"Sora! Wake up!"
Sora's eyes shot open as he turned to look to his friend next to him and then to the other three men around him.
"I'm ok, where are we?" Sora asked as he and the others looked around in the darkness.
"We're too far in the darkness," Yue commented quietly.
"Everything has been devoured…" Shige commented as he also looked around.
"This truly is the darkness," Yasuto commented.
Bathed in the same inky darkness the two teens had been encased in now surrounded all of them, the pressure of the dark depths tugged at their hearts and minds as they waited for the next attack from the heartless who seemed to have no shortage of power.
"His presence is here...I can still feel him," Riku said as he looked from right to left as if something darted from right to left.
They were swallowed by the darkness, forced to fight doppelgangers of themselves, mutated heartless and a twisted and deformed version of what the heartless used to be. The group fought their way through everything the heartless threw at them, they picked one another up when they fell, protected one another despite not knowing how much longer they would have to endure.
There was so much at stake that they knew they couldn't fail.
The group's last fight with the heartless had dropped them onto a single pathway and at the end of the pathway stood a pristine white grand door. The heartless nowhere in sight.
"Keep your guard up," Yasuto warned.
"It's futile. The Keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness,"
The group immediately turned their attention to the heartless that hovered in front of the doors in front of them. The group ran over to the heartless ready to battle once again..
"Ansem you just don't know when to give up do you?" Sora shouted at Ansem, Ansem, in turn, gave the teen a malicious grin.
"Give up Ansem!" Riku shouted.
"Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness!" Ansem roared as he turned to reach for the doors.
"Kingdom Hearts?!" Yasuto and Shige repeated surprised as the doors seemed to move by themselves. The double doors slowly opened themselves and out poured dark whispy smoke and the same dark energy that Ansem used against them.
"Supreme Darkness...Kingdom Hearts is mine!" Ansem roared with glee as dark energy poured from the crack of the door.
Listen to your hearts Sora…
Kingdom Hearts is full of light!
Sora nodded to himself and pointed his keyblade at the heartless and spoke, Riku gripped his keyblade as the other readied themselves for whatever was to come.
"You're wrong! I know in the warmth of my heart," Sora began. "Kingdom Hearts in Light!"
At that moment, Ansem was struck by a beam of light that pierced through him. The heartless reached for the hole where the light had pierced him when suddenly he was struck by another, and another until the wave of light overtook him.
"W-What! Light?... But...why…?" Ansem whispered hoarsely as the light drained him of his dark life force and soon the heartless dissipated into the light. energy and began to break away. Shige and Yasuto watched as Ansem broke away into pieces and then looked at each other.
"Kingdom Hearts is light...huh," Riku commented bitterly, just moments ago he saw the heartless completely destroyed by the light that came from the doors and wondered if that would have happened to him if he hadn't been stopped.
"Someone told me to listen to my heart...and I did," Sora replied and placed a hand on his heart.
"Let's go see what's beyond these doors shall we?" Shige suggested and nodded to the partially opened doors. Sora turned to Riku and nodded, Riku nodded as well as Sora led the group to the doors.
"Do you think Mitsu is in there? Or her heart?" Sora questioned.
"I don't know...take a peek," Yasuto suggested.
"Be careful," Yue commented, Sora looked back at the man slightly worried as to what would happen to him.
"Go on Sora, you're our fearless leader," Shige goaded.
"Fearless Leader? When did that happen?"Sora scoffed.
"You said that Kingdom Hearts is light, so you should be ok right?" Shige continued.
"Well...yeah but…" Sora trailed off.
"Or we can close it without looking too. That is an option," Sora and Shige turned their attention to the icy blue-eyed man.
"Aren't you a little bit curious about what's inside?" Shige questioned.
"No," Yue replied bluntly.
"Oh come off of it-" Shige began when Riku suddenly took a step forward and peeked into the darkness of the doors. There was darkness beyond the doors followed by a dim light towards what seemed to be the middle of the darkness.
"Well? What do you see?" Riku could hear Sora's voice behind him but muffled. There was an unseen force of energy that seemed to tug at his mind and heart while something else pulled him into the darkness.
Taller than the teen, Yue also peeked his head inside
"Heartless...There's heartless inside of here!" Riku replied to Sora's question as he saw what looked to be a giant pit surrounded by a yellow glow, similar to that of heartless.
"Heartless?!" Sora and Shige shouted as they pushed forward to look accidentally pushing Yue and Riku to pass the doors.
"WE HAVE TO CLOSE THIS NOW," Yasuto said as he began pushing the door.
"Riku, Yue get out-" Sora started when a bright light blinded the men and destroying the heartless approached the two men from behind. Immediately, Shige and Yasuto halted in their attempt to close the door as they saw the figure that had destroyed the heartless.
"King Mamoru!?" Shige, Yasuto, and Yue shouted as the looked at the man behind standing on the ledge behind Riku and Yue.
"Yo," Mamoru said as he glanced at the group over his shoulder.
"Your Majesty!? What are you doing?!" Yasuto called out to the man.
"Don't worry! You guys did well getting here, but now is not the time to talk. We need to get those doors closed," Mamoru ordered.
"You heard the man!" Shige shouted and began to pull at the doors as Riku and Yue began to push against it.
"But Riku-" Sora started.
"Don't worry Sora there will always be a door to the light and to your friends," Mamoru said as he stuck down a heartless.
"Sora, trust King Mamoru," Yasuto said as he continued to pull.
"Hurry they're coming!" Yue said as pushed.
"Shige, Yasuto. I'm sorry and I thank you," Mamoru said as he swung
The grand doors that led to Kingdom Hearts began to budge. Riku and Yue stopped pushing to allow their comrades to finish closing the door.
"See you guys later," Yue said as he glanced at Shige and Yasuto.
"I'm not letting you off so easily Yue. You know more than what you let on," Yasuto growled.
"Take care of her...and I'll find Mitsu," Riku said to Sora as the doors closed.
"Not if I find her first Riku!" Sora shouted angrily as the doors closed by themselves.
"We'll see about that"
Those were the last words that Sora heard before the door shattered into light particles disappearing into the darkness. The grand doors revealed a hidden path behind it. Sora sunk to his knees, realizing that he was back where he started, missing his two of his best friends.
He knew that Riku and Yue could have easily stepped out from behind the doors, but neither of them tried, was there something he had missed?
"That cunning bastard Yue…" Yasuto cursed.
"The Queen is gonna kill us…" Shige murmured.
"Sora!"
Sora quickly shot up and looked around to see Kairi waving for him, he quickly stood up and ran towards her.
"I need a pint...several, it's been too long" Shige started as he placed a cigarette between his lips. Yasuto glared and smacked Shige on the back of the head knocking the cigarette from his lips.
"Be serious here now. Yue is gone with the King and now we have no idea what the hell is going on" Yasuto growled.
"Oh hell Yasuto you don't need to take it out on me," Shige said as he rubbed the back of his head.
"Kairi!?" Sora shouted confused.
"Sora!" Kairi said and smiled and reached for a hug.
"What are you doing here?" Sora asked confused and returned the girl's hug.
" I dunno I was in Traverse Town and I blinked and I was here.." Kairi started.
"Where's Riku? Did you find Mitsu-" Kairi started when suddenly the ground began to move underneath her causing her to stumble. Sora instantly reached out to grab her hand to help her stand.
"What's happening?" Kairi asked as she looked around her, Destiny Island as it seemed as if Destiny Island began to reconstruct itself around her, the gap between her and Sora widened and forced them to break apart and away from one another.
"Kairi, remember what you said before? I'm always with you too. I have to find Riku and Mitsu and then I'll come back to you. I promise! "
" I know you will!"
"Your majesty," Riku started as his key blade disappeared and stood in front of a man dressed in a black cloak.
"You can call me Mamoru for the moment. We are not in a place that requires formal addressing," Mamoru replied with a small grin.
"You obviously have a plan your Majesty" Yue started ignoring Mamoru's previous comment and kept his formality, Mamoru sighed.
"I do...and your friend Mitsu is an important key to this as well," Mamoru replied as he turned to Riku.
"What do you mean?" Riku asked.
"Well...we made it out of there thanks to another keyblade wielder and also the aura of the Princess' heart inside of you Riku," Mamoru began to explain. "Also, I do need to apologize,"
"For what?" Riku asked.
"For not moving quicker I was held up by past issues. Yue and I both knew that your friend Mitsu was a princess. We knew that she was important, but we didn't know just how important she was," Mamoru started.
"You knew?" Riku said as he looked at Yue.
"I did...I was supposed to protect her," Yue sighed.
"Actually...I still don't know how powerful she is...but the person that took her body proves to me that something big is about to happen," Mamoru trailed off in thought as he ran his hand through his deep cerulean blue hair. "But what that is though..."
"You've been busy your Majesty...I'm sure Her Majesty will have a head full of white hair when you return," Yue quipped.
"I'm sure it'll turn back to fiery red when she tries to kill me," Mamoru sighed.
"Anyway Riku, Yue...I will need your help for this...the Heartless that called himself Ansem was not Ansem and the group that has Mitsu is a bit unsettling but what I am asking of you will be difficult…" Mamoru trailed off as he looked at the two in front of him.
His heart drummed in his chest, his pulse quickened from what Mamoru was going to suggest, he could already feel it. When he first peered inside of Kingdom Hearts, he felt as if something inside of him had reawakened within the darkness. But the thought of being reunited with Mitsu, apologizing tenfold and holding her in his arms was more important to him than anything.
"Tell me, Tell me what I need to do to save Mitsu," Riku began. Mamoru pursed his lips together as he looked down at Riku and then glanced to Yue.
"Don't give me that look, Yue," Mamoru sighed.
"Ask...your majesty," Yue replied simply, Mamoru sighed again.
"You both have traversed deep into the depths of the darkness, hearts tainted even…" Mamoru began to explain.
"I need you both to use the darkness within your hearts once again,"