Home is Where the Heartless Are
Chapter 02: Two Wings for Every Bird
Nobody could feel Sora’s sharp, laser blue eyes staring into the back of his head, and though he didn’t show it, it was slightly unnerving. He looked over his shoulder at the younger man, their eyes meeting for a second, before he turned back to the path only he could see clearly.
"Something wrong, Keyblade Master?" Nobody asked lightly.
"How do you know the passage of time here?" Sora asked. "You said it would take three days to get to Midgar, but how can you tell when it’s day and when it’s night?"
Nobody laughed lightly and reached into his coat, pulling out a small silver pocket watch. The top flipped open and he pointed to a small symbol near the 12. "When the red hand is in this area, it’s day, when it’s in this area," he pointed to a symbol above the 6, "it’s night."
"Oh," Sora replied simply, feeling stupid. He was silent for a few moments, then asked, "How long have you been here? How did you get here?"
"I was born here. Kingdom Hearts is not some sort of mythical universe where all our hearts and the hearts of the worlds reside, Sora. Kingdom Hearts is simply a passage way leading into this set of worlds, just a door to another universe." Nobody shifted inside his coat, pulling it tighter around his lithe, but muscular, body. "The Winged Shadow is covered in snow, I can see it from here. I suggest you put on something a little warmer." He looked pointedly at Sora’s black shorts and tank top over his shoulder.
Sora looked around as he shifted into a jacket he’d had tucked away in his bag, noting he was beginning to see shapes and figures.
"My eyes are adjusting," he said softly.
"I’m not surprised," Nobody said. "The Keyblade is probably speeding up the process, it knows you need to fight and protect yourself in this place, probably more than anywhere you’ve ever been with it before."
"How do you know so much about the Keyblade?" Donald asked sharply, glaring harshly at the hooded man. His feathered fingers twitched when Nobody was silent and he readied himself silently to fight.
Nobody was quiet for a few moments, before replying, "I know the wielder of the Sora’s Keyblade’s twin." He turned and stared at them for a few seconds. Sora knew he was frowning under his cloak, confusion smeared across his body movements. "I can understand not knowing exactly what Kingdom Hearts is, because it isn’t even common knowledge here. But how can you now know about the Double Blades? Didn’t your King tell you anything?"
"No," Sora shook his head, the memory of locking King Mickey, along with Riku, into Kingdom Hearts four years before fluttering into his mind. "We had to seal him in Kingdom Hearts when Ansem tried to release the Heartless and destroy the worlds."
Nobody nodded, still obviously disturbed by Sora’s lack of knowledge. "I will explain it to you, I can’t have you wondering around this world not knowing your own purpose." He turned and started walking again before continuing. "The Double Blades are not two Keyblades, but two sets of twins. That is how your worlds and the ones here are connected. Don’t ask me where the Keyblades come from, I don’t know myself. There are three Keyblade wielders here, well four now that you’re here. The four Keyblades and their wielders have made sure the two sets of worlds have remained separate since Kingdom Hearts was created. Your Keyblade and its twin are able to unlock or lock the hearts of worlds, where as the other two can lock or unlock the hearts of people."
"How do you know all this?" Goofy asked, scratching the back of his head.
"Because I wield a Keyblade," Nobody turned around and reached behind him, pulling out one of his swords. It glinted in the light of Nobody’s power, catching the glow of its wielder’s heart. It was a long, curved blade, simple but extremely lethal looking, slender and refined almost. "However, this blade is rather weak against the Heartless. It unlocks people’s hearts, and the Heartless have no hearts."
"But then why is my Keyblade so powerful against them?" Sora questioned curiously.
"Well, you can destroy the Heartless with anything if you hit them enough, but your Keyblade is extremely potent against them because it deals with the hearts of worlds, and the Heartless are parts of a world’s heart, so it’s unlocking parts of that world’s heart. That’s why the Heartless fear your blade and it’s Twin so much, because the two together can lock the Heartless Homeworld and stop the Heartless from existing."
"The Heartless are part of a world’s heart?" Goofy asked, sounding faintly shocked.
"Yes, a world’s heart that has split open. The wielder of the Keyblade to unlock the heart of worlds before Stella, who is it’s current barer, was attempting to seal the Heartless Homeworld when a massive earthquake shook a rockslide loose, killing him. The world’s heart was split open and the Heartless were the result of the dark power pouring out. He was trying to seal the Keyhole to stop anybody from ever gaining access to it and using the power inside to destroy."
"Are all the Keyholes in this universe sealed?" Sora asked, blinking in surprise. There were thousands in his universe, and only the few he, Donald and Goofy had been to were sealed from attack.
"No, but those surrounding the Heartless Homeworld are. That world always emitted dark power, always had an atmosphere coated with bleak insanity and darkness. It was originally called ‘Earth’, but most people simply call it the Black Planet or Heartless Homeworld." Nobody paused and slipped one of the swords on his back from its sheath, moving himself into a fighting stance. "Heartless are coming, ready yourselves."
Sora had already silently readied the Keyblade and himself for battle. His sharp searingly blue eyes easily caught the yellow gleam of the Heartless eyes in against the darkness, seen their winged shapes as patches of black whirling and twirling around in front of them.
"We’ve reached the Winged Shadow much sooner than I expected," Nobody muttered under his breath. "They attack from the air, keep on the move or they will dive to strike you down." With that, he jumped into the shadows and into the fray of approaching Heartless, slashing through them with his sword.
Sora moved to follow the man into the fight, however he heard Nobody should a distance away, "Stay together, you’re not adjusted to this darkness enough to fight alone." Sora made an irritated sound but went along with the man’s wishes, jumping back to help his friends.
The fight was over quickly; most of the Heartless easily dispatched by Nobody, while the few that escaped where destroyed by the three. Other than a few minor bruises and cuts, they had all escaped unhurt and in general good health, compared to their last fight past the doors of Kingdom Hearts. Nobody appeared in their range of vision and beckoned for them to follow. They walked after the hooded man into the darkness of the Winged Shadow and did not leave it’s bleak, endless black cape dotted with ever watchful butter yellow eyes and the always present fluttering of Heartless wings for nearly two days.
-----this is a scene change. just thought you’d like to know n_n----
Stella looked over to the younger man beside him, soft ginger brown hair swishing around his shoulders as he did.
"Raine, do you feel that?" He asked softly, pausing in mid step.
"I did," Raine replied quietly, stopping as well. "The fourth and last Keyblade Master has walked through the doors of Kingdom Hearts."
Stella nodded slowly. "Do you think that’s where Nobody went?"
Raine nodded. "Yes. Sora wouldn’t last a minute in the First Darkness without help."
"Sora? You know him?" Stella asked, ears almost perked with curiosity.
"I did, once," Rain replied, giving Stella a hard glare, endless sea green eyes flashing like metal, before walking out from under the overhang of a coffee shop and into the street, easily disappearing among the crowd. Stella sighed and adjusted his backpack before continuing his trek through Midgar, heading towards the entrance Nobody would use when he got through the Winged Shadow.
Rain had been distant when he arrived little less than three years ago in a rickety chocobo powered cart driven along by a king in rags. His pitch-black hair was soaked in rainwater, a large cut was stroked across his face in a ribbon of crimson, his clothes were torn and he was beaten and bruised badly. But even so, he still retained an air of self-assurance and calmness Stella had only seen in Nobody before. The two were very a like, which made sense because all Keyblade barers resembled their twins in some way, but Rain was much more distant. Rain wasn’t even his real name, chosen after a moment of thought that sent waves of painful memories into his beautiful eyes.
That had also been the day Stella had received his Keyblade, a golden sword in the shape of a key when the temporary barer held it. As soon as it was in Stella’s grasp, griped in his tanned fingers soaked with water, it radically changed shape to suit his personality, or so Nobody said. It became a long, slender, silver blade almost as tall as Stella himself and looked impossible to fight with. However, the blade was light, easy to handle and somehow did not hinder his movements in battle. The Keyblade was now his most protected possession, both because it gave him the power to protect his friends and family from the Heartless and because he seemed to never felt at ease when it wasn’t strapped in it’s sheath, the weight felt on his back, or in his hands.
Stella reached back and touched the sword’s hilt, feeling the smooth surface under his fingertips.
"Hey Stella!" A female voice called, and he looked up, smiling back at the woman as she waved to him from the stairway to her bar.
"Hey Tifa!" He yelled, jogging towards her.
"Heard from Nobody yet?" She asked, moving out of the way to let the soaked man in.
"Nope, but he’s heading this way. He’ll be here in a couple days, with the last Keybarer," Stella replied, wrapping his arms around himself as he shivered. "Do you know if the hotel has any vacancies?"
"I doubt it, this weekend is that SOLDIER commemoration convention," Tifa said and bit her lower lip for a few seconds before adding, "but you’re welcome to stay in my spare room, free of charge. If Rain’s with you, he can take the couch."
"I love you," Stella said airily, grinning.
Tifa snickered as she pulled on her raincoat, buttoning it up before picking up her umbrella. She opened the umbrella and walked into the rain, letting Stella under it as well.
"Where is Rain anyhow?" She asked, tilting her head, chocolate brown hair tumbling over her shoulder.
"I dunno, off to be broody and moody and do Rain-type things or something," Stella answered with a shrug.
Tifa laughed lightly and shook her head. Stella had never understood Rain’s calm, collected and jaded nature and it continually agitated him. "Glad to hear he’s still healthy enough to sulk."
Stella smiled fondly. "Yeah." Though the two seemed to always be at ends with each other, their personalities clashing harshly, Stella considered Rain one of his closest friends. They didn’t understand the other very well and generally ripped each other’s heads off when left alone for too long, but they shared a bond, an invisible rope wrapped around them by the Keyblades. "How’s business at the bar?" He asked, referring to Tifa’s 7th Heaven.
"Pretty decent, lots of ex-SOLDIERS have been coming in lately and getting totally hammered. It’s pretty amusing to heart a listen to a Wutai War vet drunk out of his mind try and tell a war story," Tifa said, turning to walk into the sector 5 slums. They walked into a large area peppered with golden and buttery yellow flowers amid lush rose gardens and packs of lilies. Tifa paused as she walked passed the house, looking at an area not too far off.
"I’ll just let myself in..." Stella said, knowing she needed a few moments of peace to herself. And that her kitchen was probably stocked with cookies and other baked goods.
Tifa nodded faintly and walked towards a section of the garden lifted off the ground, an old wooden staircase leading up to the platform. She made her way up those steps and sighed, staring at the three tombstones that rested there. The one farthest to the right, covered in thorn specked rose vines with the flowers bursting out like fairy wings in brilliant red was barely legible but read ‘Elmyra Gainsborough’.
The second was years younger than the first, a small patch of stark white lilies growing in front of it, almost hurting her eyes that were so used to the darkness outside Midgar. The flowers reminded her of the person the tombstone was put up for, strong and powerful, managing to grow even in the polluted Midgar soil, reaching up towards the heavens with pure petals that seemed to glow, dusted over with silver.
The last was the same age as the second, wrapped almost completely in a nameless flower that seemed to shift colors when you looked at it from another direction. The vines of the flower covered the stone like the arms of a lover holding their beloved from behind, snaking around the stone in such a way it looked as if the plant was trying to hold it close.
Tifa smiled and threw a silent prayer into the air for her two friends to return home safely, and for the safe rest of Elmyra’s spirit. She turned and walked away from the stones, blinking away the small drops of water from her brown eyes that she convinced herself were just vagrant splashes of rain that managed to make it under her hood. She wrapped her arm around her body, holding the umbrella with the other, and jumped down the steps leading up to the gravestones of Aeris Gainsborough and Cloud Strife.
----look! this is another scene change!----
Sora was still digesting all the information Nobody had thrown out at them when they were readying themselves for the night, planning to make it to Midgar by the end of the next day. He laid out across the sleeping bag he brought with him, not ready yet to sleep, looking across their small campsite to find Donald and Goofy already asleep. Directly across from him, Nobody sat on small rock, fiddling with something Sora wouldn’t see in the darkness.
"What are you doing?" Sora asked, turning to lay on his side.
"Trying to get a fire started, you think we live in this darkness all the time? Our eyes have adjusted well, but somethings aren’t visible even to the people born here," Nobody replied, finally getting the worn out lighter to light. He held it to a pile of twigs he’d set in a circle earlier and lit them, blowing on the small flame softly to get it going. Within a few minutes, the fire was raging red, causing Nobody to squint slightly. Sora sat up and cross his legs, finally seeing Nobody’s face for the first time as the fire’s light reached up under the older man’s hood.
His features faintly reminded Sora of Riku, though they had more baby fat and his eyes were a brilliant rainy day gray color, where as his hair was a platinum blond shade. His skin was pale, paler than any Sora had ever seen, probably because there was no sun to darken it. His build was lithe and feminine, but still undeniably muscular. His coat that had seemed pitch black at first was actually a very dark blue, a small silver necklace hanging from outside the neck line, a single bird’s wing dangling from a dainty chain.
"How old are you?" Nobody asked, rummaging through his bag.
"Eighteen," Sora replied absently, mind still lost in the knowledge that he’d been given a few hours earlier. He mulled it over carefully and slowly, picking out pieces that interested him and examining them closely before letting them fall back into the pool in his mind.
"How old were you when the Keyblade chose you?" Nobody questioned, pulling a small, faintly glowing blue band from his bag.
"Fourteen," the younger man replied, eyes focused on the band. "What is that?"
"That’s a young age, I received mine when I was seventeen. And it’s a Vigil Band. It’s power will soak into my blood when I put it on and keep me awake all night to keep watch."
Sora protested instantly. "You don’t have to do that, we can take turns staying up."
Nobody shook his head. "The Heartless will only be put off by this fire for so long, I won’t risk one of you not spotting them in the darkness."
Sora’s shoulder slumped, he knew he was defeated. "So...You know the other Keyblade wielders?"
"Yes," Nobody answered. "We’re going to meet them in Midgar." He looked over at Donald and Goofy, making sure they were asleep before turning his attention back to Sora. "I do not want to alarm your friends, but you can’t tell I wield a Keyblade, can you?"
"No...Should I?" Sora asked, tilting his head.
Nobody nodded. "Yes, I can easily sense your presence, along with the other two Keybarers in Midgar, despite the distance between us."
"How come I can’t?" Sora questioned.
"Because that power can only be unlocked by the Keyblade to unlock the hearts of others. You don’t know the wielder from your world, do you?"
Sora sighed and looked away, Riku’s memory ghost flashing across his mind. "I...did. We grew up together, and were very close friends, but then the Heartless attacked and destroyed our world. The next time I saw him, he was very...cold. After that, he sided with the Heartless and Ansem."
"What happened to him?" Nobody asked curiously.
"Donald and Goofy and me went after Ansem and defeated him, but he opened the door to Kingdom Hearts and bunch of Heartless were about to get loose. We were trying to shut the door, but we weren’t strong enough to close it. This was...about four years ago, you see, a couple months after I’d gotten the Keyblade. We couldn’t close it, and then Riku suddenly showed up inside Kingdom Hearts and started to pull the doors shut. They’re easier to pull close than they are to pull open, aren’t they?"
Nobody nodded. "They are. The doors do not like to let the two universes collide. But what does your friend Riku have to do with the Heartless and Ansem?"
"He was the wielder of the other Keyblade," Sora explained. "How do you know about Ansem?"
"The King in Rags, or so we call him because he didn’t tell us his name, came to Midgar around three years ago and told us of the man and his ventures into the darkness."
"One thing I don’t understand though is the light from Kingdom Hearts destroyed Ansem, so why is it so dark here?"
"That was the hearts of the people. The people here heard of your adventure, of the pains you were going through, and their hearts shimmered powerfully in hope for you. The people here are extremely tough and strong, because they live next door to the very source of the heartless. I have seen towns and cities quickly group and band together to defeat swarms of the monsters. The light of this universe that hides within the hearts of the people destroyed Ansem, channeled by Kingdom Hearts."
"Ah...Well, anyway, Riku pulled the doors shut while King Mickey fought off the Heartless with...With a Keyblade!"
"Then the King in Rags must be your King Mickey..." Nobody nodded. "He came and gave Stella the Keyblade to unlock the hearts of worlds, because he was only the temporary barer."
"Well…Anyway. King Mickey and I sealed Kingdom Hearts shut, and the next thing I remember is waking up in outside Traverse Town, on the endless road between the worlds."
"Hm," Nobody said simply, folding his arms across his chest as he sat back against a tree. The position of his body and expression on his face reminded Sora of Riku.
Sora came to a sudden realization. "But Riku was with King Mickey! He has to be here!"
Nobody frowned and shook his head. "The King brought no Riku with him, only a young teenage boy with black hair and haunted eyes who bared the Keyblade to unlock hearts."
"Then what could have happened to Riku!?" Sora cried, causing Donald and Goofy to start awake. When Nobody was quiet, arms simply folded across his chest with his head bowed down, Sora asked again, deadly calm this time. "What happened to Riku?"
"He could have been killed by the Heartless. The Keyblade would have chosen another barer, which the King could have found because he was a Keybarer as well." Nobody’s voice was quiet and very soft, each word rolling out of his mouth seemed to be rounded on the edges.
"That never would have happened!" Sora cried, jumping up. "Riku wouldn’t die! He knew I was coming back to get him! I never would have just left him in here! Didn’t you sense him when he entered Kingdom Hearts with the Keyblade!?"
"No," Nobody shook his head sadly. "I didn’t have my Keyblade at the time, I was chosen by it only a few months before the King in Rags appeared, which, by your timeline, would have been a few months after Riku came through the doors."
Sora didn’t want to believe it, but he knew Nobody’s theory held substance. It fit, and it broke Sora’s heart at the same time. The truth seemed to glare balefully out at him, seemed to be seen in Nobody’s rainy day eyes like a phantom bent on haunting Sora into death with the sadness it created. He fell to his knees and suddenly felt ten again, remembering when Riku had swam out into the water to pull Selphie from the storm driven waves and had come back choking out water. Sora, barely more than a child at the time, could only watch as his father tried to revive Riku, pushing down on his friend’s small chest and breathing air into his water-washed lungs. Tears stung at Sora’s eyes as they stung at them now when Riku spit up water, though the feeling of relief that his friend wasn’t dead would never come to him now.
He pulled his knees up to chest and buried his face in them, hugging them to himself as he quietly let the tears come. He felt Goofy stroking his back while Donald sat beside him, both offering what silent comfort they could. However, he also felt the compassionate gaze of Nobody locked onto him, and it made it worse. He wanted to tackle Nobody and scream that Riku would never die, Riku knew he was coming to get him, Riku knew Sora would never abandon him in a million years, Riku was strong and powerful and had always been that way since they were kids.
But then his tears suddenly stopped and he let out a cry. "Riku can’t be dead!" He scrambled into his coat pocket and produced the sheaf of paper that Riku had written, holding it tightly. "This says Riku was here for almost a year when he wrote it! Who is the last Keybarer?"
Nobody sighed, thinking quietly to himself Sora was grasping straw, but replied anyway. "His name is Rain. He’s a young man about your age with layered black hair and sea green eyes, of a somewhat womanly build and a bit taller than you." However, Nobody suddenly realized the pieces fit. Riku was a bit older than Sora, Rain was a bit older than Sora, and he had arrived three years ago. Riku had been locked into Kingdom Hearts a year before that, meaning his eyes would have easily adjusted to the darkness. And they both were, or are, Keybarers of the same Key. Hair could easily be dyed as well.
Nobody sighed at his ridiculous train of thought. He threw it away and refused to acknowledge it, turning his mind back to Sora’s grinning face. "We’ll see when we get to Midgar and you can meet him."
 
~End of Chapter 2~
I’m sorry if there’s a lot of mistakes in this chapter, I proofread it as best as I could, but I miss stuff ^^;;. I need a beta reader, lol. Anyway! ^_^ I’ll hopefully get the next chapter out in a couple days, hoorah.