Wanted to get this chapter out earlier but complications regarding studies arose so finally I was able to work on it a few days ago. Now where were we? Or yes, Sora died last chapter... right?


Chapter 8

On Clipped Wings

The more Luna traversed through the Realm of Darkness the more she realized how little she knew of her world. In a way it could hardly have even been called her world. Firstly she had no right to call this world hers when she had sought to abandon it for so long resulting in the fiery inferno of its destruction. Secondly, it would have been better to say that anything which had previously had meaning was meaningless in this world. The rose garden she had been in when she had first come here a few hours ago was devoid of name, the ballroom she had danced in was a complete fallacy, the decayed and worn out buildings lacked any meaning beyond lacking the meaning they had in the past.

But Luna could fill in the blanks in the page more so than she could any other dilapidated world she had been to in this place. Her memory served as a color palette, filling in the beauty and with it the memory of the key buildings—the concert house with its magnificent lights filling the night sky; the river shining and reflecting the artificial city lights; the ice cream parlor with its introduction of several different flavors at the door including her favorite… Yes, it felt strange to say that she was an artist in the Realm of Darkness but it also made her feel more autonomous of its influences.

Luna held her Keyblade out in front of her and watched as it illuminated the surrounding area in an instant. Its intensity was such that it caused her to close her eyes for a second. When she opened them, she held it above her like a torch and waved it about to examine the area. The Keyblade had somehow guided her to this spot where she assumed the keyhole was hiding however it had taken her to a dead end.

It took a while for her to notice a hole in the wall next to her feet. Though she would never admit this up front, she praised her small petite frame for allowing her to squeeze through the hole easily. The hole soon became a tunnel that seemed to go on for quite a ways. Halfway through the insides of the tunnel walls became metallic adding comfort in what had been a claustrophobic environment with seemingly no end. She guessed that the metal probably was going to take her into the interior of a building.

Her guess was soon proved correct as she landed on familiar floors. She wanted to retreat back into the hole immediately upon seeing tables with scientific apparatus on them. Microscopes, flasks and beakers lined the shelves while wires were free and strewn across the floor. Experimental pods and glass containers attached themselves from ceiling to floor among various other pieces of equipment that she didn't recognize in the room.

She knew the room all too well though. Twice had she been here, one on an extended period of time unwillingly and the other much shorter and voluntarily. It was the room she had been in with Sora, Donald and Goofy where they had learned of the process Abraxas had used to convert normal people into Chimeras. It was also the room in which she had been experimented on.

Her body seemed heavy all of a sudden and she found that she was moving sideways as opposed to regularly. She did her best to avoid touching most of the things in the room though her eyes were much more unfortunate and came across the test pod she had been kept in several times. Luna tried her best to focus on her own thoughts instead of what was in front of her. The castle which Maleficent had occupied must have also been the same place Abraxas had taken her to when he had kidnapped her. If so, had Abraxas and Maleficent already been in cahoots when Luna had been experimented on? Well, it wasn't as if it mattered now. Maleficent was gone and she assumed that Sora had taken care of Abraxas. The more important question was about this tower's identity.

Eventually Luna left the room and walked down the long room with prison doors acting as her guide towards the stairs at the other end. Luna examined each room through its bars as she walked only to find the Chimeras that had been in there now missing. She supposed they had managed to escape and were in the realm of light, or had they fallen into the darkness along with this world and if so, what form had they taken?

Luna reached the first floor but instead of continuing up she decided to take the door and go outside. She took five steps and then turned around to look upwards at the tower. This confirmed her suspicions that the tower Maleficent had been in was the same as the Turm des Himmels tower except that the building's exterior looked completely different from Maleficent's makeover. Luna had never been inside the tower because it had mainly been used for administrative purposes—at least that was what she had thought up until now. She had been there before, locked away as test subject under Abraxas' hands.

"They had a laboratory hidden under the tower? And those rooms that looked like prison cells. Did Abraxas put them there or… were they already there?" Luna questioned. Surely Abraxas must have picked the tower for a reason and if he had known beforehand about the basement level then it would have been easy for him to conduct his experiments. She had too many questions floating around in her mind that it would be pointless to stay staring at the tower in stupefaction. She dreaded to go back in but if the keyhole was there then she had no choice.

As she went up floor by floor she was reminded of the painful memories that had affected not just her but Sora, Namine and Yeul as well. She stopped at the floor where she had fought Kuja and took in the room as if the damage left from the fight was still there. She supposed the various rooms that were in each corridor on each floor led to office rooms though the amount of Heartless patrolling these corridors had made her reluctant to investigate any of them thoroughly. She trusted the Keyblade to take her to wherever she needed to go instead.

A few Heartless that blocked her way to the top floor were disposed of, granting her access to a penthouse view with glass windows overseeing the city, or what would have been the city anyway. She could only imagine the view at night in the actual city. Instead with no power, the room was as dark and lonely as anywhere else in the realm. Not wanting to stay in this twisted version of a world she once knew any longer, Luna began to search for her objective, moving from inside the apartment to the balcony outside.

"Let's see…keyhole…keyhole…I spy with my little eye something beginning with…KEYHOLE!" Luna exclaimed upon finding it. It was directly above the door at first taking the shape of a heart only to soon take the form of a keyhole when the Dream Seeker was pointed at it. To Luna it was strange to think that her world came to exist simply because of one small keyhole and that at the end of it lied the heart of the world itself. She had been the one to put that balance in jeopardy and now it was time she did something about that.

But as usual the forces of darkness worked quickly to prevent that from happening. Before the Keyblade could work its magic she caught a quick glance of something that had crept into the room inside. Luna ran back in to confront the Heartless.

Another Darkside.

She had seen them too many times to count. The first time she had fought one of them she had been intimidated by its size. She had soon quickly learned not to get hit by them. With their threatening size came their earth crushing fists, with Luna having experienced the ground shake underneath her feet several times after avoiding their pummels. Of course what they had in size and power they lacked in speed, something Luna had learned to take advantage of not just for them but all the Heartless.

Glass from the door that she had just come through shattered from the impact of the Heartless' punch. Luna had jumped out of the way from this attack but she had failed to see the table she had backed into causing her to trip. She fell through the table, not because it had broken but because it was, like all other things in the realm immaterial and so was nothing but memory of what once was. So the sound of the shattered glass and its falling shards on the floor were also things that weren't real.

Luna stood up clumsily and allowed herself some time to recover before unleashing a flurry of Fission Firaga which exploded upon contact with its head. The Darkside raised its hand to block the rest of the attacks. From what Luna could tell, the arm was fully proofed against any attack so the only damage she was going to be able to inflict would have to come from the head or the hands.

She jumped back and held her Keyblade up releasing Chasing Thunder, an attack that unleashed a wave of lightning bolts that homed in on the Darkside targeting the top of its head with pinpoint accuracy.

The Darkside stumbled backwards but quickly recovered and sent him arm tunnelling downwards at Luna. She jumped out of the way in time and jumped onto its hand using it as a bridge to run up to the Heartless' head. Reaching the shoulder she kicked off its hardened body and cut through the head. The Darkside's physical form soon became nothing more than scattered dust that diffused throughout the room. Eventually these black particles soon too dissolved leaving Luna by her lonesome once more.

She clutched at her right arm feeling it ache from the fighting she had to do. She wasn't complaining, after all it would be useless to do so now but there was hardly ever any time to recover either. Instead she focused her attention on sealing the keyhole that was outside. Before she did so, she took one last view of the world around her. The Turm des Himmels, the Tower of Heaven, they had called it. From where she was standing she was in anything but. Never had she been so high up before to see what had been her home. No, that wasn't exactly true. She had been as high up as this tower in her dreams, floating in the infinite darkness of the night sky and inspecting the shining city with eagle eyes. But if she was an eagle then she had no wings with which to escape this prison and no matter how much she wished to become an artist or dreamer and fill in the gaps that should have been there, she couldn't. An artist required tools to paint with and a dreamer required vision in order to see beauty, but what beauty of any kind could be found here?

Luna soon resigned to the fact that she could not call this place her Alexander anymore, and with the sealing of the keyhole she decided it was time to let go.


Sora awoke to the sounds of hushed voices somewhere near him. He continuously stared at the fan on the ceiling above him watching as it rotated. As much as he wanted to move his head or any part of his body for that matter, his body refused to move as it once did, resulting only in slight contractions and relaxations of certain muscles such as his fingers and toes.

It came to him that maybe he shouldn't be trying to focus on moving his body all at once but rather one part at a time. He concentrated on his fingers and willed them to move one by one. When what he saw as requirements were fully satisfied he started working on his wrists. Slow wrist rotations seemed to be all he could do for if he tried it any other way, his wrists seemed not to respond. After finding out more limitations of his body, he gave up and looked back up at the ceiling.

"Guess I'll be missing my date." Sora managed to say with some difficulty. His words, however quiet they may have been had not been lost on the other two people in the room.

"Sora!" Kairi said running forward and giving him a hug that was very much appreciated by the receiver but wasn't really needed at the moment. Sora felt wet pellets hit his face from Kairi's own as she cried over him and he couldn't help but think that it was his fault that she was crying in the first place.

"Let him breathe Kairi. He's just woken up and is probably confused." Riku said. "And just what exactly did you mean by date?"

"Oh nothing. So how long was I out?" Sora asked trying to smile only to find it incredibly painful to do so. He wanted to use as little words as possible to spare what was left of his hoarse voice.

"A week."

"A WEEK? I-" Sora suddenly interrupted himself as he felt a sharp pain in his chest and was forced to cough.

"Hey there, take it easy. You were poisoned. Thankfully we had Master Yen Sid and Porom there to help extract it before it was too late. Because of that you fell into a coma. Oh, thank goodness it wasn't any longer than a week. Not even Yen Sid knew when you would awake." Kairi explained with clear relief on her face.

"I must have looked like sleeping beauty… except male of course." Sora said weakly. He remembered hearing from Aurora about the time she had fallen into a deep sleep due to Maleficent's curse. "Wait, did you say poison?"

"Yes. From what we gathered it was a slow-acting one. If you have any ideas like maybe something you ate or drank…"

"Drank? Yeah, I think I have an idea. I guess that date is definitely cancelled then." Sora murmured.

"Uh Sora, is there something you're not telling us?" Kairi asked with an accusing stare.

Sora nodded slowly and began his hypothesis. "Well, there was a woman at a café downtown. Dressed up like one of those gothic characters from Tidus' manga. I order coffee, she brings me it. Little do I know that it's laced with poison. Sounds good?"

"The coffee. That definitely sounds possible… did the woman tell you her name?" Riku asked. He nodded before questioning Sora again. "Can you tell us where the café is then?"

"It's near the library. Let me come with-" As Sora tried to force himself up, an intense force seemed to be pushing him back down at the same time pulling him into a stalemate where he wanted to move but his body wouldn't allow him.

"You need to rest Sora. You'll be feeling this way for a while so try to get some rest, doctor's orders. We'll check out the café." Kairi said putting a soft hand on his shoulder. If Sora could have taken it into his own and feel the reassuring warmth it accompanied, he would have.

"Here I am confined to my own death bed. I suppose 16 isn't a bad age to go out." Sora said with a chuckle. To his surprise, Riku's next words had sent him into a phase of bewilderment.

"Glad to know one of us is so cheerful at the moment." he said. No, it wasn't the words themselves, but the context they had been said in for depending on that Riku's words could have either been interpreted as mild sarcasm or annoyance. In this case it was the latter.

"I'm just making light of a serious situation. I can't do that?" Sora questioned with a raised brow.

"You were almost killed and I can guarantee that it was that Moira's Crescent group who were behind it." Riku rebutted with a grave look on his face much unlike anything Sora had ever seen from his friend. Moira's Crescent… that was the name they had come to be known as amongst their peers. While looking for information, Aerith had come across the name in a logging book in the library. The name had seemed unlike the others in the book and Yen Sid was the one to confirm it. The name had matched up with a matching name he had heard over ten years ago for an order of Keyblade Knights who had deserted their worlds to form a union. So Salome and Alfonso had left a parting gift for the group to go on, but the question was why such a weird name as Moira's Crescent? It didn't exactly sound threatening though that may not have been the intention… and over a decade? The more Sora thought about it, the less it made sense as always. Riku continued, "What would have happened if you hadn't been with us at the time?"

"Well I was so what's your point?" Sora wanted to shout out but it only ended in that hoarse tone that he was still not quite used to.

"I don't think you understand what situation you're in. This isn't where you use levity as a means of diffusing tense situations and as much as I'd like to think this never happened I can't let it go so easily." Riku said. Not wanting to deal with this right now, Sora shook his head in disbelief before looking back up at the ceiling.

"Please stop fighting you two. Riku, we just need to go to that café and investigate." Kairi urged. "Don't worry Sora, we'll be back soon. Oh, and some friends are waiting outside. I'll tell them you're awake." Sora looked back at her and smiled. She lifted her hand from his shoulder and turned to leave.

Riku watched as she exited the room before looking back. "I really am glad that you're alright." There was no anger behind his words anymore but the concern was still there both in voice and face. He soon left too leaving Sora to ponder on things before the next set of visitors came.

So that woman had been a member of Moira's Crescent all along, or maybe she had even been someone from Kefka's side, or was it an entirely different person all together? Riku seemed to think it was the first one and if that was true then that meant that she also had a Keyblade. They had done that twice now… just like Salome and Alfonso, she had played on the tactic of deception pretending to be a regular citizen of the world just to keep her eye on him. How did the saying go? Fool me once, shame on you… Sora was distracted from his thoughts as a knock came followed by a group of familiar faces.

The first into the room was Donald erupting in a fit of squawks as he ran up to Sora's bed. Goofy ran into the room soon after and threw himself onto Sora in worry. "Goofy, please…" Sora wheezed thinking his diaphragm was about to be crushed at any moment.

"Get offa him ya big palooka." Donald said dragging Goofy away by the collar leaving him on the floor next to the third person in the room.

"Naminé." Sora uttered her name. The splitting image of Kairi and yet different in so many ways, she had been granted independence from her Nobody but was still the shy girl he had first met back in Castle Oblivion, or as Sora sometimes liked to imagine, back on the islands where he had met her in his fake memories.

It was for a moment, but it had been enough for Sora to feel a jolt of fear and a shiver down his spine. It was impossible of course, and Sora had to really wonder if he was going insane. After all, the person who was standing before him could not have been Yeul. It was Namine… and yet he had thought he had seen her in Namine's place for that brief flash.

"I'm so glad you're okay. I can't even begin to imagine what was must be going through your mind right now. I…" Namine began but stopped and looked away hesitantly. Sora wondered what she was about to say but seeing the King of Disney Castle by the doorway made his attention shift to him.

"Heya pal, how're ya copin'?" Mickey Mouse asked making his way to Sora's bedside.

"It could be better. Golden draped curtains, a glass of lemonade, maybe being able to actually move… all those would be nice but I'll take the cards I'm dealt." Sora answered.

"Yup, we've definitely got our Sora back!" Goofy exclaimed jovially, maybe a little too much because the next thing he knew Goofy was back on him and Donald had to tear him off again.

The next visitor was a most unexpected surprise. Sora had not even talked to David Xanatos in a while so to see him by his door raised both eyebrows.

"It's fortunate that your friends were near you when it happened. I'm sure you must be wondering where you are," he started with a relieved smile on his face. "You're currently residing in one of our investments in this town. A special ICU facility for dealing with cases like yours where a patient reaches critical conditioning. They're taken here where for the duration of their stay they are monitored extensively. Even after Yen Sid and Porom had successfully managed to extract the poison from your body, the doctors and chemists here were responsible for making sure you stayed in a stable condition."

"Thank you. Still, it's surprising to believe that little Porom could do something as big as that. I really have to thank her when I see her," Sora said slightly saddened that she wasn't here to see him awaken. "Do you know someone named Colette? She said you offered her a job."

"Yes. She's in a different facility but after hearing what happened to you, she insisted that she be one of the people who looked after you. She's a bright hope in a world so full of uncertainty, I'm sure you've noticed that too." Xanatos told him.

"Yeah, her and Stephanie. Uh, Stephanie wasn't here, was she?"

"Don't worry. Colette didn't want her to see you like this." Namine answered.

"You make it sound as if it's a bad thing," Sora replied. "On one hand I feel stronger than ever. I've been thinking, wouldn't life be simple if you could just tell who was lying to you at a glance? If that happened then you wouldn't need to doubt because that requires you not knowing whether the person is lying to you or not. Believing in people you should doubt, doubting in people you should believe. This sucks…" Sora muttered faintly and let out a soft chuckle as he let his head sink back onto the pillow, his self-pitying smile contrasting with the worried faces of the room. His eyes shifted to the window next to his bed where the most unusual bird lay perched. It was a beautiful green, and Sora only had a few seconds to stare at it before it took off.


Riku followed Kairi in an absentminded state for the eleven minutes it took to reach the café Sora had mentioned. Kairi, probably aware of Riku's tendency to overthink things, had uttered nary a sound during this time apart from the occasional one or two comments of relief over Sora's good luck. Luck was the problem in Riku's eyes. To rely on something as questionable and unreliable as luck was not usually a good thing and the alternate scenarios that could have taken place were not ones Riku wanted to think about.

A fear settled in the pits of Riku's stomach that he shouldn't have had to carry because it didn't feel like he was carrying it for him, but rather for his friend. The smile Riku had seen on Sora's face and his simple ability to make light out of complexities. If this had been any other time, Riku would have agreed. What Sora didn't seem to understand or at least take seriously was the fact that he had almost died and his friends had almost lost him.

Maybe time needed to pass before it fully kicked in, after all he just woken up after a week and was still trying to figure things out. Maybe that was the best way Sora could deal with the situation internally. The past week had been one of the most stressing for Riku so it was possible that he himself was still coming off an emotional distress.

He decided to pose a question to Kairi. "Am I right to be worrying over this the way I am? I feel like I'm burdening for two where I shouldn't have to."

"You care about Sora, that's what friends do. But, Sora never has been one to reveal his thoughts to everyone just like that. What he says isn't always entirely what he's thinking. You must have noticed it since you're the same." Kairi answered.

"I didn't know you were our psychologist." Riku said with a smirk before continuing, "I guess it must come as obvious to you. We all have thing we'd rather keep inside, I understand that. It's just that sometimes those are thoughts that are the most dangerous. It's not just here either. He's been reckless ever since we lost Luna. Sometimes I get the feeling that-"

"That what?" Kairi interjected abruptly in annoyance. "That he doesn't care? Riku, he lost someone dear to him who he promised he would protect. He saw her fall and he doesn't even know if she's alive. Things like that don't go without some sort of scar."

"But you pick up the pieces and realize that being impatient is not going to help things go by any quicker. Now that we've got this Moira's Crescent group on our tail we have to be more careful than ever. I don't like any of this one bit." Riku said. Their conversation was short as they entered through the double café doors. A circulation of cold air took hold of Riku as he located the source of this current to be coming from the air conditioning unit on one of the walls high enough to the point where it couldn't be reached.

Riku led the way to the counter where they encountered a boy probably in his late teens who was behind the cash register. The casual line of 'How may I take your order?' was soon to become an interrogation.

"Is there a woman working here who has a… how do I put this… an unusual fashion sense such as dressing up in gothic clothes?" he initiated ignoring the member of staff's question.

"We did have someone like that. She was working here for a while until as of about five days ago when she left. I'm not sure I understand why you want to know about her though." The man recalled with a face the color of a cherry.

Is he… blushing about something? Do I even want to know? Riku frowned and shook off these thoughts before asking the attendant about the woman's name.

"I want to know why you're so interested in her in the first place. I don't have to give you her name if I don't have to." He replied in a manner most highly suspicious. He had seemed very defensive for no reason whatsoever.

Riku shook his head and slammed his hand onto the table causing a loud enough ruckus for anyone nearby to hear it. "That isn't how this works. I ask the questions, you give me answers. Now what is her name?"

"Riku? Riku… I think it would be better if you just let me handle this?" Kairi suggested. Riku nodded feeling that he had overstepped his boundaries and eased away from the counter muttering an apology under his breath.

"Now you have to understand. Our friend was poisoned and we think it was because that girl put poison in his coffee. No, actually we definitely know she put poison in his coffee." Kairi said.

"What? Delcia would never- OH CRAP!"

"And that's how you score a home run Riku. You may want to try taking your own advice sometime. You know, about being patient." Kairi stated in a posh voice.

"But how were you so sure that he would say it?" Riku asked in disbelief. Surely it couldn't have been that easy.

"The way he was talking, seems like our boy has a little crush on Miss Delcia, wouldn't you think?" Kairi asked.

Riku could admit that the possibility hadn't entered his head in the first place. Trust Kairi to be more attentive on matters like this, Riku thought giving a sign of admittance with a nod before turning back to the man.

"Right, so… um, Delcia, was it? You've completely thrown me of my rhythm you know that?" he mentioned in jest to Kairi who stuck her tongue out as a response. "Did she mention where she was going by any chance?"

"She's a one of a kind, I'll tell you that much. She had such a mysterious smile and-"

"Yeah, th- that's really great and all but please, it would really help us if you could try to remember if she told you where she was going." Riku said trying to remain calm as Kairi had suggested.

"No actually. She just left without saying a word. But my Delcia wouldn't do something as vile as poisoning someone. There's just no way!" The assistant clamored frantically.

My Delcia? Just what is this guy on? Riku cringed and exchanged brief glances with Kairi before stating what both of them were thinking. "Aaaaaaaand he's losing it. Well, thank you very much for your time. We'll just leave you to your… thoughts."

With all that said and done, both Riku and Kairi left the café quickly and exhaled deeply at the awkward scene they had just been in. Kairi leaned against the building and laughed joyfully.

"Well, that was fun," she mouthed sarcastically. "Looks like our suspect has charmed her way into the hearts of man as well. So, where do we begin looking for her?"

"We might not be able to. If she's a Keyblade wielder then she might be long gone along with Astra if they're both working together. Damn it! Why do we have to hit a dead end now of all times!" Riku attempted to drive his fist into the building but stopped short and only for it to drop to his side a second later. Kairi's hand slamming against the wall in his place scared him out of his grieving.

"Well I won't give up, and you won't either Riku. We'll protect Sora no matter what may come our way. And like any of us have ever let a dead end stop us before. It's how I met you guys. Question: What do you do when a brick wall stands in your way? You smash it down."


Astra felt out of place as she watched the others mourn over the loss of their friend for two reasons. The first was that she had never been good with sad events like funerals. It simply didn't suit her personality to come and see people mourn over their dead ones. It also felt like she was saying goodbye, something she had promised never to do to a certain someone in her life. The second reason was because she couldn't understand why they were mourning over this person in particle. After all, they had been hunting him down for six months after he had turned traitor. She had even posed the question to one of these nine people standing before her.

"Traitor? Traitor is… a harsh word wouldn't you say? I prefer to think that he was scared. We all have that moment when we crack and unfortunately for him it happened at the worst possible moment." was Rhea's response. Currently the age of 28, she had had no choice but to watch over the period of her life as her eyesight slowly grew worse until the day came when she knew only black. Astra could only begin to imagine what she must have gone through during this time, so she would probably have known more about cracks than anyone here. Still, she possessed an unusual trait that Astra admired. She had trained herself to use her other senses as her vision deteriorated so that when the time came, they greater, almost supernatural, to that of anyone else's in the underground cavern they were in now.

Astra moved in closer until she reached Salome's side. "What's that?" she pointed to the small object that had been set down next to the newer grave in a field of others much older. It had taken them some time to track down this cavern in Radiant Garden. It had apparently been the sight of Moogles a long time ago who had mined for orichalcum as seen by the various tracks made by cart wheels in the earthy ground throughout the huge area. The graves however belonged to humans so Astra imagined that a society must have at least lived here away from the eyes of those above for some reason.

"A locket that Abraxa- that Kyle always used to carry around. It had a picture of his sister in it. She died a few years before we went under the chronostasis so whenever he went on missions he would always carry it around. It's why we're here... see that grave next to his?" Salome responded sorrowfully. Astra looked to the tombstone on the right to see the name Sabara engraved on it. "Through wind, snow, mud, rain… Kyle and that locket were inseparable. Which is why I can't believe that this happened… Abraxas and Kyle, they're so different but one was fun to be with and the other… killed Yeul."

"Oh grow up." Alfonso shook his head in disgust with his eyes still closed as they had been this entire time. "Abraxas, yes because he would prefer to be called that, knew exactly what he was doing. Experimenting on people and turning them into freaks of nature is not what I would describe as a rational human being. From the moment we're born we all enter an unwritten social contract which establishes the rules of what we can and cannot do. Many times in the past, those rules have been challenged and they still are being challenged to this day. But it's simple. Those who don't play by the rules get punished. Xehanort was punished and so was Abraxas. He was long gone and practically begged to be put out of his misery with the way he acted."

"Have respect for the dead please, or why are you even here in the first place?" Rhea's soft and gentle voice broke through what seemed to be the starting of an argument between the two. "Though you won't admit it, I'm sure you realize that Kyle was family to us. Otherwise you wouldn't have bothered coming, right?"

"Tch. Like you know me! He became way too interested in Sora and less on trying to keep himself sane. That's the sort of thing that gets you killed." Alfonso said.

"With all due respect, you are not exactly a team player Alfonso." Another woman in the room said with a faux French accent, or at that was what it felt like to Astra. "Nevertheless from here on out Desiree Elegia Skye can confirm that Sora is no more."

"You mean to say you killed him with a ridiculously cheap ass tactic?" Vyce scoffed running one hand through his unruly brown hair before pulling a smug grin. Despite his disposition of keeping to himself, he was quick to pull off sudden quips and jokes when least expected, something that Astra found relatable to herself and so many of the conversations that had taken place between the two had been competitions trying to one up the other person. He had on more than one occasion saved Astra many times than she could count so she considered him alright even if he was annoying at times.

"Cheap ass?" Desiree repeated with huff of annoyance. "Why be so picky over a method? Poison or no, what difference does it make? I got rid of the problem, now we can rest easy."

"Not according to my little birdy you didn't." A girl with blonde locks sneered underneath her red hood. On her shoulder was perched a green parakeet which she moved to stroke gently. "Jack's told me that Sora is alive and well. Paralyzed… but alive nonetheless. Looks like you failed."

"Dang, said straight from the creepy chick who likes talking to animals. You fail. Any words 'Delcia'?" Vyce said eagerly as if he had just won an extraordinary prize.

"W-well, I can do it again."

"Again you say? With the same exact method? He would have to be really stupid to fall for that twice you know?" Vyce replied with gritted teeth.

"It's okay." The man in front of Abraxas' grave said with a thoughtful glance. This was the man who had been responsible for putting this group together in the first place: their leader, although he much preferred to be called a friend. "Even if that didn't work, he now will have to deal with the knowledge that we'll be keeping tabs on him every step of the way. I don't prefer to do this but we'll use fear to keep him on his toes if we have to."

"Kohle, do you hate Sora?" Astra decided to ask.

"Hate? How can I hate someone I don't know? Besides, Salome's right. Hate is too strong a word which many often use in the wrong context. No, we're just doing what needs to be done in order to protect the worlds." he answered before turning around and looking at her. "I know he didn't mean much to you but for us he was family, even if some of us aren't as forgiving. He simply fell to the misfortune known as destiny, just like Sora-"

"Sora has no excuse. Luna is missing because of him… I don't even know if she's alive!" Astra threw her hands up in the air before starting to pace back and forth.

"She's alive. If she's like you then she won't have given up yet."

"How can you be so sure?"

Kohle smiled before buttoning up his beige trench coat before beginning his anecdote. "Because I've seen things happen that I would never have expected. I was out in the grassy plains of a world… Morgana I think it was called. It's this absolutely beautiful world with a magnificent forest that stretches out as far as the eye can see and… Anyway, while I was on these plains you wouldn't believe what I had come across. It was a chocobo, not just an ordinary one but one of multicolored feathers, vivid and energetic both in appearance and personality. A rainbow Chocobo, can you believe that? It seemed too good to be true. I thought I was dreaming but there it was. Slowly I moved forwards to approach it. I wanted to touch its feathers, confirm its authenticity. But before I could do so it noticed me and ran away. After that I became completely obsessed with finding that Chocobo. Whenever I could I would go back to Morgana, stand on those very same planes and hope to catch sight of the magnificent rare bird but I never was able to find it again."

"Huh, so what happened?" Rhea asked. She seemed to take keen interest in Kohle's stories. Astra couldn't even begin to figure out whether he were just making them up as he went along or actually telling the truth. The fact that he didn't stumble however seemed to suggest that he either was telling the truth, or was just a masterful storyteller.

"I gave up. It's something any rational person would do. After all why chase something so unobtainable? So dream like? A few years later, I was lost in thick woods. This was a different world where there wasn't a town within miles. It was winter and I was starving. I know I seem like the kind of guy who is usually so composed but believe me when I say I was frightened as all hell. I passed out eventually. The next thing I know, I wake up and find myself in a clearing with this shimmering crystal river in front of me and icy trees surrounding it covered in snow. And there it was, the Chocobo with rainbow feathers. It had found me and carried me to this source of nutrition.

"So the moral of the story is that sometimes things will find you when you least expect them to. It's not a question of whether you will or won't find your friend, but a matter of how far you'll go to find her, and once you do that, how far you'll go to protect her."