Alright, a quick recap of KH 1 and my KH Chain of Memories.

Before that, however, I'll mention I hate Chain of Memories. A lot. Not that it was a bad system, but that damned card deck in the corner you use feels like nothing more then an annoyance to use, and I refuse to subject myself to that for the soul purpose of a story guide of some kind. So, I cheated and used one of GameFAQ's CoM guides. Anyway, Here you go.

Destiny Island, Sora's Home, is overrun by the darkness. Sora is saved by the Keyblade and appears in Traverse Town.

He joins up with Donald and Goofy to search for King Micky, Riku, and Kairi. All they know at this point is what Leon and co told them. The heartless devour the hearts of people, and they try to find the Heart of the World to devour that as well. The Keyblade is capable of sealing the worlds heart.

Riku escaped by embracing the power of darkness. I presume Ansem had somethign to do with this, however it's never really brought up specifically. Regardless, he joins with Maleficent and Ansem in order to save Kairi, regardless of what it costs.

As it turns out, Ansem was using them all. He wanted to use the Seven Princesses of Heart, Kairi being one of them, to create a path to Kingdom Hearts, the Heart of all worlds. He believes that at the center of Kingdom Hearts lies Darkness.

In Ansmens reports we learn that Ansem learned how to artificially create heartless, and researched The Darkness for some time. He learned about Keyblades from King Mickey.

Back to near end game events, you learn Kairi's Heart has been residing inside Sora, preventing them from finishing the Keyhole Ansem was creating. Sora defeats ansem/Riku, and he retreats, leaving behind the Dark Keyblade. Sora uses it to unlock Kairi's heart, and return it to her.

This, however, causes Sora to turn into a Heartless, as well as destroying Riku's Keyblade. He is saved from the Darkness, as it were, by Kairi a short while after however. They manage to all escape Hallow Bastion in tact.

Sora leaves Kairi behind with Leon and Co as he and the others return to Hallow Bastion, sealing the Keyhole. They then chase Ansem to The End of the World to stop him once and for all.

With Ansem defeated, the Door to the Darkness is opened, revealign the Dark world with Kingdom Hearts, which is light, as opposed the Darkness Ansem believed it to be. With the help of the now freed Riku, and King Mickey who shows himself wielding a Keyblade, manage to seal the door. Riku and Mickey, however, are trapped in the World of Darkness. Sora and Kairi are once again seperated, and Sora swears to find Kairi again. Sora, Donald, and Goofy leave in search of the the others. Pluto shows up with a message from the King, giving them some kind of Direction. They go in search of the Door to Light.

Here ends Kingdom Hearts 1.

And now for Chain of Memories.

Sora, under the guidance of a cloaked man, finds his way to Castle Oblivion. There, he begins loosing his memories, however as he descends into the castle looking for Riku and Mickey, he begins gaining memories of a Girl named Namine, who he once promised to protect.

As it turns out, 'Organization XIII' is in control of Castle Oblivion. Sora was lured there by none other then Larxene (Member # 12) and Marluxia (#11) in order to use Sora to take over the Organization. Larxene even goes so far as to tell Sora, after he 'remember's' his promise to protect Namine, that the other members of the organization our bad guys and kidnapped Kairi, spurring him to fight them.

As it turns out, these memories of Sora are all fake, created by Namine in order to Manipulate Sora.

Sora even fights Riku multiple times while in Castle Oblivion, as Riku possess the same memory of the Promise, and believes Sora is after Namine. Regardless, Sora wins and continues to the top of the Castle.

We meets with Vexan (#4), who takes Sora to 'the otherside of his heart' which is a place called Twilight Town. Here, Sora beats Vexen, who gets killed by Axel (#8), before he can say anything. When Axel was asked what their organization was, he responds "I don't even know what we are, I wish I knew..." and disappears.

After, Sora descends further into the castle, only able to remember Namine' at this point. Cut to Larxene and Marluxia who are confronted by Axel, who convinces them to let him join their Take Over after he killed of Vexan. Though after they agree, Axel betrays them and releases Namine', so that she may talk to Sora.

However, rather then fufilling her duty, she betrays the Organization and tells Sora his memories are false, and if she can return his real memories if he makes it to the top of the tower. However, further in, Sora defeats Riku one last time, only to learn from Larxene that he was nothing but a fake built by the Organization. Sora defeats Larxene, resulting in her death.

Axel appears later and Kidnaps Namine, taking her to Marluxia (#11) and begins to fight him. Sora interrupts however, and implies he and Sora are somehow connected. Sora wins, and Axel escapes. Sora proceeds to defeat Marluxia and rescue Namine. She restores Sora's memories, though at the cost of Forgetting everything about Castle Oblivian. He agrees, but promises to remember Namine.

Now to Riku.

Riku awakens, and a voice tells him he can remain here for Eternal Peace, or fight forward and see whats in store. The Voice leads him to Castle Oblivion. He first stumbles into Hallow Bastion, created from his Memories, but it is devoid of anything but Heartless. The voice tells him it is because he had rejected all else, and that only darkness existed within his heart. He rejects this adn continues forward. He speaks with Maleficent. He defeats Maleficent, and continues forward.

He meats with Ansem, of KH1, who had been guiding Riku. He almost manages to take Riku over once again, but King Mickey appears and saves Riku. Mickey, however, isn't physically there, but is using some of his power to help Riku when he can. Riku fights off Ansem and continues through the Castle.

Lexaeus (#5) and Zexion (#6) notice the pressence of Riku, who is able to Harness the power of Darkness as 'The Superior' could. Vexan appears and says Riku managed to escape from the Darkness, and he was connected to Sora, which is why he was able to reach Castle Oblivion. Since Marluxia is already suspected of Foul play, they decide to use Riku to deal with Sora.

Vexen then appears before Riku. When asked if Riku works for Ansem, Vexen replies it is, but not the Ansem Riku knows, but instead a Nobody that walks in the Twilight in between Light and Dark. Vexan says both he and Riku have the same power, but not wanting to join, Riku fights. Vexan reveals he did this simply to gather information on Riku and leaves.

Vexan creates a fake Riku, which loses to the real one. He is then implanted with the real Riku's Memories, but tweaked so that he must defend Namine, and he is sent after Sora.

After a bit, Marluxia realize Axel killed Vexan, whom they already considered contacting for Help. They almost decided to kill Sora, as he is already Stronger then Vexan, but decide to instead gather up both Sora and Riku.

Lexaeus goes after Riku, attemptign to convince him to join and use the darkness within him. Lexaeus fails to convince him and dies by the hands of Riku. Zexion realized both Lexaeus and Larxene are dead, and begins to worry about their organization.

Zexion realizes Sora is about to kill Marluxia, and decides Riku is no longer needed. He approaches Riku directly, and tells him Sora is here. However he also states Sora would have to defeat Riku, as Riku still holds Ansems Shadow inside him. It is also revealed that it was Riku's desire to leave and see other worlds that opened the door to Darkness that inevitably destroyed Destiny Island.

With a little help from Kairi's voice, however, Riku finally decides to accept the Darkness within him, as well as the light and defeats Zexion, forcing him to retreat.

Zexion retreats to find Axel and the fake Riku. Axel is now manipulating the fake, and tells him killing Zexion is a good way to start becoming his own person, justifying it by saying it was more itneresting to watch Sora and Riku then to save Zexion.

Ansem appears to Riku again, and again Mickey appears to save him. Though this time it's the real Mickey. Ansem dissapears after saying the stronger the Darkness in Riku, the stronger he becomes.

Riku meets Ansem once more, though learns that this whole time it had been another guiding him, a man buy the name of DiZ, who takes him to meat Namine. She offers to lock his heart, sealing away Ansem forever, as well as the memories of his friends suffering due to his actions.
He declines, and instead decides to face his crimes on his own, and destory Ansem for good. It is also revealed Namine was the voice of Kairi earlier.

It's also revealed Mickey seems to know DiZ, but as another name, but he can't quite place it. Regardless, Riku defeats ansem one more time, and decides to walk the road of Tiwilight, instead of Darkness or Light. Him, Mickey, and DiZ escape the Darkness, and travel on.