Chapter Twenty Five: Father

Journal: Day Seven

There was so much that happened today, I'm not sure where to start.

Well, Naminé has a keyblade now! She managed to call on it to keep me safe during our mission. Even if Marluxia and Larxene don't care, I'm glad for her.

…

It's strange. I shouldn't have a heart to feel happy or sad, but ever since meeting Naminé it seems easier for me to understand what it's like. And part of me just wants to say it. Wants to say how I am, what I feel.

I think I want to love.

But I was so close to slipping away in my fight with Kairi. To give it up to the darkness just to win. But then she managed to talk me out of it.

She seemed to care more about me than Marluxia and Larxene. Should we really be treating them as enemies?

"This has got to be one of the worst worlds I've seen." Roxas groaned as he continued to trudge through the puddles of who-knows-what that lined Monstro's guts.

Zexion shivered as he looked away from another spasm of the intestinal walls. "This is not exactly a world. Still, I agree his insides are far from pleasant."

Axel ducked his head under some overhanging organs as they continued deeper into the depths of the creature and muttered, "Kinda makes you wonder why our target would wander around here in the first place."

Roxas definitely shared the sentiment. Marluxia's intended training for today was intended to simulate Sora's experience here. To retrieve a lost puppet that could move on its own and wandered around in this world. The catch being that he and Naminé would be doing the bulk of the fighting. A way to make sure she was getting up to speed. Despite that, Axel and Zexion managed to persuade Marluxia to let them come along in case something unexpected showed up, like an out of control heartless or even Ansem.

Crossing his arms, Roxas looked over the area the four of them had come to. An overlook on one of the larger rooms, or rather what passed for rooms in the intestines of Monstro. A variety of openings leading onward and, hopefully one of them was toward their target. "Now, where is that puppet?"

"Pinocchio," Naminé spoke aloud before she looked over to Roxas, who glanced back in confusion. "His name is Pinocchio.

Roxas furrowed his brow as he realized, "It's a little weird they wouldn't tell us his name." Especially if they were looking for him. Come to think of it, Marluxia didn't even have much of a description for what they were looking for beyond 'moving puppet'.

Did he really care about this training?

Axel rolled his eyes as he moved over to Roxas and crossed his arms. "Do we really care about a wooden puppet's name?" To be fair, it was a comparatively small detail, but it would still have been nice.

Zexion cupped his chin as he surveyed the room they were in. "To be fair, it does possess magic of some kind that gives the appearance of sentience. So a unique name isn't unwarranted."

Roxas couldn't help but tilt his head at the words Zexion said. While they seemed to fit the sentence, he had no idea what they meant. Axel just shook his head and turned to Zexion with a smirk. "There you go again, showing off your thesaurus." Roxas sighed, as he had no idea what that was either. Axel continued with a shrug, "Either way, it doesn't have a heart, so it's not much more of a person then us."

It was a small fact. One that Roxas had known since the first day of his existence. But now hearing it stung. A reminder that his dreams and questions might not be anything of worth. That what little substance his being did have was insignificant.

Judging from the wince from Naminé, the thought crossed her mind as well.

The darkness began to gather into heartless before them on the level below. More and more soldiers had arrived, but now they were accompanied by large heartless with dog faced shields. Naminé took a step back from the edge and glanced over to Roxas. "They seem a bit strong."

Roxas nodded as he saw the monsters sizing them up. Even from here, he could tell these were a bit more than most Heartless. But even so, he wasn't alone, and neither was Naminé."We can do it, together," Roxas encouraged as he called on his keyblade.

Naminé slowly held out her hand and called out her weapon before glancing over to Roxas and nodding. The two jumped down, beginning to slash their way through the heartless soldiers. Roxas dashed toward the defenders, catching their attention and leaving Naminé free to stop them with a barrage of magic ice from her keyblade. As more of the group fell, Naminé began to smile. "It's tough, but I think we can handle the heartless."

Roxas grinned as he twirled his keyblade and shouted, "And if we can handle them, we can handle this mission!"

It had become very clear that they were having a hard time handling this mission.

Not exactly due to combat, the two had managed to keep up with the heartless so far. Even to the point that Axel and Zexion were at a bit of a loss of what to do. Granted, Axel didn't mind the chance to relax a bit more. No, the thing which had vexed them was one simple mundane fact.

"We're lost."

Axel sighed at Roxas' observation before giving a half hearted reassurance. "We're not lost, we just got turned around."

"A distinction without a difference," Zexion muttered as he continued to avoid having some stomach juice fall on his book's pages. Only for his movement to ensure a bit of bile landed on his shoulder. Though Roxas had been lucky so far, he shared the misery. All this world had been was heartless and guts.

As Zexion grumbled and wiped the gunk away, Naminé hesitated before turning to the group and asking, "Maybe we should go find Geppetto to regain our bearings?"

Axel and Zexion paused and looked at each other, Axel gesturing for the latter to give some kind of explanation. But for once it seemed Zexion was stumped, as he shook his head in silence. So Roxas asked the question that had seemed to be mutual among the three of them. "Who's Geppetto?

Naminé glanced at Axel and Zexion, raising an eyebrow and asking, "You don't know about him?" As the three shook their heads, she took a breath and began to explain, "He originally carved the puppet before magic made Pinocchio come alive. He's like Pinocchio's father."

Even though he had never heard the word before, Roxas held a hand to his chest as something inside began to ache. "A father?" From how Naminé described Geppetto, it sounded like a father was a creator, though perhaps something more.

Naminé nodded and began to lead down one of the tunnels. "He was very worried for his son, so he might know—."

"It's just a puppet, Naminé." Only for Axel to bring her to a halt verbally and literally as he put his hand firmly on her shoulder "Not even that, this a memory of a puppet. Once we wrap up here it's gone."

Zexion began to chuckle as he moved over to Roxas. "Not to mention, It's a bit silly calling the carpenter the puppet's father."

Roxas had no clue if it was actually silly, but from how Naminé had described Geppetto the connection he had with Pinocchio couldn't be small. As Axel and Zexion began to move forward, Roxas couldn't help but call out, "But he matters enough to him for Geppetto to worry, right?" His words caused the two other Organization members to stop and turn back to him. Glancing between themselves, they had no answer. Even as they were so sure Geppetto's bond with Pinocchio was a joke, they had no idea what either of them were really like.

Again, it was Naminé who began to explain, "He left the safety of Traverse Town just to find Pinocchio."

Axel sighed and scratched the back of his head. "He's a lonely old carpenter. He'd be attached to anything that'd give him companionship."

Roxas furrowed his brow and stepped forward, asking firmly, "Does Pinocchio care about Geppetto too?" They had to know this, especially if they were going to so much trouble to find him in this mission.

Zexion held up a finger as he began to recall, "From what I recall of the reports, he has a habit of running off on his own. Not exactly an obedient son."

But Naminé wasn't backing down, answering as she placed a hand to her chest, "But no matter what, he finds his way home. Even if he needs some help."

"HEEEELP! GET ME OUTTA HERE!"

The four of them whipped their heads toward the other end of the room, where they heard a boy shouting from one of the passageways. Roxas looked back to the three of them before calling the Kingdom Key to his hand. "Guess we're going to be that help now."

The sound of yelling brought the four of them to the depths of Monstro's stomach, right where the stomach acid had settled to digest whatever the whale ate. Roxas and Naminé had their keyblades ready for the heartless waiting for them. Though only Naminé knew what they faced.

But even though she had seen Sora's memories of it, the actual Parasite cage looming over them was still daunting. It was about twice Axel's height, with winding arms the monster held in front of itself. And in the second mouth of its enormous stomach, they could see Pinocchio trapped behind the massive jaw.

Axel stood by the entrance to the stomach and clapped his hands together. "Alright, you think the two of you can handle this?"

Naminé tightened her grip, as she was a step away from her first fight with a major heartless. Even though she had some practice with a keyblade, this was going to be big.

But there was one fact that she held on to.

That she wasn't alone.

With a glance to Roxas and a mutual nod, she firmly answered, "Okay, we can do this."

And the two charged forward. The parasite cage began to swing its limbs, having plenty of reach to hit both of them with one sweep. But as they dodged its attacks, Roxas then parried one of its arms, knocking it wide and staggering the heartless. Rushing in, he began to attack the creature from its belly, fruitless as it was.

For a moment, fear tingled in Naminé's mind. It would be distressingly easy for him to slip back into the dark to try and force the monster into submission. And while Zexion might be slightly interested in seeing if the heartless would break under a darkness powered beatdown, she was sure that was something no-one here wanted.

She took aim at the monster's small, more vulnerable head and began to cast fire. If nothing else, to try and end the fight faster. The creature recoiled at the barrage, catching Roxas' attention. Stepping back, he nodded in realization."Of course! That's where it's weak!" Naminé sighed in relief as it seemed the darkness was abating in the moment.

"Thanks Naminé!"

Only for that relief to vanish as two simple words left her stunned.

Shaking her head, she began to move to find an angle of attack while Roxas whaled away at the heartless' front. Taking advantage of the distraction, she ducked under a flailing arm and began to strike the back of its head. The creature flailed its arms before jabbing the tendrils into the pools of acid. Realizing what was coming Naminé dropped back to the floor, as did Roxas. The strange appendages began to drink before the head began to spew a cloud of acid around its weak point. She held her keyblade, unsure of how to proceed. "We could wait for the cloud to clear."

"Or we could show it that acid won't work." Roxas countered as he began to aim at the head with his keyblade. Nodding, Naminé followed suit, and the two began to pelt the heartless with all the magic they could muster. Fire and ice pelted the creature in both directions until their reserves ran dry. By then the creature was reeling, opening its jaw wide enough that Pinocchio could be seen.

Roxas ran up and jumped up to the open maw, crying out, "Take my hand!" A second later, Pinocchio was pulled free from the parasite cage's mouth in stomach. Quickly, Roxas carried the puppet to a safe alcove and hurriedly reassured, "Wait here, I'll be right back."

He rejoined the fight quickly, a Firestorm blazing around him as he leapt to attack the exposed core. Following his lead, Naminé joined in the assault to finish the massive heartless for good. With one final swing from the two of them, the core cracked, and the heartless began to dissipate into darkness once more. Jumping to the ground, Naminé was struggling between catching her breath and wanting to laugh. "We…we did it! We really did it!"

Roxas smiled and put a hand to her shoulder, "You were great Naminé." For a moment, they both enjoyed their first victory together. But then Roxas ran over to where he had set down Pinocchio to help him up. "Now hold on! We're going to get you to your father!"

"Roxas, he's not real. We can go."

Axel's voice didn't stop Roxas from getting the puppet to his feet. As Pinocchio looked to him and to the group, Roxas turned to Axel with a small frown and quietly asked, "Do we really have to?"

Zexion shook his head as he began to walk towards the exit that appeared. "To be frank, I'm not sure if Geppetto is even in this memory."

Naminé knew that Axel and Zexion were right. Not only was this just a memory, but Pinocchio and Geppetto had long since been freed and found their way home. Furthermore, she was ordered to keep the worlds Roxas was in streamlined, focused on fights and training instead of people.

On the other hand, Sora's journey wasn't just about the fights, wasn't it?

And Roxas cared about it too, judging by how he hesitated to just leave Pinnochio alone.

So with that in mind, she nudged the memory ever so slightly.

"Pinocchio? Pinocchio, where are you?"

Roxas, Axel, and Zexion stopped and looked back at the unfamiliar voice of an old man. Pinocchio, however, recognized it immediately and ran towards the entrance of the room where the voice came from. "Father!"

As Geppetto walked into the room, his worried face brightened as he saw his son running towards him. As the two hugged in reunion, he looked to the four of them with a smile, "I don't know who you are, but thank you for finding my boy."

Axel scratched the back of his head before waving a hand and resuming his walk to the exit. "Don't mention it."

Roxas was more appreciative, as he seemed to return Geppetto's cheer. "Glad to help." He stood and watched as the small unconventional family began their walk back before heading to the exit. Naminé couldn't help but smile herself.

"Was that really necessary?"

Zexion's words caused that smile to falter as she turned towards him. He wasn't angry, though with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow, it was clear he knew that the memory was shifted and wanted answers. "We had been doing fine with focused memories up to now."

Naminé folded her hands behind her back as she explained, "It wasn't a big change." Granted, Monstro itself was more complicated due to Riku's presence. But having him here would be far more of a liability. So a Denouement for the story wasn't too much trouble. Especially if it mattered to Roxas.

Looking back, it was surprising how much Roxas had come to care. Not just about her, but about the people he'd met, memory or not. She didn't want that part of him to just vanish.

For now, Zexion sighed in acceptance before making his way to the exit. "Well, I suppose he shouldn't be distracted going into a fight with Sora."

And with that reminder of Roxas' other assignment today, Naminé was very grateful that she had intervened.