Exception 1: Destati

I felt the snow and light fading... and myself... falling...

I landed on a stained glass platform. The sky was totally white.

"This must be... my Awakening..." I muttered to myself.

"It is. You should easily recognize this place, as well as my voice," I heard someone say. I turned around to see Ansem... the real Ansem.

"Did you drag me back here, Ansem?" I asked.

"Yes. I took you back here, into your heart, so that you could make a choice and so that you could know the truth about yourself... the whole truth," he said.

"The whole truth about myself? I've been everywhere there is to be... seen everything there is to see, save the future. Tell me..." I said, "what more is there to know?"

"The connection you share with Sora," he said.

"I'm not connected to Sora. I'm just aligned with everyone... Riku, Kairi, Jason, Serenity, Jake, Amy, and Sora," I said. "I'm only the arbiter in the battle between darkness and light."

"That's not true. You see... Sora is the key that connects everything," he said. "However... even the strongest connections can fail."

"Oh?"

"You... Roy, are the keyring that binds it all together. Despite your arbitrary position, all your efforts have held the worlds together as best as they can be. Your journey is one of stability; your aim and fate is to keep everything held together in conjunction with Sora's connections," he said. "You are the Keychain on the worlds' Keyblade, as Sora is the Key grooves."

"How long did it take you to come up with that speech?" I asked. "I don't care how I'm connected to Sora. That's insignificant. What matters... really... is protecting those I care about."

"If that's true, you've been a bit of a failure as of late," he laughed at me.

"You're right," I chuckled. "Even so, I'm not turning back. I know that my journey's not over just yet, or else I wouldn't have been dragged here."

"There is no knowledge that has the power to change your fate," Ansem echoed.

"Maybe not," I said. "I'm strong enough to do it on my own, though."

"So you believe. However..." Ansem began, and three paths appeared behind him, "all must make this choice in the end."

One path led up to the left, one straight in the middle, and one to the lower right.

"Dawn, Midlight, or Dusk..." I muttered. "Each has its own pros and cons."

"Choose. Be a hero, like Sora; a repenant hero, like Riku; or a fallen hero, not unlike Xehanort."

I shook my head.

"Ever since I understood how big of a variable I am, I've been looking for another way," I said. "Any of those paths only leads to the same thing; light against darkness, locked in combat forever."

"You cannot turn your back on this. It is a path all must take; the path of decision, making up your mind as to what you truly wish. To save others, save yourself, or fall into darkness."

"I'm tired of being told I have only five choices; light, dawn, midlight, dusk, or darkness. Now... watch, as I forge my own path," I said, gathering aura in my left hand. I turned my back on Ansem, using my aura to claw a hole in the invisible barrier keeping me on the Station.

"What are you doing?!" Ansem shouted. "You cannot turn your back on fate!"

"I've done it once before... I can do it again," I struggled. The barrier was doing its best to stay in place, but I surged more aura into my hand to the point where it was painful. I cringed, pulling with both hands, and finally the barrier shattered around me like glass.

"The only thing down your 'self-chosen' path is one of sorrow and ruin," he said, then disappeared into a dark corridor. A new glass path appeared before me, leading down a seemingly endless road. I stepped down it, and as I did so, felt something different.

Courage... my own way.

As I continued down, the sky changed from its snowy hue to a grey blur, then into a pitch-black void. At the end was a huge ebon door, identifiable only by its golden tree design.

"This is the door to the deepest darkness... the way to the end. If I go through here, it's all over one way or the other."

I shoved the two doors open...