Kingdom Hearts: The Girl Who Stole the Star Chapter 35: Another Shatterpoint, the Thirteenth Bro, a kingdom hearts fanfic

CHAPTER 34:

ANOTHER SHATTERPOINT, THE THIRTEENTH BROKEN PROMISE

Author's Notes: The Tracks for this Chapter are: 'Another Side – Battle Version,' from KINGDOM HEARTS: THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS OVER TWO; and after this 'Promised Pain,' from the XENOSAGA Episode Three Original Sound Best Tracks, Disc Two. The former composition can be found in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's KINGDOM HEARTS: THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS OVER TWO GameRip MP3 section under the name 'RikuBattle,' and the second one can be found on Zophar's Domain.

"If this energy is then contained by an actual Kingdom Hearts, when that Kingdom Hearts sets it free, it will torrent throughout all of the realm of light with such barbarically unrestrained wrath that; unlike when all of the worlds of the realm of light were taken into darkness during the First Keyblade War, or many were when the Xehanorts built their first two artificial Kingdom Hearts; people past counting upon the worlds of the realm of light will not fall into suspended slumber against the potentiality the worlds will be restored, while another immense number will be morphed into Heartless.

"Nor will many, or all, disappear into near death; though it is very likely they will be hurled to The Final World, as world hearts have nowhere to rest asleep themselves when a Door to Darkness isn't present.

"Rather, an essential requirement for Yozora's New World of Synchronicity Perceptual, and Xehanort's failsafe New World; is for almost every single heart within the realm of light to be molded into a Heartless."

"I see."

Was that even, neutral voice Xion's?

Who was Xion?

"Who are you… again? It's weird. I feel like I'm forgetting something really important."

"Goodbye, Roxas. See you again. I'm glad… I got to meet you. Oh… and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends. Never forget. That's the truth."

Something so faint

couldn't tell if he was imagining it, perceiving it, remembering it, thinking it, dreaming it, feeling it, hallucinating it, knowing it, or even being aware of it at all if there was such a thing as awareness or feeling or perception or reflection or hallucination or knowledge or scattered anywhen and endlesswhere flayed ruined broken dreams passed into

the inverted doubling back switchbacks of the inside out of the yawning lacuna transparent of even the emptiness of the absent void.

"Now that you've informed us of what you have to say, further conversation is senseless.

"Get away from us."

"Am I… the one who did this to you?"

"No… It was my choice… to go away now."

"I shall take my leave.

"But are you certain you wish to remain?

"This time, Roxas himself saw you for the abomination you truly are."

Roxas couldn't truly recollect calling Oblivion and Oathkeeper to his hands

he couldn't honestly remember having chosen to get up

he couldn't genuinely recall having sprang at Maleficent

he wasn't aware why he knew she was bringing up her stave as he cut up from below in two inward aiming diagonals at her neck

he didn't know how he was aware her mostly horizontal staff was ramming forward into Oathkeeper and Oblivion in a resounding toll

he couldn't perceive or understand or register or comprehend why everything was coming discordant and clangorous and acutely crystalline singularity pinpoint thin needlepoint sharp and wiping cleansing cleaning clearing washing erasing shrieking searing howling screaming and immolating absolute zero molten scouring gouging char ash sooty incinerating white hot ice frozen frigid starkness and a wispy brushing exhausted breath of a breeze of a flickeringly vacuum whisper

Maleficent pushed her stave forwards and Roxas fell back

but as soon as he felt his heels strike the glass surface he was retching all the contents of his stomach up violently

but this time he didn't see any reason to keep his mouth closed

he just sprinted at Maleficent and sliced Oathkeeper in an upwards and downward arc at her scalp and Oblivion from the left at her right temple

Maleficent moved her stave to block in a backward diagonal of her own with the green upper end at the top

Roxas slid Oathkeeper and Oblivion into a cross over each other

"Zettaflare!" he shriekedgibbering with such raw violence as further throw up geysered from his mouth it was as though he wasn't just tearing more throw up from out of the foundations of his stomach but he was necksnappingstranglingdraggingthrottlingrippingasphyxiating up anything inside him and on the surface of his skin and within his clothes and belongings and on their surfaces

The orange yellow concentric circles and diagrams pivoted into place below him and the conflagration of star flames spewed out and about Maleficent's stave into the witch.

"She's not an abomination!" Roxas shrieked as the Zettaflare surged over Maleficent, not caring at all about the flecks of the innards of his stomach he was hurling out as he did.

"She's Xion!"

More of his insides detonated into his mouth and caused his stomach to sear in anguish, but Roxas ignored the torture.

"Of course she is," Maleficent replied with a calm combination of acknowledgment and dismissal, no more than a small amount of pain in her voice at the inferno storming over her.

To the enchantress' credit, she didn't try to seize Oathkeeper from him, obviously knowing she didn't have the capability to take it and escape with it while she was still tied down keeping the Thundaza Frame functioning.

"Why do you think she has darkness in her heart to give into, and that drove her to abandon you to despair on no less than four separate occasions?"

A harsh, sharp inhale of horror came from where Xion was standing behind him.

Reality tilted sharply and swam faintly as Roxas barely kept the Zettaflare contained and directed for its last number of seconds before it dissipated, showing Maleficent's visible hands and face were singed black and flowing with red in multiple places while her robes were ripped and burnt in a number more, but she didn't appear to be that badly wounded.

His stomach couldn't even heave now.

He risked a glance back at Xion to see new tears were in eyes and on a face slackly stark with additional horror and terror and self hatred and agony.

Roxas turned back to Maleficent, blade frozen hot wetness submerging his own eyes as something unfathomably more fissured cacophonously asymmetrical jagged and coiling contorted serrated than the most unyielding substance spread a labyrinth web of abyssal chasms throughout the entirety of his heart.

"Is it at least possible for you to shut your dissembling up?" he snarled with vicious, furious savageness.

"And give up one of darkness' best trading tools?" Maleficent responded, the pain now gone from her tone, leaving nothing in it but her usual calm assuredness.

"What would I gain by doing that?

"Particularly when Pete was one of the sole two witnesses to Xion's fourth and final betrayal of you and Axel; and, as much as Vanitas strained to prevent it, was as much a cause of it as Yozora and Luxu and the Foretellers, Xehanort and Xemnas and Ansem and the first two Organization Thirteens, and Ansem the Wise and Namine and Riku."

Totally vertically cliff side sheer shock removed everything Roxas had inside his essence.

"I beg your pardon?" Roxas queried.

He couldn't even tell whether or not there was any inflection in his voice.

"So that's how Xion cast me out of Sora's Station of Awakening," Vanitas put in before Maleficent could speak back.

Roxas pushed what he knew he was feeling as distant as he could justify, and repositioned himself to include Xion, Maleficent, and Vanitas in his line of sight.

Xion's visage was a morass of tear streaked agony as she gazed at Vanitas.

But Vanitas himself now appeared swallowed by anguished hatred, much of it aimed at himself.

Roxas' guard skyrocketed further acutely.

Was Xion now in danger from Vanitas, as well?

Yet Roxas' insides twisted so sickeningly even more throw up rose into his mouth, though this time he had no reason to open it.

That meant that Namine was also part of whatever the fourth time Xion had knowingly done something dark had been.

This time, Maleficent didn't look at all bothered Vanitas had taken over her revelation.

Vanitas examined Xion's expression for several seconds, and then he scowled with night dark revulsion, though once more most of it was directed at himself.

"Even now, you don't have all of your own memories back."

Xion jolted violently, and she became no more than a statue.

"Goodbye, Roxas. See you again. I'm glad… I got to meet you. Oh… and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends. Never forget. That's the truth."

With the exception of more clangorous discord, nothing disappeared.

Knowing he would no longer be able to justify not ending it right now and right here if he lost his awareness of who Xion was once again, he could now justify entirely pushing away anything he could feel.

So he did.

"If you intend to remain with us, do not keep anything from Roxas, or Axel, or Namine, or Isa, or Mare," Xion's words were brimming with contained fury.

"Not after what we've already gone through with that."

"I didn't say I intended to, but why do you think I'm bringing this up in the first place?" Vanitas shot back in exasperated irritation.

"That established, when you spoke to Riku while he was dueling Roxas and you were settling into your new home, I hijacked your connection to him to talk to you inside Sora's heart and offered to toss you out of it into the realm of darkness.

"But you refused, and when I wouldn't take no for an answer, you used the Keyblade of Hearts to send my Unserved backup and I back out, rather than you."

Xion appeared to be barely able to continue standing, but even though even more tears washed into her eyes, they just brimmed and didn't fall.

Roxas didn't feel any pain at all at the knowledge Xion had had a chance to return to Axel and him that soon after she'd left them, and taken all memories of their friendship with her, and she'd turned it down.

He didn't.

He had no justification whatsoever in any manner to be hurt at discovering this.

His eyes weren't burning from the effort of keeping new tears back.

They weren't.

"But it looks like you had back up of your own," Vanitas went on.

"Way for me to miss the obvious.

"What else would Maleficent have tasked Pete to do while she was launching her newfound Heartless legions at world after world with her other associates?

"At the beginning, she told Pete to attempt to forge the Heartless into a more powerful, more cohesive army; but during her initial effort to sink the realm of light into darkness, he had another job.

"He was supposed to find out why the Unversed had vanished; where they were from; and, if he could, take control of them for her.

"He didn't know specifically what was going on when I called them to engage Xion, but he still perceived that they were around, and their enemy was someone with the Keyblade of Hearts; so he boosted its abilities with his own darkness and knowledge of how it works to enable the ember of the Keyblade and a wielder with little knowledge of how to apply its abilities to reach a fraction of its energy, thus enabling Xion to beat me.

"That was why you two, Donald and Goofy, ran into him at the Mysterious Tower."

Donald snarled furiously.

Goofy clenched his hands into tight fists.

"He traced the location of the Unversed to Twilight Town, where Yen Sid had currently parked the tower, but because he forgot about their opponent's darkness reading he couldn't track down where the battle had taken place."

Xion pressed her lips together so tightly they drained of blood.

The inside of Roxas' stomach surged up into his mouth again, but this time he kept what had been within it down.

"Now do you see why you need my tutelage, dear child?" Maleficent asked.

"You didn't just fail to protect Roxas and Axel from the Foretellers and the Xehanorts, but from myself and my servants, as well.

"Without my teachings, all you and all Nobodies and replicas will be, and can be, are nothing better than vacant husks of vibrant and present beings, eternally condemned to lives afflicted by the true living denizens of darkness and light.

"If you do not relent to my instruction, Roxas and Axel and Namine and Isa, and every other Nobody and replica you love and cherish, will once more be cast despairing into the darkness; and no different than before, you will be left unable to do anything to stop it from happening to a single one of them."

"Goodbye, Roxas. See you again. I'm glad… I got to meet you. Oh… and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends. Never forget. That's the truth."

Roxas knew he shouldn't let it happen, but even through his defenses, Maleficent's words constricted his heart and everything else within him they themselves should have all violently retched.

"You're still not done?" Xion queried, her voice still even and neutral.

"As you yourself just made plain, if Pete hadn't interfered, Vanitas would have removed me from Sora's heart.

"Once I was totally aware of what had gone on outside of Sora's heart once I reached the realm of darkness, I would have realized I'd done the wrong thing and found Roxas and Axel and fast as I could have.

"If you don't have any better hooks left, negotiations are concluded.

"You can follow us around and keep running your mouth off until your legs give out from exhaustion if you want, but we're done with you."

"Are you willing to tell that to the Axel of one of the alternate worldlines I have investigated; who you went in search of along with Roxas after Vanitas defeated you, and who you then located during his second duel with Roxas, leading to his unintended death at Roxas' hands when you interrupted their battle?"

"Goodbye, Roxas. See you again. I'm glad… I got to meet you. Oh… and of course, Axel, too. You're both my best friends. Never forget. That's the truth."

"Is that all you've got? Stop holding back! Get ready, Roxas!"

"Is that all you've got? Stop holding back! Get ready, Roxas

"never forget."

Yet now Roxas could see nothing through the water obscuring his gaze but Xion's wide eyed, horror and terror drawn expression, no longer holding new tears in her eyes; and Maleficent's slight, smugly amused smile.

"That's still a parallel worldline that came about due to the heartfelt decisions of other people, not just me," Xion replied.

"That doesn't mean I can't protect them with the power I have now."

"With odds like these?" Maleficent questioned back mildly.

Xion's expression lost all of its feeling.

Roxas suppressed the urge to walk to Xion's side and clasp her shoulder, as well as everything else.

"It does no harm for me to tell you the other worldlines are essential to my goal, for you will realize as much as soon as you take the time to speculate upon why I know so much about them.

"I seek passage to one worldline in particular.

"One where Sora chose not to make up with Donald and Goofy in the Deep Jungle, and though the Second Keyblade War in that worldline still ended with Eraqus and Xehanort's reconciliation and their shared irreversible deaths, the second array of flashpoints meant to incite the Second Keyblade War successfully fomented it."

Xion didn't react, audibly or visibly.

Roxas pushed all emotion even farther away.

"In that worldline, as a result of Sora's refusal to mend his fences with Donald and Goofy, he leaves them for Riku as soon as they reunite in Traverse Town, before their argument over journeying with him increases the fears I planted within Riku.

"Due to this, Riku figures out I lied to him and sought to use him, and tells Sora about his time with Maleficent and what he knows about Kairi. Pooling their shared knowledge, they decide to ask Merlin and Cinderella's Fairy Godmother for advice, and with Riku's more thoughtful participation in the discussion, he and Sora learn of Yen Sid and request the Fairy Godmother to make contact with him.

"She does, and Yen Sid then identifies that Kairi's heart has been trapped inside Sora's; though he refuses to tell two mostly untried Keyblade wielders of Mickey's journey, believing doing so will endanger Mickey and prevent him from acquiring a Keyblade of darkness.

"This causes Sora to give up his heart to the nearest Heartless, and Kairi restores it shortly afterwards; but, although Sora has successfully reunited with his two first closest friends, Donald and Goofy have by then given up on convincing him to defeat the Heartless while abiding by the world order and depart Traverse Town in the Calnus, believing their best chance at defeating the Heartless lies in locating Mickey themselves.

"Sora refuses to leave the rest of his friends, and his parents, on Destiny Islands, trapped within the darkness; or pass up a chance to continue exploring the different worlds, so when Cid offers to lend Sora his own Gummi ship, Sora accepts, and locates Agrabah.

"However, still angry at Donald and Goofy, over Riku's and Kairi's objections, he refuses to even consider maintaining the world order. The two of them convince him not to utilize Cid's Gummi ship to defeat Jafar, due to the potential collateral damage it could cause, but when Aladdin asks the three to let him accompany them to search for Jasmine, he accepts. The Genie has his reservations, due to his knowledge of how the misuse of great power most people are unfamiliar with can easily go wrong; but his love for Aladdin, who has recently freed him, wins out over his better judgment, and he goes along with Aladdin's willingness to interfere with the world order.

"This causes no harm in Monstro, but then the four reach Atlantica, Genie alters them, and Aladdin meets Ariel while in the form of a merperson.

"Aladdin remains solely romantically interested in Jasmine, someone who both understands him and did leave her world behind for his, unlike Ariel, who resented her world in our worldline but refused to leave it until Triton pushed her too far; but he nevertheless sympathizes with her own plight, and the two become fast friends.

"As a result, when Ursula successfully strings Ariel into enabling her to steal Triton's trident, the angry Aladdin asks Genie to return to Agrabah and endeavor to convince large numbers of surviving palace guards to accompany him to Atlantica in order to aid Ariel, in return for Ariel offering Agrabah resources the palace can use to endure the siege the Heartless have placed the palace under. He is successful, and Ursula retaliates by disguising herself as a human, meeting Eric, and manipulating him into declaring war on Triton to protect her and the nation she claims to hail from from being conquered by the apparently wicked merfolk.

"In the ensuing conflict, Ariel saves Eric from Ursula's trickery and he works together with Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aladdin, Genie, and Ariel to defeat Ursula.

"But by the time she has been defeated, thousands of people from both Agrabah and Atlantica have both died in the war; and only now, too late to bring back the dead or give solace to the people who have lost ones they love or their friends or mend the terrible wounds he has given Kairi and Riku and Aladdin and Ariel and Genie and Eric, does the shattered Sora understand what he has done, and why the Disney Kingdom has instituted its policies about the world order.

"Swearing an oath never to wield a Keyblade again; Sora, who has by now discovered Riku and Kairi can utilize it themselves, gives it to them, trusting them to avoid defying the world order from then on; and he flees from them while they're asleep at night.

"However, unwilling to entirely turn his back on the plight of the worlds, or abandon his friends, who are determined to continue questing to protect them, Sora asks Merlin to take him somewhere on the outskirts of the struggle where he can keep an eye on it, and the wizard shows him to Twilight Town.

"Because Roxas and Namine were created sooner, Marluxia and their companions begin the stages of their research involving Namine and the replicas sooner; and both replicas are created, Riku's because the Organization is unsure whether Roxas should be trusted to wield the Keyblade after his human self gave it up, and Xion, for the same reasons as she was in our worldline. Marluxia and Larxene try to lure Riku and Kairi to Castle Oblivion by telling them Sora is there, but Kairi recognizes their efforts for the likely trap it is, and the two don't take up the string. They then attempt to bring Sora to Castle Oblivion by telling him Donald and Goofy are held captive by Maleficent within its walls, but Sora feels too guilty to rescue them himself and refuses to leave Twilight Town.

"But, around the time Roxas and Xion have been assigned Missions long enough Xion is capable of wielding a Keyblade, an Invisible arrives in Twilight Town as opposed to a Darkside, due to the Organization's greater activity while Ansem and Maleficent are still at large. When he hears of the hearts it is claiming and the injuries to people and dwellings it is inflicting, Sora can't justify not giving an effort to defeat it without a Keyblade.

"He arrives in time to protect Roxas and Xion from one of its sphere sprays when they're at a disadvantage, even though Xion has discovered she can utilize a Keyblade during the combat; and the three are able to defeat it, though it is a close thing, by cooperating.

"This Sora recognized Xion's resemblance to Kairi, so he assumed Roxas had a connection to him or Riku; but he didn't see how Roxas' name was an acronym of his own with the Recusant's Sigil placed within it, so he didn't understand what that connection was.

"He knew something major was off, however; and without anyone to turn to, for the Mysterious Tower was currently stationed at Atlantica so Yen Sid could keep an eye on how the disruption to the world order was being contained from a distance, even though he had drastic misgivings he wouldn't just make things much worse, Sora felt he had no other option but to discover what was wrong and solve this problem himself.

"He put his heart into becoming friends with Roxas and Xion, and joined them for sea-salt ice cream on the Twilight Town clock tower. With Axel spying for Xemnas and Saix in Castle Oblivion and Sora determined to act his old, cheerful and outgoing, self, he succeeded enough within less than a week he was able to convince the two to tell him why they were facing off against the Heartless, while in addition convincing them at the beginning not to tell anyone they were working with about their friendship.

"He thus learned about the Nobodies and their assumed lack of hearts and intentions of regaining them; but because neither of them could tell him why Xion resembled Kairi, and Sora could tell the other Nobodies were leaving crucial things out about their doings from what the two of them informed Sora about their interactions with the other members of Organization Thirteen, Sora knew better than to trust the other Nobodies, particularly after what Riku had informed him Maleficent had said to him before they'd reunited and what Ursula had done to Ariel and Eric.

"He also realized he now had no other option but to try to locate Riku and Kairi once more, or Donald and Goofy, and inform them what Xion and Roxas had told him of how Heartless were created, the Nobodies, and Kingdom Hearts. Sora was on the verge of risking asking them to try to learn how to create dark corridors themselves, and take him to see Merlin in Traverse Town; when Axel, unable to find any evidence of treachery, returned from Castle Oblivion.

"Sora had already convinced the two to leave a warning leaflet in the Twilight Town clock tower loft if another Nobody was with them, but when he read that Axel was with them on the clock tower that day, he decided to risk meeting the older Nobody.

"He chose to be straightforward, and confront Axel about whether or not he was being honest to the two other Nobodies right away. His fears about Axel were then confirmed; but because Axel wasn't yet as torn between Saix and the rest of the Organization, and his two newer friends, when Sora asked him directly why he was concealing things from the two younger Nobodies, Axel was willing to hurt Roxas and Xion by revealing he didn't want to betray Saix or the other Organization members.

"Believing there was no other way around it, and having no proof Organization Thirteen is willing to dabble that deeply in wrongdoing, Sora then made Axel an offer.

"If he told Roxas and Xion the truth, and Axel could provide him with the means, Sora would take up the Keyblade once more and assist Roxas and Xion in constructing Kingdom Hearts; so long as he wasn't required to do anything unscrupulous or involve himself in Riku's and Kairi's quest against Maleficent, and he was in a position to take Xemnas and the others to task if he discovered they were harming anyone, and ensure Xemnas didn't misuse the Kingdom Hearts once it was finished.

"Axel knew better than to turn that opportunity down, and he was dedicated enough to his two newer friends by then to be willing to tell Roxas who he was without seeking permission from Xemnas and Saix first. He did so, but he said he wasn't aware whose Nobody Xion was, and he'd need to see if anyone else knew and was willing to tell him.

"Saix was already beginning to become jealous of Axel's burgeoning friendship with Roxas and Xion, and this became even worse once he learned Axel had told Roxas his identity without leave, so he refused to reveal Xion's origins. Xemnas overruled him, however, and gave Axel permission to tell Xion what and who she, herself, was. He also commanded Axel to tell Sora how to summon a Keyblade as his own, so he could continue to utilize one without depriving Riku of his.

"Even though she hadn't created as much of a life for herself by that point, learning she wasn't even a Nobody still scarred Xion. Sora successfully called his first own Keyblade, fashioning the Oblivion of this timeline, and Xion is rattled enough Ansem believed he had his chance at acquiring a new body with the ability to wield the Keyblade, and thus the Keyblade of Hearts. He conferred with Xemnas for permission, and with Sora now gathering hearts for them, Xemnas saw Xion as expendable, so he granted it.

"But Xion was frightened that if she delved deeper into the darkness, she wouldn't gain the ability to better accompany her new friends in forging Kingdom Hearts, as Ansem promised her. She was scared that Roxas, Axel, and Sora would feel left behind by her; so she thus refused.

"Left with no other options, Ansem resolved to settle for a spry body that could potentially become an effective Keyblade wielder sooner or later, and he therefore went to Namine.

"By this point, Goofy and Donald had discovered Hollow Bastion, and though they arrived in time to rescue Beast from Maleficent, they realized they were overmatched when they sought to penetrate its throngs of Heartless and withdrew. At Goofy's advice, they went in search of Sora, and rather found Riku and Kairi, the latter now wielding Destiny's Embrace; in Never Land as they learned how to fly when confronting Hook, allowing them to be instructed in doing so themselves.

"Upon learning what Sora had done, Donald felt much more guilty and responsible for driving Sora to set off a war than angry at Sora for breaking down the world order, but he believed defeating Maleficent was more important than mending fences. He, Goofy, Kairi, and Riku returned to Hollow Bastion and defeated Maleficent with less trouble than Sora did, for Ansem lacked the ability to enhance her Dragon form.

"But Kairi was unwilling to risk she'd be unable to recover if she briefly joined her heart to the Keyblade of Hearts to put the finishing touches on the Final Keyhole, so the Door to Darkness remained shut and the other Princesses asleep. Yen Sid enabled them to locate the End of the World soon afterwards, and after learning they defeated Maleficent, at last trusted them with the knowledge of Mickey's adventure. But when they located the Heartless' Kingdom Hearts, they discovered Mickey had made a miscalculation. Mickey could telepathically talk to them from the other side of the door, but without the Door to Darkness partially open, the two Keyblades of light and darkness needed to lock it couldn't synchronize and do so.

"Left with no option themselves, Kairi returned to Hollow Bastion with Donald, now willing to risk completing the Final Keyhole; while Riku remained at the Door to Darkness with Goofy in order to lock it as soon as Kairi opened it.

"However, while everyone but Beast was gone from Hollow Bastion, Ansem made his move.

"Knowing Aladdin had already traveled off world once, and could thus very likely be convinced to do so a second time now that he'd already badly damaged the world order, Ansem brought Jasmine to Castle Oblivion and then planted evidence in Agrabah that was where she was located. Aladdin took the bait and journeyed there with Genie's assistance, and once they were inside, Organization Thirteen subdued Genie and Namine altered Aladdin's memories so he would believe the astral Ansem was the Genie. Ansem was thus able to convince Aladdin it was safe for him to give into the darkness, and Ansem then seized his body.

"Unlike Riku, Aladdin didn't possess quite the necessary determination to keep his heart from becoming a Heartless. When Kairi successfully completed the Keyblade of Hearts and the Final Keyhole, and then regained her heart, Aladdin's Heartless entered Hollow Bastion through the Final Keyhole to seek Jasmine's pure heart, and she restored his humanity as Kairi had Sora. Namine hadn't damaged his memory that badly, so he was able to repair it without much difficulty and informed them what had happened.

"Ansem then reached the Heartless' fake Kingdom Hearts, and his regular form and World of Chaos Formchange were defeated by Riku and Goofy shortly after he arrived. But he then summoned out the darkness of that Kingdom Hearts, and without Sora there as the Kye-Blade to call upon its light, Ansem successfully merged with it as Xemnas did with his Kingdom Hearts in your timeline, and one Keyblade wielder could no more defeat Ansem merged with an artificial Kingdom Hearts than one could Xemnas after he did so. Riku and Goofy made a valiant effort to beat him, but they were unable to win.

"At this time, Ansem the Wise involved himself as DiZ to enable Mickey to use a card from Castle Oblivion to reach the endless abyss within the light realm. Mickey sent Aqua in his stead, while asking DiZ to transfer Goofy to his side so he could close the door if Aqua could defeat Ansem. Aqua was able to lock the Door to Darkness with the cooperation of the other four, but with Riku as badly injured as he was, even Aqua couldn't defeat an entity who was one with an artificial Kingdom Hearts on her own. Ansem was additionally able to prevent DiZ from bringing Mickey to her side to back her up as Sora and Riku did against Xemnas.

"The Door to Darkness was locked, reestablishing the walls around the surviving worlds; but Ansem was victorious against Aqua, and he prevented it from being annihilated or the fake Kingdom Hearts decomposed into its component worlds, retaining the supreme darkness he had longed for. Realizing defeat meant inevitable death or the loss of her heart, Aqua retreated with Riku and DiZ. Ansem returned to Hollow Bastion, subdued Kairi and drove Beast and Donald and Aladdin to its outskirts, and took all seven Princesses of Heart prisoner. Even though he failed to complete his own artificial Kingdom Hearts and enable the thirteen Nobodies to become fragments of Xehanort, and not even a second Final Keyhole can open a Door to Darkness that has been locked, he was still able to obtain the seven pure hearts Xehanort sought.

"At this time, Marluxia and Larxene wage a last ditch endeavor at a coup.

"They reveal to Roxas what Ansem attempted to do to Xion while vowing to ensure the Organization no longer tries anything so vile if Roxas enables them to overthrow Xemnas and attain the reins of the Organization. Roxas informs Sora of Ansem's attempt and how Xemnas and Saix might have been in on it, while giving Marluxia the benefit of the doubt at first; but it doesn't take him that long after he meets Namine and Riku Replica to discover Marluxia and Larxene are willing to sink as low as Ansem. He reports their treachery to Axel, and Xemnas realizes he has the chance he needs to construct his own artificial Kingdom Hearts.

"He plays upon Saix's growing jealousy of Axel's friendships with Roxas and Xion, and now Sora, to convince him to deceive Axel into believing Ansem was working with Marluxia and Larxene so that the three Keyblade wielders will believe it and continue to give the rest of Organization Thirteen the benefit of the doubt.

"Saix feeds this information through Axel, Ansem reveals to Marluxia and Larxene Xemnas is aware of their treachery but he himself won't execute them if they work directly with him, and the two see no recourse other than to flee to Hollow Bastion.

"The deception sufficient, Xemnas then arranges for Axel to discover Kairi is imprisoned inside Hollow Bastion and reveal this to Sora, and then Ansem uses his supernal darkness to call throngs of Heartless past number to Hollow Bastion for the Keyblade wielders to give repeated efforts to break through in order to rescue Kairi.

"Aqua tells Riku about Xehanort and Ansem's probable connection to him, and she refuses to put up with DiZ's own evasiveness and convinces him to tell them his stake in the current events. He does so and then uses more cards to enable them to reunite with Mickey and Goofy, and the five of them piece together what the intermingled objectives of Ansem and Organization Thirteen most likely are.

"But it's futile.

"Xemnas has no need to wreck the lives of anyone in any worlds now, so he simply keeps sending Roxas, Sora, and Xion in effort after effort to defeat Marluxia, Ansem, and Larxene and rescue Kairi while piecing together his Kingdom Hearts; and as skeptical as he is of Xemnas, Sora can find no reason to cease working with the Nobodies. Riku and the others; now including Donald, but not Beast and Aladdin, the latter who returns to Agrabah and refuses to leave it for any reason now, the former who will not depart Hollow Bastion without Belle; discover Sora's whereabouts and repeatedly try to contact him and inform him he's being duped. But all Xemnas needs to devote the rest of the Organization's resources to is to keep them from making contact with Sora, and he is able to accomplish this much.

"Sora himself increasingly believes Nobodies do have hearts, and don't need to risk their lives to forge a Kingdom Hearts to regain them, while also learning of the growing rift between Saix and Axel, and becoming determined to mend it.

"He also sets up a means of defeating the rest of Organization Thirteen if they try to use the Kingdom Hearts for anything harmful once it's done. Axel is willing to tell him how a Door to Darkness works, and Sora believes he can lock Xemnas' with a similar principle; but because his artificial Kingdom Hearts is fashioned of people's hearts rather than those of worlds, as opposed two people in a realm of light and a realm of darkness, a person wielding the light and a person wielding the darkness are necessary. He asks Xion to hack the mainframe of The Castle That Never Was to research whether this can be done, and she confirms his beliefs.

"Sora repeatedly attempts to convince the Nobodies they very likely have hearts and not to risk their lives, but many of the Organization's continual reasons to refuse to believe this at last cause Sora's doubts about them to grow too great. Yet Sora is now afraid, if he ceases giving them hearts and convinces Roxas and Xion to desert, they'll take much more ruthless measures to complete it; and believing, if the Nobodies don't use Kingdom Hearts for what they claim to wish to do with it, he can easily lock it, while if they do, giving them no reason to doubt they have hearts will cause it to be far more likely he'll be able to end their danger to the worlds without violence, he goes along with them.

"Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts is forged, and when Xemnas is about to call upon its power, due to Sora's efforts to keep his friendship with Axel strong, Saix feels very guilty at the concept of regaining his heart while Sora, Roxas, and Xion are still in the dark. He decides to trust Sora's belief he already has a new heart, and at last reveals to them the full extent of the Organization's wrongs and their involvement in Kairi's captivity and their efforts to keep Riku away from them, as well as his certainty Xemnas intends to do something with Kingdom Hearts he hasn't revealed to anyone else.

"Sickened at himself for abandoning Kairi to the true danger she's been in and working with her captors, he believes he can't trust the Organization with their Kingdom Hearts and heads for it to destroy it, with Roxas serving as the heart of darkness and Xion for backup.

"But it's too late.

"Luxu hadn't believed Xehanort's Heartless would survive in a physical body for this long, so he's been even more careful at his own subterfuge, but Young Xehanort has discovered he most likely won't need to implement his contingency, and has been waiting in this time for Sora to play his hand.

"Once he realizes what Sora, Roxas, and Xion are about to do, he alerts Xemnas and the loyal members of the Organization, and they simply assault the three Keyblade wielders in concert and disable them.

"Xemnas calls upon his Kingdom Hearts to alter the other twelve Nobodies into Xehanort; and you, Xion, make a final try to protect Roxas by attempting to take control of your energy draining ability to drag the heart fragment of Xehanort's meant for Roxas into you.

"And, while the information about what happened next is too sensitive for me to reveal, I can tell you your alternate's desperate effort to shield Roxas was successful.

"Do you understand now, dear child?

"Even with Sora protecting the two of you almost from the beginning, things ended up worse for Roxas and Lea, because Lea became a vessel for Xehanort.

"Knowing this, do you yet believe you can protect them without the power I offer you?"

"Being a winner means not giving up, regardless of any odds," Xion responded, new agony lancing through her voice and her expression a little drawn now with new tears on her face, but set resolved determination in her tone.

"So yes."

This time, Maleficent scowled.

Roxas suppressed the urge to smirk.

"Very well then," Maleficent spoke back.

"I didn't want to resort to this, because that means releasing my grip on the Thundaza Frame.

"But I'm fairly sure I can accomplish this before Elsa can thwart me, as inexperienced as she is.

"If you will not accept my generous offer, it shall cease to be an offer, and it shall become a command.

"If you refuse to obey it, I shall activate your energy siphon to its fullest potential, and tie it to all the hearts you are connected to; no longer merely Roxas', Namine's, and Ven's; but now Sora's, Kairi's, and Vanitas', as well."

Xion staggered back violently as though she was recoiling from touching molten lava, mouth drawn and face slack with tear streaked eyes gaping at an abyss endlessly more depthless than a switchback singularity of even an absence divested of the hollowness of an oblivion void

Something gougingivoryclearingincineratingcleaningimmolatingobsidianwashing cascading inside out switchback labyrinth web maze singularity crumpled collapsed to a pinpoint volcano geysers upwards and outwards in all directions photonegative inverted desperately gibberinginsanelydementedlyderangedlyalmosthystericallymadlygibberinghowlingwithlaughter desperately begging flooded his eyes with tears so blinding he couldn't even see Xion and Maleficent now

But he didn't need to

Because there was no way he could be himself any longer

He didn't know if even this would be enough, but any chance was better than nothing, and it was already resoundingreboundingresoundingrevolvingresoundingrecurringresoundingrepeatingresoundingcirclingresoundingcyclingresoundinggyrating unending eternities too late for him to have done this what he should have done the first time this had happened

Xion wasn't the abominationanathema who should have died forgotten.

Axel wasn't the abominationanathema who should have died forgotten.

It should have been him.

Never.

Boundlessly.

Eternally.

Forever.

Always.

He was not going to let Xion give into the darkness once again.

Not this time.

No one he had spoken to had been able to develop the dimmest hypothesis about what would happen if a Nobody didn't just harness the darkness, or give into the darkness, but gave into it enough to become darkness itself.

"Xion, Axel, Namine, Isa, Pence, Olette, Hayner, Mare, Elsa, Sora, Riku, I'm sorry," Roxas said.

"But I can't even allow myself to be a part of myself now.

"So I'll be the one to go away this time.

"I'm glad I got to meet all of you, too.

"I love every single one of you.

"Thank you for everything.

"See you all again.

"Goodbye.

"Never forget.

"This is the truth."

Then Roxas opened his heart entirely to the darkness, and gave into it.

"Never! I'll never let it happen again!"-Shinn Asuka

GUNDAM SEED DESTINY:

Phase 37: THUNDER IN THE DARK