Title:Kokoro no Sakkaku: The Illusions of the Heart
Chapter:Of Islands and Initiations
Pairings: SoKai, Riku? Zemyx
Note: Things start to pick up a little on Sora's end as I introduce some action into the mix. The storyline also begins to rear its big head!
If there was one thing that Sora had missed during his travels it was his room. It was his sanctuary in which he could do whatever he wanted (within reason). The day he had returned the moment he had stepped into the room it was as if nothing had changed. It was just as messy as ever, his bed still looking freshly slept in, and that stray pair of pants that he had left lying around still sitting on the floor. That day he had looked to his mother, who was standing at the door, and asked her a silent question 'Why has nothing been touched?' She only stared at Sora from where she was leaning in the doorway with tears in her eyes.
From his mother's perspective the view was enlightening. Her son had finally returned to her; however he had changed fundamentally during his two year absence. Sora stood out in his room like a beacon of light cutting through the night's sky. Sora's mother had kept his bedroom the same in hopes of preserving the memory of the son she had almost lost. Now that he was back, she could almost see his younger self superimposed over the top of the now 16 year old Sora. The image made her want to cry, for the years that she missed and for the fact that she now had the opportunity to see him for one last time.
In the present, Sora was lying down on his bed with his feet dangling off of the edge, a testament to the inches he had gained during his sleep. However, despite Sora's relaxed appearance he could not sleep. Every time he tried to go to sleep he automatically thought of how nice it felt to have Kairi hugging him and how he wished that Kairi would only hug him. The thought of this embarrassed him, causing him to blush. He was glad that Donald wasn't here. He probably would have started to tease him.
Just as Sora started to think about turning onto his side, in hopes of getting to sleep, he heard an explosion that rocked him to the core. Shooting bolt upright he looked out of his window looking towards the docks and the play island, and noticed that Riku's boat was not docked at the harbor. However, that was not the first thing he saw, for stretching into the nights sky was an enormous fireball, the likes of which Sora did not expect to see on Destiny Island. Squinting he could see the faint flashes of battle, through the smoke and dust leftover from the blast.
Sora wasted no time in running out of his room and out of the house, saying nary a word to his mother.
Sora's mother watched him run out of the door and smiled into the teacup that she was holding to her lips. It was exactly like a certain night two years ago, when the world as she knew it ended. Then, just like today, he had rushed off to help his friends. The only difference between now and then was the fact that her Sora wasn't a bumbling teenager, and had somehow become a striking young hero.
With a sigh she put down her teacup and made a wish that her Sora would come home again soon.
*
When Sora arrived at the play island he was shocked to find an eerily familiar scene. All over the docks, the entire island was covered in heartless. Only, instead of the relatively weak shadow heartless of two years ago, the island was swarming by its tougher cousin, the neoshadow.
Looking around he realized that in order to get to Riku, he would have to defeat all of these creature and make his way to the mini-island where he could see Riku desperately fighting the shadows swarming the island.
With a frown Sora began to concentrate solely on eliminating the heartless. With that, Sora's keyblade began to swing through the sky, his light eliminating the shadows.
*
Riku had come to the play island at sunset to think things through. He had had a lot to think through at that time, and wanted to ponder once more the subject of the nobody. For one thing, the nobodies had the inability to truly feel emotions, that much was true. However, they remembered what emotions were. After thinking on the subject, Riku concluded that this fact simply made the nobodies limited as a being, and having no ability to feel emotions sucked.
At that thought Riku sat up and withdrew Demyx's diary from his pocket. He has asked if he could take it home with him, so he could read it. Personally, Riku liked to think of it as research into his enemy, if not Demyx than the nobodies. They may not exist anymore, not that they ever did Riku thought, but research like this was something that he brain craved. Although, Riku admitted, he did feel a little guilty reading more of the diary without telling Sora and Kairi. He hoped that they wouldn't mind.
I'm at Agrabah at the moment. Demyx wrote. My job is to monitor the Princess of Heart, Jasmine I think her name is, and report back to Xemnas her daily movements… it's really boring work. I mean all she does is mope around her room, eat, and visit her little boy toy Aladdin. Okay, she also spends time in her menagerie, but I'm not game enough to go in there. She has a pet tiger for crying out loud! If I go in there, I'm going to be eaten. So, I avoid that.
Speaking of avoiding people I've been kinda avoiding Zexion. He's makes me feel like I have a heart. I can feel it thump for a split second before it dies away again. Every time it happens its like the worst form of torture. For that moment my music has a beat again, before it is painfully taken away. I'm given a sliver of hope before it is taken away from me. Apparently that's just like Zexion though. Axel, number VIII, was telling me about him (after I asked) and he said that he's cold and calculating. Apparently he doesn't like getting his hands dirty and so he creates these schemes in order to get what he wants. Apparently they often involve playing at people's weak points.
With a start Riku remembered his and Zexion's encounter in Castle Oblivion. Back then Zexion played off of his friendship with Sora. That experience was one of the worst ones for him. No matter what happened, Riku had never been able to wipe away the memory of pure anger that the illusion projected to him. He realised that at least in this respect, Demyx was true. Clenching a fist, Riku continued to read.
I wonder what Zexion would make me see if he were to battle me? Apparently he's the kind of person who would play off of a person's weak points. I personally don't see how someone could do something like that. I hate fighting, and I've always seen that kind of battle tactic to be the worst kind of fighting. My brain is screaming at me that Zexion is a bad person (or nobody as the case may seem). So why do I react this way whenever I see him?
That's why I've been avoiding him. I don't want to think about this kind of thing for the meantime. But still, at every meeting, I can't help but wonder whether, perched upon that chair of his, that he's noticed who I am.
In the meantime I suppose, I've got to just keep working. I don't like the idea of monitoring the Princess. We aren't even going to kidnap her. The only thing Xemnas seems to care about right now is creating heartless. And I know enough about the Princess of Heart to know that they don't create heartless, their hearts are too pure for that. Maybe this is just a mission to get me out of the way. I mean, this is only my first mission. Nobody seems to like me in the Organisation.
Anyway, I found out something interesting while I was exploring the castle. You know how you walk around places and accidentally on purpose hear conversations. Well, that happened to me today. Only, it was just outside the Superior's office. Xemnas and Saïx were sitting in the room talking as usual about stuff. Then they mentioned something about a backup plan that I found really interesting.
What I remember is this (I'll write in Script form to make it easier)
Xemnas: So do you have all of the details for the backup plan?
Pause
Saïx: Yes superior, everything is going smoothly. Vexen is creating the replicas as we speak.
And that's when I decided that I had to keep moving or else I'd get turned into a dusk. But it's good to know that the Organisation I've joined has a backup plan. I mean, what kind of self respecting Organisation dedicated to gaining hearts would run around without a backup plan? Not a very good one that's for sure.
Riku's head jolted upright at those words. It hadn't crossed the minds of anyone that Organisation XIII would have a backup plan. Riku had always just assumed that the nobodies had focussed purely on the one goal. He hadn't heard anything about a backup plan when he had infiltrated them that one time.
Leaning backwards, Riku dismissed the thought from his mind. What good would a backup plan do if any of the nobodies didn't exist anymore?
He had been sitting on the branch of the paopu tree watching the sunset when it happened. He had been looking around the island, once again savouring the fact that he was finally home when out of the corner of his eyes he saw a shadow move.
Instincts born out of years of fighting the heartless, creatures known to swim in the shadows, caused him to instantly come to attention. A heartbeat later the Way to Dawn glittered into existence, held at the ready. He waited in his position, still seated on the paopu tree with his keyblade held out, frozen as he waited to see whether the shadow really was a heartless or merely a hallucination brought on by his rehabilitation into the world of civilians.
When the shadow failed to do anything other than sit there Riku sighed and banished away his keyblade. He rubbed his forehead with his knuckles,
"I'm going to have to get used to this." He muttered. He cursed the years that he spent away from Destiny Islands. The years of near constant battle had caused the teenager to become battle-hardened and even more cynical than before.
The heartless struck whilst his eyes were shut. Riku heard it rushing through the air with his ears trained extensively through months of fighting blindfolded.
He didn't bother opening his eyes before he attacked, he didn't need to. In a split second he had summoned his keyblade once more and had sliced the heartless in a fatal strike across the belly. Opening his eyes he watched as the remnant heart soared into the air before disappearing. Riku leapt down from the paopu tree and settled into his battle position, and readied himself for the battle he knew was coming.
He just hoped that Kairi stayed away from the play island. Keyblade bearer or no, he wouldn't be able to stand it if his princess came into the line of fire. But even if she did he would protect her, he had sworn an oath after all.
Slowly but surely the heartless began to swarm Riku, drawn by the power of the keyblade he wielded. As the minutes turned to hours Riku could sense no end to the fighting. As he felt himself wearing thin through the constant melee he began to use magical techniques.
After that Riku began to sense that the battle was starting to turn to his favour. The volume of heartless swarming around him began to lessen, a fact he was thankful for because Riku was starting to tire. Riku slashed at one of the neoshadows that swarmed him, killing it instantly. It was after this that the rest of the heartless scampered away into the shadows. Riku remained weary. This could not be a good sign.
Slowly, the shadows began to mass together bringing all of the shadows together, massing together until the island was shrouded in a cloak of darkness protected even from the moonlight. Riku spun around, looking for a shred of light in the darkness that surrounded him but found none. Riku set his teeth and settled into a defensive position, shutting his eyes. It would appear that he would have to fight blind.
He heard a whisper from the wind, and Riku's head tilted seeking out the source of the noise. Sensing its direction, he spun to face his opponent and opened his eyes. He was faced with only darkness.
That's when he heard it.
"Give in to the darkness," a deep and very familiar baritone said. The voice was so close that Riku could hear it speaking into his right ear. The problem was that he could also hear the faint sounds of movement a good distance to his left. Looking in that direction he could see the shrouded form of Xehanort's heartless lurking in the shadows.
"That can't be right." Riku muttered to himself. Xehanort's heartless was a being trapped inside of him, destroyed in the corporeal world with Riku's transformation into his true form.
That's when it occurred to him that his opponent was using illusions against him, just like Zexion did.
However, at that moment he heard the whispers of an explosive force powerful enough to break through his opponent's illusion. Shutting his eyes, this time in resignation, he hoped that Kairi or Sora was in the vicinity of the blast range.
Suddenly the idea of Organisation XIII having an active backup plan didn't seem like such a farfetched idea after all.
*
When Sora had finally defeated all of the heartless around him he looked over at Riku. Riku was standing in his defensive position his head tilted to the side, listening desperately for any sign of his enemy. What had Sora confused though was that his enemy was standing right in front of him, a human sized shadow illuminated by the moonlight.
__
I made a guesstimate on the length of time of Sora's journey. He was asleep for a year, and I guessed that all of that travelling realistically would have taken a few months to complete. So I rounded it all to two years roughly, meaning that Sora had his birthday sometime during KHII. It's probably not canon but it's what I'm using for this story. Feel free to correct me though, that's what is for!