A/N: First of, I'd like to wish all of my reader's a Happy New Year. I hope you've all enjoyed your Holidays and for those who haven't for whatever reason, I'll try my best to lift your spirits. So with that said, let's start the New Year off with a Sora focused chapter.

Chapter 82

The Founders' Land

For the next hour, Sora found himself whisked away to a completely new world. Strange characters in flamboyant costumes, both human and animal alike, entertained him and the hundreds of others who had come to see the show.

The first act consisted of skilful acrobatics that, try as he might, he probably couldn't pull off even if he wanted to—at least, it didn't seem possible to him and yet here he was witnessing it. It was serene, yet chaotic at the same time. He briefly considered trying to incorporate these lithe movements into his move set, but he was sure Luna or Kairi probably had more of a chance than him.

The next act involved the magic tricks and illusions—the stuff that brought him and everyone else to the edge of their seats. He leaned forward and grasped the armrest of his seat as he watched the assistant being sawed in half. Roxas, on the other hand, was unimpressed.

"Oh, come on. They clearly just have two people with one in each box. Who're they fooling?" Roxas murmured. He looked to his left to see a small boy looking back at him, tears brimming in his eyes and his lips trembling. He quickly scrambled to correct himself. "Which is to say, uh, they'd clearly have two if they were faking… which they're not."

"Nice save…" Sora sarcastically replied with a grimace.

Roxas leaned back and tried to rest of his face on his cheek only to remember he was wearing a helmet. For the next few acts, he spoke not a word and Sora managed to osmose himself back into the world of circus.

Soon, the Moogles came on. Their performance mixed in acrobatics with flying and dancing to the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. The teamwork and timing showed that they had put a lot of thought and practice into the act.

Just when he thought it couldn't possibly get any better, Dumbo swooped in from the left side of the stage, much to the acclamation of everyone. As he flew around the room performing loops and other tricks, the Moogles followed, glowing and letting out sprinkles of what looked like fairy dust over the audience.

By the time they were done, Sora was left with nothing but standing ovation alongside the rest of the crowd. Even Roxas seemed impressed, standing to clap along too. As all the troupe came on stage together for one last hurrah, Sora saw Dumbo resting his head against who he assumed was his mother's leg.

"That was just… wow, my mind's blown!" Sora yelled like a giddy child, as he walked out of the tent with Roxas. "Dumbo and the Moogles were so awesome! Now that's a way to end a show."

"Thinking of joining them?" Roxas asked in jest.

Sora pulled out his PHS and pressed the button on the side to turn it back on. "With a crowd like that? I did a play a while back where I played Kermit the Frog and I really enjoyed it so… I mean… would I?"

"I don't know, I'm asking you," Roxas said.

"Agh!"

"What is it?" Roxas asked.

"Three missed calls! THREE!" Sora yelled, showing him the screen.

A sigh escaped Roxas' helmet. "Don't just show it off willy-nilly while there are other people around. And why'd you turn it off anyway? Why not just put it to vibrate only?"

"That's… a thing?" Sora asked, scratching the back of his head. Roxas grumbled incoherent words as Sora redialled the number that had called him.

"Hello-"

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?"

Sora flinched and ended up playing hot potato with the phone. "Er, I…"

There was an effort made to climb down from his prior harshness of tone by Alfonso. "It doesn't matter. We've found them."

Sora's demeanor changed. He glanced over at Roxas before speaking. "Where is she?"

Koen – The Windy Burgh

Alfonso had said that Rhea's desires could possibly be the hint towards finding her, although he never would have imagined such a hint taking him here. Mountains surrounded him. Even the ground he stood on was elevated high up, and as he, perhaps regretfully, looked down below him, he could see only mist descending into the abyss, making the land he was on look like it was floating.

The town itself felt like it had pieces carved off its mountainous terrain, with narrow pathways leading from one islet to the next. Each of the small islands were covered in beautiful green grass that waved as the wind swept through the valley. He assumed that it was a frequent thing that happened too since there seemed to be a windmill for generating electricity on the right side of the town near a cliff edge.

Towards the back and far away from the houses and shops on the islets was an old temple building, dilapidated and with its roof completely missing. He wasn't sure how long ago whatever had happened to the temple had happened, but it seemed pointless to keep it there for anything other than just another part of the scenery.

"So this is where Rhea grew up. It's beautiful," Sora marvelled as he stepped from the shadow of the cave near the town into broad daylight. He could immediately feel the fresh breeze flying past him, and he closed his eyes for a moment, as a gentle wave of happiness found him.

He opened them again and looked to Roxas. "I think this is a pretty good place for meditation."

"You do?"

"Sure. It's the kind of place I'd think about when I'm meditating. But we can talk about that later. Let's see… I was kind of hoping we'd just see her but I guess that's a little too easy. Let's head into town," Sora said.

They followed the dirt trail past the houses, asking people travelling on the road if they had seen anything suspicious on their way. Many of them had seen nothing, or told them that they were unwilling to get involved in the shady affairs of others. In the downtown area, there were even more people, but still no one who could give them a definitive answer.

As much as he didn't want to admit it, Roxas being with him was also a problem. There was no shaking off that he didn't exactly look friendly with a helmet on his head, and the residents were too polite to mention it directly, but the stares they were giving him as he passed spoke more than words ever could.

"Roxas…" Sora tried to assure, seeing Roxas' hands seize up.

"It's fine, Sora. I can take it," Roxas muttered, although everything about his posture was telling Sora almost the opposite.

"Are you sure? You really don't have to-"

"I said I can take it, Sora!" Roxas barked at him. His anger was the pheromone that drew the stares of others their way. He looked down at the ground and dragged his shoes back and forth across the ground. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Sora assured him, though he didn't speak with Roxas much at all after that.

Though their quest to find Rhea proved fruitless, a maid and a woman with a red hood who had been asking much the same questions as them had come up more than once.

Upon entering the tavern a few of the residents had pointed him to, Sora spotted the red hooded woman at a table on his left. She was not alone. Vyce and Desiree were also sitting around the table.

"So you guys found her?" Sora asked, placing his hands down flat on the table.

"Jill and Jack did," Vyce said, nodding towards the red hooded girl. "Theria's also with us, asking around. She should be back soon."

"Theria? You mean Eleftheria?" Sora asked.

"He hangs out with her for two days and he's already got a crush," Desiree said. "It's cute how our little Vyce is finally becoming a man."

"Will you cut that out, Desiree? And I didn't you were one to accept the conventional notions of what is and isn't a man anyway," Vyce snapped with a furious blush.

"You know, you're right. I don't care," Desiree said shrugging. She rested her chin on the back of her hands and smiled at him. "I still find it cute though."

Jill was the first out of any of them to acknowledge Roxas. "Aren't you going to take that off? You don't think you look a bit suspicious?"

"Says the woman wearing a red hood," Roxas replied.

Jill gave the faintest hint of a grim smile. "I'm just running."

"Running?" Roxas repeated.

"From the big bad wolf." Jill cracked the briefest of grins before lowering her head once more.

"Yeah, don't worry, she's weird like that," Vyce told them. Two things proceeded which seemed to happen simultaneously. Eleftheria barged through the tavern door and everyone would have looked her way were it not for the lights suddenly going out around the same time.

"Woah…" Eleftheria looked up at the bulbs, glanced outside quickly and then left the entrance, walking towards their table. "Oh! Hi, Sora. Um, those monsters. They're roaming the town."

Desiree and Vyce sprang up from their seats while Jill seemed to take her time. As they exited the tavern, high-pitched screams filled the air as the residents tried to seek shelter from the Wraith. Sora looked to his right and almost wished he hadn't. It wasn't pretty, watching the very last moments of someone being struck down and knowing that it had been too late to react.

"Eleftheria, stay inside and make sure no one leaves," he told the journalist.

"Okay. By the way, I was talking to the village doctor and they mentioned a girl with green hair at the park on the island to the northwest of here. Apparently, she was alone," Eleftheria informed them.

"And there's our girl. Thanks, Theria," Vyce said. Eleftheria smiled, uttered them a good luck and ran back inside.

"Guys, Roxas and I will head for Rhea. Can you guys take care of the Wraith?" Sora asked.

"Wait. Why you, exactly?" Desiree asked, not pleased at all with his suggestion.

"Why else did you bring me along? Anyway, Rhea helped me save Luna. It's time I returned the favor," Sora said, refusing to look away from Desiree. He brought a hand to his chest. "I will save her."

Desiree stared fixedly at him before whipping away from him. "Don't do that. You remind me too much of , Grouille-toi."

Sora paused and tilted his head. "Err…"

Desiree sighed and looked back to him with eyes suggesting she wanted to poison his cup of coffee again. "Go."

"Oh! Thanks." Sora composed himself, looked to Roxas. The two headed off down the street, leaving Desiree, Vyce and Jill standing back to back as Wraith approached them.

Determined to reach her as quickly as possible, Sora threw himself into fight after fight. He desperately wanted to evade the Wraith, but knew that doing so would be irresponsible. There priority wasn't simply finding Rhea. It was keeping people safe on their way to her. At least, that was what it had started off as, but as they fought, it became clear that if they wanted to get anywhere they would have to keep moving.

"There's too many of them," Sora said, looking around him. He looked over to the elderly woman he had just saved and took hold of her hand. "You need to go inside, ma'am. It's not safe."

"But I can't! How many times do I have to tell you? I can't go back in and face him again. I'm sure I saw him!" the woman protested. She had been more concerned babbling something about how she had just seen her deceased husband in the kitchen than anything to do with her own safety.

"Then go somewhere else, but please don't stay here. You're in danger," Sora urged, getting increasingly irritated by her. In the end, it was a woman who had seen what was happening from a building nearby and decided to take the old woman in.

"I'll keep her safe. How about we go inside and have some tea, Kali," the younger woman invited. This solved one problem, although Sora and Roxas still had many more to contend with.

Roxas separated the hook sword in his hands into two. "Sora, go. I'll take care of these ones."

Sora turned to look at him, concern in his eyes. "You sure?"

"This isn't about what I want. At this very moment, what do you want to do?" Roxas asked. "Of course, you can stay here if you'd like. I don't care either way."

Where he wanted to be right now… As Rhea entered his head once again, he knew all too well where he wanted to be. He gave Roxas an indebted smile and raced off ahead. Bringing his hand to his chest, he summoned Eaglider and hopped onto him, taking off from the ground.

From the air, it didn't take long for Sora to locate the park on the central islet. It was near the middle of a residential area and although the park was small, he couldn't mistake the green-haired woman he had seen sitting on the bench.

He landed at the entrance and dismissed the Dream Eater spirit. As he walked over to Rhea, he had the faintest sense that the two of them were not alone in the park. He turned around to see a pair of swings moving backwards and forwards by themselves. In the middle of the park was a roundabout, spinning around and around by itself. Somehow, he doubted it was because of the wind.

"They tore us, heart from body," Rhea suddenly spoke out. Her head was lowered so as to conceal her eyes. "Because our hearts were new and malleable, they could be melded to fit whatever shape they wanted. Even a key."

Rhea stood up and pointed in the direction of the temple. "The creators of the Keyblade once lived here. While they may be gone, others continued in their wake, all for their own greedy ends. Your key. Her key. All a product of our misery. We have never forgotten what they did to us and others like us, nor will we ever."

"So you've decided to take out your feelings of resentment on everyone else?" Sora asked. He looked around him as the children, all wearing different animal masks, phased in on the swings, the roundabout, even the slide and see-saw.

"What's one filthy, disgusting adult from the next?" The transparent image of a child appeared in front of Rhea as the other children ran to join him. "They're like viruses. They only know how to damage the world they've been given."

"Look, there has to be something you want," Sora tried to reason. "A home? A place for yourself? Whatever, I can help with that, but you can't take other people's bodies."

"Theeen how about you and all the others never use those keys again. Our brothers and sisters aren't weapons," the girl wearing the rabbit's mask declared with her hands on her hips.

"That's… not reasonable," Sora said, summoning the Oathkeeper into his hands.

"Then negotiations are done. You'll die like the rest of them." The child controlling Rhea placed the dragon's mask onto his face and disappeared completely.

"Rhea, can you hear me? You have to fight back! Please!" Sora yelled as Rhea ran up to him. He held his Keyblade up and fended off her attacks, backing away to make some space soon after. "I know you're in there. I'm here for you, Rhea. I believe in you, just like you believed in me. That's one thing about you. Even though you couldn't see, you were never blind to when others were in pain. Maybe you even feel sorry for these children, but you can't play host to the thoughts of someone else. You have to stay true to yourself."

As he closely watched her, he saw a tear trickle down Rhea's cheek. She clutched her head and began shaking it about furiously. The children looked back and forth at each other, unsure of what to do. Eventually, it was the rabbit mask girl who stepped, or rather, hopped forward.

"Don't moan and complain. How typical of an adult. But no one cared when we had to suffer. We cried and cried and no one ever came," she said.

"But I'm here for her, and you can't understand why," Sora said, a realization dawning on him. He looked over to Rhea. "How about the kid inhabiting Rhea? Do you understand why?"

Rhea looked up at him with pain etched on her face. "What?"

"Enough! I won't let you confuse us any longer. We're taking back our lives. We're done letting you and your vermin decide what we can and can't be!" the girl screamed, stomping her foot. At the same time, some portion of Rhea seemed to regain control of her. Unfortunately, it wasn't the side he would have liked.

Reaching out, Rhea tapped her pauldron, drowning her body in a flash of light. When it was gone, she stood in her armor, her Keyblade rising to meet the level of Sora's chest. He had no choice but to fight then.

Planting his feet firmly apart, he waited for Rhea to make the first move. Even though someone else was controlling her, he couldn't take anything for granted. He needed to treat this as though he were fighting the real Rhea.

Rhea began by drawing a circle with her Keyblade, creating shards of ice along the way. She then thrust her Keyblade forward, sending the shards his way. Sora backed away, knocking the ice shards left and right with careful precision while keeping Rhea in his eye sight. She directed her Keyblade up with a swing, creating pillars of lightning around Sora. He stilled his breath, watching as they circled him. When they moved in to converge on his location, Sora timed his roll to escape the resulting blast.

Cloaking her Keyblade in ice, Rhea threw it straight at Sora. Sora held his guard as the Keyblade continued to spin and slam into his Keyblade continuously. He hadn't expected Rhea to warp right in front of him, the Keyblade back in her hands. Like a feather, aimless and light, she twirled in and out, striking his Keyblade again and again. As she made to go in for another attack, she suddenly warped, appearing to Sora's side instead. Ready for this, Sora warped to her side and knocked her Keyblade out of her hands.

"Come on, Rhea. Think about all the people who love you. Moira's Crescent… they all want to see you again," Sora said.

Rhea summoned the Keyblade back into her hand and slammed it into his with a spin. Sora kept his cool, fending off her attacks as he made his way backwards. Coming to the roundabout, he jumped onto it, moving around the handles as she tried to attack him. Checking quickly to see that she had jumped on herself, Sora hooked the Oathkeeper around one of the handles and cast Aeroza while hopping off the disc.

Sora spun around in time to see Rhea being spat out by the roundabout and took aim with his Keyblade. Casting his spell below her, the arc of electricity flew from the Keyblade and struck her armor right before she could land.

He lowered his Keyblade and slowly walked over to her, taking every bit of precaution. Her armor dematerializing, revealing more and more of her body, Rhea tried to stand up. The first part of her that had been revealed was her face—tortured, in an unbearable pain that stabbed deeply into Sora's heart more than any weapon could have done.

Sora dropped his Keyblade, his knees giving in and his hands catching the asphalt. He didn't know how but somehow, he knew what had happened. He could feel it—his and Rhea's hearts connecting for a brief moment. That moment seemed to be all it took for him to feel what she was feeling. It was also enough to make him throw up. Looking down, he saw that same black pool of liquid that he had thrown up last time. He closed his eyes and waited for the feeling of nausea to pass, all the while wondering why this was happening to him.

"Sora?"

One eye opened, he looked up from black liquid to see Rhea staring at him with something that looked much like concern. He tried to force a smile, but his attempt fell on its face when a shadowy figure appeared over him, blocking his view. As he opened his other eye, the figure's vision became clearer. Roxas was attacking Rhea.

"Roxas… wait!" Sora clumsily stood up only to throw his hand out Roxas brought his one of his Hook swords down, narrowly missing Rhea's body but instead cutting into her wrist as she crossed her arms to defend herself. She fell backwards on to the ground and raised her arm while trying to back away, but Roxas was intent on closing in on her.

"NO!" Sora kicked forward with as much zest as he could manage and slammed into Roxas from the side, taking him to the ground with him.

"Sora, the hell? What are you-"

"Roxas, stop! She was coming to! I had her!"

"Get off me!" Roxas drove his elbow straight into Sora's nose, forcing the brunette off him. Sora rolled onto his back and rubbed the bridge of his nose, listening to the clangs of metal in the background. It seemed that Rhea had regained her weapon in those few seconds.

I have to get up. Get up, Sora. Get up! He pushed aside the pain he felt, both physically and emotionally, and stood back up to see Rhea and Roxas hounding for blood. If Rhea had been there before, he feared that Roxas' intervention had scared her off.

He summoned Oathkeeper back to him and ran forward, sliding his Keyblade in between Roxas and Rhea's weapons before they could connect.

"I said stop!" he yelled. "This isn't you, Roxas!"

"Stay out of my way, Sora!" Roxas yelled, swinging furiously at him with the other Hook sword. Sora guarded against the attack and stepped out of the way.

"Roxas, don't do this," Sora said, shaking his head.

"Don't do this. Don't do that. Whose life is it, Sora? Yours or mine?" Roxas roared, trying to attack him again. Sora could not tell what his friend was behind the mask he wore but he imagined it was a completely different shade from reality.

For the next while and for a reason slowly started to lose track of as it went on, Sora found himself fighting both Roxas and Rhea, who were in turn fighting both him and each other. Increasing frustration saw him losing patience with them both. Even worse was the feeling. He felt small and ignored, like he was being shouted down from both sides. He so desperately wanted his voice to be heard— for them to listen.

A creeping insidious anger coursed through him—one he directed at Roxas and Rhea, though he knew deep down that it was in no way their fault. It was an anger that intensified and spread, like poison. After hammering Roxas with heavy blows over and over again, he managed to slice cleanly through Roxas' Hook sword and knock down Roxas. Feeling a presence behind him, Sora whipped around with the Oathkeeper more quickly than even he had expected. His eyes softened as he realized what he had done. His breathing was shallow and he could feel the blood rushing through his ears. On the ground was Rhea, gritting her teeth in pain as she clutched her side.

"Rhea… I-" Sora took a step forward only to be tackled to the ground. Cold hands wrapped around his neck and pressed firmly down, cutting off his larynx. He could feel the air being cut off from him and when he spoke, it was with great difficulty and a raspy voice.

"Roxas… please…" Sora tried to say. Roxas only pressed down harder.

"I'll finally be free of you. Of this pain," he spoke as if he were the one being strangled. "Don't beg for mercy now."

"N-not me… prote- protect Rhea…"

Roxas' hands slightly relaxed. "What? What about you?"

"I don't… matter. Kill… me. Help… Rhea," Sora said. The color was draining from his face by the second. He would be dead soon, his windpipe crushed by the heavy burden he could not help Roxas face. In the end, he wouldn't fault Roxas for this, because it wasn't him. "And… when I'm… dead… I promise you… Xanatos… will never… know a day of peace… while I'm near him."

A few seconds later, Sora was hacking and rubbing his throat. He looked over to see Roxas pulling off his helmet and throwing it aside. Sora looked away and observed his own hand for a moment as if it were some strange alien thing. When he lifted it, he saw that strange black pool of liquid he had thrown up earlier. Seeing it made him want to throw up again. Instead, he concentrated on the sounds of sniffling coming from his friend.

Friend… he wondered if he was still using that word in hopes of escaping how he had felt over the last few minutes. Where they lay right now, Sora didn't know. He was confused.

Roxas let out something that was in between laughter and crying. "Haha, what have I done? Oh, Sora… I wanted to change. I tried, just like we promised. But it keeps creeping back. The inferiority. The hatred. The thirst. The need to prove myself. And after everything I've done, you… thought of someone else before yourself, as you always do. I'm wasted on you, Sora. I really am weak."

"No." Feeling a sore throat, Sora cleared his throat and tried again. "No, you're not weak. You stopped when it counted. That's all that matters."

"You know, I did intend on saving you, at first. That's what I thought anyway. But when I clashed blades with her, I started to rethink why I was doing it. A part of me had longed for it, like a long sought after addiction that needed sating. And then I saw you and… the truth is that-"

"You came to save me."

"Huh?"

"I'm sure that's what happened. It's what I'll believe. Besides, I was battling with my own darkness," Sora said, looking over to Rhea. "And I knew what it was but I didn't care. I have no right to judge you on anything."

"Good thing there's nothing to judge. What I am is what you see in front of you, and no amount of being by your side is going to change that," Roxas said. He stood up and extended his hand, opening up a corridor of darkness.

"Roxas, no!" Sora called after him. "It's not over yet. Not for you and not for me."

"You can't help everyone, Sora. No one can. But that doesn't mean you aren't a good person. Do what you came here to do." The weariness in Roxas' voice was plain to hear. He stepped into the swirling black space and closed it before Sora could reach him.

Sora stayed rooted on the spot, staring off into the distance although not really taking in his surroundings. It was like a door had just been slammed shut in his face, and who did he have to blame for feeling this way? Well, himself. His expectations had carried off him on some whimsical journey that Roxas had found it hard to keep up with.

Ultimately, Roxas was right. Now wasn't the time for self-evaluation. He turned around just as Rhea was starting to get up— the children gathering around her.

"You hurt our vessel!" the child wearing the snake mask yelled at him.

"Yeah? Well you hurt her first," Sora whispered. He was about to start towards them when he saw a flash of light erupt from his right hand. He looked down and then back up with surprise having replaced his curiosity. He brought up Rhea's Keyblade to eye level, still in awe at its appearance in his hands.

"What? What are you doing? Give that back," Rhea demanded, reaching out with her right arm. The Keyblade stayed in Sora's place, unmoving. "I said give it back!"

Sora ignored the child controlling Rhea's body and looked to the Keyblade. "You want to help her too, don't you?"

It wasn't like he could hear an answer, but he suddenly felt like he knew what to do. He turned the Keyblade, pointing its tip at Rhea's body. A beam of light shot out and struck Rhea in the chest. On the other end of the connection, Sora could feel a warm light enveloping him. The scenery around him melted away and vivid colors of light accompanied him as he felt a familiar feeling of weightlessness.

When he came to, he was looking down at Rhea's station of awakening. Her heart— her desires and the things she cherished, all encapsulated in a single glass pillar. At least the feelings on the surface anyway.

As he landed on the platform, rather than landing on something solid, his feet sunk through the glass. Desperately, he tried to bring his foot back up, only to sink even further into the stained-glass platform. With each movement he made to resist, Rhea's heart swallowed him more and more until his head was the only thing remaining on the surface. Unable to do much else, Sora gulped in all his fears and held his breath as he was pulled completely into the light.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a forest, although one sepia in color. A sudden sound saw him turning around to see an apple falling from one of the trees and hitting the ground. But that couldn't be right. The sound of the apple hitting the ground had preceded the apple actually falling.

"What is going on?" Sora asked, although rather than choosing to mull the question over, he decided to continue. It wasn't as if he was going to get any answers just standing there.

As he continued along the path, another strange thing occurred. The sounds of beating wings and shrieks filled the air, only to be followed by a flock of birds taking flight and heading west above him. Like the last event that had happened, something bugged him about it. It was as though he were watching a video slightly out of sync where the voices were moving ahead of the mouths. But this wasn't a video. It just simply didn't make sense from a point of causation.

"Wait a second…" Now that he thought about it, Rhea had told him once that her Keyblade had the special ability of reversing cause and effect. He supposed this was what was happening right now. He brought out Rhea's Keyblade and looked down at it. If Rhea's hearts was causing this aberration and her Keyblade also had the same effect, then he wondered if it was possible to reverse switch the cause and effect switch here. There was only one way to find out, but he needed something to test it on first.

Walking over to one of the trees, he struck at it with the Keyblade and stood back. He heard the sound of a group of apples falling into the grass before he saw the apples fall themselves. He moved to another tree and stepped back a bit. He wasn't entirely sure how to activate the ability so he just had to hope that his intentions would reach Rhea's Keyblade the same way they reached his own. He made a quick diagonal cut across, drawing away as he did so. The trees rustled but Sora did not hear the sound of the apples hitting the ground. Instead, the apples fell from the tree and only when they made impact did he hear a sound.

"Music to my ears," Sora said, relieved that he had figured out this little puzzle. It wasn't just causation being correction that had made him happy. The sepia effect had dissolved from the tree, giving it the natural green and red apples he expected.

So he just had to keep doing that, is what he would say if he were a patient person, which he wasn't. And he didn't even need to be patient to question the insanity of it. To correct every abnormality in an entire forest? Possibly even beyond that? No, there had to be another way. A source where everything sprang from. Whether that was the child he was after or Rhea herself, he was sure that they would be the key.

As he travelled farther into the forest, the trees grew denser and the sky grew darker. The moonlight became obscured behind fast moving clouds carried by heavy winds… a wind he could not feel, yet knew was there. He began to wonder where he was even going for what was perhaps the fiftieth time when he heard a voice to his right. It sounded like it belonged to a small girl. Wandering off the path, he tried his best to locate the voice.

Like all other things in this forest however, he had ended up finding the voice, as well as its accompanying footprints, before finding the person it had belonged to. He watched as a young Rhea, maybe no older than eight, stopped in front of him and cried out… well, what it had been, he couldn't say. What she had already said was long gone, leaving what looked like a girl chasing after her own voice.

Was he in a memory then? If she had been living in Koen for her entire life up to this point then it was strange that he was in a forest at all. He had seen no forest anywhere near the town.

He summoned Rhea's Keyblade only to stop. Hitting a tree was one thing, a person and friend was something entirely different. He reached out with his left hand in an attempt to tap her shoulder. As with everything in this forest however, he witnessed the order in which one should cause another in the reverse. Rhea jerked her head in his direction and not too soon after, he felt the smooth texture of her woolly sweater before he made contact with it.

"Rhea?" Sora asked.

"Who's there?" Rhea asked. Sora knelt down and Rhea took a few steps forward. At the same time, Sora could feel cold hands moving up and down his face, even before she brought her hands forward. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, opening them a few seconds later to see Rhea in color.

"Sora? Is that you?" she asked, her voice in sync with her mouth.

"You could tell just from touching the face?" Sora asked, with a smile.

Rhea shook her head. "No, I just wanted to make sure you were real. Something just told me that the person who had reached out to me was Sora."

"Then you're the current Rhea? But why are you so young?" Sora asked.

"I'm not sure. Maybe it's my… inner child?" Rhea suggested, although he wasn't sure whether she was joking or not from the tone.

Sora raised a brow. "Is that what that means?"

Rhea shrugged with a smile. "Maybe?"

The two shared a moment of laughter. It felt out of place in a dark forest but that was exactly why it helped.

"Okay, let's say I'm willing to go with that. Why is this place so messed up then?" Sora asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, everything here is all backwards, like I just felt your touch before you even touched me and the same thing when I touched you. I know your Keyblade has the ability to reverse cause and effect but I didn't think that would extend to your own heart," Sora explained.

"It's strange. I don't notice anything different. Then again, I don't see the world the same way you do, Sora. I've had to live with my disability most of my life. Because of that, I've had to sharpen my other senses," Rhea said.

"Then, it wasn't cause and effect being reversed but the senses you rely on being prioritized…" Sora managed to piece together.

"I think so, though I wish I could see the world the way you do. It sounded like you had quite the interesting experience," Rhea said.

"I'm not really sure it's something to admire. Besides, I think you're like me. You want to understand other people. Put yourself in other's shoes. But you try to take on too much at once. I can understand that because I'm the same," Sora said.

"Your power isn't unlike mine. We both have the ability to connect to people, but whereas your heart does so naturally, mine is a more intrusive power. It digs and digs and sometimes I can't stop it. That's what happened here. I dug too deep and all it has done is led me to a grave of my own creation."

"Trust me, my 'power', if you can even call it that, isn't all it's cracked up to be either. Whenever I stop to think about it, it feels like I'm on a tightrope, where every step I take is a possibility that I end up leaning too far left or right. When I care too much, I can even feel what they're feeling. More often than not, it's the pain that I feel the most. Sometimes I think to myself, I wish I didn't care this much…"

"But that's not what you really wish for," Rhea said, finishing his sentence as though she shared his thoughts. Sora shook his head with a smile. Rhea held her hand up to him. "I'm ready to go back now. I can't really find the way out by myself so I'm counting on you."

"Consider me countable… er… counted on?" Sora corrected, although he wasn't even sure of that much. It got a giggle out of Rhea though so it worked out in the end.

He took Rhea's hand and placed it on the hilt of her Keyblade. Closing his hands around her hand, they aimed it towards the sky, where a large keyhole revealed itself. As the beam of light struck the keyhole, the world began to brighten before Sora's eyes until he knew only white.

When Sora opened his eyes he was far away from the forest. Color had returned to the world and, looking around, he could see he was back in the children's park. In front of him, he could see Desiree, Jill and Vyce huddled around Rhea, who was doing her best to assure them that everything was alright.

He walked over to them and Rhea past them. "Is that Sora?"

"It worked! But I guess… you're still blind," Sora said, a little discontent. He was hoping if there was anything she could have kept from that child's possession, it would be her vision.

"There's no point seeing anything if I have no one to see it with," Rhea dismissed, standing up. "Where are the children?"

Sora looked over to them. They had made no attempt to escape in the window of opportunity they had. In fact, they seemed almost frightened. The group guided Rhea over to them and she knelt down.

"What happened to you was cruel. It was unfair. And I'm sorry. Protecting the world is no excuse for making others suffer to do so. I can tell your grudges run deep, but they shouldn't. You're children—you're supposed to give hope, not take it away. And to do that… you need to see the world with your own eyes. You should be free."

Desiree frowned. "You're just releasing them? Rhea, they're dangerous. They can summon Wraith."

"Only because we caged them. They saw their captivity as more adults wanting to control them. We wanted to give them freedom, but how could they interpret our actions as anything of the sort? Kids don't see the world as being grey, nor should we have expected them to. If we truly want to help, we have to show that to them, otherwise they'll never believe us," Rhea said.

"And if they do attack someone else? It will be our fault for letting it happen," Desiree argued.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Rhea said, looking towards her. She reached out and took Desiree's hand into her own, looking at Vyce and Jill as well. "Please. Trust me."

Vyce sighed. "You are interim leader. Irrespective of my own opinions, I'll follow what you say."

"I don't really care either way," Jill said, shrugging. Rhea smiled at her before looking at Desiree.

"We always tend to make these decisions in a group but Salome, Alfonso and Lysander aren't here. But they would probably side with you anyway so consider it a reluctant unanimous decision so as not to feel left out," Desiree said. Without spending much time with her, Sora could tell she was the kind to hide her feelings with a look of exasperation.

"Thank you," Rhea said. She stood up and opened a corridor of light in the middle of the park, turning towards the children after doing so. "I'm sure this place brings you a lot of pain. For me, it's filled with a lot of happy memories. My old home is even right outside this park. But you guys all need to do your best to make your own memories. Never abandon each other, okay? Because you're all each other have."

The masked children slowly stood up. Sora wasn't surprised to see that they still weren't entirely willing to believe Rhea's intentions. As they disappeared into the portal one by one, he was not remiss in watching as the child with the dragon mask, who had possessed Rhea's body, took one last look back at her before entering. Sora cracked a smile—one that he was not quite was even his own.

A/N: There were like three other ways this chapter could have ended. In the end, I'm glad I picked this one. The saying that you need to trust your gut instincts has never been truer than when it comes to writing. So next chapter, we'll be switching back to Luna's perspective because, well, she's in a bit of a pickle herself. See you soon!