I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness.

-H.P. Lovecraft, From Beyond

In darkness one may be ashamed of what one does, without the shame of disgrace.

-Sophocles

If it is nothingness that awaits us, let us make an injustice of it; let us fight against destiny, even though without hope of victory.

-Miguel de Unamuno

Sora's fourteenth year began and ended in darkness. A warm, not yet sweltering July saw the end of his thirteenth. By August he was prepared to leave his home behind as he had left his first year of adolescence: fondly remembered, dearly beloved, and soundly discarded in favor of greater things. Beyond the all-encompassing sea of his world lay infinitely many sights to be seen, as-yet indescribable adventures to be had, and innumerable stories inherent in such experiences – told by countless unique outsiders, or carved into the annals of history by Sora and friends. Riku, his best friend, had planned an escape since his fourteenth birthday; Kairi, Sora's first and only love since meeting in kindergarten nine years ago, had spent the intervening time between the boys' birthdays (and consequently her own) dreaming of it. Sora's ascendance marked the end of the wait: the week before summer ended, plans for a raft were drawn up and very nearly fulfilled.

But the catalyst for their exodus was the destruction of their home. Riku, impatient for new horizons, had opened the door he and Sora had discovered long ago in the Secret Place, that innocuous cave from their childhood. It was an open invitation to the darkness beyond, and in a single night of despair and tragedy, the Destiny Islands were consumed by the unstoppable force of eldritch horror that was the Heartless.

But in a way, Sora, Riku, and Kairi would realize their dreams of exploration. For Kairi, the price was her heart. For Riku, it was the forsaking of his friend, as he turned to darkness to fulfill his ambitions. Sora, as many would put it, had greatness thrust upon him; the loss of his home and everyone he knew, in the space of an evening, had left him with an entirely new destiny. He was one of the Keyblade wielders of times long past, called upon to defend all existence from an endless tide of darkness. Of course he would not be alone in this endeavor; Donald the mage and Goofy the knight remained faithfully by his side, as the unlikely hero traveled from world to world, striking down Heartless in all their forms. His goal: find the source of the darkness and destroy it.

At Hollow Bastion, the ruined former fortress of King Ansem the Wise, he almost succeeded.

The assault on the formidable castle was a long-awaited and corrupt reunion. Sora and Riku met that day as enemies, prepared to kill each other over the catatonic body of their beloved Kairi. Light and darkness dueled as the boys fought in the highest room of the tallest tower of Hollow Bastion, Kairi unconscious mere meters away and Heartless massing on the other side of the portal before them; a once-unbreakable friendship tearing itself apart for the good of all things.

But when Riku blocked what would have been a killing blow from a heartbroken Sora, grabbing his opponent's shirt with his free hand and throwing him to the ground, their love was to perish in vain.

Sora found himself flat on his back all of a sudden, his former friend standing triumphantly over him. A surge of panic fueled a desperate swing of his Keyblade at Riku's legs; that attack was easily parried and rewarded with unimaginable pain as Riku brought his foot down upon Sora's Keyblade arm. The hero of light felt his forearm snap, agony burning it with the heat of a sun and radiating through his body, leaving him in a horrific marriage of scream and sob as the Keyblade vanished. Riku's foot moved to Sora's abdomen, preventing him from rising as the champion of darkness leveled his sword at Sora's chest. "This is the end of us, Sora," Riku spat, gazing for the last time into his enemy's eyes. "And all of it is your fault." With a single unbroken stroke, the front of Sora's shirt was cut in two, laying bare his chest to the victorious Riku.

"We could have stayed friends if you had joined me in the darkness. We could have saved Kairi together!" Riku's intense expression of battle-fury gave way to one of disgust. "Instead, you chose the losing side. You threw away your one chance at fixing everything! Kairi deserves better than you."

Sora struggled to throw Riku off of him, but abandoned this effort; every movement only brought a fresh wave of searing pain from his arm. Fighting tears, he met Riku's eyes with a look not of anger, but of regret. "Riku! You don't have to do this." Sora shuddered for a moment, feeling blood soak his right side, and continued. "The darkness gave you all this power, but what will it do for you if it wins today? All it wants is for you to beat me. If you win, we both lose!" He gasped, tears betraying him and overflowing his eyes as Riku ground his foot into his stomach, but found the strength to speak one last time. "There's still light in you somewhere, Riku…you just need to find it - for you, for me, for Kairi…for everything."

Riku didn't even dignify Sora's plea with a smirk. He remained stoic, only closing his eyes and shaking his head as he drew his sword back. "I gave it up for us, Sora. If that wasn't good enough for you…I'm sorry." With this final pronouncement, Riku thrust his arm forward once more. The sword penetrated Sora's chest without even a hint of blood; it was his heart that was under attack, not his body. The failed Keyblade wielder inhaled sharply, his body arching instinctively; then he was still. Riku withdrew his weapon from Sora's corpse, and where it exited light poured forth. Soft beams radiated from where Sora's heart had been, quickly spreading across his body; just as quickly, the light faded, Sora with it.

Riku eyed Sora's final resting place, and nodded once in satisfaction. A noise from behind him caught his attention; it had segued into a scratching at his leg by the time he turned around. Looking down, Riku discovered a tiny Shadow Heartless, pitifully attacking the killer of its former body. With a distasteful grimace, Riku stepped back and beheaded the thing.

Half a universe away, eleven cloaked figures sat assembled atop thrones in a doorless, windowless conference hall, blinding in its ivory furnishing. A portal of darkness appeared at the summit of the third lowest, and a twelfth cloaked figure stepped out, seating itself without a sound. This was a young man, barely into his twenties, whose steel-blue hair partially obscured his face; his single visible eye was fixed on the inhabitant of the highest throne in the room, who addressed him.

"Number VI," Xemnas began, in a voice that resonated throughout the massive, sterile room. "What have you to report?"

Zexion's answer was exactly what his superior wanted to hear. "The Keyblade wielder is dead; when the seventh Princess of Heart takes her place with the others, Xehanort's Heartless will have met its immediate goals, and shall dispose of Riku. The time for our offensive is now."

Xemnas nodded in approval. "Well done, Zexion." Then, to the entire group: "The Final Keyhole is open; the Door to Darkness stands unlocked. Today we prepare for war. My brethren in nothingness: find and recruit our thirteenth."

Hello, everyone!

I am so, so sorry Ashes to Ashes is taking so long. I've had way too much to deal with lately - when you try to balance your school's IB program with your writing, IB wins. Though I haven't said it outright, if I go another week without posting "Flower," consider Ashes to Ashes on temporary hiatus these past few months and in the near future. Now that the school musical (Anything Goes) is over, however, I should have a lot more time on my hands for my stories. This is something I've been kicking around for a while, and may or may not be a good idea. But really, what if the forces battling for control of the universe were the Heartless and Organization XIII, and light didn't enter into it? I couldn't resist. More to come, I promise.

Love and thanks to all the readers,

Zellarius Burvenia