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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn	By : RotSeele Category: Kingdom Hearts > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 3168 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
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Sixty-Five - Radiant Garden

Rinally wasn’t sure what was happening. The only thing she was positive about was that Kaoru had thrown himself off the cliff and into the mass of Heartless below the cliff, Kai had broken away from the Heartless he’d been fighting to dive after him, and Ennio was cackling madly as the giant crystalline structure that was Kingdom Hearts started to glow with an eerie light.
“He’s dead!” Tae wailed, clutching onto Kairi as the older Princess of Heart tried to console her. “Kaoru’s dead!”
Hiromu, now standing near to Rinally and far away from Sora and Riku, said nothing, but there were too many emotions warring with each other on his face to figure out what he was really feeling.
Kaoru, dead? And Kai too? No, they can’t be. Rinally refused to believe her two best friends were dead. That Kaoru’s sacrifice had been the catalyst Ennio needed to open up Kingdom Hearts and take its power for himself. She squeezed her eyes tight.
Don’t give up. It’s our bonds that give us strength.
Kaoru’s words, as if he’d actually spoken them.
Rinally opened her eyes with a startling revelation. Kaoru had described the ability to be able to sense Kai on any world they had been on, able to find his way to the other boy with uncanny precision, like a homing pigeon. He’d never mentioned being able to find her the same way, but he always had seemed to know what she needed when she needed it.
He’s alive. They’re both alive. She rose to her feet and summoned Sorceress to her again, and summoned her Black Witch Mode. As the armor encased her, she closed her eyes and tried to get a feel for the Ultima spell that Ultimecia and Rinoa had used against them in Esthar. As she sorted out the different weavings of the spell, she opened her eyes and focused on her target. Then she let the spell build and build until she had no choice left to release it. The Ultima spell roared across the plateau and struck Ennio’s cackling face head on, turning his cackle into a scream and engulfing his body in a strange conglomerate of color and heat.
“Rin!” Tae gasped between her sobs.
“They’re still alive.” Rin replied with a certain finality. “I can feel it in my heart. They’re alive, and they’re coming back to us. We just have to hold Ennio off until then.”
“How?” Hiromu asked. “There’s shit we can do against him, especially if he’s got the powers of Kingdom Hearts now.”
“He doesn’t have them, not yet.” Rinally half turned to look at Sora. “You and Riku were able to close the Door once, right?”
Sora nodded. “Riku was on the other side, though, pulling the Door closed while I pushed.”
“The second time we defeated Xemnas while we were within the false Kingdom Hearts.” Riku added. “Which I don’t think Ennio is about to do.”
Rinally looked back at Ennio, who lay sprawled on the ground twitching with the after-effects of her Ultima spell. He was slowly getting up, though, and Rinally could see that already he was being affected by the power of Kingdom Hearts. The Light was healing the wounds she had inflicted, causing steam to rise from his skin. She licked her lips and tightened her grip on Sorceress.
“If he gains mastery over Kingdom Hearts, I don’t know how we’ll beat him.” Kairi said.
“It showed up when Kaoru reached Tae and woke her up and when Hiromu realized everything he’d done was a terrible mistake.” Rinally said. “Which means some kind of condition was met to make it appear. But it didn’t start to open until Kaoru sacrificed himself for Hiromu, just like how Riku sacrificed himself to make sure the Door closed, right?”
Sora, Riku, and Kairi glanced at each other. Riku said, “It’s not quite like, but I see the similarities.”
“Right. So we just have to keep the Door from opening on this side. We push against it, Light against Light. We have two Princesses of Heart. If Kairi and Tae combine their powers, we should be able to stop the Door from opening. It’s Ennio’s Darkness that’s opening the door, because the Darkness on the other side is fighting to get out.”
“But if we don’t distract Ennio, he’s going to keep pulling on the Door to open it.” pointed out Hiromu.
“So we distract him.” Sora stepped to Rinally’s side, attaching a Keychain to the end of his Kingdom Key. The plain-looking weapon suddenly materialized into a black and violet weapon, long and elegant. In his other hand appeared a second Keyblade, this one white and gold. “Riku.”
The silver-haired man silently stepped to Rinally’s other side. “Kairi, you think you and Tae can do this?”
“Yeah, definitely. Hiromu, you stay back with us. Rin?”
“I’m staying right here too.” She gave a slight effort of will and her armor changed from black to white. “I’ll be support, since you’ll be busy.”
Riku glanced at Sora over Rinally’s head and offered a slight, knowing smile. Sora gave one in return, then started at a slow jog toward Ennio, picking up speed as he went. Riku kept pace with him, until he was within range to start the first step of his assault. Sora was right behind him. However, Ennio wasn’t caught off-guard. Two black rods slid from his sleeves into his palms, elongating into what looked like pipes. He blocked Riku’s strike with one and Sora’s sweep with the other. His face was a complete mask of rage and hate and darkness seemed to start to seep from the wounds the light of Kingdom Hearts had started to heal, as if the healing magic had been stopped halfway through.
Rin supposed it had been, because behind her, Kairi and Tae were sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding onto each other’s hand to complete a circle. Their eyes were closed, their faces in such serene expressions it was hard to believe they could achieve such a state considering what was happening around them. Rinally couldn’t see anything but the two Princesses sitting there doing nothing, but she believed something was happening. Looking up at the sky, it seemed as though Kingdom Hearts had dimmed, that its light was being blocked in some way. Trusting her friends, Rinally turned her attention back to Riku and Sora, watching them fight as only Keyblade Masters could. They had a response for everything Ennio threw at them, dodging and attacking and weaving and defending around and for each other. It was as though the two of them knew exactly where the other would be before they even committed to a move. It was much how Rinally had seen Kaoru and Kai fight together, but Riku had a finer control over his movements while Sora was a little more wild, which was the complete opposite of Kaoru and Kai. They weren’t gaining any ground with Ennio, but they were keeping him away from Kairi, Rinally, Tae, and Hiromu. That was all they really needed to do, leaving the two Princesses concentrating on keeping the Door from opening fully.
“Rin.” Hiromu said, drawing her attention to a group of Heartless that were slowly moving towards them. “I’ll take care of them.”
“Don’t get too far away.”
Rinally cast several Protect, Shell, and Haste spells upon Hiromu, then returned her attention to Sora and Riku to throw healing spells their way, along with support spells to protect them from any of Ennio’s attacks that got through their guard. She had to divide her attention between Sora and Riku and Hiromu, not daring to get too far away from Tae and Kairi. She kept glancing at the roiling sea of Heartless, biting her lower lip as the seconds ticked by.
Kaoru, Kai, please. Please come back.

He floated, weightless, in a sea of darkness. He watched memories float by before him, memories of his precious friends, of his life before the received his Keyblade, of his adventures afterward, of all the people he had met on worlds different from his own. He watched memories of himself and a redheaded boy, and he was sure there were supposed to be emotions to be felt, but for some reason, he had already forgotten how to feel them. He wasn’t even sure who he was anymore. How long had he been in this darkness? Minutes? Days? He didn’t know. What he did know was that he had come here willingly to save a friend, and what happened to him now didn’t matter. Sooner or later, the Heartless would devour him, and then it would be up to those he had left behind to take up the fight. Would they fight? He hoped so. His theory that it would take a noble, unlooked-for sacrifice to open Kingdom Hearts had proven true. He was only glad that it had been him and not someone he loved.
The darkness around him shivered as if it was alive and cognizant of the creature of Light floating around him. It undulated like the waves of an ocean, carrying him deeper and deeper into Darkness. He wanted to close his eyes, to give in and just let the world go and rest at last. But his heart, the last place it seemed that Light lived in, continued to beat, to thrum with life.
“Kaoru!”
Kaoru? Oh, right. That was his name. But who was calling it? He looked up to see the redheaded boy from his memories falling toward him, clad in black armor with a cloak of sparkling dark motes that trailed behind him like a pair of silky wings. Kai. That was the redhead’s name.
Kai. The person I love.
As if admitting that to himself was the key, Kaoru’s memories began to return, and his exhausted body seemed to fill with energy. He remembered who he was. Remembered everything he had gone through, everything he had lost, everything he had gained over the course of his journey. The faces of his friends appeared to him, lending him the strength to stop his fall into oblivion and reach up toward Kai’s outstretched hand.
Their fingers brushed, brushed again, and once more before Kai was able to get a grip on Kaoru’s hand. He pulled him close and cocooned him within the darkness of his mote-like wings, staring deep into Kaoru’s blue eyes.
“What the hell were you thinking?” growled Kai, pressing his forehead to Kaoru’s.
“I was thinking I was saving my friend.”
“Of course you were.”
“You came after me.”
Kai muttered a few curses. “Of course I’d come after you. I told you, you’re my Light, and no one else’s, and I’m going to protect you. Even though I think you’re a complete idiot for shoving yourself into an ocean full of Heartless.”
“It was the only way.” Kaoru protested.
“Ennio is going to have the power of Kingdom Hearts to use at his leisure! How is that the only way?”
“Because Rin will make sure he can’t use it. The Princesses can close the Door from that side, but the Door also has to be closed from this side.” Kaoru said, holding tight to Kai. “As long as Ennio can’t make an effort to pull on the power, we can close the Door.”
“And what? Trap ourselves here?”
Kaoru smiled and shook his head. “We’ll get out. Because we have connections on the other side, remember?”
Kai stared at Kaoru, studying his face with a skeptical look. “Will you ever tell me about your plans before you do crazy shit like this?”
In answer, Kaoru simply kissed Kai.
Kai grumbled but returned the kiss and pulled Kaoru closer. When they parted, he growled, “Let’s go find that damn Door.”

Rinally felt her heart skip a beat. She threw a Curaja spell Riku’s way as he rebounded back toward Ennio after avoiding a thrust that would have torn more than just a slice along his side had he been a second slower, then tried to pinpoint the cause of her strange change in heartbeat. It had to be Kaoru and Kai. They had to be looking for the Door on the side of Darkness, seeking to close it from their side. Rinally couldn’t be sure if the turn of events had been Kaoru’s idea, but she couldn’t very well argue with him or Kai right now. All she could do was trust them both to do what they needed to do. Her attention went back to Sora and Riku as the pair danced around Ennio, bobbing and weaving as they kept Ennio focused on them. It was clear to Rinally, though, that Sora and Riku were slowing down and getting tired, whereas Ennio still seemed to be full of energy. Though he was wounded and hurting and obviously slower than Riku and Sora, he was still able to swing his two black rods with enough force to send showers of sparks into the air when they connected with the Keyblades.
Tae’s eyes flew open and her lips parted to form a small ‘O’. Rin half turned toward her, afraid something terrible had happened, but found Kairi with much the same expression. Kairi was the first to recover, quickly rising to her feet. Destiny’s Embrace materialized in her hand, and she raised the Keyblade up slightly, as if she was preparing to join Sora and Riku in their fight. Instead, though, she ran her hand down the length of Destiny’s Embrace, and in response the floral Keyblade began to give off a diffuse pale glow. She swung the Keyblade up above her head then, and a refreshing headwind rushed past her, straight to Sora and Riku. Rinally watched as the two male Keyblade Masters seemed to gain a second wind, their fatigue slipping away almost instantly.
Rinally looked at Kairi then, asking, “What did you do?”
“I renewed their energy. It’s my Keyblade’s specialty. It’s about all I can do right now. I’m still holding the Door shut on this side, and it’s taking most of my concentration.”
“The Door on the other side,” Tae started, “do you think it’s closing too?”
Kairi shrugged, and her eyes lifted to the sky. “With any luck, we’ll find out soon.”
Rinally followed Kairi’s gaze to the sky, where the crystalline heart of Kingdom Hearts still hung in the sky, its light streaming down onto the cliff below. Hiromu rejoined them then, moving to stand close to Tae. He was spattered with Heartless goop, and his chest was heaving for breath, but he didn’t look like he needed healing, if Rinally had anything to say about it. But she forced her gaze away from Hiromu and Tae and back to Sora and Riku.
“Do you think they can really shut the Door?” Rinally asked softly.
Kairi smiled. “If they’re anything like Sora and Riku, they’ll definitely be able to do it.”
“And then they’ll come back?”
“As long as you believe in your connection to them, definitely.”
Rinally clutched tighter to Sorceress and focused on her bond, and watched Sora and Riku fight.

“Is this... it?” Kai asked.
Kaoru stood beside Kai and studied the large door that rose above them. It was plain and white, with no handles or keyholes, but it glowed with a brilliant white light. Along the edges of the door, a violet light pulsed, as if it was trying to escape into the void around them. Kaoru didn’t say anything, but he reached up to touch the door, and recognized the Light that was infused within the material of the door itself. It was Tae’s power, mingling with Kairi’s. Leaving his hand on the Door, he turned to face Kai.
“This is it.” he answered Kai at last. “Tae and Kairi are keeping the Door shut on the other side. If we close it from this side, then Kingdom Hearts should fade. Ennio’s Darkness shouldn’t be able to keep the Door active on its own anymore.”
Kai stared at the Door, then at Kaoru. “Are you sure this is it?”
Kaoru nodded. “I’m sure.”
“So how do we close it?”
Kaoru turned back to the Door and put both his hands on the Door. “We push.”
Kai muttered something dark and pithy, but moved up beside Kaoru and put his hands on the Door, wincing from the power of the Light that flowed through him. Kaoru’s shoulders burned as he strained against the Door, struggling to push it closed. He was sure if he didn’t have Kai helping him, it would never budge. As it was, the Door was starting to move centimeter by centimeter, as if some strong force was pushing back against them to keep the Door open. Kai let out an expletive and braced his shoulder against the material of the Door, his teeth bared as he shoved with all his might. Kaoru pushed, giving a yell of effort himself as he strained to push the Door shut. He sought Tae’s Light, mingled as it was with Kairi’s, and fought to grasp it with his own power.
“Put your hand over mine.” Kai snarled, slapping his hand against the Door right in the middle of it. “We’ll push together.”
Kaoru obeyed, putting his hand over Kai’s and curling his fingers between Kai’s digits. Holding onto each other like that, Kaoru and Kai heaved against the ground they stood on to push with all their might on the Door. The Door inched shut, scraping against the ground as it grew closer and closer to the jamb. The closer they got, the more Kaoru could feel Tae’s power and latch onto it. His power of Light mingled then with Tae’s, almost like two magnets being drawn together. For a brief second, he felt her and Kairi, but then that feeling was gone, as if their connection had suddenly been cut off.
And then the Door slammed shut.
Jumping back, still holding each other’s hands, Kaoru and Kai summoned their Keyblades and raised the weapons toward the Door. Light and Darkness gathered at the tips of Guardian and Sanctuary respectively, and twin beams of colored light shot toward the Door, twining with each other as the beams crossed the distance between the Keyblade Wielders and the Door to Kingdom Hearts. When the beams hit the Door, they exploded in a bright burst of colors, curling and spinning and whirling around the Door itself. Even before the display of colors faded, the Door itself began to glow bright, and as the colors began to disappear, so too did the Door become ghostly, slowly changing from something solid to something intangible before finally vanishing altogether.
Kaoru looked at Kai and grinned. Kai smirked in response.
Then, Darkness enclosed them.

“Look!” Tae cried, pointing to the sky.
Rinally followed her order and looked upwards, her own eyes going wide as she watched the light of Kingdom Hearts slowly extinguish. The crystalline structure itself was still present, but its glow was lessening in intensity, and one edge was beginning to eclipse in total and complete darkness. Relief flooded through her. Kaoru and Kai succeeded! They succeeded in closing the Door! Now they just had to escape wherever they were and return here.
A bestial roar of pure rage brought Rinally’s attention away from the eclipsing Kingdom Hearts to Ennio. His skin was more cracked now than it had been before, revealing bits and pieces of roiling darkness beneath his flesh that wafted away from him in steaming tendrils. His eyes were pure gold, without any pupils. And they were focused on the two Princesses of Heart that stood nearby Rinally. Ennio let out another roar, and Rinally knew instantly that he had seen Kingdom Hearts vanishing, or felt it, or both. With a sharp sweep of both arms, a pulse of pressure erupted off his weapons and into Riku and Sora, flinging them backwards with herculean force. Then, without waiting to see if the two had actually fallen, Ennio charged toward Rinally and those with her, the stone of the cliff actually cracking beneath Ennio’s feet as he came toward them.
Rinally stepped forward and changed her White Witch armor for her Black Witch armor. Hiromu was beside her a minute later, his Keyblade held ready for anything that Ennio might throw at them. Kairi retreated back a step with Tae, shielding the younger Princess with her own body and Destiny’s Embrace. Rinally glanced up at Kingdom Hearts, then back at Ennio, who now seemed to be warping the air around him with whatever energy he was giving off, making the rock that exploded with each of his footfalls ripple and wriggle like it was more malleable than it really was. He seemed to know that Kingdom Hearts was eclipsing, and knew that his only chance of keeping the power for himself was to destroy whatever was holding the Door closed from this side, since he couldn’t reach Kaoru and Kai. And that something was the two Princesses of Heart, who couldn’t defend themselves because they were still using their power to keep the Door firmly locked from this side.
“You think we can beat him on our own?” Hiromu asked quietly, a note of fear making his voice tremble.
“We have to. Because we’re on our own right now.” Rinally responded. She set herself in a stance, and readied Sorceress, drawing upon her eldritch powers to start a Flare spell that, she hoped, would make Ennio stop.
She unleashed it before he got too close, but he bulled right through it, never stopping, never showing signs that the powerful spell even bothered to hurt him. He was forty feet away, thirty, twenty-five, and he swung back his arm in order to make his attack as lethal as possible. Rinally saw Hiromu move at the same time Ennio start to swing his arm back toward them, but neither of Hiromu nor Ennio got the chance to retaliate or attack, because at that moment, the ground rumbled like an earthquake had decided to make itself known. The mass of Heartless below the cliffs suddenly exploded upward like a fountain, sending Heartless flying in all directions and even onto the cliff, forcing Ennio to stop his charge and his attack and try to shield himself from the falling Heartless.
Kingdom Hearts became fully eclipsed and disappeared from sight.
Out of that falling fountain came a speeding bullet of black and white, moving so fast that it was impossible to tell who - or what - it was. But Rinally had seen that attack once before, and jumped into the air shouting, “YEAH!”, with a grin on her face.
The bullet stopped abruptly after striking Ennio once, allowing a glimpse at Kaoru and Kai in their White and Black Knight modes, and then they were gone again, striking Ennio three more times. When they stopped on the fifth time, still holding onto each other, they thrust Guardian and Sanctuary toward Ennio’s back, and the two Keyblades burst into bright light and deep darkness, the two colors twining together in that shimmering ribbon that shot toward Ennio. The man tried to retreat to avoid it, but the ribbon of light and darkness shot through him, twisted, and shot through him from the other side. It repeated that movement two more times before it rushed back toward Kaoru and Kai, enveloping them in a cocoon of white and black. Only then did they separate, facing each other, and the moment their Keyblades reappeared in their hands, they thrust the weapons toward each other, nearly striking each other’s hearts. Instead, the power that surrounded them exploded outward, and Ennio was flung high into the air.
Kaoru and Kai hit the ground at the same time as the last vestiges of their attack dissipated into black and gold motes, and Kaoru turned to Rin, shouting, “Rin! Tempest!”
“Right! And I told you Radiant Night was an awesome name for that!” She ran toward them even as Kaoru and Kai faced Ennio where he was suspended in the sky for a brief moment before gravity reclaimed its hold over him, and they drew back on their Keyblades. Then they threw their Keyblades toward Ennio as hard as they could. Rinally raised Sorceress and summoned to her all the energy she could gather. Electrical sparks jumped along her Keyblade, igniting into golden ribbons of energy that sparked and popped and jumped, snapping and sizzling in the air. She pointed her Keyblade at her friends’ Keyblades and shouted, “THUNDAJA!”
The spell exploded off Sorceress with an earth-shattering crack, and arcs of lightning raced through the air toward Guardian and Sanctuary. Just before it hit the two Keyblades, Rinally saw four other Keyblades sail through the air toward her spell, as if to intercept it. Instead, her spell hit Guardian first, which exploded into Cascade, and electrically-charged motes of Light burst into the air, coating Ennio and making him scream. Then her spell hit Sanctuary, and bright violet motes of shadow joined the prismatic light of Cascade, forming those electrically charged hailstones that pounded down with vicious intensity. Her Thundaja spell then jumped to Sora’s Kingdom Key in its Ultima form, then to Riku’s Way to Dawn, then to Kairi’s Destiny’s Embrace, and lastly to Hiromu’s Keyblade, forming a jumping, sparking ring that enveloped Tempest and contained it in the sky. Within it, Ennio was completely cut off from escape, caught by the hailstones and the electricity that would not relent.
Ennio’s cry fell quiet, though his mouth was still open in a pain-filled scream. His body jerked one way and then another, convulsing as Tempest tore through him. When the spell ended at last, Ennio hit the ground and lay still, his body smoking. He lifted his head slowly to stare at the seven Keyblade wielders before him and let out a hoarse laugh. It was the only sound he made before his head fell onto the stone and his body burst apart into tiny motes of darkness, leaving only a brilliant, gem-like heart floating above it. Then that heart, too, vanished.
“Kaoru!”
Kaoru turned to catch Tae in a tight hug, and when she stepped back, got a hug from Rinally, who then hugged Kai. Tae hugged Kaoru again tightly, and she whispered, “I thought I’d never see you again.”
Kaoru smiled. “Don’t worry. I wouldn’t do that. And anyway, Kai wouldn’t let me.”
“What you did was stupid,” Sora admonished when he reached them. Then he smiled. “But very brave. I knew you’d make a great Keyblade wielder, and you’ve proven it. You two saved Kingdom Hearts, and us.”
“You told me ten years ago that I’d stand with you and Riku and Kairi, but I didn’t think it would be like this.” Kaoru replied, smiling a little wider.
“Um,” Tae started, “do you think Ennio is really gone?”
Sora’s smile faltered, but it was Riku who answered, “We won’t know for sure, really. If his heart is strong enough, he may come back as someone else, or something else. But if he does, we’ll be ready for it. Our duty is to maintain the balance between Light and Darkness and protect Kingdom Hearts, and we’ll do so as many times as it takes.”
“I’m sorry.” Hiromu said, drawing everyone’s attention to him. “This is all my fault. If I hadn’t believed his lies...”
“Don’t be sorry.” Kairi said, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Everyone stumbles and falls. Everyone makes mistakes. But we can redeem ourselves by picking ourselves up and learning from those mistakes. If you had truly believed his lies, you never would have been able to continue wielding your Keyblade.”
Hiromu seemed to relax at that, and even offered a smile, though it was a tiny one.
“We’d better go check on the others,” Sora said, “and make sure the town is safe. That stunt you two pulled, Kaoru, scattered quite a bit of Heartless.”
“Sorry.” Kaoru replied in a tone that had a tinge of mirth to it.
No one made mention of it, but the eight of them each glanced to the sky to where Kingdom Hearts once had been, as if reassuring themselves that it truly had vanished. Only then did they race back to Radiant Garden proper, to make sure the scattered Heartless hadn’t overwhelmed their companions or the populace.
When they were sure Radiant Garden was completely Heartless-free, and it was confirmed that there were no other Brotherhood members around, they all reconvened at Aerith’s house, where they exchanged stories, described battles, and let Aerith and Yukari (who proudly claimed that Aerith let her help make the meal they were all about to eat) fill their plates and glasses. It wasn’t quite a party, but it had the feel of one, and it allowed them all to relax and rest their souls.
“Do you think our worlds have been restored now?” Tae asked.
“Close your eyes,” Kairi started, “and reach out to your world. Can you feel Paradise City?”
Tae obeyed, but said nothing, and a moment later a bright smile bloomed on her face. When her eyes opened, she looked at both Hiromu and Kaoru, and looked about to cry.
“Should we go home?” Kaoru asked.
Tae nodded. “Let’s go home.”
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Kingdom Hearts: Dark Dawn