Chapter 211: Arrival of Darkness
Mickey took a deep breath, and then pushed open the door to Yen Sid's study. Yen Sid looked up from the large tome he was paging through.
"Mickey," he said, simply. "I wasn't expecting you."
"Well, I don't have good news." Mickey moved to stand before Yen Sid's desk—a familiar position. He met Yen Sid's eyes. "Maleficent's threatened my Castle."
Yen Sid frowned with concern. "The Cornerstone?" he asked.
"She's weakened it somehow," Mickey replied. He sighed and shook his head. He still was having a little trouble believing this was even happening. The Cornerstone had protected them without fail for countless years before now, and not once had he considered it stopping.
Yen Sid's eyes widened a little, and there was genuine concern in his voice as he spoke. "Has she?"
Mickey nodded, solemnly. "The Heartless have gotten past our defenses and everything," he said.
"That is… troublesome," Yen Sid admitted.
Mickey just nodded again, slowly starting to pace from one end of the room to the other. "Minnie and Sora have determined she's gettin' help from somewhere, but neither of 'em are sure where," he explained. "And no one's got any idea on how she's even doing this in the first place! Donald and Goofy haven't come back, either…"
"When did you send them off?"
Mickey paused and looked up. "A few days ago," he said. "I sent them to see if they could head Maleficent off, but I'm afraid something might've happened to 'em."
"They're fine," Yen Sid said.
"Ya sure?"
"Mickey, I would know if something had happened to them."
Mickey smiled a little. Yen Sid was right there, at least.
"And I am sure they have it taken care of," Yen Sid continued. "I cannot imagine any other reason as to why they have yet to return."
"Ya really think so?" Mickey asked, swallowing.
Yen Sid closed his eyes and lowered his head—his form of a nod.
Mickey let out the breath he'd been holding. "Alright then," he said. "I guess I should get goin', then. Don't want to leave the Castle undefended for too long. I'll- I'll come back if I need anything else."
He started for the door.
"Mickey." Yen Sid's voice stopped him. "Why are you really here?"
"Wh- whaddya mean?" Mickey asked, chuckling nervously.
"You came here about more than your castle, I presume?" Yen Sid said.
Mickey turned back around, coughed. "Well… there was…" he began, shifting from foot to foot. He cleared his throat again, and then steeled his resolve. "It's about Sora."
"Hmm?"
Yen Sid didn't seem terribly surprised.
"I'm- uh, I'm not so sure if he's who… you expected him to be," Mickey said. He tried to keep eye contact with Yen Sid, but he wanted to look out the window. At his feet.
"Is that so?"
"Yes! He- he's dealt with the darkness, he's worked with Maleficent, he-" Mickey stuttered a second, before saying: "He has a Shadow."
"Does he now…!?" Yen Sid's eyes widened with shock.
"Yes. I've seen it myself."
He'd more than seen it. He'd fought it. Tried to kill it.
Mickey swallowed. His attempt and failure to kill Sora's Shadow left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. And he still hadn't told Sora…
Yen Sid took a moment before speaking, obviously trying to gather his words. "I suppose that does prove… worrisome," he admitted, slowly.
"He can't be the boy," Mickey said, immediately. "Can't be the Hero you foresaw—"
"Mickey," Yen Sid interrupted. He didn't sound happy. "While you are right in the fact all this is troublesome, you are wrong about him not being the boy."
"But-"
"Tell me," Yen Sid continued, like he hadn't heard Mickey. "Has your past as a mischievous mouse who never cleaned up the messes he made prevented you from becoming a King?"
Mickey stopped short, flinching a little. "Well, no," he said. "But—"
"Then Sora's past dealings with the darkness won't prevent him from being the boy."
"But the darkness is what we've set out to destroy!" Mickey protested. "The boy, the supposed Hero of Light, can't be—"
"What? Tainted?" Yen Sid countered. "It seems to me, Mickey, that your problem is not with Sora, but with the darkness in him."
"Well of course it is!" Mickey said, growing a little impatient. "I've sworn to destroy the darkness! It's my duty as a Keyblade Master—"
"No, your duty as a Keyblade Master is to keep the balance!" Yen Sid shot to his feet, voice booming. "Darkness cannot be destroyed completely. Yes, it has gotten out of hand lately in the past few decades, but we don't need to destroy it, only tame it!"
"Of… of course… Master Yen Sid," Mickey murmured, looking down at his toes. His face was hot with embarrassment.
"Look at it this way," Yen Sid said, sitting back down in his chair with a huff. "The darkness may have taken Sora once, but has it consumed him?"
"No…"
"Then hope is not lost. I'll say it again: Sora's past dealings with the darkness are troublesome, but they will not prevent him from being who he needs to be."
"Are- are ya sure?" Mickey asked.
"Positive."
"Okay…"
"If you're so worried about Sora, you should focus that worry into making sure the darkness does not take him again," Yen Sid said. "We may not be lucky enough to get him back a second time."
Mickey swallowed, nodded. "Of course. I- I should… get goin'."
"Let me know if Maleficent still proves a problem."
"I will," Mickey said, and left.
xxx
"This is ridiculous," Daisy grumbled. "Can't get three steps anymore without Heartless showing up."
"It is ridiculous," Sora agreed.
They were doing rounds of the Castle, trying to clear as many Heartless as possible. The amount of Heartless had steadily increased over the past few days, and everyone was progressively growing more worried. Sora didn't even know the world well, but he could feel it darkening, slowly being polluted by the Heartless.
"The Heartless don't seem to mind you," Daisy laughed, but it was a little rueful. She sent a blast of Fira at a Heartless near Sora, though she was right: it didn't seem keen on attacking him.
"Yeah…" Sora chuckled nervously and swallowed, bringing his Keyblade down on another Heartless near him. He didn't want to think too much about why that might be—the whole business about not being able to touch the Cornerstone the other day was discomforting enough as it was, he didn't need to add anything else on top of it.
Sora hesitated a moment, before closing his eyes and reaching out with his mind. Or, he did something like that—unsure of what exactly he needed to do. It wasn't like the Heartless were going to attack him, apparently, so he could figure this out without too much worry of getting hurt.
Hello? he sent, tentatively, trying to get his Shadow's attention. He wasn't sure if a hello would be enough, but it wasn't like he had a name to call his Shadow by. And he'd never done this before…
There was a long moment of silence, and then:
"You're contacting me?"
That was his Shadow, alright. He sounded pretty surprised. And for a flickering second, their connection granted Sora a glimpse of his emotions. It went by too fast for him to pick anything out besides the surprise, though he was sure there was something else there.
It did work! Sora thought, excitedly. He opened his eyes and went back to attacking the Heartless around him, satisfied that he'd successfully established a connection.
"You thought it wouldn't?" his Shadow asked.
Well it's not like I've ever contacted you before. You usually just butt your way into my conversations whether I want you to or not. Sora rolled his eyes and shook his head. Hadn't his Shadow just mentioned it was a surprise he'd contacted him?
"Oh," his Shadow replied.
That was it. Just "oh", followed by a long pause.
It's, uh, been a while, Sora sent. He couldn't entirely remember the last time he and his Shadow had talked. Or seen each other. Or…
"Can we, uhm, skip the small talk and get to the part where you tell me why you contacted me to begin with?" His Shadow seemed a little irritated.
Sora cast Fire at a Heartless sneaking up on Daisy. "Well…" he began, then caught himself. He didn't need to say it out loud. Do you know anything about Maleficent?
"Why would I?" his Shadow answered almost before Sora'd finished. "It's not like I'm working for her! Never have, never will. She hates me."
The last bit was almost an afterthought, and a surge of pain shot through Sora's chest at it. A surge of anger. A surge of… fear? Whatever it was, his Shadow was sure to mask it all quickly, and Sora did his best not to let it distract him from the Heartless.
Okay…, Sora thought with a sigh, a little disappointed. He'd sort of hoped his Shadow might've known if Maleficent was working with anyone, but now that he thought about it, he wasn't sure why.
He turned his attention to one of the Heartless—this one was sniffing his shoes. He kicked it away and killed it with once swipe of his blade.
Do you know anything about Heartless? he asked his Shadow. He didn't think their connection had been broken yet.
There was a slight pause, though, before his Shadow replied.
"Well, duh, it'd sorta be weird if I didn't," he said. "Why?"
You wouldn't happen to know why they aren't… attacking me, then? Would you?
There was another pause, much longer this time. Sora could feel his Shadow's emotions churning, though he couldn't entirely pick out any specific emotions. Surprise, again, seemed pretty prevalent. But besides that… there wasn't much telling. They were all too jumbled and pretty well masked.
"I- uh- that- uh…" his Shadow was stuttering for words. "That's good! That's- that's great! Yeah! See, Heartless don't attack kin, so that must mean they think you're family, or something."
"No!" Sora protested, aloud.
Daisy threw him a look. "Is something wrong?"
"Uh…" Sora quickly shook his head, trying to blow it off. "Sorry. Just. Thinking aloud."
The answer probably wasn't enough for Daisy—she could be as skeptical as Donald—but she didn't press the matter, at least. The fact that there were still plenty of Heartless around probably had something to do with it. It was hard to be nosy when there were Heartless to be dealt with.
"Yeaaah!" Sora's Shadow laughed. It rang in Sora's ears, an entirely too familiar and incredibly unpleasant sound. "Means you're darker than you think. Great new for me!"
Shut up! Sora thought, angrily.
"You were the one who asked for my opinion!"
"Well—"
Sora froze.
A darkness had swept over the world, very suddenly, and he recognized it all too well.
"Maleficent's here," he told Daisy, eyes wide.
She looked up at him. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"Then don't just stand there! We have to tell the King!"