New chapter, thanks everybody, no long intro. Enjoy.
Kingdom Hearts: ReBirth
Sora woke up with a crushing pain in his head and bandages and gauze wrapped over most of his body. He was groggy and disoriented as he looked around the room. It was white and blank. Out the window was a beautiful view of the island sunset. Between the curtains and out the open door he saw his welcoming party. Sirian was talking in a quiet voice to Kairi, who was laughing and blushing a little too much for Sora's comfort. Riku was in the chair next to Sora's bed, reading a book of assorted manga stories. He had just noticed that Sora was awake. He dog-eared his page and set the book down.
"Hey, sleepy head," Riku said, stretching, "You've been out for almost a month. We were worried." Riku's face showed concern, but he covered it well with a more blasé expression.
"A month?!" Sora sat up quickly, and his right side exploded in pain. Riku pushed him back down, ordering him to relax. "How could I have been out for a whole month?!" Sora continued, unabated. "And why is he here??"
"He was concerned," said Riku, still trying to calm his friend. "He's nice when you get to know him."
"Nice?!" said Sora, his loud voice competing with another burst of laughter from Kairi in the hallway. "Look what he did to me!"
"That wasn't his fault." Riku said, drawing the privacy curtain.
"Then whose is it? And what's with him and Kairi?? Are they dating or something???"
"No, no," Riku said softly, "they're just good friends. Like I said, he's a good guy. Now if you'll relax, I'll tell you what happened."
"It was right after Sirian had beaten you silly." Riku started. Sora tried to interrupt, but Riku stopped him. "Wakka and I carried you back to the beach by the pier, and Kairi fetched a rag and some cool water from the spring for you. Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie left you to us, which was lucky because nobody expected what came next and they could've gotten hurt. Anyway, they took off, and Kairi and I were keeping an eye on you. Sirian was off doing who knows what…when all the sudden you stood up and turned on me and Kairi and drew your Keyblade." Sora tried to interrupt, but couldn't decide what to say, so his mouth tried to say eight or nine different words at once. He wasn't making sense, so Riku quieted him and continued on.
"You drew your Keyblade, and it was glowing red, just like Xemnas' Aerial Blades. I tried to parry you and steer you away from Kairi, but you were stronger and faster than I'd ever seen you before. Your feet didn't even touch the ground." Riku paused and Sora stared blankly ahead. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Riku kept going.
"Well, after a few minutes, Sirian came tearin' out of the trees and stopped you just as the King showed up in his 'Gummi Comet;' a ship of his made for high speeds and high-impact landings." Riku added, seeing Sora's puzzled expression.
"The King basically told us that Xemnas has bonded his soul to yours in a desperate attempt to stay alive, and when your body reached its limit in your fight with Sirian, he took over. The King did this weird spell to out Xemnas and then Sirian defeated him. Sirian thanked the King, claimed fault for everything bad that happened because of him fighting you, and he left the island, saying he'd rather exile himself than cause more pain. It took Kairi a full week to find him." Riku added as an afterthought.
"Anyway, you were out cold again and the King explained to Kairi and I how the Keepers were awakening, one by one, and soon they would launch an attack to destroy us so that they could claim the Keyblades. We decided it's our best bet to launch the first attack, since they'll be useless without their leader, he even said he found the guy's name. It was a name he found in an old book of Keeper prophecies. He was the leader of the rouge Keepers that overthrew their order and were locked away in Kingdom Hearts. He said he'd contact us when the time was right and to stay vigilant until then. Then he left." Riku waited calmly for Sora to grasp all he had said.
Sirian and Kairi walked in and pulled the shade, putting Sora's time for quiet contemplation to a close.
After an awkward conversation about Sora's fight with Sirian and several dozen bids for forgiveness on the part of the latter, the group checked Sora out of the hospital and they began to walk back to the residential district. As they past the beach, Sora lost his patience.
"For the thousandth time, it's okay!" He yelled at Sirian. "I started the fight anyway. Thank you for protecting Riku and Kairi-I don't blame you for beating me up."
"Well, at least let me heal your injuries…" Sirian said. Sora and Riku looked stunned at what he said.
"Heal?.." Sora started.
"Yeah," Sirian said, coming closer and dropping his voice, "you guys know your Keyblades are a result of your hearts' power, right?" They all nodded.
"Well," he said, lifting his cane, "the soul has power, too." He turned toward the open sea. He spun the cane with one hand on the curved handle, the length of the walking stick making faster and faster circles. As it spun, he recited an elaborate incantation:
"Gaia, goddess of stone and hearth, steward of all worlds, make stone as clay and let clay beget stone; master of all power, rock the foundation of this world to the core-spell of elemental power…" he paused and the cane stopped spinning as he recited the last word.
"EARTH!"
His cane came crashing into the ground as a wall of rock sprang from the ocean, a powerful spire of stone sticking thirty feet out of the water.
"Alright, here we go!" Sirian held the curve of his cane with the end rested on his shoulder and two fingers held up like the sights of a rifle. He recited another incantation.
"Ares, fire-borne warrior of chaos, lord of all that burns, smite the world with unending holocaust-spell of elemental power…" The cane spun around in his hand, aiming at the spire of rock like a sniper.
"FIRE!" A huge blast of flame shot from the cane and hurled through the air. It impacted the stalagmite with tremendous force. The entire formation was blown apart and collapsed back into the water. He turned toward the others and was shocked by what he saw. Sora was holding his Keyblade aloft, generating a large, hemispherical shield of energy. Sora smiled and spun his Keyblade around.
"I can use magic, too." He said in a cocky tone.
"Oh…" Sirian was shocked. Both amused and bewildered, he Sora asked quietly, "So why haven't you healed your wounds yet?"
Sora's face turned bright red as Riku erupted into laughter.
"Well," Sirian said later on, as the group stood on the beach, the sun going down dramatically in front of them, "I'd better get going. I have some business to attend to. See you in the morning!" He added, looking at Kairi. Sora wondered whether the comment was intended for all of them or just her.
"Well that was a vague statement." Sora said after they had bid their goodbyes to their new comrade. He nudged Riku. "Pretty suspicious, eh?"
"Not really," He responded, smiling. "In fact, I'm gonna go do something vague, too. So long, Kairi. Welcome back to the waking world, Sora. See ya tomorrow." As Riku walked away to the mumbled farewells, Sora turned to Kairi.
"So…uh…wanna catch me up on what I missed?" Kairi laughed.
"We already told you everything. Besides, I'd best be getting to bed soon. Sirian's taking me out for breakfast in the morning. And your mom is going to flip when she finds out you've been out of the hospital all day and didn't call her. Night, Sora!" As she walked away, Sora felt completely lost.
"Why are we going over to his house??" Sora whined.
Because he's our friend, as of last week he's Kairi's boyfriend, and he's a good guy, despite how jealous you are." Riku said. "Now hush. He was nice enough to welcome us into his new house."
"How does a seventeen year old buy his own house?"
"How should I know? Let's find out." Riku walked up to the door and rang the bell. Amid bursts of quiet laughter, the door popped open to reveal Sirian and Kairi smiling in the doorway.
"Hey! Glad you could make it!" Sirian said. "Now that everyone is here, I can open up the 'secret door!!'" he added in a goofy voice. Both inside and out, his house was large, but nothing out of the ordinary.
"What's back there?" Sora asked. Kairi shook her head.
"He wouldn't show me until you guys got here." She said with a smile. Sirian opened an ordinary-looking, if somewhat heavy-duty, door.
"No one has ever seen what's behind this door besides me," Sirian said, "and I have to ask you not to disclose this to anyone." The three nodded. Sirian smiled.
"These things may not be illegal, but that may just be because no one knows they exist."
Thee doorway led to a poorly illuminated staircase, in true horror-movie fashion. Sirian flipped a switch at the bottom of the stairs, illuminating an underground area so large that Sora was sure it entreated on every neighbor in the area's property. If you were to put a hole in the ceiling of this room, you could wind up in at least four different basements. But the size of the room was not nearly as impressive as what was inside it.
The room was full of technology that would make any scientist or engineer drool. In one corner of the room, plants of all sizes grew wild. The foliage was incredibly varied. There were some species that no botanist had ever imagined. All across the area, huge machines made out of indescribable materials produced substances for Sirian's use in experiments. Cauldrons of light and dark magical energies bubbled as chemical reactions produced new raw materials for Sirian. Everywhere they looked post-modern technology and arcane magic meshed in perfect harmony to benefit Sirian's cause, whatever it happened to be.
"You're probably wondering how I paid for all this…" Sirian said, "Well, I've always been interested in nuclear physics, and alchemy as well…" He opened what looked like an industrial freezer, and behind a pane of glass was the largest stash of gold any of them had ever seen.
"You see, by initiating a nuclear reaction, I can turn lead into radioactive gold via alpha and beta particle decay. Of course, it'll eventually decay into a more stable isotope, so I have to spend it quickly." The group was stunned but, as Sirian's words sunk in, the three jumped back.
"Ra-radioactive!?" Riku turned to Sirian, shocked. "You're gonna kill us all!"
"No, no, no." Sirian said. He rapped a knuckle on the glass. "Science has long since known how to incorporate metals into a slow-melting glass. This glass contains lead. You might notice it's quite thick as well-you are completely safe." He said, reassuringly.
"You see," he started, "I've developed everything in this room to better further my ambitions and ease my existence in this world. Anything you could ever need can be produced right here."
"This is amazing, Sirian…" Kairi said, awestruck.
"So is this how you made your cane?" Riku asked.
"Not at all," Sirian said, filling a vial from an enclosed vat in the biological tent and labeling it with a complex name and the words 'EXTREMELY POISONOUS-AVOID CONTACT W/ SKIN' and putting on a shelf, "I've had this cane for as long as I can remember-long before I came to this world."
"You know how to travel between worlds?" Sora asked.
"Yes, but I did not do so intentionally. I have no desire to build a Gummi Ship. In fact, I don't remember how I got here at a-" He stopped short.
"What's wrong?" Kairi asked.
"Nothing." He said, obviously lying. "I have a lot to attend to, so, not to seem rude, but I think it's time I escorted you out." Obviously flustered, he added "Really must be getting to work-samples to collect on the island…" he bumped into a shelf, knocking over a vial. He hurried them all out of his front door, assuring them all that the vial was merely a saline solution. His shirt caught fire as he said it. He shut the door hurriedly and they heard a loud commotion inside. The three friends decided to leave him be. That is, Riku and Sora decided and dragged a reluctant Kairi with them.
"He said something about the island," Riku said, "maybe we should hide out and see what he's up to." Kairi seemed determined to get to the bottom of this, and agreed immediately. Sora followed suit. Within ten minutes, they saw Sirian burst out of the back door and set off for the pier at a brisk walk. Following him was easy enough-even when he was in the boat he never looked back to see if he was being followed. He was too distracted. Rowing quickly, they followed at a safe distance and rounded the island, beaching their boat on the opposite side. They marveled at the fact that they had so easily gone undetected.
"Sirian must really be upset…" Kairi sounded worried.
"Well," Riku started, trying to soothe her, "let's see what this is about." They hid in the bushes and watched as Sirian paced up and down the beach. They heard a strange noise; one that their adventures taught them usually accompanied inter-worldly travel. Sirian stopped and confronted someone…if they could only see who…
They quietly shushed each other as Sirian spoke.
"It's been awhile. What brings you to this small world?" The voice that responded sounded familiar to Sora.
"I make my own decisions," the voice began, softly, "and I don't have to explain them to the likes of you."
"Heh." Sirian shook his head. "Secretive as always, eh, Auron?"