Hi, I'm back with the second chapter of this story! XD Thank you for Shoot my Tongue for reviewing, it is much appreciated! Also my greatest of thanks for those who added this to their faves and/or alerts as well; The Spirit Realm, Bella Faciata, Luna Moonsurf, Shoot My Tongue, GloomyMoogle and BlueRoseAngel061897; you are my motivation for continuing this fic!

And ta-dah! If you are confused why I had put Vanitas as the part of this story, you are now going to get your wish (of explanation)! XD



"And I'm going to make sure it's a bad end for him and a good end for us!" Sora summoned his Kingdom Key as he marched forward, climbing the flight of steps that divided the Altar of Naught apart of the rest of the Castle that Never was. "Come on, we're wasting time!"

Second Chapter:
Darkness Inside

The group marched on towards the Altar of Naught, each brandishing their weapon in case of Heartless or Nobody attacks along the way. Quite surprisingly they had found none. This indicated that these Nobodies had been ordered for letting them climb upstairs with ease.

When they had arrived at the top, waiting for them was the all-too familiar figure: Xemnas. He stood still in the center of the platform, his gaze fixed to the damaged Kingdom Hearts, which was looming over the World that never was with its crippled glory.

"Warriors of the Keyblade..." He called, obviously noticing the entrance of the group. "There are still many heartlesses roaming in the worlds. Slay them, recreate the Kingdom Hearts for me" he turned towards the group, pointing towards the meant Keyblade wielders; Sora, Riku, and King Mickey.

"Never!" The three answered in unison, which was followed by three Keyblades- the Kingdom Key, the Way to the Dawn, and Kingdom Key 'D' pointed menacingly at the leader of Nobodies.

"I do not understand; why do the three of you seek to destroy the darkness?" Xemnas asked, his golden eyes piercing at the three Keyblade wielders. Sora and Riku were cooking up an answer within their minds when Mickey stepped forward, lowering his keyblade.

"The Darkness is kind of... scary, but we also can't live with either light or darkness missing, because Darkness is also half of everything" Mickey looked towards Xemnas with eyes filled with determination. "There is no heart of either pure light or darkness; each heart has a piece of both Light and Darkness, only one more dominant than the other."

"The reason we're here is not because we hate the darkness" Riku added. "Not because we had wanted the light to override the darkness. But it's your methods that have disrupted the balance"

"And for that, you're going down!" Sora finished, and flashed a grin at the Nobody. Then he charged forward, aiming to make the first hit.

"Sora!" Riku yelled, trying to prevent Sora from doing anything stupid before thinking about the consequences, but it was a futile effort as by the time the silver-haired boy had said this; the brunette was already in a less than a meter distance from his enemy.

The two fighters then made a face-off; but instead of the sound of metal clashing against one another, or either one of the battling sides crying in pain, a ball of magical force appeared, engulfing both fighters in a sphere of binary codes and crackles of electricity.

"That stupid moron!" Riku cursed, as he made a run to catch the other keyblade wielder. But by the time he had reached their position, the sphere had dissipated into thin air.



Sora and Xemnas broke their contact once they were teleported into a part of the Dark City; an all-too-familiar environment etched in Sora's memory. Once he registered his surroundings into his brain, it was then he realized that he has not visited here; instead it was Roxas' memory that made the environment familiar to him.

"Feeling familiar, Roxas?" Xemnas asked, pointing one of his ethereal blades at the keyblade wielder.

"That's Sora for you!" Sora yelled, clearly being pissed as of how all the organization members were referring to him as Roxas. "And I clearly have no clue about where the hell is this place!"

Sora made a backwards flip as Xemnas charged forward, the Nobody's ethereal blade threatening to behead him. He then spun around, Kingdom Key in his right hand; Sora parried the incoming attack and pushed the weapon up for a counterattack. Both of them then leaped backwards from the impact.

Sora immediately took advantage of the situation and went for the offensive, hitting his enemy in quick and precise strikes in a hit-and-run style, he managed to evade the attacks the organization no. I had tried to land on him. Xemnas growled in frustration as yet another stroke of his ethereal blade missed its target.

"Out of fuel, are ya?" Sora taunted as he made a dodging roll below the threat of a horizontal swipe, ducking out of the harm's way. He then made a quick uppercut using his keyblade; locking weapons against the Nobody.

Sora didn't notice the smirk plastered on Xemnas' features before he realized that the Nobody had another blade inside the sleeve of his left arm, both blades jamming his weapon like the pincers of a crab.

"Oh, Crap!" Sora cursed inwardly, trying to think of a way to release his weapon from the blades. If he was to disengage it right now, surely the two blades would then go for his body; and there's no telling of what would happen next.

There was no need for Sora to think again, however, because soon after Xemnas had disappeared from his sight.

Three brownish-black orbs then emerged from the ground around him, and zapped him with a constant pulse of electricity. Sora tried to leap out of the way, but the orbs were so persistent at following him while letting the voltage course continuously over his body.

The chase with the orbs had brought Sora right in front of the solitary building in the unknown dimension, where the orbs had suddenly shattered themselves into tiny fragments before dissipating into thin air.

A chuckle was then heard. Not too loud, but very clear.

Immediately the brunette turned his head upwards, spotting his target right atop the building. Not wanting to wait any longer, Sora immediately ran towards the building, the centrifugal force the only thing that had ket him from falling to the ground. Xemnas, noticing this act, Let himself fall towards Sora.

As their distance closed in, Sora readied his keyblade for a strike against Xemnas. Xemnas smirked, and as they clashed, the white-haired man tugged at the Kingdom Key, making it fall with him with the help of gravitation.

Sora slid back into the ground, and attempted to summon his keyblade back to his hands. Surprisingly, he had failed, seeing how the Keyblade was still tightly gripped in the Nobody's hand.

Sora tried again and again, but to no avail; the Keyblade would not leave Xemnas' iron grip. He snarled with frustration. WHY? Why won't the Keyblade return to his hands?

"Damn it, Xemnas!" Sora yelled, sending a glare of daggers towards the white-haired Nobody. "What did you do?"

"I have done nothing" Xemnas replied flatly, eyeing the Keyblade with the curiosity of a child. "Oh, or did you forget, that the Keyblade is free to choose its master?"

Sora gulped as he remembered; he had his Keyblade taken once by Riku, and was not able to summon his weapon back to him until he had gained a new resolve. It was by no means a good memory; seeing how Donald and Goofy had also left him when Riku had claimed the Keyblade for himself.

"The Keyblade is the secret of opening one's heart..." Xemnas said as he walked closer, looking down at Sora as if he was a useless pest. "I have still one final use of you, now that you are devoid of your Keyblade..."

Sora scrambled and went for a run, but Xemnas immediately reappeared in front of Sora and knocked him down with a swift punch on the gut. Before the brunette had time to recover, the Nobody stepped on him; in fact, he pressed so hard that Sora could hear his fibula crack.

"I will be the one to personally extract your heart; and then you will be the one to complete my Kingdom Hearts!" Xemnas raised the robbed Kingdom Key high, before bringing it down swiftly to Sora's chest.

"Now give the darkness in your heart to the Kingdom Hearts...!"



"Donald, have you managed to track him down?" Kairi asked in panic; hoping for the magician to provide her with a satisfying answer.

Meanwhile, Donald's eyes were shut tight as an indicator of his focus, his feathers wetting as droplets of sweat ran on the surface of his skin.

"Argh, nope..." Donald said, shaking his head. It had been half an hour since Sora had recklessly charged towards Xemnas and they had disappeared right before the spell-caster's eyes. Since then, Donald and Riku had been taking turns between swallowing ethers and trying to track the two of them down using magic. "I can't sense Sora anywhere in this world"

"Alternate Dimension, I'd say" Mickey kicked in the conversation when he had heard of Donald's statement. "Sora's most possibly trapped in an alternate dimension, made by Xemnas"

Not long after Mickey had said that, the exact same sphere of magic that had swallowed Sora and Xemnas had reappeared in front of the group.

Riku and Mickey immediately made a sharp turn, both of them staring at the sphere, weary of the results of the battle.

When the magical contraption had finally disappeared, all of them were put in a state of shock.

When the magical contraption had finally disappeared, all of them were put in a state of shock.

Sora had been lying on the white floor, blood slowly staining both his shirt and his skin from where the Kingdom Key had pierced through his ribcage. Obviously he was unconscious, as he was not groaning from pain as most people would act when something if the similar amplitude happened to them.

Xemnas was groaning and choking in suffocation and pain, a keyblade also piercing his body and he was suspended in the air, when a mysterious figure forced an iron grip on his neck.

The mysterious figure was no taller than Sora himself, with a helmet covering the whole of his face. His body was all covered in black, lines tracing where his muscles are positioned. A couple of red belts were circling his hips, from where a ragged, holed blue cloth embroidered with red hung freely. He also wore metal boots that reached his knee.

Donald, Goofy and Mickey couldn't help but notice something uncannily familiar about this mysterious figure. However, from the whole of the group, Riku had remembered the most about his appearance.

"Geez, he's absolutely not creative, if you'd ask me" the silver-haired boy retorted, memories from approximately two years ago still freshly printed in his mind.

Mickey, Donald and Goofy can't help but nod at this statement. They looked back at the scene, and noticed that the keyblade was the only one unusual to their eyes. It was mostly black and red, the same hue as the figure's body, with black edges shaped like gears, and a gem colored a piercing turquoise resting at the center of the gear, staring as if it was actually a living eye.

Mickey had practically jumped and gasped at the same time when he had seen the Keyblade. "Uh pals, I think we're in a deep trouble... that's Vanitas!"

"What? Vanilla?" the others asked, almost in a complete unison. The thought that had entered their mind almost immediately was... Wasn't that an ice-cream flavor?'

"No..." Mickey put his palm in front of his eyes, shaking his head as he did so. The mouse then again regained his focus. "Vanitas was an enemy that I fought long ago, when I was still training under the guidance of Master Yen Sid,"

"Oh, someone who actually knows about me" The figure, Vanitas, turned his head to stare at Mickey from within his helmet. "You're that pipsqueak mouse who make friends with those fools, aren't you? Seems you haven't grown one bit, and still making friends with fools"

Riku gritted his teeth, silently resisting the urge to slam at his helmet with his fists. Instead he immediately went after Sora together with Kairi, pulling the Kingdom Key that was resting on his chest like the Excalibur.

"Why are you free; and why are you here, of all places?" Mickey said; his usually cheery voice deep with venom. His eyes narrowing and his right hand gripped tightly at the Kingdom Key D'.

"Why, this idiot had just released me from the prison I was kept in" Vanitas answered, not intimidated by the Keyblade master even just a bit. He looked at the writhing Nobody he was choking; Xemnas. In a swift movement he dropped the man as if he weighted like a feather and slammed him into the floor. He then pulled the keyblade back, letting blood to flow freely from the barely conscious body; and then stabbed the weapon again, this time towards his stomach. The Nobody lurched into an upwards arc from the impact, his eyes wide open from the immense suffering.

"And like before, I seek to recreate the Keyblade War..." Vanitas said, amused. He again took the keyblade resting on the abdomen of the white-haired figure. "Only this time it will not be for the master, seeing how he is as well as dead."

As if emphasizing the last word, he again stabbed the weapon against Xemnas, this time aiming for his neck. It was done with the utmost of ease, and soon; the Nobody was dead. Vanitas watched in glee as the creature turned into monochrome spines and thorns, spinning around in the air before returning into the nothingness it once was.

Then Vanitas turned to Sora.

"He's too broken to be of use as of now" Vanitas said, displeasure sewn all over his words. "Maybe a little tour would do him good..." In a flick of his hands, a dark corridor was created. Sora immediately fell with the help of gravitation, while Riku stared, too enthralled and shocked to act. Kairi gasped in horror as her best friend was swallowed in the deep abyss; and then she screamed.

"Vanitas! You!" Mickey shouted, facing towards the mysterious figure only to find him gone, leaving a trace of the similar dark corridor. "...Damn!"

"I'm going in" Riku said, seeing how the corridor was still open, though decreasing in size. "Kairi, stay here until we come back." He looked towards the other teen with concern.

"No, I'm coming as well!" Kairi said. "I can take care of myself; I can even wield a Keyblade by now!" her blue eyes were burning with determination. It was obvious that she would not let herself being the only one left again.

Riku heaved a sigh. "Fine... no other choice, then..."

Before Kairi could say anything a swift blow had just landed on her gut, making her topple backwards after losing her very balance. In a quick reaction Donald and Goofy almost instinctively reached out to her, preventing her from falling towards the floor.

"I trust you'll take care of it, Mickey!" Riku said as he waved at the four, jumping to the hole that embedded itself on the surface, before it had shrunk into an unoccupiable size.

The mouse king nodded, approving the request of his best friend. "I will" he watched Riku dissapear from the place, following where Sora had dissapeared. God knows where were they going, but his heart had assured him that the silver-haired boy would be okay.

When Kairi had regained her composure, she immediately ran towards where the inter-dimensional corridor was placed. However, the only thing she saw was a disappearing dot of black.

Tears welled up the girl's eyes. She was left, again. Her friends are the ones facing dangers and she was like the helpless girl who needs to be saved every time.

"Stupid...!" She yelled into the nothingness that surrounded her. "You guys are the stupidest bunch I've ever seen!"

"But... I'm the stupider one... for wanting to become friends with you..."



A/N: LOL yes! VANILLA! bet you didn't see that coming. And I wonder if you had been wondering why had I kept the keyblade as Kingdom Key? It's for the sake of canon (lie), and also for the sake of the plot itself.
If you are trying to sue me on Kairi, worry not, she WILL be involved! I hate damsels in distress, and I'm not going to let Kairi become one. (Now that she HAS a keyblade...)
If you would be so kind, please drop a review for this story! I'm patiently waiting...^^