This is Halloween! This is Halloween! Yep, I'm treating this whole month like it's the October 31st. Which means I need to start watching my horror movies, anyway here is your long awaited chapter.


Chapter 5

The Madness of Claude Frollo

It was if the world had revealed itself in all its virtues to Quasimodo only for it to be swiped away moments later. He was subjected to the will of his master, and nothing could change that. Was this feeling a normal one? That of feeling like a dagger was pointed to the heart resulting in him not being able to move? After taking him back to his tower, Frollo had made sure that guards had been positioned in front of the doors to stop him from leaving. Any movements he could make were only further restricted by the chains that bound his wrists and ankles the wall effectively imprisoning him. Whatever freedom that Quasimodo had in this tower, he had taken for granted and had been selfish in trying to seek something more. He had been lucky enough that Frollo hadn't sent him to the stake like he was about to do with the other gypsies he had captured…

Esmeralda… He repeated the name over and over in his head like some kind of twisted obsession. Really, the name was anything but that, offering comfort and solace in its nature and beauty. It was everything that he wasn't, and he had condemned it in the end to the flames. His light was to be snuffed out in only a short while because, although unintentional, it had been he who had led Frollo to her.

Quasimodo shrivelled up in the corner and listened to the sound of silence. No, not quite. There was still the whispering wind that seemed only to be preparing itself for the ghostly wails of the executed that would soon fill the morning sky. There was also the occasional chirping of birds somewhere up above him on the third floor where the bells lay lonely and seeking company. It must have come as odd to the residents of the city that the bell had not been rung all day but Quasimodo didn't care, he didn't have the strength to care anymore.

It wasn't only Esmeralda and the gypsies whose lives he had put in danger. He wondered if Sora, Riku and Kairi were doing alright as well. His master had mentioned something about wanting to obtain their weapons but he had no idea as to what made them so useful to the judge. Had they survived those creatures that Frollo had sent to attack them?

"Come on Quasi, you gotta snap out of it!" The creaking of the floorboards alerted him to his friends' presence, however he kept his head downward and his eyes closed.

"Why? Why did it have to turn out like this?" Quasimodo wallowed in self-disgust.

Laverne shook her head and tugged at the chains only to no avail. "You have to get these chains off Quasi. Your friends need you!"

"It's my fault they're like that in the first place. I'd only bring more trouble. That's all I know how to do anyway." Quasimodo said completely devoid of any strength his voice had once possessed.

"So you're giving up? Just like that?" Hugo asked.

"Is it really the chains that are holding you back Quasi?" Victor added but Quasimodo showed no interest in moving from his spot. Their claims only made him want to stay under the soft duvet of despair that was blanketing him currently. It was something he was familiar with and offered a soothing and calm that he knew he would find if he discarded it. This was his natural habitat, something that had been conditioned into his mind from the moment Frollo had taken him in. He couldn't leave. No, it was more like he didn't want to leave.

As his self-loathing increased by the second, he soon felt his heart pound a lot harder than it should have. He doubled over in pain and clutched at his chest. No, it couldn't be happening now. Not at a time like this! Quasimodo noticed his sight becoming obscured by what seemed like invisible shapes of circles and rectangles to which he could only just make out their sides.

"Oh no, is it happening again? Quasi, snap out of it, quickly!" Laverne's warning soon turned to weird muffled sounds as the hunchback tried to make sense of his surroundings. By instinct, he roared out a vicious yell hoping that the guards outside— or anyone really, would come and put him out of his pain. A yell that could only be described as human soon became anything but that…


"Sora, wait up!"

Sora stopped, his feet sticking to the ground like glue while he turned around to see Riku and Kairi a few feet away from him trying to keep up. "We don't have time. We need to get to the square before Frollo executes Esmeralda and the others." He said forcefully before looking to turn back to the path in front of him. "What's taking you guys so long?"

"Hold up there Sora. Don't you think you're being a little to rash?"

"Rash?" Sora repeated in disbelief at Riku's claim. "Yeah, I would hope so considering a whole bunch of people are about to be put to the flames just for existing. Heck even if they had done something else, it's still barbaric."

"That's not what I'm disagreeing with here. You've been letting yourself act completely on your own impulses for a while now without even thinking. It's not the first time either. You're a Keyblade Master Sora, if you don't stop and look at a situation instead of charging right in you're going to find a lot of problems down the line." Riku replied.

"What's to look at? It's simple, we go and rescue them. What else is there to understand?" Sora shot back. Why Riku had decided to aggravate him at a time like this was something he couldn't understand. And what did being a Keyblade Master matter anyway if he wasn't able to save anyone because of a moment of hesitation? Sora breathed deeply and said calmly, "Riku, can we just leave this for later? I need to save them, or how can I be sure… that I can save…"

"Aha, so for you this is your chance to prove something to yourself then?"

"Maybe."

"Maybe?"

Sora smacked his lips together before responding, "OK, yes. Look, I know what I'm doing, and as long as I have you guys beside me then I won't make the same mistakes I did with her."

"Sometimes you give yourself way too little credit. Also keep in mind that Luna isn't the only person we need to find, there's Alice as well." Riku reminded him. Alice's disappearance had become such a concern that Yen Sid had even called on Roxas, Xion, Lea, Terra, Aqua and Ven to aid them (including Mickey, Donald and Goofy) in searching the worlds for if even one Princess of Heart was lost then the worlds would fall back into the darkness that had plagued it after the Keyblade War. Kefka had been their closest lead to anything but he had gotten away and so they were now back to square one. "Don't take this the wrong way when I say that you've been reckless over these past three months. I've been down that path before, and I almost lost myself because of it. That's why I can see it so easily with you. Just, take it easy… or you're no better than a Heartless." Riku finished.

The words stung but in some ways still reeked of truth. Sora hadn't been thinking clearly as of lately, he could admit that but in the end his heart had always remained intact and had set him on the right path. He knew right from wrong and that had always been good enough, but that didn't seem to be the case anymore. Things were becoming more complex and he didn't have that simplicity to rely on anymore.

"OK, I'll start with this then," Sora said on a warmer note, "What is this alchemy stuff Frollo's talking about? And Atlantis… it shouldn't exist, right Kairi?"

"That's what my grandma told me but who knows. Maybe she knew more than she was letting on." Kairi said.

"Right, that story with the children who rebuilt the lost world did seem pretty accurate to the events of the Keyblade War. Maybe it's the same thing here." Sora proposed.

"I understand that we've come so far that it's hard to just dismiss anything for baseless conjecture or a mere myth but how much did my grandma really know? For that matter, how much did Ansem the Wise know? I think he knew my grandma and my real parents but it's too late to ask him now." said a downtrodden Kairi.

Oh great, now see what you've done Riku? Sora thought before comforting her with a hand on her shoulder. Strangely enough, having very little recollection of her time spent in Radiant Garden had not seemed to faze Kairi in the slightest during their time on the islands. She had arrived, she had gotten to meet Sora and Riku, after a few times of Riku engaging in a multitude of questions about her world like he was interrogating a suspect in a crime he had eventually given up and the three of them had continued on like Kairi had always been on the islands. She had not even shown any interest in wanting to go back to her world until Riku had mentioned the possibility to them two years ago.

Another thing which Sora would have associated with leaving one's home was the feeling of being home sick however Kairi hadn't shown any of those symptoms now that he thought about it. He had only been four or five at the time so he obviously wouldn't have thought about things like that in much detail but now he had to wonder what exactly Xehanort had done at the time before sending Kairi off to the islands to find the Keyblade Master. It could have also been that since some people adapt more quickly to environments they're not used to as opposed to others then Kairi was simply able to come to terms with her new home at a faster rate. What Sora was definitely sure of was that having spent an increasingly longer amount of time in Radiant Garden had made Kairi more curious about her world.

"So, about alchemy…" Sora said, wanting to move as a far away from the topic of the past as possible.

"Yeah, I'm stumped as well. Do you have any idea Kairi?" Riku asked.

Kairi cheered up frighteningly quickly and cleared her throat before talking as if she were a living encyclopaedia. "Wow, you two are so clueless. Alchemy is the study of turning base metals into gold and silver. Of course there are other beliefs which associate it with creating an elixir of life which can grant immortality."

Sora almost choked. "Wait immortality? Pfft, what's this nonsense?"

"And turning base metals into gold and silver? With that kind of knowledge you'd be making more munny than Scrooge McDuck has in a lifetime." Riku supplemented.

"Yeah, I don't think he'd be too happy knowing that there was someone richer than him, he'd lose his marbles." Sora said letting out a laugh.

Kairi however was quite critical of their scepticism. "Does it really seem impossible to you? Something very similar is already underway though. Moogle synthesis? You've never wondered how it worked?"

Both Sora and Riku shook their heads. "Nope. Me, Donald and Goofy always just watched them do cool stuff and then paid them. That was it." Sora said.

"Well the process of transmuting base metals such as orichalcum into noble metals is pretty much the same as alchemy. Wanna know how it's done?" asked a way too excited Kairi.

Riku shook his head again. "Uh, no thank you-"

"They dig for orichalcum ore in the mines which heavily produce the metal. Since it's usually combined with impure metals to form compounds they have to extract the pure orichalcum by reacting it with carbon and then-"

Kairi was so busy chatting away absentmindedly that she became completely unaware of the two boys' boredom. Sora leaned over to Riku and whispered, "Whelp, that was a bad idea. Let's get to the cathedral before she notices that we're gone."

"Agreed, at this rate we'll be here all week if we stay here to listen to whatever she's talking about."

"-and then they heat the orichalcum to a state where it can be melded and- guys? Oh come on now, and I was just getting to the good part…" Kairi said after becoming aware that Sora and Riku were already half way down the road and had left her behind. She huffed in annoyance before following after them in a run.

It was a case of getting what you put in here and for the trio, they were quite surprised at the distance they had managed to cover by the time they had ran out of breath. Just up ahead was the archway that led towards the town square and just besides them the inn casting its shadow over their bodies. Sora looked up and saw a beautiful orange curtain stretching across the sky. The sun was rising, and they were running out of time.

"So what's the plan?" Kairi asked after a minute of rest and silence among the group.

"We go and put a stop to the execution, it's really as simple as that. Though make sure you're prepared to fight in case anything goes wrong." Sora paused before adding with concern, "You ready for this?"

"I'm not the same girl who was taken hostage by Axel and the Organization Sora. You don't have to worry about me. So let's do this." Kairi said confidently. Sora nodded at her and then Riku before advancing down the street.

Not even a few seconds had passed upon entering the town square that Sora had encountered a grave problem. "No… nononononoNO!"

"Uh, using words other than no please Sora?" Riku suggested not seeing the problem. Of course he couldn't since he had never encountered it before. Either way, it wouldn't have taken long for him to have figured it out judging from what not just Sora, but the whole crowd in the square were looking at. Atop the cathedral was a beast, its claws digging into one of the gargoyle statues on the rooftop to give it support while it held something else in its other hand. It was slightly difficult to make out from the angle the beast was holding her at but her long black hair seemed to indicate clearly that it was Esmeralda.

"Wait, you don't mean to tell me-"

"Yeah, that's Quasimodo's chimera." Sora finished for Kairi before making his way forward. Riku and Kairi followed him having to push through the gigantic crowd as best they could who were absolutely frozen stiff by the terror above. Sora amused himself by imagining that from a bird's eye view the scene must have resembled a still life painting, of course now wasn't the time to wonder about such things.

This shifting of the crowd was not lost of Judge Frollo whose eyes were torn away from the creature to find themselves set upon the three teenagers fast approaching the doors of the cathedral. As his anger intensified, a dark glow surrounded him with Heartless appearing near him. The common signs were showing and Frollo seemed unaware of its effects. It was just as Riku said then. Whatever traces of Frollo's mind had once existed were now replaced by a palpable loathing.

The strange entities' reappearance caused the crowd to disperse in fear filling the air with screams and cries. The Large Body craned its neck both sides before throwing its body towards the trio. Kairi cast Slow magic while it was still in the air giving the group an ample amount of time to get away before all moving into strike from the back.

"You guys take care of Frollo. I'll go see if I can help Quasi and Esmeralda." Sora said backing away slowly from the fight.

"Any ideas if you can't get Quasimodo to listen?" Riku asked. He stopped one of the Soldier's claws midway with his Keyblade before lunging diagonally downward to stab the Heartless and take it out.

"No." Sora acknowledged simply before smiling and heading on into the cathedral. His smile became a big grin after just managing to pick up Kairi's words as he entered through.

"He's so reassuring sometimes."


Sora wasted no time in immediately turning to his left and heading up the spiral staircase to confront the chimera. He soon emerged out in to the narrow gap path leading to the other side of the building where the bell tower was and looked down. He was powerless to control the utterance of interest that had escaped his mouth. While it seemed like things were out of control on the ground, from where Sora was standing the entire square was bathed in a beautiful orange light thanks to the fire that had been started on the podium. It appeared that Frollo had just been in the middle of setting Esmeralda alight when Quasimodo had rescued her. Looking further past where Riku and Kairi were fighting the Heartless, an angry mob was successfully pushing the guards that Frollo had posted back towards the direction of the cathedral. Notably among them was the gypsy leader Clopin Trouillefou and Phoebus.

They must've found their way out of wherever Frollo was holding them, Sora mused before continuing towards the bell tower but going past it to where he had spotted Quasimodo from below.

He turned the corner to find Esmeralda lying on the ground unconscious. Without thinking, Sora rushed forward and was about to bend down next to her when he saw it coming out of the corner of his eye. He threw himself into the wall and no matter how painful his shoulder felt at the moment, he knew it was but a bruise compared to what the chimera would have done to him had his head connected with Sora's chest.

Of course it was a trap, why didn't I see that coming? Well, he had a fairly good idea. Most Heartless weren't able to think and plan ahead in such a way so laying Esmeralda down as bait hadn't been expected. It would simply mean that he wouldn't just be able to charge in with Keyblade in hand and expect to win anymore.

Quasimodo's chimera turned quickly after it had attempted to spear Sora before flying towards him quickly. Sora raised his Keyblade to guard and felt the heavy impact of the chimera slamming against metal. With the force came an awesome nature that threw Sora's guard of causing him to stumble. The gargoyle shaped chimera moved in for another swipe and Sora raised his Keyblade again. Big mistake, Sora thought seeing the problem before it had even occurred. His hands' position around the guard of the Kingdom Key was off and not nearly strong enough to resist the second attack sending him to the floor.

"Gotta get Esmeralda away from here." He muttered to himself before raising his Keyblade and firing of three jets of Firaga quickly. The chimera roared in pain as it was caught in the flames and retreated back into the sky giving Sora a chance for a little breather before making his way towards Esmeralda again. A ball of fire smashing into the wall ahead of him stopped and forced him into a defensive stance once again. Of course it shoots fire. They always shoot fire, Sora thought in annoyance as he cancelled out a few more of the magic attacks with his own Blizzaga magic while he moved sideways towards Esmeralda's body.

Eventually he reached her side and erected a reflect barrier before lifting her up so that her arm was hanging around Sora's neck. Through much difficulty due to her height and the weight of her body being dragged across the ground, Sora made his way towards the door of the bell tower while trying to keep the barrier up to the best of his ability. He had attempted something like this while under strain so the fear of the barrier falling before he could make it was a prominent one in his head, and even after he had successfully gotten to the door and opened it, he still found it hard to believe that he had made it.

He rested Esmeralda carefully onto the floor and looked at her sleeping form with a smile. "I'll rescue Quasimodo. But in the end the only one who might be able to help him, is you." he told her before leaving the tower, pulling out a certain card from his pocket as he did so.


The arrival of Phoebus and the other gypsies offered some comfort to Kairi as they entered the town square by forcing their way through the guards Frollo had positioned around the area.

"How did you get out?" she asked Phoebus after he had rejoined up with her and Riku.

"Surprisingly my handsome charms managed to save the day. And I thought I was cursed for being so good looking. Maybe it's a gift after all." Phoebus answered.

In other words you bribed the guard. Kairi shook her head expressively in annoyance at Phoebus' self-inflated ego before continuing on with the fight. One of the Soldier Heartless spun and threw its body at Phoebus only for Kairi to quickly come in the way and hook onto the spin with the tip of the Keyblade. She spun her body and flung, redirecting the Soldier Heartless into the wall. "I guess you owe me one." she said with a bit of her own smugness.

"No I don't." Phoebus said quickly before dancing around her where he easily cut through on of the few remaining Soldiers who had been targeting Kairi's back. "Now we're even." Phoebus declared before moving off on the offensive.

It was only a few seconds of staring into an empty space thoughtfully that she quickly realized something and turned to look at the stage only to find that Judge Frollo was nowhere to be seen. "Riku, we have a problem!"

"Yeah, kinda busy with my own problems at the moment Kairi." Riku said. He kicked one of the Heartless that jumped at him before cutting through another to his side.

"Frollo is gone. I think he used this as a distraction while he slipped away to follow Sora." Kairi said. Riku paused and looked over to the stage, his mouth forming a perfect 'o' replicating Kairi's own shock at the time of discovery.

"I think Phoebus has everything in control here. Let's go after Frollo and fast." Riku said. The two charged through the doors of the cathedral with urgency being their only indicator of time.

So this is what they have to go through all the time, Kairi thought as she followed Riku up the stairs. The tension. The rush. The anxiety. All of it culminating into giant leaking pot of boiling water just ready to overflow. This was the meaning of an adventure. Where were they headed from here? Kairi didn't know, but neither did Sora or Riku on their own journeys. That confusion was part of the adventure and she couldn't believe that she was finally experiencing the thrill of the chase.

"Frollo, stay right where you are!" Riku yelled as they emerged from the claustrophobic stairway onto the rooftop of the cathedral. Even from here, the hisses, crackles and pops of ember intensity could be heard from below, a product of the ongoing battle between the gypsies, the guards and the Heartless. Up ahead, Frollo was about to wrap his hand around the doors to the bell tower, otherwise there was no sign of Quasimodo or Sora though a few roars from behind the tower indicated that they were somewhere on the other side of the cathedral.

Frollo pulled his hands away from the door rather abruptly and spun around to reveal a glint coming off a small object. He walked towards them with a mad gleam in his eyes and his hand pointing the object, now revealed to be a dagger, threateningly at them. "And who would have thought that dear Quasimodo had turned out to be one of those creatures in the end? You must have known, not that it makes any difference in the end. A creature who was born to be alone in the first place is simply aligning with the path fate has set for him."

"His fate?" Kairi repeated in outrage.

"We can't run from fate. All living things have their defined path. My own is far away from here, in the land of beginnings. I will uncover the secrets of our ancestors, and all I need do is follow the set of breadcrumbs that they laid out." Frollo declared.

"You sound like a guy I knew. I hated that guy and hate is such a strong word so trust me when I say I won't take lightly if you end up on that list too." Riku warned darkly.

Frollo cut his hand diagonally through the air like a sharp knife and cursed. "You foolish children. You could not even begin to understand how small and insignificant you are in the grand scheme of things. Yet here you stand before me painting yourselves as cherubs refusing to acknowledge the ignorance of your ways and the power that you hold. In the end you either live to seek the truth or you become lost in the forest of lies that the world wishes you to think as natural. If you must stand in my way, then I will have no choice. May he forgive me for what I am about to do, for I must find the truth hidden within the lies."

He was about to rush forward to attack Kairi and Riku when the door behind him flew open and Esmeralda jumped onto Frollo's back. Frollo desperately struggled to get her off of his back but she clung tightly grasping at his neck.

"They're gonna fall!" Kairi yelled noticing how dangerously close they were to the railing that separated them form the square. However she knew even as she was running forward that it was already too late. Within seconds, Esmeralda's weight sent both her and Frollo tipping over the railing. Kairi reacted quickly and reached the railing, extending the arm with which she was holding the Keyblade out. Frollo sacrificed the dagger in his hand for the chance to grab it and suddenly Kairi felt as if she was being sent of the edge herself.

"Gotcha." Riku said placing his hands around the handle of Destiny's Embrace and pulling with an impressive exertion of force. Esmeralda, who was clutching onto Frollo's legs, saw Phoebus on the pathway below her with his hands outstretched. She slowly moved around Frollo with the help of his cloak before throwing herself towards Phoebus who managed to catch her almost effortlessly. Riku congratulated Phoebus on the catch before focusing his attention back on Frollo.

"Frollo, it doesn't have to end this way. Just give me your hand and we'll go from there." Kairi bent over the railing and used her free hand to reach out to Frollo. It wasn't the idea of saving him that was appealing. It was that he knew about this Atlantis and had wanted the Keyblades to get there. Was it possible then that the Keyblades were the key to finding Atlantis if it really did exist? She had to know what else Frollo knew about the myth.

"Why would you risk helping me?" Frollo asked wearily as he felt his hands starting to slip from the amount of sweat that had built up on his palms.

"Because of a truth that you're too stubborn to see." Kairi replied waiting for him to take her hand. Slowly, Frollo made for her hand only to dig his nails into her flesh drawing blood. Kairi winced and pulled rapidly pulled her hand away.

"Bad idea." Riku said before letting go of the Keyblade. Frollo yelled as he fell and reached out to grab something, anything that could help him. His arms soon found themselves wrapped around one of the gargoyle architectures around the building, with Destiny's Embrace landing on a gargoyle statue adjacent to him.

With a smile plastered on his face, Frollo soon helped himself up and found his footing on what little space he had to stand on. All he had to do now was reach for the Keyblade and he would have solved half the problem of reaching the fabled land of beginnings. Kairi looked down at him in pity while clutching at her bleeding hand. If only Frollo knew that the Keyblade would not simply be his just because he had picked it up. No, even if he did know, it wouldn't have stopped a man like him who had completely lost his mind. He was much more concerned with getting that Keyblade than figuring out how he was going to get down safely afterwards.

Frollo urged his arms to go farther, but it was clear that they had reached their limits, and so too had the statue underneath him. He wobbled as the gargoyle underneath, unable to support him, cracked and gave way sending the person standing on it to the ground. Kairi turned away immediately, not wanting to see the results but her thoughts certainly weren't ashamed of their creativity.

"Are you alright?" Riku asked with his eyes on her hands.

"Heh, it's just a flesh wound." Kairi recited dramatically before calling Destiny's Embrace back to her. "I was kind of hoping that he would be able to tell us more about Atlantis though. Oh well, I guess some things just aren't meant to happen. More importantly we need to get to Sora."


"What did you just say?" Sora asked in shock. Was it the blowing of the wind or hisses of the flames that he had simply heard and misconstrued as words?

"So-RA…HElp… mE." No, that was definitely Quasimodo's voice he had heard. Sora wanted him to repeat it over and over again like a piece of beautiful music that was impossible to stop listening to.

"Yes... YES, that's right Quasi. I know you're still there. Okay, I'll do my part too. I will help you." Sora replied with a grin glad that showing his secret weapon, if one could really constitute a card as a weapon, had worked. With that, Sora brandished his Keyblade once more and charged forward.

It thrashed its arms about but Sora dodge rolled through an uncovered space to get behind him before activating Ars Arcanum. He hastily smashed the Kingdom Key against Quasimodo's hardened shell several times trying his best to ignore the cries from his opponent. It would be okay, because Sora knew that no matter how much Sora threw Quasi's way, he would be able to take it. All this suffering, this agony and pain… if Quasi could face it now then he was already taking the first steps to being free.

Sora jumped away and aimed, shooting multiple blizzards at Quasimodo who blocked each one by raising his arms before responding with balls of fire. Sora coated his Keyblade in fire and moved the Kingdom Key in line with each of the attacks absorbing the element before sending them back in waves of ripples. Quasimodo's chimera flung himself off the building and took flight before the waves could hit him.

Sora smiled and followed him, jumping off the cathedral. It was exactly what he had wanted, especially because he had realized that he stood no chance on the narrow pathway that was the roof. He cast Gravity on himself to make him lighter before switching the Kingdom Key's element from fire to blizzard. He glided forward and started attacking the chimera. Each time Quasimodo decided to take a swipe, Sora managed to perform and aerial recovery before continuing his slashes. One final aerial recovery sent Sora lower than Quasimodo where he was able to grab at the chimera's head with collision magnet before dragging both him and Quasi down towards the ground. As his body was lighter, he managed to stall his fall just in time to bring his Keyblade slamming downwards cutting the cable that the collision magnet provided.

With his falling speed and gravity against him, the chimera soon crashed into the execution stage sending pieces of wood flying in different directions. Sora landed neatly and cancelled the Gravity magic before running over to the massive pile containing chunks of wood in the middle of the square.

"Quasimodo!" Esmeralda exclaimed, arriving on the scene along with Phoebus only a few seconds after Sora had landed.

"Weren't you supposed to be in the bell tower?" Sora asked her once the three had joined up.

"I woke up, and not a moment too late it seems. Is he alright?" Esmeralda asked. She was about to step forward to search the debris when Sora cut off her approach with his hand. He waited, hoping that what emerged from that debris was something entirely different from the former. It was only when the familiar human arms reached out of the debris that Sora relaxed and allowed Esmeralda to run up to Quasimodo.

"You did good kid." Phoebus said giving Sora a slap on the back before heading over to help Esmeralda.

"No, it was all Quasi." Sora said. He heard the sound of running footsteps behind him and grinned as he turned to welcome Kairi and Riku. "Hey guys. Why are you coming from the cathedral? I missed something didn't I? And Frollo?" When Kairi shook her head, Sora showed no change of emotion but simply nodded. He understood that it couldn't have been any other way much like it had been the case for Cruella De Vil or Maleficent. He had to wonder if it was a case of too much exposure resulting in him being indifferent to it.

Together, all five of them managed to clear the destruction and help Quasimodo out of it. Initially he appeared to be dizzy but was soon in the firm grip of reality after a while of coming to distinguish each of his five senses. Around them were signs of victory from the gypsies and the other townsfolk that had involved themselves with the fight and the Heartless were nowhere to be seen.

"Sora… you saved me. Thank you so much!" He exclaimed throwing his arms around Sora in a crushing bear hug.

"Hey, easy there Quasimodo. You might end up breaking him." Phoebus said. Quasimodo soon realized that he was squeezing the life out of Sora and put him down apologising quickly.

"Hngh, don't worry about it Quasi," Sora wheezed before pulling out a familiar card in his pocket and showing him, "she wouldn't have wanted you to give up this easily."

Kairi peered around Sora to examine the tarot card. It was the sun, a card that Sora hadn't even known he was in possession of until the last possible moment. It had been stuck to the back of a different card with the mark of an X on it. It was also the one thing keeping Sora from doubting Luna's survival.

"You're right. I didn't realize it until then but I think it's time I took my own life in my own hands. My indecisiveness and being scared of the outside world was ambrosia for Frollo to exploit. I was his tool, a weapon, but no more. Now I'll think for myself and act without that fear. Though, I'm still a chimera right?" Quasimodo ended his speech on a sour note and once again the group were forced to embrace the cold harshness of the situation. Wanting to rectify this, Quasimodo quickly walked over to Esmeralda and Phoebus and placed their hands into each other. Sora's grim expression turned into a smile as he watched. "And finding independence, also means having to give up the things that are closest to home sometimes." He finished with a heart-warming smile as Esmeralda and Phoebus embraced each other.


An unusually positive and energetic morning soon continued on throughout the day with Quasimodo quickly becoming the talk of the townspeople. If there was a discussion about the bell ringer, there was not a single person who didn't have a smile on their faces while taking about him. He wasn't the only one being praised with Sora, Riku and Kairi also appearing as the unexpected heroes who had helped to save Notre Dame. Riku and especially Sora did their best to shy away from any public attention while it was Kairi who tried to milk it for all it was worth.

It soon reached noon and it was time to head back to the Gummi Ship. Riku and Kairi had already gone back to the Gummi Ship after saying their goodbyes while Sora had decided to face his own fear and look down the aisle at the group of benches where he and Luna had had their conversation. He forced himself to look at the exact spot they had sat before walking over to the bench and examining it. He didn't know what else to expect, some trace of evidence that had been left behind as to her whereabouts maybe but the only thing he found there was an empty seat. Just an empty seat.

Sora exited the cathedral and took one last look at the place before turning away and meeting Esmeralda (escorted by her goat Djali), Quasimodo and a surprise guest in the baker. In his hands was a loaf of freshly baked bread.

"Oh, you didn't need to." Sora said but before he could react, the baker had already forced the bread into his hands.

"It's not for you. Would you have Luna try some for me? Tell her it will put a smile on that sick face of hers," he said and twirled his thick moustache, "she'll be happy to know that I think it's my best one yet."

"I'm sure she won't be able to stop eating. I know I couldn't." Sora complimented though the topic of Luna really only made him sadder that he had to constantly lie to another person who seemed to care about her. The bowed before walking off leaving the three of them alone.

Esmeralda waited until the baker was far away before saying. "Don't worry, you'll definitely find her."

"Huh? W-wait, where did that come from?" Sora stuttered around and pretended as if he had no idea what she was talking about though his poker face spoke quite clearly for her.

"I had my suspicions but I wasn't too sure until you referred to her when you were talking to Quasi this morning. You don't have to hide anything. It's not your fault. I don't know what you have to go through each day but I do know that Luna believes in you three and she's fighting with everything she's got to be back with her friends. You are a hero Sora. I could see that she admired you when I first met her. Hopefully, she'll be able to help Quasi find a cure that will save him from this suffering."

Sora's smile turned into a frown and he looked off to the side. "Yes, hopefully but… you have one thing wrong. I'm not a hero."


Yeah, Sora is pretty damaged after the events of DD, and sadly that's not going to be the only thing that shakes our hero's confidence. It's okay, you can curse me later. More chapters coming soon.