No more secrets...no more lies...

"That's...that's insane..." I muttered in disbelief to the book. "How can this be..."

I was at a loss for words. How could earth be so...so... I don't even know what to say. So, I don't know, foreign to this universe, but still so similar. Be tied to it in ways I couldn't have even considered possible. Nothing made sense. Two plus two equaled four hundred and thirty-five. This is impossible because that is an odd number and two plus two equals four anyways.

Letting out a deep breath, my eyes ran over the first few paragraphs again. The words printed on to the page didn't make sense, could never be true, but I felt it, deep in my gut, that every word I read was the real deal.

"Earth is one of the Worlds. A place where many other worlds can exist within a single World. It is thought that this World created other Worlds like itself, but no evidence has been found to support this theory. However, it's thought to be this way for everything connects back to it. From certain historical findings, to the hearts and souls of thoughs living in the World.

For millions of years, no soul knew of any other world besides their own. Blindly creating masterpieces without any knowledge of it. Over time, as man evolved, other worlds appeared in the galaxy around the earth. It wasn't until man began studying the stars that they were even noted. Even then, few knew about what was slowly developing around them. But for thoughs who knew, they could not explain the phenomena.

In the 20th century, a man who was learned in the art of science, philosophy, and the human life, discovered these worlds on accident. The man was astonished by his findings and began to study them in secret. He had realized that what he had discover was truly unique and hoped to understand it better before presenting it to the public.

As the man studied the worlds, he noticed something peculiar about them. The ones floating along the outer rim seemed to have a striking resemblance to movies that he had seen. Behind these worlds, thousands more of them lingered behind them. Upon proving that he was indeed correct in the assumption that they were worlds based on movies, he consumed his time into study and research on how this new discovery could possibly happen.

Through his study, he found his answer and all his previous thoughts and beliefs were gone.

It was the power of imagination, the ability to create something new with your mind and heart, combined with the energy and power of the worlds' heart. The heart that resides inside each world. The power of the worlds' heart flooded into the many hearts and minds of its inhabitants, inspiring the move of ideas and creation that has brought the earth to the reality it is today. However, when a person with a strong heart and soul create and bring forth such passionate ideas (such as movies, books, and video games) they come forth as a world of their own.

The man discovered this power and abused it to the point of war.

Destruction, suffering, and darkness consumed the hearts of men. This darkness infected all the thousands of other worlds surrounding it, falling into the darkness with the earth. One by one, many worlds were destroyed in the name of power and domination.

Ten long years of darkness passed by as people fought against the darkness or for it, riddling the world into a wasteland. Kingdom Hearts stepped up and decreed it enough and ordered the earth to stop its heinous war. However, they did not. Kingdom Hearts was angered by their disobedience and all the pain and sorrow they created. Deciding it was time for the fighting to finally cease, Kingdom Hearts erased all memories of the battle.

Kingdom Hearts called upon the remaining powers of light in all the hearts of the worlds and constructed a barrier around all the dark worlds. A dark blanket stretched over the barrier, containing the darkness within the darkness. The only evidence is the brightness of the stars in the sky at night. Kingdom hearts made it so that the heart of every world could shine into each night sky and as a sign that there is always light within the darkness. Still... only light truly lived in the hearts of children.

That was until a new heart had been born. It was a rare heart. One that held onto the light. All the inspiration and passion that entered his heart was purely made of light. There was no sense of darkness within his thoughts or ideas. This man created the first world of light called Toon Town. This world had no darkness in it. Seeing this, Kingdom Hearts divided the Darkness barrier with Nothing to create a realm of Light. Over time, other worlds came into existence with light as it's only force. Other hearts containing only pure light were born on earth. A balance was being made to counter the darkness as they created other new worlds. These pure worlds stayed in what came to be known as the Disney Universe (named after the creator of the first world). All of the worlds connected with each other, creating one whole world where everything was peaceful and right.

Life was peaceful in these worlds. However, as many know, once a life is created, it soon breaks free of its creator and acts upon its own free will.

Darkness, sly and deceitful, found its way into many hearts of this new universe. Chaos erupted among the world's from the need to have the light for one's own self. Kingdom Hearts had given specific hearts the gift to wield the Keyblade. These keyblade wielders fought for the light or for power. Every world was eventually tied up in the war, ether willingly or forced. The darkness consumed all the worlds until that was all that was left. Only a few remained that still held the tiniest spark of light. These few hearts created the World again from light. But this time, all the worlds were divided by barriers of light so that the war could never be repeated.

The darkness was balanced once again and Keyblade wielders governed the realm. The hearts of light created their own worlds and resided in them. However, one heart, one different from the rest, found the barrier of nothingness and the darkness beyond it while dividing the worlds. This heart traveled through the barriers and wound up on earth. This wielder continued on, knowing the results of the imaginative ideas and creations. He created his own stories of real life events with real people interlinking with real people of the other universe. Soon, it became that when a heart and soul were born on earth, a identical heart and soul or other would be born in the realm of Light among one of the worlds created by the Keyblade masters. Their hearts and personality's would always match, but they would be completely different in appearance.

When a Nobody was born, another copy/other could not be born in the Dark realm. The Nobody would already be grown and would not age. Instead, the spirit of the Nobody attached itself to the spirit of someone already born that resembled it most in personality. Usually it would just attach to its' others' spirit.

Life continued on this way for a long time, but something has changed between the worlds now. The barrier has grown thin and darkness now seeps through the holes in the Nothing. Dark worlds have crossed the border in to the Light. Foreseeing the chaos that is to come, special hearts of pure light were born to banish the darkness once again. However, even this did not stop the darkness. Kingdom Hearts drew out its final hope.

Hearts born to move freely between the realms were born from the forces between. Unawakened powers rest within them that they do not yet acknowledge. They will wield the powers of light and force darkness to bow at their feet. Although, as these hearts battle through their path, not even Kingdom hearts can see how this war will end or where their destinies may lead them..."

I blinked at the page, stared at it...and blinked again. I was so confused. That didn't make any sense. I flipped to the table of continents and ran my finger down the list. That passage hardly scraped the top of the cake. There was a list with chapters upon chapters of a more in-depth history of earth and the Disney universe. It had the names of the people involved, the worlds that were infected and destroyed, and the Keyblade masters that divided the worlds and the worlds they created.

This...this was all very overwhelming. I had been right about earth being in a separate realm, but I never would have guessed any of this. Was it saying that the ancestors of Riku, Sora, Kairi, and all the inhabitants of Destiny Island, Twilight Town, Radiant Garden, and other worlds like that are all descended from those Keyblade masters that created the worlds? And that there is another person like me somewhere in this universe? And Kaity too?

A throbbing ache was spreading over my left temple. I have to think about all of this. Sleep on it. I have the book, so I can take it with me now. I'm not really stealing. I'll return it. Eventually. It is a library after all.

My body had grown stiff from sitting n that spot for so long. I pulled myself up and stretched before trudging out of the room. My eyes were drooping and I had a hard time staying awake. Maybe I was in there longer then I thought. Or the day's events were just catching up to me. Somehow, I made it to the room Kaity and I were sharing. I pulled back the sheets and accepted the comfortable pillow top bed. I curled up under the cool sheets and closed my eyes. The words from the book still running through my mind. I could see them on my closed eyelids as long forgotten words echoed through my ears as I drifted to sleep.

You are the one who will end this war...

I dreamt of blackness, stretching out into Nothing. It surrounded me, vast and empty. I stood alone in the darkness of my slumbering mind, blankly staring into the endless depth.

"Sam.."

My dreamy gaze widened slightly. "Hm?" Lifting my head up slightly, I turned around pensively and gradually. Everything is so... liquefied. Like the darkness is a bottle of black ink, making me feel like I'm moving through water. Sluggish and placid. I felt...lazy. Wistful. My hair moved with the slowness and cascaded over my shoulders when I stopped. I blinked and opened my eyes to the pale white figure before me.

"Namine?" My voice sounded like an hollow whisper. Smooth and peaceful.

Namine smiled and walked to stand in front of me. She tilted her head the slightest bit to the side and clasped her hands behind her back. "I thought there was something strange about you." She said in the same soft voice that was swirling around us. She sounded glad. "When I touched your hand, we were officially connected together. Now we are able to share our thoughts and dreams with one another."

"Wait... we're connected?" I asked confused with my faraway voice. "How? Why?"

Namine still smiled, except this one seemed less cheerful. "I don't carry all the answers, Sam. I only know what I have learned and been entrusted with." She paused. "But, I do know the answers to your questions. At least, most of it..."

"Then please, tell me what you know." I pleaded desperately. "I'm tired of all the secrets and lies."

She nodded. "Alright," Namine said after a moment. "You have read the book of earth and now you know the secret of the unique tie between our hearts and souls. You and Kaity are not friends by mistake, Sam. Although no path is exactly the same, yours and hers twine dangerously close to one another. Paths that are so close tend to share the same experiences and dealings."

Namine paused so that I could take that in before continuing on, looking straight into my eyes. "Kaity is the other heart and soul that is connected to Kairi."

My surprise made Namine laugh. "If you would have looked closer, you would have seen the shared personality and appearance that they have. Kaity is the same sociable, never-let-go kind of person Kairi is. I could tell by just looking at her. Her hair is blonde, but her roots are almost the same deep auburn Kairi's is." She pointed out. I can't say I was entirely surprised. Her nickname is Kairi for a reason and it was mostly for those personality reasons.

"If Kairi is Kaity's other here, then... who's my other?"

"Like I said before, you and Kaity are not friends by mistake." She repeated. "Your other in this universe, Sam, was a young girl. Her home world had been Radiant Garden."

Yes, I noticed the past tense reference in her words. "Had been?"

"Yes," Namine said sadly. "When Radiant Garden was destroyed so long ago, little Dierdra went missing. No one was able to track her down in any world." She explained miserably. "Dierdra was supposed to be one of the Keyblade masters, a really powerful one. But since she had disappeared, so no one knows what became of her and her abilities. While Dierdra was still living in Radiant Gardens, she was one of Kairi's only friends. Dierdra was very sad when Kairi had suddenly disappeared. It wasn't long after that she disappeared too..." Namine sighed.

"Wait a second..." I said as a memory flickered before my eyes. It was that little girl with the flowers walking through the courtyard. The mystery girl in that strange vision. "Did this little girl have long dark brown hair, pale skin, and golden eyes?"

"Yes." Namine said surprised. "How do you-" She stopped talking as a look of understanding crossed her face. "You've had a vision of her, haven't you?"

"Yeah..." I said as I held my arms lightly across my chest. "It was a vision. Popped up out of nowhere. The girl was really young though. About eight or nine, at least." Which had possibly been around the age that she disappeared.

"Usually," Namine began. "A person on earth will have dreams of their other in the Light Universe. You know the dreams where they're not about you, but someone else? but you still feel a part of it somehow? It's some kind of communication system between the two beings. Trying to get the two heart and souls to meet so that they can be complete. Before the two meet, it's just kind of like having a Nobody, except each soul isn't missing anything and they both have hearts." She moved to hold her hands behind her back. "Once the person on earth and the other in this universe meet, if they ever do, they can communicate freely through their dreams. Like you and I are doing now." She gestured to me and herself.

I looked down in thought and started thinking about all of this for a moment. Thinking about the missing Dierdra. That poor little girl. I wonder where she had gone. Then I thought about how Namine said that both halves are supposed to look like each other. But I don't have dark brown hair or gold eyes. Kaity has blue eyes like Kairi's, but I have no resemblance to Dierdra. I mean, my roots are dark, but not that dark, and my eyes have a couple of gold looking accents, but they're more of a bluish green. Then I remembered a passage from the book. Yes, Dierdra could be my other but... I looked up at Namine.

"Namine..." I said lightly. "Are you my Nobody spirit?" I asked her. "When you were born through Sora, did your spirit on earth attach to mine?" I mean, it made sense. I can only talk to my others through dreams once we meet, right? Well, I've met Namine and look at us.

Namine smiled warmly at me. "Yes, I am." She admitted. "When I was born, my spirit on earth searched the world until she found you. You had just met Kaity at summer camp. That relation was how she found you. You were timid, alone, and just starting out as an artist. Much like I was when I was born. She immediately knew that you were perfect to be friends with."

I thought back to that year. That year...that year was the year I made my first real drawing. It hadn't been until Christmas (I had lost inspiration), but it was like a miracle. I had no talent before that. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, I could draw. I started to be more outgoing, but still remained shy. Then a few years later, probably after Namine and Kairi joined together, I started to let myself out. I talked to people. Made a lot of new friends. Did Namine's spirit on earth do all this to me when she attached to my own?

"So, Dierdra is, like, my other heart in the Light Universe and you are my Nobody spirit?" I asked her. She nodded. "And I'm supposed to look somewhat like my other, right? Like Kaity looks kind of like Kairi?" She nodded again, but more slowly this time. She was probably coming to the same conclusion I was. "But I don't. I look mostly like you, not Dierdra." She didn't nod again. "Do you think I look more like you because Dierdra is missing?" I asked. "Could it be that Dierdra had died the day Radiant Garden was destroyed? And because of that, you are now my other in this universe?" I used to have dark hair when I was younger. But it grew brighter when I hit my teens. Besides, the statement sounded right, but I had a feeling that Dierdra isn't dead, but she isn't exactly alive ether... but then...where is she?

It took Namine a moment to reply. "I truly don't know anything about what happened to Dierdra." She was barely talking above a whisper. Her eyes had turned down and when she lifted them to meet my own green-blue ones, they were troubled, but she was staring intently into mine. "But Sam... If that is true and I am now the one that is resting on the other side of your heart..." She faltered and hesitated.

"What?" I asked her. Her distressed expression was making dread over come me. What was so horrible about her being my other? "Tell me what's wrong."

"If this is true, then you are in terrible danger." Her eyes shut tightly and she looked down, clasping her hands in front of her as if she were praying. "My abilities are strong and hardly controllable through me. Through you, they are infinite in strength and boundless to the minds around you. The memories around you." Her abilities? She must mean her power to mess with the chains of memories in all the people connected to Sora. Is she saying that I have those powers too?

"In you, these powers are stronger, untamed, erratic, and you haven't even realized that you posses such power..." She looked back into my eyes. "There will be those that will seek out that power for themselves, take advantage of you, and use your power for their own gain..." Her eyes hardened in a sudden anger that flared in her eyes. "Just as the Organization had done to me..."

"But the Organization has been destroyed." I pointed out.

"Yes, the Organization has been destroyed, but many things still lurk in the abyss of the Darkness and Nothingness, Sam." She said intently. "They're growing in power and numbers. They move through the shadows with each other. When they pass by you, you can feel it. It's like a sudden chill in the air." Her eyes closed and she shivered. "I feel them moving back and forth between the Nothing and the Dark."

"You feel them?" I asked hesitantly.

"Yes. Roxas also sense's them." Her hands dangled at her side again and she smiled a kind of half smile at me. "Those of us that have resided in the Darkness and Nothing tend to feel the creatures that lurk inside it pass from one side to the other. However, there are others. Other dark creatures resting on the edge deep within the heart of the darkness. They're waiting for a command, but whoever is controlling them is waiting for something themselves. Or someone..."

"Something or someone..." I mumbled closing my eyes and running my hand through my hair frustrated. Nothing was getting accomplished. Yeah, sure, I had most of my questions answered, but I had ten times as many more then I had before. There are way too many puzzle piece's and none of them fit together. "Alright." I opened my eyes and lifted the corners of my mouth in a small grateful smile. "Thanks, Namine. At least some things make a bit more sense now."

"Not a problem." She smiled. "Oh!" At the sudden exclamation, she turned and reached behind herself to pull out an army gray, rusty bronze and black lined cross body messenger sling back pack. "I almost forgot." She held it out to me. "This is for you. It's a gift. I knew that something was up when I met you and I just kind of had a feeling. I guess it's a good thing I brought this now that I know that you are like me, you'll need this. The bag is deeper then it seems, so you can carry personal objects and anything you pick up on you journey inside it."

I took the coarse material and felt the weight of whatever was inside. It wasn't that heavy, but it was heavy enough for there to be maybe two or three school books inside. I doubt that is what's inside, though. What would I need if I were like her?

"Also, I figured it would probably be a good idea to tell you that we can communicate with one another while we're awake as well." Her hands clasped behind her back again as she informed me of this. "You and Kaity can also talk telepathically now, but only when you wish too and only if you are in the same world as the other."

"Awesome!" I grinned, my spirit totally lifted. "Thank you, Namine. Again." I gave her a quick hug of thanks. "Somehow, we'll figure out what's happening to our universes and everything." I smiled wider. "And don't worry about Roxas." Her cheeks filled with color as she blushed. "Or Sora. Those two have nerves of steel."

"I know." She smiled before sighing wistfully. "It's almost morning, I should go. Be brave, Sam, and always trust your instincts. They are always right." Then, slowly, she faded into the darkness like windblown dust.

"Yeah," I mumbled to nothing. "I know."

The dark closed in around me. The void ringing inside of my mind. I stood alone in the dark for a long time. I don't know how long, but eventually, I sighed and slung the strap of the messenger bag over my head and across my chest charily and proceeded to walk forward. Just...forward. Putting one foot in front of the other. My steps were concentrated and even. My breath was shallow and cool. Namine had explained so much and yet, nothing at all. Questions swam lazily around my thoughts. Like I had forever to figure it out.

From what Namine had said, I have two sides of my heart, two spirits, and two sides to my soul. As well as Kaity. Except, she only has one spirit. My other in this universe was a young girl of Radiant Garden and was best friends with the young Kairi. This clarification explained the strange vision I had before I met Riku on the balcony. What happened to her though? Why has she been replaced as my other by Namine? How do Kaity and I fit into this whole thing? Why did Kingdom Hearts bring us here? What are we supposed to do next?

So many questions. No answers.

After a few minutes of walking, my bare feet slid through something damp, fibrous, and kind of itchy. I looked down to see dark green grass curling around my feet. When I looked up, a dirt path appeared next to me not two feet away. I set foot onto the compact earth and followed it to wherever it may lead. I walked silently along the gravel road and came upon a intersection. I stopped in the center of the crossroads.

I looked to the right to look down the Road to Light and turned my head to the left to look down the Road to Darkness. I turned to look behind me to the road from which I had come and forward to the Twilight Road to Nightfall. Or as Riku would say, the Road to Dawn. I looked to the dark sky above me. Kingdom Hearts wants me to make a choice.

Forward,
Back,
Left,
Or right

Darkness,
Light,
Dawn,
Or twilight

Which way will you go,
Which way will you choose?

I hate making choices. I always seemed to choose the wrong thing. But...this is an important decision. My choice affects who I am and who I will become. I just stood there helplessly at the roads. I didn't know which way to go. I don't want to walk down the middle road, because I have been walking that path forever straight into the darkness. I don't want to take the light, because I still have darkness in my heart. I don't want to take the dark, because there is light somewhere in my heart. So...what should I choose?

I sat down on the dirt road and rested my head on my hand, thinking. Then I just sighed tiredly and closed my eyes...