Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to anything used in this story, they are the property of Square Enix. No profit was made by myself in the creation of this fic.
A/N: Okay so last chapter was long. This chapter should be a good one; I'm hoping to get some good fluff involved. Anyways we're in the home stretch now not much left to write here.
By the way, I'm thinking about changing the category of this to Kingdom Hearts because it turned out to have a lot more Kingdom Heart plot points and characters then I originally planned, what do you guys think?
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Normal POV, Green Room, Traverse Town
Yuffie gazed at the blood on the floor. Wakka was lying on the bed, clutching his stomach. Gippal had cuts and bruises sprinkled across his body but he continued to fight. What surprised Yuffie the most was the fact that the person they were fighting was Rikku.
"Yuffie help us stop her!" Tidus shouted from his position on the top of the bed. He was standing tall, above the rest of the room, blocking Rikku's attacks.
"Don't hurt her too badly though." Riku called from the corner. He was sort of huddled protecting Sora, and sort of blocking Rikku's attacks. Everything he was doing he was doing against his will.
Paine and Leon moved to the side of the room with Tidus and Gippal, they aided in trying to hold Rikku back.
"Just give me what I want and I'll leave you alone." Rikku shouted over the noise of the fight. Everybody stopped and was silent for a moment. Nothing moved, not even the wind dared to blow. Finally Tidus stepped forward.
"We don't know what that is Rikku. Maybe if you could explain yourself we'd be more willing to meet your requests." he said clearly. Gippal was pretty impressed with how well-spoken Tidus had sounded just then, he would have made a smart remark about it if the situation had been different.
"I don't have time for this. The boss only requests the key barer and the key. The rest of you don't need to be involved." Rikku answered hesitantly. Everyone in the room chewed over what she had just said.
"Actually considering you have Yuna, yeah I do need to be involved." Tidus said seriously. He was in no mood for joking when it came to his friends and Yuna's safety.
"Just let me have the key barer." Rikku said, almost pleadingly. Nobody answered her and she felt angry, almost embarrassed. Rikku felt somewhat proud of herself for holding her own alone against all of her friends. Even though she had the powers of the darkness helping her, she still felt a small sense of pride. This sense of pride was the only thing that kept her from breaking down right there and surrendering her heart to the heartless, she felt that trapped. Rikku tried to stop her body when it hit Wakka, she had almost no control over it, and although her brain was struggling she managed to avoid hitting Gippal and Riku. Not even all the darkness in the world could make her hurt them.
"Rikku can you take us all to the boss? Instead of you taking the key barer alone. If you take us all we'll go and reason with your boss so we can avoid hurting you." Gippal suggested. Everyone seemed to agree.
"I'll take the key barer and four companions." Rikku agreed. Everybody silently made a mental list of who would get to go save the world. Riku and Tidus would obviously accompany her, along with Gippal. That left one spot left.
"I want to go; maybe somehow I'll find Cloud along the way." Aerith spoke up. Nobody wanted to argue with the silent yet powerful flower girl and they agreed that Wakka, Paine, Leon, and Yuffie would wait at the hotel.
Rikku nodded and motioned for everyone to leave with her immediately. "When I make the portal step through don't try anything because I set the portal to only transfer six people, including myself., so if you try to sneak in you'll cut off someone else." she explained. The group around her nodded and she put her hands in front of her face. A spiraling warp hole of black gases formed in front of her and she stepped through it cautiously. The four others, and Sora, followed.
Hallow Bastion's Dungeon of the Hearts
Ansem paced around the room frantically, unable to convince himself to have faith in Rikku. Her namesake already broke his hold and she was dangerously close to doing so as well. The only thing keeping him in control was her desire for power and her desire to save her cousin. Ansem had to rely on those desires to keep him in complete control of the situation. After years of planning and ironing out details there was no way he was going to just step aside leave everything up to chance. Ansem quietly allotted Rikku some more power in hopes it would lead to him having more control over her.
The eight princesses of heart had been gathered, all of them were lying on cold stone tables in the Dungeon of the Hearts. In the center of the back wall a large heartless symbol was displayed, this was the keyhole to Hallow Bastion, and the last step to Ansem gaining access to Kingdom Hearts. He knew Kingdom Hearts was the place where all heartless originated and it was also the place where all hearts were born, even the key barer. All he needed was to unlock Kingdom Hearts and have control over its powers, thus having control over the universe. All the worlds were either destroyed or connected to the darkness now, and Ansem was going to make sure things stayed that way.
Kairi, the princess of Hallow Bastion was what was standing in his way. The girl was unresponsive to all tests, except for a short period of time when the key barer was in the castle, she moved slightly at that point in time, which led Ansem to believe he would be the best way to try to find the girl's heart, without her heart she was useless. 'Rikku should have been here hours ago' Ansem thought, 'where is that girl anyways?'
Rikku, Sora, Riku, Tidus, Aerith, and Gippal all entered the Dungeon of the Hearts. Only a day before the group, minus Rikku, had defeated the DEK and essentially left only one person standing in their way of bringing things back to normal, Ansem. They entered the room quietly and scanned the area. Ansem was standing atop the stair, by the eight princesses. He seemed to be staring at something, most likely the large heartless symbol on the wall. Finally he turned around.
"Rikku I hear you walking, I assume you finally returned with the key barer? I assume you'll be turning him over to me now and retiring to your chamber immediately." he said in an arrogant tone. He still hadn't turned around, and still had no idea of his uninvited guests.
Rikku wanted to scream and kick and run away, with Riku. What she didn't want to do was exactly what she did, she said two simple words. "Yes boss." Inside Rikku was screaming but outside Rikku pushed Sora forward and exited the room, shutting the door loudly behind her.
Ansem spoke immediately, "So, Sora is it? I believe you have something that I need." Sora cringed and stepped behind Tidus. Then he took a breath and stepped in front of the group.
"I'm not afraid of you Ansem." Sora said loudly. For a moment all was silent.
"You have no idea what I want do you boy? The heart of Kairi is trapped inside you, that's why you are feeling a strong connection with her. If you want to save her you have to unlock her heart from her body, using this key." Ansem said, he handed Sora the black key that Rikku had given to him. Sora took the key in his hand and held it up to his heart.
"No- Sora, don't! It has to be a trap!" Tidus called. Sora looked at the blonde solemnly.
"It's the only way to save Kairi. Even if I lose my heart, at least hers will be saved." he said at last. Ansem said nothing, but stood in the background grinning slightly. 'If the boy unlocks Kairi's heart from him I will have all the princesses of heart's hearts. My plan will be complete.' Ansem thought.
"Sora what will we do if you lose your heart?" Gippal asked. Sora thought for a moment before replying.
"If I lose my heart defeat Ansem and save Kairi, tell her I'll always be with her." Sora said, and then without another word he plunged the keyblade at his chest and felt the pain. Two hearts floated above him, but soon he passed out. One of the hearts drifted through the air and found its owner, Kairi. The other heart stopped in mid-air before falling back into Sora, a lucky break.
Kairi's eyes fluttered and shot open. She tried to sit up on the stone cold table she was lying on, but found herself tied down. Turning her head slightly she could see she was not alone, other girls were in the same predicament. They seemed to be sleeping or unconsciousness though.
"Sora!" Kairi shouted, Ansem quickly turned to her and cast a silence spell over her.
"Ansem let Kairi go! And give Rikku back her heart!" Sora shouted, he withdrew his real keyblade and crouched down into a fighting position. Ansem turned around and looked at the boy; he took in the others with him.
'There is that blonde boy with the eye patch, the princess Yuna's boyfriend, a girl with a braid, and Riku; the boy who escaped from my power. They shouldn't be hard to defeat…and then I'll have them out of the way.' Ansem thought.
"The heart is the mightiest weapon of all Ansem, and we have our hearts on our side. You can forget about winning this battle." Sora shouted at him. Ansem blinked a few times while he thought of an answer. Mentally he made Rikku enter the room; he reasoned that if he forced her to fight against her friends' maybe they would be emotionally weakened by the time he had to fight them. Even if they defeated her it would not really be a lose to him, she already served her purpose. And she did it badly; he would give her a D- for a grade.
Rikku entered the room; she was wearing a black cape and a long black peasant skirt. Her shirt was a loose cotton black tank top and her hair was tied up in a black headband, in her braids all the beads are black. Her feet are bare and she has a black toe ring and ankle bracelet.
"Rikku!" Gippal shouted, pulled an orange dress out of one of his pockets and waved it in front of her. "I got this for you, you don't like black! I remember you told me you hated black once!"
Riku remained silent but gazed at Rikku longingly. Her fingers squirmed a bit; the inner-Rikku was fighting Ansem's powers with all her strength. She felt faint but finally she turned to Ansem and said, "I hate you." Then she ran over to Riku and collapsed into his arms.
A few silent minutes later
With Rikku no longer under Ansem's control the group felt the fight with Ansem coming closer and closer. They were all mostly preparing. They suspected that Ansem had a lot of strength because he'd managed to gain so much power in the first place, and with that power of darkness he would be even more powerful.
Sora withdrew his keyblade and cast an Aero spell on everyone in their group. Then he began taking hits at Ansem, showing no mercy. Gippal fired constantly at Ansem but he missed a few times. Aerith used her large rod to cast firagra and blizzagra spells on Ansem, while she also healed the group. Tidus used his large sword to thrash at Ansem continuously.
Then the whole room began to shake, eight beams of light rose from the chests' of the eight princesses of heart. The emblem on the back of the wall disappeared and a large keyhole became visible.
"No." Sora said, halting his fighting momentarily. Gippal looked up for a second, but continued to fire at a now weakened Ansem.
Rikku was still lying in Riku's arms; she was limp but not unconscious. Everybody waited for something to happen, and nothing did. A sort of dimension was exposed and one could go through it, nobody knew for sure where it lead but they could only guess it led to Kingdom Hearts.
The doors to the Dungeon of the Hearts swung open and an out-of-breath Paine stepped into the room. She was followed by Leon, Wakka, and Yuffie. They took a look at the scene around them and withdrew their weapons, charging at Ansem.
Yuffie began to hit with her shruikens and Leon used his gunblade, in fact everybody used their default weapons, but it was all too easy. Ansem suddenly threw his hands into the sky and a ghastly figure was summoned down.
"Hold me guardian!" he said and the figure protected him, while it fired some spells at the group.
"We have to defeat that first ya?" Wakka said as he threw his blitzball at the guardian. Nobody answered but they all began to attack it. After several minutes the guardian miraculously fell and everybody sighed, out of breath. Ansem's yellow eyes snapped open and he began to attack.
Nobody expected the battle to be easy, but nobody expected it to as hard as it was. Sora turned out to save the day. His keyblade was immune to darkness spells and he used this to his advantage.
Slowly Ansem began to succumb to the group's strength, but not without a last strike. He quickly cast death on Sora before slowly kneeling over and leaving the universe to go into the farplane once and for all.
Everybody stood still, expect Sora. He was lying on the ground, his arms raised slightly above his head, his keyblade still intact. Slowly the eight princesses began to awake; Ansem's powers were now no longer affecting them. Yuna was the first to wake up.
"Tidus?" She called when she sat up on the stone platform, facing the opposite direction of the group.
"Yuna! I'm here, I'm over here!" Tidus said, Yuna jumped off of the platform and began running at full speed to Tidus. He caught her in his arms and held her tightly. "Yuna the past few days have been the scariest days of my entire life. I was scared I was going to lose you." he whispered in her ear. Yuna looked up at his face her eyes meeting his dark blue ones and she began to cry, tears of happiness and joy.
"I hate to interrupt, but we kind of have a crisis on our hands. Aerith has cast full-life on Sora and applied about seven Phoenix Downs and about fifty high-potions on Sora, but he isn't waking up. He's not even showing signs of consciousness." Yuffie said softly. Yuna gave Tidus a confused looked but he didn't answer, he just took her hand and walked over to the circle the group had made around Sora.
Kairi and the other princesses were dismounting their beds, all slightly confused as to what had happened. They didn't remember too much except for the fact that they had been kidnapped and brought to a strange world. Kairi looked around the room and was first to spot the group.
"Hello, does anyone know what's going on around here?" Kairi asked, but she was only met by a lot of sad gazes.
"You must be Kairi." Yuffie said softly. Before Kairi had a chance to answer someone spoke up from the corner.
"She is." It was Riku. Kairi looked at her old friend and was surprised to see that he had a blonde girl resting in his arms. She smiled at him and felt only happiness for him, not jealously what so ever. She continued to wonder, however, where she was and why was she here.
"Does anyone know where Sora is?" Kairi asked. Everyone nodded and pointed to the middle of their circle. Kairi walked through them and gasped at the sight of the fallen Sora. "No. Sora! You can't leave me!" Kairi cried a pang of pain shot through her heart and she clutched her hand over it.
"We've done everything we can think of. Somehow Ansem's spell still had an affect over him. And Ansem has been defeated." Aerith said soothingly. Kairi nodded and wiped a tear away from her face.
Suddenly the large doors opened again and Baralai stepped through them. He was wearing his normal clothing and his face was back to normal. A glint of happiness shone in his eyes. "I see you are all safe." he said happily.
"All but one." Yuffie said sadly, she cocked her head towards Sora. Kairi burst out into fresh tears and didn't even try to control herself.
"Maybe if you close the door to Kingdom Hearts Ansem's powers will once and for all be eliminated from this universe. Kingdom Hearts has been opened by him and the princesses of Heart, luckily he never got to use the powers. He missed some tiny details." Baralai suggested.
"I never thought of that- how-how did you know? What details?" Aerith asked. Baralai shrugged.
"I was almost I heartless, but on my journey to finding my light again I learned everything. I also know this: the worlds destroyed by the heartless will return if we seal Kingdom Hearts. Ansem, in all of his research, never learned that Kingdom Hearts is not darkness, but Kingdom Hearts is the ultimate light. The heartless live there, yes, but they live among the shadows. Ansem has opened Kingdom Hearts and released its light into the world. Now the only thing left there is the darkness he wanted so badly to control. We must seal Kingdom Hearts and end this once and for all. If we seal it we will all be able to go back home. The worlds will no longer be connected, tied to the darkness. Everything will be back to normal…mostly." Baralai explained. Kairi clapped her hands and became running towards Kingdom Hearts. "One more thing," Baralai yelled to her, "in order to seal Kingdom Hearts someone will have to be sealed inside with the black keyblade." Baralai picked up the keyblade Sora had used to unlock his heart with.
"There's always a catch." Kairi said huffily. Yuna tightened her grip on Tidus and told him without words that he couldn't be the one, he couldn't leave her alone.
"I will do it." Baralai said finally. "I feel Yevon telling me this is my calling. I will seal the door, please tell my party to elect a new leader, tell them I am fine." Everyone was about to protest but Baralai put up his hand, he picked up the keyblade and began walking towards Kingdom Hearts, and he never looked back.
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A/n: I had to do it, don't kill me. More drama to come and I hope you caught on to the foreshadowing…
Lucy!