Chapter Two:
Nobody Important
Two hours later Sora was standing on the balcony of the guest room he had been given by the king. He leaned his arms against the rail and looked up at the sky. He knew that each star was a different world, a separate world that had its own rules and its own wonders. With different people dealing with different responsibilities and destinies. Sora took a moment to reflect on some of them. Simba, Mulan, Hercules, Peter Pan, Beast, he wondered how all of them were doing after the heartless and the nobodies had plagued their worlds.
How was Simba fairing with the duties of ruling his kingdom? Was Mushu staying out of trouble? How had Hercules recovered after the Coliseum's collapse? Had Beast managed to break the curse that surrounded his castle?
a knock at the door interrupted his thoughts as a small figure entered. King Mickey poked his head inside. "Sora?" He asked, unsure if the key bearer had been asleep.
"Over here Your Majesty." Sora replied from the balcony.
Mickey entered and approached his friend. "I have a feeling that you didn't just come to see how we were doing, there's something troubling you, isn't there?" He asked, looking straight out across the garden that lay below.
Sora was silent for a few short moments before answering. "Yeah, it's been bothering me for a while now. I just didn't show it in front of the others."
"You did the right thing coming here, I don't think you would have been able to hide it for much longer." Mickey told him.
"Yeah, especially not from Riku, He refused to let me come alone. He thought I was going on another quest." Sora said, looking down at the garden as well.
"Are you?" asked the King.
"That's just it, I don't know." Sora admitted. "I know we defeated the heartless and the nobodies, but It feels like I failed."
Mickey quickly turned his head to look at Sora. "That's not true! Sora..., you save the worlds twice, without ever giving it a second thought I might add. How can you say you failed? Everything would have been lost if not for you and your keyblade!"
Sora looked away from the king, unable to meet his gaze. "But, I couldn't save everyone...that name I shouted earlier, before I passed out, I think I know who it was..."
"Who?" Asked Mickey.
Sora slowly turned to meet the king's gaze. "Axel."
"Axel?" Mickey repeated. "But, Sora, he was a member of Organization XIII, he tried to defeat you more than once and don't forget that he kidnapped Kairi. Why would you feel bad about not being able to save him?"
Sora placed his hand over his chest as he answered. "Because in his last battle, he fought by my side, helping me when I had been separated from Donald and Goofy. He saved me and then...he called me Roxas, like the others did. I didn't understand what he meant then, now I do."
Mickey nodded, slowly starting to understand. "You think he was trying to help Roxas, as if he could still sense him inside of you." Sora nodded slowly. Mickey sighed, Sora really did have a pure heart.
"Sora, Roxas is gone, he vanished when you woke up from your long slumber and Axel vanished when he was defeated." The king added, with a heavy heart.
"He wasn't defeated!" Sora shouted, causing the king to take a step back. "He faded after using all of his power trying to help me get to Kairi, I know he may have done it for Roxas, but if it weren't for him, we may not have made it in time to stop Xemnas. We owe him!"
King Mickey's ear twitched before he responded. "Sora, I know you feel bad, but I don't know what we can do. There is no way to bring Axel back."
"What about his heartless?" Sora blurted out. "If we can find it shouldn't there a way to revive him then?"
"Is that possible?" Riku asked, stepping in from the hallway and knocking Donald and Goofy over at the same time who had been eavesdropping.
King Mickey looked over to the older teenager. "I don't know. I never saw anything that could help us when I searched Ansem's office in Hollow Bastion."
"A-hy'uck, don't you mean Radiant Gardens?" Goofy corrected him while raising a finger.
"Goofy, don't correct the king!" Donald told him, trying to remind Goofy not to forget that it wasn't right to correct royalty.
Mickey looked back up at Sora. "I'm sorry, I don't think there's anything we can do to help those who have been lost."
Sora's expression changed from hope to dejected. "But, there has to be a way."
"What makes you so sure?" Riku asked.
Sora held out his hand and the keyblade appeared. He stared at it as he slowly blinked before answering: "Because I was lost once."
"That was different!" Riku snapped, not happy with the memories that Sora had stirred up.
"Is it?" Sora snapped back before calming himself. "When I used that dark keyblade to give Kairi's heart back to her, I was lost in an empty void. I had forgotten everything. Names, faces, nothing registered, but then, I heard voices. They were far away, but they all kept calling me by name. After that, I saw a glimmer of light and reached out for it. The next thing I knew, I was standing there in Kairi's arms."
Everyone fell silent for a few moments until the king voiced what they all were thinking. "Sora, it's not like we don't want to help, we just don't know where to start."
"I've been thinking about that," Sora replied.
Donald smiled up at his friend. "You mean you have a clue?"
Sora gave the feathered mage a weak smile. "Call it more of a hunch. We need to head to Twilight Town."
king Mickey smiled. "I'll go back to Ansem's old office and see what I can find. I may need your help, Riku." Mickey then turned to the other three. "Donald, Goofy, I want you to go with Sora to Twilight Town and find that clue. Since Axel did help us, it's the least we can do to try and help him."
Donald and Goofy stood at attention and saluted. "Yes sir, you're majesty!" They both answered as one.
Sora looked at them and smiled. "Thanks guys."
Mickey smiled up at him. "After all you've done, it's the least we could do."
Riku looked over at Sora, "Then it's settled. We leave in the morning."
A/N: Boy, this chapter was a bit depressing.I also realize that it was pretty short and not much action. The next chapter will be a bit more up-beat, Promise~ ;)
I've stuck to working on this story because I've hit a writer's block with the others. My apologies to those who have been enjoying them. Trying to fix the next chapter of "Phoenix in the Night" is like trying to fit together a 5000 piece jig-saw puzzle. Just thinking about it makes me dizzy. I'll try to tackle those again sometime after New Year's.
However, that isn't stopping me from adding more to this story though. The more I go over the storyline the happier I am with the plot. I hope you will enjoy it too. :)
