Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters, they belong to Square Enix. I only own my OCs.

Originally inspired by knyghtstar's 'Balanced: Darkness and Light'.

Canon Divergent as of KH2.

(Edited: 04/07/18)


Chapter 2: Awakening

Everything felt light, weightless, as if coming out of a deep sleep. It feels like there is water surrounding me but no physical substance was there, no coolness or warmth that would usually be accompanied. Carefully opening my eyes, I found myself surrounded by darkness.

I took a step forward and the floor started to glow as white birds form, peeling themselves off the ground, and flying away into pitch black. After watching the birds disappear I looked down to see that I was standing on a platform like in Sora and Roxas's awakenings.

It was light grey in colour and near the edge was a picture of me but I had different clothing, my hair was down and I was cradling a heart in both of my hands. In the background were a mass of silhouettes, a collection of shapes that varied from bestial to vaguely humanoid. Beside the picture of me were several heads of different people; Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, Roxas and strangely enough a few other Organization members.

'Keeper of Hearts, do not be afraid...' It nearly made me jump out of my skin from the suddenness. I shifted my head to try and find where the voice was coming from but stopped for a second.

"Keeper of Hearts? What's that?" As if hearing my thoughts it said,

'You can give hope to those who are hollow, give those who aren't true a second chance.'

Two orbs appeared before me, one resembling a crystal ball shimmering with white light, and another looking a compacted sphere of black smoke. Not quite knowing what to do, cautiously I approached both.

'Light and dark, forces as old as time itself.' A voice hummed, whether it was man or woman I could not tell. 'If you were given the choice, what would you choose?'

I stepped over to the ball of white.

'Why do you pick this one?'

"Because I'd sooner pick good over evil." I uttered truthfully at a quiet volume, warily glancing around still hoping to find something in the empty darkness. Is that not obvious? Choosing the good option is always better than the bad.

'Good, evil, black, white… light, dark,' the voice listed softly. 'Opposites yet the same, two sides of one coin. All of them interchangeable.'

A change out the corner of my eye grabbed my attention. The orbs were changing, the white ball dimmed, growing darker and darker until no light remained and smoky wisps emanated off of it. While the shadow ball had small spots of light breaking through in spread out areas, expanding like puddles in the rain, melting away the darkness until it glowed as bright as counterpart had once been.

'Something many seem to have forgotten, always choosing one or the other. But it does not have to be that way.'

The platform began to shake, cracks sprouting from the centre, fracturing the glass. It was falling apart, the pieces of broken glass fell beneath my feet as I started falling into the abyss. A small yelp escaped me in fright, but I soon calmed down once realising that I was no longer falling but floating until my feet touched the ground. I spotted another platform directly underneath me.

This platform was different from the previous one, instead there was a large symbol. A keyhole in the centre encased in a ring, strings of diamonds running horizontally through the keyhole, connecting to the edge of the circle.

Near the perimeter of this platform I saw a flash of light appeared before me then a pedestal slowly erupted from the glass, a flash of light formed above the block of stone, forming a sword. Out of the corner of each of my eyes I saw two more stone block come out of the floor, the light on the my left formed a staff while the one on my right formed a shield, but then I heard one more rumble coming from behind me but what formed on the last one really caught my eye.

It was a silver, hexagonal medallion bordered in red that depicted a black paw print, but the print phased into something else every few seconds; a feather, overlapping pointed ovals, a pair of insect wings, and a finned tail. Each one cycling through until returning to the paw print.

I ventured towards this particular one, climbed on to the small stone platform, reached out and touched it, the cryptic voice spoke again.

'You wish for the power of form,' I raised an eyebrow at this and timidly asked the voice,

"W-What will I gain if I choose this?"

'You will gain the ability to transform into anything you desire whether it be from memory or thought and you will gain all their powers, but some forms you morph into will come with a price.' Anything I desire, eh? The price part set me off a little bit, making me briefly wonder what that catch could be. But that was something I would ponder another time, because when am I ever going to have the chance to use shapeshifting?

Grabbing the object caused it to turn into a ball of light, sinking into my hand and briefly enveloping me in some kind of aura.

Turning to the three remaining objects, the voice asked me again of what I should give up, I jumped off and approached the shield deciding to give it up. So what if I lose a little defence. All four pedestals soon disappeared along with the other two items then I heard the mysterious voice again,

'Now, you shall test your new strength against the enemies you will face.' Soon a small group of Heartless appeared, they were only Shadows. I backed up a little bit, fighting not being part of my nature.

The small Heartless charged at me, I jumped back, a stinging pain searing in one of my legs. The Shadows had scratched me, leaving three symmetrical wounds beginning to slowly ooze red. My heart began to race, breathing quickening as I backed up further from the encroaching creatures.

'Do not run, stand and fight.' The voice urged.

When I was a few feet away from them, the image of a wolf appeared in my mind. A loud noise buzzed in my head causing me to drop on my hands and knees. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard, only ten times worse. Agonising pain seared throughout my entire body, as my bones popped out of place and changed shape.

Fingernails lengthened into sharp claws, teeth turn into fangs, and everything that was once in colour is now in black and white. My face extended forward until it was a muzzle, ears moving up my head and changing into triangular points, I sprouted a tail, and brown fur grew at an alarming rate all over as I let out wolfish snarls and growls. When the transformation was over, I looked down and I had paws instead of hands my clothes were completely gone.

Turning my head back, one of the Shadows jumped into the air and was in the middle of bringing its clawed hand down on me when an urge kicked in. I leaped up at it and clamped my jaws around the creature's neck, then clamped down on its throat. A crunch, a twitch, and it disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

My eyes shot towards the rest of the Heartless,

"Attack! Defend yourself!"

Even though I did not want to kill anything, I had to. Briefly, I wondered if these ones were real anyway, if this was a dream. Something else to ponder on later. I sprang at them, jaws open wide and teeth bared, my claws raked their inky black skin and teeth ripped off chunks of flesh, soon enough they all faded back into oblivion in a dark mist.

By the time it was over I was back to normal, vision swimming and panting from exhaustion. That's when the voice came back again,

'Now you are ready for your journey. Go, grow and learn. Those who desire feeling must pass your judgement in order to become true. Just remember, nothing is all light or dark.'

With that the voice disappeared as did the environment around me, as shadows bled in, flooding everything in black.