Chapter 4: Memories
John fell down through the air the moment he stepped into the door. This time he could feel worlds all around him as he fell. He saw strange people and creatures for the briefest of moments. Finally a gate opened up beneath him. His eyes widened. The gate was over hanging over concrete! He put out both hands in front of himself and when he fell through the gate he landed on his hands, then he pushed off with his arms, and flipped to his feet. "Why do you drop me head first into these worlds?" John asked furiously.
"Sorry," the voice replied. "I'm still practicing."
John sighed. "Okay then. Where am I, and where did you go? Aren't you coming with me?"
"No," the voice replied. "It's not necessary for me to follow you around all the time. You can do some things on your own, can't you?"
"What if I'm attacked?" John asked. "What if I need you here?"
The voice sighed. "You're pathetic. Come on! Do you really need me? I taught you how to fight! If you need help just remember what I taught you. Seriously, you need to handle some things on your own. You never needed me before! Where is this coming from? You losing your nerve or something?" Then the voice hesitated. "Its more then that, isn't it?"
John looked at the ground sadly. "Yeah, it's just that I almost lost! If it wasn't for Sonic I would be a Heartless. I really wish you were here. I'm not sure if I can do this on my own."
"You can handle this," the voice said gently. "I know you can. Don't worry, if you get in over your head I'll be there."
"Thanks," John replied. He examined his surroundings. He was standing in the middle of a road of an old town. On either side of him were buildings packed in all together. He began to explore. The whole town was empty. He stopped in the middle of a back road. It was covered in dirt, and rocks. "Where is everyone?" he asked. Before the voice could reply he heard a crunching sound of wheels on gravel. He spun around to see a car materialize out of nowhere. It was coming straight for him! He crouched and jumped up into the air, over the car. The vehicle zipped under him and vanished a little ways on. "What's going on around here?" he asked as he landed. "What is this world?"
The voice hesitated, and then said. "This is an artificial world, so it had no name. It was created by your memories. Keep walking, I want to show you something."
John was surprised, but kept going. He walked through the town and exited on the other side, but instead of a landscape stretching out in front of him all he saw was a wall of mist. "Hey, this is like the world I woke up in!" John exclaimed.
"There is no need to talk out loud," the voice told him. "But yes, you are right. The world you woke up in was very much like this world. This mist marks the end of the world and the beginning of the void. Examine it if you wish but be careful not to step in or you will be lost forever."
John shook his head. "I don't need to see it closer up. This is fine, but you haven't answered my other question. What was that car doing there? Where did it go?"
"I see you are intent on speaking out loud," the voice said.
"There's no reason to speak in my mind now," John replied. "Nobody is going to give me weird looks for talking to myself."
"If that is what you wish," the voice replied. "Perhaps I should explain this world in more detail. This place was created by your memories so I would assume that the car was related to you in some way."
"What?" John was surprised. "You mean that I was in that thing? But why would they want to run me over?"
The voice sighed. "They can't hurt or see you. That car would have gone right through you if you had stood still. Now, you might not have been in that car. It is just as possible someone was talking about you."
John frowned. "But you said this was a world created by my memories. Why wouldn't I be in that car?"
"Precisely!" the voice said. "You got it right. This is a world made by your memories. However, your memories are trickier then you thought. They created a world, not just you and the people you see. Although, I believe that is all you will see here, after all, what's more important to you? The things others see or just things relating to yourself? That is why the car might not have had you in it. Your memories drew out everything about you."
John frowned. "That's weird." Then he heard talking nearby. He turned around to notice two women talking together.
"Have you seen their new baby?" one of the women said to the other.
"Yes, it's beautiful, isn't it?" the other said to her. "I was planning on visiting them today. Would you like to come along?" The other lady nodded and they walked off.
That was when John noticed a Heartless up in the air above him. It hadn't noticed him yet but it was watching the women as they walked. "Hey, do you think the Heartless can touch these people?" John asked the voice.
"No," the voice replied. "These people are memories, nothing more. The Heartless cannot touch them."
"That's good," John said, relieved. He was glad that he wouldn't have to worry about someone else getting in the way. It was hard enough beating these creatures already without having to protect someone. "What kind of Heartless is that?" John asked.
"I believe it's called an air soldier," the voice replied. Then the Heartless turned away from the women as they vanished. It saw John and began to approach. "I believe we've been spotted," the voice said in a bored voice.
"Hmmm, that appears to be the case," John observed as more Heartless began to rise from the ground. "Oh well. Its been getting boring anyways. Two soldiers and five shadows to deal with, not bad." He rolled under the air soldier as it dove down towards him, summoned his Keyblade, and cut down two shadows. A soldier shoved him with both hands and he stumbled into a shadow as it leaped at him. He fell back and the Heartless charged, apparently trying to take initiative on their slight advantage. Their reeeeally slight advantage. John was back up and hacking before the Heartless knew what hit them. He dealt with one of the shadows and a soldier. The remaining soldier moved towards him cautiously but was gone with one swipe of the Keyblade. One of the last shadows was destroyed as it impaled itself on the Keyblade in mid leap and the other was gone before it could move. The final Heartless, the air soldier, held back and looked for an opening. Now that its comrades were gone its planned surprise attack went with them. It hovered just out of reach. Then John had an idea. He raised the Keyblade's point and aimed it right at the Heartless. "Fire!" he called out and a fireball flew from his Keyblade, slammed into the Heartless, and knocked it to the ground where John made short work of it.
"You're getting much better at this aren't you?" the voice said approvingly. "Good work. You even remembered the Fire spell I taught you."
"Thanks," John said with a grin. Suddenly the air around them began to churn and John felt the ground begin to spin. The world began to spin rapidly and things began to change. The buildings around them began improving, growing, or were knocked down and rebuilt. "What's going on?" John shouted. Finally it was over and he fell to the ground hard. He stood gingerly. "What was that?"
"We seem to have hit a time warp," the voice said amused. "Apparently your memories don't believe the last few years were necessary to watch."
Then they appeared. It was the ladies from before except John could tell they were older. They were talking quietly and with frowns on their faces. John moved closer to listen. "…it's perfectly ridiculous. They let him run around and do whatever he wants. He turning into a horrible person and if his parents don't stop him he is going to get someone killed someday!"
The other wasn't so sure. "I'm not certain if he would go that far. I think his parents will stop him if he goes too far. At least, I hope so…" their voices drifted off as they walked away and vanished.
John stood there stunned. "What was all that about?" he asked the voice.
"Don't tell me you don't know?" a voice came from behind him. John turned to see a red haired girl wearing a dark cloak walk towards him. "After all, this is your mind."
"Who are you?" John eyes narrowed in suspicion. The girl's cloak reminded him of the boy who organized Robotnik's kidnapping.
"Don't be that way," the girl smiled at John. "I'm just here with an offer for you. You want to hear it?"
"Sure," John replied.
"We, that is to say the group I work with, would like you to join us," the girl said.
"Join you?" John asked suspiciously. "Aren't you the people that kidnapped Robonik? What exactly are you people doing?"
The girl grinned. "We steal memories."
"What?" John blinked in surprise.
"You heard me," the girl snapped. "We steal memories."
"But how?" John asked. Then he frowned. "Did you take my memories?"
"No," she shook her head. "We didn't get your memories. If we had you wouldn't be here right now. That's the weird part though. You see when we tried to take your memories something happen. In fact, a lot of things happened. To make a really long and boring story short: you got away. That's right," she said as his eyes widened. "You escaped from us. We had no idea where you had gone. Then you reappeared on Mobius, that hedgehog's world."
John thought about this for a moment. "Alright, you steal memories. "What do you do with them?"
"We absorb them," she replied. "We drain all the power and energy stored in them and we use them to get stronger."
"So that's why you want me to join?" John glared at her. "Just so that you can suck away my memories?"
"Nah," she waved her hand dismissively. "We don't want your memories. We want you and your Keyblade with us. What do you say?" John considered this then raised his right hand into the air. "What is it?" she asked him.
Suddenly his Keyblade was in his hand and he crouched into his battle stance. "You're lying. You do want my memories. I see it now. You just want me out of the way!"
The girl glared at him. "You're making a mistake."
"I don't think so," John replied. He jumped at her and swung his Keyblade down at her.
She jumped out of the way. "That's how you want it, fine," She summoned twin hook swords to her hands. "Let's do this." She moved towards John as a blur. He was taken by surprise at her speed and he barely got his Keyblade in the way to block her attack. Their weapons clashed and John allowed his body to take over the battle. His arms moved like lightning and deflected her strikes. He threw a couple of his own but she blocked them and latched one of her swords over his weapon. She yanked his Keyblade to the ground and held it there. "Got you!" she said. She swung her other sword at John and he did the unexpected. He moved forward, grabbed her face with his free hand, and slammed her back into the ground. She was momentarily stunned, allowing him to free his Keyblade and run off down the street. She stood and raced after him. "Come back here!" she shouted.
"Come and get me!" John replied. He leapt onto a one story building and began leaping up the buildings with ease. The girl followed close behind. "Where are you voice?" John asked in his head. "I need you now!" John flipped over a building, spun around, and threw his Keyblade at the girl. She put her hook swords together and the Keyblade reflected off and spun away.
"I'm coming John," the voice said. "Be patient."
John summoned his Keyblade back to him, landed on a building and got ready for battle. "Hurry!"
"Stop running away!" the girl yelled at him as she landed nearby.
"I'm not moving, am I?" John responded calmly. The girl hurled herself forward and they began again. John felt himself growing weary all of a sudden. "Why does this keep happening?" he thought to himself. That was when the girl found an opening. She dove in slashing and John barely managed to pull back in time, even so he was thrown across the roof.
The girl laughed. "It's over!" she flung herself towards him and raised her swords. Suddenly a lightning bolt fell from the sky and blasted her away.
"I'm here John," it was the voice's ball of light form floating down from the sky. "Don't worry."
The girl stood weakly. She saw the ball of light and her eyes flashed angrily. "You!" The ball of light responded with another lightning bolt. The girl raised her swords to block it, but it blew her off the roof.
"Good," John fell to his knees. "You're here."
"Stand up John," the voice commanded. It turned from a ball of light into a doorway. "Step in here." John wearily stood and stumbled into the doorway. The door vanished.
The girl jumped back up on the roof, saw that they were gone, and shrieked in fury.
The ball of light appeared in front of her. "He's safe now. You will never have him."
The girl slammed her blades together and began to gather darkness on them, but the ball of light was already gone.
EN
Thanks for reading. Please review if you liked this chapter. If you didn't like this chapter then you are weird and I do not like you. Okay, on a more serious note, I'm writing another story called Zatch Bell 3001. I started the Zatch story a little while ago and I'm still working on it. Please read the Zatch story. It maybe a while before I get back to this one. In other words either a couple days or a week.