Author's Notes: I have a number of ideas of worlds for our heroes to visit, as well as some new character crossovers to make things interesting(for me, in the very least). As you can expect, the adventure's only beginning.

I'm aware that I'm changing the first world from what it really was in the game it came from. Let's just call it taking creative license, eh?

Forgive any details I may have missed by novelizing a certain scene from Kingdom Hearts. I've only seen it twice.


Chapter VIII: Déjà Vu

"'And that, as they say, is that,'" Tracy finished aloud, though the words weren't written on the paper. Finished, he took a deep breath and stood from the chair in front of his desk, and he began to pace around the dimly-lit room.

"You think anyone would understand?" he asked himself. "No, probably not. What kind of fool spends his night writing about and analyzing the darkness, however badly his writing might turn out?" With a laugh and a shake of his head, he replied, "Me, but that's okay. No one needs to understand. It doesn't really matter if I'm right or wrong. At least I'm thinking. At least I—"

Interrupting his soliloquy, a brief thumping noise emanated from his closet, as if something fell down. His eyes instantly shifted towards the closet door, which was, to his shock, closed. Tracy's eyebrows lowered in thought as he spoke, "This... is too familiar." The fear-inspiring déjà vu was undeniable. "This is..." he tried to form words, but none came from his mouth as he sorted everything in his mind, There's a dark void in my closet. I grabbed my staff and fought a Heartless and escaped some Soldiers. I ran to the hills and saw the Keyhole before...

At long last, everything was clear to Tracy. He recalled leaving from Traverse Town with Sora, Riku, Zidane, and Felicity with Sora piloting the Excalibur to the new warp hole, which took the quintet to a distant part of the universe. The first world they came across was...

"A shining orb of pink energy," Tracy whispered in shock, remembering everything, "Memoria."

"You're the first one to find that out," an unfamiliar, graceful voice told the slightly-confused Tracy, causing the boy to whirl around to face the revealingly-dressed villain, Kuja. The madman's white hair went down his back beautifully, while his disturbingly, deceptively gentle eyes gazed at Tracy with a strange and sadistic interest. "You, my lovely boy, have some interesting memories," stated Kuja.

Is it just me, Tracy Starlight pondered, or is he actually gayer than I am?

"You know much of the other worlds," he went on, never taking his glare off of Tracy, "and I'm especially interested in how you learned what you know."

As the accurate assumption that Kuja had somehow looked into Tracy's memories crossed his mind, the boy risked a look to the corner where his staff rested, wondering what difference it would make against an enemy as powerful as Kuja. In another instant, it occurred to Tracy that Kuja wasn't in his Tranced state. While Tracy filed that in his thoughts under the label of "Possible Advantages," the diabolical man held a hand before him. With a magical ability, a familiar weapon, Tracy Starlight's stick, appeared. He then tossed the rod to Tracy, telling him, "That's the one you entered Memoria with, the rod with magical enhancement. That one," he nodded to the corner, "is what you remember it to be before your world's end."

Hearing the words but definitely not trusting them, Tracy arranged for a simple test. With the stick ready, he went to his closet and opened it. Immediately, the Shadow of his memory attacked with a swift tackle. Feeling the pain of the Heartless's attack, finally believing it to be real, Tracy recoiled and fired his own attack. With one mighty thrust, the Shadow disintegrated uselessly.

"That was wise," congratulated Kuja with a pleased smirk, "'To risk—'"

"'—or not,'" Tracy finished his own quote, the last line from "A Possibility," a poem he had written, "You read my poetry, too?" He didn't give time for Kuja to respond as he continued, "Of course, there's far more to my problem than that. You could've made that Heartless far weaker than the one I remember, this being easier to kill, even with a normal wooden stick. Then again, you could be telling the truth, which I'm having trouble believing."

The villain yawned, "Well, that hurts."

"So, Kuja," asked Tracy with a sarcastic form of courtesy, "where're the others."

"In their own memories," he revealed honestly, "You can go find them, if you wish. Now that you understand the nature of Memoria, you can move around freely. Since you're good at games, freeing Zidane and the others should be no trouble for you."

"Thanks, I think," mumbled Tracy. "What are the rules of this 'game'?"

"Find your friends, find me, and," he laughed with more than a hint of arrogant insanity, "kill me!" Kuja then waved a hand and uttered confidently, "Good luck!" before vanishing into darkness.

"Moron," whispered Tracy at the walls as he was left alone once again to his room, or more accurately, a memory of his room. His eyes wandered as he pondered what move to take next. In their wandering, the eyes came to rest on his school backpack. Within it, he knew that he had two binders, one for Highland day and once for Scot day. Within those binders were four folders, a pencil, and a healthy supply of paper each.

Pencil and paper, Tracy repeated to himself with a wide, gleeful smile, "Good things!"

—————

Riku's heart raced through the terrifying feelings faster than his mind could comprehend, barely staying long enough to be pinned down with words. He knew that what he was going through couldn't be real, but it didn't stop it from somehow truly being real. Every feeling, every sensation, every horrid thought was just as it had been on that devastating day over one month before. Everything was perfect, too perfect, too real, and as he and Ansem, once more within the same shell, sat above the portal to the depths of darkness, shaped like the insignia of the Heartless, he fought once again to retake himself. On the ground before the swirling doorway, the lifeless body of Kairi rested, awaiting her heart's return. The Grand Hall of Hollow Bastion was still and empty, as if it were a crime to even speak or make any sound within its walls.

The unspoken law was soon shattered when the footfalls of Sora, Donald, and Goofy entered the chamber, quickly making their way up the stairway to the upper platform, bearing strange and unknown machinery. Sora and Donald stepped past the threshold, but Goofy was immediately knocked away by a magical force. Though Donald noticed this and looked back to his fallen comrade, Sora failed to notice Goofy's absence. Kairi, on the other hand, was the first person his attention earned.

"Kairi!" Sora burst out as he approached, "Kairi! Open your eyes!"

"It's no use," the blended voices of Ansem and Riku told Sora. "That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up."

Within himself, Riku struggled to speak with his own voice, but his efforts only resulted in his own thoughts, shouting through his heart, This isn't right! This is the past! It's over, done with! Remember, Sora! Remember!

The expression of shock and understanding finally crossed Sora's visage as he gazed upon the body of his friend, sitting above the portal holding a Keyblade all his own. "What? You... You're not Riku!"

"The Keyhole cannot be completed," Riku/Ansem explained to the other Keyblade bearer, "so as long as the last princess of heart still sleeps."

Sora's sights shifted between Riku and Kairi as he digested this new information. "The princess? Kairi's a princess?" he asked for confirmation, but something new entered his voice, out-of-place given the circumstances.

Familiarity?

Giving Sora a quick look, the joined being jumped from his sitting spot, gliding elegantly through the air before he settled down on the ground in front of Sora, his back to the portal.

"Yes," the darker individual answered him, giving no outward sign of noting Sora's sudden shift in tone, "and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened."

Now outwardly becoming aware of something distant and wrong, Sora said, as if the words had lost any true, meaningful purpose, "Whoever you are, let Riku go. Give him back his heart."

Sora! Remember! Resist!

In continued ignorance of Sora's inward confusion, the lines continued to flow from Riku's lips, "But first, you must give the princess back her heart." Afterwards, Riku/Ansem lifted the Keyblade, pointed towards Sora's chest, and a flash later, Sora knelt down, grasping his chest in obvious discomfort as something stirred within himself.

Useless in the current situation, Donald could only react with a concerned exclamation, "Sora!"

"What's..." exhaled Sora breathlessly as the mysterious pain persisted.

"Don't you see yet?" Riku/Ansem asked the downed boy, clearly surprised that he failed to understand his dilemma. "The princess's heart is responding. It has been there all along. Kairi's heart rests within you!"

"That's it," he whispered in realization, "Kairi's inside my heart."

Riku's sharp blue pupils examined the fallen Sora as if he felt some form of pity for the boy's plight. He gave no words to affirm this and only stated profoundly, "I know all that there is to know."

"You're... Ansem," he stated, not asked, "the seeker of... darkness..."

Riku's lips curled in a brief smile. "So, you know of me?"

With himself formally introduced, the boy walked towards Sora, the Keyblade held in his grip as he prepared for the final blow. Donald Duck, however, had other plans, and he rushed wildly at the seeker of darkness, only to be knocked away by the child's free left hand like a simple rag doll, flying outside of the magic field that had previously kept Goofy out.

"So, I shall release you now, Princess," Ansem announced to Sora and Kairi.

Within, Riku hoped for a miracle. He knew that Sora was aware of the strange déjà vu, but did he know enough to use his knowledge to his advantage? Riku continued the internal struggle, despite Ansem's own inner strength.

"Complete the Keyhole with your power," he seemed to command of the heart of the princess, "Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!" In a moment, Riku soon began to relive one of the devastating moments that haunted his nightmares to that day. With nothing to stop him, Ansem raised the Keyblade above his head, ready to attack Sora, to unlock his heart in the most violent way possible.

Then, another voice, that of a young man, sounded within the Great Hall, yelling loudly and echoing through the room, "Sora!"

Riku's/Ansem's attention was diverted from the task at hand only for a moment as he turned his head to the portal behind him, where the voice had emanated from. His reward for this was a powerful blast of Firaga in his face. As Riku's body fell forwards, Sora swiftly rolled out of the way to prevent being landed upon by the falling teenager. A millisecond later, Sora's Keyblade, bearing the key chain of the Ultima Weapon, materialized in his hands to counter the threat posed by Riku/Ansem.

Sora leapt to his feet immediately, prepared for a contest of strength, but his instincts directed him to the dark portal, before which was standing a teen with disheveled, long brown hair with a blue overshirt, one sleeve longer than the other, a red-and-black backpack, and a four-foot long staff in his right hand. The end of the weapon was pointed at Riku, giving evidence that the powerful blast of fire had come from the newcomer.

"Tracy?" Sora spoke, unsure of how he knew the name.

"Glad you remember," the other kid retorted before turning his full effort towards the possessed Riku. "Ansem!" Tracy shouted, traces of enjoyment creeping into his voice, "Two-on-one?"

Riku recovered from the Firaga blast with minimal effort as he turned to examine his competition, the Keyblade still firmly in his grip. The anger clear and obvious in Riku's eyes, the two voices warned Sora and Tracy with finality, "The darkness lingers."

Before either of the two boy could ask what that meant, Riku's body collapsed to the ground as magical energy surrounded it. As the aura dissipated, it took Riku's dark clothing with it, returning him to his usual yellow-and-blue outfit. The black Keyblade, however, remained in his hand.

"Riku!" both the old friend and the new ally called as they rushed towards him.

The mention of his name seemed to restore some of his senses as the eyes of the fifteen-year-old began to flinch with activity. "S-Sora?" he grumbled, barely awake, "Tracy?"

"We're here, Riku," Tracy reassured him as he knelt beside the Keyblade holder and scooped his upper body upright with his arms slowly. "Don't worry. Ansem's gone now."

I wish I could believe that, Riku thought as he looked back on the hellish horror that he had just lived through. How did this happen? The last thing I remember was that... weird pink ball...Is that what Hell looks like?

Sora spoke to Riku, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"This place," Tracy laid plain, "is called Memoria. It's a place made purely of the memories of those who enter it."

Sora turned his eyes to Tracy Starlight. "So this isn't really real?"

"I wouldn't say that," he countered, "This place makes memories real from what I've observed. My best guess is that Kuja has gained the power to use our memories against us."

"Kuja?" Riku and Sora asked of Tracy.

The boy paused temporarily before he said simply, "Long story."

Memories used against us? Whoever this Kuja guy is, he's really gonna get it when I get my hands on him. No one should ever have to relive that kind of torture, ever...

"This place," Riku mumbled sleepily, "is what nightmares are made of..."

With those last words, Riku drifted into the darkness of well-earned sleep.