Even after years of separation, fate allowed their paths to cross once more. But what is there to gain when none can remember what they lost? Axel x Roxas, Sora x Riku.
A hand reached out to him and ushered him into the room, "Mother!"
"Hush, Riku, you must hide. There's no time." the woman whispered urgently as she ushered the small boy away and beneath the bed, "Stay here Riku, and no matter what, do not leave."
"But mother, what will happen now?" the boy asked, scared and curious and confused.
She gazed into the boy's aquamarine eyes with sadness, "Only God will know." she spoke softly as she ran her fingers through the boy's hair lovingly. "Stay safe."
"Wait, mother-"
Gunshots echoed through the air, followed by screams and shouts as the sound of wood splintering punctured the air.
"Mother!"
"Hush Riku." her voice wavered as she pushed the boy down and out of sight just as the door was broken down and gunshots were fired.
The boy froze, unsure of what to do. He didn't know what to do, but even if he knew, he was frozen into place.
He couldn't breathe.
"Don't touch me!!" a voice screamed out.
Aquamarine eyes watched with fear as feet scuffled across the floor, kicking rubble and bits of fallen wood around. He watched the steps that belonged to his mother, vigilant and full of fight.
But it was unfair.
There were three of them, four now, and they were all against her.
"DON'T TOUCH--"
Riku jolted slightly against the sound that echoed throughout the still air, he stopped breathing.
His mother stopped moving. Something dripped onto the floor, staining it a dark, deep color.
Then deep laughter was heard, his mother fell to the floor, her eyes staring right into her son's. Cold, unmoving, and dead.
"…Mother…" his lips moved, but no sound escaped.
He barely paid any attention as he continued to stare with fright into the eyes of his mother, the sound of scuffling feet and cheer withdrawing.
He was alone.
"Mother…?" he asked quietly, fearfully, as he slowly reached out for his mother's hand, "Mother?"
His fingers touched his mother's, getting colder and colder and lifeless.
"…Mother." his voice shook, tears filled his eyes.
This can't be happening.
He did the first thing he thought was right. Get help, from whoever he could.
Quickly, he shuffled his way out from beneath the bed and ran, "FATHER!!" he cried out as he pushed his way out of what was left of the broken down door and froze. His voice lost.
There, laid left for the world to see atop of the dining table, bled his father with the same cold, lifeless eyes.
"…No…"
Riku fell to his knees onto the dirtied floor. Woodchips scattered everywhere, blood stains speckled the floor, nothing but destruction and loss left behind.
He wanted to scream, but couldn't find his voice.
He was alone…
'Where am I?' aquamarine eyes slowly opened as consciousness returned to him. His head hurt, he felt sick and the world felt as though it was spinning around. Or just rocking back and forth a lot. He groaned as he tried to sit himself up on the nearby wall.
"Looks like you've awoken." a familiar voice sounded from within the shadows, "Don't get sick though, I hate mopping up down here."
His head jolted up, eyes searching around in the darkness for the source of the noise. He heard a jingling of keys and looked straight ahead and spotted eyes of a familiar blue. "Pirate." he hissed.
"I thought we had been on good terms before, what now?" the brunet grinned as he stepped forward, out of the shadows and crouched down in front of the cell. Close enough to be almost better acquainted, but far enough to be out of reach. A key glinted in the sunlight as it spun around the boy's finger.
The silver haired boy sneered, "Release me."
"Not until you cool down."
Aquamarine eyes narrowed and it took almost every bit of his self restraint not to scream and shout and demand for release, "Let. Me. Go."
"No."
"And why not?" he asked as he stood up from the ground and stared down at the brunet boy that held the key to his freedom.
"Because you never gave me your name." he merely stated with another smile.
"What?"
Sora chuckled to himself before rising up to his full height, but to his disappointment, he was still shorter by a few inches but chose not to let it deter him. "It's just a name," he looked up at the ceiling before looking back into the boy's eyes. "Telling me won't kill you."
The silver haired boy felt himself growing hot with anger as he glared back at the boy behind the cell gates.
Seeing that he probably wasn't going to get anything out of the stranger any time soon, Sora sighed and shook his head, looking mighty disappointed, "And here I thought we were getting along so well before." He sighed again before turning to leave.
The silver haired boy slumped himself against the wall after half an hour of trying to think of a way to escape and came up with none. There was nothing in the cell that could help him remotely, and anything he might be able to use is out of arm's reach.
He scowled at his own misfortune as he looked up at the ceiling before returning his gaze to the hardwood floor. The ship continued to rock, and it made him feel more nauseated than before.
He closed his eyes and listened to the waves that crashed upon the sides of the ship. He could hear footsteps from up above and muffled sounds of people talking. He listened to them talking, intent on finding out any valuable information that could help him, but it was much too incoherent to be made any sense of. Soon, the footsteps became distant, then the sound of something being opened was heard and the footsteps grew louder.
He heard the door to his dungeon being opened before steps approached his cell.
The same boy from before came down and crouched in front of his prison once again, with keys jingling in his hands, out of reach. "So, I suppose we should try again with the introductions?" he spoke with a smile.
"No." he answered firmly.
"Oh come, come. No need to be angry now."
The other retorted with a glare. He was being held against his will, obviously he had a right to be angry.
Sora sighed before standing up, looking around idly while twirling the key around his finger. "I'd thought that, you know, since we'll be traveling together, we should get to know ourselves a bit more. Aye, savvy?"
The brunet looked over to the boy who refused to speak, then sighed and gave in, "Alright then, why don't I go first." He bent down to eye level with the other boy before speaking again. "My name is Sora. How about you?" he asked with another grin.
It was stupid how a boy could smile so much. Even when the odds were against him.
The platinum boy refused to introduce himself as he continued to glare at the boy he now knows as Sora. The happiness faded from the boy after the silence he received.
With a sigh, Sora decided to get up and leave. Why try if he wasn't going to get anything in return? But as soon as his fingers curled around the handle of the door that led to the way back up to the deck, the silver haired boy decided to give his name, although he chose not to look at the brunet boy. "…Riku."
The brunet paused, almost unsure if he heard right or not. His hearing wasn't one of the best in the world. That much about himself, he knew.
Sora smiled as he turned towards the boy, "I knew you'd warm up to me." He spoke as he crouched back down in front of the cell, closer than what he considered was safe, "What did you say your name was again?"
Feeling a little aggravated, he answered through clenched teeth. "It's Riku."
Sora grinned, "Now, that wasn't so hard was it?"
Riku merely scoffed.
From the topside of things, Sora could hear his drunken captain shout out, "Anchors away!" before it was answered with, "Aye, aye captain!" from his brother.
That, he decided, was his cue to leave. "Looks like we've made berth on Tortuga. We would take you along with us, but I think it'll be best for you to stay and rest your little head, aye?" he smirked before he left out of the door and with the keys to the cell tucked away in his pocket.
This left Riku with a look of shock on his face as he watched Sora leave the cells to go up to the surface. He let out an aggravated sigh before getting up and kicking the cell gate. A vain attempt to get out.
"Sora, is it right for you to keep him down there and not tell the captain about it?" the blond spoke to his brother in a hushed tone as they walked casually behind their captain.
"There's no need for our captain to know dear brother." He smiled, happy as can be.
Roxas rolled his eyes, "Of course there is."
"Now, now. What the captain doesn't know won't hurt him."
"That's what you said last time, and we almost lost the Black Pearl because of that." He argued.
"Hey! How was I supposed to know it was a navy ship?! It looked more like a merchant's ship!" he retorted. He wasn't used to using the crow's nest yet. It was more Roxas' job.
"A merchant's ship doesn't look that grand!" he pointed out, and it was so true too.
"Now what are you two babbling about, aye?" the two brothers halted their movement and all conversation as they came face to face with their captain.
"Nothing captain." Sora smiled.
"Really now?" Jack quirked up an eyebrow as he eyed the brunet suspiciously who just called him captain.
"Yes captain." Roxas replied before looking behind the captain to see a figure approach them. "Seems like you've got company Jack."
He rolled his eyes, there goes the 'captain' streak, "It's captain! Captain Jack to you." He said, forgetting what he meant to ask earlier before turning around to see a lady with red hair move towards them. "Ah, Ruby!"
"'ello Jack." She greeted before giving him a hard slap on the face.
Shocked and confused, he wasn't sure he deserved that. He and Ruby had gotten along so swimmingly before too, "Don't think I deserve that…" he spoke before turning around again, this time to see another lady with brunette hair. "Oh, Matilda!" he greeted happily.
"Who was she?" she asked sweetly.
"What?" he started, and was immediately slapped again before she stormed off as well.
The older man coughed, a little red in the face but chose not to let it deter him, "Ok, I may have deserved that…" he moved his hand over to his reddening cheeks and started to walk off into the pub. Along they way, he was regularly assaulted with more slaps from various other girls.
Sora and Roxas laughed from behind as they watched their captain walk off in his drunken ways, a slap in the face by way of toll. They both followed him into the bar, towards the far end where the pig pen was located and where a man slept.
As Jack walked passed a well close to the pig pen, he grabbed a bucket of cold water and the brothers did the same.
The man considered whether he should oh-so rudely wake the man when he decided, bugger it, and threw his bucketful onto the man, and some nearby pigs, which abruptly woke him up. A line of swear words erupting from his mouth before realizing who it was he was swearing to, "Oh, Jack. Didn't expect to see you again so soon. You should know its bad luck to wake a man when he's sleeping." and then promptly remembered, "Didn't I tell you that before?"
"Ah, then I'll propose to you this time what I proposed to you last time." Jack spoke as he discarded the bucket off to the side. "But how can the sleeping man drink the drink that the man who did the waking bought him while at the same time listen to the proposition from the man who did the waking that bought the sleeping man a drink?" he asked as he offered a hand to help the other man get up from the mud.
Confused and uncertain what the hell Jack just said, he decided to just go along with it. "Right...what's this here proposition you've been spouting about then?" He asked as he took up the hand that was offered to him. And as soon as Jack took a step back, both Sora and Roxas threw their buckets of water to the man.
"Blast, I'm already awake!"
"Oh, that was for the smell." Roxas spoke as Sora laughed. Because the man smelled like pigs. And it was awful.
"So, Jack. What are you proposing this time?" the man known as Gibbs asked as he took a sip from his rum.
"Aye, I'm going after the loot that's stashed away in the Isla De Muerta. Again." he spoke in hush-hush terms, but the news was still enough to make Gibbs choke on his drink.
"Don't tell me you're after the cursed treasure…Again." he asked warily.
"Me? Of course not! I'm just after the treasure that's hidden there. I care not for cursed Aztec gold my friend." Immortality didn't tempt him one bit.
The man sighed, "Good, good. For a moment there I thought you'd gone crazy."
"Mate…" he smiled, "When am I never crazy?" he smiled at his friend who returned his statement with a laugh.
"Off we go to the Isla De Muerta." Jack announced as he positioned himself in front of the steering.
"But Jack!" Gibbs spoke as he looked around the deck and up at the crow's nest.
"It's CAPTAIN! Bloody hell, how many times do I have to say this?" he asked rhetorically as he rolled his eyes.
"Alright, captain. What about the other crew?"
"We don't need another crew."
"But we can't sail to the Isla De Muerta by ourselves." he protested and watched as the brunet boy prepared to raise the right anchor by himself.
Jack smiled as he stepped away from the steering, "Ah mate. We're not by ourselves. We've got Sora and Roxas along with us."
As if two children would help much, "But that's only four people captain! Surely we could do with at least two or three more." he reasoned and watched as the blond kept a watch out in the far distance.
Jack sighed, again, "Fine, fine. Get off and find us a couple more crew mates. Couldn't you have told us before we made way?"
"Sorry captain, didn't realize it was just us four. But I'm sure there're a couple of other people as crazy as you on this island."
"Surely." he sniffed as he stared at the brunet boy who was making his way to pull the next anchor up, "Oi, Zola!"
"It's SORA!"
He rolled his eyes, "Whatever, release the anchors again, we've got some more waiting to do."
"Oh bugger." all that wasted energy.
Within an hour, Gibbs gathered a small line of four people that stood on the port, ready to journey through the treacherous seas. To Jack, they didn't look like much.
There was a man with a missing leg going by the name of Shammy. A man with an eye patch calling himself Xigbar. And a familiar man that Jack already knew as Cotton with his trusty parrot.
"Ah Mr. Cotton!" he smiled, "Lovely to see you again." The said man returned a smile and the parrot squawked. "Land ahoy! Land ahoy!"
"We figured that meant 'Nice to see you too.'" Gibbs explained after seeing the confused look on Jack's face.
"Ah…" he walked to the last person, who was rather short, and who wore an overly large hat. "Hm..?" he pondered out loud as he slipped the hat off to reveal a blonde, "Ah! Larxene!!" he jumped away but not before getting slapped on the face. Sora and Roxas laughed from the deck.
"You stole my boat!" she screamed.
"I didn't steal it! I borrowed it without permission! Totally different meaning love." he tried to reason.
"You owe me a boat!" she screeched and slapped him again, "So I'm going to take over your boat." she spoke as she pointed at the ship that was docked.
"Firstly, it's a ship!" he cried out as he gingerly rubbed his cheeks, "And secondly, I'm not handing you my beloved!!"
"Well, you're going to give me a boat sooner or later." she poked him square on the chest, "And to make sure I receive one, I'll be going along with you." She smirked before she stomped over towards the ship and the other crew men followed right behind her.
"Jack! It's awful bad luck to bring a lady aboard." Gibbs warned as he looked at the woman who was now getting on the ship.
"Well, why did you bring her along?" he hissed as he rubbed his much abused cheeks.
"Er, well. You see…" he tried to explain.
"Never mind dear Gibbs. It'll be even more bad luck to not have her. Hell hath no wrath like a woman's scorn..." Jack shuddered and climbed aboard his ship as well, followed by Gibbs.
Once Jack positioned himself in front of the steering again, he called out the orders. "Raise the anchors!"
"Aye, aye captain!" Mr. Cotton along with Shammy pulled up the left anchor while Xigbar and Gibbs pulled up the right.
"Release the sails!" Jack shouted to the two brothers who gave him a weird look and spotted the problem. "Oh right. Never mind!!" he shouted back after realizing that there was no point in the task seeing as the sails were never raised or tied up in the first place. "Just a habit of mine!"
Sora and Roxas rolled their eyes as they stared up at the sails which bore countless rips and holes in them. They really should get them changed…
"Alright then, off we go!" he steered away from the port and took out his trusty compass to ensure that he was going in the right direction, making a few adjustments here and there before putting it away.
Xigbar made his way up to the crows' nest while Larxene followed, prompting to sit on the wooden railings.
Mr. Cotton decided to monitor the right side of the deck along with Shammy, while Roxas and Sora looked out for the left side. Gibbs decided to stick near the captain and discuss various things among things.
"This is going to be one heck of an adventure, aye?" Roxas smiled as he looked over to his brother.
"Brother, this will be the adventure of a life-time. I can smell it in the wind." He spoke as he swung an arm over his brother's shoulder.
"Either that or you stink." Roxas joked and they both laughed after Sora delivered a playful punch to the blonde. "By the way, don't you want to check up on that boy?" the blond asked as he turned to stare at his brother.
The smile left as soon as it came as soon as he realized what he had forgotten. "Oh bugger!" Or rather…Who.
Ahhh Larxene, you funny, funny woman.