The Keyhole
'I guess even after all this time, I'm still no good to anyone. I've dragged these boys into my mess and I expected them to be fine with it. Just goes to show some of the bullies were right about some things.'
These were the thoughts running through my head as I trotted ahead of the others. I felt so depressed. But all I'd done was tease Rex a little. In the back of my head my subconscious was telling me it was the Darkness amplifying my negativity. It did nothing to lessen that amplification though.
'I've failed to protect my loved ones too many times... And now I'm in danger of failing the whole universe. What's the point of my existence if I can't do anything worthwhile? I'm just a hindrance to these people.'
I could've told Rexial and Aleri to leave and go back to their universe. Could've spared them all this trouble. But I didn't. In pursuit of the possibility of finding out what I am, I dragged them into my problems.
'There's only one person who ever actually had a use for me and it was as his personal guinea pig.'
"Quit feelin' sorry for yourself already, we don't mind helping you out! You're not worthless, you're not a hindrance, you don't have to validate your existence or any of that shit!" Rexial suddenly shouted out of the blue. I just blinked at him in shock.
"Eh?"
"Just... relax for a minute and stop over thinking everything. Focus on how you're gonna rip Ansem a new one instead of dwelling on that past!"
"But I didn't say anything..." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Goofy ushering Sora and Donald ahead of us towards the Keyhole.
"I can, er... read your mind, remember? You looked like you were over thinking it, so I checked your thoughts, and yep, you were." Of course, he was right.
"oh... Right... Sorry." I sighed, looking down again.
"Please, just don't over think everything. I'm an asshole, expect some insincerity now and then. And we really don't mind helping out, it just puts our goals off a little. And if Ansem has his way, we can't do what we set out to do, most likely. Now, I've had enough drama for the moment, so why don't we hurry ahead to the fight?"
"Okay." I nodded, cheering up just enough to smile too.
"How much farther, anyway? I know this is a different route, but I thought we'd be seeing more signs of what's going on... you know, darkness flowing across the ground in a shadowy mist, an increase in Heartless, a sudden chill... Hasn't Ansem been opening up the Keyhole?" Al asked, having been quiet throughout Rexials outburst.
"Maybe it's you? Y'know like beetles running away from fire?" I suggested. They both shot down the idea by shaking their heads.
"We're strong and all, but... enough Heartless band together, and they get cocky. There's no reason they shouldn't be swarming us in droves right now." Aleri explained, glancing around for any such swarms.
"By my count, two Keyblades, one... whatever the hell I am, the King's Royal Wizard and Captain of the Guard, and, uh... actually, come to think of it. I don't know your badass-credentials." Rexial counted on his fingers then looked at me curiously.
"SOLDIER first class and... I dunno." The Ansem from Mori's universe had called me 'Night Rider' when we had battled. Was that the reason this Ansem wanted me too? And Maleficent had said I held great power. Was the Night Rider linked to Maleficent's pursuits and my ability to see the hearts around me?
"Okay, all that and somebody trained to be a one-girl-army. Point is, we're formidable. But Heartless aren't scared of us if they're in big enough numbers, which they should be if the Keyhole is complete and being tampered with." If the Keyhole was complete? But it wasn't.
"It's not open though... Maleficent never found the seventh! It's not open!" I exclaimed and took off at a run towards the Keyhole. We still had a chance! It only took a second for the boys to run after me.
"WHAT!?" Rex shouted.
"You didn't know about that!?" Al asked.
"NOBODY knows exactly what happened with that back home, it's a goddamn mystery!" Rexial spat back. We caught up to Donald and Goofy in the Grand Hall but for some reason, we couldn't venture past the king's men. A barrier barred our way.
"What's going on, Donald?" I asked, seeing Kairi's body on the floor and Sora shaking it to awaken her.
"Sora just found Kairi but she won't wake up." He quacked sadly. I took another look at Kairi. Her heart was indeed gone but...! Sora! It was inside Sora!
"Damn we brought her right to him!" Rex growled.
"I- What?"
"This isn't good..." It certainly wasn't. Rex and Al had worked out the same thing I had. Ansem was a smart man. He probably knew Kairi's heart was inside Sora. And also knew that hers was the seventh key to the door. He waited for Sora to come for Kairi, leading him right where Ansem wanted. He planned the whole thing. And he had yet to reveal himself.
"Sora, you gotta get out of there!" I shouted. My wound was burning which told me Ansem was in the room, likely inside the barrier surrounding Sora and Kairi. Rex suddenly jumped up and tried to kick something, but the barrier just deflected him. Unable to recover quickly enough, he tumbled onto the floor.
"Gah, he set up a barrier already!?"
"I'll see what I can do about that!" Aleri stepped up to the barrier and put his hand against it. "...No good, it's too strong to just break through. Even if I try to collapse it by pressuring its faults, I don't think it'll come down. We're locked out, and he's locked in there."
"It's no use. That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up." Chills ran down my spine as the horribly familiar combination of Ansem's and Riku's voices rang clear throughout the room. Rexial get's up behind me, a defeated expression on his face, looking at his hands.
"...I dunno what to do now. We can't interfere with anything going on in there." Aleri started pounding on the barrier, sending the strange ripples across its surface.
"Let us in!" I located Ansem's whereabouts atop the Keyhole. In That same dark form I'd fought Riku in before.
"Sora stay away from him! It's not Riku!" The Keybearer paid no heed to my advice, instead glaring up at the body of his best friend.
"Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!" Ansem slid off his perch and glided down to the floor.
"But first you must give the princess back her heart!" I felt a bright pulse of light and Sora was on his knees, clutching his chest. "Don't you see yet!? The princess' heart is responding! It has been there all along! Kairi's heart rests within you!"
"Kairi... Kairi's inside me?" The brunette panted.
"Sora run! Get up!" I practically screamed at him.
"Don't listen to him, just stand up and fight! Don't hold back just because he's in Riku's body!" Al joined in. Verbal was the only form of support we could give Sora while separated by the barrier.
"And now, I shall release you princess. Open the keyhole. Lead me into everlasting darkness!" Rex ran in again, only to be rejected by the barrier once more.
"Never! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" Sora snarled, a new sense of determination in his eyes as he blocked the Dark Keyblade Ansem had fashioned himself. After he forced Ansem back, an eerie silence hung in the air before their battle began.
"...I don't know him too well, but if there's one thing I know about Sora, it's that he can be trusted with this." Al assured us, stepping away from the barrier. "So, guys, what do we do? I don't think watching Sora's fight will accomplish much. Why don't we use this time to try and think of a plan?"
"Why don't we raid Maleficent's stores? See if there's a potion to help me." I was trying not to let on how much pain I was in but Aleri was observant.
"It's worth a shot. That wound of yours really hurts, doesn't it?" Rex clambered to his feet and dusted himself off.
"Something like that is a liability in battle, and affects judgment. And now that the witch is dead..."
"I found out it gets worse the closer I am to a being of darkness. Being this close to Ansem... I'm barely standing." There was no point in trying to hide my pain, the sweat on my face said it all. At my theory, Rex stepped back, guiltily.
"Alright, I'll stay here. You go and take Al."
"I'll lend you my shoulder if it helps at all." The long haired boy offered.
"Thanks, I think I'll need it until we get on the lifts." As we walked past Rex, I stopped and told him, "It's not you."
"I know that..."
"Right, let's go." We started heading back the way we came, me leaning on Al for support. "...I was worried for a second that you wouldn't let me help. Not sure why..."
"I don't like relying on people." I said dryly, knowing that any time I relied on anyone or asked for help, the ones to come to my assistance got hurt more often than not.
"I can see it, now that you mention it. I'm glad you're not being unreasonable about it, though."
"I'm thrilled about being half hauled 50 feet." My tone was dripping with sarcasm.
"You could be a little less mean, though..."
"Oh cry me a river." I rolled my eyes. Then realising just how mean I was being, I shook my head. "Sorry. It's the infection, it's messing with me." He didn't reply and I could feel myself sadden again, not sure whether I'd offended him or hurt his feelings. When he speaks, it's a normal tone of voice. Not happy but not annoyed or sad.
"Are you feeling any different now that we're further away?" The ache had been lessening and I was almost able to walk on my own by this point.
"Yeah, it's just gonna take a few seconds to get started up again."
"Do we take the elevator from earlier?"
"No... Maleficent keeps all of her stuff in her private chambers at the top of The south tower. I tried to investigate what she was doing a few months ago but I was ambushed before I got to the tenth floor." I informed him bitterly, the memory of the event fresh in my mind.
"I see... You'll have to lead the way." I pushed off of Al and started walking on my own, the task getting easier with each step that took me further away from Ansem.
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"...I know it doesn't really seem like it, but we are pretty worried about this. Remember to keep your mental health in mind as well as the physical. We've seen fighters go through some bad stuff because they tried to shoulder too much without getting help."
"Don't worry about me. I can shoulder a lot more than you think. Trust me."
"That's exactly what has me worried. You can handle it, so you let it build. Eventually, you'll collapse under that weight if you never share it. I know people who are like that. Rex kinda does it, but... it's complicated. And I know I'd never have lived this long if I hadn't let people help me." Al laughed a little. "Of course, I wasn't the most talented guy to begin with, so maybe it means a little less to someone who's been accustomed to this for years. I'd never survive as a lone wolf." A lone wolf. Described me perfectly.
"Well let's just say its second nature to me. Sometimes first nature." We arrived at a door with a faint green glow from the gap between the wood and the floor. I opened it to see shelf upon shelf of potions, ingredients and books.
"I... don't think that's how that works. Besides, you met Rex; if fighting is close to anyone's core nature, it's his. You're not as crazy about it as him, I'm pretty sure." He plied into a crouching position, lifting my shirt slightly and examining my wound. "Might be able to work out a spell to narrow the search a little..." He snaps his fingers and a white glow surrounds my wound and several items in the room. "It's a bit of a long shot, but anything relevant to the problem should be highlighted now. We can't afford to spend more than a few minutes here."
"I was talking about being alone. But fighting comes second nature too." I said, lowering my shirt again and wandering around the room, looking for the colour of potion Maleficent gave me. I found two potions that looked very similar and sniffed them to decide which one to take. "I think it's this one."
"Think it'll work? I know we're in a hurry, but we also don't want to make your wound worse." I downed the bottled, nearly spitting it up thanks to the foul taste. "Are... you okay? Did that do anything?" I started bending and stretching my muscles, not feeling the pain.
"Well, it doesn't hurt, so I think we're good."
"...Not the most solid assumption we've made today, but let's roll with it." A strange sensation alerted me and I straightened up.
"We need to get back quickly. I can feel Riku getting weaker." Not so much I could sense Riku himself getting weaker, as I could feel the connection of our hearts growing weaker. I turned tail and ran out of Maleficent's stores, back towards the Grand Hall. Aleri takes a minute to catch up, sprinting against my normal run. As we entered the Hall, Riku's body collapsed and faded, leaving the Dark Keyblade.
"...? I still feel that oppressing atmosphere..." Rexial said as we arrived. I could feel it too.
"It must be the Keyhole going crazy! It's not complete, right?" Aleri confirmed.
"And Sora can't lock an incomplete keyhole." I concluded.
"What do we do...?" Al asked. Rex glanced at Sora before speaking.
"Well, the girl's heart is in him. Gotta get it back to her own body before anything else."
"Aren't you a little worried? The Keyhole might plunge the world into darkness with us on it if it's not stopped." Al pointed out.
"I was a little more worried about Ansem, really. Seems like he was banking on his ability to defeat Sora, and now it's just a matter of cleaning up his mess." Thinking about my ability to see and enter hearts I voiced my thoughts.
"There's a small chance I could separate the two hearts but it'd take too much time and I'm not even sure it would work. !?"
"I could rip the girl's heart out of Sora, but it would leave him half-dead and with no way to recov-"
"Sora! Don't!" Our ideas were interrupted as we saw Sora raising the Dark Keyblade to his chest and impaling himself with it. My mouth opened but no more sound came out of it. Rexial and Aleri both ran past me but stopped at the realisation of the futility of the situation. Rexial fell to his knees. Aleri froze in place, distraught and trembling. I on the other hand, one who could see hearts, covered my eyes to save myself the memory of seeing Sora's heart vanish. "SORA!?"
"Sora... Are you really? No! He can't be! I won't let him go!" A new, female voice, made me look once more. Sora's plan had worked. Kairi's heart was now where it belonged. But Sora's was now nowhere for me to see.