Chapter 36—Onwards

Cloud sat beside the bed, his mind only wrapped around the man who lay silently on the bed. Near him was Tifa, a silent sentry, her deep brown eyes looking out the window into the late morning sky. Somewhere with in the bowels of the house were the others, waiting. Waiting for good news, waiting for bad news. Waiting for something that would make this easier. Leon was physically fine now. They'd managed to find an elixir and find a master mage to perform a curaga. And yet, all he did was fall into a coma-like state.

"We can't idle like this for long." Tifa murmured as she hopped up onto the windowsill.

"And what are we supposed to do without the guide?" He asked as he turned to face her, glaring with all his might, what was left of it anyways.

"Yuffie Kisaragi-Loire is a guide as well, incase you have forgotten."

"But she's—"

"I know."

"What the… what the hell are you all still doing here?!" Leon's voice was as angry as he ever heard it, though the monotone was still as strong as ever.

"Waiting for you to wake up." Tifa stated. "You apparently were taking a rather long nap."

"What about the others? Have they gone on?"

"No. We're a team." Cloud stated fiercely. "You know that." Leon closed his eyes and sighed deeply.

"As much as I hate to say this…. I understand." He sat up slowly. "You all must have pulled out the big guns… I don't hurt at all."

"It's only natural." Tifa murmured and then Leon fully turned and looked at her.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"The mission to retrieve Roxas was a success. Unfortunately… he's currently being examined by Areith to try and understand what exactly it was the Olette did to him. Well, the 'other' Olette anyways."

"Hn." He swung his legs off the bed and headed for the door without another word.

"Hey!" Tifa got up to follow him but Cloud stopped her.

"Don't worry about it. He's just going to check up on Sora and the others. He cares more then he lets on."

"You know… he reminds me of a mother lion."

"Don't ever let him hear you say that."

Saïx had run out of patience with Luxord. It seemed that no matter where the chips would lay, so to speak that the gambler nobody would never sully his hands. Their numbers had become few as it was. And of all the people to have left with him, Luxord had not been high on his list. He found the nobody, number ten sitting on a lone balcony looking up into the almost completed Kingdom Hearts. He turned with a smile and a glint in his blue eyes. False emotion or no, Luxord had always been a good actor, the Lunar Divider noted.

"It's amazing isn't it? Almost enough to make you wonder if you could feel happiness!" Luxord cried as he slapped the silver haired nobody on the back.

"I think I'll say happiness for when I have received my heart." Saïx took a step back from the yellow haired nobody. "I've come to speak with you about a new mission."

"Ah, a mission for old Luxord. And while I'm off scrambling about to not get a key shoved through my chest what shall you and the Superior be doing?"

"Actually, you won't be risking your neck at all Luxord. You're mission is very simply. Lead the Trinity here."

"Here?! That's a bold move we'd be making." Luxord pointed out quietly. "That's a seriously bad looking gamble."

"Haven't you looked at it? Kingdom Hearts is almost complete! All we have to do is sacrifice the Trinity and it will be complete. If it is a large gamble it's only because the stakes are high. But they are highly in our favor as well. This place is utter darkness. It will tear at the Road to Light and it will cripple the Keyblade Master."

"And what of the wielder of Oblivion… She will have a natural ability not to be affected by the darkness."

"A member of the Trinity alone will not be a match for any of us. You know that Luxord. Only united, fully united in light are they at their strongest. In a place like this, we are at the advantage."

"Are we at an advantage? Or do you have a plan that could spell dire consequences for a member of our Organization." Luxord asked with suspicious eyes. Not that Saïx blamed him.

"Of course not. I would assume that you Luxord, Gambler of Fate knows the best way to play a hand."

Sora leaned into Riku as they sat on the rooftop of the Radiant Café. So much had happened in such a short amount of time. It was amazing to really think about who he was, who Riku was before all this had happened. They were stronger for it, more mature. Some of their surprisingly ugly traits had faded into the mist of the adolescence that they had rapidly left behind. As they basked in the fading light he wondered of a way to word what he felt to Riku when he noticed something in the darkening sky.

"Do you see that?" He asked as he pulled out of Riku's arms and stood up on the ledge.

"Sora don't take risks like…" Riku trailed off as he saw what his young love did.

In the sky, twinkling with insidious light, almost like a blood red moon was a heart where the moon should have been. The very sight of it gave Sora bone deep chills at the terrible power it must have held.

"That must be the artifact." Riku murmured as he pulled Sora back off the ledge and really looked like it. "The pictures my father showed me really don't do it justice. Kingdom Hearts looks crueler then anything I've ever seen before."

"That's Kingdom Hearts?" Sora turned to look up into aqua eyes and Riku nodded quietly. "Then that means that Xemnas has—"

"It's not complete…" Riku scrubbed a hand through silvery locks and sighed softly as he walked away from Sora before he turned and spoke again. "Kingdom Hearts requires a large sacrifice as you've seen from the various worlds that we've seen attacked and abused by the heartless. But furthermore… each heartless that we destroy… You, me, Kairi, Leon and Yuffie… we built kingdom hearts… With these blades." He called the Way to Dawn to his hands.

"Why… why didn't you tell me this?! Does Leon know? Or Yuffie? Or Kairi?!" Sora asked as he glared at Riku, who only nodded solemnly. "Then why didn't you tell me?!"

"Sora… You do realize that Heartless and Nobodies… were once… are merely people that have split into to entities?" Riku asked as he put away his blade and walked closer.

"What are you trying to say?" Sora asked as he stared at Riku, causing the older young man to sigh softly, unable to look him in the eye.

"We're killing them Sora. Nobodies have the ability to do that too… Strong ones like Axel and Roxas when they were Nobodies. The hearts that now comprised Kingdom Hearts… they'll never return to their bodies… They will remain nobodies until they're killed. Hearts whose nobody has been killed by us will…"

"That's not true!" Sora cried tears filling his eyes. "How can we have all this power and still not be able to save them! How could we be the ones contributing to their deaths!" The brunette yelled and Riku flinched.

This, he believed was why there was a Trinity. Just the mere knowledge was breaking Sora, how could the boy, barely a man handle putting this into practice? He closed the space that kept him separated from Sora and buried his face into the soft spikes that created his hair.

"Think of the people that you're saving." He whispered.

"That's not enough! I did this… I wanted to do this to save those that had become Heartless… Not kill them! Riku… do something!" He cried and the Riku could feel guilt curling around the edges of his heart. He knew there was nothing he could do to change this. The guilt would probably weigh on Sora until the day he died.

"Shhh." He whispered as he rocked him gently. "I didn't want to tell you because… I didn't want you to hurt." Riku sighed softly. "I love you Sora."

The cinnamon haired boy slowly looked up, luminous eyes filled with tears as he looked at the one he loved most. He looked beyond his lover and at Kingdom Hearts, the large luminous artifact that it was his job to destroy.

"So they became that… Some kind of floating artifact."

"Yes."

"And there's no way to revive them from being apart of that?"

"No." Riku was sure it was safer to stick to his one word answers.

"I'm going to kill Xemnas for this. All this useless sacrifice! All this pain and all this sadness. We would have been happy here Riku… and he ruined our lives. He ruined our lives and everyone else's!" Sora screamed as he curled his hands into fists against the older boy's chest.

"Sora… Sora… Calm down. You've got to calm down." Riku replied as he pulled him close.

"I want to find him… I want to… kill him." Those words sound particularly strange coming out of Sora's mouth, Riku mused.

"We're going to stop him Sora. He's not going to complete this insane plan. That I promise you." Riku whispered solemnly.

Sora nodded dumbly, he just still couldn't wrap his mind around it. He was really killing people, not saving them like he'd thought... like he'd hoped and believed in deep inside.

Luxord wasn't sure of how he was supposed to go about inviting the Trinity to The World that Never Was and to be honest, he really didn't want them there. That was his home turf and if he was going to die, he would prefer that it be as a warrior on the field instead of a coward hiding within that dreary castle that Xemnas had built.

Not that he really had any choice in this. By now, Kingdom Hearts was like a moon in the otherwise dark sky, fat with hearts and drunk with the power that those poor angered hearts had given it. It was sinister he mused, a large floating artifact that held the anger of so many hearts. It rather looked like the heart of a world. But Luxord knew that the hearts of worlds were thick and filled with metal or lava. Something just as toxic and unfriendly as the heart shaped moon floating in the sky.

By now, Kingdom Hearts had gotten powerful enough to begin connecting the World that Never Was to Radiant Garden. The heart almost completely full and ready to connect with its base. But before that, it need one last big sacrifice. And for that Xemnas had chosen the keyblade trinity. The very people who were trying to stop the silver haired megalomaniac from wielding Kingdom Heart's great power.

Luxord always knew that Xemnas was a betting man. And when he bet, he liked to risk it all. Luxord, himself, would have erred on the side of caution and used the souls of a planet they hadn't yet stretched their influence to. He decided not to concern himself with such trivialities as 'what ifs' and focused on the here and now. How the hell was he supposed to lure the Keyblade Master to the World that Never Was without using himself as bait?

The plan materialized before his eyes and he thought of a certain witch and lackey team that could very well be the key.