The Kingdom Heart

Roxas was losing his grip and his hands were going numb. Underneath him the world was still dissolving into a dark nothingness.

"Help me… Why won't it open?" Roxas asked as he tried to get a better grip on the keyblade.

Turn it.

"Huh?" Roxas blinked. "How?"

Turn it. Before the world below takes you. Turn the key!

Roxas shook his head to get his sweat drenched bangs out of his eyes and figured he had nothing to lose.

Slowly, he started to swing his legs in a circular motion, simultaneously as he did his best to force the keyblade in the same direction by twisting his upper body. It was a trying task, but the turning motion this created was luckily enough to move the blade in the desired direction.

One more time.

Roxas gritted his teeth and renewed his grip as good as he could and repeated the process.

Finally, a confirming clank was heard and in an instant Roxas found himself standing on solid ground.

He fell to his knees, exhausted to say the least, and dropped the keyblade on the ground with a hollow clatter.

Roxas looked at his hands, the skin red, blistered and torn from the action taken, and felt like never touching the grip of his weapon again.

"I am so not doing that again…" he huffed and put his sore hands on his knees for a moment, palms down against the incredibly enough cool fabric of his coat. He was tired beyond all his limits, but he forced himself to stay awake. He knew he had to stay conscious to survive in this place.

Looking around himself, Roxas suddenly got an urge to gape at the wonder of the place he saw.

The landscape was that of a vast ocean where there were not even the slightest of ripples on the surface, the water calm and clear as a mirror. The water was partly covered by a large seethrough block of what looked like polished crystal, but was hard as rock. In the middle of it all, right in front of Roxas' staring eyes, between the crystal covered ocean and the starry sky, a gigantic heart shaped object of a glowing material hung freely in the air, giving off an ever shifting light of all colors imaginable. The beauty of it was breathtaking and Roxas was stunned, for a long time not being able to form a single comprehensible thought.

Wake up, Roxas! You have to get us out of here soon, or they'll kill you!

Roxas instantly snapped out of his state of awe and a line of deep thought formed between his eyebrows.

"Who would kill me, and why? I made it inside, didn't I? There are no more traps, no anti-virus systems, no nothing!"

You are a danger to the system and all who use it. They will kill you in order to keep the balance. Therefore you'll have to get us out!

Roxas thought about these words for a moment, before he found out what was odd about them.

"Us? What do you mean by 'get us' out ?"

If you get out, I get out. That's what I mean.

Roxas thought he could hear a slight note of annoyance in the voice.

"Who are you?"

Roxas got to his feet, still a bit numb and shaky, picked up the keyblade in the same motion and spun on his heels to look around him for the ownere of the voice that had been haunting him. But just like before, he was proved to be alone, the Kingdom Heart being the only thing, apart from himself, giving off an aura of some kind of life.

"Where are you?" Roxas asked, his voice echoing off the crystal ground.

I'm here, too close for you to see me and too far away to be touched.

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

Look down, into the reflection on the crystal you stand on.

Roxas did as he was told and met with the unexpectedly clear reflection of himself.

"Yeah, it's my reflection, so?"

Focus on your eyes for a moment, then look at the entire reflection again.

Roxas wrinkled his forehead in confusion as he didn't see the point in doing this, but never the less, he did it. He looked into the blue eyes of his reflection, until he saw nothing else, then widened his gaze again, and almost fell backwards as he saw another guy staring back at him from behind thick bangs of sand colored hair.

As he looked closer, Roxas realized he recognized the other guy's face.

"Wait a minute… I know you…" he mumbled as he tried to get his mind past the odd feeling of having a reflection that wasn't his own.

Finally some progress, the reflection said and gave him a smirk. I'm Sora, and I'm you as well, ever since you got my memories implanted or something.

"But… how… aren't you supposed to be…"

Dead? Sora finished Roxas' line with a short laugh. Not quite, I'm afraid. When the plug was pulled I lost connection with my body, both out there and in here, but for some reason my mind was stuck here, inside the reigns of the Kingdom Heart. When you showed up and for some odd reason had parts of me programmed into yourself, I found out I could actually talk to you.

"And you decided to help me get through to the Heart? Why?"

Sora stared at him from underneath the crystal surface.

Why? I don't know. You're a good guy and you only entered here to save someone else. I guess I like you because you're so much like me. Either way you turn it, I'm a part of you as long as you're logged in like this.

Roxas looked at the Kingdom Heart for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts.

"So you're saying that if I ever manage to get out again, you'll be free of this place as well?"

Yep. I've gone over the details a couple of times already. I will either seize to exist, or be a part of your coding, whenever you log in on a computer with the VR-linking. Either way I'll be free of this place.

"So that's why you want me to get out of here before they pull my plug as well?"

Sora looked away for a moment, sadness rushing over his face.

I've lost so much of what I held dear, and for years I've had nothing to do but pondering over all my mistakes and what I could have done to undo them all. Kairi was killed when she tried to save me from being completely deleted back when Xemnas wired me up to the NAMINÉ. How, I still don't know, but I bet Xemnas was behind it. And Riku… The only time I told him straight out what he meant to me, I also told him to kill me. That's not the best way to end a friendship, you know.

Roxas had a sudden flash of a memory, where Riku were smiling with disbelief over what Sora had just told him, emotions clashing in his deep turquoise eyes.

"He loved you…" Roxas mumbled silently and Sora nodded.

More than I had thought or ever deserved. So, if you can take me away from this never ending place of regret and self tormenting, I'm more than happy to help you.

Roxas gave his precursor's reflection a quick nod of agreement and stood up straight again.

"So, tell me what to do then."

First off, you should heal yourself or you'll fall asleep or die in the midst of it all… Sora pointed out for him and Roxas, feeling a bit stupid for not having thought about this earlier, lifted the keyblade over his head and released the spell.

"That done, what next?" he asked while the green mist still was settling on him.

The keyhole. You will find it right beneath the Heart.

Roxas looked over at the Kingdom Heart.

"You mean I have to get in underneath that thing?" he asked, a bit doubtful of it all, sounding as if he'd been asked to destroy a sacred ground.

In the reflection beneath him, Sora rolled his eyes at him.

Come on, you wuss! I've brought you this far, haven't I? Trust me!

Roxas rolled his shoulders and took a firmer grip on the keyblade before he walked over to the Heart. The closer he got to it though, all his fears and doubts seemed to shrink and fade away as the warmth radiating from the large data based projection seeped into his mind.

Don't get carried away now, buddy. Don't, and I really mean this, DON'T EVER touch the Heart! The moment you touch it, they will pull your plug, alright? Just get in underneath it. Sora warned him and gave Roxas a mental image of what it felt like to be disconnected.

Roxas felt like being bitch-slapped back into consciousness and shook his head violently to rid himself of what Sora had showed him, before he continued.

"Thanks for the wakeup-call," he muttered as he got to the spot he'd been directed towards.

I figured it might give you enough motivation, Sora replied with a slight touch of glee in his voice.

"So now what?" Roxas asked restlessly. If he wanted to, he could reach up and easily touch the Heart with his hand, and it was hard to keep in mind that if he did, he would be unplugged. The Heart worked like a magnet on his mind, its content opening up too many possibilities to even think of and its very presence was enough to make anyone feel a desire to just touch it, to see if it felt anything close to what it looked like. "I'm standing dangerously close to this thing, right where you told me to stand. Where's the keyhole?"

The first is on your left. The second is on my side of the crystal and on your right.

Roxas tried to understand what he meant and wrinkled his forehead.

"There's… there are two of them?" he asked, a bit confused.

And they have to be simultaneously activated, Sora said with a nod.

Roxas eyes grew big with the realization.

"Are you kidding me?" he asked in dismay. "How the hell am I supposed to pull that off?"

Sora rolled his eyes at him. With a movement of his hand, he called forth the Kingdom key and held it pointed at Roxas.

You're forgetting about me. I'll do the keyhole on my side and you'll get the one on your side. Use the Kingdom key as well. On my mark you lock on target and on the count of three, we both unlock the thing. You'll be out of here before you know it.

Roxas inhaled deeply and let the Oblivion key shift into the smaller keyblade and gave Sora a nod to tell him he was ready to go.

Do you see the keyhole?

Looking to his left, Roxas spotted the shimmer of the hole and directed the keyblade towards it.

Sora, on his side, leveled his keyblade with the keyhole on the right.

Make sure you've got the target locked.

Roxas focused all of his attention on the keyhole in front of him.

"I'm set."

OK. On my mark: one…

Roxas thought about what he would do when he woke up in that dark cellar.

…two…

He hoped Axel was still OK.

…three; NOW!

Both blades connected with their targets and a bright light filled the entirety of Roxas' world for a few seconds.

The next thing he knew, he opened his eyes.