All right, a new world awaits us. But before we enter the world, let's see what Zander is up to. Let's go!
Chapter 7 : Familiar Light and Darkness
Zander dived from the sky and landed on top of a tall rock pillar that was surrounded by a wasteland with an army of ancient keyblades in the canyon beyond the cliff in the distance with the sun just rising in the horizon. Zander then leaped off the pillar and landed on the ground below.
"So, this is the infamous Keyblade Graveyard." He said to himself as he looked at his surroundings.
(World ?: Keyblade Graveyard)
He then sees what he sensed from before, a floating crest filled with dark power was a few feet away from him. The symbol he saw was a gear in two separate halves, though they were halfway connected on each other.
"There you are... Remnant of darkness." Zander said to himself.
After he says this, the crest then became darker and darker until it was as black as an abyss. It then burst, wisps of darkness floating around the land before concentrating itself into one place, which was a few feet away in front of Zander. It was forming a figure as it then got into more detail, showing that it was wearing a helmet. The dark wisps then finally concentrated into the figure. It was wearing a strange suit that was in black and white and a helmet that hides its face. It also had a strange symbol on it that Zander didn't recognize.
"A being of pure darkness... Vanitas." Zander said to it.
"...I see you heard of me." The figure, now known as Vanitas, responded.
"I heard a lot about you from your former master."
"Xehanort?" Vanitas then chuckled a bit, "That stubborn fool still around?"
"Sora and his friends defeated him several months ago. It was an amazing battle, to say the least."
"...Hmph. I admit, I had little respect for him anyways."
"I also respected the man, but he had too many plans to keep track of."
"Who destroyed him?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me." Vanitas challenged, folding his arms across his chest.
"A young keyblade wielder named Sora. Strangely, he looks like he could be your twin."
Vanitas was silent for a few seconds, "A twin?"
"Told you, you wouldn't believe me."
"Perhaps I should go "meet" this Sora." Vanitas said to himself as he paced to the side a bit.
"I'm sure you know where Destiny Islands is located, right?"
"Ah, I've been there to see..." Vanitas cut himself short to then ask, "Do you know where I can find my old 'friends?'" He said, using the terms 'friends' very, very loosely.
Zander smirked, "Ven and Aqua, you mean?"
Vanitas turned around to face him, "Where are they?" He asked firmly.
"At the Land of Departure."
He couldn't see it, but he knew Vanitas had a grin under his mask as he then raised his hand and tried to open a corridor of darkness, only for nothing to happen.
"What?" Vanitas said to himself as he looked at his hand.
"I figured as much. Despite your power, your remnant self remained bound to this world." Zander spoke.
"What do you mean?" Vanitas questioned in annoyance.
"Without your own body, you can't go beyond the resting place your body was when you met your fate." Zander answered.
Vanitas growled in frustration, "Then tell me, why are you telling me all this?"
Zander smirked, "Simple, really. Since your born of pure darkness, it's pretty easy to reform a body."
"And how exactly are you going to do-" Vanitas was then cut short as Zander then instantly placed a hand on Vanitas' chest and started rapidly channeling darkness into Vanitas' being.
Vanitas yelled in pain as the darkness was entering him. After what felt like eternity, Zander then moved his hand away from his chest, causing Vanitas to drop on his knees. He was breathing heavily as Zander looked down at him, "How do you feel?"
"Could have warned me beforehand!" Vanitas retorted in anger, though Zander looked unfazed.
"I'll take that as you feel fine." Zander remarked.
"Yeah, well-" Vanitas then stopped himself, placing his hand on his chest.
The first thing he realized is that he was breathing. With no body, he didn't need to breathe. He then placed both his hands on his helmet and removed it, turning his helmet to see the glass. He looked at his reflection on the helmet, seeing his own face in such a long time. Though, he did notice one difference. His eyes that were once yellow, were now red in color. Though, he still has his jet black hair.
"My... face..." Vanitas said to himself.
He then looked up at Zander before he then turned away and chuckled to himself as he puts his helmet back on and got back up on his feet.
"I suppose I should thank you." Vanitas said, sounding like he kind of forced his words out.
"Your welcome." Zander simply responded.
"But tell me this, what is your goal?" Vanitas asked out of curiosity.
"I believe that should be told another time. Though, I don't seek Kingdom Hearts, or the X-Blade. Not worth my time." Zander answered.
Vanitas was curious, "You're not interested?"
"No. I have other plans to attend to."
"Then why did you give me this new body?"
"Simple. You are gonna assist me in my plans."
"And how am I suppose to help you?"
"I would need a partner who has the knowledge of the darkness, equivalent to Master Xehanort."
"Really? Not because of my skills, my power, my ability to summon the Unversed?"
"Of course I need those too. Though, I'll consider the Unversed. So, do you accept?"
Vanitas thought about it before answering, "Lead the way."
Zander smirked and turned around before opening a portal, "But before we visit your 'friends', I want to make a small stop first." Zander said as the two entered the portal before disappearing.
Meanwhile...
On a beautiful island surrounded by a vast blue ocean, a female teen watched as the sun was shining in the morning sky as she sat on a tree trunk that had star shaped fruit. She had kinda long dark red hair, violet-blue eyes, and pale skin that's kinda tanned. She was wearing a white short sleeved shirt under a pink zipped up vest with a black hood, with black shorts that reached above her knees, a notebook shaped bag attachment on her waist, and white sneakers.
She brushed her hair back with her hand as she felt the breeze blow by, "You must be Kairi."
The girl, now named Kairi, looked behind her to see a hooded figure and a boy in a strange suit standing at the ramp of the bridge. Kairi recognizes the coat, leaped off the tree trunk onto the ground in front of him and summoned her keyblade, Destiny's Embrace.
"And you two are?" Kairi asked.
"My name is Zander." Zander then gestured towards the boy, "And this is my partner, Vanitas." Zander answered.
Kairi stayed on her guard as Zander started walking towards her, "And I believe you have someone I need."
Kairi was a bit confused, only to shrug it off and swing her keyblade at him, making him back up. "I don't have anything you need!"
Zander then shook his head in disappointment, "And I was hoping you cooperate with us. Vanitas."
Vanitas then summoned his keyblade that shared the colors on his suit, Void Gear, before quickly dashing at her, dealing a quick swipe attack. She blocked it, but the knockback was strong as it made her fly back and fall into the ocean below.
"We need her alive." Zander simply said to Vanitas.
"All right, all right." Vanitas reluctantly agreed as he simply drop into the water.
He stood there knee deep in water as Kairi got up to her feet, "You're pretty strong for a simple swipe with your keyblade."
"Then you should know to stand down." Vanitas warned as he got into his battle stance.
"I wouldn't go that far." Kairi then fired a couple of light orbs at him, only for Vanitas to deflect them with ease.
Vanitas then retaliates with a simple combo of slashes, only to be blocked as Kairi summoned a barrier around herself to protect against the attack. She then dispersed it as a counterattack, barely knocking Vanitas back as she then fired a barrage of fireballs to damage him as she quickly got back to the shore. When she did, Zander was waiting there as she stayed on her guard.
"You're simply prolonging the outcome." Zander said.
The water then splashed upward in two separate ways with the middle going down as Vanitas dashed to the shore, landing next to Zander.
"Mind telling me who you are looking for?" Kairi asked.
"The only one I'm talking about is within your heart." Zander simply answered.
Before Kairi can talk any further, she heard a familiar voice call out to her. "Kairi!"
She looked behind her to see her spiky haired friend come to her side, wearing his black drive garments and has his keyblade, Kingdom Key, in hand to face the two villains.
"Glad to see you, Sora." Kairi smiled as she turned her head back towards the two, instantly changing her expression to annoyance.
"Who are these two?" Sora asked her.
"The one in the hood is named Zander and the one in the weird helmet is named Vanitas." Kairi answered.
"Well, well. The hero shows up after all. Now I can score two in one." Zander said as he summoned an ethereal blade.
(Play Tension Rising from Kingdom Hearts 2.5 HD Remix)
Sora started to charge at Zander, only to be intercepted by Vanitas who delivers an overhead slash, which Sora blocks and jumped back to then retaliate with a hard horizontal swing. The swing hit Vanitas back, only for him to quickly recover and fire a Blizzard shot. Sora counters with his own Blizzard shot, the two icicles colliding and creating a thick mist. Sora then attempts a surprise attack and jumps into the air from the mist, performing a Blitz slash down at Vanitas. The attack managed to land, or so he thought as the attack simply went through Vanitas, then hearing a voice from above.
"Too slow!" Vanitas taunted as he was about to deliver an overhead slash on his way down. However, Sora proved to be faster as he dodged out of the way performing Dodge Roll.
Meanwhile, Kairi was firing a shower of light orbs at Zander, only for him to either dodge or deflect them as he was heading towards her. As he was about to attempt a diagonal slash, Kairi then attacked as she pointed her keyblade straight at him.
"Faith!" She called out as a sudden burst of light was unleashed, making Zander fly back as a result. His back landed on the ground and he slid for a moment before recovering back on his feet. He then transformed his blade into three orbs, which then fired javelins at Kairi, who was surprising quick to dodge them by performing a cartwheel. She retaliated with three fireballs and three ice balls as she moved across the sand. Zander proved to be fast with his spells, casting six Thundaga bolts at the fire and ice balls, destroying them before summoning a Tornado spell. Kairi was quite surprised, but didn't back down as she channeled light into her keyblade again, firing a beam of light that made the tornado burst, making a dust cloud as a result.
Back to Sora, he and Vanitas were exchanging blows as they moved like acrobats to dodge their attacks. Vanitas then jumped into the air and channeled electricity into his keyblade before swinging it, making it rain dark bolts of electricity upon Sora. Sora performed Dodge Roll to avoid it before jumping off the wall behind Vanitas to then deliver a hard downward swing, hitting his back and slammed him back down on the ground. Vanitas shook it off and got up to his feet as Sora landed across from him, the two then swinging and colliding keyblades in a deadlock.
"You're pretty good for someone who stole my good looks." Vanitas commented.
"Huh?" Sora responded, a bit confused.
Vanitas then dissolved his mask, revealing his face to Sora. His face was nothing more than dumbfounded as Vanitas smirked, pushing him back in the deadlock. Sora quickly woke up to reality and jumped back, ending the deadlock.
"Why do you look like me?" Sora questioned as he stayed on his guard.
"Don't ask me, ask Ventus." Vanitas answered.
Zander then suddenly appeared next to Vanitas, "Vanitas, we're leaving."
"Really?" Vanitas questioned.
"Yeah. We'll attempt this again at a later date." Zander simply said as he summoned a portal behind him.
"Hold it!" Sora yelled out as he ran after them, only to cut short as the two entered the portal, it disappearing just after they entered.
(End music)
Sora then stopped in his tracks as he turned around back to Kairi, "Kairi, you all right?"
Kairi dismissed her keyblade as she answered, "Yeah. Do you know who they are?"
"No, certainly not Vanitas." Sora responded, still in a bit of shock.
"What do you mean?"
"He... looked almost exactly like me. Except his eyes were red and his hair was jet black."
Kairi pictured that in her head, "That is scary."
"Do you know what they wanted from you?"
"Zander said that he wanted the person who resided in my heart."
"Really?" Sora then placed his hand on his chin, thinking. "What would they want with Namine?" Sora then puts his hand down, "We'll think about that later. From what Vanitas said, Ventus may have the answer as to why me and him look alike."
Sora then pointed his keyblade at the wall next to him, firing a beam of light that formed a light portal on the wall. Sora started walking towards it before he felt his left arm get tugged back a bit, "Sora, let me go with you."
"Really? You sure?" Sora said. Out of all the times Sora and Riku trained with Kairi, she stayed at Destiny Islands to practice by herself.
"Yeah, I think I'm ready to travel with you." Kairi reassured him.
Sora nodded with a smile on his face and the two walked together into the portal, it disappearing afterwards.
And done! Sorry for the long wait, I wanted to make a longer chapter with a different premise for the story, but decided to scrap it and write what you just read. So, as the chapter shows, Vanitas returned and joined Zander in his quest. Kairi and Sora finally appear in this story and the four collided in a battle. As Zander said, he's trying to get Namine out of Kairi's heart. What could he possibly want with Namine? Will Sora find out why Vanitas looks like him? Will Sora and Kairi make it to the Land of Departure before Vanitas and Zander does? The answers will appear in the next chapter.
And in case your wondering why Riku and Atlas didn't show up, I'm still deciding on what world I want them to go next. Hopefully, I'll come to that decision soon. Anyways, thanks for reading this chapter and I'll see you next time!
