The Journey of One
Chapter III
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Location: Monstro
When I came to, I found myself surrounded by stacks upon stacks of broken wooden planks. The piles of planks were partially submerged under water, and the planks I stood on were floating on water. I concluded that I was on some sort of beach littered with remains from shipwrecks. Several others stood around the area studying the surroundings, which struck me as odd. 'Why not just sense this world's heart?' I wondered. After trying to sense this world's heart, I found that this world somehow didn't have a heart. I concentrated harder, frantically trying to find the source of this world, but no avail.
"A world without a Princess and a world without a heart…"
"Why have we been brought to this place?"
"Is our purpose not to find the Princesses of Heart to return home?"
"Everything that we believed was a lie?"
"No, no, we mustn't doubt ourselves now. We must move on."
"This world is without heart! How are we supposed to get to the next world?!"
Dazed and confused, I sat down and thought about my recent encounter with Sora. There was no scar on my body from the Keyblade, almost as if it didn't happen at all. I thought it all may have been a dream but it was so real that it had to have happened. I remembered the flashes in my mind when the Keyblade struck me. I endeavored to sort out everything I saw, but the harder I tried to understand those visions the further that understanding seemed to be. I soon gave up and decided to explore this 'world,' and it was truly baffling what I beheld around me.
High above me was what seemed to be some sort of bone formation and on top of that seemed to be gums. I leaped up to one of the tall woodpiles to get a better view of everything. One side of this large hallow had two rows of giant teeth stacked on one another, and the opposite side was very different. The ground there was a light pink, bumpy and slimy surface, and two vertically aligned wholes made doorways on the back wall. It became obvious to me where we were after seeing all this. We were inside the mouth of some sort of animal and judging from the shape of its mouth, it was probably a marine animal. I looked down at the others and saw how puzzled they were, as I was several moments before. The others started to become erratic and started to randomly shift from one woodpile to another. Some started to attack things like the planks and the surface of the water. They seemed to be consumed by a rage born out of the fear of not knowing. Seeing how they reacted, I almost thought that we blindly relied on our senses too much back then. Almost.
Before I could even think any more, a voice echoed in my head. 'Monstro,' it said. I had no idea who or what Monstro was, until I finally understood our situation. As I had thought, this 'world' that we were on wasn't exactly a world at all but it was a living, breathing, giant whale. We somehow were brought inside a massive blue whale named Monstro for a reason unknown to us. I tried to calm the others down by explaining the situation. "I know where we are. We are inside a whale named Monstro," I told them through utilizing my senses. But the others suddenly froze and all their eyes looked at me with an empty gaze. There was no movement, no twitch, no sound nor echo. An eerie silence had settled in, except for the soft ripples of the water onto the soaked planks of wood.
On they stared with their yellow glowing eyes, staring, staring, and staring. Fear rapidly crept in my mind as my eyes bounced from one pair of eyes to the other, desperately trying to understand why. Why they were all looking at me, why they had such blank and yet unnatural looks on their faces, why they had those expressions pointed toward me. I began to panic and started to step backward, but I stumbled and fell back. I rolled down the side of the woodpile and was tossed like a rag doll into the air. I looked back and saw that Monstro began to open its mouth; those wide rows of enormous teeth quickly pulled further and further away from each other. Closer and closer I flew to the mouth until finally I escaped its jaws and left Monstro.
I fell deeper and deeper into space while Monstro turned and disappeared in the other direction. I couldn't move my body there as if I was paralyzed, uncontrollably falling through emptiness. It felt a little like the realm we were in when we went through the Keyholes, except there was no warm light anywhere around me. There was only cold, black space filled with an endless sea of stars forever filling the universe. I closed my eyes and prayed to my home, Kingdom Hearts. I hoped so hard that this empty, lonely feeling I began to have would go away and never come back. I continued to pray so hard, so very hard until I finally opened my eyes.
Nothing.
There was nothing. All the stars had vanished and the universe had disappeared. I realized I was actually standing on something so I looked down at my feet.
Nothing.
What I was standing on was no different than what I saw above and around me. A realm of emptiness encircled me. I edged forward and the invisible ground followed. I stepped forward again but there was no end to this ground. I started to run as fast as I could. I didn't care where I would end up, just as long as I could go back to the others.
Finally, a dark figure materialized in front of me and I abruptly stopped. The figure looked like a large, dark blue cloak floating in midair. Near the bottom of the cloak was a shining heart protected by a force field. The hood of the cloak contained nothing, yet I felt there were eyes there that could stare right through me. A voice spoke and echoed throughout the infinite reaches of this place. The words that it spoke were incomprehensible, as it sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. It then waved its hand and ray of light blasted right through my helmet and into my head. A slight burning sensation ensued but ended shortly after it began.
"Now, you can understand me, can you not?" The shadow spoke.
"What is happening… where am I… what are you?" I said out loud.
"I have infused your soul with a language. Now we can speak to one another."
"What… what is this? Why am I… 'talking'? I shouldn't have to do anything but think and—"
"You are different. You are not like the others. You must know that."
"What are you talking about?"
The shadow froze for a moment, thinking and said, "it seems I may have overestimated you. But don't worry about that. Right now you must understand that you are not like the 'Heartless,' those other creatures you've been traveling with. You have a 'mind,' a 'soul.' You have thoughts, emotions -- you do not belong with the others."
"Lies… you're lying! I am no different that the others!" I shouted in denial.
"You've felt it too. You think you've been talking to the others? You know you haven't. Those voices in your mind came from your soul deep down inside. You've been having 'thoughts,' something that only one with a soul can do."
"No… this can't be true…"
"You must accept this. Don't worry, there is nothing to be afraid of."
Its words echoed with such truth that I crumbled to my knees, knowing that no matter how hard I tried to deny it I knew it had spoken the truth. "I can't… I can't accept this… It just can't be… can't be true…"
"I haven't much time. You must go on. I shall now send you to Atlantica. Believe in the truth! You are the—"
Its voice trailed off as a light filled the emptiness and my body began to change again, but it was different. My tail vanished; my claws became thinner and longer, and a helmet and a pair of boots materialized on me. Everything disappeared and I was once again sent falling.
