Shadows of a Dream
Chapter Twenty-Four – Story of a Half-Heart
One of these worlds was the answer to the riddle; one of these places held the gate to the city that was once known as Twilight's Destiny, but Sora had to wonder why.
Why, out of all the worlds out there, was it narrowed down to these five? What were so special about them over the others? He had asked King Mickey his opinion on it, but the miniature king had said he didn't know. Sora knew for a fact that the King was lying, but he respected him enough not to pester him like he had about Riku.
To Sora, this flight felt like the old days. Donald and Goofy sat on either side of him and there were actually a large amount of Heartless ships on the way to blast through.
There was a darker air hanging over them though. No one spoke of what happened to each group over the past months except for the basics: how they met Midori, how all of the princesses of heart were frozen (Aside from Kairi obviously. Apparently the Half-Hearts got Snow White after they had left Enchanted Forest) and how they believed that the Half-Hearts made their final stretch for children.
"Wow," Donald said suddenly.
"Wouldja look at that?" Goofy added.
Sora squinted and his eyes widened when he saw what they did. It came out of nowhere, but there was definitely a world in front of them. As they neared it they saw that this place had a dark look to it. There were very few visible water sources, but there were several visible ice caps.
"What is that place?"
Sora looked at the list and said, "According to this, the planet at this location is called The Forbidden World. Sounds promising."
"What?" both his friends asked, shocked at his words.
"Well first there was The End of the World and then The World that Never Was. The Forbidden World seems to go along with that, doesn't t?"
Both had to admit that he was right on that case.
"Donald, take the wheel, I'm going to tell the others," Sora said as he quickly jumped from the seat and rushed out of the room.
VVVVVVVVVVVVV
Kairi hummed happily to herself, twisting her finger around her hair as she read quietly. King Mickey too was reading, but it was a tomb that appeared much too big for him. Kairi had been amazed when he walked into the lounge of the ship carrying it. She had decided to go with one of the romance books she had found stashed away (Why it was on the ship in the first place was beyond her.). She was imagining Sora and herself as the happy young couple in the book with no worries or cares.
Her eyes turned from the book periodically as she observed Riku and Midori's game. It was what Midori called Ultimate Monopoly. What that meant, Kairi wasn't sure. There appeared to be very few rules, if any, and Midori was notoriously bad (at least from Kairi's point of view) of changing the rules to help her win. Riku appeared to be used to this though as he too constantly seemed to try and bend the rules (not that it ever helped).
Kairi flipped the page of her book and looked back down at the page. She read about half ways down before her face turned a bright shade of red. Naminé erupted into laughter in her head, causing Kairi to blush darker and slide down into the chair.
"What's wrong Kairi?" Riku said suddenly, causing her to look up at him.
"Uhh—nothing…"
Midori eyed the book before getting up and going around behind Kairi, reading it before the redhead could hide it. She too burst into laughter, patted Kairi's back and said, "Those books are terrible for that."
"Terrible for what?"
Both girls looked up to see Sora staring at them curious. Kairi's blush turned into a hue of red that matched her hair at his stare and shook her head violently. "Nothing Sora, don't worry."
"We're about five minutes away from the first world," he said after breaking his odd stare from her.
"Which one?" Mickey asked curiously, looking up from his massive book.
"The Forbidden World."
Everyone turned and looked at Midori, who had let out an odd sound at the name.
"Midi?" Riku said slowly. She shook her head at him.
"We're here!" Donald's voice echoed down the hallway.
"OK, I guess we're less then five minutes away," Sora corrected himself.
Everyone quickly made their way to the warp point, but Midori hesitated, a nervous looked plastered on her face. She took a deep breath before following them.
VVVVVVVVVVVVV
They traveled around the outskirts of the world first, searching high and low for anything that would resemble a gate. They had no clue what they were looking for exactly, and it would have been nice to know, but they persisted anyways. Already they had been on the deserted world for half of the day with no luck.
"It's not here," Donald said suddenly. "We've looked everywhere."
"It could still be here, but there's no one we can ask," Sora pointed out.
"Is it possible that it's in that there castle?" Everyone looked in the direction Goofy was pointing, towards a giant dilapidated structure.
"I think so," Mickey said hesitantly.
"That's as good a place to look as any," Donald agreed. Quickly the three animals rushed past everyone else.
"Wow, this place is…" Kairi trailed off as they walked through the city.
"Dead?" Midori suggested.
"Yeah."
Kairi held Sora's hand tightly as they passed through the darkened streets. Kairi couldn't help but feel nervous, feeling as if there were eyes staring at her from the darkened windows.
"What's the matter Kai?" Sora whispered in her ear.
"There's something evil here," Kairi said, moving closer to him. "They're watching us."
Sora looked at the windows. He could see nothing, but soon the eerie, paranoid feeling of being watched set in.
He stopped walking and let go of Kairi's hand. Slowly he walked towards the door of a house but a smaller hand grabbed his arm. Turning slightly he found Midori's gloved hand gripping his arm tightly, her eyes fixed onto the building.
"Don't," she said slowly. "Don't go in there. What time is it?"
"I dunno," Sora replied, cocking an eyebrow curiously.
"It's almost 7:30, why?" Riku asked.
"The sun goes down at 8:00," she whispered. "We need to get back to the gummi ship."
"But the castle's right there," Riku replied. "See, Donald, Goofy and Mickey went ahead and are at the entrance already."
Midori whipped around and cursed under her breath. She looked nervously at the sky then said, "Fine, let's hurry to the castle. We need to get to a safe place."
"What's going on?" Kairi said as they followed her. They were running through the streets with a confused looking Mickey, Donald and Goofy staring at their rapidly approaching figures.
The green haired girl took in a deep breath and said, "There's a safe place in the castle we can stay the night. Once the sun sets we'll die if we stay out here."
"How do you know this?" Sora asked as they rushed through the opening of the gates.
"This place used to be my home."
VVVVVVVVVVVVV
Midori had led them through the dilapidated castle, down a rather untrustworthy appearing staircase and to a giant concrete door. Using her Keyblade she managed to open it (with the help from Donald's magic) and they went inside before she sealed it. This room was completely intact and was filled with candles, food and other supplies.
"What's going on?" Mickey asked as they all sat down.
"We needed to get inside," Midori said. "In this world the sun always sets at 8:00 on the dot. It used to be no big deal until the Heartless and Nobodies came."
"You said this place used to be your home," Riku started. "And you seem to know the layout of this castle pretty well, so are you…?"
"No, I'm not a princess or anything," she replied. Her eyes glanced at everyone in turn before looking back at her silver-haired friend. "I did live here though. You see, this place has always been called The Forbidden World, but not because it was a terrible place. It's named that to stop people from coming to it. Our people were very protective of all our resources and did not like travelers at all."
"The first thing you need to understand is that the world wasn't always like this. At one time it was a friendly yet secretive place. Everyone enjoyed their time outside, as most people worked in the fields, or getting water from the icecaps in the mountain or drilling down to the underwater lakes. This was a nice place to live. The king and queen were fair to everyone, and even though the prince was rather shy and almost girl-ish, he still had great plans to help the world. This place, although ruled by a monarchy in general, has a very feminine society. No, that's not the right word…well here women have a higher status than men."
"Really?" Riku asked with surprise.
"Yes. Imagine how much of a shock it was to me when I left this place and hit the worlds were women were really looked down on. Anyways, I'm getting off track. The Heartless and darkly cloaked figures appeared here one day. The Heartless were ruthless and destroyed almost everything. In one of the scientific departments in the castle the scientists thought that they found the answer for killing a Heartless, but they were wrong. Instead it caused the remaining people to change…to become monsters."
"That's why you made us barricade ourselves in here, right?" Mickey said. It was more of a statement than a question.
Midori nodded and said, "They are almost like vampires. Sunlight kills them and they have fangs. They don't, however, drink people's blood. No, instead they drink their life forces and are drawn to people with strong amounts of light in them." She stopped talking when she noticed Sora get an angry look on his face as he pulled Kairi closer to him. The message that was radiating off of him was clear, he'd be damned if any of those things got their hands on his girl.
"Soon only those in the castle were left unturned," Midori explained. "Like I said, this place has a very high opinion on women, so high in fact, that I was chosen to be the Prince's bodyguard. He always did seem to need someone to watch after him, even as a kid. That's why I know how to use magic and to fight. Because I was his bodyguard I was one of the last ones alive in this place. The creatures that were once people couldn't get past the walls of the palace, but Heartless and Nobodies could. The cloaked figures, who I now know to be Organization XIII, came back and let the Heartless into the castle, wanting more hearts. They got them. The last two left were the prince and I. One of the Heartless, a solider one, got near him and I got in the way and…" she trailed off, her hand pressed over her heart uncomfortably.
"They took it," Sora finished for her. "They took your heart."
"Yes and no," she said slowly. "It started to take my heart but I killed it when my heart was only half ways out. The prince was grateful for my years of loyal service to him and his family, so he used his powers to push it back in. A Heartless got him after that and completely took his heart."
"Jesus," Riku breathed out.
"So what happens when a heart comes half way out of someone?" Goofy asked. "When they come all the way out a Heartless is made, and you're here."
Midori nodded and said, "You're right. I wasn't turned into a Heartless, but Prince Liramau was the one that saved me from that fate and forced me to live with a worse one."
"What do you mean, a worse one? What can be worse than being a Heartless?" Donald wondered.
"Being half of nothing."
"What?"
"Sora, Kairi, look at me for a moment, really look at me, and tell me who I remind you of," Midori demanded suddenly. "Just do it," she added in seeing their confused looks.
Both stared at her for a moment, Kairi with a confused look the entire time. Sora, well his face did originally match Kairi's with confusion, now held an odd look. His cerulean eyes were wide with surprise and his mouth opened and closed again.
"Jesus," he whispered. "How do we fix that?"
"I don't know," Midori replied while shaking her head.
"Fix what?" Riku asked. Everyone looked from the brunette to the green-haired girl with confusion.
Midori sighed and stood up, looking around the room for a moment before her eyes fell on a smashed picture frame in the corner. She walked over to it, picking it up hesitantly and stared at the faces in them. There were three people. Slowly she returned to her spot and sat down again. "This is a picture of me, my sister and Prince Liramau."
"You have black hair?" Riku asked while leaning over. She smiled slightly and nodded. Riku continued to stare at it, waiting for her or Sora to reveal what they were talking about earlier when he noticed something odd. He quickly ripped the picture out of Midori's hands and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "I thought you said most people from here are either tanned like you or black?"
"Well yes, but not everyone and not the prince. His father was from a different world and was very pale," she said with a shrug. "No one cared though. Why?"
"This is…Liramau…how do you spell that?"
"L-I-R-A-M-A-U. Why?"
Riku said silently, his eyes moving as he thought to himself. Suddenly he gasped and said, "He was turned into a Heartless, and a Nobody was created, right?"
"Unfortunately," Midori said with a said sigh.
"And then he was found by the Organization when they searched the castle for survivors and was taken into their folds, right?"
"What?" Everyone around the room asked.
"Add an X and mix around the letters. M-A-R-L-U-X-I-A. Marluxia, from the Organization! He was the one who tried to form a new Organization and was in charge of Castle Oblivion."
"It's true," Midori admitted sadly. "Liramau's dirty little secret was that he loved to work in the gardens. He had so many plans to help this place that way. His Nobody was a monster though. I confronted him once, in a way, and our of sheer anger at him I killed his Heartless and destroyed his heart so he could never be whole again." She seemed deeply ashamed.
"It wasn't you though, was it?" Sora asked suddenly. "You said you confronted him, in a way, but it wasn't actually you, right?"
Midori slowly nodded and said, "I still feel terrible though."
"I don't understand…so when he tried to save you instead of putting all your heart back in you…"
"Half," Midori confirmed.
"Half of what?" Kairi voice the question that everyone else was asking.
"Half of my heart was put back in. This, in a sense, created a nobody because technically my heart did leave my body, just not enough to create a Heartless."
"You-you only have half of a heart?" Riku asked in shock.
She nodded slowly. "Yeah, but I've never been part of the group Half-Hearts, but in a way that's what I am, isn't it? Everything I told you about being held captive by them was completely true. The reason I was there though was so Crysita could keep tabs on me."
"Why would she need to keep tabs on you?"
"I lied when I said I didn't know where she came from. She's from this place, from right here." Midori placed a hand over her heart as she spoke. "See, Crysita is half of me. She's my partial nobody."
VVVVVVVVVVVVV
Author's Note
So who saw that coming? The whole Crysita & Midori being two halves of the same person thing? I imagine some people might have had theories about that…
And yes, Marluxia was a spoiled little prince! It just fit too well!
So what do you think Kairi read that got her so embarssed? Lol, I think we all can guess! My mom reads those books all the time, but I find them rather useless. :S
Just so everyone knows, those characters that I mentioned that were with Maleficient actually won't be making another appearance in these stories. They just had small cameos!
Thank you to everyone who reviewed! I heart you all! D
RockCityRoadStar – I agree, Kingdom Hearts would NEVER be Kingdom Hearts without Sora, but I am still intrigued by Birth by Sleep because you know that Ven has something to do with Roxas, ergo he has something to do with Sora! Lol The Dark Knight was great and we all are weird kids…
Kanie – lol thank you! I only get cokies? No cookies? Lol I know what you meant! ) Update wasn't quite as fast this time but I was busy swimming (lol that and I had to watch my sister are the excuses I always use!). Glad you liked the chapters so far
Iaveina – lmao happyfulish chapter of Sora with anger issues! I did have fun writing an angry Sora though! I giggled through the entire thing! No, those worlds will not be visited…except for maybe one if I remember right, but the bad guy doesn't make an appearance (too scared of Sora's crankyness!). They can't be ANCIENT Keybearers. Why? Because BBS only takes place 10 years before the first KH. Yeah little Sora and Riku make a cameo in BBS! I've seen it in clips. Rant away my friend and thanks!
DAN88 – lol band camp…I'll take your word for it, although a painful sunburn could just mean that you decided sleeping in the sun for a few hours straight would be a good idea! Take a guess who I'm making fun of! Air might be cleared up soon…maybe…sorta…
Zenisha de figuero con ausertz – lol Yzma amuses me so much, especially on the TV show Emperor's New School. And Prince John made me laugh when I saw Robin Hood again a few weeks ago so I had to put him in. You never know, Square Enix might fit them into a game. I'd have to say that my favorite Disney villain of all time is Hades, so I'm SO happy that he was in all the KH games so far.
Again thank you to everyone else and remember to tell me what you think of this chapter! I'll update as soon as I possibly can, promise!
Krystal Lily Potter