DISCLAIMER: I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters, locations, weapons, or ideas created by Nomura, Disney or Square-Enix.
KINGDOM HEARTS 2.5
PRELUDE
It was an ordinary day on the Destiny Islands. Riku, a young purple haired boy, lounged against a rock near a small pool of water. He was enjoying a strange treat called 'sea-salt ice cream' which had recently gained popularity in the Islands, though nobody could really place why it was so popular. Sweet and salty. Yin and yang, perhaps? The compliment of flavors was indicative of the dual nature of man...Riku knew very well that darkness hides deep within the hearts of every man.
Meanwhile, on a sheer cliff face about one-hundred feet away from Riku there stood two figures. One, a very attractive young woman with auburn hair, leaned against a tree stump staring out into the sea. Next to her, almost dozing off, was a young man with untamable brown hair and large, welcoming eyes.
"You know, at this time last year
we were almost dead. It's moments like this that make me question why
we ever put ourselves in so much danger."
"Kairi, we
didn't have a choice. It was destiny...the chosen few, the selected
heroes. Besides, we wouldn't be back here in one piece if we hadn't
put ourselves in danger. Danger's my middle name."
"You
don't have a middle name."
"Well...you know what I
mean. Danger can be fun. Adds a little spice to life, don't you
think?"
"I was always left behind. I'm the girl,
remember? I always got in the way."
She turned her back on the boy and continued to stare out into the sunset. The boy looked perplexed.
"Kairi, I never meant to insinuate that
you..."
"Couldn't handle myself? If you remember, I was
able to wield a keyblade too, mister. So if the keyblade thinks
enough of me to let me use it in battle, the least you could do is
understand why. I'm not weak, Sora."
"I just...never
want to see you get hurt. Kairi, that would be the worst thing I
could ever think of."
At that moment, a loud crack shot through the ears of everyone on the Destiny Islands. A huge black portal appeared down by the docks, sucking boats and buoys and anything not nailed down into it. It only stopped when a large figure wearing a sleek, silver suit and a black mask with a silver smilie face on it stepped out. If it wasn't so ominous, the masked man could have looked comical - but no, this man was serious business, and for that reason he scared the hell out of the purple haired boy less than fifty feet from him.
Riku shot up like an arrow.
"Who
are you? What do you mean by this?"
The Masked Man looked at Riku. The smile on his mask stared deep into Riku's soul. He answered with a gesture toward the black portal.
"As
a general rule of thumb, I don't just hop into black vacuuming holes
with completely creepy strangers. Call me crazy."
A shrill
piercing laugh shot from the Masked Man. It sounded inhuman. It was
definitely not human. The Masked Man extended his arms out and in
each hand a long, sleek weapon formed. These weapons looked odd - not
quite swords, not quite axes - but one could glean just by looking at
them that they held tremendous power. In one fell swoop, he shot at
Riku, ending up behind him. Riku dropped his sea-salt ice cream and
held out his right arm, flexing his fingers and awaiting a sensation
that hadn't happened for at least a year.
But that sensation
never came.
"What? C'mon, where the hell is it?"
He
couldn't wait any longer. Riku had to call for help.
"Sora!
Kairi! Help! I...I can't summon my keyblade!"
Up on the cliff, Sora's ears perked up. He was about five inches from Kairi's beautiful face. He would have kissed her. He would have finally done it. But goddamn it all, someone was calling his name. He stood up and looked down at Riku, bent over in pain, next to a Masked Man.
"Sora, what's wrong?"
"Riku. No time to
lose, Kairi. Forgive me!"
And with that, he bounded from the
stump up to the highest reaches of a tree nearby, grabbed one of the
largest palm leaves he could find and parachuted down below to the
oasis.
"No way! Damn it, Sora! You don't get to be the hero
all the time!"
And she jumped from the cliff into a free
fall. Suddenly, Sora jerked downward a little faster than he
was...with Kairi hanging from his legs.
"You know, on
second thought, this was a terrible idea!"
Sora smirked.
"You think?"
They hit the ground with little difficulty. Sora grabbed Kairi's hand and in that instant, something unexpected happened. A large keyblade formed between their hands. Actually, not one large keyblade. Two normal sized ones. The Kingdom Key and the Oathkeeper were now at their command.
"Well,
I guess if I am gonna be the hero this time around, you get to be my
sidekick."
"Sidekick? I'll pass." Kairi said. "But
you know what? I just might need an official keyblade polisher when
this is all through. Interested?"
The two smiled and charged at the Masked Man. A valiant fighter, he was easily able to keep Kairi and Sora at bay with his Dual Keyblades. Swing after swing, all the two friends seemed to connect with were either his keyblades or the dirt. The Masked Man drew his weapons up, and in a flash of light swung down with such force that it knocked the blades from both of their hands, piercing the tree that Riku was leaning against not minutes before. The Masked Man unsummoned his keyblades, leaving his hands free to do the task they had set out to do - kidnapping Riku.
"Come back here! Riku!" But Sora's screams fell on deaf ears. Riku and The Masked Man were through the slowly closing portal. Tendrils of darkness lashed out and slowly sewed up the dark hole in the Destiny Islands.
"Well,
it's now or never Sora. Looks like we won't be getting to finish that
raft after all."
Sora just snapped his fingers,
disappointedly. He grabbed Kairi's hand, gave her a peck on the cheek
and the two of them sprinted through the portal into the unknown.
CHAPTER
I
BETWIXT, BETWEEN AND BEFUDDLED
Sora fought with all his might to see through the darkness. He was falling, tendrils of darkness lashing out at him from all angles, and every time he had gotten his bearings straight, they flipped him on his head and turned him around once more.
"KAIRI! RIKU! ANYONE!" He called into the darkness. Nothing. He pulled at his hair with anguish. "NO! I can't have lost them both again! This is impossible!"
"Quit your whining, Sora."
The
voice was very familiar. One he had heard in dreams and nightmares.
He immediately knew who it was, though he had a very hard time coming
to grips with it.
"Axel?"
"Sora. Summon
your keyblade."
He did as he was told, and like the Red Sea
before Moses, the darkness split and made way for the keyblade
master. He could see a dreary path that lead to a portal similar to
the one he had entered to get here up ahead. But there was no sign of
Riku or Axel. No sign of Kairi.
"Axel! Where are you?
Are you alright? Are you...alive?"
Axel laughed to himself
in the darkness. "You know the answer to that one, bud. This is
the dark realm. An eternal resting place for nobodies. Got it
memorized?"
"But...how did I get here then? I'm
not...I'm not dead, am I?"
"Jeez, you're almost as dumb
as Roxas. No you're not dead. How should I know how you got here?
You're not even a nobody...or did you forget that, too? Sora. You're
just passing through," Axel sneered. "Just pass through the
portal and you'll meet back up with Kairi. She's a little quicker on
the uptake than you..."
But as Sora was heeding Axel's advice, a sight he hadn't seen in a year befell him. Six Dusk nobodies materialized around Sora and closed in. With a masterful slash, he dispatched three in one blow, but turned too late for the other three and was tackled, sending his keyblade flying. It hit a patch of wall like an arrow hitting its target, and started to become engulfed in darkness. Using his quick reactionary skills, he slid from beneath the dusks and then behind, quickly entangling them all with one another. But that was the least of his problems.
By this point, at least twenty assorted other nobodies had spawned around Sora and the three dusks. Snipers and assassins, mostly. Far too many for Sora to take on by himself with the keyblade; completely impossible without.
But with a flash of light, Axel dropped down from above, two flaming chakrams spinning in his hands. He gave Sora a knowing look, and without words they began a powerful limit attack. Spinning his chakrams overhead like a spinning top, Axel indicated to Sora to jump on. They bellowed "SPIRAL OF FLAMES!" as Axel let go of his chakrams, sending Sora on a whirlwind of flame and darkness, quickly dispatching all the remaining nobodies.
"You know, if I had a weapon as cool as that keyblade I wouldn't wanna let it become engulfed by darkness. Get your blade, and get to the door. Got it memorized?" With that, Axel jumped off into the darkness.
Sora did as he was told, and headed for the door at a full tilt, grabbing his keyblade from its place in the wall as he went. Before being sucked through the portal, he turned back and looked up into the indiscernible darkness. "Thanks, Axel." And with that, he was led through the portal into yet another new world.
