Act VII: Waiting
Sora, Riku, and Kairi stepped through the portal; they emerged in an empty white hallway. "Where are we?" Riku asked dully.
"I guess this is where we're going to start searching," Sora replied with a shrug. "I mean, what other choice do we have?"
Kairi nodded and without a word she began running down the hallway, only slowing down for a moment for the boys to catch up before returning to a full sprint. This is my fault, she thought. This is my fault, so I have to fix it.
0o0o0
Haru still sat in the white room, impatiently waiting for Riku, Sora, and Kairi to hopefully catch up, because simply put, he couldn't carry his unconscious boyfriend and fight at the same time. And really, he couldn't figure out Akio's sudden change in attitude, and that worried him. If something was so severe that he had to tell Haru to break the promise to remain silent about the past, and that 'Yami' person, then Akio surely needed help in there… and that worried him more than anything ever could.
Akio always acted like he was tough; that he could and would take on anything… but Haru knew otherwise. He knew that Akio, while he certainly was not fragile, had weaknesses like everyone else. Akio was afraid of so many things… and he had to be brave to be able to put on a strong face that led people to believe he was a cocky jerk.
He loved Akio for all of those things. He loved Akio for everything he was and ever could be… but there we was. On the ground, unconscious, and probably fighting desperately for control of his life.
Haru looked up when he heard footsteps approaching, reluctantly turning to watch where they were coming from rather than Akio. He was immediately thankful when he came around the corner. It was their families, not some enemy, not Origin. Apparently I still have some good luck, he thought.
He didn't wave them over, but he didn't run either. He looked back at Akio, sighing in relief that he was still there… he was unconscious, but he was still breathing.
Riku was the first to spot him and ran faster. "Haru!" he yelled.
Haru didn't move other than to sheepishly wave. He had made quite a mess of things, overreacting back in the canyon; but who wouldn't panic when their best friend/boyfriend was lying on the ground with someone above them preparing to shove a Keyblade though them? Even after Origin was gone, the adrenaline took a long time to fade. He ran, because what else could he do?
The three adults finally reached him, breathing hard from what was evidently a long run. "You're okay!" Kairi said with a relieved smile… until she spotted Akio on the floor. "Aren't you?" she asked, fear in her eyes.
"Yeah, about that," Haru said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I might have overreacted… a bit. I shouldn't have run off."
"Do you know why Akio's unconscious?" Sora asked in understandable concern.
"Oh um…" Haru took a deep breath. He told me to tell them, he reassured himself. "So this is going to be weird and confusing, but Akio apparently has made it so he can communicate with the darkness in his heart, and said darkness claims to have once belonged to Xehanort." He held up a hand as they started to speak. "But I've actually talked to this darkness person somehow, and he actually seems like a pretty cool guy. He said he doesn't want anything to happen to Akio."
"Okay, that doesn't explain why he's unconscious." Riku was visibly trying to stay patient.
"I'm getting there," Haru said. "So when I found Akio in the canyon, Origin was standing over his holding a Keyblade… apparently he was trying to release Xehanort, who apparently is also inside Akio. A letter from Akio appeared a few minutes ago. It said that he was fighting Xehanort and that I should let you guys find us so we can find and fight Origin." He held up the letter, showing it to them.
The Keyblade Masters looked at each other, confused and concerned… but Haru noted that they didn't seem afraid or angry.
Kairi swallowed and asked the question on all of their mind, regardless of their other worries: "Why did you run?"
Haru laughed nervously. "Well, to be honest…" He looked down. "I thought that if you knew Akio was holding Xehanort that you all might… you might have to do something, and I didn't know what that would be." He looked back up; as he expected, they looked shocked and hurt. "I guess the fear was unnecessary, but I didn't know: I know that Xehanort is bad news… I didn't know how desperate you'd be to get rid of him." He sighed. "Akio's been so afraid; I guess it was rubbing off on me."
"I think I understand," Sora acknowledged after a pause.
"But we'd never hurt either of you," Kairi assured. Riku gave a single not of agreement.
"Yeah, well…" Haru mumbled; he didn't know what to say. "Sorry I was afraid you would. A lot of it was just adrenaline since I had just fought Origin." They all looked at Akio once more.
"He's taking on Xehanort all alone in there," Sora said sadly," and there's nothing we can do to help him."
Haru shook his head. "Yes there is," he announced as he stood up. "We can get rid of Origin."
Kairi nodded. "So what's the plan?" she asked. "Two of us stay with Akio and two of us go to find Origin?"
"I don't think we should split up," Haru disagreed. "I mean, as far as I know, Akio's the only one of us who can hurt Origin. I think I managed to hit Origin back in the canyon, but I don't know for sure. We need to figure out how to injure him, but we don't want to end up cornered and unable to fight… we don't have Akio's help this time."
"He's right," Sora reasoned. "We should stick together. Last time we split up… well, we ended up missing for ten years."
"We don't even know where Origin went," Riku added. "But I don't think he'll just come to us."
Haru looked back at Akio, halfway hoping that he would wake up and chime in. He had always been the problem solver. He took a deep breath and tried to think. What would Akio do in this situation?
His mind wandered back to their last journey together; he tried to remember the little things Akio would say when he took charge. 'In your own words, 'you need to relax'!' was the first thing that came to mind, and it calmed him down… Then, remembering where that had happened, in Traverse Town, it hit him. 'But we have to keep moving. We have to figure out what's going on.'
Haru looked up. "We need to keep moving. We'll figure something out. That's what Akio would say." He looked back at his unconscious friend. "I know it'll be hard to bring him along, but if we keep moving, maybe we'll be able to find Origin, or get Origin to find us."
"No worries; I can carry him," Sora offered. "And you know; you're probably right. The best thing to do always seems to be to keep moving until something makes sense. It'll happen eventually."
"Well, to be honest, I literally quoted Akio from our last journey, so it wasn't my wisdom." He smiled softly at Akio. "I can't tell you how many times he'd say 'let's just go'. At first, I thought I was the leader, but it wasn't long before he took over. I'm too emotional; I was too focused on finding you guys. He was paying attention to other things too; the heartless and Origin. He knew that if we could find out more about them, finding you guys would follow." He was so frustrated with himself. "I don't know what I'm going to do without him telling me what to do."
"You'll be fine," Kairi reassured.
But they all looked at each other. They understood what it was like to not have someone you usually counted on around.
Haru shrugged. "I guess we could use his usual attitude of 'winging' things. That always seemed to work, although I'm not really sure how much of it actually wasn't planned."
"Well you're not alone," Riku pointed out. "And we're far more experience fighters than Akio is, so I don't think it should be a problem."
Haru snorted. "You've never seen Akio fight. Unless you guys are a lot different in actual battle than how you train, he's got you beat with speed." He chuckled at the doubt in their eyes. "He's fearless. He doesn't care if he gets hurt. That's how he ended up so badly injured when we found you. He should be more cautious… but in the end, he does a lot of damage." He shook his head. "But that's why I'm worried about him fighting Xehanort alone; he's reckless. He got hurt so many times protecting me."
Kairi frowned. "I'm sure he'll be okay…" she said as much to herself as to Haru.
0o0o0
((Author's note: Haru's way too dependent on Akio, and he really thinks that Akio has no flaws…))
