Chapter 13

A Short Rest

NINE PEOPLE HAD GATHERED BEFORE YEN SID IN the Mysterious Tower.

“At last, we are all assembled. First: Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, Mickey, I cannot thank you enough for what you have done.”

The five bowed their heads.

Yen Sid’s owlish eyes moved to two others. “And you, Aqua and Ventus: We are fortunate to have you back.”

“Thanks. I only wish we could have returned to help sooner.” Aqua turned to the others beside her and lowered her head in thanks. “We’re grateful to all of you for rescuing us.”

“Thank you,” Ventus added.

“I feel bad for letting you guys down. We tried, but we still haven’t found Terra,” said Mickey, somewhat downcast.

“Don’t. He studied with Master Eraqus, just like us. He’s our responsibility.” Aqua looked over at Ventus, and the two shared a reaffirming nod.

“Mickey told me that you saved me in the realm of darkness,” Riku said. “I should have gone to help you right away. But I was too inexperienced. I’m sorry. I know that I let you down.” Some time ago now, he had worked with Sora, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy to seal the door to the Kingdom Hearts of this world.

Aqua shook her head. “No, just the opposite.”

“Did ya know Riku’s a true Keyblade Master now?” Goofy interjected proudly from the side.

“That’s wonderful,” said Aqua with a smile.

“The king, too,” Donald told her.

“Good for you!”

Mickey laughed bashfully at the compliment. Back when Aqua had been on her quest, Mickey had still been a Keyblade wielder in training.

“But Sora needs work,” Donald added pointedly.

Sora was none too happy about the comment. “Yeah, rub it in…”

Everyone had a little chuckle.

Aqua turned to Sora. “I’m happy to see you haven’t changed one bit.”

“Huh?” Sora was confused. How would she know if I’ve changed? Did I meet her somewhere before?

“Sora, you probably don’t remember…”

“Um… Uhhhhhh…” Sora scratched his head, trying as hard as he could to remember.

“It’s okay.” Aqua’s high spirits weren’t dampened by his forgetfulness.

Axel, who had not been participating in this conversation at all, cleared his throat.

Yen Sid responded at once. “Ah yes. Let us not forget our new Keyblade wielders. Lea, Kairi, you have made tremendous strides.”

“Hey there. And that’s ‘future Keyblade Master’—”

“Kairi?” Aqua reacted to the name, cutting off Axel mid-sentence. She ran over to Kairi and looked at the pendant on her chest. “Incredible! It is you.”

“You know her?” asked Mickey.

“When you and I first met in Radiant Garden, the Unversed tried to attack a little girl. Do you remember?”

“Oh, gosh! That little girl was Kairi?”

Aqua and Mickey’s discussion of these past events still didn’t ring any bells for Kairi.

“I guess it must have worked—the spell that I cast on you.”

“I’m sorry. Those days are hazy for me. But it sounds like I’d have been in trouble without you. So thank you.” Kairi bowed her head toward a smiling Aqua.

“Please. You were really very little. Anyone would forget, hazy memory or not.”

Still an outsider to all of this, Axel cleared his throat again and interjected. “This is all very touching, guys, but where do I fit in? Ven looks just like Roxas—or is it Roxas looks just like Ven? And now I have to explain all of that to him—which is in itself a crazy long story—and apparently, everybody already knows everyone, and this is an insane amount to get memorized!” he complained with increasing frustration.

“Sorry, Lea,” replied Ventus.

“You remember me?” asked Axel, pointing a finger at his temple the way he often did.

“Yeah, ’course! We’re friends. I can’t believe you became a Keyblade wielder just like me.”

“Yeah…” Axel’s irritation softened into a smile.

“Axel, you know Ven?” Sora asked, but that only confused Ventus.

“Axel? Who’s Axel?”

“See, see, see? Major brain ache,” complained the former Nobody.

Then Jiminy hopped out of Sora’s hood.

“Now who?” Axel gasped in surprise.

Jiminy had something to tell everyone. “Not to worry, folks. To help us out, I’ve given each of you a Gummiphone. They’ve got summaries of everything that’s happened so far. That way, you can read up, if you like. And if anyone has any questions, we can call each other.”

Basically, if anybody was confused about their situation or their companions, they could find the information there.

“That’s our Jiminy.”

“He’s always prepared.”

Jiminy puffed his chest out proudly at Donald and Goofy’s praise.

“Welp, we’ve got our seven guardians,” said Mickey happily, but Sora still looked troubled.

“Yeah. But…I do wish that Roxas, and Naminé, and Terra could be here with us, too.”

“Since when do you mope, Sora?” Riku nudged. “Come on. Terra’s gotta be with the Organization. Which means we’ll have a chance to save him.”

“Leave it to Ven and I,” said Aqua. “We’ll bring him home.”

Ventus was just as determined as she was. “Yeah, I made Terra a promise. I said I’d be there for him when he needs me.”

“And I’ll figure Roxas out,” added Axel. “Don’t know how, but…I’ll get him back.”

Beside him, Kairi placed a hand to her chest. “Naminé is right here, safe with me. I know that we’ll find a way to help her. Trust me—I’m not giving up.”

“Kairi’s right. We’re all in this together, Sora,” said Mickey in a gentle voice.

“And Donald and I are no Keyblade wielders, but we’ll always be right there to help keep ya steady. We’ve got your back, not just now, but always,” Goofy said to his friend.

All eyes in the room were on Sora now.

Yeah. Guess I’m really not alone, am I?

As a warm feeling grew in Sora’s chest, Donald gave a little tug on the leg of his pants.

“Three half-pints make a whole!”

“That again?”

Everyone laughed at Sora’s annoyed reaction.

Yen Sid soon brought everyone back to the task at hand. “It is a shame that all of our friends could not be here. But our seven guardians of light have united. Perhaps you might say that we have nine guardians, with Donald and Goofy. Given time, I know the others will soon stand with us.”

“Yeah.”

Yen Sid smiled softly at Sora’s response, then continued. “Today, you recuperate. On the morrow, you journey to the fated place.”

“Right!” the heroes chorused.

Aqua and Ventus descended the steps of the tower together beneath a dark sky twinkling with distant lights.

“The stars here are so beautiful. I noticed it when we arrived.”

“Yes,” Aqua agreed, then joined him in looking upward. That starry expanse was the Ocean Between they had once traversed.

“We’ve gone without this for so long.”

“I know.”

Ventus seated himself on the steps next to Aqua. “I remember dreaming a lot. Of you and Terra. Of Sora and his friends, too, I think. And there were some people I didn’t recognize. Oh, and I saw these weird animal creatures! It’s like…I’ve been part of some big adventure.”

Aqua sat down beside Ventus and hugged her knees to her chest. “I’ve been places, too. But pretty soon…things’ll be back to normal.” She sounded almost as if she was trying to convince herself that was true.

Ventus’s reaction was to pull his Wayfinder out of his pocket and hold it up to the stars. The little charm was a symbol of their friendship, one Aqua had made for him back before they parted ways. Terra should still have his, too.

“Let’s share stories when Terra’s back,” Ventus said.

Aqua pulled out her own Wayfinder, held it to the sky, and nodded.

Above them, the stars filling the heavens glittered and shone.

Meanwhile, in Twilight Town, a woman in a black cloak walked down a street lit dimly by the light of the setting sun. The woman was Maleficent, and Pete was nagging at her again.

“I’ve had it with this stupid treasure hunt! Every box we’ve found has been nothin’ but a bust.”

“I agree. Our search ends today,” she replied without even looking at her companion.

“What-a-huh now?!”

“You cannot find the unfindable. The box does not exist,” Maleficent explained, still looking off somewhere into the distance.

“I knew they was takin’ us for a ride!”

The fairy struck her staff against the ground and finally turned toward Pete. “Silence, imbecile,” she snapped. “I mean the box does not exist now.”

“Is that some kinda riddle? Just where we s’posed to be lookin’?”

“Light and darkness are fated to clash. A Keyblade War is upon us. We need only wait for that destined moment. No matter the victors, the box will be revealed,” Maleficent answered, then turned away.

Pete still didn’t seem to understand. “That’s it?! But when’s my big moment?”

“You will have it soon enough. Once I possess the box, our real work can begin.”

Her back still turned to Pete, Maleficent opened the way to the Corridors of Darkness and passed through.

“Ugh…!”

Pete hurried after her.

Also in Twilight Town at around the same time, Axel was taking a bite from a sea-salt ice cream bar and watching the sunset from the clocktower. He was holding two more bars in addition to his own.

“Well, Roxas…I shoulda been there for you by now, but here we are,” he said into the dusk.

Just then, he sensed someone behind him.

“Shouldn’t you say good-bye to your real home?” asked a man wearing a black coat just like Axel’s own—Saïx.

“Why…?”

“I’m not here to fight. Relax.”

Saïx sat down next to Axel, then plucked one of the ice cream bars from his hand.

“Hey!”

“You can’t eat all this. Why did you buy three of them? One for Roxas and two for good luck?” asked Saïx, his tone light and free of any hostility as he started in on the ice cream.

“I dunno. Because I felt like it, okay? Why are you here?” Axel looked away from Saïx and returned to his own bar.

“Got it memorized?” Saïx said, using Axel’s catchphrase. “Back when we were still friends, we used to sneak into the castle.”

Axel nodded. “Yeah…”

Back when we were still friends, huh? Guess that means we aren’t now.

“And we made a friend there, a girl. We apprenticed to Ansem the Wise to rescue her.”

“Yeah, and we failed. One day she was just gone!” Axel snapped in a way that was reminiscent of his younger self.

“You gave up.”

“I did not give up,” Axel retorted, stopping to think for a moment. His eyes looked off in some direction away from both Saïx and the sunset. “One day we’re apprentices, the next Ansem the Wise has up and vanished, the day after we’re Nobodies, day after that we’re doing icky jobs for Xemnas. I couldn’t keep up with you.”

While Axel threw his hands up in the air as he spoke, ice cream and all, Saïx simply stared forward and worked on eating his own bar.

“Following Xehanort’s Nobody was the only way to discover what happened to her. She was his lab rat.”

Axel pointed the untouched sea-salt ice cream in his left hand at Saïx and said, “So? You found her? I helped you rise up in the ranks, so I hope it paid off.”

“I’m afraid not. Nary a trace. I started to wonder if we’d imagined her. Maybe she never existed. And then, in time, I awakened to a new purpose. I realized I could be stronger.”

This time Axel gestured with both of the frozen treats in his hands. “Well then, you blew it! Wise up already and just quit.”

Saïx merely regarded him quietly. “Face it. Roxas is just like our other friend. Gone forever. You need to accept that.”

“You wish. I’m getting her back. All of ’em! Especially Roxas! I’m even dragging you home.”

Despite the desperation in Axel’s voice, Saïx merely finished his ice cream and got to his feet. “The marks under your eyes. They’re gone.”

Axel was taken aback for a second. “Yeah. Don’t need ’em.”

“Always told you they’d stop you from crying. The upside-down tears,” Saïx said with a smile.

Axel waved his ice cream around in irritation. “Would you get lost? I’ll clobber you tomorrow.”

“I expect no less.”

Darkness swirled around Saïx as he made his exit.

Axel was left alone, staring into the sinking sun with his two ice cream bars.

Riku sat on one of the sandy beaches of the Destiny Islands, gazing at a sunset of his own.

He, Sora, and Kairi had chosen to return to their home on the eve of the battle.

“How long have you known that I was with you?” someone asked next to him.

Riku looked over to the side. “You did save me.”

There sat his own Replica, who only replied with a derisive snort.

“I think you came along for a reason,” Riku mused. He realized then that the Replica beside him wasn’t really there, but was in his heart.

“I didn’t make much of myself as a Replica. I was a failure, and after you and Sora moved on, my body fell to ruin and the darkness took my broken mind. I was all ready to give up and let it happen, and then you showed up.”

“You took that as a sign?” Riku asked the Replica with a smile.

“Maybe. I’d rather face my end with you than in darkness.”

“That’s…what you want?”

Riku recalled what they’d said to each other back then, before they fought each other for the last time.

“Because I’m you.”

“No, I’m me.”

“‘I’m me,’ he says. Must be nice being real.”

You weren’t wrong. You found your way back to me, because you are me.

“Yeah. But I’m not done yet. Got one last thing to see through.” The Replica looked out at the sunset.

“Take the time you need,” said Riku, joining him in watching the horizon.

Meanwhile, Sora had turned to look at Riku.

“Hey, why’s Riku all alone?” he asked.

Kairi sat beside him on the branch of the paopu tree. Back before their adventure began, this was where they’d come to talk about all sorts of things.

“He said he needed time to himself. Let’s let him be.”

“Okay…,” Sora replied, but he was clearly still worried about Riku. After all, his friend was sitting over there alone on the beach, but it really looked like he was having a conversation with someone…

Suddenly, something appeared in Sora’s face.

“Here!”

“Huh?”

It was a star-shaped paopu fruit.

“Tomorrow’s fight will be our toughest yet,” Kairi said with an earnest expression. “I want to be a part of your life no matter what. That’s all.”

The legend of the paopu fruit—it said that if two people gave each other the fruit to eat, their lives would never be truly separate again. No matter how far apart they may go, they would always find their way back to each other.

Sora accepted the paopu fruit from Kairi. She held another of the fruits in her other hand.

“Kairi, I’ll keep you safe.”

Kairi shook her head and answered, “Let me keep you safe.”

The two of them offered the paopu fruit to each other, took a bite, then shared a smile.

The setting sun shone down on the two of them—on those here in their world.

Nine heroes stepped onto a barren, windswept land.

“It’s time. The Keyblade Graveyard is up ahead,” Mickey informed them.

Everyone nodded, directing their eyes toward their destination.

“Someone’s coming,” Sora announced softly.

Beyond a cloud of dust, Master Xehanort approached them across the wasteland, his pace calm and unhurried.

He stopped before the assembled heroes and began to speak:

“Legend has it that darkness once covered the world. We know so little about the Keyblade War—only that it was just the beginning. If ruin brings about creation, what, then, would another Keyblade War bring? When the darkness falls, will we be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of?”

Ansem appeared beside Master Xehanort. “Or will all of creation be instead returned to the shadows? Today, we will re-create the legend and see.”

Next, Xemnas stepped forward, taking his place on the other side of Master Xehanort. “But first… Your light shines far too brightly. It must be extinguished in order for the truth to be seen.”

Vanitas appeared in front of the previous three. “Only when your hopes have been broken by battle upon battle can the key be claimed to Kingdom Hearts.”

“And break you is what we shall do,” said Young Xehanort, who had appeared next to Vanitas. “It has been etched.”

Darkness flowed from the five villains and surrounded the whole area, blocking out the sky itself. The cloud opened, and countless Heartless, Nobodies, and Unversed began raining down upon Sora and the other guardians of light.

“Look at how many there are!” Sora summoned his Keyblade and prepared to defend himself.

“Okay, gang, get ready!” Mickey cried out as the number of Heartless grew and grew.

All the heroes got their weapons ready for battle. The number of creatures surrounding them was fast growing into a near-endless horde. Sora thought back to the exhausting battle he had faced in the Hollow Bastion. But I wasn’t alone then, and I’m not alone now. With all my friends together, we can win this.

A quick glance showed him Riku, Donald and Goofy, Aqua and Ventus, Axel, and Kairi all locked in combat.

After managing to clear out the Heartless in their immediate vicinity, Sora and the others paused to catch their breath.

“Is everybody okay?” asked Mickey as he surveyed the team. When he saw that they were, he relaxed somewhat with relief.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Sora called out. But just as they were about to get moving, yet another figure appeared in the distance.

Ventus was the first to notice. “Terra!” he shouted, running off before anyone could get a word in.

Aqua started after him, calling his name with a hint of apprehension. Ventus was unaware that Terra’s body was under Xehanort’s control.

“Terra! We found you!” Ventus exclaimed as he took his friend’s hand.

In a rather more cautious voice, Aqua pleaded, “Terra, please say you’re in there.”

Instead of replying, Terra observed her quietly. His blue eyes seemed to stare right through her, and she placed a hand on Ventus’s shoulder to draw him away.

“What gives, Aqua?”

“I know that you’re not him,” she said as she placed herself before Ventus protectively. “Now, let our friend go!”

That was when Terra’s hair turned white, and his blue eyes turned to gold.

“He is their thirteenth,” Mickey said softly.

“Today is the day you all lose,” Terra-Xehanort quietly told the nine heroes.

“What?!” Aqua cried.

A dark fog began to congeal behind Terra-Xehanort. “Before you even face the thirteen, every last one of you will be torn heart from body. But fear not. The χ-Blade will still be forged.”

Terra-Xehanort called his Keyblade to his hand. Beyond the dark fog, atop the cliffs looming above the wasteland, countless Keyblades stood thrust into the terrain like grave markers.

“We’re not gonna lose to you.”

With a smirk at Sora’s challenge, Terra-Xehanort launched himself at Ventus, closing the distance in a single moment, and dealt the boy a devastating blow with his Keyblade. Ventus was sent flying and crashed to the ground in a cloud of dust.

“Ven!” Aqua gasped.

“That’s it!” Sora shouted as he charged at their foe. But Terra-Xehanort caught Sora’s strike on his Keyblade and sent him sprawling on the dirt as well.

Terra-Xehanort next set his sights on Kairi, lunging for her. Axel threw himself in front of her, but he, too, ended up cast to one side.

“Axel!”

Terra-Xehanort held his Keyblade over Kairi’s head, poised to strike. Scrambling to his feet, Sora rushed over and threw his arms around her protectively.

“No! Sora!” Mickey shouted as Donald and Goofy rushed past him to either side.

Goofy’s shield found its way in front of Terra-Xehanort’s Keyblade just before it could connect with Sora. The clash sent both of them staggering back, while Donald poured his magic into a spell so powerful it created glowing emblems on the ground beneath him:

“Zettaflare!”

A tremendous beam of light shot from Donald’s staff straight into Terra-Xehanort, cascading over him and blasting him away. Utterly exhausted, Donald collapsed, and Goofy and Mickey hurried over to him.

Aqua checked on Ventus, while Riku and Kairi went to aid Axel.

“This can’t be real,” Sora whispered.

They were completely out of their depth. He could hardly believe what he’d just seen; Terra-Xehanort had taken down three of them with almost no effort at all.

And another dark whirlpool was growing beyond his fallen friends, releasing another wave of Heartless.

Riku ran over to Sora and took him by the shoulder. “Pull it together, Sora! We haven’t lost them. They still have their hearts. But we have to protect them.”

“Right!” Sora agreed with a nod. Riku knows. We can’t let ’em stop us here.

The stream of countless Heartless in front of them swirled upward in a vortex.

“We stand together,” said Aqua as she came to join them, Keyblade in hand. She looked back at the king. “Mickey, Kairi, Goofy, watch the others.”

“No, we should all get to safety while we still can,” the king pleaded from where he knelt beside Donald.

Watching the storm building in the sky, Riku replied, “It’s too late for that.”

Masses of Heartless wove through the ravines, congealing into a colossal river that rushed straight at them. The legion of Heartless—the Demon Tide—was so enormous they could hardly understand what they were seeing. This was nothing like anything they had seen in the realm of darkness. Everyone looked on in stunned amazement as the Demon Tide reared into the sky like a whirlwind.

“It can’t be… No…”

The memories from her time in the darkness were rising in Aqua’s mind. The nightmarish Heartless that came back again and again no matter how many times she struck them down…had been just like this.

Perhaps sensing this sudden weakness in her mind, the storm of Heartless swept over her.

“Aqua!” Riku shouted. He watched as the Demon Tide swallowed up Mickey, Goofy, Donald, and the rest in one fell swoop. Kairi knelt, protecting Axel, but she was quickly carried away, too.

Her hand reached for Sora’s—but their fingers passed through empty air.

What should I do? What can I do? Everyone’s gone. I don’t know what to do anymore.

As the strength left Sora’s body, his Keyblade slipped from his grasp and vanished.

What can I possibly do?

Sora dropped to his knees and screamed, falling forward onto his hands in the dust.

“Sora!” Riku hurried over to his friend.

“They’re gone. Kairi, Donald…Goofy, the king… Gone forever.” Sora raised his head slowly, eyes brimming with tears. “What do we do? Without them… I… All my strength came from them. They gave me all of it. Alone, I’m worthless. We’ve lost… It’s over.” Sora’s voice was choked with tears.

Riku considered comforting Sora with a hand on his shoulder, but he chose to get to his feet instead. “Sora, you don’t believe that. I know you don’t,” he assured him, then walked toward the Demon Tide to face it himself.

As Sora watched, the Heartless attacked, and Riku took the full brunt of it head-on. The flood of Heartless split in two against Riku’s Keyblade, streaming out around them to either side. But not even that was enough—eventually, the darkness swallowed him, too.

Sora gasped—and then the world went black.

And so, as foretold, darkness prevailed, and light expired…

Two young men sat before a game board in a room filled with warm light.

A lone white chess piece sat on the board, surrounded by thirteen black ones; the formation suggested that it had been sent into the enemy ranks alone.

“Checkmate,” said the boy in black, setting one of his black pieces before his opponent’s lonely king.

The other boy, dressed in white, stared intently at the board.

“And so darkness prevails, and light expires. You need a new strategy.”

“My move, isn’t it?” the boy in white—Eraqus—softly replied. He then moved his remaining white piece back into his own territory.

“Huh?” gasped Xehanort—the boy in black.

“It’s not over.”

“C’mon. That’s not fair. I know I had you.”

True, he should have won. However, in this game, “checkmate” was a position with one final move remaining. If Xehanort captured his opponent’s last piece on his next move, the game would end. Even if Eraqus returned his piece back to his own side of the board, Xehanort would still be able to take it on his next turn.

“Yes, you nearly did. But a game’s no fun if you know where it’s going. There’s more to light than meets the eye. I told you,” Eraqus said, and seven new pieces appeared at the edge of the board to protect his remaining piece. He grinned. “Some light comes from the past.”

The game isn’t over yet.