Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction ❯ Endless Supply ❯ Awaking ( Chapter 2 )

Kingdom Hearts does not belong to me, sadly, but rather Disney and SquareEnix and several character design peeps that have everything over me.

 

Chapter 2 - Awaking

Roxas's eyes snapped opened and he did not like what he saw. First off, it was the ceiling, meaning he was on his back. Turning on his side, the blonde used his hands to push himself up but stopped mid motion. He was not glowing. He was solid. And he should not be because that meant something had happened to Sora.

Sora. Standing, he looked around the room for his heart. Not there. Closing his eyes, Roxas focused for Sora's radiance of light and blanched as he realized it was not normal. Something was wrong. He had to get out of here, find the brunette, and then find Naminé so that they could reconnect.

While the plan sounded simple enough, Roxas soon discovered it was proving more difficult than expected. First off, there was no door from which to escape. The walls, made of black painted concrete, where cold to the touch and inhumanly smooth. After scouring the walls twice with his fingers, going over every single millimeter, no crack could be found that indicated a door. Even the floor was devoid of an opening. It did not help matters any that the light was dim, just enough to see by. Small patches of green light were placed around the room, on the floor, and the ceiling, with the walls curved up only to meet, creating a chopped dome like room.

Roxas focused and his personal favorite keyblade materialized in his hand, Oblivion. What also alarmed him was the availability of the other keyblades. Despite Sora's abnormal condition, he was not fighting at the moment. Such a discovery enforced the blonde's desire to find his other half as soon as possible.

Debating which wall to hack at first, the nobody was interrupted by a line of light that appeared on the floor in front of him. Spinning around, he saw a rectangle of light grow as a door opened and stairs slowly began to lower to the ground. He noted that the door's bottom was at least twice his height from the flooring, thus explaining why he had been unable to locate a door.

“Hey! It worked!”

A silhouette had appeared in the doorway and uttered such a statement. Taking only the time to notice that the person was tall and wide, Roxas bolted up the stairs, keyblade cocked and ready. It was over in two seconds. One slash across the left shoulder, another strike across the front was all it took to send the guy careening into the wall behind him. The blonde was halfway down the hallway before the body had slumped to the ground. His only plaguing thought was If that was Pete, then Maleficent is around here somewhere too.

He would have gone right past it, if it were not for the fact he was checking every so often for heartless over his shoulder. The few number of them sent him on edge. But during one of those quick glances behind him, he caught a glance of Sora's image through a cracked open door. Backtracking he found himself in a control, security type room. The soft hum of computers almost put the warrior at ease because it reminded him of Cid's desk and of Sora's time with Tron. Almost.

What had caught his attention though was a television displaying Sora, trapped in a room somewhere, and apparently sleeping. The boy was suspended in darkness, the only light coming from his own body, with his clothes and hair waving as if he were underwater. Aside from that however, the boy was fine. Roxas couldn't see any signs of battle, there did not seem to be any heartless or nobodies around his other half. Furring his brow in even deeper confusion as to what was going on, the blonde turned his attention toward the screen to the left.

It was emitting a static noise, one that would get on the blonde's nerves if he stayed there too long. The display was of zigzag lines colored black, white, and other various shades of gray progressing steadily downward. After a the top line reached a third of the way down all movement stopped, and screen flashed black for a heartbeat, before the display repeated itself, like a scratched CD refusing to skip a word and yet doing its best to make it through the entire thing.

Not thinking of that fateful cat's cause of death, Roxas proceed to press the button labeled “play” on the panel underneath the faulty monitor. After about two chung noises had erupted from the machine, the display cleared up and Roxas found himself back in Hallow Bastion, staring at an Ansem-possessed-Riku.

Feeling a twinge in the keyblades' aura, Roxas noticed that Sora now gripped a keyblade in his right hand. As if connected, the other screen was now showing a fight scene with Riku from a first person point of view.

“This is..” Roxas breathed, but did not finish because the implications of it ran to deep. But sure enough the movie he was watching was Sora's memory from just shy of two years ago. Despite all ready knowing the ending, for the two of them shared memories, Roxas stood memorized by the screen. All his free will was sapped as he was unable to look away, and his face paling as the sinking feeling of dread burrowed itself nicely into his chest. When the memory showed the dark keyblade closing in over Sora's heart Roxas somehow found the strength to look at the other television, and only to gape in horror.

There was Sora - the loveable, determined, bed head hero - with that dreadful weapon pointed at his chest, his own hands on the handle. How he got it, Roxas had no clue. He had sensed nothing of it being summoned. It must have all ready been there, hiding in the darkness, floating in the water. Sora was still sleeping, ever peaceful, not aware that as he relieved this event, dreamed it; he was actually going though the motions. As the keyblade was turned, Roxas watched that pure face disappear into dust bunnies of light.

As soon as he was gone the screen on the right flashed a light so bright it left spots. Had Roxas been in the room where it took place in, he might have gone blind. The outburst surprised the blonde; he thought the machine was broken. Previously the blank screen had just been gray with sporadic green patches. Upon closer examination, the display turned out to be the room he had been held in before. The door was closed now, but a figure could be seen lying on the floor.

After a couple of minutes of intense screen watching, the figure stood up and began to explore his cage. When it was closer to the camera, and in the light, Roxas could not help but gasp. He was looking --- at himself.

Snapping his head back to the middle screen, Sora was no longer to be found. In his place stood a heartless. It was sleeping, for the hallow yellow eyes could not be found. Waving absentmindly, like Ariel's hair was prone to doing, were antennae coming out from its head. Watching closely, Roxas noted when instead of moving like the room was submerged, the head extensions were now billowing upward, as if the heartless was falling from a high ledge.

The left screen was showing a new memory now. It had turned off after Sora disappeared but now was back on. This one was of the ground rushing up to meet him. To stay steady he pressed his weight downward, reminding his brain he was on solid groud. Finally, after multiple bounds off balconies and plummeting to God knows where, the memory led Roxas to the front room of Maleficent's old castle. And there on the bottom floor stood Donald, Goofy, and Kairi. The great princess of light who just by loving Sora, saved the world.

And true enough, the memory continued with Kairi bending down to embrace the person who's eyes the blonde was watching through, and suddenly instead of Kairi being taller one, Roxas - or rather Sora - was. And in the monitor depicting the heartless, there now lay Sora; fast asleep, suspended in invisible water, his face still that of not a care in the world. It almost killed Roxas to see him like that. The boy had no idea what was going on; he was so drugged up that he didn't wake up even when his heart was overtaken.

Roxas could remember that pain too well. The desire to stay as you are, and yet to be ripped apart from the inside out; everything that made you you vanishing, and nothing is left but a great feeling of emptiness. Its so great that it makes on want to sink further into the darkness, to become numb, to not feel that emptiness, to forget it was filled, to be swallowed in the mentality of listlessness, because if nothing else is known but pain, it's not so painful anymore. And it was oh so simple to follow that path.

But the physical agony of being ripped apart from Sora! Of his heart being snuffed out, murdered, blinking out of existence, while Roxas was born, feeling the pain of mother and child at once. How Roxas hated the idea of Sora going through this again, twice now since he suspected this to be the means of his reappearance. And while the brunette's face was pain free now, after how many more repeats of that memory could he go thought before breaking?

Roxas began franticly searching for a map that he could use to locate his other half. However, just in the beginning phases on the quest, the blonde instinctively stiffened. There was someone in the door. With his desire to uncover Sora's whereabouts, he had completely forgotten to watch out for his own back. Slowly, he turned around to discover exactly who was blocking the doorway.

Long silver bangs framed his face, more spilled down his back. Bright blue eyes stared out at Roxas, burning him with their pure coldness. A dark, midnight blue wing extended out from the man's right shoulder, giving the man more power over the door way's space. Black boots, a black coat that splayed out around his thighs and just barely touched the ground, and a long, slender piece of frosty metal in his right hand. It glowed a soft neon blue, giving off a killing intent so strong Roxas's breath hitched.

Sephiroth, for that is whom the intruder turned out to be, was no laughing matter. The only known person that could give him a run for his money was Cloud, who was no where near here as far as the nobody knew. But the fact that this death angel was here, and if it was Pete he took care of earlier, was Sephiroth and the evil enchantress in cahoots?

His thoughts were interrupted as the man charged forward. Roxas, being smaller and therefore at an advantage in a small room -despite being caught off guard - ducked and rolled under the blue wing. Once clear, he took off running. If he stayed and fought that madman, there would be no help for Sora. Who would let the others know what was going on? Where the hero was being captive?

Hearing quick footsteps behind him, Roxas made the swift decision to take a nearby stairwell down. Taking two at a time, his feet could not keep up with his upper body momentum and he tumbled head-over-heels down the rest of the flight. Looking up when his body had slammed into the wall, he saw Sephiroth arrive at the top of the stairs. As soon as the sliver haired man's death glare was on him, the blonde scrambled to his feet and took off once again.

Finding a set of large double doors, Roxas took them and found himself out of the building. Running continually downward on platforms that replaced the previous stairs, not wasting time to look back, the scenery slowly clicked with a place in his memories. He was in The World That Never Was, and had just exited The Castle That Never Was.

Departing the last step, or first step depending on your direction, of the castle Roxas chanced a look back. Adrenaline pumping he was sure that the swordsman was not that far behind. Noting the lack of his opponent's attendance, his adrenaline levels jumped higher -if possible- for it meant that Sephiroth had beaten him outside. He never saw the man pass, but he would not put it past the man to be able to do so.

After tense minutes of turning in tight circles, Oblivion raised, checking and double checking the shadows, Roxas let his guard down. The winged man had never followed him out of the castle. The blonde got the feeling that the platinum fiend believed him too week to bother with, or something similar. But hey, he'll take the freebie.

Now, the issue was getting out of this world. He had no gummy ship, and while once he had the powers of darkness and could open a portal, that ability was now lost. After being reunited with Sora - his heart, his light - all the remnants of darkness had been blown away, leaving only the memory of them. A door to the light was out of the question as well, for those could only be utilized by the pure of heart. And Roxas did not have one, as he was reminded of during his last run. No heart thumped in his chest, no pulse accelerated or told others he lived.

Calming himself down Roxas closed his eyes and searched through all of his and Sora's memories of this world. They had come here through darkness, a ball of blue green light that never left, from…Twilight Town. He had to get back there; he would have a chance to contact the King. Yen Sid did live there after all.

Mind made up, he started jogging toward the far side of the city, conserving energy and yet trying to minimize travel time. The heartless he encountered were of no match to him, just a quick one, two! maybe three strokes of his weapon. They were mainly a nuisance, eating away at the time Roxas did not know the limit to.

Reaching the corner the portal was in, the keyblade welder sighed in exasperation. There just had to be heartless between him and it. He didn't have time for this! With a quick leap he landed on the shoulders of the nearest opponent, and then proceeded to jump and flip from one to another, finishing with a dive into the portal.

“Oof!” he came out on the other side head first, remembering just in time to somersault and land crouched. Despite his actions, the blonde over balanced and tipped backwards; hitting his head on the wall behind him. Overcoming the force against him, Roxas dusted off while trying to get his bearings. The world felt empty, cold. There would not even be heartless or his lesser brethren here. This was the world he lived in while Sora was asleep. He could only recall spending two months here, but he knew that he could not have spend the majority of a year with Organization XII. The fact that something was different about him must have come up fairly quickly then. The calling that this fake, digital Twilight Town had made him feel as if he had been there for ages. And maybe he had been, but only recollected the days when Sora started to awaken.

Recalling his mental blueprint, the boy made is way to the computer room in the Old Mansion's basement, and came across the one thing in his life he would like to do over. He had smashed the computer. There was no way to teleport from here. Overcome by frustration, Roxas proceeded to further demolish the computer unit and was rewarded with a small fireworks show. More damage would not hurt it. Launching his keyblade into the center of a screen he collapsed in the transporter, curling up in a ball. How was he to save Sora now?!

Breath hitched, Roxas eventually felt drained energy, and managed to catch some sleep. He hoped while slipping off into his dreams, that someone would find him and get him out of there. Sooner rather than later.

 

I found a beta! Or rather, he found me. Anyways, he's been a big help. I finished 2 chapters in like a week thanks to him, and no school for fear of freezing while waiting for the bus. And as much as I would like to thank my lovely reviewers, I have yet to have one here. T.T Hopefully with this posted people will become aware of me.