Chapter 180: Scarred

Whatever Pete was excited about, Sora wished he'd at least stop talking about it. He'd been going for the past half hour. Something about… large Heartless… and good ideas… and he must've repeated himself at least three times now. Sora sighed. Unfortunately he didn't have anything to distract himself, and tuning Pete out only worked so well.

Up until this point, Sora's time with Maleficent had passed in something of a blur. He bounced between sleeping and grudgingly being dragged from world to world. He didn't remember most of it. But now—ever since he'd fought Roxas—time was moving at a normal pace again. Which was unfortunate, because that meant it was moving very slow.

Absentmindedly, Sora reached up to his neck to fiddle with his necklace, like he tended to do when he was bored out of his mind. His fingers closed around nothing. Right. He knew it wasn't there. He just seemed to… keep forgetting.

"Why don't we go see this Heartless of yours?" Maleficent asked, abruptly, pulling Sora out of his thoughts.

Pete stopped mid-sentence, gaped for a second. "Well- yeah," he said. "Yeah!" He pulled himself together surprisingly quickly. "Just wait 'til you see it, too! It's a big one, I promise!"

"Mmhmm." Maleficent rose to her feet. She looked at Pete expectantly. "Well? What are you waiting for, fool?"

"Wha? Oh!" Pete chuckled nervously, formed a dark corridor. "Right."

"Sora?" Maleficent called.

Sora suppressed a groan. Of course, 'we' would include him, wouldn't it? What was he supposed to do while they examined the Heartless? Though, he supposed, Maleficent would rather keep an eye on him, and it'd be hard to do if they were on separate worlds.

It wasn't like he had another choice, though.

"Coming," he said, getting to his feet and following after them.

He took a deep breath and a moment's hesitation before stepping through the dark corridor. Per usual, it was like stepping through a blanket that was only just insubstantial enough to let you pass through it. The darkness seemed to linger on his skin, too. It made his scar sting, made his heart wrench—

But then he was through. He stood very still, gathering himself, and very much wishing he could sit down for a few moments and catch his breath. He really hated traveling via dark corridors… Not that Maleficent noticed. Or cared.

The sooner he got away from her the better—not that he was sure on how he planned on doing that, exactly. He didn't have any method of transport… but maybe he just snuck off. Hid somewhere. Then Maleficent would leave without him. He could always talk to the locals. Surely someone had an idea about world travel.

Oh, but, if he remembered correctly, this world was short on towns. And people. He hadn't run into anyone last time he was here. What was this world called, anyway? He looked around.

They were standing on an outcropping of rock in the middle of an ocean. There was a trail of more rock outcroppings—all in various sizes—leading back to an island behind them. The island looked fairly large, and was covered in a lot of green grass. Sora nodded. He'd definitely been here before.

"Neverland," a voice whispered, gently, in the back of his mind.

The charm in his pocket twitched affectionately at the thought.

Sora's eyes widened a little. Neverland? But that meant this was…

No.

"There!" Pete shouted, sounding very proud of himself. "That's the Heartless I was tellin' ya about!" He was pointing up at the sky.

Sora followed his line of sight, and then found he didn't need to. The Heartless wasn't hard to see at all. It was at least the size of the outcropping they were standing on, plus its tail.

Then there's that wingspan to consider, Sora thought.

The Heartless looked vaguely like a bird, though its face was composed of a skull and… was that a treasure chest hanging from its mouth? That, or the treasure chest was its mouth. It was hard to tell from this distance, despite how big the thing was.

"Hey!" Pete scowled all of a sudden, squinting up at the sky. "What's that? Flying 'round up there next to my Heartless?" He held his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun.

Sora had to squint, too. This thing was much smaller thus much harder to see. And it looked… vaguely human-shaped. In fact… it looked a little like…

Was that Roxas?

The Heartless backpedaled, screeching as if it were in pain. As it did so, Sora caught a glint of—yup. Two Keyblades. That was Roxas.

"Now wait a second!" Pete stomped his foot, balling his fists. "That punk's takin' down my Heartless! Just who does he think he is?!"

"Quiet," Maleficent warned. She turned to Sora. "I believe you can take care of this?"

He looked over at her. "Yeah, sure!" he said, sarcastically. "Just lemme figure out how to fly first!"

Obviously, it wasn't impossible, seeing as Roxas had figured it out, but… But that didn't mean he was looking forward to it. Well, maybe to flying. Not to fighting Roxas. Again. He'd done that once. He still ached...

"Well, that shouldn't be too hard," Pete assured him. "All you need is some of that sparkly dust—not that flyin's any fun…" He grumbled a little, rubbing his back.

"I… guess I'll go do that," Sora said, slowly, starting off.

An excuse? To run off on his own? Like he'd pass that up!

And if he figured out to fly, then he'd definitely be able to give Maleficent the slip!

Still though… sparkly dust… pixie dust… flying… Neverland.

He'd been here before. And he hadn't seen any pixies. Or anyone flying. Could this really be the same Neverland? But how had he missed…

Pixies are shy though, Sora reminded himself. At least I think they are. It's been a while… a long while since I've read any of the—

Then he chuckled. He'd read stories about Neverland since he was a kid. Not that the stories would be completely accurate… but to think he was standing here. Standing in Neverland. Man, if he was gonna pick any place to run from Maleficent, maybe he wouldn't mind sticking around here…

Regardless. First order of business was to find a pixie. Actually, first order of business was to get farther inland—he doubted he'd find many pixies out this close to the ocean. Besides, if he went further inland, maybe he'd run into a few of the Lost Boys. And if he ran into some Lost Boys, then he'd run into—

A ball of light shot past him, carrying the sound of bells in its wake. Then the ball of light paused, and Sora saw it was…

"A pixie!" he exclaimed.

The pixie gave him an annoyed look before flying back over to him. She looked him over for a moment, and then kicked him in the nose. He took a step away from her, rubbing his nose.

"Tinker bell!" a new voice called, sounding disappointed.

Sora's eyes widened. Tinker bell? That meant…

Sora turned, and, sure enough, flying towards them was none other than Peter Pan himself. Sora couldn't help but grin a little. The grin was covered by his hand, however, since he was still clutching his nose.

Peter Pan slowed down, then touched his feet to the ground, folding his arms across his chest, tapping his foot impatiently. He glared at Tinker Bell. "That's no way to treat a stranger!"

Tinker Bell made a few jangling noises before flying off.

Peter Pan watched her go, then rolled his eyes and turned back to Sora. "Ah, don't mind her," he said. "She just thinks you shouldn't be trusted just because you smell a little funny. But she smells funny too!" he directed this last part at Tinker Bell, shouting loudly after her.

Sora grimaced a little. He wasn't exactly… upset or anything. He'd just… expected his childhood hero to be a little more mature.

Though, I started reading 'bout him when I was five, he thought. And I'd lost interest by the time I was ten. So…

"Anyway, what's your name?" Peter Pan asked.

"Sora."

"Nice to meet ya! I'm—"

"Peter Pan," Sora couldn't help but finish. He quickly clapped his hand over his mouth, though, once he'd said it.

Peter Pan instantly frowned. "How'd you know that?" he asked. Soon he was flying again—floating, really—going around Sora in circles, examining him. "Maybe Tink was right about you…" He poked Sora in the ribs, then looked him in the eye. "Did Hook send ya?"

Sora quickly shook his head.

Peter Pan wasn't convinced. "Then how'd you know my name? And where'd you get that scar?" He was frowning very intensely, like he could glare the answers out of Sora. "Only pirates have scars like that."

Sora turned away from him, not that he could hide his scar, with it being as large as it was. "I- I got this scar fighting pirates!" he said, quickly. "They captured me once, and I got away—but not before the captain gave me this." He flashed a grin at Peter, tapping the scar, trying to act proud.

It was a lie, of course, but he didn't really want to get into the details. Besides, Peter seemed to buy it.

"How'd you know my name, though?" he asked.

"I've heard a lot of stories about you!" Sora said. "I've heard that you're great at fighting pirates and- and lots of other stuff!"

Peter slowly grinned. "Is that right?" He smirked a little. "You hear that Tink? I'm famous!"

Tinker Bell was suddenly back. (Sora suspected she hadn't gone far to begin with.) She made a couple of noises at Peter. Peter listened intently, his face growing sour. He swatted at Tinker Bell, playfully. "Aw, lemme be a legend! What's so wrong with it?"

Tinker Bell made a few more noises—all of them sounded much like bells. Sora smiled. He supposed he shouldn't have expected any differently.

"She wants to know if there are any stories about her," Peter said, turning to Sora.

Sora nodded enthusiastically. "Oh yeah! Loads of stories!"

Tinker Bell lightened up considerably.

"So, Sora," Peter said. "What brings you to Neverland?"

"Well…" Sora grinned. "I was wondering if you could teach me how to fly."

xxx

"Yeesh, I'm not sure how much more time I can buy you," Axel muttered, scratching his head.

He knew Vexen—the one from the other universe—was in Castle Oblivion. That was the most obvious place to look for him. Of course, he'd lied to the boss, said he didn't know where Vexen was. Sent out his Assassins to "check" the worlds for Vexen.

That'd bought a few days, since he could only send out so many Assassins at once before he lost track of them and they lost track of what they were supposed to be doing. But he'd run out of worlds to "check", and the batch he sent off about an hour ago was headed for C.O. He wouldn't be able to put off going after Vexen himself much longer.

He let out a long breath.

It wasn't like he needed to help Vexen out, now that he and the Rebellion weren't… exactly on the same side anymore. But for some reason he couldn't help it. Besides, he'd already given Vexen the head start…

"Guess I just… can't decide if I want the Program restored or not…" Axel mumbled.

Rather, he didn't want to think about what Xemnas would do with it once it was started. When Vexen—the… this universe's Vexen—was still around, he wouldn't have let Xemnas do much with the Program. And then they didn't have the full Program when Saix was in charge. But who knew what would happen if the other universe's Vexen got put in charge.

"Axel? What are you still doing here?"

Axel looked up. Saix? Of all people…

"Oh, I'm just—"

"I thought Lord Xemnas gave you orders," Saix said, impatiently.

Axel raised his eyebrows. "And he sent you to—"

"A good two days ago." Saix frowned. "You should've left the moment you got the orders, and not returned until you'd carried them out."

Axel paused. Right. Someone had to get on his case about that eventually.

"Ahh… he expects me to take Roxas with me," Axel said, quickly. "I wouldn't want to distract Roxas from his other missions just to hunt Vexen down. I sent a couple of Assassins out, to do the hunting for us, and the last batch should be back—" He paused. Something was tugging at the edge of his cloak.

He glanced down, and saw an Assassin. He nudged it away from him with his foot, smiling slightly. How convenient.

"Ah! There it is!" he told Saix. "One sec." He looked down at the Assassin, folding his arms across his chest. "Alright? What'd you find?"

Unfortunately he couldn't much lie about what it said, with Saix being right there. But he wasn't going to be able to put off going after Vexen much longer anyway. Might as well get it over with.

Except…

He frowned down at the Assassin, hoping he'd just been too occupied with his thoughts to understand that properly. It can't have said…

"Say that again?"

It repeated its report, and Axel's eyes went wide.

"What do you mean he's not there?" he demanded.

"Surely you at least have some idea where he is, Axel," Saix said, calmly.

Axel shot a glare at him. "Yeah. Except this bugger—" he kicked the Assassin "—just told me he's not in Castle Oblivion. And I've had them check every other world, too."

"They can't have checked all the rooms in that castle."

Axel frowned. He'd sent three of them, which should've been enough to check the entirety of the castle while still going unnoticed. But it was a big castle… he should've sent more.

"Go back and just… hang around the main area, will you?" Axel said, kicking at the Assassin again. "Maybe he's just out of your senses. And report to me the moment you find him." The Assassin left, and Axel groaned. "Sheesh, how hard can it be for them to sense one Somebody in the midst of a bunch of Replicas?"

He was joking, mainly, though Saix wasn't amused.

"Perhaps you should've sent some Dusks…" he said, simply.

"Are you kidding? They definitely wouldn't have been able to tell the difference." Axel chuckled. "Now if you'll excuse me…" He started walking off.

"Why don't you go to Castle Oblivion yourself?" Saix asked.

"Because I'd rather not show my face there unless I'm positive I'll be grabbing Vexen and running," Axel replied, not even bothering to stop walking.