K: Yes, yes. . . I realize I should be finishing chapter 5 of "The Apparition," but as this idea has been swimming in my head since I heard Stone Sour's "Through Glass" again, and I can't really make the video I want to for it quite yet, I figured the next best thing would be to write an adaptation of the story I want to capture with said video once I figure out how to make it.

As such, I hope you enjoy this story.

Disclaimer:Kingdom Hearts is copyright Square Enix and Disney

Dedications:

Uzumaki-sama (my mentor, whose works I shall always hold in high regard)

Epitaph-Please-Write-Me (whose dry, sarcastic humor reminds me so much of my own at times)

Eguana (whose lovely illustrations never fail to take my breath away)

"I'm looking at you through the glass
Don't know how much time has passed
Oh God, it feels like forever
But no one ever tells you that forever feels like home
Sitting all alone inside your head"

- "Through Glass" by Stone Sour


Through Glass

Chapter I: Return

(Roxas)

It isn't what I expected it to be. Though, thinking back, I can't imagine what I could have expected in the first place. Maybe I'd assumed that, having been safely reunited with my other self, I would simply fade away into nothingness. I was content to melt smoothly back into Sora's consciousness, weary of feeling incomplete. Despite the people who I'd known during our time apart, I wouldn't have minded much at all if I had simply ceased to be. No one would have really missed me anyway, since the friends I knew were never real to begin with. The versions I had known were merely data. It wasn't as if I had anything to go back to other than myself. And, I suppose, maybe Axel.

But that hadn't happened. I'm not exactly sure why, but I have a feeling it has something to do with Sora. When we had first merged into one being, it had started out as I had thought it would. After I realized what was happening, I'd relaxed, allowing myself to be absorbed by the warm, soft light of Sora's soul. Really, it wasn't so bad at all. At the very least, it was nice to find a place I would be welcomed so openly after all I'd been through.

Then something happened.

As I felt myself sinking down into the light, a cool, dark hand reached out, grasping my wrist, and pulled me from my fate. When I had looked up at the owner of the hand, I was surprised to find myself staring into a pair of glowing golden eyes- the unmistakable eyes of a heartless. I made to pull away, frightened by the idea that a heartless had somehow found its way here, in the very depths of the keybearer's being, but stopped as I noticed that there was something rather peculiar about this particular heartless. Namely, it looked exactly like Sora. Gazing into those brilliant yellow orbs, I knew that, as strange as it sounded, that was precisely who it was. Part of him, at least…

It was odd, but even in this dark visage, Sora's personality came through. Not wholly, by any means, but subtle hints of it were there. For example, despite his cold, blank features, I could sense him smiling at me. A glint of mischief danced within his eyes, perhaps amused by my reaction, and as he pulled me to my feet, as it were, I had the distinct feeling he was laughing at me. Indeed, no one but Sora could possibly produce a heartless such as this. It seemed that even his dark side could never be anything worse than an impish shadow. How very like him.

The dark creature, or Antisora, as I have come to call him, released me, then placed himself between the ball of light and myself. Motioning to the light behind him, he shook his head, then pressed a dark hand first to his chest, then to mine. It took a second, but I understood- we were not to go there. It was not our place. I nodded, letting him know that I had worked out his message, and he seemed satisfied with that. Taking my hand, the heartless guided me up and away from the light- away from what I would come to realize was Sora's somebody.

He had taken me to an empty room, not unlike the one I had found Naminè in during my adventure in the old mansion, and gestured to the white expanse before us. I looked at him quizzically- he didn't really expect me to stay here, did he? A bit annoyed by my reaction, he gestured to the room again, then closed his eyes, his hands held out in front of him; concentrating. At once darkness flowed from his open palms, spilling out onto the polished white floor and creeping slowly toward the corners of the room, up the walls, and dripping thickly from the freshly covered ceiling. Then it began to recede, evaporating into a dark mist, and returned to its creator, swirling about him until it was absorbed by his person. After the last spot of black was gone, the heartless opened his eyes, lowering his arms before turning expectantly to me.

Shrugging, I closed my eyes, raising my arms as he had, and pictured what I wanted the room to look like. My hands began to tingle, the air singing as it had whenever I had summoned the keyblade, and when the ringing in my ears ceased, I opened my eyes to a place I'd never thought I would see again. Everything was just as I'd remembered it, which I suppose made perfect sense, considering I had made it that way. Still, a small smile made its way to my lips as I surveyed my handiwork, taking in the sunset colored walls and cluttered bookcase. As I stepped forward, running my hand over the old fish lamp perched on the desk, the heartless disappeared, fading into the shadows, and left me to my own devices.

Circling the room, I fondly caressed a few of my more sentimental possessions, noting with a relieved sigh that the blue orb from the Struggle trophy had found its way to a small pedestal on my desk, right beside the money pouch Olette had given to me.

Well, the fake Olette, anyway.

I sighed, making my way over to the bed, and lay spread eagle on top of the covers, thoughts of my friends weighing heavily in my mind. True, they weren't real- not the ones that I had known, anyway- but I didn't have the heart to banish them from my life forever. I may not have had a heart when I had known them, but my memory, when paired with Sora's heart, made it seem as if I'd had one all along. The real Pence, Olette, and Hayner, if they even existed, would know nothing of my existence, but I would still know them, and that was all that mattered.

They were still my friends, even if they didn't know it.

Curling up on my bed, I watched the shadows dance around the room, grow long, and slowly melt into the darkness of night. Closing my eyes, I breathed in the scent of the ocean, and allowed the whisper of the wind in the trees to lull me to sleep.

K: Well, there's chapter one for you. This will obviously be multiple chapters, as this one merely set up how the story begins, and didn't actually reach the point in time where Roxas is yet. Everything so far has been in past tense, and is the story he's telling/musing to himself about, not his account of what he's actually doing in the present.

Anyhoo, I hope you like it so far, and I'll try to actually finish this one, hopefully in a reasonable amount of time. I just felt like writing it since I haven't been able to write anything in a while, and this was the dominant idea lodged in my brain.