I do not own any characters in this except for Roxinne and Jenza. Sora and the others are copy righted by Square- enix and Disney. Unbelievable, I know. I can't believe it either. XD
Me: So, word of warning. This A LONG CHAPTER!
Sora: Thirty pages.
Riku: it took her awhile.
Me: You have no idea. But I appreciated the increase in the number of reviews, you guys rock. Plus I got several for "jingle belles." I miss working on that one.
NOW READ!
Ch: 28 "Breaking Point"
Kairi knew little about how much time had passed since she had ran through the door after Sora. Confusion had consumed her as soon as she had reached the other side of the doorway hoping to see the brunette battling his black cloaked foe with Riku fallowing close behind her. Instead, she found herself atop the black surface of a building overlooking the town square below. This wouldn't have shocked her do to the fact she had already traveled quit a few floors up with the king and the others in there search for Riku. What really scared her was that she was not on top of the building she had just left.
It was across the square from her. Golden doors and all.
Immediately she had panicked, calling out to her friends and listening for answers. It wasn't until her voice had grown hoarse, that she heard a familiar voicing calling back to her from across the square. Carefully, she ran over to the edge of the building and squinted out into the distance. She could just make out Riku's Silver hair from the building perpendicular from hers.
"Riku, what's going on?" she screamed over the roar of the wind.
"Not sure, but Mickey's over here with me!" he screamed back. "Yuffie and Squall must be somewhere close by!"
A faint bark of "It's Leon!" echoed from the building towering several feet above Kairi a few yards away.
"What about Donald and Goofy?" She called back feeling her throat give a nasty throb of pain.
"There over on the building across from Leon and Yuffie's!" Mickey replied sounding severely stressed. "Clearly Jenza doesn't want us interfering again…"
Kairi clenched her teeth, feeling raw anger bubbling to the surface. Once again, Jenza had succeeded in separating her from Sora. No matter how hard they both tried, they could never be together no more then twenty minutes because Jenza was always on there tail.
With a slowly, raspy, intake of breath, Kairi sank to the ground and hugged her knees to her chest being careful to keep her torn, blood covered, skirt down.
'Great…now I'm back where I started.' she thought glumly. Tears pricked at the corners of her eyes but she blinked them away hastily. She had shed enough tears for one journey and none of them had done her any good.
It was almost becoming unbearable; the feeling of being so helpless. She could do nothing for Sora except get in his way. And even when she was gone, Sora was having a hard enough time on his own. Everything was heading either down hill or in a straight line yet Kairi felt as if she were splattered like paint upon a canvas; sprawled in every direction with little sense of self control.
But above all her worries and woes, one thing lingered on the edge of her thoughts devouring what confidence she still had.
The prophecy.
Her heart sank to the very soles of her shoes and took its time on coming back up. She had spent the last few hours lying to herself. Saying it was all just a lie and that everything would turn out alright in then end like it had twice before. It would be a fairy tale ending; her, Sora, and her friends back on Destiny Island in one piece with a quiet, long life ahead of them. Sora would not have to die; the world would somehow find its light on its own, Jenza would be dead, and the King back at his throne being his normal, happy-go-lucky self.
But she had enough sense to know there was a flaw in her happy ending. A very big flaw.
And love wouldn't be enough to fix it this time.
Kairi raised her hand and clutched her magic staff in her hand tightly; her eyes narrowed toward the golden door building. "Sora…I'm sorry."
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Riku banged his fists furiously upon the black metal railing of the tower paying no attention to the King's sorrowful looks. He was pissed. Pissed at being separated from his friends again, sick of being pushed aside, sick of absolutely everything.
"God damn it! Why does that damn ass always put us in the most god awful fucking place?" he roared giving the blacked railing one final pound before withdrawing his throbbing, bruised hands.
Mickey didn't reply, slightly taken back by his friend's anger. His ears were pressed down flat upon the back of his head showing his new found worry to his already troubled audience. Even now, he knew things were beginning to become completely hopeless.
Suddenly Yuffie's voice came soaring over from the other side of the square. "Shut the hell up Riku, it doesn't take a genius to figure out why we're stuck on top of four big ass sky-scrapers completely out of reach of each other with no chance of getting off while Sora's fighting a psychopathic wacko to his death!"
A loud smack echoed by shortly after fallowed by a cry of protest.
But Riku wasn't in the mood.
"That really helped Yuffie you know good bi-" but he was interrupted as Mickey let out a cry of rage and the teen found his already sore body being crushed flat against the pavement by some strong, anonymous force.
The king lowered his Keyblade watching the teen struggle against his gravity spell with flames of anger dancing in his eyes. "Riku, don't even think about taking your anger out on us! We feel as frustrated about it all as much as you!"
At these words, Riku stopped struggling and the gravity spell immediately lost its effect leaving him to catch his breath. Mickey hopped over to the railing and gazed out across the square to the towering building in which they had been trapped in no more then an hour ago. He knew Sora and Jenza were still there. Caught within a battle that none of them were meant to meddle in.
"So now what do we do?" Riku asked coldly. He leaned against the railing, not bothering to brush back his silvery locks as they scattered across his eyes like a liquid veil hiding the hopelessness which was beginning to show through his emerald green orbs.
"There's…not much we can do." The King sighed with a heavy uneasiness. He was starting to feel worn. Emotionally stressed like the rest of his companions from the past events. Never in all his years of being King had he expected to experience such tragedy and frustration. "It's all up to Sora now."
Riku glanced at him before letting out a soft, dry, chuckle. "Sora can get through anything."
The King didn't reply to this; he was to busy watching Riku's eyes for any sign of resentment. He knew Riku hadn't forgotten about the prophecy and he was in no hurry to remind him of it.
"Riku…don't lie to yourself." he told him sadly watching the boy reaction to his words. "You know about Sora's fate."
"Who cares about fate?" Riku snapped without even raising his head. "Since when has fate ever had control over us? We are above that! I'm above it, Kairi's above it, and Sora is above it without a doubt! If fate had any control over Sora he would of died two years ago back at Hallow Bastion and if he didn't die then, then he wont…die…NOW!"
His words buzzed in Mickey's quivering ears as Riku stood still as stone leaning over the black railing. An uncomfortable silence hung in between the two and traveled out amongst the cold night air. For the first time, Mickey couldn't bring himself to speak before his old friend.
Without a word the mouse hopped up onto the railing beside Riku and sat down with his feet dangling over the edge and tail swishing behind him. The teen made no reply to acknowledge his presence but the King did notice a small tremor run through his body fallowed by a very faint sniff.
This was bad.
He silently watched Riku's hand tremble against the railing forcing the lump forming within the restraints of his throat to flee from his system. For once, Mickey was at loss for words. None being powerful enough to bring his friend relief from the mass of thoughts and feelings tangling themselves into an unbreakable web within his once broken heart. A web not even friendship and trust could break, but only the painful truth and a harsh slap of reality.
The two things Mickey wished he wouldn't have to give at a time like this. But it was only at this time that it was necessary.
It was the only thing that he could give Riku that wasn't another senseless lie that he could add to his tangled web and make it worse.
"Fate…is an interesting thing Riku." he began quietly, breaking the shivering silence and catching the teens attention. "It's something nobody wants to go through. The biggest thing which causes people fear is that of which they have no control over. So what do they do, they try and go against fate. Challenging it and relying entirely on free will."
"But fate happens for a reason Riku. It has control over us no matter what we do. If we decide to go up against fate, it is our fate to do so as ironic as that may sound. You went up against your fate and look at how you are now."
Riku was still now, his eyes shining and glassy as they fixed themselves on the ground below. His fingers tapped nervously on the metal rail echoing through the air. "I know all about my fate…my fate was my fault." he silenced his tapping. "But Sora…" he looked up at the King fixing his gaze with his. " Sora's different. He deserves none of this."
Mickey nodded painfully in agreement. "Sora has done nothing wrong. But his fate is different then yours. Sometimes, you don't have to do anything wrong to deserve such a horrible fate. It's the persons own choice."
"What does that mean?" Riku growled.
The king's ears twitched. "It means that Sora is at a point in his life where he has two roads he can take. One completes the final chapter in his life while the other leads to elements worse then pain and death."
"But I thought you said Sora didn't have a choice because of his fate?" Riku practically screamed letting his sorrow and confusion get the better of him.
"Fate is nothing but a series of roads we must travel which makes up the backbone of life." the mouse spoke firmly. "You had a choice, you made several wrong choices, and you paid for it. That's life Riku. That's how fate works. That's what Sora's going to have to figure out for himself."
Riku could find nothing to say to this except stare blankly at his hands which had turned white over time. What Mickey said was the truth and nothing he could think up could argue against it. There was no loop hole he could find, no mistake, no chance of pure luck that could save his friend from his death. Sora was left to dangle helplessly on the strings of fate like a puppet behind a glass wall where he couldn't reach.
But Sora knew. He had no doubt about that. The problem was Sora was at a point in his life where he would reach his breaking point and there would be no one there to comfort him. The pain of being torn between living in a nightmare with your friends and sweet death was something grotesque enough to drive anyone out of there minds.
And all Riku could do was sit and wait.
Then it hit him.
"Mickey," he croaked not even bothering to try and swallow the massive lump in his throat. "You said Sora only had two choices right?"
He nodded, narrowing his eyes at the clouded sky.
"What if Jenza kills him?" he whispered heatedly damning himself to hell for ever saying such a thing out loud.
But at a time like this, it felt necessary.
"That path," The King snapped, not even looking at Riku. "is not an option at this moment."
"But what if it happens?"
Instead of an outburst of anger like the teen had expected, Mickey simply shrugged; pressing his round black ears flat against his head. "Then we'll find out soon enough."
A loud cry from Yuffie ended there conversation and Riku squinted into the distance to see what all the fuss was about. Yuffie was pointing at the square below frantically, a look of uneasiness set in her features.
"Guys, I think we got a problem!" Donald's voice rang out from a nearby building. Without a word, Riku flung himself against the railing to get a good look at what was causing all the commotion below only to be greeted with a fresh, new, wave of terror.
The heartless which had previously covered the tainted concrete of the town square had tripled ten times forming a sea of black and yellow. This wouldn't have bothered Riku nearly as much if all the vile pairs of yellow eyes weren't staring up at him and the others.
"…Shit." he muttered watching as they began to dig there claws into the black sidings of there buildings and began to steadily climb. He glanced at Mickey who nodded passing the nod onto Yuffie and Leon who were taking out there weapons without question. Donald gave them thumbs up standing next to Goofy with there staff and shield out and ready. Kairi give a small, nervous smile taping her weapon against the railing.
"Prepare to fight guys!" he yelled, unsheathing his soul eater.
So much for waiting.
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Some things were just so simple and so bliss that you could never bring yourself to throw it away.
'Sora…'
The assuring melody of silence, the soft trickle of darkness. Being hidden away from everything and not having to deal with its burden. Letting it become nothing but a nightmare never to be returned to again except in memory.
'Sora…you need to listen…'
But he wouldn't. He was sick of listening. He had lost count of how many times he had blacked out over the past few days…hours…minutes. He no longer knew. He was just going to stay.
'Don't give up now! Hurry, you don't have much time.'
He had never had time in the first place. What difference would it make now? Besides Kairi-
…………. Kairi.
'SORA OPEN YOUR EYES!'
That was Roxinne's voice.
'NOW!'
His eyes snapped open barely having time to register his surroundings before a sharp, pointed, object came driving down into his right palm cutting through to the other side and pinning it against stained glass. Screaming was nothing but a challenge at this point; not having enough air in his aching lungs to express his new found pain barely two minutes into his awakening into hell. Instead he swore, letting tears flood from his eyes and burn the wounds on his face.
The brunette made an effort to reach his free hand over and pull what he found was a dagger from his torn flesh, but Jenza pressed one large boot down upon his wrist hard enough to send the delicate bones popping one by one. Madness danced in his eyes, watching Sora's face pool with tears of pain.
"Welcome back to reality Spirit!" he spat bringing his face down closer to his prey and gazing into his hazy blue eyes. "I was hoping you would wake up so me and you can make a little proposition."
Sora bit back the words he wanted to throw at him in a rage of un-kept fury, but assuming the position he was in, he had enough common sense left in his numbing brain to know better. His right hand began to twitch and shake; not used to the foreign object blocking the path of his torn nerves.
His silence made Jenza smile. "No reply? Good. Then I'll spare you the explanation and get straight to the point."
His eyes flickered to the side for a spare moment before rotating back to Sora. The brunette fallowed it, noticing a small, familiar glimmer not to far from Jenza's foot.
His Keyblade.
Or in proper terms….
… his heart.
He watched as Jenza removed his foot from his fractured wrist and began to bring it down upon his sparkling weapon. His hair stood on end, an unknown source of defense rising within him like a cat on alert. Anger boiled and spat in his gut making him feel like he was on fire. For one small moment all the pain seemed to fade away from him, leaving nothing but a mix of un-controlled emotions.
Sora didn't even try to think. He was nothing but a spectator in the crowd watching himself from a distance with wide eyes as his other self drew back his legs and sent them plummeting up into Jenza's ribs. He fell back, caught off guard for once giving Sora the opportunity to reach over with his fractured hand and pull the dagger out of his flesh in one swift movement.
He was on his feet in seconds; completely ignoring his Keyblade and thrusting the dagger deep into Jenza's chest feeling warm, hot blood flow out onto his fingers coating them like black ink.
The spectator Sora couldn't take it any longer and immediately he snapped back to reality, jumping away from Jenza and staring at him with a horrified yet hopeful look. He watched his enemy stagger to the edge of the stained glass platform, clutching his hand to the weapon dug deep into his flesh.
Wait a minute-the edge?
It wasn't until now he had realized the change in his surroundings. Sure, the same old pain in the ass glass platform but now instead of it being connected to the top of an office building it was over six hundred feet above the town square which looked about the size of a Monopoly board from where he stood.
His brain began to drown in waves of confusion but a small, dark laugh saved him from passing out. He looked back up at Jenza as his eyes glimmered a deep, hungry red; flashing like headlights as his body began to feel the effects of Sora's attack.
"Do… You really…think," he gasped, curling his shaking fingers around the hilt of the blade slowly. "that such a simple weapon can destroy me?"
Sora didn't react to this.
Jenza laughed loudly, placing his heels on the edge of the platform and folding his black wings in against his back. "I give you credit for coming this far Sora. Perhaps a gold star for great achievement would make you feel like all your hard works actually paying off."
"SHUT UP!" Sora roared not even trying to control his anger anymore. A little voice in the back of his head was squeaking at him to get a grip on himself but the memory and pain of his rude awakening was making it twice as difficult.
Plus the dagger had done nothing. N-O-T-H-I-N-G. Or at least, it seemed like it hadn't. Either way, Jenza was still standing and that was enough to drive Sora out of his mind.
Once again he found his body moving without him in a reckless fashion. Sora swiped his Keyblade up in his injured hand, feeling the skin heal as the warm, glass like texture of his weapon pressed against his palm. His vision was almost hazy with rage but that didn't stop him from aiming a powerful blow at Jenza's head fast and quick enough to break his neck like a toy doll.
But it wasn't that easy.
With his usual sick, twisted smile, Jenza let his muscles relax and let his body fall back into the nothingness letting the edge of his boots scrap against the glass platform before slipping away into the dark air. Sora's Keyblade missed by a meter causing him to stumble off balance and almost plummet over the side in Jenza's wake but a swift flap of his wings saved him the trouble.
Quickly Sora fell to his knees leaning over the edge in disbelief as his enemy plummet toward the heartless infested world below not even bothering to open up his wings and save himself.
"Time for the finale!" Jenza yelled up at Sora with madness fluttering in and out of his features as his hair danced wildly around his face like a ghost. His words meant nothing to Sora who was already celebrating as his enemy fell down, down, down until his body was nothing but an ant in Sora's eyes until he finally smacked into the sea of heartless which had flooded the town square and disappeared beneath there black bodies almost instantly.
It had happened so fast, yet it was too good to be true.
Something had to be wrong. There was no doubt about it. The voice in the back of Sora's head reminded him every passing second. But it was too late. Sora's damaged mind was ready to except anything that was thrown it him that had to do with Jenza being defeated. He was ready to go home, ready to take his friends and head back on the gummiship even if it meant leaving all the heartless in this world.
He no longer cared.
And with that thought in mind, the little voice in the back of his head went silent.
Which made the last shreds of Sora's sanity unprotected and easily capable of breaking.
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Kairi wasn't one to spend her time fighting.
When she was back on the island, Riku and Sora had always fought one another ever since they were little kids with wooden swords. But things of course had changed over the years and the wooden swords were soon replaced with Keyblades and Riku's Soul eater turning the whole 'play nice' duels into tests of fate. Sora would come home bloody while Riku would be bruised from head to toe. After Duals the two mostly came over to Kairi's house and rested up while mouthing each other off on how each one had gotten an easy hit and who cheated.
Typical boys.
But Kairi had never participated in any of this. It looked like something that was meant only for the boys. She knew about Yuffie of course but Yuffie was… well…an exception.
And now here she stood. Whacking heartless after heartless with her staff and attempting to burn them back into hell with weak fire spells and no elixirs to refuel her. Riku and the others seemed to be holding there ground, each having a partner to back them up.
But Kairi was alone. And by Riku's constant glances, she knew she was in more danger then the others.
Just her luck.
A cold, burning pain brought her back to reality as a heartless dug its claws into her flesh drawing blood. If it wasn't for Kairi's previous battles she would have fainted right then and their. But her irritation kept her will strong and without a word she brought her staff sailing into the things body leaving behind a puff of black smoke and a glimmering sparkle of a heart which quickly soared away to find its owner.
"Hey Riku, how's it going?" She heard Leon call over from across the square.
Riku glanced up at him and leaned over the side of the building to check. His face paled over to a milky white, something Kairi hadn't seen him do in a while.
That could only mean one thing.
"Leon, I think the fucking things just multiplied," he shouted back with strain in his voice. Kairi slammed the nearest heartless into the floor and looked over the side of the building only to find herself staring into a sea of black, squiggly, dots with skittle yellow eyes.
Crap.
Cold claws grabbed at her legs once again, but before she could turn around and let her fresh anger out in a blazing shower of fire something misshapen and black came shooting down from the sky, whizzing past Kairi and out of sight.
The others took notice, blinking around in confusion.
"What the hell was that?" Leon shouted across the square to no one in particular.
Before anyone could answer, a low rumble irrupted from the center of the town square shaking the building resting beneath Kairi's feet. The red head glanced over at Riku who had his gaze fixed on something below. Slowly she fallowed his gaze and stumbled over to the edge of the structure.
The heartless in the square were moving, almost in a ripple formation as if something had disturbed it. The black form from earlier hung in Kairi's mind, giving her a reasonable explanation. But that didn't even answer half the questions which began forming in her mind as the wind began picking up around her, almost tossing her skirt up over her head. Immediately she pulled it down, keeping her eye on the swarm of heartless below which she now noticed had quieted down ever since the disturbance. If she didn't know any better, she would of thought they were waiting for something.
"Riku, what's-" but he shushed her.
"Hold it Kairi, I got a bad feeling." he shouted in as best a whisper as he could. The King was perched up atop the railing on the side of the building still as stone watching the square below. Both of them new when danger was coming better then anyone Kairi had known. Even better then Sora.
But what did you expect after staying in darkness for so long? You were bound to learn something.
"Squall, what's going on down there?" Kairi heard Yuffie scream from across the square. "This is so boring! We got to go find Sora!"
"Yuffie, if you didn't have black hair I would swear you were blonde!" he cried out, reaching his breaking point. "Shut it, we don't know what's going on-"
"BOTH OF YOU QUIET!" Riku roared.
Then it happened.
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Sora couldn't bring himself to move his body from the edge of the platform, swept off into his little dream world of possibilities which had been shut out for what seemed like an eternity.
He was alive, he had done it! He had to of done it! Fate would never be this cruel. Not after all he had gone through and all the effort he had put in.
Yet something in his heart told him it wasn't right.
Well screw trusting your heart; this was what he had been waiting for! Now all he had to do was soar down below and find Kairi and the others beneath the mass of heartless, grab the gummiship and go. For once it was going to be easy and they were going to go home and forget everything. He would never touch the Keyblade again.
Never.
The possibility almost made him grab his weapon and throw it off the platform in hopes of it shattering in the square below just like Jenza had.
But it was his heart. He knew better.
With a smile playing on his bruised face, Sora hopped to his feet and went over to pick up his Keyblade which he had dropped behind him after Jenza had fallen. The structure gleamed up at him, pulsing with a feeling he couldn't really describe. The pulse made him hesitate, not wanting to go back to feeling the way he had not so long ago. But he figured it was just him and reached out and picked it up anyway.
Then the noise came.
He didn't notice it at first. Thinking that the heartless had plowed into some building below (hopefully the one he had gotten stuck in.) But the key in his hand gave a nasty throb which burned his chest like a bee sting catching him off guard.
Silently he looked over the edge of the platform, his eyes pleading for something wonderful to appear. Like his friends all soaring up to meet him safe and sound or all the heartless melting into the ground like wax. But of course none of this was waiting for him and he was a fool to hope for such a thing.
The square now looked like a whirlpool of ants, spinning faster and faster into a sinking funnel which glowed a bright, sickly, green shining off the mirror siding of the buildings gaiting it from every side like a horror movie. The heartless seemed to blend into one another, there yellow eyes fading into nothing creating a thick, black, spinning, lake of darkness.
Sora watched in horror, every muscle in his body freezing in place. His azure blue eyes were wide, creating a window into his cluttered mind and the tension growing within reaching its breaking point.
Then he heard it.
A sound, almost like the swift roar of the ocean mixed in with fresh thunder. A loud booming voice which rattled Sora's eardrums until he thought they would bleed a river of crimson down his neck and cast him into a world of silence where he would never hear himself scream to the bloody world around him.
" Sssooorraaaa!" it boomed, forming words barely audible over its raging echo. "Come down and play!"
The brunette's wings snapped straight out bringing a scatter of white feathers. He bolted to his feet, staring down at the black, spinning, hell which stared back at him with two enormous orb like, yellow, eyes.
Jenza's eyes.
"It's time to end this spirit!" He roared. "Throw yourself into the darkness and end the age of light forever! Let your heart be shattered and feed the darkness with your power!"
"SORA!"
Sora snapped his head to the side, recognizing the distant voice coming from below. Squinting, he could just make out a bunch of small figures on top of each building surrounding the square which he realized with horror was his friends.
Kairi, Riku, Mickey, Yuffie, Leon, Donald, and Goofy.
All of them. Down where he couldn't reach without facing his death.
At that moment, something inside Sora's head snapped. The rush of happiness he had experienced earlier was diminished leaving him worse then he was before. He was caught between life and death with no one to comfort him, no one to tell him what to do, no one to give him directions, stuck up on a platform above the ultimate darkness as it waited to devour his flesh and crush his heart into millions of peaces leaving his friends to an even worse fate with no one there to protect them. No hope, no love, no strength….
…no light.
The more Sora thought about it, the more helpless he began to feel. It sank into his skin, turning his blood into acid and burning his insides until smoke clouded his fractured mind trying to find a way to escape. His hands bawled into fists, digging his nails into his wounded flesh and creating a fresh new wave of blood to course through the creases in his fingers. The pain was ecstatic but Sora had grown so used to it that his body barely reacted. No normal teenage boy would stand there bleeding without uttering a word or wave his hand around like a maniac asking for a band-aid. No normal teenage boy should ever have to become so numb and go through so much all because he had no choice.
'There's nothing I can do about this…any of this.'
It wasn't long before the tears came. Hot, boiling tears which ran down his face in rivers of rage and agony threatening to drown him. He was on his knees beating his bloody fists upon the platform screaming and sobbing, crying out nonsense not even he could understand. Every memory, every detail, every image of everything he had experienced came rushing past him making him cry even harder as he realized none of it had mattered. Bringing Kairi back to life wouldn't stop her from dieing again. Her sacrifice to save him wouldn't free him from his fate. Turning back from the dark wouldn't save his fate either. Nothing anyone did would save him or his friends from the darkness.
"WHY?" he sobbed, beating his wounded fists against the glass watching it shatter and then reform good as new. "WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY IS THIS ALL HAPPENING TO ME? WHY CAN'T EVERYTHING GO RIGHT FOR ONCE? WHY DO I HAVE TO DIE?" The sky rang with his words and he didn't care if Jenza and his friends could hear him. He was broken, shattered to the hidden stars and left to rot.
Shaking with tears Sora raised his swollen eyes to the clouded sky. "Just tell me why…" he choked sending his last shred of hope out into the endless void above him.
Not expecting an answer, he carefully lowered his head down onto the cold glass feeling his wet cheeks slowly begin to go numb and cried silently to himself.
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"Sora, where are you?… SORA!" Kairi cried out, holding onto the railing of her sky scraper to keep from falling in. Darkness rammed itself against the building threatening to knock it over. Riku and the others weren't doing so well either as they frantically tried to get to higher grounds.
At least they had higher grounds.
From what had happened so far, Kairi had been able to piece together the situation. Jenza had fallen into the mass of heartless within the square and used his power to blend with the heartless to turn himself into a giant, godlike, creature which could cast the whole universe in darkness.
Yeah, she thought that just about hit the nail on the head.
But this wasn't what worried her. The creature had spoke, nearly making her go deaf. Only if Sora sacrificed himself to the darkness would the creature be able to cast the world in darkness and destroy light forever. She had heard this several times before, but now it was beginning to sink in.
The thought of Sora being alone with this burden put upon his shoulders made her want to cry. Tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes but she blinked them away. Crying wasn't going to help Sora.
But now that she thought about it, nothing could help Sora. He could never defeat a creature as powerful as the one Jenza had become. Plus the prophecy…
Feeling helpless and reaching her breaking point, Kairi raised her head to the sky trying hard to look past the clouds and imagine the shining, bright stars above blinking down at her in all there wondrous beauty.
"Please…" she whispered. " Please help Sora. Anyone, anything, please help him get through this. Help him make the right choice."
And then she added, her voice straining to get the words out. "Even if it means I never have to see him again…"
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"Hey Sora….."
Over time, the brunette had stopped crying shaking every so often with an additional sniff. He cracked open one puffy, red, eye, not having any sense of how long he had been laying there in his own misery.
"Look at me. Turn around."
The hair prickled on the back of Sora's neck and he slowly turned his aching body over. He blinked once, twice, and then a third as he realized Roxinne was sitting behind him smiling her usual sad smile at him with her white wings folded up against her back.
Sora lowered his gaze. He didn't like her seeing him like this.
"I was wondering when you were going to break." she told him calmly. "Even after all the lectures me and King Mickey gave you we knew it would take awhile for it to sink in."
"Well what's it matter?" Sora choked; his throat dry and throbbing from screaming. "There's no hope for me."
Roxinne stared at him sadly and Sora snapped. "Don't stare at me like that, I don't want your pity Roxa-…..Roxinne!" he spat feeling tears threaten his eyes again.
A smile played on her pale lips and she laughed lightly. "Roxanne or Roxinne, it doesn't matter. None of them were ever my real name." She sighed as if remembering something but she quickly turned her attention back to Sora. "But I'm not giving you any pity. You don't deserve it."
The brunette looked at her.
"What I'm saying is me and King Mickey told you dozens of times what was going to be expected of you. We didn't say it was going to be easy, we didn't say everything was going to run smoothly. You thought it was going to be just like every other time you were put in a life and death situation and that you would find some sort of loop hole and get out of it which you have a knack of doing." Roxinne raised her voice at this point. "But this is an entirely different situation Sora. You determine the future of the world and you are the light of the universe."
"But why-"
"Why? No one knows why. Why was Jenza chosen to be the Spirit of darkness? Why was Kairi chosen to be a princess? Why was Mickey chosen to be King? No one knows, it just is. It's something that we are born to do and learn to live with. But for you Sora, it goes beyond what you want. Your decision determines the future for years to come."
"I…I know that," Sora mumbled realizing Roxinne's words made a lot of sense. "I just… I don't want my friends to be sad if I died. Then I would feel like everything I did was wrong."
"You have to consider what's best for your friends. Or more importantly, your friends kids, and there kids, kids. Do you really want them to grow up in a world of darkness and hate?"
"No but…" he glanced at his Keyblade lying several feet away and it glowed in reply. "It's… not easy."
Roxinne nodded, folding her hands quietly under her chin listening.
"I've always…came out on top of everything. I was a hero, always saving people. My friends cared so much for me, I couldn't stand ever disappointing them. "Sora stood up slowly, looking up at the sky as a few stray stars shone through the veil of clouds. " But then, this prophecy thing came along and the fact that my friends had known, after all the hard work I had done to make them happy and not worry about me, it hurt…a lot. "
Roxinne nodded. "If it wouldn't of hurt, it wouldn't have been natural."
Sora shrugged. "I know. But I let my anger get the better of me and turned to the darkness… killed Kairi… hurt Riku… I did so many bad things to them, half of which are unforgivable yet they still stuck by me." The more he thought about, the more his tears and anger seemed childish to him. His whole body felt numb and sick like he had just gotten over a cold.
Suddenly he felt a reassuring hand squeeze his shoulder and Roxinne was by his side smiling at him in understanding. "You've done a lot for your friends Sora and they've done so much for you. It's time you reward them for all there hard work. For sticking by you even when times were tough."
He smiled slightly, suddenly feeling the pain in his abused hands. "Do they know? Riku and the others?"
The angel nodded. "They know. But there like you were, they don't want to give in to the truth."
Sora swallowed, about to ask the question which had been tugging at his throat. "Then that means Kairi knows, right?"
"She knows… she knows better then the rest of them."
He nodded, tears stinging at his eyes again. "Do you think… I'll be able to see her again before I… go?"
Roxinne smiled. "That is entirely up to you Sora."
"Well that helps," Sora grumbled. But he quickly caught the look in Roxinne's eyes and straightened up.
"So are you ready to fulfill your fate Keybearer?"
Out of all the questions Sora had been asked this one was by far the hardest to answer. Death would be a whole knew experience for him and to top it all off, he didn't know how he was going to do it.
But still…
He swallowed and looked Roxinne in the eye, keeping his face straight and serious. "I'm ready."
She smiled at him and clapped her hands. "I'm proud of you Sora." Suddenly her body began to glimmer and fade making Sora jumped back in surprise. She was leaving him.
"W-wait! How do I destroy Jenza anyway?" he asked frantically.
She shrugged giving him a small, teasing grin. "Use your heart Sora. Fallow it. Only you would know the answer."
The brunette opened his mouth but shut it as Roxinne's image faded away entirely leaving him alone. If that had been a trick question, he wasn't getting any answers so far.
A soft tug at his chest made him turn around to stare at his Keyblade which was glowing brightly, beckoning him to come over.
He obeyed, taking several steps forward and curling his bruised fingers around the handle feeling blazing warmth spread throughout his whole entire body down to the tips of his toes. He let out a warm sigh, feeling his body relax as light radiated around him fairy like and his wings slowly stretched out away from his back.
"Trust my heart, huh?" he said to himself looking over his Keyblade with searching eyes. "Then maybe… I had the answers all along."
Quietly he closed his eyes, standing there with silence pressing upon him from all sides. The roar of the darkness below licked at his ears and the thoughts of his friends tapped at his brain but he pushed everything away until all he could feel and hear was light.
Minutes passed. Hours, days, years. He stood there taking in everything around him and everything inside of him. Unlocking all doors, all thoughts, secrets, memories, every little crevice of his heart that he had forgotten or never been to before. Forever searching, craving knowledge, learning more about himself that he had never known existed.
"SPIRIT! COME FOURTH AND FOR FILL YOUR DESTINY!" Jenza roared from below.
Immediately Sora's eyes snapped open.
He could feel the dark aura from below clearly now, pulling and scratching at him to try and bring him down. Sora ignored it, lowering his Keyblade to his side and walking up to the side of the platform and putting the end of his sneakers at the edge so he was staring down at the square with Jenza's enormous yellow eyes piercing into him.
Slowly he closed his eyes, carefully folding his wings in tight against his back…
…and he let himself fall.
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Me: PRAISE THE LORD OF ANIME, I'M DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER!
Sora: Whoo… I think.
Riku: Don't think.
Me: All of you Review! The next chapter is the LAST! Plus the Epilogue. After three year working on this, I'm finally ending it! Oh, and don't kill me. I know a lot of you want to for certain things but I wouldn't try. Hahahah! That's Wishes job, anyway .
Sora: Yup
NOW REVIEW!
… please?