((Wow, already Chapter 16. Longest chapter so far, I think...
This one is a little bit weird (I think). Mostly towards the end. But I'll let you read and find out.
Thank you all for the reviews on this, once again!
I'm got writer's block on both this and my other fanfic, though...it's kinda bad...but the block seems to be...shrinking. Letting me think of ideas some more. Yay~
Anyway, enough of my talking, enjoy~))
DAY 402 ~ Invasion
(Chapter 16)
"Wake up, you three! We're about to land!"
Sora was jerked out of his sleep by these words, and groaned, opening his eyes only slightly. But when he realized where he was, that got him up comepletely.
"Where are we landing?" Goofy asked.
"At Beast's Castle," Chip explained. "It's the closest planet we could get to, and since we've been flying so long it's a good idea to land."
"Sounds good to me," Sora yawned. Then he turned to Naminé, who was quietly drawing beside him. "Did you sleep well?"
"Oh…well I actually couldn't sleep that long. Only an hour or two. So I've just been drawing," She looked down at her current sketch--Sora and I were both in it, looking as if we were about to fight. But…why?
"Oh…" Sora looked at the drawing with some interest, but didn't know who I was in it. Or maybe he just ignored me? "You should try to catch up on sleep, when you can."
Naminé simply nodded. She turned back toner drawing and started to sketch in some details.
"And, we're here!" Dale announced. I was eager to see the world again--at least it was familiar to me.
But as soon as Sora stepped out…I sensed that something was wrong. It felt wrong.
'Do you feel that, too?' Xion asked, thinking the same thing.
'Yeah…' I wondered what was up. Everything looked the same. Just a regular night, the statues all standing tall around the yard. It was just that the…atmosphere was eerie.
Sora and his friends approached the castle's front doors. He knocked, but at first there was no response. "Anyone there!?" he shouted.
No response. Then Sora heard something landing behind him. He looked, and it was a…clock?
'It's that talking clock,' Xion noticed.
'Yeah, but why did he just suddenly land on the ground…?'
"Who are you?" the clock asked with some kind of mix between curiosity and a demand.
"I could ask the same to you…where are the Beast and Belle?" Sora almost got out his keyblade, but decided that a peaceful approach might be better.
"You know them?" the clock asked. "Oh…oh, will you help us?" he began to plead. "The Master…Belle…such a big problem…"
"Whoa, wait, what happened?" I was glad Sora asked. I wanted to know, too.
"Well, come inside, just for a moment…I have to explain quickly…oh, we're in trouble…"
The clock continued his moaning as Sora helped him open the front door. "Close it tightly," he said to Sora, after everyone was inside.
There were many other objects around the room. More than I'd ever seen at the castle. Lamps, desks, dishes…were they all under the spell?
"So what happened?" Goofy asked.
"Well…the Master had been acting strange, lately…for quite a while now…" the clock began. "He and Belle got in an argument, and she left with only her cloak and the enchanted mirror that the Master gave her. Chip…Mrs. Potts' son…he followed Belle and came back here. But the other villagers are planning an attack on the Master!
They think he is a beast! Oh, what should we do? Our Master has locked himself in his room…"
'Well, he is a beast…' Sora thought to himself. 'Do you know what to do?' he seemed to finally remember about Xion and I.
'We should help them…but we can't destroy the people like we can with the heartless,' I replied. 'Maybe you should try to talk to the villagers?'
'That's a good idea,' Sora agreed. Then spoke out loud, "We can go talk to the villagers and try to stop them. Naminé…maybe you should stay here, it might be safer."
"Are you sure that will work?" the clock asked nervously.
"It's worth a try," Sora shrugged. "What is your name, anyway?"
"Cogsworth," the clock gave a slight smile. I'd only Ever seen him worried, so this surprised me a bit.
"I'm Sora."
"Be careful," Naminé told Sora, as he started to turn for the door.
Sora gave his usual care-free grin. "I will."
Then Sora, Donald, and Goofy headed out of the castle's grounds.
-----
The three started down a path in the forest, but eventually came to a fork in the road.
"I knew we should have asked for directions, first!" Donald complained. "So which way are we supposed to go!?"
"Uhh…" But before Sora had time to make a decision, some heartless appeared. Shadows. "This way! Let's defeat these heartless!"
And the three engaged in battle. They managed to take out the heartless fairly quickly, despite having been asleep for a year. Sora led the way down the path, and they finally made it to the village.
But the streets were empty. No sign of villagers teaming up, anywhere.
"Come on, let's look around a bit more," Sora suggested.
After a while they came across an isolated house that was surrounded by countryside. They explored around it a little, but when Sora was passing by the cellar door I thought I heard someone. That 'someone' sounded like she was saying "Is anyone there?! Help!"
'Did you two hear that, too?' Sora asked. He wondered if he was hearing voices, again or something.
'Yeah,' I replied.
'It sounded like…Belle,' Xion noticed.
"Donald! Goofy! Help me get this door open!" Sora bent down and saw that there was a padlock and chain on it. Someone had locked it from the outside. "Belle, can you hear me?"
"Sora?" Belle's voice was muffled.
"Yeah," Sora answered. "Goofy and Donald, too. We're gonna try to get you out."
Sora was really worried. It was…strange, because I remember having felt like that while I had my own body. But…didn't Nobodies have no heart? How could I have felt worry?
"Try to stay away from the door," Sora warned. Donald was about to cast a spell of some sort when more heartless appeared.
"Not again!?" Sora groaned. He summoned his keyblade and the three began to fight off the dark creatures.
When the battle was over, Donald sent a lightning bolt at the padlock to try and break it open.
"I don't think magic is such a good idea," Sora then looked at the giant key in his hands. "But…maybe this sword can unlock it."
He pointed the keyblade at the padlock, and immediately it sprang open. Sora bent down and opened the cellar door to see Belle tied up inside.
Donald and Goofy went inside to untie her, and Sora followed. "What happened?"
"Gaston and the men of the village…they wanted to destroy the Beast. They knew I would try to interfere, so Gaston trapped me here."
"They already left??"
Belle nodded. "I only wish I could've stopped them…"
"We have to go back to the castle," Sora stated. "To help. And Naminé's back there, too…"
"Well we have to hurry, then!" Donald exclaimed.
Sora nodded, and they retraced their path back to the castle. When they arrived, many of the villagers were already starting to retreat.
"Where's the Beast's room?"
Sora asked no one in particular.
'I can take you to it,' I offered.
'Okay.'
Naminé was right inside the doors when I walked Sora in.
"The Beast is…"
"I know," I replied. "We're going to help him. You should hide…it's not safe."
Naminé nodded. "Thank you…Roxas."
It wasn't until I was already running up the stairs that I realized that somehow Naminé knew it was me and not Sora speaking. I decided to think about that later, and just focused on getting Sora to the Beast's room.
Once I did, Sora took control of his body again. He looked around the Beast's room, with Donald and Goofy close behind.
"It's empty…" Then Sora heard a noise outside. One of the statues breaking, it sounded like.
Sora was about to follow, when suddenly the fight came inside. Gaston and the Beast wrestled, one occasionally winning the upper hand for only a few moments before the other took took control.
Belle suddenly came in, out of breath. "Gaston!" she exclaimed in horror. "No!" Before Sora could stop her, she ran up and futilely tried to push him off.
Gaston pushed her away abruptly and she fell to the ground. But this only enraged the Beast. He attacked Gaston with full force, which sent him out one of the windows…but not before he landed a knife into the Beast's side. Though the Beast managed to pull it out, it was obvious that he was in great pain.
Still, the Beast went to Belle's side. He helped her get up, though he was having trouble himself.
"You're hurt…" Belle's voice was filled with worry.
"It's…nothing," the Beast said.
"Well then, you shouldn't mind fighting me again," Gaston was in the room then--had he climbed back through the window?
"Please don't…" Belle pleaded.
Sora then realized that he could defend the Beast. Him and his friends.
Sora summoned his keyblade and faced Gaston, in a fighting stance. Donald and Goofy backed him up. "Leave them alone," Sora demanded.
Gaston chuckled. In a twisted kind of way. "And a kid like you is going to stop me? He's a monster. Monsters need to be destroyed, for our safety."
"He's more than that!" Sora shouted. He ran up and swung his keyblade at the enemy. Gaston tried to dodge, but didn't get away without a scratch. Sora kept attacking, and Gaston was beginning to get worn out. Without a weapon, there wasn't much that he could do.
At the worst time possible, some heartless showed up in the room. "We can handle this!" Donald said. Goofy nodded his agreement, and the two fought off the heartless, giving Sora time to deal with Gaston.
But he didn't have to fight for very long. Gaston got very worn out. "Why do you fight me?" he demanded. "He's the monster!"
"He has a better heart than you do," Sora said. Then he landed one final blow that knocked Gaston unconscious.
Sora turned back to Belle and the Beast--Donald and Goofy had also defeated the heartless by then--and saw that the Beast was staring at his rose. The one that, before, it had seemed like he was protecting.
"No…" he looked shocked. "The final petal…it's…"
Sora looked over at the rose. It had one petal left, one that was about to wilt as the others had.
Belle stroked his face, trying to comfort him. "I'm here. I…love you." She blushed after saying this, as if she were even surprised at herself, but she didn't correct her statement.
"I love you, too."
And the spell was broken.
-----
It's almost impossible to explain what the transformation looked like. But I think we were all glad that the curse on the castle had been broken.
We said our goodbyes outside the castle. "Feel free to come back anytime," the former beast/prince offered. "And…thank you for everything."
"What world are we headed to, now?" Sora asked in a low voice. Naminé was asleep, and Donald and Goofy were almost there.
"We don't know for sure, yet," Dale said.
"We're still looking for a world that we can get into," Chip added. "We'll let you know when we find something."
Sora nodded, and he decided to get some more sleep as well.
-----
"Roxas," Xion walked up to me, smiling, when the white surrounded us again. "I figured something out!"
"Uhh…what is it?" I asked. "You seem really excited."
"Yeah, even though we're Nobodies…" Xion paused. "But anyway…I found out that somehow we can sleep, while Sora's awake. We don't really get physically tired unless Sora is, but when I woke up I felt really hopeful for no reason!"
"Sleep?" I repeated. Xion nodded. "How?"
"I don't know…I kinda just willed myself to sleep without taking control of Sora's body, and then I did. I didn't really dream…but I was back in this. Surrounded by white." Xion paused. "Occasionally I saw some of my memories…but anyway…This might not work, but do you think we can take control of Sora's body while he sleeps? Then we could talk to Naminé alone, like you wanted to."
"But wouldn't he notice if he didn't dream?" I asked. Really, I wanted to find out if we could, but what if something went wrong? And why would Xion feel hopeful if she's a Nobody?
"I don't know," Xion answered truthfully. But her smile didn't leave. "We could try, though. Right now, even!"
"So do you want me to try it out?" I felt like that was what she was implying.
"If you want," Xion said.
I did.
-----
It felt weird. It was almost the same as when I was in Sora's mind, but this time it felt like I was in a body of my own. I wished that was true. I wish that I had a heart, too…
Then I remembered what I had actually taken over Sora's body for. To see if it worked, and it did. So I closed me eyes to go back to sleep…
-----
"How was it?" Xion asked, eager for news.
"It was…well, it worked." I wasn't sure what else to say. "Did Sora show up in this…his mind?" That was a weird question.
"No, I think he was in his dreams," Xion shook her head. "But now at least we know more about this…weird situation."
It definitely felt weird.