Ooo baby, another chapter I've been waiting to write since the very beginning. If you like Catharsis then this one is for you. Also happy belated Thanksgiving to all my fellow Americans! And happy Early Christmas to all the rest! Anyway I won't keep you long here since there's so much to see. Sooooo enjoy!
Chapter 70: The Final World
Won't be long, won't be long,
I'm almost here
The very moment the light of Kingdom Hearts fills the heavens above the Keyblade Graveyard, every last world connected to its power reacts in turn. And as that Kingdom cries out to the hearts of those worlds, as it spreads the mournful message of what it has been called upon to do, of the death and destruction it is about to bring…
The worlds weep over what awaits them.
The people of Thebes cower under the veil of shadows that fills the skies, initially believing Hades and his dark forces are attacking once again. In their terror, none of them notice the light of Mount Olympus, the strength and might of the very gods that call that mountain home, begin to wane. None of them realize that the source of that power, the very heart of their world, is beginning to dim and die out.
Andy's toys can only watch from a window as a storm rages violently outside. They only have moments to fear for his safety however, before they begin to collapse limp and lifelessly to the ground, one by one. Woody and Buzz hold out the longest, but ultimately, they fall too, the hearts keeping them animated, the hearts that make them and all of the other toys alive fading out with all the rest.
The wide array of wildlife within the rainforests of Paradise Falls erupts into a noisy panic as thunder crashes through the skies and a brutal downpour surges from it. Kevin pulls her babies tight under her wings, hunkering down for a disaster far worse than anything Muntz could have caused her tiny family. A disaster that even she can't protect that family from no matter how hard she tries.
Te Fiti rises from her slumber to see her ocean turning black, darkness leaching across even her own lush form in a way that rings all too familiar. She senses Maui land somewhere nearby, his eyes desperately searching the seas for any signs of Moana. He may be a demigod, he may have brought the mortals islands and sunshine and so much more… but not even he, not even a true god like Te Fiti… can do anything to stop something like this.
The members of Big Hero 6 scramble through the streets of San Fransokyo, ushering frantic residents to safety from the scourge of the storm and shattering buildings alike. The concrete splinters beneath their feet, the very earth itself beginning to break apart as both Baymaxes fly in to gather the group of young heroes and fly them somewhere safer. The only problem is… nowhere is safe. Not anymore.
Atlantis has fallen once before. But to see her city fall once more, so soon after it had been saved… Kida can scarcely stand the sight. She begs to the guardians of her city, pleads to the power of the crystal, to the heart that had once bonded so intimately with hers. But that heart, once so loud and clear to call her, offers her nothing but silence now. That heart, much like the city itself, is dying. Which means… all they can do is wait to die right along with it.
Corona is crumbling. Its beautiful capital reduces itself to rubble as its residents flee into the forest. Rapunzel clings tightly to Eugene, tears in her eyes as she tries to make sense of what's befalling her new home, as she tries to understand how the world she's only so recently come to love could fall apart so quickly. As she feels, from the very deepest depths of her heart, the loss of something… of someone so important to them all…
Color quickly begins to drain from the once-vibrant Land of the Dead. Whatever magic or force or memories that keep its undead residents going is draining too, Héctor can tell. After all, he's felt the sting of the Final Death before. He feels it again now, barely managing to catch Imelda as she begins to experience the exact same thing. They only have enough strength to stay together as their afterlifes begin to end. As they wonder if there will be anyone left on the other side once this is over to remember any of them at all.
Belle hurries through the castle halls, dodging falling statues and pouring rubble as she searches desperately for the prince, for her father, for anyone really. Down one corridor, she thinks she hears Chip cry for his mother, down another, Cogsworth shouts for Lumiere. But the voice she heeds the most is her prince as he tries desperately to save his servants from the devastation… only for he and Belle both to realize that there's no saving any of them. There's no saving themselves, their friends, their family… their world.
Tiana and Naveen run hand-in-hand through New Orleans' once-lively streets, now only filled with the rushing shadows chasing them both. This darkness is of a different sort than whatever magic Dr. Facilier once had; by all accounts, this is far more deadly. They hope to seek refuge from it in the bayou, hope to reach Mama Odie in time. But the shadows are far faster than either of them as they begin to sweep over the couple. Tiana holds tightly onto her husband, tears in her eyes as something inside of her heart suddenly snaps. As she realizes a voice somewhere so very far away… has been forever silenced.
Aladdin pushes Carpet as fast as it can go, shouting to Genie to keep up. Jasmine weeps into his shoulder as she watches the palace collapse behind them, her father no doubt forever lost within the ruins. There's no time to comfort her, not when the darkness is still chasing them. Not when there's no telling when it will catch up. Not when it's so painfully, excruciatingly clear that no matter how far they run, no matter how much they try to hide… they're all doomed to die all the same.
The Mystery Shack has never been a sturdy building, but it falls like a deck of cards against the violent trembling of the woods around it. Fortunately, the Pines had made it out in time, but making it through a decaying forest full of constantly falling trees is an entirely different story. Ford leads the charge, fortunately not arguing with Stan for a change as they both try to reassure the younger twins. But after all of the harrowing experiences they've been through, even Dipper and Mabel know the truth. Even they know that not a single one of them is likely to make it through this nightmarish night alive.
The volcanos have long been dormant, or so the islanders thought. Jumba steers his ship above what remains of the shore while the others watch in shocked silence from the window as lava and shadows alike consume the paradise they once called home. Lilo and Stitch lean against each other for support, Nani whispering comforting reassurance to them that not even she truly believes. Because really, where can they expect to go when the world itself seems to be ending? When everything they've ever known is dead and dying before their very eyes?
Anna's horrified scream rattles Elsa to her core. She shoots a shard of ice at the shadows that try to claim her, but she's ultimately unable to save Olaf and Kristoff from meeting the same fate. The darkness has already ravaged the rest of Arendelle, so what else does Elsa have left to fight for but her sister, for the only family she has left? Family that she can do nothing to save any more than she can save herself… any more than she can save someone she can only barely feel fading, someone so very special to her… now lost, just like all the rest.
Twilight Town's eternal sunset slips into an unending night. Its residents rush for refuge, only to be met with buckling streets and collapsing buildings. Hayner, Pence, and Olette try their best to remain together, to help whoever they can along the way. But even they can't help but wonder where this chaos is coming from and when and if it will ever end. They can't help but wonder if anyone will actually be able to survive the worst of whatever this night might yet have to offer.
Radiant Garden once again falls into ruin, its towering castle crashing onto the busy city streets. The Restoration Committee races through the streets to try in vain to save all the civilians that they can, but it's clear it's a useless effort. Merlin makes that much clear when he looks up to the sky and sadly shakes his head. The battle has ended before it could even truly begin.
The sea rages, the sky is black, the winds threaten to tear her tiny home apart and yet… Himari still stands on her porch to face it all. She stands to watch the sea as its waves grow higher and higher, she stands and doesn't move even when she hears her neighbors beckoning her to run. She stands alone, just like she has so many times before, tears streaking down her cheeks as she feels a pain unlike any she's ever known before. A pain that sends her falling to her knees as her heart is torn to pieces, as a scream tears its way from her throat, rising high above the storm, above the devastation, above it all.
The kind of pain only a mother could know… as she feels her only son die so many worlds away.
Despite the havoc being wrought everywhere else, the Keyblade Graveyard remains surprisingly stable. The ground shakes as Kingdom Hearts settles into the sky, the winds picking up into a heavy gale, but that's all that really happens. In the epicenter of it all, Xehanort remains, basking in the splendor of the Kingdom as it hangs high above him. His vessels all do the same, some in awe, some in anticipation, some in sheer, unspoken terror at the raw power before them, at everything that power soon shall bring.
The thirteenth among them is the only one all but oblivious to that power. Sora's body remains limp and unmoving as it drifts silently within in the radiance of the Kingdom his heart was used to call upon. The X-Blade that heart forged beams brightly in the presence of its counterpart, the thirteen Keys all encircling the fabled Heart they were created to control. Each of them sing in perfect harmony with each other, so loud and so pure that Xehanort can practically hear them all. There's but one voice missing from that great song, the most essential voice of them all.
"To the Kingdom, bring her king…" he recites the ancient prophecy as he glances up at his grandson's lifeless form floating high above him. "Only then her power sings…"
After years of careful planning and preparation, he has everything he needs: the Keys, the X-Blade, the Kingdom, even its tiny king. All that remains… is to snuff out the final few rays of light that still remain to resist him.
By all accounts, those lights seem to already be defeated. Several of them have fallen to their knees, lost to their tears as they struggle to come to grips with what's happening. The few that remain standing can only stare up at the Kingdom above them in visible terror, overwhelmed by something they know they can stop no matter what they try. Xehanort doesn't even bother addressing them as he sweeps the X-Blade out wide, wearing a triumphant grin as he allows pure darkness to pour from its shimmering edge. Only a few of the lights have the wits about them to see this deadly wave racing for them, and only one of them is sound enough to stand against it.
Not so long ago, Vanitas wouldn't have bothered trying to save anyone's skin other than his own. He definitely wouldn't have even considered trying to protect any of the guardians of light he's now somehow standing among. But now, he doesn't even have time to think before he spreads his arms out wide, before he lets his newfound magic surge around them all, before he summons a massive light gate to pull each and every one of them out of harms' way. It does exactly that without a moment to spare as darkness engulfs the mesa. As that same darkness continues to flood all worlds beyond it.
The lights emerge in a canyon a safe distance away. Vanitas collapses to his knees, gripping his chest in pain from the immense amount of light he'd just forced out of it. Naminé is the only one who tends to him as the others keep their focus elsewhere. On the massive, momentous Heart that can be seen in the sky from just about every angle.
"What do we do now…?" Ventus is the first one to speak, his voice small and shaken.
"What can we do against… that?" Axel asks, incredulously nodding up at Kingdom Hearts.
"We've gotta do something!" Mickey exclaims, trying to sound steady. "If we don't stop Xehanort now, well… I think we all know by now what'll happen. So, Riku, what do you think-" He stops short, as do all of the other lights as they glance back at their leader. As they find him on his knees, his hands pressed into the stony ground, tears streaming hot and heavy down his miserable face. "...Riku?"
He says nothing at first, only letting out the smallest of sobs as he struggles to even keep himself upright. His grief is practically crushing him from the inside out, his despair far surpassing any he's ever felt before. And all the while, that one awful, life-shattering moment plays on loop inside his mind. The moment that wicked Keyblade ran through Sora's body, the moment he watched the life slowly drain out of his eyes. The moment he lost his first love, his best friend.
"Give him some space," Aqua stops Mickey when he tries to approach his heartbroken young friend. Her gaze briefly drifts over to Kairi as she sits at Riku's side, her sorrow equally matching his, though her sights are set on the mesa far in the distance. On the Heart hanging so heavy over them all. On where Sora still remains, still trapped in his vicious grandfather's grasp even now, even in death. "...Give them both some space…" Aqua mutters to the others, knowing they both deserve nothing less. Even though space and time and all the healing magic in the world will do nothing to ease the pain they're both so clearly feeling.
That pain is certainly hared among the rest of the lights. Few of their eyes are dry as they linger close together, hoping that the darkness won't find them here and knowing it's only a matter of time before it does. They desperately need a reprieve, a moment of rest, a chance to grieve and gather their bearings. But of course, with all of the worlds and all life within them at stake, that's a chance they simply won't be getting.
"We don't have much time," Terra scowls up at the Heart. "Now that he has the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts, Xehanort could use them to destroy every last world in an instant."
"So… why hasn't he yet?" Xion asks. "Is he still stalling? Or…"
"He's waiting," Vanitas interjects as he slowly pulls himself to stand with Naminé's support. "He may have called upon the Kingdom, but he doesn't have control over it. And he never will, not without his precious little thirteenth."
"But how's that supposed to work?" Axel asks dubiously. "He just killed–uh…" he stops himself, nervously glancing over at Riku and Kairi before changing his phrasing. "Um… considering what he just did, it's not like the poor kid can do much of anything else for him anymore."
"No," Naminé shakes her head sadly. "Sora still has a part to play in Xehanort's plans. I'm not sure what that part is exactly…" She skims a hand against her temple, desperately grasping at memories that are starting to fade more and more by the second. "Something about a… conduit? That's what Xehanort told him, but…"
"Whatever it means, I doubt it's anything good," Aqua interjects when Naminé trails off. "We have to find some way to stop him, before it's too late."
"We can't just stop at stopping him," Roxas snarls as he glares viciously up at the mesa. "We can't let him get away with what he just did. We have to kill him, to make him feel every ounce of pain he put Sora through and then some. It's exactly what a monster like him deserves."
Despite such violent sentiments, none of the lights argue against them. Because really, how can they let the murderous master walk away with his life after he stole the life of someone so very special to them all? How can they let Xehanort live… when Sora still had to die?
"Let's head back up there then," Mickey encourages. He holds his hands out to Donald and Goofy, both still on the ground, both still lamenting the loss of the boy they loved so dearly. "Sora wanted us to stop him, he wanted us to end all of this and save the worlds. The least we can do for him is make that wish come true, don'tcha think, fellas?"
"What's the point?" Donald begins softly, sadly. "Even if we do save the worlds…
"They won't be the same without him…" Goofy finishes that thought, hanging his head in grief.
"...No, they won't be," Mickey admits with a sigh. " But you know what I think? I think he'd be happy just knowin' both of you–that all of us really–are still around to protect them."
"H-he'd want us to go on," Ventus speaks up, wiping a few of his stray tears away. "Even if we have to go on without him. The last thing he'd want is to be used for…" He trails off, not needing to finish such a grim thought. A thought that's already become an even grimmer reality.
Time isn't on their side, so they make the most of it to begin formulating a plan. Almost all of them huddle together to work on it, each of them struggling to shove their sorrow under the surface as they race to find a solution. Riku and Kairi are the only ones that remain out of the strategizing session, left to mourn everything they've just lost. Everything that, even if they do stop the Organization and save the worlds, they'll never get back.
But then…
Kairi barely feels it; she's barely able to register it at all against all of the anguish and anger and everything else flowing through her right now. But she still senses it all the same, like a wavering whisper, the faintest of sparks, the quietest echo of someone that should be long gone. Of someone whose life slipped away so suddenly and slowly in her very arms. Of someone whose heart, despite being torn to pieces to be used in such a vile way… is crying out for freedom, for a future, for her even still.
"Sora…" she whispers, her eyes wide with shock. Her gaze is locked onto the mesa, onto the tiny speck that she can scarcely make out floating high above it. What she's feeling doesn't radiate from his broken body, not a single semblance of life does anymore. Instead, it comes from somewhere just a bit below it, from the very weapon his heart had been forced to forge.
From the weapon that's unlocked one Heart… only to lock away another heart entirely.
She trembles as she slowly rises to her feet, still looking straight ahead as she begins to walk forward. She pays none of the other lights any mind as she steps past them, her hands pressed to her heart, her mind buzzing with fear and hope alike. She lets her heart reach out to his once more, begging him to find her, begging him to simply just show her he's still there. And he does… but only in that distant echo, in that frail and fading whisper. In a way that lets her know that whatever time he might have left… is all too quickly running out.
And yet…
"He's still here," she says, softly at first, but she's quick to repeat it. Her voice cuts through the lights' conversation, ringing out in tearful excitement when she says it again. "He's still here!"
A wave of concerned confusion passes over the lights. Even Riku finally looks up, his despair replaced with bewilderment as he lets out an unsteady "W-what?"
"His heart," Kairi finally looks back at them. Tears brim in her eyes but there's a smile on her face all the same. "I can still feel it. It's inside of the X-Blade! It's not gone, which means… he's not gone."
"Are you sure?" Aqua asks, not wanting to take any chances.
"Positive," Kairi answers soundly. "I'd know Sora's heart anywhere. And it's there in that X-Blade. I know it is."
"But how are we gonna get it out of there?" Goofy asks, scratching his head.
"And what happens once we do?" Donald adds, just as confounded.
"If we release his heart from the X-Blade," Riku's voice catches everyone off guard. They all glance back to see him standing, wiping his tears away as he sets his sights on the mesa once more. "And get that heart back into his body, then maybe…"
"We can still save him!" Kairi finishes, her smile wide and genuine now. She didn't think she'd ever know another smile again after what happened up on that cliff. But knowing what she does now, knowing that even a piece, however weak and wavering it might be, still lives on is more than enough to bring one straight to the surface. "It isn't too late, not by a longshot. There's still a chance!"
"Then it's a chance we have to take," Riku asserts as he comes to stand at the front of his team. There's an edge of desperation in his voice, desperation and fear he can't quite hide. But in the spaces between, there's the exact same kind of infectious hope Kairi has, hope that only someone like her, someone like Sora can bring him. "It won't be easy. As long as he has the Keys and X-Blade, Xehanort has a huge advantage over us. But if we can manage to get that X-Blade away from him, for even just a second… it should be enough for us to get his heart out of it and back to where it belongs."
"And… what's the plan after that?" Axel asks.
Riku and Kairi exchange a glance, resolve burning bright in both of their hearts. A resolve to save not just Sora, but everything and everyone else along with him. To stop this nightmare once and for all and to usher in a new and better dawn in its wake. To do the next right thing.
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," Kairi says with as much confidence as she can muster. Because really, looking any further ahead than the task that lies before them is far too much to take. Far too much to think about when there's already so much resting solely on their shoulders. "One step at a time."
"From here on out, we fight together, no matter what," Riku adds, letting the last of his grief fade as he looks up to the Heart threatening to end them all. A Heart that has to be stopped at all costs. "And whatever happens next… don't forget who we're fighting for. For ourselves, for the worlds…" He stops short as summons his Keyblade, rallying the rest of his team to do the same. To follow his lead into the deepest of darknesses, into the most brutal, most important battle any of them have ever faced, a battle they have to win.
After all, they'd promised him nothing less. "And… for Sora."
He awakens without a body, without a heart… without a name.
…He? Is that what he is? How can he even be sure? How can he know what "he" is at all? How can he see without eyes? How can he move without legs? How can he exist anywhere, much less here?
Here… in a world of endless blue skies and an endless clear sea.
Soft white clouds dot the peaceful, pure blue heavens above. Light from a radiant sun drapes across every inch of the unbroken surface of water below. That water stretches out as far as the eye can see in every direction, but when he looks down at it, he sees nothing where he knows a reflection should be. Nothing but an iridescent collection of small, shimmering lights hovering just above the water.
"...Is that… me?" He startles himself when he somehow speaks. His voice is soft, uncertain, yet familiar in a way he can't quite place. He can't figure out how talking is something he's even capable of, can't make sense of how he knows any words to begin with. But he still manages to find more of them as he tries to take stock of the strange, apparently empty world around him. As he tries to understand who–and what–he is.
"...What is this place…?" he wonders to no one. Whatever it is, it's quiet, tranquil and serene and yet… it's so very lonely. "Lonely…" he repeats the word to himself, wondering how he recognizes it, how he knows what it feels like. And as he does… he can't help but also wonder… why it feels so wrong.
"I… shouldn't be alone…" he murmurs as another new emotion blooms to life alongside that loneliness. Something that can only be called sadness. "I don't want to be alone…"
So then… why is he alone?
He lets himself drift absently across the surface of the infinite sea, with no landmarks to orient him, no set destination in mind. Those strange, newfound feelings, sadness, loneliness, even what he thinks might be something like longing, swirl through the tiny sparks that currently compose him. Exactly what he's longing for, he has no idea. But whatever it is… he can't help but think it's something–someone–that's very far away.
He wanders for what feels like ages, the still and silent surface of the sea never breaking, not a single other soul in sight. At least… until he happens to hear the smallest of splashes in the water somewhere behind him. Until he's greeted by the first voice he's heard other than his own.
"Wow… you really are lost, aren't you?"
He expects to find another being like him, someone without a body, someone made of faceless, featureless light. What he finds instead… is a peculiar creature, to say the least. They're small, and rather stubby, covered in striped gray fur with narrow blue eyes and no apparent mouth. A cape hangs from their back, a tiny purse clasping it in place around their neck. The word 'cat' comes to his thoughts as he takes in the sight of them, and he can only assume that's what they are, and yet…
"Who are you?" he asks, the first sparks of curiosity burgeoning within him.
"Oh! Sorry," the creature chuckles, seemingly flustered. "You're probably really confused, so I guess I oughta introduce myself. The name's Chirithy. And this…" they spread an arm out to the vast expanse of sky and sea around them. "Is the Final World."
"...The Final World?" he repeats, mystified.
"There's nothing else beyond this," Chirithy explains. "You've wandered here more than once before on your visits to the Station of Awakening, buuut...I let that slide. The edges of sleep and death touch, and one can't help the occasional crossover."
"...What?" he asks, absolutely lost.
"Um… Let me put it another way…" Chirithy taps their chin thoughtfully. "When someone dies, their body is usually buried. Their heart goes back to where it came from, back to Kingdom Hearts. But a person's mind, their memories, everything that makes them who they are… comes here, to the Final World. Which… is how you wound up here."
"Wait…" he hesitates as he starts to piece the alarming implications together. "So I'm here because I… died?"
"Well… yeah," Chirithy seems confused. "Didn't you… already know that? Don't you remember what happened to you?"
"...I… don't even know who I am," he admits sheepishly.
"What?!" Chirithy exclaims, aghast. "Ooooooh no. This is much worse than I thought it would be! You weren't supposed to arrive here without any of your memories, no one does! Usually folks who show up here hold onto their memories, their regrets, their lost hopes and dreams-"
"So… why didn't I?" he asks, not upset, simply curious.
"I can't say for sure, but if I could venture a guess…" Chirithy crosses their short arms. "It's because of the state your mind was in when you, uh… died. You must have gone through something so terrible and traumatic that it just… shattered your mind completely."
"Oh…" he muses, unsure of how to really respond. "I guess it's… a good thing that I don't remember any of it then?"
"No, not good," Chirithy corrects. "You need to remember who you are so you can go back!"
"Back… to life? Is that even possible?"
"Normally, it isn't," Chirithy says. "But… you're sort of a… special case. Your body may be dead, but your heart… isn't. When that happens to someone, usually they become a Nobody and that'd be the end of the story. But for you? Let's just say you, uh… have a bit of 'divine intervention' in your corner that wants you to keep going."
"Divine intervention?" he questions, more confused than ever. "What's-"
"T-that's not really important right now!" Chirithy hastily interrupts. "What is important is that you get your memories back! To become your true self again and return to the living world, you'll have to piece yourself back together in this world first."
"Ok, so… how do I do that?"
"Well, since your memories were shattered, I'd assume the broken pieces would have wound up here along with you," Chirithy motions to the wide, empty world beyond them. "If you really don't remember anything about your old life… then you'll have a lot of pieces to find to pull your mind back together again, a lifetime's worth, really. But if you want to remember who you really are, if you want to become yourself again, then-"
"Do I want that?" he interrupts, catching Chirithy completely off guard.
"Uh… well-"
"If what I went through when I was alive was bad enough to shatter who I used to be, then… why would I want to remember that?" he presses calmly. Yet… there's a hint of something in his faint, frail voice. A hint of something even he doesn't understand, at least not yet. "Wouldn't it just be… easier for me to stay here? Like this? Wouldn't it just be easier to just… rest?"
Chirithy pauses, deflating as they let out a sympathetic sigh. "It would be easier for you, yes…" they admit, hanging their head. "And after everything you've been through… I wish you could get that rest. But… I'm afraid this isn't just about you. So many people need you, even if you don't remember any of them yet. The worlds need you. And maybe… once you reclaim who you were, you'll know exactly why that is."
He hesitates, his starry form glowing a bit dimmer as he looks down at the reflection of it in the water below. He doesn't remember living, doesn't remember what he looked like or where he came from or how he got here. He doesn't remember… and some strange part of him almost wishes he didn't have to remember. Some part of him is begging him to just let go, to fade away into oblivion here, into peace, into death. Some strange, selfish part of him that he almost, almost listens to.
And yet… there's another part of him. Another part that's telling him the exact same thing Chirithy already did. Another part of him that's telling him he can't stay here, no matter how much he might want to, no matter how utterly exhausted his soul might be. Another part of him that's encouraging him to keep going, to reclaim his lost memories, to piece himself back together again. To step out of the darkness of death and back into the light of life.
And for whatever reason… that's the part of him that speaks just a little bit louder than all the rest.
"O-ok…" he slowly, carefully concedes. "I'll do it."
"Are you sure?" Chirithy asks gently. "I came here to help you, but… if you really want to stay here… I can't force you to-"
"No," he counters, and if he had a face, he imagines he'd be smiling. "It's ok. I… I want to do this. I want to remember who I used to be. I want to go back to my life… whatever that life might have looked like."
"Well, you're about to find out," Chirithy perks up, relieved. "To piece yourself back together again, you'll need to do three things. First, you'll need to find the scattered memories of your past like we talked about before. But that's not all. You also need to make peace with your present."
"My… present?" he wonders. "What does that mean?"
"I'm not too sure…" Chirithy mutters. "They were kind of vague about that part…"
"They?"
"Er… n-never mind," Chirithy quickly backpedals once more. "I'm sure you'll figure it out. The last thing you'll need to do before you can go back, however, is to glimpse into your future. Which… is another thing I'm not too sure about, but we can work on that after you remember who are you are."
"Uh… sounds good, I guess," he turns to face the wider world beyond them. "So, where should I-" He stops short when he glances back at where Chirithy had been mere seconds ago. Only to find that they've vanished just as suddenly as they'd appeared. "Chirithy? Where'd you go?"
"Don't worry!" Chirithy's voice abruptly sounds out from somewhere unseen. "I'll still be hanging around to keep an eye on you. But this part is something you have to do on your own. Good luck finding your memories!"
"Oh… alright…" he sinks a bit, not too fond of being left all alone again. Silence once again overtakes the utter emptiness that is the Final World, and likewise, he doesn't make a single sound as he solemnly glides through it. There's still no traces of anything or anyone else here, much less anything remotely resembling a memory for him to reclaim. Until…
A burst of light blooms high within the sky. He stops, practically blinded by it, though even still he can make out the vague shape it takes on. The shape of a heart.
From that heart, another, smaller light emerges, descending from the heavens like a comet or a star. It lands somewhere far in the distance upon the surface of the sea, and though he doesn't know what it could be, he still chases after it all the same. All without noticing as the heart starts to dim before disappearing from the sky altogether.
He doesn't end up finding that star, but what he does come across is much more surprising by far. A pair of people, a man and a woman, stand upon the unbroken water. Their backs are turned to him as he rushes toward them, instantly craving to know more.
"Hello!?" he calls, and yet they don't move to glance his way. "Who are you? Can… can you hear me?"
The couple still doesn't answer, not even as he gets closer. By now, he can tell the man is clad in blue, a compliment to his wife's ocean-colored attire as her sandy hair drapes long down her back. She's holding something he can't quite see at first, until he finally circles to hover before them. Neither of them look at him, instead focused down on the tiny bundle in the woman's arms. A baby–the word comes to him unbidden–a baby with bright blue eyes and the beginnings of a head of brown hair. A baby so clearly, so deeply loved by his parents as they smile warmly down at him, and yet…
The baby is staring directly at him.
"Um… hi?" he greets, bewildered. The baby's wide-eyed stare breaks into a huge smile, a cheerful laugh erupting as he reaches his tiny arms out toward him. He doesn't quite know what to do, doesn't have any hands to reach back out to the infant. No matter how much he wishes he could.
The baby simply continues babbling happily, and for perhaps the first time since he awakened here, he starts to feel some of that happiness too. It spreads to the point that he nearly starts laughing alongside the infant… until another laugh sounds out instead.
He finds its source when he spins around to see the same couple and their baby, now about a year or two older, once more. The parents still don't acknowledge him, and this time, the toddler doesn't either as his mother gently helps him steady himself on his feet. His father kneels a few paces away, his arms spread out wide as he beckons the child toward him.
"C'mon, _! Come to Papa!" He wonders why he can't hear the child's name clearly, even though he can clearly see the father mouthing… something. Something he can't help but long to know, even as he watches the child take his first few steps.
Strangely, the boy walks straight through his father, as if he isn't even there at all. Instead, he continues to toddle toward the bodiless cloud of stars before him, the only one who can see or hear him at all, it seems. "Who are you?" he presses when the child plops down to take a seat in front of him.
"_!" the boy says, but he still doesn't hear anything.
"What?" he tries again, only for the boy to disappear before he can say another word. In his place now stands a man, elderly, tall and shrouded in shadow as he confronts the boy, still young, but a few years older, fearfully clinging onto his father like a vice. He doesn't know why he shies away from the man as soon as he sees him, can't find a word for the feeling that floods through him other than raw, absolute terror. It's bizarre, to say the least, to not know who this man is in the slightest and yet still be so utterly, undeniably afraid of him. Fear that the boy seems to share as he tucks himself even further into his father's protection.
"Why do you keep coming back into my life?!" the father shouts at the older man, furious. "How many times do I have to turn you away?!"
The elderly man doesn't say a word to him, instead keeping his focus set solely on the frightened boy before him. "Hello there, young one," he smiles, but it carries not an ounce of warmth or kindness. "I see you've grown in leaps and bounds since the last time we met. You wouldn't happen to remember me, would you, _?"
The boy gives him no answer, nor does his father let him as he pulls him in even closer. "Don't speak to my son."
"Impetuous as ever, child," the old man glares up at the father. "I didn't come here to entertain you, Tsuki; I came because I would like to spend some… quality time with your dear boy here…"
The man, Tsuki, he presumes, only has to glance down at his anxious son for a moment before reaching the most obvious conclusion. "I don't want you anywhere near him. I don't need you, and _ doesn't either."
"Oh, Tsuki," the wicked man's cruel smile widens. "He needs me far more than you could ever know…"
Tsuki clearly isn't having any more of this encounter. He leans down to whisper something to the boy, who wastes no time taking off as fast as his short legs can carry him. He decides to follow the boy, just in time too as both older men vanish as soon as he's even a few steps away. "Are you ok?" he asks the child as he glides after him. "Who was that man?"
"Someone bad…" the boy mutters, tears sliding down his cheeks as he continues to run. "A monster… A really scary monster…"
"A monster…" he echoes as he slowly comes to a stop. The boy runs somewhere off into the distance… at least until he appears again. He seems in much brighter spirits now, much calmer and more content as he sits on a pile of sand rising up from the endless water. He approaches him quietly, watching as the boy searches that sand for something, digging lightly into it with his bare hands.
"...What are you doing?" he asks the boy as he drifts a bit closer.
"Lookin' for seashells," the boy smiles as he keeps his sights set on his work. "Mama's birthday's in a few days, and she looooves shells. So Riku n' me came out here to look for some for her!"
"...Riku?"
"Yeah!" the boy beams brightly as he finally looks up. "He's my bestest friend in the whole world!"
"Riku…" he repeats once more, somehow feeling himself smile, even without a face. Somehow knowing he knows that name, somehow relishing the deep, natural, wonderful emotions that stir within him as he says it. Somehow remembering something… even if he's still not exactly sure what or who that something is.
The boy suddenly glances up, directing his attention back to the open sea. Another boy is running toward them, about the same age, with teal eyes and silver hair. He offers the other boy a grin and a wave, calling a name that still can't be heard, or at least, he can't hear it.
"Come on!" he beckons the boy as he holds up a short wooden sword. "Let's play!"
"Oh!" the boy stands, wiping the sand off his shorts. "Well, uh… I thought we were supposed'ta-"
"Hurry up, _!" the other boy, Riku, probably, runs off, not even waiting for his friend to follow. "Don't keep me waiting!"
"...Ok," the boy sighs, his smile slipping a bit as he drops the small collection of shells he'd been gathering.
"Weren't you looking for those?" he asks, confused. "Why are you leaving them here?
"Well… 'cause … Riku wants to play swords instead of lookin' for shells," the boy shrugs.
"Do you want to play swords?"
"Well… not really," the boy smiles bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't really like fighting 'n all that stuff. But… Riku does, and I want him to have fun, so…"
"So… you're getting something that you want by… giving up something that you want?" he asks, beyond confused. "I don't know if that makes much sense…"
The boy chuckles, but there's little levity behind it. "Nah, I guess it doesn't," he says simply before running off to join his friend.
The next time he sees the boy, the scene has changed. He stands on a stained glass surface, holding his hands out to a small orb of light that slowly hovers over to him.
"Hey, can you hear me?" he asks, eyeing the light curiously.
"I heard your voice," an older boy's voice answers softly, solemnly. "It cut through the darkness around me. I followed the sound into a sea of light… and found myself here, with you. You gave me something back when I needed it most… a second chance…"
"I did?" the boy asks, confused.
"Yeah," the light replies. "But… now I have to go back to sleep again…"
"Are you sad?" the boy presses with a sympathetic frown.
The light doesn't answer right away, instead presenting the boy with a question of his own. "Would you mind if I stayed here… with you?"
"Sure, if it'll make you feel better," the boy is quick to smile, quick to welcome this lost and lonely heart into the comfort and warmth of his own. He watches as those two hearts join together, as one fades into peaceful slumber within the other… as tears once again begin to slip down the boy's cheeks.
"Can you feel it?" he asks, wondering why the boy is still smiling. "His sadness, I mean?"
"...Huh," the boy seems surprised that he's crying as he wipes a few of those tears away. "I guess I can. I-it's ok though! I'm fine as long as I get to help him!"
"But you don't even know who he is…" he mutters. How can it be that this boy is so selfless, so kind that he'd be willing to bear the sorrow of a stranger? That he'd be willing to carry an entirely unknown heart within his own?
"Maybe I will, someday," the boy shrugs blithely, innocently. That's all he gets to say before he begins to fade. He tries to follow him, only to be suddenly surrounded by not just one vision of the boy, but hundreds all around him. Tiny glimpses of tiny moments, of memories he realizes.
Memories that might just be his.
He can't help but hope they are his as he watches a peaceful, blissful childhood unfold. The boy grows up surrounded by a family who loves him, by friends who care for him, on an island where the sun shines bright and the ocean flows free. He sees little, lighthearted moments between hugs and holidays, birthdays and beach trips, school and sunsets, laughter and love. Love that only seems to grow even stronger as he comes across one memory in particular, a memory of a meeting set upon a familiar shore.
The boy gasps, splashing into the sea as he notices someone struggling to stay afloat. He moves in a bit closer, wishing he could do something to help as the boy manages to rescue a girl around his age with dark scarlet hair. He pulls her to dry ground and stays by her side as she starts coughing up the seawater she had accidentally swallowed.
"Who is she?" he asks the boy.
"I don't know…" the boy frowns down at the girl, shaking his head. "I've never seen her before…" He eases back when the girl finally starts to sit up a bit, dazed and disoriented, at least until her wide-eyed gaze finally falls upon the boy beside her.
"Huh?" she blinks, confused and frightened. "W-what… what is this place? Who are you?"
He's quick to smile, to do what he can to help chase her fear away. "My name's _. What's yours?"
"...K-Kairi," she answers quietly, nervously.
"Kairi…" he repeats along with the boy, something swelling deep inside of him. Something so similar to what he'd felt when he'd first heard Riku's name. Whatever it is, it's something special, something he doesn't want to disappear, something he cherishes so deeply, something that feels so real when nothing else about him does.
So maybe… if he continues to follow that feeling, if he continues to follow them… then maybe… he can finally find a way to be real, to be whole again.
He doesn't get to see how the rest of their meeting goes. Still, he sees Kairi showing up again within more and more memories, to the point that she soon becomes just as constant as Riku already is. Out of all of the boy's many friends, it's clear to see that they're his closest. No other bonds he has can compare to the ones he's forged with the two of them, with the kind of feelings they both somehow stir up inside of him, with the sheer, unbridled happiness they both bring him.
And yet… there's a price to pay for that happiness. And pay it he always does, every single time. He always lets Riku choose what games they play, always lets Kairi lead on any projects they take on. He always lets his best friends have their way over his because… well, that's what friends do right? Anything to give each other the very best, anything to have a good time, anything to keep the fun they have together going.
Anything to see them smile, to make them happy, even if…
Even if he's anything but.
The boy hides it well though, behind smiles, behind laughter, behind walls so thick even they can't see through them. He even manages to fool his parents, caring and attentive as they are, never letting anyone know how miserable it's all really making him. He sees it though, in rare memories of moments spent alone, of days where he can only narrowly manage to muster a smile, of nights where he quietly cries himself to sleep. He wonders why he's forcing himself to endure this, he's only a child after all, so young, so fresh, so deserving of so much more than what he's forcing himself to settle for. He never learned how to act like this from anyone, never picked it up from any of his family or his friends. It's something, he soon starts to find, he's always done, right from the very start. He's always sacrificed his happiness for the sake of others, he's always given everything he could until he has nothing left.
He's always cared so much for everyone around him… and he's always cared so very little for himself.
The boy does exactly that when he and his mother receive some devastating news: that his father had died in a storm at sea. He can practically feel the boy's grief as he watches him cry alone for the father he admired so deeply, the father he'll never get to see again. And yet… those tears come to a swift stop when his mother happens to pass by.
"_?" she asks tiredly, her eyes red-rimmed from recent tears. "Are you alright, sweetie?"
"Y-yup!" the boy perks up almost instantly, offering her a tight smile. "I'm… I'm ok."
"Are you sure?" his mother asked, unconvinced.
The boy nods, forcing his smile a bit wider. "Uh huh. What about you, Mom? Do you need anything? I could run into town and-"
"I'm fine," she sighs, wrapping her arms loosely around herself. "Fine as I can be, I suppose. But… thank you, _. For being my sweet, strong little sky. Y-your papa… he'd be so proud."
The boy can only manage another nod, barely managing to keep it together long enough to watch his mother leave. The moment she does, however… the floodgates finally fly open. He pulls his knees to his chest, sobbing without restraint, once again shedding tears no one else can see. No one… but him.
"You're not ok," he says softly, sympathetically. "Why did you tell her that you were?"
The boy sniffles as he sits up, absently wiping a few of those tears away. "Mom's been so sad since Dad died…" he mutters, despondent. "I don't wanna make her any sadder…"
"But… you're sad too…"
"A-a little, yeah," the boy says, a lie he can see straight through. "But you heard what she said! I gotta be strong for her, which means I can't let her see that I'm sad! She… she's counting on me… She needs me…"
"So many people need you…" he recalls Chirithy's words and for the first time, he thinks he's starting to understand what they mean. And as he continues watching this boy, lost alone in his agony… he's not sure it's a meaning that he likes.
More memories continue to come in as the boy's life slowly starts to return to some level of normalcy. He still misses his father terribly, not that he ever lets anyone know just how deep the pain of that loss really runs. His smiles seem even more forced now, his upbeat attitude barely managing to mask the heartache buried just beneath the surface. It's a mask he's worn so very masterfully for so very long that practically no one is able to see the truth that lies underneath it. A mask he eventually starts to slowly believe for himself, a mask he readily embraces in the hopes that maybe someday, the happiness it mimics might actually become real.
Or at least, that's what he'd like to think.
For the next few years, things are largely routine. The boy continues going to school, continues helping his mother with her cooking, continues spending all of the free time he can spare with Riku and Kairi. Continues living the best he can. Sometimes, his laughter is genuine, sometimes, he thinks, he actually is happy after all. Sometimes, he thinks, the boy might truly be ok after all.
Until…
"So it's settled then," Riku concludes one day as the three of them relax on the play island. They're all teenagers now, still young, but old enough to begin following ambitions as grand as the one he announces next. "We'll build a raft and set sail. There are so many other worlds out there, there has to be. And we're going to see all of them."
"Yeah!" Kairi grins, excited. "It sounds like such an amazing adventure. As long as we're together for it all, it'll be great! Don't you think so, _?"
"Huh?" the boy blinks, finally focusing on the conversation at hand. He's slow to share his friends' eager smiles, slow to jump on board with their lofty plan. But in the end, he still does. Or at least, he pretends to. "Uh… y-yeah… Sounds… awesome…"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Riku grins as he stands. "Let's get started."
Kairi nods, still beaming as she hurries to join him. The boy lingers behind, his false smile slowly fading as he lets out a long, fretful sigh. "They've been talking about this for a while now…" he says quietly. "Leaving the islands and going to see other worlds. Kairi wants to find her old home, Riku wants to see what else is out there, but I…"
"You don't want to leave… do you?" he guesses correctly.
"...I don't want to go out on the ocean," he admits, hugging himself. "That's where Dad…" he trails off, drawing in an unsteady breath. "B-besides… this place… it's my home. I love it here, I always have…" he smiles again, but it once again vanishes in a matter of moments. "Why would I ever want to leave?"
"So then… don't leave," he suggests.
The boy simply shakes his head though, sighing once more. "I have to… It's what they want to do…" he looks up to where Riku and Kairi have already started gathering wood to begin building their raft. "If they leave without me, I might never see them again. I couldn't imagine losing either of them like that. All I want… is to be with them… forever."
To be with them… even if the road they take leads him so far from his home. To be with them… even if he isn't where he wants to be. To be with them… even if it means he has to give up everything he's ever known and loved. To be with them… no matter what it costs.
And yet… no matter how much he might want to be with them… fate still tears him away from them all the same.
Their raft is almost finished when a brutal storm strikes the island one night. A storm that brings strange, shadowy monsters along with it. In that storm, the boy gains a weapon, a Keyblade, he somehow knows, somehow remembers. And in that storm, he loses Riku and Kairi. In that storm, he loses his home. In that storm… he starts to lose everything he ever loved.
The boy is thrown into another world entirely, thrown into a role he'd never thought he'd have to play. As the Keyblade's chosen wielder, he's expected to save the worlds from the darkness overtaking them, or so that's what he's told. He's only 14, still just a child, still far too young to be putting his life on the line like this. But if he ever hopes to find his missing friends, if he ever hopes to return to his ruined home… then he has no other choice.
From that point on, he never seems to, really.
"Hey, why don't you come with us? We can go to other worlds on our ship!" He turns to see the boy meeting an odd pair, a talking duck and a talking dog, from the looks of it. Still, based on the offer they're extending him, they seem friendly enough. He supposes.
"I wonder if I could find Riku and Kairi…" the boy sighs, worried.
"Of course!" the duck hastily exclaims. "But you can't come along looking like that. Understand? No frowning. No sad faces. Okay?"
"Yeah!" the dog chimes in much more cheerfully. "Our ship runs on happy faces!"
"Happy?" the boy questions, uncertain. At least until he shoves on the biggest, silliest smile he can muster. A smile that, he can tell, is just another fake one like all the rest. "Like this?!"
The pair breaks out into a huge bout of laughter, one that's followed by a round of introductions. Donald and Goofy are their names, and he feels another swell of emotions when he learns that. These two, much like Riku and Kairi, must be special to him, but in a different way entirely. In a way that reminds him of how he felt whenever he saw memories featuring the boy's parents, in a way that makes him feel safe and warm and protected.
But even still, there's something about what they'd said to the boy that doesn't sit quite right with him.
"How can you smile when you're missing your friends so much?" he asks, hovering a bit closer to the boy.
"...What else can I do?" he maintains his grin, but it wavers more and more each second. "If this is what'll help me find them, then… I guess I'll just have to keep smiling until I can't anymore."
"But… it isn't a real smile," he points out.
The boy lets out a grim, joyless laugh. "It's real enough. That's all that matters."
And so an adventure unfolds as the boy bounds between countless worlds with his new companions. Along the way, he sees places he could have only imagined, meets friends that quickly become very close to his heart. And all the while, he fights back against the darkness that stole Riku and Kairi away from him, he fights back against the Heartless until he comes face-to-face with the source of it all. A man named Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.
He shudders the very second he sees him, almost immediately feeling that same kind of fear that had coursed through him during that memory long ago. During that moment he'd seen that elderly man confront the boy and his father near the beginning. The two have to be connected somehow, there's no denying that much. But as far as exactly how, he has no idea.
While Ansem had overtaken Riku's heart, Kairi's had found refuge inside of the boy's. He can't help but stop him when he sees the boy prepare to get her out, when he sees him poise a deadly Keyblade just above his very own heart.
"Wait," he urges anxiously. "Don't do this."
"...I have to," the boy smiles, but the fear in his voice is clear. Fear of death… and whatever comes after it. "For her."
So he does. And in doing so… he dies for the very first time. Something tells him it won't be the last.
He expects that to be the end of it, for the tide of memories to be stemmed right then and there. But… the boy's life isn't over. By a miracle of love or light or something else entirely, Kairi brings him back to himself, raises his fallen heart out of the darkness, restores his fading mind and broken body. The boy never lets her or any of his friends see it in the days that follow. But in the spare moments he has to himself, when he looks at the scar he'd dug deep into his own chest, when he thinks about the heart he only narrowly managed to get back… it's all too much for him to take.
"I-I don't want any of them to see this," the boy tells him without even being asked. He hastily covers his scar, quickly wipes the emerging tears from his eyes. "I don't want them to worry about me. They already have enough to worry about as it is."
"But you're still in pain… aren't you?" he asks, already knowing that kind of pain probably isn't physical. It runs much further than skin-deep.
"...Yes…" the boy answers, his voice tight as he runs a hand through his hair. "I am. But… I have to keep going. No matter how much it hurts. I have to keep fighting. I'm the only one who can."
So he keeps on fighting, keeps on searching. Keeps on heading down a dark road that eventually leads him to Riku. A road that leads him to the sinister man behind it all.
"Behold, the endless abyss!" Ansem motions to a grand door when the boy and his companions confront him. "Within lies the heart of all worlds, the dark depths from whence all hearts are born: Kingdom Hearts!"
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts
Open the door
Kingdom Hearts
Open the door
Come home
Come home
He gasps, his immaterial form flickering and flashing as he's overwhelmed by a voice that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere all at once. It startles him to the point that he doesn't even focus on the final battle that ensues, doesn't heed another word that's spoken between either side until-
"You're wrong!" the boy's voice rings out, strong and brave. "I know now, without a doubt: Kingdom Hearts… is light!"
The door flies open, and sure enough, pure, unfettered light pours out of it, banishing Ansem out of existence. And yet, as he watches that light emerge, he can't help but think… that isn't the right door. This isn't the Kingdom…
It isn't Home.
Still separated from his friends, the boy's journey continues to a mysterious castle, enshrouded in shadow. Within its white halls, his memories are shifted and shuffled, faces he'd so recently met forgotten, friends so dear to his heart lost to it entirely. And yet, when he finds the one who's been forced to manipulate those memories, a girl named Naminé… somehow, he isn't even mad. Even though he thinks he has every right to be.
"Why aren't you angry with her?" he asks the boy after watching him reassure her. "She messed with your memories, she nearly took away everything you are!"
"Yeah, but… she didn't want to," the boy counters, though his expression remains unreadable all the while. "They forced her to. She didn't have a choice. I want to help her, but I-"
"Why don't you want to help yourself?" he interrupts, suddenly frustrated. Or at least that's what he figures this feeling must be."Why is it always about helping everyone else? Why do you always give everything you have to others until there's nothing left for yourself?!"
The boy chuckles bitterly, a hand pressed against his heart as he offers a quiet, shameful response. "Because… my friends deserve the world…" he says, his eyes suddenly growing heavy as sleep seems to overtake him. "They deserve everything I can give them… But I…" he begins to fall backward into a strange-looking device. Into a slumber that he's powerless to resist as his final, gentle words echo through the Final World. "I don't deserve anything…"
So… for a year, he sleeps. For a year, his memories stop.
And someone else's memories start instead.
He still gets glimpses of memories that don't belong to the boy at all. Memories from another boy in a black coat, a girl clad just the same. Images of them are faint and fleeting, as if he's watching them through a mirror, muted far more than the boy's had ever been. He only barely gets the softest whispers of their names: the boy is Roxas, the girl–Xion. But as for who they really are, how either of them are connected to the boy, why he's even seeing any of their memories at all… he guesses he'll just have to wait and see.
When the boy finally awakens, he isn't given much of a chance to reorient himself in a world that's changed over the course of a year. Instead, he's thrown into another battle, another war entirely, against a new, far more dangerous foe: a sinister group only known as Organization XIII. Their leader, Xemnas, sends the exact same kind of blind fear rushing through him that Ansem and that elderly man had. That same feeling that makes both him and the boy feel as though everything they are, everything they might stand to someday be, could be wiped out at their hands in only an instant.
The boy visits worlds old and new, helping people wherever he goes out of the kindness of his heart alone. Even still, he continues to search for his friends along the way, getting so close, but never close enough, it seems. Donald and Goofy stick with him, and for their part, support him well. But just like with everyone else, the boy hides his true feelings, his loneliness, his remorse, his fear, away from them well. They told him themselves, after all, that their ship runs on happy faces. So he wears that happy face at almost every turn, keeps that usual smile steady. He fights through peril, through pain, through homesickness, through heartbreak. And even when it all becomes too much to bear, when the burden on his shoulders becomes far too great… he just gets back up and fights some more.
"You ok, _?" Goofy asks the boy after one particularly brutal encounter with one of the Organization's cunning members.
"Y-yeah!" he answers a bit too loudly, a bit too forcefully. "Never better!"
"Are you sure?" Donald asks, raising a critical eyebrow.
"We can take a break, ya need to-"
"No!" the boy rushes to interrupt Goofy. "No breaks. We can't stop. Not until we finish this. Not until we find Riku and Kairi." He presses on, his head hanging low as he mutters something neither of his companions can hear. "Not until they're finally safe and home…"
"But what about you?" he asks the boy as he glides alongside him. "Won't you go home with them?"
"If I make it that long, then yeah, I guess…" he answers, and only now can he see just how exhausted he truly is. Far more exhausted than any 15 year old should be.
"Why wouldn't you make it?"
"I don't know," the boy lets out another empty laugh. "Anything could happen. I could get taken out by the Organization or Maleficent or the Heartless or… anyone, really. I dunno how it happened, but… I've made a lot of enemies. And they've all made it more than clear that they want me out of the picture. So…"
"So you won't fight them if they try to destroy you?" he asks disapprovingly.
"I'll fight them if they try to hurt my friends or the worlds," the boy replies simply as he summons his Keyblade and looks over its silver surface. "They're the only ones that matter. They're the only ones I need to protect."
"Even if you die?" he presses, an edge of anger all his own in his voice.
But even still, the boy smiles as he lets his weapon go. "Even if I die, at least I'll die knowing… that the ones I love most are safe."
He's far from satisfied with the answer he gets, far from satisfied with the way the boy sees things. He doesn't know why it bothers him so much, to watch this boy, so noble and so good, throw his life away for those around him. But it does. It bothers him to the very core of whatever's left of him now. It bothers him in a way that he can't even fully explain, in a way he can't shake even if he tried. And it bothers him even more as his selflessness, his sacrifices, becomes even more dire and desperate as time goes on.
In time, the boy finds his friends and stops the Organization's schemes. He returns to his island home, to the love of his mother, to the peace he'd craved ever since he'd been thrust out on his own. But that peace, like so many things in his life, is never meant to last. With Ansem and Xemnas both gone, a new evil rises to the forefront, a name that terrifies him to the point that it nearly tears him apart when he hears it spoken:
Xehanort.
Their goal is to gather a group of guardians together to put a stop to his schemes, to find lost Keyblade wielders from years ago and bring them back into the light. To this end, the boy and Riku are tested, sent into sleeping worlds to awaken the true power and potential in them both. It isn't long, however, before that test becomes tainted, before the boy's fate takes an even more twisted turn. Before Xehanort himself intervenes and supplants a piece of his vile heart within the boy's very own.
The boy doesn't know at first, he can't fathom the horrors that await him. He still fakes a smile, feigns excitement when Riku is named a Keyblade master over him, still pretends that his lost strength doesn't upset him in the slightest. He's sent to the worlds again, to gather thirteen Keys with the hopes of stopping the new Organization XIII in time. It's only as that search begins that the boy truly learns what's becoming of his heart. And as soon as he does… he decides to keep it all a secret.
He's baffled by such a dangerous decision, one that proves more and more costly with each memory he sees. The boy starts to struggle with darkness, with shadows seeping over his skin, with gold invading his eyes, with white whisping its way into his hair. He's tempted by the allure of sinister new magic, of peculiar powers he can't hope to possibly control. And all the while, even through pain and poisoning and problems far worse than any he's ever faced before… he tells no one. Donald and Goofy find out on accident, but he begs them to keep it between the three of them. He doesn't dare breathe a word to Riku or Kairi or any of their other friends. He doesn't even think about trying to get the help he so obviously, so desperately needs.
And he can't even begin to understand why.
"You need to tell them," he implores the boy as he stands before a mirror, anxiously noting his slowly-changing appearance. "It'll just keep getting worse and worse if you don't."
"I will tell them!" the boy argues tensely. "... When I'm ready to."
"Why won't you tell them now?" he sighs, disgruntled. "You never know when it'll be too late."
"I'll find a way to stop this way before then," the boy assures with faltering confidence. "And if I don't, then… I'll just deal with it. This is my problem to take care of, not theirs. I don't want them knowing I'm too weak to face this… I don't want them to see just how worthless I really am…"
"...You're not worthless…" he whispers, but the boy doesn't hear him as his memories continue.
Sure enough, his condition continues to deteriorate. He runs when he finds he can no longer hide it, runs when he hurts his companions accidentally, runs when he realizes his darkest secrets are set to be revealed. He flees from all of his friends when his foes tell him they'll betray him, as if he hasn't been the one to commit the greatest betrayal of them all.
Even still, when he's slipping so swiftly into the shadows, the boy's thoughts are focused on who he needs to save other than himself. He brings Ventus back from within his heart before turning to the most drastic of measures to do the same for Roxas and Xion. He panics when he watches the boy raise yet another Keyblade to his chest, ready to pierce his own heart all over again.
"Stop!" he pleads with the boy. He only offers him a small, rueful smile in response.
"I can't…" he says tiredly. "I have to get them out. I have to save them… before they end up like me…"
"But you barely made it back the last time you did this," he implores anxiously, desperately. "What if you don't make it back this time?"
"...Good," the boy says without a hint of remorse or regret. "Maybe then this'll all finally be over…" He brushes a few of his whitening locks out of his golden eyes, glares disdainfully down at his darkened hands as he grips the Key a bit tighter. "Maybe if I die… I'll finally be free."
Except… he isn't. In fact, he only ends up trapped even more.
Despite his best efforts to stop him, he can only watch as the boy takes his own life all over again. His sacrifice does release his friends from the depths of his heart… and furthers the corruption spreading through it in the process. His master is the one who revives him this time, refusing to let him die when he's still yet to fulfill his unknown purpose. Terrified of that purpose, of his frightening future, of the monster he's powerless to stop himself from becoming, the boy continues running. Continues hiding from anyone who might want to help him. Continues sinking even further into the shadows each and every day.
He finds the boy sitting alone one night, starving and half-freezing to death. His hands are crimson claws, his hair almost completely white, his body thin to the point of practically wasting away. The tears he sheds are lonely ones, tears that he doesn't dare hide away when his pain is so immense, when he has no one to save face in front of anymore. When he finally has nothing left to lose.
"Why did you run away?" he asks gently. "And why won't you go back?"
"I-If I go back… they'll chain me up… just like t-the master said…" the boy mutters morosely. "I mean… why wouldn't they? Just look at me! Even if I hadn't stolen the Oracle or the Rift, even if I hadn't hurt Donald and Goofy, even if I hadn't killed all those people… they'd still want to get rid of me. I wish they would… Stars, I wish they could." He chokes out a sob as he stares up at the endless sky above. "Anything would be better than what he wants me to be…"
"...Do you really think they hate you enough to lock you away?" he asks, not buying what the boy's been told. Not after everything he's heard and seen.
"They should hate me!" the boy shouts hotly, miserably. "I'm a horrible person! I'm weak and stupid and selfish–I'm a coward, a liar, a fraud! That's all I've ever been! They don't know who I really am–heck, I don't know who I am anymore! Maybe…" he pulls his knees to his chest, wraps his hood tighter around his head as he sinks even further into grief. "Maybe I never really did to begin with…"
Because after spending his entire life hiding behind a mask, how could he possibly know what truly lies beneath it?
Without that mask and the protection it used to provide him, the boy's sorrow is on full display. It hangs heavy over him even when he eventually returns to his friends, even when he hears them offer him empty promises of safety and salvation, of a life somewhere past the struggles he knows now. But it's far too late for any of that, he knows it is. It's far too late when his master seems to strike his friends down in front of him, it's far too late when he finally follows his foes into the darkness.
It's far too late when he officially joins the ranks of Organization XIII.
As their thirteenth member, the boy is treated exactly like the prisoner, like the slave he is. Yet against the cruelty and torture they subject him to, he never once opposes or fights back. Mostly because he can't, with his heart held so tightly under their control, but even if he could, he wouldn't. Not when he earnestly thinks he's finally getting exactly what he deserves.
He tries to argue with the boy, tries to tell him no one deserves this kind of awful oppression, much less someone like him. But his words fall into silence when the boy is faced with a revelation that shatters what little is left of him altogether. When they both discover the terrible truth behind that bizarre encounter on the beach so many years ago.
"T-the master…" the boy breathes, barely able to speak as he falls to his knees. "He's my… my…"
"Grandfather…" he finishes, shaken with disbelief.
"I should have known," the boy shakes his head with a tearful laugh. "Why else would I be the way that I am? After all, it's like they say… like grandfather, like grandson…"
"But… you're nothing like him…" he protests sternly. He's seen Xehanort's cruelty unfold, watched him drive his own flesh and blood even further into self-hatred and despair. He's seen this wicked man cause the boy so much pain, watched him tear this once beautiful, once innocent life apart. He's watched this twisted tyrant beat such a courageous and caring boy down until he couldn't fight anymore, until he couldn't do anything other than surrender to his dark designs. He's seen Xehanort do so many awful things that the boy never would, and yet…
"I'm exactly like him!" he snaps fiercely. "I'm like him because I'm a monster, just like he is! That's all I've ever been. And… once he gets his way… that's all I'll ever be…"
"If you're a monster, then you're only like that because he made you into one!" he protests, wishing he could make the boy see that. But of course, he doesn't.
"No," he stands, hugging himself tightly as he turns away. "I was born to be like this. I was born to do exactly what Grandfather wants: to destroy everything. And in a few days… that's exactly what he'll make me do…"
"But-" he's cut off when the boy's final few memories unfold far too fast. It all culminates in a battle he never thought he'd see, with the boy being forced to fight his two best friends, the loves of his life. But in the end, the boy finds a way to give it all for Riku and Kairi one final time. In the end, he offers up the only sacrifice he has left to make.
In the end… he dies by his master's blade. In his death, his heart births another blade entirely.
And then… it all stops.
There are no more memories, he realizes as the Final World falls back into stated silence once more. There's nothing left to see, nothing left to hear, nothing left to find. No life left to remember.
The boy had died. At the young age of 17, he'd been murdered by his very own grandfather. After enduring so much suffering and sadness, he'd been dealt only with death in exchange for it all. After giving everything he possibly could across his entire life… he'd been left with nothing in the end. Nothing but the knowledge that through his death, so many others will follow.
He looks down at his reflection in the water again, still seeing nothing more than a few scattered lights glowing dimly on its surface. If the boy's memories truly were his own… he's not so sure the life he'd lived is one worth returning to. Once again, he wonders if it'd be better if he just stayed here, if he let the last few tethers tying him to that life loosen altogether. He wonders if, perhaps in death, he might finally get a taste of the kind of peace, the kind of true, earnest happiness he never got to see in life.
Even if that means… he'll have to find that happiness on his own.
He nearly resigns himself to that fate, to this world, to death itself. Nearly relinquishes all thoughts of ever going back to any of the pain and hardships he'd once known. But then… suddenly, he sees another memory. Another glimpse of the boy when he thought there weren't any left to find.
He sits alone on the surface of the sea, clad in a black coat, dark wings raised wide from his back, antennas pressed tight against his head. He floats over to the boy, unable to quell his curiosity as he watches him sob softly into his clawed hands, lost to his grief all over again. Yet… something feels… different about watching him this time, more important, more personal. Though he's gotten frustrated with the boy more times than he can count in watching his life unfold… he still settles into the space beside him. He still tries to do what he can to help him, just as he's watched him help so many others before.
"You're lost, aren't you?" he asks softly.
"Yes," the boy's voice is barely above a whisper. "I've been lost for a very long time… And the funny thing is… I'm not so sure I even want to be found…"
"...Why not?"
"They're all better off without me…" the boy rests his head on his knees as he hugs them tight. "Everyone is… Now that I'm gone, maybe… maybe they'll be ok…"
"What about you?" he asks the same question he's repeated so many times before.
The boy laughs, though it's quick to shift into a sob. "Who cares about me?"
"Everyone you left behind does," he answers knowingly. Even so, the boy doesn't believe him.
"Even if that's true, they won't for much longer," the boy sighs sadly. "Once Grandfather uses me to control the Kingdom… there won't be anything left. Every place I've ever been to, everyone I've ever met… they'll all be gone!" His voice hitches into something sharper, something even sadder as his golden eyes shine with tears. He seems so out of place here, in a beautiful world of bright blue skies and sea. A black and white blemish tainting a paradise full of flawless color. "They'll be gone, the worlds will be gone, everything will DIE! AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF ME!"
The boy's voice echoes through the serenity of the Final World, piercing its peaceful waters, rattling him to his very core. He still keeps his focus on the boy though as he continues crying, as he continues hating himself, just like he always has. And the longer he watches him, the more he starts to realize how little sense that makes. The more he starts to realize nothing has ever been as it should be. The more he starts to realize…
"...It's not your fault…" he says, his voice so quiet even he can barely hear it.
"W-what?" the boy looks over at him, caught off guard.
"It's not… your fault…" he repeats slowly, as if he's in awe of what he's saying. Which by all accounts, he is. "It's not… my fault…"
He hesitates, briefly glancing at the boy again. He says nothing, simply staring expectantly, silently prompting him to continue. So… he does.
"What happened to me… what that prophecy said I was born to become… None of that is my fault," he says, words falling out of him faster than he can even think them through. "I had no control over any of that! I did everything I could to stop it, and e-even though I made so many mistakes along the way, I still tried! I still want the worlds–my friends–to be safe! That's all I've ever wanted! Everything I've ever done… it's all been for them!"
"And… I guess that's how I ended up here in the first place," he admits solemnly as he stares down at his bodiless reflection in the water. "I spent so long living my life for everyone else… I never thought I could just live for… me…"
The boy still says nothing, still lets him continue figuring it all out on his own. And here, in a world beyond all of the fear and dark forces that had clouded his thoughts before… he somehow finds that's so much easier to do. "I always thought thinking like that was selfish… That if I thought too much about myself, it would make me even worse than I already thought I was. But… I was wrong…" his voice is soft, but sincereas he tells himself a truth he's always tried to deny. A truth he should have known from the very start. "I shouldn't have to just live for one or the other. Why can't I live for my friends… and for myself?"
"...If I go back, maybe… maybe I can," he gains another newfound feeling, something that can only be described as hope. Hope he hasn't known either in death, or in life, in so very, very long. "I don't love myself… maybe I never will… But I know plenty of people who do. And if I go back to them, then… maybe they can help me learn how to feel that way about myself. Maybe they can help me understand how they can look at me and see someone who's worth being loved after all…"
He wishes he could smile, but he settles for feeling the rush of warmth that swirls within him all the same. He laughs, in spite of himself at how silly he feels, at how wrong he really has been for such a long time. "I can't believe it… I spent so long wishing I was dead, and now that I actually am, all I want now is to be alive again. I want to go home, I want to be with my friends. I know my life was so full of pain and sadness, but… they're what made it all worth living."
"Mm…" the boy finally pipes up, closing his eyes as he leans forward a bit. His tears are gone, his expression contemplative as he poses a question that's so simple, and so complicated, all at once. "So… what will you do?"
"...You're me," he points out, chuckling. "So you probably already know. But… before I go… I think it's time to finally do something I've never done before." He hesitates, staring at the boy, and seeing so much beyond the monstrous features he's been forced to take on. He sees him all the way to his heart, to his soul, in all the ways he's never thought to look at him before. He sees someone who's kind, someone who cares, someone who makes the lives of everyone around him so much brighter and better. He sees… himself.
And perhaps for the first time in his entire life… he likes what he sees.
"I… I forgive you," he says, no matter how much of a struggle such forgiveness might be. No matter how hard he's been on himself, no matter how much he might still hate himself… he still decides to make this small, starting effort all the same. "I forgive myself…"
The boy finally smiles, the gold slowly draining out of his eyes, his hair subtly shifting back to brown. The wings, the fangs, the claws, the antennas, they all disappear, the black coat becomes something more friendly and familiar. And as this quiet transformation unfolds, the boy leans forward, wrapping his arms around him and whispering what he's been searching for all this time. The most fundamental memory of them all:
His name.
"...Thank you… Sora."
He gasps as his eyes fly open, feelings flooding back to him that are far different than the emotions he'd felt small traces of. Because now… he feels his feet standing upon the solid water, he feels his hands hanging by his sides, he feels his mouth slowly sliding into a smile. He feels a body again where there was none before. He feels whole.
Well… almost whole, at least.
His pleased surprise is quick to shift into something else when he finally looks down at himself, however. He finds that he's still wearing that black coat, that his hands still bear those deadly claws, that his reflection still shows white hair and yellow eyes. All things that only stay for a moment or two before it all shifts completely.
Sora gasps when he watches his appearance change in an instant. His natural appearance returns, his outfit going back to what he'd worn on his second journey through the worlds. He looks a bit younger, only to turn younger still mere seconds later when he's thrown back into how he looked when he was only about four or five. Those shifts keep coming almost instantaneously, randomly pushing him across ages and appearances, from four to fourteen to sixteen to seven and everything in between. Sometimes his hair is white, sometimes it's brown, sometimes he doesn't even get to see what color it is before it changes all over again.
"What in the worlds…?" he trails off when he watches himself go back and forth between child and teenager. He would have thought he'd feel more stable with an actual body to call his own. But now, he feels even more scattered and scrambled than he did when he was nothing more than a cloud of shapeless stars.
"Looks like you're still missing your final piece…"
Sora starts, spinning around to see a familiar face. "Chirithy!" he exclaims, surprised to hear a much younger voice coming out of his mouth. "Um… I don't know what's-"
"You haven't settled on who you want to be yet," Chirithy is quick to explain. "That's why your appearance keeps shifting. You still don't have a physical form here–your body is back in the living world, after all. But the illusionary form you do have here should be reflecting what's inside of your heart. And right now… your heart doesn't know who you are…"
"B-but I know who I am!" he exclaims as he goes from fourteen to seventeen in the blink of an eye. "Um… I'm Sora, by the way," he musters a smile as he leans down to Chirithy's level. "Sorry for not getting a chance to introduce myself before."
Chirithy chuckles, shaking the clawed hand he holds out for them to shake. "I already knew who you are. But thanks."
Sora is undoubtedly confused as he rises to stand, by what Chirithy just said and by so many other things, really. "So… if my heart doesn't know who I am, then… maybe I can fill in the gaps for it?" he ventures, glancing around the sea stretching on far past the horizon. "I need to find my way back to my body and my heart. I need to get back to my friends."
"Are you sure about that?" Chirithy asks a bit coyly. "Before, you made it sound like you wanted to stay here…"
"...I did…" Sora admits, glancing down at his ever-changing reflection. "I didn't want to go back and face all of the pain and sadness I always used to feel when I was alive… I wanted all of it to be over, I wanted to rest, but now… Now, I know that I can't let go, not yet. Not when there's still people who need me to make their lives better. Not when I still need to start making my life better too for a change…"
"About time you finally figured that out," Chirithy crosses their arms. "You've still got a lot of healing left to do between your body, your heart, and your mind. And though you've already gotten a bit of a head start, you'll never be able to fully finish that healing here."
"I know," Sora nods, accepting what he knows he needs to do. "I have to go back. It won't be easy, and… to be honest, I'm actually really scared of whatever I might have to face out there, but… if I can do something, anything to fix this mess, to save the worlds, save my friends, save myself… then I'll do it. So…" his solemn resolve turns to apprehension as he looks around the Final World once more. "How do I get out of here anyway?"
"Whoa, slow down!" Chirithy chastises. They barely suppress a laugh when Sora, now only six, pouts in impatient frustration. "Remember what I told you before? To be whole again, you need to piece your past back together again, make peace with your present, and find a glimpse of your future. You've already managed to get your memories back, you even found a way to reconcile with who you are now. But your future… well…"
"How am I supposed to find a piece of my future?" Sora asks incredulously, not even noticing that he's now 12. "As far as I know, I don't even have a future. Not if my grandfather gets his way…"
"Mmm… you might be surprised about that…" Chirithy mutters mysteriously. "But for now, let's focus on the future. I've gotta admit, I'm a little confused… Your final piece should be here along with all the rest. But… I'm not sensing any other parts of you anywhere here in the Final World…"
"Neither am I…" Sora shakes his head before looking down at his 11-year old reflection. "Do you think it could be somewhere else?"
"Uh… maybe?" Chirithy taps their chin. "I really wish they'd been more specific about some of the finer details of all this…"
"Wish who'd been more specific?" Sora questions, only for Chirithy to quickly deflect once again.
"Ah! D-don't worry about it! It doesn't really matter," they squeak anxiously.
"...Ok then…" Sora sighs, still perplexed by this strange little creature. At the very least, though, they're set on helping him when he clearly needs it most. Even if they seem to lack the most crucial answers of them all for some reason. "Lemme think for a sec…"
He's only about eight when he closes his eyes to ponder their problem. He's not sure what guides him a moment or two later as he resumes the appearance of his present self. He doesn't know why he lets his hand drift upwards, but he does know why a Keyblade doesn't appear in it when he tries to summon one. Lingering grief slips through his soul when he remembers the agonizing moment the Kingdom Key had shattered in his hands. Without it, he has no weapon, no magic, no power to pull himself out of a place like this where he would have been able to before.
Or so he thinks.
He still keeps his hand held out as he's thrown back to five years old. A sharp, tiny breath escapes him as his eyes suddenly fly open, pure black and pure white, something that only Chirithy sees as they watch on curiously. A gentle glow forms around his outstretched hand, a glow that moves to settle over the glassy water before him. It solidifies itself into a glimmering gateway, a portal, a path out into somewhere beyond. A path that, by all accounts, should have been impossible to create without a Keyblade.
But Chirithy has been told that Sora has done the impossible before. So why should something like this be any more surprising than all the rest?
"Whoa…" Sora gasps at the sight of the portal, bewildered as he stares down at his ten year old hands. "Did I… make that?"
"Well, I certainly didn't," Chirithy says, stepping a bit closer. "The pieces of yourself you've already found, your past and your present, must have called out to wherever your future is waiting. So… what are you waiting for? Go on in there and see what you find!"
Despite this encouragement, Sora stays put, biting his lip as he stares at the portal ahead. He can't deny that he's nervous, especially when he remembers what his grandfather intends for his future to be. The last thing he wants is to walk through that portal and find himself a permanent prisoner within whatever twisted world his master might use him to make. The last thing he wants is to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he truly is doomed after all.
"Is something wrong?" Chirithy asks, noting his hesitance.
"I… I'm scared…" he admits, rubbing his arm. He's only four now, so young and so fragile, something that never seems to change no matter what age he is. Something he's always been, no matter how strong he's tried to make himself seem. "I don't know what I'll see in there. I… I don't want to go it alone." He pauses, glancing over at Chirithy as a sudden idea blooms to life. "Will… will you go with me, Chirithy?"
"What?!" the creature gawks, bewildered. "I can't go with you! I'm not allowed to-"
"Please?" Sora presses. Even though he's 16 now, he still feels so much like a little child, begging for companionship, for company, for a friend. "I can't do this by myself, I… I need help…" The smallest of laughs escapes him at such irony, that after refusing and rejecting help so many times before in life, he'd finally find the strength to ask for it only now, only in death.
"But I… I…" Chirithy trails off when they meet the boy's pleading, almost tearful stare. They feel so bad for him, they have ever since they'd been sent here to guide him, to get him back on track. Despite what he is, despite what he's destined to be… he's still just a human, just a child, just a boy. And even beyond that… he's still so much like someone else Chirithy used to know, so much like someone they used to care so very much about. Which is why… "Oh, I'm going to get in so much trouble for this, but… ok," they finally relent with a heavy sigh. "I'll go with you."
Sora smiles, standing only a bit taller than Chirithy at 7 as he extends a hand out toward them. "Thank you," he says as their hands meet and they turn to face the portal together. "Well… h-here we go, I guess…"
"Into the unknown…" Chirithy says quietly as they step forward together. As they pass through the portal into the future. As they pass through into whatever that future might bring.
Except…
They emerge outside of the Final World, onto a cliffside dotted with flowers. Sora still rapidly shifts between ages as he blinks against the early morning sunlight rising up from the distant horizon. He steps a bit closer to the cliff's edge to find that sun shines upon a large, elegant city below. Quaint homes and shops bask in the glow of such a beautiful dawn, a massive clock tower standing tall and proud above it all. Though it reminds him of Twilight Town in a way he can't quite figure out, he's certain he's never seen this place before. But even if he hasn't, Chirithy has.
"...No way…" they gasp, their beady eyes wide as they take in the town below them.
"What?" Sora asks, frowning as he looks their way. "What's wrong? Where are we?"
"This… this isn't right…" Chirithy shakes their head, perplexed. "This isn't the future at all!"
"Huh?" Sora asks, completely lost. "How do you know that?"
"Because, this is where I came from!" Chrithy exclaims in a panic. "This is a world that doesn't exist anymore, a place that was destroyed long before you were even born!"
"I… don't understand," Sora looks back toward the city, so peaceful, so beautiful, so pure. He can't imagine a place like this ever facing death or destruction, just as much as he can't help but hope that missing piece of his future really is here after all. It's far better than what he'd been expecting, after all. Far better than anything he'd ever anticipated his grandfather would create.
Chirithy, however, is far from allayed as they try to make sense of how they got here. As they try to make sense of why a piece of Sora's future would somehow be in a place, in a time so far away from all the rest. "Don't you see? We're not in the future, we're in the past!"
"The… past?" Sora repeats, dumbfounded. At first, he thinks Chirithy must be right, that he must have made a mistake. And yet… he still feels a connection to this place somehow, the same connection that he traced to get here in the first place. A connection to that final piece he still needs to be whole. "So this…?"
"This…" Chirithy finishes where he leaves off as they both peer into the massive, mysterious city below. A city that holds so much life to meet… and so many secrets to unravel. A city where a piece of the far future somehow waits within the distant past. "This is Daybreak Town…"
Ohoohohoh boy things just got even more interesting huh? Let's just say if this chapter was the emotional payoff, the next chapter will involve a lot of... lore payoff (if you're into that sorta thing, also non cannonical lore payoff bc KH lore is sometimes kinda really stupid so I kinda wrote my own lore, shut up). Anyway if you like what you saw here don't forget to leave me a REVIEW! Until next time!