"Mmrph," Sora grumbled at the sound of odd scrambling, and he opened his eyes to find Milo stumbling away from the tent. The young Keyblade wielder yawned and stretched his neck, stiff from having fallen asleep on the rock floor with the Shepherd's Journal underneath him, still open. He looked around, groggy, as he picked up the book and dusted it off. He had no way of measuring time in this cavern, but it didn't appear that anyone else was awake yet. He looked up as the beam of Milo's flashlight waved around, and he followed its beam to some sort of lamp high above the camp. Upon further inspection, however, he realized that something was moving within the lamp.
From inside, countless small lights like fireflies emerged and descended toward the camp. Sora watched, curious, as they flew along, and he smiled. They reminded him of the stars in the night sky that he watched back home. But, as soon as they reached the camp, they dove down, and Milo's tent quickly caught fire. Sora's heart dropped as he scrambled up, clutching the Journal close to his chest.
"F-Fire," he croaked, then cleared his throat. "Fire!"
"FIRE!" Milo echoed as he scrambled back to the camp. Sora glanced over to him, then around the rest of the camp to find the crew emerging from their tents in a frantic attempt to save their supplies.
"What happened?!" Commander Roarke demanded, but he dropped it quickly as he went to assist Helga in trying to load up one of their vehicles. "Never mind. Everyone, move out!" Sora hurried over to rejoin Milo and handed him the Journal, then summoned his Keyblade as the fireflies came toward the crew. He focused his magic and pointed his Keyblade skyward.
"Wind!" he called, casting a spell of Aerora that sent the fireflies spiraling up and away from the crew, leaving them enough time to finish loading themselves and the supplies into their vehicles. He jumped onto the back of one and held on with one hand, his other still gripping his Keyblade. The fireflies didn't pursue, but instead simply finished their task of setting the remains of the camp to flame.
"Keep moving!" Roarke commanded. "The more distance we put between us and those bugs, the better!" Sora's grip on the vehicle tightened as he heard a crack, and he peered over to the ground to see breaks forming in the rock bridge they were moving across.
"Uh, Commander?" he called as the cracks ran across the stone surface.
"Audrey! Get us out of here!" Roarke snapped, and though the engines roared as they tried to move the vehicles forward, the rock bridge could not take the weight. It cracked and crumbled, sending stone and metal crashing down. Sora yelped as his grip on the vehicle slipped, and he found himself falling with rocks around him. He quickly transformed his Keyblade into his glider and sped away from the falling debris, dodging around several larger stones that had been upset by the breaking bridge.
He coughed as dust swirled in the air, and as the final stones fell to the ground below, everything fell eerily silent. Then, heartbeats later, he heard the crew making their way out of the rubble, coughing and grunting as they scraped through. He frowned as he sped back toward the group, peering through the dust, and he found a group of figures moving through the cavern. He frowned as he observed them. They moved much more fluidly than he had seen the crew travel, familiar with the terrain, and upon closer inspection, he realized they appeared to be carrying weapons. He followed them and watched one slip into a crack, and a few moments later, a light illuminated from within it. Then, almost as quickly, the figure reemerged and sped off into the darkness. To Sora's surprise, he found Milo climbing out of the crack a few moments later, shouting after it, and he quickly flew down to meet him.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he jumped off his glider and dismissed it. Milo absentmindedly nodded, staring off in the direction the figure had run off in. "Who was that?"
"I don't know," he replied. "A girl, a young woman… She had this crystal thing that she used to heal a cut on my shoulder." He lifted his hand and covered his opposite shoulder. "Where did she come from?"
"Milo!" Commander Roarke nearly bellowed. "Sora! Where are you?!"
"Over here!" Sora called back. "We're okay!" He turned back to Milo. "We should probably get back to the group." Milo nodded and shook his head briefly, then joined the young Keyblade wielder as they climbed over the rocks to rejoin the group. As far as Sora could tell, everyone had made it through with only a few minor cuts and bruises.
"Sheesh," Audrey rubbed her neck. "That was fun."
"Everybody okay?" A doctor they called Sweet asked, checking over everyone whether they wanted him to or not.
"Only way to go now is forward," Helga said as Sweet went about his business. She looked up and frowned. "Looks like that could be a way out up there." Mole started sniffing around, grunting.
"We're in a dormant volcanic vent," he reported as he studied the rocks. "An explosive force of great magnitude could wake it up." The group turned to glance at Vinny, their demolitions expert.
"Well, if a crash like that didn't do it, I'd say we're safe," Roarke remarked. "If we could blow the top off that thing, we'd have a straight shot to the surface." He shook his head. "Let's get moving." They gathered up what supplies they could salvage and started forward once again, and Sora frowned as he watched them go.
"You okay, Sora?" Milo wondered, turning to him. Sora nodded.
"Yeah, just…" He looked up at the broken bridge. "Wondering if this is a good idea."
"Mm…" Milo took a breath. "Not much we can do about it now." Sora sighed inwardly and picked up his pace to catch up with the rest of their group. They traveled in relative silence save the rumbling of the digger that had survived and Mole chattering on about the ash and magma. Sora frowned as he peered ahead, finding a shaft of light in the darkness of the cave, and murmurs from the group drifted through the air as they dug through it. All of them, Sora included, stopped and stared with mouths agape at what they found.
Giant waterfalls poured down into a river of lava, creating billowing clouds of mist, and over the cliff they came from stood a stone city. Sora's eyes widened as he looked around, and as he craned his neck skyward, he smiled slightly as he caught a glimpse of the light of Kingdom Hearts making its way through.
"It's beautiful," Audrey said, awestruck, and Sweet smiled as he slapped Milo on the back.
"I gotta hand it to you Milo," he said. "You really came through." Sora blinked, however, as he heard some sort of scuffling behind them. Several figures in large masks jumped down, pointing spears of some kind at them. The group shifted closer together as Roarke and Helga started to draw their guns, and Sora's hand twitched at the ready to summon his Keyblade.
"I take that back," Sweet remarked.
"Holy cats, who are these guys?" Roarke demanded, more confused than afraid. A smile slowly grew on Milo's face.
"They've gotta be Atlanteans," he replied as his grin widened.
"What?" Helga hissed. "That's impossible!" Sora stared at the figures, and one of them stepped closer and started saying something to them. From the voice, Sora assumed this one was a woman, though he had absolutely no idea what she was saying. He could guess from her tone that they weren't entirely welcome.
"I think it's talking to you," Mole said, nudging Milo's arm. The woman continued on, earning stares from the crew. Milo took a breath and squinted one eye in concentration, and he began to reply in the same language that she spoke. His words were slow and hesitant as he tried to translate in his mind, but some message must have been getting through, as the woman removed her mask. She appeared young, maybe around Milo's age and perhaps six or seven years older than Sora, and she had snow white hair, blue eyes, and dark skin. From her neck hung some sort of crystal on a cord, and Sora gazed at it curiously. Something about it felt strange to him.
The woman continued speaking and Milo tried to carry on the conversation, though from the sound of it, they were changing languages. Milo said something and she replied, and Mole got rather excited.
"Ah, they speak my language!" he clapped his hands together and scrambled to her, then said something that earned a solid punch to the face. Sweet and Audrey snickered as he got up in a delirious daze. Apparently this punch broke the ice between the groups, as they began to mix together and attempted to converse.
"How do they know all these languages?" Audrey wondered.
"Their language must be based in a root dialect," Milo replied.
"Well, maybe English is in there somewhere," Roarke remarked, then approached the woman who appeared to be the Atlanteans' leader.
"We are explorers from another world," he said in a clear voice. "We come in peace." The Atlanteans smiled.
"Welcome to the city of Atlantis," the woman said with a smile, and she gestured to the great stone city atop the waterfalls. "Come. You will speak with my father now." Both Roarke and Milo nodded, and they started across a bridge that had been built between the cliff they stood on and the city itself. Sora glanced over their escorts, noticing that each one wore a crystal that glowed with a soft blue light. He couldn't shake that there was something strange about them, but couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"You ever seen anything like this?" Milo asked him, shaking him from his thoughts.
"Huh?" he asked.
"You said you travel the worlds. Have you ever seen something as incredible as this?" Sora couldn't help but smile at the sight of Milo's ecstatic grin.
"Well, my home world is nothing to sneeze at," he said as he looked up at the city. "But I have to admit this is pretty amazing." Milo nodded and returned his attention to the Shepherd's Journal in his hands, and he started on about how the Atlantean language must have worked. Sora's mind drifted again, and he didn't bother trying to keep up with what the young man was saying, especially when he was talking so fast.
The Atlanteans eventually brought their visitors to what appeared to be a mix of a shrine and a castle, and two guards stood at attention in front of large stone double doors. They stepped aside and nodded to the woman leading them, and the group came across a beautiful watery garden. Across the water was a simple throne draped with rich red fabric, and in this throne sat an elderly man. As they approached him, the woman knelt down and bowed to him, and Milo did the same after a moment. Sora looked up, then bowed as well.
The woman began speaking with whom Sora figured was the king of Atlantis, and she spoke in their own native language that he couldn't understand. The king replied in the same language through a raspy old voice, and it was hard to tell what he was thinking. As Sora observed him, he noticed that the king appeared to be blind, and yet he didn't appear to have any trouble "seeing" the visitors.
"Your Majesty," Roarke spoke up and spread his arms. "We are most grateful that you have welcomed us into your city."
"Uh, Commander," Milo muttered, but Roarke ignored him. The king lifted his blind gaze up to the leader of the expedition.
"You presume much if you believe that you are welcome here," he replied in the same old voice. "Outsiders are forbidden in Atlantis."
"Sire, please," Roarke continued. "We are men of science. We come looking only for knowledge."
"Yet you bring weapons," the king retorted, his empty gaze falling on the gun Roarke kept in the holster at his hip.
"Our weapons are only to remove obstacles in our path," Roarke insisted. "We have traveled a long way, and we only seek-"
"I know what you seek," the king interrupted and slowly got to his feet. "But you will not find it here. You will leave my city at once." Roarke hesitated for a moment, then took a slight step forward.
"Very well. But, Your Majesty, would you allow us one night? We need to rest and resupply. We'll leave in the morning." The king's gaze darkened for a moment.
"Mm…" he grumbled as he sat back down. "Very well. One night."
"Thank you, sire," Roarke dipped his head. "You are most gracious." He turned to his crew. "Come on, men. Let us go." They turned for the door that they came through, and Sora heard the woman arguing with the king for a moment longer as he started away. He frowned as he looked down at the water, and he felt something in his hand twitch. His mind drifted back to the Shepherd's Journal and what Milo had told him- Atlantis had supposedly been lost during the Keyblade War, and yet here it was, its people thriving. He stepped to the side and lost himself in the shadows, hoping no one would immediately notice his absence. Milo seemed preoccupied with everything going on and the exchange between their guide and the king, and everyone else didn't pay much heed to the boy. He waited until the guards had closed the door with the crew on the other side, then made his way back toward the king.
"Um, Your Majesty?" he asked as he knelt down. The king's gaze may have been blind, but Sora still felt it burn into him.
"Why do you remain?" the king rasped. "Go with your companions. I have nothing more to say to you."
"Please, sire, I ask for just a moment of your time." Speaking in such formal words felt strange to him, but he didn't want to risk any disrespect. The king didn't reply, and he took that as a cue to continue. "I didn't come here with Commander Roarke and his team. I'm from another world, but not the same one as them." He paused and chewed his lip for a moment. "My name is Sora. I'm the apprentice of the χ-Blade Master, Ventus." At this, the king stiffened slightly.
"You are a Keyblade wielder," he surmised, and Sora nodded.
"Yes, sire. I'm still new, but I've learned a lot. My master sent me out to make sure the order of the worlds is maintained when darkness threatens them."
"And yet you help lead outsiders to a world locked away," the king almost growled. "Keyblade wielders clawing for power they could not hope to control… such selfishness was the downfall of our great empire. We had hoped to escape the ravages of the war they brought, the darkness they spread, but our hopes were in vain." His tone sharpened slightly. "Key bearers like yourself only spread destruction. You may act with peaceful intentions, but you bring only chaos. But no matter what you do, you will never gain sway over our Heart."
Sora blinked. He hadn't expected fanfare and praise for his actions, but he certainly didn't see such chastisement coming. He didn't need Ventus's ability to read hearts to see that the king didn't trust him, nor was he all that fond of his presence. He swallowed and lowered his head again.
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty," he said. "I know a lot about the ravages of the Keyblade War. And though I know my words are worthless, I'm sorry." The king continued to stare at him, but his gaze softened slightly. "I'm sorry that Keyblade wielders, the ones who are supposed to defend the light and protect the worlds, were responsible for all that destruction. But like my parents and my master, I've vowed to never allow that to happen again. They fought to stop the madman who would cause war again, and my parents' best friend, the boy I was named after, he died to make sure that it wouldn't happen." He paused. "I know about the sacrifices people all over the worlds have made. And I know I could never understand the pain and suffering unless I had seen it with my own eyes, but I still want to help mend all that pain." Silence fell over them as the king pondered what he had been told.
"I do not trust Keyblade wielders," he said after some time. "Not after watching what calamity they had caused. But…" He paused. "Though it is against my better judgment, I can tell that your intentions are good and your heart is pure."
"No, sire," Sora interrupted, raising his head. "I've got darkness in my heart just like everyone else- well, almost everyone. But I want to use it to protect the light." He smiled. "I've seen it happen, and I believe I can learn how." The king nodded slowly.
"You are wise beyond your years, Sora," he told the boy. "Perhaps, with Key bearers like you out in the worlds, there is some glimmer of hope. But make no mistake: Even a path you believe is just may lead you to destruction. You may bring ruin without even realizing you've done so."
"I understand, sire," Sora nodded again. "Thank you for your words and your understanding. Now," he smiled. "I'm going to go keep an eye on your other visitors and make sure they don't stir up trouble."
"Be cautious, young Key bearer," the king advised. "I do not trust your companions."
"I know," Sora's smile faded. "To be honest… I don't trust all of them either."