These are all things I want to answer, but not all of them will become apparent just yet. Sit tight though, there is still a lot more to come!
Chapter Three
Fate Sealed
The Gummy ship sailed through space silently, the only remotely audible noise being the soft hum of the engines. Inside, all its passengers lay asleep in cots spread across the floor. All of them but one brown haired boy...
Tonight was not the only night Sora had been unable to find sleep, his last few nights on Destiny Island had offered little more than sleepless nights and uneventful days. Except when he was around Riku... Sora shifted around uncomfortably in his cot, trying to forget about all the confusing feelings he had. He could see Riku now, laying only a few feet away in his cot.
He could see the silver haired boy's chest rise and fall as he was in deep sleep. He could see all the better features of his face illuminated by the stars shining through the glass windows. How Sora longed so deeply to get up and go sleep in the same cot as Riku, just to feel the warmth of the older boy's body close to his own...
Sora subconsciously rolled over in bed again, this time so he would not face Riku. Perhaps that would help him get to sleep he thought... And it did, after some time of tossing and turning around frustratingly.
The next morning, Sora did not wake up at the same time as everyone else. With his lack of real sleep the last few nights, he was exhausted. Though he had been able to get by fine during the day for some time, even he had to get some rest eventually... Sora only woke up at last when Aerith's soft voice spoke into his ear...
"Come on Sora", she said sweetly. "You really need to get up now. Everyone else is about ready to go."
"Dwa?", Sora managed as he wiped the sleep from his eyes.
Aerith sighed. "You really are hopeless", she said with a smile on her face.
"Ehehe... Sorry, what's going on now?", Sora asked as his trademark grin spread across his face ear to ear. Something he had not done in a while it seemed.
Riku poked his head through the exit from outside the ship. "I'll explain as we go, now just come on lazy bum", he said.
Sora got out of bed, stretching to get all the kinks out of his back. Guess that's what he got for sleeping on the floor. Though he supposed no one else was really better off.
He made his way outside the Gummy ship, wondering what world they had stopped on, and why? They couldn't have gotten all the way to Hollow Bastion, where they assumed The Organization was, just yet... As he set foot on the soft grass around him, he realized he was very far away from Hollow Bastion.
"Why are we in Deep Jungle?", Sora inquired as he made his way over to catch up to Riku.
Without looking behind him, Riku replied, "The Heartless are back here, and there seems to be a lot of unusual activity going on with them. That's what King Mickey says anyway. So we stopped here to check it out. Everyone else broke off into separate groups, I'm stuck with you." As he said that a sly grin broke off across his face, Sora only caught a hint of it having just caught up with him.
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?", Sora asked also smiling, though only slightly.
In reply, Riku just broadened his grin as the two entered the dense forest. The boys were both oblivious to what exactly they were getting themselves into. By entering the forest, and by being together when they did...
Sora looked around uneasily as they made their way deeper and deeper into the lush greenery. He hoped dearly he would not have to face off against any powerful Heartless, he doubted greatly his capability of being able to handle them without his Keyblade.
He remembered clearly, before the group had gone to sleep the night before, his conversation with King Mickey. He had asked how he was supposed to fight. King Mickey had told him exactly what he said on Destiny Island, "Just fight with the light in your heart Sora. You still have that, and it is more powerful than any Keyblade could ever be."
The meaning of all this still eluded Sora, but he trusted The King with his life. He knew that if King Mickey said he could do something, that he could place all his trust into the belief that he was entirely capable of it.
As if in response to any small amount of uncertainty in Sora, a lone Powerwild suddenly appeared in front of him. Riku didn't seem to notice, he had been walking several paces ahead of the younger boy.
Sora was familiar with this type of Heartless; Powerwilds were very common in Deep Jungle. They were small, blue, monkey-like Heartless. Their speed and ferocity in battle was always an annoyance Sora had to deal with on his visits to this world. Their ability to evade attacks and their capability of dishing out powerful attacks of their own didn't help matters much.
"Riku...", Sora said with an unnerved look on his face.
But Riku had already stopped by then. And he was in the motion of turning around, Keyblade in hand, by the time Sora finished saying his name. An instant later the Heartless was sliced in two, and it faded away in a small burst of darkness. Immediately ten more Heartless appeared to take its place, and they quickly had the two boys surrounded.
"You ready Sora?", Riku said taking a tight grip on his sword.
"Always", Sora replied tonelessly, having erased and shred of doubt in himself from his mind. As if to mirror the intensity and determination inside him, flames began to dance around his hands.
The two stood there a moment, waiting. But the Heartless needed no invitation, and they attacked without hesitation... Or any remote knowledge of what they were up against. Fitting that they couldn't feel emotions such as fear, having no heart had that affect. If they could though, they would know to be terrified.
Within the first few seconds of battle, Riku rushed forward blade in hand. Slicing through the three Heartless closest to him in one deft blow. Sora noticed how graceful Riku moved even in the heat of battle. Riku was without a doubt unmatched in combat, except of course by Sora himself.
For once, Sora was able to shake these thoughts off of himself, if only temporarily. Maybe it was the thrill of being in heated battle with the Heartless again. Whatever it was, Sora knew he couldn't waste any time.
"FIRAGA", Sora shouted loudly with his hands outstretched towards a nearby Heartless. The instant the word left his mouth, the flames around his hands formed into one solid molten mass and shot towards its target with impressive speed and force. The Powerwild reeled back in pain. Despite the usually high agility Powerwilds posses, it was incapable of reacting to the two following blasts of fire Sora sent after it immediately. It burst into flame and disappeared in a flash.
Sora noticed two Bouncywild Heartless appear in front of him. These were similar to Powerwilds Sora remembered. Though their attacks were far less powerful, and they rarely attacked directly. What made them so difficult to defeat was simply their speed. They could run and jump to get very far out of the way very quickly, and this proved to make things very difficult for Sora and crew more often than not.
Sora summoned up the power of icy destruction within him. "BLIZZAGA", he yelled. Following it shards of ice sprung from out of no where around him and sliced through the air towards the two Bouncywilds. The two Heartless jumped out of the way effortlessly and loaded their slingshots.
As they barraged Sora with small rocks, the boy tried to roll out of the way. He managed to get the brunt of only a few of their attacks, and followed up with a mighty Thundaga spell. Loud thunder crackled as thick coils of electricity pulsed towards the ground out of the sky. Sora managed to hit one of the Bouncywilds, putting it out of commission permanently. The other one had dodged out of the way once again, just in time.
Sora began to feel fatigue, he couldn't keep casting spells much longer, it wore him down too much. Still, he once again reached for the power of magic inside him to throw another Firaga blast at the Heartless. As it began to form at his fingertips, his stomach suddenly lurched and he began to lose his footing. Before he could cast his spell Sora fell to his knees and breathed deeply.
Seeing his friend collapse, Riku assumed he had been injured. He looked over at the Bouncywild that was about to attack Sora. With speed and agility not capable of any normal human, he dashed forward and sliced through the Heartless deeply before it even saw him coming.
All the Heartless seemed to have been defeated in that area, for now... Riku went over to Sora, who had recovered a bit since the encounter.
"Are you ok? What happened back there?", he asked. Sora noticed his voice seemed full of concern. This had a strange affect on the brown haired boy somehow.
"I-I'm fine...", Sora replied. I just felt a little light-headed is all; I guess I shouldn't have cast so many spells..."
"Be careful will you?", Riku said as he drew an Ether out of his pocket to restore some of Sora's lost MP. "You can't just go off and get hurt ok?"
"Right...", Sora said. Don't worry so much about me, I'm fine really. And besides, there will be a lot stronger opponents I have to beat other than just a few of these small Heartless. So--"
Riku cut him off, "And you barely managed with those. Just be careful? That's all I'm asking. I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't want to lose you again..."
Sora was touched by Riku's concern. "Lose me? I'm the one that lost you last time", Sora said with the hint of a smile. "So don't YOU go off and get hurt either ok?"
"Yea...", Riku said as the two continued onward.
They were getting near the Keyhole of this world Sora suddenly realized. Maybe the answers they were looking for would be there... Why were the Heartless unusually active on a world with a sealed Keyhole? What were they trying to accomplish? And who was behind it all? And how would he do anything to stop them? Sora had so many questions and so few answers, but he had no choice now. He couldn't turn back; the only way he was going to figure any of this out was to keep moving.
The boys had to deal with more and more Heartless the closer they got to the Keyhole. Sora managed fairly well for the most part, at least remaining conscious... After a while the two finally arrived at the familiar water falls that were home to the Keyhole of Deep Jungle.
"Riku, lets go behind those waterfalls? I need to see something", Sora said more as a statement than a question.
"Ok... If you really need to that is--I... I don't really like how this place 'feels', its just not... Right...", Riku replied slowly.
Sora looked over at his long time friend, a little surprised at his response, "What's gotten into you? Since when do you get scared over some 'bad feeling'?"
"I didn't say I was scared", Riku said. "I said I didn't like how this place feels. But if you need to see something back there then c'mon. The sooner we can get out of here the better..."
Sora led the way, though it wasn't very hard to see where to go. The two climbed their way up the rock face behind the waterfall. A giant rock wall shielded them from the tons of water pouring down just behind them. The sound of all the water alone was deafening, but Sora knew the Keyhole was far enough away that it wouldn't bother either of them too much by the time they got there.
The din of the waterfall began to fade slightly as they neared their destination. "We are going towards the Keyhole aren't we...", Riku said. He seemed to know, though he had never even been to this world before.
"Yea, you just guess?", Sora asked.
"... I just felt it...", Riku said almost too softly for Sora to hear.
Sora wanted to ask him what he meant, but they had finally arrived at the Keyhole chamber. And something was definitely amiss...
Sora looked around the chamber they were in; it was mostly the same as before. Moss grew on the stone walls around them, and they could faintly hear the sound of water flowing even from this distance. These were all things Sora barely noticed though... Because in the center of the room, he saw something that defied all logic. The Keyhole of Deep Jungle, sitting there in the open like nobody's business.
"But that's impossible!", exclaimed Sora. "I locked this world! It shouldn't come undone, even if I bound Ansem to my Keyblade!"
"This isn't right... ... I really don't like this...", Riku said. He looked around the room, as if he was trying to see something he could only hear... Or smell. "C'mon Sora, time to get out of here."
"We can't just leave it! What if the Heartless find it? We've gotta do something", Sora said, though he wasn't sure what they could do.
"Then I'll lock it, but the second I do we need to--", Riku's words were cut off by a sound just then. An unnatural, earsplitting crash. The sound of stone being torn to pieces and turned to rubble.
An eerie silence filled the air for a few moments afterwards, the only thing they could hear was the previous crash echoing throughout the stone caves. Sora noticed Riku already stood prepared for whatever was tearing its way toward them. He dearly hoped he would be ready too.
In an instant the stone entryway the two boys had come into the chamber through was shredded to bits like paper. The same sound they had heard before followed it immediately, amplified by what seemed to be thousand times more. As the dust settled the two boys could see... Nothing.
Riku looked towards the entrance with an unmoving gaze, though still not entirely sure what to expect. But Sora knew. Sora knew all too well what kind of thing acts like that.
Sora could see the faint outline of the giant lizard creature in front of him, only because he knew what to look for. The Stealth Sneak, as it was called, was a large Heartless that resembled that of an iguana. It was capable of shooting deadly beams from its eyes and was obviously very powerful with its large size. And easily most deadly of all was its ability to render itself almost completely invisible.
Sora was hoping he could have gone through his entire visit to Deep Jungle without encountering one of these. Though he spoke confidently, he wasn't entirely convinced he could really handle something this big.
Before Sora could warn Riku about just what they were up against, the Stealth Sneak leapt towards the boys. It landed hard right next to Riku and swept its tail knocking the boy off his balance.
"Riku its invis--", the Stealth Sneak cut Sora off by swiping at him and hitting him hard on his left shoulder.
Riku, having gotten up more or less the instant he was knocked down, had seen enough. He slashed at the Heartless and cut a deep gash in its side. The Stealth Sneak jumped away planning its next attack.
"How did you know where it was?", Sora asked.
"I could smell it", Riku replied.
Sora was glad he could rely more on Riku to help him defeat this Heartless, but his relief was short lived. The Stealth Sneak was not going down without a fight, and it had every intent to do whatever possible to kill them both.
The Heartless leapt at the two once again, but this time they were ready. Sora was able to cast a few spells on the Heartless while Riku ripped gash after gash into it.
Knowing it would lose at this rate the Stealth Sneak backed off once again. Having lost most of its strength it began to become more visible, its green skin showing up brightly against the dark stone walls. And then it did something that made the blood in Sora's veins freeze.
The Stealth Sneak rose onto its back legs and let out a horrible crooning sound. It seemed to echo forever, but the sound wasn't so much what bothered Sora as much as what he deeply hoped it didn't mean. As if responding to Sora's very thoughts, three more Stealth Sneak appeared around the boys as the first one dropped back onto all fours and readied itself to attack anew.
Sora knew he was in over his head this time. He had faced many more powerful opponents than this and come out the winner easily, but he wasn't capable of that anymore. And he wasn't sure if Riku could either; not while having to keep himself AND Sora safe the whole time.
It took the Heartless a second to be on the offense. Sora rolled out of the way best he could, but still took a deep blow to his gut. Riku attacked the already injured Stealth Sneak in an attempt to get it out of the way to better his odds. But before he could do any real damage one of the other Stealth Sneaks attacked him. He took a blow to his side and was thrown across the room, though the injury was more superficial than anything else.
Riku glanced over to see Sora trying to defend himself from one of the Stealth Sneaks and he began to run over to the younger boy to help him. But before he could even get close another of the large Heartless leapt in front of him. With a surge of adrenaline, Riku jumped into the air and sliced downward into the Heartless. But despite his efforts the Heartless shrugged his blow off and sent him flying once again.
By chance Riku landed near Sora, who had not been fairing much better than him. Sora ran over to his fallen friend and began to help him up.
"I-I'm fine", Riku spattered weakly as he got up awkwardly. He took the second fall a lot worse than the first one, and now Sora noticed something was wrong with his right leg.
When you believe you are about to die, a whole array of options in life present themselves to you that you would not have previously seen. For some, these things are a new surge of strength, a last ditch effort to continue living. For others, it's a list of things you regret having done, or perhaps things you haven't done.
All thoughts left Sora then. He was void of reason, void of rationality. All he had was a torrent of raw emotion. Nothing mattered anymore, not if he and Riku were both about to die. So he barely realized what he was about to do. He could only just feel him throw himself against Riku. He could only remotely feel the tears streaming from his eyes. And he could hardly hear the words slip from his mouth...
"I love you..."
And in an instant everything was changed. In an instant all the Heartless were upon them, teeth barred. In an instant the light spiraled up from around Sora, pushing back the darkness. In an instant the Heartless and even the stone walls were torn asunder. In an instant the light spread across the forest, moving in waves across the world reaching for the horizon. In an instant everything was changed. And there would be no going back now.
Sora slowly pried his eyes open, unaware of what had just happened. Riku looked around cautiously, fearing more Heartless would appear. But none did.
Riku stepped away from Sora to get a better view of things. Sora was relieved when Riku didn't say anything; Riku was probably just as embarrassed as he was. Or maybe he hadn't heard what Sora said at all. Sora would have given anything to take those words back. He wasn't sure Riku would believe them if he had actually heard, and Sora wasn't sure if he believed them himself anyway.
"Sora...", Riku's voice trailed off as he bent down on the ground a few steps away. "What did you do?"
"I dunno, I just", but Sora stopped short. Riku got up and turned around to face Sora.
"What did you do...", Riku said emotionlessly. He held his right hand towards Sora. Sora's eyes widened as he saw what it was Riku had picked up.
In Riku's hand, glistening in the light that now poured down freely through the opened canopy, was a Keyblade identical to Sora's.
It was late in the day by then. And the two boys stood there for a long time in the fading light. They didn't say a word, what could they possibly say after what had happened? They just waited...
Some time later, King Mickey and everyone else found them. They had all been able to track the two boys down from having been at the center of the explosion of light. The human interaction pulled Riku and Sora back to reality, and they slowly tried to explain what happened--conveniently omitting a few details.
Sora held this new Keyblade in his hands, but he and Riku were both too shaken to wield their weapons. While Mickey sealed the reopened Keyhole, Sora looked at this new Keyblade of his. It looked and felt just like his old one, but something about it was definitely different. It seemed as though it was made of some different material. Though it didn't seem particularly stronger or weaker.
Without any reason to stay where they were to try and figure out all that had happened, everyone made their way back to the Gummy ship. While everyone else discussed various possibilities and theories, Riku and Sora remained quiet. The two barely acknowledged the presence of everyone else as they neared the ship. Just as they both thought they might be able to make it all the way back without having to confront each other, they glanced at one another. For one fleeting moment, their eyes met.
Sora gazed at Riku, almost as if he were sorry for having committed some deep sin. And Riku stared back at him with the same blank face he had worn all the way there. Everyone else climbed into the Gummy ship; just as Sora was about to he noticed Riku had raised his hand to him. A feint gesture, but Sora knew he meant for him to stay behind.
The moon was in the sky now, and Sora felt an awkward sensation as he walked over to Riku. The older boy's expression seemed to have softened a bit. He now looked more concerned than anything else.
"About before", Sora started. "You should know, I... I didn't..."
"Mean for it to sound that way", Riku finished for him.
"Huh? Uhm... Yea, that sounds about right", Sora said. Though he knew that was a lie.
"Were like... Brothers. That's what you meant", Riku said as though he knew what Sora meant better than Sora himself. He may as well have at that point.
"C'mon you two, The King doesn't want us to stay here overnight", came Yuffie's radiant voice from the ship. "And no matter how many times I ask him he won't let us take off without you two either."
With nothing left to say, Sora walked over to the ship taking up a brisk pace so he wouldn't have to be alone with Riku any longer than he needed to.
Riku watched as Sora climbed up into the Gummy ship. The moonlight shone across the smaller boy's body as if it were some otherworldly light, and Riku sighed deeply. "What am I thinking...", he mused with himself. "We could never be together..." And he trudged along quietly towards the ship.