Keys of Destiny
Chapter 3: Friends
Before leaving the haunted mansion, Roxas suggested they should look at Ansem's computer, to see if they could find a way to transfer him back to Sora. Sora was against the idea. He didn't want to meddle with something he didn't know well, in case he broke anything by accident. They agreed that Cid of Radiant Garden would be the best person to ask about computer-related things. In fact, there was a more important reason that Sora didn't tell Roxas. He needed Roxas' help to get to Disney Castle. He didn't feel like he could make it alone. It was different to the time when he travelled alone in the Castle of Oblivion. Back then, Sora knew there were friends who would aid him in the form of cards. Now, he was totally left to himself. Although Sora wasn't entirely sure if being with his own Nobody could actually count as having "someone else" with him.
Once they left the haunted mansion, they swiftly moved through the woods. They were careful though to stay alert for any Heartless and Neo Nobody that might happen to be nearby. Luckily, they didn't encounter any. Soon they reached the big hole on the town's boundary wall. When Sora was about to go through, he realised Roxas wasn't following.
Puzzled, Sora asked him what was wrong. Roxas answered it was nothing and went through the hole. Sora was sure he heard a hint of hesitation in his voice. Lowering himself, he passed through to the other side into the town.
They were greeted by an unexpected amount of noise on Market Street. The town looked rather peaceful besides that, with nothing out of place. The mini tram that went around the Market Street was operating as usual. The part time job recruitment posters were up at where they were always found. The free-to-use skateboard lied on the side of the path. The noises seemed to be coming from the Sandlot's direction. They heard some yelling and crying. There was a loud voice that stood out from all other noises.
Sora was curious. "I wonder what that racket is about," he stood on his toes to see if he could see through the obstacles. He couldn't see anything unusual.
Roxas searched in his memories for the owner of that voice. It was somewhat familiar to him. "I've heard of that voice somewhere before," he muttered.
"Seifer!" Sora and Roxas said on the exact same beat.
"That Seifer, he's probably bullying other kids again," scowled Roxas, slamming his right fist into his left palm.
"Hmm…I'm not sure about that," said Sora, a little surprised by Roxas' reaction. They wasted no time to run over to see what was going on.
The scene came into their view. They weren't too far off their guess. On the side of Sandlot near the Struggle Battle result board, stood Seifer, Rai and Fuu. Instead of Vivi, whom Roxas thought was again the victim of Seifer's habitual bullying, those three encircled a small white moogle. The moogle was crying, covering its eyes with its little hands.
The gang of three were yet to notice Sora and Roxas. "What? Can you be a bit louder? I can't hear you," Seifer asked loudly. Rai and Fuu stood on each side of him, trapping the frightened moogle in the middle. The moogle just kept on crying regardless what they ask.
Feeling sorry for the moogle, Roxas marched up to the three. Seifer, Rai and Fuu spread out a little when they saw him. "Leave the little guy alone, Seifer," he snapped. The little moogle was overjoyed to see Roxas. It trotted away from the three and hid behind Roxas' feet, only showing its head to peek at Seifer.
"Well, well. Looks like I'm more famous than I know," Seifer smirked, shifting his attention away from the moogle onto Roxas. "What do we have here? Spiky-head?" he started to laugh mockingly. Rai and Fuu joined in as though they were trained to.
"What are you up to again, Seifer?" demanded Sora.
Seifer recognised Sora, "Oh it's you. I suppose he's your friend?" he said, indicating to Roxas. "We were only trying to help the moogle. It looks like it's lost or something," he shrugged.
Rai crossed his arms. "Yeah that's right, what did ya think we were doin'?"
"Help," Fuu spoke in her usual mono-vocabulary manner.
"Making people cry isn't exactly helping," Roxas glared at Seifer, showing no intention of backing down.
Seeing the situation wasn't getting any better, Sora decided he better do something so they wouldn't be stuck here for hours. "Chill out Roxas, I think Seifer was really trying to help," Sora whispered to the blonde hair teenager.
Seifer looked at Sora and Roxas and snorted. "I have better things to do than hanging around you two. You can help the moogle. You better give it a bottle soon or it'll cry again." Laughing their heads off, Seifer, Rai and Fuu left.
When their laughter eventually died out, Roxas turned to the moogle that hide behind him. "Hello. What's your name?" He crouched down so he could be closer to it.
The small moogle wiped away some of the tears that remained on its face. It appeared to be a child in moogle standard, only about two-thirds the size of the moogles at moogle shops. "My name is Moogly, kupo," it sniffed, looking up to Roxas.
"Why were you crying?" Sora asked.
"Were they bullying you? Seifer and the other two," Roxas asked.
"My world was attacked by a lot of new type of Nobody. Every single moogle there had to escape to different another world to seek refugee. I think we were supposed to all go to the same place. But somehow I lost my crowd and end up here. I have lost my older brother Mog, my only family, kupo," Moogly explained. Sora and Roxas nodded sympathetically as they listened. Moogly continued. "When I was asking for directions from the two boys and a girl who was here before, they said they couldn't hear me. They spoke in a very loud voice. I was scared so I cried, kupo."
Sora and Roxas exchanged worried glances. The situation with the Neo Nobody was worse than they thought. "Have you looked around Twilight Town for your brother?" Sora asked. Moogly nodded its little head, looking down at its feet.
"You looked everywhere?" Roxas asked. Moogly nodded again.
"Hey, why don't you come with us?" Sora suggested, giving Moogly a warm smile. "We are travelling to other worlds to find people as well. From what we know, a lot of refugees go to Radiant Garden. May be you'll find Mog there."
"Good idea," Roxas agreed. "What do you think, Moogly?"
Moogly looked at Roxas and turned its head to look at Sora. Finally, he returned a small smile. "Yes, I will be very grateful if you let me go with you, kupo."
With that settled, Sora and Roxas hurried their way to Central Station with Moogly trotting behind. They had already spent too much valuable time in Twilight Town. They needed to catch up the time they lost. Roxas offered his shoulder for Moogly to hang on so it didn't need to run like its life depended on it. But Moogly insisted it could catch up to them.
When they arrived at the ticket booth, Sora dug into his pocket for munny. Running past him, Roxas reminded Sora they didn't need tickets to get on the train leaving for the Tower. Feeling silly, Sora's found something that was not munny in his pocket. It felt paper-like. He pulled it out. It was a photo – a photo of Hayner, Pence, Olette and Roxas that he received from Riku. It wasn't like Sora never washed his clothes. Sora always kept the photo close to him. When Riku and Kairi asked him why, he didn't understand either. But his heart told him it was something very important.
Walking up to his two companions, Sora gave Roxas the photo. "It is yours, isn't it," he said.
Roxas took the photo. His mouth opened a little when he saw properly what it was.
"Don't you want to see them?" Sora asked, referring to Hayner, Pence and Olette. From the moment he stepped foot on Twilight Town, he wanted to leave for the Tower to find Yen Sid more than anything else. But Sora believed Roxas wanted to see his friends. Roxas, who might disappear who-knows-when, might not have another chance.
"They don't even know me, Sora," Roxas said quietly. "I wasn't their friend. It was their virtual self whom I met."
"That's not true," Sora protested. "When I first met them, they said to me that they felt like they knew me. When Donald, Goofy and I were leaving for the Tower for sorcerer Yensid, Hayner, Pence and Olette bid us farewell right here at the station. At that time, I cried for no reason. No, it wasn't me who cried. It was you, wasn't it, Roxas."
Roxas's didn't look up from the photo. He said nothing.
Speaking of the devils, they saw Hayner and Olette came running towards them. Roxas quickly shoved the photo in his pocket.
"Hey Sora!" Hayner greeted the brown hair teenager while huffing and puffing at the same time. "Why didn't you tell us you're here?"
Panting and recovering from the run, Olette said. "Seifer told us you are in Twilight town." Her dark brown hair was a little messy.
"Sorry, I'm in a hurry again," Sora apologised.
"Oh, this is…?" Having noticed Roxas' presence, Olette asked.
Sora shot Roxas a nervous glance. "I almost forgot to introduce. This is my friend, Roxas," Sora said. Hayner and Olette each said hello to Roxas, who looked like he had an ant crawling up his back.
Feeling as uneasy as Roxas, Sora changed the topic. "Where is Pence?" he looked around for any signs of the bandana teen.
"You'll know in a minute," Olette winked. "Look, here he comes."
Pence came running up to them, carrying several Sea Salt iceblocks in his arms. "Quickly, before they melt!" the chubby teenager gave Sora, Olette, Hayner and himself each a blue iceblock. There was one left.
"You bought one too many," Hayner said.
"Oops," Pence scratched his head. "I was sure I got the right number of people."
"It's just right. Roxas can have one," Olette said, taking the last unopened iceblock from Pence and offered it to Roxas.
Roxas was taken back, but only for a split second. "Thank you," he took the Sea Salt iceblock. He looked down to Moogly. "Do you want to share it with me?" he asked the moogle. Moogly thanked him but refused the offer. It told him it couldn't eat salty food. Removing the paper wrapper, Roxas took a bite of the iceblock. It tasted as salty as seawater at first, and then slowly changed to a sweet flavour.
"How is it?" asked a smiling Olette.
Roxas returned a smile, "It's nice."
When they finished the iceblocks, Sora apologised once more, saying they really need to be on their way. Hayner, Pence and Olette showed concern when he explained to them Riku and Kairi might be in danger. Sora, Roxas and Moogly stepped into the magical purple train with only one carriage.
"Bye, " Hayner said to them. "Come back here with Riku and Kairi next time."
"Please come again soon, Sora," Pence said, waving to the three of them. "Please come along too, Roxas."
"We will," Sora waved back to them, just before the train door shut.
They were the only passengers on the train. They travelled for some time in silence. Roxas took out the photo in his pocket and stared at it. Moogly fell asleep on the soft and comfortable passenger seat. Sora couldn't help but think about Goofy and Donald. He missed them terribly. He wondered if they were safe. Wanting to distract himself, Sora looked out the train's window. The train wasn't running on railroad anymore. It was running in mid-air. The world was pitch dark outside when they first got on. Now a pinkish glow was emerging from the darkness. It would be daybreak soon. Sora glanced over to Roxas, who was still staring at the picture. He didn't seem to have moved an inch in the last hour. It made Sora felt guilty to think about his friends. He had his friends in the heart and his friends had him in the heart. They were always there with him. Roxas, in comparison, didn't have a place in his friends' hearts.
"Roxas," Sora sat beside the blonde hair teenager.
Roxas turned his head to face him. "Yeah?"
"You know I defeated the twelve members of Organisation XIII. Were there…were there any of your friends amongst them?" Sora asked.
Roxas stared out the window on the opposite side of the carriage. "There weren't anyone in the organisation who I'll call friends," he paused. "May be except one person."
"Axel?" Sora asked, remembering the last moments of the master of fire amongst Nobody.
"I didn't realise that until the end. That idiot, he knew he'd die if he used that technique," Roxas smiled sadly.
"He must've known that helping me was the same as helping you," Sora said earnestly. "He really wanted to meet you."
"I know. I heard him through you," Roxas said. They didn't speak again until they reached the Tower.
Once landed in the garden, they were greeted by a number of Heartless and Neo Nobody. Scrooping up Moogly with an arm, Roxas placed into the hood of Sora's jacket. Sora didn't have a chance to complain when he saw the number of enemies that had them surrounded. He brought forth Ultima weapon whereas Oathkeeper and Oblivion chose to be wield by Roxas. They were quick to eliminate all the Neo Nobody first before they could open their mouths to let out the lethal screech. They were lucky because there were much fewer of them than the Heartless. Moogly hang firmly onto Sora's jacket, its eyes squeezed tight.
The door of the Tower opened the moment Roxas finished off the last Heartless. It was sorcerer Yen Sid who stepped out from inside.
"Yen Sid!" Sora ran up to the sorcerer, glad that they didn't need to run up ten floors to see him.
"Sorcerer Yen Sid it is," Yensid corrected him, his face stern as usual.
Sora stuck his tongue out and made a face. "How did you know we're here?"
"I know things through all sorts of ways, Sora. I know why you are here too," Yensid answered. "Unfortunately, I don't know where Riku and Kairi are; nor do I know why there are these new Nobody around." Sora and Roxas looked disappointed. "However," Yen Sid continued. "I can tell you that this new enemy is related to Xemnas."
"He's alive?" Roxas asked, looking anxious.
"No. Sora rid of the world of him a month ago, but not his creations. I'm afraid I don't know much more than that," Yen Sid explained. "Putting that aside, if I'm not wrong; I believe you three need a gummi ship."
"You don't happen to have one, do you Yen- I mean, Sorcerer Yen Sid," Sora winced.
"It happens I do have one. How else do you think I do my shopping?" Yensid smiled and pointed to the direction behind Sora, Roxas and Moogly. The sorcerer waved his hand in a magical manner. Then, an odd-looking gummi ship in the shape of a magician's hat came floating up from the edge of the island until it was just the right height to climb in. It was considerably smaller than the gummi ship Donald and Goofy had. "Unfortunately, it only has enough fuel to go as far as Radiant Garden."
Delighted, Sora thanked the sorcerer. "That'd be fine. We can refuel there." Then a frown spread across his face, replacing his happy face. "But I don't know how to pilot a gummi ship. Do you, Roxas?" Roxas shook his head.
"I do," said Moogly, still sitting inside Sora's hood. "Moogly is good at piloting, kupo." Sora and Roxas couldn't be more glad that they brought the little moogle along.
The three scrambled into the small gummi ship. The ship was originally made for one person. So Sora and Roxas had to squeeze into the luggage space behind the pilot seat. When Sora asked Yen Sid to go with them, the sorcerer refused. He explained he wanted to remain in the Tower so anyone in need could always find him there. Reluctantly, Sora, Roxas and Moogly left for Radiant Garden.
Author's rambling: Thank you so much for those who took time to write reviews. They are very much appreciated. Any comments are welcome, whether they are thoughts about the chapters, thoughts about the characters or constructive criticism. It doesn't matter how long or short the comment is.
I do apologise for any confusion of names (characters, weapons, places) that arised in the story. Please yell out if I get any wrong. I have to admit I only played the Japanese version of KH2. When I decided to write this, I had to go to sites to search for names in English. Not that the Japanese names were very different, just to check for correct spelling.