Kingdom Hearts - Chain of Memories Story Guide (Spoilers)

[] Introduction []

Starting off I would like to say that the reason I've written this is to
provide background story for those who either don't want, can't or have no time
to finish this game before the release of Kingdom Hearts II - USA. I first
started playing this game out of more or less a curiosity and I did not have
high expectations of it. What I found through playing it is that it really is
quite a masterpiece of gameplay, storytelling and ingenuity especially for a
GBA title. It had great characters (New and Old), great dialogue and very good
transition of past KH music as well as some new tunes, such as some of the boss
battles and new worlds: Castle Oblivion and Twilight Town. (Twilight Town is
actually where you start off in KHII or so I hear ^^) It was a heck of a lot of
fun to play and I would say to definitely play it if you can find the time to
do so. Because this considered Kingdom Hearts 1.5 it tells a great deal of new
storyline of Sora and Riku and introduces characters that may or may not appear
in Kingdom Hearts II, at least I know I've seen screenshots of at least two new
characters that are introduced in this game, Axel, a redheaded spikey haired
man in the black/silver embroidered leather robes with hoods that we've seen
several other characters dressed in and Naminé, a mysterious blond haired girl
dressed in white.

Table of Contents:

I. Sora's Story

II. Riku's Story - Reverse/Rebirth

III. Credits and Closing

--------------------------------KINGDOM HEARTS: CHAIN OF
MEMORIES---------------------------

I. [] Sora's Story []

Chain of Memories starts off with Sora, Goofy and Donald (and Jiminy Cricket)
almost exactly where it leaves off from Kingdom Hearts as they are chasing
Pluto down a long winding road in hopes to find the King, Mickey Mouse. Later
one evening, Sora wakes up alone and hears the voice of a man telling him that
in the beyond is something he needs, yet in order to receive that of which he
needs, he must lose something in return. This man shows himself as a hooded man
in black/silver embroidered leather robes, think death with class. He points
further down the road and before they know it, Sora, Donald and Goofy find
themselves at the base of a gigantic castle of which the towers and rooftops
are all distorted and coming out of various points and slants. They enter the
castle and find the same hooded man before them. He tells them that they have
entered Castle Oblivion and that by journeying onward they will find something
they are looking to find. Sora and the hooded man speak about what it is that
Sora would want to find by entering Castle Oblivion. Sora says that he really
wants to find Riku and the man tells him that if Riku is what he wishes to
find, then he will find it in this castle. Donald and Goofy also accept to go
as they hope to find out the whereabouts of King Mickey. The rules of Castle
Oblivion dictate that every action done within the castle walls be done in the
form of magical cards. The cards are used to attack, open doors, create rooms
and create worlds. However, as they journey through the Castle they will begin
to lose their old memories in place of gaining new memories or deeper memories
that have been lost with time. In addition, the cards that Sora uses to create
the rooms of this castle will be based on Sora's memories of the past, as well
as characters he has met in the past and of course, the Heartless.

Heeding this man's advice, Sora, Donald and Goofy proceed in the castle, floor
by floor a total of 13 floors in all with each floor's rooms representing a
single chosen "world card". The worlds that Sora visits throughout his
adventure in Castle Oblivion are as follows: Traverse Town, Agrabah, Monstro,
Wonderland, Olympus Coliseum, Halloween Town, Neverland, 100 Acre Wood,
Atlantica, Hollow Bastion, Twilight Town, Destiny Islands and ultimately Castle
Oblivion itself.

As Sora and co travel through each world, they all have different stories that
are similar to that found in the Original Kingdom Hearts, however this time it
involves characters not remembering various things, such as not remembering
Sora, but knowing that they can trust him because of instinct or perhaps a plot
relating to their memories being stolen by some sort of heartless creature,
usually a boss. These stories are fun to a point, but as far as the storyline
is concerned they are pretty unrelated and is considered filler content for
each floor that Sora visits. The real story takes place in the hallways in
between one world and the next. Call these intermissions if you will as these
are the scenes that show you the real plot of the game as well as interesting
new characters. Also, with each ascending floor that Sora, Donald and Goofy
visit they start to lose memories they once had of people they knew and
eventually their purpose for coming to the Castle. However, Sora alone starts
to remember things he had forgotten about a long time ago as he forgets more
and more of what he knew. He starts to remember back to his days with Kairi and
Riku, on Destiny Island, however there was someone else there as well, a fourth
person, a girl. As he remembers more and more he recalls that her name was
Naminé, and she was a girl that meant a lot to Sora during her time on the
island and that eventually she moved away. He also recalls that he made a
promise to her from deep within his heart, that he would always be there to
protect her.

Meanwhile, while each of these new memories are becoming clearer for Sora, the
scene changes off and on to the villains of the game as they are all huddled up
in a room at the top of the castle as they watch Sora's progress. Apparently
Sora as the Keyblade master is a very important tool for them and they wish to
use Sora as a means of accomplishing an important unknown task. All of these
individuals, with the exception of Naminé (sitting off to the side in a chair)
are dressed in the same black/silver hooded robes and they refer to themselves
as the Organization. Each of these members of the Organization are ranked and
their purpose of the Organization is unknown. The Organization members during
Sora's story are Axel, Larxene, Vexen, and Marluxia. Each of these members have
a ranked number within the Organization or as they are known in KHII more
formally as "Organization XIII", meaning there are 13 members. Axel is #8,
Larxene #12, Vexen #4, and Marluxia #11. The lower the number, the greater
their position in the Organization, although Marluxia has been charged with
operations for Castle Oblivion. There are two other Organization members in
Chain of Memories, Lexaeus #5, Zexion #6, however they appear only in Riku's
story. It is known on the net who the other Organization members are, however
it is unknown, at least up until the time that Kingdom Hearts II is released
who the "First" and "Thirteenth" members are. The Organization, while organized
in terms of fashion sense, are not without internal problems and feuds, which
brings us to the scheming plot of Larxene and Marluxia betraying Organization
XIII to use Sora as a means to conquer and control the rest of the Organization
members. Keep in mind the goal of these Organization members, at least either
side, the actual Organization XIII members and the betrayers is not to kill
Sora, only test him and his ability and eventually use him for some hidden
purpose. In doing this they often show themselves and even fight with Sora
through the course of Chain of Memories and eventually one of the Organization
members, Larxene tells Sora that they are the "Bad Guys" and that Naminé is
being held prisoner at the top of the castle.

As the plot thickens and Sora grows ever closer to reaching the truth behind
this plot to control him, he discovers Riku, only Riku thinks of Sora as an
enemy and they fight a total of four different times during the game.
Apparently, Riku also has the same memory of the promise to protect Naminé,
just like Sora had. In addition he also possesses a yellow star good luck charm
identical to the one Sora has, a keepsake of Naminé. Only he feels that Sora is
just going to be someone who is going to hurt Naminé when he finally does reach
her. It is thought at this time during one particular scene with the
Organization XIII member, Vexen, that it is he who has brainwashed Riku into
methodology of thought against Sora. Vexen battles with Sora and eventually
gets so frustrated with him that he spills the beans on something called "The
Other Side", and says that Sora can visit the "other side" of his heart. In
doing so Sora follows Vexen to an unknown place, one of which feels familiar
even though Sora says he had never been there and neither have Donald and
Goofy. This place is known as Twilight Town and apparently is the starting
point of Sora and co in Kingdom Hearts II. It is here in this memory version of
Twilight Town that Sora battles Vexen for the final time and at the end of
battle, Vexen is about to spill the beans on more information that the
Organization does not wish for Sora to know about, when he is killed and
silenced by Axel. Sora asks what Axel and his robe wearing group is and he
makes the comment along the lines of: "I don't even know what we are, I wish I
knew..." and disappears.

Sora battles Riku yet again. Because Sora and Riku both share the same memory
of Naminé, something is fishy about the entire situation and Donald and Goofy
both call Sora on this, however it only steams Sora off into running off
further into the Castle alone as he forgets more and more and Naminé becomes
the only thing he can think about.

Axel returns to Larxene and Marluxia and explains to them that he wants in on
their whole scheme of taking over Organization XIII. They let him join and
entrust their plans to him as after all, he has proven himself already by
killing another Organization member. Larxene and Marluxia disappear and Axel
secretly releases Naminé to go after Sora.

Eventually Sora reaches the 12th floor, Destiny Island, where his memory of
Naminé is from and is calling him to. He meets Naminé there, who is very happy
to see him and is very much like Kairi in personality, only Naminé in
appearance. It is here that Naminé is about to do what the Organization has
forced her to do and to use this memory of her in Sora's mind as a way of
getting him to do anything she wants him to do as per what the Organization
betrayers Larxene and Marluxia command. However, she feels too much compassion
and sympathy for Sora to use him in this manner and appears to Sora at the
exact time he is talking with the memory of Naminé. She explains to Sora that
his memory of her is not real and is a false memory, thus telling him the
truth. She also says that there is another person that Sora cares for the most
and that she is not her. With this being said, Sora's yellow star good luck
charm transforms into a different shape/color, one that Kairi game to him that
looks more or less like the Palpu fruit of Destiny Island.

Both Larxene and Marluxia realize that Sora now knows that Naminé was not a
real memory and are really kinda angry at the fact that he now knows this and
have begun calling Axel a traitor, as he has now successfully pulled a
double-agent with them and has singlehandedly disrupted their plans for Sora.

Sora battles Riku for the final time and Riku gets the upper hand upon Sora.
Naminé stops Riku from finishing Sora by no other choice but to crush his
memories within, thus crushing his heart. Riku falls to the ground and is
thought to be dead when Larxene appears before Sora mocking him as she usually
does when she appears and is about to kidnap Naminé again. Sora tries to defend
her even though he is already at a disadvantage from his previous fight with
Riku. She explains that Riku had the same memory implanted and even more,
wasn't even the real Riku, nothing but a puppet created by Vexen to fight and
antagonize Sora. She laughs at the irony that Sora and Riku have been fighting
each other over false memories. In addition she explains that Naminé is not
even worth saving and that she is a terrible person who messes around with
people's memories. Sora argues that a promise, if even a fake promise (since
the memory was never real) is still a promise from the heart and he'll still
fight to keep that promise. Larxene is about to kill Sora when Donald and Goofy
show up and prevent her from doing this and heal Sora. Sora and Larxene fight
and at the end of battle Larxene dies.

Naminé apologizes to Sora for causing all of this mess and explains that she
was forced by Marluxia, the mastermind behind this entire scheme to do his
bidding and rewrite Sora's memories. Sora says that he is not happy with
Naminé, but he also can't find a reason to be mad at her either. She explains
that she can correct everything and set everything back to normal if they can
just reach the top of the castle, only Marluxia and Axel are still up there.
They all decide to take out Marluxia and Axel too if he proposes a threat as
they set their next destination at the 13th floor of Castle Oblivion. Naminé
stays behind.

Sora, Donald and Goofy reach the 13th floor and the only memory Sora has left
is of Naminé and he cannot remember the name of that certain special girl that
is the most important to him. He also knows at least that he is friends with
Donald and Goofy, although he does not remember anything prior to that. Donald
and Goofy also have completely forgotten their reason for coming to Castle
Oblivion and are pretty much wandering aimlessly now with Sora. They make a
pact, a promise that they at least never forget each other and in doing that
they will be protected from anything that is still to come.

After some very brief scenes, one of Axel kidnaping Naminé and one of Axel
about to fight with Marluxia, Sora reaches the top of Castle Oblivion at just
the right time to interrupt the fight. Marluxia takes Naminé and heads to the
last chamber of the castle and Axel is left in the same room with Sora. Axel
explains that Sora and himself have more in common than Sora knows about, and
does not wish to fight him, but he does so simply because he has a reputation
he has to uphold. Axel and Sora fight one last time and Axel teleports away.

Sora reaches the final chambers of Castle Oblivion where it is Sora, Donald,
and Goofy versus Marluxia who is still holding Naminé hostage. He orders Naminé
to break Sora's heart by crushing his memories and erasing them. Naminé tells
him no. Sora tells Naminé that he doesn't care and that she can go ahead and
erase all his memories because it won't change a thing, he will still have
Donald and Goofy there to support him and piece back together anything that
gets erased and that he does not need his memories to be able to defeat
Marluxia. Marluxia laughs at Sora's proposal saying that if Naminé breaks his
memories, he will just be a lifeless shell, like Riku lying back on the floor
on the 12th floor and that Sora cannot possibly defeat him. At that moment
Riku, or rather fake-Riku appears and takes a pop-shot at Marluxa who
sidesteps. Fake-Riku explains that even though he doesn't feel anything at all,
he still feels driven to help Naminé out and to defeat Marluxia. Marluxia gives
the speech about how they will never be able to win and they fight.

After the fight, Sora defeats only a copy version of Marluxia and Marluxia
tells Sora that he'll never be able to win against his true self. With one last
group pep-talk, Sora enters the door into darkness and fights the true form of
Marluxia on the other side. After a grueling battle, Sora wins and seals the
door with the Keyblade and Fake-Riku with no memories to call his own wanders
off back into the halls of Castle Oblivion. Naminé explains that in order to
correct the memory errors and restore things back to normal, he will have to
forget everything that ever happened in Castle Oblivion. He, nor Donald and
Goofy will ever know who Naminé or Castle Oblivion ever was. Sora decides have
his memories restored, but before he does he, Donald and Goofy tell Naminé that
they will never truly forget Naminé because they are friends and that if they
ever meet again, their hearts will know that they are friends. This seems to
please Naminé, she smiles and she uses some kind of crystal machine/device that
Sora steps inside to set the right memories back into place.

== End of Sora's Story. ==

II. [] Riku's Story - Reverse/Rebirth []

After completing Sora's story, a new mode is available from the title screen
allowing you to play Riku's story. Yes the real Riku, not the fake one. This
mode is called the Reverse/Rebirth mode and it takes place directly where
Kingdom Hearts I left off as Sora has sealed the door to darkness at Kingdom
Hearts unfortunately trapping both Riku and King Mickey on the other side. Riku
is surrounded by nothing but a white light as he regains consciousness and he
hears a voice speak to him, telling him that he has one of two choices. Either
he can stay in this void and sleep the eternal sleep or he can push onward to
see what else may be in store for him. Riku decides to leave and go to where
the voice has directed him to, which happens to be at Castle Oblivion as well.

This is all happening around the same time that Sora is journeying through
Castle Oblivion with the exception that Sora is ascending the floors, 1 to 13,
while Riku is working his way up from the basement of Castle Oblivion, B12 to
Floor 1. The voice gives him a world card that Riku uses to make his B12 floor
into Hollow Bastion, Maleficent's and Ansem's Heartless stronghold of Kingdom
Hearts I. Riku remembers this place well and even visits his old room where he
used to stay there under the leadership of Maleficent.

As Riku explores more and more of Hollow Bastion, he starts to realize that
there seems to be nothing there except for heartless and that besides them, he
has been left alone. The voice tells him that because he rejected the other
things in his life to claim darkness, his heart is now devoid of anything but
the darkness he sought. Riku is unable to accept this and the voice tells Riku
that if he wishes to see the friends he knew, then it is possible, but they
will only be people he knows taken straight out of the context of his past
memories. Eventually Riku makes his way into the chamber of Maleficent, where
they exchange dialogue about Riku's decision to cast aside this darkness that
he once embraced, and that Maleficent, being someone who controls the darkness
in people's hearts will have to be eliminated. Maleficent tells him that while
he is on this so called quest to destroy all who are at one with the darkness,
to take care and be sure to destroy himself along the way. Riku tells her that
if it comes to that, he will fight himself as well if it is necessary to shed
himself completely of the darkness. Riku and Maleficent fight and she is
destroyed.

Riku makes his way to the exit of this 12th basement floor where he meets Ansem
(the final boss who was thought to have been destroyed in Kingdom Hearts)
again, who has shown himself as being the one of whom voice that had been
giving Riku the advice from the start of the game belonged to. He tells Riku
that he must embrace the darkness once again. Riku tells him otherwise that it
is now his sole purpose to shed himself of the darkness and that he should have
known that the voice belonged to Ansem since he has always been obsessed with
harnessing the power of darkness (And if Riku had continued on that path, he
may have become just like Ansem...) and that he will never again be a tool for
Ansem to use. Ansem laughs at Riku's remark and says that on the contrary, Riku
will revert to his dark nature once again and that when he does, Riku will be
suitable host for Ansem's second coming. Ansem has a significant power over
Riku and is about to make Riku succumb to the darkness that he still possesses
in his heart when King Mickey appears before him and prevents this from
happening. King Mickey was separated from Riku when the door to darkness closed
at Kingdom Hearts, and is unable to fully appear to Riku (He is basically more
or less a hologram) but is able to lend support to Riku when he calls on him
for help. Riku tells Ansem that this plan of his will never happen and they
fight. At the end, and just before Ansem leaves he gives Riku the ability to
once again harness the power of darkness (which is a mode that Riku can
temporarily use during gameplay that once activated does about 4x-6x the damage
that he would do normally and is the only mode where special techniques can be
used) and tells him to use it well until they meet again.

Riku obtains more world cards, in which he can use to create any of the
following four worlds that he can visit in the order that he chooses: Agrabah,
Monstro, Traverse Town and Neverland. However as Riku only has darkness left in
his heart he only meets beings of darkness there and not any of the other
characters from the world. For these four worlds there is no additional
dialogue between Riku and the characters/bosses from the worlds. Riku simply
visits the world, fights the heartless from room to room, kills the boss and
leaves. It is when Riku ascends to the next floor that there is an intermission
where more storyline is revealed.

A scene of different Organization XIII members, Lexaeus #5, Zexion #6 are
standing in a separate room in Castle Oblivion than that of Marluxia, Axel and
Larxene is shown during these intermissions. There is talk between Zexion and
Lexaeus of Zexion sensing the presence of two powerful energies from deep
within the basement of Castle Oblivion. He is able to make out that one of
these energies belonged to Maleficent, or rather since was destroyed previously
in Kingdom Hearts that it was a copy of her, but similar in every way. He is
able to tell that this copy-Maleficent has been destroyed by a second energy of
which is able to harness the power of darkness, in which someone named only as
"The Superior" was able to do. As more plot unfolds, Vexen appears before
Lexaeus and Zexion and explains that this energy is coming from that of Riku
and that he has somehow found is way out of the darkness, which seems like an
impossible feat. He also explains that Sora is also in the Castle and that Riku
must have some kind of tie with Sora as to where Sora goes, Riku must go and
that is why he has appeared at Castle Oblivion of all places. Vexen suspects
foul play from Marluxia and explains to them that he believes it is Marluxia's
plan to use Sora for his own personal goals. They all decide that if this
energy coming from Riku is indeed the power of "The Superior", then they have
nothing to worry about as they can use Riku as their trump card against Sora.

Riku makes his way up to the 9th floor when Vexen appears before him. Riku asks
him if he is with Ansem and Vexen tells him that he is half-correct, but that
it is not the Ansem that Riku knows. He is neither Ansem nor "not-Ansem", he is
considered a "nobody" (a term apparently used in Kingdom Hearts II), and
belongs to neither the light nor the dark, but walks the twilight between.
Continuing on Vexen explains that he too is someone who walks this path and
that Riku and Vexen have much in common regarding that. Riku says maybe so, but
that doesn't mean he will join his club. He tells Vexen that he seems to make
the entire place reek of darkness and that just because he still has darkness
in his heart it doesn't mean that he wants to be like Vexen. They fight and
right before Vexen leaves he tells Riku that he could sense the great potential
that Riku possesses in harnessing the power of darkness and that with Riku
being so quick to give into his anger, provided the exact information that
Vexen needed to know and that Riku fell right into his trap in providing that
information. All Riku needs it seems, is the right provocation in order for
Riku to give into his dark tendencies.

More intermissions pass and the Lexaeus and Zexion are catching on to the plan
that Marluxia is trying to accomplish and it looks as though he might actually
be able to use Sora as a puppet with Naminé altering his memories. They also
cannot trust Larxene or Axel with this knowledge they now know as to how they
are going to accomplish this goal. They wish to relate this message to Vexen
since he hates Marluxia, as to better have him handle the situation as a higher
ranking member of the Organization and as to not dirty their hands of the
situation. Meanwhile, Vexen is busy crafting a puppet of his own using Riku's
battle data that he received during their previous fight.

Riku meets Riku. Or rather he meets the fake-Riku who has been modeled after
the real one. The fake one tells Riku that he is a copy of him, but that he is
better than he is because he is not afraid of the darkness within. Riku says to
bring it and they fight. Fake-Riku loses and vows that he will grow stronger
and eventually be able to beat the real Riku once he learns to tap further into
the dark powers. The real Riku doesn't give him the chance for that and strikes
to kill him in a final blow, but the fake one has a shield of darkness that
shields him from the attack. Fake-Riku mocks him and leaves the scene to return
to Vexen, of whom inquires how the fight went with the real Riku. The fake one
says that it is only a matter of time before he defeats the real one, and Vexen
asks if he would like to meet the other hero, Sora, who is also wandering the
Castle. Fake-Riku says that if it comes to it, he'll smash this Sora character
on his way to battle Riku again. He seems to have no memory of Sora.

Meanwhile at basement 7, Riku meets Ansem again, who explains that the
fake-Riku has been modeled after Riku as to what Riku should be, a Riku who
embraces and harnesses the power of darkness. He suggests that this fake-Riku
seems to be following the path that Riku once did when serving Ansem and that
perhaps Riku is being the real fake. He suggests further that Riku must be
fighting the darkness in each of the card worlds because he is afraid of
darkness. Riku tells him that it seems like Ansem is just toying with him to
stop fighting so that he will show that he isn't afraid and that he has every
intention to keep fighting. Ansem smirks and says very well, continue your
fight against the darkness as you will eventually see that you cannot resist
the darkness. He tosses more world cards to Riku for him to visit in the order
that he chooses: Atlantica, Wonderland, Halloween Town, and Olympus Coliseum.

An extended part of one of Sora's intermission scenes shows that the fake-Riku
has unwillingly been forced by Vexen, Axel and Larxene to have the real Riku's
memories from Destiny Island implanted into him to make him more like the real
Riku, with a bit of tweaking from Naminé of course. This is all of course
before the actual first meeting between fake-Riku and Sora. Naminé does indeed
reprogram fake-Riku's memories and he remembers nothing from before, only that
he must protect Naminé from harm. We also see that Naminé has the ability to
change the memory cards into objects, as she has successfully crafted a replica
of the yellow star good luck charm of that of Sora for the fake-Riku to
remember her by.

Lexaeus and Zexion sense that Vexen has been killed... and by Axel. But even a
worse problem it seems that Sora has grown stronger than Vexen. It seems as
though it is only a matter of time before Sora is under Naminé's control and
ultimately under Marluxia's every command. They discuss that perhaps Sora
should be destroyed before Marluxia secures him, however decide that if
Marluxia gathers Sora, the light so to speak, they must continue to concentrate
their efforts on gaining the dark, Riku. With one card left in hand at basement
4, Riku ponders on if he can truly get rid of the darkness within him as he
continues on.

Riku finds Lexaeus waiting for him at the end of basement 4. Riku senses that
he is a "nobody" like Vexen and the other Organization members. Lexaeus
congratulates Riku on making it as far as he has, however it seems that Riku is
wasting his potential by not harnessing the power of the darkness that he has
the ability to use so well. He tells Riku to use this gift that he has and Riku
declines. With that, Lexaeus is inclined to show Riku his power, that of
darkness and earth to make him understand and they fight. With his last words
he tells Riku that while he may die, the organization will triumph and that the
darkness within him will devour Riku. Riku is surrounded and engulfed by the
darkness. When Riku wakes up, he finds himself in an unknown place, that of the
same void he was in when he first was locked behind the door to darkness. A
voice calls out to Riku telling him that he can now clearly see Riku's heart.
Riku realizes that the only kind of darkness this powerful could come from one
person, from that of Ansem. Ansem tells Riku to open his heart, to remember him
and to let him in. Ansem is pleased that Riku knows that it is him and that can
only mean that he has been on Riku's mind. He tells Riku that for the very fact
that he is on Riku's mind means that he is afraid of him and that the more he
thinks of him, the closer his return draws near and when he awakens, Riku's
heart will belong to him. King Mickey appears and tells Riku to fight and not
let Ansem take him. Ansem curses the king as the darkness disappears and Riku
finds himself awake at Castle Oblivion and makes his way to basement 3.

Zexion senses that both Lexaeus and Larxene have been killed as he ponders what
will become of Organization XIII. Axel appears before him asks Zexion who will
be the next to die? Zexion shrugs and tells Axel that maybe it will be him.
Axel explains that he was just in a fight with Sora and that he had been
defeated so utterly that Sora must believe that he has been destroyed
completely. In this defeat he chuckles in that it seems that Marluxia will be
the next one of them to die and that if Axel could not defeat Sora, then
Marluxia could not possibly do it. As it was Marluxia's goal to use Sora to
attack the Organization, how fitting it seems that Marluxia was going to die by
the very weapon he sought to use. Zexion ponders this and sees that he no
longer needs the control of Riku. Axel says that disposing Riku will prove to
be a challenge and is he sure that he is ready to take on someone who just
killed Lexaeus. As Zexion is not a fighter, he tells Axel that is not how he
handles things and asks Axel if he was able to retrieve the data on Riku's home.

After an explosion occurs that shakes the very structure of Castle Oblivion,
Riku senses that the air around him has changed and that another one of the
"nobodies" has died, an especially powerful one. Zexion appears before Riku
telling him that Sora is also in Castle Oblivion and that he has just defeated
Marluxia, the keeper or rather ex-keeper of the castle. Riku is excited by this
news that he might get to see Sora here at Castle Oblivion when Zexion asks
Riku if he can truly be okay with facing Sora again when he darkness and
Ansem's shadow still reside in his heart. As it seems it is Sora's fate to be
the hero of light, it is his mission to destroy any darkness that stands in his
path, and that includes Riku. And if Riku doesn't believe him, he can see for
himself. Zexion gives Riku a world card for Destiny Island and disappears.

Riku enters the Destiny Islands world and feels relieved to be back home, yet
he ponders the irony of his wanting so badly to leave the island which led him
ultimately to all of his terrible choices he had made to pursue darkness. There
he meets three of his past friend's Tidus, Selphie and Wakka. He runs up to
greet them and they say nothing to him. He tells them that he has never seen
them so quiet before and they vanish in front of him leaving him completely
alone. Riku finds Kairi next, however just like before she vanishes. Riku
starts to break down when Zexion appears and tells him that surely he must have
known this would happen. He tells Riku that he has been to many worlds
comprised of his memories before this one and only dark beings were able to
exist there, why would that change now? All of Riku's memories of his friends
and home are now gone, each and every one of them. Continuing on he points at
another Riku, one of him from his past memory and he tells him that he was the
one who made the decision to throw all of his friends away... The scenery
changes back to the stormy night when the heartless first set foot on the
island and their home was ripped apart by the heartless known as Darkside. He
tells Riku that countless hearts were lost to the heartless that night. Zexion
shows Riku the truth behind Riku's previous actions revealing to us for the
first time that it was his hunger to see other worlds so badly that he was the
very one who opened the door to darkness allowing the heartless to come in, and
it was because of Riku that many people died and their home was ripped asunder.
Zexion tells Riku that he belongs to the darkness as he points at the other
Riku as he transforms into a heartless, into the very heartless known as
Darkside. Riku screams that it can't be him and fights with it. At the end of
battle Darkside is destroyed and Sora comes out of nowhere at attacks Riku.
Riku backs off asking Sora if he recognizes him, but Sora keep swinging the
keyblade at him and tells him that he does recognize him and can see exactly
what he's become. Sora hits Riku with a blast from the keyblade and tells him
that only a being of darkness would shrink away from the light. He cannot be
Riku anymore, only a pawn of darkness and if that is how it must be, then he
will make him face the light. Riku is engulfed in light and is floating in a
void much like the one before, but of one made of light. Riku starts to fade
away, being consumed by the light when he hears the voice of Kairi. She tells
him that he won't fade and that he can't fade... that no power can defeat him,
not the light nor the dark so don't run from the light and don't fear the
darkness, as both will make him stronger. Riku questions her, darkness too? She
says especially darkness as that power is Riku's alone. The darkness in Riku's
heart is both vast and deep, however if he stares into it unflinching, he will
never know fear again. Riku tells her that all this time he has been working so
hard to push the darkness away. Kairi tells him to just be brave, know that the
darkness is there and just don't give in to it. Knowing this will gain him
strength unlike any other. Riku will be able to escape the deepest of darkness
and see through the brightest of light. Kairi tells him to follow the darkness
and it will take him to the friends he misses. Now confident in his ability and
desire to face his friends again to make up for what he has done he allows the
darkness to come in, giving him the power of darkness in which he uses to cut
through Sora's void of light. Riku appears as Dark Riku in front of Sora who
looks shocked that Riku was able to escape the light. Sora reverts to the form
of Zexion who has been stabbed by Riku's blade, the Soul Eater. Zexion
questions how Riku was able to see him in the light. Riku answers him by
telling him that he reeks of darkness that not even the light can hide that
fact and Riku followed the darkness which led straight to him. Zexion calls him
a hypocrite and teleports away before Riku can deliver the final blow.

As Riku makes his way to Basement 2, Zexion retreats back to his room confused
as to how Riku can be so powerful. He has never seen anyone command the
darkness as Riku can. He is startled by the appearance of Axel and Riku in the
same room, when he steps back and realizes that it is only the fake one. Axel
tells fake-Riku that he can become the real Riku if he wishes. All he has to do
is find a power that the real Riku doesn't have and then he can become a new
person, his own person, not Riku and not anyone else. He then gestures toward
Zexion and suggests to fake-Riku that Zexion is a good as any place to start in
looking for that power. Zexion says that Axel has lost his mind and Axel says
that observing Riku and Sora is far more interesting than saving him. Fake-Riku
walks toward Zexion and the scene fades...

Riku meets Ansem again who is calling out his name. Ansem tells Riku that he
can feel a change in Riku and can sense that he has let the darkness back into
his heart. Riku tells Ansem that he isn't the same all darkness consuming Riku
he once had been when Ansem lifts him off of the ground. He tells him that as
the darkness grows more powerful within Riku, the more powerful Ansem will
become in turn and that controlling his body is effortless. Ansem's antics
cease and he is temporarily trapped when a light appears showing himself as
King Mickey, the real King Mickey this time, not the hologram. Mickey
apologizes to Riku for not being able to come sooner and that while he was
trying to escape the realm of darkness he found a card. When he picked up the
card it showed Riku's heart and was the medium in which Mickey could track him
down and reach Riku at Castle Oblivion. He tells Riku that the card must have
been meant to reach Riku all along and he hands him the world card for Twilight
Town.

Riku enters twilight town, a place in which he is unfamiliar with and King
Mickey has not come with him. He takes a step further when Ansem appears to him
telling him that if he wishes to fight Ansem, he will have to do so alone. Riku
senses that he is not the real Ansem as the real Ansem inside Riku's heart is
far more darker and more powerful. Riku discovers that it was this person who
pretended to be Ansem all along who gave him the card to get to Castle Oblivion
and had been guiding him so that Riku could face his own darkness. This Ansem
tells Riku that he is correct and he transforms into another form, that of a
man that looks like a mummified ninja with an eye-patch in black clothes and a
red cloak and head wrap that trails off behind him. The man introduces himself
as DiZ and he tells Riku that he has been watching him all along. He tells Riku
that he wants him to meet Naminé and choose between whether he wants to be of
the light or of the darkness as he is simply wandering the twilight at this
stage and disappears. Riku finds a castle in the world of Twilight Town where
he meets fake-Riku. Fake-Riku is able to tell that the real Riku has changed
and is no longer afraid of the darkness. Fake-Riku then begins to tell him that
he knows he is a copy and not the real Riku and he thought that if he could
find a power different from that of Riku, then he could be his own person,
however this did not pan out like he wanted. He tells Riku that as long as the
real Riku is around, he will never be anything but Riku's shadow. In the end
fake-Riku loses the fight and right before he dies he asks Riku where a
fake-heart like his will go and Riku tells him that it will probably go to the
same place as Riku's when it is his time to die.

Riku is able to meet Naminé and she tells him all about how Sora is sleeping in
the memory restoration capsule/machine and that he had made a choice to forget
the Castle to gain his memories back. Naminé tells Riku that he too has a
choice to make, about his darkness. In Riku's darkness lies Ansem, Ansem is
being held at bay at the current state, but when he awakens he will take
control of Riku. Naminé suggests to Riku that she lock his heart tight so that
Ansem can never escape his heart, but in order to do this she will have to make
Riku forget the darkness completely and he will lose his memories of all the
pain and suffering he has caused his friends. Riku tells Naminé that he still
has much to make up for by facing Sora again and when he does he wants to tell
him off as to how well he's protected Kairi up until now and he can't very well
do that if he's napping like Sora. He tells her that rather than locking his
heart, he would much rather finish off Ansem once and for all. She seems
pleased with this answer and it is revealed that she was the one who gave Riku
the advice he needed back at Destiny Island as the form of Kairi. He tells her
to take care of Sora and leaves to finish what he started.

Upon reaching basement 1, Riku finds King Mickey and DiZ waiting for him.
Mickey doesn't know DiZ as DiZ, but he has a feeling that he has met him
somewhere before. Riku asks DiZ who he is and he tells Riku that he is nobody,
or anybody and it all depends on whether Riku chooses to believe in him or not.
DiZ tells him that with Riku's choice to finish Ansem, he is just here as a
spectator and he gives Riku a final card, one that will unleash the darkness in
Riku's heart and manifest it unto the real world in Castle Oblivion. It is
there that Riku may finally be able to rid himself of Ansem once and for all.
Before Riku leaves, he tells Mickey that he has to face Ansem alone and that if
he is to do this, he must be the one to finish it. However, in the event that
Ansem wins, he will enslave Riku and if that happens he wants Mickey to destroy
him, but Mickey says that Riku isn't going to lose and if things get rough
he'll be there to help Riku out as after all it is Mickey's decision and not
Riku's as to whether or not he wants to help.

Riku enters the Castle Oblivion card world, where Ansem tells Riku that he will
be waiting at the very heart of darkness to settle the score with Riku. Riku
makes his way to Ansem. Ansem tells Riku that he sees that the darkness has
matured within him but he cannot fathom why Riku would choose to let darkness
back in yet refuse Ansem as they are both very similar in that they follow
where darkness leads them. Riku tells him that he just plain dislikes Ansem and
that is the only reason why. Ansem tells Riku that it is foolish of him to
fight against him as he has beaten Riku before and he should know what kind of
power he is up against. Riku says he does know what he is up against and that
he used all of the power Ansem had given him against Sora and still lost and he
is clearly unimpressed. Ansem tells Riku that he will sink him into the abyss
of darkness and they battle. In the end, Ansem loses and King Mickey shows up
to assist Riku with escaping the realm of darkness.

Mickey asks Riku what he plans to do from hereon out. Will he return home? Riku
tells Mickey that he is not sure that he can, he can still feel Ansem’s scent,
faint but not gone and he cannot return home until it is as his darkness may
still have a hold on him. Mickey tells him that Riku’s darkness belongs to him
now, just like his light. Mickey says that up until now he had always
considered darkness to be something bad, but now Riku has changed his mind
about darkness. Riku has chosen to walk a path that he never even knew existed,
light and dark side by side, they intertwine in a way that no one has ever seen
before. Mickey wants to see where that road will lead and if it is okay with
Riku, he wants to tag along with him. Riku thanks Mickey and they set off on
their next journey. A scene shows Riku and Mickey walking a road from Castle
Oblivion wearing the black robes of the Organization XIII as they meet DiZ who
is standing at the intersection of a crossroads. He asks Riku if he will choose
the road to darkness or the road to light. Riku tells DiZ that he will choose
neither road and will walk the middle road. DiZ says, you mean the twilight
road to nightfall? Riku tells DiZ, no... the road to dawn.

After the end credits a few still pictures of Kingdom Hearts II is shown of a
new main character of whom you first start playing as in KH apparently who is
standing atop a tower overlooking Twilight Town.

==End of Riku's Story==


III. [] Credits and Closing []

Well that’s it folks. I hope that many of you who have not had the opportunity
to enjoy this game who are curious about how it leads into Kingdom Hearts II
will enjoy this story guide just in time for Kingdom Hearts II.  Thanks for
reading! And thank you Tetsuya Nomura and Square Enix for producing a wonderful
game series!

If anyone has any questions or concerns related to this guide, you can contact
me by email at skyewelse@miraigamer.net or by visiting www.GameFlaws.com.
Anyone is free to use this FAQ as long as they credit me as the original
author. However, it is appreciated if you would "have a heart" and email me to
tell me that you are using it. : )

*Note* As this story guide is written mostly from memory and also at a scene by
scene basis, there may be errors in terms of plot flow as to when certain
events happen or certain, exact dialogue is said. Please don’t email me if this
guide is not 100% accurate as this guide was written as more of a general
synopsis of what happened in Chain of Memories. Of course if there is a really
big mistake on my part that you feel needs to be cleared up, by all means send
me an email about it. Thanks and enjoy!