AN: Late chapter! So sorry. Really. I could tell you why it's so late, but I'm almost certain no one really cares at this point (that, and there isn't really a reason. I'm just lazy!~). But hey! Don't mind me! Go and read the new chapter now! :D
Chapter 8: Where There's A Will
Sora, who still sat on the throne, felt a sudden feeling of drowsiness sitting in that particular spot. He closed his eyes until he willed them to open again. As he did, he saw that the scenery had changed to a place of utter darkness. There was only a sliver of light coming from above, and he was falling through a seemingly endless ocean abyss.
He fell, almost leisurely, down through the endless abyss darkness, but he was far from frightened. He embraced the darkness, for in a way, it comforted him. He had felt this type of darkness before. He had been to this place many times in the past, always figuring that it was just a dream, but could it have been more than that?
When his big, yellow shoes gently touched the ground, the stained glass mosaic lit up in bright colors as hundreds of birds, in a cacophony of flapping wings, flew away. Sora stood back to observe the image he stood on.
It was an image of himself, and, as far as he could tell, the people most important to him. But the image was incomplete and cracked. There was a large gaping hole near the center of it, right where that girl he had forgotten should have been.
Seeing the cracks in the glass saddened him, but even so, he decided to go off and explore. It had been, after all, a while since he had been to that peculiar, stained glass world.
He walked forward past the circular mosaic and out into the darkness. As he stepped out into the void, a path made of more stained glass appeared beneath him. With every step he took, the path lit up as if to urge him to continue moving forward.
He went on until reaching the point of another stained glass mosaic of him and his friends. Like the previous one, it was broken. It was identical to the other one, only that time, it was a blue color scheme rather than a green one. Additionally, there was also a single door waiting for him in the center.
With a tilt of his head, he approached it. Before he could touch it, however, a voice spoke to him. It was the voice of a familiar stranger. The voice of someone he had met once - no, twice? - before, when he was younger.
"I'm sorry, Sora."
"What for?" Sora asked instinctively, without thinking to ask of the identity of the voice. He could faintly recall speaking to him once before, but even then he hadn't a clue as to who he was speaking to.
The voice wasn't making any sense. "I didn't think taking him away from you would break your heart… I just...really missed him."
The features on Sora's face softened at that. "You don't have to apologize," he said with a genuine smile, despite the fact that he had no idea as to who or what the voice was referring to.
"But now your heart is broken."
"I'll be okay," Sora assured, sounding and looking certain.
Silence.
Sora shifted his weight from one foot to the other as he thought of his previous encounter with the voice. The voice spoke to him before because it needed a place to rest. "Are you still sad?" he asked eventually.
The voice indirectly answered. "...I'm still healing…" it said.
Sora considered his words. "That's okay!" he said. "You can stay in my heart for as long as you need to!" He looked satisfied with himself after saying it.
The voice trembled. "Sora...I'm not in your heart anymore…"
Sora didn't know how to respond. He wasn't with him anymore? How then, were the two communicating? And why? Why had he left to begin with? "You...left?" Sora asked.
A short pause.
"Sort of," the voice offered, but while making no effort to further elaborate.
More silence.
"Sora, there's something you should know about him."
"About who?"
A long pause that time.
"Our master."
Sora stiffened. "Master Eraqus?" he asked. "He's your master too? That must mean… Are you...?"
"I'm Ven. It's nice to meet you, Sora."
"But what happened to you, Ven? Why is your heart the way it is now?"
"That doesn't matter. I'm still not strong enough. I need to tell you something before I have to go back to sleep."
"About Master Eraqus?"
"...Yeah. I chose him to appear in your dream, but not for the reasons you think."
"What do you mean?"
"The Eraqus you see isn't just a memory, Sora... It's his soul."
"His...soul?"
"Yes. Before my heart left yours, I found his soul drifting around somewhere along the way. I figured that he had ceased to exist in the real world, which would explain why his soul was without his body. I was scared and didn't know what to do, so I used what little strength I had to send his soul in your direction. I figured that maybe you could help him, and at the same time he could help you. But I was selfish. I took him away from you when you needed him the most, when you forgot her. I'm so sorry, Sora."
Sora attempted to wrap his mind around what the voice had just explained.
"But, what?" Sora blurted out. "Are you saying that Master Eraqus is more than just a dream? Is he...real?"
"It's his real soul, but his heart and body as I remember them. So…in a way he is, but at the same time, he isn't."
"But why are you telling me this?"
"I'm still scared," Ventus admitted. "It seems like too much to ask of you, but...I was wondering if you could find a way to save him."
Sora was silent.
Ventus went on at frantic speed. "It was mostly my fault that he had to die. I just… No. I don't want to burden you, Sora. Just focus on restoring your own heart. You don't have to keep helping me."
"I'll save him," Sora finally said.
"...Huh? Sora… I… You really want to keep helping me? Even after I broke your heart?"
Sora smiled. "He's my master too," he reminded Ventus.
For the first time, Ventus sounded almost cheerful. "Thank you," he said simply.
"But how can I save him?"
Ventus admitted that he did not know. "I'm not sure," he said sullenly.
"Well, that's alright!" Sora piped. "I promise, Ven, that I'll find a way!"
"Sora? Can you not tell Master about any of this? If you do...he might not let you even try. He'll just want to focus on restoring your heart and nothing else." A quiet chuckle. "You know how he gets."
Sora nodded. "I won't," he swore. "So, Ven, about you not being in my heart…" He crossed his arms in thought. "Where exactly did you go? And when did you leave? Why did you leave? And...are you coming back? You can come back if you want to, you know."
When Ventus did not respond, Sora assumed that he had fallen back asleep. He did not worry, however, for he knew that, wherever he was, his voice at least sounded a bit less sad than it had long ago. That told him that he really was healing, and that was enough.
When Sora was certain that Ventus had gone, he reached for the door.
Elsewhere, far away from the land of sleep, three Nobodies sat on the edge of a clock tower watching the sunset. The view looked as it always did in the town of eternal twilight, and the atmosphere had been a bit tense. Nobody spoke.
Despite the tension, they seemed to be enjoying the sheer presence of each other's company. It was as if that was all they needed - each other and the sunset. That, and ice-cream, too of course.
They went on eating their light blue popsicles and watching the sunset until the Nobody who sat in between the other two, Roxas, suddenly felt a great ache in his chest.
He held up a hand to it. He hadn't a clue as to what it was. The hurt made it difficult to breathe. It was as if had been a sleeping pain that had abruptly awakened.
The girl sitting next to him, Xion, noticed the apparent look of distress on his face first.
"Hey," she said. "What's wrong?"
The question caused the other Nobody, the young man with the fiery red hair, Axel, to quickly turn his head away from the sunset and to the boy. He looked as concerned as Xion, if not more.
Roxas, who still had his hand positioned just over his chest, hesitated. Would his friends understand if he tried to explain the sensation? Perhaps they would. He took a chance and explained it to his them.
"It's just...there's this weird feeling in my chest. It hurts."
Xion kept looking concerned, but Axel merely laughed and shrugged it off.
"I think you just ate your ice-cream too fast, man," he hypothesized with a small smile. "The sensation should go away in a bit."
Roxas forced a grin. "Yeah," he said. He brought his hand back down.
And Xion, seeing that Roxas was alright after all, relaxed and lightly chided him for worrying her "out of nowhere like that."
"I have seen you eat ice-cream really fast," Xion went on, laughing into her hand as she thought of the numerous times she had seen him gobble up his ice-cream inn under a minute.
The man agreed without a second thought. "That's true. I mean, I know you it's your favorite and all, but you should remember to slow down every now and then. Got it memorized?"
Roxas was defensive. "I don't eat it that fast," he said, looking offended.
Axel teased him. "The first step is acceptance, Roxas. Accept you have a problem."
"I don't have a problem!"
Axel scoffed gently before taking a bite out of his own ice-cream bar. "So the 500 munny you borrowed from me was spent on something other than ice-cream, then?"
Before he could respond, Xion, leaning forward to look at Axel, said, "He owes you ice-cream munny too, Axel?" She appeared startled.
It was silent as the trio processed what had just been discovered.
Then, almost simultaneously, their laughter filled the air. The previous tension had been instantly, if temporarily, lifted.
But Roxas remained unconvinced that it was nothing. The pain was far too intense for it to be nothing. Even so, he did not mention it again, for the sake of his friends.
Then, just as suddenly as the pain came, it left too. Maybe, Roxas thought as he swung his legs back and forth, it was just the ice-cream after all.
Axel watched Sora from afar. He had been fast asleep on the throne with that stupid grin on his face.
The tall man sighed a bit. He had tried so hard to break Sora's heart, but even when it did break, Sora just didn't seem to mind.
Leaning against the wall, Axel crossed his arms and considered what else could be done to prevent Sora from ever waking up.
He scoffed. He had forgotten who he had been dealing with. It was Sora, the boy who could always find something to smile about, after all.
Axel took one last glance at Sora before turning away from him. He seemed like such a nice kid and all. In fact, if they had met when he was still a Somebody, they probably would have been good friends. He almost felt bad for hurting him.
But the reality was that Axel had no heart, so he couldn't feel remorse for his actions no matter how much he wanted to. He could break someone's heart without thinking twice. Yet, even though he had no heart, he still had a conscience. Sora wasn't the type of person who deserved to have his heart broken. He was just too good a person.
But Axel had no choice. His ultimate goal was to protect his friends. There would be no way to protect them if Sora woke up because deep inside, he knew. He knew Roxas and Xion would have to disappear in order for Sora to wake up. He knew they both had to go back to him. He just wouldn't let himself believe it.
He walked out of the room, arms still crossed and head slightly lowered. He thought.
Sora's dream guide, Eraqus, would be coming back soon. What then? He supposed he could continue to drive them further apart, but would Sora really let that happen?
Though naive, Sora was a pretty unpredictable kid. Axel had no idea what would happen once he and Eraqus reunited. Could he successfully drive them apart, or would his actions only bring them closer together?
Axel rubbed his temples. He was usually good at thinking things through, but the mess he had gotten himself in was just ridiculous. There were just too many outcomes, too much uncertainty.
He stayed like that for some time, lost in the deepest depths of thought, until Marluxia's voice snapped him out of it.
"Axel."
Axel looked at the graceful man with a bored stare. "You here to get your ass beat again, Marluxia?"
The pink haired man dramatically flipped his hair back and closed his eyes for a long moment. "Oh, spare me your petty remarks. I am here to fulfill my role. It seems as though you have yet to realize that you're meant to be forgotten as I am."
Axel chuckled a bit. "You're confused," he said tauntingly. "You think I'm like you and the others, meant to become nothing but another chain link in Sora's growing pile. But the reality is that I'm not. Got it memorized?"
Marluxia opened his eyes in partial surprise. "Oh?" he asked in a monotone voice. "If not just a memory meant to be forgotten, what are you then?"
"But if I tell you, the suspense will die!" Axel exclaimed. He smirked. "Besides, I can't have you telling Sora anything, now can I?"
Marluxia remained unfazed. "Your meddling will get you turned into a dusk one day." He spoke blandly.
"It warms my heart to know you care so much, Marluxia," Axel said sarcastically as he gestured towards his chest.
Marluxia made a sound of disgust as if burdened by Axel's sheer presence. "One thing I will not miss after being forgotten is your sorry attempt at humor."
Axel laughed lightly. "Well if it helps, I won't miss you at all once you're gone for good!"
"I've nothing more to say to the likes of you," Marluxia spat, walking past the man.
"Hey, if you're looking for Sora, don't," Axel said, glancing over his shoulder to look at Marluxia. "He's sleeping. Poor kid must be exhausted. His heart broke today, you know. Gotta let him rest and all."
Marluxia was silent. He did not seem to care. "I suppose I'll have to return when his heart is strong enough to forget me," he finally said, with a sigh.
"I suppose so," Axel agreed with a shrug.
Without another word, Marluxia vanished into darkness.
When he was out of sight, Axel frowned. Forgetting Marluxia brought Sora one step closer to restoring his heart, so he had to prevent it for as long as he could.
He paced the courtyard for some time before seeing a stream of light fly in the sky. It took him only a second to recognize the light to be the return of Eraqus.
Axel decided then and there that it was his chance to further guilt the master for leaving Sora in the first place.
When the armored man landed a few feet in front of him, Axel greeted him with a brief, casual nod. "Hey," he said, waving his hand aloofly.
In a sudden flash of light, Eraqus's armor disappeared. He looked at Axel with piercing, angry eyes.
"You dare show yourself here?" he demanded, and his keyblade appeared in his hands.
Axel held up a hand to stop him. So much for the formalities! "Your absence broke Sora's heart," he said bluntly.
This caught Eraqus off guard. "I...beg your pardon?" he asked, stunned.
Axel shrugged as if it had been no big deal. "While you were away, Sora lost the person most important to him. It's kind of hard to cope with stuff like that when you're all alone, isn't it?"
His words seemed to bring pain to Eraqus. "You're lying," he said.
"Nah," Axel said. "His heart really is broken and it's kinda your fault. But relax: I kept my mouth shut about your whereabouts, just like I said I would. By the way, did you tell Ventus I said hi?"
Enraged, Eraqus swung his keyblade at Axel. "Enough!" he shouted as he did.
Axel was barely able to dodge the attack. He was surprised at his reaction, but nonetheless, amused. "You should stop worrying about me and go check up on Sora already," he suggested. "I'll tell you again in case you forgot: his heart is broken. Get a hold of yourself and go to him."
Eraqus was at a loss for words, but Axel was right. He wasted not a second longer and ran into the castle.
When Sora didn't immediately wake up, Eraqus couldn't help but to assume the worst.
He did as he did to Ventus - he shook the slumbering boy by the shoulder repeatedly calling out to him.
"Sora," Eraqus said, desperately. "It is time to wake up now."
Sora stirred a bit after some time. He mumbled something.
Eraqus almost jumped. What had he said?
"What was that, Sora?" Eraqus asked thinking perhaps that he had said something of monumental importance.
That time, Sora spoke clearly. "Five more minutes," he said sleepily. His eyes stayed closed, and he started getting comfortable in his chair.
At that, Eraqus began to laugh at himself for thinking even for a moment that Sora wouldn't wake up. He continued to try to wake him up, but in a more lighthearted fashion.
"Sora," Eraqus said again, crossing his arms. "Five minutes have passed." When in reality it had been a mere five seconds.
Sora's eyebrows went up in surprise as if he couldn't believe it, but the logic of a sleeping person is always lacking. He accepted the fact that he had been sleeping for an additional five minutes, and within seconds, he opened his eyes. Upon seeing that he had been speaking to Eraqus all along, he jumped up from his seat as if he had all the energy in the world.
"Master Eraqus!" He spoke ecstatically.
Eraqus brought his arms down to his side and smiled faintly. He hadn't anticipated Sora welcoming him back so quickly. Still, his eyes were filled with concern. While Sora seemed to be acting like himself, he could, in fact, sense his broken heart.
Sora was speechless. There were so many questions he had for him, but all he could do was beam with joy.
"I was starting to think you wouldn't come back," Sora admitted. He thought of Ventus. Had Eraqus gone to see him, somehow? "Hey! But where were you, anyway?"
Eraqus frowned a bit. He deliberately avoided the question. "Sora… What happened to your heart during my absence?"
Sora, tilting his head back a bit, thought about it. "I think I forgot someone really important," he began. "It's like…" He brought his hand to his heart. "...there's a hole in my heart now." He frowned momentarily, but then grinned once more. "But you're back now, and that's all that matters."
The old master lowered his gaze. "I am sorry for leaving you, Sora," he said, shamefully. "I should have been there for you when you lost her. And now, it is too late. The damage has been done. Your heart is broken and I am to blame."
"Hey, there's no need for that!" Sora insisted. "I know that you had your reasons for leaving, and you don't have to tell me what those reasons were if you don't want to. The only thing I don't get is why you had to lie to me about not being able to leave the world." He looked slightly pained when he brought it up.
At that, Eraqus looked straight at Sora. "I assure you that I have never lied to you, Sora," he said, almost as if he were offended to even be accused of such a thing. "The world I went to was still the Land of Departure; it was simply a different version of it."
It was unclear whether or not Sora believed him, but he let the subject drop. "I'm just glad you're back," he said softly.
Eraqus smiled tenderly. "You must rest," he instructed.
"But that's all I've been doing," Sora said. "All I do is sleep these days. Let me train!"
Eraqus lifted a hand to his chin and thoughtfully considered the request. "But your heart is broken," he said. "I do not wish to further strain it."
"I'll be fine," Sora said with a brief nod. "Come on!"
Eraqus blinked. Sora's seemingly endless optimism puzzled him at times. How was he able to remain acting like himself even with a broken heart? "So be it," he agreed. "I'll have you run laps around the castle and then you must rest. Is that understood?"
"Okay!" Sora said, victoriously pumping a fist into the air.
All the while, as the two chatted as if nothing was wrong, Axel watched in the shadows, arms crossed and all. Nothing was going according to plan.
He was beginning to feel as though nothing could be done to tear Sora and Eraqus apart. There could be nothing done to save his best friends.
Axel closed his eyes in thought. Images of Roxas and Xion flashed in his mind.
He would just have to give them up after all.
After running laps around the castle, Eraqus had Sora forget another world card. That time, it had been the Hollow Bastion card. Sora forgot such a card with ease, for he was, despite not wanting to believe it, getting better at forgetting upon will.
As Sora twiddled around with his new chain link, Eraqus spoke to him of his plans for the upcoming weeks regarding his heart and its restoration.
"We will continue to do as we have been doing thus far. That is, you will continue to forget everything that occurred in Castle Oblivion. This, as you may already know, includes the remaining revisits to the worlds, the people you met there, and the events that you witnessed. The only exception is your memory of Naminé which you will need until your heart is completely restored. After you have forgotten all that must be forgotten, you will need to remember everything that must be remembered."
Sora, who had been sitting with his arms wrapped around his knees on the lowest step of the staircase, glanced up at Eraqus. "I don't remember everything from before Castle Oblivion?" he asked.
Eraqus shook his head. "Remember, Sora... In Castle Oblivion, for every memory you found, there was a memory you lost as well. You need the memories you lost in order to wake up. This includes your memory of the person most important to you. How you will regain such a memory is beyond me. It will be up to your friends in the outside world. Every other memory, however, should be fairly easy to remember."
"Will remembering be as hard as forgetting?" Sora asked quietly as he gazed longingly at the chain link in his hand.
Eraqus spoke gently. "No," he said. "I assure you that remembering is easier than forgetting."
Sora stored the chain link in his pocket. "Okay, and after remembering everything, what then?"
"Then you must forget Naminé, this dream, and myself. Then you will wake up as if you defeated Ansem just yesterday."
Sora hesitated. "But what will happen to you?"
Eraqus considered it. "You needn't worry about me. I am just a memory. I will, if anything, fade back to where I belong."
Sora looked nervous suddenly. "What if you weren't just a memory? What happens to you then?"
The master looked curiously at Sora. He seemed to be holding something back, but he couldn't figure out what.
"I assure you that I am only a memory, Sora," the man said, daring to chuckle bitterly.
"Let's just say that you weren't," Sora went on, standing and facing him. "What then?"
"I haven't a clue," Eraqus admitted honestly. He couldn't help but to wonder: what did Sora know that he didn't? "What are you implying?"
Sora shook his head. "It's nothing," he said, no longer daring to look at him. Sora was never a good liar.
Days passed. Eraqus had Sora forget only insignificant things from Castle Oblivion. He had him perform only the most basic of training exercises before instructing him to take the remainder of the day to rest. Forgetting anything or anyone too drastic would only further hurt his heart.
These slow days progressed into weeks. Axel and the other beings Sora had met in Castle Oblivion were nowhere to be seen. This initially concerned Eraqus, but he figured that it was better for Sora's fragile heart that way.
It was in these weeks when Sora dreamed, night after night, of that same clock tower and that same sunset. It felt more and more familiar every night, but at the same time, it felt more and more distant too.
He couldn't explain it. He tried to forget about the dreams and instead focused on figuring out a way to save Eraqus.
What would happen to his soul after the dream was over, after Sora had to forget who he was?
One day, when Eraqus least expected it, Sora asked, "Master Eraqus, what exactly is a soul?"
That caught Eraqus off guard, but he responded regardless. "...The soul is one of three things that make a complete being, the other two being the heart and body," he said. ". I always let it slip my mind that you are a self taught keyblade wielder. The significance of these three things was among one of the first lessons I taught my students, and among one of the first that my master taught me." He cleared his throat and explained. "The heart is responsible for a person's memories, emotions, and ambitions. It is made of both light and darkness with some exceptions. The body is a physical vessel for the heart and soul; it is a means to which the heart and its emotions can be physically expressed. The soul is the force that drives the body to survive. It is a person's mind, a person's will."
Sora thought deeply.
"Why the sudden interest, Sora?" Eraqus asked with a hint of suspicion.
"No reason," Sora said swiftly. "But what would happen to a soul without a heart or a body?"
"Perhaps it would just wither away. I do not know for sure if a soul can exist on its own." Eraqus said.
Day after day, Sora sought to find a way to save Eraqus, just as he promised Ventus he would.
But day after day, Sora only came to realize that he needed help in doing so.
In an attempt to find such help, he fell asleep every night thinking of Ventus, but only dreamed of sunsets. He considered asking Eraqus himself for assistance, but what Ventus had said before prevented him from doing so. He knew that Eraqus would prioritize the restoration of his heart above all else. He knew. Therefore, telling Eraqus of his quest would be pointless, for he would only encourage him to abandon it.
Sora didn't know what to do. Was there anything that could be done?
It was a tremendous task. He knew that.
But through it all, through dreams of sunsets and endless days of heartache, he reminded himself of one thing. He reminded himself of it when he thought of his promise to Ventus, when he counted his chain links to ensure he hadn't lost any, and when he thought of his own, broken heart.
Where there's a will, there is always a way.
AN: See what I did there? With the chapter title and souls and wills and eheh... uh...sorry. Yeah hopefully this chapter answers some of the questions you guys had. The plot suddenly became a trillion times more complicated, but that's okay! But sorry if you don't understand. Ask anything you don't get, but know that the answer to most questions will be "everything is connected." Lol. Thanks for sticking with me this far. Love you. Every single one of you. Except you, Billy. Never Billy. (Just kidding, I love you too, Billy.) Xoxoxxoo
