A/N: I said it on my FF profile but I will say it here. I am not looking for commissions on any of my stories, characters, or otherwise. I know most of the ones posting those reviews and PMs are bots advertising a scam, but I figured I'd say it anyway just in case you actually are an artist and do commissions. A bot reviewed this story recently with that type of ad, gotta love it...
Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
The dark portal opened on the other side, releasing Ren and the Beast from the cold embrace of shadows and letting them emerge onto the torn asunder world of Hallow Bastion, where the first thing the twilight keyblade wielder noticed was the giant castle looming above them. Something else Ren noticed was suddenly his heart seemed to ache, and the boy couldn't help but grab his chest for a brief moment before dismissing the feeling. Closing his eyes, he could sense that Gamma was correct in that the world was teeming with vast darkness, the several heartless that lingered on this world creating the vast pool of energy he could feel at this very moment. He also could isolate a few very strong dark energies, and assumed at least one of them was his father.
"BELLE!" Beast snarled as he ran off, but Ren paid the monster no mind. He had gotten the creature here as he had wanted, so it was no longer his problem what Beast decided to do with himself as he searched this world for Belle. Still keeping his eyes shut, he sensed the closest dark energy that seemed high was emerging from the castle, and decided that he would start with that one. Opening his eyes, he noticed that several heartless had begun to emerge on the large platform he stood on. Among their ranks were Shadow, Dark Ball and Wyverns, as well as the different elemental heartless and Large Bodies, who thumped their bellies in anticipation.
Ren huffed at this, summoning Twilight's Balance to his side and gripping it tight as he glared at the several dozen dark creatures surrounding him. "You're in my way", declared the warrior before he took out three of the Shadows with a single slice from his blade, cleaving through them like butter before beginning his fight with the rest. Slowly but steadily, he began to make his way through towards the castle, his progress vastly slowed by the heartless armada that sought to destroy him, but it mattered not to him, as the heartless were mere obstacles compared to the four forces of darkness he had faced over the past few days, the vast strength he acquired from his travels making once was a threat no more then a nuisance.
Despite this, Ren was panting by the time he reached the great doors of the castle, and was about to walk towards them when they began opening on their own. Out from the darkness emerged Riku, who took one look at Ren and actually had a look of shock on his face, especially when his green eyes darted towards the keyblade within the grasp of the teenager. "Ren? What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing", Ren replied to him, before sensing that the darkness that he was tracking was indeed belonging to the boy in question. "You hold a darkness in you, Riku. Tell me, what have you been up to since the destruction of our world?"
"It's none of your business", huffed the silver haired boy, crossing his arms and merely scowling at him. "My fight is not with you, or that so called keyblade you hold... it's with Sora, so stay out of my way."
"Gladly", Ren replied with a raised eyebrow. "But only if you answer my question. What other darkness am I sensing in that castle? Who can I safely ignore in there as I hunt for my father?"
"Your father?" laughed the teenager. "You're an orphan. You don't have parents, you-"
"Watch your next words, Riku" Ren warned as he pointed his keyblade at the islander. "Before I turn you into a heartless."
Riku stared at Ren for a few moments before huffing again, walking past him before stopping and speaking his next words with his back turned. "When I get my keyblade, Ren, I'll make you suffer for threatening me like that. Mark my words."
"Like you're worthy of one", replied the purple eyed teen, not even turning as he heard Riku walk off. For a few moments, Ren considered going after him, but decided that finding his father was more important then settling his old grudges against those from Destiny Islands. He was about to close his eyes to sense out more darkness, but at that moment he found himself face to face with several creatures that looked like Shadow Heartless, however they had a more humanoid body structure and crooked antennae that were quite long. They flexed their very large hands, and Ren noticed they had claws at the end of their fingers, with boot like feet and faint blue vein like lines on their bodies.
"Neoshadows", Ren muttered to himself. "Someone doesn't want me getting up there. No matter. I need to get in there and get my answers, regardless of the consequences."
Fighting the Neoshadows was a hell of a lot harder then Ren had anticipated, being one of the strongest heartless he had ever faced. Each Neoshadow took him quite a few hits to defeat, and several now stood in his way between the darknesses he was sensing and the end goal. He could still sense Riku's darkness, but as he sensed Sora also land on the world, events began to play out between the two boys, ending with Riku retreating and suddenly increasing in darkness so much that Ren physically was affected, stopping and grabbing at his own heart for a moment as it once again ached.
"What is going on?" Ren hissed in pain, his mind focused on the darkness he now sensed. "That... that isn't Riku. Something happened to him, and whoever this is now has both Riku's darkness as well as this new darkness I sense." But it was at that moment, when he was sensing this new darkness, the Ren felt a sense of familiarity about it. He didn't know how to explain it, but he somehow knew that the darkness with Riku right now is what he had to go to, but Riku jumped around as Ren continued fighting his way through the back half of the castle, first going to another darkness that amplified and then vanished as Sora vanquished it, then fighting with Sora at the top of the castle, where Ren was about to join them.
Only he suddenly sensed the third strong darkness close in on him, emerging in the same room that he was currently in where Sora had vanquished the second strong darkness just moments ago. There, Ren found himself face to face with a Dark Hide, the massive dark purple and black creature had dark magenta spikes running down its back, as well as a 'mane' of dark magenta tentacles around its head, which whirled around as it turned to face Ren, giving a snarl as he spotted him.
"You got to be kidding me!" Ren yelled as the heartless charged, with Ren barely having time to block the creatures assault from it's four massive claws on each paw. Ren retaliated, slamming his blade into the creature but causing little damage due to how powerful the heartless in question was. Growling to himself, Ren sent out Dark Firaga orbs at the beast, all of which did some damage but did little else other then agitate the beast more, who cried out in fury as it charged again. This time Ren opted to dodge the attack and blast the creature with Bizzaga when it passed, the boy gritting his teeth as he watched the creature shrug off another of his attacks.
"You are one tough opponent", Ren growled as he glared at the heartless. "But I am not done yet, Flare!" Ren pointed his keyblade and blasted out the same red light Lich had used on him earlier, which proved effective as the Dark Hide gave a yell of pain. Ren capitalized on this, racing forward and slicing the creature multiple times, causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke. Ran was panting, the fight clearly exchanging him. Ren sensed Sora's light had vanished, so either he was gone or now off world, but the vast darkness he sensed earlier was still present, with Riku's almost being gone as if the new darkness was feeding on it. Knowing it was close, Ren clenched his fists and ran towards it, emerging in a room where a giant, multicolored keyhole sat open, and the figure in front of it held the darkness that he was sensing. As Ren approached, the aching feeling grew worse and worse, to the point where when Ren was a short distance away from the long, white haired figure, his heart felt like it was on the verge of splitting.
"You!" Ren demanded as he stopped approaching, pointing his keyblade at the man. "Show your face and reveal your name to me!" A brief glance over his shoulder caused the man to chuckle, before he turned completely to face Ren, his amber eyes watching him with curiosity as his hair flowed with his turn, his coat doing the same. Just staring at him seemed to cause Ren's heart to ache more, frustrating the boy more as the man did not answer him. "Did you not hear me? I also told you to reveal your name to me!"
"I?" he spoke with a deep voice, causing Ren to form goosebumps. "You have a lot of nerve, boy, to make demands of me. But your answers are already within you. Do you not sense it? How your darkness dances and reaches for my own within your heart. I think you know who I am, and if your mind doesn't, then your heart surely does."
Ren gripped at his chest agin with his free left hand, giving a little hiss in pain before he glared back at the tanned man and held his keyblade higher, pointing directly at the man's chest. "You still haven't answered my question! I need a name!"
"Fine", replied the man, with a slight grin of amusement at the events playing out. "I am known as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. But, that is just the name I have taken for myself. You, on the other hand, can have my real name... or rather, the name of my real self. You see, I am but a heartless of the man that once took on the name of Ansem, and thus I have taken Ansem as my own name due to my real self calling himself 'Ansem' at the time of my creation. My real name... is Xehanort."
At that moment the pain in Ren's heart intensified, the boy giving a gasp as he cried out in pain and fell instantly to his knees, dropping his keyblade which vanished in a sea of purple energy and smoke. Ren was on his knees with his right hand on the floor, panting and occasionally giving whimpers and soft cries of pain and agony as his left hand held his chest. At that moment, the heartless known as Ansem took a step forward, causing Ren to cry out again. "DON'T COME ANYWHERE NEAR ME!"
"Why?" Xehanort's Heartless asked, watching him struggle. "You came here seeking me, and now you deny me?"
"You aren't my father!" Ren cried out, pounding his free fist on the ground as large droplets of sweat fell from his head. "I can't... I won't... I don't believe you!"
"The truth hurts, doesn't it?" Ansem spoke in only a whisper, holding both arms up and looking down at him. "But to deny it only will hurt you more in the end. During my youth, I had discovered a means of traveling through time. I used this ability to travel to the future and meet with future versions of myself, enacting our great plan and assisting where I could, and learning what I could as well. However, during one of my trips I encountered something unexpected, a vestige of my heart from a farther, alternate future; one in which my enemies vanquished me, and in death I had used the last of my powers to send myself back in time, splitting the timeline and creating an alternate timeline."
"The letter..." Ren mumbled, his eyes wide in realization. "The letter said my mother was attempted to be possessed by a heart that felt like the man she fought's own, but wasn't because there was no way he had two hearts..."
"Precisely", Ansem replied, apparently pleased that Ren understood. "My alternate future self told me that he needed a vessel to possess in order to ensure our plans would not fail, and thus I was tasked with finding a worthy vessel to house the heart of my future self. When I found and fought against your mother, a member of an organization known as the Oracles of Light, I used this moment to send my future self's heart into her in an attempt to make her the new vessel of my future self. Shortly after this, I discovered part of my DNA was taken during the fight, but even this was no concern of mine, as this way my future self would just be given a new body to make his own, rebirthing a new Xehanort to enact our schemes instead of just a vessel being used for his heart. What I didn't count on, however, was how full of light the child's heart really is. You already had a heart when my future self attempted to make you his new vessel instead, and the nearly pure dark heart of my future self clashed with your nearly pure light heart, creating a reaction that caused your heart to absorb my future self's own, and thus my future self ceased to exist, and your current heart... your now "twilight" heart, being the result of a fusion of the two hearts."
"So that is why..." Ren muttered, ignoring the pain of his heart as his mind grasped all the information he had just been given. "They say my heart... my darkness... is just like 'his'... my darkness is Xehanort's darkness... your darkness..."
"Now you are getting it", Xehanort's Heartless smirked and stepped forward again, causing Ren to once again cry out in pain. "Your heart reacts to me because your darkness is my own darkness, and thus you will make the perfect vessel for my heartless self to use instead of this island boy."
"Riku... you're using Riku's body to give your heartless a real body", Ren growled in anger, through he could barely stand, let alone summon his keyblade.
"But now I no longer require him", Ansem smirked, holding his left hand up. "Since you are my son... or rather, since you are essentially me, you will make the perfect vessel for my heartless. In your body, I will be stronger then I would be in Riku's. Now, Ren, unleash all your darkness so that I can take over your body, and make it my own!" With a snap of his fingers, Ren let out a scream of agony as his dark aura appeared once again, this time flaring all over the place and nearly as big as an inferno. Ansem watched him with anticipation, as Ren stood fully, unable to control his actions. The heartless was about to reach out, however stopped suddenly as he sensed danger, barely dodging backwards as a couple energy bullets and a blast of light hit the place he once stood. At that moment, Alina and Gamma rushed forward, standing in front of Ren and ready to defend him from the humanoid heartless.
"Leave Ren alone!" Alina ordered, pointing her staff at Xehanort's Heartless.
"No, get out of here!" Ren shouted at her in the mist of his agony, barely able to see her as his darkness seeped out of his body. "You don't understand, that man is-"
"We know", Gamma cut him off, turning to look at him. "Sorry, Ren, but we slipped a robotic bug on you before you left Beast's Castle. We managed to overhear everything, thus we cannot leave you in his clutches."
Ansem laughed in amusement, looking between Alina and Gamma. "So touching... however, you're interrupting father and son time, and I don't think Ren appreciates that too much. Ren, be a good boy and kill them for your old man." To their shock, Ren suddenly summoned his keyblade and took a few steps forward, though his face screamed out that he did not want to do this and that his actions were not his own. Gamma looked between Xehanort's Heartless and Ren in a panic, however Alina only looked at Ren, her face steadfast and unmoving.
"Ren, you cannot let him win", the mage told him, pleading with him with her gaze alone. "You are not him, even if you were created because of him! Your darkness might have the same signature as his does, but that doesn't mean it is his, because it's your darkness! And unlike Xehanort, your light is vast and deep just like your darkness is. There is no force on any world, be it light or dark, that can match your power. Please, fight it! Use your light and fight him off!"
"There is no hope for him", Ansem laughed, grinning as he watched Ren inch closer to Alina. "Now, kill her!" Ren's arm moved down to strike, but the blade stopped a few inches from her nose, Alina unmoving the entire time. Suddenly, a vast bright light shot out of him, enveloping the room with a white glow as Ren's light emerged from his body in a sea of energy. The boy turned, glaring at Ansem and stepping towards him, his heart no longer aching like it did before.
"XEHANORT!" Ren screamed at him, approaching the heartless. "You will pay for making me do that!" He charged, but to his shock even though he was surrounded by light, Xehanort used an orb of darkness to catch his weapon and sent him flying back. Alina and Gamma both launched a combination of spells and energy bullets at Ansem, but the heartless only grinned as out from the ground emerged a different heartless, the guardian shielding Ansem from the attacks.
"We need to run!" Alina screamed at them, backing up a bit and providing some cover fire. "We got to go, now! We cannot defeat him!"
"There is no escape", Ansem laughed as he began approaching again, this time by hovering towards them with the guardian heartless behind him, his arms crossed as he eyed them all. "Embrace the darkness, my son. That is your only hope for escaping alive."
At that moment, Ren glared at him, getting in front of Alina and Gamma. "No, father... there is a way. Alina is right, just because my darkness and your darkness share the same signature does not make it yours. And you will NOT have it!" He raised his keyblade, a blue glow forming on the blade, and at that moment, Xehanort's Heartless seemed to sense the power within the blade and began to back away.
"COME, GUARDIAN!"
"ULTIMA!"
Ren shout out a mighty blast of blue energy, just as Xehanort's Guardian flew in front of him to block the attack. Ansem found himself enveloped in the blue light, which was powerful enough to vaporize the guardian. The heartless growled as the light vanished, and the trio were gone. He shut his eyes and attempted to sense them out, only to find they were already back on the Gummi Ship heading off into the vast cosmos. "I see... so they seemed to have a method of escape. No matter, this body should be strong enough at the end of the day, and our true plans have yet to be fulfilled. Make peace with your life while you can, my son, for you'll find this is far from over, even if I do die at the hands of that brown haired boy." With that, he turned back to the keyhole in Hallow Bastion, attempting to enter it and use it to travel to The Door to Darkness at last.
Back on the Gummi Ship, Gamma was wildly tapping the controls and pressing buttons to make the ship due what he wanted, before giving a bit of a sigh and turning back towards the humans on board. "Ok, we are away from Hallow Bastion and heading back to The Crystal Kingdom. Once we get there, we will go to the Temple of Fiends and seal away the crystals. Good thing that standby emergency recall was still active, huh? We didn't need it on Beast's Castle, and I just remembered about it after Ren cast that Ultima spell."
"Ren, that was incredible!" Alina gasped in awe, turning to him. "I had no idea you knew how to cast the Ultimate Magic!"
"I don't", replied the boy, his eyes unable to meet hers as he stared at the floor, holding his hand up and clenching his fist. "Xehanort does... everything he went though was etched into his heart, and half of my heart is his heart... since I am him, I just had a theory and I was right... because Xehanort knows how to cast Ultima, I do too... maybe that is why I learn dark spells so quickly too... because I am him."
"Ren", Alina sympathetically whispered, walking over and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You aren't him... you're your own person with your own thoughts and feelings, and unlike Xehanort, you have vast light within you that he cannot even fathom. You managed to fight off his control of you, and if you were really just a copy of him, could you really have done that?"
Ren didn't reply, merely lowering his hand and unclenching his fist as he continued to look down at the floor. Finally, he spoke again, turning his face farther away from Alina's own so that she couldn't see his eyes. "When we get to The Crystal Kingdom, I will assist in sealing away the Fiends again... then, it might be best if I go."
"Ren, no", Gamma said, approaching him. "You are not Xehanort. You are a hero of worlds, and-"
"What hero am I with this darkness?" Ren asked him, though it was out of sorrow rather then anger. "I threatened the King of Atlantica, I treated you guys like crap, and this vast darkness I hold is just his... even if it is within my heart, everyone who senses it says it's Xehanort's darkness that they sense... they're right. I am just another Xehanort, so I cannot stay. If I do, who knows what I will do next."
"Ren", Alina snapped at him, glaring down at him before sighing and taking a more gentle tone. "You are forgetting about your light again... the vast, deep and beautiful light that you have. How do you explain that one?"
The gift from my mother that is the only thing keeping me from truly being him, Ren thought to himself, giving a bit of a sigh and looking at Alina at least, the two locking eyes for a moment before Ren sighed again, this time in defeat. "You're right... I do have a light that is not his... but how long can that keep his darkness at bay?"
"Your heart has always been 50% light, and 50% darkness, even when you were letting yourself be ruled by the emotional state your darkness brought on", Gamma told him, looking at the ship's computer. "I have always kept one of the scanners locked onto you, and thus I can confirm that when you were on Hallow Bastion, your darkness was still at 50%. It can never consume you, or rule over you."
"Then why could Xehanort's Heartless use it to control me back here?"
"Because his experience with the darkness allows him to", Alina replied, shaking her head. "It has nothing to do with him being your father... he is controlling Riku after all."
"Riku!" Ren suddenly shot up, causing Alina to jump back in a panic. "That is why Xehanort's future self came back to the past! That is why he attempted to possess my mother! He is defeated by Sora, Riku and Kairi, and thus came back in time to have me destroy them before they could ruin his plans!" Ren looked down at himself, sighing once more and shaking his head. "I only know that because I am him..."
To the shock of both Ren and Gamma, Alina slapped the twilight boy across the face, glaring at him with tears forming in her eyes. "You. Are. Not. Xehanort!" She then pulled him into a tight embrace, hugging him and resting her forehead on his shoulder. "You are his son, not him. Your heart might be part his, but you are NOT him! Please, Ren, I beg you... stop saying that you are Xehanort, because you are not! You are not the same man who corrupted Garland, possessed Riku, and currently seek to destroy all the worlds... please..."
Ren hesitated for a moment, but eventually wrapped his arms around her and hugged her back. "Ok... I'm sorry..." The two parted from the hug and stared at one another for a few moments before turning back to Gamma, who nodded at both of them before turning back to the ship controls and walking over.
"We should be at The Crystal Kingdom within three hours. It might be best if you two rested in the meantime, after all it is unknown what might happen when we do return the fiends to the temple. It might be best to be ready for anything."