The Promise
Chapter 3
Chapter 3.0
Sora felt terrible. Physically terrible. His body was in pain, his head hurt, and it felt like a part of his heart had just shattered.
He was lying down in a field of wild flowers and grass as far as the eye could see. He didn't know whether he could get up, nor did his body want to try at the moment.
He groaned in pain as he turned his body over. He noticed his collar missing. Just perfect…
"Where am I?" He asked quietly as he looked up at the clear blue sky.
He laid his arms out straight from his body and just stayed there in the grass, allowing his body to rest.
"Hey, are you okay?" asked a tender voice from his right.
He looked in that direction and saw a woman wearing a light blue sundress and straw hat and carrying a basket of freshly picked flowers. She had slightly long black hair and a kind disposition.
Sora sat up and propped himself up on his arms as he looked towards the woman. She approached him and gave him a sweet sincere smile as she kneeled down next to him.
"Who are you?" Sora managed, feeling a bit awkward in the presence of the woman. She had to be at least 12 years his junior if not more.
"My name is Rinoa Leonhart." She said with what had to be the gentlest voice Sora had ever heard. She reminded him of Kairi.
"And what would your name be?" She asked, getting Sora out of his train of thought.
"Sora." He said sheepishly.
"Well, Sora, do you have a reason for being out in the middle of nowhere or do you need some help?" Rinoa asked.
"I could use a hand I suppose." Sora said easily.
"Alright. Come on." Rinoa stood up straight and Sora did the same.
"Where do you live?" Sora asked as he looked around the seemingly endless field.
"Just over there." Rinoa pointed to a house far off in the distance.
Sora looked in the direction she pointed, and then after a second looked back at the woman, noticing she was looking at him.
"What is it?" He asked nervously.
"You don't look like you're from this world." Rinoa said. "Are you from somewhere else?"
"Umm, yes, I am actually." He replied, a wall of defense rising up inside of him.
"I knew it. Squall was telling the truth after all."
"Squall?" Sora asked in a confused tone.
(Where have I heard that name before.)
"He's my husband. He's at the house right now with some of our other boarders."
"Boarders?"
"Well that house is too big for him and I. We rent out the rooms to people from different worlds who need a home. We don't have too many right now, but when summer comes we will. Shall we go?"
Sora nodded and followed Rinoa towards her house in the distance. As they approached, he saw that the house, three stories high and a light yellow color, was next to the shore of a beach, the sand beginning where the grass ended.
"This place is beautiful." Sora said as they were stepping onto the porch of the three-story boarding house.
"Everyone says that when they first see it." Rinoa said, happy at Sora's praise.
"I can see why." Sora said as he looked at her, then blushed and turned his gaze away.
"Remember, Sora, I'm married." Rinoa replied.
(You're old enough to be her father you doofus. C'mon!) Sora's conscience yelled at him.
"I'm home." Rinoa called into the house.
Sora looked around the room. It looked like a standard kitchen, but with a large table with many places.
"Who the heck is he?" came a burly voice that took Sora's attention away from the room. The source of the voice was a large, tall, barrel chested African American man with a crew cut and a gun arm. Sora had always thought he looked tough, but this guy could beat him easy.
"Barret, be nice. This is Sora. Sora, this is Barret Wallace. I found him out in the flower fields and invited him back." Rinoa said with a smile to the scary looking man.
"Cain't he talk for himself?" Barret demanded.
Barret stomp/walked towards Sora and looked him over, standing a menacing two inches over the key bearer with extra muscle and a gun arm to boot against his own piece of junk wreck of an arm.
"You s'posed to be some tough guy?" Barret asked Sora to his face.
"I try to look strong." Sora replied.
Sora had never taken disliking to too many people, but this guy just rubbed him the wrong way.
"Hmph. Whateva. Rinoa, you seen Marlene?" Barret asked Rinoa with a slightly more polite tone then he had used with Sora.
"I think she said she was going to play on the beach." Rinoa replied as she brought out a glass vase from a cabinet shelf and set it down.
"A'ight." With that Barret sat down at the table with his arms crossed.
Sora couldn't help staring at Barret's gun arm.
(Maybe I should get one of those…) Sora thought.
The door then opened behind him. He turned around to see a 14 year old girl with short blue hair standing there wearing a dark green bikini and with a towel wrapped around her waist.
"I'm back." She said as she closed the door.
As she took a step forward she noticed Sora and immediately turned beet red.
"Marlene, you're back early." Rinoa said to get the girl's attention. Rinoa was bringing out plates and glasses for dinner.
"I saw a storm coming." Marlene said shakily as she walked over to Rinoa to help her bring out some dishes.
Sora scratched the back of his head nervously and began to sit down at the table, but Barret gave him a look that plainly told him he better not.
"Sora, sit down and relax. It's alright." Rinoa said. "Oh Marlene, this is Sora. Sora this is Marlene Wallace, Barret's daughter. You'll find she's a lot nicer then her father's been." Rinoa gave Barret a displeased look when she said this. Sora sat down in a chair reasonably far from where Barret sat.
"Marlene, go upstairs and change." Barret said in an obviously agitated tone.
"Yes daddy." Marlene said obediently.
Barret watched her leave and gave Sora another dirty look as if he was implying something.
"So, uh Rinoa, how long have you owned this place?" Sora asked as he tried to avoid Barret's stink-eye.
"When my mother died and my father retired from the military, he bought this place because my mother loved the ocean. He died as well a few years ago and I've ran it ever since. I met my husband around the time my father retired." Rinoa said cheerfully.
"Oh. What about you Barret, what do you do?" Sora asked, trying to be polite to the scary man.
Barret narrowed his eyes towards Sora.
"I used to lead a team of people who were devoted to protecting the weak from heartless." Barret's tone gave the impression of someone who wasn't trying to impress anyone, just to inform, nothing more. "I lost my arm in a battle against a heartless about 12 years ago and retired. That was when I adopted Marlene."
"Oh. I know how you feel." Sora said as he looked at his own mechanical arm. It sparked a little, sending a surge of slight pain through his arm.
"You need to fix that. I'm sure Cid can do it for you. He'll be coming in a few days. Or Barret, you can help him." Rinoa said.
"I'm not gonna help some weirdo who all of a sudden comes out of no where. We don't even know anything about him." Barret said angrily and slammed his fist on the table.
"I'm glad we reinforced this table." Rinoa said in an annoyed tone, getting a laugh out of Sora.
"What are you yelling about now, Barret?" said a young man standing in the doorway connecting the kitchen to the living room. He was wearing a blue shirt over a red t-shirt and a pair of long denim shorts. His hair was semi-long except for his bangs and part of the rest of his hair was gelled and looked like he had smoothed his hand back and halfway forth on it. His left cheek had a tattoo that started halfway on his sideburn at a point and extended in three jagged points, the top point stopping about halfway across his eyebrow and jutted out another point that stopped near his scalp line. The second point extended to under his eye and the third jutted downward to just above his jaw line. Sora assumed he was no more then 20 at least.
"Zell, butt-out." Barret said in an angry tone.
"Hey, who's the new guy?" Zell asked as he made his way to the fridge and opened the door.
"Zell, this is Sora. Sora this is Zell Dincht, he's also a boarder here." Rinoa said as she set out a plate in front of each chair of the large table.
"S'up?" Zell said as he brought out a soda and opened it, spurts of it fizzing out. He walked over to Sora, wiped his right hand on his pants and held it out. Sora took it wearily and shook it.
"Whoa, what's with the hardware?" Zell asked, referring to Sora's arm.
Sora hid his arm behind his back.
"Oh…sorry 'bout that." Zell said in a sheepish manner.
"It's alright." Sora replied, not really meaning it, but it was the normal response to that reaction to his arm.
The front door then creaked open and footsteps resounded through the house.
"Squall's home. And I'll bet he didn't wipe his feet off." Rinoa said, not taking her eyes from her work.
Sora looked over to where the steps were coming from. He gasped in surprise when he saw who Squall was.
(Leon…) Sora thought, the realization striking him hard.
(But he doesn't look as old as he should. He kept his age pretty well.)
"A storm's coming, everyone. No one go outside." Leon or Squall said as he entered the kitchen.
"Marlene told us already." Rinoa replied.
"Oh. Well then I have nothing else to say." Squall said as he then saw Sora.
"Who's he?" He asked Rinoa.
Before Rinoa could tell Squall, Sora spoke up.
"Leon? Is that really you?" Sora asked.
"I was called that once. How do you know that?" Squall asked, his eyes narrowed at the key bearer.
"It's me…Sora." Sora said, feeling a bit nervous.
Squall's eyes widened in shock.
"Sora?" Squall asked in disbelief.
Everyone else just looked at the two, before Barret spoke up.
"You two know each other?" The burly man asked.
Squall looked to Barret then back at Sora.
"I knew a Sora from ten years ago. But he was a boy then. He'd be at least 24 by now. You look too old to be the Sora I knew." Squall said in near anger.
Sora began to say something but the realization then hit him.
(Maleficent! She sent me back in time!!) The thought screamed through his head.
"Squall, how long ago did the boy known as Sora who had the key blade seal the worlds?" Sora asked with a serious tone.
"Ten years ago. Why?" Squall asked.
"This is gonna be hard to explain…but I'm telling the absolute truth." Sora began.
"Spit it out already then." Barret demanded.
Sora swallowed and looked around the room.
"I'm that Sora you knew ten years ago." Sora said and stopped Squall before he was about to say something. "I look a lot older because I'm from the future. Maleficent, she tricked me and sent me back in time…let's see….18 or 19 years! Oh my god…uh…I swear I am telling the truth. I don't know what happened, but she knocked me out and then sent me back in time to this place."
Sora stopped and looked around to everyone. Everyone in turn, blinked in near disbelief. Finally Zell placed his index finger to the side of his head and began turning it in a circle facing the point on his head where it pointed.
"Cuckoo Cuckoo!" he said and crossed his eyes to add to the effect. Rinoa, with a stern look, slapped him on the arm before Barret could.
"You believe me, don't you?" Sora asked, facing Squall.
Squall, a doubtful look still on his face, looked to the others. He looked back at the key bearer, the same frown still on his face.
"I can't believe I'm saying this…" Squall began, his tone as if he were making the wrong decision. "But I do believe you."
"It's been ten years since you sealed Hollow Bastion." Squall said to Sora as the two talked in private in the parlor. Sora sat in a chair looking out on the fields through the large window which Squall trotted over to. The gunblader leaned against the wall next to the window and continued. "It's a bit unnerving to see you so old when your so young in this time."
"It's a bit unnerving to be sent 18 years from my time. It should be 18 anyways, if I did the math correctly that is…" Sora looked to the wood floor. It was well taken care of.
"I just don't see how Maleficent could possibly be able to send you back in time. I can't make any sense of it." Squall said contemplatively.
"Whatever she did, she must've sent me here for some reason. There must be some event she wants to be altered. Have you seen the old bag?" Sora asked curiously.
"To be honest, I don't think you dealt with the real Maleficent. You killed her ten years ago, or 28 years from your time, so I do not think she lived. But here's a possibility."
"Say it." Sora said flatly.
"I'm thinking she was resurrected." Squall said with a dark tone to his voice.
"What with a phoenix down?"
"No, it can't be that simple…Possibly she could have been resurrected through some dark magic, something to do with this Crimson Castle you told me about."
"I have to find Crimson Castle in this time." Sora said firmly and stood up.
"Hold on. You might be setting yourself up by going there." Squall stood up from his leaning posture and continued. "Maleficent sent you back to this time for a reason. She's obviously prepared for if you come. Practice a bit of caution."
"She took my Ultima Weapon. My Oblivion Keychain isn't with me either. My only good weapon is this thing." Sora raised his bulky mechanical arm. "And as you can see it's in need of a few adjustments."
"Maybe I can help you." Barret's burly tone came from the door behind the two warriors.
Sora turned to face the barrel chested man and waited as he spoke.
"I remember when I lost this arm in battle." Barret said as he looked down at his gun arm. "I felt weak without my arm, so I figgered out a way to become strong again. I can build you a way better arm then that one you got now. But I need money, and parts."
"Cid will be coming in a few days. He'll sell the parts you need to improve your arm." Squall said.
"Uh…thanks." Sora said to both of the men.
(Maybe Barret isn't such a bad guy after all.) Sora thought.
The thunder of the oncoming storm echoed through the boarding house, nearly shaking the place. Sora watched from the family room where he was laid up on the couch. Rinoa had offered him one of the empty rooms, but he had wanted to be in a place where he could get up and out quickly the next morning.
He had his boots and armor on the floor at the foot of the couch, along with his cape and other essentials which would've poked and prodded him all night, leaving him bare chested, exposing many of his scars.
As he watched the storm, he noticed the light from down the hall in Zell's room went out, followed by a loud fall and a swearing Zell. Everyone else seemed to be asleep. Sora chuckled softly and allowed his head to sink into the plush pillow. This was way better then he was used to.
He closed his eyes to try to get to sleep. After an unknown amount of time, he felt a soft nudge to his shoulder. His eyes flashed open and he looked to where his awakening had come from.
"Marlene? What is it?" Sora asked sleepily.
"The electricity is out in the house." Marlene squeaked in fear.
"So?"
"The fusebox is in the basement, but there's something down there, and everyone else is asleep."
"What time is it?" Sora asked drowsily as he rubbed his eyes.
"It's 4:22."
"Alright, I'll go with you." Sora became more alert as he slid his bottom half to plant his feet on the ground. He grabbed his shirt from the floor, put it on quickly and followed Marlene to the door which led down to the basement.
As Marlene opened the door, Sora turned on the flashlight he had installed in his arm and led the way down the stairs, the girl behind him. The stairs creaked under their every step.
They descended the final step and Sora scoped the whole basement with his flashlight.
Marlene screamed and clung to Sora's right arm for dear life.
"What is it?" Sora asked.
"Something touched me from behind. It was really cold." Marlene's body trembled in a terrified way.
"I don't see anything." Sora said as he lit the area directly behind where Marlene had been.
Quick little steps came from behind Sora. He turned around quickly, his light fixed upon a shadow heartless. The shadow was aglow with crimson light, it's eyes flashing green once in a while. Marlene screamed in fear, tightening her grip on Sora's arm and closing her eyes.
"You!" Sora kicked at the shadow, which flattened to the ground, avoiding his foot.
Sora cursed himself for leaving his key blade upstairs as he searched like mad for the shadow.
"Marlene, go upstairs and wake up the others. I think they have an infestation." Sora said.
Marlene shook her head, still clinging to Sora's arm, eyes still closed tightly.
"Marlene, please, you have to go get the others. I'll make sure they don't come after you, I promise."
Marlene nodded and as soon as she had let go of Sora, she ran up the stairs, her steps as noisy as they were rapid.
Sora punched a code into his arm and a long dark green saber came from the tip, replacing his hand and finger which went into the arm. He took the handle of the saber, another of a blue like color soon replacing it on his left arm.
"C'mon." Sora said in a low angry tone.
Shadows immediately came at him, all either clawing at his legs or jumping up onto his body. He used a spinning combo to swat off most of the shadows that had come onto his upper body. The ones on his legs were dizzied just enough for Sora to kick them off. He summoned up an Ars Arcanum to finish off a second wave of the small heartless, which them summoned up a fleet of dark balls and soldier heartless.
Sora sent a Blizzaga wave at the front men, which gave him enough distraction time to shatter the frozen heartless and sent painful shards into the heartless behind those.
As Darkballs swarmed around him, Sora took out as many as he could see. He missed one, which went behind him. Just before it could send a wave of dark magic into him a machine gun sounded off, instantly killing the dark ball and any other of the heartless that had been foolish enough to join it.
"Cain't you take care o' yourself, foo?" Barret's angry tone echoed into the basement as more shots rang off, killing off more heartless.
As much as he didn't like Barret, Sora was happy to see him, but his attention quickly fled to more of the infestation. Squall had his gun blade ready as Zell punched out as many of the heartless as he could, both aiding Sora with the melee combat.
"Dangit, where the heck are these things comin' from?!!" Barret yelled as he took out a dark ball.
"They just appear wherever there is a lack of light." Sora said as he stabbed a soldier.
"That makes sense." Zell said between frogging a dark ball and kicking a shadow heartless. "We haven't been down her in months."
"Remind me to come down here on occasion." Squall said as he pulled the trigger of his gun blade which was embedded into a dark ball's skin.
There was a long pause after that last heartless met it's end. The four men looked around the basement suspiciously. Sora punched in a sequence into his arm, a beeping sound beginning immediately.
"Whuzzat?" Zell asked as he looked where Sora was watching a screen on his arm intently.
"I'm scanning for anymore heartless." Sora said, not taking his eyes from the screen.
Squall tried to get a look at the screen on Sora's arm, but went back to using his own eyes in search of anymore of the monsters.
Sora turned the scanner off, immediately retracting the blue saber, but keeping the green one out just in case.
"I don't think there's anymore, none strong enough to be picked up on the scanner anyways." Sora said calmly, taking a potion out of his pant's pocket and drinking it quickly, tossing three more to the others.
"That's good." Zell let out a huge yawn, "I'm goin' back to bed."
Zell hopped up the stairs, zipping past Barret.
Sora awoke in a startled manner. He found Rinoa and Marlene standing over him, laughing at his awkward position on the couch, his legs dangling over the top and his head on the floor.
"Ow…" Sora said in a grunted tone as he managed to get his body fully on the couch and sit up straight. "What time is it?"
"It's 10:04 in the morning. You sleep too much." Rinoa said in a perky tone.
"Well I was up early fighting off heartless, so I missed a wink or two." Sora said in an annoyed tone as he rubbed his eyes.
"That's why we let you sleep so late. But after a while we needed the couch." Marlene said with a giggle.
Sora rolled his eyes as Rinoa and Marlene left him to get up.
As soon as he was fully dressed, Sora was put to work helping Zell, Barret and Squall work on repairing the basement, which could've been mistaken for a war sight with all of the bullet holes and broken items.
"We just need to find wherever the heartless got in and patch that off, then we'll get all of the trash and destroyed items out." Squall said.
As he worked on putting various pictures and other items into a box, Sora couldn't help looking through some of the items. He found pictures of various people, some he recognized, some he didn't. Finally, he found a picture he remembered. It was of himself, Aerith, Cid, Yuffie, Squall or Leon, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi.
It was after he, Kairi, Goofy, and Donald had come back from Hollow Bastion after fighting Riku. Yuffie thought it would make a good picture because of how much of an accomplishment it had been. Sora didn't think she was referring to him and Kairi, but of Hollow Bastion and how important it had been to Squall, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith. He didn't want to think of it pertaining to him or anything, but he remember Yuffie winking at him when she had suggested he and Kairi stand next to each other.
He remembered it didn't feel right to not have Riku there. Kairi had agreed, but Yuffie had her mind made up. There was no arguing with that girl, and Sora didn't really want to disprove that fact either.
So the picture was taken. He remembered after the flash that Yuffie was mad because of that 'stupid grin' as she called it that had been on Sora's face messed up the whole shot. As the key bearer remembered or tried to, he had felt really uneasy near Kairi, especially after all that had happened.
After a while, Sora stuffed the picture back into the box with the others and stacked that box with the rest of the junk.
(I wonder if Kairi has that picture.) Sora thought. (I hate nostalgia.)
Sora gave it a bit more thought.
(No…I hate being in situations I can't control.)
END OF CHAPTER 3
Chapter 3
Chapter 3.0
Sora felt terrible. Physically terrible. His body was in pain, his head hurt, and it felt like a part of his heart had just shattered.
He was lying down in a field of wild flowers and grass as far as the eye could see. He didn't know whether he could get up, nor did his body want to try at the moment.
He groaned in pain as he turned his body over. He noticed his collar missing. Just perfect…
"Where am I?" He asked quietly as he looked up at the clear blue sky.
He laid his arms out straight from his body and just stayed there in the grass, allowing his body to rest.
"Hey, are you okay?" asked a tender voice from his right.
He looked in that direction and saw a woman wearing a light blue sundress and straw hat and carrying a basket of freshly picked flowers. She had slightly long black hair and a kind disposition.
Sora sat up and propped himself up on his arms as he looked towards the woman. She approached him and gave him a sweet sincere smile as she kneeled down next to him.
"Who are you?" Sora managed, feeling a bit awkward in the presence of the woman. She had to be at least 12 years his junior if not more.
"My name is Rinoa Leonhart." She said with what had to be the gentlest voice Sora had ever heard. She reminded him of Kairi.
"And what would your name be?" She asked, getting Sora out of his train of thought.
"Sora." He said sheepishly.
"Well, Sora, do you have a reason for being out in the middle of nowhere or do you need some help?" Rinoa asked.
"I could use a hand I suppose." Sora said easily.
"Alright. Come on." Rinoa stood up straight and Sora did the same.
"Where do you live?" Sora asked as he looked around the seemingly endless field.
"Just over there." Rinoa pointed to a house far off in the distance.
Sora looked in the direction she pointed, and then after a second looked back at the woman, noticing she was looking at him.
"What is it?" He asked nervously.
"You don't look like you're from this world." Rinoa said. "Are you from somewhere else?"
"Umm, yes, I am actually." He replied, a wall of defense rising up inside of him.
"I knew it. Squall was telling the truth after all."
"Squall?" Sora asked in a confused tone.
(Where have I heard that name before.)
"He's my husband. He's at the house right now with some of our other boarders."
"Boarders?"
"Well that house is too big for him and I. We rent out the rooms to people from different worlds who need a home. We don't have too many right now, but when summer comes we will. Shall we go?"
Sora nodded and followed Rinoa towards her house in the distance. As they approached, he saw that the house, three stories high and a light yellow color, was next to the shore of a beach, the sand beginning where the grass ended.
"This place is beautiful." Sora said as they were stepping onto the porch of the three-story boarding house.
"Everyone says that when they first see it." Rinoa said, happy at Sora's praise.
"I can see why." Sora said as he looked at her, then blushed and turned his gaze away.
"Remember, Sora, I'm married." Rinoa replied.
(You're old enough to be her father you doofus. C'mon!) Sora's conscience yelled at him.
"I'm home." Rinoa called into the house.
Sora looked around the room. It looked like a standard kitchen, but with a large table with many places.
"Who the heck is he?" came a burly voice that took Sora's attention away from the room. The source of the voice was a large, tall, barrel chested African American man with a crew cut and a gun arm. Sora had always thought he looked tough, but this guy could beat him easy.
"Barret, be nice. This is Sora. Sora, this is Barret Wallace. I found him out in the flower fields and invited him back." Rinoa said with a smile to the scary looking man.
"Cain't he talk for himself?" Barret demanded.
Barret stomp/walked towards Sora and looked him over, standing a menacing two inches over the key bearer with extra muscle and a gun arm to boot against his own piece of junk wreck of an arm.
"You s'posed to be some tough guy?" Barret asked Sora to his face.
"I try to look strong." Sora replied.
Sora had never taken disliking to too many people, but this guy just rubbed him the wrong way.
"Hmph. Whateva. Rinoa, you seen Marlene?" Barret asked Rinoa with a slightly more polite tone then he had used with Sora.
"I think she said she was going to play on the beach." Rinoa replied as she brought out a glass vase from a cabinet shelf and set it down.
"A'ight." With that Barret sat down at the table with his arms crossed.
Sora couldn't help staring at Barret's gun arm.
(Maybe I should get one of those…) Sora thought.
The door then opened behind him. He turned around to see a 14 year old girl with short blue hair standing there wearing a dark green bikini and with a towel wrapped around her waist.
"I'm back." She said as she closed the door.
As she took a step forward she noticed Sora and immediately turned beet red.
"Marlene, you're back early." Rinoa said to get the girl's attention. Rinoa was bringing out plates and glasses for dinner.
"I saw a storm coming." Marlene said shakily as she walked over to Rinoa to help her bring out some dishes.
Sora scratched the back of his head nervously and began to sit down at the table, but Barret gave him a look that plainly told him he better not.
"Sora, sit down and relax. It's alright." Rinoa said. "Oh Marlene, this is Sora. Sora this is Marlene Wallace, Barret's daughter. You'll find she's a lot nicer then her father's been." Rinoa gave Barret a displeased look when she said this. Sora sat down in a chair reasonably far from where Barret sat.
"Marlene, go upstairs and change." Barret said in an obviously agitated tone.
"Yes daddy." Marlene said obediently.
Barret watched her leave and gave Sora another dirty look as if he was implying something.
"So, uh Rinoa, how long have you owned this place?" Sora asked as he tried to avoid Barret's stink-eye.
"When my mother died and my father retired from the military, he bought this place because my mother loved the ocean. He died as well a few years ago and I've ran it ever since. I met my husband around the time my father retired." Rinoa said cheerfully.
"Oh. What about you Barret, what do you do?" Sora asked, trying to be polite to the scary man.
Barret narrowed his eyes towards Sora.
"I used to lead a team of people who were devoted to protecting the weak from heartless." Barret's tone gave the impression of someone who wasn't trying to impress anyone, just to inform, nothing more. "I lost my arm in a battle against a heartless about 12 years ago and retired. That was when I adopted Marlene."
"Oh. I know how you feel." Sora said as he looked at his own mechanical arm. It sparked a little, sending a surge of slight pain through his arm.
"You need to fix that. I'm sure Cid can do it for you. He'll be coming in a few days. Or Barret, you can help him." Rinoa said.
"I'm not gonna help some weirdo who all of a sudden comes out of no where. We don't even know anything about him." Barret said angrily and slammed his fist on the table.
"I'm glad we reinforced this table." Rinoa said in an annoyed tone, getting a laugh out of Sora.
"What are you yelling about now, Barret?" said a young man standing in the doorway connecting the kitchen to the living room. He was wearing a blue shirt over a red t-shirt and a pair of long denim shorts. His hair was semi-long except for his bangs and part of the rest of his hair was gelled and looked like he had smoothed his hand back and halfway forth on it. His left cheek had a tattoo that started halfway on his sideburn at a point and extended in three jagged points, the top point stopping about halfway across his eyebrow and jutted out another point that stopped near his scalp line. The second point extended to under his eye and the third jutted downward to just above his jaw line. Sora assumed he was no more then 20 at least.
"Zell, butt-out." Barret said in an angry tone.
"Hey, who's the new guy?" Zell asked as he made his way to the fridge and opened the door.
"Zell, this is Sora. Sora this is Zell Dincht, he's also a boarder here." Rinoa said as she set out a plate in front of each chair of the large table.
"S'up?" Zell said as he brought out a soda and opened it, spurts of it fizzing out. He walked over to Sora, wiped his right hand on his pants and held it out. Sora took it wearily and shook it.
"Whoa, what's with the hardware?" Zell asked, referring to Sora's arm.
Sora hid his arm behind his back.
"Oh…sorry 'bout that." Zell said in a sheepish manner.
"It's alright." Sora replied, not really meaning it, but it was the normal response to that reaction to his arm.
The front door then creaked open and footsteps resounded through the house.
"Squall's home. And I'll bet he didn't wipe his feet off." Rinoa said, not taking her eyes from her work.
Sora looked over to where the steps were coming from. He gasped in surprise when he saw who Squall was.
(Leon…) Sora thought, the realization striking him hard.
(But he doesn't look as old as he should. He kept his age pretty well.)
"A storm's coming, everyone. No one go outside." Leon or Squall said as he entered the kitchen.
"Marlene told us already." Rinoa replied.
"Oh. Well then I have nothing else to say." Squall said as he then saw Sora.
"Who's he?" He asked Rinoa.
Before Rinoa could tell Squall, Sora spoke up.
"Leon? Is that really you?" Sora asked.
"I was called that once. How do you know that?" Squall asked, his eyes narrowed at the key bearer.
"It's me…Sora." Sora said, feeling a bit nervous.
Squall's eyes widened in shock.
"Sora?" Squall asked in disbelief.
Everyone else just looked at the two, before Barret spoke up.
"You two know each other?" The burly man asked.
Squall looked to Barret then back at Sora.
"I knew a Sora from ten years ago. But he was a boy then. He'd be at least 24 by now. You look too old to be the Sora I knew." Squall said in near anger.
Sora began to say something but the realization then hit him.
(Maleficent! She sent me back in time!!) The thought screamed through his head.
"Squall, how long ago did the boy known as Sora who had the key blade seal the worlds?" Sora asked with a serious tone.
"Ten years ago. Why?" Squall asked.
"This is gonna be hard to explain…but I'm telling the absolute truth." Sora began.
"Spit it out already then." Barret demanded.
Sora swallowed and looked around the room.
"I'm that Sora you knew ten years ago." Sora said and stopped Squall before he was about to say something. "I look a lot older because I'm from the future. Maleficent, she tricked me and sent me back in time…let's see….18 or 19 years! Oh my god…uh…I swear I am telling the truth. I don't know what happened, but she knocked me out and then sent me back in time to this place."
Sora stopped and looked around to everyone. Everyone in turn, blinked in near disbelief. Finally Zell placed his index finger to the side of his head and began turning it in a circle facing the point on his head where it pointed.
"Cuckoo Cuckoo!" he said and crossed his eyes to add to the effect. Rinoa, with a stern look, slapped him on the arm before Barret could.
"You believe me, don't you?" Sora asked, facing Squall.
Squall, a doubtful look still on his face, looked to the others. He looked back at the key bearer, the same frown still on his face.
"I can't believe I'm saying this…" Squall began, his tone as if he were making the wrong decision. "But I do believe you."
"It's been ten years since you sealed Hollow Bastion." Squall said to Sora as the two talked in private in the parlor. Sora sat in a chair looking out on the fields through the large window which Squall trotted over to. The gunblader leaned against the wall next to the window and continued. "It's a bit unnerving to see you so old when your so young in this time."
"It's a bit unnerving to be sent 18 years from my time. It should be 18 anyways, if I did the math correctly that is…" Sora looked to the wood floor. It was well taken care of.
"I just don't see how Maleficent could possibly be able to send you back in time. I can't make any sense of it." Squall said contemplatively.
"Whatever she did, she must've sent me here for some reason. There must be some event she wants to be altered. Have you seen the old bag?" Sora asked curiously.
"To be honest, I don't think you dealt with the real Maleficent. You killed her ten years ago, or 28 years from your time, so I do not think she lived. But here's a possibility."
"Say it." Sora said flatly.
"I'm thinking she was resurrected." Squall said with a dark tone to his voice.
"What with a phoenix down?"
"No, it can't be that simple…Possibly she could have been resurrected through some dark magic, something to do with this Crimson Castle you told me about."
"I have to find Crimson Castle in this time." Sora said firmly and stood up.
"Hold on. You might be setting yourself up by going there." Squall stood up from his leaning posture and continued. "Maleficent sent you back to this time for a reason. She's obviously prepared for if you come. Practice a bit of caution."
"She took my Ultima Weapon. My Oblivion Keychain isn't with me either. My only good weapon is this thing." Sora raised his bulky mechanical arm. "And as you can see it's in need of a few adjustments."
"Maybe I can help you." Barret's burly tone came from the door behind the two warriors.
Sora turned to face the barrel chested man and waited as he spoke.
"I remember when I lost this arm in battle." Barret said as he looked down at his gun arm. "I felt weak without my arm, so I figgered out a way to become strong again. I can build you a way better arm then that one you got now. But I need money, and parts."
"Cid will be coming in a few days. He'll sell the parts you need to improve your arm." Squall said.
"Uh…thanks." Sora said to both of the men.
(Maybe Barret isn't such a bad guy after all.) Sora thought.
The thunder of the oncoming storm echoed through the boarding house, nearly shaking the place. Sora watched from the family room where he was laid up on the couch. Rinoa had offered him one of the empty rooms, but he had wanted to be in a place where he could get up and out quickly the next morning.
He had his boots and armor on the floor at the foot of the couch, along with his cape and other essentials which would've poked and prodded him all night, leaving him bare chested, exposing many of his scars.
As he watched the storm, he noticed the light from down the hall in Zell's room went out, followed by a loud fall and a swearing Zell. Everyone else seemed to be asleep. Sora chuckled softly and allowed his head to sink into the plush pillow. This was way better then he was used to.
He closed his eyes to try to get to sleep. After an unknown amount of time, he felt a soft nudge to his shoulder. His eyes flashed open and he looked to where his awakening had come from.
"Marlene? What is it?" Sora asked sleepily.
"The electricity is out in the house." Marlene squeaked in fear.
"So?"
"The fusebox is in the basement, but there's something down there, and everyone else is asleep."
"What time is it?" Sora asked drowsily as he rubbed his eyes.
"It's 4:22."
"Alright, I'll go with you." Sora became more alert as he slid his bottom half to plant his feet on the ground. He grabbed his shirt from the floor, put it on quickly and followed Marlene to the door which led down to the basement.
As Marlene opened the door, Sora turned on the flashlight he had installed in his arm and led the way down the stairs, the girl behind him. The stairs creaked under their every step.
They descended the final step and Sora scoped the whole basement with his flashlight.
Marlene screamed and clung to Sora's right arm for dear life.
"What is it?" Sora asked.
"Something touched me from behind. It was really cold." Marlene's body trembled in a terrified way.
"I don't see anything." Sora said as he lit the area directly behind where Marlene had been.
Quick little steps came from behind Sora. He turned around quickly, his light fixed upon a shadow heartless. The shadow was aglow with crimson light, it's eyes flashing green once in a while. Marlene screamed in fear, tightening her grip on Sora's arm and closing her eyes.
"You!" Sora kicked at the shadow, which flattened to the ground, avoiding his foot.
Sora cursed himself for leaving his key blade upstairs as he searched like mad for the shadow.
"Marlene, go upstairs and wake up the others. I think they have an infestation." Sora said.
Marlene shook her head, still clinging to Sora's arm, eyes still closed tightly.
"Marlene, please, you have to go get the others. I'll make sure they don't come after you, I promise."
Marlene nodded and as soon as she had let go of Sora, she ran up the stairs, her steps as noisy as they were rapid.
Sora punched a code into his arm and a long dark green saber came from the tip, replacing his hand and finger which went into the arm. He took the handle of the saber, another of a blue like color soon replacing it on his left arm.
"C'mon." Sora said in a low angry tone.
Shadows immediately came at him, all either clawing at his legs or jumping up onto his body. He used a spinning combo to swat off most of the shadows that had come onto his upper body. The ones on his legs were dizzied just enough for Sora to kick them off. He summoned up an Ars Arcanum to finish off a second wave of the small heartless, which them summoned up a fleet of dark balls and soldier heartless.
Sora sent a Blizzaga wave at the front men, which gave him enough distraction time to shatter the frozen heartless and sent painful shards into the heartless behind those.
As Darkballs swarmed around him, Sora took out as many as he could see. He missed one, which went behind him. Just before it could send a wave of dark magic into him a machine gun sounded off, instantly killing the dark ball and any other of the heartless that had been foolish enough to join it.
"Cain't you take care o' yourself, foo?" Barret's angry tone echoed into the basement as more shots rang off, killing off more heartless.
As much as he didn't like Barret, Sora was happy to see him, but his attention quickly fled to more of the infestation. Squall had his gun blade ready as Zell punched out as many of the heartless as he could, both aiding Sora with the melee combat.
"Dangit, where the heck are these things comin' from?!!" Barret yelled as he took out a dark ball.
"They just appear wherever there is a lack of light." Sora said as he stabbed a soldier.
"That makes sense." Zell said between frogging a dark ball and kicking a shadow heartless. "We haven't been down her in months."
"Remind me to come down here on occasion." Squall said as he pulled the trigger of his gun blade which was embedded into a dark ball's skin.
There was a long pause after that last heartless met it's end. The four men looked around the basement suspiciously. Sora punched in a sequence into his arm, a beeping sound beginning immediately.
"Whuzzat?" Zell asked as he looked where Sora was watching a screen on his arm intently.
"I'm scanning for anymore heartless." Sora said, not taking his eyes from the screen.
Squall tried to get a look at the screen on Sora's arm, but went back to using his own eyes in search of anymore of the monsters.
Sora turned the scanner off, immediately retracting the blue saber, but keeping the green one out just in case.
"I don't think there's anymore, none strong enough to be picked up on the scanner anyways." Sora said calmly, taking a potion out of his pant's pocket and drinking it quickly, tossing three more to the others.
"That's good." Zell let out a huge yawn, "I'm goin' back to bed."
Zell hopped up the stairs, zipping past Barret.
Sora awoke in a startled manner. He found Rinoa and Marlene standing over him, laughing at his awkward position on the couch, his legs dangling over the top and his head on the floor.
"Ow…" Sora said in a grunted tone as he managed to get his body fully on the couch and sit up straight. "What time is it?"
"It's 10:04 in the morning. You sleep too much." Rinoa said in a perky tone.
"Well I was up early fighting off heartless, so I missed a wink or two." Sora said in an annoyed tone as he rubbed his eyes.
"That's why we let you sleep so late. But after a while we needed the couch." Marlene said with a giggle.
Sora rolled his eyes as Rinoa and Marlene left him to get up.
As soon as he was fully dressed, Sora was put to work helping Zell, Barret and Squall work on repairing the basement, which could've been mistaken for a war sight with all of the bullet holes and broken items.
"We just need to find wherever the heartless got in and patch that off, then we'll get all of the trash and destroyed items out." Squall said.
As he worked on putting various pictures and other items into a box, Sora couldn't help looking through some of the items. He found pictures of various people, some he recognized, some he didn't. Finally, he found a picture he remembered. It was of himself, Aerith, Cid, Yuffie, Squall or Leon, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi.
It was after he, Kairi, Goofy, and Donald had come back from Hollow Bastion after fighting Riku. Yuffie thought it would make a good picture because of how much of an accomplishment it had been. Sora didn't think she was referring to him and Kairi, but of Hollow Bastion and how important it had been to Squall, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith. He didn't want to think of it pertaining to him or anything, but he remember Yuffie winking at him when she had suggested he and Kairi stand next to each other.
He remembered it didn't feel right to not have Riku there. Kairi had agreed, but Yuffie had her mind made up. There was no arguing with that girl, and Sora didn't really want to disprove that fact either.
So the picture was taken. He remembered after the flash that Yuffie was mad because of that 'stupid grin' as she called it that had been on Sora's face messed up the whole shot. As the key bearer remembered or tried to, he had felt really uneasy near Kairi, especially after all that had happened.
After a while, Sora stuffed the picture back into the box with the others and stacked that box with the rest of the junk.
(I wonder if Kairi has that picture.) Sora thought. (I hate nostalgia.)
Sora gave it a bit more thought.
(No…I hate being in situations I can't control.)
END OF CHAPTER 3