A/N: And so begins another story in the Hourglass timeline. This is a sequel to Hourglass taking place a few months later. You don't necessarily need to read Hourglass first, but it certainly helps to explain who some of the characters are and why they're doing the things they're doing. It also helps establish that there's a Sora from the future living in the past with the good folks of Radiant Garden.
Important note: Anytime I put ATL, it stands for Alternate Timeline, as in the timeline that Sky came from. Most of the time, it'll just be a general scene but sometimes it'll be a flashback that Sky is remembering. It'll be easy to spot because I'll be calling him 'Sora'. When I put CTL, it means Current Timeline, as in the timeline that Sky created by going back in time and altering things. That's the main timeline that I'll be writing about where all the action is happening. So keep an eye out for that so you don't get confused.
Warnings: Good ol' fashion swearing, suggestive themes, violence, the rape and murder of quantum physics, Heartless abuse, and random leaps through time. Be prepared. I had to mark this Rated T so it will show up in general search results for KH stories, but in the final chapter, I'll change it to Rated M.
Timeless
Chapter 1: Comeback
(May 30th, 2008 - ATL)
He knew, somehow, the exact moment it happened. He just knew. He was filled with dread and fear, followed quickly by a sharp pain in his heart. It nearly knocked him off his feet and stole his breath away. There was no physical evidence of his sudden condition, nor any logical explanation at the time to explain the wave of emotions overcoming him. It didn't matter that his brain was trying to tell him otherwise, because his heart knew the ugly truth.
Something horrible had happened.
He had stumbled blindly into the gummi shipyard, startling the two chipmunks manning the controls.
"Sora?" squeaked Chip. "What are you doing here? I thought you weren't due to leave for another two hours."
"Any word from Riku yet?" Sora asked quickly, ignoring Chip's question.
"No," replied the chipmunk as he consulted his paperwork. "He left half an hour ago. He's only ten minutes late reporting in." Chip offered Sora a sympathetic smile. Sora's shoulders slumped. Anything could have happened in ten minutes…
"Could you let me know when he does?" His heart was thundering so hard, he was amazed he had managed to say that much without passing out. Chip and Dale saluted.
"Sir!"
Sora walked disheartened from the gummi shipyard, following the colonnade out of the garden and into the castle in the direction of the command centre. He had to go over a mission briefing with his crew, but he couldn't focus at all. His heart felt like it was dying and he had no idea why.
Halfway to the command centre, he stopped walking altogether, unable to think of anything besides Riku. That horrible feeling wouldn't go away. Turning on his heel, he began heading back to the shipyard. He promised himself that he'd only stay a little while, just until Riku reported in so it would calm his soul and give him peace of mind. He had never felt this worried or protective about the older man before.
Sora paced back and forth around the garden, waiting, anxious. Any minute now, he told himself, any minute now, Riku would report in and then Chip or Dale would let Sora know and he could go back to feeling relieved. It had been a little over an hour, which was hardly enough time to worry. So what if Riku was late reporting in? Maybe he got side-tracked. Maybe he forgot. Sora was confident that he'd be getting that good news in just a short moment.
But that good news never came. There was a sudden flurry of activity around him as people were running to the shipyard in a panic.
"What's going on?" he asked one of the passing soldiers.
"We got a distress signal from Highwind!" the soldier said. "It's coming in for a rough landing right now!"
"Highwind?" That was Riku's ship. Sora ran after them to the stairway leading underground to the shipyard.
Inside, they were just bringing in the heavily damaged gummi ship belonging to Riku and his team. The main hatch opened and a plump, balding man by the name of Pintel stumbled out, coughing and bleeding from a head wound. The other soldiers, wearing environmental suits designed to shield them from the deadly Versa-stigma plague, helped him to his feet and led him to solid ground where he could catch his breath. Sora waited expectantly for anyone else to exit Highwind, but no one else was aboard.
"Where is he?" he asked the only crew member present. "Where's Riku?" Pintel looked up and something in his eyes told Sora the truth he didn't want to believe.
"I'm sorry fer yer loss…" was all Pintel could offer. He was led away by a couple of healers, leaving Sora stunned and speechless.
"Wait!" he shouted, turning to stop Pintel from leaving. "What do you mean by my 'loss'? What happened?"
"Sora, what do you think you're doing?" a voice cried from the stairway leading to the garden. Sora spun around to see Aeris wearing her white medical suit, helmet in hand. "You're breaking Versa-stigma procedure! What if he's infected?" She rushed down the stairs to check on Pintel's head wound and take a sample of his blood to ensure he was disease-free. "Sora, I understand your concern, but this can wait until debriefing. He needs medical attention first."
"No, this can't wait! Where the hell is Riku?" Sora's harsh, demanding voice made a few of the personnel jump. Pintel shrugged off one healer and turned to face Sora.
"We were ambushed five minutes after disembarking," he said gruffly. "We didn't stand a chance. Riku… he was killed in the attack. I just barely made it out alive." Sora's blood ran cold and his breath caught in his throat. The shipyard went deathly quiet and the seconds ticked by slowly, feeling like an eternity. Sora's brain was slow to catch up with what the pirate had just said.
"He's…dead?" His voice warbled and came out meek and child-like. Pintel could only nod, trying his best to look sincere and apologetic. He allowed himself to be led away once more by the healers. Aeris watched him go and quickly turned to Sora.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," she whispered, taking his hand. "If there's anything you need, anything at all, please let me know." The young man remained motionless, staring off into space. "Sora, are you okay?" Aeris' face creased with worry. "Sora, say something."
"He's lying…" was all Sora could say. "He has to be. No stupid ambush could get Riku. This is a joke!" His eyes turned wild as he wrenched his hand out of Aeris' hands and rushed aboard Highwind. "He's here somewhere! I know it!"
"Sora!" Aeris shouted, following the distraught boy. "I don't think he was lying. Where else would Riku be? Why would he joke about something like this?"
"It's impossible!" Sora called from the cockpit. He was looking under the chairs and inside the bulkheads. "This isn't happening! Riku's not dead! He can't die!"
"You're in shock. You need to take a moment here. Please sit!" Aeris attempted to guide Sora into a chair, but he pushed her hands off him.
"I'm not in shock!" he roared. "If you're not going to help me find him, then go away!" Aeris backed away for a moment, stunned at his behavior and yet not entirely surprised. Some people reacted violently like this, refusing to accept a loved one's death, spending days or even months in denial. He would have to come to accept the news in his own time. There wasn't much she could do at the moment, so while Sora continued to search restlessly around the ship, Aeris briskly made her way to the control room and informed the command centre of Riku's demise.
"You can't be serious!" exclaimed King Mickey through the com system. "Riku was killed?" The line went quiet for a few seconds. When he spoke again, his voice was full of emotion. "This war with the Heartless…with Maleficent… It's claiming so many lives…" He took a shaky deep breath and struggled to continue speaking. "And Sora? How is he taking the news?"
"Not well…" Aeris admitted. "Although I wouldn't expect any less." She took a deep breath, closing her eyes, feeling her heart break for her friend. "They were in love, after all."
King Mickey sighed sadly. "I know. Please keep an eye on him until Kairi returns from her mission in New Orleans." He sighed again and Aeris could almost imagine him holding the bridge of his nose. "I can't imagine what he must be going through right now."
Out in the shipyard, aboard the Highwind, Sora sat in the pilot's chair, shaking and staring into space, knees pulled up against his chest, eyes burning and breath coming in shallow gasps.
"He's not dead…" he whispered to himself, hugging his arms around himself. "He's going to come back… He promised…"
(Sept. 21st, 2007 – CTL)
It never even stood a chance.
The moment the shadow took on a solid form the size of a small child, its beady eyes adjusting, blinking, taking in its bearings, it was crushed under the luminescent weight of a Keyblade.
"14!" declared a haughty voice smugly. "Better catch up, Leon! You're falling behind!" The owner of the Keyblade smirked, his blue eyes shining with intensity, his brown spiked locks swaying slightly in the breeze.
"I'm only 3 behind you," Leon huffed, eyeing their surroundings carefully for enemy activity. He wasn't normally a competitive person, but there was something about his companion that brought out the worst in him. "You wouldn't be so cocky if you didn't have that Keyblade, Sora."
"The name's Sky," the Keyblade Master corrected automatically, a slight snap in his voice. Even after living in the past for the last year and a half, people still occasionally called him by his old name.
"When are you going to drop that alias? The war's over and your younger self went home six months ago."
"When will you drop the name Leon, Squall?" Sky countered. Leon clammed up.
"Touché." It had been nearly 15 years since he had started going by the name Leon, abandoning his original name as a way to atone for his mistakes and inability to save Radiant Garden the first time it was overrun by Heartless. It had been so long that he had grown used to the name Leon and it stuck.
"Exactly." They walked in silence for a few minutes up an empty Radiant Garden street. The homes they passed by were locked tight and spelled against Heartless invasion for the protection of the citizens, courtesy of Sky. The concept of Heartless still remaining throughout the universe was an inevitable one – so long as darkness existed, there would always be Heartless. Six months ago, they had been given the option to rewrite the universe to allow it to exist without the need for darkness, but it had been agreed that no one should have the right to decide something that huge.
Sky and Leon paused only when they thought they heard a noise down an alleyway. A tiny Heartless shadow scrambled by, taking cover under a park bench. Sky took aim and fired a minor thunder bolt at it, dissolving its form back into darkness. "Fuck, yes! This is actually relaxing!"
Leon chuckled quietly at Sky's behaviour. "You know, I still remember the day we met. You were this scrawny-ass kid with an oversized key that you didn't know how to use." Sky frowned and lightly punched Leon in the shoulder. That caused the older man to chuckle louder.
"Don't remind me. That was ten years ago by my perspective." Sky smiled wistfully at the memory. "I can't believe how much time has passed."
"For you, maybe, but for me, it's only been four and a half years." Leon observed Sky from out of the corner of his eye. "I know you're from the future and all, but it still gets a little… strange, seeing you way older than I remember."
"You're not used to it by now?" Sky laughed, clapping Leon over the shoulder. "I'm only 4 years younger than you now! Ha!" Leon cracked a grin.
"Do you ever still… think about your past?" The air seemed to suddenly sober up as Sky looked contemplative.
"All the time." Truth was, he didn't want to think about it. There was still too much pain revolving around his past, and he preferred to learn from it rather than wallow in it. What's done is done and there was no point in going crazy over it. They walked in a more comfortable silence for a few more minutes, pausing when they saw another shadow forming. Leon fired a shot off from his Gunblade before Sky could steal the kill.
"12." Sky was about to make a quip when his radio crackled with life.
"Sky and Leon, come in," said the gruff voice of Cid. Sky gave Leon a look that said 'I'll get back to you' as he flipped a switch on his walkie-talkie.
"This is Sky; go ahead, Cid," he said into the wireless headset attached to his ear.
"We're just about finished fixing the system here, standby to confirm." A few seconds later, there was a resounding noise throughout the whole city as small short pillars of light shot out of the ground across Radiant Garden. "Status?"
"Looks like it's back online," Sky confirmed. "Standby, we'll wait for a Heartless to show up." He nodded at Leon and they waited patiently for a shadow to pop up. When it did, it was struck down by an automated security drone that emerged from a beam of light. "Looks good, Cid. We're coming back in." He flipped the switch on his com to shut it down and began trekking back towards Castle Luminous with Leon close behind.
"I still can't believe we were struck with a virus," Leon muttered. "I thought we were clean."
"It's recently uploaded, that's for sure. Cid'll probably have it figured out by now." It was an early morning when Sky had been informed that Heartless were spotted across the city and the security drones weren't going online to stop them. While Cid frantically diagnosed the computer system and attempted to write an anti-virus program, it became Sky and Leon's job to scour the city of enemy threats and eliminate them. Not a hard job, all things considered, but still bothersome nonetheless. It was now late evening.
In the silence that came with their walk back towards the castle, Sky reflected on the last six months of his life. They had defeated Maleficent, ridding the universe of the biggest threat it's ever known. They had brought the residents of Radiant Garden back to their homes from Disney Castle where they had been relocated to during the final battle. They had spent a couple months aiding in reconstruction efforts across multiple worlds, including Traverse Town, which had been mostly destroyed during the war. And then Sky had taken up a permanent residence in Radiant Garden.
He still kept in contact with Sora, Riku, and Kairi via letters left in the ocean for them to find, but for the most part, he was trying to distance himself from them. They had their lives and he had his.
But now he was stuck in an unusual rut. He had no idea what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. When he was 18, he had aspirations of being involved in astrophysics and astrology, but that seemed like a lifetime ago. He was certain he couldn't remember anything from high school anymore. None of his math or science classes seemed to matter when he was fighting for his life against an unstoppable evil. All he knew now was how to fight and survive. It was difficult adjusting to living in a peaceful world again.
"Hey, you okay?" Leon said, snapping Sky out of his reverie.
"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine…" He looked heavenward, still wondering what the future held for him. When he had settled into Radiant Garden, they had set him to work as the head of the security detail in and around Radiant Garden. The Heartless threat may have passed, but the Righteous Hearts movement was still very much active and the Restoration Committee could use all the help they could get. But then what? What would happen after the Righteous Hearts were rounded up? Sky felt like he lacked a purpose now. He honestly hadn't expected to be around this long. He had figured once his mission was complete and the timeline altered, he would fade away along with his nightmare of a future.
"If you say so…" Leon muttered, not at all convinced by Sky's noncommittal answer. "I guess that's why they call you 'Sky', 'cuz that's where your brain is all the time." Sky grinned, giving Leon a shove.
"Very funny."
After a short amount of time, Leon and Sky arrived in the security control room where Cid was typing up a storm, likely re-writing security protocols in the computer's system to prevent another attack. They watched him silently for a few seconds, amazed at how fast his fingers were moving across the keyboard.
Sky finally broke the trance by saying, "Find anything on the source of the virus?" Cid stopped typing midway through a line of code and turned to face Sky, cracking his knuckles as he did so and retrieving the lit cigarette from his mouth after a long drag.
"I think so," he said gruffly, rubbing his nose absentmindedly. "It was buried under a few essential subroutines, almost impossible to track. I had to be careful not to tamper with the code 'cuz that shit's connected to the security root-"
"Spare me the techno-babble; it's going right over my head," Sky interrupted, holding his forehead as if Cid's words were causing a migraine. "Bottom-line it for me. Can you track it back to where it came from?"
"In short, no," Cid hissed, annoyed that his explanation was cut short. "Although, judging by the virus' code, it's a lot like the one that was hidden in Disney Castle's security system. I used Lewis Robinson's anti-virus program to kill the virus here."
"Great, a comeback-virus." Sky sighed, annoyed that things were coming back to bite him in the ass. "Can you make sure it doesn't happen again?"
"Yes, I was just finishing up new security algori-"
"Good, that's all I need to know." Sky turned to leave.
"Wait a sec! There's something else!" Sky stopped mid-stride and turned to narrow his eyes at Cid. It had been a long day of picking off Heartless drifters across the city and all he wanted now was to go home, take a long hot shower to wash the stench of darkness off his skin, and collapse in his bed for a 7 hour coma. "Take a look at this," Cid grumbled, typing in a command on his console to load up a video clip. "Someone sent us this video by hacking into our network and uploading it directly into the main server. It was piggy-backed on the virus. Whoever sent this wanted us to see it."
"Or they wanted us to know exactly how much power they have over us," Leon added. The video loaded and began playing automatically.
In the video, there were three masked figures holding pulse rifles standing in front of a banner that read "Righteous Hearts". The one standing in the centre appeared to be the leader. When he spoke, it was loud and bold, like he believed without a shadow of a doubt that he was the most important man in the world and his words should be heeded.
"This message of warning goes out to the self-proclaimed Restoration Committee-turned tyrants of Radiant Garden, our 'saviours' in the recent war."
Sky frowned upon hearing the voice. "I know that voice from somewhere…" he whispered more to himself than anyone else in the room.
"We, the Righteous Hearts, do not share your optimism of the future of our world under your rule. As we have told you several times before, you would be wise to step down as the leaders of our world and allow the Righteous Hearts to take command."
"Pfft," Leon huffed. "Kinda hard to take orders from a guy who's too cowardly to show his damn face."
"We are the ones responsible for the recent attack on your defence network and we are more than capable of doing worse damage, sending our fair world into a state of chaos if only to prove your unworthiness as current leaders, your failure to prevent attacks from within your own administration, and your inability to protect your citizens. You have five days to make the necessary preparations of stepping down or we will unleash our next attack." The video abruptly ended.
Cid, Leon, and Sky sat there, speechless, unable to believe that the Righteous Hearts would actually dare threaten their own world just to prove that they could do a better job running it. Sky was the first to break the silence with his trademark expletive.
"Ah, fuck…" he muttered, already feeling his headache getting worse by the second. "You gotta be kidding me…"
A/N: I hope this first chapter has whetted your appetite for more. I always wanted to elaborate more on Sky's personality and past. Special thanks to Mutantpenguins and EternalDreamer for proofreading and beta-reading my story! You would not believe the rough shape it was in before they came along! :D
