Pairing: OcxSora
Genre: Romance, Adventure
Summary: She was not like the others, no. She was different. Special even. She had what they all lacked...memories. Spurred by this, she begins a long journey to find out more about the 'outside world'. One that will have many trials, tribulations and maybe even...
Disclaimer: The only thing i own is mah oc and this story.
Comments: Sorry for the long wait, RL probs and work. Enjoy ch 4~! \o3o/
Chapter 4:
"The Waiting Game"
Once Kairi was placed in the spare room to rest, Sora returned to the main room of the Gummi ship. He stopped behind the main chair, which was currently occupied by Donald. He could only stand there, heart clenching in his chest, as he watched his home world be swallowed up by the Darkness. They all knew they'd be wiped out if they were to go down and attempt to face all the heartless currently swarming the world at this very moment.
He remained there until the world was completely engulfed, the darkness flaring outwards before imploding inwards. Nothing was left when it was all over, just an empty place in the vastness of space.
"Sorry, Sora." Donald murmured out.
"It's ok, Donald...I'm just glad you guys came when you did. We would have been goners." Sora replied, waving his hand dismissively to the sullen duck. "I'm guessing there's more trouble than just on our islands if the king sent you, right?"
"Ahyuk, that's right, Sora." Goofy piped up, turning to face his friend. "Heartless just started poppin up on lots of worlds recently. So he sent us ta get you guys and bring ya to the castle."
"Well then...I guess all we can do now is go talk to the king. Maybe he'll know where we can start looking for Riku." Sora mumbled, finally turning away from the view of the empty space. "If anyone needs me, i'm gonna go rest." Neither of the two disagreed with the boy, knowing he needed time to process what had happened, and what was to come.
The boy went to his customary room, nothing having changed from the last time he was aboard the gummi ship. Not really paying attention to his room details, he walks over to his bed and flops down onto it. Grumbling faintly, he shifts around, eventually managing to kick off one shoe, then the other.
After laying there for an unknown amount of time, Sora rolled onto his back, staring up at the ceiling. He had too many thoughts on his mind to allow him to drift off to slumber now. Nearly all centered around the event that had just occurred. The Heartless had come out from nowhere, and there were so many. The only time he'd seen that many, was back when he had to fight a thousand Heartless.
He was so thankful that his friends had come, and they had managed to save Kairi from the Heartless as well. If only they could've saved Riku too…
"I hope you're alright...Riku…" the saddened boy mumbled into the air. With a heavy sigh, he rolled onto his side. 'I'm sure Riku will be alright….He's been in the darkness before and survived.' Letting his thoughts wander, he gazed quietly at his hand, eyelids half open.
His brows furrowed as he continued to stare at his hand, slowly closing it as a thought emerged from the back of his mind. He remembered, while the many Shadows had dog piled him, someone had pulled him up. Saved him from being turned into a Heartless once again. There was only one problem to that.
'Kairi was covered in the Heartless too...and Riku was too far away, much less able to wade through all the Heartless still attacking him. So….who saved me?' This thought buzzed around his brain like an agitated bee, going round and round, never stilling. He was positive that someone had pulled-no, tugged on his hand, giving him enough wiggle room to cast Thundaga.
Unable to figure it out, his thoughts drifted to just before Riku was swallowed up by the darkness. In that instant, right before they were teleported to the Highwind, he swore that he'd seen one of the Heartless staring back at him.
"Heartless are mindless creatures of Darkness though… Maybe i was just seeing things? It had to've been it. I must've been too exhausted, and just imagined it. Yeah, that was it." He mumbled drowsily, opening and closing his hand once more.
He decided to not think about the Heartless right now, or whether Riku was safe or not. He was supposed to be resting before they got to the castle. It wouldn't do to have him falling asleep while talking with the king.
With that thought in mind, he sighed heavily as his eyes closed.
"Be careful, Riku…" He mumbled before letting his body relax, drifting off to sleep soon after.
Sora was awoken a few hours later by a knock on his door, followed by Goofy calling out to him.
"Sora, you awake? We'll be reachin the castle soon. Kairi's already up and in the main room"
"I'm up, Goofy. I'll be there in a bit." The groggy boy replied, rolling over on his bed. After the footsteps receded, he slowly sat up, rubbing his head sleepily. Yawning, he slipped out of bed, walking to the door and out, heading to the front.
Just as he'd said, Kairi was there, standing beside Donald as he piloted the ship. Hearing him enter, she turned around and smiled at her friend.
"Hey, sleepyhead. Did you rest well?"
"Yeah, i feel much better now!" He replied, leaning his weight to one side as he rest his hands behind his head.
"That's good, cause we're almost to the castle." Donald interrupted, pointing towards the front window.
Looking out, they could all see the Disney Castle on the world below. It was just as grand as he remembered. If only they could visit under better circumstances. Sighing faintly the brunette turned towards his friends.
"Well...Time to go meet with the king and find out what's going on with the worlds again."
Everyone nodded before they went towards the teleporting pad, waiting to be teleported down. Once down, Sora glanced around, a small smile forming on his face. He would never get tired of the scenery and overall grandness of the castle and its grounds.
Making it to Mickey's study, Sora stepped forward and pushed open the door, gazing around once inside. Books were in their shelf spots, weird brooms with arms carting around water buckets, King Mickey was writing away at his desk and Queen Minnie was standing patiently beside him. 'Just as i remember.' He thought, smiling.
"Your Majesty! We're here!" He called out joyfully, startling the occupants of the room. He sheepishly grinned when Kairi swatted at his shoulder, scolding him for startling them.
"Ah, it's alright, Kairi." Mickey soothed the irritated girl. Hopping down from his chair, he walked over to the group. "Sorry to hear about your world, fellas. Donald and Goofy told us about it while you were resting."
"Have you heard anything about Riku? He was taken by a group of Heartless." The pair frowned when the king slowly shook his head, solemn.
"Sorry, fellas. I haven't heard anything. I had planned to go look for him myself, but i wanted ta fill you guys in on what's going on."
"So what IS going on, King Mickey? Why are the Heartless back now?" Kairi asked, clasping her hands together in front of her. The mouse king sighed faintly at her question, frowning.
"I'm not too sure when it started, but we noticed Stars were starting to blink out. I received a message from Yin Sid saying a dark force was quickly growing. I went out to check it myself, and that's when I ran into a cloaked figure directing the Heartless."
"Cloaked figure?! The organization? But we defeated them all already!" Sora interrupted, jumping forward to stand beside the two. Mickey merely shook his head.
"That's what I thought of too, at first. His cloak was different, and he barely reacted when I confronted him. He recognized me, but that's about as far as it went. I tried to figure out what he was up to, but he would only say one thing: 'It has been set into motion. The wheels of Fate are turning once more. The darkness will win this time. The Keyblade's chosens will fall one by one.' "
"That doesn't sound good…" Kairi mumbled nervously. This guy sounded serious. "What are we going to do now?"
"Well." Mickey began, walking back to his desk. "First off, I want you fellas to rest up here. Chip and Dale are going to upgrade your Gummi Ship in preparation for your next journey."
"Where are we going? To new worlds? Are we gonna go find that guy and make him talk?!" Mickey smiled at the brunette's enthusiasm and dedication. Chuckling softly, he nodded.
"New worlds have appeared, but you'll have to go through a few old ones to get there. While you're out there, you're to find any information on the cloaked man, and look for Riku too. I'll be conducting my own search and information gathering too. We'll have to work as a team to defeat this new threat to peace."
"So when are we gonna go? I'm ready to find Riku and beat the bad guy!" Sora exclaimed, eager to do both of which he said.
Chuckling as Donald went to scolding his overexcitement, Mickey slowly shook his head. "Not today, Sora. It'll take a few days to upgrade the ship and gather everything you'll need for your journey. Take this time to rest and prepare yourselves. We have a long road ahead of us all."
Giggling at Sora's deflated look, Kairi looked at the small king and smiled. "Thank you, your Majesty. We'll do our best!"
Apparently, a bored Sora is a very big problem to anyone in his path to get unbored. As the king had said, it took a few days to get the ship upgraded. During that time, Sora had been bored out of his mind. He'd done everything possible to keep from getting bored.
The boy had trained with Donald and Goofy, done some keyblade practice with Kairi, roamed and roamed the halls countless times, practically haunting them with how often he went down them. He'd even gone to Mickey's study and poked around in a few of the books there, hoping to find something to drown out his boredom. Pluto was a good source of entertainment for a while, but that eventually got boring as well.
The most entertaining part to Kairi, had been when the boy decided to try and 'help' around the castle to alleviate his boredom. Suffice to say, the boy was now banned from setting foot in the kitchen, and could not come within a ten foot radius of the castle water well. No one had managed to figure out yet how the boy had burnt the water in the pot, or how he ended up falling INTO the well that had a short opening.
Kairi, on the other hand, had been a saint those few days. She'd spent a lot of time chatting with the Queen or Daisy, or sitting in the library reading. She was also doing research on the worlds that they might come across, and the worlds that Sora and the others had already been to. She didn't want to go in unprepared like the others normally would.
At long last, and for the sake of the staff and residents sanity, the Gummi Ship had finally be announced as 'upgraded'.
The group was to gather in the courtyard and head to the gummi hanger together. And of course Sora, in his normal overrambunctions nature, barely gave the group time to gather before he took off towards the hanger.
Kairi could only chuckle and shake her head before following after the excited teen. The others followed after her, the king, queen and Daisy coming along to see them off.
Reaching the hanger first, Sora looked around and smiled. It too had not changed since the last time they had been here. Looking up at the 'control room', Sora shouted and waved. "Chip! Dale! Hey guys!" His grin widened when he spotted Dale waving down at him with just as much enthusiasm as he had.
"Sora! You could have at least waited on us, you know." Was the first words out of Kairi's mouth when she caught sight of the brunette, the others filling in after her.
"Sorry, Kairi. I'm just so ready to get going and find Riku! And take down that cloaked guy!" He spoke, bouncing from one foot to the other impatiently.
Sighing and shaking her head, Kairi smiled at the boy. "You'll never change, Sora." Ignoring his cheeky grin, she turned back to Mickey and the other two. "Thank you for the hospitality and for upgrading our ship, your majesty. We'll do our best to find Riku and get any information we can on the guy."
The small mouse king nodded, smiling up at Kairi.
"It's the least we can do for you fellas. You've done so much for us and the other worlds already. Just make sure ya be careful and report back anything ya hear, ok?"
"Will do, your majesty!" Donald and Goofy piped up, saluting the king. Kairi giggled as she nodded, while Sora did his customary pose and hands behind his head.
"Your first stop should be Master Yen Sids tower, alright? He has more information on what's going on."
Queen Minnie walked up, smiling at the four. "Be careful, everyone. Stay safe and stay together. Good luck on your travels."
"And don't forget to let us know if you hear anything about Riku, ok your majesty?" Sora interrupted, hopping forward. Chuckling, the mouse king merely nodded. "Of course, Sora. You four will be the first to know if anything comes up."
"And the same for that cloaked guy too!" He added, frowning. "I won't let him get away with destroying our home and attacking other worlds."
"Come ooon, Sora! I thought you wanted to go already?" Kairi teased, standing beside Donald and Goofy. The three were already near the Gummi Ship, ready to board.
"Oh, right! Wait for me, guys!" Sora sprinted to join his friends, grinning sheepishly at them. "Sorry." Kairi merely smiled and turned toward the three left behind, waving at them.
"We'll see you all soon!"
Boarding the Gummi Ship, finally, they made their way to the cockpit. It was bigger than before, able to hold three seats in front of the big window. Another seat stood in front of a panel with a circular screen above it, a white line rotating around it like a clock hand. There were three other chairs near the back, extras they figured.
Kairi chuckled softly to herself as she watched the boys, mainly Sora, oogle over the new set up for the cockpit. She went over to the chair to the side, sitting down in it and looking over the controls.
'Seems like it's some kind of radar screen. Probably for detecting Heartless ships or stray debris.' She thought, turning her attention to the front once done. "Are we ready to go yet?" Her response was the three boys looking up from the various new buttons and knobs on the main control panel, drawing out a laugh from the only girl on the ship.
Smiling sheepishly, they quickly sat in their chairs, Sora taking the middle one up front. Flipping the switches and pressing the buttons to start up the ship, he then took the wheel, a grin forming on his face.
"Now then! It's time to go find Riku!"
drip
...
….
drip
…
….
plip
A soft groan was heard in the vast darkness, its owner roused by the water that had dripped upon its face. The sound seemed to echo throughout the boundless confines of the darkness.
Eyes moved beneath closed lids, awareness slowly returning to his body and mind.
He groaned once more, strands of his silver hair falling over his face like a curtain as his head dipped forward.
"Hnngh…"
drip
…
….
drip
…
….
plip
One hand twitched, then again. Shifting it faintly resulted in a clinking sound echoing out and reaching his ears, the sound drawing his consciousness further into the waking world.
His eyelids slowly opened, uncovering dull blue eyes, though they were brightening as his mind focused.
Blinking slowly, he lifted his head up, gazing around to try and figure out where he was. His mind was blank, still not fully awake yet, so the memories weren't flowing.
Darkness. Pure darkness was the only thing he could see. The air had a slight chill to it, condensation heavy in the air as well. He could feel the rough texture of something hard and cold beneath his body, though he could not see what it was.
'Where...am i?' He thought groggily, mind trying to catch up on how he got here. 'The last i remember….I was fighting. The Heartless were all around me. My strength ran out and-'
His eyes widened as his memory finally came back to him. 'Sora! Kairi!' He was halted in his attempt to sit up as he was jerked back down, the clinking, rattling sound accompanying the movement.
Looking down, he frowned when he could just barely make out shackles around his wrists, chains attached to it and leading into the darkness. Lifting his head up, he gazed around again, hoping to spot anything or anyone that could assist him in getting out of whatever mess he found himself in.
Instead of a means to freedom meeting his eyes, he spotted, instead, the glowing yellow eyes shining brightly in the darkness before him.
drip
…
….
drip
…
….
plip
*Flops over dead* My gosh this chapter took forever! Sooo sorry for the long wait. Between work and other RL issues, it's taken me soo long to finish this chapter. Not much went on, but relevant things DID happen! Sora, Kairi and the others finally started out on their journey. And now we hit a suspense part with poor Riku. I wonder how next chapter will go, as I hope you're curious about too. Feel free to review and fav! I always enjoy a review, and i hope i didn't bore you instead. Until next time!
