Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter another white hallway, with the three of them looking for anyone else in the room.
Aqua couldn't help but be glad that they got a little bit of break. Well, hopefully it was a break and not a sneak attack. It was clear that Sora was going through a lot, not just with his memory loss to worry about but also having to deal with the Organization members and the Riku Replica. Hopefully he got a little bit of a break here.
Donald wonders where Riku went and Goofy says that he just must have gotten tired of fighting Sora.
Riku let out a small sigh of relief at that. If there was no Replica, there would be no feelings for the Replica to accidentally spill. Thankfully, it seemed that most of the Replica's feelings for Sora had been suppressed or directed at Naminé, something he was still wondering about, and the one-off things that Replica said, Riku would be able to dismiss.
He still wondered what exactly Naminé had done to the Replica's memories. He had never asked during their year together, mostly because it was obvious that Naminé didn't want to talk about her time in Castle Oblivion, but he wondered if he had asked her, if she would have told him. Maybe it would have made watching this easier, having an explanation for Sora.
Sora says he sure hopes so.
Sora agreed with his past self. As much fun as sparring with Riku was, he much preferred to fight when the older boy was also just having a good time and comparing their fighting prowess. If that Riku actually believed they were enemies, he didn't think his past self would like fighting him too much. Even now, the thought made him feel slightly sick.
Axel, Larxene, and Vexen are in the white room, with Larxene asking Vexen what's going on.
"Does this have to do with the Replica?" Ven asked, looking over at Axel, and the man nodded slightly. He looked down at Naminé, who was still gazing at her drawing, and wondered if he should warn her. She probably knew, she had been there for this memory, but…
"Naminé," he murmured, and the girl made a sound of acknowledgement, moving her eyes up to look at him. "Just a reminder. Marluxia makes his appearance during this." He remembered this conversation well; he had taken some joy out making Vexen scramble. He didn't think he was ever going to like the man, not for what he and the other apprentices, though mostly Vexen, did. He had enjoyed seeing him fail.
"I know," Naminé replied, just as quiet, but Axel could see the way her hand shook just slightly. "I'll be okay, I promise."' He nodded but gave her a final look.
"It's okay if you're not," he told her, and she hummed.
Larxene says that Vexen's Riku was supposed to counter Sora and asks what he's waiting for and where he is, much to Vexen's displeasure.
"Was he… going rogue?" Sora asked and Naminé tipped her head to the side.
"Kind of," she admitted. "His memories… they weren't stable, due to how quickly I had to change them." True Memories take time, she said silently, her eyes skating over to Riku for the quickest second. And I didn't give him that time. "So, he was only partly being controlled by me and partly just doing whatever his memories were telling him. So not as successful as the Organization hoped he would be."
Axel sarcastically says that he's hiding somewhere in order to lure Sora deeper into the castle and he supposes they should just leave it at that then.
Xion and Roxas both frowned at the malice that was hidden in Axel's words. Roxas had noticed earlier that Axel hadn't seemed to like Vexen, even more than the other members in the castle, and Axel had confirmed it, but it was even more obvious now.
"Are you trying to annoy Vexen?" Riku asked, able to get the gist of Axel's tone from his interactions with the man in the past. While Axel might seem laid back, especially to someone who wasn't familiar with him, it was clear that he wasn't.
"In a way," Axel admitted, not wanting to share more than that. What happened to him and Isa was not something to bring up, especially not now. It's been ten years and I've had no emotions since then, Axel mused. You would think I would have stopped caring about it by now. But whenever he thought about that day, about what had happened, the memory of the anger and hatred and fear rushed through him and he knew he was never going to forgive Vexen, not until they both died. Which they technically had, so he supposed that made him a liar. Not after Vexen took him away from 'Ri and caused Isa to vanish forever, taken over by Saix.
Larxene says she sees now, playing along with Axel, and says she never would have guessed that and superficially apologizes to Vexen.
Idly, Axel wondered if there was a reason that Larxene disliked Vexen. It could just be that she disliked everyone, except Marluxia, because that seemed like the mostly likely answer but… He rapped his fingers along the back of the couch. He couldn't help but wonder.
Aqua watched the screen carefully. Again, it seemed like they had some sort of emotion, Larxene and Axel and even Vexen, as he was getting angry. It could just be superficial, that was always an option, but it seemed more than that. I wonder, who told you that you don't have hearts? She wondered, looking over at Axel. And who told them that information?
Vexen snaps at her to be quiet and Larxene calls it a predictable response, noting to forget it and that men without hearts are so boring. Vexen says she's one to talk and that she doesn't have a heart to speak of either.
And they clearly believe that fact, Aqua thought, resting her chin on one of her hands and giving the screen a narrowed eyed look. And yet…
Vanitas looked over at Aqua when he saw her shift, able to see the thinking expression on her face. What have you noticed? He thought, feeling a tad bit of worry spring in him at that. People always knowing things he didn't never worked out well for him.
I wonder what not having a heart would feel like, Sora wondered, looking over at Roxas and Naminé. The two of them had been born without hearts after all, unlike the others he would guess, so they never would have known what it was like to have emotions.
"If you don't have hearts and thus emotions," Terra said, bringing the attention to him. "Why are you acting so… emotional?" The sadistic nature of Larxene, Axel's sarcasm, and Vexen's anger, they were all emotions, weren't they?
"We have memories of emotions," Axel explained with a wave of his hand. "We remember what emotions would be used for certain scenarios and then act like we would if we still had emotions. But we can't feel anything."
"And them?" Terra asked, nodding to Roxas and Naminé. "Do the two of you have memories of Sora and Kairi?"
Roxas shook his head. Sure, he had gotten those few memories, before and during his time in the virtual world, but they hadn't really stuck with him.
Naminé nodded. She knew Kairi's memories, even if they seemed more… distant than regular memories would be.
"Well, we have things that we can copy," Xion said. "We've seen them react and so we just… react the same." But she bit her lip as she thought of it. Was it really just that or was it… more? Axel had a similar look on his face, as did Roxas.
The three of them are cut off by someone and a fourth cloaked figure appears, pulling off his hood to reveal Marluxia.
In an instant, all the thoughts of hearts and emotions fled from everyone's minds. Naminé went stiff, trying not to remember soft words and manipulations. For all that Marluxia had never hurt her, even stopping Larxene from doing the same, he still had been far from kind.
Ven felt something pulse through his head and he reached up, rubbing the space between his nose and eye as a headache ripped through his head, hissing out a short breath. "Lauriam, look what they did!" "Don't tattle on us brat!" Laughter, pink hair, a brother come to see. "What now?" "No, don't you even start-" "Lauriam!" More laughter and he reached up and caught the hand of the pink-haired boy who was everything to-
"Ven?" Aqua asked, dropping her voice slightly. She turned to look at the younger boy and Ven swallowed, the pulsing pain dying away, but not vanishing.
"I'm… I'm okay," Ven replied, shaking in head slightly. Another headache, but… what's causing them? No one else seems to be in pain.
Vanitas was watching the screen with wide eyes, something that he could only describe as both fear and adoration going through him. What? He wondered, curling one of his hands into a fist so tightly his nails broke skin. Another Flood appeared underneath the chair, looking around in confusion, searching for the catalyst to Vanitas's emotions. Vanitas slid his gaze over to Ven. In the past, especially when they had only just split, he had felt Ven's emotions, but that hadn't truly happened in a while. So why now? Because these had to be Ven's emotions. But why was Ven feeling them?
"I'm okay," Ven repeated, swallowing and looking back up at the screen. "Lauriam!"Aqua frowned, clearly not believing him, but didn't say anything, instead reaching out and placing a hand on Ven's shoulder, pressing Cura into him. The headache died even further and Ven gave Aqua a smile. Terra watched both of the in concern but didn't say anything. Ven had gotten headaches in the past, most often when he was just settling into the Land of Departure. But they had tapered out in the past year so why…?
"So that's… Marluxia?" Sora asked, having heard Vexen's greeting of the man, and he saw Axel nod. He looked back to the screen. So, this was the person that made Naminé change my memories. Who hurt her so badly. He frowned at the screen. The man didn't look so dangerous, though he knew that such façades could easily be fake.
Mickey blinked at the screen in surprise, though probably not the surprise that many of the others were feeling. When he heard about the man who had orchestrated all the events in Castle Oblivion, the one that many of the Organization were so scared of, he had been expecting someone more imposing, more… experienced. Not…
"He's young," Aqua murmured, perfectly encapsulating what Mickey had been thinking, and Terra found himself nodding along with her. All that he had heard, and seen, from Naminé's reactions to his voice all the way back in the beginning, had prepared him almost for someone like Xehanort, as strange as that sounded. Or someone at least like Braig. Not someone who looked only a few years older than him and Aqua.
"He's twenty-one," Axel answered to their unspoken question. Ven bit the inside of his cheek. "Wow, you're sixteen? That's really old." "Well, yes, I'm aware-." "He joined the Organization about four years ago. A little more."
"But that would have made him…?" Aqua trailed off, trying to do that math. That meant that Marluxia had been…
"He was just at the end of sixteen, yes," Axel replied, grimacing slightly. It hadn't escaped his knowledge that most of the Organization, minus most of the original apprentices and Luxord, had been teenagers when they were recruited. It hadn't bothered him before but now, after Roxas and Xion, and after seeing all of the others, he didn't like the fact that so many of them had lost all their feelings when they had been so young. He counted himself and Isa among that number. Maybe things would have been better between them, had they'd had a few more years together.
"Sixteen?" Kairi muttered, eyes wide. That was how old Riku was now, if a little bit older because Marluxia been at the end of sixteen, instead of the middle like Riku was.
"How many of the Organization joined as teenagers?" Aqua asked, feeling sick to her stomach. Because the Organization was made of Nobodies, who could only become Nobodies after dying to a Heartless. And if they were remade as Nobodies and looked the same age as when they died…
"A lot of them," Axel admitted and Aqua wasn't the only one giving him a wide-eyed look. Because that thought had never even occurred to Mickey, though he had only really met Xemnas. He hadn't ever seen the others to even consider…
"How old were you?" Xion asked, looking up at Axel, and he froze, a denial at the tip of his tongue. He hadn't ever spoke about it, hadn't ever mentioned, it was in the past, it didn't matter, it was-
"Fifteen," he said and saw both Xion and Roxas gasp slightly. "What?"
"That's like… as old as we are," Roxas said slowly and Axel shrugged, looking away and carefully forcing his face to blankness.
"Well, yeah, I'm twenty-five," he told them. "That's how time works."
"Axel that's-" Mickey started but Axel looked back at them, something more defiant in his eyes.
"Look, can we not?" He snapped, trying not to remember pain and Isa and 'Ri and the Heartless at his back. "It was ten years ago, it doesn't matter. And it's not like I'm the only one."
"I don't think that makes it better," Riku muttered but didn't say anything more.
Roxas and Xion had both lapsed into silence, exchanging wide eyes. They had, logically, known that Axel had been in the Organization longer than they had, at least a couple of years, given his standing as Number Eight, but they hadn't… It hadn't ever occurred to them how long those years would have had been.
Vanitas's eyes continued to flick between all the different parties. If they started to fight, where could he go for safety? And he'd have to grab Naminé as well, she didn't look like she was completely aware of what was going on, mostly just taking deep breaths. He had a feeling he knew why she was, the man's voice had been familiar to one of the other times she had freaked out, if only silently, and she probably was going through something similar now. Well, he'd be there to help her out of another panic attack if needed.
Marluxia tells Vexen that the simple fact is that his experiment is a failure.
"Wait, if Marluxia is Number Eleven, why was he given custody of the castle?" Roxas murmured after a second. While it wasn't completely adhered to, he knew of the hierarchy in the Organization. The only reason he wasn't subjected to it as much as he could have been was that half of the Organization was dead before his fifth week there.
Axel paused, before shrugging. "I suppose I don't know," he replied, just glad that the conversation had moved away from himself and the way he had become a Nobody. "Xemnas always seemed… more tolerant of Marluxia than he did of any of the other additions after the first six. Maybe that's why."
He used to wonder why that was, why Xemnas had given the castle to Marluxia of all people, but he had decided it didn't matter once Marluxia was dead. Now…
Ven pinched the bridge of his nose and did his own Cura spell on him as the pain in his head refused to leave. "Another failure?" "I'll get it one day, I swear."
They didn't seem to need the normal things to survive, given that they were in a time frozen, pocket dimension, but maybe he just hadn't been drinking enough water?
Marluxia tells him he best not disappoint them again.
"He must have been fun as a Somebody," Kairi muttered with an eyeroll. She didn't like this man, on principle, because he had been the one to help Larxene hurt Naminé, and even the revelation of his age didn't really change that.
"He wouldn't know," Naminé murmured, mostly on instinct as she flipped to a new page, and several looks were shot her way.
"Pardon?" Axel asked after a second, frowning at her. He must have heard her wrong because that would imply…
Naminé flushed as she looked up and realized that all the attention was on her. She hadn't meant to say that so loud. "I meant… um, Marluxia doesn't have any memories of being a Somebody." She tapped her fingers along her sketchbook. "Neither does Larxene."
"She's just that… that on instinct?" Sora wondered, remembering the way that Larxene had mocked both Naminé and his lack of memories when they had interacted.
"But I thought that only Xion and I didn't have memories," Roxas said slowly, remembering the many conversations about it. "Because we're weird. Sora existing when I did and Xion being a Replica. But them too?"
Naminé shrugged. She hadn't dared try and go too deep into their memories, or lack of them, for fear of being somehow detected. "I don't know," she admitted. "But they don't have memories. Well, Larxene has maybe a month or two of memories from before, but nothing substantial. Marluxia remembers waking up in the World That Never Was, already a Nobody, and he might have a few flashes of before, but nothing much."
"Isn't that ironic?" Axel mused, if only to distract from his confusion at the revelation. He had been aware that Marluxia and Larxene had acted strangely when they had first joined the Organization, much like Roxas had, but he had never put much stock into it. But now… "The Nobody with no memories was put in charge of Castle Oblivion, a place where memories had been specifically studied."
"But then, why had Larxene wanted to take over the Organization?" Terra asked, remembering Axel's explanation after the one scene. "If she only ever knew the Organization…"
"I don't know, I was only told to take them down," Axel said. "She and Marluxia both, I wasn't told."
"Did they even know their names?" Sora questioned and Naminé shook her head.
"I guess Xigbar just gave them names," Axel muttered. "He was the one to find them anyway."
"The Organization seems more and more strange the longer you look at it," Mickey said, mostly to himself. He wondered if that was part of Xehanort's plans, if he ever regained his memories. Did he? He would have to ask Terra.
Vexen tells Marluxia that he goes too far, and that Vexen outranks Marluxia, but Marluxia points his scythe at him and reminds him that he's been entrusted the castle and Naminé by their leader.
"What's its name?" A chuckle. "Divine Rose." "Pretty." "I'm glad you think-" Vanitas screwed up his nose as a ripple of pain went through him and he instinctively pulled his heart in, like he would do to bring all the Unversed back to him. While that did have the positive of carefully getting rid of the Flood that was looking around in confusion under his chair, it didn't really seem to help his headache at all. What…?
Naminé doesn't need to be 'entrusted' to anyone, Kairi thought with a scowl. She's her own person.
Marluxia says that defying him will be seen as treasonous against the Organization.
Axel scoffed. You're the one who is treasonous, he thought, giving the figure of Marluxia a look. With all the information he had just been given, he didn't know how to feel about the man. He knew himself; he knew most of his actions have been driven by his memories of the past. His memories of Isa pushing him to follow Saix, his memories of both Ven, that chance encounter they had, and 'Ri leading him to spend more time with Roxas and Xion, thus becoming their friend but… What would it be like to have no memories of your past? He wondered, narrowing his eyes at the screen. And why are you like this then? What's your obsession with the Keyblade and where did it come from, if you have no memories of the past?
Axel pipes up with that traitors are eliminated as is the rules.
"Axel, you're really not helping in this scenario," Xion muttered, giving her friend a quick grin and Axel shrugged, unrepentant.
Larxene wonders who needs a half-baked, good-for-nothing anyway?
"Is she… Is she talking about the Replica or…?" Ven asked trailing off. His headache had mostly subsided by that point, simply becoming a dull ache in the back of his head, which he was mostly able to ignore. Why his headache had chosen now to appear again, he didn't know but he couldn't focus on it right now.
"That's a good question," Axel replied, because either option was possible.
Marluxia tells Vexen he can't win against Sora.
Sora blinked at this. Of all the people in the castle, it was Marluxia who seemed to have some idea of his prowess? Sure, as strange as it was to be happy about that, he had just seen over and over again that the people in the castle had no respect for his skills, all saying how easy he was to defeat. But now… He frowned as that thought went through him, choosing to instead distract himself by directing his attention back to Riku's hand. He didn't want to think about that right now.
Vexen smirks, telling him pity to be so ignorant and since Marluxia can only see the surface of things, Vexen shouldn't expect him to appreciate his true might.
"What 'true might'?" Vanitas muttered, scoffing under his breath. The man was pathetic, holding onto rankings and a sense of high intelligence as a way to lord over others. His only true contributions were creating the two Replicas, one who was with them in the room and seemed good enough to be her own person, and the other, which Naminé was clearly attached to, making him not that bad. And while using others to do their work was a strategy that worked, just look at him and Ventus and Terra and Aqua and-,it clearly wasn't in this scenario.
Marluxia says then to let them watch as he proves it as he disappears his scythe, and Vexen is confused. Marluxia states that none of them want to be suspicious of a comrade and Vexen says that his insincerity is comforting before teleporting away.
What is he going to do? Terra wondered, tipping his head to the side slightly as he scrutinized the screen. Vexen was clearly backed into a corner and the Replica might be helpful but, like Sora said, he seemed to be going a bit rouge. What could Vexen do in this moment?
Axel tells Marluxia that if he gives a challenge like that to Vexen, he'll certainly want to eliminate Sora and Marluxia says that would be an unfortunate denouement.
"A what?" Sora wondered, giving the screen a look, and Aqua chuckled slightly.
"It's an ending or a climax," she explained, and Sora nodded in understanding.
Marluxia walks over to Naminé and puts a hand on her shoulder, making her flinch.
Several people narrowed their eyes at that, sending concerned looks over at the girl who was sitting between Axel and Xion. Said girl didn't look up from her drawing, instead focusing on the background of her newest drawing. He's not here, he's not here, she chanted to herself in her mind, being carefully conscious of her breaths. He's gone, he's dead, he's not here.
Kairi glared at the man onscreen, something that was copied by Vanitas, though not that many people saw it. Aqua did however, as she had gotten used to that fact that, for some reason, Vanitas had gotten attached to Naminé. Or as attached as a darkness user could be. She frowned at him, looking between him and Naminé. What was really going on between the two of them? Vanitas would do any of that without some motive, right? He seemed incapable of actual emotion that wasn't smugness or cruelness, so why was he so… invested in Naminé? The fact that she couldn't figure it out grated on her.
Marluxia rhetorically asks Naminé what to do and tells her that her hero is soon to be wiped from existence. He tells her that, however, there does seem to be a certain promise that he made her, much to Naminé's shock.
"A… promise?" Sora asked, turning to look at her, and Naminé froze, pencil freezing in its skate across the page.
"It was… a memory I changed," Naminé admitted, voice soft and shoulder hunched. "The main one actually. One of your… True Memories." She just barely managed to stop herself from looking up at Riku, the picture she had drawn earlier burning in her mind.
"Oh," Sora said, looking over at Kairi, who looked back at him. A promise between him and Kairi? He wondered. Well, there wasn't that many, but… The one in the waterways would work, when she gave me her good luck charm. It would work, with the charm having changed. I did promise to bring it back to her.
Kairi blew out a long breath. She had a feeling she and Sora were thinking of the same thing. Giving him my good luck charm, she thought. As much as she was upset that the memory had been changed, she couldn't help the little bubble of happiness that settled in her stomach when she thought about it. That promise, it must have meant a lot to Sora, she thought, carefully keeping the smile off of her face. If changing it was enough to motivate him to continue climbing through the castle even as he forgot everything, I must mean a lot to him. She looked down, in order to carefully hide the blush on her face. I hope he knows that I feel the same.
Marluxia asks if he's right, which Naminé quietly replies yes to.
I'm sorry, Naminé thought, daring to raise her head to look at Riku once the attention had slid off of her again. I'm so sorry. I just worry about how you're going to react.
Vanitas narrowed his eyes, looking between Naminé and Riku. Whenever they brought up what memories had been changed, Naminé always looked at Riku, not Kairi, despite the fact that it was Sora's memories of Kairi that were changed. Unless… Vanitas looked back at Naminé. She had mentioned that she could only change memories that were already there, but she didn't say how much she could change the memories. Like… if there was a memory between two boys and she managed to change one of them into a girl…
Sora, Donald, and Goofy head up another flight of stairs and Donald notes that they're on the tenth floor and that they've gotten pretty high up.
"Ten?" Ven wondered, counting backwards in his head. A head that, thankfully, wasn't being attacked by a headache anymore. Hopefully that's done with, he thought, before he went back to the floors. It certainly seemed like it had been ten floors.
Jiminy says that it means that they've lost ten floors worth of memories and tells Sora that it's still not too late to turn back. He asks Sora if he thinks they should.
"I can't," Sora murmured, gently pulling his hand from Riku's to instead clasp them in front of him. "I can't stop now, not if Naminé's still a prisoner up there."
Such like you, Riku thought, giving Sora a smile. I wish you would be more selfish sometimes.
Sora says he can't do it because it would break an old promise he made.
Old? Sora wondered. He wondered how long his past self had thought it had been since that time with Kairi. The promise isn't that old.
Jiminy questions him on the promise and Sora says that on the Islands, he promised Naminé that he would keep her safe, no matter what.
"The Islands?" Kairi wondered, looking at the screen in confusion. "Sora, what promise did we make on the Islands?"
"Well, plenty," he replied, rubbing the back of his head as he tried to remember. Promises were common when they were younger, like promising not to take the last cookie or to wait until one of them was out of school after being held late. But a promise that would have been a True Memory… "But I can't remember one that would have been that important…"
Riku thought back as well. He had been around Sora and Kairi for almost his entire childhood, so he had seen most of their antics and promises but… nothing really came to mind.
"Naminé, can you change memories that the person themself might not really remember?" He asked, turning to the younger girl, who nodded without looking up.
"Yeah, because it's always there," she replied. "Even if you can't remember it, it's in your heart."
"The mind may forget, but the heart remembers," Mickey noted and got another nod from Naminé.
"So, it must have been a memory we both forgot," Sora concluded, looking to Kairi. "I'm sorry if that's the case."
"Don't be sorry," she dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Maybe it's from when I first arrived at the Islands and met you. We don't remember those days very well."
Sora thought that was true.
Sora says he forgot it and didn't remember it until he started remembering everything else. He tells Jiminy that's why he can't leave and because he now remembers the promise, he had to keep it, with Jiminy saying that they understand.
"A promise of protection," Sora murmured. It didn't really sound like him, especially when he was younger. It honestly sounded more like Riku, but he could have said it. If Kairi was new and scared, he could see himself giving a promise of protection to her.
Terra looked at the three of them, smiling slightly when he remembered the young Riku's words to him on the beach. To go and look for the strength to protect what matters. He was already thinking about that when he was five. Maybe Sora had been trying to emulate Riku when he was giving that promise, it certainly didn't seem like the first time Sora had tried to be like Riku.
Sora heads up to the next door, realizing he only has one card left.
"One?" Roxas asked. "But didn't you say that there were thirteen floors? Why would he only have one card left?" Axel could only shrug.
He places it to the door and walks in, seeing the Hundred Acre Woods.
"Where are you?" Xion wondered and Sora blinked in surprise.
"Oh yeah, the screen didn't show it," he realized. "I'm in the Hundred Acre Woods! It's a world within Merlin's book."
"A world within a book?" Kairi asked, wonder in her voice, and Sora nodded.
"Yep! All the people are really nice as well. Well, 'people' is putting it strangely," he admitted. "They're characters from the book."
He looks around, realizing that Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy didn't come with him.
"Wait, why didn't they come with you?" Riku asked, sitting up slightly, and Sora worried his bottom lip between his teeth.
"I don't know," he replied before turning to Axel.
"Can't tell you, I don't know either," Axel replied to his unspoken question, and Sora looked back at the screen.
"I'm sure they're okay," Mickey told him. "Remember, they've been with you for you latest adventure, so nothing really bad probably happened to them." Sora gave him a smile, but there was still worry in his heart. Why weren't Donald and Goofy with him? And what if he forgot more and they weren't there to help him? What if he forgot them?
Sora looks around, seeing a bear in a red shirt sitting on a log, seeming confused.
"Is that…?" Aqua murmured, remembering a book that she had seen ten years ago.
"Is he like you, Mickey?" Roxas asked, the only other animals he'd seen in clothing and talking being like Mickey. Well, actually, it could be depending on the world.
"No, that's Pooh Bear," Sora explained. "He lives in the book, along with all his other friends."
"I've seen that bear before," Aqua realized. "In Merlin's house."
"You have?" Sora asked, twisting to look at her, and getting a nod of confirmation not just from her but from the others on the couch as well. "All of you?"
"Well, we were all in Radiant Garden at one point or another," Terra explained, trying not to think about what also happened in Radiant Garden, both the first and second times. "I never went in the book however."
"Neither have I," Ven agreed and Aqua gave a nod.
"Huh, cool," Sora said. "I think you would like it."
"We'll have to keep it in mind," Aqua replied.
Sora asks Pooh what's wrong and Pooh replies that he's looking for his friends.
Huh, the parallels just seem to be getting clearer and clearer as they go along, Aqua realized, tapping her fingers together. Maybe it's because Sora is forgetting more and more as he goes. Thus, because there are little to no memories of the actual events, he's fully making it up based on his current experiences.
Sora asks if they're around there and states that he doesn't see anyone. Pooh says then maybe he's looking for nobody.
"While that is possible," Axel muttered under his breath with a humorous tone, getting an elbow in the side from Roxas. He gave Roxas an injured look, which Roxas seemed immune to. "I don't think that's what Pooh's actually looking for."
"It seems he's forgotten them," Vanitas murmured. "Like Sora has." Aqua looked over at him sharply. How much had Vanitas realized? She thought she was the only one who was figuring out that there were parallels.
Sora is confused and Pooh says he must be but that they don't seem to be anywhere. He says that all the searching is making him hungry but if he stops to eat, then he'll have to stop searching.
"Oh yeah, and Pooh's always hungry," Sora mentioned with a smile, enjoying remembering the bear. With all the other worlds he had seen, and every going on in the castle, it was nice that his past self got a world in which he could just relax and hang out with Pooh. It was always nice to visit the bear.
Sora offers that they can look for Pooh's friends together and Pooh asks if he means nobody, which Sora corrects saying that they're looking for Pooh's friends and they're probably around her somewhere.
"Who are Pooh's friends?" Kairi asked, finding herself charmed by this little world. She liked how it looked and if all of Pooh's friends were like him, she was sure Sora would have an easier time in this floor than he had in the past.
"Um… Owl, Kanga, Roo, Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore and Tigger," Sora recited, having to think for a second.
"'Kangaroo'?" Ven muttered to himself, recognizing the type of animal, and Sora nodded.
"Yep, they're both kangaroos," Sora confirmed. "And the others are kind of self-explanatory."
"What's a kangaroo?" Roxas muttered to Axel and the older man frowned.
"No idea," he replied, and Roxas turned to look at him. "What? I didn't learn about them in Radiant Garden. Different worlds remember?"
"But this is Merlin's book and he's from Radiant Garden?" Xion mentioned and Axel huffed.
"Merlin's also magic and can travel to different worlds," he reminded the younger girl. "He knows things we don't."
Pooh asks if Sora's looking for Pooh's friends as well and Sora replies that he's actually looking for his own friends. Pooh asks if they're also friends of Pooh and Sora says that he doesn't think their friends are the same but that they should look for all of them together.
"Pooh seems very… confused," Ven noted. "Is he always this confused?"
"Not really?" Sora replied. "It does seem strange."
"It might be because you guys are in Castle Oblivion," Terra offered, and Sora tipped his head in understanding.
Pooh and Sora walk together, looking around the woods.
Kairi kept up her prior feelings. The place looked very peaceful. Maybe she could visit the book when she went back to Radiant Garden to visit.
The two of them spot a tiny pig running amongst the bushes.
"Piglet?" Aqua guessed and Sora nodded.
Sora asks Pooh if that's one of his friends before running up to the pig, scaring him. The pig stutters as he tells Sora not to mind him and when Sora asks if he's not Pooh's friend, he replies that he's not not Pooh's friend.
Several of them had to pause to try and process that sentence.
"Why wouldn't he just say yes?" Riku asked, giving the pig a strange look.
"Piglet's just… very anxious," Sora explained, smiling gently at the version of the pig onscreen. "And he says sentences like that a lot. He doesn't seem to really like saying something definitively."
Vanitas had a feeling he was going to get very fed up with the pig very fast. He rolled his eyes as he balanced his chin on his hand. What was even the purpose of this world? At least the others had some purpose, in a way, but this one didn't seem to have it at all. It was just a really slow world that offered no stakes. Besides having Sora's friends be missing, of course.
Pooh catches up to them and greets Piglet, with Piglet responding and saying that he's finally found someone.
"So, all of them lost each other?" Aqua wondered, tipping her head to the side slightly. "I wonder if something happened."
Piglet says he lost the others, and he was so worried and didn't know what to do. Pooh offers Piglet to come with them to find the rest of their friends and Piglet says that he doesn't know if he should.
"Wow, he's really anxious," Kairi noted with a slight pang of empathy for the little pig. She understood being worried about what to do next but this… was on a whole different level.
"Yeah," Sora replied. "But he's always got his friends to help him. None of them ever treat him differently because of it."
Sora asks Piglet what he wants to do, and Piglet suddenly remembers that he promised to give Pooh something, running back into the bushes and returning with a blue balloon.
"Where did he get that, you think?" Axel muttered. You don't tend to find balloons in forests.
Sora shrugged. "I don't really question things in this world," he replied. "They don't seem surprised when a balloon appears, and they clearly know what it is, so I just accept that sometimes, they have balloons."
Pooh thanks him and takes the balloon, starting to float upwards slowly.
"And apparently gravity doesn't really work in this world either," Aqua noted.
"Storybook," Terra replied to her. "In a storybook, it would make sense that people can float with balloons."
"Would it really?" Ven asked and Terra nodded.
"I mean yeah," he responded. "Storybooks are for kids and kids believe all sorts of things are possible. If the stories meant for kids, it stands to reason that those same impossible things are possible in the storybook for them."
Sora blinked at the older man, thinking back to all the things he had seen happen in the world and what the inhabitants did. He supposed… that made sense.
Sora tries to jump for Pooh but misses. Thankfully, an enormous owl flies by and grasps hold of Pooh, taking him back to the ground, before heading back up to a tree.
"That is a big bird," Riku mentioned, and Sora shrugged. Again, he had stopped questioning things in this world. It was like a more tolerable version of Wonderland.
"Oh, there goes the balloon," Kairi said, watching the thing drift off into the sky.
"I'm sure they'll get another one," Sora told her with a grin.
"I'll bring one when I visit," Kairi decided, and Sora laughed slightly.
The owl asks if Pooh is alright, to which Pooh says yes, and the owl tells Pooh he needs to be more careful. Pooh says he was having fun, and he would have liked to fly more, with Sora saying that from the air it might have been easier for Pooh to find his friends.
"Why don't you just have the owl fly around and look for them?" Roxas asked and Sora opened his mouth as if to answer, before remembering that he couldn't remember what happened here, and thus, had no clue if they had the owl do that.
"We might," he settled on with a shrug.
The owl says that it might be possible and asks Sora what would happen then. The owl says that the balloon only goes where the wind blows and that he might end up finding his friends but being unable to reach them, in which the owl states that he would much rather have just kept searching.
Sora looked down at this, swallowing slightly as he heard the words. It was just like what happened with Riku and, to a lesser extent, Kairi. He had found them that first time round, but he couldn't reach them, Riku lost in the darkness, and Kairi lost in his heart. He could see Riku and could see Kairi's body, but he couldn't reach any of them, not really. But would he have rather not found them at all and just kept searching? He didn't think so. Seeing them gave him a goal to work towards and gave him some information about what he needed to do in order to get to them. If he hadn't known that, he might not have known that he needed to pull Riku out of the manipulation of Maleficent or that Kairi couldn't even help in her own rescue.
Aqua bit her lip at that, remembering the vision she'd had of Terra and Ven, in which she talked to Terra. Where she learned that the possession had stuck and that Ven still hadn't woken up. Would she have rather not seen that? She frowned. Not really, she decided on. She had much preferred finally getting to see them, if only for a second, to keep her light and drive going, than just be stuck wishing and wondering. Now she had a goal to strive for, to free Terra and to help Ven regain his heart, wherever it had gone.
Owl tells them that they'd best continue searching on foot because it could be quite exciting, stumbling upon a friend when you least expect it.
Or if you're like Sora, Riku thought. Making a new friend whenever you least expect it. It truly seemed like Sora could make friends with everyone.
Pooh states that it is the feeling he gets when he stumbles upon honey and Owl tells him to keep looking, stating that that's the spirit. Sora and Pooh start walking again, with Pooh eventually running into a tree and dislodging something from the branches.
"How did he not see the tree?" Vanitas muttered, certainly not having winced when the bear ran into it. Because that looked like it would hurt a lot. And Vanitas would know a lot about hurt.
"It's Pooh," Sora explained.
Sora asks Pooh if he's alright and a grey donkey appears from the trees, walking over to the thing that fell from the branches and picking it up. He thanks Pooh and attaches the thing back to him, revealing it to be his tail.
"Why was his tail in the tree?" Xion asked, befuddled, and Sora shrugged. He had been doing that a lot lately.
"I don't know, but Eeyore loses his tail often, if Pooh's to be believed," he replied.
Pooh asks Eeyore why he's thanking him, and Eeyore says for running into the tree and dislodging his tail.
"Was he just waiting in the bushes for someone to come by and dislodge his tail?" Terra wondered and Sora thought about it.
"Probably," he replied. Eeyore didn't really seem to be the type of person to try and take the initiative.
He thanks Pooh again and Sora, though he calls Sora "whoever". Sora introduces himself and Eeyore thanks him before leaving.
"And he's gone," Roxas muttered.
"I don't think he likes dealing with Pooh and his shenanigans," Sora responded.
Oh, so how I feel about you all, Vanitas thought. Except Naminé.
Sora and Pooh keep walking, with Pooh saying that they haven't found any of Sora's friends.
"Oh yeah," Sora realized, the relaxation that had been starting to settle into his bones vanishing in an instant. "I wonder why they weren't with me this time round. Axel do you… have any ideas?"
"Sorry Sora, I got nothing," the former Organization member replied. "I wasn't someone who had spent a lot of time in the castle, unlike some others. I was only sent there now to… well, take care of the traitors."
"Maybe because it's the last card you have?" Kairi offered.
"Or it's because you didn't have Donald and Goofy with you when you visited the book," Naminé piped up, looking up from her sketchbook as the idea hit her. She had been in Sora's memories; she should have realized this. "You had the others with you when you went to all the other worlds, so they also had memories of those worlds, even if it was your heart specifically that was creating them. But they would have no memories at all of the place, so they might not have been able to go."
"Huh, that makes sense," Sora murmured and Aqua bit the inside of her cheek. While she hadn't felt it in a while, the fact that she didn't know that much about the security system continued to bug her. She should have looked into it, should have done something more than simply accepting that it was a feature of the Land of Departure. Now, she didn't have anything that she could tell them to maybe make it easier and help them understand.
Her hand curled into a fist and her nails dug into her palm. She should have been better, she was a Keyblade Master.
Sora says he's right but he knows he'll find them sometime so they should keep looking together. Pooh says he's right before spotting Tigger and Roo up ahead, who are bouncing on a set of tree stumps.
"Do all of them have a gimmick?" Axel wondered, watching as the little… kangaroo, apparently, bounced around, and the tiger watched seriously. "The pig was worried, the owl was smart, and the donkey was sad. And now these two are hyper."
"It is a storybook," Sora mentioned, looking over to Terra as the older man was the one to first realize it. "Tropes and all."
Tigger tells Roo that he doesn't understand the true meaning of bouncing and that he can't just copy Tigger all the time, he had to find his own way of bouncing.
Roxas suddenly got the greatest mental comparison of Xemnas, going on and on about Kingdom Hearts during their meetings when he was still in the Organization and he had to drop his head so he could contain his laughter well enough, pressing his lips together so hard they turned white.
Roo greets Pooh as the two of them walk up to the bouncers and Roo explains that Tigger's teaching him how to bounce. Roo offers for them to join them, but Tigger says they don't understand the true meaning of bouncing.
"Is there… a true way to bounce?" Kairi wondered, slightly thrown off, and Sora shrugged, remembering all the ways Tigger had bounced when he visited them.
"To Tigger there is," he mentioned. "Though I don't know if he knows it either."
When Sora questions this, Tigger says that everyone bounces differently and everyone has to do it differently, because they're all different. He bounces away again, with Roo following after him.
Terra's theory about them being storybook characters, Aqua thought as she watched Roo and Tigger bounce off. It works, in a way. Tigger's whole speech sounds like something kids would read in books, to teach them lessons before they are old enough to truly grasp them. Instead of talking about morals and personalities and the like, Tigger's talking about bouncing. But the principles can still be applied over.
She hummed quietly, looking down at her hands quickly. I wonder who created the book. And why.
Sora and Pooh start walking again when they hear a noise from the side of them. Something comes rolling down the hill, with Sora just barely able to jump out of the way, and Pooh gets bowled over by the thing.
"Was that… a vegetable?" Kairi asked, twisting her head to try and see the thing right-side up, as it was currently on top of Pooh.
"It certainly looks like it," Riku muttered.
"It's probably Rabbit's," Sora mentioned. "He has a vegetable garden that he's very protective of."
Pooh sits up, realizing it's one of Rabbit's cabbages. He says that Rabbit must be in some trouble, if his cabbages are rolling away, and he and Sora catch several more as they come down the hill.
"I just realized but… there's no Heartless in this world," Xion mentioned, comparing it to all the other worlds they had seen. "Is that because there isn't Heartless in the actual book?"
"Oh yeah, things like that can't get into the book," Sora replied though he grimaced slightly when he remembered the damage the Heartless had done to the book the last time he interacted with it. "Nobodies, Heartless, nothing. It's a little perfectly untouched world."
"Sounds nice," Xion hummed.
Sora and Pooh catch the last couple of cabbages as Rabbit appears, asking if they've seen his cabbages. Sora gestures to them and Rabbit thanks them, saying that they were so hard to carry on his own.
"Why was he carrying them?" Kairi asked.
Sora mentions that they almost got bowled over and Rabbit apologizes, saying that his wheelbarrow broke.
"Question answered," Kairi said a second later. Sora giggled and she elbowed him in the side, causing his laughs to become a wheeze of pain.
Rabbit thanks them again as he heads over to his cabbages and Pooh and Sora say goodbye as they continue on. After a while, Pooh says that they've walked such a long way and he thinks he needs a bit of rest, and if only he had a honeypot.
Not for the first time, many people were astounded by the scope of the floors of Castle Oblivion. It certainly couldn't be to scale, the castle didn't seem to actually be that big, so the floors themselves had to be warping in a way to make them bigger on this inside than the outside.
It reminded Sora of the Mysterious Tower, where Yen Sid lived, and he wondered if it was possibly just something that places where Keyblade Masters lived could do.
Sora asks about his friends and Pooh says they found all of them. Sora asks if Pooh thought he helped and Pooh says he did, making Sora smile.
"Why would you think you didn't help?" Kairi asked and Sora hummed.
"Well, we kind of just stumbled upon all of them, didn't we?" Sora answered, biting his lip slightly. And he could figure why his past self was worrying about this, what with the fact that trying to find Naminé and Riku would be heavy on his mind.
"That doesn't mean you didn't help," Riku told him, and Sora twisted to look at the older boy. "You kept Pooh company while he looked, didn't you? And you were the one to first push him into looking for them." Riku smiled at him, and Sora couldn't help himself in smiling back. "I'd say you helped a lot."
Sora says that he should be going soon, and Pooh asks him where. Sora responds to find his friends, which Pooh wishes him well on and Sora leaves, heading through a door that appeared.
Sora smiled softly as he watched himself leave. Sometimes, he wished he could stay in Pooh's book, safe from the world, where there was no Heartless, no Nobodies, no Darkness, and no fighting. It reminded him of his life before the Keyblade, when he was still on the Destiny Islands.
He looked down. Sometimes, he wished he could return to that time, when everything was simpler. But he knew he couldn't. And it wasn't like he wished he could go back all the time; he still loved this new life he had. It just… got really tiring sometimes.
He took a deep breath, looking back up at the screen. Three more floors and then he would save Naminé. Three more floors and then this would be over until he woke up for his next adventure.
He could get through three more floors.
