"No! No," Riku howled his voice hoarse and strained from whatever had consumed him." This wasn't supposed to happen! I had the power to—" Riku was suddenly plucked up from his hands and knees.

"Power?! Is that what you wanted?! You sacrificed your friends for power! You little punk?!" Shige shouted held Riku up by his collar. Riku gripped the man's hand around his collar as he gave the man a ferocious look.

"Because of your power-hungry trip Mitsu is gone! And your friend over there has no heart and all because you wanted power?!" Shige shouted furiously.

"I—" Riku started.

"I don't want to hear it you little sh—" Shige started.

"Shige!" Yasuto shouted

"Stop it!" Sora shouted to stop the anger that both boiled in them.

Shige dropped the white-haired teen on his feet and looked away angrily from him. With a curse, Shige stalked away from the teen and everyone else.

"There's no use yelling at each other. We need to get Kairi her heart back and find Mitsu," Sora said as he knelt next to Kairi. Yasuto glanced at both Shige and Yue and noticed that Yue's expression had drastically changed from his normal stoic look to unreadable.

Riku sighed heavily and ran his hands through his white hair. Mitsu was gone, her heart was inside of him, and Kairi's heart was still missing and all because of him. Everything that he wanted to achieve, everything he had achieved slipped through his fingers, gone and left him with nothing.

His fists clenched tightly he looked at the group that knelt next to Kairi. He was with her from the beginning and yet he couldn't protect her, he had Mitsu with him and yet she protected him instead.

"…Was it…even worth it?" Riku said to himself as he looked at his gloved hands.

"What are you going to do now?" Yasuto said.

"There's the portal…and Kairi…and now Mitsu again…" Sora began. "We have to get Kairi's heart back…" Sora replied

"What do you suppose we do Mr-I-have-secrets," Shige turned to Yue. Yue remained silent as he looked at the purple-haired man, Yasuto narrowed his eyes at the man but didn't find the need to press on the question.

"I was told…that Kairi's heart is inside of Sora," Riku spoke up as he cautiously walked over to the group. Yasuto and Shige looked at Riku as he approached, Sora placed a hand over his heart.

"You have to give up your heart…so that she can have hers back," Riku continued.

"I have to give up my heart so she can have hers back…" Sora repeated quietly.

"Why should we trust you?" Shige snorted.

"I admit...I did lose control of my heart...but that's why you were led here. For Kairi's heart and for the keyblade," Riku replied grimly.

"I don't like that idea. What if Sora gives up his heart then what? He just fades away into the darkness and then our mission is over?" Yasuto spoke up.

"I…don't know what's gonna happen if he does do it," Riku replied.

"I don't know where else you're gonna get her heart back. I'm just trying to help fix what I caused," Riku replied softly.

"There has to be another way…" Yasuto said as he glanced at Yue who had been silent since Mitsu's body was essentially kidnapped.

"What are you going to do Sora?" Shige asked again.

"If Kairi's heart is inside of me..." Sora trailed off.

"When people lose their hearts they change in Heartless," Yue spoke up quietly. His voice was scratchy and deep.

"I've come this far…to save Kairi…and Mitsu…" Sora began. " I can't give up now…"

"Sora—" Yasuto started as the teen went over to the black key blade in the middle of the chamber and back over to them.

"Sora…I—" Riku started.

Sora looked over to the white-haired teen and smiled.

"You guys better protect Kairi otherwise I'll attack you as a heartless," Sora joked.

"Sora this isn't a joking matter—" Yasuto started.

"Kid, do you know what you're doing, seriously?" Shige asked. Yue watched as Sora held the key blade to his chest.

"No choice," Sora replied with a smile and impaled himself in the chest with the key blade.

A bright light grew from Sora's chest causing the group to shield their eyes, Sora's head rolled back and his eyes dulled as a pink light came from his chest and dissipated into Kairi. Kairi slowly opened her eyes to see Riku attempting to catch Sora from falling, the teen's body vanished into light particles and dissipated into the air.

"I'm...so sorry for everything...for everything I've done...this is my fault," Riku murmured to himself as he watched his friend vanish into the light.

"Sora…" Kairi said quietly as she reached for a light particle that disappeared into her hand.

Silence fell over the group as Yasuto helped Kairi to her feet, Kairi looked around at the men and then to Riku, Riku looked away from the girl ashamed.

"Shit…what a fine mess we've gotten ourselves into," Shige cursed again.

The King's Men's mission was to protect the one who wielded the key blade and follow them through the worlds to rid them of heartless and restore order to those worlds, but now both Sora and Mitsu were gone. They were lost.

"Um…are those heartless coming from that portal?" Kairi pointed to the nearly cracked glass of the portal. The group immediately turned to sleep clumps of black being ejected from the cracks of the portal.

"Let's go," Yasuto began as he pointed to the exit. Riku grabbed Kairi's hand and began to lead her from the room with the others close behind them

"Six bullets left…" Yasuto said as he looked at his gun magazines, Shige sighed.

"Surrounded…" Riku said as he shielded Kairi from whatever attack would come regardless of what would happen to his body.

With the sudden outpour of Heartless and the heartless within the castle proved to be too much for them to handle but they persisted. Yasuto, Shige, Riku, and Yue shielded Kairi with their weapons and pushed her into the middle of them.

"Things could get ugly…when I yell 'go' Kairi I want you to make a run for it," Yasuto said as he kept his attention on the skittering heartless in front of them.

"But—" Kairi started.

"I'll be right behind you Kairi. Don't worry," Riku said to reassure her He knew that they would have to make a run for it or they would all perish here in this spot. Kairi looked to Riku and gave him a nervous nod.

"You better come right after me too!" Kairi said, Riku looked over his shoulder at the girl and smirked.

"I will, I promise," Riku replied as he turned his attention back to the heartless that were attempting to surround the group.

"Go!" Yasuto shouted as the heartless jumped at them.

Kairi squealed and ran around the heartless as they jumped at the group. She was sluggish as she ran but she managed to avoid being cut off by any stray heartless and made her way towards the large doors to the exit. Just as Kairi reached the doors on the other side of the chambers alone heartless stood next to the doors unfazed by the girl, Kairi froze as she locked eyes with the lone heartless. The heartless slowly pattered up to her and tilted its head as its antennae twitched.

"W-What?" Kairi gasped as an image of Sora flashed through her mind.

"S-Sora?" Kairi asked as she looked at the heartless. Feeling brave she placed a hand on top of the heartless' head, no reaction.

"It must be you…Sora…" Kairi trailed off.

"Kairi get out of here!" Riku shouted as more heartless began to pour into the room. Kairi quickly picked up the heartless and tried to run through the doors, but was blocked by heartless.

"Oh No…" Kairi whispered as she slowly began to back away from the door.

"Sora…I wish you were here…" Kairi said as she watched the heartless approach her and jump at her.

"Kairi!" Riku shouted. When suddenly the room became engulfed in a bright light destroying all of the heartless in the room.

"Light?" Yasuto said as he removed his hand from shielding his eyes

"Sora!" Riku and Yue said together.

"Kairi…thank you Kairi," Sora said sheepishly.

"Sora…you're here…thank goodness," Kairi sniffed as she wiped away a tear.

"That takes care of them…" Shige commented as he followed Yasuto and the others over to Sora and Kairi.

"Hey guys," Sora said with a smile.

"Welcome back kid," Shige said and ruffled Sora's hair.

"Hey, Riku…you're still here good!" Sora smiled. Riku nodded in response but was quickly reminded of the heavy guilt fresh on his mind, the smile he did have quickly faded.

"How did you come back?" Yasuto asked.

"I dunno…Kairi called out to me…Kairi's heart was my guiding light," Sora replied.

"Perhaps it's the power of the Princess of Heart…" Yasuto said as he looked at Kairi. Kairi blushed under Yasuto's gaze.

"We need to go back in there and release the princesses…and do something about that portal," Yasuto began.

"And the person who took Mitsu," Shige commented.

"Let's go. If that portal remains open more heartless are going to pour out of it," Yue commented.

"Alright, Mr-I'm-gonna-ignore-people," Shige commented. Yue glared at the citrine haired man.

"Ok! This is what we have to do! Get the princesses out, right? Right. Lock that portal? Right? Beat up Ansem for doing everything? Right. Save Mitsu? Of course!" Sora sounded off the tasks happily.

"Yeah yeah," Shige replied.

"Kairi…I'll take you back to Traverse Town…" Yue said as he approached Kairi.

"Um…ok…Sora—" Kairi started.

"I'll be fine! I'm used to this," Sora replied with a big smile.

"Fine! You better come back otherwise I'll be mad at you," Kairi pouted.

"Ok! Ok!" Sora replied with a sheepish smile.

"I'm taking your ship…I'll be back," Yue said as he began escorting Kairi from the room.

"Look at this guy…thinking he's all big and just goes off and takes our ship…" Shige commented.

"Well…if she is gone…one less thing to worry about you know," Yasuto commented.

"Let's go!" Sora said as he started off back towards the grand chamber.