Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts and everything else belongs to Walt Disney and Square-Enix.
The OCs and their alter-ego that appear in this story belong to their respective authors. More information about them are found in the "Original Characters' Intro" chapter.
::KINGDOM HEARTS III Online HD::
-I Shall Return-
Back at Midlight City High School,
Taylor has watched the event back at Dwarf Woodlands and she cheerfully pumped her fist in the air when she saw the message on her PSP screen saying You Earned the Beauty Mark!, "All right! They did it!" she squealed.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Let's meet up with our finalists!" Taylor heard Tidus cheerfully announcing the results back at the auditorium stage. She peeked in to see who got the spot. Tidus said a bunch of names like Amanda, Desiree, Tenisha, etc. She even heard the name she hated the most: Milene Vitali (a popular cheerleader, rival of Sierra).
…then she heard him say, "Sierra Stellaserah!" and the crowd went wild.
"WHOOHOO!" Taylor cheered, "You go girl!"
Despite the praises she was getting from the crowd, Sierra appeared sad and unsure of herself.
"NOW," Tidus shouted, "Who would like to say a few words to their fans about this ahh-mazing chance at winning? Anyone? C'mon! There's gotta be someone!"
Sierra snatched the mic from Tidus and spoke, "I'm sorry everybody! I can't do this!"
The crowd gasped at that statement before they went dead silent.
"What?" Taylor screamed, "What's she doing?"
Sierra went on, "I can't go on further into this pageant! I lied to you! I'm not the Sierra you know and love right now! This isn't my real face. I'm wearing a mask!"
The crowd stood silent.
"What are you doing, woman?" Taylor harshly hissed, "You're throwing your chance at winning down the freaking fire!"
Milene Vitali approached Sierra and provocatively asked, "So, you're saying you're a phony?" she gloated, "Ah! Can you believe that people? Sierra Stellaserah is a fake! Popular and fake! Not so surprising isn't it?"
Chatters and sound of disappointment raised from the crowd. Tidus shook his head, "That's impossible. Sierra can't be wearing a mask, right?" Tidus faced the judges, Zidane, Selphie and Lightning. They all looked puzzled, "Of course not!" he added, "You can only see people wearing masks in movies."
"No really I am!" Sierra insisted.
"Sierra!" Taylor hissed to her friend to shut up but Sierra dismissed her.
"If you don't believe me, I'll show you!" Sierra went for her face.
"EEEK!" Taylor gasped and covered her eyes with her hands, just as Sierra was peeling off the mask she was wearing. The crowd gasped in horror at what they saw: the real Sierra!
Silence fell in the auditorium as everyone stared at the perky blonde's real face.
The crowd went wild again! Wild with excitement and wolf whistling.
"Whoa!" Tidus exclaimed, "If that's the real Sierra, I gotta tell ya man, that girl is no ugly duckling! She's HOT!"
Taylor hesitantly opened her eyes to see why the crowd was not crying out in horror. Turns out, they saw Sierra's real face! No longer the witch with the curvy nose and pimple-covered mug, but the blonde girl with highlights and perky blue eyes! Her smile grew widely.
"ALL RIGHT SIERRA!" she squealed, applauding among the crowd.
"HEY!" Milene Vitali squealed, "Why are you people cheering? Why all the freaking cheers? She was wearing a MASK! She's supposed to be disqualified! That's part of the Homecoming Rule book!"
"That's the rules yes!" Tidus answered, "But the rules state to eliminate ugly girls wearing masks. Clearly, Sierra didn't break the rules since well… she ain't ugly! Right judges?" Tidus turned to face the three judges: Selphie, Zidane, and Lightning.
"Totally hot!" Zidane agreed, pulling out a 'You Rock' sign.
"She's so beautiful, I feel like crying!" Selphie chocked up.
"Dazzling is an understatement." Lightning said without a even a smirk.
Tidus faced the competitive girl and shrugged, "There you have it!"
"Aw, COME ON!" Milene screamed. Sierra approached her with a gloating expression, "Sorry girl. Hate to crush your dreams, but I'm still in the runway."
"AUGH!" the girl stormed out as the crowd kept on showering Sierra with praises. Sierra cheerfully waved back.
xXx
Though things went fine at Midlight City, things wasn't all pretty festive back at the Queen's Castle in Dwarf Woodlands.
"Princess!" The prince rushed over to Snow White's coffin, so did the dwarves and the heroes. They saw her beautiful face was completely pale.
"She's not waking up!" Bashful exclaimed.
Doc turned to the heroes' attention, "Can you do something? You've got to wake her up!"
All the dwarves faced the heroes while Dopey nodded desperately to them with a sad face.
"Okay, okay, we'll try!" Rian said before bringing up his Keyblade, "Keyblade's up, everyone!"
The Keybearers all raised their weapons upwards and together their light rays escaped, weaving to form a spectacular ball of light show. Snow White's body glowed in response. But the princess herself was irresponsive.
"She shouldn't be like this! She should have woken up." Matt said.
"You should have known the answer to this question, meddlesome fools." The voice of the Queen startled the gang. They all turned around and they saw her standing before them, unharmed and her face returned to normal. The teens prepared for combat.
"You!" Axel said, "We thought you were—!"
"Dead?" the Queen slightly chuckled, "Only darkness and greed brought me back to life."
"What have you done to Snow White?" the Prince demanded.
"What have you done to my Beauty Mark?" the Queen hissed, "You took it away from me! And just like you did to it, I took Snow White away from you."
"That Beauty Mark didn't belong to you." Pierre exclaimed.
"Wrong answer." The Queen raised her arms up and a wave of darkness took over the castle in a powerful wind gust, so strong it made everyone flinch, "You have something that belongs to me!"
"Then come and get it!" Talen raised his Keyblade up and rushed toward the Queen with a battle cry.
"Talen, no!" Rian yelled out. Talen swung. The Queen vanished. She reappeared behind Talen—as a Vulture. She charged toward him and mercilessly struck him in a multiple-hit combo frenzy that ended with him flung to a wall. The vulture then faced the heroes and shrieked. The dwarves panicked, and the prince readied his sword, defending Snow White and the dwarves.
"Go! Leave this beast in our hands!" Matt ordered the prince and the dwarves before facing Rian, "And so should you, Rian!"
"Hey, who made you leader?" Rian exclaimed.
Matt faced Rian again. Rian looked at the other Keybearers and noticed they were giving him the same look.
"Fine." He sighed and then was turning around, when the Vulture cried out. She went charging toward Rian who nimbly dodged her tackle. They watched her gliding around the ceiling. Rian let out a sigh of relief, "Phew! That was a close one, wouldn't you say?"
"Watch out!" Talen shouted.
The vulture dashed toward everyone and finally grabbed Rian up, carrying him through the ceiling and into the air. Rian screamed at a distance.
"RIAN!" Everyone shouted.
"Magic Mirror! Let me see thy might!" The vulture ordered and the Magic Mirror smoke-screened the chamber, blinding everyone. The dwarves panicked some more.
"Where is the Queen? WHERE IS THE QUEEEEEN?!" Sneezy quivered.
The creepy voices of the vulture and the magic mirror's face felt like Halloween on Death Street. The smoke cleared up and they were in a dark void arena where the Magic Mirror's face suddenly surrounded everyone; its face multiplied, cornered them, and twirled around them. Now they felt like inside the House of Mirrors.
"I'm scared! I'm so scared!" Happy cried out so did the rest of the dwarves, and Dopey rolled into an armadillo defense stance, trembling.
The faces morphed into one and laughed, GWOOH! OH! OH! OH!
"Don't worry I'll protect you." Talen said, stepping back and conjured his Keyblade, "Fira!"
A powerful energy ball of Fira shot from his Keyblade and nailed the Magic Mirror, only to make it reappear again behind him. Talen faced it again and shot Fira again, nailing it a second time. It reappeared again in another direction. He kept shooting his attacks but the Mirror kept teleporting at every hit.
GWOOH! OH! OH! OH!
"It's no use!" Axel said.
The Mirror's eyes suddenly flashed and the heroes helplessly got forced on their knees, unable to move. Their Keyblades vanished at will.
"Ngh… wh… what…?" Matt grunted.
"I c-can't move…" Talen grunted.
"Wh—what do you… ugh… t-think?" Violet grunted.
"Keyblade Magic…" Axel grunted, "that m-mirror can… ngh… d-do that too…"
As your will be done, Your Majesty, I shall finish them… The mirror moaned before splitting into multiple faces and provocatively twirled around the teens until they morphed together again into one giant horror mug, staring down from above like a god. Its mouth opened and a beam was charging.
"Don't hurt my comrades!" The prince charged toward the mirror and the mirror shot its power beam. The prince raised his sword to block. The beam forced on the prince. The prince put all his strength on his sword and managed to reflect the beam. The beam slammed onto the mirror's face and an explosion took place, overwhelming the dark place they were in.
Everything returned to normal and the mirror was no more, the prince was exhausted, and the Keybearers and the dwarves stood in silence.
"Whoa…" Dopey spoke.
"Snow White!" The prince put his sword back in its place and rushed over to his princess. Everyone gathered around her glass coffin. She wasn't responsive at all.
"She is really gone." Pierre solemnly said.
"That poor girl…" Violet felt tears in her eyes as the dwarves silently wept. The heroes stood there in silence as well. After such moment, the prince added, "You may be gone. But you will always be my princess. Always my love."
With these words, he leaned over to the princess and gave her a kiss. Suddenly the princess's body's glow, returning the fresh color of life back into her skin. The princess's eyes slowly rose to everyone's surprise.
Snow White looked over to the joyous prince.
"My love!" he gasped.
"You're here." She said with a smile, "My prince. I knew you'd come… someday."
The two shared another kiss. The dwarves even the heroes fluttered. "aww…"
Pierre saw Talen making a strange face. "Talen?" he sounded surprised.
"Hrrmh?!"
"Are you… crying?"
Talen quickly wiped a tear with his arm, "Allergies! Sniff…" his voice broke, "They're really strong this year!!"
"Aw… Talen's a softie." Violet giggled.
"Yeah, who knew?" Axel grinned.
"Shut up…" Talen mumbled and everyone laughed…
…but the joy quickly got short-lived!
CAAAW hAW HAW HAW HAW! The vulture was heard laughing.
GUYS HEEELP! Rian is heard from a distance.
"RIAN!" the gang exclaimed.
"Come on, let's go rescue him!" Matt ordered, "Rian needs our help!" And everyone rushed out of the castle, after the flying vulture. The prince spotted a set of horses ready to be ridden by the castle's main entry. "We'll take the horses!" he proposed.
"Really?" Talen frowned, not liking the idea.
"It's much faster! Let's go!" the prince said and they all went by horses. As for the dwarves they whistled and they summoned many of the woodland creatures to help them in the pursuit.
They were halfway down the cliff when Pierre's cellphone rang. He picked it up, "Hello?"
It was Sierra, "Oh my gosh, Pierre! You guys are lifesavers!" she sounded excited. She was with Taylor, surrounded by thousands of students wanting to get an autograph. She felt like a rockstar, wearing her Beauty Pageant tiara and fluffly pink winning scarf over her beautiful pageant dress, "Thanks to you guys, I won the Beauty Pageant and got a spot for Homecoming Queen! Now I can hardly wait to win it. Totally cool, right?"
"Hey, I helped too y'know?" Taylor complained, carrying with her a pile of autographed pictures of Sierra.
"SIERRA! As fantastic as that sounds, why are you calling?! This is a bad time!" Pierre exclaimed.
Sierra's smiling face vanished, "Bad time? Are you…" her looked grimed up all of the sudden, "Oh my gosh! Are you cheating on me?"
"What?" Pierre exclaimed, "Why would I cheat on you?!"
"Because you're not being serious?" Sierra jumped to conclusion.
"The queen vulture has captured Rian and is dangling him over a cliff before us! How's that for serious!" Pierre revealed.
"WHAT?" Sierra exclaimed.
Taylor finally reached her friend, "Sierra! What are you doing on the phone instead of helping me with your fans?"
Sierra faced Taylor, "Rian's in trouble!"
Taylor couldn't feel her legs, "He's always in trouble." She cringed, "I am now in trouble. So can you…?"
"No. I mean he's really in trouble! The queen has carried him over a cliff ready to kill him!"
Taylor threw the pile of autographed pics over the students, "WHAT??!" she screamed before dragging Sierra away from the now-turning student mob and dashed out of the school.
Back at Dwarf Woodlands, the heroes finally reached the mountain cliff where the Vulture stopped, air-bound two thousand feet over it. Rian, being deathly afraid of heights, started shaking.
"Oh please ma'am! Please! Don't do this to me man! I'm—!"
The vulture quickly zoomed a few feet down and quickly went back up, scaring Rian, "WHOA! Don't do this!" he screamed.
CAAAW hAW HAW HAW HAW! The vulture squawked again, "Deathly afraid of height are you? You're not as valiant as he said!"
"He?" Rian asked, looking over to the queen from eye's corner, "Who's he? And I am SO valiant for your information! Have you seen my criminal records lately?"
The gang stopped by the cliff to face the vulture.
"Stop right there and drop this guy right now!" Talen threatened the vulture.
"DROP?!" Rian exclaimed, "Learn your words Talen! HELLOOOO?"
The teens tried to conjure their Keyblades but it didn't respond. Matt concluded, "It's no use guys. We can't call on our weapons."
"Or transform." Talen angrily added, "Damn it."
"Oh, so the famous Keybearers cannot transform again huh?" the Queen chuckled, "How scintillating. I shall thank my assistance—!"
"Sage for discovering our weak point?" Talen interrupted her, "Yeah, we heard you the first time!"
Everyone huddled together, "There has to be a way to get Rian to safety."
"But how can we do that when our powers got muted?" Pierre asked.
"I know what we're gonna do?" Doc said, before facing the dwarves, "Gentlemen? Heigh-Hoooo!"
The dwarves and the woodland creatures gathered together, singing their all-famous tune.
"Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho! Heigh-ho- Heigh-ho- Heigh-ho!" They started gathering a pile of rocks for projectile and finally faced the Queen. "Aim!" Doc ordered and all took position, rocks in hand ready to fling them at the Queen.
"HEY!" Rian screamed at them, "You guys drop these rocks right now! This is bad move! Bad!"
The dwarves and the creatures lowered their weapons.
"DO WHAT YOU WANT WITH ME!" The Queen hissed at the heroes, loosely dangling Rian to his death, "TAKE ME DOWN ANYTIME! And I will take him down with me to HELL!!"
"Not so fast!"
Everyone heard that familiar voice and they turned around to see Sierra as Ciel. Ciel took focus on the Queen with her water-made harp, and drew with the harp strings a dozen of ice picks.
"Time to sing a lullaby!" Ciel said before shooting the ice picks from her harp in a flourishing note. The vulture's eyes glowed on the ice picks and they turned around to face Ciel. They went straight for her. "EEEEEK!"
Soledad suddenly appeared in front of her and waved her hand to create a Reflect shield in bright fire color. The ice picks crashed into the shield and the shield vanished before displaying light shows around the Queen, reflecting her counter attack. The wounded vulture suddenly let go of Rian who started falling down. "Waaaaaaaaaah!"
Everyone panicked. Just as Rian was about to land onto the rocky bottom, he stopped. Like as if time has stopped him. Strangely he felt an enchanted aura surrounding him and he started floating back to shore where everyone watched in awe the person doing this spell.
"Snow White…" they gasped. Snow White had her eyes closed, her right hand reaching out toward Rian, her left hand over her heart.
"She… she rescued Rian…" Talen looked surprised.
"Unbelievable…" Matt breathed.
"Whoa…" everyone else oohed.
"Impossible!" the vulture hissed.
The stunned Rian was brought back safely to shore and everyone rushed over to see if he was okay. He was, just as surprised as they were.
"You… you saved me." Rian said to the princess.
"You really did, Snow White. Thank you." Matt complimented.
"How did—?" Talen looked confused.
"The power of the heart!" The vulture said, catching all attention, "So gentle, so pure, so innocent! I. Want. That POWER!"
Snow White angrily faced the Queen, "You will never get this power! It is precious to me and my friends. You may hurt me all you like. But I will never, ever let you lay a finger on them!"
With these words, Snow White directed her arm toward the Vulture Queen and a blinding Holy light emitted inside the vulture's body. The vulture screamed, "What's happening to me? NGYOOOOOOOOOO!"
The Holy Light exploded, taking over the skies and the entire Woodlands in a flash. The light quickly faded, and the Queen was no more. The Woodland was now raining bits of magic light and in response the Keybearers' weapons returned to the heroes.
"Hey, we got our powers back!" Axel said.
"We did it!" Talen said.
"No, she did it." Matt said before facing Snow White, "She defeated the Queen."
Snow White faintly smiled before fainting. Everyone gathered around her to see if she was okay. She was. She only fell asleep after unleashing such massive power.
xXx
Few hours passed and Snow White had recovered. She and the prince happily announced their engagement at the Queen's Castle, now Snow White's Castle. The young couple has of course invited the dwarves and everyone else who were dear to the princess and the prince to the ceremony, including the Keybearers. It was now time to go for the newly engaged couple, and the prince has prepared his horse for his beloved Snow White so that they together will set out for their new home.
"I must thank you all for your help." Snow White complimented the teens, "You have been very grateful to me, to my dear friends, and to my prince."
"Aw, shucks." Rian grinned.
"And I must thank you for helping me rescue the fair princess." The prince complimented the teens, "If it was not for you, I would not be here."
"Aw, shucks." Axel grinned also.
"And we must thank you for saving the princess!" Doc complimented the teens on his dwarf family's behalf, "And sorry for doubting you that you were the bad guys!"
"Actually, that was me." The prince admitted.
"Okay, okay!" Violet waved her hand in dismissal, "Enough of the whole 'thank you' business already! We didn't do anything, really! You guys did it with only our help."
"Yeah, the prince saved us from a Mirror and the princess saved us from a vulture. How weird is that when we're supposed to be heroes?" Axel said.
"Heroes? Try weakling." Talen provoked. "Shut up." Axel muttered.
"Guys, be nice." Sierra said, trying not to laugh too much.
"I hope we get to be at the wedding." Rian said.
"As long as there's fine cider, I'm there!" Taylor added. Then Sierra giggled excitedly, "Ooh! I looove fine cider. Did I mention it's gonna be my winning drink for my pageant?"
"Actually no drinks for her!" Pierre pointed at Sierra. "HEY!" Sierra didn't find it amusing.
"I was about to say that!" Taylor said and Sierra screamed, "HEY!" at her and everyone laughed along.
Suddenly the Keyhole Portal emerged from behind the teens, catching everyone's attention.
"Goodness, what is it?" Happy wondered.
"The Keyhole Portal." Matt responded, before facing everyone.
"I guess it's time to head home." Rian said.
And so the prince, Snow White, and everyone in the Dwarf Woodlands went on their separate ways after bidding each other farewell. With the lovely princess and the valiant prince ready to live happily ever after, the teens' long-waging adventures were only the beginning.
xXx
Once the teens entered through the portal heading back home, the portal, instead of vanishing at will, vanished into someone's hand! Someone in a dark-robed Armani coat: a Blackheart! His face was still under the hood.
"Hmm… interesting twist of fate." He spoke in a young husky voice, "We have a Princess who uses the power of light inside her heart to her advantage, and it appears that one of these Keybearers now possesses a hidden power: the power to see the future."
He drew from out of thin air a figurine of Talen.
"Of course," he continued, "he's keeping it to himself, what will happen if that secret gets revealed?" he paused for a second, then conjured up a figure of Matt, "As for him…" he muttered, staring coldly at that figure, "to betray us like that… the lowest of lows."
He paused again, before fading out the two figures, "No time to waste. Must haste to get them busted. And the plan shall be set in motion."
xXx
Not far from the woods were the teens were, Donald saw Goofy sitting on a rock, and he could hear him whimpering and sniffling. He slowly approached him, surprised. He never heard Goofy cry before.
"Goofy?" he asked warily.
"When Terra told me, I didn't look like this." Goofy paused briefly, "I was worse than how I looked now."
Goofy was staring at a picture of himself, Donald, and their friend. He sniffled, "Just thinking about it was unbearable." He muttered, "And what was worse, he was this close to be crowned prince of the Realm of Light… and now he's gone."
"And now the King's missing." Donald sighed.
There was a moment of silence. Donald sighed, "Goofy, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Donald." Goofy protested, "I should have told you."
"No, Goofy." Donald countered, "It was my fault. I was a jerk for jumping on you. I wasn't paying attention on how you truly felt."
Goofy turned to face Donald. He was a mess just thinking about it. Donald went on, "I was just being a jerk, thinking about my feelings and not yours."
Goofy stared at the picture once more. So did Donald.
"Sora was a good friend." Goofy said, revealing the name of their friend they've lost.
"Yeah, he was." Donald replied, "He was a pain in the butt when it comes to piloting the Gummi Ship."
Goofy chuckled slightly and Donald smiled, "…but he was a good friend."
"And you know what's weird? We lose something dear, and then suddenly we gain something greater! Like those Keybearers… and Terra!" Goofy revealed.
"And you know what's even weirder?" Donald said, "Johnny kinda reminds me of Sora!"
"Gawrsh. That's because he looks like him with the spiky hair and all!"
Donald looked around, "Where are they anyway?"
"Didn't they tell you?" the devious husky voice of the unknown Blackheart member caught their attention. Donald and Goofy turned around to be greeted by a gust of wind, materializing into the Blackheart member seen earlier. He removed his hood to reveal his cocky face with violet spiky hair like Org XIII's member VIII's Axel. Donald and Goofy quickly stood alert.
"Blackheart!" Donald quacked. The two friends unleashed their weapons, posing for combat.
"Now why do we have to fight when we can just talk about busting your little Keybearers troublemaking friends here?" he spoke.
"Because you're trouble?" Donald exclaimed.
"What about our friends?" Goofy asked.
"Didn't they briefly talk about ditching their mission just so they could go back to their real world to attend some uh… I dunno, pageant thingy?"
"WHAT?!" Donald and Goofy exclaimed.
"Yeahh…" he prolonged, "I guess it has to do with something far more important than defeating Blackhearts like I dunno, helping a girl out with her beauty drama?"
"Those guys!" Donald grumbled, before facing Goofy, "We gotta go get them, Goofy!"
"Ruuh-ight behind ya, Donald!" Goofy said, and the two friends teleported by Donald's Staff.
The blackheart smiled, "And you ain't coming back."
He waved his hand over the sky to make a Keyhole Portal appear magically. He waved his hand around The Keyhole Portal again as if erasing, and the portal disintegrated in response.
"Good bye, Keybearers." He then faced Snow White's Castle from a distance, "Hello, Heart of Pure Light."
Suddenly Sage appeared behind the Blackheart member; "Enjoying your moment, Phantamis?" she called him.
The Blackheart Phantamis almost screamed, surprised by Sage's sudden appearance. He held on his heart, "Can you like ever stop doing that?"
"I find it fun-tertaining." She replied.
"Look woman, your plan failed, a'ight? Why do you care so much on… I dunno… what I wanna do?"
"Because it's not what you want to do. It's what we've been scheming together as a team." Sage said, "And besides, the Queen…" she scoffed, "she was weak and frail. Too pathetic to play a huge role in this."
"You call a two-hundred twelve pound vulture who's been torturing these freaks, weak and frail?" Phantamis laughed, "You're sad."
"Let's just go over the plan," Sage said before smiling at the thought. "I can smell sweet and sour victory for us. Sweet and sour."
xXx
Maurchel entered a secluded chamber highly similar to the Room of Sleep. He stood there, staring at a pair of white gloves sitting quietly on a silver pedestal. The gloves suddenly glowed and levitated from the pedestal. The gloves then released a shadow. The shadow quickly unleashed its darkness around the room, completely enveloping it. The shadow itself formed a figure and it faced Maurchel. Maurchel, with his creepiest bony smile, greeted the shadow.
"Good to see you again…" He said, "… Father."
The shadow had blinking yellow eyes, a head shaped like a pointed skeleton skull, a once-well-respected figure the shadow had. That shadow had the striking resemblance of the most feared of our thirteen Keybearers and previous enemy of Terra.
Master Xehanort!
Thunder flashed across the room, illuminating the shadow and revealing his scary eyes, shining brighter at every flash of lightning.
Rian's eyes flew open and he rose himself from bed, almost screaming and sweating excessively as if he was in a sauna.
He quickly looked around then stared at the moonlit sky, before realizing it was only a bad dream…
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Now accepting mortals… check out the newly updated "Intro to Original Characters" Chapter for more info.
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Next Chapter:: Nightmare in the Form of Nix