• Pre-KH2
• Plot
• Anti Sora

In another timeline, rather than merging with Sora at the end of his time in Twilight Town, Roxas rejects his other, breaking out of DiZ's system, and causing Sora to be released prematurely. Without a body, Sora's heart is left isolated, and his rage towards the Heartless, the Organization, and the darkness itself manifests into a feral Heartless form. This form is Anti Sora.The author of this AU has thus far experienced up to: Dream Drop Distance

Whenever you see a footnote¹, you can scroll to the bottom to see design-based thoughts on stuff. I use footnotes for these to not break the flow of the text but still be able to explain my design process.This project is a perpetual WIP. | Last updated: March 16, 2025.
Unless otherwise stated, everything here is by Aviivix.
AU title by the wonderful amazing fey-patches

Changes to the Canon

While yes, this is an AU and I can diverge from the canon all I want, I prefer writing my AUs very close to the source material for everything outside the main scope. So, I'm putting a list of adjustments made to each game's story here. Besides KH2 for obvious reasons. If it's not mentioned here, it's almost definitely unchanged.

Kingdom Hearts I

Gameplay wise, this is almost entirely unchanged, however this would be a decent time to throw in the more broad change of how Roxas works. Roxas is created the moment Sora turns into a Heartless, as Nobodies do. However, when Sora is restored by Kairi, Roxas's body ceases to exist, returning to Sora. Kairi doesn't manifest a fresh body for Sora so much as she undoes the Heartless transformation. At that time, he would have been mere minutes old, and would not have remembered anything.However, despite Kairi giving Sora his body back, she wasn't exactly doing surgery. From then on, Sora's heart is very loosely reattached to his body, like scotch taping a piece of paper to a wall. Much like that scotch tape, nobody pays it any mind and it seems to be totally fine. Until it's not, and everything falls apart all at once.

Chain of Memories

As Sora walks through the field at the start of the game, he doesn't realize it, but his heart's connection to his body is weakening. Marluxia appears as normal, gives him some ominous words, and tails him as he wanders, waiting for him to drop. Once he inevitably does, the Organization can take his heart for themselves, taking the passed-out Donald and Goofy too for good measure.This is when Roxas is officially created, for real this time. His body is literally Sora's body - though, of course, a little aesthetically confused due to Ventus's presence in Sora's heart. From here on, Sora is basically a heart in a jar, and while the memory issues are still there as in normal KH, there is simply an additional roadblock of needing Roxas back so Sora can return to a physical body¹.The castle Sora arrives in is a simulated version of the real Castle Oblivion, not unlike the Twilight Town simulation Roxas will eventually find himself in. The rest of ReCoM plays out as normal, with Riku in the real castle and Sora in the fake one. When Sora is moved to the pod to sleep, his heart is moved there in the real world.

¹ I always found it super odd that Sora's Nobody can exist at the same time as him in a physical form. The game kind of lampshades it by calling it out as weird, and makes it so it's Sora caring about others that makes it possible, but it feels copouty to me. All this bit of the AU does is add an extra reason they need Roxas to bring Sora back. If Roxas gave his body to Sora as normal in this AU then everything from here on converges to canon with zero issue I'm pretty certain. It just does also help in making the Heartless form possible.

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This form is significantly stronger than his first Heartless. Just as before, Sora's heart remains strong enough to exert a small amount of control over his body. Most notably, he is able to channel his rage towards the darkness rather than the light. Even so, it is incredibly taxing to resist the impulses of his Heartless form. When in the presence of darkness (or light, if he is not re-targeting his rage), he grows extremely aggressive and violent, almost completely unable to resist going into a frenzy.As a Heartless, Sora is extremely reckless and impulsive, acting much like a feral animal. His new body naturally hunches forward, so he prefers to walk on all fours, but this only furthers his deviation from his humanity. The longer he stays in this form, the more animalistic he grows. His fingers have sharpened into claws and his body is much more flexible, allowing him incredible agility and the ability to cling to walls and enemies.He also is completely mute in this form, and his senses are extremely dampened. His primary sense becomes his sense of metaphysical light and darkness - Kairi appears to be figure of blinding light, and Riku a silhouette of overpowering darkness. His hearing is also quite dampened, as if everyone were talking through a wall.Despite everything though, he is still Sora at heart. Without any stressors, he can be playful and still does very Sora things. Though positive emotions are quite difficult for him in this state, he pushes through to put on a happy face for his friends. Or at least, happy eyes.

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Kingdom Hearts II: Another/Other

Almost all of this game is entirely different. This page is a list of scenes in the order they appear - it's sort of a player perspective, with some additional omniscience for design things and stuff I'm not sure how to execute yet.

False Twilight Town - Roxas

The prologue is unchanged until Roxas confronts the sleeping Sora. After a few moments of gathering his thoughts and trying to manage his emotions, he makes his final decision. "Sora... I'm sorry. I am me, and no one else." As he turns to leave, he causes the entire system to shut down and critically fail.DiZ was confident in his understanding of the heart and the nature of Nobodies and Heartless alike. In the original game, he discovers that he's wrong at the very end. Here, however, his computer had been meticulously set up to make sure Sora wakes up. If his understanding of the heart, body and soul is correct, then it would be impossible for Roxas to reject Sora. Yet he does. This invalid scenario crashes the system, forcing it to release not only Roxas, but Sora as well.There is a brief cutscene involving Riku-Ansem and DiZ right as Roxas turns away. They are both shocked at Roxas's resolve, though DiZ's shock quickly turns to curiosity while Riku-Ansem grows frustrated and concerned. Neither are sure of what will happen next, so DiZ recommends the pair of them make their escape immediately. Riku-Ansem refuses, demanding DiZ flee and come up with a new plan while he stays and secures Sora and Roxas.

The Old Mansion - Sora

Donald and Goofy emerge first, initially excited to finally be let out and assuming that everything must be back to normal now. This changes quickly as explosions and banging start to sound in the background. The two quickly go to check on Sora.Sora's pod has developed a shadowy color. Upon opening, the shadows leak out of every crack, obscuring what's inside. Donald and Goofy glance at each other nervously, and Goofy squints into the darkness and calls out to Sora. Two glowing yellow eyes flash open from the abyss, and a dark claw grips the side of the pod. The pair back off, Donald yelling, "A Heartless!" Goofy uneasily calls to Sora for help as if he might be hiding elsewhere in the room to save them from this monster.The creature lands on the floor on all fours, staring them down, until it looks slightly up and lunges at Donald and Goofy. The two duck out of the way, and the creature busts through the door they came in through, pinning Riku-Ansem to the ground with it.Donald exclaims and calls out "Ansem!" But Goofy is more interested in what's behind Ansem.Beyond the crumbled door is Roxas, surprised by the door's cave in and holding both Keyblades defensively. At first, he seems prepared to fight this creature, but after it makes eye contact with him, he pauses. "Sora...?"Riku-Ansem pushes the Heartless off him, glares at Roxas, and escapes through a Corridor of Darkness. The Heartless charges him, but he's gone before it can land a hit, skidding to a halt on the floor in front of Roxas. The two stare at each other for a long moment. "Who are you?" comes out of Roxas's mouth in an oddly upbeat tone. He jumps in surprise, covering his mouth and staring at the creature wide-eyed. Then he turns to unlock the door out of the basement with his Keyblade, bolting as soon as it opens.Donald and Goofy enter the destroyed room, and Goofy expresses confusion that Roxas called this creature Sora. At mention of the name, the Heartless turns and sprints up to Goofy, who puts his shield up in fear. He lowers it slowly, and sees the dark creature staring back at him, sat right in front of him.After some banter trying to get an answer out of the mute creature, noting that the pod seems empty, this Heartless seems uncharacteristically friendly, and the only way a heart could walk out on its own is if it had become a Heartless, they conclude that this creature must be Sora. They wonder aloud how he could have gotten this way, and ask him what happened, but Sora simply shrugs. Donald suggests that Yen Sid might know, if they could only figure out how to get there.

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