Second Chance.

Note: Here's the final chapter, and after this, a sequal shall be made! Let's go! I do not own Kingdom Hearts.


CH9: Reunion.

In a flash and a blink of an eye, Sora, Riku, Lea, Donald and Goofy suddenly found themselves back with Mickey and Kairi on the Altar of Naught. All of them then held onto their weapons, as Xemnas, dying and weakened, unable to believe that he wa defeated, and he no strength or ability to recover himself, collasped onto his knees, and held onto his chest, losing his strength.

"Cursed...Keyblades...I need...more rage...more hearts..." he muttered to himself, furious.

While Lea was attempting to tell his former leader to shut up, Sora beats him to it, but the latter instead explained, as though he felt sorry for him. "Xemnas," Sora began, "There's more to a heart than just anger or hate. It's full of all kinds of feelings." before asking, "Don't you remember?"

"Unfortunately...I don't." was Xemnas' final words, as he faded away completely, and that's when Lea knew, that Xemnas was gone for good. It was finally over.

As he sighed while he and the others put away their weapons, Sora, Kairi, Donald and Goofy were celebrating, and Mickey praised them happily. Riku on the other hand, just walked over to a railing, staring out into the dark distance. Lea just stood there, glancing at the ground. He should be celebrating himself, but he wasn't. Now that it was all over, Lea had nothing else to do. His friends and family were gone, and he commited too many crimes.

'How am I ever supposed to atone for that?' he thought to himself.

In the meantime, after Mickey congratulated them, Sora noticed where Riku was, and approached his best friend, happy that he has his friends back, and now that they can all finally go home. The teen wouldn't have dreamed for anything better than this.

"You're coming back with us, right?" Sora asked with a smile.

But Riku, having similiar feelings like Lea, replied, feeling guilty for his own actions, "I had given in to the darkness."

"Riku!" Sora gasped.

"How'm I gonna face everyone?" Riku demanded as he turned around, only for Sora to have his hands on his cheeks.

"Like this!" the latter replied as he comically squishes his face in, making his eyes go into different directions, and having the most stupidest expression out.

Unable to hold himself, and remembering how such a comic relief Sora was, Riku tried to hold in his smirk, but in the end, ended up bursting into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Lea asked, hearing Riku laugh, before curiously walking over, and when he saw Sora's expression, even the redhead couldn't resist and he bursted into a loud laughter, as Sora lets go of his own face, smirking that he managed to make two depressed guys laugh, making them both feel a bit better.

Suddenly a large quake shook the castle violently, and everyone glanced around, before it stopped. They realised that with Xemnas gone, the Castle that Never Was was collasping. The others approached the trio and Mickey exclaimed, "Hurry!"

"I'll open a path." Riku declared as he held out his hand, concentrating. But nothing happened. He looked at his hand in shocked confusioned, and Lea realised that not only the boy got his body back, but the last power of Xehanort's heartless has been destroyed as well.

Mickey seemed to have the same idea, because he answerd Riku's unasked question, "You don't belong in the dark realm anymore, Riku."

"But how do we get outta here, you majesty?" Donald asked, worried.

"Hmm..." Mickey thought, realising this and felt a bit silly as he didn't think about that. 'Oops.' he thought.

Lea thought about it, and, worried for his own dark powers, suggested, "Maybe I can, hopefully, but don't hold your breath, guys." getting everyone else's attentions, as he turned to face where Kingdom Hearts once was(and is now gone), and held up his hand, closing his eyes and concentrated.

'Please let this work.' he thought to himself. At first, nothing happened, but when he opened his eyes again, mentally panicking, from his hand, a swift of darkness appeared and a portal opened up, leading them out of this place. He and the others sighed in relief.

"It worked, Axel!" Goofy cheered.

Lea flinched, but then decided to forget about it. Turning, he nodded to the group, and said, "Better get goin'." before all of the sudden, a familiar dog appeared out of nowhere, and Lea jumped out of the way to avoid the mutt, remembering how this dog was with Kairi, also remembering that Xion adopted it at one stage. Suddenly it made sense to Lea on why Pluto licked him on the face back at Destiny Islands.

It also made sense that the dog belonged to Mickey, because the King was happy to see his beloved pet again, hugging the dog's head, saying, "Aww, Pluto! I missed you too, pal!" allowing Pluto to lick his face, before the dog ran around happily in circles, nearly knocking Mickey(who yelped happily) and Donald(who grumbled, "Hey!") before entering the portal, not once attack Lea who sighed in relief.

"Well," Lea began awkwardly, "Now I know where the pooch came from." scratching the back of his head, messing up his hair even further. Nobody even noticed that Sora's body was strangely glowing, as did Kairi's.

"Wait for me!" Goofy cried out as he ran into the portal, not wanting to be left behind. Mickey then also ran in, followed by Donald.

Nodding to himself, Lea didn't move, as Sora, Riku and Kairi approached but stopped by his side, looking up at him.

"You're coming with us too?" Sora asked.

To his surprise, Lea gave Sora a sad smile and replied, "Nah, you guys go on ahead. I'm staying."

"What?!" the three teenagers gasped.

"Why?" Kairi cried out.

Lea shrugged, answering, "I got nothin' left. So, what's the point?"

"But you just got your heart back." Sora pointed out.

"It still doesn't change a thing now." Lea continued, "Besides, I won't be able to atone for all I've done. So, I'm letting you guys head back home, while I stay here, just in case something else happens."

Sora, Riku and Kairi all glanced at each other, before Sora looked back at Lea and said, "That's not gonna happen. Besides, I seriously don't think Roxas would want that. If anything, I think he wants you to come with us anyway."

"He's you." Lea reminded, even though he wanted to agree with Sora that Roxas was his own person as well.

"No." Sora shook his head, "I'm me and he's him. I just...I just wish I can help him, make him his own person, and...other than that, during the battle with Xemnas, I kept on seeing visions of a girl who looks just like Kairi but with black hair, and from what I understand, I want to help her too."

Riku blinked in surprise, as he muttered, "How can you see Xion?" while he was surprised even further that during the battle, he too remembered Xion.

"What? You remember her too?" Lea asked, shocked as he glanced at Riku who nodded and replied, "It was during the battle with Xemnas."

Kairi looked at the three males and asked curiously, "Who's Xion?"

"She's..." Lea began slowly, "She's Sora's replica, created by the Organization to hold onto Sora's memories while he was asleep to get his memories back with Namine's help. It's a long story, but like Roxas, Xion began to form emotions and memories of her own." then stated, "There's not much time. Now go." knowing that time was running out.

"Axel...I mean, Lea..." Sora whispered.

However, just before anyone could say anything else, Lea's dark portal suddenly closed, and just as the group began to panic, in it's place, was a corridor of bright light appeared out of nowhere, and it became so bright that all four of them had to cover their eyes, and, as another figure approached, she too had to cover her eyes, and the next thing they knew, they were swallowed into the door to light.


He didn't know how long he was passed out, but as he began to regain consciousness, Lea could hear the sound of the ocean waves, the squaks of the seagulls, and could feel the salty but refreshing see air. Was he dreaming? Was he in the next life?

Blinking his eyes open, Lea held up a hand over his eyes to block out the setting sunlight, before sitting up slowly, just in time to see Sora, Riku and Kairi get up and being hugged in an reunion with King Mickey, Donald and Goofy, all of them smilling as they, and Lea, all realised that they were on Destiny Islands-Sora and Riku's home world, and the home Kairi grew up in.

"We-we're back!" Sora said happily to Kairi who also smiled, and the latter replied, "You're home." and in an embrace, Sora handed Kairi back her good charm just as he promised a year ago.

Lea couldn't help but smile at the reunion, then decided to stay out of it and just continued to sit on the sand as he gazed out at the ocean, having always wanted to come here. This place, while small, was more beautiful than he ever imagined.

He could feel Sora and the others then turn to him, but as they did, they gasped in confusion, which caught his attention as he turned to see their surprised expressions, which made him confused as he quirked an eyebrow. "What?" he asked.

"Axel?" came a familiar voice right next to him to his right, and Lea's eyes widened. Could it be? No, it couldn't...

Quickly turning, his eyes widened even further, feeling so many emotions mixing up inside his heart. Standing up and looking again, Lea couldn't believe what he was seeing. Standing in front of him, was a familiar blonde-haired boy, in his normal clothes, a girl in a white dress and blonde hair and sandles, and finally, a girl around fourteen, just like Kairi except that her hair was black, and she was wearing an organization coat like Lea was, and the three teens were just as shocked as the others.

Unable to do anything, all Lea could mutter was, "...Am I really dreaming?" hoping against hope that this was real.

"I'm not sure." Roxas replied, feeling sheepish, but he did say, "Though I think we have an idea on how this happened." glancing behind Lea to notice Sora who, along with his friends, approached and continued to stare in shock.

"We think it's because that you remembered us, and whatever happened to Ansem that somehow gave you the ability to help Sora and Kairi to keep their human forms and stay whole, while you remembered Xion with Riku's help, and when Xemnas disappeared, Sora's heart opened the door to light, and..." Namine trailled off.

"And made you guys...human?" Sora asked.

"We have our own hearts now." Xion nodded.

Lea's mind was swirling into so many questions, but he didn't know where to start. To think that this was actually happening was too good to be true. Instead, he opted to approach the three former Nobodies and wrapped his arms around the three of them, and startling them. They didn't disappear. They were real.

Realising this, Lea began to choke, falling to his knees and just continued to hug Roxas, Namine and Xion, crying. He couldn't say anything. He just couldn't.

Until he managed to say, "I'm sorry...I'm sorry." as he knew that he put all three of them into danger.

Instead of replying, Roxas, Namine and Xion, also all tearing up, hugged Lea in return, the four of them finally reunited, and Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald and Goofy all smiled, happy that Lea not only had gotten his heart back, but Roxas, Namine and Xion, against all odds, were made human.

All four of them were given a second chance.


Meanwhile, in the Realm of Darkness, Aqua, who, for eleven long years, continued to wonder trapped, unable to escape, but surprisingly, she still looked the same as she had been before she sacrificed herself to save Terra. She reached a river, and noticed a bottle near the shore.

Curious, she approached it, picked it up and shook out what appears to be a letter and read it.

"Think of you wherever you are." Aqua read.

"We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.

Now I will step forward to realize this wish.

And who knows: Starting a new journey may not be so hard or maybe it has

already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky-one sky,

one destiny.

-Kairi."

Aqua's eyes teared up as she held the letter close to her heart. She knew that the letter is for someone important, but she remembered Kairi when the latter was a four year old little girl in Radient Garden.

"Kairi...I'm so glad that you're still safe." the blue-haired woman said. Nodding, the Keyblade master continued on, with another new determination to find a way back to the Realm of Light, no matter how long it took.

What she, and the others in the Realm of Light were unaware of, was that the threat of their greatest enemy was only just beginning.

TO BE CONTINUED...


And that's the end of part one of this new series. The adventures of our heroes continue in the next story, which, my friends, I shall give to you, titled, "Second Life", and more suprises shall be revealed next time. Continue those reviews, and I shall see you again in the sequel.

So farewell but not goodbye! Oh, and let's also be excited for the preview of the new Kingdom Hearts 3 video sometime this month before christmas!