Keys to the Kingdom

by MiniJen

Thirteen Keys, scattered across the worlds. Whoever holds them all is destined to rule the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. As both light and darkness scour the worlds for these keys, Sora finds himself caught between standing alongside his friends as they fight for the light and struggling against the encroaching darkness invading his own heart. KH3 AU.

42. Chapter 41: The Quest for the Key!

Oof ok so... before we begin, I have several things I wanna say about this chapter. The first is that I'm so IMMENSELY proud of it because I really went places while working on it that I've never gone to in any of my writing before and I think this chapter really soars to new levels because of it. But... because of that, I think I kind of need to issue a genuine warning before we proceed. This chapter really does go to some... dark places, so if you're struggling with depression and/or self harm you... might want to tread carefully with this one. I still encourage you to read it of course, if you want to, but if its too much for you, I perfectly understand. Take care of yourselves first, my silly old story can certainly afford to wait. With that out of the way, I suppose I don't have much to say other than... oh boy I'm sorry in advance for what happens here, let's get to it!

---

Chapter 41: The Quest for the Key to Return Hearts!

When it seems they're heading for the final curtain
Good deduction never fails, that's for certain!
The worst of messes
Become successes!

The Gummi Ship's cockpit rests in a state of unsteady, uncertain silence. It's only permeated by the soft ongoing rumble of the vessel's engine, and the various low beeps and chirps of its control panel. Donald and Goofy exchange a worried glance upon realizing that the third noise that had filled the air has grown silent; that Sora's no longer pacing around the back half of the ship as he'd been before. They look over their chairs to see he's found a spot near its window, a darkened hand placed against its glass as he stares at his own dim reflection upon it. As he takes in the unnerving hints of gold in his eyes, the stark streaks of white in his hair, at all of the signs of his slow and steady fall that he simply can't hide any longer, no matter how much he wishes he still could.

His companions don't know what to say; they haven't known what to say since they set out on their own really. And for his part, Sora hasn't said much either. With all of their hearts weighed down with woe as they are, the kind of words that might ease that massive weight are anything but easy to find.

In the end, the quiet melancholy hanging between the group is broken by none other than what interrupted it a few moments before: the Gummiphone. Its cheery ring startles the trio, Sora in particular as he swiftly spins around to face the seat he'd left it sitting in. He looks between it and his companions, tensely shaking his head as they offer the same unspoken question. This time, however, someone among them finally decides to speak to it.

"You know, Sora, I've been keepin' count, and that's the tenth time since we set out that your phone's gone off,'' Jiminy pipes up over the still-blaring device as he comes to stand next to it. "Are ya sure you don't wanna answer it?"

"No," Sora says succinctly, turning back to face the window once more.

"What if it's Kairi?" Goofy asks.

"Or Riku?" Donald proposes in turn.

"That's why I don't wanna answer it," Sora sighs, running a hand through his discolored hair. He pauses for a moment, practically disgusted as he catches sight of his reflection once more. If he hates the mere sight of himself now, he can only imagine what Riku and Kairi might think if they could see him like this too. If they could see every trace of darkness within him that he still doesn't know how to tell them about, that he still doesn't want to tell them about, even when he knows he doesn't have any other options now.

"You promised you would tell them," Donald reminds pointedly as the Gummiphone finally goes silent once more. "That's the only reason why we agreed to leave that last world early. We helped you buy a little more time, but that time's gonna run out eventually. We can't just keep floating out here forever so you can keep hiding the truth from everyone!"

"I know," Sora shoots back sharply, glaring over his shoulder.

"So… have you come up with a plan yet about how we're gonna go about this then?" Goofy asks, his tone much calmer than Donald's had been. "It has been a few hours after all…"

Sora's severe expression softens into one of dread at this. He doesn't answer, his words still as sparse as ever as he focuses his gaze back on the countless stars they're drifting aimlessly among. Or at least he tries to focus his gaze past his haunting reflection to stare at them instead.

"Well, if you're havin' trouble, we could always help you figure out what you wanna say," Jiminy suggests with a small, supportive smile.

"And if you want, we could start explaining the whole thing to everyone instead," Goofy proposes. "Then you can come in with whatever parts you're ok with talking about."

"No matter how we decide to do it, telling them everything won't be easy," Donald adds sincerely. "But it's gotta be done. They need to know, Sora. Once they do, then maybe we'll finally be able to help you-"

"You don't know that!" Sora suddenly snaps, spinning around to face the others. "Ven said the same thing too, but there's no way to know if Master Yen Sid or the king or Kairi or Riku or anyone else can help stop this! For all we know, there might not even be a way to-" He cuts himself off with a sharp, shuddering breath, staring down at his crimson-tinged fingertips, at the dark shadows covering his hands just beyond them, creeping up his arms slowly but surely. Whatever battle he's been fighting in secret this entire time, he's losing; the unsettling shifts in his appearance alone are proof of that. For all of the resistance he's put up in this arduous fight thus far, he's still running out of time to stop the inevitable from overwhelming him. And for whatever he amount does have left, he has no idea how to put any of it to good use, not with as much as he still has to do in such painfully little time.

"Aw, phooey!" Donald exclaims suddenly, snapping Sora out of his fretful thoughts. "There's gotta be something we can do to stop it! There has to be!"

"And the other lights are our best bet to finding out what that something is," Jiminy points out, just as resolute.

"Which means we gotta go back to them, Sora," Goofy insists. "They'll never be able to help us if they don't know something's wrong in the first place. We've already lost enough time keeping it all under wraps from them as it is."

"Time that you can't afford to lose," Donald adds softly, sadly even. "Not anymore."

Sora takes pause at this, glancing back at his companions and meeting their worried gazes evenly. This is a debate they've had many times before over the past few weeks, but this is the first time he's found himself without a leg to stand on in it. Because here he is, his hair white and his eyes yellow, the proof of his steadily worsening condition laid plan and clear for just about anyone to see. And yet… he still can't help but feel torn. Torn between finally going back and telling the others, telling Riku and Kairi, that he's been lying to them for so very long now, that he's losing himself and losing hope that anything can be done about it. Or continuing to run, keeping up the lie, concealing the truth by avoiding it altogether… and persisting in a fight he knows he'll ultimately end up losing, no matter what he does.

Both are options he can't even begin to bear the idea of facing. But at this point, they're really the only ones he has left.

At least, until the phone suddenly rings again, with a call that brings another opportunity entirely along with it.

A brief moment of indecision passes as the ring echoes through the cockpit once more. Sora turns to face it but doesn't move from his spot near the window. Instead, he simply looks to his companions and nods slowly, carefully, cautiously. "Answer it," he finally permits, preparing himself to face whoever might be waiting on the other end of the line.

And yet, instead of Riku or Kairi or any of the other guardians of light, who is on the other end of the line is just about one of the last people Sora could have expected.

"Greetings, laddies! It's about time ye boys finally picked up the phone, I've been tryin' to get ahold of ye for hours now!"

Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy quickly balk at each other before looking back to the phone, with the magician in particular surprised at who's called them. "Uncle Scrooge?! What have you been calling us for?" he asks incredulously. Upon hearing this, Sora lets out a bit of a relieved sigh, though he still doesn't move to join the others on the call.

"Yes, it's a treat to speak with you too, Donald," Scrooge remarks dryly, rolling his eyes. "Good to see you're just as well-mannered as ever. "

"Hiya, Uncle Scrooge," Goofy greets much more amicably.

Jiminy follows suit. "How's it goin', sir?"

"Ah, now there we go with some proper greetings!" Scrooge grins. "Goofy, Jiminy, good to see you boys are just as hale and hearty as ever. Speakin' o' which, do ye happen to have Sora there with you too? I've got a bit of excitin' news I'd like to share with all of ye laddies, if I can."

"Er… Sora is…" Goofy trails off, glancing back at Sora. He shakes his head silently, his expression tight as he still refrains from stepping forward into view of the phone, just in case.

Fortunately, Donald is quick to fill in where Goofy left off. "He's busy right now," he says quickly, vaguely.

"But we can pass on the message to him, if you'd like," Jiminy offers, even if they won't really have to. After all, Sora is perfectly in earshot to hear the entire conversation, even if he's still not very interested in engaging in it.

"Aye, alrighty then," Scrooge agrees. "So I happened to catch word from Ienzo and the others at Radiant Garden that ye boys are out lookin' for a very special treasure. And ye know, treasure-huntin' just so happens to be me specialty!"

"Uh… Uncle Scrooge?" Donald interrupts with a frown. "I don't know if now is the best time for-"

"Nonsense, lad, it's always the best time to seek out somethin' that's been lost to the ages!" Scrooge counters firmly. "Especially when this somethin' just so happens to be a little trinket known as… the Key to Return Hearts!"

"What?!" Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy all exclaim in startled unison. Likewise, Sora swiftly turns around at the mere mention of this elusive, yet all-important key, his eyes wide as he now intently listens to hear more.

"You've heard about the Key to Return Hearts, Uncle Scrooge?" Goofy asks, immensely curious.

"Aye, I sure have!" Scrooge grins proudly. "Even before Ienzo mentioned ye boys were searchin' for it, actually. It's truly a special, downright legendary relic, but it never stays in the same place fo' too long, ye know. But I just so happened to track down which world it's in right at this very moment."

Before any of the others have a chance to speak to this, Sora suddenly rushes forward, grabbing the phone in their stead. "You found it?!" he asks intensely, any thoughts of his current appearance all but forgotten in light of such incredible news.

"Oh! There ye are, Sora!" Scrooge exclaims, though he stops short, adjusting his glasses as he takes stock of how he looks. "Bless me bagpipes, boy, what happened to ye? I don't recall your hair bein' that white-or white at all for that matter-lest me memory be startin' to get foggy in me old age-"

"N-never mind all that right now," Sora hastily interrupts. "The Key to Return Hearts-where is it? We really need to find it-it's very important." Supremely important, really, for the sake of finally freeing the last two hearts trapped within his own. For rescuing Roxas and Xion from sharing his own dark, twisted fate.

"Well, I can't say exactly where the Key itself may be…" Scrooge muses. "But I do know what world ye can find it in. Went through just about every last record of its history there is out there to tab up where it would be. Ye laddies best be grateful for all the hard work I put in to help your cause out here!"

"We'd be even more grateful if you'd finally tell us where it is…" Donald grumbles, annoyed by his uncle's usual brand of self-adulation.

"Ah, I forgot-patience never has been a virtue of yours, Donald," Scrooge counters just as deadpan. "But if you boys are that set on gettin' your hands on it, then hop on over to Twilight Town. I'm bettin' on me special number one dime that's where it'll be waitin' for us. I'll head on that way too, and better yet, I'll be bringin' the best team of bright-eyed young adventurers I know to lend us an extra hand in trackin' it down!"

"Ok, great!" Sora smiles, perhaps for the first time since the glamor spell had been torn from him. Because finally, at long last, he might just be able to free Roxas and Xion once and for all. And even despite everything else that's been going on, that's not an opportunity he's about to pass up. "We'll meet you there."

"Be quick about it, laddies," Scrooge advises. "That Key likely won't linger in that world for too long. Which means we're bound to be racin' against the clock to find it."

"Got it," Sora nods, taking his usual spot at the ship's helm. "We won't waste any time then." Not that they really could waste any more time even if any of them wanted to.

"Thanks for all your help, Uncle Scrooge," Goofy offers with a cordial grin.

"We'll see you soon!" Donald adds as his uncle prepares to sign of.

"Aye," Scrooge soundly agrees just shy of hanging up. "See ye boys soon."

With this, the call comes to an end, leaving the cockpit in silence once more. This time however, it's much less dreary and disheartened than it had been before. Now, an air of steady resolve hangs between the group, particularly Sora as he puts his phone away and speaks to the others. "We have to find that Key," he says, his gaze fixed on the sea of stars outside their window. "I've put helping Roxas and Xion off long enough. They deserve to be set free just as much as Ven did before."

"But what about you, Sora?" Jiminy reasons, hopping onto the side of his chair. "We still need to get you some help too, remember?"

"Which means," Donald adds. "We need to go back and tell the rest of the lights."

No, we don't, Sora almost argues, knowing they can't afford to waste time on him now. Not when Roxas and Xion's hearts, their very lives, are at stake because of him.

And yet, he knows that's an argument none of his companions would really want to hear. So instead, he offers them something else entirely to ease their ongoing worry. "Ok, here's the plan," he lets out a small sigh, closing his eyes as he hopes they'll agree with it. "We'll go to Twilight Town to find the Key to Return Hearts first; Uncle Scrooge said it'll only be there for a little while, so we need to get it before it disappears. Then… after we have it…"

"We'll go back and tell the others?" Goofy finishes where Sora isn't able to.

Yet for his part, Sora doesn't say yes, but he doesn't say no either. Instead, he simply grips the ship's controls, taking in a deep breath as he hopes this new task can buy him enough time to come up with a plan. A plan that, if he can help it, will be a far cry from the one his companions have in mind. "We'll see what happens…" he mutters as he pushes the ship into motion.

And with that, they're off, drifting through the stars with their course set to Twilight Town. Toward the last and only hope Sora has in saving the final two hearts within his own. Because even if he can't save himself, then maybe, just maybe, he might still be able to save them before it's too late for them all.

---

From the moment they step foot in Twilight Town, another endless torrent of unfamiliar memories overwhelms him.

The very second the world's eternal sunset falls upon him, Sora's vision flashes, a surge of equal agony spiking through his head and heart alike. The alleyway they've arrived in is fortunately empty as he lets out a sharp cry, unable to sustain his footing as he falls to his knees. But he doesn't even have a chance to hear Donald and Goofy's shared cry of concern for him before another voice entirely intercepts theirs.

"Quit fooling around, Roxas," Axel says, arcing a curious eyebrow down at him. "The day's just about over, which means it's the perfect time for some ice cream."

When he spares the briefest glance down at himself, he's clad in one of the Organization's black coats. And when he notices his reflection in the windows of a nearby building, his Nobody is the one who stares back at him instead. Just like the last time he was here, and because of that, he knows he shouldn't be surprised. But the sudden shock of it all still splits violently through him all the same.

"Roxas?" Xion leans into her vision, a soft, sweet smile on her face. "You promised you'd show me the 'icing on the cake', remember?"

"W-what…?" he shakes his head, not understanding her, not understanding any of this. And worst of all, not understanding how to free himself from any of it, just like the last time this happened to him.

"Hurry up, Roxas!" Hayner calls, Pence and Olette dashing down the street ahead of him. They all wear cheery smiles, as if nothing's wrong, when something so clearly is. "We've gotta save up enough munny, or else we'll never make it to the beach before vacation's over!"

"Wait!" he shouts after them as they disappear out of sight. His voice is different, not his own in the slightest, and yet at the moment, that's the least of his worries. "I don't… I'm not-"

"You won't disappear, Roxas," Naminé promises him, her tone and expression both urgent and sad as she stands before him. "You'll be whole!" But then, she stops, closing her eyes as she looks away, not seeing as he becomes someone else entirely in an instant. "I can't save you, Xion… not even a memory of you…"

"N-Naminé…?" she reaches a trembling gloved hand out to the other girl. She desperately craves for some kind of explanation, for someone to make some sort of sense of all these disjointed pieces falling squarely into her lap. Ripping away at his heart until there's inevitably nothing left of it at all.

"Xion! Don't leave me! Please!" Roxas' hands are on her shoulders, his expression rife with rising grief. She feels it every bit as palpably, but she doesn't know why, she doesn't know what's happening, doesn't know anything else other than she's heard this before, she's felt this kind of pain before, she-

"Come on, Sora," Riku stands over him, arms crossed and expression teasing. They're both younger for a moment, just by a year or two, and as that realization strikes him, so does another. That this memory is, surprisingly, one of his own instead of someone else's. "I thought you were stronger than this."

"Sora," Kairi says in the split second it takes for Riku to disappear and for her to take his place. She smiles down at him, a different sunset blazing over the surface of the ocean behind her. He only wishes he could actually feel the warmth radiating from both at a moment like this. "Don't ever change, ok?"

But he is changing, and he can't help it. He's changing as his eyes turn yellow, his hair becomes white, his skin is stained by shadows he can't stop, no matter how hard he tries. He's turning into someone she'll hate, someone everyone should hate, someone who he's really starting to hate himself at this point.

"Sora!" Clarity returns to him only for the sparsest of moments as he hears Donald and Goofy's worried voices echo through the din of all the others. They shake him by the shoulders, but he can only barely make out their blurry figures as his eyes fill up with tears that aren't his own. By now, the pain lurching at his head and heart has quickly become too much to bear, to the point that he struggles to breathe, struggles to think, struggles to do anything as he's pulled back under the nearly maddening haze caused by the hearts conflicting for dominance against his own.

"Whoa, Roxas… you don't look so hot," Axel kneels down to his level, his features awash in concern. A hand extends out toward him, but he harshly shoves it away, fearing that if anyone so much as touches him at a moment like this, he might shatter on the spot.

"S-stop…" he groans, his voice wavering, trembling just as much as his agonized body.

"R-Roxas, what's wrong?" Xion presses gently, reaching for him just as Axel had before. Once more, he pulls back away from her touch, terrified, torn somewhere between screaming or crying or both. "What's happening? Say something, please!"

"Stop…" is all he can manage, his fingertips digging into his scalp as he wrenches his eyes tightly shut. Everything around him seems unsteady, unstable-the ground, the air, even his own body all seem ready to crumble to pieces without any sort of warning. But still it keeps going, just as it had once before, a cruel cascade intent on crushing him completely.

"Hang in there, Roxas," Pence encourages, Olette and Hayner lingering close by in equal concern. "We'll get you some help, ok?"

"Stop," he hisses in rising frustration. Why won't this stop? Why won't they go away? Why does this keep happening to him? Why? Why? Why?

"I'm sorry, Roxas…" Naminé sighs, the regret in her voice clear. "I wish there was more I could do to help you, Xion…"

"Stop!" she begs, her voice hitching in tearful anguish. She tries to cover her ears, to block it all out, to silence something she has no power to stop otherwise. But of course, it doesn't work in the slightest.

"Don't worry," Roxas' voice reaches her, but she refuses to look up at him. Refuses to let herself be dragged any further down into the depths of the sea she's already drowning in. "You'll be ok, Xion, I promise."

"Stop!" she cries once more, her voice shifting halfway through the word. His hands are still gripping his head as he brings it down, trying to block the world out, the voices out, everything out in the hopes that it'll end. But it doesn't, it won't, it can't. And he starts to wonder if it ever really will.

"Remember, Sora," Riku's voice is stern, disapproving almost. He's the right age this time, they both are, but that hardly does anything to make him feel better given everything else about his current plight. "No more secrets."

No more secrets, he'd promised. But he's already told so many, entangled himself in a web of them that's so thick that he knows there's no way out of it. Just like there's no way out of the endlessly shifting onslaught of faces and voices and memories he's still all but powerless to escape from.

"S-stop!" he chokes, gasping for air that won't come. For a reprieve that won't arrive. For mercy that won't be granted to him. Not that he even deserves it in the first place.

"The three of us will be together soon," Kairi smiles and his heart aches as he happens to glance up at her. As he thinks about how he just left her without a warning, without an explanation, without a single solitary word of goodbye. As he thinks about how they can't be together, not now, not while he's like this. "Won't we, Sora?"

"Stop…" he mutters between gritted teeth, tears pouring out of his gold and blue eyes. Guilt intermingles with the pain, swirling and swelling within him to the point that he can't handle the weight of it any longer. The edges of his vision darken, the stress and toll of it all threatening to steal consciousness away from him completely. And amidst all this, a new voice calls out to him, unspeakable fear leeching its way into his very soul the moment it does.

"There's only one way to stop this, my thirteenth…" Xehanort tells him, staring down at his prone form with a broad, knowing, downright sadistic grin. "You know what it is you must do. The two hearts that remain trapped inside of your own… the time has come to set them free. And so too, child, will your own heart become free for the fated purpose it is meant to carry. For the destiny that was written in stone for you long before your life even began..."

"STOP!" he screams, his voice breaking as the word tears itself from his throat. He keeps going, yelling at the top of his lungs on air he doesn't have, his own distraught voice echoing through the void all around him. "Stop it! I-I can't take any more of this! All of you-everything, get out of my head, make it all go away! Just please! Leave me ALONE for once!"

On his command, as if on cue, that's exactly what happens.

It all stops just as suddenly as it began. The voices go silent, the world-the real world-slowly returns as the ache in his chest and the pounding in his head begin to die down. Yet he's still sobbing, his arms still wrapped tightly around himself as he sits there, struggling to so much as feel like himself again. Strangely, the silence that follows, silence he so desperately desired mere seconds ago, feels bizarrely hollow, empty even. An emptiness that seems to ring through his heart too as the memories that had been pouring out of it begins to grow quiet and dim. As Roxas and Xion themselves retreat back into the depths of his heart, forcibly repressed by the very one who vowed-and has so far failed-to save them both.

Eventually, Sora manages a glance up at his companions. Though they both linger close in front of him, neither Donald nor Goofy are looking at him. Instead, they stare, wide-eyed, at some point behind him, their jaws dropped in what seems to be mutual shock. Over what, Sora doesn't have the faintest idea. "Donald? Goofy?" he speaks, his voice weak and hoarse from shouting. "W-what-"

The pair's attention immediately snaps to him, both of them hastily speaking up just as Sora starts to glance back at what they'd been looking at before. "S-Sora!" Goofy exclaims, diverting his gaze forward again just in time. "Can… can you hear us?"

Sora nods, his brow furrowed in confusion as he places a hand against his still dully-aching head. "Yeah, I… s-sorry," he sighs, glancing down. "Remember what happened when we went to wake Ven up? I… think the same thing happened just now."

"What do you mean?" Donald asks. Sora takes notice that his gaze briefly shifts back at whatever's behind him, and he almost takes a look for himself. At least until Donald swiftly happens to stop him. "Sora?"

"Huh?" Sora blinks, still trying to fully ground himself back into the present. "Oh, uh… I, um… I saw their memories. Roxas and Xion's, I mean. Or, uh, it was less that I "saw" them and more I was forced to relive them. It was like… I wasn't myself; I was them and I…" He trails off as his hands ball into fists while they rest in his lap. Once again, he's struck with how unfair it all is, that Roxas and Xion are only able to the briefest moments of awareness, of autonomy over a body that isn't even their own while imprisoned inside a heart they shouldn't even have to be part of to begin with. And now, he's only made it worse by suppressing them both, by forcing them back into silence, back into the shadows that are certainly eager to taint both of them too, if they haven't already. As much as Sora might hate to admit it, Xehanort had been right; he knows exactly what he needs to do. And what he needs to find so he can do it.

"We have to get the Key to Return Hearts," he insists, unsteadily rising to his feet. Donald and Goofy rush to his side, supporting him until he can properly maintain his footing once more. As soon as he can, he sets his sights on the sunset-soaked town before them, hoping against hope itself that elusive Key awaits somewhere within it. "I've kept Roxas and Xion waiting long enough. We're getting them out of my heart today."

Donald and Goofy share a diffident glance at this, both of them largely wishing the exact same thing. That Sora would, for just once, try to help himself for a chance as opposed to everyone else, especially considering his current condition and what it had just caused during his most recent episode. Still, neither of them really want to waste time arguing with him on this; because the sooner they find that Key, the sooner they can save those last two lost hearts, and the sooner they can finally focus on getting Sora the aid he so seriously needs.

"Alright, then we better hurry and find Uncle Scrooge," Donald sighs in defeat. Goofy nods in agreement, leading the way out of the alley toward the tram common. And yet, just before they can clear the alley entirely, neither of them notice as Sora just so happens to steal a glance behind him until it's too late.

His startled gasp immediately catches their attention, their hearts mutually sinking with worry the moment they hear it. Sora's back is turned to them, his gaze fixated on the destructive display scattered across the alleyway before him. Countless white-tipped black spikes, both large and small, are strewn throughout the corridor, bursting out of the brick-laid ground as they rise into the air at messy, tilted angles. Their deadly tips pierce the surrounding buildings and several windows also stand shattered in their wake. Overall, it's an alarming, treacherous scene of disaster and ruin, one that, without a doubt, Sora immediately knows he's responsible for.

Even so, he asks his companions the obvious question all the same. "Did… did I do this?" he asks, glancing down at his darkened hands in rising dread. When he looks over his shoulder at his companions, the most either of them can offer him is a shared solemn nod. Even so, he struggles to believe it. "But… no, I… I didn't mean to! I-I could control it before, I can still control it! I just… I-I'd never-"

"It's ok, Sora," Goofy reassures, placing a hand on his shoulder to calm his rising panic down. "We know you wouldn't do something like this on purpose. It happened while you were out of it just a minute ago."

"If you want to get even more specific, it happened when you started shouting," Donald adds, his tone suddenly thoughtful. "We still don't know much about this new magic of yours', but… what if it's triggered by your emotions?"

"M-my emotions?" Sora repeats, pulling his hands close to his heart. "But I… t-that's not how they…" He trails off, shaking his head as he tries to recall any previous instances of him putting his newfound powers to use, of any particular thoughts that might have come to his mind when calling upon them. But that's just it; he's never really thought too much about using them before, they simply come about and react according to however he's feeling, be that a need to defend himself or someone else or to stop an attacking foe in their tracks. Which means… "They are caused by my emotions…" he whispers, turning back to the incredible damage he'd unknowingly caused. Damage that had been brought on, not just by his magic, but by his fear, his anguish, his anger.

All things that, if he's not more careful, could prove devastating to something far more important than an empty alley the next time he slips up.

"Sora?" Goofy speaks up, exchanging a fretful glance with Donald. "Are you alright?"

For what seems like ages, Sora doesn't answer as he continues to stare at the ruined alleyway, at the blackened spikes that he doesn't know how to send away. And yet, both of his companions are rather surprised when he turns back to them a moment later, a bright, beaming smile spread across his face. The kind of smile they haven't seen him wear since the glamour spell had been stripped away from him. A smile that doesn't seem genuine in the slightest.

"Yup! I'm a-ok!" he exclaims, his tone equally cheery to match his expression. There's something behind that cheer though that isn't lost on either Donald or Goofy. A sort of uneasy strain that sets them both equally on edge, a strain that seems like it could easily snap if it's stretched too far. And clearly, it's already being stretched ridiculously thin to begin with. "Now, let's get to finding that Key. There's no time to waste, remember?"

His companions share a set of concerned frowns as Sora presses on into town ahead of them, still grinning all the while. The obvious fact that something is seriously wrong here is more than clear to both of them, almost to the point that it barely even needs to be said. Sora has always been easy for both of them to read, his thoughts and feelings usually worn on his sleeve for just about the entire world to see. And after years of traveling by his side, of standing by him through thick and thin, they're able to tell exactly when his smile spreads a little too wide, when the tone of his voice comes out just a little too tightly.

When he's struggling a little too much to simply hold it all together, both inside and out.

Before either of them have a chance to speak to it however, the trio is suddenly intercepted by another group who runs in to meet them as they approach the town square. "Sora, Donald, Goofy!" Hayner calls, waving to the trio. Pence and Olette trail right behind him as he hurries toward them. "You guys finally remembered to come back and pay us a visit after all, huh? What's the occa-uh…"

"Whoa…" Pence takes the same sort of dumbstruck pause as Hayner when they both happen to get a better look at Sora. "Uh… Sora? What's… going on with your hair?"

"And your eyes," Olette adds with an equally confused frown. "They look a little off too since the last time we saw you…"

Sora tenses up at this, his steady smile only slipping for the sparsest of seconds before he catches himself with a small, somewhat anxious chuckle. "Ha! G-good one, you guys," he says, taking care to hide his shadow-streaked hands behind his back. "I don't know what you're talking about; I look the same as I always do, right?"

Donald and Goofy flinch when he looks to them for confirmation of this blatantly untrue claim. One that neither of them can vouch for, despite how desperately he's silently asking them to. At the same time, the other trio exchanges a dubious glance, muttering in confusion amongst themselves for a moment.

"We're all seeing the same thing here, right?" Hayner whispers to his friends, aside.

"Pretty sure…" Pence returns, scratching his head.

"Something weird is going on…" Olette notes and the boys both nod in agreement with her. Yet before they can pursue the matter any further, Sora suddenly turns back to them and changes the subject completely.

"So, uh, while you guys are here, have you found any more leads about Roxas?" he asks, still wearing that wide, almost unnatural smile as he keeps his hands securely tucked behind him.

"Um… there hasn't really been any news on our end since the last time you three were here," Olette reports.

"We have been back to the old mansion a few times to see if we can use that virtual version of Twilight Town to figure anything else out, but… so far, we haven't had much luck," Pence adds, shaking his head in disappointment.

"What about you guys?" Hayner asks the trio. "Any updates on our 'Roxas hunt' that might help?"

"Only a ton!" Sora exclaims and this time his smile is genuine. "For starters, we're not just trying to bring Roxas back anymore. We wanna save a friend of his too-her name is Xion. They've been apart for way too long now; which is why it's up to us to get them back together again."

"Ok," Hayner nods without any sort of protest. Likewise, Pence and Olette offer shared smiles to show their support of such a noble cause. "We'll do our best to help Xion too."

"Yeah!" Pence chimes in. "Any friend of Roxas' is a friend of ours."

"Anything else?" Olette asks, eager to hear the rest of what the trio has to offer.

"Well, we didn't mention this the last time we were here," Goofy speaks up. "But Roxas' heart is deep inside of Sora's, and we found out that Xion's is too."

"So if we want to help both of them," Donald continues. "We have to get them out of there."

"And you wanna know the best part?" Sora's tone is truly enthusiastic at the mere thought of finally freeing Roxas and Xion. Of finally giving them the existences, the lives they've always deserved to have on their own. Of finally releasing them from the dark, dismal prison his heart has become. "We know how to make that happen. That's why we're here actually. We're looking for this thing called the-"

"The Key to Return Hearts," a new voice joins the conversation, one that Sora, Donald, and Goofy instantly recognize.

"Uncle Scrooge!" Donald calls as his wealthy relative approaches the group. "There you are!"

"Donald," Scrooge greets him with a nod. "I hope ye ain't makin' a menace of yourself for poor Sora and Goofy here." He lets out a hearty chuckle as Donald grumbles to himself, crossing his arms. He doesn't get a chance to offer any sort of rebuttal however, before something, or someone rather jumps onto his back and latches on tightly.

"Ha! I reached Uncle Donald first. That means I win. Again."

"Uh, the rules were whoever reached Uncle Donald first won, Dewey. Jumping onto his back was just overkill if you ask me."

"I think you mean a step forward in the right dew-rection, Huey."

"Stop."

"Hey, Uncle Donald, your spine isn't broken or anything is it? Because you still haven't written up a will yet, so… might wanna get on that."

"Hello to you too, Louie," Donald scowls down at one of his nephews before hoisting another one off his back. "How many times have I had to tell you boys not to use me as a finish line?"

"Uh… never?" Huey frowns as he joins his brothers.

"Well I'm telling you now," Donald huffs indignantly.

"Howdy, boys," Goofy interjects, greeting the triplets with a friendly wave.

"Uncle Goofy!" they immediately pile onto him in a shared hug just shy of bombarding him with their usual round of curious questions.

"Have guys been to any cool worlds lately?"

"Did you bring us any treasure you found there?"

"Can we use your shield as a surfboard?"

Goofy laughs as he pulls himself back onto his feet, setting each of the boys down before answering their inquiries in order. "Well, let's see here… yup, maybe next time, and only if your Uncle Donald is ok with it."

"I'm not," Donald eyes Dewey pointedly for coming up with that suggestion.

"Dang it!" he pouts. "You never let us have any fun!"

"Tell me about it…" Sora agrees with a small, knowing chuckle.

"Sora!" the triplets brightly turn to him next. Their excitement is immediately replaced with bewilderment however, as they get their first up-close glance at him. Their mutual surprise is more than enough to wipe the smile clean off of Sora's face for a moment as he remembers what they're staring at. As he remembers just how different he looks from how he did even a few short hours ago when the glamour spell was still hiding his true appearance away, when he was still safe from the truth he wishes he could just forget about altogether.

"Uh…. h-hey, you guys," he forces that smile to return nonetheless as he offers the triplets a cordial wave. "It's been awhile, huh?"

"What happened to your hair?" Huey asks outright.

"And your eyes?" Dewey adds, fascinated.

"And your hands?" Louie finishes, prompting Sora to slip them out of sight by shoving them into his pockets.

"Oh, w-well, uh…"

"Boys!" Donald snaps just in the nick of time. "Don't pester Sora with questions like that! It's rude."

Despite this scolding, the triplets largely ignore him and persist all the same. "Are you wearing contacts?" Huey continues, raising a curious eyebrow. "Oh! Did you dye your hair only for it to go wrong and miss everything but your roots?"

"That's what you get when you try to do it yourself…" Louie notes as he pulls his phone out of his jacket and absently taps away at it.

"It still looks really cool though," Dewey grins and Sora finds himself struggling to maintain his own under the boys' scrutiny towards him. "You know what? We should dye our hair too! Uncle Donald, can we-"

"No," Donald immediately rejects, eliciting a shared, disappointed sigh from his nephews.

"But you let Sora dye his hair!" Louie argues, sending Donald a critical glare.

"First of all, I didn't let Sora do anything," Donald counters, not noticing Sora standing beside him, growing increasingly uncomfortable with this entire conversation as it unfolds. "This just sort of happened on its own."

"Donald…" Goofy mutters warningly as he hears Sora take in an unsteady breath. And yet even still, he maintains that nearly constant smile, swallowing hard simply in an attempt to keep himself from wavering from it any further than he already has.

"Besides," Donald continues nonetheless. "If I let Sora jump off a building, would you three want to jump off a building too?"

"Ha!" Sora suddenly laughs, albeit much more harshly than he normally would have. He speaks between gritted teeth, hoping that the conversation can finally pass off of his shoulders at this juncture and onto something else. "I jump off buildings all the time, Donald, even when you don't want me to and I'm fine."

"You're not helping," Donald shoots him a caustic the same time, another bout of dissent arises from the triplets, much to their uncle's increasing annoyance.

"Aw, man!"

"See what we mean?"

"Totally not fair…"

"Uncle Scrooge, why did you bring the boys?" Donald whispers to his wealthy relative, aside. "I thought you called us here so we could look for that Key, not so we could have a family reunion!"

"We are here to look for the Key, lad," Scrooge smirks, his hands perched squarely atop his cane. "And the wee ones are here to help us do it. The more eyes, the easier the search after all. And when it comes to searchin' for treasure, well, there's hardly anyone better at it than our boys right here. Well, them and-" Scrooge stops short, glancing around the surrounding area for the missing member of his group. "Bless me bagpipes, where'd that lass run off to…?"

"Sorry I'm late!" another young duck, a girl about Huey, Dewey, and Louie's age hurries over from one of the surrounding shops. In her arms, she totes a large bag with a tag labeled 'free'. "Did you guys know they have a whole store here that sells only one type of ice cream?"

"Talk about a business venture that's doomed to die…" Louie mutters aside.

"Did you get us any?" Dewey asks eagerly.

"Nope!" the girl grins, holding up her bag. "I was having a really great conversation with the owner, and she said she'd give me this whole bag of popsicle sticks if I went away! Super nice of her, huh?"

"Er… Webbigail, dear-" Scrooge attempts to interrupt, frowning.

"What are you gonna do with a bunch of popsicle sticks?" Huey asks, raising an eyebrow.

"Start a popsicle stick collection, duh," the girl grins, clearly satisfied with her prize. She immediately drops it to the ground entirely, however, when she notices the trio standing nearby. "Oh… my… GOSH!" she squeals, clearly beside herself with excitement. "Nobody told me Sora, Donald, and Goofy would all be here! I've always wanted to see the three of you in action!" She runs over to them, darting in between each of them as she rambles off a list of intrigued inquiries all her own. "Have you guys really been to Atlantica? Halloween Town? San Fransokyo?"

"Shh! Webby!" Scrooge and Donald both hastily urge, lest she shatter the world order completely. Fortunately Hayner, Pence, and Olette aren't really listening, engaged in a side conversation of their own as they currently are.

Even so, the girl continues, unable to quell her enthusiasm now. "Is it true you fought an army of 1,000 Heartless all on your own? What are the other guardians of light like? Does Organization XIII really have thirteen members, or is that just a name they use to sound super cool and ominous only to come across as overly edgy and angsty instead?"

Sora can't help but let out an amused snort of a laugh at this. "Usually, yeah, it is," he grins down at the younger girl. "You sure do know a whole lot about us, huh? Have we met before?"

"Not in person, no," her smile turns the slightest bit shy at this. "My name's Webby. My granny is Scrooge's housekeeper, which is why I'm the expert on all there is to know about Clan McDuck and everyone connected to it, including you!" She pulls out a large, folded-up piece of paper at this, unfurling it to reveal a family tree of sorts, carefully crafted with countless pictures interconnected to each other with brightly colored strings. And, sure enough, orbiting around Donald's photo in that tree, are pictures of Sora and Goofy, labeled as "adventuring companions".

"Whoa, cool!" Sora says with a smile as he looks over the well-organized document. "Guess that means we're part of the family too, huh, Donald?"

"Don't push it," Donald grumbles, still perturbed.

"That family tree of yours is pretty impressive, Webby," Goofy notes with an encouraging nod.

"Thanks!" Webby beams proudly. "I've been working on it for a really long time now, so it's super accurate. Except…" she pauses, frowning as she glances between the family tree and the trio standing before her. "Huh… that's weird. You look… different than I thought you would, Sora. Your hair's a little more… white in real life than it is in pictures. A lot more white, now that I mention it…"

Sora isn't able to keep himself from drawing in a sharp breath at this, his eyes widening as he feels a sudden surge of conflicting cold and warmth rush through him. He takes the briefest of glances down to see the first hints of unformed shadows, intermingled with small sparks of light, pooling beneath his feet. His magic, fueled by the rising tide of dread within him, urges it onward, at least until he discreetly stops his foot down onto it, quelling it before any of the others can notice while he throws on another sham of a smile to keep any more from coming. "Uh, h-hey, Uncle Scrooge!" he succinctly, almost sharply exclaims, still wearing that smile all the while. "M-maybe we should get looking for that Key to Return Hearts already? Like you said, we're on a tight time limit before it disappears, right?"

"Aye, that we are, lad," Scrooge nods. "As I told ye, that Key is somewhere right here in Twilight Town. Now, it's just a matter of findin' where in Twilight Town the blasted thing is hiding."

"Garwsh, how are we supposed to do that?" Goofy asks, scratching his head. "Twilight Town is an awfully big place…"

"That's what we're here for!" Dewey proclaims with a daring smirk.

"I was reading up on every bit of information we could find about the Key to Return Hearts on the way here," Huey says, pulling out a small notebook filled with such notes. "Nobody knows who made it or where it came from, but what is known about it is that it's a powerful tool that can set lost or trapped hearts free and that it can travel freely, almost like it's got a mind of its own!"

"Uh, it's a Key, genius," Louie deadpans. "How's it supposed to do anything on its own?"

"You'd be surprised…" Sora mutters, thinking about the Keys to the Kingdom before focusing back on the current Key at hand. "Still, we already know all that about it. Did you read anything about how we can find it?"

"Uh… aside from what it looks like… not really," Huey reports, handing his notebook off to Sora. Inside it is a sketch of an almost familiar looking Keyblade, though exactly how it's familiar, Sora can't quite place.

"Well, at least now we know what we're looking for," Donald says, turning to his nephew with a bit of a proud smile. "Good job, Huey."

"No problem, Uncle Donald," Huey returns before shooting a smug smirk his brothers' way. "See? I told you guys all that reading I did back on the ship would be worth it."

"Won't be worth it unless we actually find the Key, Huebert," Dewey snarks, crossing his arms.

"And if we don't, then all that time you spent nerding it up will be for nothing," Louie adds just as teasingly. "Shame you won't be able to brag about all your 'hard work' if we can't figure out where it is."

"If we can't find it…" Sora repeats to himself in a whisper, dreading such a startlingly likely thought. If they can't find the Key to Return Hearts, then Roxas and Xion will remain exactly where they are, lost within the darkened depths of his heart, both of them vying for freedom that might never come. By all accounts, this could be the first and possibly last chance he might get to save them; and after making them wait so long already, it isn't a chance he's about to let slip through his fingers so easily. "N-no, we'll find it," he says to the others. A bright, enthusiastic grin hangs on his face, even as he keeps his hands in tight fists at his sides to keep any unwanted magic from slipping from them. "We'll turn the entire town upside down if we have to. Won't we, guys?"

Donald and Goofy hesitantly offer their agreement to such a plan, but the others are ever bit as eager as Sora is to jump on board with such a plan. "Yeah! Let's do it!" Webby cheers zealously. "This place will be so fun to explore upside down! I'll just need to grab my suction-cup shoes from the ship and-"

"Uh, Webby?" Dewey interjects. "That's just an expression."

"Ohhhhh. Right. I knew that."

"Well, ye still got the right spirit, lass," Scrooge chuckles fondly. "We shouldn't keep dilly-dallying any further 'round here. It's high time we get to searchin' for what we came here for."

"Oh, we'll help too!" Olette pipes up as the trio rejoins the conversation once more.

"Yeah, between all of us, finding that Key should be a piece of cake," Pence agrees as Hayner nods his earnest support.

"Thanks, guys," Sora offers the trio a genuine smile at this. "I really appreciate it; and I have a feeling Roxas and Xion will too."

"Well, we'll never know until we get them here," Hayner says, resolved. "Pence, Olette, and I will stick around here and see what we can find. The rest of you guys go hop on the train and head over to the other side of town. We can all meet up back here when we find something. Sound good?"

"Sounds great," Sora says, and the others all readily agree.

"We gotta hurry though," Huey insists, looking over his notes. "If we don't find the Key soon, then it'll vanish and go off to some other place entirely."

"Well, then what are we still doing standing around here yapping about it?" Webby asks with an exhilarated grin. "Let's go find that Key!"

With this, both groups split up to do exactly that. With Hayner, Pence, and Olette covering the commercial side of town, the others take to the train station so they can get to the more residential district of the city. Along the way, Webby and the triplets all maintain their former excitable zeal, asking Sora, Donald, and Goofy copious curious questions about their recent adventures, including the quest they're currently on.

"So, you guys have been searching for a bunch of Keys already, right?" Dewey asks, walking backward ahead of the trio. "Is the one we're looking for one of those?"

"Nope," Goofy shakes his head. "This one's different."

"That's right," Sora adds, solemnly skimming a hand over his heart. "I-we have some… friends who could really use some help right now. Hopefully, the Key to Return Hearts is just the thing we need to get them that help." Before it's too late, if it isn't already, he nearly adds, but narrowly refrains. After all, the last thing he wants is any more probing, intrusive, uncomfortable questions from any of the kids, however innocent and well-meaning they might be.

"So once you guys use that Key to help your friends out or whatever," Louie begins with an opportunistic smile. "How much do you think it might sell for?"

"Louie…" Huey, Dewey, and Webby all groan, equally exasperated.

"What? Might as well ask, you never know."

"We're not gonna be sellin' that Key, lad," Scrooge rebuffs, rolling his eyes. "We're not even out here lookin' for it for us. We're here to help Sora, Donald, and Goofy get ahold of it, just like I told ye kids on the way here."

"Really?" Donald eyes his uncle suspiciously. "The duck who's always going on about how 'time is money' is taking time off his busy schedule just so he can help us? I don't buy it; what's the catch here, Uncle Scrooge?"

"There is no catch," Scrooge insists firmly. "Just a matter of perfect timin' is all. I was already set to come 'round these parts to scope out some real estate for a new business venture of mine. Twilight Town is a prime spot for some upscale dining, ye know. A bistro, right in the heart of the city, would be a worthy investment if ye ask me. Least as long as I manage to find a grade-a chef for it."

"So what you're saying is, it was convenient for us to come here and do all this, right?" Louie asks, smirking. "Uncle Scrooge, I like the way you think."

"Aw, it couldn't have been all about convenience," Webby protests. "We're here to have an adventure! To solve a mystery and rewrite some history! And to throw a little wholesome family bonding into the mix for good measure."

The triplets let out a mutual gag of disgust at this as they board the train. Even so, the adults among the group can't help but chuckle in shared amusement over such a dramatic reaction when they follow suit.

"Don't worry, Webby," Goofy assures as everyone takes their seats. "Sora, Donald, and I know exactly what you mean."

"We do?" Sora raises a confused eyebrow at this. "Uh, no offense, but I think we're missing the whole 'family bonding' thing…"

"No, we're not," Donald counters with just the smallest hint of a wry smile.

"Sora, after everything we've been through together-and everything we're goin' through together right now," Goofy lowers his voice a bit at this, but his tone is still every bit as kind and sincere. "You know we're more than just a team at this point."

"We're a family," Donald's smile fills out as he says this. "All for one, and one for all, remember?"

Sora pauses, glancing between his companions with a smile of his own, one that's nothing less than absolutely genuine. Because even after everything, after all of the lies he's told them, the secrets he's kept, the danger he's put them in, the burdens he's laid upon their shoulders instead of carrying them on his own… they're still here. They're still here, standing by his side, supporting him and caring for him even when no one else can. His constant companions, through both the good times, and more often than not, the bad, are absolutely right he realizes. If not in blood or any other kind of relation, then in every other sense of the word, they're a family. One that Sora knows he wouldn't trade or give up for anything in any world at all.

"Y-yeah," he nods, forcing back the warmth that's slowly starting to build behind his eyes. "We are."

The rest of the train ride is filled with more casual conversation, as well as the kids all eagerly peering out the windows to watch the twilit landscape go by. They're the first to rush out of the train as soon as it stops at Sunset Station, though Scrooge is quick to reign them all back in before they can get too far.

"Now, now, kids, ye don't want to get lost again, do ye?" he calls, rounding the kids back up.

"Aw, but that's like, half the fun of going on one of these trips," Dewey pouts.

Donald shoots his nephew a stern warning glare upon hearing this before posing the most obvious question. "So how are we supposed to find this Key anyway?"

"I guess we'll just have to look everywhere," Sora concludes, taking a surveying glance around the area.

"What, your special 'Keys Instinct' isn't working for this one?" Donald asks, his tone lightly teasing.

"This isn't one of the Keys we've been looking for, remember?" Sora notes as they press onward down the street. "So it looks like we're on our own this time."

"Ooo, maybe those weird dancing guys over there can help us out!" Webby suggests, pointing to an adjacent road. Within it, an all too familiar crowd of creatures besiege any and all passerby unfortunate enough to cross paths with them.

"Nobodies!" Donald and Goofy exclaim, immediately whipping their weapons out.

"And just when I thought we wouldn't have to deal with any trouble here…" Sora sighs, exasperated. All the same, he calls upon his Keyblade, though before the trio has a chance to leap into action, the kids suddenly do exactly that in their stead.

"Finally, some action!" Dewey exclaims, pumping his fist in excitement.

"Wow! Real life Nobodies!" Webby gasped, immensely fascinated as she hurried forward to get a closer look. "Today just keeps getting better and better!"

"Kids! Wait!" Donald calls, watching in alarm as Dewey and Webby drag a much more begrudging Huey and Louie after them.

"What did I tell ye kids about runnin' headfirst into danger like this!?" Scrooge similarly snaps, shaking his cane after the group.

"Don't worry," Sora assures, prepping his Keyblade for the brawl ahead. "We'll take out those Nobodies before anyone can get hu-" He cuts himself off with a gasp as an unexpected burst of flame flies in from some unseen point, wiping several of the Nobodies out on the spot. The moment Sora so much as happens to catch a distant glimpse of who cast that spell, however, a stark, heavy burst of panic immediately shoots through him.

"Hide!" he orders Donald and Goofy in a whisper just shy of pulling them both behind a nearby building.

"Sora, what-" Donald is swiftly cut off as Sora shushes him. He takes a discreet glance around the edge of the building, as do his companions, only to find someone already in the midst of beating back the Nobodies in their stead.

"Say, isn't that Axel?" Goofy asks, watching as he saves Webby from a particularly close call against the creatures.

"What's he doing here?" Sora asks in a sharp, tight whisper. He can feel his magic swelling within him once more, reacting to the dread pounding through him at the thought of any of the other guardians of light seeing him like he is now. Because certainly, if Axel sees him, he'll tell Kairi, and if Kairi sees him, she'll tell Riku, and if both Riku and Kairi know… Sora can't even bear to think about what might happen.

"I think he said he was gonna be out looking for clues about how to help Roxas and Naminé," Goofy recalls. "And Twilight Town's probably the best place to do that, I reckon."

"W-we can't let him know we're here," Sora insists, pressing back into hiding.

"But Sora-"

"We can't," he hisses, not noticing small sparks of darkened light flickering around his hands as he clenches them into tight, trembling fists. "Not until we find that Key."

"But why?" Donald asks, baffled by his continued stubbornness.

"Because I'm-" Sora stops himself, finally noticing the small dark spikes slowly, silently bursting up out of the ground around his feet. Spikes that he didn't call for in the slightest, provoked by his powers, his fear, by everything he knows he needs to hide before it's far too late.

So, yet again, he simply smiles. Because at this point, it's the best he can really do.

"B-because, we don't have any time to lose remember? That Key's not gonna find itself!" he lets out a wavering laugh, pressing past the pair to continue down another path. Hopefully one that will take them far out of Axel's radius.

As for Axel, he cuts through the remaining Nobodies easily enough, relying on his fiery Keyblade to make quick work of the monsters and bringing the surrounding area back into a relative state of calm in the process. "When are these little pets gonna take the hint that nobody wants them around?" he remarks to himself, smirking in amusement over his own pun. A moment later, however, he turns his attention to the enthusiastic group still standing on the sidelines of the brawl, watching him work. "You kids ok over there?"

"We sure are!" Webby grins, running over to him with the triplets not far behind. "Thanks for saving us, mister!"

"Yeah, it was so awesome!" Dewey exclaims, just as exhilarated. "You were all like pow! And then bam! And woosh!"

"Yeah, that's totally what it sounded like if it had been ten times lamer than it actually was," Louie deadpans, quelling his brother's excitement somewhat.

"Were you fighting them off with a Keyblade?" Huey asks Axel, catching him completely off guard in the process.

"Wha-" he balks, glancing down at the weapon in his hand. A weapon that, by all accounts, most in an average world like this aren't supposed to know the name of outright. "Uh, yeah, but how did you-"

"Are you kids outta your heads?!" Scrooge suddenly interrupts as he storms over to join the group. "Ye can't just go traipsing off into a raving pack of monsters like that, 'least not unarmed. Ye just about gave this old duck a heart attack pullin' a stunt like that; same goes for your poor uncle-" He pauses, taking a cursory glance around, only to find that Donald, and Sora and Goofy for that matter, are strangely nowhere in sight. "...Wherever he might've run off to."

"Sorry, Uncle Scrooge," the kids all say in apologetic unison.

"Now, no need to get any feathers ruffled over it," Scrooge offers them an understanding smile. "You're just fortunate this brave young lad was here to rescue ye in the nick o' time. Ye have my thanks, eh…"

"Oh, the name's Axel," he introduces himself coolly. His casual manner soon drifts to confusion however, as he looks the family gathered before him over. "Say, call me crazy, but you guys look kinda familiar. Do you happen to know-"

"Whoa!" Dewey suddenly gasps, his eyes wide as he looks up to the nearby Sunset Hill. Or more particularly to the noticeable glow radiating from it. "What's that bright thing up there?"

"Uh, the sunset, dew-fus," Louie elbows him wrly. "Not that crazy of a thing to see in a place called Twilight Town."

"I dunno," Huey muses, shielding his eyes to get a better view of the practically glistening hill. "That doesn't look much like the sunset to me…"

"Why don't we check it out?" Webby suggests, already running on ahead. "Last one there is the last one there!"

"Uh, I think you mean last one there is a rotten egg," Dewey corrects.

"What? No, ew, that'd be gross. And wrong, since you'd still only be the last one there."

"Man, we really gotta get her out of the mansion more," Louie notes to Huey, aside, as they move on.

"Kids! What did I just tell ye about runnin' off on a whim like that!?" Scrooge huffs, disgruntled as he hurriedly follows them. "Ah well, an adventurer's-and an uncle's-work is never done. Thank ye again for your help, Axel!" He calls with a cordial tip of his tophat as he trails off after the rest of his family.

"Don't mention it," Axel nods, still quite bewildered as he watches them all go. Still, he's quick to shrug it off, believing it to be but a mere coincidence as he heads back toward the train station, intent on continuing his search to help Roxas in any way he can. All while remaining completely unaware of the other group that's already doing the exact same.

As soon as Sora is sure Axel is a safe enough distance away, he finally discreetly emerges from hiding alongside Donald and Goofy. "There ye lads are!" Scrooge exclaims as he catches up with the trio. "I was thinkin' we lost ye in the shuffle back there. Though I am a wee bit surprised ye weren't out there takin' a few whacks at those fiendish Nobodies yourselves."

"Oh, uh, t-that's 'cause we were busy keeping an eye out for that Key!" Sora lies, his tone falsely confident and cheery. Donald and Goofy both only narrowly manage to suppress disappointed, disheartened sighs, both of them wondering just how long he intends on keeping this steadily fracturing façade up before it falters entirely.

"Aye, well, it seems as though the kids are largely beatin' ye to that," Scrooge nods just a bit up the path. Sure enough, the kids are hurrying down it, making a swift beeline toward the nearby hilltop on the farthest end of town.

"Huh, looks like there's something pretty bright up there…" Goofy muses, squinting up toward the hill.

"You don't think that could be…?"

"The Key!" Sora gasps, filling in where Donald left off. Without wasting even another word on deliberation, he rushes ahead in the hopes of catching up with the kids, largely ignoring his companions' calls after him. Even so, Donald, Goofy, and Scrooge have no choice but to join in on the chase, all of them scaling the relatively short hill not long after the kids do.

Normally, Sunset Hill is simply a picturesque place to watch the sunset it's named for hang over the city. But right now, it just so happens to be the spot a cryptic, elusive relic had decided to rest, at least for the time being. Fortunately, though, it doesn't get a chance to disappear to another world entirely as several small hands latch onto its hilt, a unified cheer rising up over another treasure successfully found.

"Yes! This has gotta be it!" Dewey proclaims, attempting to lift the mystic Keyblade on his own. He falls short somewhat, and ultimately his brothers have to help him keep it steady so its tip won't dig into the ground.

"Of course, this is it," Huey rebuffs. "What other Key would just be floating around in the open like this, glowing so brightly the entire city can practically see it?"

"Again, my question still stands," Louie interjects, grinning down at the Key. "How much do you guys think we could see this for?"

"Nothing, silly!" Webby counters, hands on her hips. "This is a priceless, powerful Keyblade that's only meant for someone who actually knows how to use it. Someone like-oh! Sora!" she grins when she notices him approaching the top of the hill. "You made it! Just in time too. Look what we fooooound!"

Sora stops, drawing in a gasp as he sets his sights on what the triplets are holding. Sure enough, it is a Keyblade; its edge shines silver in the dying light of dusk, with a handle as pure golden as the Kingdom Key's own. A gentle warm glow radiates from it, one that's dulled down significantly now that it's been claimed. Still, Sora quickly realizes why this Keyblade is so strikingly similar to another he's seen before, to the point that so much as looking at it practically makes his heart sting from the mere memory of it alone. This weapon bears the same exact shape and form as that now long-lost Key, though the difference between the two is clear. The first Key had been one born of darkness, created from the pain of six captured hearts to release the missing seventh among them. But this Key is one of light, made to guide lost hearts back into the world they've been torn from, to give them the second chances they deserve.

To give Roxas and Xion the second chance they both deserve.

"Y-you… really did find it…" Sora can't help but smile as he steps up to the triplets. They readily hold the Key up to him, and he finds himself awestruck all over again when he takes it. The power contained within it is palpable, overwhelming almost, in a way that's not entirely unlike that of the other Keys he's been searching for lately. But even if this Keyblade is by far different than that of the Keys to the Kingdom, it's still every bit as precious as they are, at least in Sora's eyes. Because as he holds this Key in his hand, so too does he hold the key to finally setting so many wrongs right, to finally bringing the last two hearts within his own back, to finally freeing Roxas and Xion once and for all. "Thank you," he says to the kids, his tone warm and earnest. "You guys did great, all of you. You have no idea how much this means to me. And, well… to two other people I happen to know too."

"Eh, it was nothing," Dewey shrugs with a good-natured grin.

"We were happy to help!" Webby says, clasping her hands together cheerfully.

"Yeah, tracking this thing down was like, super easy compared to some of the other adventures Uncle Scrooge drags us into," Louie adds just as the others join them at the top of the hill.

"What was that?" Donald asks, shooting both his nephew and his uncle a distrustful glare.

"Nothing!" they both chime in innocent unison.

Still, Scrooge quickly stops short right after this upon catching a glimpse of the glimmering prize resting in Sora's hands. "Bless me bagpipes… there it is!" he exclaims in apt amazement. "The Legendary Key to Return Hearts!"

"Gawrsh, looks like we made it just on time, huh?" Goofy muses, impressed.

"I'm just surprised Uncle Scrooge was actually right about it being here at all," Donald mutters just out of his uncle's earshot.

"Well, looks like this is another adventure in the books," Huey concludes with a satisfied smile.

"For the McDucks," Webby begins brazenly. "And for-uh… hm," she frowns as she glances over at Sora, Donald, and Goofy. "We really oughta come up with a cool team name for you three at some point."

"Put it on your to-do list, Webs," Dewey pipes up with a broad smirk. "We got ourselves a Key, so now it's time to celebrate!"

"Where was that ice cream place you mentioned earlier?" Huey asks Webby.

"We'll have to take the train back to get to it, but I can show the way once we do!" she eagerly volunteers.

"Ah, yes, a bit of ice cream sounds like the perfect treat to commemorate a job well done," Scrooge soundly agrees. "Lead the way, Webbigail."

Webby gladly does exactly that, with Huey, Dewey, and Louie trailing not too far behind her. Scrooge sets out after them, and yet he's quick to notice that the remaining trio doesn't immediately do the same. "Ye laddies comin'?" he asks, glancing back at them. Likewise, the kids briefly stop as well, offering the trio a set of equally curious glances over their obvious hesitance. "Don't worry, it's my treat. This time anyway…"

"Uh…" Sora exchanges a brief glance with Donald and Goofy at this. Fortunately, they both seem to understand his intent without him even needing to say it. There's a conversation that needs to be had here, one meant for just the three of them. And by all accounts, now is just about as good as any time to have it. "W-we'll catch up with you guys in a bit."

"Alrighty then," Scrooge fortunately doesn't ask any questions, and neither do the kids as they blithely continue on their way. "We'll go ahead and pick up three extra ice cream bars for ye lads. But don't drag your feet too much or they may just melt before ye get a chance to enjoy it."

Donald and Goofy wave the others off as they head out, but Sora simply turns away, the Key to Return Hearts still held in his hands as he faces the blazing sunset beyond the hilltop. Despite its warmth, despite the warmth radiating from the Key itself even, he can so easily put himself back in that moment when he was somewhere far colder, holding a much darker, yet nearly identical Key. He can remember making much of the same decision then as he's starting to make now, about what this Key is, about how it needs to be used.

And… if he does use it, about just how much it'll cost him. A price that's so very high that he nearly lost everything paying it once before. But it'll be worth it, he reminds himself through the tide of familiar fear that washes over him at such a thought. It'll be more than worth it, not for himself, but for Roxas and Xion.

And to Sora, right now, that's really all that matters.

"So, we finally got the Key to Return Hearts," Goofy says, but the conversation that unfolds between him and Donald is largely lost on Sora. His back is still turned to them as his grip tightens on the aforementioned Key, a prize that now feels like it weighs so much more than it did only mere moments ago. "What are we supposed to do with it now?"

"Beats me," Donald shrugs. "Guess we'll just have to take it back to the others and see if they can help us figure it out. I mean, we have to go back to them anyway so Sora can-"

"Donald, Goofy," Sora suddenly speaks up. His tone is so quiet, so serious that it absolutely catches both of his companions off guard as they turn their attention to him. "I… I know what we need to do with this Key… What I need to do with it…"

"Y-you… you do?" Goofy asks, exchanging a dubious glance with Donald.

"Well, then tell us!" the magician insists impatiently.

And yet, that's not what Sora does. Instead, he opts to seemingly change the subject of the conversation completely. "Can you guys do me a huge favor first?" he asks, his voice still tremulous but strangely calm all the same.

"Of course," Goofy earnestly agrees. Despite his immense curiosity for whatever plan Sora might have in mind, Donald offers a begrudging nod all the same. "Anything for you, Sora."

He smiles ruefully, pulling the Key to Return Hearts in just a bit closer to him. All the while, he still refuses to so much as glance back at either of his companions. Largely out of fear that if he does, if he takes in the looks on either of their faces, he won't be able to go through with what he knows must be done. "I need you both to go back to Riku and Kairi and the rest of the lights. A-and… I want you to tell them everything."

His companions both gasp, both of them completely dumbfounded by the weight of what they just heard. Of what, after weeks of stubborn resistance, Sora is finally permitting them both to do. And yet, there's still something incredibly off about that admission all the same, something that's not lost on either of them in the slightest. "E-everything?" Goofy blinks, stunned.

"You can go tell them yourself!" Donald snaps impatiently. "That was always the plan, remember? We're not gonna be the ones to show up and tell them something you should have been honest about from the start!"

"I would tell them," Sora lies. Because no, he wouldn't, he can't, he's never been able to and he never will be. But if Donald and Goofy go in his stead, if they send this one last message to those he cares about most, then at the very least, he might actually be able to go with a clean conscience in his final, fading moments. Moments that, at least in line with his newfound idea, will end up coming far sooner than he could have ever hoped. "But… I… I have to do this next part on my own…"

"What are you talking about?" Donald asks, scowling in confusion.

"We're not going anywhere," Goofy asserts firmly. "We're sticking together, just like we always have, no matter what happens next."

"We can't," Sora professes. "Not this time. I-" He stops himself short, biting back a tight sob. He can feel his powers swelling within him, eager to pounce upon the first impulse of intense emotion he might feel. Grief and fear are both quickly flooding him, threatening to rise to the surface more and more each second, to unleash his dangerous magic and let it spin wildly out of his control. So he forces himself not to feel either of those things, to swiftly shove them away, conceal it, continue putting on the show he's been struggling to maintain this entire time. Only for a little longer, he tells himself, taking in an unsteady breath. Only for a little longer, then it won't matter anymore; nothing will.

"Thank you both, for staying with me through everything, even through… a-all of this," he finally speaks to his companions, his voice soft, resigned, barely holding back tears. "But you can't be around for what happens next. I-I don't want you to be." He doesn't want to force them to stand by, to watch this time just as they had before, as he fades away into darkness. He can't, he won't put either of them through that, not again. "Just… w-when you go back and see Riku and Kairi, please… tell them I'm sorry for lying. And… that I wish I could be there to tell them goodbye myself…"

"Goodbye?" Goofy and Donald both still at this, awash in equal alarm. "Sora, you're not-"

The captain stops, just as the magician does, both of them reaching the exact same realization at the exact same time. It comes as they notice just how tightly Sora is holding onto the Key to Return Hearts, as they take another glance at that Key and finally see just how similar it looks to another Key they've seen him use before. And, as they remember how he'd used that Key, as they remember what it had done to him before, right before their very eyes, it becomes perfectly, painfully clear that he intends to do the exact same thing with this one too.

"No!" Donald shouts immediately, outraged by the very thought. "Whatever it is you're thinking about doing, Sora, you're not going to do it! Not again! Not ever again!"

"I have to," Sora insists, keeping his voice as calm as he's able to. "It's the only way to set Roxas and Xion free."

"B-but if you do that, then… you could turn into a Heartless again," Goofy warns worriedly. "Or worse!"

"I know," he sighs, largely accepting that fact, his fate as a whole. By all accounts, though, it's a far better outcome than anything his foes might have in mind for him, for however dark and empty it might be. "But that's ok. Roxas and Xion will be out of my heart, they'll get to live their own lives again, they'll be safe. E-even if I won't-" He takes a shuddering breath, one of his pressing tears finally slipping down his cheek at this. "Even if I won't be around to welcome them home like I wanted to…"

"Sora, this is crazy!" Donald shouts hotly, slamming his foot down. "You are not doing this. Especially not since you don't have to."

"W-we'll figure out another way to help Roxas and Xion," Goofy says much more patiently. "We'll go back to the lights, they'll help us for sure. There's still time-"

"No, there isn't!" Sora finally raises his voice at this, finally glances back at the pair behind him. As he does, they're finally able to see the tears now streaking steadily down his face, practically shining in the glow of the golden sunset before him. "It's not safe for them to be inside my heart anymore, not with all of the darkness that's inside of it! Ven already wound up with some of that same darkness in his heart," he winces at the thought, at the memory of how accepting Ventus had been of that fact, of how furious Vanitas had been by the revelation of it. Of how scared he is to see it happen to anyone else trapped within him. "I-I can't let that happen to Roxas and Xion too; I can't wait any longer, I have to get them out, now!"

"Not like this, you're not!" Donald fiercely refutes, practically shaking with worry and rage.

"Sora, please, just calm down," Goofy urges, raising his hands carefully. "Let's just talk about this, alright? We don't want you doing anything too hasty. Maybe we oughta just call up Riku or Kairi and-"

"No!" Sora shouts, his hands in tight fists as he spins around to face the pair fully. Several dark spikes burst up out of the ground surrounding him, clustered close to him yet he barely even notices them, barely notices his already crumbling control quickly starting to slip amidst his rising despair and panic. "How many times do I have to tell you?! I don't want them seeing me like this! I don't want their last memory of me to be-" He swiftly cuts himself off once more, choking out a broken sob as he realizes what he was about to say. As he realizes the all too agonizing truth he nearly had to admit.

"It's not gonna be their last memory of you," Donald argues sternly. "Because we're finally gonna go get you the help you should have had from the beginning and we are going to save you from this, whether you like it or not!"

"How?!" Sora shoots back sharply. His grip on the Key to Return Hearts so tight that if his hands were still their natural color, certainly his knuckles would be white. "How are you going to save me?!" His powers surge violently at this, a tall wall of glimmering darkness rising up behind him to the point that it blocks the sunset entirely. As its glow fades, suddenly Sora is standing in the newfound shadows that wall creates, his partially golden, tear-filled eyes nearly gleaming in contrast to them. "What could either of you, or the king or Yen Sid or Riku or Kairi or anyone else possibly do to stop this!? To stop me?!"

"We're trying to stop you right now!" Donald exclaims crossly. "If you'd just listen to us for a change, you'd-"

"That's not what I mean," Sora's tone suddenly becomes quiet as he glares away from his companions. "If I… When I become the Organization's thirteenth vessel, I'll have to do what they say. I won't have a choice anymore; Xehanort will have complete control over my heart, a-and… over me and everything I do." He presses his free hand against his heart at this, struggling to admit this, to say what he's always known to be true out loud. But it has to be said, they have to know what could-what will happen to him. And why this is just about the only way he can think of to keep that from happening altogether. "I-I… I don't want to… I… I can't-" He closes his eyes, tilting his head up as he tries and fails to fight back his continued tears. Donald and Goofy both fall into stunned, horrified silence by what they're hearing, but when they press in closer to try and comfort him, Sora takes a stumbling step back. "H-he'll make me hurt all of you… I know he will… I won't be able to stop myself then…" He takes in a steadying breath, resolve returning to his tone as he wipes his eyes dry. As he forces himself to take whatever little control he has left over his fate back from the man who's so cruelly trying to rip it away from him. "But I can stop myself now."

"Sora… no…" Goofy shakes his head, his voice barely above a whisper.

"That's why I have to do this," Sora looks down at the Key to Return Hearts once more. At the last, perhaps the only way out he has left now. "Once I do, then not only will Roxas and Xion be free, but so will I. There's not much left I can do to stop Xehanort and the Organization, but… at least once I'm gone, they won't be able to get the final vessel they want so badly. And that's more than good enough for me."

"Well, it's not good enough for us!" Donald snaps, grief slipping into his anger. By now, tears are in both his and Goofy's eyes, their expressions equally distraught and desperate to stop something that Sora's clearly already convinced himself into doing. Despite how final and fatal that decision will be. "We know you, Sora. You've never given up on anything before!"

"And we're not about to stand by and watch you give up on yourself like this!" Goofy adds, every bit as adamantly.

"What else can I do?" Sora asks, his voice small, soft, scared. "I've been fighting this for months now, but nothing I do is working. I mean, just look at me! All you'd need to do is throw a black coat over my shoulders and I'd fit right in with the rest of Organization XIII! I'm running out of time, you guys…" Despite his best efforts to hold more tears back, they come all the same as small bursts of darkened light bloom in and out of existence all around him, like raindrops falling in accordance to his overwhelming despair. "But… at least I can still do something right with the time I have left. At least I can save someone who deserves it way more than I ever did…"

"Stop talking like that!" Donald protests, petulant and pleadingly. "You do deserve to be saved! Why won't you just accept that for a change!? Why won't you let anyone help you?!"

"Because this isn't anyone else's problem!" Sora counters harshly, drawing the Key closer to him. "It's mine! I was the one who fell for the Organization's trap, I'm the one who's too weak to keep the darkness in my heart from spreading, I was the one who couldn't escape from Maleficent just like I can't escape from Xehanort! Don't you get it? Everything that's been happening to me is all my fault!"

"No, it's not!" both Donald and Goofy exclaim in practically perfect unison. Yet even so, Sora refuses to hear it, not when he's already so certain of his own ceaseless shortcomings.

"It is my fault and as soon as the others find out, they'll all know that it is too!" he shouts, his voice raw and ragged. His magic continues to make itself known, this time coalescing around his hands until they're consumed by dark, shadowy clouds completely. "At least by then they won't have to feel sorry for me anymore…" His voice drops into a bitter mutter as he essentially echoes what his phantom had said to him before, what he said to himself, what he's known all along but was never brave enough to admit until now. "They'll all be better off without me around, everyone will. All I've ever done is drag everybody I care about down, so I might as well make things easier for them and… a-and disappear like I deserve…"

"S-Sora, please," Goofy begs, reaching a trembling hand out to him. Sora flinches in fear and backs away from it once more, until his back is essentially pressed up against the wall of darkness he'd created. "Just… just listen to us. We told you we weren't gonna leave you behind, and we meant that. We still do mean it, don't we, Donald?"

"That's right," Donald earnestly agrees between his tears. "Like we told you on the train, we're more than just a team. We're a family, Sora. And this family has always stuck together, across every world we've been to and against every enemy we've faced."

"And we're not gonna let anybody, not Maleficent, not the Organization, not even Xehanort himself tear us apart!" Goofy exclaims with a sense of rising hope. Hope that maybe, just maybe, Sora might still hear them out. "We're not giving up on you, Sora; we're stayin' right here by your side, to help you get through this no matter what."

"You can't…" Sora sighs tiredly, turning away from them again. "You can't help me anymore. No one can…"

"But Sora-"

"You can't stop this; you can't save me!" he continues, his voice wavering under another anguished sob. "You just… need to move on without me. I-it'll be better this way… for everyone."

"No, it won't!" Donald argues angrily. "You know what? This conversation is over. You're gonna give us that Key, we're gonna get back on the ship, and we're gonna take you back to the lights to get you some help and that's all that needs to be said about it!"

"Donald…" Goofy cautions, knowing that Sora is already unstable enough as it is at the moment. Imposing such fierce commands upon him now could only prove to upset him even more, and sure enough, that's exactly what it does.

"No, you're going back to the lights without me while I set Roxas and Xion free!" he glares back at them, his hold on the Key locked and unrelenting.

"There's not a chance in any world that we'd ever let you do that to yourself again," Donald hisses, fixing Sora with a borderline vicious glare. "Hand over the Key, Sora. Now."

Sora is silent for a moment at this as he looks between his companions before him and the Key in his hands. They've let him get by with a great deal in the past, probably more than they should have, really, from harboring his best-kept secrets, to even helping hide it all away under a spell so no one else would know. Usually, he's found, a few tears, a few words awash with weary woe are more than enough to sway his companions into letting him do whatever he wants. But this time, when it really matters most, it's not working. They truly won't let him do this, he realizes in rising anger as he glares between the two of them. They won't let him do this, and in that moment he would have liked to feel betrayed by them. But instead, he can only feel like he's the one betraying them instead.

"No…" he mutters, his expression ice cold as the shadows around him seem to grow even darker.

"No?" Donald asks, incredulous, as if he can't believe Sora would even say such a thing. And yet, much like the two of them, he refuses to back down. Not about this.

"I'm not letting you two or anyone else stop me," he practically growls between gritted teeth. "I'm going to set them free, I'm going to finish this, no matter what it takes!"

"Sora, please," Goofy tries to rationalize amidst the rapidly rising tension. "Hear us out. We only want what's best for you-"

"What's best for me?!" Sora scoffs and as he does, the spikes surrounding him seem to raise higher, their tips becoming more deadly by the second. "Who cares about what's best for me!? Whatever happens to me isn't important anymore! I'm doomed no matter what I do!"

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!"

"Sora, you have to stop-"

"No, you have to stop!" Sora yells back at them, his face hot amidst the tears still pouring down it. "Nothing either of you say is going to change my mind, so just… leave me alone so I can do this on my own!"

He swiftly presses past both of his companions, intent on heading off somewhere he won't be found by either of them. Yet just before he can get away from them completely, they both happen to tightly latch onto his free arm, forcibly holding him in place.

"You're not doing this and that's final!" Donald shouts, absolutely fuming.

"We're not gonna let you go," Goofy adds just as firmly, every bit as desperately. "All for one, and one for all, just like it's always been. Just like it always will be."

And yet, even these final, fretful pleas don't prove to be enough. "I said…" he begins quietly, but his voice rapidly raises as he rips his arm out of their hold. "Leave me ALONE!"

What happens next unfolds far too fast and far too slowly all at once.

Before his hand is even free from his companion's shared grip, his powers erupt in reaction to the unbearable cocktail of emotions boiling brutally within him. As he wrenches his arm away from Donald and Goofy, a sharp, powerful burst of dark energy is torn from it, one that strikes them both squarely in their chests. The force of the blast easily knocks them back, and they slam hard into the wall of shadows Sora had just been standing under. It's glasslike surface shatters from the impact, and as the pair collapse limply to the ground, its dark, knifelike remains rain down upon them in a sharp, slicing torrent.

Time seems to stop, and in the agonizing seconds that follow, Sora forgets to breathe. His eyes are wide, his entire body trembling as he stares down as his companions as they both lay crumpled on the ground before him. It's a miracle they're both still conscious, though the wind's clearly been knocked out of them, their shared manner dazed and confused from the heavy blows they sustained to the backs of their heads. The shards from the wall landed several small, bleeding cuts across their bodies, their clothes torn in several places. Still, they struggle to so much as simply sit up, wincing in clear pain as they clutch their internally injured torsos to see Sora standing before them. As well as the shocked, downright terrified look on his face as he glances between the two of them, and the shadows still streaking over his hands. The hands that had brought this senseless pain upon them in the first place.

"S-Sora…?" Goofy speaks up first. He tries standing, only to end up collapsing to one knee instead, still breathless and bleary-eyed from the accidental attack.

Sora's attention snaps back to the pair as he takes in the sight of their various injuries once more. His breathing picks up, tears already starting to fill his eyes as he tries to somehow will time to rewind itself so he can go back, so he can undo such an awful mistake. So he can save two of his best friends from himself.

But of course, time stays exactly where it is, forcing him to stay in this terrible, unfathomable moment, forcing him to feel the crushing weight of what he'd just done.

He had tried, he'd tried so very hard to keep it all under control, to keep his emotions in check, to keep something like this from ever happening. But just like his attempts to just about anything right anymore, he's failed, completely and utterly. And now, Donald and Goofy are the ones paying the price for his failure, when he's the one who deserves such pain far more than either of them ever possibly could.

"Sora," Donald speaks up, biting back a pained groan in the process as he sits up. "D-don't worry. We're ok. We're fine."

"Yeah," Goofy adds, though his smile wavers when Sora takes a sudden step back. "It's only a few bumps and bruises. Nothing we're not used to by now. A good healing spell or two and we'll be a-ok!"

"That's right," Donald agrees, summoning his staff to help him rise to stand. "I-it was an accident; we know you didn't mean to do it."

"I still did it anyway," Sora nearly argues, but his voice can't seem to find the words. Or any words at all for that matter. He hugs the Key to Return Hearts close to his chest, watching in bone-chilling fear as several more shadowy spikes start to burst up out of the ground around him. He can't stop this, he realizes, the thought sickening to the point that he can hardly stand it. He can't stop this, just like he can't stop any of the seemingly countless things in his life that have gone wrong lately. He can't stop this… unless…

Unless he uses the Key… unless he puts an end to the threat that he now poses to everyone he comes in contact with… unless he severs the thread of every last one of his problems right at the source.

After all, he's spent so much time fighting monsters already. Why not slay the worst one he's ever had to deal with once and for all?

"I-I… I'm sorry…" is all he's able to say to them, his voice barely above a tearful whisper. For the last words he'll likely ever get to say to his two closest companions, they're nowhere near satisfying or substantial. He wishes he could run up to them, hug them, thank them for every last thing they've ever done for him. But he knows that he can't. Not after how much he's hurt them already.

So instead, he runs.

He turns on his heel, taking the Key to Return Hearts with him as he rushes down Sunset Hill as fast as his legs can possibly take him. Donald and Goofy's shared cry of his name echoes after him, but he ignores it. Tears sting in his eyes as he dashes into the winding stretch of city streets, hoping that he can disorient his companions if they foolishly intend on following him. In the process, he only narrowly misses crossing paths with another group heading back toward the hill themselves.

"Huh, you know I take back what I said earlier," Louie remarks, walking alongside his brothers and Webby, each of them with an ice cream bar in hand. "Maybe a business can sustain itself on only one flavor of ice cream."

"Yeah, sea salt," Huey agrees, taking another lick of his ice cream. "Who could've guessed it'd actually be good?"

"Alrighty there, kids," Scrooge takes the bag full of bars away from the boys. "Ye already ate most of these on the train over here. Keep goin' and at this rate, there won't be any left for Sora, Donald, and Goofy."

"Hey, it's not our fault they didn't catch up with us like they said they would," Dewey protests.

"I wonder what's taking them so long anyway," Webby wonders as they start ascending Sunset Hill. The entire group comes to a quick halt, however, upon catching even a distant glimpse of the scene that awaits them at the top of it.

"Uncle Donald! Uncle Goofy!" the triplets let out a shared, shocked gasp when they see the alarming state the pair is still in. Scrooge and Webby follow close behind the boys as they rush over to help them, taking care not to upset their obvious injuries any further as they start to help them up.

"Curse me kilts!" Scrooge exclaims, aptly baffled as he looks them over. "What in the worlds happened to ye lads while we were gone?"

Donald and Goofy exchange an uneasy glance, both still quite shaken by everything that had just happened between them and Sora. And especially shaken after watching him run away from them, likely heading off somewhere to do the unthinkable at this very moment. "Uh… w-we… we, um…"

"Heartless!" Donald abruptly interrupts Goofy with a lie that's far less difficult than the truth could ever be. "W-we were attacked by a whole horde of them! Weren't we, Goofy?"

"Uh… y-yup!" Goofy nods, wincing as he grips his sore side. "That's exactly what happened. Just a bunch of Heartless, d-definitely nothing more serious than that."

"Were they the ones behind all of these weird black rocks?" Huey asks, running a hand over one of the taller surrounding spikes Sora had left behind.

"Yes!" Donald and Goofy exclaim in unison, albeit a bit too sharply than either of them meant to.

"Wait…" Webby glances around with a confused frown. "Where's Sora?"

"Uh, h-he… ran off after the Heartless!" Donald lies again. There's a good bit of guilt that comes along with it, but ultimately, he knows it's for the best. The last thing he wants to do is have the kids suddenly scared of Sora; by all accounts, it seems as though Sora is more than scared enough of himself already. "But we've gotta find him, right now. H-he could be in trouble!"

"He is in trouble…" Goofy mutters despondently, so quietly that only Donald can hear him and morosely agree.

"Now, hold on just a tick, boys," Scrooge reasons, catching Donald by the arm as he haphazardly stumbles forward. "Those Heartless roughed roughed ye up pretty good, it seems. We'd best be patching ye both up before we go anywhere. Certainly, Sora can hold his own against a few wee Heartless for a little while, can't he?"

"Not this time he can't!" Donald insists, pulling out of his uncle's hold.

"We've gotta save him!" Goofy grabs Donald's arm and pulls him along. "Before it's too late!"

"Too late?" Dewey asks, exchanging a concerned glance with his brothers and Webby. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Lads! Get back here and explain what's goin' on!" Scrooge calls after the pair as they continue to head off after Sora. "Lads!?" They don't answer him however. Instead, both of them bound down the hill as fast as they can, wounds and all, in the hopes of catching up with Sora before he can do anything too drastic or destructive. In the hopes of finding him before there isn't anyone left to save at all.

"Yeesh, and Uncle Donald says we're reckless and stubborn," Louie remarks, finishing off his ice cream.

"Come on, kids," Scrooge sighs in exasperation. "We'd better make sure they don't hurt themselves any more…"

The rest of the family sets out at this, running along after Donald and Goofy before they can disappear out of sight. Amidst the initial chaos, Webby doesn't notice as her folded up family tree fly out of her pocket, though when she realizes it's gone seconds later, she doubles back around to reclaim it. Yet as she does, she doesn't see only one of the many photos glued to it come loose, one that's ultimately left behind as she hurries to catch back up with the others.

Sora's picture lands lightly onto the tip of one of the several spikes he'd summoned. It balances atop it only briefly before it's ultimately tossed away by the gentle evening breeze, until it's every bit as lost as Sora himself currently is.

Lost, to his friends, his family, and perhaps all too soon, to any kind of existence entirely.

---

Even long after he's out of Donald and Goofy's immediate range, Sora doesn't stop running. Mostly because he knows that if he does stop, he might just be tempted to go back, even when he knows he can't; even when he knows he'll likely never see either of his companions ever again.

His powers continue surging wildly in accordance with his nigh uncontrollable panic. Dark spikes continue springing up in the wake of just about every single step he takes, shadowy shards hanging in the air around him, following him like a shroud, regardless of how much he wishes he could escape them. Really, he wishes he could escape from it all, from his powers, from the shame of what he's done, from himself. But, he quickly reminds himself as he looks down at the Key he's still clinging onto, very soon, he'll be able to do exactly that. It's a strangely merciful thought for being so simultaneously grim that Sora tries to out a bitter laugh as it strikes him, but it only ends up coming out as another miserable sob instead.

He avoids taking the train back into the main part of town, mostly to keep himself out of sight of anyone who might try to stop him. Instead, he takes to the underground waterways, splashing through them in a hectic dash to go somewhere, even if he has no idea where that destination ultimately is. His first thought is the Gummi Ship, that maybe he could make it there before Donald and Goofy do and get as far away from this world as possible to find a safe place of solitude to carry out his final act. He hates the thought of stranding them here, but remembers that they can easily just hitch a ride with Scrooge and the rest of the family when they leave. And maybe, if he's lucky, they really will go back to the other lights to deliver his final apology to Riku and Kairi after all. Not that they should even be doing that much for him after what he just did to them.

His stomach turns as his mind is thrown back to that horrific moment, to the sight of their injured bodies lying before him, the evidence of his malicious magic scattered all around them. He should have been calmer, he should have never gotten that upset; if anything, he should have just taken the Key and ran from the moment they first found it. At least then, the only one who could have stood to have gotten hurt would be someone who actually deserves it; at least then he would have been the only one to suffer in their stead.

Sora shakes his head clear of such thoughts as he emerges into the commercial district. He makes sure to cling close to alleyways as he continues running, not wanting to draw any sort of attention to himself here in the much more populous part of town. He doesn't get very far however, before he's spotted, fortunately not by either of his companions, but by Hayner, Pence, and Olette instead.

"Yo, Sora!" Hayner calls, catching his attention as he runs past the street corner they're congregated on. To his credit, Sora stops for the first time since he fled from Donald and Goofy, and as a result, he's absolutely breathless and worn. And yet through some miracle, his powers finally start to settle down as the trio heads over to meet him. "Whoa, are you ok?" Hayner asks him, noticing his obvious fatigue. "You look like you just ran a marathon."

"I-I… I'm fine," Sora tersely lies, knowing he's absolutely anything but fine right now. Not that anyone else needs to know that.

"Where's Donald, Goofy, and everyone else you guys were with earlier?" Olette asks, glancing around for any signs of the group.

Sora tenses at this, briefly looking around for them himself, just in case. "Uh… t-they-"

"Wait a sec," Pence fortunately interrupts as he notices what Sora is still holding onto. "Is that… the Key to Return Hearts?"

"Yeah, it is," Sora nods, holding it out a bit so they can see.

"Great!" Hayner grins brightly. "So… now that we have it, what are supposed to do with it? It's not gonna just… ya know, magically bring Roxas and Xion both here, will it?"

"Um… w-well…"

"Oh, I know!" Pence exclaims. "Something in the virtual Twilight Town might be able to give us a clue about what to do next! Like Ienzo told us before, there's an entire copy of Roxas' data in there. So maybe if we tried tapping into that data-"

"It could bring Roxas back…" Sora gasps in dawning realization. Even before getting his hands on the Key, he didn't have much of a plan at all outside of using the Key for its intended purpose. But even then, there's no way of knowing if that will actually set Roxas and Xion free as he hopes. He'd done this before to save Kairi, when her listless body had been lying only a few feet away on the ground before him. But Roxas and Xion don't have bodies to call their own, at least not currently. Which means that even if he frees their hearts from his own, it's quite likely that they won't have any place to go.

And yet, Roxas had existed, at least in some form, within that digital version of Twilight Town. Sora always finds himself largely lost when it comes to talk of codes and data and computers, but he does know this much: if there's a chance something on that machine might help bring Roxas back to reality, it's a chance he's more than willing to take. He's not sure how much it'll do for Xion-for all he knows her heart could still be left wandering once outside of his own. But if there's anyone who can help her find her way back to where she belongs, then certainly, it's Roxas.

Upon this thought alone, Sora is ready to rush off to the old mansion to put this plan into action. And yet, before he can, the trio stops him short once more. "Oh! By the way, Sora," Olette begins. "We ran into someone a little while ago who's here looking for Roxas too."

"Yeah, and he said he knew you, Donald, and Goofy," Hayner adds. "I think his name was… Axel? Yeah, pretty sure it was Axel. Ring any bells for you?"

Sora draws in another tight gasp at this, an all new wave of anxiety hitting him as he realizes Axel is still somewhere within this world. "Y-you talked to Axel?!" he asks far more intensely than he likely should. "You didn't tell him I was here, did you?"

"Um… should we not have?" Pence asks, raising a confused eyebrow.

"No!" Sora exclaims, though he quickly chances his answer under the curious frowns the trio send his way. "I-I mean, yes, er, uh… look. I just-" He immediately cuts himself off as he happens to spot a familiar flash of red and black strolling atop one of the city's upper walkways. On impulse alone, Sora slips behind the closest building, narrowly avoiding being spotted as Axel just so happens to take a passing glance in the direction of where he'd just been standing. While Axel simply continues on his way, the trio he'd been talking to before follows him, intent on getting some answers about his seemingly strange behavior.

"Uh, Sora? Are you alright?" Hayner asks, aptly concerned.

"You seem like you're kind of… nervous about something…" Olette adds with a worried frown.

"W-what? No! I'm ok-great, even!" Sora says with a tight, tremulous grin. "Uh, hey, here's an idea. Why don't I go ahead and take this Key and head on over to that old mansion-"

"Great idea!" Pence smiles. "We'll go with you in case you need any help with… you know, the tech side of things."

"No!" Sora hastily counters, his panic rising to the point that he can feel his powers starting to surface once more. This time, however, he barely manages to suppress them, mostly out of the ice cold fear that he might end up hurting someone else because of them. "I-I mean… you guys should just… wait here until I get back with Roxas and Xion."

"Are you sure?" Olette asks diffidently.

"Positive," Sora nods. "This won't take very long. At least I hope it won't…" he mutters that last statement as he grips the Key to Return Hearts just a bit tighter.

"Well… if you say so," Hayner relents. "Good luck, Sora. We'll see you, Roxas, and Xion soon."

"Y-yeah…" Sora can't help but laugh in spite of himself, knowing that only part of that statement is true. "You will…"

With another final parting word of farewell to the trio, Sora sets off once more, though he doesn't get very far before he nearly darts out into Axel's line of sight. He swiftly takes cover once more, pressing up against a nearby wall and only briefly peering out to watch Axel cross an adjacent street. As soon as he makes it to the other side, however, his Gummiphone just so happens to ring, and Sora finds himself worriedly eavesdropping in on the following conversation, especially when he finds out who's on the other end of the line.

"Hey, Kairi," Axel greets casually as he answers the call. "What's up? How goes the Key hunt?"

"Axel! Finally someone is picking up their phone today!" Kairi's voice sounds exasperated and Sora already knows exactly why. Just before setting out into Twilight Town, Jiminy had shown him how to set his own phone to vibrate, just to avoid any of the countless calls he's been getting from sounding out at the most inopportune of times. Yet all the same, for the past several hours, his phone has been buzzing in his pocket nearly constantly to the point that he's essentially learned to ignore it. And now, his suspicions about who might have been calling him all this time are all but confirmed. Even more so as Kairi continues. "As for how things are going, they definitely could be better… Everything was fine up until a few hours ago when Sora, Donald, and Goofy just… left the world we were in without telling anybody. Well, anybody but Ven, who doesn't seem to have any idea where they went; either that or he just won't tell me for some reason…"

"Well, isn't that a nice coincidence," Axel muses with a small smile. "I just so happened to hear that those three are actually right here in Twilight Town."

"Really?" Kairi presses, hopeful. "You've seen them?"

"Not yet, but I'm keeping an eye out. Apparently, they're looking for that Key to Return Hearts with a bunch of the local kids. They probably wanna use it to bring Roxas back somehow, which is why I hoped to find them and help 'em out, if I can."

"Wait, so… if they're just out searching for another Key, then… why hasn't Sora been answering my calls?"

"Ah, you know how Sora is," Axel smirks wryly. "He probably just misplaced his phone or sat on it or something."

"...Yeah… you're probably right," Kairi returns with a halfhearted chuckle. "Still, I'd feel a lot better if I could see that he's alright for myself… Maybe I should head over there too, just in case."

"Sure," Axel shrugs. "The more the merrier, after all."

"Great. Thanks, Axel," Kairi says with a sigh of relief. "I'll be there soon."

"Yeah, see you in a bit," Axel nods just shy of hanging up. No more than a second after he does, however, a large black spike, lined with traces of shimmering white, bursts out from behind one of the surrounding buildings. While its sudden appearance startles him, he wastes no time in going to investigate it, calling upon his Keyblade as he heads over to check. Yet strangely, as he reaches the source of the spike, he finds not a single Heartless, Nobody, or anything else for that matter accompanying it. Instead, he only finds several more similar spikes scattered across the area without any sort of rhyme or reason at all. As if whatever or whoever had let them behind hadn't meant to in the slightest.

"Huh…" Axel mutters to himself, putting his Keyblade away. "Just what I need; another mystery to look into…"

He shakes his head, yet as he does, his gaze happens to wander up toward Twilight Town's iconic clock tower. A small chord of familiar sadness strikes him as he looks at it, his mind going back to all of the many sunsets he'd shared with Roxas atop it. And though he very well could be mistaken, he can't help but think that maybe someone else had been up there right along with them.

He sighs, clearing his head of such ridiculous thoughts. It had only ever been him and Roxas, he knows that, and yet... from the moment he came back to the town they used to spend so much time together in, something odd has been gnawing away at him, a peculiar feeling he can't quite shake. It's bittersweet, whatever it is, like a name that's nearly on the tip of his tongue, a memory he can't seem to recall, a voice he can't quite hear, a face his mind isn't able to really remember.

Like someone else, someone other than Roxas, is waiting for him, relying on him, just like she used to do before.

"Tch, I must be going crazy," he says, focusing his gaze back on the shadowy spikes instead. Still, before he moves on, he allows himself one final look at the clock tower, imaging the day, hopefully not too far off in the future, that the two of them (the three of them) can sit atop it to watch the golden sunset once more. "Don't you worry, Roxas," he promises softly, sincerely. "I'm gonna figure all this out. For both of us." ("For all three of us", he almost says as he walks away to do exactly that).

---

"Come on, pick up, pick up…" Sora mutters, clutching the Key to Return Hearts in one hand and his phone in the other. He runs through the woods leading to the old mansion, glad to finally be away from any watchful eyes within the city. He hopes to get even further away when it comes to his next and final destination, to escape to a world that doesn't even really exist at all to bring Roxas and Xion back into existence… while ending his own. How fitting.

"Hello?" someone finally picks up on the other end of the line. "This is Ienzo. Might I ask who's calling?"

"Ienzo! Hi!" Sora greets, making sure to keep his thumb tightly held over the Gummi Phone's camera. After all, the last thing he wants is someone else prodding him with all sorts of uncomfortable questions about his current appearance.

"Sora?" Ienzo frowns, confused. "Is that you? Why can't I see you? Did your phone's camera end up broken somehow?"

"Um… yeah, it did!" Sora lies, trying to keep his tone as light and airy and not-suspicious as he possibly can.

"Hm… we'll have to speak to Chip and Dale about getting that fixed then-"

"We can worry about that later," Sora hastily interjects. "For now, I found it! I found the Key to Return Hearts!"

"Wait… you did?" Ienzo asks, quite surprised.

"Yeah, and I'm ready to use it to get Roxas out of my heart," Sora says, deciding against mentioning Xion for now. The less he has to explain at this point, the better. "You said that all his data or whatever was inside the other Twilight Town, right?"

"Er… yes, it is," Ienzo nods, somewhat lost in the shuffle. "The transporter should finally be working now; if you want, I can open it so you can-"

"Yes, please, go ahead and do that," Sora insists tensely.

"Alright, it should be calibrated and ready to go in just a moment or two," Ienzo agrees, tapping away at his computer. "But Sora, I have to ask; what exactly are you planning on doing with that Key once you arrive there?"

"Oh, uh… look at that! I'm going through a tunnel!" Sora exclaims, letting out a fake static-sounding noise as he hurries through the mansion's gates. "I-I guess we're breaking up! I'll, uh, have to call you back later. Thanks again for the help, Ienzo. Bye!"

"Oh, um, yes, of course, take care-"

Sora swiftly hangs up just as soon as he bursts into the mansion itself. He lets out an exhausted sigh as he closes the doors behind them, putting his phone away and calling upon the Kingdom Key in its place. He knows this likely won't work for too long with another Keyblade wielder like Axel in town, and another one on the way like Kairi. But at the very least, it should do the job from keeping anyone else from following him, to keep anyone else from stopping him from doing what needs to be done.

So he uses his Keyblade to lock the mansion doors up tight. From there, the silence filling the abandoned mansion soon starts to overwhelm him, the weight of what he's about to do slowly falling over him in waves. He forces himself to ignore those thoughts for now though, not wanting to waste another second, not wanting to keep Roxas and Xion waiting another minute.

Not wanting to bear the weight of his own suffocating grief and guilt any longer than he already has.

He hurries down into the basement, remembering the way to the transport room well. True to his word, Ienzo already has everything set up and ready to go for him when he arrives. All he has to do is step into the transporter, and in mere seconds, Sora finds himself in the exact same room in a different version of this world altogether. An empty world at that, one that he can afford to take just a little more time in than where he was before.

His steps are slow, echoing through the mansion as he heads up to its top floor. He's still holding the Key to Return Hearts in both hands, his gaze practically fixated on it as he tries to imagine what will happen once he uses it. Roxas will return, his body and heart fully restored and free to go wherever he pleases. If Xion doesn't come back immediately, then certainly Roxas will find a way to make that happen. They'll find their way back to Axel, he'll take them back to the other guardians of light, they'll likely join their cause, and together, they'll all stop Organization XIII, which will certainly stay short of its thirteenth and final vessel. Xehanort's plans will fall to pieces, the last few Keys claimed and the worlds all safe and sound. And, Sora thinks with a small, sad smile, his friends will all finally be free from the heavy burdens they now bear. They'll be free to live their lives, to live in peace, to enjoy whatever precious moments the future might have in store for them.

If only he could have a chance to share those precious moments too. If only he actually deserved to have a future in the first place.

The air carries no warmth, no sound, no anything as he emerges from the mansion. The world of data and code that lies before him is starkly silent and still, bereft of birdsong and breezes and all of the life that he knows Twilight Town should have. Yet the sun still hangs low over the mansion grounds, casting an almost forlorn orange glow over everything it touches. He stands just outside the gates for a moment or two, taking it all in, allowing himself only a mere moment's rest within what will certainly be his final moments.

And then… the barrage of unbidden memories suddenly rushes right back to him all over again.

Disconnected, discordant thoughts and feelings flood across his vision, his heart seizing in anguish as he cries out in a voice that shifts between his own and two others when it rings into the empty air. He falls to his knees, holding tightly onto the Key to Return Hearts as its tip digs into the ground. Everything falls upon him in such rapid succession that he can barely proces any of it, a scattered symphony of words he's never said, all laced with their voices saying his own name as they desperately try to piece together exactly who he is. Exactly who they both were before they even existed.

"Who am I, Axel? Xemnas said me and Xion are connected to Sora. Who is that?"

"But I'm nothing more than a puppet—something that somebody created. So why would I have...their memories? Do you know where Sora is now?"

"Roxas belongs with Sora, too. But...I don't think he would understand. Not yet."

"Sora, Sora, Sora! Enough about Sora!"

"Look at me, Roxas. Who do you see? If you see somebody else's face...a boy's face...then that means I'm almost ready. This puppet will have to play her part. Roxas... This is him. It's Sora."

"I belong with Sora. And now, I am going back...to be with him."

"I have to find this Sora person, and freeing Kingdom Hearts is the only way! I want Xion back. I want my life back!"

"Roxas, don't be sad. I came from you and Sora. I am you… the same way that I am Sora. You'll forget me, but the memories themselves will never go away. Memories of you and me will always be together… forever, inside him."

"Who are you talking to? Me? Or Sora?"

"Sora... You're lucky. Looks like my summer vacation is...over."

"Sora will find the answer we're looking for. I know he will. Because he's me."

"Sora, don't you see? That's why it has to be you…"

"Sora, please…" his screams fall into silence as their voices both reach them. As they both send him a desperate plea, a unified message in the present, from the very depths of his own heart. "Don't do this…"

"Sora…" another voice entirely calls, one that sounds both like Xehanort's and like his own at the exact same time. "You have no choice but to do this…"

No choice… when has he ever had a choice, really? This is all it's ever been leading up to from the very start. From the moment he stole their lives away from them so unfairly, it's only ever been a matter of time before he has to give them back.

The tide of memories finally evens out as he rises to stand again, his entire body trembling from the strain. Tears are already streaming down his face, but soon enough sobs start to join them as he looks down to the Key once more. He remembers how it had felt, way back when in Hollow Bastion, when a Keyblade nearly identical to this one had been thrust clean through his chest by his very own hand. It had been cold and sudden and painful to the point that he couldn't even cry out as it happened. Not that he'd even wanted to at the time; after all, he had been willing to do anything to save Kairi's heart, just as he's willing to do anything to save Roxas and Xion now.

With that thought in mind, he starts to raise the Key to Return Hearts, going as far as to aim its end toward himself. And yet, before he can even move his hand to get the job done, he drops the weapon entirely, choking on a heavy, horrified sob as he tightly wraps his arms around himself. He collapses to the ground again, his mind briefly locked in the horrendous memory of the last time he did this, a memory that still serves to haunt him even years later. He had survived it all back then, but he won't survive it now, he's certain he won't. Because with all of the darkness thriving within his heart now, how will he ever be able to find his way back to the light again?

He stays still for a moment, staring at the Key lying in the grass before him with wide, tearful eyes. The thought hadn't struck him before, back when he was arguing with Donald and Goofy, it hadn't struck him at any point on the way here, but it hits him hard now to the point that he fears that the pain it brings might be enough to pierce him far before anything else can.

He doesn't want to do this.

He doesn't want to do this, to go out like this, to die like this. There will certainly be a noble element to his sacrifice, to bring back two kind, courageous hearts that have been lost to the world for far too long now. But the price he has to pay to make that happen is such an incredibly high one. A price that he was willing and ready to pay before, but is downright terrified to try to carry out now.

Perhaps it wouldn't be so hard if he had gotten a chance to give everyone a proper farewell. If his last words to Donald and Goofy hadn't been an empty apology for his own incredible mistakes. If the last thing he hadn't asked Ventus to do for him was harbor yet another pathetic lie for his sake. If the last time he'd seen and spoken to Riku didn't feel like years ago now. If the last day he'd gotten to spend with Kairi had been just a little bit longer.

But as it stands, he can't go back; not now, not ever. He can't let them see him like this, can't let them know just how far and deep his shame really runs. He can't even bear to even think about the looks that will likely hang on their faces when they find out about all of his countless lies, as they discover every awful thing he's done, as they realize just how much better their lives will all be without him in them.

Yet still, he can't help but think about what he'd give to spend just another hour wrapped in Riku's strong and steadying arms. What he'd give to get another moment with his lips pressed gently, lovingly against Kairi's. What he'd give to have even just another second with them both, another moment to tell them just how sorry he is for everything, how much he doesn't want to leave them like this, to tell them how much he adores them both.

To say all the words that he'll never get the chance to say now.

So, he whispers those words to the non-existent wind instead, hoping that they can still somehow be carried to everyone he wants to hear them. "I love you…" he whispers to every friend in every world he's ever been to before, wishing he could have bid each one of them a proper farewell. "I love you," he whispers again, to his closest friends, to Ventus and Aqua and Axel and even to Roxas and Xion, his heart growing warm with the hope their soon return brings him. "I love you," he whispers once more, to his family, to Donald and Goofy, and to his own mother, still waiting back on the islands for a son who will never return to her.

"I-I love you…" he whispers one final time, to Riku and Kairi, his voice breaking just as much as his heart is as the words softly, slowly fall out. "I love you… a-and I'm sorry…"

With those final words said, there's nothing left for him to do. Sora stands again, reclaiming the Key in the process. His breathing slows, becoming steady and calm as he grips the Key solidly and tries to imagine their faces, their smiles, their voices saying the exact same thing back to him for the first and last time.

And as he does, he closes his eyes, raises the Key to Return Hearts, turns its tip toward himself-

And plunges it straight into his very own heart.

---

UM YEAH SO UHHHH YEAH. :| THAT WAS KIND OF A LOT HUH? I ain't even gonna breathe a WORD about what happens next, because after a cliffhanger like that, how can I? Gotta say though, I broke down and cried like 3 times while writing this chapter, golly what a RIDE. Which is why I sincerely hope you all take the time to drop a REVIEW and let me know what you thought! Even if that review is just you guys all screaming in unison at me for this, then that's perfectly fine just please make sure you REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW!

Also, I've started streaming! At the moment, I'm playing Kingdom Hearts 1 every Saturday night, Super Mario Galaxy every Tuesday night, and Wind Waker every Friday night! For a look at my stream schedule and when I'll be live, you can check me on Twitch (I'm MiniJen on there just as I am on here!).

Also one more note before I leave (sorry, I've got lost of announcements today)! Recently I started up an AU collection for Keys, that's gonna be filled with drabbles and oneshots I come up that are based around the universe of Keys to the Kingdom. I've already had a lot of fun writing one of these, so you can go ahead and find the link to the Keys to the Kingdom AU collection over on my profile. Don't forget to show some support by following/favoriting/and reviewing while you're there! And with all that out of the way, I'll finally shut my yap. Again please REVIEW! Until next time! :3