Aqua and Y landed in a desolate wasteland. As far as the eye could see keyblades were stabbed into the ground. A path was cleared between the keys, eventually making a crossroads. Y looked around in awe. Her chest felt tight as she slowly realized. All of these keys used to belong to someone. Someone who had died. A tear escaped her eyes and fell down her cheeks as her eyes landed on a pink key with a swirling rod crossed with a key that reminded Y of lightning.

Aqua summoned her keyblade. Y looked at her in surprise before following her lead. She felt a strange hum quake along the blade when she drew it. Perhaps the key knew this place. Perhaps the key was sad too.

"The four of us will always be one." Aqua said not looking at Y. Y nodded and looked ahead. She took a steadying breath before speaking.

"Friends, no family, until the end." Y said softly.

Aqua and Y began walking down the path toward the crossroads. Y soon saw another figure standing at the crossroads watching them approach. As they got closer Y realized it was Terra. He looked much older than the last time she had seen him. His blue eyes were filled with sadness and pain that Y had never thought he would have to see.

"I was told, the Master was struck down." Aqua said as they reached Terra. The sadness in his eyes only grew.

"Yes, that's right. I was stupid and helped Xehanort do it." Terra admitted with a strained voice. Aqua gasped in shock. Y could only try to remember how to breathe. "The Master, he tried to hurt Ven. I only fought because I wanted to protect him. But I was tricked. Xehanort set the whole thing up, all so he could awaken the darkness inside me. You were right, Aqua, and so was the Master. I did need to be watched. I went astray, but no more." Terra continued. Aqua looked down and shook her head sadly. Like Terra she suddenly seemed much older. This journey had changed them.

"What else is darkness but hate and rage? Xehanort is feeding the dark fires within you, making you fight. You'll go astray again. Tell me, how does that honor our Master's memory, Terra?" Aqua asked. Terra didn't reply. Y sighed and shook her head.

"Guys. It doesn't matter. Everyone has darkness, and we have a right to be angry. Xehanort might have started this. But it's up to us to finish it now. Darkness or not." Y said firmly. Terra looked away from her and took in a shocked breath. Y looked where he was looking. She wasn't surprised to see Ven slowly making his way toward them.

Ven stopped beside Terra looking down at the ground. He took a deep breath before sharing his news.

"Xehanort wants me and Vanitas to fight and make some kind 'X-blade'. But the Master said we can't let that happen, and he tried to destroy me for it." Ven explained. Y felt her heart clench at the name of the weapon. That couldn't be a good thing.

"X-blade?" Aqua asked in confusion.

"I still don't know exactly what it is. But it scares me to death. Even just the thought of it." Ven admitted. Y reached out and took his hand without a thought. Ven didn't return the pressure right away. He eventually did and Y felt herself release a breath she hadn't known she was holding. They had been together through so much. Training with Master Eraqus. Fighting Unversed in Radiant Gardens. Helping out in Olympus Coliseum. Chasing pirates in Never Land. Getting lost in the maze at Disney Town. Y felt her face heat up at the thought of that memory. It would be a shame for things to end here.

"Relax, Ven. We're here and we're gonna take care of you." Terra said calmly, bringing Y out of her thoughts.

"I may have to fight Vanitas after all. If I do, guys, I want you to-" Ven began. Terra cut him off before he could finish. Y was glad Terra did. She knew where that was going.

"The four of us can never be torn apart, all right? I'll always find a way." Terra insisted. Ven just shook his head.

"I'm asking you, as a friend. Just, put an end to me." Ven said. Y tightened her grip on Ven's hand making him look up at her. When his eyes met hers she was struck with the same thought she had had when she saw the other two's eyes. They looked older.

"No. We all go down or none of us do. There is no other choice." Y said simply. Ven parted his lips as if he meant to say something but he closed his mouth and nodded slowly.

A sudden bit of wind made the group of four look up. They all tensed up when they saw two others approaching from the last fork of the crossroads. One was clearly Xehanort. The old man was leaned forward as always his hands behind his back. To his left side was X. The blonde Heartless was clearly more at ease here than he had ever been any other time they had seen him. All the tenseness in his shoulders that Y hadn't noticed until now was gone. His purple eyes were lazily surveying over the group. They landed on Y and lit up with malicious intent. Even more so when he saw her hand in Ven's.

Vanitas appeared suddenly beside Xehanort on the right side. The group of three walked to the crossroads and stopped. There was a tense silence as each side waited for the other to make the first move.

"Behold... These lifeless keys used to be full of power, united with the hearts of their masters. On this barren soil, keyblades of light and darkness were locked in combat as a great keyblade war raged. Countless keyblade wielders gave up their lives, all in search of one, ultimate key. And it will soon belong to me..." Xehanort said motioning to the keys around them. He smirked and pointed to Ven "X-blade." He said simply.

"Technically that's Ventus." X said calmly his voice playful. He glanced around Xehanort to see Vanitas. "We still have Vanitas, too." He continued. Xehanort glared at X, but he only laughed and looked up to the sky. "Patience old man. She'll be here, I can already hear her." He said. Y frowned. What could he mean? Who was she?

Y didn't put much thought into it. In unison, all four equipped their armor. Y was sorry to let go of Ven's hand. But she guessed it was time to fight. Ven was the first to rush forward. Before he could get very far Tera pushed him back and jumped forward himself. As Terra was about to swing his keyblade at Xehanort the old man raised his hand and brought up a tower of rock that sent Terra skidding across the ground. Xehanort and Vanitas rose up on yet another spire of earth. But Y didn't pay attention to them. Her eyes had locked onto her brother.

X smirked at her and raised one of his hands. He curled his fingers toward himself with a mocking smirk on his face. Y ground her teeth together before she jumped toward him. She heard Aqua cry out to her, but she ignored it. It was time to end this.

X dodged Y's first strike and jumped away into the sea of keyblades. Y followed him swinging her key and trying to land a hit. X continued to dodge her every move. They had trained together for too long as children. He knew all her tricks.

"Light!" Y cried hoping at least one of the light beams would hit X. She was lucky and one did. X skidded to a halt beside a keyblade made of dark swirls. X looked up at her a smirk still on his face. Y felt her blood boil. She'd do anything to make him lose that smirk.

"I hate you." Y hissed. She felt tears streaming down her face under her helmet. But she wouldn't let him know that. It would only fuel his mockery. X was frowning tilting his head from side to side and looking up as if weighing Y's words. He looked back to Y with the same smirk he had had the entire fight.

"Nah, not possible." X decided.

"That's where you're wrong. If you were still my brother I wouldn't but you're not him anymore. You're just a monster that wears his face." Y said fighting to keep herself calm. X laughed and shook his head. Y realized suddenly. This was a game. He was playing with her.

"Such a chatterbox. Always thought that was annoying." X said. He looked back at her once again his smirk gone. It was replaced with a look that made Y's skin crawl. Like he was deciding how best to kill her. How to tear her into little tiny pieces.

"What do you intend to do here? Why does he want the X-blade so badly?" Y asked hoping to spare herself sometime. She needed to make a plan. She couldn't take him out without one.

"You feel it, don't you?" X asked in return. Y frowned looking at him with a frown. "The tie to that cursed blade. If we get the key we can open the door." X continued to explain calmly.

"The door?" Y asked. What he said, though it sounded like nonsense Y knew it wasn't. That was the feeling her keyblade had. It was telling her something was here. Something was coming.

"Kingdom Hearts." X said. Y's eyes widened in shock.

"Are you suicidal? Of everything to desire." Y said in disbelief. X shrugged his hands going up as well to exaggerate the motion.

"I don't care about what the old coot wants. He wants to destroy the worlds, who gives a damn? I don't." X said. He paced around weaving between the keyblades as he did so. Y watched him, carefully calculating her next move. "I don't care about anything anymore. If we open Kingdom Hearts, everything will be fixed. We'll get salvation. So what if a few worlds fall and a few wielders die. At least I'll be your brother again, and not this hollow shell. Actually, not even a hollow shell. Just the remains of his pitch-black heart. Wouldn't you rather have him back over a few worlds and these new friends?" X asked turning to face Y. Y glared at him.

"No. I'd rather have it all." Y said simply. X laughed looking at her with his playful smirk yet again.

"Greedy little princess. This'll be fun to break you." X decided.

Y shot forward and pulled several keyblades from the ground and threw them toward X. X ducked and jumped back. Y shot forward to hit him but was surprised when he key clashed with a piece of metal that wasn't X's daggers. Y jumped back and looked at X. She gasped when she saw in his hands was a keyblade. The rod was made of swirling patterns. The teeth of the key was a crescent moon-like shape with three spikes on the inside. X was looking at the keyblade with interest.

"How can you do that? How do you have a keyblade?" Y asked. X laughed and shook his head.

"Look around you sister mine," X said motioning to the thousands of keys around them. "They're everywhere, not hard to pick one up and cast it aside." He continued. He stabbed the black key back into the ground and summoned his daggers.

X was next to move, pushing Y back. Y quickly found his rhythm and countered with her own string of attacks. X was able to turn the attacks on Y quickly. It was no surprise that he could do that as easily as Y. He still had a remnant of her twin. And that meant they were still like one soul in two bodies.

Y once gain threw several keyblades at her brother. X easily wove through them and launched at her. His daggers sparked off her armor, but Y still felt the force through her entire body. X laughed a little as he stepped back. His eyes were looking over at the other fights.

"Your little boyfriend looks to be struggling. Wonder if he's worried about you." X said calmly.

"Shut up." Y snapped and shot forward again. With a blast of magic X was thrown back into the hilt of a keyblade that looked something like a sword with a unicorn on its hilt. X groaned in pain, but it quickly turned into a laugh.

"Really got to stop getting stabbed in the back by that one." He remarked offhandedly. Y frowned at his words but didn't give it much thought.

She attacked again trying to gain the upper hand. X responded with smashing the front of her helmet in. Y jumped back and pulled off the helmet. Some of the glass and metal had shattered back, cutting her face. X smirked once again.

"You were crying. How sweet." X said. Y didn't respond. X rolled his eyes once again. "You know, the armors a little unfair. I can't really get a good hit and you're tearing me up." He continued.

"You should know I don't fight fair." Y said. X chuckled bitterly and sighed.

"Yeah." He agreed. Within the blink of an eye X was suddenly in front of Y holding her up by her throat. Y gasped for air and dropped her key so she could claw at X's hands. X laughed at her and shook his head. "I'm sick of playing with you. What do you say we get this show on the road?" He asked. Y only gasped.

X laughed and pulled back his other hand. With a great deal of force, he forced his hand past the armor into Y's chest. Y gasped once again but stopped struggling. It was so cold. Like ice was flooding through her veins. Y slowly closed her eyes and stopped struggling. It was ok she guessed. They were twins after all. What's hers was his, and what's his was hers. Why should their hearts be any different?

X frowned as he pulled out his hand. He released Y's throat and dropped her onto the ground. Y fell over and laid on the ground her breath slowly coming to a halt. In X's hand was a small orb of white light. It was smaller than the last heart X had taken. The heart in his hand slowly blew away as dust in the wind. Above the battlefield, the clouds parted revealing a blue heart-shaped moon. X looked up at the moon with a smirk.

A cry of pain caused X to jerk his head to the side. He managed to just avoid an attack from Aqua. X groaned in annoyance.

"You are not my problem. Was Braig really so useless he couldn't beat you?" X asked.

"Bring her back. Bring her back now." Aqua demanded. X rolled his eyes and stepped back.

"It doesn't work that way. She's gone. And she's not going to come back no matter how much you beg." He said calmly. He waited for Aqua to attack but she didn't. She was shaking, tears streaming freely down her face.

"She was your sister." Aqua said. X laughed.

"Then you shouldn't be surprised." He said. He stepped back and summoned a dark corridor. He stepped inside the corridor and saluted Aqua. "See you on the other side. Maybe." He said as he vanished into the darkness.

His part was done, now it was up to the other two.

~~~~~~~~~~*<3*~~~~~~~~~~
A/N: And that's it for the final battle, my friends. There are a couple more chapters after this that will only add to the pain. As I predicted I cried at least once writing this. It was a long-awaited chapter to write and really I'm pretty proud of how it turned out. X really was an asshole this entire chapter. I think he broke or something cause that was really weird. Anyway, a couple more chapters that I already have done and then it's on to Kingdom Hearts II. Finally!