Author's Note: Well, I have to admit I never thought my story would get so
many reviews from so many people. Until this story came around, I was
churning out early successes that ended up as failures. Thank you so much
for letting me know that I must continue this story to its very end! Thank
you all! Now, on with the story!
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 13: The Teeth of the Snow Tiger
"Wow," was Aozora's first statement once the gummi ship was out in space. "We have to do that with every world we come across?"
Sora nodded exhaustingly; Donald and Goofy did not reply. They were fast asleep on the floor.
"Oh my god," Aozora leaned his head against his right hand as he slumped to the floor. "That event back there was brutal enough."
"How did you know about sealing worlds from Nobodies?" Sora asked curiously, before stifling a yawn and jerking the gummi ship to the side to avoid a rather peaceful Heartless ship.
"I've seen it myself," Aozora answered quietly. "It was not beautiful."
"Sacrifice is never beautiful," Sora agreed. Aozora could hear an echoing pain in his voice.
"You've seen it," Aozora stated. "A sacrifice for the others. A sacrifice measures the soul of its being. It does not always mean death. It can mean an act of courage, an act of friendship, an act of love. One soul proves its worth and the world will be sealed forever."
"It's going to be interesting fighting the Nobodies," Sora commented after a short silence. "You get to truly meet worthy people then, eh?"
Sora stifled another yawn. "I've never been so tired before."
"I can take over, you know," Aozora offered as he got up and approached the cockpit. Sora was yawning continuously now.
"No, I'm fine, no need to worry," he waved Aozora's offer aside. "It doesn't look like you get tired often. What's the secret?"
"Secret?" Aozora thought. "No, there's no secret."
Sora nodded and nearly crashed the gummi ship into an asteroid when his eyes drooped briefly.
"Look, buddy," Aozora pressed ' Auto-Pilot' on the dashboard and dragged Sora out of the seat at the cockpit. "You sleep. I pilot. Lucky I learned something on piloting airships a while back even though I've never done a gummi ship. It's a hell lot safer anyways."
He was referring to Sora's wild antics with the gummi ship. But Sora just nodded and sat down. He leaned against the wall, near Goofy and Donald, and closed his eyes.
He stared at the strange Keyblade in his hand. There was no keychain dangling from it; it was not a true Keyblade. What could he do with it? Then he recalled what Riku had said, about unlocking hearts.
He looked to Kairi. She was lying on her back, on the floor before the great Heartless sign in Hollow Bastion. She looked so beautiful, so alive, though she seemed to be dead. He looked around. The princesses...he had all their hearts.
"I wonder..." he murmured as Donald and Goofy came around and tried to get back their senses.
Bracing himself for the impact, he twirled the Dark Keyblade in his hand and pulled it towards him. He could feel its coldness as it neared his chest and bit back a gasp as it entered him. Darkness quickly began to cloud his mind and heat left him, replaced by coldness, coldness he had never felt before.
From his heart came release. As he stared in shock of the cold, he saw seven golden, glowing balls of light float out from his heart. Incredible...so beautiful...
And six of the balls of light swerved and split up, headed for each of the six sleeping princesses. Only one remained, hovering over the prostrate form that was Kairi. The orb descended from above her, falling down slowly towards where her heart normally pulsed.
And as darkness began to cloud his line of sight, he saw the ball of light that was her heart merge with the body it belonged to. Kairi was saved.
He saw her open her entrancing blue eyes, as the fingers colored black reached across his mind, his eyes, his heart, seeking to enclose him in everlasting darkness. All he paid attention to was Kairi, who was becoming aware of where she was and of herself.
He could hear Donald shrilling at the top of his lungs as the barriers that kept Goofy and him out of the duel stubbornly kept him away. He could hear Goofy come to, hearing the distinctive noise of him shaking his head and going, "Huyuk?"
But the only one he focused on, as he began to fade, was Kairi. She had seen him.
He was fading, as she stood up and stared, her mouth forming words. He could not hear anymore and his vision was clouding even faster, but he knew what she had said.
"Sora?"
And he felt himself falling into darkness. He could feel himself reaching out, trying to reach his memories, all he could feel, see, taste, touch, smell, and remember, but they were fading fast. Darkness was powerful; it swallowed everything, even the fading light that was the life he had sacrificed for others.
As he fell, as the memories swept away, he was beset by two images, one word.
He saw the day he found Kairi, on the shores of Destiny Islands. He wondered why she was there and how she got there, before wondering who she was. It was everyday that a very pretty, rather young girl washed ashore when there's been no news of wrecks off the coast.
The second image was even more bizarre. He saw himself as barely three, with a small stick-more like a long wooden sword back then-in his right hand. He was grinning and talking to the person sitting next to him. The person replied and he saw himself laughing, as they sat on a strange rock face facing a beach he did not recognize.
Then the one he was laughing with turned and Sora had stared. The boy looked identical to his three-year-old self, but with lighter hair and strange, metallic eyes. He stared with a serious intensity. How strange.
And as those two images faded away as well, all he was able to remember was...
"Kairi".
Kairi, where are you now? It's been a year; what have you been doing while I was gone? Have the others returned? Are they okay? Have you drifted back to the life before? Kairi...
"Are you okay?" a hand was on his shoulder, shaking him.
"Huh-wha? Wha!" he found himself staring into Aozora's concerned face. A face that he thought was vaguely familiar for some unknown reason...Then he was aware of the concerned looks of Donald and Goofy from behind Aozora.
"You were...der...muttering something in yer sleep," Goofy explained with a yawn as Aozora backed away and Sora sat up straight against the gummi ship's wall. "Something...from back then."
Aozora looked at Goofy very curiously but Goofy did not offer an explanation. Aozora nodded, as if he understood it was a personal thing and said, "If you three wanted to know, we're approaching another world. We'll be there in a little while."
Sora nodded, before Donald demanded, suspiciously, "When did you learn how to pilot a gummi ship?"
"I didn't," Aozora replied briskly before returning to the cockpilot.
"Oh? Is that so!" Donald sounded very much unconvinced.
"Yes, we're all just lucky I didn't send you all flying into each other's faces while piloting, too. I was being very considerate, especially since all three of you have been sleeping," Aozora snapped back as he went back to Manual and took control.
"How did you learn to pilot a gummi ship?" Donald growled back. Sora sighed. Not again.
"I learned how to pilot an airship a long time ago," Aozora explained harshly as he pressed Autopilot, got up from his seat, and confronted Donald. "Once I took control, I realized it was like an airship so I had no trouble and thankfully did not make all of you suffer a barrel roll!"
"You were very close to shouting, did you know that?" Goofy announced tentatively as the two glared at each other.
"Wha? You didn't like thrills?" Sora gasped mockingly. "I thought everybody enjoyed it."
Aozora and Donald turned to stare at him. "Everybody?!"
Well, at least I've got the two of them united against one issue...my thrill issues, Sora thought wistfully. "Okay, so maybe I was lying..."
"Wow, its so white," Goofy commented as he peered through the windshields of the gummi ship. "Amazing. So much snow."
All three stared at him, before realizing that he was obviously commenting about the world Aozora mentioned earlier.
"A new world at last!" Sora sighed, thankful that the argument was short- lived.
"All snow..." Aozora was starting to look very worried. Goofy spotted the look and asked curiously, "What's the problem there?"
"What can we do in the snow?" Aozora wondered, mostly to himself. "Snow hinders. Snow leaves tracks behind. Snow isn't the best thing in the world..."
"We can't change seasons, ya know!" Donald snapped. "Too bad. Live through it!"
Sora half-expected a comeback from Aozora but his blond look-a-like ignored Donald's furious statements and turned his back to the duck. While Donald sputtered at this rejection to another challenge, Aozora stated, "I wonder what we'll find on that world..."
"Its called China," Goofy peered at a screen on the control panel. " During the wintertime, too."
"Snow,' Aozora sounded like he hated snow with all his heart.
"What's up with you and snow?" Sora asked curiously. "I thought snow was great."
"Running through the snow in shorts is not the greatest thing in the world," Donald muttered under his breath.
Sora heard a laugh being stifled and spotted Aozora shifting away, his shoulders shaking. Aozora was laughing?!
Donald didn't seem to find it all that funny. While Goofy continued to stare at the snow-draped world, he snapped, "What's so funny?"
Aozora didn't reply. He didn't need to.
"Its got a long wall!" Goofy exclaimed. "And...and there are white things swarming all over it!"
"White what?" Aozora rushed up to Goofy's side. He stared openmouthed at the world as they drew closer. "No way. There is absolutely no way. What could've brought the Nobodies here already?"
Sora spotted smoke drifting from one side of the world. "Possibly war."
Aozora shook his head as the gummi ship brushed the atmosphere of the world. "There's something out there that brought them there. Nobodies aren't all that attracted by war."
"Oh," Sora was learning more and more from Aozora about these Nobodies and everything he said didn't sound lovely. Or logical. "What attracts Nobodies then, if its not war?"
"Those who do not care," Aozora answered. "They are cold to the souls of the people, of the animals, of the plants, of the world. They ravage everything in their path. That attracts Nobodies for fear leaves people open to attack. Fear in their souls."
Sora scratched his head, then spotted mountains. They looked very big.
"Is it just me," Goofy ventured nervously as everybody stood there gaping at the tall mountains, "Or are we getting too close for comfort?"
Cursing under his breath, Sora jumped to the helm, punched the Manuel button, and fought the strangely resistant controls as their gummi ship went flying into the mountains.
"Well, lookee here, Cri-Kee," Mushu, the miniscule red dragon that was once a Summon exclaimed to the tiny purple cricket next to him. "Looks like a live rocket, eh Cri-Kee? Hm...wonder where that came from."
He watched the flaming object soar across the winter sky into the snow- covered mountains.
"Oh well, what use is it? How can it help us," Mushu sighed, his gaze turning from the vanishing object to Mulan, the young woman who had broken an ancient law to save her father. She was staring dejectedly into her helmet, with Khan, her black horse, standing guard next to her.
"...maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right. SO twhen I look into the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile," she murmured sadly. Then she shook her head. "But I was wrong. I see nothing."
She dropped the helmet in the snow and sighed deeply. Mushu was visibly depressed by her state and decided to try and do something about it. He marched over and picked up the helmet. Spitting on it, he then gave it a vigorous rub with his arm and held it out. "Well, that's just 'cause this needs a little spit, that's all. Let me shine this up for you. Here, look at you. You look so pretty."
He pushed the helmet up at her but she turned away, refusing to look. "I'm sorry I wasted your time, Mushu. I know you tried."
"Hell I tried," Mushu muttered under his breath, then looked at his own pitiful image. He had been a Summon, a very strong one at that but now here he was, weak, unable to help the person who really needed him. Sora was fine on his own but Mulan here was a woman and that caused problems because China was not all that liberal when it came to women. He sighed. Confession time.
"Look, the truth is, we're both frauds-fakes," he admitted. Mulan turned to him, surprised. "The ancestors never sent me. They don't even like me! You risked your life to help people you love. I risked your life to help myself. At least you had good intentions."
Cri-Kee, upon hearing this, chirped sadly, as though he had something to admit as well.
"Whaddya mean, you're not lucky?" Mushu shouted. "You lied to me?!"
He glared at the purple cricket that quailed under his furious gaze. He shook his head and gestured to Khan. "So what are you? A sheep?!"
Khan snorted at him indignantly. Mushu did the smart thing and quickly backed away.
"I'll have to face my father sooner or later," Mulan said after a momentary silence. "Let's go home."
Mushu sighed. "Yep, this ain't gonna be pretty. But don't worry, okay? We started this together, and that's how we'll finish it. I promise."
With a surprise move, he hugged Mulan. She smiled and all four of them, the woman, the red dragon, the purple cricket, and the black horse, packed up their few belongings and got ready to go.
"Where the hell are we?" a voice suddenly thundered across the mountains. Mulan and the others started in surprise.
"Hell if you ask me!" another voice snapped back. "You ask that crazy ass! He's the one who got us here!"
"For your information, Donald!" a strangely familiar voice shot, "I didn't get us here! Who was steering the gummi ship while we were sleeping?"
There was a very short silence, followed by a rather annoyed, "Wha-at?!"
"Sora? That you?" Mushu yelled out at the top of his lungs. Mulan, Cri- Kee, and Khan looked at him strangely.
"Sora?" Mulan mouthed as a voice yelled back, "Mushu? You're here?"
"Yep. Whaddya doin' here, Sora?" Mushu answered loudly as four people-er, two teenage boys with identical faces, a squat white duck in blue, and a gangly, dog-like being with a shield stomped towards them in the snow.
"Saw some Nobo-oh Mushu, you won't get it," Sora shook his head, then spotted Mulan, Cri-Kee, and Khan. "Say, Mushu, who are they?"
"They?" Mushu looked behind him. "Oh, the black horse is Khan, this purple cricket is my friend Cri-Kee, and this is Mulan who's in the worst dilemma of her life."
"Dilemma?" Sora was puzzled.
"What happened?" Goofy asked curiously. Donald elbowed him.
"Don't butt into other people's businesses," he hissed.
Aozora looked elsewhere.
"Mulan, this here's Sora and those two-the duck and the dog-are his partners. Sora, who's that blond kid?" Mushu asked, looking to Aozora, who seemed quite busy analyzing the hills of snow before him.
"That's Aozora," Sora explained. "He's really...oh I don't know, out of this world? But King Mickey said he had to come with us so-"
"King?" Mulan was rather intrigued. Sora nodded.
"King Mickey? The King Mickey?" Mushu gapped at him. "No way!"
"Wait a minute! Let's back up here!" Mulan exclaimed before Mushu could start saying more. "What is going on? How do you know this-these people, Mushu?"
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mushu all looked at each other and sighed. "It's a long story."
"How long?" Mulan asked, even more curious than ever before.
"Well you see-" Sora began.
"Hate to cut the storytelling time but we've got a problem," Aozora quickly interposed.
"Mr. Businessman, is he now?" Mushu noted at how serious Aozora was.
"What problem?" Sora asked tersely; Mulan looked rather apprehensive.
"Them," Aozora gestured to the snow hills before him.
Nobodies crept down the hillside, their feet not even touching the snow. As they danced downward, the hair-raising scream of a falcon vibrated across the mountains and a bloodcurdling roar ripped out from the snow hill. To Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aozora's surprise-and to Mulan, Mushu, Cri-Kee, and Khan's horror- a hand ripped out from the snow and a human clawed his way to the surface. The falcon dove downward and landed on the left arm as the human pulled himself from the snow. Sora gasped.
The face was stone gray and full of fury. He wore a helmet fashioned with fur and his tunic and trousers were made of fur as well. His eyes glowed a seething yellow and a horrible expression flowed on his face.
"Shan-Yu," Mulan whispered under her breath, her voice hard with anger.
"Who's Shan-Yu?" Aozora demanded as others pulled themselves out of the snow. "And why are they coming out of the snow?"
"Shan-Yu is a Hun and he had invaded my home," Mulan answered. "I buried them with snow."
"She's as wise as they come," Mushu supported her last statement. "Used the last rocket to blow out the snow from a mountain and buried them."
Sora stared at her with awe and reverence.
Shan-Yu looked to the men who had survived the avalanche. They nodded and the huddle of Huns began a procession towards...the distant lights of the Imperial City, home of the emperor of China.
"Oh no," Mulan gasped. "They're headed the for the Imperial..."
"The Nobodies are following them," Aozora's voice was full of contempt. " They are aware of each other."
"No way," Sora breathed as Mulan demanded, "Nobodies?"
"They are soulless beings, nearly incapable of making more of themselves but able to destroy any soul. We're going to worlds, trying to obliterate them. Its slow work, I might say," Aozora explained.
"The slowest," Donald agreed grudgingly.
"We've got the save the emperor," Mulan stated. "At all costs."
"The leader of your people," Goofy nodded knowledgably.
Mulan snatched up her sword and leaped up on Khan's back. "Can you help us? Since you say the Huns and the Nobodies are working together, then we are against the same force. Can you help us save the emperor?"
The four looked at each other, then nodded.
"Wha?" Mushu exclaimed. "You're going to stop the Huns? That's not possible now."
"We've got to try, Mushu," Mulan answered. "Come on, we've gotta move out fast."
"She's right, you know, "Sora agreed. "We've got to try something at least-"
"It'll be best if you leave the Nobodies alone to their own business," a cold, drawling voice uttered behind them. "You cannot defeat Shan-Yu; nobody can defeat an Unknown. It is best to give up."
Sora and the others turned around...except for Aozora. He continued to stare in the direction the Huns and the groups of Nobodies, about fifty, had gone.
Before them was a tall, lithe being in a black coat with a hood pulled over, shadowing the face from all eyes. From the gloved right hand of the being was a long whip, a whip that twinkled a strange and dangerous blue.
"Who are you?" Sora demanded, slowly shifting into fighting stance, ready at a moment's notice to call out the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy positioned themselves likewise in battle formation; Mulan held up her sword, just in case.
"He is an Unknown," Aozora answered coldly. "What do you want?"
He was addressing the Unknown in the last sentence. Donald looked at the two suspiciously, trying to see the connection besides the fact that they were both wearing the same coats.
"Your mentor was apprehended, little one," the Unknown spoke 'mentor' disdainfully. "A whistleblower does no good. What did he tell you that made you leave us long ago?"
"What?" Sora was beset with confusion. "What is going on here?"
"The Unknowns...now go hand-in-hand with the Nobodies," Aozora explained. " Once I found out, I left. The Nobodies won't do any good for us; what can they do for the Unknowns?"
"Power," the Unknown answered. "Power to govern the universe and to keep the balance...with force if needs be."
"The Unknowns never had power before," Aozora retorted. "All Unknowns had denounced power as their main goal. We were to be hidden in the shadows, balancing the light and the dark quietly."
"The darkness has grown, foolish one," the Unknown snapped and his whip slapped the snow with emphasis. Sora and the others stared in horror at the mark the whip left behind; the snow melted away quickly where the whip hit it. "We need the power to fight back the darkness. Wherever the power comes from, we need it."
"You ally yourself with darkness just to get power to keep the balance?" Aozora's voice carried great irony. "What has happened to the almighty Unknowns? But tell me, do all Unknowns look like Shan-Yu? Or is it just a hologram?"
"A holo-what?" Sora and Mulan demanded.
"Hmph," it was obvious the Unknown was smiling. "Shan-Yu is an Unknown and that is who he is. He knows of the Nobodies and our alliance to them; they are to bring down the emperor. He poses a great danger to our cause."
"Cause?" Aozora spat. "What cause? Gaining the power to keep the balance is the cause? Gaining power in ways that only strengthen all is safe but gaining power through darkness is beyond fatal. There is no cause. This will mark the end of the Unknowns."
"Not exactly," the Unknown countered slowly. "It will spell your end, not mine. The Grandmother has already been brought down; we only have a little more to go before every world is 'dismantled' and the power in our hands."
"The Grandmother-Grandmother Willow?" Sora shouted out, discovering the frightening connection. "What did you do to her?"
"Oh its none of your concern," the Unknown chuckled. "I am, in fact, more worried about the here and now instead of the then and there. Now I shall ask all of you a question: are you to pursue Shan-Yu and face my wrath, or leave him be and go your own simpering ways?"
They all stared at him, until Sora began to laugh. Everybody stared at him as though he had completely lost his mind.
"Is your friend okay?" Mulan whispered to Mushu out of the corner of her mouth.
Sora quickly got his breath back, knowing how he stunned everybody but he couldn't help but laugh; this idiot of an Unknown thought they were going to give up right there and then thanks to a simple threat? Sora's been through hell, for heaven's sakes and the Unknown is asking whether or not they'd face his wrath?
"Puh-leeze," Sora was trying to stop laughing. "Like we'd give up that easily. I've been through enough to know that you're going to need more than a threat to stop us."
He saw a quick movement out of the corner of his eye. Aozora had his eyes shut, grimacing.
Uh oh, did I say something wrong? Sora wondered worriedly. The look on Aozora's face more than answered him.
"Making an Unknown mad is the worst thing any living or dead being can do," Aozora said quietly. "They don't like to be killed, let alone challenged like that."
"Shan-Yu looks really, really...der...mad," Goofy spoke up.
"Dead?" Donald rounded on Aozora.
"This ain't lookin' good. 'Pears to me we gotta haul butt, Cri-Kee, eh?" Mushu told his cricket friend. "Mulan, let's get outta-"
The Unknown's whip lashed in front of his face and Mushu could practically hear the snow sizzle.
"Those who know us well, naïve one," the Unknown hissed in a low voice, " would do well to get out of here. They'd rather face a Heartless' wrath rather than mine."
"I've faced the fury of the Heartless," Sora growled loudly, defiantly. " They can't scare me anymore. Can you?"
The Unknown, to the astonishment of others, began to laugh. "You have so much to learn, you foolish boy. The fury of the Heartless is growing, just as the powers of the Nobodies and us are growing. The darkness is growing and it would be wiser to defend your own homes, instead of leading a cavalcade about the worlds, trying to stop us all."
"Unless you've got no home," Aozora muttered under his breath. Sora noted two lights glowing on Aozora's hands; a purplish black light in his right and a pure white light in his left. "Unless you have no place to defend with all your heart, all your soul but is forced to go and defend the hearts and souls of others. Which is what I am doing."
"Hmph," the Unknown snorted at Aozora's answer. "No home you say? You should know where your home is. But what can I say? Such is life-oh, what are those lights glowing in your hands, you deserter? Are you going to fight. It looks to be that way."
Mulan saw the gathering storm in the blond-haired teenager. Everything the Unknown had said poured into her mind. No home? This kid has no home? Younger than she was but already he had no home, no place to stay, where you can always depends on the love there. Sora had that essence, the essence of a place to defend, a home to fight for. But not the blond-haired teenager; no, he was a mercenary, not a soldier.
"Leave, all of you," Aozora's voice barely shook, his voice harsh. "I think I'll take care of this Unknown."
Nobody moved.
"I said, ' Leave!' Get out of here!" Aozora repeated. "I don't want to repeat myself again. This is between the two of us."
"Is it?" Sora called the Keyblade into his right hand, receiving a gasp from Mulan, a chirp from Cri-Kee, and a started snort from Khan. "We're not going anywhere without you."
"You don't understand," Aozora hissed at him. "Your Keyblade is needed elsewhere. Those Nobodies are going to end up facing more than the soldiers of China and you guys. Those Nobodies are here for more than just following Shan-Yu. There's already a force here, a force you should be familiar with."
Sora stared at him blankly, until he realized what Aozora meant.
"The Heartless?" he croaked out, nearly speechless with shock.
Aozora nodded briskly. "Go!"
Without another word, Sora and the others turned and followed the trail left by Shan-Yu, his men, and the Nobodies.
"Now, Domitan," Aozora turned on the Unknown. "Let's settle this quickly, shall we?"
He swung the Oblivion and the Starlight threateningly in his hands.
"Ooh, I'm scared," the Unknown mocked. "Fear me."
The two rushed at each other with furious crackles of energy.
Secrets of Memories
Chapter 13: The Teeth of the Snow Tiger
"Wow," was Aozora's first statement once the gummi ship was out in space. "We have to do that with every world we come across?"
Sora nodded exhaustingly; Donald and Goofy did not reply. They were fast asleep on the floor.
"Oh my god," Aozora leaned his head against his right hand as he slumped to the floor. "That event back there was brutal enough."
"How did you know about sealing worlds from Nobodies?" Sora asked curiously, before stifling a yawn and jerking the gummi ship to the side to avoid a rather peaceful Heartless ship.
"I've seen it myself," Aozora answered quietly. "It was not beautiful."
"Sacrifice is never beautiful," Sora agreed. Aozora could hear an echoing pain in his voice.
"You've seen it," Aozora stated. "A sacrifice for the others. A sacrifice measures the soul of its being. It does not always mean death. It can mean an act of courage, an act of friendship, an act of love. One soul proves its worth and the world will be sealed forever."
"It's going to be interesting fighting the Nobodies," Sora commented after a short silence. "You get to truly meet worthy people then, eh?"
Sora stifled another yawn. "I've never been so tired before."
"I can take over, you know," Aozora offered as he got up and approached the cockpit. Sora was yawning continuously now.
"No, I'm fine, no need to worry," he waved Aozora's offer aside. "It doesn't look like you get tired often. What's the secret?"
"Secret?" Aozora thought. "No, there's no secret."
Sora nodded and nearly crashed the gummi ship into an asteroid when his eyes drooped briefly.
"Look, buddy," Aozora pressed ' Auto-Pilot' on the dashboard and dragged Sora out of the seat at the cockpit. "You sleep. I pilot. Lucky I learned something on piloting airships a while back even though I've never done a gummi ship. It's a hell lot safer anyways."
He was referring to Sora's wild antics with the gummi ship. But Sora just nodded and sat down. He leaned against the wall, near Goofy and Donald, and closed his eyes.
He stared at the strange Keyblade in his hand. There was no keychain dangling from it; it was not a true Keyblade. What could he do with it? Then he recalled what Riku had said, about unlocking hearts.
He looked to Kairi. She was lying on her back, on the floor before the great Heartless sign in Hollow Bastion. She looked so beautiful, so alive, though she seemed to be dead. He looked around. The princesses...he had all their hearts.
"I wonder..." he murmured as Donald and Goofy came around and tried to get back their senses.
Bracing himself for the impact, he twirled the Dark Keyblade in his hand and pulled it towards him. He could feel its coldness as it neared his chest and bit back a gasp as it entered him. Darkness quickly began to cloud his mind and heat left him, replaced by coldness, coldness he had never felt before.
From his heart came release. As he stared in shock of the cold, he saw seven golden, glowing balls of light float out from his heart. Incredible...so beautiful...
And six of the balls of light swerved and split up, headed for each of the six sleeping princesses. Only one remained, hovering over the prostrate form that was Kairi. The orb descended from above her, falling down slowly towards where her heart normally pulsed.
And as darkness began to cloud his line of sight, he saw the ball of light that was her heart merge with the body it belonged to. Kairi was saved.
He saw her open her entrancing blue eyes, as the fingers colored black reached across his mind, his eyes, his heart, seeking to enclose him in everlasting darkness. All he paid attention to was Kairi, who was becoming aware of where she was and of herself.
He could hear Donald shrilling at the top of his lungs as the barriers that kept Goofy and him out of the duel stubbornly kept him away. He could hear Goofy come to, hearing the distinctive noise of him shaking his head and going, "Huyuk?"
But the only one he focused on, as he began to fade, was Kairi. She had seen him.
He was fading, as she stood up and stared, her mouth forming words. He could not hear anymore and his vision was clouding even faster, but he knew what she had said.
"Sora?"
And he felt himself falling into darkness. He could feel himself reaching out, trying to reach his memories, all he could feel, see, taste, touch, smell, and remember, but they were fading fast. Darkness was powerful; it swallowed everything, even the fading light that was the life he had sacrificed for others.
As he fell, as the memories swept away, he was beset by two images, one word.
He saw the day he found Kairi, on the shores of Destiny Islands. He wondered why she was there and how she got there, before wondering who she was. It was everyday that a very pretty, rather young girl washed ashore when there's been no news of wrecks off the coast.
The second image was even more bizarre. He saw himself as barely three, with a small stick-more like a long wooden sword back then-in his right hand. He was grinning and talking to the person sitting next to him. The person replied and he saw himself laughing, as they sat on a strange rock face facing a beach he did not recognize.
Then the one he was laughing with turned and Sora had stared. The boy looked identical to his three-year-old self, but with lighter hair and strange, metallic eyes. He stared with a serious intensity. How strange.
And as those two images faded away as well, all he was able to remember was...
"Kairi".
Kairi, where are you now? It's been a year; what have you been doing while I was gone? Have the others returned? Are they okay? Have you drifted back to the life before? Kairi...
"Are you okay?" a hand was on his shoulder, shaking him.
"Huh-wha? Wha!" he found himself staring into Aozora's concerned face. A face that he thought was vaguely familiar for some unknown reason...Then he was aware of the concerned looks of Donald and Goofy from behind Aozora.
"You were...der...muttering something in yer sleep," Goofy explained with a yawn as Aozora backed away and Sora sat up straight against the gummi ship's wall. "Something...from back then."
Aozora looked at Goofy very curiously but Goofy did not offer an explanation. Aozora nodded, as if he understood it was a personal thing and said, "If you three wanted to know, we're approaching another world. We'll be there in a little while."
Sora nodded, before Donald demanded, suspiciously, "When did you learn how to pilot a gummi ship?"
"I didn't," Aozora replied briskly before returning to the cockpilot.
"Oh? Is that so!" Donald sounded very much unconvinced.
"Yes, we're all just lucky I didn't send you all flying into each other's faces while piloting, too. I was being very considerate, especially since all three of you have been sleeping," Aozora snapped back as he went back to Manual and took control.
"How did you learn to pilot a gummi ship?" Donald growled back. Sora sighed. Not again.
"I learned how to pilot an airship a long time ago," Aozora explained harshly as he pressed Autopilot, got up from his seat, and confronted Donald. "Once I took control, I realized it was like an airship so I had no trouble and thankfully did not make all of you suffer a barrel roll!"
"You were very close to shouting, did you know that?" Goofy announced tentatively as the two glared at each other.
"Wha? You didn't like thrills?" Sora gasped mockingly. "I thought everybody enjoyed it."
Aozora and Donald turned to stare at him. "Everybody?!"
Well, at least I've got the two of them united against one issue...my thrill issues, Sora thought wistfully. "Okay, so maybe I was lying..."
"Wow, its so white," Goofy commented as he peered through the windshields of the gummi ship. "Amazing. So much snow."
All three stared at him, before realizing that he was obviously commenting about the world Aozora mentioned earlier.
"A new world at last!" Sora sighed, thankful that the argument was short- lived.
"All snow..." Aozora was starting to look very worried. Goofy spotted the look and asked curiously, "What's the problem there?"
"What can we do in the snow?" Aozora wondered, mostly to himself. "Snow hinders. Snow leaves tracks behind. Snow isn't the best thing in the world..."
"We can't change seasons, ya know!" Donald snapped. "Too bad. Live through it!"
Sora half-expected a comeback from Aozora but his blond look-a-like ignored Donald's furious statements and turned his back to the duck. While Donald sputtered at this rejection to another challenge, Aozora stated, "I wonder what we'll find on that world..."
"Its called China," Goofy peered at a screen on the control panel. " During the wintertime, too."
"Snow,' Aozora sounded like he hated snow with all his heart.
"What's up with you and snow?" Sora asked curiously. "I thought snow was great."
"Running through the snow in shorts is not the greatest thing in the world," Donald muttered under his breath.
Sora heard a laugh being stifled and spotted Aozora shifting away, his shoulders shaking. Aozora was laughing?!
Donald didn't seem to find it all that funny. While Goofy continued to stare at the snow-draped world, he snapped, "What's so funny?"
Aozora didn't reply. He didn't need to.
"Its got a long wall!" Goofy exclaimed. "And...and there are white things swarming all over it!"
"White what?" Aozora rushed up to Goofy's side. He stared openmouthed at the world as they drew closer. "No way. There is absolutely no way. What could've brought the Nobodies here already?"
Sora spotted smoke drifting from one side of the world. "Possibly war."
Aozora shook his head as the gummi ship brushed the atmosphere of the world. "There's something out there that brought them there. Nobodies aren't all that attracted by war."
"Oh," Sora was learning more and more from Aozora about these Nobodies and everything he said didn't sound lovely. Or logical. "What attracts Nobodies then, if its not war?"
"Those who do not care," Aozora answered. "They are cold to the souls of the people, of the animals, of the plants, of the world. They ravage everything in their path. That attracts Nobodies for fear leaves people open to attack. Fear in their souls."
Sora scratched his head, then spotted mountains. They looked very big.
"Is it just me," Goofy ventured nervously as everybody stood there gaping at the tall mountains, "Or are we getting too close for comfort?"
Cursing under his breath, Sora jumped to the helm, punched the Manuel button, and fought the strangely resistant controls as their gummi ship went flying into the mountains.
"Well, lookee here, Cri-Kee," Mushu, the miniscule red dragon that was once a Summon exclaimed to the tiny purple cricket next to him. "Looks like a live rocket, eh Cri-Kee? Hm...wonder where that came from."
He watched the flaming object soar across the winter sky into the snow- covered mountains.
"Oh well, what use is it? How can it help us," Mushu sighed, his gaze turning from the vanishing object to Mulan, the young woman who had broken an ancient law to save her father. She was staring dejectedly into her helmet, with Khan, her black horse, standing guard next to her.
"...maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right. SO twhen I look into the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile," she murmured sadly. Then she shook her head. "But I was wrong. I see nothing."
She dropped the helmet in the snow and sighed deeply. Mushu was visibly depressed by her state and decided to try and do something about it. He marched over and picked up the helmet. Spitting on it, he then gave it a vigorous rub with his arm and held it out. "Well, that's just 'cause this needs a little spit, that's all. Let me shine this up for you. Here, look at you. You look so pretty."
He pushed the helmet up at her but she turned away, refusing to look. "I'm sorry I wasted your time, Mushu. I know you tried."
"Hell I tried," Mushu muttered under his breath, then looked at his own pitiful image. He had been a Summon, a very strong one at that but now here he was, weak, unable to help the person who really needed him. Sora was fine on his own but Mulan here was a woman and that caused problems because China was not all that liberal when it came to women. He sighed. Confession time.
"Look, the truth is, we're both frauds-fakes," he admitted. Mulan turned to him, surprised. "The ancestors never sent me. They don't even like me! You risked your life to help people you love. I risked your life to help myself. At least you had good intentions."
Cri-Kee, upon hearing this, chirped sadly, as though he had something to admit as well.
"Whaddya mean, you're not lucky?" Mushu shouted. "You lied to me?!"
He glared at the purple cricket that quailed under his furious gaze. He shook his head and gestured to Khan. "So what are you? A sheep?!"
Khan snorted at him indignantly. Mushu did the smart thing and quickly backed away.
"I'll have to face my father sooner or later," Mulan said after a momentary silence. "Let's go home."
Mushu sighed. "Yep, this ain't gonna be pretty. But don't worry, okay? We started this together, and that's how we'll finish it. I promise."
With a surprise move, he hugged Mulan. She smiled and all four of them, the woman, the red dragon, the purple cricket, and the black horse, packed up their few belongings and got ready to go.
"Where the hell are we?" a voice suddenly thundered across the mountains. Mulan and the others started in surprise.
"Hell if you ask me!" another voice snapped back. "You ask that crazy ass! He's the one who got us here!"
"For your information, Donald!" a strangely familiar voice shot, "I didn't get us here! Who was steering the gummi ship while we were sleeping?"
There was a very short silence, followed by a rather annoyed, "Wha-at?!"
"Sora? That you?" Mushu yelled out at the top of his lungs. Mulan, Cri- Kee, and Khan looked at him strangely.
"Sora?" Mulan mouthed as a voice yelled back, "Mushu? You're here?"
"Yep. Whaddya doin' here, Sora?" Mushu answered loudly as four people-er, two teenage boys with identical faces, a squat white duck in blue, and a gangly, dog-like being with a shield stomped towards them in the snow.
"Saw some Nobo-oh Mushu, you won't get it," Sora shook his head, then spotted Mulan, Cri-Kee, and Khan. "Say, Mushu, who are they?"
"They?" Mushu looked behind him. "Oh, the black horse is Khan, this purple cricket is my friend Cri-Kee, and this is Mulan who's in the worst dilemma of her life."
"Dilemma?" Sora was puzzled.
"What happened?" Goofy asked curiously. Donald elbowed him.
"Don't butt into other people's businesses," he hissed.
Aozora looked elsewhere.
"Mulan, this here's Sora and those two-the duck and the dog-are his partners. Sora, who's that blond kid?" Mushu asked, looking to Aozora, who seemed quite busy analyzing the hills of snow before him.
"That's Aozora," Sora explained. "He's really...oh I don't know, out of this world? But King Mickey said he had to come with us so-"
"King?" Mulan was rather intrigued. Sora nodded.
"King Mickey? The King Mickey?" Mushu gapped at him. "No way!"
"Wait a minute! Let's back up here!" Mulan exclaimed before Mushu could start saying more. "What is going on? How do you know this-these people, Mushu?"
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mushu all looked at each other and sighed. "It's a long story."
"How long?" Mulan asked, even more curious than ever before.
"Well you see-" Sora began.
"Hate to cut the storytelling time but we've got a problem," Aozora quickly interposed.
"Mr. Businessman, is he now?" Mushu noted at how serious Aozora was.
"What problem?" Sora asked tersely; Mulan looked rather apprehensive.
"Them," Aozora gestured to the snow hills before him.
Nobodies crept down the hillside, their feet not even touching the snow. As they danced downward, the hair-raising scream of a falcon vibrated across the mountains and a bloodcurdling roar ripped out from the snow hill. To Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Aozora's surprise-and to Mulan, Mushu, Cri-Kee, and Khan's horror- a hand ripped out from the snow and a human clawed his way to the surface. The falcon dove downward and landed on the left arm as the human pulled himself from the snow. Sora gasped.
The face was stone gray and full of fury. He wore a helmet fashioned with fur and his tunic and trousers were made of fur as well. His eyes glowed a seething yellow and a horrible expression flowed on his face.
"Shan-Yu," Mulan whispered under her breath, her voice hard with anger.
"Who's Shan-Yu?" Aozora demanded as others pulled themselves out of the snow. "And why are they coming out of the snow?"
"Shan-Yu is a Hun and he had invaded my home," Mulan answered. "I buried them with snow."
"She's as wise as they come," Mushu supported her last statement. "Used the last rocket to blow out the snow from a mountain and buried them."
Sora stared at her with awe and reverence.
Shan-Yu looked to the men who had survived the avalanche. They nodded and the huddle of Huns began a procession towards...the distant lights of the Imperial City, home of the emperor of China.
"Oh no," Mulan gasped. "They're headed the for the Imperial..."
"The Nobodies are following them," Aozora's voice was full of contempt. " They are aware of each other."
"No way," Sora breathed as Mulan demanded, "Nobodies?"
"They are soulless beings, nearly incapable of making more of themselves but able to destroy any soul. We're going to worlds, trying to obliterate them. Its slow work, I might say," Aozora explained.
"The slowest," Donald agreed grudgingly.
"We've got the save the emperor," Mulan stated. "At all costs."
"The leader of your people," Goofy nodded knowledgably.
Mulan snatched up her sword and leaped up on Khan's back. "Can you help us? Since you say the Huns and the Nobodies are working together, then we are against the same force. Can you help us save the emperor?"
The four looked at each other, then nodded.
"Wha?" Mushu exclaimed. "You're going to stop the Huns? That's not possible now."
"We've got to try, Mushu," Mulan answered. "Come on, we've gotta move out fast."
"She's right, you know, "Sora agreed. "We've got to try something at least-"
"It'll be best if you leave the Nobodies alone to their own business," a cold, drawling voice uttered behind them. "You cannot defeat Shan-Yu; nobody can defeat an Unknown. It is best to give up."
Sora and the others turned around...except for Aozora. He continued to stare in the direction the Huns and the groups of Nobodies, about fifty, had gone.
Before them was a tall, lithe being in a black coat with a hood pulled over, shadowing the face from all eyes. From the gloved right hand of the being was a long whip, a whip that twinkled a strange and dangerous blue.
"Who are you?" Sora demanded, slowly shifting into fighting stance, ready at a moment's notice to call out the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy positioned themselves likewise in battle formation; Mulan held up her sword, just in case.
"He is an Unknown," Aozora answered coldly. "What do you want?"
He was addressing the Unknown in the last sentence. Donald looked at the two suspiciously, trying to see the connection besides the fact that they were both wearing the same coats.
"Your mentor was apprehended, little one," the Unknown spoke 'mentor' disdainfully. "A whistleblower does no good. What did he tell you that made you leave us long ago?"
"What?" Sora was beset with confusion. "What is going on here?"
"The Unknowns...now go hand-in-hand with the Nobodies," Aozora explained. " Once I found out, I left. The Nobodies won't do any good for us; what can they do for the Unknowns?"
"Power," the Unknown answered. "Power to govern the universe and to keep the balance...with force if needs be."
"The Unknowns never had power before," Aozora retorted. "All Unknowns had denounced power as their main goal. We were to be hidden in the shadows, balancing the light and the dark quietly."
"The darkness has grown, foolish one," the Unknown snapped and his whip slapped the snow with emphasis. Sora and the others stared in horror at the mark the whip left behind; the snow melted away quickly where the whip hit it. "We need the power to fight back the darkness. Wherever the power comes from, we need it."
"You ally yourself with darkness just to get power to keep the balance?" Aozora's voice carried great irony. "What has happened to the almighty Unknowns? But tell me, do all Unknowns look like Shan-Yu? Or is it just a hologram?"
"A holo-what?" Sora and Mulan demanded.
"Hmph," it was obvious the Unknown was smiling. "Shan-Yu is an Unknown and that is who he is. He knows of the Nobodies and our alliance to them; they are to bring down the emperor. He poses a great danger to our cause."
"Cause?" Aozora spat. "What cause? Gaining the power to keep the balance is the cause? Gaining power in ways that only strengthen all is safe but gaining power through darkness is beyond fatal. There is no cause. This will mark the end of the Unknowns."
"Not exactly," the Unknown countered slowly. "It will spell your end, not mine. The Grandmother has already been brought down; we only have a little more to go before every world is 'dismantled' and the power in our hands."
"The Grandmother-Grandmother Willow?" Sora shouted out, discovering the frightening connection. "What did you do to her?"
"Oh its none of your concern," the Unknown chuckled. "I am, in fact, more worried about the here and now instead of the then and there. Now I shall ask all of you a question: are you to pursue Shan-Yu and face my wrath, or leave him be and go your own simpering ways?"
They all stared at him, until Sora began to laugh. Everybody stared at him as though he had completely lost his mind.
"Is your friend okay?" Mulan whispered to Mushu out of the corner of her mouth.
Sora quickly got his breath back, knowing how he stunned everybody but he couldn't help but laugh; this idiot of an Unknown thought they were going to give up right there and then thanks to a simple threat? Sora's been through hell, for heaven's sakes and the Unknown is asking whether or not they'd face his wrath?
"Puh-leeze," Sora was trying to stop laughing. "Like we'd give up that easily. I've been through enough to know that you're going to need more than a threat to stop us."
He saw a quick movement out of the corner of his eye. Aozora had his eyes shut, grimacing.
Uh oh, did I say something wrong? Sora wondered worriedly. The look on Aozora's face more than answered him.
"Making an Unknown mad is the worst thing any living or dead being can do," Aozora said quietly. "They don't like to be killed, let alone challenged like that."
"Shan-Yu looks really, really...der...mad," Goofy spoke up.
"Dead?" Donald rounded on Aozora.
"This ain't lookin' good. 'Pears to me we gotta haul butt, Cri-Kee, eh?" Mushu told his cricket friend. "Mulan, let's get outta-"
The Unknown's whip lashed in front of his face and Mushu could practically hear the snow sizzle.
"Those who know us well, naïve one," the Unknown hissed in a low voice, " would do well to get out of here. They'd rather face a Heartless' wrath rather than mine."
"I've faced the fury of the Heartless," Sora growled loudly, defiantly. " They can't scare me anymore. Can you?"
The Unknown, to the astonishment of others, began to laugh. "You have so much to learn, you foolish boy. The fury of the Heartless is growing, just as the powers of the Nobodies and us are growing. The darkness is growing and it would be wiser to defend your own homes, instead of leading a cavalcade about the worlds, trying to stop us all."
"Unless you've got no home," Aozora muttered under his breath. Sora noted two lights glowing on Aozora's hands; a purplish black light in his right and a pure white light in his left. "Unless you have no place to defend with all your heart, all your soul but is forced to go and defend the hearts and souls of others. Which is what I am doing."
"Hmph," the Unknown snorted at Aozora's answer. "No home you say? You should know where your home is. But what can I say? Such is life-oh, what are those lights glowing in your hands, you deserter? Are you going to fight. It looks to be that way."
Mulan saw the gathering storm in the blond-haired teenager. Everything the Unknown had said poured into her mind. No home? This kid has no home? Younger than she was but already he had no home, no place to stay, where you can always depends on the love there. Sora had that essence, the essence of a place to defend, a home to fight for. But not the blond-haired teenager; no, he was a mercenary, not a soldier.
"Leave, all of you," Aozora's voice barely shook, his voice harsh. "I think I'll take care of this Unknown."
Nobody moved.
"I said, ' Leave!' Get out of here!" Aozora repeated. "I don't want to repeat myself again. This is between the two of us."
"Is it?" Sora called the Keyblade into his right hand, receiving a gasp from Mulan, a chirp from Cri-Kee, and a started snort from Khan. "We're not going anywhere without you."
"You don't understand," Aozora hissed at him. "Your Keyblade is needed elsewhere. Those Nobodies are going to end up facing more than the soldiers of China and you guys. Those Nobodies are here for more than just following Shan-Yu. There's already a force here, a force you should be familiar with."
Sora stared at him blankly, until he realized what Aozora meant.
"The Heartless?" he croaked out, nearly speechless with shock.
Aozora nodded briskly. "Go!"
Without another word, Sora and the others turned and followed the trail left by Shan-Yu, his men, and the Nobodies.
"Now, Domitan," Aozora turned on the Unknown. "Let's settle this quickly, shall we?"
He swung the Oblivion and the Starlight threateningly in his hands.
"Ooh, I'm scared," the Unknown mocked. "Fear me."
The two rushed at each other with furious crackles of energy.