Sorry this took so long to come out! I spent most of the last month busy moving to a new apartment but now that I'm all settled in and the holidays have passed, I figured what better way to ring out the year then by getting a new chapter of Keys out! And this one was a lot of fun to work on too, mostly because I love very intensive character study stuff like this (and it also has some very nifty foreshadowing in it, so pay close attention to that!) Anyway, with all that out of the way, let's get started!
Chapter 35: Distorted Reflection
I'm only crying 'cause I never dreamed
It'd take this long, it'd take this long
"Sora!" Riku's distraught cry echoes across the Dark Margin. But even as it fades into a pregnant silence, the heavy ripples that had been torn across the shadowy sea begin to settle. Within seconds, its surface is still and unbroken, showing no signs that either Aqua or Sora had been pulled beneath its unknown waves mere moments ago. So stark is the shift that Riku wouldn't be able to believe that such a thing had even happened at all if he hadn't watched it all unfold far too fast for him to do anything to stop it.
Not that he would have been able to do anything about it to begin with. That's something he's instantly reminded of as he makes a rushed, frantic attempt at standing, only for his still-injured leg to immediately punish him for the effort. He lets out an anguished shout as he collapses into the sand, pain surging through the broken limb and through his panicking heart alike, especially as he spares another glance out toward the sea Sora is now lost to.
"Riku!" Mickey rushes to his side, placing a steadying hand on his shoulder. In the aftermath of Aqua's disappearance, he's reclaimed his stolen Keyblade, and wastes no time using it to cast a much stronger healing spell than any of the more minor incantations he's had to do on his own. It helps to ease the pain a bit, but it still isn't enough to treat the severe fracture completely. An incredibly powerful curaza spell could come close, but it's a taxing sort of magic, one that the king has nowhere near enough energy to cast after everything that's already happened here. "You shouldn't put any pressure on your leg, not until we can get you back to the realm of light to properly patch it up-"
"We can't go back," Riku interrupts before Mickey can even get another word out. His tone is tight and tense between his short, anxious breaths, his expression every bit as distressed to match. And all the while, his eyes never leave the dark sea before him, set on the exact spot Sora had stood before he'd been stolen away. "We can't, I won't. Not without Sora."
Surprisingly, the king doesn't try to argue with such intense resistance, instead nodding his fretful agreement. "We can't go back without Aqua either. Not again," he says, sparing a worried look toward the sea. "But… I don't know how we're gonna go about finding either of them now…"
"I-I'll dive down there to look for them," Riku volunteers without a second thought. He pushes himself to properly sit up, but even then it's clear he can't do much more beyond that in his current condition. Despite the possibly impossible resolve he's trying to commit himself to.
"W-what?!" Mickey exclaims, aptly alarmed. Especially as he hears the low moan of pain Riku tries his best to suppress amidst his ongoing struggle to simply stand. "But you can't! Your leg-"
"I don't care!" Riku snaps without thinking. Mostly because he can't spare the time to do so, not when Sora's very life might be in such grave danger. "I-I'll just ignore it. I have to; he came all this way to save me, even after I-" After he'd yelled at Sora, how he'd criticized him, how he'd punished him for something he should have spent his time helping him with instead. It all seems so petty, so pointless, so downright foolish now that Riku can't even bring himself to say any of it out loud. So instead, he decides to focus on the present-and the future-instead of the past; it's the most he can do to keep his mounting regrets from overwhelming him entirely. "Sora wouldn't leave me behind. I'm not leaving him behind either."
Mickey sighs at this, understanding Riku's selfless, yet daunting intent. Under normal circumstances, he would hesitantly allow him to take such a risk, if not eagerly volunteer to join him. But now, he can tell, his usually very rational, level headed companion's emotions are getting the better of him. His desperate desire to do anything he can to save Sora is rising far above his usual threshold of common sense, even if his physical injuries continue to hold him back from pursuing that desire.
"Aw, Riku, you know I wanna help Sora, and Aqua," the king frowns, knowing that the fallen master still needs more help than ever now. "But you're hurt, and… well, if we try to dive down there to look for them, we could end up just as lost as they are!"
"So what? You're saying we should just leave them stuck down there?!" Riku asks. His voice comes out far more strained, far more harsh and accusing than he would have liked it to be. Because he does understand, on some level, that Mickey is only trying to keep him from getting any more hurt than he already is; but he can't really be bothered to care about his own condition first, not when he thinks of the dire straits Sora could be facing at that very moment
"N-no, of course not!" Mickey shakes his head. "It's just that-" He stops short, briefly searching for the best way to approach this. The best way to keep Riku from doing something that could thrust him into the same sort of danger Sora and Aqua are both likely already in. "W-well, Sora found a way here all on his own, didn't he? If that's true, then I'm willing to bet anything that he'll be able to find a way out of there too," he nods over to the dark sea before them. A sea that makes Riku's heart sink more and more each time he spares a glance at its still unchanged waters.
"B-but… I-I can't just…" he falters miserably as his leg hitches in pain once more. He knows he can't simply just wait here for something to happen. And he also knows he really doesn't have any other choice but to do exactly that.
"And besides," Mickey goes on, offering him a small, encouraging smile. "You said so yourself: Sora can swim out of any darkness!" Riku winces at this reminder of something he said what feels like so long ago now. Before he knew a single thing about the monstrous darkness that managed to somehow find a place inside Sora's heart, darkness that Riku fears could overtake him entirely within the depths of the shadowed sea he's sunken beneath. "And who knows?" the king adds, still showing the kind of optimism Riku can't help but be envious for at a moment like this. "Maybe while he's down there, he might even be able to help Aqua out too!"
"But… if he can't even get himself out of there, then…" Riku trails off, unable to even finish such a horrible thought.
"Something tells me that won't be too hard for someone like Sora," Mickey says with a light chuckle in an effort to raise Riku's spirits. An effort that doesn't really work as the king only hears him let out a short, frustrated groan in response to it. "I know you really wanna help him, Riku, but… I think all we can do now is just have a little faith that he'll be able to make it out on his own."
"So just… believe in him?" Riku asks with a bit of a defeated sigh. "I already do. I always have, but… that feels like it's nowhere near enough to help him now…"
"Well, you never know," the king shrugs, clearly far more hopeful than his companion is at the moment. "After all, that might be just the very thing Sora needs to find his way back to you!"
Riku says nothing to respond to this. Instead, he turns back toward the dark sea, wishing he could run out to it, wishing he could dive into its murky depths, wishing he could search its frigid waves for Sora, wishing he could pull him back out of that ocean, back out of this horrid shadow realm, back into the light where they both truly belong. But for now, it seems that wishing, wondering, believing that Sora will find his own way back to the light is the most Riku can really do aside from wait.
Wait, and hope that Sora can pull off yet another miracle before it's too late.
From the moment Sora is pulled beneath the surface of the dark sea, he finds he has no choice but to fight.
His first fight is against Aqua, her claws still tightly gripping his arms as she drags him into the icy water. An awful kind of panic, one that comes along with the all too familiar feeling of being restrained or restricted, spikes through his chest and he lashes out against it without thinking. In that brief span of mindless alarm, he forgets who's clinging onto him, forgets that she needs to be saved every bit as much as he does at the moment and he forcefully wrenches his hands out of her heavy hold, shoving her away from him before she can grab him again. It's only as clarity returns to him seconds later that he realizes that the one he just pushed deeper into the darkness is none other than Aqua.
She falls through the deepening shadows much faster than he does, and though he extends a hand out to her, she's already too far out of his reach as the lower shadows envelop her completely. He opens his mouth to call out to her but takes in a breath of something that's neither air nor water; it's sheer, physical darkness itself. It chokes him, suffocates him as it starts to pour into his body unfettered. It's blinding as it thickens around him, burning his throat, his lungs, his heart most of all. His gaze drifts upward, to the dull, fading light filtering through the intangible water above him and he reaches for it, for the surface, for freedom… and for who he knows is still somewhere up there, waiting for him to return.
"R-Riku…" he barely manages to mutter, coughing on another bitter burst of darkness as he does. Desperately, he reaches a trembling hand up toward the surface, but he still steadily drifts away from it all the same. Even so, he struggles to swim upward, to escape to some semblance of the light… only to be dragged even further down into the darkness instead.
"Riku!" Sora cries again. His voice is louder this time, but simply speaking stings, his mouth once again flooded with the ashy, acrid taste the shadows carry with them. His breaths come out short and stilted and he's quick to figure out that it isn't solely because of the rising tide of dread overtaking him. He's drowning, he realizes as he kicks and flails and thrashes with every ounce of energy he has against the shadows weighing his body down more and more with each passing second. He's drowning as his throat closes up, as his lungs plead for air, as his vision blurs and dims, as his heart pounds in terror, as his eyes well up with tears, as his last few fleeting seconds fall away far too fast. He's drowning and there's nothing he can do to stop it, nothing he can do to save Aqua, nothing he can do to save himself, nothing he can do to return to Riku's side, to return to the realm of light, to return to Kairi, to return home, nothing he can do...
But drown
And die.
Except… he doesn't.
Instead, he hits the bottom of the sea. His back crashes into a firm, glassy surface that doesn't break even as he collides with it, his body instantly aching from the brutal impact alone. The liquid darkness of the sea floats high above him, and in the strange pocket of air he now finds himself in, breathing is a bit easier, though not much. He can't see the small speck of light that is the surface anymore; in fact, he isn't sure how he's able to see much of anything down here in the deepest trenches of the Realm of Darkness. All he can really see as he slowly rises to stand is his own reflection peering back at him from the mirror-like ground below him. He stares at it for a moment, finding a sparse bit of comfort in the fact that the glamor spell still seems to be holding up, even here. But that comfort quickly turns to confusion when he notices his reflection's expression doesn't match his own in the slightest.
Instead of the confounded fear he's making no attempt at hiding, his reflection conveys a bitter, almost judgmental glare as it meets the stare he sends its way squarely. Frightened, he stumbles back, and his reflection doesn't do the same. Instead, it moves entirely on its own accord as its hand bursts through the glass keeping it contained, shattering it completely. Sora watches with wide eyes and apt alarm as the rest of the mirror double pulls itself above the surface of the ground, its movements slow, stilted and disjointed as it comes to stand before him. At first, the reflection stands still, its head bowed, its eyes closed, and its manner all but silent to the point that Sora doesn't know what to make of it. At least until he decides to dare to speak to it.
"Uh… h-hello?" he ventures, unsure of what to really say to himself.
The reflection doesn't return his greeting. Instead, it suddenly glances up at him and smiles, though there's not a trace of friendliness or kindness behind it. The only things that fill its expression, that reflect in its eerily, unnaturally bright blue eyes are malice and cruelty. Both things it acts upon as it lunges toward him suddenly.
Sora only has enough time to summon a Keyblade to fend off the unexpected, unwarranted attack. The weapon he'd found on the shores of the Destiny Islands still remains on the surface of the dark sea, so the Kingdom Key takes up its usual spot in his hands. The reflection calls upon one of its own, and sparks fly through the darkness as the twin Keyblades clash violently against each other. In the brief seconds after the parallel weapons bounce off each other, Sora narrowly manages to readjust his Keyblade to ward off his reflection's next swing, as well as the successive handful of blows that follow it.
"W-what's going on?! Why are you doing this?!" Sora asks as he finally pushes the reflection away from him. It's still grinning coldly as it slides smoothly upon the glass it's standing on, completely undaunted by the hit it just sustained. "What are you anyway?!"
"Isn't it obvious?" the reflection retorts with a sneer, rolling its eyes. "I'm you. Duh." With that, it rushes forward once more, ready to keep this bewildering battle going. Even if Sora has no idea why it started in the first place.
So his second fight begins against himself, or rather, against this distorted, demented reflection pretending to pass itself off as him.
"Y-yeah right," Sora challenges as brazenly as he possibly can at a moment like this. "If you're me, then why are we fighting?!"
"Why not fight yourself?" the reflection counters evenly between another heavy swing of its Keyblade. "After all, that's all you seem to do anymore anyway."
"What do you-" Sora doesn't get a chance to finish as his reflection's weapon lands an even blow across his stomach. The attack throws him backward through the endless void that's become their battleground and Sora has no time to recover from it as the reflection is suddenly upon him once more. The tip of its Keyblade slams into the ground right beside his head as the reflection pins him there with a steady foot pressed against his chest. Its already leering grin grows as it leans down a bit, clearly taking some sort of sadistic pleasure out of watching Sora struggle under its hold.
"What's the matter?" it taunts callously. "Are you really that weak that you can't win against yourself?"
"I-I could if you'd actually give me a chance to!" Sora shouts back fiercely. He does his best to push his thoughts away from just how bizarre and unnerving this encounter as a whole is. Because in the end, his reflection is nothing more than simply that; a mirror image, a phantom, a trick meant to deceive him, to drag him down even further into the darkness he's already fallen so far into. And despite all of the bravado and confidence his phantom seems to have, almost as if it's stolen those very traits from him even when he's already lost them so long ago now, it isn't a trick Sora is willing to let himself fall against so easily.
"Ok," the phantom surprisingly concedes, pulling its Keyblade back as it takes a step away. "Then let's see what you've got."
Sora wastes no time pulling himself back up, pulling his Keyblade back as he runs for his phantom with a courageous shout. And yet, when he swings it to attack, the phantom suddenly vanishes, only to reappear directly behind him as his weapon hits nothing but open air. Before he can even turn to try again, the phantom lands a hard and heavy kick to the center of his back, sending him falling face-first to the ground.
"That's it?" the phantom asks as it points its Keyblade directly at Sora's head. "That's all the strength you have?" It chuckles, the cruel, smug sound of it echoing through the shadowy void. "And you actually think you stand a chance against Maleficent or Xehanort?! Ha!" Sora sends the reflection a hateful glare, but even he can't deny that his own mocking laughter being aimed solely at him stings far more than he'd like to admit. "Get real. You lost whatever fight you've been trying to put up against them from the very start. When are you finally gonna stop being stubborn and admit that to yourself already?"
"Never," Sora hisses as he suddenly lashes out. He shoves his reflection's Keyblade away, rolling away from it as he throws a swing that finally lands. The phantom stumbles back, apparently surprised by the resistance, though it's clear it has no intentions of giving up so soon. "I don't care how long I have to fight or how bad it might get, I'm not giving up, now or ever! Not against Maleficent, not against Xehanort, not even against you!"
Despite this bold proclamation, the phantom simply laughs again. "So I guess that means you're also not giving up when it comes to lying to everyone about it too, huh?"
"I-I haven't been lying!" Sora argues, but he knows that's just another lie even as it comes out of his mouth. "I just-"
"You just haven't told anyone the truth," the phantom fills in for him with a wry smile as their Keyblades clash once more. "Which is the same as lying, but that doesn't really matter to you, does it? Just as long as no one can really see how much of a miserable failure you actually are, then everything's just fine. You'll just keep on lying to your friends and pretending everything's a-ok, and the entire time, the darkness in your heart is just gonna keep on growing, and nobody will ever suspect a thing until you're all suited up in a black coat, happily doing whatever your 'Master' tells you to."
Sora jolts at all this, anger and fear both starting to weave their way into him as the phantom's vicious claims start to cut deep. "Shut up!" he snaps, shoving his reflection back hard. Of course, it hardly heeds him as it instead saunters back over to him slowly, its dull Kingdom Key every bit as cracked as his own as it drags across the icy ground.
"Then again, it's not like anyone will actually even care about what's happened to you," the phantom goes on, its constant haughty grin still apparent. "You're lucky the Organization wants you so badly, because nobody else does."
"B-be quiet!" Sora protests, though this time there's less of an edge in his voice. He could easily stand on the offensive against the phantom with the slow pace it's going at, but he backs away from it instead. Almost as if its sharp words alone are a deadly weapon aimed against him in and of themselves.
"The lights only bother keeping you around because they feel sorry for you," the reflection ignores him again in favor of keeping its cruel rhetoric going. "They don't actually need you; why would they? There's always gonna be someone stronger, someone better who can take your place, someone like Aqua or Axel or Kairi… or Riku. And not even one of them, not Donald or Goofy, not the king or Axel, not even Riku or Kairi, none of them will miss you once you're gone; they'll be happy to finally get rid of a weak, useless, worthless burden like you."
"S-stop!" Sora yells, practically pleads for this torture to stop. For his worst fears, his darkest thoughts to stop pouring so freely out of his own mouth like this. But his phantom refuses to allow him even that kind of simple mercy.
"What do you think they'd say if they knew the truth?" the phantom stops immediately before him, their faces only inches apart. "What do you think Riku and Kairi would do if they could see you for what you're really becoming? Do you think they'd still want you around if they could see you like THIS!?"
The phantom suddenly shoves him by the shoulders, and he falls, but his gaze never leaves his reflection as he does. Because swiftly, yet slowly all at once, that reflection's appearance begins to change. Wisps of white start to overtake its faded brown hair, shadows swell up its arms and its now red fingertips lengthen into sharp, inhuman claws to match the emerging fangs its twisted, almost manic smile shows. But the worst change of all comes when its bright blue eyes abruptly turn gold, glowing a garish, glaring yellow amidst the void of darkness surrounding them. Sora's heart practically freezes in fear as he looks over his phantom, knowing that it's reflecting the truth, reflecting what he must really look like now, just under the glamor spell, just under the surface, just under all of the ways he's been secreting it all away from the world and from himself.
"You can try and hide it under as many spells as you want," the phantom says, its voice loud and accusatory as it echoes through across the bottom of the sea. "But this is what you really are! Just face it already; there is nothing you can do to fight this. You can't stop this-"
"That doesn't mean I can't try!" Sora suddenly protests, largely out of desperation more than anything else. He picks himself up off the ground again, gripping his Keyblade tightly, though his hands shake from nerves all the while.
His phantom takes notice of this, and simply smirks in response. "You can try," it surprisingly agrees. "But it won't mean anything in the end. You've been fighting it all this time, and what do you have to show for it? Nothing. So why keep wasting your time and energy on a battle you know you're only going to end up losing when it's all said and done?"
"Because," Sora says sternly, strengthening his resolve. He does everything he can to imagine that the figure standing before him isn't his own reflection; rather, it's just another average enemy, another faceless foe to be fought and conquered. Even if that foe he has to conquer is none other than himself. "I already told you; I'm not giving up!"
He doesn't give the phantom an opportunity to get a word in edgewise. Instead, he charges at it, attacking it without restraint in the hopes of simply stemming its tide of hateful claims. His Kingdom Key clashes with the phantom's over and over again, both of their weapons clanging through the darkness as they struggle for superiority. Their battle is fast-paced and, at least on Sora's end of it, frantic. After all, he knows that if he can't overcome this illusion, if he can't rise above everything it represents, above his own doubts and darkness, then he'll never be able to make it back to the light, back to his place beside Riku and Kairi, where he still hopes he belongs.
His phantom seems to sense that determined desire, seems to be able to read his every thought as it continues using them as ammunition against him. "They'll hate you when they find out what you've been hiding from them," it says as their Keyblades press against each other once more. "You'll break Kairi's heart, you'll lose any respect Riku still has for you. They'll both be terrified of what you're turning into. And when it's all over, they'll take you down just like they would any other member of Organization XIII."
"No, they won't," Sora rebuffs firmly, rigidly. "I know Riku and Kairi. They would never hurt me."
"You say that," the phantom sneers, still pushing its Keyblade against Sora's in the hopes of wearing him down. "But you're forgetting how Riku already did hurt you when he punished you. If you thought that was bad, then it'll be so much worse when he learns what else you've been keeping from him. But maybe he'll go easy on you by just kicking you out of the lights instead of finishing you off like you deserve."
"Enough already!" Sora shouts, shoves the phantom away from him once more. "Whatever you're trying to do isn't gonna work. So just get lost already and leave me alone!"
"What, so you can go back up there and keep on pretending to be something you're not?" the phantom counters coldly. "Even if you escape the darkness down here, you'll never be able to free yourself from what it's doing to your heart. So why not just let it take over?" it poses the same question Aqua had to him before; a question he still struggles to solidly answer. "It'd make things so much easier for you, and besides, it's bound to happen sooner or later anyway."
"No, it won't," Sora says, his words come out unwarranted. Once again, one of the hearts within his own takes charge, just as Ventus' had before when he'd confronted Aqua. Only this time he can immediately tell who's boldly speaking for him, supplying him with all of the courage he currently lacks. It's not just one of them; it's all three of them. "Not as long as we're around to stop it!"
He gasps as the Keyblade in his hand changes, not once, but three times. At first, the shift isn't that significant: the weapon he's holding is still the Kingdom Key, but it lacks the damming cracks his own has been marred with over the past few months. It then turns into a Keyblade he doesn't recognize, and when it shows up in his grip, he's holding it backwards yet it feels comfortable and correct all the same. Then, he takes on not just one, but two Keyblades, the very Keyblades he's seen his Nobody use before: Oathkeeper and Oblivion. Those two remain in his hands and as he stares down at them, the message Roxas, Xion, and Ventus are all sending him is clear: "Don't give up. Don't stop fighting. We're with you. And as long as we are, then you're not alone."
"Thank you," he whispers back to them with a small, steady smile. He then turns his attention back to his phantom, Oathkeeper and Oblivion still held securely in his grip as he prepares to finish this fight once and for all. "You know, I think you kind of have a point," he says, pointing one of the weapons at the now-disgruntled reflection. "What's happening to my heart won't be easy to stop... but at least I won't have to do it on my own. I'm going back up there, I'm going home, and I'm going to tell Riku and Kairi everything. And I'm not going to let you stop me!"
The phantom clenches its claws into tight, furious fists upon hearing this, a sure sign that the darkness it was born from is far from pleased with the surprisingly strong resistance Sora is showing. Which is why it decides to turn to even crueler tactics than before to force him to succumb as its next victim. "Saying all that is one thing," it hisses sharply. "Actually doing it is something else entirely. And we both know that if you actually do make it back to them, you'll go right back to keeping all your dirty little secrets from them and you won't stop until it's way too late for them to help you, even if they want to, which they won't."
"They will," Sora insists, not bothering to gratify the phantom beyond that response. Instead, he goes on the attack, launching simultaneous swings of both of his borrowed Keyblades, a strike the phantom only narrowly manages to block. He keeps going, swinging both weapons with all of the skill and strength Roxas is generously lending him, and for his own part, Sora does all he can not to let any of it go to waste.
This steadfast barrage goes on for some time, but just when Sora finally starts to think he's gaining the upper hand, the phantom manages to turn the tables on him yet again. Because when he brings Oblivion down for what should be a devastating strike, the phantom catches its blade squarely in its clawed hand. It does the exact same thing with Oathkeeper when Sora tries to bring it in for a surprise swing and for a brief, breathless moment, the phantom manages to hold them both completely still. And in doing so, it all but stops Sora in his tracks too.
"Do you really need to rely on their strength to save you?" it asks, looking between the two borrowed Keyblades condescendingly. "It's bad enough that they have to protect you from inside your own heart, but now they have to fight your battles for you too? Talk about pathetic. Especially since you're supposed to be the one saving them."
"I will save them," Sora asserts as he tries pulling Roxas' Keyblades out of the phantom's hands. An effort that doesn't amount to much against the impressive strength the phantom somehow has. "I'll save all three of them-"
"But what if you don't?" the phantom interjects, its hold on his pair of Keyblades not slipping in the slightest. "What happens when you can't save them in time? Are their hearts just doomed to be corrupted and controlled by Xehanort like yours will be? Or will they even be lucky enough to survive that long trapped in the prison your heart's turned into?"
"N-no," Sora stills upon hearing this, Oblivion and Oathkeeper abruptly disappearing from his hands. The possibility that Roxas, Xion, and Ventus might meet the same fate he's facing is one he's never put much stock into before. But simply hearing it now, knowing that it's something that could potentially happen if he isn't fast enough, if he fails to find a way to free them before it's too late, is enough to frighten him to his very core. "No, t-that… that won't happen. I won't let it happen!"
"When it does happen," the phantom counters, its Keyblade vanishing as it steps back to speak its horrible piece. "Then everything will fall apart. Ventus will never wake up, Aqua will never get to see him again, even if she finds her way back to the light, which she won't, and Terra's heart will never be free from Xehanort's control. Axel will never see Roxas again, he won't remember Xion and neither will anyone else. Neither of them will ever get to be their own people because they gave up their existences, their lives, everything they had, just so you could be whole. And how are you going to repay them for that, for fighting to save you when you can't even save yourself? By letting their hearts rot inside of the darkness filling yours."
"N-no, I… I'm not! I… I just-" Sora tries protesting, but his nerve is slipping. The awful thought, the truth he knows he can't deny, that he's dooming the very trio of hearts he'd vowed to save, is starting to become far too much for him to bear. The phantom knows this, and decides to dig the poisoned, painful knife that truth brings even deeper.
"You just need 'more time'?" it rebuffs as it starts circling him slowly, watching with twisted glee as his fleeting resilience begins to fail him. "Please; you're already too late to save them, or anyone else for that matter. Because without any of them, there won't be enough guardians of light to take on the Organization. Because of you, Xehanort will win. He'll destroy Donald and Goofy, kill Riku and Kairi, wipe out every single last one of the lights in an instant. You'll have to watch as every single world you've been to, every single friend you've made, everything you care about dies right in front of you. And it'll be all your fault!"
Sora tries to find something, anything to say to counter these horrific claims, to resist the nightmarish reality he could and might very well have to endure at the end of it all. But no words come out as his mind and heart spiral into sudden grief, as fear begins to engulf him, as tears begin to burn at the edges of his eyes. As his phantom comes to stand directly behind him, gripping his shoulders so tightly that its claws dig into them while it quietly, intently whispers into his ear.
"But it doesn't have to be that way," it says, its voice soft and deceptively soothing. "You're putting everyone you love, everyone that's important to you in danger, just by being around them. You're not strong enough to protect or save any of them. Everyone would be so much better off without you around, you know that; you've known that for a long time now. So… why don't do them all a favor… and just disappear?!"
An agonized scream echoes through the void as the phantom suddenly plunges its claws deep into Sora's back and drags them down the length of it, creating a series of wide, jagged cuts. The fresh wounds bleed heavily between his now torn jacket and shirt and they're made even worse when the phantom lands another brutal kick against his back, forcing him to stumble forward, though miraculously he doesn't fall.
Instead, he calls upon the Kingdom Key out of panic more than anything else, hoping to push the phantom back long enough for him to cast a quick healing spell. But his reflection counteracts him just as fast, catching his wrist as he swings his weapon and swiftly ripping its claws across his lower arm. Sora cries in startled pain as it happens, and in the process, involuntarily loses his grip on his Keyblade. But the phantom is quick to catch it in his place, and it wastes no time in using it against him to keep this vicious assault going.
It moves far too fast for him to defend himself against as it swings his own Keyblade directly at him. Its toothed edge lands hard against his side, digging deep enough to sustain a devastating gash across his abdomen. He barely even has time to react to the immense agony that strike brings before the phantom lands another, this time knocking the Keyblade against the back of his legs to send him falling to the ground. Even as he hits it, however, the phantom is hardly done as it keeps swinging over and over again, each of its blows, all from the cold, unfeeling mental of his very own Keyblade, bringing far more pain than the last.
It's only as he starts coughing up a starting spray of blood that he somehow finds the strength to speak. "S-stop…" he weakly pleads, his voice ragged and strained. "Please…" His vision blurs as he glances up at his reflection, who stands over him with his Keyblade still in hand, its silver edge stained scarlet by his own blood. The phantom itself regards him with a wide, demented smile, some of that same blood splattered onto its cheek as its glowing golden eyes stare down at him mercilessly. Its twisted grin reflects an obvious sense of smug satisfaction, almost as if it's proud of the brutal beating it just delivered. Which, by all accounts, it probably is.
"What a shame," it says, looking over its stolen Keyblade with clearly false pity. "Maybe you could have actually stood a chance if you had any sort of strength at all. But you don't. You're weak. You always have been, and you always will be. And that's why there's only one fate left for you: to fall into the darkness where you belong…"
The phantom slowly points the tip of his Keyblade at him, clearly ready to finish what it's started. Sora makes no move to stop it; he's in far too much anguish at the moment to try even if he wants to. Which, given everything he's just heard and just how much of it he actually believes and agrees with, he's not entirely sure he does.
Because really, he knows that nearly everything his phantom has said to him is absolutely, undeniably true. He knows that he's weak, that finding the strength he needs to simply survive has become such an insurmountable struggle for him lately, one he knows he'll never be able to overcome on his own. He knows that he's wasting what precious short time he has left when it comes to saving Roxas, Ventus, and Xion, that their hearts are in such grave danger by simply being stuck within his own, that he has no idea how to free them, how to give them back the lives that he stole from them to sustain his own. He knows that he's hiding such grave secrets, that when those secrets are finally uncovered, the shockwaves they'll create will be disastrous and devastating. And worst of all, he knows that his weakness, his wastefulness, his worthlessness, his mere existence at this point will all end up giving his worst enemy exactly what he's after. That through his inevitable failure, Xehanort will take a guardian of light away from their already short number, that a thirteenth seeker of darkness will be claimed to complete the wicked set, that lives will be lost, kingdoms will crumble, worlds will wither, reality itself will unravel. And it'll all happen solely because he can't even come close to trying to stop it all.
So instead of facing such an unbearable, unspeakable failure, he might as well let it all end right here and now. After all, it's just like his phantom said; it'll be much better for everyone this way. Much better for everyone if he's no longer around.
He's just about ready to accept that end too, as he closes his eyes and lets out a small, sad sob of defeat. But in the sparse seconds before his phantom lands the final blow, his thoughts, what he assumes will be some of his last, slowly drift away from the grim prospects of his forfeited future… and toward something, or rather someone else entirely.
He thinks of Kairi, of her beautiful smile, as bright and warm as the sun itself. Of the way her soft, gentle hands feel so wonderful when placed within his own. Of the last words she'd said to him before he left, the solemn, earnest plea she'd made for him to return to her safely, lightly embracing him all the while: "I told Riku this and I'm telling you too: be careful. I… I can't lose either of you…"
With the recollection of that plea, he bitterly thinks that he's about to break the promise he made to her to come back, that she wouldn't lose him when she ultimately will, whether it's right here and now, or someday not too far in the future when the Organization finally claims him as one of their own. But, at the very least, he can take some small sense of solace in the fact that even if she loses him, she won't have to lose Riku too.
And on that note he thinks of Riku, of the cool, calming waters of his familiar teal eyes. Of the steadying, smooth, soothing sound of his voice whenever he speaks to him. Of the reassuring confidence he'd shown in him, the genuine, unflinching belief he'd carried that he could and would succeed in a task even he hadn't felt truly ready for: "He can handle it. In fact, there's no I'd trust to finish this off more."
And as he thinks of them, he thinks of what the phantom said about them, that they'd hate him if they ever found out the truth. It's probably right too. They'll call him out for the endless lies he's told them, criticize him for the shadows he's too helpless to repel from his own heart, and in the end, cast him out for what he's turning into, leaving him to fight a battle he has no chance of winning entirely on his own. He wouldn't blame either of them for doing any of that; as far as he's concerned anymore, that's exactly the kind of treatment he deserves. Maybe that's why it's so very fitting, perhaps even a strange stroke of mercy, that he's about to meet his end at his own hands, or at least at the hands of his reflection, this mirror image of everything he hates about himself, which is far too much to count lately. He's already on the verge of destroying himself anyway, so it might as well actually happen. At least if it does, he won't have to be such a broken burden to his two best friends any longer.
But…
Some small, still-stubborn part of him rebels such thoughts. Reasons that he can't let his life slip away from him, not yet. Insists that he still has something, someone to strive for, someone to fight for, someone to live for if not for himself. Demands that, even despite his own mounting shortcomings and endless shame, he rises again to do everything in his waning power to return to their side, to do whatever he can to make sure they survive and thrive even when he might not.
To make it back to Riku and Kairi, and continue to fight for the future he might still have a chance, however small, at sharing with them.
So that's what he does.
The phantom brings the Kingdom Key down, but before the potentially fatal strike can land, Sora calls it back into his hand. His multitude of injuries surge in new waves of agony as he leans against his Keyblade for support in sitting up, but he doesn't relinquish his tight hold on it, even as his phantom angrily reaches for it once more. Instead, he repels the reflection in the only way he really can at the moment, allowing a blast of darkened light to flow from his free hand just as the phantom's claws wildly swipe for his face. His magic hardens when it hits the reflection and the glowing, glassy spikes it creates throw his double back across the void.
In the brief seconds of respite that follow, Sora hurries to cast as strong of a healing spell as he possibly can on himself, but even then it isn't as potent as he knows it should be. Whether that's because of the darkness surrounding him, or the darkness invading his own heart, he has no idea, but the spell still eases a bit of the pain from the worst of the still-bleeding cuts torn across his back, arms, and torso. It's enough to allow him to properly stand just in time to see his phantom rushing for him at full speed, with an attack he only barely blocks off with the edge of his reclaimed Keyblade.
"What are you doing?!" the phantom shouts, infuriated as it grips the side of the Kingdom Key with its claws. Sora holds fast against it, however, staring it down with both rising exhaustion for this tiring struggle and growing disdain for this despicable distraction keeping him anchored to the bottom of this soulless sea. "Why are you still fighting?! Give up already! Don't you get it? It's all over for you!"
"No," Sora's voice is rigid, unwavering as he pulls his Keyblade back. He unleashes a strong swing at the phantom, and the hit actually lands, throwing the reflection to the ground once more. This time, he makes sure it stays there by forming a jagged cage of spires around it, each one blackened but brimming with light as they close in around the phantom. As soon as Sora is sure it's well-secured by his powers, he aims the tip of his Keyblade at it, ready to finally finish this fight, to return to the light, to his lights, once and for all. "As long as I still have friends left to fight for, then it's not over."
"They don't care about you!" the phantom argues hotly as it claws at the spikes keeping it restrained. But the magic they're made of is far too sturdy and strong to be ripped apart so easily. "They don't want you and they don't need you! You need them way more than they need you!"
Sora sighs, but it's not one of defeat; rather, it's of resignation. "Yes, I do need them," he admits wholeheartedly. He needs them to keep him going, to keep him fighting, to keep him hoping that things can be better, that he can be better. Even if he knows he can't. "And that's why I'm going back to be with them. For however long I have left."
"They won't want you anywhere near them when they find out the truth!" the phantom accuses, its golden eyes flashing a bit brighter in malice and hatred. "They already don't, not after they've seen you like THIS!"
Suddenly, the phantom lurches back, a piercing scream pouring out of its mouth, one that quickly turns insane and inhuman. The transformation that overtakes it next comes just as fast as its last one, as shadows swirl and sweep over its entire body, blanketing in black from head to toe. Its crimson claws remain, but everything else about it, its clothes, its skin, its hair, its very aura is consumed by unspeakable darkness, darkness that it eagerly, hungrily welcomes along with the vicious, dangerous power it's tied to. Power that Sora knows all too well, that he's been forcibly filled with far too many times before. But now, as his phantom stares directly at him with its now-empty, practically blinding golden eyes, he gets his first glance at exactly what he turns into every time he is.
The sight alone is enough to sicken him, shake him to his very core. His magic falters as he stumbles back in fear, allowing his phantom to creep forward out of its cage on all fours. It moves unnaturally, erratically, like some kind of deranged wild animal, a fitting comparison given the feral, intelligible growls that slip out of its fanged, glowing maw. He's never been aware of his own actions when he gets like this, much less of his appearance; but now he's forced to see, forced to fight the twisted, terrifying monster that lives inside him. The monster that he is, whether he wants to be or not.
And of course, all the while that monster continues to taunt him, it's cruel, careless words ringing out only in his mind now. As if they were his own poisonous thoughts telling him just how terrible he really is.
"You LIKE it when you're like this, don't you?" the phantom's voice asks, tinged with something much darker and deeper than before. It lunges at him suddenly, and he only narrowly has the wits about him to step out of the path of its unexpected attack, though it wastes no time coming in for more. "You like how strong the shadows make you feel, you like how powerful you are when you turn into this. You love using that power, that strength… to hurt people… even the people you claim to care about most…"
"T-that's not… n-no!" Sora protests against the voice he can't even hear. The voice that knows him and the horrid depths of his heart far better than he does, it seems. "N-no, I don't!" he takes a loose, desperate swing at the phantom. His Keyblade nicks it in the side, but it doesn't falter. Instead, it continues its calculated pursuit as the corners of its jagged mouth curl up into a sinister smile. "I don't want to be like that!" he shouts at it, his voice raw with fury and fear. His eyes are brimming with tears that he can only do so much to keep from falling as he tries, so very hard, to fight back against his phantom and the treacherous truths it keeps telling. "I hate it when I turn into that!"
"No, you don't," the phantom corrects, bearing down to launch another strike. "You disappear when you turn into this. That's why it was so easy for Maleficent to take control of you. Because when you're like this, you don't have to be anything more than her perfect, mindless, obedient little pet. And really, given the only other option you have left now… would becoming that pet really be all that bad?"
"W-what?!" Sora balks, appalled by such a suggestion. The phantom makes the most of the opportunity to pounce once more, and this time it strikes him squarely. The Kingdom Key is thrown out of his grip as his reflection pins him to the ground, its claws keeping him trapped against the ground by the shoulders. Even so, for his part, Sora does his best to remain firm and unflinching. Even if despair and dread are still spiking through just about every part of his body at the moment. "I-I would never just… let Maleficent-or Xehanort-take control of me! I'm going to fight them, k-keep fighting them until I-"
"It doesn't matter how long, or how much you fight; it'll never be enough," the phantom counters as it leans in close. "You know that. You're going to fall to at least one of them. Either you'll become Maleficent's pet, lose every shred of humanity you have left and be forced to tear entire worlds apart under her command… or you'll become Xehanort's thirteenth vessel, the last piece he needs to take over everything in existence and take all your friends out in the process. But in the end, all you'll ever be is a monster… or a slave. There isn't anything more for you, there's never been anything more for you, there will never be anything more for you. And no amount of fighting or hope or anything else can ever change that. Don't you see? No matter how this turns out... " its voice is a smooth, soft whisper in his mind, one that's meant to sooth him into accepting a fate that's already been written in stone for him. A fate that will only end up destroying him once it inevitably comes to pass. "Your destiny… is DARKNESS!"
Without any sort of warning at all, the phantom suddenly plunges its claws directly into Sora's chest, right in the very center of the x-shaped scar marring it. Its talons dig in deep, even as Sora lets out a loud, anguished scream that echoes through the surrounding void. The phantom hasn't struck his heart, but it claws at something else entirely, something deep inside of him, something that's already been so frayed and fractured that it can barely stand the unspeakable damage being done to it now.
His very soul itself.
It seems like a lifetime later when the phantom's claws finally slip out of his chest. His body is numb, his mind even more so as heavy tears stream down his cheeks and he once again finds himself heaving for air that won't come. His chest aches horribly, especially as dark shadows begin to pour out from the punctures the phantom's claws have left behind in the place of blood that might have otherwise flowed from them. But between the pain and the fear washing over him, the most he can really feel right now is cold, so incredibly, bitterly cold that he briefly believes he might already be dead, or at least well on his way to that point. That empty chill enshrouds him, entombs him as his glassy-eyed gaze somehow drifts over to his phantom. The reflection stands just a few short paces from him, its appearance mostly back to normal, though its eyes still shine the same hateful shade of amber as they glare down at him apathetically. A sudden surge of panic rushes through him as he wonders what could possibly come next, as he waits for another attack that never seems to come.
"P-please…" he begs it, his voice strained and soft as it comes out between a broken sob. "J-just… finish this already… finish me…"
"No…" it says, its voice quiet and cold. "You still don't get it, do you? You can't finish something that's only just begun."
"W-what… no, please," he insists tearfully as he starts pulling himself upright. The darkness continues expanding against his body, dying his clothes and his skin in their sinister shade. His hands are sharpening into blood-red claws and even his feet feel like they're malforming somehow, reshaping into something he knows they're not supposed to be, just like the rest of him is. "Please," he begs his phantom, reaching a trembling, taloned hand out toward it. His mind is spiraling, whether it's into grief, madness, or something else entirely, he has no idea but what he does know is that he wants it to stop. He wants all of this to stop, for his suffering to end, to find freedom, even if that freedom can only come in death rather than in life. "Please, just… d-do it… end this… I… I can't-"
"You can't rise above this?" the phantom finishes the miserable thought. "No, you can't. That's why you're not cut out to be a guardian of light, why you're not even fit to carry that Keyblade of yours." The reflection finally begins to vanish, its body dissipating into flecks of the very same darkness the illusion was born from. Though before it disappeared completely, it leaves him, not with the fulfillment of his distraught wish, but on yet another cruel claim that he knows is nothing less than the absolute truth. "The only thing you are, the only thing you'll ever be… is a monster, inside and out."
And then, just as quickly as it appeared, it's gone. And Sora is left completely, entirely alone.
His third, and final fight is one against the darkness surrounding him on all sides, surging outward from his own battered, weakened heart. A battle he knows he won't win, even if he had enough strength left to try.
"W-wait!" he calls for the phantom as it vanishes from sight. His tears shine as a golden glow starts to overtake his eyes, as the shadows swell up his neck and start to fill in his face. Even as he calls out into the void once more, his voice starts to shift into an involuntary snarl as speech in and of itself begins to become more and more of a challenge. "Don't… g-go!" His words are slow and slurred, his breaths hitching as that icy, intoxicating chill threatens to freeze his mind to let his more monstrous instincts take over. "H-help!" he screams as loudly as he can manage. Whether he wants help in escaping his dark, rapidly approaching fate, or expediting it along, at this point, he really has no idea. "A-anyone!" He sobs once more as he glances down at his claws, at the rest of the body, at the monster he's becoming, the monster he always has been. The only monster he can't stop, will never be able to stop, no matter how much he tries to fight it. "P-please… help..." his last word comes out as a whimper as he lies down upon the glassy ground beneath him. His reflection doesn't show up beneath him, his phantom gone back into the darkness from whence it came. How fitting, he thinks, that he's so very close to joining it.
As he thinks of his phantom, he realizes just how similar his fight with it was to what he's been facing as a whole lately. Against his phantom, he engaged in a battle that he achieved small moments of victories in, but never really won in the end. Is he really doomed to repeat the same course against his much more dangerous foes, against Maleficent and Xehanort, against the darkness living within his very own heart? To never succeed in anything other than forestalling the inevitable, in giving himself brief moments of hope and triumph that are always meant to fade into defeat and despair in the end? It makes it all seem so pointless, so aimless and foolish to even try to keep such a battle going, a fight he can never win, no matter how hard he tries, just like his phantom had said. So if that's true, if that's all that he has to look forward to, then why even try to fight such a losing battle to begin with?
Exhaustion overwhelms him as he lies there, his mind fading more and more with each passing moment. The trio of hearts inside his own is powerless to keep it from overtaking him here, in a place filled with such profound darkness to begin with. And any effort he might have made to resist it himself died out a long time ago. His breathing grows quiet and soft as the darkness covers his body, but even then his mind is allotted a few more moments of fleeting freedom. Almost as if the darkness itself recognizes that those moments may very well be his last.
And in those moments, once more he thinks of Riku, of Kairi, of Donald and Goofy, of everyone else he's about to leave behind back in the realm of light. He thinks of the Keys he'll never claim, the hearts he'll never be able to save, the home he'll never get to see again. And… he thinks of how much he hopes he'll stay trapped down here once the darkness claims him. How much he hopes he'll stay so lost he'll never be found. How he hopes that in being lost, Maleficent will lose a pet and Xehanort will lose a vessel. Because even if he loses his life in the process, at the very least, the people he cares about most might finally be able to win.
If his life, his existence as he knows it, has to end to help them have that win, to help Riku and Kairi have the bright, beautiful future they both deserve, then he's more than willing to let it do exactly that. Even if it's a future he knows he'll never get to share with them.
And yet…
He feels a strange sense of warmth as he closes his eyes, warmth that seems to slowly pierce through the frigid cold consuming him. He doesn't think much of it, mostly since thinking in general is starting to become a feat in and of itself for his fading mind. But then, he hears it; a voice so soft and faint that it's almost easy to miss it entirely. Yet it speaks to him all the same.
"Hello? Are you… a Heartless?"
He doesn't know how he has enough control left to open his eyes, but he does. And there, hovering just above the glassy ground before him, is a light within the darkness. A golden, glowing orb, barely big enough to fit in the palm of his hand, but brimming with radiant energy all the same. Comforting radiant energy.
"No," he tries to answer, but it doesn't come out in words. His ability to speak is gone, so he growls his response, startling himself as he draws a clawed hand to his mouth to silence the snarl. The light flinches back, seemingly afraid, but it doesn't flee entirely. Instead, it lingers close, floating a bit higher, as if it means to look him over.
"Can you… understand what I'm saying to you?" it asks, every bit as confused by him as he is by it. He doesn't try to answer verbally, instead simply nodding as he makes the effort to sit up. The light seems to perk up considerably at the confirmation. "You can!? Then that must have been your voice I heard calling for help in the darkness just now!"
He tries speaking to it again to confirm its suspicions, but once more he's only able to manage a low, intelligible growl, one that the light seems rather wary of. "Or, um… maybe it wasn't…. Still, if you know what I'm saying, then… that means you're not a Heartless, are you?"
He shakes his head at this, though an involuntary, somewhat annoyed hiss comes out when he does. He glances away, flustered, and the light lets out a laugh in its gentle, feminine voice. "You don't have to be embarrassed. I'm just glad to finally have someone to talk to, w-well, even if you can't really, uh… talk-"
"C-can… talk…" he protests, finally finding some form of speech again. But his words are slow and disjointed, his voice bizarrely low and gravely to the point that it's barely even recognizable, much less understandable. Fortunately, the light seems to gather what he's saying all the same.
"Oh, so you can talk. Well…" she circles him curiously. "If you're not a Heartless, then what are you?"
"H-human…" he says, though another glance at his claws doesn't exactly make him confident in that answer.
"Another human… all the way down here?" the light seems baffled, yet concerned all the same. "How did you end up here… a-and… what happened to you, i-if you don't mind me asking?"
He hesitates briefly, but decides he doesn't really have much to lose in telling her. After all, he doesn't recognize her voice in the slightest, and she doesn't seem to know who he is either. They're strangers, by all accounts, both left to wander in the dark without anyone else to speak to. Which is why he doesn't mind doing exactly that to the best of his abilities. "D-darkness… in… heart…" his voice sounds a bit more like his own this time, but he still isn't capable of piecing the words together well. Even so, he places a hand against his chest to show her what he means, and as he does, he notices that his claws seem a bit less sharp. Either that, or his addled mind is playing tricks on him. "C-can't… fight… can't… leave…"
The light notices as he casts a wistful look to the waters above him, the eerie glow of his eyes dulling somewhat as he does. She hovers in closer to him, genuine pity filing her tone as she does. "So… you're lost then?" she asks, and he simply nods mournfully in response. "I-I… I'm sorry to hear that. So am I…"
"How… y-you… lost… here…?" he winces at the jumbled mess of a sentence he just tried getting out. Even so, his new companion is good at connecting the dots he's leaving for her.
"How did I end up lost down here?" she infers. Her glow seems to dull somewhat as she lets out a remorseful sigh. "Well, I… used to be a human too. But… I've been here for… a VERY long time… Longer than anyone would be able to remember. And the truth is… I probably deserve to be down here after the mess I caused…"
"What… d-do… you mean?" he asks. He tries not to be too proud of the actually coherent question in favor of focusing his attention on the light's sudden melancholy.
"It's a… very long story," she rebuffs somewhat sadly. She seems more than eager to change the subject as she injects a bit of her former cordial friendliness back into her tone. "But never mind all that now. Do you have a name?"
"S-Sora," he replies, offering her the most of a smile he can manage. He can feel a bit of the shadows starting to lift from his skin, and he wonders if her presence is the reason. Even so, he welcomes the change, and the calming presence of her company, the company of any friendly face, or light for that matter, all the same.
"Sora," she repeats warmly. "Strange… that sounds… familiar, almost. Still, it's very nice to meet you, Sora."
He nods, still smiling as he manages to ask her another complete question, albeit a bit of a labored one. "W-what's… your name?"
"Oh, uh…" she falters, her tone turning somewhat anxious as she draws back a bit. "I… I don't… really h-have one anymore…" He can tell that it's something of a lie; after all, he awkwardly recants in much of the same way whenever he's lying too. Still, he doesn't press her for an actual answer; she's not obligated to give him one if she doesn't want to.
"Are… you… lonely… down here?" Sora asks, his speech still far too slow and sedated for comfort. The light is nothing if not patient with him, however, as it waits for him to finish before answering.
"Mm… sometimes," she sighs solemnly. "It's been such a long time since I've seen any of my friends… not that we were really friends anymore by the time we parted ways, but still… I miss them…"
"You could… go find them," Sora suggests, but the light is quick to turn him down.
"No, they're… long gone by now. Like I said, I've been stuck here for a very long time. And even if they were still around, I… I can't go back to the realm of light… not anymore…"
"Why not…?" he asks. By now, his skin and clothes are largely back to normal, though his thoughts are still a bit hazy. Even so, his new friend is about the best anchor he has to keep them focused now and he holds onto that anchor for all its worth.
"Another long story," the light replies simply, switching the subject back to him once more. "What about you, Sora? Do you have any friends waiting for you back in the realm of light?"
He sighs as he looks up to the distant surface of the sea once more, wondering if he'll ever find his way to it, to Riku, to Kairi, to everything else he's been ripped away from, ever again. "Y-yeah…" he nods morosely. "I don't… think… I'll ever… see them again… though…"
"Why wouldn't you?" the light asks, confused. "You're not like me; you still have a physical form. You could go back-"
"I shouldn't… go back…" he glances away from her in shame. "It's… better for… everyone if I… just stay here…"
"What makes you say that?"
"L-like… I said…" he begins quietly, sadly. His words are still slow and slurred somewhat as he explains in the most simple way he can manage. "There's… darkness in my heart… M-my enemies are… trying to use it to… control me… and I-I… can't stop it… I can't stop the darkness from taking over… no matter how hard I try…"
Another stray tear slips down his cheek as he admits this grim fact, admits that the phantom, that his worst fears and nightmares, are all right. That his own inner darkness is bound to overwhelm him sooner or later, and when it does, every trace of who he is and wants to be will cease to exist. But even so, his new friend doesn't seem to quite think the same.
"...Even if you do have darkness in your heart," she says after a moment or two of thoughtful silence. "That doesn't mean you have to just let it take over you. I mean, you don't want your enemies to control you, right?"
"Of course, I don't!" Sora readily counters, but his insistence falters as he skims the place where his phantom had punctured his chest. The tears its claws had made in his shirt reveal glimpses of the scar he still can't escape from, even here in the deepest depths of darkness itself. "I just… I'm so… scared that… I won't have much of a choice for much longer…"
"You always have a choice, Sora."
"W-what?" he looks to the light, confused by what she means by this.
"Almost every heart has at least a little darkness in it," she explains, gliding in a bit closer to him. "Some more, some less, but how much there is isn't what matters. What matters… is what we decide to do with that darkness. The path each person takes is a decision everyone has to make for themselves; no one else can do that for them, even if some try to. Some people… decide that they want to use their darkness… to hurt those around them to get what they think they need…" She sighs, and the remorse it carries isn't lost on Sora, though he doesn't ask her to elaborate, at least not right now. "But others… decide to use that darkness… to help them find their way back to the light… and to their friends…"
"Back to Riku and Kairi…" Sora whispers longingly, wanting nothing more at that moment than to just see their faces, hear their voices, feel their warm, welcoming embraces. Slowly, he rises to stand, his body and mind now largely free of the pall of darkness that had nearly overwhelmed them entirely. His Keyblade flashes into his hand and he points it upward, toward the shadowy sea above him, toward the surface somewhere high above it. As he closes his eyes, he thinks on that longing, on that wish to return to the light, on the path that he wants to take, one that no one can pick other than him. And as he makes a silent, solemn wish, he finds that path opening up for him, out of the darkness and into the light.
His Keyblade forms a glowing beacon, one that pierces the dark sea and forges a way back up to the surface. He smiles, practically elated at the thought of taking it, of returning to Riku, to Kairi, to all of his other friends still waiting for him. True, he still doesn't know what the future might hold, how long he'll be able to hold out against the frightening threats bombarding him from all sides. But he's willing to make the choice to keep on fighting them all the same, in the hopes that maybe someday, he won't have to anymore.
Yet even then, he finds that stepping forward into that light isn't so simple. Especially since he suddenly remembers there's still someone else who had fallen into the shadows right along with him.
"W-wait!" he exclaims, putting his Keyblade away. "I can't leave yet. I still have to find Master Aqua!"
"Aqua?" the light asks, confused.
Sora nods insistently. "She's the reason we all came to the Realm of Darkness-well, she's why my friend Riku came here, and I came to help him, a-and, it's a really long story, but she's somewhere down here a-and she needs help! I can't go back up there without her."
"Hm…" the light pauses to think for a moment. "You know, now that you mention it… I did sense another heart floating down here before I found you…"
"That's gotta be Aqua!" Sora exclaims, glancing around for any signs of her before he turns back to the light. "Is there any way you can show me where she is?"
The light is silent for a moment or two, seemingly focusing on this request before she briefly bounces in newfound excitement. "This way!" she calls, rushing forward across the endless void. "But hurry; it's getting harder to sense her heart. I think she might be fading further into the darkness."
A sharp, involuntary gasp escapes Sora at this, one that he knows belongs to Ventus. Even still, given the condition she was in the last time he saw her, he's able to spare plenty of worry for Aqua that's entirely his own, and that worry is more than enough to prompt him onward to find her. To bring her back into the light she's been away from for far too long now.
So he follows the light through the shadows, chasing her ever deeper through the otherwise empty void. The beacon that leads back to the surface follows after them, a path home that Sora hopes won't disappear any time soon. After all, his freedom and Aqua's both depend on it now.
"Oh!" the light suddenly stops and Sora does the same. "Is that who you're looking for?"
At first, he doesn't see much of anything amidst the vast expanse of nothing stretching out before him. But when the light glides a bit higher, she illuminates a lone figure floating within the shadowed sea not too far above him. She's unconscious, completely unmoving, with hair that's constantly in flux between blue and white, clothes also shifting between shadowy shades and much softer colors, claws that become hands before turning back into talons with each second that passes. She's lost within a tide of darkness, just like he is, and just like him, it's yet to completely claim a heart that still has even a fraction of strength left to stand against it. Even if it's clear that fight can't keep going for much longer.
"Y-yeah," Sora nods a bit breathlessly as he comes to stand just below her. "That's Aqua."
Knowing there's nothing left to keep him anchored to the bottom of this lonely sea, he steps into the beacon, allowing it to carry him upward into the ocean. It doesn't drown him this time, the light he's leaning on allowing him to breathe much easier this time as he reaches Aqua's side. She doesn't stir as he securely takes her hand, but that's enough for him; just as long as he can get her back to the surface before she succumbs to the shadows once and for all.
"I'm glad I could help you find your friend," his new companion says, though her tone is somewhat sad as she pulls away from him a bit. "I hope you can find a way to make it back to the realm of light safely."
"Wait… you're not coming?" he asks with a frown.
"I told you, I can't…" the light sighs, forlorn. "I fell into the darkness so long ago; there's nothing left for me in the realm of light now, a-and… even if there was… I don't even have a physical form. I'd be just as much nothing there as I am here…"
"Well, there's gotta be some way to fix that, right?" Sora asks, not wanting to leave this kind, if not somewhat mysterious soul down here all alone.
"If there is, I have no idea what that way would be…"
Sora pauses for a moment, glancing between the light, Aqua, and the stretch of sea still hovering above him. It doesn't take him long to reach a resolve that he hopes he can achieve, even if he doesn't have the faintest idea how he might. "I'll come back for you," he assures with a steady smile. "I'll figure out a way to get you back to the light. Who knows? Maybe we can even find a way to help you see your friends again."
"W-what?!" the light gasps, baffled by such a thought. "B-but you can't just… I-I… I'm not-"
"You helped me when I needed it most," Sora interrupts, his tone serious and sincere. And indeed, she did help him, even if it had been in the most simple of ways; by offering him comfort and company, reminding him that his fight isn't finished, that he still has a place with his friends after all. The exact opposite of everything his hateful phantom, everything his own frail, aching heart, had told him before. "It's only fair that I help you too."
The light is silent for a long moment upon hearing this, almost as if she doesn't fully believe the promise he's made to her. It's hard for him to know what she might be thinking, but when she speaks again, he can sense the hesitance in her tone. The hesitance to accept that there's anything left for her than the shadowy nothingness she now calls home. "Thank you, Sora," she says softly. "I have to say, considering everything you told me… I don't think it'll be as easy for the darkness to take over your heart as you're worried it'll be. Not when you already have so much light and kindness of your own to keep the shadows of hatred at bay."
"I… hope you're right…" Sora says with a bit of a diffident sigh. A large part of him wants to believe that for himself, but he's not so sure he's ready to. At least not yet.
"I think I will be," she says, showing the confidence he currently lacks. "You know, even though I'm sure we've never met before, you… remind me of someone I used to know. Someone I used to look up to and respect a lot."
"Used to?" Sora asks, somewhat confused. "So… you don't anymore?"
"...Well, they're someone who's long gone too," the light laments. "Looking back, they made… some pretty terrible mistakes. But I still think that they were a good person, even despite those mistakes. Just like you."
He falters at this, wanting to believe that claim too, that he actually is a good person, that he isn't too far gone, that he isn't the monster his own reflection claimed him to be. But after everything he's done, all of the lies he's told, all of the battles he's lost… he's not so sure he's anywhere even close to good anymore. "T-thanks," he accepts the compliment all the same, though the smile he gives her is halfhearted. "Um… I-we should probably get going," he nods down at Aqua, fearing that she might not have much time left to lose. "But I meant what I said before; I will come back to help you someday. I promise."
"I… o-ok," the light relents as she begins to float back into the darkness of the sea. "In that case, I'll… see you someday soon then?"
"Yeah," he smiles warmly as he allows the beacon to carry him and Aqua toward the surface. "Sooner than you think!" He waves as he leaves his newfound friend behind, though hopefully not for long. After being trapped within the darkness, for however long or short he was trapped here, he knows it's a fate no one deserves, not Aqua, not his new friend, no one… except maybe himself.
Still, he forces such heavy thoughts out of his mind, knowing they'll only keep him weighed down. He keeps his steady hold on Aqua's hand, his sights set on the surface of the sea, especially as the first full rays of light begin to peak through the murky waters. And as he prepares to break the surface, he can't help but smile at the thought of returning to the reason he keeps on fighting, keeps on living, keeps on striving for the light and for the future. For all of the things he wants, and, with a little luck perhaps, might someday get to finally keep.
"Riku, Kairi…" he whispers warmly, his smile growing as he thinks of them and how much he cherishes them both. How much little time he might have left to be with them, and how much he intends on treasuring that time, treasuring them for all they're worth and then some. "I'll be there soon…"
Riku winces as Mickey casts another healing spell over his leg, the last one he'll be able to dole out on the limited magic he has left. For his part, the king seems every bit as exhausted as Riku is on edge. The silent dread of waiting for something that might even happen has taken a heavy toll on them both.
"He's been down there too long," Riku forces himself to sit up away from the rock Mickey propped him up against earlier. "If he was going to make it back on his own, he would have done it already. I have to go after him."
"Riku…" Mickey sighs tiredly. This is an argument they've been having for the past several hours now, one that neither of them have made much headway in. It's only by the merit that Riku can't physically get very far in his current condition that the king has been able to largely win it at all. "We've been over this a bunch of times already; you can't dive down there with your leg like-"
"I-I'm not letting that stop me," Riku says between sharp gasps of pain. Mickey flinches as he watches his young companion try to pull himself up to stand, leaning heavily against the rock behind him in doing so. His expression wrenches in agony, but even so, he sets his sights back on the sea, ready to crawl to it if that's what he has to do, if only for the smallest of chances he might get at bringing Sora back. "H-he needs me… I w-won't abandon him, not now, o-or ever again…"
Mickey isn't sure of what to say to such a stalwart, yet stubborn resolve, mostly since he knows Riku won't let go of it, no matter how much he might try to convince him otherwise. Fortunately though, it seems as though he might not have to. Because as the king casts a cursory glance out at the open sea before them, he notices the subtlest of shifts in its shadowy surface.
"R-Riku!" he exclaims, pointing to the emerging ripples. "Look!"
Riku stills his attempt at standing, only for a moment, to focus his attention on the ocean. Sure enough, something is changing about it, its glassy surface suddenly disrupted by something just below it. He takes in a breath that he doesn't let out, holding onto every ounce of hope he has that something miraculous is about to happen.
And, against all odds, a miracle is exactly what he receives.
A hand bursts up out of the blackened water, an unmistakably spiky, brown-haired head popping up not long after. Riku practically falls back into the sand, choking on something that's between a sob and a laugh the moment he sees Sora, the moment he watches him pull off the impossible all over again. He should have never expected anything less from him; after all, making the impossible possible is Sora's specialty.
While Riku can't run to help Sora finish pulling himself up out of the sea, Mickey doesn't hesitate to rush forward in his place. The king is quite beside himself too by such a shocking return, but he's even more amazed as he approaches to see that Sora isn't alone. Because as soon as he makes it onto the solid surface of the ocean, he begins pulling someone else out of their darkened waters. And when Mickey sees that someone, finally freed from all traces of the demonic darkness that had befallen her before, he can scarcely believe his eyes.
"A-Aqua…" he gapes, looking between the still-unconscious master lying on the sea before him and the boy who'd managed to bring her back even when he couldn't. "H-how… how'd you…?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Sora says with a small, tired smile. He lets out a bit of a satisfied sigh as he glances down at Aqua beside him. "Still, I wasn't about to leave without her." Even if I did have to leave someone else behind… he thinks somewhat sadly, hoping that he won't have to keep his new, unknown friend waiting down there for too much longer.
"Y-you… really saved her!" Mickey exclaims, finally breaking out into a wide, excited smile as he takes a spot at his longtime friend's side. Sure enough, her hair is back to its usual blue, her clothes refined and repaired, her claws now nothing more than a mere memory. Her light returned to her when she needed it most. "Thank you, Sora. I'm sure Aqua will have plenty of thanks for you too when she wakes up."
Sora offers the king a cordial smile and an accepting nod at this, though his attention is quickly diverted to the figure he can only barely spot lying on the distant shore. "R-Riku…" he whispers, worry taking over his features. "I-is he-"
"He's bound to be much better now that you're here," Mickey chuckles. "Why don't you go check on him? I've got Aqua covered here."
"Right," Sora readily agrees, wasting no time in bridging the gap back to the shore. Whatever traces of dread or fear that might have lingered in his heart at the bottom of the sea disappear as he nears Riku. The absolutely elated smile on his face alone is enough to tell him that any hatred the phantom said Riku might have for him doesn't exist in the slightest. That he still cares so much for him and still would, regardless of whatever might happen next.
"Sora!" Riku calls to him, letting loose a bright laugh to match his beaming grin. There are tears at the corners of his eyes, and they match the ones starting to form in Sora's too, especially as he finally reaches him.
"Riku!" he slides down into the sand, thinking of nothing else as he throws his arms around Riku in a tight, almost desperate embrace. He's more than willing to maintain that hug for as long as time allows, but he pulls back when he hears Riku let out a small, pained hiss as he accidentally bumps into his injured leg on the way down. "O-Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry!" he exclaims, his cheeks flushing in embarrassment as he glances down at the broken limb. "A-are you ok?"
"Am I ok?" Riku shakes his head with an incredulous chuckle. "I should be asking you that. You look like you went through something horrible down there…" His smile instantly fades as he takes stock in Sora's current condition, in the countless cuts and gashes and bruises and tears marring his skin. "Sora, what… happened?"
"Oh, uh… i-it was…" he hesitates, rubbing one of the still lightly-bleeding cuts on his arm. None of his injuries are too incapacitating, but even so, the pain they all have the potential to bring him is quickly starting to slice through the adrenaline that had once kept them at bay. "A… r-really big Heartless!" he lies, knowing he shouldn't, knowing he said he wouldn't lie to Riku anymore. But at a moment like this, the thought of admitting the truth, that he had, in a way, been the one to give himself such a brutal beating, is more than he can really stand to do. "I-it took awhile, but I, uh… I took care of it!" He forces on a fake grin to go with this lie too, because he knows he had lost to his phantom, he knows he had nearly fallen victim to his own inner darkness. He won nothing down at the bottom of the darkened sea. If anything, he lost himself even more.
"I'm sure you did," Riku finally smiles once more, believing him. On some level, Sora wishes he wouldn't. "Still, we should get you back to the realm of light so we can start patching all that up."
"Uh, no offense, Riku, but I think your leg might need a little more help first," Sora says and his smile isn't forced this time. He extends a hand out to help him rise, making the unspoken offer of someone to lean on all the way back to the realm of light.
"I'll be fine just knowing you're alright, Sora," Riku accepts his help up, but he quickly recants upon putting so much as the smallest amount of pressure on his injured leg as he leans against Sora for support. "Eh… o-on second thought, a nice, strong healing potion probably wouldn't hurt…"
Sora lets out a playful laugh at this, and Riku revels in it, especially since he was so close to never hearing it again. They begin the slow walk across the shore together, Mickey following not too far behind with Aqua as they all prepare to finally leave the Realm of Darkness behind. As they all prepare to return to the light where they belong, everyone who was once trapped within this empty shadow wasteland, finally freed from its inescapable hold.
Or at least, Sora thinks as he casts one final, wistful look out at the dark sea, almost everyone.
Falling through the darkness is nothing new to Aqua. Really, she's been drifting further and further into it for as long as she can remember now. She's long since accepted that there's no escape from it; any chance she had at making it back to the light is dead and gone, just like she's very soon about to be as well.
Because as she drifts slowly through the void once more, she can feel it; her energy fading, her thoughts growing dim, even the beat of her very own heart starting to slow into silence. She doesn't know how, doesn't understand why, but she's dying. And really, given the alternative, the empty nothingness, the endless wandering within a world that wants her dead anyway, she figures she might as well finally stop fighting… and let it finally take her away once and for all.
"So…" she whispers to herself, unable to even spare a single tear for her own demise as it starts to befall her. "This is the end…"
With whatever dignity she has left, she closes her eyes, solemnly accepting her fate, accepting that her long, unwinnable fight is finally over. Accepting that she'll never know the beauty and warmth of the light she once called home. Accepting that she'll never see Terra or Ventus ever again.
She falls further into the icy, endless sea, toward the place that will ultimately become her untouchable tomb. But then, amidst the bitter silence, suddenly there's… something. A voice, muffled by the waters surrounding her, calling her name. A brief, bright orb of light circling around her before it fades back into the shadows. And… a hand, reaching through the darkness, reaching out to her.
"V-Ven…?" she wonders, slowly opening her eyes to see that hand and hear that voice calling for her once more. But when she does, she realizes it isn't Ventus beckoning her out of the shadows. It's someone else entirely, someone who she hasn't seen since he was a young, bright-eyed boy standing on the shores of a beautiful island she's sure only exists in her memories now. "Sora…"
She smiles in spite of herself, unsure of what's prompting her onward as she reaches her hand out toward his. Maybe it's that someone, anyone showed up to save her after all this time, or maybe it's the fact that someone is him, a boy she remembers to be so cheerful and innocent, who she'd heard had gone on to do such great things for the worlds and all who live in them. But her heart swells with pride, with the very hope she thought she'd long since lost as she reaches for him.
And when she takes his hand, the darkness she thought she was falling into… suddenly turns into light.
The sand underneath her is warm, and the sky is bright when she opens her eyes again. As she stirs back into consciousness, she can hear a nearby ocean crashing into the shore, can hear the brief calls of seagulls flying by in the distance. But that can't be right; she knows it's not right. After all, the only living things in the Realm of Darkness are the Heartless. And her, she supposes.
But suddenly, her eyes fully open, her head turning to face the two figures standing over her. In her bleary vision, she recognizes them, her heart aching with joy and grief alike at the sight of her two closest friends. "Aqua!" they both call her name and she feels tears brimming at the corners of her eyes.
"T-Terra… Ven…" she smiles, but something is holding it back all the same. This is too good to be true, it has to be…
And in reality… it is.
Because when her vision properly clears a moment later, Terra and Ventus are gone. Standing in their place are still two boys, one tall with silver hair and striking teal eyes, leaning against the other, with messy brown hair and a bright, excited smile. "Aqua!" he calls her name again, Sora calls her name and in an instant, she recognizes both him, and the boy leaning on him for support. Sora and Riku. The boys she'd met so long ago, neither of whom could have been much older than 5 at the time, now both grown into the strong and steadfast young men standing before her. It's a shocking change, to say the least, one that she can scarcely believe as she looks between them.
"I-it's… you…" she sits up a bit, her eyes wide as she tries to make sense of the warm grins on both of their faces. "H-how-"
"Aqua!" A much more recognizable voice catches her attention next and she's unable to hold back a gasp upon seeing the king standing not far from her side. "Thank goodness you're awake!"
"M-Mickey?" she asks incredulously, wincing as she tries adjusting her eyes to the bright light in the sky behind him. It's far brighter than any of the dull, false points luminance she recognizes in the Realm of Darkness. "W-what is…" She trails off slowly as she fully pulls herself up to sit, her voice and her body still weak from whatever they had just been put through. But she notices a familiar sandy shore surrounding her, familiar lush palm trees, a familiar crystal blue sea. She's been here before, more than once; the only problem is, she has no idea how she's managed to wind up here again. "Are these… the Destiny Islands?"
"Yep!" Mickey says, his already beaming grin widening. The king's pair of attendants, Donald and Goofy, if she remembers correctly, are also present, standing not too far away from Sora's side. They both offer equally cheery nods of confirmation, though the group's mutual elation is all but lost on Aqua.
"W-when did… they fall to darkness?" Her heart sinks even as she asks such a question. A world as beautiful and as peaceful as this has no place in the shadows she knows all too well. And neither do any of the people standing before her.
Riku shakes his head, still smiling all the while. "They didn't," he corrects, but Aqua still doesn't understand until he directly spells it out for her. "You're in the realm of light."
She stills, taking in a sharp breath that she doesn't dare let out. Because now she knows this absolutely is too good to be true, that she certainly must be having a dream she's had so many times before. A dream that'll never come true, she knows it won't, and yet…
And yet that light, the sun, she realizes after years of its absence, still shines high and bright in the clear blue skies. And yet the air is still warm and crisp and gently breezy, so unlike the dead, cold atmosphere she'd grown so used to. And yet she's surrounded by happy, smiling faces instead of the endless scourge of shadows, the long-lasting loneliness that had become her sole companion. And yet Sora extends a hand out to her once more, one that comes with another warm, friendly smile. "Welcome home."
Home. A place she hasn't known in over a decade now. A place she never thought she'd get to see again. A place she's spent so much time yearning for that now that she's finally there… she doesn't even begin to know what to say or do.
So instead, she does the only thing she really can. She lets out a small, shaken sob, but there's a smile behind it, one she can't even try to suppress. Because it's all so wonderful, so much more than she could have ever thought possible to the point that it's practically overwhelming in all the best ways. She's here, she's actually here, out of the Realm of Darkness, back to the realm of light. After years of being trapped in a dark, dreary mire of a prison, she's finally free.
And if she's free, then maybe that means that someday soon, Ventus and Terra can be too. Someday soon, the three of them can finally be together again.
It's a comforting, vibrant hope, one that she readily holds onto just as she holds onto the others as they rush in to embrace her, all of them more than happy to celebrate her long-awaited return. Sora helps Riku step forward so they can both join the group hug, though the two of them still linger close beside each other all the while, glad to finally be together again after everything that's been keeping them apart lately, including themselves.
And above all else, they're able to share in Aqua's joy; the joy of simply being here, being home, after thinking they might never make it there again.
The joy of finally rising up out of the darkness... and returning to the light.
Aw, yay! Aqua's finally home! Which is pretty exciting from a plot perspective because it means things can really start moving forward now. Perhaps it also means that we might be seeing Ven wake up next time around...? Ah maybe, we'll see. Either way we're rolling on full steam ahead (and we still have some Disney worlds to get to after all this, amazing) All the same, please don't hesitate to show some love in the REVIEWS! Until next time!
