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Fanfic / Keys to the Kingdom (Kingdom Hearts)

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Thirteen Keys, scattered across the worlds. Whoever holds them all is destined to rule the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. As both light and darkness scour the worlds for these keys, Sora finds himself caught between standing alongside his friends as they fight for the light and struggling against the encroaching darkness invading his own heart.

Keys to the Kingdom is a Kingdom Hearts fanfiction written by MiniJen (famous for creating Universe Falls) primarily based off Kingdom Hearts III, though it utilizes a significantly different/original plot despite following the basic structure of the game as the conclusion to the "Dark Seeker Saga".

Not to be cofused with the actual Keys to the Kingdom book series.

Keys to the Kingdom provides examples of:

  • Adaptational Angst Upgrade:
    • If you already read Universe Falls,invoked Word of God says there will be just as much angst here. Most notably, Sora will become Xehanort's thirteenth and final vessel. In the story itself so far...
    • Sora is shown to legitimately feel crushed about his failing the Mark of Mastery exam, something that he seemed to bounce back from fairly well in the game. Likewise, he's shown to be resentful of Riku for passing and later made The Leader of the Guardians of Light, and suffers from PTSD after Maleficent tries to turn him into her Heartless slave, a process that involved a long, drawn-out torture session involving poisonous magic. Plus, there's the fact that he's slowly becoming a vessel of Xehanort, which only serves to mentally screw up his thought process on the above even more.
  • Adaptation Deviation: Ignoring what is essentially an original story using the bare-frame of III, most of the worlds visited in this story generally follow along the lines of their canon portrayals as is usual for Kingdom Hearts, though two have major differences from their origin and portrayal in the game.
    • For the former point, the Gravity Falls world takes place in an unspecified point of canon after Ford's return, and likewise ends with the Rift being sealed by the Keyblade (as it acts as the Heart of that world), thus preventing Weirdmaggeddon from taking place. The canon ending of the show still goes through however.
    • For the latter point, Frozen is a much more in-depth story compared to the game, fully integrating Sora, Kairi, and Larxene into the plot of the movie instead of the characters keeping their distance, and builds off from there.
  • Adaptational Karma: Unlike the original, Master Xehanort gets a well-deserved punishment. Sora, now possessed by the Kingdom, forces him to suffer what his victims went through before being obliterated.
  • Adaptational Nice Guy: Pete is a much better person in this fic, being shown not to be on board with Maleficent's worst plans. He also later lets Sora go free when he is captured by Maleficent, though this was part of her plan.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: As seen in the tags of Archive Of Our Own:
    • Sora and Riku are bisexual, forming a One True Threesome with Kairi.
    • Lea and Isa are gay.
  • Adaptation Expansion:
    • In terms of worlds, a much larger number appear compared to the game; Up, Moana, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Coco, Cinderella, The Princess and the Frog, Aladdin and the King of Thieves, Gravity Falls, Lilo & Stitch, and 101 Dalmatians are featured alongside worlds that appeared in Kingdom Hearts III. Characters from Ducktales 2017 will also appear here.
    • Tangled and Frozen (2013) likewise, are much more expansive as well. The former has Sora and co. be more involved in the film's plotline, and it also contributes to the story's Myth Arc thanks to Marluxia managing to force out Rage Form from Sora, which causes Donald and Goofy to learn more about the internal secrets Sora has been keeping from them. As for the latter, it serves as more of a cap-off of Sora being a fugitive, with heavy emphasis on the parallels between himself and Elsa, which both come to realize.
    • When Kairi visits Radiant Garden to see Merlin, the Restoration Committee make a brief appearance. They later become more recurring as the location is visited more.
    • Aqua and Ventus properly enter the story at a much earlier point than they do in Kingdom Hearts III, allowing them to participate more in the plot preceding the events at the Keyblade Graveyard. Terra likewise, is freed earlier from Xehanort's control, thus giving him a similar larger role.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Let's just say the villains are much nastier in this story...
    • Maleficent's more active role in the story also results in her returning to her KHI-levels of villainy and surpassing them. Focusing on Sora's Rage Form, she makes several attempts at bringing him under control, using such charming and easily-dealt with methods such as poisoning, starvation, and magic-based torture. While Sora is out on the run once his secret is fully revealed, she also uses his Rage Mode to torment a town in her home world, and after Pete betrays her, hunts down Sora herself in a final stand that sees her die.
    • Organization XIII's collective members are likewise more vicious towards Sora and co. showcasing none of their canon doubts and acting much more petty around Sora once he becomes a vessel, and they are eager for payback. Demyx, Marluxia, and Larxene take special notice; the former stays a pathetic, petty villain throughout, while the latter two take glee in tormenting Sora and his friends, keyblade wielder and Disney denizen alike.
    • Master Xehanort is perhaps the crowning achievement; any doubts of him being a Well-Intentioned Extremist as KHIII had tried to depict him as fade away in this story. Much more emphasis is placed on how his goals will cause the end of all existence, and his Lack of Empathy for killing everyone something which gains emphasis near the climax where the effects of Kingdom Hearts awakening are seen on all of the worlds visited; i.e. mass destruction is given greater focus. And as Sora's grandfather, the abuse he heaps on his grandchild, and the lack of love towards his family, is emphasized greatly. He ultimately dies forced to face all of his sins, instead of peacefully passing on with Eraqus.
  • Adapted Out:
    • Pirates of the Caribbean and Monsters, Inc. will not be included here due to the former world being disliked by Jen and the latter not fitting well into the story.
    • The plot point of Subject X and other minor plot points from III have been deleted, in favor of focusing more on the established cast. Xehanort's Heartless for example, when coming to attack Ansem the Wise, wants him so as to focus on potentially enabling Organization XIII to get their hands on Namine so as to use her memory-alteration powers once again.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Not quite as bitter as the game, despite the Darker and Edgier tone throughout. Just like in canon, Xehanort's schemes are stopped and the worlds are saved, with everyone adjusting to a new status quo...where Sora has seemingly ascended to Kingdom Hearts. However, it's shown that Kingdom Hearts is not quite as benevolent as it seems, and is only interested in keeping Sora there and preventing him from leaving or doing anything to help the worlds. Something that the Master of Masters forces to happen so that he can escape. However, Sora rejects Kingdom Hearts itself and returns to the Destiny Islands to be with Riku and Kairi once again. As such, while the story ends on a somber tone, it is certainly more sweet and conclusive than III. Even if Kingdom Hearts promises him leaving will not go unpunished, and the Master of Masters likely has his own schemes
  • The Chains of Commanding: Riku is placed as leader of the Guardians of Light, and soon finds himself having to deal with this, beginning from having to deal with how each individual works (Lea and Sora being loose cannons), his own methodology in dealing with the problems of each world, and having to discipline Sora after learning about the existence of Rage Form and the other secrets Sora has been keeping from him, sans Norting.
  • Darker and Edgier: Quickly becomes this compared to the game, owing to Sora's psychological torment as he's slowly turned into a Xehanort vessel, along with his physical torment and the increased violence and character drama in the story as a whole.
  • Decon-Recon Switch: Concerning Sora's character.
    • The fic goes to great lengths to explore his personality as presented in canon, notably taking notice of his All-Loving Hero traits and how throughout the games, he Can't Refuse the Call Anymore and is The Chosen One. The story showcases how these events serve to boil over; Sora is just a teenager who has been thrown into one dangerous situation after another, each escalating as Master Xehanort's plans continue to come to fruition; while canon brushed off Sora potentially becoming Master Xehanort's vessel, this story showcases how that process actually happening tears Sora's psychology apart and brings these issues to the surface. Sora may be an All-Loving Hero...towards other people, we've never seen how he views himself. As it turns out, Sora is full of deep self-loathing partly because he keeps putting the needs of others before his own, and having to deal with ever-worsening crisis's did not help, and was why he refused to divulge that Xehanort was taking him over.
    • At the same time, the fact that Sora is very capable of caring about other people is also highlighted; the fact that despite his degrading mental state, he still strived to help others in every world, whether they were strangers or people he met in previous adventures, and never truly desired to hurt his friends (even the maiming of Riku is clearly shown to be an accident), compared to the sociopathic Xehanort who actively desires to destroy every world, and is the root cause of much of Sora's current misery. His friends are primarily motivated to help him, and will always care about him no matter what drama or suffering they undergo.
  • Death by Adaptation: Several characters who survived to the end of III die in this story.
    • Ansem the Wise is the first to get this, being Killed Offscreen after being captured by Organization XIII unlike in canon, for his refusal to help them in their schemes.
    • Later on, Maleficent gets this after reaching her wits end to make Sora's Rage Form her personal slave. Karma ensues since she ends up getting killed by said Rage Form while the Lights try to comfort Sora with a party.
  • Demonic Possession: Courtesy of Bill Cipher, who possesses Sora after the latter refuses to give him the Rift, which also turns out to be the heart of the Gravity Falls world.
  • Does This Remind You of Anything?: Sora's state of mind when Scrooge sets up an impromptu mission to find the Key to Return Hearts in Twlight Town is essentially suicidal ideation in all but name. He takes the Key, runs away from his friends, holes himself up in an isolated place where he cannot be easily reached, mentally apologizes to his loved ones...and then stabs himself with the Key.
  • Downer Ending
    • The first mission for the Guardians of Light as a team, taking place at Beast's Castle ends in complete failure. The Key associated with the world has fallen into Organization XIII's hands, and Sora's personal difficulties end up catching Riku's attention, resulting in a nasty argument that forces Riku to pull weight as leader and keep a closer eye on Sora, much to the latter's despair, rage, and worry. The one upside is that at the very least, the Beast's curse has been lifted, but even that is marred by the above.
    • The mission at New Orleans ends in a similar fashion to Beast's Castle. Mainly in that while the native characters to the world get their happy ending, the Glamour spell cast on Sora to hide his corruption from Xehanot is dispelled through a hex cast by Doctor Facilier, causing him to panic and run away from the other Guardians before they can find out, leading to...
    • When the Key to Return Hearts is suddenly located in Twilight Town thanks to Scrooge, it at first seems everything is all right, until Sora has a complete mental breakdown, runs off with the Key, eventually retreats to the virtual Twilight Town copy, and stabs himself with it in a desperate attempt to free Roxas and Xion in what may as well be a suicide attempt.
    • The Gravity Falls world at first seems to have a happy ending, with the Rift acting as that world's keyhole, enabling it to be sealed permanently, but just as soon as that is done, Sora runs off again, and before Roxas and Ventus can convince him to come back to the Lights, Xemnas attacks the two so furiously that Sora willingly surrenders to him to keep the two safe. The end result is Sora being taken to Master Xehanort, his conversion into a vessel nearly complete.
    • The Lilo and Stitch world also ends terribly. Sora ends up scarring Riku during an emotional breakdown/confrontation, and runs off once again, leaving Riku completely despondent.
  • Heroic BSoD: Riku ends up in one after the events in the Lilo and Stitch world, having failed to get Sora back and being scarred as a result. Of course, it's more his failure to save Sora that gets him more than the injury.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Deconstructed to Hell and back with Sora, whose attitude towards this is called out on and causes many problems throughout the story.
    • First, concerning Sora's hopes to save Roxas and Xion by the time of the mission to find the Key to Return Hearts. Yes, while it's not dissimilar to what he did in the first game to save Kairi, his deteriorating mental state causes him to equate the act of suicide as a noble thing, and that he deserves to die, essentially. Donald and Goofy of course are having none of that, but Sora's Power Incontinence makes them unable to interfere with him actually doing it in the end.
    • Later on, he does it again to save Roxas and Ventus from Xemnas, though less fatal, it essentially means joining the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness and forsaking any chance of being saved or helped.
  • Hope Spot: Terra manages to find Sora during the latter's self-imposed exile and almost manages to get him to come home to the Lights, only for a mysterious hand to push Aqua out into the open. As Terra had convinced Sora he was alone, this flares up Sora's paranoia and causes him to run away again. A similar situation happens when it seems that Riku has almost gotten through to Sora in the Lilo and Stitch world, but Donald and Goofy's calling out for Riku elicits the same reaction and causes Sora to break down even more, attacking and scarring Riku in the process.
    • Perhaps the bigger one is Kairi's attempt to get Sora back to the Lights. Unlike Terra and Riku, Kairi actually succeeds in convincing Sora. However, when the Lights attempt to confront Xehanort for possessing Sora shortly afterwards, they're swept away by the Demon Tide. And right afterwards, Sora officially becomes one of Xehanort's Seekers of Darkness. Really, the latter half of the fic should be called "Hope Spot: The Fanfiction".
  • Hostage Situation:
    • While in Corona, Marluxia threatens to kill Rapunzel to force Sora to hand over the Key he's just obtained.
    • Later on, in Gravity Falls, Bill-possessed!Sora threatens to kill Stan and the Pines Twins if Ford does not give him the rift. Thankfully, Roxas intervenes.
  • Hourglass Plot: In the first game, Riku being too deadset on escaping the Destiny Islands got him to suffer Sanity Slippage and later being overwhelmed by the power of darkness and getting possessed by Xehanort while Sora was essentially The Hero believing in light. Now, the positions have in many ways reversed. Riku has matured signficantly and has become The Leader of the Guardians of Light, while Sora is the one suffering from Sanity Slippage and being overwhelmed by the power of darkness, owing to Xehanort's influence managing to infect his heart.
  • Locked Out of the Loop:
    • Sora is dead set against Riku in particular finding out about both Maleficent capturing him and about what the Organization is doing to convert him into their thirteenth vessel. Unfortunately, Riku finds out in the aftermath of the failed mission at Beast's Castle and is understandably pissed.
    • None of the heroes know that Xehanort's conversion of Sora into a vessel is what is actually allowing them to find the Keys.
  • Plot Coupon: Sora's quest is to find the eponymous Keys, which serve as the impetus to visit the worlds.
  • Present Tense Narrative: Not at first. The first few chapters were written in past tense, but after Chapter 32, all subsequent chapters were written in this style, with all previous chapters (except Chapter 1) rewritten to match. Word of God states that this is because of the format proving to fit the more psychological angle of the story more than the original past tense narrative.
  • Related in the Adaptation: Sora is discovered to be Master Xehanort's grandson through his father being Xehanort's son.
  • Small Role, Big Impact: Doctor Facilier manages to do what most Disney villains in their respective worlds fail to do: Actually advance the main plot of the story by casting a hex on Luxord's request to dispel the glamour spell cast on Sora, which ends up as the trigger to finally start sending Sora off the edge.
  • Stable Time Loop: Sora's crown-shaped necklace is in one. In Chapter 71, Sora time travels to the age of fairytales. There, he gives his necklace to the Master of Masters, who likely gave it to Ephemer (either directly or through Ava), who passed it down to his descendants until it reached Xehanort, then Xehanort's son and Sora's father, then to Sora himself.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Hoo boy, this fic might as well be the poster child for traumatic Kingdom Hearts fanfics given all the hell Sora goes through: Unlike in canon, Xehanort succeeds in infecting Sora with a piece of his heart, and the chapters that follow go very in-depth on the trauma that results as he slowly falls victim to Xehanort's darkness, being mentally tormented thoroughly along the way.
  • With Lyrics: "Dearly Beloved" is revamped into a lullaby Sora's parents would sing to him when he was little, and is thus given lyrics.
  • Xanatos Gambit: With Sora now slowly being turned into a vessel for Xehanort, the Organization can use him as a way to locate and gather the Keys, as the old man essentially has a spiritual connection with Sora, and thus knows when and where he'll be at times. As such, even if the Organization loses a Key, it particularly won't matter, especially since these missions can serve as a way to accelerate The Corruption and eat away at Sora's resistance and sanity. Either the Organization gets a Key, or they can get Sora to fall deeper into darkness and ultimately have him join them.

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