| Fic: Nobody Fades, Chapter 4 |
[Jul. 4th, 2009|11:26 am] |
Chapter 4 of Nobody Fades. Cowritten with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) stellawind. Happy 4th of July everyone!
Title: Nobody Fades
Spoilers: All the way through KH2.
Characters/Pairing: Sora, Roxas. Will be Sora/Riku/Kairi, with others later on.
Summary: "Why do you need to die for me to be complete?" Sora won't settle for this, and Roxas is finding that having a heart again is a lot harder than he'd thought it would be. But if Sora, Riku, and Kairi can't figure out who's behind the new attacks, it'll be a moot point.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
The flight passed, and by the end of it, Kairi was talking only to Naminé. Sora had continuously been staring at Reno and making small, almost abortive remarks to Roxas. Riku had simply sat silently, his 'I don't want to talk about it' face firmly on.
Talking to Naminé had soothed her raw nerves. The conversation she had with parents before they had left had not gone the way she had wanted it. It hadn't been the worst fight she'd had (that unhappy title still belonged to the argument that had led to her spending almost two weeks at Sora's when she was ten), but it was still up there.
By the time they landed, she had mostly come to terms with what she had said. It was true, and as Naminé pointed out, at least they hadn't tried to stop her after what she had said.
She'd never actually been to Castle Disney before, and looking around was enough to distract her from her lingering sense of guilt.
"Sora! Sora!"
Kairi stepped out of the way as Donald and Goofy came running up to greet them.
"Donald, Goofy! Great to see you again!" Sora said, with a huge grin.
"Where's King Mickey?" Riku asked, a slight pause before king, as if he'd only just remembered to add it in there.
"Well," said Reno, peering out from the entrance to the gummi ship. "My work here is done, yo. I'm getting back to Radiant Garden before anyone else asks me to do a favor for them."
Sora looked at him, with that odd half grin and haunted eyes that made Kairi want to hug him. "See you around then."
Reno waved and shut the hatch. A moment later, the gummi ship began to shake, then lifted off, and was lost in the sky.
"Gosh, Sora, you don't look so good. Is something wrong?" Goofy asked, pulling back a little. Beside him Donald hopped a little, getting a better look at Sora's face.
Sora looked at them for second, like he didn't understand what they had said, and then shook his head. "Nope, everything is good." He hugged Goofy again, picked up Donald and swing him around, despite Donald's quacking protest.
I hate it when he lies, Kairi thought to Naminé. Anyone can tell he’s upset.
I’m pretty sure it’s Roxas who’s upset, Naminé replied. He didn’t like Reno much.
How could you tell? Kairi asked. You can't talk to him directly either... can you?
No, I just know I would be upset if I met someone who looked and acted a lot like my best friend who died.
"Oh," Kairi said quietly.
She tapped Goofy on the shoulder. "I hate to spoil the fun, but... the king wanted to see us?"
"Oh, right," he said, looking sheepish. "Come on, we shouldn't keep the king waiting!"
Goofy led the way, talking with Sora about some shield or another they had found in their travels, and how the castle arms master hadn't seen the enchantments used on it before. Kairi listened with half an ear.
She was curious, but none of her thoughts coalesced into a solid question. Not one that she didn't already know the answer too, at any rate; asking if Roxas missed Axel seemed like a very stupid question. Finally, she settled on asking if Naminé wanted her to say something to Sora, for him to tell Roxas.
That would be a little roundabout, wouldn't it? Naminé replied. Besides, anything I could tell Roxas right now that might help would be rather private.
Kairi shrugged, leaving the offer open.
They turned a corner and went through a door, and were greeted by Pluto's enthusiastic barking. Kairi reached down and scratched his ears.
"Hey, everybody. It's good to see you again."
Kairi looked up to see the king and another mouse she assumed was Queen Minnie (she hadn't actually met her) walking toward them.
"Hi, your majesty!" said Sora. Riku's greeting was a more subdued handshake, although she could tell he was very pleased to see the king again.
"I'm sorry I had to call you away from home so soon," the king said. "I'd hoped we'd have at least a little time before things got bad again."
"It's okay," Kairi said. "So, what's the problem?"
The king looked grave. "Like I said in the letter, someone is summoning the Heartless again. They've appeared on several worlds already, and are only spreading."
"Which worlds?" Sora asked. "Do want me to lock the Keyholes again?"
"That would only work for a little while," the king said. "None of the worlds have been destroyed yet. If we're lucky, we might be able to stop this before any are."
"Is it Maleficent again?" Riku asked, in the same tone he would ask about the weather, expect for the slight hitch in it as he said the name.
"No, we know that much," the king replied. "Merlin was here yesterday. He doesn't know who it is either, but we're pretty sure it’s not her."
"Hades or Ursula?" asked Riku.
"None of the usual suspects. I've already checked them."
"Someone new?" Sora groaned. "Just great."
Mickey smiled a little. "I know. But what I know is that whoever's doing to has to be a strong magician. And when we start poking around, they'll come looking for us. If we're fighting the Heartless, that'll mess up their plans and they'll find us to make us stop."
“'We?'” Riku asked. "Are you coming with us?"
"No," Mickey said, shaking his head. "I'd like to, but we'll get more done if we've got more groups. I have a friend from one of the worlds who contacted me yesterday, I'm gonna be going with him."
"Your majesty?" Kairi asked. "Before we all run off, there's something we'd like to ask you about."
"What is it?"
"Sora had an interesting idea," Kairi said slowly. "We, that is, both Sora and me, were wondering if it is possible to somehow let Roxas and Naminé have their own bodies."
The king blinked. "I can't think of anything, but there could be something in the library. You're welcome to look tonight."
"Thank you."
"If we aren't going to be looking for Keyholes, what are we going to be doing?" asked Riku. "Just fighting the Heartless isn't going to be enough, I think."
"No, it isn't," the king agreed. "I know several magicians and such that I haven't been able to talk to yet. I'm thinking that one of them might know something. The Heartless are focusing on different worlds this time, which may mean a very different person is summoning them. Some of these worlds are far away enough that I can't go. So asking I'm asking you."
Riku nodded. "You can count on us."
"I've got a list of a few worlds for you to check," the king added. "When you're done, you'll come back here and tell me what you found, and I'll tell you what I found, and we'll go from there."
"And while you're talking to these magicians, you can find out if they can help you with Roxas and Naminé," the queen added.
"Sounds great," Sora said. "So, when do we get started?"
"Tomorrow," Mickey said. "This might be a lot harder than what we've done before, so at the very least you can get a good night's sleep before you go."
"Are Donald and Goofy coming too?" asked Sora.
Kairi noticed that Riku's expression had frozen slightly.
"No, we need to cover more worlds to find whoever this is quickly."
Riku looked like he wanted to say something, but his features smoothed.
However, this didn't seem to fool the king. "Riku, you can say whatever it is. I won't be mad at you."
"Just don't split us up." Riku looked away. "Our luck tends not to run so well when we're not together."
"I wasn't going to," he said. "I wouldn't be sending anyone out alone."
"Uh, so who's the friend you're going with?" Sora asked.
"A friend I met a long time ago, before I was the king," he answered. "I'm sure you'll meet him at some point."
I wonder why he doesn't want us to know? Naminé asked softly.
Maybe the friend asked him not to tell us? Kairi suggested. She wondered, too, but didn't ask.
"Well," she said. "If we aren't leaving until tomorrow, where's the library?"
***
The library was amazing. Kairi would be willing to bet there were more books in this room than in all the libraries on the Islands put together. She had always liked reading, although it wasn't as exciting now that she'd had so many adventures of her own. The books seemed dull in comparison with fighting alongside Sora and Riku, summoning up her courage and leaping through a darkness portal, or looking up at the heart-shaped moon in the World That Never Was. But it was still enough to make her gasp.
"We could spend years in here," she said in awe, looking up at the shelves.
"I wonder how we're going to find anything that'll help?" Sora asked.
"Look for a card catalogue," Riku suggested. "If they have this many books, they must keep them organized somehow."
"But where do we start?" Kairi stared up at the rising shelves. "What subjects do we look up? I don't think we're going to find a book all about giving Nobodies bodies."
"Look for books about possession, conscious transference, replicating bodies, and such," Riku decided.
Sora sighed. "It's a start."
It was Riku who finally found the shelf in the corner that had an inventory of all the books in the library. Fourteen books made up the inventory record, in some of the smallest print Kairi had seen.
Kairi ended up taking a small set of history books that seemed to mention hearts enough to rate a reference in the inventory books. She sat down to read skimming through large block of text for anything that looked promising. Naminé was surprisingly helpful here - it was like having an extra set of eyes. Together they made it through several chapters of the book, until Kairi was fed up.
That's it, she said. Next one, please. If I read one more 'perchance' I'm going to scream.
Naminé giggled. It was really dry, wasn't it? But I doubt we're going to find anything exciting in this stuff.
Kairi grabbed the next book, and opened to the index, giving it a quick look-through for anything possibly useful. She stopped when she saw a term.
Hearts, Princess of pgs. 107, 223-4, 436-441, 507.
What on earth? What was there about them in a book?
You should look at it, Naminé encouraged her. Maybe there's something interesting.
Kairi stared at the book, and then flipped to the first mention. It was a just a mention. A Princess of Heart had been drawn into a war and killed. No name, no mention of what she had done, and all that was said about the war was that it had been between two worlds.
I wonder how a war between two worlds happens, Naminé said softly.
Sora once said that in one the reports he'd read, it mentioned a legend about how a wielder of a Keyblade brought ruin to a world.
A pause. It makes you wonder, doesn't it?
Not too much, I think, Kairi decided. I mean, we know what Keyblades do. I don't have the first idea what being a Princess of Heart means, other than being a target for kidnapping.
She turned to the next reference. A Princess of Heart had married a hero of a different world, and had caused some trouble by choosing her love over her world.
Well, I doubt I'll have that problem, she thought. She skipped the rest of the story and turned to the next reference - the long one. It was actually a subsection on the Princesses, titled "On the Nature of the Princesses of Heart."
Finally! she thought. Something useful.
Unfortunately, it wasn't. In five and a half pages, all it managed to tell her was that Princesses of Heart had no darkness in their hearts, and that when harm befell them it befell their worlds as well. There was also a little musing on why only women ever had this power (they called it a 'power,' but if it was a power, how could it be used?), which only served to irritate her.
"Well," she said out loud. "That was completely useless."
"Don't get me started," Sora groaned several shelves down. "I don't think any of these guys know how to summarize." He flipped the book he had on his knees shut with a sigh, shoving it back into its place.
"There has to be something in the library, somewhere, that's going to help us," Kairi said as she noticed his frown.
Sora grabbed another book. "But we really only have tonight to look right now. I don't think we're going to find it."
Kairi had to agree, as her eyes swept over the sheer vastness of the library. It was too large to hope to look through in a week, let alone a night. She settled on turning to the next entry, rather than telling Sora this; he looked too sad as it was.
It was much in the same vein as the first two entries, mentioning a Princess of a world Kairi had never heard of, and how she and another Princess of Heart had 'a legendary friendship' that had created a lasting bond between two worlds. While slightly more uplifting than the other entries, it answered none of Kairi's questions.
"Hey, Riku!" Sora called. "You found anything?"
"Plenty," Riku answered. "But while the history of Tamriel and the immortal master thief is interesting, it's not anything close to what we're looking for."
Sora sighed. "Yeah. I read some stuff about the Nobodies, but nothing that could help. They were a two-page section in this book." he waved it vaguely.
As far as I know, Naminé said, Roxas and I are the only two Nobodies who have ever managed to become whole again. We might be better off just asking the magicians. This is probably something totally new.
Kairi conveyed Naminé's suggestion. "After all," she finished, "we're going to be talking to them for the king, it won't take any more time."
"That's as good an idea as any," Sora muttered, pushing away the book he'd waved. "These don't seem useful. I'm not even sure if they're talking about Nobodies, really. It talks about the 'unfeeling survivors.' For all I know, it could just mean apathy.”
Riku shrugged. "A magician might be able to tell us what books to look at, which would be more than what we know now."
"Have you asked Donald if he knows anything?" Kairi asked.
"We didn't even know what the Nobodies where when we first found them. Donald knows a lot more on the practical aspects of magic, not this... guesswork," Sora finished, glowering at the books.
Riku sighed loudly, leaning against a bookcase. "Maybe we ought to stop for now. We probably have an early start tomorrow, and we'd be better off getting some rest."
"I hate giving up," Sora grumbled. "But we haven't found anything useful and Roxas is in an even worse mood than he was when we got here."
"Don't get all mopey. We've barely started yet," Kairi said. "And Naminé has a really good point. What we're thinking about has almost definitely never been done before, so we're not likely to find much in books."
Sora brightened up. "Yeah. I just was hoping this would be... I dunno, simple."
Riku laughed. "When's the last time we ever did something simple?" He put away the book he was holding and stretched his legs. "I'm going to go walk around. I'd like to visit with Mickey for a little bit before we have to leave again."
"I should probably talk to Donald and Goofy too," Sora said, jumping up. "Donald said that he had some potions that he wanted to give me."
"Kairi?" asked Riku.
"I want to look a little bit more," Kairi said.
Riku nodded, and then made a jibe at Sora that Kairi only half heard as they left the library.
Are you going to try another book? Naminé asked.
Several, if I have too. Princess of Heart seems a bit more definite than Nobodies. I might have better luck.
Almost two hours later, after wading though the most misogynistic, arrogant, chauvinistic piece of crap she had ever read, Kairi was ready to scream.
In another book, just for a few sentences, there had been something about a Princess and a wielder of a Keyblade. She couldn't quite tell if the Princess had been the wielder of the Keyblade, due to somewhat shaky translation that had been done on the book.
"Why are you still here?"
Kairi turned to see Riku.
She huffed out in frustration, "I was reading about Princesses of Heart. I was trying to figure out of there was anything useful."
"Going by that scowl, I'm going to guess there wasn't?" Riku said. "That's definitely not the look of a triumphant Kairi."
Kairi closed the book with a satisfying thud. "Not a single thing. Princesses of Heart have no darkness in their hearts, they have a very strong connection to the world they originate on, and are always girls because they're delicate and need to be protected. Ugh! I don't want to be protected! I want to be able to protect people!"
She summoned her Keyblade, and turned it over in her hands. "I know I can. I know being a Princess of Heart has to mean something more than that."
Riku put a hand on her shoulder. "Well, I don't know anything about being a Princess of Heart, but..." he touched her Keyblade. "Sora and I can definitely make sure you know how to use this. You've got more to learn, but you definitely aren't defenseless, even if being a Princess of Heart doesn't give you any real powers."
Kairi hugged him. "Thanks, Riku."
He returned the hug. "No problem. Just come back to our rooms so Sora can borrow your toothpaste. He forgot his."
Kairi pulled back to regard him suspiciously. "And why can't he borrow yours?"
Riku didn't answer, instead taking her hand, dragging her out of the library.
"Hah!" Kairi crowed. "You forgot yours too!" |
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