Sora did once become a heartless. But Kairi saved him but that seemed to not be enough. Maran also had already became a heartless. It was when he was found. Rina's love was what cured him, and they were friends since then.
"Now... I offer you... a choice." the girl said, then. "Join me. Everything will be easier, I know how stubborn you can be."
"What do we do?" Maran asked Sora.
"...Yes." Sora said, surprising everyone. Then, he gave them all a look.
"I knew you wouldn't refuse it. Sometimes, pride is the very first thing that screws you up. However..." she said, "I need to be sure."
"What? Be sure of what?" Sora asked, nervous.
"Be sure if you're not lying!" she said. The little Hirosh came down from her arms and moved towards Sora and Maran.
"Whaaa..." he was saying.
SLAM!!
"What was that?" everybody asked.
The girl looked up and then seemed calm.
"Damn, looks like Ansem is smarter than me, but not much."
"What?" Maran asked.
"That moron is still alive, somewhere in here."
"Where are we, anyway?" Mickey asked. "I feel I know this place."
"This is Hollow Bastion's library. It's where Ansem gathered all his knowledge, I think. Now, come on. I want you to finish Ansem off. Take these..." she gave them two longswords. "If you can handle keys, you can handle swords."
"Uh, ok, we were going to do the same thing anyways... " Maran began.
"Go." the girl ordered, and they all left the room on the way to the lift stop room.
"Boo?" Hirosh 'asked' her.
"Hm. These morons will end up helping me in the end..."
...
Meanwhile, very far from there...
...
"Anythin'?" Cid asked Leon, Goofy and Donald, who were coming back from the jungle.
"No. No sign of any of them." Leon answered.
"I wonder if they may be at another world." Goofy said.
"The Highwind is almost fixed, but it'll be risky to leave this place and maybe miss 'em." Cid said. "Although it's quite sure they may be at Hollow Bastion."
"Hmmm, now that you said it, it makes sense. I mean, it's where Ansem is, right?" Leon said. "Ok, we're going. Goofy, duck, let's pack. Cid, make sure the airship is in good condition, ok?"
"Don't worry, I'll do a millionth check just like Shera... oh, I miss that idiot..." Cid said, leaving.
"I do have a name, you know!" Donald said to Leon, mad.
"Uh, yes. C'mon, let's pack. We must find them!" Leon said, leaving too.
"You see how things go? We're mere pieces of a... chess game..." Donald said to Goofy.
"But pieces of chess games are crucial to the victory, aren't they?" Goofy said, making his way to the camp.
"...Quork!" Donald said to himself after following Goofy.
...
...
"Sora?" Maran called.
"Yeah?"
"You... you sure we'll be able to defeat Ansem?"
"Well, I did that once."
"But, with a longsword?"
"Um, no... but I think he must be weak. That girl said she had already finished him off first."
"Sora..." Mickey said.
"Yes, Mickey?"
"I still don't understand what her intention is. I mean, it's clear that she knows we were lying about joining her, but why did she send us to defeat Ansem?"
"It'll be a favor we'd be doing for her." Riku said.
"But it's also what we wanted to do in the first place." Maran said.
"Yeah..." Riku said, thinking. "That girl... is hella smart..."
They continued walking to the castle's chapel.
In the shadows, she followed them with her eyes, along with Hirosh in her lap.
"You see... they are confused. It's good to be in a third position, not a enemy nor an ally." she said, hugging the little Hirosh. "You hungry?"
"Yaaa..." he said.
"Figures. Let's follow these morons..." she said, getting up and putting Hirosh on her shoulder.
When Sora and the others finally arrived at the castle chapel, they got surprised... there were all the princesses of heart! Well, there were Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine and Belle.
"I feared this would happen!" Belle was saying, loudly.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Sora asked.
"Alice's gone off to deal with Ansem herself. But the wall closed itself and we can't go in!" Belle said. Her mirror-like eyes were filled with tears. "Can you do something?"
"Ansem's really got a nerve. After being defeated, he still wants to cause trouble." Maran said.
"And who is this?" Aurora asked, reaching them.
"This is Maran. He's.. uh, how can I say..."
"And... that one! You were the one who tried to harm us in the past." Jasmine said. She was reffering herself to Riku.
"I... I was out of my mind back then. I'm okay now."
"Maran is the another part. We want to equalize things, we need all the parts." Mickey said, getting near them.
"But that's..." Aurora began.
"...the King!" the others said. They all gathered.
"How did you manage to get out of Kingdom Hearts?" Jasmine asked.
"All this will be soon explained. Now let's go. Look..." Mickey pointed to the altar. There was a black hole there, which was distorting that part of the chapel.
"It's the Unknown." Mickey said. "I can feel it. It's the only... remaining part..."
"'Remaining part'? What do you mean?" Maran asked.
"It's the only cloaked figure we haven't seen yet."
Then, Sora remembered the cloaked man he met in the beginning of all this, at the gardens of Disney Castle. He, at first, thought it had been Hirosh, but now he felt differently. But he wasn't going to tell Mickey that, it was too awkward.
"Let's go." Mickey said, taking the lead to the hole.
"Be careful..." both Belle and Aurora told them.
But when Mickey tried to enter the hole, he couldn't. It acted like it wasn't there, Mickey trepassed it like it was transparent and couldn't get in. Riku tried after him and also couldn't.
"I get it... it's... only for you two." Mickey said, looking at Sora and Maran.
"We... both are going to fight the Unknown?" Sora asked, confused.
"I don't know. I know nothing from now on, all this is based on guesses. Sorry." Mickey was acting odd. "But it would make sense if only you and Maran were able to enter."
"HAAACK!" a voice said, behind the wall Alice seemed to have walked throught. It was a male voice.
"Alice!" Belle got scared.
"Oh, my... please, hurry!" Aurora said, nervous.
Maran and Sora touched the hole and it was solid. They got in.
...
...
...
"...We all know what you've been doing..." an old voice said... Maran and Sora found themselves in a court-like room. They didn't seem to actually be there, they weren't noticed by the people sitting on the jury nor the judge himself.
At the defendant's chair... was Ansem. He got up.
"All 'what I have been doing' is strictly under the laws I stablished in my community. You got no right to..."
"...Shut up, Master Ansem." the judge, somehow, imposed some authority upon Ansem. "We're all aware of your weird and suspicious laws but it is okay since it doesn't harm the other worlds, I mean, communities."
"I am aware of that. No other community has been harmed."
"Your mistake." the judge made a sign to the guard at the door. He opened the door and someone came in, seemed to be a witness, but Sora and Maran couldn't see face or body, only a dark blur.
"You say you had contact with the plague this man scattered in space?" the judge asked the witness.
Suddenly, the witness' body and face weren't blur anymore.
It was Mickey.
"The jury is aware of the political importance of the King that is witnessing now. Um, King Mickey..." the judge faced him. "Do you swear by all our laws and beliefs that all you are going to say here is true, nothing more or less than the truth?"
"I do." Mickey said, with a voice rhytm that revealed his confidence.
"I contest, you honor!" Ansem said, getting up. "This King has nothing to do with the case."
"Well can you wait to see his arguments? Thank you." the judge said, impatiently.
"Ansem... isn't a bad man." this shocked most people there. "He's just... with overwhelming ambition caused by immense knowledge and power. What I personally witnessed was that all people with low or none happiness on their lives were turning into shadows, shadows which were firstly developed by him."
"I contest!" Ansem said once again.
"Shut up! One more interruption and you'll be considered guilty!" the judge said, nervous. "Continue, King."
Mickey looked up.
"But you have to consider that he's our father..." that also shocked the people around, even the judge. Ansem was listening carefully, then.
"Can you be more clear?" the judge said.
"He's... how can I say... our worlds were created by him... he's our lord... and I think it's time for us to say thank you. But not by just saying it, but by helping him. Our lord, our father!" Mickey said, getting up.
"So... this is your position..." the judge said.
"Yes. I think we all owe a lot to our lord. Let's help him."
"You shut up you little no-good King. You're a King just because of our skills, not because you originally deserved it, like me! And you better take all that you said."
"Why, was I lying?"
"Order, order..." the judge was demanding.
"Yes, you were. 'Help me'? WHAH! I'd better die if my only chances of survival were being helped by such wimps." he began to walk towards the door.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" the judge said.
"Shut up." Ansem raised his arms and a huge spark stormed inside the room, scaring and hurting everyone but Mickey, who, somehow, had disappeared.
...
...
"Maran...?" Sora was calling.
"I'm here!"
"Did you see that?"
"Yes! That was Mickey, right?"
"Yes!" they were speaking to each other but not seeing each other.
All around was white... Sora and Maran had the feeling of being falling... falling... falling...
Sora's mind beigns to get hazy and twisted. Then he finds hinself in a weird platform with a door on its middle. Maran appears right after him.
"...Don't... try... to... understand... just... walk your way... to... the... ... ...door..." someone says...
Sora and Maran try reaching the door but it seems that their movements get each time slower... till completely stopping in mid-step.
"Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?" the voice asks them.
Then, Sora and Maran finally complete their movement, and reach the door. It's locked.
Maran, spots a small key on the floor.
"If you give it form... It will give you strength. Choose well." the voice says...
Sora, by instinct, hands the longsword, and then so does Maran.
"What are we gonna do?" Maran asks him.
"...I have no idea... keep listening..." Sora said.
"The day you will open the door is both far off and
very near..."
...
"The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow
becomes..."
...
"What's going on?" Maran asks, and their shadows begin to get larger.
Then, the scenery begins to take form. They were back at the chapel Sora once fought Maleficent's dragon form.
"But don't be afraid. And don't forget..."...there's a cloaked man in the center of the room.
"But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of
all..." the voice continues...
"So don't forget: You are the one who will open the
door..."...
...
...
The cloaked man turned and faced Sora and Maran.
"I'm glad you came. So we're all here. Did you understand what you saw?"
"Huh?" Sora and Maran were still confused.
"Thanks to your foolish ruler, we had enough power to create life for ourselves... finally leave the non-existance, the shell..." he said.
"What do you mean?" Maran asked.
"So you were controlling Ansem?" Sora asked.
"Hah..." this echoed around the whole place. "Of course not, foolish human. Ansem was acting stupidly on his own mind. We only took advantage on that. Ansem was like a monkey with a gun... too much power for a foolish person."
Sora was still with the longsword in hands, and so was Maran.
"You're going down." Sora said, courageous.
"Yeah! You go back to your non-existance shell, or whatever it is!" Maran said.
"So you're going to solve all this with a silly fight?" the man said. "I understand how your mind works, ok, I accept."
"STOP!" someone said, behind them. It was Mickey. But he was hazy, just like verything they saw at that flashback.
"Ansem gave you wings! But you're flying too far into evilness!" he said, he didn't seem to be seeing Sora and Maran.
"Again, foolish! Get this abomination out of here, now!" the cloaked man swung his arms and the Mickey image disappeared.
"Ansem... had the power. But we... had the intelligence!" a huge wave of sparks were thrown by him at Sora and Maran, who dodged difficultly.
"If all of this is true, you must stop! You and your order..." Maran said, while trying to reach him and fight him.
"My order isn't with me anymore. I am alone. I am better than them, though. Look at Hirosh for example, he's turned into a beast now! He wasn't originally one of us anyway..." he was saying, floating in the air, throwing sparks at them.
Then, one of the rays hit Maran's leg.
"Aaaahhh..."...
"Maran!"
"It is futile, all of this is futile you morons!" the cloaked man was saying. "I am the ultimate thinker these dimensions will face. I am not unknown, nor a man. I am the highest experiment of Ansem, the experiment that will destroy his master! Call me Unknown, it'll be fine. Will make you fear me even more." he said, while Maran was in pain and Sora was trying to heal his injury with a bit of his clothes.
"Can you walk, now?"
"I think I can..."
"Come on, get your sword. We're here to beat him."
Sora and Maran ran towards Unknown, who quickly avoided their attacks with a backflip. In response, conjured a sword for himself, apparently made of thunder.
"You're fighting with swords so I got the right, huh?" he said, moving towards Maran, intending to hurt the other leg.
"Come on!" Sora said behind Unknown, slashing his back.
"Hah hah hah hah hah..." he was laughing while dodgind them. "You don't realize you just tearing my cloak. I got no body, you fools! See!"
He left the cloak on the floor and initially they couldn't see anything. Then, Sora and Maran could see two purple eyes and a hazy dark human body.
"Try slashing, now." he said, moving towards them.
"What should we do, Sora?"
"I have no idea!"
"What is the only way to hurt him?" Maran asked.
Sora looked up.
"Unknown... is unknown... it's neither light or darkness, so how could we attack with an opposite element...?" he was thinking. "Unless we..." he stopped. "Maran!"
The Unknown was now floating in their direction, getting ready to hit them both with only one slash of his thunder-ish sword.
"Maran, concentrate all your strenght... on your sword... c'mon..." he said.
"What? What are we gonna do?"
"Just do this!" Sora said and began doing it too.
Then, a white light began to shine in Sora's sword. At the same time, a dark light (if it can be said) began to shine in Maran's. Soon they were holding shiny blades, one black and another white.
"Now let's join them!"
The sword touched themselves and a huge mass was formed upon it. The white and black shining invaded the whole room, and the screams of the Unknown could be heard.
"You shall... f...all..." he said after finally vanishing...
The room quickly came back to normal. A new feeling was on their hearts, now.
"Baa..." a little voice said. It was Hirosh, accompanied by the in-between girl.
"What do you want? We don't need to fear you, anymore. We got the power!" Maran said, full of himself.
"I know... I know... I... I heard everything you talked and saw everything you saw here... Well, little Hirosh did. Anyway... I... I want to apologize..." she said, lowering her head.
Sora and Maran couldn't believe she was sorry.
"Why would you?" Maran asked.
"Because I was leading you to a trap. Who knows what's with my dad, now? Yes, he had no fault but this Unknown guy... he messed up my father's mind. He may still be..."
"Shut up!" Ansem's voice echoed.
"Don't worry! We'll help you!" she said, loudly.
"Help me? The time you had to help me has already expired. You will now face the fate I've reserved to these sorry dimensions!" it echoed. "And I'd recommend you rushed to my tower..."
"Let's go." Sora said.
The castle, then, trembled and some rubbish fell from the ceiling.
"We gotta stop this..." the girl said. "C'mon..." they left the chapel.
"Sora!" Mickey said when he spotted him coming out of the hole. "What happened? What is she doing there?"
"She's on our side, now. We fought the Unknown... and we won."
"You fought... the Unknown? And you won? That's impossible." Mickey said.
"Oh, yeah, it is." Maran said, proudly. "He first became all air and weapon, but we anihillated him as we..."
"...United light and darkness. When you realized he had no side, either would your attacks have." the girl completed.
The castle trembled again, this time harder.
"What is going on?" Aurora asked.
"How are we gonna come up to the tower?" Sora asked.
"I have no idea." Mickey said.
"I know." the girl said. "We can take another way. Trust me, I know this place like the back of my hand. Follow me!" she said, walking towards the entrace of the chapel.
"Should we trust her?" Mickey asked Sora, in low voice.
"That's our only option, Mickey..." Sora said.
"Don't worry. This is getting to an end..." Mickey said, following her.
The fellowship followed the girl around the castle. There were so many turns and deturns that Sora and Maran would never find their way back alone.
CraaaAAAAaack!!
A big window broke and a cloaked short person landed on the floor. It had a Keyblade.
"Capitulyn!" he said...
...
...
"...Pete?" Maran recognized. It was really Pete, but he was acting odd.
A thunder.
"I will not let you come up. If you want to stop Ansem, you'll have to stop me first." he said.
"But Pete, weren't you with us? By our side? Weren't you taking care of Rina??" Maran kept asking. "Why are you saying these things?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, moron. I'm a pawn, and I'll do a pawn's job." he raised his hands and charged a huge darkball. It multiplicated and was thrown against them.
"Peter..." the girl said. "Peter?" she was calling. He didn't seem to notice that, though. "He's doomed. He's possessed by my father. I know... he's the only one who calls me... Capitulyn..." she said.
"Your name is Capitulyn?" Sora asked.
"Pete!" Maran was trying to call his friend. "Man, I can't believe this!"
"The only way to free him is to confront the real Ansem." Mickey said. "Capitulyn, show us the way, we'll protect ourselves."
"Ok..." she said, continuing her way but now, running. The others followed her and so did Pete, a bit late, though.
"You think you can ruuun..." he was saying, "But I can follow!"
They were not at some kind-of endless stairway. Soon they were at a new corridor. Then, Capitulyn said this was the last turn they'd be making.
The new corridor was also seemed endless.
"That's an illusion my father made. If you continue to walk forward you'll be lost forever. But there's a door right... here..." she pressed a particular part of the wall and it turned to be a wall. "Let's go!".
When the door closed, Pete arrived.
"Where are you, doomards?" he yelled. "Hmmm... they forgot who's controlling this body, heh heh heh..." he said, pressing the part of the wall that would turn to be a door, continuing to follow them.
...
It was the central tower's highest floor. If you looked throughout its window you could see others worlds as well.
"Ansem!" Sora called. So did the others.
Pete came in, walking normally and sat on the voluptous chair that rested in the center of the room. A huge spark stormed and he fell on the floor.
"Ansem must have left him." Mickey said, rushing to check on Pete.
"Pete? Pete!" Maran was calling.
They all got relieved when he opened his eyes.
"HA!" he said, stabbing Capitulyn with his Keyblade.
"Capitulyn!" the others yelled.
A black and white matter was coming out of her and fusing with the Keyblade. When it seemed to be full, Pete threw it away.
"I came to the point where I don't need any of this rubbish. Behold... the MERGING!" he said, raising his arms.
"Now... I offer you... a choice." the girl said, then. "Join me. Everything will be easier, I know how stubborn you can be."
"What do we do?" Maran asked Sora.
"...Yes." Sora said, surprising everyone. Then, he gave them all a look.
"I knew you wouldn't refuse it. Sometimes, pride is the very first thing that screws you up. However..." she said, "I need to be sure."
"What? Be sure of what?" Sora asked, nervous.
"Be sure if you're not lying!" she said. The little Hirosh came down from her arms and moved towards Sora and Maran.
"Whaaa..." he was saying.
SLAM!!
"What was that?" everybody asked.
The girl looked up and then seemed calm.
"Damn, looks like Ansem is smarter than me, but not much."
"What?" Maran asked.
"That moron is still alive, somewhere in here."
"Where are we, anyway?" Mickey asked. "I feel I know this place."
"This is Hollow Bastion's library. It's where Ansem gathered all his knowledge, I think. Now, come on. I want you to finish Ansem off. Take these..." she gave them two longswords. "If you can handle keys, you can handle swords."
"Uh, ok, we were going to do the same thing anyways... " Maran began.
"Go." the girl ordered, and they all left the room on the way to the lift stop room.
"Boo?" Hirosh 'asked' her.
"Hm. These morons will end up helping me in the end..."
...
Meanwhile, very far from there...
...
"Anythin'?" Cid asked Leon, Goofy and Donald, who were coming back from the jungle.
"No. No sign of any of them." Leon answered.
"I wonder if they may be at another world." Goofy said.
"The Highwind is almost fixed, but it'll be risky to leave this place and maybe miss 'em." Cid said. "Although it's quite sure they may be at Hollow Bastion."
"Hmmm, now that you said it, it makes sense. I mean, it's where Ansem is, right?" Leon said. "Ok, we're going. Goofy, duck, let's pack. Cid, make sure the airship is in good condition, ok?"
"Don't worry, I'll do a millionth check just like Shera... oh, I miss that idiot..." Cid said, leaving.
"I do have a name, you know!" Donald said to Leon, mad.
"Uh, yes. C'mon, let's pack. We must find them!" Leon said, leaving too.
"You see how things go? We're mere pieces of a... chess game..." Donald said to Goofy.
"But pieces of chess games are crucial to the victory, aren't they?" Goofy said, making his way to the camp.
"...Quork!" Donald said to himself after following Goofy.
...
...
"Sora?" Maran called.
"Yeah?"
"You... you sure we'll be able to defeat Ansem?"
"Well, I did that once."
"But, with a longsword?"
"Um, no... but I think he must be weak. That girl said she had already finished him off first."
"Sora..." Mickey said.
"Yes, Mickey?"
"I still don't understand what her intention is. I mean, it's clear that she knows we were lying about joining her, but why did she send us to defeat Ansem?"
"It'll be a favor we'd be doing for her." Riku said.
"But it's also what we wanted to do in the first place." Maran said.
"Yeah..." Riku said, thinking. "That girl... is hella smart..."
They continued walking to the castle's chapel.
In the shadows, she followed them with her eyes, along with Hirosh in her lap.
"You see... they are confused. It's good to be in a third position, not a enemy nor an ally." she said, hugging the little Hirosh. "You hungry?"
"Yaaa..." he said.
"Figures. Let's follow these morons..." she said, getting up and putting Hirosh on her shoulder.
When Sora and the others finally arrived at the castle chapel, they got surprised... there were all the princesses of heart! Well, there were Aurora, Cinderella, Snow White, Jasmine and Belle.
"I feared this would happen!" Belle was saying, loudly.
"Hey, hey, what's wrong?" Sora asked.
"Alice's gone off to deal with Ansem herself. But the wall closed itself and we can't go in!" Belle said. Her mirror-like eyes were filled with tears. "Can you do something?"
"Ansem's really got a nerve. After being defeated, he still wants to cause trouble." Maran said.
"And who is this?" Aurora asked, reaching them.
"This is Maran. He's.. uh, how can I say..."
"And... that one! You were the one who tried to harm us in the past." Jasmine said. She was reffering herself to Riku.
"I... I was out of my mind back then. I'm okay now."
"Maran is the another part. We want to equalize things, we need all the parts." Mickey said, getting near them.
"But that's..." Aurora began.
"...the King!" the others said. They all gathered.
"How did you manage to get out of Kingdom Hearts?" Jasmine asked.
"All this will be soon explained. Now let's go. Look..." Mickey pointed to the altar. There was a black hole there, which was distorting that part of the chapel.
"It's the Unknown." Mickey said. "I can feel it. It's the only... remaining part..."
"'Remaining part'? What do you mean?" Maran asked.
"It's the only cloaked figure we haven't seen yet."
Then, Sora remembered the cloaked man he met in the beginning of all this, at the gardens of Disney Castle. He, at first, thought it had been Hirosh, but now he felt differently. But he wasn't going to tell Mickey that, it was too awkward.
"Let's go." Mickey said, taking the lead to the hole.
"Be careful..." both Belle and Aurora told them.
But when Mickey tried to enter the hole, he couldn't. It acted like it wasn't there, Mickey trepassed it like it was transparent and couldn't get in. Riku tried after him and also couldn't.
"I get it... it's... only for you two." Mickey said, looking at Sora and Maran.
"We... both are going to fight the Unknown?" Sora asked, confused.
"I don't know. I know nothing from now on, all this is based on guesses. Sorry." Mickey was acting odd. "But it would make sense if only you and Maran were able to enter."
"HAAACK!" a voice said, behind the wall Alice seemed to have walked throught. It was a male voice.
"Alice!" Belle got scared.
"Oh, my... please, hurry!" Aurora said, nervous.
Maran and Sora touched the hole and it was solid. They got in.
...
...
...
"...We all know what you've been doing..." an old voice said... Maran and Sora found themselves in a court-like room. They didn't seem to actually be there, they weren't noticed by the people sitting on the jury nor the judge himself.
At the defendant's chair... was Ansem. He got up.
"All 'what I have been doing' is strictly under the laws I stablished in my community. You got no right to..."
"...Shut up, Master Ansem." the judge, somehow, imposed some authority upon Ansem. "We're all aware of your weird and suspicious laws but it is okay since it doesn't harm the other worlds, I mean, communities."
"I am aware of that. No other community has been harmed."
"Your mistake." the judge made a sign to the guard at the door. He opened the door and someone came in, seemed to be a witness, but Sora and Maran couldn't see face or body, only a dark blur.
"You say you had contact with the plague this man scattered in space?" the judge asked the witness.
Suddenly, the witness' body and face weren't blur anymore.
It was Mickey.
"The jury is aware of the political importance of the King that is witnessing now. Um, King Mickey..." the judge faced him. "Do you swear by all our laws and beliefs that all you are going to say here is true, nothing more or less than the truth?"
"I do." Mickey said, with a voice rhytm that revealed his confidence.
"I contest, you honor!" Ansem said, getting up. "This King has nothing to do with the case."
"Well can you wait to see his arguments? Thank you." the judge said, impatiently.
"Ansem... isn't a bad man." this shocked most people there. "He's just... with overwhelming ambition caused by immense knowledge and power. What I personally witnessed was that all people with low or none happiness on their lives were turning into shadows, shadows which were firstly developed by him."
"I contest!" Ansem said once again.
"Shut up! One more interruption and you'll be considered guilty!" the judge said, nervous. "Continue, King."
Mickey looked up.
"But you have to consider that he's our father..." that also shocked the people around, even the judge. Ansem was listening carefully, then.
"Can you be more clear?" the judge said.
"He's... how can I say... our worlds were created by him... he's our lord... and I think it's time for us to say thank you. But not by just saying it, but by helping him. Our lord, our father!" Mickey said, getting up.
"So... this is your position..." the judge said.
"Yes. I think we all owe a lot to our lord. Let's help him."
"You shut up you little no-good King. You're a King just because of our skills, not because you originally deserved it, like me! And you better take all that you said."
"Why, was I lying?"
"Order, order..." the judge was demanding.
"Yes, you were. 'Help me'? WHAH! I'd better die if my only chances of survival were being helped by such wimps." he began to walk towards the door.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" the judge said.
"Shut up." Ansem raised his arms and a huge spark stormed inside the room, scaring and hurting everyone but Mickey, who, somehow, had disappeared.
...
...
"Maran...?" Sora was calling.
"I'm here!"
"Did you see that?"
"Yes! That was Mickey, right?"
"Yes!" they were speaking to each other but not seeing each other.
All around was white... Sora and Maran had the feeling of being falling... falling... falling...
Sora's mind beigns to get hazy and twisted. Then he finds hinself in a weird platform with a door on its middle. Maran appears right after him.
"...Don't... try... to... understand... just... walk your way... to... the... ... ...door..." someone says...
Sora and Maran try reaching the door but it seems that their movements get each time slower... till completely stopping in mid-step.
"Don't be afraid. The door is still shut. Now, step forward. Can you do it?" the voice asks them.
Then, Sora and Maran finally complete their movement, and reach the door. It's locked.
Maran, spots a small key on the floor.
"If you give it form... It will give you strength. Choose well." the voice says...
Sora, by instinct, hands the longsword, and then so does Maran.
"What are we gonna do?" Maran asks him.
"...I have no idea... keep listening..." Sora said.
"The day you will open the door is both far off and
very near..."
...
"The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow
becomes..."
...
"What's going on?" Maran asks, and their shadows begin to get larger.
Then, the scenery begins to take form. They were back at the chapel Sora once fought Maleficent's dragon form.
"But don't be afraid. And don't forget..."...there's a cloaked man in the center of the room.
"But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of
all..." the voice continues...
"So don't forget: You are the one who will open the
door..."...
...
...
The cloaked man turned and faced Sora and Maran.
"I'm glad you came. So we're all here. Did you understand what you saw?"
"Huh?" Sora and Maran were still confused.
"Thanks to your foolish ruler, we had enough power to create life for ourselves... finally leave the non-existance, the shell..." he said.
"What do you mean?" Maran asked.
"So you were controlling Ansem?" Sora asked.
"Hah..." this echoed around the whole place. "Of course not, foolish human. Ansem was acting stupidly on his own mind. We only took advantage on that. Ansem was like a monkey with a gun... too much power for a foolish person."
Sora was still with the longsword in hands, and so was Maran.
"You're going down." Sora said, courageous.
"Yeah! You go back to your non-existance shell, or whatever it is!" Maran said.
"So you're going to solve all this with a silly fight?" the man said. "I understand how your mind works, ok, I accept."
"STOP!" someone said, behind them. It was Mickey. But he was hazy, just like verything they saw at that flashback.
"Ansem gave you wings! But you're flying too far into evilness!" he said, he didn't seem to be seeing Sora and Maran.
"Again, foolish! Get this abomination out of here, now!" the cloaked man swung his arms and the Mickey image disappeared.
"Ansem... had the power. But we... had the intelligence!" a huge wave of sparks were thrown by him at Sora and Maran, who dodged difficultly.
"If all of this is true, you must stop! You and your order..." Maran said, while trying to reach him and fight him.
"My order isn't with me anymore. I am alone. I am better than them, though. Look at Hirosh for example, he's turned into a beast now! He wasn't originally one of us anyway..." he was saying, floating in the air, throwing sparks at them.
Then, one of the rays hit Maran's leg.
"Aaaahhh..."...
"Maran!"
"It is futile, all of this is futile you morons!" the cloaked man was saying. "I am the ultimate thinker these dimensions will face. I am not unknown, nor a man. I am the highest experiment of Ansem, the experiment that will destroy his master! Call me Unknown, it'll be fine. Will make you fear me even more." he said, while Maran was in pain and Sora was trying to heal his injury with a bit of his clothes.
"Can you walk, now?"
"I think I can..."
"Come on, get your sword. We're here to beat him."
Sora and Maran ran towards Unknown, who quickly avoided their attacks with a backflip. In response, conjured a sword for himself, apparently made of thunder.
"You're fighting with swords so I got the right, huh?" he said, moving towards Maran, intending to hurt the other leg.
"Come on!" Sora said behind Unknown, slashing his back.
"Hah hah hah hah hah..." he was laughing while dodgind them. "You don't realize you just tearing my cloak. I got no body, you fools! See!"
He left the cloak on the floor and initially they couldn't see anything. Then, Sora and Maran could see two purple eyes and a hazy dark human body.
"Try slashing, now." he said, moving towards them.
"What should we do, Sora?"
"I have no idea!"
"What is the only way to hurt him?" Maran asked.
Sora looked up.
"Unknown... is unknown... it's neither light or darkness, so how could we attack with an opposite element...?" he was thinking. "Unless we..." he stopped. "Maran!"
The Unknown was now floating in their direction, getting ready to hit them both with only one slash of his thunder-ish sword.
"Maran, concentrate all your strenght... on your sword... c'mon..." he said.
"What? What are we gonna do?"
"Just do this!" Sora said and began doing it too.
Then, a white light began to shine in Sora's sword. At the same time, a dark light (if it can be said) began to shine in Maran's. Soon they were holding shiny blades, one black and another white.
"Now let's join them!"
The sword touched themselves and a huge mass was formed upon it. The white and black shining invaded the whole room, and the screams of the Unknown could be heard.
"You shall... f...all..." he said after finally vanishing...
The room quickly came back to normal. A new feeling was on their hearts, now.
"Baa..." a little voice said. It was Hirosh, accompanied by the in-between girl.
"What do you want? We don't need to fear you, anymore. We got the power!" Maran said, full of himself.
"I know... I know... I... I heard everything you talked and saw everything you saw here... Well, little Hirosh did. Anyway... I... I want to apologize..." she said, lowering her head.
Sora and Maran couldn't believe she was sorry.
"Why would you?" Maran asked.
"Because I was leading you to a trap. Who knows what's with my dad, now? Yes, he had no fault but this Unknown guy... he messed up my father's mind. He may still be..."
"Shut up!" Ansem's voice echoed.
"Don't worry! We'll help you!" she said, loudly.
"Help me? The time you had to help me has already expired. You will now face the fate I've reserved to these sorry dimensions!" it echoed. "And I'd recommend you rushed to my tower..."
"Let's go." Sora said.
The castle, then, trembled and some rubbish fell from the ceiling.
"We gotta stop this..." the girl said. "C'mon..." they left the chapel.
"Sora!" Mickey said when he spotted him coming out of the hole. "What happened? What is she doing there?"
"She's on our side, now. We fought the Unknown... and we won."
"You fought... the Unknown? And you won? That's impossible." Mickey said.
"Oh, yeah, it is." Maran said, proudly. "He first became all air and weapon, but we anihillated him as we..."
"...United light and darkness. When you realized he had no side, either would your attacks have." the girl completed.
The castle trembled again, this time harder.
"What is going on?" Aurora asked.
"How are we gonna come up to the tower?" Sora asked.
"I have no idea." Mickey said.
"I know." the girl said. "We can take another way. Trust me, I know this place like the back of my hand. Follow me!" she said, walking towards the entrace of the chapel.
"Should we trust her?" Mickey asked Sora, in low voice.
"That's our only option, Mickey..." Sora said.
"Don't worry. This is getting to an end..." Mickey said, following her.
The fellowship followed the girl around the castle. There were so many turns and deturns that Sora and Maran would never find their way back alone.
CraaaAAAAaack!!
A big window broke and a cloaked short person landed on the floor. It had a Keyblade.
"Capitulyn!" he said...
...
...
"...Pete?" Maran recognized. It was really Pete, but he was acting odd.
A thunder.
"I will not let you come up. If you want to stop Ansem, you'll have to stop me first." he said.
"But Pete, weren't you with us? By our side? Weren't you taking care of Rina??" Maran kept asking. "Why are you saying these things?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, moron. I'm a pawn, and I'll do a pawn's job." he raised his hands and charged a huge darkball. It multiplicated and was thrown against them.
"Peter..." the girl said. "Peter?" she was calling. He didn't seem to notice that, though. "He's doomed. He's possessed by my father. I know... he's the only one who calls me... Capitulyn..." she said.
"Your name is Capitulyn?" Sora asked.
"Pete!" Maran was trying to call his friend. "Man, I can't believe this!"
"The only way to free him is to confront the real Ansem." Mickey said. "Capitulyn, show us the way, we'll protect ourselves."
"Ok..." she said, continuing her way but now, running. The others followed her and so did Pete, a bit late, though.
"You think you can ruuun..." he was saying, "But I can follow!"
They were not at some kind-of endless stairway. Soon they were at a new corridor. Then, Capitulyn said this was the last turn they'd be making.
The new corridor was also seemed endless.
"That's an illusion my father made. If you continue to walk forward you'll be lost forever. But there's a door right... here..." she pressed a particular part of the wall and it turned to be a wall. "Let's go!".
When the door closed, Pete arrived.
"Where are you, doomards?" he yelled. "Hmmm... they forgot who's controlling this body, heh heh heh..." he said, pressing the part of the wall that would turn to be a door, continuing to follow them.
...
It was the central tower's highest floor. If you looked throughout its window you could see others worlds as well.
"Ansem!" Sora called. So did the others.
Pete came in, walking normally and sat on the voluptous chair that rested in the center of the room. A huge spark stormed and he fell on the floor.
"Ansem must have left him." Mickey said, rushing to check on Pete.
"Pete? Pete!" Maran was calling.
They all got relieved when he opened his eyes.
"HA!" he said, stabbing Capitulyn with his Keyblade.
"Capitulyn!" the others yelled.
A black and white matter was coming out of her and fusing with the Keyblade. When it seemed to be full, Pete threw it away.
"I came to the point where I don't need any of this rubbish. Behold... the MERGING!" he said, raising his arms.