Sora's History
Prior to the main events of Birth By Sleep, Sora's newly born heart encounters the injured heart of Ventus and mends it, offering to help him restore his broken heart until Ventus can recover on his own. This allows them to form a connection with one another, and as a side effect of their connection causes Ventus dark half Vanitas's face to resemble a teenage Sora.
As Sora grew up, he found a best friend and rival in Riku a boy who was one year older than him and they would often compete in sword fighting with wooden swords, racing, and many other competitive activities.
When he is four years old, he separately encounters 2 Keyblade wielders, Terra and Aqua. When Terra appeared on the islands, he only saw Sora from afar and failed to sense any potential in him, though did see it in Riku, which led to Terra to pass on the ability to wield the Keyblade to Riku, who he hoped to one day take on as an apprentice after Riku's keyblade came to him. Aqua appeared on the island some time later and sensed the potential in Sora to become a Keyblade Wielder and was tempted to take him as an apprentice, but chose not to after sensing Terra had given the ability to Riku and did not want them to be put through the ordeals she and Terra had. She also made Sora promise that he wouldn't give up on Riku if he ever went off the path to darkness.
Later on, as he and Riku sat on a beach, Sora began to feel sad for no apparent reason which Riku suggested was because someone in pain was reaching out for him and urged Sora to reach back. Sora succeeds and is presented with Ventus's lost heart who requests to rest within Sora's heart which Sora, wanting to help, accepts. This action causes Sora to receive the ability to wield the keyblade later on in the series due to carrying the heart of a keyblade wielder within his own.
Around a year later, a young girl named Kairi appears on their island following a meteor shower, and not long after, Sora and Riku discover a small hidden cave on their island and go explore it in search of what they believe is a howling monster, but it just turns out to be the wind. Inside, they find nothing but an oddly handle-less wooden door which they can't open, so they leave with Sora deciding they should go see the "new girl".
Sora and Riku befriend Kairi, and the three quickly become inseparable as they play together on the islands. Sora gradually develops a crush on her, which Riku also seems to develop, and their competition shifts towards who can better impress Kairi. During the next several years, they often wonder about what lies beyond their small world, prompted by the mystery of Kairi's forgotten home.
At the age of 14, Sora begins working on a raft with Riku and Kairi to use in the hopes of discovering other worlds. Sora takes a nap on the beach and has a bizarre and vivid dream in which Riku is pulled in by a wave while reaching out to him, he sees himself falling through the sky in a meteor shower to the bottom of the ocean where he can breath, and then being guided by a mysterious voice to fight dark creatures before finally a gigantic foe that nearly drowns him in darkness. Upon waking up, he more actively assists in collecting supplies for their voyage and later receives a paopu fruit from Riku that supposedly when split between two people causes their destinies to be intertwined and jokes that Sora should share it with Kairi. Sora later enters the secret place to a drawing of himself and Kairi that the two had made as children and draws himself giving a paopu fruit to Kairi before being startled by a mysterious cloaked man who talks of the world being consumed by darkness and taunts Sora about his lack of knowledge of the outside worlds before vanishing.
The night before the voyage, a large storm hits the island and Sora sneaks out to check on the raft and learns that Riku and Kairi are also on the island. He finds Riku first, but Riku has given into the darkness in order to travel to other worlds and attempts to take Sora with him. At this moment, the Keyblade Riku was promised arrives, but due to Riku's decision to accept the darkness, the Keyblade chooses Sora to be its bearer instead and saved him from being pulled into the darkness. Sora finds Kairi within the secret place seemingly ill before the door rips open and sends them both flying out, Kairi seemingly vanishing on contact with Sora, who is left to fight the giant monster from his dreams before he is pulled into the sky into a massive orb.
He wakes up in the world known as Traverse Town where he finds more Heartless while exploring before meeting Leon who either knocks him unconscious or makes him pass out from exhaustion in a boss fight. Upon waking up, Leon and his partner Yuffie explain the nature of the Keyblade, the heartless, and Ansem to him. When they are attacked by Heartless, Sora is forced to part with Leon and Yuffie. He makes his way to the town's Third District where he meets Donald Duck and Goofy, and the three of them take down a swarm of Heartless and a large armored heartless. After introductions, Donald and Goofy ask Sora to come with them to other worlds, as per King Mickey's request, and Sora agrees, hoping to find Riku and Kairi and not realizing that Donald has no interest in helping them find his friends and only wants his help to find the King.
They travel to only two worlds before problems emerge among the three, as the third world they encounter doesn't meet Donald's standards on where the King could be, though Sora wants to investigate, and their argument causes the ship to crash. They are separated, and even when reunited, the two refuse to apologize to each other, though they manage to make amends. It's also discovered that people have been going missing on worlds as Alice went missing from her homeworld of Wonderland and was implied to have been kidnapped to another world. Upon a return trip to Traverse Town, they come across Riku by chance, who to the group's surprise, has no trouble wielding Sora's Keyblade, though leaves when the group bickers on letting Riku join them. Leon also informs Sora of the existence of Keyhole, holes through which the heart of worlds can be accessed by the heartless and consumed to destroy the worlds themselves.
They continue to travel the words, helping those they find in trouble and making numerous friends along the way, as well as develop a true friendship amongst themselves while they seal the keyholes. Once they reach Neverland, it's revealed that Riku has allied with Maleficent and has received new powers of darkness, which he uses to make a copy of Sora, and has them imprisoned while he escapes with the comatose body of Kairi to Hollow Bastion. Sora follows but due to the power Riku has gained, his heart has also grown strong enough to take the Keyblade from Sora, revealing to the stunned Sora that Riku was the true chosen one of the Keyblade. As per their orders to follow the key, Donald and Goofy abandon Sora to follow Riku while Sora joins up with Beast to go after them. They catch up with them at the castle where they are separated and Sora is left trapped with Riku, who attacks Sora, though he is saved by Goofy, who along with Donald, choose to forsake the King's orders in order to protect Sora. This causes Sora to realize his true power wasn't the Keyblade, but the friends and connections he made along his journey, which causes his light to eclipse Riku's darkness, and the Keyblade abandons Riku and truly accepts Sora as its wielder. They then storm the castle, confronting Maleficent along the way and besting her before coming across the missing people from the worlds along with Kairi, and is informed by Riku, now possessed by Ansem, that they are all the princesses of heart necessary to open the Door to Darkness, but can't do so until Kairi reclaims her heart from Sora, who had unknowingly been entrusted with it back at the islands. Sora fights and defeats Riku and uses his artificial Keyblade to unlock his heart and restore Kairi, though he turns into a heartless in the process. Thankfully, he is restored by Kairi before they flee to Traverse town where Sora receives a good luck charm made by Kairi with the promise that he'll give it back to her.
The trio returns to Hollow Bastion but find Ansem gone, though all the princesses are now free, who inform him that Ansem vanished into the Final Keyhole, which the three also enter in order to lock the keyhole. Upon coming out, they encounter Leon, Yuffie and Aerith, who reveal Hollow Bastion was their homeworld and Ansem its beloved leader until he unleashed the heartless. The three then leave for a world created from the remnants of worlds destroyed by the heartless, and at its center, discover the destroyed remains of the islands before fighting Ansem and then being pulled into a massive void just outside the Door to Kingdom Hearts where they have one last battle with Ansem in his World of Chaos form. In desperation, the weakened Ansem tries to open Kingdom Hearts to gain the ultimate power of darkness, but he's informed that he's wrong as deep down there, is a light that will never go out, and thus the true nature of Kingdom Hearts is light, which proves true as light bursts out and destroys Ansem.
They attempt to close the door before the Heartless can come through from the Realm of Darkness and receive help from the other side by a freed Riku, as well as King Mickey, who holds back the Heartless. As the door closes, Riku asks Sora to take care of Kairi, and Sora and Mickey use their Keyblades to seal the Door to Darkness, leaving Riku and Mickey on the other side. As the worlds begin to be restored, Sora finds Kairi and promises to return to her before they are separated once again as the walls between the worlds are restored. Sora, Donald, and Goofy end up on a path in a grassy field, thinking about how to find Riku and Mickey, when Pluto appears with a letter from Mickey, and they follow him into the distance with renewed hope.
Sora along with Donald and Goofy, chase Pluto through the grassy field and do so for an entire day until night falls and they stop to rest for the night. Sora awakens later to find a crossroads along with a hooded man who informs him "Along the road ahead lies something you need. However, in order to claim it, you must lose something that is dear to you" before disappearing as the paths merge to one that Sora, followed by Donald and Goofy, follows to Castle Oblivion. Upon entering, they learn that they had all had a feeling that their missing friends are inside the castle somewhere, and the stranger reappears to introduce them to the castle's strange mechanics that has removed every spell and every ability that had learned until then, because the way of things in Castle Oblivion is "to find is to lose, and to lose is to find".
He then proceeds to sample Sora's memories and create a card that upon being used at the 1st floor door, sends Sora walking into, shockingly, Traverse Town, which the man reveals was created from Sora's memories of said world and the man reveals that to fight within the castle, Sora must make use of cards to not only attack, but to also call on his friend's aid, as for the most part, he will be alone in his fight through the castle.
Continuing on to explore the town, they go to the third district and run into Leon, who has no idea who any of them are, as according to him, they had never met, though strangely, he somehow knows their names. Yuffie shows up and suggests they go talk to Aerith to try and figure things out, though unfortunately, she doesn't know what to make of the situation as they feel like they know each other, though they know they had never met Sora. Sora reminds Leon of the farewell speech he gave them before they left to fight Ansem and Leon recalls the end of the speech and Aerith guesses that Sora's heart is helping them remember. After looking around the town they run into Cid who is in the same predicament as the others before the group is attacking the armor wearing heartless of their original visit to Traverse town. Upon its defeat, Leon and the others arrive to see them off and Aerith seemingly stays behind to inform him that if Traverse Town is an illusion then they are too and he shouldn't let himself fall for the illusions and be distracted from what important before Donald and Goofy reveal he is talking to thin air and Aerith had actually left with the others.
At the floor exit, they are confronted not only by the hooded man, but also by Axel, who after a fight, gives Sora more cards created from his memories, though not before telling him that in the castle, he must trust what he remembers and seek what he forgets, and then he will find someone special. Sora takes this to mean Riku and the King but Axel gives no straight answer and leaves. Sora and company continue on up to explore the castle, traveling through memories of other worlds they had seen in their last journey, but now fail to recognize them, any of the people they encounter, the name of the castle that Sora turned himself into a heartless at, or even that it happened in a castle, as a result of Castle Oblivion having already started to affect their memories, with it even wiping Jiminy's Journal for good measure. As he goes up the castle, Sora is confident that he won't forget anything important such as Kairi or the promise he had made her, stating that as long as he has her good luck charm with him, he can never forget her. However, as he says this, he briefly recalls another girl, but can't place her face. At the end of the Seventh floor of the castle, Sora is confronted by another hood wearing person, Larxene, who attacks him, gets him to remember the girl's name as Naminé, and reveals he has been carrying around a good luck charm she had given him and hadn't known it.
As he continues ascending the tower, Sora, to his surprise, runs into Riku, though Riku isn't as thrilled about their reunion as Sora, is angry at him and reveals Namine is in the castle and implies that in the past, Sora had done something to make Namine leave the islands, so she doesn't want to see him. Riku states he will care for Namine and Sora should return to the islands to look after Kairi as per Riku's wish when they closed the door, and takes off farther up the castle. Sora follows in order to save Namine, but it becomes apparent that his memories are becoming greatly altered as he can't remember the faces or names of his other friends on the island, and now believes it had always been him, Riku, Kairi and Namine on the island before Kairi is finally completely phased out of his memories and replaced with Namine.
They eventually reach a world Sora is sure he's never ever been too, though it feels oddly familiar to him somehow. Here they encounter another member of the antagonists, Vexen, who attempts to eliminate Sora to foil the others' plans, but is defeated and attempts to warn Sora not to follow his memories before he is eliminated by Axel when he begins to tell him about the other side of his heart. Upon exiting this floor, he encounters Riku again and both realize that they both have the same exact memories of time spent with Namine along with identical good luck charms given to them by Namine. Riku goes into denial of the situation, calls Sora's a fake and attacks him, though flees. At this point, Sora loses his temper at his companions when they warn him to be careful and he chooses to move on to the next world without them, which turns out to be the memory of his island where he encounters his friends, who he still can't remember the names of, as well as Riku, though Sora is disappointed to realize it's just his memory of Riku and not the real deal. He becomes confused when all make mention of him apparently often daydreaming about a "certain girl" but can't figure out who they mean as he can't recall anyone. After relieving the destruction of the islands, Sora finally encounters Namine, though to his confusion, he is approached by a see through Namine, who tells him to ignore the other Namine and try to remember the one he truly cares for, which causes Sora to think of Namine at first before his good luck charm transforms back into the charm given to him by Kairi, confusing him as he sees her replace the fake Namine.
Namine tries to remind him of Kairi and begins to confess her actions, though Riku interrupts and attacks him to get him away from Namine before suddenly collapsing due to Namine destroying the memories in his heart, and it's revealed that this Riku is actually a fake and is a replica of Riku made by Vexen who Namine was forced to manipulate like she had with Sora in order for Marluxia to use Sora to take over the organization. Larxene returns for Namine, but Sora chooses to protect her despite her recent revelations and defeats Larxene with hello from Donald and Goofy. After this, Namine comes clean and apologizes for what she's done to all their memories, though Sora forgives her easily as while his memories are in doubt, his feelings aren't and they set off to the next floor to defeat Marluxia, who they eventually find battling Axel while using Namine as a shield, which forces Sora to fight Axel and seemingly defeat him.
After finding Marluxia, the villain orders Namine to destroy their memories, though Namine refuses and is saved by the Riku Replica, leaving Sora free to challenge and defeat Marluxia and lock the door to the chamber they fought in, locking all of Marluxia's darkness within. Unfortunately Namine can't restore their memories as easily as she undid them, and so she presents them with memory pods that will restore their true memories, though at the cost of forgetting about Castle Oblivion and everything that happened within, Namine included. Sora promises that he won't forget her as the memory will still be there somewhere inside him and he'll find it again. In the pod, Sora is told that for the process to begin, he must remember his "light", which will bring back the memories that were lost. Using her good luck charm, Sora concentrates and manages to remember her.
Sora doesn't appear in 358/2 Days as he is asleep during his year of sleep, but is heavily referenced. Namine has difficulties in restoring his memories due to the existence of his nobody Roxas, and a further complication in the form of a replica of Roxas and his leaking memories named Xion, who are instead gaining Sora's memories in the form of dreams, gradually slowing Sora's restoration process to a complete stop.
The organization intends to have Xion absorb Roxas in order to become a complete form of Sora to act in their interests, leave Sora unable to ever awaken and erase Roxas from existence. Xion discovers the truth of her existence and desires to help Sora awaken despite meaning it would end her existence and leaves the organization, but is retrieved by Axel, who is unaware of the complete truth, and Xion is experimented on to gain new powers to use to absorb Roxas.
His nobody also defects, and Xion is sent to absorb him and catches up to him in Twilight Town where Xion reveals she now physically resembles a 14 year old Sora and fights him with all her strength, but is defeated as per her plan to defy the Organization. She asks that Roxas stop the organization and returns to Sora, sending his memories back where they belong, but his restoration is still hindered due to Roxas still needing to be reunited with Sora to restore him at 100%.
Riku hunts him down before he can go on a suicide mission against the Organization, over powers him and brings him back to DIZ where they begin the final stages of restoring Sora, putting Roxas in an artificial simulation for the time being. Sora appears as a playable character in the Mission Mode gameplay mode after unlocking him first and wields the Dream Sword, Kingdom Key, and Ultima Weapon Keyblade.
As his memories are slowly returned to him over the following days, Roxas once again experiences them as dreams in the simulation of Twilight Town, but doesn't suspect the truth until it's revealed to him by Namine, with him also briefly put into contact with Sora's heart after a near death experience in the simulation that had put him in contact with Kairi's heart. After DIZ manipulations are finally revealed to Roxas along with his memories, he chooses to return to Sora, causing Sora to finally awaken in the real Twilight Town.
After a year-long sleep, Sora wakes up and finds himself inside a weird mansion in Twilight Town with Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy. Not knowing that he has been asleep for a year and finding himself taller then he used to be, as well as that his clothes no longer properly fit him and the journal containing record of the previous adventure is blank except for the words "Thank Namine", he sets out to accomplish a goal he set previously; to find Riku and King Mickey. Exploring the town, he encounters Hayner, Pence, and Olette, the friends whose digital copies had been befriended by Roxas in the simulation. Sora comes across pure white creatures outside the train station, but Sora is still too offset by his awakening to fight properly and tires out, but Mickey wearing a robe comes to their rescue and tells them to take a certain train before running off. Boarding the train, Hayner, Pence, and Olette come to see them off for reasons they can't properly explain, as while they had just met, they also feel they were saying goodbye to an old friend which causes Sora to shed a tear via his connection to Roxas.
The train takes them to Yen Sid's tower where they encounter an old adversary of Mickey, Donald and Goofy's known as Pete trying to break in, but flees after revealing that his boss, Maleficent, had been defeated by them a while ago. Inside, they are informed a year had passed since their previous adventure, and while the Heartless are still around, that they are more of a hindrance than an outright threat to all worlds. The new threat to the worlds are Nobodies, which are created when those with strong hearts are turned into Heartless and their left behind physical forms take on a will of their own, that while able to mimic having a heart, don't possess true feelings, and a mysterious group known as Organization 13 is leading them.
To prepare him for his new journey. the fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather give him more fitting clothes that come with the ability to draw on the power of his friends to unlock new powers. Tasked with opening doors between the worlds to fight the Organization, he returns to the three on the gummy ship and they set out to other worlds, with them first going to Hollow Bastian where they reunite with Leon, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith and Merlin, who are working on restoring their world, and reveal that for most of the year until recently, they had forgotten about them. They also reveal that a Heartless army is gradually building around Maleficent's old fortress. Members of the Organization appear to harass them and confuse Sora by calling him Roxas before leaving.
Sora travels to other worlds looking for Sora and King Mickey and encounter Pete on a number of worlds trying to create more heartless to reinforce Maleficent's growing army but they foil him time and again. He also reunites with old friends previously like Aladdin, Jack Skellington, Hercules, Simba, and Mushu. He also goes to Goofy and Donald's world where they save the Cornerstone of light from Maleficent by foiling Pete's attempts at destroying it in the past. Returning to Twilight Town, they find that Kairi had at some point been there after escaping Axel's attempt to kidnap her only for him to successfully kidnap her shortly before Sora returned.
Returning to Radiant Garden, the group finds that a supercomputer belonging to Ansem has been discovered, and when Sora attempts to access it on info regarding the Organization, he, along with Donald and Goofy, are digitized into the system itself and meet and befriend the program known as Tron, who returns them to the real world. They are met with Mickey, who informs them that the one they knew as Ansem was actually one of his apprentices known as Xehanort. The Heartless army then begins to attack the city, and while Mickey wants Sora to instead return to traveling the worlds, he joins the fighting and defeats the Organization Member Demyx. Fighting alongside, Yuffie, Leon, Cloud and Tifa, the Heartless army is gradually destroyed. A tired Sora is then met by Xemnas, the leader of the Organization, along with Axel, who Sora finds out was the one who kidnapped Kairi and Saix. They reveal their plan to use hearts liberated from Heartless slain by Sora to create a version of Kingdom Hearts.
Sora tries to resist the Organization's plans, but is saved by Maleficent, who seemingly sacrifices herself to cover their escape into the realm of darkness where they find a box containing key belongings of Roxas from the fake Twilight Town, where Sora is able to identify him by name despite never seeing him before. Once again traveling the worlds, Sora defeats the Organization's attempts to create powerful Nobodies and defeats the member Xaldin before again returning to Hollow Bastion where they find Heartless from Tron's world are running wild. Returning to the virtual world, they work with Tron to stop the plot of Clue and the Master Program of destroying Hollow Bastian, shut down the virtual Heartless and rediscover the worlds real name as Radiant Garden.
Sora finally finds a way to the world of the Organization, the World that never was, by taking a path located within the virtual Twilight Town, and finds Axel waiting for him, who chooses to sacrifice himself to save Sora from Nobodies. This spurs Roxas to awaken within him and fight him in a mental battle where Sora defeats him, Roxas acknowledging him as a good other.
Storming the Castle that Never was, Sora finds Kairi being threatened by Xigbar, but surprisingly, Ansem's Seeker of Darkness saves her and leaves Xigbar to be slain by Sora. Afterwards, he learns that this Ansem is actually a transformed Riku who was forced to accept Ansem's form in order to gain his strength. Working with them, they travel up through the castle and defeat the remaining members of the organization besides Xemnas, and Sora finally learns that Roxas was his nobody, who Riku now believes wanted to meet Sora, with Sora admitting he wanted to meet him too. They encounter the king and DIZ, revealed to be the true Ansem the Wise, working to undo the Fake Kingdom Hearts via a device that overloads and seems to kill Ansem, but not before he apologizes to Roxas through Sora for his mistreatment of him. A side effect of the explosion also destroys the heartless within Riku, restoring Sora's friend to his true form.
Confronting Xemnas at the top of the castle, they refuse to work for him to steal hearts and seemingly defeat him. As Namine opens a portal to their homeworld through Kairi, Sora finally meets Roxas, who properly merges with Sora. Before Sora and Riku can go through the portal, it is destroyed by Xemnas, who absorbs the power of the fake Kingdom Hearts for one final battle that destroys him, but leaves Riku injured and both trapped in the Realm of Darkness. By chance, Sora finds a letter in a bottle written to him earlier by Kairi, which causes the door to light to appear, through which they return to their island and reunite with their friends. Later on after Donald, Goofy, and Mickey had returned to their world, Riku shares his belief that the Door to Light was actually made by Sora's heart before Kairi appears with another letter, this one from the King, and he begins to read.
Sora and his best friend Riku have been summoned by Yen Sid for not only their keyblade master exam, but also for a new mission; to strike down Master Xehanort, who has been revived thanks to the defeat of Ansem the Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas. Part of this mission and Mark of Mastery, Sora and Riku need to enter the sleeping worlds (which are worlds that have been disconnected thanks to the heartless) to find the Seven. sleeping keyholes.
However, as it turns out, in Sora`s story, Xemnas, Xigbar and Saix have been revived thanks to the time traveling youth incarnation of Xehanort, and Xemnas reveals that the true purpose of Organization XIII was not to give the Nobodies true hearts, but to "Nort" them and turn them into other incarnations and vessels of Xehanort. After another fight with Xemnas, Sora passes out into a dark sleep, which gives Xehanort the chance to turn Sora into the 13th seeker of darkness, but that did not happen as Sora is saved by both his best friend Riku and Lea, the original counterpart of Axel.
Back in Yen Sid's Tower, Sora awakens first and proceeds to have a small party with Donald and Goofy before Riku awakens following diving to the depths of Sora's heart to save him from the darkness put there by Xehanort. Yen Sid then gives them the results of the exam, and while Riku passes due to having used the power of awakening to save Sora, Sora himself failed due to falling to the darkness via the manipulations of the Real Organization 13 as well as losing the power of awakening, though Sora isn't phased by the news and congratulates Riku for passing. Lea promises to aid them in the destined battle with the Real Organization 13 and reveals his own recently discovered Keyblade. Sora chooses to return to the Realm of Sleep in order to thank all the Dream Eaters he and Riku had fought alongside and give proper farewells, with his happiness unknowingly being shared with a sleeping Ventus.
Sora awakens in the Dive to the Heart, after looking through memories of his past he ends up at the edge of The Final World where he encounters and defeats a semi-transparent Darkside.
Per Master Yen Sid's instructions, Sora, Donald, and Goofy travel to Olympus Coliseum to seek training from Hercules. As they reach the world, they encounter Hades, who uses the titans to attack Thebes and claim his place in Olympus. As they form an alliance to save the civilians from the Heartless, Sora asked Hercules how he regains his strength to save the people he loves. Hercules replies that he regains his strength when Megara is in danger. After saving the civilians from the heartless, Megara returns with Pegasus to inform Hercules that Olympus is in danger and he heads back to Olympus to save Zeus and the rest of the Gods. When they reach Olympus, they see Hades and the rest of the Titans, who plan to confine Zeus and the rest of the Gods with ice and lava. After rescuing Zeus and the gods, Hercules punches Hades in the face before he leaves Olympus. As Hercules wanted to answer Sora's question, he realizes that he should figure out his own ways to regain his strength by fighting "with all his heart".
At the Mysterious Tower, Sora reported to Yen Sid that he might not be able to regain his strength at the time being. Despite the worries of acquiring the power of waking, he remains optimistic and believes that he can relearn his powers and skills. They are greeted by Riku and Mickey, who are assigned to find Aqua in the Dark World but to no avail. As they suspect that Aqua might have fallen into the great abyss of darkness, Sora volunteers to save Aqua from the Dark World. After receiving his new garments from Yen Sid and the fairies, he receives a heartbinder as a good luck charm before traveling to another world. In the Gummi Ship, Chip and Dale report to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, via Gummiphone, with new instructions on using the Gummiphone and a brief conversation with Ienzo. As Donald and Goofy learn that Sora has another heart resided inside of him, who Sora believes it belongs to Roxas', Ienzo decides to further study Sora's physical condition and the other heart that's resided in him since he was very young.
Sora proceeds to Twilight Town to initially create data and a vessel for Roxas. As they are walking around the town, they recollect old memories of encountering Maleficent, Xigbar, and Pete as well as Sora's encounter with Roxas in the data Sleeping Worlds. Goofy explains that the data Sleeping Worlds are part of the test to see whether Sora is able to face his fears and past hurts. Sora further explains that losing friends and "having no one to turn to was the worst kind of hurt" but it is a process to appreciate his friendships with Riku and Kairi.
As Sora is determined to find Roxas, his conversation is cut short by Nobodies and hordes of Heartless. After saving Hayner, Pence, and Olette, they ask for Roxas' whereabouts but they can't remember him until Goofy shows a photo of them with Roxas together. They told them that that was the other digital version of Twilight Town, where their data version of themselves befriended Roxas. As Sora and the rest of the friends enter the Old Mansion, Pence enters the Door of Darkness system to activate the transporter to access the virtual Twilight Town. Ienzo helps the rest of them to enter into the system to allow Sora to enter into the virtual world. Inside the virtual world, he plans to rebuild Roxas by decoding Ansem's Code. After being pressured by both Xemnas and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, Sora chooses to restore Roxas into the real Twilight Town. As he converses with Riku regarding the replica program, Sora learns that Roxas can only be resurrected by making a vessel for him to live. Without Even's help, Sora's plan to revive Roxas might not happen. Eventually, the trio proceeds to Destiny Islands where Sora finds the Master's Defender lying abandoned in the sand. Sora proceeds to the Dark World via the Secret Place, only to see Riku and Mickey battle with Anti-Aqua, who has succumbed to the Darkness. He helps both Riku and Mickey to save Aqua and bring her back to the Destiny Islands. Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aqua then venture out to Castle Oblivion where Sora, Donald, and Goofy have lost their memories. Aqua summons the Master Defender Keyblade and unlocks Castle Oblivion, transforming it to its original form, the Land of Departure.
Together, they enter the main hall to find Ventus, still sleeping due to his heart residing inside Sora. Vanitas soon arrives to complement Aqua on her "neat trick" as no one was able to find Ventus in over ten years. Aqua takes it upon herself to battle Vanitas while ensuring Sora, Donald and Goofy remain out of the battle. After the fight, Vanitas attempts to break the barrier surrounding them both with Aqua intervening just before it breaks. Sora, in a desperate attempt to help Aqua, manages to unlock Ventus' heart from within himself and wakes Ventus from his comatose state, saving Aqua and forcing Vanitas to retreat. The group returns to the Mysterious Tower to rendezvous with Riku, Mickey, Kairi and Lea. Aqua reminisces over Sora, Riku, and Kairi having met them when they were children. Lea and Ventus also have a reunion, with Ventus learning that Lea is now a Keyblade Wielder. Sora mentions to the group that he wishes that Terra, Roxas, and Naminé could be there with them while Aqua, Ventus, Lea, and Kairi take responsibility for each missing person. Yen Sid tells the group to prepare for the final battle to come. Sora, Riku, and Kairi return to the Destiny Islands for one last moment of peace where Kairi asks Sora to exchange paopu fruit. They hope to keep each other safe in the battle.
The seven Guardians of Light along with Donald and Goofy arrive at the Keyblade Graveyard, ready to clash with the thirteen seekers of darkness. They are greeted by Master Xehanort. Gradually, Xemnas, Ansem, Vanitas and Young Xehanort also arrive to taunt the seven guardians of their impending failure. The seekers of darkness then unleash a massive swarm of Heartless, Nobodies and Unversed for the Guardians to fight.
After defeating the swarm of enemies, Sora, Donald, and Goofy catch up to the other guardians of light. The guardians come across Terra still under Xehanort's control but before they have time to act, Terra overpowers the guardians and proceeds to kill Sora and Kairi only to be stopped by Donald and Goofy. After the attack and seeing Donald, Ventus, and Axel injured, Sora begins to doubt himself but then suddenly a massive swarm of Heartless forms a huge tornado that sucks up all the guardians except for Sora and Riku. After seeing this, Sora breaks down in tears and says that his friends gave him strength and he's useless on his own. Riku tells Sora that he doesn't believe any of that before he takes a stand and blocks the swarm of Heartless to defend Sora. This ultimately ends in Riku getting consumed by the Heartless and then the Heartless proceed to attack Sora. Sora wakes up in The Final World. He encounters the Nameless Star as well as a bodiless Naminé. Sora is guided back to the realm of light with the help of Kairi and Chirithy and uses the power of waking to revive his friends. However, Young Xehanort warns that abusing this power will result in him losing his own heart again. Returning moments before their defeat, the guardians of light eliminate most of the Organization's members; in the process, Terra, his heart revealed to be inside Xehanort's guardian, regains control of his body and reunites with Aqua and Ventus, while Lea reunites with Xion, whom Vexen restored for the Organization, and Roxas, who regains his own heart to protect Lea and Xion.
When only Xehanort remains, he provokes Sora into attacking him by destroying Kairi's body, allowing Xehanort to acquire the χ-blade and summon Kingdom Hearts. Using Xehanort's power of time travel against him, Sora, Donald, and Goofy transport him to his boyhood training grounds of Scala ad Caelum, where they defeat him. After the other Keyblade wielders rejoin the trio, Eraqus' spirit emerges from Terra's body and convinces Xehanort to surrender. Xehanort and Eraqus depart together to Kingdom Hearts, while Sora and his friends use the χ-blade to close Kingdom Hearts and return to their own time. Trying to save Kairi, Sora uses the power of waking again to revive her; despite the risk of becoming lost forever, Sora promises to return.
Sora appears in The Final World and explains his situation to Chirithy under the belief that using the Power of Waking to save Kairi shouldn't be that hard, considering he had already saved six hearts before. Chirithy explains to Sora what will happen if he saves Kairi; he will lose the power of waking and will vanish from the world and be unable to return. Sora throws caution to the wind and expresses his desire to save Kairi. Chirithy then explains what Sora must do. He must travel back in time and connect with the hearts of the Seven Guardians of Light during the final showdown at the Keyblade Graveyard.
Sora then proceeds to connect with Ventus, Aqua, Terra, Roxas, and himself. Needing only two more connections, Sora was forced to witness Xehanort slaying Kairi again but proceeds to Scala ad Caelum before his past self arrives with Donald and Goofy. Sora then chases an image of Kairi and collects five fragments of her heart. After collecting them Xehanort arrives and tells him he is too late while turning his attention to his past self who has just arrived in Scala. Sora quickly connects with himself again and traces his connection between himself and Riku while the latter was fighting off the Replica Xehanorts with the other guardians. Sora then connects with Mickey and aids him in finishing the battle. With seven connections, Sora finally re-completes Kairi to her original form.
The two quickly embrace, but their reunion is cut short with the arrival of Master Xehanort. Kairi and Sora then proceed to battle Master Xehanort and succeed. After the two assist the other guardians in closing Kingdom Hearts, they then leave for their own time. Sora takes Kairi to the final world and introduces her to Chrithy. He states he wants to bring Chrithy home to his friend, as waiting while you can do something is pointless. Sora and Kairi proceed to visit the various locations the other guardians left after Sora's initial departure, even releasing Naminé's heart from Kairi.
Sora's friends gather at the Destiny Islands, where Kairi stays beside Sora and the latter says something to Kairi before he fades away.
Sora awakens in an unfamiliar city. Disoriented, he walks the streets observing where he is, eventually finding himself at a crosswalk staring at a building with the number "104" displayed.
Sora then wakes up in a nighttime version of The Final World. He then calls out to anyone who can hear him. He soon hears a voice and runs towards it. When finding the source of the voice he recognizes the mysterious person as Yozora. Yozora asks Sora how he knows who he is while also making it clear Yozora knows who he is. Yozora states that he doesn't normally look the way he does now and tells Sora that they aren't in the real world right now. Yozora summons his weapons and the two youths soon teleport over to Quadratum on top of the 104 building. Yozora states after accidentally stumbling there and going through some trials he was asked to "save" Sora. Sora questions why he would summon his weapons. Yozora doesn't answer and the two proceed to fight.
After Yozora is defeated, he states that his powers must not be needed yet. Sora asks him what he meant by that, but Yozora shrugs off the question and disappears while smiling. A flash of light appears and Sora then appears in The Final World. Sora then wonders if any of this is real and states nothing makes sense to him.
