Chapter 16 - Mirrors

Dyne set Sora down, and the others crowded around the unconscious Keyblade Master. Asher squatted down, looking him over, his face stonelike, unreadable. The black-haired boy did not touch him at all. Lilka and Riku stood behind Dyne, while Dyne crouched to level with Asher.

They were in what seemed to be a massive, polished-silver antechamber. It was a circular chamber, massive, the walls reflecting everything with a pristine surface. High above them, the roof domed into symmetrical perfection. The entrance, a large polished archway, was now blocked by a mass of Nobodies which ripped and tore at the walls in an attempt to get inside, though they could not, as if repelled by an invisible barrier. The only other way out of the domed room was through a pair of massive doors, but it was agreed that this was a safe place to recuperate for a moment.

Sora was already beginning to revert back to his original form. His fingers were shortening back to normal length, his skin turning from the Nobody-white to the tanned bronze he had been before being fooled by Memoria's wiles.

"Asher!" cried Lilka after a silent Sora-vigil, rushing to the boy. He glanced up at her, and then looked back to Sora, his face expressionless. Lilka squatted down and placed a hand on his shoulder. "We thought you were dead."

Asher ran a gloved hand through his hair, and it was then that Lilka realized there was something more than just his countenance that had changed. His hair wasn't plain black anymore- it was black with bright crimson streaks running through it. He was quiet.

"When you and Pandora didn't come back from Halloween Town, we-"

The boy cringed at the word 'Pandora', as though the word itself were acidic. He turned to look at the Crest Sorceress, and in his eyes she could read what had happened to her.

"I'm so sorry..."

Riku looked on, intrigued. There had been much going on while he was not around, though he had heard Dyne speak of Asher before, and never in a positive light. The platinum blonde folded his arms across his chest, watching through the blindfold, not sure what to make of Asher's dark aura. If Sora gave off a bright white energy signal, then Asher was a void, a solid black form in Riku's burned eyes.

Dyne didn't appear to feel pity or intrigue at Asher at all.

"What the hell are you doing here!" cried the blonde, waving his arms in the air and getting to his feet. Asher stood as well, eyeing the Sora clone, left hand resting on his hip.

"Saving your asses. Something wrong with that?" retorted Asher flatly, clearly annoyed.

"Yeah, there is. You tried killing Sora last time- how do we know you won't do it again?"

"Dyne, leave him alone," interceded Lilka, moving between then and looking Dyne straight in the eyes. "If it wasn't for him, Caejan would have slaughtered us, and you know it."

The dual wielder 'hmph'ed and skulked toward the door leading further into the large building.

"Don't run off, now. You might have to stop me from killing Sora," called Asher sarcastically before looking to Lilka, nodding.

"We'd better rest as much as we can before Sora wakes up. We don't know what's past that door, so we'd better be ready," stated Riku loudly, his voice echoing metallic against the walls. The blindfolded Unknown rolled up the hood of his cloak and laid down on his back, taking a deep sigh.

Lilka nodded and lay down by Riku. Dyne remained standing, while Asher sat down, placing his head on his knees and keeping a watchful eye on Sora.

Sora's healing was slow, but he gradually came to. The Keyblade Master, clad in black, opened his blue eyes- and the first thing he saw was Asher's emerald gaze. Sora leapt up, and then fell back, holding his head, groaning.

"Don't get up too fast. You've just gotten better," said Asher softly, smiling oddly.

"Asher... you're okay! I can't believe it!" cried Sora, raising himself up more slowly and grinning from ear to ear. "What happened? I remember going into the coffin to be alone, and then the next thing I knew I was remembering Castle Oblivion, and then we were at Hollow Bastion. And you're wearing that coat! What happened to you?"

Sora's friend was silent as he got to his feet, stretching, then extending a gloved hand to help Sora up, his face unreadable. The Keybearer looked at the hand, frowned, and then reached for it. Asher's hand clamped onto Sora's.

His voice... it's left me.

My... name...?

Kydran...? Where are you...?

Pandora...?

I...

Pan... Pandora! What- augh!

What am I doing here? It's cold... too cold... winter cold...

Who are you?

Where's Sora?

("Kydran! What's wrong! Tell me!")

You brought me back... what's going on? Where are we?

("Come back!")

...no... go back...

("I can't!")

No, this can't be happening! He's here, it's here, in this place... my Nemesis...

(Do not resist. Give me what I desire.)

("I know... I know you're here for your boy. Show your face, you slime.")

(Stand aside or be forever trapped in oblivion.)

("He would never forget me.")

("You cannot have him.")

Pandora! NO!

"Where... am I?"

Asher stood up, looking around himself, down at his hands. Was he still real? Did he still exist?

"...Pandora?"

The girl was nowhere to be found. Asher sat down, finding some sort of solidity in the void, and placed his head on his knees.

"Pandora..."

The girl he loved so much. He was going to become a noble one day, become somebody important. He would live in the silver spire with Pandora and never worry about dying in the sea of oil or suffocating on the ever-present pollution, and then he would find his real mother and real father and then everything would be okay and Kydran would never have to protect him again because he could protect himself...

Not anymore. He was so far from home. He didn't know how to feel about that, but he knew how to feel about Pandora's destruction. Tears, whether they were real or not, flooded from his eyes and wails of agony, of deepest pain, rang out into the void but were not echoed back. His tears may not have been real, but the gut-wrenching despair was.

The boy wept and wept. He wept for an eternity.

("Is this... where the forgotten people go...?")

After forever, the boy got to his feet, the tears still wet on his cheeks but perhaps not. He frowned and began to think.

("No. Sora wouldn't forget me. He can't. As long as he exists, I exist.")

(Sora still exists. I know he does, he has to... he's out there somewhere, realizing what we went through, realizing that we're connected, that it wasn't just chance that I found him in Traverse Town. That it's not just chance that I exist. I exist because of him. That was my choice.)

He looked down at the weapon in his hand. Had it been there before? The sentient Heart Key had followed him into the realm of non-existence, and he smiled wryly. How many universal physical laws had been broken by his, and the keyblade's, presence here? He raised a hand up and felt for the Xinlong, and sighed. At least he could defend himself.

Asher began to walk, thinking of Sora. And himself. He felt the Id within him, tugging at the back of his consciousness, fighting for control of his body. He wondered if his hair had gone back to normal. Then he realized something.

The man in black had given him the Heart Key for a reason. He knew it now, had realized it with more clarity than ever before, and now him mind wrapped around the purpose behind it. The man had never told him anything about the Heart Key, had never even brought it up, while they had been meeting in Castle Oblivion. All that Asher was left with was the knowledge the he was a master manipulator, that everything had been a part of his machinations.

His eyes traveled over the length of the weapon again. If Sora was to go to the Door to Light, then wouldn't it be intended for himself to go to the Door to the Darkness ? To the gates of Kingdom Hearts itself ?

No. He wouldn't. That's what he wants. He's manipulated everything from the start, and Asher would put a stop to it now.

Asher's eyes traveled from the ground, into the void that would be the sky, and smiled. His eyes closed, and he fell back.

"Take me to Sora."

Asher let go of Sora's hand. The jolted Keyblade Master stumbled back, grasping the hand that Asher had used, looking down at it. The padding on the glove was pressed down, as if he had just gotten through an arm-wrestling match with Sephiroth. He righted himself, and looked from his hand to Asher's cool emerald gaze. The boy in the black coat got to his feet, and watched his alarmed friend.

"You... the... Nemesis destroyed Pandora? And you survived. How? It would have killed you! " "I think Pandora's final act was to protect me, to get Nemesis as far away from me as possible. I don't know where she sent it, but it was... far away. Since Memoria had nearly eaten away all of your heart, it wasn't too hard to will the Heart Key back."

Everybody else was on their feet, looking on, speechless. Speechless, that is, until Dyne had something to say, after placing a hand to his forehead. He was getting one of the largest migraines he could remember, and he had had more than one.

"Yeah, that's cool and all, but do you think I'm #$ stupid? I saw what happened before you turned Leon into a monster and tried to kill me. This Id is still in you, isn't it?"

Riku and Lilka looked absolutely clueless.

"Yes, but not in the way you think."

"Not in the way I think? If it's still in you, it's still a danger to us all!" growled Dyne, lowering his hand from his head and glaring at the boy.

"If you'd let me finish, I'd tell you why none of you ever have to worry about him again. The first place the Darkness took me was the Destiny Islands. I looked all over for Sora there, but found nobody. I had no real way to get off the Islands, and because I didn't want to be a danger to anyone, I isolated myself on a smaller island off of the main one, where I think Sora and Riku lived.

"It was there, alone with myself, that I realized what had been happening. Caejan had somehow trapped the Id into the Xinlong, and that is how he was able to influence me. I took my fight into the sword, and fought against my Id.

"I had idea as to how much power the Id possessed. I can only imagine that when I was whole, before Clockwork Town came apart, that I had the power to control the Darkness, and in a radical way. When I forced the Id to submit, and became whole again, his control over the Darkness became mine."

"Asher... was Kairi still on the Islands? Was she still there, was she okay?"

He nodded.

"Yeah, she was," replied Asher, turning and looking to Sora. "She helped me to get here. She holds a fragment of the original Light of Memoria in her heart. I used this Light to find my way here."

"Thanks for the story, but how the hell did you get past the Mist?" asked Dyne, folding his arms. "You can't come alone."

Asher was silent.

"Who cares? Now that Caejan's out of the picture, it'll be a piece of cake to get to where we're going!" laughed Sora, already on his way to the large door leading further into the fortress. His smile was a mile wide. Simply knowing that Kairi was okay had done wonders.

"Don't forget, Sora. This is Memoria. Nothing is a piece of cake here. Caejan was the least of our worries," stated Asher, beginning to follow.

They all moved toward the only door they had the choice to go through.

The Keyblade Master placed his hands on his hips and looked up at the gate. The twin doors were not noteworthy, and if somebody didn't pay close attention, they might not have even been noticed, such was their reflective quality. Sora examined the doors for any sign of a keyhole. Finding none, he reared back with one of his massive sneakers and kicked the door as hard as he could.

"Hello? Anybody home?" shouted Sora, and Dyne grabbed a hold of the Keybearer's hoodie, yanking him back.

"Don't do that. Somebody just might answer."

However, the kick Sora had delivered triggered something. A low rumble began to shake the hallway. The ground began to shake as unseen cogs and gears and chain and pulleys moved, threatening to knock all of them off of their feet. When the sound of it came close to bursting their eardrums, it stopped suddenly with a soft 'ping'. The door then cracked open a little, a small enough entry for them to just slide in.

Asher placed his face in a gloved hand in a motion not dissimilar to Leon's famous indicator of exasperation.

"Look, the next time you feel the need to kick a door that's four times our combined sizes, just… don't."

Sora turned and grinned lopsidedly, then sallied forth. Dyne followed, but Lilka paused at the door.

"Are you guys sure you wanna do this?" she asked timidly. "I mean, we don't know what's out there."

"If you want, you can ask them to please move out of the way," responded Riku, motioning at the Nobodies blocking the way back to the broken realm behind them and grinning good-naturedly. "I'm sure they'll listen."

Lilka smiled, shook her head, and followed Riku through the door. Asher was the last to go in.

They all found themselves in a long, narrow corridor. Riku could not tell what was going on, and could only follow the energy-signals of his comrades; he could sense no life or Light or Dark in this place save for that which the walls reflected. Everything was chaos. An act as simple as walking became a momentous feat as the walls twisted and turned all of them into a kaleidoscope of reflections.

Asher was quickly beginning to have a hard time keeping track of which groups were the real ones and which were just the reflections of the mirrors, but did as best he could without getting dizzy. Dyne and Sora didn't have much difficulty sticking together.

"What is this place?" asked Lilka, dazed at all the reflections.

Dyne paused to look at himself in the mirror. He was unpleasantly surprised to find that his hair was no longer blonde, no longer well-managed but instead that strange mop of hair that Sora had. It was like looking at Sora in an Unknown cloak. Angrily, he spoke through gritted teeth.

"Yeah. Real original, Memoria... this is a funhouse, obviously."

Riku stopped in midstep, and then sank back, craning his neck as though listening to something distant.

"Be on your guard. We're expected," Riku warned, continuing onward.

"Then I hope they're ready, because once we're done with this baloney, I am finding the nearest restaurant and eating until my belts don't fit anymore. That reminds me, I still owe you a ham sandwich, don't I, Asher?" smiled Sora as he walked along, his hands placed behind his head.

There was no response. Sora stopped smiling.

"Asher?"

Sora turned around, lowering his arms, worry welling up within his gut. They had just been reunited, they couldn't be separated now!

"Asher!"

By now, Riku and Lilka had turned, Dyne at last looking as well, but not for the same reason. Asher was nowhere to be found; not even his reflection was present any longer.

"Stay here, guys, I'm going to see what happened to him. Asher!" shouted Sora, running in the direction from whence they all came. Dyne groaned, exasperated, and took off after the Keybearer. Lilka and Riku glanced at each other and, shrugging, took up the rear flank.

Asher could not be found. Despite Sora's yelling (which Dyne was trying, futilely, to quiet), no black-and-red-haired kid had turned up yet. Discouraged, Sora began to turn back to go back and frowned. Lilka and Riku weren't there anymore. He turned to ask Dyne if he knew what was going on, but he wasn't there either. What Sora was seeing now was a perfect replica of himself.

The poseur-Sora was exactly his size, exactly his shape, was wearing the exact same clothes, and was the same as Sora in every way except one. Instead of eyes, the reflection had a pair of rounded, reflective orbs in its sockets. The Keyblade Master was in the process of trying to figure out what he was looking at when the replica Sora summoned a replica Kingdom Key and launched an assault on the real Sora.

Riku had lost track of Lilka. He thought she had been right behind him, had heard her footsteps, but when he turned to check if she was still there, her energy signal was gone. Long gone. Frowning, he scanned his immediate surroundings, but found that he was surrounded on all sides by reflections of his own energy. Unworried but certainly nonplussed, he folded his arms, not sure whether to call to see if his friends were still near or not.

Something then plowed into Riku. He literally hadn't seen it coming, and felt only a cold touch freezing enough to burn before landing on the ground. Reacting, he rolled to his feet and summoned Mickey's Inverse Key, readying himself. He listened intently, hearing erratic footfalls behind him. He heard the keyblade as it was swung through the air. Turning, he parried the keyblade away. Thus began a fight between a blind man and his equally blind reflection.

Dyne had not been surprised when he had been separated from Sora and his poseur stepped into view. This was Memoria, and he was in a hall of mirrors. Everything they'd gone through so far had done something to test them- first, they'd had their camaraderie tested. Then it was their own desires they faced, and now that they were in a giant fortress of mirrors, it only made sense that they would have to face themselves. Dyne armed himself with Oblivion, as did the Dyne-replica, and the fight for his life began.

Lilka, in the meantime, had her own reflection to deal with. She was unsure of what to do until the false Lilka launched its attack. Lilka began to run away as fast as she could.

Sora weaved and bobbed away from the incoming keyblade strokes, eyes narrowing. He almost never went full power, never against anything non-Heartless. When he saw those creatures of Darkness, those that constantly tried to steal the hearts of those people who had been placed in his charge, he did not hold back. He found himself forced to hold nothing back in the fight against himself, as well.

Plucking the Oathkeeper out of its resting place, Sora launched a counterattack against his copy, but found himself facing a Kingdom Key and an Oathkeeper as well.

"Just... get... out... of... my... way! I just want to... get back with my friends... then we'll be out of here!" breathed Sora between slashes and dodges and parries. The reflection would not let him pass.

In fact, the more Sora thought about it, the more he realized he did not see a way out. He was trapped in a kaleidoscopic dome against himself, and his poseur had the home-turf advantage. Sora turned away a slash from his opponent, swept it aside and moved in as quickly as he could to his copy's right side. Bringing the Oathkeeper in his left hand full-circle over his head, Sora slammed the weapon into his foe.

The mirror shattered.

Sora's eyes went wide, and he whipped around only to catch his foe's Kingdom Key in the side of the head. Stumbling sideways, lacking the time or position to bring his weapons up from his sides, he charged forward with a dodge roll to avoid the next strike, but did not get far, running into another mirror. Rolling back to avoid another swing, he got to his feet and braced himself.

Riku and his blind copy fought as well as they could, being that both were blind. There was little the copy could do to land a hit on Riku, and Riku did not have to worry about the kaleidoscopic effect of the mirrors, but he was blind to his enemy's location. It became a game of hit-and-miss.

Dyne caught his replica's Oblivion against the length of his blade, and with a flick of the wrist, locked his foe's blade in the teeth of the real Oblivion. Expecting to be able to yank it out of the Dyne-copy's hands, he tugged, but found that he copy had unbound his blade and charged forward. Dyne could not recover fast enough to counterattack, so as the replica attempted to plunge its keyblade into him, he made a quick jump and landed on the thrusted Oblivion.

"Watch out. You might scar your pretty face," remarked Dyne, focusing his power and casting an Aeroga shield about himself, letting himself fall back off of his foe's keyblade. The powerful gust rocked the fake Oblivion into its owner's face. The Dyne facsimile lost its grip on the Oblivion, and it spun, bouncing off of the poseur's face and into the air. Dyne caught it easily.

The fake Dyne landed, completely unharmed and surrounded in an Aeroga field. Just as the blonde-haired, unknown-cloaked kid stood with two Oblivions, so did his foe.

"That's real fair," muttered Dyne, accepting his foe's attack with his own formidable defense.

Razor-sharp glass shards sprayed from all sides in Sora's direction, and while he shielded his face, he could feel the glass embedding itself in his skin. This was the unlucky result of the Thundaga Sora had cast in his frustration at the mirrors- a mass-destruction spell might take care of them all, but that had been a mistake.

The boy's sapphire eyes became golf ball-sized as his reflection, which was now pincushioned with mirror shards, launched an assault on the floored Sora. He fought to defend himself as best he could, but did so with immense difficulty. Sora called the words of power into the air and an Aeroga shield expanded around him, bouncing him to his feet. The pain was intense, but he had little time to heal himself and even littler time to attack.

Dyne stumbled back, rocked by his opponent's Firaga spell as well as the Strike Raid immediately following it. He looked himself over, and then looked to his replica. Its cloak was singed and its chest was cut as well. This thing fought exactly like him, looked exactly like him...

It was also bleeding exactly like him.

The replica, realizing what Dyne was going to try to do, simply stood there with a snide expression on its face, completely silent.

Dyne plunged the Oblivion into his own chest.

Sora grunted, dropping the Kingdom Key to grasp his chest. His replica did, as well, the same with Dyne's facsimile. The Keybearer's thoughts raced, and he knew exactly who had done what. Dyne was hurt, bad.

The blonde haired kid in the Unknown coat yanked the dark keyblade from his sternum, teeth clenched tightly, dropping to both of his knees. As the initial system shock from the piercing faded, Dyne was filled with such agony that he couldn't find the breath to cry out- and neither could his copy, which was now frantically looking for some way to recover from the blow it had been dealt.

The dual wielder wavered on his knees, and dropped forward with a hard thud as his head his the ground. The Oblivion, no longer tied to reality by Dyne's will, unsummoned itself in a dark flare of energy. The Oblivion-replicas disappeared as well.

Panic flooded Sora, and in this stunned moment his copy slammed its Kingdom Key into his shoulder. The Keyblade Master yelped, stumbling back, grasping the injured shoulder. Blood began to flood over his clothing. By looking at his facsimile, he knew he'd nearly had his arm taken off. He looked terrible.

The Sora-copy, injured though it was, trudged toward the stunned Keybearer, and raised the Oathkeeper to strike. It was then that the tide of battle turned.

Kairi.

Sora's breath caught in his throat. He was going to be killed by the Oathkeeper, Kairi's charm, the one item that reminded him of his promise that he would return to her, that he would give her lucky charm back to her and they would be together forever-

The anger, repressed by his 'stay-jolly' appearance, began to flare upward. This time, he did not restrain it. He began to release it all. His possessiveness, his will to be the center of attention, to never be beaten. It was all his. It was all his responsibility, it all belonged to him, all of the worlds, his own destiny, all hearts, everything. He was the Keyblade Master.

"That keyblade is MINE!"

Sora pulled at the replica Oathkeeper, willing it to go away. The reflection pulled back just as hard.

"ALL OF THEM!" Sora roared, strength and adrenaline filling him. He launched himself forward, each keyblade in turn being called to him. The Kingdom Key, the Inverse Key, the Oblivion, the Oathkeeper, the Jungle King... every single one except the one that didn't belong to him- and here, when he was most reminded of Asher and Asher's Id, perhaps even then the Heart Key belonged to Sora.

The keyblades were hurled, in Strike Raid form, at the fake Sora. Still, the reflection was calling out just as many, throwing just as many back to deflect each one Sora threw.

Sora, ignoring what wounds he had taken so far, screamed his frustration. Deep within the back of his mind, he wondered how the hero of Light could have all this within himself, but he realized that it didn't matter because anger and fury were tools, just like the Darkness was a tool.

(He looks just like you.)

Dyne smiled faintly within his unconsciousness, and remembered.

"C'mon! You want to be me? Try it. I dare you!" bellowed the Keybearer, his eyes shooting wide open as his own keyblades stopped firing at his replica and he found a wave of keyblades directed at him. "TRY IT!"

Sora's eye blazed with Light. Something had clicked. He then knew how close they had come to the Door, how soon it would be until his destiny would be realized because now he was tapping not into his own Light but into ages and ages of memories and that was only scratching the surface-

From Sora, whose face was marred and bleeding, who was battered and cut all over, erupted a bellow strong enough to shatter the glass mirrors all around him. The countless tiny shards sprayed out, but never touched Sora, and neither did the keyblades is replica had hurled at him. This scream was not a result of anger or hate, but it was the only way Sora could think of in that solar-flare instant to release it all without letting it consume him as well.

Sora felt it deep within himself then, allowed himself to feel. Everything that was, everything he was destined to be, everything that he would return to, he felt. The overpowering Light, the one that the Nobody-mother had, truthfully, said traps you into your destiny. It was Sora's burden-

(don't forget me don't let it go you can't I can't I can't take this burden-)

...to carry the keys, to be the Keybearer, because it allowed him to protect his friends, to protect everybody. This protective, possessive trait in Sora was evident in his friends; there was Riku, and there was Kairi. Riku could fend for himself, but Sora felt it necessary to follow him to whatever worlds he was going to- not to see what was out there, because he didn't care. But he did care about Riku. Kairi, as well.

The Light pulsed once more at the thought of Kairi.

This was Sora's burden, a real burden, one that robbed him of the ability to absolutely hate anybody, the one that made him always open to forgiveness. One that prompted him to open his heart to anything that carried even the remotest flicker of Light.

The replica, being only an antibody in Memorian funhouse, had no burden. It was a lifeless thing, and could not accept the Light as Sora had because it had no Light just as it had no Dark. The facsimile would flounder and try to send the Light back, but the Light held no danger for Sora, it could not consume him, he could not be lost in it any longer. No, he knew his place. He knew what was real. His reflection certainly was not.

After the one, massive pulse of Light, there followed the ear-splitting sound of infinite glass panels shattering everywhere. Then the light was gone. All of the heroes stood (or lay) there, in the dark, separated but not alone.

A single ray of light shined in from a doorway, blocked by a humanoid, cloaked form. Sora sank to his knees, both mentally, spiritually, and physically exhausted. If that was Caejan, or anybody hostile, he would have no way to defend himself.

"What the hell did you people do?" Asher's voice echoed from said doorway. Sora had never been more relieved to hear his friend's voice.