A/N: I've decided on how to make this a standalone fic. Every scene where there's both a Nobody and a Somebody I'll tell from both sides; Nobodies this fic, Somebodies in Trinity. Well, sometimes it might get confusing, but what the hell. Here's the story so far in a nutshell: Sora, Key to Kingdom Hearts, releases Organization XIII from wherever they go when they fade. Roxas and Naminé find out exactly how it feels to be Nobodies in the middle of a crowd of Somebodies. Xemnas tries to keep his Order from killing each other (take note of the word try!). Aaand... ah. Axel and Larxene are currently sharing a room, much to a particular Berserker's disdain, who's now trying to get Vexen to lend him his pink, fluffy earmuffs (that are, by the way, originally Marluxia's).
Enough ranting. On with it.
Disclaimer: Oh, aren't you tired of me saying that Kingdom Hearts ain't mine?
VI: Once, TwiceThrice
"You," she couldn't stop herself from hissing at Kairi, her hands itching to place themselves around the redhead's neck. Yes, when Nobodies get mad, they were violent. Partly because they shouldn't be feeling mad in the first place simply because they couldn't feel. She watched Kairi leap off gracefully the paopu tree she was sitting on a second ago and land on the sand. (If it was a gymnastics routine she'd clap her hands, but right now she'd rather do something she'd not rather say aloud.) She slowly backed into the wooden door that opened into the main beach.
"Naminé, what...?"
"Why? Why does he still love you!" she screamed furiously, hardly able to breathe. Kairi had fallen silent, her purple eyes staring fearfully into hers. "TELL ME WHY!"
"I don't know, Naminé! I don't know why Riku loves me! I didn't even know he still cared about me!"
Don't know my assshe was tempted to say; but that wouldn't exactly make Kairi answer her question, would it? It was pretty obvious that Kairi knew Riku still loved her, no matter how he ignored her. If she didn't know anything about it then why in hell was she still holding him back? She screamed her last thought aloud at her Other.
To which she replied (in a very distraught voice, she might add, Naminé rarely got angry) "I'm not holding him back! You can be his girlfriend for all I care!"
She felt her jaw drop open; did Kairi have psychic powers or something to be able to read her mind like that? Had her connection to the princess as her Nobody still existed, even if she had already unmerged? Now that was a scary idea. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she noticed that Kairi had opened the door and was already running out to the other side.
She's running away! Her thoughts screamed at her, which in turn, she screamed out loud. She was not going to get away with this! "Kairi! Come back here!"
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Roxas vaguely heard Sora complain something about hedges and close encounters with stupid hedges. He had pulled (more like pushed by force) his Other down behing some very convenient Gysahl bushes nearby the docks where they were sparring moments before.
Well, it was a fairly balanced match, him and the brunette Wielder. Even if he could use two Keyblades at once, Sora kept knocking both out of his grip with Strike Raids. That was a very good technique, seeing that he still couldn't Recall his Keyblades whenever they got out of his hands (which Sora, obviously, took to his advantage). He had suggested Sora to Drive, but for some reason he couldn't. Or maybe he was just pretending he couldn't so he could annoy the hell out of Roxas with his Strike Raids. He did that all the time. He winced at the glare Sora threw him as he held up a very battered arm (hey, it was his fault he almost dove behind the bushes and got his arm badly hurt. At least nothing was broken; he'd give Sora a Potion later.)
"Sora, there's somebody coming!"
Sora's brows furrowed together. "And so what?" Roxas could almost hear him thinking about what was wrong with somebody seeing them sparring together (aside from some particular rabid fangirls, well, if they saw them...he'd not really think about it.) Well, nothing was wrong about someone seeing them together, but he really had a particular feeling that he had actually heard Naminé scream vehemently a while ago. And he had seen (while Sora was busy casting a Blizzaga) seagulls suddenly fly over them from the other side of the island, as if something had spooked them off.
A wooden door on one side of the rock face suddenly burst open, revealing Kairi slowly backing away from a very mad Naminé. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Sora open his mouth, probably to yell at him why again they were hiding. He quickly clamped a hand over his Other's mouth, praying that he wouldn't bite (unlike the last time he did; he considered getting rabies shots) or make a very loud scene. "Shhh! Sora, keep quiet!" he hissed.
Sora only rolled his eyes and motioned for him to get his hand off his mouth. Roxas was about to say exactly who he had seen when--
"N-Naminé! Honest! I am NOT holding him back! It's not my fault!" Kairi's voice pleaded. He peered over the bush, taking care not to make any noise. The redhead was shaking her head violently before her advancing Nobody, who, with a sweeping wave of her hand, summoned what seemed like an army of Dusks. He heard Sora and himself gasp at the same time. Never had Naminé summoned a Nobody before; she hadn't been involved in any of the ...erh, fights in the Castle That Never Was. Although she did show an angry sight when she yelled at Xemnas a few days ago, he had never known that under her calm persona was a very violent Nobody.
Well, for most of the Organization members, it was the opposite. And not even Xemnas could summon that many Nobodies at the same time.
In short, Naminé scared the hell out of him. No, what Naminé would do to Kairi scared the hell out of him. He used the Oathkeeeper to push himself up, but Sora put a restraining hand on his shoulder. Roxas' eyes widened. "I knew it. You're insane. Naminé will kill if provoked. All Nobodies do." True, so true. Why would the Castle be in such havoc always if it weren't?
"She won't." he said seriously, his cerulean eyes darkening. "She knows that if she kills her Other she will fade away with her."
He knelt back down, comprehending this piece of information. "I didn't know that," he muttered as he stabbed the sand with his Keyblades, sticking them upright on the white sand. It was a relief that he really couldn't kill Sora while they were still merged. Sora turned his head to look at the girls' ...catfight again.
"You ARE!" Naminé was shouting. What the hell were they fighting about that she had become so violent? (and so he noticed some of the Dusks were already betting on who would be the first to die; Dusks weren't exactly known for their subtleness).
"How can I? He's been ignoring me for the last couple of days!" Kairi shouted back, frustration evident in her voice. He felt Sora tense beside him, and he threw the brunette a questioning look.
"Why won't you just let Riku go!" Reality hit Roxas hard in the face (and repeated it a few more times for good measure) as he realized: of course, him and dear Naminé... he had seen them yesterday in the academy quad, walking, no, strolling along, leaving questions in the mouths of everyone they had passed. Naminé waved at him cheerfully, and Riku grinned at him when they passed by him and Sora, and somehow, he didn't feel like grinning back. Well, he and Naminé treated each other as best friends now, and best friends only, but hey! Blame Sora liking Kairi. So he settled for something between a twitch of the mouth (Xemnas' version of a smile) and a very cheesy grin (Demyx's version, that appeared whenever he annoyed the hell out of someone like Xemnas).
"I already have! Naminé, stop it!" Huh? What exactly did Naminé mean 'let Riku go'? Didn't the fact that he had spent the day with her mean that Riku was already hers?
The blonde girl put on a steely face and said in a steely voice, "No. You just won't let go of him, even if you already have Roxas as a replacement for Sora!"
All the breath went of of Roxas in a whoosh, and he was suddenly very much aware of how Sora's knuckles were white as he clutched the Keyblade tightly. He had the desire to get as far away from Sora as possible, but given that a mad princess of light and an even more furious Nobody would see him try to portal out... the desire quickly faded. He glanced at Sora, trying his best to convey that he had absolutely no idea where that came from. He really didn't, because all that he had done was talk to Kairi on the swings, dump a glass of water on her skirt, laugh at her cheerleading costume, be paired up with her on the Lifestream Physics project, walk her to some classes, walk her home--- okay. Sora looked really scary right now.
"You---isn't one boy enough?" she continued ranting, the bets running through the whole Dusk crowd right now. " Kairi you already have Roxas! Why, for all I know, you just like him because he's so much like Sora!"
He could feel Sora's eyes on the back of his head, probably wishing he could kill Roxas now. Naminé's words stung him; if Kairi really was attracted to him, he was very sure it was only because he was only a reflection of Sora. Another thought came to him: this was the first instance that Naminé had addressed the fact that they were only reflections, doomed to exist in a world of Somebodies, and it bothered her. Who wouldn't? (Well, Zexion won't.)
"S-shut up, Naminé...Shut up!"
"Aaahh I found you out, didn't I?" Naminé said mockingly. The Dusks had already stopped making bets; they made a circle aroung the two girls, leering at them. "It's such a good thing, that I can't feel, huh? Think I can't feel hurt?"
Roxas never knew she actually felt the same way as he did, about how he was so bitter about not being able to feel anything at all.
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Kairi suddenly screamed, her tears falling freely now. " Do you know the pain of feeling? Do you know what it's like to love someone I CAN NEVER HAVE, HUH?"
"Uh, no, since I can't feel anything!" And he actually smiled at this point; she threw in the one argument Nobodies would always inevitably have, but the smile faded quickly when he saw the look on Sora's face.
"You're so damn lucky, you know that! You can have Riku for all I care! Go! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! Leave me alone!" she dropped to her knees, sobbing as she did so.
Naminé's face fell, as if she hadn't expected her Other to break down like this. If she wasn't a Nobody, he'd say that she was feeling remorse. But she was, so he's saying that she was unfeeling remorse. "You know I can never do that." she said quietly.
"I'd never wish this feeling on anyone...not even you, not even on Ansem, not even on Maleficent..." Kairi trailed off, letting her tears do the talking for her.
"Kairi..."
At this point in time Roxas was almost afraid to look at his Other, but nevertheless, he glanced at Sora. He seemed to be studying the shaft of his Keyblade intently, but the murderous gaze on his face gave him away, as if he wanted to break the Kingdom Key in two right then and there.
Naminé knelt in front of Kairi and held her hands tightly, peering at the girl's tear-streaked face. "Kai...I'm sorry for blowing up like that, I..."
Kairi cried silently for a good five minutes; Sora was nearing his breaking point. The Wielder made to stand up, and Roxas had absolutely no intention of stopping him. Crying girls, apparently, were a common weakness.
"I want Sora, Naminé... I need him," the words suddenly rushed forth from Kairi's lips, and Sora sat soundelessly back on the sand, "But I can't have him, I just can't because I'm a princess of light and he's...he's the Key, he's the Key, he has to go and leave everyone because it's his duty, and I'm so mad at myself because I can't stop loving him, someone who I can never be with, someone who---"
"Shhh, Kai," the blonde whispered, but the calming effect Naminé normally had on people seemed to have been negated by the fact that she had been screaming at Kairi earlier.
"No I just love him so much, and it hurts when he has to leave and I can't do anything about it, it hurts so much that no matter how I love him, no matter how I'd give everything up just to be with him, he can never be mine, ohh Naminé he can never be..."
"Breathe, Kairi. Relax and just---"
Kairi looked up with her tear-stained eyes (hell it was so hard to look at) and sobbed even more. "NO I just want the pain to stop I just want to forget him already, I don't want to be hurt anymore."
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"Did you hear that?"
Axel looked up from the chakram he was soldering (Marluxia had cut through one in half with his dangerously pink scythe earlier that morning) and stared at Larxene, who was lying on her bed and reading (the same book, for the thirteenth time). "Hear what?"
She stared at him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It was a scream."
"What scream?"
Larxene sat up, her brows furrowed together. "I could swear I heard a scream. Of pain."
"Well of course you would, seeing that you're a sadist and all that ja--" he dodged the kunai Larxene threw at his head. He opened his mouth to say something when she put a finger to her mouth and hissed.
"You may think I'm crazy, but I know I heard..." she trailed off. "Okay, I am going crazy."
"What?"
"I didn't exactly hear it, I just kind of felt it."
Axel rolled his eyes, dodging the kunai that followed. Leave it to Larxene to make an intelligent conversation. "Simply amazing, Larx, your powers of perception are so...perceptive...imagine, feeling a scream..."
"Ahhh, shut it Axel," she huffed, looking puzzled at herself (which happened very rarely, so Axel stared at her expression). "But it's true," she said quietly (another thing that happened rarely), fingering the page of the book she was currently reading. "Like a Heartless scream..."
"Heartless scream? Like there's any Heartless that'd dare come here."
"It's not that, it's like someone's heart..." she spread her hands helplessly, "broke or something. That's the second time that this has happened, and---don't look at me like that Axel, I'm going to fling your face full of knives."
Axel grinned to himself as he turned back to his soldering, listening to Larxene mutter to herself. At least today was a quiet day; except for that event with Marluxia this morning, him and Larxene had gotten along pretty well, and they haven't tried to kill each other yet.
"Arrgh!" he heard the blonde sigh audibly. "What the hell..."
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"You don't mean that, Kairi. You just don't." Naminé said in a horrified voice, recoiling from her Other as if physically struck. "You can't, not after all that--"
"I do. After everything that had happened, and everything that will happen, I really do..." Kairi cut her off.
Whatever Kairi said she knew that her Other; given a less stressful environment, would never want to forget Sora. Yet she (un!)felt sorry for the hysterical girl crying her eyes out in front of her. She bit her lip, knowing that she would forever regret the words she would say next.
"I---If that's what you really want, I can help you," she paused. "I suppose I could chain your memories of him."
There. She said it. She felt disgusted with herself.
"Erase Sora from my mind...?" She forced herself to stare down at their hands, the hope in Kairi's face almost too painful to look at.
She shook her head. It was a limitation of her powers; she can only chain and rechain, replace and repair. Deleting was never something she could do; no matter how she broke the heart the memories would still leave a veritable imprint somewhere deep in the mind. The memories would seem gone, true, but a great shock could break the bonds she has placed, and the holes would start to fill in. Sora was right in saying that she would always be in his heart. "I can never erase memories; I only chain them down. But it's a reprieve--"
"Yes."
She stared at the resolve in Kairi's eyes (which were currently still shimmering with tears). It's funny how a princess of heart could be so heartless. She had expected Kairi to scream at her at how she could even suggest such a thing, and--
"How could you even say that!"
Her eyes widened. A furious Riku was striding up to them, he was almost running. She almost fainted, and that was no understatement. The very boy she and Kairi had been fighting for in the first place, and from the look on his face, he was not happy about it. How he got here so fast; she didn't know, and right now, she had no room left in her head to care.
"Naminé! How could you suggest such a thing! After what you and Sora had gone through in Oblivion...! And Kairi! I don't even want to know why!"
Kairi was whimpering softly, but she...something snapped in her head. She shut her eyes. How Riku knew of Oblivion's events, she didn't want to know. But the memories swept through her mind, and an image of a boy suspended inside a white pod (not to mention the blidingly white room the pod was in, and a very disgruntled DiZ standing over her shoulder) appeared in the darkness of her eyelids.
For the love of...! She was going to make the only one Sora ever loved this much forget him forever!
Sora would die!
She got to her feet, swaying unsteadily as she did. "I...Riku, I don't know... I just wanted to feel so bad, I just wanted to be loved by somebody!" She brought a hand to her face, but failed to stem the flow of tears. "Now I'm crying even if can't feel, I'm only remembering how to, what did I do to deserve this! Riku, I love you, I think I really do, but how can I compete, I'm only a shadow of someone you truly love..."
She could hear Kairi make a derisive noise. Riku, however, ignored her outburst, which hurt her all the more (and the fact that Nobodies couldn't feel pounded itself at her head). "But you should be grateful for what Sora had done. Both of you. He saved us all."
"Well he missed a spot," her Other said loudly, her shaking voice kind of ruining the effect. "A damn huge spot. You were ignoring me, Riku, and I'd be really happy if you just continued and minded your own business!"
Riku looked like a fish out of water, the way his mouth opened and closed silently. Any other time she would've laughed at how ridiculous he looked. Now wasn't any other time.
"Do it, Nam." Kairi said emotionlessly, pulling on Naminé's wrist. "Chain my memories of Sora Hikari."
Sora would die!
"No I can't!" she said hysterically, roughly pulling her hand out of Kairi's grip, ignoring her shocked expression. She concentrated until she felt a portal from behind her. She was running away, and she couldn't help it. "I just wanted to love, not be hurt like this. I wish he hadn't brought us back!"
And with a final glance at Riku's stunned gaze, she let herself fall into the safe and comforting darkness of the Corridors.
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"What...? He brought us back...?" Kairi said softly. He was going to have to do some damage control from Naminé's outburst before Kairi figured it out. Well, he won't have to do anything, as soon as Naminé realized what she had just said, she'd chain Kairi's memory. Having Naminé close to you was scary; you could get amnesia if you annoyed her too much.
Sora made a whimpering noise, one which Roxas barely heard. His mind was still reeling at the exchange of words he had just heard. Was this what having a heart was like? They were even worse that the Organization! he thought. We had an excuse, we didn't have hearts... but them? How could they stand the guilt they would most invariably feel, knowing that they had broken a heart?
Uh, screw that. Shattered and pulverized a heart
Uh, screw that again. They didn't exactly know that they had broken Sora's heart, since both of them had hidden behind this (as Sora had so eloquently pointed out) stupid bush.
Speaking of Sora.
He glanced at his Other, and his blood ran cold. There wasn't any other word to describe it.
Sora's eyes were dead. The light that was supposed to be there because he was alive was actually gone. Yes, he noticed the usual sparkle in Sora's eyes were slowly fading with every day after Halloween, but now... he shivered and forced himself to look away.
"If this is what feeling is all about, then I'm sure as hell glad that I'm a Nobody." he said loudly, standing up from behind the bush. If the situation hadn't been so serious he'd laugh at the stunned expression on their faces. He was relieved that Sora seemed too shocked to even stand up; the brunette was just staring at his Keyblade as if his life depended on it. Or his sanity.
"Didn't anyone tell you it was kind of rude to eavesdrop on somebody's conversation?" Kairi said testily, obviously mad he had heard her and her Nobody's argument.
"Didn't anyone tell you it kind of hurts when someone you've loved all your life wants to just forget who you are?" he shot back, picking up the Oathkeeper and Oblivion, keeping them out of harm's way if Sora suddenly had the desire to break Keyblades (yes, he might just do that).
Riku seemed to take this in another way. His own Keyblade, Way to the Dawn, appeared in his own hands in a spatter of lights. "Roxas," he said in a warning voice as he stood close to Kairi. However, Kairi seemed too preoccupied with Roxas to notice him.
"What do you care!" she yelled. "As if---"
He fought the urge to roll his eyes. Kairi was going to use the argument that, as Naminé had said earlier, all Nobodies had. "Tried and tested, failed all the time," he said nonchalantly. "Yeah, I can't feel, but---Sora!"
The Wielder stood up and let the Keyblade fade into little multicolored sparkles (what?). Roxas gulped, and did his parched throat no favor. He watched as Sora walked around the bush and stopped in front of Kairi.
"Feh," he said faintly. Roxas' eyes widened; Sora was smiling at this point. The smile combined with his hauntingly dead (let's not say dead, shall we? Dull seems a better word) eyes made quite an unsettling combination. "That seems to clear up quite a few things."
"S-sora?" Kairi choked out in a small voice. Riku said nothing; he must be too shocked of the fact that Sora had heard everything, from the fight over him to what Kairi really wanted to happen, judging from the way his eyes widened.
Roxas ran to his Other's side, only to see the tears silently streaming down Sora's cheeks, past that horrible frozen smile he had on. Sora's sanity must've already snapped. He was almost afraid to speak, but...
"Sora? Let's just...go." he said quietly, putting an arm around his now shaking shoulders. Bad as it may sound; he was relieved when the smile faded from the brunette's face, it meant that at least he had retained a fragment of his sanity. Sora nodded.
He created a portal wordlessly, and avoided Kairi and Riku's gaze as he and his Other portalled out.
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Uh. Question. Is it 'paopu' or 'paupu'? Come on guys, help me out here. Oh yeah, and another one. Should the word 'Keyblade' be capitalized or not? Funny, I've been writing for some time now, and this is the first time I've thought of that.
Also, I've decided on the ending. Well, at first I cringed at the idea, but now it seems kinda plausible. And It's a joint one with Trinity. Don't worry, if you don't read Trinity you'd still understand the ending. But I'd really recommend that you do read it. So..enough of that.
A big shout to those guys who reviewed me! Cookies for everyone!
AnimeDutchess I love you. Word's ain't enough to say how much I love you. hugs 'n kisses
xOxshortyxOx There you go, I've updated already XD
Smurf-Chan Dang, I love it when you review. Makes me smile.
Arie Under Presure There! Descriptions galore!
Darkdude17 Ahhh you're the best! Can't promise a happy ending though...
Jerry's Schemes yes violence is the answer! cackles evilly
Chyio-Chan Yeah. But Larx can be the roomie from hell if you annoy her too much.
Masked Felix Feh, I like the way you talk... Ohhh thank you thank you thank you for the compliments...
YES, someone's (or Nobody's) gonna die. Cookies to the guy who guesses who! Wait. You people are already drowning in cookies by now. Maybe chocolate bars...?
Flamers, go ahead. Say what you want, it's not gonna kill you.
See ya in chappie 7.
