Alright. I AM NOT SQUARESOFT, DISNEY, OR ANY OTHER COMPANY INVOLVED IN THE MAKING OF THIS GAME. All characters used in this story from the KH game are not my characters. They were created by Disney and/or Squaresoft.

In other words…

They're not original TT

Alright, with the disclaimer over… on to the story.

Warning: Do not read if you only like happy fuzzy feelings and "happily ever after" endings

Hearts Lost: Kingdom Oblivion

"Sora! Sora!"

I looked up for the source of the voice, the voice calling me back to consciousness. I was greeted by images: hundreds upon thousands of images. But none of them meant anything. I recognized Kairi. "Kairi!" I reached my hand out to touch her, but nothing happened. My arm wouldn't even move, yet the sensation of movement was still present. It was as though everything was separate, separate yet visible: An endless maze of mirrored reflections, reaching out from the depths of the darkness to entangle my very soul.

Suddenly a shadow loomed over the rest, the likeness filling the entire image and blocking out the world around it: a formless image, slowly molding itself into a recognizable shape. I knew it immediately. It was the darkside heartless that had appeared at the very first, the one that had been the trigger to all the loss, all the pain. My mind seethed with anger, my hands clenching the keyblade that suddenly appeared in my grasp, my eyes searching for its weakness. That's when I realized I could move. My hands were clenching the sword; my arms were free. I rushed at the monster, my mind filled with rage, pain, and hatred. The keyblade severed the head from the body, and suddenly I froze again.

On the ground before me the head changed, no longer huge and hideous, but the face of a former friend: one who I had known as long as I could remember. His silver hair fell back in the sand, his face somehow calm and serene in death.

"Riku." My mind spoke the word, not my voice, but still I felt as though it could be heard throughout this strange place. Riku: one of the two I had spent so long searching for, trying to protect. It was this very search that had led me to the bastion in the first place. My mind was throbbing with confusion and guilt, or was there a hint of satisfaction? Riku always stood between me and Kairi. He was the obstacle to my greatest desire. Riku was strong, fearless. He was everything I'd always wanted to be. It was him. It was the darkness in his heart that led the heartless to us. He stepped into the darkness willingly! It was Riku who started this all, not the darkside!

Wait. What was I thinking? Confusion overtook my mind again. The images swirled around me, slowly becoming darker and darker in the endless chaotic circle. The darkness had claimed me. I was no longer who I once thought I was.

Then a voice penetrated the darkness again: a cry, not desperate and heartbroken like the ones before, but more protective and emotional. The call seemed to be the only thing my confused mind could focus on. "Sora. I'll protect you Sora." I looked up, there was another before me: one I had never seen before. She was beautiful. Her slender form adorned in a silver gown, though she wore only a skirt. Her beautiful, jet black hair covered her upper body completely, and her arms were open as though to hold me. I immediately felt a desire I had never known before, and my arms reached out to touch her, to hold her – to be hers.

Kairi knew it was Sora immediately. There was no doubt in her mind. The shape was there, the actions seemed right, but somehow she was convinced that this shadow heartless before them was not what it seemed to be. Right there she knew she had to save him. She had been his friend since childhood, but somewhere she had discovered her feelings went far deeper. She couldn't lose him. She couldn't afford to lose him. He was a part of her, no longer a separate being, and she wanted to be a part of him. She needed to be a part of him. Everything within her screamed that this was the time to risk everything. She moved to him quickly and put her body in a protective position over his. "You protected me Sora, now it's my turn…"

The image broke. The beautiful woman was replaced by the image of the bastion, with Kairi standing there, holding me as though to protect me. A wave of relief flooded over my mind. I was Sora again. I held the keyblade, my friends were here with me. Yet, somewhere deep down, I felt a hint of regret. Even as they recounted the story now, back in the safety of Traverse Town, I could see the image of those welcoming arms in my mind. I could feel that desire, like nothing I'd ever known before. Deep down I almost wished I could go back… go back to her. I pushed the thoughts aside. There was work to be done here. I had a job to do. I had promised to protect Kairi. She was the one I loved. I wanted to share my future with her and to protect her forever, and I would never let her go so easily again. I knew this was what I wanted, didn't I?

Time passed. More battles were fought. The cycle seemed endless, but I was finally near the end. We had found Ansem and followed him to the depths of the darkness, and, after two battles with him, one with the aid of Donald and Goofy, the other alone, I had finally come to his last form: the form of the heartless that controlled him, or seemed to. It had captured Donald and Goofy. It was time to rescue them.

That's when I saw it: the other image, further away. It seemed distant and disjointed, almost as though reflected in a glass mirror, but somehow appealing. There was something there that I wanted; I could feel it deep within the confines of my spirit. My mind objected as I began to move toward it, reminding me I couldn't leave my friends. I had to go back to Kairi, and I still had to find and save Riku. Still, somehow my nameless desire drew me further into the mirage, the end and beginning of all things it seemed to me, and a rush went through my mind. I reached the image, plunged into it, and was immediately assaulted by other images.

First I saw Donald and Goofy. They were no longer inside the heartless that seemed to control Ansem, but now in a place I somehow recognized, though I had never seen it before. With them were Riku and Kairi, and many others who I also recognized, including Leon and Yuffi, and even Cid. I realized then I was seeing the future: what was to happen inevitably now that I had taken this path. Once this realization hit me, the scene switched again.

Kairi was alone now, standing in the hidden cove she liked so much in Traverse Town. In her hand she held a piece of chalk, with which she was recreating the drawings on the wall of the secret cave that we had been in so long ago. The wall and ground were bathed in her tears. Into the empty air she whispered "Sora, please return… it's been so long." The cry was pleading, hurting. The darkness in Traverse Town was reopened: the cove was the only remaining safe place. Somehow I knew it was only moments before she too would become a part of it. She fell to her knees, and only then did I see the blood on her hands, knees, and forehead from beating on the stone walls of the cove. The blood flowed and mingled freely with her tears. Her hands clenched at her sides in despair. Slowly that picture faded from my mind, soon replaced by another.

Riku. The silver haired form I had known so well before was silent now, his heart feeling the loss of another of his friends. He slowly moved from the door he was standing by, one that looked oddly familiar to me, and allowed the darkness to take him fully, no longer seeming to care about the results. The heartless had won. There was no point in resisting now.

Yet another scene appeared now. This time I saw Leon and Yuffie. The two of them were holding off an army of heartless of all types. They were strong, and no heartless was a match for them, but the heartless kept coming, and coming… Leon began to tire. Yuffie's stars began to miss more frequently. Slowly the swarm of heartless closed in on the tiring pair, falling only half as fast now, occasionally able to land a blow. Then the darkness took them.

Then finally all these images left, and before me I saw what I had so long sought after. She was there. The beauty that had appeared to me in the bastion during the time I knew nothing but darkness. Her arms were still open. Unlike the other images, I could touch her, feel her. Her arms closed around me. I felt a wonderful, peaceful sensation coursing through me, and a flood of desires was unleashed deep within me. Giving no more thought to anything else in the world, I took her.

It is many years later now. She is still with me. I have spoken only of the few memories that remain to me. I am Sora, or that is the name I had upon coming here. Only these few memories link that name to any meaning, and even that is fading fast. You ask about the rest of the world? As far as I'm concerned, we are the world. Everything I desire I have right here. The rest is just fading memories that I am no longer even certain are real. I was always here with her, and I always will be…

(well, how did you like it? Maybe you'll honor me with a 5 thumbs down XP)