"Okay, so let me get this straight… you want me to hook you up with some gummi stuff?"
"Yeah, should be easy for you. You are the captain, after all." Sora replied, after regaining his mental stability. Kairi had chosen to explore the gummi, and the boys had put up locks on the exits so nobody would fall into nonexistence.
"True, my Keyblading friend, oh so true. Well, in about two days you two can leave. But—" Sora froze. So there was a catch, "—you both have to enter the Battle Royale. Invite your Nobody friend after he goes through security."
"What's the Battle Royale?"
"Oh right, you two always left when me and Ellie were announcing it. Remember, 'Ladies, gentlemen, kids, and aliens, we are proud to announce—' and right then ya left. The Battle Royale is epic. You see, everyone comes to a single Hangar once a month. We organize something called the Program. There everyone is registered with collars tracking their movements. If you're a competitor and someone says 'I surrender' to you, they'll be ported out of there with their lives. The Battle Royale is being hosted by us this year, and we want you guys to participate. You'll be issued to a world, a.k.a. level, and then you'll fight to surrendering or to the death. Of course, killing comes with a consequence. You kill, your collar will self-destruct. After twenty-four hours, we refresh your supplies; a map, compass, flashlight, food and water, and a random weapon or other item to back you up. Every forty-eight hours, you'll be ported to another world. This year, we start at Twilight Town."
"Sounds like fun!" Sora said. Riku slapped him upside the head.
"No, sounds like we can DIE!"
"I meant, it's perfect. We can train there while trying to survive against all kinds of enemies."
"And you get an award for being the last one standing." the captain pointed out. Sora made a military salute. The captain laughed quietly at his friend's attempt to be serious—and respectful. "At ease. So it's a deal. Alright, I have to go talk to the higher-ups so tell Ellie everything!" the captain said over the audio transmitter. They heard a beep, then Ellie's shy voice.
"Sora, Riku, that you?" They each replied with a yes. "Okay. How many people on board, Nobodies not included."
"Then there's only three. And one duck."
"I'm guessing that this duck is the Royal Court Magician from Disney Castle? Okay, enough chitchat. Can I have the ratio of males to females?"
"Uh…"
"How many females and how many males, Sora? You should go to school, sometime."
"Oh, two guys one girl. And one duck."
"Gotcha. You'll be in suite 227. I hope you'll be prepared soon, because the Battle Royale will start in an hour."
"Say WHAT?"
"What."
MEANWHILE...
He blinked and rubbed a sore spot on his chest, the area where the cursed heart of his lay. He yawned and sat up, faced with cobalt blue eyes. He screamed and jumped back, trying to calm himself down. "What the—"
"Who are you?" she asked. For some reason, he felt at ease when he heard her speak. She leaned back, and watched him stand to stretch.
"The name's…" His blood ran cold as realization hit him. What was his name? Who was he? Where was he? Why was he here? Who was this girl? His mind gave him no answers to any of the questions. "You know what, I should be asking you what your name is."
"Xion." the girl replied, her eyes darkening at the mention of her own name. She studied him carefully from under the hood of her black cloak. "You were out for a while. I saw you appear out of darkness and I've been trying to wake you." She removed the helmet from his face to see his grey skin, charcoal black hair, and light-grey eyes. The far-away but perplexed look told her that he was no different from the way she had been when she had first opened her eyes on the Destiny Islands. "You have amnesia don't you?"
"When did you figure that out?"
"Just now." she said. He stared at her as if from a distance, making her want to ask him some questions of her own. Silence took over for a moment, but it wasn't awkward. It wasn't comfortable either.
"Where am I?" he demanded. She bit her lip and gazed around at what must've once been beautiful scenery. She shrugged, but didn't explain. "Why am I here?"
"I can't answer that, either." she answered.
"Why are you here? And who are you?" he asked
"I told you, I'm Xion. But if you want to know more… then I should warn you, it's a long story. " she wondered out loud. He kept the vacant expression.
"So? I wanna know." he said. She wondered if he knew about the rhyme he just made, though his ever-so-blank expression
"Don't say that I didn't warn you. Alright, here goes. I was 'born' in Castle Oblivion, the way Naminé put it. Organization XIII wanted to use me as a replacement for Sora."
"What's Organization XIII and who's Sora?"
"Sora is sixteen, soon to be seventeen. He's known among the human-populated worlds as the Keyblade Master. He killed himself once over a girl, and is best friends with Riku. Riku's a Wielder of Dawn. Yen Sid called him the 'Key That Connects Everything', so he's pretty much the big hero." she extended a hand to help the boy up. He reluctantly took it and stood up to full height. He was only a few inches taller but he couldn't be much older. They started to walk through the barren landscape. "Back to my story; so they sent me to their headquarters, The Castle That Never Was. I was silent—I mean really silent, not a peep. Roxas got me talking when Axel left for Castle Oblivion, but what neither of us knew was that Vexen had designed me to sap Roxas' strength until he was nothing. Sora was sleeping, and if Roxas was destroyed, he'd never wake up and stop Xemnas from recreating Kingdom Hearts. So I confronted Roxas after he ran away. He fought me and I returned to Sora."
"So you died."
"No, I didn't. Sora absorbed me."
"Whatever, same thing."
"And just how would you know?"
"Point taken." he said, stopping. She stopped just a few feet ahead, and saw why. In all this loneliness, there was a house. Victorian-style, with chipped paint and cracked windows that were smudged with dust that must've accumulated over the years. She placed a hand on the doorknob and pushed to discover it was open. He passed her and gazed around the small space. It was unfurnished, other than a table and two chairs with a locked chest in the corner. "Welcome home, Xion!"
"You aren't serious. Anyway, since we're apparently a team now, what's the plan?" she asked.
"I dunno. Let's start with my memories, and take it from there."
"Okay, sounds good. Now where are we s'pose to sleep?"
"Try looking for something to sleep on. We've both slept on the ground for a while so the floor can't be much different." he suggested. They searched the "attic" and found nothing but paper, photos, and cobwebs.
"That Sora kid, do you know him?"
"Sort of. Why?"
"We can borrow some stuff to sleep on from him. You know, sleeping bags, blankets, the works."
"No! That's stealing!"
"So?"
"So, it's wrong." she insisted. "Enough about that. We should come up with a name for you until you remember your real one."
"I'm listening."
"You're black and white so you're a Sentiment."
"A Sentiment?"
"Yes, a being destroyed by light, and the opposite of a Silhouette."
MEANWHILE...
Roxas panicked in the bridge. Where was Namine? Riku and Sora tried to keep Kairi from passing out at the fact they were competing in a fight to the death, but she did anyway. So now they had a might-as-well-be dead body in the passenger seat and two inexperienced pilots trying to steer them into the garage. He heard Sora try to get them safely inside number two, and was relieved when they only scraped the ground. He sighed in relief. Then he sensed something. A Corridor of Darkness opened and somebody in an Organization cloak ran by with a guy in a suit similar to what Riku wore in Dark Mode and a silver helmet with dark glass concealing his face. "What does this have to do with helping me?" he heard the masked boy ask.
"Nothing. I just need to check somethi—oh hey Roxas."
"You know me?"
"Oh, so you really did forget. Alright, what's a Heartless?"
"Darkness made real."
"Nobodies?"
"Nonexistent beings made from a body and soul with no heart. They're shunned by both light and darkness." Roxas said, repeating what he'd been told over and over again.
"Unversed?"
"No freaking idea."
"There you go." the girl in the cloak said.
Sora pressed the landing button and the gummi stopped in a parking space just big enough for Highwind to fit. Riku rubbed his face after frowning. Sora turned away to shut off everything, and then picked Kairi up. "You sick bastard. Why did you tell me I had to smile the whole way here? Remind me to never fly a gummi with you."
"Oh, yeah? You talk about not wanting to be on the same gummi as me, well, at least I didn't crash a Gummi Ship into an orphanage!" Sora retorted.
"For the last time, it wasn't an orphanage! It was a mental asylum! There is a big difference." Riku corrected.
"No, both of you are wrong! It was a pie shop! All that pie, gone to waste..." Roxas reminisced. Those pies were the best in Twilight Town.
Kairi smiled to herself as the boys bickered about where Riku had crashed the gummi. "Hey what about Sora and Roxas, they crashed into something, right?" she asked. Riku put on a mischievous grin, before rubbing his cheeks again.
"Let me tell you about the look on Cid's face when Sora crashed the brand-new replacement gummi into a Heartless ship and tried to fly it back but crashed into Merlin's house and destroyed the blueprints for Claymore." Riku said and distorted his face into a funny display. Sora summoned his Keyblade and aimed it at Riku.
"Blizzara!" he shouted. A cannon-ball-sized chunk of ice flew towards Riku's head. He ducked and the ice instead hit Roxas. The unlucky Nobody fell to the floor, ice slowly spreading on him until his body was frozen solid. Sora was on his knees, holding his head. "Stupid Nobody connections." was all he could manage to say before becoming paralyzed.
"See? This is what happens when you fire a block of ice at your Nobody. The two of you are one being, so if one gets frozen solid, the other does too." Riku explained. Then he motioned for Kairi to follow. They didn't notice Vanitas and Xion backed up against the wall, or that they were sneaking into the cockpit. Vanitas leaned over Sora, while Xion tried to speed up Roxas' defrosting. Sora's arm started twitching, but when he aimed a punch at him, Vanitas grabbed his wrist and twisted.
"So this moron is the almighty Keyblade 'Master', the 'Key that Connects Everything'? Impossible." he added before letting the paralyzed teen go. "Hey, he looks just like me. A very good looking kid, while he's at it." The being of pure darkness removed the helmet and shook his head. He was right; they could've been twins. Except that in hair and eyes, one was black and yellow, but the other was brown and blue.
"What… what are you?" the paralyzed teen asked.
"I'd say 'your worst nightmare' but Master ain't here so I don't know what to do with you."
"Make… yourself useful, and get us to the Battle Royale." Sora said, sitting up with the help of the twin. He didn't ask anything about the fourteen year old Kairi look-alike, but let the twin guide him out. He noticed the guy was squeezing his arm a little harder than he should, and that he had pushed him out of the hatch onto the metal flooring.
"RIKU! I've got your stuff, now get Sora and move it!" a guy with neon purple hair said. His hair pulled back in a ponytail and some of it covered his brown eyes. He wore aviator goggles and wore a dark blue button-up jacket with a nametag; "Alpha Captain, Sector 12". He had baggy white pants and green Converse All-Stars. The necklace he wore had a number of charms on it, with a tube hanging from it. He caught her staring and flashed a smile. "The name's Jamie. And if you wanna know what this little baby is, it's 100% pure gummi. The only one in existence. My stepbrother Myde had it first but he wasn't that into the family business so they gave it to me."
"Never knew you had a brother." Riku observed.
"Yeah," Jamie said, his smile disappearing slowly. "Myde had hair like that Nobody kid, 'cept it was darker. And his eyes were green. He liked to play guitar, and hated working."
"Demyx!" Roxas shouted, running towards them soaking wet.
"Demyx?"
"Organization's number IX! So he was your stepbrother in his past life."
"My bro's a Nobody?" Jamie inquired. "NO!"
Kairi slipped outside while Riku tried to prevent Jamie from having a nervous breakdown. Sora was trying to move himself to the door but the spell wasn't in his power anymore. She leaned down to help him, only to have her hands shooed away. His skin was cold and clammy, but she still tried to transfer her body heat to his while Namine did the same to Roxas. Both started to move slightly, Sora now being able to talk and Roxas being able to move his arms. "Riku, I swear I will..." his teeth started to chatter as Roxas was still mostly frozen; him being the one who got hit with the blizzard-type spell in the first place. Kairi glanced at Namine who shrugged. A surge of pain then caused her to drop into the same position as Sora, who fell over with no support. She curled up into a fetal position and pressed her hands onto the sides of her throbbing head.
"Kairi, although you are unfamiliar with me…I may just be the only one who knows the answers to your questions. No one else can help you, not even the ones you would trust your life with. You have nothing here; you might as well be nothing if you can't embrace what little you have. This destiny, of yours, it is unstoppable. No matter what, you can't do anything."
She had thought that her sister would be kind and caring, not this. However, the way she had said that, in a sickeningly calm way, was what got her. It was truly maddening.
Kairi's breathing quickened, but she managed to put together some pieces. Sora had paid the moogle to erase the memory of the person who had said that to her. Who was 'her sister', though?
"You never know, the four of us may be your only hope." the voice told her in conclusion.
More voices found their way into her head.
"You'll never be as good, Kairi. Never."
"Give up while you can, give up before it's too late to save anyone."
"You speak only madness. Take her away, out of my sight!"
"You could say, I'm heartless... but would it really do you justice?"
"Kairi, no!"
"We trusted you, and you betrayed us! Betrayed me!"
She wanted to scream, but her mouth was clamped shut. The memories were overflowing, too fast for her. "Sora..." she murmured before it all went black.
MEANWHILE...
Lumina remembered how hard she had been on Kairi. The girl was simply too distracted, she couldn't uphold her responsibilities. She had shoved too much responsibility onto the child. She glanced into the spinning orb in her hands, seeing the gang tending to a frozen pair of teens and an unconscious princess. Her focus was lost and the rare and magical crystal shattered. A woman wearing tight coffee brown leggings tucked into formal shoes, with an X-strap tan top with a gold plate of armor on her chest and also on her back. The straps turned black at the hem She had charcoal black hair, but most of it was a transfer between blond and orange with two silver orbs separating her hair into three.
"Oh, not again! I know how precious that rock was to you." she said. Lumina shook her head.
"We have more trouble. Kairi, she's experiencing her memory. Something may be interfering, Xehanort, is my first guess." she said, implying that there were more important things than the semi-precious orb, now shattered on the floor.
"Oh. Anyway, we should be worrying about Sora and Riku. Those two are the ones who are going to fix up the Keyblade Graveyard. They need to turn it back to a world that can actually support human life." Jossi said, turning serious. She took them to the Gathering. The platform rose high and unseen winds blew the castle in Radiant Garden to dust, but there was a bright flash of white light, a bit of darkness, then they could see.
She saw the land, grassy and green with patches of wildflowers to make healing items. She saw the town of Azeroi. It was all so familiar, the cool breeze rippling the grass like a big and green ocean, the warm sun shining bright in the skies covered in powder-like clouds. As they rose higher on the platform, she could see the Western Sea, its surface glittering. She knew this settlement was strictly for mages, and mages that had wind as their element. Around them, Gummi Ships were leaving and landing, Keyblade Rides flying through vortexes in the clouds. Then, just like the blissful dream it was, the grass below started to die, turning yellow and then disappearing altogether. The clouds vanished and the sun beat down on the landscape with heat that hadn't been there before. She saw the castle, which the Immortals, scholars, Masters, and older students lived in, crumple and slide down in an avalanche of rubble. Where the windy town once was, there lay an X-shaped path, lined with Keyblades.
The sea pulled back towards the horizon until it was out of sight, and the sky turned to a sunset of purples, pinks, oranges, reds, and yellows, but that was about it. Jossi put a hand on her fellow Immortal's shoulder. "Sora, Riku, and maybe even Kairi will have a lot of work to do. And they're only teenagers. Hey, Lumina? Do you think that, they would like it here? I mean this is their true home, but they've come to love that island world." she said, and the scenery changed to the Destiny Islands. The platform lowered itself onto the soft, white sand. Lumina stepped off and gazed around. It was a natural paradise. The salty ocean air, the calming sound of the waves crashing against the shore. She saw a seashell come in with the tide. She knew coming to this world would revive some of the events that occurred. Jossi started to run towards the little offshore island.
She saw a boy curled up, holding his head as someone was talking to him in an unusually calm demeanor. She recognized the boy as Riku, but a lot younger. The person was dressed in a black zippered cloak, with the hood pulled down. He had his metallic pale blue hair in a longer version of a pixie hairdo. His eyes revealed nothing as he caused Riku more pain on the ground. Before her eyes, Riku turned into Sora. She was so confused.
Lumina saw a shooting star, as well as a red-head girl running towards the ocean. She waved out to sea, after the star crashed into the water. That was when she realized that it wasn't a star, it was Sora and Riku. They swam towards the shore but stopped in the shallow parts when an oversized duck, mouse, and dog tackled them. Now she saw it was sentimental value this small, nearly empty world held that drew the Keybearers back time and time again. "I wonder if, Xehanort went down Riku's path. But we both know he was missing a key component."
"Sora. Yep, that kid's definitely got potential. But if we repeated our actions, surely he wouldn't turn against us, would he?"
"I can't tell you that, but if he has a temper, and it gets the best of him—we can kiss our dream of balance goodbye."
"Hmph. I'd think that you would fight for light only."
"Light and darkness, the two can't exist without each other. It's like yin and yang. One creates while the other destroys, one is good while one is evil, one is welcoming while the other is intimidating. And vice versa. Vanitas, the one of pure darkness, he has a light inside. It isn't bright, but that's Xehanort's fault. The light never fades out, and maybe one day… both Ventus and Vanitas can be balanced beings." Lumina mused, as the scenery went back to where they were originally.
Jossi scoffed. "Really, Lu? You know it isn't your job to worry about that."
"Still…" Lumina murmured, tucking a loose strand of silvery-blonde hair behind one ear.
"It's Kaimei's job to worry about him, and Ankoku too."
"I know. And I shouldn't worry about Kairi and her family because that's Koryo's job."
"Nah, Rehn's tough and 'awesome like that'. You know she kept her human aspects after her time." Jossi said, reminiscing about the Immortal of War. If it was violent, and you could fight, she'd be up for it. Of course, the war still destroyed the world and killed everyone. They were lucky to be restored after leaving the Realm of Light when Sora and Riku opened the Door to Light.
"Why wouldn't she? A heart like hers was a strong one, stronger than Sora's, but even that didn't save her as a human—or Immortal. She's picking up the pieces, one by one, just like the rest of us. She may be 'alive' but she won't be as alive as before and not even this life will last. If Vanitas can use the connections between him, Ventus, and Sora along with his attachment to Void Gear, he'll be able to come back. If Terra-Xehanort has both a Heartless and a Nobody, and the beings have merged, then he'll be able to come back. Master Xehanort left Terra's heart inside the Lingering Sentiment, so we can fetch it there, and then we can subtract Terra from the equation…"
"But what about the body? Xehanort won't hand it over willingly."
"Vanitas has more appeal, I'll bet. He'll take over his apprentice's body until something even better comes along."
"I feel bad for poor little Vani. He'll end up being the new Terra-Xehanort."
REVIEW! PLEASE, I'D WRITE ANYWAY BUT THEY'RE MOTIVATING! –FK
