A/N: I know that some of you are waiting for me to update my other stories, but I've been in the mood to continue this story as ideas for it keep flooding my mind...plus life around me has been a bit crazy.
And to everyone in California suffering the Earthquakes, I hope you will all be okay and wish you the very best to recover and that the Earthquakes will stop soon.
Now then, onward to the next chapter.
I don't own Kingdom Hearts. If I did, Kingdom Hearts 3 would've been different.
Chapter 19: The Light of the World.
As Sora, Donald, Goofy, Flynn, Rapunzel and Pascal traveled through the woods, careful with the Heartless which the group took out, even with Rapunzel's surprising help with both the Frying Pan and her hair which made a good whip in smacking the monsters out of the way without damaging it, they also took a bit of time in exploring, and playing a little bit. Especially in a small lake which Rapunzel and Sora splashed each other while the latter made a rainbow by splashing water with his Keyblade.
After that, they continued onward and while they did notice wanted posters of Flynn yet deciding that to keep with the deal(especially since Rapunzel left the satchel behind in the tower to make sure Flynn didn't run off, much to his dismay) but soon stopped in a small clearing when they noticed an unusual white thing in the middle. This made the group suspicious, so Sora decided to creep up to it to take a closer look and see whether it was dangerous or not. After a few moments...nothing happened.
"All clear." Sora informed the group who all sighed in relief. Unfortunately, it wasn't all clear, because when Sora had his back to the thing, it suddenly bloomed into a body shape of a monster with a scythe, much to the other's shock.
"Sora!" Donald cried out a warning.
Feeling something wrong combined with Donald's warning, Sora turned looked back and then leaped back to his friends to avoid the monster's attack, as two more of the same kind appeared. Sora, Donald and Goofy all quickly summoned their weapons while Rapunzel stood in defense stance, and Flynn...well, he backed up a bit in fear. But it was the sight of the familiar symbols on the monsters' heads that made the traveling trio realize what they were.
"These guys? They're Nobodies!" Sora cried out in realization.
"Mother said the outside world would be full of ruffians and thugs." Rapunzel muttered, remembering what her mother had told her, yet not fully realizing the Nobodies were not even human, but she wasn't afraid either.
"Those aren't ruffians." Donald informed her. "Those are...uh...I dunno..." He ended up trailing off as he couldn't think of a way to call the Nobodies since they were...well, monsters that didn't exist.
Sora mentally rolled his eyes, and remembering that the Nobodies are slightly more harder than the Heartless, knew that both Rapunzel and Flynn were in even more danger. So he informed the young woman while not taking his eyes off the Nobodies. "Rapunzel, Flynn, stay back!"
"No! I want to help you fight." Rapunzel protested.
"I know. But I'm afraid you can't hurt these guys with a frying pan. Trust me on this." Sora pointed out, then urgently asked Flynn. "Flynn, could you explain?"
"No problem. Knowing when to flee is one of my specialties." Flynn replied, mentally thankful to use this as an exit as the Heartless were bad enough. Besides, he didn't want Rapunzel to end up hurt either. So he approached her and told her seriously, "C'mon, Blondie. Gotta go."
"But-" Rapunzel began.
"Look, I wanna stay and slug it out too, but my sidekicks have it covered." Flynn told her, though he was faking the feeling and really just wanted to avoid the monsters.
Realizing that she wasn't going to win this one, Rapunzel sighed and nodded before turning to Sora with a serious look. "All right. Please be careful, Sora."
Sora gave her an reassuring grin, before Rapunzel and Flynn hurried down into the woods and into a cave tunnel. The Keyblade Wielder and his two friends then turned their attention back to the Nobodies. One of them threw a scythe at the trio who quickly either dodged it or in Goofy's case, blocked it with his shield. Before it could return to it, Sora counter-attacked by tossing his Keyblade at the Nobody who winced in pain when it was hit twice and then he charged by striking it down as quickly as possible while blocking the scythe with his Keyblade to avoid in being sliced in half.
Though as soon as Sora defeated this Nobody while Donald used his Thunderaga Spell to injure another and Goofy whacking the third, to their dismay the Dusk Nobodies soon appeared, squirming their way to attack the group with their slender arms. They attempted to swipe at the group who fought back, though their opponents kept on dodging them as well and it didn't help that the scythe Nobodies were trying to slice them into pieces with their own weapons. Fortunately, Sora and Donald preformed a double team of using the latter's Fireworks spell to strike at the Nobodies all around them and Goofy, which helped a lot.
Sora suddenly had an idea and held up his Keyblade in hopes of using his Wisdom Form. But while his clothes did turn blue of that kind of magic, his Keyblade suddenly turned into two pistols of light and stars, much to his, Donald and Goofy's surprise.
"Whoa!" Sora gapped, then felt the new skill and power flow into his veins and heart and somehow he knew what to do. He focused on the skill and shot out several lights at the Nobodies who couldn't handle his new attack. As soon as the last two other appearing scythe Nobodies and Dusks were gone, his wisdom form vanished and the Kingdom Key returned to normal.
He then rejoined Donald and Goofy and took out the last of the Nobodies, and soon the cost was clear.
"Did you guys see that?" Sora asked eagerly. "My Keyblade never did that before!"
"That was cool!" Donald replied.
"It mustsa been your new clothes doin' that, Sora." Goofy thought.
"Yeah, must be." The teenager nodded, looking down at his clothes in wonder. It was more awesome than his old black ones were. He made a mental note to thank the three good fairies later if he got the chance to see them again. Then he returned to the situation and said, "But...the Nobodies..."
"You know who uses Nobodies." Goofy nodded, as he and Donald knew that this was no time to talk about Sora's latest new skill.
"The Organization!" Donald added.
Sora nodded. "Yeah. I'm surprised we haven't seem 'em."
Much to Donald and Goofy's shock and mentally trying to tell him to keep it down, Sora unthinkingly called out to whoever the member of Organization was that was here in this world. "I know you're there! Come out, you has-beens!"
""Has-beens"?" An unfamiliar voice repeated, rather a bit skeptically, as a Corridor of Darkness opened up behind the trio who heard both it and the man's voice and spun around, getting into fighting stances once more as Marluxia stepped out, adding. "Now why would you say that?"
'Must be a poor new guy. I don't remember seeing him.' Sora thought, unknowingly believing that this was the first time he was seeing this oddly pink-haired man. He then replied casually. "Because, bossing around the Nobodies? That's the old Organization."
He then asked sarcastically. "Why? Are you in the "real" one too? Good for you."
"My name is Marluxia, and yes, that is correct." Marluxia introduced himself and ignoring the sarcasm, smirking at the boy whom he hasn't seen in the past two years. "How interesting it is to see you again, Sora."
"Again?" Sora repeated in confusion. When did he meet this guy? Better yet, why couldn't he remember? He turned to Donald and Goofy, asking. "You know 'im?"
The only response he got were both of them shaking their heads, as they couldn't remember or get when they met Marluxia either.
"A shame you've no memory of me, because I remember you exceedingly well." Marluxia responded at their reactions, his expression turning dark. "Although...it's those memories I'd soon erase."
Erase the memories? What was Marluxia talking about? The more Sora tried to think of how or when he and his friends met and very likely fought against this guy, the more he realized that he couldn't. Maybe Roxas knew him? It was hard to say as Sora didn't see any memories of that time, which meant that it wasn't very important at all, which made it even more confusing.
"I don't know what you're saying!" Sora yelled in frustration.
"Nor should you, nor will you ever, for that matter." The pink haired man replied. "Now, if you'll permit me, I've come to ask a favor."
"Favor?" Sora asked incredulously, while Donald and Goofy shared a dumbfounded expression. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Please hear what I have to say. I'm sure you've noticed..." Marluxia began.
The only responses he got were Sora, Donald and Goofy holding even more confused and suspicious expressions. What was this guy on about? Why did the Organization always come up with random riddles and such that make no sense at all? And now all of the sudden Marluxia wants a favor from the trio? There had to be a catch to this, or a trick.
"Well, perhaps not." Marluxia sighed with a frown, mentally grumbling at the fact that he slightly forgotten that Sora was gullible and clueless as always. Deciding to forget about that, he continued. "But you should know that maiden with you, Rapunzel, is the very light of this world. I would see you guard her from the dark horrors."
"Huh!?" Sora, Donald and Goofy exclaimed. Rapunzel...was the light of this world? Meaning that she was...a Princess? But how did that make sense? They remembered meeting all of the Princesses of Hearts, including Kairi; Jasmine, Belle, Alice, Aurora, Snow White and Cinderella. They then realized that the Organization could now be targeting Rapunzel for whatever reason and stood in defense.
"Starting with you, right?" Sora guessed, glaring at the Organization member. If anyone were the dark horrors, it was Organization XIII, especially Xehanort. That awful old man caused so many problems right from the beginning.
"All the organization seeks is balance." Marluxia replied, which confused the trio even more. "You must understand, our ultimate goal is not to clash with the light. We seek to complement it. Use that Keyblade...to keep Rapunzel safe."
Before Sora could ask him what he meant, Marluxia vanished into darkness, leaving the group lost in thought. What did he mean by that? First Xigbar was lecturing Sora, Cloud and Hercules about their ideas and the mysterious reward, then 'Ansem' and Xemnas were talking about telling Sora to surrender into darkness in order to free Roxas, then Xehanort from the past was talking about darkness in Kuzco and that the young Emperor would never change and yet he did, and now this Marluxia guy wants Sora to protect Rapunzel from darkness and was saying that the Organization is seeking balance?
"Rapunzel's light..." Sora muttered. Did that mean her heart was special too? Just like the Princesses of Heart? It then registered to him that the said girl and Flynn weren't here. "Hey. Where did they go?"
"I guess they musta run on ahead." Goofy suggested, pointing into the direction of the forest and the cave tunnel up ahead.
"Then we'd better find them." Sora declared, and Donald and Goofy both nodded.
Unaware that a group of knights were scanning the area, and a white horse name Maximus was sniffling the ground, before he got a scent and gestured at the tunnel. The captain of the knights looked at him in confusion, causing the horse to give him a look in stating the obvious. The captain then got the picture and nodded and he and the rest of the group followed.
Yet they were all unaware that Gothel, hiding in a black cloak, was spying on them from behind a tree.
The tunnel was hollowed out of the earth, stone all around as Sora, Donald and Goofy entered it. It left plenty of space to carry a cart full of supplies and things like that. There were a couple of skeletions around, one with a sword in the chest that made both Donald and Goofy gulp nervously. Even Sora looked around with an uneasy look on his face. Fortuntely, Donald was using his Staff to light up the tunnel, using light to guide them.
Judging by the dust and cobwebs on the skeletions and ceiling above them, this place hasn't been used in a long while.
"I wonder where they went." Sora spoke up, trying to ignore the creepy vibes of this place.
"Don't worry. They couldn't have gotten too far...and they must've found a lantern or something to help them by now." Goofy reassured, even though he gulped for the second time.
"You just had to stop and talk." Donald scolded at Sora for talking to Marluxia rather than catching up to Rapunzel and Flynn.
"Hey! Blame the "has-beens", not me." Sora protested.
"I think you mean Marluxia. I bet that's the name the has-been would prefer." Goofy said.
"I guess...But what did he mean by 'seeing us' again?" The spiky haired teen wondered. "And...about Rapunzel, what if Marluxia was onto something back there?"
"You trust Organization XIII?" Donald asked incredulously.
"What? No!" Sora replied. "Of course not! But...what if? I mean, Xehanort wanted to go after the Princesses, right? But if that's the case, why go after other people with light? Even though the darkness could be targeting everyone with light in their hearts."
"I agree." Goofy stated. "Why is Rapunzel in danger and the darkness is after her?"
The three of them thought about it for a minute, then came to a mutual agreement.
"Well guys, the first step is to find her." Sora declared, and just as Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement, he cupped his hands around his mouth and hollared, "Hellooo? Rapunzel? Flynn?"
His voice echoed a bit through out the tunnel. At first it went unanswered, so the trio decided to head on a bit further, until they heard a response from Rapunzel who, along with Flynn who was holding a lantern, and Pascal were approaching them from the opposite direction.
"You're here! And you're okay!" Rapunzel exclaimed in relief.
"Yeah! You too." Sora replied with a smile. "We took care of the monsters, so there's nothing to worry about for now."
"That's good." Rapunzel said.
"See? I told you they knew what they were doing." Flynn said with a smirk, only to lean back a bit in fear when Pascal gave him a glare.
Few minutes later the reunited group continued down the tunnel, explaining a few things including the guy behind the Nobodies, which had Rapunzel concerned and a bit scared.
"Do you think this Marluxia is after my hair?" Rapunzel asked, worriedly.
"Oh, c'mon. Other than being really along, why would anybody want with your hair?" Flynn asked, still finding the whole 'stealing hair' thing ridiculous.
"Not sure, but I think he's just after you in general." Sora shrugged, admitting. "For some reason, he seemed to know me but I have no idea when or where I met that guy before. What I do know is that he's with a group who cause a lot of problems to everyone, and not just for stealing."
"Yeah, they go around hurtin' folks and make stuff up." Goofy added.
"They're the real bad guys." Donald added.
'Man, and the kingdom wants my head just for stealing that tiara? Come on, I may be a thief, but even I'm not that heartless.' Flynn thought to himself. Despite that he was a criminal, hurting others was never his thing as much. It's more of the case of steal, run and hide.
After a little bit of silence, Rapunzel looked at Flynn and asked, "So, Flynn. Where are you from?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Flynn held his hands up, shaking them at the unexpected question, which had Sora, Donald and Goofy look at him, curious themselves. "Sorry, Blondie. I don't do back-story. However I am becoming very interested in yours. I know I'm not supposed to ask about the hair."
"Nope." The teenage girl replied.
"Or the mother."
"Nuh-uh."
"Frankly, I'm too scared to ask about the frog." Flynn cringed, looking at the annoyed Pascal with fright. That only made Donald snicker in amusement.
"Chameleon." Rapunzel corrected.
"Nuance." Flynn said flatly. "Here's my question, though. If you wanted to see the lanterns so badly, why haven't you gone before?"
"Gawrsh, I was kinda wonderin' 'bout that too." Goofy admitted as he, Donald and Sora looked at Rapunzel who, to their surprise, began to chuckle nervously.
"Well..." She began, only for the ground to begin to shake. Rapunzel, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Flynn looked behind them to see what, or rather, who was making the tunnel shake. "Uh, Flynn?"
"RIDER!" The captain of the knights bellowed as he and the guards were charging down towards the group of five.
"Company!" Sora exclaimed, while Donald screamed in alarm.
"And not a real happy one!" Goofy cried out, nervously.
"Run, RUN!" Flynn cried out, knowing that it was the men coming to arrest and/or kill him. Sora and the others helped Rapunzel gather her hair before they followed Flynn down the tunnel to make their escape. Heartless and Nobodies appeared to block their path, but Sora, Donald and Goofy made quick work in defeating them.
The five of them soon found a light at the end of the tunnel and raced out, finding themselves on a rock ledge of a canyon, with a wall made of wood that formed a dam, while against the wall to the group's right, was a large rock wall with a complex system with water flowing through a chute through the canyon. To make things worse, their only way down was a rope ladder and through a hole in another tunnel.
To the left of that tunnel, a hole was blown open and two men, one of them wearing an eye patch, and brandishing swords emerged. These were the Stabbington brothers, and Flynn held an 'uh-oh' expression when he saw them.
"Who're they?" Sora asked, as he and the others found themselves trapped.
"They don't like me." Flynn quickly answered.
By then, the guards emerged from the tunnel with their own swords drawn out.
"Who're they?" Goofy asked, nervously. Being a captain of the knights himself, he had a feeling the other captain wasn't as friendly as he was.
"They don't like me either." Flynn replied.
Just then, Maximus emerged from the tunnel and stood with the guards, whining angrily at Flynn with a furious look.
"Who's that!?" Rapunzel asked, shocked.
"Let's just assume for the moment that everyone in here doesn't like me!" Flynn explained, not really in the mood to go into the details considering how they were all gonna be dead meat at this rate.
"Looks like we have to fight off these guys." Sora stated, summoning his Keyblade. Donald and Goofy followed his lead with their weapons, and Rapunzel handed Flynn over the Frying Pan. After telling Rapunzel to go despite her protests once more, she swung her her like a lasso and tossed it to the other side before swinging to the other side of the canyon.
Sora clashed with the Captain who fought him with his sword, growling at the boy. "You alliance yourself with this thief, boy?"
"I don't know what's going on to be honest, but we're not gonna let you hurt our friends!" Sora replied, blocking the knight's sword and knocked it out of his opponent's hand before punching the man in the face, knocking him out.
Donald chanted Sleepza on his own opponents to avoid in fighting them like the Heartless despite that his suspicions with Flynn grew, but so far Flynn hadn't turned his back on them yet. Goofy smacked a couple of knights with his shield after protecting himself from their swords. He winced and mumbled an apology to the unconscious guards.
Flynn in the meantime was fighting against a couple of guards himself, blocking their swords with the Frying Pan and even found an opening with one of them, whacking at the face with his 'weapon' and rendered the guard unconscious. Stunned, he repeated the process until he, Sora, Donald and Goofy defeated all of the guards.
"Oh, mama!" Flynn exclaimed in awe as he gazed at the Frying Pan. "I've got to get me one of theseǃ"
Just then, to his and the others' surprise, a sword was brandished, which Maximus was holding in his mouth, glaring at him angrily. On top of that, more Heartless appeared which blocked the trio from helping Flynn who began to parry at the sword while dodging it and the horse who kept on trying to attack him. Sora slashed at the Monkey-Heartless that scratched him on the arm that he ignored despite the hissing pain, and destroyed it. Donald set a Flower-Heartless on fire, and Goofy whacked a soldier Heartless over the ledge, which landed on top of the Stabbington Brothers who fell to the ground. Fortunately the Heartless was destroyed upon impact.
"Oops! Sorry." Goofy muttered, winching when he saw what happened. He then quickly rejoined his friends to fight off the Heartless and try and help Flynn to fight off the horse...which was weird in and on itself.
"You should know that this is the strangest thing I have ever done!" Flynn commented to Maximus as they continued to parry and block each other's attacks as the sounds of clanging echoed through out the canyon. The fight unfortunately ended with the horse knocked the Frying pan over the ledge and into the canyon below.
Nervously, he turned to Maximus and suggested, "...How 'bout two out of three?" only to have the sword just inches from his throat and he held his hands up in surrender.
"Flynn! Sora! Donald! Goofy!" Rapunzel called out, as Sora quickly knocked the sword with his Keyblade, then everyone saw the blonde-haired girl had wrapped her hair around a rock and tossed the rest of it down towards them. The four of them, despite being concerned about the weight, jumped and grabbed hold of Rapunzel's hair.
While Sora only held on for a few seconds before letting go and landed on another lower cliff in a crouch, Donald and Goofy were a few seconds behind and screamed as they let go.
Unfortunately, just as Sora turned and saw his friends were about to crash land, he held his arms out to catch them, only for Donald and Goofy to crash into him and he stumbled before losing his balance and all three of them fell onto the ground into a pile.
Rapunzel in the meantime swung her hair and Flynn across the canyon and when she saw the Stabbington brothers about to slice him as he was heading towards their direction, she grunted and pulled her hair up, which pulled Flynn up and narrowly avoided the two men who looked on in shock and disbelief.
"HA!" Flynn laughed victoriously at the Stabbington brothers. "You should see your faces! Because you look..."
SMACK!
He was cut off when he found himself hitting into a beam in his stomach, hard.
"...Ridiculous." Flynn strained in pain with an agonized expression that would've been comical if everyone else who saw this hadn't felt sorry for him.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and even Maximus who wanted nothing more than to arrest Flynn, all cringed in sympathy. Flynn then let himself fall off the chute while Maximus kicked one of the supporting beams holding the dam up. The colum fell apart which allowed the water to spill out of the hole while the colum itself landed between the horse's platform and Rapunzel's, creating a bridge.
"C'mon, Blondie! Jump!" Flynn called out when the horse began to cross. Sora, Donald and Goofy jumped last after Rapunzel leaped down and swung towards the bottom of the canyon. Flynn in the meantime used the chute like a surfboard before reaching Rapunzel. However, while Flynn and Rapunzel reached the tunnel, Sora, Donald and Goofy were blocked by another group of Heartless that were the Water Element ones this time.
"Back off!" Sora shouted, slashing at two Heartless at the same time. Donald and Goofy finished off the other Heartless, only for them, Maximus, the Stabbington brothers, and even the guards that were regaining consciousness to look up and saw, to their horror, the dam completely fall apart.
Everyone cried out in alarm as the huge wall of water washed down onto everyone in sight, swallowing them in the process. Maximus, the guards and the Stabbington brothers were all engulfed and washed into both tunnels opposite to the one Flynn and Rapunzel had just entered. Sora, Donald and Goofy were underwater and pushed away while spinning backwards which reminded Sora of the time when Monstro in the Sleeping World of Pranksters Paradise sucked him, Pinocchio and Jiminy into the currents in the ocean. A boulder tower collapsed and blocked the entrance of the tunnel that Rapunzel, Pascal and Flynn had entered.
Forcing himself to do an underwater somersault, Sora regained his barings and grabbed hold of Donald and Goofy one arm each with both his hands to stop them from being carried away despite that they were increasingly going into the opposite direction of the water flooding the canyon. Remembering seeing Rapunzel and Flynn go into the tunnel that was now blocked, the three of them shared a glance and despite that the odds of finding them alive was becoming fearfully slim, they swam over towards the rocks as fast as they could.
Only for more of the Water Heartless, and even the Under-water Seaweed-Heartless to appear with false tridents of their own.
'Ugh! Come on, gimme a break!' Sora thought to himself in irritation. He tossed his Keyblade at three Heartless despite being underwater, but it was still effective enough. He then slashed and sliced through the Heartless and tried hard not to let the air out of his lungs when one of them attacked him, Donald and Goofy who struggled to do the same.
But they did manage to defeat the monsters and Donald used Curaga on his friends and himself despite his magic getting low, as was Sora's. So when they reached the boulder and knowing that they can jug down an elixir without drowning, the trio shared a glance and decided to try another idea. Sora, Donald and Goofy formed into a circle with their weapons out, and with much strength as they could, torpedoed towards the boulder and with several strikes with their weapons, the boulder was cracked and then broke apart into pieces, reopening the tunnel.
Sora gave his two companions a thumbs up before taking the lead as they all swam into the tunnel, with Donald using his Staff once more as light so that they can see where they are going. It wasn't long before they saw an opening, which was somehow made just maybe moments ago which told them that Rapunzel and Flynn managed to make it out to safety, and swum up, finding themselves in a pond. The trio took huge gulps of air, panting before they reached the shore, climbing out soaking wet.
Donald flopped on his front, exhausted. Goofy laid on his back, panting. Sora remained on his hands and knees, slowly recovering after being underwater by the huge current for so long.
"...We're alive?" Donald asked weakly.
"...Sure looks like it." Goofy replied tiredly.
"I sure hope Rapunzel and Flynn are okay. They have to at least be ahead of us again by now." Sora said, catching his breath. He stood up and shook water out of his hair. But as he turned back to the fairly larger pond than the one he and Rapunzel briefly played in earlier, as the sun was setting, he couldn't help but notice the reflection that was making the water sparkle in the late afternoon sky.
The more Sora stared at it, the more his mind was drawn back to that day...the afternoon before he and Kairi were separated...the day when the Islands were destroyed by the Heartless...
Flash-Back: Two years ago...
After a long day of getting supplies for their and Riku's adventure to sail out across the ocean to other worlds, Sora and Kairi sat together on the edge of the docks, watching the sun set which reflected onto the water. It was something that they were admittedly going to miss for a while, but their adventure tomorrow was going to be worth it.
"You know, Riku has changed." Kairi spoke up.
"What do you mean?" Sora asked, puzzled.
"Well...hmmm..." The red haired girl trailed off and grew silent.
"You okay?"
After a few moments, Kairi then smiled brightly and suggested excitedly. "Sora, let's take the raft and go—just the two of us!"
"Huh?" The spiky haired boy's eyes widened in disbelief. Where'd that come from?
"Just kidding!" Kairi giggled, teasingly.
Finding himself a bit relieved that it was a joke, even though part of him was disappointed and he had no idea why, Sora asked his friend with a chuckle. "What's gotten into you? You're the one that's changed, Kairi."
"Maybe." Kairi replied, and after another brief silence, she admitted. "You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready. No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here."
She turned to him and asked, hoping for some reassurance. "Right?"
"Yeah, of course." Sora reassured her with a smile. As part of their world travel, Sora, Kairi and Riku all agreed that they would all come back home after their adventure.
"That's good." Kairi smiled, relieved. She then stood up, telling him. "Sora, don't ever change."
"Huh?" Sora looked up at her, puzzled.
"I just can't wait. Once we set sail, it'll be great." She said as she gazed at the horizon and Sora followed it...
End Flash-Back;
"Sora?"
"Huh?" Sora blinked, brought out of his own memory, and turned to see that Goofy who'd spoken, and Donald having stood up and were not looking at him, confused and concerned. "What?"
"Are you okay?" Goofy asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry." The spiky haired teen reassured.
"Did you see another memory of Ven or Roxas?" Donald asked, curiously.
Sora shook his head. "No. I was just thinking about the day when me and Kairi were watching the sunset, a few hours before the two of us and Riku got separated. The sunlight here just reminded me of that day."
"What were ya's talkin' about?" Goofy asked, curiously.
"Just talking about how the two of us and Riku would travel the worlds on the raft, and that Kairi couldn't wait to set sail and that no matter where we went, we'd always get back home." Sora explained fondly, with a small smile on his lips.
While both Donald and Goofy found this story to be sweet, they couldn't help but think that there was more to it than what Sora was telling them. Especially since how close Sora was with Kairi...in more ways than just one.
"Are you sure that's all you were talking about?" Donald asked teasingly, gently elbowing Sora on the thigh with a smug grin.
"What's that s'posed to mean?" Sora asked, skeptically.
"A-yhuck! It's okay, Sora. We won't tell anybody your secret." Goofy chuckled, adding on with the joke.
"What secret?"
"Oh, come on. Don't tell us you won't admit it?" Donald snickered.
It wasn't until Sora realized what they meant and found his face turn bright red in embarrassment, feeling the warmth on his cheeks as he stuttered. "H-hey! I'm not hiding anything!"
Sora groaned when Donald and Goofy began to laugh even though he couldn't help but smile as well. But still...as much as he teased others about their romance, like Meg and Hercules for example, in truth, Sora had no idea what love really was.
Or so he thought.
Xion was sitting at the end of the table in the white room with Naminé on the other side within the Mansion, with the latter's drawings all around them. Some of Sora, Riku and Kairi, others with Roxas, Axel and Xion herself.
"...I'm ready. Otherwise I wouldn't be here. I also know that Roxas should be going back with me." Xion was saying, her voice full of tears and resignation. "But...I don't think he would understand. Not yet."
"I know." Naminé nodded in agreement with sadness of her own. "Roxas can't feel Sora just yet..."
"Naminé, will you please watch over Roxas once I'm gone? You won't be
alone. I asked someone else, too. There just isn't anything else I can do." Xion requested, as she was finding this hard and harder, but she knew...she had to do this.
"All right." Naminé nodded.
"Thank you."
Sora softly gasped, sitting up as he awoke from another dream. He'd been lying on the grass after he, Donald and Goofy muturally agreed to make camp for the night as the sun had gone down and they still haven't found Rapunzel and Flynn, and knew that the two of them would make camp of their own and were hopefully close by.
But Sora hadn't expected to see...Xion's memory this time as he realized. But...why did he see Xion's memory this time? Even though Sora still couldn't figure out why he saw Ventus, Terra and Aqua's memories either, it was still...odd, and yet somehow close. Much closer than he thought.
'Xion...she disappeared?' Sora thought to himself, feeling his chest ache at the thought. The poor girl mysteriously vanished, and she counted on Naminé to take care of Roxas who'd ended up returning to Sora. But, why was Xion connected to all of this?
"Roxas...Are you seeing these memories too?" Sora softly whispered to himself. "Do you...know what really happened to Xion? Is it because of me?"
It must've been, now that he thought about it. When King Mickey and Riku told him that Roxas had be captured in order to awaken him under the request of Ansem the Wise who'd wanted revenge against Organization XIII, Sora had been angry and upset, having pointed out that it wasn't fair for Roxas to have been forcefully returned to where he came from just for his sake. Even now it still wasn't.
Even though how or why Xion was involved was still unclear, Sora felt another guilt rise. Roxas and Xion were gone...because of Sora.
"...I'm sorry. It isn't fair...for either of you or Naminé." He whispered. Why did everyone he either cared about like Riku or those he never met had to have their lives ruined just to keep Sora himself safe?
Maybe it's because he's destined to save the Realm of Light. Yen Sid did say that the key to defeating Xehanort was Sora himself, and at the same time, he is the one to save those lost or ceased to be. Thus he had to find the Key to Return Hearts.
Nodding to himself, Sora knew that he had to keep on going on his quest; as soon as he found that Keyblade and saved Aqua, Terra and Ventus, Sora was going to find and rescue Xion, and figure out how to restore both Roxas and Naminé.
But first...he had to keep Rapunzel and Flynn safe.
A/N: Sorry that I didn't put in Rapunzel's healing powers on Flynn for the first time. Yet the next chapter could very well be the last of the Tangled Arc. I also changed things a bit in this world from the game of Sora's group with Rapunzel and Flynn in the canyon rather than meeting Gothel, as you all noticed.
See you later!