Chapter 83

Play Fairy Tail Opening 25

After a day of rest and reflection, the fated day has arrived. Most people were prepared for battle and the place where they would settle things here and now is the fated land, the Keyblade Graveyard. Some mages from Earth Land went with Sora's group while the others stayed behind due to needing more time and equipment for the battle. The mages that went with them were the mages from Sora's group, the mages from the training team, Levy, and the Raijin Tribe.

The area they just arrived on was covered in dirt, rocks, and dust. There were some mountains in the area, but they all look misshapen and destroyed. This area is the Badlands, leading to the Keyblade Graveyard. There were also many Keyblades scattered throughout the area, but they all looked broken.

Everyone had a serious and tense look on their faces.

"It's time.", said Mickey. "The Keyblade Graveyard is up ahead."

Everyone nodded.

Sora then took notice of something.

"Someone's coming.", he said.

He was right, as a figure was walking towards them, but they couldn't get a good view of him due to the dust blowing in the air. When the figure came closer to them, they got a good view at what the figure looked like.

It was an old man who was bald except for thin eyebrows and a curled, silver goatee. His ears are pointed and his eyes are yellow. He has broad, hunched shoulders and a crooked back. His clothing is composed of a white and black coat with a red inner lining, which is worn over a white shirt with two thin black belts, as well as white gloves and calf-high black boots. His coat has a black lining on its edges. That old man was the original Xehanort, Master Xehanort. He was smiling when he came up to them.

This surprised everyone.

"Is that him?", asked Erza.

"Yes.", answered Aqua.

"So why's the old man appearing before us now first, rather than his other cohorts?", wondered Laxus.

"I don't know…", said Mickey.

He then stopped in front of them and he smirked.

"Legend has it that darkness once covered the world.", he said. "We know so little about the Keyblade War-only that it was just the beginning. If ruin brings about creation, what, then, would another Keyblade War bring? When the darkness falls, will we be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of?"

A dark corridor appeared on the right of Xehanort. Ansem appeared from the corridor.

"Or will all of creation be instead returned to the shadows?", he said. "Today, we will recreate the legend and see."

Another dark corridor appeared on the left of Xehanort. Xemnas appeared from the corridor.

"But first...your light shines far too brightly.", he said. "It must be extinguished for the truth to be seen."

Lucy tightened her grip angrily, but didn't say anything.

Suddenly, both Young Xehanort and Vanitas appeared in front of Master Xehanort.

"Only when your hopes have been broken by battle upon battle can the key be claimed to Kingdom Hearts.", said Vanitas.

"And break you is what we shall do.", said Young Xehanort. "It has been etched."

The group stood there silently.

"Before we continue…", said Xehanort. "Does he belong to you?"
A figure suddenly appeared in front of Xehanort. It was Mest, who was completely covered in blood.

"Mest!", shouted the Fairy Tail mages with worry.

"You've been here this whole time?!", asked a surprised Kairi.

"It seems he's been wandering around here for a while.", said Young Xehanort. "We didn't notice at first, but then we noticed that some of our members have been acting strangely."

"They've been attacking each other for no reason.", said Vanitas. "But it didn't take us that long to find out the source of their problem."

"They claimed that they had a strong desire to kill each other.", said Ansem. "Then we realized it was memory manipulation."

"Thanks to the research we studied on Namine, we found the source of the manipulation.", said Xemnas.

"Mest…", said a shocked Lucy. "You changed the Organization members' memories in order for them to kill each other?!"

"You left training for that?!", asked Lea.

"I did it to end the war…", he said weakly. "We've already suffered from the war against Alvarez."

Young Xehanort then stomped on Mest's left arm, causing him to yell in pain. Someone then left the group and ran up to Xehanort, it was Wendy.

"Wendy?!", said Sora.

"Wendy!", said Charle as she flew towards her.

"Mest-san!", shouted Wendy.

"Stay away!", shouted Mest.

But when she got close, Vanitas charged towards her and kicked her in the stomach. She then crashed onto the ground.

"Wendy!", everyone shouted.

"How could you strike a defenseless girl?!", asked a furious Charle.

"This is a war.", said Vanitas. He then picked up Mest by the color. "Why don't you take your pathetic friend back." He then threw Mest towards Wendy, who was clutching her stomach.

Sherria then went up to them and said, "Don't worry, I'll fix you two." She put her hands on them and activated her healing magic.

Natsu then ran towards Xehanort while igniting his fist.

"You bastard!", he shouted.

But before he could get close to them, a portal of darkness appeared beneath them. It then started to spread throughout the area. Everyone then became tense.

"What's happening?", asked Lucy.

"Everyone get ready!", shouted Erza.

Once the area was completely covered in darkness, Heartlesses, Nobodies, and Unversed started to rain down on them.

"Look at how many there are!", said Sora.

Everyone then became worried.

But Mickey summoned his Keyblade and said, "Okay, gang. Get ready!"

They were all completely surrounded by monsters.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

Large numbers of enemies were defeated and a pathway towards a cave is open.

"We'll take care of this!", said Natsu.

"Go after Xehanort!", said Lucy as she changed into her Leo form.

"But what about you guys?", asked Riku.

"You are looking at strong mages from Earth Land.", said Erza. "Now go!"

"She's right.", said Mickey. "We need to end this."

"Can you two stand?", asked Sherria to Wendy and Mest, who were both completely healed.

Both of them nodded.

"Go! End this!", shouted Gray.

The guardians stood there surprised.

Then Sora said, "Let's go, they can handle this!"

They all nodded and ran towards a cave.

"Let's finish these guys off and then we'll kick Xehanort's ass!", shouted Natsu.

"Yeah!", they all shouted as they charged towards the monsters.

While the mages were fighting off against the monsters, the rest went on ahead traveling through a cave. Eventually, they saw a light and made it outside, which was a large open area with broken Keyblades surrounding the area.

"Alright, we're out.", said Mickey. "Is everybody okay?"

Everyone nodded.

"C'mon, let's go.", said Sora.

Ven then noticed something in the area. He then saw a figure in the dusty air. When the dust cleared, the figure was a young man. He had brown hair that reaches to the base of his neck in the back and is styled into rather messy, vertical spikes and bangs that frame his face. He has blue eyes and slightly tanned skin. wears two intersecting straps over his chest, though his red ones are rather different, dropping much lower down and almost resembling criss-crossed suspenders. He has a gold badge on his belt and wears a skintight, black, high-collared shirt, showing that he is rather muscular. The man's pants bear a distinct feudal Japanese style; his belt is tied like an obi-sash and he wears hakama (traditional samurai pants distinguished by the large pleats). His hakama are dark grey near the top, with several loops for his belt and two buttons, both of which are undone. The rest of the pants are tan with a small, lighter stripe of tan on the bottom hem. He also wears a plain black wristband on his right arm, while his left arm is significantly more armored. The man also wears armor on one arm, with his bearing similarities to both of his armor has a large, ornate crest (colored gold) and a long, segmented section (each segment alternating between dark grey and dark red), reaching all the way to the bottom of his hand. He also wears a black, fingerless glove on his hand and what appears to be a black gauntlet on his forearm, over the segmented armor, which also has small pieces of dark red armor on it. Finally, he has armored boots that are dark brown and gold.

"Terra!", he said with surprise. He then ran after him.

"Ven!", said Aqua.

When Ven got close, he grabbed Terra's hand and said with relief. "Terra! We found you!"

Terra didn't respond. He just looked at him with a blank face.

Aqua came up to them and said worriedly, "Terra, please say you're in there."

Terra then looked at Aqua and his eyes widened. Seeing this, Aqua grabbed Ven shoulder and pulled him away. Everyone then ran up to them.

"What gives, Aqua?", asked Ven.

"I know that you're not him.", she said. This surprised Ven. "Now, let our friend go!"

After hearing this, Terra smiled while looking down. Suddenly, his brown hair started to turn white. When he opened his eyes, his eye color was yellow.

Ven looked heartbroken while the others were cautious.

"He is their thirteenth.", said Mickey.

While there was a dark aura around him, Xehanort smirked. "Today is the day you all lose."

"What?!", question Aqua.

"Before you even face the thirteen, every last one of you will be torn heart from body. But fear not." He then summoned his Keyblade. "The X-blade will still be forged."

Sora then said with a serious look, "We're not gonna lose to you."

Xehanort smirked again and disappeared, surprising everyone. Everyone looked around, but there was no trace of him. Suddenly, he appeared right in front of Ven and slashed him in the stomach with his Keyblade, sending him flying towards a wall.

Everyone saw with shock what just happened while Xehanort had a satisfying look on his face.

Aqua was horrified as Ven was not moving after the attack.

"Ven!", she shouted.

"That's it!", shouted an angry Sora as he summoned his Keyblade and charged towards Xehanort.

Just when Sora was about to attack him, Xehanort held out his right hand and stopped the blade with a dark bubble. Sora had trouble getting the blade to move. Xehanort then made the bubble explode and Sora was blasted away from him. Xehanort then turned his attention towards Kairi and Lea and charged towards Kairi. Kairi became worried until Lea stepped in front of her and blocked the attack with his Keyblade, but he too was sent flying towards a wall.

"Axel!", shouted Kairi.

Without anyone around, Xehanort lifted his blade up to strike down a terrified Kairi. Seeing this, Sora ran up to them.

"No! Sora!", shouted Mickey while Donald and Goofy ran after him.

When Sora came close to the terrified Kairi, he embraced her in a hug, surprising her as well. Xehanort was about to strike the two down, but Goofy came in and blocked the attack with his shield. Both of them were launched into the air after that attack.

While Xehanort was in the air, Donald put his fist against his chest and was gathering as much magic energy as he could while a magic circle appeared beneath him. This shocked Mickey greatly as the magic circle continued to glow.

After crashing onto the ground, Goofy shouted, "Donald, don't!"

After gathering enough energy, Donald pointed his staff at Xehanort.

"Zettaflare!"

Donald fired a large red laser at him. Xehanort tried to block the attack with his arms, but the attack proved too much for him and he disappeared in the laser. The attack then died down until it was completely gone. Once it was gone, the sky was completely clear.

Sora looked amazed, but then he smiled.

But after that attack, Donald dropped his staff and collapsed onto the ground. Sora stood there with complete shock while Mickey and Goofy ran up to Donald to check on him, but he was not moving.

Meanwhile, Aqua went up to Ven's body to check on him.

"Ven…", she said worriedly.

Riku and Kairi were checking on Lea, who was unconscious

"This can't be real.", Sora said to himself.

He then notices a dark portal right behind where Mickey, Donald, and Goofty are. Shadows then started to crawl out of the portal and then they burst out to form a giant tornado.

Riku noticed Sora, who was staring at the Shadows. Riku then ran up to him, put his hand on Sora's shoulder and said in a serious tone, "Pull it together, Sora!" Sora then snapped out of it and was staring at him with concern. "We haven't lost them. They still have their hearts. But we have to protect them."

Sora understood and said, "Right!"

Aqua then came up to them and said, "We stand together."

All three of them ran past Mickey, Donald, and Goofy and summoned their Keyblades to face the Shadows.

"Mickey, Kairi, Goofy, watch the others.", Aqua ordered.

"No, we should all get to safety, while we still can.", said Mickey.

"It's too late for that.", said Riku.

Suddenly, more Shadows were flying in the air, coming from all different directions. They then gathered where the other Shadows were at and joined them in a Demon Tide. But this one is much bigger, as it is the size of a cyclone.

Sora and Riku watch with a tensed look on their faces.

Aqua, who was horrified, said, "It can't be… No…"

She then lowered her Keyblade. A swarm of Heartlesses came out of the cyclone and quickly swept a stunned Aqua away from the group and into the cyclone.

"Aqua!", shouted Riku.

More swarms of Shadows appeared from the cyclone and swept up Ven, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Another one came after Lea, but Kairi used her body to protect him and they were both swept away.

Sora saw Kairi flying towards him and the two attempted to grab each other. But Kairi was quickly taken away into the cyclone.

Sora's eye's were widened with horror at what just happened. He then dropped his Keyblade and collapsed on his knees. He put both of his hands while yelling in agony until he slammed his fist hard on the ground with tears running down his cheek.

"Sora!", said Riku as he came up to him.

"They're gone.", he cried. "Kairi, Donald… Goofy, the King… Gone forever. What do we do?" Riku had a pensive look on his face. "Without them...I… All my strength came from them. They gave me all of it. Alone, I'm worthless. We've lost… It's over."

Riku stood up while tightening his grip and said, "Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."

Another swarm of Shadows was coming towards them. Riku then walked up towards them, feeling calm while doing so. He then stopped and pulled his Keyblade back a little while the swarm was charging towards him. When they came right at him, Riku pushed his Keyblade towards them, causing the Shadows to be defeated while also creating a barrier that protected him and Sora. He yelled with all his might while continuing to keep the attack up.

Sora watched Riku with sadness and awe. But Sora gasped as he saw darkness started to appear on Riku's arms and legs. But he still kept going. Sora held out his hand to reach him. But, the Shadows broke through and consumed Riku.

The Shadows then came charging towards Sora. He held out his hands to block it. But everything went black.

And so, as foretold, darkness prevailed, and light expired…

In a bright room, the boy in black and the boy in white were still continuing their game of chest next to the window. On the gameboard, the white piece with a crown on it was surrounded by black pieces.

The boy in black put one more piece down in front of the white piece and said, "Checkmate." The boy in white was thinking about what to do next. "And so darkness prevails, and light expires. You need a new strategy."

"My move, isn't it?", asked the boy in white.

The boy in black was surprised to hear that. The boy in white then took the white piece and moved it back near his end.

"Huh?", question the boy in black.

"It's not over.", said the boy in white.

"C'mon. That's not fair.", the boy in black complained. "I know I had you."

"Yes, you nearly did. But, a game's no fun if you know where it's going. There's more to light than meets the eye. I told you."

The boy in black gasped as he saw seven white pieces, with stars on them, magically appeared behind the white piece with the crown on it.

The boy in white smiled. "Some light comes from the past."

Back at the graveyard, the mages had finished off the chords of monsters and they started to go after the guardians.

"Man, those monsters were a pain!", said Natsu.

"At least they're defeated.", said Lucy.

"Now we can focus on our real targets.", said Gray.

"The Organization.", said Gajeel.

"Our comrades are fighting ahead.", said Erza. "We need to catch up and assist them. Let's go!"

"Yeah!", shouted everyone.

They then saw a light at the end of the cave and they all entered into an open area. Everyone looked around to see if anyone was there, but the field was completely empty.

"Seems they've already gone ahead.", said Freed.

"We should get going.", said Elfman.

"Wait.", said Natsu as he, Gajeel, Wendy, and Laxus were sniffing the air. "I can smell them. But, their trail ends here."

"What?", question Mirajane.

"I don't smell them beyond this area.", said Wendy.

She's right.", said Gajeel.

"Something happened here.", said Laxus.

Levy then noticed something and said while pointing, "Look over there!"

Everyone looked where Levy was pointing at and ran up to it. When they got close, they saw a Keyblade stuck to the ground. But, when they examined it, their expressions turned to shock.

It was Sora's Keyblade.

"That's Sora's Keyblade.", said Happy.

"But what is it doing here?", wondered Charle.

They thought for a moment, but then, their expression changed into horror.

"No...it can't be…", said Natsu.

Tears quickly fell from Lucy's eyes as she said, "They're all dead?"