Ok. So. This chapter is... a lot. It really is the beginning of the end, and as such, its a chapter I've been dying to write... basically since I started Keys! However, before we dive in, I need to give some warnings because it's... a lot. Basically, there's the blood and gore warning, but also the "don't read this if you're not in a good headspace right now" warning. The chapter will be waiting till when you feel better, and so will I. Take care of yourself first, if you need to. But if you're willing to plunge into the absolute agony that is this chapter, well... Let's get started...
Chapter 69: Key to the Heart
Kiss me once, kiss me twice,
Kiss me three times,
Cross the line
The night Sora was born, the skies had been filled with stars and a magnificent moon, his parents' hearts full of love for the child they'd brought into the world together.
His first birthday had been celebrated by family–his parents, aunt, and maternal grandparents close at hand to cherish such a cheerful baby.
His second birthday had been the first one spent with his very first friend, with Riku happily by his side even if they were both too young to understand it.
His third birthday had been set at sea, a party on his father's boat floating on sun-drenched springtime waters.
His fourth birthday had been the first he could actually remember, a rainy day but a fun one with plenty of friends and family coming to call all the same.
His fifth birthday was the first one he'd celebrated at school, with peers wishing him well and enjoying the delicious cake his mother had baked and brought for him to share.
His sixth birthday happened not long after he met Kairi, so he spent it with her and Riku, making memories that would be sure to last a lifetime.
His seventh birthday was when his father had given him what had once been a special gift, a silver crown hung on a chain, a present he couldn't have possibly known carried such a dark and despicable history.
His eighth birthday wasn't celebrated at all, for how could it have been when his father had only died a few weeks prior, when he and his mother were still left so shattered from his loss?
His ninth birthday had been a bit better, but the pain of that loss still stung, no matter how much Riku and Kairi and even his mother had tried to ease it.
His tenth birthday had finally been a return to form, with a party, and cake, and games, and gifts, an average celebration, by all accounts, but something was still so sorely missing from it all the same.
His eleventh birthday had been a bit quieter at his own request, and his mother understood; it just wasn't the same without his father there, nothing was anymore.
His twelfth birthday was spent on the play island, and he hadn't mentioned it to any of their other friends; Riku and Kairi still knew, still wished him all the best, still gave him simple gifts, still tried to make him feel like celebrating it. And still came up short all the same.
His thirteenth birthday was supposed to be a milestone; instead, he barely even remembered it until Kairi had reminded him of it at school that day.
His fourteenth birthday was a day just like any other, spent working on a raft by the seashore that would take them somewhere far away.
His fifteenth birthday was spent sleeping, with no one remembering him enough to celebrate it save for only a small few. And those few that did… honored it in solemn silence, with only one wish: for him to awaken safely and soon.
His sixteenth birthday had been bittersweet; he'd been confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk, but surrounded by so many people who clearly cared so much about him. It'd almost been enough to make him finally like his birthday again. Almost.
Until…
His seventeenth birthday. The Destined Day. The Keyblade War.
The end of everything in existence, entirely by his own hand.
He's gotten only a single "happy birthday" from his masters, both young and old, that morning when they come to collect him. They both wear smiles of icy, eager anticipation, a complete contrast to their thirteenth's quiet despair as he follows them through the castle's dreary corridors. When they arrive in the grand hall, the rest of the Organization is already gathered, each of them apparently more than ready for the fated battle ahead. A battle that, no matter what side wins, will certainly leave each and every last one of them dead.
Sora wishes he could tell them the truth as he stands near his grandfather, barely listening to the rallying speech he's giving the others. While he mutually detests almost all of his fellow members, he knows that even they don't deserve what their master has in mind for them. The more he thinks about it, the more Sora realizes that Xehanort has been lying to all of them from the very start. In exchange for their servitude and loyalty, he'd promised them the infinite power of Kingdom Hearts and a place within the world he plans to create. Only to let them all perish as if they were all mere strangers, as if every one of them hadn't pledged their lives and allegiance entirely to him.
Honestly, Sora wishes he could share that fate. That he could finally fade into peaceful oblivion with the Organization, with the worlds, with his friends. But instead, he'll be dealt the cruelest hand of all. To be one of the only two to survive the storm of death and devastation… and be stuck alone by his wicked grandfather's side for the rest of time. To live a life of suffocating sorrow unending… the emptiest kind of existence anyone could ever know.
Xehanort concludes his speech with the order to move out. The other members summon dark corridors to depart to the graveyard by order of rank, with Young Xehanort being the last to leave. The elder master lingers a moment longer, turning to his grandson with a sinister shade of pride shining in his golden eyes.
"Wait here until I call for you, my thirteenth," he instructs calmly. Sora shudders when he reaches in to pull the boy's hood over his head, enshrouding his face in the concealing shadows it creates. "And be of good cheer, Sora. By the time the sun sets on this very day, your destiny will have finally been fulfilled. In just a few hours' time… you will have at long last become what you've always been meant to be…"
With this, Xehanort vanishes into the darkness, leaving Sora entirely alone. At first, he doesn't move a muscle, not even to lower his hood, lest the tears already streaking down his cheeks show. He stands there for what feels like hours, with nothing to do but wait. Wait… for the war and whatever comes after it. Wait until he'll be forced to watch the worlds come crashing down all around him.
He feels hollow, his heart aching, his thoughts crushing him with grief he can do nothing to ease. There's so much he wishes he could do in these final few hours, from visiting the doomed worlds one final time, to rushing back to his mother for one last loving hug, to telling the lights, telling Riku and Kairi just how sorry he is for everything. For all of the devastation he's about to bring, for all of the death he's about to cause, for all of the chaos he's left with no choice but to create.
Open the door… the voices whisper to him, soft and slow at first. Almost as if they aren't coaxing him to do something so unspeakable.
The day has arrived…
It's almost time…
Open the door…
Come back… come home…
He stumbles backward as his eyes flash black and white again, overtaken by a wave of something he can't even begin to place. His hood remains up as he grips the sides of his head, doubling over as his heart suddenly starts to race, as glowing spikes shoot out from the ground all around him.
"W-what… what's happening to me…?" he whispers to himself. For the past week now, these frightening spells haven't been uncommon. Moments where an alarming burst of unknown energy shoots through his body, moments where control is stripped away from him by someone other than his grandfather, moments that make him fear what this day will bring more than he already did.
You're awakening… the voices answer his question. You've forgotten what you truly are… But you'll remember everything soon… Soon… you will be whole again….
"R-remember what?" he asks, speaking directly to those unknown voices for the very first time. He still has no idea who they belong to, but they've been quite vocal lately. Which means they're bound to hold the final few answers he still doesn't have, answers he doesn't want to wait to uncover. "What do you mean I'll be 'whole'?"
They're silent for a moment, but what they tell him is frustratingly vague all the same. Open the door and you will know…
"No," Sora protests, struggling to properly stand once more. "I don't want to open the door! I don't want to destroy everything I love! Please, listen to me, whoever you are!" His voice breaks on a sob as his distressed, desperate voice echoes through the empty hall in a plea meant for no one… and for so many all at once. "This can't be my destiny! This can't be how it all ends! Why did you choose me for this?! Why does it ALWAYS have to be ME?!" He practically screams, a question poised for his absent grandfather… and for the Kingdom he was allegedly born to be a conduit for. "Why….?" he falls to the ground again, tears falling from the shadows of his hood onto the floor beneath him. "WHY?!"
He's answered only with the sound of thunder roaring, of the storm continuing to violently rage beyond the castle walls. With the sudden appearance of a dark corridor and his grandfather's unspoken order to travel through it. With the daunting, downright crushing realization that it's finally time-
It's time… the voices echo his terrified thoughts as he steps forward into the darkness… and into his destiny. Time for you to open the door…
Time for you to come home…
The guardians of light march through the dry desolation of the Keyblade Graveyard in a tense sort of silence. Riku walks at the front of the group, his face a mask of stern resolve as he leads his full team this time instead of merely a select few. With Vanitas surprisingly opting to join them in this fight, that brings their group up to thirteen, a perfect match against the Organization, at least as far as numbers alone are concerned. But in terms of strength… Riku can only hope that they'll all be enough to end this. That they'll all be enough to save Sora before it's too late. Even when he knows, in many ways, it already is.
"This isn't how his birthday should be," Kairi whispers to him as her hand closes around his. He briefly glances over at her, noticing that her eyes are glassy with oncoming tears. "He hasn't had a good one in years, not since his father died. I'd thought… I'd hoped we could have made this one the first happy birthday he'd had in a long time, but…"
She trails off sadly, glancing away. Riku squeezes her hand softly, offering her as much of a smile as he can manage. "It will be happy," he assures gently. "After all, I can't think of any better present to give him than finally setting him free."
"...Neither can I," Kairi agrees, allowing hope to fill in the holes doubt has left in her heart. Allowing her love, their love for Sora to guide them back to his side.
It isn't long after when Aqua speaks up to catch the others' attention. "They're coming," she says, prompting the entire group to stop short. Sure enough, a group of dark silhouettes approaches from the dusty distance, most clad in the same dark coat, save for the leader of their sinister pack. Xehanort wears a broad, triumphant grin as he steps forward, his hands behind his back as he stops several feet away from the lights, his followers falling in line behind him. Tense silence hangs heavy in the empty air for a moment or two, and in that moment, more than a few of the lights notice something that, in light of the circumstances, is incredibly significant.
"Twelve," Kairi finishes her count in a breathless whisper. "Riku," she grips his arm tighter. "There's only twelve of them. Do you think… Sora could have-"
"I don't know," Riku counters, not wanting her to get her hopes up only for them to be so quickly dashed. Even so, his own thoughts are swelling in countless thoughts and theories as he decides to break the silence before any of their foes has a chance to. "Xehanort!" he exclaims, taking a brazen step forward. "You know why we're here. No more bargains, no more stalling: set Sora's heart free now."
Xehanort's smile widens, clearly not taking his opponents seriously, just as he hadn't before. "I will indeed set my thirteenth's heart free," he surprisingly agrees, though of course, there's twist. There always is. "And when I do, so too shall the incredible power of the heart of all worlds be freed. As it has been foretold, through the Child of Destiny, Kingdom Hearts shall be called. That child already belongs to me; and very, very soon, the Kingdom shall too."
"Not if we have anything to do about it, it won't!" Mickey exclaims, already brandishing his Keyblade.
"That's right," Ventus soundly agrees, showing no fear in the face of his former master. "We came here to save Sora and to stop you, and that's exactly what we're going to do!"
"So give up while you're ahead, old man," Axel adds with a daring smirk. "Because this all stops right here."
"Indeed… it does," Xehanort nods almost contemplatively. "Today marks the end of a road I have trod for decades. It marks the end of the worlds as you know them, the end of all life within each and every one. It marks the end of the reign of light and the dawn of a new era, a new world. A world that my noble followers and I will lead into a golden age of progress and prosperity unlike any ever seen before."
"Any world that you'd create wouldn't be one worth living in," Roxas scoffs harshly, glaring hateful daggers at the man.
"That's why we won't let you come anywhere even close to making it a reality," Aqua says, the first of many among them to take aim with their weapons at the malicious master before them.
"So… each of you still stand to defy what fate has already set in motion?" Xehanort's grin finally fades. "Very well. Today, we shall all make our mark upon that fate. So… why delay what destiny has in store any longer? Let the ultimate clash between darkness and light… begin!"
With a simple wave of his hand, Xehanort somehow manages to shift the entire landscape of the graveyard in seconds. The lights can only watch as most of his vessels, save for his alternate selves, vanish into thin air, as high stone walls rise up from the brittle earth below. They form a vast, intricate labyrinth as they emerge, a labyrinth that had been long-since buried in the centuries that had passed since the first Keyblade War. How fitting that it would be resurrected for the next one.
Even as the walls finish rising, a single flat spire of earth does not. This lone mesa is where Xehanort and his other selves make their perch, high above the graveyard to allow them to safely watch the war unfold. A war that starts as sheer shadows begin to cut their way through the newly-created maze, rapidly racing their way toward the gallant group of lights gathered at the far end of it.
Kairi confronts it before the others do, pure light bursting from her palm as she drives those shadows away. Xion and Aqua join her, that same kind of light pouring from their Keyblades, driven by the same, single resolve. To push back the darkness so they can reach what matters far more than this labyrinth, far more than this war, far more than anything.
"We have to get up there," Riku keeps his sights set on the high cliff looming hundreds of feet above them. "The sooner we take Xehanort out, the sooner this all ends."
"I doubt the rest of the Organization is going to make that very easy for us," Naminé notes with a worried frown.
"Those losers?" Vanitas scoffs, crossing his arms. "Compared to the old man and his inner circle, they're nothing."
"Nothing more than a distraction," Terra, of all people, surprisingly agrees. "So we'll deal with them."
The others all voice their sound agreement as Aqua steps forward. "Riku, Kairi," she offers them a hopeful smile. "Go find him. Go save him. Go… and bring him home…"
"But… w-we can't split up," Kairi protests, exchanging a bewildered glance with Riku. "Not again. We're all supposed to be in this together, that's what we-"
"We are together in this," Axel cuts in, grinning confidently. "The rest of us will be… just a few steps behind you two, so don't wait up. Got it memorized?"
"But… just us?" Kairi presses, incredulous. "Riku, do you really think we can-"
He puts her worries to rest as his hand finds a steady place upon her shoulder. "It's just like you said, Kairi," he begins, looking to the lofty mesa with a grim grin. "Sora needs us both now more than ever. So… we shouldn't keep him waiting any longer. It is his birthday after all."
An unsteady, breathy laugh fills Kairi's lungs as she grips the hand on her shoulder warmly. "Yeah…" she agrees, wiping the emerging tears from her eyes. "So let's go give him the best one he's ever had."
The other lights see them off with hopeful tears and words of encouragement before they move out in turn to take care of the rest of the Organization. Riku and Kairi leave them to it as they charge through the labyrinth, mixing their magic to leap over its otherwise impassable walls. There's no time to lose, after all, not when they're so close, not when the end is almost, almost in sight.
Darkness continues to surge through the maze at them from almost every angle, but Kairi deftly keeps it all at bay. While it is something of an effort to stop their approach, it's not much of one, something that perplexes the pair even if neither of them speak to it. It's almost as if Xehanort wants them to come, almost as if he wants them to confront him. Granted, it's likely for the sake of the clash he so clearly craves, but there seems to be more to it than that. It's not a trap–he wouldn't be trying to stop them or slow them down like this if it was. So then what is it? What exactly is the master's game plan here? What exactly does he want them to see?
By the time they make it to the mesa, the sounds of battle finally begin to ring out over the graveyard. They shudder when they hear the distant din of metal clashing, of the painful shouts of both their friends and foes. All they can do is hope that none of their fellow lights fall in this battle; losing one of them was already agonizing enough. They can barely even stand the thought of losing any more.
"Are you ready for this?" Riku asks as they pause at the base of the mesa.
Kairi returns his question with a small, joyless grin, one that does little to mask the fear in her eyes. Fear that both of them share in almost equal amounts. "I've never been more ready for anything in my life."
Riku tries to crack a smile himself, but it's quick to die the second he stares up at the stone tower ahead of them. "Then let's go."
So they do.
Magic helps them dash straight up the steep edge of the cliff, making what would have otherwise been a lengthy, treacherous climb take only mere minutes. What awaits them at the top is hardly a surprising sight. Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort stand at the far edge of the plateau, each of them wearing the same sinister smile, a set of smiles that are nearly enough to make both Riku and Kairi sick. Xehanort himself stands just a bit higher, upon a smaller outcropping raised several feet above his other selves. His twisted grin widens the moment he sees the pair arrive; how fitting that those foolish lights would send the two among them who would, by their very presence alone, be sure to shatter his thirteenth's fragile heart the most.
"Xehanort!" Riku shouts before the master or any of his other selves can get the first word in. "We're only going to tell you one final time: let Sora go," he summons Braveheart, Kairi following suit as Destiny's Embrace appears in her hands. They both raise their weapons straight at the cruel quartet before them, their expressions hopefully hiding just how terrified they truly are. "Now."
Despite their severity, their foes hardly seem to be taking their threats too seriously. Ansem lets out an amused, mocking scoff, while Xemnas merely smirks and rolls his eyes. Young Xehanort's face is unreadable as he stares at the pair piercingly before ultimately breaking into a cool, confident smile himself. But the elder master is the only one among them to speak, his cunning tone carrying even from his lofty perch on high.
"Alright then," he reaches his hand behind him, conjuring a dark corridor into existence. "If you wish to see my thirteenth, then you certainly shall."
A lone figure emerges from the shadowy portal, clad in the Organization's cloak, their hood pulled high over their head to hide their face. But even despite that, even despite the sharp set of blackened wings extending from his back, even despite his stiff silence as he keeps his concealed gaze set upon the ground… Riku and Kairi know exactly who he is.
"Sora!" they both cry, unable to keep their composure upon so much as seeing him from afar. Sora starts when he hears the sounds of their voices, and though he looks toward them, his hood still doesn't go down. If anything, he seems to shrink back, his hands drawn close to his heart, his posture nervous as he's forced to stay standing beside his master, beside the very man who has brought him so very low.
"Behold, guardians of light," Xehanort begins as he rests both of his hands upon Sora's shoulders. The sight of that awful man touching him alone is enough to make Riku and Kairi's blood boil with rage, though there's little they can do to act upon it as he continues his speech. "My thirteenth and final vessel. Behold, the Child of Destiny upon his destined day, straight out of the pages of prophecies of old. Behold, the one who will open the door to the greatest Kingdom there ever was and ever shall be. Behold… the harbinger of your demise…"
Sora doesn't even realize he's trembling as he listens to his grandfather's chilling words, reminding him of everything he is, of everything he soon shall be. He chokes out an almost silent sob when Xehanort leans in to whisper an order meant only for him, an order he's been dreading ever since he had practiced it back at the castle days ago. "Now, my thirteenth," he commands sternly, still grinning all the while. "Summon the thirteen Keys to the Kingdom."
He tries so hard to resist, tries with every ounce of strength his feeble heart still has to give. But in the end, it's all for nothing. His hand shakes as he raises it high into the air, as he feels his connection to each and every one of the Keys converge. He closes his eyes so he doesn't have to watch them appear, thirteen glistening Keyblades surrounding the mesa in a wide, slow orbit. Riku and Kairi are aptly shocked to see them, shocked that Sora could even summon them at all. More than half of them should still be safe in Yen Sid's care back at the tower. So how then, are they all here, in the Organization's possession every bit as much as Sora himself is?
The stark arrival of the thirteen Keys can be seen from just about every inch of the graveyard below. It doesn't go unnoticed by the guardians of light as they battle the Organization, with several scuffles coming to a grinding halt as soon as they look up to see them.
Aqua, Terra, and Ventus are in the middle of a brawl with Xigbar, one that echoes with a bitter sense of familiarity for all three of them from well over a decade ago. Ven is the first to spot them, thirteen colorful Keys circling the distant mesa. It startles him to the point that he drops his Keyblade as he alerts his friends without a second thought. "T-the Keys!" he cries, pointing frantically at them.
Aqua turns in the aftermath of launching an ice spell at their foe, a shocked gasp escaping her. "What?"
"But how?" Terra asks, gripping his own Keyblade tightly.
"Well, well…" Xigbar's voice, cold and cocky, cuts through their alarm. "Looks like things are ramping up fast. Guess the old man doesn't wanna waste any more time."
"What are you talking about?" Aqua asks, shooting a scowl over her shoulder at him.
"You'll see," Xigbar shrugs, smirking as a dark corridor forms under his feet. "You three better run along now. You wouldn't wanna miss the show…"
"Wait!" Ventus calls, trying to stop the Organization member to get some much needed answers. Terra ultimately grabs his shoulder to hold him back, all but allowing Xigbar to make an easy getaway.
"Forget about him," he shakes his head, turning back to the mesa. "We need to see what's going on up there."
Aqua and Ven agree in short order. The threat the rest of the Organization may pose is quickly forgotten against the impending destruction all thirteen Keys could cause. Against the Kingdom they could and very well will bring to light.
Back up on the mesa itself, the Keys are just about Riku and Kairi's last concern. Instead, their sights are set solely on Sora as he lowers his hands back to his sides, his head bowed in what certainly must be shame even if his face remains unseen. The truth, however, is a bit more complicated than that. The shadows of his hood hide the pure light and sheer darkness engulfing his eyes as his heart and mind echo with haunting whispers only he can hear:
The Keys… the Keys… The final Key…
The Key to the Heart…
Open the door…
Unlock the Heart…
Come back… Come home…
Come home… my king…
A shaky breath escapes him, his hand again drifting upward toward the encircling Keys. At least until his grandfather reaches in to bring that hand back down. "Not yet, child," he whispers in the boy's ear. At the same time, the glow from his eyes fade, as the voices dull back down into a barely audible, but still constant murmur in his mind. "Not until I'm sure you're ready."
Sora frowns, unsure of what that means. It's already his destined day, isn't it? He thought that alone would make him "ready" for what his master wants him to be. So why then, is he still making him wait? Why is he still delaying the inevitable? Why is he still forcing him to endure the torture of having to face his two most beloved friends?
"Sora, please!" Kairi begs without thinking. She makes no effort to hide the desperation in her voice, desperation to save both him and so many others beyond this graveyard. "You have to fight his control over you! You can't just let him have what he wants. He'll destroy every world and everyone in them if you do!"
"...I know…" Sora whispers mournfully, not nearly loud enough for either of them to hear him below. "I'm sorry…"
His despair goes ignored by his master as he grips the boy's shoulders even tighter, sneering haughtily down at the pair opposing him. "Don't be foolish, girl," he scowls, though it quickly switches into a smile when he finds a perfect opportunity. An opportunity to crush whatever specks of hope his thirteenth might still have to hold onto as he decides to reveal the terrible truth. "Sora wouldn't dream of disobeying his own grandfather…"
Sora stiffens, his heart dropping down to his stomach as he watches Riku and Kairi's reaction to this sickening news in real time. They both freeze, first in confusion, then in shock as they exchange a wide-eyed glance. Suddenly, the mesa stands in stark silence, with only the continued din of battle echoing distantly from far below. That silence is finally broken when Kairi absently manages to choke out the tiniest "W-what?"
"The boy's father was my own son," Xehanort explains, still grinning broadly. By now, his gloved fingertips are digging into Sora's shoulders. He winces in pain that runs far deeper than his skin as he continues watching them from beneath his hood. Watching them drown in every wretched word his sadistic grandfather has to say. "Through his veins flows my own blood. By that fact alone, Sora belongs to me. He has ever since he was brought into the world seventeen years ago to this very day."
"You're lying!" Riku suddenly shouts. The ferocity of his voice is something that Sora can practically feel reverberating through his bones. "He's not–y-you can't be-"
"I am," Xehanort counters dryly. "But if you refuse to take my word for it, then perhaps you'll believe his instead…"
He lightly shoves Sora forward, causing him to stumble just to keep his balance. Though Riku and Kairi are far below him, he feels so small under the weight of their heavy stares, stares that plead him to tell them it isn't true. Stares that he has no choice but to defy as his hands are forced to the sides of his hood. He pulls it down slowly, shame burning him to his very soul as he finally shows his face to them, finally allows them to see the black shadows of his almost constant tears permanently staining his face. Allows them to see just how much of a resemblance he now truly bares to the monster of a man behind him.
"I-it's true…" he says miserably, gripping his now-hated necklace. It's the first time Riku and Kairi have heard his voice in over a month. The sheer grief and hopelessness in it is nearly enough to tear both of their already crumbling hearts to shreds. "My master… is my grandfather…"
In the silent, shaken seconds that follow, the clouds above the Keyblade Graveyard begin to darken. Thunder roars from the heavens, a bolt of lightning crashing down somewhere far away. Rain begins to fall upon the dry, desolate landscape, slowly at first, though it's quick to turn into a downpour that drenches everything in sight, including those still fighting in the labyrinth below.
"Is it… raining?" Vanitas asks incredulously. In all the empty years he'd spent in this hollow world, he'd never seen so much as a single drop of rain before. In fact, he hadn't even known what rain was at all until he was finally given permission from his former master to leave.
His surprise is cut short when Naminé suddenly gasps beside him. They stop in the midst of the labyrinth, their attempts at tracking down an Organization member to fight put on hold. "No…" she shakes her head, her mind somewhere far away as terror fills her face. "No, i-it… it can't be…
"What is it?" Vanitas steps in front of her to gain her focus. "What's the matter?"
"S-Sora… he's… Xehanort's his…" Naminé swallows hard. Normally, she'd be glad to finally regain her otherwise lost connection to Sora's memories. But what she'd just heard through them, the truth that had just been revealed… it's something that Naminé never expected, never hoped to hear.
And… given Vanitas' history with Xehanort and Sora alike… it's something she knows she can't tell him. At least not right now. "Naminé?" he questions her all the same as she steps past him.
"We have to hurry," she says, keeping her sights set on the cliff in the distance. On the thirteen Keys circling it, on where everything is already in the process of falling apart. "There's not much time left."
Back upon that mesa, that word, that one, single, despicable word echoes through the now-moist air. It rings in Sora's voice, hollow and heartbroken, in the sparse space between Riku and Kairi. A word they can't seem to make sense of no matter how hard they try:
Grandfather
Grandfather
Grandfather
It's nearly enough to shut Kairi down altogether. She opens and closes her mouth several times over, her mind racing for something to say, some way to react. Riku is the one who beats her to the punch in the end, however. Because that word, that thought, the very notion that someone as loving and kind and good as Sora could even remotely be related to someone as twisted and cruel and evil as Xehanort… it's far too much for Riku to take. When paired with the sight of his hair, the exact same shade of white as Young Xehanort's, the sight of his eyes, alight with a garish golden glow to match the master's own, the sight of that coat, that despicable coat, hanging from his still-emaciated body… he can't handle what they've done, how they've ruined something he loves so much one second longer.
His voice is raised into a scream before he even realizes he's running. His hand brings Braveheart high above his head, his boots splashing loudly upon the stony surface of the mesa as he runs without thinking, without stopping, without breathing almost. He doesn't even think about the master's other selves before they inevitably stop him. How fitting that his Keyblade would clash against a wall of darkness erected by Ansem first.
"Like always, you're far too hasty, boy," he mocks with a leering, triumphant smirk. "And at the same time, you're far too late."
"Shut up!" Riku snaps, fury forcing his Keyblade forward once again. The force of it is enough to shatter the barrier holding him back. Ansem teleports out of the path of his next swing, allowing Xemnas' crimson blades to block it instead.
"You cannot save him from what he's always been," he says, his tone as sharp as his amber gaze. "Just as you cannot stop what is fated to happen here today. It isn't worth wasting what little strength you possess to even try."
This time, Riku doesn't even dignify him with a response. He forces as much of his own darkness out of his Keyblade as he can get away with, unleashing it in a heavy wave that even Xemnas can't counter. Of course, he's met with resistance yet again as he continues to rush toward the upper outcropping. Young Xehanort's Keyblade strikes his squarely, tension held tight between them from the very start. By now, Riku can hear footsteps running behind him, Kairi's distressed voice rising above them.
"Riku, stop!" she shouts fearfully. On the cliff above, Sora only wishes he had enough control to do the same thing. To beg Riku to stand down before he gets himself killed. And… at the same time, to beg him to come and put an end to him and his master alike.
Because certainly, that must be what he plans to do… right?
"You should listen to your friend," Young Xehanort offers Riku the same smug smirk as his Nobody and Heartless before him. "You and your friends lost this battle long before it even began. Sora is ours. He's mine."
It's not a new reminder, not any different from what the elder master had said mere moments ago. But the way Young Xehanort's voice drops down to a sinister whisper, the way his eyes gleam with such vile delight, the way Sora is still standing so high above them, still making not a single move to escape, still not saying a single word to either of them… It's enough to finally break his angry assault. Riku isn't able to hold back a pained cry as Young Xehanort slams his weapon into his stomach, sending him flying back. His body hits Kairi's squarely and they both land brutally on the far edge of the mesa, injured, but not too badly. Kairi is quick in casting a healing spell to get them both back on their feet, and from there, they only have to exchange a single nod to confirm their next move. To make it clear that they're going to continue to fight and this time, they're going to do it together.
"It seems your dear friends refuse to see what's right in front of them," Xehanort tells Sora as he watches the pair pick another fight with his other selves. "How pitiful. It's quite a shame, Sora. I know you're quite fond of those two in particular, so I had intended on letting them live until the very end as a special 'gift' for your birthday. But because they have chosen to be so stubborn, I suppose I'm left with no other choice." He finally releases the boy's shoulders, a brutal spark of pain shooting through his heart the moment he's free from his grandfather's hold. Pain that only amplifies a thousand fold with the order he gives him next. "Go down there and destroy those two irksome interlopers for me, my thirteenth."
Sora isn't allowed to get a frightened "what" out; he isn't allowed to speak at all. But what he is allowed to do, what he's forced to do… is something he hasn't done in weeks. He summons his Keyblade.
And if his heart has gone through hell and then some… then the Kingdom Key reflects its suffering perfectly.
Its once silver surface has blackened, brittle and marred where it had once been sleek and smooth. Every inch of it is covered in horrific cracks, to the point that only sparse hints of its original metal remain. It's tainted all the way to its handle, its grip, even the formerly spritely keychain hangs limply from its base. Keyblades aren't sentient, they don't possess any life or will of their own, but Sora can practically feel the Kingdom Key crying out to him in anguish that equally matches his own. It begs him, pleads with him for relief, for release, for any kind of freedom at all really. He wishes he could give his weapon exactly that, wishes he could repay it for standing by him through even the worst of the shadows surrounding him. But in the end, he knows he can't save his broken Keyblade. He can't save it any more than he can save his own broken heart.
In the blink of an eye, he's suddenly on the lower half of the mesa. At that same moment, Xehanort's other selves take his place in safety alongside the master. Riku and Kairi grind to a halt when they see him, he freezes under their shared, shocked stares, and then…
All goes quiet.
The rain continues at a gentler pace, the thunder dies down, the Keys themselves seem to slow to a crawl as they glide clockwise around the arena. The sudden shift doesn't go unnoticed by one trio as they work through a swath of Heartless keeping them from confronting the next Organization member.
"What's going on up there?" Xion asks, worry swiftly overtaking her.
"No idea," Axel frowns as he finishes off another monster. "But whatever it is, it can't be good."
For his part, Roxas hasn't paid much attention to what's been happening on the mesa. He's all but thrown himself into the fray, charging through the graveyard with both Keyblades slicing cleanly through any foe in their path. But now, as they clear out another round of Heartless, he can't help but lift his gaze to the cliff in the distance. Can't help but notice the Keys constantly hovering around it. Can't help but feel something achingly, almost agonizingly familiar ringing through the air, through the earth, through his heart.
He doesn't have to think twice about what it could be. He'd recognize the presence of his somebody anywhere.
"Sora's up there," he says sternly. "I know he is."
"Well, then what are we waiting for?" Axel slings his Keyblade over his shoulder. "Let's go and bail the poor kid out already!"
"Wait," Xion interjects, straining her eyes to see the cliff better. "Look," she points to the outcropping protruding from the mesa. Four shadowy figures stand upon it, ones that the trio is only barely able to make out from so far away.
"Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas," Axel counts, scowling. "But still no sign of Sora. So where-"
The sharp, single sound of clanging metal, of clashing Keyblades, rings out from the cliff. A sound that would have been easily ignored if it didn't petrify the trio for what it certainly represents.
"You don't think-" Xion cuts herself off with a frightened shriek as bright black spikes suddenly shoot out from the ground all around them. They litter the graveyard, piercing the labyrinth's walls, shearing their way through the now muddy soil, all spreading out from the exact same epicenter: the mesa.
"I do," Roxas answers Xion's unasked question. Oathkeeper and Oblivion tense as his grip on both of them tightens in emerging anger. "Just when we thought Xehanort couldn't stoop any lower…"
Axel hesitates when he takes stock of the contrasting looks of fury and fear on his friends' faces. Given the deep connection they had–still have–to Sora, it's not surprising. If anything, they're both holding up much better here than anyone likely expected them to. Which is why Axel makes no effort to crack any of his usual jokes to cheer them up. In light of what they're up against, in mind with what they might go up to that cliff to see, he doubts it would work anyway.
"Let's get going then so we can stop it," is all he says, and Roxas and Xion follow suit. "Once and for all."
Sure enough, a pair of Keyblades does collide upon that lofty cliff. The Kingdom Key, splintered and shadowy, hits Braveheart before Destiny's Embrace. The weapons bounce off each other and Sora stumbles back, breathing as if he'd been fighting for hours and not for mere seconds. His eyes are wide, his mouth hanging agape, but words aren't allowed out of it. His movements aren't his own, nothing is really. Nothing but the guilt already splitting his soul apart for what he's being forced to do.
"Sora," Riku maintains a defensive stance. Kairi does the same, heartbreak written over every inch of her face. Sora's surprised that betrayal isn't there instead. "Don't do this. You're stronger than he is. You can't give up, not now, not yet."
"We know how hard it is for you to fight this," Kairi implores just as earnestly. "But you have to, just a little longer, long enough for us to finish him off. We will save you, Sora. You have to believe that."
I want to… he says only in his thoughts as tears spark on the corners of his eyes. I want to believe in you both so badly, but-
But how can he when he stands in the looming, suffocating shadow of the man who brought his own father into the world?
How can he when his fate was written in stone for him, for all the worlds and everyone in them, from the very second he was born?
How can he when the chain of his legacy, his destiny still hangs tight like a noose around his throat?
He's made to charge again, pushed forward by unspoken commands and unending pain stabbing his heart. His steps are unsteady, his Keyblade held loosely in his grip as a raw cry is torn from his lips. It's the only sound he's permitted to make, his master barring him from so much as saying a single sorry, from telling them how much he doesn't want any of this, from begging them to finish this, finish them, finish him.
With how Sora's moving, Riku and Kairi could easily defeat him in just a few simple swings. He's already so frail, to the point that they wonder if the Organization had fed him at all during his all too lengthy time with them. He walks and swings as if he's a puppet on strings, as if he's nothing more than a meager marionette for his master to manipulate any way he sees fit. That's what Riku and Kairi force themselves to remember in this one-sided fight. That Xehanort is the one doing this, that his wicked will is being carried out through his helpless, heartbroken vessel. That Sora would never attack them of his own free will, that he's still in so much trouble, that he still so desperately needs to be saved just as much as he needs to be stopped.
And so that's what they'll do. They'll stop him. And save him. Somehow.
They don't dare take a swing at him, only blocking his weak blows out of defense alone. The spikes are harder to avoid, bursting up unpredictably when Sora lets out another mournful scream. His master–his own grandfather–seems to relish the sound of it, but Riku and Kairi's hearts both cave under it. Under the need to make his suffering stop, the need to make sure nobody ever makes him suffer ever again.
And they will, they think, they hope in the spaces between his anxious attacks. They'll kill Xehanort for his countless crimes, they'll set Sora's captured heart free, and then they'll take him somewhere far away from this bloodstained graveyard, back to the peaceful shores of the island they all call home. They'll shield him, guard him, protect his precious heart, his perfect smile, his loving presence from ever being so cruelly stolen from them by anyone else. They'll save him, they think, as they try to look past the monstrosity he's been forced to become, as they try to remember something they haven't seen in so very long now, as they try to remember how he truly is. They'll save him. Because if they don't…
Then everyone will die.
A third scream echoes across the mesa when Xehanort sends another brutal shock through his grandson's heart. This one carries further than the rest, all the way down to the very heart of the labyrinth. All the way down to the ears of his former companions.
Donald and Goofy freeze stiff when they hear it, their weapons stopping midair to the point that they don't hit the large Nobody they've been helping the king fight. To anyone else, it would have sounded like the howl of a wounded animal, but Donald and Goofy know that scream anywhere. It's one they've always hated hearing, but now… no that screams sounds far more agonized, far more broken than it ever has before.
And that's all it takes to get them both running.
The Nobody is forgotten. Mickey's confused, concerned call goes unanswered. Because now, the only thing Donald and Goofy can think about, the only thing they've been able to think about for months now… is their boy. Their son. Their Sora. Their Sora, so afraid, so alone, so far from where he's supposed to be, the way he's supposed to be. Their Sora, who was stolen from them by a madman, by someone who only seeks to hurt and harm him, by someone who's made him think he's a monster when he's really anything but. Their Sora, someone they can't go on without any longer, someone they've failed far too many times to count, someone who they'd do just about anything to get back.
So they run to him, to get him back, to bring him home. They run to him… and maybe, if they're lucky enough, this time he won't run away from them. Maybe, just maybe, this time, he'll run back to them instead.
"Xehanort!" Kairi shouts as she fends off another one of Sora's unsteady strikes. "Come down here and face us yourself, you coward!"
For his part, the master says nothing, his expression unchanged as he and his other selves continue to watch the battle below. Instead, he forces his thirteenth to speak in his place. The words that are drawn out from him are cold and venomous, in a tone Riku and Kairi have scarcely ever heard from Sora before. And yet, there's still so much sadness lying just beneath them, so much grief, so much guilt. "You two…" he begins between heavy breaths. "You're standing in the way… of my destiny… I was… born to become the Key to the Heart…" He suddenly gasps, his voice shifting into not just one, but hundreds as his eyes take on an empty, otherworldly glow, one white as snow, the other black as pitch. "I am the one who is meant to open the door…"
Kairi and Riku tense up, exchanging a bewildered glance even as Sora's eyes return to normal. There's no explanation for what just happened; Sora doesn't even begin to offer one as he nearly falls to his knees, overwhelmed by some unknown force none of them can see. The best guess they can make is that Xehanort is behind it; yet another reason to get him as far away from his sadistic "master" as soon as possible.
"Sora, n-no…" Kairi lowers her Keyblade. She approaches him cautiously, her free hand outstretched to offer him light or healing or whatever else he might need. Because clearly, he needs so much right now, so much more than even she could possibly give. "This… this isn't what you're meant to do. You're meant to come home, to be back on the islands with us."
"That's right," Riku agrees, his voice firm, but soft all at once. "Destroying the worlds isn't your destiny. Xehanort may have warped your fate, but that doesn't mean you have to follow it-"
"Yes, I do…" Sora cuts him off. His words sound more like his own now, though he drops them down into a whisper, almost as if he doesn't want his master to hear him. "I don't have any choice, I never have…" He glances back at the cliff behind him, wondering why his own grandfather hates him enough to make him say this, to make him do this. "He's my master. He's my grandfather"-
"Sora, he is not related to you," Riku tries to argue, still refusing to believe something so ridiculous, so unthinkable, so downright despicable if it's actually true.
"Yes, he is!" Sora pushes back, his wings hitching high behind him, his antennas pressed tight against his head. "He's my grandfather, and I'm his grandson, and I'm the Child of Destiny, w-which means… I'm going to unlock Kingdom Hearts and destroy everything!" He looks down at his free hand, at the blood-tainted claws he bears, at the empty, hopeless future he's expected to bring. A future he knows he can't do a single thing to stop… but perhaps someone else can. "Unless…"
"Unless… what?" Kairi frowns, despite the small, sudden burst of hope filling her heart.
"Unless… you destroy him first…" Sora mutters, so quietly they almost can't hear him. "Unless you destroy me too…"
"No," Riku says adamantly, immediately. "Absolutely not. We didn't come all this way to kill you, Sora. We came here to save you-"
"Don't you get it?" Sora snaps sharply. His grip tightens on his Keyblade, his free hand digging into his white hair as he lets out a harsh, bitter sob. "You can't save me! You can't stop this! Not unless you get rid of me once and for all! That's the only way anyone in any world will be safe!" His voice hitches higher and he doesn't care if his master hears. He doesn't care about much of anything anymore. Why should he when he wants nothing more than death? "Riku… Kairi…" he sobs again when he says their names, loving them so much even still. Loving them enough to trust them with this, to trust that they'll make it as quick and painless as possible, that they'll carry on long after he's gone. That they'll be happier when he's no longer the worst part of their lives. "I'm begging you… End this… End me…"
He breaks down again, because really, what else can he do when asking his two best friends to kill him? Riku and Kairi are on the verge of doing the exact same thing, both of them wondering exactly how they got here, how it all ended up like this. How life could be cruel enough to land them here, on the receiving end of someone they love so much begging them to murder him.
"Sora…" Kairi somehow manages to speak. Her Keyblade is gone now, her hand pressed against her heart as she extends a hand out to him again. "You've suffered… so, so much, even though you've never deserved any of it. We are going to end that suffering, no matter what it takes. Just… not like this."
"We don't want you to die," Riku says just as solemnly, fighting back tears. "We want you to live, to be happy and free. We need you to understand that, that we won't stop fighting until you're safe. That we love you, more than anything-"
"If you actually loved me, you'd give me what I want!" Sora exclaims, taking a large step back as a wall of spikes rises behind him. "And what I want is for this to be over already! I'm so tired of all of this! I'm tired of being like this, I'm tired of having no way out! I'm tired of living. So please… Please… Just let me rest…"
Kairi simply shakes her head, her pressing tears finally falling as her heart breaks for him yet again. Riku lets his Keyblade disappear as he continues to approach Sora, his pace slow and his words gentle. "Sora," he says, hating every second of this. Hating that each of their lives, their love for each other, has come crashing down all around them, all because of the dark designs of one demented man alone. "You know we would do anything for you. But… we won't, we can't do this…"
Sora starts when he accidentally backs into something. At first, he thinks it's the spikes he accidentally conjured. Until a hand suddenly falls squarely onto his shoulder. "They won't listen to you, my thirteenth," Young Xehanort tells him, and Sora knows it's true. They won't listen to him, no one ever does anymore. Not his master, not his Organization… not even his own best friends. "So why don't you make them?"
Before Sora can even take another breath, brutal, blinding pain shoots its way straight through his spine. He's thrown to the ground as his master disappears from sight, a dark aura enveloping his body that forces him to transform. Riku and Kairi can only watch, their frightened cries for his name going unheard against his wild, practically inhuman screams. Screams all too fitting for the monster he's becoming.
It only happens to half of him, only one side of his face consumed in complete shadow, only one eye filling in a burning, empty gold. The claws on one hand lengthen while the other remains the same, one wing and one antenna rising higher than the other as his voice raises in a feral roar. His mind is left in a frenzy, with only a fraction of awareness and autonomy left to duel the bloodlust and violence that's emerging. Things that are only amplified as his powers react to his unstable mind and tattered heart, spikes bursting up all over the mesa to the point that they nearly skewer Riku and Kairi alike. They dodge out of their path just quickly enough, though what they're left to face is something out of a nightmare. A nightmare they've both already had far too many times to count.
Sora lunges at them again, and this time, his moves are much quicker, much more aggressive than they'd been before. He charges ahead, almost on all fours, clinging onto his Keyblade like a vice as black and white tears pour from his eyes and a raw scream rips out of his throat. Riku rushes in to counter him, using his own Keyblade to keep his savage claws from striking Kairi. She still refuses to summon hers, still refuses to so much as land a single strike against him, especially not now, especially when he has so little control over what he's doing.
"If he really is your grandson," she shouts up at Xehanort, fixing him with a fearsome glare. "Then how could you do this to him, you… you MONSTER!?"
"Just because he is my grandson, does not mean he is beyond reproach," Xehanort counters calmly, guiltlessly. As if he hadn't reduced his own kin to a hideous, vicious creature of darkness. "I've given him far too many chances to learn unquestioned obedience to his master. Perhaps this lesson shall be the one that will finally stick."
Riku and Kairi are only able to shoot him a disgusted glare before Sora tries attacking them once more. Despite his unstable state, he'd indeed heard his grandfather's cold, callous words and somewhere within his muddled, mangled mind, they help him realize exactly what this is.
It's torture. It's torture to force him to be everything he hates before the two people he cherishes most, to force him to fight them, to force him to hurt them even more than he already has. It's torture to make him into this monster, into a murderer all over again, to make him kill his best and oldest friends in cold blood, to make him destroy something he loves so deeply just before he destroys everything else.
It's the cruelest kind of torture his grandfather could ever hope to inflict upon him. To keep him alive when he'd so much rather be dead.
So he makes that exact plea to Riku again, his words broken as he essentially has to force them out of his malformed, fang-filled mouth. "K-kill me…" he hisses, his voice deeper, angrier, somehow even sadder than it had been before. "R-Riku… Kill… me… p-please…"
His claws clash into Braveheart, but Riku stands firm in more ways than one. "We already told you, we can't," he sighs, pity weighing heavily on every word. "Please, Sora, hold on just a little longer. As soon as the others get here, we'll end this. I promise."
"E-end now!" Sora growls as he strikes his own Keyblade against Riku's. He doesn't even notice more and more cracks forming upon its splintered surface by the second, still echoing just how many are covering his very own heart. "Kill me… or all worlds… will die…"
"They won't," Riku counters, wavering under the sudden strength even half of this form has given Sora. "O-once he's gone, the worlds will be safe. And you'll be free."
"No…" Sora recoils when Riku tries to touch him. He doesn't even want to risk hurting him again, doesn't want to risk leaving another scar that will never heal. "Never free… D-destiny… Voices say… Open door…" He grips his head again, his Keyblade trembling in his grip as he struggles under the sound of so many voices that nobody other than him can hear, all imploring him, begging him to do the exact same thing. "H-have to open door…"
"Voices?" Kairi questions, concerned. "Who-"
"I believe this has gone on long enough, my thirteenth," Xehanort cuts in from his high perch. "I've given you all the power you require to complete this task, so do it. Kill them. Now."
A horrible howl echoes across the wastelands, heard by every last soul standing within them, lights and Organization members alike. It echoes in the surging storm even after Sora's voice is reduced to little more than a savage snarl, even after he's pushed far beyond his own will, far beyond his last few limits. His master holds unyielding control over his body, using it as little more than a weapon at this point to assault the pair opposing him. Riku and Kairi scramble in the chaos that ensues, dodging claws and Keyblade and spikes and the storm and so much else all at the same time. Yet even still, even as Sora's attacks turn much swifter and much more severe, they don't dare land any against him. They don't dare cause him any more pain than what he's already so obviously in.
Though they'd mostly managed to easily evade his unsteady swings before, they find their luck soon starts to run out. His movements are quicker than they can possibly hope to anticipate, the heavy rain obscuring most everything about his dark form save for the white of his hair and the glow of his eyes. As a result, they both receive more than a few deep cuts from his claws, more than a few deep bruises from his Keyblade. More than a few wounds Sora knows he should be sustaining instead of them.
The fight turns to a fever pitch when Sora brings the Kingdom Key just hard enough to send Destiny's Embrace flying out of Kairi's grip. Riku tries to her defense, only to be tripped up by a pair of spikes that shoot up just inches before his feet. He falls to the ground hard, and Kairi soon follows when Sora's boot slams into her chest. They only have time to exchange a scared glance before they find themselves on the wrong end of Sora's Keyblade. As they look up to see darkness swirling around his free hand, tears running hard and heavy down his cheeks, his mismatched face full of far too many emotions to even begin to comprehend.
"M' sorry…" he mutters on a trembling sob as he raises his Keyblade high. Riku and Kairi could both roll out of its path if they wanted to, but they don't. Instead, they return his apology, with tears in their eyes to match his own. Instead, they let what could be their final moments be filled not with regret over how far short they've fallen. But with how much love they still have to share.
"We're sorry too…" Kairi whispers, moving to sit on her knees. She reaches a shaking hand up toward him, only able to skim his heart, but it's enough. Enough for them both, it seems.
"We're sorry for all of this…" Riku adds with a despondent sob, making no effort to hide his tears this time. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop this before it even began…"
"And I'm sorry I couldn't save you from it once it had…" Kairi goes on, shame swelling up in her as she pulls her hand away. Sora nearly drops his Keyblade, nearly reaches for her gentle, beautiful touch before it can slip away from it. But his master's power over him keeps his weapon raised for what will no doubt be a deadly strike. A strike that will kill him every bit as much as it will both of them.
"I guess… we're each a little sorry for everything," Riku somehow, somehow manages to laugh, and Sora can't even begin to fathom what's so funny. "But… if there's one thing we're not sorry for-"
"It's loving you, Sora…" Kairi finishes warmly, wonderfully. Like a ray of sheer sunshine breaking through the black clouds above them.
It should console him, it should comfort him, it should tell him they don't blame him for what he's about to do in the slightest. But for Sora… it does the exact opposite.
It's what finally breaks him altogether.
He screams once more, his voice going out somewhere in the middle of another flash of blinding lightning. Riku and Kairi quickly hold each other, closing their eyes and bracing themselves for the end. But… it's an end that doesn't come.
Because instead of bringing his Keyblade down on his two best friends… Sora somehow finds enough strength to bring it down mere inches away from them.
He swings it with as much force as he can possibly muster, with all of the sadness and sorrow and anger and anguish surging through his splintered heart. He lets it strike the rocky earth harder than it's ever hit any foe he's ever faced before. And the very second, the very instant it does–
The Kingdom Key shatters.
It's a deafening sound, a blinding sight, a single moment that makes time itself seem to stop. The fractured weapon explodes in a dazzling shower of darkness and light, its entire frame, from tip to keychain, falling to pieces as the energy contained within it is released. The force of it is enough to send Sora, Riku, and Kairi all flying to opposite ends of the mesa, and even Xehanort has to shield himself and his inner circle from the magical rain of debris. By now, most of the lights have made it to the base of the mesa, but each of them freezes just shy of climbing it, stunned at the sight of whatever's happening so high above them. At the destruction of a weapon… and the despair of the one who had once wielded it.
Riku and Kairi land hard, but together, their ears ringing from the explosion as whatever's left of the Kingdom Key fades, flecks of scattered light and darkness vanishing into thin air as if they'd never existed at all. The first sound they hear upon regathering their bearings however, is one that makes their blood run cold.
Sora is screaming again, doubled over on the other end of the mesa, his agony echoing even louder than his Keyblade breaking had. His more monstrous features have diminished, shadows leaching from his form to swirl through the air around him instead. He pays them no mind, doesn't glance up at the pair before him, doesn't even think about his master on the bluff behind him. Instead, he has eyes only for the handle of his Keyblade, watching as the last of it finally splinters and separates, weeping even after his hand is left holding nothing at all. Nothing but the empty echo of the key that used to have its home within his heart, a heart that's so very close to meeting its exact same fate.
"...Sora…" He finally looks up to see Riku and Kairi slowly approaching him. And yet, he only has a moment to take stock of their sympathetic expressions before a wave of sudden sickness overtakes him. His stomach turns violently, a familiar kind of nausea flooding through his system as he falls to all fours to expel it. Riku and Kairi can only watch as he painfully coughs up nothing but that unsettling black sludge, not even a single speck of his own blood among it. It's a pitiful sight, to say the least, a testament to just how far he's really fallen, to just how corrupted he's been from the outside in.
When he finally has nothing left to vomit, he recoils, wrapping his arms around himself tightly as he continues crying. The pair is careful to step around the mess he'd made to bring themselves down to their level, with Riku keeping a wary eye on Xehanort all the while. The master makes no move to stop them, still standing above the scene below with an almost uninterested look on his face. As if his own grandson's unending, earth shattering despair doesn't matter to him in the slightest, which, by all accounts, it probably doesn't.
"D-don't touch me," Sora pulls back, his voice raw as he shies away from the hand Kairi slowly reaches out to him. "I don't want to hurt you anymore…"
"You… you didn't hurt us," Kairi assures, trying to make light of the countless minor injuries he'd inflicted upon them both. "We're fine. And we-"
"Don't say you love me," Sora cuts her off. That wasn't what she was going to say, but it's a sentiment they both still hold onto all the same. Something that doesn't change even when they hear what he has to say next. "Y-you don't, and if you do, you shouldn't. No one should! I shouldn't even exist! But because I do, I'm going to wipe out everything! Every world I've ever been to, every person I've ever met, all gone, all because of me!"
"Sora, we already told you," Riku tries to sound resolved, but his voice still wavers just the tiniest bit all the same. "That's not going to happen-"
"Yes, it is!" Sora argues fiercely. His tears make his vision blurry, but out of the corner of his eyes, he thinks he sees some of the other lights gathering on the edge of the mesa. Not that it matters if they're here or not; they can't stop this any more than Riku and Kairi can. "It's my destiny to do this! I can't change it, I can't fight it! This is what I was born to be!"
"No, you weren't," Kairi pushes back. "Xehanort's lying to you, Sora! None of this is your destiny-"
"If this isn't my destiny, why else am I here then?" Sora asks, his voice intense, distraught, devastated. "Why else would I be related to him if this wasn't what I was always meant to become!?" When a round of startled gasps sounds at this, Riku and Kairi finally realize they're not alone. The other lights have indeed arrived, though they're blocked from coming any closer thanks to the spikes still standing tall around the cliff's perimeter. Even so, they're aptly shocked stiff by everything they're hearing, shocked by just how wrong everything has gone.
"Don't you see?" Sora ignores them, keeping his mournful focus on Riku and Kairi alone. "Kingdom Hearts gave me to him! It gave me to him so he could use me to end everything and start it all over with him in charge! This is my destiny, this is my fate, and it is going to happen unless you take both of us out before it can! Please! Just get it over with and kill me already!"
"Stop it!" Riku shouts, unable to take it anymore. A few cries of protest from the other lights echo his own, Donald and Goofy's ringing out the loudest among them. Yet even still, they're not enough to change Sora's mind; not even Riku can at this point. "Stop asking us to end you–we won't, we never will!"
"Why not?!" Sora snaps, desperate and furious.
"Because we love you!" Kairi exclaims, finally taking his hand by force and holding on tight. "Why can't you just see that already?!"
"Because I HATE myself!"
Those four short and simple words ring out across the graveyard, rising above even the deafening din of the thunder and rain. Silence settles over the mesa, the guardians of light all lost in the low sounds of Sora's bitter, heartbroken sobs. He continues all the same, unable to stop himself now that the floodgates have pried themselves open. Unable to keep his own resentment and revulsion hidden any longer than he already has.
"I… I hate myself…" he admits, quieter this time. He keeps his sights set on the soaked ground before him, unable to meet Riku and Kairi's pitied gaze out of sheer shame alone. "I always have. Even before I found out what I was, before I found out he was my grandfather, before… any of this, I… I always knew I was never good enough. Not for the worlds, not for either of you… not for anyone… But now… now I know. It's not that I'm just not good enough; I'm not good at all…"
"Sora…" Kairi grips his hand tighter when he tries to pull it away. Riku takes his other one, holding on just as securely to keep him from slipping even further into the despair he's already so deeply drowning in. "You are good. You're so good, even if you don't see it. The way you care about people, the way you love everyone you meet with all of your heart… that's what makes you so special. That's what makes you so strong…"
"And that's what makes us love you so much more than you think we should…" Riku says with just the slightest smile. "So much more than we can even say…"
"Don't… P-please…" Sora still shudders away from them, away from their love, their kindness, their light. Light that someone who dwells in darkness as deep as he does can't even seem to feel anymore. "You both deserve so much better. I… I'm just not worth it.. I'm a failure, a fraud, a liar, a thief, a monster, a murderer–I might even be worse than the master himself is! I just wanted to save everyone, but instead, I'm gonna be the one who kills them all!" His voice hitches into a small, miserable cry, one that wrenches the heart of every last light present. They wish they could push past these spikes, they wish they could run to him, they wish they could show him all the care and comfort he so sorely needs. Especially when they only barely manage to hear what he has to say next.
"I wish I'd never even been born…" he mutters morosely, absently squeezing Riku and Kairi's hands like a lifeline. A lifeline he's done nothing to earn, but a lifeline he longs for all the same. Even despite what he'd just told them. "At least then, I wouldn't have to feel this way… At least then, everyone would be safe… A-at least then… I wouldn't have to spend eternity with him…"
His crying turns a touch quieter, and though he tries to pull his hands away from them, they still hold on all the same. He's nearly lost to his grief altogether, to the thought of the never ending nightmare of a future that awaits him, when…
"Sora," Kairi says his name again, in a way that sends warm shivers down his spine. He looks up at her, at Riku, and realizes that even despite the rain drenching them both, even despite the blood leaking lightly from their wounds, even despite everything… they're both as radiant, both as beautiful as they've always been to him. "Do you remember what you said on our last night together on the islands?"
"I… I don't…" Sora shakes his head, hesitant. Though it's only been a month, that bittersweet evening feels like a lifetime ago now.
"I think you do," Riku counters, realizing where Kairi is going with this. He reaches out to place a gentle hand against Sora's face, thumbing away either tears or rainwater, he can't quite tell which. "You told us that Xehanort can't have your heart. Why is that?"
"I… I…" he stammers, nervously glancing back toward his grandfather. Only for Kairi to take the other side of his face and draw it back toward them instead.
"Please, Sora…" she whispers, smiling softly. "Xehanort can't have your heart because…?"
He draws in a shallow breath, keeping his eyes on them and nothing else. On the two people he loves, the two people he's always loved, more than anyone or anything else. On the two people who so clearly love him in return, even when they shouldn't, even when he has nothing to offer them but death, even when he stands ready to destroy everything they've ever known. They still love him, they still want him…
And… even though he knows he can't have them… he still wants them in return.
"Because…" he sobs, but there's a smile behind it this time. A smile that only grows as the rain begins to die down into a drizzle, as he leans his face even further into their hands, as he lets their love overtake the hatred he harbors so heavily for himself. Hatred only they can heal. "It already belongs to both of you…"
It belongs to them in a way it can never belong to anyone else. He belongs to them in a way even his master can't hold a candle to. They belong to each other, hearts, minds, bodies, and all, in a way that's so bright and so beautiful that Sora can't help but wonder if maybe that alone really could be enough. If maybe the bond between them, the connection they share, the love they feel so deeply, so strongly for another… might actually be what could end up stopping this. If it could actually be what ends up saving him…
He lets himself hope that it can. He lets himself hope that maybe there's a life waiting for him somewhere beyond this graveyard, somewhere beyond his grandfather's grasp. He lets himself hope that it's a life he'll get to have with the people he loves in the worlds he holds so dear. He lets himself hope–
Until that hope, like everything else he used to have, is all too swiftly stolen from him.
Riku and Kairi start to pull him closer, but he never enters their embrace. Instead, something latches tightly around his throat, roughly yanking him backward, away from their open arms. He isn't surprised to find Xemnas when he hoists him up high into the air, keeping his tight grip around his neck, almost to the point of strangulation, but not quite. Stars forbid the master's precious Child of Destiny be "damaged" on his destined day, after all.
"Sora!" Riku and Kairi cry in unison. They're on their feet in seconds, Keyblades summoned as they rush forward to rescue them. Ansem stops them in short order, however, knocking them back with a wave of his hand and a sharp burst of darkness that lashes out along with it. The other lights try to break through the barrier to reach their friends and offer them the backup they need, but if the spikes don't stop them, the new wall of transparent shadows that quickly appears to stand before them does.
Sora doesn't have enough time to figure out what's happening before Xemnas suddenly drops him at Young Xehanort's feet. He says nothing to the boy as he looks up at him with wide, fearful eyes, but his terror is only met with a snide, stoic scowl. The young master's "kindness" toward him ended the second they stepped foot out of the Castle That Never Was, it seems.
"How quickly you've seemed to have forgotten, my thirteenth," he sneers unsympathetically. "Those lights, your so-called 'friends' abandoned you. They left you to languish in our care for well over a month. They let you wander the worlds alone, scared and starving half to death. They did nothing while that witch tortured you and turned you into a cold-blooded killer. And yet even still you fall so easily under the sway of their empty smiles and meaningless words like the lost child you truly are. It really is pitiful…"
"T-that… no," Sora pulls himself upright, his heart ringing with pain for even disagreeing with his master. He still forces himself past that pain all the same though; if he can't do anything else, at the very least, he has to set the record straight. "Y-you're wrong. I love them! And they love me-"
Young Xehanort cuts him off, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him close as he uses the most dangerous weapon he has at his disposal against him: words. "They don't love you, Sora," his voice is a dark, warning whisper, one that sends icy dread shooting through his vessel's veins. "No one does."
That coldhearted claim doesn't even have time to sink in before it's proven wrong. Riku and Kairi's voices ring out across the mesa, their cries for him seeming so much louder, so much more important than anything his master might have to say. And as soon as that master realizes he's even remotely starting to lose his final vessel… he knows exactly what it is he needs to do.
To cut down the source of that rebellion at its very source. To destroy what little is left to tether his wayward grandson to the loathsome light. To crush any kind of hope the boy could still hold onto right before his very eyes.
And if Sora won't finish the job, then Xehanort might as well do it himself.
The master materializes on the lower half of the mesa, his dark Keyblade already in his hand as he comes to stand between his other selves and the young pair rushing for them. His arrival doesn't stop Riku and Kairi for a second; if anything, it emboldens them even more. Because here he finally is, the man who hurt Sora so badly, the man who made Sora hate himself so severely, the man who's taken Sora away from them far too many times to count.
The man who isn't going to get away with it any longer if they have anything to do about it.
Kairi reaches him first, her colorful Keyblade slamming straight into Xehanort's blackened one. He fends her off easily, and does the same with Riku when he tries to come in from the side. They're both quick to try again, their voices raised in shouts so furious that even a few of their friends, even Sora himself, is frightened by how intense they are. Yet once again, Xehanort blocks their strikes and sends them back with a heavy swing of his own, never once losing his calm composure, even against such outraged foes.
"You'll have to excuse my thirteenth," he says when Riku and Kairi are forced to pause and recover from his latest strike. "He's such an unruly child; never listens to a thing that's said to him. Just like his impetuous father before him."
Neither of them bother dignifying him with a response, not wanting to dwell on the twisted implications of it for too long. Kairi casts a wide-range light spell, one that Xehanort vanishes out of the path of and his other selves erect a darkened shield to guard against. Riku leaps high to attack the master from above when he reappears, only to be met with a brutal blow to his abdomen in return. Sora tries to pull out of Young Xehanort's grasp when it happens, struggles even harder when he sees Kairi sustain a wide gash across her leg. His young master punishes him for his resistance with a swell of searing pain, one that Sora largely ignores. His own anguish matters so little, after all, when compared to the danger Riku and Kairi are in. His own life means nothing when weighed against the ones they could stand to lose.
"Pathetic children," Xehanort admonishes as he evades another one of Kairi's swings. "Trying so hard to save the one who is destined to destroy your worlds, to end your very lives. But certainly you must know… he was never meant to be yours. Your 'love' for him cannot divert him from his fated path; it will never be enough to change the very reason why he was born."
"Do you really think we believe any of that?" Riku scoffs as he defends against the next swell of darkness the master sends out. "Destiny isn't something that's set in stone. It's something that each of us writes for ourselves with every decision we make."
"You took Sora's freedom to write his own destiny away from him," Kairi hisses as her Keyblade clashes with Xehanort's once more. "But we're giving it back!"
Xehanort simply smirks as he pushes them both back yet again, barely even putting any effort into this fight at all. "Very well then," he says, raising his Keyblade high as pure darkness pools around its tip. "If you believe the hand of fate itself can be stopped… then just try to stop it."
With this, Xehanort unleashes pure darkness upon the pair at full force. Fortunately, Kairi is ready to confront it with plenty of light of her own, letting it spiral freely from her Keyblade to allow Riku to go on the offensive in her stead. He waves out of the master's direct line of sight, hoping to catch him off guard, but of course, Xehanort sees him coming a mile away. His Keyblade collides with Braveheart, and Riku brings it down again when his first strike doesn't land. From there, a rapid exchange begins, each trying to outpace and overwhelm the other with a seemingly endless series of brutal strikes.
With the wave of darkness finally diminishing, Kairi tries to find an opening to lend Riku her support. At the same time, she takes another glance over at Sora, still forced to stand alongside Young Xehanort thanks to both his hold over the boy's heart and his restricting grip on his arm. Kairi meets his eyes for only a moment, seeing all of the terror and woe that's been lingering in them since this critical encounter began. She has to force herself to remain steady despite those feelings, radiating so strongly she can practically feel them ringing from his heart. And while Riku is keeping Xehanort distracted, Kairi decides to take a different route instead. To get Sora as far away from these monstrous men as possible, to rescue him in so many more ways than one.
She decides to cast a light gate, hoping her impromptu plan will work. She's never used them to teleport such short distances before, but miraculously enough, she winds up right behind the master's inner circle all the same. They sense her coming, and even Sora turns in shock to see her running his way. She still manages to meet Xemnas' crimson blades squarely, casting light from its tip that's bright enough to send him stumbling back. From there, she stops Ansem's attempt at attacking her dead in its tracks with another light spell, one that's meant for Young Xehanort as well. While Ansem ends up struck by it, the young master suddenly, surprisingly vanishes. And as he does, he leaves Sora seemingly, miraculously unguarded.
"Come on!" Kairi shouts, grabbing his arm to make their escape. Sora doesn't argue as he follows her lead, watching as she raises a hand to call upon a light gate, to take him out of this fight, out of this world altogether. They're almost there, their way out is almost in sight… until, once again, the Organization cuts down any kind of hope they could possibly have.
Kairi grinds to a half when she hears Sora's sudden cry, when she feels his hand yanked out of hers. She only has enough time to glance over her shoulder to see that Ansem has a tight hold on both of the boy's antennas, painfully restraining him despite his feeble struggle against his superior. Kairi is more than ready to help him, only for a hand to latch around her Keyblade-bearing wrist instead.
"What kind of weapon is this supposed to be?" Young Xehanort sneers as he looks over Destiny's Embrace, ignoring the hateful glare Kairi is sending his way. "A weak Keyblade held by an even weaker wielder. A Princess of Heart doesn't belong in a battle like this. But you already knew that from the very start, didn't you, Kairi?"
She isn't given a chance to answer in anything other than a scream when Young Xehanort abruptly twists her wrist with an audible snap. It's a scream that intensifies the other lights' attempts to break into this battle, a scream that shakes Sora down to his very core. A scream that Riku, even in the midst of a life-or-death brawl, can't possibly ignore.
"Kairi!" he breaks the tension between his and Xehanort's Keyblades so he can turn to see what's happening. At the same time, Young Xehanort hoists Kairi into the air and throws her hard across the mesa, letting her collide into several of the rock-solid spikes Sora had summoned earlier. And once she lands… she doesn't rise again.
"No!" Riku and Sora both yell. Only one of them is able to run toward her, but Riku only makes it a few short steps before the sharp tip of the master's Keyblade slices directly across his back. Sora screams where Riku doesn't at the sight of his jacket tearing, of blood being flung from it, of Xehanort kicking him hard directly in the center of the brand new wound.
Riku lands somewhere near Kairi, white hot agony searing across his back. He struggles to even sit up, but finds some solace when he sees Kairi starting to stir beside him. She lets out a pained yelp the second she puts pressure on her injured hand, which dangles unnaturally from her no-doubt broken wrist. Her own injuries quickly become the least of her concerns, however, when she takes stock of Riku's. His back has been brutalized, blood already pooling on the damp ground around him from it. She wastes no time reaching out with her still-functional hand, casting as much of a healing spell as her waning energy will allow. A spell that seems all but pointless when they look up to see Xehanort slowly approaching them.
The tip of his Keyblade drags across the ground as he walks their way, one hand held behind his back, a devious grin painted across his aged features. They're both far too injured to properly rise against him again, they know that just as much as the master himself does. And they're not the only ones to realize that either. The other lights lash out against the barrier keeping them back, slamming spells and Keyblades into it alike, all to no avail. And for Sora–
For Sora, time seems to slow to a crawl.
His grandfather's quiet steps seem like thunder, the air thick with rain that refuses to fall. His own heart hammers in his ears as his arms both dangle limply in Xemnas' and Ansem's hold. He barely breathes as he watches what could be their final moments, what certainly will be the first of so many innocent deaths to follow. But then–
He hears Young Xehanort whisper in his ear.
"You know what you need to do, my thirteenth," he leans forward from behind him, his voice like a quiet storm raging through his mind. "You've known all along. So… go and do it…"
He finally draws in a breath when he feels his superiors release their hold on him. When he feels complete control over his heart finally flood back in. When he realizes his grandfather is only steps away from Riku and Kairi.
When he remembers… so is he.
"And so the first two lights shall fall," Xehanort draws his Keyblade back, grinning triumphantly down at the pair before them. A pair so exhausted they can't even stand, so injured that they can't even call upon their Keyblades, knowing they won't be enough to save them from what's coming. "Take solace, children, in the fact that soon, the rest of existence shall follow your fate. That soon… it all shall be born anew by the hand of your dearly beloved best 'friend'."
The voices of the other lights echo dully, barely reaching them, barely even registering at all. They have no time for final words as they simply decide to hold each other in their final seconds, finding strange comfort in the fact that if they're going to die, at least they'll get to die together. Even if they don't even deserve that much for failing their friends, failing the worlds, for failing Sora so utterly and miserably.
And so…
They close their eyes, not wanting to see.
The master brings his Keyblade down, a rush of darkness following its blade.
The lights cry somewhere in the distance, thunder obscuring anything they might have to say.
They wait for a strike, for pain, for blood, for death itself to take them both away.
But… it never comes.
They hear Xehanort's Keyblade hit something. Something that's neither of them. Something they could have never seen coming. Something they never could have stopped if they tried.
Something so incredibly precious to them both.
Kairi opens her eyes first, her scream erupting across the mesa at what she sees. Riku is abruptly brought back into the moment when he hears it, only able to get a gasp out when he glances up in shock.
Because standing there, squarely between them and Xehanort… is Sora. Sora, who holds his arms out wide, no longer possessing a weapon to defend himself with. Sora, who doesn't make so much as a sound as he faces his grandfather with a hateful, fearless glare.
Sora… who's been run straight through the heart by Xehanort's blade.
The tip of the weapon is only inches away from Riku and Kairi's faces, with the rest of its length resting in Sora's chest all the way to the hilt. Xehanort holds it steady, his broad grin widening to an almost manic degree as he watches another one of his well-crafted plans unfold before his very eyes. As he watches his thirteenth vessel, his ultimate pawn, once again fall perfectly into place.
"Well done, my boy," he congratulates with something that almost sounds like pride. "You've played your first part exactly as I intended you to."
Sora chokes, his lungs already starting to fill up with blood that all too quickly begins pouring out of his mouth. "I-I… I didn't do this… for you…" he's barely able to get out, his voice low and bitter. But for a change, his words, just like his actions, are entirely his own.
"I know," Xehanort says simply, succinctly. "But you still did anyway. And for that, Sora, I can't thank you enough."
His smile suddenly disappears when Riku's outraged, heartbroken cry rises high into the air. It's echoed by so many more, by the sound of a barrier shattering, by almost every last one of the guardians of light rushing forward in equal anger and anguish. Xehanort wastes no time pulling his Keyblade out of his grandson's body, finally allowing blood to flood from both sides of the deadly wound. He disappears just before Riku's Keyblade can hit him, his other selves retreating to the upper mesa before the rest of the lights can attack them in turn. Kairi is the only one who stays behind to catch Sora when he starts to fall, securing his broken body before guiding it down to the ground as gently as she possibly can.
"I-it's ok," she tells him, tears already pouring down her cheeks when she feels his warm blood against her lap. "You'll be ok. I… I can heal you! I-"
"Kairi…" he cuts her off, his breathing unsteady, his eyes already glossy and dull. "I… y-your good luck charm… h-he broke it… m' sorry…"
He looks away, leaving Kairi baffled that he'd even be bothered to think about something so insignificant at a time like this. "Oh, Sora…" she starts, but caves when she sees his gaze drift back up to her. When she feels the remorse ringing through his freshly-pierced heart. "I… I'll make you a new one. How does that sound?"
He smiles to match hers, letting out a contented sigh as he lets himself relax in her arms. "I'd like that…"
"I'll get started as soon as we get home…" she whispers, gently kissing his forehead. "Now, just sit still and let me fix this…" She trails off when she moves her hand over his chest; her wrist is still mangled, but she can't be bothered to care as she forces as much healing magic through it as she can. It's the most powerful healing spell she can conjure, magic she's only ever practiced before, never on any real injuries, especially not any this severe. It should seal the gaping hole in his chest up, leaving little behind other than an ugly scar. It should restore the ample amounts of blood he's already begun to lose. It should be enough to save him, but…
"Riku!" Kairi cries, panicking. Her voice puts the brakes on the attack he's in the middle of leading, a desperate assault against the barrier Xehanort has erected to protect himself and his inner circle from the furious onslaught of the guardians of light. An onslaught that's all but forgotten when he hears what Kairi has to say next. "I'm trying to heal him, but it's not working!"
"Sora!" Riku shouts, something that's echoed by several of the lights as they run after him. His Keyblade vanishes as he slides to his knees next to Kairi, feeling sick at the horrific sight before him. At the sight of all of the blood–so much blood–soaking Sora's coat to the point that most of it's already turned a dark shade of crimson. At the sight of the massive, inexplicably unhealable hole torn wide across his best friend's chest. And…
At the sight of the smile on Sora's face, soft and sweet, yet so very sad all the same.
"Riku… Kairi…" he somehow manages to speak, his voice little more than a ragged, wavering whisper. "I… I'm so sorry… for everything…"
"No," Riku swallows hard, taking his hand and holding it tight. He presses his knuckles against his lips, the very same claws that had torn such a savage scar across his face. A scar that he'd gladly feel the pain of all over again if it meant it could somehow stop this. "Please, Sora… Don't be sorry… You… you saved us-"
"No…" Sora coughs. Black liquid spills out and mingles with the red that's already staining so much of his face. "I-I couldn't just let him kill you, but… what I just did… I… I gave Grandfather exactly what he wanted…" Tears finally fill his eyes, not prompted by pain, but by guilt. By the knowledge that even still, even now, he can't keep the twisted wheels of fate from turning against him. He can't thwart his master's destructive designs, not in life, not in death, not in any way at all.
But…
He squeezes Riku's hand gently, relishing Kairi's touch when she reaches in to thumb a few of his tears away. He finds himself in awe of them both, in awe of how gentle and loving they are, in awe of how lucky he is to even be in their presence at all. How lucky he is to be dying herein their arms. "Y-you'll stop him… won't you?" he asks, with all of the hope he still has left to give.
They exchange a glance, with each other at first, then with the rest of their fellow lights. They all stand by, close, but not too close to give the trio the privacy they deserve. Even still, tears hang in just about all of their eyes, each of them mourning in solemn, sorrowful silence. Donald and Goofy fall to their knees as they watch their son bleed out before them, barely even feeling Mickey's hands coming to comfortingly rest on their backs. Roxas' hands tremble in tight fists at his side, his expression awash in anger and grief as Xion buries her face into Axel's shoulder so she won't have to see. Ventus sobs softly, supported by Aqua and Terra on both sides as they do the same. Naminé cries into Vanitas' chest as he holds her loosely, and even he watches on with a strange sort of somber look. But when they hear Sora's request, so simple, yet so immense all the same, their despair evens out into something else. Into something that Riku and Kairi share as they make sure Sora knows that's exactly what they plan to do.
"We will," Riku assures firmly. "We'll do whatever we have to to save the worlds from him."
"Y-you promise?"
"...We promise…" Kairi nods, holding back a sob when she sees him smile once again. A smile that even now, even despite all of the darkness he's been dwelling in for so very long… still shines as bright as the sun.
"Thank you…" he sighs happily, though it's quick to fade into another regretful frown. His thoughts are slow and sluggish, but somewhere within them, he finds space to question why his master is allowing this. Why he hasn't ripped him away from them, why he hasn't taken what he's after already. He wonders if, perhaps, this is his grandfather showing him a rare shred of mercy, to let him have one final moment of peace, one final second of happiness before an eternity where he knows he'll have none. Whatever it is, he can't help but be strangely grateful for this chance all the same. A chance to be with them before the end, a chance to loved by them one last time.
"I-I know I shouldn't ask this, but… can you do me a favor?" he asks, struggling to hold on at this point. But he still does all the same, no matter how much it might hurt, no matter how much he knows this, like everything else, will eventually have to end.
"Of course," Riku quickly agrees, holding his hand even tighter. "Anything."
"If… A-after all this is over…" he corrects himself, deciding to believe in them. Deciding to believe that it will somehow all turn out alright in the end after all. "C-can you tell Mom I'm sorry… f-for leaving her all alone… A-and… that I love her… and miss her?"
Naturally, they both want to assure him that he'll be able to tell her all of that himself. And yet… as much as they don't want to admit it… there simply is no guarantee. "...Yeah…" Kairi nods after a brief, but heavy silence. "We'll tell her."
"Thanks…" he smiles once more, though every last inch of it is filled with so much pain. Pain that they only wish they could ease even just a little bit. "I love both of you too. I… I never deserved either of you… but I'm still so glad Igot to have you both anyway… I love you so much…"
"We know…" Riku leans down, ignoring the spark of pain running through his back as he kisses Sora on the cheek. "We love you too…"
"You mean it?"
"We mean it," Kairi gently, lovingly brushes a few stray hairs out of his eyes. "With all our hearts."
Sora sobs, so quietly they can barely hear it. He's all but gone entirely now, and yet… he still has something to say in what's no doubt his final seconds. One last message to give before the last of his miserable life finally fades away. "Riku… Kairi… I-"
The words die on his lips as a sharp, sudden gasp escapes him. The lights echo it when a dark aura abruptly engulfs his entire body, an aura that swiftly pulls him out of Riku and Kairi's arms. They scream his name, reaching for him desperately as he's dragged through the air away from their reach. Those fearful cries turn to rage-fueled shouts when they watch him glide up to his master against his will.
"The blade has been tempered, beaten and burned," Xehanort announces as he beckons the boy's broken body to him. Sora comes to rest in his outstretched arms, hanging limply in them as blood continues to slowly drip out of his open back. "All that remains… is to forge it…"
"G-Grandfather," Sora chokes, using what little strength he has left to reach a trembling hand up to his master. "Please… don't-"
His final, desperate plea is cut off when Xehanort hovers his hand over his chest, directly over the fatal wound his Keyblade had sustained. "Rest now, child, and know that death shall not take you," he instructs, his voice soft, kind, almost. Not that Sora finds any sort of kindness in what his grandfather is about to do. "You still have yet another role to play. I shall awaken you when the time comes for that role to be fulfilled. Until then… sleep, my grandson. Sleep and be at peace. Your ultimate destiny is about to unfold…"
"Xehanort!" Riku practically screams from down below. His Keyblade is back in his hand, the other lights all bearing theirs as they aim their weapons solely at the monster before them. At the man who's taken something they all hold so dear away from them so many times now. "Let him go!"
The master ignores his foes in favor of something far more important. Power swells over his hand, magic that connects with his thirteenth vessel's shattered heart, which in turn spreads to each of the thirteen Keys. They circle the mesa much faster now, already sensing what's about to happen, already knowing the final Key is about to be formed.
"A clash of light and darkness, a conflict born within the very same heart…" Xehanort grins even against the awful, agonized scream his grandson lets out. A scream that sends shockwaves through the lights as they realize all at once that they're all too late. "From the depths of this heart, I summon the greatest Keyblade of all, the Key to the Heart and all the infinite power it possesses!" his voice rises above Sora's screams as they finally fade out. As his eyes finally fall shut, as his body grows still. As a blinding burst of equal light and darkness surges from the gaping wound in his chest, from the war that's always been raging within his very own heart.
That light and darkness soon starts to take on a new form. The form of two Keys crossed together. The form of the most ancient, most powerful Keyblade to ever exist.
"Behold!" Xehanort cries, grinning madly as that fabled Keyblade takes shape in his open hand. "The majesty of the almighty X-Blade! And behold… the glory of the Kingdom it was created to call upon…" He releases his hold on his grandson's listless body, allowing it to hover limply in the air above him. The lights' don't take their eyes off of him, not even as several spires rise high into the air surrounding the mesa. Not even as the remaining members of Organization XIII appear atop each one to watch their master's hour of triumph. Not even as the earth itself begins to rattle violently, as the sky grows dark as night. Not even as the thirteen Keys all point their tips skyward, as Xehanort raises the newly-formed X-Blade high into the air along with them.
None of them take their eyes off Sora as fourteen Keys shoot raw power straight past his unmoving body. None of them take their eyes off of him as those Keys part the endless clouds above. None of them speak, none of them move, none of them even breathe as something emerges from beyond those clouds, something from far beyond their realm, something that can and will spell the end of everything in existence. Something that they realize they never could have stopped no matter how hard they tried.
"At last… It's finally come…" Xehanort lowers his X-Blade, staring past his fellow members, past the thirteen Keys. Past everything and everyone he so callously, carelessly used to get him to this moment and this moment alone. Past even his own grandson hanging lifelessly just beneath the limitless power of the heart looming so high above them all.
The very heart of all worlds itself.
"Kingdom Hearts…"
:3 Welp. That happened. And I'm broken inside. Yay! But seriously, this chapter just destroyed me, even if I'm immensely proud of how it turned out. it's bittersweet though, because this really is the beginning of the end for Keys. Only 7 chapters left! So if you're excited to see how it's all going to play out from here, please make sure to scream at me in the REVIEWS! Until next time!