"Sora, Roxas, the mail is here!" Tara called up the stairs.
Roxas rolled over and blinked against the light as his mind found its way out of its fogginess. For a moment he thought he had to go to school, and then remembered what day it was. He looked up at the cot above him and shoved his foot up between the support boards shoving the mattress up violently.
"Uhnnn…." Came his cousins voice, he smirked, even after everything, Sora was still impossible to wake up.
He kicked again, this time Sora gave an indignant squawk, a moment later his cousin's unruly head of hair stuck over the side of his bunk, his blue eyes staring accusingly at Roxas.
"I hate you."
"How was Kairi," Roxas asked with a smile, the scowl he received in return told him all he needed to know. Sora hated being woken up from his dreams with Kairi, Roxas didn't really blame him, but at the same time thought it was a bit silly to hold the dreams so dearly when they could always go see the real thing.
"Come on, get dressed. The mail's here."
Sora grumbled and swung down from his bed and landed on the floor, stretching and yawning as he walked over to the closet to retrieve a shirt and pants.
"Bet you its Cloud and Leon." He said with a smile.
"I say it's Laguna, we haven't heard from him in a while."
Since returning from Hollow Bastion the previous year, they got mail constantly from one person or another and it had become a habit to bet a bar of sea salt ice cream on whom the letter would be from. If neither of them got it right, then they both put the money to buy the ice cream into a small account they'd set up at the local bank. It had turned into an amusing game, one that Roxas had an aggravating tendency to win.
"You know," Sora said as they walked downstairs, "we haven't been up in almost two months, we need to find sometime to get away from school one of these weekends."
Roxas snorted, "says the guy who can't find the time to finish his homework."
"Hey, with your help I've been doing alright," Sora said defensively.
"Oh sure, getting Cs, and Ds, are doing fine."
Sora grinned, "better than getting E through G."
Roxas rolled his eyes and shoved Sora through the door into the kitchen. Tara had the offending mail sitting on the breakfast table. The boys began sorting through it, as they went though they found nothing from anyone.
Sora lifted up the final letter, "this is addressed to us, but it doesn't have a name, just this."
He handed it to Roxas, who examined it for a moment before tapping Sora on the forehead with the letter. "Jeez Sora, you really are a dolt sometimes. That's the royal emblem, this is from the court!"
"From Maleficent," Sora said with a wince.
"Or Mim, Merlin, or Cid; they're all part of the council remember?"
Sora nodded as Roxas opened the letter and began reading aloud.
Dear Bearers,
Due to certain developments beyond the borders of Our Kingdom we require your immediate presence at the Capital City. We have sent letters to all related parties and you are hereby excused from all other duties normally attributed to your age to answer this summons. Fair for a ticket from Twilight to Hollow has been provided for both of you. There will be a special coach waiting for you upon presentation of this summons to the ticket clear at Twilight Station.
Please proceed with all haste,
The Interim Council
The boys exchanged confused looks; Tara had stopped cooking to listen and scowled.
"Haven't they put you through enough? If your brothers have anything to do with this I'll skin them both!"
Sora smiled, when they'd finally come home the previous year Tara had hardly let any of her four sons—she considered Sora and Leon her children even if they were technically her nephews—out of her sight for more than a minute; and since Leon and Cloud had gone back to Hollow Bastion her efforts had doubled on Sora and Roxas.
"I'm sure they don't even know we're being summoned," Sora said, he looked at Roxas. "I guess we need to pack."
"Oh no you don't," Tara scolded them, "I am making you both breakfast first, and then you are going to your father's bakery and taking some sweet rolls with you for the trip."
An hour and a half later they'd finally gotten on the special train that had been sent for them and were being whisked along at a speed that was probably impossible for any other engine to achieve. Of course Cid's special toys were never anything like the norm so this wasn't that surprising really.
"What do you think it is?" Sora asked as he watched the scenery rush past the window. "It can't be Heartless; they made a point of deploying Cid's system in every major city, including Twilight right?"
"Yeah," Roxas said, considering. "It must have something to do with another kingdom, remember last time Laguna mentioned something about the countries to the north and east conducting some kind of exercise very close to our borders?"
"You don't think we've been invaded do you?"
Roxas shook his head, "we'd have heard about that, besides they wouldn't expect us to fight anyways, we've had no training."
"Yeah, I mean we've only killed at least a hundred Heartless a piece right?" Sora said with a grin.
"Sora I'm serious, we've had no military training, and our magic skills are nothing spectacular. The most I can manage even after all this time is a gentle breeze or lighting a candle."
"Hey, I can send Siefer flying across the Sandlot now." Sora said smugly.
Roxas remembered the incident, another one of the pointless—he'd never have called them pointless before the events of the previous year, but things got put into perspective when people fought and died around you—fights over whose turf was whose that Seifer and Hayner were constantly fighting. Sora had decided to end it quickly and literally blown Seifer away with a miniature whirlwind that had sent him flying across the lot and into a wall. Most everyone had just stared dumbstruck, and Seifer had called it a day after that. There hadn't been a single scuffle since and the Sandlot had quickly become a popular hangout for Roxas, Sora, and their friends.
"Do you think they'll ask us to be ambassadors?" Sora asked, excitement making a home in his voice.
"Oh please, what would we do? I think the only ones of the five bearers that could pull that off would be Namine or Kairi. You and Riku are too quick to get angry, and I don't think I could stand up in a royal court without feeling sick."
"What if they just want to use us to show that the world heart is on our side?"
"I guess, but that would still have its problems."
Sora leaned back and crossed his legs, tapping a foot impatiently, "I can't wait till we get there. I want to know what's up."
Roxas agreed, but he had other things on his mind. She was the same age as he was, blonde, blue eyed, and he loved her. It had only been a little under two months since he'd last seen Namine, but he always missed her when they were apart. As the train raced northwards, he let his mind wander away from royal courts and warring kingdoms to simple thoughts about the girl he loved. No matter what else this trip bore for him he'd get to see Namine again. That was the only part he cared about.
"Hey Roxas, wake up!"
Roxas shuddered and stretched with a yawn as he climbed out of the bunk, he looked at the clock on the wall. It was four in the morning, had they arrived finally? The train wasn't moving anymore, so they must have.
Sora smiled at him, "hey come on, Laguna's out on the platform."
Roxas looked out the window; indeed, Laguna was standing quietly outside on the train platform with his chocobo Baast pawing restlessly at the ground besides him. He grabbed his pack and followed Sora off the train.
"Hey you two, lets get going we've been waiting for you."
"We can't get some rest first?" Roxas moaned.
"That was what the train ride was for, come on." Laguna's voice softened as he saw the look on Roxas' face. "Don't worry; Namine and Kairi are both at the castle already."
Sora was looking at Baast quietly; a distant look on his face, Roxas caught it and despite being tired, wrapped his arms around his cousin.
"Don't worry, I bet he's happily chasing deer right about now."
Sora nodded, "I hope so…I miss him still."
Roxas shared the nod, "yeah, me too. Come on, we don't want to make the girls wait do we?"
"Yeah, let's go."
Outside the station an open chocobo drawn carriage was waiting for them along with a knight escort. They weren't wearing their armor, but their weapons were strapped to their backs and that alone made Roxas feel a little nervous. He shivered in the early morning chill as they clambered into the coach.
"Here," Sora said, opening his pack and producing what Roxas first thought was a blanket. Then he realized what it was.
"You brought it?" He asked in surprise.
"Of course," Sora said, spreading his father's coat out and wrapping it around them both. They huddled close against the cold as they felt the carriage move forwards.
The coat was still a few sizes too big for Sora, it was loose on Leon and Cloud too, but still he kept it with him whenever they traveled. This past winter during the festival in Twilight, Roxas, Namine, Sora, and Kairi had climbed the clock tower to watch the fireworks. It had been cold and they'd all huddled together under the massive jacket passing around two mugs of hot cocoa. It had been one of the happiest moments of Roxas' life, so in a way the jacket was starting to become important to him as well and he was glad that Sora had brought it with him. The carriage hurried them through the quiet, dimly lit city. The clacking of chocobo claws on the cobblestones sounded like hammers on steel, Roxas watched as the cityscape went by. He noticed areas where the previous year's destruction was still not fully repaired.
These were areas that had been burned or torn apart when the Heratless had invaded the city following Ansem the Wise's death and the activation of Xehanort's artificial heart. A lot of people had been killed before the knights, soldiers, and elites had managed to coral the population into so called safe zones. Roxas and Sora had been excused from the clean up that had followed Xehanort's defeat and been allowed to return home, but he still remembered the looks of shock and despair on many of the peoples' faces as they'd headed towards the station and home. It had been disturbing to think that even in victory there was still so much agony. It had been his second taste of such, the first had been the battle in the gorge to the east of Hollow Bastion where the Heartless army had first attacked he still had nightmares about the aftermath of that battle and the cries of the wounded and dying.
He was so lost in memory that he didn't realize that they'd stopped until Sora pulled the jacket off of them. They clambered out and were led by Laguna through the courtyard stables and into the castle itself, it too had seen better days, but the damage wrought by the Heartless was largely repaired here as well. It was just a pity that the lives lost couldn't be so easily replaced. They moved in silence through the castle halls, everyone they passed seemed to recognize them and Roxas heard whispers here and there, thankfully everything he heard was praise or awe. He didn't want to think that people resented himself and the other bearers; he wanted to believe that they'd helped everyone and made the world a better place. In the end he knew that they had, if Xehanort hadn't been stopped when he had, then things would have gotten much worse it was even possible that the two hearts could have destroyed the world in their battle for primacy. He'd played a role in preventing that, and he hoped that people weren't angry at him for not being able to save everyone.
They reached the courtroom; the familiar and massive double doors stood ajar, Laguna paused and spoke with the guardsmen standing silently to either side of the arched doorway.
"Close the doors once we're inside and don't let anyone else in."
The guards saluted, Roxas noticed the uniforms they wore now, no longer the black and purple they now wore red and yellow to signify their failure and shame in protecting their king. From what he understood, they would continue to wear those colors until a new ruler took up Ansem's place on the throne. He hoped that day would come soon; he imagined people were becoming restless without a rightful ruler sitting over them. Maleficent, Merlin, Cid, and Mim were good people, but they had no right to rule aside from the power vested in them by Ansem when he died. They passed through the doors, and they boomed shut behind them. The trio began the long walk towards the vacant throne and whatever awaited them.