Remembering the Forgotten
By: Ellipsis the Great
DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…although the original idea came from orangediscord's one-shot 'Left Behind.' Also, the idea for the 'relocation' of the Queen's soul comes from a book called 'Golem in the Gears' by Piers Anthony. And the idea for the ritual is some sort of weird merger of my own ideas with ideas from the movies 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'Thirteen Ghosts.'
Summary: Sometimes, I thought I was the only person who remembered him…eventual Seiner, other pairings unknown.
Rated: M.
Spoilers: Takes place after Kingdom Hearts II; I dunno how much of the plot will be included.
Warnings: Yaoi and some angst. More warnings later if needed.
Chapter Twenty: Devenio (to come to, arrive at, reach)
'What happened to us? I heard that it's me we should blame. What happened to us? Why didn't you stop me from turning out this way? And know that I don't hate you…and know that I don't want to fight you…and know that I'll always love you…but right now I just don't…' –Relient K, 'Which to Bury, Us or the Hatchet'
The rest of the trip to Prydain was horrendously fucking quiet, after Lewis and Wilbur left. Tensions grew high in the ship as Sora and I grew surprisingly closer. Or maybe it wasn't so surprising, seeing as how Riku was still pissed at the both of us for some reason, René was mad about the whole 'let's sacrifice Sora' thing, and Hayner just seemed to be confused about everything. And maybe a little put out about not knowing all of my plan. Cid, of course, was keeping the fuck out of it all (the lucky son of a bitch), mostly by pretending to be really busy flying the ship whenever the tensions rose too high for his liking. Every once in a while he would yell at us to sit the fuck down or shut the fuck up or drink the goddamned tea and like it, but mostly he stayed out of it.
Donald and Goofy tried to avoid the brunt of everything, too. They were, I think, more confused than anyone else about what was going on. Evidently, no one in the realm of Disney is gay.
Go fucking figure.
I was pulled out of my thoughts abruptly as Sora plopped down next to me, linking his arms around one of mine.
"Can I help you?" I asked, arching an eyebrow at him.
"This is fine." He replied cheekily as he snuggled closer. Then he sighed sadly. "Riku's getting pissed again. About me hanging around you so much."
"Oh?" My other eyebrow joined the first.
"Says you're a bad influence on me." He nodded.
I snorted and turned my eyes onto the blank sketchbook page I'd been staring at for nearly half an hour. "The fuck's that supposed to mean?"
"Because you're gay…and he thinks that's what's making me so…umm…"
"Bi-curious." I supplied.
He giggled. "Sure. Bi-curious. Anyhow, he thinks it's your fault."
"Right. Because I've been forcing you to have wild, gay sex with me every night since your Nobody and his fuck buddy forced my body to have wild, gay sex with yours."
"Axel isn't Roxas'…" Sora's face scrunched up. He didn't like to cuss. "They love each other, Seifer."
"I hate to break it to you, short stuff, but they don't have hearts. Can't love."
"It takes more than just a heart to love someone." Sora insisted stubbornly. "Haven't you ever heard of people loving each other heart and soul? Maybe their hearts don't…can't…love each other, but Nobodies are souls. They can love with what they have."
I rolled the information around in my head for a moment. "Alright, I'll buy that. But either way, those two…soul mates…" I snickered a little at the idea. "Forced our bodies to have sex. So my previous sarcasm still stands."
He laughed again. "Yeah, okay." He was quiet for a moment. I made a few simple, nonsensical lines on the page. "Either way, I don't think all of our argument is gonna be fake. I think he's really angry about all of this."
"If he doesn't like it, he can go fuck himself." I shrugged, tapping my pencil on the edge of the sketchpad thoughtfully, more intent on the shapeless picture than the conversation. "Riku's a control freak, Sora. He's got this big plan all drawn out in his head because he feels like he's gotta overcompensate for being dragged into the darkness, or some psychological bullshit like that. He wants you to marry Kairi and him to marry some other chick from the Islands, and both of you to get nice little yellow houses with white picket fences and a dog and two and a half brats, and for all of you to grow old together as friends, and maybe one of your kids will marry one of his or something. You being gay is not part of the plan."
He gave me a dry look. "Have you been watching some sort of weird documentary or something, Seifer?" He asked, voice only half-teasing.
"I call it as I see it." I said. "Riku's insecure and he's taking it out on you, and you aren't the type to take anyone's bullshit—even if you have been best friends all of your lives—so he's turning into a bitch. So I see this going one of three ways: One, he pulls his head out of his ass and gets over himself. Two, you decide to suddenly become a pussy and let him push you around. And three, you guys argue like hell and go your separate ways. I kinda favor number one, myself, but he's a stubborn son of a bitch, and hopefully you are, too, so I'm thinking it'll probably be number three."
"But…but Riku's my best friend." He said. "I don't want to lose that just because of this!"
"Well, then, you're gonna have to talk to him or some shit, because the problem isn't going to fix itself," I said, making a few more vicious swipes with my pencil. "And I sure as hell ain't fixing it for you—I'm not some goddamned relationship therapist."
"But…"
I let out a frustrated huff of air and turned on him, setting my drawing supplies aside. "Look, Sora, I'm not telling you that you have to go up to him right now and say 'Riku, pull your head out of your ass or we're not friends anymore.' You probably have plenty of time before this thing reaches that point, and there's a lot of shit going on right now, so I doubt you really have the time or the peace of mind to sit down and talk it out with him. Plus, you guys really being pissed at each other will probably help, as much as that sucks right now. You'll have time afterwards to force feed him some big doses of reality. So just relax and focus on what's going on right now, and leave the personal drama for after we kick the Queen's ass. Okay?"
He sighed again. "Okay, I guess. I just…I don't want to lose my best friend over something so stupid."
"It's not stupid." I said. "He's trying to force you into something that you might not want, Sora; that isn't stupid at all, and it also isn't something you should have to deal with, especially coming from someone who claims to know you so well."
"I get it, I get it." He said, putting his hands up in surrender. "I'll talk to him after…everything else."
"Good." I said, picking my art stuff up again. "Now fuck off. I'm trying to draw, here."
He giggled and kissed my cheek. "You'd make a good therapist, Seifer."
"No way in hell. I'd kill somebody within the first half hour. And I meant it when I said fuck off, so fuck off."
"You guys look like you're having fun." Hayner said cheerfully as he entered the room.
"I came back here so I could get some fucking peace and quiet—where are you bastards coming from?" I demanded angrily.
"We came from another part of the ship, a-hyuck." Goofy and Donald trailed in behind Hayner.
"Cid says we're about to land." Donald said. "He sent us to round everyone up!"
I looked at Sora, who had gone slightly pale. "You gonna be alright, lamer?" I asked.
He nodded jerkily. "I trust you guys to save me…or, well, to save Roxas."
"Good." I slapped his back comfortingly, then looked at Hayner. "Chickenwuss?"
Hayner smiled thinly. "I trust you."
'Not you guys,' His eyes seemed to say. 'Just you.'
I returned his smile and grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Alright, guys." I said. "Let's go kick some ass!"
o.O.o.O.o
Sora and Riku began bickering just before the door to the ship opened, when Riku saw me holding his hand (I had switched from Hayner's hand to Sora's as we entered the entrance of the ship). Like Sora had predicted, the argument hardly seemed contrived. Riku had started in on us immediately upon seeing us, and I could have sworn I saw actual steam start blowing out of his ears.
I won't go into the particulars of everything that they said to each other—some things are never meant to be said once, much less repeated on paper. Certainly never repeated to anyone who wasn't directly involved. I'm sure your imaginations can fill in the blanks. Suffice it to say, the wounds they tore into each other that day—both verbal and physical—would take a while to heal.
Riku drew his sword first and attacked without preamble; Sora barely had time to summon his Keyblade and block the attack. They fought like animals, in that passionate but sloppy way that people do when they're so angry they can't think. If most sword fights are supposed to be like a dance, theirs (regardless of the fact that they weren't technically using swords) was more like something out of a mosh pit: elbows to the face that weren't in the least bit planned, complete chaos that was only synchronized in moments of pure coincidence…
It was brutal, and watching it I never would have guessed that they'd ever been friends.
And then, in a moment that almost had to have been on purpose because of how perfectly timed it seemed, Riku knocked Sora's Keyblade out of his hands. Sora tripped as he tried to back up and away from Riku, falling flat on his ass and staring up at his best friend (?) with wide, hurt eyes.
"This is it, Sora." Riku said, as if he was just realizing the severity of what he was about to do. Then, before Sora had any time to react or even reply (and before he had time to back out of it, probably), he plunged his sword into Sora's chest, twisting it and causing Sora to let out a shrill scream of pain. A heart appeared above Sora's chest, then disappeared as Sora's body began writhing and changing into a Shadow heartless. A body—Roxas' body—fell to the ground next to it, and Riku grabbed him, throwing him over one shoulder and, with one last glare at us, summoned a portal and disappeared into it.
"Where did Sora's heart go?" Donald asked. "If it went to Kairi, we won't be able to—"
He was cut off as the Shadow scuttled over to René, throwing its misshapen arms around him. It glowed for a moment, then suddenly it was Sora again, sobbing into René's chest.
"He hates me! Riku really, really hates me!" He wept.
"Shh, Sora, it's okay." René said, patting Sora's back awkwardly. "He doesn't hate you."
"He was s-so mad…"
"Sora, calm down." I said. "I know it's tough, but for right now we've got bigger things on our hands. You can cry when the Queen's dead."
René glared at me, but Sora nodded, sniffling loudly and wiping his nose.
"You're right." The normally eternally optimistic boy said. "Let's go."
We all looked at Taran.
"So?" I said.
"This way." Taran said, visibly shaken by what we had just seen. I think all of us were, but like I said: we had bigger things to deal with. He motioned at us to follow him into the forest ahead. "We aren't far away from the lake."
The forest was predictably creepy and ominous. We kept jumping at the slightest noise, and a few times we had to stop and fight some heartless that appeared. Between the eight of us it was damn easy to take care of them. Heartless aren't exactly what I'd call difficult opponents. The closer we got to our destination, though, the bigger and meaner they got. Most of them we had seen in Jiminy's journal, so it was nothing Sora, Donald, and Goofy wouldn't have been able to defeat on their own. But a few of them no one had ever seen before. Those were the hardest, but still nowhere near difficult to defeat.
Taran was, predictably, the weakest of all of us. He wasn't useless, per se, and he didn't slow us down (of course, since he was in the lead he was also setting the pace, so…), but he was still the weakest. Donald followed in a close second, if only because he kept casting the wrong magic on the wrong heartless—like a thunder spell on a Yellow Rhapsody, which healed the little mother fuckers.
But I noticed, as we continued, that the more heartless we defeated, the stronger we became. It was like some weird power-up from a video game or something.
Weird, right? I mean, in real life people don't get all that much stronger during fights—much less get stronger with continuous fighting rather than just getting worn out. But whatever, I guess...just one more thing to add to the list of weird bullshit that was going on in my life.
And then, quite suddenly, the forest just…ended.
Ahead of us was a foggy bog, seemingly endless. We could just make out the tiers of a castle or some other kind of stronghold.
Breathing heavily from a battle that had finished mere moments before, I sat down on a small but conveniently placed boulder.
"It's getting late." I said. "Let's rest here for the night and go across in the morning."
"Good—I have to go get the boat anyhow." Taran said.
"And Donald and me'll go with ya." Goofy said with that annoyingly goofy laugh of his (no pun intended). "So ya don't get bogged down by the heartless."
"Okay, let's go. If we leave now we should get back by midnight." Taran said, and the three of them disappeared back into the forest.
"We should take turns watching the campsite." Cid said as Sora and Hayner started settling down for the night on some little patches of moss. Luckily, it was warm enough that we didn't have to worry about getting cold, since none of us had really thought about bringing anything to sleep on (we hadn't expected for it to take this long).
"I'll take first watch." I said, noticing that Sora and Hayner, the two who were functioning without souls, were the most tired.
"Wake me up when you get tired." René said, flopping down close to Sora.
"And I'll take the last watch. Let those two sleep." Cid said gruffly as he tossed some dry driftwood into a pile in the middle of the impromptu campsite and lighting it with his lighter and some paper he'd pulled from who-knows-where. Then he plopped down near to it, almost immediately starting to snore.
"Got it." I said, pulling my legs up onto the boulder so I could sit cross-legged. I rested Hyperion in the middle of my legs, so it was propped up on my shoulder, and swept my gaze over the murky water of the lake.
The next few hours passed with deceptive quietness (you know, like the 'it's quiet…TOO quiet' bullshit that people always manage to say in movies). It set me on edge at first, but after a while I could feel myself starting to drift off. I was just about to wake René when I heard a stick crack not far away from us. I jumped up off of the boulder and turned toward the forest, holding Hyperion in front of me threateningly.
"Taran? Goofy? Donald? Is that you guys?" I asked, wondering if enough time had passed for them to already have returned.
There was some rustling, and I could feel myself scowling as I registered the fact that Taran and the others would probably be returning on water, since they had left to get a boat. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as the sounds got closer, and I roared (roared, not screamed) with surprise as a small brown blur appeared at the edge of the forest.
The blur screeched and disappeared in a nearby bush.
"Oi! Come back out here!" I said angrily, making a quick slice at the bush. The blur appeared again, scrambling closer to the campsite instead of farther away like you'd think it would. "Get away from there before I slice you in half, heartless!"
The blur screamed again, the sound finally waking up the others.
"Don't hurt Gurgi, Master!" The voice had a lisp, like a child's. "Gurgi saw the fire and thought there might be some munchies and crunchies for Gurgi!"
"What the hell?" I heard René ask as all of us finally got a good look at the dog-like creature rolling around and holding its hands up in a surrendering motion.
"Gurgi!"
We looked out at the lake, where Donald, Goofy, and Taran (who had spoken) were breaking through the fog in a sizeable boat.
"Seifer, don't hurt him!" Taran said as he through out the boat's anchor (which was actually little more than a big rock with a rope tied around it) and leapt out of the boat. "It's Gurgi!"
"Master!" The thing—Gurgi—said, throwing itself around Taran's legs.
"Oh, Gurgi, you're alright!" Taran said, ruffling Gurgi's hair. "I was afraid you might have gotten hurt since I left."
"No, no, Gurgi is very clever! Gurgi takes Master's Princess and keeps her safe from the nasty, wicked lady!" Gurgi said, puffing his chest out proudly.
"Well isn't that sweet? What a happy reunion!"
A shiver ran up my spine at the sound of that voice, and I turned with wide eyes to face the speaker.
"D…Dad?"
End Chapter Twenty