Yeah, I guess that's true Merlin. I'm kind of like a kid when it comes to stuff like that, I try to find a way to keep everything equal and not have to sacrifice anything on any side. Well, enough of that, time for the final chapter. *Waits for applause, but just hears some crickets chirping in the back as the final chapter appears.* Well, whatever, even if nobody's applauding now that this this fanfiction is almost over, I'm posting the end to Part I anyway. (Sorry about that, I just kind of felt like putting that in, because a lot of people take a look at this fanfiction, but hardly anybody seems to comment on it.)
Chapter 10
Battle of Light and Dark:
After a short while of walking through the light, the light seemed to disappear and become replaced by pure darkness. Ace began to slowly look up through the darkness at a huge white door that was in the distance. “Is this Kingdom Hearts?” Ace asked as he felt a cold shiver run through his body for a moment, probably because of all the darkness that surrounded them.
“Yeah, this is Kingdom Hearts; the Door to Light.” Sora said as he noticed that Ace seemed to have a cold shiver for a moment.
Ace turned around to look at Sarah and noticed that she was shivering even worse than he had, but she seemed to be recovering from it. “Remember Sarah, stay back here out of the battle and be careful.” Ace said, hoping that she would stay out of it.
“Okay Ace.” Sarah said, wishing that there was some kind of way that she could help Ace and Sora.
Ace noticed the look on Sarah’s face and knew it was the same look of wanting to help that he had always seen on her face from time to time. “Sarah, you’re helping us by staying here. If you stay here then we can concentrate on finding my answers and then we can come back here to this spot. Then, we can go back home for good with everything that has happened put behind us.” Ace said with a slight comforting smile on his face. Ace then looked over at Sora and saw him nod before the two of them plunged into the darkness and began to head towards the door itself. After a few minutes, they were finally close enough to the door and stopped in front of it. Ace and Sora held their hands out in front of them and their keyblades appeared in twin bursts of light. They then pointed their keyblades at the door and two beams of light shot from the keyblades and penetrated through the door, causing it to begin to open.
“Here we go.” Ace said to Sora as he began to see hundreds upon thousands of Heartless on the other side of the door, desperatly trying to get out.
“This isn’t going to be easy.” Sora said under his breath, with a slight disbelieving look in his eyes for a moment before they regained their normal confidence.
“So what if it isn’t going to be easy Sora, let’s just do our best and beat them. They’re just Heartless and no matter how many there are, we can still beat them.” Ace said, grinning a little at Sora even though he felt his own confidence swaying a little. As soon as the grin began to fade away from his face, Ace had already begun to get into his attack stance and was ready to win this fight.
“Yeah, you’re right. There’s no way that Keybladers can lose to Heartless.” Sora said as he got ready to fight as well. Ace and Sora gripped their weapons harder and noticed that the door had opened enough for the Heartless to begin to come through. They both took one last deep breath as they charged into the innumberable numbers of Heartless.
‘Please be careful Ace.’ Sarah prayed to herself as she saw the staggering numbers of Heartless headed straight for Ace and Sora.
Ace shot a beam of light from his keyblade that pierced several Heartless, causing them to fade into black mist before he spun around and sliced several that had tried to attack him from behind.
At the same time, Sora had just used Ragnarok to blow away several Heartless before he speared through another set of Heartless using Sonic Blade.
Ace and Sora continued fighting for a while longer, before they realized that they had hardly made a dent in the number of Heartless.
“Darn it...They just keep coming without any end in sight.” Ace said to Sora as they fought side by side against the Heartless.
“I know, but we can’t give up.” Sora said as he blocked a Heartless’ claw with his keyblade and then killed it.
Ace heard what Sora said and saw a Heartless behind him out of the corner of his eye. Ace suddenly flipped backwards and killed the Heartless with a single slash. “Whew...That was a little too close.” Ace muttered to himself.
After several more minutes of fighting, Ace began to let his guard down for a second and saw a Heartless leap in front of him. Ace knew that he didn’t have enough time to slash it because it was already so close. “Uh-oh.” Ace muttered as he jumped backwards into the air to try to gain a little distance.
The heartless leaped at Ace and he destroyed it with one slash as several more Heartless began to appear in mid-air around Ace while he was still in the air.
Ace did a spin with Blazing Angel and killed the Heartless, but another one leaped in front of Ace and slashed him. The claw sliced Ace across his chest and his chest began to bleed a lot from the deep slash but Ace just gritted his teeth against the pain.
The Heartless slashed Ace again, but this time Ace tried to duck and the slash instead sliced through the chain that Ace’s necklace was attached to and the necklace fell from Ace’s neck towards the ground.
“Not a chance...There’s no way that I’m going to lose that necklace.” Ace said as he sliced the Heartless in half as he began to fall towards the ground, but caught the necklace in time. “Got it...” Ace said to himself as he fell to his knees for a second as his chest began to bleed and hurt worse. “I won’t die here against you Heartless.” Ace said through clenched teeth as he gripped the necklace in his left hand as it began to glow.
After a few moments, the light faded from Ace’s left hand to reveal that the necklace had become the keychain for a second keyblade. The keyblade seemed to resemble Ace’s first keyblade, but the colors were different, half of the keyblade was a fiery red while the other half was an oceanic blue. The overall shape of the keyblade mirrored Blazing Angel almost identically. “Dual Souls...” Ace whispered to himself as he saw the second keyblade appear and saw the words in his mind. “I’ve only got one choice, if I want to find my answers...I’m sorry Sarah, but I will return soon, but I have to find my answers first. I understand now what that voice meant by that only I could find my own answers.” Ace said to himself as he gripped his keyblades even harder now that he realized that he couldn’t keep his promise to Sarah, to never have to leave again and be able to stay with her. Ace began to get back on his feet as he got back into his attack stance. Ace’s eyes began to show not only confidence but also sadness as he began to charge through the Heartless once more, headed directly for the door of Kingdom Hearts itself.
“No Ace! You can’t!” Sora yelled as he finally realized what Ace was trying to do or atleast thought that he did.
Ace reached the door and leapt over the Heartless past the door and into the other side, where the Heartless kept appearing from, but not before he flashed Sarah a quick smile.
Sarah saw Ace leap through the door to the other side. “Ace!” Sarah yelled as she saw Ace go through the door, but not before he turned around for a second and flashed her a quick smile as he leapt through to the other side.
Ace landed on the other side of the door and killed several Heartless with both of his keyblades. Ace turned around and looked at Sora almost urgently. “Sora, close the door now!” Ace yelled from the other side as he continued to try to hold the Heartless off. He knew that the only way that he would be able to find his answers would be in the darkest abyss and for that to happen there couldn’t be any light, right?
“I won’t do that Ace.” Sora said as he shook his head a little and killed another Heartless.
“Sora! You have to close the door, trust me.” Ace said as he jumped up and used a double Strike Raid to kill several Heartless before he caught both keyblades again.
“Ok Ace, we’ll get you back somehow, I promise.” Sora said as he pointed his keyblade at the door and a beam of light shot out from it.
“Thank you Sora.” Ace said as he shot a beam from each of his keyblades that combined into one beam in mid-air. Ace looked at Sarah as he knew that he wouldn’t have another chance for a long time. “Don’t worry Sarah. I promise that I will be back soon and I will bring your necklace back with me.” Ace said, smiling as the two beams collided and the door began to close.
Sarah heard Ace and saw the door close. “Okay Ace, I’ll be here waiting for you. My heart and my light will always be with you to bring you back to me.” Sarah said, trying to smile a little at Ace as she put her hand over her heart.
The door fully closed and Sora finished off the remaining Heartless that came out before the door was closed. Sora ran back to Sarah. “Sarah, are you okay?” Sora asked as his keyblade disappeared.
“I’m okay.” Sarah said back sadly as she looked at Sora, tears glistening in her eyes.
“Let’s get back to Destiny Islands, okay?” Sora asked.
“Okay...” Sarah whispered as she took one last look at the door.
At that moment, a sphere of light appeared around Sora and Sarah that carried them back to Destiny Islands.
Even though Sora and Sarah were safely back on the islands, Ace was still fighting the Heartless with both of his keyblades. “They’re finally thinning out.” Ace said to himself as he finally slayed the last Heartless that he could see in the pitch black darkness. The two keyblades disappeared and the necklace was left in Ace’s hand. “I have to find a way back to Sarah, but first I need to find my answers.” Ace said to himself as he tied the necklace back around his neck and looked around at the darkness surrounding him. After a moment, Ace began to walk off into the darkness to try to find a way out.
Chapter 11
Epilogue:
It’s been almost a whole day since the events that occured at the doors of Kingdom Hearts. As soon as Sarah and Sora got back to the islands, Sora told her that she was always welcome to stay at his, Kairi’s or Riku’s houses if she wanted or needed to. She thanked Sora for the offer and since that offer she’d been standing at the beach the whole day, staring out across the surface of the ocean. As Sarah watched the ocean, all her memories of the past several years with Ace began to play out in her mind. She felt her knees getting weaker as tears began to spill down her cheeks and onto her clothes. She did her best to sit down on the rough sand before she completely collapsed and felt the cool ocean waves lap against her legs, almost as if it was trying to comfort her. As she felt the cool water hit her legs, she looked back up at the ocean that went as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, she began to smile a little and she stopped crying as she remembered what Ace said.
“I’m sorry, but I’ll always be with you. Whenever you want to see me, just close your eyes and imagine me. I promise that I’ll be there then.”
She slowly closed her eyes and she was sure that she felt Ace’s presence. In her mind, she could still feel the ocean’s waves against her legs, but now it felt as if the ocean itself was Ace. For a second, she felt a calming touch on her shoulders, almost as if somebody was trying to comfort her. She opened her eyes and she was sure that she saw Ace’s gloved hands on her shoulders, but as soon as she blinked, the hands were gone.
She smiled a little as she began to stand up and looked out across the whole ocean as her thoughts went back to Ace. His calming presence and grayish-blue eyes, just like that of the ocean. He had always reminded her of the ocean and she knew that just like the ocean always surrounds the islands, Ace would always be there with her, surrounding and protecting her from everything that lay beyond the sea.
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At that same moment, Ace was still wandering through the darkness trying to find a way out. He was already drained somewhat because of his long battle against the Heartless and he was beginning to feel the effects of the strain that he had put on his body. Ace gritted his teeth a little as he felt some pain in his chest from the injury that he got from a Heartless back during the fight, but he continued to keep on walking.
As he continued to walk on, he began to see all of his memories that he shared with Sarah play out in his mind. A few tears fell down his cheeks at all the memories before he wiped them away with the back of his gloved hand. After a few moments, Ace began to shiver a little and his breath came out foggy and cold. Ace tried to warm himself up a little by rubbing his hands together, but it didn’t help any at all. This darkness around him, seemed to be trying to freeze him until he died. He remembered about how warm the light always seemed to be and compared to that warmness, the darkness was freezing cold.
Ace then closed his eyes and gripped Sarah’s necklace with his right hand as he felt what seemed like a warm fire from behind him, that seemed to spread around him and help to warm him up. Suddenly Ace opened his eyes and looked behind him. Ace’s eyes widened for a second as he was certain that he saw Sarah there, but as soon as he blinked, she was gone.
He smiled a little as he began to look out at the cold darkness around him as his thoughts went back to Sarah. Her fiery spirit and blazing eyes, just like that of a warming fire. She had always reminded him of fire and he knew that just like fire always drives away the cold, Sarah would always be there with him in the cold darkness, keeping him warm and protecting him from the freezing cold in the darkness of the unknown.
And that's it. The story of Part I is finally complete. Be on the lookout for the sequel Part II that I am going to try my best to make even better than this one if I can. I hope that I will see everybody back for the sequel.
Ace: "We hope to see all you again." *Waves a little at everybody with a slight grin on his face.*
Tai: "Yeah, and hopefully I'll have a bigger part next time." *Smirks a little at Ace, as if challenging him to another fight before he waves as well.*
Sarah: "I just hope that Ace and I will finally stay together this time." *Smiles a little at Ace and then begins to wave at everybody as well.*