Chapter 80: Idea
Shortly after Brian, Hikari and Riku had parted from the group, Sora had tried to get Kairi to change her mind, only to receive the time and place for their dual before heading somewhere through town. After a while in his thoughts and annoying comments from the soul, he had ran into Doanld and Goofy. He figured that he needed some advice and since Riku was currently with Hikari, Donald and Goofy was the next best thing. The trio sat in front of town hall as Donald and Goofy sat comfortably on the steps of town hall as Sora told them what had been going on for the past few weeks. "And that's what happened..." Sora finished telling his story, sighing as he finished. He had to make sure not to hint anything about the virus, meaning that he had to pretend that he didn't watch the video recording that Brian had given him. Otherwise, the soul would have its way and would only make things worse. "I've tried saying sorry. I've tried telling her about Roxas. I've tried everything." Sora walked over to Donald and Goofy, who had worried expressions on their faces, and joined them by sitting on the steps. "What if she'll never forgive me? What if she'll hate me forever?"
"Gawsh Sora, don't think like that." Goofy patted Sora's back for assurance.
"Yeah. You and Kairi have always been close." Donald added, "You had said it yourself, your hearts are connected."
"But she said that the connection between us has been broken." Sora countered before sighing, "Was it that bad? Was my actions enough to end our friendship?"
"Now let's hold on for a sec, Sora." Goofy stood up in front of the duck and the troubled boy. "Kairi isn't just gonna forget all of the things that you have done for her over this one thing. It's just not like her to risk her friendship."
"But it is like her to be stubborn." Sora told him, "Normally whenever Kairi is mad at Riku, she would hold it until Riku had said sorry or until she'd realised that she's to blame but me and Kairi never fight. She will hold this until she either hears what she wants to hear or gets her request. She's not one to give in and she made that very clear when she gave me the choice."
"If we look over what you had said, maybe we can find what Kairi wants to hear." Donald suggested.
"I told you guys. I don't remember." Sora sighed once again. "I think I should fight her." Donald and Goofy turned to Sora with shock, they didn't expect to Sora to suggest to the fighting choice so quickly. "All that she wanted was to prove that she could fight and that she can look out for herself. To show that she isn't worthless to everyone."
"Do you want to fight her?" Goofy asked.
"I don't know." He said, "I want to give it a shot. I want to know how much stronger she had become because of the others...It's just-"
"You don't want to hurt her." Donald and Goofy finished in union, knowing their friend too well.
"Yeah..." Sora looked at his bandaged arm with worry. And I don't know what will happen to us if I lose control.
I know, teacher! I know! I know! Let me answer!! PLEASE!!
You're making fun of my thoughts, aren't you?
Even evil infected souls need to laugh.
"Sora..." Donald stood next to Sora and rested his feathered arm on his shoulders, "You can't protect Kairi from everything."
Sora turned his head sharply at duck, glaring angrily at him as he stood up, "What are you trying to say? You think that I should just let Kairi get hurt?" His mind flashing back to the nightmare that haunted his dreams.
"No!" Donald jumped up, trying to calm him down.
"That's just it, Sora." Goofy piped in, "Your heart had needed her ever since you've sacrificed your heart to her. Maybe because of that, it's made you overprotected of her, meaning that you would want to protect her from everything. But when it comes to being overprotected, the one you are trying to protect will end up thinking that you're just there to push them down and you would eventually lose them." The dog-man looked at the teen seriously as he added, "I've been there. I know how it feels to lose something. I don't want you to go through the same thing." Sora sighed at this, making Goofy think about something else.
"You say that you believe in Kairi but you say that she'll get hurt if she's on her own." Donald watched Sora sit back on the steps, his depression surrounding him. "She can fight. We've all seen it. Why won't you-"Donald halted when he heard Goofy chuckle, despite Sora's state. "Goofy! What are you laughing at?"
Goofy continued to laugh before answering, "I was just thinking. Maybe Sora is scared of losing to Kairi." Donald snickered along with Goofy.
"I'm not scared!" Sora shot back, "If any scared of fighting someone, it's Donald and Daisy."
"Wak!" Donald stop laughing and glared at Sora as his feathers turned red, "I'm not scared Daisy."
"You do tend to just take Daisy's rages on and let her have her way." Goofy pointed out before bringing out the certain quotes that Riku had heard the couple say while in Radiant Garden.
While Donald yelled at Goofy with frustration, Sora thought on what Goofy had said about Donald and Daisy. Both of the ducks can be impatient but they've been in love for years with their fair amount of fights. Goofy had always told Sora while Donald was flying the gummi ship in their first adventure that Donald normally just deals with the damage that Daisy's rage has to give him and then the couple would forgive each other just like that. There would be times where Donald would be mad at Daisy and the couple wouldn't speak for couple of days until Donald would give in and apologize to her. Sora grinned as he shot up from the stairs with an idea in his head. "I got it!"
Donald and Goofy turn away from their conversation to see Sora in a joyful mood once more, "What is it?" Goofy asked.
"I'll arrive at Kairi's duel and just take a defensive role. That way, she can release all of her anger on me and that she won't get her." Sora told them his brilliant thought. He ignored the soul as he huffed at his plan.
Good luck with that plan of yours.
Goofy looked at Sora with a worried expression, unsure about his plan. "I don't that's a-"
"Good idea, Sora." Donald encouraged him with a thumps up.
"But Donald-" Goofy pulled him aside and whispered, "If Sora goes defensive, won't that just make things worse, inside and out?"
"He's only going to get a couple of bruises, it's not like Kairi's gotta kill him." Donald told him.
"But what with everything that's going on with him, the Devon brothers might that-"
"We'll talk about this later." Donald said quickly to him and he pointed that Sora was starting to wonder what the two could be talking about.
Goofy looked at Donald sadly before sighing at looking up at Sora, "Are you sure about this?" he asked him.
"Sure I'm sure." Sora grinned as he placed as instead of taking his usual pose of placing both of his hands behind his head, he only done it with his left while his right arm was wide open, mimicking Brian's pose. The two animal-comrades decided not to mention it. "This plan is full proof." He said.
"Maybe we could wait until Riku comes back." Goofy suggested.
"No way!" The Keyblade Master disagreed to the thought straight away, "If he finds out that me and Kairi are fighting, he'll pull out his 'Dr. Phil' act and ignore us to death until we make up."
"When was the last time you two fought?" Donald asked him.
"When we were five over a crab that we found on the beach." Sora muttered, making Donald laugh.
"I'm sure that Riku look at the situation differently and he did say that he might know what's wrong with you." Goof spoke.
Sora gulped slightly, worrying about losing control of himself again but he didn't hear a reply from the soul, he said his response, "Maybe..."
"We could wait until some of the others return." Goofy repeated to him. Sora sighed and took a seat on the steps again, wondering if this would work and what could he do to try and make it up to her, for all that he had done.
BOWBOWBOW
A light blue portal appear in Destiny Islands once more as Roxas, Xion and Axel walked on the sandy beach under the shattered stars that were above them. While Roxas and Xion dropped to the sand and enjoyed the view of the stars that they failed to see back at the Castle that Never Was, Axel looked around the island in search of the last memory. Even though the soul hadn't made an appearance yet, the last couple of memories have been a bit tougher to gain the heart shards as the memories involved fighting Marluxia in Castle Oblivion.
Both Xion and Roxas deeply breathed in the sea breeze as they looked at the worlds above. "There are a lot of worlds up there, did Sora forget these worlds?" Roxas faced Xion, waiting for an answer.
"More like all of the worlds that are yet to be discovered by him." She answered while having her sight on the stars above. "It's pretty though. I always like coming here."
"Yeah..." If only he could come back to the forgotten memories after this then the three of them can hang out in Twilight Town like old times.
The two Nobodies continued to watch the stars above, seeing the former glory that the worlds once were when a pair of emerald green eyes hovered above the both of them. "Nice to see you enjoying the view." Axel smirked at them, "I would join you but this is one place that we shouldn't waste time in." He placed his hands towards them, letting each of them a hand only for them to fall on the floor again. "Ha! I can't believe you guys forgot. Next time, commit it to memory."
Roxas and Xion glared at the red head before pushing themselves up from the sand, "Did you find anything?" Xion asked him before placing some of her black hair behind her ear. This made Roxas wonder why Xion had the same appearance as Kairi, minus the black hair.
"This is one of Sora's young toddler memories. Easy memories to forget at a young age." Axel answered as the three slowly approached the memory forms of Sora and Riku, waiting for the meteor shower. "This is the last shower that the two watched together before Kairi rounded up on Destiny Islands. You think that the memory would be remembered."
"Maybe if we listen closely to the memory, we might find the reason that it's down here." Roxas suggested as the three stepped closer to the toddlers. The younger Sora and Riku didn't notice them as they were part of the memory but the three Nobodies still took cover behind a fence as it would just be strange if they were to just stare and listen in on little kids' conversation.
"Do you think it come this time?" The younger Sora asked his friend.
"I don't see why not." The younger Riku replied, "That woman with the blue hair said that something important will happen during the meteor shower."
"Woman with blue hair?" Axel pondered on the description.
"You know her?" Xion asked.
"I don't know. Maybe my original but I don't have all of my memories at the moment." He replied.
"Is that why when we asked about your past, you wouldn't answer because you couldn't remember?" Roxas raised an eyebrow.
"Noo, I just didn't want to tell you then." Axel answered, "It's because I'm just a memory of Sora here. I only remember anything that has involved you two, Sora or Naminé. This is actually why we be parting ways soon."
Roxas turned his eyes away from the memory and looked at Axel with shock, "You're not coming?"
"I couldn't even if I could." Axel looked away from the scene as well, "The only time I was with you when confronting Riku was when we were looking for Xion and we didn't even know it was Riku. It's best that you both go down the deep dive of their connection to warn Riku of what's happening to Sora's heart."
"But half of what is going on makes no sense." Xion told him with an worried expression, "We would have at least seen the darken part of Sora's heart by now, seeing as his anger was mostly shown in Castle Oblivion."
"The sooner we get to Naminé, the better." Roxas huffed as he watched the memory once more, slowly joined by Axel and Xion.
"Do you think that he'll ever come back?" Sora asked, waiting for the shower to start.
"Who?" Riku asked.
"Ven."
"What makes you ask?" Riku watched Sora shrug his shoulders before pointing up at the sky, seeing a star shoot. "Sora, you're strange."
"A good strange....like the shooting stars."
"Yea--------"
The Nobodies looked at the scene strangely as everything has froze, the sea didn't come into the shore with the relaxing sound it brings, the stars were no longer shooting, the pile of sand that Xion was picking up remained in the air as she tilted it to fall back to the rest, palm trees didn't move with the winds and their weren't even any winds. "What's going on?"
"You're doom is what's going on."
Destiny Islands shook as the memory began the crack, along with the memory forms of Sora and Riku. "Roxas! Quick!" Axel told him. Roxas quickly summoned Oblivion and aimed at the younger forms of Sora and Riku, charging the beam of light at the end of the keyblade. Axel and Xion both summoned their weapons as Heartless and Unbirth began to form from the cracks that the soul has caused to the memory, to Destiny Islands. Since the Nobodies were mere memories and lacked the heart to gain elemental aid, the Unbirth didn't have much trouble with dragging Axel into the cracks.
"AXEL!" Xion ran towards him, trying to reach his hand to save him but she couldn't grip onto his hand as he was just a transparent memory. It wasn't long before the Unbirth began to try and drag her under the memory as well. With her Kingdom Key, she swiped at the Unbirth, trying to get them to back away before the Heartless jumped her and pulled her into the darkness.
"Just a little more." Roxas shot the beam of light at the memory before it faded away, creating the eighth and final piece of the heart connection between Sora and Riku. He quickly dashed over to the heart shard and placed it in his pocket, turning around to a horde of Heartless and Unbirths. "I'm not gotta give up. Not now!" Roxas changed his keyblade to Two Across and began to run through the horde, searching for his friends at the same time.
"You have not chance, Roxas. You share Sora's heart and I have control of it." The soul's voiced echoed.
"If you had control of his heart, you would show yourself instead of getting mere memories to fight your battles." Roxas grunted as he battled the Unbirths with struggle, since losing his connection to both Sora and Naminé, he hasn't been as strong with the keyblade as he couldn't summon the strength in his heart as Sora could.
"Why waste my efforts on a Nobody when I have my freedom and connections to worry about."
"ARRRGGG!!!!" Roxas burst thought the Unbirths as his strength began to fade, he can't do this without the others, they're too strong. He ran towards the Heartless and began to slash through them, watching the transparent hearts fade away in the darkness.
"Fade into darkness. Follow the other Nobodies."
"Never!" Roxas continued to slash at the Heartless when he was forced to turn around and gagged from the power of the kick that he had received in the gut. The soul continued to strike at Roxas with only his bare hands, knocking Roxas to the ground.
"The connection you see is in darkness, where the silver headed traitor and the witch should remain."
Roxas tried to fight through the struggles of the darkness swallowing him once more before being pulled under the memory as well.
BOWBOWBOW
After parting ways with Sora, Kairi had ran into Max and asked if she could see more of their school, Little Devon Academy. She had told Max that she wanted to stay in Little Devon for a while but didn't want to explain why, Max decided to respect her wishes and just ask Brian about her decision later. Max opened the doors to the academy with Kairi looking behind him, looking at the view of the nature that seem to lack in the rest of the town, "This is the front court, this is where we normally hang out after classes or after a night out." Max showed the Princess of Heart around, "Over there is the maga training stadium, best place to try out magic." Max pointed to the far left of the court, "Over there, is the weapon training area, that's best for physical training." He pointed on the other side of the court where they had first met him, Hikari, Vaan and Penelo.
"Right." Kairi smiled weakly at him, her mind in her thoughts.
Max looked at her with a worried expression before turning to face her with a serious one, "Kairi, are you alright?"
"Huh?" She looked up at him and forced a smile, "I'm fine, Max. Don't worry."
"You sure?"
"I've just got a lot on my mind." She said truthfully. Ever since having that conversation in the cargo bay, she could only hate hurtful for what she had said. She actually did believe in what Sora was saying and was happy that he was letting her in, at least she knows that they is something wrong with him but there was still something that he didn't admit which would have let her forgive him for calling her worthless and for pushing her away back in African Depths.
Admit that he was jealous.
She cared about him a lot and for him to push her away for something he thinks that is going on between her and Brian really pulled her heart. It just made it harder for her to believe his apology when he won't give up his pride to admit that he's jealous of Brian being close with her. Sometimes, she can never understand guys. She acts the same way with Riku, minus imaging that the person is they crush, and the two had always been friends.....apart from the races, and the duals, and the fights.... okay, maybe she should have seen this coming.
A part of her heart wished that she never suggested that she'll leave the group if she doesn't fight him and she wants to travel with him, Riku and all of the other friends that they made throughout this whole ordeal but she also wanted to help gain the other world's items to help him quicker as well as find Ventus and Pluto to see what they know.
Either way, it hurt her to pieces. So much for being pure, I must have hurt him.
Do you think that he'll be at the dual? Naminé asked.
I don't know. He looked like he didn't know what to do.
You did share some hurtful things.
I know....I just want to be the way we were before.
"Kairi!" She quickly shook his head and looked back at Max, "Maybe we should take a rest. The campus is huge. I normally need my skateboard to get around my classes."
"Sure." Kairi smiled before noticing two people walk by, hand in hand. For a moment, she could imagine her and Sora walking along, hand in hand, smiling happily. Kairi shook her head out of the clouds, Like that will happen anytime soon.
Max looked up at the couple and smirked at the sight, "Vaan! Penelo! Guys!" Wait a minute? Vaan and Penelo are together? When did this happen? "At least we can ask the others about the Academy, right?" Kairi nodded in response.
As Vaan and Penelo joined them, Kairi listened to the story on how Vaan and another student called Balthier had decided to steal 's guns while he was calming the chocobo down. The two end up fighting over who should have the first shot, even thought there was two guns, and accidently shot one of their friends, Barrett, in the arm breaking the bone. The two had ran for it only for Vaan to trip, get caught by the leader of the Academy Knights, Basch and is now suspended from the Academy for at least a week.
As Max picked on Vaan for falling under Penelo's control so quickly, Kairi looked up at the clock tower in the middle of the front court. It's almost time....
Mad: Hmm....so much for updating before my birthday. Oh well. I had a cool day and no coursework for the next couple of weeks. I'm might be a pain to you all now....I might take a break from balance of worlds. I might quickly do lucky number eight...again and start off prince and the pauper...again. DAMN MEMORY STICK. Tell me what you guys think?
Messages:
Kisdota-The Freak Gamer: Thank you Kisdota, the meeting had to be done. Brian was asked to go to the meeting 30 something chapters ago. ^^
Celticskyedancer: You have to love the random thoughts I get while writing. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Island-Style-Girl: The badges are basically to protect any infected person from time infected worlds. It will be explained more into depth before they go on Pride Lands.
Soragirl4ever: hehehe love it. I know I'm writing correctly if people have crushes on my OC's. You have to love the smart one of the group. =P
Grey vs Ale: Thanks you ^^ I'll be able to get Soul silver in a couple of days. If I'm not updating, that's properly why.
Future Keybearer: Traveller star is from Transverse town and the thrones are basically from sleeping beauty, too tired to look up name of world. Pride Lands will be explained later on when they get to the world. I'm thinking of doing Underland in the next story, when I get around to it. Hopefully, I'll have a writing blast and write the rest of the chapters before finishing my summer....yeah right.
Artism: I've just read your review again and now I fancy cheese on toast. Damn you! Heheheh
Let me know if you think I should take a break in BOW or actually give you the duel that you guys are waiting to happen.
See ya next time
Kingdommad