Alright everyone, you better bring something to eat or drink cause this is a long one. It's the longest chapter I've written for this story yet, so just know it might take a little bit to go all the way through. I even added a line-break around halve way through so when you reach it, it'll be a point to go eat, drink or even just go to the bathroom. Anyway, I hope all of you enjoy and continue reading the next part, which should be out either next week or the week after. ;)
Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories
Chapter 25: Castle Oblivion part XXV
"It was you who destroyed your home."
Upon these words, Sora's eyes widened in utter shock while starting to feel a bit hazy. The brown-haired girl's mind being flooded by confusion, sadness and even rage within a split second. All of which quickly began crumbling away at her very sanity while she stumbled slightly. Despite screaming within her head that she had to push his words aside and finish the fight, the very knowledge of this shattered her will to do so.
"You're lying!" Riku replica yelled out as he gained a fighting stance, him having kept his weapon out the whole time.
Marluxia simply chuckled to this with a wave of his hand; "Oh no...it's no lie. The heart of that world held a connection to both the Kingdom Key of Light, as well as the one of Darkness." he started with a glance toward the replica before turning back to Sora.
"Of course...having been chosen by either of them would have likely resulted in the same ending regardless. But the fact that it was the one of Darkness to have chosen you...means that you were always meant to destroy your island. Ever since the day you were born, you would one day lead to the destruction of not only your world, but countless others." the pink-haired man continued as both teen's stared at him in further shock.
"There is a reason why they are known as the Kingdom Keys. The one of Light is meant to bring peace and protect the worlds from Darkness. Which was found in the Realm of Darkness by that King Mickey, after your world was swallowed by the Heartless. But the one of Darkness...well...I'm sure you can assume on your own of what it means to be chosen by it." Marluxia claimed while slowly smirking all the wider, him actually enjoying the torment that both teens were feeling.
"Had you simply found it, you would have been able to command its power in the name of the Light or whatever you decided. To a Keyblade wielder, a Keyblade that is not your destined one is just another Keyblade. But if the Kingdom Key of Darkness chooses you...then you're just as destined to destroy worlds, as its opposite is in saving them!" he declared loudly, all while pointing a finger toward Sora in an accusing manner.
"Isn't that why you always try to help and save people? You unconsciously knew what you would cause, and wanted to think that it was 'okay' as long as you did something good in return. Well unfortunately for you, it doesn't work that way. You can't run from your destiny, it's all part of where you were born after all." the man said in a somewhat more calm tone while watching Sora fall to her knees.
The brown-haired teen's mind was completely clouded, even Maleficent's voice was nothing but a faint whisper at this point. Her vision began to blur with tears as she kept thinking about each of the friend's that were on the island the night it vanished. How many of them lost their hearts? How many of them even escaped? How many of them could have died? How many people were hurt...because of her?
To all these thoughts, Sora finally turned her gaze toward the Keyblade still within her hand. This allowing her sight to clear briefly as she stared at the weapon in utter fear and disgust, to which she immediately threw it to the side. After seeing this, Marluxia took on a small smirk once more as if 'this' was what he had been hoping for. Yet the replica of Riku narrowed his eyes to the man, whom allowed his scythe to reappear within his hands.
"Sora!" the teen called out while rushing to his friend's side, to which he blocked the pink-haired man's attack as he moved at blinding speed toward the girl.
"Tch! Troublesome puppet." Marluxia growled out while jumping back and away from the boy's slashing counterattack.
After this, Sora looked up toward the replica and blinked through her tear-filled eyes. But before she could say anything, the silver-haired teen spoke up first in a rather calm tone. "Sora...I figured out a name for myself." he began, to which the girl blinked slowly at him a few more times.
"Teng." he continued silently with a small smirk as he slowly glanced over his shoulder to look at Sora.
Whom stared at the boy for a few moments, yet he just chuckled silently as he turned back toward Marluxia. "I know, it sounds a bit weird and pretty lame. But it's the meaning behind it that made me decide on it." the silver-haired teen stated while moving into a fighting position.
"It's short for; 'Tengai'. Which, when translated, is the place where the sky meets the earth..." the boy said silently while giving Sora another quick glance when finishing his words; "...the horizon."
Immediately following this, Teng rushed forward and at Marluxia with his weapon at the ready. His power and speed being even greater since the last time the brown-haired girl had seen it. However, it was clear just from the level that had been showcased by the scythe-wielding man earlier, that this would barely be a fight to begin with. Despite realizing this, Sora couldn't bring herself to neither stand, or even to summon her Keyblade to the side.
The mere thought of holding the very weapon, which caused so much suffering to her friends and family, made her stomach turn. Yet this only increased when she realized that all of the powers she now held were extended from the Keyblade as well. Even her enormous strength was only possible thanks to the power over darkness the blade granted her. But these thoughts were quickly interrupted from the sound of Teng's voice calling out to her in the midst of his clash with Marluxia.
"Sora!" the boy yelled out as he flipped away from a slashing attack from his opponent, which gained the teen's attention.
"You're not a bad person! Nor do you simply do nice things to make up for something else! You didn't even realize or understand what would happen in summoning that Keyblade! So you can't take blame for something that you didn't consciously have any part of!" he declared, all while jumping and rolling away from Marluxia's next series of attacks.
"You do nice things because it's part of who you are!" Teng continued as the pink-haired man in front of him narrowed his eyes heavily, all while glancing at Sora quickly.
Whom had her head tilted down as the boy's words echoed through the hall, it being unclear if she was truly listening to him. Yet, this didn't stop him from going further while his enemy was briefly distracted. "You treated me like a real person from the moment we met and never once believed I was any less real than Riku himself! No one who tries to balance their bad deeds with good ones would ever do such a thing naturally!"
After all but screaming this out, the brown-haired girl slowly tilted her head up to look at him. Teng giving her a firm, yet confident stare as he said his last words in a normal tone. "You're a good person Sora. Don't let anyone ever convince you otherwise."
"That's enough!" Marluxia yelled out while going fully on the offensive against Teng and immediately started pushing the boy back.
However, the moment they locked blades, the teen practically fell to his knees from the man's overwhelming strength and power. As Sora watched this, she started screaming at herself to go and help her friend. Yet the fear and doubt within her mind was still too great, the only movement she was able to muster was the trembling in her hands. Yet with a swift push, Marluxia knocked Teng to the side and was able to reach Sora in the blink of an eye.
He then readied his weapon to kill her as his eyes narrowed heavily on the girl once more. "Such a shame...you would have been of great use to me." he whispered silently while slashing down at her.
As she watched his blade coming down, she could see movement in the corner of her eye. But the girl's mind couldn't seem to comprehend it as she just closed her eyes to await her impending death. Isn't this for the better? Wouldn't her death mean that the Darkness would be weakened, and the Light could be restored? Isn't this what she would deserve for hurting so many? Maybe with her death...all her past sins could be forgiven.
Yet, these thoughts instantly stopped as the sickening sound of a blade breaking and a deep cutting noise echoed through the hall. This caused the girl to snap her eyes open, only for them to be stricken in horror as she saw half of Teng's weapon fall to the floor. Of which then lead for her to slowly move her gaze down as a great deal of blood soon joined his broken blade and stain the white tiles under his feet.
Upon seeing a small puddle develop within seconds, the girl quickly guessed that the wound must have been a deep and long gash across his chest. This made her horror increased ten fold as the light drained from her eyes and her breathing just stopped. However, she still unconsciously reached out and caught Teng as he fell backward into her arms. Upon doing so, Sora's fear had been confirmed. The boy's wound was so deep that it was all too clear, even with the best healing magic, he was going to die.
Sora's eyes remained wide as she moved a hand forward in order to cast a Curaga spell, despite knowing it was futile. Tears welled up in her eyes as her trembling hand began to glow a faint green color. But the moment Marluxia let out a 'tch' and raised his blood stained scythe, Sora's eyes flashed fully yellow as her hand immediately pointed in his direction. The girl's action created an enormous blast of dark energy that briefly swallowed the pink-haired man.
Though he still managed to escape this attack, it had left a few noticeable burns across his face and neck. Yet this was the full extent of the damage, him having moved at very high speed in order to get away. Him knowing that had he reacted even a second later, he may have even lost a limb or two from the sheer density and power the teen used in her attack.
All the while, Sora then moved her hand to hover over Teng's wound once more and cast Curaga over and over again. However, due to her emotional turmoil and the deepness of the wound, the spell did virtually nothing. This making the girl tremble all the more as she kept trying, despite knowing that she couldn't even cast magic properly in her current state. Even if the wound had been shallow enough for the girl to save him, her emotions would still prevent Sora from doing so.
"Come on..." she whispered in a pleading tone as her voice cracked from the tightness in her throat.
"Please..." the girl choked out while tears fell from her cheeks.
Yet her gaze quickly turned to Teng's eyes as he placed a hand over her own and offered a small smile. "It's okay Sora." he started weakly, despite his expression never fading.
"If I'm to die, then it'll be protecting you." the teen continued as a darkness began to surround his body.
Of which was starting to disappear already, causing even more tears to fill and fall from Sora's eyes. "But...I don't want you to die at all." the girl said silently as she could barely even manage to speak at all.
"I know, but it's my choice." Teng stated while smiling a bit wider, to which the brown-haired girl's eyes blinked many times.
"Something I never knew I even had until you came around." he muttered with a brief chuckle, his form now being halfway gone.
"So...thank you, Sora. I'm glad to have protected you at least once." the boy whispered out, his voice starting to become weaker.
"G-Goodb-" Teng began, yet was stopped as his body fully vanished.
The darkness where his body had been remained for a few extra seconds as if symbolizing the last of Teng's very being. However, these moments were all that was needed for Sora to place both her hands into the shadows while her eyes widened fully. Her pupils almost disappearing from how small they became, to which the girl then snapped them shut as tightly as possible. This allowing the tears welling up in them to roll down her already wet cheeks. In an instant, Sora let out a heart wrenching scream of agony, rage, despair and pain. This echoing loudly through the hall as even Marluxia could almost feel the emotions within her scream.
But it was the immediate blaze of darkness the poured out of the girl that truly shocked the scythe-wielding man. It being utterly overwhelming as he was pushed back into the wall by the sheer force the dark power produced. All the while, Sora just continued to scream while holding both hands in the shadows of where Teng had once been. Which was absorbed into the teen as she then placed both hands to her chest, a faint glow emitting from her hands while doing so.
All the while, the force of the teen's power caused the barrier in front of the door to shatter and allow the doors themselves to swing open. This also knocked many of the others to the floor as the sound of Sora's agonizing scream filled the air. Yet while they all called out to her and even rushed their way into the hall, the brown-haired girl never seemed to hear them.
Though it was when all went silent that everyone truly started to worry as they watched Sora slowly stand up to her feet. Despite not seeing Sora very well within the thick layer of darkness around her, everyone immediately saw her fully yellow eyes. Their glow piercing through the darkness like a firefly at midnight, yet appeared as frightening as a tiger stalking a helpless prey.
"I won't..." Sora whispered in a strangely distorted voice, as if more than one person was speaking.
"I won't let him die." she continued as all the darkness surrounding her was suddenly absorbed back into her body.
The teen's form being visible for a brief second before another eruption of dark energy blasted out of her. Only this time, it flared around Sora like a raging inferno of black fire. But even through this, everyone could see a shape taking form behind the girl. Of which seemed to take in all of the surrounding darkness while growing to its full size. This being roughly three times larger than any adult man, yet its legs appeared to be substituted for a long tail that connected to Sora's back. It being a near replica of the Guardian that Ansem had summoned, yet it's appearance was also similar to that of the Heartless the girl fought in the India Wilderness.
"But...that's impossible." Marluxia whispered as there is only one other person he ever knew to have such a creature.
However, from the very sound of his voice, the brown-haired teen snapped her gaze toward him. Yet as the Guardian hovered behind her, it slowly began to shrink as a strange light traveled from Sora's chest, to the creature. Once it had diminished in size to be nearly equal to the brown-haired girl herself, it then started to take a new form that caused everyone's eyes to widen in utter shock.
"I...I won't let him..." Sora whispered in a low growl as if struggling to remain sane from the overwhelming darkness flowing through her.
The Guardian slowly morphed into Teng as the silver-haired boy stepped on the floor just to the side of Sora. Though there was a noticeable stream of darkness that connected the two teens, it was unclear if this was even the real Teng until he opened his eyes. Him just gazed at Marluxia in a similar hatred as the girl beside him, to which he glanced to her briefly.
"Yeah...I think it'll be a Pink Lilium too." he whispered silently before both teens summoned their weapons in near unison.
Upon seeing all this Marluxia unconsciously shifted backward while gazing at the pair in utter shock. Yet he soon focused fully on Sora as he could feel himself starting to tremble lightly at what he knew was coming. "Th-This is impossible...just what in the world are you?" was all he could utter out, him gripping his scythe tightly.
"Well..." Sora started silently, her voice seeming a bit more normal now as she and Teng readied to fight.
"To you..." she continued while slowly narrowing her eyes on the man; "...I'm your worst nightmare."
These were the last words that Marluxia would ever hear as the pair instantly vanished from sight. The two then began slashing, punching, kicking, elbowing, kneeing and even clawing at him from every possible direction. Them doing so with such great speed and strength that they were a complete blur to everyone in the hall. By the time they paused, Marluxia's coat was all but shredded and his body was cut and bruised so much that he was nearly unrecognizable. The man breathed heavily and wobbled on his feet while being unable to even defend himself from even one of pair's attacks.
Within moments however, Marluxia was instantly knocked backward by a strong blow to the chest. All the air being vacated from his lungs and caused him to gasp deeply before being caught by the back of his head. Him being in the middle of his gasping breath when he was slammed face first into the floor with enough strength, that it nearly knocked him out.
While the pink-haired man's body went almost completely limp, he started wishing and hoping that they would finally just end it. Him being so wounded that he wouldn't even be able to move around without feeling great pain. However, Marluxia instantly felt even more agony as he was quickly kneed in the stomach and sent flying backward once again. This lead for one of the pair to elbow his back and lift him into the air enough to nearly touch the ceiling. The blow to his spine completely snapping it in two as he lost all feeling to the lower half of his body.
During his decent, so many more slashes and slices tore through his body as he was literally helpless. The pink-haired man almost being thankful that he didn't feel any further pain on his lower body, the pain he felt already was almost enough to make him pass out. All the confidence he had, all the power he obtained, all the manipulation he used...none of it meant anything now.
As he looked down at the floor when the attacks finally stopped, he saw Sora and Teng standing under him with their weapons pointed at his chest. "The Organization is finished..." he whispered silently to himself just as a huge wave of dark power flooded over him and disintegrated his broken body.
Upon witnessing this, everyone in the group almost felt thankful that they could barely see what happened as they could only assume how brutal it really was. Yet despite all this, they all looked at Sora and Teng as the former had her head tilted down. It almost appearing as if she had been the one who lost. In a sense however...she was the loser.
"I'm sorry..." she whispered while lifting her gaze to look at the boy next to her; "...I couldn't save you."
After these words, everyone quickly took notice of the fact that Teng's body was slowly fading away. Yet said teen simply gave a small smile to Sora and waved a hand dismissively. "You allowed my heart to enter yours and even provided me with a temporary body to help you beat that guy. I'd consider that a rescue if I ever saw one." he claimed, both he and the girl unsummoning their weapons.
"But...if I hadn't let myself fall into his trap, you wouldn't have had to sacrifice yourself in the first place." Sora stated, it being clear that she was extremely angry with herself.
Teng raised a brow to her before sighing, to which he then placed his fist upon her chest and smirked lightly. "Hey...I said it was my choice, and I'm happy for it. At least give me that?" he asked silently, his gaze reflecting a softness that made the girl blink a few times while they looked into each others eyes.
Sora the slowly gained small smile and nodded her head in response, despite the tears welling up in her eyes once more. "Alright...but I won't give up in that name." she whispered silently as they both shared a chuckle.
"I know...it's lame." Teng muttered while nodding in agreement to her comment, his body halfway gone by this point.
"Yeah...but I do like it." Sora added as she placed her fist against her friend's chest; "I'll find a way to bring you back, I promise."
The silver-haired boy chuckled lightly, to which he then just gave a shrug and smile. "I figured you'd say that...just don't do anything rash, alright?"
"Deal." the blue-eyed girl whispered with a slow nod, her watching Teng disappear in front of her eyes.
Of which caused even more tears to welled up, forcing her to close both eyes tightly. This seemed to signal the others to come rushing over to her as they had wanted to give the Sora time alone with Teng for their 'farewells'. Kairi had immediately hugged her friend from behind, all while Riku placed a hand to Sora's left shoulder as to try and comfort her. Donald and Goofy spoke words of encouragement, while Mickey and Namine stood to the side.
Yet the latter of the last two seemed to want nothing more than to hug the girl as well. However, she held herself back as if knowing that there was something she had to say, yet was afraid to. How would Sora even react when given the choice Namine would have to pose to her?
It was almost ten minutes before Sora finally made another sound, other than her silent crying. Of which had been a simple clearing of her throat while sniffing silently immediately afterward. "Thanks you guys." she whispered with a glance between each of them, her voice being a bit hoarse from all her crying.
"I..." she started, yet it was clear from her rather choked tone that she was going to say something that would berate herself.
This lead for each of them to just shake their heads in response to her before she could even continue. "Lets just leave it at that for now." Kairi suggested as she loosened her hug on Sora.
"We can all work together to save him, so until then...no beating yourself up." she stated in a strangely firm, yet soft manner that just made Sora nod slowly in response.
"Alright...fair enough. I can't help him if I'm sulking around, huh?" the brown-haired girl said silently while doing her best to smile at her friends.
"Exactly, besides...he's not really gone after all." Kairi added with a nod and small smile of her own.
"Yeah." Sora whispered as she placed a hand over her chest while feeling Teng's heart within her.
However, she soon blinked a few times as she suddenly felt something else at the same time. It felt familiar, yet foreign at the same time. But before she could think any further on this, everyone turned to the doors as Axel came walking into the hall. Each of them able to hear his foot steps approaching, thanks to how easily the sound echoed off the walls. Though, after seeing the number of people remaining and the expressions they all had, the red-haired man could tell most of what transpired.
"Sorry for intruding, but I just thought that I'd check and see what happened after that sudden influx of dark power." he said silently before taking a step back, knowing that he was kind of interrupting.
"I thought something went wrong when no one showed up after a while, but I can see what happened." the man continued silently, him feeling a bit awkward as he wasn't sure of how to just leave at this point.
"Um...anyway, the others are awake if you want to talk to them. But I would actually hurry since we're all leaving soon." Axel finished as he finally just left, him letting out a silent breath and even muttered how awkward that situation was while going.
This caused Sora slowly smile once more as she took in and let out a breath; "Alright...we better head out too." she said with a quick nod to everyone around her.
They each returned this gesture and made their way out of the large hall and through the long corridor. But upon reaching halfway, Namine spoke up after having her head down in thought much of the time. "Sora..." she started, to which said girl and the others stopped in their steps.
"...I didn't want to spring this on you right now, but I'm afraid I have to." she continued silently, her gaze slowly shifting to the floor once again.
"Before we leave this castle, there is a choice that you have to make." Namine said while bringing her eyes up to look at the girl directly.
"Whats that?" Sora questioned quietly, yet she almost seemed to already know what was coming.
"You can either continue on as you are now with all the altered memories I created. Or I can place you in status, and you can have your memories restored to the way they were. But that will mean you'll forget everything that happened here, including what just occurred." the blond-haired girl all but whispered, it breaking her heart to even give such a choice to begin with.
The very sight of Sora made Namine's heart clench as she had to turn away in order to fight back the tears she could feel coming. Her knowing that the brown-haired girl would be furious about such words, as they implied completely forgetting about Teng. However, no angry or hurt-filled response came as the teen just sighed and glanced to the side briefly.
"I'd like to say that I'll just continue on as I am, but would it be right of me to just forget about those that I have forgotten?" the girl questioned while chuckling softly and shrugging her shoulders.
"Just assuming that my old friendships can simply be renewed is completely unfair toward my old friends. Yet on the other side, would it even be considered fair to just regain all my old memories and forget about all the new friends I've made here?" she continued, to which she slowly placed a hand to her chest and closed her eyes.
"I don't think I can choose one or the other." Sora whispered mainly to herself as she seemed to know that this would always become a factor, yet chose not to think about it.
"Foolish child...I have power over sleep. And if she's putting you to sleep during this procedure, then I can store the memories you gained here and simply reconnect them to your normal memories. It'll mean that you'll have two different memories of the same event in some places, but you will remember everything." Maleficent suddenly stated within Sora's mind.
This made the girl's eyes snap open as it had been the first time she spoke up since the teen's mind had been clouded by the darkness. 'So...I can keep all these memories?' the teen asked the woman as her gaze turned just to the side of everyone.
Where, in Sora's vision, was the spot Maleficent was standing patiently. "It'll feel like a dream, but yes." was the witch's response as she just turned to the side.
"And I will only do it if you agree that for the entire time you're asleep, you will undergo my mental teachings. I will not have you waking up the ill-mannered and immature buffoon you are now." she continued in a very firm tone, which simply made Sora smile widely.
"Deal." she voiced aloud, causing many to look at her with a confused expression.
"Restore my memories to how they were, cause no matter what you do...I'm going to remember everything that happened here." the brown-haired girl stated in a very confident tone, making each of the others blink a few times in response.
Namine in particular seemed to be very confused, her wanting to say something to counter the girl's statement. However, Sora's simple expression of confidence made her just slowly nodded her head in agreement. "Alright...just follow me when you're ready." she said silently, her unable to feel any reason not to trust Sora as they then made their way into the previous room.
Upon entering, all of the remaining Organization members within the castle were standing in the middle of the small hall. The brown-haired teen smiled lightly to them and came walking up to the center of their group. Larxene raised a brow and crossed her arms with a huff, as if she were trying to hide the fact that she was looking the girl over for injuries. Zexion simply gave the teen a nod in greeting along with Lexaeus as they stood side-by-side one another. Vexen however, stared at her as if in shock of the fact that she came back alive, yet quickly passed this off with a quick cough.
"Well then...nicely done with Marluxia, but I believe there is a matter of us owing you a favor." Axel started from the girl's right side.
"We'd like to have that take care of before we leave so we can get back to being the 'bad guys'." he continued, which caused everyone who wasn't wearing an organization coat to sweat drop.
"Excuse me...but I owe her no favor!" Vexen declared quickly as he puffed his chest out for a brief moment.
"Oh shut up, we all know she helped with your research." Larxene claimed in a huff, her uncrossing both arms and placed her gloved hands upon her hips.
"So just suck it up and deal with it." Zexion added silently, making Vexen growl silently and turn to the side as if giving up his struggle.
All of this making the others in the room to sweat drop even further as the interactions between each of these people seemed so...human. Of which lead for Sora to giggle softly and wave a hand, this showing that she wasn't going to be picky about the favors. "Well...I was going to ask each of you to teach me how to use your unique powers and such." the girl began with a small smile, yet she soon shrugged her shoulders and sighed.
"But it looks like I'll have to call a rain check on that one since I'll be going to sleep in a little bit." she continued, to which even Larxene looked at her with a raised brow in question.
"Though...since I know none of you want to stay indebted to me, my favor will simply to never tell anyone of where I am." were the words that brought about a rather shocked expression on each of the Organization members' faces.
Every single one of them knew what this meant for them, something that even Sora herself had a vague idea about. However, after a few moments of silence, Axel just chuckled silently and shrugged his shoulders in response. "Well...if that's the deal, then consider it done." he answered with a nod of his head to the teen.
Whom returned this gesture as the red-haired man then gave a wave and started walking away. "I'll see you guys back at base." he muttered before vanishing in a portal of darkness.
A couple seconds of thinking later, Lexaeus nodded his own head while looking to Sora. "Agreed, I shall never tell a single person about your location." he declared with a fist raised to his chest as if to symbolize a warrior's oath.
This quickly lead for him to follow in Axel's steps and disappear into his own portal. Once the large man vanished, Zexion sighed heavily with a brief shrug. "Well...it would take a lot less time to keep a secret, than to teach you everything in my book. So I guess you can count on me as well." he said silently before heading to the side as well to leave via a swirl of darkness.
"Tch! The fools! The lot of them!" Vexen declared firmly in a light growl, yet he slowly turned to Sora and pointed a finger to her.
"Let me make this perfectly clear...I have no intention of disobeying orders! I'm not going to risk my life for a favor or any such thing!" he continued while turning away and walking to the side.
However, he briefly paused and spoke again without even turning around; "But I can keep a secret, so long as no one uses the right phrase of words when asking about it." he muttered silently and quickly, him then disappearing instantly afterward.
Once he had, Sora's attention turned to Larxene as she was the only one remaining. The whole room going silent as they waited on the blond's answer, which just came in the form of a simple; "Tch! Whatever."
Immediately after this, the older girl vanished in a portal and left the remaining others on their own. Which lead for Sora to turn to Namine with a small smile and slow nod of her head. "I'm ready." she whispered as the other girl returned this expression and gesture with a mirroring one.
Floor after floor, Sora returned back to the very first floor with all of her friends, where of which someone was waiting. This person had on a very complex series of clothing that mainly consisted of a red cape and a pitch black shirt underneath. The latter garment had a white symbol upon it, as well as leading into grey, segmented armor that covered his sides and abdomen. Going further down, his legs were covered by a long, black cloth that held multiple brown pouches.
Though, the strangest thing was that the man's face was covered in red bandages, save for his right eye and mouth. These bandages were held tightly around him by two intersecting belts around his head, one even passing over the spot where his left eye would be. His visible eye however was orange in color and the tone of his skin seemed fairly dark, even by comparison to Sora's natural tan. Lastly, he also had a dark colored scarf around his neck, yet it looked visibly old by the look of it.
"And this is?" Sora questioned with blinking eyes at the sheer strangeness of the man's appearance.
"He calls himself 'DiZ'." Riku spoke up, to which his brown-haired friend blinked a few times toward him.
"He and Mickey were the ones to help me conquer the lingering will of Ansem that resides inside of me." the silver-haired boy continued, making Sora blink many more times.
"Aw man...I missed a lot, huh?" she commented silently as if regretting not going and looking for Riku when she had the chance.
"I assume you have made your choice?" DiZ questioned suddenly in a deep and rather old sounding voice.
"Whoa...you would be amazing at telling stories with a voice like that." Sora muttered silently before quickly clearing her throat and nodding in response to him.
"Yes...I have." she answered quickly, to which DiZ merely nodded back and lead her into a secret passage on the opposite side of the room as the one that lead to the lower floors.
Upon going inside, it brought them into a short corridor that had opened up into a very bright and large room. It having a dome ceiling with strange green markings on the floor, as well as a white, egg-shaped pod in the center. "I'm guessing I'll be sleeping in that?" Sora questioned as DiZ placed a hand to the surface of the pod.
Of which was about ten to fifteen feet tall and wide enough to hold at least three other people aside herself. Though, once the man made contact with it, the front of the capsule seemed to open up and revel the silver and grey inside. "Indeed, and when you awake...you won't remember anything after your defeat of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness." DiZ stated silently while stepping to the side in order to let Sora go in.
Said teen just kept a small grin on her features as she looked around to her friends and nodded her head. "I'll see you all again soon." she spoke silently before offering each of them a farewell hug.
Her hug with Kairi seemed to linger for a few extra seconds before she then moved on to Riku. Whom just settled on a quick fist bump with his brown-haired friend, to which they shared a small grin with each other. With Donald and Goofy, Sora hugged them both at the same time and even kissed their cheeks. Though, despite not knowing Mickey very well, they shared a tight embrace as if they were always destined to become friends without ever knowing it.
When hugging and eventually releasing Namine, Sora smiled widely with a wink toward the blond. "I'll remember...I promise." she said while holding out her pinky finger.
The girl blinked briefly to this before she soon locked her own pinky finger with Sora's. "I'll see you when you wake up." she whispered softly as they unlocked their fingers and allowed the brown-haired girl to then jump into the pod.
Sora waved her hand to them as the opening of the pod slowly closed, to which it sealed the girl off from the rest of the world once it did. There being nothing but complete darkness even before the teen slowly closed her eyes. After only a brief moment, a small amount of gas was let into the chamber and allowed the teen to drift off into sleep almost instantly. Her last thoughts being; 'Things will be okay.' before her consciousness slipped away.
The girl not knowing just how right, yet wrong she was. For she had gained so much, but hadn't lost an equal amount. As is not the way...of Castle Oblivion.
And there you have it, this chapter was literally over eleven pages long. So yeah, it was a long one to write. But I really hope all of you enjoyed and let me know what you thought about this chapter and this part of the story as a whole. Did you think I rushed the ending? Was the flow from chapter to chapter okay? Did you enjoy the battles? Let me know in a review and stay tuned for the next part; 'Inverted Sky: KH 358/2 Days' either next week or the week afterward. Thank you all for sticking with me thus far and I hope to entertain you even more in the future.