Far, far away, in a deep, dark place.
No one had ever been in this cavern. No one ever would. If someone, however, was that foolish and determined they would have quickly suffocated on the fetid air. And that would have been a mercy, because the sight of the thing inside would have destroyed their minds, and the things it would have done to them would have been worse still.
It smelled of blood, vomit and shit. Urine and rot. Every vile smell in the world, collected and distilled into the essence of suffering and horror. And within that cavern, the thing that was lightly dozing stirred.
Someone had intruded. Someone had warped its domain, if only for a moment, and the thing within the cavern was aware of the intrusion. Eventually, it subsided. The unexpected nature of the intrusion had allowed the intruder to escape unscathed.
But it was aware of the nature of the intrusion now. If they ever intruded again, it would have the intruder. If the monster could have smiled, it would have.
Death would come, but only after the intruder had lived his or her full span of years.
Sora opened his eyes to a white ceiling in a white room. For a moment, he lay still, assuming he was dreaming. Then he abruptly sat up, the blanket falling away from his black and grey clothes. He looked around sharply, searching for any threat.
But there was only a white room. Almost painfully white… but broken up with pictures on the walls. The only other color in the room was the food and drink sitting on a white desk. Sora swallowed, realizing that his throat was bone dry, and slid out of the bed, standing and walking over to the desk. Cautious sniffing of the drink couldn't tell him anything, so he poured himself a cup and carefully sipped. It was water, a bit tepid but clean. Of course, it could have been poisoned or drugged… but he would just have to take that chance.
Sora looked over the food and licked his lips, before picking up a slice of cheese. This was the kind of food he rarely saw in Nazarethim. Cheese that was made from actual cream, sliced meats and white bread… this was the food of the rich. And the fruit slices were an unimaginable luxury. For a moment, Sora felt an overwhelming homesickness. This was exactly the kind of fruit and deli platter his mother had sometimes made, when she didn't feel like cooking. Unlike Nazarethim, food had been plentiful in the Destiny Islands.
"But that's why the islands are gone, and Nazarethim is still here." Sora reminded himself out loud, and helped himself to the food. Assuming it wasn't poisoned, there was no reason not to indulge.
Chewing on a little sandwich, he made his way around the room, looking for any way to escape. He easily came to the conclusion that the only way out was the door. There were windows, but they would have required a much longer rope than he had on him… or pitons with a special adhesive to cling to the wall going down. And that would have been chancy. The walls looked perfectly smooth and very white.
Everything here was so white, it was rather disturbing. Nothing in Nazarethim was white. Even the very rich didn't bother with the color, since it seemed to dirty almost immediately from the very air. Sora had always thought that was symbolic of Nazarethim's position in the darkness. It was a world and had a Kingdom Heart, or so he assumed, but it wasn't a good place. Actually, that was putting it too mildly. The people there were only trying to survive, but Nazarethim itself was a bad place. It would never be fruitful, never give what everyone needed to survive and the land itself seemed to take lives with a gleeful hunger. It had no shield the way most worlds did and should have been overwhelmed by hungry swarms of Heartless… but Heartless never touched it. Sora had heard of the Heartless when he eavesdropped on Riku, and had looked it up in the library afterwards, and he found the lack of Heartless in Nazarethim curiously disturbing. What was keeping them out? Something far more terrible than they could ever be?
As he thought, Sora did a very good job at demolishing the platter, savoring every morsel of fruit. He hadn't had fruit in years. Even most of the very rich didn't have fruit… it grew unreliably at best. The only relatively common fruits were crab apples and horrible, tart greenberries. They could be jammed, but the sugar was too expensive. Mostly, they were made into some rather good alcohol.
Finally, he was completely finished the platter and beginning to get bored. He started examining the pictures. They looked like child's drawings, mostly, and it was hard for him to figure out who and what they were supposed to be. Mostly he had no clue.
"Surely someone wouldn't bring me here to bore me to death." He mumbled to himself, then turned as the door opened. A woman in black, with odd green skin, stepped through and looked at him thoughtfully. He frowned faintly as he felt her energy. He was sensitive to magic of all sorts… that was how he knew he had the gift for it, and it was a valuable asset to his work as a thief. He was getting a distinctly fairy feeling from this woman.
That was odd. Fairies existed in Nazarethim, but they were never very happy about it. Flotsam and jetsam from other worlds, they were trapped in the dark world and ended up being changed by the energies of the place. They were usually vile and twisted or sad, broken things. This woman was entirely different. She felt dark, but it was a darkness of her own choosing. Still… Sora remembered the caution his old master had given him about fairies and demons both.
They'll hold to the letter of a promise, but they always lie. Except when the truth can hurt you more. He didn't demand why she had brought him here, or how… he simply looked at her, waiting for her to speak. Eventually, she did.
"So, you are Sora." She said with a pleasant smile, and Sora nodded back cautiously. "I've brought you here because I have a proposition for you."
"Oh?" He said cautiously. She smiled again, walking up and placing a hand on his back. Sora frowned, but didn't pull away.
"Yes. But first, there's something I want to show you." She waved her staff and the wall across from them seemed to vanish into darkness… then a scene formed. It was like a window into another world, and Sora blinked, tensing. Was that… himself? But the face. He made a soft, almost anguished sound as he saw the other boy smile and it was perfect.
"Yes, that is you… the way you could have been if this," And she ran a finger over his face. Sora was so distracted by the scene that he didn't jerk away, the way he would have normally. "Had never happened. He and his friends have been quite a thorn in my side." The scene expanded, and Sora saw with shock that his… other self was speaking to Kairi and Riku. It looked like they were on the Destiny Islands.
Maleficent watched Sora silently, as he watched the scene play out… and she knew the exact instant she had him, when his blue eyes went from shocked to flinty and cold. Maleficent glanced at the scene, and saw that Riku had put an arm over Sora's shoulders. She smiled to herself. There were many pathways to the darkness of the heart, but none was as sure as jealousy. Sora finally drew a deep breath.
"What do you want, and what are you offering?" He said harshly, and Maleficent smiled, resting a hand on his back again.
"I want you to steal something. Something very, very important. Then, I want you to help me with the rest of my plans… when we've punished these children, I'll do my best to fix your face." Maleficent reached down and pulled away the scarf, touching the deformed side of Sora's face. He frowned with his good side, but let her tilt his head up to the light. "I can't promise anything. The damage is most extensive. But I will try. However, even if I fail… you will receive a pound of gold and a dozen jewels." Sora's eyes widened. That much gold would take him easily through wizard school, and then… even if he wasn't a powerful mage, he'd be able to make a good living selling love charms and potions.
"I'll do it." He replied immediately. Part of him stubbornly tried to tell him it was wrong, but he ignored it. What did he owe these people anyway? And besides… his eyes turned flinty again as he thought about his other self, standing there with Riku. He would enjoy hurting them. He really would. "So what do you want me to steal?" Maleficent smiled again, pleased with her tool.
"As to that, it's a very unique object…" Maleficent explained as Sora listened intently, ignoring the little part of him that seemed to be crying…
"Hey Riku, catch!" Sora threw a frisbee at the silver haired boy, who caught it with a laugh and tossed it towards Kairi. She jumped but missed, and it landed in the sand.
They were playing on the beach in the Destiny Islands. The world was saved, and they had gone home… although there had been a few incidents after that. Mostly they had foiled a few of Maleficent's plots to become an all powerful ruler. Other than that, everything had been going quite well. They were all going to school again, and enjoying just being teenagers.
Kairi suddenly stopped, as she saw something in the bushes stir. "Sora!" She pointed and Sora followed her gaze… as a half dozen Heartless hopped out of the shadows. He and Riku both summoned their keyblades.
"Heartless? Why now?" Riku muttered, and Sora nodded. They hadn't seen Heartless in the Destiny Islands almost forever. But it didn't matter… they Heartless attacked, and they easily beat them off, destroying them. When it was over, Sora lowered his keyblade-
And yelped in pain as someone rammed a shoulder into his side and tore the keyblade out of his hand. There was a stinging pain and Sora rubbed his fingers as he watched the thief take off, wide-eyed. Riku and Kairi both gaped.
"Someone thinks he can steal a keyblade?" Riku said, more amused than anything. Keyblades were bound to their wielder, so that really was rather funny. Sora grinned and tried to call back his keyblade… and suddenly went white.
"It won't come back! STOP!" Sora took off after the thief, and Riku and Kairi were frozen in place for a moment before they started running too.
"What do you mean, it won't come back?" As far as Riku knew that should have been impossible. Unless the keyblade itself had chosen to go to someone else, but why would that happen?
"I don't know!" The energy of desperation was with him, and Sora was gaining on the thief. Although… it seemed like the thief wasn't really trying to outpace them completely, just keep them running. He jumped easily over trees, ran up hills and then climbed up a cliff… Sora climbed up after him and Riku shouted something but the thief was there, waiting for him. "Give me back my keyblade, you… you…" Sora stopped, staring into hard blue eyes and a face that was so familiar yet so wrong what was wrong with his face?
"No." The boy said simply. "I hate you." Then the boy punched him in the face with the hilt of the keyblade. Sora heard bones break before everything went dark.
