Slight AU setting where Destiny Islands never fell and Kairi and Riku never left the islands.
Review if you want or don't no pressure.
Disclaimer: I own nothing except maybe my mind.
Sora's Homecoming
Prologue
10 Years, 10 years since he ran away, 10 years since he joined what seemed to be an unwinnable war.
This was the train of thought that ran through his mind as he walked through the remains of the battlefield. As he looked around the field before him he realized that this was the last time he would be in battle, for the war had been won by his own hand no less. Now he had no excuse no choice but to return home, to see the people that caused him to run, to face the pain he had run from.
Slowly he made his way over to the gathering of warriors who were celebrating their victory in high spirits. As he approached one of the warriors looked up and gave him a smile and wave. This person was his only friend in the war effort her name was Aqua, and she was the only one who knew who he was and why he was here. She beckoned him over and not wanting to bring down the mood he made his way over to her.
"You did it!" she exclaimed wrapping him in a hug. "You defeated Xehanort, I knew you could do it thank you" she whispered into his ear as she clung to him. "Don't make such a big deal over it" he said scratching the back of his neck shyly. 'He may have been their strongest fighter, but he was still very humble' Aqua thought to herself before saying, "So I wanted to ask you something". "Fire away Aqua" he said with a smile.
"Do you think it would be alright if I was to go with you, to your home world seeing as mine was destroyed?" she asked while looking down at her feet. A slight look of shock registered on his face for a moment before he casually replied "Of course you can, and who knows we might even find a home for you're friends there to". To this she looked up with a beaming smile and clomped him in another hug.
"What's going on over here?" Looking up they saw another warrior coming towards them. "Just trying to make you jealous Axel" they both said in unison. "Yeah yeah rub it in, just cause I don't have any hot women hugging me at the moment, but you know I will when I get home, that party is gonna be on fire baby!" To this Aqua said "Well speaking of home there is no time like the present so we are gonna take off". To this the man looked pensive but knew there wouldn't be any chance of changing Aqua's mind so he just shrugged and nodded in agreement.
"Alright then but I expect visits all the time, Twilight Town will be party central whenever you drop by". Chuckling Aqua said "Yeah yeah Axel we know now scram so we can go". "Gee fine I can tell when I'm not wanted" and with that he waved farewell and ran off back to the celebration. "Well I'm ready when you are" Aqua said. " right well I better check in with Master Yen Sid before we go" he said. "Alright then see you in five?" "You bet" and with that he sprinted over to Master Yen Sid. "Ah Master Sora" Yen Sid said as he approached "Leaving already?".
Sora just nodded his head. "Very well, but before you go I have to tell you that there are still heartless roaming the worlds so when you get home, don't be surprised if you have some appear just do what you do best". "Yes Sir" and with that Sora left and walked back to Aqua ready to go. "Are you ready?" she asked. "As I'll ever be" he replied.
Chapter 1 : The Return
Breathtaking, that was the only way Aqua could describe journeying through space on her Key-Blade glider. There was nothing to describe the amount of stars, the majesty of an entire galaxy encompassing their view. Looking ahead she continued to follow Sora as he lead the way to Destiny Islands. Clad in his Key-Blade armor, he flew along, propelled by his own power. Sora's ability of flight was a skill very few people knew about, most believing it was just an enhanced glide skill.
Speeding up Aqua pulled alongside him and asked "Hey reckon you could teach me how to do that?" Sora just looked at her and it took a second for Aqua to remember that they couldn't speak to each other in space. Shaking her head at herself turned her attention to the path in front of her before hearing in her head 'wow you must be super embarrassed by that". Looking back at Sora she went to open her mouth before he sent 'Telepathy, Aqua think it don't speak it'. Blushing at almost making the same mistake twice now she asked again 'Think you could teach me how to fly?' Sora replied with 'I can try no promises'. She nodded her head remembering when he tried to teach king mickey with no success.
Looking ahead Sora saw their destination coming into view and a small sense of fear came over him. 'How will they react to seeing me, do I even tell them I'm back, how will I react to seeing them?' Not concentrating on anything but his thoughts, he continued to fly straight into the barrier surrounding his world, which he bounced off back towards Aqua. Stopping himself he looked at Aqua and sent 'Not a word' to which he only received laughter as a response. Sighing he turned back towards the planet he was facing and raised his hand, concentrating he opened up a portal for them to walk through.
Once inside the portal and now able to speak Aqua removed her armor before saying "So where a bout's will this one take us?" He just shrugged in response. "Well I hope its on the surface this time, I don't feel like being stuck underground again" she joked. "Shut up" he said lightly as the made their way forward. "I just hope we don't come out in the middle of town". Aqua hummed in agreement to this as she remembered the last time that happened. People running in fear as they thought there was an invasion of heartless. "Ever thought of making your portals less foreboding?" "I would if I could Aqua" he replied.
Meanwhile down on Destiny Islands, "Hurry up Riku, we're going to be late!" Sighing Riku replied "Calm down Kairi, its just lunch with a friend". "Yeah well maybe if I wasn't so hungry it wouldn't be a big deal, now move your ass or I'll move it for you". "Yes Dear" he replied hastily, Riku knew better then to argue with Kairi when she was hungry. Picking up the pace they made it to the restaurant just as their friend did. "Hey Terra" Kairi called in greeting. Turning around Terra waved back and preceded to hold the door open for them. "Hey guy's how have you been?" "Great! How bout yourself?" Riku asked. "Meh Can't complain". While making small talk they were given their menu's and led to their table. Taking their seats they went to continue their conversation before the their attention was drawn to the news broad cast currently taking place on the screen in the back of the restaurant.
"Breaking news, as reports have come in from the war effort. The war is over, as the last remaining enemy leader Master Xehanort has been defeated by the Key-Blade wielder, known only by his home world as the Destiny Islands Wielder struck down Master Xehanort earlier today". The rest of the broadcast was drowned out by the cheers of everyone around as the news sunk in."I can't believe it" Terra said with a huge grin on his face. "I'll finally get to see Aqua again, it almost sounds to good to be true". Meanwhile Kairi looked at Riku and said " You don't think we might get to see Sora again do you?" The only information they had been able to obtain from his mother was that he had joined the war effort as a medic, aside from that they knew nothing more.
"I don't know" he replied. Before they could say anything else, outside the window a portal opened up in the middle of the road. As all eye's in the vicinity looked apprehensively at the portal two people walked out and the portal closed behind them. One individual was in full Key-Blade armor, helmet included, the other was a young woman with blue hair.
Suddenly Terra jumped out of his seat and ran out the door yelling "Aqua! Aqua over here". Turning around Aqua looked at the man and,eye's lighting up in recognition yelled "Terra!". Running over to him she engulfed him in a hug. "It's been so long, how are you, what are you doing here?" To this he replied "In a second, let me look at you, I hardly recognize you, you've changed these five years". "Well so have you look at you, you have a beard now, if it wasn't for your hair I wouldn't recognize you". He chuckled to himself before saying "Who's your friend?" "Oh Terra, I'd like you to meet the Destiny Island's Wielder".
Sticking up a hand he casually waved at Terra and said "Hi, so you must be Terra one of Aqua's friends I presume". Terra just nodded meekly at him all he could think was 'This is the guy who won the war'. Not sure how to act he remembered his friends inside he said "Come inside, I was about to have lunch with a couple of friends, I'd love to introduce you, and I'm sure you guys are hungry, come on my shout". Aqua looked at Sora and after a quick nod she replied with "Sure, lead the way". As they made their way inside one of the staff members approached Sora and said "Sir do you think you could remove your armor as you might make the other guests uncomfortable". Before he could reply Terra piped up and said "Hey this is the Destiny Islands Key-Blade Wielder, you know he has never revealed himself publicly for obvious reasons". Realizing this the member of staff quickly said "I-I-I I'm so sorry I didn't realize" stumbling over himself, to which Sora replied "Hey don't worry about it, I'll let you in on a secret, I keep this on cause I have a scar on my face that I'm kinda shy about, but don't tell anyone". And with that they headed over to the table.
As they approached Sora looked at the two people sitting there and thought they looked familiar, but couldn't be sure. Grabbing some extra chairs and sitting down Terra preceded to introduce everyone.
"So Kairi, Riku" at this Sora immediately stiffened in his seat which only Aqua picked up on. "I'd like to introduce you to my friend Aqua". At this she nodded in greeting which they returned. "And this is the Destiny Island's Wielder who's name no one knows, and this is Riku, and Kairi".
At this both Kairi and Riku went a bit slack with awe as they were probably one of the first people to meet him in person. Stumbling over themselves they tried to formulate a coherent sentence before Sora cut in, and said "Hey nice to meet you, and please relax I'm nobody special just another wielder like Aqua here". The laid back and carefree tone in which he said this, made everyone visibly relax. Kairi spoke up first, simply saying "Well it's an honor to meet you Mr Wielder". At this Sora cracked up laughing and Aqua joined in, everyone else looked a little puzzled until Sora said, "Mr Wielder, okay that's a first, please call me Roxas".
"Roxas huh, okay then is that your real name?" Kairi asked cheekily. "Perhaps" he replied. At this Riku piped up saying "Well it's a honor to meet you Roxas, anyway how about we get something to eat before we carry on". Agreeing everyone placed their orders, and once brought out got ready to eat. Before they could dig in however Kairi asked "Um Roxas how do you plan to eat with your helmet on?" Sora replied by reaching up and removing the bottom half of his helmet that covered his mouth and chin, then in a brief flash of light it disappeared into thin air. "Does that answer your question?" he replied with a familiar grin across his face.
Struck by the familiarity of the smile it took a second, before Kairi replied "Um yes". But in the back of her mind she couldn't shake the niggling feeling she knew that grin. Lunch went on with a lot of catching up between Terra and Aqua, Sora would chip in from time to time when asked but mainly focused on his meal. As they finished up Riku decided to ask "So Roxas, you wouldn't happen to know a medic named Sora would you?" Sora looked up and hesitantly replied "Why do you ask?" Kairi piped up then with "Well he's a old friend of ours, and nobody has seen or heard from him in a long time, all we know is he joined the war effort as a medic".
At this Sora looked at Aqua, who shrugged implying it's up to you. Taking a breath he said "How long ago did he join?" Riku replied "About 10 years ago". "Hmm, 10 years ago is along time, I can't say for sure. Do you guy's have any pictures?" They both looked at each other and then said "Not on us, but we were going to see his Mom after this, and she has plenty of them, do you think you could come with us and have a look?" Before he could say anything, Aqua piped up and said "Of course we can, I'll look as well in case I've seen him around to".
After about 10 more minutes of small talk, Terra stood up and went to pay the bill. As he approached the waiter behind the register the waiter looked up and said, "It's on the house sir, It's the least we can do after all the Wielder's have done for us". Smiling Terra nodded and returned to the group. "All sorted, shall we go?" Nodding their assent everyone filed out of the restaurant and, following Kairi's lead, headed off towards their next destination.
"How far is it?" Sora casually asked, looking around the place he realized he didn't recognize the area, either that or it had changed drastically in the last ten years. "About 10 miles" Kairi casually replied. Sora just nodded his head and carried on walking until both Riku and Kairi cracked up laughing. Turning around he looked at them weirdly (not that they could see that with his helmet on) and said "What?" Shaking their heads Riku said "Sorry man it's only around the corner, 10 miles in this direction would put you in the ocean". Looking ahead he could make out the blue of the ocean and just shook his head. Chuckling to himself he replied "Do you guy's do this to every newcomer or am I just special" he grinned at them. Caught off guard by how familiar the grin was again, Kairi didn't answer, luckily Riku spoke up in her stead "It's a rite of passage for every newcomer, we did the same to Terra when we first met to". Quickly replying Sora said "I'm not technically a newcomer here though, as I was born and raised here". "True, but you have been gone for awhile, and it's obvious you don't really recognize the area". Cocking his head in agreement Sora let the matter drop.
Continuing on they almost reached the street corner until Sora stopped and said "Hold up". Everyone looked at him briefly until he sniffed and said "Do you smell that Aqua? Heartless". Aqua couldn't smell or sense anything, but knew by now to trust Sora's judgment. Getting everyone between them, they both summoned their Key-Blades and continued watching for sign's of movement. From the corner of the street a group of 30 Novashadow's, backed up by two Stealth Sneak's appeared. seeing this Sora instantly said "Aqua stay here and protect them, I'm going in".
In a instant, Sora had warped right in the middle of the Novashadow's and with no delay belted out "AERO-RAGA". A massive tornado of fire appeared around him, reducing the Novashadow's to nothing. Leaping through the tornado, Sora landed on the back of one of the Stealth Sneak's and thrust his Key-Blade right through its chest, releasing its heart and dissipating it's body. Warping behind the other Stealth Sneak he whispered "Zanetsuken" then reappeared in front of everyone, behind him the tornado disappeared and all they saw was the Stealth Sneak's torso slide forward before dissipating into thin air with it's lower half.
Dismissing his Key-Blade he turned to the others and said "Shall we continue?" Aqua nodded and dismissed her own blade,and they headed off. As they reached the corner Sora and Aqua realized no one was following them, and turning around saw that the other three were just standing there shell shocked. Realizing that they hadn't moved Terra nudged the other two and they quickly shook of there disbelief and caught up to the others. Reaching them all they could say was "Wow, that was amazing". Sora just shrugged and waved it off before turning around to continue.
As Kairi took the lead once again Riku asked Aqua "Is he always so humble?" "Yes, he doesn't believe his skills are anything special, or anything to be praised over he just likes to be treated normally". Sora pretended not to hear this and instead said "How much further?" He hadn't seen his home, or mother in ten years and was getting excited, but was still a bit nervous as to how she would react. Hoping she wouldn't recognize him until he could return alone later, he preceded to listen to Kairi's answer. "It's just up there, three houses down". Looking up he immediately recognized his home, it hadn't changed much, the same white picket fence was still there and the garden was still as vibrant as ever.
As they reached the gate, they went up to the front door and Kairi, not bothering to knock opened the door and called out "Mrs Gainsborough it's me Kairi". Not waiting for a reply she continued inside followed by Riku and Terra. Waiting back at the door, Sora and Aqua stood their for a minute before Kairi popped her head out of the lounge and said "Aren't you coming in?" Aqua replied "Well we have never been here before and didn't want to come in uninvited". Realizing this Kairi disappeared for a moment before coming out with a rather young looking woman.
Reaching the door she held out her hand and said "Hi I'm Aerith, nice to meet you, please come in". Exchanging pleasantries themselves, they followed Aerith into the lounge, though Sora was a bit slower in following as he absorbed everything on his way through. Before sitting down his attention was drawn to a photo on the mantle piece, in it was his mother and father, with a much younger version of himself standing between them. Having not taken a photo of his father with him he had nearly forgot what he looked like. A solitary tear made its way down his face as he absorbed the image in, however this was noticed by both Aerith and Kairi as well as Aqua.
Aqua quickly nudged him and realizing he shook himself out of his trance and stood off to the side, not wanting to put holes in the chairs. Kairi wondered if she had imagined the tear, while Aerith grew a bit suspicious of the man introduced as Roxas. "So I understand you two might have some knowledge of my son?' "Possibly, we would like to look at some picture's of him if you don't mind?" Aqua replied. Reaching to the mantle piece, Aerith grabbed the same picture Sora looked at before and held it out to him. "That is my son in the middle do you know anyone with the same hairstyle?" While asking this she studied his reactions intently and watched as he raised a hand and ran it over her the three of them in the picture. "Hmm I don't recall anyone like that, do you Aqua?" Coming over to look at the picture Aqua glanced at Sora briefly and saw an imperceptible shake of his head, unfortunately Aerith noticed this as well.
"No I don't believe I have either. Sorry to say". At this both Kairi and Riku let out sigh's of disappointment. Aerith however turned towards Sora and said "Hmm for some reason I don't believe you. Are you sure now?" Narrowing her gaze as she said this she seemed to look right through him. He knew that she assumed he was hiding something so he said "I don't recognize this boy, however I do remember overhearing someone say about a spiky haired medic who had fixed him up who was apparently really good, perhaps it's the same person but I don't know for sure. I'm sorry I can't be of more help". Sighing Aerith turned away and put the photo back on the mantle piece before sitting down.
"Well if your sure I guess I'll just have to wait some more" she said dejectedly. Unable to stand the sight of his mother like that he quickly said "I can put the word around if you want, see if any other Wielders know of him?" he said with a grin. Looking up Aerith went to reply, until she saw the grin on his face. Even only able to see the bottom of his face she knew that smile, she dreamed of her son every night coming home with that big grin on his face. Tears starting to well up in her eyes she stood up and approached him. Shakily she said "Would you please remove your helmet so I can see you Sora?"
He froze, shakily he said "What do you mean Sora?" hoping there was some way out. Aerith wouldn't have it however and simply said "I'd recognize your smile anywhere Sora, now let me see you, let me see my son". Before he could do anything his mother had reached out and removed the rest of his helmet. Quickly turning around so they couldn't see his face and the scar that marred his head (think Squall/ Leon's scar) he unfortunately couldn't hide his hair which spread out in every direction. The shatter of glass was all that was heard as Kairi dropped her cup.
Slowly reaching out Aerith turned him around to face her. Looking up she saw the scar that ran down his face and found it to be quite striking. As he opened his eyes she saw that brilliant shade of blue and finally getting to see her son she burst into tears and wrapped him in a hug. Hesitantly he said "Hi Mom" as he returned the hug. Looking over at Riku and Kairi he registered the looks of disbelief on their faces. Kairi couldn't believe she missed it, she knew that grin was familiar, but looking at him now he still looked the same, a bit older but the scar was new. Surprisingly she thought he looked amazing and that didn't make sense, as the Sora she remembered and the one she saw now seemed like two different people not just in looks but in how they held themselves.
Riku had a similar look on his face but more than anything he was happy to finally see his best friend, his brother after all this time he couldn't believe it. Terra looked at Aqua and she just shook her head mouthing 'later'. After a couple of minutes Aerith let go and backed away to take in all of his appearance. At this Kairi walked up to him, and fixing him with a look so intense he was concerned he might burst into flames, asked "Why, why did you run away, why did you leave without saying anything to us, why didn't you tell us you were a Key-Blade Wielder?" Aerith gasped at this, having not made that connection herself. This was what Sora was dreading, he was not ready for these questions and it showed plainly on his face.
Nothing came to mind, he opened and closed his mouth a few times but nothing would come. Looking down at his feet he tried to come up with something plausible, after all he couldn't just come out and say because I couldn't stand the sight of you and Riku together, because I loved you and seeing you with him killed me every time, because I couldn't act happy for you when I was dying inside. No he wouldn't, couldn't say that so he did the only thing he knew how to do in this situation, he ran. One second he was there the next he had warped outside. Running to try and catch him they got to the door to see him leap into the sky and fly off leaving only a sonic boom in his wake.
"Sora!" Kairi and Aerith cried out, but it was to late he was already gone. Aerith burst into tears at seeing her son disappear for the second time, and Kairi was shell shocked. Aqua let out a sigh and said "Don't worry he will come back, he just needs time, to be honest we weren't planning on seeing anyone just yet the plan was for Sora to find me a place to stay, but I guess that's not happening today". At this Terra said "You can stay with me and Ventus". Aqua went to reply until the ground shook and the sound of a massive explosion rocked everyone on their feet.
"What was that?" Riku asked looking around. Sighing Aqua asked "Is there a place on this world people don't go because it's overrun with Heartless?" "Yeah, there is an island not far offshore where they gather, Why?" Riku replied. "Because I think I know where Sora is now".