I wrote this fanfic a LONG time ago. I'm going through these chapters and revising them.

Revised October 2012

Chapter 1

He appreciated more, the waves, the rustle of the branches, the heat of the sun, everything the island had to offer he no longer took for granted. He no loner wanted to leave his paradise, his home. When Riku discovered the key hole to Destiny Island he became obsessed with its power, with its potential. He wanted to leave because he wanted to find answers for questions that he didn't even know he could ponder.

But while trying to find this answers, he only became more lost.

"This place...why did I ever want to leave? This place is my home, this place..."

"The door to the light. What do you think it was Riku?"

Riku turned to his best friend, amazed that Sora still couldn't find that answer.

Riku lifted up his arm and pointed to straight at Sora's heart. "It's this."

Sora looked down, quizzical. "This?"

Sora is and always will be Riku's best friend, but Sora could sometimes be so oblivious to things. Maybe that was why everyone liked him. His attitude only seemed to attract people, his carefree nature was something that, in fact, attracted Riku to him. It was this attitude that saved his life after all.

"Sora! Riku!"

The two boys turned from there post on the small island that hovered above the shallow ocean. Kairi ran, or rather sprinted to the boys with a frantic face that demanded their attention.

It was a little amusing to see Kairi run so hard, to the point where she was breathless upon reaching them. Sora, intriged and slightly concerned, questioned Kairi first.

"Hey what's up?" Sora said, giving Kairi a look of concern and curiosity.

"Look!" Kairi showed the two boys a small bottle with a note inside. Sora and Riku's eyes nearly bulged out of their heads, they couldn't believe what they were seeing.

"The King!" Sora yelped before grabbing the bottle from Kairi's hands. King Mickey's seal, a small mouse head that was all black, was stamped on the outside of the note.

Sora opened the letter, and all three friends hovered over his shoulders reading the note intently. Riku felt a surge of anxiety well up inside him. After everything that Mickey and him had been through, he knew that the King would only contact them in such a matter if something serious had happened. Something involving the heartless or nobodies...or maybe a new danger.

To his surprise, Riku found the handwriting foreign. Mickey hadn't written the letter, but the severity Riku suspected was still evident.

In cute, curvy cursive writing the note read:

Dear Sora, Kairi, and Riku, The Keyblade Wielders,

You must hurry and come to Disney Castle! The King has gone missing and the castle is in chaos. Please, I don't know who else to turn to. Once the King left the Light of the Cornerstone lost its light! Heartless are now over running the castle! I have prepared a Gummi Ship to take you to the castle immediately, hopefully it makes it to Destiny Island safely. Please be prepared, I don't know how long we can keep this up.

Please hurry,
Queen Minnie

The King has gone missing. The words made Riku's insides crumble. His dear friend, one of his greatest forms of support in his times of darkness was...gone? And to make things worse, the castle is under siege from heartless.

The trio didn't speak for a while, still trying to process the information they had just read. They couldn't believe, or rather, they didn't want to believe what the note read.

"This in horrible!" Kairi said finally, bringing her hand to her mouth as she backed away from Sora and Riku.

"The heartless are back and the Light of the Cornerstone has lost its power? H-how?" Sora said, still starring at the note as if it would answer his question or reveal some hidden information.

Riku didn't say anything, he ran through about a hundred scenarios per minute but he couldn't understand why Mickey would leave his home...his wife.

Sora finally put down the note and walked over to Kairi to comfort her. He tentively made a move to hold her lightly before she quickly srung to life, a new fire in her eyes.

"We have to go help Minie! That's the only way we're going to figure out what's going on! And I'm definitely going! No matter how dangerous it sounds! Ok!?" Kairi looked between Sora and Riku, before deciding to leave her gaze on Sora. Riku could see Sora becoming more and more uncomfortable. If it weren't for the current situation he would have found their stare-off quite amusing. He knew Sora didn't want Kairi to get hurt, but Kairi was tough and, when she was as passionate as she was now, could be quite...well...scary.

"I...I don't ever want to be separated from you guys again. I never want that to happen...so I'm definitely going." Kairi said, calmly and with a voice so low that Riku thought she was only talking to Sora.

"Yeah." Sora said calmly, smiling at Kairi while holding his fist up in a victory pose. "We'll stick together this time, no matter what!" Riku wasn't surprised, typical Sora. He could never resist Kairi.

-0-

The sun was heading toward the horizon. Making the sky glow a brilliant orange and yellow. The Gummi Ship arrived as the sun travelled below the ocean.

Riku wasn't scared; that emotion was lost a long time ago when Riku lived in darkness. However, Riku felt anxious the entire ride to the castle. He gripped the arm rest with his right hand, his leg shook to a hap hazardous beat as the Gummi Ship rocketed past asteroids and old enemy structures that were nothing more than ruins as a result of Sora's journey a while ago.

Again, thousands of thoughts ran through Riku's head. The story almost didn't make sense. Disney Castle was a sanctuary in a world that was overrun with darkness. Riku remembered fantasizing about the castle as he walked next to Mickey in the darkness. His stories of a place that was filled with light and hope, at first, made Riku think of Mickey as a fool. Back then there was no such place in exsistance. Perhaps in the past, before Ansem, before the heartless, before evil... But the way Mickey spoke of his home, his wife, heck even his dog finally convinced Riku that perhaps a place as glorious and happy as the Castle could exist.

The Gummi Ship arrived to the castle quickly, meeting no enemies on the way. From a distance the colorful and bright world looked tranquil from a distance. Riku recognized its small red flags that flapped in the wind. The blue shingles of the Castle's roof gleamed brightly against the yellow sun.

"Oh no!" Kairi said, once the Gummi Ship neared closer to the Castle's hanger. The seemingly peaceful world was nothing but gloom and despair. Riku felt his insides sink slightly, the dread hanging in the air taking an immediate toll on his body.

Heartless were every where and Riku couldn't help but think that nothing would ever get rid of these things. After everything he had been through, after everything he had done nothing seemed to change. Was everything that Sora had gone through worthless?

I guess they would find out.

Riku looked out the Gummi Ship window, studying the heartless below them.

They were mainly low ranking heartless, the pests that found strength in numbers. Soldiers walked across the grassy courtyard and convulsed wildly as the Gummi Ship rode over their heads.

"What's the plan?" Riku said as the Gummi Ship finally docked in the hanger. Chip and Dale were no where to be found; not surprising at all to Riku or Sora.

"We have to find the Cornerstone. If it still has some power left then it should be able to protect a small area around it." Riku was surprised. Despite Sora being just a silly kid, he really did learn something while embarking on all his journeys.

"Ok! Do you remember where it is Sora?" Sora looked up to the sky, using his right pointer finger to tap against his chin in thought.

"Mmmmm...yep!" He said while summoning his Keyblade. It was similar to the Keyblade the King used, which stirred up a strange amount of emotions within Riku. Where exactly had his friend gone?

Kairi summoned her Keyblade as well. Riku always noted how the Keyblade fit her personality. It was pink and girly, cute and frilly. Not exactly the best choice of weapon, Riku thought, but Kairi could hold her own with it. She had learned how to fight with it properly with help from Sora and Riku.

Riku summoned The Way to Dawn in his hand. The weapon felt weightless as Riku gripped the familiar hilt of his weapon. He could feel its power travel through him, as if the weapon was speaking to him. The darkness, the darkness, the darkness is near. He allowed a bit of dark aura to travel through the length of the weapon. It wasn't the same as the power he possessed when he accepted the form of Ansem, but it was still powerful nevertheless. Sora had helped him realize that that power wasn't necessary, he just needed his heart...

The group ran through the courtyard with ease, since the Heartless there were weak and still felt the influence of the Light of the Cornerstone, despite its reseeding power. Riku slashed though multiple enemies at a time, sweeping his Keyblade in quick arcs across his body as he rushed toward his enemies. Within two hits each enemy fell, their hearts ascending to Kingdom Hearts in huge clusters of glimmering pink.

Riku turned toward his friends, finding that they were nearly done with their pack of enemies. Sora had stuck close to Kairi and helped her fight a pack of Shadows and Soldiers. They were no match for Sora, his experience fighting Heartless showed as he easily swept his Keyblade through them over and over. Riku blocked a rampaging Soldiers attack, throwing it back with an upper slash from his Keyblade. It knocked back into another Soldier, both bodies slamming into a cracked pillar. Two pink hearts floated above Riku's head.

"Sora!" Kairi yelped as she watched as Sora became surrounded by Soldiers. Riku ran to his friend, since he had defeated all of his enemies, and proceeded to help his friend as a Soldier prepared to unleash a frenzy of kicks, its special ability that could inflict a significant amount of damage if not parried.

Sora, calmly, retaliated quickly. He gathered the power from his Keyblade and floated in the air, hitting a majority of the enemies at once with a spinning move that instantly destroyed the Heartless. Riku and Kairi cut through the remaining Heatless, leaving the courtyard empty.

"This way!" Sora yelled once his power resided and the last enemy was destroyed. He led the group to a massive door in a hallway, which concealed another smaller door built into the framework. Riku would have found the site funny; the king making such an effort to create such an intimidating feature only to cut a small door frame that was perfect for his size. Riku would be sure to find Mickey now, especially since he could make fun of him for this outrageous door. Another reason to find him...

"Just follow me. The Hall of the Cornerstone room is right under that throne over there." Sora pointed to the end of a large white room. The only decoration in the room was the long red carpet that extended from the door to a small throne and a series of pillars that lined up along the walls.

Riku had to squint to see the throne on the other side of the room. Why is this place so massive? Nothing seemed to go your way when you owned a Keyblade.

The trio ran toward the throne, cautious and ready for heartless to appear in front of them as they typically did. Their foot steps echoed loudly, fighting against the silence in the room.

"Oh great." Riku said, once band of five Nobodies appeared in front of the group.

"Nobodies?!" Sora said, causing Kairi to flinch slightly in fear upon seeing an old enemy again.

Their lanky white bodies swayed slowly toward them as they prepared to attack. Riku charged first, attacking a single Dusk mercilessly, not allowing it even a second to prepare an attack. Sora and Kairi joined in as well, quickly signaling out Dusks all the while dodging attacks from enemies they weren't not targeting yet.

Why the hell are there Nobodies here? Riku grunted as he parried an attack from a floating Dusk. Its arms flailed wildly, cutting the air as it travelled toward Riku through the air. It spun slowly back to the ground when making contact with Riku's defense, leaving it open for a series of deadly attacks.

This...it made no sense to Riku. The situation no longer felt dire, it felt lie a horrible nightmare. Organization XIII had long since been destroyed, and their influence and power were destroyed along with them. Riku thought that Nobodies would no longer be an issue, since they were merely a manifestation of the Organization. It was...unsettling. Riku felt his stomach churn as more Nobodies appeared, this time higher ranking enemies.

Dusks, Creepers, and Assassins appeared simultaneously, approaching the group quickly forcing the trio to huddle together, their backs pressed to one another. Riku's Keyblade glowed a deeper black as the enemies closed in, the dark aura illuminating they sweat on his face. He could faintly hear Kairi pant as she held here Keyblade in front of her, despite her eyes being filled with fear and doubt.

"Sora, any ideas here." Riku asked as the Assassins phased into the ground and stalked closer to the group. Riku didn't doubt that they could take this group of Nobodies, but what if there were more. It would be useless to exert energy on an inevitable battle. Espacially since the castle proved to be rampant with enemies.

"This way!" Sora yelled, running toward the throne before the Nobodies closed of any sort of path. Riku and Kairi follwed suit, looking back at the enemies as they quickened their pace seeing that their prey was running.

"What are you doing?" Riku yelled as he parried a wild attack from an Assassin, causing the Nobody to float slowly into the air. Riku proceeded to attack the vulnerable enemy, only to be attack by a couple of Creepers that spawned right at the Dawn Wielder's feet. Kairi yelped as she watched Riku barely block their morphing attack, their ax-like bodies swining right at Riku's mid section.

Riku slid backwards at the force, his hands and arms vibrating from the close proximity of the attack.

"Ok got it!" Sora yelled before a blinding white light filled the room. Riku brought his arm to his eyes, the birhgtness of the light nearly blinding him.

The light receded, leaving the room empty besides the three friends. Riku lowered his hands slowly, The Way of the Dawn gripped tightly in his hands as he waited for the Nobodies to return. They never did. Riku didn't want to question how Sora had managed to activate that feature, and followed his friend down a hidden corridor that appeared under the stage the throne was sitting on.

The group scaled the stair case, leaving the whiteness of the room behind them and entered a more dark and gloomy atmosphere.

They entered a large room, dark and full of people. Riku heard Kairi gasp and Sora had said something, but it was all white noise to Riku. He could only focus on the scene in front of him.

The eyes of what seemed to be every castle inhabitant were on them. Their new found hope of relief was spewing from each of their watery orbs as they witnessed the only three saviors they knew. The three Keyblade wielders stood together, something they wouldn't be able to do for a while.

Revised October 2012