Kingdom Hearts III - Alternate Ending

by GhostWriterX

I had been developing my follow-up story, which takes place after KH 3, before the game came out. Because of that, I had to write and post my own version of KH 3's ending so my story makes sense. My ending follows the game for the most part, with the changes getting more noticeable as the chapters go on. The "Preface" section explains myself further if you're interested.

8. Chapter 7 - Battle Royale

In the Radiant Gardens, Ansem prepares to enter the virtual Twilight Town to retrieve Subject X. Dilan, Aeleus, and Leon agreed to escort him, while Ienzo, Yuffie, and Cid monitor from the control room. "Once we find her" Ansem told his three guards, "allow me, and only me to approach, she may not register you all as allies. We don't know how stable she is, but I do know she is rather powerful" Then Ansem turned to face forward, and muttered to himself, "which I found out the hard way."

With that, Ansem was taken into the virtual world. After him was Leon, then Dilan, then Aeleus. All four of them were in the control room in the basement of the virtual Mansion, only the basement had been altered somehow. It looked unnatural, twisted, and dark. Ansem correctly deduced that she was still somewhere in the mansion.

"This is where you hid her? This whole time?" Dilan asked his master. "Not the whole time" Ansem replied, "While I was under the persona of DiZ, I had kept her underneath the old Hollow Bastion Fortress, out beyond the borders of the Radiant Gardens. It was not the most pleasant place to keep her, and she had been there for too long. Once this world showed signs of safety, I then removed her and brought her into this virtual world. With Roxas being your target, I surmised you would not care to venture in here again." Dilan and Aeleus grunted, while Leon ventured to ask, "What exactly did you do to her before you finally grew a conscience?"

Ansem turned to face Leon's judgmental eyes, and responded, "I will not lie, I did terrible things in the name of science. I was starved, ravishing, for knowledge, and initially I did not see her as living being, but a merely a weapon in human form. We knew nothing of her, and neither did she. I was willing to do whatever it took to gleam answers from her, even if it meant stripping away her identity and her life force with my replicas and any other devices I had at the time." Ansem then turned away, then tried to continue without showing his emotions, "I am damned, Leon. It would be a miracle if this next act that I perform redeems me of all my past sins. Now come, she is likely in Namine's bedroom, and that's assuming she did not alter the layout of the mansion considerably." Then he resumed walking, with Leon, Dilan, and Aeleus following.

Ω

As the group ventured further into the Keyblade graveyard, they finally reached the crossroads. Along the way, each of them took count as best they could of all the keyblades they were able to spot. "Every single one of them..." Kairi pointed out. "Died a warrior's death" Archer finished for her. She looked back to him, and he said "It's too late to mourn them now, Kairi. We win today, and this won't have to happen again." Kairi then turned to face forward again, before Sora, who was walking beside her, managed to catch her gaze. The two stared at each other, and without saying a word, resumed marching forward with conviction.

Merlin, who was leading the group, suddenly stopped once they were actually at the crossroads. Starting into the distance, he mentally prepared himself. Then Sora and the rest of the group saw who it was that caused Merlin to stop. Out in the distance, Master Xehanort and his remaining vessels of the Organization, marched out to meet them. "Steel yourselves" Merlin commanded his group, and they mentally, silently prepared for the fight of their lives.

Xehanort's group then halted, and now the two groups could face each other within shouting distance, at the center of the crossroads of the Keyblade Graveyard. Then Master Xehanort began his monologue, "Today, we join these other wielders and leave our mark on fate. I have waited patiently… but together, we shall unlock the Keyblade War's secrets."

Merlin flinches at that last statement, thinking back to how many have been manipulated to keep the lie going, and how many must have died or got corrupted like Xehanort, in the pursuit to the truth. Then Master Xehanort summoned his keyblade, The Gazing Eye, and resumed his monologue, "Now we forge it. The ultimate key…" and then he struck his Keyblade to the ground, causing a reaction where walls rose from the ground, enveloping everyone in a maze-like construct. Then Xehanort and his vessels were seen rising above the group on top of one of the maze's walls, with Xehanort rising highest on a mountain-like platform.

The others looked around at their surroundings, grunting in surprise, but Merlin merely stared up at Master Xehanort, and Xehanort started back down to the White Wizard, grinning. Then Merlin said to his band of soldiers, "Here we go" and they grunted in acknowledgement, then marched ahead of him. As their two small armies prepared to clash, Marlin teleported to where Master Xehanort stood, and the two faced each other. The sky turned dark, and while there was no rain, thunder clouds still formed overhead.

Down in the battlefield-maze below, the match-offs began to form:

Mickey, Donald, and Goofy vs Xigbar

Aqua and Terra vs Larxene and Luxord

Roxas, Axel, and Archer vs Marluxia, Saix, and Demyx

Sora, Kairi, and Riku vs Xemnas, Young Xehanort, Ansem-Xehanort, and Dark Riku

Satisfied with how all their pawns ended up, Master Xehanort asked Merlin sarcastically, "Now then, ready to play?"

Ω

In the arena between Xigbar and Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, the trigger-happy gunslinger stated with disappointed, "I didn't expect to use my guns for poaching" while letting out a smile toward the trio. Xigbar resumed, "I think I'll stuff the King and hang him up somewhere, while the duck will make a nice evening meal, as for the mut, well, I doubt I can teach an old dog new tricks."

As Mickey prepared to charge, Xigbar fired off a few shots, but Goofy blocked all of them. Amused, Xigbar prepared to reload, only to deal with Donald using Thundaga on him, forcing him to dodge to the side. It during this maneuver that Mickey decided to pounce on Xigbar, who barely managed to block the King's attack, and was pushed back against the wall and causing it damage. "Tch, you sure got some spunk in ya, for a rat."

Mickey gave the one-eyed gunslinger an intense gaze before responding, "Hmph, you have terrorized innocent lives long enough!" Then Xigbar coughed before he said, "Heh, I've still got a few bullets left, enough for each of you!" And pushed Mickey back. Donald took this chance to fire of a Blizzaga spell at Xigbar to try in pin him in place, but he quickly jumped out of the hole in the wall and managed tor reload both his guns.

As the trio tried to rush him, Xigbar fired off multiple shots upward, then the shots came raining back down and spread across the field, forcing the three to retreat backwards. As the shots slowly rained down across the field, forming a sort of barrier between them and Xigbar, he took the change to reload his guns again, and then fired off a few shots at each of them. Mickey deflected the shots with his Keyblade, while Goofy relied on his shield and Donald relied on a Reflega barrier.

Then Xigbar asked them, "I wonder, does this count as animal cruelty if the animals can fight back?!" and continued to fire off more shots as the three were running out of room to retreat, the hail of bullets still raining down on the arena. Then Goofy said, "I've got an idea!" And Mickey and Donald looked at him. "Get behind me!" Goofy said, and raised his shield in front of him. Mickey and Donald quickly ran up to Goofy, while Xigbar looked on with curiosity.

Once the three musketeers were lined up, the three charged through the bullet-hail and straight towards Xigbar, who was not expecting the kamikaze-like charge from the three naïve-looking animals. He shot at the shield to no avail. And when he jumped out of the way, Donald froze him with Blizzaga, and while he was frozen mid-air, Mickey unleashed a sonic-blade combo on the frozen gunslinger, and then finished off by firing several balls of light that homed in on him. After the spectacular explosions from each ball of light, Xigbar then fell to the ground.

The three musketeers were breathing heavily now. With a grunt, Xigbar tried to get back up, but found he didn't have the strength, "Figures…. If I had a keyblade, it'd be different…"

Donald replied, "You are not worthy to wield one!" "Oh" Xigbar replied quickly, "I am worthy." The three looked at each other in shock. Goofy asked, "Uhh, whaddaya mean?"

Xigbar trusted one of his guns in the ground, and used it to help him stand back up, then responded, "The old coot promised to bequeath me his. Why else do you think I would ever put up with all his nonsense?"

Mickey took offense at Xigbar's arrogance and said, "The Keyblade would be wasted on you!" But the gunslinger merely laughed, "Ha! As if.." He was about to disappear before the trio could finish him off, then a shot fired from beyond the arena, and pierced Xigbar's other eye. The musketeers were caught off guard, as blood splattered the wall behind Xigbar's head. Now completely blind, the gunslinger fell to the ground, and he was no more.

"Where'd that shot come from?" Goofy asked in a panic as all three of them tried to take cover. Mickey looked around and saw a figure on the top of the wall, moving away. "You there, stop!" Mickey called out to the figure as he jumped up to confront it. When Mickey made it to the top, he saw the shooter, it was the red Assassin.

"Who are you?!" Mickey commanded, "and how are you involved in all this?!" The Assassin's back was toward the King, and did not respond. "Answer me!" the King demanded in his high-pitched voice. "I did what you couldn't do" the Assassin answered, barely turning his face in Mickey's direction. "With him and Yen Sid gone, there is only one Master of the old world left."

Mickey gasped at the mention of his mentor's name, "Master Yen Sid? What happened to him?! Tell me!" Mickey said this and pointed his Keyblade at him. Now the Assassin decided to turn and face the King entirely, "If everything goes right, then you'll all see the truth." Mickey, dissatisfied with the answer, charged at him, but the assassin shot at the King with his unusual gun, the force of the bullets knocking Mickey back despite deflecting them. Mickey nearly fell off the wall before the Assassin stopped firing, and when Mickey had a chance to recover and go after him, the Assassin was gone.

Mickey looked everywhere, but could not find the Assassin, then looked at the ground in sadness. Goofy and Donald called up to him, "Mickey?! Hey Mickey!" Finally, Mickey jumped back down to join them, his face still sad and his eyes still looking downward. "Who was that guy?" Donald screeched. "Did something happen up there?" Goofy followed up. "He" Mickey started to respond, "Yen Sid…. He…." Donald and Goofy looked at Mickey in concern.

Ω

Aqua was engaged with Larxene, while Terra fought Luxordl. "Well-well!" Larxene said to Aqua, "quite the hunk you've got there!" referring to Terra. "Tell me, is he seeing anyone?" The question infuriated Aqua, and caused her to hurl energy balls at Larxene, who managed to dodge them while laughing. "Ha ha ha! Aww, jealous much? Stuck in the friend zone, are ya?!" Then she threw her lightning daggers at Aqua, who deflected them all with a swing of her Keyblade.

With Terra and Luxord, the two seemed to be at a standoff. "If you played your cards right, boy" Luxord said, "you wouldn't have lost favor with the Master!" Then Luxord's cards surrounded Terra, while Luxor himself hid within one of them. "Now it looks like you've been dealt a bad hand!" said the con man from within one of the cards. Terra fired off various spells at the cards, only to reveal them as empty. Luxord laughed before provoking him, "Try again!" and Terra let out a frustrated grunt while he tried to find a way out of his predicament.

"See ya!" Larxene called out to Aqua, who dodged Larxene's strike to the ground, which upon impact sent out several pillars of electricity. With little time for Aqua to recover, Larxene jumped back up in a summersault and tossed electric daggers in all directions. Aqua dodged some, and deflected others, but a few managed to strike her, shocking and injuring her.

"Live dangerously, Terra!" Luxord called out, while Terra tried more patiently before determining which card the conman was hiding within. Terra tried one more card, again, empty. "Wrong! Over here!" And Luxord struck at Terra, before stating, "Let's try again!" and more cards surrounded Terra. "Oh, to hell with this!" Terra screamed, and summoned meteors from the sky to destroy all the cards quickly. Finally, the one revealing Luxord was revealed, "Hmph, well played" the conman grinned, and Terra rushed him and did not let up on all the strikes he dealt the cardplayer. Terra stopped pounding only when he noticed blood on his keyblade, and looked down to see Luxord beaten to a pulp, several of his limbs broken.

Terra lowered his keyblade and stepped back, realizing how violent he had gotten. Luxord managed a laugh before saying, "It appears this was not my type of game after all" then winced at the pain before continuing, "Know this, Keyblade wielder Terra, if you want to ensure you've defeated your foes permanently, do not let up like you nearly did just now, or your victory will be short-lived." Terra looked away with a grunt, while Luxord disappeared into darkness.

Aqua has now been firing off Thundaga spells at Larxene, who hasn't been trying to dodge them since, "You DO know that lightning is kinda my thing, right?!" she screamed at Aqua, before she took an opening and charged at her. Aqua blocked her attack, and the two were locked in place, then Aqua replied, "Yes, I know". Larxene looked at her, puzzled, then saw Aqua assume the Thunder Bolt command style, covering her body in lightning which increased the speed of her attacks as well as enhancing her lightning spells. Aqua then pushed Larxene back, "Now, now only can you not hurt me as much, but I can just beat you senseless!" Larxene gritted her teeth, and threw as many lightning daggers as she could at Aqua.

The sapphire Keyblade wielder casually deflected Larxene's daggers, and when Larxene tried digging her cloack for more, Aqua took the opportunity to finish the command style by summoning a ball of light above her and throwing her keyblade into it. This then caused multiple bolts of lightning to come out of the energy ball, and strike all across the arena. The bolts were powerful enough that even Larxene had to deflect a few. Aqua took this chance to charge Larxene and take her out bear-handed. Aqua punched and kicked Larxene until she couldn't stand anymore, then Aqua held off on her attacks.

Larxene spat blood out while trying to remain standing, "Are you kidding?" before falling down to her knees. Aqua uttered, "You're gonna be recompleted, which I'm starting to think is more than you deserve." Larxene faced Aqua, blood dripping from her mouth, "Ugh, I lost! To a bunch of losers like you!" Aqua just stared at her, with a serious but condescending stare, then Larxene continued, "But… could be worse… become that geezer's heart tank? No thanks." Aqua felt compelled to ask, "Then why help him? You know as well as I do what kind of man he is!" But Larxene pouted and turned away, "I was really just along for the ride." Aqua was confused now, "Along the ride for who?" Larxene then turned back towards Aqua again, and with a hushing motion and a grin, she said, "My secret", then vanished.

With their battle done, Aqua let out a long exhale, and nearly stumbled to the ground if it wasn't for Terra, who caught her from behind. This startled Aqua, who then stood straight again, her face blushing, "Terra! Um.. I was just…." Terra chuckled, "Hm, I know." The two held a gaze for a moment, before Terra then suggested, "We should move on now, Master Xehanort will probably benefit from this, regardless which side wins, so we need to beat him before he can benefit from the battle." He proceeded to leave before Aqua grabbed his arm, "Terra, wait!" Terra stopped and turned to her, her hand still on his arm. Then she tried to speak, "You….. it was nice fighting with you again…." Terra then turned to face her completely, now grabbing her hand, and responded, "It was nice fighting with you too." And the two gave another long look at each other.

Ω

Roxas was fighting with Marluxia, while Archer dealt with Demyx, and Axel was trying to reach his friend Siax.

Marluxia throws his scythe at Roxas, who avoids it by running away and dodging it as it spirals across the floor. The scythe then returns to Marluxia, who taunts Roxas, "Why am I not surprised to see that you are once again fighting against us? Still the rebellious sort, one who does not stay in his place…. You would've fit well in my Organization." Roxas was breathing hard, "I was DONE being used by everyone! You guys thought you could control me, keep me in the dark, and assumed I'd just go along with it?!" Then Roxas charged at Marluxie, and managed to push him through the wall and into another arena.

Axel looked back and cried out, "Roxas!" But Saix didn't give him the chance to act so recklessly, and grabbed him and threw him through a maze wall as well, and into another arena. With only Archer and Demyx in the arena they started in, the three pairs were now entirely separated.

"You should've known better than to turn your back on me, old friend!" Saix hissed at Axel, before kicking him across the ground. Axel then swooped and twirled his way back on his feet, now somewhat dirty from the pummeling Saix gave him. "Stop it, Isa!" Axel pleaded, "They others may be a lost cause, but you can still come back!" "Says the person who still calls himself Axel" Saix retorted, "and you honestly think you get to lecture me on abandoning my second chance with the organization?!" Then Saix summoned his massive sword and attempted to pummel Axel some more, but Axel managed to hold his own and block Saix's attack, and push him back.

"I chose to keep using Axel because I don't deserve to be called Lea anymore! After all that I've done, I have redeemed myself yet to go back to that name… but you… you'll always be Isa to me, I've got that memorized." "Hmph" Saix scoffed, "you always seemed to remember the things that mattered the least." And the two resumed their fight.

Roxas and Marluxia appeared to be equal in the skill of close-quarters combat, with the two unable to best the other. Roxas realized that Marluxia didn't lead the treacherous faction of the Organization for nothing, and then decided to go all-out reckless. He closed his eyes, and tried to summon a second Keyblade. Marluxia stared at him humorously, then decided to cut him down while the young fool wasn't looking. But Roxas managed to summon a second Keyblade, and then using both blades, caught Marluxia's scythe before it could pierce Roxas's face. "What?! How?!" Marluxia wailed at the site of Roxas's dual-wielding. "A keyblade wielder has never been able to utilize more than one keyblade at a time, except under the special circumstances of borrowing another's heart!"

"And that's what I did for over 10 years" Roxas said calmly, before shoving Marluxia back several feet. Roxas then clanged his keyblades together, turning them into the Oathkeeper and Oblivion keyblades. "In the 10 years I slept, Sora generously allowed me to sleep inside his heart while my body rested. In return, I gave Sora the ability to use the keyblade. Because of the bond we shared, our hearts are connected even now!"

And Roxas swooped up and came crashing down, firing off countless pillars of light across the whole arena. Marluxia blocked off one of the pillars of light with great strain, but was pushed back into a wall in the process. He saw Roxas coming after him, so he threw his scythe to Roxas to slow him down. Roxas instead moved around the scythe, and kept coming at Marluxia. But Marluxia then motioned his hand, and the scythe came spinning back, forcing Roxas to deflect it with one of his keyblades. During this moment, Marluxia then charged at Roxas, who then blocked Marluxia's punch with his other keyblade. With the two still in mid-air, Roxas spinned around to knock back Marluxia and his scythe.

Then the two stood and faced each other one last time, with Marluxia summoning his scythe back to him, and then pointed it at Roxas. Roxas then got in his typical battle stance, and the two charged at each other. After a brief moment of the two meeting and striking at each other, the two then ended up on the other side of the arena they started on, having run past each other. The two then stood, backs facing each other, and after another moment, Marluxia dropped his scythe and fell to his knees. Then Roxas turned back and faced the fallen coup leader and approached him.

Marluxia sees himself starting to disappear, "Oh, so now it all comes back to me" and lets out a genuine laugh. Roxas, surprised, calls out to Marluxia, "Wait, was that a real laugh?" Marluxia looked up and faced Roxas, "Yes… My heart is remembering how to feel" and placed his hand on his chest. Roxas let out a scoff, "Hm, couldn't have bothered to remember this earlier? Would've saved us all the trouble." "Yes" Marluxia laughed again, "if I knew all it took was a keyblade wielder to beat me senseless, I suppose it would have saved us all the trouble." Roxas couldn't help but laugh a little with him. Then Marluxia continued, "And now, I am on the cusp of reclaiming my identity, my purpose for being. In the end, you performed your duty to me after all….thank you, Roxas…." And he disappeared. Roxas closed his eyes, and responded, "Your welcome…."

Elsewhere, Axel and Saix have now bruised and cut each other a lot, with bloody scratches all over their bodies. The two are too tired to continue, but Saix sees the sadness in Axel's eyes, "Why… so sad?" Breathing heavily, Axel tries to walk towards him, "You let them reduce you to this?" But Saix ignored his question and commented, "I thought… you outgrew the marks under your eyes." Axel was taken aback by Saix's comment, and touched the lower portion of his eyes, "So?" Saix continued, "you look… like you need them…" But Axel wasn't buying this sympathy act, at least, he wasn't sure if he wanted to, "Stop it, the whole act! I thought this was all for her. She was the reason we snuck into Ansem's study, because we always heard the screams coming from the lab. When we realized we couldn't help her that way, we took it upon ourselves to become his students, so that we'd have inside knowledge and use it to save her! That's the only reason I could think of on why you might have gone back, but now? I don't know! Why did you go back to them? Was it for her?!"

Saix was slow to respond, "At first… I sacrificed everything to track her down. You're the one who went off and made other friends. Left her and me both in the dust. It infuriated me how you just exited our lives." Then he grunted in pain and dropped his weapon. By now, Axel could see he wasn't putting on an act, and dropped his keyblade to rush to his dying friend. But Saix motioned his hand to stop Axel from moving any closer, and continued, "I lost… all sense of purpose…" Axel replied, "But I didn't forget you!" Saix looked up at him, smiling because of the words he chose, "Yes…. I know… you wouldn't do that. But… I was jealous"

Axel gasped, "You admit it?" and managed a smile. Saix, coughing up more, tried to lighten up the mood one last time, "Well, if I make it back…you won't get it out of me a second time." We was about to fall down, but Axel rushed in and caught him. Then Axel repositioned Saix so that his head is resting on Axel's knee, and facing him. Axel looked at his friend once more, "See you, Isa" Before he disappeared, Saix responded, "See you, Lea" and he departed from his friend again. Axel followed the trails of black essence leave his body, and vanish into the sky. Then he took a deep breath, and got up and made his way back to his other friends.

Archer and Demyx just stood there, looking at each other. "So…" Demyx said, trying to break the awkward silence, "DO we have any reason to fight each other?"

"Not particularly" Archer responded dryly. "But I clearly can't just let you go, no matter how low-tier of an Organization member you may be."

"LOW tier?" Demyx took offence at that, "Look, man! I might be a player, not a fighter, but you shouldn't diss on my skills just because-" Archer interrupted him by firing an arrow right past his face, and Demyx shrieked as the arrow blow a massive hole in the wall. "Dude!? What gives!? You out to kill me or something?!" But Archer just stood there, preparing another arrow. "Fine" admitted Demyx, "I see how it's gonna be, but you know what? I'm in a giving mood, so I'm gonna show a treat, and whip up one of my best numbers!"

"I doubt you play the genre I'm into" Archer responded. "Let's see then" Demyx responded with a grin, then yelled out, "DANCE, WATER, DANCE!" and water clones of himself started spawning all over the arena. Archer tried shooting them one by one, but more and more kept spawning. Archer then transformed his bow into a automatic crossbow, and fired off more shots. But still, more water clones kept spawning than Archer could deal with. "How irritating" Archer grumbled.

"Haha! You like it?!" Demyx laughs and fires off water bubbles at Archer, who dodges them but runs into the water clones. Switching to his blades, he proceeds to cut down as many as he can, but finds himself quickly overwhelmed. "The chicks are always thirsty for me, baby!" Demyx cried out, but Archer has had enough of these clones, and switches to another bow-type weapon. "Oh? Another bow?" Demyx scoffed, "Because the last one worked SO well for you?!"

"This bow is a replica of Tauropolos, a bow blessed by the god Artemis." Replied Archer, while loading up the bow with a massive magical blue arrow. Demyx looked at him in a comical fashion, "Am I supposed to know or care about any of that." But Archer smirked, "Not for much longer." Then, pointing the bow and arrows skyward, Archer uttered "Phoebus Catastrophe" and fired the arrow skyward. Demyx watched the arrow go straight up, then explode in a brilliant light. Then a torrent of arrows hailed down and destroyed all the water clones, while Archer stood by and watched Demyx making a comical shocked face.

"Grrr!" growled Demyx, who was now getting serious. "Fine then! Impatient, are we? Then I'll bring on the main course!" As he prepared to summon more water clones, Archer decided to dash to him before he could do so, since he was more than over the clones. But Demyx expected him to come and instead summoned pillars of water to form a wall between him and Archer. "Nuh-uh-uh!" teased Demyx, "Come on, keep to the beat!" Then the pillars of water started moving towards Archer, forcing him to jump back. He tried firing arrows at them, but they proved to be quite powerful.

"Alright then" prepared Demyx, "Time to start the world tour!" And with that, he started jamming on his sitar, and a group of water clones formed up behind him. Archer looked toward Demyx, and saw that he mad a band of water clones, each with their own instruments, and as they all started playing to Demyx's beat, the arena was engulfed in a massive whirlpool. Archer was now surrounded on all sides with swirling water, while Demyx and his water band were on the other end, protected by pillars of water and jamming to his beat.

"Got you now!" Demyx claimed, and started playing harder, shooting bubbles and pillars of water at Archer, who did his best to avoid all of them, as that was all he could do. "Water! Yeah!" screamed Demyx while bobbing his head. When Archer could dodge the attacks, he summoned barriers, "Rho Aias!" which not only protected him from the water attacks, but enabled him to remain in his current position in the air instead of being pushed back to the edge of the whirlpool and be shredded by the sheer force of water.

"Whoo yeah, baby!" Demyx was having the time of his life now, "Ain't it a blast?!" As he kept jamming to his own toon, Archer tried to conserve his magical energy, since he couldn't keep using a powerful barrier spell like Rho Aias. He landed back down on the ground and avoided some more water bubbles and pillars. Then he then decided to copy Demyx's sitar, hoping he could cancel out Demyx's attacks. "Trace on!" and summoned his own sitar.

"Whoa, dude!" Demyx screamed with displeasure, "I'm gonna totally sue your ass!" "Your music is shit" replied Archer. His blunt comment caught the sitarist off guard, and Archer fired his replica sitar through his bow and towards Demyx and his band. Archer's sitar exploded in a massive force of water, nullifying Demyx's pillars and his band. Drenched, Demyx looked around to see how vulnerable he was to attack, and saw Archer pouncing on him with his swords. Demyx gave a comical look, "Oh…fu-" and Archer ran past him, cutting him multlple times as he did so. "Aww, blew it again" Demyx uttered, then he fell to the ground, his body disappearing into dark essence before it reached the ground, and the massive whirlpool was deactivated, drenching Archer, and the rest of the arena in water.

Archer wiped the water from his face, opened his eyes, and let out a sigh of relief. Roxas and Axel finally made their way back to him, and saw how wet the place had gotten. The two walked up to Emiiya, trying not to laugh at how he looked. Axel then managed to ask "Uhh… did we miss something?" Archer looked at him with contempt and replied, "Nope, nothing at all…"

Ω

Elsewhere, as the warriors of light and darkness fought, Master Xehanort and Merlin stand at the peak and look upon the battle below.

"You should be proud of the accomplishments of your pawns, wizard" Xehanort said provokingly, "after making it this far, and giving my own a run for their money, even I must say I'm a little impressed."

Merlin looked at the old keyblade master with decadence, "You keep calling them pawns, I take you've never had actual friends before, have you? Any family, relatives, or anyone you ever genuinely trusted?"

Xehanort leered at Merlin, raising an eyebrow, "Are you really trying to analyze me, Merlin? Here, at the end of the old age, and the beginning of a new on, you seek to try and understand me?"

Merlin then looked away, out into the distance, noticing how much ground his troops have covered since landing here, "For some people, it helps to understand their enemy's true motives, their logic and rationale, all to make sure we can avoid this again in the future. You seek to learn the truth of the Keyblade War, fine, but why do so by provoking another one? Why obtain the power of Kingdom Hearts and start everything over again? Why cast yourself as a villain who manipulates and discards others, only to project your own imperfections on the rest of us?"

Xehanort's face starting turning serious, "You speak to me as if you're above me, wizard. I don't know you personally, but I know of you. You guide others on their path, neglecting to tell them the tragedies that lie at the end of the path. Then you exiled yourself instead of facing those you've lied to. You weren't even a Keyblade Wielder until recently, yet here you stand, leading the fight as if you've done so since the beginning, and you hold that blade there as if you've earned it! I've studied the ways of the Keyblade long before you finally decided to get directly involved with my affairs."

Merlin, sensing he struck a nerve, stares back at Xehanort and lets out a chuckle, "Hmm, well I've lived A LOT longer than you have, even if you take into account your time travel and body-swapping. I was one of the first to train Sora before Yen Sid graciously took over." Merlin's face ached a little at the utter of his friend's name, Xehanort noticed this, and smirked. Merlin continued, "I was able to discern the inconsistences of our current records of the past without terrorizing worlds and baiting others into your misguided crusade."

"Ah yes, but how much progress have you made, really?" Xehanort retorted, "You judge my methods, but they are the fastest and most direct way to reach the truth! Whoever made it their mission to conceal the past from future generations made it practically impossible for truth-seekers without risking corruption and death. I only appear to revel in it because I'm not foolish enough to rely on others. I do not let my emotions get the better me, hence why I'm the one most suitable to wield the power of Kingdom Hearts, and restart the universe! You asked me if I trusted anyone? No, I never have, not since the day two keyblade wielders first came to my home on the islands, and cast their judgment on me."

Merlin cocked his head, curious to hear more of Xehanort's statement, and Xehanort continued, "Before I was taken in by the order, before I met Eraqus, the first time I was exposed to the nature of the Keyblade when two men arrived one day while I was alone on Destiny Islands. I don't know if they were looking for me specifically, or if they were merely travelling worlds, but when one of them looked at me, there was such disdain in his eyes, like he knew me, or knew what I'd become. He would've struck me down right then and there if it wasn't for his companion. The companion also looked at me with certain distaste, but also gave off a sense that I was a necessity to the worlds beyond. But it was the first Keyblade Wielder's final comment towards me, that I would never understand others, would never connect with others, that confirmed what I had already knew about myself. I was never able to make friends in my youth, my appearance and aura seemed to frighten others away. No one else peaked my interest, hence why I would spend time alone on the islands as often as I could. I knew I could not fulfill my ambitions alone, but I did not need 'friends' to do that, merely pawns.

The only two people you could say I had ever gotten close to was Eraqus, who was my peer; and the one who I took on as my first apprentice."

Merlin squinted at Xehanort, as if to confirm something, "Eraqus really meant something to you?"

"He was the only one who did not look at me with judgement, in fact, I seemed to fascinate him, or at the very least amuse him. We'd even play competitive games together, which also served as ways to compare our philosophies on life. He was a naïve kid, and continued to be so even as a man, but I must say that I myself was amused by him. He was the first person I could speak freely and honestly to, without fear of judgement and disdain.

The only other person I was able to do that with was my apprentice."

Merlin tried again to confirm, "Your apprentice before Ventus?"

"Indeed" Xehanort responded, "I had taken on less pupils than most other masters, as I had particular tastes, and a certain social issue, but Victor…. He was unlike anyone I had ever met before. He had the makings of a true scientist and scholar in him, someone who was in it for the knowledge, regardless of the means, as long as the ends were worth it! Like me, he cared little for others, well, all but his parents and his lover I suppose, but even then, he had cast them aside for the pursuit of knowledge. When he told me of his personal upbringing, he confirmed even more how alike we were!

He had already dabbled in some science and magic, though far more than one would expect at his age. But under me, once I opened the doors of possibility for him, that was when he truly surprised me! Victor went far beyond the basic educational requirements of Keyblade Wielders, he learned all manner of magic: mental, elemental, and the arcade; as well as all manners of science: biology, physics, chemistry, astrology, astronomy, geology, you name it! There was no limit to what Victor wanted to absorb, he had to have it all!

When he was old enough, I told him about my plans to learn the truth of the Keyblade War, and of course, he agreed, as there were too many holes in the information that was taught to students, and too much contradiction. But like you, he wanted to be less direct, less provocative, at least until he felt he was more prepared. He took a more indirect approach, relying on the historical recordings provided by other worlds to piece together the past, where as I wanted to perform the forbidden arts already under our command to get right at the source. That was were we disagreed, but there was a sense of mutual respect in our methods. But I was running out of time, not all of us are immortal like you, Merlin. Despite my own formidable time-manipulation abilities, I suppose I was even less patient than Victor, and after he had told me of mind transfer, it was then when I looked into means to preserve my life, and I took it a step further than him: the transfer of the heart. My preserving my abilities and transferring it into another, I would gain new life, as well as all the knowledge and abilities gain from the host I sought to control! And with Victor as my host, I would benefit even more from his versatile and polymathic genius!

But alas, he was onto me. As I became older and more impatient, he correctly deduced my plans to possess him, and of course, he too claimed he had ambitions of his own, and that he no longer needed me. Hehehe….I was almost proud of him for that, he really knew how to live a cautious life, and to use others only until their usefulness had ceased. But I did not intend to let a goldmine like him escape from my grasp, I would fight him if I had to, and fight we did. He won in the end, but he was not strong enough to deal the finishing blow, not because he was weak-minded, but only because he himself was worn out to risk it, though he claims he let me live for other reasons.

He disappeared, and despite my best efforts, I was never able to find him again, and so, I was forced to start over. I knew I would never acquire someone like him again, but at my age, it didn't matter, I had enough information to know where to look and how to proceed, I just needed someone to help me begin my plans. Ventus was the unlucky boy I set my eyes on, though I underestimated how little skill he had, so I had to extract the darkness from his heart to make a better apprentice, and then discard him, but then he showed he could in fact wield the keyblade, so I let him live, I gave him to Eraqus, and allowed him the opportunity to blossom and prove that he still had some worth."

Xehanort then took a long pause, breathing in slowly and deeply, as thunderclouds began to form around them, obscuring the land below from view. Then he finished his monologue, "The keyblade is a power that relies on emotion, or rather the control of one's emotions. Hence why I am one of the few who could use its full power, and why others always fall prey to darkness. I can control it, where as others are consumed by it. An outsider like you would not understand the nature of the Keyblade, let alone my motives."

But Merlin smirked, "Like I said, I've studied magic and swordplay long before you were unfortunate enough to be born. A keyblade just combines the basics of the two, so I've got a head-start over others."

Xehanort then gritted his teeth, "The basics, you say?" Then drew his Keyblade. Merlin summoned his own, and the two got into their battle stances. Then Xehanort said "Then let me show you just how BASIC this power is!" And the two clashed, the clang of their swords caused a powerful shockwave that cracked the mountain they stood on. The two traded more blows with their swords, neither of them overpowering the other. Then the two jumped back and relied on magic, with Xehanort hurling dark energy balls at his foe, while Merlin hurled balls of light. Their spells cancelled each other out in brilliant explosions of light and darkness.

Xehanort then shot a Blizzega spell at Merlin, who deflect it with his Keyblade. Merlin fired off a Thundaga spell, but Xehanort protected himself with Reflega. Then Xehanort waved his hand and summoned a swarm of Keyblades to fly and strike at Merlin, but Merlin opened a portal just before the keyblades swarm had struck him, then opened another portal beside him that sent the keyblades back towards Xehanort, who flung away the swarm with a swing of his own keyblade.

"Heh, not bad, wizard" Xehanort taunted, then teleported out of site, and then immediately teleported behind Merlin, attempted to freeze the wizard with his hand. But Merlin turned around and smacked Xehanort's hand with his staff, and then used his other hand to strike Xehanort with his Keyblade, but Xehanort blocked the attack with his own keyblade. The two struggled in place, staring into each other's eyes, before jumping back again.

Merlin and Xehanort both smiled at each other, then Xehanort said, "Ah, I haven't had this much fun in a long time. You may change my mind of you yet, wizard!" Then the two resumed their battle.

Ω

Sora, Kairi, and Riku faced the three younger aspects of Xehanort: Ansem (the heartless), Xemnas (the nobody), and young Xehanort. It was young Xehanort who spoke first, "The thirteen darknessess and seven lights have clashed nine times, yielding nine keys." He summoned 9 keys similar to the The Gazing Eye, before de-summoning them.

Xehanort's heartless spoke next, "We are four short, but those four keys will be produced here and now." Sora responded to the villain who first put him on the path he now is close to finishing, "Yeah, sure. And what makes you think there'd ever be any way we'd help you with that?"

Xemnas spoke next, "You forget that we planned for every eventuality. There are three pairs of us here, while our original fights the wizard above us."

Then it was Riku who spoke, "Even if you summon Kingdom Hearts, we will defeat you!"

Kairi spoke last, "And we will close it again!"

But Xemnas smiled, "Perhaps, that is… if you survive that long."

Then, the six rushed at each other, and began their battle.

Riku fought Xehanort's heartless, Sora fought Xemnas, and Kairi fought Young Xehanort.

Riku dodged Heartless-Xehanort's energy beams as he fired upon the boy while levitating in the air. Then Riku reached Xehanort to strike him, but Xehanort blocked with his hand, "It seems even now, you are drawn to me, Riku. In a way, I am the true architect of your destiny!" Riku grunted, "I find that hard to believe!" Then Riku backed away from Xehanort, who remained floating in the air, and spoke, "Ah, but if it wasn't for my true self's plans, Terra wouldn't have travelled to your world. If it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have realized your destiny, or your potential! And, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't have discovered him" he pointed behind Riku, who turned and saw Dark Riku from his past, walking towards him, smiling, and with the Soul Eater Keyblade in hand.

Riku grunted in frustration, "I conquered you!" But Dark Riku smiled, "As far as I'm concerned, not yet, you didn't!" Riku felt inside himself, and sensed the Dark Riku that he managed to get control over, then turned back to Heartless-Xehanort, "You won't trick me again, Xehanort!" But the fake Ansem replied with a grin, "Ah, but this is no trick."

Dark Riku struck Riku in the back, injuring him. Riku swung backwards, but missed, then Heartless-Xehanort fired red energy beams on Riku, injuring him further. Then Riku yelled in frustration, fired blindly at Heartless-Xehanort as cover fire, causing Xehanort to move back slightly, then Riku went for Dark Riku, and the two clashed. Heartless-Xehanort looked on at the two Rikus with a sadistic pleasure.

Kairi fought with Young Xehanort, who tried to toy with the girl by firing spells in all directions, watching as she tried to deflecting them with great effort, then tried to rush to her with a surprise attack while she was busy with the spells. But Kairi reacted in time with a counter, catching Young Xehanort off guard. She then activated Thundaga to deal damage to him as well as neutralize the other spells surrounding her. Young Xehanort shrugged off her attack, and remarked, "I must say, you impress me girl, but only slightly."

Kairi smirked at him, "After training with Merlin and Archer, both of whom taught me to deal with multiple attacks at once, and after training with Axel, who taught me to fight dirty, I think you'd do better than to underestimate me." Young Xehanort didn't know to keep smiling, or frown in her arrogance, but decided to keep smiling and rushed at her again.

This time using only his keyblade, he overwhelmed her with combos of swings and jabs, forcing Kairi on the defensive. As he stepped forward and attacked relentlessly, Kairi stepped backwards, trying to keep up with the man's furious onslaught. Kairi then noticed that he was backing her to the edge of the arena, which unlike the other arenas, was raised high above the ground. Once they reached the edge, Young Xehanort struck her with enough force that she fell to the ground, the two's keyblades locked in a struggle, with Kairi using both her hands to fend off Xehanort's single-handed swing. The young time traveler then grinned at the pinned girl, and asked, "What was it you said about not underestimating you?"

Then Kairi moved her head to the side, and de-summoned her Keyblade, allowing Xehanort's blade to cut the ground beside her head. Kairi then quickly re-summoned her Keyblade and struck Young Xehanort's side, injuring him gravely. The young time-traveller gushed blood from his mouth, then Kairi kicked him back with impressive force, nearly causing him to trip over and fall down. Kairi jumped back up, and resumed her battle stance. Young Xehanort wiped the blood from his mouth and cursed Kairi, "You bitch!" Kairi swung her keyblade in a provocative manner, then Young Xehanort struggled to regain his composure, and said, "But, impressive nonetheless."

Sora was deflecting Xemnas's ethereal blades, which he summoned all around Sora. When Sora got hit by a few, and realized he couldn't deflect them all, he used Reflega to wait out the rest, then dashed towards Xemnas to prevent him to summon more, but Xemnas had two red blades coming out of his hands, and blocked Sora's attack.

"You say your friends are your power" Xemnas bellowed with his deep voice "You then admit that you are nothing without others, why then do you fight me, when my end goal seeks to make everyone whole again?" Sora responded while grunting, "It's true, my friends are my power! But I don't leech off of them like you do. My strength now comes from all the bonds I've made over the years, and in return I fight to protect them!" Sora then pushes Xemnas back, who quickly recovers and enters a stance, then Sora continued, "I'm already whole. Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, Roxas, all of them, they are what complete me!"

Xemnas then stroked his chin with his free hand, "So then, it appears it wasn't an exaggeration to call you the Key that Connects All. Then all I need do is break your bonds, one link at a time, to bring you to your knees." He then fired off one ethereal blade at Kairi, and another at Riku, causing the two to fall down, while their opponents smile at their misfortune, and proceed to take advantage by pummeling them, keeping them down on the ground.

Sora looked at both his friends and yelled, "Stop it! Fight me, not them!" Xemnas responded, "It will take more than naïve talk to defeat me, Sora. Only when you conquer your weakness, when you decide to fully embrace yourself, including the darkness in your heart, will you then be able to defeat any foe that comes your way!" He fired off a few more blades to Riku and Kairi out of spite, and an enraged Sora pounced toward him. Xemnas blocked his attack, smiling at him, while leaving Kairi and Riku in difficult positions.

Young Xehanort continued to bear down on Kairi, and said "I believe you also said something about fighting dirty?" Kairi struggled to hold her own.

Riku was pinned down by Dark Riku, while Heartless-Xehanort stood behind him, preparing to shoot another energy beam. "And here I almost thought we were evenly matched" Dark Riku boasted, "but I guess not!" Dark Riku kept Riku pinned, so that he was unable to defend from Heartless-Xehanort's attack, then a large arrow struck Dark Riku, knocking him back towards Heartless-Xehanort. Riku grunted in surprise. Another arrow was fired at Young Xehanort, who's keyblade was knocked out of his hand, forcing him to step back before Kairi cut him down again. One more arrow was shot towards Xemnas, but was purposefully fired at enough of a distance to startle him. Then they all looked at the direction the arrows came from, and saw Archer in the distance, on top of one of the maze walls. Satisfied, he said, "There, that'll even the field now."

Frustrated, the three Xehanorts focused back on the kids. Heartless-Xehanort pushed Dark Riku aside, who began to disappear. Riku looked at Dark Riku and said, "I already conquered you, you don't belong here anyway." Then Dark Riku disappeared with an angry expression on his face. Riku then faced Heartless-Xehanort and said, "Now, where were we?" "Do not get cocky, boy!" Heartless-Xehanort said with hurt pride, "You still have darkness in your heart, enough for me to exploit at my leisure!" Riku provoked him, "Go ahead and try, then."

Heartless Xehanort fired an energy beam at Riku, who jumped up and struck down on Xehanort. The false Ansem teleported away, then reappeared behind Riku and smacked him hard on the head, causing Riku to fall down hard on the ground and make a small crater. Heartless-Xehanort then fired off more beams at Riku, who managed to recover quickly by rolling and jumping out of place. When Riku jumped out of the crater, he pointed his blade at Heartless-Xehanort and activated his shot-lock command. Before he had time to finish the lock-command, Heartless Xehanort conjured a red energy ball and threw it at Riku. Expecting him to take advantage of an opening like this, Riku instead used the command and zipped towards Xehanort, and unleashed a combo of strikes and jabs, severely injuring the false Ansem. Then Riku finished off with a sonic-blade combo, and finally finished the man who orchestrated his destiny with one final swing, ending up behind Xehanort with his head down and his blade in the air.

Heartless-Xehanort heaves and gasps as the damage to his body takes its toll, causing him to disappear. As he began to fade, Riku called out to him, "Ansem." Xehanort turns and faced Riku, and only now appreciates the growth that his greatest pawn has undergone, and answered, "What.. a journey you and I have had…" Riku reminisced as he spoke, "You know, it's strange. Part of me is thankful of you. You did show me the darkness, so that I could overcome it. You gave me the strength I needed to help my friends." Heartless-Xehanort felt compelled to agree with the boy, "Your strength is vaster than darkness. I now know that I never stood a chance. Part of me wanted to defy my fate…. But when the others betrayed us, I found I did not care. And then, nothing else seemed to matter anymore."

Riku started to feel a strange sense of pity for him, as he started to see him as what would have happened if Sora had not been there to bring Riku back from the darkness. Heartless-Xehanort noticed Riku's stare of pity and snapped, "What? Isn't it time you moved on, boy? There is more to seek… so go forth for now, and seek it…" and then, the false Ansem finally vanished. Riku took a deep breath, as if a massive weight had been lifted, and sighed.

Kairi was now on equal footing with Young Xehanort. The two swung at each other, their keyblades clashing and sparking with every encounter. Young Xehanort then summoned energy balls all around them, and the balls fired off beams towards Kairi. She dodged a few, then deflected some more, but then activated Reflega when she became overwhelmed. When her spell finished, Young Xehanort swung his Keyblade down on her, but she rolled out of the way. Still on the ground, she threw her keyblade at Young Xehanort, who casted it aside with a swing of his own keyblade. Kairi quickly resummoned her keyblade and threw it again, and again Young Xehanort cast it aside. Kairi summoned it a third time and appeared to throw it again, with Young Xehanort now prepared to catch her Keyblade instead. But Kairi did nothing and smirked, with started the young time traveler. Then it began to glow beneath where Young Xehanort stood, and he saw that Kairi had activated the Mine Square spell, one directly underneath him, and two more where he deflected her keyblade. Kairi snapped her fingers and the mines exploded, tossing Young Xehanort in the air. Kairi activated her shot-lock command and fired off the spell Prism Rain, launching multi-colored energy projectiles from her Keyblade and hurled them towards Young Xehanort, who was helpless in the air and took every single one of the projectiles.

Finally, his body fell back to the ground, as Kairi rose back up and stood above him. Young Xehanort let out a maniacal laugh. "Something funny?" Kairi asked. "I told Sora a while ago, there is a high price to pay for all of this." Kairi, keeping her calm, responded the provocation, "For you, maybe. As someone who travelled out of his own time and messed around, I can't imagine things looking to well for you." Young Xehanort stood up as he started to fade. "I need not worry, I'll go back to my time, and live out my life. You enjoy this small victory, but the boy you care for, he's done now. His journey ends here." Kairi started losing her composure, but tried to hold out against him, "Not unless we beat you up there. Then you'll just grow up and continue living a cycle of failure, over and over again." "Fool" the young time traveler began to utter out, "his time in this world is-" but vanished before he could finish his provocative line. Standing there alone now, Kairi hated to admit it, but his last words stung, despite losing to her.

Xemnas spun around in place, his blade strikes pushing Sora back. But Sora aerial-recovered and dove back towards Xemnas. The two swung their blades at each other, performing complex acrobatics as they tried to cut the other down, but their speed seemed equal. Still the two persisted to cut the other down, unsatisfied with whatever spell could turn the tide in either of their favor. Xemnas summersaulted with his blades, turning him into some kind of saw and hurled himself at Sora, who managed to defend against Xemna's violent maneuver. Xemnas then spun horizontally while his blades were held outward, and again rushed to Sora, who moved out of the way and ridirected the blades as Xemnas spun past him. As soon as Xemna's attack showed signs of ending, Sora dove to him and struck him while his back was still turned. Sora then hit Xemnas with 5-6 more swings of the keyblade, then ended his combo with an aeroga attack. While Xemnas was suspended in the wind vortex, Sora activated Square Mine. Once all the magical mines were summoned, Sora controlled the wind vortex to fly over each of them, Xemnas catching the full brunt of their explosions. As soon as the two spells finished, Sora ended the fight with one last Firaga spell, igniting Xemnas as he fell to the ground.

Now on fire, Xemnas began to fade, and looked at his body to see if he could feel the burns, but he felt nothing. While the Keyblade can cause nobodies to feel physical harm, Xemnas barely felt the heat of the flames, if at all. And he realized he didn't even feel disappointment, or sorrow at his loss. "Bested… yet again…" he uttered in a jaded voice.

As if he sensed Xemnas' dilemma of lacking emotions, Sora called out to him, "I know that you have a heart. What do you feel? What is worth it?" Xemnas looked up at Sora, and saw in the boy's eyes that he tried to reach the Nobody, and he could not help but find him curious. Then he answered Sora, "I feel…. the emptiness where my companions once stood. I took them for granted. And now I have… nothing. My first surge of emotion in years… for as long as I can remember… and it's…. loneliness. Do you see? A heart is just pain." Xemnas turned away from him as he accepts his fate.

Sora continued to call out to him, "Pain is being human, Xemnas." Then the Nobody turned his head slightly toward Sora, and when he got another look at the boy's eyes, still genuine in their effort to reach him, Xemnas, for the first time, gave a genuine smile. Not one of malice or boast during a fighit, but one of appreciation and admiration. "Really?" He responded for the last time, "It must take… incredible strength." And Xemnas was no more.

With a long sigh, Sora closed his eyes, absorbed the moment, and opened them again. His heart still beating fast, he stood there for a moment. Then he heard Riku and Kairi calling his name. He turned to his right and saw Kairi running to him, and to his left Riku. When they both reached him, Sora hugged Kairi, and extended a hand to Riku. "I always knew the three of us could handle it" Riku stated with pride. "I never knew how much I was able to do until the time came" Kairi said with a surprised tone. "I only regret I couldn't do this much earlier." "I always knew" Sora responded, which cheered Kairi up. "I've always known how strong you both were. Even though I didn't want to leave the island like you two did, I didn't want to be away from you either. At the time, I just hoped I could get strong enough in time to keep up with both of you and to be of use to you." Kairi caressed Sora's face, and the two hugged again. Riku looked at them both, happy that they finally got the courage to admit their feelings for each other.

Ω

Above them, Master Xehanort and Merlin fought like two Gods of opposing forces. Merlin proved himself to Xehanort, who no longer looked down on the wizard who only recently officially joined the ranks of Keyblade Wielders. But then Master Xehanort sensed the other battles concluded, and ceased fighting the white wizard.

Merlin looked at him with curiosity, but kept his guard up. Master Xehanort then motioned his hand and cleared away the clouds, as he wanted the survivors to see the source of their impending demise. The force of wind caused by his will was strong enough to be felt by everyone present. Then Sora, Kairi, and Riku looked up and saw Xehanort and Merlin. Xehanort then spoke aloud, "Twelve keys we have now." And Xehanort summoned the twelve keys behind him, six on either side, then resumed, "Leaving just one more!" As the three kids and Merlin grunted, Xehanort pointed his own Keyblade skyward and fired a beam through the clouds high above. Then those clouds parted as well, revealing Kingdom Hearts in all its glory. Sora and the rest looked on in despair, as Xehanort addressed the boy specifically, "Now, Sora. Darkness and light's final clash." He then looks around at the survivors with an ominous grin, "Who shall be the lucky finalist?" Merlin, not liking what Xehanort was up to, proceeded to put an end to Xehanort, but the old keyblade Master hurled his 12 keys at the wizard, and bound Merlin inside them. Merlin tried to teleport out, then break out, but found he could not do so. "What kind of power is this?" the wizard cried out desperately. Sensing he could not take the Merlin's heart without risking another prolonged fight, Xehanort went down to terrorize the young keyblade wielders. He went for Kairi, who failed to react in time, but Sora and Riku both jumped in and blocked Xehanort's blade.

With little effort, Xehanort shoved the two boys aside, with Sora landing on Kairi, and Riku off to the side. He then looked at the two helpless and exhausted warriors. "Shall it be you then?" He said, pointing at Sora, "or perhaps you?" and pointed at Riku. As the three tried to get up, he cast Thundaga, injuring and incapacitating them. Xehanort then walked towards Riku, saying "You were the first since Terra that I possessed, perhaps it'll be fitting if you are the one to provide the thirteenth Keyblade!" He swung his sword high over the helpless Riku, and then swung back down, only to be blocked not by one, but two blades.

Xehanort blinked and saw that Terra and Aqua had interrupted his blow, and managed to let out a laugh, "Hehehehe! So you two relics managed to be of some use after all?" Terra grunted, "Who are you calling a RELIC!" And pushed him back, not that Xehanort was trying to resist, as he floated back down to the ground. Terra and Aqua both walked towards him, with Terra yelling, "You have caused us nothing but pain after all this time! After what you did to Eraqus, to Aqua, to Ventus, and to everyone here, THIS IS WHERE YOU'LL END!" "I'd like to see you try" Xehanort boasted.

Terra and Aqua swung their keyblades, but Xehanort deflected them both one after the other with little effort. Terra swung his blade again, but Xehanort dodged. Aqua thrusted her keyblade, but Xehanort directed it with his own. Then she went for his foot, but he raised it, and shot at her with a dark energy ball from his hand. Terra then raised his keyblade over his head, and swung down on Xehanort, who effortlessly blocked it, then fired another dark energy ball at Terra, sending him back. Now five Keyblade wielders lay on the ground, and Xehanort felt spoiled at his choices. "Unless anyone else wants to join in on this raffle, I'll go ahead and choose one of-" but he sensed a projectile heading towards him with great speed, and turned to deflect it with his keyblade. It was Archer, and as he prepared another arrow, Xehanort cast Thundaga, forcing Archer to jump out of the way.

Before Xehanort could follow up with another attack, Mikey jumped onto the arena and rushed at Xehanort. The King had more skill than most other wielders, and was actually better than Merlin as far as swordplay, so Xehanort had to take Mickey seriously. The King jumped and spun around the old man, barely giving Xehanort an opportunity to pin him down with any attacks or spells. Xehanort was forced on the defensive until he decided to teleport to a safe distance, causing Mickey to miss an attack, disorienting him. When Mickey recovered, he saw Xehanort standing at the other side of the arena, and with a hand motion, summoned a swarm of keyblades that flew towards Mickey.

Mickey jumped and avoided every key that tried to strike him. "Hmm, you've got speed, I'll give you that" Xehanort observed, "but how much longer can you keep that up, little king?" With another hand motion, Xehanort summoned more and more keys, and Mickey saw that there was too many to safely avoid. Mickey then stood firm, held his Keyblade before him, and prepared for the onslaught. Xehanort smirked and unleashed the barrage of blades onto Mickey, who defiantly deflected as well as dodged as many as he could. Then one keyblade scratched him, but Mickey kept going. Then another keyblade got him, then another, and another, and Mickey's movements got slower. Eventually Mickey got hit by a salvo of blades, and fell to the ground unconscious. Then Xehanort walked towards the knocked-out King, "I knew Yen Sid a bit, he taught you well, little King. He would be proud if he could see you now."

From behind him, two voices cried out the King's name, "Mickey!" Xehanort groaned and turned, seeing Donald and Goofy prepared to fight for the King. Xehanort slowly turned to face the two, and Donald screeched, "ZETAFLARE" and a massive beam of energy erupted from Donald's staff, and fired toward's Xehanort, who let out a surprised look as the Duck displayed more power than expected. Xehanort shouted, "REFLEGA!" and withstood the attack, being pushed back in the process. Then the attack finished, Xehanort deactivated his barrier, and took notice at how far back the Duck's spell pushed him, and gave an acknowledging nod. Donald was clearly fatigued from the spell, and began to wobble in place. Xehanort shot Firaga at Donald, but Goofy stepped in front and blocked the attack. Xehanort casually fired few more Firagas just to see Goofy desperately defend Donald. When he reached Goofy, he casually swung his Keyblade upward, sending Goofy crashing into Donald, and knocked them both out.

Turning back to the arena, Xehanort sighed, "Now then, if that'll be all-" but then Archer fired another arrow at the man, causing Xehanort to grumble in pain. Deciding to finish him off personally, Xehanort teleport to Archer instead, catching the Archer slightly by surprise, and said to him, "You know, I'm really getting tired of you." "The feeling's mutual" Archer replied, and summoned his swords to block Archer's attack, which knocked him off the maze wall and down onto the ground.

Xehanort then jumped down to meet Archer, who got up and held his blades toward Xehanort. The old keyblade master laughed and asked, "Why are you here? I can understand the little King's subjects, but you're no keyblade wielder, and if I sensed it right, you don't even belong in this era, so what's your story?" Archer then stood straight and de-summoned his blades before answering, "I was summoned here by Merlin, he felt my abilities were appropriate for training the kids." Then he held his hands out towards Xehanort and said, "As for me not having a keyblade, Trace On!" Archer's spell traced Xehanort's keyblade, and then one appeared in Archer's hand. Seeing this slightly startled Xehanort, and Archer rushed toward him and attacked. Archer blocked the attack, but the force still caused a crater to form underneath Xehanort, which surprised him a little more. Archer then said again, "Trace On!" and traced another keyblade from the graveyard nearby, and in his other hand appeared another keyblade.

With Xehanort still below him, Archer swung as furiously as he could at the old man, burying him further into the crater. Xehanort was done playing with the archer, and cast Thundaga to get Archer to move out of the way. Jumping out of the crater, Xehanort then cast FIraga, then Blizzaga, then Waterga. Archer dodged the first two, than casted the barrier spell Rho Aias on the third since he didn't have time to avoid it. It was here that Xehanort smiled, his suspicions confirmed, and said, "Ah, so you can't actually use any Keyblade abilities. Your copies are impressive, but nonetheless hollow imitations."

He then motioned his hand and called upon another swarm of keyblades unto Archer, who dodged until he was forced up to the arena where the others were. Xehanort taunted Archer before continuing, "Running away now? Out of options, are you?" Archer was actually low on magic, but gritted his teeth and decided to meet Xehanort's taunt, "Trace On!" and copies of the keyblades from the swarm Xehanort made appeared behind them. Xehanort looked on, then laughed and said, "Ha! Fine then, let's see how they hold up!" and hurled his Keyblades at Archer, who in turned directed his replica keyblades at Xehanort. Their blades clashed in the air, and as Xehanort called upon more blades, Archer struggled to copy them. Eventually Xehanort had more blades than Archer, and he overwhelmed the archer with blades, the injuries knocking him out.

Xehanort gave out another long sigh, looked around, trying to see if anyone else was going to interrupt him. Then he looked up at Merlin, his face with anger and helplessness. Xehanort then looked down and decided to strike the first person he saw, which in this case, was Kairi. Sora, too weak to fend him off, held on to Kairi tightly, as they both held their keyblades helplessly before Xehanort. He then casually moved the blades aside, and said to them, "It'll go over a whole lot faster if you didn't resist." But he felt them resisting his blade. "No? Fine then"

But a fire pillar erupted between them, causing Xehanort to bend backward and move back. The fire pillar then vanished, "Ok, NOW who?!" Xehanort turned and saw Axel and Roxas standing before him. Xehanort looked at Axel, then at Roxas, and couldn't help but laugh maniacally, "HA HA HA ha ha ha haaa! Oh my, so we meet again after all this time, eh, my former apprentice?" he asked Roxas, who to him was Ventus. "I was always disappointed in you, you, who could never live up to the expectations of your predecessor, who couldn't even summon a keyblade until near-death, and couldn't even defend your friends back then."

"Hey, you leave him alone, you old bastard!" Axel yelled out. Xehanort then turned to Axel, having already forgotten he was there, as Axel continued, "You don't get to talk to him like that, you shouldn't even get to LOOK at him like that! This boy has gone through more trouble than he ever deserved, and part of it was my fault! If there's one thing I won't stand for, it's YOU speaking to him that way!"

Xehanort then looked back at Ventus (Roxas) and asked sarcastically, "Is that true? Have you really gone through so much? Did you actually experience pain and misery that might actually have made you grow some backbone?"

Roxas stared at his old master, remembering the abuse, both verbal and physical, that he endured from that man. This man would later manipulate him in another life, when the two both had become nobodies. "No matter where I go, no matter who's live I'm living, it seems you're always there to torture me" Roxas said, "You nearly killed me while trying to get me summon a Keyblade, but here I am. You nearly had me killed again when you got the X-blade, but here I am. You tried using me then discard me when we were in the Organization, but here I am." Tears started forming in Roxas's eyes, "After all this time, you've called me weak, failure, and disappointment, but here I am now, Master!"

Xehanort smiled at him and said, "Indeed you are. Now, let's see how strong you've become!" He teleported to Roxas and swung his Keyblade at him. Roxas blocked Xehanort's attack but was pushed back. Axel then swung at Xehanort, but the old man straightened up and casually avoided the attack, then punched Axel in the face with his free hand, knocking him down. Xehanort prepared to fire a dark energy ball at Axel, but Roxas came back with a vengeance and swung both his Keyblades at Xehanort relentlessly. Xehanort blocked his attacks, smiling at Roxas, who's face was full of anger. Roxas then summoned pillars of light and swung down on Xehanort, who jumped back and avoided the light pillars. Then Xehanort rushed towards Roxas with another swing of his keyblade, but Roxas slid around Xehanort and lunged at him. Xehanort blocked Roxas's blades with his own, then proceeded to fire a dark energy ball, but Axel swung his blade hard on Xehanort's head, knocking the old man back. Xehanort wiped a drop of blood from his head, and looked back at the two boys, now standing side-by-side and ready to fight some more.

Xehanort wiped the blood drop from his hand, and allowed the two boys to rush at him. He dodged and blocked their keyblade strikes with little effort, despite their impressive speed. He teleported behind them and tried to strike Roxas, but Axel blocked the attack, allowing Roxas to retaliate. Xehanort blocked Roxas's blades with his free hand, but Roxas still managed to cut Xehanort's arm a bit, causing him to bleed again. Furious, Xehanort then grabbed Roxas by the neck and threw him around to the ground. Axel gasped and tried to attack Xehanort again, but Xehanort kneed Axel in the gut, and then kicked him back. Then Xehanort turned to Roxas, who was still on the ground, and swung his keyblade down on him. Roxas tried to block the attacks, but after enough blows, Xehanort knocked both of Roxas's keybades out of his hands, and then used the tip of his keyblade to slap Roxas across the face, and knock him down.

Roxas, now lying on the ground, panting and bleeding, opened his eyes and looked upon his old master, who held his blade up with both hands, ready to stab his former pupil. "Well well, you did get somewhat stronger, but more importantly, you might actually be of some use to me after all." Roxas, accepting his fate, despite realizing that Xehanort's condescending smile would be the last thing he'd see, closed his eyes. Xehanort then bore his keyblade down on the boy, and the sound of keyblade piercing flesh is heard.

Roxas opened his eyes, not feeling the blade pierce his body, and saw that Axel, who rushed to his aid, had taken the blade instead. Roxas looked on at his friend, horrified, trying to say his name. "A….Ax…" Axel then turned his head back toward Roxas, and said with a strain in his voice, "It seems….I finally….made it up to you…..buddy….." The tears in Roxas's eyes now came pouring down his face, then Then Xehanort pulled the keyblade from his body, and before Roxas could catch his friend in his arms, Axel disappeared into light, leaving Roxas empty and alone. The other gasped in horror.

Xehanort stood there to watch his former pupil, as Roxas clenched his fists and smashed the ground, wailing and yelling louder than he ever has. Finally, Xehanort said, "Hmm, you were useless after all. You couldn't even give me the pleasure of using you for my final keyblade." Roxas looked up at Xehanort with fury and vengeance, but Xehanort summoned his thirteenth keyblade from Axel's sacrifice, and used it to knock Roxas out. Then Xehanort floated back up to where Merlin was.

"It doesn't matter though" Xehanort continued, "Because now…the Keyblade War will finally reach its conclusion!" He called to him the other keyblades that held Merlin in place, and they all levitated around Xehanort. Expecting Merlin to attack, Xehanort surrounded himself with swarms upon swarms of other keyblades. Even if Merlin teleported in, he'd have to defend or avoid the blades that spiraled around Xehanort. Merlin then stood there in frustration, and prepared for whatever Xehanort had planned.

Xehanort then pointed his own keyblade toward Kingdom Hearts, and watched it transform into the powerful X-Blade of legend. The X-Blade was far larger than other keyblades. This blade had two Kingdom Keys crossing each other in an X fasion, their teeth pointed out, and shiny green wings coming off of them. Above where the two keys crossed, a glowing yellow blade of impressive length rose up, with a hollow point in the middle where another smaller blade erected underneath. The handle for the blade was where the two Kingdom Key handles met.

Xehanort breathed sigh of satisfaction, "Ahh, the X-blade is complete! Kingdom Hearts! I call upon your true form. Open now and show me the World to come." As the others looked on helplessly, Kingdom Hearts became enveloped in darkness. The sky darkened, and dark meteors fell off from where Kingdom Hearts loomed over the land.

Sora and Kairi held each other, Riku and the others looked on with awe, and Roxas looked back down in sorrow. Terra and Aqua looked at their friend in sorrow, and started to go to him. Then Merlin jumped down and landed beside Roxas, starting Terra and Aqua, but Roxas didn't seem to notice. Merlin then placed a hand on the boy and said, "Hey, don't give up." Roxas looked up and saw the White Wizard, somehow looking as if he's glowing in spite of the situation, with his hand extended. Roxas accepted his hand, and Merlin pulled him up and patted his back. "You're still here, as are they" and he pointed at all of his other friends who looked at him supportively as they each stood up. "Xehanort's gonna act cocky and sloppy now, which gives us the chance to recuperate, and then he'll get what he deserves." He looked at Roxas with a smile, but Roxas still wasn't entirely convinced. Then Merlin touched Roxas's chin and raised it back up and said, "You are a lot stronger than Xehanort ever was. You denied the darkness, and embraced your friends. You fought your way back, despite your body having slept for over a decade. And after this battle is over, you'll be the one standing, not Xehanort." This finally cheered Roxas up a little, and Merlin gently shoved Roxas to Terra and Aqua, who embraced him, and he them. Roxas uttered their names, "Terra….Aqua…" and let them comfort him. He wiped his tears, sniffed, then grunted and nodded, indicating he's still in the fight.

Everyone smiled, and Merlin nodded in approval. Then they all looked upwards, and Aqua commented, "He did it, he opened Kingdom Hearts." Not letting this disturb him, Merlin shouted, "Alright then, Curaga!" With that, everyone else's wounds were completely healed. He then used a mega-elixir, restoring their magic as well. "Alright then, let's stop Xehanort!" They all looked at him in wonder, and Sora asked, "How? He controls Kingdom Hearts now." Before Merlin could answer, Riku said to him "You? Worried?" Sora looked at him, then Mickey followed up, "We've still got one hope!"

"What hope?" Sora asked. Riku responded, "It's Xehanort" causing Sora to look at him in puzzlement, but Riku continued, "During the mark of mastery exam, we learned that he can transcend space and time. He's a portal. And we can use that to trap him." Mickey nodded and followed up, "But it won't be easy. Aqua, Riku, Merlin, I'll need your help if we're gonna push Xehanort out of this world."

"Understood" acknowledged Aqua. "I'm at your disposal, your highness" Merlin said with a bow. Then Sora said, "Wait! I'll do it." "What?" Riku said in surprise. Sora continued, "Kingdom Hearts is a much bigger threat! Let me handle Xehanort… while you guys keep it shut." Mickey reluctantly grunted in acknowledgement, while Merlin and the rest nodded, except Kairi and Riku, who walked up to him, with Kairi holding Sora's hand, and Riku putting his hand on Sora's shoulder. "We'll stand a better chance of three of us go in." Riku said, then Kairi said, "Or did you forget our promise that we made?" Sora looked at both of them, and seeing their confident faces lessened the tension in his heart. Sora sighed and nodded, smiling at his closest friends.

He then turned to face everyone else and said, "We've got this!" They all nodded again, this time with more hope. Before the three kids left, Donald and Goofy walked up to Sora. "You sure you don't us to come too?" Goofy asked. "Who else will heal you when you need it most?" Donald screeched. Sora then got to his knees and said to them, "I'll need you guys here, to pull us in when we come back." With a smile, the two loyal companions hugged Sora, and he hugged them back. For a moment, they stayed like that, then the two let Sora go, and watched him as he, Kairi, and Riku marched towards Kingdom Hearts.

"Let's move" Terra said to the others, "The darkness is spreading." Hearing him, Sora and his friends summoned their keyblades, then everyone else summoned their keyblades too. Then all the keyblade wielders pointed their blades to Kingdom Hearts, while Donald, Goofy, and Archer looked on. Beams came out of their keyblades, and in unison, struck Master Xehanort, who grunted in shock, before being pushed into Kingdom Hearts. Then the heart-shaped moon began to glow, and the three islanders jumped into the light into the World beyond.