Dark Days
A Kingdom Hearts fanfic
By:
Chison
After an hour of walking, Marlena turned to Iris, "uh…just how far away are the ruins?" Iris sighed and lifted her right hand, pointing past her, "well…its beyond the canyon there and down a steep bank…" Marlena stopped, realizing the distance they still had to walk, "oh man…I didn't realize how far away it was…" Iris walked past her, "we wont make any ground just standing here right?" Marlena nodded her head and continued onward, "hey Iris…" she caught up to her friend, "what happened when I left?" Iris turned to her friend and then raised her head up to the orange sky, "well… at first I didn't remember who you were, but I always knew that something was missing, and so did Zashi… Life kind of went on as normal, without you; but out of the blue Zashi also disappeared, and I knew it had something to do with you. It was only until recently that I remembered you."
"What?" Marlena shouted in mock anger and gently slugged her friend's shoulder. "But its true. Since you have been here the whole time, I couldn't remember who you were or if you ever existed at all. It was always Zashi asking if I remembered you…and I couldn't give him a straight answer. I knew that there was someone else in my heart but my head couldn't accept knowing someone I had never met…" Marlena smiled, "Namine told ahead of time that Zashi would probably still remember who I am, and that he would want to find out the truth…I guess it happened a lot faster than I thought… Maybe she knew that Zashi was going to be turned into a Heartless…" "I kind of doubt that…" Iris said as they made their way down the steep bank, "If she knew, then she wouldn't have him fight, right?" Marlena nodded her head and they made their way down in silence.
Finally reaching the bottom, they took a moment to look around, "I wonder if he's left yet…" Iris finally said out loud, wandering a few feet from Marlena, "look!" Marlena pointed upwards, seeing a figure leaning over the rail quickly disappear, they raced towards the closest staircase and dashed up; trying to catch up to the person. Reaching the top of the stairs, they quickly looked around, "where…where did he go?" Marlena asked, but Iris didn't reply. "what are you two doing? Don't you know this place is infested with Heartless?" A male voice echoed, and the same blonde haired teenager came from their left. Marlena turned to see him, "Sora?" She asked, but he shook his head, "I don't know who that is…" Iris looked over him once again and asked, "What's your name?" "My name… Is Roxas." Iris's mouth dropped, "Roxas! Do you remember Axel?" His eyes lit up, "how do you know him?" She breathed a sigh, "I was in the Organization, me and Axel are—were good friends." Roxas narrowed his eyes, "then you know what Xemnas has planned right?"
Both of them shook their heads, causing Roxas to walk past them, towards the crumbling balcony, "Xemnas… he wants to use an artificial Kingdom Hearts to find the heart he lost…" Iris took a step towards him, "but…its not possible…even if he found his heart…he couldn't combine it to his Nobody…" Marlena suddenly stood in front of her friend, "Iris…what do you mean?" "well…" she started, "when you loose your heart, if your strong enough, a Nobody and a Heartless are born, even if you found both of them, and combine them, you may not even get the same person!" "WHAT!?" Marlena shouted at the top of her lungs, "so…everything I've…we've worked for…is all for NOTHING!" Iris quickly replied, "what I mean is…yes you've got both the heart and body, but what about the soul of that person? Sure he may look the same, and have the same memories, but he would be a different person."
Marlena gave a deep sigh and turned away from her friend, "Iris…how long have you known about this?…" She averted her eyes from Marlena, "ever since I was in Castle Oblivion…" Suddenly, Marlena gave a shout, startling everyone, with her keyblade appearing in her right hand, "all this thing has caused me is nothing but trouble and heartache!!" with that, she threw her keyblade over the railing, watching it fall, it simply disappeared, and reappeared right back into her hand. Tears streamed down her eyes as she slowly fell to her knees, "why…why does this have to be so hard?" she mumbled to herself as Iris came to comfort her friend, "Marlena…" she said, "we have always been able to do the impossible…Bringing back Zashi is just another hurdle, then we can go home…" Marlena looked to Iris, "I know…but I thought it would be truly over with that last battle with Melantha…"
"and how wrong you were…" a voice echoed through out the crumbling building, as a black, liquid mass moved before the group and it slowly solidified into a person, looking exactly like Sora, only his skin and clothes were black, and a set of yellow eyes. "Its been a while…" Rizu gave a wicked grin, instantly both Marlena and Iris got to their feet, but Roxas moved in front of them, "hmm?" Rizu looked quizzically at Roxas, "have I met you someplace before?" he silently shook his head, then raised both of his arms, in his right, the Oathkeeper Keyblade appeared, and in his left, Oblivion appeared, and Roxas fell into an attack stance, "you look like my other half…"