Inverted Sky: KH Chain of Memories
Chapter 3: Castle Oblivion part III
Sora sat silently in the hall of the next floor, her gaze seeming a bit distant as she stared at the ceiling. Musing over the rapidly fading memories of Traverse Town, the girl slowly closed both eyes. While the connection between her, Donald and Goofy remained, she soon found herself unable to fully recall the exact time or moment they met. However, the fact that she still remembered them and who they were, provided some hope. Hope that no matter how much she forgot, she would be able to keep her promise to protect them.
As the minutes ticked by, the teen eventually stood up and stretched her limps. Each tightened muscle being loosened ever so slightly, as she let out a heavy sigh of exhaustion. 'Man...this is taking a lot out of me.' she thought to herself while taking the time to do proper stretches, most of which she learned from Merlin...probably.
'While I'm slowly relearning spells and how to use them, I can actually feel the loss of my memories...now that I'm aware and paying attention to it.' Sora thought, pausing in her stretches while looking toward the floor.
'Though I'm assuming each memory I lose will have to do with the world I revisit, who knows if that theory is even correct.' the teen continued as she reached into her pocket.
Sora pulling out another blue card, which she could still recall picking up after defeating the Heartless. Though, the depiction on the card itself was reminiscent of Wonderland. "But just how many memories will I be forgetting?" she uttered aloud in a sigh.
"I suspect it all depends on the things you experienced, and how much they mean to you." Axel suddenly spoke from the side, him leaning against the wall to the left of the teen.
"And why is that?" Sora asked with a tilt of her head, not seeming bothered by his arrival.
"Think of it as an equivalent exchange...the greater the power, the more important of a memory it will cost to regain it." the red-haired man claimed, offering a small smirk.
The girl's eyes narrowed briefly before looking down thoughtfully, tapping her chin a few times. "I think I understand, but that would imply I have some form of control in what sort of powers I regain. Which...in turn...means the castle decides what memory I lose in response." she deduced while turning toward Axel.
Said man grinned lightly with a slow nod of his head; "Now you're getting it. Just what you'd expect from a Keyblade Master" he stated in a pleased tone.
Though Sora stared at him for a few long moments, it was clear he was too good at hiding his intentions to gain any clear insight. This lead for the girl to then sigh once more and cross both arms across her chest. "Are you always 'this' patronizing toward everyone? Or am I just special?" she questioned in a bit of a huff, earning a chuckle from the red-head.
"Well...I do tend to be that way with certain people, but you are one of those few. So I guess you could say you're a bit special." Axel answered, taking on a wide grin of amusement.
"Oh~, how lucky I must be." Sora retorted in a sarcastic manner, which only made the man chuckle a bit more.
Yet after a moment, Axel paused as he blinked a few times in surprise. "Huh...interesting..." he uttered out silently before turning toward the teen.
"Well...I'll leave you to your rest, as I'm sure you'll wanna take a nap before going forward with your next memory." the red-haired man hummed while offering a wave as he soon vanished.
Sora tilted her head curiously to the side as she simply gave a nod to Axel before he disappeared. 'Sounds like he's not used to laughing much.' she thought to herself, to which she took in and let out a breath.
'Maybe I should take a nap. Although...this place does seem to have the same feeling of never truly needing to sleep, just like the Realm of Darkness. So perhaps...I can instead use this as an opportunity to get a 'head start'.' the teen continued, sitting on the floor once more, her back against the far left corner of the room.
This keeping her sitting upright, without worry of falling over if she did happen to doze off. 'While letting my body rest, I can use this time to go over my current knowledge of magic. If I can create something new or unexpected...it should give me an advantage against these guys.' she mused while closing both eyes and letting out a breath.
'I still don't know enough about either of them to make a good judgment of what I can use. But if I can just figure out something that can be used universally, it shouldn't matter as much.' Sora reflected, a faint smirk curling her lips as something indeed came to mind.
'I don't know how many times I'll get to take these rests, so I better make them count as much as possible.' she finished, Sora relaxing her muscles to give the appearance of sleep, all while her mind raced with spells and spell formulas.
Minutes stretched into hours, before the teen finally opened her eyes and gained a small smile. "That was actually kinda nice." she uttered aloud, making it sound as though she was referring to the act of sleeping.
"Alright..." Sora continued on while standing up, there being a few cracking and popping sounds from her joints as she was in the same position almost the whole time.
"...I think I'm good to go." she claimed in a confident manner, turning toward the doors.
However, as she slowly made her way toward them, a circle of darkness appeared beside these doors as Axel soon stepped through. "I thought I heard your voice, are you ready to proceed?" he questioned curiously, almost sounding a bit more friendly than before.
Sora raised brow slightly to this, yet she nodded as she approached the man. Though, she made sure to stay just a few steps away from him; "Yep...are you here to see me off? How sweet." she hummed out in a somewhat teasing tone.
Axel chuckled from her words before waving a hand and flipping a stack of blue cards between his fingers. "Not at all...I just figured you'll be needing these." he corrected with a clearly false smile, holding the deck of cards out toward the teen.
Whom took it without any hesitation, all while giving the man an odd look that could only be seen as concern. "You certainly sound less enthusiastic than before, something happen?" she asked while tilting her head ever so slightly to the side.
"Nah...just a couple of boring conversations between me and my 'comrades'." Axel responded, his tone showing that he was quite annoyed at whatever these conversations were about.
"Oh~? Sounds tough...though, I get the impression you don't really like them very much." Sora said in a way that seemed like she was actually trying to cheer him up.
"Well, I'm sure that if I had a heart...I wouldn't." he claimed while rolling his eyes and shrugging his shoulders.
Sora blinked a few times to these words, as they sounded oddly important, despite how they seemed to be merely part of his rant. "How do you mean 'if you had a heart'?" the brown-haired teen asked, tilting her head to the side in curiosity.
As if realizing what he said, Axel immediately went silent, but quickly recovered with a smile. "Well...I'm sure you'll find out eventually." was all he said with a wave of his hand to the girl.
Said teen, while clearly wanting to ask further, simply gave the man a nod in response. "Fine fine...but it won't stop me from asking about it later." she declared in a firm tone and smile.
This made the red-haired man quirk a brow in question, to which he then shrugged his shoulders. "If you insist...lets just hope you don't forget about it before we meet again." he said with a quick salute before he disappeared in the same manner in which he came.
The brown-haired girl smiled lightly as she pocketed the cards Axel gave her, before turning her attention to the door. 'Ya know...I'm actually starting to like Axel. He seems kinda cool, and much different from the other guy.' she thought with her smile widening.
'Plus...he just let me know there are more than just him and that other guy in this place. Using the plural form of 'comrade' was probably a little slip on his part.' the teen continued in a thoughtful manner.
Coming up to the doors and placing a hand on the handle, Sora took in and let out a heavy breath. "This will probably never get any easier." the girl muttered to herself as the further she continued, the more she subjected herself to the knowledge that she would be forgetting more memories.
At the same time, in the top floor of the castle, a young blond girl was drawing on a pad of paper. Her appearing around the same age as Sora, and wore a plain white dress with matching sandals. The illustration she was making appeared crude and childish, but still clear with its depiction. It being that of Sora, Riku, Kairi and herself, all standing on a shoreline holding hands. But despite the smiles and happy nature of the drawing, the girl's expression while making it was one of sadness and regret. Her gaze eventually just drifted toward the floor, before her eyes simply closed.
They soon snapped open however, as the tell-tale sound of a corridor of darkness had echoed throughout the room. Which revealed Axel walking toward the girl, and lead for her to look at the man nervously. "I just came back from seeing her." he started with a small smirk on his features.
"You were right...she really is...something else." he added in a thoughtful manner as he glanced to the blond.
"Aren't you eager to see her as well? After all...you're the one who brought her here." Axel claimed, shrugging briefly while coming up behind the girl.
But when no response came, the red-haired man simply sighed lightly and turned his back to the blond. "I do wonder though...did you call Sora to rescue you? Or did you call Sora because of 'her'?" he questioned, glancing to the teen from over his shoulder.
Whom had her head tilted down with both eyes closed tightly; "I..." she whispered silently.
"Was it because you're scared? Or was it because you're jealous? Which one is it, Namine?"
Alright, I managed to get chapters 3, 4 and 5 redone. I hope all of you enjoy them. Let me know what you thought in a review is you haven't already, or in a PM.
