Chapter Three-The Keyhole
Three Keyblade apprentices, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, train under Master Eraqus to become Keyblade Masters one day. When one Keyblade Master, Master Xehanort, disappears and terrifying creatures known as Unversed begin invading throughout the Realm of Light. Terra was to stop the Unversed and find Xehanort, Ventus was tricked into following Terra by Xehanort’s apprentice, Vanitas, and Aqua was to bring him home.
During this quest, Terra was starting to become corrupted by the darkness in his heart. Terra met a young boy known as Riku and was chosen as his successor. Ventus befriended another Keyblade apprentice, Mickey Mouse, and met with Vanitas several times, eventually discovering that he’s the physical manifestation of the darkness within Ventus after being extracted by Xehanort as part of a plan to forge a legendary weapon known only as the χ-blade, which is the only thing that can unlock Kingdom Hearts itself. When he returned to his home in the Land of Departure to tell Eraqus about this plan, who plans to destroy him and stop the χ-blade’s creation, but fell at the hands of Terra and Xehanort, the latter of whom revealed his true intentions afterwards.
The trio then met up to battle Xehanort and Vanitas in the Keyblade Graveyard, the site of a legendary conflict known as the Keyblade War, where each of them met their fates: Terra becoming possessed by Xehanort and transformed into a new, younger Xehanort, Ventus being possessed by Vanitas, but after a mental and physical battle between Ventus, Aqua, and Mickey, destroy Vanitas, the χ-blade and erase the Unversed from the land, with Ventus’s heart being damaged and merged with the heart of a boy known as Sora, and Aqua placing Ventus’s now-comatose body into the newly-transformed Castle Oblivion, and traveled to the Radiant Garden, where he finds Xehanort and fought him with a plan to rescue Terra. During the battle, Terra temporarily regained control of his body, with Xehanort trying to remove Terra’s heart from his body, but darkness then spilled and Xehanort starts to fade. Aqua then sacrificed her armor and Keyblade to save Terra’s body, while she remains in the Realm of Darkness. A now- amnesic Xehanort was discovered by the sage king of Radiant Garden, Ansem the Wise, and was taken in as his apprentice. Terra also continued to fight off Xehanort, vowing not to stop until he has stopped Xehanort and forces him from his body.
Ten years later, Sora was separated from his friends during an invasion of their world, Destiny Islands. During the invasion, Sora obtains the Keyblade, as Ventus’s heart was still within him. After arriving in Traverse Town, he meets Donald Duck and Goofy, and together they traveled throughout various worlds and sealing the Keyholes to the hearts of the worlds to prevent more Heartless invasions.
After defeating a wicked witch controlling the Heartless known as Maleficent, they discover Ansem, who has apparently succumbed to the darkness, was behind this invasion of the Heartless. He plans to open the door to Kingdom Hearts, a door which contains the hearts of all worlds, with the intention of gaining eternal darkness. The trio was able to defeat Ansem and seal the door with the help of Riku and King Mickey on the other side of the door.
When searching for Riku and the King, they find themselves in Castle Oblivion, which, upon entering, they began to lose their memories. The three encountered a group of dark hooded villains known as Marluxia, Larxene, Axel, and Vexen, who are part of Organization XIII. Within the castle, Sora discovered his memories were wiped by a girl known as Naminé who was held captive by the Organization. The trio fought their way through the castle and eventually encounter and destroy Marluxia, the lord of the castle, thus freeing Naminé from the grip of the Organization. In order to have their memories returned, Naminé put Sora, Donald, and Goofy to sleep for a year and lost their memories of their time in Castle Oblivion.
During these events, Riku found himself in the basement of the castle and travels up the first floor with the help of King Mickey. He fought both the Organization’s members, Vexen, Lexaeus, and Zexion, and the darkness in his heart, accepting his fate between light and darkness. Partnering with the enigmatic DiZ, Riku helps him to keep Sora and Naminé until the former reawakened.
However, he was to go after a boy known as Roxas, the thirteenth member of the Organization, to help his reawakening. Roxas, having left the Organization earlier after doubting their plans and desiring to meet Sora himself, encountered Riku and defeated him easily, but Riku succumbed to the darkness within him and took on the appearance of Ansem. With his new powers, Riku subdued Roxas and took him to DiZ, but the battle left him stuck in the form of Ansem. With the plan successful, DiZ ordered Riku to eliminate Naminé, but refused, instead letting her go with Axel, who went rogue on Marluxia and chose to aid Sora in Castle Oblivion and was Roxas’s best friend.
Seven days later, Sora, Donald, and Goofy awakened in Twilight Town, with no memory of their time at Castle Oblivion, and resumed their search for Riku and King Mickey. Along the way, they learn of the Nobodies and were re-familiarized with their leaders, Organization XIII, which now holds Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Saïx, Luxord, and Demyx. The trio once more traveled throughout various worlds to resolve their troubles caused not just by Maleficent and her new assistant Pete, but also the Organization, with the latter kidnapping Kairi.
They meet with the King, who revealed that the “Ansem” Sora destroyed was actually the Heartless of Xehanort, who, sometime after being taken in by Ansem the Wise, betrayed his master and stole his name, with the true Ansem being missing ever since, while also learning that Xemnas, the leader of the Organization, is the Nobody of Xehanort.
The quartet arrived at the headquarters of the Organization, The World That Never Was, with their counterfeit Kingdom Hearts floating overhead, made from the Heartless Sora had destroyed. Sora and his friends then stormed the Castle That Never Was, where he defeated all the members while finally reuniting with Kairi and Riku, who revealed that Roxas was the Nobody of Sora, as well as Naminé being the Nobody of Kairi, with Roxas being captured by Riku willingly taking the form of Ansem, so he could be defeated and absorbed back into Sora.
During this, Mickey found DiZ, who was revealed to be a disguised Ansem the Wise, using a device that digitized some of Kingdom Hearts’ power. As the others arrived, the Kingdom Hearts Encoder started overloading and exploded, apparently killing Ansem and restored Riku to his original state, with the darkness of Ansem being eradicated from his heart. At the top of the castle, Sora and his friends battle Xemnas, who used the remnants of Kingdom Hearts to fight them. Refusing to accept defeat, Xemnas separated Sora and Riku from the others to fight them in a final fight that ended with his demise. Though trapped in the Realm of Darkness, Sora and Riku were able to return to their world using the Door to Light, which was mysteriously triggered from Sora’s heart.
Later, Mickey sent Sora a letter telling him that he’s the “Key that connects everything,” and that he was to save those connected to his heart from their suffering, specifically Naminé, Xion, a replica of Roxas created by Xemnas as a failsafe in the event Roxas or Sora were useless to the Organization, and Axel, as well as Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. In the Realm of Darkness, Aqua discovered Ansem, who survived the explosion of the Kingdom Hearts Encoder, which sent him there, but has little memories left. He then explained to Aqua about his experiences with Sora, which made her realize that someone will rescue her and her friends.
Sora then made the decision to go out and rescue his predecessors from their fates. But, before he could, Sora and Riku took up Yen Sid’s call to take up a Mark of Mastery exam in preparation of Xehanort’s return. They were to enter the Sleeping Worlds, where they were to find and awaken seven worlds, which were revived following Ansem’s defeat but remained submerged in sleep, and are to unlock the Keyhole of Sleep. If they were successful, they would become Keyblade Masters.
During this endeavor, they encounter a mysterious young man in a black coat with ties to Xehanort and accompanied by Ansem, Xemnas, and Vanitas, whom they thought were defeated long ago. Sora’s journey led him to the World That Never Was instead of the Realm of Light, where he met Xigbar and the young man, who was revealed to be a younger Xehanort from the past, who was paid a visit via time travel by a disembodied Ansem, who was sent on a mission to travel to different time periods of time to gather various versions of Xehanort to create the True Organization XIII. Sora fought his way to the castle, but was intercepted by Xemnas and ended up with his heart damaged, where he then fell into a coma and was taken to the castle by Young Xehanort. Riku found Sora to the World That Never Was within the Castle That Never Was, where he fought and defeated Young Xehanort, with the help of Mickey.
After the fight, Master Xehanort was finally revived and revealed his intentions: following his failed plan to use the χ-blade to summon Kingdom Hearts by pitting a heart of pure light against one of pure darkness, he has learned a new way to forge the χ-blade, because years before, after the Keyblade War, the χ-blade was shattered into thirteen darknesses and seven lights, and if Xehanort created an Organization out of thirteen incarnations of himself, he’ll be able to recreate the χ-blade and start a new Keyblade War. As he was about to make Sora the thirteenth and final vessel for the Organization, Lea, Donald, and Goofy arrived to help Riku and Mickey, and Xehanort was forced to retreat with Young Xehanort, Ansem, Xemnas, Xigbar, Saïx, and his six hooded vessels.
Riku then brought Sora’s comatose body back to Yen Sid, where he dives into Sora’s Dive to the Heart and collected fragments of Sora’s shattered heart, in the process battling a corrupted Sora himself and winning. Riku succeeded in awakening Sora, but Yen Sid only named Riku as a Keyblade Master for his efforts. Undeterred by his failure, Sora congratulated Riku and departed to do training and resume his search for Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Lea, meanwhile, shocked everyone by summoning his own Keyblade, something he just mastered and was unable to use against the Organization. Riku’s first act as the Keyblade Master was to bring Kairi to Yen Sid so she can undergo training with her Keyblade and be the seventh light to counter Xehanort’s Organization XIII.
While Kairi and Lea were training to use their Keyblades, Sora traveled to the Radiant Gardens, where he found Terra in Ansem the Wise’s study, discovering that Xehanort’s darkness, as well as his own, has been cleansed from his heart. With his help, they traveled to the Realm of Darkness and discovered Aqua with Ansem the Wise. After returning Ansem to his lab thus restoring most of his memories and dedicating himself to helping out Sora and his companions, they set off for Castle Oblivion, where Aqua led them to the Chamber of Waking, where Ventus’s comatose body was resting. After Sora returned Ventus’s heart to him and reawakened, they then set off for the final battle, again in the Keyblade Graveyard.
Sora then revealed a special ability. After taking Mickey’s Keyblade, Sora used his own Keyblade to absorb the seven lights from himself, Kairi, Riku, Lea, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, while using Mickey’s Keyblade to absorb the thirteen darknesses from Xehanort and his Organization which had a new vessel whose identity was never revealed. By combining both of these Keyblades together, he formed the most ultimate weapon of all: the χ-blade.
By using its power to unlock Kingdom Hearts, he granted three wishes: his first wish, bring Master Eraqus back to life. His second wish, that Xehanort’s younger self was never meant to meet with Ansem, so that way, the True Organization XIII would never come to pass. And his third and final wish, Sora had the power to defeat Master Xehanort in order to cleanse the Realm of Light from his hurt. With the power of Kingdom Hearts surging through his body, he destroyed Master Xehanort.
With the Realm of Light now free and Master Eraqus reunited with his students and some new ones, he announced that his disciples, the Seven Guardians of Light, will travel the Realm of Light, finding new worlds to cleanse from the darkness, to boldly go where no Keyblade wielder has gone before.