Kingdom Hearts: RE: Birth by Sleep

Chapter One: Dreams of the Crossroads

Year 1994 of the Departian Calendar…

Long ago the world was united and filled with warm light.

It was a dusty, desolate field. The only sign that anyone had ever lived there were a few indistinct ruins. Canyons enclosed the entire area and only parched weeds had managed to squeak by with any semblance of survival.

Ven couldn't help but shutter, for despite the stifling atmosphere this place was a graveyard. Years ago this had been a battle field. Thousands had fought and died over the X-blade. The cycle was to be repeated today only with a smaller number.

People loved the light, and eventually began fighting over it.

As he walked through the rows of keyblades as dusty and dead as the field itself, he couldn't help but feel his anger rise. All this destruction simply because Master Xehanort had been greedy. He had taken what he wanted without so much as thought as to what the consequences would be for others.

Soon Ven found himself at a set of crossroads between the rows of weapons. In the center stood three blades that looked as dusty and disserted as the others. Ven was not the only person at the crossroads. Terra and Aqua had come like he, in full battle dress, to meet their fate.

Then, darkness found its way into people's hearts.

Suddenly a sonic boom like sound pierced their helmets. Something was coming. Through the dust it was hard to make out exactly who or what but that didn't matter. They didn't need to see him to know it was Xehanort. As he stepped closer and closer more of his face had could be seen.

He was haggard and old looking, but by no means feeble. His bald head was bent forward but his eyes looked straight ahead. All of this made him look fairly creepy but the one thing that made his appearance all the more cynical was that fact that he was probably no older than sixty but he looked well into his eighties. He must have done so much dark magic that it aged him prematurely.

Darkness consumed the hearts and light of the people, and in a flash it spread…

For a second his image flickered and split into two identical visions. The second then quickly shifted into armor like the Chasers wore except more streamlined. Vanitas. It had to be.

Ven had prepared to lunge at the apprentice when a hand stopped him. Of course, the level headed Terra wasn't going to let him rush into things. Then the enigmatic knight did something wholly unexpected: Terra himself took off running as fast as he could to clear the gap between the once friends.

Xehanort and Vanitas stopped just as Terra started to pounce. The old magician simply raised his hand and caused the solid rock in front of him to rise, smashing into Terra midair.

And the world disappeared into darkness.

Terra buckled and rolled, tying not to break his neck despite the thick armor. He didn't even have a chance to catch his breath before Xehanort raised his arm again. For a moment Terra felt fear trickle down his spine for he was sure that Xehanort was going to raise the ground out from under him a second time and start bouncing him like a rag doll.

That didn't happen. Instead he raised the platform he was on, cutting Terra off from being able to attack or join his friends. He couldn't attack but he could be attacked. Vanitas jumped and on the way down sent a massive jolt of lightning downwards. It was less than one minute into the fight and already his armor had saved him, but the shock had caused massive cracks in it. If he wasn't careful his armor would crumble like clay.

No sooner had the sparks died then he heard a rushing sound. Xehanort had neglected to take into account the chasers own talented magician. Aqua had used her power to raise the earth in a shower of debris catapulting Ven to Terra's level. He didn't even miss a beat as he landed and rush forward.

But a glimmer of light remained in the hearts of children…

Ven's oncoming assault was met by Vanitas's blade. From out of nowhere an enormous jut of ice aimed for Vanitas missed by inches and pushed the two combatants apart. Somehow Aqua had found her way up to the second level of the battle field.

Hundreds of feet above, Xehanort flicked his wrist and a hurricane appeared gathering up dozens of the dead keyblades. The hurricane twisted and tuned until it was nothing but a long thin snake then it headed straight down. Vanitas did a side flip and landed on it perfectly as if it were a skateboard.

Vanitas raced neck and neck with Aqua while sending towers of ice and wind to crush her; she dodged every one of them but at this rate, her agility would soon run out. Before she even truly noticed what happened Ven had attacked Vanitas from above, all the while coming to her rescue.

Within seconds Ven had found an opening in Vanitas's seemingly impassible defense and took it. He sent a bolt of lightning straight to the traitor's heart but he missed. Instead, it just got wrapped around his hurricane board, doing nothing. Somehow the fight had gotten to the top tier of the field. Vanitas flew across a huge gape and landed beside his master, Xehanort.

Children gathered their glimmers of light and recreated the world.

Ven jumped on the tail of the hurricane, trying to get across but he was unable to keep his balance and fell off right at the edge of the canyon. Unable to grab the side and pull himself up, he fell. About half way down he tried to use his Keyblade to stop. It didn't work, actually all it did was pull a three ton rock down with him.

Aqua jumped, trying to help but the hurricane just drug her back down. The fall cracked her helmet, so now her blue eyes and turquoise hair were visible. While Ven landed on his feet.

He then came over to make sure she was all right, but there was no need. Before she was all the way up she raised her keyblade and sent her personal favorite spell, Reflectga, at Terra. Instantly he was trapped in a glasslike bubble which broke his fall. By then it was too late to notice that the hurricane had came up under him and pushed him up further.

Without so much as a flick of Xehanort's wrist the hurricane stopped and put Terra down right beside him. He charged but that was a bad idea. Xehanort sent a blanket of ice up his right arm freezing it in place. Terra stumbled back and watched as the ice crept even further up his arm.

The recreated world, however, was no longer united… It was divided into several smaller worlds.

Somehow Ven had gotten up to the top and charged at Xehanort, who just caught the boy's face in his hand and, looking right at Terra, squeezed. The cracking of the helmet sent a chill down Terra's spine. Had it cracked his skull too?

Terra rushed forward desperate to save his friend but Vanitas just bade his pet hurricane to knock him down off the cliff.

Still clutching Ven's face in his hand, Xehanort walked to the edge of the cliff, his apprentice beside him. Making sue Aqua was watching he let out a burst of dark energy that froze Ven's entire body, and then he simply let go. He then watched with a sick kind of pleasure as Ven bushed agents the side of the cliff as he fell, with each contact breaking another chunk off the icicle.

He landed right in front of Aqua. Using his eyes, the only part of him still mobile, he begged her to fix it. To use her magic to make the pain go away but, of course she couldn't, no matter how much she wanted to: she had used all her magic to save Terra before.

Because the true light was still hidden deep within the darkness…

Destiny Islands 2006 D.C…

"Don't you think it's a little late for you to be out? What's up?" Riku asked his long time friend as he sat down beside him on the sideways tree that had served as 'their' spot for years. Both boys stared out over the ocean bathed in the dark light of the moon. The night was cool and quiet.

"Had a weird dream." Sora replied, slightly distant.

"What about?"

"Well…" as Sora recounted the tail of the Crossroads and the battle he couldn't help but feel a little foolish. As impossible as it sounded, he knew that this was not just a dream.

"So you were in a field full of key blades?" Sora nodded, "Well, I've never heard of anything like that but I do know that we weren't the first."

"So it might not just be a dream?" The hope was evident in the keyblade master's voice.

"Maybe."

"What about you? What are you doing up?" Sora asked, but only got silence from his

friend.

"What's wrong? This isn't like you. You've been acting kind of funny since we got that letter from the King." Riku paused for a moment before answering.

"I've just got this odd feeling like something big is going to happen," he said in a soft almost whisper like voice.

"The letter did say that another adventure was coming." Sora reminded his friend but for some reason he didn't think that that was what Riku was talking about. If that were the case then Riku would have been a little more excited.

"I mean something bigger then that. I'm afraid that if we go on this adventure things will change. And I don't know if it's a good thing or not." Riku elaborated. Sora couldn't help but think that this was very uncharacteristic of Riku to say. Hadn't he been the one so desperate for a change; so desperate to see the worlds?

"Well if the worlds are in trouble then we don't have much of a choice," Sora pointed out.

"I guess not." Riku gave a little smile as he said the words but it did not last. An ear shattering scream from the main island pierced the night and Riku knew that this was it; this was what they had been waiting for.

Worlds away from our heroes something just as strange was happing.

In a spotless white room, sat the Oracle. She was a being hailed as all-knowing, but in fact, she was far from it. If she knew everything she would not be in this situation. She would not be in this hell.

Behind her in the bight, white room shadows grew and pooled into a human form. A shadow. It had no distinguishable features other then the outline of its original self. But anyone could tell that it was not the kind of shadows those who battled the dark usually dealt with. He was no heartless. He was something more…so much more.

The shadow walked over and silently sat down beside the statue while resting his elbows on his knees. But just because he made no noise did not mean that he was not noticed. After so long of working together it was easy to tell when words were and were not necessary.

"It is done." He said, his voice gave. It was obvious that whatever was 'done' wasn't something particularly pleasant.

If she could The Oracle would have smiled at his attitude, but she couldn't move a muscle except those needed to speak. She couldn't even see the shadow due to the long cloak hood covering her eyes. All she could see was white. The same white she had seen every second of every day for ten long years.

"Thank you, Mal." She said.

"I don't like this. Was what happened before all for nothing?" He asked.

"If you can just trust me Mal, just for a little while, you and I will be released from our prisons and then we can release and rejoin our friends. You want that, don't you?"

"Aero, of course I trust you, but I still think it was a bad idea to help them. The organization they were ever so loyal to would interfere a little too much with our plains." Mal said looking at her.

"Their loyalty was bought in much the same currency as yours was years ago. Don't forget that. They will also become invaluable allies by leading the keybearers right where we want them. And with them we will be able to break free from our prisons." She said, reminding her friend of exactly what was at stake.

"I still don't like it." The shadow replied. He was a little bitter from her mention of his past, one as dark as his existence now, but he could not help it. She would not have brought up the subject if the point it made was not important.

"Sacrifices must be made." Aero said, her voice slopping into a sad little whisper.

"Sacrifices must always be made. The rewards will be well worth it. " She continued bitterly.

"I do miss being able to see my reflection." Mal admitted with a slight joking nuance to his vice. They both knew his vanity had been his worst vice back in the golden days.

Aero gave a bitter little laugh.

"As don't I… As don't I. But no matter. There is one other thing you must do if we are to receive our rewards."


AN: The Departian calendar (D.C) is the time scale biased off of the Land of Departure. For simplicity's sake I have made it synonymous with the modern Gregorian calendar which most of the world (save for China, I believe) uses. Normally I would not have put a date, but because of the number of flash backs that are not in chronological order, I felt it was necessary. For future reference KHII takes place in 2005, its original date of publish.