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Chapter Text

I've been having these weird thoughts lately... Like is any of this for real? Or not?
-- Sora, Kingdom Hearts

Part One: The Lost Hero

It was a sunny afternoon on the beaches of Destiny Islands. Friends and heroes played on the beach. There wasn’t a one without a smile. After all, they had just stopped the evil Master Xehanort and saved the worlds from the darkness.

But every victory comes with a price.

Three friends stood together on the beach and watched as the others ran around, playing and having fun. Their names were Sora, Riku, and Kairi. They had been friends as long as they could remember.

But in the battle against Xehanort, they and their allies had been defeated. They had lost their hearts and bodies. But Kairi, as a Princess of Heart, somehow kept Sora from fading away. Then, skilled with magic and power, Sora used the mythical power of waking to change time itself. They fought again and destroyed all of their enemies but Xehanort, who in the end decided to move on with his old, fallen, childhood friend Master Eraqus. But Xehanort had struck down and killed Kairi before the battle was over. Sora was unable to deal with this. After Xehanort was defeated, he used the power of waking again to bring Kairi back. Because of Sora, Kairi was able to return to life and to home.

But does bringing someone back from the dead come at no cost?

Sora and his friends had triumphed, but all along, Sora knew what would happen to him. Now he stood here on the beach with his two friends, and all three of them knew the price. Having misused and overused the power, Sora would have to go. He had changed time -- and now he would be sent away to who knew where. He could already feel it in his heart, calling him. He knew he only had minutes left.

The three friends hugged. After they pulled away, Riku placed his hands on Sora’s shoulders. “I will find you,” Riku said.

Sora closed his eyes and a tear rolled down his cheek. “I will never forget you.”

Kairi looked at Sora. “Thank you, Sora,” she said, crying herself. Riku was the only one without tears. He was good at holding in his emotions. “Thank you for saving me.”

Riku looked at his two friends and gave a sad smile. “I’ll let you two talk alone,” he said. He hugged Sora once more. “Good-bye, Sora. Remember to follow your heart.”

“I will,” Sora promised him. And with that, Riku ran away to join the others.

Kairi and Sora stood for a moment just staring into each other’s eyes. In front of them was a palm tree that had been blown over by the wind, but had still managed to stay healthy. Kairi sat on it, and Sora sat with her. The three friends had always sat here together, in the past.

“Kairi, I need you to promise me something,” Sora said, holding one of Kairi’s hands in both of his. “You’re doing good in your training. You have to promise me that if you ever learn the power of waking, you keep it to yourself and don’t use it to come and save my heart. I saved you. You don’t need to save me.”

“I’ll use all other means to find you, I promise,” Kairi told him. “If.”

“If what?” Sora wondered.

“If,” Kairi said. She pulled something out of her pocket and placed it in Sora’s hands. It was her lucky charm, which resembled a special star-shaped fruit that grew on Destiny Islands -- it was said that if two people shared the same fruit, then their fates would be bound together forever. Kairi wrapped Sora’s fingers around it. “It’s my lucky charm,” she said as she had once in the past. “Be sure to bring it back to me.”

It was then that Sora made his oath. “I promise, Kairi. No matter what happens, no matter where I go…” He gave her a smile that only Sora could give. “I promise I’ll return, in any way I can.”

They hugged each other for a moment, then let go. For a moment they just sat on the tree, hands intertwined, staring toward the sea. They looked to each other, and Sora smiled at Kairi one last time before he faded into stardust.

Chapter Text

Sora felt as if he were flying. His heart, which you could call his soul, felt free, unbound by the circumstances of reality. He couldn’t see anything; he could only feel as he drifted further and further away from his friends -- from his home. 

He finally was able to open his eyes. The sight he saw was a familiar one. Fluffy white clouds floated in an endless blue sky, and a still, clear, infinite sea was at his feet. He was the only one there. It was the Final World, the place he had gone to when he’d died before. Which begged the question… Was he dead again? It was such a weird concept, to be dead again , but yet it seemed to be worth consideration in his situation. 

He lifted up his hand and unwrapped his fingers from the lucky charm he still held. Kairi had given him the charm before, and he had returned it to her. But this time, he had a nagging feeling that she wouldn’t get it back. He had promised to return, but even though he would try with all his heart, he wasn’t sure he could do it. 

Not seeing anything else to do, Sora shoved the star in his pocket and started walking in a random direction. It looked the same no matter where he turned, but he needed to go somewhere. Somehow, he needed to find a way back to his friends. 

He heard a noise, and he summoned his Keyblade -- a weapon in the shape of a key. His particular Keyblade was known as the Kingdom Key, with a yellow handle and the long length of it gray. He looked around for the source of the noise, and found it right behind him. It was a girl with short red hair, dressed in pink. It was Kairi -- but how? 

“Hello Sora,” she said. She didn’t continue.

“Kairi? What are you doing here?” 

Kairi smiled. “I used the power of waking to find you, Sora. Now you can go back home and I’ll stay here in your place.”

Sora shook his head. “No. You weren’t supposed to. And how would you even do it so fast?” Kairi just stood there, smiling. He reached for her hand, but when he touched her he felt nothing there. She faded away -- it had only been a mirage.

Sora summoned his Keyblade back within himself and frowned. Already, his mind was getting to him, tricking him with visions of what he wanted. He needed to find a way out before his own wishes drove him insane. 

Next a boy with silver hair dressed in dark colors appeared -- Riku. This time Sora knew that he was fake, but he still longed for the illusion of his friend. “Hey Sora,” Riku said.

“Hello, Riku,” Sora said sadly. “Do you know how I could get out of here?”

“Maybe use your Keyblade and follow your heart, like you always do. But then again, half the time you slack off and wait for your friends to find you. But what if you can’t get yourself out, and we can’t get you back?”

“I don’t think I’m even allowed to come back,” Sora said, his thoughts falling into a downward spiral. “I broke the rules of life and death. This is the price I have to pay.” He stared at Riku, wishing he were real. “I just wish I could’ve lived my life first. If Xehanort hadn’t started this whole mess, then maybe -- maybe if he hadn’t tried to get to me -- maybe if he hadn’t killed Kairi --” He was just grasping at straws, now. He was acting like he wished he hadn’t saved Kairi, but he knew deep down that he wouldn’t have been able to go on without her. 

“Maybe you shouldn’t have let him kill Kairi,” the vision of Riku said, echoing Sora’s thoughts. Sora touched Riku’s hand and he disappeared. 

After what seemed like hours of wandering the Final World, dispelling memories with his touch, Sora pulled out his Keyblade and wished with all his might to find his way back home. A beacon of light shot from the key straight into the sky, and Sora wondered if someone would see it. After a minute, nothing happened, and Sora took another step forward. His surroundings hadn’t changed one bit in all the time he’d been walking. 

But suddenly, the shallow water beneath him somehow deepened, and he started to drown in it. He could see everything in the clear water as he struggled to come up for air. But eventually, he surrendered, and he fell through the water. But there was something wrong with that particular body of water -- after a moment of drowning, there was no more water to fall through, and he fell straight into empty air. Seconds later, he hit the ground and blacked out. 

Sora woke up and rubbed his eyes. When he opened them he expected to be in his bed. But instead he was in a place filled with darkness. How had he ended up here, after he’d just been in the Final World? He rose to his feet and found that in front of him was a giant mountain. He stood there, fantasizing over how he’d ever end up at the top.

The mountain looked like a normal mountain at the base, reaching up for maybe about a thousand feet. Sora started to climb the mountain. He climbed and climbed, but it seemed he never made any progress. It seemed he had climbed for hours, never getting any closer to the top of the mountain. 

But after a while, he slipped. He had climbed up to what he thought might have been a couple hundred feet. But the strange thing? He fell down so quickly and so easily, it seemed as if he had not been three feet off the ground. 

He looked around the mountain, looking for some sort of tool. There was nothing -- only a small pool of light around the place where he stood. There was nothing else but darkness.

Just what I need , he thought. Nothing but the mountain, the darkness, and I.

He summoned his Keyblade. It was the only thing he had with him besides the clothes on his back and… 

He pulled his only other possession out of his pocket -- Kairi’s charm. He carefully slid it back into his pocket. I will find you, Kairi , he thought. He stared up at the impossible task before him. I will not stay lost.

And so he began to climb again.

He made it as far as he had before, maybe just a bit farther --

Suddenly large boulders spilled down the side of the dark, craggy mountain. Sora expected to be crushed, but instead, he was only pushed back down.

He climbed again.

He summoned his Keyblade and used it like a crutch, making sure it stayed propped in the crevices of the mountain. For a while, it seemed to work. He made it farther and farther…

He looked down below and saw an infinite drop. He looked up above and saw an evasive mountain top that he could never catch up with. His grip on the Keyblade started to weaken. What was he to do? He couldn’t climb all the way, only fall back to the depths. There was nothing for him here. 

There was no longer a way out. He had dropped from the sky and just as he had with the boulders, he had not retained a scratch. He could not die here, he saw that now. His body was now invulnerable. He imagined that he could lie in place for a year and nothing would happen to his unused muscles.

But there was always the matter of the mind.

He knew that there was no way to shut it down. He would always think, always strategize. He would always, always look for a way out of the trap he had fallen into. He would think, and he would dream, and he would remember the days of his past. He would sit for centuries in this inky pit of darkness, always imagining the world that waited at the top of the evasive mountaintop. The mountain that he soon would call his home. 

“No,” Sora said aloud, startling himself. There was no other sound, only that invasive silence. But that silence wasn’t invasive. This place had probably stood as it was for thousands of years, and Sora had been the first to break its silence. He was the true invader. 

“I won’t give up!” Sora shouted at the mountain. “I’ll get out of here, and I’ll find my friends!”

He slowly started to slip, and tears started to fall from his eyes just as he started to fall from the mountain. “I won’t give up,” he whispered. “I can’t let the darkness in.”

He slipped, all the way to the ground. He didn’t even need the boulders to push him down this time. He fell to his knees, and his Keyblade disappeared from his hand.

And then his vision started to happen in real life -- him, there, on the ground. He didn’t move a muscle. He didn’t stop thinking. Why had he come here? Why had he left behind not only his world, but all the thousands of others he could’ve explored? He had thrown away his future. He had given up his friends. 

But he hadn’t, he realized. He had saved his friend, and that was why he was here. That was why he would spend infinity here.

“No,” he said again. It was all he could bring himself to say. It was the only thing he could think.

But it wasn’t the only thing he could do.

He stuck out his hand, stretched out his arm. He slowly propped himself up, he came onto his feet. “No,” he said as he stared up at the mountain. “I will not give in.”

He once again summoned his Keyblade, and he shoved it into the mountain. He pulled himself up one step, then another. 

After what felt like a couple of hours, he began to tire. His arms and legs weakened, but still he pushed on.

Listen , he heard a voice say.

Sora looked around himself for the source of the voice, but found nothing. “Who’s there?” he asked.

I am no one , the voice said. But you are someone. And to make it to the top of the mountain, I will need a piece of you. 

“A piece of me?” Sora shook his head. “You’re just a voice in my head.” He took the next step, but when he tried for another, he found that there was not another foothold.

It is your choice. You can stay here, with your memories. Or you can give up an important piece of yourself and escape.

“There’s no other choice?” Sora wondered. But it was just a question to buy him time. He already had his decision. He could not stay here. He needed to escape. “I’ll do it,” Sora said. “I’ll give you a piece of me.”

As you say. 

Sora watched his memories flash by. He saw himself as a young child, playing with his friend Riku. He saw them laugh, and talk. They grew older, and he saw them fight. He saw every memory he had ever had of his friend. Riku, who had been a very important piece of him.

But then the memories reached their end, and as Sora remembered, every memory played again. But this time there was no Riku. It completely changed. Instead of a life spent with a friend… It was a life lived alone. 

By the last memory, the time he had said goodbye to Riku… He now saw only himself, and he could only think that something was missing.

You have given a piece of yourself , the voice said. Suddenly footholds appeared in front of Sora. You may continue on your way.

Sora climbed, but he felt so wrong . He was forgetting something, missing something very important to him. 

But there was nothing he could do but climb.

Sora pulled himself up, and finally, finally , after all of that time… He was at the top of the mountain.

He wanted to scream. He couldn’t believe it -- he had finally made it to the top of the mountain. 

A vortex of swirling blue energy stood before him. Was this it? Had he finally made it to the next world?

He had done all of this for one reason and one reason alone. He had saved Kairi’s life. There had only been one way to do it -- use the power of waking to go to follow Kairi’s heart and save her. But that trip had taken a price. He had saved a life, but had given his own to wherever he now was. 

Now he stood before the portal, remembering why he was here, who he had done this for. He looked behind him, back at a world that he knew he would never see again.

Well, it wasn’t really that much of a world , he thought.

But still. He had no idea what sort of a world laid waiting inside of that portal. Could it be that it was a way home to his friends? Or was it a back door to one of the other worlds that he had already visited? Or maybe it was a door to a world of endless space. He would have no purpose, no direction. 

He didn’t put away his Keyblade. Instead, he held it in his hands as he stepped into the portal. He had no idea what he would be going up against.

He stepped in, and the dark mountain world disappeared. “You can do this, Sora,” he said, giving himself a quick, quiet pep talk as the anxiety and uncertainty started to rise in his chest. The portal disappeared behind him, and he found himself in an empty place with no end, no beginning. There were only the stars shining in the night sky, all around him. There was an ocean shining below him, and it went on forever. It almost seemed as if he were standing on nothing, what with the way the sky was reflected perfectly onto the ground. “This place… again?” It seemed to be the Final World again, only this time, it was nighttime. 

“Hey!” he shouted into the darkness. “Is anyone out there?” Sora took a couple of steps, but there was nothing. He let his Keyblade disappear. There was nothing here. “Hello!” he called one more time. Just in case.

“Hey.” Sora heard someone calling back to him; a soft sound, but there all the same. “Hey,” he heard again. 

“Who’s that?” Sora wondered aloud. Was there really someone else here? Maybe someone as lost and lonely as him? 

“Where are you?” the voice called.

“Over here!” Sora shouted, hoping against hope that he was about to make a friend, not an enemy. Or could it possibly be someone he already knew? 

Sora started running in the direction of the noise, and soon enough, a figure appeared in the distance, dimly silhouetted against the starry night sky. Sora almost sighed with relief. There was another person here? Another person like him? “I see you,” the figure said, walking slowly towards him.  

Sora stopped a few feet away from the person, breathless.

The person stepped forward, and Sora recognized him from the strangest place. He was a character from the video game Verum Rex. Sora remembered that his name was Yozora. “Hey, aren’t you –” 

Yozora stood in place, slightly taken aback by the recognition in Sora’s eyes. “You – know me?” Yozora had short, silver hair that reflected the stars. He wore a black jacket and jeans. One eye was blue, the other red. 

“Yeah! You’re Yozora, right?” Sora said.

“How do you know that? Who are you?” Yozora questioned.

“I’m Sora,” he said as he pointed to himself. “And actually… There’s something I have to ask you.” He had a calm smile on his face. He had seen Yozora before, in a strange way, yes, but he had still seen him. The familiarity was putting him at ease. 

“Sora? You’re Sora?” Yozora said, as if surprised.

“Huh? You know who I am?” Sora said, confused. But wasn’t Yozora just a fictional character in a video game? Sora was the real one, right?

“Sure, I’ve heard of you.” 

“If you’re here, then this can’t be the real world, can it?” Sora was so puzzled. What sort of world had he walked into through that portal? A fictional world? But then he remembered an encounter he’d had the first time he came to the Final World. “But wait – that girl, she told me about you.” If Yozora knew people in the real world… “Maybe you are real after all.”

But Yozora just stood there, annoyed. “Are you done?” After a moment, he continued. “No, this isn’t the real world, and I am here.” He gestured to himself. “But this isn’t what I really look like. How’d you recognize me as Yozora?”

Sora was even more baffled now. “Huh?”

“Why are you using Sora’s name?” Yozora pressed.

“Because… I am Sora,” he replied. He looked down at himself. At least that was one thing he was still sure of. 

“If you are who you say, and it was fate that brought us here, then… My path is clear.” He summoned what seemed to be a ranged weapon – some sort of pistol.  

“What?” Sora said, shocked.

Yozora aimed the weapon at Sora and it unfolded into a metal crossbow. A blinding light met Sora’s eyes, and he blocked the light with his arms. As he watched, the space under his feet became solid. There was now a giant, circular piece of glass beneath them. It was a stained glass portrait of Sora and his friends. Sora had seen it before, in his dreams. Around the picture of him, there were four others -- three of whom he recognized. He saw Kairi and his other two friends, Donald and Goofy. The last picture was of a boy, a complete stranger who looked an awful lot like Yozora… 

The stars in the sky around Yozora and Sora stayed in the sky, but the stars beneath them disappeared. Sora watched as a world appeared out of what appeared to be pixels and computer code, and suddenly he and Yozora were hundreds of feet up on top of a large building. Around them were thousands of other tall buildings. This was the type of place Sora had only really heard of in stories.

It was a city.

Sora looked beneath him as the stained glass faded away, leaving only hard, blank concrete. “Hey! Wait!” Sora shouted as the wind suddenly blew through his hair, cold and strong. 

“I accidentally wandered into this place, and went through some trials,” Yozora said, keeping the crossbow aimed at Sora. “Then, I was told to ‘save Sora.’”

“Huh?! Then – what’s with the weapon?” The situation didn’t make any sense at all.

Yozora then pulled out a sword that glowed red in the darkness. “Time to end this.” Yozora momentarily lowered his crossbow and readied his sword. 

“What do you want?” Sora shouted at Yozora.

“To save you,” Yozora said. He aimed his crossbow at Sora’s head and fired. 

Sora ducked out of the way and stopped in place. “Please -- I don’t want to fight you!” he shouted.

“I have no choice,” Yozora said. “You can choose to fight, or you can surrender to my weapon.”

All Yozora did was stand there, and he once again set his weapon on Sora.

This time the projectile grazed Sora’s Keyblade. The force of it shook Sora down to the bone. “Stop it!” Sora shouted. Yozora aimed again. The next blast shot Sora’s weapon out of his hand and to the edge of the building. Sora simply summoned it back to his hand. 

Sora looked around the building, but there was nothing he could do but surrender to or fight with Yozora.

This time when Yozora shot, Sora jumped over the projectile, landing on his feet. He charged at Yozora, and hit him in the chest with his Keyblade. Yozora staggered to the ground, but still managed to fire again. In the time it took Sora to dodge, Yozora had already run at Sora with his sword, and Sora barely brought up his Keyblade in time. But with the next strike, Yozora cut through Sora’s defenses and attacked him mercilessly. Before Sora knew it, his body was being knocked around by the sheer force, and his arms were bleeding from relentless slashes by the blade’s cold edge. 

But Sora rolled away and brought his Keyblade back up. “I’m not going to lose. Not today!” he said, trying to push down the fear. What if Yozora was too strong for him? His friends were always his power, after all. What could he be without them?

Yozora aimed with the crossbow, and the shot grazed Sora’s bare arm, only leaving a slight burn. Sora cast a quick healing spell on himself and ran back into the fight. He attacked from the side, knocking Yozora momentarily into the air. He attacked until Yozora found a break in his defenses. Yozora fired the crossbow, and while Sora was distracted, snatched the Keyblade out of his opponent’s hand. “Hey! What –”

Yozora then attacked Sora with his own Keyblade. Weaponless, Sora brought up his arms as his only defense, taking the first hit before dodging the next one. He took many hits, until finally he popped behind Yozora and took the Keyblade back. Sora knocked the side of Yozora’s head with his weapon, and Yozora collapsed entirely. 

Sora stepped away. He hoped that Yozora would drop his crossbow and change his mind about attacking him.

Yozora rose to his feet, and suddenly his hand started to disappear. It was just like when the city had appeared around them. Only this time the pixels were taking Yozora away.

“Wait!” Sora said, rushing toward Yozora. He didn’t like the way Yozora stared at his hand as it disappeared into pixels, and then into nothing at all. 

“I guess… that my powers aren’t needed yet,” Yozora said. 

“What do you mean?” Sora was still watching as Yozora’s arm disappeared, and then his shoulder and the edges of his chest. Even after they had fought each other, Sora was worried. “Is there anything I can --”

“Never mind,” Yozora said. And then he surprised Sora. For the first time since they had met, he smiled.

Yozora disappeared in a bright flash of light, and everything went white.

The next thing Sora saw was the starry night sky.

He was back on the building where he had fought Yozora, right where he had last been standing. He found himself sprawled on the concrete. 

He came to his feet, slowly, cautiously. He didn’t know what to expect. He might suddenly disappear to another world, and then another. It was messing with his mind.

Sora walked closer to the edge of the building, looking at the world that lay below, spread out as if it wanted him to see it. There were thousands of bright lights, of all different colors. Screens that glowed, that changed. Vehicles sped down the streets, honking and flooding the ground with light. There were more people than Sora had ever seen at one time. Or, perhaps, in his entire life. 

This world wasn’t real, and he knew it. Which meant that this wasn’t his real body. He wondered what would happen if he died in this world. Would he simply wake up in another one? Where was he, and how would he ever wake up?

The wind blew his hair around his face. It all felt so real. But it wasn’t. Or was it?

Would he ever find his friends again? Or would he be cursed to stay here forever, forced to find a new life? Would he start new relationships with new people he didn’t really know? But none of the people would even be real. They were all only programming, or at least he assumed they were.

Or, perhaps… Maybe Sora was the program. Maybe he had been living the life someone had coded, and this whole world was only another world coded for him. “Is any of this for real… Or not?” he wondered aloud.

But somehow, deep down inside, he knew that he was real. He had a real life, and he was a real person. He had real friends. This was only a program, and somehow, someday, he would find a way out.

Chapter Text

The first thing Sora realized was that he really needed a place to stay.

He explored the streets of the city, which he figured out was known as Quadratum. People ran past him, and cars zoomed past him, and he could barely do anything but gape. This world was so new, so different from what he was used to. He was used to magic, and spaceships, and having only a dozen people in an area at a time. He couldn’t stand all the lights. He covered his ears against all of the noise. 

He didn’t even fit in. Everyone around him wore jeans and jackets that didn’t look a thing like his. At least he knew to put away his Keyblade, so that people wouldn’t stare at that. But they still stared at him.

He quickly learned that he couldn’t stay on the streets. He needed somewhere safe, somewhere quiet. Somewhere where he wouldn’t be robbed in his sleep. 

A girl about Sora’s age walked by, and Sora called out. “Hey! Could you help me? I’m looking for a place to stay.”

The girl continued walking, and Sora realized that it was because of the noise. He was too quiet. “HEY!” he shouted, hoping that the girl could hear him. He didn’t think that he could shout any louder. 

The girl turned. She had long blonde hair that framed her face, and wore ripped jeans and a leather jacket. “What do you want?!” the girl asked.

“Well, I was wondering…” The girl pointed to her ear. I can’t hear you. “I was wondering if you could direct me to a place where I could… uh… stay?!”

The girl pointed to a building right next to them. It seemed to be fifty stories high. “Right there. It’s cheap, and I hear they have nice service. You good?”

“Um… I’m sorry, but do they take munny here?” Munny was the currency he had used back at home. Hopefully, they used it here. But it was a completely unrelated world. He couldn’t hope for it. 

“Money? Who are you? A comedian?” With that, the girl walked away.

Sora looked at the small pouch of coins he had with him from the other worlds he had been to. He counted forty-seven coins. I hope they take this , he thought. 

He walked through the doors, which opened for him, strangely. He read a sign that hung overhead: PETER’S APARTMENTS. People were sitting around the room he entered. They all stared at slender devices they held in their hands, which shone eerie white light on their faces. The devices bore a likeness to his own Gummiphone. He walked over to a desk that stood in the middle of the room, and even the man at the desk was absorbed in his device. 

“Hello?” Sora asked. “I’d like to ask… Do you take munny here?”

Everyone in the room snapped up and glared at him, as if he were messing with their lives. But as most of the people went back to their devices, the man at the desk kept his gaze fixed on Sora. Notably, on Sora’s spiky brown hair. “What do you need?” the man said. 

“Do you take munny here?” Sora asked again.

The man laughed. “Money? Of course we take money. That’s why this place exists.”

“Um… Just so that we’re talking about the same thing, I’m talking about munny.” Sora spelled out the word. 

“It’s spelled M-O-N-E-Y, kid,” the man said. “Where are your parents?”

“My parents…” Sora’s parents were still at his home of Destiny Islands. He didn’t think he’d ever see them again.

“Are you lost?” the man said. “What are your parents’ names?”

“Do you take this or not?” Sora shoved his pouch of munny on the counter. 

The man observed it carefully, and his expression grew curious. “What is this -- gold? What are you doing with gold, kid?” The man’s eyes seemed to glow.

“So you do take it.”

“Well, we don’t really take gold… But you can exchange this for some paper dollars. How’d you get so rich? I think maybe I should call someone…”

“No! No need for that!” Sora said, grabbing his pouch and putting it back in his pocket. “I’ll go exchange this.” 

Sora walked out and realized that once again, he had no place to go. He wondered if he would ever have this place memorized.

He stopped another person in the street. “Where can I go to exchange money?”

The middle-aged man pointed north and moved on. 

Sora headed in that direction and wondered how far he was supposed to go or where he was supposed to go. He kept asking people, but all they did was point north.

Finally, maybe the twentieth time, a woman said “Just go straight ahead down that road, take a left at the first intersection and then to your right will be the bank.”

At last, Sora had a direction. He hadn’t had any luck so far, but perhaps now that he had directions, he might be able to get to the bank.

And so he did. He found a place labeled North Quadratum Bank. It was a large, majestic building -- more like the ones he was used to. When he walked in there weren’t any people sitting in chairs. Sora walked over to the desk.  

“Can I exchange money here?” Sora asked.

“Yes. What do you have to exchange?” the lady at the desk asked.

Sora handed over his pouch. 

“What… Where did you get this?” she asked.

“How much is it worth?”

“Too much, if this is pure gold,” she said. “How old are you?”

“Fifteen,” he said proudly. 

“Where is your guardian?”

“Guardian?” Sora asked.

The lady pushed the pouch back to Sora. “Take this back to your parents. Tell them to exchange it themselves.”

Sora looked at the munny inside of the pouch and wished he had some of the currency of this world. He handed the lady two coins. “Exchange these.”

The lady only pressed them back into his hand. “Go get your parents,” she said. 

Then Sora got a new idea. “Where can I get some normal money?” he asked. 

“Grown-up people have jobs, but kids like you get money from their parents,” she said. 

I give up , Sora thought. “I need a place to stay, and I can’t use this munny to get a room,” he said. “Do you know where I could --”

Just then a girl came up to them. She seemed to be Sora’s age, and she had long black hair and dark brown skin. She wore a blue dress. “Can you help me?” she asked Sora.

Sora looked at her. “How could I help you ?” He couldn’t even help himself.

“I -- I saw you, and I don’t know but I -- I felt like I had to come here,” she said. “I can’t remember anything. I need your help.”

The lady at the desk switched her attention to the newcomer. “Are you lost too, sweetie?” she asked. She had her device in her hand. “Is there anyone I can call?”

The girl shook her head, and then she grabbed Sora’s hand. He tried to twist out of her grip, but she was too strong. 

She pulled him out of the building and down a street, and finally she stopped. “What’s your name?” she asked.

“I’m Sora.” He examined the dark, quiet backstreet she had pulled him into. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“I’m Tianne,” she said. “I can’t remember anything but your name and mine.”

“This… this must be a coincidence,” Sora said, backing into the wall. “I’m new here… I don’t know anyone here. And no one knows me. You must be thinking of a different Sora.”

“But I heard your voice -- in my dream,” Tianne said. “I’m starting to think that it was a memory.” 

“But I don’t know you,” Sora said.

“In my dream… You said you would help me back to the light,” Tianne said. “For the past week I’ve been searching the city for you. And now, I’ve finally found you -- the voice in my head.”

“But I don’t know you! I don’t know anything anymore. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.” Sora looked at Tianne and a new thought came to mind. Tianne was only code. Perhaps the person who coded him into this world had put her here. She was supposed to know him, because he was in the world of a video game. And in video games, the strangest things can happen.

Tianne looked at Sora, and her head tilted to the side like a bird’s. “You really aren’t from Quadratum, are you?” she asked. Sora’s face must’ve betrayed him, because Tianne answered his thought. “Quadratum is the name of our world. But you’ve never even heard the word out loud before.” 

“I… I can’t help you, I’m sorry,” Sora said. He rubbed his head. “I can’t even help myself.”

“Well, then.” Tianne frowned, but then her eyes lit up. “I know! We both have problems, and we can’t help ourselves. But maybe… Instead we can help each other!” 

Sora looked at her. She had a beautiful smile. It was like all she could think of was happy thoughts. 

“But I don’t know how to help you, and I can’t tell you how to help me.” Sora sighed. “I’m from another world, a real one. And now it looks like everyone around me is only a program. I don’t think you’re real.”

Tianne sighed. “But maybe… maybe I’m different. If I had dreamed of you, the one real person in a sea of fake… Then there must be something about me. I must be real, too.”

Sora looked at her and wondered how she could take all of this in so easily. “Look, Tianne,” he said. “I’m pretty much convinced that this place is a video game world. Everything is only code. Which means you are only code. There is no way you can prove to me that you’re not. You were probably programmed to say that.”

“But -- I feel real,” she said. “And I know that you’re real, just like me. I can help you, Sora. I know I can.”

Sora shook his head. He had nowhere to go, but he knew that he needed to stay away from this girl. There was something about her that set off alarm bells in his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. 

And then he ran. 

He ran down the streets of Quadratum, not caring to stop. He needed to get away, he needed to hide. It was like instinct had taken him over, driving him away from that street, away from that girl.

He ran into some people but he couldn’t make himself apologize. He needed to run, run far away. He wanted to forget about everything that had happened.

His muscles ached, his feet felt like they were on fire. But did he stop? Of course not. 

He ran north, and soon he came to a sign. It read: “Northern Quadratum Boundary.” Sora tried to run past it, but it was just like in a video game. He tried to press his hand into empty space, but it wouldn’t budge. The outside world was only an illusion.

He watched the road, and noticed that it was very eerie. Cars drove past the boundary, disappearing into the distance. Other people walked off too. But Sora could not. 

The panic in his chest grew and threatened to swallow him up. I’m stuck here , he thought. I’m stuck in this city. There is nowhere to run. 

He kept pressing his hand towards the open space. But it wouldn’t move. His suspicion had been confirmed: He was not a program. But everyone else was.

“No!” he said out loud. But the city was so noisy, no one seemed to hear him. He sunk down next to a building, falling on his knees. There was no way out. Those were the only words that came through his mind. There is no way out. 

He looked at his hand, comparing it to the world he saw around him. They both looked just as convincing. He was not in a real world, though, and he would never see his friends again. 

He heard voices, and he looked down the street, seeing a group of perhaps a dozen people, women and men. They were all dressed in black.

And they were all coming straight towards him. 

He rose to his feet, but with the buildings on both sides of him and the unreachable road behind him, he realized that he was trapped. 

He tried to lean against the wall of a building and look nonchalant. Maybe the group would just pass by him. 

But they came straight towards him. Sora opened the door to the building and noticed that it was another apartment building -- an old, decaying one. Now that they were at the edge of the city, things weren’t as pleasant. 

The sign over the door was so faded, he couldn’t even read what it said. He ran in and found the man at the desk fast asleep. He tried to shake him awake, but the man wouldn’t budge. Sora found a set of stairs in the back of the room and started to climb. 

The stairs were old, rotten wood. Sora hoped that he wouldn’t break it by putting his weight on it. He climbed up one flight, then another. He didn’t hear any footsteps, so stopped to rest on the third floor. 

After maybe fifteen seconds, he heard the creak of feet on stairs. He ran up another flight, but by the time he started on the fourth, he noticed just how exhausted he was.

The footsteps chasing him only seemed to grow louder, and Sora could barely keep going. The rotting wooden walls around him only seemed to add to the atmosphere of fear.

“I hear him -- up there!” he heard a man call. Sora ran down a hallway and found the next staircase. As he no longer tried to keep his steps quiet, doors were swinging open all down the hall. People , Sora thought. They can call someone. And then it will all be okay. 

After he had run up the stairway, Sora encountered a major problem.

This final set had led up to the roof, and now, just as before, Sora had nowhere to run to. 

He examined the roof, but it was only a wide, flat surface. There was nowhere to hide. 

If it comes to a fight, I may only have one choice , Sora thought. He prepared to summon his Keyblade. 

Finally the people stepped out. Sora counted thirteen. He dully noted that every single one of them carried a crossbow, just as Yozora had. 

“What do you want from me?” Sora asked as they all set their weapons on him.

A single person stepped out from the crowd. Sora gasped. This one wore the black robes of Organization XIII, a team of people who had fought against Sora for control over the worlds. 

“What do you want? I don’t have that much to give,” Sora told them.

“These fools want your money,” the robed figure said. His voice sounded oddly familiar. The voice was deep, but it sounded fake somehow. He sounded like a man but Sora felt like he was a boy. “They heard about it in the news. But I want something more.”

“And what is it you want?” Sora asked.

“Your heart,” the figure said. 

Sora clutched his chest. “You don’t mean my beating heart, do you?”

“Of course not. I want the light that makes you you, Sora.” The figure summoned an unfamiliar Keyblade and fell to a fighting stance.

“We just want the money!” one of the people in the crowd shouted. “We don’t need a show! Just make him give us the money!” A chorus of shouts followed. 

Sora took out his pouch of munny and threw it at them. He would do anything to get people away from this fight. But then again, they were only programs…

The crowd took the money and left. It was just like in a video game. Once you give the character the quest item, they go away and leave you alone. 

The figure in the robes of Organization XIII remained. “Sora,” he said. “Simply surrender and it will be painless.”

“How do you know my name?” Sora questioned, summoning his Keyblade. “Who are you?”

“The real question is, Who are you , Sora?” 

Sora was stopped short at the question. “I…”

“You won’t be anything without that heart of yours. Now, surrender.” The person held out his Keyblade towards Sora, and Sora felt a horrible sensation in his chest that he had felt before. This person was trying to steal his heart.

Sora struggled toward the person, and even though he was only a few yards away, it took everything Sora had to walk up to him and at the same time keep his heart.

“Ah. You are still strong.” The person lowered his Keyblade and the sensation of loss stopped. 

“Tell me who you are!” Sora shouted.

The Keyblader attacked Sora, maneuvering flawlessly and noiselessly, hitting Sora at his back and knocking him to the ground. Sora got back up, but knew he couldn’t hold up for long. After running through the city and up the stairs, his poor legs felt like they would simply fall off. 

Sora could do nothing but defend against his enemy’s attacks. He couldn’t make a strike of his own. He was too weak. 

“Please -- stop this,” Sora said, narrowly missing a hit to the face. “I won’t give you my heart, but I’ll let you go.”

“You? Let me go?” For a second, the Keyblader’s fake voice disappeared, leaving behind a noise that sounded right… And strangely familiar.

“Take off your hood!” Sora said. As he watched, the Keyblader slowly pushed Sora closer and closer to the edge of the roof. 

“And for what purpose?” The old voice was back. “You’re either going to die or lose your heart. It’s not like you’ll care after this.”

Having distracted Sora, the Keyblader managed to duck and hit Sora’s legs. Sora fell to the ground, and found that he could no longer stand up. “Please…” Sora said.

The Keyblader lifted his weapon and once again aimed it at Sora. Sora felt his heart falling away, and he realized that if he lost his heart now, he wouldn’t have his friends to get it back.

“Please…” Sora whispered. He started to see pieces of himself, memories of Kairi, of his home and his friends. He was losing his heart.

“STOP IT!” Sora heard a voice shout. He mustered the strength to look up and saw that it was Tianne, her long dark hair tangling in the wind. 

Instantly, the Keyblader lowered his weapon. “ You ,” he said.

“Stop it and let him go!” Tianne cried. 

The Keyblader walked over to her, and when he spoke, his voice cracked. “I… You…”

“I don’t know you, but I know Sora. Now leave him alone!” She shouted this with such fury and rage, that Sora himself was left with an aching ear. 

“I… Come with me,” the Keyblader said. “I can --”

“I don’t want your help. I want Sora’s,” Tianne said. “Now go.” 

Suddenly the Keyblader thrust his Keyblade at Sora, and before he could say a word, Sora could feel that something was missing.

“What did you do?” Sora whispered.

“You’ll see,” the enemy said. And with that, he turned into pixels, and then into nothing at all.

Chapter Text

“Sora,” a voice said. “Can you hear me?” 

Sora opened his eyes to find that he was once again in the Final World, the place where there was only sky. And before him stood a girl.

She had short red hair and wore a pink dress with black accents. She had bright blue eyes almost the color of the sky. She looked afraid, and her voice shook.

Sora had to think for a moment about who she was. It came to him after a moment.

The girl was Kairi. 

“Kairi!” he exclaimed. He had been lying on the ground; now he got up.

“Sora?” Kairi said again. She turned around and called for him.

“Kairi -- I’m right here,” Sora said. “I’m with you.”

Sora hadn’t seen her for what now seemed like forever. But she didn’t turn toward him.

He walked in front of her and smiled. Her gaze seemed to pass straight through him. “Kairi -- what’s wrong?” he asked. 

“I’m still looking for you,” she said, turning again. “I can’t find you.” And then she started to cry.

“Oh, Kairi! I’m right here!” Sora tried to hug her, but his hands passed straight through her.

“It should’ve worked,” Kairi sobbed. “I tracked down his heart -- I found him. But all I feel is… an emptiness inside.” Kairi fell to her knees, and she didn’t stop crying. 

Sora felt an emptiness inside his chest, too. “Kairi!” he shouted as loud as he could. “I’m here!” 

Kairi looked in his direction, and for a moment Sora hoped. But then he saw the distant gaze of her eyes. “It’s been so long -- too long,” she said. “I’m missing so much time with him. But I don’t think I’ll ever find him.”

Sora looked at her with sympathy, but did not regret the decision he had made. When he had used the great and mighty power of waking to save her, he had known he was doing the right thing. Even if it kept him away from Kairi forever, it still meant that she was alive. But she needed to move on. Otherwise, she would live a life of sorrow. 

But there was nothing he could do about it. He couldn’t talk to her, and for some unknown reason, she couldn’t see him. 

Sora pulled Kairi’s good luck charm out of his pocket. The face on the star still looked so happy. Did that mean something?

Sora looked at the star again before dropping it over Kairi’s hands. The star went straight through them, and the Wayfinder fell to the ground. Sora scooped it up and sighed. I’ll never be able to give this back to her , he thought. I’ll probably never see her again.

He looked back up at Kairi only to see her glowing. “Kairi!” he said. She exploded into stardust, and he was alone. 

He dropped to his knees and closed his eyes. 

“Sora. Can you hear me?” 

Sora woke to see Tianne gazing down at him. She looked different -- brighter, somehow. But how could the brightest star shine even brighter? 

Sora was lying on the ground again -- this time it was the cool concrete of a roof. He suddenly remembered what had happened on top of this roof, and who he had met -- the group of people, and the Keyblader. The one who had been shocked by Tianne.

“How long have I been out? And what… What happened?” Sora sat up, but his vision spun. And besides that, he felt this big, gaping hole where his heart should’ve been. He felt emptier than before. He felt like a glass with only one sip of water left in it. 

“You’ve been out for maybe half an hour. And I don’t know what happened. If you recall, I don’t remember much besides our names.” She smiled, and it made Sora feel a little bit better. 

“What did that guy do to me? I feel empty.” Sora clutched at his chest. Had the Keyblader done something with his heart? 

“I did feel something… It was like a wave, rolling through the whole entire city!” She swept her hands around, mimicking said wave. She brushed her long black hair out of her face and smiled again. Then she frowned. “Do you feel okay, Sora?”

Next it was Sora’s turn to frown. “I told you… I don’t feel right. Something is missing.” But I must have my heart, because otherwise I would be a Heartless. Sora vividly remembered the time he had fallen to the darkness, the time he had used a Keyblade to free Kairi’s heart from within himself -- but his was also thrown out in the process. He had felt like he was falling through darkness, but then he had heard Kairi’s voice. It dragged him out of the darkness. He had been turned into a little shadow of himself, but once he heard Kairi’s voice, he became himself once more. 

But he had heard Kairi’s voice, in the Final World. Had she freed him from darkness? Sora doubted it. I think I would remember if I had fallen through that darkness again. 

Whatever had happened, it was clear there was something wrong with him. And why couldn’t Kairi see him? 

“Let’s go somewhere safe,” Tianne said. “I’ll go pick up your… key thing.” She started to head over to where Sora’s Keyblade sat on the ground, abandoned. 

“No, it’s okay,” Sora assured her. He reached for it, but it didn’t disappear into thin air as it always did. 

Instead, it remained on the roof. 

“I can get it, it’s fine,” Tianne said. “Don’t stress yourself out.”

“No, really -- I can get it from here,” Sora said. But there was a tone in his voice that told him he was only trying to reassure himself. He reached for the weapon again, and it did not budge.

“Sora, I can --”

“No!” Sora yelled. When he realized what he had done, he quieted. “No.” He kept trying to bring his Keyblade to him. But it didn’t work. Was he forgetting something? 

Tianne stared at Sora. “If you want the key thing, you need to walk over and pick it up.” She did as she said, and held it by the wrong end. “In this world, we can’t summon things to ourselves. We have to use our muscles.”

“Are you going sarcastic on me?” Sora said. “I told you I’m from another world. There are different rules there. But… They all seemed to work here…” Was that the problem? Had Sora’s magic faded because he had come to this world? Somehow, it didn’t seem like the right answer. 

Tianne dropped the Keyblade at his side. “Here you go.”

Sora eyed the Keyblade with suspicion, wondering if he could even pick it up. He successfully took it in his hand, but it didn’t seem connected to him in the way it had before. It felt like the wooden sword he had used when he was younger. The Keyblade had formerly felt like an extension of himself. Now… It felt like any other thing he might hold in his hand. 

“There’s something wrong with me,” Sora said, gazing at his Keyblade. “I’m not myself.”

Tianne smiled. “If we work together, I’m sure we can get you fixed up in no time!” She extended her hand down to Sora. “Come on, let’s go!”

Sora took her hand, and envied the way she seemed so full.

Chapter Text

Riku couldn’t sleep. 

He would close his eyes, and all he would see was Sora. Sora, his friend. Who had saved Riku’s heart countless times. 

Riku laid down in his bed one night, turning on the dim lamp he kept at his bedside. Kairi had given it to him, she’d said it might help him sleep. Of course, that’s all Kairi did these days. She would sleep, and try to find Sora inside of her dreams. 

Riku closed his eyes, and this time he let his own dream play out in front of him. 

He came to on top of a tall building. It was nighttime and the stars were out over the city. Cars and lights decorated the world below. This was the place Riku always saw when he went to sleep. His vision became crystal clear, and he looked down at the ground and saw a familiar boy. 

It was Sora. 

In his dreams, Riku was invulnerable. He could do whatever he wanted. He jumped down from the building and landed at Sora’s side. 

Sora wore the black jacket and pants Riku had last seen him in, and he still had his spiky brown hair. But there was something wrong with his usually bright blue eyes. They looked dull, empty. 

“Sora.” Riku said his name, but knew that it was only a wasted breath. Sora could not, would not ever hear him. Riku could wander down these streets as he wished without raising any eyes. But no one could hear him, not even Sora. And whenever he tried to figure out the name of the world, or any name at all, the answer wouldn’t be there.

And then the dream would end. 

Sora looked behind himself and Riku watched as a girl came up behind him. She had long black hair and wore a blue dress.

The strange thing was, she looked at Riku as if he was actually there.

But then she shook her head and turned to Sora. “Let’s go,” she said.

Sora nodded and the two of them crossed the street. 

Riku was about to follow, but a long bus came between them and blocked him. When the vehicle passed, the couple was long gone.

“Where are you, Sora?!” Riku shouted to the sky. “Where can I find you?!”

It was then that he awoke, and it was the start of a new day. 

Riku wandered the hallways of the castle, seeing but not feeling. He had felt wrong ever since Sora had gone. And he had promised to himself that he would not stop searching until he had found his friend. 

He was in the castle of King Mickey Mouse, the king of the world of Disney Castle. The captain of the king’s guard, Goofy, and the king’s magician, Donald, were two of Sora’s very best friends. Because of this, the king had let Riku stay in the castle so that he could try to find Sora in his dreams. The reason Riku had needed the castle was because it was usually very quiet, the perfect place to have uninterrupted dreams. 

The walls of the castle were bright white, and the towers were topped with blue. Guards were stationed around the place. Riku walked by one door but stopped short when he saw Goofy standing sentry there.

Goofy was a tall, friendly, dog-like being with two big teeth, and he wore the uniform of a guard. He stood outside the door and grinned when he saw Riku. 

“Hi, Riku! Gawrsh! What’s with the sad face?”

“Don’t you remember? Sora’s still gone,” Riku replied without a trace of emotion. 

“That may be true, but we still have to look on the bright side of things!” Goofy said. “If we don’t, we’ll fall to the dark places in our hearts and we’ll never be able to find Sora.”

“I guess you’re right.” But still, Riku did not smile. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be at the morning meeting?”

Goofy nodded. “Yeah, but George usually stands guard in front of this door -- he got sick today, so now I’m watching it.”

“What’s behind the door?” Riku wondered.

“Why, this here door is the door to the king’s chambers,” Goofy said. “They need good, loyal guards on watch. And the king is still sleeping this morning, so that’s why I’m still here.”

Riku nodded. “I’ll ask to postpone the morning meeting so you can attend. See you there.” With that, he walked off down another hallway. 

An hour later it was time for the morning meeting. The attendees sat around a large circular table in a big white room. Riku could see through the big window on one side of the room. The world outside was colorful and brilliant. 

Seated around the table were Riku, along with Donald, Goofy, Master Yen Sid, Ventus, Terra, Aqua, and the king. Yen Sid was the old wizard who had trained the king, Mickey. He wore blue robes and had a soulless stare that made Riku feel like he was in a nightmare.

Ventus, Terra, and Aqua were friends. They had trained together to become Keyblade masters about ten years ago. They had all been trapped in one way or another, but Riku, Sora and their friends had taken the time to save all three of them. 

Donald was a duck, and one of Sora’s closest friends. He wore the blue robes of a mage, along with a pointy purple hat. He had white feathers, and as always, he had a grimace on his face.

The king was Mickey Mouse. The small mouse wore a king’s outfit and had a determined expression. He sat at the head of the table.

“The subject of today’s morning meeting is --” he started to say in his squeaky voice.

“Don’t tell me,” Donald rasped. “The subject of today is the same missing person it always is.”

“Yes,” Mickey said. “The missing person Sora.”

Everyone at the table let out a sigh. Now that they had stopped the evil Keyblade Master Xehanort, there was only one remaining problem. Sora was still gone.

“Is there any new information?” Aqua asked. She had short blue hair and wore a subdued but simple outfit. She had been stuck in the Dark World for ten years, and had even fallen to darkness. Sora and Riku had saved her. Thinking of Aqua’s rescue made Riku’s thoughts focus on Sora again. He had so many memories of Sora, but sometimes he regretted having them. He missed his friend too much. 

“If we had any more information, it would probably come from Riku,” Mickey said. “He’s been having dreams about Sora for some time now. Maybe he’s learned something new.”

But it was obvious that Mickey already knew that nothing had changed -- at least, nothing had changed for the better. If Riku had come any closer to finding Sora, he would’ve had a grin plastered to his face for the next week. But as it was, Riku had no expression.

“I dreamed of him again,” Riku said. “I saw him with a girl -- she had long black hair and she wore a blue dress. Sora was dressed as usual. They were on the streets of this place that was filled with tall buildings.” Riku swallowed, leaving his mouth dry. “Sora had a look to his eye -- he looked like he was giving up.”

Just then Kairi walked in. No one had seen her awake for months, as she had been endlessly searching through memories for Sora for quite some time. She looked tired, upset. She wore her usual short pink dress, and her red hair was a mess. It seemed she had heard what Riku said, because she did not say a word.

“Kairi -- you’re here,” Aqua said, rising from her seat and walking over to Kairi. She hung her arm over Kairi’s shoulders. “I thought you’d still be searching, but I’m happy you could make it. Come sit down.” Kairi took a seat in one of the empty chairs. She did not smile.

Aqua took her seat once more. “As you heard Riku say, Sora seems to be giving up. But giving up on what?” She leaned towards everyone else. “Maybe… Sora knows of a way to get out of the world he’s in, but he keeps failing. Maybe through Riku’s dreams, we can find out just what he is giving up on.” No one said a word.

“Remember to stay on the bright side,” Terra said. “If we don’t, then Sora does have a reason to give up.” Terra had brown hair and wore a dark but practical get-up. He had previously been under the control of Xehanort for ten years. His brown hair had been white, but that hadn’t been close to the worst of his worries. Xehanort had made him do things he would never consciously do -- things like hurting his friends. Riku, Sora and their friends had saved him as well.

“That’s exactly what I told Riku earlier,” Goofy said. “He’s always too sad.”

“Sad?” Ventus said. “He’s not sad. He doesn’t show any expression at all.” Ventus was younger than Aqua and Terra. He had spiky blonde hair and wore detailed but comfortable clothes. His heart had been missing for ten years, and Aqua had hidden his body away in a secret room before she had gone to the Dark World. Ventus’s heart had actually been inside of Sora all along, and Sora had only just given it back.

But now Sora was gone. 

“Riku… I tried to access Sora’s heart, and I felt him, I know I did!” Kairi said. “I was in the Final World in my dream. I called for him, but he never came. It’s like his heart disappeared while I was connecting with him.” 

“Maybe his heart is inside of someone else,” Aqua said. “That might explain it.”

“But if his heart was inside of someone else, I would’ve seen that someone else. It’s like -- like his heart was divided. Like part of it was with him and part of it wasn’t,” Kairi said.

“Maybe that’s exactly what happened,” Terra said. “But in the past, Sora was the vessel of other people’s hearts. He did have his, Ventus’s, and yours at one time. He isn’t used to being the one missing something. Do you think maybe that’s why he looked so glum in Riku’s dream?” 

“Like maybe his stomach aches?” Ventus said half-jokingly.

Riku glared at him and regretted it as Ventus’s gaze shifted to the table. He didn’t like it when people were happy. Not anymore, anyway. Sora had always been happy. He was the light of every conversation he was in. 

Happiness didn’t feel right without him. 

“If there really is something wrong with his heart, he should be feeling very horrible,” Aqua said. “He shouldn’t feel like himself.” 

Out of all the people in the room, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Ventus, and Terra had all experienced problems with their hearts -- in other words, their souls. They all knew what it was like to live without a full heart, or with a heart in the possession of someone else..

Riku remembered the light that Sora obtained from his heart and realized just how badly losing any piece of his heart would crush him. Sora had lost his heart before, but Riku hadn’t even known about it until after it had happened. Now that he knew about it this time, he couldn’t stand it. 

“I didn’t know it was possible to only lose a piece of one’s heart,” Riku said.

“It is only a theory. It might not be true,” Master Yen Sid said. These were the first words he had spoken at the meeting. “I have never heard of it before. But Kairi felt it, and she was a very close friend of Sora’s. She should be able to feel him.” 

“I wonder how Sora is doing without us, Goofy,” Donald said. “I don’t know how he would’ve gotten this far alone.”

“I wish we could still be there for him,” Goofy said. “I feel like he needs us now more than he ever did.”

“Well. He left us here! He chose it himself!” Donald yelled.

Riku’s eyes fell to Kairi, and watched as her face scrunched up. 

“Sora saved Kairi,” Riku said. “Are you saying you wish he hadn’t?”

Donald looked at him. “I --”

“Sora isn’t dead. That’s a small price to pay for bringing someone back from the dead. He still has his life , and we can still find him. And Kairi is here now. Kairi is alive .”

“I didn’t mean it!” Donald said quickly. 

“Of course you didn’t,” Riku said. “No one means anything around here anymore. No one is actually going to make progress in finding him. All we do here is talk.”

The room was silent. No one wanted to break the heavy tension. It seemed so thick, it couldn’t even be cut with a Keyblade.

“The meeting is over,” King Mickey said quietly. “Return to your activities.”

Everyone left. Riku returned to wandering the castle alone.

Chapter Text

Sora couldn’t remember the last time he had smiled.

Had it been before all of this? Before Quadratum, before the mountain? Had it really been that last time at his home, Destiny Islands? The time he had looked at Kairi, and she had looked at him -- he’d smiled, and so had she. But they were both sad smiles. Kairi and Sora had known what would happen next.

Sora had disappeared.

And it wasn’t like he could bring himself to smile now. There was actually nothing good he could think about. He would never see his friends again, he would never leave the boundary of Quadratum, he would forever be surrounded by people who were only code, and he would always feel that he had a big gaping hole inside of his chest, apparently.

He touched the place where his flesh and blood heart was. He felt it beat, over and over again, in perfect time. It wasn’t even his real heart. His real self was somewhere in another world, plugged into the virtual world of Quadratum. He would never know where he actually was. He wondered if he would live out his entire life asleep, lost in a world that didn’t actually exist. 

He stood on top of a roof. It seemed he was always on top of a roof these days. The coded world was sprawled out below him. Cars that never were. People without hearts. Lights that didn’t actually push away the dark. 

Tianne had taken him up here, had somehow gotten them two small apartment rooms. “I picked it because if we go on the roof, we can see the stars,” she had said. And she was right. She had picked a place close to the edge of the city. There was a little less artificial light, and Sora could see the stars, albeit dimly. 

Tianne was in the building, sleeping. Sora had tried to sleep, but had not been able to close his eyes for more than ten seconds. He knew that in the real world, he did not control his eyes. He controlled nothing.

Sora had wandered up to the roof, keeping his Keyblade at his side. He could no longer hide it. It was there for anyone to steal, just as his real body was. As he slept, anyone could do anything with him. He could die and he would never even know why or how it had come to happen. 

He only had one hope. His body was out there, somewhere. Maybe somehow, his friends would find him. They would find him and free him, bring him back to the light. 

In the meantime, there was nothing he could do, nothing he could say. He was trapped in a box that had been thrown into a pit of endless darkness. Someone had thrown away the key, and it was up to his friends to find it. 

A bird cooed, and Sora’s eyes fluttered open. 

A little gray bird stood on his head, in his hair. It seemed to be building a nest.

Sora sat up, but the bird did not leave. “Shoo,” he told it, and the little bird finally flew away. He threw away whatever the bird had put in his hair -- garbage of some sort -- and stood up.

He must’ve fallen asleep on the roof. Now he was awake, and the world was bright once more. 

He reached down beside him for his Keyblade, remembering that it had been next to him.

He looked down and found that it was gone. 

“Ugh!” he said as he stomped his foot. “Why can nothing ever go right for me?” He turned around and walked towards the door that led down into the building.

He knocked furiously at Tianne’s door, over and over again. It took her a moment, but she soon asked, “Who is it?”

“It’s me, Sora!” he said. “What did you do with my Keyblade?”

She opened the door and stared at him. Her hair was a mess, and she still wore her blue dress. “I didn’t take your dumb key thing, Sora. Now get back to your bed.” She looked more closely at him, and then plucked a gray feather off of his shoulder. “You weren’t even in your bed, were you?”

His cheeks flushed. “I couldn’t sleep. You should wash your hands. You don’t want to get sick from whatever… bird was in my hair.”

She went back in and closed the door. She came back out, her hair brushed and her dress straightened. “Now. About your key thing.” She pulled him into the room and locked the door.

The room was tiny, identical to Sora’s. It had white walls, one small bed with the sheets lying tangled, and a door to an even tinier bathroom in the corner. She sat down on the bed and patted the space next to her. “Sit down.” He did as he was told. 

“Look,” Tianne said. She lifted up a finger. “I want to make one thing clear to you, Mr. Everything’s About Me and I Can’t Lift a Finger to Help or Trust Another Person.” She frowned, pressing her lips together. The expression made Sora shiver. “I will not work against you, Sora. I will not steal your stupid key. I will not betray you to that other guy with a key. I will be your friend, as long as you help me. And if you help me, I will help you.”

Sora sighed. “It’s just that I can’t --”

“Can’t what?” Tianne said, the frown still making her face look scary. “Can’t remember? Because I can’t remember, and I think that’s just as bad as it can get. You, on the other hand -- you remember your family and friends. Your biggest problem is that you’re stuck in Quadratum, but I won’t let you forget that I’m stuck in Quadratum too -- and I don’t even have my memories to comfort me. So suck it up, you big baby!” 

Sora flinched. “I’m not a --”

“Then prove it,” she said. “Stop whining, and start doing something!” 

Sora thought about it for a moment. But not able to find a way to help Tianne, he almost instantly reverted to his old ways. “I just don’t know how I can --”

“Shh!” she said, and Sora quieted. Tianne let the silence stay for one long moment. “If you can’t help me, then I can’t help you. Do you get it?”

Sora sighed. “You win. How can I help you?”

Tianne glared at him. And then she stalked out of the room and closed the door behind her. 

Sora jumped from the bed and rushed to the door, but she was no longer on the other side. He stopped to think. Was she upstairs, or downstairs? There was nowhere to go up but the roof, so she must’ve gone down. Sora ran down the stairs and ran into a few people, but this time he found the time to apologize. He finally got to the ground floor and ran out the front door.

He stepped outside and had to shield his eyes from the light of the sun. But he quickly adjusted, because this was a light he was used to. It wasn’t the light of a thousand signs. This was the light he had spent his childhood in. This was the light that felt like home to him. 

Again he was overwhelmed by the cars that swarmed the streets, and the people that ran right past him. But he didn’t have to venture out, because Tianne was right there.

She was looking at a watch she wore around her wrist. “Two minutes and thirty-eight seconds. Not too bad.” 

Sora stopped in his tracks. “Wait. You were timing me?” 

Tianne nodded, and the smile was already back on her face. “I turned on the watch the second I heard you get up from the bed. You took fifteen seconds longer than me.”

“And why were you timing me?”

“Because I’m helping you. You need to be able to run as fast as you can if you want to survive.”

“Why did you yell at me?”

She laughed. “It was just a trick, Sora. I know what makes you tick. So I used it against you.”

“But I didn’t even help you yet!” Sora protested. 

Tianne laughed again. “Do you think I care? I’ll always help the people who need it most.”

Sora didn’t say anything to that. He had never thought she would do that.

Also, he still was pretty upset about being tricked. It had happened to him many times before. He tried to think of who had tricked him in the past. But for some reason, he couldn’t think of the person’s name -- or even the person at all. Was Sora forgetting something? He then remembered that he had given up memories to climb up the mountain, to make it to Quadratum in the first place. This person -- who played lots of pranks on Sora -- had completely vanished from Sora’s mind. He was surprised he could even remember that something – or rather some one – was missing from his memories. He could no longer remember his friend.

Tianne was looking at Sora, and he watched as the smile melted off of her face. “What’s wrong, Sora?”

Sora snapped out of his daze and rubbed his head. “I -- I forgot something -- someone. Someone very important to me.” He looked up at the bright blue sky. “I don’t feel right.”

Tianne took his hand in hers. “I’ll help you find this person.” A smile sprung back onto her face. “And by the time I’m done with you, you won’t have a worry in the world.”

Sora looked at her, but he couldn’t bring himself to smile. There was an empty hole inside of him, a hole that seemed to take up his entire chest. And he had no idea what was supposed to fill it back up again.

Chapter Text

All of the worlds share the same sky. 

This was a phrase Kairi had told herself, over and over again. All of the worlds share the same sky. If this was true, it meant that when she looked up at the sky, there was a chance Sora was looking up at the same one. 

Kairi stood on the porch of her house. She was back on Destiny Islands, where she had grown up. This was where she had been staying for the last several months. Everyday she would fall asleep and dream of the Final World, calling Sora’s heart to her. The problem was, it felt like it was in pieces -- one big, one little. She was afraid that if she interfered, Sora’s heart would be lost forever, and after months of searching, she would never find her friend.

The wind tousled her short red hair, and with it came the salty breeze of the ocean. She remembered all of the days and nights she had spent on the beach, with Sora and Riku on either side of her. Days spent dreaming, fantasizing about other worlds. Worlds that they thought they would never live to see. 

But they had. One night, darkness had consumed the island. The three friends had been separated, but somehow, they had found their way back together. 

Ever since then, Kairi had been a different girl. She had grown braver, stronger. But it still hadn’t been enough, because the day death had come for her, she hadn’t been able to fend it off. Instead, Sora had given himself for her. 

That had been many months ago. Kairi was now sixteen, and Riku was seventeen. Sora was still fifteen, wherever he was, but tomorrow was his birthday. She wouldn’t be able to celebrate it with him.

Sora was her friend. He always had been, ever since the day they had met. She had always known him like the back of her hand. But now, she realized that if they were to meet again, they might as well be complete strangers.

But she didn’t want to be any more of a stranger than she had to be. She walked inside of her house.

Later that day, she drove a Gummi Ship to another world -- a world with someone who might be able to help. She walked into a building on that world. Ienzo stood at a desk, going through his notes. He had light blue hair that fell into his face, and wore a light scientist coat. He was a little bit older than Kairi. “Ah! Kairi,” he said. “What do you need?”

Kairi sat down on the chair. “I need to look for Sora.”

Ienzo put down his work. “You spent three hours looking for him earlier. You need to take a break.”

“But tomorrow is his birthday!” Kairi said. “He’s going to be sixteen, like me. I want to be able to celebrate it with him!”

Ienzo only looked at her. He knew that it was foolish of her to, after all of this time spent searching, wish for a complete and total miracle. 

“Please, Ienzo,” she said. “Please let me look for him.”

Ienzo held her gaze for a moment before giving in. “Lay back your head,” he said. Kairi followed the instruction. “Close your eyes.” She did as told. He placed his mind-watching device over her head. “Remember,” he whispered.

Kairi let herself fade into her memories, hoping that this time would be the time.

She remembered Sora, Riku, and herself, the best of friends. They were lying on the sand together at the beach of Destiny Islands, watching the sun set. 

“Have you ever wondered what’s out there?” Sora wondered aloud, his hands clasped behind his head. He was always so relaxed, so easy. Even at thirteen. “I always have dreams, about these weird places…” 

Kairi laughed. “That’s you, alright. Always dreaming. Always sleeping.” Kairi and Riku laughed.

Sora sat up. “Hey, that’s not funny!” he snapped. Kairi and Riku continued laughing, and Sora sunk back down into his lying position. Kairi giggled as his hands slid right back onto the back of his head.

“I think about other worlds,” Riku said. “I always think about what would happen if we were to build a raft and sail straight north, never turning back. I think of what we would find.”

Kairi couldn’t find anything funny in this, and apparently Sora couldn’t either, because neither of them made a joke. “I wonder if we’ll ever leave this island,” Sora said.

“We know that there are other places,” Kairi said. “I fell from the sky, remember? Who knows where I came from.” She remembered the day eight years ago when she had arrived on Destiny Islands. Sora had said he’d seen a shooting star, and he had found her. They were both five. 

“If there’s a way into Destiny Islands, there must be a way out,” Riku said. “It’s only logical.”

“Unless it’s magic,” Sora said.

Riku laughed. “Do you still believe in fairy tales, Sora?”

Sora blushed, embarrassed. “No. I just… I told you. I always have these crazy dreams about these weird places… And I always see us there. We’re the heroes in my dreams.” He paused. “But, you know… They’re just dreams. I guess you’re right, Riku. Magic isn’t real.”

But Kairi didn’t agree with this. She had fallen from the sky like a princess in a fairy tale. Obviously, magic was real. “I don’t think you’re wrong, Sora,” she said. “I think magic is real.”

Neither of them laughed at her. Sora was the one who got laughed at, not her. “I think -- I think that if Sora has crazy dreams about weird places, and if I fell from the sky like a princess, and if the three of us found each other and became friends…” She smiled at the last one. “I think that it’s all connected, somehow. Magic is the only thing that connects like that.”

Sora touched his chest, the place where his heart was. “What about heart? And love?” 

“That’s important too,” Kairi said.

“And it’s real, for one thing,” Riku said. “You have a heart that pumps blood through your body. And people actually feel love towards each other. But magic…” He smirked. “I think I lost you guys at that part.” 

Kairi smiled in the memory, but at the same time thought, If only you knew, Riku. If only you knew that in just one year, you would be completely involved in magic, and other worlds. If only you’d known that beforehand. If only you’d been prepared. 

If only we’d all been prepared. 

Kairi opened her eyes to the lab room once again. Her eyes snapped straight to Ienzo. “Did it work?” she asked.

Ienzo shook his head. “Not in the way you think. But this is a long term project. We now have more data on Sora. If we can figure out as much about him as possible, we may be able to figure out where his heart chose to wander.”

“Anything about where he is or how we can get there?”

Ienzo shook his head. “No, Kairi.”

Kairi wanted to break something. She jumped up from the chair and grabbed Ienzo’s papers. She threw them on the floor, and they fluttered around, making a mess.

“Hey! We need those!” Ienzo said, rushing to pick up all of the papers. “You want to find Sora, don’t you?”

Kairi glared at him. “We’re never going to find him, and you know it! This is all a lie! I’m done!” She stalked away from the lab room and out the door. Barely holding herself together, she got into the Gummi Ship and flew back to the islands. Inside her house once more, she found her room and sat on the bed, face in her knees, tears rushing down her face. She looked at the clock on the wall just in time to watch it tick to twelve in the morning. It was Sora’s birthday, and she still hadn’t found him.

And she never would.