Chapter 9
Roxas' walk had been more than peaceful. The night had taken over again, and the stars in the sky seemed to be brighter than ever. It was a shame he had no one but the man to share the image with.
The man beside him hadn't spoken in some time, and there seemed to be no monsters lurking around. It felt weird. The silence was annoying him, but he thought that he should get used to it, since his town was now practically dead. It was getting to him, but he tried his hardest not to let it too much. If it did then he'd be going insane in no time.
Roxas kept his hands in his pockets, trying his best not to fidget. He inwardly sighed. "It's quiet," he said to himself more than to the man next to him.
"Yes, you've said."
Roxas frowned, dragging his head down in annoyance. The man was incredibly anti-social. He completely appreciated the man's strange request in insisting to stay with Roxas until he was safe, because he didn't feel as lonely and hopeless, but boy the guy was hard to talk to. Whenever Roxas asked him a question, he'd wait a few seconds, think about answering it, then give him either a one word answer or no answer at all. It was irritating, but Roxas didn't pry on it. He was lucky to have anybody beside him at all.
Roxas couldn't handle the silence anymore. "Can you at least try and keep a conversation flowing?"
The man kept walking along the dark cobbled street. "What do you mean?"
"I mean keep talking, even if you haven't got anything useful to say."
"What's the point in that?"
Roxas laughed a little to himself. "Man, you're hopeless. Anyone would think you're a robot."
The man turned his head toward Roxas, still walking along with him. He suddenly seemed intrigued with Roxas' statement, and decided to carry it on. Not because Roxas wanted him to, but because he was interested. "You mean, like a machine?"
"I guess a robot can be classed as a machine too." Roxas said with a shrug, his eyes drooped as his they became tired. The silent night atmosphere was making him lazy, and because there were no monsters around to rush his adrenaline, it made it all the worse.
The man turned his head forward again. "I'm not a machine," he said hardly.
Roxas looked at him this time, surprised at his tone of voice. "It was just a figure of spee-"
"Machines control things, create things, destroy things; all in the act of simply being ordered to do so. I am not a machine."
His voice was so serious it made Roxas flinch. He didn't know what to say for a few seconds, worrying he might say something wrong again. "Hey, I'm sorry if I hit a nerve. It's just… you're so emotionless sometimes," he apologized gently.
The man stopped in his tracks and Roxas noticed quickly, immediately regretting saying anything at all.
"Um, okay. That was low. You probably took that the wrong way. I, err-"
"No," the man silenced him and Roxas stopped his bantering, becoming quiet at the sternness of his voice. "You don't understand anymore."
Roxas frowned and stood in front of him, utterly confused yet again. What the hell did he mean by that? Was that an insult? "If you're trying to insult me then fine, I dunno if I deserved that or not. You're so bottled and mysterious I can't even tell."
The man stayed perfectly still.
"And stop with the confusing statements. You keep saying these things as if we've met before."
Silence followed again for quite a while as the two people looked at each other. The man tried desperately not to say anything he'd get in trouble for saying, but his head was pounding. He wanted to cry out and break free of this barrier that kept him from saying or doing anything he wasn't ordered to do.
The man tried to calm his thoughts down, and eventually regained his composure.
"Maybe we have, Roxas."
Roxas hadn't and couldn't have noticed what just happened inside the man's head. So he simply dusted away the comment like all the others he'd made.
Roxas sighed. "Let's go to the gummi station. Maybe I'll get lucky."
000000
Meanwhile, deep in Twilight Town's rough atmosphere, the Destiny Island's gummi ship rattled and shook as Riku tried to control it forward. Things were beeping in his ears, lights were flashing in the corner of his eyes, Kairi's yelling was ringing throughout the small cockpit. Sora simply held himself in his seat, holding on tightly and keeping confidence in Riku to get the thing through the hard atmosphere, let alone land it.
"Kairi would you calm down! I know what I'm doing!" Riku yelled in frustration as he held the control stick firmly in his grip, flying the ship forward through the floating rocks.
"But this hasn't happened before!" she yelled, weirdly holding her head in the brace position.
"Because we've never flown directly into an atmosphere before, only travelled out of one."
"Are you sure this is what you're supposed to be doing Riku?" She cried, trying to block the loud crashes and desperate beeping from her ears.
"Kairi!" Sora butted it. "We'll be fine! Look, we're halfway through."
Sora tried his best to ignore how loud everything was as well. None of them knew how this was meant to go. The only person who had the slightest idea was Riku, and he was flying the ship right now, so all could go well. Sora had to keep his confidence as always, he'd never want to wallow in despair.
"Almost there," Riku's heart pounded as they almost passed through the atmosphere, hoping and praying that this would all go smoothly. He also hoped to God that the ship hadn't been damaged through this, because he had no idea where to land or how to land it, so he needed everything to be working properly.
All three were suddenly shocked when the gummi stopped shaking and the noises stopped ringing through their ears. Everything began to run smoothly again and the world beneath them came into clear view.
Riku checked the monitors and all was OK. He sighed in relief and gave a gracious smile, leaning forward slightly. Sora and Kairi were leant back in their seats panting at the adrenaline that began to calm down through their bodies.
The view was amazing, and Riku edged the ship closer to see if he could see any flashing lights to signal a landing port.
"Everything okay?" Sora asked, still backed up in his seat wondering if there would be anymore surprising crashes.
"Should be…" Riku said distantly, concentrating on spotting the flashing lights.
Kairi looked out of the front screen, observing the world and she smiled. "This one looks really nice, like a quaint little town." As the ship got closer, other things began to be noticeable and Kairi's smiled faded a little. "Looks rather empty too."
"Don't be surprised if this place has been evacuated as well. We're here to get fuel and possibly food, nothing else. So be on your guard." Riku ordered both Kairi and Sora.
The flashing lights were now clear to see, and there toward them was a gummi station, seeming completely empty of ships and people. Riku frowned, he was probably right in thinking no one was here. He'd have to find the fuel without help.
000000
Roxas and the man dressed in black made their way to the gates of the huge gummi station of Twilight Town, and Roxas examined how there weren't any ships at all. He wasn't surprised, nor was he disappointed. Even if there were ships there, he'd have no idea how to fly them.
Roxas held the bars of the gates and stared into the big concrete field marked with lines and big numbers that he didn't understand. He just stared at the big open space and the run ways. He didn't want to go inside, what would be the point? He'd only be wasting energy. He was quite content in just staring into the distance.
"So this is a gummi station?"
Roxas tensed for a second at the silence being broken, and then he nodded. "Yeah. Nothing amazing, huh?"
"Where are the ships?"
"Beats me. Everyone must have taken them," he mumbled, leaning his forehead on the cold bars, gripping onto them as he stared.
Roxas looked toward the night sky, looking at each star as they sat there twinkling quietly in the sky. The sky was so dark it made them look so bright and he inwardly smiled at the beautiful sight, resting his head against his arm lazily.
He looked harder, and noticed one of the stars becoming bigger. The North Star? He thought. His eyes concentrated on it as it vastly became bigger and bigger.
"So this is where you travel from world to world?" The man kept talking behind him.
"Yeah…" Roxas said distantly, focusing on the star that was now at least ten times bigger than it should be. Then he let go of the bars wearily, standing next to the man in black. Things suddenly did not feel right.
The man noticed Roxas looking into the sky so weirdly, so he checked himself to see what it was.
There, in the sky, a ship flew in the distance, ready to land right in the station.
"A gummi ship?" Roxas thought out loud, suddenly feeling an inch of hope.
The man didn't move, only stood next to Roxas as they both watched the ship get lower and lower. Roxas thought to himself that maybe they should hide, incase it wasn't safe. But why wouldn't it be safe? Surely the creatures wouldn't be smart enough to fly gummi ships? Maybe there were people on it that had come to save him.
The ship landed a far distance away from the gates that Roxas and the man stood at, and Roxas watched on at the landed ship, feeling like this was his opportune moment of salvation.
"You think it's safe to go to it?"
"I'm not sure."
000000
The doors to the gummi ship slowly opened downward with a hiss, leading down into steps onto the concrete ground.
Sora peeped his head around to check if the coast was clear and was met with subtle silence. All that could be heard was the cold night air howling into their ears. He couldn't see much because of how dark it was, and how most of the lights in the station weren't turned on. Sora squinted, looking for any signs that might say 'gas' or 'fuel'.
Kairi hid behind Sora, clinging onto his shoulders wearily as she looked over them, seeing if anything was going to pop out anytime soon.
"Looks okay to me," Riku stated and casually walked down the steps into the night air.
Sora frowned, annoyed at Riku's cockiness. "Stop acting so cool Riku!"
Riku snickered. "I can't help it."
Kairi rolled her eyes and walked out from behind Sora, following Riku down the steps. Sora watched as she bravely followed, then realised he was still cowering to the side of the ship. He shook his head and ran outside, catching up with the two of them quickly.
"Any idea where to start?" Kairi asked, staying close to Riku.
"Nope. We may have to split up, you can go with Sora that way, and I'll go this way," he said, pointing out into different directions.
"Why do I have to go with Sora?"
Riku looked at her, quite confused. "You don't want to?"
She blushed, looking down at the ground. "He's being a wuss, and you seem to know what you're doing." She hushed so Sora wouldn't hear.
Riku smiled fondly at his red haired friend. "All the more reason you should stay with him."
Kairi didn't say anything, just stared stubbornly at the ground as they slowly walked.
"Okay guys, we should split up, Kairi you go with Riku, and I'll go over here," Sora announced from behind them, hands on hips.
Kairi fumed for a second, confused at how Sora and Riku's minds meshed so weirdly and how they thought she was completely defenceless. "You know guys, why don't we all split up completely. I can look after myself!"
Sora and Riku looked at her, silenced by her outburst. Before they could say antying, she'd already walked off into a different direction.
"Just stay close to her Sora, make sure she doesn't wonder off."
"I heard that!" Kairi yelled from in front.
000000
Roxas stared at the three strangers dressed in green gowns as they split up in different directions. He heard them yelling at each other, but couldn't make out what they were saying. He was hiding behind a stack of boxes near the gates. He decided to go inside and take a closer look, just incase, but he didn't want to get too close.
The man in black hiding next to him hadn't said a word since they showed up, he hadn't warned Roxas of anything, hadn't said everything was safe. He just stayed completely silent, following Roxas' every order.
"They look like they've just escaped an insane asylum," Roxas frowned, looking at their strange clothes. He looked toward the boy with wild brown spiky hair, who was nearing the weaponry. "He's going to the weapon store, this might not be good." He bit his lip, wondering what to do. "Maybe if we sneak up on him, we can catch him before he gets a hold of a weapon."
The man next to him said nothing, but Roxas ignored it.
"Come on," Roxas said and he creeped slowly toward the weaponry, making sure the other two people didn't see him.
000000
Sora opened the small door to the hut, wondering what would be inside. He hoped he'd find the gas before Riku did, that would wipe the cool smirk off of his face. Sora grinned at the image as he felt around the wall of the pitch black room for a light switch. He found something, but when he flicked it, nothing happened.
Sora tutted when he realised his luck had suddenly run out. He kept the door wide open to let in as much light as possible and he took a few weary steps inside, smelling the dusty air of the small hut.
Sora looked around the shadows, not sure what he was seeing. He felt around a bit carefully with his fingertips, and noticed things pilled up onto shelves against the walls. His skin brushed against cold curved metal, then against a handle, leading toward a long nose, and then to what felt like… a trigger? Sora's eyes widened when he realised what it was. A gun. It was a small pistol, something that might come in very handy. But he felt weird. He'd never used a gun before.
Small footsteps suddenly came into his ears and Sora yelped loudly at the feel of a body leaping on top of him, making them both crash down to the floor blindly.
Riku heard the crash from the other side of the station instantly and he quickly stopped rummaging through the boxes he found and spun his head toward the small hut that Sora had entered. "Shit!" Riku cursed and sprinted toward the hut as fast as his legs could carry him, hoping to God Sora wasn't in danger.
He ran fast, hearing constant crashes from the hut. Riku began to panic. Sora didn't have a weapon, he was defenceless and vulnerable. Riku felt like a fool to let him go alone. If Kairi were there she could have at least done something to help, but he was completely alone.
"Shit shit shit," he kept cursing as he came nearer to the hut. Once at the entrance of the door he heard yelling and he quickly looked inside at the shadows moving inside the hut. He found a switch, but noticed it wasn't working, then he found another next to it and flicked it quickly which instantly illuminated the whole room.
The movement of the two bodies stopped and Sora was holding the pistol he found directly at the other boys head. Sora was pinned to the ground however by the other boy, not letting him move. They were both deadly still, letting their eyes focus onto each other as the light shone around them quickly.
Then when their eye sight became clear, what they both saw scared them both almost to death.
Identical sapphire eyes shone at each other in confusion.