A/N: GAH! The Plot Bunny is trying to kill me! It says move the plot along NOW you authoress!
Stupid, sounds so stupid, you sound more immature than buddyboy.
Shut up, infernal ink-covered kid. Anyway, updates may be delayed (midterms are coming to get me)...sorry guys.
A note about the ages of the characters. Sora is 14 at the start of KH, right? Then he turns 15 in KH2. In my plot, KH2 takes a year, so in this fanfic he's already 16 (but he's stopped aging anyway, Nobodies and Heartless don't age). Apply to all other characters. When Roxas and Naminé get their own shards, they have two years of catching up on age, since Sora and Kairi were both 14 when they lost their hearts. Riku is 17 years old already. Okay? Okay?
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts is not mine... If it was mine I'd be famous, right? But I'm not, so...
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XIX: Fallen
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"So she has a heart, but her Other's still in love with that creep, I don't know, but Larx's scared, and---"
Rinoa chuckled, reaching over to pat Axel on the back as he reached for his ginger ale (taken after the shot of brandy, and which she had refilled for at least four times in the past two hours--he'd gone to the bathroom thrice already) in a very dejected way. "I'm inferring from this that you have a crush on Larxene, yes?"
Axel coughed loudly on his drink, flecking tiny drops of the ale everywhere.
Ha. Ha. Rearrange 'Ale' and add an X, there, you've got Axel. Rinoa rolled her eyes, irritated at herself. Checking for customer's prying eyes (she could've woven Illusion around the bar, but she's feeling a little lazy and sleepy today, so no dice), she passed a hand over the little round droplets and drew them to one another, creating a large round puddle, which she disintegrated easily.
Sorceress powers were cool. It'd even be cooler if she weren't hiding them.
She sighed and directed her attention back to the still-spluttering pyromaniac in front of her. "Well?" she asked impatiently.
"What the hell do you mean by crush, anyway?" He eyed her suspiciously, gloved fingers wrapped tight around his glass.
"It means, you admire someone," Rinoa answered, wiping down the counter again.
He stared into the depths of his ginger ale, as if expecting the ale to magically show him the answer to his nonlife's questions. She forced away the urge to actually make the ale show something.
It surprised her that Axel had come back, of all the probably days to come barging into her and Tifa's bar. The fiery redhead had first shown up about two years ago, right after Roxas and his friends had their little drinking contest (in which Roxas actually got drunk on ginger ale, a phenomenon that still puzzles her today). He had come in from the pouring rain that night (don't tell anyone, but that was actually Rinoa's doing; she had a serious case of sentimental breakdown the night before---she didn't mean for the rain to come down that hard), coat slick with water, and trailing mud all over her clean floor. Gah.
She instantly recognized Axel as the Flurry of Dancing Flames, number Eight of Organization XIII, a group of incomplete wanting to be whole--just like the bedheaded blonde boy before him.
He didn't need to know that.
Rinoa knows a lot of things.
Axel was moping something about his best friend (which she already knew was Roxas), and Rinoa coaxed his troubles out. All she got coherently was that Roxas was somehow stuck in a simulated town, something about a guy named DiZ, and something about a Keyblade Wielder named Sora.
He didn't need to know that she already knew that. Nobody needed to know.
He went everyday into 7th Heaven after that, always careful to come after Roxas did. She managed to coax out his being a Nobody out of him; but it cost her telling him her secret, just to convince him that she'll never tell. His initial reaction was somewhere between awe and apprehension, but after a duel between them (done in the dead of the night), he only had respect. Hey! And she didn't even break a sweat on that duel.
Then he suddenly stopped coming after Kingdom Hearts resonated with the merging of Sora and Roxas.
Rinoa does know a lot of things. No, not because she can read his mind (she reserves that for very special circumstances, and for very special people), but simply because...she has a lot of connections. She's Sorceress Rinoa, after all.
"If that's what having a crush means, then I guess I have a crush on her," he said belatedly. "Now that I think about it, it's driving me nuts."
"She's driving you nuts," she corrected.
Axel growled in a very pyromaniac tone of voice, judging from the way the ginger ale caught fire. Luckily, nobody noticed his little mishap and Rinoa was able to put it out with a simple Blizzard spell.
"You should learn to control your temper," she admonished, nose wrinkling as the acrid smell of evaporated ale wafted from the darkened glass.
"Whatever...but I think she's...attracted to Zexion, but it's only Arlene who's attracted to Ienzo..."
She carefully set the glass into the sink (which was already full of dirty glasses she still hadn't have the time to wash from yesterday) and shook her head sadly. "That's why she's reverting."
"What?"
"She's reverting because somehow, getting a shard of heart awakened Arlene...and Arlene has very deep connections with Ienzo...so it's natural for the both of them to revert. You do get what I'm saying, don't you?"
He shook his head. "No."
"Ienzo brings out Arlene, Arlene brings out Ienzo, they finish whatever business they have before they turned Heartless."
"So..."
She sighed. "I'm sure once that the two fall in love in each other once again, Arlene will refuse to let go. Larxene will be...I dunno, gone forever."
She watched Axel bang his head on the table multiple times. It seemed like his next favorite pastime to setting things on fire.
"But I don't want Larxene to go..."
"Ah," she tapped him lightly on the head. "That's only going to happen if you guys let her."
"I'm sure as hell not going to let that happen," he growled. "I'd better get started then--and I think the Superior would've found out his hair gel's missing now...I'm gonna warn Roxas..."
She nodded and shooed him away. "You know where to portal out, right?"
Axel grinned at her. "Never forgot. See you around, Rin. Thanks for the advice." He got up from the stool and waved a gloved hand. He picked through the tables and pushed the glass doors open, disappearing into the crowd milling in Market Square at this time of the night.
"Good luck," she murmured as she watched him go. Turning around, she eyed the stack of glasses she still had to wash. She's been quite busy lately.
"Good luck...you're going to need it."
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"You have reached the Gummi Ship Network communications division. If you know the local number, press it now. To reach the operator, press 0."
beep.
"Good morning, this is operator Fallah Ivalice, how may I be of assistance?"
"Uhm...good morning too. May I get connected to Disney Castle, please? I need to speak to King Mickey."
"The network does not accept calls for Disney Castle, miss--"
"Kairi. Are you sure, ma'am Fallah? It's going to be really, really short, I promise..."
"Kairi? Kairi Dalmasca? Princess of Radiant Garden?"
"Radiant Garden...? Well, I am a Princess of Light, but I'm not so sure of Radiant--"
"Princess of Light?"
"Seventh one."
"Oh."
"Patch me through the King...please?"
"Oh, okay, I'm...sure the King won't mind. Are you sure you're Kairi?"
"Yes, I am. I need to ask something about Sora Hikari..."
"Oh, him. Well then--"
"Wait! Have you heard anything from--"
beep.
"Miss Ivalice!"
"You have reached Disney Castle, overseer of the Worlds. To reach the Treasury, press 1. To reach the Court of Magic, press 2. To reach the Captain of the Guards, press 3. To reach His Majesty's Hall, press 4. To reach--"
beep.
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"Hello?"
"Uhm," Kairi started, twirling the telephone cord around a slim finger as she bounced nervously on her heels, leaning against the mahogany stairs of the Dalmascan home. She had called the King himself. WHOOA. The King.
She couldn't sleep; she never really believed Sora would ditch her and Riku just like that. Perhaps he left a message with the King...
"King Mickey?" she said hesitantly, berating herself. She technically was royalty herself, being a Princess of Light...but it wasn't the same--gah! Kairi! Think Royal!
"Princess Kairi?" King Mickey's voice filtered through the phone (never mind that it sounded squeakier than ever), and she gulped.
Okay. Breathe, Kai. "Uhm, I just wanted to ask if, uhm, ah, Sora left any..."
"Message?" his voice said sadly. "No, none at all...I suppose he wanted to leave without paining you with his departure."
Restraining herself from yelling into the phone 'I'M GOING TO KILL SORA' (it wasn't very Princess-like), Kairi once again, took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice even. "Did he say anything about me or Riku? Anything at all...?"
"No...I'm sorry."
Her shoulders slumped. "No, no, it's me who should be sorry for bothering you, Your Majesty...Thank you."
"Alright. Come visit us, okay?"
She nodded unconsciously, knowing full well that the King won't see her nodding anyway. "Okay, King Mickey."
"G'bye."
"B'bye..."
The King hung up, and Kairi put the phone back in its cradle, feeling so mad that she might just have to break something.
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It was a phone especially crafted for him by the technology of Radiant Garden. Sleek, metallic, and able to devour up to thirty gigabytes of information, the Royal Phone (sounds so cheesy, but he'd rather it be that way) was the way to keep in touch with the world.
For some reason, King Mickey dreaded every call that came through.
beep beep beep beep---click.
It was a number he'd memorized just recently. The Gummi Ship Network's hotline, patched through Fallah Ivalice. Mickey sometimes wondered whether the operator was a magnet for important calls that he didn't necessarily like to take, but had to. Like that one.
He never liked lying, but if he had to for the safety of his Kingdom (not to mention his own life), he most definitely will.
He hoped Sora would still have the heart to forgive him, he thought, fingering a white feather as he reclined in his Library chair. He stared, not really seeing, at the Brooms trying to clean up hundreds of similar white feathers from the floor.
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"So I take by your expression that he didn't leave anything."
Kairi whirled around; how did Riku manage to get in so fast and so quietly...?
"If you're wondering how I got in here, your father let me in," he chuckled, amused at the bewildered expression that was most likely on her face right now.
She hopped off the stairs and plopped down dejectedly beside him on the couch. "No, he didn't leave anything at all..."
"You know, you're too old to pout, Princess."
Kairi threw a pillow at him, which he caught easily and threw back. She growled good-naturedly. She seemed to have gotten over that a trifle too fast...
He forgot you, you forget him back... He left you, for crying out loud!
Huh. Voices in their heads was Sora's area of expertise, not hers. Whatever.
"Hey, want to get some ice cream?" Riku asked suddenly, grinning at her.
Don't think about him anymore...Kairi...
"Sure," she nodded enthusiastically, taking his hand and pulling him from the couch, oblivious to the red that rushed up his pale visage as she did. "Dad! I'm going out!" she yelled in the general direction of her adoptive father's study.
"Have fun, honey! Riku! Take care of my daughter!"
It was very hard not to laugh at the resulting expression on Riku's face.
"Kairi...!" he growled back at her, pulling her towards him and easily slipping a protective arm around her waist. Her eyes widened, and Riku smiled.
It's your life, KaiKai. You don't have to live in the past...
She tried her utmost not to listen, but it was far more easier to listen than to fight it...she had felt this before, but not as strong as this. It was like a lifeline of hers had snapped--the lifeline of her memories of Sora.
Grinning, she gave Riku a quick kiss on the cheek before pulling him once again down the street.
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"EIGHT AND THIRTEEN!"
Sora shifted under his white (really, since when was anything in this castle any other color than black, white, or a combination of the two?) wool blanket and pressed his pillow over his face, trying to block out all sound. Hm. That sounded a lot like Xemnas, yes, it did. he hoped he didn't suffocate from using his pillow as an amazingly large muffler.
He held his breath, expecting another explosion from Xemnas.
And didn't take another breath. He waited for that squeezing feeling of his lungs gasping for more oxygen. No--none whatsoever.
WAY COOL.
Cripes, you don't breathe, and you think it's cool? You are the most abnormal kid I have ever had the misfortune to be the darkness of.
Yawning, he tossed the pillow aside (and didn't notice it crash into an avalanche of feathers into the wall) and scratched his head (with the non-claw hand, he remembered this time, his scalp's already scarred as it is), searching for that wall clock from the morning earlier. He spotted it hanging over that tacky mirror behind his bedroom door.
8:37 AM.
I think oversleeping would be an understatement.
"Shut it, Darkie."
Muttering about how to get home and Gummi ship schedules, he ambled over to the mirror like he usually did whenever he wakes up, just in case he has dried drool on his face or something.
This, however, was much, much worse than dried drool.
"OhMyGod."
-in you and I there's a new land
angels in flight--
Right on cue, Sora hallucinated someone singing...
-what's left of me--
"OhMyGod." He spluttered again. That singing sounded a lot like Naminé...and that crash sounded a lot like Demyx's sitar getting thrown across a distant room. But enough of singing lessons and whatnot; he had something very serious right here.
-what's left of me now-
No wonder Naminé fainted. Heck.
"WHAT THE HELL ROXAS GO AWAY" Naminé's voice screamed from somewhere above him. "AND NO, I AM NOT TEACHING YOU LIFESTREAM PHYSICS! WHAT DO YOU MEAN I--"
"FINE!"
-I watch you, fast asleep--
Seriously, Naminé was much, much more bipolar than him. Of course, they're the only two Nobodies left in this Castle, so it's just fitting for them. It was bugging him that he wasn't as much affected by his appearance; he should be scared out of his wits right now.
-all I fear means NO WAY IN HELL RIGHT NOW!-
Sora chuckled to himself, leaning on the door and listening into their conversation, or shouted exchange or words, or whatever. Naminé seemed to be doing most of the screaming, anyway.
-all I fear means nothing-- GAH! JUST BECAUSE WE SPLIT YOUR SHARD--mphhf!--OKAY SHUTTING UP NOW GET YOUR--mphhf--
Silence.
He sighed. Naminé sure was a handful, he never thought she could be one...
You DO know what that means, buddyboy? You ARE the only Nobody in this frickin' Castle!
The unpleasant truth hit him. He was the only one in this Castle without a heart (or shard of heart)...His gaze fell once again on his reflection, no longer distracted by random screams of confused girls or anything.
A boy stared back at him, mahogany brown spikes on one side of his scalp, and ebony strands sticking up gracefully from the other, brushing one black eyebrow slightly, and shadowing one very sickly yellow Heartless eye. Black had been splashed generously on the left side of his face, and streaked over the bridge of his nose. Even his neck was half black, and...
"OhMyGod." He realized the whole left half of his body was Antiform. Why didn't he notice it this morning...?
Because, idiot, you were so distracted that you were on autopilot...
"Thanks, Darkie," he said aloud sarcastically, examining his now half-black complexion. He was literally half-Heartless. Vaan and Ashe would most probably kill him on sight. Heck, at this rate, Riku would kill him on sight.
This would be the time to sigh, if he had any breath to sigh with.
"I...I can never go back to the Islands..." he stammered, placing both hands on each side of the mirror for support, because right now, his knees were failing him again.
And I thought you'd never realize that.
For once Sora did not berate his Antiform; his mind was too much of a mess right now to think clearly. He'd never be able to tell his best friends that he was all right; he'd be able to come home, he'd never talk to Kairi once again...He'd never be able to tell her he's sorry.
"Damn it," he whispered weakly at himself, gritting his teeth. King Mickey had really ruined his life.
Oh God, his life was crumbling around him.
Uh! Uh! You DON'T have a life! You're dead, remember?
He. Was. Dead.
He'd never be friends with Kairi again--and she could never love a half-Heartless, simply because she's a Princess of Heart.
His existence was screwed. He looked at himself once again, dull sky-blue eye and shiny all-yellow Heartless eye staring back at him curiously. Sora ran a nail across his left cheek and forced himself to think positive. "Hey...at least I'll never have problems with pimples on that side of my face ever again."
Cripes, that sucked.
He bellowed as loud as he could as he smashed his clenched fist into the glass, showering him with its shards, cutting him everywhere.
Shards reminded him of his own now-scattered shards of heart... his reflection stared at him mockingly from every single glass shard.
Sora dropped to his knees, not caring if the pieces of glass dug into his skin, because it didn't hurt. Nothing hurt at all, just a whole lot of blood and icy numbness. He supposed it was the only thing Heartless felt...
He was a Heartless and a Nobody--no wonder.
He wanted--he struggled to cry, and tears answered him, running down him cheeks and onto his lips. He tasted the familiar saltiness of tears...and the coppery taste of blood. He felt his eyes widen.
Heartless cry blood, if you wanna know, buddyboy. But then again, have you ever seen a Heartless cry? Heck no!
"Wielder, it'd hurt a lot less if you got your knees off the glass."
He looked up into the face of a concerned Axel, who recoiled visibly as he looked up, probably from the sight of his weeping blood. Number Eight recovered quickly, however; it seemed that he was used to seeing things like that. He extended a gloved hand to help him up. "Come on..."
It was at this precise moment that Sora saw himself reflected in his teal-colored eyes, and realized he still looked a lot like Roxas. Axel was Roxas' best friend...and now that Roxas had Naminé, Axel wanted a...replacement.
Such was the thoughts of a paranoid boy. But he's half-Heartless and Nobody; Heartless hate anything and everything, Nobodies instinctively search for ulterior motives.
And Sora saw himself as Roxas.
"...Aren't you hurt, or something?" Axel pressed on, wiggling his fingers. "You look just like you did yesterday. With those shards (his nose wrinkled)... you should be in serious pain..."
"I'm not hurt, Axel," he snapped, slapping away his outstretched hand.
The pyro cocked his head unbelievingly. "Don't be stupid; you're bleeding all over."
"I can't feel pain!" Sora exploded, scrabbling angrily at the glass and holding up his bleeding palms to prove it. "See!" He picked up the largest shard he could find and drove it through his palm. He never thought he'd be desparate to feel pain, but there he was. He held up his right palm, blood streaming down, shard driven cleanly through.
As expected, all he felt was a ripping feeling...none. No pain. Axel gasped in horror.
"Whatever, I have to get you cleaned up!" he said hastily, pulling Sora to his feet forcefully.
Sora growled as he slapped his hand away once again.
"What is the matter with you?" Eight asked, obviously bewildered.
He's just faking it. He thinks you're Roxas. Ha haha...
"Why the hell are you here, anyway?" he snapped, staring at Axel with something akin to pure hatred. That was something, he discovered, that he could feel, since he was only half-Nobody after all.
"I heard you scream." He said simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Roxas screamed exactly like you did when he first woke up in his room."
I TOLD you he thinks you're Roxas!
"So why do you care?"
"Uh, because you gave me a heart? And because I want to help you cope with being a Nobody?"
Sora bitterly plucked the bloody shard from his even bloodier palm, wishing he could at least feel some pain. "I don't need your help. I'm not even a whole Nobody; for your information I can still feel--"
"...hatred? Anger? That's what Roxas told me," he said calmly, crossing his arms and stepping across the glass nearer to Sora.
"I don't need your help," he repeated. "For that matter, I don't need anyone's help; I don't want anyone fussing over me when they've got problems of their own."
"I want to help you, Sora," Axel said firmly.
"No."
"Let me help, just this once...you won't survive if you walk this Nobody path alone."
"No." Sora shook his head and gritted his teeth. He was sure being stubborn. But Sora was the champion of stubborness; that he knew for a fact.
"Roxas was like that, you know," he smiled. "But I eventually broke down his walls, and look at him--"
Sora had had enough. He didn't like being compared to someone. He honestly never did, and now that he's the Nobody...so this is how Roxas felt like. Someone replaced him. Axel saw him as Roxas. He was Sora, not Roxas! NO!
"Stop it! I'm not him! Leave me alone!" he roared, blood flying everywhere as he swept a hand across the room. "Leave me BE!"
"You should know by now that that's not going to work on me, Sora." He said in an even calmer voice, which infuriated Sora even more, if possible.
Kill him! Antiform screeched, his voice blocking out every coherent thought Sora had.
"Axel, are you there--SORA! DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!"
There was something oddly familiar in the voice--Sora snapped his eyes open and followed the sound to a pale Roxas, Oblivion and Oathkeeper clutched tightly in each hand.
"Ro...xas?"
He winced as his gaze landed on his arm; it seemed like he had striked at Axel, and the pyro had defended with one hell of a Firaga. No matter--his skin was as black as charred already. He didn't wince from pain, he winced because his arm simply looked gross. Gross and burnt.
"Roxas. Don't just stand there with your mouth open--do you have a Potion on you?" Axel asked matter-of-factly, as if things like these happened all the time. And knowing the violent tendencies of Organization XIII--it probably did.
The blonde shook his head vehemently as he tore his gaze from Sora, and sprinted over the glass to face him. "Curaga."
Sora watched impassively as the wounds started to knit together...and stopped there.
"Wha..?" the two Nobodies' asked simultaneously, jaws dropping open.
His mouth curved downward into a frown as he started shaking his arm rapidly; the spell had actually stopped working. Maybe Healing had no effect on Heartless. Or maybe Roxas just sucked at Healing. The first option seemed more possible; Sora remembered that Roxas scored an A in his first Healing Arts field exam.
"Uh. Could you please stop staring at me?" he asked loudly.
"Man...doesn't that hurt like hell?" Roxas stared at Sora like he'd never seen him before.
Sora shook his head. "Actually, no pain at all."
Roxas looked kind of...woozy.
Axel's eyebrows furrowed in concern. "Whatever. We have to get you cleaned up."
Sora cringed. "Anyone but Vexen...please?"
The pyro grinned in a very evil way that Sora had no trouble reading as I'm-sorry-but-we-have-no-choice. "Sorry." He grabbed Sora's arm and led him across the glass, making a very loud cruching noise. Axel looked like he was sincerely trying to help Sora, and the brunette really appreciated it.
Against his will, Sora grinned at the surrealness of it all, wondering where his Antiform and his hatred went.
"Axel...Superior found us out again..." Roxas said loudly and dejectedly, trailing behind them. "We're gonna get it when I get back from school tomorrow...I think I'll find a way to land myself in detention or something..."
A/N: I swear, this thing has a plot. Really! It just went off somewhere I don't know...
What the heck is happening to Kairi? Why do Axel and Roxas always steal Xemnas' hair gel? When will Rinoa realize that VIOLENCE is the answer to her exile?
As for the one who was speaking to the King, you SHOULD have already gotten it by now.
Thanks for the reviews, guys!
FlowerLady-Aerith(as far as I'm concerned Kairi's a girl, yes?), darkdude71 (Sora's dense...haha who in his right mind would sacrifice everything just like that...and you'll find out who soon enough), hikari-aozora (never thought of cookie rehab that way...), Wing staff-4 (Homey? Oooh), DJ Damage (way cool...Kairi stabbing Mickey...that's something you don't see everyday). Sakura Scout (my munny...NOW. Haha), Neon-Dusk (Thanks a lot for reviewing XD), Phoenix80Hp (there's tons more angst coming), TgIiDgUiS (you'll have to read it till the end to know for sure about the ending), Skitty 2004 (may, or may not be Maleficent, as for Rinoa...well, you know who it is), DREAMER1389 (Yeah...but Sora's in for a lot of trouble), mOOnlite-dUSk (all will become clear--as soon as I get off my lazy butt and start writing again), twilighttries (Here you are! Update!), fallingstar( haha thanks), Ellie0223 (strange? It's okay...)
Thank y'all!
This is a bit...shorter than my usual chapters...I don't know what got into me... Anyways, review, okay? Flamers go ahead.
Next chapter quote:
"Sora's dead--Stop asking for him."
Aheheheh this one could be pretty confusing... keep on guessing, you guys! Ja ne!