Sora clenched his eyes tightly shut and mumbled, "Quiet, I'm sleeping..." He had a horrible headache that he'd been trying to sleep off for a while now, though the rest of his body felt unusually comfortable. The normally one inch thick bed that he, Donald, and Goofy were always forced to sleep on in the Gummi ship felt lighter than air. In fact, it didn't feel like he was laying on it at all. He felt like he was floating, like those weird dreams that he used to have when his journey first began. But this time, he didn't take an unexpected fall. He remained floating, and the pleasant weightlessness that soared through his body was more than enough to have Sora drifting back to sleep...
But he couldn't, because the voice that kept calling his name wouldn't stop. And it kept getting louder with distress. "Soooraaaa!"
Giving in, Sora slowly opened his eyes and stated, still half asleep, "Alright, Goofy, I'm up..."
But what he saw wasn't the red and white walls of the Gummi Ship, but the vastness of outer space. Did he fall asleep against the window...?
Suddenly, it all came back in a flash. Walle. Eve. The trash planet. The rocket ship. Pain...SPACE!
He was alive, and he was breathing in space. "AH!"
He felt something in his hand jolt. When he looked at his hand to see what it was, he saw that Walle was grasping it, and he was shivering, though he looked happy that Sora woke up. Sora gave him a smile to show that he was fine. He didn't shout because he was scared or anything, he was just surprised. The fact that he was still alive even though he was in the endless vacume of space broke so many laws of physics that Sora would have a fine of one billion bucks. It was probably the fact that he was still within Walle's world-if they were out of the world, he would've seen the Gummi ship, along with the silhouettes of other worlds. Sora brought up the theory in the world of Port Royal that the reason they were unaffected by a curse was because they came from different worlds. So maybe the reason Sora could breathe in space was because it wasn't HIS space?
Walle had been holding his hand the whole time so he wouldn't float away. His other hand was still holding the ladder of the rocket. Sora must've been out for a while-he could feel sweat forming on his hand that was still being held by the little robot. Neither were even sure where the rocket was heading if it was heading anywhere at all.
For the past few hours, Walle had been busying himself by watching the starry skies that they crossed while glancing at Sora's unconscious form on every occasion to see if he was waking up. For a while, he'd been afraid that Sora was shut down and unresponsive just like Eve, but people like him seemed to recover faster since he woke up three hours after being knocked out. Maybe he just needed a recharge too.
Now that Sora was awake, watching the universe pass them by was a lot more fun and interesting. Both would point out different constellations, shooting stars, and odd looking clouds. It never got boring because there literally was never enough to see. Sora himself found this space gazing very relaxing-when he Donald and Goofy would travel through the space between worlds, there were always enemy ships filled to the brim with Heartless and Nobodies that he was forced to avoid or attack, so he never had a chance to sit back and admire the view. But here, there weren't any signs of enemies to disrupt the peaceful atmosphere. At one point when Sora explained about the Heartless and Nobodies to Walle, he was pretty sure that the robot had absolutely no idea what he was talking about. But Walle was smiling at him enthusiastically, just happy that Sora seemed to be enjoying himself. He gave another longing glance at Eve when Sora's head was turned. When the rocket stopped, he would continue to find a way to bring Eve back. He never should have left her side for a second.
An hour later, the two looked straight ahead to see that they were heading toward some ominous purple clouds. And the rocket appeared to be slowing down. Were the clouds the rocket's destination?
Then they saw it. Behind the clouds, hidden by the darkness, was a ship. A space ship. But it looked very peculiar-more like a gigantic cruise ship that was multiplied 200 times. Sora thought the rocket was big- but that ship made the rocket seem like the size of a mere ant. On the bow of the ship, the words "Axiom" stood out in bright red letters, followed by the same logo of the satellite that crashed into Sora: "BnL"; though parts of the word looked slightly faded. The rocket itself turned sideways like a car going into paralel park, and it started to shift ever so slowly near the bottom of the ship. Two long blue lasers appeared out of the ship and were aimed at the bow and stern of the rocket, dragging it, and its unknown passengers, inside.
When the door behind the rocket closed, the weightlessness of space wore off. Sora and Walle collapsed on the ladder, tumbling ungracefully onto the bridge now attached to the rocket. Both felt a little heavy due to side effects of drifting in space for the past few hours. But at least they were at a destination.
Steel gray walls were in every direction Sora found, and elevators and mechanically sliding doors were at every corner. Some panels that held robotic arms were coming out and taking care of the rocket: Repairing broken parts, refueling, cleaning bits of dirt, and they even had the courtesy to attach a new bumper sticker. "I love BnL" It displayed proudly. The entire room itself was big enough to hold ten more rockets. Sora could only imagine how big the rest of the ship could be.
But now was not the time to be sightseeing. It was back to business. They had to get Eve out of there-
Oh, speaking of Eve, her vacant body was suddenly right in front of them in some kind of box, alongside several other robots that looked exactly like her- only difference was that Eve was the only one with a blinking green light on her chest.
"Eva..." Walle reached for his Eve, looking like he was going to pry her from the box. As if the machine sensed Walle's goal, a claw opened out of a hatch in the ceiling and grabbed Eve, dragging her to another part of the room that was, thankfully, only a few a feet far. Only downside was that there was a pretty long jump from the bridge to the ground. Sora picked up Walle, who had grown worried when he saw Eve getting carried away, and leapt off the bridge, landing a little more gracefully than when they first came.
Eve was still floating in the same place the claw had put her, only now she was again lined up with her sister probes. Walle eagerly treaded to where she was and was about to pull her away, but then Sora shouted in an alarming tone, "Walle, hide! Someone's coming!"
Walle panicked and scrambled around as he tried to find a place to hide. Eventually, he settled upon getting behind Eve and folding into a tiny box. He was completely unnoticeable if you looked from the front of Eve. Sora on the other hand was too tall to crouch into an uncomfortably small form and hide behind a probe, so he took to diving behind the one of the rocket wings and peering over it.
Approaching the probes was another sort of robot, white and levitating like Eve, except it was shaped like a long skinny trapezoid, and where eyes should've been it instead had a red light that was blazing and ringing like a police siren. It was unusually tiny, so it didn't appear all that threatening. No, the threatening looking ones were the robots behind it. They were rectangularly shaped, and on top of their heads were yellow flashing sirens. On the front of their bodies were computer screens of some sort that currently displayed a black blank screen. They towered behind the red sirening robot like dwarfish(they only grew up to reach Sora's waist) but bulky bodyguards. Like Eve, they were probably armed with a weapon of some sort.
The red sirened robot stopped before each of the probes, scanning them all for a matter of seconds. Finally he stopped on the Eve that Walle loved, and he froze all of a sudden after he finished scanning her. Then an ear splitting alarm rang throughout the entire room, and every single light in the room turned as green as Eve's blinking light for some reason. And the blank screens on the bulky bodyguard robots now showed the same plant insignia that Eve had.
A red light shot out of a hole in the red siren robot's chest and encircled Eve. Like an invisible hand was picking her up, the red light forced her body onto a cart that happened to be nearby. It didn't even notice Walle, who was now without a hiding place and staring at Eve quite frightfully. The cart carrying Eve, and now the red siren robot too, seemed to act on its own accord as it followed a blue line that stretched into the mechanical sliding doors into another part of the ship.
"Eva!" Walle immediately chased after her, and Sora followed suit. He really should've seen this coming-adventure, whether he liked it or not, always found him faster than he could blink. Not that he complained all that much. He was used to it by now.
Though he wasn't really expecting what he saw in the bigger and angular room: thousands upon thousands of robots were passing by on a steel gray road. Sora could barely make out just one.
Eve's cart was turning again. With a jolt, Walle immediately followed her again, Sora coming up just behind him.
Now what was in the next room was what surprised Sora the most.
There were humans. It took Sora a few seconds to digest the shocking information. In fact, it wasn't the fact that there were humans here that shocked him, it was what they looked like. Every single one that passed by were abnormally obese. It wasn't just a small portion of the humans, it was every one. Though it wasn't the kind of fat that Sora had seen normally. The fat on these humans looked a little tight, making it seem more like baby fat. Were these humans just enlarged babies? Sora actually found himself hoping that was true...
But no. They were all talking regularly. At first he thought that they'd all been talking to themselves, but they were actually talking to these virtual screens that were floating in front of their faces, provided by the hovering chairs that all of them were sitting on. None of them even seemed to notice anyone else that were passing them by. They were just way too absorbed in the screen, almost hypnotized by them. Maybe they were so fat since all they appeared to do was sit in those chairs and talk away at their screen. Hell, they looked like they'd just fall over if they tried to stand up.
When Sora finally took it all in, he just blurted out in disbelief, "That's sad."
"Eva!" Oh, right, they still had a job to do.
Walle and Sora hastily followed Eve's cart through the road filled to the brim with fat humans. Eventually, the metal path opened up to the largest and most impressive sight Sora had ever seen.
All around him were various shops, restaurants, and advertisement signs(pointless if you asked him since no one was paying the signs any mind) that displayed strange varieties like "food in a cup", and the one thing that all these places had in common was that they were run by robots. On the ceiling hundreds of feet above them, a holographic screen showed a beautiful blue sky that could easily be mistaken for the real one. Sora and Walle found themselves stopping to gaze at everything in amazement and just take it all in. It felt more like they were in a city than a Space/Cruise ship.
A few seconds later, they were chasing the cart again. It was actually very easy getting past everyone. The robots were too busy serving the humans, and even when Sora frantically waved his hand in front of their faces, the humans would pay no attention to the abnormally dirty box robot or abnormally skinny adolescent.
Eventually the cart arrived at a cylindor shaped elevator. The two stealthily remained behind the red sirened robot even as the cart turned to face the opposite direction in the elevator. Walle just hung on to one of the carts ledges, while Sora was forced to stand right behind. Immediately he could tell that the elevator was only fit for robots since the cart was pressing painfully against his ribcage, but he could hold it. They were only going up two or three floors...hopefully.
Thankfully, that was true. On the third floor, the elevator opened up and the cart slid into dark room where a wheel was hanging from the ceiling. It looked like it was just steering itself for some reason. But when the red sirened robot did what looked like a salute with one of its tiny handles, the wheel lit up, along with the entire room. They appeared to be in a control room of sorts, like in an airplane, only wider and more complex. The wheel, it turned out, was another robot. In the center of the wheel was an eery red "eye" that peered at the cart that contained Eve. Sora had to hastily dive right underneath the cart to prevent himself from being seen. Lucky for him, the wheel took no notice. In fact, it didn't seem to see Walle there either, even though he happened to be hanging on to the cart and was clearly in sight. Instead, it towered over Eve and scanned her body. Walle saw that after he did so, the sign "A113" flashed across its eye, and it looked at the red sirened robot. The two probably just had their own inner conversation with each other since the sirened robot did a salute and turned back to look at Eve.
Walle took their distraction as an opportunity to hide. As quietly as he could, he treaded across the gray floor to hide under a gap that happened to be underneath the controls in the room. But just when he'd almost got there, he fell through a hole that had just appeared beneath him. Sora clamped a hand over his own mouth to cover up his gasp. For a moment he thought that the wheel had seen Walle and sent him through a trap door, but then the wheel also peered down the hole, still attached to the ceiling, and said, "Captain, you are needed on the bridge." Its voice was masculine, but it was monotone and direct. He showed no sign of emotion, and the fact that his large red eye never changed pretty much meant that he would be very hard to read.
To Sora's relief, Walle appeared in his boxed form back through the hole in the floor, but he wasn't alone.
In front of him there was another human. He really didn't looke that much different from the others- obese but with tight skin- the only difference was that instead of the red jumpsuits that the others were wearing, this man was wearing a white jumpsuit with a "BnL" sign on his chest, and on his black haired head was a captain's hat. The other humans looked a little drowsy and placid, but this man in front of Sora and Walle was the pure definition of TIRED. He didn't really look like he was up for any adventure or abnormalities...Since Sora just came, it seemed that that was about to change, the Keyblade Master thought with a sigh.
Walle had just snuck off under one of the controls successfully this time, and was frantically gesturing to Sora to do the same. Sora gave a nod of understanding and soundlessly crawled from underneath the cart and joined Walle under the controls. And in the nick of time, too- the cart moved forward to stand underneath the wheel.
"Captain," He said, "Probe number one has just returned Positive."
Any trace of sleepiness the captain had earlier was swiped off his face. "Positive...? Are you sure, Auto? No probe's come back positive...before." He looked unsurely and nervously at the still dormant Eve. But then "Auto" used one of his handles to type some sort of unknown code on her body, and her screen flashed to life with the two beautiful blue eyes that mesmerized Walle. And her body lifted itself up and her arms and head were detached and free once again. She gave a salute to the astonished captain. Sora felt himself smile with both relief and hope. Now that she was awake, they could take her back and go back to the trash planet...Hopefully she'd go back without a fight. Okay, that's stupid- of course she'd refuse. How would they convince her-
"Eva..." Walle murmured as he started to tread toward her. Sora took notice of that and hastily pulled him back. "Not yet!" He hissed urgently. Though whether Walle had even heard what he just said was impossible to tell. He had an unusual dreamy expression in his eyes-he was still staring at Eve.
The captain was now looking at book that showed the picture of a plant- the same logo that Eve was still flashing. He looked a little nervous every time he read aloud that they were "going back home" and "reconstructing" or anything similar to that. That actually caught Sora's ears every time that was mentioned. Where exactly was their "home"? That obviously meant that The Axiom wasn't exactly their true home. Then what was? And why would they want to reconstruct it? Did someone destroy their home? Did the HEARTLESS destroy it? That could definitely be the reason. Though Sora didn't know how it was possible to reconstruct a world destroyed by the Heartless unless you defeated the one leading them.
"'Place the plant into the Holo Detector located in the Lido Deck...'" The captain continued reading, "'That will activate a speed warp back to Earth, and Operation Recolonize will truly begin when you plant it.'" The plant? The one that Eve had? How was that gonna help restore a world taken by the Heartless? Was the plant secretly a weapon the Heartless feared?...Wow, Sora thought dully, that was so stupid to think-even for him.
Walle started to slide to the left underneath the controls so he could get closer to Eve. Sora saw it out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn't worried this time. As long as he wasn't spotted, he would be fine. And Eve wouldn't attack him...would she?
She just might, he decided darkily. All those other times she attacked out of paranoia or just plain anger were proof that she could possibly...Sora decided to follow Walle just in case. He started to crawl toward him.
Eve felt a tap on her shoulder as she continued listening to the captain read instructions out loud. She turned to the source. Oh, it was just Walle. She shook her hand while holding her hand in front of his face in a "not now" kind of expression. She was about to fulfill her directive; she didn't have time for interruptions...
Wait.
"Walle?" Eve was surprised that the captain or Auto didn't hear her. Her shout of surprise could've stirred the whole ship.
Walle cheerfully waved at her with a little "Yoo-hoo!"
"Hey, there." Sora waved, just as casually. Eve's eyes were so huge that they could've been mistaken for full blue moons. "Sora?"
Sora would probably be alright since he had a weapon. It was Walle she was worried about. With Go-4 so close by, he could easily overpower her box shaped friend. She hastily pushed him back and tried to demand why he and Sora were here, and scold him for how much danger they were in now.
To Sora it sounded like she was making confusing whirring sounds reminiscent of a computer jammed into a music box. To Walle, she was making the most beautiful music he had ever heard.
"Eva..." He murmured lovingly. Her body was white and smooth and shiny- nothing like his own grimy and brown body. Her eyes were like the blue christmas orbs he had collected and placed in his home- and they were one of his most valuable treasures. How was it possible that a robot like her could be brought into the world? She must've been sent from Heaven-that was the only explanation he could think of. He gave a long wistful sigh. She was so pretty when she was distressed...
Sora choked back a snicker. Eve was now staring at him and looked like she wanted to ask, "Are you even listening to me?" Walle looked like he was dreaming with his eyes open now.
"'Voice Activate(Eve shifted back into place upon hearing the captains voice again), Confirm Aquisition'"
"Confirm Aquisition." A female computer voice echoed across the room. All the lights in the room dimmed. Seconds later, what looked like a video camera appeared out of a whole in the ceiling and started scanning the room with a blue light. When the scanner landed on Eve, the light turned green, and a robotic claw appeared out of another whole in the roof that was right above Eve, holding her in place. Walle gave a little warble of fright, and Sora held him back with a "Shh".
The claw used one of its fingers to type another code on Eve's chest, and her compartment slid open. The captain nervously braced himself to find...nothing.
Eve's compartment was empty. She gave a shout of panic.
"Where's the thingy?" The captain asked, bemused.
"The plant." Auto corrected.
"Right, right. Where is it? Did we miss a step?" He turned to look back at the book.
"Plant!" Eve murmured desperately, feeling inside her compartment just to check if it had somehow dissapeared from sight. She KNEW that she had it. It had been in her compartment ever since Walle-
Wait a second.
"Walle." Her eyes curved downward into angry crescents. He was the one who showed her the plant, but he obviously hadn't meant to give it to her. He must've somehow figured how to crack the code and take the plant back, that little...Sora couldn't have taken it. He looked way too stupid to figure out something as complex as her access code. Without a doubt, it was Walle.
She angrily shook him and lifted him off the floor to see if he was sitting on it. Then she forcefully pried open his own compartment to see if he just stored it in there. Nothing. Did he lose it along the way? Dang it, she was never gonna fill her directive now! She frantically started scanning different parts of the floor to try and find it.
Sora glared up at her. The accusing way she said "Walle" was enough to fill him in on what she had been thinking. "He didn't do it-I was with him the whole time!" He snapped, though he was slightly frustrated that he had to keep his voice down. He felt like he wanted to explode right now.
Eve just glowered at him coldly and continued scanning the floor. Walle stared at her curiously. "Eva...?"
"PLANT!" She snapped.
"Oh!" Walle exclaimed, then he tried to look for it as well, feeling the floor with his hands to make sure he didn't accidentally tread over it. Sora stared at him incredulously. How could he not notice that Eve was angry at him? Or did he even mind?
"There is no specimen." Auto's cold voice halted Eve's antics and brought her back in position. Walle kept searching. "Probe's memory is faulty." The wheel stated.
"So...we're not going back to earth?" The captain asked.
"Negative."
"I guess things go back to normal then...Well!" He slammed the book closed with a somewhat relieved expression on his face. "False alarm!"
The scanner slid back into its hole and the room lit up again.
"The Probe must be defective." The captain decided.
Eve had never felt so humiliated in her entire existence. Damn that Walle...
"Go-4, take her to the repair ward." The red sirened robot saluted and shined a red light around Eve, which carried her back to the cart. Eve looked unusually pissed as she was sat back on. "Make sure she's not broken and just give her a little-AH!"
Now that Eve was out of the way, the captain had just noticed Walle, who was still searching for the plant. Sora held his breath as he awaited the inevitable: What Walle was destroyed or dismantled? Would the captain be merciful enough to just send him back home? He seemed like an okay guy...
Walle, instead of looking scared and curling into a box again, simply treaded toward the captain and shook his pudgy hand. "Walle." He greeted happily. The captain stared at his hand, which was now covered in dirt, in slight disgust.
"Have, er, 'Walle' cleaned." He told Auto. Auto gestured Walle to the cart, and the boxed robot excitedly got on, mostly because he was sitting next Eve.
Sora's wide eyes were focused on the cart. How was he going to get there without being noticed? Maybe he'd wait until Auto had his back turned and the captain was back under the room-
"Hey, who're you?"
Uh-oh.
"Hey, can you hear me? I said who are you?" Well, it was no use hiding now. He'd been spotted. Sora awkwardly crawled out and stood tall, glancing around the room nervously. The captain was just staring at him in awe, like he'd never seen anything like Sora before.
Sora couldn't let him know he was human-the captain would wonder why he didn't look like any of the others. What could he say?
"I uh...I'm a robot...too?" He finally stammered out. If the captain was gullible enough...
"What's your name?"
"Sora, sir."
"What's your directive?" The captain had raised a suspicious eyebrow.
Sora's eyes contracted nervously. He really hadn't thought that through. Not that he had time to anyway. Maybe he could say that he was made to fight...but it didn't seem like the ship would need something like that. What else was there? Something that every human would want.
It hit hiim like a hammer. He summoned his Keyblade. "I uh... am designed to hold the key to the bathroom."
Wow, Sora thought yet again, that was so stupid even Goofy would be ashamed of that lie. The captain's suspicion looked like it was rising.
"He's...probably defective." The captain decided at last. Sora felt almost shaky with relief. "He has all the makings of a fine robot though. Strange design in fashion," He eyed Sora's clothes. "Spiky blades, probably for protection," He added looking at Sora's porcupine of a hair style. "And an interesting body. He almost looks like what we used to look like."
Oh, so the humans weren't always fat. They must've been there a long time to gain that much weight though.
"Alright, Auto. Send Sora to the Repair Ward as well. Make sure they give him a worthwhile directive or something like that."
Auto once again gestured toward the cart and Sora obliged. He sat down on the edge of it next to Walle. Walle cheerfully waved to Sora, who waved back, though not exactly as heartily. When Walle tried to wave to Eve, she just glared at him, which immediately shut the poor thing up.
Sora sighed. What had he gotten himself into?