So here is the first actual chapter of this story, in which the ball gets moving and a few important plot points are revealed. And yes, each and every Organization member will turn up in some form or other, some more than once. ;)
It was now Saturday, and they were still debating what to do
It was now Saturday, and they were still debating what to do. Aerith, of course, was adamant that a rescue mission be sent. Ienzo, whose interest had been sufficiently piqued to leave the Bastion and join the debate, was also pushing for an expedition, if only for the sake of scientific investigation. On the other hand, Leon and Cid felt that if the world was not overrun by Heartless and was simply dying, the Keyblade Master was not obligated to intervene. Everything indicated that at this point that the world could no longer be saved, and besides that, their own world had not yet recovered from its own troubles.
"It's unfortunate," said Leon firmly, "but you can probably do more good here. This other world is pretty much a lost cause anyway, right Ienzo?"
The scientist hesitated before replying. "It appears to be in an advanced stage of whatever is ailing it," he said carefully, "but we cannot be completely certain it's incurable unless we investigate it ourselves. Therefore, in the interest of gathering data –"
"This isn't about scientific investigation, Ienzo," snapped Aerith, her usually gentle voice turning hard. "This is about saving the people who are trapped there. If we can help them in any way whatsoever, human decency obligates us to do so."
Cid frowned. "I'm not sayin' that I don't feel for them, but once we start thinkin' like that, where do we stop? We can't go around tryin' to save every world that's in trouble, not if we want to keep doin' right by our own."
"I think you're all forgetting something," said Sora suddenly. He hadn't spoken yet, but had quietly sipped at his tea and listened to everyone else's thoughts on the matter. Now he put his teacup down and looked everyone in the eye one by one, his gaze carefully neutral.
"We would not be going to this world. I would. I'm the Keyblade Master, remember? I'm the one who's going to be going on this mission while the rest of you stay here in the Garden, so in the end it's really my decision, isn't it?"
There was a slightly embarrassed silence. Ienzo's lips tightened and he looked sullenly away. Leon looked slightly discomfited; Cid scowled. Aerith leaned over and covered Sora's hands with hers, looking desperately contrite.
"Oh, Sora, we didn't mean to exclude you or…or seem like we don't care about your opinion on the subject, it's just that…"
Her voice trailed off hesitantly, but Sora could easily guess at what she'd left unsaid. It's just that as the Keyblade Master you're the only one who is in any kind of position to help this world. It was a message he'd been bombarded with in one form or other ever since the Heartless were unleashed and the great silver key had materialized in his hand, marking him as someone set apart, someone with a destiny. He didn't resent it, not exactly, but it was tiring, to always be the one who was called to go to another world where the Darkness had gotten a foothold and needed to be beaten back. He'd been thirteen when the Disaster happened, and even though there had been more peace and stability after the first two years of restoring order, there was a small part of him that wished that he'd been able to be just a normal teenager with normal concerns like getting his first kiss, or staying out all night, or sneaking wine from Merlin's cellar. Normalcy, however, was apparently not for Keyblade Masters.
He sighed and turned his hands over so that he could twine his fingers with Aerith's. She was too genuinely kind-hearted to be angry with, and he knew that she just couldn't bear the thought of people suffering when there was even a small chance of helping them. It was in her nature…and his too, really. He just got tired sometimes.
"I know, Aerith. It's okay."
"Of course it's your decision, Sora," said Leon, his voice steady and calm. "We just don't want you to take any unnecessary risks."
Sora smiled wearily. "I took plenty of risks dealing with the aftereffects of the Disaster."
"That was different. That needed to be dealt with, or all the worlds that had been connected would have been overrun and destroyed. This world appears to be an isolated case, and is not our responsibility."
That made sense. Worlds died, he supposed, just like people did. In the past six years there were probably worlds that had faded away that Chip and Dale just hadn't picked up on, and he'd never lost any sleep over it. The Keyblade locked doors, prevented Heartless from going where they weren't supposed to. It didn't cure illnesses, whether they were caused by Darkness or not. If the Darkness was coming from inside the world itself, he didn't think there was much he could really do to prevent it.
It was the thought of the people trapped on that world that bothered him. Like Aerith, he didn't like imagining them dying in pain and fear and then wondering if he could have somehow saved them. But if he did go, and he couldn't save everyone, then how would he choose whom to help?
"Ienzo?"
The scientist looked a bit surprised at being addressed, but nodded to show he was listening.
"In all honesty, do you think that there's any possibility whatsoever that I can do some good in that world, or is it better to leave it be?"
Their eyes met, and Sora could tell that while Ienzo was still speaking as a scientist – he could not change his nature, after all – he was also not hiding behind his usual mask of cold analysis.
"The situation is different from our own in that the Darkness on this world is stemming from within. There aren't any Heartless to battle, and the Keyhole doesn't need to be sealed, so I'm not sure what use the Keyblade will be. On the other hand, we don't know all the power the Keyblade holds, and it's possible that it could be of some use. At the very least, you could go and see for yourself. You can't be sure of anything until you've measured the situation with your own eyes."
Sora didn't say anything for a few minutes, his eyes distant and contemplative. Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gold coin that had been given to him ten years ago by a traveling performer. He'd been a strange man who claimed that coins and dice and cards could reveal the future, and the children had been delighted with his stories and tricks. He'd visited the orphanage numerous times, and had always had time to show Sora a special bit of magic just for him, leaving the little brown-haired boy in a state of something like awe. Just before he'd moved on, the stranger had pressed a set of worn playing cards into Sora's hands and told him to choose his destiny.
"The King of Spades," he'd said, laughing. "You have a great destiny ahead of you. See that you're equal to it." He then pressed the golden coin into Sora's hands and told him it was meant to "show the way when the right path isn't clear. Remember: sometimes chance gives the best advice."
Sora had never used it, although he kept it faithfully in his pocket. He'd seen plenty of strange and magical things on all the different worlds he'd been to, but never once felt the need to consult the Powers That Be for guidance. He'd always had some kind of instinctive feeling for what to do at each step. Still, there was a first time for everything, and at the moment he had to admit that the idea of some outside force making the decision for him was very appealing.
"Flowers mean I go, roots mean I leave it alone."
It arced gracefully through the air and Sora caught it deftly, slamming it onto the back of his hand. He stared down at the delicate etching of a bouquet of large flowers, then looked up at everyone's expectant faces.
"That's that, then."
He glanced at Ienzo and flashed him a half-smile.
"And you're coming with me."
"Fuck."
Axel's whispered expletive was barely loud enough to reach Roxas only two feet away. The blonde didn't bother asking his friend what he'd seen, just dove to the side of the road and huddled behind the embankment, his pistol heavy in his head. Axel was right next to him in a cautious crouch, peering down the cracked and pitted surface of what had once been the main road between Ragnok and Baldir. His finger was steady on the trigger of the military-issue rifle he'd pilfered from a soldier's corpse just after the Blast, the best weapon they had. Axel was good with it, too. He'd never wasted any of their ammo.
"Looks like a gang. At least five of them. Keep out of sight and hope they miss us."
Axel dropped down next to Roxas, and the blonde couldn't help pressing up against him in an attempt to steal some warmth. The weather had taken a turn for the worse lately, and at night all four of them – him and Axel, Riku and Kairi – huddled together under their blanket so they wouldn't freeze. It was a bad time to be traveling, but they had no choice. They needed to find food.
The coughing wheeze of motorbikes running on cheap fuel was getting closer, and Roxas felt Axel tense. Society had already been unraveling at the seams under the Marlux regime, and the sudden destruction of any stabilizing influence whatsoever had given the worst elements free reign. Axel and Roxas had both been Ragnor street kids, but hadn't been involved in any of the more violent factions. They knew enough to fear them, though, and hopefully enough to survive.
Closer, closer, closer… and then moving past them, the rumbling fading into the distance. Axel sighed; Roxas relaxed. They waited a few minutes just to be sure, then stepped back onto the road. It was once again empty of anyone save themselves.
"We should head back," said Roxas softly. "We don't want to be out here in full darkness."
Axel nodded and turned back in the direction where they'd left Riku and Kairi. Roxas tried not to notice how terribly thin he'd gotten. Axel had always been tall and lanky, but now he looked almost emaciated, his beat up jeans hanging low on his hips and his tattooed cheekbones jutting out even more sharply. Roxas knew that he was thinner, too. So were Riku and Kairi. They'd been able to scavenge enough from the abandoned markets and houses to keep from starving, but it was barely enough. They needed to get lucky, and soon.
They started back down the road, always keeping one eye and one ear open so that no one would come up on them unexpectedly. Every once in a while Roxas would step off onto the scorched earth, looking to see if by some miracle anything was growing. It seemed impossible that this world had once been green and fertile, when for the past three years the only signs of life Roxas had seen were a patch of dull gray moss clinging to the stones of one of the canals that bordered Ragnor, and a few flaccid mushrooms clinging to the concrete in the old warehouse where they'd lived. Never anything green, though.
It started to grow dark, and they grew tired. They were only two miles or so from their shelter when Roxas stumbled and fell, cutting his knee open on a jagged outcropping of asphalt. He hissed in pain, and Axel was immediately at his side.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just wasn't paying attention." Roxas pulled the denim up until he could get a clear look at the wound. It was deeper than he'd thought, and the blood oozing up from the cut looked almost black in the fading light. He pushed tentatively at it and groaned softly. It hurt.
"I can't tell if there's any dirt in it or not."
That would be bad. There was little doubt that the ground had been contaminated, and if anything got into an open wound…
Axel pulled him to his feet. "We're not that far now. You should be fine until Riku can take care of it."
Of course. Riku and his extraordinary gift, probably the one sign of hope that either of them had seen since everything went straight to hell. They continued on their way, Roxas ignoring the stinging in his knee, Axel's eyes constantly scanning the horizon.
Kairi was waiting for them at their shelter, what had once been a rest area for travelers. The lines of worry on her face relaxed when they came into sight, and she hurried out onto the road to greet them.
"Find anything?"
"No, but a bike gang passed us heading east, so we should probably think about heading west. Noldir is in that direction; there might be something there. We're probably still about three, four days away."
Kairi nodded and they went inside. The roof had partially collapsed, but the building still provided some measure of protection from the elements. Riku had gathered together a pile of flammable material to make some kind of fire, and Kairi pulled a can of refried beans out of her pack.
"Dinner!" She turned to Axel.
"If you'd be so kind, oh great firemaster."
Axel pulled their precious pouch of matches out of his backpack and in a few minutes they had a small blaze going. It wasn't much, but enough to lift their spirits somewhat. Axel pulled Roxas close to the light and peered at his knee. It was swollen and angry, and a yellowish liquid was starting to ooze out of it.
"Hey, Riku? Roxas fell and cut his knee open and it doesn't look too good."
Riku nodded and Roxas shifted until he was sitting next to the older boy, biting his lip as Riku reached out and touched the area around the wound with gentle fingers. The silver-haired boy's brow was creased in concentration, and Roxas could swear that he could feel his damaged cells talking to Riku, telling him what was wrong and how to fix it.
Riku's eyes fluttered closed and a second later Roxas felt something warm flow into him, burning away all of the impurities in the wound and gently urging the tissue to knit back together. When he looked down a few seconds later there was only a small pinkish scar. He ran his fingers over it in wonderment. Riku had healed all of them multiple times at various times, but his ability never failed to lose its wonder. The gift of healing was nothing short of miraculous in this ravaged place.
"Thanks," he said, his voice warm with sincerity. Riku smiled in reply.
"No problem."
Kairi passed each of them a portion of beans and they talked about where to go next until the fire died out. Then they curled under the blanket, Roxas and Kairi in the middle, Riku and Axel on either side, and waited for dawn.
Riku hadn't had this gift before losing his sight. When he could still see he'd been passionate about numbers, and atoms, and chemicals, and had been considering applying to one of the government's research academies. He'd had dreams of reworking the energy supply, finding a way harness the natural power lines that ran across the continent, or possibly even making his way onto the elusive O.W.I Committee – but then those goals had been shot to hell in more ways than one. In its place, though, he had this new ability, something more wonderful than he'd ever dreamed of.
He'd first discovered it when Kairi had gotten hurt in the riot. They'd strayed closer to the city center than they usually did, and had gotten caught up in a fight between two of the gangs that had taken up residence there. They'd been dodging frantically through the side streets trying to get away, Kairi holding fast to Riku's wrist and pulling him after her, when he heard her cry and stop moving abruptly, causing him to fall into her.
"Kairi?"
She was breathing heavily and sank to the ground, pulling him with her.
"I don't think it's anything serious, but… I've been hit with something, and…"
In that moment Riku had only wanted to help his friend. More than his friend; she was his family now. His blood relatives had all died, but Kairi had stayed with him. They'd been almost siblings even before, but now they were all each other had, and there was no way Riku wanted to face this world without Kairi next to him. He reached out and ran his fingers frantically along her leg until he felt warm blood welling up from the wound on her calf and pressed down on it, wishing desperately for it to heal.
Then, to his astonishment, it did. It was as though he had suddenly merged with Kairi on the cellular level, and his will alone was urging the damaged tissues to repair. It only took a moment and he was back in himself, gasping in astonishment.
"It's… healed," murmured Kairi, and he could hear the awe in her voice. Only a second later another gunshot rang out and she grabbed his wrist, on the run once again until they got back to the warehouse.
They both knew that they had to be careful whom they told about this. If word of someone who could heal without relying on medical technology got out, they'd be hunted for sure. They'd heard rumors that some of the surviving government officials were regrouping in the southern part of the continent near Ydris. He'd be a valuable commodity to them, or to anyone else who wanted to try and seize control of what was left. Outside the two of them only Axel and Roxas knew about it, and they'd only revealed it to them after they'd stuck with them for a good six months and hadn't done anything to cast doubt on their trustworthiness. That was the way they wanted to keep it.
Riku hoped that there was some reason he'd been given the gift of healing, hoped that it meant there was still some hope for this world.
Some reason to keep going.
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