A/N - Hello everyone. Sorry for the wait and that this one is so short, but I've been kinda busy the last few days and on top of that, I might be having some minor medical issues. I don't think it's anything serious but we'll have to see. Needless to say, updates will probably be pretty slow for a while.

Now on that cheerful note. Happy Reading.

King of the Sky

Chapter XIV

A Slight Detour

Sora opened his eyes, only to be met with darkness.

"Huh?" he thought aloud with confusion, before looking down at the stained glass below him.

"My Station? What am I doing back here?" he questioned as he looked around. This felt different from many of his previous visits to his Station of Waking. He was far to lucid.

On previous visits, it was more like a dream, but now it was more like when he and Chirithy had forged his power as a Hunter.

Also unlike every other time, Sora felt no purpose to his visit.

He was not here to heal his heart or his powers. He wasn't connecting to anyone, he was just…there…

Sora then blinked as he realized he was missing someone "wait, where's Chirithy!?" he thought aloud with worry as he looked around for his Ghost but saw no sign of him.

Sora gasped soon after though, as a small blueish, white light, appeared above him. It was dim, but slowly and steadily growing in intensity.

"Chirithy?" Sora called out. He didn't know how but he could feel that this particular Light was his Ghost.

"Ok, what is going on!?" Sora exclaimed to the void as he threw his hands up. He then sighed as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot "this doesn't make any sense. The last thing I remember is leaving The Reef and then…" Sora trailed off.

The boy's eyes widened then as memories of alarms blaring and explosions came back to him "wait we cra-AAAAAHHHH!!!"

Sora was cut off by the Light's intensity reaching it's peek and bursting outwards and Sora yelled as he was suddenly yanked up from the Station by an unseen force.

Sora yelped as he jolted up from laying on his back, sending bits of metal and wiring up into the air with a plume of grey dust, where it drifted for a moment before slowly coming back to the ground.

Sora gasped for air as he sat there, only to cough as stale, dry air, entered his lungs. It honestly didn't seam like it should be breathable, for how thin and dusty it was.

"Hay, you ok there?" Chirithy asked as he dipped down into Sora's view and Transmatted his helmet on, snapping Sora out of it, as the filters did their job.

Sora blinked, patting himself down and looking around at the wreckage of their new ship, strewn across a fresh trench, in the crater filled, white-grey landscape, with a blue and green sphere, hanging in the sky above. A smaller, broken white sphere hung so close to the blue one as to be touching.

Sora blinked several times as he processed what had happened.

I died… he thought numbly.

The realization sent a chill up his spine. Sure, he had faced death countless times and had even died while facing Anti-Sora, but that was in an actual battle.

This was a simple crash. Something out of his control and, dare he say, mundane compared to everything else.

Sora might not remember everything but he was sure he'd survived ship crashes before, and having been killed in such a simple way, forced him to face his own mortality in a way he hadn't before.

Sora quickly banished those thoughts for later though, as he felt a wave of Darkness, waft up from beneath the ground, in the form of green vapors escaping from some cracks in the white-grey landscape, triggering his fight or flight instincts.

Sora shook his head clear and looked around. There were no immediate threats and his ship was actually mostly intact, just with a blown out cockpit and some missing plating on the bottom along with the bottom wing.

Sora hummed in thought before looking up to his Ghost, who was still waiting for him to respond.

"Next time, I drive" Sora deadpanned before climbing to his feet while Chirithy bristled in annoyance but was too embarrassed over the crash to speak up.

"Whoa!" Sora yelped as, like the debris from earlier, he drifted upward slightly when pushing himself up, before drifting slowly back down to his feet.

"Where are we?" Sora asked as he reached up to adjust his headgear.

"We're on the moon. Where the Hive live" Chirithy answered. His voice cracking with concern.

Sora looked to his ghost before looking down and hopping in place once "is that why everything's all floaty?" he asked innocently.

Chirithy just stared at Sora for a moment with what could have ether been an incredulous look or bewilderment. Possibly both.

"Yes…everyone knows that…" Chirithy deadpanned as he floated there staring.

"Well I didn't" Sora shrugged before looking around at the wreckage again "oh well, I guess we better get to work" he said before walking, or more like skipping really, do to the low gravity, over to the ship.

"Aw, come on! We just got this ship" Sora bemoaned as he crossed his arms and tapped his foot while he looked up at what remained of the ship as his Ghost went about scanning it.

"So, can we make it fly again?" Sora asked.

"I can make it work" Chirithy replied before going back to scanning "we'll need a new navigation computer though, and it looks like part of the engine is missing…" he trailed off as he focused on that last part.

Chirithy then sighed in annoyance "and of course Awoken tech isn't interchangeable with ours. We'll have to find the missing part or hope someone picks up the distress signal I sent while you were out" he said as he stopped scanning and turned to Sora.

The Guardian uncrossed his arms as his Ghost floated down to him "and what are the chances of someone picking us up?" he asked.

Chirithy hummed in thought before looking up towards Earth and expanding his shell while gaining a little elevation.

Sora heard static over his radio as Chirithy scanned the channels, but nothing clear came through.

"Not good" Chirithy replied "something's messing with the signal and this isn't the best place to broadcast. Also, the Vanguard hasn't let many Guardians come to the moon since the Disaster, so we probably aren't getting rescued anytime soon" he continued.

Sora gave an annoyed sigh before turning on his heel "welp, I guess we better get looking" he said before he started strolling over to the scattered pieces of his ship and gathering them together.

Chirithy watched him go for a moment before giving a happy, digital trill. It was nice being around someone like himself for a change.

The Ghost quickly shook himself from his musings and gained some elevation and expanded his shell again, while giving out a pulse. Mapping the immediate area and scanning for missing parts for Sora to collect.

Not long after, as Sora ran around the desolate area and used Flow Motion to reach the higher ledges and deep crevasses, the boy began to hum a merry tune, which Chirithy joined in on, as he called out where some of the harder to find parts were, before zipping down to Transmat up the part and zipping back up to scan.

"So Chirithy, what did you do for fun before finding me?" Sora asked suddenly.

"Me?" Chirithy chirped with surprise, before falling deep into thought "well, not much really…I was so focused on finding you that I didn't spend much time at the tower, but when I was there, I mostly hung out with Cayde or with the kids in the parks in the city" he said as he looked to the sky. Reminiscing on old memories "it was pretty fun though…seeing all these worlds and what's left of Human civilization…" he mused.

Sora gazed up at his Ghost for a moment, before giving a smile "yah, that sounds like fun…" he trailed off as he felt a tug at the back of his mind and fractured memories tried to surface "…I'd like to do that again…" he trailed off to himself as he gazed out over the barren landscape of the moon. The only deviating feature being a cluster of old buildings out in the distance.

Sora suddenly flashed back to the Final World and a sense of endless monotony and loneliness seized him.

Sora quickly shook himself free from the memory and looked back to the part he was collecting and grabbed it before jumping off the ledge and landing safely on the ground.

"Alright, is that everything?" Sora asked his Ghost, who gave a distorted hum as he mentally went over all the parts they had.

"Almost…we're still missing the engine's core though" he said in frustration before flying up and sending out another pulse "alright, I think I found it…wait, how did it end up all the way out there!?" he exclaimed before flying back down.

"It's out towards the old Lunar base…in Hive territory" he explained with a nervous spin of his shell.

Sora blinked at his Ghost before looking out to the horizon "wait, you mean…all the way out there?" He asked and his arms dangled as he looked out at the massive distance, separating them from the base.

Chirithy gave an affirmative hum and Sora hung his head for a moment "well, I guess we better start walking" Sora sighed as he straightened himself up and took a step forward.

Sora abruptly stopped though, before turning on his heel "beeeetter take care of this first though" he drawled before summoning Kingdom Key and aiming it at his ship.

"Um, what are you doing?" Chirithy asked as a beam shot out at the ship. There was a brief moment of silence before a locking sound was heard, fallowed by the lights blinking twice as the ships speakers beeped.

Chirithy just blinked a few times before looking at Sora with a half lidded eye "seriously?" he deadpanned.

"Hay, just because it's broken, doesn't mean we have to just leave it unlocked" Sora replied with a shrug, before turning in the direction of the base, out in the distance.

Chirithy just rolled his eye as he fallowed Sora out into the vast open expanse and the dark creatures that awaited them.