Kingdom Hearts radiated more brilliantly still…and the light blazed forth. Sora and the others shielded their eyes—and when they could look again, Xemnas was gone.
“You can’t hide from us, Xemnas!” Sora shouted up at Kingdom Hearts.
“We can’t let him get away now!” said King Mickey. Sora and Riku knew he was right.
“Look at that!” Kairi pointed to a burst of brightness gathering below the great moon. It coalesced into an imposing door.
Goofy squinted at it. “Gawrsh, what’s that?”
“…Kingdom Hearts…?” murmured the king, gazing up at the door—which looked rather familiar.
In fact, it was very similar to the door to the realm of darkness that Sora and Riku had helped him close.
“Let’s go.” Riku grimly followed the king’s gaze. “Xemnas must be inside.”
“The worlds gave us this doorway,” King Mickey added. “They’re entrusting their fate to us.”
“Right.” Sora nodded.
Riku turned to him. “Once we go through, there’s no going back. It’s victory…or oblivion. Well, Sora?”
Of course, Riku had to know the answer he’d receive.
“Let’s go!” Sora replied with a nod.
King Mickey and Riku were with him.
The three stepped toward the door, and each held his Keyblade high. Three beams of light erupted, and the door opened.
“Get ready, Xemnas. It’s over for you!” said Sora. They crossed through the door.
Please… Please protect them. And the worlds.
Wait. I want to ask the will of the worlds—
What is it you want us to do?
Why did you create us, the lost ones, the Nobodies?
Naminé was filled with questions as she watched over Sora and his friends.
Beyond the door, the group found a bizarre, twisted world of glowing nonsensical buildings. It felt like that first skyscraper.
It was the center of this world, and Xemnas stood atop its bright core.
“So… Your hearts have led you to obliteration. Perhaps it’s unwise to be too loyal to one’s heart… I’ll have to remember that lesson.”
Xemnas raised his hands, and the buildings began to shake and crumble. Heaps of debris crashed down in front of Kairi and King Mickey—inches from their noses.
“Kairi!” Sora called out.
“We’re okay!” the king shouted back. “You two, keep going. I’ll take care of Kairi!”
“All right… We can do this.” Sora readied his Keyblade, and Riku did the same beside him, Way to the Dawn in his hand. Donald and Goofy had their wand and shield out. They had to run—the buildings kept collapsing, and even the ground was crumbling beneath their feet.
“C’mon!” Sora dashed ahead, jumping atop a falling facade and springing higher. The other three followed his lead.
“Yipe!” Goofy nearly fell from an unsteady foothold. Riku reached out to grab his hand just in time.
“Keep going, Goofy!” Donald glanced back to yell at him, but then he lost his footing on the slope, too—and slid right into Riku, who snatched him up.
Riku laughed under his breath. “For guys who tag along with a hero, you two sure are a handful.”
“Wak! Put me down!”
“We gotta hurry!” Sora called back to them, reaching solid ground at last.
“Quack!” Donald finally caught up, then Goofy, both making a spectacular landing right on top of Sora.
“Why do you guys always do that?!” Sora complained from beneath the heap.
Riku smartly touched down beside them. “Seriously… How did you three manage to survive this long?”
He stretched his shoulders and then charged toward the huge bright core ahead of them. Without giving Donald a chance to make the retort he was clearly devising, Riku smashed the core with a single blow.
“Whoa!” Donald jumped, impressed enough to forget his gibe.
“Nice work, Riku!” Sora dashed up beside him, and before their eyes the core opened.
Inside sat Xemnas, now outfitted entirely in gleaming armor.
“You fools!” he cried, and myriad spears ranged themselves around Sora and Riku—no, lances. They were the same as Xaldin’s weapons.
“Here goes, Sora!” Riku wasted no time rushing at Xemnas, and Sora was right beside him.
And then something strange happened…
“Huh…?”
What’s…happening to me…?
Falling…falling…into darkness…
“Sora!” Goofy called. Sora’s form was engulfed in a black substance. He hardly looked like himself anymore—more like a Nobody.
Sora dropped on all fours and pounced on Xemnas at an incredible speed, attacking ferociously.
“What’s going on?!” Donald cried, anxiously clutching his wand.
“Sora!” Riku called to the pitch-black thing shaped like his friend—the anti-Sora. Hearing his voice, it paused and turned back into Sora, the darkness washing away like a wave receding from the shore.
“What…was that…?” Sora stared at his hands.
But in the moment of his distraction, a water double of Demyx ran straight for him.
“Look out!” At the last possible instant, Goofy knocked aside the Demyx double.
Riku charged at Xemnas and slashed out hard with Way to the Dawn. “Did we do it?!”
Xemnas stopped moving and fixed a malicious glare on Sora. “…So this is the strength of your hearts?”
“Sora! Get him!” called Riku.
Sora jumped as if suddenly remembering where he was and then brought the Keyblade down. The terrible roar from Xemnas seemed to shake the world’s foundations.
A flash of light…a torrent of wind, a shock wave.
Bit by bit, the armor dissipated, and Xemnas returned to his usual form.
“Sora!” King Mickey and Kairi caught up.
As Sora held the Keyblade ready, Xemnas stumbled on his feet.
“I need…more rage,” he growled as he looked up at them. “I need more…hearts…”
“Xemnas… There’s more to a heart than just anger or hate. It’s full of all kinds of feelings,” said Sora, trying one last time to persuade him. “Don’t you remember?”
Slowly, quietly, he turned to Sora. “No…I don’t.”
Darkness seeped into the air around Xemnas, blotting him out. For some strange reason, he was smiling as he disappeared.
And then he was gone, melted away into the dark.
“We did it!” Sora hopped up in triumph. Donald and Goofy grinned at him.
“Gosh, you fellas did great!” said the king.
But Riku began to distance himself as everyone celebrated.
“…Riku?” Sora turned to him uncertainly, then approached him.
There was sadness in the set of Riku’s shoulders… It made Sora worry. “You’re coming back with us, right?”
“I’m corrupted,” Riku said without even hesitating. “I gave in to the darkness.”
He couldn’t help but feel it was wrong for him to return to their pristine islands. How could he show his face to everyone when he’d helped destroy their precious home?
The Destiny Islands. He’d seen it in dreams so many times, and yet he had a hard time believing that it would truly be right for him to be in that picture—the three of them on their island again, laughing together.
“Riku…!” Sora shouted after him, objecting to all the doubts in his head.
Maybe Riku doesn’t want to go home, Sora thought. But I don’t want to go home without him.
We promised Kairi.
I want to run down the beach together again. There are so many things I wanted to do with him.
Riku glanced back dolefully. “How can I face everyone there…?”
Sora squished his cheeks with his hands, making the silliest scrunched-up face he could manage. “Like diiish!”
Riku burst out laughing. Having achieved the goal of cheering
him up, Sora gave him a smug grin.
Actually, Sora lost his sword fights against Riku all the time, but he’d never lost a staring contest.
Just as Sora was about to plainly tell Riku to come home with them—a rumble shook the world.
“C’mon, hurry!” King Mickey ran to the two of them.
“I’ll open a path.” Riku held up his hand to call up a dark portal…but nothing happened.
What had changed that he could no longer open the way to the Corridors of Darkness? He stared at his hand in confusion.
“You don’t belong in the realm of darkness anymore, Riku,” said the king.
He only kept looking down at himself. If I don’t…belong in the darkness anymore…then I can’t use its power.
“Your Majesty! How are we gonna get back?” Donald cut in desperately.
Then, feeling someone else’s eyes on them, Sora and Kairi turned back.
It was a flaxen-haired girl—Naminé.
But she was transparent, as if she wasn’t really there, or maybe halfway to vanishing.
Silently, she lifted her hand, palm out, and opened a dark rift.
“Huh? Who opened that?” Donald wondered, and as he stepped toward the rift, he passed through Naminé.
King Mickey did the same, looking up at the rift. They apparently couldn’t see her at all. “Dunno who it was… But we’d better hurry and get in.”
Just as he said that, Pluto arrived from somewhere, running right up to him. “Oh, hey!”
“Wak!” Donald started.
Pluto ran in excited circles around Donald and the king, then jumped into the rift ahead of everyone else.
“Wait for me!” Goofy scrambled after him, and then King Mickey followed, too.
“C’mon!” Donald glanced back at Sora before leaping in.
Naminé watched them go and faced Sora and Kairi with a warm smile.
Kairi moved closer to her. “Thank you, Naminé.”
“Sure.” She nodded, then gazed at Sora—into him. “See? We meet again, like we promised.”
Sora could only respond, “Huh?”
Naminé’s smile deepened. We don’t cease to be…we just go back.
“You said we’d meet again, but when we did, we might not recognize each other.”
Sora heard the voice from somewhere. Mystified, he looked around—and then Roxas stepped forward, separating himself from Sora. Like Naminé, he was translucent, not entirely there.
“I did say that, didn’t I?” said Naminé.
I remember. Those things I frantically told Roxas when we were running out of time.
The promise we made.
I haven’t forgotten. I never will.
We’ll meet again. And then we can talk about everything. I may not know it’s you, and you may not know it’s me—but we will meet again. I promise—I know we will.
And even though we didn’t recognize each other right away, here we are—meeting again.
Can I take that as the proof that I exist, even though I’m a Nobody?
We do exist in the fragments of others’ memories.
Roxas smiled softly. “But I did know you.”
“Mm-hmm… It’s strange.” Naminé returned the smile.
“I think I understand, though… I can see myself the way you remember me. And you see yourself the way I remember you.”
She nodded. The shards of what stays with us, those fragments of memory—they won’t disappear.
Even if the chains linking them together are broken, the memories don’t die.
I knew that I had the power to line them back up, the pieces of memories scattered in the depths of the heart, so how… How could I have forgotten something so important?
I understood that. I just couldn’t remember.
It’s because I didn’t want to remember. I didn’t want to discover the secrets of the heart. I didn’t want…to unravel the mysteries of what a Nobody is.
“I always thought…that Nobodies were doomed to fade back into darkness,” Naminé murmured as her gaze dropped.
“But you and I didn’t,” said Roxas. “We got to meet our original selves. Maybe that’s why.”
Then she looked up and nodded brightly. “So, we can be together again.”
“Right. Anytime Sora and Kairi are together.” Roxas stood close to Naminé as if he wanted to cling to her for an instant.
We won’t disappear. And we’ll be able to meet again.
But…the Nobodies who did disappear—no. We’ll be able to see Axel again, won’t we?
I want to believe that Axel returned somewhere. I won’t give up that hope. Just like Sora and Kairi never gave up.
“And we’ll be together every day, right, Sora?!” said Kairi, peering at him intently.
“Um—yeah!” Still not entirely following, Sora nodded anyway.
But he didn’t have to understand. As long as Sora was there, everyone would be happy. Naminé watched him with a smile.
Kairi reached out to her.
Without another word, Naminé took Kairi’s hand in hers.
She glowed, dissolving into light that went into Kairi.
“What—?!” Sora burst out, startled, and stared with his mouth open.
Roxas approached him. “Shh. Look sharp.”
Startled again by his voice, Sora jumped and faced Roxas.
I’ve wanted to meet you for so long, Sora.
I tried to leave the organization to meet you. And I wasn’t wrong.
Roxas closed his eyes and turned his face up to the sky.
Will I see Axel again?
Then, like Naminé, Roxas was cloaked in light as he faded away and flowed into Sora.
“Huh…?!” Sora examined himself as if trying to figure out where the light had gone.
Having watched the whole scene, Riku took a few steps closer. “Don’t worry. It’s all still you.”
Those words didn’t quite soothe his doubts. Sora stared at his hands.
“Guys, let’s go home!” Kairi called to them from in front of the dark rift.
“Riku… C’mon.” Sora looked up at him.
Riku nodded—but then the dark rift began to close on Kairi, blotting her out.
“Sora… Riku!” she cried.
They ran to her as the portal closed in front of their faces.
“Kairi!”
Not a trace remained in the empty air.
“Oh no… Riku, what do we do?!” Sora quickly turned to him in a panic, but a flash of brilliance blinded them.
“Sora—look!” Gripping Way to the Dawn, Riku pointed to the darkness beyond, and in the distance, they could see something—a Nobody shaped like an enormous silver dragon—heading straight for them.
“Here it comes!”
The dragon Nobody hurled itself against the structure they stood on.
“Riku…!” Sora looked back at him again, and—
Is that…Xemnas? He didn’t disappear?
The dragon’s tail lashed, and the floor beneath them tilted.
“Whoa!”
Before they could slide off and fall, Riku broke into a sprint and took a flying leap.
“Riku?!”
He landed on a strange aircraft close by, a little glider. “Sora!” he called. The glider had a sidecar—Sora caught on and leaped for it.
The glider sailed easily through the air, pursuing the dragon.
“Nice, Riku!” Sora shouted over the wind.
“Be quiet and hold on tight!” Riku warned him and accelerated faster.
From up ahead, the dragon fired bullets of light at them. Riku tilted and dove to avoid the shots and catch up to the dragon’s tail, close enough for Sora to take a swipe with his Keyblade.
The dragon lowered its tail, rising higher, and this time shot laser beams. “Get down!” said Riku, and Sora sank into a crouch. Dodging the lasers, Riku made a sharp turn, but one shot grazed the glider.
“Uh-oh!” Sora covered his head as some pieces of the h
ull came off. The dragon passed above them.
“Are you okay?” asked Riku.
“Yeah! Actually, this is kinda fun!” Sora grinned as he got up again and readied the Keyblade. Of course, he knew this was a battle for the fate of the worlds, but fighting something big and ferocious with Riku beside him—it brightened his spirits. And knowing that Riku felt the same way made him especially glad.
“Of course you’re enjoying this,” Riku remarked.
“Riku—look out ahead!”
The dragon had crossed into their path again. Riku fired the glider’s own lasers into its belly. “You’re up, Sora!”
At the cue, Sora sprang up atop the dragon and managed to deal it a blow. “Riku!”
As he jumped back off, Riku was waiting with the glider, as if he already knew exactly where Sora would go.
“This thing is tough,” Sora complained.
“Well, it is our last enemy, right?” Riku’s lips curled in a confident smirk and he steered toward the dragon’s head. “I’ll hit it with lasers. And then you—”
“Jump on it and attack its head, right?” Sora grinned at him. “Gotcha!”
Riku fired the lasers, making the dragon flinch. As it lowered its massive head, Sora leaped on and smashed his Keyblade into it. The dragon began losing altitude.
“We got ’im!” Sora jumped back to the glider and threw his arms around Riku’s neck.
“Ack!” The momentum from Sora’s hug knocked Riku into the control stick, and the glider spun around.
“Oops. Sorry!”
Directly below them, the huge dragon Nobody was tumbling into darkness. The black storm swallowed up the dragon and then came for Sora and Riku, a misty wind swirling around them.
And standing in the center of it—in the eye of the storm—was Xemnas.
“Let’s go!” said Sora. Riku nodded and steered the glider in through the buffeting gale.
On reaching the eye of the storm, they disembarked from the glider. Xemnas greeted them with a cold smile.
His black cloak was now white with swirling, jagged black patterns—he seemed vastly different from before.
“Heroes of the realm of light… It will not end this way. Not yet. If light and darkness are both eternal, then surely we beings of nothingness must be the same—eternal.”
Kingdom Hearts II Vol 2 Page 18
