Leon's house, as he said, was only temporary. It was small and was overtop of some clothing store in Traverse Town. It was two rooms and his other roommate he said was off doing something odd. Her name was Yuffie and we could tell she was a messy person and Leon was neat.
"What kind of help do you need?" I asked, taking a hold of my glass of water and feeling the sweat on the outside rub off on my hands. Leon sat down with his glass on water and watched as Nessa took a drink.
"I'm not sure where to start," He said, looking at his glass.
"The beginning is usually good," Nessa replied. A hint of a smile played on his lips.
"Very well," He took a quick sip of his water, "Let's see. There has been a legend, from the world I come from, for as long as anyone can remember. There was an idea that a staff, shield, and sword would come and alter the fates of all the worlds. They would send the darkness back into itself and bring light. Each one would symbolize the different forms of light. Pure light, mystic light, and the absence of light and together they would hold back the evil gathering the darkness and send it away."
"Now are we talking figuratively or literally about the weapons?" I asked. Nessa giggled but Leon looked at me seriously.
"In a way its both. Because obviously a staff, shield, and sword couldn't just make themselves come and banish the evil, but in a sense they are. The people wielding these weapons have to trust in them, but they also must believe in themselves," He explained. I sat back and thought for a moment.
"Well if we're actually supposed to save the worlds," I started—
"Then that must be why Maleficent took Rachel!" Nessa finished. Leon looked at her, his brow wrinkling slightly.
"You mean the sword bearer isn't in Traverse Town, helping out Sora or whatever?" He asked. I nodded slowly and Nessa looked down at her hands, which were folded delicately in her lap. "Oh."
"She's obviously evil and has all intentions of keeping us from banishing the darkness," Nessa thought aloud, her face extremely thoughtful, "but why then take Rachel and not you or me?"
"Coincidence?" I suggested, "She was out in the open and we were hiding." I felt incredibly guilty.
"No," Leon said. I looked at him. His eyes left Nessa's and rested on mine. "Rachel carries the sword, correct?" We nodded. "Well the sword is usually known to be extremely powerful, in some ways more so than the staff and shield, but in other ways not. This power influences the bearer to want to take on things much bigger than what they already have and makes them hungry for power."
"So even if it was just coincidence Rachel was out in the open Maleficent got the girl she was seeking the entire time," Nessa said. I sat back in my chair and listened, "Since she carries the sword and is easily tempted that means she can be put against us." Nessa grabbed my arm and I looked into her deep brown eyes, and we both knew the same thing, "Rachel does like power."
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A few hours later with our bellies full, food provided by Leon, we were back in the gateway waiting for Sora and the others.
"So what's the plan?" Nessa asked.
"Don't you usually have the plan?" I retorted, crossing my legs and leaning against a hot lamppost, ignoring the slight burning I felt in my shoulder. She shrugged and I sighed, uncrossing my arms and fiddling with the strings on my pants. "Well I suppose we ride along with Sora, Donald, and Goofy to gather enough information to strike out on our own. I'm sure some people will help us, seeing as how we're supposed to be saviors and all."
"Yeah, you've got a point. But what if we can't find anything?" I started to panic a little, knowing my sturdy rock Nessa wasn't so sturdy.
"We have to find something. In the worst case scenario she'll attack us and we'll have to fight her. I mean come on, it's two against one." I tried to play it off cool but the look shared between us was enough to say we knew it wouldn't be easy. Nessa sighed and dropped her head.
"HEY GUYS!" Sora was running across the courtyard towards us. He stopped in front of us and held out the keyblade. "Check this out!" He pulled a lamp shaped key chain out of his pocket and clipped it onto the hook at the end of the keyblade. A bright flash nearly blinded us but when the white spots dissipated I could see his keyblade was differently shaped.
"What happened to it?" I asked, admiring the now golden and longer shape of it.
"I'm not exactly sure," He admitted slowly. "But whenever we leave a world I get another one that reminds me of it and sometimes magic is easier and other times its just plain easier to beat stuff up." I laughed.
"That's great Sora," Nessa laughed. Donald and Goofy finally reached us.
"Are you guys ready to go?" Goofy asked. We nodded. "Alright climb aboard the Gummy Ship and we'll take off shortly." As we walked towards the gate Nessa was hanging back slightly. When I peeked over my shoulder she was giving googly-eyed waves to Leon. I rolled my eyes and laughed.