Chapter 11: Journals

{Disney Castle: September 26th 2013: 9:05am}

Roxas stretched a bit and looked around as he heard thunder clap in the clouds. Ocean-blue eyes looked around the dim room as dull, gray light came in through the windows as he got out of bed, and went over to the window where he looked over the horizon at the dull sky as lightening briefly flashed and rain began to pelt the windows and castle. Roxas sighed and started to stretch as he heard a knock at his door, and looked at the area, where Riku was coming into see if he was awake or not.

"Morning," he said as he leaned against the doorway.

"Uh...morning?" Riku sighed.

"Did you not sleep well?" he inquired.

"No, I slept fine...but...normally...Sora is the one who comes in here to pester me in the mornings..." the silver-haired Keyblade Master looked down.

"Sora's sleeping in a bit – we've got rain coming in for the rest of the week, and he's feeling a bit off today...so we get the rest of the week off," Riku stated.

"What?! But it's Monday...how are we going to do that?" Roxas was definitely surprised by the statement, but also slightly concerned.

"We'll be fine. Sometimes rest is a good thing," he assured him.

"Okay...what's the catch?" giving the Keyblade Master a quizzical look, Roxas crossed his arms, and frowned.

"No catch, just enjoy the week off. We're going to be spending a lot of down time...see you at breakfast," Riku stated.

Roxas raised an eyebrow at the statement as Riku left his room and went about waking up the others. Kairi seemed to be already awake, as did Namine; however, Roxas himself was wondering why Sora had decided to take the week off. Rain didn't seem like a good enough reason, and honestly, he suspected to be training in the rain to help them with adapting to the environmental changes – or something like that – but instead, they got the week free to do whatever they wanted.

Roxas sighed as he glanced towards the closed door of his room and the window, where he saw dark, blackish-gray-blue clouds rolling overhead before smiling as he went towards the wardrobe, where he walked over and grabbed a pair of comfortable clothes and changed before putting on his shoes and heading out of the room and down the hallway for breakfast. Needless to say, he was looking forward to a break from normal training sessions. However, during their week of silence, Roxas got the worst feeling that some of their questions would be answered, but it wouldn't be in the easiest of ways. In fact, he believed that nothing about this week would go smoothly.

{Downstairs: 10:00am}

Roxas, Namine, Kairi, and Riku settled at the table later than usual in the morning, and prepared for a late breakfast on a cloudy, rainy day. It was quiet for the most part as they sat there – Riku was reading through a few reports that had been given to him that morning, Kairi was breezing through a book she had taken from the library on summons while Namine was reading over her shoulder, and Roxas looked them over with further confusion at the fact that Sora wasn't present once more. Normally – even on these rather bizarre off days – Sora would be downstairs with them, and he would be involved in a conversation or just coming in battling off the brooms that had managed to catch up to him at some point; however, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Where's Sora this time?" he asked.

"Coming, he was sleeping in this morning – that's why there's no training this week." Kairi frowned as she put down her book, stuck the placeholder in it, and closed it before looking down at her plate.

"He was acting off this morning...I think he's having some trouble again," she stated while glancing towards Riku.

"I don't doubt it. Remember the last time it rained this bad?" the silver-haired Keyblade Master looked through a few more papers as he talked, and then pushed his reading glasses up the bridge of his nose again.

"I thought that was fixed, though...and he wasn't sick like that last time...he had another nightmare..." Riku paused in his work while Roxas and Namine did much the same.

"A nightmare? That's why he's sleeping in?" inquired Namine.

"He has some pretty nasty ones from time to time..." Roxas looked down.

"Has he done anything for them, then?" he questioned as he looked to Kairi and Riku.

"It's not really the kind you can fix with a dreamless sleep potion..." ocean-blue eyes looked back to the plate before him.

"Oh..."

The door creaked open and Sora slowly entered before shutting the door back. He walked over to Kairi and kissed her cheek before sitting down and poured a cup of green tea as he rested his head on his arms, which were folded atop the table. The two blondes glanced him over, noticing the messier-than-normal state of his hair and the faint pallor to his complexion as he sighed tiredly. Kairi put a hand upon his shoulder, and he sighed as he looked towards her and Riku, who gave him a weary smile as he sat up and stretched a bit as he grabbed the tea cup with both his hands and took a slight sip of it while looking to Roxas, who swallowed a bit thickly.

"What are you doing?" he asked tiredly.

" Watching you...you look like hell..." Sora rolled his eyes.

"I'm fine, just tired. Anyways, today's an off day...enjoy the peace and quiet," he said half-heartedly as he took a few of the papers that Riku had finished with and began to read them over as well.

"What're the reports talking about?" Sora glanced over the top of one as he took another sip of the tea.

"It's just some people telling us what's going on with the Heartless," Riku stated. Kairi frowned.

"Which worlds?" Sora sighed as he looked the papers over.

"Hollow Bastion, Radiant Garden, Daybreak Town, Traverse Town, Halloween Town, Christmas Town, Burgess, Owari, High Noon Town, Port Royal, Kingdom of Lucis, the Coliseum, hmm...there's a few new ones on here..." he said in half-thought.

"Yea, I noticed that, too..." Riku looked his papers over.

"New ones?" questioned Namine.

"Yea, we've got...four...maybe five new worlds that are experiencing Heartless and Nobodies..." the group looked him over.

"What about Organization Thirteen?" asked Roxas.

"Nothing...which does have me worried, because we've got more worlds being infected by the Heartless...and now Nobodies..." Sora looked to the papers.

"What are the new worlds?" Kairi probed as she looked at the documents Sora was reading.

"Let's see...Amestris, True Cross, a place called Loop Seven got jammed up with a flood of Neos recently, but they're doing well...then there was this place called the Black Order, but they've had two maybe three Nobodies and just under a dozen Heartless – nothing to be worried about..." Riku looked to Sora, who frowned.

"What about that camp?" Sora inquired.

"What camp?" Sky-blue eyes looked at the papers.

"Oh! We've got six worlds...whoops...let's see...a place called Fennmont, and a place known as Half-Blood Hill..." he stated.

"Those place just sound lovely..." Sora and Riku glanced to Roxas.

"Owari and Burgess have some really great allies for us. Jack Frost and Yui Amane," he told them.

"Whoa...Jack Frost? As in..." Riku shifted through the paper discussing the activity in Amestris while Sora checked over another one that covered activity in Half-Blood Hill and Fennmont.

"King of Winter, Guardian of Levity, Reaper of the Moon, and Embodiment of the Season of Frost? Yea, that's him," Sora said as he frowned.

"What? Is something wrong?" sky-blue eyes glanced to cyan.

"In Fennmont, there's this kid named Jude Mathis – he's been in the middle of these Heartless attacks recently...he's real shook up, from what we've been told by a few of our eyes and ears – he has a group with him, too, and they're keeping an eye on them for the time being via shadow watchers," Sora stated.

"Well, that sounds like the best idea..." Riku frowned as he looked at the papers again.

"Six new worlds? What should we do now?" Sora stretched again and took another sip of the green tea.

"For now, we just wait for any updates. If we don't keep a close watch on them, though...something really bad could happen, so we'll have to keep an eye the boy especially," he said slowly as he looked at the last of the papers.

"I'll keep watch on three and you'll keep watch on three?" Sora nodded to Riku's question and looked at the three papers he had.

"I've got Loop Seven, Fennmont, and Half-Blood Hill," he looked at the three papers.

"And I'll take care of Amestris, the Black Order, and True Cross..." the two Masters settled upon that, while Roxas and Namine sat there in faint curiosity.

"Why would you keep an eye on that boy?" asked Roxas.

"Because he could be a Keyblade Bearer – that might be why he's attracting the Heartless and the Nobodies..." Namine frowned at the statement.

"Sora? Can I ask you a question?" she inquired. Sora glanced over the top of the report for Loop Seven.

"Sure, what is it?" he turned his attention back to the paper.

"Why do Heartless and Nobodies come towards people who are Keyblade Bearers?" she probed. The boy sat the papers down – letting them see it was coupled with a few pictures of some of the people they wanted to keep tabs on – and sighed as he rubbed his temples, feeling a faint headache coming on.

"It's the darkness in our hearts and the power of the Keyblade that makes us targets. If we don't keep tabs on people who draw attention from the Heartless, we may miss out on a chance to gain more Bearers of the Keyblade..." the two blondes took the information in.

"Okay, but what about the Princesses of Heart?" inquired Roxas.

"I'm the only Princess of Heart that can wield a Keyblade, Roxas. I'm a special case in this situation." Namine and Roxas looked to Kairi.

"You're a Princess of Heart?!" Riku laughed.

"Yep, she's the seventh Princess, and she's got the heart of the Keyblade Master destined to kill Xehanort Erebus," he said as he looked to Sora, who rolled his eyes.

"Do you know how close you were to having that situation upon your shoulders?" Riku shrugged.

"I do. However, it still would have fallen to you...seeing as the Silver Kingdom Key came to you first," he explained. Sora took in a deep breath and slumped in his seat.

"I know...so no matter what I did, I couldn't escape it...anyways...what are you staring all slack jawed about?" Roxas shut his mouth.

"I gotta ask...I learned about your first adventure not too long ago...but Xehanort Erebus, have you ever met the guy?" he questioned.

"No, but I have met his Heartless and his Nobody...atop all of that...I've met the people and things he controls...I don't need to meet that acerbic devil to know that I have to kill him..." the two blondes looked back to their plates as Sora rested his elbow on the table and put his hand over his eyes as he let out a heavy sigh.

"Hey? Are you okay?" Riku asked him as he turned his attention to the boy next to him.

"Not really...I'm not feeling very well today..." Roxas watched his Master and friend for a moment, taking note of his behavior.

"Nightmares?" In hind sight, he wondered if he should have asked the boy something like that.

"If I'm having any sort of nightmare, it's none of your business, so please keep the fuck out of it!" Sora looked to him from under his bangs, causing his normally gentle sky-blue eyes to turn icy and malicious.

Roxas kept quiet after that and spent the rest of breakfast avoiding eye contact with Sora at all costs. Despite his best efforts, Roxas knew that there were things that the chestnut-haired Keyblade Master wouldn't tell them or explain; however, he wanted to understand his friend better, and even possibly become a better ally to him and the others. Roxas left breakfast with a rather blank expression as he thought over Sora's reactions and personality that morning – he was quiet, but at the same time, he knew that Sora wasn't the easiest person to read; if anything, Sora was possibly the most complex and confusing person he'd ever met. Nonetheless, Roxas suspected he'd learn more about his friend as time went on.

As the day progressed, Roxas went about the castle exploring. His first stop had been a gallery of paintings in the east wing – they covered vast subjects from history to things of fantasy – however, he did pause at one singular painting. It was large and encompassing in size, covering most of the wall it was on. The painting was framed in black iron and detailed something that Roxas knew was terrifying. Ocean-blue eyes scanned the dark image of a battlefield while silhouettes appeared on different sides, and small shadows donned in colors of navy, violet-red, and grayish-white were scattered about in different areas while several other forms appeared. One was a side of black hooded figures, and the other, people bearing what seemed to be parts of light pieces of armor, and within their grasps were Keyblades. They were detailed out to the fullest extent, color and curves perfectly portrayed. Roxas felt his heart hammering in his chest as he looked at the scene for such a long time that he felt as if the images were moving and reenacting the moment that froze them within the image. All of these silhouettes were framed by a charred, bloodstained, cracked ground, and a blood-red, fire-lit sky that drew nothing more than fear from him as he continued to stare onward.

"The Keyblade War..." Roxas jumped and turned around to see Riku leaning against the wall across from him.

"W-What?" he asked as Riku sighed and started to walk towards him.

"About a century ago, there was a Keyblade War that broke out across the worlds. Keyblade Bearers and Masters fought with the darkness...it laid waste to an entire world and killed thousands of people, creatures, and Bearers..." Roxas felt his hands shake a bit as he continued to watch Riku and then turned his attention back to the painting.

"Then what happened?" he questioned.

"The Keyblade War destroyed so many people, and the worlds...which had once been connected, vanished..." Roxas looked down.

"Were the worlds really connected?" he asked him as Riku nodded.

"Yea, but it was a long time ago...according to the story...there was something that spread Darkness everywhere, and apparently...Xehanort had something to do with it..." the blonde boy glanced towards Riku out of the corner of his eyes.

"Um...Riku? I gotta ask...what happened to the Keyblade Masters and Bearers? You know...after the War?" Riku looked down.

"Sora knows about it...a man who's a good friend of ours named Squall Leonhart told him why, when we go to some worlds...Keyblade Wielders are treated so horribly..." he mentioned in passing as Roxas continued to look at the painting.

"I'm a little confused – I recognize the Heartless...but I don't know what the other things are...and what kind of Keyblades are those?" Riku looked down.

"Listen, Roxas...the history of Keyblade Bearers is really scrambled...we don't know the full extent of which the Keyblade's power reached back during that time...the only person who would know is Master Yen Sid, but if there's some kind of facts we're missing...he hasn't told us yet," Riku stated.

"But why?! We're Keyblade Wielders! Don't we have a right to know what happened back then and why things are so horrible now?" Riku sighed.

"Look, if we were meant to know...Master Yen Sid would have told us..." he explained while Roxas frowned.

"I don't like all these secrets...we're a team, aren't we?" Riku nodded to him.

"We are a team...but there are some things that we can't talk about yet because we're just..." ocean-blue eyes looked cyan.

"Care to explain that one to me?" Roxas inquired.

"Well...I know you learned about Sora's first adventure...but did you learn everything? Or just what Jiminy recorded?" the blonde looked down.

"I...learned a lot more than I thought I would...about you and Kairi...Sora as well...and it revolves around the Dream Drop thing you mentioned when we came here," he stated.

"Look, just give us some time – that happened in April...we need time to..." Roxas narrowed his eyes at the Keyblade Master.

"To what? Think of a suitable excuse to feed me and Namine so we don't learn some deep dark secret? We need to trust you guys, but you've made it almost impossible for us to do that because you just keep lying and..."

"Stop talking..." Roxas glowered at him.

"Riku! I'm not fucking joking! You need to listen to us and..." the silver-haired Keyblade Master shook his head.

"No, do you hear that?"

Roxas paused, and when he did, he heard it – music. It was light, tranquil, and gentle. The music was something he recognized as a piano, and it was mesmerizing in a haunting way; however, he didn't know where it was coming from. Riku looked to him and nodded before heading out of the gallery with him and towards the area where the sound was coming from. It was as they turned the corner into the castle's hallway that bore a music room at the end of it that they met up with Kairi, Namine, Donald, and Goofy, who were also drawn to the sound and had tracked it down to the music room. The group of six wandered down the hallway slowly, quietly, so not to draw attention to themselves and disrupt the person playing the music in the room. The closer they got; however, the more vibrant and warm the sound became.

It reminded them greatly of a lullaby – soft, peaceful, and lulling to the senses. Still, there was a tone under it that reminded them also of a requiem: a death song. The sound was easing, and at the same time highly unnerving in a manner that none of them could quite put their finger on. Kairi crept closer, with Namine, Riku, Roxas, Donald and Goofy close behind her, and noticed the door was open just enough for them to peer into the room. Kairi took in a steadying breath and went up to the door before freezing, and sequentially spooking the others.

"What is it? Kairi?" asked Goofy in a whisper.

"You're never going to believe this..."

Gently and slowly, Kairi pried the door further open and looked to the person settled at the piano. Without question, it wasn't who they were expecting; because while they would have guessed Queen Minnie, Lady Daisy, or perhaps King Mickey, they never anticipated none other than Sora to be sitting there, playing the piano as if it was a daily activity for him. The group felt their eyes widen, and some felt their mouths slightly open in surprise. Kairi felt a slight sense of discontent, only because Sora had never made a mentioning of it – though he clearly had been playing for quite a few years – however, she was more curious about the song he was playing.

It brought back a few memories from her childhood, and the one detail she nearly forgot: the strange man in her memories. She often associated him with Sora, and deducted from those thoughts that he was his father, but she felt as if something was wrong about the memory, only because she couldn't remember his face, or his voice, just sharp blue eyes – Sora's eyes. Despite that distant memory, Kairi did remember the song that he was playing.

It was as he got to another portion of the chorus of the song that Donald moved forward and bumped into them, causing them to careen forward and slam the door open as they hit the floor. The room went still; the music had stopped. The group of six slowly shook the sudden sense of vertigo from their systems and looked around before looking directly to Sora, who was crouched in front of them with his head tilted while he had his arms crossed over his legs as he remained crouched there for a moment. Roxas frowned as he looked at his friend and Master – taking note of the comfortable, relaxed clothing that consisted of a long-sleeve black, V-neck shirt, and navy loose-fitting cotton pants – the boy remained crouched, not truly curious so much as humored by their current state.

"Well...that was quite an entrance," Sora said with a smirk.

"Shut up, you sneaky little..." sky-blue eyes narrowed playfully.

"I don't know if I would be calling someone sneaky – considering what you six were up to..." he stood as they managed to get themselves to their feet and he stretched a bit while starting to walk over to the piano again, while Kairi took note that the boy was barefoot. Sora sat back down at the piano and looked to the group as he drew his knees up to his chest and rested his head on them with a tired sigh.

"What were you doing in here, anyways?" Namine asked.

"Passing time...I've had a bit of a headache today...so I was looking for an outlet to take my mind off it..." Riku frowned.

"And that was playing the piano?" he inquired. Sky-blue eyes looked down at the statement.

"Well...kind of..." Roxas gave him a bland look.

"You sound like you've been playing a long time," he pointed out.

"I have...I started playing when I was seven..." Kairi felt her eyes widen a bit.

"How did we not notice this for nine years?!" she asked him as he shrugged.

"I didn't tell anyone..." Donald and Goofy frowned as they looked the boy over.

"Gwarsh, Sora, I don't see why not – you're really good," he told him as Sora smiled a bit, laughing in a small manner.

"Thanks, Goofy...but...see...I never told anyone because of how I was picked on growing up...think about it – I'm pretty small for my age...and I'm smart, I've got a good memory...but if I had those kinds of qualities and had a gift for music, plus the medical side...I would be picked on for other reasons..." Namine bit her lip in thought.

"You don't seem like the kind of person people would pick on," she stated.

"Well, looks can be deceiving." Riku smirked as he looked to his friend.

"You're pretty good – what song was that?" Kairi moved a little closer to Sora and sat down next to him on the wide bench of the piano.

"That was Into the West, wasn't it? The song that man who used to come visit you would play?" the chestnut-haired Keyblade Master nodded slowly.

"Yea...my mom had the song, and I used it to play the music from the sheet she had. I've got it memorized nowadays, so I don't need the sheet anymore," he explained.

"And there's the spectacular memory you have kicking in again...how many songs do you have memorized?" Riku's comment had Sora rolling his eyes.

"Twenty-seven...those are just the entire ones, but there are a few others I'm still practicing with," the other said blandly.

"So...what's this week got for us? Are we going to do any work at all?" Sora glanced to the side for a moment as if he was thinking, and then nodded slowly.

"Yea, we'll do a little work with my last usable Drive Form, and we'll work with the illusion pins a little...but for the most part, we'll take a break and kind of slow down for a bit...but since we had to move the date around...we'll be going to see the Three Good Fairies at the end of the month," he said tiredly.

"Okay, then I guess we'll deal with that later..." Sora stretched again.

"Seems to me that you need a nap," Kairi said with a faint laugh as he gave her a tired look.

"Yea, that'd be nice...is it still raining?" the others nodded.

"Of course...well, I gotta get back to work, see ya later! Come on, Goofy," Donald said as he started to leave, and the Captain of the Knights smiled to them.

"Feel better, Sora..." he waved and followed Donald out, while Sora stood up, closed the covering for the keys on the piano, and grabbed Kairi's hand as she started towards the door.

"What did he mean by feel better?" asked Roxas, who had for the most part chosen to remain silent during the previous conversation – he played the guitar, but not many knew that unless you looked at the black acoustic one in the corner of his room – but now he found himself curious.

"Magical pressure illness...when the atmosphere changes, sometimes it makes me feel kind of sick..." Sora looked to the blonde, who frowned.

"Isn't that dangerous?" the Keyblade Master shook his head.

"No, it's not...just makes you feel really bad," he said.

"Oh..." Kairi tugged Sora's arm a bit.

"Sora, come on, let's get some rest..." she said.

"Okay, I'm coming..." with that, the red-haired Princess of Heart lead the Keyblade Master out of the room and down the hall. Roxas sighed and Namine looked to him.

"Come on, let's go find something to do for a bit, okay?" she said, while Riku laughed.

"See you two later."

Riku walked down the hallway and exited it before turning towards the stairwell that lead up to the Keyblade Wielder's hallway. It was still pouring rain, the clouds were rolling, dark gray, and thunder bellowed around them. Riku sighed and started towards the stairwell to go and relax for the rest of the day; however, as soon as he reached the top, he felt a sharp sting race through him, and his vision swam with darkness momentarily. Panic flared in him and Way to the Dawn appeared in his grasp as he tried to reason what was happening. Riku felt his heart clench and an ache develop in him as he crouched down to one knee and took in a few deep breaths before looking around as he slowly stood and started towards his room.

It wasn't a moment after he shut the door behind him that Riku slid down the door and took in a series of rough breaths, while his Keyblade clanged to the ground. He wanted to panic, and for a brief moment he wanted to rush to where Kairi and Sora were; however, he felt as if this wasn't something they could help with – it was a Dream Eater issue. A sharp pain developed in his shoulders, and he gritted his teeth against it as a sudden ripping sensation came through him, and he hissed as he dug his nails in against the floors, which had lengthened a bit and carved grooves into the hardwood. Riku took in a deep breath and crouched over a bit before he felt a sharp, tense pain in his shoulders and then something moved outward. Cyan eyes glanced back and momentarily paused as he looked at the sight of two bat-like, blackish-blue wings that were stretching out from his shoulders. Faintly surprised, Riku stood and went directly to the mirror in his room in the closet and looked into it.

The wings started off as an inky black at the tops and slowly faded from there to midnight blue, then sapphire, and slowly got lighter until they were completely sky-blue and then bled into white at the very tips of the wings. Riku took the sight in and tried to think about moving them – still in shock at what he was seeing, despite his efforts – and they responded as if it had been a natural ability of his since he was born. The silver-haired Keyblade Master took in a steady breath and looked at the reflection once again.

"Well...I wasn't expecting that..."

{….}

I'll be right here now, to hold you when the sky falls down. I will always...

{…...}

Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry guys, I had a few family things come up, and then writer's block reared its ugly head. However, now I'm back, and going to be giving out a series of updates during the week – in addition to the weekend updates – to make up for the last two weeks.

Sorry, but no worries; we'll get caught up in no time!

Preview:

"Hey? Can you tell me about your Mark of Mastery exam?"

"Stay back!"

"What's going on?"

"Sora, come back to me...it's alright..."

Chapter 12: Better Left Unsaid