Part Four: The World Between
Kairi sat alone on the beach stroking Oathkeeper. The Keyblade was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. A shadow fell across her, and an immense wind struck. She leapt up the Keyblade vanishing from her hand. She was surprised to see the Highwind setting down. It threw sand in all directions and Kairi had to throw her arms up to shield her face from the flying bits of rock.
Coughing she looked up to see Donald and Goofy jump out of the cockpit. Followed, to her surprise by Leon, Yuffie, and another character she didn't know. Kairi gagged and spat out sand as Donald and Goofy strode up to her. "You could have found a better place to land" she said sourly to the duck.
"Eh heh" Donald said, "Er we need your help Kairi, do you know where Sora is?" he asked anxiously.
Kairi threw her hands up. "How should I know where he is? He's supposed to be with you!" she stopped suddenly as she realized what she was saying. She looked from the anxious looks on Donald and Goofy's faces, to the grim expressions on Leon's, Yuffie's, and the other's faces. "What's happened?"
They told her. Kairi pressed a hand over her heart and felt the emptiness within. "I can't feel him anymore," tears running down her face. But then she stood wiping away her tears. "Then we have to finish what he started, we can't leave it undone."
Suddenly Cloud shivered and looked up. "We must get back to Hollow Bastion" he murmured, "something is happening there." His eyes misted over, "I feel it the final barrier is fluctuating, and bending. Soon it will shatter, but it is thinnest at Hollow Bastion we must return there." He looked at Kairi then cast his gaze down. "I'm sorry" he murmured.
But Kairi shook her head. "Don't apologize, your duty is to your world. Go do what you can there." They nodded and boarded the Highwind again.
Kairi turned her back as the ship took off. As the sand whipped around her she laid eyes on the entrance to the Secret Place. Kairi drew OathKeeper and ran toward the cave, she stopped inside and cast a wary eye about. Then she walked to the door. A faint glow came from the edges of the wooden sheet. Kairi placed her palms on the door. Her hands sank right through it as if it were liquid. Kairi glanced back at the tunnel, then stepped through the door.
Sora opened his eyes slowly. His body felt as if it were filled with lead, and he could barely move. The landscape around him was dark, all sables and ebonies. Though dotted here and there was a gray stone amid the mass of black on the beach. The water was lapping rhythmically at the shore. Listening to it almost made Sora drift off again, but he snapped himself back, and sat up. There were arches of black stone all around, and lumps of obsidian dotted the beach here and there.
The place was somehow familiar to him. Though he couldn't recall ever being to this darkened beach under a sky obscured by thick clouds. Where the moon's feeble rays struggled to pierce the thick veil over the world.
Sora closed his eyes and was seized by an image. He saw himself as he had been two years before. Flying over a turbulent ocean, he looked as though he was unconscious but that wasn't it. Sora opened his eyes, now he remembered why this place was familiar. He had been here before. When he'd unlocked his own heart to release Kairi's and become a heartless. This was the place where he had come.
Sora stood brushing pebbles off his clothes. His skin seemed to have and eerie glow to it. And there was a faint spark of light coming from his chest, where his heart was. Sora gazed out past the beach. Where the pebbles ended an expanse of silver grass on rolling hills began. Not giving a thought to why Sora started walking, his back to the full moon. It was then he saw it, what seemed like the only bit of reality in this colorless place. A small white hawk fluttered down out of the sky. It had a light blue crest down that ran down its neck. It spread its wings the tips of its wing feathers tinged a light blue, and a blue forked tail.
The hawk regarded Sora, gazing at him with sparkling black eyes. Without thinking Sora reached out a hand to the bird of pray. It stepped onto his fist sinking black claws into his glove for grip. The bird spread its wings slightly for balance, still staring at Sora. Sora made as if to keep walking but the hawk let out a shriek, and dug its claws in. Sora stopped and looked at the bird.
He knew suddenly what this omen meant. "Life within death," he murmured, "light within darkness." The hawk cheeped and held out its leg. Something glittered in its tiny talons. Sora took it carefully, it was a key chain of hawk. White with silver lined wings, and turquoise streaks. Its eyes were set with tiny gems that were neither dark nor light, but a mixture of both, like the eyes of the hawk.
Sora looked at the tiny bird, "thank you" he said, but there was a slight tremor in his voice. The bird cocked its head then opened its beak. A voice rang through Sora's being, rattling him loose from his floaty state.
"The closer you come to the light, the larger your shadow becomes. But don't be afraid, your heart is the mightiest weapon of all. You shall open the final door…"
Sora shook his head to clear it of the voice. At his sudden movement the hawk took off with a loud cry. Sora watched it fly out of sight, he clutched the key chain it had given him tighter. Sora knew in his heart that it was not just a gift, but it too had some secret meaning. He put the strange pendant away and continued walking.
Ansem smiled up at the sky as streamers of silver light fell all around him. Soon, very soon his ultimate goal would be fulfilled. Ansem turned when he heard footsteps behind him. "Why Squall, Cloud Strife, Yuffie, Aerith how nice of you to join me."
"Enough of this Ansem!" Yuffie cried, "we cannot let you destroy the barrier!"
Ansem cackled, "and exactly what are you going to do to stop me?"
"Whatever it takes" Cloud growled raising his sword.
Ansem clapped his hands together with excitement. "Oh very well, I see there's nothing I can say to dissuade you. So meet your ends you pathetic worms!" Ansem unleashed a huge bolt of energy that struck the four who stood in front of him. They were instantly overwhelmed and knocked backward. "You fools" Ansem sniffed. He turned away and eagerly watched as the sky, the final barrier, collapsed in on itself. It fell in dark folds coating all worlds. A sleepless power seeped out of the gaping hole left behind. It leached all life and happiness from anything it touched. A darkness deeper than that which held Ansem. It was the true darkness, and it could not be stopped.
Riku walked steadily along the path. It didn't seem to go anywhere. He was full of fear, for he'd felt something happen to Sora. Something so alien that it made him quiver from head to foot. Suddenly he caught sight of someone laying on the path in front of him. He ran to them and turned them over. With a flare of shock he saw that it was Kairi.
"Kairi!" he said shaking her, "wake up!" desperation filled his voice.
Kairi's eyelids flickered she opened her eyes. "Riku?" she said thickly looking at him in wonder. "Are you there?"
"In part" Riku replied, smiling. Kairi sat up and rubbed her temples. "How did you get here?" Riku asked, "I thought the barriers were sealed."
Kairi shook her head, "I didn't come in a ship, I came through the door."
Riku looked at her, a mixture of horror and bewilderment on his face. "Through…the door?" Kairi nodded.
"Riku I'm so glad you're okay." She hugged him tightly. Riku's eyes were casting about in the darkness, looking for something.
"Are you there?" he whispered quietly.
"What?" Kairi asked drawing away from him.
Riku shook his head, "nothing, where's Sora?"
Kairi looked down tears filling her eyes. "He's gone…" she said quietly putting her face in her hands. "Donald and Goofy and the others from Hollow Bastion say he's dead. But Riku, I don't believe it, I can't believe it."
A stab of raw horror had pierced Riku. Sora? Dead? He couldn't believe it either, if only because he had to make amends with Sora. If only because he had to say sorry. Riku put his face in his hands, what to do now?
Sora looked out at the great expanse of city before him. Rain came pelting down without mercy. Sora didn't feel it, he could feel nothing in this strange world. Not the wind, or the grass, or the beating of his own heart. Perhaps his heart wasn't there… Sora shook his head violently to rid himself such thoughts. The rain ran in thick streams down his face as he looked around he saw another figure walking toward him.
The stranger wore a long black coat, his eyes were obscured by the white blond hair that fell across them. As he walked heartless began to appear out of the ground. They pulled their sinewy bodies from the pools of darkness, their golden eyes glinting. Sora was just about to call out when the figure stopped. He drew from the inside of his coat two Keyblades. Sora saw that one was Oathkeeper the other Oblivion.
The heartless attacked, the phantom was totally outnumbered, but had some power on his side. He wielded the Keyblades with deadly accuracy. But his skill was not enough to stem the flow of shadows. They poured in on him writhing like a single black mass.
Sora looked up. He could just make out a second figure standing on the edge of the building. A dark shadow against the lighting flashing brightly across the sky. The gigantic mass of Heartless exploded. Sending their wriggling bodies in every direction.
Sora felt something suddenly as if something had pierced his heart. Driving a great pain down into his very being. He screamed, the Heartless faltered in their pursuit of the black coated unknown. They dragged themselves over to Sora. Only to flop and writhe at his feet, seeming to get weaker as they got closer to him. Sora was doubled up as pain continued to burn through his insides. Light and darkness filled his eyes obscuring his vision. Their was an eerie scream and the Heartless vanished.
Suddenly a cool hand pressed against Sora's forehead, the pain dimmed. Sora looked up, and found himself facing the unknown who had wielded the Keyblades. "Calm yourself, it burns I know. It's hard to deal with the loss at first. But eventually the pain will pass." said a low comforting voice.
Sora was gasping for breath. The pain had not gone but had dulled slightly. It still ached within Sora, making his whole body throb painfully. With a cough Sora looked up at the man who had spoken.
"Did you get all the Heartless?" he asked hoarsely.
The Keyblade wielding unknown shook his head a slight smile crossing his lips. "No it was you who got rid of them."
Sora looked up at him shaply. "Me?" the other nodded, "but how?"
"Heartless, have less power here." Said another unknown who was walking up to them. He wore a blindfold under the thick silver hair that framed his face. "There are no hearts for them to consume. Some of those who reside here have ties back to the Present World. Something happened to that tie to make you react as you did. You released a great amount of energy that incinerated the Heartless. Though where such power came from I cannot fathom."
The unknown who had wielded Oathkeeper and Oblivion turned to him. "Yes you do. You know very well what makes that kind of tie."
He was silent for a moment. "All right perhaps I do know. But it is so deep and so powerful in this case that it seems like it's limitless. How can there be such a power?" The other didn't answer.
Sora shuddered, "I saw you disappear" he mumbled, "you just faded away" Both of them them looked at him sharply.
"You saw our bodies?" inquired the Keyblade wielding unkown. Sora couldn't reply he felt sick as a particularly painful throb ripped through him. He sank to his knees feeling his strength trickle away. The ground pitched, rumbling in anger. The rain came down thicker, falling with such speed that it no longer felt like a liquid. Sora raised his head gazing skyward with unseeing eyes. Suddenly out of his heart burst a beam of pure golden light. It struck some old billboard screens on the roof of a building.
Faces whirled across the screens, places, foes. Sora's memories played out, the two unknowns watched speechless. Sora cried out and the light vanished, he fell forward face down on the rain soaked street.
The blindfolded unknown knelt down by him. "You do not belong here" he whispered, "for your heart still lives."