/ Chapter 11
Sora
King Mickey had a knack for showing up at just the right time, at just the right place. But he also had a knack for showing up at unpredictable times. Like now.
"Pinckney?" Sora heard Riku say. Or, at least, it sounded like that anyway. Sora had just woken up from a knock at the door, which Riku had cautiously opened it for. And in came the King. He seemed so out of place that Sora wondered if he was still dreaming.
"You are Majestly, what're you doin' here?" Sora said, having trouble pronouncing words right and rubbing his eyes. Around him, Sora heard the others starting to wake up. "And at this hour! It's…" Sora didn't know what time it was, and felt too lazy to look at his watch "really early."
"I know it is, Sora, but something terrible has happened!" King Mickey said, urgency in his voice. "Destiny Islands has been taken over!"
A tense silence filled the room.
"Our home…" Kairi said, quiet and sad.
"What's gonna happen now?" Sora said, looking at the ground.
King Mickey looked like he knew how they felt, but had to continue. "They're coming here next. Everyone's coming here next. And…" The King sighed. "We need you out of here."
Sora's head shot up. "What?"
"Our forces are not strong enough to overtake the enemy," the King explained. "We can only hold them back. So we need you to be on the inside."
"You want us to infiltrate their bases?" Riku asked.
"Exactly. I want you to take down their leader. If they have no one to command them, the Heartless and the Nobodies won't know what to do. They'll be easy to take out, then."
"Okay," Kairi said, "but who is their leader?"
The King shrugged. "We dunno. But we know where he is, and we think we know how to get more info on him."
"Where?" Sora asked.
"He's in the Castle that Never Was. But your destination right now is the library of Hollow Bastion," the King said. "Ansem used to experiment there and with so many books and secret passageways, I have a feeling you can find what we need."
"How long can you hold off the Forces of Darkness, then?" Riku asked.
"We don't have many resources left, so prolly…three days," King Mickey said, a sad look on his face.
"But they have four bases!" Riku said. "That'll never work!"
"That's why you need to leave now," the King said, before looking at Naminé.
"I-I can't do it!" Naminé said, stuttering under the pressure. "I can only take five people!"
King Mickey looked around the room, and into the mirror. "Six…" he said.
"Cid can help!" Sora said, jumping up. "He was making us a gummi ship!"
"Sora," Riku said, "he said it would take him two days, at least, and it's only been one!"
"And he said he was having trouble finding all the parts," Kairi added.
"There's no way he could be done already!"
"We have to check," Sora said.
Riku sighed, but King Mickey said, "Sora's right! We can't give up now!" He turned to Sora. "Take us to Cid."
Sora nodded, then exited the house, everyone else close on his heels. Roxas and Naminé were reduced to being see-through after stepping through the mirror. Sora ran down the steps, knowing the path well, but a surprise waited for them in the main square.
The plaza was filled with Heartless.
*~.~*
Roxas
"I was afraid of this," King Mickey said.
"They're here already?" Riku said.
"Yes, and we have to take them down to get to Cid." Mickey summoned Kingdom Key DΩ.
Riku followed suit, and The Way to Dawn materialized in his hand. Kairi pulled out her floral Keyblade. Axel's fiery chakrams appeared in his hands. Sora brought his hand out in front of him and, with a flash of light, his silver Keyblade was in it and Roxas brought his own Keyblade out.
Seeing all the Keyblades flash into their masters' hands, Riku remembered something. He called, "Roxas! Protect Naminé!"
"Huh?" Roxas said, glancing at the weaponless Naminé, then seeing Riku's point.
"I don't know if they can touch you guys, but she doesn't have a weapon, either way," Riku explained.
"Okay, on it!" Roxas said, taking position in front of Naminé.
Just then, two Dusks broke through the crowd, wriggling towards him. Roxas heard them at the last second and lifted his weapon in just enough time to block the closest one's attack. A cling! noise sounded, and Roxas was forced backwards.
"Whoa!" Roxas said, alerting Axel, who quickly threw a chakram at the lesser Nobody. After it had disappeared, Axel continued to fight beside Roxas. Roxas yelled to Riku, who was back-to-back with Sora, "They can touch us!"
"Okay, you guys take out the Nobodies, then, and we Somebodies will take out the Heartless!" Riku said, seeing that there was a lot more Heartless.
Groups formed without any spoken agreement. While Riku ordered Roxas to protect Naminé, Axel automatically started fighting with him, making up for Naminé's vulnerability. Sora and Riku were an unbeatable team, having fought for years and thus knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses. King Mickey, who was hard to beat by himself, fought alongside Kairi, who was missing more than a few years of battle experience.
Roxas blocked another Dusk's attack. He was mostly worked on the defensive to keep Naminé safe. As Roxas repositioned himself around Naminé, Axel took out the dazed Nobody, and the cycle began again. No Heartless approached, making Roxas think that Heartless couldn't touch them. And likewise, too.
The three groups moved out of Third District and into First, trying not to destroy every enemy in sight, but to make their way to Cid as fast as possible. He could be in trouble, and the swarms of Heartless and Nobodies were only going to get thicker.
Riku knocked a Dark Ball away as Sora destroyed a Soldier in a single hit. "Where are the Forces of Light?" he called to the King. Roxas figured he was thinking of Donald and Goofy.
"Second District," the King answered Sora. "Below the bell tower in the main square. But some still need to get here, yet!" He spotted a Shadow trying to sneak up on Kairi and sliced it with his golden Keyblade.
Eventually the friends made it to the stairs, where Riku called out, "Okay! Roxas, your group will go see Cid first. Once everything's sorted out, Axel comes back for Sora and Kairi. Me and the King will hold them off long enough so that I'm the last to board. Everyone okay with that?"
Everyone agreed with various shouts of "Sounds good!" and "Okay!" After, Roxas and Naminé linked eyes, nodded, and broke away from the crowd, Axel following behind to kill off any random Nobodies brave enough to try to take them on. They ran to the shortcut between the accessory shop and the items shop, ignoring the stairs on the other side. Roxas used a box to help Naminé up the ledge that Sora had jumped down from, just the day before.
When the three of them had arrived at the shop, Roxas called into the garage, "Cid! Is it done?"
"It about has to be!" Cid called back, standing up. He thought about something, then asked, "Does any of you guys know how to fly a gummi ship?"
"Sora does." When Cid made a face, Roxas said, "The rest of us usually use the corridor of darkness! We can't help it!"
"It'll have to do," Cid said gravely, as if someone had died. Already. "Well, c'mon, get in!" He opened one of the doors of the gummi ship.
Wondering if he was just invited to his own doom, Roxas and Naminé got onto the gummi ship, as Axel went back for Sora and Kairi.
"Ever been on a gummi ship?" Naminé asked, looking around.
"Me? No. But Sora has, so I know what it's like," Roxas said. He noticed that there were just enough seats for the six of them, lined in sets of twos. "Although, this one's bigger than the ones Sora's been on. Usually there are only three seats…"
"They're in couples…" Naminé noticed, and Roxas wondered if Cid was playing matchmaker. "Speaking of couples…Roxas, last night I woke up and saw that you and Axel were gone."
Immediately his face went red.
"Oh, I don't mean anything by it," Naminé assured him. "I won't tell anybody. I'm just glad you found someone to be with…"
"Oh," Roxas said, relaxing. "Yeah…but it's hard to be in a relationship with anyone when I have to make sure I don't get too far away from Sora and Kairi…"
"Yeah," Naminé agreed, looking a bit sad.
"I just…I wish I wasn't a Nobody so much…it just gets in the way, and suddenly there's no privacy…" he sighed.
"I know," Naminé said, looking at him. "But Sora and Kairi need us."
Roxas nodded. Noting the plural, he looked at her. She's a Nobody, too…I wonder…
"Hey, Naminé?"
"Mm? Yes?"
"Is there anyone you like?"
It was her turn to blush, and she looked away quickly. "Well, I-I…yes, but…I don't know…I don't know where he is…or what happened to him…"
Roxas perked up. "Something happen?"
Naminé shook her head. "It's nothing. It doesn't matter. I'm…I'm a Nobody. And he…he has a heart of his own. There's no way he'd actually fall for someone like me."
Roxas looked at her sadly. He felt bad for her. At least he had someone.
But, then, who did she like?
Suddenly, noises came from outside and Sora, Kairi, and Axel jumped into the gummi ship. Sora found the driver's seat. Roxas went and sat in the last row, and Axel joined him. Naminé sat in the second, but Kairi seemed to want to sit by Sora. Again.
"This seat open?" Kairi asked, coming along the right-hand side.
"Well, umm, I guess…" Sora said, obviously not wanting to sit by her, but not wanting to hurt her feelings, either.
"You guess?" Kairi seemed uncertain.
"Well, I don't know if Riku wants to sit here…but I guess if you want to, he'd understand…"
Even from the side, it was easy to see the hurt on Kairi's face. "Oh…" she said, taking a step back. "Well…t-then, I'll go sit by Naminé." She hurried to sit by her and struck up a conversation instantly, to try to hide her embarrassment.
Sora slowly looked back to the controls. When what he wanted hurt someone, he wasn't that great at making them feel better.
Without warning, Riku jumped in, shouting, "GO!" before the door was even closed.
Startled, Sora rushed into pushing buttons, not sure, himself, that he was doing it right. Riku closed the door, fast, then rushed to the only remaining seat, by Sora, buckling his seatbelt as the ship took off.
And now, the adventure was about to really being.
*~.~*
Roxas
It wasn't until Roxas woke up that he realized that the start of the adventure was so boring that he had fallen asleep. To be fair, there was probably another reason Roxas was so tired, but…
"Good morning, Sleeping Beauty," said Axel, sitting beside him.
Groggy, Roxas replied, "I'm not Sleeping Beauty. I look nothing like Aurora." He was speaking from experience. Sora's experience, anyways.
"Well, you both have blue eyes and curly, blond hair. Doesn't sound like a whole lot of difference to me," Axel said. Roxas made a face and he laughed. "No, you're right. You sleep a lot more than she does," Axel continued to laugh.
Roxas rolled his eyes, looked around, and moved a bit. He was very stiff. "Maybe you're right. I was out for a long time, wasn't I?" Remembering the night before, Roxas felt compelled to test his memories. "Wonder why…" he said. Since Roxas wasn't looking at Axel, at first, he didn't see his reaction. But Axel's laughter died and Roxas turned. The look on Axel's face was so fierce, it was almost a glare. Roxas gave a little laugh. "Just had to make sure."
"Make sure of what?"
"That it wasn't…" Roxas looked at the ship's floor "a dream or something…"
Roxas didn't see Axel's confused look. "A dream?"
"Yeah, um…" Roxas felt awkward, saying it out loud. "I, uh, had a, umm, 'dream' of you and, umm, of me—"
Axel laughed again. "A dream, huh? So tell me, am I better kisser in your dreams or in person?"
Roxas's face turned red. Again. "I, uh," he said, quickly, "I dunno, I woke up before, uh, you, um—"
"Oh!" Axel said, remembering something. "Yesterday, when you tripped and woke up and your face was as red as my hair." Axel smiled, looking at Roxas, who had to look up. "Still is."
"Is not!" Roxas said. Having no idea how red his face actually was, he added, "Is it?"
Axel laughed some more, but his laughter was cut short by some strange noises from the gummi ship's engine, and flashing red lights accompanied by sounds of alarms going off.
"What's going on?" Kairi said, standing up.
"Sora?" Riku said, but Sora was staring at the controls, a horrified look on his face.
"Uh-oh," he said.
*~x~*
