It is the next Tuesday again so that means a new chapter is here for all of you! Again thank you all so much for the reviews and support! This wouldn't happen without you guys!
Ch.33
Sora stayed next to Leon for a bit, letting his body and mind finally relax. He never had expected this, and yet he welcomed it. Someone else who cared… who actually showed they cared for him.
"Leon's actually not as bad as I thought…" Sora's thoughts mumbled aloud and free in his head.
'See, you just gotta give people a chance!'
'I suppose there are the rare few that are good… but then more often people are just selfish and after their own self interests.'
"But Leon seemed better than that. He understands at least," Sora replied.
Finally Sora thought it would be best to speak to Leon again. "Thank you Leon… again"
Leon nodded though he spoke no more words. Nothing more needed to be said as there was already an understanding between them.
Finally Leon let out a sigh. "If you want to know, that's not my real name. Not technically."
"Huh?" Sora asked before tilting his head slightly.
'Oh? If Leon is not his real name then what is… I bet it's something embarrassing,' Vanitas crowed with glee.
"If I can ask… what is it?"
"It's Squall. Squall Leonhart," Leon, or technically Squall, answered simply.
'I wonder why he used a different part of his name. Seems fine to me,' Ventus commented.
"Um… why did you change it?" Sora asked quietly, wanting to know the answer.
"Because… when my home was destroyed by the Heartless… I felt like I could have done more to stop it. I was only sixteen at the time when it happened… and I ended up blaming myself. I wanted to make amends and find a way to restore my home so I changed my name for a new start. It was only a silly thought I had at that age… but it kind of stuck with me."
'I guess that's why Yuffie called him Squall once before. But… I didn't realize he blamed himself for something that was out of his control.'
'Squall itself seems like a weird name, what sort of parents names their child Squall?'
"I dunno. But at least he told me. I think I can understand him even more now," Sora said.
"Do you want me to call you Squall now? Or do you still prefer Leon?"
He shrugged in response. "At this point it doesn't matter too much, though I am more used to using Leon at this point."
"Okay Leon," Sora nodded to him before a thought entered his mind. Now that he knew Leon cared, Sora started to take in his words and thoughts into consideration. Seeing how Leon must have felt about losing his home, he could understand completely.
Sora started to smile. "I'm going to keep doing my best. I'm going to make sure that no more worlds fall to darkness and I'll find a way to save both of our worlds!"
"Sora?!" He heard his name called out distanly, and within moments he heard footsteps coming closer, "Sora?!" Another questioning call came out, this time he was able to recognize it as Riku.
He grinned as he stood up, "Over here Riku!" He called out so his friend could find him more easily.
Soon Riku rounded the corner, and as soon as he was in eyesight Sora ran at him and hugged him tightly. Though when he looked again he saw Goofy, and a rather upset looking Donald. Sora let go of Riku and backed away slightly, keeping his eyes trained on Donald with a wary look.
Vanitas growled at the sight of Donald.
Before Sora could anything he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Leon there, now standing next to him.
'Remember what we just talked about,' Ventus said softly.
"I'm just going to pretend he doesn't exist. I don't want to talk to him at all."
'Sora… you can't ignore him forever. Remember what Leon told you.'
"I know… maybe I said the wrong words there. But it still hurts a lot… I'm still not ready…" Sora replied before sighing heavily.
"Sora?" Riku asked. "Are you doing all right?"
"Y-Yeah… Leon helped talk to me, but…" he said before lowering his head. "I'm still a bit shaken from before." He didn't really like admitting any of this outloud. But Riku and now Leon understood him. And he hoped that down the road the other two, mainly Donald, could as well.
Riku nodded to him. "It's okay. We've found you at least."
"Now what though…?" Sora asked.
"Maybe we should go to where the others are. If we are going to talk about what to do next," Leon interjected.
Sora glanced to Donald and Goofy, but looked away before he could see what their reactions were. "Okay. We can do that."
Sora started to walk and once he got to where Riku was, he followed along. Donald and Goofy stepped aside as they let Sora pass, with Sora finally glancing to Donald. He looked completely torn up in his expression. But when he opened his mouth to speak Sora instinctively tensed up and looked away, the fear and hurt still burning in him. He stepped closer to Riku and clung to his arm, trying to find some more ways to relax himself. And being close to Riku was probably the best remedy he had for that.
They quickly made their way back to Third District. When they got there, Leon lead them into the small house that was near the entrance. Inside there was Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith talking to one another.
The filled in one after another before all of them were in the room. Sora instinctively went towards a corner of the room, both so he could observe everyone easier, and so he could have a bit of privacy. Riku followed him over with a fond look in his eyes and a knowing grin that caused Sora to pout in return.
Now that everyone was accounted for, Cid choose to speak up. "So is this one of your friends you mentioned before?"
Sora nodded a little. "Yeah, this is Riku." He pointed slightly to Riku who gave a slight wave to the others.
Cid nodded back. "Now here's the question, any of you guys ever heard of Maleficent?"
"No… should I?" Sora asked.
'I don't like it… that name… it makes me uneasy…'
"Maybe something from your past again?"
'Perhaps… let's focus now.'
Before Sora could ask a question, Riku spoke instead. "What's important about her? Just who is she?"
"A witch, man!" Cid exclaimed. "She's a witch. A real one."
"She's probably the reason this town is full of Heartless. Don't take her lightly," Leon added.
"She's been using the Heartless for years…" Aerith said before sighing.
"And because of her that's why our world was lost… she brought the Heartless there," Leon said before lowering his head. "And that was nine years ago…"
"I found all of these guys and came here with afterwards before things got really bad," Cid added.
"Wow… it's hard to believe all of them have been cast from their home for so long…"
'Vani and I been gone nearly as long Sora," Ventus commented. 'I haven't been to my home in years either.'
'Speak for yourself idiot,' Vanitas said with a scoff
'I know,' Ventus sighed dramatically. 'We have a different circumstance… but still… I know how they feel at least. But yeah… after all this time I would say that I see being here is my new home.'
Sora internally smiled to his brothers. "Thanks guys."
"Do you have any idea where she came from?" Riku asked.
The other three shook their head. Then Aerith was the one to speak. "No, we only knew she showed up and then the Heartless came along…"
"That's awful," Donald said.
"We've managed somehow," Leon stated with a bit of a grin. "But… our ruler was a wise man named Ansem. He dedicated his life to studying the Heartless."
Cid then went on to explain about a report that Ansem apparently had made. But all of the pages had been lost when their world was destroyed. And Cid suspected Maleficent was trying to get her hands on them if she didn't already have most of them.
"So… what do we do if we run into this Maleficent person?" Sora asked.
"Steer clear of her. She is far too dangerous," Leon replied with a warning.
Sora sighed. "I'd want to go after her though. She's the one that destroyed Leon's home…"
'Maybe once you've gotten stronger we can go after her, but I agree for now we shouldn't confront her so soon.'
Soon Cid went to ask Sora if he had delivered the book. Sora nodded and gave his answer to which Cid talked about the gummi piece he had installed. He then told Sora to keep an eye out if he happened to see any others, because then Cid would be able to add a bit more to the ship.
As Sora felt it was time to head out, Aerith came up to talk to him. She mentioned briefly about the bell in the 2nd District. Then Yuffie added into the conversation, saying that there was a legend tied to the bell on top of the gizmo shop.
"You guys think we should check it out? It does sound odd… ringing a bell three times and all."
'It sounds suspicious, aren't bells often rang multiple times?'
'I think they mean physical ringing it three times oppose it just going off each hour,' Ventus replied.
"Let's go out and see then," Sora said before heading to the door.
Once he was back outside he said that Riku, Donald, and Goofy followed closely. He breathed slowly when he saw that Donald and Goofy were sticking with me, but he knew there wasn't much he could do about it.
"Hey Sora, don't worry. I'll be right here for you," Riku said before placing a hand on Sora's shoulder.
Sora gave a grin and nodded. They made their way to the second district, fighting against heartless as they made their way to the bell tower. Sora grabbed the rope, then after only a moment's hesitation he rang the bell. He blinked in surprise as he noticed the mural in the fountain changed and the empty fountain was now filled with flames. After the brief observation he rang the bell again and the mural changed once more, the fire dissipating and the lights above the fountain turned on. With a final rang the lights turned off and water started spurting out of the fountain and the mural changed to butterflies around a flower, revealing a large keyhole.
As the group jumped down towards the fountain a Heartless came falling out of the sky and landed with a thud, shaking the ground. The group attacked the Guard Armor Heartless and after a long and grueling fight they managed to defeat it. The helmet fell into its torso and a large glowing heart started to float up into the sky before the armor disappeared.
Sora stepped towards the keyhole and raised his keyblade, a beam of light came out and locked the keyhole. The Keyhole shimmered and broke apart disintegrating into pieces, leaving only the butterfly mural and a gummi block. "This world should be safe now, right? We locked the keyhole after all…" Sora mused out loud.
'Should help save the world from falling into darkness. Though I feel Heartless could still roam around for a while. At least until we clear the rest out.'
'At least it will give us something to fight.'
Sora nodded slowly to make it seem more natural to the others around him. Then he turned around to face the group and saw Riku looking at him with a bit of a surprise.
"So this is what you've been doing in those other worlds. Impressive."
"Yeah, but it'll be more fun with you now!"
"I bet it would, but it looks like you've got it all handled…" Riku replied. "Besides there was something on my mind that I thought I should take care of…"
"Huh?" Sora asked, his voice wavering slightly. "What do you mean?"
"You got a mission to do now and save the worlds. And me… well I think I should go and try to find Kairi."
"B-But…"
Riku walked closer and wrapped his arms around Sora. He leaned in closer before whispering into his ear. "To find her body or at least a way to bring her back safely."
"Can't we do that together though?"
"It might take too long that way. Saving the worlds is what you need to do first. But I promise I'll be safe. And Sora… I want you to be strong for me, okay?"
"But… I don't want you to leave me. Please… Don't leave me again. I can't be strong, not without you."
"It won't be forever, I promise. But there is something I want to look into. I am going to do whatever I can to find a way to get Kairi back. Besides, I know you can be strong Sora. You know you can and I believe in you. Don't doubt yourself cause I know you are one of the strongest people I've ever met," Riku replied before giving a reassuring smile.
Sora frowned, "Alright…" He didn't want his friend to leave, but what Riku said made sense.
'It'll be fine! Riku is strong after all!'
'The brat won't give up until he finds a way to get Kairi's body, let him focus on that, and us focus on fighting the Heartless. This way we are multitasking.'
"Okay. I get it," Sora replied with a nod, showing he understood both his brothers and Riku.
"Then I'll be off for now," Riku said as he pulled away from Sora. He then glanced to Goofy and Donald. He then focused directly at Donald. "And you… you watch yourself. If I come back and hear you screwed up again, I won't let you get away with it."
Donald nodded in response, but chose to remain silent.
"I guess I'll be going now, you have fun adventuring Sora. Who knows though, maybe we will get to cross paths on one of the worlds sometime soon."
So yes Riku did have to leave, but he didn't just ditch Sora. They will meet up again soon and eventually Sora will learn more about what Riku's plan is.
But until then he has to try and work with Donald and Goofy again. So see you all next time to see how that goes!