Chapter Text
Sora reached the castle’s Grand Hall, which was lit by cauldrons filled with flickering blue flames. In front of him, he saw seven sleeping maidens, all trapped in glass coffins.
Alice and Jasmine were there—he’d finally found them after all this time. There were other princesses next to them that he had never seen before. One had long golden hair, the other had her blonde hair pinned up. Another princess also had her hair pinned up, but her hair color was black as ebony and her skin white as snow. The next girl resembled the phantom that Beast had seen in the entrance hall, so this must be Belle. And finally, at the end of the corridor, slept the girl who was most precious to Sora.
He gasped when he saw Kairi. He had never seen her look like this before. Her cheeks, which were always a faint pink color, were pale and all life seemed to have drained from her body.
“Kairi!” Sora cried and ran to her. However, the coffin was tightly sealed and there was no lock to be seen. He put his hands on the pane of glass and called her name, but Kairi didn’t move. Sora had risked so much to reach her and he certainly wouldn’t let a pane of glass stop him. He summoned his Keyblade and, with a powerful blow, shattered the glass.
Kairi fell out of the coffin and straight into his arms. Finally he had her back. With a gentle grip he lifted her up and tried to shake her awake. “Kairi! Kairi! Open your eyes!”
But Kairi did not respond.
“It’s no use.”
Sora gasped when he heard the voice. He turned and saw Riku, who was sitting on top of a huge portal.
“That girl has lost her heart. She cannot wake up.”
That girl? Did he really just call Kairi that girl? Now Sora was sure. The person speaking to him looked like Riku, but it wasn’t him anymore. Something must have taken possession of him.
Sora carefully put Kairi down and then turned to the boy. “You’re not Riku…”
He didn’t respond and continued, “The Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last Princess of Heart still sleeps.” When he said that, he floated down to Sora and the two faced each other in front of the portal.
Hearing this, Sora looked at him in shock. “The princess…? Kairi’s a princess?”
So the maidens he’d just seen were the seven princesses that Maleficent and Riku had been looking for. He never would have guessed that Kairi was one of them. Now he knew why Maleficent had stolen her heart.
“Yes, and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened.”
Sora had had enough of this talk about the Keyhole. “Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!”
The dark Riku raised his Keyblade, forged from the hearts of the princesses, and pointed it at Sora. “But first, you must give the princess back her heart!”
As he said this, it felt like Sora’s heart was being drawn to the Keyblade. His chest suddenly began to ache and his heart lit up.
Sora cried out from the stabbing pain in his chest and fell to the ground.
“Sora!” Donald called, worried. He had now caught up with Sora. But Goofy didn’t make it in time as an invisible wall suddenly appeared behind Donald, blocking his way. The dark Riku had quickly erected it to have Sora to himself.
“Don’t you see yet? The princess’s heart is responding!” the figure in Riku’s body called while approaching Sora with menacing steps. “It has been there all along. Kairi’s heart rests within you!”
Sora put his hand on his aching chest. He couldn’t believe what Riku had just said. “Kairi…Kairi’s inside me?”
He had gone through so much to get Kairi back, but she had never left him. He should have known that Kairi wouldn’t just leave him behind. She was there, in Traverse Town, when he felt so down right after he’d lost her. And she was there when the Keyblade and all his friends had left him, when he thought he was all alone. But Kairi was with him all this time. If he had known that he was protecting not only his life but also hers, he would have tried even harder.
“I know all that there is to know,” said the dark Riku.
Sora looked at him questioningly. “Tell me. Who are you?”
Riku spread his arms and spoke, “It is I, Ansem, the seeker of darkness.”
Sora lowered his gaze. What should he do now? He had Kairi back but couldn’t reach her. And then there was a new threat, Ansem, who was after her. Besides, this Ansem was using Riku’s body, so how could he even defeat Ansem without destroying Riku? Worried, Sora pressed his hand tighter to his chest.
With predatory steps, Riku-Ansem finally approached the confused boy.
Donald realized that he wanted to hurt Sora and ran towards him.
However, he swatted Donald away with a powerful slash of his Keyblade as if he were just an insect buzzing around his face, catapulting him out of his created barrier.
“So, I shall release you now, Princess.” Riku-Ansem pointed his Keyblade at Sora.
“Complete the Keyhole with your power. Open the door, lead me into everlasting darkness!” He raised his arm, ready to ram the Keyblade into Sora’s heart.
“Sora!”
It was Kairi who called Sora back to his senses. He could hear the sound of her voice inside him, loud and clear. In a matter of seconds, he responded to Kairi’s call and deflected the blow with his Keyblade. He braced his Keyblade against Riku-Ansem’s blow with both hands, but Riku-Ansem didn’t back down either. This time, however, Sora would fight with all his might to protect Kairi.
“Forget it!” Sora said and gritted his teeth. He gave it his all while rising, and finally, he pushed Ansem back. “There’s no way you’re taking Kairi’s heart!”
“Come!” said Riku-Ansem defiantly, getting ready for a duel with Sora.
This time Sora had to fight on his own, and while he was used to relying on his friends for help in battle, their absence didn’t make him any less motivated. Ansem was after Kairi, and as long as Sora remained steadfast, Ansem would never reach her. He would protect Kairi, no matter the cost.
Riku-Ansem slashed at Sora with his Keyblade, but Sora stayed focused and blocked the attacks. His attacker not only possessed powerful dark forces, but also a tremendous force of light emanating from the Princesses’ Keyblade. Just one hit caused Sora massive harm. However, Sora fought back with brute force. Under normal conditions, Ansem would clearly outclass Sora in battle, but in this duel, Sora’s strong will could keep up with Ansem’s powers.
Besides, Sora felt like Ansem sometimes held back to observe him. Maleficent heavily underestimated Sora, but Ansem didn’t. It was almost as if the enormous power emanating from Sora’s heart seemed to stimulate his thirst for knowledge.
“Well, what now?” Riku-Ansem asked provocatively as he took up a defensive position.
Sora gritted his teeth and lunged at him. He hit so hard that he broke through his defenses, but Riku-Ansem immediately dodged, spun, and hit Sora with his Keyblade. Sora flinched in pain but quickly regained his footing and hit back.
Riku-Ansem teleported away from him and shouted, “Now witness true power!"
It looked like he was charging up an attack, and the next moment a whirl of darkness and light shot out at Sora, cutting through him like a buzz saw. Sora fell to his knees in pain, but quickly healed himself back to full health. His healing magic had never been stronger and he felt as if it was Kairi who was amplifying it.
Riku-Ansem charged his next attack, but this time Sora interrupted it. He ran to him and stopped the attack while the two slashed their Keyblades at each other. They fought on relentlessly, and neither of them wanted to give up.
It was as Ansem had suspected. Sora was not an easy opponent and posed a huge threat to his overall plan if he didn’t eliminate the boy soon. It was about time he put Sora in his place. Riku-Ansem rose into the air as his body glowed with a menacing light, and the entire room went dark. “Behold the power of darkness!”
In a matter of seconds, Riku-Ansem teleported all over the area and rammed Sora with his Keyblade. Sora tried to dodge, but Riku-Ansem was everywhere and almost all of his strikes hit Sora. Riku-Ansem then teleported to the center of the area and smashed his Keyblade into the ground, causing pillars of light to erupt everywhere, leaving Sora with nowhere to go.
With all the hits he took, Sora was almost defeated. He had also used up all his magic to protect himself against Riku-Ansem’s attacks. With a triumphant smile, Riku-Ansem ran towards Sora to finish him off.
Sora gathered the last of his strength to defend himself against the attack. He blocked the blow with the Keyblade, but Riku-Ansem pushed against it with all his might. Sora couldn’t hold out much longer, and he noticed how the strength was fading from his muscles. If he gave in now, it would mean the end for himself and for Kairi. He couldn’t let that happen. Gathering all his strength again, he pushed Riku-Ansem back a little. Riku-Ansem was impressed that Sora still didn’t give in, but he wouldn’t back down either. Now it was a matter of whose will was stronger.
At that moment, however, a strange glow surrounded Sora’s Keyblade.
Ansem gasped in irritation when he saw that the Keyblade had transformed.
Sora’s eyes widened as he stared at the Keyblade. Kairi’s lucky charm dangled from his weapon, which now looked exactly like Kairi’s Keyblade. Sora could also feel that the Keyblade was oozing with magic and quickly healed himself back to full strength. Sora knew it was Kairi who was helping him, which revived his fighting spirit. He knew now he was going to win since he wasn’t fighting alone anymore.
Even Ansem could no longer withstand their combined power and, in the end, Sora won the fight when he knocked Ansem’s weapon out of his hand, delivering the finishing blow.
“My skills…failed me…” was the last thing Riku-Ansem said before vanishing.
Sora breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that Ansem was defeated. This time he had protected Kairi. Or maybe she had protected him.
But what about Riku? He had hoped that Ansem would release him if he defeated him, but Riku’s body had vanished with him.
“Sora! Sora, look!” It was Donald’s words that snapped Sora out of his thoughts.
Donald and Goofy had caught up with him, and Donald pointed to the portal. A tremendous energy emanated from the portal.
“The…The Keyhole!” Goofy cried.
Sora had to seal it immediately before more Heartless spawned out of it. He aimed his Keyblade at the portal, but nothing happened.
“It won’t work!” Goofy called. “The Keyhole’s not finished yet!”
Sora lowered his Keyblade. “What can we do?” he asked worriedly.
Goofy looked over at Kairi who was still lying on the floor unconscious. “Maybe we’ve gotta go wake Kairi up.”
“I think you’re right…” Sora replied. “If we can free her heart…”
He thought hard while holding a hand to his chest where Kairi’s heart was. “But...but how?”
Then his eyes fell on the Princesses’ Keyblade. What did Ansem say again?
“A Keyblade that unlocks people’s hearts…I wonder…” Sora closed his eyes and thought. He had made up his mind in a second.
Goofy looked at him questioningly. “Sora?”
With determined steps, Sora went towards the Keyblade and picked it up.
Goofy let out a shocked gasp. He knew what that meant. “Sora, hold on!”
“No, wait!” protested Donald.
Sora turned to his friends with confidence and gave them one last bright smile. He would miss them and hoped they would forgive him.
The next moment he plunged the Keyblade into his chest.
Sora winced in pain, and it felt like he was split in two. However, before the pain overcame him, a sense of relief filled his heart. He hardly felt his body anymore and surrendered to the gentle beat of his heart. The Keyblade he had stabbed himself with now dissolved and transformed back into the hearts of the princesses. They floated back into the bodies of their rightful owners and slowly, they regained consciousness.
A bright light emanated from Sora’s chest and Kairi’s heart finally flew out.
Her heart was free again and it floated towards her body. Finally, it vanished into her chest. The next moment she blinked and breathed again.
“Sora...Sora...!”
She could hear Donald desperately calling Sora’s name.
Sora? When she got up, she finally saw him. His whole body was glowing and seemed to be dissolving. Kairi knew what that meant and ran towards him in a flash.
As she tried to run up the stairs, she staggered, not yet used to having a body again. But she didn’t let that stop her. She finally reached Sora and opened her arms to catch him before he fell to the ground, but it was already too late. When she touched his body, it disappeared, and only scattered sparks of light floated through the area until finally they drifted away. Her gaze followed the dissolving light in bewilderment.
“Sora!” cried Donald. “Come back, Sora!”
But Sora didn’t hear him anymore. Sora couldn’t answer anymore. Sora…was no more.
What’s…What’s happening to me? Falling…
Falling…into darkness.