Shadows of Reality
Chapter Twelve – Through Another's Eyes
He stared up to the cloudy sky above, not able to see anything else. The pain in his limbs slowly started to die down, but he knew that it was not because his body was starting to heal itself. It was far too numb from the ice to feel anything anymore.
He did, however, feel the warmth of her, even through their armor. She leaned over him, cradling his head as she looked at him with tear-filled blue eyes. He tried to talk to her, to comfort her, but all he could do was move his eyes slightly.
Suddenly a ball of dark energy caught his eye, and hers as well. She turned and watched as the ball of light forced the clouds to part, a glowing moon appearing over their heads.
He felt horror pass through him but then all he could see was darkness…
VVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Sora's eyes snapped open as he jerked up quickly. Kairi groaned slightly, shifting and cuddling closer to him on the chair that they were on, but she didn't wake up.
Sora breathed deeply but then stopped, hearing someone doing the same. He glanced over to his left and saw Roxas wide-awake with a startled look on his face.
They met the other's gaze and Roxas asked, "Kingdom Hearts?"
"I saw it too," Sora replied.
"What do you think that was?"
"I didn't know who that girl was," Sora said thoughtfully. "So the past maybe? Or maybe we're going to meet her and we were seeing the future."
"I feel like I know her," Roxas said after a moment. "Or feel like I should know of her at least."
Sora shook his head as he glanced out the window. The dream made him think of the world that they were heading to: the temporary entrance to the world of Twilight's Destiny, Crystal Shards. Mickey insisted that Twilight's Destiny would be safe, but Sora and Roxas were both skeptical about that, since their home was originally destroyed when they were babies, but Mickey persisted so they agreed. He mentioned something about the previous ruler having more darkness in them, allowing darkness to enter the world, or something along those lines. To put it simple, the King said that because Sora had more light than dark in him, and because he had the powers, then Twilight's Destiny was safe from the dark.
Roxas watched his brother hug Kairi a little closer, resting his chin on her head with an unsettled look. Sora never said it, he was too proud to say it, but Roxas could see through his twin easily (after all, they did share one mind not too long ago). He knew that Sora was absolutely terrified about all of the responsibilities that had been thrown at him. He was scared, but he would stay strong, for Kairi if no one else. If he dared, Roxas would even think that Sora was still dreading the thought of having a child already, but that was something neither of the twins would ever say aloud.
"Sora," Roxas said suddenly. The brunet looked up and he continued, "If you ever need to talk to someone, I'm here for ya bro. Just like I was when I lived inside your head."
"Thanks Roxas," Sora said. "You're a good brother. Remember, if you need help too don't hesitate in finding me." Sora yawned out the last word and soon he was asleep.
"I told you that you made a good Other," Roxas whispered. "I guess I never bothered to say that you are a good brother too." He too fell back into a light slumber.
Neither of the Hikari boys noticed, but Mickey had been awake the entire time. The small King looked back and them before sighing sadly. He too had awoken from a dream, but it had been a little different then theirs. He knew he was looking from his own point of view, seeing Kingdom Hearts appear in the distance. He had rushed over, and what he remembered seeing terrified him: a young woman leaning over the frozen body of a friend of his. It was odd, since he knew it happened but he couldn't remember when, but that was eclipsed by something else.
What truly made Mickey so terrified was that this person was identical to Roxas.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVV
"So, Endless are those pretty much invincible creatures we saw," Riku asked thoughtfully later that morning. "And they aren't…natural?"
"I imagine that'd be a little difficult to be true," Queen Minnie piped up from where she was sitting, flipping through a book (with Magazine hidden) trying to distract herself by secretly looking at wedding dresses. "That would we like taking you and Sora and trying to make one person out of both of you, wouldn't it?"
"So someone's making those things?" Goofy asked.
"A lot of them," Donald added.
"Afraid so," Mickey replied. "But for the life of me I can't remember who it is creating them. I have a feeling I should know, but I don't. I do know that there used to be different kinds of Endless though. The ones that we saw were basic ones equal to Shadows or Dusks, but they get stronger and more lethal looking too. Again, I know there's something else that's very important that I should know about this."
Naminé shifted slightly and then asked, in her normally quiet voice, "Your majesty? Can I take a look into your mind?"
This question startled everyone.
"It's just…" she trailed off when she saw everyone staring at her. "You're memories have been erased, or tampered with in the least. I'm positive of it." She knew that erased wasn't the proper word. All memories remained hidden in the darkest depths of their hearts, but it was a difficult idea to explain, just like trying to tell someone that memories truly rested in a chain in the heart.
Mickey nodded after a moment, despite having protested before and said, "Go ahead." He was sure that his memories were intact the last time Naminé had suggested that they had been tampered with, but he wasn't so sure anymore.
Naminé closed her eyes, concentrating on the chains of King Mickey's heart. She searched back, searched through over 10 years of memories until she found what she was looking for: a place where there was an odd link in the chain. She was right; his memories had been tampered with. Naminé knew what it looked like when the chains were forcefully altered, she had seen the damage she had done to both Sora and Roxas when she altered their memories, but she also knew that the links that were changed willingly (like when she had fixed Sora's memories) looked a little different.
The mismatched links in King Mickey's chain of memories resembled the latter.
Her eyes snapped open and she said, "Someone tampered with your memories."
"Are you sure Nam?" Roxas asked her.
Naminé nodded and said, "Yes, but it was done willingly. For some reason you purposely had your memories altered your highness."
"Something must have happened," Mickey muttered after a moment. "Something terrible that I needed to forget. I have a feeling that I need to remember though. Can you fix it Naminé?"
"Unfortunately, no," Naminé said while shaking her head, her blond hair flying around in it's ponytail. "Whoever did that hid your memories pretty good and chained the links together firmly. They must have had years and years of experience altering memories. If they were Sora, Roxas or Kairi's memories, I probably could, but my abilities to tamper with other people's memories are weaker and it'll take time for me to build them up."
Donald was about to ask something when the ship jerked. He jumped up to the controls and said, "Nothing to worry about, just a small meteor."
Kairi groaned, put her hand over her mouth and rushed out of the room. Apparently her body did not like to be jerked around roughly when she was worried, exhausted, and carrying another life inside of her.
Sora let out a sigh and got up, chasing after her for the third time that day.
Riku shook his head and said, "So what are we going to do about them?"
"The Endless?"
"No, Sora and Kairi. If we have to fight Kairi won't be able to and Sora will be too distracted and worried about her to fight properly."
"You of all people should have a little more faith in Sora, Riku," Roxas said while he stared out of the window. "He'll fight when the time comes. We'll just need to keep Kairi in a safe place, out of harms way."
"Easier said then done," Midori muttered.
Naminé shook her head and said, "If it were you Midi would you willingly throw your unborn child into the path of a nearly invincible enemy?"
"No," she admitted. "I wouldn't."
"Didn't think so. But still…I think Sora will fight. That might make Kairi too stressed, especially if she's away from him."
"So it's a never-ending circle," Midori said with a grimace. "She comes with us, she's thrown into actual danger, she stays behind and she becomes a danger to herself."
There was a heavy silence before a loud bang and some yelling sounded from somewhere in the bowels of the gummi ship. Donald grumbled to himself and said, "I hope Sora's kid doesn't act like them. Huey! Dewey! Louie! What are you doing?" With that the duck stormed off.
"Actually," Goofy said with a shrug. "I think that was Maxie and PJ skateboarding. Sounded like it."
"Speaking of PJ, what happened to Pete?" Riku asked suddenly. "He was in the dungeons."
Mickey grimaced and said, "That was the bang you heard. A few Endless snuck into the castle, one of them was the one you two saw, but the others broke into the dungeons and freed the prisoners. I'm sure that they'll be used to create more Endless."
"Prisoners? As in the plural of prisoner? I thought Pete was the only one there," Naminé commented.
"No," Mickey seemed almost ashamed in his answer. "Disney has far too many enemies for a peaceful place."
"Darkness doesn't like light," Roxas commented. "And Nothingness hates it because if you add light to nothing, well it's not nothing anymore, is it?"
"That's deep Roxy, especially coming from you."
"Bite me Riku."
"I'm going to stop this argument before it gets started," Midori interrupted as she slapped her hand over Riku's mouth.
"But Midi," Riku mumbled under her hand.
"Don't but Midi me Silver!"
Roxas sighed and said, "This is going to be a long trip."
"It shouldn't take as long, now that we know where we're going," Goofy pointed out in his ever-optimistic tone. "It takes a day from Disney Castle, right yer majesty?"
Mickey nodded in reply.
"Still," Riku muttered. "It's going to feel longer."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Sora yawned loudly as he woke up the next morning, but despite his tiredness, he watched Kairi with amusement. She was looking down, analyzing her body, particularly her waist area in front of a mirror in their temporary room on the gummi ship.
"What are you doing?" he muttered, having just awoken from his nap.
"Am I getting fat?" she asked him without looking at him.
Sora eyed her oddly and said, "Umm…I'm no expert Iri, but I don't think babies start showing after only a month. Doesn't it take like three or four?"
Kairi spun around and stared at him with wide eyes. She clasped her hands together behind her back and said, "Then I am going to get fat!"
"Just throwing this out there, but isn't being fat different from having a baby grow inside of you?"
She glared at him and said, "No need to be sarcastic."
Sora slumped down a bit and said, "I'm sorry, I just…I guess I'm on edge."
"I know," Kairi said after a moment as she walked over and sat beside him.
"I don't know what to do," he muttered. "I don't know how to…handle you."
Kairi giggled a bit and said, "Sora, you don't have to handle me at all. You don't need to rush after me every time I run to the bathroom for instance."
"Yes I do." He said nothing more.
She sighed deeply and glanced up at the door as someone knocked. It opened and Riku glanced in cautiously. His vivid green eyes moved from Sora, to Kairi and back again before he said, "Crystal Shards is five minutes away."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Sora demanded as he jumped up.
"I figured you'd be with Kairi, hunched over her with worry in the bathroom," Riku replied with a shrug and grinned as she glared at him.
Soon the three friends were quickly moving through the ship and once they got to the bridge they could all clearly see a familiar world looming in front of them.
Sora took a deep breath and met Roxas' gaze before he said, "Looks like we're almost home."
VVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Author's Note
Again, I don't really have much to say, so I'll go onto the reviews after just one little promise to you all:
Some VERY interesting is going to happen in the next chapter. Very interesting.
Syerna Li – That's ok about the spelling. I know your bird is watching me cause my dog almost ate it! P But still, I know what's going to happen to each character, so I'm not making any promises about who comes out unscarred or even alive.
Katamere – lol it bothers my friend a lot too. She had a good rant about Ventus today when we were re-playing Kingdom Hearts II. Thank you to you and your friend.
catharsis25 - lol that's ok! At least I know you're not completely crazy or insane. Hey you never know, maybe they had it right on by calling them the Reformed. We don't really know what they are or how they were created!
Whole Yet Hollow – Yup, wind. Your welcome for the 'awesome chapter' and to be honest I don't have much to say either.
DAN88 – Well those names are Latin words for Earth, Water and Wind so maybe you've seen them in an HP fic or something. You're right, stress would be a terrible thing for her to go through while she's pregnant. Too bad I completely took that into account when I was writing this.
Shire Folk – I try. Are the enemies in BBS called Endless? Because if they are I swear I did NOT do that on purpose. It just kind of popped into my head. I dunno, I'm pretty pumped for 358/2. All those AkuRoku shippers will be having a field day no doubt. Also did you hear about Re:Chain of Memories coming out in North America on December 2nd/3rd or somewhere around that. Yeah I'm excited for that! Oh and on the note of your last comment, the Cornerstone of Light has nothing on these creatures and you'll see why soon.
Iaveina – I'm trying to make the interaction between Riku and Midori interesting, since Sora/Kairi is going to be all 'mush omg baby' and Namine/Roxas is pretty much Namine-dominated! So you think the Endless you've seen are nasty? Too bad, because you haven't seen what they can do yet.
Kanie – Thank you, and I like to try and make things accurate when I can…or when I have the patience to do so. And again, thank you for comparing me to a real, published author, it means a lot.
Uniasus – Don't worry, you'll be getting to know the Endless better. They're supposed to be left kind of…in the shadows for now.
The Key of Hope – That's ok! Yeah, around 14 years sounds about right. But Terra, Aqua and Ven aren't running around just yet…not by a long shot. I'm not shooting in the dark with a flashlight, I've got the entire room lit up! XD
Holly Skyla Hart – Oh god, trouble's back. I still don't see WHY you listen so much when they're like 'blahblahblahinterenet' and such because you're 19 now. Then again it was a pretty big phone bill. Yeah you've missed a lot cuz! Yeah I have a lot of work, but writing is F-U-N. Got it memorized? Hey Holly? Just shut up ok. George is a stupid cat anyways and a creepy assed one at that! I like MY dogs better.
RockCityRoadStar – I reenforce the fact that you are a strange one, but take that as a compliment. One of my best friends can turn a 10 minute story into a minute long story without leaving out any details and it makes my heard hurt. I agree, about the whole filling and being difficult to eat thing. HA! So you're forces are divided! Yes they make me laugh! Lol! But what if I don't wanna update soon? What would you do about THAT? XD
Oberon Axelus – OK, I'll take that answer but here's another tip, look closely at the chapter where I introduced Xehanort and you'll get your final answer in something he says. …I'll be honest I've never watched Naruto in my life…or many animes for that matter. But I'll take a look at your Kingdom Hearts story later, promise. But I don't think I'm really qualified to look over things that I have no clue about.
Again, I promise the next chapter will be more interesting. So thanks for reviewing and thank you all for reading!
Krystal Lily Potter