Chapter 10!
Took me an entire day to figure out how to rewrite this one.
I used elements from another older fanfiction I was going to expand, but I found it would be of better use here.
Enjoy!

CHAPTER X
TO THE EDGE OF OBLIVION

The king grinned and clasped my hand in a vigorous handshake, "It's so good to see you again Sora! It's been a while!"
His expression darkened, "The whole castle is on high alert, apparently Master Xehanort was sighted in the Garden a few minutes before you arrived. I've been running everywhere trying to find him."

"You just missed him Your Majesty. We just fought him."

"Is that so? Did he say anything about his plans?" Mickey crossed his arms and kept his gaze on me.

"Nothing that really sounded like a plan. He used some kind of spell on me and extracted Ventus from my Heart."

Mickey blinked and his mouth went wide, "Ventus?! How do you know Ventus?"

I quickly recounted the events of the previous day and our battle with Xehanort.

"I vaguely recall Ventus requesting I ask you if you remembered him or Terra."

Mickey smiled sadly, "Of course I remember them! Ventus was my friend, and Terra was his best friend."

"How did you know them?" I asked in surprise.

"When I was an apprentice to Master Yen Sid, there were some strange things happening around the worlds. I left to see what I could do to help, rather against my Master's wishes."
A guilty expression crossed his face, "I was still in training… I don't think Master Yen Sid has forgiven me for running off like that."

"That explains why Master Yen Sid said you were a mischievous apprentice." I laughed.

Mickey touched his stomach and laughed, "I suppose so. You ought to ask him about the time I borrowed his hat!"

Riku tapped my shoulder, "Sorry to break up the visit, but we have things we gotta do guys."

"Ah! You're right! Sora, Kairi, Riku, I have something I want to show you. Though, I believe you said you wanted to talk to me Sora?"

I nodded, "Yes. Something strange happened to me on the Islands about… three days ago?" I looked at Riku for help.

"More like two days." He commented.

"Right. Two days ago during the night, I had this crazy dream. It was dark… Roxas appeared and shouted something about betrayal. His eyes were yellow.
I tried to help him, but he attacked me. Then I saw Kairi and Riku. It's a bit of a blur, but a voice came to me. I think it might have been from Kingdom Hearts… It warned me that something or someone else is coming… Then it gave me a new ability."
I held out both hands and summoned two Kingdom Keys at once.

Mickey stepped back in surprise, "Wow! Did this voice give a name to this threat?"

"No. I asked but it sounded almost amused."

"Hmm… That is strange. Have you had any other visions like this?"

"Yes. Two more in fact. The second was only a passing dream on our way to Radiant Garden, the third was my battle with Ventus in the Awakening."

"Have you spoken with Master Yen Sid about this?"

"I didn't think about it. We all agreed that we should speak to you about this."

Riku stepped up, "Yes, we thought that you should be the first to know."

Mickey crossed his arms in thought and paced a few times past the cornerstone, "We should definitely share this information with Master Yen Sid. He would have more insight than I would I am afraid."
He turned to the Cornerstone, "But! That thing I wanted to show you is through here!"

He summoned his Keyblade and pointed it at a far corner. A beam of light shot from his blade and struck the wall, where a keyhole appeared and quickly morphed into a golden door.

"Where does that lead?" I asked.

"Beyond this door is a place like nothing I have seen before. I found it about a month ago, and have been studying it ever since."
He pulled the door open and gestured for us to follow.
"Follow me."

Riku went through after the King, I followed closely with Kairi.
Beyond the door was a large stone platform. In every direction save for directly ahead was a vast expanse of blue sky and a cloud layer just below the edge of the ground.
In front of us hung a bridge of stones. Not stone like a normal bridge, but literal floating rocks.
Each was connected to the other by an interweave of vines and roots.
I could hardly believe my eyes.

"This world is not like the others we know. Every world we have visited except for Traverse Town, Twilight Town, and the World That Never Was, resides in the Realm of Light or Darkness.
This one is in none of the realms we recognize."

Mickey walked to the bridge and tapped one of the stones with his keyblade.
The stone dropped made a sharp ringing sound like glass or crystal.

"These stones are all shards of crystal. When you look into them, they seem to reflect your own memories. I have tried to cross the bridge to see what is on the other end, but I can't seem to get very far."

I took a step forward and placed my open palm down on one of the crystals. It felt extraordinarily cool to the touch despite how warm it was here.
As I stared deep into the crystal, I saw a strange ghostly image of myself entering an eerie-looking castle.
The towers stood at odd angles from the ground, and the keep itself looked like it had been built from a mismatch of parts.
The longer I stared, something deep in my mind began to stir.
I knew this place… but I didn't recall a single thing.

Mickey put a hand on my shoulder, "Sora, I wanted to show you this place for a very specific reason."

"What's that?" I asked, suddenly jarred from my trance.

"I learned something very odd about this place. It seems that the bridge doesn't just show your own memories, but the memories of everyone connected to you."
He put his own hand on one of the crystals, "Look."

I stared into his crystal and gasped.
I could clearly see Ventus walking down a path in a dark forest.
The trees around him were twisted and grotesque in appearance.
The image quickly shifted to Riku on the bridge outside of Beast's Castle, with a black blindfold over his eyes and fighting a girl in a black coat.

Mickey pulled back his hand and the image went blank.
"I don't know what this bridge is meant to be, but I have taken to calling it 'The Chain of Memories'."

I smiled at the name, "It fits. You said you haven't been to the other end of it?"

The King shook his head sadly, "No, and I have tried. It's as if the bridge goes on forever."
He pointed down the length of it, "I walked for almost three days before I decided to turn back. It was a hard decision because I don't know how long it really is… but I was running short on supplies."

Roxas appeared next to me, "Sora, you might be able to reach the end with your gliding ability. I've seen how fast you can travel using it."

"I might… but who's to say how far it goes? I might be gone for a week or more. Your majesty… does the bridge look like this the whole way you travelled?"

"Yep. Not a thing changed the entire time. The crystals kept showing me images of memories and events that I didn't recognize."

The vast expanse of sky all around us held my gaze for several minutes, then I looked back at the King, "Your majesty, just now I saw something in one of the crystals that I don't remember."

"What was it?"

"I saw myself walking into a castle I don't recognize. I watched for a while and tried to remember, but it feels like there's something there that shouldn't be."

The King frowned, "What did this castle look like?"

"It was a golden color with greenish shingles. The towers stood out from the keep at weird angles and the rooms were white."

The King looked at Riku who was staring back with a look of guilt and concern.
"Castle Oblivion." Riku whispered.

"What? Where's that?" I asked.

Roxas held up a hand and a Corridor of Darkness opened next to the door, "I know where it is Sora.

We stepped through the corridor and came out under a nebula of stars above a grey stone courtyard.
At the end of a narrow lane stood the Castle from that crystal.

"This is Castle Oblivion." Said Roxas.

"It's a world on the edge of the Realm of Light. No one knows where it came from, but it appeared about ten years ago… You did visit the castle about two years ago, but you don't remember because your memories were completely rearranged." Riku said.

"That's right Sora. It was all the Organization's doing. And they used Namine to do it." Mickey said looking angry.

Roxas flinched, "They used Namine for what?"

Riku put his hand on Roxas' shoulder, "They wanted Namine's ability to control Sora's memory. She was born in a really unique way Roxas… just like you."
He stepped back and folded his arms, "Sora, when you used that black keyblade on yourself to save Kairi; you turned yourself into a Heartless. Namine and Roxas were both created from that same body you left behind.
Since Namine was born from your body and soul, she has the ability to change and reshape the your memories and those you are connected with.
The Organization realized this and tried to tamper with your memory to control you."

Roxas began to clench his fists and shake with anger as Riku continued.
"Roxas are you alright?" I asked.

"I can't believe that's what Marluxia and Vexen were up to here. I'd heard reports that something different was happening here, but they kept me on my missions as often as they could."
Oblivion appeared in his right hand, "I asked Axel what was going on here, but he wouldn't tell me a thing. Said it was all top secret and only those on a 'need-to-know' were allowed to know."
Oathkeeper appeared in his other hand, and he fixed an angry glare at the castle door, "I sat by and waited for nearly a month when I heard that some of the organization members had started a coup. I was told that at least five members had been executed for treason!"
He took a step towards the castle and shouted, "I find out now, that they were keeping NAMINE HERE AS A PRISONER?!"

He kicked off from the ground and charged the gate in fury.
As soon as he reached the door, he started hammering it with Oathkeeper and Oblivion.
Left. Right. Left. Right. Over and over he kept slamming the doors with so much strength and fury that I began to worry he might break his wrists.

"You COWARDS trapped in innocent girl here and used her for EXPERIMENTS!"

He spun around and slammed the door with both blades at once, leaving a dent in the door the size of my arm.

I rushed him and clasped his shoulder, "Roxas! Calm down! That was over two years ago! Namine is not here in the Castle anymore, you know this! She helped you in Twilight Town! She escaped the Organization."

Roxas touched back down and glared at me, "Yeah, but this place has caused me and now HER more pain than it should have."
He smacked the door one more time with Oblivion, "And DiZ turned her into his lackey just to satisfy his own revenge! How can you guys stay so calm about this?" he cast a look of quiet desperation around our group.

Riku put a hand on his own chest and bowed his head, "You have me to blame for that too Roxas… I helped DiZ trap you in the digital Twilight Town. I tried to treat Namine with some respect, but DiZ was just cruel at every turn… I didn't do enough to stop him."

"No Riku… it wasn't your fault. I remember you trying to be nicer to her."
Roxas dropped his keyblades which vanished in white and black sparks, "I… guess I'm just angry that I wasn't able to stop them when I was in the Organization."

"You didn't know Roxas, how could you have done anything to help?" Kairi asked.

"Besides, Namine is safe again. She is where she belongs, back with Kairi." Riku grinned.

"Yes, I am safe." Said a soft feminine voice.
There next to Kairi stood Namine, transparent as a ghost.

Roxas gasped and stared, "Namine!"

"Hello. Roxas!" She smiled and clasped her hands together.

"I'm sorry Namine… I lost it when I found out what was happening to you here."

"It's alright Roxas. You had no control over what happened, and I do not blame you at all."

The King walked up to the door and whistled, "Its been a long time since I was last in this castle. There's something about this place that bugs me."

"What's that?" I asked.

"I can feel that there's something here we are supposed to find… but I don't know what or where it is." The King frowned.

Roxas looked up the front of the Castle and closed his eyes.
Several moments later he opened them again, "There are still Nobodies here. A LOT of Nobodies. They have a leader too by the feel of things… I don't know how many there are, but this place is infested."
He stared at the dented door again, "If we want to explore this place, we are going to have to clear it out."

I grinned and pulled out the Hero's Crest keyblade, "I'll take care of that!"
With a flick of the wrist I transformed the blade into a large hammer.

Roxas stood beside me with a wide grin, "Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?"

I side-eyed him, "Maybe I am, maybe I ain't."

This is going to be fun! I thought gleefully.
I faced the door and turned my body almost fourty-five degrees and swung.
The blade connected with an explosive BANG!
I pulled the blade back and grinned wildly at the monstrous dent.
Three more swings and I shouted through the widening gap in the door, "IS THERE NOBODY HOME?"

Roxas began to chuckle at my joke and I thundered on the door again, completely blasting it off it's hinges.

I turned to Roxas, "Well I guess Nobody was expecting us..."
He then doubled over laughing as I stepped through.

Everyone else filed in behind me, "Keep your guard up guys, who knows what has moved in here since the Organization fell." I said gravely.

Riku and Kairi summoned their Keyblades while I quickly switched mine back to the Kingdom Key.

We made our way deeper into the hall, the rooms were a pure stark white.
The hall appeared to be empty, until a large black cloud formed at the top of the stairs opposite the entrance.

"That doesn't look healthy." Commented Roxas, I nodded and took a few steps toward it.

In the blink of an eye a large black and orange creature bounded out of the cloud of darkness and aimed three massive claws at me.

I dodged to the left, Just barely missing it by inches. I rolled into a standing position and cast a blizzard spell at its back.
The creature roared in pain and turned on Roxas, obviously thinking he had cast the spell.

Roxas leapt into the air and cast several crosses of light at the beast.

The beast turned back on me and roared in pure savage rage. I jumped over another massive swing, and threw my Keyblade at its face.
Riku slid on his knees under its belly slashing it the whole way.
The creature kept roaring in pain and fury at its many wounds.

Nearly there! Just a few more attacks ought to do it!

As that thought entered my mind, the creature exploded into a cloud of black gas, and dissappeared.

"YEAH! THAT'S HOW YOU DO IT!" Shouted Roxas.

I grinned and turned to Riku, "Excellent work!"

He grinned tiredly and said, "Not too bad yourself... need some work on your aim though." He gestured at his left leg...

...my Blizzard spell had placed a thin layer of frost on his left pants leg.

I scratched the back of my head and bowed, "Sorry."

He grinned, "No problem."

I aimed my hand at his leg and croaked, "HEAL!" The frost melted away.

Roxas turned to a large white door at the back of the chamber, "Through there, if I'm not mistaken."

Riku approached the door and gripped the handle, "Crap! It's locked!"

I grinned, "Aren't you forgetting something Roxas?"

He shook his head, "What are you talking about?"

I twitched my Keyblade, "This."

His mouth dropped open into an 'O', "That's right… The Keyblade."

I carefully aimed the Keyblade at the door, "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Said a clear voice behind us.

I whirled around to face a woman wearing black and blue armor, "Who are you?" I asked.

She placed a hand over her mouth and chuckled, "The King knows who I am."

Mickey turned to the sound and a look of joy spread across his face.

"AQUA!"

Aqua's Return! Hope you liked my latest addition to this story!

This is Soulless1 sigining off! Until Next Time!