SAK: Sword Art Kingdom

by Jacob Pendra-Huth

When Kirito and Asuna take on a mysterious quest to fight a new monster, they took in more that they bargained for. They ended up not only going to a different dimension, but also aiding a trio of good friends on their quest. Join this exciting adventure full of humor, romance and action. This is based on the anime SAO and Kingdom Hearts II.

34. Ep 30: Final Battle! Friends Beyond!

The World That Never Was, Organization Stronghold

The team walked out of the final portal, and turned to where the exit out of the room was at. The walls were glowing purple veins as they connected with the now barrier-free exit. Everyone was relieved that they could continue on. Kirito and Sora were thinking to what they just been through the moment they entered this crazy castle. Countless Nobodies, reunions of friends, and four separate battles against Organization XIII members. First it was Xigbar the sniper, then came Luxord the gambler, next was Saix the berserker, and finally Gouxus, the main reason why Kirito came here. All of them were defeated by the group's hands, destroyed from existence, despite they didn't exist in the first place.

"We're almost there." Sora stated.

"Yeah." Kirito acknowledged, seeing the open path before them, "Let's find Mickey and Ansem the Wise." With that, the team made their way through the exit, towards the top of the castle, where the Organization XIII's leader, Xemnas, was waiting for them.

---

Ansem the Wise and Mickey watched as Ansem's machine continued to shoot it's laser at Kingdom Hearts, gathering the hearts into the machine again as data. Suddenly, the laster started to glow brighter and fritz a bit, and the machine started to shake violently in Ansem's grip. "Ansem?" said a confused Mickey.

Ansem started to laugh, despite the situation. "I'm a fool." he told himself, "I've spend years studying the workings of the heart. Yet it seems I still haven't learned a thing!"

"What d'ya mean?" Mickey asked.

"The process of encoding hearts is incalculable." Ansem explained, "The inhabitants of my Twilight Town were data created from real hearts. I was convinced that they would think and behave the way I had envisioned, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I should've noticed it sooner; when I discovered SAO, where the hearts of countless people were set into a digital realm. When I saw Yui, whose heart caused her to fight against her own programing. A heart is so much more than any system. In researching the world of SAO, it would seem that Akihiko Kayaba knew that as well when meeting Kirito. He and I, though from parallel dimensions, were more alike one another."

Ansem turned to Mickey and continued, "I saw it when Roxas and Kairi crossed paths. I knew. But I was too stubborn to accept it. It's always the same. I try to wrap my mind around things my heart already knows, only to fail. While I was trying to bring Sora back, I had so many plans in store. But once Sora was an acting force, they fell apart. All my research amounted to nothing, compared with that one boy's heart."

Suddenly, the machine started to spark wildly. "Ansem! The machine!" warned Mickey.

"All the more proof that hearts cannot be contained by data." Ansem replied, still holding onto the machine, "Run, my friend! It's going to self-destruct, and anything could happen!"

"But…" Mickey started, worried what he should do.

"Your Majesty!" shouted Sora's voice, and Mickey turned to see Sora, Kirito and the team run up to meet the two of them. Kirito noticed the man before him, and recognized his face from Ansem's computer as he turned to them.

"Sora, the rest is up to you…" Ansem told him, "And Roxas…I doubt you can hear me…but I am sorry. Kirito, Asuna, Yui, I'm sorry for putting you and your friends into such a perilous task."

Kirito looked to Asuna, then turned back just in time to see a compact disc case fly towards him. Kirito caught it and looked at its' contents. "Is this…?" Kirito started.

"The program to send you home again." Ansem answered, "I'm giving it to you for safe keeping. It is the only one of its' kind, so make sure you don't lose it." Kirito nodded and pocketed the CD case.

"Ansem!" cried Mickey.

"My heart is telling me what I must do." Ansem retorted, "Please allow me to do what it says!"

"No!" gasped Mickey, taking a step forward, but Riku stopped him, causing Mickey to turn to him, "Riku!"

"His hearts decided. We can't change that." Riku told Mickey.

"Ansem…" Kirito muttered as Yui popped out of Kirito's pocket to watch.

Just then, a black portal opened up a few meters away from the team's position, and out came Xemnas. "I was wondering who would dare interfere with my Kingdom Hearts." he stated, seeing Ansem and the rest of the crew, "And look, here you all are. How convenient for me." Everyone glared at him, ready to fight the Organization's leader right now. Xemnas shifted his sight on Ansem, who didn't turn to meet his gaze at all. "Ansem the Wise… You look pathetic." he taunted.

"Have your laugh." Ansem responded, "I deserve as much for failing to see you for the fool you are."

"Students do take after their teachers." Xemnas responded, "Only a fool would be your apprentice. After all, none of this would have happened without you. YOU are the source of all Heartless. It was your research that inspired me to go further than you ever dared."

"I admit…my disregard brought chaos to more worlds than one. But what were YOU seeking?" questioned Ansem, "You erased me from the world, only to take my name and continue research better left forgotten… I this the answer you've been looking for?"

"All that and more." Xemnas calmly answered, "I'm carrying on what you yourself began, and I'm creating a brand new world, one heart at a time. I thought you'd praise me, but all you ever do is hold me back. I understand, though. Unlike me, you have a heart. And you're powerless to control it. Consumed, by the jealousy you feel toward the student who surpassed you."

There was a pause between the two, then Ansem started, "Xehanort. Foolish apprentice of a foolish man. You have surpassed nothing, only proved how little we both know. We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our reach. We're both ignorant, as oblivious as when we began. I'm afraid that any world you try to create…" Ansem finally turned to Xemnas as he finished, "Any world of yours…would be an empire of ignorance. That is why you and your creation are destined to fall!"

Ansem turned his back to Xemnas once more. "We've said enough!" he stated, "Riku, you know what to do!" Riku nodded. "King Mickey, my friend, forgive me!" Ansem apologized, turning to the worried Mickey, "Farewell!"

The machine sparked liked crazy until finally there was a bright light. Sora, Mickey and Kirito tried to run forward, but Riku, Kairi and Leafa stopped them. Suddenly, the light bursted into a white cyclone of some kind, shooting into the sky above, like it was entering a warp through space and time. Everyone opened their eyes to see this, and noticed all the sparkling lights flicker past them, followed by a billowing stream of light. The light was pushing them back like a gust of wind, and they shielded their eyes as the light shined all around them. All Sora and Kirito thought was what gonna happen to their team, and more importantly, Ansem. This was their last thoughts before they fell unconscious.

It felt like several minutes until Sora and Kirito started to come around. The two groaned as they stirred. Everyone else was starting to stir a bit. Kirito and Sora raised their heads and looked at one another. "You ok?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, I think so." Kirito responded. He looked up at the sky and saw the Kingdom Hearts moon, or what was left of it. The moon had a huge hole in it, and looked charred. The hole was a bright pink heart, and the moon itself glowed a magenta aura. Not only that, but countless hearts were falling from hit, down to the city below. Kirito couldn't help but be mesmerized at this site. Ansem certainly left his mark on the Organization's plot. Kirito then looked at the spot where Ansem was at before. Neither him, nor any trace of his machine was there. Kirito looked down in shame. Was he…gone for good?

"Riku!" shouted Sora, drawing Kirito's attention. Sora dashed over to the spot where Riku was at, but something was off about him. From Kirito's view, Riku's hair shortened, though it was still the same silver hair as before. Actually, apart from his black coat, his whole body changed. Riku was getting up onto his hands and knees, groaning as well. Everyone was already on their feet again, and they turned to see Riku turn his head to them. His face had changed, hair falling between his eyes, and his eyes were now covered by a black strip of cloth. His body shortened, and now he looked the same height as Kirito.

Donald and Goofy both gasped in amazement. "Riku!" said Kairi eagerly. The others were just simply amazed. Riku looked around, realizing his whole body changed.

"Is this…what Riku really looks like?" Leafa asked Sora, who nodded eagerly.

"Ansem did say 'anything could happen'…" Mickey recalled.

Riku got to his feet again, and everyone looked to the spot where Ansem disappeared from. "I wonder if he's gone for good…" Recon asked. Asuna turned to Yui, but she only shook her head, unsure of what happened to Ansem either. Asuna looked to Mickey, who looked woefully at the spot.

Sora looked to Riku again. "Riku, you gonna take that off?" he asked, indicating the blindfold. Riku realized what he meant, and took it off. He opened his eyes to reveal them to be a blue-green hue. "What was that?" Sora asked.

"His eyes couldn't lie." Mickey answered, walking up to the boys.

"Lie?" Sora echoed, turning to Riku, "And just who were trying to fool? Huh? Huhhh?"

"Myself." Riku answered calmly, startling Sora. Kirito heard and understood what Riku meant by this. After all, Kirito thought the same way to himself before.

"Riku…" Sora started, "C'mon, man! Why did you try to do so much on your own?" He rushed over to everyone else as he finished, "You got friends…like us!" Riku looked to each of them. Goofy smiled as he rubbed his nose. Donald started tapping his foot as he smirked at him. Yui folded her hands behind her back as she happily looked to him. Leafa made a smug grin as she placed her hand on her hip. Recon smiled innocently as he stared at him. Mickey smiled and nodded at Riku. Kairi did the same as Mickey. Kirito and Asuna both held hands as they smiled in unison at Riku. Sora pretty much mimicked Kairi and Mickey, giving off a toothy grin.

Riku walked up to Sora. "Have you forgotten? I'll tell you why." he replied, "Cause I'm not a total sap like you."

"Say that again!" Sora growled as Donald and Goofy stifled their laughter. Kirito, Asuna and Yui couldn't help but laugh a bit at Sora. Despite their situation, it was nice to laugh once in a while. "Guys!" Sora moaned, seeing their amusement.

Suddenly, a noise made the laughing stop, and they turned to see countless hearts gathering up into the broken Kingdom Hearts moon again. "Uh-oh!" groaned Donald and Recon together. Sora, Riku, Kirito and Asuna led everyone to the ledge of the path to look down, only to see numerous Heartless crawling their way up the side of the wall to them.

"There's too many!" Asuna gasped, seeing the swarm coming their way.

"What should we do, Riku?" Sora asked.

"We must defeat Xemnas." Riku answered, "He's the Organization's last survivor."

"Right!" Sora agreed.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Kirito agreed, "Let's head to the top!" With that, Kirito led the team up the path. Riku whipped off the cloak, revealing his garments underneath. He had a pale yellow, unzipped vest with yellow and black lining, and a black, sleeveless zipped shirt underneath. He had on a pale yellow arm warmer, blue jeans and a black belt. Kirito and Riku looked to one another, nodded, then continued moving forward.

They went into the interior of the castle once more, and they now had to walk along a winding pathway that was invisible, and only appeared when they stepped on it, and they glowed like crystals. Not only that, but there were many Nobodies that came in their path. The team started to see just how good Riku was with a Keyblade. His skills were so diverse, and due to his tie to the darkness, he was able to unleash a barrage of Dark Orbs at opponents. It was also clear that Sora and Riku were quite the team, since not only did they do back to back attacks, but Riku also created a Dark Shield to protect Sora from attacks. Kirito and Asuna also had their fair share of team-working with Riku.

The team managed to get their way to the top floor of the room, with the four leaders dashing ahead. "Sora! Riku!" Kairi cried.

"Kirito! Asuna!" Leafa cried. The four turned to see the two pointing into the walls. Heartless were pouring out of the holes like a river of black water, falling into the pathway as they were crawling their way. There were so many, that the pathway shook as they made their approach.

"There's gonna be no end to this." Riku stated.

"H-How are we gonna get rid of these Heartless?!" stammered Recon.

"Together we can stop 'em!" Sora answered, smirking at Riku, then turned to Kirito, who smirked in response.

Suddenly, two different portals opened up in front of them, and out came Maleficent and Pete. "Be gone from here!" ordered Maleficent, "Leave these creatures to us!"

"Wait…you're helping us now?" Kirito asked questionably.

"But there's no way we can take 'em all!" Pete retorted.

"I will be sending them after Xemnas." Maleficent explained to her lackey, "Or, perhaps, you would rather fight them yourself?"

Pete thought for second, then answered, "Frankly my dear, I'd rather…RUN!"

"Off with you then!" barked Maleficent, startling Pete and causing him to walk back from her.

He turned and noticed Mickey standing before him. "Well, if it ain't the boat-boy king." he stated, looking down at Mickey.

"Time to weigh anchor, Captain Pete!" Mickey declared.

"What, like 'abandon ship'? I don't think so!" Pete replied.

"Sora! 'Your Majesty'!" Maleficent addressed the two, "Do not forget; when I've destroyed them all, this castle shall be mine!"

"Yeah, whatever." Kirito answered in an oblivious tone.

"Now lookie here. Opportunities like this don't come along every day, ya know." Pete pointed out to Mickey. He ran to Maleficent's side as the two were prepared for battle. "Bring'em on!" boomed Pete, and the two charged down at the horde of Heartless.

"You know, I can't tell whether those two are on our side or not." Asuna said as she and everyone else watched them go.

"You know the old saying; the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Leafa quoted, to which Asuna agreed to.

"We gotta hurry." Mickey stated.

"But…" Sora started.

"Sora, let one set of people go without your help for a change!" Kirito told him.

"They're doing what their hearts command." Mickey explained, "We can't interfere." Mickey turned and started walking away to the door behind them. Sora paused, then followed him along with the rest of the crew, as they proceeded upwards to the top of the tower.

---

The team rushed up the exterior staircase that rounded the tower, all the way to the top, where the Alter of Naught was at. There, Xemnas stood, his arms raised to the charred and broken Kingdom Hearts as it floated before him. The team walked up the last set of stairs, with Sora, Kirito, Asuna, Mickey, Riku and Leafa all out in front.

"Ohh…my Kingdom Hearts…ruined." Xemnas said in a monotonous tone, "Now I'll have to start all over again." He paused, then he called out as he turned to the team, "Warriors of the Keyblade! Go forth, and bring me more hearts!"

"NO!" shouted the six Keyblade wielders, whipping their Keyblades out at Xemnas. The group behind them also looked ready to fight as well.

"Denizens of light, answer this: Why do you hate the darkness?" Xemnas questioned them.

"Aw, we don't hate it." Mickey answered, "It's just kinda…scary. But the world's made of light AND darkness. You can't have one without the other, 'cause darkness is half of everything. Sorta makes ya wonder why we're scared of the dark."

"It's because of who's lurking inside it." Kirito answered, "The darkness in people's hearts we cannot see."

"Then allow me another question." Xemnas requested, "You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away by both light and dark, never given a choice?"

"That's simple." Riku answered, "It's because you mess up our worlds."

"You don't have a reason to live, and you won't ever get one." Asuna added.

"That may be…" Xemnas agreed, "However, what other choice might we have had?"

"Just give it a rest!" Sora growled, "You're Nobodies! You don't even exist! You're not sad about anything!"

Xemnas chuckled a bit, then replied, "Very good. You don't miss a thing. I can not feel…sorrow. No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist." Suddenly, Xemnas whipped up his hands, and changed the atmosphere of the place. Sora was immediately blinded by the light shining all around him. When the area cleared, Sora and Xemnas found themselves in a small area, surrounded by buildings that warped like swaying kelp in the water. The only building that wasn't moving was the skyscraper Sora and his friends passed by before. It was raining upon them.

Sora looked around. All of his friends weren't there. They had disappeared. "Guys?!" Sora shouted, looking around.

"You're friends are no longer with us." Xemnas stated to him as his hands started to spark. Sora glared at Xemnas, then got into battle position. Looks like he was facing him on his own.

The moment they started, Xemnas produced a field of energy around Sora, which started to drain him slowly but steadily. At the same time, Xemnas disappeared in a black portal. "Come closer." Xemnas' voice said from the top of the skyscraper.

So it's just like Luxord. Sora thought before, An invitation to a challenge. Sora ran up to the front of the skyscraper, and the moment he did, the barrier lifted. He looked up and saw Xemnas standing at the top of the tower, waiting for him. Sora leapt from different parts of the skyscraper until he was literally running up the side of the skyscraper. Xemnas produced laser blades from his hands and jumped down to meet him. Sora attempted to strike, but he came in too early, and Xemnas dodged his attack. The two locked eyes with one another as they crossed paths, then Sora leapt off the skyscraper and fell along with him.

The moment the two landed, Xemnas produced his laser swords again, and started attacking Sora, who blocked his attacks with his Keyblade. Sora attempted to retaliate, but Xemnas blocked with a thunder shield, damaging Sora and making him back off. Okay, so straight-forward attacks aren't gonna work as well. Sora thought to himself, raising his Keyblade again, So let's try thinking on how to beat him. Sora barely dodged another set of attacks from Xemnas, but saw an opening in his attack, and struck hard with his Keyblade, the attack knocked Xemnas back, but he looked as if it barely damaged him. Okay, let's do it just like that. Sora thought to himself, and he charged at Xemnas.

The two begun their tireless battle against each other, fighting back to back with attacks and defenses. Xemnas continued striking combos and thunder barriers, also adding his own twist on teleporting around the area to get behind Sora with attacks, while Sora unleashed his own set of moves on him. Sora started to see that Xemnas was plenty powerful, but his attacks had some flaws to them. Sora did see that the thunder shield only protected Xemnas' front, and he had to hold it for a few seconds as it died down. Sora understood that in order to deal with such a barrier, he had to leap over or around the barrier in order to get to Xemnas. As for his sword combos, Sora only got lucky once with the attack before, because Xemnas did not leave a long enough opening in his combo attack. He kept flipping, kicking and twirling his blades around at Sora from all sides. Sora did manage to guard and dodge-roll out of the way, and a few times he even put up a Reflega shield to block the attack and send the recoil damage back.

The two combatants kept going and going, and although both were taking damage on both sides, Sora was the only one of the two to be able to heal up. His other skills of magic did work, but Xemnas wasn't damaged as much from them, and he was immune to fire attacks. Sora mainly had to rely on his skills with the Keyblade. Their duel with blades was intense and powerful. As they battle grew longer, the battle got more intense. Xemnas was pushing even further with his attacks and defense, and Sora was also attacking faster and stronger. Xemnas was able to attack as soon as he blocked one of Sora's attacks with his barrier.

After a half hour of fighting, the two opposing sides stood on opposite ends, breathing heavily. "You…had enough?" Sora panted, holding his Keyblade up at him.

"Hardly." Xemnas answered, and he teleported into his black orb again, getting in closer to Sora once more. Before Sora could react, he placed another field of energy around Sora once more, and disappeared once more. Sora could feel his stamina drain from his body, and he knew what this meant. Sora made a dash for the front of the skyscraper once more. The moment he got there, the facedown was about to begin once more, and the field lifted. Sora saw Xemnas perched up on top of the skyscraper, waiting for him.

Sora once again leapt up and started running up the side of the skyscraper as Xemnas dove down at him, his laser blades at the ready. Just time it right… Sora though to himself as he came in closer, Remember what Yui said; wait for the right opportunity. The two slowly came closer and closer to one another, and Sora waited for the moment to strike. Finally, he saw his chance and he struck Xemnas hard in the gut with his Keyblade. Sora then flipped upwards and knocked him downwards. He then bounded after Xemnas with the Keyblade at the ready. The moment the two were at level, they attacked one another. However, Sora knocked both of his blades aside, leaving him vulnerable to the next couple of attack Sora planted onto him, sending him smashing into the side of the skyscraper.

Sora landed onto his feet as Xemnas fell. Sora then saw this as an opportunity to try a technique out. Sora looked to his Keyblade and concentrated. Okay, just as Kirito instructed. Sora thought to himself, closing his eyes. He remembered words that Kirito mentioned to him before.

"I bet you could pull off at least this Sword Skill." Kirito's voice told him, "Just be sure to focus. Let the energy flow into your Keyblade. Then, once you have your target set, unleash the skill with all you got."

Sora did what Kirito told him, and he focused hard on the one move he attempted to use onto Xemnas. Suddenly, his Keyblade started to glow a bright green as he did so. Sora looked up at the falling Xemnas, then with one leap, he jumped horizontally at Xemnas. Time to use it:'Sonic Leap'! Sora cried in his head, and he swiftly knocked Xemnas hard to the ground with the strike of his Sword Skill.

The attack not only made Xemnas hit the floor, but the trajectory sent him flying away from the skyscraper. Xemnas looked at Sora as he fell, seeing the determination in his eyes. "Oh…so it wasn't a fantasy…" he stated, then he closed his eyes as he came to a halt on the ground, lying on his back. Sora bounded off the skyscraper and landed aways from both the skyscraper and Xemnas. Sora looked as Xemnas' body disappeared in black smoke, but he didn't really see his body deteriorate like the rest. He looked at the spot even after Xemnas disappeared from it.

Did…did I really beat him? Sora asked himself.

For a while, the only sound was the the faint warping sound of the atmosphere, along with the pattering of rain. Suddenly, Sora heard a voice from out of nowhere. "Sora! Where are you?" Kairi's voice shouted.

"C'mon, say something!" Kirito's voice cried. Sora looked around, wondering where it came from. He then started to see specks of light start to shine around him, the atmosphere glowing brighter and brighter as he swirled his head left and right, before he was engulfed in the light.

---

Back at the Alter of Naught, everyone else was spread out, looking every which-way, trying to find Sora. "Sora, answer me!" Riku shouted.

"Please, come back to us!" Asuna yelled.

Just then, everyone heard a sound, and they turned just in time to see Sora fall face first into the ground behind them, coming out of some portal that disappeared the moment he came out. They all rushed to his side as Sora attempted to get back up again.

"You're okay!" said Mickey.

Leafa sighed in relief. "Don't go scaring us like that!" she scolded him.

Sora got to his feet and looked at the crew. "Where's Xemnas?" was the first thing Sora asked. Donald started looking around, then he found him. Xemnas was in the center of the broken Kingdom Hearts. All of the hearts were swirling around him, going into him. Everyone turned and got in closer as he started to speak.

"Hear me, Kingdom Hearts!" he called out, "It seems we must begin anew. Aw, but know this: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words! You can no more be complete without me than I without you. Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Led me your power, so that we may be complete! The power to erase the fools that hinder us."

"Xemnas! No!" shouted Mickey.

"Hearts quivering with hatred…" Xemnas continued.

"Xemnas! Don't!" yelled Sora.

"Hearts burning with rage…" Xemnas stated.

"You'll never win, bastard!" declared Kirito.

"Hearts scarred by envy…" said Xemnas, not listening to any of them, "That fool Ansem said the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding. But it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!"

Suddenly, the giant heart in the sky started to glow brightly. Everyone shielded their eyes as they were blinded by the shining light that dawned upon them. When the light vanished, they looked up to see that Xemnas had disappeared again.

"Xemnas! You can't hide from us!" Sora shouted.

"Come on out and face us!" Kirito demanded.

"We're not gonna let him get away now!" Mickey told the group.

"You said it." Asuna agreed, "We need to get to him. Question is; where is he right now?"

"Look at that!" Kairi gasped, pointing to a spot left of the broken Kingdom Hearts. A dawning of light started to shine on the spot, and suddenly, a giant door came out of nowhere, floating in the sky.

"What's goin' on?" Goofy asked as the crew drew in closer.

"Does this door lead to where Xemnas is at?" Leafa asked, looking up and down the door.

"Kingdom Hearts…" said Mickey, answering Leafa.

"Let's go. Xemnas must be inside." Riku assumed.

"But why is it here? How did it come to be?" Recon asked.

"The worlds gave us this doorway." Mickey answered, "They want us to be the guardians of their destiny!" Kirito and Sora both nodded in understanding.

"Once we go through, there's no turning back. It's victory…or oblivion." Riku warned them, turning to his best friend, "So, Sora…are you ready?"

Sora looked to Riku, then to Donald and Goofy, who nodded seriously. He looked to Leafa and Recon, who also nodded in agreement. He looked to Mickey, then to Kairi, who were prepared to fight. Finally, Sora looked to Kirito, Asuna and Yui.

"The battle's not over yet, so let's end this!" Kirito stated. Sora nodded in agreement. He, Kirito and Asuna all put their hands together. Since the beginning of this journey, they have been working together, fighting off any foe that came their way. It was now time to end this.

"Let's go." Sora decided, as everyone turned to face the door.

Sora, Kirito, Asuna, Riku, Leafa and Mickey all stepped forward, their Keyblades at hand, while Kairi, Recon, Yui, Donald and Goofy watched. They formed a semicircle as the pointed their Keyblade inward. The tips of the Keyblades connected with one another, and they started to glow bright. They raised their Keyblades high as beams of light shot into the sky. The beams of light reacted to the door in front of them, and it opened up slowly for them, producing a pathway to the open door. "Get ready, Xemnas!" Sora stated.

"It all ends here!" Kirito announced.

The team walked up the pathway and through the doorway. They found themselves surrounded by broken building, scattered about around them. In the clear pathway in front of them, they saw something that surprised them. In the sky floated a being that looked like a black giant battleship, where they could clearly see two large power generators protruding on either side, with a white dragon-like body protruding out of the top. The way the dragon body moved around made it look like it was alive, but the team couldn't tell if it was a living being or a machine.

Suddenly, the team noticed something. Though it was far away, they saw Xemnas standing on top of the deity before them, looking down upon them. "So…it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration." his voice boomed out to them, "Perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that." Xemnas waved his hand, and an entire building started to float into the sky, and it flew towards the crew. Everyone ran for their lives as the building slowly fell to the ground, crumbling away as it hit the ground. Mickey, Kairi and Recon all made a dive pass the door, but it suddenly closed behind them, leaving the rest of the crew inside.

"No!" shouted Riku, seeing the door close before them. They all got to their feet again, and turned to where Xemnas was at.

"I'm sure those guys are fine!" Kirito assured as he, Asuna and Leafa all whipped out their Keyblades.

"We can take him on our own!" declared Sora as he and Riku both produced their Keyblades. Donald and Goofy had their weapons at the ready as well. Yui floated to Kirito's side, ready to fight as well. Their grand battle was about to begin.

Sora and Kirito led the crew as they charged along the path of debris, closing the gap between them and the giant dragon fortress. Suddenly, building shot out one after another from the ground like bamboo shoots, blocking their path. "Make way!" Asuna shouted, and the boys cleared a path as Asuna prepared herself. She charged up a strong 'Shooting Star' Rapier skill, and she pierced right through all of the buildings. She came out the other side, her eyes closed. The moment she opened them, the lightning-quick marks she made in the building appeared, and they collapsed, clearing a path for the others to come through.

"Nice one, Asuna!" complimented Sora as he passed her, "Let's keep moving!" With that, she joined the crew as they charged ahead.

They continued to run closer and closer to the monstrous being that Xemnas was on top of. They were about halfway there when the dragon fortress suddenly floated off the ground, and slammed itself into the ground once more. It somehow created a reaction, causing the part of the pathway beneath their feet to rise up, carrying the team along with them, bringing them up to a higher level, and onto a upper path. They didn't know if it was eager to draw them in, but they noticed all the floating buildings hovering around the dragon, and realized it moved them up so they could be better targets.

Three pieces appeared above them, ready to crash onto them. Kirito and Sora immediately went into a high jump, cutting straight through them with one slash of their Keyblades. They then led the team as they used the debris to leap from building to building, slashing any of the pieces that would block their path, and using them as stepping stones afterwards. They hopped from piece to piece until they finally made a huge leap, with everyone else behind them, flying at one of the power generators.

They landed onto the metal grate of the right generator, and looked into it. The interior was glowing red, shaped like a honeycomb and it was sparking with energy. "Now what?" Donald asked.

"Enemies at three o'clock!" Yui shouted, pointing to the side. They turned to see a spacial Nobody, a Bomb Bell, come at them, followed by more that appeared all around them.

"We need to destroy this thing!" Riku stated, knocking back one of the Nobodies.

"And we do it this way!" Kirito told them, smacking a Bomb Bell into the power generator, causing it to explode in contact.

"Good idea!" Sora agreed, "Use the enemies as projectiles!" They started smacking the Bomb Bells around, weakening them so they would fly into the power generator, damaging it. All the while, Yui told them that it was charging up energy for something.

After thirty seconds, Yui shouted, "Get out of the way! It's about to attack!" Sora noticed the protruding from the body of the fortress, and led the crew into jumping up to avoid whatever was coming at them. They were lucky, for a powerful laser came blasting out of the power generators interior, barely avoided by the team. They all leapt towards the other power generator, looking back with stunned expressions as they saw what might've hit them.

They landed on the grate on the left generator, and more Bomb Bells appeared before them. They started hammering away at the onslaught of Nobodies that came their way, knocking them into the open generator. Kirito and Riku were knocking away more of the Nobodies than any of the others, and they kept going back and forth, delivering one in after another. Finally, the sparks started to grow more rapidly, and the interior started to malfunction. "It's going to explode!" Yui warned them, "Get to the other side!" They did just that, and the large power generator came off the body of the dragon fortress, falling to the ground below, billowing in explosions.

They made it to the other grate, and started knocking away more Bomb Bells into the generator as well. Since they dealt with it before, they didn't need that many Bomb Bells, so when it started to spark after only a few Bomb Bells knocked into it, everyone dived out of the way. They leapt onto the top of the black part of the fortress, looking towards the white dragon being before them. "Where to next?" Asuna asked.

"I'm detecting a massive amount of energy flow within that cylinder." Yui pointed out, looking at a piece that connected the white body to the black, "I think it might be the energy core!"

"Then that's where we head to next!" Leafa stated, and she produced her wings and flew at it. After using the Final Form before, Sora, Kirito and Asuna were able to glide over, so with one gigantic leap, they soared towards the core, carrying the others along with them.

They entered the part Yui pointed out, and saw the main core, which was a cylinder piece in the wall, glowing with a red Nobody symbol on it, and blue flow of energy coming out of the tubes above them, flowing into the body of the fortress. "Destroy this, and then it's Xemnas!" Kirito told the crew. They started striking furiously at the machine before them, damaging it as it vibrated with the energy flow it had.

After several strikes, a series of different kind of Nobodies started to gather around them, and the core became surrounded by a barrier. "We can't destroy it!" Leafa noticed, seeing her attacks ricochet off the barrier.

"Seems like the Nobodies are the cause." Riku noticed, "Let's destroy them, and find out if I'm right." They spread out and started attacking the stream of Nobodies that came in their way, which were basically Creepers and Assassins.

"Sora, think you're up for a Session?" Riku asked his friend. Sora nodded, and the two entered their powerful Limit Break. Sora and Riku unleashed a series of combos, followed by a series of quick jabbing attacks together. "Is that all you got?" Riku asked, then they started to add a series of dark energy fireballs with their barrage of rapid slashes. After either each of them used them enough times, Sora and Riku's Keyblades glowed with energy as they start swing them around, unleashing a series of long-range slashes. Following this came a series of energy swords spinning around them, slashing anyone that they moved towards. Finally, Sora and Riku threw their Keyblades into the air. The two weapons fired beams of light and dark energy at each other, drawing all enemies towards them and doing heavy damage in a flash of light. Sora and Riku caught their Keyblades and knocked fists together. All of the Nobodies got destroyed from their attack.

"Now that's one heck of a Limit Break." Kirito stated as he saw it end.

The barrier surrounding the main core lifted, and the team unleashed their full fury on the core. The core started to shake more violently from all the damage it taken. After a heavy amount of attacks, another barrier produced itself, and more Nobodies appeared, now adding Berserkers to the mix. They spread out and started attacking like crazy as they fought against the onslaught. However, the dragon wasn't gonna let them take them down so easily. Yui looked up and saw something coming. "Look out!" she shouted to Riku and Sora, and the two looked up and dove out of the way just in time. One of the dragon's claws dug into the same spot the guys were at before.

"Will that hurt it?" Asuna asked as it lifted its' claw.

"Apparently, it doesn't care!" Leafa answered as two girls avoided another large claw from its' other arm, "It just wants to destroy us!"

"Mama! Papa!" Yui shouted to her parents, "Let me in on the fight!"

Asuna came to Kirito's side just as he pulled out the Heart Charm. "Summon!" they shouted in unison, and Yui went through her transition, entering her human form, prepared to fight along side her friends and family. She started delivering data orbs and shockwaves at all the enemies with support from her family and friends. This was the first time Riku and Leafa actually saw here fight, and they were mildly impressed. Finally, the trio unleashed their Limit Break 'Program Delete', allowing Yui access to her blazing sword, which she used to wipe out all the Nobodies in the vicinity.

The barrier lifted from the main core, and the team delivered the last amount of attacks onto it, finally damaging it fully. "It worked!" Yui cheered, losing her summon time and reverting back to her fairy form, "The core has been stopped!"

"Now it's a straight path to Xemnas now!" Kirito stated, and the team were suddenly blinded by a bright light. When they came out, they found themselves on top of the head of the dragon. In front of them was Xemnas, sitting on a throne, but he had changed drastically. his body became bonded with the giant dragon, and now he was in an armor of some sort, holding up a very large sword, one as long as Sephiroth's Masamune. Around him were spikes the shape of the Nobody symbols, and there were also weapons that the previous Organization XIII members used behind him.

"Let's finish him for good!" Sora declared, and he led the team into action.

The good news was that Xemnas was unable to leave his throne, making him an easy target. The bad news was that he was able to use the weapons of all of his fallen subordinates. Kirito had to barely avoid getting hit by a circle of Xaldin's lances, which almost pierced him. Sora and Goofy had to deal with a few of Demyx's Water Forms. Leafa and Donald jumped out of the way of the fire from Xigbar's arrowguns. As for Asuna and Riku, they dealt a fair amount of damage onto Xemnas before being knocked away by his wide-range sword.

The team took turns going at Xemnas whiles avoiding all the attacks Xemnas brought upon him. They saw him use Saïx's Lunatic claymore, sending a shockwave at them that caused serious damage. They saw him produce Gouxus' sword whip, allowing them to spike up from the ground in a straight path in front of him. They even noticed him use Axel's flaming chakrams, swirling around and damaging anyone that drew near.

"There has got to be a better way of dealing with him than this." Asuna muttered, barely dodging another one of Xemnas' sword swings.

"How 'bout a series of Limit Breaks!" Kirito suggested, turning to Goofy, who understood what he meant. Asuna looked to Donald, who was ready to go. Sora turned to Riku, who also looked prepared.

"You guys get ready!" Leafa told them, "I want to deliver a message from a friend of mine to Xemnas." She charged at Xemnas, dodging a Lunatic shockwave. She slashed repeatedly at Xemnas', who was straining a bit from the heavy damage he had been dealt with. "And here's a message from Axel…" she started, charging up her attack, "Firaga!" She used the billowing of fire magic she gained from Axel to singe Xemnas severely. "Got it memorized?" quoted Leafa as she backed off, then she turned to the party and shouted, "NOW!" All three pairs started their Limit Breaks.

Kirito and Goofy performed their 'Knocksmash' attack, sending both Keyblade and shield at Xemnas repeatedly. Asuna and Donald performed their 'Duckflare' storm, sending a barrage of homing firework rockets at Xemnas. Sora and Riku once again performed their 'Session' Limit Break, going through all the phases of the attack while up close and personal with Xemnas. All three pairs were overwhelming Xemnas with their storm of attacks. It all ended with Goofy rocketing shield first, The last dose of fireworks, and the beam of energy from both Sora and Riku's Keyblades. They heard Xemnas' anguish cry of pain as suffered the full damage of the attack. That was the last thing that could be heard before everything was swallowed up by a bright light.

---

The team suddenly found themselves back on the Alter of Naught again, rejoining Recon, Mickey and Kairi as they had their weapons ready, facing the injured Xemnas, back to his original form. He was shaking in pain as he fell to one knee, grasping his shoulder. "I need…more rage…" he gasped, "I need more…hearts…"

Despite the fact that he was a mortal enemy, Sora couldn't help but feel sorry for him in some way. "Xemnas." he called out, "There's more to a heart than just anger or hate. It's full of all kinds of feelings. Don't you remember?"

There was a moment's pause, then as Xemnas' body disintegrated, he looked up at them as he answered, "Unfortunately…I don't." His body was suddenly swallowed up in the dark mist, then he disappeared from sight. The team looked at the spot Xemnas disappeared from, then they turned to each other, expressing their excitement and happiness. They had done it. They had just defeated Xemnas at last.

"We did it!" cheered Leafa, punching the air in victory.

"Gosh, you all did great!" Mickey congratulated them. Asuna and Kirito looked to each other, and they hugged one another. Their battle was over. They could finally go home.

Sora turned to see Riku walk away from the crew, looking out into the dark atmosphere before him. He walked over to Riku's side. "You're coming back with us, right?" Sora asked.

"I had given in to the darkness." Riku stated promptly.

"Riku!" moaned Sora.

"How'm I gonna face everyone?" Riku asked, turning to his friend.

"Like this!" Sora answered, pushing his cheeks with his hands, contorting his face into something comical. The expression made Riku laugh, as Sora hoped it would.

Suddenly, the castle shook a bit. "What was that?!" Recon asked, looking around.

"The previous battle must've damaged the castle greatly." Kirito assumed, "We can't stay in this place for much longer."

Mickey rushed over to Sora and Riku's side. "Hurry!" he cried. Everyone walked to their side.

"I'll open a path." said Riku, raising a hand to open a black portal. However, he was unable to.

"You don't belong in the dark realm anymore, Riku." Mickey told him.

"Well that's unfortunate timing…" moaned Recon.

"How do we get out of here, Your Majesty?" Donald asked. Mickey was just as puzzled as the two.

While they were pondering, Sora, Kairi, Leafa, Kirito and Asuna felt a presence behind them. They turned and saw a ghostly image of Naminé standing behind the crew. Naminé turned around and raised her hand, creating a black portal herself. Mickey and Donald raced over to the portal, passing right through Naminé's image. "Who did this?" Donald asked. Kirito seemed confused at this. Did they not see Naminé standing there?

"Welp, I'm not sure." Mickey answered, "But we'd better hurry and get through." Suddenly, Pluto the dog came out from who knows where, doing a figure 8 around Mickey and Donald before bounding into the portal.

"Wait for me!" Goofy shouted, racing passed Donald and Mickey, into the portal. The two followed them afterwards.

"Come on, Leafa!" Recon shouted, and he raced to the portal, looking back at the crew.

"In a minute, Recon." Leafa answered. Recon nodded, and he jumped into the portal.

Naminé's ghost appeared once again in front of the portal as Sora and Kairi stepped forward, with Kirito, Asuna and Leafa at their side, leaving Riku and Yui to watch. "Thank you, Naminé." Kairi thanked her.

"Sure." she replied.

"Yeah, thanks a lot for all the help, Naminé." Leafa added.

"No problem." Naminé replied. Kirito and Asuna both nodded in agreement to Leafa's statement.

Naminé then turned to Sora and said, "See? We meet again, like we promised."

"Huh?" Sora questioned.

"You said we'd meet again, but when we did, we might not recognize each other." said a voice, and to everyone's surprise but Naminé, a ghostly image of Roxas stepped out of Sora's body, facing Naminé.

"I did, didn't I?" Naminé recalled.

"But I knew you." Roxas stated.

"Mmm…it's strange." Naminé said in a puzzled tone.

"I think I understand." Roxas continued, "I see myself the way you remember me. And you see yourself the way I remember you."

"I always thought Nobodies were doomed to fade back into darkness…" Naminé assumed.

"Yeah, but you and I didn't." Roxas corrected her, "We got to meet our original selves."

"So, we can be together again!" said Naminé excitedly. Roxas walked over to Naminé's side, turning to Sora and Kairi.

"Right." he answered her, "Anytime Sora and Kairi are together."

"We'll be together every day." Kairi told them, "Right, Sora?"

"Uh…yeah!" he stammered in response. Asuna and Leafa both chuckled at Sora's flustered tone.

Kirito raised one eyebrow at Sora, smirking, then he and Asuna both made eye contact with Roxas and Naminé. "You know…for a couple of Nobodies, you sure have a lot of heart." Kirito told them. Both of them snorted in amusement.

"Thanks so much for everything." Asuna told the two, "You guys gave us a journey we'll never forget."

"Thank YOU for accepting it." Naminé responded, "And I hope you have a safe journey home." Kirito pulled out the CD case that Ansem the Wise gave them and looked at it. This contained the data on getting back home. He then held out the case to Leafa. "Why don't you hold onto this, sis." Kirito suggested.

"You sure?" Leafa asked in surprise. Kirito nodded, and she respectively took the case.

Kairi walked forward and raised her hand out to Naminé to shake hers. Naminé stepped forward and took it in response. To Sora and Kirito's shock, Naminé started to glow brightly when she made contact with Kairi, and she vanished. A soft glow of light flashed around Kairi as Naminé disappeared. It was only then did Kirito and Asuna finally realized who Naminé was. She was Kairi's Nobody.

Sora looked opened-mouthed at Kairi. "Look sharp!" snapped Roxas, drawing Sora's attention. Sora and Roxas both closed their eyes, and Roxas started to glow brightly himself, then his light entered Sora's body like Naminé. Sora felt the soft glow on his body for a second, then felt kinda funny as he looked down at his hands and body, wondering if he changed in some way.

"Don't worry." assured Riku, walking to his side, "You're all still you." Sora looked to Riku, then to Kirito and Asuna next to him.

"Hey, let's go home!" Kairi told the group as she and Leafa stood at the portal.

"C'mon, mama and papa!" Yui told her parents, and she flew over to Leafa's shoulder.

"Riku, Kirito, Asuna… C'mon." Sora said to his three friends.

"Yeah." the three of them responded. With that, the four walked forward, ready to enter the portal. Suddenly, the portal started to act strangely as Kairi, Leafa and Yui entered the portal. The four frantically ran to the portal as the trio turned back to them.

"Sora! Riku!" Kairi shouted.

"Kazuto!" shouted Leafa.

"Mama!" Yui cried. They had their hands out-stretched, but the portal closed before the four could enter.

"What…?" gasped Sora.

"Guys!" Kirito shouted, his hand stretched out in front of him. But it was too late; they were gone.

There was a moments pause as the team stared at the spot, unable to comprehend what just happened. The portal disappeared on them. Why? They all stared at the spot, then something drew their attention. Asuna turned and gasped, gathering everyone else's attention to someplace else. In the far distance, they could see something strange. Two stacks of building, both in a pyramid formation, were stacked top and and bottom like an hourglass. In between them was a glowing orb of energy, and in the orb was a deity that looked strangely familiar.

"Is that…?" Kirito started.

"It's Xemnas!" Riku stated, seeing the curled up dragon in the orb of energy.

"That guy doesn't know when to quit!" said an exasperate Asuna.

Suddenly, light started to shine from the orb as the dragon unfolded itself, and it broke out. It flew upwards a bit, then it flew towards the tower the four were on, knocking it as it flew passed them. The tower shook, then it started to fall over, carrying the team along with them. The four started to skid as the angle got steeper and steeper. Suddenly, Riku noticed something that came into view; two hover bike-like vehicles were docked right below them, and it looked like their was a side platform that looked like a second person could stand on.

Riku made a dive for the first vehicle, and Asuna, seeing what he was planning, made a dive for the second one. Sora and Kirito called out to them as they dove, landing onto both vehicles and starting them up. They flew them up to where the other two were at, calling out to them to get on. Sora got onto Riku's bike while Kirito leapt onto Asuna's. "Switch with me, Asuna!" Kirito asked Asuna as he got his footing right, "I at least know my way around a bike!" Asuna complied, and Kirito dove onto the seat of the vehicle as Asuna got onto the platform, her Keyblade ready. The two vehicles took off into the sky, riding along side the giant dragon. Sora and Asuna whipped out their Keyblades, ready to take on the enormous dragon.

They started flying behind the beast, getting the feel of the vehicle. They started to find out what it had on it; a laser that shot homing beams and a reflector shield that absorbed attacks to power up a even stronger laser attack. Not to mention that both Sora and Asuna's Keyblades were somehow powered up to slash at longer distances.

"Okay, now how do we deal with this one?!" Sora asked the team.

"We need to take it out piece by piece." Kirito answered, "Let's start with the tail. Destroy those pieces on its' end. That should slow it down a bit!" Everyone else nodded in agreement, and they went to work.

Immediately, Xemnas started delivering Nobodies that fired lasers at them, but Kirito dodged to one side as Riku pulled up a barrier to absorb the attack. "We'll handle the spare Nobodies and shoot our gun at it. You handle getting that beam charged up!" Asuna told them.

"You got it!" Riku responded. Kirito started darting around, taking on the Nobodies that came at their path with the laser and Asuna swinging at them. They darted around the tail, blasting at its' end. Riku joined in the attack with them, blasting and damaging the tail. More missiles came in, and Kirito moved to one side as Riku used his shield to absorb the attack. "It's all charged up!" Riku shouted, and he pressed a button, and a massive beam shot out of the turret of the bike, dealing massive, continuous damage onto the tail. It worked to perfection, for the end of the tail exploded, destroying its' bulky end.

"Great job!" Asuna cheered.

"Now Let's aim for those engines under each wing!" Kirito shouted, "We'll handle the left, you get the right!"

"You got it!" Sora shouted, and they dispersed. As they tried getting closer to each engine, giant snowflakes started appearing in front of them, and they started shooting lasers from the center of their bodies at them. They were unable to absorb their attacks, so they had to dart around them to avoid getting hit by them.

Riku's side was the first to get close to the engine, and started barraging the engine with lasers while absorbing the enemy attacks. Sora dealt with all the Nobodies that appeared in their way, dealing heavy damage to them. After a few minutes, the megalaser was charged and ready, and they fired at the engine, destroying it and causing it to detach from the dragon's body, smoldering to the ground below.

Asuna and Kirito were only a few seconds behind Riku's arrival to the engine, and started attacking the engine just the same. More spacial Nobodies appeared before them, attacking them with lasers shots of their own. Asuna put up the shield to absorb their shots, then retaliated with a dosage of laser shots back at them. Asuna thrusted her extended Keyblade at all the Nobodies that Kirito couldn't get at. When their energy was fully charged from absorbing the attacks, they fired the megalaser at the other engine, damaging it to the point of blowing it up.

"We got it here!" Kirito shouted out, hoping Sora and Riku heard them. He saw that they had already dealt with their side, and came to them as the dragon started to slow down.

"It's working!" Sora cheered, "Now we should try aiming for its' head!"

"Let's get up front!" Kirito stated, and he led the team up in front of the dragon.

Kirito and Sora turned around to face the head of the dragon. They saw it it rear its' head, and more snowflake lasers started shooting at them from every angle. Kirito and Riku used their evasive maneuvers to avoid getting hit by the attacks. They tried shooting at the head, but the dragon flew upwards, leaving a series of missiles that rocket towards them in its' place. Kirito nearly swore as he narrowly dodged a few of the missiles that tried homing into her position. Sora and Asuna both weren't so lucky, as they got hit by one each, but still held on as they stood their ground on their side platforms.

"It's no good. The dragon's too evasive." Riku moaned.

"Then 'cough' let's take out its' wings!" coughed Asuna, "If we take them out, that will make the dragon crash into the ground below."

"Worth a shot." Riku acknowledged.

The two bikes split up and took on each wing. Xemnas started summoning even more Nobodies to deal with them, and the two pairs blocked their attacks and retaliated with attacks of their own. Kirito was easily absorbing all of the attacks with his shield, and how he had such precise accuracy at retaliating at the opponents. Asuna was quite impressed as how quickly he adapted to her situation, especially compared to his skills in a Gummi Ship. When he had enough energy stored, he fired the megalaser, destroying the wing only seconds after Sora and Riku's side was done.

"It's going down!" shouted Sora, and the two sides backed off as the dragon, now without any way of sustaining itself in the air, started falling to the ground.

"Buh-bye, bad guy!" Asuna sassed. Everyone saw it collapse to the ground, and thought it was over. However, it reared its upper half as it roared. It wasn't down for the count just yet. Suddenly, it enveloped itself in a black orb of energy. Black clouds started protruding out of the black orb, surrounding a wide area. The team looked around as they saw the black cloud going around them, then they got swallowed in by it. When the black fog disappeared, the team found itself in a different atmosphere. What was more amazing was that the dragon was before them once more, not only restored, but upgraded. Not only that, but countless building surrounded behind it.

"Something tells me that its' gonna take more than the megalaser to stop it…" Kirito stated as he saw the new and improved dragon.

"Then lets take it out at its' source." Riku suggested, seeing the top of the head, where Xemnas in his armor was in clear view. The four looked to one another, nodded, then flew at the top of the head. They got in close, then dove into the area in the top of the head. It was pretty easy to leap into the arena for them, since the atmosphere lost a lot of its' natural gravity, making them lighter on their feet. It was mostly like their first battle with armored Xemnas, only the area was a bit bigger. The four glared at the opponent in front of them, then they heard something that made them look behind them. Their hover bikes were being sucked into a vortex that appeared behind them. It was a dark-red and blue colored vortex with a black hole in the middle of it. It was sucking other things in as well.

The four were surprised at the sudden appearance of the vortex, but they didn't have time to get distracted, and they turned to face Xemnas, producing their Keyblades and readying themselves. "I didn't say…" Sora started, getting the other four's ears, "…Thanks, Naminé."

Kirito sighed in disbelief. "You're thinking of that right now?" he asked Sora, "Jeez, Sora. Do you ever think about your life being at risk instead of other people's well beings?"

"I didn't think it would be so difficult to say…" Sora responded.

"Yeah, boys have a tough time telling girls how they feel about them." Asuna stated amusingly.

"You will meet again…" Riku assured Sora, "But now finish this!"

"Yeah!" Sora agreed.

All four of them charged at the stationary Xemnas, who raised his sword and took a swipe at them. Kirito placed all of his strength into blocking the attack while the other three charged in, slashing ferociously at Xemnas. He conjured up a thunder barrier, shocking both Riku and Asuna, but Sora backed off from it, aware of what it could do. Once the barrier died, Kirito joined Sora in a double slash with their Keyblades, causing Xemnas to groan in pain.

Suddenly, Xemnas unleash a burst of energy, and all four Keyblade wielders were tossed off the dragon and towards the vortex behind them. Thankfully, they used their midair jumping abilities to stop themselves from being sucked in. They could hear Xemnas' voice booming out to them, but they could not understand what he was saying. "Let's get back to Xemnas now!" Riku shouted to the others, and they charged ahead at the Nobody dragon. All the while, Xemnas conjured up floating buildings in front of the dragon, and tossed them at the team. At the same time, the dragon placed a shield up in front of it using its' wings, making it impossible to get to the head. The team was capable of gliding in the atmosphere, so they flew their way towards the dragon, flying around all the tossed buildings. Lasers were fired from the dragon's body, and shot Kirito and Asuna backwards.

As they recovered, Riku landed onto one of the floating buildings, and had an idea. "Sora! Knock me towards it!" he shouted back. Sora nodded in understanding, and gave all that he got to hit the building part to the dragon. It shot forward at the shield the dragon made. It ricochet off the shield causing the dragon to shake a bit. Riku leapt off the building and sliced it several times, turning it into a bunch of pieces. He tossed all the pieces down at the shield like a rain of meteors, knocking it so hard, that it lost its' shield, which turned back into its' wings again. Riku led the team to where Xemnas was at, while dodging more of his snowflake-shaped laser beams. They instantly charged in at Xemnas once they landed on the dragon's head, ready for round two with them.

They continued to strike furiously at Xemnas, who retaliated with sword swings and electrical barriers. He even started another attack, firing a scattershot of lasers down in the arena they were in. It was fortunate that Asuna used her Reflega to protect everyone from the attack, and shoot the great recoil damage back at Xemnas. While Xemnas put up a strong front, it was no match for the four Keyblade wielders' strength.

Once again, Xemnas used his powers to toss the four back into the abyss behind them, but they braced themselves before they got too close to the vortex. They came around, but were instantly attacked by snowflake laser beams that shot at their positions. They all got hit, and started falling down to the ground far below. For extra measure, Xemnas toss more buildings at the team as they fell. However, Kirito flipped himself over and started slashing repeatedly at the buildings, cutting them in pieces and causing them to disperse around the team.

"Everyone, get up!" Kirito shouted to the others, "We need to finish this." Sora, Asuna and Riku all came to their senses and they started jumping in the air to keep afloat. Noticing the dragon form another shield with its' wings.

"We need to get to another building piece to get rid of its' shield!" Riku stated.

"Then leave it to me and Kirito to get it done." Asuna declared.

"Sora, Riku! Stay close behind us and make sure nothing gets in our way!"

"You got it!" Sora and Riku responded in unison. Asuna turned to Kirito, who understood his duty.

"Kirito, follow me!" Asuna shouted.

"Right!" Kirito answered.

Asuna flew straight at a spare building part in the distance, with Kirito, Sora and Riku following in her slipstream. More lasers came their way, but Sora and Riku blocked the attacks, making an opening for Asuna and Kirito to make it through. Once they came in close to the building, Kirito came around Asuna, and landed onto it. Asuna floated in front of the piece, and after charging her blade, she jabbed the building as powerfully as she could. Kirito and the building were rocketing towards the shield, hitting it and bouncing off of it. Kirito then slashed repeatedly at the building, turning it into smaller pieces and sending them hurdling at the shield, finally breaking it and making an opening to Xemnas. The four landed onto the dragon's head once more, and were nearly blasted with more snowflake laser beams again. However, Riku conjured his Dark Barrier around the team from getting hit.

"Guys, we need to finish off Xemnas for good!" Sora, Kirito and Asuna looked to each other.

"Think you guys can pull off a Trinity Limit with me?" Sora asked the two.

Asuna and Kirito smirked. "If we did it in the Pride Lands as wildcats before, we can do it here." Asuna responded.

"Let's do it." Kirito stated. Riku looked back as he saw the three pointed their Keyblade's tip to each other, and each of them started to glow a different-colored aura; Sora was bright-green, Kirito was red-bronze, and Asuna was ocean-blue. The looked to where Xemnas was at, and unleashed their Limit Break 'Sword Art Trinity'.

Asuna came in first with 'Star Storm', where Sora and Kirito focused their energy to her as she unleash a rain of light beams from her blinding fast jabs. Sora came in next with 'Ultima Combo', with Asuna and Kirito giving him their Keyblades so he unleashed a frenzy of powerful slashes. Finally, Kirito came in with 'Burst Eclipse', where Asuna and Sora gave him the power to perform a combo of arc-shaped beams. Finally, they ended with 'Trinity Finale', where they placed their Keyblades up in a triangle, a magic circle appearing at their feet, conjuring a beam into the center, forming a orb of powerful energy, damaging anyone nearby, or in this case, Xemnas. The orb grew bigger and bigger until the trio jabbed at it in unison, shattering it and causing the final explosion. They could hear Xemnas' anguish cries as their final attack grew bright, blinding Riku along with the trio.

---

When the light disappeared, the four found themselves within a new atmosphere all together. It looked like walls of white with gray patterns were swirling around them in different vortexes, going towards the white lights in the center of each of them. They were standing on a platform they could not see, and in front of them stood Xemnas, still alive. He was no longer armored, but his cloak had changed into a white with black patterns like the Nobody symbols. It was sort of like the team's Final Drive Forms.

"Heroes from the realm of light…" Xemnas started, "I will not allow it to end this way, not yet. If light and darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same; Eternal!"

"You're right, light and darkness are eternal." Riku agreed.

"Nothing probably goes on forever, too." Asuna followed.

"But guess what, Xemnas?" Kirito questioned.

"That doesn't mean YOU'RE eternal!" Sora finished.

Xemnas chuckled at the team's words. "No more eternal than that radiance of yours…" he responded, "Anger and hate are supreme!" Both sides readied themselves for their final clash, determined to take out the other team. They took one moment to look at one another, then the first move was made.

Xemnas started strong by teleporting in front of the four, and he grabbed them one by one, tossing them high into the air. They stopped in midair, and started seeing Xemnas teleport up to them, his laser swords at the ready. He started swinging as the team started pulling off Reversal after Reversal, dodging all of his series of sword spins and roundhouse kicks. Their dodging was more than a match for Xemnas' attacks, and Sora also reacted well by producing a Reflega barrier to block the attack and send recoil damage at Xemnas. Xemnas turned to Sora and retaliated with knocking his Oathkeeper Keyblade from his hands and sending him hurdling to the ground. Kirito and Riku flew over and Kirito caught the Oathkeeper. He sent it back to Sora just as Xemnas dove towards him. Sora caught it and blocked his first laser sword, and as Xemnas attempted to use the second one, Asuna blocked that one, too. After a seconds struggle, Xemnas spun his body, pushing the two back as he landed to the ground.

The four landed and started ensuing a battle with Xemnas. Xemnas had grown to be much faster and more skilled as he fought them. His ability to teleport around the arena was faster than before. He kept shooting threads of dark energy at the team, and coming out of teleportation with a variety of sword swings and roundhouse kicks. Kirito thought he got him at one point, but it was instead a clone that not only stopped him, but Xemnas retaliated with a slash of his blades. There were brief pauses while he attacked someone, giving an opening to someone who could retaliate strongly at him. Otherwise, Xemnas was uncatchable.

As their attacks continued, Xemnas started shooting bright orbs of energy at them. Asuna attempted to block, but the moment her Keyblade touched it, it exploded, sending her hurdling into the air. The new attack did cause problems, but they did adapt and continued to damage Xemnas even more. After several more strikes, Xemnas underwent another type of attack. He started teleporting around, leaving laser bullets behind that paused for a second before shooting at whoever was being targeted. Xemnas was so fast, that their attacks couldn't make contact with him. His attacks, however, could. All the team could do was block the attacks. Xemnas at times conjured up three laser bullets to attack them. Other times, he would encircle one or two of them with a series of laser bullets, and all of them would attack at the same time. There were times were Xemnas and a clone he made would appear in the air and start shooting laser bullets rapidly at them.

After he was done with shooting his series of attacks at them, Xemnas was stationary for a moment. Sora and Kirito saw this as an opportunity to strike. Asuna saw that Xemnas was charging up an attack, and was aiming for the two boys! "No, wait!" she shouted, but too late. The two leapt at Xemnas, Keyblades at hand. Xemnas unleashed his attack on the two. The attack trapped them inside a orb of energy, paralyzing them and draining their stamina away.

"No!" Riku shouted, and he and Asuna jumped at Xemnas. Xemnas saw them coming, kicked Riku, and sent him hurdling back into Asuna, causing them to topple back. They manage to retain their balance and flip onto their feet, skidding to a halt. They looked up to see Sora and Kirito, unable to move, but in agony as they were being damaged from the attack.

"Sora!" Riku shouted.

"Kirito!" Asuna cried.

The two made a charge for Xemnas, who produced a clone of himself to stop them. With Asuna in the lead, they charged as the clone attempted to shoot them with energy. Riku leapt up and used his dark orbs of energy to stop him, causing him to double back. Then Asuna came racing in, and unleashed her Shooting Star Rapier Skill, penetrating right through the clone and making it disappear. Riku ran to her and jumped onto her shoulders. Asuna pushed Riku upwards towards Xemnas. He knocked away Xemnas' retaliation and grabbed both hands that were producing the energy trapping Sora and Kirito. He stopped the flow, tossed Xemnas back, and the the three boys fell to the floor.

Sora and Kirito got to their feet, doubling over in pain. "Curaga!" shouted Asuna, healing the two.

"Thanks." gasped Kirito.

"Thank me after you get serious." Asuna scolded him. Kirito and Sora looked shameful, but they agreed that they were a bit too reckless.

"Guys, a little help here!" Riku shouted to them. Sora, Kirito and Asuna all rejoined the fight against Xemnas.

Their fighting ensued, and Xemnas was still as strong as ever. Both sides continued fighting with one attack after another. Xemnas threw Sora and Asuna high into the air, and he teleported after them. Riku and Kirito watched the two dodge all of Xemnas' attacks, with Asuna finally using Reflega in the end, sending Xemnas falling to the ground. Xemnas floated upright again, and started teleporting aways from them, shooting black streams of energy at them. At times, the team got hurt, but other times, they dodged the attacks and retaliated with moves of their own.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted to his girlfriend.

"Let's challenge him head on!" Asuna replied, understanding the signal for their Limit Break. The two got together, and entered 'Aincrad Resolve'. They begun unleashing their 'White Penetrator' and 'Black Whirlwind' combo, striking Xemnas one after another. He attempted teleportation, but they swiftly came to him when he reappeared. Finally, they unleashed their final attack, where they dashed to him, and in one flash, they etched a white and black X, with Xemnas in the center. They sheathed their Keyblades like they did in SAO, and the area around the X exploded with white and black energy behind them.

They backed off to Sora and Riku's side. "Did you beat him?" Sora asked the two.

"Not likely." Riku responded, and everyone turned to see Xemnas blow the smoke away from him. His hands started to glow with dark sparks of energy. He conjured up two orbs of energy, then fused them together to form an even bigger orb of energy in front of him. Xemnas raised it high, and suddenly, the four found themselves surrounded by pitch black. Xemnas was above them, sparking with energy as a ton of laser bullets appeared all around the four, forming a dome of these bullets. The fours stood facing out on all four sides, surrounded by this cage of bullets.

Xemnas laughed as he waved his hands, and the laser bullets started shooting at them. The four started to rapidly reflecting, leaping around one another as they did so. And whenever a laser bullet was fired, another one would replace it. It was an endless swarm of these bullets, and the team could only reflect them as best as they could. They got damaged from stray ones that got them, but they didn't stop, no matter how injured or exhausted they were. On and on, the bullets kept firing, and on and on the four kept reflecting them. Finally, they started to see explosions appear around them, as the reflected laser bullets started to do some damage in the area they were in. They continued to keep reflecting, and the explosions kept getting bigger and bigger until finally, their was one great explosion, followed by a bright light.

They next thing they knew, the four were on the ground, the darkness disappeared. They were exhausted from the onslaught they had to face. Xemnas stepped towards them, and with one laser sword, he knocked Riku away. With the other, he knocked back Asuna, yelping in pain.

"Riku!" Sora yelled.

"Asuna!" Kirito shouted. Just then, Xemnas laser swords were at each of their necks. They turned to see him look down at the two. He glared at them for a second, then he raised his blades, and brought them down upon them. Riku and Asuna came in a split second, blocking both laser swords from reaching the boys. They knocked Xemnas' blades back, but he spun around and attempted to strike them again. Riku and Asuna both pushed the other two out of the way. Xemnas laser blades struck Riku's back and Asuna's chest, hitting them hard and causing them to cough up blood.

"NO!" shouted Sora and Kirito together, and the two flipped to their feet, and pushed themselves towards the man that struck the people they were close to. As they passed them, Riku gave Sora his Way to the Dawn while Asuna handed Kirito her Lambent Light. The two angrily charged at Xemnas, striking him and sending him hurdling into the air. The two boys pursued, and they begun striking back to back with furious strikes from all four Keyblades. Finally, Sora pushed Kirito off the ground, sending him towards Xemnas, and striking him hard with the cross of his Keyblades. Sora grabbed Kirito's foot as he fell, flipped himself up, and delivered his own cross slash at Xemnas, sending him even higher. Xemnas reached the peak of his height, flailing as he was in the air.

Both Asuna and Riku were on one knee, desperately trying to get up. Sora came to Riku's side as Kirito came to Asuna's side. The two leveled their Keyblades to their side, nodding to the one they were close to. Riku grabbed Sora's Oathkeeper as Asuna grabbed Kirito's Elucidator. An orb of light was produced from their Keyblades, and they both shot a beam of energy at Xemnas, who saw but was unable to dodge. He got struck hard by the two lights, which penetrated right through him. As he fell, Sora gave Riku his Keyblade back and jumped at Xemnas. Kirito gave Asuna her Keyblade back as she got to her feet, and saw Sora's trajectory.

Kirito concentrated as he raised his Keyblade. "Sora, you started us on this journey…" Kirito started, "Now finish it, for all of us!" A beam of energy shot out of the Keyblade at Sora's.

"It's up to you, Sora!" Riku shouted, raising his Keyblade and shooting a beam as well.

"End this, and let's go home!" Asuna yelled, raising her Keyblade and firing a beam. All three beams merged with Sora's and suddenly it formed a new Beyblade, a shining weapon that was blue, white and gold, with crown-like teeth and filigree going down the blade. Its' power emanating strongly, more powerfully than any other Keyblade. It was the Ultima Weapon.

Sora came above Xemnas, who was shocked at his stasis. "Let it be known that the kindness of the hearts will prevail over your rage!" Sora shouted at him, and he brought the Ultima down upon Xemnas. The two were hurdling to the ground, Sora's battle cry and Xemnas' shouts of agony were heard as a bright light of energy surrounded them. Finally the two crashed into the ground, where there was a big explosion of lights. The lights continued to shine as Xemnas and Sora came out of the attack. Sora jumped back to his friends side, his Keyblade back to it's Oathkeeper form, seeing Xemnas floating there, grasping at his chest in pain, trying to hold on. But already his body was deteriorating as he reached out to the four, trying to reach them, but his body was surrounded in a black and white cloud. Finally, his body vanished on him, and his angered eyes were the last thing the team saw before he vanished. Xemnas was defeated, for good.

"We did it!" cheered Sora.

"I can't believe it over." Asuna sighed in relief.

Riku and Kirito looked around, detecting something. Suddenly, countless Nobody Dusks started to appear around them. "I wouldn't be too sure of that." Riku told the others, raising his Keyblade. All four of them stood back to back, surrounded by the Nobodies.

"For once, I wish I didn't have to fight right now." Kirito moaned, seeing the amount of adversaries. Several of the Dusks started flying in at the four, and another battle was about to begin for them.

---

Destiny Islands

Leafa, Kairi and Yui stepped out of the black portal and looked around. The sandy beachside. The palm trees swaying in the breeze. The wooden docks, bridges, tree houses and the seaside shack. They arrived at the Destiny Islands again.

Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Recon and King Mickey stood there, waiting for them.

"You made it!" Mickey sighed in relief.

"I wish I could say for all of us." Leafa moaned.

"Why? Where are the others?" Recon asked.

"The portal closed before they got a chance to get into it." Kairi explained, "I don't know what happened to them." Donald and Goofy looked to each other, worried for their friends safety.

"There's gotta be an explanation for this." Mickey assumed, "We just have to wait and see if they will come back again." Leafa, Kairi and Yui looked to the sky, seeing the sun shining, already starting to set. They closed their eyes, folded their hands together, praying.

Sora…Riku… Kairi thought to herself. Kazuto…Asuna… prayed Leafa.

Mama…Papa…Sora… Yui hoped. Everyone looked to the sky as well, hoping for their safety.

---

Back with the four, they had finally cleared out the last of the Nobodies. Sora and Kirito were ok, but the other two weren't. Xemnas' attack, mixed with over-exhaustion, really did a number on them. Riku collapsed to his hands and knees, to which Sora witnessed. Asuna fell backwards into Kirito reacting hands, both of their Keyblades disappearing on them.

"Asuna!" gasped Kirito, looking into his girlfriend's sweating face.

"I'm sorry, Kirito." Asuna apologized, "I've just…run out of strength."

Kirito looked worried at her, realizing she had been overdoing herself, pushing passed her limits. "You did good, 'Lightning Flash' Asuna." Kirito complimented her, to which Asuna smiled.

Sora rushed to Riku's side, who was exhausted, but shielding his face to Sora. "Sora…" he panted, "I can't…"

"Don't say another word!" Sora stopped him in mid-sentence, "It's not over. It's just not." Sora stood up, took Riku's arm, wrapped it around his shoulders, and brought Riku to his feet.

"How can you say that?" Riku asked Sora, "Even if we could go on…look where we are."

"Aw, c'mon, Riku." responded a smiling Sora, "You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!" Riku looked to Sora, stunned at Sora's optimism.

Kirito came to their side, holding onto Asuna on his back. "That's just like you, Sora." Kirito snorted amusingly, "But then again, thinking positive isn't always a bad thing, right?" Asuna slowly nodded in agreement.

Riku looked down for a second, then looked up at Sora again. "Sora?" he started, "You lead."

"Got it." he answered, and the two boys started carrying their exhausted comrades forward, not seeing an exit anywhere, but still walking forward.

As they walked, their minds started to wander a bit. "You know…" Riku started, "I always figured I was better at stuff than you."

"Really?" Sora responded in a dull tone.

"Are you mad?" Riku asked.

"No." Sora answered, "I kinda always thought you were better at everything, too."

Kirito and Asuna listened to their conversation. "Hey, who do you think is better, you or me?" Kirito asked Asuna.

"Isn't it obvious?" Asuna answered, "I mean, look who's being carried here. It's clear who's the stronger one here."

"Stronger, maybe…" Kirito answered, "But to tell you the truth, I think you might have an upper hand on me when it comes to other things, like leading people and being kind and stuff."

Asuna giggled a bit. "Yeah, I guess we each have things that are better than the other." she agreed, "I guess that's why we make such a great couple."

Kirito looked down at the thought. "Yeah…" he said to himself.

They continued to walk a little more, then Sora said, "Guys, look. What's that light?" Everyone looked ahead to see a bright light ahead of them.

"A way out?" Kirito asked. They continued walking towards it until they went into the light itself.

---

When they came out, they found themselves in a different location. It was a beach of some kind, but it was dark. Black rocks surrounded them, but up ahead was the sandy shore, with the tide ebbing in and out, and large arches of what could be coral rising out over the ocean. The sky was dark and cloudy, and the only light they could see was the full moon ahead of them, foggy in the cloudy sky. This was the Dark Margin.

"End of the road?" Riku asked.

"Yep." Sora responded.

"Looks that way." Kirito agreed. They paused for a second, the only sounds being the waves and the gentle breeze. Kirito looked all around. There didn't seem to be any way out of this place. Wherever they were, they knew they couldn't find a way back. They were all alone.

Riku pulled at Sora' arm that was holding his. "Put me down. I can walk." Riku told him. Sora relinquished Riku's arm around his shoulders, and made sure he could stand upright. Riku stood straight and looked to Sora, shrugging as if to say 'see, I'm ok'. Sora smiled and nodded.

"Need a hand, Asuna?" Kirito asked.

"Put me down gently." Asuna told him, "But hold onto me so I don't fall." Kirito knelt down so Asuna's feet landed onto the sand, and she lost her grip on Kirito. Kirito made sure to hold her hand in his as they looked to one another, assuring that the other was ok.

Sora, Kirito and Asuna walked forward, nearing the tides reach of the shore. "You know…maybe the darkness has gotten to me, too." Sora stated.

"Maybe…" Kirito began, "Maybe it has gotten to all of us. But even so..."

Asuna heard something collapse and turned behind her. "Riku!" she gasped, drawing the other two's attention. Riku was sprawled out on the ground, too exhausted to get to his feet again. The three ran forward, but Asuna relinquished her grip on Kirito, and doubled over onto her hands and knees, also exhausted.

"Asuna!" Kirito cried, kneeling down to her. Sora came to Riku's side, kneeling down as he got up on his hands and knees as well.

"This world is perfect for me." Riku stated looking up, "If this is what the world really is, just this, then maybe I should fade back into darkness."

"Riku…" muttered Sora, looking at him, "If the world is made of light and darkness… We'll be the darkness."

"Don't say stuff like that!" Kirito shouted angrily, getting everyone's attention.

"Kirito…" Asuna gasped, hearing the tone in his voice.

"If you fade into darkness, then you will never find anything of light. No hope, no kindness, nothing. It's just a big, black world of lonely feelings and heartbreak!" Kirito was heaving in fury as Asuna looked to him. He walked over to the shore and sat down, his legs being washed over by the ebbing tide. Asuna paused for a second, then crawled her way over to Kirito's side.

"I understand that." Sora agreed with Kirito, "I understand what he means. But…at least the realm of light is safe now. Kairi, Leafa, the King, and the others are there."

"That's what I mean." Riku responded, then turning to his friend, "Hey, Sora. Could you help me? I want to get down to the water." Sora helped his friend out, dragging Riku with him a bit of a ways from Kirito and Asuna's side. "At least the waves sound the same." said Riku, hearing the ocean.

Kirito and Asuna looked to Sora and Riku, then Kirito looked down, hiding his face. "It's a shame. We really can't get back." Asuna said, looking ahead, "But…at least we are all together."

"Yeah…" Kirito agreed, "We are but…" Kirito's shoulders started to shake, and Asuna looked down to see tears falling from his face. "I couldn't bring you back." Kirito sobbed, drawing Sora and Riku's attention, "I couldn't bring any of you guys back home. I wanted to try so hard, but in the end, I'm just a failure. Asuna, Sora, I'm sorry." His sobs added to the mixture of sounds around them.

Asuna looked down at Kirito, tears starting to form in her eyes. "You really shouldn't bear the burden all on your own. You have a bad habit on doing that." Asuna argued, wrapping her arms around Kirito, "I don't blame you. I don't blame anyone for this. I'm just glad that in the end, we get to spend our last times together."

Kirito looked up, his tears still falling from his face. Asuna smiled at him, and the two kissed. This was exactly what Kirito needed. He needed to know that she still cared for him, and that even though it looked like the end was clear, they still had each other.

Sora and Riku looked at the two embrace, smiling at them. Then Riku looked onward to the moon, thinking. "What I said back there, about thinking I was better at stuff than you…" Riku started, "To tell the truth, Sora. I was jealous of you."

"What for?" Sora asked, surprised, "I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following my heart."

"Yeah, well, I've got my share of problems, too." Sora responded.

"Like what?" Riku asked.

"Like…wanting to be like you." Sora answered.

"Hmm… Well, there is one advantage to being me…" Riku told him, "Something you could never imitate."

"Really? What's that?" Sora asked.

"Having you for a friend." Riku answered. Sora was surprised, then he smiled as he replied, "Then I guess I'm okay the way I am. I've got something you could never imitate too."

There was a pause, then Sora called out Kirito and Asuna, "Hey guys, why don't you come over here. There's plenty of room for you two." Kirito and Asuna looked to Sora and Riku. Kirito had stopped crying, though tears were still in his eyes. He wiped them away and he and Asuna nodded in agreement. Kirito helped Asuna to her feet and the two made their way to Sora's side. They sat down, and looked to the moon. A gentle breeze crossed their faces. Sora looked up into the sky, then closed his eyes listening and feeling the breeze. Riku and Asuna followed as well. Kirito looked to the others, then looked up. Despite the situation they were in, the atmosphere was peaceful. It was dark, the temperature wasn't bad, and the moon bathing his skin was okay. He closed his eyes, listening to the ocean, feeling the breeze cross his face, smelling the night air. He admitted that it was a nice place after all.

Suddenly, Kirito felt something hit his feet, and he opened his eyes and looked down. A glass bottle was between his legs, which contained a rolled up piece of paper and a cork sealing it. It came in with the tide. Kirito reached down and picked it up. Asuna and Riku saw him pick it up, examining it. He uncorked it and got the paper out, unraveling it and looking at it. "What is it?" Asuna asked him.

Kirito scrolled his eyes down the paper, then saw someone's name at the bottom, smiled, and understood who this was for. "Sora?" Kirito said, getting his attention, "I think this is for you." Sora took the paper and read it out loud. It was a letter that Kairi had written before Sora woke up, before she even remembered Sora again.

Thinking of you, wherever you are.

We pray for our sorrows to end,

and hope that our hearts will blend.

Now I will step forward to realize this wish.

And who knows:

Starting a new journey may not be so hard

or maybe it has already begun.

There are many worlds, but they share the same sky;

one sky, one destiny.

Kairi

Sora finished the letter, then a bright light caught his and everyone else's attention. A rectangular-shaped burst of light appeared out of the water before them. It shone brightly, beckoning them in. "Light." Riku gasped.

"The Door to Light…" Sora realized.

"It's calling for us. It wants us to return." Asuna stated.

Kirito looked to the light, then he gave a confident smirk as this miracle took place. He stood up, then looked down at Asuna. "So what do you say, gang? Ready to head back?" he asked the group. Asuna nodded, and she took Kirito's hand as she stood up.

Sora got to his feet, smiled at Kirito, then turned to Riku, his arm out-stretched. "We'll go together." Sora told him.

"Yeah." Riku answered, taking his hand. The four looked to one another, then to the light, and stepped towards it. The light enveloped them as they entered the door, not knowing where their next destination was at.

---

Destiny Islands

Out in the clear waters, the setting sun beamed out into the water. In the sky, the clouds parted ways to reveal four lights falling from the sky above, these lights contained the four Keyblade wielders. They were unconscious as they fell, crashing into the water below. There was a moments pause, then all four heads popped out of the water, splutter and gasping for air. They looked around realizing that they were no longer in the realm of darkness anymore. It was bright and beautiful here.

"Sora! Riku!" shouted a familiar voice.

"Kazuto! Asuna!" shouted another familiar voice. They turned around to see an island in front of them. Kairi and Leafa were waving at them, happy to see them again. They had made it back to the Destiny Islands. Kirito and Sora looked to each other, beamed, then raced as they swam their way over to the island, with Asuna and Riku keeping up with them. They could feel the ground beneath their feet, and started wading their way towards the crew. Kairi and Leafa stood there, smiling.

Then several figures passed them. Sora and Kirito stopped to see Donald, Goofy, Yui, who thanks to the rules of the world she could somehow turn human, Mickey and Recon joyously leap into the air, racing towards them. Donald and Goofy leapt onto Sora, making him collapse into the water. Yui leapt into Kirito's arms, causing him to spin around, laughing and happy to see his daughter again. Asuna reached them, and Yui switched to hugging her mother, with Kirito coming from behind, hugging them both. Mickey rushed to Riku, who picked up and held him high at arms' length. Recon raced to Riku's side, and the two fist-bumped each other, glad to see one another again.

Sora sat up and Donald and Goofy both gave him a hug, rubbing his head with their own. Sora looked to Kirito, Asuna and Yui, who were joined by Leafa, who hugged her older brother. Then he relinquished her as the four looked to Sora. Sora then turned to Riku, Recon and Mickey, who was back on the ground again, and they beamed at each other and at Sora. Finally, Sora looked to Kairi, who came in close and looked down at him, giggling. Sora reached into his pocket and picked up his Oathkeeper keychain, which had turned back to Kairi's lucky charm again. He looked down at it, then looked up at Kairi. For a moment, it also looked like the reunion of Roxas and Naminé again. Sora started to tear up, but he wiped his eyes before any dropped. Donald and Goofy rushed to Kirito and Asuna, greeting them as well.

"We-We're back." Sora stammered.

Kairi reached down to Sora. "You're home." she responded. Sora smiled, and grasped Kairi's hand with the one he was carrying the charm in. It was truly over for them.

For a couple hours, the team celebrated their reunion together, enjoying the scenery. Asuna, Leafa and Kairi were busy tossing a ball around, with Pluto chasing after it. Recon, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Jiminy Cricket and Riku were all talking to one another. Kirito separated himself from the others and started exploring the island. He walked across the wooden bridge to a palm tree whose trunk curved to go longways, ending with it curving back upwards again. Yellow star-shaped fruit grew in the tree as well. Kirito placed his hands onto the trunk, and hoisted himself onto it, sitting along the sideways trunk. He stared out into the sunset, which had almost gone. He smiled as he watched it die down. To him, this was a hundred times better of a view than the dark beach he was on before.

"Kirito!" shouted Sora, and Kirito turned to see Sora rush towards him. He got to one side of him, and leaned back on the trunk, looking out into the sunset.

There was a moments silence between the two, then Kirito started, "Nice place you got here."

"It's good to be back again." Sora responded, then he looked to Kirito, "But I know that you have to go back as well."

Kirito nodded in agreement. That was the hard truth. He had to go home as well. "I'm thinking we should get going. The sooner, the better." Kirito told him, "It's not that I didn't enjoy this little escapade, but…"

"You have people waiting for you back home as well." Sora finished.

"Yeah." Kirito answered.

They paused again, watching the sunset dim down and disappear. Kirito jumped off the trunk and looked to Sora. "We should get to Twilight Town." Kirito told him, "That's where we can get back to the online world again."

"Yui told me that she called upon the Gummi ship." Sora told him, "It should be here now. So let's go!" Kirito smiled and nodded, and the two boys raced down to meet the others.

Riku and Kairi decided to stay back, but they said their goodbyes to the crew. The rest of the team gathered up and got teleported back onto the Gummi ship again, going back to Twilight Town.

---

They arrived and were reunited with Hayner and the gang again. They were thankful to see they were ok, but were sad when Leafa said that she and her friends had to head home again. They understood after a while, and walked their way over to the mansion again. There were no Nobodies in sight. It was all peaceful again. They made it into the manor, and entered the computer room. Leafa inserted the cd that Ansem gave them, and sure enough, the program for their return came up. Pence powered up the transporter, ready to take them home again.

"It's all ready to go!" Pence told them.

Leafa and Recon looked to him then to Hayner and Olette. "Well, this is goodbye." she told them.

"Hope we get to see you again." Hayner told her.

"I wish we had more time together." Olette stated.

"I wish that, too. But, you know…" Recon answered. The two nodded in understanding.

Leafa looked to Sora, and smirked. "Thanks for taking care of my brother. I hope you have a safe journey home again." she told him.

"Thanks. It was nice meeting you." Sora responded.

Leafa nodded, then looked to Recon. "C'mon, Recon. I hate long goodbyes!" she dashed over to to portal.

"Wait, hold on a minute! Leafaaa!" moaned Recon cried, catching up with her. They turned to the crowd, waved at them, then Pence powered up the machine and the two disappeared.

Yui flew over to Donald, Goofy and Jiminy. "Guess this is goodbye." she said in a sad tone. Donald moaned.

"I hope we see each other again, Yui." Goofy hoped.

"You know I will always have your stories of our time in my journal." Jiminy told her.

Yui nodded in response. "And you guys will always be in my heart as well." Yui assured them, placing her hand on her chest. Goofy wiped away a tear, then reached his hand out to her. She took it, then Donald's and finally Jiminy's. She then flew over to Sora, who was with Mickey, Kirito and Asuna.

"Goodbye, Your Majesty." said Yui, "And goodbye, Sora. I will miss you."

"Me too, Yui." Sora agreed. Yui was holding back the tears, and she hurled herself into Sora's chest. Sora placed a hand on her petite body as she hugged him. Kirito and Asuna said their goodbyes to Donald, Goofy and Jiminy.

After a while, Yui flew off of Sora, and landed onto Kirito's shoulder as the two looked at Sora. "Well…this is goodbye, isn't it?" Kirito asked.

"For the time being." Sora responded, "But who knows; we might get to see each other in the near future."

"How do you know that?" Asuna asked.

"He doesn't." Kirito answered her, "He just believes we will. And so will I." Sora smiled at him.

"Well in that case, I believe we will see each other again as well." Asuna stated, "Though next time, lets try to ease up on getting involved in another 'save the dimension' sort of thing, okay?" Sora and Kirito chuckled at this.

Sora reached his hands out to the two of them. Kirito and Asuna looked at them, then they each took one of Sora's hands, and shook them. "Till next time, Sora." Kirito told him.

"See you around, Kirito." Sora responded, "You too, Asuna."

"Goodbye!" Asuna responded.

They relinquished their grip and walked over to the machine, readying themselves to get back home. They turned to face the crowd, all waving at them. The trio waved back as the machine powered up, and the trio were whisked away in a flurry of data, heading back to the online world again. To their dimension again.

---

8/2/2026

Inside a hospital room, Kazuto Kirigaya's body was still unconscious, his Amusphere still on top of his head. Mrs. Aki, the young lady who took care of Kazuto during the post SAO incident and during GGO, stood there at the monitor, checking his conditions. It had been since mid-April since Kazuto and Asuna dove into ALO, only for their avatars to somehow disappear without a trace.

Then a week later, Suguha Kirigaya and Shinichi Nagato's avatars also disappeared. Many researchers were trying to understand the phenomenon that happened. They were clearly not dead, but their avatars were no longer in ALO, no matter how they scanned it. They needed to figure out what was going on here, especially during those few hours when all of Aincrad suddenly vanished and reappeared again, with some of the people inside that disappeared mysteriously, as well. All of this was a mystery to every researcher.

Mrs. Aki sighed as she pulled herself away from the monitor, looking to Kazuto's body. "This is the third time I had to take care of your body because of this." she told the unconscious boy, "First SAO, then GGO, and finally, this. I wonder if you were cursed with getting into trouble in the virtual world?" She continued to look down at Kazuto's face, then saw the lights on his Amusphere starting to die down. She looked surprised. This meant that Kazuto had gone offline, but that couldn't have happened unless…

She had her answer the moment Kazuto's eyes started to squint, then open slowly. "K-Kirigaya!" Aki exclaimed. Kazuto turned slowly to either side, then stared at Aki's face, who's eyes began to water happily. "Oh, thank God, you're awake!" she gasped, "Are you okay? Please say something!"

Kazuto looked up at the ceiling then raised his hand, tilting it from side to side. "I'm back again…" were the first words he said. Aki smiled and nodded, thankful for his revival.

Kazuto slowly raised himself, but stumbled a bit. Aki reached out and supported his back. "Easy! You've been out for a while!" she warned him.

When Kazuto was lifted into a sitting position, he looked about again, seeing his surroundings. "I'm in the hospital." he noticed.

"That's right. It's the same room you were in during SAO." Aki explained. Kazuto looked down at his body. It wasn't as bad as it was after the SAO incident, but it was weakened.

"How long was I out for?" he asked Aki.

"About three and a half months." Aki answered, "But never mind that, what happened to you and the others? Everyone was worried about how the four of you vanished from the game!"

Kazuto had to process everything that had just happened, then it all started to come together again. "Asuna… Where is Asuna? And Sugu? And Recon?" Kazuto demanded.

"Th-they're close." Aki answered, worried they might not be up, yet. "I can take you to them if you want." Kazuto nodded in confirmation.

Aki brought a wheelchair over for Kazuto to weakly get into. He was carried out of the room, into the hallway, where several employee members were startled at the sudden reawakening of Kazuto. They reached a room that was labeled 'Asuna Yuuki'. Nurse Aki opened the door, and brought Kazuto in.

It didn't take them very long to see the same results happened here. Asuna was sitting upright on her bed, turning to see Kazuto there. The doctor that was taking care of Asuna was also there, and he turned to see Kazuto and Aki. As the doctor went to speak with Aki, Kazuto and Asuna sat there, looking from them to each other.

Eventually, Asuna smiled. "We're home again." she told him.

"Yeah." Kazuto agreed, "We did it. We're finally back."

---

(Kirito/Kazuto speaking) "It had been a month since that day we left. When we arrived home, we woke up to find ourselves in the hospital. No surprise there. Our hospital rooms were close to one another, so even with our real bodies weakened from not being used, we made our way to each other to make sure we were okay."

"Turns out, we were gone for three and a half months. We were questioned by the authorities and hospital workers about where we were in the online world, or why we were out for so long, and how come Aincrad disappeared off of the online world. In the end, we convinced them that it was a glitch, and we were stuck in a data pocket in the system, unable to get out until now. I'm sure that some of them didn't believe us, but what else could we do. One rule of a Keyblade wielder; never tell anyone about other worlds, even other dimensions. Klein, Liz and the others were happy to see us. As they promised, they did not tell a single soul about what happened. Other people who were in Aincrad when it came to Sora's dimension believed it was also a bug. Our parents did know about our ordeal, but they weren't convinced that it really happened. They thought that whatever happened to us scrambled our minds a bit. Oh well, guess I shouldn't complain."

"It only took a couple week before our bodies restored back to their normal strength again, and we could go home again. Things really didn't change for us…or so we thought. When Asuna, Suguha and I were alone, I accidentally found out that I was still able to conjure up my Elucidator Keyblade. Asuna and Suguha also tried, and their Lambent Light and Sylphwing both produced themselves. Even though if it was our avatars, our hearts were real, and still connected to the Keyblade. We only told Recon, Klein, Agil, Sinon, Liz and Silica…sorry, their real names are Shinichi, Ryoutarou, Andrew, Shino, Rika and Keiko respectively. Anyways, we told them about the fact that we could still use them even in reality. Though, our other powers we had before did not come with it. We formed a secret group where us three would train with our Keyblades, making sure that if Heartless ever did come around, or if we were needed again, we would be ready. I actually got the Strike Raid skill down right."

"Our clothes and our swords that became Keyblades in SAO and ALO stayed the same from Sora's world. They were said to be upgraded, given improved stats. Other people were jealous of this, but we didn't complain. But like the real world, the magic, Limits, Drive Forms and skills didn't come with it. Our Sword Skills and Magic Skills stayed the same. So apart from the new wardrobe and new weapons, things pretty much didn't change."

"Though a little while back, I got a message from Akihiko Kayaba. He said that peace has been restored now, and everyone that we revived before is now living a normal life. The Moonlit Black Cats were able to have a normal life, and were now the leaders in helping restoring Radiant Garden and Tron's World. It was great to hear that Sachi was finally living a normal life again. As for Kayaba, he had been enlisted by King Mickey as the chief scientist at Disney Castle. Well, I figured that he would have an eye out for that place, since it was the closest thing to a castle in the sky as he wanted. He actually started to lighten up a bit. He's starting to understand how I got a mood change from hanging out with those guys."

"There was one more surprise that came to us. In reality, we stumbled across two people. One of them was someone we did not expect; Demyx, or rather his real name being Yasu IRL, and had the name Myde in Sword Art Online. Turns out, he was a musician in this world, and an SAO Survivor. There was another person who apparently was an Organization member, as well as another SAO Survivor, but was defeated long before we met Sora. Her IRL name was Nariko, but her name online was Elenar, and she was quite the, to put it in better words, condescending character. After talking with them, turns out the Organization knew of the world of SAO, and recruited members to their group when the game was cleared. Not only that, two others were suppose to be with them, but both were missing. One was a girl named Philia, who didn't get turned into a Nobody, and the other was a man whose Nobody name was PHoX. So there were more than just Sugou that caught Xemnas's attention. This did bring up a question, if Sugou's Nobody was gone, where was his Heartless? And who and where were these other two individuals that disappeared? We didn't know, and we pretty much didn't care. Things were peaceful the way they were." (Author's Note: For a more detailed story on what happened during their month, read SAK: Final Mix Chapter 'There & Back! Saitama Keyblade Wielders!')

---

9/12/2026

Kazuto was on the steps of his house, resting his head. He opened his eyes and looked forward, looking ahead. The sky was clear as he laid there, taking a break while Asuna and Suguha were practicing kendo. Yui and Shinichi were both watching the two fight. Meanwhile, Kazuto was reminiscing about all that he had been through since coming back from Sora's world up till now.

He yawned as he leaned back and came face to face with Asuna, who looked down at him. Kazuto yelped in surprise, quickly sitting upright. Asuna giggle at his reaction. "Give me a break, Asuna." sighed Kazuto, relaxing his composure again as Asuna sat next to him.

"Sorry, it's just that you looked so peaceful, dozing off like that." she noticed.

"I wasn't dozing. I was just sorta spacing out there." Kazuto defended, "Anyways, did your match with Suguha go well?"

"I lost again." Asuna moaned, "I have to admit, she is quite good at kendo."

"You'll get the hang of it, I'm sure." Kazuto told her, "Just use what you know from fighting before, and you can beat her."

"I'll try." Asuna sighed, "Though I still have to fight according to kendo rules. That is tough."

Moments later, Suguha and Shinichi came out of the dojo and walked to their side. The portable laptop with the camera that allowed Yui to watch was in Shinichi's arms. "Looks like I got you there, Asuna." Suguha told her, wiping her head with a towel.

"I guess so." Asuna responded. They gathered together at the steps of the dojo, resting themselves. "I think this moment deserves a treat." Asuna stated, walking into the house and coming out with a cooler she placed in the fridge before, "I had just made these this morning. Hope they turned out okay."

"Is that what I think it is?" Shinichi asked as the others gathered around the cooler. Asuna nodded and opened up the cooler to reveal the familiar sky blue ice cream on a stick.

"Sea-salt ice cream!" Suguha said happily, "Asuna, you made these?"

"You got it!" Asuna responded, taking the four sticks out and handing them out to the others.

They each took one and bit into it. "Oh yeah, this is good!" Shinichi said happily.

"You made this exactly the same taste." Kazuto noticed.

"It took a while, but I managed to perfect the recipe." Asuna explained, "I even found how to make it for the online world. I know Yui will love to have one."

"She definitely will." Suguha agreed.

The were eating their and looking into the sky. "Feels like forever since we were in Sora's dimension." Suguha stated.

"Yeah, it kinda does." Kazuto agreed.

"And even after all that, things really didn't change." Shinichi stated.

"Nope, and nothing will." Asuna agreed.

They paused for a second, then Suguha sighed, "After everything we went through, I feel like this world is kinda small now."

"Yeah, but part of a world much bigger than we could imagine." Kazuto stated.

Another pause, then Suguha asked, "You know, I know that it helped you out of the realm of Darkness, but I gotta wonder; what is the Door to the Light that we were told a lot?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Kazuto retorted, who looked puzzled.

"It's all right here." Asuna responded, pointing at her chest, where her heart was at.

"Here?" Suguha asked, pointing at her's.

"Sure. It's not that far away from you if you think about it." Kazuto stated, looking upwards, "I never would've figured it out before, but after everything that happened, I think I get it. Our hopes. Our bonds. They're what ties us to one another, and guides us back home. That is our Door to the Light." The other three looked to him, then up at the sky, wondering.

Suddenly, the laptop started to flash a bit. "Looks like Yui's wanting to talk to us." Kazuto stated, pulling the laptop to him. He opened the screen up, revealing Yui on it.

"Mama! Papa! Something unusual had just happened." Yui told them.

"What is it?" Kazuto asked while the others looked worried.

"There was an email that was sent to papa's computer, but…well look!" Yui used her own powers to pull up the email. Kazuto looked at the email, and noticed what Yui had saw that was strange. A familiar emblem of a circle with two smaller circles on top, like mouse ears.

"It's King Mickey's emblem!" Kazuto exclaimed, getting gasps from the others.

"Not only that, but this particular message is from Akihiko Kayaba!" Yui added.

"Kayaba…" Kazuto muttered.

"The commander…" Asuna added.

Earlier in the week, Kayaba had sent them a message before, explaining about how everything with the revived Players was now in full control, that everyone found a home, and that the Moonlit Black Cats were playing a great part in the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee.

Kayaba was explaining that he was asked by Mickey himself to come to Disney Castle, and he had been appointed part of the science department, and was later on appointed to Chief Scientist of Disney Castle.

He spoke about going on an adventure within another world of data, where he understood our connection with Sora, as well as learning of bonds that were asleep in Sora that he believed were also connected to us. He then specifically spoke to Kazuto and Asuna that they could help those within Sora's heart that were hurting, and that there was a journey they must take to mend the hurt, and awaken those sleeping memories. (Author Note: For more detailed info on this, look at SAK:FM 'Kayaba's Diary! A Coded Heart!')

Kazuto opened up the email. It was shorter than the last email, and it was more of an invitation than anything. The four looked surprised at the content, realizing what this meant. They made their own opinions on the content, though it wasn't heard.

"Kirito, what do you think?" Asuna asked.

(Cue 'Hand in Hand' KHII version)

Kazuto paused, before saying something to the group, causing them to nod in agreement. He then smirked as he asked, "So what do you say; Do any of you want to head back there again?" Shinichi and Suguha both nodded with grins on their faces. He turned to Asuna, who nodded as well, then added, "Then let's do it!"

Kazuto looked back at the laptop, seeing the letter on it. It looks like a new adventure was just beginning for them again.

This is Sword Art Kingdom, and a new journey is about to begin!