Chapter 105: Connections
Naminé finished colouring yet another picture of the possible future that is yet to come as she closed her drawing pad, sighing with worry as she closed her eyes. She had received message from Kairi that Roxas was on his way up to her but that was near two weeks ago and there has been no sign of the boy. She was glad that Sora and Kairi had managed to create a connection again in their hearts after their one night together but she still couldn't get any contact from Roxas, not even from some of Sora's memories like Axel. What exactly has been going on in that boy's heart?
A light blue portal appeared on her station, making the girl open her eyes to look at the portal with slight worry, drawing her drawing pad close to her chest. Her expression quickly changed when she was a familiar Nobody flew out of the portal and crash onto the bright station, making gasp with relief and happiness as she dropped her drawing pad and ran over to the fallen boy. "ROXAS!"
The Key of Destiny sighed in relief as he wrapped his arms around the blonde girl, holding her tightly against him as if his life depended on it. He was glad that she was alright, losing contact with the only other Nobody that he could talk to while being a part of Sora and made him begin to worry about the girl, realising a good number of things while he had been journeying through Sora, Riku and Kairi's memories. He realised that even thought his life will be considered to remain within Sora until the boy even passed on or lost his heart, something that will not happen anytime soon, along as he had Naminé by his side then he couldn't care less if he didn't exist in the real world, he wasn't swallowed by darkness and neither was Naminé. He was pretty sure that this was from his own emotions for gaining a heart and not from the affection that his Somebody has for Naminé's Somebody.
The Memory Witch pulled away from the former member of the Organization as she looked at him, "I'm so glad that you're alright." Naminé said with relief. "When I lost contact with you, I didn't know what to think."
"I'm here now, Naminé. That's all that matters." He smiled at her softy, placing her hand on his soft pale cheek, seeing it quickly redden from the contact of his hand.
"What took you so long? Kairi said that you had found your way here." Naminé asked him.
"I thought that I was on my way but the portal that I took ended up leading me to some of Kairi's memories within Sora. It was all just confusing." Roxas explained, "I don't know how but I managed to find my way out."
"Most properly because Sora and Kairi's connection in their hearts has begun to repair itself." Naminé simply said, walking away from the spiky blonde as she walked back over to her beloved drawing pad laying on the stained glass platform. "Despite this, it still seems like Sora might be losing to the virus."
Roxas was glad that Sora had actually listened to him when he had that moment to tell Sora to tell Kairi about the virus and that the connection between them was starting to mend itself. Hoping once the connection has fully recovered, Naminé can help him return to Sora's heart so that he can stop that virus gaining control of Sora's heart once and for all. "Do you know how he's holding up since I was thrown out? All I have managed to catch from my journey that Sora agreed in duelling Kairi?" Roxas asked her as he slowly approached her.
"From what Kairi has told me, Sora has been getting worse either though his arm seemed to beginning to turn to its original form." She explained, "The Devon brothers have given him some remedies to slow down its process but he talks about nightmares and I think he's starting to fear for himself."
Roxas sighed at this, not wanting Sora to suffer anymore. "Do you know when their hearts will be connected again?"
"It's hard to tell." Naminé said sadly as she looked through the number of drawings of predictions. "All I know that if we don't help Sora, the worse is yet to come."
"What do you mean?" Roxas asked her as he approached her side.
The girl in white turned to face him as she handed over her pad, allowing Roxas to flip through the pages. "These drawings are predictions of the future, Roxas. Most of these pictures lead to an event, that event is Sora's nightmare." She told him as she watched Roxas' expression changed with every picture that he flipped through. "There are two destines placed after though."
Roxas looked away from the pictures of the danger yet to come as he looked at her with worried eyes, "Which are?"
"One is if Kairi falls to the Colonel, Sora will lose part of his heart out of grief and the Order will win." She predicted, grabbing the pad off of Roxas as she flipped through the drawn pages before coming on a page of Sora holding a fading Kairi close to him while the Colonel's green emerald eyes hover over them.
"And what happens if Kairi survives?" He asked her, "Do we win?"
Naminé looked at Roxas as she began to answer, "If Kairi survives her encounter with the Colonel then-"
"Roxas! Naminé!" A voice called out to them.
The two blonde Nobodies turned around to another light blue portal that appeared on the station, walking a black haired girl with an Organization coat, looking at the two with a look of determination and other emotion hidden away. "I found you." She smiled.
"Xion!" Roxas grinned happily, walking over to the girl only to feel Naminé's arm pull him back. He looked back at the girl, only to see her face full with fear and hurt. "Naminé, are you-" He looked at her with concern.
"How did you get here, Xion?" Naminé asked her, remembering one of the drawings in her pad; she only guessed that Roxas didn't come across the picture in the book.
"Xion helped me get here." Roxas told Naminé, confused by her actions and behaviour, not realising that the portal was still open. "Naminé, what's wrong?"
"I can think of a couple of things."
Before Roxas and Naminé could react to the new presence on the platform, light formed chains surrounded the two Nobodies, tiding both of them as both fell to their knees, struggling in the tight chains in some hope of escaping. Roxas was the first to halt his actions of escaping the chains, being trapped in the corrupted light covered chains before as he glared at the newcomer on the platform with anger and shock. "How the hell did you get here?" He demanded.
The figure in the black cloak huffed at Roxas' attitude, "Following you, of course." He left Xion's side as he stepped towards the two Nobodies, "You can thank you friend, Xion, for that." He chuckled evilly as he picked up Naminé's pad, one that she dropped from the sudden attack.
Roxas looked back at Xion in disbelief, seeing her avoid his glance. "Xion….why?" He gasped from rage and hurt, feeling betrayed by his own friend.
"This puppet had to play her part." She simply said, looking away from the two. "I wanted to existence again."
"And you will in good time, as promised." The figure chuckled before looking at the events planned out in the pad. "Why Naminé, I would say that I didn't think you had the heart to draw this sort of stuff but I'd be considering you as real." The pad within his gloved hands was swallowed in his figure's corrupted light before disappearing from sight.
"Leave her alone!" Roxas raged at the figure.
The mysterious hooded figure huffed as he began to approach the Key to Destiny. "Did you think that I wouldn't notice your little journey through the forgotten memories? What made you think that you could simple find a loophole back into Sora's heart? Such an idiotic Nobody." He chuckled, seeing the Nobodies look back at Xion every now and again. "I'll give you one more chance, Roxas. Do you wish to be real?" He asked him.
"Not if it's betraying Sora!" Roxas growled at the figure. "We will stop you."
The figure growled at the Nobody's response, closing his hand tightly, making the chains around him crush him tightly, making the Nobody yell in pain.
"Wait!" Xion ran over to the figure's side, pulling at his cloaked arm. "You said you wouldn't hurt either of them! We had a deal!"
"The deal was that I would keep him alive." He glared at her, only her to see his face. "I never said how alive I would keep him." He smirked, tighting the chains around Roxas once more.
"Then I rather remain as a puppet!" Xion quickly summoned Kingdom Key into her hand and batted the figure away, making the chains realise themselves.
Roxas quickly ran to Naminé, seeing that she was alright, before summoning Two Across into his hands, watching then figure get back up to his feet. "It's two against one! You're outnumbered!" Roxas glared at the figure.
"But you've gotten about your old friend." He smirked from underneath his hood, clicking his fingers.
Naminé yelled in fear as a shadow form of Sora appeared behind her and pulled her into its grasp before covering her in darkness. "Roxas! Xion!" She called for them as she disappeared from the mural.
"NAMINÉ!" Roxas yelled in fear, seeing his Nobody friend disappear as he stood back to back with Xion, Roxas faced the figure while Xion faced Sora's Heartless.
"You still don't get it, do you?" The cloaked man spoke. "Sora is in need of my power. He needs it in order to not only aid Vanitas' plans but to trick him to give me what power he is after. In order for this plan to work, Sora needs to be balanced to Vanitas."
"Why ask for our help?" Xion asked him, keeping Anti-Sora a comfortable distance. "You always keep asking me and Roxas to aid you, betray Sora." She said sadly as she felt Roxas' glare on her for a moment.
"You are ones that are hurting." He spoke out of tone, almost as if it was soft. Roxas raised an eyebrow at this, listening to the figure's voice for once as he faced him again. "You await your birth by sleep, the three of you, as well as other three, are needed to be mended of such hurt, something Sora can only do if you existed and awakening such connections within his heart will free me from my prison."
Roxas was beginning to worry now, listening to the figure's voice, it sounded like an echo fusion of his and Sora's voice. "What of Sora's darkness?" Roxas eyed Sora's Heartless, twitching slightly as he approached Xion slightly.
"He won't be darkness for much longer."He said, "As soon as I get back to Sora, he'll be sorry that he told his heart's worries to that Worthless Princess, as the darkness is in his heart and I can control it."
"Sora won't let you!" Xion told him. "It's not our time yet!"
"Sora won't have a choice, because you see." The figure removed his black hood, revealing his face to Roxas, making the Nobody gasped in shock. "It's time you awaken from your Birth By Sleep!"
The power of his corrupted light filled the station.
BOWBOWBOW
Ventus landed on the grassy surface with Pluto in his arms, his armour disappearing in a flash of light, as he looked up at the tall tower in front of him. "If anyone knows what to do…" Ven muttered as he placed Pluto down by his side, watching the yellow dog bark with excitement as he ran over to the tower. Ventus chuckled slightly at the dog's actions as he looked up at the familiar tower that he had once appeared at with the star shard, his smile soon faded as he had a closer inspection of the tower.
The wooden door that led into the tower was completely blow off its hinges as the remainder of the door lay shattered inside the tower. Ven quickly ran into the tower, only to see that there were a number of blast marks across the stairs and wall, most properly from magic based attacks. "Oh no." Ven didn't waste any time racing up the thousand amounts of stairs with the yellow dog following as hastily before the Keyblade Wielder reached the top of the tower. He summoned Wayward Wind within his hand before bursting the door open, looking around the battlefield of the room in search for Mickey's Teacher.
A number of enchanted brooms moved around the room, fixing any broken pieces of furniture, replacing any books that was burn or corrupted by darkness, brushing the dirt out of the carpet and among other things while the grand sorcerer remain sitting at his desk, looking up at the unexpecting visitor. "Ventus!" He looked surprised at his appearance before muttering to himself, "So…that shadow was right."
"Master Yen Sid!" Ventus disposed of his keyblade as he approached the sorcerer's desk. "What happened here?"
"Vanitas came to visit." Yen Sid simply said.
"Vanitas!" Ven gasped at this, now he was completely clueless, what was Vanitas up too. "But why would he come here?"
Yen Sid sighed slightly as he looked up at Ventus. "Has your heart fully healed from your last battle with Vanitas?" He asked.
"My heart…" Ventus placed his hand on his chest, still feeling as if he was missing something before shaking his head to Yen Sid's question. "I don't know what to do, Master." He said hopelessly.
"Sit. Ventus." Yen Sid summoned a chair for the Keyblade Wielder. "Much has happened since your last visit." Ventus took his seat, turning his head quickly to see his side to see Pluto sit beside him. "Tell me, do you know the whereabouts of Terra and Aqua?" He asked him, only to watch the boy pull out some form of charm out of his pocket and look at it dearly. "I will take it that you don't know."
"I've been looking for them ever since I woke up." Ventus said as he looked at his charm. "No one knows where they are, all I know is what Mickey left me in his letter."
Yen Sid waited for Ventus to look back at him. "Then there is much to be told."
BOWBOWBOW
"Roxas! Roxas!"
The Key to Destiny fluttered his eyes opened, groaning slightly as he pushed himself off the ground, only to feel pale like arms wrap around him tightly, making him gasp in surprise as he turned his head. "Naminé!" He quickly pulled her close to him, holding her tightly to her. "I'm so glad you're alright." He pulled away from her, allowing him to check his surroundings. "Where are we?"
"I don't know." Naminé sighed. "I don't remember this from any of Sora or Kairi's mem—"
"It's your room, Naminé." Roxas gasped slightly as he left her side and looked around the room. The reason that Naminé didn't recognise this as the white room where she stayed in was because it wasn't white anymore. The room was dark blue with black markings across the rooms, the pictures and table was removed, leaving the room empty and dark. Roxas looked over to the window, seeing Xion looking out of it, suddenly feeling his hurt from being betrayed come back and turning into rage. "Where did he send us, Xion!" He demanded as he marched over to her, looking out the window himself.
"Twilight Town." Xion said quietly as she looked out the window.
Roxas looked at the scenery with pure shock before looking back at the Nobody. "This is not Twilight Town, Xion!" He told her. "Twilight Town doesn't look like this within Sora or Kairi or even Riku."
"That's because this is the real Twilight Town, Roxas." Xion told him, a tear forming down her cheek, catching the boy by surprise. "He brought us into the realm of light. We exist again."
Roxas yelled in anger as he summoned Two Across in hand and slammed it against the wall, making both Naminé and Xion flinched. "How could you side against Sora?" Roxas yelled at the girl in black. "After everything, you decide to turn your back on us just so you can exist?"
"You wasn't the shadow though, Roxas!" Xion raised her voice, glaring at the boy. "At least you are a part of Sora by being his Nobody. I was created from Sora's leaked memories! Nothing but a failed puppet to the Organization, only to hurt you and Axel with Xemnas' plans." Roxas held his glare as she shouted back. "When I remained in Sora's heart, knowing that everyone has forgotten about me, do you have any idea how it felt for everyone to forget you?"
"Yeah! I do!" Roxas shouted back, remembering the fact that Hayner, Pence and Olette don't know him.
"Stop it!" Naminé told the two of them, grabbing their attention. "We shouldn't be fighting each other. We need to get out of here and back to Sora and Kairi because right now, the virus will turn their life upside down without us there." She remained them.
Xion sighed at this. "We can't. The Order will notice us." Making the other two Nobodies sigh.
"Well, Xion." Roxas glared at her. "You got what you wanted. We are now our own again and now further away from saving Sora."
"We can help Sora out here more than inside his heart." Xion said to him.
"Sora needs help with his heart!" Roxas glared darkly at the puppet, he didn't care what friendship they held in the Organization, she had basically betrayed him, stabbed him in the back for her freedom.
"I said stop it!" Naminé clicked her fingers, making both of them grab their head in pain. "So long as you're part of Sora, I can have some control over your memories. Now the two of you make up for now so we can figure out how to get out of here or I will bring a very dark memory up."
"But Naminé-" Roxas said.
"Roxas!" The girl in white glared at the boy.
He sighed at this. "Fine. For now." He grumbled as he shortly glared at Xion.
"Thank you." Naminé said sweetly to them before asking, "Why do you think that he would make us exist?" She asked them.
"He said that it was time for our birth by sleep." Xion answered.
Roxas noticed Naminé expression change into a worried one. "Naminé?"
"Why didn't I realise this before?" She shook her head in disbelief as she looked up at the two. "Vanitas is going to-"
"Looks like the Master's connections have arrived." A dark voice echoed in the room as the moonlight light from the window was cut and the nobodies was left in darkness.
BOWBOWBOW
Ventus gathered all of the information that Yen Sid had told him, everything seem to make sense, his questions had been answers and new worries for the Keyblade Master had been created but he looked at Yen Sid with worry as he went thought everything again, just to make sure that he didn't miss anything. "So when Sora…" he asked.
"Yes." Yen Sid nodded in confirmation.
"And because I wasn't-"
"Yes."
"And that's the reason-"
"That is the reason."
"And everyone connected-"
"All part of what Vanitas is after."
"What about Master Xehanort?" Ven asked. "With his Heartless and Nobody being—"
"Vanitas has already dealt with his old Master." Yen Sid answered, "Absorbing his old master's power to make him ever more powerful."
Ventus sighed, not sure what he should do, he wished that Terra and Aqua could help him. "Master Yen Sid, what I should do?"
The sorcerer thought about the situation at his desk before looking back at the boy. "Despite what connection you have, you must aid the Keyblade Master."
"But what if…" Ventus said sadly, he didn't want to place Sora in more danger than he was because of him.
"He needs your help to fight his trouble, Ventus." Yen Sid told him. "And I'm sure that he will help you discover your friends again. They are as much connected as you are."
"So if I-" Ven thought about it. Not only will he be able to get to Vanitas and get rid of his dark side once and for all but with Sora's help, he could find his friends and he could help Sora controlling the virus and try to help him find his deep light within him again. He knows that it rests in the boy; he wasn't the chosen key for no reason. He erupted out of his sit as he looked at Yen Sid with urgently. "Do you know where they are heading to next? I need to talk to someone." He asked him.
"Hmmm." Yen Sid stroked his beard in thought. "Vanitas mentioned that he was heading to the next world that the boy will surely be heading, follow the shadow's trail and you will surely find the light."
Ventus quickly bowed to the former master, giving him his thanks, before running out of the tower. Pluto stayed where he was thought, knowing for a fact that Ven need to do this on his own as he walked over to Yen Sid.
The former master got up from his chair as he walked the boy transform into his armour and jump on his key as he left the world's surface, making the sorcerer question. "Truly, will the keyblade save us all or bring us down to ruin like the last time."
The last thing the worlds need is another Keyblade War.
A/N: And there is the random Yen Sid chapter because I nearly forgot all about him until I played Birth by Sleep and realised that he was a very important character to the story. And now that chapter is out of the way, it's time to get back to the gummi ship XD
Also people, kinda sad face that I'm not getting as many reviews as before. I wanna know how I'm doing, considering this and the next is one of the main points. Come guys! Don't be shy and post your reviews. It will make a happy kingdommad ^^
See ya next time
Kingdommad