Startide is a Kingdom Hearts fanfiction written by Regiss
. It is a Spiritual Successor to the author's previous Remember the Tides series.
Several week after the events of Kingdom Hearts III, the Keybearers are adjusting to a time of relative peace, with Roxas and Xion in particular happy to fully exist once more. Unfortunately, the peaceful times are not to last, and soon a new threat to the worlds arises that only the two of them can stop. All the while, another enemy lurks in the shadows, waiting to take advantage of the situation for their own mysterious purposes...
The fic can be read on Fanfiction.com and Archive Of Our Own.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Armor-Piercing Question: At one point, Roxas's Gummiphone is stolen, and he's incredibly insistent that they have to get it back. Xion eventually asks why he's so upset about it, especially since they still have her phone, and after a moment of introspection, Roxas realizes that it reminds him of how everything in his life was borrowed and taken away before he re-merged with Sora, and something that's unequivocally his being stolen brings up old resentments.
- Big Bad: A figure in an Organization XIII coat is working to ensure the success of the Flood of Light, though he states he's not working for the Organization's goals. It's implied by the figure's manner of speech and abilities that it's Lauriam, the recompleted Marluxia, which is later confirmed, and later is revealed to be working with Elrena, the recompleted Larxene.
- The Cameo: Several unnamed opponents in the Sora Cup at the Coliseum are clearly characters from the Fate Series. Hercules fights Cu Chulainn, Xion faces Penthesilea, and Roxas clashes with Atalanta.
- Canon Welding: Enchanted Dominion, the world of Sleeping Beauty, has the fairy moors from Maleficent, and Rydia grew up there.
- In this fic, the Destiny Islands are the world of Moana several centuries in the future. Knowledge of the events of the film has long since faded to legend, but apparently served as an inspiration to a young Sora.
- Deal with the Devil: The mysterious Big Bad agrees to steal Pandora's Box from Olympus for Hades, and in exchange Hades will provide information on how to access the Final World. Predictably, Hades reneges on his side of the deal after the box is retrieved, admitting that he has no idea how to get to the Final World in the first place.
- Elephant in the Living Room: The Keybearers tend to avoid mentioning Sora to each other, as they're still grieving about him.
- To a lesser extent, things are awkward between Terra and the former members of Organization XIII, due to them having worked with Xehanort in Terra's body, and his obvious resemblance to Xemnas.
- Equivalent Exchange: The Flood of Light is the result of Xehanort filling Kingdom Hearts, the source of all light, with darkness. While that was quickly undone, the pressure caused the light to overcompensate, pushing back against the darkness at a rate that threatens to push the worlds into sleep.
- Fighting Your Friend: Roxas has to fight a mind-controlled Xion in the Coliseum, with Hades threatening to make her kill herself to stop Hercules from interfering.
- Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: Roxas is still holding onto a grudge against Riku and Ansem the Wise for everything they did to make him re-merge with Sora. While he's let go of most of his resentment, understanding that they did it to save a friend and regret those actions respectively, he's not in any hurry to be on close terms with either of them.
- Happily Adopted: Naminé has been taken in by Kairi's parents, who decided that she's just as much their daughter as Kairi is.
- Sora's mother Aoi has heard about Roxas and Xion, and assures the two that she considers them her kids as well.
- Heroic BSoD: Xion getting mind-controlled by Hades sends her and Roxas into one, for having to relive her trauma all over again and for not stopping her reckless plan, respectively. Lea tags along on their next world visit to help get them out of the funk.
- Hero of Another Story: Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy are off trying to track down Sora, and as such don't appear in the story much.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Roxas and Xion inherited Sora's love of pirates, and eagerly agree to work with a pirate crew to find one of the Keyholes. Unfortunately, the pirate leader just so happens to be Captain Hook, and it takes an encounter with Peter Pan for the Keybearers to realize that these pirates aren't Lovable Rogues.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Xion decides to sneak into the Underworld to destroy Hades' soul-binding statues of her and Roxas. She's unaware of the Underworld Curse that saps her strength, which Hercules would've told her about if she had consulted him first, and gets captured and mind-controlled by Hades as a result.
- Long Lost Sibling: Roxas and Naminé had a chat after the battle with Xehanort to pin down their relationship, and they decided that, since they were created from the same incident, they're twin siblings. Roxas agreed to it on the condition that he's the older twin.
- The Lost Lenore: The scheme of the Big Bad is heavily implied to be Lauriam trying to resurrect Strelitzia by somehow accessing the Final World through the Sleeping Realm.
- Morph Weapon: Xion feels uncomfortable wielding the Replica Kingdom Key since Sora and the original Kingdom Key are gone, and so turns to Roxas's Keychain collection to get a unique Keyblade. She settles on Sign of Innocence.
- Nightmare Sequence: Xion has recurring nightmares about her time as an empty puppet in the second Organization XIII, as her utter lack of self at the time completely terrifies her in the present. She also relives nightmares that Xehanort made her experience about hurting her friends while she was a vessel, which was apparently done just to further torment her.
- Plot Tailored to the Party: The Flood of Light threatens to overwhelm a world with pure light and plunge it into the Sleeping Realm, and to safeguard a world, its Keyhole has to be closed with a Keyblade. However, the sheer power of light coming out of the Keyhole stops normal people from getting too close, but Nobodies, who exist apart from the light and dark, are immune to this effect. Thus, only Roxas and Xion, as Nobodies wielding Keyblades, can properly lock Keyholes threatened by the Flood.
- Power Copying: After being recompleted, Xion has the ability to manifest any weapon that she's held for a few seconds. She's shown to have access to most of the former Organization members' weapons so far.
- Ship Tease: Frequently between Roxas and Xion, with close hugs, She Is Not My Girlfriend moments, and one outing that Roxas is internally hesitant to label Not a Date.
- Also, Riku gave Naminé a hair ribbon as a housewarming present. Roxas and Lea are gleeful to have something new to tease Riku about.
- Socially Awkward Hero: The recompleted Nobodies are mentally in their teens, but chronologically have only been alive for about a year, and as such some things go over their heads. At one point, Tidus gives Naminé his phone number on a piece of paper, only for her, Xion, and Roxas to have no clue what it means.
Lea has to stop himself from laughing. - Took a Level in Badass: The Keybears trained together for a time after the final battle with Xehanort, which led to all of them learning how to summon Keyblade Gliders and access the Lanes Between.
- Naminé is shown to have learned to summon light chains from Terra.
- What Would X Do?: Xion's reckless decision to charge off into the Underworld is motivated by her asking "What would Sora do?", and Roxas reluctantly agrees with the logic even though he thinks it's a bad idea.
- You Are Too Late: By the time Roxas and Xion find Neverland's Keyhole, the Flood of Light has grown too powerful, and it goes critical before they can seal it. The Keybearers barely escape into the Lanes Between before the world is plunged into the Sleeping Realm.
