Chapter 55
(Blind Leading the Blind)
Darkness.
It flooded him, choked him, crushed him.
And from that darkness, things attacked him.
Sora stumbled as he was struck in the back by sharp claws.
He couldn't see and the world seemed to be spinning around him. Desperately flailing his Keyblade wasn't doing anything constructive. He hit himself with it about as often as he hit anything else.
"Squall," he called desperately, lost and worried that he'd wandered off down the hall, carrying the battle away from his possibly fallen companion.
Then again, that was probably for the better, if Squall was down and couldn't fight.
This was bad. Very bad.
And with no one to turn to, Sora just continued swinging his Ultimate Keyblade as well as the blade on his left arm.
Hours had passed since Axel had convinced Roxas to just stick around and see if Sora was just running a little late. Roxas, however, wasn't quite convinced that Sora was just fine. Sora needed to know what was going on, after all, things had gotten... complicated again.
Starting from the beginning, Aros, who was supposedly some sort of clone of Sora, was actually female, she'd tried to give the book back to Mickey when Reno had stolen the book. Meanwhile, Aros had run off again without Roxas's being able to talk to her. Gary, Aros's arch enemy, was apparently out to betray the whole Organization by absorbing their darkness and eventually attain the Amplifier so that he could absorb Kingdom Hearts to destroy the Universe and recreate it with himself as god. Unfortunately, there were apparently six other Princes of Darkness, which meant that they probably had their own agendas, completely separate from Gary's or Xemnas's or Maleficent's.
It was a bloody mess, in short, and Roxas was anxious to get in contact with Sora again.
Axel...
Was sleeping in the co-pilot's seat.
Making a decision, Roxas sat in the pilot's seat and took hold of the controls. "I'm going now. Something's not right."
"God..." Kaiyou breathed, "that was rough!"
Laguna, who looked slightly sick, nodded and swallowed hard, "I guess it's because we didn't lock Alexandria's heart to the darkness or open the path to light," the president of Esthar replied. They'd just gone through a field of floating islands in green space with Heartless attacking on all sides - a path she'd not been given the option to lock open once they'd gotten through. The alarms were still squawking as they drifted to a stop beyond. Ahead, there were two doors; one heading slightly to the left, the other to the right.
Looking over, Kaiyou nodded slightly, then looked down. "...maybe... we should have stayed longer..." she said softly.
"No, don't second guess yourself like that," Laguna stated, "We should try to get that book back as soon as possible."
Eyes turning towards her screens, Kaiyou frowned slightly, "The path behind us is opening again," she announced as another ship shot through, "God... will they stop following me?" she stomped her foot.
Shrugging a little, Laguna, apparently recovering from his illness, reached over and patted her arm, "Kaiyou, maybe they'll be of some help? Who knows what we'll be facing when we find that guy that took the book?"
Opening her mouth, then closing it, Kaiyou looked down again, lifting her hand to clasp her crystal necklace, realizing that it was out in plain sight more often than not these days. Not that anyone seemed to care, but she did need to keep Gary from seeing it. He'd take it, without question...
She shook her head, pushing thoughts of Gary aside - just as pain shot through her heart.
'Help me!'
Sitting bolt straight in her chair, Kaiyou gasped, "Sora?"
Blindly grabbing the controls with one hand, she hit the acceleration to full, then spun them around to the right. Yelping in surprise, Laguna was slammed back into his seat, then nearly slung out of it, but by sheer willpower and cracking fingernails, he managed to keep his seat. Kaiyou, oblivious of the man's terror, clutched her necklace as she steered one-handed through the path of light to their right.
Where her only previous experiences with these paths had been ones that were closed, it was slightly surprising to find one that was opened. While there was the flash of light going through the door, and while there as a door on the other side, there was nothing but white in between and Kaiyou was glad that she didn't have to fight the stupid Space Heartless this time. After all, she was in a hurry.
"Sora - hang on!" she wheezed against the forces pushing her back in her chair, nearly to the point of making it difficult to breathe. She figured they were probably breaking Mach speeds at this point.
Breaking out into realspace on the other side, Kaiyou dumped speed as they neared another world, one with a large, strangely shaped castle on it. Again, Laguna clutched his chair as her driving sent things in the other rooms of the ship sliding towards the front. Bracing his feet on the console in front of him, he managed to not hit the front window face-first. Bringing the ship to a stop, Kaiyou set it on auto pilot and leapt from her seat, dashing over to the teleport pad. Laguna wasn't quick enough in recovering to join her as she shouted, "Teleport!" and disappeared.
Opening her eyes, Kaiyou looked around briefly - just long enough to assess the situation she'd just teleported into. She was at the top of a set of stairs leading down into a market square. Chaos was below, heartless attacking the innocent and a woman in black shorts with a half-skirt who was kicking Neo-Shadows and tinmen into puffs of black smoke.
Drawing her Keyblade, Twilight Edge, Kaiyou dashed down the stairs. Although she didn't want to get tangled in this fight, she needed to get past this group of Heartless. Leaping into the fray, she sliced the first Heartless to get near her in half, then followed up with a kick in the face of another that came bounding towards her. Sending it flying, she spun around, hacked at another tinman, sending him on to join Kingdom Hearts. Fighting her way past the fist-fighting woman, Kaiyou broke to the other side of the square with a body count of at least eight out of the total fifteen that had been in the square, and figuring the woman could take care of the rest, continued on her way. Grabbing her necklace again, she oriented herself, deciding that her destination was the castle, and started running again.
Again, she was attacked in the streets, and furious, she sprang at the four Neo-Shadows that had dropped from darkness bubbles in front of her. Swinging first at the one on the left, then spun and caught the one on the right in a stab, Kaiyou cleared her path to continue running, leaving the remaining two standing there in confusion.
Tudor houses went past in an undistinguishable blur as Kaiyou ran. 'Hurry - hurry!' she chanted in her mind, not having the breath to speak it. 'Sora's in trouble!'
Rounding a corner, she found another street with unarmed people being attacked by Heartless. This group didn't have anyone who could fight with them, and so after quickly making a headcount - six tinmen, seven innocents - Kaiyou ploughed into the first tinman to get in her way, slamming her Keyblade straight through it. Her attack saved a young woman who was sprawled on the ground in terror. Without waiting for her to get up, Kaiyou moved on, with a furious shout, leaping up to slam her Keyblade down on the head of another tinman, knocking it flat. Swinging her blade around again, she caught it as it stood and decapitated it savagely.
Now that she had their attention, the remaining four Heartless turned on her and came running in as a concentrated force. Rushing forward, Kaiyou didn't wait for them to make any sort of strategy and instead slammed bodily into one of the tinmen, knocking it aside as she turned and swung her Keyblade to the right, catching another on the back, jabbing the sharp points of the sun-moon on the end of her blade into it. Yanking her sword free, she left that Heartless to die in a puff of smoke as she swung her blade downwards to finish off the one she'd knocked down.
The other two Heartless leapt for her back, knocking her forward before she could kill the third and rolling, she got out from beneath them, getting a foot up to kick the one that still clung to her away. Swinging her legs around, she got her feet under her and threw her weight forward to slice the third Heartless, killing it finally. The other two stupidly came in for another rush and Kaiyou rolled to the side, letting them both go straight past her. Again on her feet, she ran at them, kicking one in the back of the head, then drew her foot back again and slammed it into the face of the second as it turned to face her. Now with them both down, Kaiyou stabbed first one, then the other, finishing them off before turning to check and see if no more had popped up behind her. None had, and the people she'd saved were staring at her with mouths opened.
Deciding she didn't want to listen to whatever they had to say, she turned and ran onwards. 'I have to save Sora!' she reminded herself, the feeling of his terror hammering in her heart still.
Reaching the outer wall of the city, she ran up the stairs and out into the Bailey, then ignored the stares down, choosing to leap over the low wall and to the ground below. Ahead was a steep hill leading up to the castle, and Kaiyou, feet pounding in time with her heart, ran as hard and fast as she could to the top of the hill.
More Heartless popped out of the Darkness in front of her as she reached the top where a balcony-platform thing was built off the side of the castle made mostly of metal towers. Here, though, she was surprised to find Donald and Goofy, fighting a group of Heartless. Unfortunately, it appeared that they were being driven back, slowly but surely. They were facing off against nearly thirty Neo-Shadows and more were popping in as she watched.
Growling in frustration at this further delay, Kaiyou pounded in and leapt, landing on a Heartless and using it like a skateboard to slide across the balcony, spinning her Keyblade in swift arcs that left puffs of black smoke in her wake.
"AROSH!" Donald gasped as she finally leapt up, flipping off the Heartless she'd abused as it died in a puff of smoke beneath her.
Landing, she shouted back, "Don't gawk! Retreat! Sora's in trouble!" Still swinging her blade, Kaiyou's focus was fully on the door ahead of her and the Heartless between her and that destination. In her heart, she could feel Sora getting weaker by the moment.
'I have to help him!'
Finally, it seemed Donald and Goofy were going to follow her lead and caught up with her, Donald casting spells to hit Heartless right next to her, sending blasts of backlash in area attacks he normally couldn't do. Goofy just protected Donald by bashing his shield into the Neo-Shadows that tried to attack the duck.
And then, they were through the door.
Leading the way through the halls, Kaiyou kept her blade out and ready, even if there weren't any monsters currently in her way.
"Arosh!" Donald complained, "Shlow down!"
"You hurry!" Kaiyou snapped back as she came around a corner and nearly slammed into a creature that was nearly eight feet tall, looked like it was made of wax and white. Skidding to a halt, she ducked around it, figuring it to probably be a Heartless, and slashed at its unprotected side as it lifted its massive hands in surprise.
Donald and Goofy came around the corner, and skidded to a halt, hesitating where Kaiyou had already dived into the battle, rolling away from the heavy smash of the white creature's fists. Lying against the wall, face down was a man in a short leather coat with feathers on the collar. Across the hall from him was a gunblade.
"Leon!" Goofy gasped, identifying the man lying on the floor, and Kaiyou again sliced at the big wax creature, only to watch the cuts she made heal before she was even out of it's way.
"Donald! Use spells!" she shouted at the duck, "My blade's not doing anything to it!"
"Thunder!" Donald shouted and struck the creature directly.
Writhing in agony, the giant white monster roared. Donald, encouraged by his success, shouted out another spell, hitting the creature dead on again while Kaiyou dodged around it as a distraction. Goofy, meanwhile, headed over to Leon as soon as the creature was away from their downed man.
"Sora!" Kaiyou shouted, "Where are you?" looking around desperately, she couldn't locate him in the immediate vicinity of the partially collapsed hallway - which probably meant he was further on. That only made her worry more, for if this creature was here, then Sora might be possibly fighting something worse.
An explosion from a gun caught Kaiyou's attention, and looking back over Donald's shoulder, she spotted Laguna with his shotgun. "Get down!" he shouted at her, and trusting him, she dived to the ground, just as a meaty hand went over her head.
"Laguna!" Donald gasped, looking back at the mage-president as he took aim with his gun again and in another explosive shot, sent a scatter of ice-bullets at the monster. It staggered back, shocked by the onslaught, and dropping to a knee, it struggled to remain upright as Donald joined forces with Laguna in blasting the creature.
Finally collapsing forward and slowly dissipating into a red bloody mist, the monster was defeated, and Kaiyou looked around, "Dad - Sora's not here - he's in trouble still!" Turning, she started running again, heading onwards down the hall.
Even though she knew she was getting closer, Kaiyou's sense of Sora was fading, 'Is he dying?'
Umi didn't have an answer, but that was fine, for turning another corner, Kaiyou skidded to a halt as Sora went flying towards her. Eyes widening, she didn't have time to do more than blink as his limp form slammed into her and sent her to the floor with more bruises than she cared to think about. Laguna came charging up behind her with Donald, Goofy, that woman Kaiyou had seen in the market square, and Leon behind - the fist-fighter woman was helping Leon stagger along.
Again, with little time to think, Kaiyou yelped as fire exploded around her, reflecting off her clothes and towards her allies. Curling around Sora, she tried to keep him close enough to be within her shield, but even so, the already bloodied and beaten young man got a few more black patches on his flesh. Fury at the monster lending her strength, Kaiyou got her arms under him and her feet under her and started dragging him back around the corner, behind the lines of her allies.
"Sora - dear god, please don't die!" Kaiyou gasped, tears in her eyes as she hunted through her packs for something to heal him with. Finding nothing, she reached for his side-packs and started digging through them, dumping their contents across the floor in her haste - amongst which was a familiar green book. Finally locating a few healing potions, she broke them over him, deciding to err more on the side of overkill with them rather than not heal him enough and used three. As the green light faded, Sora remained lying on the floor, his flesh whole once more and his eyes flicked, breathing steadied.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she scrubbed them with the palms of her hands, then dropped them to her lap as explosions went off around the corner and Laguna shouted in pain. Coming back to the situation at hand, Kaiyou started stuffing the things back into Sora's side-packs, but paused at the book. Flipping it open, she blinked, "My ...diary?" she stared at Sora, pressed her lips together, then closed the book, sticking it back into his pack.
It made sense now, his presence in her memories, his calling her Aros, calling her his little brother. It was the Sora from now speaking to her memory-self. He couldn't change the past, but he'd been there with every piece of her heart she'd sealed away. "No wonder," she murmured and got to her feet, looking back towards the corner where Leon stood with his gunblade, partially turned to watch both her and the fight. His blue eyes held a knowing look.
Kaiyou eyed him, wary of the strange man, and as she stood, she told him, "Watch Sora," and with that, she called her Keyblade and headed past him.
"Watch yourself," he said in return, expression softening slightly.
Unnerved by his concern, Kaiyou turned away and dashed into the battle.
The room seemed crowded, what with one wax-man - this one black with a white face - who was continuously casting spells and summoning Neo-Shadows into the room, two mages, a fist-fighter, and a shield-man. And while, in most circumstances, Kaiyou would have thought her allies would win, hands down, this was not the case. Laguna was holding fire. Donald was holding fire. The fist-fighter was punching and kicking around almost at random. Goofy was flailing.
"What the carp?" Kaiyou wheezed as Laguna was dragged down by a heartless.
"They're blinded," Leon explained. "See if you can get in there and get them out. We'll have to find another way to defeat that thing."
"It's only casting spells," Kaiyou replied. "It can't hurt me... much. I'll get them out." Nodding to herself, Kaiyou leapt into the battle, swinging her Keyblade around to slap a Neo-Shadow out of her way as it leapt for her. It dissipated into black smoke behind her as she headed first for Laguna - since out of the group, she cared about him the most. "Dad!" she called as she reached him, kicking a Shadow off his chest. Grabbing his arm, she hauled him to his feet and pulled firmly, dragging him back over to Leon who took over clearing a path for the mage. His movements were slow, though, and it was obvious to Kaiyou that the man was still hurt, which was probably why he'd not just jumped back into the fray along with everyone else.
Once Laguna was off to safety, Kaiyou started heading for Donald, figuring she could snag him by the tail easier than catching Goofy.
The black wax-man, apparently realizing that it had a new threat, turned towards her, lifting its giant fists and the subsequent explosion of fire around Kaiyou leveled the Heartless near her - clearing enough space for her to catch the back of Donald's shirt. Hauling him bodily towards Leon, she dropped him in the brunet man's cleared area, then turned, heading for Goofy this time. Her progress, however, was impeded by a swarm of Heartless that leapt atop her, knocking her to the ground.
Furious, the monster lifted its arms again, this time casting lightning. While the hit stung her, the Heartless that had her pinned were killed outright, proving how strong these spells really were. Struggling to her feet again, Kaiyou leapt for Goofy as she shouted his name. He apparently didn't hear her and she was forced to trip him up to get his attention. "Goofy! Come with me!" she shouted in his face. He stared at everything but her.
"Gawrsh! I can't see!" he exclaimed.
"I can, come on!" she pulled him up, then ducked down again as a Heartless leapt at her head, attempting to latch on. Drawing her Keyblade back, she sliced the Heartless, then pulled Goofy to his feet, dragging him through the room by the wrist.
The monster, apparently not finished trying out every element of spell on her, lifted its arms, and Kaiyou looked back just in time to see it cast. Shoving Goofy towards Leon, despite there being quite a bit more distance between the two males, Kaiyou leapt back towards another crowd of Heartless.
The ice that formed around her exploded outward in deadly shards, killing more Heartless. Chilled, Kaiyou shivered, her movements slowed slightly, but the adrenaline pumping through her blood kept her going, heading for the last woman still in the room.
The woman had actually been managing to hold her own, despite being blinded, unfortunately, she'd also gotten fairly close to the black monster, which made Kaiyou a little more cautious in getting close. "Lady!" Kaiyou shouted at her, "This way - retreat!"
"I'm gonna kill it!" the dark haired woman shouted back.
"You're gonna get killed!" Kaiyou snapped in return, just as the black monster lifted its hands again, throwing another spell at Kaiyou.
While she felt the spell reflect, Kaiyou didn't see the effect - which was a relief, considering that she had probably just succeeded in not getting blinded as well... which meant that she was the only one capable of killing this creature out of the lot of them...
'Oh hell...'
Reaching the woman's side, Kaiyou slashed at the Heartless that were swarming the both of them, and had to dodge the dark haired woman's powerful kick in her direction, "Watch it!"
"I can't see," the woman replied.
"Well, I can, and I'm the only one who can, so get out of here!" Kaiyou replied as she ducked a Heartless that leapt over her head. Swinging her foot out low on the ground, she tripped the dark haired woman, intending to grab her arm and bodily drag her out of the room. Unfortunately, the black monster wasn't finished with Kaiyou yet and reverted to its fist attempt to kill her. Spotting it raising its arms again, Kaiyou dived aside into the swarm of Heartless, feeling their claws scratching her. Where the black creature could only whittle away at her, the Heartless were more than capable of ripping her to shreds, and for every one that got killed, two more seemed to drop into the room.
'I'm gonna die!' Kaiyou thought desperately as the explosion of fire went off around her, turning the Heartless piling on top of her into black smoke. With the area cleared for the brief moment, Kaiyou staggered to her feet again and ran back over to the woman, slashing at the Heartless that was still playing with her. "Come on lady!" Kaiyou pleaded and grabbed the back of the woman's skirt, pulling at it.
This unexpected move caught the woman off-balance and she staggered, giving Kaiyou the chance to catch her arm and hauled her bodily towards Leon who called, "Tifa, over here!"
Finally going willingly, the woman staggered and landed against Leon's chest as he caught her and pulled her away.
"Aros!" Kaiyou heard Sora call, but ignoring him, she turned away and headed for the monster on the other side of the room.
Heartless had again filled the room, and now that she was the creature's only target, the monster started casting spells at her one after another. Ice first exploded off her, followed by fire again, and lightning. Blind was cast three times in succession as Kaiyou waded across the room to attack the monster head on.
Lifting her blade, she slashed at its unguarded stomach as it lifted its hands to cast again. Surprised, its spell didn't go off, and instead, it curled down, reaching for her. Dodging away, Kaiyou managed to avoid getting smashed by its large fists. This one, however, was slower than the white one. Apparently its strong suit was magic, not physical, and the fact that the wound she'd inflicted on it hadn't just healed seconds later was quite reassuring too.
Rolling back in, Kaiyou stabbed her blade into its knee and ripped sideways. The monster apparently didn't like that and topped down to kneel, its white head now in Kaiyou's range.
Around her, though, the Heartless had been gathering, and while she wasn't paying attention to them, several jumped on her, dropping her to the floor beneath their weight. Fighting futilely, Kaiyou struggled to kick the Shadows off. Abruptly, the air around her exploded in fire, and Kaiyou rolled to her feet again, feeling baked and out of breath, blood oozing from cuts all over her exposed skin. Leaping at the monster that was summoning the Heartless, Kaiyou waited till it lifted its arms again to cast at her and slammed her blade into its white face.
The arms abruptly went limp, and with her blade caught in it, Kaiyou was forced to let go and dive back before she was crushed by the falling monster. Before she could land, she was slammed into from the side by a Neo-Shadow, its claws raking at her face. Unable to defend herself from it, Kaiyou brought her arms up to block and rolled. Unfortunately, the Heartless followed her, more catching onto this new game and leaping atop her.
"Thunder!" Donald's voice shouted and an explosion of lightning hit her dead-on, exploding off her shield to stun the Heartless around her.
"Hyah!" another voice shouted and the crowd of Heartless were thinned considerably by a wide blue Keyblade arcing over her head. Reaching down, Sora grabbed her, hauling her up bodily and throwing her over his shoulder. Turning, he dashed back behind the lines of their allies as the others, now recovered from their blinding, came charging in to disperse the remaining Neo-Shadows.
"Aros," Sora breathed, using a potion on her, then another as he knelt in front of her, "You're here," he breathed, suddenly breaking out into a grin. Kaiyou, lifting her eyes, almost grinned back at him - she managed to keep her expression to a slight smirk.
"You called me," she replied.
"You came for me...?"
"You were in trouble."
"But you came." Sora smiled again.
Beyond the corner, she could hear the sounds of fighting, but also, by the sound of it, the group was having a lot easier of a time defeating the Neo-Shadows now, and they apparently weren't coming back.
Kaiyou shook her head slowly, "You were in trouble," she said again as she brought her gaze back to Sora, "...and you've... helped me. A lot." Biting her lower lip, she took a breath, forcing herself to look into his eyes, "I'm beginning to believe that this is real. I'm beginning to think that maybe I... I don't know," she sighed and finally dropped her gaze. His intense expression was unnerving and it was difficult for her to meet his eyes for long, "I came to help you because you've helped me and I owe you a lot more than that, but right now – I have a job to do. I lost something and I need to go get it back before bad stuff happens. I don't want Gary to win because I screwed up."
"Let me come with you!" Sora requested, hands on her shoulders, eyes pleading as he leaned in slightly.
Shaking her head, she closed her eyes to avoid meeting his gaze. The sounds of battle ended in the other room, and now Donald and Goofy and Laguna were cheering happily, "No, Sora. It was my mistake, I'm going to fix it. You've got the mess here to clean up still. Besides, I've got backup. I've got Dad."
Sora blinked at her, "Dad...?" he asked slowly.
Smiling slightly, she replied, "Yeah," nodding firmly, she lifted her eyes, then looked past Sora to Leon as he and Tifa came around the corner. He stopped, lifting a hand to hold Tifa back.
Pressing her lips together, Kaiyou shook her head and pushed Sora's hands off her shoulders, getting to her feet, even though she had to lean against the wall behind her. Taking a breath, Kaiyou set her shoulders and looked up at Sora as he too stood, still very close to her, blocking her escape, but at least she didn't feel quite so unnerved by his unconscious actions. 'After all, I've run away the last two times we've met...' Taking a breath, she said, "Dad's a little crazy, but... I've gotten rather fond of him. And... I think he likes me too, and he lets me call him Dad." Taking a breath, she tipped her head back, then rolled her shoulders, "So, don't get in too much trouble without me. Okay?"
Sora, after staring into her eyes for a long moment, heaved a sigh and stepped back slightly, "Alright... since you still don't trust me and all..."
"I do too," she stated firmly, realizing belatedly that the hall had gone very silent and probably everyone could hear her and Sora's conversation, "You have my diary and I don't mind."
Abruptly, he stepped forward and hugged her, making her blush. Standing a little stiffly in his embrace, she waited till he let her go and stepped back slightly, "You be careful too," he told her, "I've gotten kinda fond of you as well."
Grunting, Kaiyou turned, heading off down the hall, "I'll keep it in mind, big brother." She looked back over her shoulder and smirked a little at his dumbstruck expression. Her eyes drifted down to where the rest of the group was, staring at the two of them. Eyes focusing on Laguna, Kaiyou said, "Let's go. Gotta find that book still."
Chewing his lower lip briefly, Laguna stepped forward, patted Leon's shoulder and said with a grin, "Nice seeing you again," and as he headed past Sora, he ruffled the boy's hair. "Stay out of trouble, squirt."
Laughing, Sora ducked slightly, "I will - Dad."
The scene came to a screeching halt again, Laguna stopping with one foot raised still, looked back over his shoulder, mouth gaping open. "What'd you call me?" he wheezed.
Kaiyou stopped as well, looking back at Sora, quirking a brow.
Sora grinned, "Thought you could keep it secret forever, huh? I'm a little slow sometimes, I admit, but I'm not entirely stupid." Expression turning serious, he concluded, "You'd better keep Aros safe. My father or not, I'll hunt you down if something happens to him. ...And come back home too? Mom misses you a lot."
Finally placing his foot on the floor, Laguna turned towards Sora with an easy smile, "No problems there!" he saluted, "See you later! Bye Squall!" he added.
Turning away again, Laguna stepped up to Kaiyou, dropping an arm around her shoulders, and pulled her along down the hall, "Hm, I'm getting kinda hungry," he complained, "What you say we find somewhere to get something to eat before we head on?"
"The ship has plenty," Kaiyou stated flatly, "and we're kinda in a hurry?"
Their voices disappeared around the corner, leaving silence in the hall where Sora stood, staring after his father and his adopted brother, Aros. He broke into a grin, "Well, that turned out rather well," he said finally and turned to face the others, then paused as he recalled, "Tron!" and running past the others, Sora headed for the computer room.
"Sora!" Squall called after the younger brunet.
"That man, Rufus Shinra! We have to stop him!" Sora called back over his shoulder as he ran.
AN: Dear lord! I'm SO sorry this has taken so long to write, I've just been swamped with homework and had a big dry spell of inspiration. It's evil, you know... I uh... blame the blue cows in my backyard or something. PS. if any of the paragraphs screwed up, it's not my fault, it's ff.n's. it goes funky from time to time. so just tell me and I'll fix.
Next Chapter: Reunion! Summoner and Guardian united at last!
