Prologue

He had failed… again. How long had it been since he woke up in this strange place? Days? Months? Years? Decades? All feeling had long since dropped from his body. He remembered the bitter coldness that attacked him when he first came here. He felt like he had been here once before. Despite that, he somehow knew that he was never going back to wherever he was before. What was his name again? The young man felt like so much of his life was gone. He could only remember 3 things. A beach, ice cream, and a keychain.

Growing tired of free falling, he once again focused on those 3 things in his memory. Suddenly, he no longer felt like he was falling anymore. Instead, he was on the very beach that he remembered. It's calm and warm rays of sunshine roaming across his body as he listened to the waves once again. He looked down at what he was holding in his right hand, a pale blue stick of ice cream. Sea-salt, his favorite. He looked further down and saw that keychain he always kept on him. He smiled, even though he long forgot what was so special about it, he always felt such happiness and fulfillment whenever he looked at it.

He sighed. This next part had always been so hard to do. He knew what would come next but he stayed firm. He looked at the soothing sunset and took a long breath. He had been constantly preparing for this moment. The first time he looked, it was nothing but an indistinguishable blur. A simple haze that had no defining shape. After experiencing it the first time, his very being screamed at him to never go there again. Why bother? There was nothing but suffering in that direction. But something called to him, something told him that he wanted - no NEEDED to look. He needed to remember. And so, despite what came next, he looked at his left hand and what it was holding onto.

Frail was the first thing that he thought of when he laid his eyes onto it. The pale hand he was holding onto felt like it couldn't hurt a fly, yet the grip it held onto his was so solid. At first, just like with the rest of the figure, the hand was almost indistinguishable. Nothing more than a black haze in otherwise enchanting setting. But as he preserved time and time again, slowly the hand sharpened out until this moment. He could finally see the figure's true appearance.

He looked up and felt his breath being taken away. A bright pink dress that seemed to absorb all of the color in the surrounding sunset. Seemingly allowing it to have a very light but noticeable glow. Long auburn hair glistening in the sun hiding two blue shining orbs that were eagerly staring back into his own. And finally, a heartwarming smile that somehow allowed him to feel as though he were truly special. He stared at her for what felt like such a long time. He felt such satisfaction at looking at her. Finally, being able to see the apparition that had been holding onto his hand for as long as he could remember. But sadly, she was frozen. Only more apparent by the vibrant wildlife and waves continuing in motion around her.

He suddenly looked down from her face and saw two necklaces. One held a shining pearl that seemed so dim, almost lost of life. The other felt… Familiar. It was a strange little charm in the form of a star. Yellow and a vibrant pink seemed to burst out from the middle where a small crown adorned the center. At the top of the star was what he could only guess was a tuft of hair. He could only guess that it was made to be in someone's image.

Curious, he reached out and touched the small little charm. And then it happened again. His very being contorted in pain. This happened every time that he looked at the figure. Memories assaulted him one after the other.

He was now in a dark world. Dark clouds had all but took away any form of light that might have graced this hell. Blades were stabbed in to the ground everywhere his eyes could see. He was being stabbed by the shadows of the very blades that were in this place. He was used to this. The shadows always came alive and attacked him from every direction he could have imagined. They had now taken hideous forms. They grew, multiplied like insects. An army of them growing far larger and more deadly as he stared into the distance.

Suddenly, he felt 3 distinct objects stab into his body. He screamed. This was so much worse than usual. He was prepared to be stabbed repeatedly by the shadows, though their forms were hideous, he at least could make it out alive. But this, this was different. It felt like his SOUL, was being torn apart. He looked to his left and saw a man holding the strange weapon responsible for his arm now being almost torn from his body. The weapon was a strange black and blue blade with a clock ticking away in its center. Adorned at the top of the strange weapon were demon horns. To his right he saw another man holding a glowing red beam that had all but burned through his right arm. And finally, in the center. A rusted greatsword had thoroughly been impaled through his chest.

Trying his hardest to remain focused, he felt the searing pain assault him for God knows how long. He tried and failed to utter words. Begging someone to explain what was going on. The man to the left, obviously pleased at the work he had just done, slowly walked over to him and kneeled down in front of him. He wore a strange black cloak, the hood he had on all but covering his entire identity. However, 2 bright yellow eyes stared venomously into his very own.

"You put us through quite a lot of mishaps haven't you?" he said. "Always coming into our plans and ruining them right when our hard work was about to bear fruit."

The man slowly pulled back his hood and showed his face. Brown skin with ashen white hair. One of the monsters made of shadow tried to attack the strange man but it only took one wave of his hand and the entire world was ablaze. Blue fire spread out from within him and formed a gigantic dome over the area. Any shadow that was even remotely close to the blast was immediately disintegrated.

"Now that those pests are away from us, let���s have a nice little chat shall we?" he stood up from where he knelt and gazed out the strange blades stabbed into the ground. "Fitting that this would be where your deepest fears lie. How many times did you struggle? So bent on relying on your friends that you never sought to develop yourself. A true fool. You always made it so easy for us to plan out how to keep you trapped and manipulated. Always the first one to rush in and the last one to come up with a plan. Although, I guess I shouldn't blame you too much. After all you did end up saving those you cared about in the end. Didn't you, Sora?"

His mind blanked. Sora. That was his name. He stared into the eyes of the man ahead of him. He felt in the back of his head like he should somehow recognize who this man was but nothing came to mind. It was like grasping at leaves in the wind. One second you feel as though you are so close to grabbing one only for the wind to subtly change and the leaf to evade you yet again. The young man stared into Sora's questioning eyes and chuckled.

"There's no point in trying to remember anything. You've been falling for a very long time Sora. Far longer than that blue haired keyblade wielder you rushed out to save. You've all but forgotten everything Sora. Why you almost forgot your own name until I had to remind you." The young man waved his hand and another burst of blue flames sprang forth behind him. Only this time, instead of destroying a bunch of shadows, a pale white chair appeared behind him. Although a throne was a better way of describing something of that size and grandeur. In the middle of the throne, a black symbol pulsed with energy. The symbol was unlike anything Sora had ever seen before, a mixture of a misshapen cross with two quarter-completed circles at the bottom.

The young man proudly walked over to the chair and sat down. Lazily resting his head on his right arm that he had laying on one of the armrests while he crossed his legs in a nonchalant manner. "Oh, it's so fun seeing how broken you are. Stumbling around in the darkness that you tried to fight off for so long. If only you could remember all of the idiotic things that you did. How you needlessly put your friends into danger time after time. I must say, even when traveling through time it was always funny to see how someone could remain so…"

"Ignorant" the other man in black that was still holding the red beam into Sora's right arm stated.

"Yes! Thank you for that Xemnas. What a perfect way to describe him. You were so much more powerful than any of the other keyblade wielders before you. The others had intensive training from true Masters and look at what you've done." He sighed, clearly disgusted at what Sora had apparently acted in the past. "Throwing yourself into an inescapable void because you couldn't think for yourself. Any challenge that you faced you relied on some fickle thing like 'the power of friendship'. Of course it exists, every keyblade wielder knows that the more links your heart connects to, the stronger you become. But that was your very downfall. When it came to controlling your emotions to take the final step in unlocking your full potential- to say you were unprepared was a vast understatement"

The man beside Sora, now identified as Xemnas, decided to add oil to the already lit flame. "Yes, it was rather infuriating to see such a talented young man fail to better himself. You neglected your training, every adventure you went on you somehow found yourself at your weakest yet again. Your instincts are the best any of us had ever seen and yet that was all you relied on. Instincts and friendship. Like a true animal. You may have bested us with your little friends but you never had the skills to truly take one of us down alone. Even knowing that a war was coming, you were foolish in thinking it would be so easy to fight us. It was only when you and your friends died that the gravity of the situation truly hit you. Wasn't it? Although you don't remember any of that, right Xehanort?"

Sora's mind was reeling at this point. Trying desperately to piece together what in the world was going on. Keyblades? Power of Friendship? And who the hell has names like Xemnas and Xehanort? Sora looked up to fire off many different questions but before he could, the young man now known as Xehanort interrupted him.

"Do stay quiet for now Sora. We'll be leaving soon. Despite satisfying it is to see you like this, under normal circumstances, we would never be able to dive so far down into the darkness. We simply came here to retrieve something that is extremely valuable to us."

As he said those words, Sora let out a gut-wrenching scream as he felt the greatsword that was still in his chest be forcefully pulled out. Sora fell down to the ground, bleeding out from the massive gaping wound in his chest. His eyes, became blurry as tears rolled down them. He felt such anger and helplessness. This is what he had suffered for so many times for? To be killed just to see a girl's face that he didn't even remember? As he was having those thoughts, another man dressed in black stepped over him. Unlike the other two, he had no intention of mocking Sora. Instead he simply, kneeled down in front of Xehanort and presented the very greatsword that had been thrust inside of Sora's chest. The greatsword started to hum with power. The rusty blade became a pristine gold, it's fragmented butterfly pattern now becoming a beautiful emerald. Below the actual blade of the sword were two interlocking keys with armhandles at the very end.

"Ah yes the X-blade! We did need this back Sora. Thank you for being so willing to depart from it." Xehanort smiled, showing pearly white teeth. "We couldn't have something so powerful be shipped off into eternal darkness now could we? You left it behind after closing up Kingdom Hearts you know? Broken and disintegrating. At first, even I was stumped as to what to do next. We had just recreated it during the war and there it was, broken again. So many pieces we would need to reorganize, when we still needed to lick our wounds and make new plans. But then I remembered something very important. You died and came back to life. Do you even realize what you did? No, don't answer, you're too stupid to understand."

Now caught on some high of grandeur, Xehanort stepped and gracefully took the so called X-blade from the unnamed man in black. "You absorbed the hearts of thousands Sora. You connected with keyblade wielders that were long dead and willed them into you. Giving you enough power to turn back time to right before we killed you all. You wielded the keyblades of thousands of keyblade wielders and fought back against darkness itself. A true mystery and absolute show of power. It's a shame you gave it all up to save one girl. No one would have ever been able to stand up to your level of power."

Xehanort then flicked the X-blade with great ease despite its massive size. Just a mere flick caused a slice of wind to cut the very earth itself. "With so many hearts being absorbed into you, there was no way you would be able to remain hidden, even in the depths of darkness. It took us so long to be able to find you, if we had come even an hour later, you would have reached the farthest distance even we could go to. But now, we have what we want."

"Master, we must go." the unnamed man in black urged.

Xehanort then snapped his fingers and a portal of darkness formed behind him. "Ah yes, we have to go now Sora. Our time is up, anymore and we couldn't get out of here ourselves. Ah, one last thing."

Xehanort then pointed the X-blade at Sora and whispered "Heal."

Two falling leaves magically appeared over Sora's body and he felt his body start to recover. His arms were instantly repaired, leaving no scar at all. However, the same could not be said for his chest, a sickening scar laid bare for the world to see. Xehanort looked at his work and nodded to himself "Ah such a nice finish, something to remember us by while you're plummeting for eternity Sora. I can't have you die. No, I want you to do nothing but exist here, trapped in an endless cycle of a fragment of your own memories." Xehanort and his two accomplices then walked to the portal, "Goodbye Sor-"

Suddenly 3 shining lights came shining down from the sky. The first light cut off the hand Xehanort was holding the X-blade in. While the second light pushed the three men into the portal of darkness. As Sora gazed up he could see Xehanort's unbelief at what had just transpired, clear shock forming into unbridled rage as he flew into the portal that immediately closed after the three men had forcefully entered. The third light then picked up Sora while the first and second light grabbed the X-blade. The 3 lights then flew into each other and converged into one. Sora felt a brief flash of warmth as he felt three pairs of arms push something into his chest and then the familiar feeling of weightlessness came over him. The now very big light quickly rocketed off into the sky, escaping the realm of darkness all together. Sora tried to keep his eyes open but failed. He couldn't remember how long he fell again. Only this time, before losing consciousness, he could feel that something was different. Where at first, he was falling straight down with no way of stopping. Now he could feel a tiny change. As if, he was slowly but surely falling in a different trajectory. He could only hope that this small change would someday free him from this strange hell.

Sora weakly opened his eyes. He was falling yet again. He sadly sighed to himself as he resigned himself to his inescapable fate. However, something soon caught Sora's eye. He saw something in the distance. A small speck of white that was gone just as quickly as it appeared. Then suddenly, more and more specks showed up until what he saw brought him inexplicable joy. Millions of bright specks appeared around him. He didn't know what was going on but he knew he couldn't find out by facing upside down. Sora struggled to flip himself as he continued to fall. Right as he was finally starting to make some leeway in turning over, he noticed something was wrong.

His body started to have this strange orange outline around it. And for some reason he felt… Hot? Realization quickly hit him and Sora's eyes widely shot open in fear. It couldn't be? He finally managed to flip over fully and immediately screamed like a girl. He was falling straight into some planet's atmosphere.

Sora decided at that very moment that he had no other choice. It was time to use the ability that he had learned to master after being stuck in a falling hell for what felt like decades. Sora closed his eyes, thought of complete darkness…. And went to sleep. What the hell was he supposed to do in this situation? Flap his arms and believe he could fly? As if. Sora inclined himself to his fate. At least when he hit the ground it would be instant. Definitely better than staying in an ever-falling hell. And with that Sora forced himself to go to sleep while plummeting into the Earth's atmosphere.