Chapter 13 - Through

There were few truly critical moments, where the fate of Sora and his supposed destiny or the role he was to fulfill hung by a strand of hair, where they all walked a razor edge. This was one of them, but Mickey had planned well.

"Riku... hold on! No...! Argh...!" cried Sora, his sneakers losing the last of there grip. He fell forward, his gloved hand still locked on Riku's own.

Riku, coming to, looked up at Sora, who was about to topple over the edge of the bridge. His hand was flung out to one side, where he grasped the hilt of the materializing Inverse Key. With a grunt, he swung the weapon upward and caught the teeth on the edge of the bridge. Sora cried out, surprised, when instead of falling into the abyss, he was hanging onto Riku's hand.

"Sora, hold on. I'm going to swing you up," stated Riku, and with an affirmative nod, Sora readied himself. Riku began rocking the boy back and forth, straining with each swing. Finally, with enough momentum achieved, Sora was hurled up onto the pavement, where he grabbed a hold of the edge and scrambled up, rushing toward Lilka.

Lilka and Dyne were still in danger, their bodies and their memories blending more and more with Memoria's chaotic byproduct.

"Riku! Call Dyne back, anchor him down!" Sora called over his shoulder as Riku fought to hoist himself over the edge.

"How?" asked the blindfolded one, who made his way toward the dissipating form that had once been Dyne. He could tell, through his own strange vision, that the fog, which was a byproduct of conflicting Light and Darkness, was begin to eat away at Dyne's existence, was beginning to turn him into the mist itself.

"Remember him! Recall all the memories you have of him, I'll try to bring Lilka back!" replied Sora, who had slid down onto his hands and knees, looking into Lilka's now-transparent face.

Dyne sat upon the immense clocktower, smiling, holding his trophy in his hands. He had won it in one of the local tournaments; it seemed that the people of Twilight Town enjoyed a good fight. His two keyblades, which he had decided to call the Oblivion and Oathkeeper (for no apparent reason) had served him well. Three other young people, his age, sat with him, each of which had participated in this tournament. Dyne grinned, plucked out the 'consolation prize' that everybody had received, and held it out to the dying sun. The blue gem glinted. Dyne felt good.

One of the children turned, suddenly, and with a voice that wasn't her own, spoke softly.

"Dyne, can you hear me? This is Riku."

The blonde-haired kid turned to look at the girl. The other two children also glanced her way, nervously. Dyne's expression was one that could best be described as nostalgically baffled, and had the situation not been so outrageous, the other children would have laughed.

"...who the hell is Riku?"

The blindfolded unknown fought to recall what few memories of Dyne that he could as vividly as possible; he was not faring well.

"Dyne. We're in Memoria. The mist, it's destroying you. Come back."

The dual wielder stood up, perplexed, and backed away. Something was not right. His foot came precariously close to the edge of the clock tower's overhang.

Then, quite suddenly, the ground felt as though it was breaking out from under him. His body was rocked upward, he felt yanked off of the floor, and when he felt his head was about to explode from the pressure-

His eyes opened, and he was looking at where Riku's eyes should have been. He frowned, turned to look around, and found that Sora was next to Riku. Lilka stood beyond them, focusing her thoughts.

"Dyne. Keep thinking about me. Riku will keep thinking about you. I'll think about Lilka, and she'll think about Riku. We'll all be anchored. If you don't, the mist will eat us all."

Still a little dazed, Dyne nodded dumbly and got to his feet. Sora led the way this time, driving them all from platform to platform, fearlessly, in perfect trust. It didn't take much effort for Dyne to keep Sora in his thoughts.

The blonde-haired kid's blue eyes (Sora's eyes) were burning with anger at the condescending lecture he had just received. Who was this homohaired freak to tell him what to do? He would have been just fine. He had everything under control. Sora didn't control him, he wasn't the leader, the boss. He felt himself ready to open his mouth and launch a verbal assault upon the Keyblade Master when, instead, Sora spoke.

"You guys feel that?" called the boy, looking over his shoulders at the others.

"Yeah. We're close," responded Riku, his pace quickening, his thoughts focused on the Crest Sorceress.

"I don't feel anything," said Lilka, her voice changed from its normal light and happy tone to one of frustrated anxiety. It sounded so out of place that Sora stopped to look at her. She did not look back. He frowned.

Dyne was silent.

The Keybearer turned and followed the bridge to the next platform. What he found next was less of a platform, and more of a floating continent.

The fog was a little lighter in this small ring of land encircling the Gates of Memoria, though from circular ventilations shafts in the wall he could tell that Memoria was where the fog itself was emanating from. The mist spewed out from the vent openings, reminding Sora of the smog-pipes that had he had seen somewhere in one of Asher's memories...

The wall extended, well rooted in the ground, from the surface to infinity, stretching upward into the fog until Sora could no longer see. He expected that it went upward forever, had no top. Ahead of him was the Gate itself.

It was as simple as a pair of immense doors, one white, one black. While the walls were gray, eroded by the fog, the Gate was completely untouched. Embedded in the doorway, however, was a massive relief of the symbol Sora had seen on the white creatures' foreheads. On either side of the symbol were two keyholes, one emblazoned and gilded with gold, the other with some manner of black steel, gold on black, black on white.

Sora stepped forward and prepared to call the Oblivion and Oathkeeper to his hands. Riku stopped him.

"Sora... be careful. I have a bad feeling about this. Like..."

Riku sank into thought for a moment, and then continued.

"It's like every fiber of my being is saying not to open that door," finished the platinum blonde.

The brown-haired boy turned and offered an awkward smile.

"Riku, this is the only choice we have. Our only chance. This is the way to get all the worlds back, to save Asher and Pandora and everybody else who was destroyed by the Darkness. Mickey said the castle was in danger. If they failed... then we can save them."

Dyne had his back turned, still silent.

Lilka appeared conflicted within herself, as if trying to decide whether to say something, be silent, be happy, stay, run, express her feelings, or let herself feel miserable. She was in no condition to say anything.

Riku called the Inverse Key to his hand.

"Dyne. Catch," called Riku, who then tossed the Nail Bat to Dyne. The dual wielder did not bother catching it; instead, as Dyne swerved his body out of the way, the Nail Bat sailed past, clattering to the ground.

"I already have my keyblades," he muttered, still looking back into the fog. Riku's brows furrowed, while Sora's eyes narrowed.

"Your keyblades? We've been over this already. They're not yours. One of them isn't even mine," spoke Sora, his voice threatening. Dyne turned his own blue-eyed glare at Sora.

"No, both of them are mine. They came to me, when I Awakened, and I don't care what you think, or whose you think they are. You don't even want to be the Keyblade Master, you don't deserve it," growled Dyne. Lilka looked from one to the other, unsure of what to say. Riku stepped in between them.

"What's your problem? We're stuck at the gate of some broken-down old world, we can't go home, we have nothing but danger ahead and you two can't even get along?"

"Give them to me, Dyne."

"No."

"Now!"

"Both of you, stop fighting already!" cried Lilka, moving next to Riku. The blindfolded man faced Dyne, while Lilka stared Sora down. "Over something as petty as a weapon or rank. Who cares!"

Sora's aggressive stance shifted back, indicating that he was ready to strike a deal. Dyne was still firing a venomous glare at the Keybearer from the other side of Riku.

"Fine, give me the Oathkeeper back and I'll let you hold onto the Oblivion," muttered Sora, after a moment of hateful silence, and after another quiet period Dyne responded with a 'Fine.'

Dyne called both of the weapons to his hands, and the tossed the Oathkeeper over Riku and into Sora's right hand. Sora turned immediately toward the door, extended his left hand, and called with all his power to the Oblivion. The weapon slipped easily into his grip, and Sora then pointed both weapons at the door. Dyne, livid, tried to shout in protest, but his voice was drowned by the sudden resonance between the Oblivion, the Oathkeeper, and the door.

The blonde dove forward, arm extended to attempt to manhandle one of the two memory-keys out of Sora's hands, and was frozen still in that position. Riku did not move from his place. Lilka was frozen with her hands clasped before her chest, a worried expression on her face. The Oblivion and Oathkeeper were frozen in place. Everything had lost its color. Sora looked to his left to see Dyne and Riku, to his right to find Lilka. He tried to let go of the Oblivion and Oathkeeper, but his hands were frozen. His arms were frozen. Even his neck- was it even his body that was moving anymore?

Then, slowly, he watched as energy, of both purest light and deepest darkness, swirled about his weapons. When both the keyblades were immersed in this power, it jetted forth, white energy pouring into the symbol itself while Darkness seeped into the door itself. It was like watching water fill a large pool or a cup; the Light filled the symbol as the Darkness trapped it. Then, as the door brimmed with this power, it faded away, slowly. Agonizingly slowly, and eternity packed into a fraction of a second.

Sora's back exploded with pain, as did the back of his head. He came skidding to a halt, lifting himself up at the waist, shielding his eyes from the sudden bright flare which burst forth from the gate. Lifting himself up, he looked around, alarmed, frightened, for his friends. Riku was behind him, helping Lilka to her feet. He could not see Dyne anywhere.

Before he became aware of what was really going on, the Gate began to pull the Keyblade Master in. He had opened the Door, now he would enter whether he liked it or not. He stumbled forward, caught in the immense vortex, which was now sucking everything- debris, people, and Mist alike- into its maw. Sora was no longer able to keep his balance, nor control of where he was going; he both tumbled forward and was lifted off of his feet and pulled through the Door.