three: change
Kairi was sulking. Riku might have found it more amusing if he wasn't so annoyed. Even Sora agreed that it would be better for her to stay behind on the islands--she would be safer, and she could cover for them with their parents. Especially since Riku had been unable to duplicate the keyblade he'd given her to use back at The Castle That Never Was--and she certainly couldn't summon her own. She might be capable of handling one, but that didn't make her a keyblade master.
Still, they hadn't been able to convince her to stay behind. And even though she'd gotten her way, she still sulked. Typical girl. Sora kept darting glances her way, but he wasn't sure how to handle a moody girl, so he stayed up front with Chip and Dale to 'help' them navigate.
Riku cradled Way to the Dawn in his hands as he leaned against the ship wall, his legs stretched out in front of him until his feet nearly touched the other side. It wasn't a very big ship, and Riku was still getting taller. His keyblade seemed to have grown with him; he hadn't summoned it in weeks, so it might have been his imagination, but he thought it still felt the same in his hands even though he'd grown taller and stronger. He rested it in his lap and ran his fingers along it, glancing up at Kairi.
She might be sulking because they didn't want her alone when she had no way of defending herself, but it gave Riku more to worry about than just her safety--as if that wasn't enough. But he couldn't help wondering: What had changed since The Castle That Never Was? Why could he pull a second keyblade out of his core then but not now?
Was the darkness creeping back into his heart?
"Land ho!" Sora cried. His smile was obvious in his voice. "Twilight Town off the starboard bow!"
Riku climbed to his feet, letting Way to the Dawn dissolve, and joined Sora at the forward window. "You mean port," he said, taking in Twilight Town below them on the left.
"Starboard sounds better," Sora explained.
The sprawl of Twilight Town below made Riku's stomach knot. It made everything real. He remembered watching Roxas here (rather, in an identical digital replica), making sure Ansem's plan was coming together--guiding Roxas back to Sora so he could make his friend whole again. Sora, shattered into pieces of memory and fragments of being by the Nobodies at Castle Oblivion. Twilight Town was a good place to start; it was a meeting ground at the edge of twilight, and each of them had been here before, even Kairi.
As if she heard his thought, Kairi's arm brushed against his as she joined them at the window. Her sullen mood had vanished, replaced by a smile. "What are we waiting for?" she asked.
"Send us down," Sora told Chip and Dale.
"Can do!" one of the chipmunks replied; Riku couldn't really tell them apart. They worked at their controls, and the ship dissolved around them in a wave of green light. When the light unfurled from around them, they were in a cramped leg off an alley furnished with shabby chairs and end tables, posters, and even a dartboard. Riku remembered it as the hangout spot of some of the local kids.
"I wonder where Hayner, Pence, and Olette are?" Sora said, looking around with a bright smile. He was so easily distracted--he made friends so easily, and of course he wanted to see them again. As far as he was concerned, that could be the whole reason they were here. It was one of his best qualities and one of his worst.
"I hardly got to meet them," Kairi said as she looked around. "I was a little distracted running from that guy... Axel."
Sora nodded, hesitated, and then asked, "What do you think we should look for?"
Riku frowned. "I'm not sure. Changes? Nobodies coming back to town? Whatever it is, we won't find it hanging around here." He turned and headed for the exit.
"Right," Sora agreed. Riku heard two sets of footsteps behind him.
He stopped in the alley. He realized very suddenly that he had no idea which way to go. It wasn't that he didn't know where the alley led in either direction; he knew the physical layout of the town. But he didn't know what would be the best place to look for changes. He looked over at Sora and found Kairi doing the same.
"What?" Sora asked, half-defensive.
"You spent the most time here," Kairi said--and while it wasn't technically true, for all intents and purposes it didn't matter that Riku had been here just as often. Sora knew the people here. Riku didn't. "Where do you think we should go?"
Sora put a thumb against his lower lip, pushing it to the side in a way that made him look entirely ridiculous. He turned, scrutinizing the alley. "Mm... I guess the train station." He pointed briefly, then took off running. Riku followed a pace behind Kairi, keeping her safely between them--just in case. "It can take us anywhere we want to go!" he called over his shoulder. "And we can ask there if anything strange has happened around here."
It was surprisingly logical, coming from Sora. He had always been mostly instinct. It reminded Riku how much time they'd spent apart. Sora was growing up. They all were.
But Sora's instincts won out, in the end. Riku turned a corner and nearly ran into Kairi, stopped beside Sora, who was staring away toward the clock tower. His eyebrows were furrowed like he was trying to figure out a difficult math problem. "There," he said, pointing. "I've had dreams about that clock tower."
Riku remembered Roxas spending time on that clock tower with the digital constructs of the Twilight Town kids. Probably Sora's dreams were no more than memories of that, but then, they did need to find Roxas. Maybe he would go back to somewhere familiar. Well, if he was in Twilight Town at all. "Okay, let's take a look," he said.
"This way!" Sora took off, and they followed.
- xx -
"Someone's coming," Roxas said, and suddenly every inch of his frame was rigid. He started to climb to his feet, but Axel put a hand on his arm to hold him. Standing at the top of the clock tower wasn't exactly safe.
"Any idea who?" Axel asked.
"It has to be Sora." There was a near-panic to him. It was almost comical, to be afraid of the happy-go-lucky Sora. He was beyond dangerous to heartless and to Nobodies like Xemnas and Xigbar, but he wouldn't harm Roxas. Roxas was a part of himself.
Axel didn't like to see that tension in Roxas, but after running into Ienzo and his other 'Wraiths,' he was wary of running without confronting Sora. Probably best if they warned him. "Relax," he told Roxas. "Let's see what he wants." He pushed himself carefully to his feet, then offered a hand down to Roxas. "Preferably somewhere with better footing."
Roxas nodded and climbed around to the door that led inside the clock tower. "If he touches me, we might"--
"I won't let him. Don't worry." Axel's smile was grim, though Roxas couldn't see it. He'd lost Roxas before. He wasn't about to give up his second chance.
Sora's hair was already visible when they climbed down onto the platform behind the clock face, followed by the rest of him from the staircase that wound up through the clock tower. Behind him were Kairi and Riku--and it was jarring to see Riku again, especially since Axel had spent more time talking to his replica than Riku himself. Sora and Kairi's eyes widened when they saw Axel, but Riku's narrowed.
Axel took a few casual steps that put him between Roxas and the others. "Sora! It's been a while." He smiled, closed-lipped.
"You're dead," Sora said.
Axel shrugged one shoulder. "Not anymore." Riku took a step toward him--he didn't have time to think before he felt the weight of his keyblade in his hand.
All three of them froze. "That's--" But Sora stopped as if unable to complete his thought.
"Yeah." Axel spun his keyblade once and rested it over his shoulder. "A lot has changed."
"Is Naminé with you?" Kairi asked in a quiet voice.
Axel felt Roxas stiffen behind him. "What do you mean?" He pushed past Axel, his eyes locked on Kairi. "Is Naminé free too?"
The glance Sora and Riku exchanged was subtle, but Axel didn't miss it. It made his chest heat. Roxas had every right to feel free--what kind of life must it be, locked inside Sora's head? His grip tightened around the hilt of his keyblade, but he forced calm into his breath.
"She separated from me, too," Kairi said. "She went looking for you."
Roxas' sharp intake of breath snapped Axel's eyes to his face. "Ienzo," he said, quietly enough that only Axel could hear. And even in the split second before Axel understood, he felt his chest tighten. Naminé was just clever enough to try The Castle That Never Was, and just stupid enough to walk herself right into Ienzo's hands. Of course Roxas would be terrified of this. Of course it mattered to him. It made Axel's jaw clench tight, his teeth grind. "We have to go find her!"
"Roxas, wait!" Sora called, but it didn't matter. Roxas called a dark portal. Axel felt the heat of Roxas' hand around his elbow, and then he was pulled through the portal behind his friend.
The darkness spit them out in The World That Never Was. Rain misted around them, turning the sharp neon to a softer glow. Axel drew a breath hissing through his teeth, then let it out. He wanted badly to ask why they had to go after Naminé, to pretend he believed she never would have made it this far.
But she was important to Roxas, and she was innocent--or as innocent as she could be, considering what she'd been through. Axel knew this better than anyone. He'd been one of those to manipulate her into altering Sora's memories, planting herself in his heart, and she'd resisted the idea a long time. But the pull for a Nobody to try to become whole was a difficult one to resist, and for her it was compounded by her genuine connection to Sora as Kairi's Nobody.
Yes, she was innocent. But as Axel followed Roxas into a sprint toward The Castle That Never Was, he couldn't help the hot anger he felt because of the connection the two shared.
author's note
I like this chapter a lot more than the last. Partly because I don't really like writing Sora's perspective that much, but more, I think, because I needed to get back into the rhythm of it. Anyway, I appreciate any reviews!