Kingdom Hearts: The Next Generation

Hi, and welcome to KHNG! You've stumbled upon the birth of my fanfiction magnum opus—the fic I was born to write. I'm very excited about this.

If you haven't read "Aqua Mortis", the preemptive spin-off to the continuity I'm creating here… don't. Not yet. It'll be interesting to see this from a new perspective. Could read this first, or Aqua first. Either way would be awesome.

Characters and elements are, for the most part, property of Disney/Square-Enix… or Square-Enix/Disney. Something like that.

History of the Key

The small, armored figure entered the world on a deep maroon Keyblade Glider in the form of a speeder bike. He observed his surroundings from behind his mask: it was a very small world, with no distinguishable sky or ground—only blackness, and dozens of enormous floating white spheres ringed by balconies and walkways.

Emerging onto the nearest balcony came a thin and gangly figure in thin leather armor, mostly covered in black fur apart from his doglike face, with the fur on top of his head fashioned into a choppy hairstyle. The boy on the glider floated over to the balcony, and the glider vanished. The boy neatly dropped to the balcony floor and then quickly removed his pale purple armor, leaving him in his checkered shirt, tan slacks, and oversized brown-and-silver shoes.

"Hey there. You must be Skye." The canine-faced boy held out a hand to shake.

"Yeah, that's me," he replied. Skye was a boy of thirteen, shorter than the other and with spiked cyan hair and large eyes of the same color. "Just flew over from the Keyblade Academy. You?"

"Max Goof, Disney Castle," said the other. "Glad to meet you! Master Sora's been expecting you, I'll take you to him."

The very mention of the name made Skye tingle with anticipation, and something close to fear. Max presented him with the door leading to the sphere's interior, and Skye proceeded into a circular, featureless hallway.

"So, Max…" Skye said. "Where exactly are we?"

"We're on Crystal Spheres," Max replied cheerfully. "Master Sora created it. See, so little is known about the Keyblade and its history… so, Sora uses this world to collect everything he knows. Crystal Spheres is a museum and a library, for anyone who travels the worlds."

They emerged on the other end of the sphere, through a door leading to a borderless walkway that took them to a higher structure.

"Since so much of the past has been forgotten," Max continued, "Sora wants to make sure no one in the future forgets about the current age. So, there are reports here on every friend—and every enemy—he's ever met across the worlds."

They had entered the next room, where the walls were lined with life-sized portraits of all kinds of people—more different kinds of people than Skye had imagined could exist, in fact, though he had studied a number of the worlds at the Academy.

"That's Aladdin, right there," Max said, pointing to a picture. "Real rags-to-riches story, that guy. Went from common street rat to the prince of Agrabah and the Prince of Thieves. And, ah, there's Jack Skellington, the king of Halloween, who you may recognize from your darkest nightmares… or, any given piece of merchandise at Hot Topic, I suppose. Apparently Sora used to get him out of a lot of jams… not the sanest guy I've ever met, but nice enough. And, of course, that's Peter Pan, the boy who never grows up. Might not look like much, but he's had a lot of spare time to learn how to use that dagger."

"You know a lot about them," Skye noticed.

"Like I said, Sora makes everybody learn it," Max said, smiling. "Hold on…"

They stepped out onto another balcony, and Max pulled a lever; the balcony began to float across the expanse of emptiness to the next sphere.

As it floated, Skye noticed an image carved straight onto the crystal of a central structure. It was three faces, several stories tall, all in a row, each one with kind and sad blue eyes: a brown-haired man, a blue-haired woman, and a blond teen boy.

"Who are they?" Skye asked.

"Masters Terra, Aqua, and Ventus," Max said. "It was important for Sora to immortalize them, for everyone to remember their heroics. It's the least he can do, since… he failed to save them."

"They… they're dead?" Skye breathed.

"Most people think so," Max said solemnly. "I mean, no one ever found them. So you see… but if they did die, they died fighting the darkness, as Keyblade Masters will… in fact, Terra and Ventus were given the 'Master' title posthumously. It was important to Master Sora… first thing he did after his life calmed down a bit. That's what my dad says, anyway."

The floating balcony hooked itself to another sphere, also decorated with a mural.

"That's my king," Max said, pointing to an image. Skye nodded; most people across the worlds recognized Mickey Mouse these days. "And there's Master Riku with him."

The silver-haired guy in the picture couldn't have been older than fifteen, but something about his serious expression made Skye's skin crawl… an appropriate enough reaction, he supposed, to that famously withdrawn master of the Between.

"And… here we go, there's the depiction of your mentor," Max said grandly.

Skye recognized the image as Master Sora: a light tan, and expansive brown hair. It depicted Sora in his youth, his teeth bared in a ridiculous smile and his eyes wide.

"Wow," Skye said, chuckling. "That's the guy, huh?"

"Yep. My dad says that's the face he made when they first met… apparently, it's still pretty hard to take the grandest Master seriously."

"Good to know," Skye muttered. "I mean, can you imagine…? I graduate from the Keyblade Academy after one year, and I find out that Master Sora, the Master Sora wants to make me his very first student."

"That's gotta be intimidating," Max said. "But you must be up for it, right? Good grades, and so on?"

"Well… evidently," Skye said, laughing. "I guess I tried really, really hard… and it got me here. But what do you do, Max?"

Max held out a hand and conjured up a jousting lance. It was longer than he was tall, but extremely lightweight, and he performed a few jabs and twirls with it.

"I'm part of the king's guard," he said proudly. "Pretty good at it, if I say so myself… but my dad being the captain and all—that's him on that mural, him and the wizard Donald Duck—I guess that's my biggest advantage, just nepotism."

A small girl came around the corner then. Only knee-high to Skye and Max, she was covered in white feathers and had an orange beak. She wore pink wizard's robes styled to resemble a tutu, and a pink bow atop her head.

"Is this him?" she squeaked.

"Yeah, this is our guy," Max said.

"Good… Master Sora was worried."

"Skye, this is Webby. Webby, Skye. She's Donald's niece, mage-in-training."

"Ah," Skye said. "Hi, Webby. Well… I guess we're all apprentices, aren't we?"

Max chuckled. "Hey, yeah. And… all of our teachers are right through this door." He nudged Skye. "You ready to face your destiny?"

"Yeah," Skye said. "Let's do this thing."