Mickey immediately knew when Sora started glowing (shining, really) that this was going to be another one of those instances no one could predict. So when the light faded and he found himself in the Disney Castle Gardens, he really couldn't say he was surprised.
Well, okay, maybe a little. At least this didn't seem like an unpleasant surprise.
Still, the sun shone brightly in a cloudless sky and a slight breeze blowing through the courtyard made a pleasant scene all the more welcoming. Now if only Minnie were here, it would be perfect.
"You know, I always liked it here," a familiar voice spoke.
"Sora?" Mickey said with a grin as he turned around. The boy in question was lounging on the grass in front of the entrance to the Gummy Ship dock. The boy met Mickey's gaze and smiled.
"Your Majesty."
"Aw, Sora," the little mouse said as he walked up to the other. "I'd think you'd know me well enough by now to call me 'Mickey'."
Somehow, his expression brightened. "Thanks, Mickey."
"So," the king said as he sat down on the grass, "somehow I suspect Xehanort is behind this."
The smile on Sora's face disappeared all too fast. "Yeah."
"Well, aren't you going to tell me what's going on?"
It took the boy a minute to answer but he did. "I'm the X-blade."
Mickey could only stare in shock. "Wait...you're the...but...how is that possible?! And why?"
A vague expression crossed Sora's face and his eyes seemed to lose focus. When he spoke, it sounded strange, like several people talking at once. "I could tell...I could feel the wrongness. If I didn't do something...too many lights were lost the first time. I couldn't let that happen again."
"Couldn't let what happen?" Mickey asked warily, not sure he wanted to know.
When Sora turned his head to look at him again, Mickey's took a step back warily. The boy's eyes hadn't physically changed, and yet somehow there was a depth and knowledge and agelessness to them that had not been there before. It was...startling to say the least.
"The war."
They stared at each other for a moment, and then Sora blinked and he was back. He seemed just as surprised as Mickey felt. He also looked so heartbroken for a moment that it startled the king even more. What was he remembering? Specific battles? People and worlds at war and hurting? If what Sora said was true, then Mickey couldn't even begin to guess.
The expression disappeared so quickly, though, that he was sure Sora couldn't be doing anything else but masking it.
"Huh," the brunet said, his voice slightly hoarse and shaky, "I didn't even remember that until now." He choked, but otherwise his voice had returned to normal.
The king felt his heart go out to the kid. If he were suddenly getting memories of wars...this really wasn't good. But then again, if anyone could weather it, Sora could. Still, Mickey decided to say something. It practically went against his nature not to.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked, betting that Sora would understand his offer. He did. The heartbroken look came back along with those too-old eyes, but it still sounded like Sora when he spoke.
"N-not yet. I—I don't' think I can right now. Besides...," he took a deep breath, "we need to focus on Xehanort, right?"
The mouse king nodded sympathetically. "Right, but just remember that my door's always open if you need it."
Sora's smile wasn't bright or blatant, but it looked like the most sincere smile Mickey had ever seen on him—which, really, said quite a bit.
"Thank you. I may take you up on that." He nodded gratefully once and then laid back on the grass, hands under his head.
Mickey brought a hand to his chin, stroking it thoughtfully. "I wonder if Master Yen Sid knew about you."
Sora snorted, seemingly back to normal, although Mickey knew better. "Probably."
Mickey wanted to snort himself. That was so like Yen Sid. How would he know? Was there something basic in Sora that someone with experience could just pick out? And just how was all this possible? How could the X-blade even exist like this?
Well, he wouldn't get any answers by just staying quiet. "So how were you...uh...?" he didn't know how to say what he wanted to ask without making Sora sound like some sort of object.
"Here? Alive? In this form? Forged?" Sora asked, smile ever so slightly wry. "Or re-forged, I guess."
Mickey rubbed the back of he Head. "Uh, yeah."
Sora shrugged and looked back up at the blue sky overhead. "It's all still really fuzzy...I'm getting all these memories at once and it's kind of hard to put them all in order, but I think I made a choice of my own to take on this form when Ventus died."
That had Mickey's head snapping back so fast it almost gave him whiplash.
"Well, when he almost died," Sora corrected. He looked like he was having a difficult time putting his thought into words and had that troubled look on his face that usually had Donald berating him for worrying. "In a way, Xehanort was right. When I felt the energy that was Ventus separate into two entities, I knew someone wanted me and Kingdom Hearts. I came into existence when his heart needed somewhere to go." Then his voice started to take on that strange, other-worldly tone again. "He needed me, and in a way, he prevented Xehanort from ever truly gaining hold on me simply by seeking refuge and not giving up."
The mouse king looked down sadly. "Will he be alright?"
Sora sighed, hints of the creepy multiple voice gone yet again, thankfully—although Mickey was sure he hadn't heard the last of it. "Even with all these memories coming to me I don't know. What Xehanort did to him...it was wrong. So wrong that I don't know if anyone can fix it."
Mickey sighed. Poor Ven.
"Well," he said after a few moments of silence, "we'll just have to find a way." He always had been an optimist.
Sora glanced over at him and smiled that cheesy grin that only he could somehow pull off. "Yeah."
Again, Mickey wasn't sure how to say the thought that came to his head then. Still, he felt he had to. "And...what about you?"
The boy didn't answer for what felt like an eternity, but Mickey didn't rush him. This was something he felt Sora needed to figure out on his own.
Finally, the brunet spoke, placing a hand over his chest and clenching the fabric there. "I don't know. Keyblades represent a person's heart. Like it or not, Xehanort has a Keyblade so I'm a part of him too. He knows how to call the X-blade to him, somehow, probably using that link. I can't fight it very well. I don't even know how to begin to. I get the feeling that usually I'm trying so hard to reach out to people that the idea of cutting myself off from him without physically taking away his keyblade feels...wrong. And I don't remember enough right now to even start to fight it."
"Then don't," Mickey said as nonchalantly as he could. Sora looked over at him, confused. The mouse king just grinned. "Let us fight him for you. You don't have to carry everything on your own. That's what friends are for."
Sora just blinked at him for a few moments before his face broke out into a relieved grin. "Yeah."
And then Mickey's Keyblade appeared and was tied to a light coming from Sora and he had to look away from the brightness.
"Thanks, Your Majesty. Your people are lucky to have you as a king, and your friends are lucky to have you as a friend, Mickey." Sora said before the brightness overtook everything.
Then he'd returned to reality, and his Keyblade shone.
xXx
Confusion didn't really begin to describe Donald's state of mind when he opened his eyes. They'd fought so hard and endured and won...and then something had happened to Sora (again! The idiot!) and a bright light and...he found himself in a house he hadn't seen for decades.
A house that didn't technically exist anymore.
For a moment he just stood there, looking around in awe and confusion.
"Alright, I give," a voice to the side caused him to jump...in a manly way, because that wasn't a scream and he was not freaking out!
"Don't do that!" he yelled angrily at Sora who had squatted down and was examining something on the dresser in front of them, next to the decades-old radio.
Sora, of course, just shot him a cheesy grin that had Donald grumbling under his breath, muttering how he didn't need enemies if he had friends like this. He didn't mean a word of it, and he knew Sora would get that. Thankfully. It had taken them a while to get to where they understood each other so well.
"What's so important about this place?" the boy asked.
Donald blinked. What? And then he looked around again, his features softening despite himself. Then he folded his arms and twisted his head away from his friend.
"None of your business."
When Sora didn't answer, he peeked out of the corner of his eye. Then he noticed the picture Sora had been looking at and rushed forward to grab it. It was a picture of him and Daisy and the triplets. He didn't even remember taking it or setting it there and he didn't like other people—even his best friends—looking at his stuff without permission.
"Oh! This is where you met Daisy, isn't it!" the brown-haired boy exclaimed just as Donald snateched the frame from the wooden surface it had been resting on.
Donald frowned, glanced down at the picture and then put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, so what of it?"
"I think it's great!"
If the duck had been expecting anything, it wasn't that...although, in hindsight, it really didn't surprise him that much. Donald didn't really do mushy stuff, and tended to avoid it when he could, however possible. Sometime he forgot that other people—especially Sora and Goofy—weren't like that.
"You do?"
Sora put his hands behind his head, looking for all the world like he didn't have a care. Like they hadn't just been fighting for their lives and the light of every world and...
"Where are we?" he finally asked. Because none of this made any sense.
"Your heart. Where else?"
Oh. Well, that did make some sense, Donald supposed. Because they really this shouldn't be possible...and yet it was all exactly as he remembered. How many times could he remember feeling the rough, old flooring on the bottom of his feet, and the worn carpet that he and the boys had fought over, and the static of the old-fashioned radio? But that still didn't mean the house existed. He'd watched it get torn down; him and Daisy both had.
"Why are you here?" He finally asked, because he'd never met Sora in this place and somehow he knew this wasn't just a memory of the brunet. This was the real Sora. So he shouldn't be here either. Just one impossibility after another.
The boy in question glanced up and to the side as he thought about that, folding his arms and tapping one finger against his skin absently. "You know, I'm not sure. You don't have a Keyblade, so I can't explain it. Ask the King when you get back, K?"
Donald narrowed his eyes. "Fat lot of help you are."
Sora immediately balled his fists and leaned forward. "Say that again!"
The duck couldn't help but snicker. Really, the boy was too easy sometimes.
But, like all good things, the joke had to come to an end. Donald hadn't forgotten where they'd just been or what had happened up until now and the memory of that quickly sobered him. Somehow he knew this was just a temporary thing, and so despite everything going through his head, he decided to ask one last question. "Why are we here?"
Sora's smile faded as well, signaling that he knew what Donald meant. Good. Explaining it would just make things more awkward than they already were.
"Turns out I'm actually an ancient weapon that could give Xehanort the power to rule the world." Sora managed to say with a forced a smile. "Who'da thunk, huh?"
The duck just stared at him for a few seconds before folding his arms again. "What have you been eating? Don't eat it again."
"I mean it!"
Donald folded his arms and frowned as he scrutinized the boy in front of him. Then he circled Sora, still studying him intently.
"You don't look any different."
Sora rolled his eyes. "I've always been the X-blade. Why would I look any different now? Besides, this is how your heart sees me."
And that last bit didn't really sound like Sora at all. Not the whole talking about hearts and the strength of hearts or the powers of hearts because that was all Sora, but his friend had said it like some sort of after-thought, like some throw-away piece of information that anyone should know when really it wasn't something either one of them should be sure of.
Then Sora moved one hand up to rest against his chin. It was his 'deep thinking' pose, and part of Donald wanted to quip about it, but most of him wanted answers, so he stayed quiet.
"Maybe that's why I'm here. You may not have a connection to a Keyblade, but you do have a connection to me. Your heart and mine and Goofy's..."
This was really starting to freak Donald out. This was deep stuff that he didn't really understand and it was stuff Sora shouldn't understand any better then him. He hated being freaked out, so he covered his anxiety in the usual manner. "Now you're really not making any sense. Are you sure you didn't just hit your head?"
"Donald!" Sora said, fists balling again and eyebrows furrowed.
The duck couldn't help but grin at the reaction, even if it was a little mean.
Sora shook his head and stood straight again. Then his expression became serious. "Look, I don't know what's going to happen next, so I think...I guess I came to say goodbye."
"What?!" Donald asked, the sudden proclamation surprising him and making him more than a little angry. Sora opened his mouth but the duck cut him off. "Oh, no you don't! You are not leaving us again!"
Sora just stared at him for several seconds, which only unnerved Donald even more. "I don't know if I have much of a choice. I'm...it's different now. Knowing what I am...it changes everything."
"So what?!" Donald growled, sounding more like a dog than a bird. "It's not like you've forgotten anything. You're still Sora too, right?"
For several seconds, the brown-haired teen blinked, dumbfounded. Then he broke out into the biggest smile Donald had ever seen (which, really, was saying something).
"Yeah, I guess I am."
Donald squinted. Was it him, or had the house around them gotten brighter?
"Looks like it's time to go. Oh, and Donald...thanks. I'm glad I met you." All Donald could make out after that was Sora's trademark grin before everything faded.
Then he was back on the beach they'd just spent the last several hours defending and everyone seemed to be looking around in confusion and their Keyblades all glowed, but Donald only had eyes for the barrier that had appeared around his friend. He didn't want to think that Sora had been right, that this was goodbye or that something would happen, and so he wouldn't. They needed Sora—all of them. He'd become such a huge part of their lives, and so he would do whatever he could to make sure Sora came back to them.
For everyone's sakes.
xXx
Goofy had never claimed to be the brightest candle on the cake. That was fine with him. He had other strengths. For instance, he could make people laugh, and he liked to play mediator most of the time. He took pride in the fact that tended to roll with the punches pretty well. Usually. That didn't stop him from staring, dumbfounded, up at the house in front of him. The one he'd sold long ago. The one that sat next to Pete's old house.
The one he would always remember.
"Huh. So what's so important about this house?"
Goofy blinked, shook his head, looked to the side and smiled calmly at Sora. "This is where I raised my son."
"What?!" Sora asked, jumping as if he'd been physically shocked. He liked to do that. Goofy found it fun to get a reaction like that out of him. He giggled his signature laugh for a moment. "But, I didn't know you had a son!"
He couldn't help it if his smile dimmed slightly. "Max and I...don't always get along. He never knew his mother and having me for a dad can be a bit...difficult at times."
Sora seemed troubled by that statement. "But, I think you'd make a great father," he said, blue eyes sincere.
The smile came back. "Thanks."
The teen's next question seemed cautious and hesitant. "Why don't you ever talk about him?"
Goofy paused for a moment. "He...thought I shouldn't go with Donald to find you. He thought I was needed there. We argued...and we only just started patching things up. It hurt...to talk about."
"I'm sorry," Sora muttered.
Goofy shifted, his feet shuffling through the freshly-cut lawn, but shrugged. "It's not your fault. Shucks, I don't think it's anyone's fault. Sometimes things like that just happen." Thankfully it didn't take brains to figure that one out.
"Yeah," Sora agreed, probably not knowing what else to say. That was fine with Goofy. Just him being here already meant a lot, even if he wasn't completely sure where 'here' was.
They turned and looked back up at the house and stood there for what felt like several minutes.
"So, that's it?" Sora finally asked. "You're not going to ask where we are or why we're here or anything like that?"
Goofy shrugged again. "Does it matter?" Because he doubted Sora would keep something truly important from him.
Sora contemplated that for a moment. "Huh. I guess not."
Goofy just smiled at him and then turned to go into the house. He walked up the old steps that always seemed to need attention. Huh, funny, he could feel the old metal through the gloves on his hands—such a familiar feeling. He twisted the knob, more than aware of Sora coming to stand behind him on the starirs, and then held his breath as the green-pained slab of wood swung away from him. To his surprise, the door opened onto the cabin of the first gummy ship they'd ever piloted.
"This shouldn't be here," he commented as he stepped inside, followed by Sora.
"But you wanted it to be," the boy remarked.
Goofy thought about that for a moment. "Yeah, I guess I kinda did," he acquiesced. Somehow he knew this was where all of his most precious memories were stored and that those memories made up their surroundings. So really, he shouldn't be surprised. He took a fond look around the cockpit. "This is where we started our journey together, after all." With that, he turned around and smiled at his friend. Sora returned the smile.
"I guess I should tell you that I'm the X-blade Xehanort has been trying to find, huh."
Goofy blinked at the non-sequitur. "Huh? Y' mean, you're what he's been after the whole time?"
"Yup," Sora said with a firm nod. "We just figured it out. He didn't even suspect when he tried to trap me in my dreams."
The taller of the two suddenly started laughing again. "A-hyuck. You sure had him fooled."
Sora's smile faded. "Yeah, and everyone else too. Even me."
Goofy wanted to frown at that, but settled for scrutinizing his friend. "Ya know, I'm not all that surprised. I always knew there was somethin' special about you. Donald and I were sure lucky to meet you."
"Even though I dragged you through just about every world in existence looking for something that was under our noses the whole time?"
"Naw," Goofy said dismissively and went to sit down in his usual seat on the ship, the one to the right of Sora's claimed chair. "Wouldn't have missed it for anythin'. You are one of my best buds after all."
Sora's smile somehow seemed more genuine. "Thanks, Goofy."
"No problem."
The world around them suddenly didn't seem so clear anymore, and it was getting hard to look at. He didn't know where the white had come from, but it grew.
"Tell everyone I'll miss them, will you?"
Goofy's eyes widened and he turned to look for Sora to ask him what that meant but all he saw was a destroyed beach that had once been his friend's home. Everyone else looked confused and worried, but all Goofy could seem to conjure was sadness...and he hated not knowing why.
xXx
AN: It just felt wrong to not include Donald and Goofy. *shrug*
FYI-The two chapters I posted before weren't the ones that had been through every beta reader. I've since posted the revamped versions. There isn't a whole lot different, but you may want to go back and reread them.
Thanks to Lexik again!
