Here's the next chapter. Enjoy.
There will always be Light chapter three: A Familiar is Born.
Riku watched in awe as a teenage boy his age demonstrated his mastery over all four of the different powers of the heart and being. He wondered why Dante had gone such lengths to strengthen himself with such big risks to his heart. Suddenly Riku wondered what would happen if Dante's heart was consumed by Darkness. How powerful would his Nobody be for there would be a Nobody, he was positive about that. He saw how Dante walked towards Sora and kneel beside him. He saw him speak to Sora but couldn't hear what was said.
Sora stood up and when he looked at Riku and Riku saw that blood was running down his face like tears, as if he had cried blood. Sora wiped at his face and wiped off the blood only to have more appear and Riku realised that Sora was crying blood. Riku looked him in the eyes and saw that they had paled to a faint blue. Then he blinked and Riku saw that the colour was returning to his eyes. Then he looked at the rest of him and saw that his hair had grown considerably and was still growing. It stopped growing just when his fringe started touching his lips. The hair that had just barely touched his collar was now brushing his shoulder blades.
Sora knew something was happening to him but he didn't know what. He saw that he attacked Kairi and saw the stranger step protectively in front of her and throw up a shield that knocked him directly into the air but he knew even then that it would do him no harm. He saw the stranger hold him in the air and heard whisper something when he put his hand directly over his heart. He felt it when the orbs hit him but none hurt him in any way, actually Sora could almost feel himself getting stronger. He heard the stranger whisper something in his ear but he couldn't recall what it was.
Sora forced himself to stand and felt something leak out of his eyes but nothing hurt. He was sore from using the power Roxas gave him but he knew it would fade because it was the same unease he felt when a drive finished. He wiped at his eyes and saw it was blood running out of his eyes. He knew he should be surprised but he wasn't. He felt an itch in his hair and saw that it was growing over his eyes just to stop when it reached his lips.
Sora knew that when he looked in a mirror he would see his spikes but not as wild as they once were. They now looked stylish, unlike the nuisance they were before. Sora felt something heavy on his shoulders and knew that it was his hair continuing to grow until it stopped between his shoulder-blades.
Sora felt a strange presence touch his mind and shied away. But the new presence was persistent and Sora finally let it into his mind. But silence filled his mind and he called out 'Hello is anyone there?' He felt a nudge in return and knew that the presence was not strong enough to talk just yet. So he fed it his light. Once the presence had a taste of his light it started sucking it out of him faster than he knew was possible. When Sora began to panic the presence stopped feeding to nudge him, and Sora felt that the presence was much stronger so he called out again 'Hello, who's there?' The presence answered in a rich voice that was both frightening and comforting at the same time. 'I am alive!' It yelled with such intensity that Sora actually flinched from it. Sora felt remorse and knew that the presence was sorry it had scared him. 'It's alright. Who are you?' He asked in a kind but firm voice that he had used the first few times he had talked to Roxas for it was the easiest to hear in his mind.
'I am Thorn, as my enemies treated me as a thorn in their side so I will be a thorn in the side for your enemies. I am your new familiar Sora. My power is for you to use.' With that Thorn's mind joined Sora's and he felt a power awaken in his heart.
When Kairi saw that Sora had changed she felt a great dread turn her heart to ice. She rushed forward but Sora waved his hand in her direction and she stopped. She saw when he waved his hand was trembling quite badly and that his face was chalky. She walked forward slowly and put her hand on his shoulder. He was visibly shaken and his shoulder was tense and immovable. He looked so weak that she felt an emotion she would almost never associate with Sora-pity. She pitied him for some reason. She knew that he was stronger than her, she knew that he and Riku are evenly matched in a fight while she can barely last five seconds in a play fight with Riku.
Sora didn't know how he felt. He felt emotionally drained, and he could barely focus on anything without getting a vicious headache. At the same time he felt physically strong. He never felt stronger. He felt like he was filled with so much power that he has to use some of it or he'll explode. Then he saw Kairi rushing towards him and all he could do to keep her away was to wave weakly in her direction and try to appear stronger than he was.
Riku could feel the turmoil within Kairi: The need to console him, the pity for his weakness, the envy for his power, the pride of his strength, and the pride she knew she would hurt if she tries to console him. Riku can on a normal day judge how to resolve a situation without much difficulty but at the moment he didn't know what to do. He wanted to protect Kairi from Dante and Sora but he also wanted to protect Sora from himself.
If he protected one he would leave the other in danger but if he did nothing both would be in danger so he did the only thing he could. He threw himself deeply into his inner darkness and covered himself in it to the point that it was chocking on it. He opened a dark corridor to the island and flew forward to grab Kairi. He threw her into the corridor and closed it behind her and faced both Sora and Dante. He threw the most powerful dark aura he could muster at Dante as a distraction and used his enhanced speed and strength to move behind Sora. He grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him a good twenty feet away before throwing him to the ground and facing Dante.
As Riku throws his dark aura at Dante he merely smiles and knocked it aside with his own blast of light and threw a shield in front of himself. He had expected no less from the wielder of Dawn but it was a little bit predictable. Distracting the enemy and fleeing a short distance. Exactly what was to be expected from a proud warrior like Riku. But generating that much speed for such a short time must mean that it takes a great amount of stamina if he drew so strongly upon his Darkness. But Riku had taken care to prepare for such an disadvantage by throwing his Kairi into a corridor.
Riku knew that making such a reckless decision would put great strain on his body and so it was. His knees were struggling to support his weight and his vision was fading. 'Time to act' was the only thought that was going through his mind. He hauled Sora to his feet and looked him in the eyes and yelled in his face "Roxas give us a distraction!" There came a moment when Riku could see understanding in Sora's eyes and knew Roxas had heard him.
Roxas knew there was a problem the moment Sora tried to summon his keyblade and it didn't appear. The keyblade was Sora's focus point for all his power. He had never learned to use his body to focus his power like he had. All the experience Roxas had sent to Sora was meaningless if he didn't know how to use it properly. Once Roxas was done pouring his experience into Sora he receded deep into Sora's heart where he began collecting all the power left in Sora's heart. He knew how all Sora's powers worked. He had observed and learned while Sora fought his fellow nobodies and their fellow enemy, the Heartless. Therefore he knew what Sora had done with all the power he had been given. He had taken it into his heart and pushed it into his magic and used a drive form. What drive he had attempted Roxas will never know but he knew it failed when Sora raged out of control.
When Dante stopped Sora Roxas knew he would bring Sora back under control and tried to restrain Sora's power as best he could. But he knew he could only restrain him so much and his strength finally failed when Sora was lifted by Dante's own mighty strength.
Roxas felt every orb of a different nature as it penetrated his Somebody. He grew stronger when Sora was absorbing twilight and light but grew weaker when he absorbed darkness and dawn.
When Roxas felt another presence enter Sora's body Roxas blocked himself off from Sora like Axel had taught him to block out Zexion from using his strange power on him. He felt the presence take root deep in Sora's conciseness. It didn't attack him but Roxas wouldn't know for he had withdrawn deep into Sora's heart to the extent that he could only see through his eyes and hear echoes of conversation around him.
When Roxas heard Riku calling him he surfaced briefly and possessed Sora's body and heard Riku yelling clearly in his face. "Roxas give us a distraction!" Roxas tried his best but could barely make Sora's eyes his own before Sora's own great will forced him out of his body and back into his body again.
'What should I do? I need something that'll keep Dante busy for at least thirty seconds' Then Roxas remembered the Nobodies' he had summoned earlier and ordered them to attack Dante and buy Riku enough time to open another dark corridor. Roxas felt a response from the leader of the band of Nobodies' he had summoned 'Right away, my liege.' Roxas instructed the leader to distract, not attempt to destroy. He sent the memories of Dante's image and manner to the leader and ordered him to follow them with their own dark corridors. 'Yes we understand my liege'. Roxas used the last of his strength to possess Sora for a second and told Riku "Go to the island when they arrive. They will follow but don't destroy them." And with that he released his power over Sora and gathered the rest of his strength until it was needed again.
When Roxas said to use a dark corridor to escape Riku immediately started gathering as much darkness as possible until the opportune moment presented itself.
Before Riku could blink seven Nobodies appeared out of nowhere and shot by him. They were different from any Nobody Riku had ever seen.
Instead of the grey of normal Nobodies there were of differing colour and looked more humanlike than any Nobody Riku had seen outside of the thirteen members of Organisation XIII. For a second Riku thought they were going to attack him but they ignored him and started to attack Dante. One sprang away from the others and stood in front of Riku looking for an opportunity to attack. "Go" Is what it said calmly and emotionlessly to Riku. "Oh right. Thank you. Be careful he's stronger than Xemnas but he's human" Riku opened a dark corridor and was about to step through when the Nobody responded with concern in Its otherwise emotionless voice. "Guard our master. He's weak. Weaker than he's ever been" When Riku merely stood staring in awe at the speed and precision at the Nobody attack. "Go" Was all the Nobody said in response and rejoined the others in attacking Dante.
Riku dragged Sora through the dark corridor and plopped out the other side onto the play island and saw that Kairi was lying on the sand. When she heard Riku dragging Sora through the corridor she jumped up and ran to them. When Riku looked her in the face he saw that she had been crying.
At that the seven Nobodies whom had been fighting Dante appeared around them and looked around them. When they saw Sora lying on the ground they hurried over to his side and picked him up and started inspecting whether he was injured.
"What happened to our master wielder of Dawn?" The same Nobody who had spoken to Riku was asking. It seemed to Riku that he was the leader of the seven. Riku thought that he had rather answer than be forced to speak.
"Wielder of Dawn, we would not dare harm you. We merely wish to know what happened to our master so we can heal what ails him." Riku could not judge whether to trust him or not but shrugged and told him what he had sensed so far and what Dante himself had said.
At that moment Kairi decided to speak "Riku why are you talking to a Nobody? Why are they all so colourful and why on earth aren't you trying to kill each other?" She sounded so panicked that one of the other Nobodies decided to speak. "My lady, we are not like the other Nobodies in the sense that we are obedient to all other high ranking Nobodies."Kairi could tell that the Nobody was female for she was built more finely than the leader. She also had a feminine lilt in her voice." You see when we came into being we encountered a single Heartless. That heartless contained our heart. We slew the heartless like any Nobody would do but when the heart within the heartless began to dissipate we had the sudden urge to consume the heart so we did and so we regained our essence of self. The reason we only obey our master is because even though he is a Nobody he still had a great attachment to his emotions so we decided to follow him on our own free will." The Nobody suddenly turned to Sora and swept his hair out of his eyes with one delicate finger. Kairi saw with that single sweep and the intensity that all the Nobodies cared deeply about Sora or at least who resided within Sora, Roxas. "As time went along our difference to other Nobodies became more and more noticeable with the additions of colour to our bodies and with the return of our voice. Over time normal Nobodies shunned us and we created our own space to live: The Twilit Realm. It was a gap in time in space our leader discovered one day. And as far as we could tell no others have found it yet. And in that realm outside time and space we remained, training and becoming stronger for that realm existed outside so years pass within the realm while not even a second has passed in other realms. Over time or no time really we gained tremendous power. We knew that if any Organisation member found us we would be destroyed so we had no choice but to adapt and become stronger. Now we have the power to stand against the Organisation without fear. And to answer your other question as to why we're not attacking each other, we have no need to destroy each other." With that she stepped back and resumed her earlier position of supporting Sora. While Kairi and Riku were listening to the female Nobody three others have been sending energy into Sora. And with each passing minute he was looking better and better but not yet at full strength. After a few minutes of this the leader of the Nobodies stepped forward again and said to them both "We have a problem." At that Riku replied with mild interest. "Oh really, what else could go wrong?" He was replying with sarcasm but the Nobodies weren't amused. "You see there is more than person dwelling within Sora. Meaning that to revive your friend we have to rejuvenate all of them." At that Kairi gasped and Riku asked "What do you mean all of them? I thought it was only Sora and Roxas" The Nobodies looked at each other and communed for a few seconds before the leader replied "That is not quite true. Why do you think Roxas looks like he does and why he can dual wield? Sora has more than one heart within him. We have discerned five separate entities within him. There is Roxas, our master, Sora, a young boy by the name of Ventus who has the purest heart I have ever had the fortune to meet. It's as if someone had intentionally removed his Darkness. He is the one Sora got his keyblade from. Then there is a creature I have never encountered before. His name is Vanitas and he is the Embodiment of Darkness that had been removed from Ventus. The last heart within his body is not human, and it is ancient. Its name was difficult to extract but we have obtained it, its name is Thorn.
This entity is feeding on all the power we are feeding Sora's body. It seems to us that it is newly created within his heart and needs power that is not his own to ensure his survival. There is a hint of good news though. It seems to us that Thorn is at last satisfied with the power he has fed on and is helping us restore Sora to his full power." The Nobody seemed satisfied in the good news. "Why would Thorn help you restore Sora?" Kairi was quite nervous to Thorns intents but had the courage to ask of the Nobody leader.
The Nobody leader seemed satisfied with Kairi's question. The more and more the Nobody leader talked the more emotion entered his voice.
"Well my lady, if Sora here died then Thorn himself would die, but the reason he has fed on all the energy is because if he didn't he would be destroyed which would take a toll on Sora's stamina." Kairi blanched at the word 'died' but was willing to put herself second if it meant it would help Sora. She stepped towards the triangle the Nobodies had made around Sora and asked if she could help. They parted and told her to focus her inner light on Sora. "It should help send the power we're sending into him go the right place and also quicken the process quite a bit my lady" The same female Nobody as before replied and helped her place Kairi's hands in the right place. Kairi felt her strength drain from her limbs but she just focused even more and only stopped when Riku pulled her away."But I have to help him Riku." Riku looked at her in concern and said "But Kairi he'll need you more later when he's conscience. Recovery is essentially the most important than the actual healing" With that Kairi calmed down and sat down to recover her strength "Your right Riku, thank you." His gaze softened and his voice filled with understanding "Don't worry Kairi he'll be fine" Kairi sighed "I hope so. I don't know what I'll do if he leaves me." Riku looked at her with understanding and his face hardened with renewed determination.
"What can I do?" The Nobodies who weren't rejuvenating Sora turned and the leader said with authority "Do what Kairi did but focus on drawing out the excess Darkness and Dawn impurities." Riku nodded and got to work.
About ten minutes later one of the healers began told the others quietly that one strong blast would force Sora awake. Riku stood back and watched as they lifted up their hands and brought them down simultaneously with an incredible amount of power focused towards Sora. Riku wondered if such a strong blast is needed. Even though Riku didn't know the capabilities from any of the Nobodies that had participated but they had continuously given out the amount of power Kairi had given in that short time she had helped them. So if it had taken as long as it had Riku knew that the amount of power they had given out amounted to what Xemnas had possessed even with the help of Kingdom Hearts, which was incredible. He approached the Nobody leader with a guarded expression on his face. "I have a question for you." The Nobody merely nodded. "How much power did you put back into Sora? Was it his full strength or did you try to make an overflow of strength enter him so that his body would use the excess power to help him recuperate?"
"Well wielder of Dawn..."
"Riku" "Excuse me?" "Call me Riku, please. We are equal in strength so you don't need to be formal with me."
"Alright, Riku... we merely gave him enough strength so that he would be fully recovered by the morning."
"And how much power is that?"
The Nobody leader looked towards the clouds "Half. About half his full strength."
"Are you insane! That was no way only half his strength. We are equally matched in a fight. In both stamina and power. And that was at least three or maybe even four times the strength I have at my strongest."
The Nobody leader merely stared at him while he ranted "Well Riku, to be perfectly honest most of the strength we put into your friend went to the various hearts within his body. A mere slither of the power we gave him restored his own strength. But there is something you should know, if you want to listen that is." With those last few words the Nobody leader turned his back on Riku and walked towards his comrades.
Riku thought about what he had been told and realised that his need to make sure that his friend was safe far outweighed his jealousy of his friend. He walked towards the Nobody and said he wanted to know what it was he wanted to say. When the Nobody heard that he was honestly surprised for he heard no deceit in the young boy's voice. He walked away until he was out of earshot of his fellow Nobodies and the young girl whose lover his companions had saved. He turned and faced the boy and was completely honest with him.
"Riku, when your friend sensed he was in danger he had drawn upon all the current power in his body, even the power from the hearts within him. When he did that all the hearts awakened and merged with Sora. So that means that they will act like my master. Their memories and differing powers will be transferred to him. That loosely means that he will gain all their memories and powers whether he wants them or not. I can't be sure about Thorn though, for while my comrades were restoring Sora I went through each heart inhabiting his body except for Thorn. He is completely different from the other hearts within Sora, he never had a physical body meaning his entire being was his heart which gives him control of what memory and power Sora will receive."
"Riku!" Riku turned immediately when Kairi's frantic cry reached him. What he saw shocked him. Sora was standing on his own two feet but his image wavered. One second it was Sora the next it was Roxas wearing his Organisation coat, the next it was an image of a boy who looked exactly like Sora wearing an outfit similar to what he wore when he belonged to the Darkness. This image shocked Riku most of all for the image looked like what Riku had pictured Sora when he was nineteen or so with two alterations. His hair was black and his eyes were gold. Pure gold like Ansem's. But then the image was gone, replaced with a boy that looked exactly like Roxas but around age fourteen and innocent. His shirt was black on one side and white on the other. His outfit also had various pieces of armour. His shoes were plated steel and around his waist was an armoured belt. On his left shoulder he wore a metal sleeve. The image changed from one to the other and back again. Then the changes slowed and the image stayed on Sora. The images stopped and Sora took a step forward.
And he fell on his face. Kairi rushed forwards to catch him but one of the Nobodies rushed to her side and restrained her, she was about to protest when she looked at Sora again and saw that he was already getting back up. Then he sat down again and just snapped his fingers and four strange creatures appeared. They were blue with slit shaped eyes.
These were the Unversed Riku had heard about from Mickey. He knew Unversed fed on negative emotions but Mickey had never told him they came to be. Now he knew where they came from. Either from Ventus or Vanitas. And they were helping Sora up as if he was their new master, which he probably was for Vanitas was a part of him now. When Sora continued to stumble around he snapped his fingers again and one Nobody appeared. It bowed at him and it's arms changed into wings while its legs in turn changed into a harness. It flew up and wrapped its newly created harness legs around Sora and helped him support his weight.
Well I hope you liked the third chapter of There will always be Light. I hope you continue reading my story. Next chapter: The Test.
And remember to review my story. Please?
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