We Never Change - A Kingdom Hearts fanfiction. Inspired by the coldplay song of the same name.
When I heard the roar of the engines, I didn't understand what was going on. Part of me, the instinctual part, knew that something was terribly wrong. A glance out the window confirmed this. At first, I didn't really realise why I had such a terrible feeling, but when a Boeing passenger plane is headed straight for you, there isn't much you can do.
On the 98th floor of one of the twin towers, it's hard to get out of the way. Especially when you are it's target. No one else seemed to see the beast that was headed for us, so instead of panicking, I calmly stood up. Gaining my co-workers attention, I made sure they looked at me, not the plane heading towards us.
"I've just had a call from Head Office, apparently there's a problem on 5th, and we all need to have ourselves re-registered on the roster. Saix says it's urgent. Xemnas is in a bad mood."
Being that there was only fourteen people in the office at the time, we were all able to leave fairly quickly. Axel, Sora, Demyx and Kairi had already left the room when the screaming started. By now, there was less than a mile between the WTC and that blasted plane. It wasn't obvious before, but I'm not stupid. No plane is supposed to be that close to NYC airspace.
There was a commotion in the tower opposite us, and we could actually faintly hear them. Xigbar and Xaldin didn't take much notice, and exited next. Leon, Cloud and Tifa were walking towards the door, with Vincent standing up to join them. Yuffie was typing away frantically on her computer, so I made my way toward her.
"Yuff, come on, Boss man 'ill have a fit if we don't get out asses down to 5th."
The black haired girl looked up, and gave me a half-smile, half-grimace. "Yeah, I know," She sighed. Getting up, she pushed her chair backwards and it rolled over to knock against Zexion's. I hadn't noticed he was still here, he's so quiet.
She grabbed her Nokia and slouched off to the hallway, disappearing without a sound. Mentally I did a quick calculation; there must be three people left. Zexion, myself and…no, wait, Xemnas was usually here, but he was sick today. Apparently no one else remembered this, so it was luck that they'd hadn't, there would have been mass hysteria.
Tapping the deaf boy on his shoulder, I waited for Zexion to turn around. His cubicle wall blocked the east window, so he couldn't see the plane that was about to smash into the Towers. I gave it about twenty seconds. Inwardly, I was getting a little desperate.
When the slate haired boy finally swivelled around, it couldn't have been more than two seconds after I'd touched his shoulder, but it felt like an eternity.
"Yes?"
Sorry Zexion, but I didn't have time to be pleasant. In hindsight, it would have been so much easier if I'd just grabbed him and ran, fuck being polite and trying to get his attention. I could have saved two precious seconds instead of tapping his shoulder.
I grabbed his elbow and tugged him upwards violently, dragging him towards the doorway as I tried to sprint. He stumbled upwards after me, barely reaching my shoulder (which is funny, because I was short) as he almost face-planted into the unforgiving floor.
I didn't bother yelling at him- he wouldn't have been able to hear me, he was deaf, so I just kept dragging him away. He seemed to get that there was a problem- a big one, so he didn't pull away, just caught up to me and allowed me to shove him towards the door.
He fell through and hit the wall on the other side, and fuck, in that moment I thanked every god that I could think of- the elevator door was open. I shoved Zexion in, not feeling remotely sorry as he fell face down onto the floor. Groaning, he pushed himself onto his back and stared at me with a frown. He didn't get a chance to say anything as I slammed my palm against the down button, my entire body lurching forward to cover the space of a metre.
It would have taken a few precious extra seconds to get myself into that elevator and push the button from the inside, so I didn't bother. The doors closed, and it began to move down, but it felt like it was too slow. Far too slow. He couldn't have passed more than five floors before something hit the tower.
The force of the hit was like nothing I'd ever felt before. The plane- a fucking massive one, by the way, crashed into the hundred and first floor, but it's bulk still crippled the 98th. Thankfully for me, it hit a little to the side, meaning I was narrowly missed as the roof, about eight feet away from me, as it collapsed in with a deafening shriek.
The elevator that Zexion was in would have been hit by the shock worse than I was, and I'd ended up on the floor. Likely, the pulleys that move up and down would have loosened, and the elevator would have careened about thirty floors, but there was a emergency system that had been installed mere months ago that reacted as a safety grapple, halting the fall. It would then safely lower itself to the ground floor, unharmed. Zexion's heart on the other hand, was likely about to burst. Sorry.
But the roof/floor (depending on what level you were on), kept on going. And then the roof above me began to cave, and I could hear the screaming from other people, trapped and in pain. I tried to crawl backwards, but I was far too slow. The plane's weight was too much for the supports, which were absolutely no match for the ten ton piece of shit. I don't really understand what happened after that, but I know it hurt. It hurt so badly.
Everything was moving, and people were screaming- louder than before.
Absently, surprisingly, I thought about everyone else. I hoped that they didn't feel like I did in that moment.
So I honestly don't know how long I was unconscious for, I think it was almost a minute, because when I opened my eyes again the world looked like it had gone to hell.
There was grey, smoke and concrete and allsorts of things I couldn't really identify. And then there was this heat- it was so dry and caustic, burning the chemicals in the structure and choking my lungs. My eyes watered and the world became blurry, the smoke and haze blending with the fire's light.
Struggling against the debris, my arms pushed against the concrete and the metal, and I felt something snap in my torso. The pain didn't register for a moment, before my entire left side blossomed with pain.
Choking as my throat closed up, I knew I had to move, a quickly. The walls- what was left of them, were making weird screeching noises, and I knew it would only be a moments before they gave way. Ignoring the pain and the blood, trying to breath when there is no clear air, I managed to wriggle my battered body from the crevice it had become stuck in.
My hearing must have momentarily left me, as suddenly, the faint and eerie screeching noise was amplified by a hundred, nearly defeaning me as the supports began to fully give way. And the screaming. That was the worst noise I had ever heard before. Women and men, adults who were experiencing a whole new world of agony and terror, were screaming for help. Their voices breaking even and shaking with hysterical terror. I had never heard something so desperate.
My leg was numb, but I couldn't really do anything about that, so I ignored it along with my aching torso. There- there was a gap of bright blue, the sky.
Crawling towards it, my body protested in ernest, but suddenly, it became easier. Like all the weight in the world had suddenly been lifted….before I realised it wasn't the weight that had been lifted, but the angle.
It would seem that the 100th floor had changed directions and was flipping vertically.
Oh.
And so for a moment I was allowed a completely clear and unobstructed view of the sky- complete with a few fluffly little clouds, before the word all went south, quite literally.
The blue was replaced with a disgusting, foul smoke that stemmed from the side of the other tower, and in that moment, I could see the leaping, hellish flames that licked at the sky from the side of the building. There were people jumping, I could see it all in slowmotion. I guess they figured they had a better chance if they jumped- at least that would be their decision.
So for a moment, I contemplate the idea of just throwing myself off the building. I'm sure they all got to the ground safely, there was just enough time. At least I tried.
The floor kept spinning, though, and then I could see the side of the tower that I had been in, and then where my workspace should have been, and then- then I could see the ground.
One hundred floors below where I was, trapped in a crushed compartment of two floors of one of the fabled twin towers, I could see the ground. It was littered with blotches of red and weird, pinky orange splats. There was people fleeing from all directions, and screaming could even be heard from that far away. Thing down their were on fire too, and I could see office workers wearing the Hollow Bastion Trade Route uniform sprinting in the direction of the open street, barely visible from the blooming cloud of smoke.
So they were okay.
I was glad. I am glad.
And in that moment, one that held onto the world for what seemed like forever, the debris that had held me secure moved, and I slipped.
The last thing I ever felt was the pain as iron pipping took a chink out of my ribs, and the last thing I ever saw was the ground of the World Trace Centre hurtling towards me.
I felt at peace.
I know that as I neared the ground, the reason for it all- the terrorism, the bombs, the hijacking, the planes, the death and the sheer fear was all because of humanities fickle nature. But more certainly, because we never change. It would happen again, and again, but I'm just happy that I managed to make sure others lived.
And so, I left this world without feeling anything else, except the tranquillity of doing good.
I don't know what this is, I just found it from a while ago. Thoughts please, although I expect Phobos wont tell me. Will you. Phobos.
-TC