Author's Note: Whoever's a fan of Final Fantasy X and X2, please don't kill
me. I just decided to put some people in there to make things a bit 'fun'.
Don't sue me; I don't know a lot of Final Fantasy X and X2. Damn me for not
researching hard enough. Anyways, have fun!
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 5: The Master and the Guardian
The white monster loomed before him. Sora backed away, towards the edge of the top of the pillar he stood on. The design of the pillar was similar yet different. It was of a woman, a kind, gentle woman who understood all, dressed in a dazzling gold gown. Behind her was the hideous head of a beast and around them were the images of dancing utensils, like the branched candlestick, the clock, and the teapot. Overall, the flat of the pillar was beautiful, soft, kind, and full of love. Why he was standing on Belle and Beast, he did not know but what he did know was that a huge monster was standing before him, a knightly white monster, with huge shoulders and a flowing blue cape that wrapped around his neck and flowed like a cape behind him.
" W-who are you?" Sora asked stoutly, attempting to make a stand against a creature that actually did not seem to want to harm him at all.
I am called the Dream Heart, a true enemy of the Heartless, the creature replied in a feathery voice. I am the messenger of fate, who can speak only in the vagueness that comes only because of destiny and time. I have come to warn you, Sora.
" Warn me?" Sora demanded, crossing his arms before him.
A person, dressed in blue and black, standing before a creature wholly of white and pure colors. A contrast indeed.
A darkness is growing in your heart, the Dream Heart whispered. It is eating away at the pureness of your heart. You may deny it- he held a huge hand up to stop Sora as he opened his mouth to protest- but sooner or later, you must face that fact. You cannot hide from the pain you suffer, Sora. That will only agitate the pain more. Sooner or later, you will have to either fight the pain openly or fall.
Sora stared at him.
" Then what must I do?" he asked pleadingly, his voice revealing his half- defeated inner emotions. He slowly dropped his gaze from the Dream Heart to the stained glass image of Belle and Beast.
A guardian is near, the Dream Heart whispered.
" A guardian?" Sora asked skeptically.
One who may help you defeat the weakness in your heart and who may help you find the door to the light, the Dream Heart replied. It will not be hard to find him. Your hearts are connected, in the way you are connected to Kairi.
" But I lost it," Sora cried out. " I've lost that connection! I can't hear Kairi within me anymore!"
Then it is time for you to find that guardian, time to continue your destiny to the door of light, the Dream Heart explained. You are connected to several beings: Kairi, Riku, King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the Guardian. All of you are connected by the heart. Nobody knows how or why but such is fate. All you need to do is find the Guardian.before it is too late.
" What do you mean by ' before it is too late'?" Sora demanded but the Dream Heart was fading into darkness. " Tell me!"
But the Dream Heart was gone.
Sora shuddered as a sudden wind blasted into the empty world he stood in. Sora looked about him for the source of the wind and was stunned to see a Darkside loom before him. It floated with the airiness of the Dream Heart.they were literally opposites. White, black, with something flowing behind them of different colors, Heart and Heartless.what was it doing here?
It came towards him and a mysterious voice issued these words: All hearts will return to darkness. It cannot be denied.
The Darkside plunged its hand into Sora and Sora felt coldness grip his heart, attempting to tear it out.
" No! No!" Sora screamed and struggled against the hand as it tried to pull out the heart. Pain exploded in his soul and his mind, pounded into his body; he tried to call the Keyblade to him but it would not come.
" Leave me!" Sora screamed and fought against the Darkside but it was in vain.
The hand was still in him, still griping the heart, when he fell into darkness, the black swamping him up.he could no longer see.was that a light?
~*~
Aozora stood on the same pillar, the same platform, that featured the golden woman and the beast that, unknown to him, loved her so. His eyes were fixed on the Dream Heart, as it loomed before him, an air of sadness bellowing about him.
" What do you want now?" Aozora demanded.
The Dream Heart hung its head.
He is going to be lost, the Dream Heart murmured to himself. The sky-child will be lost, unless the Guardian understands.
Aozora stared at him. What?
" Um.hello?" Aozora waved at the Dream Heart. " You know, I'm still standing."
The Dream Heart looked up and the wave of sadness hit him.
The time has come, Aozora, the Dream Heart whispered. You must find the sky- child for he is so very near and you must protect him, with all the protection your unscarred heart can give, so that the sky-child does not become lost to the cause of the light.
" Cause?" Aozora asked carefully.
We of the light have fought the darkness for more then a million years, the Dream Heart explained. For millions of years, we have gone to war against each other. Now it comes down to this. In a few years, the Last War will come and the true fate of the universe and fate itself will be determined.
" Oh my god," Aozora gasped. How big was this issue becoming?
Beyond, the Dream Heart replied. Ah.
"What?" Aozora asked curiously.
Maybe it is time, the Dream Heart answered. Time I tell you, as I have told him.
"Told what?" Aozora asked. " Told who?"
Your hearts are connected, Aozora, the Dream Heart replied. You, the sky- child, the small king, the wizard, the knight, the lost one, and the princess.. Connected, in a circle of light. And who else I have told this to?
" Yes," Aozora insisted. " Who else knows of this.connection?"
My child, you shouldn't have left your cloak like that, the Dream Heart chuckled, completely changing the subject, much to Aozora's irritation. The sky-child picked it up, lucky for you, but if it were Shanks or the Heartless-
" The sky-child picked up my cloak?" Aozora demanded. " That brown-haired kid in black with my face and voice is the sky-child? What? And what does Shanks have to do with this?"
Shanks works for the Heartless now, the Dream Heart stated. I hope your friends will stay clear of him. As for the sky-child-
" Hey kid, are you okay?" a gentle voice asked.
Aozora blinked, as a hazy image came to his brown eyes. The gentle, sad face of a woman looked into him. Oval-shaped and delicate, with a blue eye and a green eye, the sad face looked into him. Her hair was brown, short and flaring outward. A braid fell over her right shoulder and a long braid, covered protectively in red fabric, ran down her back.. She wore a red hood attached to a sleeveless, rather revealing white tunic. Yellow armbands were tied to the upper arms and she wore seriously short shorts of the color black, with a belt crossing over it, the pouch attached to it heavily decorated. A long piece of clothe, the colors of the blue in the sky, floated down over her left leg. She wore high leather boots with white laces.
The thing that made Aozora really uncomfortable were the odd weapons attached to her belt. Ashita had described them before as pistols. He told Aozora, Yuki, and Orion that they were dangerous, that they were loaded with small metal bits called bullets. When you pull a trigger, the bullet would fly out, spinning as it goes, and nothing can stop it, not a body, glass, or even metal.
Aozora gulped. The woman must've noticed where his eyes went to, because she gave a gentle smile and said, " It's okay, kid. They're unloaded at the minute."
At the minute?
" Is he up?" a rather cheerful, boisterous voice shouted from somewhere out there.
" Yeah, Rikku, he's up!" the woman replied.
A smiling face popped up from what seemed to be an opened doorway. Her eyes were very green and bright and the smile on her face was very much genuine. A blue band was wrapped around her head and her hair and braids, golden in color as though they were touched by the sun, spilled over. She grinned madly and exclaimed, " Look's like he's the stronger of the two!"
" If you had landed on the top," the woman answered.
The girl, apparently Rikku, said, " He's kinda cute. What's his name?"
Aozora, amidst the blush that flared up on his pale face, stammered out, " Ao-Aozora."
" Aozora?" Rikku repeated. " What a cure name for a cute kid. Blue sky.hm.it would've made more sense if your eyes were blue, though.oh well."
The woman gave a smile as Rikku's head vanished.
" Paine says that if you don't do something, that duck and the dog will drive herself nuts!" Rikku called out from the end of what seemed to be a hallway. " What should we do?"
" Just tell them that he'll be up in no time," the woman replied before looking back to a rather stunned Aozora. " So, Aozora's your name?"
Aozora nodded. Her eyes were such a strange combination.who was she? And what was that sadness that hovered behind the eyes?
" Y-yes," Aozora nodded, then groaned as a huge headache bloomed in his mind. " What happened?"
" Well," the woman replied. " We three: Rikku, my cousin, a companion, Paine, and I were walking down the streets of Twilight Town, not far from the train station, when we were beset by the pleas of a knight dog and a magician duck. So we decided to help them, followed them, and found you on top of another kid with your face. I have absolutely no clue what you did to land on top of him but you guys were knocked out cold. What happened?"
Aozora shrugged.
" I remember running across the rooftops of homes," he said thoughtfully. " And I looked down on the three from a particular apartment. The kid was taking away my cloak, which had something valuable in it. I jumped down to knock out all three of them and to make away with my cloak when the knight saw me and warned the kid. He looked up and there it was, my face, only with longer hair that was brown and sly-blue eyes. Both of us were like staring at each other and then I blacked out."
" My but were you smart," a cold voice remarked as another head poked in from the doorway.
Her eyes were a strange, hellish red, and she had an air of tomboyishness about her. Her gray hair was short and brushed in a way to stand up, like how a boy would style his hair. An air of coldness surrounded her and he shivered.
" I know that," he managed to speak out.
" Paine, how are the other two?" the woman asked.
" Maddening, just maddening," the woman, Paine, answered. " The duck especially. I had to tell him that if he didn't shut up and sit down on the couch, I was going to knock him upside the head with my sword."
" Probably shut him up, eh?" the woman stated with a smile.
" Sure did, thank goodness," Paine flashed a dark grin. " So, Mister Ambusher wakes up, I see. How do you feel? Feel good that you thankfully landed on another person?"
A red flush of embarrassment rushed up his face. Aozora stared at the blanket covers he lied under, colored in a harmonious trio of green, blue, and purple.
" Oh Paine, you've got him embarrassed!" Rikku exclaimed as she poked in, too. " Aw, he looks just as cute as that other kid!"
Aozora really did look like a tomato by the time the two of them left.
" Don't mind them," the woman gave a smile. " Rikku is just like that and Paine's just amused at how you guys were knocked out, on top of each other like you literally landed on him."
" Well.I did," Aozora mumbled. " How's the kid, anyways?"
" Getting better," the woman replied, then her face grew a little sad. " He seems to be suffering something like what I'm suffering."
" Your eyes look sad; why?" Aozora could not resist asking; the face looked so sad and her eyes spoke of a horror of the distant past.
The woman smiled gently, sadly, and said, " Maybe later. Right now, I've got to check up on the other kid."
" What is your name?" Aozora asked as she turned to go.
" My name?" the woman asked. " I'm Yuna."
As she left, Aozora felt the weight of sleep pulling down on him. The world grew dark and he fell asleep again, only to see flashes of two worlds being destroyed, and two sets of friends along with them.his dark, hidden past that he never told anybody else.
~*~
" I wouldn't trust any guy that lands on me, Sora!" Donald snapped as Sora pulled on his black jacket. " Don't talk to him unless he's coming over to say sorry."
" I get it, I get it!" Sora sighed, rolling his eyes at Donald. " I won't talk to any weirdo who jumps on me from on top of a six-story apartment unless he's coming over to say sorry."
" Good," Donald replied.
" Gee, Donald," Goofy said hesitantly. " What's up with you lately?"
" Nothing," Donald snapped. At that, Goofy gave a very goofy grin. Sora realized what he was going to say and opened his mouth to stop him.
" It's about Daisy, isn't it?" he asked.
Sora slapped himself on the face for being too slow and hid under the bedcovers of the bed in the room as Donald jumped at Goofy and a minibattle ensued.
" Well.that's our story," Sora replied, leaning back in his seat on the red couch in the small living room.
Yuna, watching him intently with her blue eye and her green eye, said, " You've lost your childhood.at such a young age."
" Harsh," Rikku exclaimed. " A cute little boy like you having the face the brunt of the Heartless. At least now I know what those white jumpy thingies are."
" Very skilled and very much a veteran," Paine muttered. " But exactly why are you here?"
Sora gave a tired grin as he said, " My friend, Cid, said that-"
" Cid?" Rikku exclaimed. " My old man, the bald guy?"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared at her and Sora got the impression that she wanted to sink into the floor.
" The Cid we know has yellow hair, goggles, and has a toothpick or something of the like sticking out of his mouth," Donald explained.
" Oh, that Cid!" Yuna grinned. " Yes, yes, we are good friends, too. He told me one day that he was going somewhere else to set up shop, so that the competition wouldn't get too hot between him and his cousins-"
" Cousins?" Goofy asked.
" All named Cid?" Sora asked, then added as an afterthought, " At least that's what it seems like."
" Probably true," Yuna nodded. " By the way, where did he park?"
" Traverse Town," Sora answered. " A little way from here."
" A little way?!" Donald quacked. " You call that a little way?! Talk about the hours spent cooped up in the gummi ship with a drooling, dozing king's knight and a maniac of a Keyblade Master whose trying to do tricks in space while trying to dodge those crazy obstacles-"
" No more," Goofy interrupted and clamped Donald's beak shut. Donald squabbled in his throat and flapped his arms madly. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were slightly taken back by the furious magician but Sora and Goofy acted as though nothing had happened. After all, they had to suffer because of Donald for a year.
" Okay.so it did take some hours," Sora restarted.
" Thirteen hours, to be exact," Goofy added.
Yuna, Rikku, and Paine stared at them.
" You know, I forgot to ask this but.what's a gummi ship?" Rikku asked curiously.
Sora looked at Goofy, who did remarkably well in not flinching as Donald's arms windmilled about and continuously karate-chopped the arm attached to the hand that kept Donald's mouth shut. Sora sighed and muttered, " Here we go again."
" He had ter explain what the gummi ship was to almost every stranger we met the year we went about, looking for our king and his friend," Goofy explained.
" The gummi ship are made of strange building blocks that come in sizes, colors, and uses," Sora butted in before Goofy could say more. " Big cockpits, small cockpits, shields, nets, radars, missiles, etc. You should check out the engines."
" Firaga engines," Goofy added, unaware that Yuna had started in her chair at the mere mention of a world that seemed similar. " Big, huge-" Donald nodded his head madly in undeniable agreement and Goofy had some trouble saying the next words as Donald's mad nodding jerked his arm up and down and, consequently, moved himself as well "-and very, very fast. When Sora started that half-hour barrel roll, it was all done very fast and very wildly. We almost crashed on a huge asteroid."
The last sentence he said proudly and Sora shrunk into his chair, his face red with embarrassment.
" Kid, you've got serious thrill issues," Paine commented.
Rikku laughed and Yuna smiled sadly. Sora wondered at that. Why was she so sad?
" Why so sad?" he asked rather bluntly.
Donald gave an even bigger squabble and tried to wrest his beak out of Goofy's grip. Goofy, knowing full well the consequences, gripped the beak harder.
" Why?" Yuna asked and the sadness in her voice was almost heartbreaking. " I'm looking for.someone."
" Yeah, someone," Rikku added, rolling her eyes.
Yuna glared at her cousin before continuing, " He's.been lost.for a long time."
" What do you mean?" Sora asked curiously. Donald and Goofy stopped their silent minibattle to listen.
" In our homeland," Yuna said, " a darkness rises every few thousand years and destroys the world. Then the world is renewed and the cycle continues. The darkness is called Sin."
Sora watched intently, unaware of the copper-like brown eyes that watched the scene quietly from the shadows.
" My father and his friend, Auron, had defeated Sin a long time ago," Yuna continued. " But it was up to me to stop Sin and its cycle once and for all."
" Wow," Sora said. " That's tough."
Yuna sighed sadly and said, " And that was when he came."
" Whose 'he'?" Sora questioned.
" A blitzball player-" Yuna began to answer.
" Blitzball player?!" Sora exclaimed. " Blitzball?!"
" Y-yes," Yuna answered, startled by the sudden outburst. " Why?"
" Wakka knows how the play blitzball!" Sora exclaimed, then realizing that he never did explain who Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus were.
Apparently, he didn't need to. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were staring at him in such astonishment he felt quite embarrassed at his outburst. Why does he get embarrassed so easily nowadays?
" You know Wakka?" Rikku asked eagerly. " How?"
" Well.um.," Sora searched for words to say. " He was one of my friends on Destiny Islands. There were also Selphie and Tidus-"
" What?" Yuna whispered, in a voice so intense with shock, that the whole room became deathly silent. The copper-like eyes watched carefully, taking in everything that had been said.
" Um.I just said Tidus-" Sora began hesitantly.
" You know Tidus?" Yuna demanded. " How?"
" Well, we grew up on Destiny Islands together, with my other friends," Sora explained. " Why?"
" Grew up on the islands together?" Yuna repeated. " But the age difference.is vast."
" Age difference?" Sora demanded. " He was only one year younger than me!"
" Only?" Rikku jumped in. " But he was like.seventeen, eighteen, nineteen- oh, I can't remember."
" Nineteen?" Sora demanded. " H-how?"
" I wish I knew," Yuna answered. " I wish I knew."
" This is so weird," Paine stated. " Because it's Tidus we're looking for."
" You're looking for Tidus?" Sora asked.
Nodding, Yuna explained, " His father was fated to become Sin. We and some of our allies, including Rikku and Wakka, aided Tidus in defeating Sin but.but."
She said no more and turned away.
" He had to go back," Rikku jumped in for Yuna. " See, Tidus told us he came from the past, from like a thousand years ago. And now that he had defeated his dad, he was going back. And so.he left."
" It was not until a while ago," Paine actually said, " that we started to look for Tidus. Yuna saw some movie sphere of Tidus or someone like him and realized that he might still be alive. So here we are and I doubt we're any closer to finding him than ever."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy sat still in their seats. Goofy slowly let go of Donald's beak and said, " Good luck."
Yuna, smiling sadly, said, " Thank you."
A tear trickled down her blue eye.
~*~
" So that's the whole story," Aozora told himself as he put on his black cloak. Rikku, who was arranging the bedcovers of the bed Aozora was in, answered, " True."
" Well, then, I wish you three good luck," Aozora replied. " When did those three leave, by the way? I never really did get to see them."
" Oh, they left last night," Rikku answered absentmindedly. " Went right after this huge, long talk about our issues-what?"
Aozora dropped the Starlight Keyblade that he had called to his hand to examine for any breaks. It clattered on the floor but Aozora did not make a move to pick it up.
" They left?" he demanded. " Gone?"
" Um.yes, why?" Rikku asked.
" I need to talk to them!" Aozora exclaimed. " Where was he headed?"
" You know, I really don't' know," Rikku replied, pushing aside a braid as she smoothed down the covers.
" Hey, Rikku," Paine stuck her head into the room. " Kid, make sure Rikku doesn't make any moves on you. She's got a fondness for you ever since she saw you two knocked out on top of each other. Oh, and Rikku? That other kid left this-I should say, these."
With that Paine, held out two necklaces, ignoring Rikku's embarrassed blush.
One was a metal chain, with a crown medallion dangling and shining at one end of it. The other necklace was of a finer, silvery chain, with a star at its end, a star that seemed remarkably similar to his Starlight Keychain.
Aozora immediately called the Starlight Keyblade to his heart and stored away the Keychain that it left behind.
" What should we do with them?" Paine asked, waiting for Rikku to respond.
" Well, I don't know," Rikku answered. " Why don't we just keep them, if the kid doesn't come back to reclaim them. I like that star necklace."
" I'll take them to him," Aozora quickly offered; the star necklace spoke of something immeasurable, something very importantly immeasurable. That kid would be wanting it back, very badly.
Rikku pouted but did not protest; she did know what was right and what was wrong. Aozora pocketed the chains in his pocket and looked to the two to thank them for helping him recuperate from his crazy fall.
" Don't thank us," Paine started before Aozora had even begun to open his mouth. " Thank Yuna. We could've told the dog knight and the duck magician to go and find somebody else to help them but for Yuna."
" Hey," Yuna popped in. " I'd like to say, 'You're welcome.' And don't forget to get those necklaces to Sora. I'm sure he's gonna go into full panic when he finds out they're gone."
She knows, Aozora thought. She knows.
Aozora shared a smile of understanding and walked down the hallway of the apartment to the door. Opening the door, he took one more glance behind his shoulder to the three women with a mission, and, stepping outside, closed the door behind him.
" Now where would Sora be?" Aozora muttered to himself. Didn't the Dream Heart say that Sora was the sky-child-Sora does mean ;sky', doesn't it? And the Dream Heart also said that our hearts were connected. Doesn't that mean that I can sense where he's going or something-
Sora was headed for the train station.through the wrong neighborhood.
He's headed for the Silent Castle! Aozora realized. Shit!
The Silent Castle was, well.silent. It was bathed in the colors of the sunset and stood all by itself in its sad, majesty glory. Aozora had heard many stories about it from his closest friends. Ashita always spoke of it and Orion, oddly enough, spoke of it the least. Ashita had said that a strange cloud of darkness hovered over the Silent Castle and that anyone who went near it usually never came back to tell his or her tale.
Who knows what might happen to him, Aozora realized. Great! I've got to stop him!
With that, Aozora took off for the neighborhood that the Silent Castle sat in, unaware of the gleaming eyes that watched him, with hunger, hate, and, most of all, revenge.
~*~
" He says that if I blow this whistle at the right moment, I can avenge myself," Shanks muttered to himself as he watched the kid he hated the most run off in the direction of the Silent Castle. " Everything's set up perfectly. The trio he told me about is headed for complete ambush and I can follow that blond idiot until he's at the right place. Then I can blow the whistle and begin my clients' plans. And I will see the blond kid's destruction. I can wait, I can wait just long enough to see it happen."
A dark grin crossed his face. Had it ever dawned on him that there really was no cause behind his want for revenge? Just because that blond kid stopped him from killing another and beat him up doesn't mean that he can get revenge for it, or can he?
But revenge boiled in this drunk who sided with the rising darkness. He lived without that reason, that why. Why does he want revenge so badly? Why would he join this darkness?
How strange life really is. How strange indeed.
".and we shall place that device on him, oh yes we will," Shanks grinned as his dirty right hand fingered the silver whistle. " We shall be able to follow him that way, be able to track him all the time, always. And the only way for him to get rid of the device is if he becomes truly aware of it. But that device.no one knows of it except my client and me.oh yes, that blond kid would really pay, oh yes he will."
With that, he set off into the dark alley, muttering to himself, fingering that silver whistle, blending into the darkness until it swallowed him.
He was not aware of the eyes that followed him, of the ears that had heard everything he had said. Those eyes had widened in recognition of who Shanks was talking about, the one he was bent on killing. But then those eyes narrowed. From what he could decipher and put together, Aozora would join that kid who so insulted the man he admired and looked up to the most. He had never really liked Aozora and was just being extremely nice when Aozora left.
No, Aozora would never know what Shanks was planning to do with him. Orion would never tell him.
With that, the teenager walked away, back to the bell tower.
Another Author's Note: This is a late 'Christmas gift' to whoever wanted to know the fifth chapter. The next chapter will start exploring the stuff behind Nobodies, I think. Oh I don't know, but I hope you liked this!!! Again, please don't flame me or sue me or do anything bad. I'm just some idiot writer. The idiot part is no joke.
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 5: The Master and the Guardian
The white monster loomed before him. Sora backed away, towards the edge of the top of the pillar he stood on. The design of the pillar was similar yet different. It was of a woman, a kind, gentle woman who understood all, dressed in a dazzling gold gown. Behind her was the hideous head of a beast and around them were the images of dancing utensils, like the branched candlestick, the clock, and the teapot. Overall, the flat of the pillar was beautiful, soft, kind, and full of love. Why he was standing on Belle and Beast, he did not know but what he did know was that a huge monster was standing before him, a knightly white monster, with huge shoulders and a flowing blue cape that wrapped around his neck and flowed like a cape behind him.
" W-who are you?" Sora asked stoutly, attempting to make a stand against a creature that actually did not seem to want to harm him at all.
I am called the Dream Heart, a true enemy of the Heartless, the creature replied in a feathery voice. I am the messenger of fate, who can speak only in the vagueness that comes only because of destiny and time. I have come to warn you, Sora.
" Warn me?" Sora demanded, crossing his arms before him.
A person, dressed in blue and black, standing before a creature wholly of white and pure colors. A contrast indeed.
A darkness is growing in your heart, the Dream Heart whispered. It is eating away at the pureness of your heart. You may deny it- he held a huge hand up to stop Sora as he opened his mouth to protest- but sooner or later, you must face that fact. You cannot hide from the pain you suffer, Sora. That will only agitate the pain more. Sooner or later, you will have to either fight the pain openly or fall.
Sora stared at him.
" Then what must I do?" he asked pleadingly, his voice revealing his half- defeated inner emotions. He slowly dropped his gaze from the Dream Heart to the stained glass image of Belle and Beast.
A guardian is near, the Dream Heart whispered.
" A guardian?" Sora asked skeptically.
One who may help you defeat the weakness in your heart and who may help you find the door to the light, the Dream Heart replied. It will not be hard to find him. Your hearts are connected, in the way you are connected to Kairi.
" But I lost it," Sora cried out. " I've lost that connection! I can't hear Kairi within me anymore!"
Then it is time for you to find that guardian, time to continue your destiny to the door of light, the Dream Heart explained. You are connected to several beings: Kairi, Riku, King Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the Guardian. All of you are connected by the heart. Nobody knows how or why but such is fate. All you need to do is find the Guardian.before it is too late.
" What do you mean by ' before it is too late'?" Sora demanded but the Dream Heart was fading into darkness. " Tell me!"
But the Dream Heart was gone.
Sora shuddered as a sudden wind blasted into the empty world he stood in. Sora looked about him for the source of the wind and was stunned to see a Darkside loom before him. It floated with the airiness of the Dream Heart.they were literally opposites. White, black, with something flowing behind them of different colors, Heart and Heartless.what was it doing here?
It came towards him and a mysterious voice issued these words: All hearts will return to darkness. It cannot be denied.
The Darkside plunged its hand into Sora and Sora felt coldness grip his heart, attempting to tear it out.
" No! No!" Sora screamed and struggled against the hand as it tried to pull out the heart. Pain exploded in his soul and his mind, pounded into his body; he tried to call the Keyblade to him but it would not come.
" Leave me!" Sora screamed and fought against the Darkside but it was in vain.
The hand was still in him, still griping the heart, when he fell into darkness, the black swamping him up.he could no longer see.was that a light?
~*~
Aozora stood on the same pillar, the same platform, that featured the golden woman and the beast that, unknown to him, loved her so. His eyes were fixed on the Dream Heart, as it loomed before him, an air of sadness bellowing about him.
" What do you want now?" Aozora demanded.
The Dream Heart hung its head.
He is going to be lost, the Dream Heart murmured to himself. The sky-child will be lost, unless the Guardian understands.
Aozora stared at him. What?
" Um.hello?" Aozora waved at the Dream Heart. " You know, I'm still standing."
The Dream Heart looked up and the wave of sadness hit him.
The time has come, Aozora, the Dream Heart whispered. You must find the sky- child for he is so very near and you must protect him, with all the protection your unscarred heart can give, so that the sky-child does not become lost to the cause of the light.
" Cause?" Aozora asked carefully.
We of the light have fought the darkness for more then a million years, the Dream Heart explained. For millions of years, we have gone to war against each other. Now it comes down to this. In a few years, the Last War will come and the true fate of the universe and fate itself will be determined.
" Oh my god," Aozora gasped. How big was this issue becoming?
Beyond, the Dream Heart replied. Ah.
"What?" Aozora asked curiously.
Maybe it is time, the Dream Heart answered. Time I tell you, as I have told him.
"Told what?" Aozora asked. " Told who?"
Your hearts are connected, Aozora, the Dream Heart replied. You, the sky- child, the small king, the wizard, the knight, the lost one, and the princess.. Connected, in a circle of light. And who else I have told this to?
" Yes," Aozora insisted. " Who else knows of this.connection?"
My child, you shouldn't have left your cloak like that, the Dream Heart chuckled, completely changing the subject, much to Aozora's irritation. The sky-child picked it up, lucky for you, but if it were Shanks or the Heartless-
" The sky-child picked up my cloak?" Aozora demanded. " That brown-haired kid in black with my face and voice is the sky-child? What? And what does Shanks have to do with this?"
Shanks works for the Heartless now, the Dream Heart stated. I hope your friends will stay clear of him. As for the sky-child-
" Hey kid, are you okay?" a gentle voice asked.
Aozora blinked, as a hazy image came to his brown eyes. The gentle, sad face of a woman looked into him. Oval-shaped and delicate, with a blue eye and a green eye, the sad face looked into him. Her hair was brown, short and flaring outward. A braid fell over her right shoulder and a long braid, covered protectively in red fabric, ran down her back.. She wore a red hood attached to a sleeveless, rather revealing white tunic. Yellow armbands were tied to the upper arms and she wore seriously short shorts of the color black, with a belt crossing over it, the pouch attached to it heavily decorated. A long piece of clothe, the colors of the blue in the sky, floated down over her left leg. She wore high leather boots with white laces.
The thing that made Aozora really uncomfortable were the odd weapons attached to her belt. Ashita had described them before as pistols. He told Aozora, Yuki, and Orion that they were dangerous, that they were loaded with small metal bits called bullets. When you pull a trigger, the bullet would fly out, spinning as it goes, and nothing can stop it, not a body, glass, or even metal.
Aozora gulped. The woman must've noticed where his eyes went to, because she gave a gentle smile and said, " It's okay, kid. They're unloaded at the minute."
At the minute?
" Is he up?" a rather cheerful, boisterous voice shouted from somewhere out there.
" Yeah, Rikku, he's up!" the woman replied.
A smiling face popped up from what seemed to be an opened doorway. Her eyes were very green and bright and the smile on her face was very much genuine. A blue band was wrapped around her head and her hair and braids, golden in color as though they were touched by the sun, spilled over. She grinned madly and exclaimed, " Look's like he's the stronger of the two!"
" If you had landed on the top," the woman answered.
The girl, apparently Rikku, said, " He's kinda cute. What's his name?"
Aozora, amidst the blush that flared up on his pale face, stammered out, " Ao-Aozora."
" Aozora?" Rikku repeated. " What a cure name for a cute kid. Blue sky.hm.it would've made more sense if your eyes were blue, though.oh well."
The woman gave a smile as Rikku's head vanished.
" Paine says that if you don't do something, that duck and the dog will drive herself nuts!" Rikku called out from the end of what seemed to be a hallway. " What should we do?"
" Just tell them that he'll be up in no time," the woman replied before looking back to a rather stunned Aozora. " So, Aozora's your name?"
Aozora nodded. Her eyes were such a strange combination.who was she? And what was that sadness that hovered behind the eyes?
" Y-yes," Aozora nodded, then groaned as a huge headache bloomed in his mind. " What happened?"
" Well," the woman replied. " We three: Rikku, my cousin, a companion, Paine, and I were walking down the streets of Twilight Town, not far from the train station, when we were beset by the pleas of a knight dog and a magician duck. So we decided to help them, followed them, and found you on top of another kid with your face. I have absolutely no clue what you did to land on top of him but you guys were knocked out cold. What happened?"
Aozora shrugged.
" I remember running across the rooftops of homes," he said thoughtfully. " And I looked down on the three from a particular apartment. The kid was taking away my cloak, which had something valuable in it. I jumped down to knock out all three of them and to make away with my cloak when the knight saw me and warned the kid. He looked up and there it was, my face, only with longer hair that was brown and sly-blue eyes. Both of us were like staring at each other and then I blacked out."
" My but were you smart," a cold voice remarked as another head poked in from the doorway.
Her eyes were a strange, hellish red, and she had an air of tomboyishness about her. Her gray hair was short and brushed in a way to stand up, like how a boy would style his hair. An air of coldness surrounded her and he shivered.
" I know that," he managed to speak out.
" Paine, how are the other two?" the woman asked.
" Maddening, just maddening," the woman, Paine, answered. " The duck especially. I had to tell him that if he didn't shut up and sit down on the couch, I was going to knock him upside the head with my sword."
" Probably shut him up, eh?" the woman stated with a smile.
" Sure did, thank goodness," Paine flashed a dark grin. " So, Mister Ambusher wakes up, I see. How do you feel? Feel good that you thankfully landed on another person?"
A red flush of embarrassment rushed up his face. Aozora stared at the blanket covers he lied under, colored in a harmonious trio of green, blue, and purple.
" Oh Paine, you've got him embarrassed!" Rikku exclaimed as she poked in, too. " Aw, he looks just as cute as that other kid!"
Aozora really did look like a tomato by the time the two of them left.
" Don't mind them," the woman gave a smile. " Rikku is just like that and Paine's just amused at how you guys were knocked out, on top of each other like you literally landed on him."
" Well.I did," Aozora mumbled. " How's the kid, anyways?"
" Getting better," the woman replied, then her face grew a little sad. " He seems to be suffering something like what I'm suffering."
" Your eyes look sad; why?" Aozora could not resist asking; the face looked so sad and her eyes spoke of a horror of the distant past.
The woman smiled gently, sadly, and said, " Maybe later. Right now, I've got to check up on the other kid."
" What is your name?" Aozora asked as she turned to go.
" My name?" the woman asked. " I'm Yuna."
As she left, Aozora felt the weight of sleep pulling down on him. The world grew dark and he fell asleep again, only to see flashes of two worlds being destroyed, and two sets of friends along with them.his dark, hidden past that he never told anybody else.
~*~
" I wouldn't trust any guy that lands on me, Sora!" Donald snapped as Sora pulled on his black jacket. " Don't talk to him unless he's coming over to say sorry."
" I get it, I get it!" Sora sighed, rolling his eyes at Donald. " I won't talk to any weirdo who jumps on me from on top of a six-story apartment unless he's coming over to say sorry."
" Good," Donald replied.
" Gee, Donald," Goofy said hesitantly. " What's up with you lately?"
" Nothing," Donald snapped. At that, Goofy gave a very goofy grin. Sora realized what he was going to say and opened his mouth to stop him.
" It's about Daisy, isn't it?" he asked.
Sora slapped himself on the face for being too slow and hid under the bedcovers of the bed in the room as Donald jumped at Goofy and a minibattle ensued.
" Well.that's our story," Sora replied, leaning back in his seat on the red couch in the small living room.
Yuna, watching him intently with her blue eye and her green eye, said, " You've lost your childhood.at such a young age."
" Harsh," Rikku exclaimed. " A cute little boy like you having the face the brunt of the Heartless. At least now I know what those white jumpy thingies are."
" Very skilled and very much a veteran," Paine muttered. " But exactly why are you here?"
Sora gave a tired grin as he said, " My friend, Cid, said that-"
" Cid?" Rikku exclaimed. " My old man, the bald guy?"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy stared at her and Sora got the impression that she wanted to sink into the floor.
" The Cid we know has yellow hair, goggles, and has a toothpick or something of the like sticking out of his mouth," Donald explained.
" Oh, that Cid!" Yuna grinned. " Yes, yes, we are good friends, too. He told me one day that he was going somewhere else to set up shop, so that the competition wouldn't get too hot between him and his cousins-"
" Cousins?" Goofy asked.
" All named Cid?" Sora asked, then added as an afterthought, " At least that's what it seems like."
" Probably true," Yuna nodded. " By the way, where did he park?"
" Traverse Town," Sora answered. " A little way from here."
" A little way?!" Donald quacked. " You call that a little way?! Talk about the hours spent cooped up in the gummi ship with a drooling, dozing king's knight and a maniac of a Keyblade Master whose trying to do tricks in space while trying to dodge those crazy obstacles-"
" No more," Goofy interrupted and clamped Donald's beak shut. Donald squabbled in his throat and flapped his arms madly. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were slightly taken back by the furious magician but Sora and Goofy acted as though nothing had happened. After all, they had to suffer because of Donald for a year.
" Okay.so it did take some hours," Sora restarted.
" Thirteen hours, to be exact," Goofy added.
Yuna, Rikku, and Paine stared at them.
" You know, I forgot to ask this but.what's a gummi ship?" Rikku asked curiously.
Sora looked at Goofy, who did remarkably well in not flinching as Donald's arms windmilled about and continuously karate-chopped the arm attached to the hand that kept Donald's mouth shut. Sora sighed and muttered, " Here we go again."
" He had ter explain what the gummi ship was to almost every stranger we met the year we went about, looking for our king and his friend," Goofy explained.
" The gummi ship are made of strange building blocks that come in sizes, colors, and uses," Sora butted in before Goofy could say more. " Big cockpits, small cockpits, shields, nets, radars, missiles, etc. You should check out the engines."
" Firaga engines," Goofy added, unaware that Yuna had started in her chair at the mere mention of a world that seemed similar. " Big, huge-" Donald nodded his head madly in undeniable agreement and Goofy had some trouble saying the next words as Donald's mad nodding jerked his arm up and down and, consequently, moved himself as well "-and very, very fast. When Sora started that half-hour barrel roll, it was all done very fast and very wildly. We almost crashed on a huge asteroid."
The last sentence he said proudly and Sora shrunk into his chair, his face red with embarrassment.
" Kid, you've got serious thrill issues," Paine commented.
Rikku laughed and Yuna smiled sadly. Sora wondered at that. Why was she so sad?
" Why so sad?" he asked rather bluntly.
Donald gave an even bigger squabble and tried to wrest his beak out of Goofy's grip. Goofy, knowing full well the consequences, gripped the beak harder.
" Why?" Yuna asked and the sadness in her voice was almost heartbreaking. " I'm looking for.someone."
" Yeah, someone," Rikku added, rolling her eyes.
Yuna glared at her cousin before continuing, " He's.been lost.for a long time."
" What do you mean?" Sora asked curiously. Donald and Goofy stopped their silent minibattle to listen.
" In our homeland," Yuna said, " a darkness rises every few thousand years and destroys the world. Then the world is renewed and the cycle continues. The darkness is called Sin."
Sora watched intently, unaware of the copper-like brown eyes that watched the scene quietly from the shadows.
" My father and his friend, Auron, had defeated Sin a long time ago," Yuna continued. " But it was up to me to stop Sin and its cycle once and for all."
" Wow," Sora said. " That's tough."
Yuna sighed sadly and said, " And that was when he came."
" Whose 'he'?" Sora questioned.
" A blitzball player-" Yuna began to answer.
" Blitzball player?!" Sora exclaimed. " Blitzball?!"
" Y-yes," Yuna answered, startled by the sudden outburst. " Why?"
" Wakka knows how the play blitzball!" Sora exclaimed, then realizing that he never did explain who Wakka, Selphie, and Tidus were.
Apparently, he didn't need to. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were staring at him in such astonishment he felt quite embarrassed at his outburst. Why does he get embarrassed so easily nowadays?
" You know Wakka?" Rikku asked eagerly. " How?"
" Well.um.," Sora searched for words to say. " He was one of my friends on Destiny Islands. There were also Selphie and Tidus-"
" What?" Yuna whispered, in a voice so intense with shock, that the whole room became deathly silent. The copper-like eyes watched carefully, taking in everything that had been said.
" Um.I just said Tidus-" Sora began hesitantly.
" You know Tidus?" Yuna demanded. " How?"
" Well, we grew up on Destiny Islands together, with my other friends," Sora explained. " Why?"
" Grew up on the islands together?" Yuna repeated. " But the age difference.is vast."
" Age difference?" Sora demanded. " He was only one year younger than me!"
" Only?" Rikku jumped in. " But he was like.seventeen, eighteen, nineteen- oh, I can't remember."
" Nineteen?" Sora demanded. " H-how?"
" I wish I knew," Yuna answered. " I wish I knew."
" This is so weird," Paine stated. " Because it's Tidus we're looking for."
" You're looking for Tidus?" Sora asked.
Nodding, Yuna explained, " His father was fated to become Sin. We and some of our allies, including Rikku and Wakka, aided Tidus in defeating Sin but.but."
She said no more and turned away.
" He had to go back," Rikku jumped in for Yuna. " See, Tidus told us he came from the past, from like a thousand years ago. And now that he had defeated his dad, he was going back. And so.he left."
" It was not until a while ago," Paine actually said, " that we started to look for Tidus. Yuna saw some movie sphere of Tidus or someone like him and realized that he might still be alive. So here we are and I doubt we're any closer to finding him than ever."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy sat still in their seats. Goofy slowly let go of Donald's beak and said, " Good luck."
Yuna, smiling sadly, said, " Thank you."
A tear trickled down her blue eye.
~*~
" So that's the whole story," Aozora told himself as he put on his black cloak. Rikku, who was arranging the bedcovers of the bed Aozora was in, answered, " True."
" Well, then, I wish you three good luck," Aozora replied. " When did those three leave, by the way? I never really did get to see them."
" Oh, they left last night," Rikku answered absentmindedly. " Went right after this huge, long talk about our issues-what?"
Aozora dropped the Starlight Keyblade that he had called to his hand to examine for any breaks. It clattered on the floor but Aozora did not make a move to pick it up.
" They left?" he demanded. " Gone?"
" Um.yes, why?" Rikku asked.
" I need to talk to them!" Aozora exclaimed. " Where was he headed?"
" You know, I really don't' know," Rikku replied, pushing aside a braid as she smoothed down the covers.
" Hey, Rikku," Paine stuck her head into the room. " Kid, make sure Rikku doesn't make any moves on you. She's got a fondness for you ever since she saw you two knocked out on top of each other. Oh, and Rikku? That other kid left this-I should say, these."
With that Paine, held out two necklaces, ignoring Rikku's embarrassed blush.
One was a metal chain, with a crown medallion dangling and shining at one end of it. The other necklace was of a finer, silvery chain, with a star at its end, a star that seemed remarkably similar to his Starlight Keychain.
Aozora immediately called the Starlight Keyblade to his heart and stored away the Keychain that it left behind.
" What should we do with them?" Paine asked, waiting for Rikku to respond.
" Well, I don't know," Rikku answered. " Why don't we just keep them, if the kid doesn't come back to reclaim them. I like that star necklace."
" I'll take them to him," Aozora quickly offered; the star necklace spoke of something immeasurable, something very importantly immeasurable. That kid would be wanting it back, very badly.
Rikku pouted but did not protest; she did know what was right and what was wrong. Aozora pocketed the chains in his pocket and looked to the two to thank them for helping him recuperate from his crazy fall.
" Don't thank us," Paine started before Aozora had even begun to open his mouth. " Thank Yuna. We could've told the dog knight and the duck magician to go and find somebody else to help them but for Yuna."
" Hey," Yuna popped in. " I'd like to say, 'You're welcome.' And don't forget to get those necklaces to Sora. I'm sure he's gonna go into full panic when he finds out they're gone."
She knows, Aozora thought. She knows.
Aozora shared a smile of understanding and walked down the hallway of the apartment to the door. Opening the door, he took one more glance behind his shoulder to the three women with a mission, and, stepping outside, closed the door behind him.
" Now where would Sora be?" Aozora muttered to himself. Didn't the Dream Heart say that Sora was the sky-child-Sora does mean ;sky', doesn't it? And the Dream Heart also said that our hearts were connected. Doesn't that mean that I can sense where he's going or something-
Sora was headed for the train station.through the wrong neighborhood.
He's headed for the Silent Castle! Aozora realized. Shit!
The Silent Castle was, well.silent. It was bathed in the colors of the sunset and stood all by itself in its sad, majesty glory. Aozora had heard many stories about it from his closest friends. Ashita always spoke of it and Orion, oddly enough, spoke of it the least. Ashita had said that a strange cloud of darkness hovered over the Silent Castle and that anyone who went near it usually never came back to tell his or her tale.
Who knows what might happen to him, Aozora realized. Great! I've got to stop him!
With that, Aozora took off for the neighborhood that the Silent Castle sat in, unaware of the gleaming eyes that watched him, with hunger, hate, and, most of all, revenge.
~*~
" He says that if I blow this whistle at the right moment, I can avenge myself," Shanks muttered to himself as he watched the kid he hated the most run off in the direction of the Silent Castle. " Everything's set up perfectly. The trio he told me about is headed for complete ambush and I can follow that blond idiot until he's at the right place. Then I can blow the whistle and begin my clients' plans. And I will see the blond kid's destruction. I can wait, I can wait just long enough to see it happen."
A dark grin crossed his face. Had it ever dawned on him that there really was no cause behind his want for revenge? Just because that blond kid stopped him from killing another and beat him up doesn't mean that he can get revenge for it, or can he?
But revenge boiled in this drunk who sided with the rising darkness. He lived without that reason, that why. Why does he want revenge so badly? Why would he join this darkness?
How strange life really is. How strange indeed.
".and we shall place that device on him, oh yes we will," Shanks grinned as his dirty right hand fingered the silver whistle. " We shall be able to follow him that way, be able to track him all the time, always. And the only way for him to get rid of the device is if he becomes truly aware of it. But that device.no one knows of it except my client and me.oh yes, that blond kid would really pay, oh yes he will."
With that, he set off into the dark alley, muttering to himself, fingering that silver whistle, blending into the darkness until it swallowed him.
He was not aware of the eyes that followed him, of the ears that had heard everything he had said. Those eyes had widened in recognition of who Shanks was talking about, the one he was bent on killing. But then those eyes narrowed. From what he could decipher and put together, Aozora would join that kid who so insulted the man he admired and looked up to the most. He had never really liked Aozora and was just being extremely nice when Aozora left.
No, Aozora would never know what Shanks was planning to do with him. Orion would never tell him.
With that, the teenager walked away, back to the bell tower.
Another Author's Note: This is a late 'Christmas gift' to whoever wanted to know the fifth chapter. The next chapter will start exploring the stuff behind Nobodies, I think. Oh I don't know, but I hope you liked this!!! Again, please don't flame me or sue me or do anything bad. I'm just some idiot writer. The idiot part is no joke.