//------------------------------//
// Heartless: Facing Ansem 
// Story: Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Once everyone was ready to go Sora approached the door that was in front of them and it opened up before their eyes, as it revealed a portal or gate to another area, though as they stepped through it everyone paused on the other side, as they were on what appeared to be an island that Sora recognized.

"It... It can't be... are these the Destiny Islands?!" Sora commented, as everything looked like what he had grown up with over the years, as the dock and everything was right where he remembered them being, which meant that off in the distance would be his home, Riku's house, Kairi's residence, and their families.

"Makes sense. The Heartless reached the core of your world and devoured it, adding it to this world." Sombra remarked, but as she said that she and the others glanced around, as this seemed to be the end of the road, the deepest depth of the dark world she had brought them to, and she could tell that Ansem was here, somewhere, "I'd wager Ansem thought this was a good location to fight you in, back where the journey started for you."

Sora thought about that for a moment before turning to walk up a path that brought him to the small waterfall that was on this portion of the island, causing the others to find that he was approaching a hidden tunnel that was near it, though as all of them followed him they stopped as they heard someone speak.

This world has been connected... tied to the Darkness, soon to be totally eclipsed. Ansem said, because that was definitely his voice, which meant that he had something he wanted to tell them before the final battle started, though as he said that Sombra found that the entire island was shifting before their eyes, pieces disappearing as the Darkness closed in on the area, breaking the beach in some places, There is so very much to learn... I know many things, while you all know so little. A meaningless effort, truly, for one who knows nothing can understand nothing.

"By the Princesses, this guy loves to listen to himself talk, doesn't he?" Radiant commented, where Sombra nodded her head for a moment, as Ansem definitely loved to talk and that made her wonder if his Nobody was the same, despite the fact that he had been mostly silent during their battle after Fluttershy had been taken from their group.

As she said that they found that Ansem was standing on the beach, while the rest of the island was altered to reflect the dark nature of the world that was around them, though he seemed to like using Riku's form when he didn't need his own form, no doubt to annoy Sora a little before the big final fight.

"Take a look at this tiny island... to the heart seeking freedom this place would seem like a prison... and so this boy sought a way to escape his prison, dooming his world in the process." Ansem continued, confirming the fact that he loved to talk, in fact he was likely far too happy to be at this point and wanted to gloat before the end of his quest, since he was sure that Kingdom Hearts was in reach.

"And yet, even if that was true, Riku turned around and helped the people of other worlds." Sombra remarked, though at the same time she summoned her Keyblade as their foe turned to look at them, his form changing into Ansem's over just a couple of seconds, showing them that he was being serious about fighting all of them, hence why she pointed her blade right at him, "You will return Riku to us, and then we'll stop your plans for Kingdom Hearts."

"I'm afraid that the boy is no longer here: I sent him into the depths of the Darkworld, where all Heartless come from, so there is nothing to return." Ansem stated, though at the same time he floated above the ground for a moment before he warped all of them into a dark and twisted arena that seemed to be part of his corrupted version of the Destiny Islands, where his shadow seemed to take shape as it turned into a large humanoid creature of Darkness that had it's mouth shut by an x shaped bandage of some kind, "First I will beat you, allowing your hearts to return to Darkness, then I shall claim the power of Kingdom Hearts!"

Sombra glanced at the others before they rushed into battle, some of them targeting Ansem himself now that they knew Riku wasn't in danger of being hurt, while Radiant focused on blocking what the Guardian, what she and Sombra wanted to call the dark figure behing their foe, was sending her way. Sombra joined her as she fought back the Guardian's blades, as it seemed like he had all sorts of powers he could use by just moving his hands, though at the same time she noticed an interesting fact, there was a heart deep inside the creature, a rather powerful one that someone was keeping locked away for some odd reason. The other part about it that was interesting was that the heart didn't feel like one she had felt before this point, nor was it like the fragments she was collecting, which only made her that much more interested in it, though for the time being she focused on the Guardian as he tried to crush them. She used her magic to parry the punches that the Guardian sent her way, while Radiant continued to lash out at all of the energy blades coming at them, though Sora and his friends switched to fighting Ansem as well, because he was ignoring them and letting the Guardian fight, so their plan was to bring it down before focusing on their main foe.

Ansem, for the most part, only seemed to have a single power up his sleeve, summoning a barrier of sorts around him so he could ram into whoever happened to be his target, though Sombra stopped that in it's tracks by using her magic to set up a barrier around his, so he did nothing at all when he used this particular attack.

After some time he expanded his power and the island shifted as another dark creature, a massive humanoid that Sora had told them about when he described how his world fell to Darkness, something that caused Sombra to chuckle as she leapt into the air and brought her knee into the Darkside's chin, knocking it backwards. In the next instant she swung her blade and the massive creature was slashed apart with ease, though like all true denizens of the Darkworld, as Ansem called it, this beast didn't have a heart for her to capture either, not that it mattered right now since her base power was more than enough for Ansem. Their foe focused on charging at them with dark energy wrapped around him, while at the same time the Guardian tried to hit them with his energy blades at the same time, meaning Ansem was being serious at long last, and when that failed he tried summoning the Guardian from below the ground as some sort of projectile attack, though since it resonated on the ground they could dodge it with ease. Even Ansem seemed surprised by that fact, almost like he assumed that they would get hit by the attack and be knocked down with his power, but this just annoyed Sombra as they struck him again, because after the Nobody and Sephiroth he had been expecting Ansem to put up a fight, even in her base form.

This, she concluded, was a boring fight and there was nothing about it that even remotely made her want to use her full power, something that caused her to spin around and kick Ansem in the side, sending him away from them so Sora and the others could wail on him for a few more moments.

"ENOUGH!" Ansem shouted, which was when the entirety of the Destiny Islands disappeared as he pulled them deeper into the depths of this world and brought them to a place that was saturated in Darkness, in fact he even disappeared as he did that, meaning he must have finally gotten serious, for real this time, before Sombra spotted a massive white door off in the distance with a massive faint heart behind it, "Behind the endless abyss, where the Heart of all Worlds, Kingdom Hearts, is waiting! Look has hard as you are able, for you won't be able to see a speak of light within it!"

As he said that Ansem appeared in front of them, though he was large and attached to the mast of a massive dark ship, as it looked like a battleship of some kind that was fit to sail a sea of Darkness, in fact it oozed dark energy and seemed to be made of a similar material to the beings of the Darkworld, all while there was a massive figure behind him that seemed to take the place of his powerful Guardian.

"Behold! This is my true power! Here I can wield my full power, the full power of Darkness, to crush you and claim the full power of Kingdom Hearts!" Ansem declared, while at the same time showing them that he had a weapon in his right hand, a staff with a head on top and one on bottom, meaning with the power he was putting out right now he was actually being serious about facing them, so close to his own target, like this would boost his confidence, "Now, I shall return all of your hearts to Darkness and..."

Ansem stopped as he heard something he wasn't expecting to hear, chuckling to be exact, which was the exact moment that Sora and the others found that a barrier wrapped around them as Sombra stepped forward with a dark aura around her, something that caused the darkness around them to vibrate as she shifted into her transformed state.

"You. Utter. MORON! Darkness is my element! Pulling me into a place that's full of my element is like asking me to take you down!" Sombra remarked, as she couldn't believe that Ansem, who had seen a portion of her true power when she fought his Nobody back on Hollow Bastion, would do something so utterly stupid, though if he was willing to play that game she was willing to play ball for a couple of seconds, "However, since you went through the effort to bring us here, allow me to oblige."

Sora's eyes widened as he and the others watched as Sombra vanished, moving at speeds far faster than what he and his friends were used to seeing, meaning she must have used this very same speed during her last two massive battles, which was followed by slashes appearing all over the battleship's surface. Radiant realized what was going on instantly, Sombra was going on the offensive by utilizing her full power against their opponent, where the weapons of the ship tried in vain to target her and ended up firing off dark energy into the void that was around them. Ansem likewise found slashes that appeared all over his body, far lighter than what the rest of his final form was suffering at the moment, causing him to instantly realize his massive blunder, that in his haste to get to Kingdom Hearts, fueled by his annoyance at getting beaten so easily, he had neglected to think about Sombra as he warped them all here. In that moment he realized that he only had a single chance of success, he had to open Kingdom Hearts and absorb all of the power that it had, otherwise his plan, and all the years of careful hard work he had put into making this happen, would go up in a puff of smoke.

With that thought in mind he forcefully separated himself from the battleship, in time to witness it being destroyed once all of Sombra's hits fully registered, causing him to shrink back down to his normal height, and his attire reappeared, as he moved towards Kingdom Hearts.

"So even now you reveal your true colors: you are a coward." Sombra commented, appearing some distance behind him as the sphere brought Radiant and the others over to her location, letting them go since they were no longer in danger of being attacked by the Dark Battleship.

"KINGDOM HEARTS!" Ansem shouted, while at the same time turning his gaze towards the massive door as he held a hand out towards it, because if he dallied any longer than this he knew his time would come, Sombra would wipe him out in an instant if she so desired, causing a smile to appear on his face as he felt a resonance in the door, "Fill me with the power of pure Darkness!"

"Ansem, you are wrong about Kingdom Hearts... it isn't Darkness, like you think." Sora said, as he wasn't sure how he knew this, in fact he was positive that he couldn't know such a thing since they only recently, within the last half hour he'd guess, learned about the existence of the heart that was behind the door, but that didn't stop him from knowing this information anyway, "It's Light!"

Sure enough a burst of light energy rippled out of the slightly opened door and Ansem found himself overwhelmed by it's glory, while Sombra found that she was unaffected, likely the World playing favorites, though as the Light tore through their foe she reached out to capture Ansem's dark heart. In that moment something interesting happened, she actually caught his heart for a brief moment, just like all of the others she had captured over the course of this adventure, but then it suddenly disappeared from her grasp, like someone else had stolen it. The following moment was even weirder as the heart suddenly reappeared and she caught it again, though this time it was totally different than what she felt a couple of seconds ago, this time it was touched by temporal energy and seemed even stronger than what Ansem possessed when she tore him apart. Part of her was tempted to absorb the heart then and there, but something told her not to, not yet anyway, to which she stored it inside her collection area and resolved to keep it safe until she was ready to add Ansem's power to her own.

Following that they rushed towards the door and landed at the base, rushing to the frame as they started to push it so it would close, as Sora realized that this particular door needed to be sealed before someone else tried to use it, and the rest of the group agreed with him, especially since it looked like the Darkworld, a place of absolute darkness, was on the other side of the white frame.

"Need a hand?" a voice asked, where they found that Riku was on the other side and grabbed onto the other side of the door as he pulled it towards the Darkworld, which was all the confirmation they needed to realize that Ansem had told the truth about where he sent Riku, "King Mickey found the other Keyblade that can seal this door, one on each side since you have the other one, Sora, so we can lock this door for good. And don't worry about me, I'll be fine with him by my side... just make sure Kairi is safe."

As Sora nodded his head Sombra pulled something out and tossed it to Riku, who found that it was the amulet she and Radiant had made for him, causing them to nod to each other as Sombra caught a glimpse of a short black mouse figure off in the distance behind him, though once the door was shut Sora backed off and locked it with the power of the Kingdom Key, causing it to disappear as Mickey did the same on the other side.

"Good, the Door to Darkness... I'm sure Ansem called it that in his head... has been sealed." Radiant said, though as she said that they heard another voice and found that Kairi, against all odds or possibilities, appeared some distance behind them, where she and the others let Sora rush to her to figure out what was going on.

Of course it wasn't that simple as the ground around them shifted as Kairi's half departed from the area they were in, a fact that cut into her time with Sora and forced the pair to make a promise to each other, that they'll find their way to the other again at some point. After that happened she and her world were warped back to their spot of the universe, due to the fact that Sombra found a sea of spheres rush out of the darkness and surge towards the surface, where she found all sorts of worlds returning to their proper places with ease. She had to admit that it was a wonderful sight to see, undoing all of the work that Ansem and Maleficent had put into trying to gain the darkest power in the universe, and for once it just seemed like the right thing to do, instead of focusing on what she wanted at all times. As she watched the worlds surge out into space she had to mentally chuckle, as she was sure that anyone back home would think she was crazy for liking a scene like this, but simply smiled as she stood by the others and watched the World heal at long last.

She knew they would move forward again in due time, but for the time being she decided to focus on the fact that they had beaten Ansem and stopped his plans, because they needed some peace and rest before worrying about the Nobody and whatever plans he might be making, which only made her wonder what the immediate future held for them.