Here it is, the last chapter. From here on I'll bew writing up and posting some more Lost Fragments and beginning work on Breaking Eight and Genetermina. Enjoy.

Chapter 21 - Fateless

Sora opened his eyes.

Spread out before him was a vast nothingness. He was at some point, somewhere, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he was nowhere at all. He took a step forward, feeling solidity beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw that there was a strange glow outlining his feet, a soft light shining from contact.

The young man looked for his friends. He looked to his left, to his right, and behind him. They were nowhere to be found. He wanted to shout out loud, to call for them, but was afraid, for one icy moment, that nobody would respond at all. He took a few more steps forward, cupped his hands around his mouth, and shouted Riku's name. He shouted Dyne's name. He shouted Asher's name, cried out Lilka's name.

Sora stood frozen for a long while, paralyzed by the thought that his friends would not be there with him, that he had made some grave mistake in coming, that the Door was not here and he would be trapped in an oubliette of nothingness forever. He checked himself, to make sure he wasn't injured somehow, or dead. Frowning, he looked in his right hand, not realizing he had been holding something in it. A golden keychain lay in it. The Inverse Key.

Then he felt it. He felt his stomach rise up into his throat, felt the blood rush to his head, felt the solidity beneath him give way. He felt himself fall, began to dive headfirst into the nothing.

He fell forever. He fell and fell and fell and, when he thought that the fall would really last forever, he broke through. The barrier slowed him; he heard the sound of breaking glass. Then he saw, far below, a large platform. It was immense; it had to be as long across as the Hallway he had just been sucked out of. He twisted in midair, seeing the ground approach at lightning speed, and, just before impact-

He stopped.

Sora was suspended in midair, not three feet above the ground, and was set down slowly by some invisible force. With both feet on the ground, Sora examined his surroundings. The circular platform, in the center of which he landed, was made of bricks. There were no intricate patterns upon this platform; there were only interlacing bricks, alternating between a bright, glowing blue and black. Sora turned, looking for some for of direction in which to go. Turning back around, he was surprised to find Dyne standing before him.

"Dyne! Have you seen any of the others?" he asked, moving to join the blonde haired kid. Dyne shook his head.

"No one... and I'm not seeing any Door."

"Well... let's just... go, then. Somewhere. The Door's got to be around here," reasoned Sora, who then started walking.

Almost as if on cue, directly ahead of him, he saw a soft glow flare up and die away. Another one directly above it, and another; in the wake of the glows, there was a single small metal plate hovering in midair. They formed a staircase that weaved and zigzagged about, climbing higher and higher. Sora couldn't make out where they lead.

"How about we go that way?" grinned the dual wielder, and Sora laughed.

"Maybe we'll find the others past those stairs. Let's mosey."

"...mosey?" came Asher's voice from behind the other two. "Tell me you didn't get that from Leon."

Sora whipped around and was shocked to find the black-haired young man standing there with his arms folded. Asher didn't look happy or glad to see them, but there was a dim amusement in his expression. It seemed to Sora that he had made a weak attempt at lightening the situation.

"Asher... have you seen Riku or Lilka?"

Asher shook his head.

"They won't be coming. This last step is for you, Sora, and no one else."

"But-"

"Don't worry about them. They'll surface somewhere out there..."

"Out where?"

"In the Kingdom, of course," replied Asher, waving his hand around them. "Except... all the lights have gone out. We're in some kind of space, not just a dark room, that's reflecting the Kingdom. We're almost at the core of everything; we're looking from the inside out. There's nothing left out there."

"How do you know that?"

"Remember, in Castle Oblivion? Caejan told me a lot of things, not just about Memoria, but the realm that lay beyond it."

"You mean you've known this whole time what was going to happen?" Dyne asked, folding his arms. "Maybe this place isn't as fateless as we think it is."

"No. Caejan only told me about the cycle, the Eight. I didn't believe him, but what the Fates said solidifies it. Sora, you already learned what you have to do to release the Light. You learned in the Fortress of Mirrors. You can't control the Light."

Sora was silent for a long time. Every now and then he would steal a glance at the pathway to the Door, and then look back to Asher. Both Dyne and Asher gave the Keyblade Master time to think.

"I'm sure you both know, Dyne especially, that I won't let you go through with it," stated Asher, finally breaking the silence. "You know what'll happen if you open that door."

"Are you threatening us?" Dyne said, moving himself between Asher and Sora. "For one thing, you can't stop the both of us. And another thing... why? Don't you want the worlds to be restored? For everything to be as it was?"

"No! I don't! For everything to be like it was? You think I want to go back to my wretched home, be abandoned again, put myself through hell again? No!" exclaimed Asher, startling Sora out of his reverie. "Sora's going to have to die to make everything 'right' again? The Darkness is just going to rise again, and the same thing will happen over and over and over again. The Fates told you already, something that shouldn't have happened has happened, which means there's a chance that we can change things. I'm not letting you open that Door. And-"

Dyne interrupted Asher by calling the Oblivion and Oathkeeper to him, then stepped menacingly towards him.

"All of our friends are gone, all of the worlds have been destroyed. It's too late, we don't have a choice!" shouted Dyne, stopping within engagement distance of the black-haired boy. He then looked over his shoulder, at Sora. "Sora, go to the Door. Do what you were meant to do, I'll keep him tied up."

"Don't, Sora. There's got to be another way."

The Keyblade Master eyed his two friends, the two parts of himself, and... turned toward the path leading to the Door. He gained speed; soon, he was at a full-out sprint for the door.

"NO!" cried Asher, and the Heart Key was instantly in his hand. Dyne rammed into him with his shoulder, knocking the Heart Key wielder back. Asher gained his footing and reached up to draw his crystal sword, only to find that it wasn't there anymore.

Dyne sank into a purely defensive position. He was not going to hurt the other boy if he didn't have to; no, he only had to buy enough time for Sora to get to the Door. Asher growled and darted forward, weapon prepared to strike.

Sora could hear their fighting, more intense than he could imagine, echo behind him. His sneaker landed on the first small platform, he carried himself onto the next, on and on.

Asher was in the middle of an offensive assault the likes of which Dyne had not thought him capable of doing. With the speed and accuracy of Asher's assault (he had no idea when Asher had gotten so good), it required both his keyblades just to keep from being impaled. Slowly, Asher was forcing Dyne back, overpowering him with the Heart Key alone.

Sora could see the door, now. He was so close-

Finally, Asher had outsmarted Sora's guardian. He paused in his assault, sank back and let Dyne come to him. The dual wielder did exactly as expected; he retaliated with his own slash with the Oathkeeper to put Asher on the defensive. Immediately, however, Asher slipped inside the range of the Oathkeeper, deflecting the keyblade at the hilt with the hilt of the Heart Key. Dyne froze; there was nothing he could do.

Asher drove the tip of the Heart Key into Dyne's chest, slipping to the side and kicking Dyne's ankles out from under him. Withdrawing the Heart Key immediately, knowing that Dyne would only be stunned momentarily, he charged after Sora, who skidded to a stop before the door.

The Door to the Light itself reminded him of the door to Kingdom Hearts, at least in its size. Two keyholes were etched into the door, at eye level with Sora. Despite the size of the Door, it seemed as though it had been made for him to pass through. Sora called the Kingdom Key, and it appeared in his right hand. He called the Inverse Key, and it too materialized, appearing in his left hand.

Asher slowed in his race to catch up with Sora, then finally came to a walking halt. He looked on as Sora drove the two keyblades into the keyholes and turned them. Asher's heart sank, and he began to back away.

Sora turned to look back down at the platform, where Asher stood and Dyne was fighting to get to his feet. The black-haired boy lowered his head.

"Sora," Asher spoke softly, and while Sora could not hear him with his ears, he could hear Asher in his heart. "I'm so sorry. I..."

Tendrils of pure Darkness crept along the outside edges of the platform, whipping at the air, reaching toward Asher's robed form.

I know, Asher.

Asher looked up at Sora as the tentacles wrapped themselves about his feet, locking him to the ground. More tendrils sank down from the inky abyss above them, and a dark glow lit the platform. Sora's words echoed within him, and he realized now that, between them, speaking was not necessary. Words were not even necessary, their connection had become so strong.

You are my shadow.

The Door burst open, and Light streamed forth. Sora was enveloped in it. Where Asher stood, Sora blocked the Light, and the Darkness consumed him. Engulfed in the dark energies, he appeared as a cocoon, shrouded in black. The haze fell away, and in Asher's place, the Darkheart Crystal hovered above the platform, the eye within it glaring up at Sora.

Sora was closest to the Light, and thus his shadow was greatest of all.

Nemesis rose into the air, already creating a protective skeletal ribcage out of crystallized Darkness. A skull formed, and two skeletal arms. A mass of tentacles, all originating from the Crystal itself, held the fifty-foot-tall Heartless up. The Darkheart Crystal carried itself to the edge of the platform and faced Sora.

Dyne had willed himself back together, and now struggled to his feet, watching as the Darkheart Crystal prepared itself for battle with the Keyblade Master. The blonde haired kid's eyes were locked on Sora, who now began to lift himself into the air. Motes of fairy dust trailed from his feet as he began to fly.

He launched himself at the Darkheart Crystal.

Sora, keyblades raised, rocketed toward the monster that had consumed his friends, swallowed worlds, the beast that was the greatest incarnation of Darkness itself. He bellowed his fury, felt the Light flow through him, empowering him.

He was swatted aside like a rag doll by the Crystal's skeletal hand, was simply knocked aside as one would bat away a fly. The monster carried itself closer to the Door, to the world of true Light, the world without Darkness, the only Light left.

Sora, regaining control of his momentum, turned over in midair and sped again at Nemesis.

Dyne, on the ground of the platform, was occupied with defending himself from the mass of tentacles that the monster was using both for legs and as weapons. The tendrils of Darkness were endless, infinite, and for each one he cut up, three more made their way toward him. The Oblivion and Oathkeeper never stopped in their circular slashing motions, and Dyne himself had sunk into a kind of trance. Still, his movements, refined and nigh perfect as they were, were beginning to fail him.

Sora came again at the Crystal, and the monster swiveled at the waistline, now facing the Keyblade Master fully. The monster opened its arms wide, and the Darkheart Eye, the intelligent core of the Crystal, locked on Sora. Sora froze as the eye released a blast of dark lightning, which arced out, then spread into a net of lethal energy. Sora, caught in the lightning, unable to avoid it, screamed.

Sora's form was engulfed in crackling electricity. The sparks ran from head to foot, eye to eye, and all over his body the electricity coursed. Sora, hovering for one last moment, dropped out of the air and came crashing into the platform, nearly slain.

Dyne immediately made a beeline for Sora, swerving and bounding right and left to avoid being caught up by the tentacles. Nemesis itself was nearing the stairwell, ignoring both Sora and Dyne, its eye now on the opened Door.

The blonde haired kid kneeled beside Sora, who was still smoking from the vicious lightning assault. The tentacles had ceased heir onslaught, for the Crystal was now so close to its goal, so close to extinguishing the last Light-

Sora... incomplete. We're both incomplete. We can't even stand up against it, not alone.

Sora groaned, and looked up at Dyne.

"You... are you really going to do this?"

"We don't have much choice, Sora. Come on. Take my hand," responded Dyne, holding his hand out. "Let's show it what Caejan was so afraid of."

Sora raised his hand and took Dyne's. The ensuing flash was bright enough to blind any who were watching, and the flare of power caused even the Darkheart to pivot back around and see what was happening.

When the light faded, there stood Sora. His hair was a far lighter color than before, almost completely blonde, and it had shortened considerably. He was wearing the cloak of the Unknowns, signifying his reconnection with his body. He was no longer a heart-form grounded by his body's existence; he was now a whole person once more. His eyes, a deep azure, blazing Light, looked up at the Darkheart Crystal. The Keyblade Master called the Oblivion and Oathkeeper to him.

"You've gone far enough," spoke Sora, again rising into the air. He didn't even have to think about it, did not have to search for a happy thought. Dyne's consciousness, another heart within the same body, lay dormant within and provided power, strengthening Sora's own heart.

Sora, now whole again, rocketed toward the Crystal, prepared to do battle with it. He weaved back and forth and up and down as the beast tried to catch him with the endless tentacles originating from the Crystal itself. One such tendril wrapped itself about his foot. As he moved to slash the tentacle, the beast's skeletal hand grabbed a hold of him, clamping him in place.

Sora growled, fighting to free himself. He felt the beast's hand give way as he forced it open, and lashed out at the hand as it tried to grab him again. He severed the fingers off of it, slashed through another mass of tentacles, and lashed out at and through the beast's other hand. He launched himself at the ribcage weapons raised to break the shell open, and...

He was looking dead into the Darkheart Eye. The ribcage had already gone, melted away at the will of the Crystal. Sora halted in midair, feeling his entire body become frigid. Darkness, of a magnitude Sora could not even begin to comprehend, swirled within the Crystal's pupil. The Darkness burst forth in one tiny beam aimed at Sora's chest.

Sora was jolted. There was the sound of tearing, of ripping apart, and he felt both blasted backwards and sucked inwards at the same time. He felt detached from his body, could no longer feel Dyne in his heart, could no longer feel Dyne's thoughts, could not even feel his existence, and soon couldn't feel anything at all except the dizzying sensation of moving at an unfathomable speed.

From the perspective of one watching the battle itself, the beam would pass through Sora's chest, and he would freeze in midair, his eyes glazing over. His body would drop to the ground, and all that would be left was Sora's glowing form, hovering in place, staring in fear at the Eye. Sora's form then burst into a haze of azure energy and was drawn into the Eye itself.

Sora stood in the Nothing. He stood in Oblivion; he stood in the core of Darkness itself. He felt the Light within him being eaten alive, becoming dull and lifeless and hopeless. The sheer intensity of the Darkness itself here was enough to make a person stop existing; he felt his memories being washed away, faces becoming blurred and malformed until he could no longer recognize anyone.

And then he began to walk. He walked forward, walked onward, walked through the Darkness because he knew, though he was forgetting why, that there was something beyond and that if he just kept going then everything would be okay, even if everything was okay now.

In the center of this abyss he saw a dark light, shining down on what had to be some kind of dead tree. A nightmare tree. From the branches hung two chains, and these chains were padlocked, wrapped about the wrists of a boy. The boy was somehow part of the tree, his body sunk into the trunk of it, and vines came out of the tree and wrapped themselves across his chest, circling around his heart. Sora could see his heart, too; it was in the hollow of his chest, pulsing with a dying light that grew ever-nearer to becoming extinguished. The closer Sora came, however, the brighter the light became.

The imprisoned boy, whose hair was black and red, groaned, lifting his head as though awakened from a long sleep. He looked groggily at the new boy (who had forgotten his own name), and gave his name back to him.

"Sora... what...?"

Sora took a step forward, moved a little closer to the tree, and felt the pulse of a greater heart beating with the imprisoned boy's heart. He looked at the tree-boy once again, and saw the shining heart-shaped pendant around his neck. There was something about him-

"Sora... what are you doing here? How did...?

"Your name... it's Asher, right?"

The tree-boy lowered his head, looking absolutely ashamed.

"I didn't think you'd come."

"What are you talking about?"

"Sora, the Heart Key... take it, and flood this place with Light."

"I don't... keyblade? The Heart Key..."

Something tugged at the back of Sora's mind. Something was beginning to break through. He could feel it, first a small mote in the back of his mind, then growing larger. Asher's light was growing stronger, and Sora's along with it.

"He won't destroy me... he'll come close, but when I go, he goes, too. My heart is also the heart of this monster..."

"Who is 'he', Asher?"

"My... my father. He's here. He is this place, he is Nemesis. I created him, and now it's too late…"

Sora felt memories of himself, channeled through his own shadow, coming back to him. Asher's heart, free-floating in his opened chest, was reflecting the buried light in Sora's heart.

"What are you talking about! You mean-"

"It's all my fault... you have to stop him before he destroys the Light. Can't you feel it? The power of the Light, even in these depths?"

"Yes... I can."

"Take the Heart Key from me, use it on me. Fill this place with the Light, and the Darkness will cease to exist..."

"But..."

"Sora, this is a task that is supposed to be Riku's. Riku doesn't have a shadow... you do. Maybe that's what went wrong. Riku was supposed to be the Keyblade Master, not you... he was supposed to sacrifice himself, not you. Now we have a chance to break the cycle. Please, Sora, just do it!"

"Asher..."

"There's no choice! Take the Heart Key!"

Sora took a deep breath, fighting the tears that were beginning to sting his eyes. He extended his hand out, pulling the Heart Key from thin air. He looked it over, trying to think of another way but being unable to.

"Do it!"

Sora, nodding faintly, drew his arm back. He launched forward and plunged the Heart Key into Asher's heart.

The Darkheart Crystal loomed before the Door. If it could feel emotions such as irony, supremacy, power, it would be laughing. It would be laughing at how simple it was to overtake the Light, and that after all was said and done the Light would finally be extinguished and that would be the end.

If Nemesis felt such an emotion as nervousness, it would have done so then, as well. Something was not right within itself; the dim Light that had been Asher's, that was buried deep within itself, was growing stronger.

If the Crystal could feel such an emotion as terror, it would have done so the moment the Light burst from within the door and straight into the Crystal itself, dissolving the crystal-black ribcage and slamming into the surface of the Darkheart. Deep within the swirling blackness, Sora felt the power surge through him, channeled through the Heart Key, pulsing straight into Asher's heart, the heart of the Darkness itself. The Light, buried deep within the Dark, grew stronger.

If the Crystal could feel such an emotion as despair, it would have done so as its crystalline surface cracked and shattered, the Light from within too great to be chained down any longer. The tendrils of dark power were immolated instantly, and the Darkheart Crystal was no more.

All there was left was Sora and the Light.