What now?
Denzel's question echoed in Sora's mind, over and over as he stared straight ahead at the abyss of space from the pilot's seat of the gummi ship. What were they going to do now? Their only lead turned out to be a bust, leading only to something called 'lab 43v61'. What was that supposed to mean anyway? According to what Tia Dalma said, it had something to do with Donald and Goofy's disappearance as well, but how were they supposed to use this new lead?
So caught up in his own thoughts, Sora didn't notice Denzel plot himself into the copilot's seat.
"Are we going back to Disney Castle?" he questioned flatly, his tone sending a shiver of nervousness down Sora's spine, and an unreadable expression plastered onto his face.
"Y-yeah…Maybe the King has some idea about what Tia Dalma had said."
"Ok."
"Yeah…"
"…"
O-o-O
As the small group climbed out of the ship, Riku, the first one out, looked around the hanger in confusion, "Something's not right…where's Chip…and Dale? And…why aren't there any ships in the hanger…? They're all gone!?"
"What!?" There was a loud 'thump' and a groan, indicating that Sora had bashed his head on something.
Denzel tilted his head and listened, "Do…do you guys hear that?"
"Hear what?" Sora asked, rubbing his head and went to stand behind the boy.
"Whispering…"
Riku creased his eyebrows and also listened intently into the deafening silence, "I don't-"
"Shh!" Sora exclaimed.
…Don't…it's…please…
…Leave…alone…
…please…
It seemed to be coming from all around them, the whispering, from the walls the ceiling, and if they stood in one place long enough, even the floors seemed to tremble with the voices that echoed throughout the place.
"C'mon," Riku motioned, "Lets split up and see if we can't find anyone. Denzel, you can come with me."
…you're…bad…don't…
Denzel nodded and the two left the area, leaving Sora to wander around on his own. Not that he minded, in fact, it allowed him time to think. But at the same time, allowed the voices to drift through his mind continually. It sounded as if two girls were fighting, and as he listened, he felt a throb in the back of his head, yet paid it no attention.
…do what…want…
…why…doing…listen…
As Sora approached the castle, the voices became clearer and slightly familiar to the boy, and before he knew it, he was in front of the Castle's throne room.
Mama told me! I won't listen to anyone other than her!
Suddenly the voices became crystal clear and a wave of pain hit Sora like a brick wall.
"Arghhh!"
The exclamation of agony rang throughout the castle and silenced the voices for a moment.
A Keyblade Master…?
UH!? N-no not him…
What? Who is it?
SHUT UP!
"ARRGGH!" The shout from the disembodied voice left Sora nearly paralyzed yet, summoning his Keyblade and using it as a crutch, he made his way into the throne room and down into the Hall of the Cornerstone, which he was surprised to find open. And what he saw, knew would give him nightmares for a long time to come.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"
O-o-O
As the third scream rung out, Riku swatted away another heartless, franticly trying to make his way towards the shouts. Denzel fought at his back. Swinging his buster sword, simply trying to clear the way.
But something was strange about these heartless. Instead of glowing, sickly yellow eyes, these eyes were bright red, and filled with murder.
O-o-O
Sora opened his eyes and all the previous images of blood, gore and bodies of his loved ones vanished. The room was once again pristine white, not at all stained red, and completely silent. There was no one there.
Keyblade Master.
Sora yelled and jumped up, brandishing his Keyblade at the ghostly apparition behind him. He was startled to find that he had summoned Oblivion instead of the Kingdom Key, but he ignored that detail for a moment.
"W-who are you?"
I was Akiko. I am now known as the Fourth.
Sora lowered his Keyblade, "A-Akiko? The one from the story..?"
She nodded and stared at him with her inverted eyes. Sora shivered, a lot of people have been staring at him lately.
It seems that the task of informing you now falls on me.
"I-Informing me? About what?"
Your duty, of course.
O-o-O
"Sora!!" Riku called out running around the castle, Denzel right behind him. The strange heartless has suddenly vanished as they had appeared. But where was Sora? Riku had the idea that they should probably hightail it out of the castle. In the courtyard, they heard another short yell.
"..Throne room…"Riku muttered under his breath and motioned for Denzel to follow him. When they arrived Sora lay on the floor passed out, he never noticed the light shadow pass over him and behind the blackened Cornerstone.
"Sora!! What happened!?" He shook his best friend, but to no avail, growling he slung his arm over his shoulder and hefted him up.
"Riku…I think we better get out of here…" Denzel raised his buster sword and pointed it at the little girl standing, quietly frowning in the corner. Riku glanced at her and noticed Leidy's eye color change. It was now the sickly yellow of a heartless. When she noticed Riku's gaze, she smiled and waved, then turned around and walked into the wall, melting into it and vanishing, the only trace of her left was her echoing giggle.
After a moment of silence, Riku started to move out the throne room with Sora, "C'mon Denzel…She won't do anything now, but we better move before she changes her mind."
"Right."
O-o-O
"They must have left, and gone to Radiant Garden," Riku stated as he laid Sora across two of the passenger seats, "King Mickey said something about that before we left, we have to get there somehow and find out what happened."
"…You…don't know how to fly a gummi ship…do you?"
Riku sighed, "Is it that obvious?"
Denzel nodded, "I think I can fly it though, Cid's been giving me lessons." Denzel took the pilot's seat as Riku took the other and began flipping switches that started the ship up, "Alright…here we go."
The takeoff went pretty smooth, and once Denzel put in the coordinates for Radiant Garden, the only thing they had left to worry about was the landing.
"Let's try and contact Radiant Garden. It's not really too far from Disney Castle so we should be able to reach them," Denzel suggested, Riku nodded.
"Just tell me what to do."
Five minutes later they had an open connection and were waiting for someone to pick up.
O-o-O
Hiro was swinging tiredly in the swivel chair in front of Cid's computer when he saw the little red light on the monitor blink, "Oy, guys! Qu'est-ce que c'est? What is this?"
Cid motioned for him to get out of the seat, and when he sat he rapidly started to type, in a few seconds, a face appeared on the screen.
"Denzel!!" Tifa and Aerith shouted.
Denzel glanced at the screen and gave a small half smile, "Hey everyone, it seems we have to come back."
"Why?" Cloud asked, in his own concerned way, "What happened?"
Riku's face came on screen as well and he directed a quick comment at Denzel, "He doesn't have any injuries but it doesn't look like he's waking up anytime soon."
"What's going on over there?" Leon asked, "What happened to Sora?"
"We don't know, we had gone back to Disney Castle-"
"What!? You went back to Disney Castle!?" Cid yelled, "Are you off your rocker!? Don't you know what's been happening over there!?"
Denzel gave him a flat look, and a flat response, "No, no we didn't."
"We've tried contacting you," Leon said apologetically, "But something was blocking the signal."
"We'll tell you what happened to us when we get there. I think Sora's awake, but everyone's there right? Is everyone who was in Disney Castle okay?"
"Well…everyone except the King and Zidane…sort of," Hiro said glancing at Cloud and Leon, " We haven't heard from them yet, but we left them a gummi ship in the hanger."
Riku grinned, "Then they must be okay! There weren't any ships at all when we got there."
"Really!?"
"Yeah, we'll fill each other in half an hour, we should be there be there by then."
Cid nodded, "We'll be expecting you."
Denzel returned his nod and started disconnecting the link, " See you guys soon."
His image blinked out and Cid whirled around, "Think we should have told them?"
"It's no use worrying them about her while they can do nothing about it," Leon said, "Well tell them about Kairi when they get here."
O-o-O
"Sora?" Riku approached the boy, but even though his eyes were half lidded, it still seemed as if he were asleep.
"Is he awake?"
"No…I guess not…"
-
"What's going on?" Roxas asked as the woman in white returned to the grove.
Roxas, you told me you wanted a heart, you told me you wanted to be your own person…What if I could make that wish come true? Would you be willing pay for it?
-
"Well, I'm getting ready to land, so buckle up."
Riku plotted himself down, "Yeah, yeah…just try not to crash us, okay?"
-
"What? How?"
You must find and protect someone, can you do that?
"Yes, of course I can!"
-
"Alright, I got permission to land, here we go."
-
Alright then…here we go…-
Sora twitched and his eyes shot open, and he let out a short, painful scream, starling the other two persons in the ship.
"Sora!?" Riku unbuckled his seatbelt as Denzel concentrated on landing the gummi ship as quickly as possible.
"Hey! Sora!? What-"
The ship lurched and both Denzel and Riku cursed, Riku because he was sent flying.
"Sorry, sorry!"
By now Sora was writhing and clutching his heart, screaming in pain.
As soon as the gummi ship landed, Denzel opened the hatch and urgently called for Earth's assistance. She was helped into the cockpit by Leon and Cloud, as Crystal tagged along, though she walked instead of floated as her sister often did.
Aerith checked Sora's vital signs and asked Leon and Cloud to hold him down. She tried casting Curaga, and Sleep, and all other healing spells she knew, but nothing seemed to work until he just suddenly stopped moving. Aerith nearly had a heart attack as she flew to check his vital signs, but sighed in relief and exhaustion as she stated that he was fine, though she was quite puzzled.
Sora groaned, as his eyes were closed once more, and he seemed to fall into a fitful sleep.