Ah ok soooooo this chapter is um... a Lot? Another one that needs a warning because it gets VERY dark both in themes and uh sorta violence wise? So yeah just tread carefully with it, its pretty... intense (and I know some of ya'll are gonna probable scream at me for that so I'm sorry in advance!) I promise things will lighten up a little soon but for now have a big ol bundle of Angst. Enjoy!
Chapter 52: Once Upon a Nightmare
I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream
I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam
He walks alone, just as he has since the start of his search. The sound of the dry, dusty wind is all that echoes back to him between the high canyon walls towering over him on either side. He stays silent; without anyone to travel by his side, it's not like he really has much reason to speak at all. With his heart as heavy with worry and fear as its been for the past several weeks now, he has no real reason to rest either. Not until he can finally see Sora again; not until he can finally save him from something that should have never happened to begin with.
So he keeps going, passing through yet another world he knows he won't be in. For as much time that's passed, he would have thought he'd have something to show for it, some kind of lead or clue or anything that might finally bring his tireless trek to its much-needed close. But each world he's been to has wielded nothing; nothing but countless skipped meals, multiple sleepless nights, and far too many tears he's refused to shed anywhere outside of his own solitude.
This world, however, is finally the one to offer a break in the case. A break that he finds in the form of a sudden flash of red lying afar on the otherwise uniformly brown canyon floor. He approaches it cautiously, initially unsure of what he's happened upon. But as he gets closer, he can start to see the broken bits and pieces of… something. At first, he isn't sure what it could be as he kneels down to get a better look at the tiny pile of scrap metal. Though as he curiously begins trying to put its tiny, shattered pieces back together, it soon starts to dawn on him exactly what the ruined remains resting in his hands really are.
A Gummiphone. Sora's Gummiphone.
His own phone has been left largely untouched since he set out, to the point that he's started leaving it on the Gummi Ship whenever he ventures into any given world. As far as he's concerned, it's an unnecessary distraction from what he knows he needs to do and who he knows he has to find. As a result, the calls that come flooding in from Kairi, from Mickey, from Aqua, from all of his other allies always tend to go unanswered. Because none of those calls are ever from who he wants to hear from, who he longs to speak to most.
Not a single one of those calls comes from Sora; and now, he can see precisely why.
His mind immediately starts racing as he lets the combination of glass and circuitry fall back into the dirt. The first theory that comes to him is that the Organization is responsible for this, that they assaulted Sora, stole his one and only method of contacting any of the other lights for help, and utterly destroyed it right in front of him. But even as he thinks through that theory, he knows it doesn't quite add up. The Organization is many things, but they aren't sloppy; they wouldn't leave any sort of evidence potentially pointing to their targeted vessel's whereabouts just lying around like this. Which means there's only one other conclusion he can possibly come to.
Sora destroyed his own phone, his last lifeline to the lights. Because wherever he might be or whatever he's doing now, he doesn't want them to find him. He doesn't want to be found at all.
The thought has crossed his mind before, though until now, he's always done everything he could to dismiss it. Honestly, it had been easier for him to believe that the Organization had secreted Sora away to some unknown place and that he was merely awaiting rescue from their wicked clutches, just as he had during the Mark of Mastery exam. But now, there's almost no disputing the truth. Sora really is out there on his own, purposely running from all of the many people who want to find him and get him the help he needs. Purposely hiding from him.
"Sora…" he mutters, his voice so soft that it's barely even audible. He carefully scoops up what's left of the Gummiphone as he stands; even if there's likely no fixing it, he still doesn't have the heart to leave its remains simply lying there upon the sunbaked soil. And though he knows it's aimless, that Sora certainly won't hear him across the span of several worlds, Riku still holds those pieces close to his heart, sending a solemn promise on the breeze. A promise, a mission, a vow he won't let go of until he's finally seen it through, until Sora is finally home. "You never gave up on me… so I'm not giving up on you."
When Sora awakens, he finds himself in chains again.
It's something he knows he should be used to by now for how many times it's been happening to him lately. Really, he should come to expect it, anticipate it, accept it. And yet, his breathing still hitches in horror when he feels the cold cuffs wrapped tightly around his wrists. This time, one is locked around his neck too, restraining him to the point of near suffocation as he struggles to even take in any air because of it. As a result, his frightened cries come out faint and strained as he forces himself to his feet, only to immediately be pulled back down by the short, sturdy chains keeping him bound. They're latched to the tall stone wall behind him, one of four that compose the cramped, dank, dirty cell he now finds himself in. That cell has a door, however, something he desperately reaches for as it sits so close, yet so painfully far out of his reach. He tries as much as he possibly can to call upon his Keyblade to set himself free, to stop this newest round of torment before it can even truly begin. And yet, no matter how many times he tries to summon it into his shaking hands, his weapon refuses to appear, just like had when he'd been trapped by-
"No," he gasps, his voice starting small and scared at first, though it rapidly rises into full-on screams of terror. "No!" Brief flashes of what had happened in the forest return to him, of being awake and aware while submerged in his darker form, of the heavy net that had pinned him down without any hope of escape, of how Vanitas had simply left him to his unknown fate, and then… nothing. But even amidst that nothing, it's not too hard for him to figure out who might've trapped him and brought him here, wherever 'here' might be. "No!" His distraught cry echoes up to the dungeon's high ceiling, his chains rattling as he pulls against them with every ounce of fleeing strength his malnourished body has left. Whatever it takes to free himself and get as far away as possible before she can show up.
Little does he know that she's already there until a hand suddenly settles on top of his head, pulling his hood down as long, claw-like nails gently weave their way into his whitened hair. "Hush now, my pet," she coos, her voice falsely kind and soothing as she stands just behind him. His body tenses up in unbridled terror, his breath catching in his throat as she leans in to whisper into his ear. "You've no reason to despair. You're in the care of your gracious, merciful mistress now. And as such, my dear Heartless, you're finally where you belong…"
He screams again as he pulls himself away from her hold, though thanks to the short leeway the chains give him, he ultimately ends up collapsing face-first onto the floor. He stays there for a moment, his eyes wrenched shut and his breaths coming out in sharp, hysterical gasps that do little to give him the air the manacle around his throat is keeping him from. Amidst his own manic misery, he only barely hears the sound of Maleficent's footsteps as she moves to stand in front of him. He can only whimper when she edges the tip of her staff under his chin, forcing his tearful gaze up toward her.
"You poor thing," she says, her ruby lips lifted in a haughty grin. "I've heard that you've been running as a stray for quite some time now, and now I can see that's clearly true. You've worn yourself down to a mere shell of your former self, child. Not that it matters much to me how you're faring in this falsified form of yours; your true form is still more than strong enough to serve my needs just fine."
Sora sobs, words failing him as he continues struggling for air. He grips the cuff, or collar rather, his claws wrapping around it as he tries to tug it off of himself. Maleficent simply laughs in twisted amusement as she watches his failed effort, sparking even further distress in the heart of her already horrified captive. "L-let me go!" he pleads as much as he possibly can. "Please! I-I'm not… I can't-"
His protests are suddenly, swiftly silenced when the broad side of Maleficent's staff strikes him squarely across face. The swing sends him flying back toward the wall and his head slams into his hard stone before he falls limply to the ground, blackened blood already starting to trickle out of his mouth. Even so, Maleficent still stands over him, her former smile turned into a vicious, hateful scowl. "You dare to beg me for mercy after how utterly unruly you've been?" she sneers in disgust. "Perhaps if you'd had the good sense to actually behave and swear yourself over to me like you should have back in the desert, I'd be more willing to loosen your leash. But since you've more than proven your desire to be nothing more than an insolent, rebellious dog, then I have no choice but to force you to become the loyal, obedient beast I'm after by any means necessary…"
By now, Sora's managed to weakly pull himself back up into a sitting position, nursing a hand against his sore jaw. He doesn't try begging again, doesn't speak a single word, not when he knows literally anything he says could bring him even more anguish than he's already in, both inside and out.
"Oh my, but where are my manners?" Maleficent's tone quickly switches from cold to cordial as she smiles one again. "In all my excitement, I nearly forgot to welcome you to my castle. My first castle, to be precise. Isn't it such a wonderful turn of fate that I would find you again in the very world I happen to hail from? I can assure you that there will be no one coming to your rescue this time. And if anyone is callous enough to try, then I'll personally make sure they meet a quick and painful end at your hands-or rather, your claws, my pet."
Sora finds there's little he can say to argue such grave news. Unlike the last time he'd been in this position, no one knows he's being held captive, aside from possibly Vanitas, though he's just about the last person Sora would ever expect to come to his rescue. As for any of the lights… even if they did know of his current plight, chances are they'd think he's exactly where he belongs: in chains.
And yet… the thought still enters his mind that there is someone who does know where he is. His hand is shaking when he places it over his chest, over the x-shaped scar hiding just underneath his clothes, one that gives his location away at all times to someone who he definitely doesn't want to see. And yet, in the horrific, inescapable place he's in now, some small, downright stupid part of him can't help but hope for their "salvation" all the same.
"You're wrong," he starts, wondering all the while if his words are really his own. "The… m-my master will come for me." Tears fill his eyes, his chest burning as he hangs his head in shame, his voice barely above a whisper as his next words slip out, despite how much he doesn't want them to. "I… I belong to him… not to you…"
Fury fills every inch of Maleficent's face as she lashes out, reaching down to grip him by the front of his shirt and pull him up off the ground. "You mean to tell me that old fool has you regarding him as your superior now?" she scoffs coldly. "What absolute nonsense. Still, this gives you all the more reason to rejoice in the generous mercy I'm offering to you, child. Whatever measure of control he believes to have over you will be all but snuffed out by the time we're through. Speaking of which…" She grins as she lets him go, taking a step back as she holds her staff up, casting a shadowy spell over the orb on its tip. A spell that makes Sora seize up in resounding fear when he remembers the agony her poison had spent spiraling through his body before, remembering how utterly helpless he'd been left in its wake. Helplessness that he can't stand the thought of falling victim to again, not now, not when his body is already so weak and withering to begin with.
"No!" he sobs, trying to pull himself away as she begins drawing her staff in toward him. "Please, don't-n-not again, I-"
"Again?" Maleficent raises an eyebrow before letting out a light, teasing laugh. "My poor, naive little pet. The magic I've crafted here is far different from what I used on you before. You see, it's purpose isn't to simply paralyze you; there's not much reason for that when you're clearly far too frail to slip away from me this time."
Sora shakes his head, not understanding as he chokes out another miserable whimper, beyond terrified for what she has in store for him, whatever it might be. "Then what-"
"This magic," she cuts him off, her tone smug, satisfied over the atrocity she's about to commit. "Is of an entirely different sort. But without a proper subject at my disposal, I've yet to test its potency. So I suppose this will be an enlightening experiment for us both, my precious Heartless…"
Her staff hovers only a few feet away from him now, and it's clear that she's dragging her theatrics, this torture, out for as long as possible. Sora finds himself powerless to hold back another fearful cry as he draws back as much as the chains will allow, until his back is pressed against the wall, his heart pounding so fast inside his chest that he's surprised it hasn't stopped completely by this point. All the while, he doesn't look at Maleficent, his tearful sights solely set upon her magic instead, magic that stands to cause him even more harm, even more suffering than he can even comprehend. And, upon being faced with the reality of dealing with that suffering on top of everything else he's already been through, every ounce of unbearable anguish he's already had to endure, he can do nothing else but cry in vain for rescue that he knows won't be coming.
"Riku... Kairi... " he chokes, his voice small and broken as he remembers the awful truth. That even if either of them knew where he was and what was happening to him, they wouldn't bother saving him. Not when they've already given up on him such a long time ago now. So instead, he lets himself call out to the only person who might possibly want to set him free. Even if that person only intends to entrap and enslave him in another way entirely. "MASTER!"
And yet… his master doesn't come. No one does.
His pleas are sharpened into something far more shrill as soon as that malicious magic finally touches him. Its effect is immediate as ice-cold agony surges into his skin, through his blood, across his mind and heart alike. Unlike the poison, which had painted his eyes and veins a sickly shade of glowing green, this new magic taints them all in a vibrant shade of violet instead. It leeches across his skin, overtakes the gold already corrupting his eyes as his claws scrape across the stony ground beneath him. And all the while, his horrified, unrestrained screams echo throughout the chamber, mingled with Maleficent's triumphant, sadistic laughter.
"That's right, my pet!" she exclaims, excited upon seeing a familiar veil of darkness begin to swell over his body. Darkness that's called to the surface by her painstakingly developed magic, just as she intended it to. "Cast off the shackles of your feeble human form and become what you really are inside! Embrace my power and let it consume you whole! Exist as a creature of desolation and death, now and forevermore!"
Somewhere amidst this twisted tirade, Sora's pained screams soon shift into wild, feral howls and growls. At some point, his eyes begin glowing full, empty gold, his claws lengthen as they grip at his quickly rapidly blackening hair. His body lurches violently as his conscious mind is brutally buried underneath much more vicious instincts. The last thing he's able to think before he's gone completely is that maybe this is for the best.
Maybe he's better off forever lost as this abomination than he is being completely awake as he becomes an abomination of an entirely different kind.
He lies, limp and still, on the floor for a moment two as the transformation finally finishes. Maleficent smiles down at the shadow-soaked beast before her, confident that her evil ambitions are finally fully on track to completion. She prepares for the next step as she starts pooling energy for her next spell together, one that's meant to fully bring her pet entirely under her unquestionable control. And yet, before she can even properly cast that spell, her pet suddenly launches to his feet, a fearsome roar erupting from his glowing maw as he throws his head back, apparently in some sort of unknown distress. Maleficent steps back, admittedly confused as she watches the creature thrash about frantically, struggling against his chains that even his now much more impressive strength isn't enough to even try to break.
"That's quite enough, my Heartless," Maleficent says, pointing her staff at him once more as her power swirls around it. "Submit yourself to me and your turmoil shall at last reach its end."
Though she moves in to force her power upon him, she's swiftly knocked back when he suddenly swings his claws out, catching her hand to the point that he manages to knock her scepter clean out of it. Maleficent lets out an outraged shout as she draws her now-bleeding hand back in, offering her pet a hateful glare as prepares to punish him for his persistent insolence.
"Loathsome creature…" she sneers, picking her staff back up. "Clearly, you still need to be broken before you can serve me to the fullest extent. And if that's what it takes to grow even an ounce of obedience in you, then I'll be more than happy to do exactly that!"
She raises her staff high into the air, transforming it into a multi-tailed, heavily thorned whip that she doesn't hesitate to bring down upon her pet in full, furious force. He howls in pain when it strikes his back, though there's nothing he can do when she strikes him with it again and again and again and again. In fact, she only stills her hand when she notices something about her pet suddenly starting to change. The shadows begin to fade from his form, his body collapsing to the ground in apparent exhaustion as his slightly more human appearance becomes apparent in their place. Within seconds, Sora is back in his right mind, though he quickly wishes he wasn't for as much agony Maleficent's magic, still pouring purple through his veins, is currently crushing him with.
"What?!" Maleficent balks, bewildered by her spell's apparent failure. Because by all accounts, her Heartless should still be exactly that, a bloodthirsty beast without a single shred of humanity left behind, without a single chance of ever returning to the way he used to be. And yet, even despite the most powerful magic she has at her disposal, here he is, a meager, humble human, all the same.
For his part, Sora doesn't try to rise from his place on the floor. He keeps his face pressed against the rough, dirt-caked stone, his body feverish yet trembling all at the same time. He's faint, to the point that he might easily pass out at any given second, something that would certainly be a rare mercy considering how he feels like his head could very well split open if he doesn't. He nearly surrenders himself to that void that's far more peaceful than his present misfortune, yet right before he can, he's abruptly thrown right back into chaos all over again.
His throat burns as yet another scream is torn out of it, his back arching as shadows surge over him yet again, so soon after they'd slipped away. Maleficent stands at the edge of the cell in silence, watching with both suspicion and slight fascination as her pet transforms once more, though this time, the darkness doesn't engulf him entirely. Instead, he's split clean down the middle, his hair half white, his skin only partially seeped in shadow. When he cries out again, his voice is both his own and a roar that decidedly isn't, mangled together into something that's every bit as much of a mangled amalgamation as the rest of him is now. A twisted, tangled creature that's not quite a monster… but a far cry from being a human either.
As if his appearance wasn't nightmarish enough, his mind is somehow in an even worse state. His thoughts, if they can even be called that anymore, are nonsensical, torn between terror and panic and rage and savagery. Tears only streak out of one of his eyes, his mouth ripped far too wide on one side as he desperately gasps for air that he's not so sure he really needs. Whatever his current state is, it's maddening, comparable to being torn apart and put back together again with every new second. Control comes to him and leaves him in waves as his emotions are forced to fight against his instincts, as he craves both freedom and violence all, as he reaches a shaking, chain-bound hand out to the woman who brought this insanity upon him in the first place.
"S-stop!" he shouts and snarls at the same time. He doesn't know if this is what her magic is meant to do to him, but if it is, then it's much more tortuous than the poison could have ever been by far. "Make… stop! Please!" he wails, his malformed mouth and muddled mind incapable of proper speech. Not that it matters when the mere ability to speak is stripped away from him mere seconds later as he's thrust into yet another sudden, excruciating shift.
Maleficent says nothing, her expression a piercing, almost stoic mask as she watches the darkness fully overtake her pet once more. Though he's once again in the form that she prefers, it doesn't last long, for only a few mere moments later, he's back to himself, sniveling and sobbing as his struggle continues without end. She remains in place, simply observing her "experiment", studying the effect that her spell has had on him as he transforms multiple times, going back and forth between a monster, a human, and something unsteadily in between.
The entire painful process repeats itself almost four times in the span of a single hour alone. And as that hour draws to a close, Maleficent finally decides she's seen enough. She turns on her heel, not sparing her pet another word as he falls to the ground, fully himself again, though likely not for too much longer if things keep going the way they are.
So, she leaves her prisoner alone to wallow in his ceaselessly shifting sorrow. She leaves him alone to endure something every bit as inescapable as the chains binding his wrists and neck, as the darkness flushing in and out of his form, as the despair he's stuck drowning in, in every possible way there is.
"Oh, why can't that darn kid keep himself outta trouble for a change?!" Pete huffs as he paces back and forth around the otherwise empty throne room. He's never spent too much time in Maleficent's original castle, and with good reason. The entire place unsettles him, from its dark, towering spires, to its gloomy, cavernous interior, to the ghoulish, goblin-like goons Maleficent has employed as its guards. But the unpleasant sound of screaming that's echoing through the structure's halls now makes the castle even more haunting than he could have ever thought possible. Especially since he knows exactly who those screams belong to.
"Gah!" he shouts, trying in vain to cover his ears against the woeful wailing coming from the dungeons below. Wailing that only serves as a reminder of just how wrong every part of what's happening here really is. "That tears it! I'm goin' down there and helpin' that runt out whether Maleficent likes it or not!"
He's more than set to do just that too, to find a way to set his partner's innocent young captive free. Yet before he can even take a single step toward the dungeons to do so, he stops dead in his tracks when he hears footsteps emerging into the grand hall. "M-Maleficent!" he gulps, hoping that she hadn't heard his brazen proclamation mere seconds ago.
"Silence, you imbecile," Maleficent groans as she sulks over to her throne. She practically collapses into it, rubbing her temples as she lets out a long, exasperated sigh. "I'm in no mood for your inane prattling. I have a splitting headache…"
"Uh… gee, I wonder why that could be…" Pete frowns, glancing down to the floor. "Lemme guess, things didn't go as well as you hoped they would with the brat?"
Maleficent's already severe scowl sharpens at the mere mention of Sora alone, even as his on-and-off cries continue reverberating even as high up as her lofty throne. "Do not speak to me about that wretched child," she seethes, hatefully as she stares down at her scepter. "I simply don't understand it. I spent weeks working on that spell. It should have turned him into the Heartless I require once and for all. But what does it do instead? It makes his transformations unstable at best and unpredictable at worst. What an absolute disappointment…"
Pete pauses for a moment upon hearing this news, relieved by it every bit as much as he is concerned by it. Still, he makes sure to tread carefully as he tries to dissuade her from her unsavory plans yet again, hoping that after yet another setback like this, she might actually listen this time. "Welp, I guess that's that then," he shrugs, trying his best to make his tone sound far less nervous than he truly is. "Ya tried your best, but it didn't turn out. Might as well turn the kid loose and call it a day, a-am I right?"
"...No," Maleficent says, her voice low as she runs a hand across the orb of her scepter. "I'm far from finished with that… thing down in the dungeons. If it wants to be stubborn, then it will soon find that I am more than resilient enough to match."
"B-but… didn't ya just say he was a disappointment?" Pete presses, wishing that he could say something, anything to convince Maleficent to finally leave this sadistic scheme behind. "Maybe it's time you oughta throw in the towel. Ya know, try something new? Something that has nothin' to do with the kid maybe?" he mutters that last question, not wanting to risk setting her off any more than she already is.
"Oh, I have every intention of trying something new," Maleficent finally grins, sitting up a bit taller on her throne. "Without any of the child's troublesome friends coming to rescue it this time, I have no reason to rush things along. I can take all the time I need to perfect a spell that will make its final transformation a permanent one. But for now…" She pauses, her treacherous grin growing as she lets another one of her prisoner's pain-wracked screams sound through almost every inch of her castle. Screams that she's already starting to savor every bit as much as the absolute agony they represent, agony that, in her eyes at least, is more than well-deserved. "I believe there's plenty of fun to be had with our young 'guest' while we wait..."
With no windows within his underground cell, Sora has no way to know how much time has passed, though to him, it might as well have been years since he first awakened here. The empty hours pass on into desolate days, each filled with a flurry of continual, constant transformations. He never stays in any given form longer than an hour, and the length of time he spends in each is erratic and ever-changing. But what is always consistent is that it's absolutely unbearable every time his claws and fangs extend, every time his body bends in ways that it never should, every time his awareness either shreds itself in half or slips away from him completely. He swears he transforms at least dozens, maybe even hundreds of times in one day, but the sting of it never once softens. And the worst part of it all is that he has no idea how to stop it in the slightest.
Maleficent shows up every now and again to "check" on her miserable captive, sometimes staying for a bit to spectate on the looping rounds of madness her magic has locked him into. But in those first few days, she scarcely says a word to him, nor does he try to say anything to her in return. After all, why bother begging when she's already made it more than clear that she has no intentions of showing him any sort of mercy whatsoever?
Outside of her short visits, he's left with no one but himself to contend with. And thanks to his repetitive transformations, more often than not, he's languishing in a half-conscious haze where some other, much more malignant part of him drives his desires, and in doing so, pleads for one thing and one thing alone.
Hearts… Hungry… Starving… Must have hearts…
I know… he responds to it, though only within the mangled mind they both share. I'm starving too… Albeit, he's starving for sustenance of an entirely different kind.
And yet, neither of them are satisfied in their mutual hunger. While Maleficent herself never brings him any sort of food during her short "visits", every few days she orders some of her goons to toss scraps of raw meat for her pet to feed upon. Regardless of the form he's in, he initially devours it eagerly, desperate for any kind of meal he can get his claws on, even if that meal is every bit as meager as it is rotting and rancid. While his darker instincts gladly feast upon the flesh of even a dead living creature, he quickly comes to regret it whenever he's human again. His stomach rejects the spoiled steak, to the point that he's forced to hack up its remains alongside even more blackened blood he's not so sure he can stand to lose much more of. Not wanting to repeat such an unpleasant experience alongside everything else he's going through, he stops even eating anything that's thrown onto the filthy floor for him, instead leaving the putrid scraps for the rats that occasionally scurry across his cell. As a result, his already outstanding hunger starts to take an even greater toll upon him, his body growing even thinner and weaker, a ceaseless chill starting to settle over him that's caused by more than just the inhospitable conditions of his current prison.
If anything, he starts to see his transformations as a blessing, a way to draw him out of the otherwise unbearable agony starvation brings, if only for a little while. He lets the darkness wash over him, welcoming the strange sense of relief its burning bitterness brings him. And whenever it inevitably leaves him right back where he'd been before, he often finds himself crying for it to come back to him. He finds himself wondering just how long this twisted, terrible cycle of suffering can possibly go on for, and most of all, he finds himself wishing it would just overtake him completely already so he won't have to feel a single second of it ever again.
But then… one day, there's an unexpected break in that cycle.
He's hot off the heels of another transformation, back to himself as he sits, his back against the wall, his knees hugged against his chest. He doesn't even glance up when the dungeon door creaks open, as loud, lumbering footsteps slowly start to saunter in. What does finally get him to lift his head is when he happens to hear Pete awkwardly clearing his throat to catch his attention.
"Um… heya, kid," he begins, rubbing the back of his neck. Tucked under his other arm is a bundle of something-Sora can't be bothered to question or care as to what it might be. "H-how's it goin'?"
Sora lets out a disgruntled scoff as he holds one of his chained wrists up. "How do you think it's going?" he retorts, his voice dry and cracking a bit from thirst.
Pete winces, unsure of what to say. He knew this would be an immensely uncomfortable encounter-that's part of the reason why he's waited so long to come down here. But now that he's here, he might as well follow through on why he decided to risk this visit in the first place. "Here," he sets the bundle down in front of Sora, opening it up to reveal a large loaf of bread, a canteen of water, and best of all, a sizable container of piping hot soup. "Pickin's are sorta slim here around the castle, so I, uh… took a trip down to the nearest town and grabbed this for ya. So stop gapin' at me and eat up."
"...You really got all this…" Sora stares at the food, far more than he's had to eat in weeks. "For me?"
"N-now don't go gettin' any big ideas!" Pete exclaims, flustered. "I'm not goin' soft on you, I'm still as tough as they come! I just thought that ya might need somethin' more than just-"
Pete starkly cuts himself off when Sora suddenly lunges forward, hungrily snatching the food away and ravenously tearing into it, as if he's scared it'll be taken away from him if he doesn't. With his dignity already non-existent as of late, he hardly cares about how savage he's being as his fangs shred the bread down to nothing in just a few bites. He practically pours the soup down his throat, savoring the delicious, delightful warmth it spreads throughout his otherwise bitterly cold body. The entire meal only lasts minutes, but those minutes are perhaps the only remotely decent ones he's had since the day he'd been dragged here. The only brief ray of light that's managed to shine upon him amidst the darkness he's spent so long languishing in.
"Yeesh," Pete raises his eyebrows, surprised. "You sure were hungry, weren't ya?"
"You have no idea…" Sora sighs following a generous swing of water. He manages a small smile, the first to fill his features in what feels like an eternity now. "Thank you, Pete. I… I really appreciate it."
"Tch, yeah, well, just don't go rattlin' off about this to Maleficent, ya hear?" Pete scowls as he bundles up what's left of the meal. "She's been in a bad enough mood lately as it is; last thing I need is to tick her off even more."
Sora's expression darkens at the mention of his cruel captor. He looks down at his arm, his non-darkened skin still flushed a faint shade of purple thanks to the sinister spell she'd cast upon him. A spell that still shows no signs of letting up even several days later. "W-what is she planning on doing with me anyway?" he dares to ask, even though he knows he shouldn't. "Do you know?"
"Er… not really," Pete admits honestly. "She's been busy workin' on some new spell that's supposed to keep ya stuck as Heartless full-time, but… that's all she's said to me. I've been tryin' to talk her outta it, but-"
"Wait," Sora interrupts, bewildered by what he's hearing. "You've been trying to… Why?" he trails off into the question, perplexed. "Why does it matter to you what she does to me? Why do you even care at all?"
"I don't care!" Pete protests, but even then, his tone implies that he doesn't fully mean it. "I just… you said you was gonna talk to his royal pipsqueak 'bout gettin' me back into Disney Town! Unless you done went and forgot all about that the second I unlocked them chains of yours back in Hollow Bastion."
"I didn't forget…" Sora sighs as he brushes a few of his disheveled white locks out of his eyes. "But… I don't think I'll be able to keep my promise to help you get home. I mean, I can't even go back to my own home now, so… yeah. I'm sorry."
Pete doesn't pursue the matter much further when he hears the heavy remorse slipping into the boy's tone. He's half-tempted to leave him well enough alone after that, and yet… his own morbid curiosity ends up getting the better of him, ultimately convincing him to stay put. "Er… what do ya mean ya can't go home?" he asks, regretting the question as soon as it comes out.
"Isn't it obvious?" Sora asks with a bitter laugh as he holds up both of his clawed hands. "Just look at me. I don't belong on my island anymore, I don't really belong anywhere. Well, anywhere except for a place like this, I guess…" He absently skims the shackle collaring his neck, something he's largely gotten used to by now to the point that he doesn't even try to free himself from it anymore. Not when he knows there's not a single chance of it ever actually working.
"Aw, geez!" Pete groans, trying his best to ignore the guilt rapidly rising in his gut. "Do ya have to be so dang overdramatic all the time, kid?! I swear, you're just as bad as my boy back home is!"
"...Your boy?" Sora repeats, confused, as Pete quickly rushes to cover his own mouth. "Pete… you… have a son?"
"What's it to you if I do or don't?" Pete huffs, crossing his arms. He's quick to fold a moment or two later, when he catches the immensely curious look Sora's sending his way. "Ugh, fine, if you gotta know… Yeah, I do got a brat of my own; two, actually." He reaches into one of his pockets, pulling out a wallet with several photos of his family tucked inside. He can't help but smile a bit as he shows them off to Sora. "This here is Pete Junior, this adorable lil' pumpkin is my daughter Pistol, and this lovely lady down here is Peg, my wife."
"Aww," Sora lets out a small, charmed laugh. "You know, I never would have imagined you to be a family man, Pete."
"Hey now!" Pete scowls, pocketing his wallet once again. "What's the matter with that!?"
"Nothing," Sora assures, still smiling. "Honestly, it's really sweet. You must care a lot about them, huh?"
Pete nods, though a wistful look crosses his face as he tries to put a stoic front back on once again. "Eh, it's not like I've really seen any of 'em in a while," he says, clearly pretending not to care about that fact. Even when he so obviously does.
"Why haven't you?" Sora asks, frowning.
"Kinda hard to pop in for a visit when the town they all live in is off limits to ya," Pete shrugs. "Plus, I've been busy runnin' 'round with Maleficent these past couple of years, so… it's been awhile since I've checked up on 'em."
"That's… really sad," Sora says softly, sympathetically. "I know how much I miss my friends and family; I'd give anything just for a chance to be with them again. But you, Pete? You make it sound like you haven't seen your family in years. Is trying to help Maleficent really worth it if it means you can't even be with the ones who matter to you most?"
Pete pauses, seeming to seriously consider Sora's points before he quickly shakes his head to clear it of such dangerous thoughts. "What, do ya think it's as easy as just packin' up and giving Maleficent my two weeks notice?" he scoffs incredulously. "I don't know if you've noticed, kid, but lately she's been-"
"Even crazier than usual?" Sora deadpans. "Believe me, I have. But if you aren't ok with what she's doing, then why bother sticking around? Why not just find a chance to sneak away so you can finally go back to your family?"
Pete only narrowly avoids admitting how much he'd like to do exactly that as he tries stubbornly rebuffing the boy's arguments yet again. "And lemme guess, you're hopin' I'll let you outta them chains so you can run off all nice 'n free, right?"
"...No," Sora glances down, his voice soft and resigned. "I-I… I can't ask you to risk anything for me, not again. You have a family out there who loves you and who's waiting for you, Pete. I… I don't have anyone who wants me around, not anymore…"
"Is that chain tied around your neck too tight, kid?" Pete rebuffs, rolling his eyes. "I dunno about the rest of your pals, but I know for a fact that Doofus Duck and Goof-for-Brains would do just about anything for ya. Heck, they're probably rushing all the way out here to save you even as we speak."
"They're not," Sora counters, sighing in shame he still can't seem to shake. "I mean, why would they ever want to help me after how badly I hurt them? Even if they knew what's happening to me, they… they'd probably think I'm getting exactly what I deserve…"
Pete falls into silence at this as he wonders who the Sora sitting so sad and lost before him is. Because the Sora he once knew was stubborn, frustratingly so, a massive pain in the neck and a persistent one at that. The Sora he once knew would still be vying for some way to escape, would have held out hope that his friends would find their way back to his side. The Sora he once knew would have never given up on anything, including himself, as easily as he is now.
And yet… the Sora he once knew had ceased to exist the moment Maleficent's painful poison had killed every trace of who he used to be. An awful act that, even in a small, almost indirect way, Pete knows he had a hand in.
"Kid…" he begins, his voice softening in the way that it would if he were speaking to one of his own children. ""I… you're not-"
"You should probably go before Maleficent finds out you're down here…" Sora advises, his tone still quiet and dejected as he turns to face the wall. "Thanks again for the food. You don't have to bring me anymore if you don't want to. I… haven't done anything to earn it, after all."
Initially, Pete can't help but wonder if the boy is intentionally trying to guilt trip him. And yet, even if that is what's happening here, he still can't help but feel compelled to try and reach a helping hand out to Sora all the same, both figuratively and literally. "Listen, kid-I mean… Sora," he corrects himself, deciding to show a rare moment of solemn sincerity. "You don't have to-"
He's swiftly cut off the second his hand so much as skims Sora's shoulder. Because suddenly, the boy spins around, his eyes and mouth both flooded bright gold as a harsh hiss escapes him. "I said GO!" he shouts, lashing his claws out just as the next transformation truly starts to take hold.
Pete nearly tumbles to the ground as he jumps back, letting out a frightened cry as he watches that transformation unfurl in all it's twisted horror. He's seen this happen to Sora before, but that doesn't make it any less horrific to behold. Within seconds, the boy who he'd just carried on an entire conversation with, the boy who reminds him so much of his own kids, is reduced to nothing more than a simple, savage beast. As that beast pulls wildly against the chains keeping it imprisoned, a frantic, furious roar echoing from his split maw, Pete finds he can't really stomach this horrendous scene for any longer than he already has. He quickly turns with the intent of leaving, knowing there's really nothing he can do to help Sora in his current mindless, maddened state.
Though before he leaves the boy behind, he does stop at the dungeon door, daring to glance back at him. He nearly offers him an apology he likely won't hear, nearly promises to find a way to save him if no one else shows up to do so in his stead. But in the end… he decides to keep both his apologies and his promises to himself as he walks out and shuts the door behind him.
As he decides, yet again, to be a coward. Just like he always has been. Just like he's terrified he always will be.
If Sora had a hard time sleeping out in the wild, then he's all but robbed of it here. Though he knows he's bound to be beset by untold nightmares, he still tries to catch whatever rest he can in the brief moments that he's fully himself. Though his stomach aches with endless hunger, his mouth burns with unquenched thirst, and his body trembles in the bitter cold, he still lies on the filthy floor, his chains pressed against his wrists and neck as he struggles to make himself comfortable. There are a handful of times when, overwhelmed by exhaustion so immense he can't resist it, his eyes slip shut and his mind starts to drift off into a sleepy, quiet lull. Only for each of those short respites to be swiftly snatched away from him the second another new transformation tears him back into the waking world, depriving him of the momentary peace he so desperately longs to know.
His most recent attempt at sleeping, however, surprisingly isn't interrupted by a sudden shift into the shadows. Instead, he's awakened when his cell door suddenly swings open, likely with the arrival of another inedible meal or perhaps even another potential visit from Pete. Whatever it is, Sora doesn't bother rolling over to see. Instead, he covers his eyes with his arm, issuing an annoyed groan to whoever's come to interrupt whatever sparse moments of sleep he's trying to get. He doesn't even pay any mind to the sharp footsteps clicking across the floor toward him, at least until those footsteps suddenly stop. And when they do, an abrupt deluge of scalding, boiling hot water slams down upon him.
He bolts upright, shouting as the steaming liquid scorches his skin, with far too much of it splashing into his face, almost blinding him completely. His vision burns, tears forced from his eyes as he tries to make sense of what's happening, only to be met with the blurry figure of his ruthless captor standing over him.
"W-why-" he tries to ask, but ultimately ends up cutting himself off with an involuntary sob.
Maleficent regards him with a pitiless sneer as she tosses the bucket the boiling water had been in aside. "So, it seems that even pain isn't enough to pull you into your proper form anymore," she starts off scowling, though soon enough, an icy smile comes to take its place. "No matter. I still believe the excursion I have planned for you today, my pet, will prove to be a welcome change of pace. Pete!" She glares back at the door, where Pete apprehensively pokes his head in, swallowing hard as he properly steps into the cell, intentionally trying to avoid Sora's gaze all the while. "There you are, you intolerable oaf. Hurry up; we're leaving. All of us are leaving…"
"...What?" Sora barely manages to ask, his eyes wide with the first sparks of burgeoning hope. Hope that's swiftly snuffed out as soon as Maleficent snaps her fingers. The other end of his chains, once bolted securely to the wall behind him, now appear clenched tightly in her hand, though he's still every bit as trapped by them as he was before.
"You've been cooped up in here for far too long, my poor Heartless," Maleficent smirks, her tone dripping with false, cloying sympathy. "You're due for some fresh air… and some fresh hearts to satisfy that insatiable appetite of yours…"
Sora only has enough time to draw in a frightened gasp before a dark corridor swallows all three of them up in a matter of seconds. It takes them to a place that's a far cry from the dungeon, to the point that Sora largely finds himself too shocked to feel sick from the unexpected trip through the shadows. When his vision clears, he finds a familiar forest surrounding them, the very same forest Maleficent had captured him in actually. But neither the tall, squarish trees nor the dark storm clouds rumbling above them are what truly catches his attention, or his concern. Rather, it's the small, almost ramshackle village resting at the foot of the hill they're standing on. A village he'd all but been violently chased out of just a few days before.
"Behold, my pet," Maleficent yanks his chains hard, pulling him along after her. He tries pulling back, though with his strength sapped from hunger and remnant pain, he ends up with essentially nothing to show for his resistance. "A town filled with humble peasants, home to some of the poorest folk this kingdom has to offer. As such, not a single soul within it would be missed if say, some unfortunate cataclysm were to befall them… like a terrible storm, or an unexpected earthquake… or a starving Heartless set loose upon their unsuspecting souls…"
Sora nearly forgets to breathe when he hears such a sadistic scheme, one that he knows full well he's at the very center of. The mere thought, the very idea of being used to not just harm innocent people, but possibly even kill them in cold blood is far too much for him to bear. He jerks as much as he can against his chains, distraught and determined to get away from this wicked woman and the demented designs she has in store for him. "No!" he shouts, thrashing and flailing against her surprisingly strong hold. "I-I won't do this! You can't force me to-"
He's abruptly silenced when Maleficent fiercely tugs him toward her, the shackle around his neck choking him as she tightly grips his face to the point that her long nails draw blood from his cheek, "I can, and I shall," she hisses, her voice venomous as her sharp green eyes stare dangerously into his. "The spell I have to wipe away what's left of your feeble human form isn't quite ready yet. But in the meantime, I still want to test the limits of your strength and savagery, my irksome Heartless, and regardless of whatever pitiful protests you try to put forth, that's precisely what I brought you here to do. Now, all we need to do before that test can begin is wait for you to become of actual use to me. At least then you won't be capable of talking back anymore, you despicable cretin."
With this, she brutally shoves him back to the ground, though even still, his desperate attempts to escape don't stop. He shouts as he struggles, screams as loudly and as angrily as he can in the hopes that maybe someone will hear him, that someone will come, that someone will stop him before the madness can truly start. For the most part, Maleficent largely ignores his panicked cries, keeping her iron grip on the other end of her stubborn pet's metal leash even as he tries in vain to slip away. Pete stands alongside her, gnawing on his lower lip every time he so happens to spare a nervous glance Sora's way. He ultimately finds he has to look away when he notices tears beginning to streak down the poor boy's face, cutting thin lines through the layers of dirt that's caked onto it. Eventually, he stops fighting, exhaustion finally getting the better of his frail, broken body as he inevitably collapses to the ground, his chest heaving with despondent sobs as he's left with nothing but the unspeakable reality of what he's about to be forced to do. A reality that, if he's being perfectly honest, Pete finds every bit as abhorrent as Sora does.
"Um… Maleficent?" he speaks up, his voice already wavering with dread. "A-are ya sure this ain't goin' a... bit too far…?"
Maleficent merely answers him with a frigid glare, one that makes him regret even asking such a question. "If anything," she says, turning her sights back to the village she has every intention of mercilessly destroying. All for the sake of a single, simple "test". "It's not far enough."
Pete prepares to say more, to try and come up with some way to convince Maleficent to call this off while she still can. But before he can even get another word out, Sora suddenly lets out an absolutely anguished yell as darkness begins to seep over his skin, signifying the start of another terrible transformation.
"Finally," Maleficent smirks as she turns to her pet. "I was starting to think that its infantile tantrum would never come to a close."
"M-Maleficent, wait," Pete interjects, trying not to watch as Sora is stripped of his humanity yet again. "What if, a-and I'm just spitballin' here, we don't sick the kid on the town and instead take him back to the castle, m-maybe leave him be for a few days, or better yet… just, uh… let him go?"
"Oh, I'll let it go," Maleficent assures, grinning as she waves her scepter over Sora's now fully-monstrous form. She knows he won't stay like this for too long, an unfortunate side effect of the last spell she'd cast upon him, but she intends to make the most of every second she has. "Right into the hordes of any weak fools who might try to stand in my way!" She lets loose a twisted, cackling laugh as her magic works fast, his golden eyes gleaming green as he bows low in reverence before her, just as he had been forced to do once before.
"At long last…" Maleficent reaches forward to stroke a hand through her pet's raven black hair. "Rejoice, my loyal little Heartless; your craving for the captured hearts of fallen humans is soon to be more than met…"
Maleficent abruptly releases the end of the restraints, causing both the chains and the shackles that have kept Sora bound for the past several days to disappear entirely. Pete draws in an expectant breath, hoping that the boy will take this as a cue to run, to flee into the forest, to get as far away from Maleficent as humanly possible. But with whatever's left of his darkened mind under her magical sway, he stays obediently where he is, standing low and unwieldy as he looks to his captor for further instructions.
"Go, my pet!" she orders, pointing her staff at the village. "Go and cause all manner of magnificent mayhem, strike fear and terror into the hearts of the masses, conquer and claim their fragile hearts, all in the name of the mistress of all evil!"
Without even a moment's hesitation, Sora does as she says, bolting on all fours down the hill toward the town and toward all the hearts awaiting within it. Maleficent moves to follow after him, albeit at a much more relaxed pace, satisfied that her success has been secured. "Come along, Pete," she coaxes with a cunning smirk. "This is the first true chance we've had to see my Heartless' unparalleled power be put to its proper use. We wouldn't want to miss such an auspicious occasion."
For a moment or two, Pete pauses, wanting to protest this vile plan, wanting to not just speak out against but do something about it. To do something, anything to stop Maleficent from using a scared, innocent child to carry out such senseless destruction and devastation.
But in the end, all he does is exactly what he's always done. In the end, he stays silent, simply following Maleficent's lead.
And in the end, he does nothing when the first sounds of screaming start to echo out from the village below.
It's a massacre. There's simply no other way to describe it.
The carnage kicks off before anyone can even see it coming, a wild, abominable creature that moves through the shadows of the streets with ease. He emerges into the market, a busy place on a late afternoon like this. A place packed full of heart, full of the very prey he yearns for above all else.
Like any good hunter, he purses that prey, attacking the first human he can get his claws on. He follows only his instincts, sharp and merciless, as well as the stern orders of his "mistress", both of which beckon his thoughtless body to do one thing and one thing alone:
Hearts… Hearts here! Must consume HEARTS!
So he consumes a heart. And another after that. And another after that.
The entire process is quick and easy enough for him, but absolutely agonizing for his victims. With his monstrous traits and superior strength, he has no trouble tearing into their flesh, his fangs usually sinking directly into the neck for the fastest kind of kill. And then, his darkness leeches onto their hearts, their souls, the very essence of their being to obtain what he truly desires. The physical heart itself doesn't become his own, but the energy it possesses does, an energy that's all but intoxicating for a being who believes himself to lack it. Whatever's left of those hearts fades after that energy has been sucked dry from it, departing to the source that all hearts spring from and leaving only an empty, lifeless husk behind. Husks that are eventually, inevitably doomed to become the very definition of nothing itself: Nobodies.
Almost as soon as the first villager is taken down, the rest quickly start to scatter as chaos spreads across the town. Even still, he manages to catch several more before the square entirely empties out. A few guards, the very same that had forced him out of the village a few days prior, rush in to confront the beast, spears and swords drawn. They swing their weapons at him, and several of their brutal hits do land; but not a single one of their strikes is enough to genuinely slow him down. Instead, with only a few brutal swipes of his claws, he knocks their weapons out of their hands, pouncing upon one of the men while the rest run off in fear.
From there, he darts through the already bloodstained streets, picking off whatever stragglers he spots along the way. Many villagers tuck away for safety inside of their homes, but with most of the town as impoverished as it is, a good deal of them aren't fortunate enough to have that kind of refuge. He tracks them down through allies and thoroughfares, his keen senses spotting them through their ill-suited hiding places. And every single one he finds, he slaughters, his darkened form painted red with their blood, his desire for all he believes he's lost finally being fulfilled. All while countless lives are brought to sudden, excruciating ends all around him, entirely at his own hands.
Maleficent has found a perch high atop the town's tallest building, watching her pet unleash his rampage with a wicked grin gracing her lips. Pete stands by, though for his part, he largely covers his eyes, not wanting to watch such a violent scene. Not wanting to think about the fact that Sora is the one who's making such violence happen.
"What a glorious display," Maleficent's twisted smile deepens as she watches her pet tear another horrified civilian's heart out. "And to think, this is but a mere taste of what I have planned. With my Heartless at my command, soon I shall bring entire worlds to their knees! And who knows? Perhaps in time, once I've conquered enough of those worlds, my pet might even be able to assist me in making a claim for the most important one of them all… Kingdom Hearts itself!"
"Heh, y-yeah, Kingdom Hearts, sounds, uh… great…" Pete remarks absently, peeking out from between his fingers. He isn't able to see Sora from their current position, but the immensely unpleasant din of the deadly damage he's dealing is something that can be heard all throughout the village. The anguished echoes of those who lay dying… and those who have found their loved ones already dead.
"Hm?" Maleficent pauses, her grin suddenly fading as she spots a crowd starting to form in one of the nearby streets. "What's this now? Some pathetic attempt at a peasant uprising perhaps?" Both her and Pete turn to take a closer look, only to hear a very familiar sounding scream suddenly rise above the rest. A scream that's mingled with savage snarl.
"H-he's back!" Pete exclaims, unable to hold back his relief.
"Not for long…" Maleficent hisses, her expression darkening. With but a spin of her cloak, she vanishes into thin air, leaving her henchman behind.
"Maleficent? Wait!" he calls after her, anxiously peeking down from the roof he's still standing on. "How am I suppose'ta get down from here!?"
Maleficent hardly heeds his alarm, however, as she moves in closer to what's happening on the ground below. She doesn't make her presence known to the gathering crowd, instead stopping atop another nearby roof as she keeps her focus on her pet alone. Or rather, on the half-beast, half-boy he's become at perhaps the worst possible time.
"Look!" someone in the crowd cries. "It's that boy the guards chased out of town last week!"
"They should have done much worse to him than that!" another villager angrily shouts. "He's an even worse monster than we could have ever thought!"
"Not just a monster either," one of the guards scowls, gripping his spear tightly. "He's a cold-blooded killer. One that doesn't deserve anything less than the same sort of death he's brought upon our village!"
A boisterous cheer rings out from the crowd at this, and that cheer that ends up being what finally brings Sora to some type of awareness after his latest shift. Half of his body is still drenched in shadows, half of his mind still pleading for hearts. But the other half of him… feels a warm, metallic slickness spread through his malformed mouth, sees his claws, painted in blood that doesn't belong to him, and hears a chorus of angry, downright hateful voices raised up against him. Each and every one calling for his demise.
He only narrowly manages to roll out of the path of a spear that's thrust toward him, similarly ducking away when someone swings their sword. His more aggressive half begs him to fight back, but the rest of him is far too lost in panic and confusion to even try. He doesn't know what's happening here, nor does he put too much stock in trying to figure it out; but what he does know, as he happens to skim a hand against his neck… is that the collar is gone. The chains have been banished. He's been freed.
And as soon as that realization hits him, he starts running before his warring thoughts can even hope to catch up to him.
"Hearts… need more hearts! Find hearts!"
"No! I need to run! I have to get out of here before she finds me!"
"Have to have hearts! Not enough hearts!"
"Just STOP IT already!" He lets out a shout as he grips his own aching head, ignoring the uproar of the crowd chasing after him. With his body as torn as it is, each step he takes is awkward, clumsy to the point that he's essentially stumbling as he tries and fails to run in two entirely different ways at the same time. "I can't let her find me, I can't let her take me back there again! I CAN'T!"
"Hearts… where hearts…?"
"A-a dark corridor… if I can summon a dark corridor then I can finally get away!"
"Go back… get hearts!"
"There's no way I'm going back! Not when I'm being chased! Wait…" he stops short, sudden fear striking him as he steals a glance back at the ground still charging his way. "Why… why are they chasing me…?" His breathing shallows as he looks back down at his claws again, most of his arms stained crimson, his mouth still heavy with the unmistakable, undeniable taste of blood. "W-what did I…?"
"Hearts…" he answers his own unfinished question. And that answer is more than enough to shatter what's left of him completely.
"No…" his voice is barely a whisper as the last of his darkened form finally leaves him. And as soon as it does, as soon as he's truly himself again… he explodes. "NO!"
His scream is raw, echoing across the entire town, throughout the entire valley really. He collapses to his knees, his claws digging deep into his scalp as his powers erupt, no longer inhibited by the chains that were keeping them in check. Hundreds, possibly even thousands of shimmering, shadowy spikes pierce their way through houses and stores, creating even more intensive injuries in their wake as they spread across almost every inch of the village. And at the epicenter of all this destruction and death, with his arms wrapped tightly around himself and his body heaving with heavy, horrified sobs… is Sora. The very person-or rather, the very monster solely responsible for it all.
The spikes manage to push most of the immediate townsfolk back, leaving them stunned by the incredible, intimidating show of magic they'd just seen. Sora all but ignores them, far too lost to his own grief, his stomach churning as the nightmarish realization of what he's done hits him over and over again. His despair overwhelms him, his guilt strangling him to the point that he struggles to even breathe. A large part of him hopes that the townsfolk will press past his spikes, that they'll finally catch up to him and give him the harshest punishment he deserves for the heinous crimes he's committed against them. But instead of facing justice… he's faced with something far worse.
"My, my, that was quite a show…" Sora freezes, his already palpable fear practically skyrocketing when a hand suddenly comes to rest on his shoulder, long nails digging into his skin. He can't bear to glance back at Maleficent as she stands over him, admiring his horrific "handiwork". "The spikes were something of a surprise, but I must admit they're a very nice touch. You did quite well, my pet. Even better than I could have expected."
Sora finds himself feeling even sicker when he hears the sadistic pride in her voice. Pride over the untold innocent lives she's successfully forced him into snuffing out. Lives of mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, people with hopes and dreams they'll never get to live out, with family and friends who never get to see them alive again. All because of him.
And as he thinks about all of those lives that he has cut short, all of those people that he has killed… he can't help but think that he should have been the one to die in their stead.
A round of panicked shouts suddenly rises up from the crowd on the other side of the spikes, with several villagers outright fleeing the scene as soon as they happen to spot who's just arrived. "I-it's Maleficent!" someone cries in apt alarm. Given that this is the world she hails from, her reputation has spread far and wide across its residents, to the point that just about everyone present knows of her treachery and tyranny.
"We should have known that foul beast was one of her demons!" another harsh cry rings out. Sora shudders when he hears such a claim, hating just how true it is in every single way. Hating how he's become something so much worse than a liar, so much worse than a runaway, so much worse than a thief. He's become a murder.
And no matter how many empty apologies he makes, no matter how much he might try in vain to set such a grave wrong right, that's something he knows he'll never, ever be able to take back.
"It seems we've overstayed our welcome," Maleficent notes, chuckling in amusement over the villagers' outrage. "I think you've had enough exercise for now. We'd best be on our way."
Sora jolts, breaking out of his despondent despair as he remembers his wrists and neck aren't restrained, that there's nothing that's keeping him from escaping. Nothing that's stopping him from making sure that something like this never happens again, from making sure that he's never forced to take another innocent life ever again. Acting on sheer, desperate impulse, he throws his hand up, conjuring a large, tall spike to put some initial distance between himself and Maleficent. While she's still startled by its sudden appearance, he scrambles to his feet, running as fast as his ailing body can possibly go. He doesn't get very far, however, before he finds that his own spikes are essentially entrapping him on all sides. He tries to call them back, to wish them away, but they stay exactly where they are, caging him in his own web of woe that he's completely powerless to escape from. Just as he's powerless to escape from the shackle that soon shows up around his neck to choke and chain him all over again.
"Even still you somehow cling onto those last small shreds of defiance, I see," Maleficent sneers as she pulls hard against the other end of the chains, painfully yanking him back toward her. "I can assure you, my pet, that will all be obliterated as soon as I wipe out what's left of your meager mind. I'm sure you'll consider that to be an act of mercy at this point."
A wordless shout splits from him when he sees her summon a dark corridor, when she starts dragging him toward it. He struggles against her hold, fights as much as he possibly can to save himself from having to return to that dank, dreadful dungeon, to stop himself from becoming a feral slave who hunts and hurts and kills without a single thought. But in the end, his knees give out, his weakened body all but failing him as he's relentlessly raked across the rough cobblestone streets.
He reaches a pleading out to the scared, spectating villagers, though of course, none of them so much as make a single move to help him. And why would they, after he'd savagely slaughtered so many of their family and friends and neighbors? Why would anyone ever want to help an murderous monster like him?
So Maleficent drags him back into the darkness, back into the nightmare he knows he'll never be able to escape from. In seconds, they're gone, just as rain begins to fall upon what little remains of the ruined village.
I wish I was dead.
That's the thought that fills his mind the most often, in the brief, fleeting moments where he actually can think. While his transformations were largely uncontrollable before, now they're made even worse as a result of his continually declining mental state. His darkness feeds upon anger, his grief, his sheer disgust over what he's done, to the point that sometimes he finds himself shifting forms every few seconds. He spends hours, days in agony, both inside and out as he lies on the damp dungeon floor, chilled to the bone as his body and mind both turn against him in a cruel, constant loop. He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep, he doesn't speak, he barely even moves as it all befalls him, as he's tortured in just about every last way there is. But for the lives he'd taken, for the death and despair that he's wrought, he knows that torture doesn't even come close to what he truly deserves.
Whenever his more shadowy senses rise to the surface, they lash out against his languishing lethargy. They beg for escape, for hearts, for more lives to destroy to satisfy their own sinister ends. His own thoughts stay silent, never responding, not even caring anymore. Because the only thing he can do now is wait. Wait for Maleficent to finish her next spell, wait for her to arrive to strip him of every last shred of humanity, wait for his broken mind and heart to finally be banished out of existence altogether.
Wait for the relentless nightmare his existence has become to finally, finally be brought to an end.
There are times, when tears start streaking down his dirt-covered face, that he tries to imagine what his life had been like before. Before this dungeon that's now become his home, before the darkness that had invaded every aspect of his life, before he'd started dying little by little every day. He tries to imagine an island, somewhere far away, with a warm sun and crystal seas. He tries to imagine a woman with a loving smile, with gentle words and kind embraces. He tries to imagine a boy with silver hair, a girl with ocean blue eyes. He tries to imagine what he might've once said to them, how he might have once laughed alongside them, how much he might've once loved them. He tries to imagine what home felt like, what hope felt like, what happiness felt like. He tries so hard to imagine, to remember who he was and how his life had been before he'd become what he is now. He tries… but each time he does, it only ever ends in even more tears.
Because whoever he'd been before is nothing more than a forgotten memory, a scattered dream, a ghost that's already long since faded away. It's for the best that whoever he is now does exactly the same.
No one's coming to save me… he reminds himself daily, a mantra that's become every bit as cold and consistent as his recurring transformations and the chains latched around him. And sure enough, no one does come, not even Maleficent since their outing to the village. He supposes he ought to consider himself lucky for that, but he doesn't. Not when he knows what she'll do to him the next time she appears.
No one's coming to save me… he repeats in his thoughts one night, his body still, his eyes largely glazed over as he stares at the empty darkness ahead of him. No one wants to save me either… he lets out a soft, sad sigh, selfishly wishing that someone would. That someone, anyone out there in the wide worlds would want to find him, that they'd want to save him, that they'd want to finally set him free.
And that's when he suddenly realizes there's someone out there who does.
Slowly, he starts to pick himself up off the floor, coming to sit up against the closest wall. The idea twists and turns inside his mind, and though he tries to debate it, tries as best he can to push it away… ultimately he gives in. Because now, he has no other choice but to do something he would have never dared to do before. No choice left but to pray to the only false god he has left to believe in now.
"I-I… I know you can hear me…" he begins, lifting his morose gaze up to the ceiling so far above his head. He swallows harder, ignoring the pain that runs through his raw throat as he tries to find his voice again. "A-and I know you're watching me-you always are…" he sighs, skimming a hand over the place where the scar, the sigil, runs heavy and dark and damming across his chest. "So please…" he hates this, hates that he has plead to him, of all people. But after suffering perhaps the worst turmoil he's ever had to face for such a long time now, what else can he really do? "H-help me… Master…"
That final word lingers in the hollow air for a moment or two, his own voice bouncing back at him in the hollow space between the cold, unfeeling walls. He waits for a moment or two, for a dark corridor to open up, for someone in a black coat to appear, for his shackles to be broken like he so deeply wishes he could do for himself. And yet, when none of that happens, instead he finds himself crying out to his master once more, knowing there's nothing else he can do to stop this. Nothing he can do but rely on the very person who's put him through so much unspeakable pain and sorrow, in the hopes that he can save him from both of those things now.
"I-I said I would do whatever you want!" he shouts to the darkness above him, as if the master himself is waiting in the wings somewhere within it for him to say the right thing. "And I meant that! I'll follow you, I'll serve you, I'll do anything you say-just make this stop!" By now, he's all but broken down as he tries to think of what will happen if the master really does come through for him. As he thinks of what horrors he'll have to endure if his Organization truly is who ends up rescuing him after all. "I-I'm your vessel, aren't I? You said I was your most important one too! So why?!" he buries his face into his hands, weeping woefully as his last words come out in nothing more than a despondent whisper. "Why are you letting this happen to me…? Please, master, I… I need you…"
Once again, he waits for an answer. He waits and waits and waits and waits… until he inevitably can't wait anymore.
Another transformation soon overtakes him, dragging him down through the depths of his own darkness once again. And as it does, with the last breath he's able to get out before his mind and body are entirely overwhelmed, he sends one final mournful cry out to his master.
His master, who certainly must hear, and, just like everyone else, certainly doesn't care.
Pete lets out an exhausted groan as he plops down against one of the castle's interior walls. He'd just spent the past several days traveling on foot to find his way back from the village after Maleficent had effectively left him there. True, he could have just as well tried using a dark corridor to return, but his experience in summoning those is… shaky at best, to the point that he only makes his own when he really has to. So he'd made the trek across forest and valleys, eventually making it back to the Forbidden Mountain Maleficent calls home. He decides against checking in with her in favor of trudging off to bed to catch up on all the sleep he's missed. He's almost to his room too, when he's caught off guard by the surprisingly elated call of his partner approaching.
"Ah, Pete! There you are," Maleficent smiles as she saunters down the hall toward him. "Where have you been?"
"Uh, ya left me behind back in that town when you took off with the kid, remember?" Pete frowns, disgruntled.
"Hm, so I did," Maleficent notes dismissively, making no effort to apologize for the inconvenience. "Well, you've returned just in time. I have splendid news to share."
"Oh?" Pete starts, already dreading whatever that "news" might be. "Um… lemme guess. You're finally lettin' all them goblin fellas who work here go on vacation?"
Maleficent chuckles at this, initially amused. "Of course not!" she exclaims, still smirking as she sobers up a bit. "It concerns our dear guest downstairs."
"O-oh really?" Pete presses, pushing his sudden worry under the surface. He can only imagine what Maleficent has put the poor boy through since the disaster back in the village. So whatever 'news' she has concerning him now is likely anything but good. "What is it?"
"After almost two weeks of constant toil and ceaseless research, I've finally finished it," Maleficent calls upon her scepter. Pitch black magic swirls around its orb, magic that's so potent and powerful that Pete instinctively shies away from it the second it appears. "The spell that will secure my Heartless stays as such from now until the end of time. With it, I shall claim the creature completely as my own and my conquest across all worlds can finally begin!"
While she lets loose a triumphant, cackling laugh, Pete practically freezes up, horrified by what he's hearing. It's something he's been expecting for awhile now, but he didn't think Maleficent would have perfected this new power so soon. And while he doesn't know much about what that magic is made of or even how it might work, what he does know is that its completion will spell the end for Sora and so many others after him.
"I'd rather not put those off any longer than we already have," Maleficent says, walking past him. "Pete-retrieve my pet and bring it to my throne room. I'll be eagerly waiting for it…"
Pete flinches at this request, at the idea of being the one to essentially deliver Sora to his demise. And yet, he still ends up agreeing to it. Or at least… that's what he does out loud. "Um… w-whatever you say!" he exclaims, forcing on a broad grin as he offers her a swift salute. She doesn't turn to meet it, instead continuing on her way, her spell still hanging over her staff like a black, deadly shroud. A spell that, if she actually gets a chance to use it, could change so many things in the absolute worst of ways.
And right now, the sole person who has to decide whether or not she actually can… is Pete himself.
His steps are as heavy as his thoughts are as he makes his way down toward the dungeons. He already knows what he should do, but actually working up the nerve and courage to do it is something else entirely. There's no chance the plan he's starting to devise will actually work; he'll get caught, get punished, and inevitably get the poor kid in even more trouble than he's already in. And with Maleficent acting even more unhinged and unpredictable than usual as of late… her reaction might even end up being far worse than that. He shouldn't risk it, shouldn't even be thinking about it after how long he's loyally stood by her side. And yet…
The second he enters the cell, all of his fears, all of his doubts all immediately start to fall away. The boy lies on his side, half consumed in shadow as he holds himself, almost entirely unmoving. His clothes are tattered to the point of barely being usable anymore, his hair so drenched in mud and dirt that it might as well be brown again, and his violet-tinged skin practically hanging from his now very-visible bones. Upon a first glance, Pete initially suspects and fears that the kid might even be dead, but the soft sound of his low, rumbling breathing is enough to tell him that he's hanging on, though likely just barely.
For a moment or two, the most Pete can do is stand in the doorway and stare at him, shaken by just how much the kid has managed to decline both physically and mentally since he'd been brought here. Maleficent clearly doesn't care for her captive outside of what he can do and be to suit her selfish, sinister needs, and even after two weeks, not a single one of his friends has rushed to his rescue like they had before. There really is no one left to stand in his corner, no one trying to help him, no one to care for what might become of him. No one… except for Pete.
Because at the end of the day, despite how much of a pain Sora had his friends might have proved to be in the past… he really is just a child. A frail, fragile child suffering from something he clearly has no control over. A heartbroken boy who's been forced to become a monster, made to be a murderer, thrust into endless misery solely because of someone else's dark desires. A small, simple, kid so young and so innocent, so very much like his own teenage son, his own spirited daughter. A kid who had been kind to him when he didn't have to be, who had promised him another chance at something so much better when even his longtime partner couldn't. And that kid, that sad, stupid, sweet little kid… doesn't deserve the kind of bleak, bloody future Maleficent has in mind for him.
He deserves to be saved. To be free.
And if no one else is coming to give him that freedom… then Pete knows he has no choice but to do it himself.
"Aw, geez, Petey, when did ya get so soft…?" he mutters quietly, face palming as he steels his own ridiculous decision. He takes in a deep breath as he marches forward, forcing himself not to think about how furious Maleficent will be when she finds out what he intends to do. Instead, he focuses solely on Sora as he kneels down next to the kid, likely shaking him by the shoulder to rouse him from the stupor he's seemingly slipped into.
"Hey, kid, wake up!" he urges, keeping his voice dropped down to a whisper, just in case. "I'm finally bustin' ya outta this dump."
Sora groans and growls at the same time, his mismatched eyes half-lidded as he weakly shifts his gaze over to Pete. "W-what…?" he whispers, his dry, torn mouth barely capable of forming words.
"I said we're makin' a run for it," Pete repeats, rising to stand. "If we get a move-on, we might be able to make it to the gates before Maleficent notices, but we gotta-"
"Y-you… setting me… free?" Sora interrupts, confusion leaking into his pain-lanced face, his language still hampered by his currently half inhuman state.
"...I guess I am," Pete sighs, feigning annoyance.
Despite this confirmation, Sora's reaction to it is… unexpected, to say the least. "...No," he covers his face with his claws, curling in on himself even more. "You… can't. M-master will come… Master… will save…"
"I dunno nothin' 'bout no 'master' of yours, kid," Pete rebuffs, hoisting up a large discarded stone from the far side of the cell. "But what I do know is that if we don't get ya outta here right now, then there won't be any of you left for anyone to save."
Sora doesn't protest again, but he does let out a small, startled hiss, cowering and covering his ears when Pete begins slamming his stone down onto the bolts that connect the chains to the wall. It takes a few good hits, but in the end, his brute strength comes through for him when the sturdy metal finally gives in. Yet even as the other end of his chains rattle to the ground, Sora doesn't make any sort of move to escape. Mostly because his body is far too famished and feeble for him to even try to pick himself up off the floor.
"Ugh, really?" Pete huffs, exasperated as he rushes over to the boy. He hoists him up into his arms, narrowly avoiding the claws Sora's more wild half swings at him as he coils his chains up to make them more manageable. As he does, he notices that most of the weight he's holding comes from those chains, as the child himself barely seems to weigh anything at all anymore. "I swear, kid, if we make it outta this alive, you owe me big time!"
Without wasting any more of the short time he has on his side, Pete hurries out of the cell, Sora lying listlessly in his arms as he begins bolting down the narrow halls. He hopes to escape through one of the castle's less used exits, preferably avoiding running into any of Maleficent's goons-or worse yet, Maleficent herself-along the way.
All the while, Sora stays worryingly still and silent, as if he hasn't fully come to grips with the fact that he's being rescued, that someone's finally setting him free. His focus is wavering, his vision blurry, his hearing dulled, and his mind frayed between heavy exhaustion and emerging ferocity. He doesn't really understand what's happening, can barely even comprehend that he's being carried, that someone is taking him somewhere away from the cell he's gotten so used to. Certainly he must be dreaming, but if he is, it's a dream he decides to let himself stay in just a little while longer. A dream he lets himself hold onto, even when he knows it'll never actually come true.
"Don't you worry, kid," Pete tells him, his tone nothing less than completely sincere as he steadies his hold on the barely conscious boy. "She ain't gonna hurt you again. I'll make sure of it."
Of course, he has no idea how he'll make sure of that; because by all accounts, he's winging every single last part of his impromptu plan as he goes. But if even that small assurance can help to restore some of the boy's obviously lost hope, then it's more than worth it.
By the time they make it to one of the outer courtyards, Pete starts to think they might actually make it, that they could possibly slip away completely unseen. He's not sure what will happen once their escape is secured, but he'll cross that bridge when he gets to it. Speaking of bridges, he's nearly to the one that leads out of the castle, freedom in sight, so very, very close… yet still so very out of reach.
Pete comes to a grinding halt, nearly dropping Sora sheerly out of shock when a bright burst of green flames forms several feet ahead of them. Within those flames, Maleficent appears, her face a mask of tranquil fury as she grips her staff, still dripping with her sinister spell, tightly.
"What exactly are you doing with my precious pet, Pete?" she asks calmly, narrowing her eyes at her henchman.
"Uh…" Pete swallows hard, racing to come up with some sort of believable excuse to salvage this. And in the end, finding none whatsoever. "I-I was just, um… takin' him on a short walk, ya know, to… g-get him a bit of fresh air!"
"Oh really?" Maleficent asks dryly, knowingly. "Because to me, it looks like you were trying to commit a treacherous, treasonous act that you certainly couldn't have thought you'd actually get away with… Is that correct?"
Pete sighs, knowing there's not much he can say to convince her otherwise. So instead, he decides to do something he's never really done before. He decides to stand his ground. "Ya know what? That's exactly what it looks like," he says sternly, quickly glancing between Maleficent and the boy in his arms. "Maleficent, you shouldn't... you can't do this. He's just a kid-"
"It is nothing more than a lowly Heartless, one that's only meant to follow the command of whoever controls its immense power," Maleficent counters dismissively. "It may have taken on the guise of a human, but unlike you, I am not fooled by its deceptive tricks."
"He didn't trick me," Pete frowns, confused by Maleficent's downright bizarre take on the situation. "And he ain't no Heartless neither. You can't keep treatin' him like he is one!"
"I can do whatever I please," Maleficent scoffs. "I would have never expected such a ridiculous betrayal, not even from you, Pete. But I'm nothing if not charitable. I will give you one final chance to redeem yourself. Release the child this instant, and I will be willing to forget that this transgression ever happened."
Pete hesitates, knowing very well that he's about to pass the point of no return, that if he moves forward with this, nothing will ever be the same. And with that thought, he almost does as she says, at least until he steals another look down at Sora. Sora, who's still suffering in between his two mismatched forms, who's still in so much danger with every second he spends here. Sora, who still needs to be saved, no matter what it might cost.
"No," Pete says, his voice low but still resolved all the same.
"What was that?" Maleficent hisses her knuckles tightening around her staff.
"I said no!" Pete shouts boldly, brazenly. "This ain't right, Maleficent, and you know it! And I ain't gonna be a part of it for one more second!"
Genuine surprise flashes across Maleficent's face when she hears this, though there's something else there too. Something that almost, almost seems like hurt. "Since when has being 'right' ever mattered to you?" she mutters crossly, fixing her now former-henchmen with a bitter glare.
"...Since somebody reminded me 'bout what really matters," Pete grins, glancing down at Sora once again. "I'm takin' this kid someplace safe and then I'm goin' back to see my family, and there ain't nothin' you can do to stop me!"
"You complete and utter fool!" Maleficent snaps viciously. "Do you really think I'll simply let you walk away with my prize!? That Heartless belongs to me, and as I've said so many times before, anyone who so much as tries to deny me of my rightful property shall DIE where they stand!"
Pete only has time to let out a startled yelp before he clumsily leaps out of the path of the dark fireball Maleficent launches his way. He somehow lands on his feet, still hanging onto Sora as he sees Maleficent rushing toward them, her feet not even touching the ground as she glides rapidly across the courtyard. He narrowly manages to jump out of her way again, just as her goons begin to spill out from the castle to aid their mistress in her assault.
"Maleficent, I don't wanna fight you!" Pete protests as he continues dodging her dangerous magic. "W-why don't ya just calm down and we can talk about-"
"Silence, you defective imbecile!" Maleficent practically screams, issuing the unspoken command for her goons to attack. "You've chosen your path, and I've chosen mine. We have nothing to talk about ever again!"
Pete can't help but agree with this; there's almost no chance of changing her mind, no saving the partnership they used to share. But the more Pete thinks back on all the times she scolded him over simple mistakes, all the times she'd cast his ideas off as useless or inane, all the times she'd seen him more as a lumbering lackey than as an equal, the more he realizes that maybe that partnership was never worth saving to begin with.
Maleficent catches him off guard as he makes a run for the other end of the courtyard, hoping to escape her intense wrath altogether. He almost, almost makes it too, crossing the threshold of the gate that leads to freedom… only to be tripped up by a burst of Maleficent's magic exploding right at his heels. He's thrown to the ground, and as a result, Sora is roughly tossed from his arms. He rolls out past the gate, coming to land on the rocky path that leads down the mountain, away from this awful place, away from the horrid woman who has put him through so much torment and torture. And as Pete glances up to see that Sora's miraculously already on that path, he wastes no time imploring him to take it.
"Kid!" he calls, rushing to regain his footing. He steals a glance behind him, only to find Maleficent speeding across the courtyard once more, intent on doing anything and everything in her power to get her "pet" back. "Ya gotta get up and make a run for it! Now, while ya still got a chance!"
Surprisingly, Sora hears this call, though he struggles to properly heed it. His vision is still unclear, his mind still buried in a half-aware haze as he slowly pulls himself up to all fours. But he still manages to take a look back, only to see Pete back on his feet, his arms spread wide as he does what he can to keep Maleficent from getting to him. To stop him from becoming her prisoner, her pet, ever again.
"But… you…" he trails off, unable to get much more out.
"I'll be fine!" Pete insists over his shoulder. "Just GO!"
Sora hesitates, half of him wanting to stay, wanting to stand with his unexpected savior, to repay him for the incredible risk he's taken solely to save him. But the other half of him can only think of one thing: of escaping, of running off into the wild, of finding even more hearts to selfishly claim as his own. And unfortunately, that's the half that wins out in the end.
So he runs. And so she gives chase.
Maleficent stops halfway through the corridor when she spots her Heartless starting to get away. Pete has most of the gate blocked off with his sizable girth, but that still doesn't stop her from issuing a harsh command to her surrounding henchmen. "After that miserable creature!" she shouts furiously. "Don't you dare let it away! If you do, then I can guarantee you will pay with your lives!"
Upon such a severe threat, the goblins and goons immediately act upon their mistress' commands. Given their smaller stature, a good number of them are able to easily slip past Pete, rushing after Sora as he begins his frantic descent down the mountain pass. For his part, Pete spins around, intent on following after to make sure the boy truly gets away. Yet before he can take so much as a single step, he's stopped short by the icy voice of his former partner as she slowly, dangerously approaches him.
"And as for you…" she begins, her glare as sharp as a serrated dagger and every bit as deadly. Yet even despite the dark magic dwelling around her staff, Pete stands his ground, not afraid or ashamed of what he's done, not even in the slightest. Not when he knows that, for perhaps one of the first times in his entire life, he's truly done what's right. "I hope you're willing to pay the price that comes along with playing the 'hero', Pete. Because I can assure you that price is so much higher than you could possibly imagine..."
It starts raining as he's running. Cold sheets pour down through the dark clouds above, soaking his bloody, dirt stained clothes, all but drenching him to the bone. But still he runs, sometimes on two legs, sometimes on four, pushed onward by hunger and terror and anger and far too many other things to count. He wishes another transformation would overtake him, either to free his addled senses or to give him the feral strength and speed he largely lacks. But as it stands, he's still half and half, still neither a Heartless and neither a human, still torn between two things that he can't stand to be for one second longer.
His chains drag along on the ground after him, heavy and burdening. They slow him down substantially, with his body already as worn and weary as it is. But things are only made so much worse when something suddenly latches onto their detached end. His shackle strangles him as he's brutally yanked hard by none other than several of Maleficent's goons. They've caught up to him surprisingly quickly, their orders to capture him all over again more than clear. And if they take him back to that castle, to that prison now… he can't even bear to think of what might happen.
So he struggles, he screams and roars and hisses and swings his claws as wildly as he can as he pulls hard against their hold. And yet… he's painfully outnumbered, and as such, overpowered as the grotesque creatures start to pull him along the path, all of them chuckling impishly over their lucky catch. His panic surges, his chest wracked with rising sobs as he realizes there's no escaping this. He'd been foolish, downright stupid to think that a lowly, vile beast like himself would ever get to see freedom again. There had never been any chance for him to get away, and now, there never will be.
And yet… just as he's about to accept his final fate… suddenly something changes. The goons are overtaken by a vast wave of darkness, one that seems to come completely out of nowhere. It weaves its way right around Sora, never once touching him as it attacks his assailants instead. After the first few are swept up by it, most of the creatures try in vain to flee for their lives. But in the end, they're all devoured by the shadows, the entire horde's existence snuffed out in a matter of mere seconds. And once they're gone, Sora is left standing in the middle of the road, stunned and completely alone.
At least... until he isn't.
"Let your fears fade away, my thirteenth." Sora jumps, startled by the sound of a familiar voice behind him. "Your master has arrived to free you, just as you asked."
Sora turns slowly to face Young Xehanort, who regards him with a small, cordial smile. He doesn't even have to issue an order or command before Sora begins to approach him, his footsteps unsteady as he only now realizes he's lost a shoe at some point. As the adrenaline that had kept him going during his escape fails him, he ultimately collapses to his hands and knees only a few feet in front of Young Xehanort.
He lets out a wavering sob when the young master slides a hand under his chin, lightly tracing a finger along one of the violet veins marring his face. "Hm," Young Xehanort notes coolly. "It seems as though someone has been tampering with my vessel. Such unwarranted suffering you've endured at her hands. But don't worry; as I've told you before, I am more than capable of piecing you back together again when you've been broken. And clearly, Sora, you've been very broken..."
Sora doesn't even try to argue this, mostly because he can't. Because he truly has been broken in just about every single way, both inside and out. So instead, he finds himself craving any sort of reprieve from that brokenness, a way to feel whole after having been so horrifically torn apart. And right now, the only one he can seek that reprieve, that comfort, from is none other than the black coated youth standing before him.
So he leans forward, digging his claws into the edge of that coat as he lets out another miserable whimper. "P-please… master..." he begins, his voice soft and full of shame. His words entirely his own, as much as he wishes they weren't. "Save me… Fix me…"
As he hangs his head in sorrow, Young Xehanort simply smiles once more. Because, just like he and his elder self had planned, these past two weeks of biding their time have only brought their final vessel even closer to their side. "Of course, my thirteenth," he complies, placing a soothing hand on top of Sora's head. "But first… let us retreat to somewhere she won't be able to find you."
A dark corridor blooms to life around them both, and Sora doesn't protest it so long as it can take him far away from here. When they arrive at their destination, that familiar wave of sickness hits him once again, but he shoves it back in favor of surveying their new surroundings. A dark, towering cityscape surrounds them, one that Sora has seen before. Its empty streets are still just as silent as ever, neon lights shining dully through the dismal vastness that is The World That Never Was.
"Now," Young Xehanort catches his attention again. "To undo that awful curse she cast upon you." He reaches down to skim his hand over the center of Sora's chest, over the epicenter of his scar. A brief burst of unspeakable pain rushes through his body, but with it, comes an odd sense of release, as if an incredible weight he'd been forced to bear has finally been taken away from him. He shudders involuntarily as the shadows covering half of his form are finally dispelled, as his humanity, or at least whatever's left of it, is finally restored. His skin is free from the purple pallor it's carried for the past two weeks, the sting of Maleficent's malicious magic at last lifted to keep his practically constant transformations from coming. It's only as he starts to realize this that he sees Young Xehanort call upon his Keyblade, which he proceeds to use to easily unlock the chains that have been every bit as torturous as the spell itself. As the empty metal shackles clatter to the pavement, Sora stares at his hands, lightly touches his neck, marvels at the fact that, for the first time in what feels like ages, he's finally free.
He latches onto Young Xehanort's coat again, crying as he trembles uncontrollably, his body still every bit as battered as his mind currently feels. "T-thank you… master…" he says, his gratitude completely genuine, to the point that he barely even thinks about who that gratitude is for.
"You're very welcome, Sora," Young Xehanort says, extending a hand out toward him. Sora hates how easily he takes it, how he so willingly lets his master help him back onto his feet. He doesn't say a word, doesn't even really think much about protesting when Young Xehanort places a consoling hand upon his shoulder. "Despite how horrible this experience has been for you, I hope you can still take a valuable lesson away from it all the same. Know that no matter how much you might think you might think we've been treating you harshly, there will always be someone out there who will treat you so much worse. That witch wanted you solely for what she believed you to be; we want you for who we know you are. Your value to us lies far more than making you into a weapon, or a beast, or even another Keyblade wielder to carelessly throw into a battle. What we want to make you into is something far greater than you could ever dream."
"I-I don't care about any of that!" Sora exclaims between his tears, pulling himself away from his master's hold. He's overtaken by sudden despair, sudden desperation that he has no choice but to act upon, even when he knows he shouldn't. "I just… I want to be done! Whatever you're going to do to me, however you want to use me, just do it! Just get it over with so you can finally let me die already… Please…" his voice grows softer, somehow even sadder as he stares down at his own twisted, blood-tainted claws. "I… I can't do this anymore… I can't..."
"Die?" Young Xehanort repeats, raising an eyebrow. Even so, he lets out a small, almost mocking laugh in response to his vessel's palpable pain. "Sora, we don't want you to die. We want you to live to your fullest potential."
He falls into silence, his chest aching at the idea of his unbearable, undeserved existence going on even longer than it already has. Of course they wouldn't let him die. Since when did his master care about anything he wanted? Since when did anyone?
Young Xehanort walks past him, his gaze turned toward the grand castle hovering high over the city. "Let me tell you something, Sora. Something I'm sure you don't want to hear, but you need to know it anyway. The guardians of light knew about the plight you were in, they found out that the witch had captured you, they even knew where she was keeping you."
"...T-they did?" Sora dares to ask, struggling to believe such a claim. But then again, they'd been able to find him before, when Maleficent had captured him the first time. So why wouldn't they be able to find him now? "But… no one came to-"
"Of course, they didn't come," Young Xehanort cuts him off, turning back to face him. "Why would they? They saw no point in rushing to your rescue when, by all accounts, they believed you were exactly where you were supposed to be. Locked away from the world, chained and trapped like they intended on doing to you anyway, no longer their problem to deal with. The truth of it is, my thirteenth, that the lights would have been perfectly content to let you rot in that cell for the rest of eternity, especially after hearing about what happened in that village." Sora jolts upon hearing this, wondering how they could have found out, what they might have thought when they did, how much they must hate him for all of the blood he now has on his hands.
"Not many of the lights would be willing to welcome a murderer back into their ranks," Young Xehanort continues as he walks past him, slipping on a smile as he slides a hand onto Sora's shoulder once again. "Fortunately for you, my thirteenth, your Organization is much more willing to leave such minor mistakes in the past where they belong. Instead, we look to the future, and for us, that future is you. We know you. We understand you. We want you, Sora, far more than anyone else ever has…"
Sora shakes his head, not understanding. His heart still hangs heavy with grief as he tries to imagine the looks on Riku and Kairi's faces when they found out he's killed so many, when their suspicions that he really can't be saved were certainly confirmed. He knows he'll never be able to face them again after this, he already knew that long before it even happened. There's only one path that lies ahead of him now, only one way he can possibly take. And as he stares at the pristine castle hanging high above his head, the castle that he knows will very soon become his home… he decides to do just that.
"Master…" he turns back to Young Xehanort, lowering himself to his knees. His voice is quiet, broken, yet resigned as he closes his eyes and accepts his fate as he solemnly says it aloud. "I… I'm ready…" He briefly glances up at Young Xehanort, who says nothing, instead giving him the unspoken prompt to continue. And so he does, his heart crumbling more and more with every word. "I'm ready… to be your thirteenth vessel… I want… to be a part of Organization XIII…" He can't believe he's saying this, can't believe it's coming out of his mouth entirely on his own accord. But it is and he can't stop it. Just like he couldn't stop all of the things that led him here. "Just… please," he swallows hard, trying and failing to fight back tears. "Don't let her find me again… don't let them find me either…"
A long beat of silence passes, one that's only permeated by the sound of Sora's soft sobbing. When Young Xehanort speaks, his tone is surprisingly cold, a stark contrast to the condescending kindness it had carried before. "So, you finally seek our protection, only after you've been through such great hardship? Even though you denied such protection when your superior offered it to you before?"
Sora winces at this reminder, wishing that he hadn't been so blindly stubborn when Xemnas had offered him his own coat. Because really, he would have gladly worn that loathsome coat with pride if it could have spared him from even a second of the suffering he's endured over the past two weeks. "I'm sorry," he chokes despondently. "I-I do want your protection, I need it! So please… please…"
"...I don't believe you mean what you say," Young Xehanort says, his golden eyes sharp as they stare down at him. As they see straight through his lies.
"I-I do!" Sora pleads, gripping the edge of his coat once more. But even then, he doesn't fully buy it either, not when he knows that his own dread and desperation are what's driving him forward more than anything else. When he knows just how much he still can't stand the thought of fully becoming one of them.
"Then prove it," Young Xehanort pulls his coat away. "Show your loyalty to your Organization by finding the final two remaining Keys. Then, and only then, will we grant you the protection that you seek. Only then can you return here and be truly safe."
"What?" Sora starts, alarmed, and even slightly outraged by this unexpected ultimatum. That even after all this time and after all of the resistance he's starting to let go of… the Organization still won't meet him halfway. "But I... I said I would listen to you, that I'd finally stop fighting! That means you have to-"
Young Xehanort only has to hold up a hand to silence him, his expression sour and stern. "I don't have to do anything," he says simply, unsympathetically. "I didn't have to free you from those chains. I didn't have to lift that spell. I didn't have to come save you. But I did, and for that much, you should be grateful. You should not be expecting anything more."
The severity in his master's tone is enough for Sora to know he should back down, but he doesn't. He can't, not when he's about to be thrown right back out to where he started. Back out into the wild where he can barely hope to survive, where he could just as easily fall into another trap like the one that had ensnared him before. "But why can't I-"
"That's enough, Sora," Young Xehanort cuts him off again, and this time, a flicker of pain to his heart comes along with it. "You already know why. You may claim that you are ready to join us, but you aren't, not yet."
"...H-how can I be ready?" he asks, his voice trembling just as much as the rest of his body is.
"When the time comes, you'll know," Young Xehanort says cryptically. "Until then, do as you've been told; find the Keys and bring them back to me." With this, the young master conjures up a dark corridor, one that starts to engulf Sora from underneath. He gasps, terrified of being taken somewhere where he'll be vulnerable again, where he'll be alone again. Sora extends a distressed hand out to his master as the shadows swallow him whole, wordlessly pleading with Young Xehanort to let him stay… But just as before, his master hears his unspoken prayers… and doesn't care in the slightest about them. "And when you do, Sora," he only barely manages to catch his master's coldhearted smile before the shadows whisk him somewhere far away. "Then rest assured; you will finally be a part of your Organization. Then… you will finally come home."
Ah damn this was just about the most depressing chapter of this already fic so far huh? I promise things lighten up a bit in the next chapter! Dare I say we're about to get a... Keys Christmas Special? (I'm not kidding, you'll see what I mean ahahah its cute I promise, not rife with misery like this was). Anyway if you wanna see that then please lemme know what you thought of this one in the REVIEWS! Until next time!