Faith
Being stuck inside Sora's heart wasn't all bad, but it sure got lonely sometimes.
Sora's memories manifested as an endless sea filled with drifting world after drifting world. Roxas floated through that sea now, not really sure where he was going or if he really cared. He recognized some of the worlds, as he'd been to them himself, and others he knew from Sora's memories.
"At least it's warm."That was the nice thing about Sora's heart. It was never cold.
Too bad it was so lonely. He hadn't talked to Sora since Sora had woken up from his deep slumber. Another chance hadn't come along, because Sora hadn't been sleeping well lately. When he wasn't avoiding sleep, he was plagued by nightmares of his Mark of Mastery exam. Or if not that, then all his friends calling out to him to save them, only for him to fail.
The nightmare he'd had about Roxas still sort of haunted Roxas, too. Roxas shuddered at the thought of it. He couldn't really blame Sora for having it, though. That was a lot of pressure for one guy. Roxas knew he'd told Sora this could have been the other way around… but deep down he was glad it wasn't.
"I'm not like you," Roxas said. "And that's okay. All those times when it gets to be too much, I'll be here for you. Just don't do something stupid like turn yourself into a Heartless for me."
That was one nightmare Roxas really didn't want to come true. He closed his eyes and relaxed, letting the gentle ebb and flow of the sea of stars carry him along.
He didn't know how long it had been when his feet touched solid ground. Time sort of lost all meaning in this place; day and night were just based on memories. For all he knew weeks could have passed in the real world.
He opened his eyes. Huh. This place wasn't familiar. A big castle – "yeah, yeah, a million worlds have castles, I know that on its own is nothing special" he muttered to no one – stretched out before him, with floating turrets connected by long chains.
With nothing better to do, he walked up to the main doors. If he ignored the weird light and smoke swirling at his feet, he could pretend this was just another mission with Axel and—
Pain bloomed behind his eyes. He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. Why did thinking about his time in the Organization always hurt like this?
His mood a lot worse now that he had a throbbing headache, he shoved the doors open and marched inside the hall. It was lined with monitors, like the ones he'd destroyed in Twilight Town. They stretched out from where he was all the way to the end of the hall.
He shuddered and summoned Oathkeeper and Oblivion just in case. Taking a step forward, he kept his eye on the monitor to his left. Its glossy blue screen was blank, but that didn't mean—
A faint static noise reached his ears. He whirled around, and one of the screens flickered.
His grip on his Keyblades tightened. "Who is it? Who's there?"
But it was silent. He stood there for several moments, his body tense. Still nothing happened. He let himself relax and continued forward. One foot in front of the other. His reflection stared back at him on all the screens, his face scowling.
"That's right. I'm the only one here. Anyone else is just a memory or an illusion."
"Roxas."
For a half second, a girl with dark hair appeared on all the monitors. Pain shot through his head and stabbed him through the heart. He dropped his Keyblades and staggered to the ground, one hand clutching his head and the other his heart.
Then she was gone. But that horrible pain remained. Why? Why did it hurt so bad?
"Who are you? Show yourself to me!"
But the monitors were eerily silent.
Roxas glanced at the shiny marble floor beneath him. Two big drops had appeared on it, tiny pools in an ocean of dust. He touched his face, only to find that his eyes were wet.
"I'm crying? But why?"
"You are nothing and she is nothing, and yet you mourn for the existence neither of you ever had."
It was Xemnas's face looking down at him from the monitors now, awful and sneering and cruel.
"Stop messing with me!"
Roxas's Keyblades appeared in his hands again and he didn't hold himself back. He destroyed every last one of the monitors. Pieces of glass flew everywhere as he slammed Oathkeeper and Oblivion into them again and again.
All except the final one at the end of the hall. He just… couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't want to see Xemnas again, but…
He wanted to see the girl.
"Geez, you've got a temper," came a voice.
Roxas about jumped out of his skin. "Who's that?! Who's there?!" He whirled around, searching for the source of the voice. It wasn't on the monitors, that much he could tell. Broken glass crunched underneath his feet as he searched for where it was.
The voice chuckled, and the weird thing was, it kinda sounded like… well, like him.
"For now let's say… I'm your conscience," it said.
Roxas jerked his head back. "My conscience? But I don't have a conscience."
"Because I'm a Nobody, I was never meant to exist, blah blah blah blah blah."
Roxas bristled. Whoever this guy was, he was sure asking for trouble, making fun of—
"Tell me, Roxas, do you really believe that?" the voice asked, its tone surprisingly earnest. "Even after everything Sora's told you?"
Roxas let his Keyblades disappear but kept searching for the source of the voice. "How – how do you know my name?"
And why did the voice sound like his voice? Where was it coming from? It echoed all around him, and he couldn't pinpoint it to one place.
"Because I was there for your birth," the voice said. "I helped kickstart your heart. I've been watching over you for a long time now, just like I've been watching over Sora."
"You know Sora?" Well, Roxas supposed it made sense, seeing how they were inside Sora's heart and all, but still.
"I've known Sora since the day he was born," the voice said, and Roxas could have sworn he sounded proud. "You could even say I'm his first and oldest friend."
"How old are you, anyway?" Whoever this guy was, he wasn't normal.
The voice chuckled. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"Try me."
"Two hundred and twenty-six, give or take a few years."
"What?! That's crazy!" People didn't live that long. They just didn't. Roxas didn't know a lot about, well, a lot of things, but he knew enough to know people didn't live past a hundred, usually.
"Of course, I don't look my age. I don't even look twenty-six." The voice sighed. "And here I was hoping I'd finally make it past twenty. But nope. Still stuck in the body of a teenager."
"What do you look like?" Roxas was curious in spite of himself.
"Do you really want to know?" the voice asked, teasing.
"I don't have anything better to do," Roxas muttered. "So sure, why not?"
The voice sighed. "See, that's what I was talking about. You've gotta cut down on all the doom and gloom and moping and think positive."
"If you've really been around since my birth like you claim, then you'd know why that is."
"I do know," the voice said, and the way he said it, Roxas almost believed him. "You've had it rough, there's no doubt about it. But the thing is… you can either let that make you miserable and bitter, or you can let it go and find a reason to smile again."
"Speaking from experience?"
The voice was very heavy when it finally answered. "Yes."
"Show me your face."
The voice paused again. "It's gonna shock you. You sure you're ready?"
Roxas shrugged. "Hey, how bad can it be?"
The voice chuckled. "That's the spirit. Go into the room on the left and you'll see."
Stealing one last glance at the final monitor, Roxas did what the voice told him to. The room was largely empty except for a big mirror in the corner. Seriously, the thing was huge.
And in that mirror, Roxas saw...
Himself.
He reached out and touched the mirror, and his reflection did the same.
"I don't get it. It's just an image of me," he said to the voice.
The reflection raised its eyebrow. "Is it though?"
Roxas yelped and jumped back. "W-w-what?!"
The reflection – it had his face, it had his eyes, it had his mouth and nose and eyebrows and ears and hair. It was wearing different clothes, yeah, but otherwise—
It was him.
Right?
The reflection grinned. "Told you you'd be surprised."
"W-why do you look like me?!"
The reflection raised its eyebrow again. "Excuse you, I'm the original. Shouldn't you be saying, 'Why do I look like you?'"
"Sure, whatever." Roxas rolled his eyes. "Why do I look like you?"
"I told you. I was there for your birth. My heart stayed behind in Sora's body when he became a Heartless. So instead of looking like him, you look like me." The reflection paused and let all that sink in. "Didn't you ever wonder why you two don't look alike when all the other Nobodies look like their Others?"
Roxas rubbed his neck. "I - I guess so." He was still trying to get over the fact there was someone who looked exactly like him running around. That his face wasn't his face; it was someone else's face and he had borrowed it.
"I know what you're thinking. I know you think this is crazy. But I really am someone different, and you really do have a heart of your own, Roxas, even if we look the same. Sora's right. You deserve to exist, too."
Roxas considered this. If they really were separate people, then that meant…
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Me?" the reflection asked, his thumb pointed towards his heart. "I'm Ventus. But my friends all call me Ven." He put his hand against the glass. "I'd offer to shake your hand, but… this is as good as it's gonna get until we can meet for real."
Roxas put his hand against the glass. "Nice to meet you, Ven. You really think we'll meet again someday? In the real world, I mean."
Ven nodded. "I have faith. We've just gotta give Sora more time. He's repairing my heart even as we speak, and he's looking for a way to save you, too."
Roxas frowned at this and stole a glance at Ven's chest. "Repairing your heart? Ven, what happened to you?"
Ven smiled sadly, and there was a very heavy look in his eyes. "Let's just say… you're not the only one who's had a rough time. But that's a story for another day. It won't be much longer before I can wake up, and when I do, I promise, we'll find a way to save you. Sora wants that too, you know. He really does care about you."
Roxas couldn't help but feel better. He wasn't alone in this place. He'd found a friend. And being reminded of how much Sora cared really did help.
"Sora is something special, isn't he?" he said. "At first I thought I hated him. I blamed him for what happened to me. We even fought for control of his body. But then I realized… I don't hate him, not at all."
He pulled up a memory of Sora playing with some of his Dream Eater friends to show to Ven. "I mean, look at him with that big stupid smile on his face, like he doesn't have a care in the world. How could I hate someone like that?"
He showed Ven another memory, from his meeting with Sora in the dream. "And here, I showed him my memories. He got really upset. I know I have a heart, but that was the first time he knew it, too. He was sad for me and angry at all the people who'd hurt me." Roxas's voice got very quiet. "That was when I realized… my pain matters to him. My heart matters to him."
Roxas got the feeling Ven would have reached through and put his hand on his shoulder if he could have, but for whatever reason, something was keeping his heart from physically manifesting. The best he could do was reflections and disembodied voices, Roxas supposed.
"It does matter to him, Roxas," Ven said, settling on words for now. "He has a big heart, and it's only gotten more and more special. Every connection he's made, every person he's befriended, every friend he's saved, has powered it and made it grow." Ven sighed. "And yet, he almost doesn't realize it. He has no idea what he's truly capable of."
Roxas sat down and grinned. "Well, I've got all day, so why don't you tell me?"
Ven smiled back. "Sure, but all this starts with the Keyblade War, and the prophecy, and—"
"Sounds like a good story. C'mon, Ven, tell me."
"Well, if you insist. But I've gotta warn you, it's still in progress. We're all a part of it, and we don't know the ending yet."
"That's fine by me. Like I said, it's not like I have anything better to do."
Ven told him the story after that. It probably took ages, but with no way to keep track of the passing of time, Roxas couldn't say. Nor did he really care; the story was too interesting to let himself get distracted by thoughts like that.
"See?" Ven said at last, when they'd gotten to the end. Or at least, where the story was now. "That's why I have faith in him. That's why I have hope. Because everything points to Sora being the one to open the door. And if he does— "
"He'll be reborn as something greater than human. Like in those notes Aqua found."
"Exactly. He has no idea, and maybe that's for the best. But I'm rooting for him."
"Me too."
"And that's the best we can do until he brings us into the fight."
Supporting from the sidelines until they could join the fight at Sora's side. For the time being, Roxas was content to do that. He understood his role and Ven's role now. Maybe they were all just pieces in Xehanort's elaborate game, but the pawns weren't going to let their king down. They were going to fight for him, and they were going to help him win.
The story might not be over yet, but Roxas believed in Sora with all his heart. And once that heart had a body of its own, it was going to fight with everything it had. He would do it. He would do it for Sora, for Ven, for Terra and Aqua, for Axel, for Riku and Kairi, for Naminé, and for—
For all his friends out there, in all the worlds. All the people who had helped him grow a heart. And he would thank them and smile at them with a body of his own when it was all over. That was what he was waiting for. That was what he dreamed of.
"You can do it, Sora," he said. "They all have faith in you."
Ven nodded and smiled. For a split second Roxas thought he saw that girl with dark hair in the mirror, and then she was gone. Whoever she was, Roxas got the feeling she had faith in Sora, too.
"And you know what, Sora?" he added, speaking for all of them. "So do we."
So this piece has been a long time coming! It's a gift for the person who left my 100th review for Those Who Dreamed, fanficlove2014. They requested a story about Roxas, Ven, and Sora interacting, and it morphed more into Ven trolling Roxas with Xion making an appearance. All in the backdrop of Sora's heart, of course!
But really, the thought of Jesse McCartney talking to himself was too good to pass up, and I hope we get some quality interactions between Ven and Roxas in KH3, please and thank you. As always, thank you for reading!