Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. It belongs to Disney and Square Enix.

Herutsu no Oukoku

Chapter 12: Kingdom Hearts

Axel was running. He was running as fast as he possibly could, his legs pumping and his arms swinging. A cool wind blew through his red hair, spinning strands into a tangled mess. None of that mattered to him.

'Gotta keep running.' He told himself.

Why?A voice asked. What's the point if you're not going anywhere? Why don't you just sit down and rest?

'I've got to find him.'

Find who?

'Roxas.' As soon as the name crossed his mind, he spotted a flash of blond hair ahead. "Roxas!" The scream tore from his throat and echoes around him as he stumbled and fell. He pushed himself back to his feet and began running again, going faster than he was before, determined to keep the blond in view. "Roxas! Wait for me!" He yelled as tears began to prick at his eyes. "I'm coming! Wait for me!"

"Axel!"

Axel hit the floor heavily and shockwaves pounded his body. He laid there on the floor for a moment, in shock and only dimly aware of the cool hands helping him sit up.

"Axel?"

The redhead blinked unstably and finally focused on the pair of royal blue eyes in front of him. His eyes fluttered shut as he whispered, "Roxas."

Sora panicked and nearly dropped Axel when the redhead passed out. If it weren't for Demyx helping him hold him up, then Axel would have woken up later with a headache.

"What's wrong with him?" Kairi asked, worried.

Naminé quickly settled down in front of Axel and laid her hand on his forehead. With a quick sweep of her magic she analyzed Axel's wellness and reported it back to the others. "He's been under a lot of stress lately and it's taken a toll on him. His temperature is dangerously high, even for him. Be careful not to touch his skin or else you'll get burned." She held up her reddened hands to show them that even with magic coating her hands she still got burned.

"So why's he like this?" Demyx asked.

Naminé frowned. "He hasn't been eating as much as he should. It's making him burn out."

"Fire elements have super-high metabolisms." Kairi told Sora and Demyx. Her blue-violet eyes were worried, an unusual sight when considering her worry was over Axel. "He should eat at least two times more than any of us otherwise his powers turn on him and…" She hesitated a moment.

"His powers are eating away from him from the inside." Naminé said bluntly. "I want you three to go get food and bring it in here. When he wakes up we need to get him to eat as much as he can. Kairi, you know what food he'll need. You've read my book."

Kairi nodded and then led the two boys back to storage to get food. Meanwhile, Naminé summoned her wand and set her magic to work making a tea for Axel. Axel began to awaken as Demyx returned with an armful of food.

"Is that food?" He hoarsely asked, trying to focus his eyes on Demyx.

"Mmm hmm." Naminé distractedly hummed, keeping her wand trained on a white teapot and teacup, which were floating slowly over to them. "Go ahead and set the food down over here, Demyx." She said. "And watch out for the tea." She flicked her wand, trying to get the china to float faster.

Demyx seemed to perk up. "We're having tea? Can I go back and get started on lunch for all of us? Axel's not the only one who needs food."

A small smile appeared on Naminé's face. "Actually, Axel's having tea, but if you want some of the usual I can make that too. And get Kairi to help you make breakfast. Sora burns things."

Demyx beamed and hopped off to find the pretty redhead. His relief that Axel will be okay once he eats something overpowers his worry about his current state. That and he got to drink his favorite tea and make breakfast with Kairi. He breezed past Sora, who was struggling with his armful of food, and stuck his head into the storage room.

"Kairi! Naminé wants us to make breakfast!" He cheerfully said. "And she's going to make tea!"

Kairi couldn't help but giggle at his enthusiasm. "Alright, help me carry some stuff to our 'kitchen' so we can get started."

The "kitchen" was just a small added section to the gummi ship that had a small counter and a wood-burning magical stove (probably donated by Merlin) and a magical mini-fridge. They did all of their cooking there so they wouldn't accidentally burn down one of the hammocks or sleeping bags.

While Kairi and Demyx got to cooking and Sora struggled his way to Naminé and set the food down, Naminé finished preparing Axel's tea and handed it to him.

"Drink all of it. It'll help." She told him.

Axel looked skeptically at the tea and then back at Naminé. "It smells weird."

"It's suppose to." Naminé said. "Drink it, Axel. It really will help. And it tastes better than it smells."

Deciding to trust Naminé, Axel drank all of the tea quickly and shuddered at the sudden coolness that began spreading through his body. "What was that?"

Naminé collected his cup and began to clean it out with her magic. "It's a special tea designed to restrain your magic and decrease your metabolism for a short time. It'll help you get better. It also has a herb in it that will help you relax and get some sleep."

Axel narrowed his eyes. "So you're drugging me."

"To keep you from dying, yes." Naminé said, waving her wand so the china would float back over into her bag. "You'll be back to normal by the time we get to Hollow Bastion. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make Demyx some tea." She stood up and smoothed out her skirt before moving away to the kitchen. "Food will be ready in about fifteen minutes, but you can snack on some of the stuff that Demyx brought while you're waiting!" She called over her shoulder.

Grumbling, Axel crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. He glanced over at the pile of food for a few seconds before he grabbed a bag of chips and started to eat, figuring that if Naminé saw that he was eating something, she wouldn't give him a disappointed look.

It wasn't long before Kairi and Demyx had finished making lunch and were handing it out to everyone. Sora was given the task of taking food up to Donald and Goofy and seeing if they wanted anything else before he was able to sit down with the others and eat. Naminé and Demyx played "mother hen" for all of lunch with Axel and made sure he ate the most. Sora playfully whined about them giving Axel all of the food, which resulted in Kairi shoving a sandwich in his mouth to get him to be quiet.

The three days passed slowly. Axel laid around and slept most of the time, only waking up to use the bathroom or get something to eat. The others sat around and talked quietly and played games to pass the time or tried to get Donald and Goofy to take a break and let one of them drive.

They finally arrived at Hollow Bastion and got out of the gummi ship one by one. They all took the time to stretch and get their bearings before they began walking toward the floating chunks of land.

"So, I'm guessing we're suppose to go towards the big creepy castle, huh?" Axel remarked.

"Looks that way." Sora replied, his eyes determined. "Come on. Lets go."

Together the seven raced across the floating islets of land with Sora in the lead. Axel and Naminé fell to the rear, Axel still exhausted from the tea and his malnourished state and Naminé to make sure Axel wouldn't pass out. They encountered no heartless along the way, but none of them thought much about it. At the very top, Sora stopped, surprised by what - or rather who - he found.

"Riku!" He cried, starting forward.

Kairi reached out and snagged his hand, pulling him back to her. Her whole body trembled with fright and she looked at Riku with wide eyes. The dark, roiling energy that surrounded the boy was overpowering to her. A pale, crackling light danced around the fingertips of her right hand, ready to strike out if the silver-haired boy made one wrong move.

"Kairi," Sora craned his head to look at her. "What's wr--"

"Something's not right." She whispered hurriedly. By that time, Donald, Goofy, and Demyx had joined them. "There's a dark energy around him that's similar to the heartless. I--" Her voice faltered and she dug her nails into Sora's skin without even noticing. "I can't see it, but I can feel it. It's suffocating."

Sora gently eased Kairi's hand from his and gave her a smile. "I'll be okay. I know how to handle Riku."

"You know how to handle me?" Came a chillingly cold voice.

Sora looked up at Riku and was surprised by the darkness in the other boy's eyes. "Riku, what happened to you?" He asked fearfully. Only his determination kept him from crying right then and there.

"What happened to me?" Riku asked, his voice low and harsh. "I found what I was looking for. I found power. What did you find? A ragtag group of idiots." He sneers. "You don't even know the true power of this." He held up his weapon and Sora recoiled as if he'd been physically hit.

"That's Sora's." Kairi said, mustering up every bit of confidence she had. She stepped back when Riku turned his eyes on her.

Demyx reached over to take her hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. Kairi stepped closer to him, welcoming the comfort and support he was offering.

"Keep playing with your toys with your little friends, Sora." Riku said scathingly. He tossed an old wooden sword to Sora's feet and then turned and began walking away. "Leave the adventuring up to me and go home."

Donald and Goofy stood unsurely by the edge of cliff, arguing with one another.

"The King told us to follow the key." Donald said stubbornly.

"But Donald, Sora's our friend. And Kairi has a keyblade too." Goofy reminded.

"But Sora's is the Kingdom Key." Donald persisted. "And now Riku has it. We have to follow him." He turned around and followed the silver-haired keyblade bearer as he marched toward the castle.

Goofy cast an apologetic look at Sora before following his friend. He had to at least go and keep Donald out of trouble. Who knows what the duck would get into without him around.

Sora waited until they were gone before he bent down and picked up the wooden sword he and Riku used to practice with. Then he straightened up and stared up at the castle.

"We still going or what?" Axel asked as he and Naminé joined them. "We didn't come all this way for nothing."

"We're still going." Sora said, determinedly. "Something's wrong with Riku and I'm going to find him, beat the shit out of him, and find out what the hell his problem is!"

Axel grinned. "I think I've been a bad influence on you, Sora. I like that plan." He summoned his chakrams and his eyes lit up as the familiar burst of heat pulsed through his body. "Lets go kick some ass so we can get home!"

Sora ducked under a burst of fire and slammed his sword into one of the Darkballs. Then he leapt into the air and flipped overtop a Defender, running his sword down its back as he landed. Then he spun around to knock away a Neo Shadow.

He too a quick moment to assess where his friends were and how many heartless were left. He nearly cursed, something Axel was only too proud of being the influence of, when he saw a whole new wave of heartless coming.

"Guys! Leave them and run for the door!" He yelled, hoping everyone would hear him.

Kairi was the first to knock a few heartless back and make a run for the door. Axel, breathing heavily but managing to keep a grin on his face, was next to follow. Then came Naminé and Demyx. Sora was the last one through the door.

Inside, they all got a chance to stop and breathe. Naminé healed a few wounds while Kairi handed out a few Ethers to Axel and Demyx.

"Now what?" Sora asked, looking around the entrance hall.

"So, you came after all." A cold voice echoed around them. "I guess I shouldn't be too surprised."

"Riku." Sora said, narrowing his eyes at the approaching figure. "I've come too far to give up! And I've got people counting on me!"

"Hmph." Riku walked over and stood in front of Sora. "Guess I'll have to teach you a lesson." He said before he easily summoned the keyblade to his hand.

Sora automatically slipped into a fighting stance, clutching the splintering wood of his sword. "You guys go on without me." He told his friends. "I'll catch up to you later. I promise."

Axel nodded in understanding. "C'mon, guys. Lets go wear down the evil guy for Sora so he can show off when he kicks his butt and the rest of us are exhausted." He tried to joke to lighten the air, but it didn't work. With a sigh, he gently took hold of Kairi's shoulders and steered her towards the door on the other side of the room.

"Axel, we can't leave--"

"Yes we can." Axel interrupted Kairi. "This is something Sora has to do on his own. He'll be fine."

Slowly, Axel, Kairi, Naminé, and Demyx left to find the heart of the castle, leaving Sora to fight Riku on his own.

Sora makes the first move as he runs toward Riku, determined to land the first hit. 'Keep your head clear!' Leon's instructions ran through his head. 'Keep every sense on high alert. Watch your enemy's every move and predict what they'll do next. Keep moving!'

Moving as quickly as he possibly can, Sora tried to duck around Riku so he could hit him in the back and get the fight over with quickly. Instead, he got blasted back several feet and landed hard on his side. Before he could get up, Riku sent another blast or raw energy at him. Sora shut his eyes tightly, hoping that by some miracle the attack wouldn't hit him. He looked up in surprise when he heard the energy collide with something in front of him.

"Goofy!" He cried when he saw the talking canine.

"I know it means goin' against the King's wishes, but I can't just stand by and watch Sora get hurt either." Goofy said. "Sorry Donald."

"Wait a minute!" Donald squawked, running over. "Sora's my friend too!"

Sora looked at them in surprise as he sat up. "I am?" He asked.

"Of course." Goofy said, holding out a hand to help Sora up. "You and Kairi and all of the others are our friends."

A smile spread across Sora's face. "Yeah, and they're counting on us to catch up to them so we can finish this together."

"Finish it with what?" Riku asked scornfully. "What power do you have that makes you so special? Without your friends," He spat the word. "You are nothing!"

"That may be true. My friends are what gives me my strength." Sora said, lowering his sword. "Without them I wouldn't have anything to fight for." He tightened his grip on the modest weapon and then glared at Riku. "My friends are my power!"

The keyblade disappeared from Riku's hand and reappeared before Sora in a shower of golden sparkles. With a smile, the brunet took the weapon and was relieved to feel the familiar thrum of energy rushing through his body.

"You'll regret this, Sora." Riku said darkly, before he turned around and walked away, opening a portal and disappearing into its depths.

Sadly, Sora let the keyblade fall to his side, nearly touching the ground. "Maybe…. I'm too late to save Riku." He murmured. Then he shook his head. "No! I'm not too late! I have to think positive! I bet this Ansem guy has something to do with why Riku's acting so weird!" He looked to Donald and Goofy, hoping they would agree with him.

"There's only one way to find out." Goofy said. "Lets go meet up with the others."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Lets go."

Kairi led the way down a darkened hall, her keyblade held high to help illuminate the way. Demyx was right behind her helping to keep lookout and behind him was Axel. Naminé brought up the rear, also serving as lookout.

"There's something ahead." Kairi said, her voice slicing easily through the gloom and silence. "It's some kind of weird rainbow-ish light."

Demyx stood on his toes and peered ahead to see if he could spot what she was talking about. "I see it. It looks like some kind of doorway. Hey, you don't think it's that door to the heart of this world, do you?"

"It could very easily be." Naminé murmured. "Keep going. We're getting close."

They continued down the hall and soon came to an open room with glass cases on either side. Kairi stepped closer to one to get a better look and then gasped.

"Axel, it's Alice!" She whispered fearfully.

Axel looked surprised. "Alice? Are you sure? Why is she here?"

"She's a Princess of Heart." Naminé said, trying to keep her voice steady. "They all are."

"Isn't there suppose to be thirteen of them?" Demyx asked, quickly adding up the glass cases. "I only see twelve, so the gate can't be open yet, right?"

Axel, noticing that Naminé was looking around nervously and not saying anything else, dropped back to talk to her quietly as they walked past the twelve sleeping princesses.

"You know a lot about all of this." He commented in a friendly, conversational tone. "Care to explain?"

"No." Naminé said shortly, quickening her pace to breeze past him.

Axel sped up to walk alongside of her. "You know who the thirteenth is." He stated, no longer sounding curious. "At least tell me if you know if she's safe or not."

"She's as safe as she possibly could be." Naminé allowed the one little piece of information to be heard. "Lets catch up to Kairi and Demyx. There's a presence up ahead that I don't like the feel of."

The two hurried and caught up the Demyx and Kairi and together they walked onto the platform before the door. There waiting for them was Riku, now clad in a form-fitting blue and black outfit that had a heartless symbol plastered onto the chest.

"Well, if it isn't the keyblade heroes." He said, his voice sounded distorted and horribly warped. It was as if there was two people speaking and one was beginning to overpower the other.

Naminé frowned, trying to place where she had heard the second voice before. It sounded so familiar and she knew it was important. She closed her eyes and tried to separate Riku's voice from the familiar one as he continued to rant. Then it hit her like a ton of bricks.

"You're not Ansem!" She yelled.

"Ah, Naminé." The not-Riku turned his attention to her. For a moment, a tall, hazy form could be seen behind Riku's body. "It has been too long."

"Not long enough!" Naminé spat, her eyes narrowed in hatred. "You've taken things way too far!"

"On the contrary." The hazy form flickered behind Riku again. "My plans have only just began. And I see you have brought the final princess to me. How excellent."

The others looked at Naminé in confusion, wondering what the guy was talking about.

"DON'T YOU TOUCH HER!" Naminé screamed.

"Hmph." The possessed Riku summoned an entirely new, very dark looking keyblade. "I won't have to."

Naminé pushed off against the floor as the possessed Riku drew back his arm to throw the keyblade. Her powder blue sandals smacked against the floor as she ran as fast as she could to Kairi, intent on pushing her aside. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as the Dark Keyblade streamlined through the air straight for Kairi. At the last moment, Naminé pushed Kairi aside, catching the keyblade in her back and through her chest.

An explosion of light whited out the room and once it cleared the large keyhole was bathed in a shimmering silver light and the possessed Riku, as well as the Dark Keyblade, was gone.

"N-Naminé!" Kairi gasped, crawling over to the heavily injured blonde. She ignored the steadily growing puddle of blood and pulled the girl into her arms, tears prickling at her eyes. "Naminé? Naminé! Please open your eyes!"

It was a few minutes before Kairi saw unfocused blue eyes looking up into her own. A sad smile spread across the blonde's lips.

"I'm so sorry, princess." She murmured as she closed her eyes.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrived just as Naminé's body disappeared in a shower of glistening, silver sparkles. Sobs wracked Kairi's small form as she curled herself into a ball.

"NAMINÉ!" Her scream was heart-wrenching and made everyone feel as if a block of ice cold lead had plunged down their throats.

A slim silver chain dangling from Kairi's arm went unnoticed for some time, as they slipped into a state of mourning.

Axel recklessly threw one chakram and then brought up a wall of fire in front of him. Behind him, Demyx formed his water into a whip while water clones wielding music notes dances around slaying heartless. A short distance away was Donald and Goofy, who were using all of their skills to keep heartless away from the large barrier behind them. Within that barrier, Kairi and Sora fought Ansem and his large shadow creature that they all assumed was his true heartless form.

"There's got to be something more we can do!" Demyx yelled, frustrated.

"Doesn't look that way!" Axel yelled back. "Keep fighting! We have to keep the heartless from entering the barrier!" Eyes blazing, he whipped up a wall of fire around an unguarded part of the barrier.

"We can't keep fighting forever!" Demyx argued, spinning his whip even longer before snapping it out to cut cleanly through several heartless.

"Then we'd better hope that Kairi and Sora win soon!" Axel replied.

The flood of heartless soon began to slow bit by bit until there were no more. While Demyx sat down on the ground and let his water clones fall into puddles, Axel turned around to peer through the barrier. His eyes widened when he saw Riku's faded form holding Ansem back so Kairi and Sora could deliver the final blow.

Axel couldn't help but smile. 'Well, there's one friend who has been found.' Then he sank down to the ground beside Demyx, intent on getting some well deserved rest. But after only a few minutes the ground beneath them began to shudder and break apart, forcing the two to their feet.

"Sora, what's going on?!" Kairi yelled.

"I don't know!" Sora yelled back. "Axel, Demyx, are you still here?!

The two teens could spot Sora's familiar brown hair over the small rise of the crater, but just barely. They knew they wouldn't be able to see him for long, as the piece of land they were on was floating further and further away.

"We're here!" Axel yelled. "I don't think we will for much longer, though!"

"I'll come find you!" Sora promised. "I'll come back and find you and then we'll go find Riku and Roxas together! That's a promise, Axel!"

Axel nodded, banishing all wonderings of what happened to make Riku disappear again. "I'll hold you to that! And I'll be waiting!"

"And I will be too!" Demyx stubbornly yelled, not wanting to be left out. "So don't forget!"

By then they were so far away that they could barely make out what each other was saying. Demyx and Axel could barely make out Sora's yell of, "Don't worry!" before they drifted out of sight.

"Why haven't we broken apart?" Demyx wondered out loud.

Axel shrugged. "Maybe we're going in the same direction. Might as well enjoy our time together." He paused for a moment and looked around. Upon seeing nothing but blank space, he grinned and asked, "Wanna play 'I Spy'?"

Demyx grinned as well. "I spy, with my little eye, something…"

Kairi shivered and looked around on the deserted beach she landed on. Above her, stars glistened against a midnight sky and a crescent moon illuminated the white sand. She stood and watched as stars streaked across the sky. It didn't last for too long and then Kairi's vision went dark as she crumpled to the ground, exhausted.

"Kairi!"

The auburn-haired girl was awakened to someone shaking her and calling her name. Wearily, she blinked open her blue-violet eyes and tried to focus on the person in front of her. Finding that she couldn't, she closed her eyes again.

"Where are my glasses?" She asked tiredly.

"Oh! Here!" The person handed her the glasses and politely waited for her to put them on before asking, "Are you okay?"

Kairi stared in surprise at the person in front of her. She took in his pitch black hair and the rumpled black t-shirt with the yellow pac-man on it and would have cried if she weren't so shocked. "Katsuo! But- how? It can't have been a dream!" She reached up to touch her hair and was unsure if she was relieved or not to find that her hair was cut short and neat around her ears. She looked down at her clothes, or rather the clothes previously owned by Aerith, just to double check and then she threw her arms around Katsuo's neck.

"It wasn't a dream." She whispered, her voice thick with emotion. "It wasn't a dream."

End Chapter

Man, I feel like I've been in a really violent mood lately with what I've been doing to characters. First I have Axel being badly affected by his powers, then I kill Namine off, and in my original story I have a character who got a door slammed into the back of her head. And I've got a "Xigbar shooting a seagull" part in the next chapter of "Food Stories". Geez! I need to get away from the violence a little! The next chapter will help a little.

OKAY!

Next chapter is the last one. And the only thing it will do is cause more questions and confusion. Yay. Note that that was, indeed, a sarcastic "yay". Unfortunently for you all, those questions won't be answered for quite a while since, after the final chapter, I will be taking a break to get some schoolwork out of the way (How am I going to survive college next year?) and then will be either diving into the rewrite of 'Eye of the Storm' or my next fun story titled 'Princess'. After that I'll have gotten enough chapter of THE SEQUEL!!!! written.

Yeah. Sequel.

I'm really hating my brain right now.

Technically, the sequel isn't so much of a sequel as it is Part Two of this story. I've got the name and my summary, but I've got a lot to work out before I can even think about posting it. It'll be called 'Kioku no Kusari', which somewhat roughly translates to 'Chain of Memory', however it's more of a KH2 than it is the Game Boy side game.

So now you know something I wasn't going to tell you until the very last chapter. Luckily for you I'm really tired right now and am in no mood to be all secretive. Next chapter will be up soon. And by soon I mean some time within the next week. It could be tomorrow or three days from now. Heck, it could be exactly one week from now before I get it posted, although since it's looking to be a short chapter it won't take me until next Tuesday. So, until then!