Chapter 7: Return to Memory
It took John three days to leave the Mushroom Kingdom. The mushroom people didn't want him to leave. They just kept making more reasons for him to stay longer such as feasts and other celebrations thanking him for his help. Throughout all the celebrating they kept asking him to stay on as a full time protector like Mario, but John refused. He knew he couldn't stay. There were many other worlds he had to travel to, and aid in his quest. When it finally came time to leave, Mario led John out of the castle and down the brick road a little ways.
"Well, this is it," John said. "Goodbye Mario."
Mario nodded. "Yes, it is goodbye, but there is one last thing I want to say. You told me you lost your memories, right? Well, that got me thinking. I know that even if I lost my memories, there is no way I could ever forget Toad, Princess Peach, and all the other mushroom people of this place. Somewhere in ours hearts, we will always remember those we love. I think that your memories are connected to those who are precious to you. If you remember the ones you love then you have your memories. The two go together."
John considered this then smiled at the small plumber. "Thanks Mario. I'll remember that." Mario waved at John and walked off back up the brick path to the castle. John smiled. "Hey voice. Do you think Mario is right? Are memories connected to the people you know?"
"Of course," the voice said. "When you were in the world your memories created, you saw other people, didn't you? Now come, it is time to continue." A ball of light fell from the sky and it transformed into a doorway.
John walked towards the door then froze. "Wait, voice, could you tell me the names of the people I know?" There was no answer. "Voice? That's strange." John shrugged and walked through the door. As it closed behind him the voice, in its ball of light form, fell from the sky.
The ball of light floated around agitatedly. "No! This isn't good…"
As John fell through the worlds, he felt vibrations. "That's weird. This has never happened before. Do you know what's going on voice?" Still there wasn't any answer. John frowned. Something was definitely wrong. An opening appeared far below him and as he fell towards it he could see there was concrete on the other side! He put his hands out to brace his fall as he fell out of the gateway into the new world. He slammed into the concrete and rolled across the ground. "Ouch," he muttered as he stood. "Where am I?" He was standing in the middle of slab of concrete and past the concrete was mist. The world was only about twenty feet long in all directions.
Suddenly another gate appeared in the sky and a young man in a black cloak fell out of it and gently floated to the ground. He had blonde hair and wasn't much taller then John. The man smiled at John. "Welcome to my world."
"Who are you?" John asked suspiciously. "Are you another one of the memory stealing people?"
"My name is Lucius," The man said. "And no, I don't steal the memories; I just deal with loose ends such as you."
"So you came to destroy me," John said bluntly. "Can you at least tell me, how did I get here? I certain this is not where the voice wanted me to go."
"The voice?" the man chuckled. "That's what you call him? The voice?"
"Wait, you know who he is?" John said eagerly.
"You don't?" the man was astounded. "He didn't tell you?" Then he grinned. "You are interesting. You don't even know what he is."
John glared at him. "Stop playing around! Just tell me who he is!"
The man just kept smiling at him. "Very pushy aren't we? You don't know the danger you are in."
"I'm done listening to you!" John summoned his Keyblade and pointed at the other man. "I am taking you out right now!"
"So you finally make your move," the man said. "Okay then. Let's go!" He summoned a giant sword to his hand.
John dove towards the other and slashed at him with his Keyblade. The man blocked with his sword and they began to duel, cutting, slicing, and hacking, looking an opening to destroy the other. Suddenly, the man knocked John's Keyblade out of the way and he brought his sword around to behead John, but the younger boy was to quick for him and he back flipped out of the way just in time. The man brought his sword in a downward slice towards John's head and John just narrowly swung his Keyblade up to block. The man pressed down and forced John down on a knee.
"I was wondering why Keyblade ever choose you," the man said. "Why would it choose a weak boy with no memories? Did you have some kind of special power? Now I know why. It made a mistake. You don't have any power. The only reason you have escaped us this long is because of the one you call 'the voice'."
John eyes hardened. "Don't…call…me…weak!" He pushed with all his might and he shoved the man off balance. John leapt high into the air and raised the Keyblade above his head. He swung it down to destroy the other, but the man jumped back just in time to dodge. The Keyblade was moving too fast for John to stop it and it struck the concrete, smashing a hole in it.
The man smiled as he observed John. The boy was barely standing; his legs were wobbling with exhaustion. "You're pathetic. All that and you didn't even land a blow on me. I should destroy you right now." The man raised his sword…and it vanished. "But I won't. I must admit, you are very interesting boy. Here, you can have this." The man raised his hand and a small ball of light floated over to John, who caught it. "That's a gate to another world," the man explained. "It should answer all of your questions. Be warned though, there are several Heartless in that world. Farewell." The man then turned around, a door appeared in front of him, and he walked through it.
John examined the ball of light he was holding. "Should I use this?" he wondered. "It could be a trap, but that man could have destroyed me just as easily right now if he had wanted to." Suddenly the mist, that surrounded the artificial world, began to close in on the concrete slab. John quickly activated the ball of light, creating the door, and he dove into it. John once more found himself falling through worlds, but this time when he fell through the gate at the end he landed in a patch of grass. He stood and looked around. It seemed that he had fallen into the middle of a park.
"John, where are you?" it was the voice. He sounded worried. "Please answer me John!"
"I'm okay," John said. "What happened back there? One moment I was talking to you then you stopped answering me, and then I ended up in an artificial world."
"It would seem someone disrupted my warp gate I opened for you," the voice replied. "They were the ones who changed your destination. What happened in there anyways?" the voice asked.
"I fought one of memory stealers again," John replied. "Weird thing was, he let me go even after I lost to him."
"He let you go?" the voice was astounded. "That sounds suspicious. Okay, I'm locking onto your position now. I don't want you making any more side trips. Wait, how did you get to that world?"
"The memory guy gave me the gate to this world," John explained.
"You went through it?" the voice roared. "What's wrong with you?"
"Well, the artificial world started to collapse on me," John replied carefully. "I really didn't have much of a choice."
"Can you just stand still for at least two minutes?" the voice said exasperatedly. "I'm almost there."
As John waited he examined his surroundings more carefully. The park he was standing in seemed familiar…wait, he did remember this place. It was part of the artificial world his memories had created. How had that man gotten his hands on it? Had they gotten their hands on some of John's memories? This wasn't looking good…
The voice floated down to John in its ball of light form. "I'm here John." Then it noticed the look on his face. "What's wrong?"
"It's this place…" John said slowly. "I-I remember being here, back when you brought me to the world my memories created. We passed by this spot, didn't we?"
"Yes," the voice said. "We did. What's your point?"
"I got this world from that memory stealer…does that mean that they have some of my memories?" John looked at the voice desperately. "Please tell me! Do they have my memories yet?"
"No," the voice said. "At least, they don't have all your memories. Your memories are in a safe place but I must tell you, if they had all of your memories then you wouldn't be here. They would have you under their control. That's how they work."
"But where are my memories?" John said. "Can't you just tell me?"
"No," the voice said simply. "I will not. Remember this, if they get their hands on you then they could find out where your memories are hidden."
John halted. "We have visitors," he said calmly. Heartless burst out of the ground and quickly surrounded them. "Five shadows, three soldiers, and three air soldiers. Hmmm, that's a lot. They must not be too happy with us."
The voice launched a lightning bolt at a shadow and the Heartless exploded. "Four shadows," the voice corrected. "I'll deal with the air soldiers. You go at the ground troops."
"Right," John nodded. He ran up to a soldier and cut it in half. Two shadows jumped at John but he simply ducked, then slashed them when they landed. A soldier spun at John but he stepped to the side and sliced it as it passed. "Three Heartless left," John thought to himself. He sighed. "It's always the same thing. I can beat Heartless easy, but when I face a real challenge…I'm so weak…" John readied himself for the Heartless to attack, but before they could fire and lightning blasted them to pieces.
"What's wrong now?" the voice asked him.
"I was just thinking," John replied. "Voice, is there somewhere I can learn to fight better? Do you know a world where I could learn? I'm just so tired of having someone else save me whenever I'm in trouble."
"Yes, there is a world," the voice told him. "I'll take you there soon but let's see what's on this world first."
"Okay," John said. They moved through the park slowly taking in everything. They halted as a figure appeared in front of them. "Here we go," John said. The figure turned out to be a teenage boy. He looked around himself quickly then ran off as if someone was chasing him. He vanished after running past John and the voice. "Well, that was informative," John said sarcastically. The he frowned. "Although I must admit, that guy did seem familiar in someway…" They kept walking but they didn't see anyone else. "If this world is so important then why is no one here?" John said, frustrated.
"Calm down John," the voice said. "Something is coming again." This time two elderly ladies appeared and they started whispering together. Suddenly a young girl, who looked only a year or two younger then John, walked up to the ladies and they stopped whispering.
"Have you seen my brother?" the girl asked them. "He's run off again."
"No we haven't," one of the ladies replied. "Sorry."
The girl sighed. "You were talking about him weren't you? I know you were because that's all anyone talks about anymore. I just wish he would calm down! If he doesn't…" Her voice trailed off. Suddenly all three of them turned around. They had spotted something in the distance. "No…he couldn't have…" the girl ran off in direction they were all looking and the three figures faded away.
"That was interesting," the voice said. Then he noticed the look on John's face. "I know it's hard but…"
John spun around and glared furiously at the voice. "You don't know anything! That was me they were talking about, remember? These are my memories…" John sat down. "What did I do? It's so hard because I don't even know who I was!"
"I could just open a world gate and we could leave," the voice said gently.
John looked up, his eyes hardening. "No, I'm staying. I want to know what I've done. I can't leave now." He stood up and ran off in the direction the people had been looking. After several minutes he stopped and looked around. "Where did she go?" Suddenly several people began to appear around him, and the building he was standing next to burst into flames.
"What's going on?" it was the girl from before. She was looking at the building stunned. "Who did this?"
A man turned around wearily to give her a pitying look. "It was him. Your brother."
The girl looked at him disbelievingly. "He couldn't have! Even he wouldn't have gone this far! How do you even know this? How can you be so sure?"
"I saw him do it. The fire was started in my room. I'm so sorry." The man whipped back around as someone ran up calling his name. "What is it?"
"There's someone still in the building!" the person replied. "We can't get them out!" They all spun around to see a person standing at one of the top windows. It was a young, pre-teen age boy.
"We have to get him out now!" a bystander shouted. However, before anyone could anything there was an explosion and the whole building shook. People screamed when they noticed that the boy had been thrown from the building. He fell…fell…fell…
"No…" John whispered. He now knew what he had done. "NO!" That was when the voice arrived. He found John sitting on the ground, sobbing.
"Perhaps we should go…" the voice said quietly. John didn't even look up. He simply nodded and walked towards the doorway that the voice created for him. For one moment John stopped. He looked back behind himself, but it was over. The street was empty. The building was no longer burning. He then turned back to the doorway and stepped through it.
EN
I think this was probably my best chapter yet! But don't take my word for it. Review and tell me what you think!