A/N: R12, thank you for another amazing review! I can't wait to continue exploring just how cunning all of Shinra and OrgXIII are... and btw, it's not Nimo Sora's reporting to, but Xemnas! Xemnas' last name is Nimoy, too, so that means he and Nimo (Xehanort Jr) are related... more on that family tree later...
Sora will continue maturing and learning who and who not to trust, but he is honestly SO unequipped to deal with the Org- and he's not the only one. Think of all the people in this story who've disappeared or even died in the same building as them. If you think about it, Sora's naivety might be the only thing keeping him safe at this point. But more on that in chapters to come... and Xemnas will continue to be slowly unpacked, along with others...
~X~
Chapter Thirty Seven
~X~
Sora jolted awake and hit his head on the roof above the mattress as the warning lights began going off.
"Sorry, Sora," Joshua called from the cockpit. "Should have warned you we were about to land."
Sora rubbed the sleep from his eyes and scrambled up the rope ladder, throwing a t-shirt over his head as he plopped into his seat. When Joshua saw that he was just in that and a pair of boxer briefs, he snorted, murmuring that he hoped Sora planned on wearing something a little more respectable for the trip down.
"I know, I know," Sora huffed through a blush, clipping himself in and settling back in excitement. He could see the world in question orbiting in front of him, getting bigger and bigger the closer they got. It was bathed in a palette of reds, oranges, and yellows, replete with a massive, twin belled clocktower, an orbiting train track, sprawling forests, beaches, and looming at the world's base, a jutting, purple windowed house. A haze of lavender and brown clouds billowed over the clock tower's left hand side. As Joshua pointed the ship's nose towards the first layer of atmosphere, he asked Sora to describe him good places to eat around town.
"I think it's best if you're not distracted," Sora peeped. Joshua shrugged and sighed. Then he leveled the ship, clicked the "landing" service button, pulled back the throttle, and rammed his foot against the accelerator.
Sora screeched as the gummi ship dove headfirst through the clouds. Joshua hummed as he checked the leveling gauge, chirped into his walkie, fiddled with the trim wheel and continued wrenching the throttle back until the engines puttered and stopped completely. Sora found himself digging in his pocket for Kairi's charm. When he felt it, he scrunched his eyes tight and whimpered.
"Sit tight, Sora, we're turning!" Joshua sang, swerving to the right as if something was flying after him. Sora howled as he was pulled back and forth. When he regained control, he opened his eyes and watched familiar fire burst around the ship's edges. The cockpit began heating up. Joshua snapped for Sora to confirm their landing destination. Sora gulped and scrolled through his tablet. When Joshua swerved again, it flew from his hands and clattered down the cockpit exit into the pipes. As Sora stared behind him, he gulped.
"Um, Joshua?" he whispered.
"What, Sora?"
"I don't know where to land."
"What about your tablet?"
"Well... It's down the ladder."
"Why?!"
"I- I might have dropped it."
"What?" Joshua snapped, taking a glimmer of a moment to peek over his shoulder. "Didn't you clip it into the side of your seat?"
Sora furrowed his brows and checked his seat side. Sure enough, there was a long chain with an empty clip at the end, no doubt waiting to hook around Sora's absent tablet. As he wiped his forehead, he croaked that he forgot.
"Sora!" Joshua shouted. Then he scowled and hissed that the boy would have to look at his.
"Okay!" Sora chirped. When he reached for the tablet and switched it on, he saw that it had a passcode.
"What's your passcode?" he asked. Joshua's face went white.
"Oh, er, well..." he gulped. "Maybe I can type it in..."
"You can't!" Sora barked. "You're driving a freaking space ship!"
"Well you're the one who lost your tablet!" Joshua shrieked. "How far away is it?"
"I can't get it now, I'll be thrown around the cockpit like a billiard ball!" Sora bellowed. Joshua groaned and clapped his hand to his forehead.
"It's..." he began, clearly embarrassed. Then he hissed, "don't judge me!"
"I won't judge you one bit, just give me the password!" Sora begged.
"Fine," Joshua groaned. "It's Nekus#1fan. Pound sign followed by the number one, only capitalize N."
"Right," Sora said, typing in the password at light speed. When he finally got up the landing area page, he cheered and screeched that it was a cleared field in the shape of a sheep.
"Fuck, I think that's it!" Joshua screeched.
"Great! Wait, why are we passing it?"
"Because you told me what it was too late!"
Sora scowled and unclipped himself, crawling under Joshua's seatbelt and sitting on top of him. Joshua reeled back in surprise as Sora took the controls himself and began turning the ship around.
"Sora, are you sure you know-"
"I can do this!" Sora cried. "I just need to concentrate."
He stuck out his tongue as he operated the throttle, wheel, and trim wheel at the same time. Soon they were not more than one hundred feet off the ground. The speed of the ship was getting dangerously low. If it did not go faster, it would drop from the sky. Joshua whimpered and clasped himself around Sora's middle. Sora wiped his eyes on the sleeve of Joshua's t-shirt. Then, swerving above the sheep mark, he waited till the ship was close to falling, drew his key blade, hooked Kairi's way finder to its end, and thrust it up, screaming, "zero gravity!" It was an ingenious spell Soddy had taught him, designed to keep airborne anything it touched. But instead of stopping the ship and making it float, it suspended it and lurched it around in sickeningly fast circles above the green. Sora felt something warm and liquid gush down his back. His brain pinged around his skull as he tucked his chin to his chest. In a hoarse voice, he screeched, "slow!" The ship regressed to the speed of a rollercoaster. "Slow!" he called again. He continued until the ship was floating around at a snail's pace ten feet above the ground. When the zero gravity spell finally wore off, the ship slammed into the dirt and Sora felt liquid gush down his back again. With shaking fingers, he cast "cure" on himself and Joshua. Then he opened the packs beneath the driver's seat and got out two panaceas. When he glanced behind him, he grimaced.
Vomit, tears, and snot caked Joshua's face. When he tipped one panacea into the boy's lips, he gulped it down. Sora cast stop over him to keep him from throwing it up. Then he downed one himself and collapsed against Joshua's frozen chest in exhaustion. As he began to feel better and as warmth returned to Joshua's body behind him, the boy hissed for him to get off. Sora unbuckled and stumbled out of the pilot's seat. When Joshua gagged behind him, Sora told him to try keeping the panacea down.
"Shut up, Sora," Joshua snapped. He stifled a sob. Sora gritted his teeth and winced, mumbling an apology as the peroxide blond gulped back a deep breath. By the time he regained the ability to stand, Sora was already fidgeting with the exciting thought of meeting Hayner, Pence, and Olette. He ignored the vomit splatters along the walls as he descended the ladder to find his tablet. It was lodged between two massive pipes near the engines, the screen cracked and hot to the touch. Sora groaned as he looked at it. Then, he climbed back up, opened the cockpit emergency exit, and slid onto fresh grass with a cry of delight.
"Thank you, sweet Minerva," he whispered, kissing the ground and sucking in its scent. For some reason it reminded him of Roxas. A gentle wind gusted over the fields surrounding. When Sora rolled over to examine them, he noticed that they had landed in the middle of a mountain range. Far in the distance loomed a massive, rollercoaster high track. Walled within it were the peaks of houses and Twilight Town's infamous clock tower. Surrounding it looked to be a dense wood. Something trudged to his side. When he glanced up, Joshua's mussed curls blocked out the midday sun.
"Get up and take your clothes off," he snarled. Sora blubbered in confusion.
"But-"
"Get. Up." Joshua intoned. "And take your clothes off. Or I will tell Xemnas about this landing."
Sora was up and naked in record time. When he realized Joshua was nude as well, holding out a bucket at arm's length, he furrowed his brows in confusion. Then he realized the boy had set his dirty clothes in it. Sora dumped in his as well. Joshua made him hold the pail. Then the blond indicated for him to start walking.
"Where are we going?" asked Sora.
"There's a river nearby," Joshua growled. "We're jumping in and scrubbing our clothes off. Then we're filling that bucket with water and soap, and while I sunbathe, you're going to clean the inside of the cockpit."
"Aw..." Sora groaned, receiving a slap to the back of the head.
"Why do we have to be naked?" Sora snapped.
"I don't like vomit dribbling down my front, and I don't like seeing my vomit dribbling down your back, thank you very much," Joshua responded. "If I'm babysitting you, I'm going to do it my way."
"Babysitting-?!"
"And if you want any sort of freedom this semester," Joshua intoned, "We're going to have to work on a scale of give and take."
"Give and take?" Sora breathed in anxiety. Joshua nodded.
"Let's go through the variables, shall we?" he muttered. "A. You are a terrible flier and academic, while I am not. B. You are forgetful, while I am not. C. You are prudish, while I love sex-"
"That's not-" Sora started, but Joshua stopped him.
"D. I am a control freak, while you hate following directions. E. I am realistic, while you are not. F. Your mission is to retrieve King Mickey, while my mission is to make sure you complete it without any distractions."
"You were sent to spy on me?" spat Sora.
"I prefer the term 'supervise,' Sora," Joshua sighed. "'Spy' suggests the target's capability for deception."
"Capability, huh?" Sora muttered to himself, kicking a stray stone out of the way. Unlike the Land of Departure, which seemed to hide some species of hurtful bug or plant at every turn, Twilight Town's plains seemed largely pleasant to walk barefoot around. Of course, the callouses Sora had formed by now rendered his feet practically invincible. Joshua yelped and whined as he stepped on stray stones or ants behind him. Sora could not help but smirk as he sailed along without bother. For being the 'babysitter,' Joshua seemed much less capable, at least when it came to terrain. Perhaps Xemnas should have switched their assignments, or even better, let Sora roam the worlds on his own. When the pair reached the river, he screamed obnoxiously and dived in before Joshua could tell him not to. It was a lot shallower than the one in the Land of Departure. It held no black boils, Twilight Thorns, or absent silhouettes. There were a few hermit crabs and snails squelching or shuffling along, along with several flurries of tadpoles. Otherwise: cool, empty water. Sora blew the creatures kisses as they passed, reveling in the freedoms this new world offered. When he rose up for air and saw two pale legs slipping along rocks on the other side, he grinned and paddled towards them, shaking out his hair as he broke surface.
"Look, I'm a puppy," he grinned as he passed Joshua by, yipping and doggy paddling. When the blond told him not to get him wet, Sora flutter kicked so hard he splashed a gallon's worth of water right into Joshua's face. As the boy shouted for him to kick slower, Sora shrugged and did so, slamming his legs as hard as he could into the river water as he passed by again. Screeching in indignation, Joshua jumped on top of him and pulled him under. Sora gasped in surprise and paddled to the rocks, hoisting himself and Joshua up together. The two splayed themselves against the stones. Joshua groaned and spit out water. Sora enjoyed the feeling of the sun on his chest and the cold river water running past his feet.
"Why don't you get in?" he asked Joshua. Joshua muttered that he couldn't swim.
"Destiny Islanders are practically born swimming," Sora sighed. "My mom had a water birth. I think Tidus' mom did, too. You'd think I'd be as good at breathing under water as him, but I'm not. Kairi's amazing at it, she's like a fish. Riku couldn't swim till he was ten- he was afraid of the water till he saw me getting in. He couldn't stand being worse at something than me." Sora laughed at the thought of it, wondering what it was like when his own father hauled his pregnant mother into the ocean and Sora swam out of her. Kind of gave him the creeps when he pictured it.
"Shibuya's too polluted to swim in," Joshua muttered. "As a world goes, it's kind of falling apart."
"Really?" Sora breathed. Joshua nodded. "It's probably packed with those boils the Organization's been talking about. There's a lot of darkness there. Pretty sure the Galactic Federation has talked about ways of transferring the population somewhere else, that is if there's another world willing to take us all."
"I'm sorry," Sora whispered. "That sounds horrible." Then he beamed and asked Joshua if he wanted to learn how to swim. Joshua glared at him in disgust, but Sora slipped back into the water and sucked in some ammo, squirting at Joshua when he least expected.
"Sora, that's gross!" snapped the blond. "Stop spitting at me!" He was cut off when Sora spit a heavy stream again. Eventually he groaned and waded in, wincing at the cold until Sora paddled up and slipped under him like a dolphin. It took Joshua hours to learn. His sputtering, flailing breast stroke must have been the most ungraceful thing Sora had ever seen. It was twilight by the time they returned to the gummi ship and nightfall by the time Sora had finished cleaning and repairing it. By then, it was hovering six feet above the ground like it was supposed to, a nasty dent left in the sheep shaped field where it had slammed that morning. When Joshua checked the time, he groaned and muttered that they were a day behind.
"Should we just go to sleep, then?" Sora chirped, imagining taking out his sleeping bag, starting a fire, and camping under the stars. It made him giddy with glee. But Joshua seemed less inclined.
"Does that key blade of yours have a flashlight?" he asked. Sora furrowed his brows, murmuring that he could probably summon a little bauble of light if they needed it.
"Good," Joshua sighed. "I can't stand another second in that gummi death trap."
"We should camp outside!" Sora suggested. "We could even put our sleeping bags together if you preferred! Sleep under the stars!"
"What's the age of consent here?" Joshua asked.
"Uh..." Sora started, checking his almost destroyed tablet for information. "Eighteen," he announced. Joshua groaned and asked if that was the legal drinking age, too. "Twenty one," Sora responded. Joshua cursed under his breath.
"Joshua, if we're going to follow Xemnas' directions," Sora goaded, "and you want to let the gummi ship air out, I could open the cockpit and the entry way and we could sleep outside. If there are strange monsters and dark boils off the beaten track, maybe we shouldn't go looking for them at night."
Joshua gave him a foul glance. Sora stared at him in hope. In the end Joshua scowled and said that if they were camping, they had to do it his way.
"Sure!" Sora cried, bounding up and running off to find firewood as Joshua retrieved the sleeping bags. There were only branches that had drifted down the river, bits of old grass, low lying bird nests, and tumble weeds. But Sora got the driest of the lot and heaped them together inside a circle of pebbles and sand, summoning his key blade and positioning it over the most flammable fibers. Then, with confidence he boomed, "fire!" and waited. A putter of smoke burped from his key blade tip. As he waited for something to ignite, a slow clap rose behind him.
"Beautiful job," Joshua said flatly. Sora glanced at his weapon in confusion, muttering that the spells he had cast in the gummi ship had worked just fine.
"Those spells were a fucking disaster," Joshua snapped. "And that first cure didn't work at all. The panacea was what kept me alive."
"But zero gravity and slow worked!" Sora insisted. Scowling, he stood, pointed his key blade up, and shouted, "blizzard!" His key blade became slightly chilly to the touch, but nothing else happened. His mouth dropped. He could not understand. Why did some spells work, but others did not? As realization hit him, his furrowed brows smoothed. Soddy. The spells that worked, he had learned from Soddy. The spells that did not work, he had learned on his vision quest. Collapsing to the ground and clawing through his hair, he tried thinking of another spell Soddy taught him. There was one called "igneous" or something, but he forgot how to cast it or what its purpose had been...
"Maybe we can get some flint or something to ignite..." Joshua started in a mutter behind him. Sora jumped up and gasped.
"That's it!" he cried. Then he positioned his key blade over the fire pit, closed his eyes, and screeched, "ignite!" A scream billowed up behind him. When he turned, he saw Joshua struggling to stamp out a flame that was spreading from the zipper of the first sleeping bag to its fluffy insulation. With a gasp, Sora wrenched the sleeping bag from his arms and threw it into the fire pit. It burst into flames within an instant, roaring and climbing up like a monster above. As Joshua watched it in horror, Sora clapped his hands and beamed. When he turned to Joshua, he winked. "Well!" he sang. "We'll have a nice fire to keep us warm through the night!"
"That's my fucking sleeping bag!" Joshua screeched.
"You can use mine," Sora chirped, padding the ground under his feet. "This patch of grass is real soft. I'll take this area. Just hand me my pillow and we're good."
Joshua snatched Sora's pillow and whacked him upside the head with it. When Sora asked what was the matter with him, Joshua fumed that Sora had promised they camp his way.
"Then what is your way?" Sora cried. Joshua rose his fingers one by one.
"A. I sleep naked. B. I like being warm-"
"Well those seem to kind of defeat the purpose-"
"C. I hate people. D. Yet I dislike being alone..."
"Well, that sucks-"
"So we sleep naked and cuddle without fidgeting," Joshua finished.
"That's ridiculous!" Sora wailed. "I can't do any of those!"
"Well, time to send in Mission Report: Day 1 to Xemnas-"
"Wait, wait," scowled Sora, tearing off his clothes again and throwing them on the inside of the gummi ship. "There," he finished. Joshua smiled in satisfaction as the brunet stomped to the remaining sleeping bag and examined it as though it were a difficult puzzle. When he peeked over his shoulder and caught Joshua's eye, he snapped around, blushed, and gulped. Then, steeling himself, he dived in, curled up, and shut his eyes tight. There was the rustle of clothing being removed. Then, warm, soft skin settled at Sora's side, along with the dull thud of a heartbeat deep below. At first it felt strange having someone's naked body glued to his side. But soon, his eyes began to droop, and he found that it was actually soothing. The crackling fire, the breath of the night, and the starry sky above lulled him deeper and deeper to sleep, until Joshua poked him in the cheek and made him turn around.
"Sora," he whispered, a look of fright painting his lavender eyes. "I can smell the air."
"Oh, come on," Sora groaned, relaxing back into his pillow. "The air smells good."
"It's not supposed to smell," Joshua hissed. "It's just proof that I'm sleeping outside, on dirt, and bugs, and-"
"Then just sleep on me," Sora snapped. Joshua silenced and snuggled his face into Sora's chest, breathing in in satisfaction. Sora froze at the gesture, softening only when Joshua's breathing evened out and a snore whispered through it. When Sora clasped the pale arms against his shoulders tighter around his chest, Joshua chuckled against the nape of his neck. "You smell like the sea," Sora thought he heard him mumble. As he imagined the waves back home, his heart fell. Scrambling, he rubbed his fingertips up and down his own skin, feeling tiny, invisible hairs prickle and tug along his chest. Then he ran his hands through his honey brown hair, tugging and pulling until the nails traced along his cheeks and landed against his upper lips. He sniffed in curiosity, but it was no use. He couldn't smell what Joshua did. Slumping on his side, he traced along Joshua's hands and sniffed at them as sneakily as he could.
What did Roxas smell like? Riku? Kairi? Sora had never bothered to find out. Why had he let those moments slip away? Years of possibilities had sailed over his head without him realizing. Given the chance to do everything over again, would he be brave enough to tell the people he cared for how he really felt? To reach out and really touch them, really make them feel loved as completely as he could? Was that possible for him? As his eyes returned to the stars, he sighed, his irises reflecting their twinkling forms against a sea of sky blue. Joshua's cheek turned into Kairi's, his long hair to Riku's. His cold fingertips turned to Axel's, fingernails painted jet-black. But his breath rung high and close. The thud of his heart thumped like the hull of a familiar, child's boat against a distant pier in waters on the verge of a storm. Did every heart sound like that? Did Roxas'?
Within minutes, Sora was deeply asleep.
~X~
Sora must have been exhausted. The next time he awoke, Joshua was trying to extricate himself from his vice like grip. By the time Sora blinked open both bleary eyes, Joshua had escaped up to the waist. Sora snuggled closer and slurred for him to stop fidgeting. When he was slapped on the head, he cried out and broke away in indignation. Above him, Joshua sat up and stretched. Sora nestled against his thigh and closed his eyes again. A fair hand petting his spiky, chestnut brown hair lulled him off again.
"When I said I liked being warm, I didn't mean sweating to death," Joshua muttered. "You're like a bloody furnace."
"That's what Riku used to say when I slept over," Sora yawned. "I cuddle and sweat in my sleep. But that was the way you wanted it..."
"Thank god we slept naked or I would have been smothered in damp cloth."
"You're welcome..."
"I was the one who came up with it, Sora," Joshua intoned, jiggling Sora's head up and down with his thigh. "Time to get up."
"What?" Sora bleated as the warm body left his side. He whined and held his arms out like a baby when Joshua clambered towards the gummi ship and slipped around its side. As Sora snuggled back to sleep, the blond cried out in delight.
"Sora, I found the shower!" he sang. Sora muttered, "good for you." He did not notice Joshua advancing until the sleeping bag was ripped from under him and a spray of water burst in his face. He screeched and scrambled up, scowling as Joshua laughed at him.
"Joshua, you'll get the sleeping bag wet! Look at my pillow!" he whined, spearing the wet spots with his fingers.
"Come on, Sora, time to start trekking," Joshua sighed. "We won't find the King in the middle of a field."
"How do you know that?" Sora mumbled. When freezing cold water sprayed against his back, he screeched and cowered over. When Joshua held up the shower hose nozzle again, Sora yelped and threw the sleeping bag and pillow into the gummi ship and gathered his clothes. Despite his gusto, he was sprayed in the thighs and ass as he returned down the ladder.
"Joshua, stop!" he whined in a high pitched screech as Joshua cackled.
"I heard rumors from Ventus that you stank during the summer because you never showered," he explained. "So I'm not allowing us to start walking until you wash yourself."
"Personal hygiene is personal, Joshua!" Sora spat in humiliation. "Just because Ventus said that doesn't mean it's true."
"Sora, I've smelled you after a day's workout, and you always reek."
"That's because I don't own antiperspirant!"
"You mean deodorant? You don't even know the layman's term?"
"No, for your information, I didn't bring any!"
"Oh my gods..." Joshua half groaned, half snickered. When Sora cowered away with fists clasped tightly, terrified of being sprayed again, the blond rolled his eyes, held out his hands, and sighed, "come here." Sora hesitated. Then, scowling, he stomped over and glowered in silence through twenty minutes of Joshua scrubbed him down with shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and cleanser. When he finished, he patted moisturizer and sunscreen on Sora's face, neck, and chest, caking some sort of mousse in his hair. Then, he raked a deodorant stick under his arms. When he told Sora to get his backpack together, Sora said that he didn't have one.
"Are you serious, Sora?" Joshua groaned. Sora blinked and muttered that he wanted to buy one in town. Joshua rolled his eyes, slipped his backpack from the luggage compartment, and stuffed their tablets and chargers inside along with their school IDs and some clothes he wanted to take to the laundry. When Sora tried putting his wallet in his thigh pack, Joshua slapped his hand and told him to carry the plastic bag with the vomit clothes. Sora wrinkled his nose but did as he was told. After the gummi ship was locked up and made invisible, they put out their fire and pulled out their map. Then, they followed the river that lead to Sunset Terrace and hiked up the stones beneath the train tracks until they made it to a tiny, tiered dam leading down the mountainside.
"Twilight Town is almost entirely run by solar and hydro power," Joshua commented as they passed. "You might want to know that for the pop quiz on Friday."
"The pop quizzes are on the worlds we're going to?" snapped Sora in hoarse reply. "I thought they were going to be about combat or magic!"
"All of the above, Sora," Joshua sighed. "Luckily, you're staring at a very smart man. I'll help you pass if you do what you're told."
Sora set his jaw and trudged on, fully realizing how cleverly Xemnas had paired him up. As Joshua waltzed around the locals asking for directions to Market Street, Sora scrolled through his Jiminy Journal to see what assignments he could get out of the way. There was a swath of supplementary assignments, including a treasure hunt, a puzzle hunt, absent silhouette quizzes, data battles, item synthesis milestones, coliseum tournaments, and gummi missions for defensive driving checkups. There was also a blank report called "Bestiary," where Sora could use the dichotomous key Vexen published to classify all the creatures he met on his travels. All of this was in addition to handing in normal classwork. When Sora became lost in the doom of everything due, Joshua grabbed him by the arm and lugged him forward, reminding him that he had an entire semester to finish everything. Sora muttered that he would rather get the random crap out of the way as soon as possible. After spending three hours hunting around Sunset Terrace and tramping illegally through the broken subway lines, they made it to the train station and chugged along to Central Station, passing under the clock tower as they went. Once they stopped Sora sprung from the train car and roared through the sliding glass doors onto a sprawling circular patio overlooking Market Street and the Tram Common. Once Joshua was at his side, they walked down Station Heights and gazed around the shops, stopping to do odd jobs for a bit of extra cash. Sora bought a backpack like he said he would. Joshua made him buy school supplies, moisturizer, deodorant, and cleanser, too. Once both were sorted, they continued their treasure and puzzle hunt and searched for the king. They met Rai and Fuu in the Sandlot. Both asked begrudgingly how Seifer was doing at the Academy. When Sora asked Joshua if they could visit Hayner and his gang, Joshua said, "if time allows." Sora scowled and vowed to meet them for dinner. When they trudged past a hole in the Tram Common wall that lead into the woods, Sora stopped and pursed his lips. Joshua hung close to ask what was wrong. Sora shrugged.
"I just have a feeling," he whispered. Without thinking he crawled through the hole and under the dark canopies. Soon, Joshua was behind him.
"Let's split up and look for clues," Sora whispered, wondering if a Twilight Thorn would jump out at him if he wandered off. Joshua's face looked ghostly under the scattered twilight as he murmured "okay." They chose a place and a time to meet again. Then they parted. The Organization had given them special vials and machines with tubular slots lining their sides for sending DNA samples back and forth. They had also handed out forensic flashlights with different wavelengths. Sora clicked his on and scanned it along the ground as he trudged back and forth. Every time the ground rose, he approached a clearing and swerved back into darkness. When a minuscule spot lit up on an old tree, he used a Q tip to scrape it off, bottling it and clicking it into the DNA sender. Several steps later, he trudged over a centimeter long snag of black material caked in mud. The rest of the forest seemed clear of anything at all. Shrugging, he bottled the second piece of evidence and moved on, climbing another hill. Just when he started to think he was circling something, a familiar screech pierced the air. The moment he heard it, he broke into a run.
Up and up he charged until the pines emptied behind him and he stumbled onto the clearing he had circled for the past three hours. On his left side was a massive iron gate guarding a red brick mansion. On the other end of the clearing stood Joshua, terrified. At the clearing's center towered a man in a black leather cloak, holding a key blade with a blinking, teal eye at its center. Sora gasped and lurched back as he caught sight of it. Then he gritted his teeth.
"Soddy," he hissed. The hooded figure swiveled around and stumbled back. Hesitating back and forth, it charged past Joshua and knocked him to the ground. Sora groped after the fiend as it disappeared into the woods, roaring for Joshua to follow. Before the boy could stop him Sora was crawling through the wall again, dodging or guarding every spell Soddy shot behind him. Joshua's voice rung in his ear as the boy attempted keeping up with him. But Sora and his prey were much faster. Soon they had charged from the tram common up Market Street. As Soddy catapulted himself forward using dark portals, Sora tried hitting him with a 'slow' spell. Instead, he blasted a man pulling a cart through the center of the street. Sora had to dig his key blade into the ground to keep from crashing headfirst into the cargo heaping its top.
"Heeeyyyyyy," the man pushing it groaned. "Waaaattttccchhhh wwhhheeeerrrreee yyyyooouuu'rrreeeee gggoooiiinnnggggggg..."
"Son of a nutcracker," Sora snarled, kicking himself for not practicing better aim in addition to magical stamina. Instead of staying to argue, he bounded over the cart and continued to the station. He scrambled towards the patio before the clock tower just as Joshua's voice railed up the street behind him.
"Sora!" the blond shrieked. "Stop! This is not your mission! Let him go!"
Sora whipped around the patio in fury, peeking over the cliffside, through the station's glass doors, and around the plants in anxious bounds. When the clock overhead tolled five and Joshua charged up the patio steps to meet him, he gasped and pointed to the train tracks.
"He's getting on a train!" he snapped. "I just know it!"
"Sora, if Ansem can open up dark portals, why the hell did he waste his time running all the way to the station to buy a train ticket?" Joshua shouted. "How do you know we haven't just walked into a-"
Before he could speak, a giant, thin handled sword thrust right through the patio center between Sora's feet.
"Trap," Joshua finished in dejection. The sword transformed into a grey, winged creature similar to the Twilight Thorn Sora had fought in the Land of Departure. As it transformed, hordes of similar creatures, along with humanoid versions, summoned from the empty air surrounding.
"Nuggets," Sora grunted, summoning his key blade and wiping the sweat from his eyes.
"Joshua," he warned, "if I ignite you by accident... I'm sorry."
"Sora, if you use that fucking spell without knowing who you're going to hit, I'll kill you myself!" Joshua roared. Sora decided to lay off the magic for the time being, opting to use brute force instead. He picked off the creatures one by one, taking mental pictures of each one's quirks and tactics to write in his Bestiary. But when the creatures continued multiplying and his strength began to drain, the worry that he would never get the chance to write in his Jiminy Journal at all made him gulp.
"Sora, they're multiplying too fast," Joshua cried. "We've got to escape!"
"But if we leave them here, they may hurt the townspeople," Sora insisted.
"Sora, if you care at all for your grade, you will..."
Some instinct inspired Joshua to glance up before he finished. When he did, his eyes widened in shock. As Sora finished off another mystery monster, he glanced up as well. When he saw what Joshua saw, he gasped.
"King Mickey?" he squeaked.
The mouse stood, in a black leather coat like Soddy wore, on the edge of the clock tower roof. After surveying the ground below, he bounded through the air, flipped, and dived down key blade first. As Joshua screeched for him to pull back, Sora cheered and called that they had completed their mission. Before he could address the king, though, the mouse landed square in the patio center, sending a shockwave that sliced through every monster within fifty feet and blew Sora and Joshua through the air. As Sora landed on the train station's front steps in a heap, the king pointed to Joshua's groaning, crumpled form and called, "sleep!" Immediately, Joshua's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he slumped over. When a snore erupted from his throat, the king turned to Sora and cast cure. The boy stood in awe. When he tried dashing to Joshua's side, the king indicated for him to stop. Sora stumbled in confusion. Before he could speak, Mickey rose a single gloved finger to his snout and mouthed "shh!" Sora cocked his head to the side, fumbling as the King threw him the key blade he never knew had left his arms.
"Better keep that safe, Sora," the king winked. "Riku taught ya better, didn't he?"
"What?" Sora said in befuddlement. But the king flipped his hand for him to go.
"Hurry, Sora!" he pleaded. "Board the ghost train, the purple one in the station! Meet with Yen Sid. He'll tell you what to do next."
"But, Mickey, you're-" Sora started, clasping his blade to his chest. Ahead, the mouse clapped his hand to his forehead.
"Oh, jiminy crickets!" he chuckled. "I forgot I'm supposed to be kidnapping you."
Before Sora knew it, he was hit with the strongest impulse to snooze he had ever gotten. Soon he was dreaming about surfing with Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie, and seeing faces of people he knew in the waves as he passed beneath their glowing boughs. Then he was chasing Riku through pinewoods and camping under firelight with Kairi. Then he was floating through outer space, reaching out in vain, waving to the planets as he passed their cold forms by.
~X~
When Sora woke up, he was sitting in Yen Sid's office. It held the same desk, skull candle, book shelves, and star shaped windows as the one he had used in the Land of Departure, but this time, the view outside the glass was a field of orange clouds. He groaned, stretched, and stood, stumbling forward and running his hands against the wax caking the skull candle's scalp. After, he shuffled to the first, moon shaped cutout in the wall and leaned against it, watching the clouds as they sailed by. Every once in a while, he thought he saw the peak of a building or green hill, as if Twilight Town hung far, far below. Was this a dream? As he reached out to touch the pane, a strong hand pulled back his shoulder. Sora screeched and tumbled around, summoning his key blade and whipping it back and forth. As Yen Sid's wide eyes and perpetually angry brows reeled back in greeting, he clutched his heart and rumbled for Sora to stand down. Sora shivered through gusting breaths, eyes staring madly as though Soddy or King Mickey would bound at him at any moment. When Yen Sid touched him again, he yipped. Then, deciding that the old man posed no threat, he relaxed and relinquished, leaning against the wall and groaning in exhaustion. Yen Sid chuckled above him. When Sora looked up again, the retired master was sitting behind his desk with a massive, ancient book sprawled before him. As Sora stepped towards the inverted script, he furrowed his brows.
"Master Yen Sid?" he whispered. "Why are you reading that book upside down?"
"It is not for my eyes, Sora," the old man murmured. "But for yours."
"Oh," Sora fumbled, slipping forward to look through it himself. After he got through the first page, he scowled, muttering that it would take forever to read the whole thing. Yen Sid stared at him. Sora shut his mouth and continued, mouthing the words as he went.
"How is school?" Yen Sid crooned.
"Fine," Sora mumbled. "Xemnas is headmaster. Everything's gone to crap. Usual."
"Hm," Yen Sid rumbled. "Yet you are here, doing...?"
"Hunting for King Mickey."
"Ah..." Yen Sid whispered, pressing his fingertips together over his chest. "It seems that in retiring, I unwittingly took half of the faculty with me."
"Do you know where any of them are, master?" Sora asked.
"I hear news of them now and then," Yen Sid said cryptically. "Rumors through the grapevine."
"Well..." Sora started. When he tried pushing the book Yen Sid had set before him away, the man glowered and coughed deep in his throat. Sora took up the text again, speaking as he scanned.
"It's really important that I find them because each journey gives rise to chance encounters, bah buh..."
"Do they?" Yen Sid rumbled in amusement. Sora blushed and muttered that he had just read that out loud by accident.
When he skimmed to a sentence reading, a sad farewell, hanging in that "world between," he paused. Then, reading on, he said out loud, "gaze anew at your steps... the reason is mere existence. Still, memories can be believed... entrust your body to the soothing waves of your memories..." as he thought it over, his brows furrowed. He closed the book and glanced towards Yen Sid. The man smiled at him.
"Master..." Sora whispered. "I don't get it."
"How does it make you feel?" Yen Sid murmured. "What images come to mind?"
"I don't know... the reason is mere existence... I just get a feeling of... calm. Like, the details don't matter?"
"Questions," Yen Sid offered ominously. "The inane, labyrinthine hunt for the unconquerable. The compartmentalization, categorization, and organization of life. A research company attempting to uncover the monster they have created through "memory pod" experiments... dark pustules pulsating throughout the body of the universe, oozing purulence in the form of creatures with ashen skin and yellow eyes, scabbing with grey clothed monsters like the Twilight Thorn you eradicated in the Land of Departure."
"You know about that?" Sora whispered. Yen Sid nodded. "This universe is sick. Sickened due to a laceration Riku tore through the fabric of space when he escaped his memory pod to a different world. It sickens further with each day Roxas remains in limbo."
"Roxas?" Sora breathed. But Yen Sid did not hear him.
"The virus is age old," he snapped. "When did it start, and why? These questions consume..."
"Uh... come again?" Sora blubbered.
"Have you ever asked yourself how a key blade chooses its master?" Yen Sid inquired. "Why friends fall away? Why the things you desire the most disappear right before your grasp? Why the people we love hurt us so deeply?"
"Yeah," Sora whispered.
"The answer is existence," Yen Sid growled. "Sometimes... you must gaze anew at your steps, and walk on."
"There's always tomorrow," Sora gasped. Yen Sid shrugged and muttered, "I suppose."
"Is that the wrong answer?" Sora gulped.
"Oh, I don't know," Yen Sid sighed. For a moment he closed his eyes, lost in the blissful caress of some past memory. He chuckled, reeling back as if sharing a joke with a long lost friend. When silence deafened and he snapped up again, his brows furrowed with a wanting glower.
"What were we talking about, young man?"
"Your book," Sora blubbered. "I didn't get it."
"Oh, that was just a poem I wrote," Yen Sid grumbled. "Do you like it? I'm rather new to the game."
"It's pretty good," Sora stumbled with a shrug. "Kind of metaphorical for my liking."
"It is not metaphorical at all," Yen Sid snapped. "It is frightfully literal."
"Oh... nuggets," Sora ceded. Yen Sid massaged his forehead. "You have been tasked with retrieving Mickey, I presume?"
"Yeah," Sora sighed. Yen Sid huffed.
"You will fail."
"Thanks for the support, Master."
"I cannot help you. In retiring I have taken a vow of neutrality. It is no good to exert myself at this age. But if you would like to do an old man a favor, look after Riku. I am rather fond of the boy."
"Riku?" Sora gasped, jumping up from his seat. "Where is he, Yen Sid? How can I protect him if I don't know where he is?"
"Well, you would know better than anyone else," Yen Sid chuckled. "You chased him all the way to the train station, did you not?"
"But that wasn't Riku!" Sora snapped. "That was Soddy, er, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness! He stole Riku's key blade!"
"Oh, did he?" Yen Sid mused. "Did Ansem steal Riku's key blade, or did Riku steal Ansem's mask?"
Sora blinked in oblivion.
"Consider it, Sora," Yen Sid murmured. "Mull it over as you finish your semester. Joshua is a smart boy. He will help you pass with flying colors."
"Did you have Mickey cast a sleeping spell on him to stop him from coming here and spying on me?" Sora asked. Yen Sid gave a hearty gasp.
"What? I would never partake in such a ghastly deed!" he snapped. "Mickey is a dangerous fugitive. If he dropped you outside my door, I can only surmise it was because he is losing the screws holding his head in place. Send my apologies to Xemnas. In fact, let me write you a doctor's note."
Yen Sid tore a blank page from the back of his poetry book and scribbled, "sorry for keeping Sora," on the back of it. Then he folded it and spirited it on a buoy of wind into the boy's jacket pocket. "You have a spell to fix a tablet, too?" Sora grinned.
"No, I do not," Yen Sid said flatly. Sora's smile wiped off as he muttered apologies.
"I will forgive your transgression as long as you take the magical upgrade given to you for your birthday last summer," Yen Sid murmured. "And your casting is appalling. You may stay in my basement and practice with the brooms for the rest of the day. Then you will return to Twilight Town and dine with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Rumor has it they're livid you haven't visited them yet."
Sora blushed and acquiesced. When he asked which way to go for a magical upgrade, the massive double doors on the right side of Yen Sid's office opened to reveal three fairies dressed in green, blue, and pink. When they saw Sora, they reeled in surprise.
"Well, well, well..." said the one in pink. "This is the outfit we will be, em... upgrading?"
"If only you'd come sooner!" the one in green crooned. "We would have loved for you to visit us at our store in the Land of Departure before we, well... relocated."
"If he'd come earlier, we could have tailored him a different suit!" bubbled the blue clothed one. "What a terrible-" when the one in pink elbowed her in the side, she finished, "I mean, uh, what a terribly stylish choice of... thing."
"Just upgrade it, please," Yen Sid sighed. The fairies gibbered and nodded. Then, together, they tapped their wands against Sora's head. He felt a shiver run through him as his clothing prickled along his skin. When he grinned down at it, it seemed the same as always.
"So..." he asked. "What just happened?"
"You will find out when you need it," Yen Sid grinned. The fairies giggled behind him. Something buzzed over the double doors behind them.
"Oh, another client!" they chirped. "Let's get the mirrors ready!" With that, they were gone.
Sora pierced Yen Sid with a stare of deep confusion. The master picked at his nails. When he realized Sora was still in front of him, he asked if one of the fairies had cast him with a stunning charm.
"No," Sora insisted, shuffling from foot to foot in hesitance as he remembered what Aqua had told him last semester. "I've just... I've just been thinking about something for a long time..."
"Yes?" Yen Sid goaded. Sora wet his lips. Then he asked if Yen Sid was gay. Yen Sid blinked at him in shock.
"I know it's inappropriate to ask a guy your age..."
"I am ageless."
"Uh, okay, but..."
"But I am."
"You... you are? Gay?" Sora breathed. Yen Sid nodded, folding his hands in front of him as he closed his eyes.
"But... why haven't you ever had a partner?" Sora whispered.
"I did." Yen Sid murmured. "A very long time ago."
"Oh..." Sora breathed. "Well... did he... die?"
"Yes," Yen Sid said. "He did."
"Oh," Sora whispered. "I'm so sorry."
"It was one of the questions that drove me to write that poem you read," the old man rumbled. "My own personal, unconquerable battle. Why cannot some of us stomach who we are? How can one so strong endure a life blinded by a lie? Did I, perhaps, in my hope, lie to myself, in wishing he would abandon deception and stand by my side? The path to dawn is, after all, tread by so few."
"Uh huh," Sora whispered. When the silence became deafening, he cleared his throat and murmured, "well... thanks for the upgrade, Yen Sid. I'm, uh... going to practice a little magic now."
As he attempted leaving, Yen Sid cleared his throat. When Sora turned, the man was standing with his back to him, staring out of his moon shaped window on the twilit clouds below.
"Despite the duty to tread forward," he worded, "Memories bite at our heels when left in the darkness of silence. I learned that too late. But you and those you hold dear still have time. The deepest cracks plague those who appear strongest. If that is not the virus infecting our universe today, it will be the vice that destroys it tomorrow."
"Don't worry, Yen Sid," Sora whispered. "I'll fight the darkness as best as I can."
"Do not fear the darkness, Sora," Yen Sid returned gently. "You must love it as you love your light. Nurture it. Congratulate it. Face it. Trust it. The light in you is a map home. Your darkness is its shelter. You are yourself with it, not in spite of it. If you fear it, it will swallow you. If you embrace it, it will weep in your arms, bathed in the care it so rightfully deserves."
Sora blinked at the man in stupor. Then, resolving to think about what he said later, he burst from his office and raced down the stairs, wondering in vain what the man could have meant.
~X~
A/N: Thanks for reading! Please follow, fav, and review to make this story better!