A/N: Wow. Two years away from this story, and it's already a new year. Geez... I honestly lost all my inspiration for this story. Either people would point out everything wrong with it, or I just didn't know what direction to take it in. As of now, I have a good idea where I want to go. So if you don't like it, suck it up and get over it. I'm sorry for being gone so long! I know those of you who do enjoy this story will hopefully be happy about this update! I wrote this chapter already, but I'm rewriting it because I have decided to try and take a different direction with it! It's probably going to suck, but I don't care! I'M TOO FUCKING HAPPY TO CARE RIGHT NOW!
Disclaimer: I own nothing! NOTHING!
-Days later in Hollow Bastion-
"So, she was keeping something from all of us..." Leon murmured softly, glancing at Sora and crossing his arms over his chest, "And you left her all by herself?"
"Are you nuts?!" Cid growled, sending a glare Sora's way, "If she's being chased, the last thing you should've done was left her by herself! We may never see her again now!"
"So what?! She was lying to us! I can't trust her now!"
And so, the arguing began. Aerith quietly moved Ienzo towards Yuffie and urged her to go outside and play with the little boy. Once they were gone, she stepped up and cleared her throat, "Arguing about it won't do any good," She said calmly.
"But-!"
"Now, Aeirth here is right, fellas." Goofy looked at them, "Sure, Hope did lie to us. But she wasn't trying to hurt anybody!"
"We were used!" Donald yelled, stomping his foot angrily while his feathers became ruffled.
"That may be, but you weren't being used in a bad way," Aerith explained, kneeling down to the ducks level, her green eyes gentle. "Hope told you why she did it, correct?"
Sora nodded quietly, "Yeah...she did."
"And now she's fighting for the same cause that we are all fighting for, right? To bring down Organization XIII and the Heartless?"
He grumbled, looking down at his feet. "Yes..."
"And one year ago, were you not trying to help your two most precious friends?"
It was when that question was asked that Sora's anger seemed to slowly dissipate. The question was now embedded into his mind, and he could hear the words just echo in his head. He couldn't argue with Aerith at this point because she was right. He had been fighting back then to find and save his two best friends in the world. And today, he was trying to do the same thing yet again. So...could he really be angry at Hope when she was trying to help her friends too? Sure, she hadn't told them the truth in the beginning, but she did in the end. She had acknowledged that she had done wrong instead of acting as though she didn't. She knew she had gotten involved with the wrong crowd, and now she was trying to fix the things that Organization XIII had messed up. She wanted to make things right again.
And she was doing it all for her friends.
~Twilight Town~
Hope stood at the very top of the clock tower, watching the horizon briefly before she moved to the edge and sat down, smiling weakly as she thought back to the days where she, Axel, and Roxas would come up here and eat ice cream together and talk about their day after a mission, talk about what it would be like to have a heart (in Axel and Roxas' case), and just laugh about stupid things. In her hand was a sea salt ice cream bar, which was slowly beginning to drip as it began to melt a bit. She looked at it silently and stared at it.
"It's melting...guess I better start eating it, huh?" She asked no one in particular, bringing the treat to her mouth and licking it. It had been so long since she had even had sea salt ice cream, months at least. She watched the people below in silence, trying to remember when the last time she'd been up here was.
"Roxas had been with us...That sounds right..." She murmured softly, taking a small bite from the ice cream and swallowing it, "The last time we'd been up here...was before Roxas left, I think..."
She couldn't even remember now.
"What if we all ran off?"
"What?"
"The_ of us. Then we could always be together."
"I'll have these moments memorized. Forever, I hope."
She brought her free hand up to her head and rubbed her temples, shutting her eyes and frowning. Why was it that she couldn't place a name for that one voice that she often heard playing in some of her memories? It was rare for it to come up, but she couldn't place a name or a face. 'Oh well. It probably isn't important anyway.' She thought, taking another bite of ice cream and reopening her eyes, staring out at the sunset.
"Ever wonder why the sun sets red?"
All she had now were the remnant voices of her friends.
"Funny how this is just like the good old days, huh?" She asked herself, "Except...I'm the only one left."
"You're not alone...we're still here with you."
Those voices from before...
"You again?"
"You really don't remember us?"
"I can't...I'm trying..."
"Well, you'll figure it out eventually."
"Yeah..." she heard no more, sighing softly as she finished up her ice cream, "I better get a move on... staying in one place for too long isn't a good idea." Slowly, she stood up and dusted herself off, holding onto her Popsicle stick and reaching a hand out, creating a portal. "Wonder where I'll end up.." She walked through it and closed her eyes. When she reopened them, she looked around, noticing large mountains surrounding the area, and what looked to be a palace just down the road. She was startled by a loud, echoing roar above, jumping in surprise when she saw the giant dragon like Heartless flying overhead, heading towards the palace.
"That can't be good..." She murmured, running in the direction of the palace in hopes to stop the Heartless before it could cause any damage.
~Meanwhile, inside of the Imperial Palace~
Sora looked at the figure in the black coat, frowning at him. He opened his mouth, hoping that this was his friend that he had been searching for so long.
"Riku?"
Donald and Goofy both looked at each other, wondering if they'd heard correctly.
The figure removed his hood, smirking at the group, his face scarred and an eye patch covering one of his eyes.
"No. Never heard of him." He smirked more, his one visible eye scanning around, as though he were searching for something...
Or someone.
Several Nobody's being summoned caught their attention, and when he looked back, Sora saw that the man was gone!
"Wha..."
"There he goes!" Mulan cried, pointing at the man as he ran away from them.
"We'll go after him as soon as we take these guys down!"
Xigbar smirked as he made his escape, though he was a bit frustrated that Hope wasn't with the group. The plan was to distract Sora and nab her before anyone could stop him, but how could he do that when Hope wasn't there?
Where had she gone?
His question was answered when he went outside and saw his target fighting off some Heartless. The corners of his mouth lifted up into a wide smirk.
"Found ya, princess."
Hope panted softly, looking up at the sky. She'd lost sight of the giant dragon Heartless after getting caught up into a fight with several scattered Heartless. But now, even after she had gotten rid of them, she couldn't find her main reason for running all the way down here.
"Damn..."
"Well! If it ain't the little princess!" Her head whipped around and she growled slightly when she saw Xigbar standing not too far away from her, his arms crossed over his chest and that signature smirk on his face, "Finally found ya. What's wrong? Did your friends finally find out about how you're a part of the Organization?"
She glared, "I told them. And I was never a part of Organization XIII. I'm not like you stupid idiots."
"Tsk tsk. So rude!"
She drew her rapier and got in a stance, ready to fight him, "I don't care if you've been told to take me back. I'm not going with you, and you can't make me!"
He growled silently, narrowing his eyes at her. When he was prepared to attack, he was interrupted by the dragon Heartless above. It flew down, almost knocking him down, while Hope ducked in time. "Dammit. This isn't over, Princess!" with that said, he disappeared, leaving Hope to face the Heartless herself.
The palace doors opened, a woman with short black hair in the doorway, Sora and the others behind her. The woman yelped as the Heartless flew over, nearly falling back when she saw it come out of nowhere. Hope watched them run outside, blinking as they all got into stances.
"Watch out!" She cried as the dragon charged at them, running over as they all leapt out of the way in time. Sora looked over, surprised to see her as she rushed over to him. "Talk later, fight now!"
He nodded and ran after the dragon, reaching out for it's hook shaped tail and grabbing onto it. Mulan, the black haired woman, followed him, grabbing on as well, Hope following with Donald and Goofy. The group climbed on, gripping onto it tightly as it flew up higher and higher. Hope glanced at the dragons back, noticing three large horn like structures. 'Is this its power source...?' Whatever it was, it had to be a weak spot for the monster.
"Everyone! Attack the horns!"
Everyone drew their weapons and started the assault. Hope and the woman attacked one together.
"I don't think we've met before! I'm Mulan!"
"Hope. Nice to meet you!"
"Likewise!"
Hope smiled, gasping when the Heartless did a flip, throwing them all off of his back with the exception of Sora. After attacking it a few more times, it fell down to the ground, allowing the others to help attack it yet again. It wasn't down for very long, recovering almost instantly and shooting back up, knocking them away with its wings. It was times like these where having wings would've been helpful at the moment, but unfortunately, Hope couldn't summon them. She used magic to aid Sora, using Thundaga and Blizzaga spells and casting the occasional cure spell when needed.
The fighting seemed like it went on for hours. Hope had guessed it had been almost an hour when they had finally brought it down and defeated it. As it was falling, Mulan was right in it's path of landing. She seemed to freeze slightly, as though unable to move while the others cried her name and shouted for her to move.
"Mulan!"
Hope watched a young man in armor wearing a red cape run over to Mulan and get down on the ground with her, shielding her from the falling dragon. She watched the large, pink heart that had been inside of it come out of it, the monster fading away before anyone could be mashed.
"Way to go!" Sora cheered, fist pumping the air.
Mulan and the man stood up, both looking into each others eyes and smiling. Sora and the gang all gave them skeptical looks, Hope smiling softly. She knew that look that the young couple had in their eyes anywhere.
Love.
When the two noticed the looks they were receiving, the looked over and back at each other, quickly pulling away and laughing sheepishly. Everyone looked up when fireworks began to go off over the palace.
Another win for the team.
Hope stood around outside of the throne room, waiting for Sora and the others to finish talking with the Emperor. When they came out, they walked over to her, stopping and standing with her.
Donald was the first one to speak. Well, more like cry. "I-I'm sorry!" He hugged her, surprising her for a moment before she hugged back. Goofy joined the hug next.
"A'Hyuck! I told ya they'd come around!"
She smiled, becoming more surprised when Sora flung himself at her and hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry..." He felt her arms wrap around him slowly, her hold tightening as she pulled him closer and buried her face in his hair. "Hope...?"
"Thank you...Thank you..."
"For what? We left you all alone..."
"For forgiving me, Ro-Sora..." She smiled, almost slipping up. She looked at him, seeing blonde hair and blue eyes instead. She believed that this was Roxas's way of letting her know that he was there. Inside of Sora, watching out for her.
"Don't cry..."
She blinked, reaching up and touching her cheek. She felt wetness there, surprised that she was crying. But why?
'Maybe...it's because I'm the only one who can see Roxas...'
Hope imagined that Roxas was sad whenever he saw Axel and herself, or Hayner and the gang, even though he had never really become friends with them in the real world. Only in the virtual one. It made sense though that he would be sad to see them since he had been given memories of having been friends with them for years.
He longed to exist like herself and Sora. Even though he did exist, but only because he was a part of Sora. He wasn't able to stand next to Sora right now. He wasn't whole back then.
Sora didn't know it, but Roxas' consciousness was very aware and alive inside of him. Hope knew that Sora would sometimes feel emotions about certain things because they were Roxas' feelings being channeled through Sora. She knew that it confused Sora to no end, but he would figure it out eventually when the time was right. For now, she would leave things alone.
"Hey, Hope?"
She looked up as Sora sat down next to her, tilting her head slightly. "Hm?"
He looked ahead, watching Donald and Goofy fly the Gummi Ship. "Well...if the Ansem we thought was Ansem was actually Xehanort's Nobody...then what happened to the real Ansem?"
Her eyes saddened, and she leaned back in her seat. "If I knew...I would tell you. Unfortunately, I never saw him again after the attack. He could be dead, or for all I know, he's alive out there somewhere." She smiled sadly and sighed.
"Well...you mentioned a Lea and an Isa. I was wondering..."
"Hm?"
"Well...what were they like?"
She tensed slightly at the question, a sad smile gracing her features. Not noticing how Donald and Goofy had turned around in their chairs to listen, she stared up at the ceiling of the ship, a soft sigh escaping her lips.
"What were they like...huh? They were normal. Always bickered about stupid things, but friends always do that. Isa was...always a brash person, but he had a kind heart, even though he was blunt about everything. He spoke his mind and never cared what anyone thought, and he was a good friend. Someone that you could count on to be there when you needed him. And Lea," she paused, laughing softly, "Lea was a big ol' goofball. He always had these crazy ideas that always ended in disaster, or getting us all in trouble. He was a good friend though. He wasn't selfish, always thinking of others. When you needed him, he was always there, too. This one time, we-" she stopped when she realized what she was doing, and stopped herself, staring down at her lap. This was the first time she had voluntarily talked about the two and she was remembering why she had never liked bringing them up.
It was too sad. It hurt too much.
Sora noticed her sudden change in mood and the discomfort she was letting off. Reaching over, he placed one of his gloved hands over Hope's, squeezing it gently to let her know that he was there for her.
"It...hurts."
Donald and Goofy looked at each other, both wearing the same sad expression before looking back at the two.
"It hurts to talk about the past..." Hope murmured, her hair hiding her face, "I was helpless in saving them...I wasn't fast enough to stop the darkness from taking them away. You understand how it feels, don't you?" She looked at Sora, her eyes full of sadness.
Sora knew how it felt. When he had lost Kairi and Riku after their island had been attacked by the darkness, he felt terrible about it. It was what made him search for his friends, that need to find them and save them. Here he was again, going around the worlds and trying to find both of his friends yet again. He gave Hope a bright smile.
"I know how it feels. I also know that no matter how much it may hurt, you have to be strong and never give up! It's hard in the beginning, but it gets easier eventually."
Hope looked at him for a minute before looking down at her lap again. "I...I guess you're right. Yeah..." she nodded, smiling lightly. "Okay."
Hope's POV
I had fallen asleep sometime during the flight, so I was startled slightly when Sora shook my shoulders gently to bring me back to reality, and I groaned in protest. I hadn't gotten a good nights sleep in quite a while so I wanted to sleep some more.
"C'mon, don't go back to sleep...we've gotta go."
"Go? Go where?"
"Beast's Castle. Remember?"
Oh, that's right. Sora had mentioned us stopping there before I fell asleep. With a soft yawn and a slight nod, I got up and followed him, rubbing my eyes sleepily as soon as we were outside. I looked around and blinked, several memories of me coming here on missions with Roxas popping up into my head. I silently followed Sora and the others inside, looking around most of the time and nearly tripping over my feet when I got distracted by a statue. I shook my head and stared straight ahead, slightly startled by what I saw. A beast like creature dressed in an incredibly nice suit, pacing back and forth. Now that wasn't something you saw everyday.
"Hey there!" Sora called to him, waving to him enthusiastically. He turned to look at us, and it was obvious by the look in his eyes that he was anxious about something. Next to me, Donald looked around the room, humming.
"No Heartless and no Nobodies!"
"I think they're close though..." Goofy added, and I looked at him to find him also looking about the castle warily
"Better watch out!" Sora said, on guard as well.
The Beast growled quietly and turned his back to us so he was looking at the staircase, and I realized that must have been waiting on someone. Sora walked up to him again, and the Beast sighed impatiently, turning around to look at all of us again. Donald tapped his foot in annoyance.
"What are you so mad about?"
"Why are you here?" He asked, glaring at all of us.
"The Nobodies' world has to be out there somewhere," Sora explained, crossing his arms over his chest, "We're looking for a way in."
He scoffed and turned his back to us once more. "Hmph."
"Geez...what's his problem?" Sora grumbled, looking at me. My attention went to the stairs as I heard footsteps descending down them.
"I believe we're interrupting." I pointed up as a beautiful young woman came down the stairs wearing a gorgeous yellow ball gown, a soft smile on her face.
Beast walked up a few steps before stopping and turning around. "Tonight is very important," he explained to us before he continued up the rest of the way. My attention was on the girl, and I couldn't help but smile slightly as she gave her own smile when she saw Beast coming up to meet her. She smiled at Sora, Donald, and Goofy as she continued her way down. Both respectfully bowed and curtsied to one another, and the woman took his arm, allowing him to lead her into the castle's ball room.
"Uh, maybe we came at a bad time." Goofy said, and I giggled softly and nodded in agreement.
"Well, there's only one way to find out." Donald told us before he took off up the stairs.
"Donald!" Sora called, only to end up running after him with Goofy in tow. I followed after them, hoping they wouldn't ruin the couples evening together.
We walked in as a Candlebra was talking, him and the other enchanted objects looking over at us. I sighed quietly as Goofy waved at them like nothing was wrong.
"And of course, our honored guests are welcome too." He added
"A welcome indeed." Another voice added, and I frowned as Beast grabbed the young woman and held her to him protectively.
"That voice..." I murmured, walking to the middle of the room with Sora, both of us looking around. I looked up at the balcony area and narrowed my eyes when I saw someone wearing the Organization's hood standing up there. "Up there!" I pointed.
"The Organization!"
"You don't know when to quit." The hooded figure said to us, a hint of malice in his tone.
"Oh yeah! We'll show you!" Donald challenged, and stopped him from trying to use any of his magic.
"Wait!"
"Get out!" Beast roared, obviously infuriated about his date being interrupted.
"Not tonight!" The woman huffed, a hint of fear in her frustrated tone.
I looked back at the cloaked figure and narrowed my eyes when he snapped his fingers. That voice and attitude were all too familiar. He summoned a few Dragoon Nobodies. "I've come to take something you hold very dear." I covered my ears tightly as the Beast's deafening roar of anger echoed through the ballroom. The hooded figure had a smirk in his voice. "Yes. Let your anger grow..." he began to disappear, and just before he could, I found a name slipping past my lips.
"Dilan!" He was gone though, so I didn't know whether he'd heard me or not. I cursed and looked over at the woman. "I'll keep her safe! You four handle the Nobodies!" I ran over to her and took her arm gently. "Please, come with me!"
She nodded, and I could tell she was afraid as we left the ballroom and headed outside to the balcony, if her shaking hand gripping my own wasn't any indication.
"W-Who are you?"
"Hope. I'm a friend of Sora's. And you?"
"Belle." She said softly, and I smiled at how pretty it sounded. I noticed the enchanted objects were following us closely, and we all stood outside and watched the battle. When it was over, we came back in and reunited with everyone.
"Whew! She's okay..." Sora said, relieved.
"Guess Xaldin didn't take anything after all." Goofy added, and I immediately ran up to him and grabbed him by his shoulders. "Ah!"
"You've met him before?! When?"
"W-When we came here the last time! Garwsh!"
"You three have no idea what he is capable of. If it wasn't Belle he was here for, then it must be something else that is incredibly important to the Beast, because he certainly wasn't bluffing!" Goofy and I both yelped as Beast ran right past us and nearly knocked us down. From the way he had reacted, there was something else besides Bell that he held incredibly dear to him.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked, frowning as Belle ran after the Beast. "Belle? Geez, what's with them?"
"Maybe Hope is right. Belle may not be the only thing precious to the Beast." Goofy said thoughtfully, and Donald took off after the two.
"C'mon!"
A/N: I realize this chapter was all over the place. I'm sorry. I just wanted to finish it XD Review? Please?