"I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts, IS LIGHT!"
Sweat poured down Sora's face, hoping, praying...
And it was answered.
Light exploded out of the Door to Darkness, bathing Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, in it's grace. In a nova of light, the Heartless exploded, forcing Sora to shield his eyes briefly. When he lowered his hands, he smiled in relief, it was finally over...
And then a figure plummeted out of the light-nova. Sora's heart stopped for a moment, terrified that somehow Ansem had survived. Then he saw a flash of brown hair, strange clothes, eyes closed and definitely unconscious. Honestly, looking back after, Sora was flying after the person without even bothering to think after he registered the thought of 'Not Ansem'.
"Sora wait!" sqwaked Donald.
Nope, not letting someone get pasted from this kind of fall. Sora dove hard, grabbing the guy by the waist and struggling to slow the fall (this guy was heavy, no, bulky, holy crap Riku didn't have close to the muscles this guy had). He managed to slow the fall long enough for Goofy to catch up and help, both of them setting the guy down on the white marble like ground a bit infront of the Door to Darkness...
Which was still seeping out said Darkness!
"Hurry!" shouted Donald.
The stranger momentarily forgotten, the trio rushed for the door, trying to close it. Donald and Goofy were arguing about something, but Sora was A) trying to close to the door, and B) trying not to pass out at the moment to pay attention...
"I cant...," he stammered.
Then a very familiar hand gripped the door. "Don't give up!"
Sora's eyes went wide to see Riku's hand.
"Come on, Sora! Together we can...," said Riku before trailing off, his eyes going wide at something behind Sora.
He glanced back, at the unconscious man. "Uh... he kind of dropped out of the Ansem-Explosion?"
Riku's face shuttered off for a long moment, eyes searching, before a pained look crossed his face. "So that's why he never came back..."
Sora blinked. "You know him?"
"I could never forget him," said Riku so quietly, "Him or the promise. It's why I..."
Riku closed his eyes and sighed. "There's no time Sora, we have to close the door. Just... help him, Okay? And tell him... tell him I'm sorry. I didn't keep my promise..."
Sora just gave him a confused look.
"I was supposed to champion the one's I loved, to have the strength to protect what matters."
Sora's heart cracked a little, and he couldn't keep the sorrow off his face. "Riku..."
But there was no time, the Heartless behind the door were starting to swirl and gather. They pushed on the outside, he pulled on the inside, but the door closed so slowly... and then the Heartless were bursting behind Riku, fading into darkness as a glowing figure of light shaped like a mouse appeared.
"Now Sora! Let's close this door for good!"
When it was all said and done. The door closed and sealed. Riku and Mickey gone. Kairi somehow being here and then floating away on a scrap of their island that exploded in size...
Sora sat down next to the unconscious man with a heavy sigh, Riku's last words echoing through his mind 'Take care of them.'
One was obviously Kairi.
But...
Sora glanced over the man. Tall, he'd tower over Sora and Riku easily. Brown hair that went up in a sort of spiky way, but not Sora (or Cloud) kind of spiky. His skin is a little tanned. His chest is covered in a skintight black high-collared shirt. He had a red X over his shirt, almost like suspenders. One of his arms below the elbow is are except for a black wrist band, the other has a kind of extended gauntlet that goes down to his elbow. He has a kind of black sash with some kind of badge as it's connected, Sora doesn't recognize the symbol on it, almost like a cross but the top part went into another shape. He has a hakama connecting to tan pants covering his lower half. He also, Sora notes, has armored and pointed boots that he would really not ever want to be kicked by.
The 'Them' part is this guy. Who Riku has not ever mentioned once, yet made his best friend react like that? Who he made some kind of promise to? Sora doesn't think he's met the guy before, or if he did, he doesn't remember. How long had Riku been keeping that a secret? Why?
"You, mister, have some answering to do," muttered Sora, choosing to flop backwards, "When you wake up."
"Ahyuck, tired Sora?" asked Goofy.
Sora made a fake-snoring sound, earning a laugh from his friend.
Donald didn't join in, he was staring at their 'guest'. "Goofy."
"Yeah Donald?"
"Doesn't he look... a little familiar?"
Goofy blinked and scratched his head. "Not really?"
Donald paced around the guy. "I swear, I've seen him before somewhere."
"You know him too?" asked Sora.
Donald shook his head. "No. But... I know I've seen him before, I just can't remember where."
"Huh," said Sora, before shrugging, "...do we have any elixirs left?"
They made camp a few hours later after Sora and Goofy dragged the man down a dimly lit road out of the marble landscape, onto a large grassland with a dirt road. How that abyss place led to here, Sora really couldn't figure out, but weirder things (a lot weirder) had happened during his journey. Thankfully, the Heartless hadn't made a single appearance in this place, so the moment they put the man in his own tent, Sora flopped down in his own and was out like a light...
"XEHANORT!"
Sora woke with a yelp as a powerful booming voice ripped through the area, Donald sqwaking awake, and Goofy already rising with his shield at the ready. They tumbled out of their tent in a hurry, Sora called the Kingdom Key to his hands and looking around in the morning light but finding no danger... so Sora took the only logical step and rushed into their guest's tent. The man was sitting upright, brown eyes wide open in a panic, clutching his chest and breathing raggedly.
"You okay?" asked Sora.
The man jolted a bit, startled, and looked at Sora. "Who...?"
"I'm Sora," he answered, thumbing his chest.
"Donald!" said the duck, poking around one side of Sora.
"Ahyuck, I'm Goofy!" said Goofy, poking around the other side...
Until the two tipped Sora over and they bumbled to the ground in a heap, the Kingdom Key fumbling out of his hands.
"Well... that's some greeting," mused the man, a chuckle escaping his lips before he paused. "You have a Keyblade."
"Get off me guys," whined Sora as the trio rolled over, giving them a chance to assume a sitting position. "Yep. I'm the Keybearer."
The man raised an eyebrow. "'The Keybearer'? I'm pretty sure you're 'a Keybearer'."
Sora blinked. "I've never seen anyone else with one, well, except for Mickey that one time."
There was the Keyblade of Heart, but Sora was pretty sure that was unique.
The man tensed a bit. "Then... who bequeathed you?"
"Who what me?" asked Sora.
"He means who passed on the Keyblade," chided Donald, bonking Sora on the head.
"Oww, well I dunno, maybe kinda Riku? But that's complicated," said Sora, "I didn't know passing on a Keyblade was a thing."
The man went very still at Riku's name, and then squinted at Sora. "You're that other boy from the island."
Sora blinked at him. "We've met?"
"When you were a young child," said the man, frowning, "But that's... how long has it... where am I?"
"Uh... I dunno really where we are at the moment," admitted Sora, "You kinda popped out of an explosion when we beat Ansem."
The man just gave him a blank look.
They fell into an awkward silence for a moment, Sora not quite sure what to say or ask, before he decided on, "Was that you yelling? Whose 'Xehanort'?
The man's face darkened immensely, and Sora's skin prickled in warning. "A monster."
He glanced down at Sora's keyblade. "One I need to make sure I'm rid of. May I see your Keyblade for a moment?"
Sora gave him a confused look. "Uh... I guess?"
The man reached over, grabbed the Kingdom Key, looking it over briefly, a hint of a frown on his face before he reversed his grip, and to Sora's shock, stabbed himself with it. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
A brief shine of light broke through on contact, but nothing else happened. The man's eyes went distant, blinking and shifting rapidly, as if searching for something. Finally, a tense few minutes later, the man withdrew the Keyblade, no apparent damage done, and sighed with relief. "It's just me. He's gone... I'm finally free of him."
"Uh... what?" stammered Sora.
The man's face hadn't lost its darkened look. "Its nothing you need worry..."
Then he glanced over Sora's Keyblade once more. "Then again... you are one of the Keyblade's chosen, and I'm assuming you had something to do with freeing me. You're going to get dragged into this one way or another. I shouldn't let you walk into this blind... not like I did..."
Hours later, as day turned into night, Sora sat on a hillside alone, his knees brought up to his stomach, arms wrapped around them, wondering if it was to late to give up the Keyblade, find and grab Riku, then just go back home. The whole thing with Ansem was nothing compared to what was really going on.
A Keyblade Master turned bad.
Wanting to start a second Keyblade War (hadn't even been aware there was a first, which had almost destroyed all the worlds).
Vanitas and Unversed.
Ventus, or Ven, a boy just like Sora, gone and missing.
Aqua, Terra's friend and a real Keyblade Master, gone and missing.
Eraqus, Terra's teacher, turned on his students, then murdered by Xehanort.
The X-Blade.
Body-stealing...
Everything he heard made Sora's heart ache. Not to mention Donald and Goofy hadn't even mentioned the other Keybearers until Terra brought their names up. Why hadn't they told him? That there had been others, and that they were missing? He didn't like all these secrets. As much as getting whammed by all of that in one day was rough, Sora appreciated how honest the guy, that Terra was. Brutally honest though, and a bit jaded. Not that Sora could blame him, getting manipulated his entire journey, his father figure murdered in front of him, then his body-jacked and forced to fight his best friend was brutal; the last in a way Sora was intimately familiar with, as the best-friend and not the body-jacked thought.
He let a shaky breath out and ran a hand through his spiky hair. The whole thing was so overwhelming...
"You okay Sora?"
He glanced up to see Terra making his way up the hill. "Uh... sure."
Terra sat down next to him. "I'm sorry to front-load it like that. But... the life of a Keybearer is never easy, especially when the line has been broken for nearly a decade, the worlds left without our protection for so long. I imagine things are a bit of a mess, we have a duty to fix it, and I don't think we're going to have much of a chance to just sit down and talk once things begin again."
Sora swallowed at that. Because being a Keybearer wasn't just a thing, a tittle. It was a job. A way of life. People trained their entire lives for this...
And Sora hadn't...
He hadn't even been chosen...
"I'm sorry I'm not Riku, not the one you chose," murmured Sora.
Terra gave him a baffled look. "Why are you apologizing?"
"Because I'm not a real Keybearer, no one chose me," he said quietly.
"Not a real Keybearer?" said Terra, eyebrow raised, "Sora, do you realize what you did yesterday?"
Sora hesitated.
"Donald and Goofy filled me in on your journey, and Sora, I'm amazed," said Terra, a smile on his face, "You took up the mantle of the Keybearer without a single day of training. You went out of your way to help people, just because you could. You, took on, Ansem, who I've since figured was the heartless of my possessed self. The Heartless of Xehanort, and not only did you win, but your actions led to my freedom."
"Do you realize how remarkable that is?" asked Terra, soft and gentle.
Sora's face flushed a bit. "I um... beginner's luck?"
Terra snorted.
"Kingdom Hearts kind of did the final blow?" pointed out Sora sheepishly.
"Only after your heart called it forward," chided Terra, "Take the compliment Sora. You might not have been bequeathed, might not have been chosen to be a Keybearer. But you've more than proven yourself worthy of the tittle."
Sora couldn't find the means to speak with how red his face was with embarrassment.
Terra shook his head. "Honestly, I should have just bequeathed you both that day. Riku might have had the will and desire, but you easily had the heart."
"It's what anyone would have done," said Sora sheepishly before looking away, "Riku was just... he..."
"Riku fell to the same trap I did at an age even younger than I was. He didn't stand a chance Sora," said Terra softly, "Xehanort is a master manipulator, no matter what form he takes. I just... I wish I had been able to stop Xehanort, to spare Riku that fate, and have spared you taking up this mantle when everyone else who was supposed to bear it fell. Where myself, Aqua, Ven, and Master Eraqus failed."
"I'm more than a little scared out of my mind," admitted Sora before speaking with determination, "But I promise we'll find your friends, Terra."
Terra closed his eyes for a long moment. "We will, and neither of us will do it alone. Because that's where we failed before, where Xehanort succeeded. He set us up to be divided. We fell apart long before our final battle against him at the graveyard. The three of us fought our battles separately, not side by side, as comrades in arms, and that's how he won."
"I didn't turn to the right people, my family, for help when I felt lost," he said softly, opening his eyes, "Aqua and the Master didn't particularly make me feel like I could, and Ven... he took off on his own. He is a good kid, a little brother to me, but he put himself in danger, which in turn put us in danger."
"Because of the X-Blade?" asked Sora.
Terra scowled. "No, because we were worried beyond belief about him. Distracted, fretting. The X-Blade was a danger, yes, but, I was more worried about Ven himself then the blade. When... when he asked us at the Graveyard, to put an end to him if Vanitas won..."
Sora watched the man trail off, pain etched on his face. "It's not the kind of thing you ask a friend. You count on friends to help you when you need it the most, not kill you."
Terra nodded in agreement, at least, until shame coated his face. "Not that I heeded these words. When... when Xehanort was trying to dominate me for control of the body. I asked, I begged Aqua to put an end to me as well. I couldn't bear to be used against them anymore than I already had."
He gave a wry smile. "And boy, did she kick Xehanort's ass."
Sora wagged a finger. "Language."
Terra gave a hearty laugh before wiping at his eyes. "Oh Aqua... I'm so sorry... she had to fight us both..."
Sora said nothing, merely looking out into the distance as the sun set... wait... was that Pluto?
Sora jumped to his fleet. "Pluto!"
Terra followed his gaze, with Donald and Goofy at the camp downhill doing the same, to see their favorite dog friend walking past their camp with a letter in his mouth that bore a symbol.
Goofy whooped. "That's the king's seal!"
Sora was blitzing down the hill as fast as he could. "Have you seen the King, Pluto?"
The dog wagged his tail, before spinning in a circle and taking off down the road.
"Well," said Terra, falling in behind the trio, "Like I said, breaks never last long."
Sora grinned. "Nope! C'mon guys, lets go!"
"Uh... what about camp?" said Terra.
But the three were already taking off down the road.
Terra huffed and called after them. "Alright, I'll put out the campfire so we don't burn the field down and catch up."
Sora shot him back a cheeky grin but didn't stop running...
At some point, Sora had lost track of Pluto, Donald, and Goofy, with Terra somewhere far behind. He huffed and puffed, taking a moment to stop and look around as a tingling sensation ran down his spine. He felt like someone was watching him...
"Along the road ahead lies something you need."
Sora flinched at the voice, turning to face it, but it was gone.
He looked around again before turning...
Was that a guy in a black cloak floating off the ground?
"However- in order to claim it, you must lose something that is dear to you."
Sora watched the man turn, down one of the dirt roads, and fade away. "Okay... that was weird..."
There was a rustle behind him, and he saw Terra walking around the bend of a hill, a frown on his face. "That man..."
"You were watching?"
"I've been watching," said Terra with a soft smile, "Long legs beat little stubby ones."
"Hey!" said Sora, pouting.
Terra's smile faded, glancing the way the man had gone. "He felt like... nothing on my senses."
"Senses...?"
Terra shook his head. "Leftover from the Darkness, I can... I suppose, smell things? Light, dark... and that guy smelt like Nothing."
"Guess he bathes?"
Terra gave a pained groan. "Not what I meant... never mind."
"There you are Sora!" called out Donald, "You never wait!"
Sora gave the duck a cheeky grin. "Nope!"
He glanced at Terra. "Think we should follow that guy?"
"What guy?" asked Goofy as he and Donald walked over.
"Someone laying a trap if I had to guess," said Terra, crossing his arms, "Vague with the promise of something you need, but at a price. Trying to lure you in. The question is, why?"
"Well, might as well go ask," said Sora, "Ain't nothing two Keybearers can't handle if it gets nasty."
"What about us?" exclaimed Donald.
"And our best pals got our backs!" added in Sora, grinning.
"Maybe," said Terra quietly, "But you're the only one with a Keyblade for the moment. Mine... is bound to what lingers."
Sora gave him a confused look. "Huh?"
Terra shook his head. "It's at the Keyblade Graveyard, and I can't call it to me. I'm by no means defenseless, I have magic, and pure physical strength, but I won't be at my best till I have my Keyblade in my hands again, but we have no means to get to the Graveyard, I don't see any Keyblade armor for you, and no gummi ship either."
Sora scratched his head. "Okay, we'll be careful, let's go."
The place they came upon was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Castle like, but nothing like Hollow Bastion. It was in that weird marble-like landscape, floating high above a pitch lack abyss. The castle was colored in bronze and green, pointy and sharp, with one single door as an entrance. Both wide and tall, though not at over, its rooms, at a distance, seemed to stretch and go this way and that. Sora stared at the bizarre sight for a long while, frowning at it. He glanced over at Donald and Goofy, they didn't seem to have a more than normal reaction to the place. Terra though... he had a heavy frown on his face.
"This place...," the man murmured, "I've never seen a castle like this before, yet... why does it pull on me so? It feels like... but that's impossible."
Sora tilted his head. "Feels like what?"
"It feels like home," admitted Terra, baffled.
"The... Land of Departure you called it?" asked Sora.
Terra nodded. "But it can't be, home looked nothing like this. Even after Xehanort wrecked it."
"Well, what does your heart tell you?" asked Sora.
Terra didn't move or say anything for a long moment before quietly answering, "That it is home."
"Well gosh, its been nearly a decade, perhaps it was redecorated?" came a chirping voice from Sora's hood.
Terra jumped a little. "What was...?"
"Oh, right, we never introduced Jimminy!" said Sora with a grin, reaching his hand into his hood and opening his palm.
The little cricket and record-keeper jumped into his palm, and then Sora pulled him out. The Cricket waved. "Nice to meet you Terra, sorry I didn't say anything earlier. Was to busy writing down everything you said."
Terra blinked at him. "Oh. Uh... that's fine."
He squinted. "Sora carries you around in his hood?"
"Yes."
"That has to be disorienting during battle."
The cricket smiled a little. "You have no idea."
Sora grinned sheepishly. "Sora the rollercoaster."
Terra crossed his arms and looked over the castle again. "Even a decade can't change the entire landscape. It's like the world was... I don't know, transformed?"
The man frowned, eyebrows furrowing. "Maybe this is..."
When the man didn't continue, Sora prompted, "Is what?"
"The role of a Keybearer is a dangerous one," said Terra slowly, "We are powerful, but few. In my younger, more doubtful years, I asked the Master how we could possibly stand against hordes of Darkness if they attacked en-mass our home. He just gave me a smile, and told me that our land was special, balanced in a way few worlds were, that it had defenses that could bare anyone from taking advantage of it. When I asked him what that meant, he told me it was a secret, something I'd find out when I became a Master myself."
Terra tilted his head. "I wonder if this is what he meant. Because your right, it looks nothing like home, but my heart, it wont lead me astray. This IS home. I feel it deep down. I don't understand how or why, but it is."
He closed his eyes and sighed. "Home sweet home."
"Well, lets go see whose home then," said Sora.
Terra's eyes opened, and there was a fire in them, anger in his voice. "Yeah, lets see who dared intrude upon this sacred land. Upon the abode of the Keyblade Masters..."
"Well well well, who do we have here? Wonder who tall, dark, and brooding is. Namine, any idea?"
Sitting at a long white table, a girl in a flimsy white dress, holding a sketchpad in her arms, looked through a crystal ball into the ground floor of Castle Oblivion. Her name, was Namine. She was surrounded by three others like her, and yet nothing like her. They were cold, they were cruel, they were controlling. They made her afraid for her life even if she wasn't supposed to be able to feel anything. Several men, and a single terrifying woman, in black coats.
Marluxia, pink hair, a fake-charming face, wielded power over nature, and used a wicked gleaming scythe.
Larxene, blonde, daggers, wielded the power of lightning with deadliness.
Axel, redhead, wielded dominion over fire, and used two chakrams.
There were others working in the basement level as well, but they were thankfully busy. Though, Ienzo was the least harsh towards her...
"Well, Namine?" asked Marluxia, leaning down to whisper into her ear, making her shudder a bit, "Aren't you going to answer Axel's question?"
Namine gripped her sketchpad tightly for a long moment, her pencil-tip on its page. "It... takes a moment to follow the chains of memories. From what I can tell, they've only recently met, he's not directly connected to Sora. But... I feel... he's connected to Riku somehow, if I just..."
Aqua... put an end to me...
Aqua... Ven... someday I'll set this right...
At last, our moment is here. Out with the old and brittle vessel, and in with a younger, stronger new one! I swore I would survive... and be there to see what awaited beyond the Keyblade War! And now it is your darkness that shall be the ark that sustains me!
You will pay, Xehanort! Was my Master-no, my father, Eraqus not enough for you? Leave my friends alone!
"Still so blind... Then I will make you see. Come to the place where all Keyblade wielders leave their mark on fate—the Keyblade Graveyard! There you will watch your dear Ventus and Aqua meet their ends, and the last light within you will die!"
In your hand, take this key. So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking...its wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friend—no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love.
You know, I didn't give it that much thought. Just doing what my heart tells me.
Yes. I can't explain friendship. When you feel it, you'll know it.
Funny... This whole time I've been telling myself I want to be stronger, more independent... But the second I let my heart do the talking... I find out how little I really know myself. And how much I miss them. That experiment of yours... You sure about him? Maybe, in his heart, he wants friends just like the rest of us
Then don't. You could be my pupil. Master Eraqus, you see, is so afraid of darkness that he too has succumbed—not to darkness, but to light. It shines so bright, he forgets that light begets darkness. And Aqua and Ventus, their lights shine too bright. It is only natural that they cast shadows on your heart. Eraqus... He's such a fool! Light and darkness, they are a balance—one that must always be maintained. Terra...you are the one who shows the true Mark of Mastery, but he refuses to see it. And I know why. It is because he fears you. Join me. You and I can do the worlds much greater good, by wielding light and darkness in equal shares.
This power... But I was consumed by anger...hatred. That was the power of darkness...
You mean you've been spying on me? Is that what he said to do? The Master's orders?
I have been to other worlds. I know all about the things you've done. I just don't understand why.
Why would Master Xehanort imprison the light? The purest hearts of light—do they hold the answer?
You seem to be mixed up. I'm a peacekeeper, not a tyrant!
Thank you, Master. I swear...I will not fail you again.
That every star up there is another world. Yep, hard to believe there are so many worlds out there besides our own. The light is their hearts, and it's shining down on us like a million lanterns...
Namine gave out a strangled cry and pulled out of the chains of memories, shocked and horrified. She blinked a few times, and on her sketchpad, she had drawn three hands holding three different but joined wayfinders. She stared at it, her stomach plummeting, as the weight of what she had seen weighed down on her. That man, Terra... he was... he had gone through...
"Well, I thought Nobodies were already pale to begin with, I say you just lost a shade or three," mused Axel.
Namine swallowed thickly, and gave them a look of fright. "Whatever plans you have for this castle, for Sora, forget them. That man is..."
She shook her head, trembling.
"He is what?" said Larxene, bored.
"He... he is perhaps the last person who can rightful be called the Lord of this Castle," said Namine quietly, making Marluxia grip her shoulder tightly.
"What exactly do you mean by that?" he demanded.
"He lived here, before this land became Oblivion," said Namine quietly, "Trying to use the castle against him isn't going to work, and he's not going to like us being here. He... he is so incredibly powerful, and... he's... he's... you know about... Sora and Roxas, right?"
Marluxia's grip didn't lessen. "What about them?"
"How Kairi brought Sora back from his heartless form, and now both he and Roxas exist at once?" she said.
"If you call this existing," muttered Axel.
Namine pointed at the crystal ball zooming in on Terra's face. "The same was done to that man, by Kingdom Hearts itself."
"Alright, who is he then?" said Larxene, picking at her nails with a knife, "Better be someone big, or I'm going to be upset with you wasting out time."
"He is half of the Superior's Somebody."
The room went deathly silent.
"How can you be half of somebody's Somebody?" asked Axel.
"Because, Xemnas was made of two people," said Namine quietly, "And he, is one of them..."
Author's notes:
Welcome to another fanfiction prompt ^_^, been awhile since I put a new idea out there. Though, I imagine there's probably plenty of fanfics already that had one of the BBS Trio come back early. This was just an idea that popped into my head that I decided to jot down and share before I forgot.