Hello, dear readers. I hope you all had a merry Christmas.

The call is still open for world and storyline ideas. Refer to previous chapters for conditions.

Also, please leave comments/reviews with what you thought of my story developments. Aside from just "loving the story so far", I haven't really been getting much feedback on what I'm doing with each world, the various characters, and the little nods I throw in. Please, let me what you think about what happens, and how you interpret some of the subtle things. Thank you.

Chapter 85

Sleepwalk

Around midnight, Sora climbed out of bed, shaking himself awake. Seeing that the others were fast asleep, he crept out of the room, silently closing the door behind him. He passed through the hallway and left through the front door.

In the darkness of night, the streets were lit up by evenly-placed light posts. The town was quiet at that hour, with only a few people walking around. Sora walked through the streets and past the Borough. He heard a CLAYMORE scanner beep and turned to see a Morning Star appear out of thin air. While a passing civilian ran away, Sora did not even flinch at its presence. Instead, he simply summoned his Keyblade and put an end to the threat. When the Morning Star dissipated, he dismissed his weapon.

"Hey, there," he heard a voice say. Sora turned around and saw Lea leaning back against a wall. He swung a chakram on his left index finger, apparently having been ready to fight the Heartless as well before Sora defeated it singlehandedly.

"Hey, Axel," Sora greeted back.

Lea blinked, then rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on. It's Lea now," he reminded him. "Got it memorized?"

Sora chuckled. "My bad," he replied.

Lea let out a light chuckle. "Can't sleep, huh?" he asked.

Sora shrugged. "Guess not," he answered.

"I can see that. Too much going on, am I right?"

Sora nodded. "Yeah. There's what Maleficent is trying to do, you guys coming back as Somebodies, finding out that Nobodies can grow hearts of their own and that Xemnas and Xigbar were lying the whole time, everything Mickey said about his friends, bringing Aqua back, and bringing DiZ back too…" He sighed. "Yeah, it's kind of a lot to take in."

Lea shook his head. "I don't know what to make of any of it," he admitted. "Granted, I'm not all that embroiled in what that cranky witch is up to, and I never met that Aqua chick. But I still can't believe what Xemnas and Xigbar did to all of us."

Sora nodded. "The Organization caused so much harm on Xemnas' behalf because he made everyone believe that they didn't have hearts and couldn't feel," he said bitterly. "At the very least, Xemnas had to have figured out at some point that Nobodies could grow hearts, but he lied to and manipulated everyone."

Lea nodded. "Yeah. I'm not happy about it either," he replied. "That Xehanort guy must've been a real piece of work. But now that we're back and we're free, maybe we can start picking the pieces up."

Sora nodded. "Yeah. Of course, it's a lot to recover from. So much pain, and there are still people who are lost thanks to all that."

Lea raised an eyebrow. "What's up with you?" he asked. "You're usually the one telling people to get out of that kind of funk."

Sora looked away, a hint of shame in his eyes. Lea did not notice, but even if he had, he would have been mistaken in guessing the real reason he felt that way. After a moment of uncertain silence, he turned back to Lea.

"Are you hungry?" he asked. Lea blinked in surprise at the seemingly-out-of-the-blue question, but he soon realized what he meant.

Sora and Lea went to the marketplace and each bought a Sea-Salt Ice Cream from Scrooge's shop, which was still open even at such a late hour. They sat on the ledge at the top of the stairs and began to eat the frozen treat.

"You know, a lot may change, but this ice cream will always stay the same," Lea said, holding his ice cream stick up proudly. He grinned and turned to Sora, tapping his noggin with one finger. "Got it memorized?"

Sora laughed after swallowing his latest bite. "Yeah. It's right up here with the—" He stopped and clutched his forehead in discomfort. "Ugh… Brain freeze."

Lea laughed and, after the headache subsided, Sora joined in. After the laughter died down, they fell silent, unsure where to take the conversation. The silence was only broken by each bite of the ice cream sticks.

"Hey Ax… Lea," Sora addressed the redhead.

"Yeah?"

"Knowing what you know now, if you could go back, do a do-over, would you do anything differently?" Sora asked.

Lea thought long and hard about the question. When he came up with something, he hesitated for a good while. The ice cream began to melt.

"I don't know," he finally said. He shook his head. "There's just so much that happened. So much that changed… it was difficult. I don't know where I'd begin with any of it."

Sora nodded, understanding his response. "Then let me change the question. If you could make a new impact on everything that happened, how would you like it to have turned out?"

"Heh. That's a bit easier," Lea replied. "However I'd go about it, and I don't know if I'd be any more proud of my actions, I'd try to make things turn out better. Better for everyone I care about, you know? Roxas, Isa…" He trailed off, his face contorting into an expression of confusion. Sora raised an eyebrow, noticing that it appeared as though he was trying to think of something, but it was stumping him. Lea shook his head. "Sorry. It just feels like there's something else. Something else that's… missing."

Sora turned away and nodded, having felt the same thing for a few days. He had been stewing in the inexplicable feeling of emptiness and had no idea what to do with it. He wondered if what Lea felt was missing was the same thing that was bothering him.

Sora decided to redirect the conversation to a different point from what he was contemplating. "What about Sa…Isa?" he asked, remembering to not use his Nobody name. "Aren't you mending fences with him?"

Lea sighed and shook his head. "I dunno. I mean, I'm trying. But he always seems distant whenever I try to talk to him," he explained. "Not like how he was cold as Saïx; he just shies away from conversation. It happens most when I try to tell a joke. Way back, he would deliver some snarky retort, and as Saïx, he would glare and scold me for acting like a child, or something. But now, he just looks away, answers in short sentences, and just does everything he can to keep me from getting a read on him. I just don't know what to do with him."

Sora thought about Lea's words. He made sure to refrain from seething at the mention of Isa's Nobody identity, the very mention of whom drew severe amounts of rage at the thought of his words and actions. Moving past his emotional connection to the man as he once was, he considered what he might be going through at present.

"Maybe he's acting the way he is now because of the way he acted as Saïx," Sora suggested. "Like how DiZ was, rather is, ashamed of what he had done in the past, and how you and the others feel awful about what you did as Nobodies, especially in light of finding out about Xemnas' lies, I guess that Isa's not happy about how he acted around everyone as Saïx. Particularly you."

"Me?"

"You were his best friend in another life, right? But that fell apart due to him growing colder due to Xemnas' influence," Sora clarified. "Maybe now, he's having trouble reconciling who he had been with who he is now, who he could be now."

"Huh. Maybe you're right," Lea replied. "I guess it wasn't hard for me to adjust, since I tried to stay the same, but he turned into a completely different person, and now he's struggling with the possibility of being who he once was, or who he could be."

"You should talk to him," Sora said. "Help him through this."

Lea nodded. "Yeah. You're right. Thanks."

They finished their ice cream and Sora yawned. Lea chuckled.

"Tired?" he asked.

"Yeah," Sora replied.

"Well, you should head back and get some sleep. At least before your friends wake up and wonder where you are."

"Sure. Will do. See you." Sora waved goodbye to Lea and walked down the stairs. He turned the cleaned-off ice cream stick with his fingers so he could look at both sides, and dropped it in the nearest trash can when he found it blank. He returned to his hotel room.

Sora woke up from what seemed to be a full night's rest and yawned. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. As he climbed out of bed, he stopped in confusion, moving his tongue around inside his mouth as he felt a strange sensation.

What's this salty taste in my mouth? he thought to himself. It's sweet too. Why is that?

He was taken out of his thoughts when he heard a knocking on the door. He exited the bedroom and opened the door leading out to the hallway, quickly joined by Riku and Kairi. When he pulled the door open, he found Donald and Goofy on the other side.

"What's up?" Sora asked.

"We went to go see the King and check up on Aqua," Donald explained. "And he sent us to get you."

"Aqua's woken up," Goofy told them.