Review Responses:
Luckenhaft - … Huh, that would've been funnier. Good eye. And in fact, I forgot Axel even made the portal until I was re-watching that scene. And an umlaut would be the two little dots that should be over the I in Saix's name.
Dracula X - Nah man, only 2-3 more chapters. The World That Never Was won't be that long. And if there is a third, it'd be exclusively end stuff.
Chapter 24: The Key to Victory
Deep in the Castle That Never Was, Kairi and Pluto were held within a special cell. They had little to do but wait. Finally, Saix walked in.
"What do you want? Why are you keeping us here?" Kairi asked.
Saix remained stoic. "Sora would like to see you. We need Sora. You do the math. I will leave you, now. Sora should be here soon."
Saix left. Kairi was now upset at the thought that they were using her to get to Sora.
"Oh no. If something happens to Sora, it'll be all my fault!"
"Psst! Hey!" someone else whispered. "Over here!"
"Huh?"
Kairi looked over and saw a girl in a white dress inside of a portal.
"Follow me!" the girl whispered.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy made it to a cliff. Mickey was waiting for them.
"Hey, fellas! The castle's floating over a bottomless pit, so it looks like we'll have to find a way to deal with that. And check out that moon!"
Mickey pointed to the moon over the castle. It was shaped like a heart.
"Weird. So about the castle, have you tried the Keyblade?" Sora asked.
"Um, no. Why?"
Sora shrugged. "I dunno. The Keyblade just seems to be a kind of universal answer for this kind of thing."
"Well Sora, it's more complicated than-"
"Gawrsh, what if the castle gate's just locked?" submitted Goofy.
"Goofy that's-" Mickey started, but was interrupted.
"Good idea, Goofy! Let's try it!" Sora held out the Two Become One and to Mickey's surprise, a beam came out.
"…"
A crystalline bridge formed between the party and the Castle That Never Was.
"All right, let's go!" Sora cheered as he began running across the bridge. Donald and Goofy followed, but Mickey was still dumbstruck.
"… Huh."
Everyone had finally entered the castle.
"All right, Organization! Let Kairi g-" Sora got muffled when King Mickey jumped up and covered his mouth.
"Shh! We're in their castle. It'll be easier if we don't alert them. They're most likely expecting us."
"But Yer Majesty, if they were expecting us, how come they didn't let us in?" Goofy asked. This stunned Mickey.
"Um… well… … Bye." Mickey ran off ahead.
At the same time, Kairi, the pale girl, and Pluto were attempting to leave the castle. Kairi and the other girl were in the middle of some bizarre and extremely girly run, when someone else showed up.
"Namine." Saix greeted, blocking their exit. He was flanked by two Berserker Nobodies.
"Arf, arf!" Pluto started barking.
"Have I seen that dog before? … Yes. It asked me if it was allowed to keep him… but who was that? I can't seem to remember…"
Saix seemed to be in the middle of a memory quandary, but Kairi's patience was running thin.
"Just let us go already!"
Saix's focus returned. "That won't be happening, unless you think you can force your way past me."
Kairi put up her dukes.
"You can't be serious."
"Uh…" Kairi faltered, but didn't back down.
"Just go back to your cell before this gets humiliating."
Then a familiar blade thrust out of a Berserker's stomach. Saix looked over, and saw that one of his henchmen was stabbed from behind, defeated.
"That sword… You're the imposter Organization member. I seem to recall Roxas defeating you whe-"
The newcomer was a tall figure in a black coat. He charged at Saix and pushed him against a wall.
"Good job, Riku!" Namine said. She disappeared shortly afterward.
"Wait, Riku?" questioned Kairi. She looked over and saw her supposed friend blast a Berserker with dark energy before returning his focus to Saix.
"You win… for now." Saix said as he disappeared into a dark portal.
"…" The newcomer was miffed, but then Kairi tapped him on the shoulder from behind, and Pluto barked. "Huh?"
When he turned around, Kairi removed his hood. The man was no other than Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, the Heartless of Xehanort.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy were battling their way through the lower stories of the Castle That Never Was.
"Take that! And this!"
"Hoyo!" Goofy grunted.
"Waaak!"
Soon, all the Nobodies in the room were gone. Sora turned to the others.
"You know, ever since I had that mental breakdown by the skyscraper, I feel this new power inside of me. I think it might be connected to Drive."
"I wonder if it has t' do with that other boy you kept talking about."
"Could be."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy continued through the castle, until they came into a large, open room. The Hall of Empty Melodies. Sora, Donald, and Goofy were on a platform over an endless abyss. There was a perfect view of the giant heart moon.
"That's enough, Sora." Saix's voice rang. Everyone looked and saw Saix standing on a balcony. "Not one more step."
"Not without my friends!"
"We just need a few more hearts from you. Our Kingdom Hearts is almost complete."
"Your Kingdom Hearts? What does that mean?" Sora asked.
Saix sighed. "The moon. The freakish moon that's so hard to miss that a blind man could see. What did you think it was?"
"…Cheese…" answered Sora, ashamed.
"… I'm done with you, professionally. These last few Heartless should be enough."
Saix snapped and summoned some Armored Knights. Donald and Goofy were mad.
"Waak! Wakwak!"
"Yeah, you think yer so tough just 'cause you're way up there where we can't reach you!"
"If that helps you sleep at night." taunted Saix. Then some Shadows started appearing, surrounding the Armored Knights and the three friends.
"Uh-oh…" the three said at once.
"Sora!" Kairi called out. The three looked over and saw Kairi on a higher balcony on the other side of the room.
"Oh! Hi Kai-" a swarm of Shadows tackled Sora.
"Oh… sorry…" Kairi winced, feeling foolish for distracting Sora like she did.
Some Shadows started surrounding her next. Riku, still resembling Ansem, appeared and finished them with his sword. But it wasn't like Riku's Soul Eater. It was a Keyblade now, with an extra wing. Way to the Dawn.
"Kairi, take this." He spoke in the voice of Xehanort's Heartless and offered Kairi her own Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace. It was brightly colored and had flowers.
"… Thanks, Riku. It's time I did something too."
More Shadows appeared, but the two friends were ready for them.
"Am I really seeing this?" Saix pondered. "Just how many Keyblade wielders are there, exactly?" Then Saix noticed something else. "Oh, and as if Sora and Riku weren't enough…"
Saix noticed two people in a small nook across from him, on the other side of the room. Maleficent and Pete were there. Pete winked, clicked his tongue, and gave Saix the finger guns. Saix grimaced.
"Fool, I told you not to do that!" Maleficent shouted.
Saix vanished.
"… So Pete, I'm thinking this will be a perfect headquarters. Once we take over, we'll just look for any remaining henchmen. Then we can begin our plans!"
"But Maleficent, what about da Heartless? This world ain't in the light or the dark, they'll never listen!"
"***ch please, I'm Maleficent!"
Mickey ran through another part of the castle, cutting down any Heartless or Nobody that stood in his way.
"Come on, where is he? … There!"
Mickey ran up to an unconscious body surrounded by Dusks. The Dusks looked just in time to get a face full of the Kingdom Key D, eliminating all of them.
"Are you all right?" Mickey asked. This man was none other than DiZ, the man whose face was wrapped in red belts. This man is the one who lured Roxas back to Sora.
"… Yes…" DiZ answered. He began unraveling his makeshift mask. He had long, blonde hair. Mickey recognized him.
"Ansem the Wise… Why didn't you contact me before everything went this crazy?"
The real Ansem shrugged. "I thought I could handle it. After all, Xemnas used to be my greatest pupil. And I wanted a little revenge." Ansem's gaze drifted upward, towards Kingdom Hearts.
"… King Mickey, look at the device on the ground, where you found me." Mickey looked. It resembled a fancy ray gun with miniature worlds attached. "That is mine. I'm going to screw Xemnas's plans with it."
"Oh. … Say Ansem, do you know why Riku looks like the fake Ansem?"
"Darkness. You see, I had once asked Riku to retrieve Roxas. Thankfully, Roxas had already left the Organization by the time we found him. We just needed to hurry and claim him before the Organization did."
"So…"
"Riku used the darkness that Xehanort had left within him in order to best Roxas. So Riku's form was lost to the darkness, and he remained its prisoner, just because I wanted revenge."
-Tell me your name.-
-Ansem.-
-Hahahahaha! … I'm such a monster.-
Ansem shuddered, so Mickey took his turn to speak.
"So yeah, Riku told me some of that stuff. He said he didn't want Sora to know what he was up to."
"Hm. … Well, let's just get on with this." Ansem went to pick up his device and continued deeper into the castle, followed by Mickey.
Sora was still dealing with all the Heartless.
"Two's a crowd, but five's a pickle!" Sora knocked all the other Heartless off of him. "Geez…"
Sora looked up and saw Kairi fighting alongside Xehanort's Heartless on the balcony.
"Wait, what?"
"Eyes on me, sport." echoed a voice from where Saix once stood.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy all turned around and noticed Xigbar, just as the he began unloading hundreds of arrows unto the horde of Heartless.
When the attack was over, Xigbar lowered his guns. "So… you ever get that Happy Meal I wanted?"
Sora glared at Xigbar.
"Guess not. Wow Sora, you just love screwing the Organization over, don't you? But you're kind of a chump compared to those others."
Goofy was confused. "What others?"
Xigbar smirked. "Well duh! The other Keyblade wielders!"
This caught the party by surprise.
"There were… more?" asked Sora.
Xigbar smiled again. "Yeah, and they were all manlier than you, even the girl! Heck, one of them is the reason my face looks like this!"
Donald asked about their identities, but Xigbar waved a finger.
"Ah-ah-ah! You'll just have to wait until next time. 'Cept there won't be a next time. Your game is over."
Xigbar leapt down to the platform the party was standing on. He had an evil grin. Before Sora could try anything, Xigbar teleported onto a small balcony.
"I can see yoooou!" he taunted, turning his guns into one rifle and taking aim.
Xigbar started taking shots at Sora, but the boy was quick and warp-attacked each projectile, sending them back to Xigbar.
"Aaaugh! Clever little sneak!"
Xigbar tried a more direct approach and went back down to the battlefield, his guns were in two again. He used his power over space to warp the shape of the arena.
"Like what I've done with the place? Ha!" Xigbar started shooting again.
"Run, fellers!" Goofy shouted. The three ran all over the arena, trying to avoid Xigbar's attacks. Noticing that the Nobody had two guns and that there were three of them, Donald hid from Xigbar's view and hit Xigbar with Thundaga.
"Aaah! You little-" as he was distracted, Sora ran up and swung Two Become One clear across Xigbar's scarred cheek. "Not on my bad one!"
"Hoyo!" Goofy threw his shield like a discus, and hit Xigbar right in the gut.
Xigbar teleported and changed the arena's shape again. "New backdrop!"
The Freeshooter teleported again, and resumed shooting. But this time, he started hiding his hands in portals which would let out in other places around the arena.
"Ha!" Sora attacked one of Xigbar's hands sticking out of a portal.
Xigbar felt the pain from across the room. "Rrr! Take this!" Xigbar retracted his hands and shot a special dart that would bounce all over the place.
"Hmm… Maybe I can send it back at him!" Sora declared. He ran up to the bullet, but it warped him instead.
"Whoa, what?" Sora was confused, and found himself floating in a corner of the room, with the special dart coming at him. "No!"
Sora quickly knocked it towards Xigbar, hitting him. Since both Sora and Xigbar made contact with the dart, they were warped to different positions around the room. Sora was still confused.
"What the- Aaah!" The dart was headed for him again. Sora repeated what he did before, and hit Xigbar, warping them both.
"Sora! Cut it ou- OOH!" Xigbar got hit again, and warped. This time, as Sora knocked the dart towards Xigbar, the Freeshooter teleported out of the way, and Sora warped to the ground. "Haha! You're putting me to sleep, bucko!"
Xigbar attempted to take another shot, but his guns were empty.
"Donald, Goofy, now's our chance!"
"Crap."
"Trinity!" the friends yelled at once. Sora, Donald, and Goofy attacked Xigbar in unison, followed by blasting him with a lot of orbs.
"Ahhh!"
"And Ultima!" the party chanted. They held their weapons up and blasted Xigbar with one final spell.
"Oof! Rrrr… Reload!" Xigbar's guns automatically filled up again, and he started warping again. "Heads up!" The shooting continued.
Donald quacked incredulously as he dodged the darts.
"Yeah, I thought that woulda finished him for sure!" Goofy stated.
Sora pondered this. "Wait, I'll see if I can use my new Drive power. Light!"
Sora transformed… but to his chagrin, he was Anti Form Sora instead.
"Arooooo!" he howled.
"The heck is that?" Xigbar asked. "Oh well. Pow!" He shot another special dart, but Sora had no means of countering it in this feral form. He was damaged and warped to another part of the room.
"Aroooo!"
"Oh, this'll be amazing. Here's something saved just for you!"
Xigbar's ability reduced the arena into a small square. Anti Sora was trapped, and Xigbar had him at his mercy, flying around the stage and shooting him.
"Hahaha! It's like shooting Roxas in a barrel! Now… let's see how you dance!"
Xigbar warped to the center and summoned a nonstop rain of darts, all homed in on Sora. The boy rapidly ran around the platform, one step ahead of the deadly rain.
"You gotta be kiddin' me!" Xigbar was frustrated, and he ran out of arrows. Sora leaped up to Xigbar and started clawing and swiping at him, relentlessly.
"Rrrr! Arrrrrr!"
"Aaah! Gah! Stop! Cut it- Aaah! Grr! Sto- Oooh! Aah!" Xigbar could not even fight back.
Sora finished with a double cross-swing that sent Xigbar flying into a wall before reverting to his normal state. The platform followed suit and spread out to normal size.
"You… are just a-" Xigbar tried taunting him, but Sora thought fast.
"Donald!"
Donald nodded and raised his stave alongside Sora and his weapon. The duo sent a small cloud of fireworks directly at Xigbar.
"This'll hurt." Xigbar grimaced.
The explosion could be heard throughout the castle, as it shook the room.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Xigbar landed on the ground in front of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. He was beginning to fade, much like Demyx, Xaldin, and Axel before him.
"Wait, before you disappear, why did you call me Roxas?"
Xigbar smirked. "Heh-heh. I'm afraid that's just going to be the Organization's little secret… Heh-heh-heh…"
Xigbar began to fade. Before the last of his shadows were gone, Donald quickly grabbed Sora's hand and directed his attention to the balcony his friends were on.
"Oh yeah, Kairi and… the other person. Who was that?"
Mickey and Ansem the Wise were watching everyone from even higher up.
"Wow, Sora and Donald really took care of that guy. But… Kairi and Riku… You think they need our help?"
Ansem shook his head. "Riku has no further need for me, nor I for him. He has Sora now, and I'm ready to atone. Come on, Mickey."
"I just hope Riku can get back to normal."
Xemnas stood atop the Altar of Naught at the top of the castle, basking in the glow of Kingdom Hearts. Saix appeared behind him.
"Oh… Oh, oh. This is delicious." Xemnas said.
"I guess you won't be needing that Keyblade wielder. You want me to get rid of him?"
Xemnas did not avert his gaze from Kingdom Hearts. "Don't be hasty. Not until we have more Emblem Heartless pummeled into dust. Which should be any moment, now."
A few hearts start flying into Kingdom Hearts.
"Yes… yes…"
Saix would be disturbed, if he had a heart. "So may I drop the act and release my full force?"
Xemnas turned to him and nodded. "Indeeeeeed."
"Kairi! Kairi Kairi Kairi!" Sora shouted. He, Donald, and Goofy had finally caught up to her. "There you are! You're safe, you're here, you're-
"Sora! It's been so long! You and Riku never came home!" Kairi ran up to Sora and gave him an embrace.
Goofy and Donald stood awkwardly, and Sora returned the hug. They tried to look at anything but this, but everything else was gray. Then Sora noticed something.
"… Is that Ansem? The fake Ansem that we beat?"
Kairi let Sora go, and the boy walked up to Riku.
"Ansem? Did you help Kairi? I mean, I'm thankful, but why? I thought you hated us. And that you were dead."
"Uh… well, you see…" Riku was starting to make something up, but Kairi shook her head.
"Riku, be honest." She grabbed Riku's hand and Sora's hand, and put the two of them together.
"Riku? Kairi that's not Riku. I know you haven't seen him in a while, but-"
"Sora, close your eyes." she said.
Sora did as he was told. He could recognize Riku's essence. This was his best friend, who lived with him on the islands, played with him, fell into darkness, but shortly redeemed himself. Sora opened his eyes, shocked.
"Riku! Riku's here!" Sora fell to his knees, still holding Riku's hand. The boy was practically crying at this point. "Riku's here!"
"… Sora, you're creeping me out." Riku said, using his real voice for once.
"I looked everywhere, Riku!" A tear went down his cheek.
~And on that day, a million fan fictions were written. You know the kind.~
Sora turned to Donald and Goofy. "Guys, Riku's here!"
"Pics or it didn't happen." Goofy dismissed.
Sora's eyes widened. "Oh, that reminds me!" The boy stood up. "Riku, Santa's real! I met him!"
"Pics or it didn't happen." Riku waved a finger, jokingly.
Everyone laughed, and Sora stood back up.
"Wait, Riku, why'd you turn into Xehanort's Heartless?"
"I needed to use the power of darkness to help bring you back. But I also need it to stop the Organization."
Kairi thought about this for a moment. "So once we're all done, you can change back?"
Riku shrugged. "I can't say. That reminds me, Sora, this is for you."
He gave Sora the Oblivion Keychain.
"Wait, I didn't have this one already? Weird." Sora was confused.
"Well I actually know about that Keyblade you were using on the Organization member earlier. It's hard to use, so I thought this might help."
"What's wrong with this one?"
"If you try to Drive anything but your strongest form, you'll only turn into Anti Form or the final form. But since you haven't unlocked it yet, it defaulted to Anti."
Goofy tilted his head. "Gawrsh Riku, when'd ya learn so much about this?"
"Eh, kind of picked it up from Ansem. The wise Ansem, that is."
"Well I have a feeling that I've got this figured out. Now come on, let's go stop the Organization!"
"Yeah!" Donald and Goofy cheered.
Ansem set up his device on a balcony near the top of the castle. Mickey watched as his friend's ray gun emitted a beam of data directly at Kingdom Hearts. Ansem turned to Mickey, giving an explanation.
"So, this thing should encode Kingdom Hearts as data, and then Xemnas can't get his hands on it."
"… Oh."
Everyone carried on until they reached the Proof of Existence. Twelve tiles were littered about, but Tiles 7, 10, and 13 were blue while the rest were red. The door at the opposite end of the room was blocked by a strange bubble.
"Now what do we do?" Goofy wondered. Riku decided to explain.
"Ansem said they might try something like this. This barrier's keeping us from getting to Xemnas. It's held together by one of the remaining Organization members hiding in these portals."
Donald asked how Mickey and Ansem got through without fighting the Nobodies. Riku shrugged.
"Ansem's always got something up his sleeve."
"Cool." Sora casually walked into the nearest one. Everyone else simply followed. They were all out in an open balcony.
"It doesn't look like anyone's here." Kairi commented.
"Think again." called another voice. "Cards!"
Giant, grey cards surrounded a confused Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy and made them disappear. When all the cards scattered, Luxord stood in their place.
Sora gasped. "Hey! … Wait, I don't remember you."
Luxord was shocked. "You… you don't? We met in Port Royal. I had that one Heartless and my Gamblers curse Jack Sparrow. I also sunk the Interceptor."
Sora shrugged. "Sorry, I got nothing."
Luxord's eyes narrowed. "Well, I'm sure I'll forget about you just as quickly after our little game."
"A game?"
"Yes. Whoever runs out of time is the loser." Luxord snapped his fingers. "And just to make things interesting, the loser will disappear."
Sora readied the Two Become One, as Luxord snapped his fingers.
Sora - 300 seconds
Luxord - 300 seconds
"We have that long to defeat one another. Taking damage depletes the time even faster. Now… let the game begin." Luxord said. "Ha!"
Sora was turned into a die.
"…"
Sora rolled himself around, as Luxord started manipulating cards to whip or shoot at the hero. Not wanting to waste time, Sora rolled himself into Luxord and hit him right in the arm.
"Ow!"
Sora was able to turn back to normal, and started attacking Luxord some more.
"Oh! Ow! Cards!" Some cards dropped down and slashed Sora, taking some of his health and his time, and Luxord got another shot in.
"Gather!" Sora used Magnaga on Luxord, drawing in both the opponent and all of his cards. Sora got in quite a number of attacks on the vulnerable Nobody.
"Ha! Take that! And one of these! And some of those!"
Luxord eventually managed to get away, and turned himself into a card. The card then multiplied itself. "Be one with your force."
Instead of guessing which card held Luxord, Sora attacked them at once.
"Firaga!"
"Ow! ****-head! It's game time!" Luxord reappeared and showed off a bunch of cards, each with an X. A circle replaced one on another card, but then switched places with another X.
Sora watched quickly, and attacked the circle card, leaving Luxord vulnerable.
"It's over!" The battle continued like this for a while.
Sora - 182 seconds
Luxord - 34 seconds
"All right, I've almost won!" Sora quickly dodged a stream of cards. Then he dismissed his Keyblade.
"What- what are you doing?"
"Well since it's timed, and I already have an advantage, I just gotta stall!"
"No you- … Huh. I… Wow. Cheap, but clever."
Sora - 157 seconds
Luxord - 9 seconds
Luxord bowed for his inevitable defeat. "You play the game quite well."
Three seconds later, Luxord disappeared into darkness, just as Xigbar did. There was a flash of light, and all of Sora's friends returned.
"Where did he take you to?" Sora inquired.
"The broom closet." answered everyone at once.
Everyone had returned to Proof of Existence and noticed that the barrier remained. Other than Xemnas, that meant that Saix, the only other remaining Nobody, was the target.
The group walked into an empty room as Saix was gazing out the window at Kingdom Hearts.
"Kingdom Hearts… Kingdom Hearts… Kingd- Oh. It's you. If I had emotions, I would still be furious for what you've done to me, Roxas."
"For the last time, I'm not Roxas!" Sora was getting frustrated.
"That's more than he said last time. But let's keep this short and sweet again."
Saix summoned a claymore and held it in reverse. He swung it, creating a gale of wind. Riku and Kairi were knocked out of the room, leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy alone with the Luna Diviner.
"Do you feel it? The moon's power? Moon, shine down."
Saix's weapon enhanced itself and he was moving quickly.
"BE GOOOOONE!" the Nobody practically roared. With one mighty swing, his claymore made a crater in the center of the room, which Sora's group barely dodged. "MOVE ASIDE!"
"Be careful, fellers!"
Saix kept swinging over and over, with plenty of shockwaves to accompany each attack. Eventually, Saix tried to throw a claymore at Sora, but he missed and it got embedded into the wall. Saix pulled out another claymore.
"Where'd he get the other one from?" Sora asked, but Saix was still on the move.
"ALL SHALL BE LOST TO YOU!"
Donald fired a few spells at Saix, which caught his attention. Sora noticed the other claymore still in the wall.
"I remember that there were Nobodies who used these in Twilight Town, and that I could use these to beat them up. I bet it works on him too!"
Sora ran over to retrieve the claymore, and ran over to Saix.
"I want to see you die fighting!" he told Donald and Goofy, making them gulp.
"Hey, turn around!" called Sora. Saix looked and got a face full of one of his own claymores. Saix was thrown for a loop, and Sora swung at him a few more times. For the final one, Sora swung it like a baseball bat and knocked Saix into a wall. "It's over!"
"Ugh…"
"Great job, Sora!" Goofy congratulated. "You know what I think? That moon's making him angry!"
"Well aren't you observant?" retorted Saix, somewhat calmer. Everyone looked and saw him recovering from that last attack. "But there's no exit from this battle. Moon, shine down!"
"No, that's enough! Give me strength!" Sora activated Drive before Saix could absorb the moon's power. Goofy gasped.
"But Sora, you could-"
Donald and Goofy disappeared. When Sora was done, his clothing was white, with black decorations. Two Become One and Bond of Flame both floated independently of Sora.
Sora - Final Form
"Him… I sense his presence now…" Saix commented. "But that won't make a difference!"
Wordlessly, Sora used telekinesis to swing both Keyblades at Saix.
"Aah! Fool, do you think- Aauck!" Sora flew over to Saix and started telekinetically swinging his Keyblades even faster, before casting a spell.
"Gather!" Final Sora cast Magnaga, gathering Saix and his claymores together. "Thundaga!"
"AAAAAAAHHH!" Saix was struck by lightning, dead-on. "My heart… if I had a heart…"
Saix fell onto the ruined floor, landing on his back. He pathetically looked over at the window.
"Kingdom… Hearts… where did… I go wrong?" He closed his eyes and faded into darkness.
Riku and Kairi came back, and Sora forcibly returned to normal, releasing Donald and Goofy. Sora turned to Riku.
"Why are they all calling me Roxas?" the boy wondered. Riku was surprised.
"You mean you didn't figure it out? Well I guess I'm not that surprised…" Riku started. "Well Sora, Roxas is your Nobody."
Sora's eyes widened, while Donald, Goofy, and Kairi all got hit with a realization and nodded their heads.
Kairi spoke first. "Oh yeah, that makes sense…"
"Wakwakwak."
"I forgot about that too, Donald." Goofy said.
"But wait, did I turn into a Heartless? … Oh wait, I remember. When we went to Hollow Bastion and I saved Kairi's heart…"
Riku nodded. "Xemnas found Roxas and took him under his wing. Since Roxas was your Nobody, he could use the Keyblade, and furthered Xemnas's plans. But then Roxas left them, and I lost to him in a fight."
"Why did you fight Roxas?" Sora questioned.
"I thought it would wake you up. But I lost, so I gave in to the darkness willingly, and used Ansem's power to take him back to the real Ansem."
Riku, still in his original form, was in a coat just like the Organization's coats, and wore black blindfold. He was fighting Roxas in the Dark City, but neither of them were winning.
"Come on, Sora, give it up!" taunted Riku.
"No way, I'm winning! … Wait, did I just-"
"Ha! That was undeniable proof that you're that lamer."
"Shut up!" Roxas fumed. He leapt over to Riku and slashed him with Oathkeeper and Oblivion.
"Ow! Okay that's it, I didn't want to do this, but now I guess I have to! Even if it changes me for good, I'm waking Sora up again!"
Riku took off his blindfold and changed into Xehanort's Heartless, in the same robe.
"Come… Guardian." Riku summoned Ansem's Guardian and sent it after Roxas.
Name: Guardian
Relation to Ansem: Eh, not really sure.
Guardian attacked Roxas, defeating him once and for all. Riku then dismissed him.
"All right, DiZ. I got him. Come on out."
"But in the end, I think the reason he left the Organization was to meet you, Sora." Riku shook his head. "But that's enough for now, though. Nothing's stopping us from reaching Xemnas. Let's go."
Riku, Kairi, Goofy, and Donald walked out of the room, but Sora stayed behind for a minute, and looked out the window.
"Roxas…"
On the upper pathway of the castle, Ansem was still trying to encode Kingdom Hearts, but the stream leading into the gun was acting oddly.
"Well, I do believe this thing's going to malfunction. I guess you really can't encode hearts. I've underestimated the power of the heart yet again."
"Aw don't worry, Ansem. I'm sure they'll stop Xemnas!"
Ansem nodded. "Yes. But I'm still a fool. I had hearts all wrong. Data, worlds, and maybe even those like Roxas. Hearts in and of themselves are strong, and can be found everywhere. I should have accepted this sooner."
The gun began to short-circuit.
"Um, Ansem?" the king was getting nervous.
"Mickey, you should run while you can. With the limitless power of the heart, let alone the many hearts already captured in here, anything could happen when it explodes."
Sora and everyone else walked in.
"Your Majesty! … And an old guy?" Sora asked. Riku leaned over to whisper to Sora.
"That's Ansem."
"Oh."
Ansem acknowledged Sora. "Sora, the rest falls on you now. And please, tell Roxas I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. But I'm especially sorry for talking to him as if he were a puppy, right before he rejoined with you. That part was just uncalled for."
Sora tried his hardest to understand. "Um… okay… I guess. What's going on?"
Xemnas appeared.
"I had noticed that someone was trying to sabotage Kingdom Hearts. And who do I find but the small king his two pawns, the boy lost to darkness, Sora, his friend, and the man who started it all: Ansem the Wise."
"Xehanort. Arrogant as usual, I see…" Ansem remarked.
"Really, Ansem, all I had done was merely in the name of continuing your research. Maybe things would have happened differently, if you had never even bothered."
Ansem never looked away from Kingdom Hearts and his device.
"You're right. All of this? This chaos, this darkness and madness? My bad. I started it, so I'm ending it. Right here, right now. So suck on that, Xehanort."
"…" Xemnas was not amused.
"Goodbye, everyone." Ansem got close to his machine, practically hugging it, in some sort of attempt to minimize the area of effect.
"Ansem, no!" shouted Mickey. Riku helped push everyone back, and Xemnas teleported.
In that instance, the encoding device exploded, raining light on the whole balcony. A beam flew out and struck Kingdom Hearts, breaking open a hole, and allowing hearts to rain down.
Down in the streets of the Dark City, the Dusks rejoiced and rejoined with their missing hearts.
As the hearts began to coat the city, the Heartless were attracted, and began to claw their way out from the depths beneath the Castle That Never Was.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, Riku, and Mickey all regained consciousness on the balcony. But Sora was the first to notice that Riku looked like his old self again- his long, purple-silver hair, still taller than his friends, and with a black coat and blindfold.
"Riku, you're normal!" Kairi declared.
"Wow Riku, you got kinda hot since we last saw you, ahyuck!" Goofy's eyes went wide. "… Did I say that out loud?"
"But… how?" Riku asked. "How am I normal again?"
Mickey shrugged. "I guess all that light cleaned you out or something. Ansem told me that anything could happen. So…"
"Oh well." Riku was not complaining. He decided to remove his blindfold. "I don't need to fool myself with this any longer."
Sora shook his head. "Riku, why didn't you want any of us to help you out? We're all friends."
"Heh. Same old Sora."
"… No seriously, why not?"
Riku sighed. "Well it's not important now. Right now we're all together, and we have a path taking us straight to Xemnas, so we should hurry."
Donald started quacking and pointed something out. They could barely make out some kind of figure floating before the ruined Kingdom Hearts.
Sora mumbled to himself. "Oh I don't like the look of that."
Everyone then heard a noise, and went to see what was going on below. Many Heartless were starting to climb the castle.
"I don't like the look of that either…"
Riku removed his cloak, showing off a new outfit of his own.
Name: Riku
Rating: Really Awesome
"I'm not entirely sure where I got these clothes."
Sora looked around to everyone. "Well c'mon guys, Xemnas is waiting for us. Let's go!"
With that, Sora and all his friends began the final part of their siege on Organization XIII.
To be continued.
Author's Notes:
All right, we're nearly there. I wanted to get in one more fight, but I thought I was pushing this chapter as it was. But the next chapter should be the last, unless I want to go for some special, epilogue-type stuff.
I had fun with the boss fights, but mostly Xigbar's. Also it just feels good to have a character say "suck it/suck on that" to Xehanort.
Xemnas and Saix re-enacted the "this is delicious" scene from the Street Fighter cartoon. I also altered Luxord's death a little bit, and I gave him some of Travis Touchdown's quotes from No More Heroes. I like Travis, and he has the same actor as Luxord.
Saix having some memories about Pluto is a reference to the Days manga, wherein Xion asked Saix if she could keep Pluto. Oddly, he said yes. Not that Pluto stuck around, but still.
The finale will be soon. I don't want to make any promises on what day, but I do want to finally finish this story.