It didn't take long for the ten keybladers plus Oswald and Ortensia to get to the King's office, since they all basically knew where it was anyway. The keyblade bearers didn't complain though, Oswald acting to polite for them to, and it really showed the ten how much he has changed over the year.
As soon as they made it to the door, Oswald stepped out in front of them and opened it, allowing everyone else to go inside first. "Ladies first," the rabbit said. Even though they were invited to go in first, Kairi, Xion, Namine and Aqua didn't go in right away, since they knew Oswald was mostly talking to Ortensia.
Once Ortensia was in, the other keybladers began to go through the door into the office; the twelve looked over towards the desk, seeing that the king was sitting in the usual spot with the queen standing by his side. "Well hiya fellas! What a surprise seeing you guys here!" Mickey said happily as his queen gladly waved her hand.
"It's good to see you Mickey, Queen Minnie." Terra said.
As everyone said there hellos to the King and Queen, Sora looked around for two of his friends he hasn't seen in over a year. "Donald and Goofy went out on a double date Sora, sorry but they are not here at present." Minnie said to the keyblader.
"It's alright—" Sora stopped himself, "Wait, double date?"
"Why yes, Donald finally remembered Daisy's date and Goofy is out with his love, Clarabelle." Minnie explained. Sora couldn't help but laugh at this, especially since Goofy never once talked about having a girlfriend, and just imagining him having one only made Sora laugh.
"What brings you guys here?" Mickey asked as the keybladers exchanged looks.
"Um, well we were just wondering, well…" "If we could talk to you." Namine started but Roxas finished.
"Alright well go on ahead!" Mickey said.
There was silence before Riku spoke up, "Alone."
When Riku said that, Minnie and Ortensia nodded knowingly, but Oswald on the other hand only gapped. "Wow, you think you become a keyblade master and get to listen to all these 'top secrets' NOPE!" he exclaimed as he and the two girls left the room.
"So what did you guys want to talk about?" Mickey asked as soon as he knew he and the ten keybladers were the only ones in the room.
Everyone looked at Sora, Kairi and Ven to start, since they were the ones that called them here in the first place. "Well…" The three said together.
"Ventus?" Sora and Kairi said in unison, which only made the blonde roll his eyes.
Ven took a deep breath, knowing he had to be the bearer to bad news. "Well, let's just say we traveled to the Keyblade Graveyard, and we kind of ran into someone…"
"Who?" Everyone else asked.
Ven took in a breath. "It was Vanitas's lingering will."
There was silence in the room before everyone exclaimed, "What?!"
"Are you sure?" Namine asked.
"Positive, it had to be him." Ven continued, "We were actually hoping you guys wouldn't be this surprised, we were hoping that you guys found something that could be pointing towards that too."
Aqua looked around the room, "Well we didn't see anything like that—"
"You three didn't," Riku interrupted, referring to Aqua, Terra, and Xion.
"Riku, what are you talking about?" Xion asked her boyfriend.
"When we were on Stitch's world, remember when I went to go after Gantu?" Riku asked as the three nodded, "Well I didn't really lose sight of him, I saw him get destroyed by some guy in a white Organization XIII coat, and then I had to fight him; I lost, but he left me."
The ten, especially the three that traveled with Riku, gasped. "Why didn't you tell us?" Xion asked, sounding slightly angry.
"I didn't want to worry anyone," Riku explained, "So I decided to tell you guys when I felt the time was right."
"Really Riku? You couldn't just tell us when you got back?!" Xion said, now officially angry.
"I just told you why!" Riku fought back.
"Guys stop!" Terra said, getting in between the two, "This is no time for fighting. If Sora, Kairi and Ven saw Vanitas's lingering will and you saw someone in a white Organization robe, that has to mean they are connected."
"So there isn't just Vanitas, there is actually a group of them?" Mickey said as Terra nodded.
"I know there has to be, that would explain everything." Terra continued.
"Maybe Riku's replica is even working for them," Sora said.
"But if Vanitas, the replica, and this white coated guy really is part of another group, it has to have a leader, who could that be?" Aqua asked
"Lea has a theory," Roxas commented, which really shocked everyone. Lea rarely came up with theories, especially when it came to thinking this much outside of the box.
When all eyes were on the pyro, Lea stood up straight off the wall and began to explain. "Before we came here, we traveled to a world called Spira and had to battle this thing called Sin."
"What does that have to do with any of this?" Ven asked.
"Lulu, a girl we met there, told us that Sin had been dead for years, and it actually turned out to be defeated by Tidus, Rikku, Yuna, Auron, Wakka, and Lulu herself." Lea continued.
"How did this Sin come back then?" Xion asked, her back facing Riku, clearly not wanting to talk to him at the moment.
"Well that's when I got thinking, there is only one person we know who has resurrected people, or in this case, monsters." Lea finished.
And that is when reality struck the group.
Lea had a point; there was only one person they knew that they knew could resurrect something as evil as Sin was.
"Wait, are you trying to say that… he is somehow back?" Kairi gaped.
Lea nodded, "I don't know how, but that is really the only explanation I could come up with."
"But are you sure?" Terra asked.
Lea nodded again, "Somehow, Xehanort has made his return."
And as soon as that revelation hit them, Sora walked out of the room, slamming the door behind him.
Kairi was not surprised by her boyfriend's movements. In fact, if Lea was right, she would probably storm out of the room too. But she knew that she couldn't let Sora leave like that, so she followed right after him, hoping that he hadn't already stormed out of the castle.
…
After looking around for a short period of time, Kairi finally spotted Sora in the garden area of the castle, sitting on one of the benches by the bush art with his hands together, looking like he was in a pensive mood. The red head quickly made it down the stairs to the garden and walked over to her boyfriend from behind; placing her two hands comfortingly on his shoulders.
"Hey, are you alright?" She asked, slowly making her way over so that she could sit on the bench right beside him.
Sora only snickered lightly at this comment, but he still sounded worrisome, "Honestly, I am not sure right now."
Sora lowered his head, as if he didn't want Kairi to see him this upset, but the Princess of Heart was not going to let him get away with that. "It's alright if you're scared, I am pretty sure all of us are." Kairi replied.
Sora turned his head to look at her before he got up off the bench and began to walk more towards the center of the garden. "I'm not really all that scared; I am just kinda… upset."
Kairi looked at him puzzled, "What do you mean?"
Sora paused, his back still turned to Kairi, "After what happened at the Keyblade Graveyard, you know, with Anti Form an everything, I promised myself that I would never let you see me that close to the darkness again."
"Alright, but I don't see how that matches up with the situation." Kairi stated.
"It's just… If Xehanort really is back…" Sora choked when the word 'Xehanort' left his mouth, "That risks putting you in danger, and I can't let that happen."
"But Sora—"
"Kairi, when he took your life away from me, I wanted him to come and kill me, I wanted to give into darkness on the spot because I can't imagine my life without you."
Kairi looked at her boyfriend shocked as Sora continued, "It felt like my heart was literally ripped out of my chest, that my destiny was taken away from me."
"But Sora, our destiny— your destiny is to save the worlds, it always has." Kairi interrupted.
"Don't you remember what I told you when we came home from the Keyblade War? You are my destiny."
Kairi's heart began to go out to Sora the more and more he talked to her, so she stood up and faced Sora. "Look, I know you are scared of losing me, but the worlds need all of us to protect it right now, you, me, Riku, everyone."
"No, things are different now, Kairi. From now on, I need to protect the one thing in these worlds I can't live without: you."
Kairi paused; she couldn't believe that Sora had just said that. She did figure that she meant a lot to Sora, but she didn't think that he would place her in front of the worlds and the thousands of friends he had living on them.
"Sora, I—"
Kairi stopped talking because Sora froze, and by froze, she meant froze. Sora gaped at Kairi as he began to shake rapidly, and out of fear, Kairi took several steps back.
"Sora?" She asked, but received no response. Sora then, as if in slow motion, fell to the ground, still frozen and shaking. "Sora!"
"Don't worry, the effects are only temporary."
(The Nightmare - Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance) Kairi stopped in her tracks at the sound of the voice; she knew who that was. Slowly but surely, Kairi then turned around, seeing a figure standing behind her in a pure white Organization XIII robe and even though Kairi couldn't see his face, she knew who it was.
The figure brought his hand out to Kairi, showing her a small object that vibrated in his hand until he clicked it off and began to look at it. "This was one of the last things Vexen left us before he 'changed sides.' It triggers the darkness inside of someone and makes them feel like are burning from the inside out." The figure laughed, "But since you are a Princess of Heart, it doesn't affect you."
Kairi breathed heavily as she said the figure's name, "Ansem…"
The figure laughed, "Well what's left of him anyway. What is left of all of us."
Kairi then heard several corridors of darkness appear around her, and she began to turn her body to look at all the people surrounding her and Sora, who was helpless right now. The first one she noticed was someone in a similar robe to the Organization's ones but it was multi-colored, being black and white, with its hood up as well: Xemnas. The next one was another white Organization coat, but it had a huge red X going across the chest to resemble his scare: Isa. The one after that was wearing a black uniform with white gloves and a red scarf that covered his face just as well as the Organization robes: Braig. Followed by that was another pure white Organization coat, but on the back of it was two black wings printed on and pink petals as well: Lumaria. And last but not least, Vanitas and the Riku Replica came out, all of them having their weapons they used in the Keyblade War in hand.
But Kairi soon was able to figure out what Ansem meant by 'what's left of us.' All of them, save for the Riku Replica, were the lingering wills of who they used to be, and they were all surrounding her.
On instinct, Kairi summoned her keyblade, ready to fight all of them off even if it meant sacrificing her own life. "Ah, ah, ah," she heard behind her. When Kairi turned, she saw Isa pointing his keyblade at Sora's chest, who still couldn't fight back because he was paralyzed. "You make one move to attack us; Sora is going to breathe his last breath."
Kairi couldn't think, so she only pointed her keyblade at them while she turned. "You need to understand this Kairi, the only thing we want right now is you." Xemnas said.
"So if you come with us, we'll let the kid go." Braig finished.
Kairi lowered her head, she couldn't fight them all, and even if she tried that would only put Sora in danger. So there was only one thing she could do…
She dropped her keyblade, making it disappear, and put her hands up in the air.
Even though they were just the embodiment of their wills and did not have faces, Kairi knew that they had to be smirking. Kairi then looked into Sora's blood shot eyes and said, "I'm sorry Sora, but I need to protect the one thing I can't live without too."
The Lumaria lingering will then looked at Ansem, who nodded, before the assassin glided over to Kairi and hit her on the back of her head with the halt of his keyblade, knocking her out cold, before he caught her so she wouldn't hit the ground. "What do you want us to do with the Keyblade Master, Ansem?" The Riku Replica asked.
Ansem thought for a moment before saying, "Knock him out too, that way when his paralysis is cured, he won't be able to tell his friends who took their beloved Princess of Heart right away who took her."
Isa nodded at this comment before he too knocked Sora out with the halt of his keyblade. Ansem then summoned a corridor of darkness for all of them to go through, back to their base.
And just like that, the new Organization of lingering wills kidnapped Kairi.
DUN DUN DUH! You guys like that cliffhanger? MUUUUHAHAHAHAHAHH!
I am sorry for not getting this out sooner, but I finally got Pokémon Soulsilver and have been playing it non stop. And I am currently fighting the third gym leader Whitey... Who I hate... Ug this isn't going to be fun...
Anyway, I hope that you are satisfied to know who the figures are! There is actually only two more that need to be revealed, and that should be up soon!
Also, I am sorry if this chapter... I don't know... isn't that good in the beginning? I am just... REALLY tired and stuff and to a little lazy. But I worked really hard on that Sora and Kairi moment!
Anyone who finds the Iron Man 3 reference gets 100000000 points! I am so excited it is coming out soon, it is getting amazing reviews so far to I am pumped!
So please guys, R&R, vote on my poll if you haven't, and look out for the next chapter!
