Chapter 96: Plotting Darkness

There were a lot of things Sora's Shadow had learned, from spending time with Kairi. And, more than that, from just… listening. Maybe it was creepy, but ever since he'd figured out he could touch her heart, he'd visited more often. Not to actually talk to her, just to sit around for a bit and get a sense of what was going on in her mind and in her heart.

He felt a little bad, doing that to her. A little. (More than he would like, actually.) But! Every person close to Sora was just a tool, a means to an end. He didn't have time for guilt.

There were a lot of things he'd learned, from Kairi.

She was angry, at all of her friends. She felt abandoned.

She'd stopped interacting with anyone other than her father and Selphie. Her father, because it was necessary. Selphie, only when Selphie wouldn't leave her alone.

The only reason Kairi left her house outside of school (which she skipped frequently) was to swim in the ocean, staying out there for hours at a time, sometimes for a full night.

She'd stopped sending letters to Sora. His Shadow couldn't remember the last time he'd stumbled on a letter from Kairi, but he certainly hadn't seen her write one in all his hours snooping around in her life.

She was getting tired of waiting. Her patience was thin—though it'd already been thin.

She was losing hope.

To say Kairi had doubts about any of her friends coming back would be a lie, regardless of all the resentment she held towards them, but that wasn't what was important. What was important was that she doubted Sora would be coming back.

Four months, to her, seemed much too long for Sora to have stayed away.

So, something had probably happened to him.

Sora's Shadow sat on the shores of the Dark Margin, cold sand between his toes and cold water washing over his feet. (As an echo of Sora, the ocean was calming, helped him think.)

He sat there, and he smirked to himself.

Because he'd just come up with a brilliant plan.

Sora and Kairi were connected, closely. Sora's Shadow knew that. Of course he did!

Sora's and Kairi's hearts were tied to each other, as were their destinies.

He wasn't positive that it was Kairi's (wavering) faith in Sora that was keeping Sora going for this long. But, he'd sure wager a good amount on that. Which meant if Kairi suddenly stopped having faith…

He just had to push her a little. Get her to give up on Sora a little more quickly.

Her hope was already so faint, all it would take was the slightest nudge, and then there'd be no hope.

And Sora would be his.

The thought of having to hurt her made him hesitate, and the heart he shouldn't have thudded in his chest. (To think, him, a creature of darkness, cared so much about a girl so full of light!—he didn't care, he didn't care, he didn't care.)

"It's fine," he whispered to himself. And then: "It's fine!" he said to himself, louder. "I'm not hurting her—I'm just pushing things along their natural course. She already was going to give up on Sora. I'm just making it happen a little faster!"

It wouldn't be hard, either, and he knew that. He'd spent more than enough time around her to know that.

Then all he had to worry about was things on Sora's side.

Even if Kairi's hope wasn't the thing keeping him afloat in a sea of darkness, it didn't matter.

Sora's Shadow knew that, just as well.

"He already thinks she hates him," he said, hopping to his feet. Being what he was, he didn't have to put his shoes on or anything, he just had to think them on again. Having clothes that were just a manifestation of darkness had its perks. "All I have to do is take that a step further as well—make him really believe it."

He let out a sharp, satisfied laughter.

"Sora'll crack like an eggshell, if I make him believe that! This is all too perfect! All I need is…"

He reached into his pocket, pulling out one of the letters of Kairi's that he'd kept. (Three. He'd only kept three.) A dark smile spread across his lips.

"…Proof," he finished, then laughed again. "Or, something that will pass as proof, anyway!"

This was going to be way too easy.

xxx

Sora shielded his eyes upon arriving in the World, out of sheer habit. After a second, though, he realized that he didn't need to. Unlike the previous few Worlds he had been to, this World was rather… dark.

Well, "dark" wasn't necessarily the right term, but the sun wasn't beating mercilessly down on him, which was a relief.

He glanced around, trying to get a feel for his surroundings. He was standing on a bridge that led to a large castle. Besides that, though, he couldn't really tell much. It was too dark to see any specific details about the castle properly.

A pack of Heartless, all of the Bad Dog variety, appeared around him. He raised his eyebrows, slightly surprised, but summoned his Keyblade. It took a few combos to get rid of each one, and the ones he wasn't attacking nipped at his heels, making it hard to fight. He angrily shot Fira at one of them, killing it.

He continued across the bridge, fighting more Mad Dogs as he went. Neoshadows began to pop up the farther he got across the bridge, and when he stepped into the courtyard, he was attacked by an entire horde of them. He quickly brought up his blade to block an attack, and then quickly counterattacked. It didn't take him too long to get rid of the Neoshadows, but he did take a lot of damage. He downed a potion to solve the problem.

Someone shouted. Sora turned in slight shock. It didn't sound like the person was in any immediate danger, but that definitely was a shout of alarm. He quickly ran to see what was going on, ignoring all the Heartless as he went. He shoved the front doors of the castle open, and was confronted with an… odd sight.

A brown haired young woman wearing a rather plain blue dress was fighting a small horde of Heartless with, of all things, a mop. And, surprisingly, she wasn't doing half bad. Though, she was only dealing with a couple of Shadows…

Then a nasty looking Snapper Dog came up behind her.

Hardly even thinking about it, Sora rushed forward and brought his blade down on the creature's head. Before it could recover, he attacked it ferociously. It snapped at him, but he quickly rolled out of the way and finished it off from behind.

While he was at it, he took care of the Shadows, too.

"Thank you."

Sora turned to the young woman and nodded.

"Yeah, it was nothing," he assured her.

"I'm Belle," she said, smiling pleasantly. "What's your name?"

"Sora."

Belle frowned slightly; thinking. "I feel like I've heard that name before."

Sora grimaced. "If you have, it probably wasn't anything pleasant about me," he said, sadly, then took a deep breath. "I was having a rough time a while back, I- I'm sorry if you got caught up in it…"

"Oh, it's alright," Belle told him. "I don't think I was, anyway. I just-"

Sora was suddenly thrown back, and only barely managed to bring up his blade to defend himself from thrashing claws and furiously gnashing teeth.

"Beast!" Belle cried in something that wasn't entirely horror but was definitely shock. "What are you doing!"

"This boy is the source of the Heartless!" the Beast roared, attacking Sora again.

"What-?" Sora gasped, pushing the Beast away from him. "No I'm not!"

"Beast, this boy saved me from the Heartless!"

"Probably just another one of his ploys," another voice said. The voice sounded both bored and sinister at the same time. "He must need you for something else."

"No, I-" Sora began, but stopped short as he caught sight of who was speaking. It was a man in a familiar-looking black cloak. Sora swallowed. There was a sinking feeling in his stomach; like something was about to go terribly wrong.

"Who are you?" Belle demanded.

The man in the black coat ignored her.

"The boy's been bringing Heartless to many different Worlds, seeking to plunge each into darkness," he continued. "Now he's here to take yours-"

"No I'm not!" Sora shouted defiantly. "I've only been here like five minutes, and I've been doing nothing but killing Heartless since-"

The Beast attacked again. Sora grunted when he blocked the blow, forced to take a step back to steady himself. The Beast had put a lot more force into this attack. He grimaced. He wasn't sure how much longer he'd be able to keep this up, and he didn't want to actually fight the Beast.

He gasped in shock, noticing something.

Though the Beast was attacking with much fury, there was a dazed look in his eyes, like he didn't quite understand what was going on. Anger flooded through Sora.

"You're using him!" he shouted to the man in the cloak, and then turned back to the Beast. "Don't listen to him! He's manipulating you! He—ah!"

In his slip of concentration, Sora had been thrown back. He quickly clambered back to his feet, shaking slightly.

"Angry, aren't you?" the man in the cloak taunted, and it sounded as if he were smiling as he said it. Very subtly, he motioned with his hand, and a couple of Mega-Shadows appeared. "See? The Heartless are responding to his anger, coming to their master—"

"I am not summoning them!" Sora protested, gripping his blade tightly. "He's framing me! I don't work with-" He let out a sudden cry of pain as something tugged at his heart and his darkness sprung to life within him, and he fell back as if struck, clutching his chest. "What- what are you-" he gasped, certain that the man in the cloak had something to do with this.

A couple more Mega-Shadows appeared.

Sora grimaced, not entirely sure if that had been his fault or not.

He certainly hoped he wasn't attracting Heartless.

"What are you doing to him!" Belle demanded.

"Me?" The man in the cloak chuckled. "I am doing nothing. What is happening is strictly the course of the boy's own actions."

"I don't believe you…"

My actions? Sora thought slowly. What does he mean by that?

A wave of darkness surged through him. He gasped and writhed slightly.

Does he mean the darkness?

Like it's… catching up to me or something?

The darkness roared up inside of him, and he nearly screamed from the pain. But then, suddenly, it backed away, almost as if it was scared.

"Leave him alone!" Belle said, firmly.

Sora glanced up, shocked, and found Belle standing between him and the man in the cloak, holding the mop in an almost threatening manner.

Did she just… save me?

A different sort of pain went through him, and he clutched his head.

Bright.

She was very bright.

It hurt, she was so bright. He wasn't quite sure what it was, whether or it was the darkness inside of him or just himself, but when such a bright light was shining on him, he couldn't stand it. He gripped his head even tighter, curling up into a ball, trying to shrink away from the light.

"I don't quite understand what's going on," Belle continued. "But I know you're causing it, and you need to cut it out, you hear me? You don't belong here, and I don't like how you're messing with everything!"

The Mega-Shadows started making their way towards her, but with a roar of fury the Beast destroyed a good portion of them. Belle got out of the way, even though it didn't look like he would've hit her even if she hadn't moved.

"How dare you!" the Beast growled, glaring at the man in the cloak. "You come to my castle, you turn my anger against me, and then you threaten Belle!"

"You're quick to come to your senses…" the man in the cloak muttered, annoyed, and then summoned a lance to him and drove it through the Beast. Belle gasped in shock, and the Beast let a cry of pain and fury and turned to attack the man in the cloak. He had another lance driven through him as a result, and he fell. Belle quickly rushed to his side.

Sora slowly let go of his head. The pain was starting to recede, ever so slowly. However, he soon noticed that there were a lot more Mega-Shadows, and they were all surrounding him. He swallowed. He didn't have enough energy to fight them off.

"Well… now that they're taken care of…" the man in the cloak sighed, walking over to Sora. "I can deal with you."

Sora stared up at him, sudden dread flooding through him. "What do you- what are you even doing here?" he stuttered. He was still a bit disoriented from the light, and the fact that the darkness was working its way back into him wasn't helping at all.

"I came to this World for other reasons," the man in the cloak replied, throwing a glance over at Belle and the Beast. "However… you showed up. My other plans can wait."

"What- what do you want with me?"

"We've been without a Keyblade long enough." The man in the cloak raised his hand, and Sora cried out in pain as the darkness shot through him again. As if on cue, the Mega-Shadows around him attacked, smothering him. He tried to fight them off, but he didn't have the strength to summon his Keyblade, and they just kept coming.

Plus… the darkness was raging through his heart… threatening to consume it-

He was pinned to the ground now. There were too many of them holding him there, draining him, consuming his already weak and darkness-wrecked heart.

I'm going to… die, aren't I…? he thought, slowly.

No… not death. Worse than death. I- I'm going to-

He couldn't keep his thoughts straight.

Kairi.

I won't see her again…

Would she be sad?

She'd… miss me if I were gone, wouldn't she?

There was an unbelievable amount of pain going through him. The pain lessened slightly at the thought of her, but the thought of her was surprisingly empty. It hardly helped him at all.

I- I don't want to go!

Not like- not like-

An odd sound interrupted his thoughts. It was a familiar sound, but he couldn't quite place where he had heard it before. The weight on him lessened, and then the pain did, too. The sound continued, rhythmically, almost like-

His eyes widened in shock.

He knew that sound.

That was the sound a Keyblade made when killing Heartless.

He scrambled into a position in which he could see, shook what remaining Heartless were clinging to him off, and then his jaw dropped in shock. Someone that looked incredibly like a mouse was fighting the Heartless off with a Keyblade.

Sora couldn't help it.

He stared.

Once the Mouse had dealt with most of the Heartless (more kept coming) he turned to Sora and raised his Keyblade. "Heal!" he commanded. Sora shifted slightly as the energy coursed through him, healing whatever wounds he had sustained, returning his strength, and somehow putting his darkness back in check. Relatively.

His darkness certainly was behaving now, though.

"Thank you," he said, pushing himself to his feet. "Who-"

"No time to explain," the Mouse interrupted. "We've got trouble."