OLD TGC STUFF - Character Bios - SORA (by Greg)

Featured In: In chronological order: Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories/Re:Chain of Memories (a remake), Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance


Name: Sora


Age: 15/16 (as of Dream Drop Distance)


Gender: Male


Alignment: Good


Personality: Sora is very friendly, always willing to help anyone out as long as they are not his enemies, regardless of how well he knows them. He is highly protective of his friends, especially Kairi, and is willing to forgive almost any villain as long as they show themselves to be repentant. Highly optimistic, Sora tries to get others to "think positive" if they are upset. His good natured attitude extends to the point that he considers anyone who is willing to help him a friend, regardless of how well he knows them, with the exception of if he finds out about unrepentant reactions for evil deeds. On the other hand, he has a very low tolerance for cowardice or selfishness, often calling villains out for behavior that amounts to such a conclusion.

Although he can sometimes appear to be simpleminded, even gullible or naïve in certain instances, Sora has a strong sense of justice. Sora can be childish at times, whether it is wanting to try out a pirate ship or wanting to meet Santa Claus, or even his highly competitive streak (such as for Olympus Coliseum tournaments). In spite of this behavior, he dislikes being called a kid, preferring to be known by his name.

Although he is a good pilot of Gummi ships, Sora is not technologically savvy, only really being able to use a computer as far as typing in names and pressing a key to send in the requests for a search. Past that, he's more likely to try bashing a keyboard until it does what he needs it to do.

Sora does not really know how to show proper respect to people of higher authority than himself, like the King and Queen of Disney Castle or Master Yen Sid, often speaking to them as if they are on similar levels of authority without meaning any disrespect. However, he is trying to overcome this problem, and does show respect to certain people regarding that, such as King Simba of the Pride Lands and Princess Jasmine of Agrabah.

However, although he does put on his front of optimism, he is hurt by the many things he has endured, a side that comes out in the form of anger during combat that occasionally manifests in the form of his Anti-Form, a Drive that has a mind of its own and acts almost like a Heartless itself to a certain degree, albeit primarily against Sora's actual foes.


Powers: On account of the Sleeping Worlds' powers being completely locked when Sora was nearly completely corrupted by Master Xehanort, Sora has no access to the abilities he had in the Sleeping Worlds, unlike Riku. He remains able to use the powers of his clothes, however.

- Aerial Dodge: A double jump of sorts combined with a three hundred sixty degree twist, this technique allows Sora to reflect enemy attacks for its duration. Helps Sora to last longer in the air, as well as smoother air combos, and an easy way to escape a ground attack. Sora gained this skill from his use of Master Form.

- Glide: By spreading his arms and legs, or concentrating hard enough, Sora can glide through the air, or at least float slowly to the ground. He cannot fight while doing this, but he is rather fast, and able to cross a battlefield, or above it. He gained this through his use of Final Form.

- Drive Forms: Due to his magical clothes granted by Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather in the Mysterious Tower and the fact that their magical source is connected to his heart, the "Key that connects everything", Sora is capable of transforming into various powerful forms. Physical descriptions are listed under Appearance.

-- Valor Form: Gives added magical resistance at the expense of use of any magical spells for its duration. Allows for quicker movement and the use of the dual-wielding Synch Blade technique. He is also very dextrous in this form, sometimes twirling a Keyblade on one finger in combos. This form is only accessible when he merges with Goofy by shouting "Give me strength!", and only when Goofy is even available. His secondary Keyblade in this form is Fenrir.

-- Wisdom Form: "Shoots" blasts of light from his Keyblade rather than shooting. His magic is enhanced, and he recharges MP at 1.75 times the rate. He also can dash along the ground or in the air in this form in a state known as "Quick Run."

-- Master Form: Grants additional magical power and physical prowess, along with a one and a quarter times speed to MP charge. Allows for quicker movement and the use of the dual-wielding Synch Blade technique. This form is only accessible when he merges with Donald and Goofy simultaneously by shouting "Life!", and only when both of them are available. In this form, his secondary Keyblade is Bond of Flame.

-- Limit Form: This form does little but give Sora access to the skills he only had in his original adventures before his year-long coma, such as Ragnarok and Zantetsuken. Also, his fighting style is akin to that during that time, rather than the re-learned style in Kingdom Hearts II. He does not require any partners to merge with for this form.

-- Anti Form: Grants greatly increased speed, but also decreased damage reduction and weaker attacks. All strikes are darkness based, and the form itself is homicidal, attacking anyone in its vicinity with a wide variety of strikes. Furthermore, this form is weak to light-based strikes. Sora does not have any control while in this form, as it is a side effect of being a Heartless and of all of the violence he has been a part of. It takes in two party members, and cannot be willingly disabled until it has run its course. A Princess of Heart being assimilated (such as Kairi) will cause the drive bars to deplete extremely quickly due to the phobic nature to light.

-- Final Form: Grants extremely strong and fast magical and physical attacks, using his own magic and light-based skills. In this form, every action is effectively an attack, since his Keyblades move telekinetically. This takes any two party members by shouting "Light!", and decreased the chance of later activation of Anti Form. The secondary Keyblade in this form is Two Become One.

- Opening Lanes Between: When needed, Sora can point his Keyblade while in a Gummi Ship in Gummi Space to create a wormhole to a place to which his heart has a connection for his ship to go through.


Abilities:
- High Jump: Increases Sora's jumping height, combining it with a backward flip. It can be used in many ways to broaden Sora’s air combos and causes aerial battles to become swifter, in addition to making evading enemy attacks simple, as well as making platforming easier. Sora gained this skill from his use of Valor Form.

- High Strength: Due to being a Keyblade Wielder, Sora's strength is somewhat above normal, though he does lose it if he ever loses the Keyblade to someone else.

- Agility: Due to his affinity to the Keyblade, Sora, along with those close to him, is capable of performing "Reaction Commands", feats of instinctual reactions to combat situations. He gained this skill when he awoke from his year-long coma, at the start of Kingdom Hearts II.

- Swordsmanship: Sora may not be a Keyblade Master in title, but he is an exceptional swordsman. However, while his skill is great, he is competent almost always when given a Keyblade to fight with, a lesser weapon making him weaker.

- Dodge Roll: Technically not much of a bonus at all, this skill is a somersault used to escape from some combat situations. However, the window of invulnerability is extremely small. He regained this through his use of Limit Form.

- Synch Blade: Sora, being a Keyblade Wielder with an extra half of a heart, is capable of wielding two Keyblades simultaneously. Like his Nobody, Roxas, he could hypothetically dual-wield Keyblades at any time he has two free hands, but he is unaware of how to do this outside of certain Drive Forms as of yet.

- Reaction Commands: Due to being a Keyblade wielder, Sora has access to this ability. This ability could be described as a sort of extraordinarily enhanced reaction time, allowing Sora to anticipated and counter an enemy's attack or preform temporary feats of agility that would be impossible for any normal human being. Each Reaction Command is unique based on the situation or enemy.

- Flowmotion: Originally from the Realm of Sleep, Flowmotion is a set of parkour skills that Sora relearned outside of the dream realm. Though not as advanced as in the Realm of Sleep, Flowmotion gives him the ability to preform feats of extreme agility, such as limited wall kicks, grinding rails, swinging on poles, and other similar skills.


Appearance: In order to make sure everything is currently covered, Sora and Roxas will both be described, as they were known as of Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Also included are the additions by way of each of the Drive Forms, listed under their abilities in the Powers section.
- Sora can be seen in this picture. However, a written description will also be written here for convenience. As of the end of his time in the Realm of Sleep, Sora still has his brown, spiked hair and blue eyes, as well as fair skin. He wears a baggy black and silver outfit. Said outfit includes black, fingerless gloves with white straps around them, a blue and red undershirt, a black jacket with gray shoulder pads, black shorts with a blueish crotch area, and two red pouches on his hips, secured there by yellow straps around his legs and waist. He has yellow and black sneakers on his feet, and a silver necklace with a crown emblem around his neck.
-- In Valor Form, Sora's clothing turns red with some black and red spearpoint-like designs on the legs. He wields his active Keyblade and another (typically Fenrir), with the former resting on the back of his head in a fighter's stance and the latter wrapped around his body in his left hand. His hands glow red and flicker with red electricity in this form, with red sparks flying off of him as he runs.
-- In Wisdom Form, clothing is blue, with blue flames on the bottoms of the black part of his shorts. He wields his primary Keyblade backhanded with the teeth pointing down, and skates along the ground. There is also a blue magical mist surrounding Sora's feet that turns into two light blue wisps, one rising from each foot when Sora slides across landscape. These wisps circle Sora in a manner similar to a double helix when Sora is stationary.
-- In Master Form, Sora's clothes take on a yellow-black color scheme. The designs on his pants are three black crosses arranged in a fancy overlapping pattern. Yellow sparkles fall behind him in a streak in the process. Also, the floating Keyblade before his left hand is held in place by a yellow aura surrounding Sora's hand and the primary Keyblade he is physically holding seems to have deep yellow electricity flowing through it.
-- In Limit Form, Sora's clothing changes to a longer version of that which he wore in the first Kingdom Hearts game and Chain of Memories: large yellow shoes, a white and black over jacket, and a red jumpsuit and a pair of white with yellow gloves. The only difference is that there are crown symbols on his pant legs. Although he has no glow in this form typically, his torso glows red and some specks of light fall off of him periodically.
-- In Anti Form, the only form without a Keyblade, Sora uses claws on his hands and feet for his attacks. Sora's skin and hair become ink black, his eyes glow yellow like a Heartless, and his clothes become black with blue accents. Furthermore, he constantly emits Darkness from his arms and back in the form of misty black and violet wisps. This form is very twitchy, often jumping from its legs while holding down with its hands.
-- In Final Form: Sora's clothes in this form are silver and black, with the symbols on his pants somewhat resembling an eye with a wind pattern. Each Keyblade seems to move with an arm, though when Sora stops moving they hover behind him. He never touches the ground unless he lands from a jump. Sora's hair and clothes slowly flow as if he is being held by the wind. His clothes also systematically glow brightly on and off for the duration of the time he is in the form. There are also two large sparkles of pure bright light that move randomly around Sora with a silver wisp following them. When Sora is standing still, the position of his Keyblades seem to represent folded angel wings. When he floats (walks/runs), they open, as if Sora is flying.
- Roxas can be seen in this picture. As for a written description, Roxas is in many ways physically similar to Sora. They have similarly fair skin, blue eyes, and spiky hair (though to different degrees), and are about the same height. However, Roxas' hair is golden blonde, akin to Ventus, rather than brown like Sora's. The front of his hair is more spiked toward the right side as if windswept, while the back is smoother and flakier. For clothing, he wears the customary black cloak of the Organization XIII, having abandoned the simulated Twilight Town's clothing that Ansem the Wise had made for him. The magical clothing is relatively simple, though infamous. It is a black, long-sleeved, double-chested, twin-tailed trench coat with a hood that, when up, shrouds his entire head in darkness. There is a large zipper that fastens the top and zips down to seal the coat, and silver drawstrings for the hood decorated with large silver beads handing from the end of each drawstring. A silver chain ornament adorned with four cylindrical silver beads fastens to a loop on either side of the collarbone region. He has atypical black sneakers, but also has black gloves, caused by the magic of the coat as well as. The legs of the coat are slightly close around him, while the shoulders are a bit protruded, just enough to be noticeable compared to other similar cloaks, but very close to that of Xigbar.

Weapons: The Keyblade. Sora has a wide variety of Keychains, though he primarily keeps to the Kingdom Key. This is a Keyblade with a silver blade and golden handle, and looks like an oversized key. The keychain is silver, a mouse head with large, round ears. When summoning this weapon, the initial manifestation is in the form of a flash of white light that forms into it. He received this weapon at the start of his first adventure as a result of having the light half of Ventus' heart kept within him.

Equipment:
- Keychains: Sora has all of the Keychains that are mandatory from the adventure of Kingdom Hearts II, as well as the Fenrir Keychain and some from the Sleeping Realm in Dream Drop Distance. He also has the majority of the materials for the Ultima Weapon, but for one or two remaining.
- Summon Charms: Has access to the Baseball (Chicken Little), Lamp (Genie), Ukelele (Stitch/Experiment 626), and Feather (Peter Pan and Tinker Bell) charms. However, he cannot use them on worlds where the associated character(s)' incarnation who is connected to the summon is present, such as being unable to use the Lamp Charm in Agrabah or the Feather Charm in Neverland.


Enlightenment: No.

History:
When Sora was young, his newly born heart encountered the injured one of Ventus, the boy having been left on Destiny Islands by the elderly Master Xehanort following the separation of Ventus from his dark half, Vanitas. Sora's heart offered to help Ventus restore his own until help was no longer needed, securing a bond between them that neither was aware of.

By the time Sora was five years old, he encountered a tall, dark haired young man (Terra) and a blue haired young woman (Aqua), two Keyblade wielders of the generation before him, on two separate occasions. Although he never spoke to Terra, only seeing him speak to Riku from afar, he did speak to Aqua. The young woman seemed to see a resemblance between her friendship with Terra and Ventus, and Sora's friendship with Riku. She told Sora to protect Riku if he ever fell into the hands of darkness, a request that Sora agreed to, but, being so young, did not fully understand, nor did he remember as he became older, simply following it regardless.

Some time later, Sora and Riku were resting on a beach. When they were preparing to go home, Sora suddenly felt sad, and shed a single tear. At Riku's comment about someone on another world possibly reaching out, sad, wanting to reach Sora due to a connection, Sora closed his eyes, reaching out with his heart and going into a Station of Awakening. Upon reaching Ventus' broken heart within, he conversed with it, agreeing to its request to become a part of Sora's in order to make it happy, and incorporating the heart into his own.

One year later, a mysterious little girl named Kairi came to their islands from another world (Radiant Garden). She was adopted by the mayor, and Sora and Riku quickly became friends with her. Another day, Sora and Riku found a small, hidden cave on their islands. They searched the "Secret Place" while discussing Kairi and the meteor shower that had recently fallen, and found a door with no handle at the back of that cave. Unable to open it, then both left, though Riku, unlike Sora, did see his world's Keyhole.

During their childhood, Sora, Riku, and Kairi often wondered about what lay beyond their small world. By the time they reached adolescence, they decided to build a raft, in the hopes of sailing to other worlds. The day when they started construction, Sora dozed off on the shore of the beach, and had an odd dream, truly an Awakening. The night before they set sail, a storm ravaged the island along with a strange, dark force. Riku succumbed to the force, claiming he was not afraid of the darkness it so clearly embodied, while Sora tried and failed to save his friend from the darkness. However, it was during the tempest that Sora first unlocked his hidden, atypical potential as a Keyblade wielder, summoning the power of the Kingdom Key to battle the Heartless that now infested his home. He made his way to the Secret Place where he found Kairi, who disappeared when their bodies met. In the battles, Sora was swept off the island and thrown into a Corridor of Darkness that threw him out to a world called Traverse Town.

In Traverse Town, Sora met Donald Duck and Goofy, the respective Royal Court Magician and Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle. Under orders from King Mickey Mouse, the pair were searching for two things: a mysterious 'key' (the Keyblade) and a man called Leon. As the King had disappeared in his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompany Sora and they started searching for their respective friends. Though his friend Riku was corrupted by the evil Maleficent in his own quest to find Kairi, Sora soldiered on, making countless new friends while increasing the power of his heart, thereby improving his Keyblade's power.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Riku confronted Sora and revealed to him that Riku himself was the true Keyblade master, explaining that Sora "was just the delivery boy". Riku then claimed the Keyblade for his own, summoning it away from Sora. Despite their guilt at doing so, Donald and Goofy were forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders: to stay with whoever has the Keyblade. With the help of the Beast, Sora caught up with Riku, Donald, and Goofy once more. Feeling guilty, Donald and Goofy returned to Sora's side. The Keyblade returned to Sora in a sudden surge of strength from his heart in comparison to Riku's. Enraged, Riku fought Sora and lost, escaping on his own.

After this, the party encountered Maleficent and defeated her twice, also learning that Riku, now possessed by a dark force, had obtained the Keyblade of People's Hearts, formed from six of the seven Princesses of Heart. Further into the depths of Hollow Bastion, Sora encountered Riku once more, who identified himself as "Ansem, Seeker of Darkness", who intends to find Kingdom Hearts itself. Although it was difficult fighting his best friend, Sora emerged victorious in the struggle.

Kairi's heart was apparently necessary to this "Ansem"'s goal, as a Princess of Heart, one of seven females across the worlds who had hearts of pure light. However, her heart remained within Sora, her body comatose, and the Keyhole unopenable. In order to return her heart and wake her up, Sora used the Keyblade of People's Hearts to remove both their hearts, sacrificing his humanity and becoming a Heartless, unknowingly creating Roxas and Naminé, the Nobodies of Sora and Kairi respectively. When he managed to reunite with Kairi after a brief stint as a Heartless, Kairi used her light to restore his human form, albeit still technically lacking his complete self. After regrouping in Traverse Town, Sora decided to return to Hollow Bastion to seal the Final Keyhole and reclaim Riku from the clutches of "Ansem". Kairi gave Sora her Wayfinder lucky charm (Oathkeeper's keychain) since he insisted that she should stay behind, even joking that she would be in his way.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy set sail to Hollow Bastion and sealed the Final Keyhole. The six Princesses of Heart then informed him of a new darkness approaching, and the trio traveled to End of the World, the "Heartless world" of all the worlds that fell into darkness, where they confronted and defeated "Ansem" once and for all. "Ansem", defeated, called forth to Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of darkness, but Sora was correct in believing that there was light within Kingdom Hearts, which destroyed the man.

However, Heartless began swarming inside of the door and Sora, Donald, and Goofy rushed forward to close it. As they attempted to close the Door to Darkness, Riku and King Mickey appeared on the other side and together, King Mickey and Sora seal it from both sides with Sora's Keyblade from the Realm of Light and Mickey's Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness. However, Mickey and Riku became trapped behind the door as it closed shut. Riku's last words to Sora before it closed were to take care of Kairi.

As the worlds began to restore themselves, Sora saw Kairi on a platform of sand that was drifting away. Kairi and Sora were separated, with Kairi going back to Destiny Islands. Sora promised to return to her as soon as he found Riku and King Mickey. Sora and his royal friends followed the King's dog, Pluto, to a large castle. Castle Oblivion, as it was called, had roomed of pure white, but the trio completely forgot all that transpired within it, waking up in a mansion one year later, Sora unknowingly restored to full humanity by his re-fusing with Roxas during his coma. Continuing their journey to find Riku and King Mickey, they set out traveling across new worlds, meeting old friends and enemies from the original journey while also making new friends. They continued the battle against the Heartless and, the remnants of the Organization XIII, a group of "Nobodies", bodies lacking hearts, an opposite to the Heartless. Soon after exploring Twilight Town, Sora and company headed to Yen Sid's Mysterious Tower, and Sora obtained new attire from Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather that enabled his ability to use Drive Forms powered by magic linked directly to his own heart, which is connected to everyone Sora had befriended. Sora's quest was complicated further when the Nobody Axel kidnapped Kairi from Destiny Islands. Pete the Cat (who worked for the resurrected Maleficent) and the Organization XIII were causing trouble in the other worlds, and King Mickey refused to give information regarding Riku.

After many worlds and adventures, Sora, with the help of Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Axel (who sacrificed his existence), managed to find the route to The World That Never Was, the stronghold of the Organization, where Kingdom Hearts, created by gathering the countless hearts from the Heartless slain by Sora's Keyblade, resided. Soon after entering the world however, in the area of Memory's Skyscraper, Sora's group was ambushed by Samurai Nobodies and Sora was forced into a showdown with an Organization member, who turned out to be Roxas (disguised in his former Organization XIII cloak) on a platform of Awakening, ultimately leading to their friendship's start.

Afterwards, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey stormed the Castle in search of their friends. Sora fought the Nobody Xigbar and soon defeated him, finding Kairi (with her own Keyblade) and Riku (with the appearance of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness) not long afterwards. Defeating Luxord and Saïx, Sora and company learned of his own connection to Roxas from Riku.

Sora, Riku, and the others encountered King Mickey and DiZ, now revealed to be the former ruler of Radiant Garden before it was taken over and renamed Hollow Bastion, Ansem the Wise, who was trying to absorb Kingdom Hearts into his machine and encode it as data. This attempt also was a sacrifice from Ansem the Wise, whose machine exploded not long after he apologized to Roxas through Sora for his behavior. The explosion seriously damaged the synthetic Kingdom Hearts, left no trace of Ansem the Wise, and returned Riku to his true body, instead of that of Xehanort's Heartless, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. Maleficent and Pete held off the approaching invasion of Heartless from the broken Kingdom Hearts while the heroes reached the top of the Alter of Naught, confronting Xemnas. After an intense battle, Roxas, Naminé, Sora, and Kairi spoke, with the latter two merging with the former two to become complete beings before everyone but Sora and Riku enter Naminé's Corridor of Darkness to escape the world. Unfortunately, before Sora and Riku can enter the Corridor, Xemnas attacked once again on the Captain's Seat of an enormous Dragon Nobody, the World of Nothingness. After one last, chaotic battle, Riku and Sora are stranded within the Realm of Nothingness. Miraculously, a bottle washed up on the shore of the Dark Margin where they sat upon reaching it, containing a letter from Kairi. Riku picked it up, and, after reading it, gave it to Sora, believing him to be the proper recipient. After reading it, the door to light appeared, and both Sora and Riku used it to return to their home world: Destiny Islands. Having brought Riku back home and reunited at last with all his friends in one piece, Sora was finally able to return Kairi's lucky charm to her.

Some time later, Kairi gave a bottle to Sora and Riku, one that she had found containing a letter from King Mickey. The trio read the letter, a request for Sora to help save others from their own suffering and defend the worlds even after his return home. Some time later, Sora decided to venture out on a new quest to find the others connected to him, and save them from their suffering. As he said goodbye to Kairi, she gave Sora her Wayfinder again, telling him, "See you soon".

Sora was eventually called by Yen Sid, to take a Mark of Mastery exam: an ancient rite of passage that was used when there were other Keyblade wielders to prove themselves as full fledged Keyblade Masters, accompanied by Riku. Together, they were tasked with entering the Realm of Sleep, and unlocking the seven Sleeping Keyholes to free the never before seen worlds within, and bring them back into the Realm of Light where they belonged. However, the two were separated after unlocking Destiny Island's Sleeping Keyhole.

Sora awoke in Traverse Town, and saw his completely new clothes that were a mixture of his older sets, with a silver X on the front. He immediately went searching for Riku, though he instead ran into Neku Sakuraba. After Neku explained the concept of Dream Eaters once more along with a "Game" he had to win and find his partner for, he led the duo to the Third District, where a figure in a familiar black cloak attacked. Although Sora tried to help (in spite of Neku saying he had brought them to the hooded figure intentionally), he quickly pass out. Upon awakening, he went further into the town, finding two entirely new districts. He found a little girl by the name of "Rhyme", who helped search for Neku, and accepted his apology when he gave it upon arrival. Soon after, he met with Joshua, another new boy from this Realm, and learned that this world was split in two; Sora was in one half, with Riku in the other.

Separately, Sora and Riku traversed several worlds, repeatedly seeing people in dark cloaks. In La Cité des Cloches ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame"), the figure removed his cloak hood, revealing himself as someone completely new, with yellow eyes, tanned skin, and white hair, but no pointy ears like others he'd known. He called Sora a hypocrite, since while he freed one prisoner, he kept others himself. Though this irritated him, what truly shocked Sora was that, for the briefest instant, he could see and hear a dark version of himself in a dark armor (Vanitas) beside the man. In The Grid ("Tron: Legacy", a relation to the world used to copy Space Paranoids), Sora met with the strange man in the black cloak once more, along with a surprisingly alive Xemnas. As Xemnas explained, programs in fact do not gain hearts by making connections with others. Furthermore, since there is no heart to reach here, Sora must be dreaming, and it was impossible to tell at this stage if he himself had his own memories, or if they were simply the memories of someone else that had imposed upon him. In Prankster's Paradise ("Pinocchio"), Xemnas talked about how the idea of Pinocchio, an artificial being, having a heart was fundamentally absurd. However, upon being told that Pinocchio was different from a Nobody, the Superior of the In Between said that Sora was not so different from Nobodies, confusing him again.

Following that world, he once again dropped down into Traverse Town. He met with Shiki, Neku's partner, and, with Joshua's help, managed to use the mirror world mechanics of the world to Riku to trap a Dream Eater summoner known as the Spellican. Although it escaped, he agreed to defeat it for the Traverse Town people (really just memories of those from their world of Shibuya except for Joshua, the only original of them), so they could beat their "Reaper's Game". After Neku invited himto come to Shibuya some day, Sora left once more. Although he did not see the dark figures in the Country of the Musketeers, Riku did help him to win in that world from his own side.

The last world on the journey's plans was the Symphony of Sorcery (a past of the Mysterious Tower), where Sora and Riku produced a "Sound Idea" that awakened the sleeping Mickey, still an apprentice at that point. On the way back to deliver the Sound Idea, Sora again came across the strange, black-cloaked man, alone this time. Although Sora kept asking after his identity, he merely asked if he still thought this was all part of the test, and called Sora a fool for believing he was still in the worlds' dreams instead of his own, perhaps to scare him. That said, he told Sora to meet him in a "place beyond sleep", and left once more.

To his surprise, the next world was The World That Never Was, which evidently had been forced into sleep after the defeat of Xemnas and the Organization XIII, and had not physically recovered, if the decrepit nature of the buildings was any indication. Since the test should have been complete, it had been sabotaged somehow to keep him here. Xigbar appeared, telling Sora that he had been lead by “them” the entire time, and that this had never been a test, instead that a new Organization had been leading him into a trap all along. Ten other figures appeared, and the mysterious silver haired man, one of them, forced Sora to Drop once more. Sora was forced to relive events from the past through a different perspective, followed and guided the entire time by that mysterious cloaked man, but too weak to fight him, only talking to him.

Through their discussion, Sora learned who the dark figure was: This was Xehanort from many decades into the past, before he had become a Heartless and Nobody, before all that had occurred. He also learned that, through the use of a form of time travel involving reliving events that a version of the same person had once seen (that is to say, himself, a past version of himself, a Nobody, a Heartless, or whatever it may be), enforcing a kind of destiny on the person and perhaps changing events, but not remembering having done so when returning to the traveler's own time unless it was after the point to which the travel was initially. Among other things, this Young Xehanort spoke of "the datascape" and other worlds, indicating that, as the appearances of himself and Xemnas in many areas indicated, Sora had been tracked all of this time for a plan that Xehanort in all of his incarnations (all of which had formed this new Organization in the first place) for a new plan that had been in motion from even before the moment Sora left Destiny Islands.

Eventually, as the memories caught up to his first time in The World That Never Was, Sora managed to chase after the memories of Donald and Goofy, off into the dream and away from the Young Xehanort. Not hearing Riku's shouts for him not to be "chasing dreams" well enough, he found someone who he believed to be Naminé. Before he could even ask a thing, Sora saw her transform into a girl who looked like Kairi when she was fourteen, with black hair and a black cloak. She looked upset, and he cried in spite of not knowing why, letting her go as he wiped away the tear. He chased after her through several areas of this ruined world, eventually finding Roxas instead.

When he found his Nobody, he confronted him about what was going on. Although the Key of Destiny gave no hint that he knew all of it himself, he did admit that Sora was him, and therefore knew what he felt. When Sora rejected that, saying that Roxas deserved to be his own person. When Roxas smiled in return, saying "that's why it has to be you", he then gave Sora all of his memories, incorporating into his body in the dream for his own purposes and causing Sora to feel even more aggression and anger over the Organization than ever before, knowing everything Roxas, Xion, and Axel had gone through. With that, he went onward. After seeing an illusion of Riku and Kairi, he chased it, transformed into a tall, dark haired man (Terra) and a blue haired woman he recognized from his youth as a four year old (Aqua), also seeing himself as someone who looked like Roxas with strange clothes, all of them having some kind of silver shoulderplate on the left shoulder. The hallucination stopped, however, and he continued on, still ignoring calls from Riku in his head until he approached Xigbar and Xemnas.

There, they told him of the true purpose of Organization XIII, of the new one that had been determined. As Sora had discovered from the emotions of the memories he had been given by Roxas, Nobodies did indeed have emotions, gained from interacting with others. However, if they rejected those emotions, a new heart would not grow. Indeed, many of the Organization XIII members that were initially there did have hearts, or at least were starting to form them. Sora's purpose in Castle Oblivion, one he had forgotten, had been to get rid of the failures to Xehanort's schemes, as had Riku at the same time. Sora was suitably enraged by this revelation, but even moreso by the reason why Xemnas lied about the truth of Nobodies: so that, by a link to Xehanort, he could infuse a copy of Xehanort's own heart into worthy vessels until he had thirteen. Xigbar himself admitted to being "half-Xehanort", and the two of them ridiculed Sora for being the wielder of a Keyblade only because he had the heart of someone who actually deserved it. However, he said that even if he didn't deserve it, he was proud to be connected to the hearts of those who do, frightening Xigbar temporarily into leaving, and causing Xemnas to fight him.

Following the end of that fight, although he had managed to defeat (though not destroy) Xemnas, Sora still collapsed in exhaustion, darkness rising from his body as his heart weakened from the shock and trauma of all that he had endured in this journey. The Young Xehanort came to him, explaining the silver X on his clothing, the same as the ones in names of the first Organization XIII. Aside from being connected to the X-blade, it was known as the Recusant's Sigil, and was a way to mark where Sora was so that they could track him. He also noted that Sora would be their thirteenth vessel, and that his heart and mind would fall into an endless sleep while his body would be used for a thirteenth Xehanort to complete part of their goal, which he, however, did not state. While Sora passed into unconsciousness in the darkness, his connection to Ventus allowed the similarly comatose Keyblader to lend him his Keyblade Armor, a defense against the darkness as he lay on his Station of Awakening, unable to wake up as his body was taken to Where Nothing Gathers, the meeting chamber of the Organization XIII.

Riku, as it turns out, had been on a Drop within Sora's heart himself respectively, having been concerned for him following seeing the cloaked figure in Destiny Islands. Therefore, he had actually been a had been "Spirit" within Sora's dreams, countered by "Nightmares". Riku, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, and even Lea came to Sora's aid within his dreams as the full might of the True Organization XIII formed and gathered, including Master Xehanort. Riku still had to help Sora more after defending him, fighting his armored body possessed by the darkness around him until it fell, and meeting with a data copy of Ansem the Wise hidden within Sora's own heart with his research data as a precaution. In celebration after the victory, Sora and his friends had a large party in Yen Sid's tower, which Riku learned upon awakening as well.

As Sora learned, Master Xehanort needed thirteen Seekers of Darkness and seven Guardians of Light to clash in order to make the X-blade, but the original light of the X-blade had been severed into seven pieces, one in each Princess of Heart, causing their purity of heart. Sora was to be the last darkness, but Lea had stopped that, in doing so revealing Isa or Saïx to be another Xehanort, explaining his cruelty. The Seekers would attack the Princesses to plunge the worlds into darkness, so the "Lights" had to fight the "Darknesses" in any case, making the Keyblade War that Xehanort had sought for so long seemingly inevitable. However, it seemed as though Kairi was completely unexpected to be able to defend herself. Therefore, Yen Sid opted to call upon that last plan.

In truth, Sora had failed his test, having fallen to darkness in The World That Never Was in spite of fulfilling all else. Riku, on the other hand, had passed, being named a true Keyblade Master. Sora opted to go into the Sleeping Worlds once more some day to retrain and earn his Mark of Mastery, but was still overjoyed for Riku, and even more surprised to hear and see that even Lea had become a Keyblade Wielder, albeit not knowing how to use one reliably yet.

The heroes went their separate ways, with Mickey going back to his castle, Donald and Goofy roaming around the worlds near the Tower, and Lea going back to Radiant Garden to see the revived, recompleted, and seemingly kinder Aeleus and Ienzo, along with the still sleeping Even and Dilan and the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee.

For now, however, Sora is trying to keep helping anyone he can, trying to keep himself in fighting condition for a new Mark of Mastery, or perhaps to fight the true Organization XIII without the status of a true Master.


Sample Post:
(The following takes place during the final level with Sora in the time of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, and has mentions of how things went there.)

Sora was lost.

He didn't know how much time had passed since the last time he had seen that younger Xehanort. Returning to the bizarre version of this Dark City, partially destroyed from the battle he, Alexander, and Riku had had with Xemnas, he had still been with Audrey, having been Dropping with her for all of the previous Sleeping Worlds after the issue with Destiny Islands where he had been separated from Kairi and Riku.

He thought he'd found Naminé, but she seemed to transform into a dark haired girl who looked like Kairi in a black cloak akin to the Organization XIII, then run away, leaving him surprised. He didn't know why, but he had begun crying as she left, having to take a moment for himself. However, upon chasing in the direction she had gone again, he had only run into more Nightmares. Although he had managed to fight them off, it didn't really help him to get to her.

Finally, however, his chasing led to something. He came into what appeared to be a courtyard, or rather a cliff. In this bizarre world, it seemed hard to tell the difference. "Hey, wait up!" The Keyblader dismissed his weapon in a flash of light from where it had been on his right shoulder from the previous fight, and stopped, standing behind a figure in a black cloak who was about his height, the hood pulled up, and the person facing away from him. He had an idea as to who this was, judging from the knowledge he had obtained before, back in the computer in Twilight Town.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The figure's hands then came to the sides of the hood, pulling it back, dropping it behind the boy as he turned to face the Keyblader.

Short, spiked blonde hair. Blue eyes. Fair skin. This person was very familar to Sora indeed, but he just grinned a bit rather than greet him. It wasn't really necessary, anyway.

The brown-haired Keyblader was shocked. "You're... Roxas."

Roxas simply let him figure the rest out on his own.

"But... how can you be here? Am I dreaming?"

A black-gloved hand up, shaking side to side. More or less, it seemed to say. But not quite there yet.

A deep breath to keep calm from Sora now, waving his arms slightly in frustration. "Come on, say something!"

The grin faded slightly as the former Key of Destiny spoke, solemn. "This could have been the other way around."

An eyebrow was raised in confusion. "...huh?"

Roxas just grinned slightly again. "It really has to be you."

Now the confusion was made plain. "W-what do you mean?"

The Nobody's left hand reached to Roxas' own chest, stopping before it. "There are so many hearts connected to yours." His eyes closed for a moment, then opened again as he let the arm down. "You're me, so you can feel what I felt."

Sora just sighed, looking down and shaking his head. "...No." Only then did he look straight at him, defiant to his words, eyes narrowed, arms coming up to his sides in gesture. "Roxas, you're you." He looked down again, seeming upset. "We're not the same." At that, he looked to the Nobody's eyes again. "I wanted to tell you that. That you deserve as much as I do to be your own person."

Roxas gasped at that, eyes widening... but then smirked, relaxing again. "Sora, see?" He leaned forward. "That's why it has to be you." He stepped forward, taking Sora's hands.

Sora tilted his head in confusion. "Wha--?"

Suddenly, he could see it. All of it. He could see a flash of light... and then everything seemed to bombard his mind at once, his body shaking and his eyes straining, but unable to move, unable to look away, even as Roxas seemed to vanish within that light.

They seemed to come in the form of bubbles, with pictures and scenes within them. Three hundred and fifty eight days of conflict, of anguish, of friendship and tearing apart, of betrayal and pain, all coming down on him at once. Of those last seven days in the simulation, of the comments of Darkness in Zero, known also as Ansem the Wise.

He could see Xaldin, Saïx, and many other members, hurting him every step of the way. He could see Xemnas above it all, working with Saïx to make his life miserable for his own devices. He could see Axel, his friendship and his rage both.

He hated them. Hated the Organization for what it had made Roxas do, hated Ansem the Wise for what he had done, although he did forgive him from his attempt to atone, hated all of the people who had manipulated Roxas, had manipulated a section of himself as far as they could tell at the same time as they manipulated Sora in Castle Oblivion, as he could now see as well, to some minor degree.

Finally... finally it stopped. The light faded, the visions stopping. It seemed like forever, but was likely not long. He took a breath, letting himself calm down as he looked down... and saw that Roxas was no longer there. Had he incorporated into him within this somehow? If so, he wasn't saying anything. Not even an apology, or anything of the sort. His arms came down as he sighed. "Not again..."

He also noticed his clothes, having changed back to his Sleeping Worlds ones again. When had they changed, to make that difference? Maybe when the young Xehanort had come to him?

Xehanort. He hated him as well, in all of his incarnations. "Did they cause all this pain?"

The hand curled into a fist, the other doing the same, and he threw them out to his sides, elbows in, as he screamed to the sky with a greater aggression than he had previously known.

"What do you want me to see?!"

Roxas had done as DiZ had asked so long ago. He had given Sora his rage, his memories, his emotions as a whole, as he had found his way inside, renewed as a being of his own. Of course, Sora was still too nice for his own good, but at least he would now understand both sides that they held.

And perhaps he would learn the truth about what those emotions truly meant.