I don't own Kingdom Hearts, or any anime/Disney/book characters/worlds that may appear in this Fanfiction.

Sora awoke from a long night of training, luckily Larxene had let him off early so he could get some real sleep, he couldn't fight if he was exhausted. He quickly got out of bed and left for the Dark Depths. The heartless were going to attack from there according to Mickey.

When he arrived he found Riku and Kairi waiting for him. "Where are the others?" Kairi grinned, "Don't worry Sora, some are in position, and the others will arrive soon. So, are you ready?"

"Of course I am!"

"Good, because the heartless will be here soo—" She was cut off by Riku, "They're here!" Together they charged.

Mickey launched himself towards the 3 behemoths who led the assault. Jumping on one's head, he quickly stabbed his keyblade into the point where its horn met it's body. He quickly cast a Pearl spell with his keyblade, creating it within the beast's skull. Light exploded from its head, and the rest of the body faded away. Gathering the loose light energy from his attack and using it to strengthen another Pearl, he jumped into the face of the next one, and launched the spell at point-blank range, causing it to collapse. A swipe from his keyblade finished the job. He pointed his keyblade at the last behemoth, "Catena Lux Lucis." Shining chains appeared about the behemoth holding it in place even as they burned away at it. Smoke rose where the touched it, and a hissing sound could be heard. The creature slowly burned away.

Elsewhere a Darkside was giving Leon some trouble. His gunblade wasn't overly effective against heartless, although it was fine for normal ones. Anything this size however…everything just seemed to bounce off. Rushing forward he jumped and struck at its shoulder, damage was visible, but nothing more than a shallow cut. Frustrated, he launched a burst of fire at it. The impact point glowed red-hot. Seeing an opportunity, he struck the red spot. Weakened by the fire, the shadowy 'flesh' was easily cut by the gunblade, leaving a deep gash in its arm. He smirked, and launched a fireball at its throat. He jumped to the weakened section, and swiftly decapitated the Darkside.

Nearby, he could see Yuffie stab a large shuriken into her opponent's eye, killing it. Tifa's hand was presently lodged in her opponent's throat, and Cloud could be seen attacking neo-shadows, as his opponent had been decapitated long ago. Leon joined him in battle.

Vincent was more than a little annoyed. He came out here, got ready for anything, and he got some weaklings with no real body. The opposite armors were dead before they saw him. He'd overestimated them, using Chaos' power (this is Chaos as seen at the end of Dirge of Cerberus) had been excessive. However, now was not the time, there were other heartless to kill. He turned Death Penalty on a group of Neoshadows and fired. Overhead he could see Cid swing by on a ship, launching a barrage of bullets towards the enemy. The heartless fell back from the ship, but a group of wyverns took off towards it. Taking a moment to shoot a few down, he returned to his task.

Sora charged in beside Riku and Kairi, and thought he glimpsed Donald and Goofy a short distance away. Turning towards the army of neoshadows, he summoned the keyblade and struck furiously, darkness spraying like blood before the wrath of The Savage Nymph. He knocked them back with a wide swing, killing a few, and cast Thundaga, letting the lightning devastate the area. More heartless rose to take the place of the defeated. 'There's no end to them!' 'Then stop holding back!' Sora repeated his initial exercise. He placed blood on the keychain, allowing Larxene to fill him with electricity. He embraced it, letting the lightning course through him, then channeled it, not into his open palm, but through his keyblade. He swung his blade in a wide arc before him. From the tip of the Keyblade a shockwave of lightning shot forth, destroying dozens of heartless in a single stroke. "Thundaga Blade!" He lunged forward, ripping into the army of heartless.

Riku struck heartless after heartless with his Dark Aura. Watching each heartless be consumed by the dark fire. He heard movement and dodged, just barely evading an attack from a neoshadow. 'Is this all you can do? Do you still have to run to me for power?' 'No! I'm done using your darkness. I have my own power now! My own strength! I have allies who I can rely on!' 'So where are they now? Sora isn't fighting on his own power either.' 'No, I won't use your power, I have my own--'"DARKNESS!" Shadow wrapped around him, and the heartless shrank back from a darkness far beyond their own. Shadows stretched out, devouring the heartless. Riku gathered power and dashed forward, striking out with his darkness. He cut a path through the heartless, streaking among them, Night among Shadows. Where his darkness touched, their darkness withered away. Alone, on his own power, Riku battled on, and reveled in his Darkness.

Kairi could feel herself weakening. She lacked skill with her keyblade, and thus relied on magic. Raising her hand, a Firaga spell leapt forth, burning away at the heartless. Several heartless were frozen alive in the face of Blizzaga. Thundaga lanced down, destroying heartless after heartless in flashes of light. "Watera." The area was soon flooded by the spell. Leaping up, she cast another spell, "Blizzaga." The water, and the numerous heartless in it, froze. She brought down her keyblade and shattered the ice, allowing the shards to kill the nearby heartless, and any who may have survived her Blizzaga spell as well. She leapt back into battle, keyblade ready.

Donald and Goofy were losing, badly. Without Sora they weren't strong enough. They had done a little damage, but were quickly overwhelmed. They retreated to Merlin's position (he had been with them when the battle began), and decided to keep the heartless off of him.

Sora could feel the tide of the battle turning rapidly in their favor. They would be victorious soon. He prepared to attack again, but stopped upon hearing a horrendous shriek pierce through the sounds of battle. Green fire closed him in, and within the circle of flames, a creature of nightmare appeared. At first sight it appeared draconic. It had a snout, ridiculously large teeth, reptilian eyes and skin, muscular legs and wings, it towered over him, and green fire appeared in its mouth as it breathed. At second glance it was clearly not a dragon though. It had six legs, two black, skeletal wings that lacked any membrane between the wing's bones to allow flight, and had a large heartless symbol on its chest. On the third glance one would notice the strange, tentacle-like strands of darkness writhing forth from its body, and the heartless symbol composing the tip of its tail, which raised up over its back like a scorpion's. After another couple seconds your brain would eventually be forced to register the last feature, the agonized, shrieking face of Maleficent resting on its forehead.

Sora stumbled back in horror from this abomination. 'No, no, this can't be- it just can't! Maleficent—no! She was to strong for this! Nothing could do this to her!' He could feel unconsciousness trying to overcome him in response to the mental strain. 'Get a hold of yourself! There is no way in hell I'm letting you get me killed because of something like this!' Sora lost the battle with unconsciousness, but did not collapse, as Larxene had just forced him to remain awake. 'Hell no Sora! You are not getting out of this that easily.' Larxene poured more and more power into him, until he felt like the lightning would destroy him, like the Savage Nymph was slowly ripping him apart with her power. Suddenly, he felt something break, and the pain vanished.

Sora opened his eyes, and found himself looking upon a changed world. He could see lightning flickering through the air, and the bioelectricity of his friends was clear among the blackness of the heartless. The creature before him struck at him with its claw, and he leapt over the claw, holding himself airborne for the moment. Raising his black-gloved hand, he guided those fine lines of loose electricity into the atmosphere, focusing them together. He 

poured lightning into the air, formed from his own energy. This too joined the rest in the atmosphere. He brought his hand down, and lightning struck the beast. Not the pitiful lightning of a thunder spell, but true lightning forged from the electrical charges throughout the battle field and his own magic. The beast collapsed, scorched all over by the lightning. He prepared to finish it, but was interrupted by a group of wyverns. Kunai flew from his grasp, summoned by his will, and the wyverns fell. Looking down at the abomination below, he summoned his keyblade.

Kairi and Riku had found each other in the chaos, and could only watch as a cloak figure appeared in a bolt of lightning, rising from the ground to avoid some kind of twisted, perverted version of a dragon. The figure wore a horribly familiar piece of clothing, a black cloak identical to those worn by Organization members. A shiver shot down Kairi's spine upon seeing that cloak again. The figure raised its hand and waited a moment, static flickering around its raised hand, and moved its hand sharply downward, a bolt of lightning striking down towards the creature, which collapsed. They watched as a half a dozen wyverns flew towards it. The figure waved its hand and something flew towards the wyverns. They died instantly. The figure's head tilted downwards slightly, and with all the authority of Death itself, it extended its hand to the side. In its hand appeared a horrifying object, not horrifying because of what it was, but because of who was using it. In the figure's hand rested a keyblade.

Despite their shock, they had little time for confusion, as they heard something large land behind them, turning quickly, they found a similar creature to the dragon. It was a large canine. On his forehead was an image of Pete, although this one seemed to be only an image, as no screaming or action was visible. Slowly the shadow which composed it stretched…and then split evenly down the middle. It reformed into two identical dogs, both slightly smaller than the original. Half of Pete's face was present on each dog. The first lunged towards Riku, the second towards Kairi. Separated now, they prepared to fight.

Riku watched the dog, awaiting an attack. It suddenly lunged, in no way broadcasting its intentions. He brought up The Way to Dawn instinctively, but was still pushed back a good distance. He lunged forward, his body cloaked in the power of Darkness. He struck at the dog, but was deflected as it snapped at him with its teeth. Circling the creature at high speed, he launched a series of Dark Aura spells. These had little or no effect, being completely ignored by the creature. A claw lashed out, and was met by Dark Shield, the creature pulled back and swung again. The shield broke, and Riku received a trio of claw marks to his torso. He quickly cast a spell, 'Darkga." Darkness leapt forth from the ground around Riku. It enveloped the creature, slowly the creature began to fade, looking reminiscent of a dying nobody. Moments later the ravenous beast was gone, leaving nothing behind.

Kairi was fighting the other half at the same time. Her normal spells were having little effect, so she prepared something new. She just hoped she could do it, as she'd only learned it yesterday.

FLASHBACK

Merlin stayed behind after the meeting. Watching the others leave, he approached Kairi, who was preparing to leave. "Kairi, I would like you to have this."
"Why?"

"Well, no one wants you getting yourself blown up or some such thing. This scroll contains spells even I can't use, but I think you may just be able to pull it off! Good luck!' He said this, from start to finish, with a cheerful demeanor. Kairi took the scroll and went to study it.

--

Kairi had seen spells before, and these were completely different. Sighing, she looked at the first incantation,

'Ye Lord! Mask of blood and flesh…'

END FLASHBACK

Kairi now began one of the strange incantations that the scroll contained…

Ruler, he who is adorned with a mask of flesh and blood.
Truth and Temperance, Sight claw at thy enemy,
Rip out his throat,
Byakudou

A wave of blue fire leapt from her outstretched hand towards the creature before her. The creature's 'flesh' burned quickly under the flames of her spell. The fire soon faded though, and the creature lunged for her. She dodged, but couldn't avoid it when the thing swiped at her with its tail, which she could now see was tipped with a heartless symbol (which, unfortunately, also served a spiked tip), which had luckily not struck her. She turned to face it and chanted again…

"Mask of blood and flesh, all creation, flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! On the wall of blue flame, inscribe a twin lotus. In the abyss of conflagration, wait at the far heavens."

Twin bursts of blue fire leapt forth, burning away at the beast once again. Kairi cast the next without the incantation. "Six bars of Light." As would be expected, six bars of light embedded themselves in the creature's neck, immobilizing it, but they quickly broke. 'I had hoped I could pull that off…but apparently not.' She thrust out her had again, "Byakurai." A ray of light leapt from her pointed fingers, piercing the creature through the forehead. Finally, the creature fell. It quickly faded away. Looking at the numerous heartless remaining, she began her assault on the main force again. As she cast her next spell, she couldn't escape a feeling of helplessness.

Riku felt himself slowly succumbing to exhaustion as he launched yet another Dark Aura into the mass of enemies. He could feel the exertion of combat draining away at his energy, if it didn't end soon!

Sora (he thought that was his name) tossed an octet of kunai into the heartless hordes. 'Soon this tenuous consciousness will also collapse.' 'We have to hold on as long as possible!' 'That is only about five minutes you know…' 'What am I?' 'You're Sora!' 'Then why do I remember the others? Axel and his pyromaniac personality…Zexion and his bibliomania….why do I remember them!-?' 'Why would I know!-?' 'Aren't you supposed to know this stuff? You're the one who is supposed to understand the keyblade!' 'I don't know everything! Besides, I know think this is just the keyblade! Now hurry up, we will only remain conscious for about two more minutes.'

Cloud watched as one by one, the others collapsed. Luckily, Merlin was teleporting them away as soon as they fell unconscious. The only people remaining were himself, Riku, Kairi, and the Cloaked Figure from earlier. They too would succumb soon, he could tell. After that, Radiant Garden would again be consumed by Hallow Bastion. A ball of fire burst past him, so close that he could feel the heat, a rather massive and grand fireball at that. In the distance he caught a glimpse of a navy blue shirt. He could also see a large number of stone spikes impaling distant heartless, although he couldn't see who did it over the neoshadows (not that neoshadows were very tall…). He looked overhead, and immediately hoped that was Vincent, not another vampire, although the scythe didn't support the idea much. It looked like reinforcements had finally arrived.

Sora felt his energy leaving him. A bright flash of light blinded him momentarily. Before him he could now see a strange being appear.

At first glance, it was a beautiful young woman. Then you noticed the differences. The first thing one noticed in this lighting (night had begun to descend) was the markings. The being had faint lines of light, almost cybernetic in appearance, on its arms. Its eyes were closed, but It was looking directly at a heartless, clearly capable of sight. It was impossible to tell if the being was clothed or unclothed. There were no indicators of nudity, but there was also no visible clothing. The beings hair was long, past its waist, the end of each hair glowed slightly. A cross shaped crown rested on its head. The crown was gold, with the bottom of the cross resting between the being's closed eyes. The end of this section ended in a deep blue sapphire. The left and right sections wrapped around its head partially. The uppermost extension curved over the top of the beings head. This section divided part of the way up the entity's head, then joined back together just before it passed over the top of the skull. On the back of the head, it continued downwards, splitting again, and then wrapping around the throat in an ornate gold choker, another sapphire was present where the two halves met at the front of the throat. The most obvious thing in daylight was less obvious at night. The entire being, minus the crown/choker, was only semi-opaque and glowed slightly. It was a beautiful sight and a comforting presence… until it stuck its hand through the head of a neoshadow.

The heartless writhed about, convulsing. After a few moments of agony it convulsed one last time and disappeared. Sora could only watch as the creature tore apart the heartless with a bestial rage that contradicted its appearance. Somehow Sora found this creature more revolting in its rage than the heartless ever were in there hunger. The heartless were creatures of Darkness, they were made to destroy. This being appeared to be Light-based, but seemed to revel in destruction as much as the heartless themselves. 'Did that thing just rip out a heartless' throat with its teeth?' 'Yes, I think it did.'

The battle quickly ended under the onslaught of a new army of creatures. These beings of light had viciously consumed the legion of heartless. Sora was hospitalized, his appearance normal again, as were Riku and Kairi. He didn't think anyone had associated him with the 'Cloaked Figure.' He didn't remember much of his time under the cloak, just the occasional flash of an event. Most notably, the Maleficent/Dragon/Heartless/Abomination. 'Why does that bother you so much, she WAS you enemy you know.' 'That is exactly it, I always could rely on her to plot, scheme, and wreak havoc. She was one of the few constants in my life. Think of it this way, if you had an enemy who was always there, who you constantly fought, who motivated you to become stronger. If you had an enemy who you devoted everything to defeating, and then they just vanished, wouldn't you be shocked, having your reason for all you work for vanish. I have not enemies right now, and all I know is this battle. It has become my identity.' 'Then find a new enemy, or prepare for the next one, or try to cleanse the worlds of evil. I don't care what madness you embark on; I will not let you kill us simply because you don't have anyone to fight right now!' 'Yeah, I guess you're right.' Sora laid back on the hospital bed, exhausted. 'By the way, what happened back there? I didn't feel right wearing that cloak.' 'That is what happens when your mind is held awake by someone else's. Your mind does as little as possible, so awareness, personality, and memory may come and go. You were acting on a combination of instinct and fragments or both our minds. Let me tell you, I never want to be that synchronized with your mind ever again! It is very hard to focus when you have someone else's memories causing trouble.' 'You think I don't know that! It was very uncomfortable remembering spending time with people that I killed!' They both quieted down after that, neither quite sure what to say. Neither liked to think that they were very nearly one person, if only for a short while.

After Sora's recovery, they were all called to a gathering outside of Merlin's house. As Sora arrived, he was greeted by an interesting sight Yen Sid stood upon a makeshift stage. Behind the stage stood several of the Light creatures from before. Yen Sid spoke, "Today we have gathered to celebrate a great victory. Thanks to the efforts of many devoted heroes, as well as the Unshadowed, the ultimate beings of light. These creatures were created by means of a special method I have discovered of processing the hearts of Heartless. They have no darkness in them, only pure light, and with their power we can bring this to the worlds. I will use them to systematically destroy every trace of foul darkness in the worlds, overthrowing the tyrants and villains who are bringing such misery to the good people of the Light. Soon we will be free of heartless and nobodies! Soon, the worlds shall be bathed in Light. Soon, there shall be nothing but the Light!" As Yen Sid finished his speech, a cold shiver went up Sora's spine…