CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

From the moment that Roxas looked into his eyes, Sora dropped hard, but instead of hitting the floor, he broke right through and kept going. He reached for his twin, for Riku, for anyone, but in an instant they were lost, Cid's workshop becoming a pinprick of light in the distance as he fell deeper, and deeper. He fell through darkness, viscous like water, and it felt like he was dropping so fast, but there was nothing solid to see, nothing by which to actually gauge his descent.

He sank, and he sank, and just when he was beginning to wonder if this was what death felt like, like that maybe Roxas had overloaded him accidentally or something, because Sora wasn't the messenger, he really was just a human, just a regular, ordinary guy, and they'd all made a horrible mistake –

– something appeared.

It was just a speck, but it was something, Sora latching onto it and letting himself drop towards it with intent. As it took form in the inky nothing, he saw – stained glass. A singular, towering platform. A large image in startling colour of a girl with blonde hair and a notepad, lying in opposition of a black-clad, dark-haired, slumbering man with a heart-shaped hole in his chest.

As he approached the platform, Sora felt himself slowing, twisting around to land gently, almost delicately, upon the stained-glass platform, a flare of light gleaming so brightly at its edges that he had to shield his eyes. When he lowered his hand, he saw – the girl.

Naminé.

"Sora, you came!" Her voice was gentle, but overjoyed, and so relieved it almost ached to hear. She stood a short distance away, wearing a simple, white dress, and sandals. There was a glitter in her eyes as the last of the light's glow faded. "You finally came…" There was a sob in her throat, as if she had been waiting so very long for this moment to arrive.

Sora, uncertainly, asked, "You're – you're Naminé? You're really… real?"

She laughed, then sniffled, wiping her eyes. "I'm really real," she replied, with a broad, happy smile. "And it's so lovely to finally meet you, Sora. Thank you for coming," she added, softly.

"Does this mean I'm the messenger?" Sora asked, despondently.

"You are," Naminé told him, brushing her knuckles against the tops of her cheeks one last time. "You've just been… sleeping. Sleeping for much, much longer than you should have, but… it was to protect you."

Sora blinked, frowned. "Wait, how come I was sleeping so long? And how was it to protect me?"

"…I've known about you," Naminé quietly said, "all my life. I've felt you, just like I can feel all of the gods." She touched her chest lightly. "I am the reincarnation of the god Vanitas… the empty one." She looked down at the stained-glass mural of herself and the man. "A god of death. Only death." She closed her eyes briefly, then said to Sora, "But he contained the ability to consume other souls. To hold them within himself. It was in this capacity that he was able to carry them to their rest." She looked down at the mural again, gently. "Death isn't just about the people that get left behind."

Sora followed her gaze, studying the slumbering god in stained-glass. "But aren't you also… Ansem's daughter?"

She looked surprised, but pleased. "You're all working well together. I'm glad. I was worried that between Sephiroth and the loss of Father from your ranks, you might…"

Sora asked alertly, "You know about Sephiroth?"

"I know about everything, Sora," she answered, helplessly. "Because I was born with the ability to sense and seek out other souls, I immediately knew where the other gods were as soon as Father woke me. But he thought I was the messenger; that's why worked so hard to wake me. And I let him keep believing it, at first because I was scared he would be disappointed if I told him the truth, but then, later, because of…"

"Because of Xehanort?" Sora softly asked, and, wincing, she nodded. Uneasily, he said, "We heard that Ansem got struck off some scholar's register for experimenting with waking people up. Is that how he was able to wake you?"

Naminé went still, then tipped her head slightly. "That's true, yes," she distantly confirmed, as if it had happened to someone else. "Father… Ansem… used techniques that he and – Xehanort," it was as if saying the name caused her physical pain, "concocted together. It was a very methodical process."

Sora stared in dismayed horror. They'd – experimented on a little girl? Because they thought she was the messenger? "They did that… to you?" he asked, voice hushed, and when she looked at him, her gaze was.. hollow.

"They did."

Sora wanted to cry. "Why?"

She sighed, a heavy sound from such a small body and said again, "Because they thought I was the messenger." She met Sora's gaze. "Usually, Xehanort likes to kill the messenger whenever he finds them, so that the other gods remain unaware of their existences. Ventus has a hard time surviving, too, for the same reason."

Sora felt a stab of panic. "That's – my brother now, though, right? Xehanort has us both on his murder list?"

"Ordinarily, that wold be correct," Naminé told him, grimacing. "But things were different this time. Because they believed I was the messenger, they decided to keep me alive to – train me to locate gods for them." She glanced away, shame and guilt plain on her face. "It was only as I got older that I realised what they were doing: killing anyone who would be problematic to Xehanort's rise. But Father made a mistake." She seemed to suppress a flinch as she said this, as if Ansem had suffered greatly for his error. "He woke Sephiroth up prematurely. When Sephiroth attacked Cloud, and the other reincarnated gods came to his rescue, an entire cluster of fairly powerful gods was forcefully woken, all already together."

"So Xehanort couldn't just… bump them off so easily anymore, huh?" Sora dejectedly asked. It wasn't like it wasn't a victory for the good guys, but at the same time… the price that those who'd come before had paid… And exactly how close had all of them, him, Roxas, Riku, Axel, even Kairi come to total extinction?

"Exactly," Naminé replied. "But it also meant that now the wakened had to be managed, which was when Father appointed himself their leader."

"Wait, wait, wait – wasn't he only in league with Xehanort since like, a year ago or something?" Sora asked, wishing he'd paid more attention to the 'god shit' conversations as they'd been happening.

"Oh, Sora. Oh, no." Naminé shook her head regretfully. "No, Father has been working with Xehanort all along. Xehanort provided himself as a means to an end for Father's research, just as Father's research was a means to an end for him."

"…Oh, my god, this is going to cause so many arguments," Sora realised as it sank in, dreading the inevitable relay of information.

"I'm so sorry," the girl apologised, so genuinely remorseful that Sora waved his hands about wildly.

"No, no, don't worry about it!" he frantically backpedalled. "I'm not actually being serious, I'm just saying dumb stuff out loud. I'm good at that. I'm actually pretty goofy." Desperate to make his point, he jammed his fingers into his mouth and stretched it out, making a stupid face and asking, muffled by his own fingers, "See?"

There was a pause as Naminé's eyes widened, before she was consumed by peals of laughter, and it was such an airy, delighted sound that Sora couldn't help but laugh along with her. They laughed until they were out of breath, Naminé gasping, holding her stomach, "You're nothing like I thought you'd be."

"Well, how do you think I feel?" Sora gulped, wiping his eyes. "I thought I was just drawing some random girl, but you're actually real?"

She grew more serious again at his words, Sora feeling a pang of regret at having unwittingly steered them back onto heavier ground. "Once I was old enough to understand my role in the proceedings, I… ran away," she told him, her face creased with the pain of that memory. "But I was brought back. That's when Father created the first Nobody." She lifted her chin slightly, defiance towards someone only she could see. "Xigbar. He's the one who found me, who dragged me back by my hair." She glanced away. "After that, I was taken… elsewhere."

"Where?" Sora asked plaintively. "Naminé, if you tell me where you are, we can try and save you. All of us, we'll come to you. Just please, tell me where."

When she looked at him, it was with resignation. "…I'm nowhere at all, Sora. It's a place your brother knows quite well. If there's any chance at all –" Abruptly she stopped, and shushed Sora, turning her head towards something Sora had no access to. "…Marluxia's coming. I have to go."

"No, no, Naminé, wait, wait, wait!" Sora begged, but with a second flash of light, she was gone, and so was he.

Sora sat up with such suddenness, and the deepest gasp of air, that Axel dropped the dirt-bike magazine he'd been reading and yelled, "Shit!"

The kid looked at him, wild-eyed, as both Riku and Roxas lunged for him, each gripping him at the same time until Sora was almost choking for breath. "Okay, okay! I'm okay!" he managed to protest in a strangled voice, until they relented. "Really, it was no big deal!"

"For fuck's sake, Sora!" Roxas snapped, a confused mess of fury and absolute relief. "It's been two fucking days."

"…Two days? Me? Really?" Sora's eyes couldn't possibly get wider. Riku couldn't hold himself back any longer than that, and resumed holding him, tightly but tenderly.

Axel ditched the dining chair he'd been positioned on over the course of the day, went to the doorway, and called, "He's awake!"

There was a thundering of footsteps, but Aerith, just barely in the lead, managed to cut everyone else off. "He just woke up!" she reprimanded them, blocking the doorway like she was the most impenetrable wall in existence instead of the absolute waif she was, but it worked. No one challenged her. They all backed down, with various grumbles, remaining back at the doorway as Aerith turned, huffed, and made her way towards the bed that Sora and Riku had been sharing since their arrival in the manor.

She sat down next to Sora, checking his temperature with her hand, the colour of his eyes and tongue, and his lymph nodes for good measure. She traced a finger back and forth in front of his face, which he followed obediently, looking… no worse for wear than if he'd just woken up from a particularly long nap. Roxas, next to him, mumbled, "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"He seems… fine," was Aerith's uncertain verdict.

"I told you," Sora said, gently prying Riku away. "I'm okay. But I am the messenger, I did meet Naminé, and I have got just. So much tea to spill, you guys."

"Then spill it!" Yuffie called from the doorway.

"I think that Sora should probably just take it easy for the rest of the day," Aerith proposed, but Sora wasn't having it.

"Aerith, I like you, you seem really nice and you cook really good food, but I just learned I spent two days in this bed. I am rested." His hands up to ward off unwanted contact from those who would seek to keep him bedridden, Sora shuffled his way to the edge of the mattress. With everyone watching closely, breaths held like it was an Olympic fucking event, Sora lowered one bare foot to the floor, then the other. He was standing. He was fine.

Holding his hands out, he said, "See?" and then Riku was attached to him again and Roxas started loudly demanding, "Give me back the hours of my life I spent worrying about you, you ridiculous fucking simp, you fuck boy."

"Call me a fuck boy again, Roxas," Sora brightly encouraged him, patting Riku's shoulder with one hand while forming a fist with the other, ready to fight if need be. "Go on. I want you to."

Roxas took a step towards him with each word he spoke, wide-eyed and deliberate. "I. Said. That. You. Are. A. Ridiculous! Fucking!" Axel drew him back again, pinning his lips together so he couldn't finish.

"I know you're glad that Sora's all right," Axel said quietly into his ear, the words just for Roxas. "I am, too. It was scary. But he's here now. He's back. He's fine. He's okay."

Roxas quivered slightly, then slumped, losing the will to fight. Looking away sulkily, he muttered, "Whatever. Welcome back, dipshit."

Sora smirked slightly. "…Thanks." He didn't even follow it with an insult. Maybe being woken had been a maturing experience for him, because he got serious again pretty quickly and said, "Really, though. Everyone needs to hear what I have to say." Whatever other babble might have been going on in the background stopped immediately. Every set of eyes was on Sora. The perks of the job, maybe. "I've got kind of a story to tell," Sora said, "and all I'm asking is that you let me finish before you start picking it apart. Okay?"

The group nodded their assent, and Sora began talking. He explained every detail of what he'd seen, felt, said, and heard, and when he was done, a hush fell over the manor, broken only by the distant bellow of an increasingly enfeebled Sephiroth. Hearing Cloud's rough voice echoing through the house was enough to finish Leon off. He stalked away, disappearing into the depths of the house to doubtlessly brood, as Axel was discovering he was wont to do. Tifa and Aerith were tightly holding hands, while Yuffie leaned against the wall with crossed arms and stared out the window.

"…All this time?" Tifa eventually had to hear it again for it to really hit home.

"The entire time," Sora nodded, apprehensively. He could very clearly see the effect he'd had on them. Even Riku had let him go at some point, to stare and listen. Maybe Sora hadn't anticipated just how hard it would be for them to accept. It wasn't that anyone was doubting him; they just needed time to process it. The details had fit with everything Vincent knew, and certainly matched Axel's own opinion of Ansem. His first impression had been right on the money: guy was an asshole.

"A collaborator…" Aerith murmured. She looked at Tifa, whose face had gone rock hard. "But just think," she urged softly, "if it hadn't been for Ansem's actions, we might never have survived to be together all this time." She looked around at the remainder of the group. "Maybe some part of Ansem… knew this could happen. Maybe some part of him woke Sephiroth early on purpose."

"That's just speculation," Tifa muttered, dashing the tears from her eyes. Now that her faith in Ansem had at last been completely broken, she was in no mood for forgiveness. There had been a sliver of doubt before, but it was gone now. Ansem wasn't even a Xehanort puppet – it sounded like the bastard was in league with him. Why? For research? For knowledge? Was he really that fucking single-minded and ruthless?

Axel didn't even really need to ask the question to know the answer. They all knew it, now: Ansem had experimented on his own daughter. A child, at the time. He had forced her awake, just like Sephiroth liked to do, except his reason wasn't even 'sadistic pleasure', which, to be fair to Sephiroth, was at least true to his character. He did it cycle, after cycle, after cycle. Dude was addicted. But Ansem's addiction… it had driven him to such lows. Such unimaginably dark places.

Into the defeated silence that had fallen, Axel asked, "So, are we doing this, or what?"

He was met by mostly blank gazes, but Sora had started slowly nodding. "We have to save Naminé."

"And stop Ansem," Tifa bitterly said.

"What about Xehanort?" Roxas reluctantly asked, at which they went quiet. "He wants to kill us all. He will, if we let him. Are we supposed to just hide forever? Our entire lives?" He looked around hopelessly. "Then he'll have already won. He can do whatever he wants if we scatter. We've already lost contact with Kairi because of him, and she was one of the strongest allies we could hope for."

Suddenly, Sora gasped. "Oh, my god. What if I can contact Kairi?"

"Sora," Roxas patiently explained, "her phone number is dead, her house is empty, I searched absolutely everywherrrre, oh, my god." He finally realised what Sora had. He looked at his twin with astonishment. "You're the messenger!"

"I am!" Sora replied excitedly. "I'm the messenger!"

"You talked to Naminé," Roxas breathed.

"So who's to say I can't talk to Kairi, too?"

"…Holy shit." Axel looked at him with wide eyes. "For real? You're like… 1800-Dial-A-God now?"

"Maybe!" Sora nodded eagerly. "I mean, Naminé was specifically kind of calling out to me, but I don't see why finding people would be so impossible. I just need time to figure it out!"

"And we'll get our answer in five to ten sleeping days," Riku interjected sarcastically, glaring at them. "Sora just woke up from being unconscious for two days while he talked to Naminé."

"Well, maybe it was the backlash," Axel suggested. "Like my fever after the first time I used my power."

Sora nodded emphatically at this. "I was there. It was crazy. We're probably lucky I wasn't asleep for like, a year or something."

"You're not a god, so maybe you got the equivalent but as… the regular human version," Roxas slowly said, starting to see the sense of it. "Which would mean that the next time you did it… it wouldn't be as bad."

"Are you serious?" Riku demanded, haggardly, slapping his hands together to draw their attention. "I just spent two goddamn days wondering if Sora was ever going to wake up, and you want him to do it again? You don't even know if any of that is right, you just want it to be!" He looked exhausted, and somewhat rightfully pissed off. The guy hadn't slept properly in days, between one thing and another, and if the shoe was on the other foot, Axel didn't think he'd want Roxas returning to that state again any time soon, either.

It was Sora who took him by the shoulders, ran a hand through his long hair, and said, with quiet determination, "I want to do it again."

Riku cupped his face, pleading, "Sora, no."

"My mind is made up," Sora told him firmly, at which point Riku appeared to… droop a little. "Just promise me you'll wait for me," he softly added.

Since this was starting to sound like a conversation no one else needed to be part of, Axel, Roxas, and the others filed out of the room, leaving the couple to their tenderly saccharine moment.

"And us?" Axel asked, as they split up in different directions. He looked at Roxas, lost in thought beside him. "What are we supposed to do?"

"That's above my paygrade," Roxas answered automatically, before blinking, saying, "Sorry, messenger response. 'I don't know' is the god response, I guess."

"Much more helpful," Axel assured him, flashing a thumbs-up.

With a tired smile, Roxas went on, "I just don't know how we ended up here, you know?" He looked puzzled, a frown creasing between his brows that Axel wanted to kiss away. "I miss my friends. I miss my life."

"I know how that goes," Axel murmured, Roxas's expression turning guilty.

"Sorry. I shouldn't even be complaining about this to you, what with Demyx and all."

Axel lifted their hands and kissed the back of Roxas's. "It's okay. To be honest…" He paused as they passed by a window, tugging the boy a halt to gaze out at the sunset-streaked sky. "For the first time, I think I feel hopeful about Demyx. Before, I had no idea what to do, or why he'd been chosen. Now, I know the game was rigged. As long as we were working with Ansem, there was no way I was ever going find a way to help Demyx. Demyx was right where he was supposed to be. But now…" He smiled at Roxas, the warmth of his heart spreading out through his hands to touch him, where it continued to bloom until Roxas was smiling, too.

"…Now," Roxas said, feeling it both in Axel's heart and reading it in the air around him, "we have a chance. Because no one should have to be a Nobody. And I'm sorry if this is insensitive, but I'm so glad they chose Demyx instead of you."

At this, Axel squeezed his hand, kissed his head softly. "…I am, too," he replied, huskily. Resting his chin on Roxas's hair, he continued to stare outside. "Demyx couldn't outmanoeuvre a Happy Meal toy, let alone a god." He felt Roxas chuckling under his jaw.

"So in this scenario, does that mean that you can? You gonna take on a god, Axel?"

Axel, his hickey from the other day still healing, nipped him sharply on the ear and growled, "You'd better believe I can." He lifted the laughing Roxas up, kissing him hard, until he was panting for breath.

Cheeks flushed, Roxas whispered, "I've just thought of something we can do while Leon's off pouting."

"Same," Axel answered, breathlessly. "Jigsaw puzzle, right?" He kissed Roxas's laughing throat all the way to the bedroom.