SEE CHAPTER ONE FOR (MOST) DISCLAIMERS
PLEASE READ & REVIEW, AND TEND TO THE TROPE PAGE (CHARACTER PAGE IS NOW GONE)
-CHAPTER START-
As a small fleet of DDF ships engaged swarms of Heartless and Nobody fighters in orbit, the Gummi Ship made a break for the surface, depositing a sizable group of heroes. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Kairi, Lea, Aqua, & Ventus stood upon the dusty ground, surrounded by orange-brown rock formations.
"It's time" King Mickey said. "The Keyblade Graveyard is up ahead."
"Someone's coming" Sora alerted them.
Through the dust and dirt, a figure emerged, strolling across the dead soil, hands behind his back, posture stooped with age. Looking at the group of heroes, Master Xehanort smirked.
"Legend has it that darkness once covered the world" he said. "We know so little about the Keyblade War – only that it was just the beginning. If ruin brings about creation… what, then, would another Keyblade War bring? When the darkness falls, will we be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of?"
Xehanort's younger Heartless appeared at his side. "Or will all of Creation be instead returned to the shadows? Today, we will recreate the legend and see."
Xemnas appeared on Xehanort's other side. "But first…" he said. "Your lights shine far too brightly. It must be extinguished in order for the truth to be seen."
In a flash, two more figures appeared.
"Only when your hopes have been broken by battle upon battle" Vanitas said "can the key be claimed to Kingdom Hearts."
"And break you is what we shall do" Young Xehanort added. "It has been etched."
(BATTLE MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts 2.5 – "Sinister Shadows")
Roiling darkness spread out from them, quickly darkening the sky. From the darkness above, countless hordes of Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed began to descend, filling the area and surrounding the heroes. The six Wielders amongst the group summoned their Keyblades, and split into teams as they charged to meet the oncoming army. Donald made the first kills, a Blizzaga spread-shot taking out a few Flutterings, Sora started tearing through a mixed squad of Soldiers and Scrappers, and Goofy charged through a pack of Shadows, tossing them every which way.
A 'Dark Thorn' Heartless charged at Lea from behind while he was busy cutting down a trio of Armored Knights apart, only to be brought to a halt as Link, the Hero of Twilight appeared from out of nowhere, driving his sword down through the beast's head. Link, the Hero of Time, in his Adult Mode transformation, made himself known nearby by slicing a Neoshadow's arm off to keep it from slashing Kairi. The two Links formed up and started carving through Heartless while Fi telepathically coordinated them.
Aqua soaked several Unversed with a Water spell, and then Ventus hit them with a Thundara spell that deep-fried the lot of them. She then turned to face and take on a squad of Reapers, only for a bright magenta magic-circle to light up as seven ponies and a dragon-whelp teleported in. Twilight and Spike took out several Shadows with red & green fire blasts, Rarity turned the ground beneath several Creepers' feet against them, Trixie started zapping flying enemies with lightning magic, Rainbow Dash & Applejack just pummeled anything within range, and Fluttershy soon had a pack of smaller Unversed cowering in terror as she Stared at them.
King Mickey was practically a blur as he slashed and blasted Heartless and Unversed. Nearby, Riku was putting the power of darkness to good use against Nobodies, currently taking on three Dragoons at once and winning. Suddenly, they heard a screeching roar, turning to see a great big spider-centaur abomination rushing at them, the Unversed symbol on its chitin-armored chest, its body a mix of blacks and purples and reds, eight glowing red eyes over a split-open mouth full of venom-dripping fangs. Then, there was another teleport-spell flash behind Riku & Mickey, the girls of Gamma Team arriving and splitting off to find targets.
"Hey guys," Teana said, "sorry we're laoh hell, it's an Unversed version of that Widow thing my brother fought?"
"So that's what Vanitas has been working on…" Riku remarked. "…And now it's looking right at me."
Indeed, the monstrous Unversed was staring at Riku and Teana, letting out an evil hiss and beginning to stampede towards them. Sharing a look, the two experienced warriors of the light rushed to meet it, already flinging attacks at the raging beast.
As the battle wore on, more and more heroes arrived to assist in clearing out the enemy. All four members of Team RWBY took to the field, Yang having been encouraged to "get her groove back a little" against the lower-level enemies (and gradually working her way up to bigger threats without even fully realizing it yet). A Rock Troll was obliterated by Naruto's Fūton: Rasenshuriken, while Ange & Hilda carved through Nobodies with their psi-blades and blasted Unversed with psionic attacks. Illya, Miyu, & Kuro triple-teamed a squad of Invisibles, while Samus' ship flew in, blew away a few tightly-clustered packs of Heartless with missile strikes, then she leapt out and leant her arm cannon to the cause. The Crystal Gems arrived in force, taking on a few Behemoths. There was a screech that was cut off as Teana killed the Widow Unversed with a Katon: Rasenshuriken.
Finally, the last enemies fell. The now-larger group of heroes pressed onward, passing through a (relatively) narrow pass between rock formations (judging by its shape and the marks on the walls, artificially carved out by magic during the Great War by Keyblade-wielders who didn't want to or couldn't go around or over the rocks). Soon, they came out into another clearing, dust-coated Keyblades strewn about here & there – grave-markers for their long-deceased wielders.
"Is everybody still good to go?" King Mickey asked.
Everyone present gave affirmatives, and Sora prepared to move out. But then, they saw a figure up ahead – a tall young man with slightly spiky brown hair, head down, standing there, not moving or talking or doing anything. Seeing him, Ventus' eyes lit up.
"Terra!"
Despite Aqua's attempt to suggest caution, Ven ran over to Terra, grabbing his limp hand.
"We found you!"
Terra looked up slightly, his blue eyes dull and lifeless, as Aqua came over.
"Terra…" she said. "Please say you're in there."
He looked at her, his eyes sharpening… as his irises turned gold. Aqua immediately pulled Ventus back, summoning her Keyblade as the others ran over.
"What gives, Aqua?" Ven asked.
She glared at 'Terra'. "I know that you're not him" she said. "Now, let our friend go!"
'Terra' chuckled softly, his skin tone darkening slightly as his hair turned silver. All the heroes got ready to fight as they sensed evil power.
"I knew it…" Mickey said. "He is their thirteenth!"
"Today is the day you all lose" Terra-Xehanort said, a black & purple aura wavering around him. "Before you even face the 13, every last one of you will be torn Heart from body. But fear not." With a dark flash, he summoned Xehanort's Keyblade. "The χ-Blade will still be forged."
"…We're not gonna lose to you" Sora declared.
Terra-Xehanort blurred forward to attack, and Teana & Naruto, the two fastest present, moved to meet him… but somebody else beat them to it. A plume of dust kicked up right in front of Aqua & Ventus, fading to reveal Terra-Xehanort's blade being blocked by another. A tall suit of gold, brown, & red armor wearing a Keyblade with the same color scheme stood in defense of the two, pushing back against the enemy.
"Who are you?" Terra-Xehanort growled.
"I've got you, Xehanort…" the armor spoke, pushing against Terra-Xehanort and finally flinging him back.
"…Guys" Naruto spoke up. "Kurama says… Xehanort has Terra's body, but that suit of armor has Terra's mind in it."
Terra-Xehanort snarled. "This is impossible!"
"How I've waited for this moment…" the Lingering Will strode forward. With a wave of his arm, his Keyblade transformed into a whip that lashed forward, extending rapidly and wrapping around Terra-Xehanort's Keyblade. He pulled, flinging Terra-Xehanort through the air, and then shifted his Keyblade into some kind of shoulder-mounted magic cannon, firing a beam that blasted him away. The Lingering Will leapt after them, the two fighters clashing blades as their duel took them further away from the group.
"Should we… help him out, maybe?" Marie suggested.
"I think we've got a more immediate problem!" Goofy shouted, prompting everyone to turn and see another huge swarm of Heartless approaching.
At this point, another large group of heroes were teleported in. The rest of Sigma Team, Theta Team, Sasuke & Sakura, Nanoha & Fate, Ala Alba, the "Z-Team", the Normandy Crew, Spartan-II Blue Team, Sonic & friends, the "Card-Captor Crew", the Sailor Senshi (including Sailor Nothing's squad), the seven PreCure teams, Madoka's team, Alicia, Kanba Kanade, Zeratul, Galen Marek…
"Okay, I think we're all set!" Goku said. "I'm pretty sure these guys can't stand against this much firepower!"
(BOSS MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts 0.2 OST – "Wave of Darkness (Phase 1)")
A large shadowy portal suddenly opened on the ground, and out from it shot an enormous mass of Shadows, hundreds of the little Heartless moving in unison in a serpentine shape, the 'head' clustered around a purple orb of Darkness that had multiple Shadows half-fused into it. As the Demon Tide circled through the air at high speed, a second Demon Tide emerged from another shadow-port, and then a third.
"Why do you say these things, Goku?" Krillin sighed.
More Heartless, Nobodies, & Unversed emerged to join the fray, and everyone split off to handle the countless threats. Sora, Donald, & Goofy moved to take on one of the Demon Tides, joined by Alicia. The countless glowing yellow eyes of the gestalt entity's components turned red as it flew low over the ground toward the four heroes like a speeding train, and the quartet barely managed to throw themselves out of the way in time, Alicia firing a few Fira spells in the enemy's wake. The Demon Tide came back around a couple times, then slowed down for a moment; Sora and Goofy immediately started bashing and slashing it when it flew by low, while Donald and Alicia blasted it with Thunder spells.
The Demon Tide's hundreds of eyes glowed red again, and as it snaked through the air it started flinging Shadows as living projectiles, the little demons going on the attack before they even hit the ground. Alicia and Donald formed Reflect barriers that some of the Shadows were killed on impact with, and Sora did his best to dodge the living missiles and kill a few of them before the rest moved to rejoin the collective. The Demon Tide lashed out with a 'tendril' of Shadows, but Alicia blasted them with a quick Trident Smasher, killing a couple dozen of the things.
The din of battle as all the other heroes engaged hordes of Heartless, Unversed, and the other two Demon Tides was partially drowned out by the rushing, chittering sounds of the one fighting Sora's little group. The gestalt Heartless flew high and then dove down at Sora, who threw himself out of the way just as the Demon Tide crashed into the ground – or rather, through a shadow-portal. A second later, even as the back half of its 'body' was still moving down into the portal, the 'head' emerged from another portal in the ground, knocking Sora into the air. Donald cast a Reflega barrier a round Sora as the Demon Tide lunged at him, knocking him away to safety so that Alicia could catch him.
Alicia then flew at the Demon Tide as it surged around above their heads, finding the 'head' and whaling on it with Keyblade strikes and electric attacks. When it finally batted her away, Sora launched himself with Aerora and started firing elemental magic blasts at the Demon Tide from above while Donald did the same from below. Finally, Alicia & Goofy hit it with a Goofy Bombardier that actually made the gestalt lose cohesion for a moment.
(MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts 0.2 OST – "Wave of Darkness (Phase 2)")
Then, the Demon Tide dove into the ground, vanishing completely, as the ground went black and the sky overhead darkened with a reddish tint. A few seconds later, the core floated up, now bright orange, and the component Shadows were swirling around it like a miniature (about 100 ft. tall) tornado. The Demon Tides' components' eyes turned red as the whirling funnel tightened in shape and started spinning faster, starting to zip back & forth across the battlefield, trying to snatch the four heroes in the deadly vortex. Donald & Goofy took a few glancing hits, the former healing them both with Cura, while Alicia picked Sora up and flew him out of the way of the Heartless-tornado's attacks.
The Demon Tide twister slowed and loosened, and Donald started hitting the core with Thundaga spells while Sora leapt in and started bashing it with his Keyblade. The component Shadows' eyes turned red as the Demon Tide flung Sora way and got distance, and as the Heartless-twister spun faster, it started flinging Shadows from its main 'body' while lobbing explosive orbs of bluish-black darkness from the top of the 'funnel'. Goofy and Sora charged, the former weathering the storm of Shadows with his shield and the latter ducking & weaving as he closed in; a couple of explosive darkness orbs coming for them were blasted away by Donald's Firaza and Alicia's Thundaza. Not willing to risk getting in close when the Demon Tide was whirling so violently, Sora threw a charged-up Strike Raid so that it spun in going the opposite direction of the Shadow-tornado's spin. It slashed its way around and around the funnel, killing several Shadows, and then slipped inside and buzz-sawed across the core a few times before teleporting back to Sora's hands.
The Demon Tide spun over to the rough 'center' of the battlefield and then suddenly flattened and expanded out, forming a whirlwind that hurled the quartet of heroes into the air. Tendrils of Shadows lashed through the air, blasts of darkness being fired upwards, trying to crush the airborne warriors. Alicia flew in and grabbed Goofy, Donald formed a pair of semi-functional 'wings' of magic that couldn't actually fly but would let him glide down safely, and Sora actually tucked himself in and accelerated down toward the center. Right as the Demon Tide twister returned to its normal shape, Sora came down with Keyblade in hand and landed a momentum-assisted slash loaded with Light power. The orange core rippled and wavered, almost struggling to hold itself together.
Then, the Demon Tide shifted back to its serpentine form, and it began to swirl in a circle, faster and faster. The other two Demon Tides joined in, and then huge tendrils of shadows lashed out, rapidly engulfing all remaining Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed, dragging them into the growing cyclone, breaking them down and converting them into raw Darkness which then became more and more Shadows, feeding the process. Before long, an enormous tornado of thousands upon thousands of Shadows dominated the battlefield, reaching up into the darkened sky – a "Demon Hurricane".
"W-What now?" Goofy asked.
"I don't know if we can take that thing down without leaving our key players too tired to deal with the Seekers of Darkness" Piccolo said.
Then, every single one of the countless Shadow eyes glowed red. A truly massive Demon Tide surge shot down at the puny heroes, ready to engulf and consume them…
(MUSIC END)
Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of white light. In a field of light, Sora found himself facing a silver-haired youth in a white shirt with black jacket, black shorts & gloves, and a long red scarf, a Keyblade in his hand. The boy turned to face him, revealing teal eyes.
(MUSIC: Kingdom Hearts III – [Dearly Beloved + The Key of Light fusion])
"Need some help?" Ephemer's ghost said with a grin.
As a wave of light shoved the Darkness back, the numerous dust-covered Keyblades scattered across the area lit up with Light, floating up and flying together in formation. From across the Keyblade Graveyard, hundreds more Keyblades heeded the call of their long-deceased wielders, a serpentine chain of Light flying in, circling around the Demon Hurricane. As a tendril of Shadows tried again to strike at the heroes, the flying Keyblades flew in and slashed most of them apart.
"The spirits of the past…" Zeratul said with awe.
"Even in death," Aqua muttered, eyes wide, "they're still ready to give their all to protect the worlds…"
Grinning, Sora ran alongside the formation of Keyblades and leapt aboard, balancing atop a blue & silver star-themed one. Five more of that same design took formation floating ahead of him, projecting a star-shaped magic barrier, and the Kingdom Key glowed with holy light.
"Let's go!"
The wave of hundreds of glowing Keyblades surged forward, spreading out and starting to slash and blast through the Demon Hurricane. The various DDF magical girls below pitched in to help, firing Light-type attacks at the horde. Soon, the massive black tornado began to visibly lose mass, its rotation slowing, as scores of Shadows were destroyed. Then, Sora and the swarm of Keyblades dove into the abyss, lighting up the writhing darkness inside as they continued blasting and slashing through Heartless.
Eventually, the core came in sight a now-enormous sphere of orange and black floating in the heart of the storm. Blasts of Darkness flew Sora's way, but the Keyblades flocking with him deflected or bashed away the attacks as he continued directing the swarm's attacks like an orchestra conductor. Eventually, so many Shadows had been killed that daylight was again visible, the core fully exposed. As the others finished off the stragglers, Sora thrusted his Keyblade forward, and he & 'his' swarm of Keyblades surged forward and pierced straight through. The core contracted into a point of light, and then exploded into light and sparkles, finally vanquished.
(MUSIC END)
The flying Keyblades brought Sora back down to the ground, and then floated up in formation, revolving in several circles to form a giant upside-down cone. Then, most of them came together and vanished in a burst of light… but several of them instead turned into motes of Light that flew down toward the gathering of heroes. Nanoha Takamachi gasped as the Light flew into her chest, leaving a brief glow and a spreading warmth, a feeling of metaphysical presence inside her. The other lights quickly found people as well – John-117, Naruto Uzumaki, Negi Entheofushia-Springfield, Goku, Commander Shepard, Twilight Sparkle, Sonic, Samus, Ruby Rose, Angelise, Sakura Kinomoto, the seven "Lead PreCures" (Blossom, Melody, Happy, Heart, Lovely, Flora, & Miracle), and Steven Universe.
Calling upon the Light now within her, Nanoha reflexively held out her hand, and with a flash of light appeared a red, blue, & green Keyblade – "Fairy Stars". The other 19 quickly discovered that they had been given the ability to summon a Keyblade as well, ranging from Ruby's "Divine Rose" to Cure Blossom's cute pink flower-themed Keyblade to John-117's long, angular green Keyblade with a blue Reclaimer symbol at the base of the blade-shaft.
"Trouble!" Kairi suddenly called out, pointing to a figure approaching through the wind-blown dust, exuding an evil aura. Seeing his evil past self grinning at him, Rick snarled.
"The Organization's been using Hearts" Mickey explained while gently holding Riku back. "Ones that Xehanort got to in the past and has influence over. So, that must be you from when Ansem had control over your Heart.
"Yeah…" Riku growled. "How could I forget?"
The evil younger Riku laughed. "I'd say that was our finest hour."
The real Riku shook his head. "My hour of weakness."
"You sure~?" He drew his blade, a black & purple aura surging to life around him. "How about we find out?!"
A huge black specter of Master Xehanort appeared from Dark Riku's aura, looming over the heroes.
"A real test for the Mark of Mastery!" he cried.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Sora asked.
Xigbar emerged from a Corridor of Darkness next to his shorter companion. "We gotta make sure you're not blundering your way toward a second failure" he replied.
"Blundering?" Lea said. "I'll have you know we failed with style, chief."
"At least you admit it. Well, if you guardians think you brought the goods, you'll have to prove it to the Old Man one last time." He clapped Dark Riku on the shoulder. "Kid… take it away."
Laughing, Dark Riku roared out as the specter of Xehanort grew in size and ascended. Then, the mass of Darkness transformed into a gateway to the Realm of Darkness, through which a horde of Pureblood Heartless poured, surrounding the heroes. Dark Riku retreated as hundreds of Shadows, Darkballs, Invisibles, Shadow Stalkers, a handful of Demon Towers, even a Dark Inferno and a Dark Hide, all converged on the heroes, boxing them in. Mickey made to raise his Keyblade, but Riku grabbed it and shook his head.
"If you use time magic against these numbers," he said, "you won't have enough strength for the final battle."
"Could you teleport us all through, Kakarot?" Vegeta asked.
"No" Goku replied. "I need an energy signature to home in on, and the Seekers are hiding theirs."
"Maybe Teana & I could punch a hole with a double Starlight Breaker," Nanoha suggested, "let Sora's core group move on ahead."
Suddenly, a ball of blue smoky light shot down from above, punching a hole through and destabilizing the gateway that was pouring out Heartless. Hitting the ground, it revealed none other than Genie from Agrabah. And before Sora could even think of anything to say, the big blue djinn grinned and gave the heroes a thumbs-up with one hand while snapping his fingers with the other. In a flash of light, a great big group of Sora's allies from other worlds appeared – Tarzan, Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Hercules, Peter Pan (& Tinker-Bell), Mulan (& Mushu), (Captain!) Jack Sparrow, Stitch, Mike & Sully, Simba, the Big Hero 6, Buzz & Woody (in full-size, non-toy forms), Luke Skywalker, the Radiant Garden crew (Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Tifa, & Cloud)…
"You're… all here?" Sora said, astonished. "But how?"
"I offered them all the chance to help out," Genie explained, "and they leapt at the chance!"
"After all you did for us," Mulan said, "did you really think we wouldn't find some way to return the favor for you?"
"You fellas get going" Jack Skellington said with a smile. "We'll hold these scoundrels off!"
"More than hold them off" Hercules added. "We'll smash them all!"
"We'll stay and help with that" Naruto said.
Commander Shepard stepped forward to face the 'main' group. "Sora, Donald, Goofy, Aqua, Ven, Lea, Kairi, Links, you all go on ahead. The rest of us will handle things here."
"Kanade siblings, Twilight & Trixie, Angelise," Teana said, "you guys have personal bad guys to deal with up ahead, too. Go with Sora's group!"
"…I'm going with them, too" Luke Skywalker said. "I can feel the Force nudging me forwards…"
Sora nodded. "Thank you, everyone. I promise this'll all be over before too long! Let's go!"
The various heroes fired energy waves that punched a hole through the Heartless' lines, letting the chosen group rush through, heading towards destiny…
-CHAPTER START-
Next Time: Dealing with the Seekers of Darkness. And don't worry; Yen-Sid will still have a role to play...