Lanes Between
Hope and the others were now heading directly towards her home, Radiant Garden, but this time they weren't alone as Shade had come along with the ride and now they had Pollen.
"This is amazing, my Queen," said Pollen respectfully.
Hope looked at her. "You know you don't have to call me that."
"I most certainly do, you are of royal blood after all."
"Technically she's a Princess, not a queen," Shade smiled.
Hope sighed. "Can we focus on the fact that we are losing this war, we're now down to one Hero of Heart and we have no idea who they are."
"Perhaps Masters Sora and Riku have some ideas," Rex suggested.
"With so many worlds out there and there's bound to be at least one hero on every single world, like trying to find a needle in a haystack," said Frank.
"True, but the Keyblade has so far led on the right path so far," said Shade.
Hope just leaned back in her chair. "I thought he just regained my confidence, but now I've lost it."
"Don't feel disheartened my Queen," said Pollen. "I know that you can succeed in your mission."
"I wish I was so certain."
"We won't succeed with that attitude," said Frank. "She's right you know, we haven't lost faith in you and look at all the good we've done so far."
Rex nodded. "We have managed to save many people, halting the darkness from claiming many worlds."
Shade looked at Hope. "Dad always said that you had the same power as your father and even when things were tough he always roast the occasion."
"People keep on saying that I have the same powers my father, but I have no idea what that is," she said shaking her head.
"It's not something we can tell you," said Rex. "It's something you have to discover by yourself, but deep down inside I think you already know the answer."
"Can you be any more cryptic?" Hope asked.
Rex shrugged. "What can I say? I'm starting to get my memory back now."
"Anyway we should be approaching Radiant Garden in just a few moments, I hope you figured out what to say to your dad," said Frank.
"I don't know where to begin," Hope sighed.
Shade looked at Hope and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hope, I've been way you've been. There was a time when I had no confidence in the slightest."
Hope blinked at him. "I find that hard to believe."
"But it's true, I was constantly afraid that I would let the darkness consuming and that I would measure up to my father. You know he still guilty that he allow the darkness in his heart to consume him."
"What changed?" Hope asked.
Shade looked at her. "Meeting you, you're the one who gave me hope."
Hope's cheeks turned bright pink and she quickly looked away from him. "That's so sweet."
"Sorry to break this up, but we're here," said Frank.
They all turned and indeed they saw Radiant Garden in front of them, it was just as Hope remembered it. The huge castle walls that surrounded the entire city with the magnificent palace in the centre and she could make out the fountains shooting out of water that sparkled in the sunlight.
Radiant Garden: Radiant Palace, Courtyard
They appeared directly in front of the Palace where they were greeted by Dilan and Aeleus. Hope remembered that the two of them had been apprentices under her grandfather Ansem the Wise and then betrayed him.
They along with the other four apprentices then became Nobodies and founders of Organization XIII and then banished him into the Realm of Darkness. Her father and Master Riku fought against them and destroyed them and as a result, the reverted back to human and became good again.
"Princess Hope, we have been expecting you," said Dilan.
"Your father is inside waiting for you," said Aeleus.
"Then we best not keep not keep them waiting," said Hope.
With that, they entered the Palace.
Radiant Garden: Radiant Palace, Throne Room
When they entered the Palace throne room they found that Sora was already there waiting for them and next to him was Master Riku.
"Dad?" Shade stared. "I didn't expect you to find you here."
Riku looked at him. "Given the circumstances, I thought it would be a good idea to come him in person."
"Are the rest of the Guardian is going to show up?" Rex asked.
"I'm afraid all extremely busy, Terra is preoccupied with keeping the Barbaric Archipelago save from invasion, King Mickey is currently in Land of Heroes to deal with the last remnants of the Three Heroes Church, Ventus is busy scouting and Aqua is trying to make alliances on other worlds."
"What about mum?" Hope asked.
"She's at the Keybalde Temple, training new young Keyblade wielders and protecting them."
"What about the other Keyblade Masters?" Frank asked. "Lea? Xion? Roxas?"
"Busy in battle, afraid we can't expect any help from them for some time," said Riku.
"So what you're saying is that we're on our own," said Shade.
"It's not all bad news, we think we now have an idea on why the Dark One wants the Heroes of Heart," said Sora.
"You do?" said all of them in unison.
"I've been doing some research on the matter with Master Yen Sid," said Riku. "And we do have a reference, have any of you ever wondered how come seven seems to be the most powerful number in all the worlds? Seven Princes of Heart… Seven Guardians of Light? It all dates back to the original Keyblade wielders, there was this man the Master of Masters who trained six young apprentices to become wielders of the Keyblade and it was he who created the Book of Prophecies."
"I've never heard of this story before," said Hope.
"Actually you have, it's actually based on the old fairytale that your mother told you when you were young," Sora explained.
Hope blinked. "But that was based upon the…" She stopped as she looked at her father. "They were the ones who started the first Keyblade War?"
"We don't know all the details, but yes we think that's what happened," said Riku. "Apparently the Master of Masters gave each of his six apprentices a task, but then some things happened and they started a fight with one another. However, one of them managed to sow the seeds that saved the worlds."
"It almost sounds as if they were tricked into fighting one another," said Frank.
"Perhaps, it could be that they had been all manipulated but there is no proof of that," said Riku.
"What does this have to do with the Heroes of Heart?" Rex asked. "As far as I can tell we're talking the time before they came into existence."
"True, but these seven were supposed to protect the light, but through their actions, they created an incredible amount of darkness which began the Keyblade War," said Riku.
"The Dark One," said Hope.
Sora nodded. "As you all know the Keyblade War ended, but not without many casualties. A lot of Keyblade wielders died on the battlefield, the worlds had been deeply scarred in the Dark One lost his body and was banished into the Realm of Darkness. We believe that this ritual been hearing about is opposed to giving back his body."
"Makes sense," said Frank. "And do that he needs the Heroes of Heart."
"The Heroes of Heart have both light and darkness inside of them, making them unique. They can tap into that darkness and remain unscathed from its corruption, at least in the short term," said Riku.
"Okay, so we know why they're doing this, but they still need the last Hero of Heart if we can find them and protect them we can prevent the ritual from happening," said Shade.
"Actually we already know who the last Hero of Heart is," said Sora.
Shade looked up. "You do? Who are they? And what world they live in?"
Riku looked at his son. "They don't live in one world and they spend most of their time travelling to other worlds."
"Are they a Keyblade wielder?" Hope asked.
"That would make a lot of sense," said Rex. "Keyblade wielders travel from world to world fighting against evil, very good candidate for the Hero of Heart."
Frank looked at Sora and Riku. "I take it that you already know their identity?"
"We do," Sora nodded.
"Then tell us so that we can protect them," said Shade.
Riku looked at him. "It's you."
Everyone immediately fell silent, it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
"Me," said Shade breaking the silence.
Frank shook his head in confusion. "Hang on, last time I checked the Heroes of Heart are comprised of people that have a rough past and have excellent leadership skills. I don't see, and I mean no offence, how Shade can be a candidate."
"None taken, because I would like to know myself," said Shade.
"Shade the dirt have a rough past," said Riku looking at all them. "He's always afraid that you will walk down the same path as I did, that darkness will consume him. And I speak from experience when I say that that is not an easy thought to live with."
Thinking back Hope did remember the uncertainties surrounding Shade when they were little, the barely talk to her at all. It was only through her persistence that they eventually became friends, but he had always kept heard arm's length.
"And the leadership part?" Rex asked.
"Truth is we don't know if he is a skilled leader or not," said Sora. "He's always been alone, not accompanying himself with anyone and talking to very few people that he encounters."
"That being said he does seem to have a way of rallying those around him," said Riku.
Shade just shook his head. "How can I be a hero? I don't have the qualities of being one."
"You may wish to deny it as much as you want, but there's no change in the fact that you are a hero," said Riku bluntly.
Hope then stepped forward before Shade could say anything. "So we have to protect shade."
Her father nodded. "Yes, but how we have no idea, the Keyblade Temple is undermanned at the moment so we can't even there."
"What about Disney Castle or Castle Oblivion?" Rex suggested.
"Disney Castle has been infiltrated once before, it may have the Cornerstone of Light and while Heartless may not be able to enter its halls the truth cannot be said for actual people with dark content. Castle Oblivion might be an option if it wasn't for the fact that Aqua is this your diplomatic work."
"So what do we do?" Hope asked.
"Perhaps you can start by not talking as if I'm not here," Shade suggested folding his arms looking slightly annoyed.
Hope looked at him apologetically. "Sorry."
"So would you suggest we should do?" Riku asked looking at his son.
"Is that any chance that you're wrong?" Shade asked.
Before anyone could answer, rushing into the throne room was Leon. "Sora, the castle is under attack by the Heartless."
"There's no doubt now," said Frank.
Sora looked at Leon. "How do they get past the defences?"
"We have no idea, according to the centuries outside the city walls are still strong. That being said Heartless don't really need to breach any walls to launch a full-scale attack."
"Our first priority other civilians," said Sora.
"Lightning and the rest of the guard are dealing with that and Dilan and Aeleus are protecting the castle. However, we believe that several Heartless have somehow infiltrated the Palace."
"Any sign of the one leading this attack?" Riku asked.
"No, there have been reports of a man in a black coat."
"The Organization?" Sora frowned. "I thought they were destroyed."
"Could be someone masquerading as one of them," said Riku.
Sora nodded. "Regardless of this needs investigation, but first we need to repel this attack. Hope you and your friends deal with the Heartless in the castle Riku and I will help outside."
Riku looked at his son. "Shade I want you to stay with Hope."
Shade looked at him. "One day be safer with you and Master Sora?"
"I get the feeling that you will be safe anywhere you go no matter who you're with, the two of us will be too busy fighting to watch over you. There can't be that many Heartless in the Palace and Hope will have an easier time keeping an eye on you with your inside."
"I can look after myself," Shade reminded him.
Riku sighed. "Shade, and just being a father worried about his son. I can imagine that Sora is feeling the same way with Hope."
"I am," Sora nodded.
Riku ignored him. "Just stay with Hope and don't do anything reckless."
Shade raised an eyebrow. "Me? You do know that Hope is the reckless one here?"
"Just like her father," Riku laughed.
"Hey!" Hope and Sora snapped at the same time.
Shade couldn't help but smile and then looked at his father. "Okay, I'll stay with Hope."
Riku nodded and summoned his Keyblade and then turned to Sora. "You ready?"
Sora then summoned his Keyblade. "Just like old times."
Hope then watch as her father and Riku rushed outside with Leon.
"We better get moving," Rex advised.
Radiant Garden: Radiant Palace, Hallway
Hope and the others ran down the corridors and indeed they saw groups of Heartless running amok, they were Armored Knights, Large Bodies and a Metal Troll.
Shade then immediately charged in with his Keyblade and took on the Metal Troll all by himself. Hope remembered father told her to keep an eye on him, though there was a little difficult to do with Heartless attack you right and left.
Regardless she charged it two Large Bodies that charge towards her, she quickly used her Strike Raid technique knocking one of them down and then performed her Sonic Blade move to completely destroy the other. Out of the corner her eyes she saw that Rex and Frank were battling against the Armored Knights, Rex blocking their attacks with his sheathed sword while Frank took them out with his pistols.
She turned and saw that the Large Body she had not down earlier was now back on its feet and are charged at her once again. She quickly somersaulted over its head, knowing that attacking it from the front would achieve nothing. She then unleashed a Waterga spell slamming a massive surge of water right into it.
She turned and saw that Shade had masterfully managed to disarm the Metal Troll and then fired a Dark Firaga spell in point-blank range right in its face. Almost immediately a collapsed to the ground and he spun around and unleashed a dark slashing attack, slicing it in half.
"Quick work," said Rex as he and Frank joined them.
"I still don't like using Dark Magic," said Shade looking at his hand. "Constantly afraid that I'll be taken over by the darkness."
"If you allow fear to control you, then you have a harder time controlling your magic," said Rex. "We saw this first hand on our journey."
Hope knew that he was talking about Elsa and she could see the similarities. "Maybe if you had someone by your side it would make things easier?"
"No one should walk down the same path as I do," he said bluntly.
"How deep, it really touched my heart," said a voice. Immediately turned around and saw a Corridor of Darkness had appeared and stepped through it was a man in a black coat. "That if I had one of course."
Immediately they drew their weapons and aimed directly at him.
"So the rumours are true," said Shade. "The Organization is back."
"Back? As if, it never truly left," the man laughed. They then felt his gaze falling down upon Hope and Shade. "I've been looking forward to meeting you two, you're just like your parents."
"How about you start making sense?" Hope suggested.
The man laughed. "You really are your father's daughter, this will make things even more fun."
"Who are you? And how do you know so much about our parents?" Shade demanded. "All the members of Organization XIII had been destroyed?"
"Not quite, I only made it seem as if your parents destroyed me," said the man as he lowered his hood. Hope's eyes widened as she recognised his face as Xigbar.
"That's impossible," said Rex looking just as equally as stunned. "16 years ago, you were defeated at the Battle of Wasteland and you wonder Nobody back then, you were an actual person."
"So I made them believe," Xigbar laughed. "But really why would I want to be human, when being and Nobody has so many advantages like never ageing. When your folks defeated me I just made it seem as if I was fading away, of course, the old cot's heart fragment did disappear I had to release it."
"Is anyone else confused?" Frank asked.
"No, I think we're all in that category," said Hope.
"So you're working with the Dark One? First Xehanort are you going to ditch them like you did him?" said Shade.
"As if, I got everything I needed from Xehanort so I decided to hang back and watch from afar and I must say I've been enjoying watching Order believe that their fight had been won, but introverted only just begun."
"Quit speaking in riddles and explain what you mean," Hope demanded.
"How about I show you," Xigbar smiled and held out his hand.
Then to their utter astonishment appearing within his hand was a Keyblade, but not just any Keyblade. Hope recognised it from the archives, it was No Name, Xehanort's Keyblade.
"That's not possible," said Shade in disbelief. "How can you have a Keyblade?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Xigbar smiled.
"We would actually, no one can just wield a Keyblade," said Rex. "You might have shared a fragment of Xehanort's hearts, but you still should have been able to wield a Keyblade."
"What makes you think I haven't wielded one before?" Xigbar smiled. "But that's enough talk, I'm here with one specific goal in mind and that is to acquire the last piece of the puzzle."
Hope and the others immediately placed themselves in front of Shade, putting themselves between them.
"You'll have to get by us first," said Hope.
Xigbar shook his head. "You make it seem as if it's some sort of challenge."
He then suddenly moved with blinding speed, so fast that they didn't see him coming. They try to move at suddenly they felt a massive surge of gravity please down on top of them and then Xigbar swung his Keyblade and sent Frank flying with a single swing. Rex tried to use some time magic to slow him down, but then he teleported and appeared directly behind him and then struck him down before he had a chance to spin around.
Hope raised her Keyblade and unleashed her Ragnarok technique firing magical bullets directly at Xigbar. However, he merely swung his Keyblade around slicing through each and every single one of them and then appeared directly in front of Hope, she raised her Keyblade just as he attacked. The two weapons collided, but Xigbar had a lot more power into his attack and she felt herself flying into a nearby column, the impact nearly knocked her unconscious.
"You still have a lot of learned of your anywhere near my level," he smiled.
She looked up and saw Xigbar approaching Shade and could see the two of them were battling one another now. Shade was only putting up a much bigger fight than any of them, but he was still no match for him. She watched as Xigbar broke through his guard and punched him hard in the stomach, knocking the wind right out of him.
Darkness began to fall around her when she saw Shade falling to the ground and tried to reach out to him. "Shade…"
Then everything went black.
"Hope! Hope!" a voice cried out in the darkness.
Hope opened her eyes and was immediately blinded by a ray of light, it only took a few moments to realise that it was the ceiling. She then saw someone's shadow hovering over her when her eyes adjusted to the light she found that it was her father, who was looking extremely worried.
"Hope! Are you all right?" her father yelled.
Hope began to rise, but she was still suffering from Xigbar's attack. "What happened?"
"Xigbar knock you around a bit, that what happened," said Sora.
Hope looked at him confused. "But how did you…"
"I told him, my Queen," said Pollen hovering over her father's shoulder. "When that ruffian took you all loud I immediately went outside to find King Sora."
"We then immediately rushed here, but I'm afraid we were too late."
Hope looked around and saw that both Rex and Frank were still out cold and that there was no sign of Shade.
"Where's Shade?" Hope asked.
Sora gave her a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, you were the only ones we could find."
"He took him," she said shocked. "We didn't stand a chance, he was too powerful."
"I think you should explain exactly what happened and start from the beginning," Sora instructed.
Hope then began to explain everything that happened, the appearance of Xigbar and everything that he told. She also explained that he was wielding Xehanorts former Keyblade and variety took them down in under a minute.
It was by this time that Rex and Frank had regained consciousness and crouched for her story, though the looks on both her father and Riku with that of disbelief. She can hardly blame them, they had fought that they had taken down Xigbar in the Keyblade War and find that he was alive and now wielding a Keyblade wasn't a happy subject.
"How could this have happened?" said Sora looking at Riku.
"I don't know, but we need to inform the rest of the Order," said Riku.
"They now have all the Heroes of Heart, we failed," said Hope.
"Not yet you haven't," said Sora. "We still have a chance of saving them and preventing this ritual, it's time that we go on the offensive."
"But do we know where their hideout is?" Frank asked.
"No, but Kairi thinks she might have a way of tracking it down," said Sora. "However with our resources stretched so thin we going to need some extra help." His eyes then turned to Hope. "I believe that you made some extra friends along the way, friends who would do anything to help out."
"It is risky," said Rex. "Bringing other people to another world, even if it is in a war. You sure it's wise?"
"At this point, it's the only thing we can do," said Sora.
"But we have to be careful, they know will be coming for them," said Riku.
Unknown
Xigbar had just returned to Rumpelstiltskin's hideout and dropped Shade to the ground.
"Be careful with him, he is vital," Rumpelstiltskin warned.
"They'll be fine, he's as tough as his father," said Xigbar smiling. "And with him, you now have all the pieces you need."
"True, though I very much doubt that the Guardians will stand by I think we can expect an attack in the near future."
"Oh, I don't doubt that. Tell me have you told your other underlings about what we're really trying to achieve?"
Rumpelstiltskin smiled. "I thought it would be best if I kept them in the dark."
Xigbar shook his head. "As crafty as always."
Rumpelstiltskin then looked at Shade. "Take him away and put in with the others, I have certain things to set up."
Xigbar nodded and picked up Shade and then walked off, but unbeknown to the two of them someone was watching from the shadows and then this mysterious person then left with them being none the wiser.