Summary: Dreams always result in an awakening, and twilight always fades. What if Roxas had left Twilight Town with Axel?
Disclaimer: D: I think we'd all know if someone from owned Kingdom Hearts. Well…if they were a yaoi fan, we'd know, anyway.
Rant while this was a WIP: September Gaaa. I struggled so much with the beginning of this one. T0T It all made me very sad, and I'd been dwelling on a Naruto-induced high for a few weeks into the writing process.
October 21-- Hokay. It's been nearly a month since I've began, and I've not even finished my third page in word… 9.9 This is all quite distressing… I've been so distracted by South Park, it's not even funny… Ò.Ó I'll try my best to get this out by Halloween. Give myself a week on this…try and crank out the rest of this chapter… T-T What a lost cause…:sobs: If it's not out by then, you all have my permission to beat me with a n00b stick.
October 24-- HAHAHA:D The hell is this, bitches?! I finally got the chapter to a point that I like!! XD After a goddamn month of procrastination, I finally finished (it's more like I started and finished :P ) the chapter in three days. How's that, eh? Three. Fucking. Days. XDD I'm very proud of myself. Haha, and this chapter isn't even all that good, for all of my boasting… XD
It's more dialogue than the prologue, but I suppose that's because the prologue was really just a lot of background and fluff… D: This one is all plot development. (Or, so I hope…)
Started: September 22, 2007.
Completed: October 24, 2007.
Twilight
xiii : a fragmented tale
It was not so much that Roxas liked knowing things, so much as it was that he didn't like not knowing things. And, quite frankly, seeing as recent events had left him exceptionally bewildered, he wasn't feeling too hot.
Actually, he was hardly feeling at all…
Maybe that was the real problem, not all this insanity regarding his dreams and the illusive visitors he may have had the night before.
Geez… What did happen that night…? Roxas had such a migraine; he could hardly come up with any coherent thoughts. And, to make matters worse, that horrible pain in his chest had returned with a vengeance.
Perfect. Just fucking perfect. Roxas popped the painkillers in his mouth, wincing momentarily at the bitter aftertaste. Feeling incredibly groggy, he staggered to his bed and collapsed, groaning when he realised that he had forgotten to draw the drapes. Good lord, the light had never been so aggravating before…
He reluctantly rose to a sitting position and pulled the curtains shut, the light filtering in through the gauzy lavender cloth and casting dim shadows across the floor. Roxas slumped back against his pillows, pressing his palms into his closed eyes. After ten minutes, he sighed wearily as he removed his hands to look up at the ceiling.
Well, this wasn't boring…
Roxas rolled over onto his stomach, face in his pillow. Maybe, if he stayed in that position long enough, he'd pass out from lack of oxygen… (He figured he might as well try. It seemed that being unconscious couldn't possibly be any less interesting than this.)
RRRRING!!
Roxas nearly fell out of bed (again) in his scramble to silence the offending phone. He hastily picked up the receiver. "H-hello?" he mumbled, voice still clouded with sleep.
"Roxas? You okay? You sound like you're dying over there." Che, typical Hayner.
"No, Hayner," Roxas said patiently, pinching his nose in a feeble attempt to ward off the next wave of incoming headaches. "I'm not feeling too good."
"Noooo,really?" Hayner drawled in an overly blasé voice. "Seriously, though. What the heck? You were fine yesterday. Late night?"
Roxas dropped his face back into his pillow. "You could say that," he replied, voice muffled.
"What?"
"I said, 'you could say that'," Roxas clarified, lifting his face off the pillow.
"Oh. So, what were you doing last night?" There was something oddly perverse in Hayner's voice. Roxas felt his face heat up in something akin to mortification.
"Wh-what?! The hell are you talking about?! Ew!"
Hayner laughed. "Just a joke, Roxas, sheesh. You sound like my sister…" Hayner's voice trailed away, and Roxas could imagine him rolling his eyes. "But, seriously, what's up?"
Roxas sighed and rolled over onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. "I'm not sure," he said truthfully, flinging an arm over his eyes. "It's just…" He pursed his lips contemplatively. "Hayner, have you ever had that feeling…" Roxas paused. No, he thought slowly, head throbbing. It's not really a feeling…it's more like…a lack of it.
"Yo! Roxas!" Hayner's voice snapped him back to reality. "What feeling, man?"
Roxas cleared his throat hastily. "Erm, no, that wasn't what I meant…" He furrowed his brow. "It's just, haven't you ever just had that weird sense of hollowness…deep inside your chest? Inside your heart?" He clenched at the fabric of his t-shirt, his breath catching and freezing in his lungs. "That horrible sense of emptiness…like there's nothing happy in the world…?" He swallowed thickly. "Have you?"
For a few moments Hayner was silent. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, guarded. "Roxas, are you feeling all right?"
"I already told you I wasn't feeling well—"
"No, Roxas. I meant are you feeling all right in the attic?" Hayner's tone was edgy. "'Cause, seriously, you're starting to weird me out…"
Roxas pursed his lips. "Sorry," he mumbled. "I'm just having an off-day, I guess."
"An 'off-day'?" Hayner sounded bemused. "Dude, it's only 10 A.M.! How could your day have already gone sour?"
Roxas felt like someone was taking a sledgehammer to his skull. He was so not in the mood for this inane dribble. "Listen," he said testily, "Hayner, I'm really not feeling well. Can I maybe call you back later?"
"Oh, sure," Hayner replied easily. "It's no problem at all, actually. I was just wondering if you wanted to enter the upcoming Struggle tournament with me. Y'know, the one that's in three days?"
"And why are you calling me up this early to ask?"
Hayner laughed sheepishly. "Sorry. It's just that I wasn't going to get a chance to talk to you guys later in the day. See, my uncle wanted me to help him out at the garage today. Said he needs some junk dragged in from the Tram Commons, I think. Anyway, enough about that. So? You with me?"
Roxas sighed. "Yeah," he said at last. "I'll compete in the tournament with you."
Hayner whooped painfully in his ear. "Sick, man!" he exclaimed in glee. "We're so taking that trophy from Seifer this year!"
"I hope so…" Roxas scratched distractedly at an itch on his arm.
"'I hopes so'? 'I hope so'?! What kind of an attitude is that?!" Hayner screeched. "How the hell do you expect us to—oh!" He quickly lowered his volume when he heard Roxas groan slightly in pained aggravation. "Sorry, Roxas. I completely forgot. Eh heh."
Roxas forced dry laugh. "It's nothing,' he said wearily. "Can I please go back to sleep, though?"
Hayner chuckled lightly. "Geez, Roxas," he mused fondly. "One of these days, you're going to fall into a deep sleep and never wake up!"
It all began with birth by sleep.
—a weathered piece of paper lay in his hand, a shaky hand having scrawled 'How fragile our hearts are!' in gracefully looped penmanship. "My treatment produced no signs of—"
—what his strange dream had meant. He rubbed at his clouded blue eyes furiously. He looked up at the redheaded girl in confusion, an indignant pout forming on his lips. "It wasn't a dream! Or was it? I don't know." He furrowed his brow pensively. "What was that place? So biza—"
"—are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one?" a silver haired boy mused, folding and unfolding his arms across his chest. He let out a heavy sigh and—
—he gave the Boy an endearing look, dark eyes full of meaning. "Friends here" were the only discernable words amidst a jumble of peculiar grunts and sounds—
—of the waves crashing into the shoreline fell deaf upon the three figures gazing into the sunset. The figure in the centre, the Boy, turned around and smiled brightly, sparkling blue eyes calling out the unspoken message: "Remember those important to you—"
"—are a Nobody. You do not have a heart. You have no emotions. You cannot—"
"—take the Superior's words so seriously, y'know." A pair of vibrant green eyes glittered with mirth. "If we can't love, then that means that we can't have people who are most important to us." There was something strangely pained in those eyes. "I don't think that humans—well, whatever we are—can live like that." He offered a shy, half-smile."We all need someone worth protecting and risking our lives for, don't we, Roxa—?"
"I'm not gonna give up now. I came here to find someone very important to me."
Roxas narrowed his eyes at the figure of the ghostly girl sitting in front of him across the table, her elegant hands folded neatly in his lap as she gazed at him with an unreadable expression, clear periwinkle eyes placid and curious. Her pink lips quirked up into the faintest smile. "Hello, Roxas," she greeted; her voice possessed a strange dream-like quality to it, making her sound like she was far away. "How are you today?"
Roxas' lips pulled into a deep frown. "I'm not sure," he said truthfully, "not yet, anyways." He raised an eyebrow at the girl quizzically. "Who are you?"
The girl put a long finger to her lips, eyes lifting upward thoughtfully. "I think," she said slowly, "the question is more along the lines of 'who are you not'."
Roxas' frown deepened. What?
The girl lowered her hand and smiled softly, her eyes crinkling shut. "You may call me Naminé," she said at last. She opened her eyes and pushed some of her long, pale blonde hair out of her eyes. "And who are you?"
Roxas couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "You know who I am," he replied, a little bemused. "You called me 'Roxas' earlier. You know my name."
Naminé smiled winningly. "Yes, I know who you are," she agreed cheerfully. "But do you know who you are?"
The hell is she talking about? God, this is one screwed up dream. Roxas scratched the back of his neck, eyebrows knitting together as he tried to understand the peculiar girl. "Yeah, of course I know who I am," he said impatiently. "What kind of a question is that?"
Naminé shrugged absentmindedly. "A strange one, I suppose," she said vaguely, chuckling a little. "All the same, questions are meant to have answers."
"So? I gave you one."
"Yes," Naminé said, her smile dripping off her face like rain. "You did give me one." She crossed her ankles distractedly. "You only gave me one answer."
Roxas stared at her, lips pressed tightly together. "What's that supposed to mean?" he asked sharply.
"Excuse me?" Naminé looked generally confused.
"That 'you only gave me one answer' bit," Roxas clarified, looking deeply annoyed. "You were insinuating something, weren't you?"
Naminé's smile returned. "Was I?"
Roxas scowled. "Yes."
"My goodness, I was hardly aware of it."
Roxas slumped in his seat, sulking. "Whatever…" There was probably going to be no winning with this girl. Geez. Were all women this goddamn confusing? "It's not like any of this is going to matter, anyway," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "This," he gestured to the blank room the two occupied, "none of this is real. This is all just a dream."
Naminé stared at him, looking stricken. She sighed and nodded, folding her hands in her lap. "I suppose you're right," she mused. "Nothing here is real…" she mumbled before going silent.
After a minute of silence had lapsed over the pair, Naminé finally spoke. "Roxas," she said, delicately smoothing her starch-white skirt, "why are you here?"
He couldn't help but smirk a little at this. "What, are you my shrink, now?" he joked with a humourless laugh.
Naminé let out a laugh of her own, the sound ringing throughout the bare white room like a silver bell. "If that's what you want," she giggled. "But, if it's all right with you, I'd prefer I be your friend, instead."
A frown slowly worked its way back to Roxas' face. "Were we friends before…?" his voice trailed off, much like his thoughts. He lowered his eyes, deeply puzzled. Friends before what?
Naminé seemed to sense his confusion. "I'd like to think we were," she said rather unhelpfully. "But it seems you've forgotten about me…"
Roxas snapped his head up, blue eyes wide with surprise. "What?" he gawked. He'd actually forgotten a friend? (Wait, what the hell, I don't even know her. How do I know she's a friend?) "How could I have forgotten about a friendship?" he asked wondrously, not sure whether to believe it or not.
The girl shrugged dolefully. "You do seem to have been doing that quite often, lately," she murmured, head tilting to the left to regard a rather abstract crayon drawing stuck to the wall; Roxas turned his head toward the picture. (Roxas was damn near positive that thing hadn't been there before. What the hell was it of, anyway? It just looked like a bunch of red, black, and yellow scribbles to Roxas.) "Both you and Sora."
Roxas nearly snapped his neck at the speed he'd turned back to face Naminé. "'Sora'?" he echoed, brows furrowed in frustration. He knew that name! …but how?
"Giving up already? Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that."
Roxas' eyes widened in realisation. Sora! He's that guy! He's the Boy!
A sharp tremor ran straight to Roxas' skull and his hands flew to his head as he reeled in pain. Naminé looked on, a sympathetic expression adorning her soft features.
"You," Roxas ground out, teeth gritted in pain, "you know Sora, don't you?"
Naminé visibly winced, her eyes lowering to her feet. "Not really," she said gloomily, obviously saddened by this.
Roxas slammed a hand down on the table's reflective surface, the other hand tightly fisted in his hair, clenching at his throbbing headache. "But that means you know him a little!" he protested, mouth dry. "Please, Naminé," he begged imploringly. "Tell me who Sora is!"
This could be it! Roxas thought wildly. This could be the missing piece to the puzzle! This Sora guy is the key to everything, I just know it! If I meet him, then everything will make sense!
"I cannot do that."
Roxas' jaw fell slack and he collapsed in his seat, mouth still agape. "W-what?" his voice trembled in disbelief, but this quickly bled away to anger. "Why not?!" he roared, jumping to his feet again, eyes cold and blazing.
Naminé remained expressionless and unyielding. "It's not my place," she replied smoothly. "The only person that will ever be able to tell you about Sora is Sora himself. I cannot help you and neither can Riku."
"You know Riku?!" Roxas exclaimed, not really thinking about how illogical he was being. Riku was just another character of his dreams. Him, Axel, and Naminé. Sora, too, he realised. Really. What the hell am I getting so worked up over?
Naminé gave him a wary look. "Yes," she answered simply. "In fact, Riku was the one who requested I speak to you." She paused, a small smile touching her lips. "Not that he needed to ask," she said shyly. "I was planning on it anyway…"
Roxas ignored this, still frozen on the fact that Naminé knew, she actually knew, Riku. Were dreams supposed to all coincide like this? Roxas doubted it, but decided to overlook this, seeing as all of his dreams corresponded to one another in some way, shape, or form. "How do you know Riku?" he asked sharply.
Naminé raised her pale eyebrows. "How do you know him?" she returned uncooperatively.
"He dropped in my flat the other night," Roxas snapped, his fists clenching and unclenching as his patience grew thin. "He and that Axel guy."
Naminé paled. "Axel?"
A blond eyebrow rose. "Oh, you know him, too?" Figures. I'm the only one who doesn't know anyone.
Naminé didn't seem to have heard him; she looked about wildly, shoulders tense. "Is he still here?" she asked nervously, eyes shifting to all corners of the room. "Are you sure you weren't dreaming?"
"What are you talking about?" Roxas scoffed. "This is a dream, too."
Naminé rounded her lilac gaze on him, eyes panicked. "Does that really matter?" she asked in a deceptively patient voice. "Even in our dreams, don't we try to protect ourselves?"
"Are you trying to say that there's something here that I should be afraid of?"
She stiffly rose to her feet. "I'm saying that you should not be so quick to differentiate and dismiss reality from the dream." She reached out a hand and grasped him in an iron grip around his wrist. "I'm saying that you should strive to protect yourself, no matter what form you may be in."
Roxas' head throbbed painfully again, and he clapped his free hand to his temple, eyes screwing shut in silent agony as his mouth twisted into an awful grimace, his shoulders hunching in a mockery of an attempt to protect himself.
"What's wrong, Roxas?" Naminé asked softly, her voice wavering in barely-concealed alarm. She looked around nervously—what was she so worried about, anyway? The goddamn room had no doors for other people to get in through…wait, how did he get there in the first place? Oh…dream…that's right…
God, my dreams are seriously fucked up… Roxas thought wearily, beads of sweat slipping down his neck.
She placed a cool hand to his forehead, chewing anxiously on her lower lip. "Riku wasn't right," she mumbled beneath her breath. "Though the chain is still imperfect, it is still far more complete than we assumed it to be… Certain parts of it have realigned faster than others. Entire pieces are still missing from both ends."
"The hell are you talking about?" Roxas growled through clenched teeth, fingers digging into his scalp as the sharp pain in his head magnified exponentially; it felt like someone had crudely smashed his head into a million bleeding pieces. He let out a feral roar of pain.
Naminé watched Roxas claw at his skull, her eyes full of pity. When she spoke, her voice was oddly hollow, "There is so much you do not understand."
Roxas' eyes flickered over to the petite blonde, gaze questioning, but Naminé ignored him.
Then a brisk chill swept down his neck, setting his hair on end as the room suddenly grew cold, the eerily white walls beginning to melt and fade away into a drab grey, darkening with each passing second.
Naminé's grip tightened significantly around Roxas' wrist. Her face paled further as she snapped her frantic gaze on the boy. "You must leave this place now!" she said sharply, eyes fearful.
"Why?" Roxas snapped back in aggravation. His headache was only getting worse as the room dimmed into blackness. He cast his eyes warily about the dying room. There was something just a little off about this dream. Something more sinister than all those other dreams he'd had. Worse than those about Sora, whoever the hell he was. His stomach lurched unpleasantly.
"You must leave, Roxas!" Naminé pleaded, hands quaking in terror. "He's coming for you! I can't hold him off for long, I'm not that strong. He'll be upon us any minute now!"
Before Roxas could probe the girl for answers, she did a most curious thing: she thrust her hand out in front of her, and a dark, blazing mass of cold fire burst from the air, dripping black flames licking languidly at the tips of her fingers. She turned her focus back on Roxas. "He already knows where we are," she said hastily, eyes glittering. She nodded vaguely towards the strange black inferno, "If you go here, I can promise you that you'll be in a place where he can never find you."
Roxas blinked stupidly, not following Naminé in the slightest. "Wait, what?!" he shouted. "Who's after me?! Is it Axel?—What the fuck is going on?!"
Naminé ignored him and forcefully shoved him forward into the swirling black abyss. He fell backwards into the waiting arms of darkness, feeling its misty tendrils coil around him like a suffocating blanket. He instinctively fought against it, fists swinging and thrashing aimlessly at the black clouds. "N-Naminé!" he coughed, reaching out for the girl as it settled deep within his lungs. "H-help!"
The pale girl just flashed him the faintest of smiles, her eyes closed serenely as she waved. "You'll be safe!" she called out.
Roxas hardly believed that, and continued to fight against the constricting binds of darkness. But he was tired and still in pain from his sudden migraine, it easily took him in as his body fell slack. The last thing Roxas saw before his body and mind vanished into the shadows was a flash of golden light not far behind Naminé, forming a strange tornado of flying—numbers?—symbols, a tall, dark figure, and a piercing amber gaze.
Where…am I?
Who's there?
Who are you?
"Hey! Hey! Are you all right?" an apprehensive voice beside him called from far away.
Roxas' eyelids fluttered. Wha…what's going on? Where am I? His left hand twitched slightly against the ground he lay on. It was cold and felt oddly like glass and metal framework.
"Oh, thank goodness!" the voice cried, sounding greatly relieved. "Man, you have no idea how freaked you made me!" The voice was boyish, probably belonging to a guy around his age, Roxas observed from his foggy state of delirium. He felt very far away from the boy that was apparently sitting beside him.
Roxas groaned heavily and weakly made to sit up. He fell backwards in his attempt, though, his head falling backwards awkwardly into someone's hands. Roxas opened his eyes tiredly. His vision was blurred and his head still ached like a bitch. At least the guy with him hadn't let his head crash painfully against the floor. Roxas was willing to bet that a concussion would do little to help his current situation.
"Am I still dreaming?" he asked dazedly as he blinked stupidly a few times, trying to clear his vision.
The boy next to him laughed brightly. "Gee," he guffawed, "I dunno. I was just about to ask you the same question!"
Roxas furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"
There was the softest rustle of fabric—Roxas had the strangest feeling that his comrade had shrugged. "I'm not really sure," the boy admitted sheepishly. "I just woke up myself…or, at least, I think I did…" The boy's voice trailed off. "So bizarre."
Roxas' eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. "So bizarre." He knew that voice. Granted, it was a little different now, older, but he knew it. He sat straight up in a jerky movement, much to the disapproval of the boy, and began rubbing furiously at his eyes. No way, Roxas thought with a deranged sort of giggle, there's no possible way. No fucking way.
"You shouldn't have done that," the boy said grumpily. "You might hurt yourself with such impulsive actions…"
Roxas let out another hysterical laugh. It's not possible. He rubbed at his eyes with a little more vigour before removing his hands from his now-functional eyes and blinking slowly, taking in the world around him. It was…dark. Dark and cold. Glancing at the ground, Roxas knew he'd been right in thinking it felt like glass. The floor appeared to be some sort of an elaborate, super-sized stained-glass window, or something of that nature. Roxas idly wondered what it was of.
"You okay, there?" the boy asked from behind Roxas. The blond, slowly turned his head to get a good look at the one who had been tending to him. When his sapphire eyes fell upon those of the boy, Roxas' mouth fell open, unsure of whether to laugh or cry. The boy squatting on the ground behind him was none other than the Boy—Sora. This was Sora. The illustrious Sora, in all of his gangly, spiky-haired, grinning glory. Sora in the flesh. (Except not really, because this was just a dream, and that meant he wasn't real.)
Roxas must have ended up crying—though he'd swear he didn't—because Sora hastily enveloped him in a great bear hug.
"It's all right," Sora said nonsensically into his ear. "We'll find a way out of this."
Roxas laughed through his tears. So Sora really was like he was in the dreams—or was this a dream, too?—so goddamn kind. It was almost sickening.
"Don't promise things you can't guarantee," Roxas mumbled unconsciously. Sora pulled away from him and fixed him with an expression of amusement.
"The only way that will guarantee us not getting out of here is if we don't try to get out," Sora said cheerfully. "So, I'm going to get us out of here. I don't like going back on my word."
Roxas stared at him blankly. "You're strange."
Sora laughed at this. "A lot of people say that," he snickered. "And then I kick their butts."
Roxas had to fight to keep himself from rolling his eyes."Kick their butts", he says. God. What a kid. No wonder no one ever believed he was the Keybearer or whatever it was…
"So, I'm Sora," Sora said, sticking out a hand. Roxas eyed it sceptically. The heavy gloves encasing the boy's hand were rather distracting. How on earth could he hold anything with those blankets tied around his hands?
Roxas wanted to say 'I know,' but he wisely decided against it. In the off chance that he couldn't escape this fucked up dream without the help of Sora, he figured it'd be best if he at least tried not to freak out the brunet. "I'm Roxas," he said weakly, carefully shaking Sora's hand. When their hands touched, Roxas could have sworn he heard a faint beating sound in the back of his head. Goddamn headaches. He retracted his hand as quickly as he could. It was like how he'd felt with that Axel character. Only different. There was a different sort of quality in the touch he'd had with Sora. With Axel, he had felt like he was surrounded in a blazing inferno. With Sora, Roxas felt that he was the exact opposite. He felt strangely hollow and cold. Sora's hand was warm. Roxas hoped Sora hadn't noticed this.
Sora pursed his lips and stared at Roxas thoughtfully, tilting his head to the side in wonder. "Y'know," Sora said at last, leaning back on his heels, "I'm getting the weirdest vibe from you…"
Roxas put on a nervous half-smile. "What are you talking about?"
Sora shrugged easily. "I don't really know. It's just a feeling." He smiled. "I keep getting the feeling that I know you. Are you getting that, too?"
Roxas felt a peculiar sense of violation in the pit of his stomach at the seemingly innocent question. "No," he said, perhaps a bit more bitterly than intended. "I've never met you in my life."
Sora stared at him for a moment, face skilfully blank, but at last he shrugged nonchalantly. "I guess you're right," he said lightly. "Still, all the same, I could swear that I know you from something…" Sora laughed a bit. "Geez, this is gonna bother me!" he laughed again, but his humour remained unappreciated by Roxas.
"Whatever," he said brusquely, slowly rising to his feet and scanning the area. "How the hell do we get out of here—hey! What the fuck's up with the floor?!"
"Aw, don't swear," Sora mumbled as he hopped to his feet. He glanced down at the ground before laughing again, this time in embarrassment. "Eheh, yeah, I really don't know."
Roxas shot him an indignant look. "How can you not know?! Your face is depicted in the goddamn floor!" he hissed, pointing rudely at the giant blue eye the two boys stood on.
Sora shrugged awkwardly. "It kind of slipped my mind…I didn't think it'd be particularly important," he muttered, casting his eyes upward toward the nonexistent black sky. "Besides, it's not like I'm the only one on the floor's picture."
Roxas had to agree with this. He'd had enough dreams to be able to at least identify the Duck, the Dog, the Girl, and the Other Boy. "Where do you suppose we are?" he asked.
Sora shrugged. "I wish I knew. But, y'know, this place feels familiar…like from a dream or something." He furrowed his brow and scratched at his chin in thought. "I think I've been here before."
Roxas scowled. "Everything feels familiar to you," he scoffed.
Sora pouted childishly. "Shut up."
"Well, if you've been here before, you must've gotten out at some point…" he paused, staring at Sora with a fading sense of ease; the scrawny boy didn't really look all that dependable. "…unless you never left, and just fell asleep or something."
"Hey!"
"All I'm saying is that there must be a way out of here." Roxas took a couple steps forward, hands on his hips as he scanned the vast emptiness. It seemed like they were on a lone platform in the middle of a great void. "I mean, Naminé got me in, somehow, so—"
"'Naminé'?" Sora interjected. "You know her?"
Roxas nodded distractedly. Geez. Does everyone in my dream world know each other? he wondered with a sigh. "Yeah. Do you?"
Sora opened his mouth to answer, but then froze, his eyes going curiously blank. "No," he finally said, looking dejected. "I don't think so…"
Roxas quirked an eyebrow. Then why bother asking…?
"Sorry…"
"Whatever," Roxas said dismissively. He took one more scrutinising look around the area before throwing his hands up in aggravation. "I can't find a way out."
"D'you think that we can walk on all this air?" Sora speculated aloud as he wandered over to the edge of the rounded glass platform. Roxas stalked over behind him and peered over sceptically at the never-ending darkness beneath them.
"I don't think this is such a good idea," he muttered, watching as the brunet toed the edge of the floor. "Careful there… You might fall over, and there is no way in hell that I'm going down there to save you."
Sora laughed as he leaned forward, trying to get a better look. "Learn to live a little, Roxas! Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine, Roxa—AHH!!" Sora nearly toppled over into the darkness, but he was barely saved by Roxas wrenching him back. The two teens collapsed on the cold ground behind them.
"Dammit! What'd I tell you, Sora?!" Roxas screeched, a vein pulsing in his neck. Sora laughed sheepishly.
"Sorry! It was a total accident, I swear!" he said weakly, holding out his hands in a gesture of peace.
Roxas glowered.
"Aw, don't look at me like that," Sora complained, turning his head away from the fuming blond. "So maybe jumping wasn't the best idea… Can you blame me? I was just trying to help us out. I highly doubt that you'd be cool with us being stuck here forev—Hey! What's that over there?" Sora pointed over behind Roxas' shoulder. The blond turned, blinking in disbelief at the elaborate pink door standing in the middle of the floor.
"That wasn't there before, right?" Sora asked tentatively, rising to his feet and offering Roxas his hand—which was pointedly ignored by the blond.
"No, that wasn't there earlier," Roxas muttered grumpily. "It definitely wasn't. I think we would have noticed it."
Sora nodded dumbly. "That's what I figured." A wily sort of grin spread across his face. "So," he nudged Roxas in the shoulder excitedly, "we gonna open it or what?"
"Is that really a good idea?" Roxas asked the brunet, clearly cagey about the whole situation. "I can't help it, but I feel that we won't be safe once we pass through it…"
Sora screwed his face up. "Yeah," he said lamely, causing Roxas to groan. "You're probably right. I know I've said this all before, but this is really all very familiar to me…"
Roxas snorted.
Sora pouted. "Anyway, it's true that we won't be safe upon entering, but we mustn't be afraid." He smiled. "Because we hold the mightiest weapon of them all."
Roxas stared at him blankly. This is familiar, he realised as a shiver swept down his spine. Where have I heard this before? He narrowed his eyes at the other boy. Who is he? He was abruptly snapped back to reality when Sora waved a hand in front of his eyes, a broad grin on his face.
"Roxas, you're zoning," he laughed.
Roxas sulked. "Was not," he said with a huff, folding his arms across his chest. "So, are we going or not?" he asked impatiently, storming off for the door.
Sora snickered and hurried to catch up with him. "Look who's being all adventurous, now!"
Roxas shoved him, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Shut up."
The brunet continued to snigger at him, but immediately sobered once the pair stood before the towering door. "You ready?" he asked in a low voice, face surprisingly serious.
Roxas' eyes flickered up to get a better look at the door that loomed before them, its glossy marble-like surface shined brilliantly with an ethereal glow. He took a slow, steadying breath and nodded. "Yeah," he mumbled. "No time like the present."
Sora nodded and placed his hand on the doorknob and made to open the door, but he paused halfway through the process to turn to Roxas and grin awkwardly.
"What?" Roxas asked, a bit more snappishly than intended. "Do you want me to open it for you?"
Sora dropped his hand from the door handle and let out a heavy bark of laughter. "It's not that," he said wryly, "the door is locked."
"Locked?" Roxas was almost considering jumping off the edge of the platform. "Well, then, let's open it."
"What, you mean break it down?" Sora glanced at the door incredulously. "I don't think that'll work, Roxas. This door looks pretty solid to me."
Roxas silently agreed—though there was no way he'd tell Sora that. "So what do you propose? A key, maybe?"
He hadn't intended for this to be a joke—it was supposed to be witty sarcasm, but the brunet apparently found it very hysterical, judging from how he was doubled over in laughter. Roxas wrinkled his nose. "What's so funny?" he scoffed.
Sora wiped a tear from one of his bright eyes, smiling in a nostalgic sort of "ah, those were the days!" way. "It's nothing," he said a little too happily. "It's just that, well, I just remembered something! Geez, I'm so dumb!"
Roxas suppressed the urge to burst into his own fit of laughter. It took him this long to realise that? Imbecile, he thought snidely; but, to Sora, he said, rather patiently, "That was meant to be sarcasm, you know."
Sora fixed him with a wolfish grin. "I know," he said obviously. "But you were right, too. Here, check this out…" He extended an arm, closing his eyes and knitting his brows together in concentration. Then, a golden light, much brighter than anything Roxas had ever seen in his lifetime, burst from his hand, golden swirls and sparkles of light dancing around Sora before eventually clinging to each other to form something solid. The light grew even more brilliant, and Roxas had to shield his eyes from the blinding flash. When he lowered his hand, Sora was holding something in his hands. Something very solid and very familiar.
Goddammit, dreams aren't supposed to be like this.
"The Keyblade," Roxas breathed, voice wavering. Sora looked surprised.
"Yeah! How'd you know?"
Roxas let out a shaky laugh. "Lucky guess," he murmured. He pointedly looked away from the unusual weapon in Sora's hand. "So, what're you gonna do with it?"
Sora blew a raspberry. "Well, I'm obviously gonna open the door," he drawled, as if he were talking to a four year old.
"How the hell does that work?" Roxas asked, now more curious than anything else. He remembered how it had been much more effective in defeating the weird Picture Thief-Monster. Is he going to break the door down? he wondered absentmindedly.
"Well," Sora began, spinning the Keyblade around in his hand expertly, "the Keyblade is technically a key. Keys open doors."
The blond turned back to regard him with a surprised expression. "The Keyblade can open doors?"
"Yup." Sora jumped back and, holding the Keyblade tightly in his hands, pointed it at the door. A pinpointed beam of light burst from the blade and flew into the keyhole of the door. A soft, barely audible click resounded in the darkness.
Roxas let out a low whistle of appreciation. "Impressive," he said with a nod as he turned the doorknob and got ready to open the door, his piercing blue eyes boring into the glossy pink surface.
Sora laughed and rubbed at his nose. "I guess, but after you see it a couple dozen times, it's hardly miraculous," he said lightly, shouldering the Keyblade. "So, we ready?"
Roxas nodded and threw open the door.
But don't be afraid. And don't forget…
But don't be afraid. You hold the mightiest weapon of them all.
So don't forget: You are the one who will open the door.
The Afterword: Haha, this was a sucky chapter, eh? D8 No Axel or anything… XD
I must admit, I nearly died on you guys with this one. I must've given myself a haemorrhoid trying to pull this out of my ass…
I've got another Kingdom Hearts fic in the process, and I've already written a couple of pages for it, but before I post that one, I need a bit of a heads up on how many of you guys are at least a little familiar with Jewish customs and if you guys are familiar with your classic Yiddish expressions (i.e. 'oy, vey!'). XD Haha, you guys'll shoot me for where I go with this… :flees:
But seriously, back to this fic… I was originally gonna make it a bit longer, but I ended up deciding to cut it off where I did. :0 There really is no reasoning behind my decision other than the fact that I'm a fiend for dramatics, and I took a great liking to ending it with that quote. XD :shot:
Next chapter will be longer and it will have Riku and Axel in it. XD Sorry to those of you that I disappointed with this one…
