Chapter 68

Back to the Sandlot

"Oh, no! No, no, no! I am not working with him!" Sora yelled in protest.

"But, boy, it is de only way—" Tia Dalma tried to calm him down, but was interrupted.

"He used the Heartless to terrorize the town and tried to blow us to bits!" Sora ranted.

"Yet I get a pass when I decide to help you?" Riku quipped, pointing out a notion of irony.

"You saw the error of your ways and did what you could to fix it," Sora countered. He pointed an accusing finger at Barbossa while directing his gaze partly toward Tia Dalma. "He was cruel and brutal up to his death! And you expect us to believe he's on our side just like that and zip-a-dee-doo-da, it's all well and good like nothing happened?!"

"He is here on a bargain," Tia Dalma explained. "It is not needed that you forget him past actions. Give him time to prove himself…"

"Listen, Tia," Sora pinched his fingers to cut her off, "we'll root for you to find the way to get Jack back. Let us know when you're ready to do it, and we'll fly right on over. But we have other things to take care of, and better things than sailing for who-knows-how-long with him as our captain!"

Tia Dalma was unbothered by the outrage. "Ah, yes. Of course," she said with a chuckle. "I do wish I could help you out, tell you more den you already know, but I fear it is not my place. Good luck, children, on your quest."

Sora tugged his friends on the arms, signaling for them to get moving. As he began to march out, he stopped next to Elizabeth and leaned in to talk to her. "By the way, Will saw you kissing Jack. Just so you know. Now, please don't spend the next few weeks not talking about your issues and letting him pout silently thinking the worst of you," he whispered. "Thanks. Bye." With that, he stormed out, leading Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, and used the Safe Point on the deck outside of the shack to beam up to the Gummi Ship.

The following flight through the Lanes Between was filled with a palpable silence. Sora piloted the ship in an only slightly imperfect beeline, not really regarding the direction as he continued to quietly fume. Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy simply sat in shock, still taken aback by Sora's outburst.

Aside from a few enemy ships and asteroids, the flight was uneventful.

The first world that appeared in their direct path sat at a tangent so that the landscape was bathed in the constantly-parallel glow emanating from the adjacent star to the direct west of it. Just by looking at it, they could see that it was a small hamlet filled with houses and other establishments. The most prominent feature was a large clock tower which was connected to a railway that wrapped around the town.

"Twilight Town, huh," Kairi identified wistfully. "Brings back memories."

"Weren't you only in the hangout for a little while before Axel nabbed you?" Goofy asked, remembering the story Hayner told them of how he and his friends knew Kairi.

"Well, yeah," Kairi admitted. "I wish I'd gotten to see more of the town. But Hayner, Pence and Olette, they seemed nice."

"You know, they were pretty worried about you after you were kidnapped," Donald told her.

"Yeah. They helped us find the way into the World That Never Was because they were looking for a way to find you," Mickey added.

"Oh. Then I guess we should head on down and let them know everything turned out alright," Kairi said.

"It'll be great to see how everyone's doing," Goofy said.

"What do you say, Sora?" Riku asked.

By that point, Sora had calmed down, and his heart filled with warmth at the sight of the tranquil town. He smiled at the idea that his friends were suggesting. "Alright. Let's go say hi," he said. He punched in commands to disembark in the Central Station and the six of them stepped into the white circle behind the three main chairs.

When they stepped out from the glass double door that served as the front entrance to the train station, Kairi's jaw dropped when she saw the view of the landscape beyond the town. Beyond the ledge on the cliff upon which the station plaza was built, a dense forest spread as far as the eye could see. A large, stone, arch-set bridge looped around in the middle of the forest, carrying an elevated railway on which an orange single-car train rode. The view was made even more beautiful by the orange glow of Twilight Town's perpetual sunset.

"Pretty nice, huh?" Kairi turned around to find Sora standing right beside her, smiling nostalgically as he admired the sunset.

Kairi giggled. "Yeah. It's so warm and peaceful," she replied.

"According to the clock on the wall in the station, everyone should be done with school," Riku surmised. "And if they're anything like you, Kairi, they might be done with homework, too."

"I'd say so, too," Sora agreed. "Something tells me that Olette is the kind of person to make sure the others get their homework done."

"A-hyuck. Well, then let's head down and say hi," Goofy said.

With that, Sora, Donald and Goofy led Riku, Kairi and Mickey down the slope leading away from the plaza and into town.

As they passed a garage door, the party came upon Market Street. The Station Heights proceeded down a hill, flanked by multi-storied residential buildings and shops, its streets lined with brown tiles. The street split off into three directions: a path to the right halfway down leading into a back alley, and two exits on the lowest level, one leading to the more open section of Market Street known as the Tram Common to the left and the other to the Sandlot. At the bottom of the Heights, two shops were in business, an armor shop run by a middle-aged heavyset man with a beard, and an item shop that seemed to be run by a twelve-year-old boy.

Sora saw a white skateboard, which had fin shapes toward the back and blue markings painted on the top, on the ground in front of him and looked back at his friends with a confident smirk. "Watch this," he told them. He put his right foot on the skateboard and pushed off with his left foot. He swerved from side to side as he rolled down the hill, performing a heel flip a quarter of the way down. When he was at the halfway landing, he jumped on a ramp ledge, still riding the skateboard, and grinded down, before kicking off at the bottom and leaping into the air. His friends ran down the hill to follow his progress, amused and impressed. While in the air, he bent down and grabbed the skateboard, tilting it up at an angle. When he landed, he quickly looped around and pushed himself in the direction of the Sandlot.

He realized too late that there was someone in his path, and his friends did not have time to warn him before he crashed into that person.

"Ouch. Sorry about that," Sora said as he picked himself off of the person he had unwittingly knocked over. Before he could get a good look at the person, he felt something grab his arm and throw him into a nearby wall.

His attacker stood in front of him, an angry scowl on his face. He was a muscular young man, most likely either at the tail end of his teenage years or having already aged out, and he was about Riku's height. He had tan skin, brown eyes, short black hair with long sideburns, and a stubble on his chin. He wore an orange tank top, baggy black sweatpants with a pair of red stripes on the sides of his legs and the number 8 printed at the top of the left leg, wide yellow-and-white shoes, a pair of blue wristbands, and a thunderbolt necklace.

"Watch it, y'know?" the young man shouted.

Sora stifled a groan. He remembered Rai, though admittedly he did not know that much about him aside from his choice of companions and his tendency to end his sentences with "y'know".

Looking past Rai, Sora recognized a skinny girl who was about as tall as Kairi. She had short silver hair that covered her left eye, but her red eye and the stoic gaze that it carried was piercing enough for the pair. She wore a sleeveless blue turtleneck jacket, light-beige Capri pants, and a pair of Crocs. The girl, Fuu, took "taciturn" to a whole new level, speaking only in very brief, two- to three-word sentences.

As he identified these two individuals, Sora realized who he had run into. A young man who wore a blue crop-top vest, a long white sleeveless jacket, baggy aubergine-colored pants, a pair of black combat boots with blue shoelaces, and a black tuque hat designed with a white "Ore" kanji, pushed himself to his feet, brushing off Fuu's offer of assistance. He glared at Sora, giving him a good look at the diagonal scar cut between his blue-green eyes.

"You want to watch where you're going?" the thuggish young man asked angrily.

Sora rubbed the back of his head, making sure that the pain would go away. "I'm sorry, Seifer. It was an accident," he said. Of course, he did not expect to be let off so easily. The highly-confrontation Seifer was a member and the self-proclaimed leader of the local disciplinary committee, who has decided to carry his "authority" out to the rest of the town. Despite holding himself as a keeper of order, most of the younger generation can tell that he is just a thug bullying others into doing what he says. And, of course, that tends to mean that he would pick a fight with anyone who gets on his bad side, even inadvertently. Sora had almost gotten into a fight with him on their first meeting before they were interrupted. In a later encounter, they had developed a sort of grudging respect for each other, but that was not likely to save the moment this time.

"Well, then I guess you should have been a little more careful, huh?" Seifer scoffed. "Now you've run into a bit of trouble, and I'm not letting you off easy."

Sora was surprised by his bravado. He was honestly curious if he was actually planning to start a fight. Not only was it likely that someone would come and see it, but he should seriously know better than to pick a fight with him. But Sora supposed that his pride would not let him let this go so simply.

"Hey!" Sora and Seifer turned to see where the voice had come from. They saw an overweight teenager who was about Sora's age. The boy had brown eyes and messy black hair. He wore a long-sleeved white shirt underneath a sleeveless red jersey with a cartoonish black silhouette of a dog with three bones above it designed on it and the words "Dog Street" printed vertically in large white letters to the right of the design, as well as blue jeans, blue and white shoes with gray soles and a raised tongue, a black headband with white edges, and a small purple bandanna around his neck. Seifer scowled but Sora, for his part, was glad to see him.

"He said it was an accident," the boy continued defiantly. "And he said sorry."

Seifer grunted. "Well, who asked you?" he retorted disdainfully.

"Yeah! Get lost, y'know?" Rai added.

"Excuse me?" Hearing this new voice, Seifer looked up and glared at the five individuals standing over the scene of the confrontation. Riku, the one who had spoken, glared back. He started to walk down the ramp, followed by Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi. "I suggest you accept his apology and go find something better to do. He and the others stood alongside Pence and proceeded to stare Seifer and his posse down, making it clear that they did not intend to take "no" for an answer.

After a moment of staring back at his challenger, Seifer scowled and started to turn away. "Whatever," he snarled, clearly annoyed.

Rai was taken aback. "What? We've gotta show these punks that we're in charge, y'know?" he protested.

"You try," Fuu snarked. Rai took a step back in surprise and waved his hands in front of him, indicating that he would rather not face the newcomers on his own.

Seifer gave Sora and his friends an aside glance. "I'll let you off with a warning. But be sure that you know the rules around here," he scolded. With that, he walked off to the sandlot, trailed by Rai and Fuu.

After they were gone, Sora turned to his friends and gave them a cheeky smile. "Thanks for backing me up, guys," he said. He turned to the boy who had taken the first step in defying Seifer. "You too, Pence. How have things been?"

Pence grinned. "Not too bad," he replied. "What about you? Did you find your friends?"

"See for yourself." Sora pointed to the group standing around Pence. Pence turned around and nearly jumped in surprise. Since they had been on the level above him when he arrived on the scene and he had been focused on the altercation between Sora and Seifer the whole time, he had not really noticed them as they came down around his peripheral. For a moment, he had simply assumed that they were random passerby, possibly just one or two, who had come upon the conflict. But now that he had gotten a good look at them, he recognized four of the five. The tall guy with the silver hair was a complete stranger, but he knew Donald, Goofy, King Mickey, and…

"Kairi?!" Pence gasped. "You're alright! What happened?"

Kairi giggled. "I'm fine, Pence. I was told that you and the others helped Sora, Donald and Goofy find a way to the Organization's stronghold all to rescue me?" Pence nodded. "Thanks."

Riku held his hand out. "I'm Riku. Nice to meet you, Pence," he greeted.

Pence's eyes widened. He took Riku's hand and shook it. "So, you're Riku," he mumbled. "Nice to meet you, too." He turned to look at Sora. "I'm glad to see that you were able to find your friends."

"Thanks," Sora replied. "So, are Hayner and Olette at the Usual Spot?"

"Oh, yeah," Pence answered. "C'mon! They'll be glad to see you." He then led the party up the ramp and through the back alley, stopping at a metal gate whose door hung wide open. Past this gate was a skinny path between two houses, forcing the party to pass by in a single-file line rather than a bunched-up throng.

Once they reached the end of the path, they came out into an alcove that sat beneath the train tracks. The alcove had been set up into a makeshift hangout, with an old sofa set up against the right wall, a dartboard on the left wall, and a worn-out poster advertising Twilight Town hanging above the sofa. Three large ventilation grates were lined up on the rear wall, a yellow radiator was installed beneath the central grate, and a rusted metal pipe connected from the left wall into the floor. Boxes, thin shafts of wood, and traffic cones had been tucked away in the corners and against the walls. An empty oil drum sat to the left of the entrance, and a stepladder stood near the back left corner.

There were two teenagers in the so-called "Usual Spot" already. Both of them were the same age as Sora, Kairi and Pence. A boy with moderately spiky blond hair and brown eyes, wearing baggy camouflage pants, a black muscle shirt decorated with a crudely-drawn skull-and-crossbones, a sleeveless grey vest, camouflage-patterned shoes with white tips and a pair of intersecting black belts in place of laces, a white necklace with a yellow "X" charm, and a brown bracelet on his left arm with several silver pins in it, stood close to the entrance, throwing darts. A girl with green eyes and short brown hair with two strands draping over her shoulder, wearing an orange tank top with a white floral pattern at the bottom, khaki-colored Capri pants, orange socks with white hems, cream, black and yellow-colored shoes, a beaded, sky-blue bracelet on her right wrist, and a black necklace with a sky-blue charm, sat on the couch watching her friend.

The girl, Olette, saw the group arrive. "Hayner!" she called her friend. Hayner stopped just after throwing another dart and turned to face Olette. He saw that she was looking past him and turned around to see what it was. His eyes widened when he saw the party.

"What's up?" he greeted. He then did a double take when he saw Kairi. "Wait, Kairi?!" He pumped his fist in excitement. "You're alright! That redheaded punk didn't hurt you, did he?" A hint of anger crept into his voice as he remembered the incident where Axel had arrived to kidnap Kairi and he had been helpless to stop him.

Kairi smiled and shook her head. "I'm fine, Hayner. Thanks."

Olette ran over and hugged Kairi. "We were so worried about you," she said.

"So? What happened?" Hayner asked insistently.

Sora, Kairi and Riku, with some input from Mickey and a few comments from Donald and Goofy, told them how they had reached Organization XIII's castle, reunited, defeated the last members of the Organization, and returned home.

"Wow. That is so cool!" Pence squeed.

"Glad you showed those creeps what's what," Hayner commended.

"Wait, wait," Kairi interrupted the praise, as she found herself unable to restrain her curiosity and confusion regarding a particular detail of the story. "'Other Twilight Town'?"

Sora shrugged. "Yeah, I didn't really understand that, either," he admitted. "What was that about, Riku?"

Riku scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Oh, yeah. I guess I never did explain that. After I captured Roxas, DiZ, ahem, Ansem the Wise put him in a simulated copy of the town, both in an effort to hide him from the Organization and to keep him docile until your memories had been put back together," he explained. "But when Axel got in, I guess he created a breach in the code leading right to the Dark City."

"Oh, gotcha. I think." As he thought about the topic of the Simulated Twilight Town, a thought occurred to him. He turned to face Hayner, Pence and Olette. "Say, did you guys ever meet Roxas?"

The three teens were perplexed. "Should we have?" Pence asked.

Goofy tapped Sora on the shoulder to get his attention. "Do you still have the photo?" he asked. Sora took a moment to consider what he was talking about, then understood. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a photograph.

"I was just wondering, because in the 'other' Twilight Town, you were his friends," he said, showing off the picture. Pence took the photo and studied it, with Hayner and Olette looking over his shoulders. The photo depicted four teens grouped together in front of an old mansion: Hayner, Pence, Olette, and a boy whom Sora and Riku knew full well as Roxas.

"Weird," Hayner commented. "We have a photo just like this, but with just the three of us."

"That Ansem guy must have doctored the other kid in," Pence guessed. "You said his name was… Roxas?" Sora nodded. Pence studied Roxas' face and gasped. "Wait a minute! I think we did meet him before!"

Hayner raised an eyebrow. "You sure?" he asked, skeptical.

Pence nodded and showed him the photo again. "He showed up when you were trying to beat your Grandstander record."

Olette examined the face in the photo again. "You're right! I think he was wearing a black hooded coat," she added.

Hayner crossed his arms in contemplation. "Oh, yeah. Weird kid. He just showed up then. Didn't really look like he knew what to do."

"I also ran into him a few weeks before," Pence continued. "And there was a tall guy with him." His eyes widened as he realized something. "Wait, I thought that creep who grabbed Kairi looked familiar."

"What do you mean?" Olette asked.

"He was the guy with Roxas when I first met him," Pence explained.

"What?!" Hayner and Olette gasped.

"Roxas and Axel were best friends, once upon a time," Sora said sorrowfully. "But they had a bit of a falling-out, around the same time he left the Organization."

"Axel said something about wanting to use me as bait for Sora so he could get Roxas back, or something like that," Kairi added.

"I still don't get it," Hayner complained. "What's the big deal about Roxas? Who was he?"

Sora could understand his confusion. The same questions had been bothering him for most of his second journey, starting when Demyx appeared and called him Roxas. His bewilderment was only exacerbated when Xigbar, Luxord, and Saïx insisted on referring to him by the same name, much to his escalating annoyance. He decided that he should tell Hayner, Pence and Olette the full story.

"You remember those creatures that attacked you outside of the mansion? The Nobodies?" he asked. The three teens nodded. "You see, when a person loses his heart and forms a Heartless, sometimes his body and soul gain a life of their own and become Nobodies. Axel was a Nobody strong enough to retain a human form. He and twelve others were brought together as the Organization XIII."

"Yeah, so what does that have to do with this Roxas guy?" Hayner asked impatiently.

Sora nodded, indicating that he was getting to that. "The same thing happened to me, well over a year ago," he continued. "Roxas was a result of that transformation." He noticed the teens' eyes widen as they put two and two together. "Roxas is my Nobody."

A/N: So, it'll be a while before Sora and the gang go back to Port Royal and the Caribbean Sea. It seems that Sora isn't too eager to work with someone who tried to murder him and his friends, for some reason. Now, we're taking a little breather from the heavy action set pieces. Be sure to leave constructive feedback.