Author's Note: Well, time to update Inheritance for the people who favorited my story. I'd just like to say thanks to all who added this story to their favorite/alert list. I'd also like to give a nod of appreciation to all those who've read this story.

Well, thanks a bunch to my reviewers. I'm glad you like this story enough to tell me about it.

Well, I've kept you all waiting long enough. I'm proud to announce the next installment for Inheritance and hope that you'll enjoy it!

Note: I'm also adding music to sections of the fanfiction story. Every now and again, there will be a song title from either a Kingdom Hearts game or a Final Fantasy game.

Inheritance

Chapter 2

Princesses and Keyblades

Hollow Bastion – Castle Exterior - High Tower

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Beast stopped before the archway to the lift stop. Sora looked to his companions. "Is everyone ready? The darkness seems thicker here. Maleficent must be just ahead!"

After some nods and a grunt from the Beast, Sora and Co. continued on.

Hollow Bastion – Castle Interior - Castle Chapel

The quartet entered a dark room. The room had a Gothic like feel to it. Ahead of them, was a round area with a Rose design engraved in the center of the rounded area. The group would've stopped to appreciate the architecture... if it weren't for a certain witch staring at them from the far side of the room.

"I'm afraid you're too late. Any moment now the final keyhole will be unsealed... this world will be plunged into darkness! It is unstoppable." Maleficent spoke. Sora summoned Infinity and dropped into a combat stance.

"We'll stop it! After coming this far, there's no way we'll let that happen!" Sora said, determined to stop the witch before him.

This enraged Maleficent. 'He's acting just like... him... Ventus...' "You poor simplefools! You think you can defeat ME! ME, the mistress of all EVIL!"

Suddenly, the mural Maleficent stood upon glowed with an eerie light, and rose from the ground. Sora and company charged forward, but only Sora and the Beast managed to make it on top before it rose too high. Sora and the Beast managed a few good hits, before Maleficent banished them with her staff.

"Come out!" Instantaneously, two Defender Heartless appeared and attacked the quartet. After quickly disposing of the heartless, they searched for Maleficent, only to spot her above the door they came from.

"Meteors of heaven... Unleash thy fury!" A gigantic portal appeared behind Maleficent, and huge meteors shot out, hitting all of the heroes. After a quick Cura spell from Donald and Sora, Maleficent approached them again, shooting bolts of dark lightning. Sora and Donald moved out of range.

"Donald, do you know any way to bring Maleficent down? My Gravira spell isn't strong enough!" "Sora, look! There's an energy field around the rock! Try attacking it with the keyblade!" Donald pointed out. Sora nodded and charged forward. He lept into the air ant attacked as fast as he could. After he landed, he noticed the eerie light fade, and the rock began to fall. Sora dodge-rolled out of the way just before it hit the ground. The Beast jumped onto the platform and knocked the witch off.

"No!' The dark fairy screamed, as she was pummeled by the Beast. Suddenly a large dark force forced the Beast off of Maleficent. The self-proclaimed Mistress of Darkness slowly rose to her feet, gasping for breath, and backed away. A dark portal appeared behind her and she walked into it. The rock she used as a pedestal floated into the hole it came out of.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Beast checked their supplies, took a quick breather, then followed Maleficent into the portal.

Hollow Bastion – Castle Interior – Tower

Maleficent slowly walked to the center of the branch-covered tower, panting like she ran a marathon. Right behind her, a dark portal opened, and Riku, wearing his Dark Armor walked through. In a strange blend of another voice and Riku's, he said, "Do you need some help?" Before the Dark Fairy could reply, the duo heard a voice shout "Riku!"

Riku turned around. His outfit hadn't changed from their battle, but Riku held an unfamiliar keyblade. "What's that?" Sora said, saying the question on everyone's mind, even Maleficent.

Riku smirked and raised the keyblade. It had a red guard, with a black handle and shaft. The blade part of the key was very sharp, and looked like it could do a lot of damage. It had no keychain. All in all, it was a keyblade that just radiated darkness.(Yes, it's the keyblade that Riku wields against you when you fight him in the Great Hall of Hollow Bastion) "Yes, this is a keyblade. However, unlike yours, this keyblade holds the power to unlock people's hearts. Allow me to demonstrate." Riku turned around quickly and thrust the key into Maleficent's heart, causing green and black energy to emit from it. "Behold!"

Riku smirked, "Now, open your heart. Surrender it to the darkness. BECOME DARKNESS ITSELF!" After saying those words, he ripped out the keyblade, and stepped through a dark portal that just appeared behind him. Maleficent stopped breathing hard and began glowing with an eerie green aura.

Maleficent began to chuckle evilly. "This is it! This power! Darkness... the TRUE DARKNESS!" Maleficent burst into green flames. The flames began to grow to the ceiling. When the flames receded, a black dragon was left in her place. The dragon slammed her front claws into the ground and roared at Sora and friends.

As the dragon took a breath, everyone scattered. Just in time too, because the dragon began spewing green and black fire from it's fanged jaws. The moment the dragon stopped, Sora and Donald started casting Blizzara until the fire was out. When the dragon noticed the fire was gone, it started slashing the space where it was with it's sharp claws. Sora, Goofy, and the Beast dodged the claws while making their way towards where the dragon's head was.

When they were close enough, they jumped up and attacked as much as they could before gravity dragged them back to the ground. When they landed, the dragon began roaring in the air. It dropped it's head and summoned just over 20 orbs of green fire, that appeared around the dragons body.

While the trio continued attacking the dragon's head, while Donald quickly cast Aerora shields around the foursome. The orbs, one by one, began speeding into each and every one of the party, though the barriers of wind deflected some of the damage. After the orbs finished ramming themselves into Sora and allies, the Aerora shields dissipated and Sora and Donald quickly cast Cura on the party while Goofy and the Beast still attacked the dragon.

The dragon roared again and stood on it's hind legs while breathing fire everywhere it could. The group huddled together while Sora and Donald cast Blizzara into the air and Goofy cowered under his shield and the Beast covered himself with his cape.

Right after the dragon stopped spewing dark flames, it landed harshly, causing a shock wave to knock over the heroes. While the quartet stumbled to their feet, the dragon form of Maleficent spun around quickly and slammed it's tail into all of them at once. Each of them hit a thorny branch hard and winded all except the Beast. He recovered quickly and continued his assault on the head of the dragon while Sora and friends tried to recover from that last blow.

After a couple of Cura spells, the Beast landed next to them, having been thrown by the fire-breathing giant beast. Donald and Goofy quickly charged back out to fight the dragon. Sora sighed. "This isn't working! We need to figure out how to end this battle and quickly!" The Beast, having just risen, merely said, "The head is the weak point, so figure out how to hit it as hard as you can."

Sora gained a sudden thoughtful look, before suddenly widening his eyes slightly. "I think I have a plan. Beast, how high do you think you can launch me?" Sora asked, getting a brief confused look from the Beast, before understanding settled in.

Moments after the plan was formed, Sora and the Beast ran out to the dragon, where Donald and Goofy were trying to avoid it's attacks. "Now, Beast!" Sora cried out.

The Beast nodded. He grabbed Sora by the back of his shirt and hurled him into the air. After he looked forward again, the dragon's claw slammed him into the ground, injuring the Beast immensely. Right when Sora began to fall again, he summoned Infinity and aimed it straight at Dragon-Maleficent's head.

"Take this!" He yelled as he landed, blade first, on the dragon's head. The dragon roared in fury while thrashing about. After a minute or two of this, it collapsed on the ground. Sora dispelled his keyblade and lept off of the dragon.

Suddenly, the thorny branches that covered the tower got covered in the green and black flames that the dragon was breathing. The dragon's body burned as well. When the flames died down, only a large black smear was left where Maleficent transformed into the dragon.

A dark portal appeared, and Riku (still in his dark armor) entered. "So," he said in his eerie double voice. "she was just another pawn after all..." "What do you mean?" Sora asked. Riku looked at the keybearer. "The Heartless were using Maleficent from the beginning. She couldn't see the darkness eating away at her." Riku stepped forward and began crushing the center of the smear, twisting his foot, while the smear vanished. (A/N: Kind of like how people crush bugs they find in their homes or their porch. I don't really know how to describe it.) "A fitting end... for such a fool." Another dark portal appeared and Riku stepped into it, vanishing before them. Another dark portal, the one they used to enter the tower, appeared behind them. Sora and Goofy helped the Beast enter it, while Donald led the way through.

Hollow Bastion – Castle Interior – Castle Chapel

As the heroes exited the portal, it disappeared along with a section of the wall, allowing the team to continue on. Sora and Goofy laid the Beast on the ground while Donald tried to heal him. Soon, the Beast regained consciousness. "I'm too injured to leave now. Leave me here and continue on. I will rest and meet up with you." The Beast said. After exchanging looks, the trio nodded. "Stay safe, Beast." Sora said, causing the Beast to scoff. "These Heartless aren't enough to take me down. Go, now!" The Beast replied.

Sora nodded again, and the trio left through the new opening in the wall.

Hollow Bastion – Castle Interior – Grand Hall

Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked down a wide staircase before reaching a door, which parted for them when they came close. Right before them was a rug with the symbol for the Heartless along with 6 torches like the ones at the Olympus Colosseum. They were arranged with 3 on each side. Behind each torch, was a glass case that had women inside of them. 2 of the women, however were recognizable to them.

"Jasmine!" Sora exclaimed. He ran up to her glass container. The love interest on Aladdin, and Princess of Agrabah, seemed to be in a trance of some sort.

"Sora! Alice is here too!" Sora spun around and ran to the other side of the hall to see another case with the girl they met and attempted to rescue from the Queen of Hearts in Wonderland. She seemed to be in the same trance-like state as Jasmine.

Noticing this, they looked at the other women. They were all wearing gown-like dresses, and seemed a bit older then Alice, or even Jasmine, but were in the same trance-like state as Alice and Jasmine.

Seeing that there are a bunch of women here reminded Sora of something Jafar said back in Agrabah.

"Jafar, let Jasmine go!" Aladdin shouted.

"Not a chance. You see, she's a princess. One of seven who somehow hold the key to opening the door." Jafar said to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aladdin.

"Open?" "The door?" Goofy and Donald asked, respectively.

Jafar smirked. "But you fools won't live to see what lies beyond it."

"Guys," Sora started, "I think that these are the Princesses that Jafar was talking about. You know, back in Agrabah." Goofy and Donald looked thoughtful for a moment, before nodded. "Yup, these might be them." Goofy said. Donald, however, reminded them of one crucial fact. "There are only 6 here. Jafar said that there were 7 to open the door. So were is Princess Number 7?"

Sora looked onwards, past the two gargoyle statues holding blue flames, to the raised area that blocked the view of nearly everything on that side of the hall. "Maybe she's there?" Sora thought out loud.

Sora and company quickly ran up the steps to get to the raised area. It was a round area with red carpet and random devices scattered around the edge. Also, there was a titanic glowing symbol that resembled an outline of a Heartless emblem.

When they arrived, Goofy was thrown back by the sudden shield than prohibited him from joining Donald and Sora. Donald instantly spun around and gaped at the sudden barrier keeping Goofy out. Sora might have as well, but he was preoccupied at that moment.

Because laying on the floor in the center on the room, after all this time searching, was someone Sora deeply missed.

Laying on the floor was Kairi.

Normally, Sora would have run over and hugged her or helped her up if she was hurt, but this time was different. Sora couldn't do any of those things because something was wrong with Kairi.

Kairi's eyes were closed. And she wasn't moving.

Author's Notes: Well, there's the next chapter. Might be shorter, but I'm getting there. Seemed to be a great place to stop. Next chapter will be called Hearts and Oathkeeper. I know for sure that Hollow Bastion WILL be finished next chapter and will have one last chapter at Olympus Colosseum. After that chapter, Sora will travel to the End of the World. There will also be an unusual addition in the next two chapters. You'll see...

I have absolutely NO internet connection which is why I haven't updated, but I found a Library that is only an hour and a half away by car. I can go there and update, but only every now and again. I will be writing multiple chapters after this one and uploading as much as I can when I do go. It'll give you people something to occupy yourselves with. Well, that's that. Also, I'm working on another story which is a crossover of Harry Potter and either Final Fantasy V or Final Fantasy XIII. I haven't exactly decided. If I decide on the FFV/HP crossover, it will be called The Chosen Mage. If I decide to type the FFXIII/HP, it will be called The Chosen Ravager, because I don't want to put the term "L'Cie" in the title. Well, we'll see...

One last request. I'm beta reading a story that was placed on hiatus for a while. It's called Vocare Prabia. It's by Amber Evens Potter, and is a Harry Potter story involving dimensional travel. It's a must read because new chapters will be coming out soon! At least, I hope so. She's still working on rewriting the current chapters.