This isn't pretty, if you don't like it tough. You've been warned.
Chapter Five
Broken Memories
Sora pushed the large doors open, and the light from all the street lamps overwhelmed him a moment. It only took a second for his eyes to adjust, and he looked around District One of Traverse Town. It remained much the quiet ordinary town it always had been (at least when it wasn't under siege by the Heartless). He saw the familiar Item and Accessory Shop just as they always were, and the Post sitting out next to them. He could smell the scent of fresh food from the bakery not too far off, and he soon realized how hungry he was.
But he had no time for food now; he had a job to do. While everyone else scattered to gather intelligence, it was his duty to reseal this world if the lock he had put on it had come undone as the others had. So, putting his growling stomach down a priority level, he set off for District Two.
Riku watched as all his companions separated to gather any clues to what was going on, and he saw Sora go up the stairs next to the Accessory shop towards District Two. He knew Sora would be fine, there shouldn't be any danger locking this world even if the Heartless were back. They would be in such few numbers here and the Keyhole was so close by, no one could argue that Sora would be just fine on his own.
It was at that time that Riku decided he didn't need a reason to want to be near Sora, and he set off after him.
Sora peeked through the large doors into District Two, he saw no sign of Heartless activity, but that didn't mean they couldn't appear at any moment they wanted to. With caution, Sora took a few steps forward. He waited for the Heartless to spring into action and attack him, but none came.
A little relieved he might not have to deal with the stress of battle for a while; he made his way down the stairs to his right and went into the courtyard where the Keyhole to Traverse Town rested.
He looked into the fountain, watching as the water danced around as if it was putting on a show for him. His gaze softened as he thought how it was a little strange something so simplistic could be so calming. The sound of the water splashing was like an anesthetic, numbing all his pain away to nothing. The light reflecting off the ever-changing surface of the water lifted the darkness from his being and made him feel light enough that a gust of wind might blow him away.
Sora looked to the base of the fountain, and to no surprise saw the Keyhole sitting out in the open. Unlocked.
Sora took in a deep breath of the cool crisp air, and drew his Keyblade. The shadows around him danced briefly as the light of his Keyblade appeared and disappeared leaving behind the awesome weapon in the boy's hands. He began to raise it and was about to go to work locking the Keyhole when he noticed Riku coming down the stairs towards him.
"Riku, what are you doing here?" Sora asked, a little flustered to see his friend somewhat unexpectedly.
Riku seemed not to know the answer himself for a moment, but then with his usual confidence said, "Well, I just wanted to make sure everything went okay."
Sora was a little offended; did Riku not think he was capable? He had done this many times before with no problem. "I'm fine Riku", he said, not at all attempting to conceal his agitation. "You don't have to worry about me."
Riku's smirk loosened to a more concerned look, and he walked over to Sora. He embraced Sora into his arms and before the younger boy could protest he said, "Do I really still need a reason to worry about you? I just want to be here... ... With you."
Sora's first instincts told him to push Riku away. It wasn't the time to be getting emotional like before, and boys weren't supposed to just hug for no reason. But he felt like Riku's embrace had drained all his will to resist from him, and he just let the older boy hold him. It actually felt... Nice...
Sora looked up at Riku and said, "Riku... I have a job to do now."
"I understand", Riku said, letting go of Sora.
Sora turned towards the Keyhole, and he aimed his Keyblade towards it. White hot light shot from the tip of his Keyblade and pierced the Keyhole. Sora felt the energy pour from him and from his Keyblade into it, willing it to lock itself once again and keep the world safe.
Riku approached Sora from behind, and grasped the hilt of the Keyblade as if he was teaching Sora how to use it properly. "Let me help you", he said. And as his hands touched Sora's, the light from the Keyblade changed.
Shadows crept from Riku's body and surrounded Sora's beam of light. The two flickered together as if fighting for dominance, and then suddenly they were one. A bright orange glow erupted from Sora's Keyblade, more intense and focused than before. And then there was the sound of a door locking, and then nothing.
The Keyhole faded into the stone of the fountain, and with it faded any immediate danger the Heartless posed on this world.
Sora turned and looked at Riku. "What did you do?" he asked, unsure of what had just happened.
"I don't know", Riku said with an intense look on his face, trying to analyze the situation. "But... I don't think that this world can be unlocked again. Not like the other ones."
"How do you know?" Sora asked, confused.
Riku shrugged and said, "I just have this feeling."
For no particular reason, Sora believed him. He knew Riku had a sort of sixth sense with the forces of light and dark. So if he said it couldn't be unlocked, he was probably right.
The two boys stood there a moment, neither of them said anything. They just looked at each other, both waiting for the other to say something. Then, without warning, Riku stepped towards Sora. He held the younger boy close to him, and just like before Sora didn't protest. Neither of them said anything, they just stood there. Riku drew Sora closer to him... Closer... Closer...
At that moment, a small girl walked from around the corner behind them. She had a sort of detached look on her face, her eyes seemed glazed over with sadness. But at the sight of the two boys her expression changed in a heartbeat, she giddily shouted, "Riku! Sora! What're you doing here?"
Riku instantly pulled himself away from Sora and turned to the girl. She still stood in the shadows, but her voice was so familiar.
"Who are you?" Riku asked, a little tense.
"Heheh, is that any way to talk to your childhood friend?" she asked.
"... Selphie?" Sora asked, peering at her through the dark.
"Bingo!" Selphie said as she stepped out from the shadows. "A little surprising it's the thick headed one to figure things out first."
Riku chuckled as Sora shouted words no fifteen year old should be shouting. He felt tremendous relief Selphie seemed to have not noticed what was going on though. But, what was going on... What was he doing?
Pushing these questions aside, he asked, "Selphie, how did you get here anyway?"
Selphie's grin disappeared as quickly as if a candle light had been snuffed out. She began to breathe deeply as if thinking about it caused her a great deal of pain. "Guys", she said. "Something happened guys... Destiny Island... It's... ... It's gone."
Sora's expression changed from happy to see his friend to horrified at the news that his world had once again disappeared. "Where's everyone else? What happened?" he asked.
"Most of us are ok", she said, but Sora could tell she was close to crying now. "But Kairi..."
Tears poured freely from Selphie's face now. She had been crying a lot lately, and for good reason. But she couldn't explain any of this. It was all beyond words she was capable of. All the managed to say was, "Just follow me." And she turned and ran.
The two boys chased after her without a second thought as she ran around the corner she had come from, heading towards District Three. She burst through the doors and ran towards the small house that sat at the top of the stairs near the doorway she had just entered through. This house had acted as a HQ for Sora and company in the past, and though none of his friends had planned on meeting there the lights were on and the boys could hear people inside. Selphie ran inside, and Sora and Riku followed.
Sora went in first, but he stopped short. Even before looking around he could tell something was wrong. The first thing he could tell about the house was the smell. There was an overwhelming scent of blood that flooded his senses.
Regaining his composure, Sora stepped forward and looked around. Riku entered behind him and had much the same reaction. Sora looked over and saw a new bed against the far wall. And he saw a familiar figure lying in it.
He ran over to Kairi, but the second he got close enough to see her well he drew back. His eyes widened as he used all his will power to force the contents of him stomach from escaping him. He closed his eyes a second but it hardly helped, and when he opened them again the same image was there in front of him. And again he had to force himself not to vomit.
Kairi was unconscious, and the bed was drenched red. She was pale from having lost so much blood. She had every manner of cuts and bruises all over her body. But that wasn't what left Sora practically gasping for air that didn't taste like blood.
On Kairi's left arm was a deep gash, leading from her shoulder down halfway past her elbow. The muscle and bone were exposed underneath it. Rather than having broken, the bones in her arm were shattered.
A similar cut wound across her lower chest. Several bones and some of her vital organs were displaced, and what remained of her ribs where mashed together as if someone had tried to rearrange them to opposite sides of her body and stopped halfway in the process.
Her knees were both totally ruined. One was bent the wrong way, and the other was torn to pieces, barely hanging onto the rest of her body.
Her right hand was utterly crushed; her fingers were indistinguishable from the rest of her hand. It was questionable if they were even all still attached.
And her face. From her temple down across her left eye to her chin was a deep wound. The muscle on her face lay in plain sight, viewable to the world. Her skull, though not critically damaged, was bruised thoroughly. And she had no left eye, only an empty socket where it should have been.
Sora was frozen, he wanted to move, but his limbs wouldn't respond. Riku, only slightly more able to do anything, stepped next to Sora. He looked at Kairi, his composure faltering. "Tell me everything", he said to Selphie without turning to look at her.
Selphie sat in the corner of the room, though she must have seen Kairi like this before she was obviously not used to it in the least. She clutched her head and just stared at the floor. Her lips began to move, but no sound came out at first. She took several deep breaths and began.
"It all happened just after you left", she started. "Later that day, the Heartless came back. There were so many of them, and we tried our best to defend the island. But they defeated us all. Finally, they tried to absorb the whole world just like before... We all tried to escape the way you guys did last time, but we were ambushed by Heartless. We tried to get away, but they were relentless... And then Kairi fell when we were so close, but she just yelled for us to keep going. None of us even looked back, but I was the last one to go through the portal, and... All I could hear... ... Was Kairi screaming..."
"We have to help her!" Riku said as he moved toward her.
Before he could disturb her, Selphie looked up and said, "Don't, you'll only make it worse. When I got into this world I saw her lying next to me, just like that... Tidus and Wakka helped carry her here, there was a sorcerer nearby when we got here who said we could use this place. He tried to use his magic to heal her, but no matter what he did nothing happened..."
"I'm afraid it's just out of my power", came a voice behind Sora. He and Riku turned to see Merlin, the sorcerer that taught Sora the art of magic. Adorned in blue robes and his pointed hat, he looked quite old and frail. Though he was very old (most likely much older than he appeared through use of magic to sustain his life), he always had a sparkle of life in his old blue eyes. Now he just looked tired. "The best I could do was seal her body in the state it was in when she got here", he explained. "She won't die; you don't need to worry about that. But until whatever sort of curse she is under is lifted she cannot be revived."
Sora heard everything, but none of it really registered with him. He turned back to Kairi and his stomach lurched. He swallowed it back down and stared at the girl. Disbelief still claimed him; he simply could not accept this. It was, impossible. This broken thing in front of him couldn't possibly be Kairi, it just couldn't. But it was.
His sorrow gradually turned to anger, and burning hatred. His trembling hands clenched to fists. "NO", he screamed. "I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN!" He closed his eyes tight and stretched out his hands to Kairi.
"CURAGA", he screamed. Light from his body flashed around Kairi, but a red glow from her expelled it. And she remained unchanged. "CURAGA", he shouted once again with the same result. "CURAGA CURAGA CURAGA!" But nothing happened.
"It won't work, I've tried", Merlin said with a look of pity.
"This isn't a curse", Riku said as he looked at Kairi's broken body. "This is just the work of the Heartless..."
"No!" yelled Sora. "No no no! This... This isn't right... This is not the way it was supposed to be..."
His knees began to give way to him. Partly from the expulsion of all his MP and from his nausea. But he somehow managed to keep standing. He didn't realize at first, but it was because Riku was holding him up.
"Sora--", but Riku was cut off as his friend jerked free of his grasp and bolted out the door. Without waiting to hear anything else he ran after Sora.
Sora was standing just outside the house, looking down over the main area of the District. He didn't respond when Riku placed his arm on the boy's shoulder.
He sat there, just staring for a minute. His mind was flooded with thoughts now, all struggling for control of him. Finally, he managed to say, in all but a whisper, "How... How could this happen... This is wrong... This is so wrong..."
And then he couldn't keep his stomach down anymore. Riku looked away, but kept his hand on Sora's shoulder. After a minute Sora was done, his stomach was empty now but he felt even worse than before.
"It's going to be okay Sora", he said.
Sora just kept staring down. He wiped his mouth and said, "I... ... I just... I just don't know what to do..."
Riku pulled Sora closer to him and said, "It's going to be okay. I promise."
"What are we going to do..." Sora said, barely hanging onto consciousness now.
"I promise Sora, it's going to be okay", said Riku firmly. "Whoever is responsible for this. I swear... I'm... I'm going to kill them." Riku glared up at the sky, and then back down at Sora with a warm empathetic look.
"I swear it"
Till next time.