Wrote this chapter listening to Dearly Beloved on repeat for like a solid hour and I'm still not sick of it. But anyways. Thank you for continuing to read. :)
Chapter 6: The Eternal Optimist
When Sora raced out of the dark corridor, he was surprised to see, of all things, the vastness of the calming ocean before him. The darkness had led him to his home world. Even so, running straight into the darkness had made him grow weary. He took a few minutes to catch his breath. In that time, he told himself repeatedly that everything would be okay.
Then, he stood there, frozen, studying the gentle waves as they crashed against the shore. Just standing on the familiar sand was enough to warm his heart, but that warmth was not enough. He needed her, the girl who was now but a blurry image in his mind. He tried to imagine her, but gradually she slipped away. He could not recall the color of her hair, nor the glisten of her eyes, nor the melody of her voice.
Sora paced the shore slowly. Why had Axel sent him to the islands? Was it a hint?
That was when, by chance, his gaze fell upon an entrance hidden in the vines just past the waterfall.
His heart ached with an urgent longing to enter such a place. It led to a cave, but not just any cave. It was their cave. It was the place that he, Riku, and that girl used to play in all the time. It was always their secret. It was where they would spend hours just carving drawings into the wall. It was where Sora had drawn her, and she in return had drawn him.
He had also added in something to the drawing. He was handing something to her. What was it, again?
He rushed into the cave thinking that once he surrounded himself with the familiar setting, everything would be okay. The entrance itself was a tad small, so he had to get down on his hands and knees to crawl through the narrow tunnelway. He scuffled in as swiftly as he could before reaching the point in he was able to straighten.
He took in the nostalgic view with wonder in his eyes. Everywhere there were drawings, each drawing a foggy memory.
With careful steps, he made his way to the corner of the cave where he could remember drawing her. He hoped that, by just seeing that drawing, something, anything, would come back.
But when he faced the wall, he was, needless to say, petrified. The drawing of the two of them was simply not there.
He ran a trembling hand across the smoothness of the wall, questioning how such a thing could have happened. It had to have been his own fault. How could he have let his own light slip away?
That was when, for the first time since falling asleep, Naminé spoke directly to him.
"Sora, it isn't your fault!"
Sora let out a small gasp at the abrupt outburst. "Naminé?" he asked, looking up in all directions for her.
"...I'm sorry, Sora," Naminé continued. "It's just...there have been a few complications out here. There's just...there's this girl. Her name is Xion. She doesn't mean to, but I think that she's absorbing your memories of her to become her own person. By doing so, she's taking her away from you. There's nothing that you can do about it while you're dreaming, but don't be sad, Sora. You have friends out here in the real world that won't rest until your heart is restored. You have Riku. And...you have me, too." Sora could imagine her smiling timidly as she said it. "We won't let you lose her forever, even while it might feel like you have. I promise."
Her voice faded.
Though alarmed, Sora felt a sudden sense of comfort.
Surely, it would be difficult to continue moving forward without the girl who was so important to him, but it would be okay. Everything would be okay in the end. He just knew it would. His heart would be restored to the way it once was. Then he would finally be able to find Riku and return to the islands, to return to her. And somewhere along the way he would remember everything and everyone from the deepest depths of his heart.
He was, honestly, afraid, but he trusted his friends. Taking one last glance at the empty wall, he left the cave as he had come.
Elsewhere, in desolate, endless white hallways, Eraqus frantically searched for the room the hooded figure had spoken of. But, the chamber, where was it?
Sora, who lay stretched out on the shore, had fallen fast asleep thinking of the girl he had lost. He, however, did not dream of her. Instead, he dreamt of that other girl Naminé had briefly mentioned: Xion. He wasn't sure how he had known that it was her for sure; he just had a feeling that it was.
The dream within a dream was a hazy one. Bells from a tower rang faintly and the sun was setting for what seemed to be an eternity. Lavender clouds adorned the twilight sky.
To his left was Xion. She looked and felt like an old, childhood friend of his, but simultaneously felt as if she were a complete stranger. She didn't speak to him at first; she merely took small bites out of a light blue ice-cream bar and smiled at him once. Her gaze was fixed on the sunset.
To his right, surprisingly, was Axel. But something about him was off, or at least, different than what Sora had been used to seeing. Axel, sitting there with one knee up, appeared almost content. He had already finished his ice-cream, but the stick was still in his mouth. He, like Xion, had also silently smiled at him.
Sora sat in between them. He was holding a blue ice-cream bar too, but something felt wrong. It was as if it wasn't his place to be there. Axel and Xion didn't seem to mind him, but Sora just couldn't shake off the feeling that it was supposed to be someone else sitting in the middle instead of him.
And so, he stood.
"Why am I here?" he asked anyone who would answer.
Axel responded softly. "Well why do you think so, Sora?"
"I don't know," Sora admitted.
"You should eat your ice-cream before it melts," Xion offered quietly. She did not look at him when she said it.
But Sora just couldn't stop thinking that something was terribly wrong. It really shouldn't have been him eating ice-cream with Axel and Xion. It was supposed to be someone else. He took one last look at both characters before the dream faded and he gradually woke up.
He spotted two figures dressed in the same black coats by the distant paopu fruit tree. Upon further inspection, he was able to determine that the taller one with the blank expression was Axel and that the one with long, blond hair was another person from his memories: Vexen.
Sora could hear their conversation clearly, despite the distance between them.
"I won't let you tell him at any costs, Vexen."
"No!" cried Vexen as he backed away from Axel, trembling. "I don't want to go!"
This caused Sora to feel a sense of déjà vu. He had witnessed such a scene before, hadn't he? He thought it over until he remembered. It was when...
He gasped out loud and, without thinking twice, ran as quickly as his feet would take him in their direction. He knew exactly what was happening. Perhaps this time, he figured, he wouldn't have to feel so helpless as Axel assassinated his own colleague.
But just as Sora was running on the wooden bride to them, it was too late.
"Goodbye," said Axel impassively as he snapped his fingers.
Vexen visibly trembled before catching on fire.
Sora's horrified, wide eyes reflected the blinding light of the flames that combusted the man before him.
Axel remained unfazed.
When Sora finally reached Axel, he was speechless. How could he? How could he, the man who seemed so kind in his dream, murder someone as if it was nothing?
Axel raised an eyebrow upon seeing Sora. His expression softened. "Oh, when did you get here, Sora?" His voice changed from a serious tone to a playful one.
"You killed him!" Sora yelled. "How could you?"
Axel crossed his arms. "We've been over this before, Sora. He was a Nobody. He didn't exist to begin with. Why can't you just get it memorized already, man?" He smiled a bit at Sora's reaction.
"Just, what are you!?" Sora demanded, summoning his keyblade and gripping it tightly.
Axel held up a hand as if to say oh please.
This only further upset Sora. "Answer me!" he demanded.
"Look, Vexen wanted to tell you something that would ruin everything I've worked hard to protect. Just...forget about it, alright?" Axel asked calmly.
Sora was about to say something, but what Axel had said, forget about it, triggered something within him. His heart raced. Within seconds, he did it. He forgot. The memory of Vexen and his demise transformed into a single chain link left on the ground.
Sora, in a daze, looked to the link with a confused stare.
Axel, in the meantime, proceeded to pick it up. "Huh," he said, more so to himself than to Sora. "So that's what happens when he forgets."
Sora was quick to reach for the precious chain link. "Give it!" he cried, hopelessly extending his arms for it.
"Why do you want it?" he asked, genuinely curious as to why Sora would even care about someone he had no business remembering to begin with. "You can't even remember what this is."
"I need it," Sora said. "I need it if I ever want to connect everything one day!" The look on his face was no longer one of bitter anger, but one of hopeless desperation.
Axel chuckled a bit. "Is that what your so called 'master' told you?" He tossed the chain link to Sora, who caught it with the clasp of both hands. "You're never going to remember anything, Sora. It's as simple as that."
Sora abruptly thought back to his dream and found it increasingly difficult to continue to loathe Axel. He had just acted so genuinely before, and now he was acting like an entirely different person.
"How can you say that?" Sora asked, eyes fixed only upon the chain link in his open hand. "You aren't acting like yourself, Axel."
Axel appeared suddenly nervous, but he concealed it well. "What?" he asked.
Sora carefully put the chain link into his pocket and looked up at the tall Nobody. "I thought we were...friends."
This caught Axel off guard. It took him more than a few moments to respond. "...Ah, so you're beginning to feel him. Looks like I couldn't protect them after all," he said, beginning to mumble.
Before Sora could ask more questions, a dark corridor appeared between them both. Out walked a hooded Nobody who walked so gracefully it resembled more of a glide than a walk. The graceful figure initially disregarded Sora and looked instead to Axel.
While facing Axel, the figure revealed himself to be a man with silky pink hair. He flipped his hair back. It was quite the fabulous entrance.
Sora was quick to recognize the man as Marluxia, the ruler of Castle Oblivion. He prepared himself for anything.
"Do you never tire of meddling, Axel?" Marluxia asked emotionlessly. "It seems to me that it's the only thing you're good at, whether it be in the real world, or in a dream."
Axelx acting instinctively, summoned his two chakrams in a fiery display. "Well hello to you too, Marluxia! It's been awhile, hasn't it? Remind me, how long has it been since Sora obliterated you in Castle Oblivion, again?" He smirked.
The man, Marluxia, made a sound of disgust. "I've no intentions to fight you," he stated blandly. "I know that my place in this dream is for the keyblade master to forget me. It's time your treacherous self learned your own place."
Sora watched them go back and forth. He grew restless.
"You think I'm the traitor here, Marluxia? But wasn't it you who plotted to take over the entire organization?" Axel shot back.
"We would have succeeded if not for your meddling," Marluxia said bitterly.
"But you didn't."
"If we had, we wouldn't be standing here in Sora's dream debating it."
"But we are."
"Due to your incompetence."
"At least I survived in the real world."
"That is irrelevant."
"Oh, I'd say it's incredibly relevant."
"That's enough!" Sora exclaimed with a look of contempt. He held his keyblade up in battle position. He briefly looked at Axel. The previous, unexplained feeling of friendship faded completely. Axel was just as bad as Marluxia, and he was prepared to take them both down if it came down to that.
"Sora," Marluxia said with a mysterious grin as if he had finally decided to acknowledge his presence. "Tell me, do you really not see what Axel has been trying to do to you?"
Sora frowned a bit. He had no idea, but he wasn't about to ask the enemy to explain everything to him.
Marluxia sighed gently. "Oh, Sora, you fool," he said, shaking his head. "You can't be as dense as you seem, can you?"
"Shut up!" Sora exclaimed, huffing a bit underneath his breath.
Marluxia closed his eyes for a long moment for dramatic effect. "It's fairly obvious! Axel is trying to make it so that you can never wake up," he said, waving his hand a bit.
"Don't listen to him," Axel cut in. "You said it yourself, Sora: we're friends. You can't take Marluxia's word over mine."
"And there he goes again," Marluxia pointed out, almost amused. "He's manipulating you, Sora. Ask yourself why you're here and not with your dream guide, your 'keyblade master.' You can't wake up without someone to guide your heart to restoration. Axel tried tearing you apart from him, from Eraqus, to break the trust you have in him so that you'd have no one to guide you to your ultimate awakening."
Axel, who had grown irritated, threw both of his flaming chakrams, one after the other, at Marluxia. Marluxia, quick to react, jumped away. He floated back down to the ground with his arms extended and coat flowing. Within seconds, he held his long scythe and pointed it at him.
"Now, now," he said, addressing the redhead in a calm manner. "I already told you I had no intentions to fight you, Axel. I already told you why I'm here, but since you're so eager to battle, I suppose I have no choice but to fight, do I?"
Axel chuckled. "I suppose not," he said.
"So be it," Marluxia said. He looked briefly to Sora. "You'll just have to wait your turn, keyblade master." He turned back to Axel and swung his scythe.
Axel rapidly summoned his chakrams again to shield his face from the powerful swing. When both weapons collided, there were many flower petals and puffs of smoke in the air.
The two cloaked men fought intensely before Sora's big, blue eyes. They seemed to be equally matched the way the metal of their weapons continued to clash as they continued to block each other's attacks.
As he watched, Sora became overwhelmed.
Maybe Marluxia was right. Maybe Axel really had been trying to make him distrust Eraqus. But why would Axel go through so much just to ensure that he never woke up? Did it have something to do with the dream he had? Something to do with Xion, whoever she was?
Then he asked himself the question he had been avoiding for so long.
Eraqus, before Sora had gone on his journey to collect the world cards, had said that he was "bound" to The Land of Departure. If Axel was right, and Eraqus really had left the world, what did that mean? Had Eraqus lied about not being able to leave the world? And if he had lied about that, could that have meant that he had lied about other things, too?
Could it have been even be remotely possible that Eraqus had betrayed him all along?
His heart began to ache just considering such a thing. He groaned a bit, and suddenly the world was spinning. He held a hand up to his head and stumbled back a bit as he watched his vision double and fog. Marluxia and Axel kept fighting, but they became distant background noise.
But even as it happened, Sora continued to tell himself that everything would be okay.
The next thing he knew, his keyblade slipped away from his hand and clattered on the ground, and he fell beside it.
When Sora opened his eyes, he saw the pale blue sky of the Land of Departure. He had woken up alone in the castle courtyard.
He sprang up from the ground in which he lay on his back, startled. How had he gotten there? The last thing he could remember was watching Axel and Marluxia battling. Then… It was a blur.
He could only think to search for Eraqus, for perhaps he had returned, or perhaps he had never left the world to begin with.
Sora checked the exterior of the castle first and determined that his master was not there. Then, he walked down the halls of the castle as if on an urgent quest repeatedly calling out to his master.
He was in the throne room when concluding that Eraqus's presence in the world was nonexistent.
With such a conclusion, Sora slumped down onto one of the thrones and glumly lost himself in thought. He rested a hand on his cheek and attempted to cheer himself up telling himself over and over that everything would be okay.
Naminé had told him that there would be complications, but that he would remember the person that was most important to him soon. With memories of her, his heart would feel the warmth of light again and everything would be okay.
And Eraqus would be back soon. Then his heart could be able to continue down its path to restoration. His heart would soon feel whole again and everything would be okay.
But the truth was that, in that moment that felt like an eternity, neither of them were there for him. He was all alone, confused and afraid, and he felt only the coldness of a fragmented heart.
And even he, the eternal optimist, couldn't find it in himself to continue to say that everything would be okay, because it just... it wouldn't be. It couldn't.
