((Since all of your reviews have put me in a good mood and stuff, I decided to upload again today! ^_^.
Umm...another disclaimer for this particular chapter (and any chapter, really..): Please forgive any errors in the KH storyline since I don't know that much about it...xP.
And...hmmm...
How about, on my next short-ish chapter, I'll add a bonus part! Because I actually have some random stuff typed up of stuff from this FF or the Days game from different peoples'/Nobodies' points of view. Some are only a paragraph or two, some are longer..
But next time I have a short chapter I will do that to make up for the shortness of the chapter xP. ^_^
Now...enjoy this chapter~! :]))
DAY 401 ~ Past
(Chapter 15)
The next morning, after breakfast, Cid showed Sora, Donald and Goofy a new Gummi Ship. Naminé and Yuffie had come, too.
"King Mickey had left this here," Cid explained. "It was quite a while ago…he said to save it for whenever you came."
"How did he know we would come at all?" Sora said.
Cid shrugged. "I'm only the messenger. But if you need work done on the ship later, you can come back here."
"Alright," Sora replied.
"So where do you think you're going to go, first?" Yuffie asked.
"I don't really know," Sora shook his head. "Wherever the Gummi Ship can take us, I guess. And then we'll continue our search."
"I think you should stop the Organization," Naminé suggested. She was drawing in her sketch book, as usual.
"What do you mean?" Donald asked. "We already have to find King Mickey and Riku! We have to stop them, now??"
"It's important," Naminé began an explanation. "The hearts they've collected with Roxas…they're almost capable of completing Kingdom Hearts. And the hearts from the Heartless that Sora defeats could find their way into Kingdom Hearts, as well. If it's not stopped soon, they'll have hearts that are not even theirs."
'You do need to free Kingdom Hearts,' Xion told Sora. 'If Xemnas gets what he wants…I don't think he'll stop after getting a heart.'
"Xion seems to agree with you," Sora said. "But how will we free it?"
"These keyblades," Naminé showed the picture she had been drawing. It was of the two keyblades I had used while fighting Riku.
"But I don't have two keyblades!" Sora insisted. "And those look a lot different from mine, anyway. I've never seen a chain that could transform it like that…"
'I didn't need a chain,' I recalled. 'I just…summoned them.'
"Roxas…didn't need a chain…?" Sora was confused. "But how do I summon the keyblades?"
"Roxas can control your body, right?" Naminé asked.
"Uh…yeah."
"Let him try to summon the keyblades." Naminé's suggestion even surprised me. I didn't know if I'd still be able to…I didn't have as much of the anger or regret I'd had the one time I used them.
"Okay," Sora sighed. "Roxas. Go ahead."
I tried it. It didn't work. Then I tried to recall what I'd felt back then, and kept trying…
The keyblades popped up in my--or rather, Sora's--hands.
"Good," Naminé smiled. "Now, Sora…do you remember what Roxas did to summon them?"
Sora took control of his body again. "Yeah…"
"Try it yourself."
Sora dismissed the keyblades, then tried to summon them again. It took him a few tries, but he managed to get it.
"Whoa…" Sora was amazed even at himself. "I wish I'd known this, before."
"You should be able to free Kingdom Hearts with those keyblades." Naminé closed up her sketchbook.
"But where is Kingdom Hearts?" Goofy asked.
"The Castle that Never Was," I spoke through Sora. "Where the Organization is."
"I don't think you'll be able to get there right away," Cid said. "The Gummi Ship can't travel to unknown worlds right away. So you could search for your friends in other worlds while working towards getting to Kingdom Hearts."
"That would be good," Naminé nodded.
"Naminé, are you going to go with them?" Yuffie asked.
"I haven't really thought about it," Naminé replied. "DiZ can go anywhere he wants in Twilight Town, but I don't know about other worlds. It might be better for me not to stay in one place. And I'd like to help Sora."
"Who is DiZ, anyway?" Sora wondered out loud. "You've mentioned him a lot."
"He…created a DigitalTwilight Town," Naminé paused. "I don't know that much about him, but he was kind of my…boss, when…"
"When what?" Cid asked, seeming to still be suspicious of the newcomer.
"Before," Naminé answered. And then she remained quiet.
Cid sighed and turned back to Sora and his friends. "So anyway…be careful with the Gummi Ship. You may have reduced prices since you're friends of mine, but that doesn't mean I'll repair for free every time. A guy's gotta earn a living."
"Of course," Sora said.
"When are you planning on leaving?" Leon asked, suddenly in the room. I hadn't heard him come in, but I guess he was being discreet about it.
"This evening would be good, if we're ready by then," Sora seemed nervous and determined at the same time. "I want to start searching as soon as possible."
"Aw, you always leave so quickly!" Yuffie pouted. "Promise that you'll visit some time soon, 'kay?"
"Yeah, sure!" Sora gave his usual smile.
"I'll go with you all," Naminé decided. "If that's okay?"
"Well, of course it is!" Goofy exclaimed.
"You're always welcome here, too," Yuffie smiled. "All of you. It's good to have company!"
"If you still need to prepare for your trip," Leon said, "You should look around the shops here in Hollow Bastion. There are plenty of useful accessories and items around.
I'll loan you some munny, too." He walked up and gave Sora 3,000 munny. Then putting a hand on his shoulder said, "Be careful."
He then walked out.
"That Leon…" Yuffie complained, but she had a smile on her face. "He really can be nice!"
That made Sora and some of the others laugh, even Naminé. It felt so good to laugh.
I wished that I had a heart and could join them.
-----
"Be careful, all of you!" Yuffie said sternly.
After afternoon was spent loitering around shops and preparing for the journey ahead--they'd even bought new outfits--Sora was already a bit tired. But not enough to stop him from traveling to another world. He was determined to go.
"We will," Sora nodded.
"You sure you don't want to stay a bit longer?" Cid asked.
"We're all ready right now!" Sora smiled. "We'll be fine. See you!" Everyone had boarded the ship and the door started to close.
"Bye!" Yuffie said loudly, waving. Cid waved, too. Leon simply nodded at Sora.
Donald and Goofy waved through the window, and Sora joined in. Naminé gave a small wave, but was still being fairly quiet.
And then the ship took off.
-----
The navigators on the Gummi Ship, Chip and Dale, had said that it would be a few hours at the least before we reached another world. That gave Sora, Naminé, Donald, and Goofy time to sleep.
Or, in Sora and Naminé's case, to talk a bit.
"So what did you mean by 'before'?" Sora asked Naminé. Donald and Goofy were sound asleep in their seats. "You said DiZ was your boss…?"
"Yes," Naminé nodded. "He was."
"But why do you leave some stuff out?" Sora was getting a bit impatient. Though I'd only known him for a day, it seemed unlike him. He normally was more easygoing.
"I don't want you to…think badly of me," Naminé admitted.
"Why would I?" Sora shook his head. "But if I say that I won't…will you tell me?"
"If you really want to know…" she sighed. "So the real story…on your journey…you came across a place called Castle Oblivion…"
"Yeah?"
"When you went there, I'd altered your memories. They became all jumbled up," Naminé paused. "You could barely remember Kairi, since I had replaced her with myself in those memories. I had been lonely. But I promised I'd give your memories back, I'd fix them, if you wanted me to. After defeating Marluxia, who was a former member of the Organization, you agreed to let me fix your memories. You had to sleep for about a year, and while I worked on your memories…DiZ…supervised."
"…Wow," Sora wasn't sure what to say. It was difficult for him to take it all in. He felt a little bit angry that Naminé had once almost erased Kairi from his memories, but she seemed to regret it so much… "So…is there anything else about these Nobodies in me…?"
I listened more intently. If there was, then I wanted to know, too.
"Roxas was created when you freed your heart to save Kairi," Naminé explained. "But along with being your Nobody, he gained some of your memories. The organization created Xion as a duplicate of Roxas, so that they could have more with the keyblade's powers.
"Because she was copied from your Nobody, she gained some of the memories as well. This became a problem when you were asleep--while they had your memories, it was hard to fix yours. Almost impossible. Xion…made a decision to let you have what was yours back--your memories back. Then you could wake up. Upon doing so, Roxas joined the two of you, as well, it seems."
Sora was literally speechless. He was also tired, and the urge to sleep grew because he wanted to forget it for a little while. I was almost as amazed. How did Naminé find out all of this stuff, anyway?
Sora yawned. "I…I think I'll sleep a bit," he mumbled.
Naminé seemed to understand. "I'll rest, too. It's good for all of us, since we'll be traveling a lot more from now on."
"Yeah…" Sora closed his eyes and almost immediately fell into unconsciousness.
-----
"Do you think it would be possible to talk to Naminé without Sora hearing?" I asked dumbly. I knew it was a no, but if there was the slightest possibility, Xion would probably know.
"I'm…not sure," her answer surprised me. I'd honestly been expecting a no. "I'd thought about it before, but since when we take over his body he becomes an observer like us, wouldn't he still notice? And we can't sleep…so he would probably know."
"Hmm…" I wasn't sure what to think. Everything seemed so unreal lately, it didn't seem too crazy to believe the most unlikely things.
"Why do you want to talk to her without Sora, anyway?" Xion asked.
"She seems to know a lot," I replied. "Maybe she'll know what to do about Riku."
"True…" Xion sighed. "I wish we had our own bodies…our own hearts…things would be much simpler, wouldn't they?"
I couldn't argue. But…I wanted to reassure her. "Maybe we can get hearts, somehow," I suggested.
"What?" Xion looked at me as if she didn't know whether to go along with it, or argue. Hopeful, but also not wanting to disappoint herself. "But…I mean, that would be great and all…how??"
"We might find out along the way," I shrugged. I really had no idea. Sora's dreams were about to start, so I decided to wrap up the conversation. "But we can't give up!" I tried to give a reassuring smile.
"Ha," Xion smiled back. "Right."
((One side note for anyone who doesn't know yet (or did I mention this yesterday? I can't remember), I've uploaded part of the story from Xion's POV. A very small part. But it's easy to find, it's currently my only other fanfic, and titled "Last Whispers."
Just letting you know in case you want to read it ^_^))