Back in the long circular hallway, they found one more locked gate. Inside was a jagged, narrow hallway. The floor sunk a foot below ground level, and it was flooded with foul-smelling septic water. The walls were damp and covered in algae. Sora and Akiri pinched their noses as they hurried down the hall, eager to find the end of this area.
Luckily it was not long before they came to another gate at the end of a long corridor. A brass double-gate was set inside two white pillars, the numeral "X" scrawled on the lock. Sora pulled out the last keycard and put it in the lock, hearing the familiar click as the gates creaked open. Sora and Akiri stepped inside a small space, a corridor leading away on their right. Large slate blue flagstones paved the floor, sticking up at odd angles where the ground shifted. The dark stone walls were almost indiscernible under thick layers of brass pipelines and tubing. They cascaded down and crisscrossed over one another in a dizzying mess. All around them was the trickle of water and the hiss of steam as it escaped from rusted bolts.
"This is it, right?" Akiri said, shaking his arm. "That was our last keycard! We're almost out of here!"
Sora stood look around. "Yeah, but..."
"But what?"
"I thought Donald and Goofy would be here by now. Do you think they're okay?"
"Oh… I'm sure they're just fine. They're probably right behind us."
"Maybe we should wait for them," Sora suggested, looking for a place to sit. Akiri pulled him back.
"No! Please... we've come this far... I'm so tired," Akiri pleaded, holding tighter to his arm. "I just want to get out of here. You and me. We don't need them. We've done alright just the two of us. Right?"
Sora blinked at her. "But... Akiri... I can't leave my friends!"
"Why not?" she muttered. "They left you, didn't they? Don't you remember? Alone and defenseless... they ditched you the moment someone better came along."
For a moment Sora saw a flash of him on his knees, staring down at a battered wooden sword. So much time had passed since then, that moment alone in Hollow Bastion had almost faded out of his memory. But I never told her about that, he thought, bewildered. "How did you...?"
"Why are you trying so hard to find them, Sora?" she continued, ignoring him. "He alienated and humiliated you, and now he avoids you. And her... she went on with her life and forgot all about you, and only when she remembered did she feel like easing her guilty conscience," she spat.
Sora tried to step away, alarmed by the sudden fire in Akiri's eyes. "Riku... that's not... how could you know... Kairi wouldn't forget about me! "
Akiri laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "Hah! Oh, Sora, that's what I like about you... so naïve." She reached out to touch his hair and he ducked out of the way. "Even if you do get your little friends back together again, what do you think will happen? If Riku and Kairi decide they like each other more than they like you, where does that leave you?"
Sora pulled his arm out of her grasp, backing up. "Stop it! You don't even know them!"
"I know just what they're like!" she cried, rapping the shovel against the ground. "They'll drop you like dirt once they have each other! They won't need you around anymore! You'll be alone again! You'll have no one!"
Sora felt tears sting his eyes. "Akiri..."
Akiri took a deep breath, letting her shoulders relax. "Sora," she said, voice softer. "You don't have to go through this... I'm here... it could be you and me, together." Backed against the wall, Sora could only watch as Akiri slowly moved closer. "I'll never hurt you, or leave you, or forget about you. I'll never run away or disappear. I'll be yours, forever." She was so close now that Sora could hear her breathing. She brushed her fingertips against his arm. "What do you say?" she whispered.
Sora shut his eyes, feeling his heart pounding against his chest. Her words were sinking into him like needles, crawling inside his mind and ripping apart the threads holding together his thoughts. He tried to hold on to the memories of his friends smiling faces, but they were slipping through the cracks like sand, replaced with the buried memories of Donald and Goofy walking away, Riku holding a blade against him... and even moments that had never happened. Kairi's disappointed face. Riku and Kairi holding hands, laughing, while Sora stood far away. In a blink he could picture everyone moving on without him. Moving away from him. He felt his hand move towards hers.
Akiri smiled, taking his hand. "Do you see now?"
Sora opened his eyes. "I'm sorry, Akiri," he murmured. "But I can't."
Akiri's face twisted. She slapped his hand aside, stepping back. "Fine! But you'll see that I'm right! They'll never accept you for who you are! You'll always be alone!" she screamed. The shovel clattered to the floor as she ran out of sight around the corner. Her footsteps echoed against the stone until they faded away.
Sora leaned against the wall in shock, trying to process what just happened. His thoughts were just noise, screaming chaos. He clutched his head, willing it to stop, wishing that he would wake up and this would all be a bad dream. He kept blinking but everything stayed the same. The hissing of steam around him echoed the building pressure in his mind pushing to critical. Blinded and dazed, he started to run after her, the fire axe trailing loosely in his grip.
Sora followed the twisting turns of the hallway, stumbling against the pipes, struggling to stay on his feet. He did not know where he was going or what he was doing, only that he needed to find someone. Anyone. He ran and ran, the pipes hissing and screaming around him, and he wasn't sure if it was the steam anymore or if it was him screaming. His vision blurred and he swayed, overwhelmed to the point of collapse - when he burst into an open space.
He was standing on the edge of a large circular clearing. Dying grass stretched out around his feet. Trees encircled the area, their bows still and silent. A full moon beamed down in a starless night sky, giving the clearing a pale glow.
In the middle of the clearing stood Akiri. She was staring up at the moon, expressionless and quiet. In the moonlight she looked helpless and frail. Tears glittered down her cheeks.
Sora made to move towards her, but was startled by a loud crash behind him. He spun around to see a gate blocking off the hallway where he had come in. He pulled at the bars, rattling the gate, but it was locked tight.
In the distance Sora could hear a sound, steadily beating louder. It was a long, wailing siren, the same one he remembered hearing in Brookhaven. Alarmed, Sora turned around.
The trees were withering before his eyes. The leaves curled and browned, and fell to the ground. The branches shriveled up and the trunks grayed. Fog moved like a tidal wave over the sky, concealing the moon with a thick haze and throwing the clearing into shadow. The grass beneath his feet shrunk away, and the dirt shifted and darkened. The siren was growing louder, ringing in his ears and rattling inside his head. Around him a red glow was burning around the ground, forming circles and symbols and runes.
A sharp scream jolted his attention away from the ground. His eyes snapped up and he felt the air collapse out of his lungs.
Something was stepping out of the shadows of the trees. Leaves and vines wove together into a thick mesh around its hips, concealing its feet as it stepped into the light. A bare torso, its heavy muscle tone hidden under a layer of dirt and mud, led up to a gaping dark hole in its chest. Its head was hidden under a lopsided pyramid of metal and thorns and withered roses. In its hands it clutched an enormous curving scythe, the handle wrapped in a convulsing layer of thorns and barbs.
Sora backed against the gate, staring. There was nowhere to go, no roof to fall off of, and no friends to save him. The thought of friends made him remember Akiri, and he pulled his attention away from the creature.
Akiri was standing, frozen, in front of the monster. It moved towards her, raising its scythe. Akiri started screaming.
"Akiri!"Sora yelled, and he lurched as he tried to run toward her. He had to windmill to get his balance - his feet were rooted to the ground by a mass of twisting vines working their way up his shins. In his horror he hadn't noticed the Angiphytes stepping out of the trees around them, vines twisting across the ground.
The pyramid creature grabbed hold of Akiri's neck with one hand, the thick muscles of its arms bulging as it lifted her off the ground. Its crushing grip choked off her screams, and she dangled helplessly in the air, clawing at its hand. Vines poked out of its pale skin, crawling and twisting up its arm towards Akiri. She watched with wide eyes as the vines began to wrap around her body.
Sora's mind was awash with unintelligible screaming. No no no nonononono "No! Stop! Akiri!" he yelled. He tried to leap forward but he was rooted tightly to the spot. He fell backwards, rapping the back of his head against the gate with a clang. His vision blacked out for a second.
When his sight swam back into focus, Akiri's head was just barely visible above a cocoon of thorns. Her face was starting to turn a deep purple, her eyes drifting towards the top of her head. The vines stopped moving, and for a long, tense second, nothing happened. Sora clenched his eyes shut.
The silence was punctured by a loud crack like a gunshot. There was a sharp hiss and a quiet patter like rain on the dirt. Something warm misted his forehead. There was a pause and then a loud thump of something hitting the ground.
His eyes eased open. Akiri's crushed and mangled body laid in mud at the monster's feet. Blood-soaked vines retreated inside its body, rippling its muscles.
Sora stared at Akiri's body, numb with shock, his screams dying in his throat. The Angiphytes had begun fighting with one another. The pyramid monster gazed down at the body, leaning the blade of the scythe to her chest. The ribcage was a splintered mess. The blade gingerly peeled away a lump of tissue - her heart.
A boiling pain rippled across Sora's arm. The dark substance was flowing up Sora's fingertips, washing over his arm and chest and stretching down towards his legs. His thoughts died away, replaced with a surging, single-minded rage. He felt his muscles tense like a spring as power burst into him.
He glanced down at the roots binding his feet. With one swipe of his darkened arm, he ripped them away, freeing himself. The movement of light attracted the creature's attention. It turned away from Akiri's body towards Sora, holding up the scythe. Sora brandished the fire axe. His terror and anguish quieted to a dim growl beneath a howling desire to destroy.
He leapt forward, quickly closing the distance between himself and the monster. It made a wide swipe with its scythe but Sora sprung out of range, swinging the fire axe into its shoulder. The creature screamed and twisted, grasping for Sora. He ripped the axe away and darted out of its reach.
The monster swung the scythe at the ground in front of it, the blade sinking into the dirt. Sora watched, alert, waiting. The ground rumbled beneath their feet as monstrous roots burst from the ground. Sora leapt out of the way as they reached blindly for him. He whirled the axe around, slicing the roots apart. New ones replaced the old as fast as he could carve them. The creature used this opportunity to pull closer, until suddenly its hands were around Sora's neck.
Sora felt the axe drop out of his hands as he was lifted off the ground. His feet kicked wildly in the air, pummeling the monster's stomach and chest to no effect. Distantly he could feel the air squeezing out of his lungs as he gasped for breath, the hand around his neck tightening. Fear and panic were overwhelming the feral rage, as vines began to poke out of the monster's skin. Sora stared into the eyeless gaze of the pyramid, feeling the stinging terror of knowing he was about to die.
His foot kicked against the hole in the creature's chest, and for a split second he felt the monster shudder. Darkness was swarming over the right side of his face, muddling his eyesight. The fear was crawling back, replaced with a stroke of hope. It was enough.
Sora flung his arm out, making a vicious swipe at the hole in the creature's chest. It flinched with a roar. The movement was just enough for Sora to reach closer, and he punched with all his might at the hole. He felt his hand rip into the creature's chest.
His head rattled with a piercing scream. The grip around his neck released and he fell to the ground. Vision swimming, he watched as the monster backed up, clutching its chest. It sunk back towards the shadows, the Angiphytes following with it.
His eyes drifted to Akiri in front of him. Her clouding eyes stared past him into nothingness. Sora's hand shook as he tried to reach out to touch her. He heard a rushing sound inside his ears, and everything went black.
Back and forth, back and forth. He watched his feet swinging back and forth, dangling above the ground. His feet could not touch the ground but he knew when he was older, he would be big, and he could touch the floor. As it was, he was still too small to fit in the big metal chair. He leaned on his hands, glancing around the room. There were empty chairs like his everywhere, and some small tables with magazines. He had already looked at all the pictures in them. A television in the corner was broadcasting the news. Sora tuned it out. It was boring. Bored, bored, bored.
With a huff, he pushed himself off the chair. He glanced furtively at the big counter nearby. The desk clerk was supposed to be keeping an eye on him, making sure he did not wander off. If he stood on his tippy-toes, he could see that she was busy chatting on the phone to someone. She was not paying the least bit attention to him. With a smile, Sora snuck away down the hall. He came to a set of swinging doors and pushed his way past with a quiet giggle.
He was standing in a long, shiny hallway. Doors lined the hall on either side. He could see that they all had windows in them, but he was still too short to see through them. He walked slowly down the hall, puzzling over which door to choose.
One of the doors opened. Startled, he looked for a place to hide and ducked behind a cart. A nurse stepped out, covered from head to toe in a blue uniform. Sora caught a quick glimpse of a dark stain on her clothes before she turned and started walking down the hall, oblivious to his presence.
Sora crept out from his hiding place and slipped to the door. The nurse left it slightly ajar, and Sora pushed gently against it, peeking inside.
The room was crowded with equipment and nurses and bright, shiny lights. The nurses were all talking softly to each other as they milled around the room, picking up tools and moving carts and poking at the machines. One of the monitors was emitting a long, piercing sound that made Sora's ears hurt. In the middle of the room was a long table. He caught a quick glimpse of someone lying on the table before one of the nurses covered them in a sheet.
Sora peered around the room and finally saw what he was looking for. A man was walking around the room, talking to the nurses. His goggles made him look like a bug-eyed alien. Even under all the weird clothing, Sora could tell who it was. He squirmed, suppressing the urge to run into the room.
The man sighed and glanced at the door. He did a double take when he saw Sora's eyes peering around the doorframe. Discovered, Sora scrambled to get out of the way, but it only took a few steps for the man to make it to the door and outside into the hall. He pulled off the goggles and the mask over his mouth, and Sora stared sheepishly up at his father's face.
"Sora? What are you doing here?" he sighed, exasperated. "I thought I told you to stay in the waiting room." There were dark rings under his eyes, and he visibly sagged now that he was outside the room.
"Daddy, when are we going home?" Sora whined.
"Soon, I just need to finish up with this patient..."
Sora turned his feet in and out, in and out. "What's wrong? Is he okay?"
His father hesitated, glancing back through the window. "He's... no, Sora, he's not okay," he replied. He kneeled down to get closer to Sora's eye level. "I'm afraid your Dad wasn't able to help him."
Sora wrestled with this. "Is he sleeping?"
"No, he's not sleeping..." He grappled for something that would make sense. "Do you remember your goldfish?"
Sora thought. "Goldie?"
He gave a weak smile. "Yeah, Goldie. Remember when Goldie stopped swimming and we had to say goodbye?"
Sora nodded slowly.
"Well, sometimes... when people are really hurt or sick... they stop, too. It's called dying."
Sora blinked, taking this in. "Will Daddy die?"
He frowned. "No, not today... but... someday. Everyone dies someday."
Sora stared at his father, then stared down at his feet. Tears welled in his eyes. "Am I gonna die?"
Sora felt his fathers arms wrap around him. "No. Not for a long, long time. I promise."
The warmth of the embrace dissipated. Sora leaned back in surprise to see that his father was starting to disappear into a plume of black smoke. "D-daddy?!" he cried in confusion. His tiny hand reached to hold on to his father's arm, but it vanished into a dark haze. The hallway around him was smoking, slowly disintegrating into a black void. Sora began to run, trying to get away, but soon everything around him was black. He looked down at his hands and saw they, too, were disappearing into darkness. He screamed, but could only watch helplessly as he was swallowed into darkness.
A red glow seeped into the black. Sora's eyes fluttered open, squinting at the bright light below his chin. He heard his muscles crack and pop as he pulled himself up into a sitting position, consciousness awash with grogginess.
He was sitting in the middle of the clearing. The grass had returned, and the strange symbol on the ground was gone. Leaves had returned to the trees, rustling in a cool breeze. A heavy, swirling fog gave the overcast air a steel blue haze.
A throbbing pain around his neck charged into his consciousness. He clutched his neck and coughed, recalling the sensation of being choked. Events were starting to come back to him. With great trepidation, he glanced to his side.
Akiri's body was gone, a large, dark stain in the grass the only remnant left. Sora staggered to his feet in a panic, looking around.
A pile of freshly turned earth sat in front of a tree. His blood-soaked jacket covered the ground, and Akiri's shovel was stuck into the dirt. Sora swayed towards the spot, staring down at the ground. His strength left him, and he fell to his knees.
"Tragic, isn't it?" a low voice spoke behind him.
Sora whirled around. The man in the black cloak was leaning against the gate, watching. He pushed away, stepping towards Sora.
"What a shame she had to die that way," he tsked. He folded his arms, staring down at the grave. "You are so cruel, Sora. But then again, she was always such a manipulative little witch."
Sora rose shakily to his feet, furiously wiping tears from his cheeks. "What are you talking about?!" he sniffed. "It wasn't my fault! That monster killed her! I... I couldn't do anything..." He felt his knees shake again.
The stranger leaned towards Sora. Even this close, the light could not reach past his hood. "That's the question, isn't it? Who was the real monster?"
Sora turned away, back to the pile of dark earth. He kneeled and touched his jacket, glancing at the smears of blood it left on his fingertips. "All she wanted was for me to stay with her," he muttered. "Maybe she was right about everything. Maybe it would have been better if I went with her and forgot about everything." He clutched the jacket beneath his hands. "I couldn't even save her... how am I supposed to save my friends?" He rubbed his eyes and glared up at the hooded man. "Why do you care, anyway? Isn't this what you Nobodies want?" He waved a hand at the grave. "You don't care who gets in your way as long as you get your hearts back!" he spat.
The man leaned away. "Are you so different, Sora?" he taunted. "What lengths will you go to stop the Organization and save your friends? Who else will you destroy?"
Sora snorted, folding his arms. "It's not the same! Nobodies don't have hearts! They're not really alive to begin with. Who cares what happens to them! They can't feel loss."
"Is that so? Is that what it means to be alive?" he snickered. "Tell me, how do you know that your friend there had a heart? Because you saw it pulled outside her chest?"
Sora stared down at the grave and did not answer.
The man fumbled through his coat. A keycard landed on top of the jacket in front of Sora. A drawing of a skeleton riding a white horse was drawn on the top of the card, with thirteen holes punched below it.
"A parting gift," the man explained. "You should clear your head, Sora. A visit to the amusement park might cheer you up. But don't forget our promise. I'm still waiting to meet you at the church."
Sora looked up, ready to tell him off - but the man was gone. He was sitting in the empty clearing, alone. Sora pocketed the card and stood up. He hesitated, and began scavenging around the clearing. After some searching, he was able to find a rock large enough to write Akiri's name on with the last of his red crayon. He pulled the shovel out of the dirt and replaced it with the rock. For a moment he stood staring down at the grave.
"I guess... this is goodbye," he whispered. "I'm sorry." He closed his eyes and walked away.
He picked up the chipped fire axe by the gate; the cloaked man must have moved it to keep it away from Sora. The keycard opened the gate out. He was not walking long when he heard voices through the noise of the brass pipes.
"... I told you we should have gone right! Right!" a scratchy voice snapped. Sora might not have been able to understand what he was saying at all if he was not used to hearing it all the time.
"I thought we did go right," another voice responded apologetically.
"That was left!"
Sora turned a corner. Donald and Goofy were walking down the corridor in front of him, arguing. Sora blinked, but they were still there.
"Donald! Goofy!" he yelled. The two looked around in confusion. Sora ran down the hall, pulling them into a hug. The fire axe and shovel clattered to the ground.
"Wak! Let go of me!" Donald cried, flapping his arms.
Sora let go of them, stepping back. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you guys!" he said, rubbing his nose.
Goofy grinned. "Gosh, Sora, I'm glad to see you, too!"
Donald crossed his arms and tapped his foot, refusing to look at Sora's face. "We would have gotten here sooner if Goofy hadn't gotten us lost!"
Goofy scratched the back of his head. "Aw, shucks... it all looks the same to me..."
"And he lost his shield, so we had to run away from every Heartless or Nobody we ran into!"
Sora picked up the shovel and handed it to Goofy. "Here, take this instead."
Goofy took it reluctantly. "But Sora, isn't this Akiri's?"
The smile faded from Sora's face.
Donald glanced up at Sora suspiciously. "Yeah, where is she?"
Sora stared down at the ground. "She... left," he answered quietly.
Donald snorted. "See, I told you! What did I tell you, Goofy? I never liked her!"
Goofy glanced from Sora's melancholy expression to Donald. "That's enough, Donald!" he rebuked. Donald blinked up at Goofy in surprise. "We're back together and that's all that matters!"
"Yeah... let's get out of here," Sora muttered, picking up the axe.
They walked together down the hall. Goofy glanced again at Sora. "Did you get to the end of the... uh..."
"Labyrinth?" Donald chimed in.
"Yeah, h'yuck, the labyrinth!"
Sora looked away. "Yeah, I did."
"What was there?" Donald asked.
"Nothing," Sora muttered. "Just a monster."
Author Note: Please see my profile for more information and updates about this story.