Sora the Maelstrom

by KHGiggle

Sora is a nice boy. A very nice boy. But what if he was raised by the Tsviets in DEEPGROUND? Slight crossover twist. May contain OOC and butchering of characters. Chapter nine fixed.

18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18, Hollow Bastion! This is one of the most important chapters in the story! Also answers some questions. Took forever to write in a way that would keep Riku alive. Kind of need him. Not to mention they meet Ansem…the fake Ansem I mean. Some reactions from Sora might be rather different.

It took a while to get this out mainly because I was distracted by Birth By Sleep. That game had some real shockers…I think I may have inadvertently created a Sora that's been influenced by Ven and Vanitas…Which is quite the accomplish considering I started writing this before I knew anything about Vanitas…Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

-Begin chapter-

"So, where do we go to take the new path?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, if this is like last time…Oh, there it is." Sora pointed at a swirling purple vortex. "We have to fly through that." Aladdin looked at the vortex.

"Is that safe?"

"You should probably fasten your seatbelts," advised Sora.

"The what?" The three familiar with the concept quickly demonstrated by putting on theirs. "Oh." Aladdin copied them. "What's this for?"

"It'll keep you from falling out," explained Goofy. Then they flew through the vortex. The gummi ship was immediately flipped upside-down and started skipping. Then it did cartwheels for several minutes. Then it got ejected in a strange looking part of innerspace with more Heartless ships than usual. Also, Abu was wrapped around Goofy's head. Didn't have any seatbelts for him.

"That was sort of like riding Carpet when we were escaping from the Cave of Wonders," said Aladdin. He took it well. They continued on until they reached a new world. It had a large castle and some waterfalls.

"Here we are. Donald, do we need to transform?"

"Nah, this looks like a fairly normal world. We can go as we are."

"Are you staying here Abu?" asked Aladdin. Abu nodded very quickly. "I thought so. Don't mess with the controls. We don't wanna get stuck here." Abu nodded. Then the boys beamed down to the world.

The surface of the world looked a bit odd. The water was solid, but not frozen and there were rock platforms floating up and down and back and forth. This wasn't what caught Sora's attention though. It was the castle in the distance. It looked just like the one he'd seen on the slide in Tarzan's world.

"I know this place…"

"Really, that's strange," said Goofy. Sora put his hand to his chest. His chest felt…strange all of a sudden.

"I feel this warmth inside, right here."

"Aw, you're just hungry," said Donald. Sora gave Donald a look.

"Hey! I'm being serious here!" And then they heard a loud roar close by. Everyone snapped to attention. Sora frowned. That had been a roar of pain. He hopped onto one of the platforms and closed his eyes to see if he could sense or hear anything.

"No vessel, no help from the Heartless…" Sora's eyes flew open. He knew that voice! "So tell me, how'd you get here?" Sora started for the voice.

"Sora! Wait up!"

"I simply believed." That voice he didn't recognize. "Nothing more to it. When our world fell into darkness, Belle was taken from me. I vowed I would find her again no matter what the cost. I believed I would find her. So, here I am. She must be here. I will have her back!"

"Take her if you can." Sora got to the top of the ledge just in time to see Riku slash through…Sora wasn't sure what to call it. It had horns, fangs, a muzzle, brown fur, and seemed to be a combination of different types of animals. It had been talking like a human though. Whatever it was, it collapsed, with blood leaking from its body. Sora pulled out his daggers as Riku raised his eyes to look at Sora. "About time you got here." Sora rushed Riku slashing up with one knife, which Riku blocked. The other knife was going Riku's neck but he dodged it. "You know, we've always been rivals, haven't we? Ever since we met. You've always pushed me and I've always pushed you." Sora did a side kick to Riku's ribs. Riku caught this and swung at Sora's head with his sword. Sora leaned back to avoid it. "But it all ends here. There can't be two Keyblade masters." Sora did a roundhouse kick at Riku's head with his free foot. Riku released the foot he was holding and jumped back to avoid the kick. Sora broke his fall and rolled to a crouching position.

"What the heck are you talking about?" Riku smirked.

"I think it's time to let the Keyblade choose its true master." Riku held out the hand with the sword. The Keyblade disappeared from Sora's back and replaced the sword in Riku's hand, only it was in its Kingdom Key form. This happened just as the rest of the boys reached them. Their eyes widened.

"Huh?"

"What? !"

"How did he…?" Riku snorted.

"Maleficent was right. You don't have what it takes to save Kairi." Wait a minute. Did he say Maleficent? "It's up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door…and change the world."

"Maleficent? She told you that? You idiot! You don't even know anything about her and you just trusted her like that? !"

"Better than trusting you. You replaced us."

"What are you talking about?"

"After our world was destroyed, you immediately went and made two new friends to replace me and Kairi." Sora gave Riku an 'You're an idiot' look.

"Riku, you are an idiot. Did it ever occur to you that that it would be easier to find a missing person if you teamed up with someone else? That's why we fought all those Heartless and traveled to all those worlds. You abandoned me long before I ever abandoned you."

"Shut up! You were just a delivery boy. Your part's over now."

"That overglorified key is supposed to be some sort of ultimate weapon, but it's only as good as the one who has it. You really think that having that key will make any sort of difference?"

"You're just jealous you don't get to be Kairi's hero." Sora's eyes widened. Was Riku doing all this just because he wanted to be a hero? He thought swinging around a key and opening a stupid door would make everyone happy? !

"There's no such-" Sora's head suddenly erupted into pain. He grabbed his head. It felt like it was going to explode.

"You are very difficult to find."

"Who're you? !"

"You honestly don't recognize my voice? Has it really been that long?"

"You…! No! Go away! You're not real!" Everything went black.

Aladdin stared at the now unconscious Sora. "What just happened?" Even Riku looked surprised.

"He's fine! Sora's just being weird," said Riku. Donald sighed and walked over to Riku.

"Goofy. Let's go. We have to remember our mission." Aladdin and Goofy's eyes widened.

"Oh! Well, I know the king told us to follow the key and all…But…" Goofy looked down, like he wasn't sure what to do. Aladdin looked between the two in shock.

"You…You can't seriously be thinking about going with this guy! You know he works with the Heartless! If anything, he's our enemy! He won't help you find your king!"

"Still, the king told us to follow the one with the Keyblade," said Donald. "That's the only clue we have. We have to follow that order if we want to find him." Donald didn't sound completely sure, but Goofy winced and walked over to Donald and Riku.

"You're going too?" Goofy nodded.

"I'm sorry but we have to find the king."

"Well, I'm staying here." Aladdin walked over to Sora's form. "I'll tell Sora you left when he wakes up."

"Could you tell him we're sorry?" Aladdin thought that was rich, but nodded anyway. They did seem kind of upset about leaving.

"Those are some friends you found," muttered Riku. Then he walked away toward the castle with Donald and Goofy following him. Aladdin sighed.

"Well, this sucks," he said, using a phrase he'd picked up while traveling. He paused as he noticed the odd creature was moving.

"Hey, you shouldn't be moving! He sliced right through you!"

"Why…Why did you…you come here?"

"You can talk?" It coughed.

"I came here to fight for Belle. And though I am on my own, I will fight. I won't leave without her. That's why I'm here." Aladdin paused for a moment before nodding.

"I can relate to that. I think someone I'm looking for is here too." He looked over at Sora. "Him too…" Sora suddenly groaned and pushed himself up. "Sora! Are you okay?" Sora groaned again and stood up.

"My head hurts…"

"You just suddenly collapsed! You must have hit your head!" Aladdin pulled out a potion and forced it into Sora's hands. Then he pulled out a hi-potion and turned towards the creature. "You should have one too. Riku got you pretty bad." Sora tensed and looked around for Riku. He frowned when he realized something.

"Where are Donald and Goofy?" Aladdin winced from where he was explaining what the hi-potion did.

"They kind of left with Riku." Sora looked at Aladdin in shock.

"What?"

"Yeah, Donald said they were ordered by their king to follow the guy with the Keyblade, and since Riku somehow took it from you…" Aladdin trailed off. He didn't needed to finish the sentence. Sora's head started hurting even more, along with his chest.

"Oh…" Sora felt something wet on his face. He felt it and felt his face. It was coming from his eyes. "Is there something wrong with my eyes?" Aladdin gave him a weird look.

"You're crying. You don't seem like the type, but…"

"I'm…crying…? Sora licked some of the water. It was salty. "It's been so long since I cried…I don't even remember what it feels like…Why am I crying for them? ! I knew they were only following me because I had that key! I knew that they would leave! So why do I…?" Aladdin winced. Sora was a very dangerous and scary warrior…but it looked like he could still act like a confused kid.

"They said they were sorry. They didn't seem to like it either. I think they just went with him because they want to find their king and they didn't know what else to do." Sora winced and put his hand to his chest.

"There's something wrong with my heart."

"What do you mean?"

"It hurts just like it did when my father tried to kill me, but I haven't been stabbed…" That made Aladdin's eyes widen. Now he knew that Sora wasn't thinking straight. That was not something he would say out of the blue like that.

"You decided to let someone into your heart again?" Sora's eyes widened and he spun around wildly looking around. "That was foolish of you."

"Sora? What are you doing?"

"I thought I heard…No never mind. I must be hearing things since I'm upset." Sora glanced at Aladdin. "Why're you still here?"

"You're my friend. I'm not gonna just leave you here."

"My friend?" Sora laughed. "You barely even know me. I knew Riku for seven years, and he abandoned me when a witch told him some simple lies that he could have easily seen through if he wanted to. I obviously have horrible taste in friends, so how do I know I can trust you?"

"Well…What about that girl from Neverland? What was her name? Kairi? She seemed okay. You have other friends you're looking for too, right?"

"They're all psychopaths." Aladdin winced. Sora frowned. "But…Kimihiro was always nice to me. He's weird, but he has morals. He never hurt me on purpose, and he'd take care of me when I got hurt."

"See? You have friends. Riku just…is messed up or something. Donald and Goofy…were just being stupid…Man, it's weird, me giving you a pep talk." Sora snorted.

"Fine, I'll give you a chance."

"Great, so…" Aladdin looked over at the creature. Sora followed his gaze. "You mind us tagging along? I've gotten better at fighting, but I don't think I can get through here on my own. And Sora…uh…Can you still fight?" Sora nodded and winced.

"Yeah, but I wish my head would stop hurting. It shouldn't affect my fighting ability, but it's distracting even for me." Aladdin turned back to the creature.

"You're still hurt pretty badly…Maybe we can help each other," said Aladdin.

"…Fine," growled the creature.

"Okay, then I'm Aladdin, and this is Sora. What do you go by?"

"I am a beast. If you need to call me anything, just call me that." Aladdin sweatdropped.

"Not very social."

"You're right. It is weird seeing you taking charge." Sora heard laughter in his head and grabbed it as pain erupted again. "Ow…"

"Do you need another potion?"

"That's not gonna help." He dropped his hands. "This is gonna be unpleasant."

So, they had a three member party, a Tsviet with a severe migraine, a…beast, and a thief trying to keep everyone's spirits up. They got onto a lift that took them to the castle. It seemed to be falling apart. A bunch of huge Heatless appeared. They were purplish, looked draconian with wings but no arms, and the Heartless crest on its chest. "Wyvern, never touch the ground." "Okay, then." Sora fired Fira at one of them. One tried to swoop in to grab Aladdin, but Beast tackled it and ripped it apart. That gave Sora an idea. He used Gravira and grounded a nearby Wyvern. Beast attacked that one too. Sora continued to use Gravira on Wyverns to ground them for Beast and cast spells while Beast dealt with the grounded Wyvern. Aladdin didn't need to do much in this fight, which gave him time to think.

"I just thought of something." Sora raised an eyebrow. "We know pretty much nothing about each other. Maybe we can talk about our lives and stuff."

"No thanks," said Sora. He and Beast started heading for a large double door. Aladdin sighed and rubbed his head.

"This could take a while." He ran forward toward the other two. Then three Heartless appeared. They were humanoid, but the chest and arms were larger than they should be. The most noticeable feature was the shield in their left hands. It had what looked like the face of a large three-eyed dog on it, and was moving.

"Defenders. Shield is in control. Front attacks neutralized. Can bite, shoot fireballs, and spray ice." "Don't attack the front! The shield is the part that's in control!" After shouting his advice, Sora jumped behind one in the back and hit it with a Stop. Then he hit it with as many spells and slashes as he could.

Beast had an easier time. He actually ignored Sora's advice. He just grabbed the nearest shield, and slammed the attached Heartless into a nearby wall with a roar. Then he slashed the body behind it with his claws. When you're as freakishly strong as Beast, you don't need to worry much about strategy.

Aladdin was having the most difficult time of the three. He did not have magic or insane strength. What he had were acrobatics. That made it easy to dodge the attacks since it was a slow Heartless. He could get behind it easily too. Still he felt he was doing better than when he first got involved. Then Beast suddenly bowled the Defender over, making Aladdin jump about a foot in the air. "Warn me before you do that!" To the side, Stop wore off and all the attacks Sora did suddenly took effect. The Heartless instantly vanished. Sora tapped the door.

"It's locked." Beast started pounding on the door.

"So, you said your dad tried to kill you?"

"I'd appreciate it if you forgot I said that."

"Sure…I never knew my dad. I just have a dagger that supposedly belonged to him. My mom died when I was really young, and I was on the street stealing to survive. That's pretty much all I did until I met you guys."

"I don't think you're gonna get through that door," said Sora. Beast stopped trying to destroy the door, panting slightly. "We don't have any way to unlock it so we'll have to find something else."

They started backtracking to see if they could find any way to open the door. "I think I might have been a bastard. I mean mom worked all the time to try and get me food. There was no help from anyone, not even neighbors, and they're usually willing to help a widow who's fallen on hard times. And she was pretty so she could have found a husband maybe, but if people think you're a whore no one wants to marry you."

"Those crystals over there might be something important," said Sora. They walked through a wrought iron gate and over two a couple of odd glowing crystals. When Sora touched the first one it stopped glowing but that was all that happened. Touching the second one caused a lift to appear that they got on.

"You know, this has probably been the most significant event of my life. Before this, all I ever did was try to go day to day trying to survive, except for the time when I met Abu, but that's another story." The lift had taken them to more solid looking water and some floating bubbles of water. Several Shadows and what looked like grinning black spheres with ears and tails appeared.

"Darkball. Can turn swiftly compact and expand. Capable of teleportation." Sora calmly beheaded a Shadow. "Those balloon things can teleport." Beast quickly tore one apart. Aladdin started slashing at the Shadows around them. Sora attacked the other Darkball. These were easier to deal with than the other Heartless they'd run into in this place.

"So, where do we go now?" asked Aladdin. There wasn't really anywhere else to go. He absentmindedly leaned against the lower floating bubble. It instantly sucked him up and sent him into the water encased in another bubble. It was something so the other two touched the bubble and were sent flying. They came out in a dark place which Aladdin was exploring. "Oh you came." Aladdin turned toward a section of wall that was lighter in color and had some bars in it. "That wall isn't very thick. Beast, you might be able to break through it." Beast let out a roar and demolished the wall. They walked through it and found only another bubble which they jumped in. It took them to yet another dark passage. Aladdin walked over to a slightly cracked gray wall and tapped it. "This wall can be destroyed too." Beast tore it down. All that was in there were a Darkball, some Shadows, and a couple of treasure chests. They quickly took care of the Heartless, grabbed the chest contents and walked back out. "Sora?"

"Hm?"

"When we find Riku, Donald, and Goofy, what are you gonna do?"

"Kill them." Sora pressed an odd looking device on a wall. It turned out to be a switch that moved some of the gratings that blocked their way forward.

"Don't do it!" Sora jumped slightly. The other two tensed slightly like something was about to attack.

"You two okay?" "Great, now I'm hearing Kairi again…"

"You didn't sense anything?"

"No."

"Well, I think you should give Donald and Goofy another chance. They didn't look like they were very happy about leaving." Sora pushed another button. "I don't think they like Riku either."

"What foolish comrades you have."

"Great I'm hearing voices that sound like my evil father and Kairi. Is the stress causing me to develop schizophrenia?" As soon as Sora thought that, a piercing pain shot through Sora's head, causing him to grab it and shout again. Luckily, this time it only lasted for a second. He shook his head.

"You okay?" asked Aladdin.

"Yeah, my migraine just got bad again." Sora noticed Aladdin was giving him a weird look. "What?"

"Your eyes looked weird for a moment there."

"They always look weird."

"Yeah, but, never mind." Aladdin turned to Beast. "If you got betrayed, what would you do?"

"It depends on the circumstances." Really, the fact that he responded was a minor accomplishment in itself. Sora pushed a third button that moved another section of grating.

"Circumstances…So we need to think about why they did it…Well, they wanted to find this king of theirs. It wasn't a bad reason then. It was good and maybe…what's the word? Starts with a p. I learned it from Yuffie when we were talking about our careers." Sora gave Aladdin a weird look as he stepped on a button on the floor.

"Aladdin. You're a thief. You steal for a living."

"Yeah, well, so does Yuffie. Patriotic! That's the word! I mean, Agrabah wouldn't be able to function without the royal family, even though you got your bad eggs, like Jafar." They walked through the recently opened grate and jumped into another bubble. It led to what looked like a room with yet another button on it. Aladdin was closest when they came out so he was the one who pressed it. It caused part of the floor to start rising. They quickly got on it before it got too high and climbed onto a ledge. There was another button. "You're listening to me, right?" A Defender showed up. They quickly took care of it and Sora hit the button. Several gears above it started turning. "Cause I'm coming up with most of this on the spot. I'm not sure I'll be able to repeat it if you're not listening."

"You're giving me all sorts of reasons not to kill Goofy and Donald next time we see them."

"Is it working?"

"No."

"Hmph, you sure?"

"Yes I'm sure!"

"I didn't say anything …" Sora grimaced. Yeah, he really needed to see someone about those voices. There was another stabbing pain in his head. And those migraines. He needed to see someone about those migraines. There was a sudden loud slamming noise that cut off his line of thought. He immediately focused on their surroundings and realized they'd reached a dead end.

"Nothing else we can do here," said Sora. "We should head back and see if that changed anything."

"Hey, Sora?" Sora sighed. He honestly didn't understand why Aladdin was trying so hard to defend the two anthros.

"Yes?"

"Next time we run into them, if they change their mind and join back up with us, will you not kill them?" Sora paused.

"They haven't attacked us. If they change sides without raising a hand against us, I'll consider it." Sora still planned on killing them, but he wanted Aladdin to stop trying to convince him to spare them.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the castle, six young women were in crystal containers of some kind with what looked like some kind of rock growing up around their lower bodies. One of the women was Jasmine. Another was Alice. In the middle of the hallway, yet another girl was floating in a sort of oval-shaped force field with some dark energy smoking from her body. This girl was Kairi. Maleficent calmly walked past the girls and up the stairs. There were another set of stairs that led up to a platform with a huge heart-shaped vortex set in the wall. Maleficent did not go up these stairs. Instead, she turned to look upon the young women trapped in the hallway. "O purest of hearts!" Maleficent raised her arms. "Reveal to me the Keyhole!" A pink light gathered in front of the chests of the women. Then beams shot out of the light, meeting several feet above Kairi. Where they met, a bright light formed and shot a beam into the vortex in the wall. But no light came from Kairi.

Sora, Aladdin, and Beast had made their way back to the wrought iron gate, taking care of the Heartless they ran into along the way. So far, they hadn't found anything that seemed different. All that was left was to check the big doors that had been locked before. Actually, when they pushed on the doors, they did move a bit. They pushed the doors open as quickly as they could and started walking down a dark hallway. They walked out into a large chamber with stairs and a fountain in front of them. The Beast growled.

"Be on your guard. They're close, I can feel them."

"I can too," said Sora. Aladdin reached for his sword.

"I'm ready. Even if it's Donald and Goofy!" Beast and Sora suddenly stiffened and turned around so Aladdin did too. Standing in the hallway was a pretty brunette woman in a yellow ball gown.

"Belle? !"

"That's Belle?" Then 'Belle' was engulfed in dark energy and turned into a Shadow. Aladdin winced. "Tough luck. Didn't know they could do that…" Aladdin risked a glance at Beast who was shaking slightly. Then Beast let out a roar and leapt at the Shadow. "Hey! Wait!" Aladdin grabbed onto Beast's fur in passing. Only problem was that it didn't slow Beast down and resulted into Aladdin getting dragged into the hall with Beast. Then the doors closed. Sora sighed and scratched the back of his head.

"Why am I not surprised?" Sora turned to look at Riku (not holding the Keyblade for some reason), Donald, and Goofy. "Smart move though. Picking us off one at a time is much easier than fighting us in a group."

"Quit while you can." Sora laughed a humorless laugh.

"I don't quit. It was beaten into me before I even came to Destiny Islands. As long as I can still move, I'll continue to fight. It's what makes a Tsviet a Tsviet." Riku snorted.

"Not a very good survival instinct."

"True, but that's probably why I'm here now. Someone with common sense would've left to go look for help, but Kairi is here. I won't leave until I get her."

"Then the Darkness will destroy you." Then Riku's clothes changed. It was now a sort of black/blue ribbed(?) jumpsuit with purple boots, blue gloves, blue knee pads, blue chest and abs, red forearms, a heartless symbol without the X on the chest, and a white ragged cloth around his waist held together by a couple of criss-crossing belt sort of things. There was a belt around his waist too. It was a hard outfit to describe. Then Riku summoned the Keyblade and Sora pulled out his daggers.

"Keyblade, hm?" Then Sora's head burst into pain. He grabbed his head and screamed. Then he experienced a sensation he could not identify. His body tensed and nearly fell over before straightening and looking at his daggers.

"Not my style." He tossed the daggers behind him, making the three on the other side of the room blink.

"Sora? Are you feeling okay?" asked Goofy. Sora looked over at them with a raised eyebrow, and they realized that Sora's eyes were different. The pupils were now slit with the iris immediately around them a striking shade of blue-green. Riku summoned the Keyblade. Sora's eyes immediately went to it.

"That looks like the closest thing to a sword here." Then the Keyblade was in Sora's hand instead of Riku's and was back in its Olympia form. Sora looked it over distastefully. "This is a legendary weapon? It looks like a toy." The others were just staring from Riku to Sora and back again.

"You shouldn't be able to do that!" said Riku. "I was able to get the Keyblade! I'm stronger than you!" Sora snorted.

"Sora had absolutely no interest in this weapon, so it's not surprising you were able to take it from him." Sora looked over the Keyblade like it was the first time he'd ever seen it. "The one with the strongest heart, which I suppose means the strongest will, is able to use this. There are very few people with a will stronger than my own. It's a bit too cartoonish for my tastes though." He flicked the Keyblade and it changed form. Now it was slightly longer than its Pumpkinhead form and in the shape of a katana-style sword. The handle guards were a couple of thick wires with what looked like wings attached to the inside. What looked like a fireball of some kind was attached to the end of the sword. There was a red tie at the end of the handle with a small black wing at the end. Sora smirked. "Much better." Then he was behind Riku. Everyone's eyes widened, and they were all knocked into walls with a flaming slash before any of them could move. Sora snorted. "Pathetic." Sora started walking towards Riku. "You get your hands on a strong weapon and you think you're invincible." Sora stopped. "But you don't know how to use it properly. You are playing at a dangerous game, boy."

"Don't call me boy!" Riku frowned. "Wait a minute. I'm older than you."

"I'm not Sora." And with that, Sora brought the altered Keyblade down toward Riku, but he managed to roll out of the way, although he was in pain if the way he was holding himself was any indication.

"What are you waiting for? ! Heal me already? !" Sora was in front of Donald now. Donald's eyes widened as the Keyblade stabbed toward his chest.

*Snickt!*

Donald winced…then realized he didn't feel like he'd had his chest impaled. He cracked his eye open. The Keyblade was poking into his chest slightly, but that was it. Sora's left hand was still holding the Keyblade handle. His right hand had grabbed the blade part of the Keyblade and was visibly bleeding. Sora was gritting his teeth and didn't seem able to move. "Get out of my head! You bastard!" Sora stabbed the Keyblade into the ground, panting heavily. Then he fell over sideways unconscious. The Keyblade disappeared and then reappeared in Riku's hand.

"I don't know what that was, but I am not letting him do that again." An orb of dark fire formed in Riku's hand and was fired at Sora. Goofy suddenly darted in front of Sora and blocked the fireball with his shield.

"Don't you hurt Sora!" Well that was unexpected, especially with the nasty, somewhat burnt slash wound on his back. Riku frowned.

"You would betray your king?"

"Not on your life!" Goofy glanced back at Sora. "But I'm not gonna betray Sora, either 'cause he's become one of my best buds after all we've been through together! And I want him to trust me as much as I trust him." Goofy looked at Donald. "See ya later, Donald. Could ya tell the king I'm really sorry?" Donald took a moment to look between Riku and Sora before taking a deep breath and standing up.

"We'll tell him together." The two friends smiled at each other.

"Guess you're stuck with us Sora." Riku frowned.

"You two got hit much harder than me when he went berserk just now." It was true. Whatever Riku's suit was made of, it seemed to double as armor. "And your weapons are nowhere near as powerful as mine."

"They're defending me? Why?"

"We'll manage, somehow."

"It's because they're your friends."

"Right!"

"But they betrayed me…"

"Your funeral."

"It was a mistake. Everyone makes them." Sora heard footsteps, Riku was heading for them.

"He'll kill you. I suggest you stop fighting me."

"Don't! He'll kill everyone here!"

"He can't even move."

"Whose fault is that? !" Sora tried to open his eyes, move his fingers, something, but his body wasn't moving. "They're still there…" It made his chest feel oddly warm. It felt familiar, like he'd felt it before a long time ago.

"See? You don't want to kill them." Time seemed to slow down for him.

"Tsviets aren't supposed to care about others. We are merciless killers."

"But you care about the Tsviets! And Riku! And me! You could care about others the same way they care about you!" The Keyblade started sparkling. Riku looked down at it.

"Huh?"

"They Keyblade's acting weird again," noticed Goofy. Donald groaned.

"Now what?"

"Kairi? !" The Keyblade disappeared from Riku's hand and reappeared in Sora's hand, once again in its Olympia form. Riku stared at his hand in shock.

"How…? He's not even conscious! How does he have the Keyblade? !"

"And how are you in my head? !" Riku winced and cradled his chest.

"What did he do, break a rib? He only hit me once!" He coughed up some blood.

"Considering who was controlling my body, you're lucky that's all he did to you."

"Heal!" Donald started healing himself, Goofy, and Sora. Riku summoned his Soul Eater Sword.

"This doesn't change anything! I just have to get through you two now!" The anthros' eyes widened. Donald used another Cure on Sora. Sora still didn't stir. The two were on their own.

"Any ideas?" asked Donald.

"I have to stay close to Sora until he wakes up," said Goofy. Then Riku was on them and slashing at the two. Goofy managed to block all the strikes that came at him and Sora, but he couldn't quite extend his defense to Donald. Donald decided to get some distance from the group. That way if Riku stayed over there, he wouldn't have to worry about being attacked. He was a long-distance fighter anyway.

"Fire!" Riku jumped back. Fortunately, Donald had done it at an angle that kept it from hitting Goofy or Sora. Riku jumped back in immediately went back in, trying to attack Sora but being blocked by Goofy. That's all Goofy was going to be able to do with how fast Riku was attacking. Donald sighed. This seemed to be a test of endurance, and he wasn't sure how long they would be able to last. "Thunder!" Riku dodged this too, but the door behind Donald was creaking open. As Riku was leaping back forward, he was too focused to notice that Aladdin was heading for him until he was right in front of them. Riku instinctively sent him flying with one of his dark fire attacks and nearly fell over. Riku's sword clattered to the ground and his shoulder erupted into pain. He glanced down and saw a sword going into the upper right part of his chest just below his shoulder. He stumbled back into a dark portal just in time to avoid being pounced on by Beast. Said party member let out an angry roar when he realized he'd missed his target. Goofy let out a sigh of relief. Donald quickly headed over to where Aladdin had landed. Aladdin's vest had mostly been burned away, but he only had a minor burn on the left side of his chest where Riku had hit him. He seemed to be in a state of shock though.

"Did I just kill Riku?" Aladdin seemed sickened by the thought. Then again, he may be a thief, but he seemed to be the type that tried to avoid getting someone killed. It was probably a good thing he was bothered by the fact he might have killed someone.

"Beats me." Donald used a quick Cure to heal the burn. The vest was beyond repair. Aladdin looked over at Sora.

"Is Sora dead?" Beast sniffed the unconscious Tsviet before looking at the two anthros.

"Did his heart win this battle?" Goofy scratched his head.

"I'm not sure. He got the Keyblade back, but he won't wake up." Donald came over and put a couple of fingers on Sora's neck.

"He's still alive." There was a collective sigh of relief.

"Is this like that time in Neverland?" asked Aladdin. "I mean he did use his limit break earlier today in that tournament."

"Nah, he didn't do much of anything," said Donald. "He just went crazy and then suddenly collapsed."

"He called himself Sora," said Goofy.

"So?"

"Maybe he was just someone else for a moment there."

"Like a possession?" asked Aladdin.

"Uh, sort of." Aladdin walked over to Sora's knives and picked them up.

"Do you think Sora will mind if I borrow these? Since Riku has my sword?"

"…Fine. But only until I wake up."

"I dunno. Sora seems to really like them," said Goofy.

"Hold on." Donald shook Sora several times and then tapped him a few times with his staff. "He's not waking up. Go ahead and use them." Aladdin quickly stuck the daggers into his sash.

"We need to continue on," said Beast. "There is nothing here."

"Yeah, that's true, but we can't just leave Sora here." In the end, they secured Sora to Beast's back.

"This is embarrassing. Good thing I can't see how ridiculous this looks."

The boys went up the stairs to the central passage. There was something that looked like a door with the Heartless crest on it at the end of the passage. "We can't open that," explained Goofy. "Riku just made it appear and disappear when we needed to go through." Beast started pounding at the door. Whatever it was made of, it wasn't going to give.

"Better try something else."

"Maybe there's a key around here somewhere," said Aladdin. "Most doors have one." Everyone looked at Sora, but his Keyblade had disappeared when they'd secured him to Beast's back. Aladdin started patting the door down. "Hm? Hey, these sections in the crest are indented. It looks like you might be able to put something in them."

"Anything else?" asked Donald. Aladdin shook his head.

"If it had hinges, we might be able to remove them and get through, but it doesn't. I wonder if we have to find another switch…"

"Let's look around a bit," said Goofy. To the left of the blocked passage was a library. The shelves were at least 10 feet high and filled entirely with books. The shelves completely filled the large room. Goofy picked up a book that was lying on the floor. "Somebody left this book out!"

"That's not important," said Donald. They continued on, but quickly came to a dead-end created by the bookshelves.

"We could try climbing over them," suggested Aladdin.

"Oh, Khama! This is where the book came from." Goofy slid the book into its proper place on the shelf. The shelf suddenly slid sideways, revealing stairs and at least one other book shelf.

"How did you do that?" asked Donald. Goofy scratched his head.

"Ya know, that's a good question."

"It must be like a secret passage," said Aladdin. "Except this just rearranges things a bit." Nothing around immediately caught their eyes. Aladdin discovered that a small section of a column could be spun around and found an elixir in one of the sections. They went up the stairs and found another couple of the columns that could be spun around. There was also a set of doors that were locked, but since Sora still wasn't moving, they couldn't use the Keyblade to unlock it.

"Hey, this book is in the wrong place!" Goofy pulled a green book out from between a group of yellow books. "'Mava vol. 6.' Did any of you guys see any other Mava books?"

"I can't read," said Beast.

"Neither can I," said Aladdin. Who'd have thought they'd have that in common?

"You're the only one who's been paying attention to the books," muttered Donald. "We've got more important things to worry about right now."

"What if it opens another passage?"

"He's got a point there Donald."

"Ironic that he's the one who noticed that first."

"I don't know where the 'Mava' books are, but there's a book on top of that bookcase," said Aladdin, pointing over at a bookshelf with a yellow book on it. "If it could move another bookcase, then I'll go get it." Aladdin climbed up the bookcase, grabbed the book, and climbed back down. "So, what's it say?"

"'Azal vol. 3.'"

"Are those around here?"

"No idea."

"Hey, I think I see them down there." Goofy was pointing over the railing into a section that was completely closed off from the outside. Of course, being Goofy, he fell over the edge of the railing with one of his weird yells. The others ran over to the railing.

"Goofy!"

"Hey, I found the M shelf." They sweatdropped as Goofy put the book in its proper place. "Hey, this one doesn't go here." He pulled a blue book out of the space where vol. 3 should've been.

"Can you find some way out of there?" asked Donald.

"Uh, hold on." Goofy started walking around the small area and stopped next to a shelf. "Found it!"

"A way out?"

"No, the S shelf." Goofy slipped the blue book into the shelf. The shelf suddenly slid to the left. Goofy walked through the opening and looked around. "Hey guys! Come on down!"

"I think we might need to move around the bookshelves," said Aladdin.

"Looks like it," said Donald. "Let's see if we can find a place to put that book." They all went down and looked for the shelf to put Azal in. It was near the entrance to the library. That shelf slid to the left. After looking around briefly, they found a yellow book that said 'Nahara vol. 5.' This went in a bookshelf upstairs. It slid to the side, revealing another bookshelf behind it. There was a green book out of place among some blue books. It was the other missing Mava volume. They quickly ran it downstairs to put it in its proper place. The shelf swung open, like a door, revealing more bookshelves and a table with a chair pulled up to it. 'Hafet vol. 4' was on the table. This book was run upstairs to the previously hidden bookshelf and put in its proper place. The bookshelf opened like a door, revealing a passage. Since it must have been hidden for a reason, they walked in to see what it was.

"Wow…" It was several stories of lifts. Some glowing lines were cutting through the air. Aladdin extended a finger towards a space between two lines and encountered something solid.

"There's some sort of invisible wall here."

"This looks like a maze," said Donald. "Where do they go anyway?"

They decided to explore the lifts later and returned to the library. After a bit of searching, they found one last book that they placed in the empty Theon space. The bookcase slid to the side, revealing a large red square button. When it was pressed, the closed doors made a clicking noise. A quick test by Goofy showed they were now unlocked.

The doors led to a second floor above where Riku had been fought. There was a hanging platform with a blue fire burning in the center There were also a lot of weird statues on the walls.

"Now what?" asked Donald.

"Is this writing?"

"Huh?"

"There's something carved in this statue," explained Aladdin. Donald took a look.

"'Prove your strength by attacking the containers?' Huh?" Beast immediately smashed the jars on either side of the statue. "What was that for? !" That statue sunk into the floor a bit and made a clicking sound.

"Do you hear water?" asked Aladdin. "I swear I can hear running water."

"Hey, the fountain's running!" said Goofy, pointing down below. "It wasn't running before. I think I see something in it."

"We'll worry about that later," said Donald.

"Hey, candles." Aladdin walked over to one and tried to lift it. "Huh, that's weird. Is it stuck to the table?"

"Why do you want a candle?" asked Donald.

"Some of the places here are pretty dark, right Beast?"

"…Yes."

"I thought maybe it would be nice to have something in case we end up in a small dark space again." Aladdin jerked at the candle again. "Except this candle isn't moving. Is it stuck to the table? It doesn't look like it's ever been lit…" Donald frowned and walked over.

"These are magic candles. They're not for providing light. They can only serve some sort of specific purpose. That's why you can't move them."

"Well, what do they do?"

"No idea, it could be all sorts of things, probably something minor. The worst it could do is an alarm or a trap."

"We could check. I don't think a trap's gonna do much at this point."

"Yeah…" Donald quickly lit the two candles. Nothing happened. "Must be some more candles." There were a couple more sets of candles surrounding the fire. After Donald had lit all the candles, the suspended fire suddenly went out.

"Hey, there's something in the fireplace," said Goofy.

"It's called a brazier," corrected Beast.

"Oh, there's something in the brazier."

"I'll get it." Aladdin jumped onto the brazier, grabbed the item and jumped back. "I don't know what it is." It was gray and shaped oddly. It slightly resembled a very odd V-bird with some notches on the lower wings. Aladdin tucked it into his sash. "So, what do we do now?"

"Maybe something else here will do something." They walked around and came to a stone with a lightning bolt on it. Donald used a Thunder on it, which caused two sheets of metal with lightning bolts on them to lower to allow easier access to the brazier. Not really necessary, but they also seemed to double as elevators, which could be useful. There was also a statue with what looked like a bull head on it that Beast threw to the ground below. It shattered and left behind what looked like a green fleur-de-fleur. The next statue had an inscription that read 'O mighty one…Prove your strength by moving me.' Beast pushed it to the side for a few feet and it sunk down into the ground with a click.

"I think that's everything up here," said Goofy.

"Let's go grab that green thing then," said Aladdin. They all got on the 'elevator' and traveled down to grab the fleur-de-fleur.

"Oh!" Goofy walked over to the fountain, which was running now like he said. Goofy reached into it and pulled out a curved pink object. "I thought I saw something in there!"

"Hey…" Donald looked between the two items. "You still got that gray thing?" Aladdin pulled it out.

"Yeah, why?"

"These look familiar to you?" Now that Donald mentioned it, there was something familiar about them. Aladdin and Goofy put their pieces down next to green piece.

"It looks like the Heartless crest," noted Aladdin. "Part of it's missing though."

"Wonder what they're for," mused Goofy. Aladdin grinned.

"I have an idea." They went to the odd door and slipped the three pieces into the socket. "I think these are some kind of key or something. I bet it will open if we find the last piece. Luckily, they found the last piece in a treasure chest that had appeared sometime since after the fight with Riku. When they put it in the door, the door slid open. "Great! Let's see if there's anything in here…"

Meanwhile, Riku was limping down a corridor. He was leaning on the wall, and his left hand was up trying to staunch the blood welling up from the wound. Even though he hadn't been able to remove the sword, there was a trail of blood leading to where he'd used a portal to enter the corridor. He'd been weakened to the point that he'd transformed back to his normal outfit. He coughed up some blood. He wiped it away with a grimace. "Why?" He collapsed to his knees. Frustrated, he weakly punched the floor. "It was mine." More blood dribbled out of Riku's lips. It might be a good thing he left the sword in after all. Riku wondered if he was going to bleed to death.

"Know this." Riku jerked his head up and winced. Even that hurt. The speaker was a cloaked man surrounded by a blue glow. The same cloaked man Sora had seen on Destiny Islands. "The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade."

"What? You're saying my heart is weaker than his?"

"For that instance, it was." Riku grit his teeth.

"He wasn't even in control of his body though!" He instantly had a bloody coughing fit.

"That is true, but he is no longer possessed by the shadow of his past. Still, the way he is now, it would be difficult to regain the Keyblade from him." Riku winced. That might be difficult, especially since he was having trouble moving his right arm. "However, you can become stronger." Riku looked up at the man. "You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness, and your heart will grow even stronger." The last part had a slightly sinister tone to it, but Riku was starting to get pretty lightheaded so he missed it. Actually, his vision was getting pretty blurry too. Riku tried to shake his head to clear it, but that caused more pain. Riku growled. It seemed like every time he moved he was in pain. He had to do something to get out of this pain!

"What should I do?"

"It's really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being become darkness itself." Riku started glowing green as he tried to do as the man instructed. He looked up as the man started walking towards him. And then, he felt nothing.

Back with the boys, the door turned out to lead to the same confusing lift room, with a lift nearly right in front of them. There was also a passage a little bit away. Since the lifts looked confusing, they decided to go explore whatever was on the other side of the passage.

Turns out it led outside to a set of stairs overlooking the entrance of the castle, they climbed up the stairs while fighting the Wyverns that were attacking them. They had to be careful not to fall off. After they messed with a couple of crystals, they managed to get a lift that took them up to another floor. There wasn't much there, just a set of stairs, another crystal switch, and a large lift. Activating the switch teleported them into the lift as it started to move to the left.

"How is Sora doing?" asked Goofy.

"Other than the fact that I can't move, I'm having mental conversations with my evil father and Kairi, and I can't kill you two, I'm fine."

"No killing them! They just made a mistake!"

The lift suddenly stopped and two Heartless appeared. They looked a bit like two floating wizards in purple clothes with wands. After taking a while to beat the two, a crystal switch appeared in the middle of the lift, and they were able to make the lift start moving again. They were let off on a balcony and the lift started moving back to where it came from. Nowhere else to go, they went down the stairs and through a passage. Once again, they found themselves in the room full of lifts and switches. There weren't any other passages for them to take though.

"Looks like we're gonna have to start using these lifts," said Aladdin.

"I hope we don't get lost," said Goofy. They activated a lift and it took them up a level to a way out. They found themselves on yet another balcony and took another lift up to another balcony. They took care of the Heartless that appeared, went through a door to the lift room, took care of more Heartless, and left through another opening. This area seemed connected to the last balcony. They fought some more Heartless. They had nowhere else to go, so they activated a nearby crystal switch. Instead of calling a lift, it caused a column type structure to lower.

"That's it? That's all it does?" asked Aladdin. "Well, now what?"

"They look sort of like steps," said Goofy. Everyone cocked their heads.

"I can see it."

"There was another switch on the other side," noted Donald. After a bit of running back and forth, they were able to get up to the next level. They walked through a passage in the lift room in hopes it would take them somewhere important.

Back in the area with the Princesses, Riku walked up to Maleficient, who was standing in front of the giant Heartless symbol. "So, I see the path has emerged at last." Riku's voice was odd, like two people were talking at once or there was an echo to his voice. Maleficent nodded, seemingly unbothered by Riku's odd tone.

"Yes, the Keyhole to the Darkness."

"Unlock it and the Heartless will overrun this world." Maleficent smirked.

"What do I care? The darkness holds no power over me. Rather, I will use its power to rule all words." Riku rolled his eyes, seemingly amused.

"Such confidence." He held out his hand and a Keyblade appeared in it in a swirl of darkness. It looked very different from Sora's Keyblade. There was no chain or charm, the guards were red, the handle was black, and the shaft was black with the teeth having an odd shape. Maleficent looked at it in surprise and a bit of admiration. Then she suddenly frowned, jerked up, and looked at the portal.

"Impossible! The princesses of heart are all here!" She turned to glare at the comatose body of Kairi lying a few feet behind the two. "It must be her." They walked over to Kairi.

"Without her heart, she will never be able to release her power." They looked up as they heard a loud slamming noise.

"The king's fools are here," said Maleficent, her voice full of contempt. "I'll deal with them myself. You stay here and guard the princesses." She calmly walked down the stairs. When she was out of sight, Riku smirked, glowing slightly blue.

At that moment, the boys had reached what looked to be a dark, round room with the exception of a sort of hall that led to the lift room. It seemed to be another dead end. Everyone sighed. This castle was almost as bad as Monstro. As soon as they thought that (Except for Beast of course), Maleficent suddenly appeared in front of them, causing all of them to get in fighting positions…except for Sora. He still wasn't moving. Maleficent smirked. "I'm afraid you're too late. Any moment now, the final Keyhole will be unsealed." Donald and Goofy instantly tensed up. Aladdin just frowned. He had no idea how that was any different from a normal keyhole. It meant nothing to Beast so he just continued growling. The only reason he wasn't attacking was because Goofy and Aladdin were right in front of him. Maleficent spread her arms out "This world will be plunged into darkness. It is unstoppable." Here Maleficent's eyes went to Sora and smirked. "After all, you've incapacitated the Keyblade master, the only one who had any chance of stopping it." Yeah, Donald and Goofy still felt bad about that.

"We'll stop it!" said Aladdin.

"Yeah!" agreed Donald. "We've come this far! We're not gonna lose now!" Maleficent snorted.

"You poor simple fools. You think you can defeat me?" She lifted her arms up and the ground below her started to glow and rise. "Me, the mistress of all evil?" The rock started glowing and levitating towards the small group.

"How exactly do we deal with her?" asked Aladdin.

"We'll have to be careful," said Donald. He was casting Aero on everyone. "She's a very powerful sorceress. Her magic could easily kill us if we're not careful." They dodged some lightning bolts that suddenly rained down from the ceiling.

"Hey! I got an idea!" Aladdin quickly turned toward Beast. "Throw me onto the rock!" Beast quickly grabbed Aladdin and threw him onto the rock. Maleficent ignited her staff and made a sweeping motion with it. It did hit Aladdin's arms, but there wasn't enough force behind it to knock him away, and he managed to swipe at her with one of Sora's daggers. It did cut her robe, but it didn't seem to get through to her skin. Maleficent retaliated by hitting him with a large fireball that did knock him off.

"Why did you do that? !" shouted Donald. Aladdin was looking over himself. The two attacks hadn't done that much damage actually.

"I'm supposed to have a high magic resistance, aren't I?" Maleficent narrowed her eyes and raised her staff. Several Darkballs appeared.

"Now know the meaning of fear!" The Darkballs attacked all of them, but they seemed to be focusing on Beast. And they were attacking him from behind. Beast quickly spun and slashed any that came near him.

"They're trying to get Sora!" said Goofy.

"They won't touch him!" shouted Beast. Maleficent slammed her staff into the rock.

"Meteors of heaven, release thy fury!" Then a sort of portal appeared and large meteors started shooting out of it. Dodging was a bit of a problem since there were so many of them and they were so close together. Donald had to use a Cura to keep everyone from fainting…except for Aladdin. He was hurt, but it wasn't as bad as the others. Maleficent narrowed her eyes at him again.

Now would be a good time to mention that people with unusually high magic resistance, like Aladdin, are the natural enemies of people who rely very heavily on magic, like Malificent.

In other words, Aladdin is now a target as well. The Heartless started going for him and Sora.

"Why are they going for me? !"

"I guess she just doesn't like you." This got Goofy some odd looks. He was whacking at Maleficent's rock. He'd been doing that for a couple of minutes now. Then the rock stopped glowing and fell to the ground, nearly hitting Goofy. Beast immediately jumped on it to try and attack her.

"Come out!" Some Defenders instantly appeared around her, blocking Beast and knocking him away. Aladdin and Goofy took advantage of this to jump on the rock and attack Maleficent. Donald was helping Beast. Goofy and Aladdin did manage to get a couple of hits, but then Maleficent turned into a small ball of green light with a flare of green fire. Both groaned.

"It's like the Gargoyles all over again." Then the stone rotated fast enough to throw them off. Since they couldn't attack Maleficent again until her body reappeared, they went to help Donald and Beast with the Heartless. The rock moved nearby. As soon as the Heartless were defeated, Maleficent reappeared, and her rock started glowing and floating again.

"Attack the rock!" said Donald.

"You think I will allow that?" A swirling cloud appeared above her and the rock. Aladdin tried to get near and lightning started coming down from it. He did manage to get by though. Maleficent scowled and summoned more Darkballs.

"You take care of the rock! We'll take care of the Heartless!" shouted Donald.

"Got it!" The daggers didn't do much, but they did do some damage. Maleficent summoned more Heartless. Donald was curing everyone. Goofy was keeping Heartless from attacking Sora. None of them could get near the rock since lightning was still coming down around the rock. This went on for another few minutes (Along with another Meteor spell and lightning bolts), until the rock suddenly fell and nearly crushed Aladdin. Maleficent turned to give the Arabian a glare. This was a bad idea because it exposed her back to Beast. Beast is incredibly strong with sharp claws and teeth. He jumped her and bit into her neck. Maleficent made an odd choking sound before blasting away Beast with a large fire blast and disappearing into a purple and black portal. It didn't close after her. She must've been too weak to close it properly.

"Is she dead?" asked Aladdin.

"That portal's using her power," said Donald. "If she died, it would lose its power source and collapse." Beast growled. There was black blood all over his face and claws and it made him look rather scary.

"Then I'll finish her off!" He was probably capable of it considering that Maleficent was now in very bad shape.

"Should we go?" asked Goofy.

"Hold on." Donald cast several Curas and chugged down some Ethers. "Okay, let's go." They dashed toward and through the portal…just as Sora suddenly fell off of Beast. Unfortunately, the portal closed as soon as they went through it.

"Great…I got left behind."

"I'm sure it was an accident."

"How do you know? They've already abandoned him once. Who's to say they won't do so again?"

"That was a mistake and they realized it! And they felt horrible about it!"

"Will you two stop arguing? !" Honestly, Sora was starting to wonder if he was becoming schizophrenic. It wouldn't be surprising with his history.

"Hm…" Uh oh, that couldn't be good. "That enemy is stronger than they think. They will be weakened when they return, and they will not be expecting an attack. It would be a good time to take them out."

"No! You can't! They're your friends!"

"You don't need friends. They'll leave you eventually one way or another. You can only depend on yourself."

"That's not true! Don't listen to him Sora!"

"You are a mere child. You dare to question me?"

"Both of you shut up! I can't even hear myself think!" Then Sora opened his eyes. He blinked several times. He had no idea where he was. It certainly wasn't a castle. In fact, it didn't look like something that could be real. To his left was sand, some houses and stone-paved paths, some palm trees, and in the distance he could see the ocean. To his right, was what looked like a metal city of some kind. There were scores of blood stains on the buildings and ground, and Sora could actually see a couple of corpses. What made him convinced that it wasn't real was that while it was nice and sunny on the beach side, it was very dark on the city side. If that wasn't enough, the two were literally separated by a line. Not even a grain of sand or a bit of blood crossed the line. One fresh looking puddle that was still running was actually stopping at the line. Sora looked down. One foot was on either side of the line.

"What is going on?"

"I felt like you needed help." Sora's eyes widened. Standing in front of him was Kimihiro…in his 'housewife' clothes for some reason.

"Kimihiro!" Sora couldn't help it. He ran forward and hugged the older Tsviet. Kimihiro smiled and returned the hug.

"Rough time?"

"How did you get here?"

"I'm not really here." Sora pulled back and gave him a confused look.

"It's an astral projection, like how we first met, remember?"

"Why didn't you do that before? I could've used the help!"

"There are reasons for that. The most practical one is that it is very difficult to send an astral projection across worlds. I can easily astral project for hours if it's in the same world I'm in, but in a different world, I can only do it for a short time."

"Oh, so you're leaving?" Sora was a bit saddened by this.

"Yeah, but even if that wasn't the case, I'd have to find a way to tell when you needed me. The only reason I was able to tell you really needed some help was because your soul was in such turmoil that it was crying out in pain, and I only heard that because we both have Jenova cells in our bodies."

"My soul is in turmoil?"

"Yeah, it's not that surprising during this part of your life, but having those two in your head arguing made it worse." Kimihiro frowned. "How did you get Kairi in your head anyway? Your father isn't a surprise since you have his cells in your body, but Kairi shouldn't be in here."

"So that's really Kairi I'm hearing?"

"Yeah. It looks like part of her is in your body so it might be bad enough that you see her, sort of like a hallucination." Sora sweatdropped. That explained that. "Anyway, I'm blocking those two, but it's really difficult, so we better make this quick." Sora nodded.

"Okay, there are these two guys-"

"Sora, you need to decide on your own."

"But you said you were here to help me!"

"But I won't always be here. We both know that." Sora looked down.

"Why are you here?"

"You're confused. Your soul is in turmoil. Do you know why?"

"Because no one ever does what they're supposed to?" Kimihiro chuckled.

"That's just a fact of life. We all have to get used to it. After all, we don't know what anyone is supposed to do. We just assume we do." He got serious. "The reason you are in turmoil is because you're growing up." Sora gave Kimihiro an odd look.

"Kimihiro…I'm a Tsviet who has been raised by assassins. I grew up when I was 6."

"No, you became mature when you were 6. There's a difference. When you mature, you become wise to the world and lose the innocence of childhood. Growing up is when you break free from the constraints of your parents and become your own person. Sora, you have always been raised by others. First your birth parents, then your father, and then the Tsviets. You have never been on your own. Most of your views and values were simply picked up and copied from these people that raised you. Now that you've been on your own, more or less, your own views and values have started to develop and take shape. This is the point of your life when you become who you will likely be for the rest of your life. That is why I have not tried this before. Because I did not want to affect the values that are finally developing." Sora stared at Kimihiro trying to process what Kimihiro was saying.

"So, you're not gonna help me decide what to do because you want me to grow up and decide on my own?"

"More or less. It is a lot to take in at once." Sora frowned.

"But I don't know what to do."

"I'm guessing that what you think you should do is conflicting with what you want to do." Kimihiro spread his arms out. "That's why you're mind is split in two like this. One side is what you want, the other is what you're used to." Kimihiro smiled. "I'm sure you know which is which." Sora looked between the two.

"Am I supposed to choose one?"

"Yes, and whichever one you choose, you will always be precious to me, and I will always support you in what you do." Sora seemed to be thinking. "I won't tell you what to choose…but I will give you a bit of advice. There are things we are good at, and things that we love. It is a lucky person who is able to find a path with both of them. Would you rather have something that you know would make you happy but no security, or something that you know will give you security even if you will be unhappy? Some people prefer the first. Some people prefer the second. Which one do you prefer?" Sora frowned in thought for a second. He looked over at the beach. He looked over at the city. He closed his eyes and looked down in thought. After what seemed like several minutes, he turned to the side and walked off. Kimihiro smiled. "So that's your choice…I'm glad. Good luck, Sora." Kimihiro turned his head towards the city half. There was a man with long silver hair and black clothing standing in it.

"You dare interfere?"

"So you're General Sephiroth?" Kimihiro hmm'ed in thought. "Can't say I can see you as a father."

"What I do is none of your business."

"It is when it concerns that boy. He is precious to me. I will not allow you to turn him into a puppet for your own needs."

"If that's the case, then I will simply have to remove you from his life so that you can no longer influence him." Kimihiro chuckled.

"You'll have to beat your mother then." Kimihiro bowed. "If that will be all, I'll be leaving General." Then Kimihiro disappeared. The other man snorted.

"He will come to me. It is only a matter of time."

"Sora!" The portal closed behind them before they could try to reach back in and grab the unconscious Tsviet. Now they were alone with an injured Maleficent.

"Do you need some help?" Scratch that. They all quickly turned around and blinked. It was Riku, but it didn't sound like Riku. And his weapon was different. He turned to look at the group and looked a bit nonplussed. "You lost him."

"Please tell me that's not a Keyblade," said Aladdin. Riku grinned and held it up so they could get a better look at it.

"Yes, a Keyblade. But unlike Sora's, this Keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts." He lowered it with a smirk. "Allow me to demonstrate…Behold!" Then he spun and jammed it into Maleficent's chest. She let out a short gasp as dark energy started pouring from where it was entering her chest. "Now, open your heart, surrender it to the darkness! Become darkness itself!" That seemed to be enough for Riku because he pulled the Keyblade out and disappeared into a portal of some kind. Maleficent seemed unharmed oddly enough, although she was glowing green and seemed slightly shocked.

"This is it!" She held up her hands and grinned. "This power!" She started laughing. "Darkness!" At this point, Beast leapt for her. He was knocked back by a blast of green fire. "The true darkness!" And then she erupted into a blast of green fire and darkness. In the pillar, Maleficent's form grew and twisted until she was a giant black dragon with horns, spines, and wings.

"She shouldn't be able to do that!" shouted Donald.

"How'd they do that? !"

"This is gonna be hard…"

Beast just leapt at Maleficent with a roar. She spun around and knocked him into a wall with her tail.

"Do either of you guys have experience with dragons?" asked Aladdin.

"No." This was not good. They were gonna have to wing it now. Aladdin tried to run up Maleficent's back, but had to jump off when she tried to bite him. Donald cast a Blizzara spell on her. This made her angry as far as they could tell. Beast recovered from getting flung into the wall and ran on all fours over to one of Maleficent's legs, which he promptly latched onto used his fangs and claws. This did seem to hurt Maleficent as she let out a loud roar and started trying to shake him off. Aladdin took advantage of this to run up her tail and onto her back again. This time he reached the neck, grabbed onto it with one arm, and buried one of Sora's daggers into Malelficent's right eye. Maleficent roared in pain and whipped her head flinging Aladdin off and into a wall. Donald sighed. It looked like that was going to be happening a lot here. He cast a quick Cure on Aladdin. Maleficent was busy clawing at her eye with the foreleg that Beast wasn't hanging on to. At least she was fairly distracted for the moment. "Attack!" So they did. Goofy threw his shield. Donald used Blizzaras. Aladdin ran toward Maleficent to try and run up her tail again. This time Maleficent whipped her head around and let out a breath of fire on him before he could reach her. Aladdin quickly rolled on the ground to put out the fire. Fortunately, when he sat up, he was fine. His skin was pink like sunburn, his hair was singed, and his hat was missing, but he wasn't badly burned. He patted himself over real quick. "I guess it's a magic fire." That was a relief for him.

"Hey! I think I can do something about that!" This battle is going to take a while, so let's cut back to Sora for the moment.

He was lying on the ground, but his eyelids were fluttering a bit. He groaned and sat up holding his head. He looked around in confusion for a bit before noticing a passageway and walking towards it. After walking for a few minutes, Sora found himself surrounded by women encased in crystal on either side. "Jasmine and Alice…" Sora took a look at the other four women. "I don't know the others." Sora frowned and looked over the crystals. He probably couldn't break them without hurting the women. Sora started walking forward. When he walked up the stairs, he saw Riku in his new outfit staring at a heart-shaped thing filled with a substance that was constantly shifting and changing colors and Kairi lying on the ground. Sora went over to Kairi, kneeled down, and carefully cradled her in his arms.

"The darkness in your heart has gotten weaker." Sora looked up towards Riku's back. He sounded different. "There was a powerful darkness in your heart. It is what gave you power." Riku turned around. Sora noticed that there seemed to be another figure superimposed on Riku's. "Now though, it's been overcome by the light and can barely be felt. Pathetic."

"You're Riku…and not Riku?" It was a bit confusing to Sora. Sora looked down at Kairi. "It's not so bad. My head doesn't hurt, and I can think a lot more clearly now. My heart hurts though. Is it Kairi?"

"That is correct. When she lost her heart, she transferred it into your body." He summoned the Keyblade that he used on Maleficent. "However, as long as the last princess of heart sleeps, the Keyhole will not be complete. To do so, the princess's heart must be released from your body."

Sora put his hand to his chest. "You were with me all along…" "What about Riku?"

"What do you care? He betrayed you. You have already accepted that you need to eliminate him for your own sake."

"I think…I finally know what I want, and that includes having Riku as a friend." Riku snorted and raised a hand. Sora's heart erupted into pain. He choked and grabbed at his chest.

"You still understand nothing." Sora laughed.

"Yeah? Well…What do you know?" Riku smirked.

"I know all that there is to know." The image over Riku was becoming clearer. It appeared to be a man with dark skin and gray hair. He didn't seem that old…

"Just who are you anyway?"

"It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness!" Sora blinked. Wasn't that the guy who was supposed to be studying the Heartless? He was a bad guy? Riku, no, Ansem came closer. "I shall release you now, princess. Complete the Keyhole with your power. Lead me into everlasting darkness!" Ansem grinned and raised the Keyblade and brought it forward to stab into Sora's chest.

"Sora!"

At the last moment, Sora raised his arms and summoned his Keyblade to block Ansem's, making the other male's grin fall. Sora looked up defiantly and used his Keyblade to knock Ansem back. "Forget it!" He jerked a thumb at his chest. "I'm Sora the Maelstrom of the Tsviets! I'm not letting anyone hurt any of my friends, especially not a pedophile possessing Riku!" Ansem's eyebrow twitched.

"Then you will have to cease to exist." The two dashed forward, and their Keyblades clashed.

Back with the other group, they were panting on the ground for the most part. Beast was just kneeling. The dragon was gone. All that was left was her cloak on the ground. Aladdin winced and sat up. Due to his magic resistance, he'd ended up playing the part of a human shield. Most of his clothes had been destroyed due to this. "Ow…Can I have a potion or something?" Donald tossed him a hi-potion. "Thanks." Donald sighed, sat up, and drank an ether. Then he started using Curas on everyone.

"What a pain…" Goofy quickly got to his feet. A portal had opened when they'd beaten Maleficent, but they'd been a little too out of it to care.

"We better go make sure that Sora's okay." They walked through the portal and realized something worrisome.

"Where's Sora? !"

Back with Sora and Ansem, Ansem's head suddenly jerked up. Sora tried to take advantage of this by swinging his Keyblade at Ansem's head. He managed to block. "The witch was defeated." Sora grinned.

"Good for them." Ansem scoffed.

"A meaningless victory. The Heartless have been using her from the very beginning. She was as much a puppet as this boy."

"Don't you talk about Riku like that!" Sora took several swings, driving Ansem back a few feet as he blocked.

"You can't save him. He can no longer hear you."

"We'll see about that!"

Meanwhile, the other group has run into the hall, looking around frantically. They froze when they saw the frozen girls. Aladdin went over to Jasmine while Beast went over to a girl in a yellow evening gown. Aladdin frowned as he touched the crystal covering his princess.

"What is this stuff?"

"I dunno…" Donald came over and looked her over. "It looks like it keeps 'em subdued somehow. Wait a minute." Donald quickly ran around to look at all the girls. "Their hearts are gone!"

"Are you serious? !" Aladdin quickly looked at Jasmine. "Does that mean they're gonna turn into Heartless?"

"I bet they're like Kairi," said Goofy. "Her heart is gone too, right?"

"I hope so…"

"Someone is fighting," said Beast. Sure enough, when the others strained a bit, they could hear some clanging sounds. They headed up the stairs and saw Sora and Ansem fighting.

"Sora!" Donald ran forward, and promptly hit a barrier.

"I don't he's gonna let us help," said Aladdin. He gave Riku a weird look. "But, how's that guy standing? I got him pretty good…"

"It's someone else," said Beast.

"What do you mean?"

"Watch. He is moving around differently than he was before." Aladdin took a closer look. He couldn't see much of a difference. Then again, he'd only met Riku a few times and didn't pay attention to how he moved.

Ansem suddenly made a swing that created a dark shockwave. It was aimed at Kairi. Sora quickly put himself between the two to block it. He quickly fired off a Fira spell. Ansem easily dodged it, but Sora had predicted that and leapt forward with a swing at Ansem's abdomen. He backflipped to avoid it, but did get a thin cut across his chest. Ansem countered with a slash that Sora blocked and also countered. For a moment they went into a swordfight that went too fast for anyone who is normal to keep up with them, both landed some hits when the other let their guard down.

"Enough!" Ansem started glowing. Then he started flying around, using dark portals to change directions. He also became fast enough that even Sora started having trouble defending himself.

"Shit! My body's still in bad shape! I won't be able to last much longer!" Sora rolled away from another strike. "And I have to ignore any openings that could be fatal! Is it this hard to save someone? !" Sora blocked one of the strikes, but it still cut into his arm. "How am I supposed to save him? ! I don't know how to deal with possession or mind control! All I know is that you can kick the person doing the controlling out if you're strong enough!" Sora dropped down to the ground to avoid a particularly well aimed charge. "Hey! People in my head! Some input would be appreciated right now!" His Keyblade suddenly started glowing very brightly. Hoping that it would do something, he blocked another charge with the hopefully empowered Keyblade. The block worked. The Keyblade seemingly exploded. Blade of light went everywhere. Fortunately, it seemed that they didn't hurt most of the things around. Sora and Kairi weren't hurt by them at all. In fact, they only one hurt was Ansem. There were a bunch of obviously deep cuts that possibly went right through him. Sora and Ansem were both wide-eyed.

"That's not what I was trying to do!" Ansem dropped his Keyblade and stumbled backwards a few steps before disappearing in a quick swirl of darkness.

"Did I just kill him? !" Poor Sora. The one time he tries not to kill someone, and he seemingly kills the guy. His three newer friends walked over to him. Beast went back down the stairs. There was an awkward silence. No one was really sure what to do or say.

"Uh, sorry about your friends…" said Aladdin. There was a shorter silence.

"Sorry for going with Riku," said Donald. Sora just clenched his hands and subconsciously dismissed the Keyblade. Seems he finally figured out how to do that.

"I couldn't do anything! I tried to save him, and I ended up killing him! Is that all I know how to do? ! Is that all I'm capable of doing? !" His eyes went to Kairi. "Does that mean I'll end up killing her too? !" Sora seemed to be in a bit of shock to his friends so they decided to try and figure out what was going on.

"Ya know…I think that thing there is the Keyhole," said Goofy, pointing at the emblem shaped vortex.

"You think we can get Sora to lock it?" asked Aladdin. They all looked at Sora. He was still staring at the spot Riku had been at.

"I don't think so," said Donald. He crossed his arms and huffed. "I don't get it though. He killed an entire pirate crew and got covered in blood, and he didn't bat an eyelash, but he accidentally kills a bad guy, and he's completely out of it."

"I bet it's 'cause he and Riku were good friends," said Goofy. "Even though they were fighting, Sora didn't wanna hurt him."

"That doesn't sound like him," said Aladdin. Then he noticed the evil looking Keyblade on the ground and walked over to it. "Isn't this the Keyblade Riku used to unlock Maleficent's heart?"

"Yeah, weird that it didn't fade with him," mused Donald. Aladdin knelt down, reaching for it. "Don't touch it! You can't use Keyblades, so touching it might cause it to release your heart or something!" Aladdin shot up.

"Don't want that…" Aladdin turned towards the two anthros so he missed Sora's gaze shifting towards Ansem's Keyblade. "Any idea how to wake any of the girls up?"

"Nope," said Donald.

"We should get their hearts back!" said Goofy.

"Of course, but we have no idea how to do that!" Aladdin heard a scraping sound and blinked. He turned back around, and his eyes widened.

"Sora! What're you doing? !" The anthros turned and their eyes widened as well. What could cause these reactions? Sora had picked Ansem's Keyblade and had the point right over his heart. He turned to look at the other boys, smiled, and then thrust the Keyblade into his chest.

-End Chapter-

I just wanted to make a cliffhanger for once. Besides, what happens in Traverse Town won't take up much space…hopefully. The second trip to Hollow Bastion shouldn't be too long either. Besides, this chapter was getting long!

This was hard to write! I needed to keep Riku alive, but that was going to be difficult with Sora's personality. I ended up having to use Kimihiro as a sort of dues ex machina. I hope it worked out.

What happened in that first fight with Riku? Well, if you recognize the Keyblade Sora used, it should be fairly obvious.

Since it's a bit difficult to tell, when Sora permanently regained the Keyblade, he realized that he is actually hearing Kairi and not just imagining her voice.

Since Aladdin's clothes were destroyed, he needs a new outfit. Does anyone have any suggestions? I'm gonna try and come up with something, but I don't have a very good fashion sense.

Omake: It's Some Sorta Masochist…

Sora, Aladdin, and Beast were exploring the castle catacombs. That's what Sora was referring to the corridors in his head anyway. There were a lot of Heartless popping up, much to everyone's annoyance. Then there was a particularly big poof that made them all get in a fighting position. It was a giant mushroom with a light blue robe and a pink hat. It gave a little wave to them. Beast leapt at it with a roar and started beating it up.

"Uh, should we tell him that those are usually harmless?" asked Aladdin.

"Well, we don't know for sure. We've never seen this type before and the Black Fungus type is offensive."

"Is it just me, or do those squeaks it's making sound kinda weird?" Sora frowned and activated his Scan.

"Pink Agaricus. Wants you to beat it up." Aladdin stared in shock as Sora facevaulted.

"Are you okay?"

"How do you end up with a masochist Heartless? !" That explained it. Aladdin turned slightly green and looked over at the one-sided fight where the Heartless was squeaking…happily?

"Should we tell him?"

"Ignorance is bliss." So they just watched him beat the Heartless to a pulp. Then it suddenly left. It left something behind. Aladdin walked over and picked it up.

"It's some sort of weird hat…" It looked like some sort of cap that was pink and poofy with the curly symbols that had been on the Agaricus' hat. "Should we keep this?"

"I don't care." Aladdin slipped it into his sash. Why he wants that I don't know. They continued on their way to try and make some progress while Sora and Aladdin tried to forget about the masochist mushroom.