Hello Readers. Hope you guys are having a good summer so far. Anyway, let's continue with the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts and Disney.
Chapter 9: Twilight to Nightfall
Sora was standing on top of the clock tower overlooking the small world known as Twilight Town, his cape was fluttering around him in the wind. He knew that the trio he was hunting down would arrive here. What no one knew back in Traverse Town, is that he planted a small spider-like Heartless onto Xion's armor which allows him to track their every move and predict what world they will arrive in next. It is near undetectable by those who can sense darkness and very hard to see with the naked eye, making it the perfect tracer. So, before he arrived at the top of the clock tower, he decided to remove the people who live in the town.
(Flashback, Sandlot)
Seifer, leader of the Twilight Town 'Disciplinary Committee' finds himself on the ground with his struggle bat lying next to him and Hayner, his rival, hovering over him. Seifer's friends: Rai, Fuu, and Vivi, stood in front of him to protect him from Hayner.
"Seifer is a bit out of it today, y'know?" Rai said, trying to cover for him.
"Feeling down," Fuu said.
"Is that right? Is there ever a time where Hayner fights you at your best, Seifer?" A girl, with the name of Olette, said to them.
"No, Olette. Every time Hayner fights him, he either has a fever, sprained his ankle or hand, or is just having a bad day," a boy, named Pence, answered.
"Doesn't matter. As long as he is looking for a fight or anything that involves competition, he will always lose," Hayner said.
However, everyone was silenced when they heard the sound of a portal opening. Everyone looked in the corner to see a dark hooded figure emerge from the portal. The figure walked up to the group until he was a few feet away from them.
"Well, glad to see that not much has happened here while I was away," the figure replied. "Who are you?" Hayner asked, standing in front of everyone in order to protect them. The figure softly chuckled to himself before removing the hood covering his face. Everyone gasped in shock when they saw the face underneath.
"Sora!" Everyone said at once. "What happened to you?" Olette asked.
"Did you not hear the news? I have become the new king of darkness and right now my path has lead me here. But for now, I like to play a game with you," Sora said before snapping his fingers. All of the exits were then closed by invisible barriers. "It's called: Who can survive the longest?" He said before summoning his Keyblade with a wicked smile on his face. Everyone quickly ran to the exits, but the barriers stopped anyone from leaving. Sora teleported to where Seifer's gang was and struck Seifer, Rai, and Vivi with his Keyblade, making them fade away. He then teleported to Hayner's gang and stabbed Hayner and Pence, making them disappear as well. Olette and Fuu were the only ones left. They quickly ran to the corner to get some distance from Sora, but they had nowhere to go. Sora then shot dark chains at the girls and had them hang off of the wall.
"I was going to have you two join the fate of your friends, but I have a better idea," Sora said, then covered both of his hands in darkness. As he was walking towards them, the girls tried their best to escape the chains and get away from Sora, but the chains were completely stuck into the wall. He then raised both of his dark infused hands near their hearts and everything went black.
(Present)
After that, he turned Fuu and Olette into servants for Kairi and his family and sent them to his castle. He then went on a city-wide heart collecting spree, attacking every citizen who so much crossed his path and either collected their hearts to become stronger or turn them into Heartless.
Now, Sora was planning out the perfect ambush to finally rid himself of Terra, Ventus, and Xion.
Just then, a Shadow scout appeared at his feet, "My lord, there has been no sign of the three Keybladers you are after yet, but I did see a strange group of people moving around the town recently," It said telepathically.
"How many people are in the group?" Sora asked.
"Six people, my king. I couldn't see their faces, though, due to the hoods they were wearing," the shadow replied.
"I see. I will deal with the group, you continue scouting out the area for my prey and let me know when they arrive," Sora said, pulling out a round, blue crystal. The Shadow bowed it's head before disappearing into the ground.
Sora eyed the crystal in his hand before looking up at the sunset, 'I should've known that they would end up here,' he thought to himself. He then threw the crystal into the air, which then became encased in a circle of light before shooting a beam into the air, which revealed the Keyhole. Sora then summoned his Keyblade and shot a beam into the Keyhole, unlocking the world to the darkness.
"Let the game begin," He said, before summoning a Dustflier Heartless, jumping on, and flying off the tower and down into the town. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the tower, six hooded people watched Sora fly off.
"Master, we have to stop Sora. If we don't, he will destroy the entire Realm of Light," one of the shortest hooded people said to the tallest.
"We will, but we need more help. We must wait for the others, then we can make a move on him, understood?" The taller one said. The others nodded their heads in agreement.
"Alright, for now we must move to where they will arrive," The taller one said, before leading them down to Station Heights.
(The Usual Spot)
In Hayner, Pence, and Olette's former hangout spot, a portal opened up and Terra, Ventus, and Xion came running out of it. Xion kneeled down on the ground in order to get some air after using all of her power against Sora back at Traverse Town. Terra seeing this, raised his Keyblade into the air and gave a Cure spell to her and Ventus and then himself. Feeling better, Xion got back up, with a look of relief on her face.
"Thanks for that, Terra. I needed it," she said.
"Anytime, Xion. You needed it, after what happened back there," he said.
"Yeah, Xion, how did you do that? I didn't know you had armor," Ventus said with excitement as he pointed at the pieces of armor that now rested on both of her shoulders now.
"I'm not entirely sure how I summoned it. I only used it once and that was when I fought my friend Roxas. I thought I lost the ability to summon it after that, but I was so angry with everything Sora did, that I just felt this rush of energy," she said, with some anger and sadness in her voice.
"It's alright, Xion. We will save him and everyone else, but right now we need to come up with a way to weaken him first," Terra said.
"Uh guys," Ventus said, gaining their attention. "Y-you might wanna take a look outside," he said nervously. They followed him outside and what they saw shocked them. All of the buildings were either destroyed or on fire from the inside, many trams were laying on their side, shops were on fire, the underground entrances were covered with rubble and there was no sign of any life in the town.
"What happened here?!" Xion said, with pure horror on her face.
"Sora happened, that's what," A voice said. The trio looked around the area and saw a portal open and six hooded figures walked out. Two of them were short, two of them were taller than the everybody else, and the other two were as tall as Terra.
"Who are you?" Ventus asked. The figures put their hoods down to reveal Yen Sid, Mickey, Riku, Lea, Donald, and Goofy.
"Master Yen Sid!" Terra bowed.
"Mickey, Donald, Goofy!" Ventus said and hugged his three friends.
"Xion!" Riku and Lea ran over and hugged Xion.
"Sadly no, everybody. Me, Mickey, Riku, Lea, Donald, and Goofy are the Nobodies of our former selves. Though we are not going to change our names, like the Organization did," Yen Sid explained.
"So, you're not really you, Riku and Lea?" Xion asked.
"Yeah, but the memories that we had of you returned to us, so we remember you, Xion," Riku said. Xion was happy to know that she was remembered by everyone she cared about.
"I'm also happy to see that Ventus has been brought back from his sleep and Terra getting his heart back from Xehanort," Yen Sid said.
"Yes, but Master, what happened to Twilight Town?" Terra asked.
"As I said, Sora happened," Riku said. "He just came here and rampaged through the entire town, either collecting hearts or turning people into Heartless. He then stood on the clock tower, like he was waiting for something, but then flew off somewhere. We don't know where he went," he explained.
"But, if you saw him doing this, then why didn't you stop him?!" Terra asked.
"We couldn't draw attention to ourselves yet, we knew you would be coming here eventually, so, we waited. Sora doesn't know we exist yet, so we wanted to keep it that way," Mickey explained.
"But right now, we mustn't focus on Sora, we must focus on getting Kairi and the others back from the darkness," Riku said.
"Well, how are we going to do that? We can't just waltz into the Realm of Darkness," Ventus said.
"Ventus, can you summon Vanitas out here please?" Yen Sid asked. Ventus looked confused for a minute, but decided not to question him and closed his eyes and started to focus. After a minute, he started to glow and a ball of darkness exited Ventus's body. The ball then expanded into Vanitas's form and he then rested his feet on the ground.
"What do ya need, Ventus?" Vanitas asked.
"It's not what I need, but what Yen Sid needs," Ventus gestures to the old wizard. Seeing this, Vantias quickly bowed his head to Yen Sid.
"Rise, Vanitas," he commanded. Vantias did so, but was nervous to what the wizard would say.
"You have done many misdeeds in the past, but during that time, you were misguided by Xehanort and lead to do what was wrong. But I believe that you can do good, and this will be your test to find out," Yen Sid said.
"What do you need me to do, Master?" Vanitas asked.
"You will lead Riku and Lea into the Realm of Darkness in order to retrieve Kairi and the others Sora has captured and bring them back here, so we can bring them back to the light. The others and I will remain here to try and save Sora," Yen Sid said.
"Sounds like a plan to me, Master," Terra agreed.
"Yes, Master," Vanitas said, before creating a portal of darkness.
Riku and Lea started to head for the portal, but not before being bear hugged by Xion. "Please, come back to me, you two. You're the only ones I have left. Roxas was destroyed by Sora, so, please, just promise me you two will come back," Xion said with tears in her eyes.
"We promise, Xion. We will come back and everything will be back to the way it was," Riku said with Lea nodding in agreement.
They then turned to the portal and entered it along with Vanitas and then the portal disappeared.
"Now let's split up and search the town. Sora has to be around here," Mickey said.
"Oh, Master Yen Sid. I have something for you," Terra said before pulling out the wizard's hat out of his bag. Yen Sid took it from Terra and place it on his head.
"Thank you, Terra. I really appreciate that you brought this back to me," the wizard said.
"Donald and Goofy. I also brought back your staff and shield," Terra said, tossing the items to their respected owners.
"Thank you, Terra," Goofy said.
Everyone then split up: Yen Sid and Mickey went to the Station Plaza, Terra, Ventus, and Xion went to the Woods and the Old Mansion, and Donald and Goofy went to the Underground Concourse. What no one knew was that Sora was eavesdropping on the conversation on one of the roofs of the buildings and heard the plan that they made.
"Interesting plan, Yen Sid. Sadly, for you, it will fail and you along with it," he said, before summoning his personal guard of thirty Invisibles, led by the blue Orcus. "Head back to the castle and back up the guards already there. Kairi is going to have some unexpected guests," he ordered. The Orcus nodded its head before disappearing along with the Invisibles.
"Let the ambush begin," he said to himself, before disappearing.
(Station Plaza)
Mickey and Yen Sid were looking around the Station Plaza. They checked the clock tower, the inside of the station and even took the train to Sunset Terrace and back, but could not find Sora.
"I wonder where he is, Master," Mickey said.
"I do not know Mickey, but we must keep looking," Yen Sid said. However, they thoughts were interrupted when they heard two roars from the sky. They looked up to see two Dustfliers about to land on the them, but they quickly backflipped out of the way. However, the shockwave left behind sent them both flying.
"These Heartless are too powerful, Master. We have to fall back," Mickey suggested.
"Agreed," Yen Sid said. However, before they could leave, barriers appeared at the exits, preventing the two of them to leave. Seeing that they had no choice, the two Keybladers drew their blades and prepared themselves.
(Underground Concourse)
Donald and Goofy checked the entire tunnelway and concourse, but they could not find Sora.
"Looks like he isn't here, Donald," Goofy said.
"I wonder where he could be hiding," Donald replied.
As they walked to the center of the concourse, they found themselves surrounded by seven NeoShadows. (AN: When I say the Neoshadows, I mean the Neoshadows from KH: Final Mix. The ones who are very strategic when you fight them)
Donald and Goofy drew their weapons and started to fight the Neoshadows, but they quickly started to get overwhelmed by the Heartless.
(Old Mansion)
Terra, Ventus, and Xion were looking through the mansion in order to find Sora. They looked through Ansem the Wise's old lab that he had set up, Namine's room, and the rest of the other rooms. They eventually headed outside after looking through the mansion.
"Where can he be?" Terra asked kicking a nearby stone.
"Um, did none of you guys check the roof?" A voice said. The trio turned and looked up to see Sora sitting on the roof with no care in the world. He soon jumped down in front of them and drew his Keyblade.
"There you are, Sora," Terra said, before summoning his Keyblade and armor, followed by Ventus and Xion.
"Ah, no talking huh? Good," Sora said, before charging at the trio. They prepared for Sora's attack, but were shocked when they saw him disappear in front of Terra. Sora then reappeared behind Terra and was about to slice him in the back, but was blocked by Ventus. Ventus pushed Sora back and charged at the dark Keyblader with a downward swing, but Sora blocked the attack. Xion and Terra also started to attack with Ventus, but Sora was able to block them all. He then unleashed a dark shockwave from his body, sending the trio back. Sora then copied himself two times and charged at the shocked trio, catching all three of them off guard by the sudden clones. They eventually were overwhelmed and brought to their knees by Sora. The clones then returned to the real one, as Sora overlooked them.
"The three of you, have been a pain. So now instead of killing you, I'm going to slowly break you, every world you go to, every friend you make, I will destroy them all. When I'm done, you will beg for me to end your lives," Sora said to them darkly. He then heard a roar from the sky and saw the Dustfliers drop Yen Sid and Mickey to the ground, then drop down and held them to the ground. While that was going on seven Neoshadows emerged from the ground with Donald and Goofy wrapped in chains. Sora walked up to them and laughed at their failure.
"You think I wouldn't be prepared Yen Sid. I knew you were waiting for Terra, Ventus, and Xion to show up, but you know what you could've done while waiting, you could've helped the people that I was attacking, but no, you watched from the shadows. You call yourselves heroes, but no, you just fight for yourselves," Sora said. He then ordered the Heartless to destroy the group. The Dustfliers crushed Yen Sid and Mickey under their talons, destroying them, while the Neoshadows, punched their claws into Donald and Goofy's chest, destroying them from the inside.
Terra was horrified by Sora's actions and quickly created a portal and ran in. Ventus and Xion followed him as well, but as soon as Xion was about to enter the portal, a dark chain wrapped itself around her waist and pulled her back to Sora.
"XION, NO!" Ventus screamed, but he was cut off by the portal closing. Xion was pulled all the way to Sora, to the point where Sora grabbed her by the shoulders, turned her to face him, and place his hand on her heart. She was completely enveloped in darkness for a few minutes before it dissipated. She was now dressed in her armor, expect the colors was now red, with black accents, her helmet was off, revealing her yellow eyes and pale skin, though her hair remained black. Her Oathkeeper was now red instead of white and Oblivion remained the same. She then bowed down to Sora in servitude.
"Rise Xion," Sora said. She rose from the ground and stood before Sora.
"I apologize for defying you, my lord. You are right, the darkness is better than the light," Xion said.
"No need to apologize, Xion. You were blinded by the lies of the light, but you are now free from it," Sora said.
"What do you ask of me, my lord?" Xion asked.
"I want you to come with me on my conquest of the worlds. While doing so, we will track down the last Keybladers who will get in our way, then we can live in peace in the darkness," Sora said. Xion bowed her head in agreement.
"But first, let me get this off you," Sora said, while reaching for the small Heartless on Xion's armor and letting it disappear. He then shot a beam of darkness into the air, creating another vortex in the sky. It soon started to tear apart the world, while Sora and Xion disappeared into a corridor of darkness.
(Realm of Darkness)
The sound of a blade connecting with flesh was heard and Riku was sent flying into one of the walls. He looked up to see Kairi and a group of Invisibles behind her. When Vanitas, Lea, and Riku arrived in the Realm of Darkness, they had to fight through some Heartless, when they got to Kairi, Yuffie, Rhyme, Fuu, Olette, and the three-year-old versions of Aqua and Aerith. Kairi ordered Yuffie to take the kids out of the room and summoned her own personal guard of the red Orcus and the Invisibles to fight the intruders. As they fought, another group of Invisibles appeared along with a blue colored Orcus. With the back-up, Vanitas, Lea, and Riku were quickly overwhelmed. Lea was killed by the blue and red colored Orcus, Vanitas was destroyed by the group of Invisibles, and Riku was quickly struck down by an angered Kairi, which lead to his current situation.
"Kairi, please, we are trying to save you," Riku pleaded.
"Does it look like I need your help?!" She screamed.
"Kairi, look at all that Sora has done! Do you love the old Sora, or the monster he has become?" Riku asked.
"You call him a monster, I call him the best husband and father I could ask for. He has given me everything I could want in life and he will do whatever it takes to make sure there will be peace for us and everybody in the world," Kairi said, angered that Riku was trying to get her away from Sora.
"Fine, if I can't talk you out of it-" Riku said while reaching for his Keyblade. However, Kairi saw this and sliced off Riku's hand, making him scream in pain.
"Nice try," she said before impaling Riku with her Keyblade. Riku then disappeared into nothingness. After that, Kairi de-summoned her Keyblade, but was then tackled to the ground by Scarlett and Ava.
"Mommy, are you okay?" They both asked, Kairi, hugged them both to reassure them, "Don't worry girls, I'm fine. They couldn't hurt me and if they so much as lay a finger on you, they would regret making that mistake ten times over," Kairi said. The girls smiled in the comfort of their mother. Kairi then turned to Yuffie, Rhyme, Fuu, and Olette.
"Are you guys okay?" She asked. "Yes, my queen, we are all fine, Yuffie hid us in the Library and guarded the door as well," Olette replied.
"Good, now let us focus on repairing the damage to the castle and back to our game of tag," Kairi said, the girls celebrated and ran outside with Fuu and Olette.
"Yuffie, can you increase the guards we have here at the castle? Also, can you make sure that no outside corridors of darkness can teleport into the castle?" Kairi asked.
"Yes, my queen. I will get right on it," Yuffie said, before running out of the throne room.
Kairi looked around the room and thought of Sora when she looked at his throne. "I hope that you are safe Sora," she said before closing the door to the throne room.
And that is the end of this chapter, so now Xion has joined Sora and the Realm of Light is running out of heroes. Can any one stop Sora or not? We shall see in the next chapter. Until then have a good rest of the summer, and thank you guys for reading. Peace.
