By: Koorino Megumi
Chapter 7: Secrets of the Mirror
Sora stepped into the Green Room behind Tidus and Yuna, ignoring the fact that Aros hung back in the doorway. He was too excited to mind Aros now.
"You're back!" cried a bubbly female voice. A girl seemingly in her late teens or early twenties bounded up to Tidus and Yuna, grabbing Yuna's hands and looking quite relieved. She had blond hair piled on top of her head and bright green eyes. Black goggles hung around her neck, and she wore a tight, sleeveless red top and green shorts. "We were starting to get worried about you, Yunie! You two should have been back a while ago."
"I'm sorry to worry you," Yuna replied, "But we ran into some trouble on the way."
The girl seemed to notice the boys standing beyond Yuna for the first time. She grinned. "And you brought it with you, too!"
Aros snorted, but Sora smiled. This girl seemed kind. And he could certainly do with a little humor now that the Heartless were back.
"This is Sora and Aros," Tidus began, "And this is Rikku and Auron"--he motioned to the hyper girl and a man standing in the shadows at the back of the room--"Auron, Sora's fought the Heartless before, and...well...he has a special weapon." Tidus scratched his head, seemingly unsure how to explain about the Keyblade and what he had seen it do. He shot a glance at Sora as if asking him for help.
Sora, however, was too busy staring at the man to notice. He was an older man with salt and pepper hair and an apparently scruffy chin, although a large collar obscured part of his face. He wore a long trenchcoat with his right arm through the sleeve and the left sleeve hanging limply, his left arm instead resting within the coat as if the coat were a sling. He wore dark glasses just far enough down his nose for him to peer over the top of them, and his face was stern. He looked like someone who had been through too much in his life. Despite his age, however, he also had a hard look, evidence of strength earned through experience. He was both overwhelming and reassuring to be near. A dangerous figure, but at the same time a solid rock that could not be shaken.
"You have a 'special' weapon against the Heartless?" Auron questioned, his voice as hard as his appearance. He stepped out of the shadows and up to Sora.
His words jerked Sora back to reality. He nodded and summoned the Keyblade. "This," he began, "is the Keyblade. It can be used to fight the Heartless, and it can also lock worlds. What I mean is...well..." Sora fumbled for words to describe it. On top of the fact that Tidus, Yuna, and maybe Aros--it was hard to say where he was concerned--hadn't understood what sealing a world was even witnessing it firsthand, Auron's somewhat cold and aloof manner had him flustered. And Rikku was overtly staring at him, eyes wide, looking oddly excited about his weapon, which made him even more nervous. "Each world has a Keyhole. Locking the Keyhole protects the heart of the world so that the Heartless cannot destroy it. That's...basically what the Keyblade does."
Auron raised an eyebrow and reached out his hand for the Keyblade. Sora did not even consider trying to keep it from him. He heard Aros snort again from the doorway as he offered the Keyblade to Auron without resistance.
Auron turned the Keyblade over in his hands, studying it for a moment before giving it back to Sora. "Where did you find this weapon?" he asked.
"It appeared four years ago when the Heartless first attacked my world."
"Four years ago?" Rikku declared. Her eyes, if possible, grew even wider.
Sora frowned. Had something significant happened to these people four years ago, too? "Yes. A man named Ansem opened the door to the darkness, and the Heartless attacked all the worlds-" Sora paused, realizing what he was saying, but knew that he had to finish now, "all the worlds on my side of the mirror."
Auron smirked. "So you are the Keyblade Master from the other side of the mirror that Ansem spent so much time studying."
Sora's jaw dropped, and he was pretty sure that at least Tidus's did as well. Rikku's certainly did. And her look of excitement was growing. If her eyes could have gotten any wider, they would have. "You know about me?"
"Ansem's Report," Aros mumbled.
"And you are one of the children from Fate Isles," Auron stated to Aros. It was not a question. He knew. Aros scowled, crossing his arms across his chest and looking away from Auron.
"I was hoping," Sora broke in nervously. On top of being an intimidating figure, Auron seemed to know Ansem well. This meant both that Auron probably had the information on Ansem that Sora was looking for and that Auron might be working with Ansem, which, considering what Sora suspected about Ansem, was certainly not a happy prospect. He swallowed hard and began again. "I was hoping you could give me some information about Ansem."
Auron smirked again. "You want to know if he's anything like the Ansem you fought."
Sora nodded, even though Auron obviously hadn't meant it as a question.
"Because of what Ansem has told me, I can't say very much about him."
Sora's face fell. He had thought that he was finally going to get some real answers. And why couldn't Auron tell him? "You won't tell me anything then?" He used "won't" instead of "can't" on purpose. The wry smile on Auron's face revealed that he had picked up on the detail. "I cannot tell you about Ansem himself," he replied, "But I can give you other information that I'm sure you'll be glad to have."
Sora perked back up at that. "What can you tell me?"
Auron turned his attention back to Aros, still standing in the doorway with his arms crossed. "Tidus, invite our other guest inside and close the door. I have a very old story to tell. About the mirror, Kingdom Hearts, the doors to light and darkness, and the four Keyblades."
"Four?" Sora breathed.
Auron made no reply. Tidus stepped over to Aros, at a loss for what to say, but Aros stepped inside, keeping his arms crossed, and leaned against the wall next to the door before Tidus had even opened his mouth. So Tidus simply closed the door and walked back over to his place beside Yuna. Rikku sat down at the table and propped her chin up on her arm, looking ready to hear a story.
Everyone grew silent, and all eyes locked on Auron as he began.
"Originally the two sides of the mirror were parallel--or, really opposite--universes connected by Kingdom Hearts and the mirror. The mirror was sealed, and no one could pass through it. Both sides existed independently, but were at the same time connected. Everything on one side was the exact opposite of everything on the other.
"On the side of the door to the darkness, the door was sealed and the worlds were not connected. All of the worlds were awful places and all of the people evil.
"But on the side of the door to the light, the door was open and all of the worlds connected by a golden highway. They were beautiful places, and all of the people were good.
"Four keys were created in Kingdom Hearts, each with its own specific two purposes--one for light to preserve the balance of the universe and one for darkness to destroy the balance. The Silver Key's use for light, for example, is to seal the hearts of the worlds. The keys can also be used in conjunction with one another. As you know, Sora, the Silver and Golden Keys are both needed to reseal the door to the darkness.
"But the perfect balance between the two sides of the universe could not last. Every key had a chosen Keyblade Master, born with the power to use the key to its full potential. And every Keyblade Master existed on both sides of the mirror, one good, one evil. Everything fell apart when the dark Silver Keyblade Master managed to call the Silver Keyblade from Kingdom Hearts to himself. He didn't know that the strange pond that he was standing next to was the mirror or that he was calling the Keyblade, but his will to harm the universe was strong enough that he had been drawn to the mirror and had drawn the Keyblade to himself. With the Keyblade, he was able to unlock the mirror and travel to the other side of it. The balance of the universe was upset, and the door to the light was sealed. The worlds on the side of the light that had always been connected were now completely cut off--except by travel through the mirror. With the mirror unlocked, people could go back and forth across it as much as they desired. But the mirror was unreliable. No one knew what world they would emerge at on the other side of the mirror.
"It took many years before the problem was resolved. The details of the story of the Silver, Golden, and White Keyblade Masters who finally sealed the mirror has been lost in history. All that is known is that those three Keyblades were responsible.
"By that time, the balance between the two sides of the universe had been all but destroyed. Opposites living on the same side of the mirror brought rise to parallels because an opposite of one of them would appear on the other side of the mirror, making it a parallel of the other.
"The other major problem was that opposites were no longer different in every way. Good and evil now existed on both sides of the mirror. Opposites knew different people and had major events in their lives changed, so their personalities took different turns.
"The upset balance even changed the worlds themselves. It is said that the forces which created the universe tried to combat the problem by making all the worlds parallels, in hope that it would offset the personality differences between the people and make them all parallels as well. The forces reasoned that, with good and evil on both sides of the mirror, everything could no longer be opposite, but perhaps by making it all the same the universe would be balanced again.
"The experiment utterly failed. Both parallels and opposites continue to exist, and, in theory, so do 'false twins.' False twins are parallels who both exist on the same side of the mirror, either from birth or through crossing the mirror. They are a direct violation of what the universe is trying to accomplish. However, chances are small that any false twins do exist. The universe would react somehow if they did, and the false twins would surely be aware of each other's existence.
"Although the balance of the universe was unstable, the two sides of the mirror were separated again, and, over time, the universe began to adjust to the imbalance of good and evil. But now the mirror has been unsealed again, throwing off the universe's balance, connecting the worlds on both sides, and unsealing the door to the darkness."
The room was silent for a moment while Auron's words sunk in. Then Sora spoke in a small voice full of dread entirely unlike his optimistic personality. "Does that mean that, when I crossed the mirror, I connected the worlds and...unlocked the door to the darkness?"
Auron nodded solemnly. "By unsealing the mirror, you used the Silver Keyblade for its dark purpose and hurt the balance of the universe. You are the one who unlocked the door to the darkness."
"No..." Sora whispered, almost inaudibly. His breath caught in his throat. The Heartless had come to these worlds. They had destroyed Aros's home. For all he knew they could be attacking Kairi, or already have attacked her... And it was all his fault! He felt tears coming to his eyes and struggled to hold them back. He hardly knew these people. He couldn't let them see him cry. "I'm sorry," he whispered, a bit more loudly, and turned away from them all and toward the door. He hurried out just as the first tears fell.
Iraki had barely made it inside after Aros had moved out of the doorway and before Tidus had closed the door. She was somewhat thankful when Sora rushed out so quickly that he left the door wide open behind him, although at the same time she was concerned about how mentally distressed he was.
She didn't have much time to think about it. She moved toward the doorway to follow Sora out, and Aros almost collided with her. She had to jump backwards to avoid his touching her. He continued hurrying out of the room, seemingly unaware of her presence. She shot nervous glances at the other four in the room. Auron's gaze was trained directly on her. He's spotted me, she realized, panicking. Auron simply nodded and smirked, saying nothing. Iraki scurried to the door before Tidus, Yuna, or Rikku tried to determine what he was looking at. However, Aros had taken the time to close the door behind him, putting Iraki in quite a quandary. She immediately began to panic. I can't lose track of Sora! I can't! She considered throwing the door open and hoping that the others would assume it was the wind. They've got to be too smart for that, and if they look at the doorway when I'm leaving, they might see me. But what else can I do? There is no open door!
Iraki almost jumped out of her skin when she felt someone brush past her. Auron didn't stop or give any indication that he had bumped into someone, instead he simply continued to the door, opening it and stepping outside. He peered around for a second and came back in. Iraki took a step back, ready to dash out behind him and pray that when he closed the door it didn't hit her.
But Auron left the door hanging wide open. He moved back to his place across the room, his face expressionless. Iraki mouthed a quick "thank you" and rushed outside before someone else decided to close the door.
"Is something out there?" Rikku questioned, exasperated, when it became apparent that Auron wasn't going to explain why he'd gone out into the Hotel and left the door hanging open.
"No." Auron offered no further explanation.
"Shouldn't we follow them?" Tidus piped up. He kept adjusting his grip on his sword, obviously bothered by the fact that the four of them were just standing there when Sora and Aros had run outside.
"No."
"But-"
"Let his friend comfort him," Yuna broke in, putting a hand on Tidus's sword arm and effectively quelling his protests.
Tidus frowned, trying to decide what to say. He finally settled on, "If they don't come back soon, we should go look for them and make sure that guy didn't attack them again."
"They won't come back," Auron stated, his voice as emotionless as ever and his words just as cryptic.
"What do you mean 'they won't come back'!?" Tidus demanded, beginning to lose his patience, "If they're in danger, we should help them."
"NO." Auron's tone was final, the force in his voice even causing Tidus to take an involuntarily step back. Auron was quiet for a moment, and the tension hanging in the air was almost palpable as he tried to decide what he should reveal to the other three.
"Say something!" Rikku pleaded.
"Ansem told me a bit about Sora's fate. Our part in it has ended--at least for now."
Yuna nodded, accepting Auron's words even as Tidus opened his mouth to protest. Her hand on his arm managed to keep Tidus's temper in check. Rikku was frowning as well, but Yuna had accepted Auron's decision not to say any more, so Rikku decided not to open her mouth, either.
Tidus sighed and sat on the bed. "So, what do we do now?"
"Now we sleep. But starting tomorrow morning, we will go back out into the city and protect the people from the Heartless. That should be the easiest way to find the next one."
"Next what?" Yuna questioned and Tidus demanded in unison. Rikku simply glowered at Auron for being so cryptic.
Auron gave a small smile at the faces of the three of them, all so frustrated and confused but showing it in such different ways. "What else? The next Keyblade Master."
