"…So we figured, since you escaped Hollow Bastion in the face of impending doom before," Telary informs the assembled Traverse Town group, "that maybe you might have a way that we could sneak past the giant armada of evil enemy ships so Sora can seal the Keyhole."
They're in Cid's accessory shop, currently closed for business. Aerith and Yuffie sit on one couch, Sora and Azlyn on the other, and Leon and Cid stand behind the counter, though Leon's pose is more of a casual lean. Telary stands in the middle of the room doing the explaining.
Cid nods. "Yeah, I got a way in. Squirreled it away years ago in case I ever needed it. I can have it here and installed on yer ship in two shakes."
"That's amazing," Sora thanks the old man. "Even with the Princesses and Kairi double teaming the Keyhole's Darkness, I don't want to leave it open for too long." He thinks of Kairi pouring all her might into the Cornerstone back at the castle, praying that it won't prove too much for her to handle. He's mostly confident, however, having seen the full extent of Kairi's determination enough times to trust it.
"Do you really think that you can seal the Keyhole and get rid of the Heartless?" Yuffie asks, bouncing up and down on the couch cushion. Aerith sits serenely next to her, not seeming to mind that her seat is shaking.
"That's the plan," Sora says, summoning the Keyblade for emphasis. "If I can get to that machine Ansem built…"
"I still can't believe that Ansem would do something like that," Aerith says sadly, shaking her head. In her hand she holds the Ansem reports Telary found in Hollow Bastion's library. "I can't remember much about… Home, but I remember Ansem being a kind, benevolent man."
Yuffie shrugs. "I was pretty young, so I've only heard what you guys have said about him."
Leon frowns. "I feel like I should remember more, but it's like there's this big block. I remember being from Hollow Bastion, but…"
"That's all you can remember," Telary chimes in. "General things, but no specifics. Oddly enough, it's the same for me and Azlyn. I remember that it's my home and I know who my family was, but that's all." His frown deepens. "Something's even been nagging me about its name: Hollow Bastion. Somehow that just doesn't feel right."
"I got a theory on that, actually," Cid says as he loudly rummages through the shop's drawers, searching for his special Navigation Gummi. "You said that Ansem told ya the world's heart got corrupted by the Heartless bein' there, yeah?"
Sora nods. "That's what Ansem said. He said that the heart was like a sick person, full of Darkness but not destroyed."
"Well, I figure that every person born on a world is sorta connected to its heart," Cid posits, throwing aside old shoes, several recipe books, and a large lamp shaped liked a woman's leg. "And that connection is important to a person's heart, which is why a lotta people that lost their world, if they ain't strong enough, tend to get a little… Droopy, I guess you could say."
"So Hollow Bastion's heart being sick is making everybody from there sick too?" Azlyn asks. She thinks she gets what Cid is saying, but all this scientific mumbo jumbo honestly isn't her strong suit.
"In a manner of speaking," Cid replies, sniffing at a ham and cheese sandwich to check if it's still good. Honestly he finds it a bit iffy, but takes a bite anyway. Not bad! "I think that Hollow Bastion's corruption has kinda corrupted the memories parts of our hearts."
"So if I seal it with the Keyhole, people might remember?" Sora asks, which gets him a shrug from Cid, who now uses one hand to dig and the other to hold his snack.
"We'll see about that when we get there," Leon says.
"Oh, are you coming with us?"
The man nods. "There haven't been any Heartless sightings here since you sealed the Keyhole, and even if the Darkness Ansem's Keyhole let out makes them stronger, I think this world is close enough to Disney Castle that Kairi should be protecting it with that Cornerstone you mentioned."
"Oh man Leon, why didn't you tell me!" Yuffie blurts, rising from her seat and doing a front flip over Sora and Azlyn's couch. "I've got stuff to pack! Oh, man!"
Aerith puts down the reports, looking sad and concerned. "Well, that was certainly… disturbing."
Telary takes a seat beside the woman, looking at her quizzically. In the background, Cid wonders why he ever thought he'd need two can openers!
"What did you learn?" Leon asks, his voice not as casually disaffected as usual.
"It's like the other reports said: Ansem found Hollow Bastion's Keyhole in the castle basement… along with the Heartless," Aerith explains. "He opened the door and brought down the barriers and everything like that. But, he did something else too. Something horrible."
"He talked about testing the Heartless in the last reports, right?" Telary asks.
Aerith nods, looking sick. "Yes, but that's not all. You see, he wanted to discover everything about them: behavior, reproduction… diet. So, to that end, he started locking people down there with the Heartless. Live ones, and then he'd see what happened. I don't think I have to tell you what he discovered."
"He was feeding people to the Heartless!" Sora exclaims, full of righteous anger and disgust. How could one man possibly be so horrific? And in the name of nothing more than scientific curiosity!
"Good grief I want to knock this guy down hard!" Azlyn adds.
"That's not the worst part, though," Aerith reveals. "You'll all be especially interested in this: Ansem was the reason Kairi vanished." Despite the gasps and other shocked noises from the trio, the woman continues on. "He cast her out into the space between worlds, thinking that somehow she had a natural ability to find the Keyblade master."
"Me…" Sora breathes, barely getting the word out. So all this time, he was the reason Kairi had come to Destiny Islands?
"Things make even less sense now," Telary laments. "I mean, if Ansem was the one who made Kairi disappear, then why would he let the king take me and Azlyn away? Was he just trying to cover for himself?"
"I can't say," Aerith admits sadly.
"AHA!" Cid exclaims triumphantly, standing up from behind the counter, a green and blue Navigation Gummi in his hand. "I finally found the little sucker! It was underneath some… uh, magazines!"
"So we have a way into Hollow Bastion?" Sora asks, standing up eagerly, ready to seal the world's Keyhole and give Kairi a break from her efforts with the Cornerstone.
"That you do, my friends!" Cid declares with a strong nod. He takes another bite of his sandwich, and suddenly realizes why it was abandoned so long ago.
KH-KH-KH
Beast meets the group in the castle's entrance chamber, thankfully free of Heartless.
"Belle and the Princesses are all waiting up in the chapel," he explains as the large group follows him up the stairs. "I found a shortcut for getting there through here."
He leads them through the small hallway off the main hall that had been previously sealed by a strange stained glass lock, so foreign a device that even Sora's blade could not open it. For a brief moment the Keybearer wonders how Beast managed to open it, but decides it doesn't matter.
They all pile into a single large elevator, Cid activating it. He plays with it in a more complicated pattern, muttering under his breath all the while.
"I remember now that I used to hate this thing," he says huffily as he steps back, the platform rising to the castle's higher levels. "It's funny how little things are comin' back to me, but…"
"Nothing big," Leon finishes, nodding as he examines the various floors their ride takes them past. "I'm not even sure I've ever been in this castle before."
Sora frowns. "Uh, where else would you live? You saw that all there is out there is a big dark abyss. Even the Gummi scanners couldn't find anything."
"I distinctly remember a town, though," Aerith argues, in her own genteel way. "I remember a flower shop… There were always lots of plants and flowers around, like the whole town was a giant garden…"
There's no time to further explore the thought as the platform stops. The group steps out, and Sora immediately recognizes the hallway between the chapel and the Grand Hall. He spares a wary glance to the closed double doors of the hall, and he can just barely make out a bit of a shimmer hovering over them.
Beast leads the party into the chapel, where all six of the Princesses of Heart stand in a circle, eyes closed and concentration locked in tight.
Hearing them come in, they all turn around to face the newcomers. Alice and Jasmine immediately perk up upon seeing Sora and his companions, and Belle goes to the Beast, leaving the other three standing back to watch.
"Oh, Sora it is really marvelous to see you again!" Alice greets, curtsying politely. Sora smiles, remembering that the last time he saw the girl do that she was locked in a cage.
"I'm glad you're okay, Alice!" the Keybearer gushes back, pulling the little girl in for a rather awkward hug. She giggles at the strangeness of a young man being so openly affectionate. After a moment he pulls back and turns to Jasmine as well. "Good to see you too, Your Highness." He looks away and sheepishly scratches at his neck. "I'm, uh, sorry about letting you guys get kidnapped. If I'd been just a little better…"
Jasmine shakes her head. "Oh, Sora, I know you tried your best." She lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "And you're so young too. It absolutely devastates me to see what the Darkness has made you, and Alice, and all the children of all the worlds endure."
"That's why we need you to seal that Keyhole, Sora," Belle says, extricating herself from a conversation with the Beast. "It's the only way to keep the Darkness from overwhelming all the worlds."
"We've been trying our best to hold it back, but it's difficult," Alice says, gesturing back to the three other Princesses, who still stand together with their eyes closed. "We had a really dreadful time of it at first, but not that long ago, it all did seem to get a bit easier."
Sora nods with a grin. "Yeah, that's because of Kairi. She's been using the Cornerstone of Light to help hold back the Darkness."
"Well then you'll have to thank her for us when you next see her," Belle says. "Without her help, I fear all may have been lost."
"And it still might be if we don't get our butts in gear and seal that Keyhole," Azlyn interjects, tired of all this standing around while there's work to be done.
"I agree, Sora," Leon says commandingly, stepping up and placing a hand on the Keybearer's shoulder.
"Okay, Leon," Sora agrees. He looks back to the Princesses with a sympathetic smile. "Thanks again for everything you've been doing. You all have saved the universe just as much as I have. I'll never forget this."
And so the group, consisting of Sora, Azlyn, Telary, Leon, and Yuffie, all exit the chapel into the hallway. Across the hall, they can see that despite the glow around the door, pure Darkness is doing its best to push through wherever it can, fighting its way into the corridor inch by inch.
From a long, low tendril springs forth a dozen Shadows, hungry for hearts all. The group prepares their weapons and charges forward.
Leon and Sora hit the wave first, blades flashing as they beat back creature after creature, the others using all their skills to pick up what the duo lets through. The heroes struggle valiantly, but the Heartless refuse to give a single inch.
"You have to press on, Sora," Leon declares, blasting back a trio of Shadows with fire spat from the gunblade's revolver handle. "Let me and Yuffie hold the line here, and you and your friends get that Keyhole sealed. Got it?"
Sora nods. With a confirming look at Azlyn and Telary, Sora slashes through a last row of Shadows and moves forward, swiping away what he can of the still oncoming tide just to get his feet moving.
There's a loud sound like a swarm of angry bees and Sora briefly turns to see Yuffie using a giant-sized shuriken to sweep back waves of Heartless. She gives him a wink, then throws another pair of tiny blades to help him progress.
After a bit of work, the trio gets past the flood of Heartless and steps into the Grand Hall proper. Darkness flows here too like water, flooding down like some ashen waterfall from its source at the Keyhole machine. Other than the muffled sounds of Leon and Yuffie's battle behind them, it's oddly still and quiet, which makes Sora more than a bit suspicious.
Nevertheless, he begins the short trek to the machine's platform, Keyblade still out and ready to do its duty. Azlyn and Telary walk beside him, giving him strength and support, and he can feel Kairi's charm in his pocket doing the same.
As he steps up to the platform, he can't help but stop, staring at the spot where he destroyed part of his oldest friend, and intended to destroy himself as well. He hesitates to even take another step forward, too haunted by the old demons infesting his spirit.
And then he feels a hand on his shoulder, followed soon by another on his opposite shoulder. Sora looks back to see Azlyn and Telary both smiling at him, giving him silent encouragement as they fill his spirit with their love and goodwill.
"You've got this, Sora," Telary says compassionately, his smile bright enough that Sora almost thinks it could penetrate the flood of Darkness by itself.
"And we've got you," Azlyn adds, the fierce look in her eye lending a fire to Sora's own spirit.
Taking another deep breath and concentrating again on nothing but the friends at his back and the charm in his pocket, Sora steps forward, finishing his last stride at the exact spot he'd "died" not long ago, practically daring fate to try and deliver him another inconvenience again.
"I've probably said this before," Azlyn whispers to her tall counterpart, a bit of a giggle in her voice, "but our boy really has grown up right, hasn't he?"
Telary nods. "He sure has, Azlyn. He sure has."
Sora raises the Kingdom Key up to point at the swirling darkness of the dimension inside the device, clearing his mind of all distractions, laser focused on his duty. He feels the Light gather at the tip of his blade once more, slowly building its power, creating an impenetrable Light to lock Hollow Bastion against ever falling to Darkness again.
It feels different this time, though, more intense in a way. Like before Sora has been the single beam of a flashlight illuminating dark corners, and now he is the sun, the radiant light of his heart and blade casting out all Darkness and replacing it with Light.
The reaction from the Keyhole is appropriately spectacular as well, white light shooting through the Darkness, replacing its evil. The flash spreads across the device's portal, and when it fades it leaves behind nothing but a bare wall and exposed wires.
Sora beams at his accomplishment, and receives similar adulation from his compatriots at having driven out the Darkness.
Except the odd black mist coating the floor remains, though now there's only a finite amount, that which had already escaped the Keyhole. Curious, Telary's eyes follow its progression, and with an acute sense of dread and terror the wizard realizes that the Darkness is coming together, forming a shape from its willowy wisps.
When the quadrupedal shape finally solidifies, purple and lilac color rushing over its monstrous form, it reveals a massive behemoth of a Heartless, with long curling tusks, hoofed feet perfect for stomping and crushing, and a large black horn in the middle of its forehead. The Heartless symbol, nearly of a size with the Keyhole machine, stands out prominently against the thing's chest.
The Behemoth rears back its head and unleashes a mighty roar, and it's only Azlyn's quick reflexes that save the trio from being fried by a huge bolt of lightning that comes in from skyward.
They land on the landing between the platform and main hall, bouncing against the thin carpet with a hard thud that each and every one of them consider a much better alternative to being fried.
"That is some Heartless," Azlyn mutters as she rises, the boys finding their feet as well despite the groundshaking that occurs with every stomp of the creature's cloven feet.
"What, are ya scared?" Sora snorts at her mock-derisively. "Does the big bad Heartless make Azlyn wanna run for safety, let the big boys handle it?"
The knight rolls her eyes and scoffs loudly.
The Behemoth steps forward slowly, behaving more like a jungle cat than the mammoth it resembles. The trio all tense up, prepared for a battle that may be their last.
Or maybe not, considering the huge blast of pure concussive force that slams into the creature, engulfing it in fiery doom. The creature rears back its head and cries out, but in competition with the noise of its final explosion, the roar loses big time.
When the dazzling lights and sounds of the explosion fades, all the trio can hear is Cid's gruff voice yelling out, "Hot damn, it still works!"
Looking down, Sora notes that in his hand Cid is holding an impressive looking contraption, some kind of rocket launcher based on what had just been demonstrated against the Behemoth. Behind him stand Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith.
"No fair, you totally stole my kill!" Azlyn rages down at the old mechanic, who simply shrugs and lets out a high-pitched laugh like a prospector that's just struck gold.
"But we're very grateful, Mr. Cid," Telary assures the old man, definitely not wanting to provoke anyone currently wielding a handheld missile launcher. Upon further inspection, Telary realizes that the device is actually a cannon, like one might attach to a Gummi ship.
"So, you did it Sora," Leon says appreciatively, moving past the trio and leading the whole group up onto the machine platform. The lightning called down by the Behemoth had turned the device into so much scorched junk, leaving even the control panel a busted, blackened mess.
"So, now that the Keyhole's sealed, do you all have your memories back?" Sora asks, turning to the group and realizing that he is the only one in the room not from this world.
They all frown at each other, shaking their heads sadly and, in Azlyn and Cid's case, frustratedly.
"The Darkness is still strong," Aerith says simply, acceptance in her voice. "I think that once you defeat Ansem and his Heartless legion, everything will be restored. All worlds returned to their proper place in the universe."
Sora suddenly feels a tightness in his chest, and his breath quickens as the though dawns on him. "Do you mean… Do you mean that if I defeat Ansem, then my island will be restored? Just like it was?"
Leon smiles at the boy, but it looks sad. "Yes, all of the worlds will be restored, everything lost back where it belongs."
"People will return to their homes," Aerith chimes in.
"So I guess this is kinda goodbye too, huh?" Yuffie states with a chuckle and a shake of her head.
"But I can visit you guys in the Gummi ship," Sora says, miffed at all of the sorrow intruding on this should-be joyous moment. "No problem, right?"
"Well, only if you mean 'no problem' in the sense that there's a huge problem," Cid interrupts, finishing his examination of what's left of the Keyhole. Sora whirls to face the curmudgeonly engineer. "Y'see, before the Heartless came and effed everything all up, the worlds were divided. Big ol' walls separated 'em from each other. Take down the Heartless, and I'll betcha them walls'll come back good as new."
"Gummi ships will be useless?" Telary says sadly, feeling the phantom tingle of steering yokes in his hands. Azlyn feels similar beside him, though it's turret joysticks she imagines.
"I'm afraid so," Leon confirms with a sigh, looking down at the ground with his arms crossed, an illusion of aloof disaffectedness. For a moment, the chamber is silent. "But y'know something, Sora?"
"What?" the Keybearer asks.
"Even if we never see each other again, it doesn't mean our friendship will end," the man in leather says, sounding more optimistic than Sora can ever recall him being. Upon further examination, Sora even sees a smile on his lips. "If we stay in each other's hearts, and we don't forget about each other, we'll still be together in the ways that matter." Behind him, Aerith, Yuffie, and Cid nod their agreement.
"You know something, I don't think I could forget about you if I tried, Sora," Yuffie says with a giggle.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Sora shoots back indignantly. Everyone laughs, a quick moment of fleeting joy cutting through the occasion's gloom.
"Um, excuse me," the familiar voice of Jasmine cuts through the silence that follows the group laugh. She looks a bit nervous in the presence of so many strangers, but manages to mostly hide it underneath regal poise. "The Princesses would like to see Sora in the chapel. When you're finished with your goodbyes, of course."
"It's not goodbye," Sora says with abject certainty. "It's a see ya later, and that's a promise!"
It's the weight of the charm in his pocket that allows him to say those words.
After a sincere round of goodbyes with the Hollow Bastion crew, the trio follows Jasmine back to the chapel.
As they walk the hallway between hall and chapel, Telary notices out of the corner of his eye that Azlyn is trying to hide some tears that have spilled past her eyelids and on to her cheeks. Realizing she's being watched, the knight whips her head up to look at the wizard, biting her lip in shame.
Telary merely rolls his eyes, not exactly free of moisture themselves, and presses a finger to his lips. She smiles back at him.
They enter the chapel to find the Princesses arranged in a semicircle.
"You have done a fine job, Sora," says a Princess that Sora doesn't know, tall and willowy with hair that rivals the gold of sunshine and lips so red as to put a rose to shame. She wears a blue dress that Sora can't help but imagine in pink, somewhere in the back of his mind. "You sealed the Keyhole and destroyed that dreadful machine, so that our powers may never again be used for evil."
"Nevertheless," chimes in another princess, dressed in yellow and blue, her snowy pale skin creating a distinct contrast with her dark hair, "you were too late to stop Ansem from opening the path to his true destination: a world made of Darkness, constructed from the fragments of worlds long destroyed by the Heartless. Behold…."
All six Princesses raise their hands, and suddenly an image forms in the air above them, a swirling vortex, bright white light surrounded by black clouds, deep purple nebulas spinning around its perimeter.
"The End of Worlds," Belle says, looking at the projection with equal parts awe and trepidation. Behind her, Beast winces at seeing the woman looking so cowed. "It has been created from the remains of all worlds devoured by the Heartless, broken and trapped within its dark embrace."
"So it's like a Heartless world!" Telary exclaims with a gulp. He nearly has to step back, but Azlyn's hand against his wrist steadies him
"Somewhere within, we believe Kingdom Hearts lies," says the final unknown princess, blonde and wearing a sparkling silver gown and glass slippers. "Only you, Keyblade wielder, can plunge into its depths and seal the Door."
Sora gulps, nerves suddenly overtaking his whole body. To fight the shakes, he reaches into his pocket and retrieves Kairi's charm, running his thumb along its edge and relishing the comfort he finds in it.
"We can open the path to this world, Sora," Alice informs the boy, sounding much older than her presumed eleven or twelve years. "But beware: Once you plunge into the heart of Darkness, there will be no turning back. The only way out is through, never mind the perils you will face."
Sora turns back to look at Azlyn and Telary. It's as much their decision as his, after all, their own lives they're putting on the line.
Azlyn rolls her eyes. "Honestly, Sora, after all this time you still think you need to ask?"
"Of course we'll go with you," Telary says with a nervous nod. "If only to make up for Azlyn's plan…"
"Even in the face of certain death he manages to bring this up," Azlyn huffs, crossing her arms and scowling.
Sora smiles, once again reminded of the true friends he has in the pair. "Thanks, guys." He turns back to the Princesses. "Yes, open the way. We're taking the fight to Ansem, whether he's ready for it or not."
"You have chosen, Keybearer," Jasmine says solemnly. "You are the last hope against the madman and his Darkness. Do not fail us."
Suddenly, the Princesses' eyes begin to glow with bright light until their pupils fade to pure shining white. The visual representation of the End of Worlds begins to shift and change, growing larger and brighter until it forms into a doorway of pure white Light, shining tendrils waving around its frame.
Steeling himself, Sora steps into the Light that will lead him to deepest Darkness.