Secrets of Memories Chapter 37: A Friend is Precious
" What are we going to do?" Jessie whispered in fear as they retreated from the shut door. " Woody?"
" I don't know," Woody replied as he hopped through the luggage.
" No, not that," Jessie said. " I mean, what if Andy doesn't like me? If we make it out of here, will he accept me?"
" He's going to love you, Jessie," Woody told her firmly. " Both you and Bullseye. Besides, he's got a little sister."
" He does? Why didn't you say so?" Jessie was ecstatic. " Oh wow! Come on, let's get out of this plane!"
" Hey, check this out!" Sora exclaimed. He peered through a glass hatch down onto the wheels of the plane. " I think we can make it out of here."
" Come on!" Woody called to Jessie. " This way!"
He ran to where Sora was and pulled at the glass hatch. Wind blew up in their faces.
" This way!" Woody shouted and waved Jessie over. " Come on, Jessie! Sora, get down there and don't let go. That's the important thing."
" I'd hate to let go," Sora commented as he carefully slid down the metal gears to a safe spot above the rolling wheels of the plane.
" You sure about this?" Jessie asked fearfully as she followed Sora down.
" Uh, no!" Woody said cheerfully as he followed. They all stood balancing carefully as the plane turned and began to move down the straightway.
Woody fished out the loop behind his back and pulled it out. He then aimed and threw it down where the wheels are. The plastic circle caught on the nut that held the contraption together and when Woody tested it the hold, it held.
" You sure about this?" Jessie asked worriedly.
" You've got to be crazy," Sora added, shaking his head.
" No!" Woody replied. He was fearful, frightened like the others, but he knew this was the only thing to do. He'd seen Sora flying but he didn't think Sora could make the others fly. " Let's go -"
The plane jolted fiercely and Woody fell over.
" Woody!" Sora shouted and grabbed his right arm, the one that Prospector had ripped.
" Hold on, Woody!" Jessie yelled and bit back a scream as the rip on his arm got worse.
" Your hat!" Sora shouted as Woody's hat flew off.
" No!" Woody reached out with his left hand futilely as it blew away…
…into Buzz's hand.
" What's a cowboy without his hat?" Buzz shouted, astride Bullseye.
" Does Bullseye ever get tired?" Sora asked in wonder.
" We're toys," Jessie replied.
" Oh, right, I knew that," Sora grinned embarrassingly.
" Buzz/! Buzz!" Woody had an idea. " BUZZ, get behind the tires! Sora, take Jessie's hand. Jessie, let go of the plane."
" What? Are you crazy?" Sora and Jessie both shouted at him.
" Just pretend it's the final episode of Woody's Roundup, Jessie," Woody told her as calmly as he could.
" But it was cancelled! We never saw if you made it!" Jessie shouted. Sora merely listened, not understanding what they were saying.
" Well, then, lets find out altogether!" Woody shouted. Jessie looked to Sora, who nodded while taking a firm hold of her hand. Then they jumped off.
" Oh – oh – oh!" Woody yelled. Jessie screamed and Sora decided to follow her example.
They fell straight down and right under the wheels, passing inches between them. The plastic circle released its hold on the nut and fell after Woody.
Buzz and Bullseye, who had waited behind the wheels as Woody instructed, realized what was coming. " Uh oh."
The impact would have been horrendous if they were all real. Thankfully, they were all – er, most of the them were toys.
" Oh man," Sora moaned as he sat up on the asphalt. " I am never doing that again. I should just leave that to Tarzan."
" We did it! We did it!" Jessie screamed, jumping around and hugging Woody, Buzz, and Sora.
" Nice ropin', cowboy!" Buzz complemented.
" High five!" Sora said and Woody obliged.
" That was definitely Woody's finest hour!" Jessie jumped around madly and hugged Bullseye's neck.
" Your hat, partner," Buzz grinned and handed Woody his hat.
" Hoo – hoo!" Woody crowed.
A plane descended and landed right on them. The wheels passed over them and this time, they missed by centimeters.
When the plane passed on, they were all huddled in one shivering mass.
" Let's…go home," Woody said with a grin and everybody else all obliged.
" Aw great," Sora suddenly shouted, throwing his arms up in the air as a sign of hopelessness. " Donald's gonna kill me!"
" Andy, come on hon. Time to go. Hey, you fixed Woody!" Andy's mom said as she walked in.
" Yeah," Andy said proudly as he held up Woody and his bulked-up right arm. " Glad I decided not to take him to camp. His whole arm might have come off."
He set Woody on the table and walked out with his mom, closing the door behind him.
" Well, what do you know?" Woody said in awe, sitting up. " Guys, you can come out now!"
" And about time, too!" Donald shouted while Sora heaved open the toy box and fell out. " I thought I was gonna suffocate in there!"
" At least we didn't meet any Heartless or Nobodies this time!" Sora laughed. " This was a vacation, compared to everything else!"
" Like when you almost got flown over to Japan!" Goofy agreed enthusiastically as he jumped out and fell on his face. " Better than facing Jafar, right?"
" Don't remind me," Sora moaned.
" You coulda died!" Donald squalled.
" Aw Donald, get a life," Sora waved him away. " Maybe you should learn to play."
" Then can you come over and help me out here?" Hamm called out. He was playing the Buzz Lightyear game and was having a hard time.
" Jafar…I've heard of his name before," Bo Peep commented.
" Yee – hah! Oh, Bullseye, we're part of a family again!" Jessie shouted, showing the horse the underside of her boot, which had 'Andy' scribbled on it.
Bullseye proudly showed his hoofs, which also had 'Andy' scribbled all over it.
" Hey, Bullseye!" Goofy called. " Checkers?"
Bullseye jumped off the bed and Buzz approached Jessie, pondering on what to say.
" Uh, m – ma'am, I, uh – well, I just wanted to say you're a bright young woman with a beautiful yarnful of hair. Uh, a hairful of yarn. It's uh – whoo – uh – I must go," Buzz stumbled over his words and, embarrassed, tried to get away.
" Well, aren't you the sweetest space toy I ever met?" Jessie grinned and kissed him on the cheek.
" What's that?" Slinky asked Buster, Andy's dog, who was barking madly and scratching at the door, his tail tucked underneath him. " Bark bark? This fella says he needs to go out back for a little private time."
" That critter needs help! Yodel – ay – hee – hoo!" Jessie crowed as she kicked up a toy car into her hand and jumped on it like a skateboard. She hopped onto the racecar track that went at a loop before cutting off in the air and sailed through it. After jumped up into the air, she grabbed a hold of the doorknob and turned it, kicking off in the process. The door opened and Buster scrambled out with a bark.
Buzz's jaw fell open and his wings opened out, blinking like mad.
" You've heard of Jafar?" Sora asked Bo Peep suspiciously. In his mind, he thought, Is she a member of that order Aozora and Cid was talking about? Aw man, why do I need Aozora now? He knows this stuff better than I do!
" In the video Aladdin, of course," Woody replied casually.
" Video? What's a video?" Sora asked.
" Oh no…" Woody moaned.
" Woody, Jafar is real," Bo Peep said. " Sora, where's the Guardian?"
It was Sora's time to groan.
" Long story!" Goofy called out. The game of checkers over, he joined the others.
" I have a question," Sora asked of Bo Peep. " Why did we need to save Woody?"
" Oh, that," Bo Peep said with a grin. " Because of this. Sora, your Keyblade. Woody, stand right here."
She positioned him in front of Sora, from their position on the desk and their position on the ground.
" No way!" Sora exclaimed as the Keyblade appeared in his hand, generating a lot of 'Oooh's' and 'Ahhhh's' from the other toys. " You're a Keyhole!"
" Exactly," Bo Peep affirmed. " Not only did Woody nearly lose his arm and you guys nearly killed yourselves getting all of you to safety, let alone driving that luggage truck all the way here without crashing, Woody is this world's Keyhole. If you seal Woody, you will be sealing City Point and Andy's Room from Heartless and Nobodies forever…maybe forever. We can't exactly defend ourselves against them, Sora, and we need you to make sure we never have to."
Sora nodded, then looked to Woody. " This won't hurt."
With that, he jumped back, swinging his Keyblade around and pointed straight at Woody. Light glowed and streaked around, from the Keyblade to Woody and a Keyhole formed right in front of him. The light flashed in and filled in the vacant space of the Keyhole with light.
City Point and Andy's Room was sealed.
" Wow!" Wheezy, the rubber penguin, jumped up and down. " I never thought I'd live to see this!"
" What, you knew?" Everyone turned to him.
" This world was so big, we needed two," Bo Peep admitted. " But Wheezy started having problems keeping up with the Order and we were considering recruiting Buzz but Mr. Shark found a squeaker while you were out saving Woody."
" Awesome, Wheezy!" Woody and Buzz exclaimed. " And how do you feel?"
" Oh, I feel swell!" Wheezy said and added the words a professional toy singer would always say, " In fact, I think I feel a song coming on."
The speaker threw him a microphone and Wheezy began to sing.
" You've got a friend in me.
You've got a friend in me.
You just remember what your old pal said,
Babe, you've got a friend in me.
Yeah, you've got a friend in me!"
Woody, Bo Peep, Buzz, Jessie, and Sora heard Andy's mom say, " Come on over. Oh, you are such a big girl. Andy, you think she's ready to drive the car yet?"
" Yeah, and I can teach her!" Andy agreed excitedly.
" Innocence, in this world still," Sora felt oddly peaceful about it.
" You still worried?" Buzz asked Woody.
" About Andy? Nah, it'll be fun while it lasts," Woody replied confidently.
Sora and Bo Peep smiled at this.
" I'm proud of you, cowboy," Buzz said.
" Besides, when it all ends, I'll have old Buzz Lightyear to keep my company for infinity and beyond," Woody added, then looked to Sora, who was now looking at Wheezy. " What's more, I'd love to be around while he grows up. I know for sure he won't be forgetting us anytime soon."
" You've said it," Jessie agreed.
" You're gonna see it's our destiny
You got a friend in me.
(Yes, you do)
You've got a friend in me.
(That's the truth)
You've got a friend in me
Yeah!"
Sora felt a tear form in his eye. Riku, I'll never give up on you. You've known it from the beginning. No matter what happens, we'll still be friends. And friends never give up on each other. We'll meet again, Riku; yes, we will meet again. Friends always find each other.
He still recalled what Geppetto told him months ago, deep within Monstro.
" You will meet a precious opponent, you once got separated from."
But I won't be seeing him as an opponent. I'll look into his eyes and know he is still a friend.
" Come on, guys," Sora called to Donald and Goofy, who really was enjoying himself. " It's time to go."
Bo Peep watched as the Keyblade Master, the court wizard, and the captain leave.
" Will he be alright?" Woody asked her.
" That is something I can't say," Bo Peep admitted." We will meet each other again but what will happen before that, we'll just have to see."
Aozora glared at Phil, who returned his steely gaze. Aozora could see the anger within those eyes, an anger he definitely didn't' remember seeing before. It was the other guy, Hercules, who was angry with him, not Phil. But clearly, things change with age. It was Phil who now harbored the hatred, not the son of Zeus.
" Will you guys just quit it?!" Meg cried out in exasperation.
" Quit what?" Phil asked while Aozora kept silent.
" Staring at each other like that! For hours on end!" Meg yelled in return. " I can't stand this! Phil, that part of the past is over now; he's not here to harm anyone anymore, except for the Heartless and Nobodies! Aozora, get over it, too! Sure you did a whole lot of things but was it really your fault?!"
" I opened Kingdom Hearts," Aozora offered.
" You what?!" Phil started screaming at him.
Hercules and Pegasus stared at him, while Eucletes sat down on the temple ground heavily. Phil seemed to have suddenly lost his voice; he grew utterly speechless. Meg merely rolled her eyes.
" Yes, I know," she said. " Blown up this world, opened Kingdom Hearts, and survived that little stunt you pulled on the Society. But really -"
" Society?" Hercules was intrigued. " And what are they?"
" The Society is a group of people – well, they don't have to be people – but they keep the balance between the dark and the light as best as they can," Meg explained. " Well, they were supposed to, anyways, but somehow, while Aozora was a member of the Society, they grew…twisted. They no longer cared much for the balance; they wanted power. They have always worked in the shadows of our presence but now they sought to overthrow the shadows that enveloped them. They decided to make a name for themselves and basically went on a rampage. But it's not a rampage you can actually see. They still worked very subtly, very discreetly. You can thank them for destroying Ancient Greece. Of course they used one of their few masterminds of the Society to plan out a way to make sure practically nothing and nobody escapes the destruction of Ancient Greece. And had not the mastermind they chose be more human than them all, all four of us would not be standing here right now, breathing."
" Oh wait, I think I know who this 'mastermind' would be," Phil said in a sharp, sarcastic voice. His eyes never left Aozora, whose head was bowed in shame.
" What do you mean by mastermind?" Hercules asked curiously.
" I used the fire to set off the fissures in the ground," Aozora said slowly, solemnly. " The fissures were powerful when triggered correctly and they could tear a world apart. I used the fire to set off those fissures. The world tore apart."
" That's real good," Phil couldn't help but comment. This guy was a genius, albeit a rather 'evil' one. " A real good way to get rid of our home!"
" Well, explain to us very clearly why you opened Kingdom Hearts," Hercules continued his questions.
Aozora looked at the son of Zeus very carefully. How was he to explain why he opened Kingdom Hearts? They wanted to know, yes, they very much wanted to know. Did he have a choice?
They had a right to know. They had fought the Heartless and were happy when Sora and King Mickey closed Kingdom Hearts. They had a right to know why the doors were open again.
Aozora reached into the depths of his mind to pull out the memories he had shelved away, left alone to gather dust in the dark corners of his mind…
…He stood before the looming doors, the bright white threatening to blind him. He was awestruck by the beauty, the stained glass that gave the doors true color. Light was made of all colors and the double doors of Kingdom Hearts easily were the epitome of that. But within, whatever was behind those doors, not many would want to know.
" Heartless," he said out loud to no one in particular. " Behind the doors of white light lies the great Darkness of this universe."
He wondered why he had to open these doors. Why should he? Why should he let out the great evil that lay in wait behind those doors?
The Kingdom Keys were not chosen to seal those doors, the voice of his mentor whispered in his mind. They are chosen to open the greater door, the Door of Light. Darkness lies behind those doors of light and only darkness can seal the doors. There is a king and a boy with him, who are trapped behind those doors, trapped among the darkness. You must save them, Aozora, save them before you go on to find the Keyblade Master.
" There is a king behind these doors," Aozora mouthed aloud. " His name is King Mickey. Why does he sound so familiar? Why can't I remember? I'm sure I've met him before. But why is it that I only know that and nothing else?"
Aozora always wondered at that, at his amazing ability to forget in only a few short years. He had often heard whispers behind his back when he was part of the accursed Society, about how the explosion that destroyed his second home 'addled his brains'. He even forgot the name of his mentor.
" If I open these doors," he continued to say out loud, " I'd be responsible for every evil in this universe. If I don't open these doors, I'd still be responsible for every evil in this universe. What am I to do?"
He could just reach out, use the powers he still retained from his months with the Society, and open the doors of Kingdom Hearts. It was easy; it was, in fact, one of the simplest tasks ever set before him. But the consequences were enormous. But then again, committing evil acts really were easy, much easier than doing good.
" But I wasn't born to do evil," Aozora scolded himself, then the question bubbled into him. " But was I?"
He never knew his parents; nobody offered to tell him. That was a mystery he believed he would never solve.
He knew vaguely about what had happened long ago; he had lived in a world of peace, rarely affected by warfare and disaster. He had two parents and he had a twin brother. He did not remember his brother's name but he only knew that the name was very similar to his.
When they were only two, the world that was never affected by disaster, the world that Aozora had called home, was destroyed. Completely obliterated. This was something he definitely knew; he was, after all, the only survivor. Witnesses from neighboring worlds all told of a huge explosion that lit the night sky like day, a fireball so terrifying many thought the day had doom had come. And when the clouds of the aftermath finally blew away by the cosmic winds, nothing remained. Nothing except him.
He had been found on another world, one called Celt Circle. An odd name for sure but it was also a peaceful world. He did not know how he was identified as the only survivor of that world but whatever happened, he came to live on that world. For eight years, he lived in an adopted family, loved by his foster parents and well liked by the rest of the village he lived in. He had always wondered to this day why they liked him so much.
He had two close friends, two who were not afraid by him or his bronze eyes. Many children feared him for they often heard their parents whispering about how he seemed to have come from the dead; he was always pale and thin. One was a boy named Kobi; he, too, was an orphan and lived with a merchant family. The other was a girl named Lorien, and she lived with her relatives; her parents were always somewhere doing 'something real important'.
For eight years they lived in perfect harmony with each other. They were always rivals yet they got along very well. Competition was high amongst them and many times it actually almost brought them face – to – face with death.
" A friend is precious," he could still remember his foster mother's voice, " but two friends are worth more than anything in the world. You are very lucky, Aozora, to have such friends as they for in this universe, friends are no longer easy to come by that you can trust with your life."
When Aozora and his friends were ten, a stranger came into town. He was a very frightening one, ominous almost. He strode around in a long black leather trench coat with a hood and Aozora remembered quite clearly that the person had fearsome green eyes.
Things grew upsetting when people began to note that the stranger and Aozora had very similar facial features. That was something he could not understand. The stranger kept to himself, however, and nothing came out of the whispers.
It was weeks after the stranger arrived that Celt Circle detonated. Aozora was once again without a home. He was yet again the only survivor but nobody knew. He had become nothing, a nobody to the universe.
It was then that everything grew blurry and he was unsure of this and that. He remembered staying somewhere for about two years, where he was trained to become what he was now: a dual-wielding Keyblade wielder and incredibly adept in magic and warfare. Then he was entrusted to a shadowy man who became known as 'Mentor'. For six months they lived in solitude, with Mentor teaching Aozora everything needed for survival in a universe that was gradually turning upside down.
Six months afterwards, Aozora was initiated into the Society and from there, his life tumbled downward. The Society, by then, had been through many upheavals and finally began a string of destruction. After Aozora masterminded the destruction of Ancient Greece, he attempted to escape the Society. They caught him, however, and he was branded as a traitor, ready to die.
Mentor then risked his life to save Aozora and the young boy escaped, the only member of the Society to escape alive after the branding. He left with three Keychains and a host of instructions, with one of the first being to open Kingdom Hearts. Strangely enough, he was told to open those doors when he was nearly fifteen. He was ordered to open those doors when he was just shy of that number.
Aozora wandered the corners of the universe, searching and seeking the owners of two of the Keychains he had been entrusted with. But nobody he knew seemed to be the rightful owner of neither the Oblivion nor the Moonbeam. Nor was he able to find the 'sky-child,' a mysterious person Mentor had ordered him to find and protect. There were vague details involving the 'sky-child' and Mentor had promised him he would be told who it was in due time.
" But who is this person, damn it!" Aozora growled at himself. Then he looked up at the doors, the double doors. Perhaps it was nearly time; Aozora felt his senses tingling.
Only a few more months and he would be fifteen. Now was the time to open Kingdom Hearts. He wondered who it was that first closed Kingdom Hearts. He knew the king he had to save was one of them. But who was the other?
Then, a voice came to his mind, the humble yet noble voice of someone he somehow knew to be King Mickey.
We are almost there, Aozora, the voice said. Leave the doors open and we will find our way out. These doors will be closed later, though only the Door of Light can truly rid the universe of Heartless and other true minions of the Darkness. For now, just open the doors. But be sure to leave as soon as you do.
It was time…
" So you just used the powers you had to open those doors?" Hercules asked as Aozora finished his sorrowful tale of how he was responsible for the influx of Heartless in the universe. " I wish I could do that."
" Only those who have the makings of the power can do that," Meg explained. " Those who show the signs of the power can be trained to use it as they wish."
" Poor kid," Phil now looked at Aozora sympathetically. " You really didn't have any choice, did you? King Mickey told you to open those doors. What other choice did you have?"
" I don't know," Aozora replied. " I know I have an excuse but I never feel happy using excuses. Its either my fault or the other person just knows why it was done."
" A friend is precious…" Eucletes commented. " I've never heard a wiser woman speak than your foster mother. It is true that it has become harder to make friends that you can entrust your life with. The universe had been that way from decades ago. You were lucky to have those friends, Aozora. You really were."
" Your Majesty," Princess Kida said quietly, " the Master and the Guardian are no longer together. The Blinded One still wanders and every world in the Old Universe is vanishing. The Princess is no closer to finding out the truth than the rest of us are. What are we to do?"
" You must wait," King Mickey sighed sadly as he paced around the courtyard of the palace. He looked at the pool of water in the middle of the courtyard, at his tired reflection. " There is still time. Meanwhile, the Master is headed your way. Princess Kida, you must be prepared for whenever he comes, darkness comes as well. The darkness has never left him from the moment he gave himself to the Heartless. It is up to you to help him defeat the darkness around him. There is great evil coming your way, Princess Kida. You must be prepared for it."
" The crystals will help us," Princess Kida said staunchly, fingering the glowing crystal that hung around her neck from a string.
" Help will come in more ways than one," King Mickey said mysteriously. " But there is still something I worry."
" The darkness within the Master," the King of Atlantis whispered as he entered the courtyard. " It lingers though he never acknowledges it."
" Father," Princess Kida turned to him. " How will we defend ourselves against the evil coming our way?"
" That will depend on what course our future will take," the King replied calmly. " That alone could decide our future, the future of Atlantis and our people, and the future of the universe."
" Great power lies here," King Mickey said quietly as he looked pointedly at the pool of water. " We will see what happens when you are forced to resort to it."
" The crystals are unstable," the King agreed. " With the coming of greater power, we will have to see what will happen to our world."
" I will take my leave now," King Mickey said. " I sense darkness; the words of the Prophet are unfailing. Sally's words are right, too. The darkness will come but nothing has been said of the outcome."
" But the Master will survive it," Princess Kida said in a rather triumphant voice.
" But what will come after," the King countered slowly, " what Sally has also said, has also seen, can be much worse than what will happen in our world."