A/N: You know what's sad? I'm losing count of the chapters. xD Laziness is causing me to slack on my schoolwork, but not this fanfiction. Something tells me that I need to get my priorities straight... xD
So I made Yuffie depressed. Yes, Yuffie, who thought that it could be possible?
Anyway, uhm, I don't own Kingdom Hearts. Kay? Kay.
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"I somehow don't think that you should be fighting." Ceron told Nalani as he unsheathed his long-sword again. Axel was eager to meet Saïx first in the fight; He and Saïx had quite the history.
"I can handle it." Was Nalani's blunt reply as she ran forward with her staff. Ceron's hand caught her left wrist and stopped her from getting far. She must have looked very angry and annoyed because when Ceron looked into her eyes, his grip loosened up a little.
"You know what a very cruel way to win this battle would be?" asked Quince as he hurled his Keyblade at Sora.
"What's that?" Sora replied as he caught Maybe Memories and slashed at Saïx with both of the Keyblades.
"To freeze time and beat up Saïx from there." Quince stated, catching Maybe Memories as it was returned to him. He quickly held up said Keyblade to block Saïx's claymore.
"What a shame," The blue-haired man said, pressing the large weapon against Quince's smaller one. "You don't seem to realize that most Nobodies possess this power." He took the claymore off, and swung at Quince's side, causing him to fly across the room.
"Quince!" Stefa exclaimed as she ran forward to take his spot in the fray. She swung the Cherry Blossom Keyblade and then Shadow Heart. Not really to hurt the Nobody, but more or less to piss him off, Nalani began to cast thunder spells that zapped only Saïx's feet. This also was a great distractor that allowed Axel to trap Saïx inside a ring of fire that reached up to the ceiling. The group backed off, admiring the man's work.
"That takes the cake." Roxas stated as he pounded his fist against his best friend's.
"I'm not so sure that was a good idea, Axel," Naminé murmured pessimistically. Both Axel and Roxas turned to look at her. Axel scratched the top of his head.
"Why's that? Saïx can't escape!"
"But he can make the fire spread." Sora said in a sing-song voice; It would have been weirder for him to do this had he not been wearing the purple and turquoise outfit with a flower drawn on his cheek...
"Huh?" Was the only thing Axel said as Saïx swung his claymore, sending out a gust of wind. Now, instead of just the small section with Saïx trapped, fire had jumped to other parts of the room, ashes flying through the air.
"That's happy." Nalani muttered, casting a Watera spell on Kairi's skirt, which had caught fire in the back.
"Thanks." The redheaded Princess said as she brushed off the charred pieces of her skirt. "You may have just saved my skirt."
"Is this really any time to be talking about skirts?!" Ceron exclaimed as he jumped away from a blast of fire that, had he not moved, would have probably burned him very badly.
"Now what?" Stefa asked, coughing from the smoke that was beginning to form in the room.
"We won't need to take Saïx on by brute force, now," Riku mused as he backed off a little. "Let's get out of here; Axel, set fire to everything in this room that you can, but not until the rest of us are out." Said man nodded and gave Riku the two-fingered salute.
"Ay, ay!" He responded, patiently waiting for the others to unlock the door; Setting Castle Oblivion on fire had been one of his few dreams as a Nobody and had carried on as his dream when he had gotten a heart. Roxas extended the hand holding Oathkeeper. A beam of light shot out from the tip of the Keyblade and entered the keyhole that had formed on the doors. They swung open as soon as the lock had been destroyed.
"Give him all you've got, Axel!" Kairi called over her shoulder as she ran outside with everyone else. A wide grin stretched across Axel's mouth as his pair of chakram became surrounded with fire that shot out and engulfed the room completely. The last thing he saw before heading out the door was Saïx's fearful expression as he was surrounded by fire.
"Burn baby!" Axel shouted before the doors closed behind him and Sora locked them with his Fenrir Keyblade.
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"That can't be a fun way to die; Being burnt to death." Nalani remarked. They were wandering through a black corridor of darkness that Naminé had opened. Now they were searching for the pathway to Kingdom Hearts.
"I don't understand why Saïx didn't just open a portal of darkness and be done with it." Sora admitted. He had both arms placed behind his head.
"Lost his cool, probably," Riku replied. "Even if he doesn't have a heart... or really a conscious for that matter, he does have a brain, which was probably all fogged up from the smoke."
"Maybe he wanted to see if we would get trapped and die, too?" Kairi suggested almost too cheerfully. The truth of the matter was she wasn't longing to really see the place where she had lost Riku and Sora.
"Nah," Axel replied cooly. "He probably knew either Naminé or I would open a portal. He lost it."
'Xemnas will want your heads on a silver platter.' Reixka's voice echoed within Stefa's quiet mind. She giggled.
'Then we won't tell him.'
'Smart choice.'It was then that Stefa remembered the small doll. It had been surprisingly small enough to fit in her pocket although all of the boys could somehow fit tons of potions, elixirs, and ethers in theirs. She reached past her skirt and plunged her hand into her jean pocket where she finally found the doll and pulled it out. "Naminé." The blonde in question whirled around to face Stefa just in time to catch the small doll. Momentarily, the two of them had paused.
Naminé tilted her head, causing her bangs to fall over one of her eyes and give her a Kairi-ish appearance. "This is..."
"The doll of you." Stefa answered with a nod. "Yes." Naminé looked up at her, her sky blue eyes filled with confusion.
"Where did you...? Why...?" She asked, unable to really finish her sentences without trailing off.
Stefa smiled. "The Organization was using your old room for their meeting room," She stated, feeling clever even though Reixka had told her this. "Anyway, we decided to free her because you aren't caged up anymore, either." Naminé stared at her blankly for a minute before she shifted her eyes to the doll in her hand and a smile graced her features. She looked back up, her eyes closed in delight.
"You're right. Thank you, both of you."
"Nam, Stefa, come on!" Roxas hollered from somewhere up ahead. Both girls quickly began to run to join the others.
"We found it." Quince told them when they came up behind him; They were standing before a 'doorway' with the image of Kingdom Hearts. Sora, Riku, and Kairi stepped forward with confidence, leaving the others to run after them.
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Kingdom Hearts was just as Stefa had seen it in her dreams; It seemed that she had not missed a detail. Sora and Riku stared at the door with far-off looks of remembrance, sadness, and wonder. Kairi glanced backward as if to make sure that there was going to be no island forming that would separate her from Sora again. A question was hanging above the group like desert heat on a ninety-degree afternoon; No one had wanted to ask the question, but now it was vital that they address it.
"How are we going to seal Kingdom Hearts?" Stefa asked quietly. "We don't have King Mickey, and don't we need a different Keyblade that's like his?" Apparently even though Sora, Riku, and Kairi had all told Stefa about their journeys during her first, they had never mentioned much about Riku's Keyblade.
"There's one Keyblade that can take its place." Sora answered in a soft and quiet tone.
"Really?" Ceron asked with surprise. "Is that Keyblade among us?"
"Yes." Sora replied.
"Whose?" Nalani asked earnestly. Sora and Riku stopped abruptly, causing Kairi to stop, and everyone else to bump into each other. Riku held up Way to the Dawn as he turned to face the others.
"It's... yours?" Stefa asked, hoping that she didn't sound as upset and surprised as she thought that she did. Riku nodded mutely.
"Keyblade wielders and the fools that have followed along with them," Xemnas's voice boomed in the quiet realm. Everyone turned their attention to the doors that had seemed closed before. A bright light shot out from inside as the doors flew open completely. They looked away from the light or closed their eyes for fear of going blind.
Kingdom Hearts was as dark inside as it had been before. Heartless, infinite amounts of them, were rising from the depths. Naminé gasped at the incredible sight.
'I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts, is light
Riku suddenly fell to one knee as some incredible pain struck his heart. Xemnas began to laugh loudly, somehow drowning out everyone's shouts of concern. His friends disappeared from view, and he found that he was alone in the darkness. "What...? What happened to me?" He slowly got to his feet and looked around, clutching Way to Dawn in his hand. "Where is everyone?!"
Black light suddenly shot out of his heart and a person appeared before him. The man was tall, had silver hair, and was wearing a long black coat with white gloves, black pants, black boots, and some sort of vest thing that failed to cover his chest. The coat closed (more or less) at the top by a heartless symbol pendant. Fear, anger, and surprise shot through Riku like a shockwave. "Xehanort's heartless!" He growled. 'I thought that I had conquered him. I know that I can never get rid of him completely, but why is out now?'
"Fool, did you really think that I would lie dormant forever?" Xehanort's heartless asked, smiling wickedly. "I have no further reason to lie within your heart; I will join the shell of my original and defeat you that way." He turned away, summoning a purple and dark blue that had some distinct differences from Xemnas's. "Or perhaps I shall just defeat your friends and leave you in the innermost darkness." With that, he spared Riku not a single glance or word as he disappeared through his portal.
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"Riku!" Sora had shouted this several times now, but he would not stop until Riku reappeared. He had just disappeared without a trace. Faded like he had never been there at all. Kairi and Stefa stared at the empty space with horror-stricken expressions. Suddenly, a portal appeared before them, and out stepped an all too familiar face. Sora managed to regain himself fast enough to realize that Xehanort's heartless was standing before them. "You took over Riku's body again?!"
Naminé bit her lip. 'But I thought that if he accepted both light and darkness... And he fought Ansem so many times... It doesn't make sense...' She shook her head, trying to shake off the confusion as well.
"This is Xehanort's heartless?" Stefa asked, examining the man with dislike. He and Xemnas definitely had the hair in common, but they just seemed so different.
"I have not taken over Riku's body," Xehanort's heartless (A/N: I really preferred the days that he could be called 'Ansem' without there being confusion. x.x') stated, an evil smile taking over his lips, "But in all fairness, you will probably never see him again." Crestfallen. Desperation. Disbelief.
Sora shouted out in anger. "You're lying!" He snarled, charging forward with Fenrir. The familiar heartless guardian appeared before Xehanort's heartless (A/N: Hate this nameee...) and seized Sora by the shoulders.
"Enough is enough." Roxas muttered as he rushed forward with Oblivion and Oathkeeper; Surely the guardian couldn't hold him off if it was occupied with Sora? He jumped in the air and swung both of the Keyblades at the man, knocking him sideways. The guardian dropped Sora to the ground, and entered Roxas out of anger.
"This is kind of fucked up." Nalani mused as she tried to make sense of what she saw before her. She had been told about all of these things, but seeing them before her was just downright confusing.
"It's all mad here." Ceron said in a tone that would have made the Cheshire cat proud. He ran forward to assist the others. Stefa was not paying much attention to the fight they were having with Xehanort's heartless; She blocked the image from her mind. Her eyes closed and she sighed.
"Riku!" She called, desperately holding out her hands as if she might reach something. Well, she did grab something, but it was not anything human. Her eyes fluttered open, and she jumped back when she realized she had been grabbing onto the leg of a Darkside; It seemed that the heartless were leaving Kingdom Hearts. 'Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.'
'You say that too often.'
"Stop ridiculing me!" Stefa accidently shouted out loud as she tripped and fell onto her back. 'This is stupid. Get a grip.' She took in a deep breath before she jumped to her feet, this time wielding her Keyblades. "This should be fun." Her heart was pounding against her chest and it hurt like she couldn't believe; It felt like Ceron had driven his sword straight through her heart. A well-aimed Gravira spell formed around the Darkside's head and gave Stefa a reason to retreat as he fell on the ground, which began to crack.
"Haha, oops?" Nalani said from somewhere behind Stefa. Even without seeing her face, she could tell that her best friend was laughing was smile, so she did, too. Cracks formed through the ground as the Darkside fell into oblivion; At least that hadn't taken any real battling.
"Thanks, Nala!" Stefa called over her shoulder. The response was a nod. The Keyblade Princess's eyebrows ran together and her forehead crumpled as she suddenly felt weird; She felt incomplete, all of a sudden.
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'I'm trapped in the darkness, and this time, King Mickey isn't here to get me out.' Was all that Riku could find himself thinking. He had run as far as he could until he was out of breath and still felt that he hadn't moved anywhere; He was stuck in the worst way. 'Maybe I could get out if I embraced darkness one final time?' Almost immediately, Riku shook off the thought.
"No, I could never." He murmured. "But there must be something I can do... I can't stay here." 'Who knows what Xehanort's heartless can be doing...'
"Silly." The voice of a female echoed throughout the darkness. Confused, Riku looked around. How could someone get in if he couldn't get out? "Surely you must have realized by now that you're not in the darkness, but you're trapped within your own."
"My... own?" Riku asked the disembodied voice as he looked down at his chest. "How can that be?"
"It's hard for those who have had terrible experiences with the darkness or for those who have trusted it," The voice continued, ignoring his question completely. "Stefy did and so you were her light." Riku looked up suddenly. "The sudden exposure to Kingdom Hearts overwhelmed you. Not only that, but as much light that shot out of that door also brought along just as much darkness. Since Xemnas, who has been overcome with darkness again, was inside, when the light and darkness brushed over you all, Xehanort's Heartless awoke from his sleep within you.
"You know, one of the more serious things about you being trapped within your own darkness is that only a nobody can call out to you, and you can't hear the voices of those important to you. You can't be saved if you don't allow anyone to help; There's no need to be afraid, Riku," Reixka's transparent form suddenly stepped out. She was smiling, but her eyes looked sad and somehow serious at the same time. He looked at her.
"You mean that I'm purposely blocking out the others?" Riku asked with surprise; She nodded.
"I'm afraid so," She said. "You know, if I was like Naminé and I could appear as Stefa, things would be so much easier." Reixka laughed, and Riku heard himself do it, too. "Open up your heart, Riku. You'll be surprised at what you see." She turned around, suddenly, much too soon for Riku's taste, and faded away.
Riku didn't both to call out to her because he knew that it would be no use. So, instead, he closed his eyes and concentrated very hard.
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Xehanort's heartless smirked, allowing his heartless guardian to throw off first Axel, then Roxas, and finally Sora. "It is a useless effort."
'One who knows nothing can understand nothing.'
"Shut up!" Sora and Roxas both shouted. Roxas hurled Oblivion at the heartless at the same time as Fenrir was. They were too slow in their attacks and were only left to watch as Xehanort's heartless drifted backward and into Kingdom Hearts. There was the sound of Xemnas's maniacal laughter and then a bright light that completely eclipsed the first. Even when they closed their eyes, there eyes would burn. The bright white light turned into black light and then subsided completely.
"What happened?" Quince asked, looking up when he was sure that the light show was over. Something like a combined form of Xemnas and Xehanort's heartless stood in the entryway of the doors. He had Xemnas's beautiful hair, boots, and coat. The coat opened up to reveal the clothes that Xehanort's heartless had been wearing underneath his own coat. The combined form wore the same gloves as Xehanort's heartless, only black. The coat was also clipped at the top by a half-heartless and half-nobody symbol pendant. His eyes were blazing with a liquid gold that seemed much sinister than either one of the originals' eyes.
The heartless guardian appeared behind him and his hands were holding onto Xemnas's Aerial blades.
Stefa, who was feeling whole again, swayed slightly on her feet at the sight of the sinister combination. Her surroundings blurred and soon changed and she soon found herself in a place that was completely grey. She blinked. "I might have passed out." She murmured as she closed her eyes and waited for the odd feeling welling up inside of her to subside, but it wouldn't. "Riku... Come back, please." She murmured, blindly stretching out her hand and holding her eyes tightly closed.
Somehow, she could feel the light and the darkness surrounding her body, bringing her somewhere else, but at the same time, keeping her in the same spot. She reached out as far as she could manage, and began to fall backward after a few minutes, when a hand reached back and grabbed hers. A black, grey, and white light shot out from their touch.
A million thoughts flooded Stefa's mind before she opened her pale eyes once more to find herself staring into Riku's sea-foam green ones. "Riku!"
'Without you, I'm a mess.'
She wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly. The boy chuckled and returned the embrace. "Don't lose it so quickly, Stef, we still have to take care of the combination." He said. The grey area faded from around them, and they suddenly reappeared before Kingdom Hearts.
They had reappeared only to find the others gone.
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A/N: I think this is a little longer than last chapter. Oh, you should know, the Xehanort's heartless thing was very spur of the moment and didn't worm its way into the story until I had unconsciously typed it. xD It will make things different, that's for sure.
Teehee, an evil Xemnas/Xehanort's Heartless with Xemnas's awesome hair; Be very afraid. 3
See you guys next chapter. :D