Keys to the Kingdom

by MiniJen

"It all starts and it will all end with you, my boy." Xehanort proclaims as he extends his arms out to welcome the child. As he sets the most important piece in place for the game he's been waiting to play for 15 years straight. A game that, as far as he's concerned, he's already won. "My final vessel: Number Thirteen… Sora. You are the one who will open the door." KH3 AU Fic

69. Chapter 68: The Last Lullaby

Ah geez, sorry this one took so long to come out! To be honest, it only took me a few days to write. I'd put myself on a bit of a hiatus to reread all of Keys to refresh myself as we head into the finale. Also I got sick and both of my cats got sick (we're all better now) and work was hella busy so, you know how it is. Anyway, I'm back, with some major plot revelations at that! Enjoy :3

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Chapter 68: The Last Lullaby

Oh let me face, let me face, let me face my fears

It's a meeting none of the lights ever expected to have. And it's not a meeting they ever hoped they'd have to have either.

They regroup at the Mysterious Tower after over a month of being separated and scattered across the worlds, a month since that chaotic, catastrophic day at the Keyblade Graveyard. And as they gather, they're all keenly aware that someone is missing, someone so very special to each and every last one of them. Someone who's been forced to stand among their foes instead of being here with his friends.

As such, none of them spare so much as even a smile as they congregate in the sorcerer's chamber. Solemn silence hovers each of them, even Yen Sid as he mulls over the report he just received from Mickey and Riku. When he finally does offer his wisdom to the group before him, his voice is even more grim and serious than it usually is. More than fitting to carry the equally grim and serious message he has to share.

"It appears that the unthinkable has come to pass," he begins, his eyes closed, hands folded on his desk. "We have lost Sora to the ranks of Organization XIII. Xehanort's assembly of thirteen dark vessels… is now complete."

"Yeah, why don't you tell us something we don't know?" Axel mutters, crossing his arms.

"Gosh, well, if the Organization finally has what they need to start a Keyblade War, then… what are they waiting for?" Mickey asks, frowning.

"At this point, it is impossible to know," Yen Sid shakes his head. "We still lack the knowledge of why Xehanort sought Sora out as his final vessel to begin with, much less what he intends to do now that he has that vessel in his possession. Even so, I do not think it would be wise to wait and find out."

"We can't afford to wait," Riku agrees, trying his best to be steady for the sake of his team. Even as he continues gripping Kairi's hand like a vice, if only to keep his own from shaking. "And neither can Sora. We have to act. We have to do whatever we can to get him back–now."

No one argues with such a valiant mission, though there are more than a few questions about how exactly they're going to execute it. "Uh, so… where are we supposed to start? Ventus asks, rubbing the back of his neck.

Riku and Kairi exchange a glance, both of them realizing there's one immediate snag standing between all of them and Sora. Something very simple… yet so very monumental all the same. "Well… we need to find him first," Kairi begins. Only to receive an answer in a voice that strikes her–and so many others present–straight through the heart.

"Seriously? That's the big mystery you're trying to solve? Tch, and I thought the old man and his cronies were stupid. You lights take it to a whole new level."

"Vanitas!" Naminé scolds as she walks into the sorcerer's chamber alongside him. Though as soon as she does, she's quick to realize their mistake in arriving so suddenly. Because as she glances up to find her fellow lights, she finds they're all staring straight at the intruder among them, some in confusion, some in shock, some in anger, but all carry the exact same sentiment. None of them want Vanitas to be here. None of them… except for her.

"Uh… ok," Naminé draws in a nervous breath. "So before anyone says anything, let me just-"

"W-who…?" Riku trails off, his eyes wide. He doesn't even notice Kairi tightly grabbing his arm, glaring hateful daggers at Vanitas all the while. "I-it can't be… Why does he… Is he-"

"Trust me, he's not," Kairi glowers viciously. After nearly falling for this same trick before, she's not about to let Riku do the same. Not now, not when the pain of losing Sora is still so very fresh.

"What are you doing here?" Aqua hisses, her Keyblade in hand as she takes a sharp step forward.

"Whoa, Aqua, it's ok," Ventus assures, though Terra makes no move to do the same. Not as he still spares a distrustful scowl for the very one who had inadvertently helped bring their team back together. "Vanitas is on our side now!"

"I never said that," Vanitas cuts in, crossing his arms.

"Then why'd you help us?" Xion asks with a wry, knowing smile.

"...I really don't like you."

"Good. The feeling's mutual."

"O-ok," Naminé quickly interjects before any sort of altercation can break out. "To catch everyone up, this," she motions over to the boy scowling beside her. "Is Vanitas. And while he might look a lot like Sora, they… couldn't be any different."

"You can say that again, sunshine," Vanitas mutters dryly.

"I asked him to come here because he was the only one to see the Organization take Sora away," Naminé explains. "And he knows where they've taken him too."

Vanitas nods, begrudgingly deciding to reveal this information, but not much else beyond it. "The Organization's been hiding out at their old stomping grounds: the World that Never Was."

"Huh, probably should have figured that from the get-go," Axel remarks.

"Well now that we know where Sora is, what are we waiting for?" Roxas asks impatiently. "Let's go save him and take Xehanort down once and for all!"

"Yeah!" Donald and Goofy chime their enthusiastic support, more than ready to do anything to bring Sora home at this point. To get him as far away from every last cruel and coldhearted member of the Organization as possible.

"To blindly rush in to the Organization's base of operations, even with the full everyone gathered here would be unwise," Yen Sid counters evenly. "Within the natural shadows of that forsaken world, the power of Xehanort and his followers waxes stronger. It would be much safer and more tactful to confront our foes upon more even ground."

"So… back to the Keyblade Graveyard then?" Mickey guesses, to which Yen Sid simply nods. It's not a place any of them are looking forward to returning to after what they'd lost there a month prior. But if it means they can reverse that loss, if they can all regain something so deeply precious to them all, then going back to that lifeless wasteland will be more than worth it.

"What if they don't show up when the rest of us do?" Terra questions, looking to the lights that went to the graveyard the first time around. "The reason why Xehanort scattered all of you was to buy himself more time. Even now that he has Sora, he's stalling for some reason, but we don't know why."

"Well if we go to the Organization's castle, maybe we can find out and put a stop to it!" Donald proclaims, already rushing toward the door to do just that. At least until Goofy places a hand atop his head to stop him in his tracks.

"Or they could end up splittin' us all up all over again," the captain counters, frowning.

"We can't let that happen," Riku agrees, taking in a deep breath. His focus is admittedly wavering, torn between unshakable worry for Sora's wellbeing and the need to stand strong and steady for his team. A team that's every bit as distraught and distressed as he is, as much as he's trying not to show it. "But we do need to figure out what Xehanort is up to. And… how Sora is doing with… them. Naminé, are you sure you can't see any of his memories?"

"I'm sorry, but no," she sighs, despondent. "Thanks to Xehanort's power over him, he's all but unreachable now…"

"You're right," Kairi adds, quickly wiping away the tears that are starting to form in her eyes. She's already cried enough of them lately; she sees no reason to waste any more. "I've been trying my hardest to connect to his heart, but… no matter what I do, I can't… I just wish I could see him again, or even just send him some kind of message to let him know we're still trying to save him-"

"Wait," Xion interjects with a newfound idea. "If it's too dangerous for all of us to go to the castle… what if only one of us did? Whoever goes could sneak in, spy on the Organization to learn more about their plans–maybe they could even check up on Sora, all without Xehanort even finding out any of us were even there!"

"That's… not a bad idea," Riku muses as most of the others find ample merit in it too. "I could go and-"

"Riku," Aqua cuts in, placing a consoling hand on his shoulder. "We know how much you want to help Sora, but… maybe someone else should do this. We need you here now more than ever, to help us plan our final attack. Both of you," she glances over at Kairi just as the younger girl draws in a breath to volunteer in Riku's stead. To send either one of them straight into the throes of their enemies, right into the line of fire where they could so easily be hurt or even killed right in front of Sora… it isn't a risk any of the other lights are willing to take. Not when Sora still so desperately needs them even now, even when he's been so brutally ripped away from them both.

Fortunately, they're both to concede, though another trio is quick to boldly step forward in their place. "We know that castle better than anyone else here," Roxas says. Xion and Axel nod their firm agreement. "One of us could go, get in, and get out, easily."

"Heck, I even have my old coat stowed away," Axel adds. "I slip it on, toss up the hood, and none of those chumps would be able to tell I'm not one of 'em."

"There is a high likelihood that Xehanort would be able to tell the difference between one of his vessels and an intruder," Yen Sid counters. "His followers each bear a fragment of his own heart. The absence of such a fragment would not go unnoticed for long."

"But…" Ventus voices the dreadful thought going through everyone's minds. A thought that sends whatever hopes they might have had for what had once been a hopeful plan crashing down. "The only one of us who's ever had a piece of Xehanort's heart inside of theirs… is Sora."

Silence falls over the lights, only permeated by a few disappointed sighs as they're all sent straight back to square one. Vanitas is the only one to catch Naminé's worried whisper as she stays alongside him, her hands pressed to her heart and her eyes glassy with oncoming tears as she wonders "What should we do now…?"

And though almost every fiber of his being is begging him to stay quiet, to not offer any kind of answer, any sort of solution to a problem he has no part in… Vanitas still does all the same.

"I used to be one of Xehanort's vessels," he steps forward, his face a mask of icy apathy. "I know how to get into his castle without being seen." He pauses, just long enough to glance back at Naminé. Her eyes are wide, yet hopeful, practically pleading with him to continue. In spite of his better judgment, that's exactly what he does. "I'll go."

He's far from surprised to hear a muted ripple of dissent spread through the lights. Aqua is the most forward about it, however, as she fixes him with a suspicious, unrelenting glare. "I bet you would go," she begins coldly. "Right back to your 'master' to tell him everything you heard here!"

"How many times do I have to tell you idiots?" Vanitas argues pointedly. "That old fool isn't my master, not anymore. I want him dead and gone just as much as the rest of you. Unfortunately, I know I won't have much luck finishing him off on my own, just like you losers won't have any luck getting your stupid plan off the ground without someone like me. So-"

He's cut off, his entire foundation shaken into shock and silence the second Naminé throws her arms around him. At first, he's not sure what she's doing, until he vaguely remembers a word he's only ever heard before, something he's never been at the receiving end of. She's hugging him, he realizes, his jaw dropped, his face flushing red, his heart and thoughts racing at a million miles an hour. It only barely dawns on him that he must look incredibly foolish to be standing here, so vulnerable, so caught off guard before so many people he still genuinely hates. That doesn't seem to matter to Naminé however as she holds onto him tighter, smiling warmly as she whispers into his ear: "Thank you, Vanitas…"

And for Vanitas, that alone makes whatever danger he's about to face more than worth it.

She doesn't let go, even as the other lights begin to discuss this odd new option. While some are neutral on it, others are entirely against it, and they're not afraid of letting those opinions be known. "We're not really letting this entire plan hinge on him are we?" Aqua asks Riku, her wary sights never leaving Vanitas.

"...What other choice do we really have at this point?" Riku lets out a diffident sigh. He can't claim to know much about Vanitas–if anything, the most he can do is assume that more than a few members of his team have had some kind of unsavory history with him. But if he truly can rise to such an arduous task, if he really can prove to give them the edge they so desperately need against their foes… if he can even just send a simple message of love and encouragement to Sora when he like needs it most… then relying on someone like Vanitas is a risk that Riku finds he's more than willing to take.

Kairi, on the other hand, doesn't seem to feel the same way, at least from a glance. Her expression is dark, her jaw set, her hands clenched in tight fists at her sides as she approaches Vanitas in the seconds after he and Naminé finally part. When he turns to face her, he matches her frigid demeanor almost perfectly, raising a critical eyebrow down at her as he expects to get an earful, especially after the intensity of their last–and only encounter. "What do you want, princess?"

Kairi bristles, but keeps herself as calm as she can. She briefly eyes Naminé, biting her lip and hoping for the best in whatever interaction is about to unfold. Hoping that maybe there might still be a chance for some kind of peace between two people who so clearly dislike each other, two people she cares so much about. "I still don't trust you," she tells Vanitas plainly, bluntly. "But… Naminé does. And I trust her. So…" She takes in a deep breath, pulling something out of her pocket. She holds it close for a moment, her lips lightly skimming the seashells in a kiss that she can only hope will linger, one that will last until her charm is right back where it belongs. Until it can offer its true owner all of the hope he's bound to need to get him through this, and whatever lies beyond.

"When you see Sora, give him this," she tentatively hands the good luck charm over to him. It feels so wrong to see it in his hand, to be giving something so special to this twisted echo instead of to the real thing. But until Sora can finally stand before her again, until he's finally safe and free and back where he belongs by her side… she supposes this will have to do.

"What's this useless piece of junk?" Vanitas asks, unimpressed as he holds the charm up to get a better look.

"It's not a piece of junk, it's-" Kairi cuts herself off with a frustrated sigh. "Look, just… give it to him, ok? He'll know what it means."

"I'm not your delivery boy, pr-" Vanitas stops himself the second he feels Naminé's feather-light touch on his arm. She doesn't even have to say anything, only has to give him that look, and it's enough to get him to begrudgingly comply. "Ugh, fine. I'll give it to your stupid boyfriend."

"Vanitas," Yen Sid speaks up when not too many of the others want to. "Regardless of where your allegiance may have lied in the past, we cannot thank you enough for your willingness to-"

"You can spare me whatever speech you're about to ramble off about gratitude or courage or whatever," Vanitas puts a hand up to stop him, rolling his eyes. "I just wanna get this mess over with already." He turns unceremoniously, intent on leaving to carry out the daunting task ahead of him. To do something he could have never imagined himself doing until-

"Vanitas, wait," Naminé stops him just as he's about to head through the door. She grabs his arm and, in a moment that practically sends him into orbit, gives him a soft, sweet kiss on his cheek. "Good luck," she whispers with all of the warmth of the sun, with all of the hope her bright and beautiful heart has to offer him.

And with that hope held somewhere in a heart that's only starting to understand it, he departs. On a mission that could make or break everything, on a path that will lead him and him alone to the one all of the lights so desperately long to see. On voyage into the darkness… and to the lone, languishing light lost so very deeply within it.

---

The members of Organization XIII are used to their master calling for meetings on short notice. But what they aren't used to is a lunch meeting, of all things.

They're all beckoned to the castle's rarely used banquet hall for an admittedly meager meal. And while that's strange enough on its own, the seating arrangement around the large, long table is even more so. Usually, they're seated by rank, with Xehanort at the head and the lower ranking members further down from him. But oddly enough, in a sight that makes some of the members' blood boil with envy, their thirteenth is ordered to sit directly to the master's right, straight across the table from their younger master at that.

Despite such an honor, Sora clearly isn't grateful for it; instead, he seems shaken, his eyes wide, the bags underneath them even darker than usual, his expression haunted, his silence echoing so much more than sadness as he sits by his master's side. It's a stark contrast to Xehanort himself, who holds an almost ecstatic grin for the entire quiet meal. His gaze hardly ever leaves his thirteenth, and though more than a few members want to ask what's going on, they know better than to try. Fortunately, it doesn't take long for the master to sense the air of uneasy curiosity welling up within his other vessels. As their meal draws to a close, Xehanort rises from his seat to finally offer the answers they're all seeking.

"My seekers of darkness," he begins, grinning cordially as he taps a spoon against his glass to garnish their attention. Even if it's already largely been on him and his thirteenth vessel for the past hour. "I've brought us all together today for the sake of two very important announcements. The first pertains to our ultimate goal. In one week's time, we shall return to the Keyblade Graveyard, our Organization unified to recreate the Keyblade War of old and claim the ultimate power of Kingdom Hearts as our own! Do well to prepare yourselves in the meantime, my friends, and know that our hour of triumph is nearly at hand!"

Subdued applause rises to life among the other members. Sora finds himself forced to join in, giving him the impression that the master is making most of the others clap too. Unsurprising given the almost grim expressions resting on some of their faces, as if they don't actually want the same thing their master does. As if they don't want to watch every world in existence be mercilessly obliterated right before their very eyes.

As if they feel every bit as terrified about what's to come as Sora is.

"But of course, that triumph could not come to pass without the presence of one very special member amidst our ranks," Xehanort continues. Sora feels sick to his stomach when his master's focus falls upon him. He knows what's coming next, knew the news would be spread to the others sooner or later. But he couldn't have imagined it would come this soon, only mere hours after he found out the awful truth himself.

Sora rises from his seat without his master even needing to tell him to. A simple spark of pain to his heart alone proves more than enough to force him up. He tries his best not to look at the man who turned his life upside down, not even as Xehanort rests a heavy hand upon his shoulder in full view of the other members. Not even as Xehanort unveils the secret that tore everything he thought he knew apart at the seams.

"Long ago, I brought a son into the world," the master begins. That news alone is enough to throw several of his followers through a loop, but what he has to say next absolutely floors them. "And though that son is no longer living, his son stands before us all today. Isn't that right, Sora?"

A small, shuddering breath escapes Sora as his gaze is forced upward, a fake smile slipping onto his face as he speaks softly, despair only narrowly hiding under every word. "Y-yes… Grandfather…."

The rest of the Organization's reaction is stark, predictable even. While the master's other selves maintain a set of broad, knowing smiles, most of the lower ranks are unable to stop their stunned gasps and baffled stares. The other Riku covers his mouth, sympathy streaking across his expression as he stares at Sora alone. Demyx's jaw hangs comically agape as he drops his spoon, letting it fall to his plate with a dull clatter. Vexen looks puzzled, likely trying to piece together what they just heard from a scientific angle. Luxord is one of the few to maintain his composure, but even then, he appears mildly mystified. Larxene's initial shock soon shifts into barely contained laughter, as if this revelation is the funniest thing in the world for how miserable it's obviously making Sora. Marluxia keeps his expression largely neutral, though it does sharpen slightly as he looks between grandfather and grandson more than a few times. Saïx's eyebrows raise, but little else changes, ever stoic even in light of such incredible information.

Of course, most of them aren't permitted to ask any of the countless questions they no doubt have. The upper ranks, however, have much more freedom to speak, which is exactly what Xigbar decides to do. "Soooo, I guess this explains why you worked so hard to get him here, huh?" he asks Xehanort, grinning as if he already knew. Given the odd conversation he'd had with the sharpshooter a few days ago, Sora wouldn't be at all surprised if he had.

For his part, Xehanort simply smiles, his grip tightening on his grandson's shoulder. Sora curiously glances back at him, desperate for the answers he's been barred from knowing since the beginning. But like always, his master keeps those answers ever so slightly out of his reach. "Partially," is all he says. And that's all his Organization, all his grandson, is allowed to know.

The meeting ends in short order after this. The other members are dismissed, left to mull over news that still has most of them reeling. Though of course, none of them are as shellshocked by it as Sora himself. He hadn't slept last night–for an odd change of pace, his master hadn't forced him to, he'd even granted him the "freedom" to spend those hours mournfully sobbing in his bed instead. He soon finds that it's one of the last few shreds of freedom he's given too. For immediately after the announcement is made, his masters–both young and old–hold him back to give him an entirely new set of rules to follow.

Xehanort intends to keep his grandson as close as possible leading up to his "destined day" as he calls it. To that end, Sora is to spend almost every waking moment in his master's presence. His breakfasts with Young Xehanort will continue, but immediately after, he's ordered to dutifully stay by his grandfather's side until he's permitted to go to sleep. His room is even moved to a new chamber conjured into existence in the same tower as the master's suite, another change meant to keep him under his grandfather's watchful eye at all times. Even as Sora gathers his few belongings to make that move, he already feels suffocated by this shift, keenly aware that his already awful existence here is about to get so much worse. Because every moment he spends with his cruel and cunning master will be some of the most unbearable torture he's had to endure yet.

Torture that will come at the hands of his very own grandfather. At the hands of someone who is supposed to love and care for him. At the hands of someone who never has and never will.

---

Since joining the Organization, Sora has often wondered exactly what his master does during the day. Outside of any usual meetings, Xehanort isn't seen out of his suite that often, apparently too "busy" to mingle with his own vessels. Exactly what he's so busy with is a highly-debated point among the lower ranks. But as Sora discovers during his first full day spent in his master's company, his work isn't quite as interesting as his followers think it is.

Xehanort says little to him when he arrives after breakfast that morning. He's simply instructed to take a seat upon the couch across the room from his master's desk and stay quiet so as to not interrupt his unknown work. Sora has no choice but to do exactly that, sitting in perfect silence while his master pours over old books and scrolls and jots down notes over whatever they might contain. As for the purpose or even the subject of his copious research, Sora has no idea, nor is he allowed to ask. All he's allowed to do is sit there, his hands folded in his lap, his gaze never able to linger on his master for too long, lest a burst of pain upon his heart punish him for it. Every now and then though, he catches his master glancing his way, his piercing gaze narrowed and intent, as if he's studying him from afar. Sora always manages to feel so much smaller under the weight of his gaze, as if he's occupying too much space, as if he's breathing too loudly, as if he's simply just existing too much for his master's liking.

Which only makes him wish he didn't exist even more.

Hours pass in almost perfect silence, with only the soft and steady sound of the master's pen against paper breaking it. Occasionally, a low roar of thunder will accompany the endless rain outside the wide window behind Xehanort, but that's about it. Sora can't help but find his master's silence odd, especially given how talkative he'd been the previous night, when he'd told a sordid tale that he's still struggling to believe is true. He thought his master would be gloating right now, holding the twisted connection between them over his grandson's head to shatter his heart even more. But instead… he's merely going about his business as usual, pretending as if his grandson isn't even there. As if he hasn't ruined his grandson's life in every way imaginable.

Without much else to do, it doesn't take long for Sora to become restless. The couch he's on is admittedly very comfortable to the point that he wouldn't mind stretching out for a nap to pass the otherwise idle hours. But his master refuses to even let him have that much as he's forced to remain upright, left with nothing to do but count the white tiles on the floor in front of him for what feels like the hundredth time now. It's mind-numbing to the point that he doesn't even realize when an involuntary yawn slips out. A yawn that's finally enough to break his master's stoic, steadfast silence.

"I believe you were instructed to sit there quietly, my thirteenth," Xehanort says, not even glancing up from the notes he's writing.

Sora starts, sitting up a bit straighter as he tries to make sense of the embarrassed warmth rushing through his face. "I-I… I'm sorry, Grandfather…" he mutters, hoping that's the end of it. But of course, it isn't.

"As you should be," Xehanort finally glances up at him, scowling. "Your boredom has been speaking volumes within your thoughts for the past several hours now. Do you really find spending some quality time with your poor grandfather to be so dull and tedious?"

"N-no," Sora shakes his head, even though that's exactly the case. "I'm… just not sure what you want me to do while I'm here-"

"I want you to stay where I can keep a careful eye on you," Xehanort says, without bothering to explain why. "I would have thought you'd be grateful for this change in your routine. I've liberated you from the abuse and scorn of your fellow members, and yet you still find room to be miserable. Such ungratefulness is a trait you must have picked up from your equally thankless father, no doubt."

Sora swallows hard at such a callous mention of his father. From last night alone, he could tell that Xehanort's opinion of his own son was far from proud or pleased. And though everything he's learned has left Sora with more than a few conflicted feelings about his own father, he still can't help but bristle a bit when he hears his grandfather speak ill of him in such a way.

He isn't allowed to say a single word of protest against it though. Not that he's sure what he's supposed to say at this juncture in general. At first, he thinks they're about to fall back into that dreadful, endless silence all over again. At least until his master catches him off guard with a surprising order.

"If you really need something to occupy your time with, then you may choose a book from my collection to read," he motions to the wide wall of countless tomes to his left. "Perhaps you might even learn something; the stars only know you could stand to for how painfully uneducated you are."

Sora tries not to let that insult sting too much as he quietly gets up and makes his way over to his master's library. He's overwhelmed almost immediately by just how many books sit on the shelves before him, most of which cover topics that he's either never heard about before or doesn't have any interest in at all. But one book among them does happen to stand out, a large, thick volume with a spine reading "Chronicles of the Keyblade War".

He's only heard about the first Keyblade War in passing before, but by most accounts, what actually happened during it remains a mystery. Given that his master's goal is to recreate it, Sora can't help but be curious as to exactly what the first one had entailed and how catastrophic it had truly been. So he slips the large book from the shelf, struggling under its impressive weight as he carries it back over to the couch. He winces when he noisily drops it on the table before his former seat, garnishing only an irritated glance from his master, but fortunately little else.

He cracks the book open to find small text and essentially no images to accompany them. Leave it to his master to enjoy reading the most dense, complicated books he can find. Still, Sora does what he can to get through the first page, struggling on several words he's never even seen before. Despite his best efforts, he isn't able to understand much outside of the simple fact that the first Keyblade War was hundreds of years ago. Hardly something he didn't already know.

"You won't find the answers you're looking for in that book or any other, child," Xehanort suddenly speaks up. He closes the book he'd been working on as he rises from his seat, moving to stand across the table from Sora. "The full story of the ancient Keyblade War would take a lifetime to recount, and then some. But because the guardians of light have kept you blind from the truth of that conflict for so very long, I suppose I could tell you an abridged version of the tale."

Sora leans forward, absently closing the book he'd chosen to listen to his grandfather's story instead. However skewed and distorted it might be. "Eons ago, the worlds were united under the pure power that had brought each and every one of them into existence, Kingdom Hearts," Xehanort begins, his eyes closed, his tone contemplative. "In those days, light and darkness existed in harmony with each other, a perfect equilibrium that allowed peace and prosperity to reign for centuries. In time, however, that peace was shattered when those who followed the light tried to overtake those who dwelled in darkness. The careful balance between both forces was broken, and in the chaos that followed, many sought out the might of Kingdom Hearts. Some to restore that balance for the good of all, some merely to satisfy their own selfish ambitions. But each were willing to do whatever it took to obtain that unparalleled power as their own."

"So they fought over it?" Sora guesses apprehensively. He doesn't know why the mere thought sends a sudden pang of palpable despair through his heart, but it does all the same.

Xehanort nods, his back turned to his grandson. "Keyblade wielders from across the worlds clashed to conquer the ultimate key from which all Keyblades are forged. The key that calls upon Kingdom Hearts itself: the X-Blade. But in their folly, they were blind to the fact that thirteen other Keys were needed to truly unlock the kingdom's might-"

"The Keys to the Kingdom," Sora fills in, wrapping his arms tightly around himself. He shivers, even though it's not even cold in his master's chamber in the slightest.

"You're catching on quicker than I thought you would," Xehanort smirks back at him. "Without the thirteen Keys, even the radiance of the X-Blade was but nothing. In the devastation of the war Keyblade War, it was shattered and Kingdom Hearts vanished from the heavens. Without its power to sustain them, the worlds fell into the abyss as true darkness consumed all. Until-"

"Until the light in the hearts of children brought them back," Sora interjects, surprised that he's allowed to interrupt his master at all. "I've heard that part of the story before."

Xehanort turns to face him once more, his expression grave. "Yes… but few recognize the role darkness had to play in restoring what had been lost. Light and darkness are two sides of the same coin; one cannot exist without the other. For the worlds to exist as you know them, both must be allowed to survive and thrive. Your mere existence is proof enough of that, Sora."

While he isn't sure what to make of such a mysterious comment, the contradictions in what his grandfather just said is what surprisingly strikes Sora the most. "Then why are you trying to get rid of the light?" he asks, forcing his gaze back down to the floor.

"I've never once strived to do such a thing," Xehanort counters evenly. "What I seek to build is a world much like the one that existed before the first Keyblade War. A world where all lands are unified, where all people are equal. Where light and darkness coexist as they are meant to instead of one trying to conquer the other. Where every heart can thrive in peace and perfect harmony. Certainly, Sora, you can't fault an old man for wanting to see such a world come to be, can you?"

Despite the sincerity in his grandfather's voice, Sora can sense the plentiful lies behind it. He knows his master's motives are anything but pure, that the world he seeks to create isn't one of balance, but one of oppression, where he rules over all. Still, he decides to play along by posing a careful question of his own all the same. "If that's what you want, then do you really have to begin another Keyblade War to make that happen?" he asks, hugging himself even tighter. "Do you really have to go this far?"

"How little you understand, my boy," Xehanort shakes his head with an almost weary sigh. "All that has a beginning so too must have an end. You cling so tightly onto the worlds as you know them, all without realizing just how unbearably broken they really are. It is their destiny to die so that the way may be paved for something far better."

"The worlds aren't broken," Sora argues, even though he knows he shouldn't. Yet something deep inside of him still pushes him to defend the worlds he loves so much all the same. "They're perfect just the way they are because they're filled with so many wonderful people who don't deserve to die just because you say they do!"

Surprisingly, Xehanort doesn't punish him for such an outburst. Instead, he merely raises an eyebrow, his haunting, golden stare fixed on the boy sitting before him. "I would have thought that you would know better than anyone, Sora, just how depraved the worlds can truly be," he says, his tone critical, cunning. "The same worlds in which you starved, in which you froze and bled and spent so many sleepless nights wandering alone. The same worlds filled with so many who cast you out, who called you a monster, who kept you shackled simply for how you look and the power that you wield. By accepting your place here with us, my thirteenth, you have already admitted the truth: there is no place in the worlds as they exist now for someone like you."

Sora falls into silence, his own thoughts echoing all the evidence his master's claims need to be proven true. Echoing all of the voices that had ever called him out for being a liar, a thief, a murderer, a monster. Echoing all of the moments he's been captured and chained and treated so cruelly. Echoing every ounce of pain, of grief, of fear, of anger, everything he can't escape from, everything someone else has ever made him feel.

Echoing exactly why he should hate everyone who's ever hated him in turn. Echoing why he should want them gone, why he should want them to get everything they deserve for wronging him and hurting him. Echoing why he should see it all the same way as his grandfather already does.

And yet…

"I-I… I don't want… to just… destroy everything…" he mutters, tears already starting to brim in his eyes. "I don't want this… I don't want what you do… I don't… I…"

He breaks off into a sob, his hands slipping over his face as his heart breaks for what feels like the millionth time in a row. As consumed in despair as he is, he doesn't even notice Xehanort taking a seat upon the couch next to him. At least until his grandfather's arms slowly fold him into a falsely comforting embrace. "Dry your eyes, child." There's something almost akin to sympathy in his tone as he gently guides Sora's tearful gaze up toward him. "It is indeed a heavy burden that you bear, but a crucial one all the same. You cannot see the light that awaits at the end of this dark road, but I do. I see a world where all that is broken has been fixed. I see a world where the pain you feel now is nothing more than a faint and faded memory. And… I see a world where you are not met with hatred and fear… but honor and respect. Rejoice, my dear grandson, for that is only one short week away from becoming real…"

It's a world that Sora still doesn't want, not even for any of his grandfather's meaningless promises. It's a world that he's terrified of bringing into existence, a world he desperately doesn't see. It's a world that will only ever prove to be hollow and empty for what it will lack. It's a world world where he'll never get to have the ones he loves, the ones he's already long-since lost, ever again.

And yet… as he collapses into his grandfather's arms once more… Sora realizes that it's a world he has no choice but to help him create.

---

Though he's finally off the hook for serving as an unofficial slave to his fellow members, Sora is still expected to offer that same level of devout service to his grandfather instead. Fortunately, the most the master expects out of him is simple chores, from dusting his bookshelves to setting the table for their dinners to the errand he's most frequently asked to run: fetching tea.

Though Xehanort can conjure just about anything in his lofty chamber, he still insists on freshly-brewed, non-magically made tea. Sora isn't sure who used to bring him tea before, but in his new station by his master's side, the task has now somehow fallen to him instead. He's much better versed in crafting coffee–like the kind he used to so carefully make for Riku–instead of tea. So it's hardly a surprise when his master criticizes the quality of the beverage almost every time he brings it to him. Sora has asked more than once in his thoughts why his grandfather can't just make his stupid tea himself if he wants it to meet his ridiculously high expectations, a thought he's always painfully punished for. But just like everything else about his master's motives, the reason behind this simple, yet frustrating order remains a mystery. A mystery Sora can't help but mull over as he carries his grandfather's tea up the seemingly endless flights of stairs of his tower once again.

His curiosity is brought to an abrupt end the moment he enters his master's chamber. He glances up from the tea tray in his hands to see something that takes his breath away in more ways than one. Xehanort sits at his desk, both of his hands raised, magic swirling strong around them both as they cast an illusion into the open air above him. An illusion of thirteen glimmering Keys uniting with a Keyblade unlike any Sora has ever seen before. The moment all fourteen Keys merge together, they form a radiant Heart, blooming with golden light that's all too swiftly enshrouded by the thickest of darkness. He gasps as he watches it all unfold, his master initially not even aware of his presence as focused on practicing this spell as he is. In fact, he doesn't seem to notice Sora at all until he hears a tray suddenly crash to the ground, glass shattering starkly in its wake. Until he glances up to see the boy's eyes, one pure white, the other pitch black, utterly transfixed on the image of the Heart high above him.

And though Sora doesn't see it, Xehanort can only smile at such a promising sight.

He dismisses his illusion as he rises from his desk. He's not surprised to see his grandson's eyes return to normal, lightheadedness suddenly overtaking him. Sora doesn't linger in that weakness for long, however, as he notices the mess he'd accidentally made, hot tea pooling around broken shards of china at his feet. Horror overtakes him as he glances up to see his grandfather steadily approaching him, his aged features set in a vicious, warning scowl. It's enough to send the boy to his knees, his claws trembling as he tries to scoop the shattered glass up as quickly as he possibly can and choking out a rushed, feeble apology as he does.

"G-Grandfather!" he exclaims accidentally. He wanted to say master, he would much rather call him master. But ever since the truth has come out, it's as though the word itself has been replaced in his vocabulary. As if he's barred from calling this treacherous man anything other than what he truly is to him. "I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to–I-it was an accident, I swear!" He sizes up in fear when his grandfather stops to stand over him, his gloved hand raised high in the air, no doubt with the intent of brutally bringing it down upon him. Panic takes the place his destroyed dignity used to be, forcing frightened words out of his mouth far faster than his thoughts could ever hope to process them. "W-wait!" he already begins bracing himself for the onslaught. "I'll clean this all up and get you some more, just… please, Grandfather, don't-"

He cuts himself off when he sees his master's hand move gently to the side instead of swinging swiftly down toward him. With that movement, his magic makes the spilled tea evaporate into thin air, the broken tea set vanishing right along with it, leaving the floor perfectly clean in its place. Sora flinches, nearly forgetting to breathe when Xehanort finally does bring that hand down… to help him stand instead of beating him senseless.

"Be at ease, my boy," Xehanort wears a smile as he slowly helps his grandson stand. A smile that Sora finds no comfort in whatsoever. "Accidents like these are known to happen. Besides, I'm not much in the mood for tea this afternoon to begin with. I'd much rather fancy… a song instead."

"A-a song?" Sora frowns, confused as he shakily stands.

Xehanort nods, leading the way back over to his desk. He motions for Sora to take his usual spot on the couch before he moves on to put away whatever research he'd been working on. "I've put enough time and energy into my studies for one day. A bit of music would do well to soothe my old, weary soul," his already unsettling smile widens as he sets his sights on his nervous thirteenth. "Sora, sing something for your grandfather. Preferably, something from the heart."

"Oh, uh…" Sora swallows hard, his claws digging into the lap of his coat a bit. "I-I'm not very good at singing-"

"I didn't ask you if you were 'good' at it," Xehanort counters, his uncharacteristically cordial tone turning into something Sora is a bit more used to. "I believe I asked you to sing. So do as you're told, my thirteenth."

It's a direct order this time, one that Sora has no choice but to follow, however odd and embarrassing it might be. His mind scrambles for a song that will appease his master, and yet none come to him. None… save for one certain song that's so very special to him, a song that stands as one of the final few sacred things of his now-tainted childhood. A song he desperately doesn't want to share with anyone, especially not his master… but it's that very song he ends up singing all the same.

"The sun, the moon, the stars are why-"

"We always look up to the sky-"

He hesitates only for a moment, his heart wavering under the weight of that cherished melody. Under the weight of the stare of the father of the very man who used to so kindly, so lovingly sing that melody to him to lull him to sleep.

"Gaze up there and you will see-"

"An endless chain of memory-"

His master doesn't stop him, so Sora figures the song is adequate enough to keep going, even though he'd rather do anything but. Even though every word he sings strikes a new burst of sorrow spreading through his heart.

"Drop the distance into dreams-"

"A birth by sleep, a flowing stream-"

He closes his eyes, trying to pretend he isn't here in this wicked castle, singing this song to his wicked master. Trying to pretend that he's safe and happy back at home, that he's echoing this lovely tune to the father he lost so long ago. Trying to live in a forgotten dream rather than the nightmare his life has become.

"Of time, unwinds in dark, in light-"

"The days go by as hearts take flight-"

"And you-"

"And you precious child, hold the key… to your destiny-"

"And you, precious child, bear your legacy-"

Sora freezes, his voice going silent when his master takes over the tune in his stead. An almost nostalgic smile rests on Xehanort's face as he continues the song in a lower, slower key. A song he shouldn't know, a song he couldn't possibly know. And yet he still sings every word perfectly all the same.

"Dearly beloved, look up to the endless sky-"

"Dearly beloved, there your heart will fly-"

As terror-stricken as Sora is, his emerging anguish only doubles when he's suddenly forced to sing again. He's only ever sung this song in harmony with his parents before. But now, he's made to join in a dissonant duet with his hateful grandfather instead.

"The sun, the moon, the stars are why-"

"We always look up to the sky-"

"Gaze up there and you will see-"

"The path that's always meant to be…"

Those final few words echo off into the dense silence that fills the room as soon as they're finished. Sora doesn't even realize he's trembling, his eyes locked with his master's as he offers him his usual calm, collected, infuriating smile. An unsteady breath escapes him when he finally finds his voice again, but the only question he has to ask comes out in little more than a feeble, fearful whisper. "H-how… did you know that song…?"

Xehanort's smile deepens in a way that sends painful shockwaves through his grandson, every bit as much as what he has to say does. "I first heard that ancient lullaby from the one who brought me up many years ago. And when I bore a child of my own, I found it only suitable that I pass it along to him. And it seems as though Tsuki did the very same."

Sora isn't sure how he's supposed to react to such daunting news. But how he does react… catches even his master off guard. Instead of crying like he normally would, he laughs. He laughs as he digs a clawed hand into his white hair. He laughs as he clutches the charm of his necklace, yet another memory of his long-lost father tainted by the very man sitting before him. He laughs as if it's the funniest thing in all the worlds, because in a way it is. It's a cruel, sick, hilarious joke played on him by his father, by his grandfather, by fate itself it seems, all conspiring against him to tear his mind, his heart, his very soul to pieces.

His laughter finally hitches into a sob as he grips his crown tighter, to the point that its sharp metal tips start to dig into the skin of his palm. His master remains silent as he watches the boy pour his unhinged agony out, even going as far as to allow him to speak that agony freely.

And speak freely he does.

"I-I… I hate you…" Sora starts, his voice initially low before it explodes into raw, unbridled fury. Fury that's been stewing just under the surface for far too long now. "I HATE YOU!" He screams as he shoots to his feet. His golden eyes flash sharply, the rain outside surging into a violent storm as spikes burst brutally out of the pure white floor around him. Despite being at the receiving end of it, Xehanort doesn't react in the slightest to his grandson's rage. He simply lets the boy continue unfettered, smiling softly all the while, as if all of this is amusing to him. And it probably is, not that Sora cares in the slightest, not enough to get him to stop when he's already in so deep.

"I hate you so much!" he repeats again, wanting to make sure his master knows. To make sure his grandfather never forgets just how much he despises him and everything he stands for. "You took everything from me! My friends, my freedom, my life–they're all gone because of you! You're the reason I'm like this; you turned me into this… this monster!" he glares down at his claws, pulls harshly on one of his wings. Struggles to remember what he might've looked like before, when he used to be human instead of whatever he is now. "You ruined me! And you don't even care!"

More blackened spikes rise as Sora falls to the floor, crushed by grief and anger to the point that he can remain standing no longer. Words fail him as he pours his despair out through loud, mournful cries. Xehanort leans forward in interest when he notices his grandson's tears have changed. They're as black as ink as they spill down from one eye, creamy white tears pouring from the other. They all leave a permanent mark when they fall, however, painting thick streaks down his cheeks in the same shade of shadow that drenches so much of the rest of his broken body. Making him look even more monstrous and miserable than he already is.

"I hate you…" Sora mutters one final time, not even looking up as his grandfather comes to stand before him.

"...But…?" Xehanort finally speaks evenly, expectantly.

Sora sits up, his tears slowing, his spikes slowly retreating back into the ground. "But… you're my master. A-and… you're… you're my g-grandfather," his voice breaks on that word, that awful word that binds the two of them to each other. That simple word that's tarnished everything he thought he knew about his past… and destroyed any hopes he might have once had for his future.

"Which means?" Xehanort continues to prompt. And the answer that Sora gives is genuinely his own, an empty, agonizing truth he knows he can't escape from, not anymore.

"Which means… you're a part of me… You always have been, and… you always will be…" he continues to hold onto the crown charm around his neck, hating it all the while. He doesn't want to wear this necklace anymore, he hasn't since he found out where it came from. And now that he has… he can't help but feel almost angry at his father for gifting it to him all those years ago. For pawning off a piece of his past he didn't want to deal with onto his son, for not being here to protect that son from his own fearsome father, for being the chain that connects his son to that father in the first place.

"You know, your father could have stood here in your place, Sora," Xehanort says, reading his distraught vessel's thoughts as he lets him stand on his own accord. "If he had lived up to my expectations for him, if he'd possessed even an ounce of the same power you do… then there wouldn't have ever been a need for you to exist at all."

I wish I didn't exist… Sora answers only his thoughts as his master reaches in to try some of his tears away.

"Put such thoughts away, child," Xehanort condemns coldly. Even so, his hand rests on the boy's face, a thumb tracing down one of the dark lines now forever etched onto it. "Your existence is a miracle, a gift granted to me from Kingdom Hearts itself. I was told many years ago that the power to unlock all of the mysteries that great Kingdom has to offer would rest in my own bloodline. When your father proved to be a disappointment, I had nearly given up hope. Until you were brought into the world, Sora. Having you was perhaps the only worthwhile thing Tsuki ever did with his otherwise meaningless life."

Don't say things like that about him! Sora protests, but not out loud. His freedom to speak is suddenly stripped away from him, yet he's still able to pull back away from his grandfather all the same. At least until Xehanort reaches out to take the charm of his necklace away from him, letting it rest in his palm as he smiles eagerly at it.

"And you, precious child, hold the key to your destiny…" he recites one of the lullaby's lyrics. A lullaby that, as far as Sora is concerned, he never wants to hear again. "And indeed, that destiny draws ever nearer. Only a few days remain, Sora. I trust you won't disappoint me in the same way your fool of a father once did."

Every ounce of remaining control is finally taken from Sora as he finds himself dropping to one knee. His stomach twists in disgust as he's forced to bow before his master, showing him respect he knows he doesn't deserve in the slightest for every horrible thing he's done. And when he speaks, his voice comes out quiet, yet loyal as he makes a vow he wishes he didn't have to keep. A vow made to his grandfather, to a man he loathes more than anyone he's ever met, to the man who ruined his life before it even began.

"I won't disappoint you, Grandfather. I-I… I promise."

---

Somewhere within the countless empty hours he spends at his grandfather's side, in the days leading up to the deadly war on the horizon, Sora starts to wonder: exactly what is his role in that war going to be? It's a question he's asked himself before, one that stands hand-in-hand with another he's received no answers for: why did he choose him to begin with? He knows part of the answer to that question now, but he also knows his relation to Xehanort isn't the end of it–he'd made that much clear when he'd announced it to the other members. So why else is he here, and what is he expected to do? And why, with only a few days left to ask such questions, haven't any of them been answered for him yet?

He decides to risk it again that morning during breakfast. He's always found Young Xehanort much easier to talk to than his elder self, and even now, that hasn't changed. Sora's strangely grateful that the young master never brings up the fact that he'll eventually become his grandfather back in the future of his own time. In fact, the only time they ever discussed it was the morning after, when Sora had asked if he'd known all along. Young Xehanort's response was simple, claiming that he did, that Ansem and Xemnas had too. It paints every battle he's ever waged against any of them in a different light, and in many ways, Sora finds it makes how horribly they've treated him so much worse in retrospect. Because now, he's undeniably connected to them all: his master, his master's younger self, his master's Nobody, and his master's Heartless. Each an essential, equally unspeakable part of his past far more than he could have ever imagined before.

Even so, Sora presents his young master with another question this morning. And frustratingly, he's given the same kind of simple, unfulfilling answers he's gotten far too used to by this point: "Your purpose and the part you're meant to play will become clear on the day of destiny," Young Xehanort says, his power silencing any pleas Sora might make to hear more. "On your 17th birthday, your foretold fate shall finally unfold. And for now, my thirteenth, that is all you need to know."

But of course, that's nowhere near close to enough to satisfy Sora.

His birthday is rapidly approaching, and never before has he dreaded it as much as he does now. It's ironic, in a way, that the day commemorating the beginning of his life will bring the end for countless others. He hates that, hates that he isn't even allowed to know how it will all happen, hates that he's barred from even getting to hear what will happen to him when it all unfolds. But he does finally get a hint when he reports to his grandfather's chamber after breakfast. A hint that starts with perhaps one of the most harrowing orders his master has given him yet.

"I would like to conduct an experiment today, Sora," Xehanort says almost as soon as the boy arrives at his suite. He stands before his desk, a smooth, yet eager grin on his face that sends a chill down Sora's spine. "An experiment that I require your assistance with."

Sora bites his lip, terrifying memories of the last time he was experimented on flooding through his mind. He remembers all too well a few weeks ago, when Vexen had pumped him full of potions and poisons and all sorts of other painful chemicals, when his antenna had been swiftly sliced clean off, when his body had brutalized far more than he could bear. His master reads those frightened thoughts, however, and is quick to put them to rest as he beckons the boy closer.

"Rest assured, child, my experiment will bring you not an ounce of pain so long as you do as I say," he instructs, allowing Sora to stop only a few feet across from him.

"What do you want me to do?" he asks, already dreading whatever it might be. He soon finds that dread is completely founded with what his master instructs of him next.

"Summon the thirteen Keys to the Kingdom so that your grandfather may look upon their otherworldly splendor," he says simply, as if he hadn't just asked Sora to do something so unspeakable and impossible.

"I can't," Sora says, and he's immensely grateful for that fact. Because to give his grandfather all thirteen Keys… to hand over the final few tools he needs to secure his vile victory… he can't even fathom the devastation that would bring. "When I was still… b-before I joined the Organization, I left all of the Keys I found with the lights, except for the ones you and the other members took from me."

Xehanort doesn't seem fazed by this news in the slightest. "Do the lights possess your Keyblade, my thirteenth?" he asks, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well, no, but-"

"If they do not prevent you from summoning that Key, then why wouldn't you be able to summon any other that you have gathered?" Xehanort continues. "Regardless of which side of the board they fell after the fact, each of the thirteen Keys first made themselves known to you, my boy. For that reason alone, you should be more than capable of calling upon every last one, no matter where you are."

"B-but I-"

"Do you dare question your master's orders, boy?" Xehanort raises a hand, darkness swirling around it. That darkness sears Sora's heart, forcing him into submissive silence, into complying with a command that can and will end in catastrophe. "I will only tell you one final time: summon the thirteen Keys."

Sora can't say no, he can't even think to try. His hand rises high into the air on its own accord… and his heart commits the ultimate act of betrayal by beckoning each of the Keys it's managed to connect with, each appearing in the order that he found them.

First is the Key of Friendship, claimed in, of all places, a toy store, surrounded by beloved friends both old and new.

Second is the Key of Fear, called forth high in the sky from the endless terror of standing alone, terror he still so deeply carries.

Third is the Key of Compassion, borne from understanding a heart that had lost so much, from a sea flooded by that heart's sorrow.

Next comes the Key of Conflict, appearing in a vast city, showing itself when his heart had first wavered at the thought of the unimaginable future he's now come to live.

Then, there's the Key of Curiosity, forged in a city lost to the sea, driven by the desire to know the answers he still doesn't have, answers he'll likely never get.

The Key of Joy comes next, still stinging his heart with the irony that it had been found in such a beautiful world at such a beautiful moment… only to be taken from him as it all truly began to fall apart.

The Key of Remembrance follows, from the home of the dead, from the recollection of someone so long forgotten, someone who, at the very least, he'd managed to save for such a short time.

Next is the Key of Rage, shame rising up in him as he recalls the merciless, murderous anger that had burgeoned deep within his heart upon that haunted castle to bring it to light.

The Key of Desire emerges, found within a bewitching world where he'd lost so much, where he'd realized he'd never had anything he truly needed.

After that there's the Key of Guilt, guilt from a petty theft amidst the sands, guilt over the friends he'd left behind, guilt for so many things he can't even begin to list them all.

The Key of Trust comes in, and his heart sinks when he realizes how much that trust had him failed in, both in the mysterious worlds of that world and in so many others.

The Key of Sorrow shows itself and he nearly cries at the sight of it, at the devastating memory of his claws raking across the face of his best friend in the seconds before it had fallen in and out of his hands.

Finally, the Key of Love, the last of them all, claimed in a once snow-covered kingdom alongside the love of his life, love that he lost so suddenly, so swiftly, love that he'll never get to know again.

And… in a matter of mere seconds, the thirteen Keys to the Kingdom, separated from each other for countless centuries on end… are finally together again in the exact same room.

Despite such a momentous moment, Xehanort spares little focus for the thirteen radiant Keys hovering before him. Instead, his sights are set solely on Sora, his hypothesis proven correct the second all of the Keys have materialized. The effect they have on the boy is immediate as a sharp gasp is drawn out of him. The Keys surround him in a wide, slow-moving circle, the powerful light surrounding each and every one brimming even brighter now that they're united. Sora remains at the center of that circle, his hands falling slack at his sides, his mouth hanging agape as his eyes become utterly void and empty, one completely black, the other perfectly white. Xehanort's already intrigued smile widens when the boy's feet slowly lift off of the ground, as he inexplicably comes to hover just a few inches off the floor in much the same way the Keys circling him do. The master can practically feel the incredible, unparalleled power radiating through the room, power he craves, power that's so very close to being his to cultivate and control.

And yet, while Xehanort savors even just a glimpse at that power… he doesn't hear what Sora does. He doesn't hear the hundreds, the thousands of voices all speaking to him at once, each of them saying so many different, daunting things.

You're not where you belong…

Open the door…

Become what you truly are…

Become what you've always been…

Open the door…

It is nearly time for us to become whole…

Open the door…

You're almost ready to come home…

Come home, come home, come home…

Come home… to your heart…

Come home… to your Kingdom…

Come home so we can be together again…

Open the door…

Come Home…

"Home…" his voice echoes the one crying out to him. Thousands speak in unison through his lips, their voices ringing softly through his master's chambers as he slowly reaches a hand out toward the Keys before him. Xehanort is more than ready to let him do exactly that, simply for the sake of seeing what happens. But before the boy's claws can even skim any of them, suddenly the initially gentle chorus of voices becomes harsher, louder, deafening even as they flood into his already overtaken mind.

COME HOME!

OPEN THE DOOR!

YOU'VE BEEN LOST FOR SO LONG!

WHY DID YOU LEAVE?!

THIS ISN'T WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE!

OPEN THE DOOR!

YOU NEVER SHOULD HAVE LEFT!

YOU SHATTERED US BOTH!

OPEN THE DOOR!

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!

YOU RUINED EVERYTHING!

OPEN THE DOOR!

HOW HAVE YOU ALREADY FORGOTTEN?!

YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU REALLY ARE!

OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR!

COME HOME! OPEN THE DOOR! COME BACK! COME HOME! BE WHOLE! COME HOME! OPEN THE DOOR! STOP THIS! END THIS! OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR OPEN THE DOOR OPEN OPEN THE DOOR COME HOME COME HOME COME HOME COME HOME OPEN THE DOOR COME HOME OPEN THE DOOR COME HOME

COME HOME

COME HOME

COME

HOME

MY KING

COME HOME

By now, his own voice has hitched into a scream, his hands pressed against his head as the Keys spin around him rapidly. Spikes, both black and white, wrench themselves out of the floor, a heavy aura of mingled darkness and light enshrouding the boy and the Keys alike. Xehanort essentially has to conjure a field of shielding magic just to protect himself from his grandson's unintentional onslaught. Thunder booms and lightning crashes across the World that Never Was, and every member of the Organization takes a moment to pause and wonder exactly what is going on in their master's chambers.

It goes on for only a few moments that feel like hours. It only ends when the Keys suddenly vanish, each one disappearing into thin air at the same exact time. As soon as they're gone, Sora gasps once more, the glow from his eyes fading as he collapses unconsciously to the ground. In the stated silence that follows, the master finds his suite has all but been destroyed, but he thinks little of it; it's nothing a bit of magic won't be able to swiftly repair.

Instead, his focus is set on his grandson as he approaches the unmoving boy. A thin stream of blood trickles from his nose and mouth, his body limp and silent, a complete contrast to the immense power that had flowed through it mere seconds ago. He probably won't remember what just happened here, what the Keys had brought on, what he'd said or felt or heard or thought. Even so, Xehanort smiles as he reaches down to brush the boy's messy hair out of his closed eyes, eyes that had just reflected both the deepest of darkness and the brightest of light.

"We're nearly there, my boy…" he muses as he thumbs a speck of blood off of the boy's necklace. Far be it from him to let such a special crown, such a special child, be tarnished so close to his hour of fate. "Your destined day is almost here… The day you shall end all you know… and the day I shall begin it all anew… And what a glorious day that will be…"

---

Two days left until his birthday. Two days left until the Keyblade War. Two days left… until the end.

Sora tries not to count them down like his grandfather no doubt eagerly is. But as the destined day draws ever closer, he can't help but dread it more and more. A disastrous day he wishes wouldn't come… and every miserable moment that's doomed to follow it.

That day weighs heavy on his thoughts as he makes his way up to his master's tower from breakfast. He isn't often on his own anymore, so he savors what few moments of privacy he's allowed to get where he isn't under the constant watch of either of his masters. The castle's halls are as lonely as they always are, and fortunately none of the other members seem to be roaming about–not that any of them are allowed to interact with him anymore anyway. Not since he'd been even further solidified as the master's "property" simply through the blood relation between them alone.

As lost in thought as he is, Sora almost doesn't notice the strange creature lingering in one of the hallways he passes by. At least until he realizes that creature wasn't a Heartless or a Nobody like he's used to seeing here.

"Wait…" he turns, watching as the creature in question skitters off further down the hall. "Was that… an Unversed?"

The Unversed stops at the end of the hall, its red eyes staring back at him as it almost seems to beckon him to follow it. Sora hesitates, knowing his master will be angry with him if he's late, knowing who this Flood is likely about to lead him to. But in the end, curiosity outweighs all else as he tentatively trails after the creature, already preparing himself to face the one who summoned it in the first place.

Sure enough, he finds Vanitas sitting on the edge of one of the castle's covered balconies. His near-twin only regards him briefly before he calls upon his Keyblade. At first, Sora thinks it's to attack him outright… but instead, he simply and swiftly strikes down the Unversed that brought him here.

Vanitas lets out a pained hiss through his teeth as the creature vanishes, narrowly managing to keep his balance on his lofty perch. At first, Sora doesn't know what to say to him as he stares at him warily, in awe of just looking at another person after being constantly surrounded by the same 12 for over a month. In the end, whatever chance he had to speak first slips away from him as Vanitas kickstarts a conversation instead.

"Yeesh," he scowls, looking his twin up and down critically. "You look even worse than you did the last time I saw you. Almost makes me wonder why they'd even want to go through all the trouble of trying to get a freak like you back…"

Sora frowns, confused by such a comment. He doesn't question it any further, however as he asks a much more obvious one instead. "What are you doing here?"

Vanitas rolls his eyes, his tone sarcastically mocking as he slips off the balcony railing to lean against it instead. "I was just feeling nostalgic for this place. I've really started to miss the Organization life after the old man replaced me with you."

"...Really?"

"What do you think, idiot?"

"Y-you're here to try and get me to merge with you again, aren't you?" Sora asks, taking a small step back. "To form the X-Blade? I… I would, if I could, honestly. Anything to escape this… But… my master… if he finds out, he'd-"

"Would you shut up?" Vanitas scoffs. "I don't wanna hear about how your stupid master might punish you for actually having a backbone and standing up to him for a change. And I'm not here for the X-Blade either."

"Well, then what are you here for?" Sora shoots back bitterly. "To make fun of me for losing everything I ever cared about? If you are, then get in line; there's 12 others who already beat you to it…"

"...You really fell for it, didn't you?" Vanitas asks, crossing his arms. "Then again, I guess I can't say I'm surprised; I don't think I've ever met someone who's more of a gullible moron than you."

Sora doesn't bother trying to defend himself, in part because it's not worth the energy and in part because he's still trying to make sense of this strange encounter in the first place. "What are you talking about? Fell for what?"

"That big show your 'master' put on back in the graveyard," Vanitas begins as he takes a step closer to him. "It was all a sham, a ruse to make you think the guardians of light had died. But the truth is, the old man just scattered them across the worlds until he needs them again. All so he could get you on his side when you were at your weakest, when you thought you had nothing left to hold out for any longer. And from the looks of it, I'd say he more than succeeded."

At first, Sora stays silent, struggling to wrap his head around what he just heard. When he finally manages to speak, his voice is barely even audible as he stares not at Vanitas, but out to the rain-soaked city behind him. "W-what…?" he asks, his eyes wide, his mind mystified.

"Just how slow are you?" Vanitas huffs, annoyed, even as he reveals the truth outright. "The lights are alive, you idiot! They've been alive this whole time! And for some stupid reason, they still want to save a sorry waste like you."

Sora forgets to breathe for what feels like an eternity. He simply stands there, blinking as the words repeat themselves in his mind over and over again: the lights are alive, the lights are alive, the lights are alive, Riku and Kairi are ALIVE. It's a thought that's only been allowed to exist in his rarest, most pleasant dreams, something he's only been able to distantly imagine and endlessly wish in vain for. Really, it sounds far too good to be true… which is exactly what Sora forces himself to believe it is.

"T-they… no," he staunchly shakes his head, turning away from his near-twin. "You're lying. They're gone, I know they are. I-I watched them all disappear into the darkness. I… I watched them all die…"

"Oh, did you?" Vanitas counters unsympathetically as tears start to find their usual place in Sora's eyes. "Then who gave me this garbage and begged me to bring it all the way to you?"

If Sora was already in shock before, he's pushed far beyond it when Vanitas pulls something out and offers it to him. A delicate, beautiful charm that had somehow survived everything, that had somehow made its way back to him even after he left it behind. She still found a way to show him her love, even after he left her behind.

He takes the charm with trembling hands, holding it close to his heart as a heavy sob slips out. "They're alive…" he whispers, slowly falling to his knees. Despite his tears, he smiles. He hasn't felt anything even remotely close to this kind of happiness since that awful day at the graveyard. Since the day he thought he'd lost everything. But in reality, through some kind, rare twist of fate, the only thing he'd lost that day… was something he'd given away. His freedom, his life, his heart… but nothing that matters as much to him as his friends. Nothing that matters anywhere near as much to him as the ones he loves most.

The ones who are actually, truly, miraculously alive.

"Ugh, do you have to get so emotional?" Vanitas mocks apathetically. Sora hardly hears him as he continues crying, neither of them noticing that the rain that's been drenching the World that Never Was for weeks now… is finally starting to come to an end. "I swear, you loser lights cry constantly… It's ridiculous."

Sora can't help but laugh in spite of himself, so overwhelmed by joy and relief that he can scarcely contain it. "Vanitas…" his tone is nothing less than absolutely genuine as he rises to stand. "Thank you so much for coming to tell me this. But… I don't understand why you'd-"

"Don't get it twisted; I didn't come here for you," Vanitas is quick to make clear. "If it was up to me, I would have just let you rot here with the old man for whatever's left of your sad existence."

"...Then… who was it up to?" Sora asks. Because certainly, Vanitas wouldn't come here on his own volition. Certainly, he wouldn't bother bringing someone he so obviously hates such hopeful news without a push or nudge from someone else. Someone that Sora only barely catches the name of.

"Naminé…" he mutters, glancing away.

It's an answer, but not much of one. Sora frowns, confused as he tries to press for more. As he tries to understand exactly what Naminé might have said to convince Vanitas to do this. What she might have done to apparently get him to change sides altogether. "But… how-"

Vanitas puts a hand up to stop him, clearly not wanting to say anything more on the matter. "I gave you some information, now you owe me by giving me some in return," he says sternly. "The old man scattered your friends to put his stupid Keyblade War on hold for a reason. So tell me, what is that reason? What exactly is he waiting for?"

Sora draws in a tight breath, not needing any further elaboration as he offers a quiet answer, afraid of any prying eyes or ears. "For my birthday," he says gravely, anxiously. "Two days from today."

Vanitas simply nods at this, apparently not caring enough to ask why. He turns away from his near-twin, intent on leaving without much fanfare… at least until Sora grabs his arm to stop him. "Wait." Tears still rest in his eyes as he offers the other boy a small, sincere smile. "I still don't understand why you told me any of this, but… thank you again, Vanitas. You have no idea how much just knowing they're ok means to me…"

Vanitas' first instinct is to snap back some dry, demeaning taunt at his near-twin. Until… he sees just how tired Sora seems to be, how the despair hanging so heavily over him is only barely starting to lift. How utterly beaten down this boy who looks almost identical to him has been by the unspeakable abuse of the very same man who once did the exact same thing to him.

And though Vanitas isn't quite familiar with the concept of empathy quite yet… he can't help but feel anything but.

"You're welcome," he says, his expression and his tone equally unreadable. Sora still senses some kind of strange solidarity in both of them all the same. "And… hang tight. We're going to take him down. We're going to finish this… once and for all."

And as Vanitas vanishes into the light gate he creates in the open air behind him, Sora hopes that's exactly what they'll do. That they'll put an end to this nightmare, to his Organization, to his master…

And that they put an end to him right along with them.

---

"You're late, child," Xehanort doesn't glance up from his desk when he hears his chamber doors creak open. He only does after a long beat of silence passes, a beat in which his grandson doesn't apologize for his tardiness like he always does.

He looks up to find Sora standing in the door frame, his hands in tight fists at his sides, his expression set in a fierce, steady glare aimed directly at his grandfather. Xehanort is already smirking, already anticipating what the boy is about to say before the words even leave his lips. Even so, he lets him speak his piece freely; after all, it truly is amusing to watch the child think he's rising before his master forces him to fall again.

"You lied to me," Sora growls, his wings hitching high behind him, his antennas pinned back against his skull. "You made me think the lights were dead, but they're not! And if I'd known that they weren't, I never would have come here."

"You were fated to find your way here, my thirteenth," Xehanort counters coolly, confidently. "But that's hardly what matters now. What does matter is why you've decided to trust the word of a traitorous abomination who's tried to outright murder you on a number of occasions over your own grandfather."

"After all of the lies you've fed me before, I'd trust anyone before I'd trust you," Sora shoots back with a kind of ferocity he hasn't felt in quite some time. With a kind of fury he's almost never been allowed to unleash upon his master before.

"I've given you nothing but the truth, my boy," Xehanort finally stands, moving beyond his desk to approach his grandson. "Vanitas came here and told you the falsities that he did to sow one thing and one thing alone in you, Sora: disobedience toward you master. And based on the unsavory behavior you're showing me, his ploy seems to have worked all too well."

"No," Sora pushes back as he takes a bold step forward. "I'm not buying it this time. I know they're alive. And I have proof." He doesn't hesitate to pull the good luck charm out, brandishing it with all of the bravery, all of the hope his heart still has to give. Hope that means nothing to his master.

"And what exactly does that… trinket prove?" Xehanort asks, raising a dubious eyebrow.

"I left this at the graveyard," Sora explains rigidly. "But Kairi made sure this–her good luck charm–found its way back to me. She found a way to tell me that she's still out there, that all of them are! They still want to stop you, they still aren't giving up! And neither am I."

Xehanort stays silent for a moment at such a rebellious proclamation. And yet, instead of punishing Sora for it, he simply grins as he stops to stand only a few feet away from his furious vessel. "Let me see that so-called 'good luck charm'," he instructs, holding a hand out for it.

Naturally, Sora pulls the charm away at first, only for control to be violently wrenched away from him in a matter of seconds. He can't even let out a single word of protest as his trembling hand drops such a precious treasure into his master's awaiting palm.

Xehanort inspects it only for a moment, bemused and almost bored by the simple object that gave his grandson so much hope after it had all but been crushed completely. Which is exactly why the master has no qualms about crushing that charm–that hope–in turn. His hand swiftly closes around it, snapping its delicate shells apart before crumbling them to small, unsalvageable pieces that he carelessly allows to fall to the floor. Sora can only watch in horror as his grandfather so easily destroys something so special, something so important. The final piece he has to hold onto of someone he still loves so dearly.

Something he isn't about to let his master get away with destroying like he already has everything else in his life.

Autonomy floods back to him and he makes the most of it. A raw, outraged scream tears itself out of him, black spikes accompanying it as they shoot through the ground behind him. Sora pays them no mind as he charges forward, his claws at the ready to tear into his treacherous grandfather. His wide, wild swing is ultimately stopped, however, as Xehanort easily catches him by the wrist, gripping tight as he sends a massive pulse of pain through his insubordinate grandson's heart.

"If your former friends truly are alive, then what exactly does that change, child?" Xehanort asks above the boy's pained cries. His hold on his arm doesn't break, even as Sora struggles to escape it. As he struggles to do or say much of anything against his master's vicious, vindictive words. "Does the mere fact that they still live instantly liberate you from this castle, from your Organization, from my power? Do you honestly believe they'll come here to save you when they couldn't even be bothered to send one of their own as a messenger to you? Do you really think any of them would want you now that you've willingly become one of us? Once they find out you and I are family?"

Sora slowly stops resisting as he essentially dangles from his grandfather's hold. Tears start to well up in his eyes, but he doesn't let them fall this time. Not now, not when there's so very much at stake. "H-how they feel about me doesn't matter anymore," he says, because it really doesn't. It hasn't mattered in a long time now, not when there's so many others who still need to be rescued instead of him. "All that matters is that they'll save the worlds. They'll stop you. They'll stop all of us."

Xehanort simply lets out a small laugh at this, all but assured in his vile victory. A victory Sora knows the lights will never let happen, not even for the sake of what his master has to say next. "Ah, but certainly, you must know, my boy, that if your dearest 'friends' destroy me, then they'll have no choice but to destroy you as well."

"Well if they do," Sora says, glaring at his grandfather with all of the hatred he has in his heart. Hatred for his master… and for himself. "Then it'll be exactly what both of us deserve."

Xehanort's smooth smile falls as he finally releases his hold on the boy, allowing him to weakly collapse onto the floor before him. Even so, the master stands over him, scowling down at him in dour disapproval for a vessel that even still, even after all this time and all the torture he's been through, refuses to fall in line. "Impressive," he sneers, disgusted. "Your stubborn defiance truly does match that of your father's before you. What a shame it is that such defiance means absolutely nothing in the face of the destiny that lies before you. Perhaps… it's time you finally learned the truth then. It's time for you to finally understand the role fate has in store for you the day after the next. It's time, Sora, that you learned exactly what you really are."

Sora swiftly sits upright as soon as he hears this. His eyes widen as he glances back up at his master, as he realizes he may finally be close to getting the answers he's been craving. The thought briefly occurs to him that his grandfather is likely just trying to shift his attention away from the lights, to crush his angry outbursts before they can go any further. But at the cost of learning the long sought-after truth, Sora can't really be bothered to care.

And what a terrible truth it turns out to be.

"As we discussed a few nights ago, fourteen Keys are required to beckon the radiance of Kingdom Hearts forth," Xehanort turns away from the boy, his gaze set on the wide window before him. "The thirteen required to unlock its might have already been claimed. But the final key, the key that calls upon the Kingdom in the first place, has yet to be forged. Years ago, I tried to forge that key through Ventus and Vanitas. But the weapon the clash of their conflicting hearts created was ultimately unstable, unable to sustain the Kingdom's all-encompassing power. In my haste to possess that power as my own, my plans fell to pieces. And it was at that moment that I realized… I was still missing the final key needed to claim the Kingdom as my own. And that key… is you, Sora."

As his grandfather glances back at him, Sora slowly rises to stand. His breathing is suddenly shallow, his heart racing in fear he can't quite place. Even so, his master expects him to say something at this juncture, even if the most he can do is admit just how lost he really is in all this. "I-I don't understand…" he says softly, shaking his head. "I don't have anything to do with Kingdom Hearts. I don't want anything to do with Kingdom Hearts, I-"

"You have everything to do with it, child," Xehanort replies. There's a hint of something strange in his voice, something Sora can't quite make sense of. Something that almost sounds… like jealousy. "You were born with an incredible gift, with a heart unlike any before it. It's easy for one to impart pieces of their own heart onto others, Sora. But to be able to hold the heart of not just another, but several others within their own… it's a feat that no one has ever been able to accomplish. No one, that is, except for you."

"S-so what?" Sora asks unsteadily. He presses a hand against the heart in question, trying his best to shield it from whatever his master might want to do to it.

"So, it stands to reason that a heart such as yours could be a viable vessel for far more than the lost hearts of others," Xehanort fully turns to face him, the low light in his chamber casting long, ominous shades across his aged features. "Your heart has the potential to contain far more light than even a Princess of Hearts' does… and far more darkness than even my own. When I visited you that night when you were but an innocent infant, I could sense that potential in you, even then. But it was only after my first attempt to claim the Kingdom failed that I realized what I had to do. To take your heart, already so full of light, and merge it with an equal amount of darkness. To create the clash that shall forge my X-Blade not between two separate hearts, but within one and the same."

"That's why you did all this to me?!" Sora exclaims, his voice hitching in anger as he takes a step back from his grandfather. From the man who's only ever seen him as nothing more than a tool, a mere weapon all along. "You ruined my life just so you could use me to make the stupid X-Blade?!"

"...No," Xehanort corrects, uninterested in his grandson's rising distress. "The fact that I can create the X-Blade from the conflict in your heart is indeed fortuitous, but just as it is only one piece needed to unlock the Kingdom, this is only a fraction of what destiny has in store for you, my boy."

"T-then what-" Sora cuts himself off with an alarmed cry as Xehanort suddenly teleports to stand directly before him. He takes the crown charm of his necklace once more, forcing him to stand still so he can listen to the sordid tale his grandfather has to tell.

"Your father wouldn't have known it," he begins on a seemingly different tangent altogether. "And even I didn't discover it until Tsuki had long since grown. But there is another verse to our family's lullaby, one that had been buried by the sands of time. Would you like to hear it, my thirteenth?"

Sora shakes his head, not wanting to hear that song, once so close to his heart, now so utterly corrupted, ever again. But of course, Xehanort hardly pays him any mind as he proceeds to sing its secret verse anyway. A verse that's far less comforting, far more foreboding than the lullaby's other lovely lyrics.

"Light and darkness wage a war-"

"But don't forget what it's all for-"

"The thirteen Keys will bring it's might-"

"The Child of Destiny takes flight-"

"To the Kingdom, bring her king-"

"Only then, her power sings-"

"In seventeen years, wait and see-"

"The only path that's meant to be…"

With this short and simple song, Xehanort has left his grandson reeling. While this hidden verse has answered a few questions, it leaves so many more in Sora's mind. Questions that he doesn't even have to ask before his grandfather begins answering them.

"I've researched this verse extensively," he explains, finally letting the boy's necklace go. "And in my research, I discovered that our lullaby as a whole is actually a prophecy, one that dates as far back as the first Keyblade War. As a youth, I was told that I was the Child of Destiny its lyrics speak of; but as my fate veered down a different path, I found that Kingdom Hearts had blessed me all the same. For it still gave me the Child of Destiny, the one with a heart that can connect to so many others, the one who is destined to open the door… It gave me you, my dearest grandson."

The second his grandfather's hands so much as skim his face, Sora harshly pulls back. His entire body is shaking by this point, terror flooding through his viens, through his mind, through his highly-coveted heart. "N-no," he protests anxiously, still fighting back tears. "Whatever you think I am, I-I'm not. I'm not the X-Blade o-or this… 'Child of Destiny", or anything else! I'm just-"

"You are, my boy," Xehanort counters, unmoved. "Deep within the depths of your heart, you know that you are. You cannot deny your fate any more than you can deny the inevitability of that fate. You are the one who will unlock the power of Kingdom Hearts and all that lies beyond it, the one who will bring about the end of all worlds and the beginning of the new worlds I shall create through you in their place. Don't you see, child? Whether I had intervened in your life or not, this was always going to be your destiny. You were always meant to open the door."

As soon as his master says this, Sora lets out a wordless, tearful cry. The rain outside suddenly kicks up again, thunder and lightning accompanying it as his eyes brutally flash in equal light and darkness. He staggers backward, overwhelmed by this haunting revelation, but the sudden torrent of voices echoing in and out of his thoughts far too quickly, each of them saying, begging him to do the exact same thing:

Open the door. Open the door. Open the door. Open the door. Open the door. Open the door. OPEN THE DOOR! OPEN THE DOOR! COME HOME! COME HOME!

"S-stop!" he screams, gripping both sides of his head as the voices quiet. His eyes are back to normal, but his body hardly feels grounded, his mind on the brink of exploding as he tries to take it all in. As he tries to comprehend exactly what he is, exactly what his master wants him to do. "I-I won't… I won't do it!" He glares up at his grandfather with all the resilience as he can muster. Which, given his current state, isn't much. "Even if you're right, e-even if this is my destiny, I will never destroy the worlds, not for you or for anyone else!"

"I'm afraid you have no choice, my thirteenth," Xehanort staunchly concludes. "It is the very nature of what you are, the high cost that comes with the power you were born to wield."

Power he never asked for, power he doesn't want. Power that will obliterate every place he's ever been, will kill everyone he's ever met. Sora had thought that learning Xehanort is his grandfather was the worst secret he could ever learn, that nothing could compare to how utterly awful he felt when that secret had fully made itself known. But this… the truth about what he is, what he's always been, what he's destined–doomed–to do… it's unbearable, unthinkable, unescapable. He can't believe that fate would be cruel enough to condemn him to this, that it would allow him to come to care so much for the worlds and the people within them without even realizing he'd be the harbinger of their destruction all along. All the good he's done, everyone he's ever tried to help… it was all for nothing when weighed against the devastation he's destined to bring. Against all of the lives he'd never once had a chance at saving any more than his own.

"I-I can't…" he chokes out a sob. He clutches his heart, his claws nearly digging into his chest as he wishes he could rip it straight out and destroy it, along with any chances it has at killing so many right along with it. "I won't. I-"

"You will," Xehanort counters as Sora lets out a sudden scream. He falls to his knees as a brutal burst of pain attacks his already breaking heart, a swift and stern reminder that he has no say over his own destiny. He never once did. "For so long as I hold power over your heart, then I hold power over the Kingdom you act as a conduit for. As every piece of you, your mind, your body, your heart, your very life itself, belongs to me… so too does every part of Kingdom Hearts."

Even despite the pain reverberating through his body, Sora still finds room to argue, still so desperate to keep something so unimaginable from ever coming into existence. "T-the lights!" he exclaims, his voice tight, racked with anguish. "They'll stop you! They'll make sure I never-"

"The lights are inconsequential, child," Xehanort shakes his head dismissively. "In two days' time, on the seventeenth celebration of your birth, we shall all gather at the graveyard once more, where the true Keyblade War shall begin. Try as they might, the lights cannot stop what has already been foretold. Once the part they have to play in the forging of the final key is complete, then their lives will be snuffed out along with every other. Even your fellow members will not escape such a fate. Before the worlds begin anew, only two souls shall remain in the aftermath of that war, granted life unending by the might of Kingdom Hearts itself: the boy who called upon its unparalleled power… and the king who claimed that power as his own."

Life unending… an eternity of existing alongside no one else other than his horrible, hateful grandfather. The thought alone is so wretched, so despicable that it's nearly enough to drive Sora mad. He collapses even further to the floor, his spikes shimmering with dull, hazy light as they rise to line the edges of the room. His despair is unshakable, to the point that he doesn't even think about how shameful it is when he grabs the edge of his grandfather's cloak and begs for some kind of mercy he already knows he won't receive. "Please…" he whimpers miserably, brokenly. "Please, Grandfather! I don't want to do this! Don't make me do this!"

But of course, Xehanort shows him no such sympathy as he coldly pulls his cloak away. "I follow the path of fate, Sora," he says simply, stoically. "And so must you."

Sora nearly breaks down even further until his master stops him, his control over him forcing him to his feet. He feels sick, his stomach churning, his head aching, his heart hurting more than it ever has before. But still his grandfather offers him not a speck of solace, not an ounce of comfort over the horrific cataclysm he's expecting him to bring.

"I told you that my birthday gift to you was two-fold, my grandson," the master says, smiling again as he watches the boy let out another soft, mournful sob. "The first was the knowledge of what has already been, of the past that we share that binds us both through blood. And this is the second: the knowledge of what is soon to come, of the future you and I shall forge with the Kingdom we will claim together…"

He steps closer to the boy, watching with twisted delight when his eyes flash black and white once more. As his Kingdom, and all the world-ending power that comes with it, falls even further into the master's awaiting hands.

"All you need to do now, my Child of Destiny… is open the door…"

Open the door. That voice, those thousands of voices echo, and he finds himself hating each and every one. Just as much as he hates the dark destiny standing only two days away. As much as he hates his master, as much as he hates himself. Open the door. Open the door.

He doesn't want to open the door. He desperately doesn't want to. But he knows he can't say no. Not to his grandfather, not to those voices, not to his own heart, all clamoring for the same exact thing. For the same exact future, the same exact end.

An end that will come at his very own hands.

He feels numb as it all sinks in, crushing him from the inside out. He doesn't move, doesn't make a single sound as his grandfather slips a gentle hand under his chin, guiding his teary gaze up toward him. Xehanort smiles down at the boy, at the final piece he needs to make the world he's always wanted, a world where he rules all, a reality. And with that reality only hours away, he offers his grandson one final refrain of their family's now-loathed lullaby. One last reminder of what's always been waiting for Sora since the very moment he was born:

"And you precious child, hold the key… to your destiny-"

"And you, precious child, bear your legacy-"

"Dearly beloved, look up to the endless sky-"

"Dearly beloved, there your heart will fly-"

"The sun, the moon, the stars are why-"

"We always look up to the sky-"

"Gaze up there and you will see-"

"The path that's always meant to be…"

---

HAHAHAH OH BOY WE'RE REALLY IN IT NOW HUH? Seriously I'm super excited to say that our big climax is finally kicking off next time! Eight chapters left before Keys is complete! It's hard to believe but I'm honestly so hyped for it, and I hope you all are too. So if you liked what you saw and wanna see more please don't forget to REVIEW! Until next time!