Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me, though that should be obvious.
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Night on Bald Mountain
The man sitting behind the desk looked up at me and smiled, and I could have sworn that his teeth were sparkling. The star and moon shaped windows behind him revealed the blackness of the sky outside, illuminated only by the thousands of stars that hung in the night sky. The man looked over my shoulder so I turned around to see Diantha sitting up in the bed the two of us were in.
Her hair was frizzing up as white steam seemed to emanate off of each strand of hair. She looked to have trouble keeping her eyes open. Opening a single eye she looked at me and then to the mysterious man, then back to me. She fell over backwards and allowed her head to hit the pillow before heading off into a deep slumber once more. I was glad that Domino's sister was alright…why had Destati spared her? Was it time for her to move on to a new vessel?
"You were in distress before," I heard a voice say. I looked to the man who had continued to look at me with thoughtful eyes. "Now you can rest easy." The man intertwined his fingers in front of him as if he were suddenly deep in thought. After a long silence he smiled once again. "You're friends are alright. They should be arriving any minute now."
"Who are you?" I asked.
The man chuckled and replied in a slow and steady voice, "Let's just say…a friend." I arched an eyebrow, just as a door opened behind me. I was almost certain that the door wasn't there a moment before. This place surely was mysterious. When I looked behind me I saw Domino leading the way into the room, Asher and Rika following closely behind.
"Kane!" Domino yelled, running to me and wrapping his arms around me. I returned the hug and felt Domino press his body against mine, comforting me like no other has ever done. Domino released me when his eyes darted towards the bed. Diantha was lying down with one eye open, staring up at Domino before shutting her eye again. "Diantha!?" His eyes widened as he shoved himself passed me and ran to the bed. He climbed into the bed and wrapped his arms around Diantha in a tight embrace, and Domino's twin smiled without opening her eyes. "You're…here."
Diantha slowly opened her eyes before replying, "Domino…where am I?"
Domino put a finger to her lips and said in a hushed voice, "You need rest. You've been through a lot." He got out of the bed and balled his fist, marching over to the desk towards the back of the room, glaring into the man's eyes. "Where are we?"
The man chuckled, his pearly white teeth and his crystal eyes sparkling. Rika walked to the front of the room on the side of where the door was supposed to be, but it was gone like magic. She leaned against the wall and crossed her arms, closing her eyes and smirking as Domino continued to stare into the eyes of the stranger sitting behind that desk. Asher rushed to Domino and grabbed onto my friend's shoulders, trying to pull him away while saying, "Sorry about him, he can be really rude sometimes."
"That's quite alright," the man said, readjusting his glasses as he studied Domino, Asher, Rika, and I. "Quite a group you've got here. All from different backgrounds with different stories, different personalities, different futures, different destinies and different fates." After saying that his eyes met mine.
"I'm confused," Rika said, stepping away from the wall and walking towards us and planting both hands firmly on the desk in front of us. "How did we get here? All I remember was a light."
"Kane's strong heart called out, and I heard it from here," the man replied, closing his eyes as if visualizing my heart in his mind. "His heart was distressed so I showed him the way here. Destati intervened. That Goddess of Heart has a tight hold on Kane's heart." Did he know Destati? "Destati left behind Diantha."
At the mention of her name, Diantha slowly sat up in her bed while yawning. She hung her feet off of the bed and stood up, slowly making her way to her brother. When she got within a few feet from Domino she stumbled and fell, stopping herself from crashing to the floor with her hands. This startled all of us. Domino and I helped the girl up. Diantha coughed several times before looking up at Domino with a warm smile.
Her smile was broken when the room began to shake. She immediately conjured Divine Rose as Domino summoned Starlight and Rika summoned Darksouls. Asher summoned his weapon to which Diantha immediately asked, "What Keyblade is that?"
"Gunpowder," Asher replied. Fitting name.
The room continued to shake, and the man behind the desk stood up in alarm and yelled out, "They're here?" As soon as he said that, Shadows rose from the ground in a circle around Diantha, Asher, Rika, Domino, and I. Two Neoshadows appeared on either side of the mystery man and grabbed onto both of his arms, keeping him stationary. Seven Darkballs appeared in the air only feet below the ceiling and flew in a huge circle above our heads.
"What do they want with us?" Rika asked in frustration, swinging Darksouls further and vanquishing a Shadow, but another one quickly took its place. "Traverse Town, the Realm Between, and now here?"
"I've got them!" I yelled out, holding two hands above my head. Lightning rained down from the ceiling and struck each Heartless in the head, each creature vanishing into the darkness. I then heard a hissing sound like a thousand snakes, and from the ground came a dark portal in which a dark, beefy hand rose from its cruel depths. "A Darkside!?" The hand reached straight for the mystery man. Raising my hand again, an extremely large bolt of thunder blasted downward from the ceiling and onto the hand, making it vanish within seconds. The portal on the ground didn't vanish.
"That was a Thundara spell," Domino muttered. I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he clarified, "A second-level thunder spell." Spells had multiple levels? Domino approached the dark portal in the ground and peered into it. I looked into it as well. It looked like a swirling mass of black, blue, and purple leading into a deep, dark abyss. "What did those Heartless want?"
The man behind the desk crossed his arms as he sat back in his chair. He seemed a little uneasy all of sudden, yet he was so calm before the Heartless showed up. Did he and those monstrous beasts have some sort of connection? He obviously knew what they were…and who Destati was. Come to think of it, he knew who every single one of us in the room was. How could he possibly know all of that?
"What's inside of the darkness?" Rika asked, standing on her knees and slowly putting her hand inside the dark portal. She smiled and said, "The darkness feels so good." She stood up. "It leads somewhere…possibly another world."
"Don't worry about it," the mystery man said, standing up once more. "Within that chasm of darkness is a creature so vile that the Heartless spawn from it at a rapid rate. It isn't a Heartless, but it contains a vicious darkness. It is a devil among devils."
"How do you know what's in there?" I asked. "In fact, how do you know who we are? Where are you getting all of this information?"
The man chuckled, showing his pearly white teeth. "My friend, it's not a matter on how or why I know everything. I just do. That's all there is to it."
"I can stop that creature—the one summoning all of these Heartless," Domino said, changing the subject. "I've dealt with worse."
"No you haven't." The mystery man seemed frantic now. He slammed his hands down onto the table and shouted, "I forbid it! This creature is one of the most destructive and darkest beings out there, and even he isn't the most horrifying thing."
"Let's see about that," Domino said and, without much surprise, jumped into the black portal in the ground. He vanished beyond the dark depths. The man behind the desk nearly snapped his quill in half when he witnessed Domino vanish into the darkness. Without saying a word, Rika saluted to the man and dived into the black hole as if she were diving into a swimming pool.
"No," Diantha said, catching her breath before running towards the portal. "Domino!" Before she could get within a foot from the black hole, Asher wrapped his arms around her chest and tugged her back, the two of them falling over and onto the floor. Diantha tried to break free from Asher's grasp but to no avail. "Let me go!"
"Nope, sorry!" Asher screamed, finding it hard to keep the girl from getting away from him.
"This is just perfect," the mysterious man sighed, slumping in his seat and putting a hand over his sad eyes. "They're going to die at the hands of something that was entirely my fault!" I was going to ask what he meant by that, but decided against it when he slammed his head into his desk. He looked back up at me and said, "There came a time when all hope was lost. A true evil had awakened and to defeat it I created something to destroy it. But my creation…it turned on me, taking the evil one's side. I can't get rid of it. Even now it's still after me."
"You should know that Domino and I are a part of a prophecy," I told him, walking up to his desk to put a hand on his shoulder. He looked into my eyes and smiled slightly. "If this war is what's meant to happen, there's no way the two of us can die. I'll go make sure that the other two are alright." The man grabbed my hand when I tried to walk away. He looked at me with a face that said Are you sure? I told him, "I'm sure."
A ran into the darkness, falling into the chasm headfirst. My first instinct was to just keep falling, not expecting solid ground for a good few hours. I couldn't see anything below me. I tried to scream out, but no voice was heard. All at once as if an entire world had materialized in a short millisecond, I hit the black, rocky surface hard with my elbows. When I landed, I flew back up into the air a few inches and landed again, this time on my knees. I was falling backwards. Falling? By the looks of the terrain that I could barely make out as I tumbled downward, I was falling down a steep, rocky mountain of some sort. Pain was shooting up and down my arms and legs and chest and back. I flipped over backwards for several feet going down the mountain until I could finally grab a hold of a giant chunk of rock that was partially sticking out of the rocky surface. Grabbing it halted my decent. I was fine.
About twenty feet above my head were Domino and Rika, grabbing onto the rocky terrain and steadily climbing to the top. Domino looked down at me and his smile widened as he said, "Didn't you always talk about how you really wanted to go mountain climbing?"
"Yeah, reading about mountains in textbooks isn't as fun as actually seeing one in person, let alone climbing one," I called above me. Letting go of the rocky surface with one hand, I checked my elbow. Blood was streaming from it, but a simple Cure spell worked on it just fine. I continued my ascent, trying to catch up to Domino and Rika. Every so often a rock would give way underneath my feet and I'd fall a foot or two downward, but I'd recollect myself and begin climbing again.
As we got higher and higher, a thought finally occurred to me. Why were we on a mountain? The higher we went, the suffer the mountain became. The air was supposed to be getting colder, but I felt the temperature begin to rise. Sweat beaded down my forehead, dripping from my hair and eyebrows and into my eyes. I blinked the sweat away. Then I could smell something which smelled faintly of ash. Was something burning? The rocks of the mountain went from black to a lighter color…were the rocks turning red? The rocks felt like they were warming up with the temperature. This wasn't a mountain, I thought, it's a—
Domino screamed ahead of me, falling from his position and flying downwards, passing me and up and nose-diving down the mountain. I held my hand out and suddenly a vortex of air surrounded Domino. Had I done that? The vortex of air lifted Domino up, floating him in the air only a few feet from me. I took a good long look at the palms of his hands and the bottoms of his feet. They were scorched. Domino had finally paid the toll for going barefoot everywhere. I heard Rika above us yell out, "I can't climb any farther; it's too hot!" She kicked herself off of the mountain, and before she could fall downward her darkness shot from her feet and rocketed her into the air, keeping her aloft in the air.
I decided to wave my hand through the air, dropping myself off of the side of the mountain. Before I could fall too low, I was rocketed upward by the air used by my Aero spell. The three of us floated in the air, Domino and I were floating within vortexes of air and Rika was floating by using her darkness. I looked ahead of us to the mountain, my eyes following the steep way upward until they came into contact with a rushing red, orange, and yellow substance. It was…lava, slowly making its way down the volcano. It was a volcano!
Domino waved his feet through the air in pain. Thank goodness he hadn't actually touched the lava…his hands and feet would've probably burnt to a crisp. With each hand I grabbed onto his feet, and a blue light washed over his feet and suddenly Domino smiled. I don't know how I'd done it. I had used Blizzard magic to cool off his feet. I didn't know I could transfer the coolness of the Blizzard spell by touch! Domino looked to me with gratitude and said, "Let's get higher up!"
Rather reluctantly Rika and I followed Domino upward through the air. The air above was becoming hazy and foggy, but every now and then I caught glimpses of things flying around us. Using more Aero spells I was able to dispel most of the fog and haze and saw that flying around us, barking like little, vicious puppies were over a thousand Darkballs that filled the skies and circled around the volcano in a number of patterns. As we soared higher and higher—trying our best at fending off the multitude of Darkballs—we had finally reached the top of the volcano. The giant hole in this gigantic mountain spewed out darkness and ash and lava, lava flowing like a river downward, ash coiling through the air and darkness curling down into the dark depths below.
I could finally get a good look around the perimeter of the mountain. Nothing but darkness and spirals and wisps of blue, purple, and magenta coiled around this tiny little world. I saw Shadows and Neoshadows rise from the ashes and darkness coating the volcano, climbing up and walking straight passed the lava without being harmed. Darkballs continued to rise like an explosion from the volcano, littering the skies by the thousands. Four Darksides rose from the dark depths all around the volcano, raising their large hands into the air as if to praise the mountain.
And then something finally rose from within the volcano. Something large and powerful. I could almost heart Domino and Rika's jaws dropping.
From within the volcano rose a gigantic, muscular, humanoid demonic-looking monster. The beast's skin blacker than the darkness around it. It was so large, the height of Rika, Domino, and I combined wasn't even as tall as its head was. His head sported two curved horns, in his mouth were four jagged fangs, and his eyes were a glowing yellow. He had enormous, black, bat-like wings, and his wingspan looked larger than his own height, stretching out to either end of the large expanse of sky. He stopped rising, not letting his knees rise out of the volcano.
"Hello," I could hear a dark, evil voice whisper within my mind. His voice was thunderous within the depths of my mind. From the looks of Domino's and Rika's surprised expressions, they were also hearing the demonic voice. "I am Chernabog. I exist for darkness, I linger within darkness, I control darkness…I amDarkness!" The demonic creature sprouting from the volcano lifted a clawed hand up, a ball of light appearing within it. The light darkened to a menacing, blood-colored orb of flames. Waving his wrist forward, the ball of fire shot towards the three of us. Domino and Rika conjured their Keyblades, Domino swinging Starlight forward and slamming it into the ball of flames. The ball blew up in an explosion of fiery white light.
"This must be that creature that man had told us about," Domino said. Obviously, Domino. Domino flew towards the massive face of Chernabog. Rika stayed by my side and shot orbs of darkness at the creature. Chernabog simply swatted each orb of darkness away like it was nothing. Domino got within ten feet of Chernabog's face, but the monster slashed its slaws forward, smacking Domino in the side and sending my friend flying off into the distance. I flew to Domino and tried to reposition himself in the air, and he told me, "I've got it, Kane. Thanks."
Chernabog growled loudly and shot many balls of fire towards the three of us. Lifting my hand into the air, lightning rained down from the darkness above and slammed into each orb of fire, causing each one to explode in a flurry of dancing flames.
Chernabog flapped its wings and a sudden gust of wind pushed me back, sending me flying backwards, tumbling through the air without any control of my body. Domino had held his arms out in front of him to brace himself from the wind, and he was able to stand his ground…or would that be standing his air? Or floating his air? Never mind. Rika seemed overall immune to the blast of wind that was sent our way; she flew through the air striking down Darkball after Darkball.
I held my hands out in front of me and I was pushed forwards by a gust of Aero I had conjured. I was closing in on its face. Each cruel eye seemed to be larger than my own head. It growled with its ferocious mouth, slamming a fist forward and barely missing me by a few inches. Domino had pulled me away at the last moment. He looked at me with eyes as if to say, Stay back. He plunged Starlight forward, jabbing the beast before us in the wrist that had previously swung down on us.
Darkness poured from Chernabog's wound. Howling in rage, Chernabog swung his fist at Domino, slamming his knuckles into Domino's chest and sending my friend's body flying backwards. "Domino!" I shouted at him, reaching a hand out to him. But he had gotten just out of my reach. And suddenly a circle of Darkballs surrounded me, baring their jagged fangs at me and trying so very hard to chomp down on me. At last, I felt a sharp pain. Five of them had sunk their teeth into my arms. I couldn't feel them.
I saw red floating inches from my face. The blood from my arms was coiling up towards the black sky as I was continuously being bitten by these vicious dog-like Heartless. I closed my eyes, trying to imagine the pain being over. I felt a tingle of electricity coursing through my veins. Was it my Thunder? I opened my eyes to see the Darkballs surrounding me each being shocked and destroyed, one by one. I felt a Cure spell being put on me…but it wasn't Domino's, or my, doing.
Floating a few yards away was someone who had an arm raised in the air, slowly putting it down as if just finishing off a spell.
The person wore white heeled boots and a short, white dress that reached a little below her knees. It wasn't one of those poofy, princess-type dresses either. It looked like a dress a business woman would wear. This was obviously a woman. The dress had sleeves that went to her wrists, a golden bracelet around each wrist. Around her neck was a shiny silver necklace, a symbol looking like a heart hanging from it. Wrapped around her head was what looked to be black bandages, wrapped around her head in such a way that only allowed her nose and her left eye to be seen.
I gasped when I saw that eye staring back at me. It was golden…my golden eye color. I was told that nobody outside my family possessed those yellow-gold eyes. It was impossible. My mother was gone. This woman…she didn't resemble my mother. It wasn't her. The only other one who possessed the golden eyes was my brother. Ibiki had told me that three years ago, my dad left and my mom and brother went to find him. He then told me they were dead. There was no other person that could be related to me.
Then who was this woman staring back at me? That eye showed hints of guilt, hints of remorse…sadness seemed to reflect from her eye.
And then Chernabog's large fist came inches from my face. Domino quickly stabbed Starlight into Chernabog's inky black skin. I looked back at the girl who had saved me a minute earlier, but she was gone. Where had she gone?
"Kane!" I didn't know why Domino was shouting at me, but he yanked me away and began flying back towards where Rika was. Finally I saw what was happening. In circle around the volcano, fire rose up from the dark depths and encased the demon within a shield of fiery hot fury.
In an instant, the flames vanished from around Chernabog. The beast looked around in confusion and suddenly…started punching at the air. The woman from before was darting through the air with light trailing behind her. Chernabog never successfully landed a punch on the woman. The black bandages around her head opened up a little on the back of her head, and a simple ponytail of hair flew out, billowing around in the wind behind her. I gasped. The hair was…silver.
It was my family. It had to be. Who was it?
Flapping his demonic wings once again, Chernabog generated a tidal wave of wind that slammed into Domino and I. The woman simply vanished in a flash of white. And then the beast…retreated. It sunk back into the depths of the volcano. The light emanating off of the lava and the flames vanished. The Heartless all around the place sunk into the darkness. There was an eerie calm in the air.
"It's gone?" Rika called from farther behind Domino and I.
"Who was that?" I asked to myself, reaching a hand out in front of me.
"What?" Domino asked. "Who was who?"
"Golden eyes, silver hair," I muttered, my hair gently flowing in the calm, cool breeze. "Not my mother…my entire family's dead. Then who was it?" Domino put a hand on my shoulder. "Domino." The sudden outburst of Domino's name caused him to jerk his hand away. "And Rika." Rika flew towards the two of us. "Let's go inside." I flew forward, directly above the volcano. I couldn't see a single slither of light below. Had all the lava disappeared? I suddenly fell into it, Domino and Rika trailing behind me.
I landed on the rockiness of the bottom of the volcano's insides. Chernabog was nowhere to be seen. Floating in the center of the small room was what looked like a crystalized Keyhole. The same one I had seen in Traverse Town. The true heart of a world. I reached out and touched it, and it glowed a bright white. Domino and Rika landed behind me. Starlight immediately pointed itself at the Keyhole and blasted a light towards it, making the light from the crystal glow even brighter.
I felt warmth…a familiar warmth. The same warmth that had come from that portal that had brought me to that mysterious room with that mysterious man. My eyes readjusted to the light as the whiteness dimmed. The three of us were back in that room. Diantha and Asher sat on the bed in the back of the room talking to each other, until Diantha stood up and rushed to her twin to give him a hug.
"I saw a woman," I blurted out, still at a loss for words.
I was cut out of my trance by the glowing crystal Keyhole in the center of the room in front of the desk. The man behind the desk marveled at the sight of this pure creation with wide eyes. "You found one of the pure Keyholes, the heart of a world. I've tried to get so many to obtain it from that vile beast. And here it is. The Key to the Door."
"The what?" Domino asked. "What is this for? Who are you?"
"My name is…" the man said, crossing his arms as he stood upright in his chair, looking at the crystal Keyhole with determination. "Disney. Walt Disney. What you see before you is one of millions…a pure lock hidden within each world. if you would have found this lock within Utopia, those civilians would not have perished." Domino's face turned grim. "Seven of them opens a door to the world I once called my own. The one my brother had shoved me out of."
"Your brother?" Asher asked with confusion, stepping off of the bed himself.
Walt Disney looked towards the ceiling and replied, "He was born alongside me…I created the light within our world, and he created the darkness outside it. He tainted our world with darkness so I pushed him out into his dark domain. He came back in and shoved me out, locking the door back in. If you bring me six more of these pure Keyholes, I shall go back to where I belong. If you do this, a great treasure will be unlocked to you. Do you accept?"
"A great treasure?" Domino asked. "We could accept. What do you think, Kane?"
I heard what he was saying but…none of this mattered. I looked up to Walt and asked him, "You know everyone here…and their stories. Earlier I had seen someone possessing golden eyes and silver hair. Who is she? Not my mother…then who? The only other family member of mine with those traits was my brother, Samuel. According to Ibiki, my mom and my brother had died."
"I can't reveal anything about the information I hold," Disney replied. "Only the things you know already. Your mother died a long time ago. Your father is dead. Your brother is gone. I'm sure you'll find out this girl's identity soon enough." Walt smiled at the crystal Keyhole and reached out for it. The mystical item turned into a shower of light, each practical of light flying towards the man and fusing into his skin. He was showered in warm glow that soon vanished.
"You never talk about your brother," Domino muttered. "What was he like?"
"He…always wanted to go to the outside worlds," I replied. "He wanted to travel and meet new people. Samuel was a very smart man." The thought of remembering my brother after all this time brought a smile to my lips. A tear dripped down my cheek. Hopefully on our travels we'd come to find out who this woman was. Now…was Domino going to say yes to going to six other worlds and finding their crystal Keyholes?
I looked to Domino and he smiled. He winked at me.