Chapter Text
When you play Kingdom Hearts, at least when you get up to the higher levels, there are some menus you tend not to check anymore. Take my equipment for example - now that I had leveled up quite a bit, I had most of the best stuff I could equip at my level. Although magic wasn't my strong suit, I knew enough that I could use Cura instead of burning through potions. When a defeated Nobody dropped an Elixir, though, I decided to go ahead and equip it now in case I ever needed it in a bad situation.
That's when I noticed a pretty significant change in my menu. "Hey Axel, what's this?" I asked.
Axel peered over my shoulder, looking at my menu. There was Oathkeeper, in the slot on the far right of my menu as usual. Then, on the left, was an identical slot that was empty.
"What the hell?" Axel exclaimed. "That's a dual-wielding slot, like for my chakrams."
"I thought Keyblades were two-handed weapons?"
"They are," Axel said. "Or, at least, they're supposed to be."
Suddenly I remembered DiZ's words: Because like all tools, they get worn down and occasionally need to be sharpened.
"DiZ. He did this," I said. "When we met in the mansion."
"Ohh," Axel mused aloud. "Well go on, then, give it a shot!"
Only having three Keyblades to my name, I equipped Lady Luck to my offhand and closed my menu. I reached out with both hands, and grabbed at the hilts of my weapons. Oathkeeper, as per usual, jumped to my right hand, and Lady Luck in my left.
"Whoa," I gasped.
"Just like Sora," Axel said.
It wasn't, though. I saw Sora use his power during our fight with Twilight Thorn. It was powerful, but it only worked for a limited period of time. This was a new equipment slot, which meant I could use two Keyblades whenever I wanted.
"I guess that settles that," Axel chuckled. I looked at him curiously, letting my Keyblades rest at my sides. "The dark Keyblade wielder on the platform. It is you."
Axel and I started scouring the worlds for the other Keyblade - the black one in the Station of Serenity. We searched Agrabah, Wonderland, Olympus, the Caribbean. We even went down to the sewers in Traverse Town to see if I could get back into the Station of Serenity, but no such luck. Now, it was only the portal from there to Twilight Town.
That dark Keyblade was out there somewhere, I knew it. Oathkeeper was in DiZ's sketches, and after another search through Reddit, so was this other Keyblade. We still didn't know its name, but it existed.
Axel and I agreed not to tell anyone about my new skill yet, especially Sora. It was all fun and games - but whatever was going on with that image in the Station of Serenity, it sounded like Sora and I were going to fight at some point. I still wanted to defeat Sora someday - not because of a grudge or anything, but a personal goal.
I rarely got to practice dual-wielding, just in case other players were around. Whenever we found an area where Axel and I were alone, I'd draw both of my Keyblades just to get some practice in. It was insanely powerful, for the first time allowing me to keep pace with Axel in terms of dealing damage, despite the fact that he was still a higher level than me. I made a mental note - eventually, I wanted to duel Axel, too.
"I think it'll be in one of the darker worlds," Axel said, pulling my attention away from my thoughts and ice cream.
"Huh?"
"The other Keyblade," Axel clarified. "The pictures you showed me, it looked like you had one Keyblade of light, one of darkness. Oathkeeper is the light, so this one should be in the darkness."
"Makes sense to me," I agreed. "So where are you thinking?"
"Hmm..." Axel trailed off, pausing for a moment to take another bite of his ice cream. "Halloween Town? Or, maybe Hollow Bastion..."
"What about The World That Never Was?" I offered.
Axel thought about that for a moment. He took another bite of his ice cream, thinking for a bit. "I don't know. I've never really explored it much. Nobodies there are a crazy high level, and we'll need more than just us two if we want to stay alive there."
"Sounds like exactly the kind of place they'd hide a secret Keyblade quest," I pointed out, and polished off the last of my ice cream. I flicked the stick off the edge of the tower, watching it break apart and fragment into nothingness. Axel was close behind, and tossed his off the edge, too.
"I can throw some lines, see if anyone's willing to go on the hunt with us..." Axel trailed off. He scooted closer to me, throwing his arm around my shoulder. "I don't like other people coming along. This is our thing."
I rolled my eyes, immediately smiling, and leaned into it.
Things with Axel had been good. It's been about a week since the convention, and we were both delighted to find that physical contact in Kingdom Hearts was still possible, even if it weren't as good as in real life. But still he could hold me, we could kiss and hold hands, and it would have to be enough to tide us over until we could meet again IRL.
We waited a couple of days, stocking up on elixirs and grinding to boost me up just one extra level before we headed out. Axel and I still wanted to keep my dual-wielding a secret, so we grabbed some of our closer friends from the guild: Xigbar, Zexion, and Demyx. Axel said we'd need the extra magic support from Zexion, and Demyx was the best healer we had. Plus, Xigbar was just cool.
"Alright, we ready to head out?" Axel asked. The five of us finished equipping our elixirs and potions, and stood together.
"Can we know what this is about now?" Demyx groaned. "Look, I'm not a fighter. If I'm getting dragged into one of the most dangerous areas in the game, I want to know why."
"I'm curious, as well," said Zexion. "What are you two hiding?"
Axel and I exchanged a look, and nodded. We'd discussed this already - this had to happen if we were bringing others along with us, they deserved to know. I dug into my menu and pulled up the screenshots from the Station of Serenity, and told them the story of my quest with Sora and Riku, and the giant Nobody we encountered, and the Keyblade I earned from it that matched the image on the platform.
"So we're looking for the other Keyblade. The one of darkness," Zexion concluded. Xigbar studied the screenshot silently, curiously, scratching at his chin.
"Right," I confirmed. "And also..."
I drew my Keyblades - Oathkeeper and Lady Luck. Zexion chuckled, amused, and Demyx stared in fascination. Xigbar, only for a moment, had this devilish grin that faded into his normal excited one.
"Well well well, aren't you full of surprises, Roxas," Xigbar mused. "Who thought the noob Zexion dragged in would do all of this."
"The credit is mine to take," Zexion said, I think only half kidding. "But I understand, and I am ready to see this out. Shall we?"
The five of us left the castle and headed into the city. It was hard not to be a little nervous; the last time I explored The World That Never Was, I was overwhelmed almost immediately by a group of Dusks and had to be saved by Demyx. Not this time - Demyx and I were nearly the same level now, and with me wielding not one, but two Keyblades, plus with all the backup in the world, I was more than ready to take this world on.
We started searching at the skyscraper at the center of the dark city. It seemed the most likely place to have a quest of significance, Keyblade or not.
"Have any of you explored this world very much?" Axel asked.
"Not really," Demyx admitted. "It's always been too dangerous. Honestly, I think the only ones who have are Xemnas and Saix."
It seemed so weird to even think about Xemnas out in the world, questing. He always seemed so...above it all. Never once had I ever seen him in combat, or joining someone's party. Rarely did I ever see him leave the castle.
Saix, on the other hand...that was more understandable. He joined the Organization later, apparently around the same time as Axel, but he was Xemnas' right hand man. Even Xigbar, the Guilds #2, took a backseat to Xemnas' favorite guard dog. Don't get me wrong, Saix was a decent enough guy, Xemnas too, but it was always sort of weird how intense they were.
We arrived at the skyscraper, noting the whole plaza was teeming with Heartless. I never knew that Heartless were in this world, rather than Nobodies, but it made little difference. The large group of Shadows and Neo-Shadows all seemed to take notice of us at the same time, and we all charged as a group.
The five of us had never gone on a quest together (at least not all at once), but we worked surprisingly well together given that we hadn't discussed any kind of strategy. Demyx and Zexion hung back, firing off magic (and Demyx healing us when needed). Axel and I took the offensive, getting up close and personal to dispose of as many enemies as possible. And Xigbar...did what Xigbar does, which is teleport all over the goddamn place and absolutely eviscerate every Heartless he could aim at.
It was amazing the difference dual-wielding made. Even though I wasn't as used to the combat style yet, immediately the damage output was unbelievable. Blocking was a little bit harder, but with Demyx on support and Axel watching my back, it made little difference.
Within a few minutes, they all fell, and each of us earned a nice bit of experience to boot. We all approached the base of the huge skyscraper, and stared up at it.
"What are we thinking? Up top?" Demyx offered.
"Unlikely. You can't enter this building," said Zexion. He pressed his hand flat on the glass, the flat yellow color indicating that it's just a texture on the building, not a proper door.
I mulled it over for a few moments. If Kingdom Hearts had taught me one thing, it's that the Keyblade could open and door. I pointed Oathkeeper at the door, the others instinctively stepping back, and waited for the door to open. Unfortunately, it stayed shut.
A notification appeared in the corner of my vision - a quest update. I opened my menu, and realized that a new quest had appeared titled "Door to Darkness". I set it as my active quest, and read the first instruction. Enter the Door to Darkness.
I turned around to face the group, only to see the door materialize behind them in the center of the plaza. I pointed to it with my Keyblade,
"Well that works," Xigbar said sarcastically. "Anyone else weirded out by the fact we didn't even do anything, and that door just showed up?"
Axel and I exchanged a glance, and instantly I knew we both had the same thought. DiZ.
Regardless, the five of us approached the door. Before I could even reach for the handle, it cracked open as I approached and swung outwards, revealing just an inky darkness behind it.
"Last chance to back out..." Demyx mumbled, more to himself than anyone else. Not waiting to hear his decision, I stepped into the void.
What started as a confident step immediately felt like a mistake as my foot caught no surface. I fell through the doorway and down into an abyss, hearing my party members shouting behind/above me, the loudest of which was Axel.
I kept falling - for ages, it seemed like. I tried to turn myself in the air, but because of all the inky blackness around me, it was hard to tell if I was even successful. It barely felt like falling - there was no wind rushing around me, no scenery for me to compare myself to as I plummeted further and further into this darkness. I searched around, above and below me, trying to find the others to no avail.
It felt like a lot of time passed, just floating through the darkness, though a quick check of my menu revealed it had only been a few minutes. At some point, I thought the game had glitched and I was going to just try logging out and logging back in, but then a small dot of light appeared in my vision, right below where I was falling. I straightened my body, pulling my arms close to myself to try and accelerate the fall like I'd seen skydivers do, but it didn't make any difference. I felt my descent start to slow, and I corrected myself upwards so that I could land on my feet instead of my face.
My fall slowed to a crawl and my feet hit the platform gently, light as a feather. The darkness around me still carried on forever, save for the platform I was standing on.
This platform was different - it wasn't any of the Princesses of Heart, nor the final platform with the dueling Keyblade wielders. This image was dark, though, just like that one - the Heartless symbol, cracked open and appeared to be bleeding darkness. It made me squirm - the Heartless were no friends of mine, but something about this image felt wrong.
"Roxas," someone said. I turned to be face to face with Axel, and relief washed over my body like a warm shower. I walked up and wrapped my arms around him, relieved I wasn't down here alone.
"What the hell is going on, Axel?" I asked, sighing with contempt and confusion. Slowly the others descended, too, most likely in the order they jumped. Xigbar was first, followed by Demyx, and immediately after Zexion.
"You pushed me, you son of a bitch!" Demyx yelled at Zexion.
"We didn't have time to wait for you to make a decision," Zexion shrugged.
"Enough," Xigbar commanded, waving off their bickering. The one-eyed man turned to face me and Axel directly. "Roxas. This place looks like the screenshots you showed us."
I nodded. I pulled up my map, just to confirm what I already knew. The Station of Serenity - I was back.
"Last time I was here we had to fight a lot of Nobodies," I told them. Everyone immediately drew their weapons. "Let's be on our guard."
As if on cue, enemies spawned in. Lots of them - Neo Shadows, like in the square back in the World That Never Was. They swarmed around us, so many of them that the platform was practically swallowed up by all the blackness.
The five of us all exchanged quick glances and somehow unconsciously formed our plan. The four of us all turned our backs to Demyx who stood in the center, plucking away at the strings on his Sitar and preparing his healing spells. Neo Shadows flooded towards us like a tidal wave.
It took everything in me to keep them at bay - having a second Keyblade helped, letting me double the damage and bat away twice as many of the Heartless. Axel seemed to be fairing well from what I could see over my shoulder, and Zexion was basically just spamming Reflega and putting us all to shame.
We weren't making any progress and the Heartless were only getting closer and closer to Demyx. Deciding we needed to split their attention, Xigbar yelled "Spread out!" and we all jumped into the action. I slashed away at Heartless as quickly as I could, most falling in just a couple of swipes. It felt like we weren't making any progress - for every Heartless that fell, another one was ready for me to take out.
It was starting to wear on me, but Demyx was still doing a good job of keeping us healed up despite that he now had to fight as well. I slashed and hacked away at the horde of enemies for what felt like forever before Axel spoke up.
"Everyone, get close to Zexion!" Axel yelled. I didn't know what he had planned but I followed his instructions, and made a beeline for the mage. Xigbar and Demyx were close behind, and Zexion held up his lexicon.
Axel stood at the center of the platform, eyes squeezed tight. His Chakrams spun around him, engulfed in fire, and tendrils of black energy dancing between the spiraling weapons.
And then, fire - hotter and brighter than I'd ever seen Axel use before. It formed a pillar at the center of the platform, and Heartless simply evaporated as they got too close. Axel had completely vanished in the flame, and then it began expanding. Fast. The Heartless barely had time to run before the flames engulfed them, and just as it reached us, Zexion cast Reflega and shielded us from the blast.
It was too bright to even look at, and I shielded my eyes and waited for the heat to pass. I watched myself gain a ton of experience thanks to our shared party, and I dared to even think about how many Heartless Axel just eliminated at once.
I could also see Axel's health bar in the corner of my vision, and it was as low as it could possibly be before he died. A stiff breeze would send him back to Traverse town at this point.
When the fire cleared, Zexion dropped the spell. I blinked the spots out of my eyes and scanned the platform for Axel, who was kneeling at the center. His chakrams were destroyed - lying on the platform in tons of pieces before shattering and fading away, as all destroyed items in Kingdom Hearts did. But the Heartless were gone, which was all that mattered for now.
"Holy fucking shit, Axel," Demyx exclaimed. He and I ran to Axel's side, Demyx using the last of his MP to heal Axel. The redhead thanked him and stood up, steadying himself on my shoulder.
"That was the most amazing thing I've ever seen," I gaped. "What spell was that?"
"Firaza," Axel explained. I'd never heard of Firaza - all spells came in three stages, Fire, Fira, and Firaga for example, but this must have been something beyond. "I unlocked it once I maxed out my fire magic skill."
"Nice work," Xigbar complimented. "Shame about your weapons, though."
"It's alright. My MP will replenish soon, I'll just use magic for the rest of the quest," Axel said casually. He turned and faced me, and I immediately planted a kiss on his lips.
Axel didn't mind, smiling into it and kissing me back for just a second. "Thank you," I said as I broke it off. I turned away from him, looking around the platform.
Before, when the enemies on a platform were defeated, that stained glass path would appear and lead us to the next platform. As far as I could see though, there were no other platforms, and no path appeared now that Axel had finished off the Heartless. We all stood there, patiently waiting for something to happen.
"So now what?" Demyx asked, looking around as well.
"I'm not sure. It's different than before," I admitted. I scanned the ground, looking for a keyhole or something, to no avail. I checked my quest menu, but still didn't have any updates.
Axel opened his menu - apparently he had the quest, too, but his said the same thing. The other three just walked aimlessly around the platform and waited for something to happen.
We stood around for about ten minutes, waiting for something to happen, when Demyx finally gave in. "I think the quest is glitched, guys. This sucks," he groaned. "I didn't even get the quest. I'm gonna bail."
It was disappointing, but I was close to agreeing with him. Something was definitely wrong, and we weren't making any progress just sitting here.
"Alright, see you later," I nodded. No hard feelings - none of us felt like sitting around waiting for something to happen. Demyx left the party, and vanished through a Dark Corridor. Zexion followed suit a few moments later.
Xigbar waited for a few more minutes with us, but eventually let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, I'm gonna bounce, too," he said, defeated. "You guys good here on your own?"
"Yeah, we're holding down the fort," Axel shrugged. Xigbar smirked, left the party, and vanished through a portal.
I sat down on the platform, running my finger across the cracks in the stain glass between the panels of color. Axel joined me, sitting right by my side with his leg pressed up close against mine. The thick, black fabric prevented us from touching more directly, but it was nice to feel his presence.
We sat like that for a moment, just drinking in a moment of peace between us, before Axel spoke up. "Maybe the others were right. Maybe we should just-"
And the platform quaked. Cracks ran through the stain glass beneath us. Axel and I broke apart, trying to scramble to our feet, but we were both too slow and the platform entirely shattered, and we were airborne again.
There was another platform, directly beneath us. We couldn't see it before, but it was there and we were approaching it fast. Axel and I exchanged a glance midair, our view of each other slightly obscured by the falling fragments of glass, but we understood that the quest was finally moving forward. I wasn't sure what had changed, or what we'd done to cause it, but at least it was going.
Now, if only we'd been able to keep our backup.
The image on the next platform, at first glance, I thought was a familiar one, but not exactly. It was the dueling Keyblade wielders again - one of light, one of darkness, each wielding two Keyblades. But what before had been pristine, unblemished armor was now rusted, broken and damaged. Part of the Light warrior's helmet was cracked open, revealing spiky brown hair protruding from inside.
And a chip in the Dark warrior's face mask revealed a piercing blue eye, wide with fear.
"Jesus," I breathed aloud. We fell closer to the platform and as we neared, our pace slowed to allow us to land safely on the glass. I drew my Keyblades and backed up close to Axel, ready to protect him for when the new enemies spawned in.
Axel raised his hands, fire gathering in his palms as he readied his own attack, but for a few still moments, none came. And then the platform shook again; rather than it shattering and causing us to fall again, this time a huge black figure began to materialize. It was obviously a Heartless - rivaling in size to the Twilight Thorn.
The figure was imposing to say the least - black tendrils for hair, weird hooked feet keeping it upright, piercing yellow eyes. Where its stomach should've been instead was a huge cutout in the shape of a heart, allowing me to see right through it.
Its health bar appeared in the top of my vision, along with its name: "Darkside".
"Well damn," I said, impressed by the sheer size of the thing. Darkside seemed take notice of me, and its eyes flashed brightly as it locked on to me. "Oh sh-"
Darkside swung a huge black hand at me, way faster than I'd expected. It tossed me aside like a ragdoll as my HP fell by a quarter. I threatened to spill right over the edge of the platform if not for Axel throwing himself in my trajectory, forcing me to collide with him and knock his HP down by a few points as well. I crashed into him and we both rolled onto the ground, me taking a moment to recover from having the wind knocked out of me.
"Roxas, I need you to keep him busy for a minute," Axel requested. I barely heard him over the ringing in my ears, but nodded anyway and pulled myself back onto my feet.
Darkside didn't even break a sweat hitting me.
This time, rather than swinging, he fell onto his knees, shoulders back and head hanging limp backwards. Dark energy gathered in his stomach cutout, an orb of swirling black and purple. He tensed and bolts of dark energy separated from the source, slowly inching towards me and Axel. I put myself between Axel and Darkside, swatting away the beams as they approached with relative ease.
Rather than staying totally on defense, I swatted the last beam of energy as I sprinted towards the boss. If this thing is supposed to be a sort of Heartless counterpart to Twilight Thorn, then its weak spot was almost definitely its head.
As it reeled back to punch me, I readied to jump over its fist. The punch sailed just under my shoes as I leaped, flipping forward to keep my momentum as I landed on the monster's arm. Its hand seemed to be stuck in the ground, and its arm stayed still long enough for me to run up onto its shoulder and start my combo on its head.
I hacked away at its HP for as long as I could, slashing and spinning and really laying into it. With two Keyblades at work, I drained a good bit of its health before it managed to shake me off. I flipped as I headed back towards the ground, landing on my feet and holding my Keyblades high.
Darkside swung wide, and I knew the only way I was going to keep Axel from getting hit was to take the blow myself. I sprinted to my right, interrupting the path between its open palm and Axel, still scrolling through his menu, and raised my weapons to block.
It barely did a thing - Darkside tossed me aside like a rag doll. Spots invaded my vision as the huge force blasted me aside, Keyblades flung out of my hands and I landed hard on my shoulder.
I rolled onto my back, just pausing for a moment to catch my breath. A quick glance at my HP wasn't comforting - that hit had done nearly half my health. I pulled myself back onto my feet, scanning the platform for Axel.
I found him. He finally closed his menu. He looked...serene. His eyes closed gently, a deep breath lifting his chest upwards and falling back down. He opened his eyes and stared up at Darkside, not even a hint of intimidation. Darkside had shifted targets, and readied a punch directly at Axel.
"Axel, look out!" I yelled. I sprinted towards him, summoning Oathkeeper and Lady Luck back to my hands. I put all the strength I had into my legs, trying to cross the distance. Axel only had fire magic, he didn't have any other magic leveled up enough to block a hit like that from Darkside. And without a weapon...
Axel raised his arm, fire gathering in his palm as he curled his fingers. I jumped, propelling all of my momentum forward with Keyblades raised high. My STR stat wasn't high enough to take the blow, but instincts took over. The only thing in my mind was "protect Axel, protect Axel, protect Axel" over and over as I dove right in front of him, bringing my Keyblades up against Darkside's fist to block.
I shut my eyes and waited for the impact. I felt the heat from Axel's hand, whatever spell he was casting. Hopefully whatever he had planned wasn't an AOE attack to catch me up in the blast.
But no blast came. I shut my eyes, crossed my Keyblades in an X over my face to try and block the hit. Something connected with my Keyblades from behind, but didn't have time to question it before Darkside's fist connected with my weapons.
But I didn't take damage - the force of it scooted me back across the ground by a couple of feet, but my HP stayed firmly in place.
I glanced up. Darkside's massive black fist was being held back - by Oathkeeper, Lady Luck, and a third Keyblade.
Axel's Keyblade.
"What the fuck?" I gasped.
It wasn't a Keyblade I'd ever seen before. The blade looked like fire, the handle like one of Axel's signature chakrams. And it was in Axel's fucking hand.
"Surprise," Axel grinned, a strained smile through the strength he was focusing in holding the Heartless back.
"When did...how can you...?" I stammered.
"I'll explain later," Axel promised. "For now, let's finish this thing."