Xehanort stood with his Keyblade ready atop the platform before the five Keyblade warriors. Sora, Ven, and Aqua's helmets reappeared on their heads. Without warning, Xehanort leapt at them, leaving a trail of black wisps of smoke behind him as he flew. He and Aqua were the first to clash, the other Keyblade warriors spreading out around them. Aqua and Xehanort proceeded to exchange blows until Xehanort proceeded to kick her away in time to block a blow from Ven.
"Such a disappointment Ven. You could have been much more." Xehanort said with a dark grin. Ven gritted his teeth as they pushed their Keyblades against each other. Ven quickly leapt away before Xehanort threw his own, much more powerful, Dark Firaga down at where the boy was standing moments ago. He then quickly turned to block and repel an attack from Riku.
"Speaking of disappointments." Xehanort said as Riku remained calm. He quickly turned and deflected a small sphere of light from the King. Mickey quickly ran in and started grappling with the Lord of the Heartless. Mickey would deliver a few fast and swift blows but Xehanort would block them. Xehanort attempted to swing at the mouse king but Mickey leapt away before he could. They all heard a loud crack before turning to see Sora land on his back again nearby. He had tried to break through the barrier again.
"You never learn do you?" Xehanort asked as he leapt at Sora who quickly dodge rolled out of the way and then leapt at Xehanort, delivering a few fast strikes before leaping back and attempting to use Magnega on him.
"Futile!" Xehanort shouted as he leapt at the apprentice who quickly hurled a Firaga back at him. Xehanort blocked the attack with a grin.
"Is it getting a little warm in here?" Xehanort asked mockingly. Sora quickly used Blizzaga on him but again Xehanort deflected the attack.
"Trying to freeze me to death are you?" Xehanort mocked again. He then noticed Aqua, Ven, Riku, and Mickey charging towards him.
"Nah-ah-ah! I wouldn't do that if I were YOU!" Xehanort shouted as he instantly threw down a large black orb of energy, creating a Corridor of Darkness at his feet, and summoning forth a whole swarm of Neoshadow and Dark Ball Heartless. The other four warriors now had to battle the Heartless, leaving Sora to deal with Xehanort, alone.
"Heartless? Oh no, Terra must not be trying to resist him anymore!" Aqua exclaimed.
"He could be waiting for just the right moment! He probably needs more light around him!" Ven replied as Riku had an idea.
"More light? I know just where to find it! I'll be right back!" Riku shouted as he ran for the door, but was knocked back into the room when he discovered that the entire area had been surrounded by an invisible magic barrier.
"Blast! There's got to be some way of getting some kind of signal out!" Riku said as Aqua glanced at Sora who had managed to activate the Destiny Blitz command style.
"SORA! USE YOUR TIER TWO!" Aqua shouted as Sora leapt back and gave Aqua a thumbs up. He quickly started double-casting Thundaga and Firaga at the surrounding Heartless, allowing Aqua to take back over in fighting Xehanort.
"I don't know what you have in mind, girl, but it won't work!" Xehanort growled as he and Aqua exchanged blows.
"We'll just see about that!" Aqua said as she noticed Sora's Command Style Reflega shield focus in on his Keyblade as it entered the Light of the Worlds Command Style. Sora then turned and aimed his Keyblade towards the ceiling, causing the massive white beam of light to shoot straight up into the air, but impact against the magic barrier for a moment before a loud crack was heard and the beam broke through, streaking into the sky. His Command Style's power expended, Sora quickly turned and continued his assault against the Heartless.
"What was that supposed to do?" Ven asked as he used his Multi Vortex Shoot Lock to clear out a large number of Heartless, but they were still coming.
"With any luck, we might have just managed to call for back up!" Riku replied. Mickey then caught on to what he meant.
"Good thinking Riku!" Mickey said as they continued smashing through Heartless. Meanwhile Aqua and Xehanort were still battling each other. Xehanort then took a vicious swing at Aqua who blocked the blow.
"Your strength is failing you Aqua! You know Terra's physical strength is greater than your own!" Xehanort chuckled with a grin. Aqua quickly leapt back and kicked him backwards before starting to barrage him with magic spells, each of which he blocked or deflected.
"He might be stronger than me, but strength in itself isn't strength at all!" Aqua replied as she entered Magic Wish and started hovering in the air, attacking with her Keyblade floating and flying around her, occasionally casting Thundaga and Magnega.
"Don't think I don't know what you're doing! I'm well aware of your Ghost Drive!" Xehanort laughed as he blocked each of her attacks and spells.
"Maybe so! But can you defend against it?" Aqua asked before suddenly multiplying into dozens of clones of herself. There was a sudden flurry of bright flashes of light from around Xehanort before the clones disappeared, leaving only Aqua standing in disbelief. Xehanort had blocked each and every blow from her Ghost Drive Command Style.
"What? Impossible!" Aqua exclaimed as Xehanort laughed maniacally.
"So naïve!" he said with a grin before charging at her again. This time Ven leapt in the way, blocking Xehanort's attack.
"Get out of my way, BOY!" Xehanort ordered but Ven shoved the dark lord back, before moving in to attack. Aqua then turned to join the others in the fight with the Heartless, but as she did, she saw a the front doors start to glow with a bright light.
"Huh?" She asked confused. All of a sudden the doors flew open along as a lone figure flew in towards Xehanort, leaving lens flares behind as it flew. Xehanort saw the new arrival and quickly turned to block a blow from two Keyblades. It was Roxas!
"Well-well, if it isn't the Nobody!" Xehanort laughed as Roxas leapt back, Keyblades primed.
"Somebody call for a light?" Roxas asked before leaping at Xehanort, attacking with Oathkeeper and Oblivion.
"Oh now I get what you meant by back up!" Sora exclaimed to Riku.
"Roxas wields both the Keyblade and the element of light! Quite frankly, we need all the Keyblades we can get a hold of!" Riku replied as they continued cutting down Heartless. This time Aqua had the idea.
"Now that I think about it, there's actually one person who technically isn't in this fight! At least not yet he isn't!" Aqua shouted as she turned to Sora.
"We've got to get rid of these Heartless!" she shouted. Sora and Ven looked at each other and nodded. They then simultaneously leapt back and charged their Keyblades before using the Shiny Bloom, Trinity Drive, and Multi Vortex Shoot Locks respectively and quickly mopped up the remaining Heartless. Everyone turned towards Xehanort as he and Roxas battled each other.
"Terra!" Aqua shouted as she reached in her pocket for something. Roxas leapt back and joined the others as Xehanort turned towards them. Aqua's helmet disappeared as she raised Terra's armor piece and lucky charm in her hand, both of which was glowing with a red aura. Xehanort froze with a look of panic on his face.
"It's time for you to come to your senses!" Aqua shouted as she let go of both the armor piece and lucky charm. In a flash of light Terra's Lingering Sentiment appeared, holding the lucky charm in its left hand and its Keyblade in its right.
"Xe-ha-nort! XEHA-NORT! XEHANORT!" The Lingering Sentiment shouted angrily as it charged at Xehanort who quickly raised his Keyblade to block.
"NO! GET BACK! GET BACK YOU FOOL!" Xehanort said in fear as he attempted to block.
"Come on guys! Let's give Terra a hand!" Ven shouted as Sora and Roxas gave each other a nod.
"Let us handle this!" Sora said as he and Roxas aimed their Keyblades at Xehanort. Almost instantly both Sora's Keyblade, and Oblivion created thirteen clones each made of light, totaling twenty six light made Keyblade clones which aimed themselves at Xehanort. The Lingering Sentiment quickly swung at Xehanort before leaping away. The twenty six Keyblade clones proceeded to crash into Xehanort, pinning him in place.
"YOU FOOLS! YOU DON'T REALIZE WHAT YOU'RE D-AAUGHHHHHHH!" Xehanort screamed in pain as both he and Terra's sentiment started to glow with light. Everyone watched wide eyed as Xehanort started thrashing around but to no avail, struggling to get free. Aqua and Ven suddenly sensed something and both pulled out their lucky charms. They were glowing with a bright light, Aqua's glowing blue, and Ven's glowing yellow and even Terra's glowing red. Aqua and Ven quickly ran up to either side of the Lingering Sentiment, holding their charms out before them. Soon a glowing beam of white light shot from the three charms, connecting with the others, creating a triangle of light magic. The beam of light then channeled itself from Terra's lucky charm and towards Xehanort's heart. Xehanort started to writhe in fury and pain, the white hair slowly starting to turn back to its original brown, and the yellow eyes returning to the familiar blue. His clothes were even changing from Xehanort's black clothing to Terra's old attire.
"Let's give 'em a boost guys!" Sora said as he, Roxas, Mickey, and Riku hurried and laid a hand on either Aqua's, Ven's, or Terra's Sentiment's shoulders, channeling the light of their hearts (or just light in Roxas's case) towards Xehanort. Suddenly they noticed a swirling black mass of dark energy rising from Xehanort's back as Terra slowly began regaining control. Suddenly they saw a semi transparent image of an old bald headed man with Xehanort's skin tone and yellow eyes but with a small pointed white beard rise from out Terra's back as the latter slumped forward from exhaustion, it was Xehanort's heart. Finally Xehanort's heart broke free entirely, resulting in a massive burst of radiant light that could be seen from the city walls.
Inside the city…
"Looks like it's a victory." Hope said excitedly as Snow grinned and crossed his arms. All around, the other warriors of light started cheering.
"I knew they could do it!" Snow said as Lightning looked towards the still glowing castle with concern.
"Alright Sora!" Goofy cheered.
"They did it!" Donald celebrated.
"They've stopped the darkness!" Tina said with a smile.
"Sora heck! It was all Roxas!" Axel argued with a grin. They then saw the light fade out completely from within the castle.
"So…when do you think they'll be coming back?" Yuffie asked after a few moments of absolute silence.
"I dunno. What's keeping them?" Rikku asked. Leon, Firion, and Lightning each looked out at the castle. The storm clouds were still looming over the castle and the city, the faint sound of thunder could be heard in the distance.
"I don't get it. Why haven't they-." Hope said but Lightning motioned to be quiet.
"It's not over." Lightning said with a hand lingering near the trigger on her weapon.
Back inside the castle…
The light had faded, leaving the six Keyblade warriors standing stunned. The Lingering Sentiment had vanished. They looked around and finally saw, lying on the floor in front of them, was a fully restored…
"Terra!" Ven exclaimed as he and Aqua hurried over to him. His armor piece was back on his shoulder and his clothes were his own even. Sora however noticed Kairi was still in her cage, but smiling with tearful relief and joy at their victory.
"Kairi!" Sora exclaimed as he started running towards the steps again.
"Sora! You did it! You've defeated Xehanort!" Kairi cheered. As Sora ran for the steps, Terra started coming around.
"Aqua." He whispered. Aqua quickly dropped down to one knee, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder.
"I'm here Terra." She replied. Sora then reached the steps. Without warning he was launched back away from the stairs again. The barrier was still up.
"Sora!" Riku, Kairi, and Roxas exclaimed in unison before Riku and Roxas hurried over to him. Suddenly Terra grabbed Aqua by the collar and pulled her close to his face.
"You IDIOTS!" Terra yelled angrily, taking everyone by surprise.
"Terra?" Aqua yelped before Terra shoved her back and started climbing to his feet.
"Do you fools have any idea what you've just DONE?" Terra asked with a mixture of anger and horror.
"We…we just rescued you from Xehanort. Aren't you happy?" Ven asked confused.
"Normally I'd be overjoyed, but you don't know what I know! We've just played right into Xehanort's hands!" Terra exclaimed, catching the others by surprise.
"What?" Sora and Ven asked in unison.
"What do you mean we just played into his hands?" Riku asked.
"Don't you see? We've been played for absolute fools! Xehanort's whole plan this entire time was to claim the power of Kingdom Hearts for himself!" Terra replied.
"But how?" Ven asked.
"He only had Kairi, so he would still need the other six Princesses of Heart to forge the key to Kingdom Hearts." Aqua said as Terra sighed in exasperation and ran his hands through his hair as he shook his head.
"No, you don't get it! With what he has planned, he only needs one Princess of Heart and you brought one right to him! He doesn't want to forge the key made from the seven princesses, he is about to forge-…" Terra said as Aqua and Ven's eyes both widened in horror.
"The X-Blade! By the worlds, he's going to re-forge the X-Blade!" Aqua said as Sora scratched his head confused.
"But didn't he already try that with Ven?" Sora asked as Terra nodded.
"Yes but Ven and Vanitas failed! That whole incident ten years ago was just an experiment to see if he even could forge the X-Blade! He knew that Ven would overpower Vanitas but he also knew that doing so would trap fragments of the X-Blade within Ven's heart, making it impossible to forge it again until those fragments were dealt with! When his heartless encountered Sora last year, he sensed Ven's heart within him, and he knew that in order to be able to re-forge the X-Blade, he had to purge the remnants of it from Ven's heart! The only way to do that was by getting Sora trained as a Master so as to reawaken Ven's heart and the only way to do that was to bring Sora and Aqua together!" Terra explained frantically.
"So…Xehanort was the one who sent me to the Realm of Darkness in the first place?" Sora asked as Terra nodded.
"Yes!"
"And…when I reclaimed my body…then I-…" Ven said but was interrupted.
"…-purged the remnants of the X-Blade from your heart." An old and grizzled voice (sounding like Leonard Nimoy) echoed from out of nowhere, but it was a voice that Aqua, Terra, Ven, and Mickey each recognized. Their eyes widened and they each turned towards the platform where they saw a surging cloud of black and purple energy appear floating next to Kairi and her cage. Then the semi-transparent visage of Master Xehanort appeared within the cloud.
"Xehanort!" Terra, Aqua, Ven, and Sora exclaimed, re-summoning their armor and Keyblades but not their helmets. Mickey, Roxas, and Riku followed suit in summoning their Keyblades. Kairi immediately leapt to the side of the cage opposite Xehanort, fear clearly written on her face.
"I must thank you for the use of your faculties Master Terra. And I must also thank you all for your work in helping to make a plan, decades in the making, finally come together at this, the pinnacle of my success!" Master Xehanort said with a smile.
"Had we known, we would never have helped you!" Aqua yelled as Master Xehanort looked at her with his dark smile.
"Yes you would have. Your love and devotion to your friends would be too strong to resist. You would have done nothing differently." Master Xehanort said as Riku sighed in frustration.
"No offence, Terra, but I think we probably should have just killed you back there." Riku said as Master Xehanort chuckled.
"Ah, Riku. You still don't understand. Killing him would have been meaningless. It would have released me and killed him, not kill the both of us together." Master Xehanort said.
"Then how are we supposed to kill you?" Riku asked angrily, pointing at him with his Keyblade.
"That's the best part of the plan. When I exchanged my tired, old, weak, and battered original body, for Terra's, it gave me the youth and agility I needed to carry on my experiment for another decade. Once I confirmed that the formula for creating the X-Blade is a heart of Pure Darkness, mixed with a heart of Pure Light, thanks to Ven and Vanitas, I knew that all I needed to do next was to get the X-Blade into my hands. But there was a problem. Only the being that possessed the two hearts of Pure Light and Pure Darkness could wield the X-Blade. I had made Ventus and Vanitas into the single most powerful being in all the worlds for the time they wielded it. Now that I know that, I had to find a way to create the X-Blade, but with my heart being one of the two hearts." Xehanort said as a chill ran down everyone's spines.
"And his heart is of Pure Darkness, while Kairi's is of-…" Terra said as Sora's eyes widened.
"…Hers is of Pure Light! KAIRI!" Sora shouted as Xehanort grinned and the glow around him started to intensify. Kairi shrunk down in her cage, even more terrified than she was originally.
"At last, you finally understand the fruits of my years of hard work, blood, and sweat, of betrayal and duplicity, of subterfuge and deceit. Now you shall witness my final rebirth, no longer as simply Master Xehanort of the Keyblade or Master Xehanort of the Heartless, but as Xehanort, the lord and ruler of all the worlds!" Xehanort said as the clouds around him started expanding towards Kairi's cage.
"STAY AWAY FROM HER!" Sora shouted as his helmet appeared and he leapt towards the two, only to get thrown back due to the barrier. Xehanort ignored him and turned with an evil smirk towards Kairi who struggled to back away.
"SORA!" Kairi shouted in fear as Xehanort continued to approach her, the clouds starting to enshroud the both of them. The bars to the cage didn't even hinder Xehanort as he passed through them like air.
"SORA! SOMEONE! ANYONE! PLEASE!" Kairi screamed before suddenly she screamed in absolute pain and terror though completely hidden from their view due to the clouds. All they could do was watch in horror, helpless to do anything due to the barrier.
"KAIRI!" Sora shouted reaching out towards the clouded area. Suddenly all fell silent until they heard a loud crack just as the barrier dissolved and large chunks of twisted metal flew out from the clouds. The heroes quickly threw up a Reflega shield around themselves just in time for the shrapnel to ricochet off the shields. They then heard what sounded like Kairi laughing. It was Kairi's voice, but the tone was not at all hers. It was more malevolent and evil in tone. Finally in a single powerful burst of wind, the heroes got knocked into the far wall on the opposite side of the room, simultaneously clearing out the clouds and revealing Kairi but she was very different in appearance.
Her hair had turned a stark white, her skin had become more tanned, and her once crystal blue eyes were now a terrifying yellow. Her clothes were still the same but in her hand was the long fabled Keyblade that Xehanort had long coveted…the X-Blade.
"KAIRI!" Sora shouted again as he looked at her in horror. Kairi, or rather Xehanort, only grinned sinisterly before she started to chuckle, but her chuckle evolved into dark laughter, which evolved again into an evil cackle. The others were staring at her in absolute horror as she raised the X-Blade above her head.
"AT LAST! THE ULTIMATE POWER IN THE UNIVERSE IS MINE TO COMMAND! TO CONTROL!" Xehanort declared with evil glee.
"LET HER GO YOU MONSTER!" Terra shouted as his helmet appeared on his head and he charged forward but was swiftly knocked back by a bolt of dark magic as Xehanort started singing. (Music Cue: Prince Ali Reprise from Disney's Aladdin)
"Oh Kairi, yes it is she,
But not as you know her.
Read my lips and come to grips with reality.
Yes, meet a blast from you past,
whose love was too good to last!
Say hello to your precious Princess! Of Heart!"
She sang as with every wave of her hand, her clothes changed to match Xehanort's clothes when he possessed Terra only in her size.
"Kairi!" Sora said in horrid shock.
"No." Aqua said breathlessly as Xehanort continued…
"So Kairi turns out to be the perfect vessel!
Just the pawn, I need to go on,
take it from me!
Your personality flaws,
gave me adequate pause,
to get packing for a one-way trip,
so your prospects take a terminal dip!"
Xehanort sang as a Corridor of Darkness started appearing around her…
"Your assets frozen, the outcome chosen
is an ultimate victory, for ME-E!
Say so long, to Princess, Kairi-I!"
Xehanort sang, ending with another maniacal laugh before disappearing into the Corridor of Darkness which closed behind her, leaving the others in stunned and horrified silence. They remained where they were for what seemed like forever, attempting to process what had just happened. Finally Sora started walking slowly towards where Xehanort had stood only moments ago, before dropping to his knees halfway there with an empty and stunned expression on his face.
"Kairi." He said breathlessly, a tear running down his cheek.
End Chapter 37.
The song above was an altered version of the "Prince Ali (Reprise)" from Disney's Aladdin. I do not own Aladdin.