AN/ Update May 2016: The contents in this chapter were moved from ch46 to here, in order to make room for a new, rewritten, and extremely long scene that goes in ch47. The Namine/Riku scene that was in this chapter was deleted due to messing with pacing and also being unnecessary, but it's been ported to ASAS if you still would like to read it. (It being the previous chapter from their POV, instead of Shad's).

Chapter 45: What Darkness Can Do

"Cid, we have a problem," Aerith said.

He glanced up at her. "Don't tell me were out of soda!" he groaned.

"No, that's not it," Aerith sighed. "And soda's not good for you, you shouldn't be drinking it anyways."

Cid opened his mouth to argue, but Aerith stopped him.

"Cid, I don't have time to argue about this," she said quickly. "Sora's gone missing."

"Missing?" Cid asked, starting to stand. "Missing how exactly?"

"Sit back down!" Aerith commanded before he got any further in standing. He glanced at her, and then sighed and sat back down. She frowned at him for a moment, and he just shrugged.

"He ran off," Aerith explained.

"Ran off!" Cid exclaimed, exasperated. "He can't have gone that far, I don't see what the big deal is about! Why can't you just-"

"He used his star shard," Aerith interrupted. Cid raised his eyebrows, shocked.

"That's a completely different story!" he laughed, scratching his chin. "You're wondering if I can track him though, huh?"

Aerith shrugged.

"Check the second drawer of my desk," Cid said. "There should be some sort of device in there. It would be box-shaped, have a screen on it, I think it was blue…"

Aerith raised her eyebrows, examining the contents of the drawer. "Cid," she laughed. "All that's in here is-"

"Third drawer!" he said quickly. "It's in the third drawer!"

Aerith laughed and opened the third drawer. Sure enough, there was the device Cid had been talking about. She picked it up and handed it to him.

"Now let's see here…" Cid muttered, turning it on. "This should be able to predict what World he went to by scanning the frequency that was given off when the star shard was activated. It may not be completely accurate, but- oh…" he frowned, examining the screen. "Never mind, I think we found him."

"Really?"

Cid nodded. "Yeah. Not three seconds after he left, someone arrived here by star shard, around the shops," he explained. "That's either him or a scary coincidence."

"Thank you, Cid!" Aerith laughed, starting out of the room. "We're going to go get him then! If you need anything-"

"I'll be fine!" Cid called after her.

xxx

I should go back, Sora thought with a sigh. But… I don't know… after running out like that, maybe it would be better if I just left.

Get out of their hair.

I'm sure it would be better for them if I wasn't around.

My darkness wouldn't hurt anybody…

He slowly reached into his pocket, hand closing around the star shard again.

But… where would I go?

He sighed and pulled his hand out of his pocket.

I've never been on my own before.

I grew up surrounded by friends on the Islands. Even when I fell into darkness, Maleficent still took me in. It wasn't the… best of times… but I wasn't on my own. Then I wound up in Castle Oblivion, and even after leaving Castle Oblivion I ended up here.

The only time I've ever been alone is… in the Realm of Darkness. And I don't remember much of that.

Would I survive on my own?

He paused a second, almost as if waiting for a response.

"My Shadow's oddly quiet…" he muttered. "He would've had some cocky response to that. I wonder what he's- wait. No. I don't care." He shook his head.

I still have to do deal with my Shadow, too.

For some reason, I feel like it's not doing me any good by staying here.

I mean, I'm getting stronger… but…

He's me, kind of, isn't he? Does that mean he gets stronger, too?

Sora groaned and buried his face in his hands, trying not to break down into sobs again. He wasn't even sure why he was sobbing in the first place. He just felt so… broken inside. So ashamed. So-

"Sora!" someone called.

He glanced up in shock, finding Aerith running over to him.

"There you are!" Aerith laughed, bending over so she could look him in the eye. "We were worried about you."

"Worried?" Sora muttered.

"Hey!" Aerith called, straightening. "He's over here!" She turned back to Sora and laughed. "C'mon! Let's head back."

"Were you all… searching for me?" Sora asked, slowly rising to his feet. Aerith nodded. Sora frowned. "Would you have searched other Worlds for me?"

Aerith shrugged. "Cloud would've, at least. I probably would, too, if there wasn't too much trouble here."

I can't believe… they were that worried about me… Sora thought, taken aback. His thoughts were interrupted as everyone else ran over.

"You alright, Sora?" Leon asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Sora replied with a nod. "I'm alright."

"You sure scared us, running off like that," Yuffie laughed.

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Don't worry about it," Aerith assured him. "Now let's head back. Maybe I'll fix us some tea!"

Yuffie groaned. "But I'm sick of tea!"

"Lemonade then?" Aerith suggested as everyone started walking.

"Lemonade would be nice," Leon admitted.

"Why'd you run?" Cloud asked quietly, speaking for the first time. He and Sora had fallen a bit behind the group.

Sora shrugged and thought about it for a second. He honestly had no clue why he had run. He had just panicked and-

He shook his head. "I… don't know…" he replied finally.

"Be careful," Cloud warned. "The darkness has a funny way of making you do things. Sometimes it may alter your thoughts and convince you to do something, sometimes it will force you against your will, and sometimes… it will make you do something, but you'll never be able to remember why. Watch yourself."

Sora nodded.

"I will," he whispered.