Marie and her keyblade:

www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/Marie-and-her-Shooting-Star-Keyblade-38350 2787

Ryan:

www.swirl3y.deviantart.com/art/That-s-his-name-286861562

A\N:
We are past the Tron world and now we are actually getting into the 'everyone loses their shit' phase. I hope it turns out as awesome as it is in my head when I picture it! During these couple of chapters, I'll be writing in 3rd after this first bit, just to capture the feel of it all.

Chapter Forty-Three

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Thousand heartless battles

"Ansem!?" I cried out when I looked at the picture. I ran up to it and looked at it a bit closer. There was no doubt—the image was growing clearer in my head. This was the Ansem I knew and loved, not that imposter trying to be him.

"Yes, that's Ansem the wise!" Mickey explained. I heard Sora asking if the king was teasing him, and Donald asked if he was sure if he remembered Ansem. "Of course I do! And this is him! I'm positive."

I didn't bother answering or backing the king up, since my mind was going elsewhere. I was remembering this man and all that I shared with him. He was like family to me, and it was a little hard to not to cry. I heard footsteps fading and I saw Sora, Donald and Goofy drag the king somewhere else. I looked back at the picture, and just ended up crying.

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3rd p.o.v

Sora brought the king back out into the office and pointed at the picture on the wall; he told him that the man in it was Ansem. "You know, the guy we all worked reeeally hard to defeat?"

"Oh, that's right—I never finished explaining," the king replied. They all wondered what he meant, and the king continued. "Well, the man in the picture is definitely the one who tried to take over Kingdom Hearts—the one you fellas defeated. But, what you actually fought was his Heartless. Ya see, he wasn't really Ansem, he just went around telling everybody that he was."

"You mean…"

It took a moment to let it sink in, and they all scream in confusion. And Sora looked at the king. "You mean we went through all that trouble to defeat an imposter?"

"Yep! Don't you guys know? Even Marie tried telling you guys he was a fake," the king explained. "But he still had to be stopped."

"Uh, I'm kinda confused," Goofy said. "If he's a fake, then what happened to the real Ansem?"

"Welp, that's just what I'm tryin' to figure out," Mickey explained. "Ansem the wise should know all about Organization XIII's plans, how Marie is involved with them, and what's been happening to the worlds. I'm pretty sure he'll give us some help."

Goofy asked if there was a Nobody created along with the Heartless, and Mickey told them that there was, and that he was currently the leader of Organization XIII. They were all shocked again, and Mickey told them that he had met this Ansem before, but couldn't remember it. "Ansem the wise—the real Ansem—must know the imposter's true identity. That's why I got to find him and ask him about it."

"Well, what about Marie? How is she involved in all this?" asked Sora.

"She knew the real Ansem when she was just a little girl, which means she might know some stuff," Mickey started. "He probably knows that she's connected to Kingdom Hearts, too. If I could just figure out all of the little in between stuff, maybe there'd be more about Marie that we didn't already know."

It was confusing beyond all, and the only people who really knew about it all was either missing, or lost most of their memory because of it. It was a frustrating situation to be in, and Mickey couldn't help but recall the meeting he had with the woman inside Kingdom Hearts. He wanted to ask Marie about it, but he knew it was better to leave her alone for a while as she gathered her thoughts about Ansem's image.

Sora asked the king if he had seen Riku, and Mickey lowered his shoulders as he couldn't help him. Sora asked more into it, but Mickey just couldn't answer. Sora asked him about Kairi, and told him that he feared Organization XIII might've kidnapped her. Mickey turned around and was surprised about that news, and he knew what he had to do.

"Sora, Donald, Goofy," he started. "I know what I have to do now. Helping others should always come before asking others for help. We're safe and sound—and free to choose! So there's no reason we shouldn't choose to help our friends. Let's look for Riku and Kairi together."

Another earthquake appeared, and this time it was harder than the last Mickey felt. Marie came running into the room, and stopped for a brief moment to look at them all. "Well, don't just stand there—come on!"

She ran towards the entrance and Mickey nodded. "She's right; we gotta start by helping out here!"

Mickey ran after Marie, and the gang nodded as they followed them both outside the castle. Marie kept her pace, and she knew she wasn't going to keep crying over a picture of Ansem—she was willing and ready to fight! She made it past the hallway and ran outside the castle, she noticed a bunch of heartless and nobodies scattered around fighting each other, and wondered what was even going on.

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Sora, Donald and Goofy all stopped when they saw Maleficent as she appeared inside the castle. She smirked at them and told the heartless to stop attacking the nobodies and to attack Sora and the rest. Sora didn't like this, and he was in fact worried about Marie—who just bolted out of the room in top speed. Still, he remained and fought off the heartless that surrounded him.

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Aura jumped down a couple of roofs and cursed to herself, she knew something was going to happen in Hollow Bastion, but she didn't listen to her hunch. She jumped down to the floor and hacked at a few heartless and nobodies, while the rest she snapped her fingers to. She looked around, and noticed a lot of the monsters around and wondered who was behind all of this. She saw Marie running around and she kept her distance as she jumped back up on the roofs. She didn't see any of the members of the organization, but didn't doubt that they would appear.

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"Where's Maleficent?" the fairies from before asked. Sora told them that she ran away, and the orange fairy commented on how lame the move was. The black one told them they picked the wrong side. After a moment of arguing between the three, Sora told them that if they wanted to pick sides, they should go for Leon.

"Does this Leon have any treasure?" the middle one asked. Donald told them he had lots, and they were pretty much convinced. Sora asked who they were, and they just stated that they were a couple of treasure fanatics. They left, and Sora shook his head—they didn't need this. They continued running out of the castle, and attacked a couple of nobodies. When they reached the postern they stopped as a bright light shined down upon them. Sephiroth appeared in front of them, and Goofy asked if he was the dark part of Cloud's heart.

"Did Cloud tell you that?" Sephiroth asked. "Then he must understand now."

Sora asked what he was going to do to him, and Sephiroth told him that it was Cloud who hungered for the darkness. They had a score to settle, and Sephiroth was determined to give him what he wanted. He walked away, stating that the last bit of light was the hardest to snuff out. He disappeared into a dark light, and Sora, Donald and Goofy just watched as he did. They continued their run towards the restoration site, and saw Leon and Aerith fighting off the heartless and nobodies. They stayed to help, and fought off a couple of nobodies. Sora still didn't see Marie, and he wondered where the girl was.

When the nobodies were done and dealt with, Leon informed them that the king was at the bailey. Sora nodded, and the gang headed over there as quickly as possible. When they headed down the path, Sora wasn't expecting the sight before him. There were hundreds—thousands of heartless roaming around the place. It was like a war, and it was happening right before their eyes. Yuffie, Aerith, those three fairies, Squall, Cloud—almost everyone was helping fighting off the heartless that swarmed the place. The only person Sora didn't see was Marie, where could she be?

When they reached the bottom of the bailey, the king appeared before them. He told them that they needed to find Riku and Kairi, and that everyone else would deal with the heartless. Sora wasn't going to go, since he promised Leon, and he still needed to find Marie. The king told Donald and Goofy to take Sora away, and they agreed. Sora couldn't leave, though.

When Donald and Goofy started telling him what to do, Sora turned around and couldn't believe it. Donald gave him a wink, however, and Sora caught on. They all ran past Mickey, and jumped down. They turned around to face him, and Sora apologized. They jumped down to where everyone else was, and Mickey just sighed as he smiled.

As they made their way further down, they were stopped by Demyx, the Nobody they saw at Olympus Coliseum. "Hey, you guys are looking lively."

"Didn't we catch you messing around in the Underworld?" Sora asked. "How'd a wimp like you get into Organization XIII?"

Demyx was obviously insulted, and Sora mocked him by saying he couldn't fight. Demyx growled, and placed a finger in front of him. "You shouldn't judge anyone by appearance."

When they took out their weapons Demyx panicked and quickly turned around. He knew they were sending the wrong guy, and Sora wondered who this kook was, anyways. Goofy reminded them that they were nobodies, and didn't have hearts. Demyx turned around.

"We do too have hearts, don't be mean," he said. Donald told him he couldn't trick him, and Demyx grew serious, "Silence, traitor!"

He unleashed his power and took out his sitar, ready to fight. He played a tune on his sitar, and a couple of water fiends appeared. Sora quickly got to work with fighting them.

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Down further into the bailey, Yuffie, Aerith and Squall got to work fighting off a couple of heartless, and since he had nowhere to hide, Ryan was in the middle of the fight, too. He didn't know what to do, and with so many heartless around he was getting overwhelmed. Yuffie was getting tired, and Aerith's healing spells were getting ineffective by the minute. A couple of heartless decided to jump Yuffie, and she covered herself to protect from the attack. However, she didn't feel anything hit her when the attack came, and when she looked up she saw Marie standing in font of her.

"Marie!" she called out. The young blonde turned around as she smiled. A couple of heartless started running towards them, and Marie brought out her keyblade and brought it up above her. A flash of light surrounded her and eliminated the surrounding heartless, and both Aerith and Yuffie were in awe. "Wow, what's going on!?"

"I feel it—this power I have," she explained. "It's not from my clothes, and it's not the power of Kingdom Hearts—this is my power and I feel like I'm at my peak! I think the desire to help fight with my friends unlocked it for me."

"But—"

"We need to focus on the heartless!" Aerith pointed out. They all agreed and the three girls started fighting off the hordes of heartless. Marie glanced over to Ryan, who was trying to find a place to hide, she called his name and he quickly ran over to her. She told him to stay close and he did.

Aura, on the other hand, was also lending her help. Not wanting to see the world go down, and certainly not wanting to see Marie go down she attacked a couple of heartless. She had her hood on, and she hacked at a couple of heartless with a simple sword—easily taking care of the ones surrounding her. She snapped her fingers a couple of times and made the lesser heartless perish while the stronger ones flew back. She quickly looked up to see Sora running down, but stayed true to her word and fought down below with the rest of them.

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After the fight with Demyx, they stopped when they heard the king's voice. They apologized to him, but Mickey told them they needed to help out their friends. As they started walking, one of the heartless fighting atop the mountain sparked and it caused a rock to fall down towards the king. Goofy saw this, and without thinking, moved Mickey out of the way. He was hit really hard by the rock, and flew a few feet away from the king.

Donald and Sora ran to him, and tried waking him up. "Come on, you're the king's captain! You gotta wake up, Goofy! Please, wake up!" Donald cried out.

"This can't be happening!" Sora shouted. Mickey stood there, devastated that one of his good and most trusted friend was down. He growled, and told them that the heartless would pay. He took off his cloak, and out revealed his outfit of red and white hues. He took out his keyblade, which was a reversed kingdom key, and started running towards where the heartless were.

Donald also shouted out in anger at the loss of his friend. He brought out his staff, and followed the king not long after. Sora was the last, and although he didn't want to leave Goofy, he wanted those monsters to pay. He took one glance at Goofy, and quickly left with his keyblade in tow.

Sora held onto his keyblade as he fought the heartless surrounding him. Yuffie was helping out since she saw him, and the both of them went to work. She mentioned how everyone was fighting further down below as they fought, and when they finished fighting a couple more, she told him to go on. She had the fight under control.

Sora nodded, and ran down further and stopped to help Leon fight off a second wave of heartless. They were stronger than the last ones, but with him and Leon fighting it didn't take very long. Leon attacked a couple while Sora used his skills to attack the surrounding heartless. Soon enough, Leon also had the fight under control, and told Sora to head further in where the other hordes of heartless were fighting.

When he made his way towards the next area, he was attacked by a heartless. Tifa, the girl he knew as the one who punched the wall came fighting in, and attacked the heartless around him. She was definitely a fighter, and was quick on her toes as she fought and punched every heartless. He fought off the most of them, and Tifa looked at him. "Hurry, go on ahead!"

He listened and ran ahead. In the next area, he saw Cloud fighting off the heartless. He brought down his sword and impaled a giant heartless that squirmed beneath him. He nodded at Sora, and the brunette helped out in the fight. He brought his buster sword and swung it around as he destroyed a couple of heartless, while Sora cast a few spells at the surrounding, weaker heartless. It was obvious that Cloud was dominating the fight, but was still relieved to have Sora help out. After a few more fights, Sora left the fighting to Cloud, and left to go further in.

He eventually met up with Donald and Mickey, and they asked if he was alright. He looked down. "Well, yea, but…"

"Aww, Goofy," Donald was reminded of the situation, and they all looked down.

"Heey, fellas!" a familiar voice called out. They turned around and gasped their loudest when they saw Goofy running towards him. The gentle dog rubbed his head, and started hya-yucking, "Ya know, that really hurt!"

Mickey ran up to hug the guy, and Goofy didn't think it was a big deal; he always got bumped on the head from time to time. The others started laughing, but Donald came up and hit his shin with his staff. Goofy yelped, and Donald told him to never do that again. Sora sighed and was glad that Goofy was alright, but he still heard no word from Marie. Where was she?

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Marie continued fighting off the hordes of heartless by herself, but she felt the powers draining. Ryan kept close to her, and Marie stopped a bit when she saw a girl in blue fighting alongside her. She gasped when she took a closer look at the girl. "Hey, I know you—you're that girl who helped me out last time!"

"Aura!" Ryan shouted. Marie gasped. Was this the girl that Ryan was talking about? Aura just kept fighting, but managed to let a few words out.

"Keep fighting! This isn't over!" she shouted. Marie nodded, and they started fighting side by side. Getting a good close up at how she fought, Aura was definitely impressed. Soon after a couple of fights, the heartless stopped fighting. Marie, Aura and Ryan all stood still as they watched the heartless just stand there. This gave Marie a chance to breath, but then she started hearing footsteps. She turned around, and noticed Sora, Donald, Goofy and Mickey all running towards her.

"Marie!" Sora shouted. She ran up to them with Ryan, and Sora nearly crushed her with his hug. She gave a slight smile, and her face lit up, "Why did you run like that!?"

"I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't have," she admitted. "But everyone was in trouble, and I couldn't just leave them fighting by themselves!"

"You did the right thing!" Mickey commented. Their reunion was cut short when they noticed the heartless still weren't moving. They walked up a bit close to where Aura stood, and right when Sora was about to say something Mickey pointed at the mountain. They all looked up, and saw one of the members appear. He took off his hood, and looked down at them.

"It's the guy who's not Ansem!" Donald pointed out. He looked down at them, but more so at Aura, who stared right at him. Marie gasped when she saw him, and she also had that familiar feeling with him.

"Wait a minute. Now I know!" Mickey recalled the time he asked for advice from Ansem. They were talking about the stability of the worlds, and the doors that appeared. Upon their conversation, the door knocked, and in appeared a man similar to the one in the painting. He talked about continuing his research, and Ansem told him they wouldn't proceed, talking about how they must not seek things like the heart of all worlds. Ansem called his name, and it stuck in Mickey's head.

"Now I remember! Xehanort, Ansem's apprentice!" Mickey called out. "The leader of Organization XIII is Xehanort's Nobody!"

"What? Xehanort?" Marie asked. Mickey started running towards him and she looked up at him, and her head began to hurt. The memories started filling in, and she couldn't handle it.

"Suppress the pain; don't let it get to you!" Aura called out. Marie tried to listen, and she tried to control the pain. The heartless all started surrounding them, and Sora, Donald and Goofy took out their weapons. Aura took a glance at Sora, and unable to even be around him or Roxas, she fled the scene. Sora watched as she did, and wondered who she even was.

"Sora… we gotta fight," Marie called out as she stood beside him with her keyblade out. She pointed it at the heartless, and she narrowed her eyes. "I can't let them destroy this place."

Sora nodded and looked at Donald and Goofy, who seemed to get his plan. They all took separate places to get rid of the heartless quicker, and Ryan stayed close to Marie. He was unsure of what was happening, but during all of it he watched as his cousin fought so bravely for a place she called home. He had no doubts about her anymore. Sora and Marie stood side by side, and she felt her forehead burning. With a simple nod from Sora, they both immediately started attacking the surrounding heartless. Sora used some of the heartless to get rid of the ones near him, while Marie used her flash of light to get rid of some of the hordes. The power was returning to her and she used it to her advantage. They attacked a couple more heartless using their abilities and Marie was being ruthless in her attacks. She yelled and shouted as she attacked each one, while Sora kept flinging the heartless around with attacks and spells.

When they cleared a path, he ran ahead with the rest following him behind. They stopped for a moment, and Sora asked where the king was. They looked around, and Donald pointed at him fighting off the Nobody.

"Your majesty!" Donald shouted as they all ran by the king's side. Mickey gave a quick smile, and looked back as he called out Xehanort's name.

"How long has it been since I abandoned that name…" he replied.

"Out with it, Nobody! Where's Riku? Where's Kairi!?" Sora demanded.

"I know nothing of any Kairi," replied the man. "As for Riku…Perhaps you should ask your king."

He turned around, and Sora looked at the king. Mickey was angry, and told Xehanort to stop. He started running towards him, but a portal opened up, and they both fell into it. They tried to follow, but the portal closed, and Sora grew disappointed. "He's gone…"

He fell to the floor, and started punching it. Goofy held his shoulder, and Donald tried reassuring him. When they got up, they looked at the town, and heard a couple of noises. Marie looked a bit worried, and told them she was going to check it out. She ran back towards the town, leaving Ryan in their care. Once she was out of sight, they all heard a voice.

"Way to fall into their trap," they heard the voice. They turned around to face a redheaded man with bright emerald eyes. They took out their weapons and glared at the man. "C'mon. it's a set-up by Organization XIII. Xemnas is using you to destroy the heartless—that's part of his big master plan."

"Xemnas?" Donald asked. The guy told them that it was the leader of Organization XIII—the guy they just met. They all seemed a bit shocked, and Goofy repeated the plan.

"Man, you're slow," he pointed out. "Every heartless slain with that keyblade releases a captive heart. That is what the Organization is after."

"So what are those guys gonna do with the hearts?" Donald asked. Even though Axel felt like he should tell them, since it involved Marie and Aura, he kept his mouth shut.

"You… you're the guy who kidnapped Kairi!" Sora called out.

"Bingo. The name's Axel. Got it memorized?" he replied. While seeing nothing of the sort, Marie decided to run back to Sora and the others. She stopped before she got there, and overheard voices.

"Where's Kairi?" Sora pleaded. "Please, just tell me!"

The man with the voice, who Marie knew as Axel, was about to speak. He got interrupted when a sharp voice appeared. She peeked at who it was, and it was the guy with blue hair. Axel growled and disappeared, and she saw Sora attempting to chase after him. The man in blue stopped him though, and told him that he would get the maximum punishment.

"I don't care about any of that!" Sora shouted. "Just let me into the realm of darkness, okay?!"

The man in blue looked ahead, and he was able to spot Marie from the distance. She gasped and hid a bit, and the man smirked. He turned around. "If it's Kairi you're worried about, don't. We're taking very good care of her."

"Take me to her," Sora demanded. The man turned his head slightly, and turned back to Sora and asked him if she was that important, "Yeah. More than anything."

Marie covered her mouth and wanted to scream, she didn't even want to believe what he was saying. How could he… after all that he said about loving Marie… it felt so horrible, even if she couldn't remember. The man smirked, and told Sora to show him how important Kairi was. Marie turned and saw Sora beg on his knees, and she just watched. The man smirked, and commented on how much he cared. His answer was clear, and it was no.

The man in blue called upon some of the heartless, and started explaining to the gang how the heartless were such valuable creatures, since they would combine and weave the heart of all hearts: Kingdom Hearts. Sora just continued to glare at the man, and he looked down at them. "And when Kingdom Hearts comes together, we shall use those who bear the mark and devour them as they supply us with the ability to become whole!"

Marie grabbed her head, and started feeling the pains from earlier. She tried to not cry out in pain, and she just clutched her head. She remembered what Aura said, and tried to suppress the pain. All these memories of last year started spilling into her head, and she tried very hard not to cry. The pain was becoming horrible.

"What are you prattling on about? Kingdom Hearts and those two children belong to me!" a very familiar voice belonging to Maleficent said. "The heart of all kingdoms, the heart of all that lives. A dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must be my dominion!"

Marie kept clutching her head, and as the memories kept flooding in her mind the memories of Sora poured into her as well. She held onto her head, and just stood there as the pain drifted away. She took a deep breath, and stood up straight.

"Stop, Maleficent! No more heartless!" Sora cried out, not wanting to cause any more hearts being captured. She just scoffed at him, and shouted that she wouldn't take orders from him.

"Stop," said a low and eerily calm voice. They turned towards the entrance of the peak, and they were surprised to find Marie standing there, with her arm wrapped around the other. She had an indifferent look, and just walked up to them. "If you want Kingdom Hearts, I'll give it you."

"What…! Marie, what are you saying!?" Donald shouted. Sora looked at her, and noticed she had a conflicted look. She seemed so sad, and he wondered what was going on. She took a glance at him, but quickly looked away.

"Just stop letting the heartless out and Sora can focus on saving his friends," she said. The man in blue scowled, and told her that the power belonged to Organization XIII. Maleficent scoffed, and summoned her heartless anyway. The man retaliated by summoning his own set of nobodies. They easily got rid of the heartless, and Sora looked at the nobodies. They were about to fight them, but then Maleficent came in front of them.

"While I keep these creatures at bay, you devise a way to vanquish them—forever!" she shouted. Sora called out to her, but she just scoffed. "Do not misunderstand me. I shall have my revenge on you yet, and the power of Kingdom Hearts will be mine!"

Everyone watched as she drowned underneath the mountain of nobodies, and Sora was about to fight, but Donald stopped him. The man in blue continued to stare at them, and called forth strong heartless. Sora was confused at whose side they were on, but the man explained that the heartless ally with whoever was the strongest. As they attacked, Sora defended and attacked them, making their hearts rise up.

"Yes, Sora!" the man said. "Extract more hearts!"

The heartless kept coming at them, and Sora defended, not wanting to use the keyblade. He feared that everything they ever did was for nothing, and he didn't know what to do if he couldn't use the keyblade. They heard Maleficent's voice calling them imbeciles, and a bright light appeared around them. They found themselves on the gummi ship, and as soon as Marie opened her eyes, she looked around. The next thing she knew, she was on the ground blacked out.

Uh-oh, the trouble with love, huh? I guess Sora's done it again, and this time it all came out. Marie seemed to have gotten her memory back, but is it too late? Who knows…?