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Disclaimer: I have recently sent a letter offering Nomura a large portion of my worldly possessions for the rights to these games and characters, but until he responds in the positive, fingers crossed, I still don't own them.
Author's Note: Psychological nudity warning (you're not going to see anything good in this chapter, sorry). To make up for it, there's more humour, violence, and death. I swear I won't kill/destroy a character in each chapter with this story, it's just starting out that way. Almost makes me feel like I should give a bit of credit to "good old J.K."...Credit to the makers of Doctor Who for that last quote about Jo Rowling. Shall we?
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Chapter Two: The Place I'll Someday Return
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Originally, Riku had wanted to wait on the small island until Merlin arrived, but Kairi had convinced him that they needed to say good-bye this time and not just disappear again. Since they didn't really want to suffer the annoyance of house arrest when they got back, Sora, and eventually Riku as well, had agreed, so they had all returned back to the mainland and gone their separate ways.
Sora cautiously entered the small kitchen were his parents were putting away their shopping. Sora watched them for a few moments, wondering what he was going to say, how much to explain, and even how much they would understand. His parents didn't remember the swarms of Heartless all over the place or their world falling into Darkness. His mother eventually noticed him standing there.
"You're father volunteered to make dinner tonight," she said, as the man in question walked out of the room. "I picked up some cold cuts at the market just in case," she added in an undertone. When Sora didn't laugh or even smile at her little joke, she asked him what was wrong.
"I," he started, but stopped when his father came back in the room. Sora took a deep breath and continued. "I have to go away again," he said very quickly.
"No, you don't," his father said, dropping the key to the front door on the table, revealing where he went.
"Yes, I do," Sora argued. "There are some things that have to be done that I can't do here."
His father just shook his head, but his mother said, "Sora, whatever it is..."
"Mom," he cut her off, "there's things you don't know about me. I...I'm different. I..."
"It's that Riku boy, isn't it?" his father asked.
"Well...he's part of it," Sora replied, somewhat confused. His father let out a deep sigh and muttered, "I knew it."
"Look, you guys wouldn't understand, okay?" Sora said as he made for the front door in the other room.
"Yes we do, Sora," his mother said as she and her husband followed him. "We've kind of been expecting it. But, you don't have to leave because of it."
"Yes, Mom, I do," Sora said as he reached the door. "I'm sorry, okay? But don't worry. We can look after ourselves." Sora gave them a smile, and summoned his Keyblade. His parents gasped as Sora used it to unlock the door. They could only stare after him as he left.
Finally, Sora's father said, "You know, dear, I think we may have been having two different conversations."
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Outside one of the smaller homes in the islands, the sound of bare feet thundering down wooden stairs reached Kairi's ears a few moments after she had finally worked up the nerve to knock. Tidus opened the door to his house, appearing much the same as he had when she had left him here less than half an hour before. He'd clearly taken her advice on going to sleep while she was with the others. His hair was an absolute mess and his bare torso seemed to glow in the morning sunshine. He had, at least, thought to put on a pair of shorts before dashing for the door. Kairi took in his smiling form, prolonging these last few moments before she had to tell him she was leaving. As she stood silently, a worried expression crept onto Tidus' face, and Kairi knew she wasn't hiding her nerves as well as she thought.
"How'd they take the news?" he asked, cautiously.
The question confused Kairi momentarily, until she realized he was talking about telling the boys about them. "Oh, I, uh," she started. "I didn't get a chance to tell them yet. Something else came up." She decided it was better to just come out and tell him what had happened. "Can I come in?"
He led her up to his room, and they sat down on his bed as Kairi explained, about finding the letter, what it meant, and that they were going to have to leave again. Tidus was quiet while she talked. He already knew about Naminé and Radiant Garden, and he understood why she felt she had to do this. That wasn't what made him speak.
"Are you sure you'll be safe?" Tidus asked. "I mean, I know Naminé helped you guys, but from what you've said about this Ansem guy, his plans don't always seem to work out and..." he trailed off as he struggled for words. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you," he finally said.
Kairi slipped off the bed next to him and folded herself into his lap, draping her arms over his shoulders. "I promise you," she said softly, "that everything is going to be okay, so you don't worry. No matter what, I will come back to you. Okay?" He nodded slowly and she kissed him deeply. She broke the kiss long enough to say, "Now, I've got about an hour before I need to be back there, so how about we say good-bye the way a boyfriend and girlfriend are supposed to?" Laughing lightly, he rolled her down on to the bed and willingly obliged.
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Riku was already sitting on the little pier waiting for him as Sora climbed up. "So how'd your parents take the news, Riku?" Sora asked him when he sat down.
"About as well as I expected," Riku offered, but didn't elaborate. "What happened at your house?"
As Sora related the conversation he had had with his parents, Riku was at first shocked, but then had to fight to keep from laughing in his friend's face. Sora finished his story by asking, "What's so funny?"
"Sometimes, you can be so oblivious, Sora," Riku responded, not managing to keep the chuckle out of his voice. "You do realize what your parents thought you were trying to tell them, right?"
"No, what?" Sora asked, as confused now as he had been when his parents said they thought they knew what he was going to tell them.
"Sora," Riku said. "They...they thought you were telling them that...well, that you were..."
"Are we all ready to go?" Merlin asked from behind them, startling the two so much that Sora actually fell off of the dock and into the water. Riku pulled Sora back onto the dock and turned around to face the wizard.
"I take it you're Merlin?" Riku asked.
"Quite right, my lad," the old man replied. "Nice to see you in person at last, Riku. And, Sora, you're looking well, if a little damp," he added with a smile. "Now, are the three of you ready to leave? Wait, why are there only two of you?"
"Kairi's not back yet, Merlin," Sora explained while Riku tried not to laugh at the absurd behavior of the man before him. "She should be here any time, though," Sora finished.
"No matter, no matter," Merlin blustered. He pulled a short staff out of his sleeve and brandished it in front of him, turning to face a clear space on the dock. "I'll have her here in two shakes." And he did shake his staff twice, calling "Alakazam" and cloud of white smoke appeared. As the smoke cleared, there stood Kairi in her pink dress and socks. Her left hand held her shoes, while her right arm wrapped around a very naked Tidus, whom she was in the middle of kissing. Merlin cleared his throat, and the pair became aware that they were no longer in Tidus' bedroom, or alone.
"Um...hi, guys," Tidus said to the stunned young men standing at the end of the pier. He stepped back from a red-faced Kairi and covered his quickly deflating excitement with both of his hands as he himself flushed red all over.
"Well, that can happen sometimes if the person is too close to another, which the young lady obviously was, and, um, well," Merlin sputtered at them.
"Uh, a little help? Could you, maybe, send me back?" Tidus asked. Without further ado, Merlin waved his staff again, and with a "snick, snack, snarl," Tidus was gone. Kairi bent down to slip on her shoes, still not meeting the others' eyes.
"Well," Riku said, "that explains what's been on your mind these few last weeks."
Kairi looked up, her blush deepening. "I tried to tell you guys so many times. I was planning on telling you this morning, but then I found the letter."
Riku could understand how interruptions made good excuses for not revealing a secret. He offered Kairi a smile and a nod as she turned to Sora. Sora let out a surprised chuckle.
"It's great, Kairi," Sora said, sounding sincere. "Really, I'm happy for you guys."
"I hate to interrupt," Merlin said, causing Riku to snort, "but we are on a time schedule, here, so shall we?"
The trio nodded collectively, Sora and Kairi taking one last look around. Merlin raised his staff again and they were all engulfed in a white cloud.
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Deep in the Realm of Darkness, the Shades had delivered the report of their recent battle. They had been worried that their leader would be upset at the loss of the world and the escape of all the hearts, but their leader merely smiled.
"It is no matter," their superior told them. "There are other worlds, other castles, and other hearts we may have. Like this one here to which the Heartless have led me in your absence."
A shifting of a cloak revealed a young woman hidden behind it, held in place by Heartless. The woman had blue hair, and blue eyes that seemed to shine in the darkness even while wide with fear. She was clad mostly in black, but blue fabric tied at her waste served as a partial skirt. Her once gleaming silver boots were now tarnished and dirty. Her pale bell sleeves had been ripped in places by her captors.
"This one should know much and make for a powerful ally once she is once of us," the superior told the Shades. "The glimmer of her light in this dark place was well known to the Heartless. Relieve her of her information, and that light. Bring me her heart," the leader cackled loudly as the Shades dove for the prisoner.
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The King and his companions embraced Sora and Riku like it had been two years instead of just two weeks without seeing each other, though, none of the other people gathered in Merlin's small house in the Burrow could begrudge them that. They had, at least in the case of Sora, Donald, and Goofy, spent the entirety of the previous year in each other's constant company, after all. After the reunion, Sora introduced Riku and Kairi to the members of the Restoration Committee, at least the ones present.
"So where's the rest?" he asked.
"Well," Yuffie replied, "Leon got a letter from someone and ran out of here a few hours ago, and we haven't seen him since. Very mysterious. He probably should have been back by now, but, you know Leon," Yuffie finished with a shrug. She didn't sound all that concerned, but then, she rarely did.
"Ansem the Wise," Cid continued for her, "is in the computer room, finishing up the preparations. That Nobody is with him. He...don't seem to like to socialize with the rest of us, for some reason."
"Probably," Riku said, "because you refer to him as 'that Nobody.'"
"Riku, be nice," Kairi admonished.
"Yeah, Riku," Sora chimed in. "You have to remember, these guys fought the Nobodies and Heartless just like we did. And, not everyone forgives as easily as we do."
Before Riku could respond, Merlin bustled him, Sora, and Kairi out of the house, muttering about schedules, with Mickey on their heels. The walk to the old castle was quick and rather uneventful; the local Heartless were of course no match for the four Keyblade wielders in concert with the wizard and the town's defenses.
"You'd think these guys would learn and just give up," Sora said as they crossed the walkway from Ansem's private study to the computer room.
"They can't learn at all. They have only the darker emotions and pure instinct to drive them," came the deep voice of Ansem the Wise as they entered the room. He looked up from the console and nodded to each of them in turn. "An honor, as always, my young friends."
"Yeah, I suppose it is kind of nice to see your ugly mugs again," came Axel's quip from the other doorway.
Seeing Axel there, leaning in the doorway, giving them his standard slightly sarcastic smile, Sora was over come with warring thoughts. It was like something in him wanted to smack the Nobody, and yet, at the same time, this same something wanted to embrace him and not let go. Sora raised a hand to his forehead as snippets of the forgotten dreams of the past few weeks played across his mind and then connected as the realization that they were actually memories sank in. Riku put a steadying hand on his shoulder as Sora looked up at Axel.
"I'm fine," he assured them all. "It's just...Roxas." The smile vanished from Axel's face as a gasp escaped his lips. Sora offered him a somewhat knowing smile. "Sea-salt ice cream," he said, with a slight blush as the Nobody smiled again.
"What's that about?" Riku asked, an odd tone in his voice.
"Kind of had to be there to understand it," Axel said, fighting the ghost of a laugh. He became serious as he turned to Ansem. "So, they're here. Now what? You've never really explained how this was all going to work." Sora, Riku, and Kairi perked their ears, wanting to know what was going to happen, as well.
"It's a complicated process, involving science and magic that I would not expect you to understand. I know the processes and even I still do not understand completely why they work." When he was sure that everyone knew he was only mildly talking down to them, he continued. "It starts by digitizing Sora, Kairi, and Merlin. Once they are inside the system...well...I shall let the others explain their parts."
Ansem gestured to the display on the main console. Tron could be seen standing in a large brilliantly lit white room, empty save for four flat tables, two of them occupied by hazy, grey, vaguely humanoid shapes. "Using information on the Replica project," Tron spoke, his voice coming out of the speakers all around them, "I have already created blank digital bodies to house the two minds of the Nobodies. Once Sora and Kairi have been digitized, it is a matter of taking a copy of the memories of the Nobodies hidden within their minds and hearts, similar to the work that was done in restoring Sora but in reverse, and placing those within the new bodies, which will then take on the characteristics of their new occupants."
"And that's where I," Merlin broke in, "use my extensive knowledge of magic, with a little guidance from this scroll to fuse those minds with the bodies, and make them, not just replicas of their selves, but true Nobodies."
"After that," Ansem said, "it's just a matter of rematerializing them back from the digital world. The Nobodies may be a bit weak at first, but that will pass in time. Now, if there are no more interruptions, let us begin."
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Passing across the broken landscape, the Shades brought their leader to view the odd angles and twisted, burnished façade of the Castle, the location of which their newest member had, albeit unwillingly, shown them. Their superior stopped them and turned a gaze to a point deep within the building and vanished.
They followed through nothingness to find their ruler leaning over the form of a young blonde man dressed in black and white slumped in a white throne-like chair in a small room of the same color. The boy appeared as though asleep, yet his blue eyes were open, vacant, and staring without seeing.
"I thought that I sensed a heart, but it was nothing more than an echo. I've seen this before. The boy's heart is elsewhere, and thus he is of no use to us. He is, however...in my way." Their superior flashed a wicked smile. "Destroy the body so that we may claim this Castle for our own."
The Shades eagerly complied.
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Things had been going well with the separation. It was decided that it would be best to do the work one pair at a time, with the ladies going first. Kairi was placed into a magic-induced sleep as Tron sifted through her data, looking for the memories, thoughts, and various bits of consciousness that made up Naminé. Once those were all found and copied, they were placed inside the new vessel which took on the appearance of a blonde, teen girl in a pale sundress. Finally, after hours of work, and a final complicated bit of spellwork from Merlin, both Naminé and Kairi opened their eyes. The process seemed to be such a success that Naminé even volunteered to help with Roxas' restoration, as she had some experience in poking around Sora's heart.
Sora took his place on a table and Merlin put him to sleep. Even with both Tron and Namine working together, though, it still took several hours of searching for Naminé to be satisfied they had all of Roxas together. The pieces were joined with the blank, and the hazy shape formed itself into a blonde young man dressed in the long black coat of the Organization. Again, Merlin worked his magic, and both young men opened their eyes and sat up. However, almost immediately, Roxas let out a pained gasp, clutched his chest and fell to his knees on the floor as Sora collapsed back onto the table.
Merlin stood stock still, dumbfounded and sputtering, as Naminé shoved Tron out of the way and rushed over. She knelt between the two boys and placed one hand on either of their chests. She closed her eyes, a look of deep concentration on her face, and her hands began to faintly glow.
"The chain..." she said slowly, "...it's been broken at the source. It's starting to unlink itself."
"Can you fix it?" Ansem seemingly asked from thin air.
"I believe so," she replied, opening her eyes to address the ceiling. "But..." she trailed off. "Never mind," she sighed with a slight, sad smile and set to work, closing her eyes again. She focused first on Sora, then on Roxas, a silent inner battle playing out across her face. Finally, she opened her eyes and fell back, exhausted. Sora groaned and slowly sat back up. Roxas' eyes fluttered open.
"There," Naminé said. "The separation is complete, now. It's done." As she said this, she glanced down at her left arm which was slowly evaporating.
"Naminé!" Roxas shouted as he knelt by her side. "Wha...what did you do?"
"I fixed a mistake I made the first time," she said, offering him a weak smile. "I thought maybe you two could...but I never thought that..." she hesitated. "It wasn't anything you or Tron did," she called to the old wizard.
"What are you talking about?" Sora asked, dropping down to her other side.
"Roxas, Sora," she looked at both of them in turn, more of herself fading, "I'm sorry for what DiZ and I did to you guys. Consider this my way of making up for it."
"Naminé..." Roxas started, but she shook her head at him.
"Don't worry, Roxas," she said. "I wasn't ever even really a Nobody. If giving up my being makes you what you are, then, it was worth it." Naminé pressed a nearly faded hand to his chest. "Take care of it," she said before fading out completely.
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The newest Shade entered the Chamber of Awakening to find it much different than the last time she was there. Dark, thorny vines covered the walls and wound around the central throne. She raised a hand and a shadowy Keyblade formed. With the weapon raised high, she charge the figure seated before her. She swung the blade down, but never made contact. Before she knew what had happened, she was flat on her back, a cackle greeting her ears as she climbed up to her knees.
"You'll have to learn to direct those dark feelings into something more productive," the figure said. "You have yet to gain enough power over your new self to even hope of challenging me." The figure stood from the throne, crept to Shade's side, and lifted her chin to look at her full on. "I could destroy you right now," the figure went on. "I'm sure you may think that preferable, but if you are ever to have a chance at revenge, then you will have to survive. And, the only way to do that is to do my bidding."
The Shade that was once Aqua cringed at the thought, but knew the figure spoke the truth. Though she had never desired such things in her previous existence, she did now feel the need for revenge. As she lingered on these thoughts, she could also feel the influence of the figure, no, her superior tearing down what little defense she had against it. With revulsion and a tinge of sadness, her voice came almost unbidden. "What do you wish of me?"
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The loss of Naminé weighed heavily on their hearts and minds as the four emerged from the digital realm. Merlin immediately went into a deep discussion with Ansem the Wise and Mickey who were busy scouring the data for any clue as to what had gone wrong, and as to what it was that Naminé had been hinting at before she faded.
Riku rushed forward and pulled Sora into a embrace, drawing a surprised sort of squawk from the younger man. Riku gasped at his own impetuousness, and quickly pulled Kairi in, making it a group hug. Sora was still surprised, and he wondered why the guy who had once claimed not to be "a total sap" was showing such emotion. He chalked it up to the tension of the whole situation.
Axel smiled as Roxas approached him, opening his arms, hoping for a hug himself. Instead Roxas gave him a blank look.
"We need to talk," he said in an undertone as he walked past. "We'll be back," he called over his shoulder as he opened a dark portal and stepped through. Axel gave a confused look to the others and, shrugging, followed the other Nobody, the portal closing behind him.
Just then, a noise drew there attention back to the other door. Standing there, looking stricken, was Leon. In his arms he carried a young woman in blue and black. There were no physical marks on her body, but she was unconscious and her breathing was shallow.
"Help," Leon managed, before sinking to his knees, cradling the woman to his chest.
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A/N: Sorry it took longer than I planned to update. Computer issues, and my writer's block seemed to have come into contact with some reverse wood. It's also harder than I thought trying to write sections without gender specific pronouns or titles. Granted, I'm sure the identity of the Shade leader is most likely painfully obvious, but still...Anyway, leave me some reviews, why don't you?
LSR
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