Chapter 14: Sins of the Father

July 17, 12:48 A.M.

Kairi's father turned to look at her. "Yes, Kairi. It's me. Good ol' Dad."

She sat in stunned silence. This couldn't be. It was a dream. She was still in the back of the police van, passed out from the gas grenade. Her father would never do anything like this. It was unthinkable. Absolutely unthinkable.

"No… no, it's not… It can't be you…"

Her father reached behind him for something from his back pocket as he began to speak again. "Ah, but it can. Seeing as I'm here right now, it would be foolish to deny that it most certainly is me." He drew a syringe out from behind him and walked towards the hog-tied girl. "Now, as much as I'd like to sit down and explain everything to you, Sora and I need to have a private chat. So it's time for you to stop listening."

He tapped the syringe twice before injecting it into Kairi's struggling neck. Within seconds, her movements slowed. Her eyes closed and her head dropped. Sora watched in horror as the chemical permeated Kairi's bloodstream. When the Ringmaster picked up her chair with a grunt, Sora spoke, his voice trembling with rage.

"What did you do to her? What was in that syringe? I swear, if you've killed her…"

Chuckling, the Ringmaster opened one of the doors in the room and put Kairi's chair inside the small closet-like space. "Relax. It's just a sedative. She'll wake up in a few hours with no memory of this incident. She'll be happy as a clam. That is, until, she receives the unfortunate news." He frowned and shook his head. "It appears that terrorists kidnapped Sora and killed him to make a point. So tragic." He gave a false sniffle. "He was so young."

Sora continued staring at him in a mixture of rage and disbelief. "How can you justify this? I've given you no reason to do anything! I went across the universe looking for your daughter! If anything, you should be throwing me a party, not kidnapping me!"

Kairi's father pulled another chair out from behind Sora and sat down in front of him. "I have the best justification there is: I'm doing this to save my life and the lives of my family. Don't believe me? Then listen up!" He swiftly stood up from his chair, knocking it over. "The police won't be able to track you here for a few hours. That means we've got until then for story time."

"Please, make yourself comfortable, because I've got quite the tale to tell." He started pacing in front of Sora. "Undoubtedly you're wondering just how connected I am to this whole scheme. Well, let me tell you something: I am the mastermind of everything. You want to know why your parade was on the eighth and not the sixth? I manipulated it. It gave me time to send my man to the Hotel Regal for the perfect shot. Why were you put in Donner Security Consultants' secure facility? Because I suggested it to the King. He wanted to get you off of this world as fast as possible. I persuaded him that the risk of having you on a Gummi Ship that was vulnerable to attack in deep space was simply too great."

"Why did the Doghouse explode? I planted a bomb in the warehouse. Why was Dennison put in charge of this case? Well, I didn't have anything to do with that." He chuckled at his own humor. "But most everything else was my doing. Anton? My suggestion. A friendly face every morning helped you stay sane enough to not consider escape until the latest possible time."

The Ringmaster leaned over to pick up his chair. He set it on the concrete floor with a loud bang. "Anton wasn't my man inside DSC, but he certainly provided invaluable services, albeit unwittingly. I got lucky on some other counts. How did I find out the name of your Head of Security?" A smile slowly spread over the Ringmaster's face. "You yourself provided that information. I gotta admit; Morse code was a good idea. I still don't know how you managed to secure yourself a flashlight."

Throughout this monologue, Sora could do nothing more than watch and listen. Kairi's father saw the disbelieving look on Sora's face and sat down in the metal chair he had recently righted. "I bet you're wondering how I managed everything." He looked as if he were about to break into a fit of giggles. "Well, I can tell you. We've got plenty of time."

He leaned closer to Sora. "No doubt you remember that I'm the mayor of our city. It's the biggest one on the Destiny Islands, except for the capitol. That's the only way I was able to do half the things I did. The sum paid to your would-be assassin was four hundred million bogus Munny. The only way I was able to get that kind of money was from the city coffers, which I have kept swimming in money, even through the toughest of times."

"I had to launder the money, so I wrote off the expenses as government projects that went over-budget. Nobody asks questions when a government project goes over-budget." He paused and looked away thoughtfully. "I wonder if that's a reflection on me as Mayor. Naw, it's not like I'm the one handing out money to the workers every day. It's just what happens."

"Anyway, I had to find a good marksman to take the vital shot. He had to be in dire straits, too; otherwise he'd never accept my generous offer. So imagine my surprise when one of the first men I find was a sniper in our military for years and years. An ex-Special Forces guy who had a nasty divorce, no custody of his own child, and was three alimony payments from being forced to sell a kidney for extra money. Well, he snapped up my offer within an hour."

"Over the next few months, I realized that he may not be as willing to kill you as I had originally expected. I began coming up with backup plans. I had to hire dozens of people from criminal underworlds and other shady sources. Everyone was paid handsomely. Counterfeit Munny, though. I had to hire someone to hack into fifty separate bank accounts. The really ironic thing is that he was paid in his own fake cash!"

The mayor smiled and shook his head. "The conspiracy I had created against you ran deeper than anyone in that incompetent police department ever imagined. I must have had almost a hundred separate people on my side. Every one of them wanted to see you dead. Nothing personal, though. They were promised a huge bonus if the whole plot worked. Looks like they'll get a nice fat check in the mail sometime soon."

Sora listened to the rambling mayor, thinking about what he said. Did he really have the resources to pull off such a grand scheme? It seemed like too much for one man to have pulled together all by himself. Surely he had outside help.

"You're… going to kill me here?"

"Well, that's the plan. But we've got plenty of time, and I want to tell you a story."

12:48 A.M.

The same time.

Riku pressed through the crowd gathered around the flaming wreckage of the North Wing. He hadn't seen Sora or Kairi since he helped load a badly injured man into an ambulance. They should have been actively looking for him. It had been nearly a half an hour since the last he saw them; he'd have run into them by now. The fact that they were nowhere to be seen was troubling. It meant something was awry.

He pushed his way through the wall of people and ran to the nearest police car, where an officer and a man he recognized from earlier were pointing at a map of the city laid out on the hood of the car and discussing something. He remembered the on in the red-stained dress shirt as the lieutenant in charge of the investigation.

Running towards the car, he yelled to get their attention. "Hey! Over here! I need someone's help!"

The two policemen looked up at him. The lieutenant immediately recognized him. "Riku! Where have you been? Have you seen Sora or Kairi?"

Riku felt his heart sink. "I was gonna ask you the same thing. I haven't seen them for almost thirty minutes. Did you take them to the station?"

Dennison was about to reply when the other officer cut him off. "I thought I saw them get into an armored truck about twenty minutes ago. Haven't seen them since."

Hearing this, Dennison smashed his fist on the hood of the cruiser. "Dammit! I didn't order a pickup for them! Where'd you see it go?"

"Downtown. Financial district, I think."

"Oh, hell. It'll take hours to search the entire financial district, let alone all of downtown." The lieutenant picked up the radio and pushed the talk button. "Attention all units: Be on the lookout for a CHPD armored truck driving through downtown. It is a fake and should be pursued at all costs. You are authorized to use full application of force to stop it. Do not, I repeat, do not destroy it. Precious cargo onboard."

He set the radio down and turned to Riku. "Do you have any method of communication with him? Cell phone? Radio? Keyblade telepathy?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at his last suggestion. Dennison sighed and looked away. "Hell, I don't know what you can do. I just need to know if you can get in contact with him. Do you have anything?"

Shaking his head, the silver-haired teen replied in a despondent tone. "No. The DSC mercenaries broke his cell phone as soon as he left the hospital. The only way we've stayed in contact was Morse code. But that won't be too helpful now, will it?"

As the lieutenant shook his head, the gears in Riku's head started turning. Donner Security broke his phone, the jerks. Donner broke his phone. Donner. Donner. Did Sora mention something about Donner? A trick they had? No, it wasn't "trick", it had an –er at the end of it. Tricker? No. Maybe…

A light bulb lit up in his mind. "That's it! Donner planted a tracker on him during his surgery! We can use that to find his location! The tracker!"

Dennison slowly lifted his head to look straight into Riku's eyes. "They planted a tracker on him? Are you sure? Absolutely sure?" Riku nodded. "Alright then. We just need to find the broadcast frequency it's using. After that, we'll send every policeman in this city to go get him back. Sergeant!" He looked at the other officer. "Get on the horn to Fourth Precinct. Ask for my assistant. I'll do the rest."

"Yes, sir. I'll patch them through to your mobile radio."

12:52 A.M.

Sora could only listen as Kairi's father ranted about his plot. He revealed every detail, every small bit of planning he put into his pet project for the last year. The sheer amount of planning and precision sent chills up his spine.

The mayor continued his story. "Harris was supposed to take you out with a single perfect shot. What he didn't count on was the warp on the Gummi Ship screwing with his scope. I should have warned him about that, but it's no matter now." He sighed and shook his head. "It would have been perfect, too. I calculated the angle of elevation he'd need to be at to make his shot perfectly perpendicular to the windshield. You'd need to be exactly one hundred and twenty-five yards away for it to work. If the scope hadn't been warped, you'd have been dead before anyone knew what was happening."

He laughed as he remembered that he hadn't actually done the calculation himself. He had hired someone to do it for him. As an ironic thought crossed his mind, he smiled and spoke again. "I should have had Kairi do the math and then check it myself. Wouldn't that have been wonderfully ironic? Unwittingly doing the vital math in a plot to kill your boyfriend. It doesn't get any more ironic than that!" He tilted his head and looked away thoughtfully. "Well, maybe doing the math in a plot to have you killed. But Kairi's way better at math than you. You'd mess everything up, even with simple trigonometry."

The casual tone in which the mayor was discussing his master plan unnerved Sora. He had expected a small speech ending in "Any last words?" before he was shot or knifed or thrown out of a window. This was just too weird. Not to mention that the man was stating outright that Sora wouldn't have been able to do the math required to get himself shot in the head. That was the cherry on top of the weirdness sundae.

Still smiling at the irony, the Ringmaster continued. "When you were about to be moved, I called the King and used my influence as Mayor and the father of a close personal friend to convince him that Donner Security Consultants was the best place for you to be kept. I knew far in advance that you'd be kept in the North Wing. That's right above the far end of the underground warehouse they have there. I sent a diesel and fertilizer bomb to them early yesterday morning. I had hoped you'd still be there when it was time to detonate."

He laughed through gritted teeth. "But you weren't! Because you… You cheat death everywhere you go. That bullet would still have killed a normal person. If my idiotic driver hadn't swerved the car, the second bullet would've ended you right there. Then, when I put two hundred drums of diesel and fertilizer beneath you, you manage to worm your way past the incompetent guards that company employs. I'm telling you; capitalizing on an opportunity to kill you is way harder than it seems!"

The smile vanished from his face. "Then there's that annoying fly Dennison. He's been keeping a close eye on you and the people around you. I was forced to lay low until he ran off to some other world to chase down Harris' rifle. Fat lotta good that did him, huh? In fact, all of his efforts were in vain. I've still got you here. There's nothing they can do about it."

Sora couldn't take this anymore. Hearing the inner workings of a plan to have him eliminated was just too much. There was one detail that Kairi's dad had glossed over, most likely intentionally. Sora would have to ask before it was too late.

12:52 A.M.

The same time.

"Okay, get the tech room to scan local radio frequencies for a small transmitter-only beacon. It's likely in the 450 megahertz to 2.1 gigahertz range. Yeah, cellular signal. Somewhere in there. Alright. Tell me as soon as you get something. Over."

Dennison clipped his radio to his belt and sighed. "That's all we can do for now, Riku. We just gotta wait and hope for the best."

The silver-haired boy hung his head. "There's nothing more we can try? Can we get a DSC employee to tell us the frequency?"

"All the people working with Sora were in the North Wing." The pair looked at the Doghouse, which was missing the northern part. "I don't think anyone could survive a blast like that. We're on our own for now."

Riku buried his face in his hands. "This is just unreal. How… how could this happen? How did someone send a bomb into one of the most heavily guarded buildings on this entire world? It just doesn't seem possible!"

A pair of jets roared over the street, drowning out the sound from the burning Doghouse. The only thing visible was two dim patches of flame from the engines. The aircraft arced up into the sky to be joined by another trio, creating a flying V formation. Once the noise from the combined fighters faded, a crackle was audible from Dennison's radio. He picked it up, hoping for a response from his assistant. When it turned out to be the jets overhead communicating, he slowly clipped it to his belt again.

A few seconds later, the radio crackled again as a second pair of jets flew over. Dennison initially ignored it, expecting it to be more military transmissions. However, the unmistakable voice of his assistant immediately reached his ear. He ripped the radio from its clip and brought it in front of his face. "Repeat that last. Over."

"I said, 'We've got something, sir.' That's when you decided to listen to-"

"Just tell me what it is!"

He could hear his assistant talking to someone in the background. There was a rustle of static as he came back on the line. "We've found a transmitter that matches the description you gave us. It's in the unfinished Kaiser building on the corner of 82nd and 101st Streets. Frequency of 750 megahertz. Be advised: it is far above ground level. You may need to take a tac-assault team. Over."

Riku and Dennison looked at each other with a mixture of disbelief and hope. Was this it? Would it finally be over? The lieutenant was barely able to push the talk button. "Copy that. Over and out."

He looked back at Riku, who snapped out of his revile and banged on the hood of the car. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go get him!"

Dennison nodded and yelled over to an armored policeman, who also nodded as he rounded up his team and they piled into a black van labeled CH SWAT. The two vehicles sped off in the direction of the radio signal.

12:58 A.M.

Kairi's father was about to speak about the complexity of smuggling explosive compounds when Sora shouted at him.

"Why? Why did you try to kill me? What did I do to you?"

The mayor sighed. He had a whole plan to lead up to a grand reveal, but he couldn't very well ignore a direct question. Not without appearing to have rehearsed his whole speech, in which he took pride for it being all made up on the spot, with the exception of the lead-up to the reveal. He looked directly at Sora.

"You were working on the Heartless World Destruction Investigation, were you not?"

Sora nodded, uncertainty in his voice. "Yes…"

"You were trying to discover the way in which the Heartless took over worlds. Well, I'll reveal the mystery: it was almost always betrayal. Somebody would have a deep-seated grudge against their world or an insatiable thirst for power. The darkness would persuade them into revealing the heart of the world. Without those traitors, the Heartless would have been stuck in Xehanort's laboratory until it crumbled around them."

"In what will undoubtedly be an old piece of trivia for you, Riku was the one to originally expose the Destiny Islands. But he kept his heart concealed for years. Only days before the invasion of the Heartless did he truly open himself to darkness. You, of course, know the rest."

"But Riku didn't want to see his world fall, nor did he want power. He wanted an escape. He sought a gate to cross over to another world and then have nothing more to do with darkness. I, however, wanted more."

Kairi's father sat down in his chair. "When I first adopted Kairi, my wife and I could tell there was something special about her. We couldn't put our finger on it, but she was unique. And I don't mean it like 'Everyone's Unique'; I mean she was special. She could do no wrong. We slowly came to realize that the light in her heart was unlike any other we had seen before. It gave her strength. I wanted strength."

"When I found out that Riku was about to betray the world, I used the door to our world to broker a deal: I would be saved, along with the rest of my family. In exchange, I'd tell them about the special girl with the strongest heart I'd ever seen. The witch Maleficent was uninterested until I mentioned her name. Kairi. It triggered a reaction within the old hag. She immediately accepted my offer. Sure enough, the Heartless show up a few hours later. My family and I were suddenly transported to some backwater world you've never heard of; someplace the Heartless wouldn't even bother with."

"Now, I don't know about the competence of the so-called 'scientists' on this Investigation, but sooner or later they'd come across the secret; it's just too obvious to hide. When they did, the first world they'd look at would be the Keybearer's home world. What would they have done to me? What would you have done to me? I'll tell you: you'd have torn me apart. Literally. I can see it in your eyes. It's what you want to do right now."

The Ringmaster's expression changed to one of self-pity. "I couldn't let that happen. I thought long and hard about how I would stop this Investigation. Then it hit me: if they don't have access to the Keybearer, they won't be able to conduct the necessary experiments. They'll be gutted. Completely lost. Even Riku's Keyblade wouldn't be enough. They'd have to disband, and I'd get away clean."

He looked into Sora's eyes. "So you see? It wasn't malicious; it wasn't out of hatred. It was an act of desperation. I couldn't allow myself to be destroyed like that."

Sora couldn't believe what he was hearing. The absolute selfishness of it all was staggering. He was overcome by anger. This couldn't be; it was too terrible to be an act of self-preservation. The very thought sickened Sora. It was simply vile.

"How could you make that decision so easily? Is my life really that worthless to you?"

The mayor didn't budge. "When it's your life or mine, I'm always gonna pick mine. What good does it do me to have you alive if I'm not around to see it? You'd make the exact same decision. You know it."

The spiky-haired boy was furious now. "I would never! I sacrificed my heart to save Kairi! I stared death in the face more times than you could count! I went past the edge of the abyss to rescue my friends from certain destruction! Don't you dare say I'd make the same decision as you, because I've already made it a thousand times before!"

A small smirk played across the Ringmaster's face. "And yet you sit tied to a chair while I'm getting ready to end your life. Maybe you made the wrong decision."

12:58 A.M.

The same time.

By now, the convoy of police vehicles was twenty strong. They didn't dare put on their lights or sirens for fear of early detection, which might prompt the kidnapper to kill Sora early and escape. Luckily, the financial district was fairly clear at this time of night. The only time the lights were used was to get the stoplights to turn to green for them. Even then, the lights were on for less than two seconds.

Dennison and Riku led the way. The lieutenant had offered Riku body armor, but he declined, saying it would weigh him down too much. The teen had insisted on being part of the assault team to retrieve Sora. He knew the risks; he knew the team's signals and methods. He would be a valuable addition to an already crack team.

The twenty-vehicle convoy pulled up to the mostly-finished Kaiser building. The SWAT teams rapidly unloaded and ran for the stairs. The location of Sora's beacon was discovered to be on the eightieth floor. Luckily for the assault teams, the elevators had just been certified three days ago. Two teams would ride up, two more would make the grueling climb up eighty flights of stairs in sixty pounds of armor and equipment.

Riku's light clothing stuck out against the rest of the team's matte-black uniforms and armor. He had his Keyblade drawn, ready to attack as soon as the elevator doors opened. An officer handed him a gray steel tube with something inside. Riku read the stenciled writing on the side and understood. This would certainly help.

1:02 A.M.

The mayor pulled a handgun from under his multi-pocketed vest. Seeing it, Sora sighed. "So this is it? You're going to kill me with a bullet? Completely helpless?"

Chuckling, the mayor leaned over into Sora's face. "No. I've got something a little more dramatic planned for you." He turned and aimed at the plate-glass window, firing three shots. The window shattered and fell outward. There was a rush of wind as the pressure between the building and the air equalized.

Kairi's father took out a knife and began cutting the ropes that attached Sora to the chair. Unfortunately for the Keyblade master, he was still hog-tied, leaving him no room for movement. The mayor pulled him up out of his chair and led him to the edge. Sora looked down; it was eighty stories to the ground. He was going to be pushed out the window.

The Ringmaster put both hands on the back of Sora's shoulders and whispered in his ear.

"Sora means sky, does it not? People say the sky only meets the ground at the horizon. Well, I'm prepared to prove them wrong."

Sora's heart raced. His hands were tied in fists; he couldn't summon the Keyblade. The knots were solid and the rope wasn't frayed. Escape seemed impossible.

His heart skipped a beat when the Ringmaster whispered in his ear a final time. "Any last words, Sora?"

1:02

The same time.

Riku led the team to the location of the tracker. There was a closed door in front of them. One of the team members leaned against the wall adjacent to the door and put his hand on the handle. The leader pointed to the steel tube Riku held, then at the door. The man next to the door held up five fingers. "On my count," he whispered.

Five. Riku held the tube tightly.

Four. The team prepared to enter the room, guns level.

Three. Riku grasped the pin on the tube.

Two. The man at the door began to turn the handle.

One. Riku pulled the pin.

Zero. The man opened the door. Riku threw the steel tube inside, sans pin. The man slammed the door shut and covered his ears, as did everyone else. There was a pause, then a colossal BANG as the stun grenade exploded in the room. The man at the door swung the door open. Riku sprinted inside, followed by the rest of the team.

The first thing Riku saw was Sora on the edge of the floor, about to fall. Riku swung the Keyblade at the man behind Sora, who was cringing from the pain in his ears. He crumpled to the floor, skidding from the force of the blow. Riku turned to see Sora teetering on the edge. The friends looked at each other. Sora lost his balance, then fell.

Time slowed to a crawl for Riku. He saw Sora slowly falling from the ledge. The team was immobile, watching in horror. Riku dropped the Keyblade and dove towards the window. Sora fell further. Riku reached as far as he could. He felt his arm extending farther than it ever should. His fingers brushed against Sora's back. Nothing. As Sora fell further, he found a grip on the hood of Sora's shirt. He clasped it as tightly as he could.

He looked down to see Sora dangling by his hood. But Riku felt himself slipping. He called to the SWAT team.

"A little help here!"

The team sprang into action, diving on top of Riku's legs, stopping him instantly. They pulled the two boys up over the ledge and cut Sora loose. When Sora regained his breath, he pointed to another door and said "There."

The SWAT team opened the door to find the sedated Kairi tied to another chair. Within minutes, they had cut her loose and administered a wake-up stimulant. She regained consciousness slowly. The first thing she saw was the smiling faces of her two best friends.

3:22 A.M.

Kairi was still shocked by the discovery that her father was behind everything, but she found more joy in seeing Sora again than sadness in knowing the truth about her dad. The lieutenant had offered to let her see him again, but she declined. She wanted to spend her time with Sora now.

The threesome was back at the police station, sitting in a waiting room under heavy guard. Eventually a policeman came into the room and handed them all Gummi Ship tickets to the Destiny Islands Gummi Hangar. They were escorted out of the building and taken in an armed escort to their ship, which was a private charter.

When they boarded, they were able to relax together for the first time in ten days. Kairi was about to fall asleep when she heard Sora exhale deeply and say the one thing she wanted to hear.

"Let's go home. Together."