Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sora opened his eyes slowly, getting a view of a white ceiling. The ground was cold beneath him, and all his aches were gone, despite the fact that he had just finished fighting Xemnas.

What happened? He wondered to himself, sitting up and bracing a hand against his head. He blinked several times, trying to acclimatize his eyes to the bright light of the room. It was a big leap from the Dark World. He had just… been sitting with Riku, on the beach. And Kairi’s letter had shown up and then the Door and then…

Nothing. He couldn’t remember anything after that.

“Sora?” A voice asked and he opened his eyes and looked to the side.

“Kairi!” He exclaimed, seeing the other fifteen-year-old sit up much like he had done. Wait, there are others here?

With this new revelation, he looked around himself, taking note of the bodies around him, all in different stages of awakening.

Riku was laying on the ground next to him, clearly just starting to awake. Axel was blinking his eyes open from his place against the wall, a blonde-haired teenager and a black-haired teenager leaning on each of his sides, also asleep. Naminé curled up in a fetal position, arms curled around a sketchbook that was no longer there. A boy who looked identical to the boy next to Axel was laying on the ground between a brown-haired man and a blue-haired woman. Their hands were all clasped together. Mickey was shaking his head as he sat himself up. A black-haired male was asleep on the ground, face hidden by his back.

“Sora?” Kairi asked again, looking around the room much like he had. “Where are we?” He opened his mouth, wanting to reassure her, but found that nothing came out. He… didn’t know.

The room was all white, pillars inlaid on the walls. There were no windows or doors and one of the walls was darker than the rest, a black square against the white wall.

“Sora?” Riku murmured, eyes opening, and Sora looked down at him in relief.

“Riku!” He replied, a smile breaking across his face. He was glad Riku was okay. He had just gotten Riku back. He wasn’t going to lose him to some magical white room. “Are you okay?” He asked after a second, reaching a hand out and helping Riku sit up.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” Riku dismissed his worries quickly and usually Sora would push more, but his own injuries had been healed by this place, so Riku’s probably were too.

“Gosh,” Mickey said, dragging the three teenagers’ attentions to him. The king had stood up, looking around the room.

“Mickey!” Riku breathed out and the mouse turned to them, a smile crossing his face when he laid eyes on the teenager. “Do you know where we are?” Mickey’s smile disappeared.

“I’m afraid not,” the king admitted. “It reminds me of Castle Oblivion, but those rooms had doors.”

“Castle Oblivion?” Came Axel’s drawl and the four of them then turned their attention to the other. His green eyes were blinking awake, and Sora noticed with a frown that the markings that had been under his eyes were gone. “I did enough there, why do I have to come back?”

Also, wait…

How was Axel alive?!

“Axel?!” Sora yelped out, finally managing to shove himself to his feet. “How are you here? I watched you die!”

Axel blinked slowly at him, apparently unbothered by what Sora said.

“I know,” the older male said easily. “Ain’t this the afterlife?”

“It can’t be,” Kairi said quickly. “I’m not dead and neither is Mickey. We were just on the beach, waiting for Sora and Riku.” She twisted her hands in her lap, looking worried.

“Sora and I were walking through the Door of Light,” Riku revealed. “Before that, we were on the beach, in the Dark World.”

“Well, I was dying,” Axel continued, continuing to be blasé about his own death. He looked down at the teenagers at his side, and while his eyes soften slightly at the boy, when he looked at the girl, his eyes widened for the quickest moment, a hissed breath escaping his teeth before he managed to slip back into the unbothered expression that Sora was used to. Sora wondered why Axel had responded that way to the girl. “And Roxas and Xion are both dead as well, so…” Riku made a noise of surprise at Xion’s name, a hand reaching up to his head, but Sora was distracted by something else.

“Wait, Roxas?” Sora asked, voice dropping his volume a little as his eyes moved against his will to the boy leaning on Axel’s side, who was also starting to wake up. Same with the girl. “I thought Roxas was gone. He was a part of my heart.” His Nobody, he thought as he stared at him. It was a little… surreal. Not that meeting him before hadn’t been surreal either.

“Where…?” A hoarse voice said slowly, and Sora wasn’t the only one to turn. The blue-haired woman was sitting up slowly, a hand coming to her face. She cringed away from them, curling into herself and Sora felt the stab of concern that went through him.

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked her, taking a step forward and reaching out a hand. She flinched at his voice, before looking up at him. Or as much as she could, with her hand still covering her eyes.

“Yes,” she murmured quietly. “It’s just been so long since I’ve been outside the Realm of Darkness. The light is… too much.”

“You were in the Realm of Darkness?” Riku questioned and the woman nodded. But whatever she was going to say next was cut off when Mickey streaked across the room to catch her in a hug that nearly bowled her over.

“Aqua!” He shouted in joy. “You’re here! I thought I wouldn’t see you again after we got separated!”

“Mickey?” The woman, Aqua, asked in confusion, finally removing her hand from her eyes. She blinked rapidly, reflexive tears dripping from her eyes as they settled on Mickey. There was recognition in her eyes, but also not total surprise. “How is this possible?”

Mickey shook his head. “I don’t know,” he chirped out while smiling broadly. “But you’re here, that’s awesome. And you’re not alone.” Aqua paused at his words, before looking to her side. She suddenly looked gutted.

“Terra?” She whispered out, a hand reaching out and touching the brown-haired man’s face. He twitched under the touch, and it was clear he was going to wake up next. “Ven?” Her hand moved to the boy, resting on his shoulder. “How…? Last I had seen, Terra was possessed and in the Realm of Light, and Ven was asleep, what happened?” But Mickey didn’t have any answers for her, and she swallowed, a complicated expression on her face.

“What?” Another voice asked, sounding more… annoyed than the rest of theirs and Sora turned to see Roxas pushing himself to his feet, Axel’s hands reaching out and helping him stand steady when he staggered. The other girl had yet to wake. “What’s going on?” His gaze snapped to each of them, growing wide when he saw Sora and turning angry when he saw Riku.

“As I tried to tell you,” Axel said drily, pushing himself to his feet and holding Xion in a bridal carry as she continued to sleep. Sora wondered briefly who the girl was. “We don’t know. You, I and Xion are dead while those four aren’t. And I can’t speak for the rest of them.” Roxas shot him a look, but Axel didn’t back down and Roxas sighed, taking a step back so he was closer to Axel and his cargo.

“I think we’re all in the dark,” a soft voice said, and they all jumped in surprise, none of them realizing that Naminé had awoken. The girl had pushed herself into a sitting position on her knees, rubbing at one of her eyes. Kairi blinked in surprise when she noticed her Nobody. “This place… reminds me of Castle Oblivion, but it can’t be, can it?” None of them could answer her and she sighed, getting to her feet. When she stumbled, Kairi crossed the room and helped her stand, allowing Naminé to lean on her. The Nobody smiled.

“Aqua?” A deep voice asked, and Terra sat up, an action that looked like it took a lot of effort and Aqua gasped, before lunging forward, carefully avoiding Ven, and wrapped him up in a hug, pressing her face into his shoulder. Terra let out an oof as she impacted him but wrapped an arm around her back. “How is this possible?”

“I don’t know,” Aqua said, voice muffled by Terra. “But you’re here. You you. And not just a shadow of my heart.” Riku made a soft noise and Sora turned to him.

“What is it Riku?” He asked the other boy quietly and Riku shook his head slowly.

“I don’t know,” he murmured back, shifting on his feet. “I feel like I’ve seen him before but… I must be mistaken, right?”

“I mean,” Sora muttered. “Wouldn’t be the craziest thing to happen in the past year.”

Terra’s eyes widened at the sight of them, and they swept the room he had found himself in, ending at Roxas.

“Ven?” he asked in shock and Roxas blinked at him.

“Who?” The boy questioned and Terra looked taken aback.

“Ven’s on the ground next to us,” Aqua murmured to him and Terra looked down, eyes lighting up at the boy who was curled up next to him. “I don’t know who everyone else is. Except Mickey.”

“Well, I’m Sora,” Sora introduced himself and Aqua pulled away from Terra to look at him. “This is Riku, Kairi, Axel, Roxas, Naminé, and the unconscious girl is Xion.”

“Sora?” Aqua asked, a mystified look in her eyes and Sora suddenly felt like he was on the spot. He rubbed the back of his head with one of his hands.

“Yes?” He said and Aqua relaxed slightly.

“Nothing,” she replied, rubbing the back of her head. “I just think… I think I’ve met you before.”

“You know me?” Sora asked in bewilderment, trying to think back in his head, and Aqua nodded.

“I met you once,” she revealed with a small smile. “When you were very small. Though, I don’t really remember what happened in that meeting. I’m sorry, it’s been so long.” Sora blinked, a fuzzy memory of a woman smiling down at him and Riku, a gentle look in her eyes. Had she been the one to make him promise… to protect Riku? Had that really happened?

“Wait, that was real?” He exclaimed. “I didn’t hallucinate that?” Aqua giggled and shook her head. Protect Riku, he hummed in his head. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to keep my promise. He felt his smile dim slightly at his thought and Riku shifted from next to him, not looking at Sora.

Luckily though, before the tension could get awkward, a groan interrupted them, and Xion moved in Axel’s arms, blinking her eyes open.

“Xion!” Roxas exclaimed, hurrying forward to almost hang off of Axel’s arm to gaze down at the girl. “You’re okay!”

“Ro…xas…?” She wondered quietly and Roxas nodded quickly, having to back off for a second to allow Axel to place Xion shakily on her feet.

“Hey kid,” Axel told her, a smile flickering across his face, more genuine than Sora had ever seen.

“What’s… going on?” She asked, leaning on Roxas’s offered arm when her legs wouldn’t hold her up completely. Roxas’s arm snaked around her, holding her close, and there was a look in his eyes like he couldn’t believe she was there.

“None of us know,” Naminé replied and Xion started in surprise, turning her head to gaze at the blonde-haired Nobody.

“Naminé?” She questioned and the girl nodded in response to the unasked question.

Scraping on the floor announced the awakening of their final member and both Terra and Aqua gasped quietly as Ven opened his eyes slowly.

“Terra? Aqua?” He asked quietly. “You’re here?”

Aqua laughed quietly, quick and brittle, and reached down to pull Ven up for a hug, Terra wrapping around Ven’s other side. “Yeah, we’re here,” she said, with a tear-stained smile. “Though, where ‘here’ is... it’s up for debate.” Ven blinked in confusion, slowly extracting himself from their hold to look around. His gaze fell on Roxas.

“What?” He asked blankly and Roxas raised an eyebrow.

“I have no clue either,” he snarked, folding his arms across his chest and several glances looked back and forth between the two.

“They’re exact copies,” Kairi wondered quietly and both Roxas and Ven looked offended at that.

“Hey!” They both exclaimed, only to pause and give each other another look. Sora was tempted to laugh but guessed that it wouldn’t be taken too lightly.

“Okay, things are officially weird,” Axel muttered. “Xion, Roxas, and I are alive, Ven’s somehow still the same age, and Riku isn’t Ansemed.”

“Wait, Axel,” Roxas turned to the older man. “You know Ven?” Ven blinked, turning his gaze to Axel, scrutinizing him closely.

“In a way,” Axel shrugged. “I met him once, when I was younger. About eleven years ago, actually. And yet, he somehow looks the exact same age.”

“Eleven years?” Terra wondered and Aqua pressed a hand to her mouth. “We’ve been… gone for eleven years?”

“Yeah,” Aqua said sadly, and both of her friends turned to look at her. “Mickey told me, when we met again a little while ago.”

“Though, it’s been about eleven years now,” Mickey corrected gently and Axel made a face, as if counting the years back in his head. He tipped his head to the side in a quick, ‘not wrong’, gesture. “Ever since… that day.”

“’That day’?” Riku questioned and all four of them made faces before the sound of a groan cut them off. All of them turned.

Scratch what Sora had said about Ven being the last member.

Their actual final member, a boy with black hair, was pushing himself to a sitting position slowly. He shook his head, as if trying to dispel a headache before looking up at them.

And Sora found himself frozen as he stared at a mirror.

Everyone else was moving though.

“Vanitas!” Aqua spat out, surging to her feet and gripping Ven’s shoulder, tugging him backwards and behind her. Terra’s eyes widened and he was just a second behind Aqua standing to his feet. Mickey shouted in surprise, moving to stand next to Aqua, while Ven stared at the new addition in bewilderment. The rest of them were simply frozen in shock.

Sora jumped, confused by the sudden hostility. Mickey moved to put himself between Aqua and the other and he reached out a hand. Before blinking down at his hand in surprise. “Why can’t I summon my Keyblade?” He wondered and the three people near him looked at him in surprise.

Sora froze at that before reaching inside himself, trying to grasp the small spark that usually sat in his heart and gave him his Keyblade. Except, he couldn’t grab it. It was like it kept slipping out of his grasp, just beyond his fingertips.

The boy sitting on the ground laughed, throwing his head back for a slight second before looking back to Aqua and the others. They had clear surprise on their faces and Sora wondered. Were they Keyblade Wielders too? Were there more of them?

“Having some problems with your weapon, rat? Or you, Master Aqua?” He asked joyfully, his voice sounding similar but different to Sora’s. “How painful.” Aqua glared at him, vitriol in her eyes, but Axel cut it off before anything bad could happen.

“Um, who’s this?” He asked, hands placed on Roxas’s and Xion’s shoulders as if preparing to yank them back if Vanitas proved to be hostile like Aqua and Terra were implying.

“Vanitas.” Aqua all but growled his name. “A parasite who attempted to kill Ven and destroy numerous worlds. A being made of darkness and evil.”

Vanitas leaned his head on one of his hands, a lazy smile on his face. “Aww, you’re going to make me blush,” he drawled, eyes flashing with malice as she glared back at him. Sora was still torn between confusion about his mirror image and confusion about not being able to reach his Keyblade.

“Why can’t we summon our Keyblades?” Terra wondered, staring down at his hands in confusion. Sora felt the same confusion moving through the others, both Kairi and Riku looking down at their hands.

“It’s probably this room,” Riku brought up after a moment. “We’re already here, something else that was impossible.” While Aqua grit her teeth and Vanitas didn’t let up his smile, Naminé, having distanced herself from Kairi, moved forward a step and crouched down, frowning in confusion when she noticed something on the floor.

“Hey guys?” She asked quietly, reaching towards it. It looked like a small metal disk, a picture of an hourglass etched into the side. “There’s something here.” Lifting it into her hands, she turned it over in her palms, shivering at the sparks that flew from it. None of the others noticed her, however, too caught up in the situation with Vanitas, so no one stopped her from tracing the hourglass symbol on it.

A second later, she shouted in surprise, drawing everyone’s attention to her as light exploded from the disk, causing her to drop it to the floor. In its place, an image of a boy Riku’s age, with black hair and a black hat appeared, standing on the floor. The disk seemed to be some sort of holographic projector.

“Hello,” the boy said, addressing the room at large. “I assume you’re all awake, as the disk has appeared and activated itself. My name is Brain.”

“What’s is go-” Mickey started but was cut off by Brain.

“Apologizes if you just tried to ask something, but this is a recording. I can’t answer your questions, even though I’m sure you have plenty. Let me instead offer an explanation. You see, I am a Keyblade Wielder from Daybreak Town. You’ve probably never heard of it. I’m not surprised. By the point in your future, it’s been destroyed and abandoned for centuries. I am the holder of the Book of Prophecies, which allows me to look into the future. And the future I have seen, I cannot let pass.

“So, I have used all my magical ability and the magical ability of my close friend to create this… pocket dimension, if you will. I pulled you all from a certain point in time and while I would have liked to go earlier, the consequences of that were… bad. As well as going later. Thus, this is the time we have to deal with.

“This pocket dimension will show you both the past and the future. You need to learn lessons from the past and know what is to come if you are going to stop the future from coming to pass. And each of you is important and needed to make that happen.”

Even though Brain was a hologram who couldn’t see them, it almost looked like he aimed his gaze for a second at Vanitas. But that couldn’t have been possible.

“In order to make sure no… fatalities occur, your ability to wield your Keyblades is temporarily stripped from you, to make sure no harm is done to each other. This room should conjure everything you might need, and you all will be released to the exact moment you appeared from, once the watching is over.”

Brain sighed. “In truth, I don’t know if this is going to work. Perhaps it will be unable to stop darkness from prevailing and light expiring. But I have to hope that this will help in some way. I don’t know what I’ll do if it doesn’t.

“Good luck, all of you.”

A second later, the hologram flickered out and disappeared, along with the disk. No one said anything.

“Well,” Axel eventually said. “That’s some sort of explanation.”

“Gosh, an Ancient Keyblade Warrior sent us here?” Mickey wondered. “To learn about the future?”

“And the past,” Aqua murmured, momentarily distracted from her hatred of Vanitas, who looked miffed at being ignored. “What could be so bad that someone from the ancient past had to intervene?”

“I think we’re about to find out,” Riku said as the lights around them dimmed and the black screen against the wall started to lighten.

“Um, room?” Kairi asked suddenly, looking up at the ceiling. “Could we have somewhere to… sit?” A bunch of couches and chairs suddenly appeared and everyone but Vanitas and Riku jumped. “Well, at least the room is listening to us.”

“Are we really about to do this?” Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow. “Whoever that was could have been lying.”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Axel told him before striding across the room and lifting Vanitas up to his feet by the back of his shirt, ignoring the snarl that Vanitas made. “C’mon, up. Ancient Keyblade Wielder said we all had to do it.” Vanitas glared at him, but Axel seemed immune to his look, simply turning his back on him and walking over to the sitting arrangement, claiming one of the couches for himself. Roxas and Xion took a seat on either side of him.

Sora looked to Riku, who shrugged helplessly. It seemed they were doing this.

Taking a seat on another one of the couches, Riku settled down on his left side and Kairi his right. Aqua and Terra took the final couch, Ven squished between them, while Mickey and Naminé sat in two of the chairs. After a second, Vanitas rolled his eyes and sat in the final chair, but not before pulling it backwards so he was further from them. Aqua looked just fine with that arrangement.

“Here we gone,” Riku murmured as the images on the screen finished forming.

~

Brain hit the ground with a groan as aftereffects of all the magic used hit him all at once, making him feel like he was going to throw up. A second later, Lauriam’s hands landed on his back and Brain felt the essence of healing magic ripple through him.

“Stop,” he forced out of his mouth. “You used just as much energy as me.” Lauriam didn’t respond vocally but the energy stopped flowing and Lauriam kneeled down in front of him.

“Are you okay?” He asked quietly and Brain paused for a second before shrugging.

“I’ll live,” he decided on and could tell it wasn’t convincing Lauriam at all. The other boy moved forward, and Brain felt himself being lifted slightly and placed down in a chair. Lauriam took the one in front of him.

“Do you think it worked?” The pinkette asked and Brain paused. He didn’t actually know. He hoped it did, he desperately hoped so, but in the end, they could only speculate. It certainly felt like it had worked.

“I think so,” he murmured out, the other side effect of magic starting to kick in, making him extremely sleepy. “It needs to.”

A moment of silence passed between the two of them, both of them pointedly not looking at the book open on the table in front of them, the book that had started this whole debacle.

“Do you think Ven recognized you?” Lauriam asked quietly. “We know he’s going to be there but… without his memories.”

“I don’t know and at this point, I don’t think it matters.” Brain’s hand started to slip from holding his head up and Lauriam took the position instead, allowing Brain to lean back against his chest. He rested the side of his hand against Lauriam’s chest and listened to his heartbeat. If everything the book said was true, he wouldn’t be able to hear it for much longer.

“We just have to hope they’ll do good things with the information they’re given.”

Chapter Text

“I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately…”

All of them jumped at the abrupt beginning, both Riku and Kairi turning to the boy in-between them.

“Sora, is that you?” Kairi asked, drawing the attention of the others who were watching in similar confusion. The boy nodded slowly.

“I think so,” he admitted. “But I don’t remember this. When are we starting from anyway?”

“When the adventure started?” Xion volunteered with a shrug, leaning against Axel’s side and Riku frowned.

“That could technically mean a lot of places,” he murmured out.

“Like is any of this for real or not?”

Roxas snorted. “You, of all people, are having an existential crisis at fourteen?” Sora huffed, trying to ignore the blush that was starting to creep up his cheeks.

“Look, I just said I don’t remember this part,” he grumbled out, moving his face to lean his forehead on Riku’s shoulder, steadfastly ignoring the looks he was getting.

“Why is it starting with you anyway?” Vanitas asked, a sarcastic drawl to his voice. When Aqua turned to glare at him, Vanitas raised an eyebrow. “According to what I’ve gleaned, our little… ‘spat’ happened eleven years before kid Keyblade came into the picture. Why are we starting here?”

Aqua hated that she didn’t have an answer.

The darkness fades away to reveal fourteen-year-old Sora, who blinks in confusion upon finding himself on a glass picture of Snow White.

“Well, that was abrupt,” Kairi whispered, and Sora smiled slightly at her remark, finally stopping leaning on Riku and looking forward again.

“So much to do, so little time…”

“Mickey?” Aqua asked, looking to the mouse king, who shrugged.

“I needed to find the Keyblade Wielder. The magic led me to Sora.” He paused for a second before continuing on. “I don’t know exactly why I said what I said, it was almost like something… compelled me to.”

“Well, that’s not creepy at all,” Axel muttered, getting an elbow in the stomach by Roxas.

“Take your time, don’t be afraid.”

Sora turns to the side and sees the glass plate in full.

“The door is still shut.”

“Wait Mickey, you knew that the door to the island’s heart was going to open?” Riku asked, sitting up a little, and the mouse king shook his head.

“As I said, I was compelled to say the words,” he responded. “I didn’t exactly know what they meant.”

“Couldn’t that also refer to the Door to Kingdom Hearts?” Sora wondered. “I mean, we had to close that too.”

“You found the door to Kingdom Hearts?” Ven asked in shock, sitting forward. “Wait, there’s a door to it?”

“Now, step forward.” Sora moves forward and three pedestals erupt from the ground.

“Sora, you really remember none of this?” Kairi asked and Sora screwed up his face as he thought.

“Well… maybe?” As he thought back, he could see, at the very edges of his mind, a green platform. “I don’t quite remember it, but I might?”

“Perfectly not confusing,” Axel hummed, getting another elbow. “Ow.”

Naminé worried that she might have accidentally done something more to Sora’s memory. Was the fact that he couldn’t remember her fault?

“Power sleeps in you. If you give it form, it will give you strength. Choose well.”

Even Riku was raising an eyebrow now. “What does this have to do with wielding a Keyblade?” Roxas asked. “None of those things are Keyblades.”

“I don’t know,” Mickey muttered, closing his eyes and trying to think back. Aqua furrowed her brow, also trying to come up with a solution.

“Keyblades are used for attack, defense, and magic,” Vanitas huffed, crossing his arms. “Sword, shield, scepter.” All of them blinked.

“Oh, that makes sense,” Sora said, looking at the things on the screen now with more clarity. “Good insight, Vanitas.” Vanitas blinked in surprise and hunched his shoulders a little as he looked away with a scoff.

“Anyone could have seen that, it’s obvious.” But he didn’t say anything more. Aqua rolled her eyes.

Sora walks over to the shield. “The Power of the Guardian. Kindness to aid friends. A Shield to repel all. Is this the power you seek?”

“I mean, it certainly sounds like Sora,” Xion murmured, eyes watching the screen carefully. Neither she nor Roxas had even been created at this point, so this was all entirely new to them.

Sora doesn’t do anything, but the shield disappears in a flash of light. “Your path is set.”

“Rude,” Roxas huffed out. “Didn’t even wait for you to answer.”

“Maybe he answered in his head?” Kairi wondered and Riku paused.

“Are we even in Sora’s head?” He questioned. “That looks like a Station of Awakening, but not Sora’s.”

“It would make the most sense if we were in Sora’s head,” Terra responded. “He didn’t disappear from your island, you would have noticed and remembered, and it makes sense that Sora doesn’t remember it as well if it was in his head.”

“Now, what will you give up in exchange?”

“What, can’t have all three?” Axel asked and Riku paused.

“Doesn’t that seem to be a law of the world?” He mumbled to himself. “You get one thing, and you lose the other.” Sora gave him a concerned look.

Sora runs over to the pedestal with the sword. “The Power of the Warrior. Invincible courage. A sword of terrible destruction.”

Everyone who had interacted with Sora before now made a face. That couldn’t have been farther from what Sora stood for.

“Seems more like something you would wield, Riku,” Sora hummed out, nudging his friend, who gave him a small smile.

“You give up this power?” The sword disappears. “You have chosen the power of the guardian.”

“Yep, that’s Sora,” Kairi said with a smile. “Always looking out for everyone.”

“Kairi…” Sora whined out as a blush overtook his face. She giggled.

“You have given up the power of the warrior.” The ground suddenly starts shaking and the pedestals crumble to pieces. Sora looks around in worry.

“What’s going on?”

The glass pane dissolves beneath him and Sora falls.

Several people gasped in worry.

“Guys, I’m right here,” Sora said after a second. “I’m fine.”

It didn’t seem like anyone believed him.

Sora falls through the darkness before a glass pane of Cinderella appears.

“Ella?” Aqua asked with a gasp, sitting upright, and she got several looks.

“You know her?” Kairi asked, having talked to Cinderella briefly in Hollow Bastion. The woman had been nice, sweet, but hadn’t mentioned ever knowing other Keyblade Wielders, like it seemed the other three were.

“Yeah, I helped her find her prince,” Aqua said, looking at the screen with scrutiny. “It seemed like she made it.”

“I helped her get to the ball,” Terra admitted, with a small smile. “Her fairy Godmother is… something.”

“I just got stuck as a mouse,” Ven huffed out, crossing his arms, and Vanitas snickered. Ven stuck his tongue out at his other half. “It’s better than what you did.” Vanitas glared at him.

Sora lands on the glass pane. “You have gained the power to fight.” The shield appears in his hand and several Heartless appear on the glass.

“Heartless!” Mickey gasped as he sat up. “In Sora’s heart?” Sora grimaced in worry, that couldn’t have been a good thing, but Riku waved the king off.

“I don’t think so,” he murmured, watching the screen closely. “They aren’t really acting like Heartless do. I think they’re just there for Sora to learn how to fight.”

“Why do they look like Heartless then?” Xion asked and none of them had an answer.

“What are Heartless?” Terra asked after a second and several heads whipped to the three sitting on the couch.

“What?” Sora asked in shock. “How can you not know what Heartless are? They’re everywhere! And they’re the main reason I have the Keyblade. To fight off Heartless.”

Ven frowned, looking at the screen. “Unfortunately, Terra’s right, we’ve never seen things like that before.”

“Then, what did you do as Keybearers?” Riku asked and Aqua grimaced.

“Mostly, we were just chosen because of our ability to wield a Keyblade. Not the other way around. And while most of the years were peaceful, in the end, we had to fight Unversed a lot in order to protect the worlds.”

“I remember them,” Mickey grumbled out and Vanitas hid a smirk behind his hand. Ven gave him a side look, the only one knowing that the Unversed came from Vanitas, but didn’t say anything.

“Well, you are from eleven years ago,” Axel said. “There’s a good chance there wasn’t as many Heartless that long ago, thus you never learned of them.”

“Huh,” Terra muttered as he looked at the creatures on the frozen screen. “Strange.”

Sora fights several of the Heartless with his shield, picking up green balls from them as they disappear.

Roxas couldn’t help but be reminded of Struggle and a sense of sadness washed over him. He missed playing with his friends. Not that they had ever really been his friends.

Darkness starts spreading across the pane, dragging Sora down with it.

“Sora!” Kairi exclaimed, her hands coming up and grabbing one of Sora’s arms in worry and Sora made a face.

“Remember, I’m fine,” he reminded them, as Kairi wasn’t the only one getting worried. It didn’t seem to reassure anyone.

Sora falls through the darkness and wakes up on a pink glass pane. There’s a door on it.

“I wonder why this one doesn’t have a person,” Naminé questioned softly. “It seems like the other two did.”

Sora walks over to the door, and it opens slowly, light spilling out of it. Sora cringes away from it, before walking through it, lighting washing over him.

“Reminds me of the Door to Light, right Riku?” Sora said, nudging his friend. Riku smiled tightly at him, but he was still concerned about Sora onscreen. When had all of this happened? Why had all this happened?

“The day you will open the door is both far off and very near.”

“Cryptic,” Axel muttered, with a glance at Mickey. The king gave him a shrug. He had already explained.

Sora runs up a stained-glass pathway, ending on a glass pane of Belle.

“This person, I don’t know,” Aqua murmured quietly.

“That’s okay, I do,” Sora replied. “It’s Belle. Her and Beast live in their Castle together. I’ve met them twice.” Riku swallowed, looking to the side. Even when he was traveling the worlds, trying to get Sora back, he still hadn’t been able to force himself to go to the worlds of the princesses he had hurt. Every time he did, he felt sick and everything bad he had done came rushing back to him.

“The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.”

Don’t I know that well, Riku thought, looking out of the corner of his eye at Sora. Sora’s light had eclipsed him, once upon a time, and he had fallen to the dark, doomed to the end.

Sora looks back and his shadow stretches out, pulling itself out of the glass pane. Sora staggers backwards in shock and fear.

“But don’t be afraid.”

“How is he not supposed to be afraid?” Ven asked, watching the beast rise on the screen. “That thing just appeared.”

“Oh, I hate those things,” Aqua hissed and it wasn’t just her two friends who looked at her in surprise.

“I thought the three of you hadn’t seen Heartless before?” Riku asked, raising an eyebrow and Aqua looked down at her hands.

“That’s not… entirely true,” she admitted, rubbing them together. “I’ve been seeing them a lot in the Realm of Darkness. Been fighting them off. I had to fight like… five of those things once, one after another.” She gestured to the Heartless on screen. “It was… not fun.”

“And don’t forget…” Sora runs away from the beast but skids to a stop before he falls off the edge. He turns back to the beast, summoning the shield to his hand. He attempts to fight the beast, and gets a couple of hits in, but is thrown backwards, the shield disappearing.

Sora could feel both his friends tensing to his side of him when the darkness started to circle around him, and the beast leaned over him. Reaching out, he took one of each of their hands in his.

“Guys, I’m here, I’m alive. I’ll be fine.”

“You hold the mightiest weapon of all.”

The darkness wraps around Sora, dragging him downward and smothering him.

“So don’t forget… You are the one who will open the door.”

Sora could tell that there were a lot of things people wanted to ask, but they were all silenced as they waited for the darkness to fade away and reveal that Sora was, in fact, okay. He just waited until Riku and Kairi would stop holding his hands in a death grip.

A blue sky appears overhead, and Sora blinks his eyes open, sitting up, before looking down and seeing the beach.

Several people relaxed.

“See, I’m fine,” Sora said, gesturing to the screen with the hand that Kairi released. Riku hadn’t let go yet.

“I always wanted to go to the beach,” Xion murmured, leaning closer to Axel’s side, and Axel wrapped one arm around her, holding her close.

“Well, when we get out of here, why don’t we?” He asked, feeling Roxas’s eyes on him as well. “We had plans for it.”

“Aren’t we dead though?” Roxas muttered, letting his head lean on Axel’s shoulder. Axel grimaced but didn’t say anything.

Naminé looked up at the screen in wonder. She had seen the beach through Sora’s and Riku’s memories but never for herself. And while this wasn’t technically real either, it was close enough.

Both Ven and Vanitas blinked as well. Neither of them had ever gotten that close to water.

Aqua smiled. It was good to know that it didn’t seem like Destiny Islands had changed that much while she was gone.

Sora sighs in relief and lays back down with a yawn, getting jump scared by Kairi a second later.

Watching Sora wasn’t the only one to jump either. Kairi giggled.

“So, it was probably a dream then, everything that happened,” Riku wondered out. “Or it looked and acted like a dream.”

“Explains why I can’t remember it,” Sora shrugged with a grin. “I don’t remember any of my dreams.”

Sora exclaims in surprise and sits back up, looking at Kairi in shock. Kairi giggles. “Gimmie a break Kairi,” Sora grumbles and Kairi tells him to get up and says that she knew she would find him snoozing.

“This was a… common occurrence?” Axel asked, looking at the two teenagers on the couch. Kairi giggled again and Sora looked away with a blush, finally managing to extract his hand from Riku’s.

“I liked to sleep on the beach, okay?” Sora huffed out. “Nothing wrong with it.”

Sora describes his dream to Kairi, and she bonks him on the head, asking if he was still dreaming. Sora said it wasn’t a dream.

“Well, it was, and it wasn’t,” Mickey sighed. “Very complicated.”

Sora thinks more about his dream and calls it bizarre.

Several people agreed with on-screen him.

Kairi walks past him, and Sora asks her about her homeworld, and she reminds him that she doesn’t remember.

“You… aren’t from Destiny Islands?” Aqua asked Kairi, something pounding at her head. Something she should remember. When Kairi shook her head, Aqua frowned ever so slightly. She felt like she should remember something about the girl.

“Why did you ask that anyways?” Kairi asked, turning to look at Sora. “You knew I didn’t remember anything.” Sora frowned, trying to think back to the day.

“I think it was mostly because we were building the raft,” he admitted. “We were going to go see other worlds, so I was thinking about yours.” Kairi blinked but nodded, accepting the explanation. “It could have also been from the dream.”

Sora asks if she ever wants to go back, and Kairi says that she’s happy on Destiny Islands though she wouldn’t mind going to see it.

Kairi grimaced, unseen by the others. In truth, she really just wanted to stay on Destiny Islands. But Sora was going to go with Riku on the raft, so she had supposed she had to as well.

Sora says that he wants to see it too. As well as every other world out there.

Mickey giggled slightly. “I don’t know Sora,” he said, slightly teasingly. “There’s a lot of worlds out there.”

Sora huffed. “I know,” he grumbled out. “And I’ve seen a lot of them. Fourteen-year-old me just didn’t know how many there were.”

From behind them, Riku asks if they’re forgetting about him and says that he’s the only one working on the raft.

Sora couldn’t help the smile that bloomed on his face when he looked at younger Riku. Riku… looked so happy with them. Like he didn’t have a care in the world. Sora hadn’t seen that look on Riku since.

Riku grimaced, turning away from his younger self. Stars, you made so many mistakes, didn’t you?

“Raft?” Aqua asked, turning to them and all three of the teenagers flushed to different degrees.

“We wanted to see the worlds,” Kairi eventually explained. “So we were going to get on a raft and go find them.”

Vanitas snickered. “You do realize that the worlds are in space, right?” Kairi glared at him, scrunching up her nose.

“Well, we know that now,” she retorted. “And at least we were doing something to get out of there.” Listen, she might not have wanted to leave, but she wasn’t going to let someone criticize Riku and Sora’s plan.

Riku walks past Sora and tosses the log at him, causing Sora to fall back to the ground. Riku says that Kairi’s just as lazy as Sora is. Kairi giggles.

“You were really interested in the raft plan?” Terra mentioned, the end of it coming up in a question and Riku nodded stiffly.

Riku sits down and Kairi says that they’ll finish it together and she’ll race them.

Both Sora and Riku couldn’t help the smiles that stretched across their faces at that, one bigger than the other. Races had been fun, even though Riku always won.

Kairi shouts go and the two boys take off down the beach, laughing, as Kairi follows them.

Isn’t that accurate, Kairi thought, slightly cynically. I’m always racing to catch up to Sora and Riku, who keep getting further and further away.

I wish we could do this again, Sora thought to himself, watching their younger self streak down the beach, laughing. But we haven’t been together and Riku hasn’t been that happy.

Stars, you had it all, didn’t you? Riku thought, a hairsbreadth away from glaring at his past self. Why’d you have to go and give it up for something as shallow as leaving? You lost Sora that way.

Aqua, Terra, Mickey, and Axel smiled slightly as they watched the kids interact with each other. All of them really had nothing to fear at that moment. No rules, no responsibilities, no danger.

Ven wished he’d had someone to do that with. While Aqua and Terra were great friends, and he loved them to death, he hadn’t ever really interacted with someone his age.

Vanitas and Naminé both flinched. They both wanted that so badly.

Roxas, watching the screen, reached out and grasped Xion’s hand, holding it gently. Once the girl looked at him, Roxas could see the slight mistiness in her eyes. “We’ll go there one day,” he promised quietly, holding her hand tight and feeling Axel’s hand settle on his shoulder and seeing his other arm hold Xion close. “And we’ll run down the beach just like they’re doing.” Xion smiled at him gratefully.

Even if she knew it could never happen, it was nice to speculate about ‘what if’s.

Later, at sunset, Sora and Kairi are sitting on a tree while Riku leans on the trunk next to them. Sora says that Kairi’s home is out there. Riku says it could be and they’d never know by staying there.

Terra couldn’t help the small smile that crossed his lips. Eleven years later and nothing had changed with the boy. He still wanted to leave, still wanted to gain the strength to protect his friends.

Sora asks how far a raft could take them.

“Not far enough,” Vanitas snarked and got three glares from said teenagers. He shrugged, unbothered.

Riku says that they’d find another solution if they had to.

Vanitas was very tempted to say something else but decided against it. Aqua was already gunning for his blood, he didn’t need these three teenagers to try and kill him either.

Kairi asks what they would do if they got to another world. Riku mentions he hadn’t really thought about it.

Terra hid his growing smile. He wondered if Riku had a plan, just simply wasn’t telling them about it. It would have made sense if he had been thinking about it, though. The young boy he had met had seemed very determined.

Riku says he’s always wondered why they were there on the islands. That if there are other worlds out there, why did they end up on this one. And he says that if there are other worlds out there, they’re just a tiny piece of something bigger. So, they could have ended up anywhere else as well.

Several people blinked, taken aback by the abrupt change in tone. Roxas raised an eyebrow. There was no way Riku of all people was this thoughtful and contemplating.

Mickey smiled at the boy on screen. This was the child he knew, who he had helped guide. Even though it had been hidden by the darkness, he was still there.

Riku says that’s why they had to go and find out and that just sitting there wouldn’t change anything.

Kairi says that he’s been thinking a lot.

Riku says it was thanks to her and if she hadn’t landed there, he wouldn’t have thoughts of any of it. Sora gives him a look and rolls his eyes.

Sora nudged Riku. “Liar,” he teased Riku playfully, and kept nudging him until Riku acknowledged him, shoving Sora’s arm away.

“Yeah, yeah,” he drawled out.

“’Liar’?” Axel asked, watching the two of them and Sora smiled.

“Riku was already thinking about leaving, even before Kairi came along,” he revealed.

“You could have just said that,” Kairi pointed out and Riku shrugged. Terra was glad that he hadn’t been misremembering.

The three of them were walking across a bridge later and Riku calls out Sora’s name. Sora turns and Riku tosses a paopu fruit at him and says that he wanted one.

Sora felt his eyebrows twitch slightly when he watched this part. He had always found this strange. Why had Riku given him a paopu?

Sora calls it a paopu fruit and Riku says that if two people share one, their destinies become intertwined. He knows that Sora wants to try it.

Mickey felt his ears droop slightly as he watched the younger version of Riku. Even now, he was trying to get an answer from Sora.

Aqua thoughts sounded like a very beautiful idea. Something to intertwine destinies. She had tried with the Wayfinders but that… clearly hadn’t worked.

Riku tried to hide the blush that was working up his cheeks. He knew that it was a stupid idea, he knew it. He just… needed to know.

Sora starts to ask something, but Riku runs away laughing. Sora tosses away the fruit and runs after him.

The screen fades to darkness before revealing a big, bright castle.

“Oh, Disneytown!” Mickey exclaimed, looking at the castle where he lived. “I didn’t realize we would be seeing this part.”

“You mean the part where you up and disappeared with not so much as a goodbye?” Riku asked, aiming a look at the king, who chuckled nervously.

“I… left them a note?”

Donald is walking down the hallway; several sentient brooms pass behind him.

Sora blinked, taking in Donald’s outfit. It was different from the one he always wore when they were traveling the world.

Riku watched as one of Sora’s companions walked across the screen. He couldn’t help but remember the pure jealousy that had burned through him when he had first met them.

Donald stops in front of a pair of huge doors.

“How is that practical?” Axel asked, gazing at the doors. Not even the doors to Castle Oblivion had been that big. Mickey giggled slightly.

Donald knocked on the door in a pattern and a much smaller door opened for him.

Several people blinked and then wrote it off as “Disneytown Weirdness”. There was always plenty of that.

Donald walks down the throne room, greeting Mickey as he goes. He starts to talk about the morning but pauses in shock when he realizes that the throne is empty.

A couple of people gave Mickey looks. Riku simply rolled his eyes good naturedly. That was Mickey in a nutshell.

Pluto appears from behind the throne with a letter.

Xion sat up. “Doggy!” She exclaimed, dragging the attention to her. She flushed, ducking her head. “He was around the areas where I went a lot,” she told them. “I fed him for a while, and he stuck around. Though he did disappear after a while. Sorry if he’s… your dog.”

Mickey shook his head with a smile. “No, it’s fine,” he told the girl. “Pluto tends to wander around the world. If he managed to wander into other worlds, it’s not your fault for finding him. In fact, I’m glad that you took care of him.” Xion looked up at the king and smiled gently, joy sparking in her eyes. Mickey made a mental not to find Pluto when they got out of here. He didn’t know that much about Xion, but it was clear Pluto had meant a lot to her.

Donald takes the letter and reads it, growing more and more agitated. The doors to the throne room are thrown open and Donald runs out of it, screaming.

Everyone in the room started laughing. Even Vanitas couldn’t help the snicker that escaped him at the duck’s panic.

Sora thought that was very Donald.

Donald runs to the garden, when Goofy is asleep on the grass.

“Much like someone I know,” Kairi whispered, poking at Sora, who waved her away with a smile.

Donald attempts to wake up Goofy but when it doesn’t work, he zaps him with lightning to wake him.

Sora couldn’t help but laugh at their interaction.

Naminé flinched when the lightning arced across the screen. It’s not Larxene, she told herself, trying to keep her breathing level. She’s not here and she’s not going to hurt you.

Goofy greets Donald and Donald says that they have a problem, but not to tell anyone. Goofy says Minnie and Daisy’s names, with Donald thinking he’s asking him, so he says not to tell anyone. Goofy greets the ladies and Donald spins around.

Mickey drooped slightly at the sight of Minnie. He didn’t regret staying with Riku, helping him grow and overcome what had happened to him, but it had been a long time since he had seen his wife. He knew Minnie understood, of course she did, but he still wished he could see her.

Donald laughs awkwardly.

The scene transitions to Sora sitting in the Secret Place, looking over drawings of him and Kairi.

The scene flashes back to when Kairi and Sora were little, drawing on the wall.

Aqua couldn’t help the small “aww” that came out of her at the scene of the little kids, and she heard the sentiment echoed by Mickey. Both Kairi and Sora flushed.

Riku looked away. That was our place, he thought. Just the two of us. Until Sora brought Kairi in. But then again, why wouldn’t he? Kairi is so much better than me, in everything.

As the scene goes back to present time, Sora draws himself giving a paopu to Kairi.

Sora felt his smile dim ever so slightly at that. He knew why he had done it; he knew why. Kairi had meant the world to him; she was one of his best friends. But he couldn’t help but think back to what had happened in the World that Never Was. They had both changed, drastically.

Kairi smiled as she watched Sora draw the paopu. She remembered drawing the second one after she got home. Maybe when they got out of here, she and Sora could officially share one.

Riku closed his eyes and tried not to think about anything. Seeing it that night, after what he had overheard, he couldn’t deal with it. So, he had destroyed the world.

Sora hears something behind him and turns around, asking who was there. A voice says that he had come to see the door.

Both Sora and Riku froze when they recognized the voice of Ansem. The person who had done everything.

“Who’s that?” Aqua asked, tipping her head at the figure on the screen.

“Ansem,” Sora hissed out, glaring at the person. “He hurt Riku.”

More like he only exposed the darkness in my heart, Riku thought, but didn’t say anything.

“You didn’t tell me this happened,” Kairi whispered to him, and Sora shrugged. At the time, he had simply found it weird and was half convinced he had made it up.

The voice says that the world has been connected. Sora is confused but the voice says it’s been tied to the darkness.

No, the darkness was here the whole time, Riku’s thoughts hissed.

Sora tells the voice to stop freaking him out before noticing the person in the corner. The person says that Sora doesn’t know what is beyond the door and Sora deduces that the person is from another world.

“Seriously Sora, you should have said something,” Kairi murmured, shivering as she watched Sora confront the person. Sora reached out and wrapped an arm around her, giving her a hug. At the time, it hadn’t been scary, but knowing now that he had been so close to Ansem, it was enough to make him slightly scared.

The person says that Sora knows so little. Sora says he’s going to go out there and learn but the person calls it a meaningless effort. He says that one who knows nothing can understand nothing. Sora turns to the door in the corner before looking back. The figure is gone.

“Sora, say something the next time you find yourself confronted by a mysterious figure spouting nonsense, okay?” Kairi asked and Sora nodded slowly, pulling his arm back to him. They both relaxed now that Ansem was gone.

In the sun, Sora talks to Kairi, who says she’s making a necklace of shells to protect them on the raft and to make sure they were connected.

“Oh, I tried that,” Aqua said, fishing her Wayfinder out of her pocket. “It’s not made of shells, because we didn’t have those, but it’s close.” Kairi blinked but reached out, taking Aqua’s Wayfinder in careful hands and looked at it. Sora pulled out Kairi’s lucky charm and the two of them compared them.

“It looks a lot like it,” Sora mentioned, looking between the two. “It’s really pretty.”

“Thanks,” Aqua replied, taking the Wayfinder back. “I had hoped that they would protect Terra, Ven, and myself, as well as link us, but… that didn’t really work.” Her shoulders drooped and Ven moved, leaning on her side.

“It did work, Aqua,” he reassured her. “We’re all three of us here now.” He pulled his Wayfinder out of his pocket. “See?” She smiled gently down at him while Terra pulled out his own Wayfinder.

Vanitas rolled his eyes at them, trying to ignore the stabbing pain that went through him.

That night, Sora and Kairi sit on the dock together, looking out. Kairi says that Riku has changed.

Riku raised an eyebrow. “I did?” He asked, ignoring the small part of him that jumped in panic. This was before the storm; nothing had happened then.

“I just meant that you were really focused on the raft,” Kairi explained, waving a dismissive hand.

When Sora asks her what she meant, she trails off. Sora asks if she’s okay. Kairi exclaims that the two of them should just take the raft and go. When Sora questions her, she says that she was kidding.

Riku couldn’t stop the flinch that went through him. It didn’t hurt any less now than it had then, hearing it from around the corner as he was about to talk to them. The two of them had wanted to leave him, to go out on their own. And maybe, it would have been for the best, he thought. If they had gone and gotten out before he’d had a chance to hurt them the way he had.

“Why did you say that, Kairi?” Sora asked, giving her a look and she smiled, trying not to let the truth show.

“I was just trying to get your attention,” she told him. “You were… distracted that day. But, now seeing what happened in the cave, it made sense why you were. Sorry.” Sora smiled at her and waved it off.

Axel, Terra, Mickey, and Aqua, however, could see the lie in Kairi’s words. While there was confusion in two of their gazes, Mickey sighed quietly. He knew from Riku that Kairi had always wanted to be close to Sora, it was how she was. He didn’t blame her.

Ah, unrequited love, Axel hummed in his head, watching Kairi carefully. I know it well.

Sora says that Kairi’s the one who’s changed, and Kairi says maybe. She admits that she was a little afraid at first but that she was ready now. And that she could always come back to Destiny Islands.

I wish I could, Riku thought. But he had changed too much to go back to Destiny Islands now. Back to their ordinary, boring life where everything was the same day after day. It wasn’t something he could do.

Unknown to him, the same thoughts were floating through Sora’s head.

Kairi tells Sora to never change before standing up and looking out. Kairi says that she can’t wait to set sail.

Kairi winced at the lie in her younger self’s voice. She hoped no one else could hear it too.

The screen shows a desk. “Donald, sorry to rush off without saying goodbye but there’s big trouble brewing.”

“See, I left a note,” the king said, looking at Aqua. She smiled slightly at him.

“Not sure why, but the stars have been blinking out, one by one. And that means disaster can’t be far behind. I hate to leave you all but I’ve gotta go check into it.”

“By running off to Traverse Town, waiting for a world to get consumed by darkness and then throwing yourself into the rift it created?” Riku asked rhetorically, raising an eyebrow at the mouse.

Mickey shrugged. “It was the best way to figure out where the worlds were going.”

“Mickey,” Aqua groused out, placing her head in her hands. “That’s incredibly dangerous.”

“I had to know,” Mickey said firmly, not backing down from his decision.

“There’s someone with a key- the key to our survival. So, I need you and Goofy to find him, and stick with him. Got it?”

Sora smiled slightly at the mention of the key and finding him. “Thanks for sending them, King Mickey,” Sora said, turning to the king. “They’ve been the best companions I could ask for. Mickey smiled back at him.

Riku tried not to think about Hollow Bastion and Goofy and Donald abandoning Sora. It was really the only reason why he still didn’t like them. They had left Sora, alone and without a weapon, in a place where the Heartless roamed.

So did you, his thoughts hissed. Well, it’s not like I’m pretending to be a good person.

“We need that key, or we’re doomed! So go to Traverse Town and find Leon. He’ll point you in the right direction.”

“Hah, no pressure or anything,” Sora muttered, tugging at one of the lengths of his hair. He knew the Keyblade was meant to save the worlds, but there were times when he didn’t know what to do. Certainly not alone, either.

“P.S. Would ya apologize to Minnie for me? Thanks pal!”

“Apologize to your wife yourself,” Aqua murmured, rubbing her temples.

“Don’t worry, once I see her again, I plan to,” Mickey reassured her.

Minnie says they’ll just have to go find the king. Goofy hopes he’s okay and Donald says that they’ll go find the ‘key’.

Sora smiled again. And find him, they did.

Minnie and Daisy say to be careful, and Minnie says that Jiminy will go with them, to chronicle their journey. Jiminy introduces himself.

“Oh yeah, he’s the one who travels in your hood right?” Riku asked and Sora nodded.

“Sometimes, I forget he’s there.”

Donald says goodbye to Minnie and Daisy and has to drag Goofy with him to come as well.

Several of them laugh at the antics.

Walking down a long staircase, Goofy asks Jiminy if his world disappeared as well. Jiminy says it did and that he was the only one to make it to the castle.

Sora, Kairi, and Riku all winced, looking away from the screen. Losing their world was still a bad memory for all of them, even if it was for different reasons.

Donald and Goofy discuss world order for a second.

“Who came up with world order anyway?” Terra asked. “I mean, Master Eraqus mentioned it, but the way he said it… it wasn’t as a big thing as Donald’s making it out to be.”

“Mostly me,” Mickey explained. “After what happened to you three and Radiant Garden fell, travel between worlds became… even more taboo, in a way. Some people believed that traveling the worlds caused the Heartless to appear, while others thought that traveling the worlds hurt them. In the end, it was just easier to have no travel at all and when travel did occur, it was best to not draw attention to it.”

Goofy says they’ll need new outfits.

Donald and Goofy enter the launch bay and Donald tells the crew anytime they’re ready. Mechanical hands pick up Donald and Goofy and place them in the ship, Pluto running after them.

“That… can’t be that efficient, right?” Riku asked, watching the sequence. Mickey shrugged.

Donald and Goofy leave in the ship.

“Huh, the worlds sure do look different from the outside,” Axel remarked as the sight of the Disneytown world was shown. Roxas and Xion both blinked in surprise. They had never seen the outside of any world.

They blast off through space.

Naminé, Vanitas, Roxas, and Xion, all watched in awe. None of them had ever been in space before, either using corridors or never leaving their world. It was… breathtaking. Even if one of them would deny that fact.

The screen shows Sora laying on his bed at night.

All three of the Islanders froze. This was it. The night Destiny Islands fell.

A storm is shown outside, and Sora worries about the raft.

“That’s your first thought?” Roxas asked but none of the Islanders responded. He looked over to see them frozen, staring at the screen.

A woman’s voice is heard calling for Sora. The window is open.

“Mom,” Sora whispered out, sounding like he had been punched in the gut. It had been so long since he had seen her. And even longer than he had thought. He had been asleep for a year after all. “Kairi, you’ve been at home. Are my moms doing okay?”

She nodded slowly, an uncomfortable look crossing her face. “Yes…” she started, trailing off. While Sora took that for an answer, Riku looked to her, knowing what Kairi was thinking. The two women had also been affected during the year break. They had also forgotten Sora. It was clear Sora didn’t remember that part right now.

Naminé flinched slightly, wishing for her sketchbook.

Sora makes it to the play island, noticing Kairi and Riku’s boats are both there.

“None of you should have gone out during a storm,” Aqua muttered. “It’s too dangerous.”

Well, I started the storm, Riku thought cynically. So, I didn’t travel in it.

Sora spots a growing pit of darkness and wonders what it is. Several Heartless appear and Sora fights them with his wooden sword.

After he gets rid of them, he runs down a path, finding Riku, who was standing at the edge of the cliff. Sora asks him where Kairi was.

Riku slammed his eyes closed and turned away, missing Mickey’s look of concern to him. He couldn’t… he couldn’t see this again.

Riku tells Sora that the door has opened and now they can go to the outside world.

Riku flinched again, feeling his hands curl into fists and his nails bite into his palms. Both Terra and Aqua watch the on-screen Riku in concern. What was happening to him?

Sora says they have to find Kairi and Riku says that Kairi’s coming with them.

Well, at least he was thinking about me, Kairi thought as she watched it. She hadn’t known this had happened.

Riku says there’s no turning back.

He hated it, stars he did. He hadn’t meant to fall; he hadn’t meant to allow darkness to manipulate him but…

Kairi and Sora had talked about leaving him. When he had gone to the secret place, Sora’s drawing was right there. He had chosen Kairi over him. He couldn’t do anything but hurt and then… and then he had opened the door.

Riku says this is their only chance and that he isn’t afraid of the darkness.

None of the watchers said anything. The ones who knew about his fall to darkness were sad and the ones who didn’t were concerned about what was happening.

Riku reaches his hand out to Sora and darkness starts to build at his feet. Sora attempts to reach Riku, but the darkness overwhelms him. Everything goes black.

All of them were worried. What was happening?

A spark of light is suddenly shown and Sora stumbles backwards, a Keyblade in his grip. Riku is gone.

What would have happened? Sora wondered, looking at his younger self. What would have happened if I had gone with Riku? Would it have been good? Or bad?

Riku had his eyes slammed closed, but he could still hear what was going on. He could hear the exact moment when Sora got his Keyblade. Got Riku’s Keyblade. Because Riku hadn’t been good enough.

Kairi blinked. She hadn’t ever seen that before. Was that how Riku had gotten lost?

Aqua and Terra exchanged a glance. It was clear that Riku lost himself, at least to a degree, to the darkness. But he seemed fine now. Sora and Kairi both seemed fine around him and it was clear that this moment was taxing on him to watch. But what had happened? How had Riku saved himself from darkness?

Roxas couldn’t help but remember that Riku had referenced a “dark power” when he had fought him. Is this where it came from?

Mickey sighed quietly. While he knew Riku would eventually save himself from the darkness and that it was an integral part of him now, there was still a small part of him that wished that Riku hadn’t gone through with it. That Riku was still back home, living life and being fine. But that wasn’t meant to be.

Sora looks around but is distracted quickly by more Heartless, which he fights off with his Keyblade.

He runs to the Secret Place, where he finds Kairi. She turns and says his name, but the door blows open behind her. He attempts to catch her, but she fades away.

“What?” Several people ask and Sora laughs quietly, the only hint of levity from him.

“Kairi’s heart went into mine,” he explained to the group around them. “I kept her safe.”

It was clear that wasn’t a good explanation for most of them, but they let it be for a second.

He gets blown out of the Secret Place, landing back on the beach. He looks out and there is darkness everywhere. The beast from his dream rises up behind him.

Aqua glared at it. She hated them, badly.

Sora fights the beast and destroys it. Wind starts pulling him up. Reaching out, he tries to hold on to a piece of wood but gets dragged up and away from the island.

In Traverse Town, Goofy and Donald look up. Goofy notes that a star is going out.

Destiny Islands, the three Islanders thought. Their home was gone.

Donald tells Goofy to hurry and the two of them walk off.

The screen fades to black.

“Room?” Kairi suddenly said, looking up at the ceiling again. “I think we need a quick break.” The lights around the room come back and the screen stays black.

For a second, none of them said anything. A lot had just happened. Riku finally opened his eyes. Sora looked away. Kairi looked down at her hands.

The adults exchanged glances. They probably needed to talk about this now.

Chapter Text

“So, for the benefit of everyone who wasn’t there, what exactly happened, in quick notes, between then and now?” Aqua asked after a second, sitting forward in her seat and looking at the Islanders. The three of them exchanged a glance, Riku quickly looking away, and Sora decided to take the story.

“Well after that I arrived in Traverse Town and met Donald and Goofy, we traveled around the worlds for a while. We sealed some keyholes, fought some Heartless, and looked for Kairi and Riku. Then, after a while…” Sora trailed off, looking to Riku, who bit the inside of his mouth.

“I had been found by Maleficent,” Riku said shortly. The other Keyblade Wielders blinked in surprise, recognizing the name. “She… convinced me that she could help save Kairi who had lost her heart. I didn’t… listen to Sora.”

“After a while, we ended up in Hollow Bastion,” Sora continued with a quick concerned look to Riku. “Where Ansem, the man you saw before talking to me, possessed Riku’s body. I released Kairi from my heart and then Riku and I managed to close the Door to Kingdom Hearts, though from opposite sides.”

Riku scoffed to himself. Sora was skipping over a lot of the terrible things Riku had done. Well, it didn’t matter. The rest of them would see them soon.

“Something else happened after that, though I can’t remember it. Then I woke up and we traveled around more worlds, fighting people from Organization 13. After that, Riku and I ended up in the Realm of Darkness and now, we’re here.” Sora leaned forward. “What about you?”

“Terra, Ven, and I traveled around the worlds similar to you,” Aqua explained. “We were searching for each other. But… we were betrayed. Terra ended up possessed,” Ven jolted in surprise, eyes going wide and his breath getting caught in his throat, but one look at Terra was enough to tell him that bringing it up really wasn’t the best idea, “I was trapped in the Realm of Darkness, and Ven fell into an unending sleep. Vanitas,” Aqua said the name in anger and said boy raised an eyebrow at her, resting his head on one of his hands and watching the conversation with an expression of careful blankness. “is supposed to be dead.”

“Welcome to the club,” Roxas snarked from his place near Axel. “I suppose it’s our turn. Xion, Axel, and I were all part of Organization 13, a group of Nobodies who were attempting to create Kingdom Hearts to give ourselves hearts, which we lost when our Somebodies were split into a Heartless and a Nobody. Xion and I ended up fighting due to the Organization’s scheming and I ended up having to kill her.” Roxas’s gaze flickered at that and Xion reached out, taking Roxas’s hand gently and Axel’s hand settled on Roxas’s back in support. “After that, I was thrown into a virtual reality by that one,” pointing at Riku, “and DiZ, so I could die “at the proper moment” and bring Sora back. Which they got.” He sat back with a huff, crossing his arms.

Aqua, Mickey, and Terra really wanted to bring up the whole ‘I killed her thing’ but Axel moved on before they could. Perhaps intentionally.

“I kidnapped Kairi in order to get Sora killed by a Heartless so Roxas would come back,” Axel said bluntly, taking several people aback when he just blatantly admitted that he had been a villain. “But eventually, I tried to help and ended up sacrificing myself to get Sora and his cohorts into where the leader of Organization 13 was. So, I’m dead.”

“I’m from the part during which Sora can’t remember,” Naminé contributed in her soft voice, arms wrapping around herself again like she would have if she had a sketchbook to cling to her chest. “I’m Kairi’s Nobody and I thought I was also dead as well.”

“That part,” Sora started, leaning forward. “It will probably be shown, right?” Naminé stiffened and Axel’s eyes shot over to her in a second, knowing exactly why she was worried. And it wasn’t because she thought Sora was going to be mad at her.

“Probably,” Naminé confirmed, looking down, and Sora nodded.

“Then, we don’t really need to discuss it.” He sat back, leaning on Riku’s shoulder. He knew this was probably really troubling for Riku, so he wanted to show him that nothing had changed. Nothing was wrong now that they had to see it again. Riku had broken himself out of the darkness and he was here again. Sora wasn’t going to lose him, not over this.

“And Mickey?” Terra asked, looking at the king, who shrugged.

“I mostly was in the Realm of Darkness during this first part, then I mostly stuck with Riku, then Sora,” the king explained. “Nothing big happened with me.”

”Are we not going to discuss the ‘some of us should be dead’ thing?” Ven asked after a second and Vanitas scoffed in the back of his throat, giving his other half a dull look.

”Tell me, Ventus, if you have any idea how that’s possible,” he shot back drily. “Because if you don’t, we’re just uselessly speculating into the air and that doesn’t seem like a too good use of the time, now does it?”

Ven glared at him.

Aqua sat back with a hum, only Terra being able to see the worry and concern in her otherwise calm expression. Her fingertips danced on her leg and her eyes flicked around the group. Not because she was worried about what they would do, but because she didn’t know who to watch. It was clear all of them had some form of trauma response to something that they would be shown. Riku had succumbed to darkness, Roxas killed Xion, Sora forgot some stuff which had to be at least some version of worrying (She had grown up with Ven, she knew that for a fact), Kairi had been kidnapped by someone sitting in the room, and while they weren’t “kids” kids, both her and Terra had also been through some… things. And she highly doubted that any of them had taken a chance to sit and process it.

At least Master Eraqus waited until Terra and I were eighteen to have us take the Mark of Mastery. And even then, it should have been purely ceremonial, at least for the first couple of months. As the different groups descended into talking to each other, she pressed a hand to her mouth, under the pretext of supporting her head as she leaned to the side, to cover up the frown on her face. And maybe it was because she had memories of just about a year and a half ago, to her, about meeting Sora and Riku and them being shorter than her waist, even if the memories were fuzzy. She couldn’t remember much of the meeting anyway.

Terra prodded her in the arm, using Ven’s back as a shield to keep people from noticing he was doing it, and she flicked her eyes over to him.

You okay? He asked with his eyes. She paused, then shook her head minutely. Her eyes traveled back around the room before ending on Terra.

Kids, she told him, and he grimaced slightly. While he clearly hadn’t been on the same vein of thought as she was, he had clearly been thinking something similar.

Why are kids saving our world and who told them they had to?

“Riku,” Sora asked quietly, after the group had split into smaller groups after explaining what had happened. “Are you going to be okay?” With seeing everything all over again?

Riku didn’t answer for a second, still looking off to the side, before his eyes finally moved to Sora’s.

“I don’t know,” he admitted in a low voice. “Everything that happened, everything I did…”

“It wasn’t your fault,” Sora told him, reaching a hand out to take Riku’s, holding it close. “Maleficent manipulated you, you only wanted to save Kairi. And you helped us in the end. You closed the door!”

“I think you’re forgetting basically everything else that I did during that time,” Riku muttered, looking down at their clasped hands. “I hurt you, badly. I took the Keyblade from you in a place infested with Heartless, I let Ansem posses me out of petty jealousy, I didn’t stop him from fighting you.”

“But you sacrificed yourself to the Realm of Darkness to save us, you protected me for a year, you saved Kairi when she got kidnapped.” Sora looked up into Riku’s eyes, waiting until the older boy looked back to him. “I’m not going to let you forget that, got it? I’ll remind you every minute if I have to during these watches. You’re a good person, Riku. My best friend.”

Riku paused, an aborted breath going through him, before he sighed and looked away. “I’m not going anywhere,” Sora promised, holding Riku’s hand close.

Watching this, Mickey smiled slightly. He knew how much everything weighed on Riku, everything that had happened and everything that Riku had done. He was glad, at least, that Riku wouldn’t suffer alone during the viewing.

He was distracted by a sigh.

“Kairi?” He asked quietly, leaning over slightly to look at the girl. She was watching Sora and Riku interact with a melancholy expression on her face. She jumped in surprise when Mickey spoke to her.

“Oh, King Mickey,” she greeted. “How can I help you?”

“First, it’s just Mickey, you’re not one of my citizens,” he told her, smiling at the young girl. “And second, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong,” she started but quickly stopped when it was clear Mickey wasn’t believing her. “It’s just… They’ve both changed so much. And they’re so much stronger now. Yes, I have a Keyblade, but… where does that leave me?”

“Well,” Mickey started. “Sometimes things change, relations change. It doesn’t mean you’re not friends, you just have to find a new way to be friends.”

“So, Sora and I could repair our relationship?” She questioned, already turning to look at the boys, and Mickey winced. That wasn’t really what he meant. He knew what the girl wanted, and there was nothing wrong with it, but he had a feeling even though she knew things had changed, she hadn’t realized that they had changed too much.

“Maybe,” he said slowly. He couldn’t tell her that Sora was gone for her, he couldn’t do that to her. He needed her to realize it for herself, as much as that would hurt. And he would always be here as a shoulder to cry on if she needed it. All of the children needed support.

“Axel,” Xion said quietly, watching the room at large. “Should we be concerned about them turning on us when they see what we did?” Axel blinked in surprise before looking down at the girl at his side. Roxas turned to him as well, wide eyed from Xion’s question.

“No, absolutely not,” he reassured them, reaching out and placing his hands on their backs. “You two did nothing bad at all. You had no memories and the first person you met told you he could get you hearts, a sentiment only backed up by everyone you met. It is not your fault. And if they did, I would find some way to break out of this place and take you two with me, okay?”

Xion paused but nodded, looking a little bit more reassured.

“But what about you?” Roxas asked, watching Axel, who grimaced.

“I… did a bit more,” he admitted. “I did try to kill Sora on multiple occasions. And while I accept that many people are going to be mad at me, I don’t think they’d attack me over it. They’re heroes of light and all that.” Xion giggled slightly at the sarcastic lilt to his voice at the title and Roxas smiled, leaning more on Axel’s side. “We’re going to be just fine. My main concern is that you’re going to see what happened in Castle Oblivion.”

Roxas tensed, remembering the few days he had thought Axel was dead. The dull grey that had passed over his eyes and refused to leave, uncaring about the world.

“Everyone died at Castle Oblivion, right?” Xion asked and Axel nodded.

“But several of those deaths were thanks to me, so just… remember that.” Xion blinked before looking up at him.

“That’s not going to change how we feel about you,” she told him seriously. “You’re our friend. No matter what.”

Besides, she didn’t really believe he could have done anything too terrible.

Ven couldn’t help the way that his eyes kept flicking over to Vanitas. His other half didn’t look… sad in any conventional way, but he sure didn’t look happy or comfortable, despite his attempts to look so. It was clear that Aqua hated him, and Terra, at least, disliked him. If not for Brain taking away their ability to use their Keyblades, Aqua probably would have attacked and either severely hurt or even killed Vanitas.

And it wasn’t like Ven wasn’t mad at Vanitas. He had scattered Unversed across the worlds, had possessed Ven and attempted to kill his friends, and had caused Ven to fall into his sleep, which he had, technically, not awoken from yet.

But at the same time… He couldn’t help but remember the few memories he had from his time as Master Xehanort’s apprentice. It hadn’t been… fun, to put it lightly, and he had only been there for about a year. He couldn’t imagine dealing with it for four more years.

And it hurt that he knew if he tried to reach out, he would be rebuffed harshly. By both Vanitas and Aqua. But… Vanitas was a part of him once, and while he was his own person now, it didn’t stop Ven from being some form of worried for him.

He wished he could help him.

“Are we ready to start watching again?” Mickey asked the group after the conversations that had started petered off slowly. Several people exchanged glances, and Sora’s hand tightened around Riku’s, but no one objected. “Room?” Mickey asked, looking up, and the lights started to dim again.

The black square began to show images.

Donald and Goofy walk down the town and Donald wonders about where the key would be.

“Was he hoping you would just appear from the sky?” Axel asked with a raised eyebrow. “Mickey specifically said that you were a person with a key.” Sora shrugged. He was aware of Donald’s… lack of patience, but it hadn’t ever affected him badly.

Goofy says they should go find Leon. Pluto starts walking off and Goofy tries to draw attention to it but Donald ignores him.

Sora could help the small chuckle that slipped out of him. Had they followed Pluto, they would have found him much faster.

Pluto finds Sora.

“You were just there?” Aqua asked, watching the town. “Just appeared?”

“Well, Traverse Town was specifically created by the worlds as a place that people go when their world disappears,” Mickey explained. “People do just appear there once their world falls to darkness.” Aqua nodded slowly.

Pluto licks Sora, who wakes up slowly.

“Didn’t your world just end in a big, epic fight with a creature and a cataclysmic storm?” Roxas asked, seeing Sora sit up on screen. “Shouldn’t you be more awake?”

“Sora’s always slept very heavily,” Kairi said with a giggle. “No one can wake up Sora except Sora and apparently Pluto.” Sora shrugged with a smile. There was a perk to it. He was never tired because he always got enough sleep.

Sora looks at Pluto and remarks about what a strange dream. Pluto jumps on Sora, making him realize that it wasn’t a dream.

“No… you just got that?” Vanitas snarked, watching the events through half-lidded eyes. Sora shot him a look but didn’t say anything.

Sora gets up and wonders where he is. He asks Pluto.

“Did you think the dog was going to answer you?” Riku asked and Sora huffed. He would be more offended, but it was a nice sign that Riku was teasing him. It meant Riku couldn’t be too upset.

“Well, I was in a new world and had just seen… all of what happened in our world,” Sora defended himself. “How did I know the dog wasn’t going to talk?”

“Because he’s a dog?” Roxas deadpanned but Xion flicked him in the shoulder.

“Don’t be mean,” she admonished. “Sometimes, it seems like Pluto can actually understand and talk to you. He’s a smart dog.” Mickey flashed her a smile. He knew it well. It was why he entrusted his letter to Pluto. He knew the dog wouldn’t eat it.

Pluto runs off and Sora heads to the town square, remarking about how weird it was.

“That whole day was weird,” Sora sighed. He remembered; they went to Wonderland after this. That place would forever be bonkers.

He realizes he’s in another world.

As he walks, he sees a person stumble out of the alley before their heart pulls itself out of their chest and they turn into a Heartless.

All of them either jumped or felt dread settle into their stomachs.

“You just… saw that Sora?” Kairi asked, leaning on his side slightly. “Just like that, right as you woke up?” Sora nodded mutely. It had been scary, really scary. He had just fought several of those beasts before and it had hit him that those things had been people. Of course, he would learn later that they were nothing more than a dark will holding a heart, but it still had made him sick for a while.

Riku shivered as he watched the creation of the Heartless. It wasn’t his first time seeing it, but still. When he had traveled around the worlds, he had seen plenty of darkness and people succumbing to it, and his possessed self had made a Heartless out of Maleficent, but… A Heartless that close to Sora when he was still relatively new to the Keyblade and defending himself. Not to mention how much that would have scared younger Sora.

The others, minus Mickey and Axel, leaned forward. None of them had ever truly seen the creation of a Heartless before. Xion and Roxas had fought and destroyed plenty, as had Aqua, but the creation process was new. Roxas and Naminé both watched with a sense of… familiarity. It was how they had been created, after all. Roxas, at least. And the three former Organization 13 members knew that a Nobody had just been created. Probably a lesser one, like the dusks, but maybe they were mistaken.

Several Heartless rise up from the ground around Sora and he realizes that they’re the same creatures from the Islands.

He fights them off.

Riku couldn’t help but be glad that he and Sora had sparred so often on the Islands. Now, Sora had at least some version of knowledge on how to fight, even if it was now with a giant key instead of a sword.

Kairi was worried when she watched Sora fight off the creatures. She knew that Sora was capable now, but back then he hadn’t had any experience.

Aqua thought that Sora holding a weapon and fighting the creatures looked wrong, especially at his age. Yes, he was only a year younger than Ven, but he hadn’t been supposed to leave either.

A voice from behind Sora tells him that the Heartless will come at him out of nowhere. When Sora asks who it is, the man says that they won’t stop coming after him as long as he wields the Keyblade.

“Leon, I presume?” Terra asked, looking to Mickey, who nodded.

Leon wonders why it would choose a kid like him.

Aqua blinked at that. That was a good point, if not for the reason Leon thought. Who had Bequeathed the Keyblade to Sora? As far as she knew, that was the only way to get one. She and Terra had been Bequeathed by Master Eraqus and Ven by Master Xehanort, but who had Bequeathed Sora? It couldn’t have been someone from his home, because she assumed they would have told him if they gave him the ability to wield a giant key. And it hadn’t been her. It could have been Terra, but he wouldn’t have been that foolish to give the destiny to a child, right?

And who would even give it to Sora of all children? No offence to Sora, but there was nothing special about him when she had visited. No spark of light that she had seen in Riku, no Bloodline that she could tell, even if her memories of that day were fuzzy. Nothing about him at all screamed “Potential Powerful Keyblade Wielder”. So, who had done it? And why?

Sora asks what Leon means but he brushes him aside, instead asking to see the Keyblade. Sora says that Leon can’t have it. Leon pulls out his sword.

“Mickey, why is your friend attacking Sora?” Aqua asked tightly, eyes flicking between the Sora and Leon on the screen. Mickey paused, trying to think it over.

“I think, it might be to protect Sora?” He said slowly, getting several long looks from the other adults in the room and Riku. “He did just say that the Heartless won’t leave him alone if he has the Keyblade.”

“Don’t attack people if you’re trying to protect them,” Terra mumbled, mind flicking back to the last time he saw his Master. He curled his hands into fists to stop them from shaking.

Both Roxas and Xion gave Axel a look. “Oh shh,” the older man retorted, gently whacking them on the backs of their heads. “Our situation was different.”

Leon knocks Sora out.

Sora could feel Riku tense from next to him. “I’m okay,” he told him, nudging him slightly. “Leon has only been helpful since them.” Riku gave him a look. Sora could basically read it. You’re too forgiving. He smiled at Riku.

A girl tells Leon that he’s slipping. The girl is revealed.

“Yuffie,” Sora explains before anyone could ask. “She used to live in Traverse Town with Leon and Aerith.”

Leon said that he went easy on Sora. He says that things are clearly a lot worse than they thought.

“Because a child is holding a Keyblade?” Vanitas asked drily, raising an eyebrow. Sora paused before looking at Vanitas. Ven flicked his eyes over to Vanitas.

“Careful Vanitas,” he teased gently. “That could almost be interpreted as defending Sora.” Vanitas’s nose scrunched up, face falling into a scowl.

“It’s not,” he spat back. “Why would I defend kid Keybearer who is as clearly as pathetic as you?”

Ven didn’t respond but his smile didn’t fade. Vanitas huffed and crossed his arms, glaring off to the side.

The screen fades back into color, revealing Riku waking up on the ground.

“Riku!” Sora exclaimed. He hadn’t ever seen it; he didn’t know what had happened to Riku before he appeared in Traverse Town. “It’s you!”

Riku gave him a look, one eyebrow arcing up as he looked back to Sora. “Yes?” He responded. Sora flushed.

“No, it’s just that I never knew that this happened.” Riku looked away at that, swallowing, and Sora squeezed the hand he was holding again. I’m here.

Riku looked around in confusion, wondering where he was.

Sora suddenly gasped. “Riku, are you in Hollow Bastion?” He asked and Riku flinched slightly. A second later, he nodded.

“Hollow Bastion, the place where you fought Ansem?” Aqua asked, thinking back to Sora’s earlier explanation. Sora nodded. Aqua grimaced, trying not to let the worry show on her face. So Riku, who was already struggling with some form of darkness, was delivered on a silver platter to Maleficent, all alone.

Her eyes flicked to Terra. It was making more and more sense why Riku would have sided with Maleficent. She could have even pretended to be good, for a while at least, until Riku was too far in to get out. Terra knew at least how manipulative she could be, even if he hadn’t fallen for it. But he had been more secure in himself, had an already established mission, and had some idea of darkness and its components. Riku had none of that.

He calls his friends names.

Kairi blinked in surprise. Riku, of all people, was looking for her? She knew that he had been trying to get her heart back for her, even if she never found out why, but she had thought that had happened after he happened upon her body and just decided to do it. She honestly thought he would only be searching for Sora. Even before, when he said to Sora that Kairi was coming with them, it surprised her.

In the distance, Maleficent is seen watching him.

Riku wasn’t the only one to shiver upon the realization that Maleficent was watching him. He knew that she had been the first one he had seen, but still, seeing it was something else. Sora leaned a little on Riku’s side. He didn’t like to hate, he didn’t like the feeling, but he thought he hated Maleficent just a little, for what she did to Riku.

In Traverse Town, Goofy and Donald are walking down that path. Goofy remarks that no one is there.

“Why is no one there?” Naminé asked quietly, leaning on the side of her plush chair. “Wouldn’t it be full of people if the stars are continually going out?”

“Well, like Jiminy said, there wasn’t a guarantee that they would make it to Traverse Town,” Mickey explained with a sad smile, trying not to look at Riku as he explained. He knew that it would only make the boy feel worse. “He was the only one to get to the castle after all. Also, there were Heartless loose on the streets, not that it was Sora’s fault.” He gave the boy a look. “They might have all been hiding.”

Donald said he wasn’t scared only to jump onto Goofy’s back as he was tapped on the shoulder.

They all had a good laugh at that, the scene providing some much-needed levity to the room.

A woman asks if the king sent them.

“Aerith,” Sora said, not even needing to specify who he was talking about.

As Sora wakes up, he thinks Kairi is next to him.

“Sora?” Kairi asked quietly, knowing very well that she wasn’t anywhere near Traverse Town or even awake enough to be there.

“Yuffie looked a lot like you to my addled brain,” Sora said as an explanation. Kairi nodded.

She explains that the creatures were after him because of the Keyblade, even though it’s his heart they really want.

“They don’t get to have your heart,” Kairi murmured into his shoulder, and he smiled gently at her. She smiled back, an unknown light in her eyes.

Sora calls her Kairi, and she corrects him. The screen flickers before showing Yuffie.

“How old is Yuffie anyway?” Kairi asked and Sora paused before shrugging.

“Maybe, a little older than us?” He wondered. “I never really asked.”

Leon enters and Yuffie introduces him. Sora notices the Keyblade against the wall and Yuffie tells him they had to get it away from him in order to get rid of the Heartless.

Point to Leon, Riku thought. Why he couldn’t just explain that, Riku didn’t know, but at least he hadn’t done anything else.

Leon says that was how they were tracking him, and it wouldn’t last for long. He says that it was hard to believe Sora was the chosen one.

“Terra,” Aqua whispered under her breath, knowing Terra would hear her. “You didn’t Bequeath to Sora, right?” For a second Terra didn’t respond and she almost turned to look at him, but he shifted.

“No,” he said eventually, an uncertain note to his voice. But Aqua couldn’t hear a lie in his voice, so she let it go.

Terra wondered if she would let him say his goodbyes before she murdered him once it came out that he Bequeathed to Riku.

Leon picks up the Keyblade and it reappears in Sora’s hand.

“The amount of times where that has been useful in uncountable,” Sora muttered, hearing noises of agreement from Riku, Mickey, and the other teenagers. It was always nice when your weapon came back to you and villains couldn’t steal it.

Leon says beggars can’t be choosers.

Riku really didn’t know whether to like him or not.

Sora asks what was going on. The scene switches to Aerith explaining about other worlds. Goofy says they’re supposed to be secret. Aerith says they were secret because they were never connected.

“What would you call what Aqua, Ven, and I did then?” Terra asked, tipping his head to the side. “We traveled to the different worlds.”

“Yes, but you had special materials to do that,” Mickey told him. “Like my star shard and your gliders. The worlds themselves weren’t connected, but you could travel them.”

“Like Donald, Goofy, and I did later? Using the Gummiship?” Sora asked and Mickey nodded.

Aerith says that it changed once the Heartless appeared. Sora questions Heartless and Yuffie explains that they attack him. Leon says they’re beings without hearts, made of darkness.

“Wouldn’t that be the Nobodies though?” Roxas interjected. “We’re the ones without hearts and emotions.”

“Well…” Mickey started, but trailed off, thinking. The others thought about it as well, until Vanitas interrupted them with a laugh.

“Who named these things?” He snickered, oblivious or ignoring the looks Aqua was giving him. “The beings made of the body of the Somebody is called the Nobody while the beings made of the hearts of the Somebody is called the Heartless.” For a second, it was only Vanitas’s laughter before Sora snickered, hand clapping to his mouth to attempt to stifle the sound.

Riku chuckled slightly, as did Xion, while Mickey thought back.

“I believe it was the person you knew as DiZ, or Ansem the Wise,” the king told them, and while the Wayfinder Trio blinked in confusion, an expression of surprise malice crossed over both Naminé’s and Roxas’s faces.

“Makes sense,” Naminé spat out in a surprise burst of mean-spiritedness that made even her surprised, making several people turn to her in shock. “That man could never do anything right.”

A second later, Roxas burst out into full laughter, both at her comment and Vanitas’s older one. Any opportunity to make fun of DiZ was an opportunity he’d take. His laughter spurred on Riku’s, who in turn affected both Kairi and Sora. Xion started giggling when Roxas’s did, and Ven couldn’t help the laughter that slipped through him at his other half’s words. Naminé was already giggling again.

For a moment, the four adults of the room surveyed the multiple laughing teens, smiles flitting across their own faces at the moment of laughter in the otherwise tense atmosphere. Even Vanitas hadn’t stopped laughing since his comment, only spurred on by the surprising malicious statement from the girl in white. She had seemed so soft spoken. Unless you mentioned that man apparently.

“Do we want to know?” Aqua asked, raising an eyebrow at Mickey. The king smiled, eyes resting on Riku for a second, before moving back to Aqua.

“I don’t know most of it, but I think both Naminé and Roxas had… bad experiences with the man.”

“He was the one to trap Roxas in the virtual reality,” Axel explained, and she looked over at him. “He also verbally, and there’s a chance physically, abused Naminé for a year. And convinced Riku to be an accomplice to murder when he was trying to redeem himself.” Aqua blinked, taken aback, and could already feel a little bit of ire growing at the man, even though she had never met him. If he had hurt the kids…

“Yeah, none of us like him,” Roxas snarked out as the laughter started to die down. “What happened to him anyway?”

“His machine exploded and took him with it,” Riku said bluntly, and Roxas paused, before starting to laugh again. Aqua caught Naminé hiding a smile behind a hand. Well, if the kids didn’t like him, he couldn’t have been a good person.

As Roxas’s laughter petered out again, Sora shot a look at Riku. For a second, it almost seemed like the pre-Destiny Islands falling to darkness Riku was back.

Leon says that the darkness in people’s hearts attracts them. And that there was darkness in every heart.

While Aqua and Terra both made faces at that, both of them flashing back to Master Eraqus’s lectures about how bad darkness was, Kairi giggled slightly.

“Well, most of them,” she said and Ven looked over at her in intrigue.

“What do you mean?” He asked and she blinked, taken off guard by his interest.

“Well, there are seven “Princesses of Heart,” she explained. “They are characterized by having no darkness in their hearts at all. I happen to be one of them.”

Ven felt his mouth open slightly in surprise before snapping it shut with some effort. “Oh,” he responded vaguely, trying to think. He had never met another person like him, with no darkness at all. And even if he wasn’t… natural, like they were, it was still interesting. It would be nice to talk to Kairi sometime, get her insight on it.

Vanitas looked at his other half through the corner of his eye, knowing what he was thinking.

Yuffie asks if Sora’s ever heard of someone named Ansem.

“Both of them and they’re both terrible,” Riku quipped, and Sora laughed slightly. He squeezed Riku’s hand. He was glad Riku was able to joke and laugh like he used to. Even if it got worse deeper into the recordings, at least he had this moment.

Aerith tells Goofy and Donald that Ansem was studying the Heartless and recorded all his findings in a report. Goofy asks if they could see it but Aerith tells him it was scattered across the worlds.

Mickey couldn’t help the small spark of melancholy that went through him at the mention of Ansem. He remembered meeting the man all those years ago. Meeting him and seeing his lab, seeing the reports. Ansem had seemed like such a good person then, interested in only helping people. But pride and revenge could take everyone it seemed, and it was clear that the man Mickey once had known was gone. The man Mickey had known would never have treated Naminé like he did, even if she was a Nobody. He had adored Ienzo and any other child he had come across. The old him never would have taken something that Naminé’s status as a Nobody as an excuse to hurt her.

Distantly, he wondered what happened to Ienzo when the world fell. He would have been nineteen this year, if he had lived. Barely older than Aqua and Terra. Only three years older than Riku. Had he made it to one of the sanctuary worlds, like Traverse Town? Or had he perished in the fall of Radiant Garden, without even living a decade?

Goofy says that was probably where the king went. Aerith agrees with him.

Several looks were aimed Mickey’s way, who chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head, ears twitching self-consciously. While that might have been a plan, it wasn’t the one he had eventually settled on.

Goofy says they have to find the king, but Donald insists on finding the key. Aerith calls it the Keyblade.

Sora asks if the Keyblade is the key and Yuffie confirms it. Leon says that the Heartless fear the Keyblade, so they’ll keep coming after him.

“Even if they weren’t coming after me, I’d still go out and fight them,” Sora murmured, watching the screen. “Other people can’t fight them off.”

Sora says he didn’t ask for it and Yuffie says the Keyblade chooses its master.

“Well, that’s not entirely true,” Aqua said, causing several looks to be aimed at her way.

“What do you mean?” Sora asked, sitting up, and Aqua made a face.

“Basically, Keyblades don’t really choose people,” she explained. “Instead, a Keyblade Master or Bearer, though it’s usually a Master, can Bequeath a Keyblade to someone, thus giving them the power of the Keyblade. It’s how Terra and I got our Keyblades. Master Eraqus Bequeathed them to us when we were ten, though he had already been training us for a couple of years.”

Ven couldn’t help the remembered agitation and jealousy that went through him at that. While he knew now that the reason Eraqus refused to teach him much was the X-Blade and his role in it, it didn’t make any of his past frustration and anger go away.

“So, someone must have… Bequeathed the Keyblade to Sora?” Kairi asked and Aqua nodded.

“Could it have been someone on your island?” Terra asked and the three of them exchanged glances.

“I don’t think so,” Sora said slowly. “We would have known about it then, right? At least, I like to think that whoever gave me the Keyblade would have told me about it.”

Riku furrowed his eyebrows, silently watching the conversation. All this… was reminding him of a long-forgotten memory. Something he had dismissed as a dream years ago. But now, hearing this and looking at Terra, could it have been a memory?

Terra, or at least someone who looked like Terra, kneeling in front of him, holding the end of his Keyblade to him. Asking him to touch it.

Was that… a Bequeathing ritual? Had Terra Bequeathed a Keyblade to him?

He blinked again, eyes flicking to Terra, who was watching Aqua with careful consideration, clearly thinking about what she was saying. Had Terra given him his Keyblade, all those years ago, in a memory that felt like a dream? But why wasn’t Terra saying anything about it?

Riku paused before resolving to ask Terra about it later.

“But what about me and Xion?” Roxas asked, resting his head against Axel’s shoulder. “No one Bequeathed to us.”

“Well, you’re a part of Sora, aren’t you?” Aqua asked, turning to the teenager. “You’re Sora’s Nobody and even if you don’t have a heart of your own, that shouldn’t stop your ability to wield a Keyblade. Just look at Xehanort.” It was clear that the last line was meant to be just for her, with the way it was muttered, but Vanitas still heard it and couldn’t help the snort that escaped him. Even if Master Xehanort wasn’t truly heartless, he surely acted like it.

Aqua jumped in surprise at the laugh from Vanitas, who immediately stifled the noise and looked away. She didn’t say anything, staring at him in shock. Had he just… laughed at something she had said? And it hadn’t been his mocking laughter, she knew what that sounded like.

“What about me?” Xion asked, bringing Aqua’s attention back to her. “I’m just made of memories.”

“Have you ever held Roxas’s Keyblade?” Terra asked instead, and Aqua looked to him in confusion. But he seemed sure in what he was saying, so she didn’t interrupt him. “Before you had your Keyblade?” Xion paused, thinking back, before nodding slowly. “I bet that Roxas accidentally Bequeathed it to you during that moment. Bequeathing, at its most basic, requires that the recipient of the Bequeathing has contact with the Keyblade and that the Bearer of the Keyblade has some sort of intent that the person holding either can use it, or hold it, or something like that. Bequeathings differ for each person.”

“So, Roxas… gave me his Keyblade?” Xion wondered, turning to look at Roxas who looked just as mystified as her.

“More like, gave you the ability to unlock your own,” Terra explained. Xion blinked but smiled at Roxas.

“Well, thanks then,” she told him, and he nodded.

“Of course,” he responded, holding her hand gently.

“Though, that doesn’t explain Sora,” Aqua murmured.

“Maybe, we’ll find out while watching this,” Mickey volunteered. “Brain did say that we’d see the future as well. Maybe an answer will be given then.”

Sora asks what happened to his home and friends. Leon says he doesn’t know.

Riku flinched again, smaller than before, and the only reason Sora felt it was because he was leaning on him. He squeezed his hand again. Still here.

A Heartless suddenly appears in the room, shocking Yuffie, who Leon tells to run. Yuffie runs into the next room, which has Aerith, Donald, and Goofy.

“Wait, you were that close to each other?” Kairi asked and Sora nodded.

Leon jumps out the window and Sora runs down the stairs. The door swings back to reveal that it crushed Donald.

There were few snickers from across the room, but the tension was rising again as the Heartless appeared.

Leon says to find the leader and he and Sora fight the Heartless.

“Leader?” Ven asked, trying to learn as much as he could about the Heartless. Once he was awake in the real world, he was going to help them save the world.

“Sometimes Heartless have leaders that direct them, but not all places,” Sora explained, getting a nod from Ven.

Goofy asks if they are the Heartless and Donald says to fight them. They end up being flung off the wall and land on Sora.

“And thus, I met them,” Sora said, a smile curling around his mouth.

“Are you okay, Sora?” Kairi asked, staring at the pile of three half pints. “That looks like it could have hurt.”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” Sora replied with a wave. “Barely a scratch compared to what I get now.” The four adults thought that Sora’s statement wasn’t nearly as reassuring as he thought it was.

Donald and Goofy spot the Keyblade. Rumbling sounds from all around.

More Heartless appear and Donald, Goofy, and Sora fight them.

“Do they ever stop?” Terra wondered only for a big one to appear on screen once the rest of the little ones disappeared. “I take it back.”

The three of them attack and destroy the Heartless.

“Good job,” Riku murmured, and Sora smiled at him.

Sora asks about Goofy and Donald looking for him. The two of them confirm.

Leon says that they were also searching for the Keyblade Wielder.

Sora couldn’t help the smallest sigh that went through him. That still hadn’t changed. It seemed like everyone was always looking for him or looking to him.

Goofy offers to a chance to Sora to come with them.

“Just like that?” Roxas asked, a hint of incredulity in his voice. No one ever… just offered things in the world. It was always take, take, take. And if anyone ever offered something, it was because they were using you.

Axel looked down at the boy, knowing exactly what was going through his brain. He reached out an arm and wrapped it around the Nobody, holding him close.

That wouldn’t be Roxas’s world anymore. Not if he had anything to say about it.

“Just the way Goofy was,” Sora responded with a smile, oblivious to Roxas’s true feelings about the question.

Donald agrees, causing Goofy to question him. Donald says he can help them find the king.

“Sora?” Mickey asked, the unasked question in his voice making Sora wince slightly.

“Yes, Donald and I had some… disagreements in the beginning,” he conceded, not looking at anyone in the room. “At the start, he only wanted to find you and I only wanted to find my friends. But we worked through our feelings together and we are friends now. No matter how it started.”

None of the adults said anything.

Mickey frowned. Donald should have been…

Leon says Sora should go with them, especially if he wanted to find his friends.

Sora leaned on Riku for a quick second, while his other hand snaked back and held Kairi’s. They were both here now. He didn’t have to search anymore.

Donald says he couldn’t come with them looking like that. He says no frowning.

Aqua narrowed her eyes slightly. That… while good and the way of the Keybearer, probably wasn’t the best way to explain it. Had Sora always been told that?

Goofy says he has to look silly, like them. Donald says the Gummiship runs on happy faces.

Terra didn’t completely understand what had just happened, but Aqua had suddenly gotten very tense. He shot her a look, trying to figure out what had happened, but she didn’t respond.

Sora smiles wide at them.

While a few others, mostly the teenagers, laughed at Sora face, Riku couldn’t help but remember the way that Sora had reassured him about going home. Was that something he had learned there? Just like now, it had made him laugh then too. Made him think for just a second that things would be okay.

Sora says he’ll go with them. They introduce themselves.

“Wait, you agreed to go with them without knowing their names?” Kairi asked, shooting Sora a look.

He rubbed the back of his head while laughing nervously. “They seemed trustworthy?” The look didn’t lessen.

The scene switches to a dark room where the image of Sora, Goofy, and Donald is shown. An unknown voice remarks on how they took down the Heartless.

Just like water dousing a candle, all lightness and levity in the air disappeared instantly. Sora shivered slightly. They had been… watching them? How was this even possible?

Riku went stiff at the sight of the room, where Maleficent and her cohorts had done most of their planning. He had avoided it as much as he could, but he had still seen it a few times. Just looking at it… Everything he had done…

He gently extracted his hand from Sora’s, thankful that the boy hadn’t noticed. He rubbed them together, trying to force all the negative thoughts out of his head and silently hoped that his mental state would draw darkness or light to his hands, which had happened several times when he had gotten stressed. The last thing he needed was to remind everyone of all the terrible things he had done.

One of the voices says that it wasn’t Sora, but the Keyblade.

Rude, a small part of Sora thought, taken aback. Riku had taught him to fight just fine, thank you. That was all Riku’s teaching.

Another voice asks why they don’t just turn him into a Heartless.

Several glares were aimed at the screen for that.

A voice says that the others were the king’s lackeys.

Mickey paused, trying to place the voice and trying to figure out how they would know about Donald and Goofy. Disneytown didn’t often get that many visitors.

The voices argue among themselves until Maleficent stops them.

Sora paused when he realized that all the voices were people he ended up facing during the search. He didn’t know how to feel about that.

Riku went full body stiff at the sound of Maleficent’s voice. Not here, not here, circled around his head in a mantra. It didn’t matter that she was clearly not here, his heart started to race, and he could feel the pre-battle adrenaline start to race through him.

She’s not here, he hissed at himself, curling his hands into his fists. A white noise started to build in his ears and his breathing picked up. She’s gone, she’d dead. She’s not here.

He ignored the memories of the woman in black, whom he talked to, whom he hated, whom he saw, and who was alive. It couldn’t be her because she couldn’t be alive, he killed her he killed her he killed her-!

Distantly he realized that he stopped being able to hear what was going on around him, but his breathing continued to rush, his thoughts spinning and racing around his head.

She’s not here!

A second later, he flinched, throwing himself backwards at the hands that suddenly grabbed his, forcing them from their fists. His eyes snapped open from where they had closed, but they saw nothing. He yanked on his hands, but whoever had them didn’t let go. Instead, they clasped their hands with his, rubbing their thumbs on the backs of his hands. Another hand settled on his back and he flinched again. Hollow Bastion flashed through his mind, the darkness that seeped from walls and threatened to consume him.

But something prodded him in the side, sharp and sudden, and it yanked him out of his thoughts. The hands switched to rubbing his palms and the hand on his back hadn’t left.

A voice slowly trickled in.

“-at’s right, deep breaths, you can do it.” It was a man’s voice, deep and soothing, and Riku latched onto it, anything to drag himself from the memories. “Deep breaths, in for four, out for four.” Riku tried to copy the voice’s instructions, tried to slow his breath to match the counting that the voice started. The voice paused for a second, before continuing with his counting, maybe catching on that Riku was following. The hands on his stilled, instead just holding his hands carefully, while the hand on his back rubbed in clockwise circles, a soothing, grounding motion.

Riku’s breathing slowly managed to match the voice’s, which was starting to sound more and more familiar, counting, and he slowly became aware of certain things.

Like how his palms were burning in pain, the kind that came from an open wound exposed to air. The spot next to him was empty and there was quiet whispers coming from an area across from him. His eyes were squeezed tightly together, twin trails of liquid staining his cheeks.

“Riku?” Terra asked quietly, and the sixteen-year-old slowly opened his eyes, wincing slightly at the sudden brightness of the room. His eyes settled on Terra, who was kneeling in front of the couch Riku was sitting on, Riku’s hands held in his own.

Behind him, both Kairi and Sora were standing near Aqua and Ven’s couch, watching Riku worriedly. Aqua was standing, a pace away from Terra, and the three former Organization members were watching him, one in understanding, two in confusion. Vanitas was also looking at him in… understanding?

Naminé was curled up on her chair, knees pulled to her chest, and Mickey was nowhere to be found. The screen had faded away to black and the lights were back up.

“Riku, are you back with us?” Terra asked, voice low and gentle, and Riku’s eyes flicked back to his as his brain started to function again. What had just…

“You had a panic attack,” the older man told him gently, no doubt seeing the question in Riku’s eyes. “Most likely triggered by Maleficent’s voice.” Riku paused, mind thinking back to what had happened. They had been watching and then…

“Oh,” he said dully, eyes dropping to the ground. He knew of panic attacks, his mother had often been inflicted by them, an unfortunate side effect of her anxiety disorder but… He never thought one would happen to him. He hadn’t ever had one, even when he had been going through it the first time. So why…?

“Gosh Riku,” Mickey said, and Riku abruptly realized the hand on his back was Mickey’s. Mickey jumped down to land on the couch at his side and Riku figured that Mickey had been standing on the back of the couch. “You sure you’re okay?”

Riku swallowed, trying to get his thoughts back in order. “Will it… happen again?” He asked quietly, trying not to look at the others in the room and just at Terra. He was supposed to be the strong one, was supposed to look after and protect Sora and Kairi. He wasn’t supposed to be this… weak.

Terra grimaced. “I don’t know,” he admitted, finally letting go of Riku’s hands and letting the boy see the ten crescent moon shapes in his palms. “These things… are hard to understand. But there’s nothing wrong with them.”

Yeah, right, Riku hissed out in his mind. He should be better than this.

“But we’ll keep an eye on it, okay?” Terra said, giving him a smile. “Tell us if you feel the beginning of another one coming on.” The older man stood from his kneeling position and Riku felt his eyes drop again. He couldn’t look at anyone else, not after they had just seen… that.

“Riku,” Aqua said, voice soft, and Riku looked back up at her. “Are you going to be okay to watch the rest of it?” He nodded once, trying to press confidence into his motion. He was going to be okay dammit. He wasn’t going to be as weak as he had been, both then and now.

Aqua nodded at him in return and she and Terra walked back to their couch. Sora and Kairi gently made their way back over and Riku hated the look in their eyes. It was pity. He didn’t need it. He was the one who was supposed to protect them.

Mickey gave his shoulder a final squeeze and went back to his chair, allowing Sora and Kairi to take their seats again. Riku determinedly didn’t look at them.

He would be fine. He had to be.

Chapter Text

Sora would admit, he hadn’t noticed Riku’s panic attack in the beginning.

When Maleficent came on screen, he had felt Riku tense up, of course he had, but he hadn’t thought anymore of it.

It was only after Maleficent had come and gone, that he realized that Riku wasn’t calming down.

“Riku?” He asked quietly, nudging the boy in the side, as gently as he could. When Riku’s breathing didn’t slow, if anything it picked up, he turned completely to face the older boy.

“Riku, are you okay?” He asked, louder this time. He could feel the gazes of the others on him but he couldn’t look at them. Riku’s eyes didn’t drift down to him however, he didn’t smile his small smile that he used whenever he tried to reassure Sora. He didn’t do anything but stare off into the distance and shake.

“Riku?” Sora asked a third time and could hear from behind him that people were finally starting to realize something was wrong. A thump, followed by footsteps, sounded from behind him and a second later, Mickey appeared at his elbow.

“Riku? Can you hear me?” Mickey asked, reaching out to touch Riku’s shoulder. And Riku freaked out.

Flinching backwards with a sound that couldn’t be considered human, his eyes went wide, still staring nothing, before they slammed shut and he cringed backwards, his hands that were still curled into fists, jumping up for a second as if to protect himself.

A flurry of footsteps came from behind him, but Sora couldn’t make himself turn away from Riku. The older boy’s breathing continued to pick up and his eyes squeezed tight, twin trails of tears starting to leak from them.

“Sora, move,” Terra said gently from behind him, and Sora turned as Terra placed a hand on his shoulder, gently guiding his gaze away from Riku.

“What’s happening to him?” He asked, not caring that his voice shook a little. Kairi had sprung from the couch when Riku had flinched and Aqua gently guided her away. Terra took Sora’s hand and pulled him from the couch, moving to kneel in front of Riku.

“If I had to guess,” Terra responded, looking at Riku with a careful eye. “He’s having a panic attack, perhaps mixed with a flashback.”

“Panic attack…” Sora whispered out, the words feeling numb on his lips. He knew what they were, he had even seen one before. Riku’s mother had suffered from them, and Sora had seen it once when he was ten. It had been scary, but Riku hadn’t been bothered. Simply had pulled the drapes shut while his father had gently guided his mother over to sit down. It had been fine, normal, and while scary to the young Sora, he had understood and been reassured that they had ways to help with it.

It didn’t feel that reassuring now.

Terra reached out, carefully taking Riku’s hands in his and speaking quietly to him. Sora flinched when Riku did, wanting to say something, wanting to help, but he couldn’t do anything as Aqua guided him to stand a couple of feet back. Looking to his side, he could see Kairi was just as concerned as he was.

“What’s a panic attack?” Xion asked in a quiet voice, drawing the two islanders’ attention to the three Nobodies. While Axel didn’t look confused, if anything he looked understanding, the two teenagers had confusion written all across their faces.

“It’s when a lot of anxiety basically spills forth and the body can’t handle it, so the body shuts down,” Ven said lowly, keeping the volume of their conversation down as Terra gently spoke to Riku. Mickey had clambered onto the back of the couch and was carefully rubbing Riku’s back.

The four teenagers turned to him, and he flushed slightly, looking down. “At least, that was how Terra described it to me,” he continued. “I… had them frequently when I was still waking up and getting used to life without any memories.” Aqua looked back to him for a second and he smiled at her, silently reassuring her. She smiled back at him, before turning back to watching Terra. Naminé looked concerned about what was happening, but clearly didn’t dare to say anything, simply pulling her knees to her chest.

“And they’re… normal?” Roxas asked, tipping his head to the side, and Ven made a face.

“Well, no,” he replied. “They aren’t supposed to be anyway. But there’s nothing wrong with having them. Some people have them often, if they have an anxiety disorder, while others can get triggered by certain things, such as small spaces or blood or-”

“Seeing the abuser who tricked and manipulated you into attacking your best friend,” Sora cut in lowly and Ven wasn’t the only one to wince.

“Yes, that’d probably be one,” Ven conceded.

“You know a lot about them,” Kairi remarked and Ven nodded.

“Once I started having them, I researched a lot about it,” he revealed. “I wanted to know what was happening and thankfully, Master Eraqus had an extensive library. Terra learned about it as well, both from earlier… experience, and he wanted to be there for me. He helped calm me down more times than I can count, both from full panic attacks and the lead up to them.”

“Riku, are you back with us?” Terra asked, and all of them clammed up instantly, Sora looking back at the couch. Riku looked more alert than before, at least, and his eyes weren’t forced closed, instead gazing at Terra. His hands were still shaking, and he looked like a loose wind could blow him over. “You had a panic attack,” Terra continued, and Sora winced at the recognition followed by… some emotion, in Riku’s face. “Most likely triggered by Maleficent’s voice.”

“Oh,” Riku said dully, looking down and Sora was tempted to look away. To give his friend as much privacy as he could while he grappled with that.

Sora was also angry with himself. He knew this was going to be hard on Riku, he knew it. Riku had always been so… critical of himself, if Sora could call it that, and he knew, just from the few conversations they’d had since then, that Riku felt very strongly about what had happened due to Maleficent’s influence. He had wanted to be there for Riku, he had told Riku that he would be there for him. But now, when Riku needed him, he couldn’t do anything.

“Gosh Riku,” Mickey said, leaning down to look at Riku more fully. “You sure you’re okay?” Sora also wanted the answer. Riku had said he was okay watching the past but clearly, that wasn’t completely true.

“Will it… happen again?” Riku asked instead, looking up at Terra, and Sora could see the worry and vulnerability in his eyes.

“I don’t know,” Terra replied, letting go of Riku’s hands, who immediately pulled them close to him. “These things… are hard to understand. But we’ll keep an eye on it, okay? Tell us if you fell the beginning of another one coming on.” Riku looked down when Terra said that, and Sora felt another stab in his heart. Why couldn’t he do anything? He could help everyone else; he saved the world twice over. Why couldn’t he save Riku?

“Riku,” Aqua said softly as Terra stood, bringing Riku’s attention to her. “Are you going to be okay to watch the rest of it?” Riku nodded once, but Sora didn’t know if he believed him. But Terra and Aqua clearly decided not to push, so Sora followed their lead, silently returning to his spot next to Riku. He wanted to do something, maybe show his support. But Riku cringed away from him when he sat down and looked away, and Sora couldn’t find it in him to push.

A second later, the lights dimmed again, the room deciding that it was time to move on, and their eyes drifted back to the screen.

As the Gummiship flies through space, Sora looks out of the window and asks how the ship works.

“How does it work actually?” Sora asked, turning to look at Mickey. He was very carefully trying to make Riku feel normal again, which included asking questions, even if the only thing he wanted to ask was whether or not Riku was okay.

(Also, he actually wanted to know how the Gummiship worked. It had never been explained to him.)

“Well,” Mickey started before pausing. “They always just… worked.” He finished lamely. He would admit, he had never placed much thought into it. The ship worked on Gummi. “If you really wanted to know, I bet Chip and Dale would have an answer for you.” Sora nodded in response.

Donald says he can’t talk right now, and Sora asks if he could fly the ship.

“Sora?” Kairi asked, a hint of scolding in her voice.

“Look, I was fourteen years old and ecstatic about being able to go to other worlds as well as wanting to try everything out there. You’re telling me that you wouldn’t be tempted to fly the ship?” He replied, giving her a look in return. She huffed but didn’t answer.

Donald says he can’t and Goofy consoles Sora by telling him that piloting the ship was hard. Sora snarks that he would be better at it than Donald.

None of them could really argue with them, seeing the erratic flying on screen.

Jiminy says that the ship runs on mysterious power and Goofy confirms it’s why the ship can fly to different worlds.

Aqua paused, thinking. Was the ship similar to their gliders?

Jiminy explains about how it’s made of Gummi blocks, but they’re cut off by Donald who sees a world in the distance.

The few of them who had space traveled before constantly found themselves curious and in awe of every new world.

Ah Wonderland, Sora thought in his head. The one world in which I will be happy to never visit again.

The ship lands on the ground and Goofy, Donald, and Sora step out, only to immediately fall down a big hole.

“How did you miss that?” Vanitas cackled, a smile crossing his lips, something that hadn’t happened since the silver-haired one had his panic attack. It was too similar, too similar to the things that plagued Vanitas whenever Master Xehanort wasn’t around, when he didn’t have to control every aspect of himself lest he get himself hurt.

“It just appeared beneath out feet!” Sora exclaimed in defense of himself and his companions. “We couldn’t have seen it coming!”

The three of them float down, with Donald and Sora landing softly, while Goofy hits the floor with a thud.

Several people winced at the sound. Both Xion and Roxas were sitting up, however, as they were starting to realize where Sora was.

A white rabbit runs past them, worrying about being late.

“What?” Both Terra and Ven asked while Vanitas and Aqua blinked at it in surprise. Riku felt his eyebrow raise in confusion and intrigue.

Xion groaned, thunking her head down on Axel’s shoulder, while Roxas hung his head. Several people looked their way in surprise at their actions.

“You’ve been there too?” Sora asked, shooting a glance to Roxas and Xion.

“I never want to go back,” Roxas groused out while Xion nodded empathetically.

“It… can’t be that bad?” Kairi asked, but her voice trailed off when she saw the three looks being shot her way.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy stare at the rabbit in confusion.

It was the reaction that was being copied by several of the watchers.

He runs off, saying that the queen was going to have his head for it.

“The… queen?” Aqua asked, sounding a little scared of the answer. Sora made a face.

“The Queen of Hearts,” he explained. “And she’s… well, you’ll see.”

Sora wonders where the rabbit is going, and Donald says they should find out.

“Just like that?” Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow. “What happened to World Order? Weren’t they just talking about that?”

“I mean, if a talking white rabbit runs past you in full clothes with a pocket watch, you’re telling me you wouldn’t want to investigate? Wouldn’t that spark your curiosity?” Sora asked, looking at his Nobody, who paused before shrugging.

He would have, probably, but not for Sora’s reasons. He couldn’t feel curiosity after all.

The three of them follow the rabbit and arrive at a door, which opens revealing another door. It repeats again, before showing a passage.

“Wonderland everyone!” Sora exclaimed, throwing his hands out to encompass the screen. “Where nothing makes sense!”

The ones who hadn’t been there were starting to get an idea about why the three Keyblade Wielders didn’t like it.

The passage takes them to a pink room, where the rabbit disappears into a tiny door.

“There’s no way you fit through that,” Kairi said drily, looking at the tiny door on the screen. “Donald, maybe, but no way Goofy did.”

“We go through… a different way,” Sora admitted, remembering the shrinking potion.

“Did that doorknob have a face on it?” Ven asked blankly.

Sora kneels down in front of the door and questions how the rabbit got through, as the door was too small. The doorknob replies that Sora is just too big.

“And it speaks,” Ven muttered. Sora made jazz hands, as if silently saying, Wonderland.

Sora, Goofy, and Donald show shock. The doorknob tells them they woke him up.

“The doorknob… sleeps?” Kairi muttered, trying to find some logic in everything she was seeing.

Sora asks how they get small enough to fit through the door and the doorknobs tells him to look in the bottle.

Bottle? Kairi wondered before looking at Sora out of the corner of her eye. Don’t tell me Sora actually-

A table appears with two bottles on it. They realize that one shrinks and the other grows.

Don’t tell me he actually-

Goofy wonders if it is safe but Sora says the doorknob said it was fine. Sora drinks from the blue one.

“Sora!” Kairi exclaimed, turning and smacking him on the shoulder. “You don’t just drink something from a crazy world because a doorknob told you to! What if it hurt you?”

Sora laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “I mean, the doorknob mentioned that we had to drink it-”

“No, he didn’t!” She cut him off. “He told you to look at the bottle and you just drank it! What if it wasn’t safe to drink like Goofy said?”

“I… took that chance?” Sora defended himself weakly and Kairi sighed, rubbing her face, sounding far too tired for a fifteen-year-old. It wasn’t helping his case that several of the adults looked like they agreed with Kairi, Axel being the only one not bothered by it. Mostly because he had seen stupider things done by Demyx and sometimes Roxas.

And he and Isa had done some… things, when they were younger.

“I swear, Donald and Goofy need to be better protectors outside of the battlefield,” Kairi muttered. “They defend you from Heartless just fine, but they also need to be on the lookout for your own impulsiveness.” Sora laughed again but didn’t say anything.

Sora shrinks on screen.

“See, it was fine,” Sora started but quailed at the look Kairi gave him.

“It’s the principle of it,” she told him.

Donald and Goofy drink the liquid as well, shrinking down to Sora’s size. The three of them look around.

“Different perspective huh?” Terra murmured watching the three of them on screen. Ven looked like he wanted to try it himself. Aqua was silently promising in her head to never let either of them go to Wonderland without someone sensible going with them. So, her or Mickey, and even Mickey was up in the air. Mister let-me-jump-into-a-random-dark-portal-from-a-dying-world-to-find-where-they’re-going.

As the three of them jump down, Heartless appears.

“Here too?” Mickey wondered. He knew that Heartless were appearing everywhere, there was no end to them, but at the same time, they had really reached everywhere, hadn’t they?

The three of them fight them off and Sora runs up to the doorknob, trying to get through. But he doesn’t wake up.

“Rude,” Kairi whispered and felt Sora laugh slightly.

Donald notices a tunnel off to the side and the three of them run through. They appear in a garden and Goofy remarks that it looks like the gardens at the Castle.

Mickey blinked. He supposed they did.

The three of them notice the queen, who is sitting on a dais looking down.

Both Roxas and Xion groaned, Xion facepalming, and Sora looked like he agreed with them, even if he didn’t completely know what they were thinking.

“Another trial, seriously?” Roxas asked, looking at the screen in shock. “I swear, does she just have trials for fun?”

“She was holding a trial when you two were there?” Sora asked and Xion nodded. “Did it end in-”

“Her declaring the defendant guilty and ordering their decapitation?” Xion cut in with another nod. “Same thing happen to you?”

“Can she… do that?” Naminé asked quietly, watching the screen in fascination. So, this is where Sora got the memories for that one floor of Castle Oblivion. She knew of them, she had seen them briefly while… messing with his memories, but she hadn’t looked too deep. It wasn’t her mission. But even in that world, there had been a trial against the same girl it appeared to be against now. While that made sense, they were the only residents of the world that Sora knew at that point, she supposed the trial just made that much of an impact on Sora.

“Well, a good ruler wouldn’t,” Mickey said, slightly offended by the conduct of a fellow monarch. “She would listen to both the defense and prosecution before making the best decision for her world and people. Execution is not a good idea to always go with.”

“No, really?” Vanitas drawled, watching the scene. “Who would have thought?” Mickey didn’t even look at the boy. It would only either hurt the boy or hurt Mickey. Because while it wasn’t obvious when he had, unfortunately, been fighting him all those years ago, it was clear now that Vanitas was just like Riku had been after Hollow Bastion. A hurt, abused boy whose all paths in life were blocked and abandoned to the darkness. He hoped that he could help the other child now, like he had helped Riku. Though, he would first have to, at least, diminish Aqua’s hatred of him.

Speaking of, the woman had glared at the boy when he didn’t.

The rabbit from before runs up to the top of a tower and announces that the court is in session.

All the people who hadn’t been to Wonderland watched the scene with interest. While they didn’t doubt Sora, Roxas, or Xion, it would still be different to see for themselves.

Sora asks what a trial is and Donald and Goofy explain.

“You didn’t know?” Aqua asked, looking at the teenager, who shrugged.

“It had never come up at home before,” he explained. “And there hadn’t ever been one that I had seen.”

A young girl in a blue dress asks why she’s on trial.

“Hang on, the trial is on a child?” Terra questioned, raising an eyebrow. Aqua agreed with him. Regardless of what the girl had done, and that was even if she had done anything, Roxas and Sora had made it sound like the trial wasn’t even fair, she shouldn’t have to go through all of this.

Riku froze when he saw Alice. One of the Princesses of Heart. One of the girls he had kidnapped under Maleficent’s orders. She hadn’t even done anything. She couldn’t have been older than eight.

Sora saw more than felt Riku going stiff next to him, and his eyes immediately flicked to him, trying to make sure he didn’t miss if Riku was starting to suffer from another panic attack. But the older boy was still clearly aware, just uncomfortable and it didn’t take long for Sora to remember what had happened there. What had happened to Alice. While he had never gotten a confirmation, it was clear that Riku had kidnapped Alice from the cage, probably because of Maleficent.

Biting his lip, he thought. Riku had been stiff and tense ever since his panic attack and clearly hadn’t wanted physical contact, if the way he had been sitting showed anything, but Riku was also clearly upset right now because of being reminded of something. Taking a chance, Sora reached out a hand and placed it on Riku’s arm, causing the older boy to flinch minutely and turn to him. Looking into his eyes, Sora moved his hand down to clasp Riku’s hand. I’m here, he reminded with his eyes. And it wasn’t your fault.

Riku looked away, but he thankfully didn’t pull his hand out of Sora’s grip.

The rabbit says the queen is presiding and the queen is shown.

Okay listen, Aqua doesn’t like to judge on appearances. She does her best to judge on how someone acted. However, that woman looked unpleasant. She just did.

The queen says the girl is the culprit.

“Of what?” Ven asked. “The girl clearly doesn’t even know what the trial is about, so how could it be her?” He paused. “What’s her name, by the way?”

“Alice,” Sora responded and Ven nodded. Naminé had to bite her tongue. She had almost answered herself. She had to be careful. She knew that what she had done to Sora would be revealed sooner or later and while Sora had forgiven and even protected her during the time in Castle Oblivion, she highly doubted that anyone else would. She wondered if they would think her dangerous, like DiZ had. Or if they would even let her explain herself. She wondered if Axel would protect her, though she highly doubted it. He cared far too much for Roxas and Xion to put their lives on the line like that.

The queen says the reason is because she says so.

Several people made faces at that.

“Horrible reasoning,” Aqua said blankly, wondering how on earth someone like that managed to get in a position of power.

“I got the feeling that she was just like that,” Sora muttered, thinking back to his… less than stellar interactions with the queen. She just seemed like someone who liked getting her way and didn’t care who got hurt because of that.

Alice says that it’s unfair.

Almost everyone agreed with her.

Vanitas thought she and Master Xehanort would get along well.

The queen asks if she has anything to say in her defense.

Right, like she was going to listen to that, Sora thought, remembering the whole evidence fiasco. She’s just saying that to get Alice’s hopes up.

Alice says she’s done nothing wrong.

“Not going to convince that type, I’m afraid,” Axel drawled out, causing both Xion and Roxas to look at him. “She’s not going to listen.”

Alice says that she may be queen but that doesn’t give her the right to be so mean.

Mickey agreed with the young girl and hoped nothing bad happened to her.

The queen slams the table, causing Alice to jump, and asks if she dares defy her.

Axel wasn’t surprised. Neither was Vanitas.

Sora says they should help Alice.

Both Kairi and Riku thought that Sora could be too nice and impulsive sometimes.

Donald and Goofy say that it would be meddling, which they aren’t allowed to do.

Well… Aqua, Terra, and Ven all thought. They had done plenty of “meddling”, as Donald would put it, when they traveled around the worlds. It usually ended up helping.

Terra pointedly didn’t think of Enchanted Dominion, and he didn’t realize that the other two were blocking it out as well.

The queen says the court finds Alice guilty.

“Wait, what court?” Aqua asked. “There’s no jury to be seen.”

“The queen’s both the jury and judge,” Sora said and Aqua sighed. Typical.

The queen says for the crimes of assault and attempted theft of her heart, Alice would be beheaded.

“Oh, it was a Heartless,” Xion said before pausing. “Wait, how could she possibly have thought that the small, black creature had been Alice? It was clearly not.”

“People like that just what someone to blame,” Axel told her gently. “She probably would have accused anyone. Alice was just the unfortunate first person to come into contact with her.” Xion frowned.

Sora blinks in shock, recognizing that it had been a Heartless.

“And you guys interfered now, right?” Kairi asked, not wanting Alice to get hurt. Yes, she knew she survived, she had seen her in Hollow Bastion, but still.

Sora nodded.

The cards advance on Alice, who looks scared.

Kairi wasn’t the only one who wanted the girl saved.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy run in, disrupting the court.

“Dangerous, but effective,” Aqua noted. Kairi thought that the sentence could be Sora in a nutshell. Along with impulsive but kindhearted.

The queen asks who they are, and Sora says they know who the real culprit is.

Axel wondered if that would actually work. People like the queen usually wouldn’t listen but this was Sora. He just seemed to emit an aura that had people like and trust him.

Goofy starts saying that it’s the Heartless but stops himself. Sora says it’s not Alice.

“I don’t think that’s going to convince her, Sora,” Kairi told him gently and he shrugged. It was all he could think of to say at the time.

The queen says that it’s nonsense and asks if they have any proof.

“I mean, you didn’t need any proof in your conviction, so why should Sora need proof in his defense?” Roxas snarked, getting a poke in the shoulder from Xion, who reached across Axel’s lap to do so.

Sora pauses, trying to think and the queen says that Alice is guilty. Sora says they’ll find evidence.

“Sora…” Kairi groaned out, but a small smile curled up her lips. Of course, Sora would do that for Alice. He would do that for anyone. It was just part of his charm.

The queen says to bring her evidence that Alice is innocent or she’s going to chop all their heads off.

“Good luck with that,” Naminé whispered, quiet enough that no one heard her. While she didn’t manipulate or even touch Goofy’s and Donald’s minds as much as she did Sora’s, it was still clear in their minds how much they cared for Sora. She doubted that the queen would be able to cut off Sora’s head without having to face the full wrath of both the Guard Captain and the Royal Magician.

The guards place Alice in a cage and the three of them approach her.

Riku sucked in a quiet breath. It had been so easy to snatch her from that cage, especially once the curtain had been placed over it. A single shadow corridor under her feet and she was gone before anyone was any wiser.

Sora, hearing Riku, squeezed his hand. He realized that it was all he had been really doing to comfort Riku, but he knew the older boy didn’t like big emotional moments, especially when they weren’t alone.

Goofy asks if she’s okay and says that they’ll find the evidence. Alice introduces herself and asks who they are.

“She doesn’t look too confused about Goofy and Donald,” Kairi couldn’t help but point out and Sora shrugged.

“She did just see the rabbit talk and play the horn,” he responded. “Perhaps she just thought that it was a part of the world.”

“Wait, so she’s not from it?” Terra asked, narrowing his eyes. “Did she come from a different world? How did she do that?”

“Apparently, she fell down a hole,” Sora said. “Which is what we did too. I think she was from the world above, where we parked the Gummiship.”

Goofy introduces them and Alice says that it is nice to meet them, even with the circumstances, and apologizes that they got caught up in the trial.

“It’s… not her fault?” Aqua said slowly and Sora shrugged.

“She’s just polite,” he said, having gotten that feeling off of her.

Sora asks why she was on trial.

“Sora,” Riku said slowly. “You just heard why she was on trial. The queen announced it. Like, thirty seconds ago.” Sora looked down as a flush crossed his face but didn’t snap back. If anything, he was just glad that Riku was feeling better enough to tease him slightly.

Alice says she doesn’t know, just that the queen saw her and decided that she was guilty of something.

Xion couldn’t help but think back to how Saix used to treat her. Like she had done something wrong by just existing and daring to take Axel’s attention and friendship offer.

Donald says that it’s terrible and Sora asks how she got there. She explains that she was in a meadow with some of the older girls when she found a hole and fell down it.

“So just like you three,” Mickey said, thinking it over. He hadn’t ever heard of a world within a world, but perhaps it was possible.

Goofy says that it had to be the same hole they fell down.

“Except the one that you fell down was huge,” Roxas said. “While she found a smaller one, according to her.”

“Maybe there are multiple?” Xion wondered. Neither of them knew. They had always portaled straight into the area.

One of the guards shouts that the defendant should remain silent and the three of them move closer to speak quieter.

“Inconspicuous,” Vanitas remarked, sarcasm clear in his words. Sora almost caught himself smiling at the other boy. It felt kind of like when Riku teased him. But apparently the boy had done some bad things, at least according to Aqua. Maybe Sora should learn more about that, to tell if he really wanted to be friends with the boy. While it would take a lot to make Sora not want to be friends with him, maybe he had done a lot.

Sora tells her that they’ll find the evidence before the guards chase them away.

A couple of people wondered how the cards were even alive but dismissed it as Wonderland nonsense as Sora, Xion, and Roxas would put it.

Donald and Goofy discuss what could be classified as evidence. Sora thinks.

“Thinking hard?” Riku asked him, smiling at the younger boy, small and gentle. Sora beamed back at him.

“You know it!”

Sora asks if their smell and claw marks would count as evidence.

“So, you can think,” Axel snarked. Roxas snickered while Xion elbowed him in the side. When he looked to her, betrayed, she simply rolled her eyes. They were trying to convince the Keyblade Wielders around them not to murder them, thank you.

Goofy asks if Sora had ever seen anything like it before.

“That’s why he brought it up,” Terra muttered softly, feeling the slightest bit of memory filter into his head before he shut it out. No dark thoughts. Darkness is how he got possessed in the first place.

Sora says not around here but shows his sleeve which is torn. He says the Heartless got him before.

Already feeling Kairi turning to look at him, he smiled and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Just my clothes, promise,” he told her. She gave him a look but didn’t say anything.

Sora says that they could probably find more evidence like it around. Goofy sniffs Sora’s sleeve and says they do hold a strange smell.

Don’t I know it, Riku thought in his head. Though he doubted they meant it in the way that he did.

The three of them venture further into Wonderland, finding a forest filled with water lilies.

Aqua thought, under different circumstances, the place could be quite beautiful.

A pink, widely smiling cat head appears right in front of them.

Kairi shrieked in surprise, as did Naminé, both Somebody and Nobody covering their faces in fear. Ven sat up in surprise, half falling onto Terra, who wrapped an arm around him on instinct. Both of the older teenagers’ hearts had sped up, Aqua’s eyes widening. Mickey jumped in his seat and none of the others who had been there could stop the surprise that whipped through them. Even though they had seen it before, it was still surprising. It was only Axel, Vanitas, and Riku who had no overt reaction to it.

The cat head disappears and reappears in several different places before settling on the ground, a headless cat body balancing on it.

“What on earth?” Aqua breathed out, struck speechless. Both Naminé and Kairi had peaked out from behind their hands, and while Kairi dropped her hands and tried to calm her racing heart, Naminé decided it was safer for the time being to hide her face.

“Meet the Chesire Cat,” Sora said, gesturing at the screen.

“One of the wackiest residents of Wonderland,” Roxas continued, Xion nodding along. “He likes to speak in riddles and pops up every now and again.”

“And never stops smiling,” Xion finished.

“How…?” Aqua asked, gesturing at the headless cat and the three of them shrugged. They didn’t know.

The cat picks up its head and places it back on its neck.

“Okay, you know what, fine,” Aqua muttered out, rubbing her temples slightly. She was starting to get why the three younger Keyblade Wielders didn’t like Wonderland.

Donald yells out, asking who the cat is. The cat replies who indeed.

“Riddles,” Roxas snarked, gesturing to the screen.

The cat expresses sympathy for Alice, saying she’s about to lose her head and she’s not guilty of a thing.

“He also just… knows things,” Sora told them. “Like, this is obvious, but it got really weird later.”

He didn’t offer anything more than that, so they all just decided to wait for it to be shown.

Sora asks for the cat to tell them who the real culprit is.

Both Xion and Roxas got the feeling it wasn’t going to be that easy.

Chesire says that he always knows but doesn’t always tell. He says the answer, the culprit, and the cat all lie in darkness.

“He also refers to himself in third person,” Sora commented in an aside. Because why not?

The cat vanishes and Sora calls out to him, trying to get him to come back.

“If he had evidence that could free Alice,” Sora said, already explaining himself. “I had to try and get it from him.”

The cat’s voice tells them that they already left the forest, and he won’t tell them which exit.

Several people groaned, Sora among them. Even rewatching it made all his feelings of frustration that he had been feeling at the time come rushing back.

Donald asks if they should trust him and the Chesire Cat pops back up, making a quote about trust.

Both Xion and Roxas groaned again. The cat was so frustrating.

Sora says they should go through the forest. Goofy asks if they should believe the cat.

“We had to take the small opportunity that the cat gave us,” Sora muttered. “It was the only evidence we had.”

Sora says they had to and started leading the way through the forest, destroying Heartless as they went.

“Honestly, how has the queen not noticed those things?” Aqua asked, watching Sora make his way through the forest. “There’s so many of them.”

Sora shrugged. “I think she was purposefully trying not to look at them,” he replied. “So she could keep blaming Alice.”

Goofy remarks that they’re following them everywhere and Donald reminds Goofy that Aerith said that the Heartless followed the Keyblade Wielder, which was Sora.

Riku conceded that they had been right on that point, even if they had been mistaken on other things, according to Terra and Aqua. Ever since he had been using his own Keyblade, the Heartless had been following and attacking him. Even though he had darkness in his heart, they still followed and attacked him. While it was slightly disheartening that they wouldn’t leave him or Sora or even Kairi, now that she had her Keyblade, alone, it was nice to know that it wasn’t that there was darkness in Sora’s heart that they were attracted to. Sora was too good to have any darkness in his heart.

Sora apologizes for leading the Heartless to them.

“Don’t apologize,” Mickey told Sora gently, causing the teen to turn and look at him. “It’s not your fault that the Heartless are following you. You can’t control it.”

“I know,” Sora replied softly. “I just felt bad. Without me, they wouldn’t have been attacked nearly as much as they were.”

“But then they wouldn’t have you for a friend,” Mickey responded. “Some things are just worth dealing with for friends.”

Goofy says not to feel bad and that the king sent them to find the key, so they were sticking with him. After Goofy turned, Sora’s face fell slightly.

“Sora?” Kairi asked, noticing the change in the onscreen Sora’s face. Sora sighed.

“It’s just that it hurt slightly to hear that they were only sticking with me because Mickey told them to,” he revealed, shifting in his seat and looking down. “I know that Goofy didn’t mean anything by it, but… it did.”

Kairi blinked at the somber tone that Sora’s voice had taken, reaching out a hand to place on his shoulder. He blinked, raising his head to smile at her. Riku, looking down at Sora, gently squeezed the hand that Sora was holding. Sora had done several time to reassure him, so maybe…

“But it’s okay,” he told them and Mickey. “It took a while, but they’re my friends now. And they chose to stay with me, even after everything.” While his smile seemed to reassure everyone else, Riku’s face darkened slightly.

Did they though? He thought, remembering, with great pain in his heart, the moment in Hollow Bastion, when he had stolen the Keyblade from Sora and left him behind. Donald and Goofy had followed him, walking away from Sora and leaving him defenseless in a world full of Heartless. Yes, maybe they helped afterward and chose to stand with Sora against him, but that didn’t change the initial action. Didn’t change that they, Sora’s apparent friends, had left him behind. If not for the Beast, Riku didn’t know if he would still have a best friend.

And wasn’t that a scary thought?

Sora gets hit by a Heartless after spacing out for a second.

Both Kairi’s and Riku’s hands tightened on him.

“I’m fine guys,” he said, looking at each of them in turn. “I’m still here.”

Goofy gives him a healing potion and they work together to get rid of the rest of the Heartless.

Kairi and Riku relaxed slightly.

The three of them collapse on the ground after defeating the Heartless.

“Are you guys okay?” Mickey asked, worry for both Sora and his friends from Disneytown filling him.

Sora nodded. “We were just tired.”

Goofy and Donald comment on how tired they are before a small voice thanks them.

Sora felt a smile crossing his face. The flowers were one of the only good things about Wonderland. Several people focused on the screen in confusion, but not as much confusion as they would have had in the beginning. They had also slowly started to become accustomed to Wonderland strangeness.

The three of them sit up in confusion, calling out to whoever was speaking. The voice identified itself as a flower.

“The flower?” Aqua wondered and Sora nodded. Xion smiled. They were always nice to talk to, when she had the time to stop and chat with them after missions. Which, unfortunately, wasn’t that common.

Pollen falls on their heads as the flower opens. The three of them jump slightly.

“Did the flowers do something you?” Kairi asked, hyper aware of everything weird about Wonderland.

“The pollen just made us feel more awake,” Sora told her, and she nodded. “The flowers are just nice. There’s nothing really nefarious about them.”

The flower says that they couldn’t open with the creatures around and Goofy almost calls them Heartless before stopping himself again.

“Not that great about upholding World Order, is he?” Roxas asked and Sora frowned slightly at the jab against his friend.

“Maybe not,” he conceded. “But Goofy’s still been there when I’ve needed him.”

“I didn’t mean it as an insult,” Roxas responded.

Sora asks them which way the shadows went, and the flower points him in a direction.

“So, much more helpful than the cat,” Ven deadpanned, and Sora chuckled slightly.

The flower helps him get up to the spot he was pointing at and the three of them head through the greenery, falling down another hole.

“You did that more than once that day?” Kairi asked and Sora nodded.

“It was a weird day.”

They end up on top of the faucet in the pink room from before and Goofy comments on it.

“Oh, you guys are really small,” Kairi noted, watching them, remembering how the faucet looked before.

The three of them find footprints from the Heartless.

Several people felt joy in them at that, glad that they found some evidence to support Alice.

The Chesire Cat appears.

Roxas, Sora, and Xion weren’t the only ones to groan when he appeared, both Kairi and Ven joined their chorus. That cat was frustrating.

The cat comments on what they found, and Sora says they can save Alice. The cat says that Alice may be innocent but asks about them.

Sora looked down at the ground when Chesire’s question was asked. At the time, he hadn’t thought much about it, simply brushing it off as another weird part of the day. And even now, he could just dismiss it as the Chesire Cat just being the Chesire Cat but… he couldn’t help but think.

At this point, he had destroyed an uncountable amount of Heartless. Yes, they weren’t really alive, just darkness molded around broken hearts, but they had been people once. But the big thing that was eating at him was the number of people he had killed.

Ansem.

Xaldin.

Demyx.

Saix.

Xemnas.

And yes, they had been doing bad. They had been hurting the worlds, hurting people. But that didn’t change anything.

They were still gone.

He has still killed them.

She may be innocent but what about you? The Chesire Cat’s question echoed in his ears.

He didn’t know.

Goofy asks what the Chesire Cat means but he responds that he won’t tell.

“Shocker,” Roxas grumbled.

The cat disappears and Sora wonders what that was about. Goofy gets the piece of evidence.

“And now you go be the hero like you always are,” Riku murmured, an unknown note in his voice. Sora tipped his head, looking up at the boy but didn’t say anything. He could ask Riku about it later.

The three discuss that they haven’t found the Keyhole yet and that they will probably have to fight another big creature.

“Did you have to every time you closed a Keyhole?” Aqua asked and Sora nodded. It was annoying, he would admit.

The three of them head back to the court.

They braced themselves for the fallout. They doubted the queen would take it lightly.

Sora tells Alice that they’ll get her out and she thanks them. The queen calls the court to session.

Sora could already feel a bit of frustration sinking into him as he thought about what the queen had pulled. It had made him mad then and it made him mad now.

Sora presents the evidence to the queen who looks unimpressed. She has one of her soldiers bring out two boxes and puts Sora’s evidence in one before mixing them and telling Sora to choose.

“She can’t do that!” Kairi exclaimed, sitting up in anger and shock, a sentiment repeated by several other people in the room.

Sora shrugged helplessly. “She didn’t want to lose,” he muttered, crinkling his nose.

Roxas couldn’t help but be glad that he and Xion had never had to actually interact with the queen in person. He had a feeling he would have attempted to commit regicide.

Sora walks forward and chooses one of the boxes, ignoring Donald’s and Goofy’s suggestions. A Heartless springs out of the box.

Several people jumped in surprise. Well, if that didn’t convince the queen…

The queen is in shock and Sora says that it’s the evidence that Alice is innocent. The queen refuses to believe it and orders her soldiers to behead them.

Kairi scoffed and grumbled something under her breath, snuggling closer to Sora as the cards advanced on them.

“Please tell me you defeated her,” Ven asked and Sora nodded with a smile.

“Don’t worry, we did.”

One of the soldiers brings Alice’s cage up to the top of the tower.

Riku froze, remembering what had happened. It had been so easy to just… It had been for Kairi, for Sora… He didn’t know Alice, why should he worry about her?

A second later, Sora’s hand gripped his and squeezed it tight, pulling Riku’s attention back to him.

“This does not make you a bad person,” Sora told him seriously, making several of the people who didn’t know what happened look to them in confusion. But Sora didn’t offer any explanation so they settled back in to watch, assuming that it would be explained later. Riku looked away, closing his eyes. Sora didn’t know that.

Sora and the others fight off the card soldiers and bring down the cage holding Alice. But she’s gone.

Riku flinched, holding Sora’s hand tight as he tried not to remember. It had been so easy… In more ways than one.

Aqua looked at the screen before her eyes shifted to Riku. She had been able to glean from what Riku had said, from what Sora and Mickey said, that Riku had helped Maleficent for a time, in an effort to save Kairi. It was probably that Riku’d had a hand in kidnapping Alice. It was why he was so distraught at the moment.

Honestly, how much had this boy gone through? She wondered to herself. She had seen him use the darkness to leave Destiny Islands, she knew that it had taken him in one way or another. And while the Master’s speeches about the evilness of darkness were continually on loop in the back of her head, she couldn’t find it in herself to be mad or scared of Riku. He just looked like a hurt boy, who had gotten used and abused from the second he took a step off his islands and was just doing his best in a horrible situation. So, how could she be mad at him when he was just trying to survive?

She hadn’t realized yet that her line of thought could be applied to more than just one person in the room.

And besides, he hadn’t really been taught like her and the others had. She couldn’t completely fault him for not knowing something he had never been taught.

Now though, now she could be there for them and help steer him away from the darkness before it got too much for him.

Donald realizes Alice must have gotten kidnapped while they were fighting.

Slowly, other people in the room were starting to realize who had kidnapped her, taking Sora’s words into account.

The queen says to find who did it, no matter how. The card soldiers run off.

At least they weren’t attacking Sora anymore.

As the three of them walk back, Goofy asks Sora why he thinks the Heartless kidnapped her. He asks who else could have done it.

Riku closed his eyes slowly, breathing carefully out through his nose. Sora gave him a look, trying to make sure he didn’t miss if Riku had another panic attack.

The Chesire Cat appears, and Sora asks if he knows where Alice is. He says he doesn’t, but he did see shadows.

“He’s actually helping you?” Xion asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Give it a second,” Sora replied.

Sora asks where he saw them and the Chesire Cat gives them a riddle before mentioning the forest.

“Ah,” Xion grumbled. Not surprising.

Sora and the others find a tea party that’s been abandoned.

“Did the Heartless get them?” Naminé asked quietly and Sora paused.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “We never found them.”

They enter the house, and the cat says that the Heartless are hiding somewhere. Sora and the others fight their way through before ending up back in the room where they first shrank.

“How did you get there?” Kairi asked and Sora shrugged.

The cat tells them they’ll get a better view from higher up. Sora and the others get up to the table and the cat says that the shadows would be there soon. A giant Heartless descends from the ceiling.

“I assume that’s the big one guarding the Keyhole?” Aqua asked and Sora nodded to her.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight the Heartless until it collapses.

“Good job,” Kairi whispered to him, with similar murmurs of congratulations being passed around the room, making Sora smile.

He was just doing the job of the Keybearer.

Sora mentions that Alice isn’t there and wonders where she could be.

“You thought the giant Heartless would have her?” Terra asked and Sora looked down with a nod. Riku looked away.

The doorknob wakes up slowly and asks how he’s supposed to sleep. When he yawns, the Keyhole is visible inside.

“Are all Keyholes that… strange?” Aqua wondered and Sora thought back.

“Not as weird but they’re never where you’d think they be,” Sora responded.

The Keyblade locks it, to Sora’s confusion.

Both Aqua and Terra watched in interest. Master Eraqus had never mentioned that before. Perhaps that was a technique they could learn.

Sora says that they defeated the creature but didn’t find Alice. Or the king or his friends.

Sora took a deep breath. They were here now.

A gummi piece falls out of the doorknob’s mouth and Goofy recognizes it as different than the other gummi’s.

“What was it?” Ven asked as Sora onscreen picked up the Gummi and put it in his pocket.

“Navigation Gummi,” Sora revealed. “It helped us to get to farther worlds.”

The cat pops up behind them, calling Sora a hero.

Riku couldn’t help but agree with the cat.

Chesire says if he’s looking for Alice, she wasn’t there.

“And he just now tells you that?” Kairi asked, sounding frustrated.

“Chesire Cat,” Sora, Roxas, and Xion all deadpanned.

He says she’s gone with the shadows.

Not the shadows, Riku thought. Just one.

Sora asks what he means but the cat disappears, and Sora appears disheartened. Goofy tries to cheer him up by telling him that they could find her in another world.

“Well, we did,” Sora snorted. “Kind of.” Riku looked away again but didn’t pull his hand from Sora’s grip. He suspected it would worry the younger boy.

The three of them start heading back but Donald reminds Sora that he can’t enter the ship with a frowning face. Sora says he remembers and puts on a smile.

Again, perhaps not the best application of the idea, Aqua thought to herself, knowing that while Keyblade Wielders had to stay light and positive, such blunt tactics weren’t usually the best idea. The happiness had to come from within them after all, to really mean anything.

Even as she thought that, worries still started to surface in her mind about Sora and his future.

Everything that I see, she thought. All it does is remind me of Ven, Terra, and myself. We were thrown into a world we weren’t ready for, and we sunk. Hard. I won’t let that happen to Sora.

She turned to look at him as the lights went back up, signaling a break. 

I promise.

Chapter Text

“Riku,” Terra started softly, making the boy flinch slightly. “Is it right for us to assume that you kidnapped Alice?”

Sora’s eyes flicked to Terra, a look that could almost be counted as a glare crossing his face as he stared at the older Keyblade Wielder. Mickey tensed, already knowing the answer, his eyes watching Riku carefully. The three former members of Organization 13 blinked, not knowing what had happened truly, but also realizing this wasn’t their fight to get involved in. Vanitas was wondering if he misjudged sliver-hair too quickly. If he had kidnapped someone, perhaps he was worth getting to know…

“Yes,” Riku replied eventually, voice barely above a whisper. Sora moved in closer, leaning on Riku’s side and placing his head on Riku’s shoulder. Riku cringed away from Sora for a quick second before letting the younger boy stay on him, not attempting to remove the younger boy’s hold on his hand. Kairi watching them out of the corner of her eye, jealousy, sadness, and a tad bit of anger warring in her.

She knew Riku had done it for her, to try and get her heart back for her, which continued to surprise her to this day, but…

“Why?” Aqua asked, no judgment in her tone and Riku looked down and away.

“Mal-She said that she could get Kairi’s heart back,” Riku explained, a waver in his voice. “I helped her…first it was because she knew where Kairi was then it was because Kairi didn’t have her heart and she said that if they gathered all the princesses of heart, the power that it granted would be able to restore Kairi. And then…” he trailed off.

“Did you know that Kairi’s heart was resting in Sora’s?” Aqua asked, eyes flicking between the three younger Keyblade Wielders. Manipulation, abuse, using Riku to kidnap people. She was starting to wish she had finished Maleficent off when she had found her after she detransformed from a dragon in Enchanted Dominion. It would have saved many people lots of heartache.

“No,” Riku replied, eyes flicking around to different spots on the ground. “I didn’t.”

“Ansem did, though,” Sora said carefully, looking up at Riku. “Did he not get that information from you?” Riku blinked, shaking his head. “Oh,” Sora hummed. “I always thought you knew.”

“How did Ansem know?” Kairi wondered, tipping her head to the side. “Was he just that powerful?”

The two boys didn’t have an answer for her.

Sora, Goofy, and Donald walk toward a set of big doors flanked by two big statues.

“Oh,” Aqua said in surprise, looking up at the ceiling. “Are we doing this now?” The screen paused and the lights brightened a fraction as if the room itself was pausing and thinking it over.

“I think we can,” Sora said, looking at Riku out of the corner of his eye. It was clear Riku did not want to talk about Ansem or Maleficent or anything that had happened during the couple of weeks he and Sora were fighting against each other. But at the same time, they did really need to talk to each other. Sora still had no idea why he opened the door and destroyed Destiny Islands. He still didn’t know all of Riku had done in the past year. He still didn’t know why Riku had refused to show himself to him, had refused to be found.

But he could also tell that trying to force Riku into talking about it was only going to make the older boy clam up and refuse to talk. At this point, it was probably better to wait until things happened to talk about them. It might make them more willing to talk.

“You sure?” Terra asked, watching the two of them carefully and Sora nodded, looking back at the older Keybearers. Terra looked like he was going to argue but Aqua nudged him in the side and the man subsided, settling back into the couch.

The lights started to dim again and when none of them protested, the screen turned back on.

Donald, Goofy, and Sora finish walking up to the doors, looking around.

“Oh!” Xion exclaimed, sitting up. She recognized the place. “Are you at the Colosseum?”

Sora nodded, turning to her. “You know it?” He asked, wondering if that meant that Roxas knew it as well. He didn’t really know anything about his Nobody’s life and he couldn’t help but find himself curious. What had Roxas been like? Had his habits been the same as Sora’s? How did he meet Axel and Xion? How had he ended up returning to him when it seemed like he clearly hated Sora with every bone in his body? He had heard Roxas’s quick explanation about DiZ and it seemed to be somewhat connected to that, but he still didn’t know. He wanted to know everything about Roxas. It was like having a brother you never knew about until now.

“Yeah,” Xion responded to his question, and he focused back on her. “We would go there to train sometimes.” She gave Roxas a look out of the corner of her eye, a smirk crawling up her mouth, and Roxas paled slightly as he clearly realized what she was thinking about.

“Don’t you dare,” he hissed at her, a small blush starting to make its way up his cheeks and Axel threw his head back and laughed, remembering what Xion was thinking about.

“What?” Sora asked, interested. It clearly had something to do with Roxas…

“One time, this one,” Xion poked at Roxas, who batted her hands away with a grumble. “And Demyx attempted to slack off whilst training there. And well…” Xion giggled quietly. “Saix made them regret it.”

Roxas crossed his arms and muttered mutinously to himself. Kairi let out a small laugh.

“Just like Sora then,” she hummed. Xion smiled at her, but Roxas’s face fell further.

“No,” he spat out quietly. “Nothing like him.” Sora pulled back a little from where he had leaned forward in interest, hurt. He knew Roxas didn’t like him, for reasons still unknown, but…

Xion gave him a glare and Axel gave him a look, but Roxas refused to elaborate so their attentions drifted back to the screen.

The three of them walk up to a satyr who says perfect timing and asks for a hand.

“Phil!” Ven exclaimed at the same time that Roxas covered a snicker and Sora thought back to his different encounters with the satyr.

“Wait, you know him?” Sora asked, turning his head to look at the three Keyblade Wielders, each of who nodded.

“I think we each made a stop there while looking for each other,” Aqua explained.

“Why didn’t he question Roxas’s existence then?” Xion wondered. “If he’d seen Ven before?”

“Maybe he thought Roxas was me?” Ven replied, shrugging. “I mean, he hadn’t aged. Maybe he thought I hadn’t either.”

“Or he just didn’t care,” Roxas said flatly, pulling his arms tighter around himself. The people who had been to the Colosseum found that a reasonable answer.

Phil asks them to move the pedestal over, saying that he has to spruce the place up for the games.

“Good luck,” Vanitas snarked, looking at the size of the pedestal. No doubt it was extremely heavy.

“Kinda rude of him, isn’t it?” Kairi wondered. “I mean, he hasn’t even asked your names and he’s already demanding things of you.”

“It’s okay,” Sora said, patting her hand comfortingly. “He didn’t know it was me. He thought I was someone else.”

“Why would he think that?” Naminé asked, tipping her head. She hadn’t really looked into the world when she shifted the memories of it around. At that point, Larxene and Marluxia had gotten bad enough that she didn’t dare take more time than she needed to in order to experience the worlds and give herself some respite from the place she lived in.

“I think it was only the two of them at the time,” Sora responded, thinking back to his interactions with Hercules. Meg hadn’t been there at the time that he had been the first time and he hadn’t seen anyone else around the arena. Besides Hades, who had been there to ruin it, and Cloud, along with some others, but they had been there specifically for the games. They didn’t live around the colosseum like he suspected Hercules and Phil did.

Sora exchanges a glance with Donald and Goofy before shrugging and attempting to move the pedestal.

“So like you,” Riku murmured under his breath and Sora smiled at him while also blinking and quickly shaking his head. When Riku had said that… it almost felt like he’d had a headache for the quickest second before it disappeared in a flash. What had that been?

Naminé looked closer at Sora. She had felt, just for a second, that her work on Sora’s memory had come undone. Just the smallest way, just a few words but… It shouldn’t be possible. She narrowed her eyes slightly at him.

It’s probably just the room, she reassured herself. It’s just the room.

Not that it’ll matter if he remembers now or then, part of her mind hissed. He’s still going to hate you all the same. She winced and curled her arms tighter around where they were still hugging herself. At some point, she would have to unwind them, if she didn’t want to hurt the muscles, but she couldn’t. She wished she still had her sketchbook.

Sora realizes he can’t and walks back to Phil, saying that it was too heavy.

“Why didn’t Donald and Goofy help?” Ven asked, watching as Sora attempted to move the heavy pedestal, and Sora shrugged.

“I don’t think they would have been able to do much either.”

Phil asks when has something been too heavy for him, turning around, before stopping when he sees Sora.

“Who is he talking to anyway?” Terra asked, thinking back to who he had seen at the colosseum when he had been there. Zack, perhaps? But the boy had been training to be a hero. He probably wouldn’t have stuck around after his training was done. Who else could it be?

“Hercules,” Sora replied offhand, eyes focusing on the screen. So, he didn’t see the two double takes that Ven and Aqua suffered. Hercules? The kid that they had met?

Phil realizes that Sora isn’t Hercules and asks him what he’s doing there.

The three older Keyblade Wielders all noted that Phil hadn’t changed a bit.

Phil says that they’re in the colosseum and that it’s for heroes only.

“Sora is a hero,” Kairi murmured, her thumb rubbing the part of her hand that Sora had touched. Sora smiled at her. Yeah, he was, she thought.

He tells them to run along, calling them pipsqueaks. Sora gives him a look.

“I prefer half pint,” Sora muttered, thinking back to his handshake with Donald and Goofy.

“So, you admit you’re small,” Riku teased quietly, and Sora huffed at him, wrinkling his nose.

Phil explains what the games are.

“That… doesn’t sound that safe,” Aqua said, listening to the explanation. Sure, it sounded pretty similar to what she and the others had experienced while there, but for Sora? He was too young. And not trained in the slightest. At least Ven had two years on him at the time and much more training, and even then Aqua didn’t know how she felt about Ven going up against any of the challenges. “What if one of the monsters escapes? Then it’s going to hurt people.”

“I don’t think they thought about that,” Terra responded, also feeling some fear for the thought of the innocent people if a monster gets released. He probably should have thought about that more back when he encountered the games but he had been… distracted.

“But the games are for heroes,” Ven replied. “I bet they could take care of the monster if it got free.”

Donald says that Phil has three heroes standing in front of him.

“Remind me Sora, how far into your adventure are you?” Roxas asked and Sora paused.

“This was after Wonderland,” he replied, and Roxas made a face. Rather quick to label yourself a hero, he thought, looking at the duck. He hated that term. It was like if someone was hero, it didn’t matter how many people they hurt. It didn’t matter that he and Xion had to die. Sora was a hero and thus, more important than them.

Goofy says that Sora was chosen by the Keyblade and Donald says that he and Goofy are heroes too.

Again, Aqua found her mind drifting back to the particular conundrum. How did Sora get a Keyblade? Who had gifted it to him and why hadn’t they taken him on as an apprentice if they had? It didn’t make sense for someone to Bequeath a Keyblade to Sora then leave. Unless something had happened to them. But Destiny Islands seemed so peaceful.

And Sora would remember a Bequeathing ceremony, there was no way he wouldn’t. It would have made an impression on his heart, even if it was when he was very young. Which was… a whole other can of worms that Aqua wasn’t getting into. But still…

She tapped her fingers along her arm. In the past, she had enjoyed the few mystery novels she had managed to find in Master Eraqus’s library, which was mostly filled with textbooks. But in this instance, she found she distasted the mystery. Not when it was real and had real consequences for young teenagers.

Phil doesn’t believe that Sora’s a hero, calling him a runt. Sora says that he’s fought a lot of monsters.

Riku huffed out a laugh, probably at Sora’s reaction, and the younger boy gave him a look.

“Like you wouldn’t respond the same way,” he told the older boy, who suspiciously didn’t answer.

Phil laughs and says that if Sora couldn’t move the pedestal, how could he call himself a hero, while trying and failing to move the pedestal.

Sora wasn’t the only one stifling giggles as he watched Phil try to move the stone. It had been funny then, though he hadn’t laughed, still mad at Phil for his jab against his height, but he could laugh about it now. Roxas and Xion both had smiles, while Ven and Kairi were laughing. Even Riku and Vanitas had smirks curling up the sides of their mouths.

Sora crosses his arms while Phil admits defeat on the pedestal. Phil admits it probably takes more than brawn.

Yes, it does, Terra thought, his mind drifting without his permission back to the Keyblade Graveyard and all his interactions with Xehanort. He was the strong one, physically at least. He had never doubted that. But it hadn’t saved him from Xehanort’s schemes or manipulations.

No dark thoughts, he told himself, trying to right himself back into the present. Dark thoughts hurt you.

Aqua gave Terra a look. She had seen him fall into his memories and was concerned. While it was possible he was thinking of the far past, it was more likely he was thinking about their escapades and falling out and the subsequent consequences. She nudged him behind Ven’s back and he looked at her.

Okay? She asked with her eyes, and he nodded once, eyes dropping down and shoulder sloping a little. So not the whole truth. But she let it go for the time being.

Phil says to see what they can do. Phil leads them to the center of the colosseum.

Hasn’t changed at all, all three of the past Keyblade Wielders thought.

Phil directs them at some barrels and sets a time limit. Sora destroys them with both fighting and magic.

“Speaking of, when did you learn magic?” Kairi asked. “Last I checked, you hadn’t known that before you left the Islands.”

“Donald taught me the basics,” Sora explained. “And after we met a wizard named Merlin, he helped me improve.”

Phil admits that Sora is better than he thought.

He’s better than anyone thinks, Riku thought in his head.

Sora asks if he could participate in the games.

“Sora…” Kairi said slowly. “You’ve had the Keyblade for maybe a week.”

Sora blushed slightly, looking down, but gave her a small look.

“I was an immature fourteen-year-old who wanted to see everything the worlds had to offer,” he explained. “The games sounded fun, and I thought I was on the top of the world with the Keyblade. Why wouldn’t I want to compete?”

Kairi smiled at him, nudging his side. “Fine, I get it,” she told him. “But after we get out of here, you have to take me there, okay? I need to learn my Keyblade more anyway.” Sora nodded to her, neither of them noticing the small shadow that flickered over Riku’s eyes for the quickest of seconds. None of the others noticed either. Except for Axel.

Two cases of people with unrequited love for the same boy? He wondered. He was aware that Riku had feelings for the younger boy. It was literally impossible not to see, especially after he had spent a couple of weeks with him. At this point, it seemed like Sora was the only one not aware. But he had also been under the impression that Sora knew of Riku’s feelings for him. How could he not?

Aqua was distracted by a different part of the interaction. It was all she could do to stop herself from frowning when Sora described himself as an immature fourteen-year-old kid. He would have only described himself as that if he didn’t believe he was that person anymore. And Sora was what, fifteen? He should still be allowed to be immature, should still be allowed to be a kid. Stars knew that she and Terra had been hellions at that age, even with the Keyblade, something that had slowly disappeared as they met Ven and became big siblings to the boy. Their shift to more mature adults had been natural, obvious, and the only rational course of action. Sora’s… was not.

Phil says no and Sora asks why not.

“Kids,” Aqua murmured at the same time that Kairi laughed at Sora’s onscreen face.

Phil says two words: You guys ain’t heroes.

Several people blinked in surprise and bewilderment.

“That’s not… That wasn’t two words,” Terra said blankly. Roxas barked out a laugh, throwing his head back, and Xion giggled into her hand.

“Does he honestly think that was two words?” Vanitas asked, scorn in his voice as he gave the screen a look of disgust.

“I… think so?” Sora answered, his voice upturning into a question. In truth, he hadn’t really questioned Phil and his… liberal use of numbers. At the time, he had just wanted into the games, and it hadn’t really occurred to him to question Phil’s counting skills.

Kairi laughed quietly at his answer and Sora could feel the chuckles going through Riku’s chest. Naminé had a small smile on her face as well.

The three of them leave the colosseum, only to get interrupted by Hades.

Multiple groans echoed through the room as Hades appeared. Riku raised an eyebrow as Sora dropped his head onto his shoulder, grumbling under his breath.

“Who’s this?” Kairi asked, eyes flicking around the room to the different people who had reacted to the appearance of the… man? He sure at least wasn’t human in any factors.

“Hades,” Sora responded. “He’s always trying to attack Hercules.”

“How many villains did you guys come across?” Kairi wondered and Sora shook his head slowly, not answering.

Terra had gone stiff. You stay away from them. They have no darkness. There’s no reason for you to be interested in them.

Hades calls Phil a stubborn old goat and brushes past Donald’s attempts to get his name.

“Suspicious,” Kairi whispered, and Sora winced.

Hades asks if they wanted to enroll in the games, before revealing a pass to Sora.

Both Riku and Kairi narrowed their eyes at the man, not being the only ones in the room to do so. Yes, Sora had confirmed he was a villain but even if he hadn’t, both of them would be on guard. It didn’t really make sense for Hades to just… give Sora a pass. He must have had other intentions. But what?

Hades wishes Sora luck and leaves. The three of them head back to Phil.

“And you just… didn’t question this suspicious stranger who gave you a pass to the games and left?” Vanitas asked drily, raising an eyebrow. Honestly, how had this kid survived this long? He must have known that no one gives anything for free, everyone wanted something. If they gave you anything at all before using you.

Sora shrugged. “I thought it was a little weird, yes, but I didn’t really know that much about the world,” he explained, leaning backwards slightly, deeper into the couch and closer to his friends because he could tell that they were worrying about him. “Perhaps that was a normal occurrence. Maybe Hades had been a good person who just did that on average.” A flicker of emotion passed his face, and a sheepish smile crossed his lips. “Also, I just really wanted to get into the games.”

Phil asks them how they got the pass, but Sora simply asks if they could be in the games.

“Why didn’t you answer him?” Xion wondered, eyes drifting to Sora, and Sora paused, before shrugging.

“The way he said it struck me more as a rhetorical question.”

Phil agrees.

“Sora’s a kid,” Aqua muttered under her breath, breathing deeply through her nose in an effort to keep her temper in check. Sora shouldn’t have been let into those games, pass or no. He was fourteen.

Phil offhand says some weird people entered and that Sora should watch himself.

Aqua didn’t know if she should close her eyes for the next part or not. She had seen worse, she had seen so much worse, and yet, somehow, this was one of the first things that made her want to turn away.

Kid, kid, kid. Not a Master, barely a Bearer.

If she hadn’t messed everything up by failing, she would have been there for him. And then he wouldn’t have had to do any of this.

In the arena, Sora faces down some Heartless.

“Can Heartless… even register?” Axel asked blankly, watching the onscreen Sora battle it out with several of them. “They don’t speak and only attack things. How’d they get into the competition?”

“Aren’t they just things to battle before the fight?” Ven asked but Terra shook his head.

“Phil called it the Preliminaries, meaning that he would go against other contestants until they had a smaller group of them to face off,” he explained. “Technically, those Heartless are competitors.”

“Again, how?” Axel repeated.

“Well, Hades was one of the voices we heard in that… shadow council?” Naminé said hesitantly, bringing the attention on her, making her duck her head slightly. She was very good at listening and gleaning information from that. It was the only way she truly learned anything in Castle Oblivion. “And Maleficent had control of the Heartless. Maybe she granted some to Hades? In order to help his schemes?”

Riku flinched slightly at Maleficent’s name, causing Sora to lean on him more.

“Possibly,” Aqua murmured. “But she doesn’t really seem like someone to share power like that.”

To be fair though, there had been Unversed in their games. She should really figure out how Vanitas had done that. Even if she despised the idea of speaking to him anymore than she had to.

After Sora beats the Heartless, Phil compliments him. As they’re talking, Cloud passes by them, drawing Sora’s attention.

“Who’s that?” Kairi wondered while Mickey raised his head, recognizing Cloud from the battle of Radiant Garden.

“Cloud,” Sora explained, smiling slightly at the image of the older man. He had been a big help, both here and at the battle of Radiant Garden. Sora couldn’t help the little bubble of worry that swelled in him when he thought of the last time he saw Cloud. Vanishing into the light as he prepared to face down Sephiroth. He hoped Cloud was okay and had won the fight.

Phil says that Cloud would be a tough opponent to beat.

“He was a contender in the games?” Aqua asked and Sora nodded. Another point to the “Sora should not be there” category.

Sora faces down more Heartless.

At this point, everyone in the room just silently accepted that they wouldn’t know why the Heartless were there and they just had to roll with it.

Sora wins the next fight and celebrates with Goofy and Donald. Hades is seen with Cloud.

“Sora, I thought Cloud was your friend,” Riku muttered, having watched the Traverse Town/Radiant Garden residents in the past while waiting for Sora to wake up. They had also lost their memories of Sora, but once they had gotten them back, they had been concerned for the boy and the circumstances that must have led to their memories disappearing.

“He is,” Sora said stubbornly, crossing his arms. “He was just searching for someone, and Hades said he could help. He was tricked by Hades. Plus, he’s been a big help since then.” The statement was said with a strange inflection in his voice, and his eyes were sliding to Riku in earnest, like he was trying to say two things at once, and there was a pout in his voice, and everyone that knows knows what Sora was trying to say, but Riku looked away with a huff and Sora conceded defeat temporarily.

Cloud questions why Hades is afraid of Sora before mentioning his contract.

Sora waves at the screen, as if saying “See! It wasn’t personal!”

Hades says he’s aware what Cloud’s contract was but that he’s going to have to fight Sora if he can get to Hercules.

Both Ven and Aqua frowned. Why was Hades so insistent that Hercules needed to go down? Last they remembered, he was a kid learning to fight. Hardly a threat.

Hades says it’s all just a game and to have fun with it.

Several people narrowed their eyes at that. Toying with lives was not a game.

Hades tells Cloud that a casualty or two shouldn’t matter.

Axel felt something squeeze in his chest at that and he couldn’t help his eyes from dropping down and away from the chest. Hadn’t that been his thoughts? That a hurt person or two wouldn’t matter if he and Isa could get answers? That Vexen’s death was justified because it helped him defeat Marluxia and Larxene, despite the fact that he already knew it was them. That Zexion’s death was justified because it helped Isa get closer to Xemnas, even though Zexion couldn’t have been older than eighteen. That… tracking down and hurting Xion had been justified because it brought her back to him and Roxas, even though she hadn’t wanted to come back.

But… it had hurt, it had damaged everything so badly. Roxas and Xion had died, both pushed away by his actions and Isa was gone, everything… special about him lost to apathy and the darkness, until the last thing Axel could do was sacrifice his life to the last piece of Roxas’s legacy: Sora.

And he had gone into the darkness, thinking he was gone forever, because then, maybe, he would see Roxas and Xion again.

Instead, he had woken up here.

Cloud walks away and Hades comments about how people like Cloud are hard to come by.

I wouldn’t say so, Riku thought bitterly. There’s always someone out there who’s stupid enough to get manipulated.

Unknown to him, his thoughts were being repeated by another Keyblade Wielder, who thought of a desert and a graveyard and the screams of his friends.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight Cloud.

“You… shouldn’t be winning,” Kairi said slowly as she watched the fight between the four of them and Sora made an offended noise from next to her.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asked, twisting his head to look at her, and she winced.

“I mean, he must be going easy on you,” she elaborated. “You’ve only been fighting with the Keyblade for a week, there’s no way that you’re beating someone who’s clearly been fighting for years.” Sora paused, before thinking about it. He had seen Cloud fight at the Battle of Radiant Garden. He had been proficient then, fighting off dozens of Heartless. And while he might have gotten exponentially better during the year that Sora was asleep…

“You’re probably right,” Sora answered with a shrug. “He’s a much better fighter than this.”

“He didn’t want to fight you anyway,” Aqua said, recalling Cloud and Hades’s conversation. “Or at least, he was reluctant to fight you.” Sora acknowledged Aqua’s statement with a nod.

Sora beats Cloud.

Yeah, Cloud was definitely going easy on me, Sora thought in his mind as he watched the fight from an outside perspective, instead of actually fighting. There were several times he could have blocked something or hit Sora, but he didn’t.

As Sora walks toward Cloud, Cerberus appears behind them.

While not as big as a jump scare as the cat was, both Kairi and Naminé still jumped in their seat, Naminé’s arms going up as if to protect her head while Kairi fell backwards deeper into the couch. Aqua and Terra both blinked in surprise, but Aqua’s heartrate racked up several beats when she realized that the beast was right next to Sora. Ven’s, Roxas’s, and Xion’s eyes all widened. Mickey felt fear shoot through him. Vanitas raised an eyebrow.

“What is that?” Kairi asked, her voice going up an octave, and Sora reached out and side-hugged her.

“It’s Cerberus,” he explained. “Hades, I think, released him in an effort to kill Hercules. But don’t worry, we fight him off.”

Sora is a fourteen-year-old and should not be fighting off three headed dogs from the Underworld, Aqua thought in her head, slightly hysterically.

Hades sarcastically says that accidents happen before disappearing into the shadows.

Kairi glared at the disappearing god, worried for Sora’s safety, while Riku took in a deep breath, trying to remind himself that Sora was fine and sitting right next to him.

Cerberus attempts to stomp on Sora but is stopped by Hercules.

“Why are you just standing there?” Kairi asked, hands going around Sora’s arm and squeezing tight. “Get away from the beast!”

“I was a little… shocked,” Sora replied, wincing slightly at her grip. If she kept grabbing on whenever something bad happened, he was going to have bruises later.

Both Aqua’s and Ven’s mouths dropped open in shock. That was Hercules? Ven felt like rubbing his eyes in an effort to make sure what he was seeing was real. He knew he had been asleep for a while but really? Hercules had managed to look like that in the eleven years he had been gone? Ven couldn’t imagine anyone being able to improve and grow that much in eleven years, not even Terra.

Aqua was thoroughly shocked, blinking several times. Hercules had really used those eleven years to his advantage, hadn’t he? A tinge of melancholy went through her at that. Hercules had grown and changed during the eleven years. Had everyone? Everyone she met, Stich, Cinderella, Zack, had they all grown eleven years older as well? She had seen Cinderella’s Castle in the Relam of Darkness, but no one had been there. Were they living in another world? Or an in-between world like Traverse Town?

Her eyes slid down to her hands. Her unchanged hands. If she went and found the people she had met, would they even recognize her? Would she recognize them?

Phil calls Hercules’s name and Hercules tells Phil to get Sora and the others out of there.

Good, Aqua thought, pulling herself out of her thoughts. At least someone cares about Sora’s and the others’ safety.

Phil leads Sora, Donald, and Goofy out of the arena.

“What about Cloud?” Xion asked, watching the Keybearer and his companions flee. “What happened to him?”

“Hercules got him out of there,” Sora responded. “I don’t really know why he didn’t follow us.”

Phil explains who Cerberus is and says that Hercules should be able to handle him.

“Sora,” Kairi said warningly, both used to and having seen Sora’s reckless behavior. “Don’t tell me you went back to the arena.” Several people were suddenly looking at Sora mostly in exasperation, though there was worry on Terra’s, Aqua’s, and Mickey’s faces.

“Hercules needed help,” Sora defended himself, crossing his arms over his chest once Kairi let go of his arm. “I could help him.”

“Phil said that Hercules could handle it?” Xion mentioned, the end of her statement turning up like a question and Sora shook his head.

“Phil said that Hercules should be able to handle it, but he didn’t know for sure.” Sora looked down for a second before looking back up. “I had to help if there was a small chance that Hercules would get hurt.”

“What about you?” Naminé asked quietly, looking down at her empty hands and wishing for the umpteenth time that she had her sketchbook. “Wouldn’t you get hurt?” Multiple people in the room, mostly the adults, looked like they agreed with Naminé.

“I had to help,” Sora repeated, a determined look on his face.

Aqua slid her eyes closed for a quick second, lacing her fingers together in an effort to stop them from trembling. A fourteen-year-old boy should not feel the urge to save everyone around him, even if it meant getting hurt himself. Even now, a week into Sora’s adventure, he already felt like he had to save everyone, probably due to the Keyblade and how everyone was seemingly relying on him. She sighed deeply, rubbing her thumb on the palm of her hand. If only she or Terra or even Ven was still around to help, to take the load off his shoulders.

We’re here now, she reassured herself. We’ll help now.

We should have always been there.

Phil says that he wishes he could help Hercules and Sora starts walking back towards the arena.

“Sora,” Kairi groaned, leaning her head on his shoulder, but didn’t say anything else.

Phil stops Sora and asks if he’s going back to the arena, reminding him that it isn’t a match, but real.

“Listen to the satyr,” Riku murmured, hands twitching. He wanted to reach out to Sora like Kairi had done so easily, wanted to wrap him in a hug and magic until all the danger was gone from the world, but he couldn’t. Every time he interacted with Sora, he made things worse.

Sora says that he’s not afraid and maybe Phil will see him as a hero.

What was this kid’s obsession with being a hero? Vanitas wondered, watching the scene play out on screen. It wasn’t like before, when Sora had burst into the court to save Alice. That had been… pure feeling, wanting to save the girl. Because that was what Sora believed in.

This was… different. Sora wanted to be a hero, badly. But why? Vanitas suspected that even Sora didn’t know.

Phil warns him to be careful and Sora runs back to the arena.

Don’t say “be careful”, stop him! Aqua thought, more and more upset at Phil. He had let a kid take part in a dangerous tournament, pit him against a seasoned fighter, and now was just letting him waltz back into danger against Cerberus, the Guardian of the Underworld!

In the arena, Hercules backs up, trying to defend himself and Cloud’s unconscious body.

Sora couldn’t help but wonder. Why hadn’t Cloud escaped with them? Had he tried to defeat Cerberus? Or had he taken the opportunity to try and kill Hercules?

Cerberus gets distracted as Sora, Donald, and Goofy run back into the arena, granting Hercules passage to get Cloud to safety.

Both Kairi and Riku leaned closer to Sora, one more noticeable than the other, as they watched his younger self face down the Cerberus.

“You guys are going to react the same way to every time I get hurt or enter a battle, aren’t you?” Sora asked, voice dry as he looked at his two childhood friends. Not that he was much better. If he ever had to watch Riku face down a creature, he probably was going to be clinging to him as much as Kairi had a few times.

Phil tells Sora to attack.

At this point, none of them could laugh at Phil’s miscounting again. They were all too tense as they watched Sora stare up at Cerberus.

Sora, Goofy, and Donald fight Cerberus.

“Where’s Hercules?” Roxas asked after a couple of seconds, watching Sora fight Cerberus. “Shouldn’t he be helping you?”

Sora opened his mouth to answer, before pausing and thinking. Where had Hercules been?

“Maybe he was… helping Cloud?” He answered, feeling the answer feel weird in his voice even as he said it. Had something else come up? Were there more Heartless and Hercules had needed to fight those?

Aqua felt the urge to growl, though she kept it carefully inside. Hercules should be helping, should be fighting the creature, not Sora. Not the fourteen-year-old boy who came here on accident.

The three of them knock out Cerberus.

A slight round of applause went around the room as Cerberus landed on the ground, both Riku and Kairi relaxing as Sora was out of danger. Aqua and Terra both had small, proud smiles on their faces, despite their pounding hearts, and Roxas was watching his Somebody in, as much as he hated to admit it, awe. Xion’s eyes were wide and Naminé looked torn between hiding her eyes behind her hands and watching, wanting to see everything she could about the outside world. Vanitas raised an eyebrow in surprise as he watched the twig of a kid knock out the big monster. And this was a warrior of the Light?

Later, Phil dubs them junior heroes.

“’Junior Heroes?’ Really?” Kairi asked, giving the screen a look. “You just defeated something that Hercules couldn’t.”

Sora shrugged, unconcerned about it at this point. “I think Phil is just a real stickler about his principles.”

When Donald asks why junior heroes, Phils says they still don’t understand what it means to be a true hero.

“Sounds like an excuse,” Roxas muttered.

When Goofy asks what it takes, Hercules says they’ll have to figure it out for themselves, like he did.

Ven found himself interested. What had Hercules gone through in the past eleven years? How had he become a hero? He wondered if he went back to the arena after waking up, if Hercules would recognize him.

Sora says they’ll start by proving themselves in the games.

Aqua managed to stop the small chuckle from slipping out of her lips, but just barely. It was nice to see that there was still some small part of Sora that was still a kid. The way he fixated on the games, wanted to do them so badly to prove himself, it reminded her of something that Ven would do, when he wanted to prove himself to her or Terra.

Phil says there won’t be games for a while and that they have to clean up the mess. Sora says they’ll return later then.

Yep, just like Ven, Aqua thought. And moving her eyes over to Terra, she could tell the older boy saw it as well.

Hercules waves to them while Phil remarks that he can’t believe that Sora actually beat Cerberus.

“Because I’m just that good,” Sora said, folding his hands behind his head and leaning backwards into the couch. He smiled at Kairi when she turned to look at him, trying to communicate to her that he was fine, and she could stop worrying. Riku rolled his eyes at Sora’s quip, but a small smile curled up around his lips, so Sora counted it as a win.

Hercules tells Phil that he already wore down Cerberus before Sora jumped in.

“Hey!” Sora exclaimed, sitting up straight and gazing at the screen in betrayal. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Both Kairi and Roxas broke into laughter, quickly followed by Xion and Ven. When Sora’s betrayed gaze landed on them, it didn’t stop their laughter at all. Vanitas chuckled slightly and Riku closed his eyes, looking down as the smile grew on his face.

“You’re all terrible,” Sora muttered, slumping into the couch with a pout on his face. As Kairi worked to contain her laughter, she patted Sora on the head.

“It’s okay, Sora,” she told him. “We all know you’re a great fighter.” He huffed at her, but his pout lessened.

Sora walks up to Cloud, who’s sitting on the steps, and asks him if he’s okay. Cloud responds that he’s fine.

That was also such a Sora move, Riku thought fondly. Making sure the person that tried to kill him was okay.

Sora asks why Cloud went along with Hades.

“Wait, you noticed?” Roxas asked, blinking at his Somebody. He hadn’t realized Sora had known that Cloud was working for Hades.

“I had a good idea,” Sora admitted. “I saw him talking with Hades before our fight and the way Hades spoke when Cerberus entered, it made sense.”

Cloud says that he’s looking for someone and Hades promised to help.

“Do you know who?” Xion asked and Sora paused.

“He was looking for two people,” Sora revealed, thinking back to the quick conversation he and Cloud had before the Battle of Radiant Garden. “Aerith and someone else. He found Aerith but I don’t know if he ever found the other person.” He remembered the note in Cloud’s voice when he had explained. “His friend had last been sighted at the Colosseum though, and Hades offered to help.”

Cloud explains he tried to exploit the power of darkness and it backfired. That he fell into the darkness and couldn’t find the light.

Terra flinched, trying his best to make sure it wasn’t spotted. That was what happened to him, wasn’t it? The darkness is good for nothing but pain and misery.

Riku looked down at his hands. He was well aware of that fact. But he had found his light again.

Sora reached out and took Riku’s hand in his, giving Riku a look like he knew what he was thinking about. Riku tried to smile at him.

Sora tells him that he’ll find it and that he’s searching too.

“Wait, is the person his light?” Vanitas asked, eyes furrowed in confusion. “Is that possible?” He didn’t like Cloud, not if the man had been weak enough to be controlled by the darkness and not the other way around, but…

“Yes,” Riku replied shortly, specifically not looking at the boy that sat next to him. “Anything can be your light. If it means enough to you.”

Cloud asks if he’s searching for his light and Sora nods.

“Aw, thank you Sora,” Kairi said, nudging him slightly. “It’s nice to know I matter to you.” Sora smiled back at her. Riku looked away and pulled his hands away from Sora’s grasp, managing to extract them. Of course…

Mickey gave Riku a look of understanding. Axel watched the three of them in recognition.

Cloud tells Sora not to lose sight of it and gives him something. Sora asks about a rematch.

“Why do you want to fight him again?” Roxas asked and Sora shrugged. He couldn’t remember what he had been thinking at the specific moment.

Cloud says he’ll pass and leaves.

“And he turned up in Radiant Garden sometime when I was asleep,” Sora said, watching Cloud walk away. “And now he’s lost again. I’ll need to find him once I’m out of here.”

Why you? Aqua thought. Why not his friends, who you say he has? His Light?

As Sora, Donald, and Goofy leave the colosseum, Hades rants about Hercules.

“He needs a hobby or something,” Roxas snarked. “Something other than attempting to kill one person.”

Hades calms himself down and says that in the next games, he’ll put a contract on both Hercules and Sora.

Both Riku and Kairi stiffened again.

“It’s okay, guys, promise,” Sora said, already knowing what they were worried about. “We defeated him again.”

Hades asks who invited her to the party and turns to see Maleficent standing in the shadows.

Riku went stiff, freezing at the clear picture of Maleficent. He hadn’t seen her since… since…

“Riku,” Sora said firmly, twining his hands with Riku’s and pulling on the older boy’s arms until he looked at him. “She’s not here right now and we beat her, remember?” Riku swallowed, trying to breathe deeply through his nose like Terra had instructed him to do when he had his panic attack. She’s not here, she gone, she’s dead.

Hunching his shoulders, he forced his eyes closed and tried not to focus on the screen, instead on Sora’s hands in his.

Maleficent says she’ll stay out of it and invites him to fight to his heart’s content.

Riku flinched slightly as she spoke but didn’t open his eyes, tightening his hands on Sora’s. It’s fine, this is just a memory. Just a past event.

Sora gave Riku a worried look but didn’t stop holding his hands. At least Riku wasn’t having a panic attack this time.

It’s strange, Sora thought with the smallest of frowns. He didn’t react like this when we saw Maleficent in the World That Never Was.

Maleficent turns and leaves. The screen goes black.

“She’s gone, Riku,” Sora said softly and Riku forced his back open. Seeing the black screen, he swallowed again, trying to make his shoulders relax.

Damnit, he hissed at himself. You couldn’t even deal with her when she was just barely on screen. How are you going to do when she appears in force?

He didn’t know.

Chapter Text

As the Gummiship flew through space, Goofy and Sora were sitting near the back.

“Where are you heading now?” Kairi asked, tipping her head. She didn’t know that much about Sora’s adventures, basically nothing, so she was glad she was getting this view into his life.

“I think we’re heading to Tarzan’s world,” Sora replied, trying to categorize the worlds in his head. He had gone to Wonderland, then the Colosseum, then the Jungle, right? “It’s a big jungle.”

Goofy melancholily says that they’re not finding much, and Sora asks if he’s speaking about the king.

Mickey sighed. He didn’t mean to worry Donald and Goofy as much as they clearly had. He hoped they would trust him to not do anything exceedingly dangerous and to just focus on the Key and saving the worlds. But it was clear that he had failed in that regard.

Goofy says that he’s also talking about Sora’s friends and Alice.

Sora smiled slightly in remembrance. Even when Donald seemed more focused on finding Mickey, Goofy had always made sure Sora was okay and remembered that Sora also wanted to find his friends as well.

He was pretty sure that Goofy had mentioned offhand one day that he was a dad and Sora could believe it.

Donald reminds Goofy about the ship flying on happy faces and Goofy says that it just seems fishy that people keep disappearing and that there’s a big Heartless in every world.

Vanitas couldn’t help the flash of surprise that went through him. One of the bumbling idiots from Disneytown was actually thinking about what was happening in the worlds and acknowledging it as strange? The world must be truly ending.

Sora wonders what it could all mean and Jiminy agrees with him.

“That’s right, Jiminy mentioned that he lost his world as well,” Aqua said quietly to herself, her mind trying to formulate a map with all the information she was getting. “Why Jiminy’s world though? Why Sora’s?”

Sora mentions the Keyblade and how the Heartless in Wonderland were stronger than the ones in Traverse Town.

“Did you ever figure out why?” Roxas asked, aiming a look at Sora, who paused before replying.

“Well, the main idea is that Maleficent was just getting better at making them,” he explained, causing several eyebrows to raise.

“Maleficent was making them?” Terra asked and Sora nodded.

“Well, most of them,” he said. “Heartless are natural creatures that come from people’s hearts when they fall to darkness but a lot of the Heartless, we fought this time, like the big ones, were created specifically by Maleficent. There’s not usually that many Heartless around.”

Axel, Roxas, and Xion couldn’t help but remember the Heartless that Xion and Roxas would fight for the Organization. How many of those had been real and how many had been fake? Axel had noticed that there had been an increase in Heartless numbers but not Nobody numbers sometime before Roxas was created. Perhaps this was the reason.

“What was the second idea?” Naminé asked, shifting in her seat when a couple of confused glances were sent her way. “Sora said the main idea. So, there must have been another.”

“Well, the other was that there was more Darkness in Wonderland than there was in Traverse Town and that was what was making the Heartless stronger,” Sora said. “Though that’s harder to prove.”

Goofy bets that the Heartless will probably keep getting stronger.

And they did, thought Sora.

The ship rocks and Goofy asks Donald to fly better. Donald welcomes one of them to try it and Sora says he will.

Many of the teenagers sighed, having seen Sora do the exact same thing on the way to Wonderland. Kairi elbowed Sora in the side.

“What?” Sora asked, giving her a look. “I wanted to fly the ship. I’m much better at it now, anyway.”

Sora moves towards the controls and Donald stops him. A planet comes into view.

“Sora, please tell me you didn’t land in the jungle world because you crashed,” Riku muttered and Sora turned to him, an expression of clearly faked betrayal plastered across his face.

“Now Riku, why would you think that?” He asked and Riku sighed, shaking his head slowly.

The ship gets closer to it and Sora wonders what type of world it is. Donald says the king wouldn’t be there.

“I mean, Donald doesn’t know that,” Kairi murmured. “He could be there.”

Mickey paused, thinking. He was probably already in the Realm of Darkness at this point.

Sora brings up that Riku and Kairi could be there and asks to land. Donald says no and that they’re on an important mission.

Sora couldn’t help the small sigh that slipped through him. He was aware that he and Donald had their… problems when they first became travel members with each other. Donald had been focused on finding the king and hadn’t wanted to listen while Sora had truly grasped the fact that the leader of their world was missing. But now, watching it happen again from an outside perspective, he couldn’t help the small twinges of anger and discontent that bubbled back up inside him. Donald had said that he and Goofy would help Sora find Kairi and Riku just like Sora was helping them find Mickey. But he hadn’t really wanted to. At least, not until after this.

As Sora and Donald bicker, the controls go wild and the Gummiship starts tipping. Doanld tries to stop it, but nothing works. Donald blames Sora before ejecting them all from the cockpit, sending them flying.

“That was mean,” Kairi grumbled, leaning deeper into Sora’s side. The boy sighed.

“Donald and I… didn’t really see eye to eye in the beginning,” he said softly, half to Kairi, half to himself. “But we grew closer, and we became friends, I promise.”

Mickey closed his eyes and tried not to think about the consequences of this. He wished Donald would have been more… understanding to Sora and not so fixated on finding him, but he should have known that was what Donald was like.

Sora falls through several vines before landing in a large wooden hut.

Several people winced as they watched Sora bounce down to the ground and he could feel both Riku and Kairi giving him a critical look, as if scanning him for injuries that happened over a year ago.

“Guys, fine, remember?” He told them. “It barely hurt.”

Sora stands up, rubbing his head. He calls out for the other two.

Again, Riku was met with his… anger at Sora’s companions. He knew they cared for Sora, in their own way, but he had yet to see that care in the actions they took. Yes, Goofy was better at it than Donald, and he had seen some actions when he was following Sora after he woke up but there still wasn’t anything that reassured him that these two were Sora’s friends.

As Sora looks around, a jaguar appears from the shadows and attacks Sora, with Sora fending him off with his Keyblade.

Naminé gasped as the jaguar appeared, curling up in her seat. Aqua’s eyes widened as she started to recategorize the world on her internal “dangerous scale” and Riku felt his breath leave him for a quick second.

Sora gets thrown into the wall by the jaguar, but another person comes out of nowhere and fends the jaguar away with his hands and a spear.

“Who is that?” Kairi asked, taking in the man’s appearance and movements. He didn’t look completely human.

“Tarzan,” Sora explained. “He’s nice, but hard to understand. I think he was raised by apes.”

Tarzan says Sabor before repeating Sabor, Danger. Sora asks if the jaguar’s name was Sabor.

“Was it?” Xion asked, mildly intrigued and Sora shrugged. He hadn’t ever found out.

Sora thanks Tarzan and Tarzan repeats the word. Sora is confused.

“Does he… not understand you?” Aqua asked, watching the screen in fascination.

“I don’t… know exactly,” Sora explained. “A woman we met, Jane, seemed to understand him well enough, even if he never spoke a lot of English. I have a feeling Tarzan understands more than he knows, but he mostly has trouble saying it.”

Sora asks where he is, and Tarzan repeats him. Sora asks if he’s seen his friends.

“Sora, why are you asking him?” Kairi wondered, giving the boy next to her another elbow. “He clearly is only repeating what you say.”

“I had to try though,” Sora defended himself. “That was the whole reason I went there.”

Sora starts describing Donald but stops before mentioning Riku and Kairi.

“Isn’t Donald your friend?” Xion asked, leaning on Axel’s side. She hated it whenever she was separated from him and Roxas, especially if she hadn’t chosen to be. “Why aren’t you asking about him?”

“I guess I was a little upset,” Sora said slowly, looking down. “He had made it clear that he was focused on finding Mickey and I was upset about that and that he refused to look for Riku and Kairi. So, I focused on finding them. If Donald wasn’t going to help me, then I wasn’t going to help him.”

“Gosh Sora,” Mickey said, giving the boy a sad look. “I didn’t mean to make Donald focused on finding me. I did tell him to help whoever was holding the key.”

“I know Mickey, it’s not your fault,” Sora told him, returning his smile from earlier. “Donald just… really wanted to find you. Which makes sense. I really wanted to find Riku and Kairi. And we figured it out anyway.” He finished his statement with a wave of his hand but Aqua narrowed her eyes slightly. Sora was allowed to still be a little upset at Donald, especially if they hadn’t truly gone through their issues with each other. He didn’t have to immediately forgive the duck because the duck had said sorry. She resolved to wait and see what had come from it.

Tarzan asks Sora that he’s looking for Riku and Kairi before saying that they were here.

“What?” Kairi asked, raising an eyebrow. At this point, she was sleeping inside of Sora’s heart and Riku was lost to Darkness, probably somewhere in Hollow Bastion. She would like to believe that her body was with him.

“Tarzan meant that friends are in one’s heart,” Sora explained, trying not to think of the joy that had rushed through him when he had heard Tarzan’s words. After everything he had seen, even in the first week, he should have realized it wouldn’t be that easy. “It was something he learned and repeated often.” Sora felt his smile dim slightly as he remembered the sadness that had gone through him when he realized that Riku and Kairi weren’t there, and both of the other teenagers gave him worried looks.

Tarzan says a word that Sora doesn’t understand and gestures, before repeating that friends were there.

“Tarzan’s word for heart,” Sora explained without prompting.

Sora says he doesn’t understand but asks Tarzan to show him. Tarzan introduces himself before leading Sora away.

“It’s okay Sora,” Riku said quietly, feeling like he was going to trip over his own words. He was not good at this whole comforting thing. “We’re here now.” Sora paused, blinking in shock at the words coming from Riku of all people, before looking up and flashing the older boy a smile.

“Yep!” He chirped out, reaching out to hug the boy before turning to Kairi and doing the same thing. Kairi’s arms came up to return the hug. “You’re both here and you’re not allowed to leave again.” Both of the other teenagers privately thought that there was no way that was happening.

Donald wakes up on a boulder, looking over and seeing Goofy out cold next to him.

Despite all the feelings that were starting to flow back into Sora’s mind, he couldn’t help the little bit of relief that went through him when he saw Donald and Goofy, safe and unharmed. He knew they were okay; he saw them later in the camp, but still… It was nice to have it confirmed.

Donald wakes up Goofy, who seems unconcerned.

While there were a couple of laughs at Goofy’s shenanigans, many of them were still slightly off after watching Sora and Donald fight and hearing Sora’s thoughts.

Donald tells Goofy to wake up and Goofy realizes that Sora isn’t there.

Sora smiled softly at Goofy. Always the caretaker, he thought.

Donald asks who needs Sora and says that they’ll find the King without him.

Sora looked downward and Kairi twisted her head, giving the boy a concerned look. “Sora,” she said slowly, and Sora shook his head quickly, looking back up at her.

“It’s okay, remember?” He told her. “We figured it out.” Aqua watched the boy in concern. Mickey bit the inside of his cheek. Had he made a mistake sending Donald to find Sora?

Donald reaches for his wand, only to come into contact with a baby gorilla.

Sora tipped his head, staring at the gorilla. Had he seen that one when he was there?

“A gorilla?” Riku wondered, the smallest bit of awe in his voice. They had heard of gorillas on Destiny Islands, had seen the pictures of them, but he hadn’t ever seen one for himself. He hadn’t ever gone to the world that Sora was on.

Similarly, Kairi’s eyes were wide as she stared at the screen. Naminé tipped her head. She didn’t know why her Somebody was so enthralled. They had seen a bunch of magical things so far into the viewings, things much more crazy that a simple gorilla.

“Um… what’s a gorilla?” Xion asked quietly, aiming the question at Axel. He blinked, furrowing his brow as he tried to think about how to answer. In truth, he hadn’t ever met one either, and his knowledge of them, along with a lot of other animals, had drifted to the far back of his memory. Honestly, the only true things he remembered about his childhood before becoming a Nobody was Isa and his little sister, even if the memories of her were foggy as well. Everything else was a… blur, mostly.

“It’s an animal,” Sora answered instead, after a couple of seconds. “Kind of like us, they’re intelligent creatures who live in family troops and helped raise Tarzan. There’s a lot of them in the Jungle.”

“We’d learned about them in school, but…” Kairi started, still staring at the screen. “I never thought I’d actually ever see one.”

“Out of all the things you’ve seen, Princess?” Vanitas asked drily, giving her a look. “This is the thing that really takes you aback?”

Kairi puffed up slightly, glaring at the boy sitting across the room. While she usually liked to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, she couldn’t help but listen slightly to Aqua when she had dismissed the boy sitting in the chair. His actions hadn’t helped either. But now…

“Yes, because that is more proof that the worlds used to be connected in some way,” she told him, looking down her nose the best she could. For a second, she almost felt like an actual princess. “All the other things are just wild and crazy and fit their worlds. This is something that is shared between two worlds that should, theoretically, be completely and utterly separate.” Aqua gave her a small, proud smile, and Kairi had to push away foggy memories that told her you’ve seen that smile before and instead pointedly turned her gaze away from Vanitas to instead look at Sora, who was also giving her a smile. Though this one was significantly more hyper.

Vanitas huffed and looked away, resting his chin on his hand.

Donald jumps back in shock and a noise from the underbrush makes the little gorilla run off. He drops something.

“What was that?” Terra asked, not recognizing what the noise could be. Sora tipped his head in thought. They had come into contact with the gorillas, the Heartless, and the hunter during their time in the jungle but other than that…

Donald recognizes it as a Gummi block.

“How did a Gummi block get there?” Mickey wondered, blinking in confusion. Gummi fell from the stars, rarely but it did, though the most common way to get Gummi was from a thing already made of Gummi. Had there been another Gummiship in the Jungle? Or could it have been from Sora, Goofy, and Donald’s ship?

A voice asks who goes there and Donald and Goofy turn to see a man dressed as a hunter.

Sora frowned as he looked at Clayton. He hadn’t been… the greatest person, wanting to hunt the gorillas, but he hadn’t deserved to get his heart stolen by the Heartless and turned into the thing they had to fight. He wished that things had turned out peacefully, but that unfortunately was not possible in some worlds.

Sora follows Tarzan through the vines.

“That looks dangerous,” Kairi murmured, watching Sora skid through the vines. Sora couldn’t really say anything against it. It had been dangerous.

“It was fun though,” he told her, and she huffed but didn’t say anything.

Tarzan leads Sora into a tent, calling out for Jane. A woman turns around.

“So, Tarzan’s the odd one out here?” Riku asked under his breath, trying to figure out how the world worked.

“Yeah,” Sora replied, nodding. “He was raised by apes while the others… weren’t, I think.”

Jane asks who Sora is. When Sora starts to introduce himself, Jane realizes that Sora speaks English and probably isn’t Tarzan’s family.

“I mean, wasn’t that kind of obvious?” Ven wondered. “Sora’s walking and looking so different from Tarzan.” Sora shrugged. Perhaps it was in fact hard to tell. They didn’t know that much about the world.

Jane asks if Sora’s here to study the gorillas.

“Jane was a researcher,” Sora said, cutting off a couple of questions that were about to be asked.

A man says he doubts that and the hunter from before enters, leading Donald and Goofy.

Mickey couldn’t help the small sigh of relief that slipped out of him. He was glad Donald and Goofy were okay, even if he was still a little worried about how Donald was dealing with Sora.

The three of them reunite but Sora and Donald remain angry at each other.

Both Sora and Mickey bit back sighs.

Jiminy appears and tells them that he’s glad they’re okay.

“I swear, every time he pops up, he scares me,” Roxas grumbled, a sentiment repeated around the room. It was very easy to forget that Jiminy was also traveling with them.

Donald asks where the Gummiship is and Jiminy says that he hid it a little way beyond the tent.

“Can Jiminy even pilot it?” Kairi asked, turning to Sora. “He is very small.”

“I’ve… decided not to ask,” Sora admitted with a sheepish smile. “He doesn’t do it often, anyways.”

Clayton calls them a circus of clowns.

Kairi and Riku both made noises of offence on Sora’s behalf while Vanitas and Roxas snickered. Sora huffed out an offended noise.

As Clayton leaves, Jane reminds him that they’re studying gorillas, not hunting them.

“He’s going to be a problem, isn’t he?” Aqua asked, already able to see the darkness that must have been swirling around Clayton. It reminded her of the stepsisters a little. Too caught up in their own world and desires to listen to others. Too… greedy.

“Yeah,” Sora replied with a grimace. “He’d gets transformed into a Heartless and we have to end him.” He winced. Another death on his toll.

Jane welcomes them in and says the more the merrier.

“She’s nice,” Kairi murmured, watching the young woman and Sora nodded. Jane had been very nice to them, even when they were as strange as they were.

“She just… doesn’t blink at the walking dog and duck?” Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I mean, she knows Tarzan,” Xion replied. “Perhaps they aren’t the weirdest people she’s seen?”

Both Sora and Donald say that they’re staying, giving each other looks.

Sora winced at his past actions. And Donald’s past actions.

Sora turns to Jane and introduces themselves to her. She greets them.

Now not in the moment, Sora could see that Jane was very blasé about the fact that there was a walking, talking duck and dog. Even in the world she lived in, you would think that she would have a couple of questions.

Goofy shows Sora the piece of a Gummi block and Sora asks what it is.

Mickey focused up on the screen. Maybe they would figure out where the Gummi block came from.

Goofy explains that it’s a piece of Gummi and Donald says that it could mean that the King was there.

“You weren’t there, were you Mickey?” Riku asked, turning in his seat to look at the king, who shook his head. “So, how’d the Gummi block get there?”

“Well, Gummi falls from the sky most of the time,” Mickey explained. “We just happened to have a lot of it from the sky. It’s possible that piece just fell from the sky. Or it could be from Sora’s Gummiship.”

“Must be from the sky then,” Sora said.

Donald says they have to work together for the moment and Sora agrees but specifies for only the present moment.

“How did you become friends again?” Kairi asks. “You two seem pretty mad at each other.”

“Well…” Sora trailed off, thinking back. “Thank the Heartless? And Tarzan?” Riku rolled his eyes, hidden from most of the watchers.

Roxas couldn’t help but think about himself and Axel. Their friendship had been broken by secrets and they hadn’t really had a chance to fully repair it before Roxas had been kidnapped and lost all his memories. He wondered if the three of them, given time, would have been able to repair their friendship, like Sora clearly had done.

Jane asks Sora if he’s looking for something and Sora says he’s looking for his friends. He says that Tarzan said they were here, but he can’t talk to Tarzan.

Sora’s hands tightened around his friends. They were here, they were fine.

Jane explains that Tarzan was raised by apes in the jungle and that he doesn’t understand that much of their language.

“I wonder how they’re doing,” Sora muttered to himself. He hadn’t ever been back to the Jungle since then. He hoped Tarzan and Jane were doing okay. Perhaps he should visit that place after he got out.

Sora asks Tarzan where his friends are, but Tarzan doesn’t completely understand, just repeating “friends here”.

“It’s… sweet?” Kairi started. “That Tarzan thinks his friends are in his heart.” But she could feel Sora’s frustration through the screen, and she was trying to make present him feel better. She knew he would find her eventually, in Hollow Bastion, but it didn’t make watching Sora’s journey any easier. Even though she had technically been a part of it.

Sora explains that Tarzan said one other word that he couldn’t understand. Jane says they could try slides to see if they could guess the word that Tarzan was saying.

“Does it work?” Aqua asked but Sora shook his head.

The first slide shows a place.

“Radiant Garden!” Terra said in surprise, recognizing the tall Castle surrounded by trees.

“Wait, that’s Radiant Garden?” Sora asked, turning to look at the older Keyblade Wielder, who nodded. “Huh, it didn’t look like that when I was there.”

“Well, it’s still recovering,” Mickey explained, taking over the story. “It fell to darkness, then was brought back by Maleficent as Hollow Bastion. Even with all the work of the Restoration Council, it’ll take a while before it’s back to its former glory.”

Kairi blinked in wonder, looking at the image on the screen. That was her birth world? That beautiful Castle? Had she lived in it? She was a Princess of Heart; did that mean she was an actual Princess? Alice hadn’t been, but all the others had. Did she visit that place regularly? Had she run through the forest, even in her small five-year-old body? She hadn’t ever felt really the urge or need to return to her birthplace but now… She might want to.

Axel couldn’t help the small wince that went through him when he saw the picture of his old home. Even if most of the memories were fuzzy, he could still recall the plaza where he and Isa often spent their time. Running in-between alleys, helping his younger sister to touch the water from the fountain. Beautiful sunsets where he could forget everything. Forget the gaping hole after his parents’ disappearance/probable murder, forget the girl in the basement who they still had to save, forget the darkness that was encroaching in the ending days of Radiant Garden. While his life in Radiant Garden hadn’t been perfect, it had been nice. And he hadn’t ever missed it before now…

Sora feels like the place is familiar but thinks that he’s never been off his island.

“It could have been me,” Kairi said softly, eyes enraptured by the screen. “While I don’t remember what happened while I was in your heart, I was able to share memories with you and react to… extreme circumstances. Maybe I recognized my home, even if I didn’t remember it.” Sora paused, thinking it over. They’d seen crazier things in the past couple of months.

“Maybe,” he said, reaching out to give Kairi a hug. He had seen the wonder in her eyes when she gazed at Radiant Garden. He should take her with him to see it.

Jane goes through a couple more slides, but nothing happens.

Several of them thought the slides were rather random and few of them. It hadn’t really helped figure out what Tarzan was saying.

When Tarzan can’t answer, Clayton says that they must be with the other gorillas, who Tarzan has refused to show them where they live.

Suspicious, several people thought. Not about Tarzan’s actions, but Clayton’s insistence that they had to be at the gorilla home. And Jane had called him a hunter before…

Jane says Tarzan wouldn’t hide anything but is cut off by Clayton, who asks Tarzan where the gorillas are.

Naminé, in a bizarre thought which she didn’t realize where it came from, thought that Clayton and Larxene were similar. In the way that they wouldn’t take an answer for an answer if it wasn’t the one they liked.

Tarzan looks at Sora before nodding. Jane asks if Tarzan is sure.

“That was nice of him,” Kairi said.

“Why though?” Ven asked. “He must have known that Sora’s friends weren’t there.”

“I think he just wanted to help,” Sora explained.

Tarzan says that he’ll go see Kerchak.

“Who’s Kerchak?” Xion asked.

“The leader of the gorillas, I think,” Sora replied.

Jane asks who Kerchak is, and Clayton says that he’s probably the leader of the gorillas. He says he’ll go along as an escort, mentioning that the jungle is dangerous.

That’s a bad idea, was a thought passed around the room.

Goofy whispers to Sora that he has a bad feeling about Clayton.

“Good instincts,” Terra murmured. That was something that everyone could use.

Jiminy says he’ll watch the Gummiship and leaves.

“Does he always watch the Gummiship?” Roxas asked and Sora paused before shrugging.

“Sometimes he does, sometimes he comes with us,” Sora said. “It’s a tossup.”

Sora asks Tarzan if this is really okay, and Tarzan says that they’ll go see friends.

“I agree with Key Kid, as weird as that sounds,” Vanitas muttered. “You’re clearly leading Clayton to exactly where he wants to go. Why would you do that?”

“If there was a chance that Riku and Kairi were there, I had to take it,” Sora said firmly. “Even if it made me uneasy.”

Heartless appears in front of them and Sora tells Donald and Goofy that they don’t have to do anything. He’ll take care of it.

“Why would you say that?” Kairi asked, twisting to look at Sora in shock. “You’ve always fought together before.”

“Well, you’re seeing what’s going on between Donald and me,” Sora said, looking down. “I suppose… I didn’t really want to fight with him at the time, knowing that he’d be bad tempered about it.”

“Still Sora,” Riku told him, and Sora wilted slightly. Why did Riku have to use the “I’m disappointed in you” voice? “That is dangerous. You could have gotten hurt.”

“I’ll be fine, promise,” Sora said, trying to placate both of his friends. “Donald and Goofy help anyways. Eventually.”

Donald asks if that means Sora doesn’t need his magic anymore and Sora says he guesses.

“I should have been nicer,” Sora murmured, and Kairi jabbed him in the side with her elbow. “Ow Kairi, what the heck?”

“Listen, while usually I’m all for making friendships and the like, in this moment you’re allowed to be a little surly,” Kairi told him seriously, looking at him in the eyes. “You and Donald have genuine grievances against each other and until you can sit down and talk about it, you’re allowed to be a little mad at him. During a battle might not be the best place to argue, but don’t get mad at yourself for being mad. It’s fine to be mad.”

Sora shot her a small smile.

Unknown to her, her words were rattling around the heads of two of the other Keyblade Wielders. Terra and Aqua both frowned minutely.

Terra felt his hands curl slightly into fists. Hearing someone say that, even if it was a small child who should be no where near this fight, made him feel… better, in a way. All Master Eraqus had taught him was that all negative emotions, anger, jealousy, greed, fear, led to the Darkness. There was no way to stop it unless you stopped having those emotions. But was that even possible? It was a thought that had circulated in his head often, before and after the possession. Could he have stopped those emotions from overtaking him?

He shook his head.

No. Nothing could have stopped him. He was just too… dark.

Aqua looked down. Be careful of those emotions, she warned Kairi in her head That’s a really quick way to getting swallowed up by the darkness. Never linger on those feelings, especially not if you’re a Keybearer.

Donald says that they aren’t one for all anymore. Goofy tries to stop them from arguing.

“I just feel bad for Goofy,” Roxas muttered. “Having to deal with you two.”

Donald and Goofy join the fight but Donald and Sora fight separately from each other.

“At least, they’re helping?” Naminé said, trying to lighten the atmosphere slightly.

At the end of the fight, a couple of Heartless jumps out of the bushes and startle Donald. Sora calls out to him.

Kairi smiled slightly; an action mirrored by Riku. No matter how mad Sora was at someone, he wouldn’t sit by why they got hurt. That just wasn’t who he was.

Tarzan defends Donald and Sora tells Donald angrily that he said that they didn’t have to fight.

“Worried, Sora?” Kairi said, giving Sora a look and Sora huffed, looking away. It had scared him, to see Donald attacked, but he had also been mad at him at the time.

Donald says not to underestimate a Royal Magician and Sora rebukes that he doesn’t care how royal Donald is, that he can get rid of the Heartless on his own. The two of them look away from each other.

Mickey winced; a motion noticed by a couple of the watchers.

“What’s wrong, Mickey?” Riku asked, having seen the King’s wince, and Mickey looked away for a second.

“That… might not have been the nicest thing to say, Sora,” Mickey said gently, looking to the younger boy. “I know you didn’t mean it, you have no idea, but… Donald takes great pride in his status as the Royal Magician. It helped him and his family a lot in life.”

“What do you mean?” Sora asked, tipping his head. Donald had spoken about Daisy before, so he knew about her, but he didn’t know about anyone else.

“Well…” Mickey trailed off. “Has Donald ever talked about his family?”

“Just his wife, Daisy,” Sora responded, and Mickey hummed in consideration, tapping his fingers together.

“Donald had a sister, named Della,” Mickey explained slowly, several people noting the had in the statement. “She’s gone now. No one knows what happened to her. She was an explorer and one day just… didn’t come back. But she left behind three kids, who weren’t even hatched yet. And it was only Donald still around to take care of them. At the time, he was right out of spending time working in the army of the Kingdom and didn’t have nearly enough to support them. So, he took to learning magic because it was a well-paying profession. Now, his nephews want for nothing and have good prospects going forward. And he even reconnected with his uncle. Because of his magic and later, his status, as Royal Magician.”

“Oh,” Sora said softly, looking down.

“It’s not your fault for saying it, you didn’t know,” Mickey reassured him. “Plus, he’s probably forgotten about it by now but… just for in the future.”

Sora nodded, looking up at Mickey. “I will keep that in mind. I didn’t know he had a sister.”

“Well, no one really likes talking about her, unless it’s telling her kids what she was like,” Mickey said. “It’s been twenty years now, anyway. Della Duck mostly just exists in memories now.”

A somber mood settled over the watching room for a second, many of the people reeling from the information they just got. It hadn’t ever really occurred to any of them that Donald had a missing sister or nephews he had to provide for.

Tarzan asks Goofy if Donald and Sora aren’t friends anymore and Goofy says he doesn’t know.

Sora blinked, trying to focus back on the present and not what Mickey had just told him. It wouldn’t do any good now to focus on it. Maybe he could talk with Donald once he got out of here, clear the air between them fully.

The four of them end up on a rocky outcropping, where two gorillas sit.

“Kerchak, I assume?” Aqua asked, looking to Sora, who nodded.

Tarzan asks Kerchak to listen to him.

Several people jumped in surprise.

“Wait, I thought he couldn’t speak English?” Ven asked, blinking in surprise.

“He can’t,” Sora said, watching the screen in fascination. “When we were there, all were heard were gorilla noises. He’s not speaking English.”

“Then how can we understand it?” Terra asked and Sora paused before shrugging.

“Magical room that’s showing us the past and future?” He said, pitching up the end of the sentence in a question.

“It wouldn’t be the craziest thing that’s happened in the past hour,” Axel said, gesturing to the room at large. Where several people sat that should not be there.

“How much magic was used to create this?” Aqua wondered under her breath. It couldn’t have been easy.

Tarzan says he trusts Sora and the others, and he wants to help them because they need help.

“So, he’s actually that sweet,” Kairi murmured, thinking back to the “friends in heart” thing.

“Yeah, he cares about everyone,” Sora replied, thinking about Jane’s and Tarzan’s relationship. Two very different people making it work between them.

Goofy asks if anyone got that and Donald says no. Kerchak hears something and walks off, being followed by the other gorilla. Goofy notices that he seemed distracted by something.

“By Clayton,” Sora explained, thinking back. Clayton had gone to the treehouse, hadn’t he?

Sora walks toward Tarzan and attempts to comfort him before mentioning the direction Kerchak walked off to.

“How’d you know?” Xion asked and Sora paused.

“I don’t think I did,” Sora said. “The way he was acting just seemed off… and I recognized the direction he was going.”

In the treehouse, a young gorilla is playing with a globe.

Oh, Sora thought. It is the same gorilla.

Clayton crouches just out of sight and lines up a shot.

Hearing Kairi suck in a breath of concern, not being the only one to do it, he reached out and patted her arm in a soothing manner. “Don’t worry,” he told her. “We stopped him.”

Donald runs up behind him, screaming, causing Clayton to miss his shot.

Even with the tense atmosphere, there were several laughs echoing around the room. Kairi clapped a hand to her mouth to stifle giggles and Roxas and Xion both laughed. Naminé quietly giggled, taken off guard, while Sora smiled, used to Donald’s antics.

The young gorilla runs off, hiding behind Kerchak who came through one of the doors. Tarzan calls out to Kerchak, but he leaves.

“He could at least say something,” Kairi muttered. “Tarzan’s trying to talk to him.”

Tarzan turns to Clayton, who says that he was trying to save the gorilla from a snake.

“Does he think that anyone’s going to actually believe that?” Vanitas snarked, rolling his eyes. “That’s so clearly a lie. Good lies have at least a little bit of truth in them.”

The group travels back to the tent. Jane scolds Clayton, despite his attempts to justify himself. Jane apologizes to the group.

“She shouldn’t have to deal with him,” Aqua said quietly. “He should have been sent away the second he started to threaten the gorillas.”

Sora says she doesn’t have to apologize, and a gunshot rings out.

“He really went for the gorillas?” Kairi exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air. “After Jane just told him not to?”

“I don’t actually know what happened,” Sora admitted. “That was the last time we saw Clayton before the Heartless absorbed his heart. I don’t know what he did.”

The group runs out to see a gorilla surrounded by Heartless. They move to attack, with Sora and Donald arguing slightly. Goofy says it’s not the time.

“Have to agree with him,” Roxas said. “Arguing while fighting is… not a good idea.”

Sora and Goofy get separated while fighting and Goofy says that the gunshot could have been Clayton attempting to help the gorillas.

Several people doubted that was true.

Sora says he would like to believe that but gets sideswiped by a Heartless, being saved by Donald.

“Still friends, even when we were arguing,” Sora said softly.

Donald says he owes him, and Sora replies that he doesn’t want to owe him.

“It’s… nice that you’re still helping each other?” Naminé said slowly, watching the screen.

Donald helps the gorilla from before and the gorilla hugs him in fear.

“Poor baby,” Xion whispered, and Roxas gave her a look. He would never understand her obsession with animals.

Donald says that he can’t fight with the gorilla and Goofy recommends sending him back to the tent. Donald does so. The rest of the fight the Heartless, getting progressively farther away from the camp.

“Is it a good idea to get that far away from Jane?” Aqua asked. “She can’t defend herself.”

Sora grimaced, thinking about what happened next. “No, it wasn’t.”

Goofy attempts to have Donald and Sora make up while on the way back to the tent, but it doesn’t work. Tarzan looks nervous as he enters the camp.

“What’s wrong?” Terra asked, seeing Tarzan’s uneasiness. Sora doesn’t answer.

The three of them enter the tent, only to see that Jane and the gorilla are missing.

“Oh!” Kairi exclaimed. “Were they okay?”

“Yes, they were,” Sora told her. “We found them just fine.”

Tarzan calls out for Jane before realizing that there is a strange smell and taking off towards the treehouse.

“What’s so special about the treehouse anyway?” Ven asked, thinking back. “It looked like it had been inhabited before and everything seems to happen there.”

“I don’t know,” Sora said. “I never thought to ask. But… Tarzan had to get to the jungle somehow, right?”

When they arrive at the treehouse, Jane looks out from hiding inside it. There are several gorillas in the area.

Kairi relaxed slightly when she saw that the woman was okay.

Jane explains that Clayton came to the tent, and she doesn’t remember anything else.

“Clayton was already a Heartless at this point?” Axel asked and Sora nodded.

A gunshot is heard behind them, and they turn to see Clayton. Tarzan says that it isn’t Clayton.

“He… looks normal?” Xion said slowly. With all her experience fighting Heartless, she hadn’t ever seen one like Clayton. He looked normal.

Sora made a face. In his head, he could see Scar leering down at him and the others, no longer a lion and no longer himself.

”It happens sometimes,” he explained with a grimace. “I don’t know why though.

“How’d Tarzan know?” Aqua murmured quietly under her breath.

Something invisible bursts through the wall behind him and smacks Tarzan away.

“What was that?” Riku asked, sitting straighter as he realized that Sora was once again being thrown into fighting. Another one of the big Heartless, maybe?

“A Heartless,” Sora explained, answering Riku’s thoughts. “Though, this one was invisible. It was hard to fight.”

It looks like Clayton is flying but Goofy realizes it’s an invisible Heartless.

“How are you supposed to fight something like that?” Kairi asked, hands circling around Sora’s arm.

“Guess?” Sora said, getting a look from multiple people in the room.

Kerchak moves in to protect Tarzan and Sora, Donald, and Goofy focus on the Heartless.

Kairi smiled when she saw Kerchak help Tarzan. It was good to see that their relationship wasn’t too damaged.

Donald and Sora argue as they fight, their attacks getting in the way of each other. Goofy tries to stop them, but they ignore it.

“It’s okay,” Sora said, feeling Riku’s judgment even if he wasn’t looking at him. “We made up after this.”

The three of them eventually manage to destroy the Heartless. Clayton is crushed by it.

“Should I feel bad that he’s gone?” Xion questioned, watching the screen. True he hadn’t looked like a Heartless, but he had been one. And he hadn’t been the best person before he turned into a Heartless.

“It’s… complicated,” Axel responded. Sure, if they had hearts and emotions, then maybe they should feel bad, but they didn’t so…

The gorillas celebrate and Kerchak picks up Sora, sending him, Donald, and Goofy flying through the air.

“What the-?” Kairi said, taken aback, but Sora smiled at her.

“I’m fine, it was fine.”

The three of them land in a pile, quickly getting off each other.

“Is that the only way you know how to land?” Vanitas snickered. “It seems like it happens quite often.” Sora gave him a look.

Tarzan climbs up to them, pointing at the waterfall and calling it his home.

“It’s beautiful,” Aqua said, looking at the waterfall and the lake and greenery around it. Several people agreed with her.

Tarzan takes them and Jane behind the waterfall, revealing a giant cavern and tree.

Xion felt the urge to go there, to see the worlds she never had. It would be an… adventure. She’d go with Axel and Roxas, and no one would tell them what to do ever again.

If only they were alive to go there.

Tarzan says the word they didn’t know, listening to sound of the waterfall around the cave. Jane realizes that the word is heart.

“Is that place… Tarzan’s heart?” Roxas asked, feeling slightly confused.

“It’s more like, he feels the most at ease there, it’s his home, and the waterfall sounds like a heartbeat, kinda,” Sora explained.

Tarzan asks if they understand, and Jane says that friends are inside their hearts.

Sora smiled, slightly sadly. While Jane was correct and had been continued to be proven correct with everything that Sora did, he could still remember the slightly sad feeling that had overtaken him when he realized that Riku and Kairi weren’t there. That he had to keep searching for them.

Tarzan explains that with no heart, there’s no friends. Sora and Donald turn to each other. They apologize to each other.

“See?” Sora said, waving at the screen. “We made up. We’re fine now.”

Sora looks at the tree and blue butterflies move, revealing the Keyhole.

“They really are random, aren’t they?” Terra muttered, thinking back to Wonderland’s.

Sora locks the Keyhole and gets another Gummi block.

“Did they come from every Keyhole?” Aqua asked and Sora nodded. As well as he remembered at least.

Donald gets hugged by the young gorilla from before and Goofy says that he has an admirer. Donald says that Daisy would kill him, causing laughter.

Sora laughed along with his onscreen counterpart. It was nice to see him and Donald laughing together again.

The screen fades back in, showing the dark room again.

Sora’s laughter abruptly ended, and he turned to look at Riku, who had gone stiff.

Really? He scolded himself. Are you going to react like that whenever she comes onscreen? But he couldn’t help the slight quickening of his breath and Sora reached out, grasping his hand tightly. No one else said anything, but Terra was watching carefully for the signs that Riku was having another panic attack.

Maleficent and the others talk about Clayton and how his lust for power got himself turned into a Heartless.

It’s fine, she’s not here.

“How is she watching you?” Aqua asked, trying to think about the different magics it could have been. “How is that possible?” Sora shrugged, unknowing.

Vanitas smirked. I wonder how long it will take to realize that Master Xehanort was watching all three of them the whole time. The scars on his palms twinged slightly as he thought that, and he winced. It’s fine.

Emerging from the shadows, Jafar says that a weak-hearted fool like him was no match for the Heartless.

Sora narrowed his eyes, remembering Jafar kidnapping Jasmine.

He says that Sora is a problem because he sealed one of the Keyholes. Maleficent says it’ll take him ages to find the rest.

“How about… no?” Sora snarked, feeling Kairi laugh from his side. He was trying to lighten the atmosphere slightly and felt relieved when he saw the smallest twitches on Riku’s face.

She says he remains blissfully unaware of their other plan.

Riku flinched. A plan you helped, you made. They couldn’t have done it without you. Sora’s grip tightened on his hand.

Maleficent says the princesses are falling into their hands and Alice is shown.

You kidnapped her, you helped Maleficent, you-

“Riku?” Sora asked quietly and the older boy looked down at him, pulled from his thoughts. “We okay?” Riku blinked once, trying to slow his breathing.

“Okay,” he responded, and Sora gave him a small smile.

The screen turns off and the lights come up.

“Sora,” Mickey said slowly, and Sora turned to look at the king, not letting go of Riku’s hand. “I think I might know why Donald was acting the way he was.” Sora tipped his head, intrigued.

“Well, this isn’t the first time I’ve gone missing,” Mickey revealed, looking down. “In Donald’s and Goofy’s time at the palace, I disappeared one other time for a long period of time. Eleven years ago.” Aqua blinked, realizing what he was talking about. “You guys know I know Aqua and well, I was a part of everything that went down then. And I was gone for a while and when I came back…” Mickey trailed off and his hands twitched before he looked back up at them. “I wasn’t the same, not for a while. Aqua and the others were my friends, and they were gone, and it seemed like they had died. I was… mourning them.”

“Mickey…” Aqua said and Mickey looked to her, smiling softly at her.

“You were my friends and I thought you gone,” he told her. “Wouldn’t you do the same for me?” Mickey turned back to Sora. “Donald was probably afraid that if he didn’t find me, it might have been the same thing. And he was probably worried about that. It’s not an excuse for why he acted like he did, but it might be a reason.”

Sora paused before smiling in Mickey’s direction. “It’s okay, your majesty,” he said. “Donald and I are friends now and while I know he was stressed; we’ve worked past that. Plus, you’re here now, so hopefully he won’t be as worried.”

“I’m not leaving again,” Mickey promised. Sora smiled, before letting it dim slightly. His eyes traveled back to Riku. He couldn’t help but be worried. He knew what happened after this.

Chapter Text

Traveling in the Gummiship, Sora looks out to the stars.

Again, all the kids who hadn’t been off their worlds or hadn’t ever gotten to places where they wanted to go were enraptured by the view. So many worlds, so many places to discover. You could get lost in the universe if you wanted to. One person in the room might have wanted to.

Goofy notes that the Gummi block from the Keyhole looks different, catching Sora’s attention.

All the Gummi blocks from Keyholes were weird, Sora recalled to himself. All of them were navigation, I think. When a Gummi block came from a Keyhole, that is.

Sora asks what’s strange about it and Goofy says that he can almost see something inside of it.

“Why’s that?” Aqua asked and Sora paused.

“I think it is because it’s a Navigation Gummi,” he explained, with a quick look at Mickey to make sure he was saying the right things. “It’s just another type of Gummi block.”

Sora looks at the Gummi block and Donald says that maybe Leon will know what it is. Goofy says that they should go back to Traverse Town.

Wait, Riku thought, trying to map the timeline in his head. This is a couple days after the Wonderland… thing, and they’re heading back to Traverse Town…

Oh.

He took in a deep breath, trying to regulate his breathing. It was fine, everything was fine. They would just have to witness his young, stupid, corrupted self. No biggie.

Sora and Donald bicker about piloting, but it’s a lot more light-hearted.

“Is this a frequent argument?” Kairi asked with a small laugh, oblivious to the tension that had started to build in both Sora and Riku.

“A little, yeah,” Sora replied, trying to smile and relax. It’s okay, he told himself. Everyone can see that Riku’s changed and that he’s not working for Maleficent anymore. They won’t get mad at him. I won’t let them.

Aqua watched the two boys out of the corner of her eye. It was clear something had just changed. What was coming up next?

The three of them walk through Traverse Town, with Donald noting that there’s a lot less Heartless. The three of them meet Yuffie.

“So, Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith live in Traverse Town?” Terra asked. “Were they born there?”

“No, their world was destroyed by Maleficent,” Sora explained before pausing. “Actually, they’re also from Radiant Garden.” He tried to remember his conversations with them. That had been brought up, hadn’t it? “They arrived in Traverse Town after Radiant Garden fell. They’re trying to fix Radiant Garden now.”

Axel blinked in surprise as he listened to Sora. Another couple of people from Radiant Garden? He didn’t recognize any of them, but Radiant Garden was a big place. Plus, Yuffie couldn’t have been that old when the world was swallowed by Darkness.

Kairi looked up, taking a closer look at the girl on screen. She should talk to her, as well as Aerith and Leon. Perhaps they knew more about Radiant Garden, things they could tell her.

Yuffie greets them and they tell her about everything they’ve done.

“She doesn’t seem that confused by some of the things you all are saying,” Axel noted.

“Well, she’s also seen some stuff,” Sora said. “It might not be that hard to believe.”

Yuffie says that seems hard and wishes she could have been there. Sora says it’s okay and he’ll do anything to find Riku and Kairi.

Kairi leaned a little on Sora’s side when he said that, giving him a smile which he shakily returned. Her eyes narrowed slightly. What was wrong?

Sora says they came back to find Leon and Yuffie tells them he’s probably in the underground cavern.

“How big is Traverse Town?” Aqua asked, trying to map it out in her head. It would need to be big, so everyone who made it there could have a place but was it even possible for the World to spring up a world that was big enough? What were the limits?

“Not that big,” Sora answered. “It’s a main area, a couple of districts, some shops and living spaces, and then there’s a mapping of caverns underneath it. Nothing big like the other worlds we’ve visited.” Probably because it only appeared when people needed it.

When Sora questions her, she explains how to get to it. When they leave, she warns them to watch out for Heartless.

“She’s pretty casual about Heartless,” Roxas said. “Wasn’t she worried about them the last time?”

“Well, she was with Sora last time, who the Heartless were tracking,” Xion replied. “The Heartless aren’t probably as big as a threat when she’s alone.”

The three of them enter the Second District, where they get attacked by Heartless.

“That was quick,” Kairi mentioned.

Sora mentions that they’re stronger than before and wonders if that means that the Darkness is stronger.

Well, I was there, so probably, Riku thought, trying not to think about what happened next. What had to happen next.

The three of them duck into the hotel to hide, realizing that they were in the same building before they even met.

“It’s fate.” Ven dropped his voice slightly as he spoke to be funny and got a couple of snickers.

Or manipulation, Vanitas thought.

Sora recounts when they met, saying that he thought they were Heartless for a second when they landed on him.

Mickey couldn’t help the little laugh that slipped out of him when Sora said that. But he had also noticed the slight tension that had appeared between Riku and Sora and was worried. Was Riku about to show up?

The three of them jumped off the balcony into the alley.

“Sora!” Kairi scolded him. “Don’t go jumping off of balconies!”

Sora grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. “I… knew I wouldn’t get hurt?” He tried, but Kairi’s look didn’t let up. “I won’t do it again?” Kairi relaxed slightly.

Goofy searches the alley while Sora and Donald fight off the Heartless and tells them that the only place he hasn’t looked is behind the sewer grate.

“Perhaps it could be there!” Vanitas drawled, sarcasm thick in his voice, getting several looks.

The three of them work together to break down the grate, falling into the waterway below.

There were several laughs as the image of Sora, Donald, and Goofy running at grate and basically slamming it with their bodies showed on the screen and Sora looked down with a flush. Roxas, Xion, and Ven all laughed, accompanied by the snickers of Vanitas and Kairi. Looking up, Sora could see a small smile curve its way up Riku’s mouth, so he wasn’t too mad. Anything to make Riku feel better.

Walking deeper into the cavern, the three of them find Leon, who’s training, and Aerith, who’s watching.

“Why go that deep to train?” Terra asked, watching Leon on screen. “Wouldn’t it just be difficult to get to and from the place?”

“Well, for one, we never saw any Heartless down there,” Sora replied, thinking back. “And, it might have been special to the two of them. They spent the last couple of years in Traverse Town, nearly ten. They might have had a connection to the place.” Terra acknowledged this with a nod of his head. He had a special place he liked to train as well.

Leon goes on training, but Aerith turns and greets them as they enter.

“Rude,” Kairi murmured, looking at Leon. “He could at least say hi.” Sora shrugged. That was just Leon.

Sora asks why she said, “Welcome back”, noting that Yuffie did it too. Leon says that Traverse Town is a place for those without homes, so the people there greet them like they’re coming home.

“That’s nice,” Naminé said quietly, knowing that if she was greeted like that, she would either be thrown into a flashback to Larxene or burst into tears. It was a fifty-fifty chance.

Leon pauses in his training and asks Sora if he found anything.

Now you pay attention, Kairi thought with an eyeroll.

Sora says he doesn’t know if it counts and recounts everything he’s done.

“I’d say that counts,” Axel drawled, giving the young boy a look. “You save two worlds as well as stumbled across some less than normal activities.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Sora responded. “I just didn’t know if Leon counted that.”

Leon contemplates that Sora locked the Keyholes while Aerith says that Sora is the only one who can save the worlds.

Mickey, Aqua, and Terra all flinched.

Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to find the worlds, Mickey thought to himself, eyes drifting to Sora. Perhaps I should have been the one to find Sora. I was already a Keyblade Master, as unknown as that is to most. I could have helped Sora, could have made it clear that the burden of saving the worlds wasn’t his alone. That it could be shared. He stifled a sigh, his gaze continuing onto Riku. But then I wouldn’t have been there for Riku. He would have been abandoned and alone in the Realm of Darkness, alone in Castle Oblivion when facing Ansem, alone in trying to restore Sora’s memories. And as much as it hurts to see Sora struggle like this, I wouldn’t give up Riku for that. Sora had Doanld and Goofy and now he has us.

You could have been there for him, Terra’s thoughts hissed at him. Had you not stupidly fallen to darkness, had you not let yourself get possessed, you could have helped him. Aqua and Ven would still be around to help Sora if you hadn’t dragged them into danger. Even if you were somehow still around for that, their light could have helped him, even if your darkness would have done nothing but hurt him. His hands curled into fists, nails digging into his palms. You truly ruined everything.

It's not your responsibility to save the worlds alone, Aqua thought, trying not to let her sadness show on her face. It’s not your job to save everyone. Keyblade Wielders have always worked together, have always been together. The records in the Land of Departure had been quite clear on that and the stories and accounts she had read had only backed that up. Loneliness and living alone were just as big a killer of Keyblade Wielders as Darkness was. But it’s okay now. We’re here and we’re not leaving. After this, even if we return to where we are, the others can find me, and then I’ll help find Ven. I’m sure his heart has found its way home now. We’ll save Terra and then us two and Mickey can lead the efforts against the dark while all you children take time to relax, to grieve, to process. We’ll be okay.

Sora asks if he can really do that and Leon tells him that if he’s searching for his friends, visiting the other worlds is hardly a waste of time.

“And it wasn’t,” Sora said quietly to himself. Because even if he hadn’t ever found Riku and Kairi on a world, well he found Riku on worlds several times but for the wrong reasons, he made so many new friends. Hercules, Ariel, Tarzan, Alice. And countless others.

Donald and Goofy reassure him that they can do it and they’ll find their missing friends.

He wasn’t alone, Aqua reassured herself. He had them. And clearly, later Riku and Kairi, in some capacity.

Sora says they’re right and Leon says that’s what a Keyblade Wielder is made of.

Ha, Vanitas thought in his head, rolling his eyes. I’m a Keyblade Wielder and I’m certainly not made of sunshine, rainbows, and so much positivity it could choke you. Just darkness.

Sora brings up the Gummi block and Leon admits he doesn’t know, but Aerith tells them to ask Cid.

“Who’s Cid?” Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow at the unfamiliar name.

“Oh, he’s someone who also lives in Traverse Town, specializes in ships and the like,” Sora responded. “I talked to him a little bit before I left for Wonderland, I don’t know why it didn’t show it.” He looked to the screen in confusion, but it offered him no answers. “I think he’s also from Radiant Garden.”

The three of them Leon and Aerith behind. Aerith asks Leon if he’s worried about the Keyhole in their world.

“Which I sealed,” Sora said proudly. Right after… that.

Leon says if they could seal off the Keyhole, it would stop the Heartless. Aerith wonders if sealing would be enough.

“Why wouldn’t it?” Xion asked, blinking in surprise. “It has been for all the other worlds.”

“Well, Traverse Town probably has a lot more Darkness than the other worlds,” Aqua told her, thinking. “Everyone from there came from worlds that have lost their hearts and fallen to Darkness, so their emotions are probably darker than the normal world, giving the world itself more Darkness. The Heartless may be attracted anyway, though the number would decrease significantly once Sora seals the Keyhole.”

Leon says all they can do is gather information and watch over Sora.

Good, Aqua thought.

Aerith notes that it’s frustrating before the two of them lapse into silence.

Don’t I know it, Kairi thought to herself. Waiting was terrible. Not being able to do anything was terrible. The few hours after she was freed from Sora’s heart and he was gone fighting Ansem was horrible as well as waiting in the cage in the city, hoping that Sora would rescue her. Or standing on the beach, waiting for them to return from their fight with Xemnas. It was painful and terrible and something she never wanted to happen again. It wouldn’t happen again, not now that she had a Keyblade as well.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter the Accessory Shop, greeting Cid, who greets them back.

“Cid,” Sora clarified unnecessarily, nodding towards the screen.

They hand him the Gummi block and Cid looks at it. Goofy asks what it is and Cid goes on a tangent.

Several people blinked in surprise.

“Cid… feels very strongly about space travel and the like,” Sora explained slowly, remembering being very taken aback when he had seen the tangent in person.

“I’ll say,” Ven said drily, watching the man pace back and forth on the screen.

Sora says there’s a lot they don’t know but they have to use the Gummiship to get to other worlds. Cid says he’s there to lend a hand.

“But he’s always willing to help,” Sora murmured. “All four of them are.”

Cid explains that if they install the Gummi into the ship, it will open new passages for them.

“Why is a Gummi like that inside the Keyholes?” Xion asked, trying to follow the explanation as best she could. Unlike some of the others, she, Roxas, and Axel had never traveled via Gummiship. They had used the Dark Corridors to get to and from worlds. But the idea of flying through the stars instead of walking under them interested her and she wanted to do it at least once. If they still remained in the world after they had watched all that needed to be watched.

“Ummm,” Sora started. “Because…?” He didn’t really have an answer for that.

Cid says he can help them do it, but requests they do something for him while he’s working on it. He asks them to deliver a book, revealing it.

“A book?” Naminé wondered. What could be so important about it?

Sora smiled when he saw the book containing the Hundred Acre Woods. It had been nice to go there, to meet Pooh and Tigger and all the rest. A welcome change and a chance to relax in-between looking for Riku. He should take Riku and Kairi there soon. He had a feeling that Kairi would enjoy it and Riku… maybe? But he wanted to share the experience with him.

The three of them look at the book, with Cid calling it precious and saying that it holds a special power.

“Does is?” Mickey asked, turning to Sora, and Sora paused before nodding.

“In a way?” He replied. “There’s another world inside of it, with some very nice people. I’ve visited it.”

Cid tells them to take it to the house in the Third District and asks them if they can do magic.

“Why does magic matter?” Kairi asked.

“You couldn’t get into the house without using magic,” Sora explained.

As they’re talking, a giant bell sounds in the distance. When Sora asks what it is, Cid explains that the rumors are if you ring the bell three times in a row, something will happen.

“The Keyhole will appear, I presume,” Vanitas muttered under his breath, mostly for himself, but Sora perked up, having heard him.

“You’re right!” He exclaimed, looking at the other boy. “How’d you know?”

Vanitas blinked, sitting up slightly when all the attention was directed at him. Don’t look at me, attention was never a good thing. “The Keyholes have been weird so far,” he scoffed, trying to make sure his voice was level. “Of course, it would be summoned by a giant bell from a random shop.”

While a lot of the people accepted that as an explanation, Aqua narrowed her eyes at the darkness user. It put her on edge, the fact that Vanitas was clearly smart. With this and his remarks earlier during Sora’s dreams, it was clear he had some intelligence. And the last time he had used it, he had helped Xehanort tear her family apart.

The three of them leave the shop and fight their way through the Second District. The bell rings again, drawing Sora’s attention.

“It must be dangerous to go live in that place,” Xion remarked, watching Sora fight off more Heartless. At least in Twilight Town, the Heartless and Nobodies mostly stayed in the sewers. “There are so many Heartless.”

“Yeah, but they decreased significantly once we sealed the Keyhole,” Sora replied. “And they were drawn to me because of the Keyblade.”

You put him in more danger, Riku’s thoughts hissed, making him wince. You couldn’t even take up the burden of hero right. Usually this wouldn’t bother him but… he had a pretty good idea of what was happening next. What he did next.

Sora wonders if they can do anything about the bell and Goofy wonders if they could stop it. They make it to the Third District.

More Heartless, Kairi noted. She would need to learn to fight them soon.

They make it to the house and Goofy attempts to open the door. Donald opens the door by shooting fire magic at the insignia on the door.

“What kind of a house needs a magic spell to get into it?” Ven wondered, tipping his head to the side.

“A wizard’s house,” Sora said.

Inside the house is a big cavern with a pond and a house on the small island in the pond.

“What?” Several people asked when they saw the inside of the house. Naminé blinked in surprise. She didn’t know that much about outside, but she was pretty sure houses weren’t like that.

“Merlin’s house is… weird,” Sora mentioned, seeing the confusion on his younger self’s face.

“I’ll say,” Axel muttered. He’d seen many a weird thing in his life, both as a Somebody and a Nobody. This… was one of the top things on that list.

Sora mentions that he didn’t know there was a place like this in Traverse Town.

“Well, you wouldn’t normally think a place like that would exist anywhere,” Kairi told him.

The three of them cross the steppingstones to the house.

There were several laughs in the room after Donald fell in, not really attempted to be stifled.

They try to get into the house but Goofy finds a hole into the house.

“That whole place is weird,” Roxas grumbled out. He had hoped that weirdness would end in Wonderland.

Sora sees a hallucination of Kairi, who compares the house to the Secret Place.

“Sora?” Kairi asked, a little put out.

“I don’t know why I saw that,” he confessed. “Maybe because you were in my heart?” Kairi paused before nodding. Just because she didn’t remember anything that happened while she was in Sora’s heart, doesn’t mean that nothing happened.

Riku looked to the side, trying to tamp down the slight anger that built up in him. It wasn’t Kairi’s and Sora’s place, it was Riku’s and Sora’s place. Or at least, it had been in the beginning. Of course, Sora wanted to spend his time with Kairi.

Goofy snaps Sora out of it and before Sora explains, Merlin appears.

“This is Merlin,” Sora explained. “He’s a wizard.”

Merlin says that they arrived sooner than he expected them to, and Sora asks if he can see the future.

“He can?” Xion wondered. While it seemed impossible, she did live the impossible. At this point, it seemed that almost anything was possible.

“Why hasn’t he told you all anything then?” Vanitas asked, watching the man with suspicion. He could see the future, it meant he was dangerous. “The Ancient Keyblade Wielder made it seem like the future was dire and this was the only thing he could think of doing. Why hadn’t Merlin said anything?”

Sora paused, thinking it over. “Well, Merlin is hard to get a hold of, supposedly,” he admitted. “Perhaps it was just too hard to find us?” Vanitas rolled his eyes with a scoff and Sora found himself agreeing with him the slightest bit. Why had it fallen to Brain to talk to them, a teenager from an Age past? Instead of Merlin, who was here now?

Donald asks if he’s a Heartless and Merlin corrects him, saying that he’s a sorcerer.

“I thought you called him a wizard?” Terra asked and Sora shrugged.

“Aren’t they interchangeable?”

“I have a feeling Donald would disagree with you,” Mickey said teasingly, and Sora smiled.

Merlin says he spends most of his time traveling and that Mickey asked for his help.

When Sora turned to him, Mickey smiled. “It was just to check in with ya and give some needed information,” he explained. “Which I assume Merlin did.”

“In a way?” Sora answered and Mickey frowned slightly.

Sora introduces himself after Merlin asks and Merlin surmises that they found the “key”. After Donald asks him again what Mickey sent him for, Merlin sets the house straight.

“Can Donald do something like that?” Kairi asked, eyes wide as she watched Merlin bring all the furniture out of nowhere and settle it around the room. She wasn’t the only one shocked, with multiple sets of wide eyes watching the screen.

“I… don’t think so?” Sora said, looking to Mickey in confirmation. “He’s more… battle focused in his magic.” Mickey nodded before pausing.

“Well, you know his battle magic because that’s what he often has to use with you. Donald can do normal magic, such as levitation and the like, but he is better at battle magic.”

Makes sense, Sora thought. We are mostly in battle together.

After the furniture settles, Merlin summons the Fairy Godmother.

Both Terra and Aqua startled in surprise.

“Fairy Godmother?” Terra wondered, blinking in surprise. The last he had seen of her, she was watching over Cinderella. What was she doing in Traverse Town of all places? Unless…

“You know her?” Sora asked, turning to face the older Keyblade Wielders. It seemed like they knew a lot of the people that he and his friends would eventually come into contact with.

“Yes,” Aqua answered. “We met her in her world. She watched over Cinderella as her Fairy Godmother. I wondered what had happened to her after her world fell to darkness.”

“The world fell?” Terra asked, mostly out of the loop of stuff like that and Aqua nodded.

“Well, she helped us,” Sora replied. “Perhaps she’s traveling around like Merlin does?”

“She does,” Mickey confirmed, having met her a couple of times in the past years. He didn’t admit that he had gone to her in the beginning to see if she could track down Aqua, Terra, or Ven. She had magic, she could do miracles! Unfortunately, it hadn’t been enough to find them, and he had gone home disappointed. But they had stayed in contact with her and had asked her to help as well.

“There’s not much time left-” “I can’t go back-” “But the light is there above the darkness-” “And the darkness is beside the light-” “Darkness is lying in wait for you.” “But… that there is darkness means there is also light.”

“Mickey, cryptic much?” Aqua asked drily and Mickey shrugged. It had made sense to him, but at the time he had also been slightly distracted as he was about to fall into the Realm of Darkness with the world.

“Why is everyone so unnecessarily cryptic?” Sora muttered, crossing his arms slightly. He had almost never gotten a straight answer from anyone during all his travels.

“It makes life more interesting,” Roxas snarked, smirking. To him, at least, everyone had been straight with him. Fight these Heartless, eat this ice cream. Kill Xion, don’t listen to Axel. Fight Riku, die for Sora.

A riddle would have been a nice change of pace.

Sora thinks about light and darkness while Donald says that it doesn’t make sense.

Several people found themselves agreeing with Donald.

Vanitas thought it made perfect sense. Where there is darkness, there is light. That was just how it was. A warning that there is darkness in the air, but also a message of hope that there is always light, even in the darkness.

But of course, Light-bearing idiots couldn’t grasp that.

Merlin says to stay with the Key and that the path will become clear.

The eight Keyblade Wielders, minus Mickey and Kairi, all made some sort of scoffing sound. The Keyblade didn’t make anything clear. Literally never.

Merlin says that was what the king said, and Sora asks what he’s supposed to do. The Fairy Godmother replies to go where the light leads him.

Then, why didn’t you follow Kairi, Sora? Riku wondered in his head. You had so many chances to follow her light, to stay in her beautiful halo. So, why do you continue to try and follow me to the abyss? It’s so much better if you just stay there, safe and in the light. A Hero to all. No matter how much I want you to join me.

Sora asks about Riku and Kairi and Fairy Godmother says she doesn’t know, but she can feel them close.

Because I was in Sora’s heart, Kairi thought.

Because I was about to make a fool of myself, Riku scoffed.

Merlin says to go where the Key points and Sora agrees, moving to leave before pausing and handing Merlin the book. Merlin notes that Cid repaired it nicely and Goofy asks what type of book it is.

“There are different kinds?” Naminé wondered and Aqua could feel the part of her wilting as her mind went to worst case scenarios. Why did this child not know about books? Who had hurt her? Other than Ansem, but he was already on Aqua’s list, thanks to the explanations she had gotten about him.

Merlin admits that he doesn’t know and that they’d have to read it to find out. Sora promises to next time.

“And I did!” Sora proclaimed.

As the three of them move back through Traverse Town, fighting Heartless, the bell sounds again.

“Is someone ringing it or is just going off on its own?” Ven wondered and Sora shrugged.

“It was in the Gizmo Shop, so someone could have created something to ring it, but there was no one there when we went.”

Goofy wonders if there’s a way to stop it from ringing but Donald says they have to go back to Cid’s shop. The Keyblade starts to shine and points at the clock tower.

“Sign from above,” Axel snorted, and Sora thought he wasn’t wrong.

The three of them head to the Gizmo Shop, heading inside it. Before them immediately have to duck out of the way of many gears.

“What kind of a shop is that?” Kairi asked, eyes widening as she watched Sora, Goody, and Donald duck out of the way of the gears.

“I… don’t know,” Sora admitted. “We never saw anyone in it?”

Donald asks what they will do when they find the bell.

What do you think you’ll do? Vanitas thought with an eyeroll. Simply look at it?

Sora says that Cid said that if they ring it three times something will happen.

“Were you just going to ring a bell that has a chance of causing something without knowing what was going to happen?” Kairi asked him, turning to him, before immediately throwing her hands in the air and looking away. “Who am I kidding? Of course, you did. You know, this is a bad habit of yours to have.”

Sora chuckled, slightly sheepish. “It’s worked so far?” He tried, and she gave him a look. A common occurrence during the watching.

Donald says it’ll just make the noise again and Sora says because of all the mechanisms in the room, the bell has to be hiding some sort of secret.

“It does seem very… confrontational for a shop,” Xion muttered, thinking. She hadn’t been in many shops in her past, seeing them mostly as she walked through Twilight Town, so maybe she wasn’t the best person to speak on it, but it did seem weird. If a store was supposed to sell stuff, it wouldn’t want to kill its… customers? Was that the right word?

Goofy agrees with Sora and Donald admits he might be right. Goofy finds an opening.

Both Kairi and Riku tensed up again as Sora made his way through the gears to make it out of the hole. Honestly, he wasn’t even in a hostile world. He was in a shop, for stars sake. He just was unable to stay away from trouble apparently. Not that it was that much of a surprise.

The three of them end up on the roof of the shop, looking at the tower. They get through the boards on the door the same way they got through the sewer grate.

“Doesn’t that hurt?” Naminé asked, well used to the feeling of being pushed to the floor or falling into a wall to avoid being noticed or hurt further. She couldn’t imagine running full force into metal or wood on purpose, especially allowing others to slam into you at the same time.

“Yes and no?” Sora answered, tipping his head to the side. “While it does hurt some in the moment, Donald always heals us after. So, short term pain?” Kairi smacked him on the shoulder. “Ow, what?”

“Don’t put yourself in pain on purpose,” she scolded him, unknowingly repeated the thoughts that were going through many of the adults’ heads. “Even if it’s for a short time.”

Sora chuckled nervously, looking away with a grimace. She… wasn’t going to like a lot of this, was she?

Donald rings the bell three times while Sora and Goofy keep a lookout for weird things.

“Congratulations, you deafened yourself,” Axel snarked, shaking his head slightly at the loud ringing that sounded on the screen. Several people cringed backwards as well, the sound loud and annoying. And they weren’t actually there. He had a feeling it was a lot louder in person.

Goofy notices that the Keyhole appeared in the square.

Riku took in a quick breath, trying to make his hands stop shaking. He had seen it appear; he had been watching. He had felt the Heartless, had fought it with Sora, had-

Sora’s hand reached out and wrapped around Riku’s gently, holding it tight. He knew what came next as well.

The three of them head to the square.

Riku’s breaths were becoming quicker. He knew what happened after this, he knew, he knew.

What would they think of him?

What would he think of him?

A Heartless appears from the sky to defend the Keyhole.

“Didn’t you fight that one already?” Terra asked, thinking back to before when they fought Heartless in Traverse Town.

“We did,” Sora acknowledged with a nod. “But it came back for round two to defend the Keyhole. But we defeated it fully this time.”

Donald prepares a spell to fight it off but is taken off guard by the Heartless, falling to the ground.

Riku knew what happened after this…

Sora runs over, trying to defend Donald, but the Heartless was going to squash both of them.

Kairi sucked in a deep breath, hands clenching around Sora’s arm. Come to think of it, it was clear that Sora was tense, unnaturally so. He hadn’t been worried the last times they had seen him fight, so what was worrying him?

Mickey could also see the tension in Riku’s shoulders. What was about to happen?

Sora braces himself but something stops the Heartless and shoves it backwards. When he looks up, he sees Riku.

“Wait,” Roxas said, blinking. “I thought you were looking for him, Sora?” He turned, looking at his Somebody and the other Keyblade Wielder, giving them both a look. “What gives?”

“Riku… found me first,” Sora said, smile brittle and fake, once it was clear Riku wasn’t going to say anything. “And helped us defeat the Heartless!” But everyone could see the slight… off-ness of his words and all those who had a basic idea of what had happened to Riku frowned. What was he doing there? He had been in Hollow Bastion, where he would get possessed by Ansem. Though, he had admitted to kidnapping Alice. Clearly, there was more at play here than they knew.

Both Aqua and Terra looked at the two teenagers in concern. What had happened? What was going on? Riku and Sora had been brief about the details, talking about how Riku had been manipulated by Maleficent, something regretfully reaffirmed when Riku had his panic attack, and Riku had said that it had been him to kidnap Alice. So… what was going on?

Sora is surprised and Riku helps them up. Sora attempts to get an answer from him but they’re distracted when the Heartless comes back.

“Riku…” Kairi said slowly, taking on the tone she had used when scolding Sora, purposefully ignoring the tense atmosphere. “Did you just go and battle a Heartless without any form of weapon?” Onscreen, it showed Riku helping the battle, mostly by distracting it or hitting it with his fists.

But the older boy didn’t answer her, having to focus all his energy on keeping his breathing in check.

You… idiotic, foolish, naïve boy, he hissed at his younger self through his breathing. Standing there, trying to prove yourself. Trying to be cool when your heart is snapping to pieces, and you already kidnapped a person!

Aqua, while a big part of her was worried about what was going on with Riku, well aware that Terra was watching the young boy closely for the first sign that he was falling back into a panic attack, something that Riku was just barely managing to stave off, she also watched the two boys fight onscreen. It was… breathtaking, in a way. They moved around each other, never having to look, to guess what the other would be doing, instead simply knowing, as if their very minds were shared between the two of them. Their very hearts. It was something straight from ancient history, from fanciful stories of unbroken trust.

So, what happened?

After they defeat the Heartless, Sora runs over and hugs Riku.

Seeing this, Sora felt his smile melt into something a little more real and leaned to the side, pressing his body into Riku’s, holding the older boy’s hands tight. I’m here, it’s fine. We’re together now, you’re my best friend.

Riku laughs with him as Donald and Goofy approach. Goofy asks if this is Riku and Sora confirms that it is, the one he was looking for.

He was looking for you and you still fell to the darkness, Riku spat in his mind. You should have waited, he could have saved Kairi easily, with all his light. Instead, you fell to the dark, from selfishness and anger.

Sora asks where Kairi is and Riku asks isn’t she with you.

“This was before Maleficent told me where she was,” Riku said shortly, eyes not making contact with anyone and curling his hands tight together, nearly not noticing that Sora was still holding one of them. But I knew, I knew something was off, I was lying, I did this, I couldn’t-

Sora leaned harder onto his side and Riku took in another shuddering breath.

Sora realizes that she’s still out there, but Riku reassures him, saying that she probably made it off the island like they did and now that they’re in another world, they could go anywhere.

Aqua’s eyes continued to flick back and forth between the onscreen Riku and the watching Riku. There was some disconnect, something there that wasn’t being shown. It was already proven that Riku was already helping Maleficent, perhaps to find Sora and Kairi, but why was he acting like that? He didn’t seem angry, didn’t seem steeped in darkness. He didn’t seem to have any memory of the darkness that had surrounded him of Destiny Islands. But was that even possible?

Or was it that he had already accepted the darkness to use? That… would not be good.

Riku tells Sora that they’ll all be together soon and just to leave it to him.

Because you were an idiot and thought Darkness would help you, Riku thought bitterly. Thought that Maleficent would help you, thought that Sora would follow you like he always had done. You didn’t realize that Sora had transcended you, had become better. Because you didn’t want him and Kairi to-

So, Maleficent definitely helped him find Sora, Aqua thought, nodding slightly to herself. Then, going off what she said, she probably told him she could also find Kairi.

Sora says that he’s been looking as well, with Donald and Goofy. Riku gives them a look.

Because they replaced you, Riku thought, thinking back to all the things that he thought during that time. He replaced you, like Maleficent said. Not that it was true.

Sora tells Riku that they’ve visited so many worlds looking for Riku. Riku says he never would have guessed.

“Why?” Roxas asked, but like Kairi, he got no answer from either of the teenagers.

Goofy says that Sora is the Keyblade master and Riku asks about the weapon, taking it from Sora’s hand and holding it.

“What?” Aqua asked, so taken aback that she accidentally voiced her thoughts. Riku shouldn’t have been able to take the Keyblade, not unless… he was also a Keyblade Wielder. But was that even possible? Sora hadn’t Bequeathed to him, not in any capacity, so the only explanation was that someone else already Bequeathed to Riku as well, probably at the same time they Bequeathed to Sora. But who? And when?

“What’s wrong, Aqua?” Mickey asked, having heard her exclamation and Aqua turned to look at him.

“Riku shouldn’t be able to take the Keyblade from Sora,” Aqua explained. “Not unless he’s also a Keyblade Wielder.”

“But he is,” Roxas said, looking to the older woman, and Aqua blinked. “He uses a Keyblade often.”

“Riku?” Aqua questioned, turning to the teenager, but pausing when she saw the look on Riku’s face. It was pretty clear she wasn’t going to get any information from him. Instead, Sora looked up at her.

“During this time,” Sora started. “There was a time when Riku took the Keyblade from me. He said it was always meant for him, which is why he could wield it.”

“That’s not possible,” Aqua said. “Keyblades don’t… pass between each other.” Sora must have been Bequeathed to; it was the only way that the Keyblade would listen to him. But how, then?

Terra watched Riku with uneasy eyes. It was good to know, at least, that he had Bequeathed the younger boy properly, since there was really no way to know. But also, Riku was some form of corrupted, much like he had been. What had happened? Riku’s light had always been so bright, so warm.

Aqua was itching to ask Riku some questions, but she could tell that now wouldn’t be the best place to ask them.

Sora lunges at Riku, trying to get it back, but the older boy dodges, before tossing the Keyblade back to him.

Either two Bequeathed boys and one of them hasn’t realized it, Aqua thought. Or there is something else at play here.”

Sora says that Riku should come with them, though Donald raises doubts.

Only made it worse, Riku thought, having only been half aware of the conversation that went down around him. Only added to the feeling of replacement.

While they bicker, Goofy sees the Heartless twitching.

“Man, this thing just won’t quit, will it?” Ven asked, watching the screen. He had heard what Aqua had said, had seen the thinking that was going on in both of his friends’ heads, but he didn’t bring it up. If they wanted to vocalize their thoughts, they would. Even if it grated on him to not be told another thing.

The Heartless stands up and attack them, with the three of them fighting back.

“Where’d Riku go?” Xion wondered, having noticed that the other boy was gone from onscreen.

Gone into the shadows, Riku thought. Being an idiot.

The three of them destroy the Heartless.

“For good this time, hopefully,” Ven murmured. Enemies that kept coming back were the worst, Vanitas.

Sora realizes that Riku is gone.

“You just… ran off?” Kairi asked, raising an eyebrow, and immediately wincing at her tone. She sounded a lot more judgmental than she wanted to be. But it managed to snap Riku out of whatever stupor he had been in.

“I was upset,” he replied stiffly, looking away from the group at large, but unable to shake Sora off. It was nice having the boy so close. “She had been feeding thoughts into my ears and this… confirmed it.”

What thoughts? Several people wondered, but none of them voiced the question.

Sora runs around, looking for Riku, before lamenting that he just found him.

Look what you did, Riku hissed at himself. Clearly Sora hadn’t abandoned you, he had just admitted he was looking for you. He looked for you now.

Sora says that it’s not fair that he just disappeared, before attempting to reassure himself by saying at least Riku was alright.

Sora leaned on Riku’s side again, still feeling the same. Riku was alright, then and now. And after this, they wouldn’t be separated ever again. He wouldn’t let it happen.

Sora says they’ll meet up with him again, he just knows it. And since they found Riku, they’ll run into Kairi eventually too.

Well, yes and no, Kairi thought, remembering the quick rundown Sora had given her in-between fights about what had happened. Riku would find her body first, but Sora would see it. Plus, her heart was safe inside of Sora’s.

Sora closes the Keyhold with a smile.

“Did that help the Heartless number in Traverse Town?” Mickey asked, carefully ignoring what had just happened. When Riku was willing to talk about it, they’d talk about it. For now, forcing the conversation wouldn’t do anything.

Sora nodded.

The three of them return to the Accessory Shop, where Cid, Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie are waiting. Cid says he’s done installing the Gummi.

“That was fast,” Xion murmured, knowing that she would have no experience in the subject. It just seemed fast to her. Maybe it wasn’t.

They tell the four of them that they closed the Keyhole by summoning it using the bell. Yuffie says that the Keyblade is amazing.

And pain filled and useless when solving actual problems, Vanitas thought. But sure, keep up your hero worship.

Sora tells them that they found Riku, but he was gone again.

Riku flinched, something noticed by Sora. He looked up at Riku in concern.

Aerith says he will find Riku again and Leon tells Sora he has to hurry, that more worlds are being taken over every minute that passes.

Aqua narrowed her eyes. Give Sora a break, she thought. Stars knows we could have used one back during our adventure, and Terra and I had been training for years. Honestly, she was starting to worry about Sora physical health, as well as his mental. Running around and fighting all the time couldn’t have been good for his muscles and sleep schedule.

Cid asks if they’ve heard of Maleficent and explains that she’s a witch.

Riku’s breath hitched at Maleficent’s name, something he cursed himself for. You helped her, the least you can do is stop freaking out the second you hear her name.

Unnoticed by all of them, Naminé flinched as well. Little witch, Larxene’s voice echoed in her ears.

Leon says that she’s the reason the town is full of Heartless.

“Well, yes and no,” Aqua said. “Heartless are always going to exist, they’re unfortunately normal, if I’ve understood your explanation of them.” She shot a glance at Mickey, who nodded back at her. That was something he understood as well. “But there shouldn’t be as many of them. They probably existed when Terra, Ven, and I travelled the worlds, but there wasn’t as much of them to gain our attention.”

“All hearts have darkness,” Axel said, bringing the attention to him. “All hearts are capable of falling to darkness. It’s always going to be there.” Even if he himself had almost never witnessed a heart falling to darkness naturally. He and all the other original members of Organization 13 had been murdered by Xehanort, some more willing than others, and he hadn’t ever met Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, or Larxene before they were Nobodies. Even Roxas had already been a Nobody when Axel met him.

Cid explains that a horde of Heartless took over their world and he travelled to Traverse Town with the other three nine years ago.

“Wait, how old would Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie have been then?” Aqua asked, counting backwards. If nine years ago it was, and they aged the same…

“They had been teenagers,” Mickey explained, reminding them that he met them in the past. “Yuffie had been the youngest at seven, I think.”

Leon says that the ruler of their world had been a wise man named Ansem.

Several scoffs were heard from around the room.

Leon says that he had studied the Heartless and Goofy makes the connection that he’s the writer of the report Aerith was looking for.

“Did you ever find that?” Xion asked and Sora nodded.

Donald says that Mickey must have been looking for the report.

Mickey gave a sheepish chuckle when Aqua gave him a look. Good. She was going to continue to do so until Mickey got it through his head that jumping through a random dark portal from a dying world was a terrible idea.

Aerith says they don’t know where the pages are, and Cid replies that Maleficent probably has most of them.

Aqua thought that was a fair assumption, with her being able to make Heartless and all that. How could Maleficent do that actually?

Sora says they’ll find them and Cid snarks that it’s not terribly reassuring.

While there were a couple of small laughs passed around the room, taking light of the levity, Sora winced slightly. He could do it, he was strong. Now it was Riku who gave him a slightly concerned look.

Donald says that he doesn’t look much like a Keyblade Master.

“Ah,” Terra murmured, flinching, and accidentally bringing the attention to him. He hadn’t noticed, the first time Donald had said it, due to everything else that was going on, but now…

“What is it?” Sora asked, looking at the older wielder, who exchanged a glance with Aqua. You want to tell them or should I?

Aqua paused. I will.

“It’s just that… Donald’s using some… incorrect terminology,” Aqua explained, trying to figure out how to explain it. Ven’s mouth parted as he let out an “oh” in surprise, realizing what his friends were saying.

“How so?” Sora asked and Mickey blinked, understanding what Aqua was starting to get at.

“Well Sora, you know how Terra and I have been using the word “Keyblade Wielder” instead of “Keyblade Master” like Donald is?” Sora nodded at Aqua’s question and she sucked in a breath, forcing back the memories that were starting to flood her brain as she talked about it. “That’s because “Keyblade Master” is an actual title. It’s for Keyblade Wielders who have passed something called a “Mark of Mastery”. Then, they’re a Keyblade Master and can take on apprentices, usually have a world that it their home base, and are generally stronger than the average Wielder.”

“Oh,” Sora said blankly, looking down. He hadn’t realized there were… traditions surrounding Keyblades and their Wielders. To be fair, he hadn’t ever really met another, besides Mickey, Yen Sid, and Riku. And while Mickey and Riku didn’t know anything, Yen Sid hadn’t really said anything about it.

“Terra, Ven, and I had a Master,” Aqua continued. “Master Eraqus.” Terra looked down, trying not to remember the way the sparkles slid through his hands as Master Eraqus died. “His world was the Land of Departure and he trained us three. Mickey, I pretty sure is also a Master.” At least, he should have been, after all this time.

When the gazes switched to him, Mickey nodded. “Technically yes,” he explained. “My Master, Yen Sid, gave me a Master title during the eleven years after the three of them disappeared and my world is Disneytown. Though I haven’t done much with my title like Aqua has.”

Aqua winced as Mickey said that. She hadn’t really been planning to bring it up, with all the trouble that the title had caused her, but there was no backing out of it now.

“I’m a Master as well,” she confirmed, getting a starry-eyed look from both Sora and Kairi. “I passed my exam the day before everything… started to happen. Though I don’t have a world unless you count the Realm of Darkness.” She shivered slightly even as she said it, and Ven reached out to take her hand, Terra giving her a comforting look.

Vanitas rolled his eyes, unnoticed by the rest. So, they just weren’t going to mention Master Xehanort? That was fine with him, the less he had to think about Master Xehanort and… everything was good, but they had to know it would come up sooner or later, right?

“Huh,” Sora said, organizing all the thoughts in his head. He had heard Aqua refer to Masters and Wielders before, when they were talking about Bequeathing specifically, but he hadn’t realized there was a difference. He knew now. “Cool.”

Aqua smiled gently at him, his reply to her statement lifting her up slightly. She hadn’t really gotten… any positive words about her being a Master, ever really. Not that it was Terra’s or Ven’s fault but… it still stung.

“Is it possible for me or Riku to become Masters?” Sora asked, taking Riku by surprise with the mention of his name. “Even though we don’t have Masters?”

“Yes,” Aqua answered, a confused smile taking over her face. “It would be a little harder but still possible. But why don’t you have a Master?” She looked at Mickey.

“I didn’t think I was capable of training someone,” Mickey replied. “Plus, I haven’t really been around Sora. You could call me Riku’s Master, but only in the loosest of terms.” Riku blinked in surprise. Mickey had been helping him yes, more than he could ever repay but… really? Mickey wanted to be connected to Riku? The boy who lost himself into the darkness?

“Hmm,” Aqua murmured, thinking. Why wouldn’t Sora have a Master? There was no way Yen Sid didn’t have some idea of what was going on. And Sora hadn’t shown any shock at his name… She had a feeling she would eventually get answers, but probably ones she wouldn’t like. That seemed to be a pattern.

On the other side of the couch, Terra was thinking. Mickey had technically called himself Riku’s Master, he thought. Which wasn’t bad, in fact it was good that Riku’d had someone to help him eventually but… That task should have fallen to me, it should have been my burden to bear. When he had Bequeathed to Riku, he would admit, he had seen himself as Riku’s future Master when that time came but… Am I even still worthy for it? Would Riku still want him as a Master, even if he knows everything I’ve done?

Goofy tells Sora that he’s improved a lot since he got the Keyblade and Leon and Yuffie offer to spar with Sora, causing laughter around the room. The screen changed to outside the room.

Instantly, any happy feelings that had been building in Riku ever since Mickey had called himself Riku’s Master were drenched and he stiffened, choking on his next breath. Sora looked at him in concern.

Riku watches them through the window as Maleficent stands at his side, telling him that it’s just as she told him.

All the light-heartedness in the room vanished and several glances were aimed at Riku, who was staring at his younger self.

Maleficent tells Riku that Sora clearly has replaced him with the Keyblade and the others and says that she can help him with what he’s searching for.

As the screen went black, Sora shook his head once, shifting around so he was no longer sitting next to Riku and was instead looking at him, grasping Riku’s hands tightly.

“I would never replace you,” he told Riku seriously, part of him reeling. Riku thought he had replaced him? Why? How could he even think that? No one, no one in the entire world or any world, could ever replace Riku. He was his oldest friend, best friend, his everything. “Never ever.”

“I know that now Sora,” Riku replied carefully, trying to block out the portion of him that whispered liar. “I know you could never-”

“Do you?” Sora asked. “Because I promise, I will never, ever, ever not need you, okay? Ever.” Riku blinked at the younger boy, finding it hard to keep the smile off his face. Because it was so Sora. He was so earnest and loveable and Riku was cutting off that train of thought now, thank you.

“I know Sora,” he replied, allowing the smile to creep up his face. “I promise.” Sora gave him one last, long, scrutinizing look before nodding once and relaxing back into the couch, shifting slightly so he was no longer almost shoving Kairi off the couch, to which she gave him a grateful look.

No one else in the room said anything. They had a feeling that it wouldn’t be welcome. They knew that something happened between Sora and Riku, they all did. It was clear now that they were starting to see it happen.

Terra’s eyes had fallen to the floor the second Maleficent was revealed. Oh Riku, he thought, biting on his tongue to stop the words from actually escaping. Perhaps I shouldn’t have Bequeathed to you. I never wanted to give you my destiny as well.

But there was no way to change it now.

All they could do was watch it happen and deal with the aftermath.

Chapter Text

The Gummiship flew through the Ocean Between.

“We seem to start here a lot, don’t we?” Kairi muttered, watching the screen zoom into the familiar cockpit. Except, it looked different.

Goofy recounts how Cid also upgraded the cockpit, making it bigger, as well as adding missiles to the outside of the ship.

“He just did that for free?” Roxas asked dubiously, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”

“Cid likes working on ships,” Sora explained with a shrug, finally letting go of Riku’s hand. “He just does it for fun.”

Sora and Donald bicker about piloting again.

“You do that often, don’t you?” Xion wondered, watching the screen. Not that it was that different from her’s, Roxas’s, and Axel’s friendship. They argued about some things as well, though it was all in good fun. Mostly.

Goofy asks where they’re going next and Donald says they’re going past Wonderland and Sora pauses, looking away.

“What’s wrong?” Kairi asked, seeing Sora’s look onscreen and Sora smiled.

“I was just worried about Alice,” he explained, feeling Riku tense up next to him a little. “I was thinking about her. But she’s fine now.” He gave Riku a quick look.

Donald sees the next world and Sora says that it’s covered with a big beach. Jiminy corrects him, calling it a desert.

“Wait,” Roxas said, thinking it over. On the couch with him, Xion sighed and buried her face in her hands to hide her expression. Axel had no such qualms, an expression of disgust and discontent crossing his face. “Don’t tell me that’s Agrabah.”

“How’d you know?” Sora asked, turning to face his Nobody, who sighed. Xion screwed up her nose, the memories of their missions there flooding into her mind.

“We’ve visited before,” he replied. “It’s not great.”

“Well, it’s not bad,” Sora responded, blinking in surprise when all three of the former Nobodies shook their heads in disagreement.

“If you’re in a long, black coat which traps heat in, yes it’s bad,” Roxas refuted and several people winced at the image, seeing the outfits that the three of them are wearing now.

Sora is surprised that there is no ocean near the desert.

An ocean would have been fantastic, the three former Organization 13 members thought.

Donald sets the ship down near a town and Sora rushes out, followed by the other two.

Xion could basically feel the sand scraping up her arms and getting in her eyes just by watching it. Didn’t help that the first time they went to the world, there was a sandstorm.

In the town, Maleficent and Jafar walked down the path, talking to each other.

Riku linked his fingers together, squeezing his hands together when Maleficent came on screen. I can do this, she’s dead, she’s gone, he thought to himself. What kind of a person gets freaked out by the image of someone?

Sora gave Riku a concerned look but didn’t say anything. He was tempted to reach out for Riku’s hand again but got a feeling it wouldn’t be taken.

Maleficent asks about the Keyhold and Jafar answers that the Heartless are searching for it.

“Where are all the people?” Mickey asked, looking at the town surrounding them. Shouldn’t there be at least one person? It looked like a market.

“The world was always busy when we went,” Xion said, blinking in shock at the empty marketplace.

“They were chased out by the Heartless, I think,” Sora explained. “But we got rid of them.”

And you kidnapped yet another person, Riku spat at himself. Wonderful job.

A colorful parrot lands on Jafar’s shoulder and he asks him if the bird has found Jasmine.

“Jasmine?” Xion asked, remembering the woman they had seen once or twice during their mission there, usually around the man, Aladdin.

“She’s another Princess of Heart,” Kairi explained, remembering talking to her quickly. “Maleficent kidnaps her as well.”

No, I kidnapped her. Riku tried to push away his thoughts, but it was either thinking about what he did or shivering at the thought of Maleficent.

She’s dead, she’s dead.

No matter what his memories said.

Iago says that Jasmine has disappeared, and Maleficent tells Jafar that she thought he had this place under control. Jafar says that there are a lot of holes for rats to hide in.

“Rude,” Kairi murmured, remembering how nice Jasmine was. “The only rat is you.” She had learned from Jasmine that the man who had kidnapped her, Jafar, had worked for her family and betrayed them. He deserved everything he got.

Jafar asks why Jasmine is so important, that they could find the Keyhole with or without her.

So, Maleficent didn’t tell anyone else about her plan? Aqua wondered. Strange. Though she probably was just using them to get what she wanted. She would have killed them after it all anyways.

Maleficent says that they need all seven princesses to open the final door. Any fewer was useless.

So, she did tell them? Aqua was trying to organize thoughts in her head.

What door? Several people thought.

Jafar says they’ll find her if she’s that important and instructs several Heartless to find Jasmine.

“So, it’s not just Maleficent who can control the Heartless?” Terra asked, trying to figure out what exactly the Heartless were. It seemed like they were natural things, but they had been either copied or corrupted by Maleficent, which tracked, and she was able to control them somehow.

“Several others could,” Sora confirmed. “But they were all given that ability by Maleficent. I think, at least.”

Or maybe it was that they could only control the ones Maleficent created? Sora frowned at he thought. He really should have tried to pay more attention whenever the Heartless were brought up.

Iago leads the Heartless away while Maleficent warns Jafar to not steep himself in darkness too much and that the Heartless consume the careless.

Hypocrite, several people thought. Riku flinched. That sounded far too close to what Maleficent and Ansem had told him.

Jafar says that her concern is touching.

Riku looked away, trying not to think about when Maleficent pretended to care. While part of him knew that she didn’t actually, she couldn’t, the smallest part of him had believed it. Had wanted that motherly love that he had been lacking so often in life because of his mother’s condition and the number of his siblings.

As the two of them walk away, it is revealed that Jasmine was hiding behind a stand and watching them.

“They are… terrible seekers,” Vanitas said with a laugh, surprising himself with the small joy he had gotten from seeing that. Just… they were so serious about needing to find Jasmine, and she was right there.

His laughter, to his even more surprise, spurred on Sora, Roxas, and Kairi, who each laughed as well. Aqua blinked in surprise, giving the dark user a look. What was his plan? Why was he doing that? Ven couldn’t help the small giggle that escaped him either.

Riku wanted to laugh, he really did. He wanted to join in on that little bonding moment but… he couldn’t laugh at Maleficent, not after everything she had done.

Sora and the others approach the gate into town and Goofy worries that the town might be full of Heartless.

And it was, Sora thought. He really needed to start listening to Goofy when he thought that.

Donald says they’d be okay, and Sora agrees, the three of them walking through the gate, only to get ambushed by Heartless.

“Well,” Kairi said, watching Sora take down the Heartless in front of him. “At least you knew what you were getting into?”

The three of them fight the Heartless, but Donald realizes they’re stronger again and the three of them flee into the alley.

“Maleficent was getting stronger,” Riku murmured, having been there to see it. Aqua gritted her teeth. Perhaps it would have been better if she had finished off Maleficent all those years ago. She knew she had thought that before but… she was still conflicted, and she hated that she was. Maleficent had done so much evil, to the worlds, to Riku. But she had also been defeated and deprived of most of her power when Aqua talked with her after the whole dragon debacle. Could she had struck down an almost defenseless enemy, even knowing what she would do? She wished she had a concrete answer.

Donald looks around and wonders where everyone is.

A question that a few people were wondering as well.

Sora looks at the marketplace, getting scared when Jasmine’s voice asks who’s there.

“Sora,” Kairi groaned, leaning on his side. “I don’t understand you. How can you face down beasts five times your size without a single twitch, but jump three feet in the air when someone says something from behind you?”

Sora shrugged with a confused smile, rubbing the back of his head. He… didn’t exactly know either.

Jasmine reveals herself, introducing herself. She says that Jafar deposed her father and now controls the city.

“But she got her kingdom back,” Xion said, recalling Agrabah when she had gone. It had seemed like a nice, if hot, place.

“She did,” Sora confirmed.

When Sora and the others don’t know who Jafar is, Jasmine is confused about who they are. Sora says that they just came here.

“I’m surprised Donald didn’t jump on you about world order,” Mickey mused, thinking about his friend. He felt very strongly about that.

Jasmine calls them travelers and says that Jafar imprisoned everyone in the town.

Kairi narrowed her eyes. The more she learned about Jafar, the more she didn’t like him.

Sora introduces himself and Jasmine describes that Jafar gained mysterious powers and used them to take over Agrabah.

“The Heartless,” Ven mused, and Sora nodded.

Jasmine says someone helped her escape and Sora asks who, with Jasmine answering Aladdin.

Several people raised their heads at the name, recognizing it. Sora, because he had met the man, Xion and Roxas because they had seen him, and Naminé recognized the name from Sora’s memories.

Jasmine says he left to take care of something, and she hopes he’s okay.

“What would be more important than stopping the hostile coup?” Terra asked, raising an eyebrow, and Sora laughed slightly.

“Getting an all-powerful genie from a cave in the desert,” he responded, remembering the Genie’s power and humor.

Jasmine says that Jafar is looking for something and she clarifies that it was called a Keyhole.

“Again, terrible seekers,” Vanitas snorted. “She heard everything, and they didn’t even realize she saw sitting ten feet from them. Even with the Heartless.”

Jafar suddenly appears and Sora shields Jasmine as she runs away. Jafar summons Heartless to fight Sora and the others.

Aqua narrowed her eyes as she watched. Was this person still a threat? Would she need to do something about them once they get out of here.

The three of them fight the Heartless as Jafar leaves.

It doesn’t matter, Riku thought. Because I still kidnapped her. All you did Sora, was pointless. Though, doesn’t it show the difference between us? You helped the light, tried to shield it. I tried to steal it.

After they defeat the Heartless, they sit down, worn out.

Concern went through several of the watchers, including Kairi, who had just started to get used to Sora constantly in danger, as much as that angered her.

“Sora?” She asked, worried that it showed that Sora was actively out of breath.

“The Heartless were getting stronger,” he told her with a small smile. “It took more out of us to fight them.” Riku looked away, guilt creeping up his throat again.

Sora notes that the Heartless are definitely stronger.

Riku’s guilt didn’t go away.

Donald says they have to keep fighting and the three of them head towards where Jasmine ran off to. They can’t find her.

“She didn’t get taken, did she?” Naminé asked. Even though this had also been something she had seen in Sora’s memories when she was sifting through them, due to them being brought to the front by Castle Oblivion, she hadn’t really looked into depth with them. Much like Wonderland.

“Not yet,” Sora admitted with a grimace, not really reassuring anyone.

In the corner of the house, a carpet sits up and waves at them.

“Did that carpet… just move?” Terra asked blankly, getting the urge to rub at his eyes to make sure he was actually seeing what he thought he was seeing. Aqua, Vanitas, and Ven were similarly confused, as well as the king and Kairi, but Sora, Riku, and the former Organization members all smiled, at various levels of intensity.

“The carpet!” Sora exclaimed, somehow having forgotten that they would be shown. “They’re a big help.”

Riku wasn’t surprised having seen it the few times he had gone to the world, in disguise and only for short periods of course, during Sora’s year asleep. He hadn’t wanted to go, he hadn’t wanted to see any of the Princesses of Heart, it made him sick to think about it, but he had to in order to spy on the Organization. Always after those visits, especially when he caught sight of Jasmine, something he usually avoided, he always spent hours alone, either locked in a downward spiral of dark thoughts, sleeping or sitting in front of Sora’s pod, or destroying Heartless until his muscles ached, and he was panting and sweating. Anything to keep the pain away. Anything to hurt himself for what he had done.

Xion, Roxas, and Axel had all witnessed the carpet during their missions. Roxas and Xion hadn’t known that there was something weird about flying carpets and Axel had seen enough strange things in his lifetime that he had barely blinked at it.

“Why can the carpet move?” Ven asked and Sora paused before shrugging. They hadn’t really known.

“They just can,” he responded with a smile directed at the shocked people. “They’re very nice though.”

“Cool, sentient carpet,” Kairi muttered. “Just once Sora, go to a normal world.”

Sora giggled. “No such thing,” he told her, getting a huff in response.

Donald aims his wand at it and Goofy says it doesn’t look like a Heartless, but Sora moves forward and gets the cabinet off it.

Kairi smiled. That was so Sora. Helping everyone, even sentient carpets.

The carpet bows to them before gesturing for them to get on.

“Why?” Aqua asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why would you get on a carpet?”

“It can fly,” Sora responded casually, and Aqua rubbed her temples. You’ve seen crazier, she told herself. It didn’t stop her confusion.

The three of them board the carpet and it flies off, out to the desert.

“Sora,” Kairi said, getting sick of having to use the tone with him. “Please tell me you at least knew where you were going.”

Sora, wisely, didn’t answer her. She groaned.

Goofy wonders where they’re heading.

Mickey couldn’t help the slight worry and nervousness that built in him. It was one thing to throw themselves into danger, but they were just blindly trusting the carpet. It wasn’t the greatest.

In a ring of rocks, Aladdin tries to free himself from quicksand, with little success.

“Aladdin,” Sora explained, gesturing to the screen. “He helped us defeat Jafar.”

Sora, on the carpet, comes close to him, asking if he’s Aladdin. When Aladdin confirms it, Sora attempts to help him out of the quicksand, but is cut off when more Heartless appears.

“How did Aladdin even get into that predicament?” Xion questioned, thinking about when she had seen him. He was usually in the city, but Jafar had taken it over during this time. It wouldn’t be great to stay there, she admitted to herself.

“He went to the Cave of Wonders,” Sora said, thinking back to what Aladdin told him. “To get the lamp. But on his way back, he fell into the quicksand.”

While the three of them fight off the Heartless, Aladdin pulls out the lamp and summons the Genie, who takes care of the Heartless at Aladdin’s order, mentioning wish number one.

Xion and Roxas blinked, recognizing the Genie. He had been Aladdin’s best friend after all. But he hadn’t had the gold bracelets when they saw him and he had been traveling around the world, not in the lamp.

Aqua hummed. She had read about Genies in her books, magical people who could grant three wishes to the person who held the lamp. She never thought she’d see one in person though, even in the crazy life they lived. Well, “in person” was generous.

The three of them help Aladdin out of the quicksand and introduce themselves. Sora asks Aladdin what he’s doing out in the desert, to which he responds that he’s searching for legendary treasure.

“The lamp, I presume?” Axel mused, getting a nod from Sora.

Aladdin says he found both the carpet and the lamp, which Sora questions.

“Sora, didn’t you just see the Genie come out of it?” Roxas asked, giving his Somebody a “you idiot” look. “Why are you doubtful of it?”

“Look, I was fighting during that bit,” Sora defended himself with a little bit of offence. “I didn’t see it myself happen.”

Genie explains the whole shtick of the lamp.

“That… could go badly very quickly,” Aqua murmured under her breath, shivering slightly as her brain unfortunately went through all the possibilities if someone like Xehanort got the lamp. A wish that did basically anything. Three of them. A glance from Terra said that he was thinking the same thing.

Vanitas thought it wouldn’t be that bad of an idea. He wondered if he could wish that no one could find him again.

Aladdin thinks about potentially wishing to be a prince, speaking about Jasmine. Sora and the others remember and tell Aladdin that Jasmine’s in trouble.

“How did you forget about that?” Roxas asked, Xion reaching over and poking him sharply in the side. He hissed out a breath, giving her a look, which she returned, a little bit of mirth sparkling in her eyes.

“Do I need to separate you two?” Axel asked, voice teasing and both of them turned to him.

“You’re already separating us,” Xion told him seriously, getting a fond eyeroll from the older Nobody.

Naminé and Riku both felt guilt and shame build in them as they witnessed the small scene between the three of them. They had ruined it, had torn apart that tight friend group, for the sake of Sora. Because DiZ had told them to. Though, they both thought angrily, that tracked.

And to them, it wouldn’t have been the first time they ruined friendships.

The four of them ride on the carpet back to the town while Genie flies next to them, enjoying the air. Sora says that he doesn’t get out much.

“No, he was trapped in that lamp,” Sora murmured to himself. Vanitas hated the way that his chest clenched slightly. Too close, too real.

Genie says that whenever he doesn’t have a master, he’s trapped in the lamp is lucky to get out every couple of centuries or so.

Most people shivered at that. A few were more affected.

Terra laced his fingers together, taking in a deep breath, and trying to push away the memories that pounded at his head at Genie’s explanation. It was… too close to what had happened to him in the past eleven years. What was currently happening to him. Trapped on his slowly shrinking Station of Awakening, darkness wrapped around each of his wrists, the only company he got was when Master Xehanort came to gloat. And even that was few and far between, only happening once or twice. Or the times when the darkness came for his senses and he woke up on the always smaller Station, unable to remember what had happened.

Vanitas huffed, forcing his eyes closed and biting the inside of his cheek. Don’t summon an Unversed. Don’t summon an Unversed. He chanted the statement at himself, trying to make it all he thought about. He didn’t relate to the Genie, what are you talking about? He was fine, he was Vanitas. He could deal with a couple of words, and it definitely wasn’t getting to him.

Riku shivered, hands coming up to half hug himself. It reminded him of being possessed by Ansem, the feeling of his body moving without his consent, watching everything that happened, helpless to stop it. Everything… until he managed to hold Ansem back for a quick second. And then he was in the Realm of Darkness.

Aladdin offers to use his last wish to free Genie after they free Jasmine.

Good, three not so different people thought. No one should be trapped into servitude. In any capacity.

Aladdin asks the trio what Jafar is up to, and they tell him that Jafar was searching for both the Keyhole and Jasmine. Genie remembers that he’s heard of the Keyhole but can’t remember where it was.

“Do you think that Genie has met Keyblade Wielders in the past?” Terra wondered, question mostly directed at Aqua, who hummed in speculation.

“It’s possible,” she admitted. “With how old he is. Why else would he know what the Keyhole is?”

The five of them land in the streets of the town and are immediately attacked by Heartless.

Kairi and a few others tensed up, remembering Sora’s last couple of interactions with them. They were getting stronger.

They see Jafar and Jasmine in a square and jump down. Aladdin tells him to let Jasmine go, but Jafar calls him a street rat.

“That was rude, but why am I surprised?” Kairi wondered to herself.

Jasmine tries to get to Aladdin, but Jafar holds her back. Aladdin uses his second wish for Genie to get Jasmine away.

Several people relaxed once Jasmine was almost out of danger.

Jafar says that Aladdin’s wish was denied, and Iago steals the lamp from Aladdin, giving it to Jafar.

Terra, Vanitas, and Riku all tensed. This was bad.

The Genie disappears and Jasmine falls into a vase below, which turns into a Heartless and runs off.

Kairi’s hands started to curl around Sora’s arm again as she started to realize that fighting would happen soon.

Jafar summons Heartless to fight them as he leaves. They defeat them all, but don’t know where Jasmine is. The carpet gets their attention and Sora guesses that the carpet knows where Jasmine is, and they fly off.

“How did the carpet know?” Roxas asked, skepticism in his voice and Sora paused before shrugging. It had just made sense to him at the time and the carpet was all sorts of magical. Of course, it knew where Jasmine was.

The carpet takes them to a statue of a lion’s head and Aladdin says that the tiger god’s mouth is closed.

“Tiger God?” Aqua asked, scanning through the knowledge in her head. When she had learned about Genies, there hadn’t been anything about any gods, but she could have missed it.

“The cave,” Sora explained. “It’s in the mouth of the statue of the tiger god.”

When Goofy questions him, Aladdin explains that he got the lamp and carpet from inside the Cave of Wonders.

“Well, that’s a name,” Axel muttered to himself.

Aladdin approaches the statue which rebuffs him. Aladdin doesn’t understand.

“This world just gets crazier and crazier,” Terra said, watching the statue start to move.

Roxas and Xion were glad they hadn’t been in the world when all of this went down. They’d had their fill of crazy.

The tiger god opens his mouth, letting Heartless out. Sora realizes someone is controlling the tiger god.

“Jafar?” Kairi asked and Sora nodded.

“That must have been some magic boost,” Aqua said. “To control something like that. Unless he used Genie’s magic.”

Aladdin and Sora attack the statue, hurting his eyes and stopping the possession of him. They run into the cave.

“That is a lot of treasure,” Mickey noted, seeing the towers piled high with gold.

“And it’s all cursed, according to Aladdin,” Sora replied, thinking back to what Aladdin said. “You can’t take anything out of it.”

Deeper in the cave, Jafar is standing in front of a wall, Jasmine unconscious on the ground. Using his first wish, he has Genie reveal the Keyhole to him.

Multiple people noted that it was the most straightforward Keyhole so far, simply hidden behind a wall of rock.

Maleficent appears in front of him.

Riku breathed in through his nose, holding his hands tightly together. Maleficent appearing, on top of his… thoughts about the Genie, wasn’t making it easy. A second later, Sora’s hand landed on his arm in comfort and while he didn’t look at the younger boy, it made him feel slightly better.

Jafar tells her that the boy who holds the key is on his way. Maleficent is surprised.

“Ha, take that,” Sora said, repressing the urge to stick his tongue out at the witch. She had done nothing but hurt Riku and him and even helping him that one time didn’t make it any better. “’Take me forever to find the Keyholes’ huh?” Kairi giggled slightly at his words.

Jafar asks why she doesn’t explain the situation to Riku and that he could be useful to their cause before getting cut off by Sora and Aladdin entering the cave.

Riku flinched at the causal reminder of what he had done, who he had helped. Sora’s hand didn’t leave his arm and several people shot him concerned looks but nothing was said.

Sora sees Maleficent and asks who she is, but Maleficent disappears.

Going back to manipulate a teenager, Aqua thought crossly.

Aladdin tells Jafar to let Jasmine go but Jafar says she’s a special princess who is one of seven who can help open a door.

“Door? To what?” Aqua asked, looking to Sora.

“The Door to Kingdom Hearts,” Sora explained and all three of the older Keyblade Wielders made faces, one of Terra’s arms moving like he wanted to pull Ven into a half hug.

“Kingdom Hearts doesn’t have a door,” Ven responded, voice quiet, and Vanitas looked away with a barely audible growl, hands curling into fists. Both of them didn’t want to remember what had happened last time.

“The True Kingdom Hearts doesn’t,” Mickey replied, bringing the attention to him. “The Kingdom Hearts that you three saw eleven years ago was the True Kingdom Hearts. The Kingdom Hearts that Sora and his friends encountered was the Kingdom Hearts of Worlds’ Hearts. A crafted one that wasn’t the same as the true one.”

“Like the Kingdom Hearts Xemnas was creating?” Xion asked, remembering all the hearts spilling from her Keyblade and into the heart in the sky.

“Yes,” Mickey responded. Aqua placed her head in her hands and Terra looked away, hands shaking.

“Even if it’s not Xehanort, people are still trying to summon Kingdom Hearts,” Aqua murmured and Mickey sighed. He had hoped that with Xehanort’s disappearance, there would be no more seeking of Kingdom Hearts, but clearly that wasn’t true.

“So, we didn’t see the real Kingdom Hearts?” Sora asked and Mickey shook his head softly. His eyes dropped down.

Jafar uses his second wish to have Genie fight the others.

“You’ve got to run! The Heartless are coming!” Riku looked away with a swallow, tightening his hands together.

“Your body submits, your heart succumbs- So why does your mind resist?” Terra closed his eyes, reliving his last moments in the light, staring at his own puppeted body.

“This is your destiny, boy. There is no escaping from it.” Vanitas growled again at the pain in his chest, doing his damn best to not summon an Unversed and throw the room into chaos.

The four of them fight Genie and Jafar. Sora realizes they just have to beat Jafar, because Genie will stop once he’s gone.

“Get him,” Kairi hissed under her breath, startling a quick laugh from Sora.

The four of them fight Jafar and it looks like they defeated him. They run to Jasmine.

Kairi tipped her head to the side, the confusion matched by Riku. They knew Jasmine still ended up kidnapped, they both knew that well. So how? If Jafar was gone. Unless he wasn’t.

Jafar appears in the sky behind them and wishes for Genie to make him a genie.

Surprising all of them, Vanitas snickered after Jafar made the wish, immediately wishing he hadn’t as all attention landed on him.

“Something funny?” Aqua asked but Terra had the almost same look on his face as Vanitas did and Riku felt the smallest smile creep up his lip.

“That’s a terrible wish,” Vanitas replied, and Sora blinked, realizing that Vanitas had figured it out even before he had during the time.

“Why?” Roxas asked, crossing his arms. “Genie seemed pretty powerful.”

“But he was being controlled by Jafar,” Terra responded. “He only did that because Jafar was holding the lamp. Because all Genies come with that. So, all Sora has to do is get a hold of the lamp that will appear with Jafar.”

“Or Jafar will get trapped in his own lamp if no one claims it,” Riku continued, thinking back to Genie’s earlier explanation. The tension in the room dissipated as the words of the three Keyblade Wielders calmed their fears. Jafar wouldn’t be all powerful once he became a Genie. If anything, he had just defeated himself.

Jafar is transformed into a red genie, and they fall into a pit below.

“Why is that even there?” Kairi whispered, worried despite what Riku, Terra, and Vanitas said. They still had to get Jafar’s lamp after all.

“I… don’t know,” Sora replied.

The four of them fight Jafar with Sora eventually getting the lamp and sealing Jafar away.

Fitting, Riku spat in his head. Trapped just as the person you tried to use was.

Both Vanitas and Terra felt a sense of satisfaction in them.

A piece of paper comes fluttering down and Sora grasps it, unable to read it.

“What is it?” Naminé asked, looking at the paper on screen.

“A piece of Ansem’s report,” Sora explained. “It had gotten scattered across the worlds and while Maleficent had most of it, we still found a page or two.”

The cavern starts to collapse around them so the four of them get on carpet and fly out.

Riku froze once he realized what was coming next.

Jasmine sits up and hurries to the edge, looking down. “Princess…” She turns at the voice and gets knocked out.

Riku flinched, looking down, remembering it. It had been easy. “You already kidnapped Alice, what was one more? It was for Kairi. You had to prove it to Sora, you had to prove yourself.”

Several looks were aimed Riku’s way, none of them angry. It was clear who had kidnapped Jasmine.

The carpet deposits the four of them back near the Keyhole, with Aladdin looking around for Jasmine.

Riku closed his eyes slowly, trying to breathe through the flashbacks. Sora’s hand on his arm tightened slightly.

Sora seals up the Keyhole, causing the cave to start to shake.

“What, no mysterious Gummi block?” Axel asked with a hint of sarcasm and Sora rubbed the back of his head.

“So, maybe all of the Keyholes didn’t give us something. But a lot of them did!” He defended himself.

Aladdin refuses to leave without Jasmine, but Sora says she might have already made it out. The four of them escape the cave.

No, she was just kidnapped by a stupid boy, Riku thought.

Aqua was thinking the same thing, only replacing stupid boy with villain and was aiming her thought at Maleficent.

Back at the abandoned house, they realize that Jasmine isn’t in Agrabah.

When Kairi gave Sora a look, he explained. “We searched all of the town before this conversation happened,” he said.

Sora promises to save Jasmine and bring her home.

Such a Sora statement, Kairi thought with a smile.

When Aladdin asks why he can’t go with them, Goofy calls it meddling.

Ah waiting, Kairi thought. I know it well. It still sucks.

Genie reminds Aladdin that he still has one wish left and says that he can tell Genie to find Jasmine for him.

Oh, you better not, was the thought repeated in three boys’ heads. Aladdin had promised to free Genie, so he wouldn’t be controlled anymore. Terra understood that Aladdin just wanted to find Jasmine, but there was a good chance that the next person who held the lamp wouldn’t be as good as him.

Aladdin instead wishes for Genie’s freedom.

Smiles were reflected on many faces across the room, happy that Genie got a happy ending and was no longer confined to the lamp. Three smiles, or two smiles and one reluctant smirk, were wider than the others.

Genie’s bracelets fall away.

Oh, Xion thought. Makes sense now why I never saw them on him when I visited.

Aladdin says that a deal’s a deal and tells Genie that he’s his own master now and can go anywhere.

Wouldn’t that be nice? The smallest part of Vanitas wondered. To not be controlled or commanded?

Aladdin says it would be nice if Genie went with Sora to help find Jasmine. Genie says that he’s done taking orders.

About half of the people in the room were waiting for when Genie would give up the act. Sora stifled a smile.

Genie says a favor is something different and calls him and Aladdin friends.

More smiles were tossed back and forth, many of the watchers happy that Genie had gotten such a good ending.

Goofy wonders if it would be classified as meddling but Genie says no.

“And who’s going to argue with an all-powerful Genie?” Ven asked rhetorically, with a smile on his lips.

Genie shrinks down and hides under Donald’s hat, saying that he’ll give him a magic boost.

“So, if he went with you, what happened to him?” Roxas asked, tipping his head to the side. Because he saw the Genie several times when visiting Agrabah. So he wasn’t still with Sora.

“He went home with Jasmine after we defeated Maleficent,” Sora replied.

Sora tells Aladdin they’ll find Jasmine and he says he’s counting on him.

I need a tally board or something, Aqua thought, wincing at the repeated phrase. So I know how many times I have to tell Sora he can ask for help carrying the load.

The scene changes to a dark room.

Riku froze, fear and shame building in this throat. He knew what happened here, he knew what was said. Sora looked to him, moving his hand from Riku’s arm to instead clasp one of Riku’s hands. He didn’t know for certain what happened here, but he was going to support Riku anyway.

Aqua was starting to hate seeing these clips. As much as it helped to see what the villains were planning, it also clearly hurt Riku.

Riku is seen watching from the shadows. Hook and Maleficent, looking away, stand at the table.

Riku shivered at seeing his past self so entrenched in darkness, both literally and figuratively. Ever since then, he had always had a hard time in dark rooms. It only ever reminded him.

Hook says that Jafar nearly had Sora and the others, but someone chose not to help them. He glares at Riku.

Don’t glare at Riku, Sora thought, looking at Hook.

Roxas blinked, recognizing the man. Axel raised an eyebrow.

Riku says that he did his part, bringing the princess.

Riku flinched, looking away and biting his tongue. It had been so easy. What did that say about him?

Maleficent says that Jafar was beyond help, too consumed by his own hatred. She pulls Riku’s attention, gesturing to the dais and saying they had a deal. An image of Kairi appears.

Kairi sucked in a deep breath at seeing the image of herself. She knew, this had told her that Riku had done this for her, but…

“Riku,” she said softly, nearly wincing at the way Riku flinched. Sora gave her a look that said, ‘don’t make this worse’, and she smiled gently at him. “Thank you. For attempting to save me.”

Riku looked up at her, shock and surprise in his eyes. He hadn’t… He never thought… Her smile never wavered however, and he took in a shaky breath, the familiar feeling of tears starting to burn in the back of his eyes. He had done all that… everything he regretted, for the two of them. For his friends. Even if it had slowly twisted to being just trying to beat Sora annd get the boy back on his side, it had started almost… pure. And it had been horrible and bad and something he would regret for his entire life. But he never thought that someone (besides Mickey) … would see the good that had first driven it.

Against his will, a tear slid down his cheek.

Sora looked up in shock. Riku didn’t… Riku hadn’t ever cried. He was Riku, the strong one, the one who could take everything the world threw at him. But… it was also Riku. Who had been so thoroughly manipulated and hurt that he allowed Ansem to possess him and sacrificed himself to the Realm of Darkness.

Choking back tears of his own, he had always been a sympathetic crier, he shifted his position better, moving to instead wrap Riku in a hug, clasping one of Riku’s hands with his two, and pressed his forehead to Riku’s shoulder. A scuffling of noise and the loss then regain of weight revealed that Kairi had stood up and crossed to the other side of the couch, pressing herself to Riku’s other side. A second later, Riku buried his face into Sora’s hair. Sora didn’t even spare a thought to who else was in the room.

Aqua pressed a hand to her mouth, shoving away the pain and sadness that welled up in her. Stars damnit, they were children. Broken, hurting, healing, magical children. Who gave the world to these children and told them to protect it? She could feel Ven leaning on her, searching for comfort he wouldn’t ask for and she wrapped an arm around him, tugging him close. She could feel Terra doing the same, the two of them sandwiching Ven in between hugs.

Axel wrapped both of his arms around the two teenagers sharing the couch with him. He had a feeling this wouldn’t be the only time the three teenagers across from them broke down in tears and he highly doubted they would be the only ones to do so as the past continued to be revealed. None of them had good lives, none of them had easy lives. But perhaps, this would be good to help them start healing.

Mickey looked down, feeling the familiar sadness build in him. He could see the few more tears Riku was attempting to hide, and it hurt. He had tried to help Riku as best as he could and he would continue to do so, but he needed his friends. He needed to know how they felt. Looking to his right, he could see Naminé looking down at her hands and he reached out, placing a hand on her shoulder. The girl blinked in surprise, looking at him in shock before letting a small smile cross her lips.

Vanitas scoffed, looking away, desperately tamping down the feeling in his chest. He didn’t want that, he didn’t. He didn’t need anyone; he didn't want anyone. He was fine.

Maleficent tells Riku to go to her.

Sora reluctantly raised his head as the screen continued, glaring at the witch on screen. She had hurt Riku so badly, and she wasn’t even gone. She was still out there, to cause problems. Riku didn’t raise his head, so Sora didn’t move. On Riku’s other side, Kairi gazed at him, sadness and pain warring in her eyes. He agreed with her.

Riku asks what the catch is, and Maleficent says there’s no catch and Riku’s like a son to her. She only wanted him to be happy.

Both Sora and Kairi made noises of anger. How dare she? They knew Riku’s homelife was… unfulfilling. With his mom’s anxiety disorder combined with the number of siblings he had, it was hard to get any attention from her, any positive at least. Riku was firmly stuck in the middle of a number of siblings and didn’t really stand out in a way that would drag his parents’ attention. There was a reason why Riku and Sora had so many sleepovers.

Riku flinched again and Sora and Kairi leaned deeper on his sides.

Riku says he doubts that, and Maleficent simply reminds him that she kept her side of the deal.

Sora hated her.

Riku walks off into the shadows.

The screen goes to black.

No one said anything for a while. Sora could hear Riku desperately trying to control his breathing and for a second, he was worried that Riku was having another panic attack, but it was clear he was just trying to stop crying. He closed his eyes as he leaned into Riku’s side, holding Riku’s hand tightly. He could see that Kairi had taken his other hand.

We’re here. We’re here, we don’t blame you, and we’re never leaving again.

Chapter Text

Inside the Gummiship cockpit, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy sit together, looking at the piece of paper they had gotten from Agrabah.

“Umm Sora?” Mickey asked, knowing full well that there wasn’t any form of auto piolet on the Gummiship, something Chip and Dale had been trying to fix. “Who’s flying the ship?”

Sora laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head, still leaning on Riku’s side, and Kairi gave him a look from across Riku’s lap. “Sora,” she said warningly, and Sora looked away.

“Let’s move on, shall we?” He replied instead and even Riku gave Sora a look as he scrubbed away the last of his tears. Honestly, what had he been thinking? He was supposed to be the strong one. The one to protect Sora and Kairi.

Jiminy realizes that they got a piece of Ansem’s report.

But did they get the real report, Axel wondered, thinking back to his last days alive, to the secret he had seen, thought about, and then got confirmed after his heart was dust in the wind. Or did they find the one that Xehanort wrote posing as his master?

He paused. Should he mention that? Probably not, because there was always the chance that this was the real deal and the lay thing he wanted to do was to make things more complicated.

Also, the less he thought about those last months of Radiant Garden’s life, the better.

“Much of my life has been dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge.”

Naminé and Roxas both made faces when they realized that they were going have to listen to the words of the man who had taken so much from them. Naminé especially. She had listened to that man monologue enough during her year trying to restore Sora’s memories.

“And that knowledge has guarded this world well. Not a soul doubts that.”

Projecting much? Roxas thought with a scoff, crossing his arms and looking away. Xion, seeing Roxas’s discomfort, reached out a hand and grasped one of Roxas’s, squeezing it tightly. She was glad that she almost never had to encounter the man, barely enough to hear him speak more than a few words. Of course, during those words, he had both demeaned her and blamed her, so she wasn’t upset about never meeting him properly.

Axel’s arm came down and held Roxas close. He was here now, with them. Not trapped inside of DiZ’s virtual reality, not being forced into dying for someone else’s sake.

“But although I am called a sage, there are things I do not understand.”

Naminé bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from vocalizing any of the thoughts that passed through her head. These were the man’s notes that he had written to himself. How egotistical do you have to be to compliment yourself while writing it?

“I believe that darkness sleeps in every heart, no matter how pure.”

“Well, yes and no,” Both Kairi and Ven said at the same time, blinking in shock at the harmony of their voices and giving each other looks.

“I’m a Princess of Heart, so of course I said that, but… why did you?” Kairi asked, getting the urge to look at the boy’s heart, using her Princess of Heart™ powers that she still fully didn’t know. But that would be an invasion of privacy.

“I… don’t have darkness in my heart either,” Ven confessed after a second, looking down at his hands.

“How?” Kairi wondered, perking up at the thought of someone like her. Even better that he was also a Keyblade Wielder. “You’re not a Princess.”

Vanitas barked out a laugh, throwing his head back, and Ven turned, giving the boy a look.

“Well, all my darkness was stripped away by a Keyblade Master and turned into him,” he replied, gesturing to the still snickering Keyblade Wielder. Kairi’s eyes widened, as did Sora’s, and Riku watched in interest. The three former Organization 13 members weren’t as affected, with the exclusion of the oldest.

“Is that even possible?” Sora wondered, eyes moving to look at Vanitas, who twitched uncomfortably under his gaze.

“Apparently,” Ven responded, and Kairi hummed, thinking something over in her head.

“We’ve got to compare notes after this,” she told him. “See what it’s like.”

Ven smiled at her. “Deal.” Aqua and Terra exchanged smiles. They were glad Ven was managing to talk and make friends with others his age.

“Given the chance, the smallest drop can spread and swallow the heart. I have witnessed it many times.”

“So, I suppose final confirmation that Heartless did in fact exist when we were around,” Aqua mused, propping her chin up with one hand. “We just didn’t see them.”

“Darkness… Darkness of the heart. How is it born? How does it come to affect us so?”

“Isn’t it because of emotions?” Terra asked, recalling both what Master Eraqus and Xehanort would tell him. “Dark emotions feed the darkness inside us.”

“What’s a dark emotion?” Xion asked and Terra grimaced.

“Anger, fear, ambition, power hungriness, sadness,” he replied, and several faces were made across the room.

“I hate to tell you this, Terra,” Axel said, an easy-going tone in his voice. “But that just sounds like emotions that are a part of life.” Terra blinked in surprise, staring at the former Organization member, speechless.

“As the ruler of this world, I must find the answers. I must find them before the world is lost to those taken by the darkness…”

“How about you don’t,” Axel muttered to himself. “How about you don’t throw our world into darkness?” Face flashed through his head. His grandmother, the woman who sold him ice cream every weekend. The postman, his sister. All gone forever because of what Ansem “the Wise” did. He might not have finished the experiments but he sure as hell started them.

Kairi looked away, having heard Axel’s remark. Was it true? Had Ansem really thrown their world to the darkness, taking her family and home away from her?

“It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is.”

“It’s the Keyblade Wielder’s duty,” Aqua corrected, eyebrows furrowing. She didn’t like the way the paper was going, didn’t like what it seemed like Ansem the Wise did.

And that brought up another thing.

Riku and Sora had said that they had fought someone called Ansem. But earlier, DiZ had been called Ansem as well and they seemed to be at different points in time. Probably? She would have to ask later.

“I have conducted the following experiments:

-Extract the darkness from a person’s heart.

-Cultivate darkness in a pure heart.”

“That sounds…” Sora trailed off, not wanting to think about it. Because he had seen the effects that darkness had on people. And Ansem had done that to people willingly?

Axel closed his eyes, arms tightening around the teenagers on either side of him and trying to not think about… it.

People laid on in cages in rows, screaming or begging for release.

Darkness flickering at the corner of each hallway, the beasts that would slam against glass windows or tear themselves apart.

The young girl in the dark cage, star earrings and missing memories, smiling every time he and Isa snuck in and told her about the sky or flowers. She had especially likes learning about dandelions.

“The experiments caused the test subjects’ hearts to collapse, even the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are.”

“You murdered people?” Kairi breathed out, thoroughly taken aback. She had never met DiZ, hadn’t ever gotten the chance, but she had hoped to one day see him, to meet the person who had ran her world. Now, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to.

Mickey closed his eyes, trying not to think of his old friend. He knew Ansem had done some things, both before and after becoming DiZ, things that no one should be proud of, but… hearing it for the first time, hearing in detail what he had actually done… it made him question everything. Had it ever been a good idea to befriend Ansem? To give him proof that the outside worlds actually existed? Had he made it worse for everyone in Radiant Garden?

Mickey’s eyes slid to Axel, who wasn’t looking at anyone. Had Axel been affected by it? With a shiver, Mickey realized he had never learned how Axel became a Nobody.

“My treatment yielded no signs of recovery. It wouldn’t do to let the people of this world see such a terrible sight, so I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle.”

As the report went on, paling faces and the feeling of nausea were spreading through the room. Aqua had a hand pressed to her mouth, cold shivers wracking her body as she thought about it.

He and Isa snuck between cages, seeing darkness leap at them from every angle, trying not to make any sounds

Tera was frozen, memories flashing in front of his eyes, Xehanort’s mocking laughter echoing in his ears as he tried to prevent him from hurting those people, trying desperately to take back control, trying to block out each sob and scream.

Hands scrabbling on the lock to the girl’s cell, bleeding from the fingertips as they tried to break it, another desperate attempt when they came back to find her bleeding or exhausted from another one of the experiments the scientists put her through.

Sora and Kairi found themselves curling closer to Riku, shock and fear bleeding through each of them. The man… had just… experimented on people, and then locked them away. Left them to die.

“Some time later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born of darkness…”

Ven felt sick, trying not to let his imagination run wild. Had that happened to him? Had he been screaming as Xehanort ripped the darkness out of his heart, trying to hold onto it? He knew he had nearly died. How close had he come?

The echoing shouts, the snarling creatures. The girl slammed on the bars of the door, trying to break it from her side, revitalized by their attempts.

Vanitas closed his eyes tightly, trying to stop his memories. Memories of getting thrown into the darkness by Master Xehanort, beasts snarling and ripping at him until he learned to fight back, learned to fight through the pain.

In his cupped hands, a miniscule Flood appeared, looking around the room with big red eyes.

Desperate words, empty comforts as he and Isa tried everything to get through. They would get her out of there, they would, and then Lea could take her into the light. He was sure that she would love ‘Ri, would love the sun and flowers even more once she got to see them.

“What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those whose hearts were lost?”

Naminé curled into herself, pulling her knees up to her chest and fighting the urge to cover her ears with her hands. She didn’t want to hear this; she didn’t want to. She had seen enough of it in the few glimpses she had gotten of Vexen’s and Lexaeus’s memories, the more traumatic side from Zexion’s and Axel’s.

What was going on? It was a thought that went through his mind often. Why this girl? Where had they found her? Why had they done this to her, instead of letting her live her own life?

Mickey looked down, not attempting to stop the tears that were trickling down his cheeks. Should he have met Ansem, or shouldn’t he? The man was already doing these experiments before he had ever come, but… Did I make it worse?

The girl’s words, the light in her hand, the shape it created. “Take it, open the lock.”

“One thing I am certain of is that they are entirely devoid of emotion.”

The feeling in his hand after he touched it. Isa’s hopeful expression as he watched on. Could he free her?

“I must conduct further research.”

We’re getting out of here. The feeling twisting in his heart.

“They still need a name. Those who lack hearts… I will call them the Heartless.”

A door banging open down a hallway. The girl’s hissed words to leave, to not get caught. Isa’s hands wrapped around his arm, pulling him away, throwing them both down another hallway as one of the researchers appeared, the girl glaring at him in defiance. Him and Isa escaping as they usually did. The light in his heart not going away, just settling.

“Axel?” Roxas asked, poking him in the side and Axel startled, violently, looking down at the boy who looked up at him.

His face flickered from Roxas’s to Isa’s, pinned against the wall by the creature, to the girl’s, folded in the corners of the cell, resigned to her life in the dark.

“Axel, are you okay?” Roxas asked again, worrying flickering through him as the older man continued to stare blankly at him. He didn’t know… What was going on? Xion shifted from the other side of Axel, gazing at the man in concern as well.

“I’m fine,” the man eventually said, the words seemingly ripped from his throat, if the roughness of them was anything to go by. His arm tightened minusculey around Roxas and if it were anyone else, Roxas would be worried. Be taken aback and feeling confined. But it was Axel. The man who had taught him, and later Xion, to live, to exist. But at the same time…

“I’m okay,” Axel said again, blinking several times and trying to shove the memories back, into the depths of his mind where they belonged. In the beginning, there was no point thinking about them. The girl was probably dead, she hadn’t been anywhere when he and Isa had eventually gotten into the castle as apprentices. He and Isa were dead as well. Their only hope for returning to humans being the same people who did it to them. And after, it became too painful. His friend was dead, his sister was dead, his grandmother, everyone who he had ever known, except Isa, was gone. How was he supposed to think about them?

And soon, it no longer bothered him. Who cared how he became a Nobody? The others were stuck as he was. Who cared that his family was gone? There was nothing he could have done to stop it. And they would hate you. Who cared that Isa was drifting farther and farther away? They had started this to try and find the girl, to try and find X, but she was dead, he had accepted that. If Isa cared more about that than him, then he wouldn’t try to change it. There was no point.

“Promise?” Xion asked, hand resting on his arm, and he turned and smiled at her, trying to make sure not a hint of his faked emotions, that weren’t positive, showed on his face.

“I promise,” he responded, and she gazed back at him. Axel… wouldn’t lie to her, right? Not after all the trouble it had caused before.

Mickey watched the former Organization 13 members closely, wiping away the last of his tears. Perhaps he would need to keep an eye on Axel as well as the kids. There was no way none of them had no trauma at all.

Sora contemplates the concept of the Heartless and Goofy realizes it’s like what Leon told him, how the Heartless seek out the darkness in people’s hearts.

Sora felt slightly sick as he watched his younger self simply brush off what he had read in the report. How had he not realized the implications of what Ansem had done? How had he not realized that Ansem had sentenced people to death because of sheer curiosity?

Donald reminds them that Leon said to be careful and Jiminy says that there must be more of the report somewhere.

None of them knew if they wanted to read any more of it, if it was going to be more of the same hair-raising, apathetic experimentation.

Carefully, Vanitas squashed the Flood between his hands until it dissipated, shaking off the stab of pain that went through him when he did so. It was bearable if the other option was getting caught. He didn’t need another thing to remind the other people in the room how non-human he was.

Donald says they’ve got to find the rest of it and Goofy wonders if Mickey had read it.

No, Mickey thought. Because if I had, I don’t know if I would have been able to fight of the Heartless that would have come for my heart then.

Donald suddenly notices something outside the Gummiship and the four of them race to the cockpit, looking out.

“What now?” Kairi asked, a hint of fear in her voice and Sora blew out a breath when he realized what was coming next. He was glad that Kairi and he were on either side of Riku, because he was certain the older boy was going to need comfort after this.

Goofy realizes it’s a giant whale and the whale swims through the Ocean Between, sending the Gummiship spinning as it passes.

“There’s a whale in the Ocean Between?” Ven exclaimed, sounding both horrified and excited and Vanitas gave his other half a look. That was not something to be happy about.

“What’s a whale?” Xion whispered her question to Axel, who was watching the screen with big eyes.

“A sea creature,” Axel responded. “Usually found in oceans. Not in space.”

“Are they usually that big?” Roxas asked, suddenly rethinking going to the beach with Xion. If there was something like that in the ocean…

“No,” Axel stated and both Roxas and Xion relaxed. “They’re usually much, much smaller.”

Jiminy calls it “Monstro” and Sora asks if he knows it. Jiminy confirms he does.

“I think Monstro is from Jiminy’s world,” Sora explained, thinking back to conversations with the small cricket. “When the world fell to darkness, Monstro ended up in the Ocean Between.”

“Why couldn’t it have fallen to darkness like everyone else?” Roxas grumbled, giving the whale a side look. For some reason, he really did not like that thing.

Donald attempts to pilot the Gummiship away from Monstro, but the Gummiship is eaten by the whale.

“Sora!” Kairi yelped, accompanied by the sound of multiple gasps/intakes of breath. “You got eaten?!”

“Um, yes?” Sora answered, seeing no way out of answering the question. In-between them, Riku had gone stiff, recognizing what was coming next.

Kairi narrowed her eyes at him. “Only once?” Sora continued, rubbing the back of his head, and Kairi’s expression didn’t wane. “I won’t do it again?” A beat later, she nodded once sharply, and leaned back into the couch, relaxing slightly. Something not copied by the two boys on the couch with.

The screen filters back into viewing, showing Destiny Islands.

“What?” Terra wondered. Why were they back there?

Riku and Sora both softened slightly at seeing their home. It had been so long, even more so for Riku. Kairi smiled upon seeing it. She still missed it and she had only been gone for a couple weeks.

“Why are we seeing Happy Islands?” Vanitas asked, raising an eyebrow. Both Sora and Kairi gave him a look for the name, but Roxas stifled the snicker that had almost escaped him at Vanitas’s remark.

“I don’t know,” Riku replied. Destiny Islands was still lost to the darkness, thanks to you, during this time. Why were they seeing it?

A younger Sora and Riku are standing in front of a waterfall. Sora says he saw it.

“Oh,” Sora said blankly, staring at the tiny four-year-old version of him. Riku blinked in slight surprise, gazing at the five-year-old him.

“Tiny Sora!” Kairi gasped out, literal stars appearing in her eyes as she sat up and stared at the little version of her best friend. Similarly, both Aqua and Terra were remembering their interactions with the small versions of the heroes that sat near them.

Mickey was smiling. Riku was adorable.

Both Roxas and Vanitas were holding back laughs they doubted would be taken well by the group. But honestly, the young kids just looked like tiny, shrunken versions of Sora and Riku. Which, yes, they both knew objectively how children worked, despite neither of them ever being one, twelve didn’t count to Vanitas, but at the same time, they didn’t realize it was so literal.

Axel raised an eyebrow, trying to brush off the small hurt in his chest. Clearly he wasn’t completely recovered from the earlier… incident. They were just the same age that ‘Ri had been when she died. She had been as small as them.

Young Riku asks if Sora’s certain he didn’t just hear it and Sora asks what the difference is. He’s certain there’s a huge monster.

“Oh,” Riku breathed out, remembering this. This was when he and Sora went into their Secret Place for the first time. The first time he ever told Sora about his want to go outside the islands, spurred on by the memory of the stranger on the beach from months ago.

Though, Riku’s eyes slid over to Terra. Might not be a stranger anymore. If that had been real. But how could it have been fake or imagined?

Riku supposes there is a monster, he asks Sora if he thinks they could catch it.

“How do the two of you not change?” Kairi ground out good-naturedly, rubbing her hands down her face. “I swear, the only thing that’s changed from then to now is your clothes style, and that’s a barely, and your ability to hold the Keyblade.”

Again, maybe, Riku mused, doing his best to focus on the screen and not the Keyblade Wielder sitting near him. Maybe.

Sora says that he and Riku can do anything.

“And I still believe that,” Sora murmured, more for Riku than anything, leaning on the older boy’s side. “I mean it.”

Riku didn’t respond, looking away and trying to shove away the tears that had started to bubble again. He needed to get a hold of himself.

Sora asks if Riku can hear it growling and they both look into a dark cave behind the waterfall.

All of the watchers recognized the cave from before, when Destiny Islands fell. Both when Sora confronted the cloaked stranger and when he attempted to save Kari when the darkness was creeping in.

Riku says they’ve got to be careful and the two of them sneak into the cave.

“If you guys think there is a monster in there, why are you going in?” Xion asked, watching the small versions of the two Keyblade Wielders go into the cave.

“Because we were little kids who wanted an adventure,” Sora explained with a one-shouldered shrug.

After looking around the place, Riku realizes that the noise is just the wind echoing around the cavern.

“Well, that was a letdown,” Kairi murmured.

“Yeah, imagine getting that as a five-year-old,” Sora replied.

Sora wishes that it had been a monster before noticing something in the back of the cave.

Several people, mostly the experienced Keyblade Wielders, narrowed their eyes as they watched. The last time either of the boys had been in the cave, nothing good had happened. Also, there was just something… off about the cave. Something… ethereal.

Aqua was reminded that the cave had held the door that had blown Kairi into Sora. Perhaps that had something to do with it.

The two of them walk over, revealing the still sealed door.

I wonder if that’s the Keyhole, Aqua wondered, thinking back to the other Keyholes she had seen. It would make sense.

Riku realizes it’s a door but there’s no way to open it.

The three Islanders grimaced as they remembered when it finally did open. When Riku opened it.

Sora asks if that’s really all that’s in the cave and Riku asks if he’s surprised in a place such as the Destiny Islands.

Riku looked away at his younger self’s words. He didn’t… completely mean it as a child, but he was bored. Already, as a five-year-old, he wanted to get out, wanted to see the world. He just didn’t realize what that would entail.

Riku tells Sora that they should leave the Islands where they’re older, go out and explore.

“And we did,” Sora said quietly, leaning on Riku’s shoulder. Not the way they thought they would, not at all, but they had still made it off. And Sora didn’t know if he would ever truly regret it.

As the two of them walk off, they mention a girl at the Mayor’s house.

Kairi smiled at the small mention of her. So, this would have been just after she arrived in the meteor shower.

The wind howls again, slowly turning into a low rumble, which wakes Sora up.

The happy feeling that had taken over the room diminished when the watchers remembered what had happened before the flashback. Sora had just gotten eaten by Monstro.

Riku blinked. That had just implied… that Sora had been dreaming of him. But wouldn’t he be dreaming of Kairi? He had been searching for her, he cared deeply about her. Why wasn’t he thinking about her?

Sora stands up, seeing Donald and Goofy standing and looking up, Goofy holding his shield about his head.

“What’s going on?” Roxas asked, seeing Donald and Goofy both looking up.

“Pinocchio was throwing things at them,” Sora explained, getting several looks of confusion aimed at him. Riku flinched when the boy’s name was mentioned. He remembered what he did.

Sora asks where they are and Jiminy says they have to be inside Monstro and the Gummiship had to be somewhere in there as well.

“How did you get out?” Xion asked, eyes going to Sora. The boy smiled.

“We got him to sneeze,” he responded.

A treasure chest suddenly comes flying down and nearly hits Sora. A second one bounces off Goofy’s shield.

“Man, how strong is this kid?” Ven questioned, having seen those treasure chests before. And to just casually throw them?

Donald asks who’s up there and Pinocchio says that it’s me.

“Specific,” Vanitas snickered under his breath.

Jiminy realizes that it’s Pinocchio and runs to him, Sora, Donald, and Goofy following.

“Wait, that’s a kid,” Aqua muttered. “How’d he get there?”

“He and his father also got swallowed by the beast,” Sora explained. “We helped them get out.”

With no help from me, Riku thought.

Goofy and Donald realize he looks like a wooden puppet.

“He got spelled to come alive,” Sora said, already seeing the questioning looks that were being thrown around the room.

Xion couldn’t help the tiniest flinch that went through her when the word puppet got said and Axel gave her a look of concern, only relaxing slightly when she gave him a small smile.

Jiminy asks Pinocchio what he’s doing there, and Pinocchio says that he’s playing hide and seek. Jiminy says that he can’t believe it, that he’s been worried sick about Pinocchio, only to get cut off.

“Did… Did that child’s nose just grow?” Axel asked, raising a single eyebrow at the screen.

“I think it’s part of the magic,” Sora explained, trying to think back. There hadn’t been too much explanation but he had heard some things.

Jiminy realizes that Pinocchio was lying and reminds him that lying only grows until it’s plain to see.

Oh, several people thought, watching Pinocchio’s nose shrink again as he promised to not lie again. Magic that was literal.

Jiminy says he needs to in order to become a real boy. Jiminy reminds him that he promised Geppetto.

“Geppetto is his father?” Aqua asked, shooting an asking look to Sora, who nodded.

Pinocchio remembers Geppetto and runs off, with Jiminy telling the others to follow.

Riku carefully regulated his breathing, debating the pros and cons of trying to slip his hands out of his friends’ grips. He knew what came next. This was the moment. The moment when he fully turned against Sora. Would the others still even want to be around him when they saw him like that?

As they head after him, Sora asks Jiminy who Pinocchio is and Jiminy replies that he’s from the same world that Jiminy is and they lived together.

Mickey smiled at the screen. He was glad that Jiminy managed to find someone else from his world. He knew it had weighed heavily on the small cricket when he realized he was the only one to make it to Disneytown. Hopefully, they would be able to stay in contact with Jiminy after all this happened.

There was a wreck of a ship in the main area of the whale and the Gummiship was next to it. Pinocchio ran up to the old man, who was looking at several Gummi blocks.

“Gummi blocks?” Mickey wondered and Sora nodded.

“Geppetto was working on making a ship for him and Pinocchio to escape,” he replied, part of his brain carefully reminding him what happened next. He held onto Riku’s hand tighter. He hoped the older boy would be okay after seeing it. He knew how much it weighed on him. It was clear.

Geppetto asks Pinocchio where he’s been, and Sora and the others arrive. Geppetto realizes that Monstro swallowed their ship too.

“That seems to be a common occurrence,” Terra noted with sadness, looking at all the other wrecks in Monstro’s belly.

As Sora and Geppetto talk, Pinocchio gets distracted by something and walks off.

Kairi narrowed her eyes at the screen, not being the only one to do so. That looked like… Had that been Riku? But what was he doing in Monstro? How had even gotten there? Taking another second, she focused on the older boy sitting next to her, now able to feel the tension that was rippling through him. This was going to be painful to watch, wasn’t it?

Terra winced, looking down. He had seen the tension that was radiating off Riku in waves, trying to block out his own memories that came to his mind. The fight with Aqua, the words exchanged. He had a feeling it might be the same here.

Sora introduces himself and the others and Geppetto introduces himself, moving to introduce Pinocchio, only to realize he was missing.

Riku looked away. It had been so easy to lure the boy away, to put in him a situation to nearly lose his heart. Everything had been… easy, but in the worst way.

The others realize that Jiminy’s gone as well and the three of them run after them.

Riku took in a deep breath.

The three of them end up in a colorful area with several different sized pillars and spot Pinocchio with Jiminy riding in his hat.

Sora shot a look at Riku, knowing what came next. It’s fine, he told himself. None of the others had a bad reaction to the last time Riku showed up. And I won’t let them get mad at Riku, I won’t.

Jiminy says that he was worried when Pinocchio walked off and he didn’t know what to do. He leaps to Sora’s shoulder.

Distantly, Roxas wondered how Jiminy was able to move so fast when he was so small. But from what Sora had said earlier, he had no clue as well.

Sora tells Pinocchio that they should go back and Goofy says that Geppetto is worried about him.

Riku was almost mouthing the words along with the screen under his breath. He had gone through this memory enough, along with all the others, during the year asleep as he tried to desperately remember what scraps of Sora he could.

Sora tells Pinocchio that this was no time for games. From above them, Riku mentions that Sora always used to like games.

Riku flinched at his own younger voice. He hadn’t… he hadn’t meant to…

Sora looks up to see Riku standing on one of the pillars, looking down at him. He asks if Sora’s too cool for them now that he has the Keyblade.

Aqua narrowed her eyes at the screen, multiple alarms going off in her head. Already, the clear change in Riku was heartbreakingly visible. Before, when he showed up in Traverse Town, he was clearly worried about Sora and happy to be with him again, even with everything that he had been told and done.

But now, most of the light was gone from within Riku’s eyes and his words were sharp and scathing, meant to hurt instead of reassure.

All the signs of him being on his way to falling to the darkness.

Terra looked away, unable to look at the image of the young boy. Had he done this? All those years ago, he confirmed Riku’s theory of outside worlds. He gave the young boy the Keyblade, even though he had yet to hold one. Had he doomed the young boy to repeat his mistakes? Riku’s light was bright, brighter than anything he had ever seen. He only wanted to help. But had he made it worse?

Kairi sucked in a breath at seeing Riku standing there. Before, in Traverse Town, she had thought about what she had been told, that Riku had fought with Sora, and thought it absurd. It was so obvious that Riku cared about Sora, they were best friends after all. But now, as much as it hurt her, she could see it. She had known Riku for as long as she had known Sora. She knew how to read him. He was aggressive, the only time she had ever seen him like that was when a bully wouldn’t leave Sora alone back when they were eleven and Riku ended up getting in a physical fight with the boy.

She hadn’t ever thought she would see that expression directed at Sora.

Mickey winced, eyes moving to Riku, who had gone still and silent in the embrace of his friends. He had heard it all from Riku during the times they spent together. When Riku couldn’t do anything, too entrenched in memories of his mistakes. He had sat with the boy and listened, unjudging of him, listened as he told him everything he had done. It hurt him, and he knew it hurt Riku more, to see it in person, but it would pass. And Riku was a different person now. Everyone would see that.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow at the boy. It was so clear that he had fallen into the dark. Not that much, but enough that it was visible to the other, even through a screen. So, what had happened? How had he leapt from the darkness back into the light? And why was it only Riku who got that chance?

Naminé blinked, not as surprised as most of them. She had seen this memory, had implanted it in the Replica’s head, except with herself in Kairi’s place. She had played with it, twisting it and breaking it apart. So, she knew the emotions that had gone through Riku’s head during this time, before she changed them for the Replica. She knew the hurt and pain Riku was going through, thinking that Sora had replaced him just like with Kairi. Knew the arrogance and pride that rushed through his veins. The part of him that wanted to prove to Sora that he could do it, without him. To prove to Sora that Sora needed him.

The former Organization members watched slightly apathetically. It wasn’t that they didn’t care, they just didn’t have the same connection as the others did. They knew, objectively, that Riku and Sora had been enemies once upon a time, but they didn’t really connect the same way the others did.

Riku looked away, closing his eyes. He sounded so… proud and smug and arrogant and-

Sora tugged on Riku’s hand, pulling the older boy’s attention to him. Once he had it, he smiled at him, leaning deeper into Riku’s side. Riku was different now, he was his friend, he best friend. Simply seeing something from the past wouldn’t change that.

Sora asks Riku what he’s doing there and Riku leaps down to Pinocchio’s side, saying he’s playing with Pinocchio.

Riku felt sick, remembering all the emotions that were going through him. The urge to prove it to Sora, to make him regret leaving him behind. He didn’t care he was going to hurt Sora, he had wanted to hurt Sora.

Sora says that Riku knows what he means and asks if Riku found Kairi.

Kairi smiled at the boy across the couch from her and refused to let go of Riku’s hand. She knew that he would need comfort after this.

Riku says that maybe if Sora catches them, he’ll tell him, before running off with Pinocchio.

None of the watchers said anything, feeling like anything they said would be wrong.

Sora runs after him before being stopped by Donald, who questions why Riku was there in the first place, saying that he has a bad feeling about it.

The one time I will ever agree with him, Riku thought.

Sora says they have to follow them or they might never see Pinocchio or Riku again. The three of them run after Riku.

Oh Sora, Riku thought. Still worrying about me? Even when I didn’t deserve it.

Riku stops for a second in a corner.

“Where’s Pinocchio?” Axel asked, distinctly remembering Riku running off with the puppet turned boy.

“He ran off,” Riku answered stiffly, not looking at anyone.

Appearing behind him, Maleficent asks why Riku still cares about Sora, telling Riku that Sora has deserted him for the Keyblade and his new companions.

Sora turned to face Riku again, sitting back to do so, but Riku was already speaking.

“I know that’s not true, Sora,” he told the younger boy. “I know those were just lies she was telling me.”

Sora frowned at him before reaching up and grasping Riku’s face by his cheeks, making the older boy look at him in the eyes.

“And don’t forget it,” he told Riku seriously. “You are irreplaceable. You’re my best friend. I couldn’t live without you.” Message given, he let go of Riku’s face and settled back into a sitting position. Missing the blush that had spread across Riku’s face before being quickly banished.

From his couch, Axel raised an eyebrow and wondered how Sora hadn’t realized that Riku had a crush on him yet, not when it was blaringly obvious.

Riku says he doesn’t care about Sora and that he was just messing with him.

“I don’t mean that,” Riku said, voice quiet, and Sora’s eyes moved up to his.

“I know,” he responded with a smile. “You could never.” Riku couldn’t help it but smile back.

Maleficent warns him to be careful of the darkness in his heart, that the Heartless prey upon it.

Believe me, I know, Riku thought. I know better than most. He could feel his darkness even now, balanced in perfect harmony inside his heart. Mostly. Ready to be called upon if he needed it. But it felt nothing like the darkness from that first month and he couldn’t be happier about it.

Riku tells her to mind her own business as Maleficent leaves.

Riku couldn’t imagine saying that to Maleficent now, if she was still alive. Not after everything.

Vanitas couldn’t imagine saying that to Master Xehanort.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy run after Pinocchio, who passes under Riku standing on a pillar. Sora spots him.

Riku felt the slight good feelings that had built in him vanish.

Sora asks what Riku is thinking and if he knows what he’s doing.

Yes, but I didn’t care, Riku thought.

Riku says he was about to ask Sora the same question and tells Sora that he only seems interested in running around and showing off his Keyblade. He asks Sora if he even wants to save Kairi.

Kairi flinched at the reminder that while all this was going on, she was peacefully sleeping within Sora’s heart, unable to help or do anything. A unfortunately common trend.

Sora says that he does, looking down at the Keyblade.

And Sora had meant that. But he also had seen all the other worlds, seen what they were going through. He had the ability to help them, he couldn’t just not. He had to help them and while he had never left his goal of finding Kairi, he also was trying to save those worlds.

A scream sounds through the air and both Riku and Sora run over, seeing Pinocchio trapped in the jaws of a Heartless. Riku asks Sora if he’s up for it.

“Oh, so you’re helping him now?” Vanitas asked, aiming his remark at Riku. “Your manipulation knows no bounds. I applaud you.” The darkness wielding boy got a glare from Sora, Riku, Ven, and Aqua for that remark, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. Why did Riku get this chance? When he had done everything wrong? He had chosen this darkness, chose to fall. So why did everyone choose to give him chance after chance?

Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy fight the Heartless until it spits out Pinocchio.

Riku shivered as he saw his younger self wielding Soul Eater so easily. That sword was nothing but pain and darkness incarnate and while he would recognize that his Keyblade took a lot of inspiration from it, which made sense, the sword being a crucial part of his development, it still made himself sick to see it. He hated that blade, and he was certain he would never wield it again.

Riku jumps into the pit of darkness Pinocchio falls through and Sora follows him.

Kairi was tempted to scold both of them for leaping into pits of darkness, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be well received.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy end up back on the ship with Geppetto, who is calling out to Pinocchio, who is caught, unconscious, in Riku’s grasp.

Riku looked away. Pinocchio had just been another, another thing for him to do to get Kairi back. It had balanced out, in his darkness infested mind. He didn’t know any of them personally, he wouldn’t be affected by them. The only thing that mattered was getting Kairi back and proving it to Sora.

Riku tells Geppetto that he has unfinished business with the puppet and Geppetto says that Pinocchio isn’t a puppet, but his son.

Riku winced. Perhaps he should go track down Geppetto and Pinocchio. Apologize to them.

Riku says that he’s unusual and that not many puppets have hearts.

Xion closed her eyes, trying not to let memories, particularly bad ones, get to her. It was just… the way they were throwing around the word… it reminded her of Saix and the Organization. She leaned deeper into Axel’s side, feeling the older man’s arm tighten around her in response to her distress.

Riku says that Pinocchio might be able to help someone else who has lost their heart. Sora asks if he’s talking about Kairi.

Both Riku and Sora shivered slightly as they remembered Kairi’s lifeless body, nothing more than an empty doll, on the pirate ship. Sora understood Riku’s drive to get her heart back but he didn’t understand why Riku had gone to such lengths to do it.

Kairi, not for the first time, wished she could have done something. Done something more from inside Sora’s heart than sometimes give him random hallucinations and give him a dream that one time.

Riku asks if Sora cares before walking away. Sora races after him.

I care, Sora thought. I care about everyone. I have to save everyone.

Pinocchio is sitting against the wall, motionless, while Riku watches. Sora and the others run into the room.

This is it, Riku thought. The final nail in the coffin. The moment I fell… for good.

Sora tells Riku to let Pinocchio go and Riku says that Pinocchio holds the key to saving Kairi.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt,” Kairi said firmly, finally speaking up. “Even if this was the only way to save me, I never wanted anyone to get hurt. Regardless of if I knew them or not.” She looked to Riku and Sora, giving them a smile. “Ever.”

“I know, Kairi,” Riku told her softly. “I know.”

Riku offers to join forces with Sora to save her, saying that he and Sora can do anything.

And I still believe that, Sora thought.

Maybe we can again, Riku thought.

Sora raises the Keyblade to fight, causing Riku’s eyes to widen slightly.

And there it was. The moment that had Riku falling into the darkness firmly. The anger and pain that were fuel to him until it burned out when Sora stabbed himself in the heart. This moment.

When Sora chose another over him. Explicitly and without hesitation.

Aqua closed her eyes, resting her forehead on her clasped hands. Stars, why? Why these two? These kids, these teenagers, these friends. The two boys who knew nothing but happiness and their little corner of the world. Why them? Why did the world look at them and say “you two will be the saviors, the heroes, the hurting.” Why them?

Because Terra, Ven, and I were gone. Because we weren’t there to take the burden. Because we allowed ourselves to be split and betrayed, falling to the darkness that we could not fight.

Mickey sighed, having heard about this memory almost the most. The moment when Riku fully fell to the darkness from the betrayal of his closest friend. No, the betrayal of the boy he loved.

None of the others could say anything. Even if it had never been for as noble a goal, they had all turned their weapon on a friend before.

Axel couldn’t look down at Roxas.

Terra refused to look anywhere but forward.

Xion remembered the armor that had surrounded her when she fought Roxas, when she had forced the boy she… cared about, to fight her to the death.

Naminé’s ears rang with the screams of the boy she had rewritten.

It was silent in the watching room.

Riku asks Sora if he would fight him over a puppet. Sora says that Pinocchio isn’t just a puppet and that he has a heart and it’s telling Sora that letting Riku have Pinocchio is wrong.

And Sora was right, Riku thought. Like he always was.

Jiminy runs over to Pinocchio, who weakly says he’s not going to make it, before being proven wrong by his nose.

No one could laugh. Not with the atmosphere in the room.

Riku tells Sora that he leaves him no choice and the Heartless from before falls between them. Riku escapes through a dark portal.

Axel raised an eyebrow, not being the only one to do so, both Roxas and Xion shifting at his sides. That was… incredibly dangerous was Riku to do without the proper garments. Unless it wasn’t the same as a Dark Corridor, but it seemed similar. Which meant it couldn’t have been good for what light that remained in Riku’s heart.

Cynically, Axel wondered if that’s why Maleficent taught Riku to make them. As another small thing that was draining Riku of his light.

Sora fights the Heartless until it disappears, and the heart leaves its body.

Aqua made a note of that, having seen the same thing several times. Fight the Heartless until the heart leaves. If it doesn’t, the Heartless is still alive.

Sora calls out for Riku.

Still looking for you, even after all you did, Riku’s mind told him. What have you ever done to deserve that loyalty? Riku didn’t have an answer.

The area around them begins to shake and the three of them ran back to the wrecks, meeting Jiminy.

“What’s going on?” Kairi asked, worry in her voice, and Sora cracked the smallest smile.

“Monstro decided it doesn’t like us in its belly anymore.”

Jiminy tells Sora that Geppetto and Pinocchio got in their own ship, which Geppetto had built. The four of them get in the Gummiship.

Riku couldn’t help the smallest twitch of his lips. He was glad that Pinocchio and Geppetto got out okay.

Monstro sneezes and the Gummiship gets thrown out of its mouth, hurtling through space.

“We’re okay, Kairi,” Sora said, knowing that she’d be worried. “Just a little bruised.”

The screen goes dark.

Aqua knew, she knew she should say something. Try to talk to Riku, try to figure out how to help him, try to figure out what drove him to fall to the darkness and the actions he had taken but she couldn’t. She was still attempting to deal with the fact that these were children who were dealing with this crisis of the worlds and she was trying to keep the memories of fighting the possessed Terra out of her head. It would do her no good to dwell on it.

Terra sucked in a deep breath, trying to keep his dark thoughts and emotions away. It would do no good if he fell back to the darkness now. Looking out of the corner of his eyes, he wondered if Aqua was going to say something, being the young responsible adult she was, but she said nothing, still staring off into space in front of her. He knew he should say something, but… it would just be incredibly hypocritical of him and who was he to give advice any way, someone who had been manipulated so badly that he ended up body snatched. Who was he to try and help? Aqua was always the better one.

Vanitas looked away from the room at large with a small growl, doing his best not to summon another Flood. Riku had done that, he had chosen to fight Sora, chosen to do all those things. And yet… he had been forgiven.

How was that fair?

Then again, the world was never fair. He knew that well.

As the room seemed to realize they weren’t going to say anything and started the screen again, Sora took in a deep breath, holding Riku’s hand tighter. They were together now. They were here and he wasn’t ever losing Riku again. He wouldn’t allow it.

Chapter Text

In the cockpit of the Gummiship, Goofy hopes that Pinocchio and Geppetto got somewhere safe. Donald agrees with him.

Sora hoped so as well.

Sora worries about Riku, looking out of the window.

Riku flinched, looking away. How could Sora still care about him even when he had seen what Riku was willing to do? When he had seen that Riku fell to the darkness?

Sora looked at Riku when the older boy flinched, leaning on his side. He didn’t know how to help Riku. But he wasn’t leaving.

Donald flies close to another world and says to prepare for landing.

Sora blinked when he recognized Atlantica. He had forgotten that it had come after Monstro. Both it and Halloween Town tended to slip his mind.

Sora asks where and that they’ll drown. Donald says not with his magic.

“What’s he talking about?” Xion asked, tipping her head to the side, and Sora chuckled nervously, suddenly remembering how they got around in Atlantica. And how they looked in Halloween Town. It was… bad per say, but he had a feeling Kairi was either going to find it adorable or tease him about it. Probably both.

“Donald’s magic… changes us if we end up in a world where looking like ourselves would break World Order,” he explained, rubbing the back of his head. “That includes worlds that are underwater and the like.”

Both Terra and Aqua blinked. They hadn’t had anything like that when they were traveling around the worlds. Then again, they weren’t magicians. And nothing really bad had come from it, right? And there wasn’t the same stigma against traveling to other worlds then. At least, not that they had seen.

On the world, the three of them land in the water, with them each being transformed into a different sea creature.

“You got to be a mermaid!” Kairi exclaimed, sitting up in shock as she saw the form that Sora had been transformed into. “No fair.”

Sora giggled, before remembering who hard it had been to swim in the beginning. Don’t get him wrong, he was a good swimmer. He had to be, living on an island and all that. But it had been hard to adjust from legs to tail.

“You have to take me there,” Kairi told him seriously, turning to look at him. “I need to be a mermaid too.” Sora smiled at her.

“Of course,” he said, mapping out the trip in his head. There was so many places he wanted to take the both of them. “I think you’ll like Ariel.”

“Ariel?” Riku asked, not recognizing the name, thank goodness.

“She’s the princess of the kingdom,” Sora explained. “We met her during this visit.”

Mickey laughed slightly as he saw the forms Goofy and Donald had been transformed into. Goofy looked happy about it, but Mickey could tell Donald was slightly upset.

From another cave, a mermaid and a fish came swimming out of it fast.

“Ariel,” Sora said, gesturing towards the young woman and Kairi’s eyes rounded. It was one thing to see Sora be transformed into a mermaid. It was another to actually see a real one. She had thought they were only in stories.

Ariel calls back to the crab trying to follow them, who can’t keep up.

Sora smiled when he saw all the people he had met in that world. It had been a nice world, barely any big problems that they couldn’t solve. A nice… distraction from the previous encounter.

While swimming, Sebastian nearly runs into Donald and gets scared, running back to Ariel, who comforts him and says that they don’t look like the others.

“The Heartless?” Ven asked, aiming a glance at Sora who nodded. Even though it hadn’t been as bad, there had still been challenges.

“They really are everywhere,” Aqua murmured.

Xion leaned closer to Roxas. “The Heartless can swim?” She wondered and he shrugged. He wouldn’t know.

Flounder says there is something weird about them.

“Yes, but not in the way you’re thinking,” Kairi said, smiling. Though it would be very hard to guess that these people didn’t actually look like they did, and they were in fact from another world, very far away.

Sora asks what they mean, and Ariel concedes that they seem a little different.

It’s probably how I was swimming, Sora thought. I must have looked so weird before I got the hang of it.

Ariel asks where they’re from and Sora replies that they’re from far away.

There were several snorts of laughter. Truer words had almost never been spoken.

Sora says that they’re not used to these waters and Ariel volunteers Sebastian to teach them how to swim.

“You’re from an island?” Vanitas snarked, rolling his eyes, and Sora sighed.

“Yes, but I learned to swim with two legs,” he replied, gently but firmly. “Not with a tail.”

Vanitas made a face, looking away.

Sebastian tells Ariel that King Triton wouldn’t like it and Ariel brushes him off.

“King Triton… Her father?” Aqua asked, remembering that Sora called her a princess.

“Yeah,” Sora responded. “They had a… strained relationship. But it got better!”

I know that well, was a thought echoed by many of the watchers, some more surprising than others.

Sebastian teaches the three of them to swim properly and Flounder helps.

Kairi thought that looked extremely fun. She would have to visit that place.

Ariel suddenly notices something, and they turn to see some Heartless appear from the cave next to them.

“You can’t even escape them in the submerged world,” Axel mentioned, shaking his head.

Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian flee while Sora and the others fight the Heartless, destroying them.

Several of the adults were glad that Sora kept his skills even when underwater. It could have gone very badly.

The other three come out of hiding, with Ariel mentioning that the Heartless chased them before.

“Is she also a Princess of Heart?” Aqua asked, unfortunately at this point, well used to something bad happening to those girls, which included both Kairi and Cinderella, she had been able to guess.

“No,” Kairi replied, shaking her head a little. She would remember if she met a mermaid at Hollow Bastion. “She’s just a Princess and the Heartless are just jerks.”

Sora agreed with Kairi's statement wholeheartedly.

Sebastian worries that the Heartless might be heading for the palace and Ariel says they should head back.

“And just thrown themselves back into danger?” Roxas wondered, raising an eyebrow. “Sora, no wonder you get along with them so well.” He might not know his Somebody that well, and he still doesn’t know if he wanted to get to know him, but just from the past viewings alone, it was clear that Sora just couldn’t stay out of a fight.

Sora blushed slightly, looking down, hearing Kairi giggle slightly from next to him. He looked like he was missing when he could elbow her easily, but Riku was in-between them now.

Aqua smiled slightly at them, happy that they weren’t too hurt from what they had seen last. Her eyes moved to Riku. Now if she could just see the same things from him…

Ariel asks Sora if they could come with her to help them make sure the beasts weren’t attacking the palace.

“Hear me out,” Axel started, his voice sounding like an easy drawl to anyone not paying too much attention. “Don’t they have like… guards to do that? She lives at a palace; they should have guards.” He would know, from all the times he and Isa had both successfully and less so successfully snuck past Aeleus, Dilan, and Braig in their youth. Before of course… everything.

Sora thought back. “I don’t remember ever seeing any,” he admitted, getting looks from anyone who had ever been in a palace. Which was most of them, funnily enough.

“Maybe because no one else lives under the sea, thus no one to attack them, they don’t need guards?” Kairi wondered and Sora nodded. There hadn’t been anyone else when he had been down there.

Aqua scrunched up her nose slightly, before smoothing her expression back to neutral. Another time when a world or place relied on Sora as its only defender. She needed to start keeping a list or something. Though that would probably just make her mad. At least when she, Terra, and Ven were traversing the worlds, fighting the Unversed, there were usually some defenses set up in each world against normal threats. While they couldn’t do much against the Unversed, it was the thought that counted.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy follow Ariel and her friends through the caves, out to the open ocean and palace, fighting the Heartless the whole way.

Kairi watched, more fascinated by the architecture than worried about Sora. At this point, she had slowly and slightly unwillingly admitted to herself that Sora had skill to fight the Heartless and could usually take on what they threw at him, after all this time. Even if the creatures were getting stronger, so was Sora. And it was mermaids! How cool was that?

Fighting through one of the hallways, Sora is taken aback when a beam of light comes from nowhere and destroys the Heartless.

Several of the watchers jumped slightly.

“Ariel’s dad, King Triton,” Sora explained, remembering the shock that had gone through him when that happened.

Ariel swims up to the throne, followed by Sora and the others, and Triton says as long as he has his trident, he won’t tolerate the Heartless inside his castle.

Now, that sounds like foreshadowing, Axel thought in his head. And what has my life gotten like that I recognize foreshadowing in real life?

Ariel greets him and Triton scolds her, reminding her of how he told her it was dangerous out there.

“Out in the ocean? Her home?” Terra wondered, taken aback by Triton’s immediate scolding of the girl, instead of asking if she was okay. “The Heartless aren’t even normal, not in this amount.”

“He’s a little overprotective of her,” Sora explained with a shrug, remembering how that ended up. “And I think Ariel has a habit of going to the surface. Which is dangerous for mermaids.”

Sebastian introduces Sora and the others to Triton, who asks who they are.

Mickey nodded to himself. If anyone would recognize if someone knew was in their home, it would be the leader of it. He himself would always notice if someone new popped up in their home.

Sebastian says they helped fight off the creatures and Triton says he doesn’t recognize them. Sora explains that they’re from an ocean very far away.

“I don’t think that’s going to work on him,” Kairi muttered. Sora shrugged. He couldn't just say the truth. Donald would have flipped.

Goofy says they came to find the Keyhole.

Several of them sighed, at this point used to Goofy breaking World Order by accident.

When Ariel asks what it is, Triton cuts off Goofy angrily, saying there’s nothing like that here.

Axel raised an eyebrow. That sounded… far too angry to just be distrust of the new people. Almost like Triton was hiding something…

Triton tells Ariel she’s not to leave the palace and Ariel swims off angrily, Sora and the others following her.

For a second, Ven felt a small moment of kinship with Ariel. Trapped in what many would say wasn’t even close to being a prison, wanting to leave but not being able to.

Triton wonders if he’s being too strict and is just worried about Ariel’s safety.

If you’re worried, don’t make her more eager to sneak out, Ven thought. Had someone done that for him, yes, he probably still would have followed Terra after Vanitas's threat but maybe he would have told Master Eraqus or Aqua if he felt like they wouldn’t try to stop him from leaving, instead coming with him.

Sebastian admits he’s curious about the “Keyhole” and Triton says it doesn’t concern him.

This time, it wasn’t just Axel who noticed how weird Triton was when it came to the Keyhole.

Triton asks Sebastian if he has anything to report and Sebastian tells him that the beasts are coming from Ursula’s grotto.

“Another villain working with Maleficent?” Roxas asked Sora, looking over, and Sora paused, thinking.

“I don’t know if she was working with Maleficent, due to Ariel not being one of the Princesses of Heart, but she at least had enough darkness in her that the Heartless were drawn to it,” Sora replied, tapping his chin as he thought.

Triton says that she’s up to something and that exile clearly taught her nothing.

Vanitas snorted. Of course, it didn’t, if anything it probably motivated her to become worse.

Sebastian says she poses serious danger and Triton tells him that he told him to keep Ariel away from danger.

“I don’t think Sebastian could do that much about the Heartless,” Xion murmured, remembering the few times Saix had blamed her for something that wasn’t her fault. She shivered slightly, leaning deeper into Axel’s side.

Back with the others, Ariel tells Sora she wants to show him her grotto.

None of them were surprised that Ariel didn’t do as she was told and left the palace again.

Inside the grotto is a bunch of human things, with Ariel explaining that she and Flounder collected it all. Ariel says that someday she’s going to get out and see the other world.

Sora blinked. At the time, he hadn’t noticed it, too busy trying to not think about Riku and… everything that had just happened, but now, he couldn’t help but see the similarities between Ariel and Riku. Wanting to leave the life they had to see the “outside world”. In Riku’s case, it had been worlds, while in Ariel’s, it was the surface.

Ariel asks if it sounds strange and Sora says it doesn’t, saying that he used to feel the same way.

Sora had noticed the similarities between the two of them, but he had refused to think about Riku. It had hurt too much.

When Ariel inquires about the “used to” Sora says that he still does.

“Do you still?” Kairi asked, blinking across the couch at Sora, who paused, thinking.

“Not as much now,” he admitted. “After everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been through I would be happy to just go back to Destiny Islands with Riku and you. It would be… nice.” He frowned. “Though, I don’t know how long I could stay.” And he, unfortunately, didn't think he could live there permanently anymore. Not when he had seen all he had and done everything he had.

Riku sighed quietly, thinking. He felt kinda the same as Sora. While it would be nice to see his home again, see his friends and his siblings and parents, as strained as their relationship had been, he didn’t think he would be able to abandon the stars, now that he had walked among them.

Worlds always needed protection and there was always a bad guy trying to use darkness for their own gain. While he couldn’t meddle too much, he would be able to help once the darkness got too big. Plus, he couldn’t leave Mickey. He had promised to go and meet Minnie. And… Mickey had been such a huge influence and guiding hand the past year. He didn’t know what he would have done without the mouse. He didn’t want to never see him again.

Xion and Roxas both frowned at Sora’s words. While the idea of not having to fight again, of just being able to live with each other and Axel, no responsibilities, no rules, sounded nice, they didn’t know where they would go, if the watchings revealed a way for them to live after this. They were dead at that moment, after all. Twilight Town perhaps? But Roxas didn’t know. The Twilight Town that he had been in, that had all his friends, had been fake, not real. Who knew if they even would want to be his friend if he met them again. Also, what if Axel wanted to return to Radiant Garden now that it was being restored, if Axel was able to return to life as well? What would they do then?

Axel frowned. All he wanted was to get to a place where his half-pints would be safe away from the Organization. Maybe, just maybe, they would be able to exist after this. He had a feeling the Ancient Keyblade Wielder wouldn't have brought them there if they were just going to die after they finished watching what he had wanted them to. And if they did, he was going to drag them to Twilight Town, place them on the clocktower with Sea Salt Ice Cream, and leave them there, safe, until he could destroy the Organization for good. He didn’t know if Sora had managed it completely. Maybe he could drag Isa back with him as well, because Isa had to be alive, Lea couldn't live in a world where he was alive and Isa wasn't, once he thoroughly chewed out the man for treating Xion like he did and stabbing him. Hopefully, Isa would want to come with him and not go back to Radiant Garden. He didn’t think he could stand to live there, not without his sister.

Terra, Aqua, and Ven all felt a pang in their hearts as they thought back to their homeworld. As much as it had been a prison for one of them, all three of them wished to return. It was where they had been raised after all. But they couldn’t do that. Aqua wouldn’t let herself go back home when there were still people to fight, when Xehanort was still clearly out there, as shown by Terra’s confusion at being back in his own body. Why was Xehanort still alive, why was he alive when so many others weren't, why why why- While she would do everything to get the other kids home, maybe even convince Ven to stay with them until they had fought the monster and slayed, she doubted that herself or Terra would be returning until there was no darkness to haunt them anymore.

Naminé looked down, blinking rapidly. The idea of having a home, having somewhere you could always go back to, no matter what… it was desirable, so desirable. Somewhere that wasn’t painted white, where she didn’t have to jump and shrink away at every footstep, somewhere that she could just sit and draw for as long as she wanted and drawing whatever she wanted to, not just memories. Maybe… not even alone. In her mind’s eye, she could see him. But would he want to stay with her, even after everything she had done to him?

Vanitas scoffed again, looking away with a glare, ignoring the tiniest part of his chest that squeezed. He had a home, the Keyblade Graveyard. It was where he was born- created. It was where he lived. But he didn’t want to go back there. What kind of a home was it if you didn’t want to go back there? But where else would he go? If he even existed after this. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Mickey smiled as he thought of Disneytown and the Castle that housed all his friends. He needed to go back, and he would, once he got all the kids home first.

Ariel offers to help search for the Keyhole and Sora hesitates, mentioning what Triton said, but Ariel cuts him off, saying that Triton treats her like a little girl.

Aqua raised an eyebrow, looking at the screen in more detail. While Triton’s actions in regard to his daughter left much to be desired, Ariel wasn’t completely in the right either, even if it was for reasonable reasons. She was what… sixteen, possibly seventeen? Not exactly old enough to go fight monsters. Not that it had stopped Sora and Riku, unfortunately.

She says he doesn’t understand, and Sebastain comes in to hear that last part.

Several people winced. That probably wouldn’t be helpful.

As Sora, the others, and Ariel leave, two eels appear from overhead.

“What are those?” Xion wondered, blinking in slight wonder, slight concern. The ocean had so many creatures that she didn’t know existed. She thought there were only shells in there, along with the fish and crabs. Clearly there was more. Much more.

“Eels,” Sora said. “They’re helpers of Ursula.”

Xion made a face. Maybe she wouldn't want to meet eels in the future.

An unknown woman says that they’ll never find the Keyhole, while watching Sora and Ariel through a magical mirror.

Kairi shivered. “Sora, what is it with villains and watching you using magic?” She asked, wrinkling her nose, and Sora shrugged, ignoring the slight shiver that had gone through himself as well. He hadn’t realized that Ursula had been watching them then.

Ursula muses that Ariel could be useful and says that the Heartless are on her side. She tells Triton that his day is coming.

“And we stopped her,” Sora muttered, crossing his arms. Riku thought Sora did that a lot. Every world he ended up in, he had to fight someone. Honestly, couldn’t Sora just be thrown into some relaxing world to take a break in?

Sora, Ariel, Donald, and Goofy explore a shipwreck, with Sora finding a piece of crystal trident, which reminds him of something. As they leave the shipwreck, they get attacked by a shark.

Several people yelped in shock as the shark came out of nowhere, trying to eat Sora and Ariel. Riku stiffened and Kairi looked like she was regretting staying at Riku’s side as she couldn’t cling to Sora and remind herself that he was okay.

Xion felt her eyes widening. There seemed to be so many scary things in the ocean. Whales, eels, whatever that thing was. She didn’t know if she wanted to go swimming in it anymore, or at least, not as deep in it.

Sora fights off the shark and he and the others return to Ariel’s grotto.

Kairi breathed out a sigh of relief when Sora beat the shark. She shouldn’t be as worried as she was, having seen Sora face down so many more creatures so much stronger, but she couldn’t help it. She was always so worried about him and hopefully, after this, she would be always able to go with him, to keep him safe.

They head to a wall of Ariel’s grotto that has the same symbol as the crystal trident Sora recovered, putting it into the slot. Triton emerges from the cave from behind them, saying that Ariel disobeyed him again.

Oh crap, several people thought, mostly those who’d had to deal with a disappointed parent before.

In the back, Vanitas froze, his breathing rocketing up several paces.

“I thought I told you not to bring those things into our spars again.”

Triton tells Ariel that he told her not to leave the palace.

“They’re a part of me! They're a good tool for fighting! And they’re your fault. If you hadn’t-”

“Are you speaking back to me?”

Triton sees the crystal trident.

“No, wait-”

“I warned you, Vanitas.”

“Wait-”

Triton uses his trident to destroy the crystal trident.

“Please! Stop!”

“You have to learn. Willful disobedience will not be tolerated. Especially by dark creatures like you and your Unversed.”

Ariel yells at him to stop.

“Stop… Stop, please.”

Ariel asks him how could he before fleeing the grotto.

“… stop...”

“I hope that put the lesson through your head. I truly wish I won’t have to teach it to you again.”

Triton tells Sora he knows he’s from another world.

“He does?” Mickey wondered, blinking in shock. Aqua and Terra had similar reactions.

“I never learned how he knew,” Sora said as explanation. “I suppose it was just something he knew.”

In the corner, Vanitas curled his hands into fists until his nails split the skin in his palms. Under the chair, hidden in the shadows, a Flood bigger than the last appeared, blinking and looking around in confusion.

Triton calls Sora the Keybearer and Sora asks how he knows.

“Of course, he doesn’t answer,” Roxas snarked, rolling his eyes. No one who ever knew information ever said anything.

Triton says it’s clear that Sora doesn’t know how to swim.

“Well, you don’t have to say it,” Kairi muttered, trying to add a bit of levity to a situation that had lost all of it.

She didn't think she succeeded.

Triton says that Sora should know not to meddle in the affairs of other worlds.

“To be honest, that seems to be a rule that Keybearers usually ignore or forget,” Ven admitted, rubbing the back of his head, thinking about, his, Terra’s, and Aqua’s adventures. Both Aqua and Terra made faces, thinking about what Ven was saying.

Triton says that Sora violated that principle and that Keybearers only shatter peace and bring ruin.

All the Keyblade Wielders in the room flinched.

Terra looked down at his hands, slowly curling them into fists. He hadn’t… he hadn’t meant to but… wasn’t that all he had done? He had helped Master Xehanort, had allowed him to possess his body like that. Had hurt Aqua, had hurt Ven.

Ven and Aqua both grimaced. They hadn’t done… much damage to the worlds they had been in and had helped in several occasions but…

Riku looked away. Triton wasn’t wrong. He had kidnapped several people, had allowed his heart to fall and Ansem to possess his body and nearly summon Kingdom Hearts. (Or the Door to Kingdom Hearts? Mickey’s explanation hadn’t gone that into depth.) Had allowed both Xion and Roxas to die for the sake of Sora and had looked away when it was a possibility that DiZ was hurting Naminé, not intervening when he should have. All he did was bring ruin.

Roxas and Xion didn’t know what to think. They hadn’t done bad things for the Organization, but they had helped in their schemes. Not that they knew it was a scheme but… should they have known?

Sora huffed, before leaning into Riku’s side, knowing what the older boy would be thinking of. Triton was wrong, the Keybearers always helped in each world they went to. Triton was wrong.

Goofy says that Sora’s not like that and Triton thanks him for saving Ariel, but tells him that the ocean has no room for him or the Keyblade.

Kairi sniffed. “At least he said thank you,” she said. She didn’t like Triton, she decided.

As Triton disappeared from the screen, Vanitas let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding and was abruptly aware of the Flood hiding under chair. When panic swept through him, the Flood twitched, responding to his emotions and he reached faster than he had with almost any of the other times he had to absorb an Unversed, snatching it up in his mind's eye and forcing it back inside him. The fear and panic that the Unversed had been holding flooded him for a second, but he just made his palm bleed a tad bit more and it disappeared before another Unversed could be summoned.

Ariel is crying on a rock when the two eels from before approach her.

Several shivers went up peoples’ spines when they heard the eels’ voices.

The eels offer that there might be someone who could help her. When Ariel asks who, they respond with Ursula’s name.

“You defeated her right?” Kairi checked and Sora nodded.

Ursula appears and Ariel asks if she can help. Ursula says that helping people is what she lives for.

Riku winced, turning away from the screen.

“I only want what’s best for you. You’re like a son to me.”

Sora’s hand slipped into his and squeezed.

Ursula says that Ariel wishes to see other worlds. She tells Ariel that Sora and the others came from another world.

“Another point for her working with Maleficent,” Xion mentioned, tipping her head at the screen in acknowledgement. How else would Ursula know that?

She tells Ariel it was because of the Keyblade and tells Ariel that there’s something that could help her travel to other worlds as well.

“What would it be?” Terra murmured to himself, thinking it over. Anything to distract him from the memories pounding in his head.

“Trident,” Aqua said and Terra paused before nodding. That made sense.

Ursula tells Ariel that the Keyhole they seek is probably in the castle and if Ariel can get her into the castle, she’ll help Ariel get to other worlds.

Both Terra and Riku turned away from the screen, unable to look at another making their same mistakes again. There would always be someone out there willing to take advantage of someone’s desperation to get something for themselves. Whether it be people, a body, or a trident.

Ariel leads Ursula into the castle where the trident is sitting on the throne.

Axel just barely managed to contain his scoff. You have a weapon like that and you just leave it out? Sitting for anyone to take?

He rolled his eyes. Who did that?

Ursula moves and snatches the trident as Triton enters the room.

Vanitas couldn’t help the way he tensed up again as the merman entered. Idiot, he hissed at himself. Weak.

In the ocean, Sora’s attention is grabbed by an explosion from the palace. The three of them exchange looks before swimming towards the castle.

“Sora,” Kairi groaned out, but she wasn’t surprised. Because Sora would always rush in to help someone, no matter the danger.

Triton is lying on the throne with Ariel hovering over him. Ariel tells Ursula she didn’t want this.

I would have done anything for someone to take out the old man, Vanitas thought, digging his nails back into his palms, feeling fresh blood trickle down his palms beneath his gloves. He took a second to realize that he managed to break through the material of his suit from sheer force alone. That… wasn’t something he had ever been able to do.

Ursula asks why and asks her if she’s tired of following Triton’s orders.

Ven made a face, something he couldn't put his finger on swirling in his chest. But I didn’t want Master Eraqus dead, he thought. And I don’t think that Ariel wants her father dead.

Ursula says they had a deal and tells Ariel to prepare for a trip to a new world. To the dark world of the Heartless!

Both Aqua and Riku made a face, remembering the dark, stifling world. Aqua looked down as she remembered traveling for miles, over and over again, never getting anywhere, fight after fight, injury after injury. A second later, a hand landed on her shoulder, and she looked over to see Terra watching her in concern.

I’m fine, she told him, tipping her head to the side a fraction.

You sure? A raised eyebrow.

Positive. Her hands laced together and the hand on her shoulder squeezed once before letting go.

The eels tell Ursula they can’t find the Keyhole, with her being confused.

“Because the last couple of Keyholes were in a doorknob’s mouth, a tree behind a waterfall, hidden behind a wall in a mystical in a Tiger God’s mouth, and locked behind a bell being rung,” Roxas snarked. “Of course, it’s not just sitting in a corner with five arrows pointing at it.” Xion giggled lightly at his remark, followed by a couple of the other teenagers.

Ursula looks behind her, seeing Sora and the others approaching. She disappears in a cloud of ink.

Terra pursed his lips. The sooner someone stopped her, the better.

Triton says they have to get the trident back. Sora tells the others that they need to go.

Riku and Kairi both sighed. So much like him.

Ariel says she’s going with him and that her father is hurt and it’s her fault. She says she has to stop Ursula.

A feeling that two people in the room related with heavily.

Triton tells them that Ursula draws power from her cauldron and that they have to take it from her.

“If you knew that, why’d you let her keep it?” Ven asked the image of Triton, face twisted up in confusion. “If you were so concerned about her that you banished her, why’d you let her keep the center of her power?”

None of them were able to answer him. It… didn’t really make sense.

The four of them, plus Sebastian, head to Ursula’s cave, encountering some sharks and Heartless on their way.

Xion made a face when she saw the sharks. She did not like them. Why did things like that have to be in the ocean?

Ursula appears from the back of the cave and Sora fights her and her two eels.

Roxas snorted. “Why are you having trouble with the eels?”

“They were electric,” Sora replied, remembering their attacks, and everyone who knew what he was talking about winced. Roxas and Xion blinked in confusion and Axel leaned down, explaining in rapid words.

Naminé tried not to flinch at the mention of electricity.

Aqua rolled her eyes at Roxas’s jab before pausing. That… honestly sounded like something Vanitas would say. Speaking of, he had been suspiciously quiet for this whole section. Arguing with herself for a second, she finally convinced herself to look over at the dark boy. She frowned instantly at the way he was sitting, shoulders hunched over, hands pulled to his chest, like he was… trying to make himself smaller. But… why would he do that? What was the point? She thought he would be making fun of Sora, this section had offered more times to do that. So… what was going on?

Had something happened? Was something triggering him?

She dismissed the thought instantly. Honestly, what was she thinking? This was Vanitas, who tormented the worlds and Ven for fun. What could possibly be triggering him? He probably just didn’t want to make anyone else mad at him. He was good at that. She turned away from him, barely stopping an eyeroll.

In the back of her mind, she wondered. What if something had actually happened?

The eels die from a barrage of attacks and Ursula says that they’ll pay for this. She flees.

“Follow her,” Kairi hissed.

“This is Sora,” Riku muttered. “You think he wouldn’t?” Sora gave them both a look.

They follow Ursula into the open ocean, where she tells them that she rules the ocean now. She uses the trident to make herself grow.

“Ohmystars,” Kairi breathed out, hands wrapping around Riku’s arm since he was closest, and scooting closer to him. Naminé’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. She had somehow missed this memory when she was going through them. Both Xion and Roxas froze in surprise and neither of them were ashamed to admit they leaned closer to Axel’s embrace. Aqua felt the air get punched out of her lungs as she watched Sora stare down the giant Ursula. Was Sora the only one fighting her? Besides Donald, Goofy, and Ariel that is.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Ariel fight the giant Ursula until they beat her. She shrinks down and disappears into the darkness, leaving the trident behind.

“Damn Sora,” Riku muttered out. When had Sora become such a good fighter?

Kairi relaxed slightly after Ursula was gone. Good.

Ariel grabs the trident and swims away towards the castle, leaving Sora and the others to follow her.

Why are going back to him? Vanitas wondered incredulously. You have his power and he’s too weak to stop you. Leave damnit.

In the castle, Ariel gives Triton the trident back and apologizes to him. Sora tells Triton to not be mad at her.

Kairi smiled at Sora’s words.

Triton says that it’s his fault and that Ariel only followed Ursula because he wouldn’t allow her to follow her heart. And when he saw the crystal, he lost his temper and destroyed it.

Vanitas choked on his breath, watching the scene with wide eyes. What… what was happening?

Goofy asks why Triton destroyed the crystal and Triton says that it had the power to reveal the Keyhole.

Wait, are we just going past that? Vanitas thought, slightly hysterically. Triton just… he just… what? He carefully grabbed onto his emotions, keeping them locked up as he did his best to not create another Unversed. What did Triton just do?

Why were the back of his eyes burning?

Triton says that the Keyhole is dangerous, and he had to keep it from them.

“He should have let Sora seal it,” Kairi muttered. “Then the seas would be safe for his daughter to traverse.”

“I don’t think he realized that,” Sora replied.

Triton requests that Sora seal the Keyhole and tells them that his trident has the power to reveal the Keyhole. He asks Sora to do it.

“It’s almost like that was what he wanted to do in the beginning,” Roxas said with an eyeroll. Again, the smallest part of Aqua’s brain tapped her on the shoulder, mentioning that Vanitas usually made those comments. She brushed it away.

Sora says of course and that was why he was here in the first place. Ariel asks where the Keyhole is and Triton says it’s in her grotto.

“Bets, is it coming up from the floor or will it be hidden behind one of Ariel’s vases?” Ven asked, humor in his voice, and several people laughed, thinking back to all the other random places the Keyholes of the past had been in.

Before Sora leaves, Triton gives him a paper, saying that it appeared in the world years ago. It’s another piece of Ansem’s report.

Instantly the mood dropped as they thought about the last time they read one. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to hear what this one said.

The four of them head to Ariel’s grotto, with Ariel using the trident to make the Keyhole appear. It appeared as an immaterial keyhole in the wall.

“Just as strange as the others,” Naminé whispered.

Sora seals it.

Kairi was glad Ariel would be safer when she traveled around her world now.

Ariel asks Sora what his world was like, and Sora apologizes for lying to her. Ariel says it’s okay and says that if he can travel worlds, maybe she can too one day.

“Maybe…” Sora wondered. “Donald’s magic could maybe change her into a human form. We could take her to Destiny Islands. I bet she’d like that.”

“What about World Order?” Mickey asked and Sora shrugged.

“I mean, she already knows I’m from another world.” Mickey acknowledged that with a nod of his head.

Ariel says that there are so many places and that she’s see them some day. She’s sure. Sebastian says if she ever finds it, to leave him out of it.

There were several snickers from some of the teenagers. The screen went dark.

“So… one of your more… dangerous worlds?” Kairi wondered. Sora shrugged.

“They were all kind of the same amount of dangerous,” he replied and Kairi gave him a look.

“That doesn’t reassure me,” she told him. He laughed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. Riku smiled slightly at the two of them.

Vanitas focused back on making sure his breath was even. They were done, Sora wasn’t going back to the world. He was fine. Every was fine.

Everything was fine.

It had to be.

But what if it wasn’t?

Chapter Text

Sora, Donald, and Goofy walk through a dark town. Goofy remarks how spooky it is.

“Where are you?” Aqua wondered, staring at the screen.

“Halloween Town,” Sora responded.

“There’s a Halloween Town?” Ven asked, excitement in his voice.

“Does that mean there’s a Christmas Town?” Kairi asked, sitting up, and Sora nodded.

“I met Santa,” he told her and Riku gave him a look, raising an eyebrow. “Don’t look at me like that,” Sora said to the older boy. “You’re the reason he didn’t like me.”

“I wasn’t even there?” Riku said and Sora smacked him in the shoulder.

“You’re the one who made me think he wasn’t real when we were nine,” he told the older boy.

Riku was very tempted to say, he’s not, but he had a feeling he would get hit again.

Aqua couldn’t help the small smile that crossed her mouth when she saw the two of them interacting. It was good that they could joke and laugh with each other.

Roxas tugged on Axel’s arm. “What’s Halloween?” He asked in a low voice. Xion gave Axel an equally lost look.

“It’s a tradition, at least in some worlds, where on a certain night, children get dressed up in costumes and go around their neighborhood, asking for candy,” he explained, thinking about the times he had gone with Isa. In the last couple of years, ‘Ri had gone with them as well, the two boys acting as chaperones for the younger girl. Not that either of them had minded.

Axel felt a pang in his chest, and he shook it away.

“Like Sea Salt Ice Cream?” Xion asked and Axel shook his head.

“No, candy is sweet like the ice cream but it’s all different flavors and types.” He paused, debating for a second whether or not he should go into more depth, but decided against it. They would be there for hours. “I think you would like it.”

Goofy says he thinks there might be scary people in the town and Donald says they look spooky as well and if they scare them, they can scare them back.

“Donald’s magic?” Aqua confirmed and Sora nodded.

Naminé had a feeling that if she hadn’t seen this world in Sora’s memories prior, she would be a lot more scared than she was now. But she knew that most of the people in the town weren’t nearly as bad as they looked.

The three of them walk deeper into the town, seeing the mayor introduce Jack Skellington as the master of terror and king of nightmares.

“And he’s not that scary,” Sora said, seeing a couple of looks that flashed over some of the watcher’s faces. “He’s just good at scaring people.”

Vanitas couldn’t help but be interested in the place. He had no idea what Halloween was, but the place seemed dedicated to being as scary as possible. Maybe he would… like it there. If he could like anywhere.

Jack appears, flanked by a bunch of ghosts. The mayor says that the ghosts will be a big hit during Halloween.

“Are they… rehearsing?” Terra wondered, seeing no one else around even though Jack had just been announced. Sora nodded.

“They had a big production every Halloween, I think,” he replied. “Jack always stars in it.”

Jack thanks him but says that the ghosts still need some work and that they aren’t scary enough.

Several of them noticed that none of them had been scared at all. Then again, after everything they had all gone through, it would be very hard to get scared by normal party tricks.

Jack says he wants to strike bone-chilling terror and that he’s going to go consult the doctor.

“Doctor?” Kairi questioned.

“Another resident of the town. He’s a… scientist,” Sora explained. “Of a sort.”

As Jack walks away, the mayor says he’ll attend to the decorations.

“Wait, if this place is called Halloween Town, wouldn’t they celebrate Halloween every day?” Ven asked and Sora paused, frowning.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “They had one big celebration on Halloween, but I think the town is just themed off Halloween and they spend the whole year planning for the big celebration.”

“Oh.”

Sora and the others follow after Jack.

“And you’re following him because….?” Riku trailed off and Sora made a face at him.

“We didn’t know what else to do. We needed to find the Keyhole and usually the residents had some idea of where the Keyhole could be.” Riku nodded in understanding.

Jack enters the lab of the Doctor, who comes wheeling himself out. They talk about what could be wrong with the ghosts, but the doctor says that his devices are always perfect.

“Nothing’s perfect,” Axel muttered. “It would be boring otherwise.”

Jack finds something in the book and says that the Heartless need a Heart and asks the doctor if they can create one.

“Wait, are the ghosts he’s using as decorations Heartless?” Aqua asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did he create Heartless?”

“No,” Sora admitted. “He found the Heartless and then somehow… made it obey him. Sort of like Maleficent.” Though she had made some Heartless so maybe... Ugh, complicated.

“Don’t the Heartless already have Hearts?” Vanitas asked, giving the screen a look. “I thought we established this.”

“With the information we have now,” Sora corrected. “We didn’t know that then and I don’t think a lot of people did. What with a name like “the Heartless.”

“Leave it to DiZ,” Roxas snarked, crossing his arms, and getting a quiet giggle from Xion.

The doctor says they can create one easy and that a Heart’s not that complicated.

“Disagree,” Axel muttered. “Hearts are very complicated.”

“Then why does everyone want one?” Xion asked. And she was counting herself and Roxas in that number. Axel didn’t know how to answer her.

The doctor and Jack work together to start making a heart and the doctor says they need to unlock something.

“It… can’t be that easy to make a heart, could it?” Naminé wondered, looking up at the screen in wonder. If it was… If they could really make a heart, then maybe… maybe she wouldn’t need to merge with Kairi. Again, at least. She already had. Maybe herself and Roxas and any of the other Nobodies could live separate from their Somebodies.

Then her mind flashed back to Larxene, and she shivered. She didn’t know if she wanted a world where Larxene was free to live and hurt her again.

“I don’t think so,” Mickey said. “Otherwise, I think Ansem would have figured it out.”

Donald asks Sora if he’s really going to unlock it for them, revealing that the three of them were listening to talk.

“Eavesdropping, Sora?” Roxas asked and his Somebody made a face at him.

“I heard them mention Heartless, I had to make sure they weren’t a threat,” he replied.

“And yet, you don’t look too concerned by the implication that they created Heartless themselves.” Roxas gave him a look. Sora looked away with a huff, crossing his arms across his chest.

Sora asks why not and says if they succeed, they won’t have to fight the Heartless.

“Aren’t they trying to absorb hearts?” Aqua asked. “That’s the point of the Heartless, right? So, if you give them hearts, won’t they just absorb them and continue to look for more?”

Sora shrugged. “I didn’t know that, at the time.”

Sora adds that he wants to see the Heartless dance as well.

“Immature fourteen-year-old,” Sora said when he saw a couple of looks being sent his way.

Donald says he doesn’t, but Sora ignores him, entering the room and saying that he could help them.

“They don’t seem to upset at ya for just appearing in the room,” Mickey said, watching Sora unlock the small box.

“I think they might be used to crazy stuff happening,” Sora responded. “Or they just didn’t care.”

Jack says that it was amazing and asks Sora his name. Sora introduces himself and Jack invites Sora to be a part of the Halloween celebration.

“Did you get to do it?” Kairi asked and Sora shook his head.

“No, we had to leave,” he said, a little upset that he didn’t actually get to be in the celebration. “Had to chase down more Heartless.”

Had to stop me, Riku thought, feeling his good mood that had been starting to appear vanish instantly. Sora reached out and grasped his hand, holding it gently. Riku gave him a small smile.

Sora asks what the Heartless is doing there and Jack explains that they came to town recently and he’s frustrated that he can’t really make them dance with him.

“Because they’re Heartless?” Roxas said, sarcasm in his tone. “They’re not really made for dancing.”

Jack says that he and the doctor are trying to improve the guidance system.

“I wonder if that would work on all Heartless?” Aqua questioned. “Or just those specifically? Because if you could just command the Heartless to stop, it would save a lot of lives.”

Sora grimaced. He hadn’t actually asked at the time but now, seeing everything that he had, maybe it would have been better if he had tried to find out more about it. Perhaps it should be another stop he visits once he’s out of here.

Jack calls the doctor a genius and the doctor is reading out the list of things to make a heart: Pulse, emotion, terror, fear, hope and despair.

“Aren’t half of those different types of emotions?” Ven asked. “Why would you need the ingredient “emotion” and then four other emotions?”

Sora didn’t know.

“That can’t be all the ingredients for a heart,” Kairi said. “That’s far too simplistic.”

The doctor tries to put the heart in the Heartless, but it doesn’t work.

“I wonder if it didn’t work because it just didn’t work or because the Heartless already has a heart, deep down inside,” Aqua mused.

The doctor wonders if they’re missing some ingredients.

“Probably,” Kairi murmured, thinking back to what she said. There was no way you could create a heart out of just six things.

The doctor says to try adding memory to the heart and calls for Sally.

Mickey nodded when the doctor mentioned adding memory to the heart. Some memories, the most important ones, were stored in the heart. And the heart never forgot anything or anyone you encountered.

“Who’s Sally?” Xion asked.

“Another one of the residents,” Sora said. “She lives with him. I think… he created her? But I’m not certain.”

When Sally doesn’t appear, the doctor mutters that he doesn’t know why he bothered creating her.

“Frankenstein,” Axel whispered under his breath, mostly as a joke, but Xion twisted her head to look at him.

“What?” She asked and Axel paused. Did he… really want to explain that to her? Nope!

“It’s a book,” he explained briefly. “About someone who created a living being. I don’t remember that much of it.” Isa had always liked the book more than him.

The doctor says that Sally should have the memory they need and to find her.

“Wait, like he’s going to take Sally’s memory?” Kairi asked, worry going through her. Naminé and Xion both froze up, unfortunate flashbacks going through both of them.

“No, no, no,” Sora said hurriedly, waving his hands in the air, and having seen the looks on both Xion and Naminé's faces. While he didn’t understand their concern, he was ready to calm it. “I’m pretty sure they didn’t mean memory as in her physical memories. Or at least, that’s not what Jack ended up taking from her. And even then, if they were talking about actual memory, I don’t think they would actually hurt Sally. Jack really cares for her and if it would hurt her permanently, I don’t think he would do it.”

While Naminé pressed a hand to her chest to calm her racing breaths, Xion fell backwards into Axel’s side, pressing her face into the coat he wore. That had given her some… unpleasant flashbacks. Axel’s hand reached out and rested on her back, being a quiet, steady reassurance.

Jack says he can do it and invites Sora to join him. Sora agrees.

“Again, Jack was the best chance at finding the Keyhole,” Sora said when a few more looks were aimed his way.

As he, Donald, Goofy, and Jack leave the lab, the mayor appears, saying they have a big problem.

“I assume the Heartless,” Vanitas muttered, and Sora turned, giving him a look. This was the third time Vanitas figured something out before the rest of them, even himself in the past.

“How did you know?” Sora asked and Vanitas raised an eyebrow in his direction.

“It’s obvious,” he drawled. “The Heartless aren’t made to be controlled. Even if you can temporarily control them, it’s not going to work long run.”

Or at least, he assumed. But they seemed similar to his Unversed in a way and he was the only one who could control those. And again, that control was… finicky, especially when he was feeling particularly strong emotions at the time.

The mayor says that the Heartless are out of control and they can’t stop them.

Vanitas made a motion with his hand like nonverbally saying “see?”

The smallest part of Aqua was glad that he was back to his normal, snarky self. And wondered why he had stopped.

Why was part of her worried about Vanitas?

“Wait, does the mayor have two faces?” Kairi wondered, taking in the image on screen, and Sora paused.

“Apparently?” He replied, having not seen it before then.

“People don’t have two faces,” Xion whispered to herself, confusion flickering through her chest. Next to her, Axel chuckled quietly.

“No, they don’t but I don’t think you should take notes from this world on what’s normal and what’s not,” he told her. “It seems far too strange for that.”

Jack wonders if their experiment triggered something and tells the mayor that he has nothing to worry about and everything will be fine.

“The mayor seems to have a lot of trust in Jack,” Terra mused, and Sora nodded. It seemed like he did.

Moving through the town, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack destroy all the other Heartless, eventually ending in a graveyard. A ghost dog appears from one of the graves.

Xion couldn’t help the small gasp that slipped out of her mouth when the dog appeared, sitting up further. Next to her, Roxas rolled his eyes a little. He would never understand her fascination with the creatures. They were just animals.

Jack calls the dog Zero and asks Zero if he’s seen Sally. Zero shows them where Sally is and Sally asks if everything is alright.

Yep, Axel could see the Frankenstein parallels.

Jack says that everything is fine and that they’re going to have the best Halloween ever. They just need Sally’s memory.

“All of them seem very… blasé about that fact,” Naminé noted, doing her best to keep the conversation and its implications out of most of her mind. “Like, someone’s memory is just a common ingredient.”

“Well, this is Halloween Town,” Sora said with a shrug. “It’s a little wacky and strange. I don’t think they hold the same standards as a lot of the places we visit.”

Sally asks if he means the plant she’s holding and gives it to Jack.

“The plant… is memory?” Ven asked and Sora shrugged. Halloween Town was like Wonderland. He just got used to the strangeness of it.

Sally says she has a bad feeling about what Jack is planning and tells him that they’re still time to change it. Jack says that nothing could beat what he had planned.

“He doesn’t… seem to listen to her,” Aqua said, watching as Jack didn’t even turn to look at her when she spoke. “You said he cared about her?”

“Yes, he does,” Sora replied firmly. “He just gets… really wrapped up in what he’s doing or creating at the present moment and can’t really pay attention to what’s going on around him. It’s a trait of his.” And Sally seemed okay with it.

Aqua grimaced slightly but nodded. As long as no one got hurt…

Jack says once they give the Heartless a heart, they’ll dance just as he envisioned.

Vanitas did his best to contain his snort. This wasn’t going to go well at all, was it?

Sally asks Jack why he doesn’t have Sora and the others star in the festival, saying that they look frightful and funny, and it would be better than the Heartless.

“Aww,” Kairi said, giving Sora a look. “She said you look frightful.”

Sora puffed up, knowing what she was referring to. “I can be scary!” He told her, sticking his tongue out when she just continued to smile patronizingly at him.

“Can you?” She asked him, smile not leaving her face, and Riku took that moment to step in, knowing that it would get worse.

“Guys,” he said warningly. “Not here.”

“Do I want to know?” Terra questioned and Riku shook his head, long suffering from their certain arguments the two of them couldn’t let go.

As the group exits the graveyard, three little beings come out of one of the coffins, talking about what they were saying about a heart.

“Who are they?” Mickey wondered, looking at the small creatures, and Sora made a face.

“They work for Oogie Boogie,” he explained. “They stole the heart and gave it to him. He’s not that nice.”

They decide on telling Oogie Boogie.

Naminé blinked, remembering the name from Sora’s memories. He was the one who… took the potion they were creating? In the Castle Oblivion room?

She shook her head slightly. Some of the details were fuzzy.

Back in the lab, Sora and Jack give the plant to the doctor and he says they only need one more ingredient, “surprise”.

“These are the weirdest ingredients for a heart,” Ven muttered, shaking his head slightly.

Several people agreed with him.

The doctor tells them that the mayor should know where it is. In Oogie Boogie’s lair, he is in shock that the doctor is trying to make a heart.

Kairi, Xion, and Ven all squeaked in surprise and fear when they saw Oogie Boogie, Xion leaning closer into Axel’s side while Ven leaned on Terra. Kairi covered her eyes for a second before dropping her hand, trying to slowly get used to the sight.

Naminé had a feeling like she would have reacted the same way had she not seen Oogie Boogie before. Though, she had reacted with some surprise and fear when she had seen him inside of Sora’s memories.

Oogie Boogie says when he gets his hands on the heart, he’ll be able to control the Heartless.

Vanitas snorted. Have fun failing, buddy.

Sora, Jack, Donald, and Goofy go and get the surprise from the mayor, bringing it back to the doctor.

“That was fast,” Roxas murmured.

The doctor completes the heart.

“Did it really work?” Axel asked Sora, raising an eyebrow at the screen. Was it really that easy to just… create a heart? If it was, what had Xemnas been doing the past eleven years?

“I don’t think so,” Sora admitted.

The three creatures from before attack the lab, stealing the heart.

“You didn’t do anything Sora,” Kairi said, giving the boy a look, and he huffed.

“I was in shock,” he said reproachfully. “I didn’t realize what was happening.”

The doctor is angry that they stole the heart and tells them to go after them. They run out, but the three creatures are gone.

“Fast little buggers,” Terra muttered.

Jack tells Zero to go after them and they follow Zero, fighting Heartless on the way.

“Are they… in a bathtub? With legs?” Aqua asked, sounding bewildered, and Sora just shrugged again. Roxas covered his face with one of his hands.

“This feels like Wonderland all over again,” he groused.

They arrive at Oogie Boogie’s home and Jack says he knew Oogie Boogie was behind this.

“He’s not well liked then?” Riku asked and Sora shook his head.

They enter Oogie Boogie’s home, fighting their way through it and eventually cornering the three creatures, who tell them they were just following orders.

“I mean, they did seem scared of Oogie Boogie earlier,” Naminé said quietly, trying not to think of white walls and lightning and flower petals. “They might not have had a choice.”

Axel gave the girl a look of concern, having a very good idea of what was going through her head.

One of the creatures accidentally tells them about a secret lever and the four of them move on, finding Oogie Boogie’s hiding spot.

“That’s a pleasant door,” Kairi murmured, rolling her eyes.

Entering the room, Jack tells Oogie Boogie to give back the heart, who’s standing on the other side of the room.

Naminé hummed in slight surprise. While it had been similar for the other worlds, this was the first one that she had seen where the real thing looked really similar to the Castle Oblivion creation. Strange.

Oogie Boogie says if they want it, they should come and get it, before eating the heart.

Silence reigned over the watchers. Even Vanitas was stunned, blinking rapidly at the screen.

“Did he just… Did he…?” Xion’s words were stuttered out. “Did he just eat the heart?”

“Yes?” Sora responded and she gave him a look of disbelief. Most of the room wasn’t much better.

“Sora,” Riku said, voice clearly forcefully patient. “What the heck?

“I don’t know!” He yelped out, turning to look at Riku. “The world was weird, ok?”

“That’s an understatement,” Roxas muttered.

Oogie Boogie tries to get the Heartless’s attention but only two show up.

I would say I told you so, but… Vanitas rolled his eyes. Creatures that have one goal don’t like to be controlled to do another. Kind of like him.

In his anger, Oogie Boogie lashes out at them using the room and Sora and Jack fight back, with Donald’s and Goofy’s help. When they defeat Oogie Boogie, he starts dissolving into bugs.

“NOPE!” Kairi shrieked, sitting bolt upright before turning and shoving her face into Riku’s side. “Tell me when it’s done!”

Ven and Xion had similar reactions, Xion covering her eyes with her hand while Ven leaned on Terra, hiding his face in the older boy’s arm. Naminé looked sick, still not used to it despite seeing it before and she hid her eyes in her knees. Roxas made a face, scrunching up his nose in displeasure while even Mickey and Aqua looked offput, averting their eyes from the screen.

“Sora,” Riku said calmly. “Why do you look so… nonchalant?”

Sora laughed nervously, rubbing the back of his head. “I… don’t know?” He answered. “I just… got used to the world being weird?”

“Sora,” Kairi said firmly, looking up at him, but pointedly not looking at the screen. “That is not a “get used to” moment. That is a “oh my stars, what is even happening” moment. Got it?” Sora nodded slowly, a little scared of the wrath that he would ignite if he didn’t agree.

“Is it gone?” Xion asked, voice muffled in Axel’s coat, and Terra, the only one of them who was, outwardly, not affected by it, answered.

“Yes,” he said gently, both to her and Ven. “Oogie Boogie is gone. Only the heart remains.”

Slowly, the teenagers who hid their faces looked up.

“Sora, I don’t know if I want to visit this world with you,” Kairi told him seriously and Sora laughed quietly.

“It’s not that bad?”

“It is that bad,” Kairi responded, before settling back onto the couch, still looking faintly green.

Jack notes that the heart was a failure as well. As they leave Oogie Boogie’s home, the ground starts shaking and a huge Oogie Boogie rises up from the ground.

“A Heartless,” Aqua said, recognizing the darkness that poured off of it.

“Well, he did want to control the Heartless,” Vanitas said, a hint of glee in his voice. “Now he can control himself.” Aqua gave him a look, narrowing her eyes at the unrepentant smile on his face. Of course, he was like this, why was I worried for him again?

“Do we need to worry about more bugs?” Kairi asked, getting ready to hide her face again, but Sora shook his head.

Jack realizes that he’s drawing power from the black orbs around him, and they fight him, destroying the orbs and causing Oogie Boogie to collapse into the ground.

“At this point, I don’t know which world is worse,” Roxas said, rubbing at his eyes. “This place or Wonderland.”

Sora didn’t have an answer for him. He had wondered that himself, in the past.

In the place where Oogie Boogie’s house used to be, a giant Keyhole appears and Sora seals it.

Another for the “Keyholes in weird places” list, Terra thought, slightly sarcastically. I wonder if there’s a Keyhole in the Land of Departure and where it would be? Perhaps behind one of the thrones.

Returning to the Doctor’s lab, Jack says he should have listened to Sally, who tells him not to feel bad and that they’ll come up with another plan for Halloween, together.

“One that preferably doesn’t include Heartless,” Vanitas muttered.

Kairi thought that the two of them were sweet. Hopefully, I'll get to help Sora like that someday.

Jack says that they have to cancel the Heartless Halloween Festival but invites Sora back anytime and gives him a pumpkin head.

“You’re welcome to go back, but I don’t think anyone else will be raring to go,” Kairi told Sora, who shrugged, unrepentant.

The doctor muses on why creating the heart didn’t work and wonders what is a heart anyway.

Axel, Naminé, Xion, and Roxas all winced, well aware of that question. What was a heart? Why was it so special?

None of them had an answer.

Sora and the others wish Jack goodbye, leaving in the Gummiship.

“Well Sora, I thought you said you met Santa?” Riku asked as the screen went black, a teasing note in his voice.

“I did!” Sora exclaimed, crossing his arms and giving the older boy a look. “When I went back, just a couple of weeks ago.”

Riku laughed. “Really?”

“Really,” Sora huffed. “You’ll see. You’ll look so stupid when he appears.” Riku rolled his eyes, laughing quietly, while Sora paused.

Stupid…

It suddenly hit him what was next, and he felt his eyes go back to Riku, who was still laughing quietly, uncommon mirth in his eyes while Kairi elbowed him in the side.

Oh. Oh no.

Would he be able to help Riku hold onto his laugher after what was coming next? Or would he have to guide Riku through another panic attack?

Chapter Text

Sora looks out the window of the Gummiship and Goofy asks him what he’s thinking about. Sora wonders if he was wrong.

“Wrong… about Halloween Town?” Kairi asked, a little bewildered from the tone shift.

“No, not Halloween Town,” Sora responded, eyes moving to Riku before quickly turning away. “This is a… day? After Halloween Town.”

Donald asks what he could be wrong about and that he’s looking for Kairi, right?

“Oh, this is about Monstro, isn’t it?” Aqua asked softly, eyes moving to the two teenage boys it dealt with. Riku froze in his seat and Sora ducked his head.

“Yeah,” he responded. “I managed to talk about it, after a while.”

Sora says he wants to find both Kairi and Riku. The others say that they have people they’re looking for as well and Goofy reminds Sora to smile to power the Gummiship.

Aqua made a quick face. Not the time to be saying that, Goofy.

Sora smiles, saying that being sad won’t help him find Kairi. He apologizes for worrying them and asks Donald if he can see the next world yet.

“That was a mood shift,” Roxas muttered, eyes moving from the screen to the watching teenagers across from them.

Donald says he can’t see it yet, before Goofy spots a ship coming up behind them.

While most of the watchers exchanged confused looks, Riku went rigid in his seat, and Sora glomped onto him, wrapping both arms around Riku’s one and leaning on his side. He didn’t want Riku to get any ideas.

Sora realizes that it’s a pirate ship and the ship rams into the Gummiship, causing a huge impact.

Kairi gasped in surprise, not being the only one to do so, and turned to look at Sora. She paused though, when she saw the way that Sora had latched onto Riku. He had only done that when…

Oh. She settled back into the couch, reaching out to take Riku’s other hand. This wasn’t going to be easy, was it?

In a cabin in the ship, Riku is sitting next to Kairi’s body, folded over on his arms and asleep.

The atmosphere in the room dropped several degrees when Riku came onscreen, all of them remembering what happened last time the two boys were together.

Kairi sucked in a breath when she saw her body onscreen. She knew what had happened during those weeks, she knew, but… it was different seeing it person.

Aqua’s heart clenched when she saw Riku. He was so young, damnit, and it was clear. No matter what darkness he got mixed up in, it was clear he only wanted to save Kairi. And… at least something else, she knew it. From the way he reacted to finding Sora and everything after that, there was clearly some other reason behind his actions. She needed to find out.

Terra blinked in sadness when he saw the boy who he Bequeathed to. He didn’t want this for him, not once.

Maleficent appears from a dark corridor and Riku jolts awake, blinking in surprise and standing up, but relaxes slightly when he sees her.

Riku slammed his eyes closed, moving his face away from the screen. He didn’t… He hadn’t ever truly trusted Maleficent but… She had, in his eyes, held up her end of the deal. And she had… cared about him, for what it looked like at least. He couldn’t…

Riku looks back down at Kairi’s body, asks Maleficent if Kairi was really a lifeless puppet right now.

Kairi flinched slightly. She knew her heart was safe in Sora’s and that Riku hadn’t let anything happen to her body, but it was still unnerving to see her body, laying there, unprotected from anything. It just… made her shiver.

Maleficent says yes and says that her heart was no doubt taken by the Heartless. Riku asks what he can do to save her.

Kairi leaned deeper into Riku’s side, trying to nonverbally convey her thanks. It was nice that Riku had indeed been looking after her all those weeks. She knew he cared deeply for Sora, but she hadn’t realized that translated over to her.

He had never made that clear before.

Maleficent explains that there are seven Princesses of Heart who can open a door to the heart of all worlds and that the door is opened, Riku should be able to find a way to recover Kairi’s heart.

Axel couldn’t help but blink, realizing that the explanation sounded… scarily similar to what Xemnas would tell the rest of Organization 13. That by completing Kingdom Hearts they would be able to get hearts of their own. But why… and how, were the explanations so similar? It didn’t feel like a coincidence.

Maleficent then grants Riku the ability to control the Heartless, leading to a green mist covering him, and Maleficent leaves.

Riku shivered as he remembered the feeling of the magic flowing into him. Feeling like he had just been doused in a freezing water that refused to dry no matter how long it sat there. It had made his stomach roll and his vision slightly blurry, but it had all been worth it to save Kairi. To prove to Sora.

It didn’t seem worth it now.

Both Terra and Aqua made faces when the magic settled around Riku, the both of them worried and remembering the darkness of their day, which settled around someone like smoke. Could Maleficent’s power be similar? It had to be. Aqua’s face twisted up in a grimace. Riku kept being… pushed into the darkness, didn’t he? Was there… a reason for that?

Vanitas felt a scornful look settle on his face. What had Riku done to deserve that power? He had simply been granted the ability to control the Heartless. What had he done to earn it? Had he treated the Heartless well? What did you do to earn it?

Riku tells Kairi soon as he turns back to her.

Kairi pressed the side of her head into Riku’s shoulder, trying to nonverbally comfort him.

Sora slowly awakens on the deck of the ship, calling out to Donald and Goofy.

“You aren’t in space anymore,” Xion said blankly, blinking a little in shock. “How’d you get from space to there?”

Sora opened his mouth to answer, only to pause and close his mouth. He… didn’t know. He and the others had simply woken up on the ship and the Gummiship had crashed into Neverland, though it thankfully hadn’t been damaged that much.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just woke up there.” He turned to Riku, doing his best to keep the sense of normality. “Do you know?”

Riku shook his head silently. Sora turned back to Xion, shrugging.

“No idea then.”

Aqua shook her head. 'No idea' was not the greatest answer, but it wasn't Sora's fault.

Sora realizes he can hear the ocean and stands up, walking to edge of the ship and looking out, seeing the ocean. His face drops slightly.

“Upset that you managed to land yourself in a problem again?” Axel asked, but Sora bit the inside of his cheek.

“No, it just reminded me of Destiny Islands,” he replied. “I missed it.” Axel looked away.

Riku’s voice sounds out, saying that he didn’t think Sora would come. Sora turns to see Riku standing on the bridge.

Riku went rigid when he saw his past-self staring Sora down and several of the people in the room sent looks the teenagers’ way. Sora leaned deeper into Riku’s side.

“Not anymore,” Sora whispered. “You’re my friend and that’s not going to change. No matter what we see.”

Riku wished he could believe him.

Sora asks where Donald and Goofy are and Riku asks if they’re that important to him.

“Where are they?” Mickey asked, slightly worried for his friends but knowing that Riku wouldn’t actually hurt them.

“They were down in the underside of the ship,” Sora explained with a faint smile in Mickey’s direction, who nodded in response. The King’s gaze then moved to Riku. He knew about this world too, knew what happened here. He resolved to keep an eye on the boy, to make sure he didn’t fall into another panic attack.

Riku asks if they’re more important than old friends and tells Sora instead of worrying about them, he should be asking about Kairi, revealing Kairi’s body.

Again, Kairi shivered, seeing her lifeless body just… sitting there. She couldn’t defend herself; anyone could come and snatch her and this time she wouldn’t be able to fight back and escape. And she kind of was kidnapped during this time, wasn’t she? Honestly, that needed to stop happening.

Both Roxas and Xion froze, similar memories racing through them as they remembered the period of time when the other had fallen unconscious for weeks at a time for unexplained reasons. That feeling of seeing the other lifeless and limp… they never wanted to feel it again.

Unknown to them, both Aqua and Terra were having similar thoughts, only it applied to Roxas’s mirror image.

Sora calls out for Kairi and Riku tells him while he was goofing off, he found Kairi.

Riku flinched as he heard the scorn in his younger self’s voice and Sora pressed his forehead to Riku’s shoulder, listening carefully to Riku’s breathing. He wasn’t going to fall into another panic attack, not on Sora’s watch.

Sora attempts to run to them but is stopped by Hook, who stands between them and tells them no shenanigans on his vessel. Sora asks Riku why he’s siding with them, arm indicating the Heartless on deck.

Because I’m an idiot, Riku thought. Because I was stupid and hurting and wanted to prove something.

Riku says that he controls the Heartless now and he has nothing to fear.

Riku slammed his eyes closed again as his younger self smiled and talked, shivering as he remembered the feeling. The feeling of being in control, of being powerful. Of able to defend his friends like he always planned to and being able to prove it to Sora, wouldn’t he just feel so foolish in the end?

“Riku?” Sora asked quietly and the older boy blinked open his eyes, looking down at the younger boy. Dislodging the tear that had built in his eyes and sending it down his cheek.

“Oh,” the older boy said blankly, feeling the urge to lift his hand and swipe it away, but unable to do so because Sora was still wrapped around his dominant hand. A second later, he brushed it away with his left hand, Kairi letting go for only the shortest of seconds before reclaiming the hand.

“Riku…” Sora’s voice was somber. “It’s okay now, remember? Everything’s okay now.” Riku’s eyes blurred a little, but he stubbornly blinked a few more times, sending the tears away.

“Everything’s fine,” he echoed, voice low and hollow.

No, I don’t think it is, Aqua thought, watching the interaction between the two boys. Nothing’s fine.

Vanitas closed his eyes, wanting to look away from the screen, but not wanting anyone to see. Riku, the younger version at least… He was… familiar in a way that made Vanitas’s nonexistent blood boil and his fists clench.

It was him, younger him, hurting him. Who was abused everyday by the man who had created him, finding comfort in the Unversed when the old man didn’t destroy them to hurt him. Finding his control over the Unversed the thing, the thing that made him worthy, that made him powerful when the Master always said he was weak.

He swallowed back a growl and allowed his fingernails to bite back into the palm that he had already unintentionally exposed, the small crescents crisscrossing the scars that were burned onto his palm. He was fine. Nothing was wrong.

Axel, the smallest and meanest part of him, scoffed. Marluxia and Larxene had controlled the Nobodies, the lesser types, but that hadn’t stopped them from dying as easily as any Somebody.

Sora calls him stupid and reminds him that the Heartless will consume his heart sooner or later.

And he was right, Riku thought, having to work again to keep the burning tears inside of him, feeling the small shakes of both of the younger kids who attached themselves to him. Sora’s always right.

Riku says that his heart is too strong.

Unnoticed by all but Aqua, Terra flinched slightly, looking down at his hands. He hadn’t ever… felt like he was stronger than darkness, he had always felt like he was just on the edge, but the way that Master Xehanort and the others from all across the worlds spoke to him… It made him believe that maybe, just maybe, he had the slightest chance of controlling the darkness within him. Of making it so he wasn’t as dangerous, as unworthy as Master Eraqus thought he was.

But it hadn’t worked. Nothing had ever changed his nature.

His eyes moved back to the boy who he Bequeathed to. It was good though, that Riku had been able to escape the darkness that tried to swallow him.

If only I could do the same.

Riku says he’s picked up a few more tricks as well and Sora’s shadow lifts up, startling the boy.

All of them noticed, but none of them vocalized the similarities between the shadow and the Heartless.

Riku says he doesn’t have time to play with him however, and the floor beneath Sora opens up and he falls.

At both Kairi’s and Naminé’s gasps, Sora shot the room at large a smile, albeit shaky.

“I’m fine,” he said. “I was fine then. Riku didn’t hurt me.” The last part of the sentence seemed aimed at the aforementioned boy, who looked away.

Riku says they should get under way and warns about keeping Sora away from Kairi.

Axel made a face, something that was echoed by Roxas. From his experience, he doubted that Hook would feel very good about being ordered around by a fifteen-year-old. Not after seeing his constant fight with Peter Pan.

As Riku disappears, Hook grumbles about having to take orders from a brat.

Sora’s nose wrinkled up and he gave the onscreen captain a look. Riku was not a brat, he was the best friend in the whole world.

Roxas had to contain a snicker. Brat fitted Riku well. Maybe he was still salty about the whole “Data Twilight Town” thing. Sue him.

When Smee asks what they should do, Hook says nothing and that the Heartless can keep an eye on all of them.

Kairi let a small smile flit across her face. “And when has that fact ever stopped Sora?” She asked, trying to bring a little bit of levity back to the room. Sora shot her a smile that had her blushing slightly, but Riku didn’t move so she unfortunately counted it as a loss.

Smee says that “you-know-who” is down there but Hook cuts him off.

“Who?” Xion asked after a second, giving Sora a look. He hummed.

“I think she was talking about Peter Pan,” he replied, thinking back. “He was the only one down there. Besides Tinkerbell at least.”

The three older Keyblade Wielders blinked in surprise, recognizing the name.

“Did you say Peter Pan?” Ven asked, a spark of excitement burning in him, and Sora looked to him.

“Yeah, did you meet him?” The three Keyblade Wielders nodded. “Huh, cool.”

“You three really went a lot of places that Sora went, didn’t you?” Kairi asked, tipping her head and thinking back to the Keyblade Wielders’ comments.

“I suppose we did,” Terra responded, the memories, both good and bad, flashing in front of his eyes. Perhaps more than they would know.

Hook thinks he hears something, but Smee doesn’t hear it. Hook thinks of his nerves.

Terra and Aqua both had a good idea of who Hook was talking about.

“It just occurred to me,” Aqua muttered softly. “Hook hasn’t aged. Not like Hercules did.”

“Nobody ages in Neverland,” Sora explained. “They’re stuck at the same ages forever. Adults stay adults, kids stay kids.” Aqua hummed in consideration, linking her fingers together and thinking.

Kind of like me, Ven thought, leaning slightly on Terra’s side. My sleep. My own personal Neverland.

Sora falls into the room, landing on both Donald and Goofy.

Roxas, Vanitas, Axel, and Kairi all snickered slightly.

“You truly do have a habit of falling on each other, don’t you?” Mickey asked, shooting the young boy a smile.

Said boy huffed, tempted to cross his arms but not wanting to let go of Riku. “It’s not like we plan it.”

“You sure about that?” Kairi asked, swallowing giggles, and Sora reached over and flicked her arm, retreating back instantly and wrapping around Riku’s side again.

Sora stands, greeting Donald and Goofy, and wonders about where they are.

“Did you think you had been transported somewhere else?” Vanitas asked in his familiar drawl, getting a stuck-out tongue in response. Vanitas rolled his eyes, wondering why part of him, a small part of him, got the urge to do it back. Maybe it was Venty-Wenty affecting his thoughts again. Though… that hadn’t happened for a while at this point.

Aqua looked at him out of the corner of her eye. Why was part of her relieved that Vanitas began to snark again? Why would she worry about darkness incarnate?

Sora jumps in place and tells Donald and Goofy that he saw Kairi and Goofy asks if he’s sure. When Sora says he is, Goofy says they should go talk to her.

Kairi giggled, the sound slightly self-deprecating. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible,” she said to the screen lightly. “But perhaps, I can instead give Sora some vague visions.”

“Hey, those vague visions were helpful sometimes,” Sora replied, smiling gently at her and realizing that she needed a response. “You really were helpful.” Kairi responded with her own smile.

Sora notices a window and goes to it, looking out. A noise sounds from behind them and Peter Pan appears from behind some crates, asking if they’re looking for a way out.

Aqua nodded to herself. It was true then; Peter hadn’t aged at all. Strange.

She then snickered to herself. Not that strange. She was still eighteen, even though by all accounts she should be twenty-eight. Terra was still eighteen and Ven was still sixteen.

Goofy asks who he is, and Peter Pan says that he’s the answer to their prayers.

Roxas snorted. Yep, that was definitely Peter Pan.

Aqua was glad to know he hadn’t changed in the past eleven years.

Sora says that Peter Pan is stuck there too but he says that he’s just waiting for someone.

Everyone who had interacted with Peter in the past had an idea about who he was talking about.

A ball of light appears and flies around the room before stopping near Peter. He asks Tinkerbell what took her so long and the light transforms into a fairy.

“Oh,” Kairi said softly, blinking at the fairy. Yet another magical creature that Sora had come across in his travels.

Roxas wrinkled his nose. That fairy had not been nice.

Peter asks if she found Wendy. Tinkerbell makes some sounds and Peter asks that there was another girl there.

“Does she… talk through the bells?” Naminé asked quietly, tipping her head and watching the screen. This hadn’t been one of the memories she had seen while in Castle Oblivion.

“Uh-huh,” Sora responded. “At least, I think.”

Sora says that must be Kairi and asks Tink where they are.

“Did you think she was going to answer you?” Vanitas asked, raising an eyebrow, and resting his chin on his hand.

“No, but I was just asking in general,” Sora replied. “Plus, it was clear that Peter understood her at least.”

Peter scolds Tink for thinking that he would leave Wendy behind, and Donald realizes that Tink must be jealous. Tink flies over to him and kicks him in the beak.

Despite the still underlaying tension that drifted through the room, none of them could help the laughs or giggles that escaped them as they witnessed Tink kick Donald. Not that the duck’s reaction helped slow the cascade of giggles at all.

Kairi pressed a hand to her mouth as she laughed, a movement copied by Naminé unconsciously. Both Roxas and Ven laughed outright, joined by Xion and Sora. Aqua let a few giggles out, feeling a rare spark of amusement shoot through her and even Vanitas couldn’t contain a snicker. Mickey laughed slightly at the misfortune of his friend, but his gaze remained mostly on Riku, who hadn’t joined in on the laughter.

Tink flies out, with Peter calling after her.

“She could at least help,” Kairi huffed. “Even if she is upset.”

“I think that’s just how Tink is,” Sora said.

Peter and Sora introduce themselves and Peter says they’re in this together, but only until they find Wendy.

Aqua realized again, this time with a little less cheer, that Peter Pan had definitely not changed at all.

The door unlocks, with Sora saying that Tink must have opened it after all.

“See,” Sora said to Kairi. “She helped in the end, even if she was angry.” Kairi tipped her head in understanding.

The four of them head out, facing down several Heartless as they go.

Riku looked away with another guilty expression, remembering how he controlled those Heartless to go after Sora. It wasn’t… He didn’t want to hurt Sora, he just needed Sora to stay out of the way while he was helping Kairi. But…

Sora’s shadow rises up, forcing Sora to fight it.

Sora felt Riku’s flinch and leaned deeper onto him. It’s fine now, it’s fine.

After Sora and the others destroy the Heartless and shadows, they move deeper into the ship, Peter flying next to them.

“He can fly?” Kairi wondered, reminding several of them that she and only a couple of others hadn’t actually ever gone to Neverland.

“Through Pixie Dust,” Axel said, waving a hand through the air. “And some other words. I don’t know, can’t remember.”

Goofy asks Peter how he can fly, and Peter says anyone can and asks if they want to try.

Kairi needed to start writing down all the places she wanted to go. She would start to forget if the list in her head got any longer.

Peter whistles and Tink returns, covering the three of them in Pixie Dust. Donald attempts to fly but falls to the ground.

Again, there were small laughs echoed around the room.

“I suppose he didn’t have belief or whatever Peter said last time,” Roxas said, swallowing snickers in order to get his voice out and Sora perked up.

“You’ve been there?” He asked and Roxas nodded.

“Axel and I, during a mission for… Organization 13.” His voice hitched and paused before speaking the name of the Organization. He had thought about it several times, but he hadn’t actually said the name since they did a dump of their life stories for Aqua. It felt… weird, saying it out loud now that he knew everything.

“I was there a couple of weeks ago, or years now,” Aqua said, eyebrows furrowing as she corrected herself. While her time in the Realm of Darkness had felt endless, it hadn’t actually occurred to her that eleven years could be passing outside of her. Not until Mickey showed up. “Ven was as well.”

“As was I,” Terra contributed, making a quick face as he remembered what he had done while there. His traitorous tongue stilled, however, before he could explain why he was there, and he silently cursed himself for being too scared to share with Aqua how far he had fallen during their last weeks together. Not that she was entirely unaware.

Donald says they can’t fly, and Tinkerbell laughs at him. The scene changes to Hook and Riku.

Riku stiffened, breath stuttering in his chest, and Sora leaned deeper into his side, tracing a pattern onto the back of the hand he was holding. Kairi leaned in as well.

Hook asks that Wendy isn’t one of the chosen ones and Riku confirms it, telling him to leave her behind when they leave Neverland.

Riku looked down as he heard his past-self’s voice, the apathy and scorn in it. All he cared about was Sora and Kairi and he, at that point, didn’t care about what he had to do to achieve his goal. The darkness had curled around him fully at that point and he had reveled in it.

Hook asks why those seven specifically and asks what Maleficent is planning.

Kairi hummed slightly as she thought. It had occurred to her as well, she would admit. Why her? Why Cinderella? Why Jasmine? She knew they had no darkness in their hearts, true, but why? Was it chance? Or fate?

Riku says he doesn’t know and says that as long as it means getting Kairi’s heart back, he couldn’t care less.

“Thanks again,” Kairi whispered to the boy next to her, knowing that he would need it. “I doubt I would have gotten back if not for you.”

“Sora was the one to release your heart,” Riku told her, self-loathing and anger in his tone. Kairi knocked her head gently against his shoulder.

“Maybe,” she responded. “But you were the one to find my body. I needed both of those things, didn’t I?”

Riku didn’t have an answer.

Hook says he’s wasting his time and that the Heartless have consumed Kairi’s heart.

As callous as this sounds, Axel thought, tipping his head to the side slightly. I wonder if her heart could actually be consumed by the Heartless. She has no darkness, nothing to draw the Heartless towards her and keep their attention. Besides her Keyblade. I wonder if she could walk through a horde of Heartless and be unscathed. Unless, of course, her pure light only drew them closer.

Riku says they haven’t and the two of them get interrupted by Smee, who says that Peter Pan and the others have escaped. Hook says blast that Peter Pan and has Smee bring the hostage.

“Wendy doesn’t get hurt, right?” Naminé asked softly, watching the screen. None of the darkness held by Riku was anything new to her. Her Riku, she shouldn’t call him hers, she had hurt him enough, held much of the same darkness, except it was directed into protecting her instead of finding Sora. It was strange, honestly. Larxene and Marluxia had both held darkness, had been overflowing with it in place of their missing memories, but the darkness that Riku held, that… her Riku had held, didn’t scare her. Not in the slightest.

“She doesn’t,” Sora reassured.

Sora and the others head through the underdeck, destroying Heartless as they go. Goofy asks how they get back above deck and they enter another room, with Tink flying close to the grate.

As much as he hated himself for doing it, knowing that it’ll just get worse later, Riku relaxed slightly after his past-self disappeared from the screen, glad for just that moment, he wouldn’t have to watch his younger, idiotic self any longer.

“Riku,” Sora said and Riku looked to the younger boy. “Still doing okay?”

Riku hated how much that made him feel better. Sora just had a talent like that.

“Yes Sora,” he replied, trying to push confidence into his voice. “I’m okay.” Sora didn’t look like he believed him.

Watching them both, Aqua didn’t believe them either.

Peter asks what Tink’s looking at and a girl’s voice sounds through the grate. Peter recognizes her as Wendy and the girl is shown on the other side of the grate.

Naminé watched the girl on screen. Blue dress, black shoes. Sitting and waiting for someone to rescue her.

White dress, blue shoes. Sitting and waiting for someone to rescue her.

Wendy tells Peter to hurry and that the pirates are coming. Peter says he’ll be right there.

Aqua couldn’t help but sit back and think, scrutinizing the girl on screen. How old was she? Fourteen?

Was it in every world that children got pulled into battles and fights?

Sora asks Wendy if another girl is with her and Wendy says yes, looking up to see Kairi’s body. When Sora calls to her, Kairi’s hand twitches, falling closer to the grate.

Kairi smiled slightly at the movement of her younger self and sent Sora a smile from across Riku’s lap. Sora responded with his own.

Riku tried not to flinch.

Sora sees the twitch and is happy, but Wendy screams and they both disappear from the grate. Peter says they have to get up there.

Both Aqua and Terra stiffened slightly at Wendy’s scream, their instincts and training flooding them with the urge to do something and help, something that they both had been feeling the whole time they watched.

We could have helped, we could have done something, Terra thought bitterly. If only I hadn’t ruined everything.

Sora and the others manage to scramble up to the next level, into a cabin. Sora turns the corner and sees Riku cradling Kairi’s body.

“I’m sorry,” Riku whispered out as, onscreen, he and Sora faced down. Again. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…” Sora blinked in concern before turning to better face Riku and threw his arms around the older boy, hugging him close.

“It’s okay, Riku,” Sora told him. “You were trying to save Kairi. I… wasn’t.”

“Yes, you were,” Kairi said gently, shifting so she could better see the both of them. “You both were and while it didn’t work out in the beginning, it worked in the end. I’m here now, aren’t I?” She reached out to place a hand on Sora’s shoulder, the other curling around Riku’s hand. “You both were trying to help. And that’s the most important thing.”

“I doubt that,” Riku scoffed, looking to the side, but Kairi was unmoved and Sora simply hugged him tighter, pressing his face into Riku’s shoulder and trying to make sure the tears didn’t slip out of his eyes. He couldn’t cry now; he was trying to help Riku. He didn’t… He couldn’t…

This ship runs on happy faces.

Aqua looked to the side as the three of them embraced, swallowing harshly. They had to go through all of this and where was she? In the Realm of Darkness after she had sacrificed herself for nothing. Master Xehanort was still out there, still hurting people like he had Terra no doubt. Why couldn’t she have just let him fall? Then she would be out there to save the worlds, not leaving Mickey alone, and maybe she could have found Terra eventually.

But even as she thought it, she knew it never could have happened. There was no world in which she let Terra fall to that darkness, still trapped by Xehanort. No world in which she didn’t do it all to save him, to save Ven. She was the oldest, she was the Master. She had to save them all.

And yet she saved no one.

Xion leaned on Axel’s side as she watched the three teenagers across from her hug. She wanted that closeness, that they gave easily and without hesitation. Was it because they had hearts? If she gained a heart, if Roxas and Axel gained hearts, would they be able to be like that? Three friends, who despite everything that had happened, still managed to stay together?

Vanitas averted his eyes, trying to stop the pulsing in his chest again that spoke of pain and longing and-

Weakness, he heard the Master’s voice in his head. He tried to hold onto it. That was weakness, he had gotten that beaten into him enough to remember it. It was nothing more than weakness.

So why did he want it?

Mickey let a soft smile overtake him as he gazed at Riku. It was good, this was good. Mickey himself could only do so much to help Riku cope with what happened. He knew, and he was sure that Riku knew as well, that Riku would only be fully healed when Sora and Kairi were there, to help him. To forgive him, even if they thought he never needed their forgiveness.

Sora asks Riku what happened to him and tells him that if he uses the Heartless to get Kairi’s heart back, if he has to hurt someone else, it’s only going to make Kairi sad.

You know me so well Sora, Kairi thought, not letting go of Riku’s hand, listening carefully to the older boy’s breaths. She was on her guard for panic attacks, and she was sure that Sora was as well.

Riku’s breath choked as he reheard the words that Sora had spoken to him, but Sora didn’t do anything to suggest that he had heard, instead simply curling tighter around Riku.

Riku doesn’t say anything and instead summons another shadow of Sora, which knocks Sora back. Riku disappears with Kairi into a black portal.

Again, the three former Organization members couldn’t help but shiver slightly at Riku blatantly using some version of the Dark Corridor without a coat. That was dangerous.

“I’m sorry,” Riku whispered out again and his two friends didn’t say anything, simply held him tighter.

Sora fights the shadow, destroying it, before looking to where Riku had just been. Donald finds the door and Sora shakes himself, following after the other three.

I should have done something more, Sora thought quietly, leaning close enough to Riku that he could hear his breathing. He could hear the small, contained, hiccupping sobs that Riku was doing a scarily fantastic job at hiding. Should have saved Riku, should have saved Kairi. Then Riku wouldn’t be dealing with… this.

They enter another room, where Peter finds an unconscious Wendy. He says this is far as he goes and leaves with Wendy, flying out a porthole.

“Rude,” Kairi murmured, slightly to herself, and felt a little smile creep up her lips when she heard the aborted laugh that managed to half pull its way free of Riku’s throat.

Goofy asks if that’s it and Donald wonders if they should head back to the Gummiship. Sora says they should and the three of them hear a commotion from above deck.

“Just once, will you ever hear a commotion and not head to it?” Roxas asked drily, raising an eyebrow at the boy. Sora wrinkled his nose.

“But what if people are in trouble?”

Roxas threw his hands up in the air. “You’re injured, both physically and emotionally. And you want to go back in the fight?” Kingdom Hearts knows he didn’t feel like doing any missions during the weeks that Xion was gone or after her’s and Axel’s fight.

“People could be in trouble,” Sora repeated stubbornly, and Roxas huffed, crossing his arms and leaning on Axel. He would never understand Somebodies.

Aqua… Aqua just wanted to give these kids a hug. Could she do that? Was that allowed?

On deck, Hook is upset that Riku simply ran off without saying goodbye and Sora asks him where Riku went. Hook replies that he went to Hollow Bastion, where Maleficent resides.

To the ruins of Radiant Garden, Axel thought. The ruins of a once great world, brought down by its leader.

Hook says Sora won’t be going there and reveals Tinkerbell, trapped in a lantern.

“How did she get caught, she was with Peter?” Terra asked, worried for the little fairy.

“I think she flew off in jealousy,” Sora replied, thinking back to the interactions between Peter and Wendy. “And got caught.”

I know that well, Riku thought.

Hook says to hand over the Keyblade, and he’ll spare their lives.

“Umm,” Ven blinked, thinking. “That’s not possible, is it?” All the other Keyblade Wielders shook their heads. Their Keyblades always came back to them. And while it was a starsend in battle, in situations like this, there was little they could do.

Hook asks if it will be the Keyblade or the plank, only to get distracted by a crocodile in the water, making a ticking sound. He flees.

“Is he really that scared of the crocodile?” Vanitas wondered, sarcasm and something else present in his voice.

“I think it ate his hand,” Sora replied with a shrug. “Anyone would dislike something who did that.”

The Heartless creep closer, causing Sora to stumble backwards up the plank.

“Sora!” Kairi exclaimed. “Keyblade remember? You have it!” But her words were born of concern and her hand tightened around his wrist, where it had moved from his shoulder.

“Sorry,” he told her. She groaned.

Sora hears Peter’s voice in the back of his head and jumps off the plank.

Kairi couldn’t help the strangled noise of panic that came out of her throat, hearing that she was not the only one to do so. Her hand tightened to something that had to be a bruising grip and she whipped her head back to stare at Sora.

“I… had it under control?” The boy tried, but he could feel that Riku had gone stiff as well. Aqua hands twitched, as if she had just managed to stop herself from reaching out and Terra’s eyes were wide. Roxas’s breath picked up for the slightest second.

But Sora flies away from the crocodile’s jaws and Peter Pan swoops in, snatching the lantern that contains Tinkerbell away from Smee.

“What happened to ‘you’re on your own’?” Roxas asked, getting his breathing back under control, and Sora shrugged, doing his best not to wince from Kairi’s grip.

Peter says that they stayed around to save Tink and that he had to repay the favor, letting Tink out. The four of them then fought the Heartless as Smee ran away.

Kairi slowly relaxed again, letting go of Sora’s wrist now that his onscreen self was back on the boat, feet on the ground and Keyblade in hand. Sora smiled gently at her.

“Still here, remember?” He told her, echoing her words from earlier. “Still here.” Riku’s arm, from where it was wrapped around Sora, tightened slightly.

Peter stops Sora from running into Hook’s cabin once they’ve defeated all the Heartless and instead knocks. When Hook answers, Peter disguises his voice as Smee and tells Hook that they all walked the plank.

While Naminé and Xion held giggles in behind hands, Axel couldn’t help but think about his and Roxas’s mission to Neverland. Where, in the end, Hook sacrificed his treasure to save Peter from the Heartless. The two of them had a strange dynamic, both seemingly okay with the status quo of hero and villain, enemies till the end of time. Axel wondered why. While he had once wanted everything to stay the same, first his sister, and then Roxas and Xion came into his life and threw the status quo out the window. And in the end, he found himself glad for it. How could someone be happy doing the same thing every single day, even when given a chance to get out of it?

Hook runs out and Peter jabs him with his dagger, telling Hook it’s his turn to walk the plank. The four of them fight Hook until he falls off the edge of the ship, falling near the crocodile and swimming away from it.

“He’s fine, by the way,” Axel said offhandedly, thinking still. “Roxas and I ran into him later on.” Sora shot him a smile. While he hadn’t been completely worried about it, it was still nice to know. Not another person he killed.

Sora looks out at Neverland. Goofy says that Kairi couldn’t wake up so maybe she really lost her, but Donald cuts him off.

That was… sweet of him, Riku thought, slightly dizzily as he finally managed to get his breathing and sobs under control. The first right thing he did.

Sora says that he really flew and wonders if Kairi would believe him if he told her he had flown.

“At this point, I’d believe anything,” Kairi said, smiling at Sora. It was nice that he was thinking about her. She was always thinking about him.

Riku flinched, minutely enough that it wasn’t seen, except by Mickey. Of course, Sora was only thinking about Kairi, at this point, he was firmly in the darkness. He was Sora’s enemy, of course Sora wasn’t thinking about him.

Peter says he can bring her to Neverland, and she could try for herself.

“I plan to,” Kairi commented, going over her list in her head. She had a lot of places she wished to go.

Sora says he can do anything if he believes and says he’ll find Kairi and tell her everything that had happened.

Kairi felt the smallest flash of disappointment. Unfortunately, that hadn’t ever happened. Not then, not now. She looked down for a second. All of this was new to her, she hadn’t been a part of any of it. That’s going to change, it has to.

Peter says they should head to the Clocktower and that Tink says something’s there.

“It’s the Keyhole,” Vanitas murmured, mostly to himself. It had to be. All the other Keyholes had been in wacky places.

“Right again!” Sora chirped at his mirror, which he still wasn’t thinking about, thank you. “You’re good at this guessing game thing, aren’t you?” Vanitas didn’t know how to answer that. He wasn’t… good at anything.

The four of them fly off and arrive at the clock tower, where Wendy is sitting on the edge.

All three Organization members felt pangs in the chest as they saw the clock tower. It was so similar but so different from theirs. From Twilight Town and its brief moments of happiness and ice cream, where they were able to pretend like they were still normal. Like everything was okay.

Peter calls to her and they all land on the edge as Wendy stands. She asks if they’re Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and explains that Peter told her about them. She asks about Kairi.

“I’m here,” Kairi whispered, leaning onto Riku’s side, seeing Sora doing the same thing. “I’m here. We’re here.”

When Sora shakes his head sadly, Wendy tells him not to give up.

And I didn’t, Sora thought, leaning into Riku’s side. For either of them.

Wendy asks if he thinks it’s a nice view and says from here, everyone in town can tell the time. Sora flies up again, looking at the clock, and realizing that one of the faces is broken.

So, Vanitas was correct. Again.

Aqua pushed away the instinctive urge to scoff and bare teeth at the darkness bearer. Why? Why was she doing that?

Donald says maybe they can fix it and moves to push the hand of the clock, accompanied by Sora and Goofy. When the hand reaches 12, the face of the clock begins to glow and Sora locks the Keyhole that appeared on it.

“Another Navigation Gummi?” Mickey asked, seeing the small stone that tumbled out of it. Sora nodded. The Navigation Gummi that had led to Hollow Bastion. He supposed that was what they were seeing next. It made sense but… He was worried.

Wendy says it’s time and she walks down the clock’s side, Peter flying next to her. She asks if he really has to go back to Neverland and Peter says he can always visit, as long as she doesn’t forget it.

Sora smiled slightly. That sounded kind of like Pooh’s world, in a way.

Sora flies closer and Wendy says that it’s okay and that Peter will always be with her and she tells Sora not to forget Kairi. That she’ll remain in his heart.

“That’s more literal that you thought, huh?” Kairi muttered. Someday, someday, she’ll be able to laugh about the time she spent in the heart of the boy she has a crush on. But this day is not that day and she huffed slightly again, wishing that she could have done more.

Sora says she’s right and asks Donald and Goofy if it’s time to go. They wish Peter Pan goodbye and fly off.

“And you were heading back to the Gummiship, right?” Kairi checked and Sora nodded. “Good. How’d you find it?”

“When we returned to Neverland, Jiminy was waiting for us at the Pirate Ship. He led us to the ship.”

“I keep forgetting about him,” Axel said, with a half laugh. “He’s so small.”

“Where’d you go after this?” Xion asked, clearly simply curious.

But both Riku and Sora froze and Kairi’s face paled as she realized what was going to come.

“No where good huh?” Terra asked.

“We went to Hollow Bastion,” Sora said, hands intertwining with Riku’s and not letting go. “To the home of Maleficent. And Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.”

Chapter Text

In the past, young Sora and Riku are in the cave again.

Several of the watchers blinked in surprise. Why would they be seeing this again?

Riku couldn’t help the small, selfish part of him that was glad that they weren’t seeing Hollow Bastion quite yet. And everything he had done there.

Riku tells Sora that when they’re older, they’ll get off the island and go on real adventures.

Aqua tipped her head to the side. This was the same memory that they had seen when Sora got knocked out in Monstro. It clearly must mean a lot to Sora. Or both of them, if Riku was the one remembering this time.

Sora says that there’s a lot of fun things to do on the island and asks Riku if he’s seen the new girl in the Mayor’s house yet.

“Riku, is this you?” Sora questioned softly, trying to think back. Unless they had moved back in time for whatever reason, he only dreamed about this after being swallowed by Monstro.

“I think so,” Riku replied, voice barely over a whisper. He didn’t… His voice wasn’t working anymore.

Sora says she arrived the day of the meteor shower as he leaves.

Naminé couldn’t help but blink in surprise at the mention of the meteor shower. She was under the impression that Sora couldn’t remember clearly, due to its nature as a True Memory. She had to dig so deep to be able to access it in both of their minds when manipulating them. Another thing you’ve done wrong. But perhaps, it was because the memory must have just happened. Narrowing her eyes at the screen, she could just see the links of the chain hidden under young Sora’s shirt. The necklace Riku had given to him. And Kairi had just arrived, according to them. She arrived during the meteor shower, so this probably was just a few days after that.

Young Riku pauses, turning back in interest. The door has changed to show a Keyhole.

“Huh?” Sora squawked in surprise, sitting up slightly, the thought of what was coming next slipping from his mind for a second. Because… that was the Keyhole! He hadn’t ever seen it; it hadn’t been there the night of the storm. How had Riku seen it?

Aqua narrowed her eyes, pursing her lips. The fact that Riku could see it, could see the Keyhole… probably meant that he had been Bequeathed to already at this point. Usually, people not chosen by the Keyblade couldn’t see them unless they had already been revealed through magical means. But Riku was what, five? Who would have Bequeathed to him? And why?

“You could see it Riku?” Kairi asked, turning to look at the older boy, who nodded. How else would he have known to open it? But if they were acting this way…

“You can’t?” He questioned, getting one headshake back. Kairi didn’t make any movements. “Huh.”

“It means you’ve already been Bequeathed to,” Mickey explained, having come to the same conclusion as Aqua. “Only Keybearers can see the Keyholes before they’re revealed. It’s how Sora’s been finding them. He’s just had the misfortune of finding them in places where they’re deliberately hidden. If they were just out in the open, Sora should be able to see them.”

“Aw man, knowing that would have saved me so much time,” Sora grumbled slightly, but was distracted. “Wait, so Riku’s already been Bequeathed at this point?”

“That’s the only explanation I can think of,” Aqua replied. Ven hummed in contemplation while Terra looked to the side, trying to not let anything show on his face. He’ll tell Aqua he Bequeathed to Riku, he will. Eventually.

Unknown to him, a similar thought process was going through Riku’s mind. It seemed more and more possible that what he had imagined, someone looking like Terra offering him a weapon, saying a ritual, wasn’t imagined at all. That it had, indeed, actually happened. Because, in the memory, it happened a couple of months before this. Right before they met someone who looked like Aqua. The coincidences were… too much.

“Does this mean that Riku’s been a Keyblade Wielder for a decade?” Xion questioned, tipping her head to the side. Riku blinked at that. He couldn’t have been, right? He knew what he said to Sora, soon, but that was just what Maleficent said and she had been lying. He had thought, that after he had stolen the Keyblade from Sora it had given him the ability to use it. Maleficent must have been lying at the time. He wasn’t… He couldn’t have been… All this time?

“Sora gave me my Keyblade I thought?” He asked before Aqua could answer, eyes flicking to the older Keyblade Wielders. “When I stole it from him. In Traverse Town.”

“No, you couldn’t have taken it if you weren’t already a Keyblade Wielder,” Terra responded instead, working to keep his voice even. I thought Aqua already explained this, but there was a good chance… Riku didn’t actually hear it. Due to… everything that was happening onscreen.

“So, someone Bequeathed to Riku when he was a young child,” Roxas muttered. “Then didn’t they also Bequeath to Sora?”

“No, because Sora couldn’t see the Keyhole,” Mickey replied.

“Then when did Sora get a Keyblade?” Kairi asked. The room fell into silence as several of them thought it over.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow, watching the group at large. Huh, it was strange that Master Aqua didn’t have an answer. But he didn’t have one either. Though he didn’t know that much about Keyblades. Just use them to hit stuff and stop the Master from hitting him. Master Xehanort sure wasn’t stopping to give him a history lesson at any time.

“Maybe it will get revealed in this?” Naminé said quietly. She didn’t know either. There hadn’t been anything in Sora’s memories about ever getting Bequeathed to, at least not in any of the memories she could access. Instead, there was only the memory of the storm, of the light in the darkness and getting the Keyblade from that. Had that… been someone giving him a Keyblade? Like Kairi got her Keyblade after merging with her. But that hadn’t been someone giving her the Keyblade either. Naminé fought the urge to rub her temples. This was so confusing.

Unknown to all of them, Kairi was having a slight crisis in the back. She could see the Keyhole her whole life too. She hadn’t ever asked about it, just seeing it as something normal. Did that mean…? Had that meant…? She hadn’t put any stock into how she got her Keyblade, given that it happened about three hours ago at this point, and they were actively fighting someone at the time but… How the hell did she get it? And if she had indeed had it for over a decade at this point as well, who Bequeathed her?

Riku is drawn to the Keyhole, reaching one hand out, only to be interrupted by Sora’s voice.

Riku stiffened as he saw his younger self reach for the door. That door… which had only ever done the wrong thing. He silently thanked the younger Sora for distracting him.

The younger Riku turns and leaves the cave, the Keyhole vanishing behind him, and young Riku turns into present Riku, who is kneeling on the ground, darkness wrapping around him and panting.

The levity in the air vanished in a second, all of them pulled back into the time they were watching and everything that was happening. Riku bit his tongue, getting the urge to move away from Sora and Sora froze, staring at the screen in shock.

“Riku, are you okay?” He asked, worry for the past version of his friend building up in him. He had seen Riku, presumably soon after this and Riku looked okay, but…

“Yes Sora, I’m fine,” he responded after a second, doing his best to stop his hands from shaking. “Darkness just… hurts.”

Don’t I know it, Vanitas thought, doing his best not to remember the tearing, ripping pain that went through him whenever Xehanort did anything to him.

Maleficent tells Riku that it was reckless to bring Kairi there without using a vessel.

“Is it dangerous for me to have been in Hollow Bastion?” Kairi asked. As she was aware, she was supposed to be there, as a Princess of Heart.

“She meant traveling through the corridors,” Riku answered, mostly on instinct. All that was going through his head was what came after this.

The three former Organization members made noises of agreement. One of the first things that had been hammered into first Roxas’s, then Xion’s, head was the fact that they didn’t use Corridors of Darkness unless wearing their coat.

Maleficent reminds him that relying too much on the dark powers could cost him his heart.

And it did, Riku thought. It did.

A loud roar sounded through the castle, causing Riku to stand and look around.

Sora perked up when he recognized the Beast. He must have just arrived in Hollow Bastion looking for Belle. That meant…

He wilted slightly, leaning into Riku’s side and reaching for the older boy’s hand, holding it gently. He knew what came next.

Maleficent describes the roar of a castaway, somehow managing to get to Hollow Bastion despite his world collapsing, searching for his princess through sheer force of will.

Riku sucked in a breath, trying not to choke or allow his breath to pick up again. It was fine, this was over, Maleficent was dead, Sora was back, he was fine.

The darkness was always there, even though he now had a hold on it. He was always part of the darkness that he fell to out of selfishness and rejection.

Maleficent tells Riku that the beast is no match for Riku with his power, which Riku questions. Maleficent tells him that he has untapped potential which she can awaken and a green glow surrounds him.

Sora made a face, not liking seeing Riku still so coated in darkness and hurt. Aqua and Terra couldn’t help the instinctive shiver that went through them at the dark power and Vanitas hummed quietly, tipping his head to the side. It seemed things were going to get interesting, if the other teenagers’ reactions were anything to go by.

In the Gummiship, the four of them sit in the ship, looking at another piece of Ansem’s report.

While several of them blinked at the sudden shift, both Sora and Riku relaxed slightly, comforted in the knowledge that they weren’t at Hollow Bastion quite yet.

“More of his report?” Ven asked, trying not to remember what they found out last time. This Ansem the Wise certainly didn’t sound like someone a part of the light.

“Great,” Roxas snarked and Axel took a deep breath. He wasn’t… He wasn’t going to fall back into flashbacks this time.

Mickey felt a stab of sorrow go through him.

“When I tracked the movements of the Heartless, I suddenly happened upon a strange door in the deepest recesses beneath the castle. It had a large Keyhole, but seemed to be unlocked. So I opened the door.”

“Wait, how can DiZ see the Keyhole?” Roxas asked, lip curling up as he said the name of the man who had tormented him. “He’s not a Keyblade Wielder. Right?”

“He isn’t,” Mickey confirmed and furrowed his eyebrows, trying to think. How could Ansem see the Keyhole?

“That might have been us,” Aqua volunteered, trying to ignore the memories that were creeping up on her as she spoke. “All three of us were in Radiant Garden, some more than once.” Terra’s hands curled into fists. “Perhaps our presence triggered it somehow?”

“Is that possible?” Sora asked and Aqua grimaced.

“It seems that there is many a thing that is possible that we don’t know,” she responded, worrying her lip with her teeth. “Perhaps this is one of those.”

“On the other hand, who opens a mysterious door that they were led to by the Heartless?” Vanitas drawled, rolling his eyes. Riku flinched, the door in the Secret Place flashing in front of his eyes, and Sora squeezed his hand, giving Vanitas a look.

“I think we established that DiZ is a terrible person who doesn’t care about the consequences of his actions,” Roxas sniped back, crossing his arms and leaning deeper into Axel’s side, if to remind himself that Axel was actually there. The older man smiled down at him.

Axel rapped his fingers against his knee. He guessed he was right at this point. This had to be Xehanort's writing. Because the man had been a Keyblade Wielder, which he should really ask about soon, perhaps the others knew about him, and Ansem certainly was not.

“And behind it… was an enormously powerful core of energy. It may be the ultimate goal of the Heartless. But what could that energy be?”

“The Heart of the world,” Mickey murmured. “The very being of the World.”

“The Heartless feed on the hearts of living beings and they yearn for that energy core. So what is beyond the door must be a heart as well… the heart of the world itself.”

“And that’s when you close the door and never open it again,” Xion murmured, having seen what happened when Riku opened his. But she had a feeling that Ansem wasn’t going to do that.

“But what do the Heartless mean to do with the heart of the world?”

Roxas groaned slightly, leaning his head back to land it with a thunk on Axel’s arm. “Maybe devour it like they’ve devoured every other heart they’ve ever come across?” He asked, rolling his eyes so hard it hurt. “You just said that they were seeking it out for a reason. Why do you think they’re coming after it?”

Naminé wasn’t the only one trying to stifle giggles at Roxas’s clear disdain for the man. Not that he didn’t have a right to do so, but it was still funny to witness.

“That night, I observed a great meteor shower in the sky.”

Sora, Riku, and Kairi all perked up. Ever since their parents informed them when they were ten that Kairi had actually fallen from the sky instead of washing up on the beach like they had said originally, the idea of meteor showers always fascinated them. One of them had been magical enough to bring Kairi to them. Perhaps they were all that magical.

“I am studying the material from the meteorites that fell. What a find! The stuff is foreign to our world- elastic to the touch, and when two pieces are brought together, they bond easily.”

“Oh, Gummis,” Mickey said, recognizing the description of the material.

“I wonder if any Gummi ever fell on our island?” Kairi wondered.

“Don’t you think we would have found it?” Sora asked, thinking back to their many adventures as kids. “We’ve been everywhere.”

Donald realizes he’s talking about Gummi.

“How much of that Gummi do you have?” Aqua wondered, thinking back to the tiny pieces they saw Donald and Goofy pick up in the Jungle.

“A lot,” Mickey revealed. “Our world seems to be a hotspot for falling Gummi.”

“None of the records make any mention of such a substance. Was this introduced to this world when I opened the door?”

“Was it?” Terra asked Mickey, the mouse clearly being their resident expert on Gummi.

“I don’t think so,” Mickey admitted. “It seems pretty random. From what I can tell, Gummis just come in meteor showers. I think it was just coincidence that the meteor shower appeared the night Ansem opened the door.” He wasn't the expert on Gummi after all, maybe he should ask Chip and Dale or Yen Sid once they were out of there.

Sora frowned. He felt like he had heard about the origin of Gummi at some point before...

“Our world is so small, and the space surrounding it so vast- I wonder what other strange materials are drifting out there. Could there be uncharted worlds in the sky above?”

Several of them had to contain noises of humor or confusion. To them, the travelers of the stars, it seemed rather strange to them for the knowledge of the other worlds to be barred from one person or another. Even Sora, Riku, and Kairi had a basic inkling that there must have been something else out there due to Kairi’s appearance.

“I should stop musing on such unrealistic dreams. For now, there is no way to venture outside this world. My people and I are all but prisoners in this tiny place.”

Our world was beautiful, part of Axel’s mind hissed, even if he knew that it wasn't really Ansem's words on the page. It hurt all the same. It was beautiful and happy and only moderately dangerous. It was your obsession with the outside worlds and the inability to stop yourself that doomed our world to death and destruction. That doomed our people to death and Heartless-ness.

Jiminy says that’s all they have for now and Sora muses on the door. Goofy asks him if he’s ever seen something like that.

Yeah, when I opened it, Riku thought, his semi good mood disappearing like smoke. That seemed to be happening a lot.

Sora says he has, on Destiny Islands. Goofy connects the keyhole from the report to the Keyholes they’ve been locking up.

Sora smiled, looking at Goofy onscreen. Despite what people might think of him, Goofy could be very smart when it counted.

Sora asks Donald if they’re at Hollow Bastion yet and Donald says that he can’t find it on the map.

“Did Maleficent erase it somehow?” Ven asked. “Or was it because it fell to darkness and Maleficent managed to bring it back, in a way stopping it from registering?”

“Probably the second option,” Mickey responded. “We had no idea that Radiant Garden returned or even the way that Maleficent managed to do it.”

Riku guessed that Ansem, Seeker of Darkness had something to do with it.

“But Cid managed to find it with the Navigation Gummi?” Sora said uncertainly, tipping his head to the side slightly. Mickey paused.

“I think Cid’s just a miracle worker,” Kairi replied instead. “He did manage to upgrade the Gummiship the last time you were there.” Sora acknowledged that with a nod.

Goofy asks if they should Cid install the Navigation Gummi and Donald asks how Riku got there then.

Corridors of Darkness, five people thought. They all had intimate experiences with the things.

Sora says they should stop at Traverse Town and the ship changes course. Sora looks back out to the sky, troubled.

“Worried about Riku?” Naminé asked innocently, blinking at the fifteen-year-old.

“I think so,” Sora responded, not picking up on the tiny hint of… something in Naminé’s voice. Riku did his best not to blush.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive in Traverse Town, finding Cid in his shop. Goofy tells him they found another Navigation Gummi and hands it to Cid.

Looking down for a quick second, Sora couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they never found that Gummi. Never heard from Hook where Riku and Maleficent were. Would everything stay the same? Or would things have changed.

Cid says they’ll be able to find even more routes with it and says that he’ll install it.

Vanitas still couldn’t help the quiet scoff that escaped him. Honestly, what was that man thinking, doing things for free. One day, it was going to hurt him. Everyone wanted something.

Goofy says they could use a break and wonders if they should head over to Aerith’s. Donald turns to Sora, who’s zoned out slightly.

Yes, he could use a break, Aqua thought, trying to catalogue the days in her head. This was… about a week or two? And Sora had just gone from world to world, fighting? Of course, the boy needed a break.

You should have been there. Helped the boy. She pushed away her thoughts. No darkness.

Donald gets his attention and Goofy reminds him no frowning faces.

You aren’t even on the Gummiship, Aqua thought, mind whirling. Had anyone even told this boy that it was okay to cry and get upset about things? That it was healthy as long as he got it out quick and didn't dwell on it?

Sora asks them how they can remain so cheerful and that there was no sign of Mickey.

Mickey sighed quietly. He shouldn’t have put his own disappearance on Sora’s shoulders, an unintentional as it had been. The boy had enough on his plate.

Donald says they’re not worried about Mickey. Goofy tells Sora that the king told them to go find the Key Bearer and they found him and that as long as they stick together it’ll all work out.

Funny, Riku scoffed. It’s… two hours after this that you go and abandon him in the middle of Hollow Bastion? I don’t care that you returned, he could have died. And it would have been your fault.

Goofy says Sora just has to believe in himself.

And my friends, Sora thought. Me and my friends. My power comes from them.

Sora repeats believe and closes his eyes. He hears Kairi’s voice in the back of his head.

“Another vision?” Kairi questioned, having seen the few things Sora had hallucinated during the adventure.

“Of a sort,” Sora replied, remembering what happened.

Sora opens his eyes to a bright light, the light fading away to reveal Sora hovering over a scene of a young girl and an older woman.

Kairi choked. “Is that… me?” She questioned, looking at the young girl. It certainly looked like a small version of her, but… “I didn’t know this happened!”

“You gave me another vision, Kairi,” Sora explained. “About an old story you were told when you were younger.” Kairi blinked, mystified before her eyes drifted back to the screen, focusing on the old woman. Was that her… grandmother? She didn’t know. She couldn’t remember anything but that seemed… right, almost.

Aqua blinked, recognizing the young girl almost instantly. That was the girl from before, in Radiant Garden. Moving as little as possible, Aqua looked back to the girl, instead looking down at her neck. There. The necklace she had cast a spell on to keep Kairi safe. If Kairi was from Radiant Garden and Radiant Garden had fallen to darkness, perhaps the spell had saved her from the fall. It made her heart warm slightly. That she had actually managed to do something useful, even if it was only saving one life.

Axel frowned at the screen. It almost… He poked, as much as he didn’t want to, at the back of his mind, where most of his foggier memories were. The scene, it reminded him of home. Of ‘Ri and their small cottage. First their parents and then their grandmother. He looked away, taking a deep breath. It was probably better if he didn’t watch the scene. No matter how long, the grief remained. Wherever Kairi was from, he was glad she also had a loving grandmother, even if she wasn’t there anymore. He knew more than anyone how good that type of support was.

The young Kairi runs up to the old woman, who starts to tell her a story. “Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light.”

Vanitas made a face. When had light ever been warm to those who didn’t worship it?

“Everyone loved the light. But people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves.”

“The Keyblade War,” Ven murmured, wincing slightly at the jab of pain that went through his head slightly. What… was that?

“And darkness was born in their hearts.”

Vanitas wanted to scoff, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t be appreciated. There was no way there wasn’t some form of darkness before this war. Nothing was all light, it wasn’t possible.

“The darkness spread, swallowing the light, and the hearts of many people. It covered everything… and the world disappeared.”

Sora couldn’t help but be reminded by what Ansem, Seeker of Darkness had been doing. Spreading the darkness, disappearing worlds. It sounded awfully similar to what had apparently happened back then.

“But small fragments of light survived… in the hearts of children.”

Both Ven and Vanitas made different expression of slight pain at that. It almost felt… familiar? In a way? Ven reached up and rubbed at his chest, trying to work out the ache that had suddenly settled in it. What was going on?

“With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. That is the world we live in now.”

A flash of pink hair. Red scarves and black hats.

“But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That’s why the worlds are still scattered, small and divided from each other. Someday, a door to the inmost darkness will open, and the true light will return.”

“That’s what you did, isn’t it Sora?” Kairi questioned, still entranced by the image of her grandmother. How could her grandmother had known? Was this story known? By who? Who had created it?

Sora nodded slowly, remembering opening the door to Kingdom Hearts. Or, not really Kingdom Hearts, according to Mickey. But something like Kingdom Hearts.

Because there was multiple. Apparently.

“Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light shining within to guide you.”

“Isn’t that our purpose? To be the light that survives?” “It’s what Master Ava wanted.”

“So you mustn’t give in to darkness. Believe in the light, and darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push darkness away- the power to bring happiness.”

“remehpE, I’m going to murder you!” “C’mon dlukS, it was just a joke!”

“Do you understand, Kairi…?”

“What did you do to her Ven?”

Sora calls out Kairi’s name in surprise.

Ven gasped quietly, feeling like he had just been pulled out of a body of water. What had just…? His head pounded slightly, and he reached up, rubbing at his temple again. Had the story… just affected him badly? It wasn’t that sad, it didn’t even have to be real, but… He pinched the bridge of his nose. Was there something… had he seen something?

Unknown to him, most of the same thoughts were going through Vanitas’s head, though with a lot more panic involved.

Axel swallowed slightly, shaky away the slight memories that had come back to him. That sounded a lot like the stories he used to know. He couldn’t remember them clearly but… they sounded similar. Perhaps that story had been a common Radiant Garden fairytale. He couldn't remember.

The old woman vanishes, and younger Kairi looks around, worried. Sora reaches out to her, but she vanishes and Sora is thrown back into his mind.

“So, Kairi’s heart reached out to Sora’s?” Aqua wondered, thinking it over. It made sense, sort of. Kairi was inside Sora’s heart, why shouldn’t she be able to influence him. It was clear that she didn’t remember it now, but perhaps she had been awake when she did so. Could there have been a reason for showing Sora that memory?

Goofy asks Sora if anything is wrong and he denies it. Sora wonders if Kairi called to him.

“I did,” Kairi said with a smile, looking over Riku’s lap to smile at the boy. Sora returned it.

“Did no time pass?” Xion asked and Sora shook his head.

Cid enters the room and says he installed the Navigation Gummi. He asks if they’re really planning to go there.

“So, Cid found Hollow Bastion when literally no one else could?” Roxas asked. Sora shrugged.

“Cid works miracles.”

Donald asks if he means Hollow Bastion and Cid says it’s basically Heartless central right now. Goofy asks if he knows a lot about Hollow Bastion and Cid simply says to be careful.

“He’s not going to tell you he’s from there?” Naminé asked.

“It was a sore spot,” Sora explained. “It couldn’t have been easy to even mention.”

Sora says they have to go and that Riku was there, as well as Kairi.

Sora leaned into Riku’s side, reaching out for his hand.

The trio leaves and Aerith appears from around the corner, asking Cid if they’re really going. Cid confirms it and says that he never thought he’d hear the name of the place again.

Sora wondered what would have happened if they had told them they were from Radiant Garden from the beginning and had gone with him, instead of showing up later. He wondered if it would have changed anything.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy land in Hollow Bastion, on the waterfall steps.

While several people recognized this as the place Riku woke up all the way back in the beginning, Riku went stiff, breath wracking up as he realized what was going to happen. What he was about to do.

Sora looks out, mentioning that he seems to know this place.

Kairi gave Sora another smile, though this one was a little more strained. While she didn’t know everything, she could tell something happened here. Something… bad.

Goofy asks if he’s been here before and Sora denies it, saying that he feels warm in his chest. A roar sounds from closer to the castle.

Aqua pursed her lips, thinking. It was clear that something was about to happen, judging by the boys’ actions, and she looked over to Terra, seeing him clock the same thing. They would be ready to help if it was needed.

Donald jumps in surprise and Sora says they should follow it.

No, no, no, no, Riku’s mind chanted. I don’t… want to see this again.

Riku is standing on one of the islands, looking down at the Beast. He asks Beast how he got here.

Riku ripped his hand out of Sora’s grip, folding his arms over his chest, hunching his shoulders. He bit his tongue, slamming his eyes closed. How could he…? He was so… dark. Sora moved at his side, twisting his body to look at Riku better and placed a hand on Riku’s shoulder, causing him to flinch slightly. Sora leaned backwards.

Vanitas raised an eyebrow, leaning forward slightly. The silver-haired boy looked… different onscreen. More… cocky. He almost reminded Vanitas of Master Xehanort, when he had successfully tricked Eraqus of something or had made a step in his plan. Calm, secure. The feeling of knowing what was going to happen and what he was going to do. It was… an interesting feeling to have, especially when offscreen Riku was so clearly distraught.

Aqua’s eyes shot to Riku as he moved, eyes instantly cataloguing his movements. She’d had her fair share of witnessing panic attacks, first with Terra then Ven, so her eyes moved across his body, doing her best to count his breathing. She wouldn’t get involved, not yet, and or would Terra. Not until it was clear Riku couldn’t handle it on his own.

Mickey shifted in his seat, wanting to stand up and head over to Riku, to reassure him like he had done countless times during the year, wanting to make sure he was okay and that he wasn’t hurting himself too badly with his thoughts. But he didn’t think Riku would appreciate it, not in front of Sora and Kairi.

The Beast replies that he simply believed and explains that when his world fell to darkness, Belle was taken from him, and he vowed to find her at any cost. He says she must be here, and he will have her back.

Why are you carrying that sword? Why are you so proud to me tainted by darkness? Why are you ready to hurt the one you love?!

“Belle is a Princess of Heart?” Xion questioned, getting a small nod from Kairi. But other than that, no one was really saying anything. Like before, in Monstro, in Neverland, it felt almost wrong to try and talk over what was going on.

Riku tells the Beast to try and take her. Beast leaps at him but Riku dodges and slashes at him, causing the Beast to collapse.

Stop it, stop it! Sora will hate you; Kairi will hate you, you’re doing nothing good, you’ve fallen too far out of jealousy and repressed emotions!

Sora shouts at Riku to stop, running up from the other side of the island and Riku turns to look at him.

Riku made another noise, nails digging into his arms and Sora looked at him in deeper concern, almost not paying attention at all to the screen and what was happening on it. Riku was hurting. What else could matter?

Terra’s eyes flicked back to them, narrowing in consideration.

Riku tells Sora that he finally made it and that he was waiting for him. He mentions that they’ve always been rivals, always pushing each other.

No that’s not true, you just had to be the one to protect them, to protect him. Had to be the strongest, the best at everything. Otherwise, he might leave you for her.

Riku’s hand twitched, moving slightly upwards towards his hair and even Kairi had changed her position now, gazing at Riku in concern.

Riku says it all ends here and there can’t be two chosen ones. When Sora asks what he’s talking about, Riku says to let the Keyblade choose its true master.

Always Sora, always Sora. The brightest, most loveable one. The right one. The good one. The true Chosen One. He’s always proven that. “We’ve always been rivals.” I’ve always been worse than you.

Riku reaches out and the Keyblade starts to pull itself out Sora’s hand, much to his shock. It vanishes from his hand and instead reappears in Riku’s.

If it were any other situation, Aqua would be pouring over what had just happened, trying to figure it out, but she couldn’t, not at the moment. Her eyes kept moving back to Riku, who was curling deeper and deeper into himself.

Axel’s eyes remained firmly on the screen, not wanting to put even more attention on Riku when he was clearly struggling to keep himself calm. He doubted the kid would want it.

Riku says that Maleficent was right and tells Sora that he doesn’t have what it takes to save Kairi, that it was up to Riku. He says that only a Keyblade master can open the secret door and change the world.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Riku whispered out, fingers tangling in the ends of his hair. “I’m sorry.”

“Riku?” Sora questioned, eyes wide, wanting to reach out for Riku again but remembering how Riku reacted last time.

Sora says that it’s impossible and says that he’s the one who fought his way here with the Keyblade.

“I didn’t mean it, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”

Riku tells Sora that he was just the delivery boy and that his part is over. He picks up a wooden sword and tosses it to Sora, telling him to go play hero with that. Sora falls to his knees.

“Riku,” Sora said, finally through his thoughts and placing his hand on Riku’s shoulder.

“NO!” Riku shrieked, hands letting go of his hair and shoving himself to his feet. He staggered, tripping over himself as he backed up. Sora and Kairi both made noises of surprise and Terra stood up to his feet, taking a step in Riku’s direction.

Riku made a sound that was halfway between a sob and a scream and backed up until his back slammed into the wall. His knees buckled and he slid down the wall, hands going back to his hair as he tugged on it. Sora jumped to his feet, chasing after Riku.

“Riku!” He exclaimed, moving forward.

“I’m sorry!” Riku’s voice cracked at the same time the air did, the only warning Sora got before a wave of cold shoved him backward, ice spikes exploding from the air around Riku’s creating a barrier around him. Sora couldn’t help the shout of surprise and worry that slipped out of him and he could hear both Naminé and Kairi scream. The noise in the room quadrupled as everyone tried to figure out what had just happened and a second later, Sora felt arms places themselves on his shoulders, leading him backwards.

“What just happened?!” Roxas shouted, jumping to his feet and almost throwing himself between where Riku was and where Xion was sitting. Naminé had curled into a ball, watching the scene with wide eyes and Kairi was frozen on the couch, face pale and mouth open. Terra brushed past the two of them, heat flickering from his hand as he worked to destroy the barrier that surrounded Riku and Aqua continued to pull Sora back until she could place him on the couch next to Ven.

“I though we couldn’t use magic!” Vanitas spat out, half out of his chair, eyes wide and flicking around, panic and anger warring in his voice. Axel had stood as well, wrapping one arm around Roxas’s shoulders and guiding him back to the couch. The sound of snapping ice reverberated around the room as Terra pulled off the first ice spike, seemingly not bothered by the coldness that Sora could feel from his spot. Aqua left his side, moving to help Kairi away from the couch and Riku’s ice, guiding her towards Sora.

“We can’t use Keyblades,” Ven corrected, voice shaky and eyes wide as he watched Terra break through another one of the barriers. “I suppose magic doesn’t fall under that category.” The screen had paused and none of them paid any attention to it as another ice spike fell from Riku’s small fortress, Terra’s hands melting the ice he touched.

Riku, Sora thought in his mind, feeling lost and unmoored. This was like when Maleficent appeared but so much worse. He… Riku had shoved Sora away. Had he hurt Riku? He didn’t mean to. He should have been better, shouldn’t have touched Riku, should have done something more. He…

Kairi fell onto the couch next to him, shaking and shivering, and Sora found himself wrapping an arm around her on instinct, holding her close. Roxas had allowed himself to be placed back on the couch, but reached out, pulling Xion into his side as Axel didn’t sit back down, instead heading over to Terra’s side, fingers lighting up with his own fire. Mickey had leapt from his seat the second the ice exploded out, hurrying over to Terra’s side, worry and fear clear on his face.

Riku, have you always been feeling like this? Sora wondered. I didn’t… I forgave you a long time ago. There was nothing to forgive. Maleficent used you, used us. I thought you saw that. Riku couldn't have hurt him, it wasn't Riku at all. He wasn't hurt. But he couldn’t help but think of Riku’s words in the Castle that Never Was. “I gave into the darkness. How can I face everyone?” Did Riku really still think that? That he was still swallowed in darkness, the bad thing that everyone warned their children of?

Another crack of ice sounded, combined with a quick noise of success, and Sora looked up in time to see Terra drop down to his knees, swiftly being covered by the remaining ice spikes that Axel and Aqua worked to remove. Sora could just hear Riku’s muffled voice, accompanied by Terra’s soothing words, and he winced. He should have seen it, should have been better. Riku you’ve always protected me. Please, let me protect you.

Riku couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t. All he could see was himself. Sneering, arrogant. Drugged by the darkness, buoyed by pride and anger. The way he had dismissed Sora, the way he had hurt him. No wonder he loved Kairi, no wonder he sacrificed everything to track her down. No wonder he almost killed himself to save her. Because who could ever love Riku, with everything he had done, everything he was. The darkness, ripping and tearing, a broken part of him that he couldn’t get rid of. He shouldn’t have let Sora see him, shouldn’t have let Kairi pull him back. He should have just faded into the darkness, nothing to darken Sora’s bright future again.

Arms suddenly wrapped around him, causing him to flinch backwards, hands digging deeper into his hair. He shouldn’t, he can’t… He didn’t mean to make the ice grow, it had just happened and he wanted it to stop because he no doubt hurt Sora and he couldn’t just stop hurting Sora could he, he was always just the darkness to Sora’s light, something that should be destroyed in order to create the light that was always supposed to be there-

The hands moved, carefully unwinding his hands from his hair no matter how much he tried to avoid them. They carefully grasped his wrists, pulling them together and away from his hair or arms. The other arm wrapped around him, pulling him into a hug and he just wanted to stop, let him go, couldn’t they see that he was nothing but darkness, please-

“Riku, listen to me.” Terra’s voice wasn’t a surprise, per say, but it still made him flinch all the same. Terra’s arms tightened ever so slightly around him, holding him close. “I need you to breathe, I need you to follow my counting. Just like we did a couple of hours ago, okay? Can you do that?”

Riku could feel hot tears spilling down his cheeks, broken sobs in his throat as his breath hitched and shook, and he shook his head, trying to squirm out of Terra’s hold. Maybe if he got far enough, he could put up more ice. But that’s only proving their point. You’re not good enough to be there, to interact with Sora and the others. You can’t get a grip and you can’t control yourself. What kind of Keyblade Wielder are you?

“Riku, please follow my voice,” Terra’s voice had taken on a more urgent tone and Riku choked, his breath stuttering as Terra’s counting started up again. He couldn’t- All he could see was himself, younger him, darker him, everything he was now and then, wrapped up in a ball of pain and suffering and-

A second set of hands suddenly descended, pressing a gloved hand to his chest, applying just enough pressure that his stuttering breath paused for a broken second. The hand let up after a second and Riku sucked in a deep breath, feeling his breath skip for a second as it tried to get back into its rhythm it had just been thrown from. But the hand returned, helping him to take another deep measured breath and he let his head fall forward, feeling a third pair of hand carefully catch it and lean it backward, onto Terra’s chest he would assume. More tears leaked from his eyes, and he tried to listen in, tried to focus. His thoughts continued to swirl and the only thing he could grasp onto was Terra’s counting, trying to cling to it.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he gasped out, the words causing coughing to erupt from his throat. The third set of hands from before rubbed one of his shoulder blades gently, quiet murmurs coming from them (her?).

“It’s okay,” Mickey said from in front of him. “No one blames you; this was a year ago. You’ve grown, you’ve learned, you’re better now, you’re good.” Of course Mickey would know exactly what would be swirling around in his head right now and he got the bizarre need to shake his head, to tell Mickey that no matter what, he would still be the taint on Sora’s legacy, the darkness in his shadow. But Aqua shushed him quietly, her other hand ending up on his head and starting to brush out the strands of hair that were tangling together gently. Riku’s breath continued to align itself with Terra’s counting, and he finally managed to pry his eyes open, looking around.

Mickey was standing in front of him, worry clear in his gaze. He could just see the edge of Terra, sitting mostly to the side of him, and he couldn’t see Aqua, though he could feel her hands. Behind Mickey, he was sure the rest of the teenagers were probably somewhere back there, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it. He should be stronger than this, he should be better, for when he wasn’t good, but as the sobs started to peter off, all he felt was tiredness, a deep seeded tiredness starting to make its way into his bones. He abruptly remembered that they had technically fought Xemnas and the rest of the Organization today as well and it made sense why he was so tired, if he was also dealing with that.

“Riku?” Mickey said gently and Riku’s eyes drifted back to him. “Are you with us?” Riku couldn’t find the strength in him to respond verbally so he just nodded. Terra gently released Riku’s wrists, loosening his hug just enough for Riku to fall back into it voluntarily, still trying to dredge his strength back from wherever it went.

Everything thing just went quiet. He didn’t care, all his thoughts were gone, all the flashbacks. Everything was just tiring and he just wanted to sleep and allow himself to dream that he was still on Destiny Islands before this all happened. Or that he was in the Disney Castle, in the room Mickey promised him with a view of the sunrise.

A set of footsteps interrupted his musings and he didn’t even have time to look up before Sora was kneeling in front of him, unshed tears in his eyes, replacing Mickey’s spot. Riku’s eyes widened, mouth opening to say something because he could pull enough strength to talk to Sora of all people, but the younger boy surged forward, wrapping Riku in a hug that more or less pulled him from Terra’s former embrace.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Sora told him, holding him close and burying his face in Riku’s shoulder. “I don’t blame you, everything’s fine now. You’re Riku. You’re my best friend. You’ve saved me more times than I can count and nothing, nothing will ever be able to change that. Nothing in this world or any worlds.

“You made mistakes, but you’ve made up for them.” Sora’s arms tightened around him. “You watched over me, took care of me, guided me when I was trying to fight the Organization, shielded me from the blast, fought with me, trusted me with Way To The Dawn.” Sora’s breath hitched and Riku could feel a few tears leaking from Sora’s eyes into his shirt. “You’re Riku. You’re everything to me. And nothing will ever change that. Not Ansem. Not Xemnas. Not whoever we face tomorrow. Not the darkness that you hold. Not the light that I wield. Nothing ever. And if you leave again, I’m going to track you down and chain our wrists together.” Riku couldn’t help the garbled chuckle that slipped out of his mouth because that was such a Sora thing to say and he could feel the tears slipping from his eyes.

“You’re Riku,” Sora whispered out. “I need you.”

And you’re Sora, Riku thought. And I love you.

He hadn't ever actually said it to himself. It still felt wrong, in a way. He wasn't worthy of loving Sora, wasn't good enough to do so.

It was a love that would always be seen from the side, the type that romantics would write about. A quiet, unspoken thing that Riku would hold close to his chest and no one would ever see it. Because he didn’t need to hurt Sora like that.

But here, in this moment? He could pretend, just pretend, that maybe one day, he’d have a chance to have Sora, the two of them in the dark and light together, never separated or fighting again.

Chapter Text

After about thirty seconds, Sora finally managed to force his head to lift from where it had rested on Riku’s shoulder. He blinked, eyes moving to Riku, who was opening his own eyes, to back where Kairi had been sitting. She had come closer, sitting back on the couch the three of them shared, and there was a gentle but strained smile on her face.

“I hate to bring this up,” Ven said, sounding awkward and Sora was reminded very abruptly that they weren’t the only ones in the room. He fought the urge to blush. “But I think the screen is getting… impatient.” Kairi’s gaze moved from them to the screen, giving it a glare.

“Okay,” Sora muttered, trying to figure out the best way to stand up without having to let go of Riku in anyway. “Are you going to be okay Riku?”

The older boy blinked once, the redness around his eyes only highlighting the slight bloodshotness of them, and he frowned slightly. “I think I have to be,” he sighed, swallowing, and Sora could feel his arms tighten ever so slightly for a second. “Plus, it’s almost over.”

Right, Sora thought. Riku’s about to get… possessed. He still believed he hadn’t hit Ansem hard enough to pay him back for what he had done to Riku. Sora was pulled away from his thoughts as Riku started to stand and Sora followed him, moving his hands to instead holding onto Riku’s hands and he stumbled slightly, shaking feeling back into his legs. The good thing was that the couch wasn’t far, so it wasn’t long before the two of them were back on the couch, Riku tucked between he and Kairi like before. She leaned into his side, resting a hand on his leg as Sora wasn’t letting go of either of his hands.

Aqua watched the two of them with concern. She didn’t know if she really wanted Riku to continue to watch. It clearly… wasn’t affecting him the greatest. But he almost looked… calmer, less stressed, now. Since Sora had hugged him and said things to him. Aqua had tried not to listen. It wasn’t her place.

Her eyes moved over to Terra, silently asking if he wanted to do anything. Not that they knew if there was anything they could do. They were kind of trapped in a white room with nothing but a screen that showed the past. He tipped his head to the side, watching the sliver-haired boy for a second before shaking his head minutely. There was nothing they could at this point, just hope that things started to get better. She bit the inside of her cheek. She didn’t want to do that, but she supposed that was all they could do.

With a simple gesture, she and Terra returned back to the couch they had sat on, retaking their spots on either side of Ven, who leaned into Terra’s side slightly. He was clearly shaken by what had just happened, something that was shown all around the room.

Both Naminé and Xion looked worried, wide eyes and shaking hands, clearly taken aback by what they had witnessed. Roxas looked shocked and confused, staring at Riku like he had never seen him before. Vanitas looked… not as sneering as Aqua thought he would be. She furrowed her brows slightly as she shot him a look. It didn’t make sense for him not to be taking advantage of Riku’s weakness like he always had with them. He instead looked subdued, eyes refusing to look at any of them and shoulders hunched as he settled back into his chair. Aqua… didn’t know how to feel about that.

Axel and Mickey looked upset, but different flavors of it. It was clear that Mickey wished he could do more for the boy he had semi-claimed as an apprentice, but resigned himself to the fact that he couldn’t. He had moved back to his chair, looking downcast. Axel looked on in recognition and resignation, settling back down on his couch between the two teenagers, wrapping an arm around Xion and holding her close. Roxas leaned into his other side, still looking slightly lost.

As Riku starts walking away, Donald follows him.

“We’re just starting right where we left, aren’t we?” Kairi muttered, leaning deeper into Riku’s side. The older boy didn’t flinch like he would have last time, instead simply turning his face away and into Sora’s hair. The younger boy held his hands tighter.

Roxas felt his eyes go back to Riku at this moment. He didn’t… It didn’t make sense. He stared at the boy who was hiding his face in Sora’s hair, whose fear and anger had caused ice to grow and for him to break down several times at this point and have at least two panic attacks. He stared at the boy and thought, this can’t be Riku.

Because Riku was the one that hunted him and Xion relentlessly. Who made Xion decide to kill herself to bring Sora back. Who captured him and helped DiZ force him into the simulation where he lost all his memories. Who kept him there until it was finally time for Roxas to die for Sora's sake, just like Xion, and Roxas couldn’t do anything about it. Riku was the one who hurt the two of them and felt no remorse for his actions.

Except… that clearly wasn’t true at this point. And that sent Roxas spiraling. Because Riku was the bad guy here. He was the one who hunted him and Xion, had hurt Axel, had done so many bad things. And it was easy for Roxas to hate him. And yet… He looked at Riku hidden in the ice he created and thought of Xion hiding under her covers back in the Organization’s headquarters. He looked at Riku’s slightly faked smiles and hidden emotions and thought of Axel’s plastic smiles when Saix had particularly gotten on his nerves or when he tried to not let Xion and him see how much something was bothering him.

He looked at Riku and for all the ways he tried to stop it, he couldn’t help but see, just a little bit, that Riku wasn’t this monster that he had convinced himself the darkness wielder was. And he hated it. Who was he supposed to be mad at now?

Donald tells Goofy to come on and Goofy pauses, saying that the King told them to follow the key but trails off.

“Wait, they’re leaving you?” Kairi questioned, sitting up in alarm. “Because Riku stole the Keyblade?”

“They… were told to find the Key,” Sora said, trying to push down the little bit of hurt that buoyed in him when he watched the scene happen again. It’s fine, we’re friends again. They were just doing what they thought was right. Happy thoughts.

“Sora,” Mickey said. “I didn’t…”

“This isn’t your fault, Mickey,” Sora told him, flashing him a smile. “Plus. They came back. They chose to stay with me.”

They shouldn’t have left you in the first place, Riku thought, tightening his hands slightly around Sora’s and breathing deeply as he kept his face hidden. They shouldn’t have left you in Hollow Bastion alone.

“They shouldn’t have left you at all,” Mickey replied gently. “You were the Keyblade Wielder.” Sora shook his head softly, eyes moving back to the screen. It’s fine now.

Goofy looks back and forth before eventually following Donald.

“They left you alone in a place filled with Heartless?” Aqua asked, voice raising slightly as her brain went over everything that could have gone wrong. Sora could have died. He didn’t have his Keyblade, didn’t have his friends. Didn’t have a will to continue, it looked like, though hopefully that changed quickly.

“Hey, I did okay on my own,” Sora defended. “Plus, the Beast helped me out. And, again, they came back.”

You shouldn’t have had to be alone, Aqua thought. Keyblade Wielders are not meant to be alone. It’s how Terra, Ven, and I fell.

Thank you for noticing, Riku thought. At least someone else had. Now, if only they could convince Sora that it was a bad thing for Donald and Goofy to have done.

Vanitas withheld the urge to roll his eyes, something that wasn’t that difficult. He was still reeling from what had happened with Riku and the unfortunate memories it had yanked to the forefront of his mind. Of course, when he had lashed out trying to protect himself, he certainly hadn’t been given a hug once the person he was trying to hide from found him. These people are from the light, he thought. They shouldn’t abandon another Light Wielder. It felt… wrong to think of. The Light was good, they wouldn’t abandon others.

The Beast attempted to stand and walk, only to fall back. Sora gets up and runs to him, telling him that he shouldn’t move and is hurt.

And of course, even when he had just been abandoned and alone, Sora still cared about others. Still put other’s safety and comfort in front of his. Riku raised his head, allowing himself to look back at the screen. He took a deep breath. He could almost count the minutes in his head until he was gone and Ansem was there.

The Beast asks Sora why he came there. When Sora doesn’t answer, the Beast says that he came to fight for Belle and even though he’s alone, he will continue to fight for her.

Sora smiled at his friend. He was glad that the Beast and Belle were happy now and that Belle was safe. They were together. Now, if only that could happen with Sora and a certain friend, Sora would be happy as well.

Sora looks back and picks up the wooden sword, telling the Beast that he’s not going to give up now and that he came here to find someone very important.

Kairi smiled happily; hearing Sora refer to her as someone very important to her. You’re really important to me too, she thought. More than you know.

Well, two very important people, Sora corrected himself as he watched him and the Beast head towards Hollow Bastion. I came here for both of them.

Deep in Hollow Bastion, the six missing princess are asleep in capsules lining the wall. Kairi is asleep in her own.

Again, Kairi couldn’t contain a shiver when she saw her lifeless body. It just looked so… wrong, that her body was just laying there, undefended and vulnerable. She was glad she got her heart back soon.

Riku bit his tongue as it showed Jasmine and Alice, two people that he directly helped kidnap.

Maleficent walks up a set of stairs, turning and tell the purest hearts to reveal to her the Keyhole. Beams of light comes from six of the hearts, creating a Keyhole in the wall.

“Only six?” Xion wondered. “But what about you?” She directed her question to Kairi.

“Well, I didn’t have my heart,” Kairi told her with the smallest of smirks. “It was in Sora’s.”

“So it didn’t work?” Ven asked, perking up.

“Well, it did, eventually,” Sora admitted. “But we stopped Ansem.”

Sora and the Beast entered the castle, with the Beast warning Sora to stay on guard. A Heartless disguised as Belle appears and provokes the Beast into following it, separating the two.

“And now he’s gone,” Aqua muttered, acutely aware that it meant that Sora was alone with a weapon that probably wasn’t the best to use to defeat the Heartless.

Riku appears at the top of the staircase and tells Sora to quit while he can as he descends down into the room with Sora. Donald and Goofy follow him.

“Not a chance,” Sora whispered with a bittersweet smile. There was no chance of him stopping, not while there was still danger in the world, even if it meant fighting Riku at the time. Now, he would rather do anything else than fight Riku, but at the time, it was the only option.

Riku slid his eyes closed, having heart Sora’s whisper. Because he was completely right. Sora would never stop, not if it meant someone else had the potential to get hurt.

Sora says he won’t leave without Kairi and Riku warns him that the darkness will destroy him as darkness surrounds him, changing his outfit.

It won’t, Riku thought even as he closed his eyes and looked away from his past self, so entrenched in darkness. Because Sora is too good for that.

Wait a minute. Vanitas sat up in shock, staring at the outfit that Riku had taken on. Seeing every single similarity it had to the outfit Vanitas was currently wearing. Wait a minute, wait a minute. What the-

Unknown to him, Aqua had seen the same parallels, her eyes shooting to Vanitas, mind only growing more worried when she saw the confusion in Vanitas’s eyes as he stared at he screen. Hold on, what? Either this is a massive coincidence or…

Xehanort didn’t die, she knew that. She knew she as good as saved his life when she saved Terra’s but what could she do otherwise? Let Terra die? Fall to darkness? She had sent him away but she had hoped him to be gone, that this new villain, this “Seeker of Darkness” meant that someone else had taken up that role and that Xehanort was still gone and disappeared within Terra's body but he couldn’t be gone, he was never gone and now he was here taking advantage of these kids who were nothing but light and children and she couldn’t breathe because she helped caused this this was her fault she should have killed him when she had the chance she should have been better be a better Keyblade Master friend warrior because XehanORT HAD TO BE BEHIND THIS-

Sora tells Riku that he’s wrong and that the darkness may destroy his body, but it’ll never touch his heart. And that his heart will stay with his friends and never die.

Terra looked over to his side in concern, having heard the hitch in Aqua’s voice. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the screen and Terra felt confusion go through him. What had happened? He was tempted to reach out but had a feeling she wouldn’t like that at the time. He bit his lip. What had triggered her?

Riku says they’ll see about that and throws an attack of magic at him.

Riku flinched, seeing himself actively attacking Sora when he had no means of defending himself, but Sora just leaned deeper into his side, and he sighed. Sora had forgiven him; Sora didn’t hate him. Maybe if he repeated it enough, he could believe it.

Goofy suddenly appears between them and blocks the shot, saying that Sora isn’t going anywhere. Riku asks if he would betray his king and Goofy says he wouldn’t, but that he’s not betraying Sora either.

Mickey smiled at his longtime friend. He knew Goofy would never let actual harm come to Sora. He doubted Donald would as well. The two of them had clearly become attached to the boy very quickly.

Sora smiled as well. “See?” He nudged Riku. He could feel the older boy’s upsetness when they left him. “They came back.”

“They shouldn’t have left you,” Riku refuted but didn’t say anything else.

Goofy asks Donald to apologize to the king for him. Donald says they’ll tell him together and runs over to them.

Several people relaxed slightly once it was clear that Sora wasn’t alone anymore.

Sora thanks them and Riku asks how he’s planning to fight without a weapon.

Riku could hear the panic and anger that was bleeding into his younger self’s voice. He hadn’t been spiraling as hard as he would in a couple of minutes but seeing Sora still willing to fight even when Riku had proven himself better than him, it had hurt.

Sora says he doesn’t need a Keyblade, and he has a better weapon. His heart.

What good will a heart do? Vanitas thought with a barely audible scoff and an eyeroll. Separated from a body and weapons? It’s useless. And then his mind decided to helpfully remind him what happened the last time he fought Ventus, and he looked down with a growl. At least thinking about that was better than thinking about what Riku’s outfit could mean. He didn’t want to know.

Riku asks what good the weak, little thing will do as he summons the Keyblade.

“Sorry,” Riku murmured quietly, just loud enough for Sora and maybe Kairi to hear him.

“It’s okay,” Sora replied. “You’re here now.”

Sora says his heart may be weak but that it’s not alone and it’s connected to all the friends he’s made. That Sora has become a part of their heart, just as they’ve become a part of his.

All of them and even more, Sora thought, thinking back to all the friends he’d met over the course of this latest adventure. Them, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy.

Aqua smiled slightly as she reached out, wrapping an arm around Ven and grasping onto Terra’s wrist. In the back of her head, everything she had just figured out was bouncing around, but she had to ignore it for the time being. Look at it in smaller chunks, so the darkness from the thoughts didn’t bring darkness to her.

Xion took in a deep breath, leaning on Axel’s side and looking over at Roxas. I wonder if we’re connected, she pondered. Even if we don’t have hearts.

Sora says if they don’t forget him then his heart can’t disappear.

Naminé tried not to flinch slightly at the “forgetting” part. She hadn’t wanted it to happen, but it was the only way to fix it. To fix what she had done.

Sora says his friends are his power. The Keyblade returns to him, much to Riku’s shock.

My friends are my power, Sora confirmed, leaning into Riku’s side and reaching for one of Kairi’s hands.

They are every Keyblade Wielder’s power, Aqua thought, holding her two friends close.

They’re the most important thing in the world, Mickey smiled, thinking of Donald and Goofy.

They’re worth risking everything over, Axel looked down at his two kids, recalling everything the three of them had been through together.

And they come from the most unexpected places, Naminé’s mind sent her back to Castle Oblivion, to the white corridors made safe by the silver-haired boy.

They’re the one thing I don’t understand, Vanitas’s inner thoughts weren’t sneering, just lost… I knew them once, as Ven. But I’m too dark to know them now.

Riku summons Soul Eater and attacks Sora. The two of them fight with occasional inputs from Donald and Goofy.

“Don’t apologize,” Sora told Riku, already knowing what the older boy was going to do. “You were influenced by darkness; I wasn’t trying as hard as I should have to reach you. We’re together again now.” Riku closed his mouth but gave Sora a look anyway.

Sora knocks Riku back, who glares at Sora before vanishing into a portal. The Beast appears behind them.

Riku took a deep breath. He knew what came next.

Riku appears in a corridor, staggering into a wall. “Know this. The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade.”

Both Sora and Riku went stiff as Ansem’s voice appeared from the shadows.

“Who’s that?” Ven asked, seeing the figure of Ansem appear on screen.

“Ansem,” Sora hissed out. “The Seeker of Darkness.”

“The one who possessed Riku?” Terra asked, already hating this man. Also, why did he sound slightly familiar?

Sora answered with a nod.

Riku turns around to see Ansem. Ansem says that the Keyblade will not choose someone without a strong heart.

Unbidden, Aqua made a slight face. Again, Keyblades don’t actually chose people, the wielders do. But, for this circumstance, it seemed… more ambiguous who was doing the choosing. Everything between Sora and Riku made her think.

Riku asks if he’s saying that Riku’s heart was weaker than Sora’s.

“Never,” Sora told the older boy. “You’re just as strong as me.”

Riku hesitated for a second. “Now I am,” he eventually settled on, knowing that if he didn’t give himself a little bit of credit, Sora was probably going to hit him. “But then, no it wasn’t.” Sora made a face at him.

Ansem says for that instant it was but says that Riku held no fear of the door to darkness. He encourages Riku to plunge deeper into the darkness and says that it will make his heart even stronger.

Terra looked down with a sigh, eyes falling on his hands, one still held in Aqua’s grip. He had been… encouraged by several people, before eventually falling to Xehanort, that going into the darkness would give him strength. And there had been a part of him that wanted to believe it. Wanted to believe that this darkness he held had been given to him to help him protect, Aqua, Ven, and everyone else in the worlds. And even now, there was a part of him that still wanted to believe it. But that was impossible. His darkness had only ever hurt. Himself and others.

Riku asks what he should do, and Ansem tells him to open himself up to darkness, to let his heart become part of the darkness. A glow surrounds Riku.

Riku shivered, looking away from the screen. He could still remember… the feeling that came after. At first, the overwhelming feeling of power that filled him. The joy and hatred that came along with it. Then the panic of realizing he couldn’t move, couldn’t talk. The feeling of all of a sudden not being in control of his body, of realizing in panic and fear that he was simply watching now as Ansem took control. He hated it and he still had nightmares about it.

Sora wrapped his arms around Riku’s arm instead of just holding his hand. He guessed what had just happened. He really should have hit Ansem harder.

Maleficent is standing in front of the Keyhole and Riku approaches her. He says that the path has emerged at last.

“That’s… not you, is it?” Ven asked, remembering all the way back from the beginning when Riku and the others gave quick versions of what had happened to them. Riku had mentioned being possessed by Ansem and Sora looked really upset as he stared at the screen.

“No, it’s not,” Riku said after a second, eyes flicking down to the ground. “That is Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness.”

Ansem, Xehanort, Ansem, Xehanort, Aqua’s thoughts spun in circles. It had to be, but she didn’t want it to be. What had Xehanort been doing for the past eleven years that he was suddenly in a different body with a different name?

And where was Terra then?

Ansem says that it will be the Keyhole to the darkness and that unlocking will cause the Heartless to overrun the world. Maleficent says that she doesn’t care, and the darkness holds no power over her.

Yeah sure, Kairi thought. The Mistress of Evil isn’t swayed by darkness, hmm?

Maleficent says that she will use the power to rule over all worlds. Ansem says such confidence and summons a black Keyblade.

Sora couldn’t help but let his smile slip when he saw the Keyblade. He wasn’t scared of it, no, and he didn’t regret what he had done, but… he still didn’t like to see it. A reminder of what Ansem had done.

Riku froze when he saw the Keyblade, the action that Sora had done after the battle with Maleficent coming back to him full force. The smallest part of him was glad that it was being shown now. Good. If I can tell anything, it’s that Aqua and Mickey probably won’t be too happy to see what Sora did. Maybe they can get it through his head that doing that drastic of an action isn’t good.

Maleficent is angry once nothing happens to the portal, saying that the princess are all here, but Ansem says that a princess who lost her heart cannot release her power.

For once, Kairi was glad that her heart was missing from her body. Had it not been, who knew what could have happened before Sora intervened.

Noise from outside of the room distracts them and Maleficent says that the King’s fools are here. She says she’ll take care of them and instructs Ansem to guard the princesses.

“Has she not realized that Riku is possessed?” Naminé questioned, seeing the difference rather distinct to her. “Or does she not care?”

“I don’t think she realized,” Riku responded. “She was too focused on the goal she sought to accomplish.”

Sora and the others enter the open space, looking around. Sora realizes they must be in the deepest part of the castle and Goofy wonders if maybe the King will be there. Donald says they’ll probably at least find some clues before they’re cut off by Maleficent entering.

Sora shifted slightly. This was almost it. It was almost over.

Aqua sighed quietly. She really should have taken care of Maleficent all those years ago. None of this would have happened otherwise. Except Xehanort’s still there, posing as Ansem, and now they’ve got Riku and-

And what about those journal entries? Because that was Ansem but this was also Ansem but somehow Xehanort and she didn't know didn't know and she had to know, she was a Keyblade Master.

Maleficent tells them that they’re too late and that in any second the final Keyhole will be unlocked, and the world will be plunged into darkness.

“Didn’t Riku just say that it can’t because Kairi doesn’t have her heart?” Xion asked and Sora shrugged.

“Maybe she was bluffing,” he replied. He knew that when he had first heard it, he had been extremely worried. He couldn’t have come that far only to fail.

Sora says they’ll stop it and that after coming this far, there’s no way they’d let that happen.

Both Riku and Kairi smiled slightly. Because that was Sora down to his core. Unable to take no as the answer, fighting for everyone else, not himself. Always there to help everyone. It’s why they both fell in love with him.

Maleficent calls them fools and asks if they really think they can defeat her, The Mistress of All Evil. She fights Sora and the others with the help of the Heartless.

Like before, when all this first started, Riku’s hands came up to wrap around one of Sora’s shoulders, worry for the boy building in him. He knew Sora survived, he knew Sora won, but he still couldn’t help the worry that went through him, watching Sora fight Maleficent of all people. He knew, that if Maleficent was still alive, he wouldn’t be able to fight her. The memories scratched at his mind, she she she, but it couldn't be her, she couldn't be alive. Not if he had all the power in the world. Kairi’s hands reached across Riku’s lap to grasp one of Sora’s hands, holding him the best she could. They both knew he would get out of this, but it still worried them.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeat Maleficent causing her to retreat backwards into a portal.

Terra watched the fight worried and nervous for Sora and the others. He knew how powerful Maleficent could be, he still didn’t have answers if Maleficent had truly controlled him or just influenced him all those years ago. And she had done the same thing to his chosen successor. There was a part of him that wanted her gone.

No dark thoughts, he told himself, trying to banish those feelings. No more darkness to fall into.

Maleficent appears again, in pain, and wonders how a boy with a Keyblade could defeat her.

Sora smiled, remembering all the times is showed during the watching that Maleficent hadn’t even seen him as a threat. Ha, I am a threat, he thought. I took you down. I saved my friends. And while you’re still out there causing trouble, I can always defeat you again.

Ansem appears from the portal behind her, asking if she needs any help. Sora and the others enter the room and Sora calls out to Riku.

Both Sora and Riku suddenly got wide eyes as they remembered what came next. Hopefully it didn’t freak the adults out too much?

Ansem says they’re all there together and Donald wonders about the weapon in Ansem’s hand. Ansem confirms that it is a Keyblade, but one used to unlock people’s hearts.

Aqua made a face. That sounded like a Keyblade of Darkness. But she thought only the King had one like that.

“Mickey,” she said, voice her thoughts. “Is that a Keyblade of Darkness? Like yours?”

“Maybe,” Mickey admitted. “But I don’t know much.” He would admit, he hadn’t pushed Riku for too many details when the boy had told him about this part of the story. “It’s not completely like mine, but perhaps it’s similar.”

Ansem turns and stabs Maleficent in the chest with it, telling her to embrace the darkness. She calls out to the power and turns into a dragon.

While there was several exclamations of shock, both from Ansem turning on Maleficent and from Maleficent turning into a dragon, Aqua couldn’t hear any of them. Instead all there was in her head was white noise, memories flickering in front of her eyes.

She had to go, had to get through. She slashed her Keyblade through another thorn branch as the roars of Maleficent rained down on both her and Philip. The Prince was in front of her, directly clashing with the dark fairy turned dragon and Aqua had to help him. Had to defeat Maleficent so the fairy would stop avoiding her questions. What did she do to Terra? Why did she want Princess Aurora’s heart? How did they factor into this? She needed to defeat Maleficent, to force her to answer Aqua’s questions. Everything had been so complicated ever since Terra had run off, and Aqua needed some sort of answer, some sort of reason why Terra was acting off, why Ven hadn’t listened to her, why darkness seemed to follow her very steps. She needed answers and if this fairy turned dragon had them, she was going to get them.

She just needed to finish the fight. Gripping her Keyblade harder, she finally managed to push off the creeping vine and moved to help Philip, Keyblade clashing down on Maleficent’s scales and-

A hand landed on her shoulder and squeezed tightly, enough to snap Aqua out of the memories that had consumed her. She blinked in confusion, turning to the side to see Terra looking at her in concern over Ven’s head. Are you okay? The other eighteen-year-old asked with a raised eyebrow, worry for her clear in his eyes. She nodded once but could tell it didn’t reassure him. It was okay though. Her problems were her problems to solve.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Beast fight the dragon Maleficent, eventually killing her and causing her to collapse into a ball of darkness and dissipate.

Riku couldn’t help the sigh of relief that slipped from him. Now, now Maleficent was truly gone. She was dead in their world and now she was dead onscreen. He wouldn’t have to be reminded of her again.

She wasn't alive, no matter what his memories might be trying to say to him.

Ansem reappears, saying that it was ironic and calling Maleficent just another puppet.

The one thing I can agree with Ansem on, Riku thought with a glare at his possessed self. He remembered… not being distraught or particularly happy at Maleficent’s passing, mostly just numb as he watched Sora of all people take down a starsdamned dragon, after first taking down Maleficent in her normal form. It had shown him, as much as he had been shocked to see it, that Sora had indeed grown stronger. And at the time, it had angered him. Now it just made him proud.

Sora asks what Ansem means and Ansem says that the Heartless were using Maleficent from the start and she failed to notice the darkness in her heart eating away at her. He calls her a fool.

More like you were using her, Riku thought. You were the one manipulating her. You had to be.

Ansem disappears into a portal, with Sora calling after him. Goofy finds a piece of Ansem’s report that appeared.

Roxas made a face, not being the only one to do so. Every time they read one of those, his opinion of the man dropped even further.

The group moves through the castle, eventually ending in the room with the princesses. The Beast runs over to Belle while the three of them continue onwards, eventually finding Kairi’s body.

Sora smiled when he witnessed the Beast finding Belle. Even though he knew it happened, he was still glad he could see it again. They clearly meant a lot to each other. They were in love, even if he didn’t fully grasp the concept.

Sora runs to Kairi’s body, kneeling beside her and calling out to her, telling her to open her eyes.

Aqua looked away. “Ven, please wake up. Please.”

Ansem is sitting above the Keyhole and tells Sora that it’s no use and that Kairi won’t wake up due to her missing heart. Sora realizes he’s not Riku.

“Sorry it took me so long,” Sora whispered to Riku, who simply shook his head.

“It’s okay Sora,” he replied. “You couldn’t have known, couldn’t have even guessed. And it didn’t take you that long, if you look at it.” Sora still pouted slightly so Riku simply reached out and grasped his hand, squeezing it tightly. My turn to give comfort, he thought. It felt… right.

Ansem says that the Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the lost Princess of Heart still sleeps. Sora asks if Kairi’s a princess.

“I wonder,” Kairi murmured. She wanted to know, she wanted to know about her life before the Destiny Islands, about Radiant Garden and the people that inhabited it. She wanted to know what the weather was like, the food, the politics, and the people. She wanted to know it all. And she would find out one day, she swore it.

Ansem says that without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. He says it is time she awakened.

Kairi and Riku both made faces as they remembered what Sora did to awaken Kairi’s heart. It had been… bad for both of them. For Kairi it had been a shock and a heck of a something to wake up to. For Riku, it had horrified him enough to snap him out of everything that he had been thinking of and gave him enough strength to hold back Ansem, even if it was only for a few seconds.

Sora tells Ansem to let Riku go and to give him back his heart.

Not me you should be worrying about, Sora, Riku thought. Focus on Kairi and yourself.

Ansem says that Sora must first give Kairi her heart back. Sora reaches up to his chest and collapses to his knees.

“Sora!” Kairi exclaimed, sitting up. “Was I hurting you?”

“No not really,” Sora said, completely ignoring the onscreen version of him that was in clear pain. “It was just sudden.” Both Kairi and Riku looked like they didn’t believe him.

Ansem tells Sora that Kairi’s heart is responding and that she’s been there the whole time, inside of Sora’s heart. Sora is in shock.

“I know you didn’t mean to,” Kairi started. “But thank you for keeping me safe.” She turned to Sora, smiling at him. “I know it was an accident, but you still kept my heart safe, just as Riku kept my body safe.”

“Always Kairi,” Sora responded, reaching out to clasp her hand. “Always.”

Ansem says that he knows all there is to know and Sora asks him who he is. “It is I, Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness.”

Aqua sucked in a breath. It’s Xehanort, Please don’t let it be him, He’s alive which means Terra’s alive, let him have died, Terra’s alive which means Xehanort’s alive, Why won’t you just die?

“Dramatic,” Axel muttered, mostly trying to keep the air light, knowing that he was a huge hypocrite for saying so. But it also… It also… Axel wasn’t an idiot, he couldn’t be to have survived in Organization 13 as long as he did, especially once Roxas and Xion started to get on certain badsides. He wasn’t an idiot.

Ansem. Xemnas. Once he would have thought that foolish and not possible but… He had long passed that threshold. He knew Xemnas came from Xehanort, the apprentice who managed to sway all six of the originals. At this point, he had to guess that Ansem came from him as well, which made a lot of sense due to the apprentice taking on his name near the end. And that… was problematic.

As Ansem advances on Sora, Donald and Goofy attempt to stop him but get swatted away. Ansem says that he’ll release Kairi now and asks her to use her power to open the door and lead him into everlasting darkness.

“No thanks,” Kairi said. “I like the light.”

Ansem brings the Keyblade down on Sora, but Sora hears Kairi’s voice warning him and manages to block the strike.

“Thanks Kairi,” Sora told her.

“Don’t remember it but I’m glad I did something,” she replied.

Riku gritted his teeth. He wished he had been snapped out of his rage long before Sora had to stab himself. Unfortunately, he hadn’t been, and he hadn’t really been doing anything of note to try and get his body back. After the initial panic, Ansem had told him he was planning to return Riku’s body to him once he managed to open the Keyhole. And well… Riku had already been making bad decisions.

Sora tells Ansem there’s no way he’s taking Kairi’s heart. The two of them clash.

Aqua and Terra both looked away from the screen, memories rushing to the forefront of both of their minds.

Radiant Garden, white hair and yellow eyes. Hissed out words of pain and damnation, Terra’s plea for her help.

Trying desperately to stop Xehanort, hearing his laughter echo around him as he could only watch helplessly, tangled in his own darkness as Aqua fought and lost to the man who had destroyed their life.

Sora manages to wrench the Keyblade from Ansem’s hand and Ansem vanishes. Sora calls out to him but Donald and Goofy pull his attention to the Keyhole.

Riku stiffened as he remembered what happened next, arm tightening around Sora. He shouldn’t have… shouldn’t have had to…

Sora attempts to close the Keyhole, but it doesn’t work and Goofy says it’s probably because the Keyhole isn’t complete. Donald asks what they should do and Goofy says they probably have to wake Kairi up and her power would complete the Keyhole.

“What if completing the Keyhole did something bad?” Ven asked, worrying his bottom lip. “Ansem specifically referenced it as a door to darkness.”

“It was the only thing we could think of,” Sora replied with a shrug, biting the inside of his cheek and getting the urge to look away. He had a feeling… that many people wouldn’t be happy with the way he chose to wake up Kairi.

Sora thinks Goofy is right and sees the dark Keyblade, walking over and picking it up. Sora gazes at it, repeating what Ansem had said.

Aqua sat up straight, abruptly thrown from the memories of the past. She… didn’t like the tone that Sora’s voice had suddenly taken on. Worry rocketed through her, not helped at all by the way that Kairi and Riku were curling closer to Sora, as futile as it was for Kairi due to Riku being in-between them. Her eyes flicked to Mickey, who had closed his eyes. He knew all this from Riku, he knew what Sora did.

Sora walks over to the sleeping Kairi and both Goofy and Donald cry out to him. He gives them a smile before stabbing himself in the heart.

For a second, it was dead silent in the watching room. Then chaos exploded.

“What that heck?!” Roxas exclaimed, nearly throwing himself off the couch as he sat up, eyes wide. Kairi clapped a hand to her mouth as she stifled a cry of frustration and fear and Riku’s arms went tight around Sora. Vanitas made a garbled sounding gasp, flinching backward into his chair, hands curling into the armrests while Ven’s mouth dropped open. Terra’s eyes went wide and Mickey’s closed, looking down in sadness. But Aqua…

Aqua was sitting stock still, eyes fixed on the sight of Sora, who was no older than fourteen at the time, with the Keyblade stabbed into his heart. And-

“I’m asking you, as my friends, just… put an end to me.”

“Fight him Terra!”

Dusty grounds covered in Keyblades.

“The Master tried to kill Ven.”

“Please Aqua, put an end to me.”

Around her there was noise, yelling, questions being thrown, but she couldn't hear any of it.

Cobbled paths, darkness and light clashing.

“Fight him Terra please.”

“No Ven, there’s another way.”

“Ven wake up.”

Shouting, shock, pain and worry, but she wasn't there anymore.

A Keyblade stabbing a heart, a friend slipping to the darkness.

“Terra would never do such a thing.”

“Aqua, you must bring them back.”

A scream in the air, ice crawling up a body.

“Quite the darkness user.”

Quieting, slowly. Voices drifting towards... her?

“You’re awful Aqua.”

Darkness pulling at her, at her bones, at her mind. Where were her friends? Had Terra escaped? Was Ven awake? The darkness pulled at her, twisting her memories in her head and twisting her visage in the mirror to fight her and she couldn’t breathe because it was all damp and there was nothing but darkness even more now that she didn’t have a Keyblade, and she couldn’t do anything nothing at all and she couldn’t do anything but cry-

“-qua!” Aqua snapped back to herself abruptly pitching forward as the arms shook her slightly. The hands on her shoulders tightened as they supported her and she was suddenly aware of the burning pain in her palms, the stickiness of her cheeks. Terra’s face came into view in front of her, nothing but worry and panic in his eyes and she took a deep breath, looking around.

Terra was kneeling in front of her, hands on her shoulders. Mickey was standing next to him and she was aware that Ven had apparently scooted away. The noise that had been there was gone, now replaced with stifling silence and she swallowed, eyes flicking around. They were looking at her.

“What happened?” She asked, looking down at her palms, seeing beads of blood from where she had pierced her own hands with her nails.

“You shut down,” Terra replied. “You weren’t saying anything, weren’t reacting. We realized about thirty seconds ago. It’s been about a minute since…” Since they saw Sora stab himself.

“I’m asking you to put an end to me.”

“Please Aqua, put an end to me.”

She sucked in a careful breath, curling her hands into fists to hide the wounds from the prying eyes. She rolled her shoulders slightly, a nonverbal cue to Terra who removed his hands, and she looked to the couch where the teenagers were.

The teenagers had changed positions while she was… out of it, Sora back in the middle of the couch allowing both Riku and Kairi to hold onto a different arm. Sora looked slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable, not meeting anyone’s gaze.

“Sora,” she said, and the younger boy looked up at her. “Don’t do that again.”

“I had to save-”

“I don’t care.” She cut him off. “I don’t care if the whole world is at stake, if every world is at stake. Do not…” She took in a shaking breath. “Do not do that. Your life is worth something. Worth more than what you can do for others, okay?” Sora nodded. “Okay?” She pressed. He was too young. Too, too young. It was her and the other Masters who were the ones to sacrifice for the worlds. Not them. Never them.

“Okay,” Sora responded but she had a feeling that wouldn’t be enough. She would need to keep an eye on him. Just like she would need to keep an eye on Ven and Terra. She hadn’t forgotten what they had requested of her.

Swallowing again, she leaned backwards into the couch, ignoring the way her palms burned slightly. She cast a Cure over them nonverbally, feeling the skin knit itself back together. No need to tell anyone what had happened. She could deal with her own problems.

As the Keyblade removes itself from Sora’s chest, six balls of light return to the captive princesses. A seventh returns to Kairi who wakes up and runs over to Sora, trying to catch him only to have him disintegrate in her arms.

“That was not a fun thing to wake up to,” she growled at Sora, holding his arm tighter. “I agree with Aqua, don’t do that again.” Sora grimaced. He had done it to save the world. He would do it again…

She calls out to him at the same time that Donald and Goofy do. Sora is briefly seen falling into darkness.

Wait a minute, Roxas thought. That’s not… that’s not how it happened, right?

Naminé had pressed a hand to her mouth. No matter how many times she saw it, either in her own memories or in Sora’s, she hated the way she had been brought into the world. In a suicidal, self-sacrifice by the boy who only ever wanted to do right by the world.

Kairi says that Sora can’t leave. Ansem, in his own body, appears from a portal, remarking that Kairi is awake.

Aqua flinched again. White hair, yellow eyes.

Ansem says that the Keyhole is complete, and that Kairi has served her purpose. Donald and Goofy move to defend Kairi.

Sora smiled at his friends. Even when he was gone, especially when he was gone, they defended his friends. When he couldn’t.

Ansem moved towards them but is stopped. Riku appears in front of him, telling Ansem he won’t use him for this.

Sora’s eyes widened. He hadn’t realized that…

“Riku!” He exclaimed, twisting to throw his arms around the older boy. “You stopped him!”

“Only for a second,” Riku replied, but accepted the hug anyway. “Then he won.”

“That second was all we needed,” Kairi told him, leaning as close as she could with Sora in-between them.

Terra looked away. I really did give you my entire destiny, didn’t I? He thought, biting his tongue. I didn’t want this for you but… You’re at least stronger than I am. You’re free, here, with your friends. I’m… Xehanort’s laughter, the way he would be deliberately let forward for a second, able to see things but not do anything, the darkness wrapping around his wrists and neck, keeping him pinned to the glass pane beneath him. Eleven years.

Kairi calls out for Riku, but he tells her that they need to run and that the Heartless are coming. Kairi looked conflicted but turned to leave and ran down the staircase.

“I wish I could have done something,” she murmured out, see herself fleeing onscreen.

“Kairi, you didn’t have a weapon and you had just been freed my heart,” Sora told her. “It’s okay that you had to run.”

She smiled ruefully before giving him a look. “Don’t worry, it’s not going to happen again,” she announced, wanting to summon her Keyblade to prove her point but the magic in the room stood firm. She opted for throwing her arm out dramatically.

Goofy asks about the Keyhole but Donald says they have to leave. A single Heartless jumps from the railing and starts to follow them as Ansem manages to banish Riku away.

“Riku?” Sora asked, worried.

“I just ended up in the Realm of Darkness,” Riku reassured him. “Then I met you by the door.”

Roxas was watching the Heartless with trepidation. If that was Sora… Had he just been created? That was how he was created?

Kairi pauses for a second in the doorway, saying she can’t leave them. Donald says they can’t stay, and they run out of the room, followed by the Heartless.

“Is that you?” Ven asked, connecting the dots in his head. Sora had technically lost his heart just then and a Heartless was typically created when that happened, at least according to them. Sora nodded once.

“That’s how me and Naminé were created?” Roxas asked, sounding more shocked than any of them had ever heard him. He was sitting on the edge of the couch, eyes wide and staring at Sora in shock.

“Yes?” Sora replied with a shrug. “At least, I assume. I’ve never fallen to darkness any other time, unless it happened during my year asleep.”

“It didn’t,” Axel said, having been there, and reached out, wrapping one arm around Roxas and guiding him back down into a more comfortable position.

“Created?” Terra asked and several people gave him looks.

“Roxas and Naminé are Sora’s and Kairi’s Nobodies,” Xion reminded him. “They were created when Sora extracted their hearts from himself because I guess that counts.” She shrugged. “Usually, it’s a lot more simpler than that.”

“It’s probably why Naminé and Roxas are so special,” Axel said offhand. “Because they weren’t created normally.”

Naminé looked down at her hands. She wouldn’t call what she could do “special”.

“But we’re our own people,” Roxas snapped out, wanting to stop that before it got started.

“Of course, you are,” Aqua replied and unseen to her, Vanitas flinched. Just a part of Ventus, just a shadow, just the darkness, not meant to exist. He tried to close his mind to the memories, but it wasn’t exactly easy.

Goofy notices the Heartless and Donald says he’ll take care of it. When the Heartless approaches, Donald whacks him on the head with his scepter.

Despite the situation, Kairi wasn’t the only one stifle giggles. Sora gave her a betrayed look.

“Kairi, why are you making fun of Heartless me’s plight?” He asked her overdramatically, leaning on her side slightly.

“Because it’s just funny,” she replied, shoving him away playfully. “Of all the magic that Donald knows, he decided to whack you on the head?”

“Maybe he knew it was you Sora,” Mickey replied. “Or had an inkling. Why else wouldn’t he do something more extreme?” Sora paused. He hadn’t thought about that.

The Heartless looks to Kairi, who blinks in surprise, before calling him Sora.

“How’d you recognize him?” Riku asked, having not been around for this part.

Kairi shrugged. “I tell myself “Princess of Heart” magic and leave it there. I honestly have no idea.”

“Ouch Kai,” Sora jibed. “Couldn’t even tell one of your best friends that you actually did recognize him. I’m hurt.” Kairi giggled again.

To the adults in the room, they couldn’t help the smiles that twitched on their lips. It was good that the three of them were able to have some lightheartedness, after everything that they had just witnessed.

More Heartless appear and Kairi attempts to shield Sora, before spinning and hugging him, covering him with her body when the Heartless leap at them. In a bright flash of light, Sora returns, Kairi still hugging him.

“Again, I have no idea how I did it,” Kairi told the room at large. “I just really wanted Sora to be okay.”

“Thanks Kairi,” Sora said. She smiled at him.

“Of course.”

The three of them are in shock of Sora’s return but move to face the Heartless. The Beast appears suddenly, scattering the Heartless and telling them to leave.

“He’s okay,” Xion noted. She had known he must have been, he and Belle both due to her meeting them before but still.

Sora tells the Beast to come with them, but he says he’s not leaving without Belle, which Sora nods to. The four of them run out of Hollow Bastion, leaving the Heartless behind.

“He got back to his world safe, right?” Terra asked and Sora wasn’t the only one to nod.

“They all did,” Sora confirmed. We all did.

Chapter Text

In a world of darkness, Riku is stumbling down a path.

Sora’s eyes widened. He knew that Riku ended up in the Realm of Darkness, it was how they closed the door together, but…

“Where are you?” Terra asked, worry for his intended successor racing through him. Was this… Ansem’s heart? Riku’s? It couldn’t have been, it was too big. Though, Terra had only ever seen the inside of Xehanort’s heart. It was possible the others were different. At least, he was glad that even if Riku was trapped within Ansem’s heart like he was within Xehanort’s, he wasn’t restrained and contained like Terra was. Terra didn’t want anyone to go through that.

“The Realm of Darkness,” Riku explained. “I woke up there after stopping Ansem from attacking Kairi.” Terra blinked in surprise but nodded in understanding. Strange, that Riku had ended up there but perhaps there was something else going on. He couldn’t help that the feeling hadn’t gone away the whole time he had been watching this world in particular. There was something else going on. And he had a feeling that Aqua knew about it.

Riku apologizes to Kairi and Sora as he stumbles. He wonders if this is the afterworld.

“It’s not and you’re not allowed to go there,” Sora told the older boy, giving him a look. Riku returned it with one of his own. This boy, who had stabbed himself in the chest with a Keyblade, was telling him that he wasn’t allowed to die? If one of them was going to die, it was probably going to be Sora, with all the ways he continued to throw himself into danger. Not that Riku was going to let that happen. Not ever.

Riku mentions that he’s not ready yet but is interrupted by a blue light, that calls out to him, telling him he’ll be there soon.

All of them made noises of surprise when they recognized Mickey’s voice and several of the watchers turned to look at the mouse. Aqua smiled, remembering her interactions with the mouse king in the Realm of Darkness and Riku relaxed slightly. Finally, finally, his past self had found someone who would truly care about him and his wellbeing and put himself between the boy and the darkness that tried to consume him, instead of pushing him deeper into it. He had found his friend. Riku thought back to earlier, to what Mickey had claimed. His Master. His-

Probably one of the best things that had ever happened to him.

“You made it safely to the Realm of Darkness then?” Ven asked and Mickey nodded.

“I wouldn’t call it ‘safe’,” Aqua muttered, remembering what the King had told her about his trip to the Realm of Darkness. Mickey gave her a hurt look, which she had no reaction to.

Riku asks who’s there and Mickey tells him that he found the Keyblade from this side.

“There’s a Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness?” Vanitas questioned, voice letting through a little bit of his clear shock. He hadn’t… The Master had never mentioned that. Was it possible that the Master couldn’t have known? But Xehanort was obsessed with balance, of light and darkness and their parallels. It was the literal reason he and Ventus were split. But… He had to have known, right? Because the Master knew everything. Right?

“Yep,” Mickey responded. “It actually looks a lot like yours Sora.” The boy looked to the king in interest. He had seen the Keyblade in passing, yes, but he hadn’t actually sat down and taken a look at it. “I would summon it for you, but…” Mickey laughed slightly, rubbing the back of his head as he tried, futile as it was, to grasp the light that lived in his chest that housed his Keyblade. But, of course, it didn’t work. “It’s your Keyblade, Kingdom Key, down to the keychain. It just has flipped colors. It’s called Kingdom Key Darkness, or just Kingdom Key D.”

“Huh,” Sora murmured out, trying to puzzle out this information. “Why would mine and Riku’s Keyblade look like the one from the Realm of Darkness?”

“Our Keyblade?” Riku questioned, looking at Sora in shock. Sora tipped his head to the side.

“Well Aqua did confirm that you’ve been a Keyblade Wielder, or at least had the potential to be one, for a decade. And while Maleficent could have been lying, yes, she could have also been telling the truth, especially if she has Ansem in her ear.” Sora looked away for a quick second. “You could have been the true wielder of Kingdom Key this whole time.”

Riku paused. “So? Kingdom Key is still yours.” Sora’s head whipped back to look at him. “What? It’s true. Even if it had been meant to be mine, it clearly chose you, as much as Aqua says that doesn’t happen.” Out of the corner of his eye, he could see her rubbing her temples in circle patterns. He felt like joining her. The more he learned, the more complicated this sounded. But he hadn’t forgotten the way she had reacted to Sora’s… method of freeing Kairi, so he had his eye on her just like he knew she and Terra had their eyes on him. “Plus, I’m happy with Way To The Dawn. It’s mine now, just like Kingdom Key is yours.”

Sora didn’t have anything to say to that.

“But why that Keyblade specifically?” Kairi asked, bringing focus back to Sora’s original question. “What’s so special about it?” Riku couldn’t answer her.

Mickey says that he’s been trying to get through to Riku but that the darkness in his heart kept him away.

Riku winced.

Terra brightened slightly. It was nice to know that someone had been looking after his intended successor, when it seemed like no one else had. It was clear that Riku and Mickey were close, just from their interactions while watching this. His gaze drifted back down to his hands. It should have been him, had he not so foolishly gotten himself attacked and beaten. He should have been there for his successor. Now, instead, Riku and his friends were left trying to protect the worlds from threats that he and Aqua should have been dealing with. He had really doomed all of them, hadn’t he?

Riku asks Mickey’s voice who he is and what has happened to himself. Mickey explains that his heart overcame the darkness, but it was too late for his body, which was why his heart was there, in the place of darkness where hearts are gathered.

“Yay for you,” Sora murmured, leaning into Riku’s side. “You overcame the darkness.”

Only because I saw you stab yourself, Riku thought. And was abruptly reminded about why I wanted to be strong and have the Keyblade in the first place. To protect you. Instead, I had hurt you, deeply.

I wonder if Ven and I are there, Vanitas couldn’t stop the thought from crossing his mind. The Keyblade Wielder from before, the one who had brought them there, has said that he brought them all from the same time. Which meant, as strange as it was, that he and his counterpart were still alive, even after everything. Unless they had been brought back from death like it seemed the other trio had been. Venty might have just been in his body, though asleep apparently, but what about him? Where had he been all this time? In the Realm of Darkness? Somewhere else?

He hated not knowing.

Riku asks what he should do, and Mickey tells him that the Door to Darkness will open soon but warns that they can’t enter it. They have to close it from both sides and to do that they needed two keys and two hearts.

The two Kingdom Keys, Aqua thought. But why those? When I was there, on Destiny Islands, there was nothing special about Sora, even if I can't remember a lot of that interaction. He was a normal boy who happened to be friends with another boy who was one of the brightest lights probably in existence. She remembered that at least about Riku. Though she couldn't help but feel like there was something else about Riku she was forgetting So, how could have Sora summoned a Keyblade with that much significance? Even if he was Bequeathed later, it wouldn’t have changed his potential. So, unless something drastically changed, it is most likely that the Kingdom Key was Riku’s to begin with, before it fell into Sora’s hands somehow. So, what was so important about Riku, what was his destiny? And had it fallen to Sora now?

Mickey wonders if maybe they were both destined to end up in the Realm of Darkness in order to close the door.

Riku couldn’t help the small face he made at the word destiny. What had destiny ever done for him? If everything was destined, why did he have to be destined for darkness? Why did Sora have to be destined to always throw himself into danger for others? Why them, of all people, of all teenagers? What was so special about them?

Riku mentions that Mickey seems to know everything and asks if Sora and Kairi are okay. Mickey asks if he feels the echoes of their hearts and tells Riku that how he perceives them depends on what is in his heart.

Kairi smiled and reached out, leaning on Sora’s side and grasping one of Riku’s hands. No matter what, no matter what happened, no matter her slight disagreements with Riku, it was clear that the three of them were bonded together by more than just friendship. They would always find their way back to each other.

Riku closes his eyes and imagines Sora and Kairi. He thanks Mickey and continues on down the dark path.

Sora smiled up at Riku. They would always be connected, Mickey was correct. Sora wasn’t going to let Riku slip away from him again.

In the Gummiship, Kairi and Sora are sitting watching the stars go by. Kairi wonders if Riku is okay.

“Did… Did you guys ask if Sora was okay?” Roxas questioned, still slightly reeling from the reveal of how he and Naminé came to be. He knew they weren’t normal; it had gone through his brain once or twice and the way that others seemed to treat them continued to hammer that point home, but he didn’t know that they were special because they were created when Sora stabbed himself with a darkness infused Keyblade to remove Kairi’s heart, and thus his, from his body. And… everyone was just treating that like it was normal? Like, he knew he didn’t know much about Somebodies, but given how everyone reacted when they saw it on the screen, you would think that they had reacted the same in real life. But at most, Donald and Goofy just seemed worried in the beginning, but just accepted it after it happened, and Sora returned. Maybe because it was the fact that they were being chased by Heartless and couldn’t stop to ask? Or they just hadn’t seen it?

“From stabbing himself?” Kairi questioned and Roxas nodded, forcing back the urge to bite his lip, from which he could now tell was a tic that he had gotten from Sora. “No,” she admitted with a sigh, eyes looking away. “I know we should have, because that wasn’t an okay thing to do.” The second part of her sentence was aimed at her friend, who gave her a sheepish smile, not seeming to get why it was bad, before looking back to Roxas. “I… I’ll admit I was still out of it from just waking up. I wasn’t as aware as it looked on the screen. As for Donald and Goofy… I can’t speak for them.”

“I’m sure they were worried about you,” Mickey said, words directed at both Sora and Roxas. “But they’re also both soldiers. They probably just had to prioritize one thing over another, and Ansem was the bigger threat at the time.” Sora nodded. He understood that well and it wasn’t like they needed to check on him. He was fine, it had barely hurt, and it had saved Kairi! A double win!

Roxas frowned but sat back. That… Maybe it was because he didn’t have any emotions of his own and thus wasn’t blinded by them, but that didn’t seem that great still. If Xion had done something like that, she had, he wouldn’t let her out of his sight for weeks.

Sora bets he’s fine and says he’s tough, with Kairi agreeing.

“I shouldn’t have brushed it off like that,” Sora murmured, eyes moving to Riku’s. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Riku replied. “You had a lot to worry about.”

Sora asks if she’s ever seen anything like this, motioning to the stars outside the window. He says that the first thing he thought when he saw it was that he wanted Kairi and Riku to be able to see it.

“The three of us need to go on a trip,” Sora announced, leaning on Riku’s side and reaching out to poke Kairi in the arm. “We’ll take my Gummiship. I need to show you guys all the places I’ve been.”

“That sounds fun,” Kairi replied with a smile.

“What about you, Riku?” Sora asked when Riku didn’t say anything.

“Well… Some of your friends, I’m not on the best terms with,” Riku said carefully, pushing back the true reason he was hesitant to go. He shouldn’t get in between Kairi and Sora; he had done that enough.

“Aw, that’s okay,” Sora dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Besides, you’ve changed, and they’ll see that. You need to meet them, some of them know how much I’ve been searching for you.” Riku bit the inside of his cheek.

“Maybe,” he eventually settled on.

It’s okay, Sora thought. By the time we’re out of here, I’ll have convinced him. It was just that he and Riku hadn’t gotten a chance to explore the world together like they had wanted to ever since they were younger. And it had been long enough since Sora got space travel that they really needed to do it. He would convince Riku.

Kairi says it’s beautiful and Donald tells them all to hold on as he starts the ship at a quick speed. Donald says they’re heading to Traverse Town.

“Back to Aerith and the others?” Ven asked and Sora nodded. Kairi made a face as she remembered having to stay behind. She didn’t want to be left behind ever again.

The Gummiship lands back in Traverse Town. Aerith is waiting for them.

“How did she know you were going to be there?” Naminé asked, tipping her head to the side and Sora smiled, chuckling slightly.

“Aerith just seems to… know things,” he explained. “None of us really ask, but she seems to have some sort of presence that can just know things.” He shrugged. “Just something Aerith can do.”

Aerith greets them, guessing who Kairi is and saying that Sora found her. When Sora hesitates about Riku, Aerith reassures him that he’ll be fine.

Sora made a face. Again, he shouldn’t have been so dismissive of Riku. He had been worried, yes, but it hadn’t truly passed his mind that Riku could be hurt by something. It still didn’t. Riku was… well, Riku. He was the older kid, the one who was better at literally everything. The one who he could always rely on. The idea that Riku could be hurt was laughable. But he should have been better.

Goofy tells Aerith that they found the rest of Ansem’s report and she says that’s good news. Jiminy introduces himself and says that he has all the pages.

“I keep forgetting about that guy,” Axel muttered, having jumped slightly when Jiminy revealed himself from Donald’s pocket. He was barely around after all.

Aerith leads the five of them to the Hotel, where Leon and Yuffie are. Yuffie greets Sora and realizes that Sora found Kairi. Sora replies to her before looking to Leon in the back of the room, who asks Sora to tell him what happened.

“No hello?” Xion asked and Sora shrugged.

“That’s just how Leon is,” he said, echoing his other explanation for Leon’s behavior during his second trip to Traverse Town. “Straight to a point.”

Sora recounts what happened in Hollow Bastion. Leon says that darkness must be flowing out of the Keyhole and Goofy guesses that’s why there were so many Heartless around.

“If darkness was flowing out of the Keyhole to create the extra number of Heartless,” Terra murmured. “And the Heartless have been a problem for a while, when did the Keyhole first get formed? Kairi just got there a week ago. Much like some of the other princesses.”

“It probably started forming once the first princess was captured,” Aqua said, thinking it over in her head. “They just needed Kairi to finish the Keyhole and open it fully. But they had it ever since they capture the first princess which means some of the princesses have been there for a while at least.” Her mind drifted back to Cinderella. She hoped the girl hadn’t been caught for too long. She had found her world in the Realm of Darkness before it was restored, but she didn’t have a good sense of time in there. It could have been fallen for months or years, even before Aqua stumbled upon it.

Kairi nodded. “Yeah, months at least,” she replied, remembering the few conversations she had managed to have with her fellow Princesses of Heart. Aqua winced. Again, she hoped Cinderella hadn’t been one of them.

Riku and Mickey both noticed that Sora had carefully skirted around what he had done to save Kairi’s heart.

Aerith wonders about the only way to stop them and Sora responds that it’s sealing the Keyhole, brandishing the Keyblade. Leon cautions him that they don’t know what will happen once the Keyhole is sealed.

“Wouldn’t it just stop the darkness?” Ven asked, causing Vanitas to roll his eyes. Obviously, when they split, he had gotten the brains.

“The Keyhole could be connected to the world’s heart,” he told his other half with a sneer. “Or it could do something to the darkness already out in the worlds, hurting them.” Ven blinked in surprise, not having thought about that and Vanitas rolled his eyes again.

Aqua gave Vanitas a side eye, carefully biting her tongue to stop herself from saying anything. It was obvious to her now, despite how much she despised it, that Vanitas was smart. Smarter than she had given him credit for. She had known he had worked to drive them apart, just like Xehanort had done, but she had assumed it had been under Xehanort’s guidance. That he had told the darkness user what to say and do. The implication that Vanitas could have done it on his own was… worrying.

Sora says they can’t just stay here and that he has a friend still back in Hollow Bastion.

Riku looked away. He knew it was Sora, so it wasn’t like the boy was going to do anything mean but… Sora still saw you as a friend, even when you stole the Keyblade, fought him, opened your heart to darkness. How could you possibly compare to that? How dare you even stand in that light when you’re so dark?

Leon agrees that that they can’t do nothing and says that Riku’s Keyblade must have been born of the captive princesses’ hearts, just like the Keyhole.

“Ansem’s Keyblade actually,” Sora corrected absentmindedly, mostly for himself. He couldn’t believe he had once believed that to be Riku’s Keyblade. Now, having seen Way To The Dawn, it was so obvious that the Keyblade had never been his. Between Riku’s current Keyblade and Kingdom Key, the idea that a Keyblade that dark could have ever been Riku’s was laughable. Riku was far too bright for that.

Kairi says that her heart was missing though, and Leon says it must have remained incomplete and now that it is destroyed, the other princesses’ hearts must have returned to them.

“Like we saw,” Naminé said, thinking back to the orbs of light returning to the princesses after Sora… stabbed himself. Sora nodded.

Donald says that Belle and the Beast must be together then and Goofy says that Jasmine and Alice are probably awake too. Aerith says that she thought the darkness would be stronger now that the Keyhole is complete, but Leon tells her that the princesses are probably still at the castle, holding back the darkness.

Kairi winced, looking away. Another time of you doing nothing, her thoughts said. You could have stayed, could have done your duty as a Princess of Heart and kept the darkness back. Instead, you ran, even after Sora sacrificed himself for you. What kind of a princess, of a Keyblade Wielder are you?

Donald says they have to help them, and Leon tells them if anyone can, it’s them. Aerith remembers that they haven’t read Ansem’s report yet.

Roxas made a face, not being the only one to do so. He really didn’t want to hear anymore words by that man.

Jiminy gives her the pages, with Donald remarking that they found it in Hollow Bastion.

Mickey thought that made sense. With Hollow Bastion once being Radiant Garden, it made sense that most of the report had remained there, in the castle where it had been penned. He sighed. He didn’t know if he wanted to hear more from his old friend. While it was clear that in the end, Ansem had regretted what he had done, it didn’t change that he had done it. That he had hurt Roxas, Riku, Naminé, had plunged his world into darkness, even if it was possibly indirectly. He should have seen it, when he met the man all those years ago. Should have seen that Ansem didn’t truly know how to stop until he was shown that he was only making it worse. Mickey had seen it with the apprentices, with the machine in The World That Never Was. He should have known.

“Simply astonishing! Today I had a guest from another world. He is a king, and his vessel is built from the material that composed the meteors.”

Several gazes turned to Mickey.

“Your first meeting?” Aqua asked and Mickey nodded. His eyes drifted to Terra. He hadn’t… He hadn’t thought about the first meeting for years after it came to his attention that Radiant Garden had fallen, the memory locking itself away with his memories of Ven and Aqua. He couldn’t deal with losing yet another friend a mere months after losing them, so he did his best not to think about Radiant Garden. But now…

He could remember the apprentice, coming in through the doors. White hair, a placid expression. Wanting to talk to Ansem but Ansem seemingly upset at the presence of the man.

He had never met Terra, only ever heard about him. Perhaps if he had, he could have seen what had clearly happened. He had heard Aqua’s words when they woke up. “You, you.” Possession or mind-control. Perhaps both. And now, knowing what he did, it was unfortunately clear to him what must have happened. But that would imply that Xehanort was alive, and Mickey couldn’t deal with that, wouldn’t deal with that, because that mean that Aqua’s and Ven’s sacrifices had been for nothing and that Mickey had done nothing while that evil darkness user moved across the worlds for ten years.

Donald realizes that it’s talking about Mickey. “He had much to tell, and we talked for many hours, but one story in particular caught my interest—that of a key called the ‘Keyblade’.”

Sora couldn’t help the giggle that slipped out of his mouth. “What happened to World Order, your majesty?” He asked. “I highly doubt that Donald would approve of that.”

Mickey gave the boy a smile. “Like we said earlier, World Order wasn’t that much a thing when the four of us were traveling around,” he replied, with a head nod in the way of Aqua and the others. “And Ansem clearly had some idea of the outside world already, it wasn’t like I was dropping it all new on him.”

“It is said to hold phenomenal power. One legend says its wielder saved the world, when another says that he wrought chaos and ruin upon it.”

At that, the three older Keyblade Wielders looked away, thoughts swirling in each of their heads. It had been a harsh lesson the three of them had to learn during those weeks, when fighting Xehanort and Vanitas. That Keyblades could be used for evil and at the behest of Darkness. Master Eraqus had always taught them that Keyblades were weapons of light and anyone who had one were then warriors of light. The idea that someone evil could use one… wasn’t even crossing their minds.

“I must know what this Keyblade is.”

At this line, Naminé couldn’t help but remember, as much as she didn’t want to, Marluxia’s obsession with the Keyblade. His want to know it, to control it, to the point that he was willing to destroy Sora’s entire mind to control it. A want seemingly created from nothing, as Marluxia’s memories were nothing but blank before his time in the Organization. What was so special about the Keyblade that it drew people to it, wanting to understand it?

“A key opens doors. It must be connected to the door that I have opened.”

Donald and Goofy realize that the King had met Ansem in the past and that he knew about Keyblades.

Axel paused, thinking back over the words. So, it wasn’t Xehanort quite yet, but he knew the man had written at least one report pretending to be Ansem. After he… Axel blinked. He knew that the apprentices, minus Ienzo, had done something to Ansem, had gotten rid of him. For the longest time, he had believed they had killed the man, but that clearly wasn’t true if he was alive. So, where had he been?

Goofy wonders where Mickey could be, and Aerith says there are only more and more questions.

“Story of our lives,” Roxas muttered. Every time he had learned something, about himself or Xion or even Axel, it had only led to more and more questions. He had never gotten a clear answer. He hoped he would now.

Sora says that they know something and know what they have to do. Yuffie tells him he has to go back to Hollow Bastion.

Aqua made a face, something copied by the few other adults in the room. Sora needed a break, a time to take a breather and process everything that had happened to him in the past couple of hours. He needed to sleep, probably, needed to eat, needed something more than just throwing himself back into work.

Sora agrees but Donald says that the Ocean Between is full of Heartless, but Leon tells them to talk to Cid. The four of them leave the shop and Yuffie muses over Hollow Bastion, remarking that she can barely remember it.

Kairi felt a pang in her chest, relating to Yuffie. They were both from Radiant Garden, both from the same place. And yet, they both could barely remember it.

Leon points out that it has been nine years since they’ve been there and Aerith wonders how they’re all doing.

“Who’s she talking about?” Naminé questioned, hearing the plural in Aerith’s voice and Sora paused.

“I think she is talking about the others that she once knew, who lived in Radiant Garden,” the boy said. “Like Cloud and the others.”

Sora meets with Cid and tells him they need to get back to Hollow Bastion. Donald says that it’s a traffic jam of Heartless and asks Cid if he can do anything.

“Sora, did Cid give your Gummiship weapons?” Riku questioned, raising an eyebrow at the boy when he didn’t answer immediately. “Sora?”

“Not… yet?” Sora responded and Riku’s second eyebrow went up to join his first. Kairi giggled into her hand. “What? We needed it to defend ourselves.”

Riku shook his head slowly with a sigh. Giving Sora access to guns on a ship he already seemed extremely excited about piloting… Riku couldn’t see that ending well.

Cid remarks that taking care of Heartless is usually their job and Donald asks what they should do. Sora says there must be some way and Cid says they simply have to go around instead of through.

“There sure are a lot of pathways around the worlds, aren’t there?” Kairi mused and Sora nodded, echoed by Aqua and Ven. While the three of them hadn’t ever used Gummiships before, preferring their gliders, it hadn’t stopped them from moving around the worlds freely, even before all of this.

Cid says they should install a new Navigation Gummi and go around but Goofy says they don’t have any new Navigation Gummis. Cid tells them to go down to the secret waterway and that there’s one down there.

“The caves in the sewer?” Ven asked, thinking back to Sora prior visit to Traverse Town and Sora nodded.

Cid reveals that when he arrived in Traverse Town nine years ago he stashed it there in case they ever needed to go back. Kairi questions the nine years ago and Cid explains that they escaped from Hollow Bastion and ended up in Traverse Town.

Lucky, Axel thought, curling one hand into a fist and trying not to think about… everything that had happened, both before and after his and Isa’s… transformation into Nobodies. At least you got out. Many people didn’t. ‘Ri, his grandmother. The women from the salon, the man who sold flowers.

Goofy realizes that Hollow Bastion is their Homeworld and Cid says that he never guessed a kid like Sora would end up needing the Navigation Gummi. Sora says that he’s not a kid.

Yes, you are. The thought made its way to all of the adults in the room. Sora was fourteen when he faced this problem. He was only fifteen now when he had saved the worlds again. He was very much a kid.

We should have been there, should have been there, Aqua thought, looking down at her hands, the train of thought very familiar to her ever since she started to watch this. We should have been there to take the burden off their shoulders, should have guided them, taken care of them. But they hadn’t. And Sora and Riku and Kairi had suffered for it.

Cid corrects Sora, saying that he’s not just a kid, before telling him to go and get the Gummi. He says he’ll do some maintenance on the ship with Goofy and Donald’s help and Sora agrees, he and Kairi leaving the shop.

“It wasn’t dangerous down in the waterways, was it?” Terra asked and Sora shrugged.

“A little, there were some Heartless, but nothing that I couldn’t handle,” Sora responded. Aqua winced. Again, he should be taking a break, not going and throwing himself into danger again.

The two of them make their way down the waterway, Sora shielding Kairi from the Heartless.

Kairi made a face at herself on screen. She wasn’t… But it was fine. Kairi had her own Keyblade now and she wouldn’t be helpless again. Never again. She would learn to fight, and she would be right there next to Sora, the two of them fighting Heartless and never being separated again.

The two of them make it to the cavern, where there is no Heartless. Kairi walks up to the mural, remarking that places like these are always exciting and Sora says that it’s like the cave back on their island.

Riku looked away. The Secret Place, Their place. Until Sora brought Kairi, because of course he wanted to spend time with her. Their place becoming their place.

The sun in the painting shines brightly and gives Sora the Navigation Gummi. Kairi asks if it is the Gummi and Sora confirms it, saying they should take it back to Cid.

Mickey couldn’t help but wonder how it was that Cid managed to hide the Gummi in the wall like that. Last he knew, Gummis couldn’t change shape, not like it clearly had.

Kairi looks to the moon mural through the tunnel and mentions a light in the darkness. Sora says that’s like her grandmother’s story and Kairi is surprised before remembering, saying that they were together all along.

“Man, you’re really out of it, aren’t you?” Axel asked, able to see was probably everyone else was missing. He had gotten used to reading body language while in the Organization because it wasn’t like he could rely on their words to be truthful.

“Yes,” Kairi admitted with a hint of embarrassment, looking down to the ground and not making eye contact with anyone. “I can’t really remember any of this looking back on it now. My first memory that I can remember concretely from after I lost my heart would probably be Sora’s and my goodbye, when all the worlds were being restored. Everything before that, even once I’m freed, is… foggy. Except for giving Sora my charm.”

Naminé flinched at the mention of the charm, trying not to think about it. About white halls and desperation and lightning crackling down the walls, sadistic laughter following after it.

“You should have said something,” Sora told her, twisting to look at her. He hadn’t… How had he not realized that Kairi wasn’t fully awake yet?

“How did no one notice?” Vanitas asked with an eyeroll, a sneer in his words. Honestly, he knew nothing of the girl and was watching second hand but even he could tell that Kairi wasn’t fully there.

Sora looked to the side. He should have…

Because they were also all exhausted, Aqua thought. Sora had just come from fighting who knows how many Heartless, half of the time without a Keyblade, had to fight his closest friend, twice, stabbed himself and got himself turned into a Heartless, and then fought through more Heartless once Kairi saved him. It’s no wonder why they’re all clearly working on half of their energy.

Sora says that it’s funny, that he looked everywhere for her but that she was with him the whole time. Sora says it’s time to get Riku back.

After everything, after everything, he would always come back for you, Riku’s thoughts wondered. Why? What have you done to deserve that loyalty? Riku sighed slightly, closing his eyes. Nothing.

Kairi asks if he thinks if things will ever be the same between the three of them. She starts to say that Riku’s lost his heart but trails off.

“Well, not the same but close enough,” Kairi said, looking at the two of them. “It would be rather boring if everything just went back to the way it was, wouldn’t it?”

“Of course!” Sora responded. “We’ve been through so much. Just because we’ve changed, and our lives have changed doesn’t mean anything has to change between us.”

But I want it to change, the other two thought, both unaware that the other was thinking the same. I want it to change between the two of us.

Sora says that Riku will be okay and that he turned into a Heartless and Kairi saved him.

“Not that it was the same,” Sora corrected his past self. What had happened with him and what had happened with Riku was vastly different.

Sora says they’re here thanks to her. Kairi says she didn’t want to just forget him, she couldn’t.

“Also, Princess of Heart magic,” Kairi said offhandedly. “Even if we have no idea how it works.”

Sora says that it means that their hearts are connected, and the light of their hearts broke through the darkness. He saw that light and it saved him.

I hope so, Aqua thought, with a quick look to Terra. If all hearts are connected and they can help each other out of the darkness, I hope that means we can help Terra. We can pull him from the darkness Xehanort threw him into. It didn’t leave her mind that when they left this place, Terra would be returned to the darkness, to being imprisoned inside of Xehanort’s heart, trapped in the darkness. Sure, she would be returned to the Realm of Darkness, but at least there she was herself. She existed for herself. She didn’t know what she would do when that time came, and she had to let go of Terra again.

Kairi says that no matter how deep the darkness, there will always be a light shining within. Sora says he guesses it’s more than just a fairytale.

“The Age of Fairytales,” Ven murmured to himself for no apparent reason and a pang went through his head. Why… did that mean so much to him?

Kairi says let’s go save Riku but Sora pauses, saying that Kairi can’t go with them.

“Not anymore,” Kairi said, giving Sora a look. “I have a Keyblade of my own now. I’m not being left behind again.”

“Of course,” Sora responded.

Kairi asks why and Sora says it’s too dangerous. Kairi says they’ve made it this far by sticking together and that Sora can’t do it alone, but Sora says that they aren’t alone even if they’re apart.

“We’re never alone,” Sora murmured, eyes moving to Riku, then Kairi. “None of us. We always have each other in our hearts.”

Aqua reached out, wrapping an arm around Ven and holding him close, feeling Terra’s hand settled on her shoulder. The three of us are always connected, through our Wayfinders and through our hearts.

Both Roxas and Xion leaned into Axel’s sides. The three of us spent one of the most dangerous, backstabbing year together. Even Kingdom Hearts itself won’t be able to keep us apart if we exist after this.

Vanitas rolled his eyes. Such sappiness. His chest burned and he pushed down the urge to summon an Unversed. He didn’t need anyone, not at all.

Naminé looked down at her hands. Are the two of us… connected? She wondered, thinking back to the boy with silver hair from the while corridors. Even though I don’t have a heart and yours is a replica? Can we still… be together?

Mickey smiled as he looked around the room. It was clear that, no matter where they came from or what they went through, Keyblade Wielders always had a habit of coming back to each other, no matter what.

Kairi asks if she can’t help, and Sora admits that she’d kind of be in the way.

Roxas snorted. “Brutal,” he muttered. Kairi gave him a look.

Kairi says he wins and gives him something. He looks down and sees her lucky charm from before when they were building the raft.

Naminé gazed at the charm, seeing all the variations of it in her head. Everything she had changed and manipulated.

The Lucky Charm turned into one made of a yellow star which turned into a silver crown on a chain which turned back into a yellow star.

Kairi explains that it’s her lucky charm and he has to bring it back to her. Sora says he will.

Sora blinked in surprise, suddenly reaching down into one of his pockets and pulling out the charm.

“Here,” he told her, pressing it into her hand. “I brought it back.” Kairi paused, looking at the charm before shaking her head and gently giving it back to him.

“Keep it,” she told him. “This fight isn’t over. You’ll need it until then.” Keep it, as a token of my affection for you.

“If you’re sure,” Sora said and at her nod, he placed it back in his pocket. “I’ll take good care of it.”

Kairi asks if he promises and Sora says he promises. They look back at the moon mural.

“And I always keep my promises,” Sora told her.

“I know,” she replied. Always. You’ll always come back to me.

Chapter Text

In the Ocean Between, the Gummiship flies through. Goofy asks Sora if he said goodbye to Kairi.

“Did they think something was going to happen?” Ven asked, tipping his head to the side. Usually, goodbyes were only said in dire circumstances, especially in this context. Or perhaps he just had a skewed view of things like that and goodbyes were more common outside of the Land of Departure.

“I don’t think so,” Sora replied, shaking his head slightly. “I think Goofy just wanted to make sure that Kairi and I had a moment. They had been there the whole time we were searching for each other after all.”

Sora says that he said goodbye to everyone. Donald wonders about Cid’s goodbye, as it implied they would be back there.

Sora frowned slightly. He hadn’t… actually been back to Traverse Town since that time. Leon and the others had found their original world, all the other worlds had been restored once they defeated Ansem… He supposed that it simply didn’t have a need to return. He felt sad at that. He missed it… if only a little. It had been the first world, ignoring his original one, that he had been to.

Chip and Dale contact them and Goofy asks if they’re alright. Chip confirms it and says that Minnie and Daisy are okay as well.

Mickey couldn’t help the small sigh of relief that went through him when Chip confirmed that Minnie was okay. He knew she was strong and capable, it had been one of the things that had drawn him to her, but he still couldn’t help but worry whenever he was away from the Disney Castle. Especially because he knew that being away was his own fault and not something out of their control. Once we get out of here, before we tackle whatever danger is in the future, I’ll visit Minnie, he promised himself. I want to see her. Plus, I need to show Riku around and get him his own room.

Donald asks why they called then, and Chip explains that they were looking into the Ocean Between in an effort to figure out why there were so many Heartless.

“Well, we know that now,” Sora murmured. He wondered why he hadn’t told them that back then. Perhaps it was because he was still surprised at the communication. He hadn’t been expecting it.

Goofy thanks him and Minnie appears on the communicator, eliciting a reaction from both Donald and Goofy.

Mickey perked up when he saw his wife. Sure, he had seen her a couple of times during the year Sora spent asleep, but mostly from a distance. He had constantly been trying to run around, keeping the Organization contained, keeping an eye on Riku, so he hadn’t actually seen her in over a year.

He missed her.

Minnie tells them that more and more stars are disappearing and says that Mickey must be terribly worried as well. She asks them to help the king and the Keybearer to save the worlds.

At least, when Minnie said that, she included them, Aqua thought, working to try and put her mind back on track from everything she had figured out. How was she going to tell Terra? Her hands twitched. And she couldn’t have known that Sora was listening. She also could have been unaware that the “Key Bearer” was a teenager. Still, more and more adults putting responsibilities on Sora. The kid was fourteen at the time.

Goofy says she can count on them and the signal cuts off. Sora asks who that was and Goofy says that it’s from the Castle, mentioning that they promised after they found everyone, they would take everyone over to the Castle.

“That offer still stands Sora,” Mickey told him, smiling at the way the boy lit up slightly. “To all three of you. It would be nice for you to see the Castle.”

“Of course,” Sora chirped, smile breaking across his face. He didn’t know if he should tell Mickey… “Though, I’ve already been there.”

“You have?” Mickey asked, surprise shooting through him. When had Sora gone to the Disney Castle? He wracked his brain. It could have been during his journey after awakening but… wouldn’t have Mickey seen it? Unless he was busy with either Riku or Ansem…

Riku echoed Mickey’s question, turning to face the boy. It must have been during his journey around the worlds after the year asleep but… There were very few times he hadn’t been shadowing him, keeping him safe. Working to keep his vow.

“Yep, Donald, Goofy, and I visited just a few weeks ago,” Sora recounted. “We had to protect something called the “Cornerstone.”

“The Cornerstone was in danger?” Mickey asked, a shred of panic entering his tone. If the Cornerstone was damaged in any way, the aftereffects could be catastrophic. And it was too important to-

“Yes, but it’s better now,” Sora reassured him. “We fixed it.”

Mickey relaxed slightly at the reassurance, but it only strengthened his resolve to return home once they were out of there. One, to check in with Minnie. Two, because now he also had to check on the Cornerstone. His mood dropped slightly. The mere idea of the Cornerstone being broken, being gone… He couldn’t deal with it. Not when it was the last thing he had of his brother.

Donald says that he has to meet Minnie and Daisy and Sora agrees, the Gummiship then moves into a warp hole to get to Hollow Bastion.

“They were very nice,” Sora confirmed with a nod, remembering meeting the two women. “Though I think Minnie misses you,” he told Mickey.

Mickey nodded. “I miss her too.”

The Gummiship lands in Hollow Bastion, the three of them getting out and moving towards the Castle, fighting Heartless the whole way.

Riku looked away. He’s only there for the princesses, his mind hissed at him. He’s only there for the princess. But Sora had said to Leon that he still had a friend there.

While fighting, Goofy wonders if the Heartless were possibly like Sora, once somebodies from somewhere who just lost their hearts.

Axel snorted quietly before pausing. Well, it seemed obvious to him now, that knowledge that he had been living with for the past eleven years, the knowledge that out there a Heartless existed that held the last remaining parts of his heart. Out of all of them, Marluxia seemed to be the only one whose heart had stayed with him, in the form of the creature he could control. Or at least, that was what Xigbar had said, and Marluxia had never argued with the older man’s assessment of the creature. But, Marluxia has always struck him as odd, even before he figured out the whole “overthrow the Organization” plot. Axel technically wasn’t supposed to know this, but before, when Saix actually told him things, he had been informed that Marluxia in his first couple of weeks, had acted very similar to how Roxas had acted in his first weeks, something that hadn’t happened with any of the other members. Except Larxene. And Marluxia hadn’t been much older than Roxas was, at the time.

Coincidence? He didn’t know. Saix had always told him, when he was younger, that his mind was going to get him in trouble. All he knew that before he fully gave up and fell into the apathy, the way Xigbar looked Marluxia had used to creep him out. It didn’t help that the older man had been the one to “find” the boy, already a Nobody. If Xigbar was to be believed.

He didn’t know what he believed anymore.

Sora says maybe but that they can’t let anything stop them right now. Donald says that they’re not going to lose when a roar sounds through the air.

“The Beast?” Xion asked, recognizing that roar from the time she had been in the Beast’s Castle. He had been… not scary, but unnerving in his protection of Belle and the others. Maybe it was because she didn’t have a heart to understand it.

Sora nodded.

As Sora and the others move towards the Castle, The Beast joins them, telling them they might need his strength. Sora asks where Belle is and Beast replies that she’s still in the Castle.

Doing her job as a Princess of Heart, Kairi thought. Something I’ve been lacking to do. Not anymore. I’ll be the best Princess of Heart and Keyblade Wielder. That way, I’ll always be able to stay with Sora. No matter what.

Goofy asks if she was stopped by the Heartless and Beast says that she stayed for a reason, along with the other Princesses. Donald wonders why and Sora says they should go ask them.

“Did you miss Leon’s whole explanation?” Vanitas asked with a raise of his eyebrow. “He said why they were probably staying.” Sora looked to the side, a blush coloring his cheeks darker.

“I forgot,” Sora muttered, and Vanitas rolled his eyes. If he had ever forgotten something like that, especially so soon after hearing it? The results… would not be pretty. Blood spattering the ground, his chest feeling raw and burned from the amount of Unversed killed by Master Xehanort. Shivering and shaking as the temperature dropped as night came and unable to gather enough power to create a Fire spell, like he usually did each night.

The four of them fight their way back through Hollow Bastion, entering the Castle itself. Donald sees the Beast going off on his own and calls to Sora, causing the three of them to follow him.

“He’s not that much of a team player, is he?” Terra asked and both Roxas and Sora chuckled. Sora flicked his gaze to his Nobody.

“Have you met him?” He asked, sensing the recognition that was in the movement and Roxas huffed, looking off to the side.

“Yes,” he responded. “A couple of times.” At least, he had seen him. But that counted, right?

“Cool,” Sora responded. Roxas paused. He didn’t know how he expected Sora to respond to that, but it wasn’t… like that.

They end up in the library when the Beast and Belle reunite, hugging.

Xion and Sora both smiled at the reunion, happy for the two of them.

Belle sees them after backing up from the Beast and asks them if they are here to seal the Keyhole. Sora warns her that it’s dangerous there and asks why she’s staying.

“Where are the others?” Aqua asked.

“In the Keyhole room,” Sora explained. “Belle just came to search for Beast.”

Belle explains that they’ve been holding back the Keyhole with their power, but they can’t for much longer.

Should have done, should have done, Kairi thought. Shouldn’t have been left behind again.

Sora says they’ll take care of it and Belle says they should head to the grand hall then, where the other princesses are waiting. They head off.

“How are they able to move about the Castle?” Terra asked, watching them move. “Wouldn’t their light be so bright that all the Heartless would attack them for it?”

“Well…” Sora trailed off. He didn’t… actually know. “I don’t know. I suppose I never questioned it.”

“Well, Heartless don’t attack me,” Kairi piped up, remembering the Castle that Never Was. “Unless I attack them first. And then they do. But if I’m just walking about, they don’t.” She got several looks of surprise at that, Sora included. Ven wondered if the same applied to him.

“I reckon that it’s from the lack of darkness in your heart,” Mickey said, gaining their attention. “Heartless are drawn to everyone because almost everyone has some form of darkness in their heart which the Heartless can exploit and cause the person to fall and become a Heartless themselves. But you, and the others, having no darkness at all, wouldn’t appeal that much to a Heartless, because they couldn’t turn you into a Heartless.”

“Huh,” Riku mused, giving Kairi a look. “I thought it strange that you only started to be attacked in the Castle once you started fighting them first.” Kairi shrugged.

Sora and the others enter the hall, where the other princesses are. Cinderella moves forward and introduces herself, mentioning that they’ve been waiting for him and that her world had already disappeared.

Aqua’s eyes widened as she laid eyes on her friend, a sad smile moving across her face. Cinderella looked older. Not so much that it was clearly visible, and she might not even be as old she would have been, if she didn’t age while imprisoned by Maleficent and Ansem, but it was enough that Aqua could see it. She had thought of Cinderella often while traversing in the Realm of Darkness, especially after finding the Castle in the Realm of Darkness. A pang went through her heart. Everything she had lost… Terra, Ven, Eraqus, Cinderella, Stitch, Zack, everyone she had met and known. All gone from her in some way.

Terra looked at Aqua through the corner of his eye, a smirk growing on his face slightly. Not that he was going to say anything, but for all Aqua had ranted to him through the years of their childhoods about how unrealistic love at first sight was, it clearly hadn’t stopped her from developing at least some sort of crush on the girl on the screen. He wasn’t an idiot, despite what many would say. He could read Aqua like an open book.

Sora asks where Ansem is and Aurora steps forward, introducing herself and saying that the darkness from the Keyhole moved forward and swallowed him, making him vanish.

Terra looked away from the screen when Aurora moved forward, the good mood he had abruptly washing away. He still… didn’t know whether or not that had been him. Of course, when the memory had flashed across his mind when he had watched Xehanort subject those kids to the experiment, Xehanort had gleefully told him that there was no way he didn’t do himself by some capacity, but he had done his best to not start believing Xehanort’s words. He had seen what it had done the last time he did. Still, it lingered in his mind.

“She can’t catch a break, can she?” Ven muttered, recognizing the woman from the Enchanted Domain. The same place Maleficent was from. The same woman who Maleficent had menaced before.

Snow White says that even though Ansem is gone the flood of darkness hasn’t stopped and that they’re working together to hold it back. Sora asks who she is, and she introduces herself.

Both Ven and Terra grimaced. They remembered her world and what had happened there. Ven still needed an answer from Terra about what had actually happened…

Aurora says that even as the darkness consumed him, he was smiling.

Riku shivered, looking away. He hadn’t thought he would ever think this, but he was glad that his heart ended up in the Realm of Darkness. He didn’t know how much he could have taken watching, especially fighting against Sora after everything he had seen. Everything that had been reminded to him.

Jasmine tells him to hurry, and that the darkness is going to escape the Keyhole. Alice says they can’t hold it back for much longer.

Aqua… could give them the benefit of the doubt. They were all probably exhausted, no short way confused, and able to feel the darkness that was attempting to drown the worlds. So, she couldn’t really blame them for placing for expectations on Sora.

At the same time, Sora could really use an adult who wasn’t going to ask him how he planned to save the world this week.

Sora says they’re on it and Snow White says that they’ll do what they could in the meantime. Cinderella says that apparently the Keyhole manifested from their power but that she has a hard time believing it, saying that she didn’t think she had any power like that.

Kairi could relate with the other Princess of Heart. Even now, with hard, concrete proof, it was still hard to believe. She had a feeling she wasn’t the only one who thought that.

Sora says that he never thought he’d wield the Keyblade either and Cinderella supposes that it’s true, giving Sora a faint look.

“Why is she looking at you like that?” Naminé asked, tipping her head to the side. Even in Sora’s memories, he hadn’t known, but maybe some of the others did.

“Well, eleven years ago now Terra, Ven, and I visited her world,” Aqua explained. “She at least saw me use my Keyblade.”

“Mine as well,” Terra agreed. “She probably recognized the weapon.”

“I wish she would have told me,” Sora mentioned. It would have done wonders for him had he known that he wasn’t the only one out there, the only Keyblade Wielder. Of course, he knew it now, but it would have been a nice thing to know.

Aurora says she is glad that she’s not alone and that if the Keyhole only needed one of them, it would have been terribly lonely.

Well, do Ven and I count? Vanitas thought, in a vein of thought that was slightly hysterical, but he was still… dealing with all the revelations that had come out. There was no way the Master hadn’t known something. Unless, he hadn’t chosen to tell him, which would have been much more likely than Master Xehanort not knowing something. That must have been it. Ven and I together created one whole heart, so does that mean we’re one whole person? To Master Xehanort, it would. It used to for him.

Alice says that Sora helped her during the trial and that it’s her turn to help everyone else. Snow White says that someone very dear to her is missing, so she doesn’t want any other worlds to disappear and do that to someone else.

“I wonder who she’s talking about,” Xion murmured. “Perhaps someone like Beast?” Someone she loved. Xion mulled over the word in her head. She wondered if she and the others could feel love, even though it was an emotion. It certainly felt like they could feel it. Why else would Axel have attempted to go against the Organization’s wishes in order to save her? Why else would Roxas have felt so much grief when he destroyed her? Why else would she have been so scared to die, not wanting to leave the others alone?

Belle says that she has the Beast with her, but she wishes to go home, and Jasmine says that she’s worried about Aladdin and Agrabah. Goofy says that it’ll all be okay and they’ll take care of it.

“And we did,” Sora murmured, with a hint of pride. They had. They had defeated Ansem, saved the worlds. And it wasn’t like they stopped there.

Sora walks up to the arch, heading through it with Donald and Goofy. They see the Keyhole in the distance before a giant Heartless slams down in front of them.

Naminé was, thankfully, not the only one to scream. Kairi shrieked in surprise as well, sitting bold upright on the couch and nearly falling off of it. Xion yelped, drowning out the sound of Roxas’s own surprise, basically falling into Axel’s lap as she went boneless in surprise. Ven gasped, rocketing backwards into Terra’s side, feeling the older man close his arms around him on instinct. Aqua jumped, as did Mickey, both of them getting the familiar instinct to reach for their Keyblades but not being able to reach it. Vanitas flinched badly, hands clenching around the arms of his chair as he threw himself back into it, breath picking up quickly as he forced himself not to summon the Unversed like he wanted to. Riku went stiff, hands circling around one of Sora’s arms as if to reassure himself that the younger boy was still there.

“Well,” Sora said after a second, his own breathing going fast as his heart raced. “I forgot about that.”

“No kidding,” Kairi hissed out, one hand pressed to her chest as she worked to regulate her breathing. Naminé had pulled her knees up to her chest in an effort to be as small as possible and only dared to look out after a couple of seconds. She was used to fear, yes, she had lived with it for almost her entire life. Fear of Larxene, Fear of DiZ. But she wasn’t used to this heart stopping, gut wrenching fear that came from… what did Sora call them in his memories? Jump scares?

Axel had looked down in concern when Xion had fallen into him, raising an eyebrow at the two teenagers who looked sufficiently scared. Maybe it was just him but… by all accounts, they shouldn’t be able to get scared. They were Nobodies; They didn’t have emotions. And fear was definitely an emotion.

Ven pushed himself off Terra after a second, knowing that Terra wouldn’t push him off himself, even if the position was uncomfortable for the older Keyblade Wielder. That was just who Terra was.

“Are you okay, Ven?” Aqua asked, curling one hand into a fist to try and soothe her own racing heart, turning her gaze to the younger boy. He nodded, lacing his fingers together. He just… hadn’t been expecting that.

Mickey wanted to reach out to the young girl in the chair near him, make sure she was okay, but he didn’t know how she would react. She still looked rather high-strung.

Vanitas forced his breathing back into a normal pattern, something he was well used to from all the times he had to make sure he didn’t look weak in front of Master Xehanort during one of their training sessions. The Unversed thankfully didn’t spring forth from his lack of heart, giving him a little bit of relief. He didn’t need that on top of everything.

Sora and the others fight the Heartless until they destroy it.

Riku and Kairi relaxed slightly once they saw that the Heartless had been destroyed. They knew their friend was capable, they knew it, but it still scared them. Especially when Sora didn’t warn them of something happening before it did.

Sora looks to the Keyhole, lifting his Keyhole to seal it. A white light comes out from it, sealing the Keyhole.

If only that had beat Ansem, Riku thought. If only that could have been it.

The three of them walk out back into the hall to see Leon, Aerith, and Yuffie. Sora asks them what they’re doing there and Yuffie replies that they came in Cid’s ship, with Aerith explaining that this was their childhood home and they wanted to see it again.

Sora smiled, happy that they managed to make it back to their world. They had done such a good job restoring it in the year he was asleep.

Something flickered in his mind, the briefest image of a man and an empty room, riddles being spoken in place of words.

Was he forgetting something?

Leon says that it’s in worse shape than he thought and that it used to be such a peaceful place.

Axel contained the snort of amusement that went through him. Yes, unless you managed to cross paths with the two teenagers that had far too much time on their hands and disconnected or busy guardians that let them roam the town as long as they were home by dinner.

Aerith comforts Leon by reminding him that once they defeat Ansem, all should be restored.

“Except, Radiant Garden didn’t recover, not completely,” Mickey said looking down. “I wonder why.”

“Because the damage done to Radiant Garden was different,” Axel said shortly, words becoming clipped as memories flashed in front of his eyes. The coats on him and Isa, the beasts clawing and scratching. Watching their world collapse with nothing they could do, freshly heartless and alone except for the people who had done that to them.

“It was?” Kairi asked, eyes widening. She wanted to learn more about her home world, more than she knew.

Axel grimaced. “In a way, at least. Radiant Garden didn’t die fast, like yours did. Plus there is also whatever Maleficent did to it that made it come back like this.”

Aerith tells Sora that his Island will come back as well, and Sora is surprised.

“Sora, did you not think your Island was coming back?” Aqua asked hoping her voice sounded level. She didn’t… Had fourteen-year-old Sora been going through all this thinking that Riku and Kairi were the only people still alive from his Island? Including his family and all his other friends?

“I mean… I didn’t really know,” Sora replied, rubbing the back of his head and looking away. “I didn't know anything about the worlds and everyone I talked to made it sound like a world falling to darkness was permanent and gone.”

“Was that why you searched for me and Kairi so much?” Riku asked, eyes widening. It hadn’t really occurred to him either, during that time, that his home was gone. Maleficent had carefully kept that information from him, hiding it away, and even once he had found out, he had been so entrenched in darkness and the quest for Kairi’s heart that it hadn’t really bothered him. After that, Mickey had reassured him that his world had returned to the light as well as all the people on it.

“Maybe,” Sora admitted with a sigh and Kairi made a cut off sound, instead moving forward and wrapping her arms around the boy.

“Your moms are fine,” she whispered out. “I promise. Moya still runs her fruit stand. Kaze just got a new boat to fish farther out. I promise they’re both still alive. Tidus and Wakka are still as annoying as ever and Selphie is still the smartest person in our class.”

“I know Kairi, I know,” Sora told her, trying to reassure her. Behind him, he could feel Riku’s hand settle on his back, a silent comfort. “I know, and I can’t wait to see them again once we get out of here.”

Aqua sucked in a breath, trying to keep herself steady. Even after everything, when everything was happening, she still had the knowledge that the Land of Departure was still there, was still her home and she could go back to it anytime, even if it was changed. Not having that… she couldn’t imagine.

Kairi sat back with a sniffle, doing her best not to show Sora her wavering emotions. It’s fine, Sora’s coming home now.

Roxas wondered what it would be like to have an home to go back to.

Yuffie says that it also means goodbye and Aerith explains that once the worlds are restored, they’ll all be separated again.

“One day,” Riku muttered, thinking back to Aqua’s and Terra’s explanation, along with their own travel. “Someone is going to tell me ‘the worlds are now separate, and you can’t visit them’ and I’ll believe them.” He sighed, thinking back to everything they had gone through. “Today is not that day.”

Sora couldn’t help the snort of laughter that escaped him.

Sora says that he’ll visit them in the Gummiship and Leon says that it’s not that simple.

“Feels that simple,” Sora murmured, a bubble of laughter still in his chest from Riku’s remark. He knew he didn’t know all the intricacies of traveling in the Ocean Between, along with all the 'sealing the Keyholes' and 'following the connections', but he was still traveling it fine.

Aerith says before this no one knew about the other worlds because they were all separated by invisible walls and that the Heartless destroyed these walls. Leon says that restoring the worlds will also restore the walls.

“Well, there are ways around that,” Ven said, remembering his own gallivant around the worlds trying to find Terra. “There are always ways to other worlds.” In his head, a book sat on the table in front of him. “Data Worlds.” “Projections.” He pressed his hand to the side of his head, massaging his temple. He didn’t know what it was that had triggered the headaches, because he hadn’t had them since he had first awoken with no memory. Perhaps he needed to drink more water?

Axel, Roxas, and Xion found themselves agreeing with him. They had never had any problems moving across the worlds, even with these “invisible walls”.

Donald asks if that means that they won’t be able to fly the Gummiship and Leon says that it’ll be useless. Sora asks if he’s saying that they’ll never see each other again.

“But you didn’t,” Kairi said, trying to cheer Sora up, who gave her a smile. “You saw them again.”

“I did,” he responded. “And I’ll see them after this. Our hearts are connected after all.” They’re my power, he thought. My friends are my power.

Goofy realizes that it means that Sora won’t be able to visit the Disney Castle and Sora says they won’t be able to see Destiny Island. Leon tells him that they may never meet again but that they won’t forget each other.

“You’re a part of each other’s hearts,” Ven murmured. “You’ll always be able to know them.” Pink hair, black hats, red scarves, and star shaped earrings.

Aerith says that no matter where they are their hearts will bring them back together.

Xion smiled softly. That sounded wonderful. She wished that there was something similar for herself, Axel, and Roxas, even with their lack of hearts.

Yuffie mentions that she couldn’t forget Sora if she tried. He asks her what that means, and she laughs.

Kairi snickered at Sora’s offence and Sora pouted, leaning back into Riku’s side. Not seeing the way Riku froze ever so briefly at the initiated contact with almost no preface before forcing himself to relax.

Alice tells Sora that she can feel the darkness getting weaker, but Jasmine says that she can feel something dark and sinister. Aurora says that it’s the heart of the darkness and that it must be where Ansem went.

“The Door to Darkness,” Mickey murmured, remembering it well. Sora, glad that he had already leaned back, leaned further, reaching up one hand to snatch one of Riku’s and holding it close. It was fine, he wasn’t going to lose Riku again. He wasn’t. Not to himself, not to the darkness. Happy thoughts, happy thoughts.

Sora says that they’ll take the Gummiship and deal with it. Cinderella says that it is an answer worthy of a Keyblade Master.

Did you know, Ella? Aqua wondered, watching her friend. Such a small amount of time they had spent together, but she didn't think she had ever clicked with someone so fast in her life. Or did you see me in him? Or Terra? Have you wondered what happened to us, wondered about where we could possibly in the worlds? Or did you forget about us as easily as the worlds did?

Aerith stops him from leaving, revealing that they found the last piece of Ansem’s report in the library.

Roxas threw his hands up in the air. “I though they already found the end of it!” He exclaimed. He was getting real sick of listening to that man talk to himself as he did catastrophic decisions that would lead to the destruction of Axel’s homeworld. At least, Roxas was pretty sure it was Axel’s homeworld. He had made several references to it during the watching, something that only someone from there could have known. So, it was probably Axel’s homeworld. He would have to ask him later.

“I think there is more after this,” Sora admitted with a wince, thinking back, trying to scratch at his memories. “I think we found one more piece after this.” Roxas sat back with some incoherent grumbling. Xion patted his arm consolingly.

Sora asks if that means that they found the whole thing. Aerith says that Ansem disappeared when the world fell to darkness and that they believed that he died defending the people from the Heartless.

Roxas barked out a laugh. Please, like that man would think of anything other than himself and revenge.

Axel tipped his head to the side slightly. Well, kinda, he thought. From what I could gather he was trying to stop Xehanort. Who was darkness incarnate by that point. I think. Speaking of… His eyes moved back to Terra. He hadn’t really thought about it when seeing the man, too caught up in getting his kids back and the confusion of their situation. But now, after his mind had been pulled over and over into the past against his will, he could see it.

Could see that Terra looked identical to Xehanort except that Xehanort had white hair and yellow eyes. There was no way it didn’t mean nothing, but it didn’t always have to be worst case scenario. Roxas and Ven looked exactly the same from no fault of their own. Perhaps something to bring up later.

Goofy realizes that Ansem was the one to bring them there and Aerith says he’s correct, saying that he was always thought of as a sage but clearly that wasn’t true. Goofy asks Aerith to read the last page for them.

Roxas moved to rub at his temples. He would only have to go through this two more times. Nothing more.

“Opening the door to a world’s heart causes its walls to crumble. The fragments are seen as shooting stars. The material known as Gummi blocks are in fact pieces of those walls, which surrounds the worlds.”

“Wait really?” Sora exclaimed, turning to Mickey in question. But Mickey was also shocked.

“I suppose,” Mickey murmured, thinking it over. “That seems very possible. It also explains why we get so many people, if we have no walls around our world.”

“That explains how there was Gummi in the Jungle,” Naminé said quietly. “If the walls had just been broken by the Heartless then Gummi would have fallen onto the world. Meaning that Donald and Goofy could have easily found a piece of it.” Mickey nodded in agreement.

“Still, the Gummis are part of walls?” Sora wondered. “That’s so cool.”

“Weren’t you there?” Vanitas asked with a raised eyebrow. How had this child been a great savior of the worlds if he forgot stuff so easily? “You heard Aerith say these things.”

Sora paused before shrugging. “I forgot,” he said, repeating his earlier statement, and Vanitas looked away with a growl. How could it be so… easy for him? No fear in his eyes, at all. Vanitas didn’t know how to feel about that.

“Supposing that the appearance of the Heartless is the cause of the walls collapsing… then I cannot allow that key, called the Keyblade, to close the doors. I will be unable to see the hearts of the worlds.”

Mickey looked down in sadness, hearing the words written by his old friend. That he deliberately wanted to keep doors open to the darkness. How had he missed it?

“If the princesses and the Keyblade are connected, they should resonate.”

“The Princesses?” Xion questioned, tipping her head to the side. “What does DiZ know about the princesses? He never mentioned them before.” Several of them blinked in surprise, taken aback by the detail brough up by the girl. Ansem had never been interested in the princesses before. So why would he be writing about them?

Terra curled his hands into fists, digging his nails into his palms. He remembered, he knew. He remembered watching Xehanort pen this report, having already taken the name and guise of the old sage, deciding to continue to write the pages as if it was actually Ansem. Perhaps to cover his tracks better.

That man who had been a mishmash of Terra and Xehanort and twisted in so many ways never had any limits after all. Perhaps he really should be calling him something different in his head, because it wasn't Master Xehanort mainly in control of that body, but it wasn't like he had another name for him.

“I have chosen a particular girl to send off into the Ocean Between and observe.”

Sora wonders if he’s talking about Kairi.

“I was… sent to Destiny Islands?” Kairi’s voice was breathless in confusion, sitting up and staring at the screen like it might give her answers. “I thought… I thought I just ended up there. I was… sent there?”

“By DiZ?” Roxas questioned, wrinkling his nose. What could have possibly been the point of that.

Axel, on the other hand, was reeling. Kairi was from Radiant Garden? As in, his homeworld Radiant Garden? He had heard some murmurs from their couch, especially when the pictures came up in the jungle world, and had thought her interest in the world strange, but it hadn’t occurred to him that she could be from his world. And she had been sent to Destiny Islands?

Perhaps it had been for the best, because no one else had survived. Just the few that had managed to escape to Traverse Town and Kairi apparently, but no one else. But him and Saix.

What was so special about the girl that she would be sent, not counting her being a Princess of Heart. How had Xehanort even found her?

“Kairi, I can see your brain working,” Sora told her, gently but firmly. “Just because you were apparently sent to Destiny Islands doesn’t change anything. Nothing at all.”

“But… why?” She asked, sounding more unsure that Sora had ever heard from her. “Why me?”

“You’re a Princess of Heart,” Aqua said. “There’s a good chance that’s why. If he could tell some how that you were special like that, that might have been why you were chosen.”

“Why could DiZ sense that though?”

“I have a feeling we’re missing some things,” Mickey said to the group. This… didn’t sound like Ansem. He knew he didn’t know his friend as well as he thought he had but…

Something was off here.

Was it possible... that this was-?

Goofy wonders about the hearts of the worlds and Aerith guesses it’s like the core that Ansem was trying to reach.

“Just as people have hearts, so do worlds. Each one of the stars scattered in the night sky is a world and deep withing lies a door to its heart.”

“That’s a lot of worlds,” Naminé whispered, remembering the few times she had seen the stars out at night while living in Twilight Town. Every single one of them was a world? Maybe that meant that there was a world out there where she and… he could go and disappear. Far from the world and people that had hurt them.

“The Heartless come from people’s hearts, as does the darkness. And the Heartless seek to return to a greater heart.”

Terra’s eyes slammed closed and he took in a shuddering breath. He remembered, he has seen in through his Xehanort’s his Xehanort’s eyes, exhausted and tired from his attempts to stop Xehanort from influencing their vessel into sending Ansem to the Realm of Darkness. He had seen their vessel write the report, had seen him, and attempted to stop him, from tracking down and kidnapping the girl. He had seen it and, unlike past circumstances, there had been absolutely nothing he could do to stop it. Master Xehanort hadn’t answered his questions, hadn’t taken clear delight in the ways the vessel was dark. Instead, he seemed almost... intrigued. 

Terra jolted in slight surprise when Aqua’s hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to look at her, seeing concern in her eyes. Had she figure it out? Had she realized that this Ansem was some broken factions of him and Xehanort?

He gave her a small smile, attempting to reassure her. She didn’t need his problems. He could deal with them on his own.

“The core of a world’s heart—even I cannot know what might be found in such a place. I must find out.”

Why though? Mickey thought. Why must you?

“There I will pursue the answers to these mysteries, the mysteries of the heart. And when I encounter the world’s heart, I will become all-knowing.”

Axel paused. This, now this was Xehanort. This must be after he had banished Ansem but before he killed the rest of the scientists and became Ansem and Xemnas. He had thought that after banishing the old scientist, he had immediately moved on to his next plan, but clearly that wasn't the case. Had Xehanort done something before he split, under Ansem’s name? Had he sent Kairi to Destiny Islands?

“My path is set. My body is too frail for such a journey, but I must do this. I will cast it off and ascend… I will plunge into the depths of darkness.”

“Oh, okay that makes sense,” Axel muttered aloud after the report ended, everything clicking into place for him.

“What makes sense?” Riku asked, raising an eyebrow at the older man and Axel sighed.

“That’s not Ansem,” he said bluntly, getting several looks in the process.

“But the report-?” Kairi started but Axel was already shaking his head.

“Still not Ansem,” he continued. “Before Radiant Garden truly fell, the apprentices of Ansem the Wise banded together to banish him to the Realm of Darkness, I believe, on account of him no longer approving or allowing their experiments. After this, one of the apprentices, the ringleader of them, took his name. You might have encountered half of him as Xemnas.” Riku jolted in surprise at the words, looking at Axel with wide eyes. Sora's eyes widened, remembering Radiant Garden in an instant. With everything that had happened since then, it had almost slipped his mind, he didn't really care about the backstory of the man trying to kill him and everyone else, but it was all coming back to him now. “But I knew him as Xehanort.”

Vanitas choked on his breath at the name, hands curling into fists so fast that they completely bypassed the arms of the chair and instead bit deeply into his palms. Ven sucked in a deep breath, nearly choking on his own breath much like Vanitas had done. Aqua’s eyes slammed closed as her worst fears had been confirmed. Mickey and Terra both flinched.

“Umm, what was that?” Roxas asked, having seen both Ven’s and Vanitas’s reactions.

“Did you say Xehanort?” Ven spat out, worry and fear making his voice shrill. At this, the Destiny Trio all looked to the couch, taken aback by the reactions from the older Keyblade Wielders. Sora tipped his head to the side. Was there more to the story?

“I did?” Axel responded. “Why?”

“Master Xehanort was the Keyblade Wielder who betrayed us eleven years ago,” Aqua answered, voice dull and blank. “He was a good friend of our master’s but he used this friendship to manipulate and separate us.” Expressions of horror were making their way across the teenagers’ faces who didn’t know. Vanitas was working to try and get his emotions back under control. “He was the one to orchestrate everything. He possessed Terra and his apprentice, Vanitas, was the one to cause Ven to sleep for a decade.” Several gazes were leveled at the darkness user as Aqua talked, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. Master was still around, he was still alive, still working on his plan, still being a manipulative-

“Wait, he possessed you?” Riku asked, head snapping to Terra, who looked down and couldn’t look back up.

“Well, that makes sense why you look exactly like him then,” Axel mused. “That was your body, wasn’t it? That would become Ansem and Xemnas?”

“What?” Sora exclaimed but Terra flinched backwards further and Aqua sat up straight, her own worry being pushed back as her protective side came out fully, getting ready to tear into Axel if he so much as hinted that he blamed Terra for anything.

But instead, Axel simply shook his head. “I always thought there was something strange about him.”

“Wait, wait, wait, back up.” Kairi came up in a slow down gesture, successfully dragging the attention back to her. She was also reeling slightly from Axel's words, as that would imply that he was from Radiant Garden as well, but she supposed, in the grand scheme of things, that wasn't too much of a surprise. It seemed that the universe really was a small world, even though there were countless of them. “So, this person, Master, Keyblade Wielder?” At Aqua’s nod, she swallowed. “Okay, Keyblade Master who was evil, who taught that one.” She pointed at Vanitas, who was finally managing to get his breathing back together and his brain was no longer going ten thought tracks a second. “Who was the reason the three of you ended up in such bad situations, possessed Terra’s body and ended up as an apprentice under Ansem, at some point taking his name, for some reason, before splitting into Ansem and Xemnas.” A beat. “The two major threats in the past year.”

“Yes,” Mickey admitted, and Kairi slumped backwards, all the fight seemingly drained out of her. Sora copied the gesture but instead threw himself over Riku, leaning on his chest and side.

“So, all the threats in the past eleven years, that we know of, have been this guy?” Sora asked, voice faint, he had already known about Ansem and Xemnas but this was even more than that, and Terra nodded.

“It looks like that,” Ven responded. Sora covered his face with a hand.

Axel raised an eyebrow. Well, that’s where Xemnas got all his ability to manipulate people then. Apparently, it’s a passable trait.

“Oh,” Naminé said quietly, pulling her knees to her chest. When Sora said it like that…

Mickey stared down at his lap. He should have said something, should have done something then, should have explained more, but the second he heard the name Xehanort, eleven years ago and that day in Radiant Garden with Sora and the others, he had completely shut down.

It couldn't have been that Xehanort, it couldn't have.

Aerith says that Ansem abandoned his own body and Sora says that it’s weird, mentioning that Ansem did only for himself as well.

All of them jumped as the screen continued, having thoroughly forgotten about the screen that showed the past.

“When this ends,” Aqua said softly. “We need to talk. I think we need to try and figure out a timeline or story.” She didn’t get any arguments. Most of them were still reeling from the dropped information.

Aerith says he then opened the door.

“Him being Xehanort, apparently,” Riku murmured, but his mind was still going fast. Terra, the man who had probably been the one to give him his Keyblade, who had seemed to big and strong and had been from the outside world, had been hurt and possessed by this man. Who had then hurt him and Sora and countless others. Hey, you were also possessed by him, his mind thought, slightly hysterically. Like master, like apprentice, right? You had the same weaknesses.

Sora says that they’ll close it, and Aerith says she hopes so. Snow White tells Sora that his courage can bring back the worlds.

Usually, Aqua would be worried by a comment like that. And she still was. But she was still reeling from the revelation that she had been right, that it was still Xehanort and he was still hurting people like he had hurt her and Terra and Ven and Master Eraqus and who knew who else.

Cinderella says that once the darkness is gone, everything will go back to normal. Leon says just like they were able to return to Hollow Bastion, everyone will return to their worlds.

And it did happen, Kairi thought, remembering the falling stars. She cursed herself quietly under her breath. If only she hadn’t fallen asleep in Cid’s ship on the way to Radiant Garden. Perhaps she could have said more to Sora before he had left. Maybe she would have been able to confess her feelings then. Instead, she had awoken once Sora was gone and had only been able to talk to the other princesses. Not that there had been anything wrong with talking to them. Instead, it had been quite nice but it would have be nice as well to talk to Sora.

Sora remembers their Island and asks if Kairi will be there, getting an affirmative from Cinderella.

“Sora?” Kairi questioned, trying to not let the hope enter her voice. Why had Sora asked specifically if she was going to be there? Had he also, like her, hoped to see her again?

“I was worried if you being in Traverse Town was going to mess with it,” he admitted to her and she smiled at him, doing her best to tamp down the slight disappointment.

“Well, it didn’t,” she told him. “And I was in Radiant Garden.”

“You were?!” He asked, more like yelped, and Kairi gave him an amused look.

“Yes Sora, I was,” she told him. “I was just asleep in Cid’s ship.”

“I should have seen you,” he told her and she smiled.

“It’s okay, you’re here now.”

Sora says that they can’t go home until they found Riku and the King, checking in with Goofy and Donald.

Riku flinched. Sora should have gone home, should have gone with Kairi, he thought. I would have been fine on my own. Mickey was watching over me and perhaps, had everything not gone to pieces due to Sora’s memory loss, perhaps he would have trained me properly. Then I could have watched over the worlds like I should have done, keeping the worlds safe for you should you have ever chosen to venture outside of Destiny Islands again. Sora, why didn’t you go home?

Donald says right and that they’re going to look for them. With that, the three of them leave the hall.

As the screen went black, several glances were exchanged across the room and some people tensed up in preparation for the conversation they were going to have. It was probably necessary to have it before they moved on.

Chapter Text

“So, in short, who’s Xehanort?” Sora asked after a second, looking to the older Keyblade Wielders. Terra took a deep breath while Aqua curled her hands tightly together, interlocking them.

“Well, before everything happened, he was my Master,” Ven started, taking the other two off guard as they didn’t realize that the younger boy was going to start.

“He was?” Kairi asked and Ven nodded.

“He found me, or so I was told, alone with no memory,” Ven said, voice dull and more focused on recounting the story than allowing any of the emotions to slip through. “He trained me for… six months, I think.”

“A year more like,” Vanitas interjected, giving into the urge and pulling his knees to his chest, hiding his most vulnerable spot, and wrapped one hand around them, holding them close.

“Really?” Ven questioned and Vanitas nodded once. Unlike Ven, he hadn’t lost his memories of their training under Xehanort, before they split. “Okay, so a year. And then, through… actions taken by Xehanort, he ended up splitting me into myself and Vanitas.” He nodded his head in Vanitas’s direction, not hearing Vanitas’s soft mutter of “us” during Ven’s explanation. Ven was his Light, as much as he was Ven's Darkness. There hadn't been a 'me' into 'us', it had always been 'us'. “Darkness and,” he pressed a hand to his chest. “Light.

“After this, he took me to the Land of Departure, when I had lost my memories again, and gave me to the care of Master Eraqus, their Master.” He indicated Aqua and Terra. “After about four years, he returned to the Land of Departure in order to be a judge at their Mark of Mastery. Aqua passed. Terra… didn’t.” Terra looked to the side at this and Aqua bit her lip, wanting to reach out and comfort Terra like she had always been able to do but not knowing if he would take it as salt in the wound. “Terra then left the Land of Departure, I ran after him, having been warned very cryptically by Vanitas that Terra wouldn’t be the same when he returned, and Aqua followed us both, under orders from Master Eraqus to bring me home and keep an eye on Terra. Which… wasn’t a very good look for us at least.” Ven took a deep breath. “After some, now very clear, manipulation by Master Xehanort, we ended up in a fight against him and Vanitas, now not really as united as before, and well… it didn’t end well.”

At the end of his explanation, he leaned backwards, looking drained, and fell into Terra’s embrace, the older boy wrapping his arms around the younger Keyblade Wielder without prompting. “I don’t know how it ended,” Ven said, eyes closed, and hands reaching up to grasp at Terra’s arms. “Because I was asleep due to the two of us,” he gestured blindly in Vanitas’s direction. “fighting and then destroying our then combined heart. And I have no idea how we’re alive.” There were a few moments of silence as they all processed that, Axel’s arms having wrapped around Roxas and Xion, and Riku’s hand no longer attempting to leave Sora’s embrace.

“Oh,”’ Kairi said, voice faint, and Ven had to tamp down the hysterical urge to laugh slightly. Yeah, “oh”, that’s a good reaction to it, he thought. How on earth did we screw up so badly that this ended up happening?

“And during this fight, Terra ended up possessed?” Axel asked after a second, trying to formulate the timeline in his head, and Terra flinched, something Ven felt. He looked up, trying to catch the older boy’s eye, but couldn’t. He still wanted to know about the possession thing as well. He hadn't known, hadn't known, and he still hadn't really wrapped his head around it ever since it had been so casually admitted and then moved past. What else had he missed?

“Yes,” Terra admitted, voice low and quiet. “I… struggle with darkness in my heart, something that a Keyblade Wielder shouldn’t have.” Riku froze at that. Wait, what? He shouldn’t…? But he did, he learned to control it? Was he… wrong for doing that? “Master Xehanort… He was the only one who didn’t act differently about that.” Aqua’s eyes closed, hearing the way that Terra hadn’t singled her out either. She shouldn’t have pushed him away, shouldn’t have led him straight into Xehanort’s web. She hadn’t meant to cause it, but she did. She should have handled his darkness better. “I thought I could trust him, but by the time we figured out what was happening, the darkness in my heart was too strong and Master Xehanort was able to use that to possess my body, supplanting my heart with his own and locking mine away.”

“Like with Ansem,” Riku murmured. “Except that was actually Xehanort.”

“But was it your Xehanort?” Axel questioned, getting several looks of confusion, even from Xion and Roxas. “While I don’t know much, I wasn’t that far in the loop of information, I know that after Xehanort appeared in Radiant Garden and was taken in by Ansem, he had no memories either.”

“Yeah, Aqua beat him so bad he developed amnesia,” Terra muttered, ignoring the slight happiness that bubbled in his chest at those words. He shouldn’t be… happy about another suffering, that was just another for of darkness, but… it was Master Xehanort. Was it… that bad that he was happy?

“I did?” Aqua asked, sounding thoroughly surprised, and Ven moved his head to be able to see her as well. Her eyes were wide, and mouth was slightly parted. Terra looked over at her and suppressed the smile that wanted to make it past his lips. While the others would probably only see her surprise on her face, he could see the slight vindication in her eyes, the way they were a tad bit too wide for just simple confusion.

“Yeah, you did,” he admitted, allowing a quiet chuckle to make its way along with his words and she turned to him, he probably being the only one able to see the slight stars in her eyes. Ven laughed as well and unnoticed by all of them, Vanitas’s eyes widened, and he gazed at Aqua in utter confusion. How…? No one could beat the Master, no one at all. He had tried, both in training and out of it. Master Xehanort was strong, powerful. He had backup plans to his backup plans, was careful and meticulous and if he had been an apprentice under Ansem the Wise it must have been for his plans. It was because Miss “Keyblade Master” beat him into amnesia? Was that even possible?

“Well, it explains why he ‘disappeared’,” Mickey said thoughtfully, expertly pushing away the thoughts of failure, he was still out there, you knew it, you should have done it, and instead shook his head slightly. “I always assumed you had killed him that night and that battle had taken down the two of you.” He gestured to Terra and Aqua with his head. “Yen Sid believed so as well. But…” That clearly didn’t happen.

The name, the name, he knew he knew and yet it couldn't have been couldn't have been couldn't have been-

“During the amnesia, I don’t think I was awake,” Terra spoke up, bringing the conversation back around. “Or… not in any meaningful way, it was… strange and I can’t remember most of it. But after a couple of months, I woke up as did... Master Xehanort. I… could see everything out of his eyes, and I tried to stop him, but I couldn’t and-” He cut himself off with a gasp of air and could feel his nails bite into his palms again. Ven gazed up at him in concern and Terra half wanted him to stop doing it because he didn’t deserve it, he had done this to himself, everything was his fault, and he couldn’t-

“You were awake?” Axel asked and Terra blinked, dragged from his thoughts. “You saw… everything?” And Terra knew what he was asking about, could remember the two young teenagers who had become apprentices basically a couple of weeks before everything went down, and he remembered them as darkness started to eat at the world, not collapsing it yet, but that the light was starting to fade. He could remember the experiment done on them, their painful and bloody transformations into Nobodies, covered in the black cloth that they had been testing, the way he had tried to stop their vessel because they were Ven’s age and nothing more than kids and Xehanort had already twisted the minds of the others except for the young child that didn’t say anything, and there was nothing Terra could do-

“Yeah, I did,” Terra responded.

“Have you been awake… for the past eleven years?” Sora questioned; the words slow from his mouth. “Like, after Xehanort split himself?”

Terra sucked in a breath, trying to push away the echo of the headache that wanted to split his skull.

“Maybe,” he admitted and got several concerned looks in the process, Aqua looking sick to his side. He didn’t know why; she had seen him in the Realm of Darkness if that was even real and not his broken mind trying to give him some semblance of safety. “It’s not… coherent, by any means, and it’s mostly painful and dark, but there have been times where I’ve seen flashes of things. If Xehanort split himself into a Heartless and a Nobody, then I don’t really know what happened to my heart and where I’ve been for the past eleven years.” He wasn’t telling them everything, how could he tell them about the verbal spats with Xehanort the few months before the vessel split himself, how could he tell them about the darkness circling around his wrists and throat, the boredom and silence, the headaches, the circle of light around him that got smaller and smaller as Xehanort’s influence grew. How could he tell them about the scenes, seeing Sora on a world of islands, seeing the two of them fighting against him in the city of white, seeing the graveyard where it all started, flashes in his head that made no sense and-

His thoughts were cut off when some shuffling came the from couch he was sitting on and Ven moved slightly. He looked down, only to be taken off guard when Aqua, who had used the space that Ven just created, threw herself at him, curling up in his side like she did all the time when they were growing up and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face into the crook of his neck.

He froze. When was the last time…?

On instinct, his arm came up and wrapped around her, holding her in return, and he didn’t know what to say. Maybe because it had been eleven years since he had any time of positive physical contact. Maybe because it was Aqua and she meant the world to him just like he meant the world to her because before Xehanort and Vanitas and Ven, it had been the two of them, growing up in the Land of Departure, the two of them running through the grass and comforting each other after nightmares, the memories of their pasts, of their home worlds, slipping from their minds like water as new memories took their place. Maybe because is was Aqua and he had watched and screamed as Xehanort fought her, using his body, thankfully not his voice, using his skills, using his light and darkness, and while he was partially a thousand miles away at some points, he was still there at some points, and he had wanted Aqua to defeat Xehanort, to win the battle because he had almost never won against her and he didn’t want this time to be the one he did.

“It’s okay,” were the words that came from his mouth instead of the myriad of thoughts swirling in his head, because these were his problems to deal with and Aqua no doubt had a myriad of her own to deal with. “It’s okay.”

“It’s not,” and her voice was barely above a whisper, barely over a breath, only meant for him and him alone. “It’s not.”

It has to be, he thought. Because we can’t fall apart when there are the younger Keyblade Wielders to care for. We failed them by disappearing on them. Should have been there for Riku, for the rest of them. We can’t fall apart when they need us.

He blinked once, allowing his thoughts one more moment to run around his head before banishing them carefully back to their boxes. Ven shifted on the couch, and he looked to him, slightly surprised to see the same sad expression that had been on Aqua’s face on his. That couldn’t be right, Ven wasn’t… He was supposed to be strong for Ven, so Ven wouldn’t be sad or scared or covered in darkness like Terra was.

Aqua pulled back and Terra only got the briefest glimpse of her face, expression sad and worried, before she had placed the mask back on, schooling her expression to one more calm and even that only Terra could see through.

“After Ven fell unconscious, I fled the battlefield with his body,” Aqua announced the room, taking up her part of the story. “I hid him in the Land of Departure and went back to find Terra. We ended up in Radiant Garden and I had to fight him, well Xehanort. After I won, he started sinking into the Realm of Darkness, so I placed him on my glider and sent him out. That’s how I ended up i-”

“You did what?” Terra interrupted, his turn to be surprised by something as he whipped his head back to face her from where it had fallen. Ven’s eyes went wide in surprise, an expression reflected on Vanitas’s face, and Mickey blinked. He didn’t… know this part.

Aqua flinched slightly, looking to the side. “Yes, I know it was a bad decision, but it was you, well not you, but still you and if you had a chance of coming back I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“You shouldn’t have done that,” he told her. If only she had let him sink. He had always thought that it had been some machination by Master Xehanort that allowed him to escape and survive Aqua. He had seen their fight, had seen it all until they had fallen unconscious after Xehanort stabbed themselves in the heart with his Keyblade. He had thought that one of Xehanort’s helpers, because there had to have been at least someone besides Vanitas, had been the one to find their body, perhaps stopping Aqua from finishing him off and gave them to Ansem after they realized that their memories were gone. He hadn’t thought that Aqua had… sacrificed herself… for him.

And what have you done to deserve that? Nothing at all. She should have just let him sink. Or finished him off. He would have gone into Kingdom Hearts happy if it meant that his death had also been Xehanort’s death.

“Well, I did,” she refuted, giving him a look that was reminiscent of the arguments they would have as children, where they were both too stubborn to ever entertain the idea that the other had been right and instead would ignore all logic until they both forgot about the disagreement and went back to normal.

“So, Xehanort is a Keyblade Master who is good at manipulation,” Sora summarized, looking faintly scared and worried. “And he is the reason the three of you have been… absent the last eleven years?”

“Yeah,” Aqua replied, looking away from Terra. “He wanted to summon Kingdom Hearts, for what reason, we don’t know. He also killed our master.” Terra flinched, remembering how it was his fault, you fault, you helped, you murdered him. But he was going to murder Ven. He didn’t… There should have been more, been a better option, but Ven and Master Eraqus and he could only act-

“And he hasn’t stopped trying,” Roxas said. “Xemnas was trying to create his own version of Kingdom Hearts.”

“But why?” Naminé murmured and there was no answer the older Keybearers could give them. They didn’t know either.

Vanitas made a face.

In the Gummiship, Sora and the others moved towards the darkness. Sora realizes that Ansem must be somewhere in there.

Several of them blinked in surprise when the screen started up again. Aqua shifted back to her position from before, so Ven was able to sit comfortably between them again, and Sora tensed up slightly when he remembered everything they went through. Kairi gritted her teeth.

Donald says that the king is probably in there as well, with Goofy adding Riku.

Well yes, but actually no, Riku thought. We’re on our way though.

Sora says they should go, and Donald guides the ship into the darkness. They end up on an island in the middle of the darkness, stepping out of the ship and into the cave.

“Where are you?” Kairi asked, eyes widening as she saw the place and Sora grimaced.

“I think it was what was left off all the worlds that disappeared,” he replied, thinking back to the brief moment he thought he was on Destiny Islands. “In the heart of the darkness.”

Sora sees something off in the distance and Goofy wonders if this is all what is left of the worlds that the Heartless destroyed.

Kairi and Riku both shivered at that, thinking about Destiny Islands and the fact that it had ended up there. Scattered into pieces, the people in it lost to the darkness. Because of you, Riku thought. Your fault.

Sora says that the worlds will be restored when they beat Ansem and Donald agrees. Goofy wonders what will happen to them and the place when the worlds are restored.

“Sora,” Aqua said, taking a deep breath in carefully. “Tell me you had some concrete way to get out of there if the worst happened and the place started to collapse after you beat Ansem.”

Sora didn’t reply.

“Sora?” Riku asked, worry rocketing into his heart. At the time, he had already seen Sora do a suicide maneuver to save Kairi. He didn’t think it had been a habit. Please don’t let it be a habit.

“Well, we didn’t have a… plan, per say,” Sora eventually settled on. “But we had the belief that our hearts couldn’t disappear, even if the place did. We… would have been fine.”

That belief wasn’t fact, Riku wanted to tell him, but bit his tongue. He knew how Sora thought; he knew him better than anyone sitting in the room with them. Sora’s beliefs could sometimes become fact, especially once magic and Keyblades and all that had gotten mixed up in their life and it wasn’t like that was a particularly new concept, but at the same time…

“Sora,” Kairi groaned out, dropping her forehead onto his shoulder.

“What? We had to save the worlds!” Sora responded, turning to give her a look, and Aqua shook her head quietly.

“Not at the expense of your life, remember?” She told him, echoing her previous words from when they watched him stab himself. “Not at the expense of your life.”

Donald doesn’t have an answer for that and Goofy says they might just disappear. When Sora gives him an uneasy look, Goofy clarifies that even if the place goes poof, their hearts will remain, and they’ll find their friends again.

“And I did,” Sora said, giving his two friends meaningful looks. “I survived this.” He tried to remind them, because he had a feeling they weren’t going to react well to the fight. They hadn’t really whenever they had watched him fight at all.

Sora agrees with him and looks down at Kairi’s charm, smiling at it.

Kairi couldn’t help the warm bubble of happiness that grew in her heart when she saw Sora holding onto her charm. It had meant so much to her, to create that to give to him, a little piece of her heart given to his. A little declaration of her feelings. It hadn’t been a coincidence that it was slightly shaped like a paopu fruit. Maybe, once they got out of there, they could share one for real. Bind their lives together like Kairi wanted them to.

As they start walking through the world, they fight several Heartless on their way. They end up near some stone pillars, where a giant Heartless emerges for them to fight.

“Guys, if this worries you, I don’t know how you’re going to get through the rest of it,” Sora said with an eyeroll as both Kairi’s and Riku’s hands tightened around his arms and shoulders. “I can fight well with my Keyblade, remember? I’ve gotten plenty of practice.”

For some incomprehensible reason, that didn’t reassure either of them in any way.

They fight the Heartless until it disappears, revealing a crack in the stone leading down. Goofy wonders if that is where Ansem is and Donald says maybe if they jump down there, they’ll find him.

“Sora, please don’t-” Riku started but was cut off by Sora sighing.

“Yes, we jumped down there, no it probably wasn’t the best idea but it was the only idea we had and it ended up working so nothing has to be said about it.” At the end of his short rant, he crossed his arms and leaned back into the couch with a huff of air. Kairi and Riku exchanged glances over Sora’s head.

“They aren’t saying you’re a bad decision maker or fighter,” Aqua said gently, well used to the way that Ven would sometimes get when he felt that Aqua and Terra were ‘smothering him’. “They’re just worried about you.”

“I know,” Sora refuted. “Just…” Kairi didn’t say anything in response, simply reaching for one of Sora’s hands, taking in gently in hers and holding it tightly. Something that the two of them shared, and that Riku used to share, was their habit of taking each other’s hands to show comfort. Perhaps it was because it was a common action in Destiny Islands as a whole.

Sora says let’s go and the three of them jump into the fissure, landing on a shelf in a cave with strange rock formations and Gummi blocks embedded into the walls.

“Woah,” Xion whispered, looking at the sight on screen. It looked… really pretty, now that she was thinking about it. Her eyes were drawn to the sparkling Gummi Blocks in the walls, and she got the strangest urge to create a bracelet out of them.

They look around, but a Heartless pops up behind them and shoves them off the shelf, sending them further down into the cave.

There were several muted gasps of surprise, not just from his two friends, and Sora didn’t feel as bad about it. That, to him even, had been truly surprising. They hadn’t expected it, which was slightly foolish on his part. But it had ended up being a good thing, as they had found Ansem through it.

The three of them land in the bottom of the fissure, with Goofy falling on top of Donald, much to the duck’s displeasure.

Mickey couldn’t contain a giggle at the duck’s offence, something he saw copied by several of the people in the room, many of them the teenagers that he, and he was sure Aqua and Terra, were worried about. To his surprise however, he saw a smile, or what was the start of a smile, curl up Vanitas’s lip as well. He paused for a second. He didn’t… completely know how to feel about the young darkness user. While he wasn’t as happy with him, due to all the actions he had taken a decade ago, now, sitting in this room with at least five other teenagers, it was clear, painfully clear, how young Vanitas truly was. It had been easier to ignore, when he was just a demon in a mask, but now, with a face that was identical to Sora’s and an age that reflected Ven, the body he had come from, it was clear that he wasn’t any more an adult than Sora or Riku were. And that… made Mickey think.

The three of them look around and Sora sees a bright, blue light. Sora walks up and touches it, sending the three of them somewhere else.

“Is that Traverse Town?” Roxas asked, gazing at the screen as Sora, Donald, and Goofy appeared in the new place. “But it didn’t fall to darkness, didn’t it? You sealed the Keyhole.”

“Oh yeah, it’s fine, I’m pretty sure,” Sora responded. “We just went on a really quick crash course of all the worlds we had gone to during our adventure.” He shrugged, a calm expression on his face.

“Why?” Naminé asked, thinking about it. It didn’t really make complete sense why they were visiting all those worlds when none of them had fallen to darkness.

“No idea,” Sora replied. Which seemed to be a common answer. Which also made sense.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy look around the streets of Traverse Town, only to be beset by many Heartless. As they fight them off, Sora sees another blue light and touches it, sending them to Wonderland.

“Why would you touch it again?” Vanitas asked with an eyeroll. “You touched it once and it sent you to a random place. Why touch it again?”

“It was that or fight all those Heartless,” Sora defended, gesturing to the screen with one of his hands. “Plus, I had a feeling it would send us to where we wanted to go.” He paused. “Eventually.”

They really quickly go through all the other worlds, before pausing in Neverland. Goofy wonders what exactly is happening, and Sora theorizes that they’re going to all the places where Heartless invaded the specific worlds.

Aqua wondered why that was. Maybe the Heartless left behind some… residue almost? Or something of the like.

They touch the light again and they end up in an unknown set of corridors.

Axel went abruptly stiff when he saw the hallways of the underside of the Radiant Garden Castle, thrown back into memories of sneaking through the hallways to visit X with Isa, running through them after Ansem disappeared, trying to get to X before she vanished as well, and walking through them calmly, newly stripped of his heart and wondering how long the darkness was going to last before it swallowed the world, helpless to do anything to stop it.

Mickey blinked in surprise as he recognized part of the Castle of Radiant Garden. Or what he suspected was Radiant Garden. The wall decorations were distinct enough from his few visits of the place.

Donald says that they haven’t been to this place before and Goofy spots an emblem embedded into one of the walls, saying that it looked a lot like the Keyhole created by the princesses. Donald notices a door and they go inside, seeing many pipes going up the wall, surrounding a hemisphere of pod shaped things.

Kairi pressed a hand to her head as a pang of pain went through her temple, quickly passing as soon as it came. What…? She furrowed her eyebrows at the screen. Had it been… the place that gave her the headache? But that made no sense. Unless, this could be Radiant Garden, a place that Sora and the others hadn’t been. Perhaps she had seen it once in her childhood. But why was she down there?

Sora steps closer to a panel in the front, wondering what it could be. Goofy warns against touching it, citing that a bunch of Heartless could come out, but Sora brushes him off and pushes a lever on the panel.

At this point, most of them weren’t really that surprised by Sora’s actions. It was clear that he didn’t really think before doing certain things.

“Oh, those born of the darkness, devoid of hearts…”

“Who is that?” Aqua wondered, the voice of what had to be a man lilting and songlike almost. Like the person who had recorded this, because it had to be a recording, was… amused almost, by what they were saying.

Sora shrugged, perhaps unnecessarily. He hadn’t ever met someone during his travels that had a voice like that.

“Mickey?” Terra asked, wondering if the king had any insight but the mouse shook his head. He didn’t know either.

Donald realizes that it’s talking, and Sora shushes him. “Ravage all worlds and bring desolation. Seize all hearts and consummate the one great heart.”

“Is he implying that the Heartless only serve to create Kingdom Hearts?” Ven wondered, tipping his head to the side in an effort to dismiss the headache that had taken a hold of him again. The voice… it almost sounded familiar.

Unnoticed by him, Vanitas was making the same face. The voice… it was almost from a dream…

“Maybe,” Axel muttered. “But that’s now true. Heartless have always existed, even before Maleficent and Ansem started manipulating things.”

“Has that always been their purpose then?” Naminé wondered. “And Maleficent and Ansem just tried to highjack it?”

None of them had an answer for that.

“All hearts to be one and one heart to encompass all.”

“Kingdom Hearts,” Ven and Vanitas both whispered under their breath, the memory of the gold blue heart in the sky above them as they fought in the Keyblade Graveyard for a second time.

“This is the realm of ‘Kingdom Hearts’. The great darkness, sealed within the great heart.”

“I thought Kingdom Hearts was light,” Xion said, remembering the small things she had picked up from Xemnas’s different speeches throughout her year in the Organization. “That’s how it was going to give us hearts.”

“Well, Xemnas was wrong about that,” Axel corrected her a little reluctantly, not wanting to spoil a little of her happiness from the year in the Organization.

“But it was light,” Sora interjected. “It was how I defeated Ansem. The light destroyed him.”

“But that wasn’t Kingdom Hearts either,” Mickey said with a grimace. “That was the Door to Kingdom Hearts of Worlds’ Hearts. There’s a difference.”

Kairi leaned over and rubbed at her temples, letting out a long sigh. Her action was slightly copied by Aqua.

“I’m suddenly realizing why it was necessary for Master Eraqus to have such a large library and why he insisted that during his time as a Keyblade Apprentice, there were those who were just dedicated to studying the history of the Keyblade and the Keyblade War over and over, trying to discover their secrets,” she murmured. “I thought it wasn’t possible that someone could spend their whole life doing that. I am now corrected.”

“Progeny of darkness, return to the eternal dark.”

Like me? Vanitas wondered. Is that where I am? Wherever darkness goes?

“For the hearts of light shall unseal the path. Seven hearts, one keyhole, one key to the door.”

“How does the voice know all this?” Riku asked, growing offput with the apparent knowledge the voice seemed to have. “This is a recording, right? How does it know the future from whenever it’s been recorded?”

“I have no idea,” Sora replied, leaning back into Riku’s chest, wanting to be nearer to the older boy as their separation came closer to being seen. He wasn’t going to lose Riku, not again. Never again.

“The Door to Darkness bound by two keys.”

Does that mean it will be bound by two keys? Aqua wondered, giving Mickey a look. While she didn’t know that much about what was about to happen, not having that much time to talk about it when she had been fighting for her life trying to protect Mickey in the Realm of Darkness, she knew that this somehow got sealed. Her memories confirmed that. But if Mickey’s Keyblade was one of the ones to seal the Door to Darkness, and it was a carbon copy of Sora’s, had Sora’s been the other Key to seal it? And if that was the truth, did the voice mean it required two Keyblades to seal it? Or that those two specific Keyblades will seal it?

She didn’t know if she liked either implication.

“The Door to Darkness, which seals the light. None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness.”

Riku flinched. He knew he shouldn’t be completely listening to a mysterious voice that somehow knew the future but… only shadows shall pass. Did that make him a shadow?

“Oh, those born of the heart, those with no hearts, fallen children of the dark, devour every heart until the Door to Darkness opens!”

All of them shivered then as they listened to the way the voice upturned at the end in amusement, as if he was going to start laughing before the recording cut off and everything went silent. Sora didn’t know how he had managed to listen to that the first time without being scared. Maybe because he had been running on some much adrenaline, it wasn’t even funny.

Sora wonders what Kingdom Hearts even is.

Sora sighed. Part of him wanted to go back to the naïve boy who didn’t know anything except that he wielded a mystical weapon called the Keyblade and that Riku was out there, waiting for him to track him down. But at the same time, he had learned so much and even in these only few hours he had spent with the rest of them, he felt connected to them like he hadn’t been since his friendship with Riku. Other Keyblade Wielders, some Keyblade Masters. People who had been through what he had, if only a little differently, and knew the burden of holding the Keyblade, of fighting the darkness that came for the hearts. These people, who he wanted to know more, knew what he had been through, were literally seeing what he had been through. And while it wasn’t the greatest, it was still better than nothing. He had heard Aqua’s words. Keyblade Wielders didn’t belong alone. And now he wouldn’t be alone ever again.

My friends are my power, he thought. Riku is my power. Kairi and Goofy and Donald and Roxas and Ven and Xion and all the rest are my power. Always.

Goofy mentions that the voice said it was ‘all hearts’ while Donald deduces that the ‘progeny of darkness’ were the Heartless. Sora asks didn’t they seal all the doors and Goofy replies that there must be one more.

One more, Sora thought. One more, that separated me and Riku for a year.

Sora says that none of this makes any sense.

It was a feeling many of them were intimately familiar with, both from their lives and the challenges that came with it, and from what they were learning as this watching went on.

Goofy sees something by the emblem and walks towards it, picking something up. When Sora asks what it is, he says it’s more of Ansem’s report.

Roxas didn’t say anything, just pressed his face into Axel’s shoulder. Before pausing and looking back up. Right, it wasn’t DiZ anymore, it was… Xehanort, right?

“More of Xehanort’s words?” Kairi wondered, remembering what Axel had said about the latest reports. Both Terra and Aqua flinched, but for very different reasons. Terra didn’t know if he wanted to hear more of the man’s words, not when he had been tormented by them before and had probably already seen them written down on the pages, despite his probable attempts at stopping him. The last few days before, what Terra now knew was a split into Heartless and Nobody, were dim and blurrily, in even in his mind.

Sora says that he thought the piece they found in Hollow Bastion was the end of it.

Story of the reports, Roxas thought with an eyeroll. When you think it’s done, surprise, there’s more!

Jiminy jumps out of Sora’s pocket, saying that it looked a lot like Ansem’s report, before beginning to read it.

Several people jumped when the cricket appeared. Many of them had forgotten that he was with Sora and the others at all.

“Existing only as a heart, I have returned to the Heartless, and yet there is no hint of a transformation.”

“So, it is Xehanort,” Naminé murmured, trying to keep track of it all in her head. It wasn’t easy.

Terra tipped his head to the side, thinking. If their vessel was already a Heartless at this time, then… what happened to him? Was he still there, still trapped within Xehanort’s heart? If the vessel ripped his own heart out, separating himself from his Terra’s Body, had he taken Terra with him? Or not? Maybe the reason he had such spotty memories of the past eleven years was because he was a heart existing on its own, without a body. He didn’t know which option he preferred.

Bizarrely, Sora had the strangest thought. If he’s a Heartless, how is he writing? He had a feeling that the thought wouldn’t be appreciated, so he didn’t share it, but the thought remained. Were their ways for Heartless to be different shapes, have different appearances other than different shadow creatures?

“The body is certainly gone. But its memories remain, and I have yet to take the form of a Heartless. Much is still unknown.”

Well, that answer’s that question, Sora thought as the next part of the report was read. Honestly, how am I forgetting all of this? I thought I had only forgotten that one part, before the year sleep? Along with the whole, ‘thank Naminé’ note.

“To reach the realm of darkness, once must go through the doors of Kingdom Hearts, the place where the worlds’ hearts connect.”

As the report went on, now with the knowledge that it was in fact Xehanort, or some facet of an amnesiac version of him, writing the report instead of Ansem, Aqua’s breathing grew tight, and her hands curled into fists. Maybe because she hated everything to do with the man, maybe it was because the last time she had heard him talk, he had been talking through the body of her closest friend after taking his heart prisoner. Maybe because there was a part of her that wasn’t soothed by Terra’s words of her ‘beating Xehanort into amnesia’ and was worrying that she had played right into his hands, yet again. What if this had been his plan, to get into Ansem the Wise’s good graces, before taking his work and separating himself, making him twice as hard to track down and stop. Because everything had been his plan before, everything down to the day he arrived at the Land of Departure. She couldn’t have stopped his plan, not her. She wasn’t nearly as good a Keyblade Wielder Master Wielder to do that. Not the man who had planned everything down and killed her master and had his apprentice send her little brother into a coma and had manipulated and imprisoned her closest friend.

Not her, the screw up she was. She wasn’t good enough to stop him. She couldn’t have stopped him then.

“There are many worlds, some of which we know nothing about. The world in which we live, the Realm of Darkness, the Realm of Light. And the world between. Whither lies the true paradise?”

Paradise? Ven wondered, blinking in confusion. Why would Xehanort be wondering about paradise? He had been seeking power and he had some version of it now. Why paradise?

Unknown to him, Vanitas’s breathing was shaking and stuttering as he slammed his eyes closed, wanting to cover his ears with his hands and block out the report. How could he have been so stupid? It was obvious, painfully obvious, that the person writing the report was Master Xehanort. The way he spoke, the thoughts he lingered on. Even in the past report, he should have seen it, should have realized. He spent four years listening to the same man talk on and on between ‘training’ sessions with Vanitas. How could he had not seen?

“Where does the body go when it separates from the heart?”

“It goes and creates a vile Nobody named Xemnas who likes to manipulate teenagers into killing each other,” Roxas snarked under his breath, something about the reading putting him back on edge like he hadn’t felt since those final days in the Organization.

“I know that when the heart returns to the Heartless, the physical form disappears.”

Kairi closed her eyes in remembrance before immediately snapping them open again, the vision of Sora’s body dissolving into sparkles after stabbing himself to release her heart appearing behind her eyelids. She held tighter to the hand she held. She wasn’t going to lose him again.

“But that is merely true in this world. In another world, might it not still exist?”

“What other world is he talking about?” Ven questioned, taken aback by the strange nature of the question.

“Does he mean the Realm of Darkness or Hollow Bastion?” Sora offered the two options, biting his lip.

“He might mean a literal different world,” Roxas said, he and Naminé most… familiar with what Xehanort was probably talking about. “When I separated from you, I didn’t appear in Hollow Bastion. Neither did Naminé.” He gestured to her with a head nod. “Maybe he means like that.”

“A being that is neither darkness nor light, belonging nowhere, abandoned by its heart, a mere shell of its former self, spurned by light and darkness alike.”

Roxas got the urge to bare his teeth in a scowl on his, Axel’s, and Naminé’s behalf. They weren’t shells of their former selves, they were themselves. New people, their own person. And he didn’t feel too abandoned by the light, what with him wielding the Keyblade and all.

“However, I am certain that if one’s self exists here, then by definition the other cannot truly ‘exist’. Call it then a nonbeing, a ‘Nobody’.”

Both Roxas and Naminé flinched at the disregardment of their existence and Xion looked over at her friend in concern while Mickey’s gaze fell on the girl in white. Roxas wanted to snap at the words that were on the screen, snarl back that he was him, not Sora, not an empty puppet, not a nonbeing. He was Roxas, he was a Nobody, he was best friends with Xion and Axel, he didn’t have a heart of his own, and none of those statements were contradictory. None of them.

“Wait Mickey, I thought you said Ansem came up with the names for the Nobodies?” Aqua asked quietly, eyes moving between Roxas and Naminé who had both had clear reactions to the latest report.

“I thought he did,” Mickey replied. “He seemed certain that he hadn’t heard the word before he started saying it.”

“So, they both came up with the same term?” Sora asked.

Roxas scoffed. “They’re more alike than they thought. No matter no one could tell their reports apart.”

Vanitas flinched at the implications of not telling them apart. He messed up, he should have known, he should have realized, he couldn’t fail the test again.

Goofy says that it’s more stuff that doesn’t make sense and Jiminy says that there have been a lot of things that they don’t understand, but that Jiminy’s been able to figure out. He admits that he can’t figure this out.

Because it’s such a change, Ven thought. Why was Xehanort searching for paradise? Why split himself? Why do any of it?

Had he just abandoned the plan from before, that included him and Vanitas? Had he just… moved on? To a new scheme?

Sora mentions that it says Kingdom Hearts again and both Donald and Goofy are confused. Jiminy wonders what he’s trying to say.

A wondering that was echoed by many of the watchers.

Donald says that it doesn’t matter, and they just have to beat Ansem. Sora says he’s right and summons the Keyblade, turning towards the black portal in the hallway.

Except it does matter, Sora thought. Because apparently this has been going on for much longer than we thought, with much worse consequences.

Aqua trapped in the Realm of Darkness. Terra imprisoned in his own heart, body puppeted by the man who did it to him. Ven asleep for a decade, unageing.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, who hides back in Sora’s pocket, leap into the dark portal, letting it swallow them.

Sora took a deep breath. It was almost over.

At least, this adventure was. But there was still so much more.

Chapter Text

Sora, Donald, and Goofy appear in a cave system, starting to walk around. Goofy says that the place gives him the willies and Sora says that they have to press on.

“Are you… still in the place from before?” Kairi asked and Sora shrugged.

“We kind of just wandered around there for a while, fought some Heartless, before finding a door and fighting Ansem,” he explained. “I assume we were in the same place.”

They move deeper into the cave system, eventually getting attacked by some Heartless that they fight off. Goofy sees another heart shaped emblem like the one from Radiant Garden.

“They’re doorways, right?” Roxas asked, getting a head nod from Sora.

Donald says it looks a lot like the one from before and Goofy says that it’s not all, pointing out that as they defeated the Heartless, the emblem covering the doorway cracked away.

“Strange,” Aqua murmured, before pausing. She had seen many strange things in her time in the Realm of Darkness, the clock from the Castle of Dreams coming back to her most prominently. Perhaps this world, created from the darkness remaining from the fallen worlds, had similar strange laws in logic.

Sora realizes that if they defeat all the Heartless, the door will open, and they do just that. They end up in a smaller cave with a fancy door on one side.

Riku tipped his head to the side, studying the door. As strange as it seemed… it looked almost like the Door to Darkness, or at least their side of it. He hadn’t ever seen the light side and it had been dark when he and Mickey were going for it, so he could be wrong but… Nothing so far seemed like any coincidence.

Donald says that there isn’t any Heartless in there and Sora walks closer to the door, seemingly confused.

“Sora, what’s wrong?” Kairi asked, seeing the expression on Sora’s face and Sora smiled at her, doing his best to reassure her.

“Nothing’s wrong, Kai,” he told her. “It just that I was hearing something. Something that the others couldn’t.”

“What?” Xion asked and Sora dipped his head in Mickey’s direction in answer.

“Mickey?” Terra questioned.

“I had to give him a little warning about what he was getting into,” Mickey explained. “It was the last time I could contact him before I was completely behind the door after all.”

Sora asks if they can hear it.  “Careful… this is the last haven you’ll find here. Beyond, there is no light to protect you.”

“Rather pessimistic, Mickey,” Riku said, looking over at the mouse. “What gives?”

“It was just that I wanted him to fully know what he was getting into,” Mickey said in response. “I was deep in the darkness and didn’t completely know what Sora would be getting himself into, so I wanted to make sure he was in some way prepared, even if it ended up not being as bad as I thought it would be.”

Sora shot Mickey a smile. “Thanks.”

“But don’t be afraid. Your heart is the mightiest weapon of all.”

And it remains to be, Sora thought, feeling in his chest the warm light that usually held his Keyblade ready and waiting for him. And while he couldn’t summon it for the moment, he could still feel it there. That and my friends.

“Remember—you are the one who will open the door to the light.”

“I thought you closed it?” Xion asked, having been listening to certain things as they were presented, plus a little niggling in the back of her brain that spoke of remembrance even thought there was nothing to remember, so she had a basic grasp of what had happened before she came into existence.

“Well, I did,” Sora said. “With Riku’s help.” The older boy’s expression soured slightly as he remembered what was coming next, his separation from Sora and all that had come from it. “But first had to open it to defeat Ansem. And I did technically open it like a couple of hours ago to get Riku and I out of the Realm of Darkness. Though, Kairi’s letter may have done that.”

“You found that?” Kairi asked, looking to Sora in surprise. When he nodded, she looked down, trying to hide the blush on her cheeks. She hadn’t realized…

Donald says that he doesn’t hear anything, and Sora says that the voice was familiar, before mentioning that it could just be his imagination. Donald says maybe he needs a break.

Yes, he does, Aqua thought, grateful that someone finally realized it. He needs a break desperately.

Goofy says they should take a break and settles on the ground, Donald and Sora following him. Donald says that Aerith gave him some goodies and opens a package.

Aqua smiled, an expression mirrored across the room, as Sora was given a second to just sit and breathe, to hang with people that clearly meant a lot to him and not having to fight Heartless. It was something that he had really needed. They probably all needed it.

Sora asks when and Donald replies when they left Hollow Bastion. He passes out the cookies, to joy from Sora and Goofy.

“Those were good,” Sora recalled with a fond smile on his lips. “I should get more of them from Aerith when we go back. I think you would like them.” He elbowed Riku in the side, causing the older boy to look down at him.

“Really?” Riku asked and Sora nodded. “Huh.”

Goofy recalls that the cookies in Alice’s world were good as well and Sora brings up the bananas from the Jungle. They bring up a few other things from their journey.

All the adults in the room felt a sense of peace, or at least gratefulness, when they saw Sora taking a moment and just breathing, eating some good food and remembering fun things that he had done. Sora had been going full speed ahead probably since Neverland and he hadn’t really gotten a moment to stop and breathe. They were glad he was getting that chance now.

After their break, the three of them stand up and push open the door.

Sora took a deep breath, leaning back into Riku’s side. Riku was here, he was here, he thought. Sure, he may be hurting and struggling but he’s here, with me, and I’ll be able to help him with those problems. He’s not leaving again; I won’t let him.

Sora walks out onto a beach, realizing in shock that it was Destiny Islands.

“You were on Destiny Islands?” Kairi asked, breathless in shock, while Riku had to swallow back the feeling of bile in his throat. The Destiny Islands… in the place of the worlds where all those that had fallen to darkness had gone… because of him.

Sora nodded quietly, not saying anything. Of course, the Islands hadn’t lasted long but… He knew what was coming next.

Sora looks around, spotting several things that were off with the world.

“It doesn’t look… right,” Naminé settled on, looking at the screen in confusion. Destiny Islands was of the worlds in Sora’s memories that she knew well, probably the best, what with her needing to carefully place herself in place of Riku/Kairi/Sora depending on whose memories she was messing with. And they had grown up in the place, so she also had to know enough about it to make the changes believable. It was with that knowledge that she was able to see was Sora had been seeing in that moment, small little things that were missing.

Riku and Kairi could also see the differences and Kairi furrowed her eyebrows in thought. Why were those things missing? Was it just a product of the Heartless or the darkness? But they had been fine when she returned to the world? Had they been restored somehow?

“It wasn’t,” Sora replied.

Looking around, Sora spots ‘Riku’ in the distance, running up to him and calling his name. “This world… has been connected.”

Riku went stiff at the voice, glaring at the person who dared to use his body to draw Sora in. Several of them remembered the words from all the way back when Sora first saw the door when Destiny Islands were still whole, said by the brown cloaked figure. Who must have been Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

“Tied to the darkness… soon to be completely eclipsed.”

Terra gritted his teeth as he listened to Ansem speak. Now that he had been told… it was painfully obvious who it was truly. Who was actually speaking. The language, the tone… It was Xehanort. It had always been him. Even when he was amnesiac and a twisted vessel of conflicting hearts and minds, it was clear who had been the primary influence on the man.

Parts of the islands started to disappear, much to the three’s shock. “You know so little. One who knows nothing can understand nothing.”

Sora made a face and crossed his arms, looking away from the screen with a huff. “I think I understand enough right now,” he muttered, doing his best to keep the air light and not oppressive with worry. He lived through this, he survived this, and while it may have led to him and Riku being separated, they were back together now.

“Take a look at this place. To the heart seeking freedom, this island is a prison surrounded by water. And so this boy sought to escape from his prison.”

Riku bit the inside of his mouth, feeling the gazes of several people land on him. He didn’t… Destiny Islands weren’t a… prison, per say, but… He had known, ever since he had seen Terra that day and got confirmation that the outside world truly existed, that he wouldn’t be happy remaining on the Islands. Remaining with his friends might have made it bearable but he wouldn’t have been truly happy, not like there was a chance for him to be, a very small chance now, happy traveling across the stars and to so many different worlds. The island, that he knew like the back of his hand, would never have sustained him for longer than it already did. If he hadn’t gotten out on the storm, he would have gone some other way. No matter what the consequences were.

He had a promise to Terra to keep after all. 

"And you will find me, friend."

“He sought a way to cross to other worlds. And he opened his heart to darkness.” ‘Riku’ turns around, changing into Ansem.

Terra swallowed past the slight pain in his head as the memories tried to make themselves known. Had he… seen this before? In some way?

Sora calls out to Riku, but Ansem tells him not to bother and that Sora’s voice can’t reach him where he is. He says that Riku’s heart belongs to the darkness.

“Only partly,” Sora refuted, leaning on Riku’s shoulder and taking one of Riku’s hands, holding it tight. “Only partly.” And we can fix that, in the future. If what Aqua and Terra said was correct and darkness shouldn't belong in a Keyblade Wielder's heart, we can figure out a way to get it out of him.

Only partly, Riku thought. I hope I can believe that someday.

Ansem says that all worlds began in darkness, and all will end in darkness, just like hearts. Ansem says that darkness sprouts within all hearts, growing and consuming it as its nature.

Maybe, Mickey thought, looking over to Riku. Maybe all hearts, except for some clear exceptions, have some darkness in them and perhaps that darkness will always grow. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be used for good. He knew Riku’s fighting style well, he had seen his heart. It has in the past. It is now. It can always be used for good.

Part of him wondered when the words good and evil had started to be synonymous with light and dark. There was living proof in front of him that it wasn’t the case.

Ansem says that in the end, every heart returns to the darkness from whence it came. That darkness is the heart’s true nature.

Then what caused mine and the other Princess of Hearts existences? Kairi wondered, a hand subconsciously coming up to press at her chest, right over where her heart was. If all hearts contain darkness, and that’s the ‘right way’ of things, what caused us? Why are we here? How are we here? What do you say to that, Ansem?

Vanitas looked to the side, one set of nails digging into his other arm. Returning to darkness… he didn’t know if he wanted that. He had just wanted the pain to stop and Xehanort had said that joining with Ventus would make it so. He honestly hadn’t cared if that had meant they both died instantly upon recompletion. He just wanted the pain to stop.

Sora says that’s not true and says that the heart may be weak, might even give in. But that he’s learned that deep down there’s a light that never goes out.

My friends, Sora thought. That little light that never goes out. My connection to my friends.

Axel looked down at the teenagers on the couch with him. While we may not have hearts, there is something… special almost that connects all of us. Maybe it’s the light, maybe it’s something different. But we’re always connected.

I hope so, Terra thought, thinking of his own heart. That means it’s not too late for me.

Ansem says that he has come far but still clearly understands nothing and floats up. A dark creature rises up behind him.

Terra pressed a hand to his temple. He could remember- What was going on? The light stung his eyes and the headache pulsed in his head and the darkness wrapped around all of his limbs. He choked on the darkness, trying to see through the light that was blinding his eyes. Was something… happening? Everything was wrapping around him, all the sounds and lights that he barely hear sounding like they were coming through six walls each. There was… He blinked once. Sand and noise and darkness and a boy and he was moving but he didn’t feel like he was moving and it almost felt like before, before- Another ripple of pain sliced across his head and he lost the sound and sight as the darkness crept closer and he tried to hold on but-

He had seen this. His breath caught at the sudden realization. More proof, he supposed. I guess that means that my heart isn’t broken, like it crossed my mind that it could be. If I can remember some things, it means that I was aware, seeing out of Ansem’s eyes. Joy.

Sora fights with Ansem and the dark creature until Ansem disappears.

Roxas made a noise at the abrupt disappearance of Ansem. If you were going to fight someone, at least fight until the end. Don’t cheat like that, Riku. He tried to tamp down the worry that was building in him for his Somebody. Or what felt like worry.

Sora and the others look around until the ground starts to shake, sending darkness and crevices up the beach. Sora spots Ansem hovering in the air but his gaze is cut off by a Darkside rising from the now broken ground.

Several people gasped at the thing grew from the ground, Aqua going stiff as she stared at it, memories flashing in front of her eyes of fighting them over and over again, learning how to fight them better but still being equally exhausted at the end of each one.

Kairi reached out, hands circling around one of Sora’s arms. She knew, she knew, that Sora made it out of this. She had seen him after it after all. But it still made her nervous and it was clear it wasn’t just her dealing with that.

Naminé got the urge to cover her eyes with her hands and hide her face.

Sora falls into the pit with it, Goofy and Donald skidding to a stop at the edge of the pit. Sora recognizes it from the night Destiny Islands disappeared and starts fighting it.

“Ow, ow, Kairi,” Sora gave her a flat look, flinching slightly as her grip on his arm grew painful. “I’m okay, remember? I survive this.”

“You can survive a lot,” Riku murmured from behind him, his own hand on Sora’s shoulder thankfully not as painful as Kairi’s was.

“Sorry,” Kairi muttered, loosening her grip. “It’s just… stressful to watch.”

The darkness slowly consumes the world around Sora even as Donald and Goofy join the battle against the creature.

The worry that was plaguing Riku and Kairi slowly infected the others as the world seemed to literally collapse from around Sora.

The darkness surges up and swallows the three of them. When Sora opens his eyes again, he sees the monster in a different form, with pieces of land surrounding it in the dark void.

“Riku,” Sora said, his ire this time directed at the older boy, as his grip became iron on Sora’s shoulder. “Guys, I’m fine. This was over a year ago at this point. I won; you both saw me afterward.

“It’s not that easy to stop worrying,” Aqua told him gently with a tight smile on her face. “People are just going to do that; you have to accept it.”

Sora huffed slightly. I don’t know why I need to; no one needs to worry about me. I’ve saved the world twice, I’m strong enough to take care of myself.

He attempts to get close to it, but the darkness comes back, swallowing up both Donald and Goofy, before taking him.

All of the noise and feeling in the room was sucked out of it as the screen went black and Sora didn’t reappear.

“Sora?” Mickey asked hesitantly and Sora turned around to give him a smile.

“Don’t worry Mickey,” he replied. He knew what came next after all.

“Giving up already? Come on Sora, I thought you were stronger than that.”

Riku blinked in surprise at his own voice that sounded through the room, which was quickly followed by Sora leaping out of the darkness and onto the land pieces.

“Turns out I can reach your heart,” Sora told him, smiling up at him as he leaned backward into Riku’s side. “I’ll always be able to.”

“Always?” He questioned, taken aback by the word and the smile that Sora was giving him, he could feel the heat rushing to his cheeks.

“Always,” Sora responded.

Unnoticed to the two of them, both Aqua and Terra flinched, hearing the familiar saying passed between the two of them that used to pass between the older two Keyblade Wielders.

Ansem appears out of the darkness, connected to the dark creature, and Sora moves forward, engaging in battle with him. In the distance, a familiar door can be seen.

Riku’s, Aqua’s, and Mickey’s eyes widened in surprise at the door. They hadn’t realized this had all been happening right outside of it, probably while the three of them were in different places behind it. If only they could have gone through, they could have helped.

Sora fights with Ansem, having to dodge from other attacks from the beast. Donald and Goofy suddenly burst out of the darkness and help Sora face off with Ansem.

Mickey sighed in relief at both the reappearances of his friends and the joy that Sora wouldn’t be fighting alone for the rest of the fight. He had done that enough.

Sora eventually lands a hit on Ansem that starts to cause the whole structure to collapse. Sora shields his eyes from the explosion, looking back to see just Ansem.

Kairi couldn’t help the cheer that slipped out of her mouth in joy as Sora defeated Ansem, jumping slightly on the couch, her grip on Sora turning into a hug as she leaned in. Sora smiled at her, returning the hug as best as he could without completely slipping out of Riku’s grip.

Roxas smiled as Xion did, both of them happy that the boy that they had in someway come from had defeated Ansem while Axel grinned, not at all surprised in any way. This was the boy who had taken down Xemnas. That was a feat, with help or not.

Aqua relaxed, allowing her shoulders to slump slightly as she witnessed Sora make it out of the fight mostly unscathed. While she knew it wasn’t the last thing he went through, not in the least, it was good that this was done.

Ansem says that it is futile and that the Keyblade alone cannot seal the Door to Darkness. He turns, looking back at the doors, and calls upon Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of Darkness.

Mickey and Riku looked at the screen in scrutiny. They would probably be showing up very soon. Riku’s hand almost tightened around Sora’s shoulder, but he managed to stop himself. It was fine, Sora was here now. They were both there together.

The doors start to open slowly, and darkness pours out of them.

The good mood that had taken over the room plummeted as the darkness started to creep out. Did Sora have to fight Ansem again? Kairi sucked in a breath, turning back to look at Sora. She paused in shock however, when she saw the smile on his face. He caught her eye.

“It’s okay, Kairi,” he told her. “Kingdom Hearts is light, remember?”

Sora tells Ansem that he’s wrong and he knows without a doubt that Kingdom Hearts is light. The darkness turns into light and covers Ansem, causing him to fade away.

Riku watched Ansem fade away with a neutral expression on his face. Ansem… he had seen him in Castle Oblivion and had lived as him for a good couple of weeks when trying to get Sora his heart back. He had seen him, over and over again in his nightmares and dreams, the mirror and in his own darkness.

To say his feelings about Ansem were complicated would be a gross understatement.

Terra dug his nails into his palms. If he had been connected to Ansem, which he was sure he had been, had this been the great… relief he had felt a while ago? In the darkness, all of a sudden there had been a great comfort taking over his body for a second, banishing the headache and all the pain and he had felt free from the darkness for the quickest of seconds before it was gone. Had this been it? The light of the worlds’ hearts?

Aqua sucked in a breath, feeling it catch in her throat as she watched some… facet of Xehanort fade away into nothingness. It didn’t… It wasn’t Xehanort, not really, but it still… had his vocal patterns and his goal, as twisted as it was, and it wasn’t… Her hands twisted together, a self-soothing measure she’d had since childhood and she simply closed her eyes, trying to push the confusion thoughts away. She couldn’t… it was hard to think.

Ven blinked, getting the random urge to look over at Vanitas. The darkness user was watching the screen with a blank expression, but Ven could see the way his hands were gripping the sides of his chair tightly. Was he… upset… about Ansem’s destruction? Would he have even cared about what happened to Ansem? Sure, he was a piece of Xehanort, but he didn’t seem to hold any of Xehanort’s ideals or plans. Though, they didn’t know that much about Xehanort. That could have been a plan all along and they would have no clue. Ven himself… was mostly just glad that Sora and the others were out of harm’s way.

Donald says that they have to shut the door and the three of them fly towards it, landing on the ground and running up to it. Sora and the others start pushing on the door, trying to close it.

Sora froze, before twisting his body so he could much more easily hug Riku, pressing his face into the older boy’s shoulder. Said older boy froze in shock before looking down at the Keyblade Wielder. He supposed… He wrapped one arm around Sora’s back, reciprocating the hug.

The gesture between the two of them did not lessen the worries of any of the other watchers, having grown used to reactions like that when things were truly about to go off the rails.

Donald and Goofy look through the open doors as they push, freezing in shock when they see the Heartless massing inside the door.

Several pairs of eyes grew wide when they noticed the number of Heartless there. That… was a lot.

Donald says to hurry and Sora nods, pushing the doors despite their little movement. A hand appears from inside the door, pulling from the inside, and Sora looks up, seeing Riku pulling from the inside.

Aqua paused, her gaze moving back to the boys who were curled up on the couch together. She remembered Sora’s words, from all the way back in the beginning, right as they were starting to watch the past. Sora had said they had closed the Door to Darkness from ‘opposite sides’ and the only thing on the other side was…

She hadn’t realized that Riku had gotten stuck in the Realm of Darkness with her.

After defending Mickey from the Heartless and ending up on the Destiny Islands for the quickest second, she had been thrown back into the Realm of Darkness, alone again though this time without a Keyblade. She had thought that Mickey and Riku had made it through, had made it to safety. Had she known that they were still there, she would have tracked them down, tried to protect them, instead of just wandering around again. Stupid, you shouldn’t have assumed. You should have done something, you’re a Keyblade Master.

She didn’t feel like one.

Riku and Sora start forcing the doors to close, but more and more Heartless amass behind it, including several Darksides.

Kairi watched the screen carefully, worry for her friends building in her throat as she looked between the screen and their current selves. She knew they made it out of there, but it was still nerve wracking.

Donald says that it’s hopeless, but they’re distracted by a bright light that appears and banishes all the Heartless back. The light dims and reveals Mickey.

Riku smiled as the mouse appeared, an expression echoed around the room.

Aqua briefly wondered if she was going to get shown, given that she was fighting Heartless not a hundred meters away.

Both Donald and Goofy are shocked but Mickey calls out to Sora to close the door for good. Sora hesitates for a second, looking to Riku who’s still on the other side of the door.

Sora, who had looked back at the screen for a quick second, turned away from it again, tightening his hold on Riku.

“It’s okay,” the older boy said gently, finding their positions abruptly reversed from what was happening not five minutes prior. “I’m here now. We’re both here now.”

“And you’re not allowed to leave again,” Sora replied, voice muffled slightly by his face being pressed into Riku’s side. “Never again. Right?”

“Right,” Riku repeated.

Aqua looked to Terra out of the corner of her eye, reaching out one hand behind Ven to latch onto one of his hands, holding it tightly. Terra startled slightly in surprise but then relaxed, sending her a smile, and changing their hand positions a little to be more comfortable. They knew separation well.

Roxas reached across Axel’s lap, intertwining his hands with Xion, trying to block out the memories of fighting her, of cradling her body as it flaked away after he had killed her. He felt Axel’s arm settle around his back and let his head fall slightly, leaning on the older man’s side. Xion held his hands back just as tightly.

Mickey reassures Sora that there will always be a door to light and Goofy tells Sora that he can trust King Mickey. Riku looks back towards Mickey and warns Sora that the Heartless are coming and Mickey thanks Donald and Goofy.

Mickey smiled gently at his friends on screen. His list of people who he needed to see was just getting longer and longer. Sure, he had been with them for the past two hours while waiting for Sora and Riku to reappear, but they had mostly been worried about the boys. They hadn’t really gotten a chance to sit and catch up with each other. Go over everything they had been through.

Riku tells Sora to take care of her and Sora nods firmly through his tears.

Sora reached out blindly and grasped Kairi’s arm, pulling on her incessantly until she moved closer, changing the way he was sitting so he could drag her into the hug, one arm coming up to hold her close. Her free hand intertwined with Riku’s, and she pressed her forehead to his shoulder for the quickest second. He smiled back at her, shifting around to make it easier, and within a second, the three of them were curled up in a hug together, all bunched together at Riku’s end of the couch. Sora sniffled slightly, clearly trying to mask the tears that were no doubt building in him, having to be reminded of this, and Riku and Kairi just held him tighter.

Everyone carefully averted their eyes from the three of them, trying to give them as much privacy as possible.

Sora finishes pushing the door closed and backs up, summoning the Keyblade. On the other side, Mickey summons Kingdom Key D and it glows in time with Sora’s.

Sora, through the tears that were misting his eyes, gazed at the Keyblade that the King was holding onscreen. It certainly looked like his, just color swapped, like Mickey had said. Why his though? Nothing was special about it, despite the fact that it used to be Riku’s.

Sora backs up from the door as it vanishes, several memories of Riku flashing in front of his eyes, before it disappears completely.

Sora pressed his face deeper into Riku’s side. Not leaving, not leaving again. Staying with me, forever.

Riku couldn’t stop the blush from creeping up his cheeks slightly when he saw the memories that Sora thought of. He didn’t realize that closing the door had hurt Sora so badly.

Axel raised an eyebrow at the screen. Having several flashbacks to several important memories while the boy at the center of the memories slipped out of your reach? Yeah, that didn’t scream heteronormality.

From behind them, Sora hears Kairi call his name and turns around, seeing her there. He takes off towards her, Donald and Goofy watching behind.

Now it was Kairi choking back tears, remembering holding onto his hand in a death grip. Trying to keep a hold of it as the very ground beneath their feet worked to pull them apart. Sora pulled her closer to him. At this point, it was hard to tell where one teenager ended and the other began.

Sora grabs her hand and tells Kairi that he is always with her and that he’ll come back to her, he promises. Kairi says she knows he will.

“And you did,” she whispered, feeling the first tear trickle down her face, hand tightening on Sora’s. “You did.”

“I did,” he confirmed, pressing their temples to each other. “I did.”

Their hands lose grip on each other, Sora reaching out one more time as she vanished into the dark.

“Here, I’m here,” Kairi murmured. “We’re all here.” They weren’t letting go of each other again.

Aqua’s hand grew vicelike on Terra’s swallowing back her own tears that tried to escape her. Why? Why was it that they could never stay together? She, Terra, and Ven were ripped apart from each other; Roxas, Xion, and Axel were separated as well. Why couldn’t they just stay together? Why wouldn’t the world let them?

Xion pressed herself into Axel’s side, swallowing past the lump in her throat.

Kairi sees a small ball of light float down in front of her and she looks up, seeing hundreds of them float through the air.

“All the light returning to the world,” Ven murmured, voice quiet and downtrodden. His hands reached out and gently grasped his friends’, having seen how they had reached out for each other. Another trio, separated in pursuit of saving the world.

Sora sees it as well, looking around in shock. Around Kairi, Destiny Islands springs back into being, being restored back to life.

All three of the Islanders smiled in happiness at seeing their home returned. They knew it happened, Kairi had lived there for a year, but having seen it fall to darkness earlier in the watching, they were happy to see it return to life as well.

Kairi sees Sora disappear into a bright flash of light, from which hundreds of streaks of light explode outwards, painting across the sky.

“Are those…?” Xion questioned, not knowing exactly what they were but having an idea. “The worlds?”

Mickey nodded once in response, seeing as the other teenagers weren’t going to do it, still wrapped up in each other.

Now during the daytime, Kairi heads into the Secret Place, finding the drawing that Sora added too before the world fell. She reaches out and touches it, tears dripping down her cheeks.

“When we go back,” Kairi whispered to Sora, voice barely over a breath. “We should share an actual paopu.” Riku’s breath caught in his throat as he heard Kairi’s statement.

Sora blinked, slightly befuddled. Sharing a paopu... that hadn't really been something discussed about before. “To… prove our friendship?” He asked her, voice not leaving the level of hers and Kairi sucked in a breath, looking up at Sora. When he didn’t say anything else, she forced her mouth into a smile, nodding gently.

“Yeah,” she said, brushing off another tear that rolled down her cheek. “For our friendship.”

She paints herself giving a paopu to Sora.

Riku closed his eyes, feeling a tear slide down his face. It was fine, he was just crying because he had just relived losing Sora again. He wasn’t crying because… He wasn’t. Sora’s not yours to love, he and Kairi care so deeply for each other. Why are you trying to insert yourself into their love? They’re the textbook fairytale, they’re everything the stories say. Two people as bright as them would do no less than write a new fairytale.

You might have come to terms that you love him, but it's not right to. Don't go getting any ideas.

In the Disney Castle, Minnie and Daisy are walking through the halls, getting called over by Chip and Dale. They look out the window, seeing three young ducklings getting chased by some brooms.

“Donald’s nephews,” Mickey explained, smiling at the sight of Minnie. Sora twisted his head to see the screen while keeping a grasp on the other two. They certainly looked like Donald.

Ven blinked in slight surprise. It seemed that Huey, Dewy, and Louie hadn’t aged that much either while he was gone. Perhaps it was the world. Or maybe people like Mickey, the trio, and the others simply aged slower.

In a room, Aerith, Leon, and Yuffie are speaking with each other. Cid enters the room and gestures outside.

Sora narrowed his eyes, trying to pinpoint the room. Were they… still in Hollow Bastion? He assumed, because they had been there when he returned there and he didn’t know if Traverse Town still existed with all the worlds restored but… surely, they had stuff there, if they had been living there for nine years. Hopefully they managed to grab it.

Aerith leaves the room, following Cid’s instructions, and sees Cloud waiting by a window. He turns to look at her in surprise and she breaks into a run, running up to him and throwing her arms around him. They hug.

Several of them smiled, glad to see the two of them reunited. Sora was happy that Cloud managed to find his light. Don’t worry Cloud, he thought, his hand tightening around Riku’s. I found mine too.

In a home, Pinocchio looks at his body, which has been transformed from a puppet into a real boy. He jumps around in excitement, to the amusement of Geppetto.

“How did he become real?” Roxas questioned, taken aback, and Sora simply shrugged. He hadn’t even realized this had happened.

“Well, the world is full of strange things,” Ven replied.

Jasmine and Aladdin reunite in Agrabah, sharing a kiss.

Riku looked down, blowing out a slow breath. He was glad that Jasmine was okay and managed to get back to Agrabah and Aladdin alright.

On Destiny Islands, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie run down the beach together.

All three of the Islanders felt a pang of sadness and nostalgia in their chest when they witnessed this. “When we get back,” Sora murmured. “We need to go to the beach. Like we used to.” He got two nods of approval.

Sora is walking down a path with Donald and Goofy.

Kairi and Riku weren’t the only ones to sigh a little in relief once it became clear that Sora had gotten out of the dark world okay when all the worlds started returning to the sky. They knew he had gotten out, he had told them and he was literally there with them, but seeing it was another relief.

Donald asks what they do now and Sora says they have to find the King and Riku.

Riku started, the facts finally making their way through his head. Sora… Sora’d had a chance to go back to the Islands with Kairi. All he had to do was jump across the small gap before it had become huge. But he… hadn’t?  Why hadn’t he? Why hadn’t he gone back with Kairi, who so clearly loved him and was pure light just like Sora, who had never fallen to the dark or got manipulated or all the things that Riku had done?

Why had he stayed to look for Riku?

Against his will, his cheeks heated up slightly. Was it possible…?

Goofy asks where they should start and Sora pauses, not having an answer. Their attentions are pulled by Pluto, who appears on the path with a letter in his mouth with the king’s seal.

“Oh good, Pluto found you,” Mickey sighed in relief. He was worried that the whole Castle Oblivion thing had happened because they hadn’t found his letter, but clearly that wasn’t true. Castle Oblivion had simply happened anyway, he supposed.

Sora asks Pluto if he’s seen the king and Pluto starts to head off down the path. The three of them exchange glances before taking off after Pluto.

Off to another adventure, Aqua thought with the smallest of sighs. She needed… She, in frank terms, needed to have a talk with whatever adults were in Sora’s life at the moment. And yes, that included Mickey.

As Sora ran, he heard a voice in his head. “Remember Sora, you are the one… who will open the door to the light.”

The screen faded to black.

Sora squeezed his friends tighter. They were here. They were all here. The three teenagers pressed themselves close to each other.

As Aqua looked around, eyes resting on each of the different couches and chairs, she let out a sharp breath and unwound her hand from Terra, squeezing them tightly together for a quick second. It was clear, now that the first great ‘adventure’ had ended they needed a break. Perhaps a much longer one than they’d had before. Her eyes moved to Axel and then to Mickey. She could tell they agreed with her.

They could talk about everything that they had just witnessed later. Right now, she needed to corral eight teenagers into taking a break before one of them had another breakdown.

She sighed, eyes settling back on the three who were slowly unwinding themselves from each other. They were all together now. And Aqua would do everything she could to keep it like that.

Chapter Text

“Okay,” Aqua hummed out, pulling most of the attention to her. “Sora, is that… around the end of your first adventure?”

The boy nodded, carefully extracting himself a little from the pile he and his friends had become. He didn’t let go of them completely, but just enough that he could see the rest of the room. “Yeah, I think there’s like another week where we travelled around, trying to find Mickey and Riku before…” He trailed off, eyebrows furrowing as a small frown crossed his face. “After that, I can’t remember anything until waking up a couple of weeks ago.”

Unseen by most of them, Naminé flinched, looking down at her hands. They were probably going to see Castle Oblivion next and everything that had happened there. Everything that she had done. Her hands curled into fists in her lap, and she bit her lip. She hoped… She hoped that Sora would perhaps react the same way he had when he had figured out what she had done the first time. She didn’t… She hadn’t wanted to hurt him, but… She knew she had. She knew very well what it was she did.

Aqua gave herself a second to let that part of Sora’s explanation sink in. While that was highly concerning, they would probably find out about it. Then she could evaluate how much more she needed to be worrying about it.

“Well then,” she said instead of whatever else she wanted to say. “It’s probably time for a break.”

“Shouldn’t we keep watching?” Roxas asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “That’s what we’re supposed to do here, right?”

“Maybe,” she conceded with a tip of her head. “But we have to realize that for us, time has been passing. Sora, didn’t you say that you and Riku were in the Realm of Darkness before coming here?”

“Yeah,” Sora admitted. “We had just finished fighting Xemnas and…” He grimaced, sharing a look with Riku. They both knew how taxing that fight had been on them. Even now, hours and several cure spells later, even including the magical healing this room had given them when they appeared in it, they could both still feel the effects, even if the effects were pale reflections.

“And I’m sure that this has been tiring for all of us, not just those who just came out of a fight.” She had seen the way Terra hadn’t spent much time standing in between the times he helped Riku or how both Roxas and Naminé had only gotten up if they absolutely had to. Even if the rest of them hadn’t been through what Sora and Riku had, they were all tired in their own way. She would admit, rest sounded wonderful to her. She hadn’t been able to sleep consistently in the Realm of Darkness, not with the Heartless always attacking her, especially once she lost Master’s Defender. And while it was clear that time passed differently in the two worlds, it hadn’t been a non-substantial time for her either.

Looking around, she could see that the other adults agreed with her, if Mickey’s and Axel’s slightly worried faces were anything to go by.

“Sleep sounds like a good idea,” Riku murmured, eyes blinking down at Sora and Kairi. “I highly doubt that you’ve done anything to relax since being kidnapped twice and gaining your Keyblade,” he said, remark aimed at Kairi. “And we both just got out of a who knows how long fight with Xemnas.” This time, his words were aimed at Sora.

As if listening to him, the room’s lights dimmed slightly and the room seemed to… stretch, if that was possible. Two beds appeared in the back, along with a pile of blankets and pillows.

“Man, this place is freaky,” Axel muttered. None of them really disagreed with him.

~

Mickey didn’t know what had awoken him.

Blinking his eyes open, the mouse king sat up from the couch he had been sleeping on, eyes automatically moving to check the others in the room.

In the dim light, he could see Aqua, Terra, and Ven together on one of the beds conjured, the three of them curled up together, not wanting to spend even a second apart. On the floor near Mickey, in-between all the couches, despite numerous protests, the three Destiny Island’s children had created a nest out of blankets and pillows. In their words, ‘like they had done when they were young’. Riku was settled in the center, Sora and Kairi both taking a side of the older boy, doing their best to protect him even in their sleep. Mickey couldn’t help the small smile that bloomed on his face when gazing at him. It was nice to see him finally allowing his two oldest friends to help him. As painful watching his past actions had to have been, Mickey was glad it happened. Riku had clearly needed it, as well as the breakdowns he’d had. Sometimes, the best way to process emotions was to let them come out first.

His brother had taught him that.

Further back, Axel had taken the second bed, along with the three remaining teenagers, Roxas and Xion asleep in his arms, and Naminé reluctantly pulled along by an insisting Xion, who didn’t want the girl to sleep alone. Mickey was slightly worried about the way Naminé was curled into a small, little ball in her sleep, and he knew what happened next no doubt would have to do with her time in Castle Oblivion. He didn’t know the full story, he honestly didn’t know most of it, but he knew it had been bad. It was obvious just from the way she sat and interacted with the rest of them.

So, everyone seemed asleep. What had awoken him then?

Another quiet scrabble sound broke through the silence and Mickey abruptly remembered their final member. Carefully stepping off the couch and heading over to the corner that the young darkness wielder had claimed, he was forced to conjure the smallest light spell as it seemed like darkness itself was seeping into the cracks in the wall, making it darker than the rest of the room.

“Vanitas?” He asked quietly as he pulled the light to him and four sets of red eyes reflected back at him, the Unversed circling Vanitas like cats would circle a person. “What-?!”

“Don’t hurt them,” Vanitas said, voice also dropping probably just from instinct. One of his hands was resting on the head of the closest Flood and the other three were scattered around him in different positions, one curled up in Vanitas’s lap like he had seen Pluto do several times. Like a pet.

“Unversed?” He asked, forcing back the instinct to grab his Keyblade and get rid of them, despite how futile that movement would end up being with their Keyblades still locked away. “How are they…? Did you summon them?” Can he summon them? Mickey hadn’t known.

“I always was able to summon them.” Vanitas’s voice was bitter, even in its quietness. “They’re a part of me.” The hand that was resting on the Flood tightened slightly, nails still covered by gloves scratching the top of the Flood’s head. The Flood… purred, if such things were possible, its eyes growing smaller for a second as if it had closed its eyes in pleasure.

“A ‘part of you’?” Mickey asked, worried about the implications of that sentence. Why were they a part of Vanitas? What were they to him? What was he to them?

“Yes,” Vanitas replied. “Part of me.” At Mickey’s confused look, his eyes moved back to the Flood, who looked up at him. “They’re my… emotions, if you could call it that. They appear when I’m…” He swallowed, looking like he wanted to be anywhere but there. “… distressed.” The Flood that was curled up in his lap stood, stretching like a cat would, before changing its position to settle back in Vanitas’s lap.

Mickey’s eyes widened. Distressed? But they… Hadn’t they been everywhere? Every world, dozens of them. “Can you summon them… without being distressed?” He asked. He had to know; he didn’t want to think about the other option. Because Vanitas was a teenager who shied away from gentle looks, who was the apprentice to Xehanort, who snarled and scoffed at any light.

“It’s possible,” Vanitas said. “But it is harder.” So, Vanitas just summoned them. He must have. He must have summoned all of them. Because if all of them were from distressed emotions-

Vanitas sighed, dragging Mickey from his thoughts, and he looked at the teenager. Truly looked at him.

On the surface level, he just looked like Sora with darker hair and yellow eyes. There were scars, faint and white, curling up his face, three of them that faded before they hit his eyes. There were dark-ish circles under his eyes and his hair certainly didn’t look like he had been taking care of it well.

One of the Floods shifted, reaching up and pawing at one of Vanitas’s arms and Mickey realized something with a jolt.

“Vanitas, your outfit,” he started, and Vanitas looked up at him from the Flood, eyes flashing for a second in surprise. Like he hadn’t realized that the King was still there. “Do you… Do you want to change?” The outfit didn’t look comfortable, being identical to the battle suit that he had worn when he had fought Mickey all those years ago, and it seemed… strange to continue to wear it, when it was such a big symbol of Xehanort.

“What?” Vanitas asked, sounding thoroughly taken aback, and Mickey hoped he hadn’t overstepped.

Perhaps all these new instincts he had gained after he started subconsciously claiming Riku as his were much stranger to the outside person than he thought they would be.