sephiroth is now forcefully working with Maleficent. She was the one who separated Cloud and Sephiroth from their fight at various times to try and have him join her group, as he possesses great power, or she threatens to kill Cloud, which Sephiroth claims he needs him to be whole again. Maleficent also needs Sephiroth to control the nobodies, who only obey other, stronger nobodies, unlike Heartless who simply ally with whoever's the strongest. Afterwards Pete notices strong dark energy readings from what looks like the Pride Lands.

On the way home from school Sora meets a young boy called Michael at a bus stop. They wait for the bus for hours, eventually causing the two to become sleepy, and it starts to rain. Then Sora and Michael encounter a spirit called Totoro, who is waiting for a "cat bus", also holding various Miyazaki film characters. Amazed and shocked they decide to just walk home, with Michael hoping they'll see each other again, soon. Sora, finally alone, arrives home and is greeted by Tidus and Waka, but shortly after they're attacked by heartless and a mysterious robotic figure. In the short fight the robot scratches Sora across the face, leaving a prominent scar, and then flies away after leaving a bomb heartless which blows up his house. Sora's parents die in the explosion but he along with Tidus and Waka survive. The following morning Sora, now staying with Riku, is in a bathroom and washes his face and notices his scar. He goes to the island where he and his friends used to go to, and is soon followed by Kairi and Riku to keep him company.

Leon and his team finally arrive. Leon offers, if not insist, on Sora, Kairi and Riku to join them back to Hollow Bastion (now called the Radiant Gardens). Once their Leon explains to Sora about Maleficent and her new army, with which she plans to spread to other worlds and keep any rebels occupied while she tries to claim Kingdom Hearts. Here Sora also meets Wall-E, a small cleaning robot, putting other toys and equipment away and cleaning a fish tank (all of which serve as cameos for various Pixar characters). But first he tells Sora to take Donald, Goofy, several of his summonable friends, and Goliath, one of the last of the gargoyles, to aid him at the Pride Lands, as Cid has picked up unusually strong dark energy patterns coming from that particular world. Then he explains that the Radiant Gardens is weak from the previous assault by the Heartless and Nobodies that Leon and King Mickey will mount up a defense at Disney Castle while Sora goes to the Pride Lands. Leon orders Merlin, the Fairy God Mother, and the three fairies Yuna, Rikku, and Paine to stay behind if anything happens. Finally the two teams (Leon's and Sora's) split up and prepare for the battle that is to come.

In the Pride Lands, the lioness cub Kiara, daughter of Simba, plans to run off and explore the Pride Lands, but Simba tells Kiara to stay within a path he's marked for her, telling her not to go to the outlands, where the outsiders are. He tells her never to turn their back on them. But she manages to evade her babysitters Timon and Pumba. Finally the team arrives and plans to split up to get used to this environment while Sora stays behind in the swamp of the outlands (now in his brown lion cub form) Kiara eventually runs into Sora, who tells her he's no stranger to this land, after questioning Kiara's odd movements of not turning her back to him. However the two get into trouble as they are surrounded by crocodiles. They both manage to escape and quickly become friends. Kiara, excited about meeting a real friend, begins to play, but when Sora retaliates, Simba appears. Goliath, who was been watching, also approaches. Simba recognizes Sora and welcomes his team back to Pride Rock. When Simba tells Kiara to thank Sora, she instead argues with him, thinking he's just another babysitter. But Sora explains he had just got back to the Pride Lands, and wasn't expecting her. But that he's glad he met her, it was the most fun he's had in a while. The two start to go back to Pride Rock, noticing other animals as the go. When they arrive, Sora explains to Simba what has happened so far and why he has returned, while Simba hints he might have seen Sora before earlier in his life.

That night Sora promises Kiara to explore the Pride Lands together, without bodyguards, before dreaming about the fight with the robot. Sora, with Giminy Cricket, walk in the rain at night as Sora tries to relax and forget about the dream, until they encounter Rafiki. He brings the two to his cave next to Pride Rock and shows, through the paintings he had made, that he is dubbing Sora "Kovu" for his prominent scar, explaining that scars like his can change a person for the better or worse, that they can either learn from the past, or be consumed by it. Sora however shows a little disgust at Rafiki naming Sora after Scar, Simba's evil and usurping uncle.

The next day Sora gives Kiara hunting tips and they help Timon, Pumba, Donald and Goofy get rid of these birds eating Timon and Pumba's grubs and the two cubs develop a strong friendship. After Kiara realizes Sora has been around before she was born, he nervously says that his species of lion ages differently, and that he is roughly her age. After a visit to the elephant graveyard they are ambushed by Heartless, setting a great fire on the plains of dry leaves. Sora notices some heartless enter a strange wormhole, but not before surviving an ambush and fighting the Cerberus of the Underworld. Goliath aids Sora but his knocked unconscious in ruble, presumably dead, and Sora rushes to rescue Kiara from the fire. Later at night, Sora dreams meeting with the ghosts of Mufasa and Aslan, explaining to him that the Heartless have found a way to use the realm of darkness to travel back in time, and Sora must follow them and stop them before they destroy this world, agreeing that Sora might have to change certain events in history, just as long as everything ends up as it's supposed to. They tell him to go alone to decrease the risk of changing history and they grant him the powerful key blade "Ultima" to help him on his quest.

The next day, after demanding to his teammates to go alone, Sora goes back to the Elephant graveyard, where he travels back in time, with Aslan's help, to the same location. He notices two lion cubs and Zazu being attacked by the three hyenas and distracts the hyenas long enough for a living king Mufasa to come, revealing that the two cubs are Simba and Nala. Mufasa thanks Sora while Simba is jealous thinking that Mufasa likes Sora better than him after disobeying his father to go outside the border of the Pride Lands. To avoid confusion in the future, Sora gives his name as Kovu, and is welcomed into Pride Rock, again.

The next morning, Kovu plans to explore the past Pride Lands to find these heartless, and Nala insists on going with him, quickly establishing him as a friend. Simba notices this and tries to beat him up, thinking Kovu is stealing everyone from Simba. Nala explains Kovu is simply a friend and Kovu explains that he saved them from the hyenas because he liked them and wanted to be friends, and Simba soon begins to like Kovu.

Some time passes and Kovu, Simba and Nala are now good friends. At times Kovu has tried to get Simba and Nala to like each other romantically, which often has met with success. Kovu still worries about the heartless, but is then greeted by Scar, who says Simba has a surprise from his father waiting in the gorge. As Simba goes with his uncle, Scar notices the scratch on Kovu, and teases him that they are the same after noticing Kovu's reaction to Scar every time he's around. Eventually Kovu remembers what adult Simba told him about the gorge and tells a now concerned Nala to go home, that she's not safe alone, but not before she kisses him, thanking him for everything he's done, and Kovu promises they'll see each other again, but not for a while.

Kovu manages to get to Simba, but it's too late, as they find themselves running for their lives from the wildebeest stampede, and soon after, Mufasa, after trying to save Simba, falls to his death, and Kovu is knocked uncounsous from a running wildebeest. Soon after he wakes up and rushes to Simba, crying over his father's death and being told by Scar that Simba is responsible for Mufasa's death. Scar says that to save himself, Simba must run away and never return. Kovu agrees, teasing to Scar the Simba is vulnerable now, but in the future he can set things right. As they're chased by the hyenas, two monkey heartless riding a rhino heartless ambush the two, one of which nearly chokes Simba to death. Angered by this, Kovu furiously and violently kills the heartless, but quickly calms down after he noticed and evil aura about to surround him, and that his eyes were turning yellowish-gold and his pupils a red-ish color.

They manage to escape from the hyenas and prepare for the journey through the desert, while Scar lies to the lionesses of what occurred in the gorge, proclaims himself king and welcomes the hyenas into the Pride Lands. One night in the desert when Kovu comforts a crying Simba, Kovu realizes Simba now sees him as an older brother, if not a father. The next couple of days in the desert Kovu teaches Simba some magic attacks and defenses so Simba can defend himself if something happens to Kovu. It's here that Kovu realizes why he went back in time; the heartless plan to kill Simba, preventing him to mate with Nala later and giving birth to Kiara, a princess of Heart. He realizes he'll need more princesses of heart to lock away Kingdom Hearts permanently; the loss of just one princess of heart could make this impossible. All the other worlds were either too close to the protection of Hollow Bastion or the inhabitants could defend themselves. Simba, at this time, was very vulnerable and a perfect target. One night, after calming down a sleeping Simba from a nightmare, and inadvertently calling Kovu dad, they are ambushed by many more heartless, but Kovu barely beats them all, with some help from Simba.

Finally, both have nearly collapsed from heat exhaustion and lack of food and water. They are about to be eaten by vultures before they are rescued from Timon and Pumba. They welcome them into their oasis, while singing Hakuna Matata.

Many days have passed and after many activities and training, (and after an encounter with Kaa the snake), the four have become well bonded. Simba, now a teenager, and Kovu, have developed a master-apprentice relationship and both have established Timon and Pumba as parents after the loss of their (Sora's and Simba's) own parents. Also Timon and Kovu have become a little more protective of Simba. By now Pete has talked to Scar about the nature of the heartless, and summons the Omni droid to go and kill Simba, realizing his companion Kovu is very skilled for his age and size. Now the Omni droid has finally reached the oasis and a battle ensues. Kovu and Simba eventually manage to throw one of the droids arms into its chest after Kovu realized the only thing that can penetrate its armor is itself. While it weakened the droid, it still gets up and plans to grab Simba, but Kovu pushes him out of the way and grabs him instead. A timer, attached to a bomb, comes out of the droid's head, and flies into the sky to prevent anyone from saving Kovu, after Kovu tells Simba, Timon and Pumba "Goodbye". The droid blows up and falls into the river, and a heartbroken Simba, Timon and Pumba believe Kovu to be dead. Mufasa and Aslan return and thank Kovu for what he's done, and bring him back to the Elephant Graveyard in his own time, with teenaged Simba looking for him but just barely missing him.

Back in the present time on Pride Rock, adult Simba and Sora's team notice an explosion coming from the graveyard. Simba, Donald and Goofy rush off and find that Sora has returned injured. Simba explains that Sora has only been gone a few days, but Sora sees that Simba is all right after the battle with the droid and looses consciousness. When he wakes up in Pride Rock, he sees Kiara lying beside him, and embraces her, glad to be back in his time with all his friends. Later that day, Simba, Nala, Timon and Pumba all go to Sora and seemingly realize where they recognize him. Sora explains to them what he did and how he did all this and urges them not to tell anyone else yet. Then he nervously tells Kiara that he would like to take her someplace special, realizing his feelings for her have become stronger after coming back from the past, and therefore trusts her to show the worlds beyond her own. He secretly tells Genie that he plans to tell her many things during what Genie jokingly calls a date. He pleads to transport them to Traverse Town, and that this will give Kiara an idea of what Sora does. Genie, at first hesitates, but then finds this date nice and only does it to get even for all Sora has done.

The plan works and Sora shows Kiara some of Traverse town, while secretly noticing that many people are here, which means Maleficent has destroyed several other worlds. The first stop he plans to make is at a house with the 101 Dalmatians. Also there is Lady, the Tramp, and their children. Lady and the Tramp have become good friends with Pongo and Pertie after their owners Roger and Anita have welcomed them, along with a cub fox named Todd, a puppy hound named Copper, and a kitten named Oliver, into their house, which is acting as a hub for some of those who lost their worlds. Sora and Kiara stay there for a bit and watch (to Kiara's amazement) "Bolt" on TV. When the film ends Sora tells Pongo and Tramp about his date and they decide to help him out with tips and preparations while Pertie and Lady do the same with Kiara. Then Sora gets a disturbing private visit from the Cheshire cat, revealing what could happened to everyone if Sora fails his mission. The cat also deforms as he does this, giving him a zombie like appearance. But Sora warns him to stay away and he will get back to his mission, eventually.

Finally the two cubs say goodbye and go to the restaurant recommended by Tramp. On the way to a restaurant, Sora explains some of what has happened to Kiara, thinking that being in a place like this might make it easier for Kiara to take in, which it is. Then they arrive at the back of the restaurant where a sympathetic chef sees them and prepares a meal of spaghetti and meat balls. As they eat the two inadvertently share a kiss. Finally they decide to go back to the Pride Lands, with Genie's help.

As they walk back to the Pride Rock, they get sidetracked and explore the Pride Lands instead and fall in love while they explore. Several hours later, during sun set, the two lay down and look at the sky, noticing shapes the stars are beginning to make. Sora asks Kiara if she ever wonders what's out there, after which both of them hope to see others in other worlds. Then Sora tells Kiara how he used to look at the sunset with Kairi and Riku, and starts to tear up as he misses them. Kiara notices this and asks Sora to come with her to the top of Pride Rock, saying he'll see why when they get there. On the way Kiara looks at his scar, and Sora tells her what happened at his home. They arrive at the top of Pride Rock and Sora sees the sunset, which Kiara wanted to watch with him. She remarks that it's beautiful, with Sora replying "Yes you are". The two embrace and then kiss, until it starts to rain and they go back down. Sora tells Kiara to go back inside while he thinks things through. When she's inside Sora yells in joy and falls off the rock, being caught by Genie. Sora tells Genie that he plans to stay here with Kiara, saying he has no future at his home, and that Riku can take better care of Kairi than Sora ever could.

Then Sora notices something in the distance, but it's hard to tell as the rain falls a little harder. Then he sees something fly off the object. It's not until it gets much closer that the smaller object is really a missile. Sora barely dodges the missile, hitting the top of Pride Rock instead. Then we zoom in the distance and see that it is actually the robot, which is really a red mechanical gargoyle, followed by another, more biological looking gargoyle. Sora and Simba run to the top of Pride Rock and look into the distance, seeing and army of creatures following the two gargoyles. Sora states these creatures are different from the heartless and nobodies. The two go back into Pride Rock cave and plan out how to evacuate all the other animals. Sora says that he, Simba, Donald, Goofy and the entire summonable allies will try to hold them off while Nala leads as many animals away from the battle. Sora says he'll take care of the robots first then join Simba in the front lines. A concerned Kiara doesn't want Sora to go, but Sora promises he'll see her again, and she is to stay there with Timon and Pumba.

Then Sora goes to the top of Pride Rock and transforms into his human form, wielding the "Oath's Keeper" key blade given to him by Kairi. He shoots at the red gargoyle until it finally flies in on him and knocks Sora off to the ground. Kiara runs out to see what happened, and sees Sora in his human form. Then the blue gargoyle throws a huge rock at Kiara, only to be grabbed by Stitch. Then the blue gargoyle flies in and attacks Stitch, and then tries to attack Kiara, and Sora runs to try and defend her. But then Goliath comes in and attacks the blue gargoyle, only to be thrown back. Goliath and the blue Gargoyle, who is called "Coldstone", recognize each other, and Goliath tells Sora that Coldstone is Goliath's brother. The two gargoyles begin to attack, and Sora tries to attack the red gargoyle, which then drags him up, and flies far away from the battle, only to violently throw him and fly back. When the red gargoyle tries to shoot Goliath, Simba jumps up and attacks him, destroying his jetpack and one of his wings, sending him crashing near Pride Rock. Then a person gets out of the red gargoyle, revealing that it was actually a suit. It's the man dressed in black from earlier, the apprentice of the old man. He attacks and beats Donald and Goofy, and most of the summons; Stitch, Mushu and Genie, then proceeds to attack Timon, Pumba and Kiara, who screams for help and is heard by Simba and Sora somehow. Sora rushes back, only to see Timon and Pumba unconscious and Kiara violently kicked to a rock. The apprentice claims he won't hurt Kiara if Sora submits his key blade. By now Goliath has convinced Coldstone to help him and Simba fend off the creatures-revealed to be called "unbirths"-a little while longer for Sora. Sora then retracts his key blade, stating it only obeys its master, and throws the apprentice towards a forest fire caused by lightning. Then the apprentice emerges and provokes a duel with Sora, which sends them flying and jumping all over the Pride Lands, with the apprentice seemingly gaining the upper hand. When it takes them back to Pride Rock, Sora first puts an unconscious Kiara underneath Pride Rock, covering her from the rain, and gets back to the fight. He transforms into his "Final Form", using what little energy from Donald and Goofy, wielding his two most powerful key blades "Ultima" and "Fenrir". Sora quickly gains the upper hand now and chases the apprentice to the top of Pride Rock. He beats the apprentice in hand-to-hand combat, and nearly beheads him until the old man appears, and reveals himself as Master Xehanort.

Xehanort explains that he let his apprentice back for one last time to see if either he or Sora could serve beside Master Xehanort when obtaining Kingdom Hearts and Sora has proved stronger. He also explains he sent his apprentice on a mission to obtain Ansem's research of the hearts of worlds, and should Ansem find out of this, the apprentice's use of the name Xehanort would let Ansem know who else is after his research. But then the apprentice became consumed by the heartless, creating his various forms, having agendas of their own. Finally Master Xehanort explains that he lead Sora here to be separated from his friends, correctly predicting Maleficent attacking them at Disney Castle. If Sora where here he couldn't help them, and Sora would be cut off from help to prove to Xehanort how powerful Sora has become.

Enraged by this, Sora proceeds to attack Xehanort, only to be distracted and kill the apprentice instead. Xehanort tries to kill Simba and Goliath, but Coldstone sacrifices himself trying to kill Xehanort. Xehanort quickly teleports away, causing all the unbirths to disappear as well. While Goliath yells over the loss of his brother, an exhausted Sora, transforming back to his cub form and releasing Donald and Goofy, goes back down and brings Kiara inside Pride Rock. Kiara regains consciousness and embraces Sora, and they both go outside to see the skies clear and see that the battle is victorious. Later that day Sora explains that he has to go and help his friends at Disney Castle, as they'll be ambushed very soon. As he, Donald and Goofy reach their ship, Simba, Nala, Kiara, Timon and Pumba all come and say goodbye one last time. As they leave Simba and Kiara stay a little longer, with Sora promising Kiara he'll try and come back if he can. Simba now realizes the relationship Kiara and Sora are in. Sora than asks Stitch to stay behind, and that he'll come back for him too. This startles the team, but Sora just tells them to go to the ship. Finally Sora and his team leave.

As they prepare the journey back to Disney Castle, we see the castle beginning to be under siege by and army of heartless and nobodies, lead by Sephiroth. Sora's Gummi ship then starts to by under chase by a huge pirate ship. They fly past many worlds and are nearly killed many times. In the battle, Sephiroth then summons a dragon called Bahamut to make things harder for Leon and his team. Sephiroth realizes Aerith has been magically healing the team from inside the castle; he finds her before forcing her to her knees and stabs her to death. Riku notices this from outside but Mickey chooses to go in and confront Sephiroth. Sora and his team are now close to the Disney Castle world, only to see many nobody ships surrounding the world. Sora flies and finds Monstro, the whale from "Pinocchio" and tricks the whale into following Sora's ship, destroying several nobody ships. Sephiroth sense this and orders Bahamut to shoot at the sky. Donald and Goofy see this and have the ship split into three separate ships. The beam shot by Bahamut hits Monstro, killing him, and separate Sora from his team. The two other ships crash into the castle while Sora aimlessly flies into a cruiser flying around the worlds.

Sora wakes up and sees that he's in some sort of castle, flying around the worlds. Sora sees a fire place and sits near it until his wounds heal. He notices the fire speak, calling himself "Calcifer". Then Sora sees Michael coming down the stairs. Michael tells Sora he's in a castle that belongs to his master Howl. He explains Howl can sometimes by a coward and hasn't been helping Leon much recently. Sora then sees that the door leading into the castle can lead to various places depending on the color on top of the door. Sora has no choice but to stay the night until Howl comes back while his friends battle for over a day. After being assured by Calcifer that his friends will be alright with Riku and Mickey, who can also wield key blades, Sora chooses to clean the castle, which is dusty and messy. He sees how Calcifer moves the castle, and complements Calcifer's ability to move such a castle.

That night Sora sees the color on the door turn black and a black humanoid comes through the door from the battle outside. It then turns into a man with blond hair wearing a blue-ish overcoat, a white shirt and black pants. Sora asks the man who he is and the man says he's Howl, who has noticed the battle going on at Disney Castle. Sora tries to convince Howl to go help but Howl chooses to remain uninvolved, using his magic to hide him and the castle. The following morning, while Sora tries to prepare breakfast, he and Michael hear Howl yelling. Howl comes down and scolds Sora for messing up his potions used for dying his hair. It is now red, but turns to black, with Sora complementing on it. But Howl just complains and eventually makes the room dark and seemingly summons the spirits of darkness. Michael tells Sora he's seen Howl do this once before when a girl dumped him. But Sora just scolds Howl for overreacting and runs to the castle's balcony. He stares at the Disney Castle world in the distance for a bit until Michael comes back and asks Sora to see Howl quickly. Howl has now turned into a green goo substance, but Sora just replies nicely that he's just throwing a tantrum and carries Howl into the bath. He tells Michael to clean Howl while Sora cleans the trail of goo left by Howl. Several hours later Michael comes down with Howl, now dressed in black clothes, and has cut and combed his black hair. He now agrees to help Sora and tells Calcifer to bring the castle back to Disney Castle, but first they must make a quick stop at the tower by Twilight Town.

Howl goes in alone and meets with Yen Sid. Howl explains the situation and how he has changed from his ways in order to help others, but asks Yen Sid to make his destiny clear, and to help them win this fight. But Yen Sid replies that his time is almost up, and will leave this world. He tells Howl that it's his duty now to watch over the other worlds. Mickey was a good student but is now a king of Disney Castle and must deal with those matters, but says that Howl was a more accomplished student with more power that Yen Sid has ever seen. Howl shows concern at this and asks how Yen Sid could leave such a task to a nobody, but Yen Sid replies that although Howl is technically classified as a nobody, not all rules apply to him, and that he would join a line of powerful people who have helped bring others together and saved them from their inner demons. Yen Sid finally disappears into the sky through the window in the tower, and seemingly dies. Howl returns to his castle parked outside, now looking determined and confident, and tells Sora it's time to help his friends, but secretly tells Calcifer that Yen Sid is dead.

At the battle now, the castle is badly damaged and the heartless and nobodies have entered the castle, but then Cloud comes in with his motorcycle and rides in into the heartless crowd, and shoots it with Leon's gun, blowing it up and taking many heartless and nobodies with it which drives the army back. Cloud has now bought Sora a little more time, but then Sephiroth orders Bahamut to destroy the castle. Bahamut does so, and flies up and shoots a huge beam at the castle, causing significant damage. Leon, Riku and everyone else proceed to attack Bahamut while and angry Mickey attacks Sephiroth and breaks his sword in half. Leon and the rest have a hard time attacking Bahamut, but then Howl's moving castle comes in sight, shooting at the heartless and nobody crowd. To help them with this, Howl turns on Cid's ship, puts it in automatic mode, and orders it to shoot it at the crowd too. Then Sora jumps out the castle and proceeds to attack Bahamut. With help from every one else, Sora jumps to Bahamut high in the sky, preparing to fire at the castle again, but Sora slices the dragon in half, killing him. Everyone gangs up on Sephiroth now, and just when he's about to fight back, he's teleported away by Xehanort, which angers Cloud.

The heartless and nobody army disappear now, and the ships retreat to Castle Oblivion. There Xehanort brings Sephiroth to Maleficent, and admits that he'll need her help to take care of the others, and to bring Sora to their side. Maleficent agrees, but only to bring his unbirth army to hers, increasing her army and chances of claiming Kingdom Hearts and killing Sora. Maleficent tells Xehanort that the battle still went as planned whether the heroes are dead or not. She remembers that killing heartless releases a captive heart, which then travels to Kingdom Hearts, rebuilding it after Ansem's nearly successful attempt to destroy it before. In the battle the heroes killed enough heartless to rebuild Kingdom Hearts again for Maleficent and Xehanort to claim.

We now see a dramatic scene of Sora reunited with everyone else, and soon after they plan to launch an assault on Castle Oblivion in a couple of day's time, giving them time to rest and get what they need. Cloud will try to round up ships and soldiers from the moon space station, while Leon will use Tinkerbell's flying dust ability to bring in more ships from Port Royal, which Jack Sparrow and several others agree to help Sora in one final battle, for everything Sora has done for them.

Sora tells Riku and Kairi that he doesn't plan on going back home with them after this crisis is over. While Riku respects Sora's decision, this upsets Kairi a little. Sora goes to Kairi and tells her that he's met someone, someone he cares a lot about and who feels the same for him. While Kairi knew about his feelings for her, she says that she didn't feel the same for Sora, she saw him as a brother, but that's not a reason to leave them. Sora explains that now she can stay with Riku, as he has no future in Destiny Islands now.

Howl insists on training Sora on his magic and key blade skills. Howl explains that Sora will have to rely more on magic now after discovering about Master Xehanort. Just when Sora summons his key blade Howl steals it from him, which amazes Sora and everyone watching as Howl can use a key blade without it teleporting back to its original master. Sora tries to call it back but something is weakening his connection to it. Howl then proceeds to beat Sora with the key blade, with Sora dodging a few blows. But Howl blows become more violent. Leon, Riku and several others become concerned about this but Auron holds them back, agreeing that this is necessary. Finally Sora summons a force field to protect him from Howl's blows. Then Sora quickly transforms into his Final Form, but without using energy from Donald and Goofy. Sora then easily retracts his key blade and beats Howl, with Howl congratulating that Sora has now unlocked his full potential, without relying on his friends or key blade. Sora can now transform back and forth into his various drive forms indefinitely, but Sora is still suspicious as to how Howl could use a key blade.

Later, Sora asks Howl about this, and Howl reveals that long ago, when he was a boy he had the ability to wield a key blade, because of his ability to use magic and his good intentions. He was able to study aspects of the key blade, and how key blades can develop a consciousness of their own as they absorb the emotions from their masters. But later in Howl's childhood his heart was stolen by a demon, turning Howl into a kind of nobody. He reveals the demon to be Calcifer, and because of Calcifer's good intentions Howl is also good. That's how he can use a key blade, even if it already belongs to someone, the more powerful a key blade bearer is, the longer he can wield another, weaker person's key blade. He also reveals that Sephiroth is also a nobody, motivated by Cloud's emotions to not except the future and be demented by the past. Together, they used to be a different person, a great soldier who was regarded as hero during the heartless siege on the Radiant Gardens years ago. The soldier was consumed by a heartless and created the nobody Sephiroth. Tifa's feelings for Cloud has kept him human, and only if Cloud accepts Tifa's feelings can he kill Sephiroth permanently and remain the person he is now. Howl explains that heartless, nobodies and unbirths can sense other heartless, nobodies and unbirths nearby, and that's how he knew of Cloud and Sephiroth. Then Howl takes Sora to his moving castle, parked outside Disney Castle. He shows Sora that the colors have changed, and that they now lead to the Radiant Gardens, Destiny Islands, Traverse Town, Pride Lands, and Disney Castle since Howl doesn't plan on moving anymore. Sora asks why Howl did this and Howl replies that he sensed a great deal of chaos in Sora's mind. This was to make things easier in the end for Sora to decide where he wants to go after this is over, realizing the barriers might close again, but that's not Howl's real, if not, only reason.

King Mickey decides to tell Sora, Riku and Kairi about Sora's dream. Twelve years ago three key blade apprentices went to search for an old key blade master and his apprentice. They found them but were instead attacked by them. These three apprentices bear a resemblance to Sora, Riku and Kairi, three new apprentices that would fight against the old key blade master and his apprentice in the future. They would either defeat them, or lose to him. By now Leon and Cloud have returned from a successful mission of bringing in reinforcements.

The following day, both Leon and Maleficent decide to rouse up their armies to prepare to launch an attack on each other. Sora chooses to remain in his Final Form to make the battle easier. The fleet deploys from Disney Castle and flies to Castle Oblivion. The fleet stops before a collection of giant rock like structures floating in the space, one of the sub-worlds before the world. As Cid's ship (the lead ship) goes through to clear the area, the rest of the fleet maneuvers around. Secretly, Maleficent shows the growth of her power by summoning the Leviathan, a gargantuan sea robot creature and former guardian of Atlantis, which then attempts to attack Cid's ship. It chases the ship all over the sub-world, all the ship's weapons proving futile against it. Sora and Leon try to slow it down by shooting at it, until Howl finally gets out and with a power he had concealed in him like no other, destroys the gargantuan creature. Even though the Leviathan is dead, Howl is weary of battle, and it will be difficult for him in the upcoming one.

Now all ships on both sides are accounted for, and ready to attack. But first Maleficent's ship and Cid's ship, containing Leon, Sora, and the rest, fly towards a small floating island between Disney Castle and Castle Oblivion. Maleficent, Xehanort, Pete and Sephiroth wait on the Island while Sora, Leon, Mickey and Howl walk towards them. The eight try to negotiate terms, telling the others to turn back, but after what Xehanort and Maleficent has done, the heroes have decided it's too late to turn back now. Sora says that "we will fight, and you will die". The eight return to their ships and anxiously wait for the battle. Then everyone notices Kingdom Hearts on top of Castle Oblivion about to collapse. The sudden collection of hearts, both good and evil, causes it to float beneath the two armies, and explode, creating somewhat of a massive fire-like black whole. Inside glows blue energy, Kingdom Hearts itself. As the armies begin to attack, Maleficent's ship and Cid's ship both race down to the center of the black whole, to claim Kingdom Hearts. The final battle has begun.

The two ships swirl around, using the current more than their engines. Eventually they start shooting at each other. Finally the two ships meet at the middle. Sora and Mickey jump to the enemy ship, while many heartless, nobodies, unbirths and Sephiroth jump to Cid's ship. Sora begins to fight Master Xehanort while Mickey fights Pete once and for all. At the same time Cloud tries to fend off Sephiroth, who claims he merely wants to be whole again, and all Cloud's pain will go away. Sora and Xehanort take their fight from the sails of the ship to the giant oars and then back on deck. Riku and Kairi see Sora struggling with Xehanort, and rush to help him. Maleficent tries to fend off Riku and Kairi, but Howl then jumps in. Maleficent yells that this isn't his fight, but Howl states she had her chance at Sora, and the two fight, with Howl borrowing the Oblivion key blade. Pete then gets shot by a cannonball from Cid's ship, and in his dying words apologizes to Mickey for what he's done, and says he misses all those days on the steam boat, and finally dies. Maleficent transforms into her dragon form, using residual power from the black hole. To draw her away from the ships, Howl transforms into a huge bird. They fly out of the hole and into various ships, destroying them as they go, including Howl's castle, which angers Howl as it seems his promise to Sora is broken. They both shoot at each other with fire, but to no effect. But then Howl manages to impale Maleficent with his big talons, sending her crashing down right into the whole, killing her. Sephiroth finally manages to stab Cloud, and attempts to magically bond with him. But when Tifa and Yufie distract Sephiroth, Cloud stabs him. Cloud tells him to stay where he belongs, in his memories. During Sephiroth's dying words he says he'll never being a memory, and falls into the hole. Sora and Xehanort now seem exhausted but attempt to continue. Xehanort then sees Riku and Kairi, and magically pushes Sora in order to fight them. Both quickly block and manage to hold him off for a little bit. Then Howl comes back, tired, but still able to fight. Then Xehanort jumps back, noticing he's outnumbered, and summons unbirths to fight them. He is then re-engaged with Sora. But when Sora sees his friends in trouble, as they are exhausted by now, Xehanort takes this opportunity and stabs Sora, with most of Xehanort's key blade coming right through Sora's back. Riku, Kairi and Howl, shocked, try to help, but are held back by the unbirths. But then Sora stabs Xehanort as well. Maleficent's ship then starts to bring down Cid's ship, so Cid tries to go back out the hole. Sora tells Riku to take care of Kairi, and Howl, at Sora's request, takes Riku and a weeping Kairi, and flies away, while Sora, Xehanort and the ship go down inside the hole. Cid's ship gets out, and the hole seemingly closes up, leaving a big star where the hole was. The team notices the huge ships battle above, which means the battle isn't over yet.

Sora wakes up in a desert like area. He managed to heal himself of the wound Xehanort made when he stabbed him, but it left somewhat of a scar, like the one he already has. Xehanort then tells Sora that they are in Kingdom Hearts. The blue heart above is its energy, its raw power. The area looks like the desert of key blades. Xehanort explains Kingdom Hearts didn't look like this before because, when the Heartless had destroyed worlds, they gathered where Kingdom Hearts was, to take what energy they can from Kingdom Hearts, covering the key blade desert. Kingdom Hearts now takes shape of the desert to give anyone a chance to take a key blade and either lock Kingdom Hearts away hopefully forever, or take its power and take control of all worlds.

Sora vows he'll kill Xehanort and lock Kingdom Hearts, takes his Ultima and Fenrir key blades, and begins a fight with him one last time. They jump and fly around, and create tornados and monsters with many of the key blades, but Sora manages to stab Xehanort with agility. When Sora walks away from a kneeling Xehanort, Xehanort just says that Sora has unleashed the monster within Xehanort, and levitates in the air. With his last bit of life, he starts glowing with blue-ish energy and summons all the key blades in the area, creating a gargantuan, armored monster. Sora tries to fight him, but the key blades have granted the monster too many abilities for Sora to handle, and runs towards the blue heart. The monster then jumps in front of Sora, blocking him from the only power available of taking on the monster. But then, Sora's key blades then float in front of him. As they cause Sora to glow, they send out energy beams to various other worlds. They are calling the princesses of heart to give Sora the power he needs to lock Kingdom Hearts. As everyone in Cid's ship watch the beams coming from the star, Kairi's heart starts glowing, and seemingly lends energy to the star. The same thing happens to Kiara, waiting out in the Pride Lands for Sora, as her heart lends energy too. This happens to many princesses in many worlds, and Sora finally has the power he needs. He points the key blade to the blue heart, which seems to be the key hole, and shoots a beam at it, through the monster, and with some difficulty, locks it, killing the monster in the process, and causes Sora to faint. The beams disappear and Kairi, Kiara, and all the other princesses' hearts return to normal, realizing that they have helped Sora greatly. The star and the heartless, nobodies and unbirths disappear too, now that the link between light and dark has faded. Everyone claimed by Heartless, nobodies and unbirths are human again, and all the destroyed worlds are brought back. In the Pride Lands, Stitch receives a message from Leon that Sora is KIA, and tells the bad news to Kiara, Simba and everyone else, causing some to weep.

Black in Disney Castle, Leon's team prepare to go back to the Radiant Gardens and continue reconstruction, while Mickey, Donald, Goofy and others prepare to reconstruct their castle. Goofy assures to Kairi and Riku that Sora is all right, and that they will see him soon, and the two chipmunks fly them back to the Destiny Islands.

Back in the desert, we see a man in a blue tuxedo walking towards and unconscious Sora. Sora wakes up but his vision has been temporarily compromised. The man says he's an ancient spirit who was there when the worlds were first made, and thanks Sora for his actions, and for every thing he's done, and asks Sora if he wants to go home finally. When Sora is about to answer, he pauses. He knows Riku loves Kairi as much as Sora does, and knows Riku will take care of her. He remembers a promise he made, and asks the man to take him home, to the Pride Lands. But first, Sora asks the man who he is, and the man replies, "Just call me Walt."

Back in the Pride Lands, at sunset, Kiara is still sitting, waiting for Sora. Simba and Nala, while watching from Pride Rock, tell each other they'll let her stay they a little longer, but they can't stand seeing her like this. Timon comes and tells Kiara that if she knows Sora the way he does, a battle won't kill him, and that he'll come back, and better yet, he's coming back for her. This comforts her a bit, and hugs Timon. Timon then walks back, leaving Kiara alone. Then Kiara notices someone move behind her, it's Sora. She looks in shock, but then starts to tear up and smile. Sora says he promised to come back before Kiara rushes to him and hugs him. The two then kiss as we zoom up into the sunset.

In Destiny Islands, Kairi and Riku watch the Sunrise. Both realize they'll have to continue their lives normally now. They overheard Leon talking about some "Queen of the Moon" not risking leaving the world barriers open, thinking that's what let the Heartless through. This reduces their chances of seeing Sora again. But Kairi tells Riku that everything will be all right, and she knows they'll see Sora again.

In the Pride Lands, at dawn, all the animals wait at Pride Rock while Simba tells Sora he has a surprise for him. Performing a similar ritual that he did to Simba as a cub, Rafiki officially welcomes Sora to the family. Sora tells Rafiki not to drop him as Rafiki holds Sora for every animal to see, like what he did to Simba and Kiara.

During the credits we see that the Radiant Gardens and Disney Castle reconstruction is going along nicely, while Howl begins rebuilding his castle. We also see Sora adjusting well to his new life in the Pride Lands, adopting cub like instincts as he plays with Kiara more.

In a post-credits scene, at dawn, Sora looks at the sunrise, tearing up. Kiara comes and sees him, and he tells her he just misses his old friends. He says he wants to go for a walk to clear his head, and if Kiara wants, she can join him, which she gladly does. As they walk they encounter a man in black clothes, but it turns out to be Howl. He reveals he's rebuilt the castle, and still has a promise to keep. He tells Sora he can see his friends when he's ready, and Sora invites a nervous Kiara along to meet everyone else. Howl wonders what Kiara would look like as a human should she change, and Sora remarks she'll be beautiful. They are now at Disney castle and are welcome by seemingly every one he's met and made friends with. Kairi also meets Kiara and the two seem to form a small bond. Sora looks at the sunrise and notices the spirits of Aerith, Aslan, Yen Sid, and Mufasa. Aerith tells Sora that everything's okay. Sora replies "I know…I'm not alone…not anymore" realizing who he would have left if he died. The camera zooms out as we see everyone together in a group, and the screen fades to white. THE END.

Well, there it is. Like I said in my preface, I was going through a weird phase at the time: early-to-mid teens, single, the overwhelming nostalgia I felt when I got back into Disney movies thanks to Kingdom Hearts, so I poured all of that into this story, and clearly it's not well thought out at all.

But I thought "what the hell?", re-share my first work to remind myself - as well as show others - what I used to be like, and hopefully show how far I've come since then.

See you guys next time when I post the next part of my Kingdom Hearts: Apocrypha series, which will consist of 2-3 sagas, the first of which will be titled "Conquest".