Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts owns my mind, soul and imagination, and it's a one way street =/
Warnings: Angst, Violence, Repetition, Loneliness (it needs a warning...really) and light Boy Love between Sora and Riku and if you squint 'tween Leon and Cloud.
A.N: I'm in the mood for these sorts of fics, though I'm working on chapters of long-neglected stories. They're all open on my computer, it's just... this MADE me write it. Anyway, hope you enjoy, I rather like this side of the Kingdom Hearts portion of my brain. Feedback appreciated, as always! Love, Jaffa xxx
When the World's needed a Hero (Sora played the part.)
He was the lone hero in all the stories - the one's only the survivors could remember so vividly.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora shone like the Sun.
He wasn't always right on time to save people, but even to late he was there to free their hearts from the darkness, letting the little crystalline peice of them free from torment and rage and mindless violence.
He was a Hero, everyone whispered it. They stopped calling it to his face when he ran away from the word, but they called him one all the same.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora was always there.
Ready to fight and kill and rescue and shed tears for those lost.
He wondered though, with all the time he spent on other worlds, if anyone on his own would remember him. If he lived long enough to return, at least.
He wondered; did this life - this saving and killing and battle filled life, make him similar to those he fought?
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora fought and fought for them.
Would he even be welcomed back home if he were remembered? There was more blood on his hands now then the monsters he slayed. More violence built into his body then in the twitching black ones he fought. There was more negative emotion locked away in his actions than any Nobody would dare envy.
Maybe... he was to far gone for anything but war now.
Maybe he would one day fall in battle, his body shifting to black and twitching, twitching, like his anti-self predicted.
And maybe... maybe that would be okay, if no one remembered him. If no one saw him as Sora anymore, it would be okay to one day become a Heartless. No one would miss him.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora threw himself into their protection.
Once upon an adventure he fought for his friends. To find Riku, to save Kairi. Now they were safe, locked away in Destiny Islands where the keyhole was firmly shut.
This time he fought for everything else. For the people who inhabited all the World's he saved, for the King who fought just as hard somewhere else, and for himself. So he could say he did all he could.
These days, Riku and Kairi don't focus his thoughts. These days it was rare to have a moment alone to consider his friends, to wonder if they were okay and happy. To wonder if they'd gotten together after Sora had run away to fight for everyone but them. To wonder how he had enough heart left for there to be pain accompanying that thought, when he'd long ago accepted that Kairi and he were to different to be anything but friends.
His days were filled with fighting and clearing rubble and healing and polishing the keyblade. His nights were filled with fighting and screams and silent tears shed into his pillow when he tried to sleep.
He missed his friends, honestly. But... he could only miss them when he thought of them, and there were to many Heartless to give him much time for thinking.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora pushed aside all else.
He dropped plans and food and even potions to save someone in trouble. He raced from wherever he was to wherever he'd heard the scream. He'd save and he'd kill - and sometimes the former required the latter.
Leon scolded him only once, when Sora had returned to Radiant Gardens long enough to take a few patrols. The stoic fighter told him he was fighting to hard, he needed to hold back sometimes and let someone else do the fighting. It was how Mickey survived so long, Sora'd been told, and it was how Sora needed to fight, if he expected to live to twenty.
It may have worked, the lecture may have resonated enough to become habit to Sora. If Leon hadn't leapt in the way of a heartless' claws when Cloud fell to his knee's in their patrol. Leon survived, barely and with thanks to a selfless Aerith, but if Leon couldn't follow his own advice, why should Sora?
When Sora left Radiant Gardens though, he headed to twilight. Somewhat to saite the dreams he shared with Roxas occasionally, somewhat to breathe in some clean, untainted air. Twilight Town was as safe as Destiny Islands, Sora made sure of that.
He'd been pleased when Hayner, Olette and Pence all remembered him, then dismayed when they whispered 'hero' like everyone else.
He left an hour or so later, no longer finding the air as clean when it was tainted with undeserved hero-worship.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora was the one they called for.
The gummi-ship was almost bare without Goofy and Donald. He'd sent them to fight with Mickey, promising them he'd be fine alone, all the worlds they'd reached had fighters willing to help them anyway. There was a block somewhere in the ships makeup that detected distress signals, it flashed so regularly that Sora barely had a chance to think of his former companions, either.
The distress signals weren't always deliberate, occasionally the World itself sent the message out. It was always important though, Sora had made sure of that as well. Once Yuffie had sent out a signal from Cid's computer, trying to get Sora to come back in time for the restoration party. Because of that, a star faded through the night. Yuffie had to live with that, and Leon's accusatory eyes, even if they'd only flashed that way for a moment. Sora had just left through the start of the party, his gummi-ship floating above the dead world in mourning of those lost, there was no changing the past.
When a signal was sent and received, Sora didn't hesitate to turn from his current course. He no longer even paused when two went off at once, he just travelled to the most populated first, hoping only slightly now, that the other could hold on a little longer. Sora had to live with that too, whenever the other World would fall as the one he was on was freed from the danger of Heartless.
He was only one boy, bordering on seventeen, he couldn't be expected to save two or three worlds at once. Mickey was on the other side of the emptiness, fighting for worlds out of Sora's range. He wondered, occasionally, if Mickey ever felt like just staying home and protecting his own world. Sora had an autopilot route already mapped out for Destiny Islands, should they need him. It would take precident over any other world, no matter the cost in guilt.
He'd once considered going back for a holiday, he'd even turned the ship around from it's idle path cleaning out the gummi-routes before the distress signal sounded from somewhere else and he realized how stupid he was being. Heartless didn't take holidays, nor did Nobodies.
He'd also concidered going back and this time, letting Kairi and Riku join him like they'd wanted to. Kairi's heart was to pure for this life though, she was a Princess of Heart after all, and Riku had been through enough, his heart had to heal away from the Darkness that had tainted it so.
So Sora was alone, no one to watch his back, but also no one needing him to watch their own. It was better this way, he assured himself, the only deaths that could haunt him were the one's from his own hands or negligence. It had to be better that way.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora always pulled through.
He slept between patrols, between World's, whenever he got the chance. He'd train after visit's, between signals, wherever he had the choice. He new as many cure's and remedies as Aerith could teach him, knew all the defensive moves he could from Leon, the sneak attacks from Yuffie, the rushes from Cloud, the tactics from Mulan, the pep-talks from Simba... he learnt from people he met, and though he still wasn't comfortable with the idea yet, he supposed it would be no different when he was beaten on the battlefield and learnt to be a Heartless too.
Sora had a stash of potions and ethers aboard his gummi-ship (he'd named it Highwind and every time he returned he felt a pang of loneliness that Riku would never know he'd cared enough to remember him so vividly) and he always made sure he held his own long enough to return. He'd learnt by now he could save one and be weak, or he could run and save himself - saving many more after.
He wasn't infallible, he knew this. Eventually the elixer wouldn't be enough and he'd be stumbling almost blindly to the ship. Bleeding from wounds he couldn't remember getting. Calling for Riku, and Kairi, and Donald and Goofy, only to sit in the darkness of the Highwind and chuckle over his foolishness, hand clasped tightly on a potion vial.
One day he would die, it could be today, tomorrow or three weeks from now. But he wouldn't give up. If he had an ounce of strength left in him, he would fight with it. Run with it. Survive with it. Even if he wasn't welcomed home to Destiny Islands. Even if he was never remembered. There were people who needed him, far more then he needed people.
Even if he sometimes (when he had the chance) ached for a friendly hug from Kairi, a playfully shove from Riku, a kiss on the cheek from his mum, a gruff good morning from his dad.
They were weakness's. Heartless didn't feel anything but rage and determination. Nobodies didn't feel anything but envy and desperation. Sora would have to feel nothing, if he was ever to beat them all.
It wasn't to difficult in the heat of the battle, he'd trained himself not to hesitate to throw a blizzard spell between two screaming victims. He'd forced himself to become used to the idea that one death was better then a hundred. He'd discovered the numb part of his mind to hide in, should something traumatic occur that he couldn't stop.
Sora survived, that was the mission above his mission to save the World's that needed a Hero. He survived to keep fighting, keep killing and saving and driving the Heartless further and further back. He dragged himself to a healing place, pulled himself from death's edge, only to charge into battle an hour of two later. For everything he hadn't fought for before.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora never asked questions.
He didn't bother with 'why me's or 'how did's. He took the keyblade in hand and fought with it. Through blood and sweat and tears, he fought with the blade shaped like a key. He locked keyholes to worlds and tore apart the darkened ones the Heartless had claimed.
He never asked how the keyblade had found him, or why it was necessary he fight with it, when Riku and Kairi and Mickey each had one of their own. He never asked why it didn't choose someone else, or why it picked a teenage boy with a raft who'd only ever fought with wooden sticks before.
He didn't ask why it was necessary that Roxas returned to him, when the Nobodies might as well have used the Hearts to retreive their own, if Xemnas wasn't such a shifty bastard...
He never wondered how he'd come to take orders so closely to heart. Was it because this was war, and war was so much harder and bigger and taxing then the movies made it seem? Was it because he was so young, just looking for someone to lead him? Was it a part of him already, the part that strove to kill and fight and live on the edge of death?
He didn't ask the people he'd saved if they were alright. Of course they were, they were alive. Like Radiant Garden they could rebuild, renew their world. He didn't ask if they knew the Heartless he was slicing apart and through were the friends and family they just saw being consumed by darkness. He didn't ask if they knew that the same darkness was in their hearts, almost itching to be free.
Sora didn't want to know if his life would be easier if he shared the burden around. That was Heartless thinking, spread the darkness until everyone knows what the anger tastes like. That's what the Nobodies preached, that they were alive and feeling without hearts.
He was over asking questions and getting no answers, like his old adventures. Asking where Riku was, why Riku was running from him, where Kairi was, why she left Destiny Islands, where Mickey was, why he wasn't leading like a king but hiding in shadows and secrecy.
Sora didn't ask questions, didn't want to know answers he might not even hear, so he fought with keyblade, with tooth and nail and magic, and he did it silently, smiling in reassurance to survivors and disappearing when his beacon flashed anew.
It was better this way, he assured himself again and again, it was safer for everyone that he fight alone to be the not-hero Hero for all the World's.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora crossed a line.
It was an almost decimated world already, when Sora reached it. Covered in blood-splatters and surrounded by screams. The Highwind had declared it 'Sunlit Church' but now, only darkness graced the city and towns, the large church at it's center was broken and letting in only moonlight to show the blood drawn from people who'd fallen to Heartless.
Sora was injured a little, two elixers left in his pockets and half a lifetime away from the gummi-ship, he'd wrapped the gash on his lower arm with a rag that was probably once a victims, and slugged ahead to find a place to breathe.
He'd almost called out for his friends, his family, when he was struck. It startled him so to see a Heartless beast move so swift and catlike until it was fang-deep in his arm, he tore it from his wrist with an agonized scream, but kept all the weakness from his attacks. It had fallen, Sora had kept his life, his heart, for another Heartless to claim later.
For now, he slumped against the huge double-doors to the church, closing his eyes for the barest of seconds and forcing lungfuls of air into his body. He needed to be alright, whether to run or fight, he needed to be able to move.
In the darkness of the church though, he didn't see the shadows move. Didn't see the glow of gold amongst the pretty flowers growing in a patch in the middle of the place of worship. He didn't see more cat-like Heartless regard him with feral desire and the need to decimate and change.
While Sora breathed, the Heartless prepared.
When Sora shook his head, desperate to let go of the desire to call out for Riku, needing a companion to fight. The realization that maybe another person to watch his back wouldn't be such a stupid idea finally finding him, the Heartless crept.
When Sora's eyes opened wide, staring unseeingly at the roof, realizing that Riku would have been the perfect companion - his strikes swift and unmerciful, his eyes bright and distracting, his laughter rare but more frequent then Sora's now - the Heartless moved as one towards him.
He gasped, mouthing Riku's name as regret he hadn't let the boy come with him, hadn't let his friend close to ease both their burdens, hadn't realised until only a few seconds ago when death's edge had finally given him a weapon in the form of needing someone else that Riku's tainted heart was probably still stronger than his own, filled him.
The Heartless fell on him, teeth glinting in the little moonlight, eyes glowing with hunger, Sora called his keyblade in hand desperately - hopelessly as those same teeth drove into his chest, reaching, reaching for his heart. He realized he had crossed the line of Death's edge, and crossed the line in his mind that didn't recognise just how much he needed Riku, why he'd searched so desperately when he knew Riku could take care of himself.
When Sora needed a Hero...
Kairi hugged him close to her chest, pressing soft kisses to his forehead.
"Sora Sora Sora" her wind-chime voice sung, heavy with sorrow and regret.
Riku hung his head, clasping the cold fingers in his grip tightly, as though trying to warm them.
"I thought you needed to do this without me, to keep fighting with Goofy and Donald like before..."
Leon hung back, watching from the sidelines beside a blood-splattered Cloud - who had dragged the boy's body from the church.
Yuffie held a hand to her pale cheek where she stood beside a panting Aerith, who'd tried to revive Sora with every spell in her mind and remedy in her satchel.
Cid and Merlin stood, well out of the way, watching with defeated eyes, with sorrow they had let Sora fight so long, believing his smiles to be real, his recounts of tales accurate and not glossed over.
When Sora needed a Hero...
"M'sorry I fought alone so long," a husky, broken whisper from bloody pink lips, "M'sorry I didn't tell you you're the best friend's I ever had, and that... I love you Rik-" baby blue eyes shimmered with tears, cold hands clasping the one's holding them tightly as haggard coughs wracked his to-slim form, "'nd m'sorry that I had to die to realize I need y'all too."
Kairi crushed her face into Sora's shoulder.
Riku claimed those blood-splattered lips with his own dry ones with bruising possessive strength, proving that the darkness was still lingering in his heart. So deep it had become a part of him, just like it was now a part of Sora too.
"Now we have to fight together," Kairi hissed almost angrily, though her regrets and relief stretched her voice tight like wind-chimes in a hurricane.
"Never let you go," Riku growled, an inch away from his kiss.
Sora coughed again, turning his head from Riku's to spit blood onto the floorboards of Merlin's house, "okay," he whispered. Looking up at all the concerned eyes on him before landing on Riku's, watching the worry and need and anger flash over the green-blue of his ever-distracting eyes, "okay," he promised.
When Sora needed a Hero, Leon planned like a Commander.
When Sora needed a Hero, Cloud fought like a Soldier.
When Sora needed a Hero, Yuffie fell as quiet as a Ninja.
When Sora needed a Hero, Aerith healed like a Goddess.
When Sora needed a Hero, Kairi hugged like a Sister.
When Sora needed a Hero, Riku kissed like a Lover.
When Sora needed a Hero... He found he had many, all for him.
When the World's needed a Hero, Sora's Hero's helped him play the part, and he never played it so alone again.