Kingdom Hearts Crossroads

**Kingdom Hearts Crossroads or Kingdom Hearts** χ**rossroads**is a Story Arc of the the Exteria Multiverse. It takes place in the Kingdom Realm and follows the perspective of young Keyblade Wielders Haru and Karel. It is followed by Kingdom Hearts Crossroads II

## Main Arc

### Key to Beginnings

Haru and Karel, childhood friends from the **Destiny Islands**, are surprised when a voice calls for Karel's name and asks him to open a mysterious lock. When Karel, who dreams of adventure and freedom, summons a Key-shaped weapon, he uses it in order to open the lock. Beings from the dark falls upon the island as Darkness arrives and start eating at the world.

Karel tries to fight them, as well as Haru who summons a similar weapon, but the two are quickly overwhelmed. As they are about to die, a dark presence drags Karel into a portal, while Haru disappears in a flash of light.

### Haru's Tale

Haru travels first to **Traverse Town**, where she is helped by **Neku Sakuraba,** **Sanae Hanekoma** and **Joshua Kiryu**. They guide her towards a man called Leos who tells Haru that he chose her. The paladin-like Leos explains that she is a keyblade wielder, a woman chosen by the key in order to defeat the monstrous Heartless and protect the worlds from interfering. Haru accepts that mission, but her priority remains finding Karel.

She then goes in the world of **Disney Castle** where the future king **Mickey** is still sorcerer **Yen Sid**'s apprentice. She helps Mickey with his training, then departs towards the world of **Lush Paradise** where she confronts **King Louie** who tries to steal the Keyblade. She finally visits the **Frozen Kingdom** where princess Elsa Arendelle helps him find Karel. However, she faces Xastiel, a mysterious Keyblade Wielder who warns her that something attempts to corrupt Karel : the man who almost killed him. He then guides her towards **Olympus Coliseum**.

### Karel's Tale

Karel meanwhile arrives in **Radiant Garden** and helps **Lightning Farron**, **Snow Viliers** and **Oerba Vanille** find a mysterious intruder in the garden. The intruder turns out to be Luxan, a man clad in darkness who tells Karel that his actions destroyed the entire Destiny Islands. Luxan teaches Karel to fight heartless and save worlds, which Karel accepts in order to redeem himself, although he clearly doubts Luxan's motives.

Karel arrives in the **Faerie Dominion** where young fairy Maleficent's wings were stolen and helps her get her revenge by attacking the soldiers who stole them. He then leaves towards the **Frozen Kingdom** and befriends closely Elsa, understanding her fear of herself. Finally, he enters the **Lush Paradise** where he is confronted by Leos who accuses him of being corrupted by darkness. Karel, angered by his words, flees and talks with Elsa, venting his anger and subsequently destroying a tree with the power of Darkness. Calming himself down by fear of what he is becoming, he goes as well towards **Olympus Coliseum**.

### Two Tales Intertwined

In **Olympus Coliseum**, the scheming **Hades** plots for Karel and Haru to fight eachother to the death in a coliseum match. The two clash as they meet again, testing eachother's spirit and strength, but end up unable to deal the final blow to eachother. Hades then sends champion **Genesis Rhapsodos** towards the pair. The warrior from another realm is quite challenging but ends up being defeated.

After their victory, the pair discusses, but they find themselves unable to trust eachother. Luxan and Xastiel's plots create a sense of unease between the two. Karel decides to bring Haru to Luxan in order to explain everything. However, as he enters Luxan's room first, the portal closes between him, giving Haru the impression that Karel ran away from her.

### Two Parallel Roads

A spiteful Haru, angered by Karel's seeming disappearance, visits the **Cite des Cloches** where she is persecuted by judge **Claude Frollo**'s prejudice against witch-like being. Haru fights a Heartless-empowered Frollo before departing towards the world of **Untamed Lands**.

Meanwhile, Karel enters the **Cauldron Deadlands** where he fights the **Horned Lord** in a hopeless fight, giving in a bit more to the Darkness in order to defeat the monstrous necromancer. His success takes a toll on him, but he keeps going on and finds as well the Untamed Lands.

In that world, Karel and Haru unite against an immense Heartless born from the prejudice and hatred of colonialists and indigenous tribes, and triumph. But Karel and Haru largely distrust eachother. Karel promises to take Haru to Luxan and does so, but Haru attempts to strike down Luxan in anger, and the latter quickly teleports. Haru and Karel attempt to make up for the previous times, with Haru kissing Karel and confessing to her. Their determination reinforced, Haru and Karel run to the final world : the **End of the World**.

### A World Ends

In the End of the World, Haru and Karel are split apart by Xastiel. He explains that he once attempted to craft a legendary χ-Blade, an Artifact of unlimited power, by making thousand Keyblade Wielders fight against eachother. His plan was stopped by Luxan's sacrifice : the latter delved into the Dark in order to kill Xastiel beforehand. However, Xastiel survived as a Nobody and can now hope to build once again the artifact by making Luxan and Haru, hearts of darkness and light, fight eachother.

Xastiel taunts Karel and awakens more and more darkness within him, using him as a back-up plan. Haru, meanwhile, falls for Xastiel's trap and fights Luxan, getting locked with the man from the darkness in a fight within her own heart. As Haru falls unconscious, Xastiel summons the χ-blade and attempts to unlock the way to Kingdom Hearts, a source of Akashic power. However, Karel stops him with pure power.

### Final Chapter

Haru, her heart fragmented, fights Luxan within her heart and defeats him, fracturing her own heart in the process. However, she manages through a miracle of the Light to survive the battle and return to life. Together with Karel, they manage to stop Xastiel as the now fully-empowered Nobody summons a titanic castle to crush them, and end up finally ending Xastiel's ambitions by destroying him.

As Xastiel and Luxan are destroyed, the Destiny Islands are restored by Kingdom Hearts and Haru and Karel return there, although Karel is still corrupted by darkness and Haru feels her heart is still unbalanced. The young couple decides to rest there for a while...

## Characters

* Haru
* Karel
* Luxan
* Xastiel
* Leos
* Elsa Arendelle

## Trivia

* This storyline obviously takes place as a fanmade prologue to the Kingdom Hearts series.