Dream Drop Distance

The Mark of Mastery

Long before any of this, in the computer room under the castle in Radiant Garden, Braig came in and found Even and Ienzo lying on the floor with darkness coming off them like smoke. The only other person in the room was a young man in Terra's body with Terra's face, and Braig knew who was wearing it. "Hey! Is this how you wanted it? Xehanort! You wanna fill me in?"

Something about the way the young man stood made him uneasy. "Hey! Do you remember now, or. Wait, did you never lose your memory?" The young man answered him. "I am." A Keyblade was in his hand, and then it was through Braig's chest.

As Braig fell, the young man corrected him about the name. "That's not my name. I'm not 'Xehanort.' My name. is Ansem."

Years later, at the top of his crooked tower, Yen Sid told Sora and Riku who was coming back, and why it mattered. "As a Keyblade Master, Xehanort had a gift like few others. But such great minds are often plagued by a single great question. What is the essence of the human heart that weakens us, or empowers us? The answer, he believed, would be found in the 'Keyblade War.'"

"What if the challenges of our past were, in fact, a map to the light and darkness that battles within us all? Xehanort had to know, so he renounced his duties as master and chose the seeker's life. Since then, in many a guise, he has clashed with protectors of the light. Keyblade wielders like yourselves. And mark my words. he will trouble us yet again." The King stood beside the desk with Donald and Goofy, and none of them said anything.

Yen Sid told them what he meant to do about it. "We must be ready. Which is why you, Sora and Riku, are to be tested for the mark of a true Keyblade Master. No doubt you fancy yourselves masters already, but it takes years of training. Only a true master can teach you the proper way. Both of you are self-taught Keyblade wielders. an impressive feat. However, the time has come for you to let go of preconceived notions, forget what you know about the Keyblade, and begin your training again with a clean slate."

Sora did not see the need. "But that's a formality, right? I already proved myself. Me and the King, and Riku. we can take on anything. Right, Riku?" Riku did not agree with him. He wanted the test, he said; he wanted to know he had come through the darkness he had given in to once, and could be trusted with the Keyblade. Sora looked at him, and gave in at once. "Riku. Then count me in. Put me through the test! Just watch. me and Riku will pass with flying colors!"

Yen Sid told them the oldest story he had. "Long ago, in the age of fairy tales, the World was filled with light. a gift, many believed, from an unseen power known as 'Kingdom Hearts.' You see, Kingdom Hearts was protected by its counterpart, the 'χ-blade,' so that none could ever lay hands on its mysteries. But in time, the World was overrun by legions who wanted the light all for themselves, and the first shadows were cast upon the land."

Yen Sid told the next part more slowly. "These warriors crafted 'Keyblades' in the image of the original χ-blade, and waged a great war over Kingdom Hearts. We call this the 'Keyblade War.' But though the war extinguished all light from the World, the darkness could not reach the brightness inside every child's heart. With that light, the World was remade as we know it today, with countless smaller worlds shining like stars in the sky."

He told them what had become of the blade. "As for the real χ-blade, it did not survive the battle. The two elements that created it, one of darkness and one of light, shattered into twenty pieces. seven of light; thirteen of darkness. And as for the source of all light. the one true Kingdom Hearts. it was swallowed by the darkness, never to be seen again. As long as it remains there, even the brightest world will have its dark corners. After all, light begets darkness, and darkness is drawn to light. For this reason, some decided to use the Keyblade. a weapon designed to conquer the light. to defend the light instead. These were the first heroes of the Keyblade."

Then he told them what they were to do, and why. They needed the people the King had written about in his letter, the ones who were sleeping. "If we are ever to strike down Xehanort, we need the individuals King Mickey spoke of in his letter. We must lead them out of sorrow and slumber, and back to our world. To do so, seven Sleeping Keyholes must be found and unlocked, and a great power retrieved."

Some worlds, he said, had never come all the way back from the darkness the year Sora first went out. They were still asleep, and they had their own creatures, called Dream Eaters: Nightmares, which ate happy dreams, and Spirits, which ate the Nightmares. "The Dream Eaters will guide you, just as the Heartless once guided you, to the Keyhole you seek at the heart of each world."

He told them where they would start. "One dream is connected to another, which means we must choose in which 'Sleeping World' you will begin. I will return you to the Destiny Islands just before they were swallowed by the darkness and plunged into sleep. Once dreams take you, you must let them guide you to the Sleeping Worlds. As there are seven pure lights, there are seven 'Sleeping Keyholes.' Unlocking these will both grant you new powers, and free the worlds from their wakelessness. Complete this task, and return here safely, and I will name you both. true masters."

And he warned them what they would find. "In the Sleeping Worlds, real time does not flow. Unless one restores the world by waking it from its slumber, it will stay locked in a dream forever. Thus, you may encounter familiar faces. but they are just figments of the dream. In actuality, they are sound asleep. trapped within a world that is also sleeping. What's more, while someone may no longer dwell in the real version of a world, dreams may paint a fuller picture, and restore what seems to be missing."

Then he raised his hand. "Very well, then. Sora and Riku, let your examination begin."

Two Traverse Towns

They woke on the islands, fourteen years old again, on the night the islands fell. Somewhere on the beach their younger selves were about to lose each other; they kept away from them, took the raft, and put out to sea ahead of the dark.

A storm broke the sail, and out of the sea came something huge, a sea witch the size of a hill, and she knew them. "Oh, he was right. Those wretched guppies are here. Well, it's about time we settled the score!" They tried to get round her. "Sorry, dearies, but I won't fall for that trick!" They beat her, and her going pulled them down under the waves, and in the dark under the water a Keyhole opened. Above the sea, a figure in a long robe stood watching them go, and neither of them knew who it was.

Riku came to himself on a street he knew, under a night sky with lamps in it. "Am I in. Traverse Town? My clothes have changed. Sora, where are you?" He worked it out. "I remember we fell overboard after Ursula attacked. and then I think we opened a Keyhole. So. this must be one of the Sleeping Worlds." He looked at the Keyblade in his hand. "It just sort of. popped into my hand when I needed it most. Right. It's started."

Sora was in Traverse Town too, and it was not the same Traverse Town. There were two of them, the same streets twice over, and neither of them could get into the other's. In Sora's there was a boy called Neku who taught him to fight beside the Spirit Dream Eaters, and in Riku's a boy called Joshua who had the same lesson to give, and a great deal else besides.

Joshua was curious about him. "Wow! Where's your Portal? It takes something special to jump between grounds without one." He gave his name. "My name is Joshua." Riku asked what a Portal was, and Joshua raised an eyebrow. "Are we just skipping past the part where you tell me your name?" Then he explained. "Hello there, Riku. Portals are like gateways that link up our worlds. Apparently, the world you and I are standing in right now. well, there are two copies of it. It's been sort of split in half."

Riku asked how there could be two of a world. "The world is as many things as people need it to be. The concept that we all live in the same world. that's just in our heads. Surely you knew? I'll tell you what, Riku. I've got a little errand for you." Riku did not trust him, and Joshua dangled the one thing that would make him listen. "Aw, at least hear me out! I'm looking for a girl named Rhyme. She's the key to the Portal. And on the other side, who knows who we'll find? Maybe even your friend. Sora."

Riku asked if he knew where Sora was. "Now I have your attention. But, unfortunately, I don't know where he is. If he's not in this version of the world, I can only assume he has to be in the other one. Simple logic."

In the Fifth District, on Riku's side, a young man in a black coat was waiting for him, with a white-haired girl he had frightened half to death. He had a kind of pity in his voice. "How did you get here? By choice or chance? You cannot control what you're not aware of. This wakeless sleep will be your prison. to wander forever." He showed Riku his face, a boy not much older than Riku, with silver hair and yellow eyes, and loosed a Dream Eater on him and went into the dark.

On Sora's side the same young man had been in the Third District, and Neku had brought Sora to him, and then tried to stop him, and Sora had fallen asleep where he stood. When he woke, Neku was gone. "They're both gone. Before I fell asleep, Neku said that he and that creep in the coat had a 'deal.' But what was the deal? Are the two of them in league? That can't be right. We never even found Neku's partner. I guess I should just take a look around."

That was how it went for the rest of the journey. When one of them dropped into sleep the other woke, and each carried on alone, a world at a time.

When the Dream Eaters in both towns were beaten, each of them saw the other for a moment, standing in the other town, out of reach. Joshua appeared to Sora, and Sora had questions. "Okay. Are you the one who took Rhyme away? And. why do you know my name?" Joshua told them both, across the gap, what he was doing there. His friends' world had ended, and he had carried the last pieces of their dreams to this place to keep them. "Here, I thought they might have a chance. that the pieces of their dreams could make them whole again."

He thanked them for their part in it. "Well, why can't it? By ourselves, we're no one. It's when other people look at us and see someone. that's the moment we each start to exist. All they needed was someone to see them, connect with them." They asked him who he was. "Let's say. a friend." Then he had wings, and was gone, and a Keyhole was waiting on each side.

When Riku came back to his Traverse Town later, Joshua had noticed something. "Riku. There's something else you need to know. These two Traverse Towns separated by the Portal. I was under the impression they were parallel worlds, but it looks like I was wrong." Time ran differently in them. Riku did not see why that mattered. "So time flows differently here and there? So what? That's true to any two worlds. Their home world would be flowing on a different time axis, too."

Joshua would not let it go. "Yes, I understand that. But if these Traverse Towns were parallel worlds, then time would flow the same in both. But it doesn't, ergo they are not parallel worlds." Riku saw where he was going. "You mean there's a past. and a future?" Joshua shook his head. "No. Impossible. The worlds are clearly separate. it's not just time that sets them apart. As you yourself noted, every world flows at its own pace, which tells me that for all their similarities, these are two distinct worlds."

"Yes. but this is all conjecture. It's like the same world imagined by two people. What does that tell you? That we're in." He let Riku finish it: a dream. "Yes. Bravo again, Riku. In which case none of this may matter one bit to me or my friends. But to you and Sora, I think it might be vital clue." And he warned him as he went. "Riku. Remember what I said. Be careful. If this really is a dream, it's going to lie to you to try and make you think it's real."

The Road to Dawn

The next world was a city of bells, on the day of a festival, with a great cathedral over it. In it a hunchbacked bell-ringer was kept in his tower by a judge who hated everyone he thought unclean, and on both sides of the world the judge's hatred had turned to Nightmares.

Riku met the bell-ringer first, and told him to ask himself what was really keeping him inside. "Are you sure that's what's stopping you? Because I think something else is holding you back. Ask your heart, Quasimodo. I'll check the edge of town. Thanks." Walking away from the cathedral, he said it to himself as well. "Wish I could take my own advice."

He watched the judge call a winged Nightmare to him with his own darkness and call it a gift from heaven, and a captain tried to stop him and could not. Riku knew what he was looking at. "He won't listen. Once you've fallen that far, there's almost no coming back." At the top of the cathedral, with the city burning below, the judge was laughing at the fire. Riku looked at him. "I see a sad old man with a dark heart."

The judge fell. Someone was on the roof behind Riku, and it was the young man in the coat, and beside him a tall man in black with silver hair and yellow eyes whom Riku had last seen in his own reflection. The young man was amused. "Your best friend is never far." Riku could not believe it. "You're Ansem! Why are you here?"

Ansem looked at the burning city and at the judge below. "So sad. The cost of yielding to the darkness." He said something more about darkness, and Riku was not impressed. "You could write a book about that!" Ansem told him what he thought. "But I embraced the darkness, and unless you hurry up and learn to do the same, your story will end just like his."

Riku had his answer ready. "I walk the road to dawn!" The young man laughed at him on the way out. "Still afraid of the dark, I see." When they had gone, Riku stood with the Keyblade in his hand. "He thinks I'm afraid of the dark?! No. Not while I have the Keyblade. It'll guide me to the light!"

When the Nightmare was beaten and the bell-ringer was out in the square with his friends, Riku stood in front of the Keyhole and said it again, quieter. "I know the road my heart walks."

On Sora's side of the city the bell-ringer came out of his tower too, and Sora thought about how long he had stayed in it. "All that time, Quasimodo let himself be trapped inside the nightmares Frollo gave him."

Alone in the cathedral afterwards, Sora found the young man in the coat waiting for him, and beside him for a moment a boy in a dark mask whom Sora did not know. The young man accused him of something Sora did not understand. "Hypocrite. You are the one who has made your heart a prison. Even if you are not the prisoner." Then the Keyhole was there, and they were gone.

The next world was made of light and lines, and Sora knew the look of it at once. "This outfit. Hey, I know where I am!" He thought he was back inside Ansem's computer. He was not; he was in the older world it had been copied from. A man there had made a program to build the perfect system, and the program had taken the world from him and turned a friend of Sora's against him. Sora went after the friend. "Let's go, Tron!"

Before he got there, Xemnas was standing in his way with the young man beside him, and Xemnas told him where he was. "Once, my master, Ansem, found an old system and made a copy of its Master Control Program. and used it to serve his own ends. This is the original data of that system. Here, data can be copied. Memory can be changed and easily manipulated. Tron is a digital entity, so why would he be any different? He obeys the rules of this world."

And he asked Sora a question he did not like. "Sora. what about you? Your heart, memories, your data, and your dreams. The bits and bytes that have made up your life so far. can you say for sure they are not just copies of someone else's?" Sora said something back, and Xemnas was not moved. "You had better check. Make certain the box's contents match what's on the label. since you have been chosen."

The young man had something to add, about memory. "That's what we do. Put the most precious memories in the back of our minds where they're safe. Or in your case, the most precious. hearts?" He opened the door behind Sora, and warned him on the way. "You think this is the realm of dreams, but there, you are mistaken. Data does not dream, cannot dream. This world is real. You haven't the slightest idea where you are. that you have already wandered off the path."

Sora freed his friend from what had been done to him, and lost him again at once, and found the Keyhole anyway.

On Riku's side of the Grid he had new clothes again. "My clothes. Is this world special? A Dream Eater? No. Let's see how this plays out." He let himself be arrested to see where it led, and it led to the man who had made the system and had been hiding from it for twenty years. Riku asked him what had become of the gift he had once been given, a new kind of life that had grown in the system by itself. "So what happened. to your gift?"

The man told him, and Riku thought of someone else. "Look too hard for one thing, and you miss everything else. And then, the people around you get hurt in the process. Like Xehanort. His single-minded thirst for answers created Ansem. We all have a little of that curiosity within us. So if we're not careful, any one of us could create an Ansem."

At the end of it the man gave himself to stop his program, and his son went through a gate into the world outside, and Riku stood looking at the gate. "These gates that connect worlds. maybe when we pass through them, we're challenged and changed. And it's not over. There are still more challenges that we have to overcome. But we'll be ready, Sora."

Not So Very Different

The next world was an amusement park by the sea, and a wooden boy had gone missing in it, and his conscience was looking for him, a cricket in a top hat who did not know Sora. Sora found the wooden boy in a circus tent full of Dream Eaters and got him out, and when the tent was empty Xemnas was standing in it. "Xemnas? This is impossible!"

Xemnas was not interested in explaining himself. He was interested in the wooden boy. "My my, a hollow puppet that's managed to grow a heart. Just imagine that." Sora threw it back at him. "Pinocchio isn't anything like you Nobodies. But if Pinocchio could be given one." He stopped, and thought about it. "Shouldn't you be able to have a heart inside you, too?" Xemnas nearly smiled. "Maybe so. However. do not forget that you, yourself, are not so very different from us."

He had a lesson for Sora about memory. "The memory and heart are tightly linked. Rub a few memories together, and you get a spark of emotion, a feeling. But in a digital world, memory does not work like that. Nothing is ever felt. You can hold a thousand, a million times the information, but there is still no heart with which to parse it." Then he and the young man were gone.

Sora went down into the sea after the whale that had swallowed the wooden boy's father, and fought a Nightmare on the frozen whale, and woke on a beach afterwards with the sea going on as usual, understanding something. "I get it now. After this, Pinocchio and Jiminy's world gets dragged into darkness, and they end up cast into the sea between worlds, along with Monstro. And then. they end up in Traverse Town, and the belly of the whale. That's when we meet for real. It's like Master Yen Sid said." He looked out at the water. "I'm in the dream Pinocchio's world is dreaming. And that world will never be right again until it wakes from sleep."

Riku was inside the whale, with the father, looking for the same wooden boy, and the cricket told him the boy had gone off with someone in a black coat. They found them together, the boy and the figure, deep in the whale. Riku demanded to know who he was, and the figure put back its hood, and it had Riku's own face. Then it was gone into the dark.

The cricket asked him who that had been. Riku told him. "That was my. my dark side. I gave in to the darkness once. And ever since, it's chased me around in one form or another. The Seeker of Darkness who stole my body. a puppet replica of the shadows in my heart. and now, I'm facing me."

The wooden boy and the cricket asked if he had a friend who could help him find the right path. Riku thought of one. "That stupid grin he's always wearing. he's the best teacher I could ever have." Then something roared further in. "What now? Is something in there? Pinocchio, Jiminy, you should head back. I'll see what's shaking things up."

When it was over and the father had his son back, Riku stood thinking about it. "I thought I was only sent to the past on Destiny Islands. So why does it seem like time was rewound in this world too? Maybe it's like Master Yen Sid said: the world was freed from darkness but has yet to wake from it. It's trapped in a never ending dream."

The next world was an old kingdom of musketeers, and on Sora's side the King was there, years younger, a musketeer with Donald and Goofy, guarding a princess who was Minnie; none of them knew Sora, and he joined them anyway. On Riku's side the first person he saw was a big man in a captain's uniform. "Isn't that Pete? What kind of world did I end up in this time? Well, one thing's for sure: that guy adds up to trouble in any world."

In the opera house he watched Pete's henchmen set up a trap on the stage, and practise it on wooden cutouts of the three musketeers. "Is that suppose to be Mickey and the others? Yeesh. Those three are together even when they're made out of wood." He found the princess locked in a chest backstage, and got her out, and got the crank that worked the trap, and turned it. "How do you like that?"

On the other side of the world, on the stage, the crate that should have fallen on the musketeers vanished in the air above them, and Sora knew who had done it. On his own side, Riku smiled. "Looks like I was right in the nick of time. Sora."

The princess thanked him, and told him what a musketeer was, and the motto that went with it. Riku asked her about it. "Musketeer? What is that, anyway?" When she told him, he did not quite believe it. "They. they actually say that?" She said it fitted, and he agreed. "You're right. And it does fit the moment." And he said it. "All for one. and one for all."

The Sorcerer's Apprentice

The last Sleeping World was Yen Sid's own tower, as it had been long ago, when the King was a boy apprenticed there, fetching water in buckets. On Sora's side the apprentice had put on his master's hat while nobody was looking and done magic with it, and something dark had got into a book of music and pulled him in after it. He spoke to Sora from inside it. "Gosh, is that a Keyblade? Who are you an apprentice to? I'm Mickey, the sorcerer's apprentice."

Sora offered to help, and the apprentice told him what it would take. "Thank you, Sora, but it's no use. A monster's possessed that music. And he's releasing darkness that stops anybody from going in there to fight him. To dispel the darkness, we need a Sound Idea." Sora went into another book to find one.

Inside it the world was clouds and rainbows under a blue sky, and the young man in the coat was standing in it, looking round as if he liked it. "So easily you sink into the depths of slumber." And: "Beautiful world, isn't it? Almost like a dream." Sora asked him why he kept following him.

The young man laughed at him. "You really haven't caught on? Or are you just assuming it's all part of your little 'test'? I'm not part of the dream. And if you thought I was. then you're softer than they say. But. this will all be over soon. Sleep on and we will meet again."

On Riku's side the apprentice had enchanted a broom to do his chores and fallen asleep, and woke to a flood, and did the wrong magic about it, and he was trapped in darkness too. Riku tried to smash the book, and the apprentice stopped him. "You won't be able to defeat that darkness with brute force. I'm Mickey, the sorcerer's apprentice. Who are you?" Riku asked what would work. "If brute force won't work, tell me what will."

The apprentice could hardly believe he meant to help. "Do ya really mean you're gonna try and help me?" Riku said he would try. "I'll try. Leave it to me." And the apprentice, who had never met him, looked at him as if he knew something. "Gosh, Riku, something tells me you and I are gonna be good friends, and we'll help each other out a lot someday."

Riku found his Sound Idea in a snowy wood, and the darkness came up round him and dropped him on a black mountain, and the young man in the coat was waiting there. Riku was not surprised. "You waiting for me?" The young man reminded him of something. "Yes. The boy chosen by the Keyblade. Riku. It was yours first, wasn't it? But you succumbed to the darkness you could not control, and your prize. the Keyblade. passed on to Sora instead. Your mistakes always end up being other people's problems."

Riku did not argue with it. "Maybe so. But I'm here to change all of that." He had had enough of riddles. "If you're feeling so chatty, let's skip to where you reveal what this is all about." The young man looked at him with something like approval. "Once again you performed predictably, although on a grander scale than I imagined." And then: "I don't know how you did it, but you really have found a way to trap darkness inside your heart. And a boy who's immune to darkness is of no use to us."

The mountain began to erupt. "Your abyss awaits." Something enormous with wings rose out of it, and Riku fought it falling.

Each of them came back to the tower with a Sound Idea, and on each side one was not enough, and then each of them had faith in the other and the other's Sound Idea came through too, and the two together made music that cleared the darkness away. On Sora's side the apprentice shook his hand. "Thanks, Sora! Don't know what I woulda done without ya!" Then he remembered the water. "Oh no! The water! I'm in big trouble if I don't fetch it! See ya real soon, Sora!"

On Riku's side the apprentice asked what had happened, and Riku said Sora had helped. The apprentice smiled at the name. "Sora? Funny. Just hearing that name kinda makes me wanna smile." Riku told him about Sora. "Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him."

The apprentice understood the music now. "Whaddaya know. Riku and Sora. The Sound Ideas you two set free joined together. And when they did, they made a great and powerful harmony." He thought Sora had Riku to thank for some of it. "Wow! No wonder the music sounded like so much fun. But I bet he's got you to thank for that. Having such a good friend means he could really enjoy it."

And he said the wistful thing last. "It's like each of you is holding on to a little part of the other. Your hearts are always in tune, so they're free to sing. Gosh, I hope I can be part of the team someday." Riku shook his hand, and told him he would be.

Got It Memorized

In Radiant Garden, in the study that had been Ansem's, a young man with red hair was dreaming, and in the dream a boy with fair hair was talking to him. "Hey, Axel. You haven't forgotten? You made us a promise. That you'd always be there. to bring us back." And the boy said the thing Axel had always said. "Got it memorized?"

He woke up on the floor of the study with his own body back, and his own name, and everything he had done without them. "Where. What happened to me? Roxas?" Four others had woken with him, and he knew them all from before. "That's me. Dilan, Aeleus, Even, Ienzo." Two were missing. "We're people again. But only the ones who joined the Organization here. I guess Xehanort doesn't count, but where are Braig and. Isa?"

He searched the castle for them. "Where are they? I've turned this castle upside down." Aeleus told him the other two were awake and not well. "Dilan and Even are conscious again, but still unstable. They're resting inside." Lea meant to look outside. "Gotcha. Well, I guess I'll give the castle grounds a sweep." Aeleus stopped him. "Don't. If they were back, we would have found them by now."

Lea wondered if they had been thrown somewhere else. "So do ya think they were blasted off to some other world, or what?" Ienzo, who had been a child when Lea last saw him and was a young man now, explained how it worked. "I highly doubt it. When someone who's lost their heart is recompleted, they should return to the place where it happened. And if that world is unavailable for whatever reason, a refuge is made for them in the realm between. a world called 'Traverse Town.' They would be sent there. Or perhaps."

Lea talked over him. "No, look, okay. the fact is. we're here. We've been recompleted, right? So they should be here too. plain and simple." Ienzo agreed it was strange. "I agree, it is strange." Lea did not like the conclusion he was being steered towards. "What a drag. Could they not have been recompleted at all?" Ienzo started to answer. "Well you see." Lea had had enough. "Ah! Forget it. You know what? I'll bring 'em back myself." Ienzo asked him how. "Huh? How, exactly?" Lea opened a way into the dark. "Why do I always get stuck with the icky jobs?"

At the tower, while the exam went on, Donald fretted. "Gee, I hope Sora's okay." Goofy was sure he was. "He'll be just fine as long as Riku's with him." A raven came in at the window, and the King jumped. "Uh-oh!" It dropped a crown and a letter at his feet. "Why, that's Minnie's." Yen Sid knew the bird. "That raven is Maleficent's."

The King read the letter. "It's from Maleficent. She's kidnapped Minnie." Donald and Goofy said it together. "She took Queen Minnie?" The King read the rest. "The letter says for me to return to Disney Castle. or else." He told the two of them to stay. "Okay. You fellas stay here." They would not. "King Mickey, we're going with you!" He gave in. "Gosh. I guess you're right, pals. We friends need to stick together. Master Yen Sid, we'll be back!" Yen Sid sent them. "Mickey, there is no time to waste."

When they had gone, Yen Sid sat looking at the window. "The timing is too perfect, too calculated. Maleficent must sense a change in the forces of darkness. A change. like Xehanort."

In the library at Disney Castle, Maleficent was waiting, and Pete had Minnie. Donald shouted at him. "Pete, you big thug!" Pete did not mind. "'Thug' works for me. We all got a role to play, right?" Maleficent would not have her underling insulted. "Silence! No underling of mine shall be insulted so. I have great plans for dear Pete and for all the worlds. once I have taken them for my own." The King told her that would never happen. "Then I've got bad news for you. that day's never gonna come."

Maleficent pointed at Minnie. "Perhaps you should take a few moments to reconsider. Or does the Queen's life mean nothing to you at all?" The King cried out. "No! Minnie!" He asked what she wanted. "All right, Maleficent. Tell us what you want." Maleficent looked round the library. "Let me see. Shall I begin with this world? I much preferred it in its darker, more ominous permutation." Pete agreed. "You said it. This place needs some lights-out time!"

The King did not believe her. "You're lying, Maleficent. Not even you would go through this much trouble just for that. What is it you're really after?" She was pleased with him. "Very perceptive. I presume you are familiar with Xehanort, the man who led me to discover worlds outside of my own?" The King stared. "You know him?"

"As do you, I see. Yes, he shared everything with me. how to go about winning a heart over to the darkness, and, most gloriously, about the seven hearts of pure light. the ones that would grant me the power I need to conquer all worlds." She had found them too much to hold. "However, the worlds were too complex, too much for even me to contain. It seemed I had miscalculated. Then it came to me. of course! I could go about conquering other worlds in my own manner. You do have the 'data' for all the worlds, do you not? And now you will hand it over to me."

The King did not understand. "What do ya mean?" Pete explained it his way. "Don't you bozos pretend you don't remember. Me and Maleficent was trapped inside it. Now cough it up!" And when the King's hand moved: "Ah-ah-ah. Wouldn't want her Royal Minnie Mousiness to get a boo-boo, now would we?" Goofy was almost admiring. "Gawrsh, at least he's honest, in a dishonest way." The King asked why she wanted it. "Why do you want the data?" "I'm afraid that is no concern of yours."

He would not give it to her, and she was done asking. "I see you have failed to recognize the futility of your situation. Very well. Face your doom!" Her fire came at them, and a doorway of darkness opened in the library, and out of it came a pair of spinning wheels of flame. One knocked her fire aside; the other took Pete off balance, and Minnie ran. "Minnie!"

The King turned on Maleficent. "Maleficent. you lose!" Pete saw how it was. "Say, uh, milady, I think the pipsqueak's right. We better hit the road!" Maleficent promised to come back. "I now know that what I seek lies within these walls. Trust that I will eliminate you in good time." They went, Pete scrambling after her. "Hey! Wait for me! Maleficent?"

The one who had thrown the wheels stepped out of the dark after them, and the King knew his face. "You used the darkness to get here? That was reckless. But gosh, I didn't expect you to save us. Axel." The young man corrected him. "Axel didn't. My name is Lea. Got it memorized?"

They took him back to the tower, and Yen Sid told him about the exam and about Xehanort, and Lea told Yen Sid what he wanted: to learn to use a Keyblade. The King said it for all of them. "WHAT!?" Donald was sure of the answer. "WHAT!? Absolutely not!" Goofy only stared. "WHAT!?"

Yen Sid told him what the exam was, and why it mattered. "I sensed something was amiss nearly the moment Sora and Riku departed. Xehanort must have known what we were attempting before we even began." The King asked the only question he had. "But are they safe right now?" Yen Sid did not know. "Considering their ability, I would like to believe that they are. However, all my attempts to locate Sora and Riku end. questionably. Xehanort is a devious tactician. There is nothing we can do that he will not, to some extent, be able to predict."

He looked at Lea. "As you can see, the Organization's members are complete people again. Xehanort will be no different. We cannot afford another moment's hesitation. We must consider any strategy to outwit Xehanort and catch him off guard." And he warned him. "I must warn you again. the road will not be easy." Lea did not hesitate. "Fine. Let's jump right in."

Yen Sid sent him to a forest where Merlin and the three fairies had made time run differently. The King asked if he could do it. "Master Yen Sid. Gosh, do ya think he'll be able to do it?" Yen Sid was frank. "It's clear you cannot teach a cat to bark. But Merlin and the three good fairies are aiding him in a place that's more. temporally flexible. My hope is that he can at least learn to wield it. He certainly has fire, so I suppose it depends now on how strongly it burns."

The Thirteenth Vessel

When the last Keyhole was locked, Sora expected to wake at home. He woke in the dark city instead, at the foot of the tall building with the screens on it. "Is the Organization's world sleeping too? No, it can't be. I know I definitely found the seven Keyholes already. So, I've gotta be awake again and in the real world. But why here?" Someone laughed above him. "Aw, what's the matter, sleepyhead?"

It was Xigbar, the man with the eyepatch, who had been dead since the castle. He was pleased with himself. "We jumped through a lot of hoops to get you here. But it looks as if it's gonna pay off." He told Sora how. "Hey. Let's hit these plot points in order, Sora. Roxas. First, you must be wondering about your revised itinerary. 'Why am I here, not back home?' The answer's simple. We brought you to this place! Hijacked your little slumber party before it started. And ever since, we've been both your companions and your constant guides."

Sora remembered the robed figure over the sea. Xigbar grinned. "Bingo. You were able to go back in time to just before your home became a Sleeping World, only because a past version of you already existed there. And I can see, in the past, you already met Mr. Robe Guy. Yup, he was there then to make sure you ended up here now."

Sora said it could not be that simple. "It sure is. It's too perfect. Who'd ever believe it? Which is why you idiots never saw it coming. You thought you were off doing some kind of test, right? Well, test this. how come you're wearing the same clothes if you're already back home? You are not gonna wake up, okay? Look. there's no real versus dreams anymore. There's just you, us, and this."

Sora glared at him, and Xigbar backed off, laughing. "Ooh, I see you've still got that angry look down. But, here is where I tag out. I got just a few more hoops I gotta jump through." And as he went: "Pleasant dreams, kiddo."

The young man in the coat was there instead, holding out his hand. "Come with me." And Sora was asleep again, deeper, and standing on the beach of the islands on the night they fell, watching a man in a robe talk to a silver-haired boy by the sea. The young man stood beside Sora and watched it too. "Yes. This was where it started. At this point, I still had no idea that I was talking to myself. He cast away his bodily form just to set me on the appointed path."

Sora asked who the man in the robe was. "That is Xehanort reduced to just a heart. the being you and your friends called 'Ansem.'" On the beach a boy with spiky hair ran past them into the cave on the little island, and the young man nodded at him. "Yes. The point in time that Xigbar mentioned."

He explained how it was done. "To move through time, you must leave your body behind. Ansem first sent me on my way, and then placed himself here when the time was right. That is what set all these events in motion." Sora asked if Ansem had foreseen all of it. "No, not everything. But remember, Ansem possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time." Sora asked how Ansem had come to him in the first place, and the young man gave him one word for Kairi. "Simple."

And he reminded him of the town where every journey had begun. "You've been here many times. Your first journey. your voyage through memories. in the datascape. in your dreams. Relived again and again. like déjà vu."

Then Sora was alone in a dream of the dark city, twisted and floating, and people he knew kept appearing ahead of him and going away. The first was Naminé, and he ran after her. "Wait! Naminé! I've got a message for you. I meant to tell you once this was all over." She turned, and she was another girl, dark-haired, whom Sora did not know, and then she was gone.

Then there was a boy with fair hair who did not go away. Sora knew him. "Roxas. How can you be here? Am I dreaming? C'mon, say something." Roxas did. "This could have been the other way around. But it really has to be you." Sora told him the thing he wanted him to know. "Roxas, you're you. We're not the same. I wanted to tell you that. That you deserve as much as I do to be your own person."

Roxas shook his head. "Sora, see? That's why it has to be you." And he gave Sora what he had. "There are so many hearts that are connected to yours. You're me, so you can feel what I felt." For a moment Sora felt it all: a clock tower, a sunset, two friends, and losing them.

Further on there were others: Kairi, and Riku, and a woman with blue hair and a man with brown whom he had never met, and when he spoke to them his own reflection was a boy he did not know either. Somewhere far off he heard Riku's voice. "Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."

At the end of the dream Xigbar was waiting again. "Oopsy-daisy. Wasn't easy putting you into a second sleep, and he almost woke you up." Sora caught his breath. "So then, all that stuff I just saw." He could hardly get the words out. "Did you put that in my head?" Xigbar said not. "No. That wasn't 'stuff,' it was a dream. The falling asleep part was definitely our bad. But we can't put stuff in your head. Hey, I got an idea. Ask your heart. See if it's got a clue."

Sora did. "Well. my heart was aching. That's why I kept going." Xigbar was delighted. "Oh. Thank you, Sora's heart, for pushing him right into our clutches. Aren't hearts great? Steer us wrong every time." Sora told him what he had felt. "Axel and Roxas and Naminé, and that other girl. I felt what Roxas felt and. they laughed together, got mad, and they grieved. You have to have a heart to cry." Xigbar looked past him. "It's about time you noticed."

Xemnas was behind him. Sora turned on him. "Why, then? Why did you lie to them and tell them they had no hearts?!" Xemnas answered as though it were an old question. "Indeed. A heart is never lost for good. There may have been variances in our dispositions, but a number of us unquestionably showed signs of a burgeoning replacement. Once born, the heart can also be nurtured."

Xemnas said it as if it had never mattered to him. "Our experiments creating Heartless were attempts to control the mind, and convince it to renounce its sense of self. But understand, one can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets, for as many times as it takes. And so I knew, even after we were divided into Heartless and Nobodies, it was just a temporary separation."

He told Sora what had gone wrong. "However. through weakness of body. weakness of will. or weakness of trust. most of the original members we had chosen for the Organization were inadequate. Thus, naturally, they never had a chance to attain their goal. Yet, even this was to be expected." And what had not. "We have learned of the heart's folly, and we have achieved our other goals. This last excursion has proven to be a worthy closing assignment for the Organization."

Xigbar told Sora what the goal had been. "Xemnas and Xehanort formed the Organization for a specific reason. round up a bunch of empty husks, hook them up to Kingdom Hearts, then fill them all with the exact same heart and mind. Translation. they were gonna turn all the members into Xehanort." Sora stared at him. "Make more Xehanorts? You tricked your friends to. But you." He looked at Xigbar. "Aren't you scared of just turning into someone else?" Xigbar laughed. "Me? I'm already half Xehanort."

Sora had had enough of him. "Just stop it! You treat people's hearts like bottles on a shelf, but they're not! Hearts are made of the people we meet and how we feel about them. They're what ties us together even when we're apart. They're what. make me strong!" Xigbar mocked him for it. "Duh! You're strong because of the ties you have with other people. As if the Keyblade would choose a wimp like you. But no pouting. We see much bigger and better things in your future. once you side with us."

Sora did not care. "I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger. The people it did choose. My friends. they are my power!" Xigbar shrugged. "Those are just words. You've lost. Fine. See where your power gets you here. Xemnas! He's all yours." Xemnas looked at the mark on Sora's chest. "As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known as that. of a recusant."

Sora beat him, and it cost him everything he had left. He sank to his knees, and the young man in the coat was standing over him. "You just make it too easy. I know you think you've won, but you lost the moment you dived this far in. You're in the deepest pit of slumber, and you've worn yourself down to nothing. There's no returning to the world above."

He pointed at the mark on Sora's chest, an X. "We told you. It was not the Sleeping Keyholes that guided you. They are not the reason you are here. You've been on a path, one we laid out for you. That sigil on your chest is the proof." And: "See? That sigil, the X, it tells us where you are at all times. You had wondered aloud before. why we kept showing up where you were. It's because we need you, Sora. Or, to be more precise, we need what will be left of you. the thirteenth dark vessel."

Sora asked him why. "Why was it assured you would come here today? Because I followed my destined path, and I'm here looking at you right now. You can move through time, but time itself is immovable. Today, all of my selves throughout time were meant to gather here, and to welcome you, Sora, as our thirteenth member. These facts cannot be changed."

Sora asked what would happen now. "I have now told you all that I know. We are all here, and what the future holds in store is beyond my sight. I will return to my own time, and grow into the man who becomes all these others. While I know this future now that I have lived it, returning to my own time will erase the memories and experiences I have gained here. Still, my appointed path is now etched in my heart, which will first lead me to seek the outside world."

Sora was falling. The young man said goodnight to him. "Your heart will sleep forever in the folds of darkness. And your body will be another vessel for me. So light gives way to darkness. Good night, Sora." And as Sora went down into the dark, something that had been sleeping in his heart since before he knew it was there rose up round him, and closed a suit of armour over him that was not his.

Because of Him

Riku locked his last Keyhole and did not wake at home either. He was in the Organization's castle, in a white hall at the bottom of it. "Where am I now? Why am I here? I unlocked all seven Keyholes." He looked round the white hall. "So I should be back in the world I came from." He climbed. Near the top of it, in the air above a tower, a sphere of darkness hung, and inside it was Sora, asleep. "Is that. Sora? Sora! Don't! You've gotta wake up! Sora!"

The darkness round the sphere took a shape, a Nightmare in a black coat, and Riku faced it. "Are you what's trapping him in that nightmare? 'Cause if you are. I'm what nightmares fear!" He beat it, and the darkness took him before he could reach Sora.

He came to in a dark place full of streams of shadow, and he could not understand it. "What? What's going on in Sora's world? Why won't he open his eyes? Is he still in the nightmare?" Ansem answered him out of the dark. "That is right. Sora can no longer wake up. No matter how many nightmares you consume, you cannot wake someone who has fallen into the chasm of dreams."

"Dreams hold our memories. Sleep holds our dreams. And darkness. it holds our sleep. Sora's heart belongs to the darkness now." Riku would not have it. "Sora would never give in to the darkness!" Ansem asked him something else instead. "But you feel it, don't you? This world, the nightmare, the abyss. Why haven't you returned to the reality whence you came?"

He told Riku where he had been. "Dream of a dream. A twofold nightmare. This whole journey, you have been inside Sora's dreams. And now darkness within darkness awaits you." And what he was. "At the start of your test, when you struck out from that tiny island, you saw me there dressed in a robe. Immediately you knew something was wrong, so without even knowing it, you dove into Sora's dream. And you became exactly what that sigil on your back represents. a Dream Eater to protect Sora from nightmares." Riku stared. "Me? I'm a Dream Eater?"

Ansem did not let him sit with it. "Correct. But you failed to protect him. After all your efforts to command the darkness and protect those you cherish, it is a shame you locked that power away in the end." He held out the old offer. "So you understand what to do. Set the darkness in you free, and you can rescue your friend."

Riku told him why he had come on the journey at all. "Ansem. Or. Xehanort. You used to be a Keyblade wielder. But darkness stole your heart, and the Keyblade with it. Don't you see? That's half the reason I'm even on this journey. After allowing darkness into my heart, am I still fit to wield the Keyblade?"

And the other half. "You know. when I look at you. there's this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I'd keep when I was little. The main reason I kept dreaming about the outside world. was 'cause of him." He meant a man in armour who had come to the islands when Riku was a small boy, and given him something, and gone; Terra, whose face Ansem had taken.

He looked at the darkness round him. "Even after locking you away, here you are, haunting me again. So I get it now. There's no point in trying to hold the darkness back." Ansem was pleased. "At last, you see clearly." But Riku was not finished. "My journey begins here and now. I'm going back to the real world, and then to Sora's side." Ansem looked at him. "That. is your answer?"

Ansem asked if he knew the way. Riku did. "I know the way. Consume the darkness, return it to light." Ansem smiled. "You can try." They fought, and when Ansem called up his dark guardian and made the place stretch and fold round them, Riku called to him through it. "Ansem! You're part of my heart now. Part of the light!" Ansem only laughed. "Ever the fool, boy. And forever a pawn of the darkness!"

Riku won. He stood alone afterwards with the Keyblade in his hand. "Strength, to protect what matters."

He woke at the foot of the tall building with the screens on it, in the real dark city. "This place. Did I finally make out of the dream?" He saw the whole of it now. "Sora and I have been split up since the start of our journey, because Ansem. no, because Xehanort planned it. And that means we're a long way off course from the Mark of Mastery exam Yen Sid gave us."

He went looking. "All right, Sora has gotta be here. somewhere." At the edge of the city, where the ground stopped over nothing, he still had the powers the dream had given him. "End of the road, huh? I know I'm back in the real world, but I still have my Dream Eater powers. Which means. he still hasn't woken up. Where are you, Sora?"

Across the gap a small Dream Eater was waiting, one of Sora's. "A Dream Eater! Is that where Sora is? How do I get across?" His own Dream Eater had an idea, and he rubbed its head. "Right. I get it."

At the tower, the King had asked the question none of them wanted to. "Oh. But what about Sora and Riku?" They had not come back when they should have. Yen Sid had been thinking. "Well, if we are running on the assumption Xehanort knew what we were planning, then he still would need to have been there. back in the very place and time when the Destiny Islands were lost to darkness. Otherwise, Sora and Riku would have been beyond his reach."

The King could hardly believe it. "Gee, do you really think it's possible Xehanort could have planned things that far in advance?" Yen Sid did not. "No, as a matter of fact, I do not." He explained why. "For that to work, a version of himself would have had to exist at both source and destination. Not even Xehanort can transport his whole body across vast reaches of time." Goofy had a thought. "But what if he did the same thing as Sora and Riku did, and he jumped through time?"

The King remembered. "Oh. Oh no. I remember. Xehanort did give up his body. It was a version of him that was possessing Riku." Yen Sid went pale. "No! It cannot be. Could he be that cunning, possess that kind of foresight?" The King asked to go. "If it's all right with you, can I go help Sora and Riku out?" Yen Sid did not see how. "How? You cannot enter the world of a dream. Where will you go?"

The King had worked that out too. "If Xehanort really is behind all this, then they won't stay in the dream worlds forever. Eventually, they're gonna reappear somewhere that we can go reach 'em. And we can even probably guess the place. Follow the hearts, and you'll find the way. That's something Master Aqua told me once." Goofy wanted to come. "We're goin' too." Donald said only his name. "King Mickey."

The King would not take them. "Aw, fellas, you're my best pals. But this time, I really do need to go it alone. The dangers are greater than anything we've ever faced before. If something were to happen to Sora and Riku and me. why, you'll be the only ones left to keep this world safe." Goofy asked Yen Sid if he knew where they were. "But you do know where they are?" Yen Sid closed his eyes. "Mickey, I was not able to locate Sora, but I sense Riku's presence in the realm between. Trust your heart, and I know you will find him." The King promised. "Thank you. I promise I'll bring them both back safe and sound."

The Real Organization XIII

The bridge the two Dream Eaters made took Riku up into the castle, to the high round chamber with thirteen tall white thrones in a ring, and on one of them Sora was lying asleep. The young man in the coat stepped between them. "Hands off my new vessel."

He told Riku, without being asked, what he had wanted Riku for once. "Yes. We originally had our sights set on you. But, you developed a certain. resistance to darkness. So we did what the Keyblade did, and moved down the list. Roxas. Now, there was a worthy candidate. But, unfortunately, he became too aware of himself, and returned to Sora."

The young man's voice did not change. "Organization XIII's true goal is to divide Xehanort's heart among thirteen vessels. Thanks to you and Sora, we learned not all our candidates were fit for the task. But, we managed to make up the difference. And now, Sora, the thirteenth vessel, is within our grasp."

Figures in black coats appeared on the thrones round them one after another. "The real Organization XIII." He told Riku who he was. "I am Xehanort from the most distant past. My future self gave me a task. to visit the splintered versions of myself in many worlds, and ensure they gathered here today."

And the rules he had kept to. "There are restrictions to movement through time. First, you must leave your body behind to do it. Then, there must be a version of you waiting at the destination. Upon arrival, you can only move forward as per the laws of time. And you cannot rewrite the events that are destined to happen." And what was coming. "My most future self will arrive soon. Then, time for all of us will return to normal, and I will go back to my era to live the life fate has in store. He can vouch for that."

Then everything stopped. The King was standing in the doorway with his Keyblade up, and the whole room was frozen round him. "Stopza!" He ran to Riku. "I'm glad I'm not too late." And: "Just grab Sora so we can go! I can't stop them for long."

The young man moved anyway, though the spell held everyone else, and when he spoke it was with an old man's voice. "I said, hands off!" The King knew the voice. "Oh no. Are you." The young man drew a Keyblade on Riku. "Begone." They fought across a floor that turned like a clock, and Riku beat him, and the King's spell ran out.

On the highest throne, where there had been nobody, an old man sat, bald and yellow-eyed, with a white beard. The King asked if Riku was hurt. "Are you okay, Riku?" Then he looked up. "Master Xehanort! We were right about you!"

The old man sat back as if he had been waiting a long time for a comfortable chair. "All of this was decided. My twelve selves would welcome me here on this day, when I would return a complete person. It is the future which lies beyond my sight." The King asked him why. "Why are you doing this?"

He told them the same story Yen Sid had, from the other side. "In ancient times, people believed that light was a gift from an unseen land by the name of Kingdom Hearts. But Kingdom Hearts was safeguarded by its counterpart, the χ-blade. Warriors vied for that precious light, thus beginning the 'Keyblade War.' The violent clash shattered the χ-blade into twenty pieces. seven of light, and thirteen of darkness. And the only real Kingdom Hearts was swallowed by the darkness, never to surface again."

He admitted his mistake. "I once tried to create my own pure light and darkness to forge the χ-blade, but the attempt ended in failure. In my eagerness, I had lost sight of the correct way to achieve my goal. I acted rashly. I can admit that now." The King could not stand it. "What you did back then. your mistakes. changed the destinies of three of my friends!"

Master Xehanort did not deny it. "Ah, but destiny is never left to chance. I merely guided them to their proper places. The broken boy who failed to be the blade. the misguided master who sacrificed herself for a friend. and the feckless youth who became my new vessel."

The King saw how far back it went. "I couldn't find a way to save 'em. But I wanted to believe that their sacrifice stopped you for good. Why? How was I so blind? I should've seen it, as soon as Maleficent started gathering the seven princesses of heart." Master Xehanort was pleased. "Yes. They were all my doing. I used the evil fairy to find seven pure lights for me, just as I prepared thirteen vessels to fill with pure darkness."

Riku spoke for the first time. "But you failed. Sora stopped you in your tracks on both counts." Master Xehanort granted it. "Yes, he did. That dull, ordinary boy. a Keyblade wielder so unlike any I have ever seen. However, I have not abandoned my ambitions. the seven guardians of light and the thirteen seekers of darkness."

The King counted. "Seven guardians of light? Well, for Keyblade wielders, there's me and Riku and Sora. And my three missing friends, that's six. Then the seventh would be. That means. the thirteen seekers of darkness." Master Xehanort nodded. "Yes, little king. Perceptive. But Sora and another on your list belong to me now. And that puts you three guardians short. But worry not. All of the pieces are destined to appear. Your seven lights just like my thirteen darknesses, whose final clash will beget the prize I seek. The χ-blade!" The King said it with him. "The χ-blade!"

Then he rose. "But first, the thirteen darknesses shall be united. All the seats have been filled. And now the last vessel shall bear my heart like the rest!" Xemnas held the King back, and Ansem held Riku. The King cried out. "No!"

Something came down between Master Xehanort and Sora in a burst of fire, and knocked his darkness aside, and stood over Sora with a pair of flaming wheels. The King knew who it was. "He made it!" Xemnas knew too. "You!" And Xigbar. "Axel!"

He took a bow. "Axel? Please. The name's Lea. Got it memorized?" Xigbar was outraged. "You're not supposed to be here!" Lea grinned at him. "Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back. What, bad timing? You had your perfect little script, but you kinda forgot to write the sequel. Now, let's find out what happens!"

One of the hooded figures came off its throne at him, and its hood fell back, and Lea stopped. "Isa!" Riku, getting free, called to him by the only name he knew. "Why are you here, Axel?" Lea gave up on it. "No, I told you my name's. Agh, whatever, Axel, fine. Now let's get outta here!" The King agreed. "Right!"

Ansem's dark guardian rose up and took Riku and the King in its hands, and then something small and fast came in through the wall with Donald and Goofy riding it, and knocked the guardian flat. Donald looked round. "Were we supposed to do that?" Goofy thought so. "I think so." The King was delighted. "Goofy, Donald! You saved us!"

Xigbar turned on the old man. "What now, you old coot? Our time is up!" Master Xehanort stood, and the Organization began to fade round him, each of them going back to wherever in time he had come from. He left them a promise. "We are out of time. Neither the union of light nor darkness has been achieved, and we must all return whence we came. But, the gathering of the seven and thirteen is nigh. Let us finish this at the fated place, once your lights and my darknesses have joined together!"

He Needs Me

They carried Sora back to the tower, and he did not wake. The King looked down at him. "Aw, Sora. Don't tell me your heart's sleeping, too." Yen Sid had already understood what had been done. "Seven lights, thirteen darknesses. Master Xehanort has been busy." And he told the King it was not what he feared. "No, Mickey. This affliction is not the same."

He told Riku what the exam had given him. "In your Mark of Mastery exam, you were to unlock seven Sleeping Keyholes. By doing so, you would awaken those worlds from their prison of slumber, and also acquire the power to free a heart from its sleep. Riku, you unlocked those Keyholes within Sora's dreams. Therefore, it stands to reason that you now have the power to awaken Sora's heart."

The King was frightened for him. "You want him to dive back into Sora's sleep? But Master, Sora's heart is down in the darkest abyss. If Riku's not careful, he might just get trapped down there with him. No. I'll go instead." Yen Sid did not forbid it. "And perhaps you may even succeed, Mickey. But there is no denying Riku stands the better chance, having dived into Sora's heart as long as he has."

Riku looked at Sora. "Mickey. I really appreciate it. But. I'll go wake Sora up. Look at his face. Sleeping like nothing's wrong. like there's nothing to even worry about." He sighed. "He's always been like that. The three of us would agree to work on the raft, and then this guy would go take a nap on the beach. You see, it's my job to keep him on his toes. Besides, what kind of Keyblade Master sleeps through his test? I'm doing it for me, too. Sora saved me once. And. I heard him call my name. He needs me."

The King told him how. "There's something real strong that binds us to each other. Even in the darkness, you can reach him. All you gotta do is follow that connection!" Goofy said they were all connected to Sora. "Gee, we're all connected to Sora." Donald agreed. "You said it!" And Lea, who had only just met Riku properly, offered to fetch him back if it went wrong. "And if the darkness gets ya, I promise I'll bail you out. 'Dark Rescue' is my middle name."

Riku thanked them. "Guys, thank you. Sora and I will be back soon." And he went down into the dark. "I'll find you, Sora."

He came down onto the round glass floor at the bottom of Sora's heart, where Sora's own pieces were scattered like light, and gathered them. At the end of it Sora was waiting for him, and it was not Sora; it was a suit of armour that was not his, with a Nightmare inside it moving him. Riku fought it and broke it, and Sora was free.

Then Riku was standing on a beach he knew, the islands, as they were inside Sora. A boy with fair hair came down the sand to him, and it was Roxas, and he asked Riku a question. "What is it that you're so afraid of?" Then he was gone, and another boy with fair hair was there, and Riku took him for Roxas again, and he was not. "What is the one thing you care about more than anything else?" And then a girl with dark hair. "Riku. What do you wish?" Each asked, and each was gone.

There was a bottle in the surf, and a figure standing over it, a projection made of light, and Riku knew the face. "DiZ! I mean. Ansem the Wise. What are you doing here?" Ansem was just as surprised. "You were not the visitor I expected." He told Riku why he was there. "Perhaps I wanted to atone for events of the past, even if no apology can undo the harm I have wrought. I felt. that I ought to leave at least something behind. So I digitized myself and my research, and hid them within Sora."

He had hidden it in Sora for a reason. "Yes. A clue, I hope, to finding yourselves or your lost friends in your hour of need. The heart has always been quick to grow. Each exposure to light, to the natural world, to other people, shapes this most malleable part inside of us. Nobodies are not different from us in that manner. Sora was the only one able to return to his human form without destroying his Nobody. That is a statement to the love in his heart for other people, and the bonds that tie them together."

Ansem's voice softened. "Perhaps. he has the power to bring back the hearts and existences of those connected to him. to recreate people we thought were lost to us forever. Our most precious treasures. even an empty puppet. the trees of the forest, and the petals on the wind. there are hearts around us everywhere we look. And it does not take superhuman powers to see them."

He smiled at something he remembered. "Surely we remember as children the way our hearts made everything seem so shiny, and perfect. Sora has a heart like that. uncorrupted, willing to see the good before the bad. When he sees the heart in something, it then becomes real. When a connection seems broken, he may have the power to mend it. He has touched countless hearts, he has accepted them, and he has saved them. And some of those hearts have never left him. whether they fell into darkness or were trapped there. whether they sleep in the darkness of Sora's heart, or were welcomed into its warmth. they can be saved. All Sora needs to do is be himself and follow wherever it is that his heart takes him. It is the best and the only way."

He pointed at the bottle. "The rest is in there." Then he looked at Riku properly. "Of course. Now why is it that you are here?" Riku told him. "Uh. I kinda need to wake Sora up." Ansem was alarmed. "Don't tell me he's gone to sleep again?" Riku made sure he understood. "You mean. the Sora wrapped in that black phantom?"

Ansem set his mind at rest. "What, indeed? Never fear. Sora is safe." And: "He's not here. You see, by defeating the Nightmare imprisoning Sora, you freed him." He told Riku the last of it. "Then, you came here, and you were questioned by three young people. That was the final key to awaken him. Sora is awake. You can go home now."

Riku turned to go, and Ansem called after him. "Young man! I do not believe you ever told me your name." Riku told him.

He opened his eyes in the tower, and the King was there. "Riku!" And Sora was sitting up beside him, awake.

A New Kind of Power

Sora wanted to know if they had passed. Yen Sid told them first how they had done. "You performed truly admirably, both of you." Then he said something he did not often say. "More than anything, I am grateful to have you both back from Xehanort's deception unharmed. And I am grateful to Lea, whose spontaneous actions turned the tides. I am also deeply sorry, for failing to perceive the danger and throwing you headlong into a perilous test."

"This experience has revealed many hidden truths, and we must gird ourselves for the great clash with darkness that lies before us. I believe we need a new Keyblade Master, one with a new kind of power." He looked at the two of them. "Sora and Riku, you both deserve the honor. However, one of you braved the realm of sleep again to unlock the final Keyhole and save a friend. Riku, I name you our new true Keyblade Master."

Riku could hardly believe it. "Really? I'm a Keyblade Master?" The King was delighted. "Congratulations, Riku!" Sora was more delighted than anyone, and Goofy laughed at him for it. "Gee, Sora, you're kinda acting like it's you that passed."

Lea told Riku not to get used to it. "Ah, I'll catch up with ya in no time flat." Sora asked what he meant, and Lea told them. "Yeah. I mean, I came here to learn how to wield one." He was a little embarrassed about it. "Hey, thanks for the vote of confidence. You know, I was gonna come swooping in, Keyblade in hand! But I just couldn't get mine to materialize. Must be in the snap of the wrist or something." He flicked his wrist to show them, and there was a Keyblade in his hand, and nobody in the room was more surprised than he was.

Sora had something to see to before anything else, and said he was going. Donald did not like it. "Are you gonna be okay?" Goofy did not either. "Do ya have to go?" The King only told him to be careful. "Be careful."

He went back to the Traverse Town in the Sleeping Worlds, where the Spirit Dream Eaters who had fought beside him were. "Good. I was hoping this world was still here. But where are they?" They found him all at once, and he laughed and held on to them. "Thanks! You're the best!"

And far off, in the white castle where he had slept since before Sora was old enough to hold a Keyblade, in a chair in a white room with his eyes shut, a boy with fair hair smiled in his sleep.