A World Free of Hurt
Sora's heart was drifting. In a void of Nothingness, it latches onto a light, and Sora finds himself in a strange version of Radiant Garden where the Heartless never invaded and Kairi never drifted to the Destiny Islands.
Determined to find a way back home, Sora tries to make the best of this situation with the help of some new old friends, but even in this idyllic world free of hurt, darkness is never far...
~Prologue~
There was a light.
Soft and gentle, it pierced the mantle of the thick nothingness that surrounded him. How long had it been since he last saw something—anything? Since he'd arrived in this plane, there had been nowhere for him to go and pitch black in all directions. There was no sound, no feeling. It wasn't even a world of darkness. It was just…Nothing.
But now there was light. It started out a small speck in the distance, but now that he saw it, it called to him. It quickly grew in size, enveloping his drifting heart with its warmth.
Slowly, he became aware. This light was so familiar to him. Was this what he'd been searching for in this empty world? Could his long journey finally be over?
The light pushed back the last of the nothing. He thought he heard a whisper.
Then he fell.
"Hey! Who…What?"
"—get over.. now!"
"You're…okay… pro…se!"
"Leave this…us."
"…can…he..me? …ra…?"
He was dreaming.
In his dream, there was an island. The sun never set, and they could play all day. Footprints dotted the beach's sands. Holes and mounds from the rough play. Sand sculptures reshaped by the waves.
In the middle of this play, was a tree. It grew in an unusual sideways direction. Something about that tree was important. Someone was there, looking back at him.
He couldn't see who though, because at that moment a weight pressed down on him, and the island disappeared, fading into black as if a TV had been switched off.
He groaned. The weight was cold and wet, dripping water onto his cheeks. He furrowed his brow and tried to will it off. Twice, he thought he felt his hand move and pluck the offending item away, only to realize his arm was still firmly at side.
Once more, he thought. He had to move his hand this time. It felt heavy and sore under his control, but at last he felt his real fingers move and grip at the soft thin surface under him. Sheets? A bed?
With some difficulty, he lifted his arm, and quickly hit another soft surface. A blanket then?
Another groan escaped his lips, and he jerked his head, sending fresh droplets down his cheeks.
"Oh!" He heard someone's soft gasp, followed by a clicking of boots, and a chair's skid across the floor.
Finally he opened his eyes.
He was in…a bed. It had two pillows with cream-colored sheets, and a thin brown blanket. That was the only thing his groggy mind could register, besides the cold wet cloth over his bangs. Enough of his senses returned, he pulled his arm out from under the blanket, and reached for it. He'd meant to pull it off, but his mind halted his body as more pressing questions filled it.
Whose bed was this? Why was he sleeping in it? What happened to him?
"You're awake!" someone—a young woman?—said gently, but before he could turn his head to the source of the voice, her boots echoed across the floor, stopping at the door that she quickly opened and leaned against, as she called to someone, waving her arm.
She wore a long pink dress. Her chestnut brown hair was neatly tied back into a twisted braid.
His eyes widened. He recognized that braid! And when the young woman turned around, smiling with childlike joy, he realized he knew a name to go with her face.
"You're—
"Aerith," another voice, this time a man's, supplied the name before he could say it. He knew that voice too!
The man stepped into the room. He had a tall lean frame, long dark brown hair, and wore a white shirt, black pants, and a black jacket with a fur collar. There was a thin scar across the bridge of his nose.
He had a stern expression, but his features softened upon seeing his guest. "So you're finally awake. How do you feel?"
"Aerith? Leon? Is that really you?" He whispered weakly, suddenly aware of how dry his throat was. He scrambled to sit up, but Aerith was by his side at an instant, gently holding him in place.
"Easy now," she said. "You've been out of it for a while. If you get up too quickly, you'll get dizzy." Her voice was soothing, but firm. He found himself nodding, and when he tried to sit up again, it was with Aerith's support, and her carefully propping up the pillows behind him to lean against.
Leon approached as well. "Hey," he said. "Do you know where you are right now? Where did you come from? What happened to you?"
"Squall," Aerith warned. "Easy."
"Fine. You ask the questions then."
"Don't mind if I do," she said and smiled at him. "Don't mind him. He can be a little rough, but he was really worried about you. We all were."
"Thanks…"
"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt? Can we get you anything?"
"I'm alright… I think." There was some lightness in his head, some heaviness in his limbs, and his parched throat made it difficult to talk, but that wasn't anything he couldn't chalk up to general grogginess. Overall, he was fine if not increasingly confused. "Can I get some water?"
"Of course!" Aerith said, and turned to Leon expectantly.
"Whatever," he muttered, but nodded and walked out of the room. While Leon was gone, Aerith didn't ask any further questions. She pulled up the chair she'd placed beside the bed earlier, took his hand, and spoke reassuring words as she gently slid her thumb across the back of his palm.
He took the chance to take in the rest of the room. It was small with a low slanted ceiling. Beside the bed, there was a nightstand with a half-full bowl of cold water. The cloth that had been pressed to his forehead before had been tossed in there. Other than that, the room contained a full body mirror & a small wardrobe. There was a thin layer of dust on both, and a thicker layer of dust over some boxes stacked haphazardly in a corner.
All in all, the room resembled a small storage attic more than a bedroom, but before he could really dwell on that, Leon returned with a glass and pitcher.
"Here," he said carefully pouring out a glass. It was accepted and gulped down greedily, the cool water a welcome relief. Aerith giggled, and took the pitcher from Leon, pouring two more glasses that were emptied just as quickly.
"Thanks Leon. I needed that," he said, voice sounding a lot clearer now. His body was starting to come into its own as well. That was good. He was starting to feel awkward lying in bed like that.
Leon's response was a strange look that he then shared with Aerith, but he didn't say anything. He took up a spot against the wall as Aerith resumed her questions.
"Let's take things nice and slow. Do you know where you are right now or what happened to you?"
"I'm not sure," he admitted in a quiet voice, and the fog in his head that prompted that answer did bother him slightly. But if Aerith and Leon were here, things couldn't be all bad, right? If they were here, then he could at least pin down a location. "This is Radiant Garden, right?"
"That's right," Aerith replied. "And well, I guess you already heard our names, but just to keep things neat and tidy, I'm Aerith, and this is Squall."
He nodded slowly. "Squall" was Leon's real name, he knew, but it sounded so strange to his ears. When had he started using it again?
No, wait. Why was Aerith even introducing herself in the first place?
"Do you remember your name?" she asked next, studying him carefully.
This was a joke, right?
"H-hey, cut it out you guys. Aerith, Leon, come on. It's me."
"You're still calling me that…" Leon muttered and exchanged a look with Aerith that only the two of them could understand.
But Aerith remained unperturbed.
"It's alright, don't worry," she said, patiently. "You had a pretty nasty fall. We just have to make sure things aren't too scrambled up there." She poked his forehead playfully. "So, play along? Can you tell us your name?"
He had the gnawing sense that she was the one playing along with him. He also felt an odd déjà vu that they had gone through this exact routine before once.
Something wasn't right here. But Aerith and Leon were still his friends no matter what. He trusted them.
"Yeah," he said and gave them a cocksure grin that they just had to recognize. "I'm Sora."
Aerith and Leon's eyes seemed to widen for a moment, before smiles broke out on their faces.
"Sora," Aerith repeated gently. "Thank goodness!"
"You guys are being weird," Sora, finally starting to feel anchored again, said. "What's go—
His question was cut off by the sound of a door slamming against a wall in the distance and a girl's loud "Hey guys, we're back!"
Sora knew that voice too. Leon stepped into the doorway and yelled back, "Upstairs, Yuffie."
Good old Yuffie, Sora thought as he heard her footsteps race up the stairs, getting louder as she approached until she finally skidded in front of the door. She was already smiling, but her face lit up even more upon seeing Sora.
"Hey Yuffie," he greeted her with a shy wave. He really wanted to get out of bed already.
"You're awake!" she yelled out. "Finally! We thought you'd never wake up!" She bounded over to him and examined him carefully, hands on her hips. "You should know better than to take a dive in the central square like that! Really scared the living daylights out of me!"
"Sorry," Sora said reflexively, though he couldn't remember the event in question. So he'd…fallen into Radiant Garden? How? What was he doing before that? The last thing he could force himself to remember was the final battle with Xehanort and everyone on the island and—No. His memories stopped there. Why was he in Radiant Garden alone? What happened to him?
"As long as you're sorry," Yuffie replied in a mock huffy tone. "Glad to see you're still kicking!"
"Yeah, me too," Sora agreed. "Sorry for the scare."
"It's cool," Yuffie assured him, and straightened up. "So what's the dealio? Who are you anyway?"
"Ah!" Aerith gaped as Leon facepalmed, and whatever illusion of comfort Sora had been clinging to crumbled.
"Wait what?" Sora exclaimed, gripping the blanket. "Yuffie, that's not funny!"
"Huh?" Yuffie gave him an odd look. "It's a fair question isn't it? I mean, I guess you already heard my name from Squall but I'm still in the dark about you."
"Yuffie, this is Sora," Aerith said pointedly, as if trying to trying to convey something more in her tone. But it was too late. Sora could already feel the panic welling up.
"Yeah, you know, Sora," Leon repeated sternly.
Seriously, cut it out! Sora snapped in his mind. Something was wrong. As he replayed their previous interactions in his head, it became more and more apparent that Aerith, Squall, and Yuffie really hadn't recognized him. Before he could call them out on it though, a fourth voice suddenly spoke up, and halted all of Sora's thoughts in an instant.
"Sora?"
It was a girl's voice. A girl's voice that Sora would never ever fail to recognize. The girl stepped into the room twirling a strand of familiar shoulder-length red hair. Her familiar face had a familiar warm smile.
But it couldn't be!
"Hello, Sora," she said and it was her, it was definitely, unquestioningly her. "It's nice to meet you. My name is—
Kairi!
A/N: I originally came up with this idea in 2015 (albeit in a slightly different form). Now I'm determined to finally see it through!
This takes place post-KH3 and is canon compliant to that point. But I'm completely ignoring the Secret Ending. What I'm not ignoring though is a certain Secret Report...