Chapter 72: Broken Chains
"Amnesia?" Sora repeated, finding himself fill with guilt for thinking that he was always hiding something from him and the others.
Basil nodded, "It seems that he has post-traumatic event which would be the cause of the head injury. Guessing by how long the injury has been here, I'm can see that he first suffered with Anterograde Amnesia for a couple of months before transferring to Retrograde Amnesia." Basil continued to examine Brian.
"Hmm, Basil? What are the difference between Ant-o-grade and Retro-grade?" Sora asked, also wondering if Brian was ever told about this.
"Anterograde amnesia is basically long term memory loss so that he wouldn't recall anything after his injury for those months while Retrograde amnesia is the distinct inability to recall some memory or memories of the past, beyond ordinary forgetfulness." Basil looked back at Brian, "There might be a chance that Devon will recover his memory through dreams and flashbacks but gaining them can sometimes lead to him having painful headaches or…"
"…blackouts." Sora finished. He knew that Basil was right; all he had to do was to wait until Brian woke up and tell him from the heart the real reason for his bad memory.
"Now, Devon here mentioned that the two of you are looking for an item of some sort." Basil spoke up. "One that has a special power to it."
Sora looked at Basil with confusion, "When did he tell you that?"
"He had contacted me before coming to Mousedom." Basil answered, explaining how he might have known of Brian's random appearance through the door. "Informing me that the item that you seek is in the hands of the very person that I am searching for." Basil rushed over to his armchair and stood on it as he spoke.
"Who is it that you are searching for?" Sora asked, wondering why Basil had decided to place himself on the armchair like he was telling a scary story.
Basil pointed to the picture above his fireplace, where a picture of a well dressed rat sits on the mantle frame. "The nefarious Professor Ratigan!" Flames in the fire burst and lightning strikes at the mere mention of the rat. "He's a genius, Sora." Basil said as he was leaning over the top of the armchair before ducking down to reappear at the side. "A genius... twisted for evil." Basil then moved in front of the armchair. "The Napoleon of crime!"
"It sounds like you have encountered him before?" Sora pointed, he turned around to look to see if Brian was waking up only to find Basil in his face.
"For years, I've tried to capture him and I've come close." Basil started as he stood in front of the picture and holds his fist out towards the picture "so very close. But each time he's narrowly evaded my grasp. Not a corner of London's safe while Ratigan's at large. There's no evil scheme he wouldn't concoct! No depravity he wouldn't commit. And with the Endless on his side, who knows what scheme he is plotting as we speak." Basil sighed towards the picture with disappointment before collapsing on the armchair.
"How do we find Ratigan?" Sora asked.
Basil shook out of his sorrow and stood in front of Sora once more, "It's been shown that the Order's member has her main Unbirths visit Ratigan's hideout." Basil informed him, "All I need you to do is to try and collect an Unbirth that is under the Endless' command so I can extract the chemical that will confirm my experiment a success!" Basil smiled cheesy.
"Right." Sora understood, it sounded a bit difficult but properly nothing that he couldn't handle.
Sora went to step out the door when Basil spoke up, "It is also important that you do not think about the ones you care about while you are around the Endless." Basil warned him as he began to get his equipment ready for his experiment. "Love can lead to many fears and weaknesses in the heart which can lead for the heart to make the wrong decision."
"Right…" Sora sighed sadly, now the task had gotten a little harder. With Kairi in his mind, trying to find a way to make it up to her, it's going to be hard to go unnoticed. Sora turned to face Brian once more before looking at Basil, "Do you think that you can find more about him?" Sora referred to Brian, "So that he could recover some of his memories."
Basil didn't face Sora as he replied, "A clouded past can cover many clues but many secrets that are best to kept secret.
BOWBOWBOW
As the grey and brown mouse steps outside of Basil's house and to the dark streets of London, he could see that it was still heavily raining. "Right. Looks like I have to search in the rain." Sora hummed before tilting his head up slightly, "Kinda refreshing." He added as the only world that Sora had been to when it had rained was The World That Never Was. Sora stood in the rain for a while having his relaxing moment interrupted by Unbirths. Sora could see that they were just the regular Unbirths that appear continuing. Sora summoned the Kingdom Key and began to fight the Unbirth, it took a while since he can't use his element but he managed to defeat them. After the Unbirths were gone, Sora sighed. "Nothing." He said. What other places did Basil mention? Sora quickly cast protect above him to cover himself from the rain. He used his wet paws to search through his pockets before pulling out a map and opened it in front of him. Right I better check the others…I'll head for George Street.
Sora began to run towards George Street, the next street that connects to Baker's Street. When he got there, he could see that a couple of Shadow and Neoshadow Heartless were wondering around but there was no sign of any Unbirths. No Unbirths. I must be getting further away. Sora stepped away to avoid the Heartless and pulled the map out again. Looking at the streets that connect to George Street will get me nowhere. I better look at the other streets that connect to Baker's street. Maybe Portman Close first. After running a few hundred miles of streets and fighting the Unbirths that remained on Baker Street, Sora managed to reach Portman Close. As soon as he got there, he was blasted at by a number of Soul-mage Endless and a Fat Unbirth as well. This is going to take awhile…
The Soul-mages began to cast a number of strong magic at him, making Sora cast reflect to bounce most of the attacks, the rest that were not reflected struck him directly. Sora was pushed back a bit but was able to dodge the speeding attack of the Fat Unbirth. As soon as Sora dodged the attack, he was struck in the back by a fire element spell. Sora fell to the floor as he watched the Keyblade skid away from him. Sora went to summon his Keyblade back to his hand but the Keyblade was being unresponsive again, like when he was fight Sa'luk. The Fat Unbirth grabbed the fallen Keyblader and threw him into the brick wall, creating a crater which Sora stayed in. The Soul-mages turned towards him and began to fire at him once more. Sora managed to kick out of his daze in time as he kicked himself off the wall, to be able to dodge the magic attacks, and fly right above them. Sora summoned his Keyblade once more and began to strike down, "Earth!" Sora slammed his Keyblade to the ground so that the virbrations would cast huge rocks to destroy the Soul-mages. The Fat Unbirth still remained though as its large mass protected it from most of the impact. Sora knew that he couldn't use his drives or his element but he did wonder if he could use his limits and summons. Sora began to charge towards the Unbirth at high speeds. As soon as Sora was behind it, he began to deal heavy slashes as he began to perform 'Sonic Blade'. The last slash was the strongest of them all as Sora managed to bat the Fat Unbirth away from him before holding onto his Keyblade for support.
The last Unbirth fell to darkness as Sora quickly caught his breathe, taking the toll of the battle. The Unbirths…gah…are defiantly stronger here. Sora quickly cured himself as the green vines wrapped around him and healed his every cut before disposing of his Keyblade. Lizza and her Unbirth must be close. Sora travels to the end of the road, hiding in case of running into Lizza. He looked around the corner to see that there were only Blinks on the next street. Huh? The Unbirths are back to being Blinks. Sora turned back to Portman Street to see an alleyway, Maybe this alleyway will lead me to them. He began to go down the alleyway sneakily, preventing to draw any attention as he was low on maga and had only one potion left. He began to walk pass a wooden fence when he noticed a small hole at the bottom of the fence. Sora's curiosity kicked in as he wondered what could be on the other side, he decided to take the chance and crawl through the hole.
On the other side, he found himself in a garden where the grass seemed to be much taller then him. Sora quickly placed himself behind a forgotten bottle of wine as he saw some Unbirths control the area. He could see that they were Lizza's Endless from the fact that they looked like huge rose buds. Right. Now all I have to do is to grab one of-
"There is defiantly something there, sir." A feminine voice said. Sora slowly went to the other side of the wine bottle that he was hiding behind to see that Lizza was talking through the com as she stood near her camp. Since her helmet was off, Sora could see that see had turned into a mouse too, only difference was that her face was sharper since she was a female and that he fur was golden blonde. If Lizza didn't have her claw showing, you would mistake her as a normal mouse resident. "His heart is yelling for her presence but maybe knowing that he's an Endless made him insure about himself." Lizza continued to speak through the com.
Is she talking about Brian? Sora wondered before shaking his head. I shouldn't be wasting time. The quicker we finish this world, the sooner I can make it up to Kairi.
Lizza stopped speaking through the com as her claw began to glow brightly. "Hold on, sir." She turned to her two Guard Unbirths, who had gotten bored of patrolling the area. "Search for the love-struck intruder." She commanded, making the Unbirth jump and spring into actions.
HOW DID SHE KNOW I WAS- Oh right! I thought about Kairi. Sora quickly said through his head after see the Unbirth move hastily into action.
"THAT DIRECTION!" Lizza shouted to them.
Sora realised that he had just given away his position again because of his thoughts. Maybe…I can use their approach as an advantage. Sora quickly fled through the hole which he came through.
The two Rose Bud Unbirth went through the hole in the fence and began to search the alleyway. The two looked down the alleyway to see that they were no sign of anything. The two began to go down the alleyway in search of the intruder, passing a number of huge, everyday rubbish. They slowly passed a forgotten boot but the one that was ahead didn't realise that it comrade had disappeared. It went to turn around on its partner when it heard something, "Freeze!" Before the Unbirth could react, it had been frozen in place.
"Magnet!" Sora casted as he watched his captured Unbirth come towards him. Sora looked around to see if any more was coming before looking back at his prize with a grin on his face. "I guess that day of trading training routines with Riku really did come in handy." It's like a huge game of hide and seek.
BOWBOWBOW
"Owwww!" Brian groaned as the pain from fighting Lizza rushed through his body, who knew the girl could strike that fast. Brian deficiently preferred her when she was a Neutral, there was more flirting then fighting.
"There will be an after effect to the antidote as it takes a while to get rid of the poison."
Brian breathed in heavily as he pushed himself up from the hard surfaced bed that he was currently laying on. "That explains the taste in my mouth." Brian gagged. He looked up at the source of the voice to see that a mouse in a brown coat was staying in front of him. "So you must be the Great Mouse Detective. You don't look like much." Brian yawned.
"Well you, my good friend, are Brian Devon. Taking the name that your foster father had given you in the Order as well as taking Devon as a surname when you had reached Little Devon." Basil began to tell Brian's life story. "The main reason for you to arrive in Little Devon was to save the-"
"Okay. Okay. You've made your point!" Brian stopped him there. He wondered if everyone knew more about him then he does himself.
"Did you manage to get it?" Basil asked him, changing the subject.
Brian began searching his jean pockets, "I got close to my death but I got it." Brian confirmed as he pulled out a small list and handled it over to Basil, "You have no idea where Lizza kept that list." Brian chuckled slightly.
"Yes….I think I just found out." Basil said with disgust before he began to examine the checklist with his magnifying glass, Brian watched with wonder. "Offhand, I can deduce very little. Only that the words are written with a broad pointed quill pen which has spattered, twice. That the paper is of…" Basil began to weight the paper in his fingertips. "Native Mongolian manufacture, no water mark. And has…" Basil tasted the piece of paper; Brian started to think that Basil was just plain weird now. "…been gummed, if I'm not very much in error…" Basil smelled the checklist, only to pull it away with disgust. "…by a bat who has been drinking Rodent's Delight! A cheap brandy sold only in the seediest pubs."
"Wait? A bat?" Brian questioned.
Basil turned back to him, "A bat that works for Ratigan, goes by the name of Fidget." Basil explained, "Now all I need is that Unbirth and I can see if the Endless has the same sort of drink substance on the Unbirth so I can pinpoint the location to Ratigan's hideout." Brian heard the front door open as well as someone sneezing. As soon as Basil heard the sneeze, he went out of the room to welcome the person. "Ahh Sora, you're back. Did you get the Unbirth?"
Brian shook his head as the two went into a conversation as he jumped out of his bed and went out of the front door and stood outside for some flesh air. He was wondering whether to help Sora with the Kairi situation. He was still angered by what Sora had said and a part of him felt that he couldn't trust him if it was going to be a regular basic. Sora has to figure it out on his own. I can't intervene. Brian looked up and he could see that the rain began to die down but a fog began to appear, preventing Brian to look up at the stars. He never knew why looking at the stars comforts him, it's as if the stars carry stories that warms his hearts but remains forgotten.
"Brian." He turned around to see that Sora had joined him, properly to escape Basil's experiment explosions. "What are you doing out here?" Sora asked him.
"I was hoping that the stars would show." Brian smiled sadly, "But looks like they are clouded as well."
Sora sighed before looking up at Brian. "There's something that Basil found out while you were asleep." Sora said with a low tone.
Brian faced Sora with a questionable look. "What is it?" Brian asked. "What did he find out?"
"How did you and Hikari meet?" Sora asked suddenly.
Brian looked at him strangely, "What has that got to do with anything?" he questioned.
"It has to do with everything." Sora replied. "Can you answer the question?"
Brian felt as if Sora was questioning how important his friendship is to him, making him anger grow within him. "Of course I can answer that!" Brian raged, "I met Hikari at—when the…..in Little Devon." Brian quickly responded. Sora looked at Brian, waiting for an answer. "FINE! I don't bloody remember! Are you happy now?!" He admitted with anger before he turned to enter the house, enough with the conversation.
"I know why." Sora spoke up, making Brian freeze when his hand reached for the door handle. "You've forgotten everything from before the Recon Mission. You try and remember but you find that you can't and would even avoid the question in hand whenever Hikari or Max talks about it." Sora watched Brian as he remained in place. "You have Amnesia, Brian."
Brian still remained frozen as the truth of another secret was told to him. "You're lying." Brian muttered quietly, refusing to believe it.
"It covers why you don't know the Order but they know you. It covers your blackouts, your strange dreams....the fact that you're an Endless and you didn't even know it..."
"SHUT UP!" Brian shouted as he turned to Sora with a pained expression, "You don't know me! You have never known me! Why don't you go back to soaking about Kairi? That's all you seem to be good at."
"Would you had rather have me keep this from you like your brothers have obliviously done?!" Sora pointed out to him. "Didn't you ever notice anything strange after you dealt with Stitch?" Sora questioned. Brian's expression dropped to pure guilt and depression as he fell to the floor. "Brian!" Sora rushed over.
"Non-existent. My life is non-existent." Brian said, looking as if he had just become a shell from losing a heart. "All of my thoughts and my actions have been nothing but driven by lies. No one, not even my family, decided to tell me about my broken chains…My broken chain of memories." Sora could see that the news was affecting Brian more then finding out that he was an Endless. The Endless sat there with his gloved hand wiping his tears out of his eyes. "I remember the day after sending Stitch to Hollow Bastion. I remember Hikari running towards with happiness, saying that I was free, I had healed. I'm guessing that my brothers haven't even told my friends, they had just pushed them away. The worst part was, I couldn't say anything. I had no idea who she was. It was only when she mentioned her name to me was when I was able to remember." Brian anger began to grow and replace his sorrow as he punched the ground. "WHY THE HELL ARE THEY DOING THIS TO ME!?!"
"I'm sorry, Brian." Sora tried to comfort him. "If it makes you feel any better, you're not alone."
Brian looked up at Sora in disbelief, "WHO?! WHO COULD RELATE TO ME!!" Brian raged as he rose from the floor and began to approach Sora.
"Kairi." Sora answered. Brian's expression calmed slowly but still waited for an explanation, "When Kairi arrived on Destiny Islands, she suffered for Amnesia. She couldn't remember anything about her home and it really hurt her at some points." Sora started to point his heart in his speech, "She may have been adopted by the Mayor but me and Riku was always by her side, like we were her brothers and that even though she came from Radiant Garden, she would always make Destiny Islands her home because her home is where her heart is." After finishing, Sora sighed, worrying about Kairi once more.
"Sora?" Brian watched as Sora stepped away from the roof cover and into the droplets of rain that were still coming down. "If you were worried about Kairi, why did you decide to bring her? I mean I like her travelling with us but…"
"It's because she didn't deserve it. She didn't deserve to wait for me and Riku to return from our adventures. If we planned to go together in the first place then why should she be left behind?" Sora chuckled as his thoughts in his heart took over him, "I wanted to show Kairi all of the worlds that me, Donald and Goofy had been to, show her everything I had experience, all the friends that I have met…I wanted to make her happy…." Sora turned back to Brian, "I guess that you can make her happy too." Sora forced a smile on his face. "And I've just been so overprotective that I've ended up pushing her away…into your arms."
Brian could see that he must be referring to back at African Depths, "Look Sora, there is nothing that is going on between me and Kairi nor will there ever will be." Sora looked at him to see if he was telling the honest truth. "Okay, so she can make me look like a softy at some points and I kinda got carried away with kissing her on the cheek." Brian admitted with a shrug, "But Kairi cares about you a lot and I can basically see that you're not yourself." Sora's heart began to beat faster, if he was to figure out that he had caught the virus, he would have no control with his heart feeling scattered at the moment. Brian saw Sora's expressions and decided to drop the subject, knowing enough alrealy, before throwing something in Sora's direction. "Here."
Sora managed to catch the object, due to his fast reflexes, to see that it was a silver ball. Sora looked at it strangely, "What is it?" Sora asked.
"A special orb that will project the surroundings of any recording including the recording of the fight." Brian answered.
Sora's eyes widened in surprise before looking at Brian, "But I thought-"
"If you were still being as Heartless as you were in that fight, you wouldn't have told me about my memory-loss and you wouldn't have answered the question about Kairi with care and passion." Brian interrupted.
Sora chuckled at this, "You sound like Kairi at the moment, it's almost creepy."
"Yeah. Yeah. I told you that I don't swing that way." Brian joked, "Not sure about you though."
"You know I care about Kairi." Sora simply said as he looked at the orb once more.
"Yeah." Brian smiled. "Sora, thanks."
"No problem." Sora grinned back as he watched Brian head back inside.
"Oh Sora?" Brian quickled stopped himself.
"Yeah?"
"This conversation never happened." Brian simply said before entering Basil's house once. Sora shook his head with humour before playing the orb.
BOWBOWBOW
"There it is!" Axel pointed out to the younger Nobodies as a small crystal heart fragment floated in the middle of the beach, finding that the three had found themselves on Destiny Islands.
"So how many of these Heart Shards do we have to get?" Roxas asked.
"Only Eight." Xion answered, "It won't take long to find them. Then we can warn Riku and get you to Naminé." Xion quickly looked at her surroundings before looking at Axel, "Why are we at Destiny Islands?"
"This is one of the memories that Naminé created while she was trapped in Castle Oblivion." Axel answered, "It doesn't seem like much of a threat, meaning that he must be busy ignoring Sora."
"He?" Roxas questioned.
"Yeah. Might as well give the soul a gender. I'm not going to be like Saïx and call everything that not alive or a Nobody an 'It'." Axel began to walk towards the heart fragment and placed it in his Organisation coat pocket. "Now Roxas, summon Oblivion." Axel instructed.
"Why Oblivion?" He asked.
"Because it's the Keyblade that resembles Riku within Sora's memories." Xion answered.
"It will allow you to create a portal when we see the memory." Axel answered before looking to his left. "Speaking of which." Roxas and Xion turned to see what Axel was looking at. In front of them were the young versions of Sora and Riku, seeing that Sora was upset while Riku was trying to calm him down. "This must be when Naminé had left the Island, leaving Sora confused about her departure." Axel explained the memory before looking at Roxas, "Point Oblivion at them."
" Won't I hit them?" Roxas sounded worried about being spotted.
"So long that we have nothing to do with the memory, we are invisible to them." Xion answered. Roxas took a deep breath before pointing Obilivion at Sora, a small white light appeared at the end of the Keyblade and the beam shot through the little Sora, creating a portal on the other side. "Get ready Roxas." Xion said, "He's bound to know that we're up to something now." Xion smiled at her two friends as she ran through the portal, followed by Axel. Roxas looked back at the fake Destiny Islands before running through the portal.
"On the contrary." The hooded figure appeared from the shadows of the Secret Place, "I know every move before it reaches your thoughts."
Mad: What will Sora's reaction be when he watches his own actions? Will Brian tell his friends about his memory-loss? Will Roxas and the others be able to find the rest of the pieces with ease? Tune in next time for...KINGDOM HEARTS: BALANCE OF WORLDS!!!
Hey guys, Birth by Sleep is finally out in Japan, meaning that I had to ban myself from youtube and kh wiki from me looking at the storyline like I did for 358/2 days by accident. It's not working though as I find myself listening to Ventus' theme as I write......grrr COME OUT IN THE UK!!!
Tidus: Looks like Mad is going to burn something.
Axel: She is me in her friend's organisation.
Tidus: Why am I suddenly getting tired?
Axel: She's listening to the Dearly Beloved from BBS.
Mad: IT'S THE BEST ONE EVER!!!!!!!!! Time for messages...
Blastbone: Yeah, it is the soul. Don't worry. Hope you like this chapter.
FutureKeyblader: Like Shadow Sylph said, Basil is EPIC!!!!
Grey vs Ale: Thanks for your idea but Brian will not be remembering Nikolai just yet.
Kisdota-The Freak Gamer: He wants to torment him because he's cruel. Hehehe =3 You can try to pass my reviews. BWHAHAHAHAHA
Soragirl4ever: I have a sister in the US.....COOLS!!! You saw Major Snake in a lingerie shop??? Maybe the Order should question his shopping spree. This world is Basil the Great Mouse Det.. not Ratatouille. You can't do much with Rataouille really...I'm trying to avoid Pixar movies for the time being. As of what worlds you should do, do Pocahontas but not the other Princesses of Heart since they are in Birth by Sleep. Hehehe =3
Artism: Careful. If you are probe for head injuries then you might get memory-loss like Brian. =3
Shadow Sylph: AND SHE LIVES ON FANFIC ONCE MORE!!! (Shadow: Compass of doom) Okay, I'm come. I didn't get a text from you but thanks for the thingy for the you-know-what-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-story. =3
Blblblblbl: They will make up; I just have to make it so it's not really cheesy and rubbish. =3
Razgril1: Thank you. =3
Okay, that's about it. I hope that my friend doesn't fix his patch otherwise he'll be playing a Japanese version of birth by sleep while in college. That impatient...
Brian: See ya next time
Mad: Stop stealing my line
kingdommad