Hello everyone, and welcome back to The X-Keepers!
Sorry that this one was delayed from yesterday! I was away from my computer for the day and didn't have time to make all the touch-ups that I wanted to make. But, now that I've made them all, its time to finally unveil this chapter unto you guys. And if you thought the last chapter was quite the eye-opener...oh you haven't seen anything yet...
So, with that said, lets jump into today's chapter!
Kingdom Hearts and all related media is owned by SquareEnix/Disney
CHAPTER 21
"Uh…do ya think he's ok?"
"Give 'em some space! I'm not done done healing him yet."
"Well, Garwsh, how long is it going to take?"
"As long as it needs to, now stop pestering me, you big palooka!"
Finally feeling as though he was coming to, Cynical fluttered his eyes open, in hopes that his vision would soon return to him. As it did so, he caught a glimpse who exactly was talking around him, as he saw two figures above him.
One was shorter, and was spouting the most temper, and was using some form of healing magic on the young Keyblade wielder. While the other one, who was taller and scragglier than the short one, stood in a much more worried state.
"We really shouldn't be keeping him waiting like this Donald," the tall one said, "It just feels a bit impolite."
"I'm almost done, Goofy, just give me a minute!" The short one, Donald, responded, as he raised the power of his healing spell on Cynical, who immediately sat upright at the burst of energy that shot right through him.
Feeling his senses snap back into place, Cynical looked to whom exactly were the two bickering around him, and saw what looked like a dog and a duck looking at him intently.
"Ah-yuck! It looks like that did the trick!" Goofy exclaimed, as he and Donald moved to help Cynical to his feet.
"Where am I?" Cynical asked, still a bit groggy, as his two new acquaintances helped him stand.
"Don't you worry now." Goofy assured, "You're somewhere safe, we can tell you that."
"Let's get him inside." Donald said, as the duo led Cynical along the grassy field.
"Inside?" Cynical was still confused, until he looked up and saw exactly where they were heading: a large, mysterious, and yet oddly shaped tower.
Leading Cynical up the tower's magical staircases, Donald and Goofy finally arrived at the top of the tower. Opening the door, they led the heuristic one into the next room, which looked like a study of sorts. Bookcases, treasure chests and other magical items filled the mystical oriented room, as the duo led Cynical to the desk in the center of the room.
Across the desk, a young boy, no more than a few years older than Cynical, sat in a large chair, wearing a large sliver cloak with blue and gold lining, with his long silver hair draped over his closed yet focused eyes. However, upon hearing the trio approach his desk, his eyes fluttered open, and a warm smile appeared across his.
"Hello Jared," he said, "It's been a long time since I've seen you."
Upon hearing the familiar voice, Cynical looked up at the boy's face, and immediately recognized the now legendary Keyblade master.
"Riku." He gasped, as the original warrior of dawn leaned over on his desk, resting his elbows down to get a good look at Cynical.
"I haven't seen you since you were much younger," Riku said, "Ansem did say that you were growing fast. Just didn't expect it to be that much."
"We found him laying out in the grass." Donald said, as he and Goofy interjected themselves into the conversation.
"Yeah, from the looks of it, it looked like he came through one of those spooky corridors of darkness." Goofy added, catching Riku's attention.
"A corridor of darkness? Those haven't been used for some time." Riku pondered, "Jared, can you tell us what exactly happened for you to get here?"
"It's a long story…" Cynical rubbed the back of his neck, as he began to tell the trio about what he and the group had encountered thus far.
"Hey. Can you hear me?"
SoraAlam gently started to open his eyes, hearing the familiar voice in his head, as his seeing started to clear up as he woke. Adjusting his vision, he saw a young girl with shoulder length red hair standing over him, with an expression that could only be described as worried confusion.
"Who…who are you?" He groaned, before his thoughts suddenly rushed back to him about what just happen to him prior. "Cynical!" He shouted, springing up from where he was laying, causing the girl to step backward.
"Easy there." She responded, as SoraAlam leaned onto his back again, "you look like you hurt yourself pretty badly from where you fell."
"Fell? From the portal? You saw it?" SoraAlam asked her, to which she nodded.
"I hadn't seen one like it in a long time." she answered, "The last time I did see one, it almost swallowed this entire island."
"Island?" SoraAlam questioned, as he quickly tried to get to his feet. Looking around, He noticed that he was in fact on a beach, with an endless ocean stretching out incredibly far, back-dropped to an orange sunset off in the distance.
"Whoa." He gasped, "If that's not breath taking, then I don't know what is."
The girl giggled at SoraAlam's response, "Surprisingly, you're not the first one to say that." She replied, coming to SoraAlam's side, as the two continued to look on at the horizon.
"Hmm, people in black coats that wield the darkness to cause havoc in the worlds. Now where have I heard that before?" Riku sarcastically stated, as he assessed everything Cynical had told him about their current situation, to which the young Keyblade master was perplexed by.
"Do ya think the Organization might be back?" Goofy wondered aloud.
"No. For as clever and cunning as Xemnas was, the Organization was never this precise. This is...different, somehow." Riku responded, "That being said, I still get the feeling Xehanort still has a play in this."
Cynical was confused. "Xehanort?" He questioned, "I thought he was destroyed years ago."
"He was." Riku answered, "Or at least, his body was. His heart, however, I can still sense amongst the stars."
"His heart?" Cynical started to worry.
"During the Keyblade War, Sora sacrificed himself in order to put things right." Riku narrated, "He merged with Kingdom Hearts, and was able to obliterate Xehanort for good. Or at least, that's what we were led to believe. However, ever since I was given Yen Sid's place, I could feel seven remnants of his heart, floating through the worlds. Almost as if they were trying to reform together again."
"Reform again?" Cynical processed this information, "You mean…resurrect Xehanort?"
"If given the chance, anything could happen." Riku stated, causing Cynical to go wide eyed.
"Then we have to do something!" Cynical exclaimed, heading for the door, "I have to head back out there, find SoraAlam, regroup with the others, and-"
"SoraAlam?" Riku caught that name, "Dean is with you?"
Cynical, confused by Riku's puzzlement about his best friend, turned back to face the silver haired boy. "Yeah," he answered slowly, "Why?"
Riku took a deep breath, unsure of how exactly to break this to the young boy. However, he knew that there would no running from it now. Thus, he began to explain, "In my time as a watcher of the worlds, I learned much about the universe. One of these many discoveries, was that the universe acts almost in the similar fashion as a human being. Kingdom Hearts of course acts as the heart, and the worlds all act singularly as the body. However, there is always a single Keyblade wielder who acts as the soul; traveling through the worlds and keeping them safe, bearing several connections to those around them. Whether he knew it or not, Sora was the universe's soul, and when he sacrificed himself, he was reincarnated as another Keyblade wielder, who would one day fulfill the same destiny that Sora had."
Cynical was still confused by by Riku's story. "I don't understand." He responded, "What does that have to do with..." However, right before he was about to say his friend's name, it started to clue him in on what Riku was telling him. "Wait. You don't mean...?"
Riku sighed, "Jared," he started, "do you think it was a coincidence that he chose the name 'SoraAlam'?"
And that's when it hit Cynical like a brick. His eyes widened in sudden realization as he understood the sudden truth about SoraAlam…
He was Sora reincarnated!
SoraAlam leaned up against the Paopu tree with the red haired girl sitting atop it, both looking out at the bright sun. SoraAlam sighed, as he could feel the dreams he had been having start to form in his head again as he looked out at the horizon.
"It's beautiful." He admired, "And yet...somehow familiar."
The girl looked down at him. "Have you ever been here before?" She asked.
"No I haven't." He admitted, "But I just have this nagging feeling that there's this whole other side of me that knows about this all too well."
The girl smirked, "You sound almost exactly like a friend of mine." She pointed out, before her mood started to get a tad somber, "It feels almost like yesterday that I saw him."
"I'm guessing you haven't seen him in a while?" SoraAlam asked.
"He's gone somewhere far away," the girl explained, "I may not see him for quite some time, but I know he's still with me in some way." The girl held her hand against her heart as she remembered her good friend.
"You guys must have been very close." SoraAlam assessed, to which the girl nodded, slightly blushing.
"You have no idea." She said with a smile, as she and SoraAlam continued to look out at the sunset. Thinking about what the girl said, SoraAlam's dreams started to come even harder to the forefront again, as several pictures filled his mind. However, unlike his past visions of The Keyblade War, these were much more light hearted, filled with joy and happiness. Yet he found it odd that of all the things, it was this girl who brought them out of him.
After some time had passed, SoraAlam decided that it was high time he headed off to find his friends. "Well, this has been fun." He told the girl, "But I think it's time I be off."
As he summoned his Keyblade, the girl's eyes widened. "A Keyblade." She gasped, "You really do remind me of him."
Looking back to the girl, SoraAlam smiled, before he transformed his Keyblade into its glider form, hoping aboard, ready to blast off, before he turned back to the girl one last time. "That reminds me." He pondered, "I never did get your name."
"Oh, I almost forgot." She realized, as she went on to tell SoraAlam her name.
Once she gave it however, SoraAlam's mind went into overload with memories that he never had. He saw himself traveling the worlds with two odd companions, fighting the darkness and saving his friends. He saw friends that risked their lives to help in his quests, battling their own enemies, and learning more about themselves along the way. Then finally, he saw her. This very same girl was in his mind, being her usual cheerful self. This girl always brought the best out in him, and he would do anything to protect her. She was the light of his life, and he cared so much for her.
And it was in that moment, that SoraAlam finally realized what these dreams. And more importantly, who he was…
As he suddenly came to this realization, SoraAlam shed a small tear from his eye as he looked back at this girl. "That's a…that's a beautiful name." He managed to say, as she nodded back to him with a smile, almost as if she knew exactly what he knew. Thus, smiling back, SoraAlam turned back to the skies and proceeded to blast off into the lanes between.
"I may not be who I once was…but I'm glad you still remember me." SoraAlam thought to himself, but not in his own voice, but another, "And I still promise you, that someday soon, we'll see each other again…"
"Thank you…Kairi."
AWWWWWWWWWWW THE FEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLSSSSS! ;0;
So yeah, mind blow number 2: Dean is Sora reincarnated. From chapter 1 I had this idea planned, so I hope it delivered in some way! If not, then the anticlimacticness could not be higher :P
Also, RIKU AND KAIRI! DONALD AND GOOFY! THE MEMORIES! THE FEELS! Sorry, got a bit emotional there...
But with that said, stick around because Chapter 22 will be up soon! Until then, feel free to comment (No Trolling!) and I'll see you guys in the next chapter!