Hello, everyone! I'm back again. It's currently two in the morning and I just got to the part in Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories where Sora beats Larxene and boy am I exhausted. Anyways, in this fanfic the story ends after [spoiler alert] Sora's half of CoM. Sora goes home after he defeats Marluxia. In all honesty, I'm just spilling my brain thoughts. Okay—go!
Sora fell to his knees after defeating Marluxia. He was so tired. He took a deep breath and focused on what was happening, taking it all in one at a time. He prayed that there were no more black-hooded enemies ahead, and that this was it.
"Sora…ya did it!" shouted Goofy. Sora smiled. He turned to him and Donald.
"We did it." He said. Donald and Goofy smiled. Sora frowned. "I'm sorry for the way I was treating you guys…" he said.
"Aww, don't worry, Sora! You were just bein' affected by the castle! There's nothing to apologize for. In the end of the day, we're all still together!" he said. Sora nodded.
"You're right. What really matters most is that we're still in one piece, and that we have each other!" he said.
"Now let's go see Namine and get out memories back!" shouted Donald. The group agreed and went to the twelfth floor to meet with Namine.
The group finally got their memories back and immediately left the castle. Namine chose to go to Twilight Town, for some reason. Sora and the others tried to persuade her to come home with them, but she insisted on staying in Twilight Town. She had promised to come visit, and they all knew that a promise was always set in stone, even if it wasn't real.
Sora stared at the field of green grass with the path down the middle. It felt like so long since they had seen it, even though they'd only been in the castle for a day or so? Sora smiled. They walked along the path, following Pluto until a black bird landed on Sora's shoulder. He immediately started running, trying to get the bird off of him until he realized something in the beak of the bird. It was a piece of paper rolled up. Sora held out his hand and the bird dropped the letter in his hand and flew away.
"It's a letter…" Said Sora. Goofy scratched his head.
"Uh…why would a bird send you a letter?" he said. Sora shrugged.
"Who knows. It's got my name on it so I guess it was meant for me." He said. He unrolled the letter. His eyes skimmed over the letter, reading it carefully:
"Sora, I hope you get this message.
Me, Kiari, and the King have been looking for you for what seems like forever.
If you read this, you need to come home to Destiny Islands.
We've checked every world you went to and nobody has seen any sign of you as of recently. My only hope was to send this letter with a bird, hoping it would get to you.
I'm sorry, Sora. I'm sorry for hurting you and Kiari so much.
I hope you can find it in your enormous heart to forgive me.
Please be out there. We miss you.
-Riku
"It's from Riku!" shouted Sora. "He's home with Kiari!" Donald and Goofy were shocked.
"Sora…are you sure it's him? What made him know you were here?" asked Donald.
"The letter says he sent the message to that bird." Said Sora.
"I still think it's kinda fishy…" said Goofy. "Any news of the King in there?" asked Goofy. Sora skimmed over the letter again. He smiled bright and wide.
"Yeah! Riku said that the King's been looking for us too!" he shouted. "We've gotta get back on the island again!" he shouted. The group was ecstatic. They immediately boarded the Gummi Ship and flew to Destiny Islands.
In the ship, Sora felt odd. This didn't go under Goofy's nose.
"Sora, what's the matter with ya?" asked Goofy. "You haven't spoken at all since we started flyin'!"
"I don't know. I still feel upset with Riku." Said Sora.
"Sora, remember now! The Riku you were fighting wasn't real!" said Goofy.
"Don't scare us by forgetting more stuff!" shouted Donald.
"I know he wasn't real, but it felt real." Said Sora. "It still feels like he betrayed me."
"Do ya think you'll feel the same when you come back home? I'm sure Riku wouldn't like that." Said Goofy.
"I'm sure I'll be happy, but I need to talk to him. If Vexen was making an experiment to create a Riku Replica, then he must have known things about Riku to do that, right?" asked Sora.
"Yes, I suppose so…" said Goofy.
"Right, so those things that Riku said to me…about how he's always hated me, and how he hates to see my face or whatever, where did those emotions come from?" asked Sora. Goofy and Donald were silent for a moment.
"Gwarsh…my best guess is that when Ansem was controlling Riku, he could have controlled his emotions, too. So maybe Vexen was using those emotions to manipulate ya!" said Goofy. Sora sighed.
"I sure hope so…Donald, are we almost home?" asked Sora.
"Wak! We're landing now!" said Donald. Sora sat up. He watched out of the window to look for Riku and Kiari. The island looked the same. Sora's heart fluttered when he saw three people sitting on the beach. One had silver hair, the other red, and the other obviously Mickey. He smiled so wide his mouth began to hurt.
Riku heard a loud noise coming from the sky, he looked up and his heart jumped. It was some sort of space ship? The ship landed and the doors opened, revealing Donald in the cockpit. Riku and Kiari's heart jumped.
"Do you think…?" asked Kiari. Riku gulped. Donald jumped out and started to run towards the three. Goofy was the next to jump out of the ship.
"Hiya guys!" shouted Goofy. Mickey was ecstatic. Riku and Kiari were happy, but where was Sora?
Sora took a couple of deep breathes inside the ship before leaving.
'It's okay, Sora. Calm down.' He thought to himself. He took a final breath before leaving the ship.
Riku felt lightheaded when he saw Sora jumped out of the ship. Kiari was so happy she immediately started to cry. Without a second thought, Riku went off running towards Sora. Sora was in a state of shock. It was Riku. Not a puppet, not Ansem's Riku, but his Riku. Riku crashed into Sora. He pulled him into an embrace so tight that Sora couldn't breathe. He didn't care. He wrapped his arms around Riku and cried into his shoulder.
"Sora…I'm sorry…" said Riku, holding back tears.
"It's okay. It's over…" said Sora. Kiari ran and hugged the two boys. Donald, Goofy, and Mickey joined in too. The group was in one big warm hug. Sora couldn't believe it. He was home. The battle was over. No more fighting.
The thought lingered in Sora's head. No more fighting. His legs suddenly became so tired. All of a sudden, all of the pain and tiredness that Sora's adrenaline had shrugged off was catching up to him.
"Sora, I'm so happy you came back…" said Kiari, letting a tear fall.
"I need to lay down." Said Sora. Riku pulled back and realized that Sora's face was white.
"Sora are you—"
"I need to lay down…" he repeated. Riku immediately picked him up bridal style and headed inside the beach house. Sora fell asleep almost immediately.
"What the hell is happening?" asked Riku. Jiminy jumped out of Sora's hood.
"Hiya!" said the cricket.
"Who are you?" asked Riku.
"I'm Jiminy Cricket. I've been travelling with Sora since the beginning, documenting every part of our journey!" said the cricket.
"Alright, do you know what's happening with Sora?" asked Kiari.
"My best guess is that he's tired. He hasn't been sleeping much." Said Jiminy. Donald frowned.
"Come to think of it, Sora's barely slept or eaten since we met…" said Donald. Riku frowned. He felt guilty.
"That's not good, he needs water." Said Mickey.
Sora moaned and fluttered his eyes open. The first face he saw was Riku's.
"H-Hey…you alright?" asked Riku. Sora immediately summoned the Keyblade and jolted up. Everyone screamed and took a step back.
"Calm down, Sora! He's the real one!" shouted Goofy.
"No one is lying to me anymore!" shouted Sora as he swung his Keyblade towards Riku. Goofy pulled Sora back.
"Sora, you need to knock it off! We're back on your island, remember?!" shouted Goofy.
"Sora, snap out of it!" shouted Mickey. Sora suddenly realized where he was. He was home. He released his Keyblade.
"I'm going outside." Said Sora with a huff. He walked outside, leaving Riku and Kiari very confused.
"What the hell was that? What did you mean by the real one?!" asked Riku. Goofy gulped.
"Well, ya see. We were in this castle, Castle Oblivion, where it made us lose our memories and remember fake ones. The castle was ran by this Organization and they made a copy of you to try and fight Sora." Said Goofy. "We got our memories back, but I guess Sora's still hurt by fighting with ya…" he added.
"Well if it wasn't really me then why is he mad at me?" asked Riku.
"Because you were being so mean to him! You should have heard the things you said!" shouted Donald.
"But it wasn't me!" shouted Riku.
"Sora knows that, Riku. I think he's still a bit shaken by the entire thing. The replica of you was saying some pretty harsh things to Sora. Things that a friend would never say!" Said Jiminy. Riku sighed.
"So you're saying I gotta go fix something I didn't do?" asked Riku, sarcastically.
"I would." Said Kiari. "Sora has been fixing messes he didn't make ever since you left, Riku." She smiled.
"It's the right thing to do, Riku." Said Mickey. Riku slowly nodded.
"Fine, I'll go talk to him. I'll be back." Said Riku. He walked out of the door and saw Sora sitting on the abnormal tree. That was always his favorite spot. Sora always sat next the curve so that he could lean on something while he sat. Riku smiled. He still couldn't believe Sora was home. He walked up to the brunette. "Hey." He said softly. Sora looked over at Riku and frowned.
"I'm sorry." Said Sora. Riku laughed.
"Dude, it's fine. They explained the whole replica thing to me. I understand." He said. Sora couldn't help it, his eyes welled up with tears. He tried to hard to not let them fall. Riku noticed Sora's bottom lip quivering and immediately went to pull him into an embrace.
"S-Sorry…" said Sora as he began to sob. Riku ran his fingers through Sora's soft hair.
"You must have been through a lot…" said Riku. "You never cry." He added. Sora just slowly nodded. "Let's talk about it. It'll help you feel better." Said Riku. Sora agreed and sat back onto the tree.
"It was just so weird. Nobody knew what was real, or what was fake. There was a girl who was forced to delete some of our memories. She had both of us thinking that she used to live on the island!" said Sora.
"Sora, you gotta remember that this wasn't me." Said Riku. Sora nodded.
"I know, but it just seemed so real. The things you said to me…" said Sora.
"Like what?" asked Riku.
"You told me that you always hated me….and that I was always trying to worm my way into people's hearts…" said Sora. "There was more stuff, but they're slowly fading away." Said Sora.
"Geez, that guy has some weak choice of words." joked Riku. Sora was annoyed.
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't make fun of this situation. Riku, those words really hurt me. I…I almost gave up." Said Sora. Riku looked at Sora. He looked crushed. He wrapped an arm around Sora and pulled him in.
"If it makes you feel better, I could never hate you. Even when Ansem took control over me, it was our friendship that made me be able to break through." Said Riku. Sora looked up at Riku with tears in his eyes.
"Do…do you mean that?" asked Sora with his voice thin. Riku looked down, a bit surprised to know that Sora didn't believe that Riku felt that way about him.
"Of course, idiot." Said Riku. Sora let a few tears fall down his cheeks before hiding his face in Riku's chest again. "Man, you're really gonna need some time to heal." Said Riku. Sora nodded.
"I'm never going back to that stupid castle again." Said Sora.
"Good, because you're not allowed to." Said Riku. Sora smiled. Usually this would result in an argument regarding Sora being old enough to make his own decisions, but this time Sora couldn't be happier that Riku was telling him what to do. He wrapped his arms around Riku's waist and pulled him close.
"It was so awful Riku. Kiari, our friends on the island, my friends from the other worlds, I forgot all of them." Said Sora. "Towards the very end, I even forgot who you were…" said Sora. Riku frowned. He didn't like the idea of this castle, and he certainly didn't like the thought of Sora not knowing who he was.
"Why did you go there anyway?" asked Riku. Sora's embrace tightened.
"I was looking for you!" said Sora. Riku felt guilty.
"Oh...I'm sorry…" said Riku. "I'll never leave you again. I promise." Said Riku. Sora smiled at that word—promise.
"I know you are. I read your letter." said Sora.
"You actually got it?! That letter was my last resort!" said Riku, smiling.
"Yeah, it was sweet. Thank you." said Sora. Riku blushed and smiled.
"Yeah, no problem. We really missed you..."
"You know, you can't break a promise, even if it's not real." Said Sora.
"What?" asked Riku. Sora brought himself back to reality.
"Nothing. Let's go inside. I'm starving." Said Sora. Riku shrugged whatever just happened off of his shoulder and followed Sora back to the house. He smiled as he watched the boy stuff his face, emptying the fridge they had in the kitchen. It was going to take a while, but he was going to make sure Sora was his old self again. Today was a great start.