Part Three: Hollow Bastion
A gloved hand clamped over Sora's mouth. "Shhh" Cloud hissed. "You don't want the other guards to find you here." He uncovered Sora's mouth.
"What's going on? Are the others all right? I felt the…the barriers." Sora blurted.
But Cloud shook his head. "The others are fine, but we can't discuss it here. Everyone's in the lower levels of Hollow Bastion."
"And how do you suppose we get there?" Donald asked. He and Goofy had come to stand beside Sora. The heartless were nowhere in sight.
"We jump" Cloud said without humor.
"Of course" Sora said wryly getting to his feet. "We always got to do it the hard way."
Cloud smiled slightly then motioned to them and the four warriors ran to the edge and leapt into the open air. It didn't feel like they were falling, but the Rising Falls got closer every second. Suddenly shadow lanced across Sora's vision. He saw a city, dark with storm. Neon lights and signs flickered along the streets. The brightness of Hollow Bastion hit him once more as they fell past the doors to the Entrance Hall. Red lightning began flickering around Cloud. A single wing on his left shoulder unfolded and he grabbed Sora, Donald, and Goofy by the scruffs of their necks. He flapped his wing hard to slow them down and landed lightly under the lift stop. Cloud led them to the dungeon in the waterways next to the sliding gates. Yuffie, Leon, and Aerith looked up.
"Sora! What are you doing here?" Yuffie cried walking over to him, and gave him a friendly cuff on the head.
Rubbing the spot she had hit Sora said. "The barriers are down again. I felt them fall"
Aerith nodded. "We know, that's how Ansem came back."
Donald and Goofy made startled noises. "What? But he's gone!" Goofy cried.
"No" Sora said clenching his fists. "He's not gone, but it's worse than that. He was the one who brought the barriers down the first time, and he's done it again. But now he's trying to do something much worse." Sora closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "He's going to destroy the barriers between the other realms."
The others looked at him astonished. "How do you know that?" Yuffie asked quietly, her eyes wide.
"I've seen it in dreams." Sora replied gazing intently at her. "He's looking for the Paradise. But a veil of his own creation has been pulled down over his eyes. He can't see through the darkness of his own heart."
"What else have you seen in these dreams?" Cloud inquired.
"I know that there are at least two other realms apart from this one, the World of Light and the World of Darkness. But what they actually are I have no idea. But what's been happening here? I'm guessing you were spying, right Cloud." Cloud nodded as he shed the black coat, underneath it he wore is usual attire.
The residents of Hollow Bastion glanced at each other. "Ansem returned about a year and a half after you defeated him." Leon said darkly. "Only when he returned, he came with five beings that call themselves nobody. Who is nobody you ask? They are the nonexistent."
Sora's eyes widened. "The nonexistent? I've heard that before. What does it mean?"
Leon shrugged. "We think they are the third entity. We know of two already, the heart and the body. But there's a third one also and that's what the nonexistent are. They are without a heart or body, mere shells of the people they were. It was the only thing we could think of."
Sora nodded. "It makes sense." He murmured. "But there must be more than just the five he brought back." His voice trailed off.
Suddenly Cid burst into the room. "The nonexistent!" he gasped, "one of them is torturing the other four! At the Rising Falls!" Yuffie, Cloud, Leon, and Aerith exchanged looks of alarm. Something dragged at Sora's heart. He gasped in pain and doubled up for a brief moment. With a growl of rage he ran from the room. Goofy and Donald followed shouting at him to stop.
Sora did not bother taking the lift to the Rising Falls. He leapt into the air and glided down through the rising curtains of water. Then he saw it; one of five black-coated figures was standing over his fellows. Circles adorned with blades were held in his hands, the other four lay on the ground. One of their hoods had fallen back to reveal a blindfolded face under thick silver hair. For one terrorized moment Sora thought it was Riku but the face was not that of his friend's. The brief lack of concentration caused him to fall out of the air. He landed in a roll and came to a stand holding the Keyblade in front of the standing figure.
A malicious laugh came from beneath the hood. "Why do you defend them? What are they to you? They are those who have lost their hearts. Fallen to the darkness's sweet seduction."
Sora's eyes flashed and his grip on the Keyblade tightened. He knew that voice, if only in the back of his mind. "And how are you any different? If you are of the nonexistent as well."
"Oh but I am not of the nonexistent." He reached up with one hand and slid his hood down. He had bright red hair that flowed backward like a cone. His bright green eyes glittered with a fierce joy.
What that joy was Sora could not fathom, he didn't fathom. His mind was quickly closing on the battle that was coming. He could feel the tension humming in the air. "If you are not of the nonexistent, then who are you?"
"I? Don't you remember?" He asked with a grin, his eyes never once leaving Sora's. Out of the corner of his eye Sora saw Donald, Goofy, Leon, Cloud, Aerith, and Yuffie clambering down the rising ledges.
Sora's eyes widened. "Yes" he said quietly, "I remember." For he had remembered suddenly, the fight in the very heart of Hollow Bastion. "I won then I can win again."
"You place your skill too highly." Sneered the red-haired man. "For I am Kevaul of the Thirteenth Order, the nonexistent cannot lead an Order, they have only the power to follow. And this time you are alone. There is no help here."
Sora stared at him for a moment. Then a fierce, pure, light arose behind his eyes. Kevaul's grin vanished. "I am not alone" Sora growled, "she is always with me and I remember that." Light exploded out from under his hands. Beams streamed away from him, dancing across the Keyblade making it sparkle. Sora stood strait, his hair stirring in a wind that didn't exist.
Kevaul took a step back from him. But then a shaky grin returned to his face. Fire began to writhe and crackle along his body. He raised his rings, Sora raised the Keyblade. And they clashed. The fight moved so fast that no one could quite follow it. At last Kevual was thrown away from the battle to skid across the water. His rings went flying into the falls and his fires went out with a hiss of steam. Sora straitened, looking at his foe with disdain. Again his breath had not even quickened, his heart beat remained at the same even pace.
"Look at them" Kevaul panted gesturing at the four motionless figures laying a ways away. "The one just behind you tried to protect you from me once. See how miserably he has failed." Sora turned his head to look at them; they were fading slowly like dissipating mist. Suddenly there was a scream from everyone on the ledges above. Sora's head jerked back to Kevaul just as the man's sword buried itself in his chest.
Sora stared at the blade for a moment and Kevaul ripped it loose. The joy in his eyes, Sora now recognized as the joy in killing. Strangely he felt no pain from the wound that had been torn in his chest. No blood came from the wound as it should have done. The blade would have gone right through his heart, but his heart was not there. Sora closed his eyes as he felt the fabric of his body drift apart. The Keyblade vanished and he fell backward. Hitting the ground and dissipating like dark fog.
Kevaul raised his blood stained sword above his head. Then looked up at Goofy, Donald, Aerith, Cloud, Leon, and Yuffie. "There!" he cried, "There is you precious Key Bearer! Dead, though I will admit that he fought well. But no Keyblade Wielder can stand up to the might of the Thirteenth Order!" With that he shot into the air and flew back toward Hollow Bastion where his master waited. The others just watched the place where Sora had disappeared. Hopelessness was settling deep into their hearts. Donald and Goofy bowed their heads, ashamed that they had been unable to help. An invisible force had bound them to their places.
The skies were growing darker; the stars' light had become feeble, the moon slowly fading. The sky, the only thing that connected all worlds, was slowly being destroyed.
Kairi cried out and doubled up in pain. White-hot agony had pierced her heart. It was there for only a second, then it faded. But an emptiness lingered, a kind of absence replaced it. And all at once Kairi realized what it was. "His voice" she breathed, "It's left me." She raised blazing, pain-filled eyes to the sky, and placed a hand over what remained of her heart. She ran to the water's edge and looked out across the sea. A solitary meteor was falling from the depths of the sky. In her other hand she clutched the key chain that Sora had given back to her. "This time I won't be useless she muttered furiously, tears streaming down her face. "This time…I'll fight." The key chain in her hand glowed and changed. Kairi, eyes blazing, held up Oathkeeper to the darkening sky. "Sora" she whispered, "I won't let it end here."
The group at Hollow Bastion was quiet; none of them could quite believe Sora was dead.
"What was it that he said?" Aerith asked quietly, "about 'she is always with me'?"
"It's Kairi" Goofy said, "Their hearts are bonded together as one."
"But that alone is strange." Cloud said quietly. He fingered the hilt of his sword, thoughtfully.
"Is it?" Aerith asked him, "Is it any different from us? Would you say our hearts aren't bound as one? Through friendship if not love?" Cloud looked back at her without answering. But it was clear to Aerith at least, that he knew she was right.
"So what are we waiting for?" Donald yelled, "let's go to the Destiny Islands and find her!" The others nodded.
"I'm going with you." Leon said suddenly.
"Me too" Yuffie and Cloud said in unison.
"We can't!" Donald said in dismay, "we'd be meddling"
Yuffie gave Donald a hard look, then said quietly. "Isn't the destruction of the barriers an affair of all worlds?" Donald mouthed speechlessly at her. "The fate of the Key Bearer is tied to the fate of all worlds. I don't know about you but I won't sit back this time and watch him fight alone." Donald looked at Goofy for support.
But Goofy just shrugged. "I'm not going to try and hold them back against their will. Plus they make a good point." Donald relented with a sigh, and led them to the gummie ship.
"You three go" Aerith said, "Cid and I'll hold down the fort here." She took Cloud aside. "You be careful" she whispered, "there are powers at work here beyond darkness and light."
He reached out and stroked her hair. "I know" Cloud said quietly, "but my heart tells me I must do this." He dropped his hand and looked into Aerith's eyes. "But you know that I am really not that far away." Aerith nodded and pressed a hand to her heart.
She watched through teary eyes as Cloud returned to the others. The wind of the blast off of the gummi ship blew Aerith's hair across her face. "Good luck" she whispered watching the ship disappear out of sight.
The rocks all seemed darker at night, but then, it was always night these days. The moon cast what feeble light it could on the shore of a rocky beach. The water was calm, so still it looked like black glass. On one particular rock a figure sat, she was swathed in a long black coat, just as everybody around there was, not that there were many people. She gazed out at the water where the moon reflected on its dark surface.
To her left another figure walked through a rock. He was garbed just as she was, and under his hood his eyes gave off a golden glow. He looked at her for a moment then walked forward to stand next to her.
She turned her head, "He looks just like you" she said quietly. He didn't answer. She turned to gaze out at the sea again. "I remember he came here once before, but something dragged him back."
"Yes" the other murmured, "His heart was bound to another's, what strength binds them together I do not know, but it is powerful."