DISCLAIMER: I do not own Kingdom Hearts unfortunately and I know I won't get it for my birthday in a few weeks but oh, how I wish I could get a PSP for Birth by Sleep and that 358/2 Days comes out sooner.

Chapter 43

Gentai's Madness

"No! You won't use me for this!"

-Riku

Sora collapsed into the chair from where he was standing. He was meant to be the king of Radiant Garden. He bit his lip, shocked and surprised. Was that what they were testing of him? How selfless he was? Was it because he had given up the only thing on him that truly belonged solely to him? He couldn't deny that he had felt drawn to that Keychain when it was presented to him. Had they merely given it to him because the line was broken…no, he knew somewhere inside of him, that this was always meant to be. Because he had fallen in love with its princesses…because he had saved it from the power of Maleficent…because of his efforts it had begun to be rebuilt. He had told Leon he wouldn't leave the worlds in such a state and now, he felt that this might have been what he meant.

Tears began coming down his face. They weren't of pain or confusion but a real happiness that was beginning to well up in his heart and come pouring out. Kairi bent down next to him and held him. He relished her embrace but somehow, knowing the full truth of what all of this meant. He had to do the one thing that made the most sense. He summoned his Keyblade. The black crown of the Oblivion Keychain was still dangling there but Sora knew that it was time to change it. He attached the Kingdom's Crown Keychain and the Oblivion melted off and fell into his hand. The Keyblade instantly changed. The whole Keyblade was pure gold practically, its handle was smooth but with a decent grip on it. The handle was elaborate with two wings stretching on either side of the hand guard. Its shaft was also a beautiful guard which tapered off to a crown at the very top. The blade itself seemed to resemble a fleur de lis, or at least the upper half of one. Sora stood up and held it in his hands. It was a little heavier than normal and yet Sora felt that he had the strength to be able to wield it easily. Everyone stood back from him and he took a few swipes through the air.

"So…I am the king…" Sora said with determination and he nodded, accepting his new mantle…Keyblade master, hero, man, and now king. "But…I don't know if I'm ready…" Mickey was the next to speak up.

"If you were…you wouldn't be king." Mickey said and Sora looked at him confusedly. "Don't you understand, Sora? When I took the throne of Disney Castle, I felt ill prepared. I didn't think I was ready to lead the most powerful kingdom in the universe…and yet, many people respect me. As a king, you may not think you are ready…but for that very reason, you are, Your Majesty…" Mickey bowed to him and Kairi even curtsied even though she knew she was going to be the queen. Inside, she knew that it was meant to be inevitable…

"Your Majesty, you know you're the only one who goes by that here…not me. My kingdom, when I take it, will answer to yours." Sora himself kneeled before Mickey and the small mouse chuckled. He summoned his Keyblade and tapped him on both his shoulders. When he finished, Yen Sid was the one to speak up.

"Then go forth, King Sora…go forth and pave the way for your kingdom." Yen Sid said proudly of the new king of Radiant Garden. Sora nodded. He knew what needed to be done: free Riku and stop Gentai. He held his new Keyblade before him and created a portal to Crown Fortress.

"Come on, Kairi, let's go save Riku…again…" Sora said with a small chuckle. Kairi giggled at that and followed her soon-to-be-husband-and-king into the portal which closed behind them. When they emerged from the portal it was upon a castle that seemed to be in complete and utter ruins. The gates inward were unlocked and Sora figured that it had been done by Riku which meant that Gentai at least hadn't been lying that he was here. Kairi shuddered a little from the effect of where they were as Sora looked around a bit. "Come on."

Sora led Kairi forward, for though she wanted to save Riku, entering this castle of death she had to do with reluctance. They soon breached the open gate and began walking through the hallways. There were many rooms off to the sides but Sora saw nothing in them. He passed a place that looked almost like the old high school cafeteria what with long tables that seemed to be for sitting and eating. These hallways didn't really seem like residential hallways either and everything seemed broken down.

"Hey, Kairi, kind of reminds you of the old high school right?" Sora said but there came no answer. "Kairi?" Sora turned around but couldn't see Kairi. He backtracked a bit and found her inside one of the rooms, staring at the only corpse they had seen in the entire room. Sora kind of gagged but held it in mostly.

"Do you think…?" Kairi began but she was unable to finish her sentence. Sora grabbed her arm and looked her in the eye.

"No…I don't think Gentai did that, I think it happened a long time ago." Sora said. "Now come on, I don't like this place, let's move." Kairi nodded and started moving slowly again back towards the hallway. Sora chanced a glance towards the room as a whole and saw that it was most definitely a library of some sort. The skeleton that Kairi had been staring at was charred and lifeless and seemed to have once been holding something from the way his fingers were dislocated. Sora scanned the ground quickly and saw a small disc on the ground of some sort. But then he heard Kairi whimper his name slightly and he turned away and ran back to Kairi. They proceeded down the hallway again.

"Sorry for turning into the room like that…it was just…" Kairi said but Sora smiled at her and she forgot what she was going to say to him…or at least the rest of the sentence.

"Anyway…I was asking you earlier, but it kind of reminds you of our old high school, huh?" Sora said with a chuckle in order to keep the mood rather light. Kairi giggled at that despite their current circumstances.

"Yeah…with a creepy deathlike feeling." Kairi said and Sora nodded knowingly. The two proceeded along until eventually they came to what seemed the end of the hallway. What they hit however…was a dead end. Sora knew he had seen many other hallways shoot off the one they had come down but he figured that this was the main one. "Think we went the wrong way?"

"I don't know…" Sora said, stepping more fully into the room where the hallway had ended. It was blue in the room on the walls, floors, and ceiling. Surrounding Sora, on an upper level were nine thrones with a tenth throne higher than all of them. Suddenly a thought hit Sora…perhaps this was the general set up in the days of old. Kairi joined him in the hall and marveled at the architecture of the place. But then Sora looked at the floor and noticed something odd about it…there was a faint outline of a rather large circle on the ground. "Stand back, Kairi." Kairi did as she was ordered and Sora pointed his Keyblade at the circle.

The circle's outline shone brightly and with light before it retracted down into the floor and began a spiral down, creating a nice spiraling staircase the floors below. Sora laughed a bit. Clearly this was used for one of two purposes: either the generals loved to keep their enemies closer than their friends or this was an escape hole for them in darker times. Sora motioned to Kairi with his hand and the two proceeded down the staircase. Their footfalls echoed throughout the building and down the staircase until they hopped off at the bottom to find a stone hallway stretching in front of them.

Silently they moved on, their feet even louder against the stone of this passage. There were torches set on the sides of the walls in brackets. They were burning brightly with a normal red flame so Sora could only guess that it was due to recent activity…and therefore Gentai. This underground hallway seemed even longer than the last hallway they had been through. As they walked along they began to see cells with iron bars on them. Sora stopped before one of them and took out his Keyblade. Kairi looked at him questioningly. He just pointed the Keyblade at the cell but nothing happened. He nodded.

"We'll need more than one person to break Riku out of these prisons…kind of like Terra's makeshift jail." Sora told Kairi and she nodded. Before they could move on however they heard a voice call out to them.

"Sora, is that you?" Riku's voice came from a cell a few feet down the hallway. Sora and Kairi looked at each other before running down the hall quickly. They soon found Riku in his cell, trying to poke his head out the bars. "Kairi! You're both here…but…what about Edge, wasn't he with you?" They both shuffled their feet a little.

"Edge is dead, Riku…he injured Maleficent pretty bad and she killed him in the process. He named the three of us head of the Order." Sora said and Riku hung his head.

"I don't think we'll take it though…Sora just got confirmation that he's the king of Radiant Garden." Kairi said in a slightly cheerful voice. Riku snapped his head up and raised his eyebrows with a playful smirk to Sora, as though ready to tease him.

"Save it for when we're out of here." Sora said and having already held his Keyblade he pointed it at the cell. Kairi also summoned hers and pointed it at the cell door.

"Uh…Sora-" Riku began but Sora quickly cut across him before he could say anything more.

"Just shut up and summon your Keyblade!" Sora said and Riku obeyed, summoning Way to the Dawn to his hand and pointing it at the cell bars. All three of the Keyblade wielders focused on the will to unlock the door and bright beams at last shot out at the cell door. For about a minute they maintained contact until at last the cell door swung open. "All right, let's get moving!"

"Yeah…but careful…I don't know if Gentai's here or not." Riku said, dusting himself off and exiting from the cell. Sora shrugged a bit.

"I don't care anymore…we have to take him down." Sora said before quickly adding on, after Riku's confused expression, "Yen Sid'll explain everything when we get out of here." Riku just nodded and took Sora's word for it and they et of down the hallway. This time they ran quickly, in the hope to get out of here quickly. If the cells stopped their Keyblades alone then Sora knew that they couldn't just transport with their little portals and would have to make it out to the room before this. Soon they came to the stairs and dashed up them. What they saw when they emerged into the Room of Thrones from the stairs was not a welcome sight.

Gentai was standing at the exit to the room that they were facing with no emotion displayed on his face whatsoever. All three of them held their Keyblades aloft, having kept them out in case they ran into any danger along the way. But Riku saw, much to his fright that Gentai was staring straight at him. The upper part of his lip curved into a wicked smirk and suddenly his eyes not only flashed yellow but remained so for a few seconds.

Riku gasped in pain as the sense of heat once more surged through the scar on his back. He couldn't take it and he instantly collapsed onto the ground, twitching a bit from the excruciating pain surging through him. Sora and Kairi instantly whipped around, dismissing their Keyblade to look at their friend who was writhing on the ground. Sora whipped around to Gentai who was standing there, expressionless and calm. he wanted to beat the guy to a pulp but hearing his friend, the tough guy, Riku, whimpering in pain made him turn back. Riku's body contorted and he looked at them and laughed. When he next spoke, it was not only his voice, but another voice from long ago that accompanied it.

"Your fate is to sink into darkness…you fools…" came the voice of Xehanort laced with Riku's vocal tones before Riku cried out in pain and fell onto his back. And Riku began hearing Xehanort's voice in his head.

Why do you shun the dark? You're weak. You need darkness! Bow to darkness! Bow to me!

Never! Riku cried out in his head and suddenly a great spasm of pain shot through him. Then Xehanort did more than speak to him, but showed him visions that sent pain through his body every time he saw them. All of them, conspiring against him, cascaded down upon him.

The door is open…the door is open Sora! I'm not afraid of the darkness!

But wasn't he really?

The Heartless obey me now Sora. Now I have nothing to fear.

But he knew that he really did…

You were just the delivery boy.

Wh-why? It was mine…

And he was lost…part of the darkness…part of Xehanort.

Open your heart to the darkness! Become darkness itself!

But was there a chance to be free?

The truth will bring you pain.

It had already brought him pain…

You mustn't forget to destroy yourself last…

This couldn't be what he really was…

He is an example of what you should try to be.

Riku…I can see your heart…

How can the light hurt you? Riku…have you really become a creature of the dark?

No! I refuse to be one like that!!!

It's time for you to face the light! Riku gasped in pain as spasm of pain shot through his whole entire body. Tears began trailing down his eyes as Kairi held his hand and Sora looked at his friend, trying to not cry himself.

"It's all right Riku…we're here for you." Kairi said while tears splashed down from her eyes and she gripped his hand tighter as he thrashed around in pain.

Riku…are you sure you're not jealous of Sora?

"I can't…" Riku yelled in pain.

Why? Why do you have the Keyblade?! More pain was there, Xehanort wouldn't quit on him; he was still assaulting him. But then, through his tears, Sora saw Riku and Kairi and more visions accompanied his mind…but they weren't painful.

Don't give up! Come on Sora!

He was saved…saved by the love for his friends he had shunted aside…

Riku, the light'll never give up on you!

The king was right…he had to be right.

I made a promise that I would find you didn't I?

Riku, why'd you try to do so much on your own?

Because I was weak inside…I needed to be stronger...

You're still Riku no matter what!

Was he? Was he really? Sora truly believed that, and so could he.

Because you mess up our worlds.

Because you've got friends…like us!

And he saw all his friends…Sora...Kairi…Mickey, even Donald and Goofy.

You'll be able to escape the deepest darkness…

…And see through the brightest light.

His friends…they stood there to fight for him…and so would he.

"NO!!" Riku yelled loudly and the entire hall reverberated with the noise. "You can't control me…any longer!" And suddenly, an outpour of darkness came from Riku's heart as all around him practically froze. And suddenly the darkness coalesced into the single floating form of Xehanort's Heartless.

"You're a fool…no matter what you do, Riku, you belong to the darkness…You can't escape the darkness." he proclaimed, but before he could say anything else he suddenly had the Way to Dawn piercing through him.

"No…you're the fool…for relying on darkness only." And Ansem let out a roar of pain as he melted away. Riku then collapsed onto the floor, fatigued, but whole. The pain in his scar was gone and Xehanort…

Xehanort's filth was at last washed away…

Author's Note: Okay, so this was a very short chapter but come one! I think it needed to be. Please tell me whether you found that was a sad moment or not. How far has Gentai come to do such a thing to Riku? Well, the next chapter is the final epic battle between the forces of good and the force of Gentai so get ready for it and please review on your thoughts of this chapter and Dare to Be Silly.

P.S. The skeleton we see in the library of this castle, in case you couldn't tell from the recording earlier, that's Edge's father.

P.P.S. And the whole, listen to "Lord of the Castle" yeah…imagine that during the upcoming fight next chapter.