Seems like I need to fix the previous chapter... but I'll get to that later! Time for the adventure to start!
VII ~ Powered Hearts
Mysterious Tower
After getting off the gummi ship, I look around the small piece of land in confusion as I took a few steps forward. "I wonder if Master Yen Sid is home..." Goofy wonders out loud. "Of course he is! Right..." Donald eyes the tower nervously, unsure if it was alright to visit the wizard again so soon. "He's the only one who knows more about the Purest of all Hearts than anyone! Maybe he has a few answers about these heart fragments and-" as Sora continues to talk to the two, they walk past me as I continued to stare at the tower in a strange trance. I just couldn't understand why.
The way the upper part of the tower reminds me of something, or should I say place, so familiar at the same time sad. Images began to appear in my mind; first one was a large castle, then inside it were hundreds of people that
"Welcome... the first of her birth! The Purest of all Hearts!"
I felt a sharp pain in both my chest and head at the same time, causing to fall on my knees.
I walk out of the giant doors and stared blankly at the floor. Once I looked up, there were hundreds of people cheering for some odd reason. Some even started to either blast magic in the air to act as fireworks, as well as toss their key-shaped weapons in the air. I blinked and saw three people suddenly appeared from the top part of the steps in front of me. As they got closer, I couldn't help but stare at the nervous boy following behind the two.
Once I was back to reality, everything around me suddenly went dark.
Shocked, Sora quickly rushes up to the girl and catches when the three of them saw Akari lean too far backwards. He lowers down a bit to get a better look at her as the two rush up to them and gaze down at Akari with similar worried looks. "Is everything alright?" Goofy asks. Donald backs away a bit, taking his staff out and says, "Maybe this will help! Cure!" (A/N: Once again, I have absolutely forgot if he had this at the start of the game! O^Q He doesn't really heal me so I forgot!) The green light covers her body for a brief moment, but she still didn't budge.
"Wah!? Cure! Cure! Cure!" For the first time ever, Donald couldn't use his magic to help Akari. He almost felt useless. "Ease off with the healing Donald! Look," Goofy stops his friend from overexerting himself and points at Akari, whose chest was faintly rising and falling. Jiminy (Me: I completely forgot about Jiminy there for a second O_O He barely shows up in the game!) steps over Sora shoulders "She's just asleep." "Phew..." all three of them sigh in relief to see this. "Alright then," Sora didn't even think twice on carrying Akari up in his arms, and that caused the two to snicker behind his back. "What's so funny?" Sora asks the two, slightly annoyed at whatever it is their thinking.
"When's the wedding?" Donald teases, accompanied with sudden burst of laughter when he saw how red Sora's face was. "L-Let's just go!" This made the two laughs even harder with the way Sora was trying to avoid anymore teasing. He slowly glances down at her as Sora continues to carry the girl. "Now Donald we have to be nice to Sora! We wouldn't want him to lose his chances with her." Goofy didn't actually mean to tease the boy, but both of them immediately took it the wrong way, causing Sora's face to turn bright red and for Donald to roll on the floor laughing. "What'd I say?" Goofy asks out loud, scratching the side of his head and looks at the two in confusion.
Having enough of their constant teases, Sora picks Akari up in his arms and starts carrying her toward the tower himself, leaving the two behind. 'Akari's my best friend! There's no way I can think of her that way! Where do those two even get those weird ideas in the first place?' He tries to shake of these thought by focusing more on his friend instead of those two. Just one look down at Akari, and he immediately remembered a similar scenario such as this one.
It didn't take long after their short sparring fight for Akari to pass out on the paopu tree again. She always had the strangest habit of going there to relax. Even though it was considered their usual hang out, she always ended up going to that exact spot. "Your turn to carry her!" Riku abruptly slaps Sora's back, forcing him to stumbling a bit on his feet and getting closer to where Akari was. "Wha- Riku!?" All he earned was a short small laugh from the older boy and watches as Riku walks over the bridge, waving a hand in the air. He pouts at this. Sora turns back to face Akari as she continues to sleep on the tree.
Looking around to see if anyone was watching, he silently walks over to Akari and carefully slides her off the tree. For a moment, Sora almost felt his heart stop when she suddenly began to stir in her sleep. Her blue eyes slightly opened up only for them to close again. He sighs in relief and proceeds to carry her back home.
||Yen Sid's Room||
They didn't really have to worry about fighting any heartless in the tower after their first time climbing up the magical stair case. There wasn't a single one in sight, and that probably was for the best with their current situation at the moment. Sora didn't even think twice on barging into the room against the wishes of his two friends. "Master Yen Sid! I need your help!" Donald was about to tackle Sora for being extremely rude again, but trips on his own feet when he comes into the room. Yen Sid was nowhere in sight. Goofy walks in and looks around, wondering out loud, "Gwarsh... you think he left for an important business?"
Sora carefully places Akari down as Donald sits up and shakes his head. "Sora? Donald? Goofy? What are you three doing back here so soon?" They all turn to face the three fairies as they enter from the other room. "Well..." Sora glances to the side as Donald and Goofy nervously laugh. Flora spots a fourth party sitting against the wall behind Sora, "Oh my!" she covers her mouth and gasps, earning odd looks from Fauna and Merryweather. (Me: I literally forget their names there for a sec. XD)
||Other Room||
Flora touches the top of Akari's head as the others attentively watch her from behind. She sighs with a relieved smile and shakes her head, "She's safe... The poor child pushed herself too far after waking up. Instead of taking it one step at a time, she seemed very eager to get up and ran around looking for you there. Even though Akari lost most of her memories those small little fragments of her heart still were attracted to finding you." "So how long will she be asleep?" Sora asks, watching as Akari continues to soundlessly sleep in the floor. "She'll be up in no time! And while we're at it-" All three fairies float back a bit, causing the boys to back up as well.
"It's about high time we create new clothes for her!" "Uh oh..." the trio mutters simultaneously. From their personal experience (mainly Sora), that as great as these fairies may be at creating their new outfits and gave Sora new abilities required for the journey there is that one thing that causes things to get out of hand. Color. "Let's make it blue!" With the wave of her wand, Merryweather changes the color of Akari's clothes completely a deep blue. It wasn't much of a change, considering that Akari's outfit was mostly light blue, but then the other two didn't agree with her obvious choice of color.
Flora disapproves her friend's choice of color, "Now now. She's a girl so pink is the most obvious choice." Flora changes the color from blue to pink. "Don't you think this suits her better?" Fauna steps in and changes the color to green. "Uh..." Sora tries to figure out what to say to stop the fairies as they continue to argue and magically change the colors from pink to blue to green then back to pink. Goofy's vision starts to spin at the constant shifting of color. Just watching the three made it seem like they went easy on Sora than how they are with Akari. It was almost to the point Goofy thought that her hair was changing color too!
Well... he wasn't seeing things. Donald gawks at this for a moment, briefly rubbing his eyes to check if he was seeing things, then starts to shake Goofy by the arm. Goofy blinks to realize that he indeed wasn't seeing things now. "Her favorite color's blue!" Sora blurts out as he steps in front of Akari to make the fairies stop. "Oh..." Flora and Fauna step back a bit as Merryweather raises her head up in pride. "Now it's time for ME to show you two how it's done!" As Sora backs off to give the blue fairy some space, she puffs her chest and waves her wand in the air- but stops. Everyone looks at each other in confusion.
Embarrassed, she lowers her wand down and sheepishly faces the other two fairies. "Well you see... It's just-" Flora interrupts Merryweather by places a hand on her right shoulder, "We'll help you out, right Fauna?" Fauna nods and places her hand on blue fairy's other shoulder, saying, "Though this is the first for only one of us to choose the color, all three of us creating something together is much better." Feeling even more confident, the blue fairy twirls around as the other two ready their own wands. "Now ladies on the count of three! One, two, three-"
||Dive to the Heart||
You have to wake up... They've waited long enough for your awakening. So have we. Now get up! If you want to keep your promise to them keep on fighting.
I was surprised at the sudden shockwave that struck my chest, forcing me to wake up from my sleep. I suddenly began to gasp for air not long after, like as it's been ages since I haven't breathed for a while I was asleep. 'Wait... was I asleep?' I had trouble recalling what had happened to me earlier. All I remember was heading towards the strange tower with Sora- "Sora! Oh god where is he!?" I began to panic when I found out that not only was I alone, but he wasn't here. I don't really know myself why I was so scared about what happened to a boy that I barely know. Out of the three, I was more concerned about what happened to Sora.
It's been a long time since we last met with you staying the same for so long...
I felt the hair at the back of my neck stand up at the eerie voice, sending me into a frenzy as I frantically searched for whoever it was that was with me.
But your heart is in a much greater disrepair than how it was in one of your past lives. You've made a great sacrifice to prevent the same thing from repeating again.
My chest began to ache for some off reason. "Again...?" I mutter, feeling a weird feeling of de ja vu wash over me.
You have the power now to protect yourself and others... but are you still capable to wield such power again?
I didn't know how to answer that. If it's referring to the keyblade, then I'm not really sure if I am capable. I have no memories on how I got it and how to properly use it like Sora can. "I don't know if I can... but if it means I won't be a burden," I summoned my keyblade and got into my battle stance, "Then I'll fight! Even if it means losing my heart in the process!"
... Hahaha... you sound just like me... Well I guess it's because you are me...
I never even got to ask what that other voice meant when the heartless that I was told about began to appear all around me. There weren't a lot, but just looking at the ant-like creatures did scare me a bit. My last encounter with the things wasn't what you call a great experience. On instinct, I summoned the same keyblade from before and stepped back a bit as they started to swarm around me. I look down at the tip of my keyblade and stared back at my reflection. "You can do this... you can fight..." But when I looked back up, I felt my heart stop when I saw one of them already jumping up in the air and had its claws aimed at me.
Out of nowhere, something inside me suddenly took over my body. My arm moves on its own and I found myself blocking the heartless with ease, pushing it back then slicing it while it was still up in air. "Did... I do that?" I saw myself fight back, but I can't believe I was actually able to fight back.
The battle is far from over...
The other remaining heartless seemed even more rattled after seeing me destroy one of them so fast.
There are times your protector will be there to help fight your battles for you... but there are times you need to take it in your hands to fight for yourself and your friends...
And automatically, the heartless started to charge at me. Tightening my hold on my keyblade, I charge and slash at the closest one possible. There were 5 more left. I held a hand out and made a mocking gesture for them to come at me. I don't know why I did it, it just felt so right with how much more confident I was getting now that I know how properly fight. Well sort of. It's like there's something inside that was guiding me the longer I use the keyblade. Not only was the fighting familiar, but the feeling of the keyblade was familiar as well.
With the last heartless destroyed, I drop my keyblade and collapsed to my knee's to catch my breath. "Alright… maybe it's not a good to swing my weapon around like a maniac…" I don't know why I was using my keyblade in a reverse grip, but just flipping it around to hold it straight felt strangely wrong for me so I just went with what I feel is right and held it in this strange hold.
Your keyblade once belonged to thousands… fighting alongside its users and help expand them grow stronger… now you are one of the few remaining to use the keyblade's power. As you grow, so will Starlight.
"Starlight… That's right! Starlight!" I smiled and happily hugged the weapon. I remember now. Well most of it. When I was trapped in darkness it called out to me and brought me back to the light.
Now that your heart has come in contact with the darkness... it is now impossible to simple run from it... you must learn how to fight it face on... your protector won't always be there to fight all your battles...
While I was still looking at my keyblade in awe, I caught sight of my shadow moving around a bit on its own below my feet. As I take a few steps back away in fear, my shadow began to stretch itself out to the other side of the platform. "What is going on...?" I held my breath when I saw a black arm stick up from the dark pool, slamming its hand on the floor to anchor itself out as another are comes out to do the same. I could feel my heart beating hard against my chest the more it comes out of the ground.
The closer you are to the light... the greater your shadow becomes... Darkness is almost around every corner... You have to fight...
The figure successfully pulls itself from out of the ground and stands upright in place. It soon completely took its shape, of me. I felt a shiver run down my spine when it opens its eyes to reveal to reveal it yellow eyes, which glow the moment it catches sight of me staring. It almost felt as if it was trying to look straight into my soul the longer it stares. In a puff of black smoke, a dark version of starlight appears in its right hand, holding it the exact same way as me and gets into the same battle stance as I usually do. The shadow me spring to life and sprints in my direction.
I was able to block it in time when the 'blade' (A/N: Can't really tell if I should consider it a blade or something else. :/ Do you know?) was inches from my face. Pushing against its force, I couldn't keep my feet planted to the ground and I found myself sliding back as it pushes forward. I panic and start to look around for a way to stop sliding. Before I could do anything, I found myself almost inches away from the edge. I kick my shadow self in the gut when I felt it pull back to raise its keyblade up in the air to strike at me. I swung in its direction only for it to recover from sudden shock and moves from side to side, dodging at my every attack.
It dodges one last time and attempts to strike at me again. I raise my arm up and slash at it the exact same time as it, barely keeping myself from falling back from the sudden force. As the "blades" of our keyblade's continue to clash against one another, I was still being pushed back as it sends an endless barrage of slashes at me. The way it was fighting was sloppy, and yet at the same time, very powerful. 'Almost like someone I know...' I couldn't help but smile at the sudden thought. I may not be entirely sure who I was thinking of, but I do have this weird hunch of who it is.
In one swift move, I twist around and dodged as it attempts to slash down at my head, and then strike it directly from behind. I triumphantly smirk when I see it stumble forward from my attack. That didn't last long. It recovered much faster than I thought it would and suddenly spins around in my direction. It does a backhand strike to my shoulder, which I was too slow to block and I found myself sliding to the left towards the side. I stab the ground to prevent me from sliding further towards my fall to the dark abyss below. I tried to catch my breath except my shadow self was still intent in trying to relentlessly fight me.
Sometimes... there will be a time where you find yourself unable to fight back... but there is a power inside you that will take shape...
I roll away in time and sprint into a run around the circular platform. It does the same, going the opposite direction. There was a sudden light that began to envelope from my heart all the way to my keyblade; but I didn't pay much attention it; focusing more on the fight. At one point I dashed towards the center, which it does as well, and move to straight-on stab to the head. Seeing it copy me, I quickly change my hold on my keyblade and jumped above it, pushing my hand on the back of its head to forcefully push it forward and to help my successful jump over it.
I duck as it twirls around with its keyblade thrust straight above my head, grabbed the bar to keep it from doing anything else then stabbed it straight in the stomach. My shadow self freezes in place and twitches. As I pull out, with the keyblade sliding out, it falls to its knees and disappears in a cloud of black dust. I sigh in relief and look up at the dark sky.
The light will always guide you... you just need to learn how to use it...
A small ball of light flies out from the spot where the shadow me once stood.
But will you always follow the light...?
It flew over to me and stops right in front of my face, then swirls around my body before flying straight up to the pitch blackness above.
When light was first made... every heart followed it... but temptations got the best of them and they fell to darkness... Many will try and tempt you into the darkness... Are you going to fall as well...? Just like all the others...?
||Mysterious Tower||
"Mmmm..." I struggle to open my eyes and sat up from the soft cushion underneath me. "Donald? Goofy? Sora...?" I look around in confusion when I realized that I was the only one inside this... room? Carefully, I slide out of bed and slowly walked to center of the small room. The was this strange wave of nostalgia that filled up my chest. Every piece of furniture, the old star wallpaper on the ceiling, and what got me the most was the swing carousel music box. It had different stars hanging and a crescent moon on the tent. I picked it up to take a better look.
There was a small star shaped gem that stuck out on the bottom. As if on instinct, I reached out and twisted it. I stopped when I felt that it couldn't move anymore and let it going, surprised when the carousel started to spin and a soft melody started to play. Just listening to the start suddenly brought me to tears. (A/N: The melody is the music box version of first love by Utada Hikaru. Yeah good luck not crying if you find the video and read the comments. XD But don't look for mine!) I flip it over on instict and found a carved writing at the bottom. It read:
No matter what the time
I'm just alone
Destiny forgotten,
Even though I kept going.
Inside of the sudden light I awaken, In the middle of the night
Quietly, stand in the exit way, and in the pitch-black, take the light
No matter what the time
We'll always be together
No matter what the time
Because you're by my side
The light known as "you" finds me, In the middle of the night
Enter a noisy street, and put on the mask of destiny.
"The mask... of destiny..." I mutter out loud. "Akari?" I turn around to see Sora at the doorway, halfway inside and seemed shocked when he see's me. I quickly rush over to him and cried against his chest. Unsure of what to do, he tensed up for a moment then slowly puts his arms around me and gently pats the back of my head. "Hey Sora what's-" For a second there I thought I heard Goofy's voice there for a second, but when we turned around all we saw was a hat on the ground. I look up at Sora and he looked back down at me. We quickly pulled away from each other when we realized how close we were.
"S-Sorry!"
"No! I should be the one that's sorry!"
I don't want thing to be awkward around Sora and I, but I barely know anything about him! 'And yet...' I shyly glance over at the boy and he puts him hand behind his head with his back turn on me. 'He knows so much about me... I really shouldn't be treating him like some stranger, but that's all I can think of him and the others.' "Sora I-" "Oh right! I almost forgot," Sora suddenly grabs my hand and starts dragging out of the room, "there's someone that wants to meet you. He'll have all the answers you need!" I blink in surprise but just went with it. I did notice he was acting a tiny bit weird.
"Sora? Are you alright?" I ask him, concerned at his odd behavior. He slowly comes to a stop. With a long deep sigh, he looks over his shoulder and sadly smiles at me. Sora reaches over for both of my cheeks and starts to bring his face down to my level. "Wha- Sora?" I do not know what I was expecting, but I should have listened to my guts when I knew Sora wouldn't do anything like THAT bold all of a sudden. Because the next thing I knew, he was pinching my cheeks! "Ow! Stop that hurts!" He just bursts out laughing while I turn around to massage my poor throbbing cheeks.
"What the heck Sora!? Do you even know how hard you pinch!? You could have ripped my cheeks out or- What's wrong with your face?" He had the biggest smile I have ever seen in my life. "There's the Akari I know!" I cannot understand this boy at all. But seeing him smile at me like that makes me sort of feel relieved as well. 'I can say the same to you,' I thought at the back of my mind as Sora resumes dragging me to wherever he wanted to go. I didn't really mind it actually. It did hurt but I don't actually feel that shy anymore like earlier. I didn't exactly know how to act around him, so I guess it is alright to act a little goofy once in a while.
'Though I think Sora has it all covered up with the whole goofy department,' I giggle at the thought and just smiled at the back of Sora's. We did joke around a bit. Oddly enough, it was enough to actually make it all the way down the seemingly endless spiral stairs (A/N: Hey! The place is magic alright? XD) towards the door. He did joke about almost tripping over to the edge. That earned a big slap to the face for that. Reaching the place was an entirely different story though. Once I reached the door ahead of Sora- since I marched off from that little incident- I was starting to have second though on whether I should go in or not.
This was the guy who might have all the answers I'm looking for. And honestly? I'm not even sure if I want to know. "Ok I did deserve that..." he mutters as he approaches me from behind. Noticing how frozen I was, he follows my gazes and faces the large doors as well. "You know you don't really have to go in now if you don't want to," comments the boy, placing a hand on my shoulder to give me a reassuring squeeze. I shake my head and look up at him, saying, "Like you said, this person has the answers I need. Even though I am afraid of what I'll learn... it might be enough so I can understand more about myself."
"Heh, well said!" I watch as Sora takes a few steps forward and opens the door without hesitation. I waited for a bit after Sora entered the room first, then with a short few breaths. After taking a full step out of the odd looking door, I was shocked when I saw it suddenly disappears in a cloud of puffy smoke. "That explains a lot..." I mutter to myself, thinking back to how tall the tower really is before I blacked out. Inside the room was not only Donald and Goofy (who seemed to be missing his hat), but an elderly man dress in a long blue rob and a strange cone hat on his head. He doesn't exactly look friendly in my opinion.
Feeling slightly nervous again, I grabbed Sora's hand and slowly took a few steps behind his back. "It's alright! This is the guy I told you about." Despite his reassurance, I still couldn't help but feel intimidated by the way the old man's looking at me. Unsure of what to do to make me move, the boy looks over to the three with a pleading look in his eyes as I continue to hide behind him. The old man was the only to take a step forward. "Hello Akari," he greets as he bends over to my level. His eyes soften when I took a small peek over at the old man. "It's a pleasure to meet you in person."
I nod and suddenly blurt out, "It's nice to see you again too Yen Sid." I instantly cover my mouth and stare at 'Yen Sid' with wide eyes. This is the first time I've ever met the old man, and the way Sora was acting earlier, I can tell this should definitely be the first time. "Have we...?" I was too scared to ask. The fear that there is more that someone knows about me that I don't began to resurface again the longer I stood there. I could tell that not saying anything will do anyone any good if I keep this up. Just as I was about to open my mouth to say something, Yen Sid suddenly takes a hold of my hand.
That one action instantly sent a strange nostalgic feeling in my chest, exactly the way I felt when I was in that room earlier. I quickly drew my hand back in fear. When I see the horrified looks on Donald and Goofy's faces, I instant regret my actions and apologized on the spot, "I'm sorry! I have no idea what came over me!" The one thing that none of them ever expected Yen Sid to do was... smile? "I need to speak with you three alone," he finally spoke up. "Yes!" Donald and Goofy obediently salutes their orders, along with Sora who was a little off with the timing.
I couldn't help but giggle at this. With a snap of his fingers, three fairies suddenly appeared at my side in small balls of light. "These three will keep you company until we finished our discussion." The three fairies simply bow politely at me, for some strange reason. "Uh..." I glance over at my three companions in utter confusion. They tried to give some sort of weird hand signal, but when Yen Sid catches me staring at the three oddly, he turns around to find them 'casually' whistling and act as if they weren't doing anything at all. He just shakes his head and gestures the fairies to take me away.
The pink one grabs my hand and the green one grabs the other, escorting me to the other room as the blue fairy opens it up for me with the wave of her wand. Still unsure of going with them, I take one last look at Sora as the doors close behind my back.
Once they knew she was gone, Yen Sid looks at the three apprehensively, telling them, "It seems the affects of having her heart shattered isn't only affecting her memories... but also all of the previous Purest of all Hearts." This shocked them and nearly shook them to the core. Seeing how distract they were to hear this, Yen Sid continues but tries to deliver it as calmly as possible, "They can sense the emptiness inside of Akari. In order to make sure she does not fall like the rest of them, it seems they're trying to fill in the gaps to keep her from fading again. And Akari herself is unconsciously allowing this to happen."
"Wait, how is she doing it exactly?" Jiminy asks. (A/N: I swear, Kingdom Hearts is the only game where I forget certain minors exist. This poor little guy is one of them! XD) Lifting his hand up, Yen Sid recreates an image of a heart and shatters it. This made Sora slightly disturbed seeing the wizard do it, most especially after seeing it first hand.
"Sora..." The sound of shattering glass echoed around those present right as soon as Akari finally frees herself from Ansem's influence. The world seemed to mute itself around the boy. As he runs up to his friend, the smile on Akari's face never fades as the light in her eyes began to dull.
Trying to shake off the memory out of his mind, Sora tries to focus on the topic at hand.
(A/N: Yeah I feel like it would be over doing it too much if I let Yen Sid talk about Akari's heart again so I'll let someone else say it out loud in the future when she wants more answers.)
I couldn't kept but feel awkward with how the three fairies... were so close to me. "So? How do you like you're new outfit?" one of them finally spoke up. "Hm?" I was so busy worrying about what's been going on I never even noticed the change of clothing. Looking down, I was slightly surprised at how different it was compared to the one I was wearing before. And it oddly felt a little bit more comfortable. Realizing that my silence wasn't helping the anticipation that was building up all three fairies, I knew I had to say something sooner or later. "I love it," I smile up at the fairies.
The blue one seemed pretty proud about it while the pink just crosses her arms and turns her back on her friend. The green fairy simply giggled. Then it dawned on me. "By the way... what are your names exactly?" I blurt out. They were slightly caught off guard at my sudden question, but there was this familiar look of understanding in their eyes when they were done looking at one another in confusion. The pink one floats forward, bowing to me again as she spoke, "Forgive us for the late introductions! We just got caught up in the moment and we- Oh never mind... I'll start first. My name is Flora. This is Fauna and Merryweather."
Fauna (the blue fairy) and Merryweather (the green fairy) came up to Flora on both sides and bow as well. I didn't know how to react properly to this. First I was attacked by heartless, saved and greeted by a group of strangers, then this happens to me. Shaking my head, I couldn't help but look at the door. There was so much that I don't know, and yet, it's not as scary as I thought it would be. "Can I ask you something?" I ask. "Anything dear," Merryweather eagerly answers. "It's nothing really important... I was just wondering about who exactly Yen Sid is to me and who I am to him." They were all pretty surprised at my words.
"There's this weird feeling in my chest every time I look at him... the same feeling I get whenever I'm around Sora. I can't tell if it's nostalgia or something else." I want to remember them. But every time I try to force myself, there's this weird ache in my heart."
Me: Why do feel like you guys are getting the wrong idea with that line...?
Fauna flies over to my left and pats my shoulder, reassuring me at the same time, "Now don't you worry! Sora and the others will help you find your memories in no time! We'll help true, right guys?" Flora and Merryweather nod. Yen Sid steps into the room not long after our small chat. He looks at the fairies one by one with a stern look in his eyes then turns to fully face me. "I need to speak to Akari alone." All three didn't waste a second to leave. I was surprised to see them turn into a ball of light with the wave of their wands and leave just like that. Fauna did seem hesitant too leave but had to follow after her friends.
"Akari, do you know what you are?"
"That's what I was hoping you'd tell me. Sora said you'd have all the answers I have. But..."
"Yes?"
"I'm afraid... What if I'm not ready yet?"
There was a look of understand in his eyes. He casts a spell to summon a chair and sits down. I do the same when I see another chair come up towards where I was. "Listen," Yen Sid starts. "I know that lacking memories of your friends is hard. Believe me, I have experienced that once in my life time before any of you were long born. What you're experiencing now is something that fate has chosen in your current path to something grand. You may not know this now, but as you continue on your current course to recover what you have lost, you will soon realize what that is. All you have to do is be patient and believe in your power and your friends."
"My... friends..." A small smile formed on my lips after I said that. I felt this weird warmth inside my chest, almost as if there was something inside me that was happy with just the mere mention of it. "Now then-" I was surprised to see Yen Sid abruptly stand up and clap his hands, making the chair behind him disappear. "Why don't you boys join us?" I jumped off my seat once I see the doors open by themselves with all three boys falling straight to the floor; Donald being first followed by Goofy, then Sora. Dizzy at first, they all recovered quickly when Yen Sid walks over to them with his arms crossed.
I don't know what kind of look he had, but it was enough to make all three shot up from the floor and straight on their feet. Which was a pretty funny sight to see. "Protector Sora!" The boy instantly salutes, "Yes sir!" That earned him a pat on the shoulder as Yen Sid walks past him, saying one last time, "Make sure to protect her with your life." Protector? I raise and eyebrow and eyed Sora, confused at what the old wizard meant by that. "Sora? What did he mean by protector?" I ask.
Once the doors were closed and a frantic voice was heard from the inside, Yen Sid smiles to himself and was about to make his leave until a certain yellow bird suddenly appears through a portal from above. "Ouch...!" The chocobo cries out as he lands head first on the ground. "Choco? What are you doing here?" the wizards asks as Choco sits up and shakes his head. Choco panics and quickly stands up on his feet, answering with a short salute, "Master Yen Sid sir! I'm sorry to suddenly drop in like this! But I have some news to report about the mission!"
Aura jumps back as Choco barely dodges the attacks and ends up rolling on the ground beside the girl. "Get back!" Before he could react, Choco finds himself spinning in the air, and suddenly finds himself diving straight to the same corridor they came out of.
"So you have no idea where she is..."
"Yes! No... Probably?"
This wasn't exactly the kind of report he was expecting, but for Aura to go as far as to send her only companion back here? Something must have happened. "Hm... follow me," Yen Sid orders, summoning a door beside where Choco stood. It was old and worn out, but the gold crest on it looked as good as new. Stepping into the door, it was at that exact moment when the four came out of the room and saw nothing except a puff of smoke rising up in the air. "So... You're my Protector, right? So does that mean you have to guard me 24/7 every where I go?" Donald and Goofy burst out laughing at the girls' question.
"No! I just..." Sora had no idea how to completely explain this to Akari at all. Especially since no one has explained to her what she is, and how important she is. "Hold on a moment!" The three fairies call out as they reappear in front of them. "We forgot to tell you one thing Akari," Flora says, floating over to where Akari stood. "Your outfit is just as special as Sora's. You now have special abilities to transform into different, very powerful forms. Your forms are connected and woven together by your memories, so every time you regain a certain piece of memory, a current form you have right now will soon become complete and evolve or a new form in created."
Merryweather creates a small yellow orb that has the shape of a star inside it. "You can recover it by collecting this specific orb that is only meant for you alone." Akari extends her hand and feels the orb enter inside her body, feeling an odd sensation throughout her body. She felt light in a way.
*Memory Form Obtained - Strength Form*
- This form is mainly based on strength and can control the elements of earth to some extent.
How to level Up: In this form, you level up by gaining experience points.
Wields: 1 or 2 Keyblades (And there's a reason)
Special Abilities (this is common with almost all of Akari's forms): Can combine two keyblades when you want to. When you combine your current equipped keyblades, attacks are slow, but very heavy and hard-hitting.
Akari looks back at her friends with a big smile on her face.
"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
To Be Continued
Crap! This was supposed to come out on the 5th! Or at least the ninth... but I've had so much shit to do at school and I was just about to update this tuesday... but the internet just crapped out on me. While I was editing, I realized how many times Sora's name is mentions in almost every damn sentence. In my head I was like 'Ok... I know I had a crush on Sora before... but why am I mostly seeing only HIS name!?'
~After Story~
There was a castle that once was considered a safe haven for those who followed the light. But darkness found it's way into the heart of one of the residences and brought down the first of her kind. It was this very action that set in motion the events that led to the deaths of many, and the rebirth of one individual every time she fell. Yen Sid arrived at the very place with Choco, who instantly collapsed once he set his eyes on the empty ruins. This castle is meant for only those who have been trained inside its halls can walk. So why is it, that Yen Sid is still standing if he and his former fellow pupils were trained else where?