Chapter Text
Riku sighed, eyes trained upon the aquamarine sea that was so similar, yet also so different, when compared to that of the islands he’d grown up on. It churned with a slight turbulence, but instead of the familiar clear blue it was tinged with grey and dotted with occasional green patches amongst the shallower sections of saltwater, probably due to some type of algae or seaweed. Yet, it still was beautiful. Riku felt a wave of nostalgia for his own sea, where he, Kairi, and Sora would sit on their strangely-twisted paopu tree, looking out at the sea for hours on end, either chatting blithely about anything and everything or simply enjoying the quiet calm of each others’ company. Unfortunately, they hadn’t had that luxury in quite some time, even though they all yearned for it. In fact, they'd only rarely been together, just the three of them alone, in the past few years.
However, the reason Riku currently stared at the sea was nowhere near as pleasant as the nostalgia wanted it to be. It had now been two months since Donald and Goofy had returned from a world called The Carribean, Sora nowhere in sight. They had tried to search for Sora on their own, but despite their searching, this world was simply way too big compared to every other one they’d visited, so after a few weeks had passed with zero progress the two requested help from the other keyblade wielders—namely, Kairi, Riku, and Lea/Axel. Mickey and Yen Sid initially only wanted Kairi and Lea to go with Donald and Goofy to look, but Riku insisted on going too, going as far as to threaten resigning his role as a willing guardian of light if they tried to stop him.
According to Donald and Goofy, Sora had vanished during a particularly difficult encounter with another pirate ship, of which turned out to be actual pirates instead of the heartless-filled ships they had previously fought. Morally unable to fight a whole crew of humans, the three had been captured. They had attempted to escape during a stop at a port, but then had been noticed; amongst the fray Donald and Goofy had managed to slip off the ship and into the business of the docks, but when they turned to find Sora, he wasn’t there. He hadn’t made it in time. The two tried to get back to rescue Sora, but the ship had already set sail, too far away to try to jump on.
Riku had nearly let his anger get the best of him when he heard, especially since the duck and dog had hidden Sora’s disappearance for weeks before saying anything, but Kairi had been able to calm him down, just like she always had when he and Sora would fight as children. Riku was immensely relieved that that hadn’t changed, as he had truly been about to strangle the duck—although, that really wasn’t much different than their usual interactions. Saying that Donald and Riku didn’t get along well was an understatement.
Initially, everyone had split up to search. Not only did they look for Sora, but they were also on the lookout for a pirate whom Sora, Donald, and Goofy knew from a previous journey there, Jack, who might be able to help them find Sora; unfortunately, he hadn’t been found yet either. They had mostly been riding on various merchant ships under the guise of temp workers in hopes of spotting the ship that had taken Sora, but that had come up fruitless as well.
But luck turned in their favor when, as they rendezvoused with each other and were asking around a port for any info, Kairi encountered the captain of a Royal Navy ship that had been tasked with hunting pirates—by some miracle, she convinced the captain (who had apparently encountered keyblade wielders in the past) to allow the five to tag along in hopes of finding and rescuing their friend. Apparently, heartless and nobodies had been spotted here and there, so the captain felt keyblade wielders aboard would be a welcomed asset anyway, regardless of reason.
Riku snapped out of his reverie when he heard a shout from above—the lookout in the crow’s nest towering above him had spotted a ship. A highly suspicious ship, at that, considering the flag waving proudly in the wind was black with a white symbol; as it came into focus, Riku noted with alarm that the symbol was none other than the warped-heart one that the nobodies used. True to its mission, the Royal Navy ship moved towards it, almost close enough to fire…
Then the heartless and nobodies appeared. Most of the crew fled to the deck's outskirts as Kairi, Axel, Riku, Donald, and Goofy fought the onslaught. Cannons shot out from both vessels, but nothing hit the opposing ship despite plenty hitting theirs. Barrier magic? Riku grew nervous, a strange feeling washing over him, a tugging on his heart that he couldn’t quite place. Something was Wrong about all this, capital W intended.
Suddenly, boards crossed between the two ships, and pirates began swarming onto the Navy vessel. From Donald and Goofy’s looks, Riku could tell that this was a highly unexpected occurrence. The Navy crew drew their swords to fight, but soon were pushed back—unlike the pirate crew, the Navy did not have heartless and nobodies to aid them in fighting, nor were they prepared for the unprecedented occurrence.
Soon, all the Navy ship’s crew but the three keyblade wielders and their two supports had been subdued, whether unconscious (at least, Riku hoped that was all they were), tied up, or held down. Comparatively, the pirate crew had suffered minimal losses. The pentet stood in the center, surrounded by nobodies and heartless, still trying to attack. Riku glanced towards the opposing ship, then did a double-take, and froze.
“Riku, you’re leaving yourself open!” Kairi complained, hopping over to block a heartless’s attack before it could connect with his head. Riku didn’t react to her.
“Sora?!” Riku called, staring at his friend, who had appeared standing on the railing of the opposing ship, staring at them with a frown. In any other circumstance, Riku would be gaping at his friend’s appearance in awe rather than shock—Riku didn’t think he could ever look that good in comparison. Sora was dressed in an open-style waistcoat made of a greenish material over a white shirt and red button-down vest, with knee-high leather boots over tight black pants. A black cavalier hat, fluffy feather adornment dyed maroon, sat atop Sora’s head. Various earrings and bracelets sparkled in the sun, mostly gold, and on one side of his waist was a highly detailed, gemmed scabbard with a silver hilt of a sword poking out, the other hip similarly adorned with a pistol and its elegant holster. In his hand was something extremely surprising—a cigar, which Sora casually withdrew from his mouth, puffing a bit of smoke out before he spoke.
“STOP,” the brunette forcefully called.
The heartless and nobodies stopped.
Riku couldn’t have been more confused.
Sora leapt onto the Navy ship, followed by some other crew members who could only be higher-up in the chain of command, from the looks of their dress, which was just as decadent as Sora’s—they looked like downright royalty compared to the crew who had fought, who had been in the generic tight crew outfits with bandanas holding their hair back. Sora walked right past his friends, still smoking the cigar, glancing at the shocked pentet quickly with a worried expression briefly flashing across his face but otherwise saying nothing. Kairi went to say something, but Riku signaled to her to be quiet; something told him that talking was not the best idea right now, especially as more of the crew now surrounded them, swords pointed at the group. They all lowered their weapons, realizing fighting was not the best idea right now, and compiled when they were forced down to their knees.
“Orders, Captain Sora?” asked a large highly-scarred man who followed all the pirate stereotypes, including an eyepatch and peg-leg.
“One moment.” Sora, whose hands were clasped behind his back and had on a carefully steeled expression, turned to Riku, walking over to him. Sora roughly grabbed his chin, tilting the silverette’s head up; Riku’s instincts said to flinch away, but he forced himself to remain still. None of the others moved, either. Sora made a show of looking him over, though his face now betrayed his worry. “Is there anyone else I know aboard this ship?” he whispered to Riku, nearly inaudibly. Riku shook his head slightly.
Sora gave a curt nod, barely noticeable. Then, his eyes harded again as he turned towards the man who had requested orders. Sora smirked, putting a hand on his waist. “What do you think?” he asked the man, an edge in his voice indicating he wasn’t actually asking for an opinion, rather giving an order. “Oh, except, capture this group here,” Sora added as an aside, waiving casually towards Riku and his friends, as though they were of little importance.
Another official-looking crew member looked at Sora in confusion. “Capture them? Sir, you’ve never taken captives before.” Riku inwardly sighed in relief. Sora probably planned to raid the ship, then let the crew go. He was too kind for anything else.
“Are you questioning my orders again?” Sora snapped, eyes hard and voice low, pointing a silver sabre towards the man’s face; Riku hadn’t even seen him draw it.
The pirate visibly gulped, his hand darting to cover a recently-healed scar on his cheek. “N-no, sir!” Then he turned towards the crew, yelling out the orders. “You heard the Captain! Capture these five, and eliminate the rest, taking whatever supplies you can!”
Riku gasped, his prior relief instantly becoming complete horror as he turned away from the scene of the crew of the ship that had so gladly welcomed them being ruthlessly murdered—on Sora’s order. His mind was blank. How was this happening? Was this some sort of cruel dream? This was Sora they were talking about! Sora would never order a total massacre like this, yet Riku had just watched him do so! As the group was led onto his friend’s ship, Riku tried to catch Sora’s eye, to no avail. Sora abruptly turned on his heel, resolutely walking down one of the planks and disappearing to somewhere on the ship.
None of the group spoke as their hands were tied with rope behind their backs and the pirates violently pushed and pulled them onto the ship, most likely heading towards the brig. They’d have gladly gone quietly, but apparently the pirates took too much joy in pushing them around to even consider that.
Riku, Kairi, Axel, Donald, and Goofy were shoved into a dark, dusty cell which had clearly not been designed to hold five people, but apparently that was the only available cell the ship had—the other cells were being used as storage, highlighting the fact that these pirates hardly ever took prisoners. The pirates locked the cell and left, leaving their wrists tied.
No one spoke for a while, still processing the events of only minutes prior.
“Well, this sucks,” Axel said, breaking the silence.
Kairi shook her head. “That… that can’t be Sora, can it?” she said, voice strained.
Goofy and Donald echoed words of agreement, but Riku stayed silent. That had been Sora. Riku knew his best friend; he had a connection to him stronger than anyone else there, forged by their link. Riku would know if he were possessed or an imitation. No, that had certainly been the real Sora. So what had happened? Something else must have been going on.
“Riku?” Kairi asked, noting his silence.
Riku gave a start, snapping out of his thoughts. “We need more information about what happened,” he concluded.
Axel raised an eyebrow. “Um. What more info do we need? Sora raided the ship we were on, massacred the crew, and had us locked in a cell. That’s a pretty clear chain of events.”
Riku shook his head. “No. There must be more to it than that. I know Sora. He would never do such a thing, not willingly.”
“Yeah!” Donald and Goofy agreed.
“Maybe he was trying to protect us,” Kairi reasoned, clearly grasping at straws.
Axel scoffed. “Look, I know you’re important to him, and I’m sure he would kill for you—actually, technically he has—but pretty sure the line stops at mass murder. Right, Riku? ...Riku?”
“I don’t know…” Riku mused. Did Sora have a line? He was suddenly reminded of a documentary he watched of serial killers, where it said that in many cases their friends and family have absolutely no idea they could ever do such a thing, until they do. Riku shook his head, ashamed he had even thought that; that simply wasn’t Sora. He’d been in Sora’s heart before. Sora would never do such a thing without a reason. Although, that reason could be protecting them… but, no, that couldn’t be the only thing… “He said ‘the usual’,” Riku pointed out quietly.
A silence settled through the cell as that sank in. Sora had done this before, enough times to establish a pattern.
“We should work on escaping first, don’tcha think?” Goofy suggested after a bit.
“Already working on it.” Axel grinned, holding up the ropes from his wrist, now charred. Kairi, also freed from the bindings, was rolling her wrists out, using a small cure spell on the burn. Riku then pointed out that it was probably safer for the two to just unknot the others’ bindings instead of Axel burning them all.
“Now what?” Donald warbled, once they were free of the ropes. “We’re still locked in.”
Axel summoned his keyblade. “Isn’t that what these are for?”
“Wouldn’t recommend that,” said a sullen voice outside their cell.
“Sora!” the group yelled, faces full of relief and confusion.
Sora sighed. “Yeah, it’s me. Sorry about…” he waved his hand. “Y’know. All that stuff.”
Riku glared at Sora. “Yeah, mind explaining? From the looks of it, you just had about fifty people murdered!”
Sora cringed. “Ah, yeah, that’s… I mean, technically it wasn’t me, per se, it was the others…”
“You gave the order!” Donald shouted.
“Hey, shh, shh, they’ll hear you!” Sora said, waving his hands downwards to emphasize lowering volume, his eyes wild in panic. “If they know I’m here…”
Riku crossed his arms, a deep frown on his face. “I thought you were Captain?”
“Well, yeah, technically, but I’m still only fifteen!”
“Sixteen,” Riku corrected automatically.
Sora huffed. “Whatever. Anyway, I’m more or less, what’s the term, a figurehead? Like, I have power, yeah, but it’s not absolute. I only got the position by accidentally killing the original Captain; if I’m not just as ruthless, they’ll easily try that on me! And I can’t just step down, because you don’t leave this crew unless you’re dead, regardless of position. These guys are totally really bad pirates. I’m already risking things by taking prisoners.”
“Then why didn’t you just escape?” Axel said in disbelief. “You have a keyblade! Use it!”
Sora blushed, awkwardly shifting his feet. “I, er. I accidentally broke it,” he sheepishly admitted, turning away at everyone’s surprised stares.
“How?” Riku whispered.
“Well… we had a run-in with a ship run by the Organization, so I fought the Captain of it—Luxord, I think it was?—and during that fight somehow my keyblade broke. But I still defeated him though! I grabbed a nearby gun and shot him, which apparently works on nobodies, so we stole the ship because it’s bigger than the one we had and ours was damaged. But yeah. Couldn’t summon the keyblade after that.” Sora leaned on the wall behind him, arms crossed as he watched his friends’ reactions. His prior confidence had returned.
“So then, who are the heartless and nobodies being commanded by?” Donald asked, temper barely in check. “Is it one of those scarier pirates? Since they stopped when you said so.”
“Oh, right. No, that was me.”
“What?” Riku hissed. “How…” he shook his head and looked at Sora, barely processing what his best friend had just said, only managing another “What?”
Sora shrugged. “Yeah, they kinda just came with the ship I guess.”
“Maybe you should tell us the whole story?” Kairi suggested.
Sora winced. “Yeah, I know. Maybe later though? Kinda really don’t want to be here anymore. Like, being a pirate is awesome, but not when it’s the kind that kills. Which I’m sorry about. Like, I know that’s a super large body count on me. Which isn’t good. Yeah. So I’d rather not make it that much bigger.”
“You’re rambling,” Riku pointed out. Sora did that when he was nervous. “And we are definitely talking about that ‘body count’ comment later. But you’re right, now’s not the time… so, for the escape—any idea?”
“Oh, that’s easy. We can sink the ship. With Donald’s magic, we’ll survive that, but they won’t.”
“Sora!”
“...Right, no more killing. Sorry.”