Chapter 205: Something Off

Queen Minnie took Sora to the library, where Mickey—King Mickey—was running his hands over the books on the shelves, humming something to himself. He looked up when they walked in, and smiled.

"Heya Sora!" Mickey said, warmly. "Ya feelin' any better?"

"Uh, yeah!" Sora nodded. "A little tired, but…"

It felt a little… strange, that Mickey—a king —was so casual. Well, Sora supposed, he was still Mickey. But he was a king. Weren't kings supposed to be… regal and aloof and… stuff? Not that he knew anything about kings outside of what the stories told, and most stories he read focused on the heroes, not on the kings.

"That's good!" Mickey smiled at him, and then sent a wider smile in Minnie's direction. "Here. Why don't you sit down?" He moved to a table over in the corner of the library, pausing to pull out a chair for his wife.

Sora slowly sat in one of the chairs on the other side of the table, trying to sit up as straight as possible. He wouldn't want to slouch in front of royalty.

"Do you… know what that wolf was?" Mickey asked, slowly as he took his seat.

Sora shook his head, figuring Mickey was talking about more than it just being a wolf. A magical wolf. Was it a special kind of magical wolf? Were there subspecies of magic wolves? Was this one particularly deadly? Important?

"I think…" Mickey trailed off, grimacing a little. After a second he continued, firmly. "I think that this wolf is the same Heartless we fought together in Beast's Castle. It- it has the same sort of… feeling to it, ya know?"

Sora shrugged, smiling sheepishly. "I… sorta noticed," he answered, scratching his head. "I mean, not because of how it felt, but it had a lot of similarities. I think it still has the chains…"

"How did it become a wolf, though?" Minnie asked.

"I've been wonderin' that too…" Mickey sighed. "Sora? Got any ideas?"

Sora shook his head. After he'd done that, though, an image flickered through his mind—black wolf pelt under his hand… was that his hand? It looked like his hand, though the memory didn't feel like his. And, wait a minute, his gloves weren't black!

But the image left his mind as quickly as it'd come.

Though… maybe he did know how it became a wolf…

He opened his mouth to say that, but Mickey was speaking again.

"More importantly," Mickey said, firmly. "Was there somewhere you were headin'? Before the wolf dragged you off like that?"

Sora swallowed. Maybe he'd bring up the wolf later. "Well, I—" he began, but a sharp pain shot through his chest, cutting him short. He doubled over, clutching his stomach, his head bumping against the table. He suddenly felt very sick, like he was going to throw up any second.

"Sora?"

"Okay," he coughed. "Maybe- maybe I don't feel as good as I thought." He forced himself to sit back up, grimacing. He didn't look neither Mickey nor Minnie in the eye.

"I know you may have somewhere to be, but perhaps it'd be best if you stayed here until you recovered," Minnie suggested, gently.

"Y- yeah."

It wasn't like… he had anywhere important to be, did he? He thought he did, but for the life of him, he couldn't remember where it was. It was all… fuzzy and dark and- and ooh his head hurt.

"Do ya… wanna head back to your room?" Mickey asked, hesitating a little with every other word.

"I—" Sora swallowed again. "Maybe…" He got to his feet, staggering a little, quickly grabbing onto the chair to steady himself. He put too much of his weight against the chair, though, and ended up knocking it over. He staggered again, but this time Mickey was there to catch him.

"Careful there!"

"Sorry," Sora mumbled, straightening himself. "I'm sor—" He paused, finally recognizing the pulse in his chest, the presence in the back of his mind. It'd been ages since he'd last felt it. Since he'd last felt—

But if he felt this, then that meant his Shadow was nearby.

After all this time, he chose now to show up?

Sora stood up straighter, scanning the room, eyes lingering on every corner—but there was no hiding place. And his Shadow had never been good at hiding from him. There was no corner for him to have slipped behind, and hiding under a desk seemed below him.

"Sora?" Minnie asked. "Is something wrong?"

Sora turned to look at her. She was frowning worriedly at him. Mickey was looking around the room. Maybe he had sensed Sora's Shadow, too, or maybe he just noticed that Sora was searching for something, and figured he could search too.

"I thought I sensed…" Sora began.

But there was no one here, and he knew it. His Shadow wasn't in this room. He was nearby—probably. Definitely somewhere in the Castle, though.

It's not like I was ever any good at sensing him… Sora thought, bitterly.

"Sensed what?" Mickey asked.

Sora shook his head, swallowing the bile in his throat. "Nothing," he said with a grimace.

"Well, you said you felt sick, didn't you?" Minnie said, a little impatiently. "Then we should get you to your room!"

Sora didn't protest.

xxx

Sora shifted against the pillows that were propping him up, trying to get comfortable. The wave of nausea had passed, but his head still hurt quite a bit, and had Mickey and Minnie not still been in the room, he would've contemplated going back to sleep.

He felt a little bad about all this—they probably had more important things to worry about than him—but he wasn't exactly sure how to bring it up. Refusing hospitality was almost as rude as demanding it when you weren't wanted.

"Do you think you feel okay enough to eat?" Minnie asked him.

He nodded, slowly. "Yeah. I think so."

"Okay," she smiled at him. "I think we're having pasta for dinner tonight…"

"Pasta's fine," Sora said.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright." Minnie started for the door. "I'll have someone bring you up a plate, okay?"

"Thank you!"

"Uh-huh!"

And Minnie left.

Sora turned his attention to Mickey. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask me, uh, Your Majesty?"

Mickey chuckled. "You really can just call me Mickey, ya'know."

Sora's eyebrows crinkled as he considered that. "You sure?" he asked, slowly. He didn't know what exactly he'd expected from a King, but he certainly hadn't expected this.

"I'm absolutely positive!"

"Okay… well…" Sora cleared his throat. Then swallowed. Shifted in his bed again. "Was there anything else you wanted to ask me?"

"Hmm…" Mikey considered it for a moment. "I don't suppose you know why the wolf was even following you in the first place, do ya?"

Sora paused a moment before answering. A few vague images of the wolf pacing in front of him—but it wasn't him?—flashed through his mind, but he couldn't make much out of them. So he shook his head.

"No. I really don't."

"Then nope!" Mickey said. "I don't have anything else to ask you. Except, of course, if you're feeling okay?"

"Yeah." Sora tried not to chuckle. "I think it's just because of how the wolf travels between worlds. It's not exactly…" He trailed off, searching for the right word. "I- I don't think it's meant for humans."

"Mm." Mickey nodded, understanding. "Well, I'll look into it. But for now, I'll leave you be, so you can get some rest." He smiled and started for the door, but paused halfway there. "Oh! Uhm…" He turned to Sora again. "There- there was… one more thing I wanted to ask. If you- if you don't mind."

"I don't mind," Sora assured him.

"Well, uh," Mickey cleared his throat and scratched his ears. Sora frowned at him, a little worried about what the question might be if it was making Mickey this nervous. "Did ya, uh, get in a fight or somethin'?"

Oh, that wasn't so bad of a question. Sora's frowned still deepened, though. Of course he'd been fighting. It was hard to travel the worlds and not end up fighting at some point. Even the worlds without Heartless had some form of monster!

"Hmm?"

Mickey coughed. "Your- your face."

"Oh."

Sora traced his fingers over his scar—right by his jawbone. It stung a little when he touched it, but that was nothing new.

"Well," he began, rubbing his jawbone with a knuckle. How to explain it? "It's, uh- yeah. A fight. With my Shadow."

Mickey stared at him for a moment, eyes wide. "Your- what?" he stuttered, finally.

"My Shadow," Sora repeated, scrunching up his face. "He's uh- well- he's like a-"

"No, no," Mickey interrupted. "I know what a Shadow is. I just didn't—" He broke off, sighed. "Though I guess you can't… normally tell whether or not someone has a Shadow, huh?"

Sora shrugged. "Is it… important?"

"No." Mickey paused, reconsidered. "Unless you think he'll show up here…"

Sora shrugged again. "Not sure," he admitted. "I… thought I sensed him in the library, but I didn't see him. Don't sense him now, either. Then again…" He made a face. "It's been ages since I last saw him. Haven't seen him since- since, well, Maleficent."

How long ago had that been? Had it been… nearly a month now? Wow, time flew.

"Maleficent!?" Mickey asked, surprised.

"Uh… I was sorta… staying with her for a while."

"You were staying with Maleficent?"

Clearly, this news shocked the King.

"Not- not exactly of my own free will," Sora answered, hastily. "She sorta… kidnapped me."

"What'd she want you for?" Mickey asked.

"Still not sure," Sora admitted. "She never told me."

Mickey frowned. "Oh."

"We did- uh-" Sora coughed. "I did work with her previously, though," he said, clearing his throat. "Sorta. Something about… a door to Kingdom Hearts and needing a key and- and I'm still not terribly sure about all the details." Sora shrugged apologetically. "I was just hoping to find Kairi. Maleficent said she could help." He sighed. "Bad judgment on my part, really…"

If there was anything he regretted, it was agreeing to help Maleficent in the first place.

"Mm…" Mickey rubbed his chin. "Did you- did she ever get Kingdom Hearts?" he asked, his voice squeaking a little.

Sora shook his head. "No," he said. "Things… happened. She sorta vanished—I almost assumed she was dead until she came back." He paused, noting Mickey's obvious distress. "No one… got Kingdom Hearts, though," he added. "Like I said, Maleficent vanished, and I'm pretty sure Riku stopped- Riku stopped Ansem before he got there either."

"That's good," Mickey said, letting out a very visible sigh of relief.

"What's… so important about Kingdom Hearts?" Sora asked, tentatively. Maleficent had only spoken of how it was some great source of power and knowledge and such. But Mickey was acting like it was something more important. Something that should be protected at all costs.

Mickey looked up at him, a little shocked by the question. "Well, uh-" he began, but broke off. "It's- it's a long explanation. Maybe I'll tell ya about it another time."

"Oh…" Sora's heart sunk. But there wasn't any arguing here. "Okay…"

"Sorry," Mickey said, sending him a deeply apologetic look, before letting out a long sigh. "I should… probably go down for dinner—before Minnie comes and yells at me." He chuckled a little, at that, clearly trying to lighten the mood. "I'm sure someone will be up with your dinner pretty soon!"

"Okay," Sora said, not too worried about it. He wasn't much hungry, but that didn't mean he'd refuse the food he'd been offered. "Thanks, by the way!"

"No problem!" Mickey told him, and he left.

xxx

Mickey turned the pages of his journal, humming a little as he thought. He moved the desk lamp a little closer, to give him more light, not that that helped him find what he was looking for. It'd help if he knew exactly what he was looking for—he just had a vague memory of writing something in particular down, but he couldn't remember where or when.

"Oh, Mickey," Minnie laughed. "Are you gonna be up all night looking for that?"

He looked up at her. "Well if I'm buggin' ya, I can move to—"

Minnie just laughed again. "No, you're fine."

Mickey looked back at his journal, flipped to the next page, sighed. "I… think I'm gonna have to talk to Yen Sid pretty soon," he said. This didn't have anything to do with his journal, he just figured Minnie should know.

"What for?" Minnie asked. She didn't sound too surprised, but that, in itself, wasn't surprising.

"I've just… got some questions about Sora."

"Really?" This time Minnie did sound surprised. "What sort of questions?"

Mickey flipped another page in his journal, which, at this point, had just become something to occupy his hands. He looked at it, sighed, trying to gather his thoughts. How was he supposed to phrase his… confusion about Sora?

He'd thought he knew all sorts of things about the boy—things that Yen Sid had foreseen. Except, now that he'd actually spent more time with Sora… And there were so many questions raised about what Sora'd said…

"I mean, I knew he had some troubles with the darkness," Mickey whispered, resting his chin in his hands and his elbows on the desk. "But to have a Shadow…"

"Doesn't everyone have a shadow?" Minnie asked. He could tell by her voice that she was teasing, and he chuckled.

"Not that kind of shadow," he said. "The kind of Shadow I'm talkin' about is… well, they're a sort of creature bent on draggin' people into darkness. They only go after people that've dealt with darkness before…"

"Well, then doesn't it make sense that a Shadow latched onto Sora?" Minnie said.

"Well, yeah," Mickey admitted, grimacing. "But- but you've gotta reach a certain level of darkness before a Shadow will go after you. So if Sora has one—"

"What's so special about Sora?" Minnie interrupted.

Mickey paused and sighed again. After a second, he pushed his chair away from his desk and got to his feet.

"It's just… there was supposed to be a boy. With a Keyblade," he explained, pacing back and forth. "And when the Worlds were in danger, he was supposed to, ya'know, save them. Me and Yen Sid assumed it was Sora—he matched the description of what Yen Sid foresaw pretty well. But…" He trailed off, scratching his head.

Minnie said nothing, just stood there, letting him collect his thoughts. She knew if she interrupted him, chances were he'd lose his original train of thought.

"But when Ansem started causin' trouble, the Worlds just ended up… fixin' themselves," Mickey continued. "But I don't think… Sora helped. In fact, I think he—"

"You think he was causing trouble in the worlds?" Minnie asked. She couldn't help interrupting him this time.

Mickey paused, looked at her, grimaced. "He mentioned he was workin' with Maleficent—" he began.

"That old witch?" Minnie rolled her eyes. "You know how she is. She probably tricked him into helping her. Wouldn't be the first time."

"Yeah," Mickey chuckled, knowing that to be true. Maleficent had caused problems for a while now, and there was always some poor soul with her who she'd tricked into helping.

Minnie's face softened, then, with concern. "Do you… really think Sora's—" she began.

"I don't know." Mickey shook his head. "I'll have to talk to Yen Sid."

"Alright…"