Chapter 164: The Save
He glanced around. It was dark. Not many colors besides black and grey and muted shades of orange. The sky was black—it was nighttime, probably—the stars few, but the moon large and full. He was in… a town. He'd been here before. A few times.
Halloween Town.
A town that perpetually celebrated his second favorite holiday.
Now… what was he doing here?
Maleficent had sent him here. Alone, surprisingly—not that he could run anywhere, seeing as he had no form of transportation. But what'd she wanted him to do?
He couldn't remember.
He started walking, figuring there was nothing better to do. Maybe he'd run into some Heartless... Though, Maleficent wasn't keen on him killing Heartless, last he'd checked. She needed them. To build an army or something.
I'm not going to just leave them alone, though, Sora thought.
Especially when they don't leave me alone!
As if on cue, a single Heartless—a Search Ghost, right?—appeared and headed straight for him. He quickly summoned his Keyblade, but didn't need to. Something lit the Heartless on fire, and then with one swipe of their blade, they'd killed it.
Sora's eyes widened, and he straightened out of his fighting stance to look at his savior. It was a boy about his age, with blond hair that stuck up in odd angles like his did, and sharp blue eyes. There was a small smirk on his face, and he hefted his blade to rest on his shoulder, almost casually. He had a Keyblade.
"Uh, thanks," Sora said, a bit shocked and a little bit suspicious. The boy wore a black cloak, like that… Organization 13 did, but… he didn't appear to be evil or intent on sending a large amount of Heartless at Sora. He'd just killed a Heartless and saved Sora, after all.
The boy nodded. "Sure thing. What are you doing here?"
Sora shrugged. "My name's Sora," he said, after a moment.
The boy laughed. "That wasn't what I asked, but okay. I'm Roxas." His eyes darted to Sora's Keyblade. "That's a Keyblade, right?"
Sora nodded, eyes narrowing. Who was this boy? And why was he interested in his Keyblade?
Then again, Sora'd been pretty interested in Mickey's Keyblade when he'd met him. So, it was understandable.
"You've got one too, right?" he asked.
Roxas just nodded, looking a little preoccupied.
He rushed forward, his Keyblade bared, shoving Sora back and behind him. Sora stumbled slightly, not prepared for that, but it turned out to be a good thing. Another Search Ghost—was that a Search Ghost?—had nearly grabbed him. Had Roxas not shoved him out of the way, it would've grabbed him.
"So, Sora," Roxas called, grinning, as another Search Ghost popped up. "How good are you at fighting Heartless?"
xxx
Riku swished his drink around in his glass, absentmindedly, trying not to focus on anything else. Aerith had insisted on getting him something seeing as everyone else was eating dinner, and he'd have nothing (he had to refuse the food twice before she even let that go). He ended getting soda, again, mainly because Aerith had insisted. Cid hadn't seemed too happy about it, but, whatever. Riku had the soda now and there was no changing it.
"Why is Riku staying here, again?" Leon asked. "I don't think I caught all that earlier."
"They think he's causin' Namine's meltdowns," Cid replied. Riku let him. The less he had to worry about it the better. "So they're sendin' him here to see if it makes any difference."
"And, ah, why do they think he's causing her meltdowns?" Leon asked.
"Something about her being hypersensitive to his emotions and that causes it," Cid said.
"It makes sense," Riku murmured dully, eyes fixed on his glass, not on anyone else.
"It does?" Aerith asked. She sounded very curious.
"Sure." Riku just shrugged, trying to keep his attention on his drink and remain nonchalant about the entire thing. If he pretended like he didn't care, then he couldn't actually care, right? "I mean, given how my emotions are sometimes…" he trailed off, shrugged again, and raised his glass to his mouth. He closed his eyes and took a sip, frowning slightly. He wasn't actually fond of soda. It was awfully… bubbly and didn't taste very good.
"You can't be ashamed of your emotions," Aerith said. She laughed a little. "That's silly."
Riku lowered the glass, staring into it, watching the bubbles rise to the surface of the drink before popping. "Yeah, but what if I am hurting her? What if I-" he couldn't say it. He didn't want to think about it. He swished his glass around again, because the swirling motion of the drink was more mesmerizing than the bubbles.
"It's not like you can stop your own emotions, though," Leon said, quietly.
Riku didn't respond.
"I don't see why you care so much," Yuffie muttered. "It's not like you love her or anything."
Riku tensed, setting the glass back down hard enough that it clinked against the table. His fingers tightened around the glass, and he took a deep breath. What did love have anything to do with this? It didn't.
"I just want her safe. That's all."
That's all he'd ever wanted. All he'd ever done—protect her. This wasn't any different.
"And, what? You'd abandon your emotions jus' for that?" Cid asked. There was a smile in his voice, but Riku didn't look to see if the smile had carried to his face.
"I'd do anything to protect her," he said, simply.
"But you'd end up blocking out happiness and other good emotions," Aerith said. She was concerned. Typical. "I know it hurts, and I know you think it might be hurting her, but that's never a good reason to rid yourself of happiness."
"Namine wouldn't stand for it," Leon added.
Riku didn't say anything again. He didn't even understand how they'd gotten here in the conversation. Had he ever brought up abandoning his emotions? Of course, he'd do it, if that's what it took, but he didn't remember mentioning that…
He rubbed his head. It was starting to ache. A lot.
"Hey wait a minute!" Yuffie said. "I just realized, if we're supposed to be keeping Riku here, does that mean one of us has to be on Riku-watch all the time?"
"Very funny," Riku snapped. He kept his eyes fixed on the table, though. Best not look at anyone. Really. "But it's not like I'm going anywhere. I thought I made that fairly clear."
There was silence for a moment.
"You okay, Riku?" Aerith asked.
"Fine."
"Head hurt?"
He shrugged.
"Thought so." Aerith got up from the table and headed to the kitchen.
"Maybe it's the caffeine," Cid suggested. "I doubt he has soda very often."
"He hardly drank any of it," Yuffie said.
"So?"
"Here." Riku looked up now, because Aerith had just set a glass of water down on the table in front of him. She smiled. "Drinking water might help."
"It's not that bad…" Riku protested.
"Drink." Aerith's voice was stern, and the look in her eyes even more so.
Riku sighed and picked up the glass of water.
"Alright, alright…" he muttered, taking a drink.
Aerith started to the kitchen, taking Riku's soda with her, but Cid held out his hand, clearly wanting her to give it to him instead. Aerith looked at him for a moment, then rolled her eyes.
"You don't need it!"
"It's a waste!"
"Fine. Let me at least get you a new glass."
Aerith headed to the kitchen. Riku just took another drink of water. It had seemed pretty clear that he was supposed to drink all of it.
"Feel any better?" Aerith asked, when she came back to the kitchen and handed Cid the glass of soda.
Riku shrugged, setting the empty water glass down. "Not really," he said. "Was it supposed to go away that quickly?"
"Not necessarily," Aerith assured him. "How bad is it? Where does it hurt?"
"It's not that bad…" Riku murmured.
Aerith would have none of it. "It looks pretty bad, though, with the way you're squinting like that." She frowned. "Is the light bothering you? Does it kind of hurt right behind your eyes?"
Riku shook his head. "No, it's…" He tapped his forehead, where the pain felt the worst.
"Dull ache? Sharp throbbing?"
"Dull."
"Hmm…" Aerith considered him, carefully.
"Can I help?" Yuffie asked, nearly jumping out of her seat with her eagerness.
"Uh… yeah. Can you go get a panacea?"
Yuffie nodded and started off.
"It's alright, really," Riku said, trying not to groan. "I'm okay. It's not that bad. I'm- I'm fine."
Yuffie pouted. Apparently she wanted to help.
Aerith sighed. "Well… maybe you should go lay down," she suggested.
"I'm not tired."
"It'll help the headache."
"It doesn't hurt that bad," Riku insisted
"You don't even have to sleep, just lay down," Aerith said. "Close your eyes and rest. Relax. You said you were trying to avoid stress, right?"
"Uhm-" Riku grimaced. That'd been more of a lie than anything else.
"It'd help."
"But what am I supposed to do?" Riku asked, feeling annoyed now. The headache was getting worse, pounding in his skull, and it was getting frustrating. "Lay there and be left to my thoughts?"
"Or you can try and sleep," Aerith said, calmly. "I know you're not tired, but… Riku…" She moved closer to him, leaning down next to him, lowering her voice. "I know it's kind of silly, but… It's harder to miss someone while you're sleeping…"
He chuckled, dryly. "Yeah, but I'm not particularly fond of the dreams I tend to have."
Aerith sighed and moved away. "Then I don't know what to tell you. I'd offer you a book to read, but that could potentially make your headache worse. I mean, if you really want one, go ahead and pick one of the bookshelf—by all means you can take a book off the shelf and read it whenever if you want to—but I don't think it'd be beneficial right now."
Riku sighed and got to his feet. His head hurt too much to try and argue with her anymore. "I guess I'll just go lay down," he said, though he liked that idea even less. "Does it matter which room?"
"Either one of the guest rooms works," Aerith replied.
"Right."
He pounded up the stairs.
xxx
Sora really had no clue what he was doing, Roxas couldn't help but notice. He didn't do anything but whack the Hover Ghosts they were fighting with his Keyblade. Effective, yes, but magic was much more so, especially on these Heartless. With magic, you could kill them before they could attack and seriously harm you.
Roxas knew Hover Ghosts were particularly vulnerable to Fire. Or, Fire did a decent amount of damage, anyway.
He sent a blast of Fire at the nearest Hover Ghost, smiling slightly when it Ignited. It'd be dead soon. He rushed forward, leaping into the air and attacking with his Keyblade to speed up the process. He only got a hit before he noticed the other Hover Ghost pick Sora up by the collar.
Thinking quickly, Roxas sent a blast of Fire at it before it could drain Sora of too much of his energy. Or, Roxas tried to. No fire came. How'd he run out of casts so quickly?
He cast Thundaga instead. A large bolt of lightning crashed down on the Hover Ghost, causing it to drop Sora. Sora fell flat on his face and didn't get up right away. Roxas didn't think too much about it: he'd undoubtedly caught Sora in the Thundaga blast. Besides, Sora was groaning in pain, so he couldn't be dead.
Roxas leapt into the air and brought his Keyblade down on the Hover Ghost's head. It died instantly. Sora must've worn it down, somehow. (That, or the Thundaga'd been super effective.)
"You alright?" Roxas asked, turning to Sora, now. He'd feel bad if he'd seriously hurt him. At least, he'd feel a little bad.
Sora had pushed himself onto his knees,
"Ow!" he said, glaring.
Roxas shrugged, suppressing a smile. "I wasn't going to make it in time to get it off you," he explained. "Magic was my only choice. Besides, if I hadn't saved you, you'd be dead." He pulled a potion out of his pocket, anyway, and forced it into Sora's hands. It seemed like the right thing to do, especially after probably hitting Sora with the Thundaga. Plus, Hover Ghosts drained a lot of energy out of you, regardless of how fast you got them off your back.
"Wasn't there another Heartless?" Sora asked, staring at the potion.
The distinct sound of a Heartless dying answered his question, followed by the sound of munny hitting the ground. The other Hover Ghost had been killed from the continuous damage that being Ignited dealt. Roxas went over and picked up the scattered munny, along with the Lightning Crystal it'd dropped. When he turned back to Sora, he was still staring at the potion, and hadn't moved to get up.
"Do you not know what a potion is?" Roxas asked, laughing.
"Wha—" Sora looked up at him. "Oh. Yeah. I just… you sure I can have it?"
Roxas rolled his eyes now. "I wouldn't have handed it to you if I wasn't sure."
"Right."
Roxas shook his head in disbelief. While Sora was downing the potion, he did a quick check of his inventory to see what magic casts he had left, and figure out how he'd managed to run out of Fire so frequently.
Ah!
He had an excess of Blizzard magic still equipped. He'd been to Agrabah last, and must've forgotten to swap out his spells before setting of on this mission.
Anyway…
"So, what are you doing here?" Roxas asked. He'd asked Sora that earlier, but Sora hadn't given him a straight answer.
"Just…" Sora shrugged. "Traveling. That's all. You?"
"Killing Heartless," Roxas replied. Technically, he was here for other reasons—investigating why there weren't nearly as many Heartless as there should be here, namely. But, he couldn't tell Sora that. The Organization was supposed to be a secret. Or, something of one. Regardless, telling Sora that he was here for anything more than killing Heartless was something he could get in trouble for.
Besides, it's not like saying he was here to kill Heartless was a lie. That was his job, after all. And, many people traveled the Worlds to kill Heartless, so no one would think twice of it. He was grateful for this job, actually, and glad he didn't have to do something like recon. Coming up with a good reason as for why you were snooping if you were seen was a pain. And, anyway, he wasn't much good at anything other than killing Heartless.
"You mind if I come with you?" Sora asked, suddenly. "Like, just around town? I'd, uh- appreciate not being by myself for a while."
"Sure," Roxas said. It couldn't hurt. Sora had a Keyblade, anyway, so he could help. As long as Sora didn't ask too many questions, he'd be fine.
That in mind, Roxas resolved not to ask Sora any prying questions, either. If he did, then Sora'd have an excuse to.
"Anyway, let's head this way," Roxas said, nodding towards the town. Standing here in the outskirts wouldn't get any work done. He started off, and Sora followed after him.