Kingdom Hearts II Vol 2 Page 17

If Sora could hear, maybe the one inside him could, too. He reached up to his heart, clenching his fist there.

  “Ansem!” King Mickey ran toward him.

  “My heart is telling me what I must do,” said Ansem. “Please…allow me to listen.”

  “No—!” The king couldn’t bring himself to leave Ansem’s side.

  Riku put a hand on King Mickey’s shoulder, shaking his head.

  “But Riku…! We can’t just—”

  He shook his head again, gently. “He’s going to follow his heart. No one can change that.”

  Just then, the air trembled at one corner of the balcony, and everyone but Ansem turned.

  “I was wondering who would dare interfere with my Kingdom Hearts.” Xemnas stepped out of a dark portal. “And look—here you all are.”

  “Xemnas…!” Sora stood ready with the Keyblade.

  “And even you, Ansem the Wise. You look pathetic.”

  Ansem refused to look at Xemnas as he spoke. “Have your laugh. I deserve as much for failing to see what a fool my apprentice was.”

  He shook his head in regret.

  “Students do take after their teachers. Any apprentice of yours would be a fool,” Xemnas sneered, then raised his eyes to the light of Kingdom Hearts. “After all, none of this would have happened without you. It was you who brought the Heartless into being. Your research inspired me to go further than you ever dared.”

  You saved me when I wandered without memories—or rather, saved Xehanort, Xemnas added to himself.

  If you hadn’t found me that day and helped me… If you hadn’t been studying the mysteries of the heart… Things would never have come to this.

  Does that mean it was all inevitable? Or is someone’s will at work?

  A will greater than ours…?

  “I admit, my recklessness brought chaos to more worlds than one. But what is it you were seeking?” Ansem demanded. He was asking the shell of his former apprentice, though he might ask the same question of himself. “You erased me from this world only to take my name and continue research better left forgotten… And is this the answer you’ve been after?”

  “Indeed. I am carrying on what you began, creating a new world brick by brick—heart by heart.”

  But even as Xemnas said it, he wondered. Really? Is it really what I sought?

  The inexorable pull of Kingdom Hearts, so strong that even he no longer understood what he’d first been seeking, and the longing for the heart he had lost… But what was a heart?

  What I lost when I became a Nobody…I don’t even know what it is.

  He concentrated his frustration back on Ansem. “Once I thought I’d earn your praise. But all you’ve ever done is hold me back. I understand—unlike me, you have a heart. And you are powerless to control it. Consumed by your jealousy of the student who surpassed his teacher.”

  Ansem sadly shook his head.

  That young scientist who had once shown so much promise in the town of Radiant Garden—where had he gone? Was this what it meant to lose one’s heart?

  Or…had he never had one to begin with?

  “Xehanort… The foolish apprentice of a foolish man,” Ansem said heavily, at last facing Xemnas properly. “You have surpassed nothing—only proven that neither of us ever learned anything. We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our grasp. We are both ignorant, as oblivious as when we began. Any world you try to create would be the same—an empire born of ignorance! You and your creation are destined to fail!”

  Sparks were flying from the device he held. He forced himself to stop ranting.

  “I’ve said enough. Riku—you know what to do!”

  Riku nodded firmly.

  “King Mickey, my friend… Forgive me!”

  Anguished, the king shook his head.

  “Farewell!” Ansem said, just as a blinding light flared from the device.

  And in the same moment, Riku darted out to shield King Mickey, Sora, and the other three.

  The device fired its last at the great moon. Tumbling down from Kingdom Hearts and spilling from the machine were hearts, countless glowing souls.

  Sora had seen a rain of light like this once before…

  Back then, those radiant shards had belonged to the worlds… But now, they belonged to hearts.

  Deep in the castle and all over the world, the Nobodies looked up to the sky. The hearts they sought showered down upon them.

  And then…new Heartless were born, too.

  The brilliant light pervaded everything, and they knew no more…

  The light is what we lost… Our hearts and so many other precious things.

  Wake up, Sora.

  Hey, Riku… Wake up.

  The things you lost have come back, right?

  Naminé clasped her hands together beneath the shower of light.

  He thought he heard someone calling his name. Sora came to, eventually pushing himself up. The first thing his eyes focused on was Riku—collapsed on the floor.

  “Riku…!” Sora scrambled over to him and knelt down, peering into his face.

  It belonged to a silver-haired boy.

  Not the Ansem-impersonating Xehanort, not anymore. It was the real Riku.

  Donald and Goofy got up and saw what had happened.

  “Wow!”

  “Hooray, you’re back!”

  And then Kairi was awake, too. “Riku!”

  As he slowly got to his feet, they noticed the black sash covering his eyes. He shook his head, then cautiously touched his face.

  “No tellin’ what might happen, huh…?” King Mickey murmured to himself as he stood, repeating Ansem’s words.

  And then they noticed that neither Ansem nor Xemnas was anywhere to be seen.

  “Riku!” Sora flung his arms around the other boy, looking up into his face. Far up. I know we haven’t seen each other for a year—but Riku’s so much taller! No fair!

  “Are you gonna take that off?” said Sora, tugging at the black cloth over Riku’s eyes.

  Riku slowly untied it and blinked against the light.

  Sora let him go and asked, “What’s that for?” Riku lowered his head.

  “His eyes couldn’t lie,” said the king, stepping toward them.

  “Lie?” Sora pouted at Riku. “Just who were you trying to lie to, huh?”

  Riku’s expression didn’t change as he looked up again. “Myself.”

  That word from him had a terrible certainty to it. Sora’s brows drew together and he moved closer to his friend again, staring into the face he’d missed so much.

  “Seriously, Riku…!” Sora grabbed his collar. “Why were you trying to do so much on your own? You’ve got friends—you have us!”

  Donald and Goofy nodded, then King Mickey, and finally Kairi.

  Seeing all his friends smiling at him, Riku exhaled and leaned over, bringing his face close to Sora’s. “What, did you forget? The thing is, Sora… I’m not a huge sap like you.”

  “Hey!” Sora scowled. “That’s harsh!”

  Just as the others burst into laughter, an unsettling sound emanated from the diminishing Kingdom Hearts in the sky—a rumble that shook through the world.

  Donald ran to the balcony. “Uh-oh!”

  The hearts that should have been scattering through the worlds were now trying to assemble back into Kingdom Hearts. And huge swarms of Heartless were crawling up and up in an attempt to chase them.

  “What should we do, Riku?” Sora looked at his friend.

  “We have to defeat Xemnas. He’s the last surviving member of Organization XIII.”

  With that, Riku threw off his black cloak. In his hand was his own Keyblade—the Way to the Dawn.

  “Yeah…,” Sora agreed, seeing that the other boy was already leaving. He was only too happy to follow. “Riku!”

  The hordes of Heartless set upon them in far greater numbers than before. They couldn’t afford to stall, instead dashing on to the highest point of the castle.


  “How are there so many…?” Riku muttered.

  Sora grinned at him. “We can beat ’em together!”

  Right. We’ll be okay together.

  Whatever’s waiting for us, we can get through it now that Riku’s back.

  “Sora! Riku!” Kairi called, pointing up to an inky blotch on a wall. More and more Heartless were pouring out of the roiling blackness.

  “Time to show ’em what we’re made of!” Sora hurled himself right into the swarm—or was about to, when two figures arrived to block his path.

  “Be gone from here!” the tall, shadowy one cried in her cold, imperious voice. “Leave these creatures to us!”

  “But there’s no way we can take ’em all!” another voice protested—one that King Mickey and the others from Disney Castle couldn’t have forgotten if they wanted to.

  Somehow, Maleficent and Pete were here.

  “I will be sending them after Xemnas,” Maleficent told him. “Unless you would rather fight them yourself?”

  Pete seemed to consider for an instant before twitching in alarm. He looked at her helplessly. “Uh, I think there’s one more option… Run!”

  Maleficent turned her back on him and raised her staff. “Off with you, then!”

  Pete edged backward, right into King Mickey. Recognizing the king, he pulled himself together enough for a disdainful smirk. “…Well, if it ain’t the boat-boy king.”

  “I think you’d better weigh anchor, Captain Pete!” said the king.

  Pete squinted in confusion.

  Right, he used to call me captain. Back when this little guy was always scurrying around, giving me a headache with his mischief. Back then… I used to be great back then…!

  “What, me putter away?! I don’t think so!” Pete ran back to Maleficent, who stood facing down the Heartless.

  “Sora! And you, little king!” With a swish of her cape, Maleficent brandished her staff at the Heartless. “Remember this—when you are finished here, this castle shall be mine!”

  “Heh. I don’t get too many chances to show up the king! Bring ’em on!” Pete charged into the swarms.

  “We’d better hurry,” King Mickey prompted Sora, who was watching Maleficent and Pete.

  “But…!” He had his Keyblade ready, prepared to follow them into the fray.

  “They’re doing what their hearts command. We can’t interfere.”

  With a grim determination, the king stepped onto the pathway leading to the top of the castle.

  As Sora tried to keep up, he couldn’t help anxiously glancing back at Maleficent and Pete in their battle. Finally, summoning his own determination, he brought his gaze forward, following the king.

  CHAPTER 6

  ANTHEM FOR XEMNAS

  AS THE HEART COMMANDS.

  I act as my heart commands. And as yours commands.

  Even though I…I am a Nobody. I have no heart.

  Then what is it that drives me? I don’t know.

  But even so…there is something in me, something like a heart, for me to follow.

  It doesn’t matter that I lack a heart.

  My memories with all of you…and your hearts that touched my emptiness…

  That touch is what guides me.

  Isn’t that right, Axel?

  Step by step, Sora climbed up the stairway to the heights of the castle. He had Riku beside him. Right behind them were Kairi and King Mickey, followed by the friends who had traveled with him all this time, Donald and Goofy.

  There’s no way we can lose. And we’re not going to. Because everyone’s here together. My friends are here with me.

  The light was gone. Kingdom Hearts awaited them, tainted with darkness, eerie indigo and black.

  On the highest level, a strange open space like an altar, Xemnas was there gazing up at the tainted moon. “Ah, my Kingdom Hearts…ruined. I’ll have to start all over again…,” he murmured to no one, but then he turned to them. “Warriors of the Keyblade! Go forth and bring me more hearts!”

  It was more of an entreaty than an order. Either way, Sora, Riku, and King Mickey all raised their Keyblades at once and refused. “No!”

  Xemnas regarded the Keyblades pointed at him and shrugged. “Denizens of light… Why do you hate the darkness?”

  “We don’t hate it,” said the king. “It’s just that darkness…is kinda scary. But it’s part of everything. All the worlds are made of light and darkness—you can’t have one without the other. Sorta makes you wonder why we are scared of it…”

  As if the question had just occurred to him, he looked down in thought.

  It’s not that we hate the darkness for existing… There’s good in it, too. Like the peace of nightfall gently puts us to sleep. And all the stars in the night sky—they need the dark to sparkle and shine.

  But still, the darkness can be so frightening.

  “It’s because of what lurks inside it,” Riku replied.

  Riku knew better than anyone the terror of the dark—and the pain of those corrupted by it.

  Terrible things lurk there in the darkness. Evil things. Things to lure you in with kind whispers and draw you astray.

  And then, before you know it, darkness is stealing sweetly into your heart.

  That’s why we fear it.

  And light cuts through the darkness. Light destroys it. Well—no. Darkness is never destroyed.

  It remains just at the other side of light, quietly, and it’s there to make the light brighter.

  Light shines even more powerfully because there is darkness in the world…while the things that lurk in the dark fear the light, and they’ll hide from it.

  Darkness didn’t come first. Light came first.

  I think the darkness came into being because of the light. That’s the feeling I get when I look at Sora.

  “Then allow me another question,” said Xemnas. “You accept darkness, yet you choose to live in the light. Why is it that you so despise those of us whose very being is rejected by both—those of us given no choice, destined only to fade into nothing?”

  “That’s simple,” Riku said flatly. “It’s because you mess up our worlds.”

  Light, darkness, Nobodies—none of that matters. We just can’t look the other way when someone is wreaking havoc and hurting the people we care about.

  “And? What other choice do you suppose we had?” There was a hint of sadness in Xemnas’s words.

  At that, Sora lost his patience. “You’re not fooling anybody, Xemnas! You don’t feel sad about anything! All you do is throw around the power of darkness and use it to hurt people!”

  Xemnas let out a cruel laugh. “Ah, nothing gets by you. It’s true—I cannot feel sorrow. No matter what misery befalls the worlds, no matter what you think or whether you live…”

  Then he lifted his hands toward Kingdom Hearts again. Sparks of light—perhaps the scattering hearts—rose into the sky.

  Sora squeezed his eyes shut against the surge of brilliance, and…

  He was standing in front of a massive skyscraper. And he couldn’t find the others. “Hey—guys?”

  There was only Xemnas standing in front of him.

  “What did you do with my friends?!” Sora demanded.

  “You’d do better to worry about yourself, hero of the light!” Xemnas rushed him.

  Sora brought up the Keyblade to block the incoming blow and countered, knocking him away, then swung again.

  But in the instant he was out of range, Xemnas vanished.

  “Where are you?!”

  Sora could feel Xemnas’s presence from high above—atop the skyscraper.

  He took an enormous leap and hit the side of the building running. As he sped upward, a red glow caught his eye—twin swords, the Ethereal Blades, in Xemnas’s hands as their owner hurtled down at him in an attack aided by gravity.

  Huh? Did I fight someone before like this…?

  The strike as Xemnas swished past him drove the brief flash of déjà vu from his mind.

&
nbsp; Sora reached the ground again close behind Xemnas, who leaped back to take stock of the situation.

  “This is it for you!” Sora charged straight at him.

  Xemnas sent his blades spinning around Sora, and the boy didn’t escape unscathed.

  He didn’t feel all that confident, fighting alone… But he’d be okay. He knew everyone was with him.

  They’re with me in my heart.

  Sora lifted the Keyblade. There was a terrific clang! and Xemnas stepped back.

  He was smiling faintly—and he was disappearing.

  Just then, Kairi’s voice rang out. “Sora! Where are you?”

  The looming skyscraper dissolved into light. Once again, Sora squeezed his eyes shut in the glare.

  “Sora? Answer me!” Riku called.

  Sora had vanished along with Xemnas, and neither of them was anywhere to be found.

  Where could Xemnas have taken him…? Dread sat heavy in his chest, choking him, but Riku kept calling out.

  Just when we finally found each other, and I was able to turn back into my real self… Sora, you can’t leave me now…

  As Riku started sinking into despair, Sora materialized in the middle of the party, sprawled on the ground as if he’d fallen from somewhere.

  “Sora!”

  They all clustered around him. Shaking his head, he got up on his own. “Where’s Xemnas?”

  No one could reply.

  He’d probably beaten him…although they couldn’t be sure.

  “Wak!” Donald shouted in alarm, pointing up to Kingdom Hearts and its dark-stained light.

  And to Xemnas floating in the center of it.

  “Hear me, Kingdom Hearts… We must begin anew. Ah, but I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words! You can no more be complete without me than I without you!”

  The light swirled around him in a terrible dance.

  “Oh, Kingdom Hearts, heed me! Lend me your power so that we may be complete… Power to eliminate the fools that stand in our way,” he said, as if pleading with someone dear to him. Kingdom Hearts shone brighter.

  “Xemnas, no!” King Mickey cried.

  “Hearts burning with rage, hearts racked with envy, hearts quavering with sorrow…,” Xemnas intoned. “That old fool Ansem said the heart is beyond understanding. But it is not beyond mine! The heart is the source of all power!”