I've been working on this chapter on and off since the end of April. Good thing too, this one ended up being quite a doozy!
Also a fun fact: this chapter is only 10 words shorter than chapter 30 (The Formal: True Disaster).
Thank you for reading!
The first thing she saw was a pure blue sky. Anora blinked once, then twice. At her fingertips, she could feel water that didn't inherently feel wet. It was then that she assumed that she was dreaming. After carefully working herself up on her feet, Anora tried to get a better baring on where she was. But that was the thing- this world, this dream, was only sky and sea. There was nothing else in sight.
"Where..." she wondered to herself before almost tripping over something. Anora spun around, trying to find what she almost tripped on, before her gaze looked downward.
There, staring up at her, was her Chirithy.
Except it wasn't.
This Chirithy, unlike hers, was living. It was an actual creature that stared up at her with red, unblinking eyes. The eyes were not the only thing off about this Chirithy- its fur (real fur, not fabric!) was a deep purple with black stripes. Its cape was a dark pink and its little holding pouch was pitch black.
"Hmm..." the dark Chirithy bemused, successfully scaring Anora now, "This wasn't your dream to have. I meant to pluck your other self from slumber. Oh well."
Anora took a step back from the creature. She looked it over with a skeptical glance. Of course the Chirithy noticed, still staring up at her, looking as if it were sizing her up.
"Are you still tongue tied?" it mused darkly. "Perhaps your hearts are very similar after all. Fascinating."
The creature leaped into Anora's arms- she caught it, but only out of reflex. She could feel the pure darkness seep out of the creature and into her veins. But, as much as she wanted to let go of it, she couldn't do so. It seemed to know this as it started to give her a malicious smile.
"Darkness is in every universe, little miss Light. But in this one, you'll find that it's especially… potent."
The dark Chirithy hopped back out of her arms, then started to bounce away from her.
"Don't know how long I'm gonna keep you here for," the thing delightfully hummed, "But I'm sure it'll be long enough to cause a major change in this world!"
And with a laugh, the dark Chirithy flipped up into the air and disappeared.
"Wait!" Anora called out to it a second too late. But it was already gone, choosing to ignore her. Anora held herself and shivered.
Even in dreams, she was alone.
Figuring that she had no other thing to do, Anora started to walk forward. She kept an eye out for anything of interest. There was still only sky and sea- how long did it go on for?
"Hey! Get back here!"
Anora looked up and saw a boy with spiky brown hair in a red and black outfit running up to her. Behind him was… his twin? The boy in front didn't seem to notice her as he continued to run over. Anora braced for the collision, but it never happened; the boy in front faded just as he made contact.
"Ah man, missed it!" the other boy grumbled. "This is gonna take forever..." Giving a small, exaggerated groan, the boy turned his attention to Anora. He was so stunned to see another person there that he froze for a moment.
"Whoa," he remarked once he moved closer to her, "I didn't expect to see anyone else here!"
Neither did Anora, in truth, so she stared right back at him with a good degree of skepticism.
"The name's Sora!" the boy greeted, pounding his fist into his chest.
Anora offered a small smile before bowing her head to him. "Anora."
"It's great to meet you Anora!" Sora then brightly smiled. But his smile faded into a light frown. "If you don't mind me asking, why are you here? According to Chirithy, I'm here because I… I died. But! Someone I know is still holding on to me, so I gotta get back. Is that why you're here? Because you… you know…?"
Anora slightly recoiled and looked at Sora as if he gained a second head. This had to be a stress dream. Had to. Why would she dream about a boy that had died and seemed so set on getting back? It's not like she…
A sudden shot of pain coursed through Anora's mind. She immediately flinched in reaction, letting out a sound of surprise hurt, as she clutched her head in her hands. Sora jumped back in surprise before rushing over to her.
"Hey, hey, hey, it's okay!" he tried to assure her. "You're safe here. I think. You're safe here with me, anyway!"
The pain in her skull wasn't letting up, but trying to focus on Sora's voice did help bring her back a bit. Anora tried to focus on Sora more than the pain; his hands were gently placed on her shoulders, not sure if he could actually do anything to help her, and his face held enough worry for four. Looking down, Anora just now realized that he wasn't all there- from about the knees down you could see through Sora, like he was a ghost.
It was in realizing that Sora was only half way there that shocked Anora out of her pain. She staggered back from him and stared with an increasingly paling face. Sora hadn't seemed to notice -or he did, and just pretended he didn't- as he gave her a gentle smile.
"It doesn't matter how you got here," Sora said, sheepishly scratching the back of his head, "But I'm sure you want to get back, huh? You can come along with me. Maybe Chirithy will show up again and tell us what we can do for you!"
Chirithy? Thinking about Chirithy made her head hurt again. He talked about Chirithy like it was something helpful, but the one she talked to? It was a dark entity. It was not there to do any help whatsoever. Why would it want to...
"Hey," Sora said, snapping Anora from her thoughts, "Are you still with me? We can try to find a way out together."
"Together..." the girl mumbled. That word… It was… familiar. Together… "We'll go together."
"Great!" Sora declared before offering his elbow out to her. With a wide grin he said, "My lady." in a very charming tone of voice. Anora looked at him- a small smile creeping on her lips as she came to realize that he only wanted to help. Anora linked her arm into his and together the two started to walk through the vast ocean and sky world.
Sora picked up rather quickly that Anora wasn't much of a talker. So he made do in telling her more about how he ended up in this place- the Final World, he called it. Admittedly, she was only half listening. Sora had guided them to an area filled with floating masses of star dust, each one arranged to look like a large star. They floated quite a bit from the ground, some were calling out to the duo, others were silent and seemed sad about something.
But there was one star that Anora noticed and she immediately made Sora stop. The boy curiously looked at her as Anora unlinked their arms to walk over to the star. Something about it was… familiar...
"Anora?" the star inquired. Anora got a bit closer to the star, raising her hand to gently brush at its side. Odd as it seemed, the star sighed- like it had been gingerly touched against the cheek.
"No," it then decided. "You're not her. Your hearts are very similar, but you are not the Anora I know."
Sora gave the star a curious tilt of his head. "What do you mean?"
But Anora was having certain thought of her own. "Ephemer?" she curiously asked, moving her hand around to other parts of the star as if she could feel some imaginary face. Maybe, deep down, she could. Something about this star was just… so… familiar…?
"Stop that," the star lightly chuckled, "That tickles."
Embarrassed, Anora's face flushed a light pink as she put her hand back down. Okay, so maybe she was getting a bit too curious. This dream was so weird.
"Oh, don't give me that." the star, that felt a lot like Ephemer, mused in a playful voice. "You know I'm very ticklish- even in a dream, even when we're not quite the same heart."
"You still haven't answered my question yet." Sora butt in, making a pouting face in doing so.
"Sorry." the star apologized. "I haven't forgotten- but you're from this world, unlike her. She needs more time to understand."
"You've mentioned that." the boy hummed. "Can you explain why?"
"Of course." the star agreed. "You see, Sora, Anora is being kept here because of a Nightmare. In her world, it would look like she is sleeping. But her heart is trapped here. She won't wake up in her world unless her heart is freed in this one."
"So..." Sora mulled over as he crossed his arms in thought, "I need to use the Power of Waking?"
"No." Ephemer (and Anora was fairly sure it was Ephemer at this point) softly disagreed. "Nothing that drastic. However, I'd owe you one if you help Anora out."
To this, Sora gave a small chuckle as he absently scratched the tip of his nose. "It might be a bit sooner than you think." he mumbled to himself. But he quickly shook his head before saluting at the star. "But I'll do anything I can to help!"
"I knew you'd say that." the star laughed- it even gave a small noise to indicate that it had smiled. "Alright, so here's the deal; the Nightmare that is keeping Anora here has a very weak hold on her. I believe it's because this Anora has come from a completely different universe. To free her heart, you need to find three special tokens- each one representing who Anora is. They are scattered around the area, but are still in close enough proximity for you to easily find. Find them, and they should help bring her back to her world."
"Got it." Sora nodded. He turned to Anora and pumped his fist in the air. "Alright Anora," he decided, "Let's go find these tokens so you can get back home!"
Anora smiled as she started to follow Sora out.
"Anora, wait." Ephemer's star requested. "I have one more thing to tell you."
Giving a little sound of curiosity, Anora turned her attention back to the star.
"Anora," Ephemer's star said, in a tone much softer than before, "Don't ever forget -no matter what I may do to you- you mean everything to me. Okay? I never… I never want to see you hurt again- especially because of something I did. Alright? Will you remember that for me?"
Anora cast the star a cautious side glance but nodded in agreement, regardless.
"Thank you." the star sighed. "Now go catch up with Sora, too much time has passed already."
Anora gave another nod before starting back to Sora, who had been patiently waiting out of earshot. Ephemer's star let out a small sigh as she left.
"Miss you already." it mumbled to itself before softly disappearing.
. . .
Sora was the first to notice something new in the distance. He even tried to race her to the weird object in the distance. Anora didn't humor him, letting Sora race ahead while she tried to figure out what the object was as she came toward it. It looked like… Well, she didn't know what it looked like, honestly. Maybe some sort of odd looking sword? If it was, it certainly didn't look like one.
The guard was large and shaped a lot like a cello. The blade resembled a wave of water, with the music notes strung along like sheet music, that held up a treble clef. On the treble clef was something that resembled a blue wizard's hat with a small star at the top. Somewhere, some how, something told Anora that the sword was called 'Counterpoint.'
"It's a Keyblade." Sora explained to her. "They're weapons used to fight against the darkness. Since I'm pretty sure this is one of the tokens we need to find, I wonder if that means you're a wielder too."
Anora bit her lip as she looked over at Sora curiously. She turned her direction to the swo- Keyblade and started to reach out to it. The Keyblade reacted almost immediately- jumping from its little capsule to her hand. It was a lot bigger than it looked now that it was in her hands. Sora let out a small whistle of approval.
"Yep." he decided. "I think that means you're a Keyblade wielder now."
Trying to shift her grip on the Keyblade, Anora placed both hands on the guard as she got a handle on the odd shaped weapon. Suddenly, without warning, the Keyblade tugged her in a certain direction. It wasn't even a gentle tug either- it was like someone was yanking on the other end in an attempt to knock her down.
"Sora!" she squeaked, "What's going on?!"
"Dunno." came the very unhelpful answer. "Maybe it's pointing you to the next token?"
Anora worryingly looked at Sora before looking back at the Keyblade. Unsure of what else to do, the girl begrudgingly allowed the Keyblade to pull her to where it was directing them. It had to be the most absurd game of tug-of-war she had played in a long time. But Sora's hypothesis wasn't wrong- the Keyblade did lead them to the next token.
"Roller skates?" Sora wondered out loud.
Anora stared at the token for awhile before giving him a small nod. As she walked over to the capsule containing the skates, she softly said to him, "It's like flying. But without wings."
The boy had never thought of it that way before. He offered a friendly smile and an agreeing nod before saying, "Gotcha."
Unlike with the Keyblade, that transferred itself from the capsule and onto Anora, the roller skates disappeared the moment she touched them. The Keyblade started to pull her in a new direction now. Anora looked over at Sora -to make sure that he would still follow her- and he gave her a nod of affirmation. Once more the two followed the Keyblade's guiding as they came across the last capsule. When Anora realized what the object inside was, she gave a bewildered blink.
Inside the capsule was a color photograph. In the photograph was a group photo of her, Ephemer, Skuld, Strelitzia, and Kieran. They were all huddled close to each other with wide smiles etched on the faces. Mystified, Anora reached out to the capsule. The photograph left the capsule and went directly into her hands so she could look at it closer.
"Who are they?" Sora curiously questioned as he leaned forward to see the photo a bit better.
Anora didn't answer him at first. In a tiny voice, she said to him, "These are my friends." The girl bit her lip as she contemplated telling Sora that this photo had never been taken before. It even looked fairly recent. But never in the year she'd been attending Daybreak had they all been together like that.
"You all look so happy." the boy said in a thoughtful voice. Anora gave a thoughtful hum as she ran her thumb against the photograph.
"My friends are my power." she then softly mumbled under her breath.
"Hey!" Sora playfully shouted. "That's my line!"
Anora looked over at him, confused, before a smile worked its way onto her lips.
The moment was soon broken when the photograph started to glow. Sora and Anora turned their attention to the photograph at the wrong time- its glow becoming so bright that it nearly blinded them. The duo quickly shielded their eyes from the light. When they were able to open their eyes again, they were no longer in the Final World. Instead, they were standing on a large, rounded stained glass window. Anora looked over the stained glass and let out a sharp gasp when she recognized herself depicted on the window.
The Anora in the stained glass was facing toward the outside edge, her back gently arched and her eyes closed in a peaceful manner. She was depicted as wearing velvet overalls that reached a little above her knee, with a hood in the back; underneath of that she wore a white shirt with puffed sleeves and a Peter Pan collar, and a pair of light gray leggings. By her head was a large circle containing four smaller circles. In one circle was Ephemer, another had Skuld, and a third had Chirithy. The last, fourth circle, contained a star symbol that seemed both familiar and unfamiliar to the real Anora.
Sora did not seem as mystified by this new place as Anora was. In fact, he seemed to know exactly what to do here as he summoned his Keyblade.
"We have to seal the keyhole," Sora explained, pointing to the keyhole (one that Anora certainly had not noticed until now) with his Keyblade. "See?"
Anora tilted her head but nodded regardless. She summoned her Keyblade without much hassle, and pointed it at the keyhole. Sora mirrored her and soon enough, the tips of their Keyblades started to radiate with a white light. A quick beam of light came from the Keyblades, hitting the keyhole with pinpoint accuracy. There was a little click before the keyhole started to fade. The corner of Sora's mouth twitched a little before he turned to Anora.
From the fading keyhole came a stream of sparkling light that surrounded Anora in a loving embrace. The sparkles started at her feet and moved upwards; the further they went, the more Anora started to fade. It did not need to be said that these were meant to take her back where she belonged. Allowing the sparkles to envelope her caused Anora to feel rather sleepy- but she wasn't going to fight this drowsiness. The light was warm and welcoming.
"Well, I guess this is good bye." Sora brightly told her. "Maybe one day I'll meet the you that lives in our world, or maybe you'll get to meet me in yours." He paused for a moment before cheerfully deciding, "Or both!"
Something told Anora that the Sora in her world was either a toddler, or not even born yet. Regardless, she returned his goodwill with a smile.
"Thank you." she quite honestly said before disappearing altogether. The sparkles that had surrounded Anora burst like fireworks above the Dive station. With another bright flash of light, Sora found himself alone in the Final World once more.
He gave himself a broad smile, knowing that he had helped Anora. He decided to return to where they had talked to that one star. But when he got there, it had vanished. The boy was confused for all of five seconds before a big grin etched onto his face.
"Whelp," the boy happily declared, throwing his hands behind him. "I guess that means I'm off again." As he went back on his merry way, he even started to sing, "99 remnants of me to find, 99 remnants of me! Find them all, change our fates, 99 remnants of me to find!"