Everything hung quiet after Roxas' questions, until Lea's tears broke down into sobbing as newly returned, too-strong emotions overtook the man. Maybe it would have happened anyway, though, considering how devastated the man looked as Riku herded him to a chair in the corner. Between this and the news of Sora, everyone in the room seemed depressed, except for Yen Sid, who was thoughtfully stroking his beard.
"I don't understand," Mickey said softly, as Riku came back around the front of the desk. Kairi slipped past him, taking only a moment to squeeze Riku's hand on her way around to sit beside Lea. Even if the two of them were still on shaky ground, it was like her to go offer what comfort she could. "Wasn't Roxas already a Nobody?"
The blond boy was still standing where he had been, though his eyes were on Lea and Kairi, until Yen Sid spoke.
"Perhaps not," the old Keyblade Master began. "The heart of Ventus slept within Sora. It is what gave him the Keyblade, and its influence on Roxas is obvious." Riku couldn't speak to that, never having seen Ventus, but Mickey nodded after a glance in Roxas' direction. "In this case, it may have been that Roxas was keeping that heart all along, and so was never a true Nobody. It would explain several oddities, including his ability to use the Keyblade, a weapon which relies on the strength of a person's heart."
It made sense enough to Riku. Mickey looked at Roxas with clear worry; Roxas was staring at his hand, and didn't seem to notice. He was opening and closing his fingers, as though trying to grip a weapon. No doubt the same thing had occurred to him as was occurring to Riku then.
If Roxas had only been able to summon the Keyblade because of Ven's heart, and he was truly a Nobody now...
"What about Ven?" Mickey asked, coming up closer to the desk. Of course; Ven was his friend too, and Mickey always worried about his friends. After what Mickey had told them about what happened to Eraqus' apprentices, Riku couldn't blame him for it, either. "Is he okay?"
"If Ventus' heart is not with Roxas, then I can only hope it has found its way back to its true owner," Yen Sid said evenly. "Mickey, you should go to Castle Oblivion immediately. If his heart returns, I imagine he will wake soon, if he has not already."
Mickey nodded. "Then I guess I'd better get going, huh? Though, I'm worried about Sora too..." He looked at Roxas, and then at Riku, almost like he was asking permission.
Riku nodded. "Go," he said. "You're the one with the best chance of finding him. Let me worry about Sora." Mickey brightened, and nodded in return, turning to hurry out the door.
"You mean let us worry about Sora," Kairi corrected as the King left, straightening from her position next to Lea. The man had at least gotten control over his wild emotions enough to stop crying, though his expression was still pained.
"No," Yen Sid said, standing and turning towards her. "You are not ready, and neither is Lea. Both of you will remain here to train, if Riku intends to seek Sora's lost heart." The end of the sentence was accompanied by a look in Riku's direction, as though to be sure that was what he really wanted to do. Riku was surprised at first, that Yen Sid was allowing him to make that decision - but then, he was a Master himself now, wasn't he? Masters chose their duties.
He could choose this. Riku glanced around - at Kairi's mutinous look at Yen Sid's back, at Lea wiping his eyes on one leather sleeve, and at Roxas, who was watching him intently. Sora needed him, but so did Kairi and Lea, who needed a teacher, and if Roxas couldn't summon his Keyblade...
"I need to think about it," Riku said, feeling the weight of responsibility on his shoulders.
"Just go." It was to his surprise that Roxas spoke up. The blond had been quiet since Lea's tears began, seemingly lost in his own world, but the look he gave Riku was full of... Determination? That didn't seem right, somehow, knowing that Roxas couldn't feel anything. Pure will, then, but it looked so much like determination that it didn't make a difference. Riku blinked at him, but Roxas continued, "You were willing to do anything to bring him back before. Why is this different?"
Because last time, I thought Kairi was safe, Riku thought. Because last time, I didn't have anything else to worry about. He couldn't bring himself to say that to Roxas, though. Roxas was the one who had been hurt by Riku's determination, then, even though Riku had thought of himself as the one making a sacrifice. He hadn't really thought of Roxas as a person until they had fought, on the streets of that dark city.
Roxas was giving him the same look now that he had then, except that it didn't quite reach his eyes. Riku sighed. "Okay. I'll go." He glanced at the rest of the room; Yen Sid seemed a little approving, and Kairi still looked angry at being left behind again. "I'll bring him back. I promise."
"I know you will," Kairi answered. "But that doesn't mean I'm happy about you leaving me behind again." The anger in her expression faded, but she still looked stern.
Riku tried to smile. He thought he probably failed pretty badly at it. "Well, someone has to keep an eye on these two." He accompanied it with a distinct look in Lea's direction as the man rose out of his chair, and then sweeping his eyes over Roxas (who folded his arms) to include him in the statement.
"Hey, I told you, my trouble-causing days are over," Lea protested, his voice surprisingly light for someone who had spent most of the last half hour crying. "It's all light, goodness, and well-timed rescues from here on out."
"Well-timed?" Roxas shot at him, seemingly unable to stop himself. "More like 'at the last possible moment.'"
"That's well-timed, isn't it?" Lea crossed the room quickly in an attempt to grab Roxas and ruffle his hair, but Roxas dodged out from under his arm as though he'd been expecting it.
Their banter seemed to have the effect Riku had been hoping to have on Kairi himself, as the girl seemed to cheer a bit and actually smiled at him. "You're right," she said. "They do need a handler."
Riku was able to smile back at her more genuinely this time, and turned to Yen Sid, just in case the old Master had any advice for him before he left. From the way Yen Sid folded his hands into his sleeves, it seemed he did. "Sora's heart has mostly likely gone among the Heartless," he began. "Though you have a unique connection to Sora's heart after entering his dreams, the darkness that it dwells within can still harm you. Be certain to take adequate protection."
Riku had only begun to nod when there was a loud sound of fabric from behind him. A black coat hung from Lea's hand as the man practically dropped it into Riku's arms. "Here. I'm not going to get much use out of it sitting around here."
Riku blinked, taking the coat and sliding it on. "Thanks." The sleeves were more fitted than his old one's, and the hem was a bit longer, but the magic built into the coat soon adjusted it to a comfortable size. It was well-worn, though not as well-worn as the clothes Lea had on underneath it; the orange shirt was almost too small and looked like it was about to fall apart, and the jeans weren't much better. Only the checked scarf seemed at all new, and Riku didn't need to glance at Roxas' clothes to guess why.
It felt a little strange, to have the coat and not the blindfold. He hadn't dressed like this since shortly after leaving Castle Oblivion. When he looked up from fiddling with the zipper, Kairi was looking him over. She caught his eye and then made a loud hmm.
"Still missing something," she said, and before Riku could protest, put her hands up to the back of her neck and unclasped the pendant she always wore. Riku stared. He'd never seen her take it off, since the day she arrived at the islands; she even wore it to bed.
But now she was leaning forward and putting it around his neck, so that the little bit of clear glass hung right between the sides of the hood as it hung over his shoulders. "There," she said, looking pleased as she withdrew her hands. One finger paused on the pendant. "When I was a little girl, someone I met put a spell on this. She said that when I was in danger, it would take me to somewhere with a great light. Somewhere I would be safe."
Riku looked up from the pendant to her. Kairi winked at him. "I know it's not exactly a lucky charm, but try to bring it back to me anyway, okay?"
"Okay," Riku said, and then hesitated only a breath before adding, "I promise." Kairi seemed satisfied with that, and stepped away from him.
It was as ready as he was going to get, Riku supposed. He gave a slight bow to Yen Sid, a nod to Lea and Roxas, and then turned for the door.
He'd find Sora, and this time, he'd bring him back to stay.
How long she had been walking, she didn't know. That beach had been a safe place, seemingly, a place to stop and rest for a time. She'd slept soundly, watched over by the man in the black coat, for the first time in a long time. Even if time had had meaning, she wouldn't have known how long she slept.
But she couldn't wait at the shore forever. And so, when her body was rested and her heart filled again with hope - Sora, she said the name to herself again, like a talisman - Aqua picked up her Keyblade and walked on.
She was a Keyblade Master, perhaps the only Master of the light left. She couldn't just sit waiting.
A sound, at her back, familiar but unheard for years, however long she had wandered this place. A kind of scratching against the air as the blue shape leapt at her, red eyes gleaming -
But these weak Unversed were no match for a Keyblade Master, in any circumstance. Aqua sliced it with her Master's Keyblade, felling it in one blow, and then stared at the spot on the path it had appeared from. No others appeared, but one was enough, when there shouldn't have been any at all, even here in the deepest darkness.
Even as hope had brightened her heart, fear clutched at it now. "Ven," Aqua whispered, and, without a second thought, turned and ran back for the beach.
She wouldn't let the darkness take one of her friends. Not ever again.
Riku and the King had left a week ago, and as much as Kairi tried to be patient, she really did wish one or the other would return already. Until then, she supposed, she would have to accept the routine that had been established, however unhappily.
Donald and Goofy had returned not long after Riku had left, and the two of them had done the bulk of her and Lea's training, Yen Sid only stepping in to assist in the theoretical aspects. For practical matters, she had Sora's friends, and Lea, to spar against and grow her abilities. And she was growing stronger, and Lea could almost summon the Keyblade every time now, only rarely calling up flame-ringed chakrams instead, usually when Donald had first dragged him out of bed.
Roxas was around, too. He hadn't had anywhere else to go, and Yen Sid didn't want to risk Xehanort doing anything to him (anything further, rather, if you counted what had happened to Sora). He mostly watched the sparring sessions on the lawn from the steps beside the door, opening and closing his hand around a Keyblade that wouldn't answer his call.
Kairi had thought that it must have hurt, to see them practice when he couldn't, but Roxas assured her that it didn't. Kairi, in turn, had asserted that it would hurt if he could feel anything - and rather than getting angry at her, the way she expected, Roxas just looked at her blankly for a moment before nodding.
She'd apologized, afterwards. Even if he couldn't feel bad because of the things she said, she still hurt from saying them. Roxas had looked at her for a moment before pointing out that he couldn't really forgive her, either.
Even if he technically couldn't feel, he seemed depressed. Lea assured her that that wasn't what he was usually like, what he used to be like, and Kairi had seen some of that side of him, when the memory of emotion got the better of him.
Roxas and Lea ate ice cream on the steps every evening after training, watching the sun set. Donald and Goofy seemed afraid to interrupt them, and Kairi couldn't bring herself to do so, either. It was at those times that Roxas seemed the most like a normal person.
It was getting to be almost that time now, and Kairi was looking forward to taking advantage of the shower while Lea was distracted - not that he ever peeked, but once he was in the bathroom, it sometimes took hours to drag him back out again. Roxas had told her, in one of his more human moods (Kairi tried to not think of them that way, but that was what they were) that the only way to get him out of the shower in the Organization was just to wait and hope the hot water ran out quickly. Kairi, dismayed, had told him that the magic of Yen Sid's tower meant they never ran out of hot water, and somehow it had ended in Lea, with a towel wrapped around his hair, sticking his head out of the bathroom to find out why the two of them were laughing.
Kairi liked Roxas, when he was being like a human and not a chilly cloud watching her from the tower steps. But right now he was the cloud, looking at her like she was a puzzle to figure out while Donald tried to teach her magic.
"Aw, don't feel bad, Kairi," he was saying, trying to comfort her after her latest failure with the light magic that was the signature of the rulers of Disney Castle. Pearl was a spell of Mickey's invention, and Minnie had sent the scrolls back to the tower with Donald and Goofy in the hopes that Kairi would be able to learn it. Supposedly, it was a spell that required a great deal of light in one's heart to use - something Kairi wasn't at all lacking in, even if Donald sometimes seemed to be. "I can't do it either."
Kairi sighed. "Thanks, Donald," she said, trying to make it sound more genuine than it felt. Across the yard, Lea had managed to block one of Goofy's spinning attacks that usually gave him trouble. Maybe another read of the scroll would help, she decided. She'd only read it twice, and the first time she'd skimmed through it so quickly she couldn't really remember anything. (But, really, she didn't think she'd be able to do it without someone who knew how already. Maybe she could convince Donald and Goofy to take her the next time they went to the Castle, so Minnie could teach her.)
But when Kairi went over to the pile of scrolls on the staircase, the one she was going for was already in someone's hands. Roxas was squinting at it, his mouth doing the same twisty thing Sora's did when he was concentrating too hard, but he looked up when he heard her coming over. "...Sorry, I guess you need this," he said, rolling the scroll up and offering it back to her.
Kairi took it without looking at it. "Can you do any magic?" she asked after a moment. Lea had known a wide variety of Fire spells, and a few other basic elements; he said that every Nobody had had an element they were so skilled at that it was almost second nature to them. Kairi couldn't help but wonder what Roxas' was.
"A little." Roxas shrugged. "Mostly light magic, but nothing like that. Beams are easier."
Kairi stared at him for a moment, before jumping on the opportunity that had presented itself. "Show me."
"I've never done it without a Keyblade - " Roxas started, so Kairi shoved the hilt of hers into his face, ignoring Donald's squawk of protest. It washer Keyblade, she could lend it to whoever she wanted. Maybe it would somehow help him over his broodiness.
Roxas nodded and closed his hands over the grip, taking a few steps forward into the clear space in front of the stairs. Kairi took the seat he'd abandoned, bouncing with excitement. Being able to see someone do the magic was one of the things that really helped her learn, and even if Roxas just did the beams of light that he said were easier, Kairi was sure it would help.
Across the yard, Lea and Goofy had stopped in their sparring to watch as well. Lea gave her a funny look before putting his attention back on Roxas. The blond had turned to face the stairs again; if he was self-conscious because of the number of people looking at him, there wasn't any sign of it. Maybe it was another thing he couldn't feel.
"Light's kind of like Thunder magic," he was saying. "It doesn't like to just stay in one place, so it's more like you're directing it rather than summoning it." Kairi nodded. That made sense, especially if light magic mostly came from a person's heart the way Mickey's scroll had said. You weren't creating it, you just had to guide it out of you.
Roxas didn't seem to know what to say beyond that, so after a moment he lifted her Keyblade up in front of him. He hung in that position for a moment, the weapon pointed straight forward, before swinging it the rest of the way up in a rapid motion. A tiny globe of light shot out of the end, moving only a short distance from Roxas before expanding to the ground in a harsh white beam that danced over the ground for just a moment before dissolving. Two more followed before Roxas lowered the Keyblade again.
He was almost smiling, Kairi noticed, as she blinked away the afterimage of the magic. She'd been right. Sitting around doing nothing wasn't any good for him. "Can you do the other one?" she asked, lifting the scroll still in her hand to indicate what she meant.
"I can try," Roxas answered, lifting the Keyblade again. "It's kind of got a spin to it..." He swung sideways this time, in an arc, and Kairi felt a slight lift from the magic as another bead of light shot out. This one turned into an orb, not as small and precise as Mickey's but clearly the same shape, and shot off into the sky before vanishing. "Want me to do it again?"
"No, that was great!" Kairi said, standing up and grinning. "You're right, though, the beams do look easier." But if he hadn't done the pearl, she didn't think she would have felt the slight lift of the magic, and something about that seemed to be key. It made a kind of sense to her when she thought about it; Heartless and other forms of darkness seemed to creep over the ground, and light would be the opposite of that.
"Glad to have helped," Roxas said, handing her the Keyblade back, and even when he sat back down with the scrolls while Kairi went back to training, she thought he looked a little better.
That was all it really took to turn Roxas from someone who just watched their training into an active participant. He didn't know as much about the theory behind Keyblades as even Donald and Goofy, nevermind Yen Sid, but he knew the practical side of them. He was self-taught, the same way Sora and Riku were, but Kairi thought he was better at explaining things. At least he didn't drone on and on like Yen Sid did.
The third day after he demonstrated the pearl spell, Kairi finally really got it, and once she did, it was so easy that it quickly became one of the moves she used in the afternoon sparring. Lea groaned as he sat on the steps at the end of the day, waiting for Roxas to retrieve their afternoon ice cream from inside. "It's unfair," he said, the beginning of the now-routine complaints about Kairi's unexpected strength. "How does someone so small hit so hard?"
Kairi didn't bother hiding her amusement as Donald and Goofy preceded her inside. Goofy shot Lea's back one empathetic look - he'd been put on the defensive by Kairi's strength more than once - as the two passed Roxas. The blond was carrying an extra ice cream this time, and held it out to Kairi after practically dropping Lea's in the redhead's lap.
"Here," he said with a bit of a grin. "Icing on the cake."
Kairi gave him a surprised look, but took the ice cream and ripped the wrapper off before sitting down on the top step. If Roxas was going to invite her to stay for his and Lea's little afternoon ritual, she wasn't going to say anything against it. "Thanks."
Lea didn't seem to object, either, from the way he'd already bitten off a chunk of his ice cream. Kairi wondered how his teeth could stand it. Roxas sat down in between them, on the top step with Kairi where he could nudge Lea's back with his foot. The three of them watched the sunset in silence, until Lea's ice cream was gone and Kairi and Roxas were nursing their last few bites.
Then Lea propped his arms behind his head and leaned back with a sigh. "I'm kinda worried," he said, without preamble. "I thought at least one of those guys would be back by now."
Kairi didn't have to ask who he meant, and she didn't say anything, glad for the excuse of the ice cream to keep silent. She was worried, too. She thought Mickey, at least, should have been back by now, awakened Ventus in tow, even if Riku wasn't. Finding one lost heart among many had to be a difficult job, even for a Keyblade Master.
"We could go look for them," Roxas said, licking the last bit of ice cream off his stick and putting it in his pocket. Kairi gave him a brief incredulous look - Yen Sid said to stay here for training!
But Roxas wasn't training, she reminded herself. He was just kind of around, and Yen Sid didn't seem to especially care about what he did. The old master might have been wise, but he didn't seem to care for Nobodies very much. Roxas must have been bored out of his mind, except those handful of times he helped with their training.
And Kairi was frustrated with waiting. If Roxas was going to go looking, there was no way that Kairi wasn't going to go with him, especially since she was sure Lea was thinking the same thing. And even Yen Sid had admitted that there was a limit to what training could teach them without practical use, that he thought that might have been a part of why Eraqus' students failed the way they did. They hadn't been prepared for the reality of being Keybearers in other worlds.
"How would we find them?" she asked, feeling excitement growing. Donald and Goofy probably wouldn't let them have the Gummi Ship, and Mickey had taken the purple train. She didn't even know how Riku had left.
To her surprise, Roxas raised a hand and, with a look of concentration, summoned a dark portal onto the ground in front of the staircase. He let it disappear after a moment, shrugging under the looks Lea and Kairi were giving him.
"I can still do it," he said. "It's just harder to go somewhere new."
Kairi looked at Lea, finding that he was also fighting off a grin. "We'll need some kind of protection," Lea said. "We only had one coat and I already gave it to Riku."
Really, Lea was the one who needed the protection most, Kairi thought. The darkness couldn't do much to harm her heart - pure of light as it was - and Roxas didn't have a heart to harm.
"There were some fairies here before," Roxas started, in the turned-inwards kind of way he got when he was talking about something Sora had experienced when the two of them were one person. "Maybe they can help."
"Worth a try," Kairi said, nodding, feeling good about having some kind of plan.
"Then we'll find the fairies," Lea agreed, with the tone in his voice that said he couldn't believe he was saying that with a straight face. Kairi was used to hearing that tone when he pointed out that their magic teacher was a duck. After a moment, Lea yawned, then added, "But, tomorrow. I'm too sore to do anything tonight."
"You still have to walk up to your room," Roxas pointed out, and Lea groaned.
"Don't remind me."