"What do you think the power of waking is? It's for traversing hearts to reach worlds. Not for traversing worlds to reach hearts. There's a high price to pay for wielding such power foolishly."

—Young Xehanort, to Sora

The power of waking (眠りし心を解放する力, Nemurishi Kokoro wo Kaihō-suru Chikara, lit. "Power to free a sleeping heart") is an ability introduced in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, and is a key plot element in Kingdom Hearts III. It is described by Yen Sid as "the power to free a heart from its sleep".^[1]

Only Riku and King Mickey are known to currently possess the power of waking. Sora previously had the power, but his abuse of the power of waking to break the World's natural order caused him to lose it.^[2]

Abilities

The power of waking is intended to awake someone's heart from stasis and restore it. This is accomplished by creating a portal into that heart to awaken it, thus accessing the recipient's Dive to the Heart or a world that's special to them. This is one of the few ways to enter the Realm of Darkness outside of a Corridor of Darkness.^[3]

Unintended uses and consequences

Since the states of sleep and death are connected,^[4] it is possible to use the power of waking to raise a heart from the verge of death. As a result, the process of waking a sleeping heart can be inverted, using the link between worlds to reach a heart. In this process, the user enters a shared space that connects all hearts, allowing them to access portals into living worlds and locate lost hearts no matter where they are. This is an abuse of the power of waking that effectively rewrites reality, incurring a "nature taboo" that not only causes the wielder to lose the power of waking and whatever other powers they have, but also exiles them from their original world. As a result, the offender cannot return to their original world without outside assistance.^[5]

Story

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Sora and Riku take a Mark of Mastery exam to not only be named Keyblade Masters, but also obtain the power of waking by awakening the Sleeping Worlds. However, Sora loses this power when Xehanort corrupts his heart with darkness. After passing the exam and defeating Xehanort, Riku uses the power of waking to dive into Sora's heart; there, he defeats the Armored Ventus Nightmare and awakens Sora by answering three questions in a vision of the Destiny Islands.

Kingdom Hearts III

Sora travels through the worlds in an attempt to regain the power of waking. Upon facing Vanitas at The Land of Departure, Sora realizes with Ventus's help that the power of waking is still sleeping within him. He then uses the power of waking to free Ventus's heart from within his own and awaken him from his eleven-year coma.

After rebuilding his body in The Final World, Sora uses the power of waking to travel between facsimiles of the worlds and track down his friends' hearts, in an attempt to save them from the Lich. He succeeds and sends them back in time to their arrival at the Keyblade Graveyard. As a result, Sora creates a tear in the fabric of time known as a singularity and changes history so that Sora's friends are saved by the Lingering Will.

Kingdom Hearts III Re Mind

After the final battle with Xehanort, Sora travels back in time to before his arrival at Scala ad Caelum to save Kairi's heart. He succeeds, but having repeatedly used the power of waking to restore hearts that have been erased from existence, Sora vanishes into another world.

Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory

After a year of searching for Sora after he disappeared, the Fairy Godmother takes Riku and Kairi to the Final World, where they meet the Nameless Star. The Nameless Star opens a Portal to the world of Quadratum, and Riku uses the power of waking to travel through it.

Notes and references

• Kingdom Hearts III