AT LAST. After almost six months of sitting on my ass/finishing my junior year/suffering through the swim-coach from hell, it's finally here. Chapter 51 yays!
...that's the good news. The bad news is that not much happens in this chapter except Twilight Town gets finished up. Whoo. The better news is that all the juicy stuff is in the next chapter. I'm planning some FalCopper flashbacks, RokuAnx moments, some RiChar memories, and some long-awaited SoraChar fluff. :)
But in the meantime, you get these 13 pages to gnaw on. (Haha... 13 pages... Organization XIII... bad pun...)
Disclaimer- I own nothing except for the four characters that are obviously not in the original games.
"Sora, wait up!"
The aforementioned brunette came to an unceremonious halt at the sound of Donald's squawk. Sora knew he was probably getting his hopes up over nothing – how could Kairi possibly have made it this far, even with the way she had drifted away from him in the End of the World, to Twilight Town? – and yet the thought of seeing her again, getting that reminder of what he was fighting for, finishing half his quest sent breathless hope thrilling through him. He waited, shifting from one foot to the other restlessly, as his two comrades caught up to him: Donald stopped on one side, panting hard due to the shortness of his legs, and Goofy came up on the other, his stride hampered slightly by the oddly-familiar trophy in his hand.
"Gawrsh, Sora," the latter grunted, looking plaintively at the Keybearer. "I know you wanna see Kairi again, but we're tired too."
Donald simply folded his arms and tapped one foot, as though his dignity was holding him back from verbally agreeing with the knight.
Sora sighed, feeling guilt roil through him: not just for the way he had recklessly rushed on ahead, but for other reasons, as well. "Sorry," he said, forcing a smile at his two longtime comrades. "Guess I got a little carried away."
"Just slow down," Donald muttered.
An almost anticipatory pause followed, a pause whose silence over the past few weeks had become filled by a sardonic feminine response. Donald glanced around at the lack of said response, his eyes now narrowed more in confusion than in annoyance. "Hey, where'd Char go?" he asked no one in particular.
Goofy shrugged helplessly, the action and the worry on his face all but obscured by his colorful burden. "I'm not sure, Donald," he said anxiously. "I guess I kinda just thought she'd follow us when we left the Sandlot, a-hyuck."
Donald huffed and began berating his comrade almost out of sheer habit, while Goofy ducked his head sheepishly in response to the mage's words, despite the glaring obviousness of the situation not being his fault. Sora, however, had all but stopped listening after Goofy had confessed he had left Char standing alone in the Sandlot. Under any other circumstance, the brunette would probably be adding his own little quips and theories as to where Char had gone, but the anomaly of the redhead's actual departure from the group's Keybearer-led path made this unlike any other circumstance. Unconsciously, Sora brought up a hand so his index finger and thumb framed his chin as he thought. The last time Char had done something like this, the snowy landscape and icy air of the Land of Dragons had surrounded the group, and she had felt such a strong reaction to Shan-Yu's return that she'd gone to the imperial city by herself to try and take him down. Even though last time she had only been with them for a few days and therefore didn't feel the degree of loyalty to them as she did now – at least, Sora hoped with a pang that she did now – the situation had still had an odd taste to it, since even then she didn't seem like the type to go back on her promises.
And that was the least of his worries. To be honest, Sora wasn't entirely sure what he would say or do if, in fact, Kairi was currently waiting for him at the train station. The thought made his fist clench slightly, but not, he hoped, enough for Donald and Goofy to notice; he did get a mildly suspicious glance from the former even as he continued to rant and a bemused look from the latter, but Sora failed to register these things.
If it turned out that Kairi was here, well… Sora let his mind roam over what would likely happen. She would turn to him, her violet eyes brightening as they always did – had – when he approached; he would move toward her; and after that…
Strangely, his prediction of what might occur if he did see her standing next to the clock tower with the perennial sunset lighting her maroon hair came to a screeching halt after the mental image of her initial glance at him.
Guilt suffused him so abruptly that he drew in a sharp breath: guilt, along with the realization of why he couldn't think on the possible upcoming encounter anymore. After all, really, he had no business pretending to feel the same love for Kairi that he once had – and he knew he had, had known that practically since the day he'd left his house and spotted a lost-looking, red-haired girl wandering around the piers, almost ten years ago.
He couldn't pretend he felt the same way about her anymore, when he thought of the one he loved and automatically Char's icy eyes appeared to him instead of Kairi's sapphire.
What he couldn't understand was why and how Char had come to replace Kairi so quickly. A tiny sigh pushed its way out of him at the thought.
"Sora, are you okay?" Donald asked, breaking off in his tirade at Goofy to angle his head in order to eye the brunette worriedly; the latter mirrored the gesture.
Despite his comrades' concern, Sora felt a twinge of rather half-hearted annoyance. So much for trying to hide his emotions. "Yeah," he answered. "Just worried about Char… and Kairi." He couldn't help but feel like he had tacked Kairi's name onto the end of his words just to make himself feel better; if anything, though, it had the opposite effect of increasing his guilt more than ever.
Donald and Goofy exchanged glances, the former hindered by the height difference. However, if they had the slightest idea of why their unspoken leader was balking even in sight of reaching part of the goal he – they – had worked for for so long, they said nothing about it. Instead, the mage turned to the knight and put one hand up next to his mouth, as though readying himself to whisper something.
"Why do you think Char's gone?" Sora heard Donald mutter under his breath, and the degree of venom in the duck's voice caused the Keybearer's eyes to widen. Char and Donald had never exactly liked each other, but why did suspicion lurk in Donald's words?
"I'm sure she'll be back, Donald," Goofy hissed in response, flicking an anxious glance at Sora. As Sora looked on, the feeling of distrust from last night, when the brunette was lying half-conscious in his bed after their visit to the Pride Lands – the reminder of that came in the form of a twinge of pain in his skull, which, wincing, he tried to quell by pressing a hand to his temple – returned. That feeling caused his heartbeat to accelerate even further when Donald seemed to catch Goofy's unspoken command to change the subject and turned back to Sora with a soft grumble.
"Look," Sora said a little awkwardly, at the same time trying to tell himself that he had nothing to worry about, "all we can do, really, is wait for Char to come back." At the incredulous expression that covered Donald's face upon hearing that, Sora continued, "We have to get to the station, remember? She has to know the way."
If she was really living in the mansion, then she has to know this town. She has to. He barely managed to ignore the voice in his head that was reminding him that he didn't know that. For perhaps the thousandth time on this journey, the thought of how little he knew about her – other than a few details of her previous life as a researcher – crossed his mind and sent the now-familiar pang of disappointment ringing throughout his whole body.
Goofy nodded; it took Donald a few seconds, during which his eyes narrowed, to do the same.
Sora smiled almost for the sake of trying to do so. "Okay then," he said. "Now…" He hesitated before putting his arms behind his head sheepishly. "Which way's the station again?"
More short-term memory loss? he could almost hear Char saying. Honestly, Key-boy, that can't be good for you.
"I think it's up the slopes in the road." Goofy pointed toward the aforementioned hills; Sora followed his gaze and, upon craning his neck slightly upward, spotted the clock tower that marked the Station Plaza's location.
"Alright then." The brunette squared his shoulders and began to make his way up the road; Donald and Goofy followed close behind. "Kairi, we're on our way," he murmured, though his thoughts had strayed to someone else entirely, much to his growing guilt. He barely restrained another sigh at the thought.
Char… just make sure you show up.
The dying sun beat down as Char left the Sandlot behind her in favor of the streets of the Tram Common. Like the back alley, the marketplace was almost empty, which, she thought with a momentary pang of unease, seemed strange, considering that every other time she'd been here, the residents of Twilight Town had filled the streets with their presence and the low hum of activity.
Then again, she reflected dryly, that made the way she limped due to the persistent flaring of her leg much less public.
She tried not to wince at the very tangible twinge of pain that shot up her calf every time she dared put weight on the leg Hades had scarred, but the fact remained that the injury was still plaguing her. Not for the first time, she berated herself for impulsively jumping in front of the fireball that was obviously meant for Sora to take in the first place; and then, not for the first time, she had to mentally concede that she couldn't have just let Sora die. Raging hormones or not, she had made a promise to Riku to protect Sora.
Her eyes slipped shut, and she came to a halt, placing one palm on the adjacent wall to get her bearings. Belatedly, she realized her breaths were puffing out of her in heavy pants.
"Damn," she half hissed under her breath. "I must be more tired than I thought."
She opened her eyes again and cast a rudimentary glance around. No, she noted, still no people around. Instinctively, the researcher part of her mind got to work as to inferring the reason why the place was still practically empty. Maybe Vivi had scared all the townspeople off with his wails for help, or maybe… maybe the Nobodies had gotten further than the Sandlot.
Moron. If there were more Nobodies they'd have picked you off by now, she reminded herself. With the knowledge of the lack of witnesses as well as the lack of enemies, she allowed her body to slacken enough to slip down the wall into a sitting position. One hand came up to run itself through her bangs as the other arm wrapped itself around her knees.
Only now did it hit her, how stupid her act of just breaking away from the group for no reason had been. A noise of frustration escaped her with the force of that realization, and although the act would have gone unseen, she fought the urge to slap her forehead nonetheless. Now Donald and Goofy's rising suspicions would be pushed even further; at this point they had to think she was secretly working for the Organization and had left Sora's group to join the Nobodies. Though that couldn't be further from the truth – the very thought sent a steady current of revulsion spiraling through her veins – her knowledge of Roxas' relation to Sora, along with the Disney residents' knowledge that she was definitely keeping some things left hidden, must have reinforced that assumption even more.
And Sora might think…
A different kind of pain from that of her leg began to dully throb in her chest at the thought of what Sora would undoubtedly think.
Why would he care, though? a petulant part of her mind asked suddenly. He'll forget all about you once he sees Kairi again.
Char uttered four choice words aloud, as though silencing her inner doubts were that simple. As it turned out, it was.
You know he feels the same way, Roxas' voice echoed for what felt like the umpteenth time.
Unconsciously, the redhead groaned and pushed her forehead against her bent knees. For some reason, the desire to have Riku's turquoise eyes staring down at her when she lifted her head pulsed so powerfully within her at that moment that her fingers tightened over her knees with the force of it. You okay there, Char? she could almost hear him saying. You know talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity…
Which you would know all about, she automatically thought in response to his imaginary jab.
She lifted her head and stared out at the empty streets. The sunlight faded slightly for a few moments as a cloud passed over it; with the arrival of the cloud, the streets and shops were cast in a shadow, but as the cloud moved away from the sun, the golden glow cast upon the town returned with as much force as before. Char didn't realize it, but her features softened visibly at remembering all the times she and Riku had shared here: sitting at the clock tower eating ice cream; talking about Ansem's goals; watching Sora's memories; the occasional sparring sessions; daring to drag Namine away from her "pressing" duty of linking the chains of Sora's memory back together and take her out to the town every once in a while…
Pathetic as it was, the redhead knew that all she wanted was to go back to the simplicity of those days. Because although the memory of how her fellow apprentices had died hung constantly over her head, although the knowledge of her feelings for Riku could never fully make itself known until she was faced with the possibility of his absence, the year she had spent living here, in Twilight Town, was the closest to the way she had spent her time in Hollow Bastion before the creation of the Organization had forced her and Ansem to leave.
Char shifted and leaned back against the wall, her eyes finding the dark entrance to the train tunnels that wound their way beneath Twilight Town and Sunset Terrace. For some reason, a shiver made its way up her spine at seeing the yawning maw of Tram Common's tunnel entrance. If the Organization was really trying to sneak in Nobodies, she reasoned in an attempt to return to rationality, the tunnels were most likely the best place to do so, since almost none of the townspeople used them in favor of the trains.
Then again, though, that still didn't explain why the Nobodies had shown up in the Sandlot – out in broad daylight – today. The memory of how close they had come to defeat at the hands – claws, whatever – of those brown Nobodies made her shudder. And the arrival of that Organization member hadn't made matters any better. Char searched her recollections of what she had seen of Roxas' own memories, as she, Ansem, and Riku had had to bear witness to the Key of Destiny's past before said past could be erased, to try and remember if she had seen the mysterious blue-haired stranger anywhere. Somehow, she thought he wasn't exactly the kind of presence one could easily forget.
Consequently, her mental search yielded prompt results. His name was Saïx, Organization XIII's Number VII… Char's eyes widened as something dawned upon her: if she had gone along with her fellow apprentices' exploration of the darkness, her Nobody would currently be in Saïx's position. When she thought of it that way, she really couldn't wonder why he had seemed so intrigued by her choice to follow Sora in the first place.
She tried to brush that thought aside, though it remained in her mind nonetheless and struck a chord within her every time she dared touch upon it again, and refocused on her recollections of Saïx. Roxas and Anxclof had hated the guy, the redhead remembered with the slightest hint of a smirk. In fact, if she remembered correctly, Roxas had arrived at the entrance to the castle in the World That Never Was to find that Anxclof had already thoroughly beaten the tar out of Number VII, and, therefore, had had a relatively snag-free escape.
Anxclof. Char's eyes narrowed, the playful amusement she had felt earlier disappearing immediately at the thought of the Blade of Vengeance. Char knew that sooner or later, she would have to confront Anxclof and convince her to leave Sora alone permanently.
Yeah. "Convincing" is what she needed. Convincing with my swords as my scribe and her defeat as her change of mind.
Shockingly, Char found a powerful sense of preparation within her at the thought of the inevitability of the battle with Anxclof. Beneath that preparation was something else, though, something she had to dig deeper to understand; when the underlying emotion became clear to her, though, the resulting shock that surged throughout her body pulled a small gasp out of her.
It was the notion that if and when the time came, she would die to keep Sora safe if she had to.
Abruptly, she got to her feet, ignoring the pain that flared in her leg as a result. She had drowned in her thoughts here for long enough. If she was gone any longer, well… The knowledge of her allies' suspicion of her went through her again, along with that infuriating guilt.
As she turned on her heel and made her way toward the Station Heights, she knew she couldn't take much more mistrust. She would have to tell them sometime soon about her true connection to the Organization, and the reason behind why she had made that seemingly-odd request to accompany them that day in the mansion.
If they don't pull it out of me first.
Still no Char, Sora noted with a twinge of growing alarm as he and the others halted in front of the station doors. He stared through the glass to the colorful trains waiting within and tried to quell his rising anxiety. No Kairi, either, he realized. His fist clenched; this time, things had seemed so certain…
"No Kairi," he murmured aloud.
Donald and Goofy must have heard him, for the latter's voice sounded behind Sora and made him turn and glance up at his allies. "Well, Sora," the dog said hesitantly, putting down the Struggle trophy to reveal an expression of exhaustion from carrying the trophy so far, "Pence never said Kairi was here in Twilight Town…"
"But how else would he know who she was?" Sora sighed.
Donald glanced from one of his companions to the other, sympathy overcoming the irritation from earlier; he probably figured that the random disappearance of the girl who had become one of his best friends, combined with the demise of his hope of being able to see Kairi again, had to take its toll on their leader. "Sora…" he began, only to let out a sound of surprise as the sound of even footsteps became known to them.
As one, the trio turned to the source of the sound; relief washed over Sora and left him near breathless as the light caught off dark red hair and Char passed under the arch that signified the entrance to the station plaza. She came to a stop in front of them and cocked an eyebrow, looking for all the world like she'd just left to buy some Potions or something equally innocuous – not at all like she just up and ran off for no reason, Sora thought dryly.
"The hell's wrong with you guys?" she queried, putting one hand on her hip. "You look like you just saw an Organization member hug Sora."
Sora almost laughed, but restrained himself in time. He chose instead to give her an apprehensive look, one that didn't totally belie what he felt. Donald and Goofy's suspicious comments toward her echoed in his mind again, and a thrill of anxiety ran through his body as he realized they might just have a valid point.
"Where in the name of the worlds have you been?" Donald spoke up, glowering in her direction.
Char huffed and rolled her eyes; but Sora knew her well enough to detect the shadow that flitted across her face. "I had some thinking to do – something you guys may or may not be familiar with," she answered tartly. "Anyway, so I thought… you said Kairi was supposed to be here?" Maybe it was his imagination, but her voice seemed to stumble a bit over Kairi's name.
With some effort, Sora pushed his apprehension aside. "I don't know what happened," he said, trying to smile. "Maybe –"
"He-ey!" Whatever attempt at a hypothesis had been percolating at the tip of his tongue vanished as Hayner's voice rang through the air. Sora looked over and spotted Hayner, Pence, and Olette running toward them; Pence looked a little winded – he'd probably run from here to the Usual Spot and back again – but Hayner and Olette had distinctively pensive expressions on their faces.
The three halted near Sora and his friends. "Long time no see," Sora greeted, lifting one hand in a wave. To his surprise, none of them returned the gesture, and he decided to drop it in favor of getting straight to the point. "So, um, how do you guys know Kairi?" he asked, speaking quickly to lessen the pain of her absence.
Hayner started a little, then exchanged a nervous – Sora had to do a double take; he barely knew the wild-haired boy, but he did know enough to realize that nervousness and Hayner did not mix – glance with Olette. The brown-haired girl nodded, though she seemed to share his tentativeness; Hayner looked back at Sora briefly before staring at the ground.
"Well… a few days ago, Pence, Olette, and I were sitting at the Usual Spot, eating ice cream like always," he began. Sora heard a snort behind him and turned to give Char a hard stare; she muttered something that sounded distinctively like "too much damn ice cream around here," but otherwise heeded Sora's tacit command for silence on her part.
If Hayner noticed Char's unceremonious interruption, he chose to ignore it; he just continued, his green eyes wide, as though even the memory of what he was about to relate still bemused him. "And then this dark hole opened up in the wall and this red-haired girl and a dog tumbled out." A smirk twitched at the corner of his lips, and he jerked a thumb toward Pence. "Pence here almost wet his pants, he was so freaked out."
"Did not!" Pence protested.
Hayner simply grinned; however, when he turned back to Sora, his serious expression had returned. "Anyway, yeah, when she woke up, she told us her name was Kairi."
"No way," Sora gaped. He couldn't help but wonder if this was the first new world she had been to since he had last seen her during the collapse of the End of the World. He could still hear her voice affirming her faith in him, could still feel her hand slipping away as they drifted apart, and felt a tightening in his heart. "Kairi… Kairi was really here?" he murmured to himself.
Hayner nodded. "Yeah. And… she said she was looking for you."
Sora gave a start and jerked his head up to stare right at Hayner; he was aware of the other boy's growing discomfort, but if Kairi had been so close, he had to know what had changed that. "Tell me where she is!" he begged.
"Well…" Hayner stared at a fixed point somewhere near Char's shoes.
"What a romantic story!" Olette sighed as Kairi finished her tale. The redhead gave a helpless smile in response.
"I'm sure if you stick around, Sora's bound to show up," Pence added, trying to assure Kairi.
"Yeah, he said he's coming back," Hayner said. The yellow-furred dog sitting at Kairi's side gave a happy bark, as if to agree.
"Thank goodness," Kairi murmured, looking down at her clasped hands in her lap.
"What took you so long, Kairi?" The sound of the voice – almost a purr, really – made them all start in surprise. A dark flash caught Hayner's eye, and he looked over just in time to see the familiar "hole in the wall" from earlier make its appearance. Out of the portal stepped a tall, slender man with spiky red hair and glittering green eyes. "Somehow, I just knew you'd be here," the man continued in the same silky tone; yet a snarl seemed to lurk within those dulcet tones.
"Do you know this guy, Kairi?" Hayner demanded, glancing over to the girl. She only nodded, her violet eyes wide with fear as she stared at the man.
"I didn't think he'd come back for me," she gulped.
"I tell you, Kairi," the man went on, his dark cloak – who the heck wears a black coat when it's this hot out? Hayner wondered fleetingly – sweeping over the ground as he stepped closer. Immediately, the dog leaped to his paws and bared his teeth, while Hayner and Pence stepped protectively in front of Kairi and Olette. "You've got a lot of guts – jumping straight into the darkness like that."
He moved forward. Hayner and Pence charged toward him, but with a few twists of his body, the stranger easily dodged the two boys; they tumbled into an undignified heap against the wall, and Hayner raised his head just in time to see the man latch his hand around Kairi's arm. He tried to leap to his feet, but pain flared throughout his entire body and he was forced to lie still where he was. He and Pence must have hit the wall harder than they'd thought, he realized with a surge of anger.
Olette reached out a hand to try and apprehend the strange man, but he ignored her in favor of pulling Kairi toward him. "Hate to interrupt you guys, but I need Kairi for a bit."
"Let me go!" Kairi demanded, struggling valiantly and glaring into those acid green eyes.
The man's urbane façade seemed to falter for the briefest of moments as violet glowered defiantly into emerald; but it passed as abruptly as it had come, and instead the man threw back his head of crimson spikes and laughed. "Oh, Kairi," he chortled. "You remind me so much of her, you know that?"
And with that, he dragged her toward the portal and vanished into its swirling center of violet shadows. With a bark, the dog had followed after them, his tail disappearing into the darkness just before it closed.
By the time Hayner finished his tale, Pence and Olette had each picked spots on the ground to stare at in lieu of meeting Sora's eyes. "We didn't know what to do," Pence said with a sigh. "That guy just…"
"He was too strong," Hayner muttered, glaring at the ground.
Sora had listened to the account with a gradually sinking heart; now despair threatened to swallow him whole. Beneath that despair was the thought that whoever had kidnapped her would feel his Keyblade before long; however, the despondent feeling within him pulled him under. Coupled with what that blue-haired Nobody had said about "not wanting to end up like Riku," what happened to Kairi took hold of his emotions and wouldn't let go.
Instinctively, he fished around inside his pocket for the lucky charm Kairi had given him. He thought he felt something else inside his pocket, something whose tangibility resembled that of a Keychain; it should have alarmed him, since he kept his Keychains in his other pocket, but then his hand found the familiar star-shaped charm. He pulled it out into the open, and he stared helplessly at the crudely-drawn face on it, as though by feeling its shape in his hand, the sorrow within him would be vanquished by the hope that the sight and feel of the charm had always given him – the hope that his friends were indeed waiting for him, that this shadowed path would eventually end.
That hope didn't come.
"Kairi…" he breathed out.
Behind him, Char watched the Keybearer and felt her breath catch. The desire from earlier – to grab him and embrace him the way he had done to her so many times already – returned with more force than before and threatened to push her muscles into heeding that desire. Yet something else held her back: the ever-present knowledge that he didn't need her twisting his moral compass in a different direction, and she didn't need him quelling her need for revenge on the Organization.
Trying to stave off that irrational impulse, she thought back to what Hayner had said. Her eyes narrowed. Spiky red hair, cat-green eyes… it had to have been Axel. She wondered why exactly he would go to the trouble of kidnapping Kairi.
Isn't it obvious? a voice in her head snorted derisively. He's trying to lure Sora to him, so he can get Roxas back. It's like what Anxclof did at Beast's Castle, only… not quite so direct.
Char pushed her bangs out of her eyes, catching a glimpse of Sora pocketing the charm and hearing the sound of Goofy's voice whispering something to Donald. However, the latter went all but unnoticed due to her state of contemplation.
Axel's comment to Kairi about "her" was all too transparent – to Char, at least. She knew he had to be talking about Anxclof, which had a bitter taste of irony to it, because Anxclof and Kairi had next to nothing in common.
Fast on the heels of the thought of Anxclof came the epiphany Char had had while sitting in the Tram Common, though. So she didn't dare dwell on the female Nobody for much longer.
"Sorry," Hayner said with a contrite shrug.
"Hey, no, it's okay," Sora hastily tried to amend. When the other boy continued to hang his head, the brunette held out his hands in a placating gesture. "C'mon, it's not your fault. Cheer up!" He dropped his hands back down to his pants with an audible sound and sighed. "Like I can even say that…"
Goofy craned his neck around the trophy he had picked up during Hayner's story to look at Sora properly and opened his mouth to try and reassure him, only to leap up and almost fall backward when Sora jerked his head up, new determination in his voice. "I gotta help Kairi!" he cried.
The trophy fell to the ground, causing the orbs that had previously taken up residence at the tips of its branches to lose their grips and roll in different directions. Hayner, Pence, and Olette managed to halt the paths of the red, green, and gold orbs. "That was close," Pence panted, looking up from his kneeling position.
Char looked down at her feet, feeling a sense of nostalgia wash over her, along with a sense that something – Roxas – was missing from this scene. Sure enough, she saw the light glint off the pale blue orb that remained.
She bent down and picked up the orb, staring at it for a few moments, thinking on what its virtual counterpart represented. In her mind's eye, she could see herself and Riku in the basement, watching the virtual Hayner, Pence, and Olette at the top of the clock tower, a stick of that infernal ice cream in one hand and a respectively-colored orb in the other, all raising up said orbs so they caught the light of the sun. And at the end of the line of friends sat Roxas, a reflective look in his eyes as cerulean stared at a paler blue.
A flicker of movement caught her eye, and she glanced up to see Sora looking around the plaza. Belatedly, she realized he was searching for the orb she currently held in her hand. "Sora," she called, and when he looked down at her, she tossed the blue orb up to him, without much more warning than his name.
To his credit, Sora caught it fairly deftly in one hand. As Char got to her feet, Sora brought up the orb, straightening his arm, so it caught the light of the sun. Goofy fished around in his pocket briefly before finding the counterpart from the virtual Twilight Town and copying Sora's gesture; Char looked on, her stomach knotting, as, probably without entirely knowing why, the group of friends from Twilight Town did the same with their respective orbs.
As she stood there, she could have sworn she saw Roxas' form replace Sora's.
Sora stood entranced by the light on the orb; the reason why escaped him entirely, but something in the back of his mind nagged at him. He thought he heard a voice whispering something to him, and in his mind's eye he saw Roxas' honey-colored spikes being gently pulled by the wind. Alarm and anticipation shot through Sora's entire body, and he reached for that image, wanting to know Roxas' true relation to him –
"Sora! Sora, are you okay?"
"Huh?" Sora jolted and lowered his hand, looking around at his comrades. Donald folded his arms and tapped his foot, staring impatiently at the brunette, while Goofy, who had spoken, eyed him with obvious concern. Only Char seemed to have shared the trance that had overtaken Sora, and the sound of Goofy's voice had broken her out of it as well; she shook her head and tore her eyes away from the Keybearer.
Wait… why was she…?
The thought cut itself off when light flashed at the edges of his periphery. Sora looked down and saw the light originated from the orb. It lifted high up into the air, and he summoned the Circle of Life into his hand to open the gate to more worlds.
More worlds… He lowered the Keyblade as the light faded and the orb dropped back into his free hand; staring at it, he wondered how many more worlds he would have to explore before his journey ended.
"Uh… what just happened?" Pence's voice made Sora turn to the dark-haired boy, whose brown eyes were wide with bemusement.
Sora looked around at the three friends and was struck by their similarity to his own trinity: two boys and a girl. For some reason, his heart clenched in a way that thoroughly resembled what he had felt just before those tears had escaped him, the last time he'd had to leave Twilight Town. Frustratingly, just like before, he still couldn't understand why.
"A new road has opened," he answered, clenching his fist around the orb and bringing it closer to his side. "And Riku and Kairi are waiting somewhere along it."
Hayner, Pence, and Olette exchanged a glance before returning their gazes to the Keybearer. "You'd better hurry, then," Olette said.
"You coming back?" Hayner asked.
Char folded her arms. "Of course," she replied with a hint of a sigh embedded in her voice. Sora's whims were independent of the capricious nature of her nostalgia, after all. She held back an irritated growl at the thought. The instant I get over being weepy over Hollow Bastion, Twilight Town makes me feel the same way. Fantastic.
"Yeah," Sora added. "It's a promise."
Donald and Goofy seconded it with their own nods.
Hayner grinned and came closer. "Good to know," he said. "When you find Kairi, give that guy who took her a good punch in the gut for me."
Sora laughed, amused despite himself. "Okay, got it." He turned to his allies. "We should get back to the ship."
"Duly noted." Without waiting for a response, Char set off at a brisk pace toward the exit to the station.
"Hey, wait for us!" Donald squawked indignantly, dashing after her.
Goofy shot the Twilight Town natives an apologetic glance. "Uh, well, see ya later, guys!" he called as he followed his comrades at a steady pace, catching up easily to Donald due to his longer legs.
Sora watched them with both fading amusement and waxing melancholia: amusement because of their typical behavior, and melancholia because the memory of the distrust between them – a distrust whose reason they seemed content to keep a secret from him – had returned at the sight of their interaction.
"Sora, are you okay?" Olette asked, tilting her head to get a better look at his face.
With a start, Sora looked over at her and saw obvious concern on her face. "Uh, yeah," he stammered hastily. "Just…" He hesitated, feeling the sudden urge to remain there a bit longer washing over him. "Just look after yourselves, all right?"
"Hey, who d'you think you're talking to?" Hayner queried, a note of teasing belligerence in his tone.
Sora grinned. "Just saying." He looked out at the sunset that permanently covered the sky. The way the blue orb had glittered as the sun's rays had made contact with it came into his mind, and he found himself reaching back into his pocket and raising it back up to the sun. The half-formed hope that the feeling of nostalgia – of Roxas – from before would return faded when said nostalgia failed to make itself known.
Pence spoke then, his voice so soft that Sora could barely hear it. "Feels familiar, doesn't it?" he murmured, and Sora looked over to see that the dark-haired boy had gotten out his own, green orb and was staring at it.
Hayner and Olette nodded, expressions of dawning realizations – and the frustration of not knowing the reason behind that feeling – appearing on their countenances.
"Sora, get over here or we're leaving you!" Char shouted from halfway down the slope.
With a start, Sora spotted her standing under the arch with folded arms and an annoyed expression, Donald and Goofy behind her. "Sorry," he called back, "I'm coming." He pocketed the orb and ran toward the group, not daring to pause to think on what else he could say to Hayner and the others.
The brunette came to a stumbling stop next to his comrades and leaned down to place his hands on his knees as he caught his breath, unexpectedly exhausted from the short run. "Sorry," he repeated breathlessly. "I-I just… I felt like I should talk to them for a little longer."
More like Roxas felt like it. Char left that thought unspoken and simply rolled her eyes. "It's fine. We couldn't leave you behind anyway."
Sora lifted his head and eyed her for a few moments, his eyebrows slowly rising into his hairline at the way she had included herself. The redhead seemed to realize the possible misinterpretation of her statement and hastened to amend any possible error. "W-well, you are the Keybearer, after all, and I said I'd follow you, and – would you wipe that stupid grin off your face?" she suddenly hissed at Donald, who was smirking at the flustered tone to her voice.
"I don't know what you're talking about," the duck said loftily, turning away. "Don't we have a Gummi ship to get back to?"
Char knew he was right, but expressed that agreement only with a grudging snort. "Whatever," she muttered, hating the way heat rushed to her face at feeling Sora's eyes still on her.
Sora couldn't help but roll his eyes; all the same, he got to his feet. "Donald's right. Riku and Kairi could be waiting for us right now."
"And the King, too," Goofy reminded them.
They ascended the ramp and stepped into the interior of the ship. As the ramp closed to become part of the Gummi ship again with a hiss, Sora allowed his eyes to adjust to the sudden change in brightness before crossing the room and slumping into the pilot's chair. "First the King, then Riku, and now I've lost Kairi again, too," he sighed.
"Don't be sad," Donald encouraged, hopping into the chair next to Sora.
"Donald's right, y'know. Why, you're the key that connects everything!" Goofy quipped as he moved into the chair on Sora's other side. Looking on, Char couldn't help but think that they were trying just a bit too hard; it showed on their faces: their strained expressions revealed their own doubts.
She narrowed her eyes as Donald's head swiveled around to face her, his dark eyes glaring at hers almost incriminatingly. He probably expected her to add in a few reassurances of her own, she realized with a mixture of both annoyance and desolation: annoyance due to the futility of trying to give Sora a pep talk at the moment, and desolation due to knowing the full extent of how despondent he felt.
"So that means it's my fault," Sora groaned, dropping his face into his hands.
Char raised an eyebrow. "Don't be stupid," she growled, causing Goofy and Sora to glance in her direction and Donald to replace his previous irritated expression with a surprised one. "All he means is that everything goes back to you, so odds are they'll show up eventually, right?"
Sora stared at her for a few moments, during which she evenly maintained eye contact with him, much to her own amazement. Then her words seemed to sink in and he gave a smile, albeit a somewhat-weak one. "Yeah, you're right."
Char folded her arms and returned his smile with her own smirk. "I do try," she answered loftily. From next to Sora, Donald snorted and muttered something under his breath, earning a fresh glower from the redhead.
"Char's right, too," Goofy said. "Just do what comes natural to ya and we're sure to find 'em." Over the brunette's spiky head, the dog gave Char a grateful nod; she merely shrugged in response, knowing she hadn't even meant to try to encourage Sora in the first place.
"Yeah, you said it," Donald grumbled after a moment, a moment that he'd clearly spent debating the merits of agreeing with Char, however indirectly. Char nearly snorted aloud at that; the heaviness of the distrust he felt toward her at the moment could have choked a whale. At the same time, though, a quiver of unease went through her at wondering whether or not Sora would notice Donald's obvious newfound rancor toward her.
Thankfully, Sora either didn't notice or didn't care. He chose instead to nod, the feeble smile from earlier strengthening. "Thanks, guys," he murmured. Abruptly, he stood and stretched, moving his arms high above his head and intertwining his fingers where they met in the middle. "I'm going to go sit in my room for a little bit."
"Do you want me to cast a healing spell for your headache?" Donald asked, already lifting his staff to accomplish that.
Sora shook his head as he lowered his arms, only to wince visibly at the tangible twinge that went through his skull almost in defiance of his refusal. "On second thought, that might be a good idea," he laughed, a little sheepishly.
Donald rolled his eyes, but nevertheless, he summoned forth the telltale glow of the Cura spell. Watching, Char couldn't help but feel a bittersweet pang at the irony: the very weapon that had caused Sora this pain was now serving to palliate it. She supposed it all depended on the will of the user.
Almost the instant the emerald light surrounding the crimson staff's tip vanished, Sora turned away and started down the hallway. The sound of his shoes echoing against the tile echoed rather loudly against the silence that had overtaken his three companions; as a result, the sound of the door closing behind him, however gentle it had been, coaxed a cringe out of even Char.
She turned to Donald and Goofy and opened her mouth to speak, but the latter beat her to it. "D'you think he's gonna be okay?" the knight asked, looking worriedly in the direction of Sora's room.
Char raised and lowered one shoulder. "His headache should pass," she remarked, though knowing full well that that wasn't what Goofy was referring to. For some reason, it seemed like if she chose to fully confront the reason why Sora felt so much ineffable sorrow over getting so close to Kairi, only to lose her again, it would hurt even more than it already did.
"Not that," Donald growled. "Kairi and Riku." The redhead looked on, slight surprise overtaking her self-deprecation, as the duck's face actually softened. "Riku was his best friend. And Kairi…"
Oddly, he trailed off at that, only giving Char a glance before staring down at the floor.
Under any other circumstances, Char would have taken advantage of Donald's rare moment of vulnerability to deliver some relentless teasing. But these weren't any other circumstances: when even Sora felt some degree of despair, something had to be wrong. She snorted mentally at that thought, but kept it to herself. Instead, she remained silent.
"So… should we go ahead and depart?" she asked awkwardly, trying to change the subject. Only with the verbal utterance of her question did she realize the validity of it: they had spent the past few minutes just sitting in the back alley of Twilight Town, letting the Gummi ship's eye-burning glory be revealed to everyone around. Lack of citizens or not, odds were that Hayner and the others had to reach the Usual Spot through here and, therefore, had to spot the vessel. Under Donald's standards, this had to be qualified as at least some kind of "meddling."
The mage clearly had the same thoughts, for realization crossed his face before fading in favor of contemplation. "Yeah, I think so," he agreed at last, and Char had to do a double take at the fact that he was willingly agreeing with her. "Go tell Sora we're going to be leaving Twilight Town soon."
That made Char's eyes widen; she hesitated for a few moments, thinking, hoping that Donald was addressing Goofy and not her, but no, the knight was staring expectantly at her as well. The thought of how idiotic she must seem right now dawned upon her, and she blinked a couple of times before replying. "H-he's not driving the ship, is he?" she stammered, hating the heat that had taken up residence – as it tended to do so infuriatingly often nowadays – on her face and the flustered way her heart was frantically beating. It was an idiotic question, but the first thing she could think of to say other than the incredibly-bratty-sounding why me?
Donald shook his head. "Not the way he's feeling right now. I'll do it."
Char narrowed her eyes and folded her arms. "Do you have any idea how far up you're gonna have to scoot up the seat in order to –"
An indignant squawk cut her off. "I'm still a better driver than you," Donald began to rant, "and furthermore, at least I can land us on the right stupid world and –"
And that's about as much as I can take. Char turned on her heel and set off down the hallway to the door at the end, the duck's angry shouting fading to a dull buzz behind her in the wake of her thoughts.
You know what I find really funny? About ninety percent of this fandom hates OCs with the passion of a thousand suns, and yet Kingdom Hearts is, essentially, a Disney/Final Fantasy crossover with OCs as the main characters.
What do you guys think?
