19Warning: Possible OOCness ahead. Major Character Death.
Spoilers: For DDD and Birth by Sleep
Italics: Vanitas Speaking in Sora's mind
Awakening of the Hearts
Castle Oblivion is still one of the most hated places he has ever been. Even after Namine and the rest of Organization XIII members left, it still brought memories back that tormented his heart. Or perhaps he should say his and Ventus's heart.
He had avoided Kairi and Riku since that day they put him to sleep by force though of course they had tried to get out of him what he was talking about. He merely waved it off as a nightmare of some other villain they had fought against and while they had obviously not believed him, he had never given them the chance to look deeper into it.
Now he was here without his friends knowing including King Mickey.
Except for Lea.
"Are you sure this is the way to the room?" Sora asked the red-haired keyblade wielder. Lea frowned and scratched at his hair.
"Pretty sure… I know there was always that room we were never allowed to go in. Even with Namine not here though this place is screwing with my thoughts." Sora sighed but agreed with a nod. He could feel his memories start to disappear just like the other times he went into this damn place.
The two continued to walk and as they went on he could feel a tugging at his heart, growing fiercer with every step further into the castle. A yearning to go home.
"Yeah, I have no bloody idea where we are." Lea finally huffed with a slight growl to his tone. He stopped in his tracks however Sora kept walking. "Uh, Sora? Where ya going?"
"I don't know," he replied truthfully. "But I feel like this is right." Lea's frown deepened but he merely shrugged and followed after the brunette. Sora continued walking even as he felt his memories start to desert him. He had to get home…
The pair stopped in front of a large door and Sora glanced up at Lea.
"Is this familiar to you?"
"Uh… well… No? I don't think so at least." Lea replied. Sora sighed and reached out for the door handle.
"Just stay here, ok?" The brunette didn't wait for a reply and pried open the door, grunting at the weight. He could only open it a crack, just enough to slip his body through.
The room was white as all the other rooms but this one felt warm as if it had been created with a different feeling in mind than all the rest. He felt his memories flood back and he staggered back with a hand to his head at the force. In the room sat a giant chair and slumped in this was a blond haired young man.
"Ventus…!" Sora felt his heart leap at the sight and he hurried over to the slumbering boy. Sora reached out to poke his shoulder and jerked his hand back as his finger met flesh. "You're really here…" The brunette took a deep breath and steeled his nerves then called his keyblade to his hand.
"Are you really going to wake him, little shadow?" He halted with his keyblade aimed at his heart and shuddered at the voice that slithered through his mind. "I knew you would, but still I can't believe you're this stupid to throw everything away!"
"Shut up!" Sora growled and clenched his eyes shut. "I won't lose to you. Ventus deserves this…" He whispered the last part as if to convince himself. His reply was only laughter echoing through his head and Sora made up his mind. He plunged the keyblade into his heart and gasped as he felt something in his heart release. Light glowed around the wound and slowly a ball of light formed from the leaking gash. The keyblade glowed then shattered and the brunette felt himself drop to his knees. He saw the light phase into Ventus just before he collapsed onto his side.
His body felt like someone had ripped through him with a clawed hand and left only tatters. His heart… he could only hear an echo of 'Sora' in its brokenness. Was Vanitas right when he said that was all he had left?
"Oh now you've done it, little shadow. There's nothing left of you but a name! But soon even that will be gone. You're in such pain aren't you…?"
Yes. By God it hurt everywhere… like he was dying.
"Just sleep, little shadow. All of the pain will disappear." Disappear…?
"S-sora!" Sora's dimming gaze slid up to see Ventus stumbling out of his chair, hitting the ground hard on hands and knees. The disuse of his body was evident by the sluggish and clumsy way he struggled to move.
"V-ven…" He struggled to get the name out as the blond knelt beside him. "Wha…" Ventus ignored his question and grabbed his hand while extending his other, a bronze keyblade with a wing-like design appearing in his grasp.
"What did Terra always say…?!" Ventus hissed as he placed Sora's hand on the keyblade's handle. "Um… In your hand… take this key," he started. "So long as you have the, uh, markings? Makings! So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of… taking! It's wielder you shall one day be." He gritted his teeth as he wracked his brain. "And… was there more…?" Ventus shook his head violently and clutched Sora's hand. "I-I think that's all. B-but now you should be able to use the keyblade—your own keyblade! Fight against Vanitas, don't let him win!" Sora opened his mouth to respond but darkness engulfed his vision.
"Sleep little shadow…" Sora felt himself plunging down into a black abyss like so many years ago. Yet this time there wasn't a painted glass floor to step onto and instead he continued to fall.
Until an arm wrapped around his waist to drag him back into a chest. A hand slipped across his eyes and a breath whispered across his ears. "Just let go of the pain and fall back into darkness. As I said before, it's where you belong."
Where did he belong…?
Ventus breathed hard and shook Sora after the brunette went silent with eyes closing. Did it work? The brunette's eyes suddenly snapped open and the blonde jerked back with surprise. The young man shakily got to his feet, head and limbs hanging like a puppet being pulled up by the strings. He suddenly snapped his hand out and a keyblade materialized in his hand.
A keyblade of black and red formed, chains wrapped around the blade and two ice blue eyes set in the weapon glared out viciously. Ventus shuddered at the familiar blade and he tried to scramble backwards as Sora's head snapped up to grin at him. Golden eyes bored into his blue orbs.
"Ahaha, you should have stayed asleep, Ventus!" Sora's voice cackled and echoed around the barren room as his keyblade slashed forward.
Outside the door Lea frowned at the noises that sounded from the crack of the open door. What was happening in there? To his understanding, it should have been a pretty easy job. Sora had told him he was supposed to find a kid, wake him up, and then they'd be getting home! Easy peasy yeah? So why did he have this horrible feeling clenching his gut? He started towards the door only to jerk back as it suddenly widened.
Sora stumbled out and Lea's breath hitched at the blood that dripped from his face. There were tears in his clothing and his hair looked disheveled while behind him he dragged a large keyblade he had never seen before. It almost looked like an actual sword... There were two keyblades that crossed in the middle and extending from them was a massive blade with arches of intersecting metal work sticking out from the shafts of the keyblades. Honestly it looked heavy as hell and totally impractical to wield yet the sight of it caused the awful feeling in him to sour even further.
"Sora, what the hell happened? I thought you just had to wake some kid up!" Sora chuckled and he fingered a gash under his eye, looking at the red on his fingertips with a smirk.
"Unfortunately, he was more awake than I anticipated. But, no matter. His heart was still too weak and the guilt just made it all the easier to join with."
"Sora, what are you going on abou-" Lea cut himself off with a gasp as Sora looked up to reveal glittering golden eyes.
"If memory serves me well, you're the newest keyblade wielder are you not?" Sora-not Sora?-lifted the weapon and leaned back on his heels. Unlike Sora, he didn't crouch and unlike Roxas, who used two blades and a more loose crouch, this doppelganger seemed to merely be relaxing. There was no tension in his muscles, and it put Lea on edge. "Wanna help me test this new x-blade out?" He was suddenly springing forward and Lea barely had time to call on his keyblade to block the blow. He winced at the weight of the weapon and felt his arms tremble as it sparked against the metal of his keyblade. There was a sharp crack and his eyes widened to see fractures beginning to spread through the flame of his weapon. Lea's keyblade suddenly shattered in his hands and he fell backwards at the force, left holding nothing but the hilt.
"What... How..." Sora's laughter had his gaze drifting upwards and he grit his teeth at the darkness that swirled around the young man. His golden eyes glinted like pieces of ice as he slowly approached, whipping the blade up to rest lightly on his shoulder.
"Oh? Didn't you know? This is the legendary weapon that inspired all keyblades! This is the original. Did you really think your artificial keyblade would do anything against what spurred its creation? Though I admit I was expecting a little more of a challenge..."
"Who the hell are you and where is Sora?" He ground out.
"Sora's not here right now, but I'll be sure to tell him you called! But... Should I tell my name...?" The teen suddenly moved swiftly, flipping the x-blade and plunging the blade into his gut without a second's hesitation. Lea went rigid before choking, blood pushing up his throat to gather in his mouth. He coughed as Sora leaned forward, his normally jovial grin twisted into one of malicious glee. "My name is Vanitas. Got it memorized~?" Lea's response was a gurgled cry as the weapon was ripped out and blood splattered the floor as he slumped further down the wall. His vision began to grow black and the last thing he heard was laughter ringing in his ears before everything went dark.
A/N: My belief is that Castle Oblivion will still mess with all your memories because Aqua set it up to be confusing. Sora brought Lea thinking he could help since he was there so long. But being Lea not Axel—a nobody with no memories—he's not too helpful.
I was going to include an epilogue but I couldn't find a way for it to make sense in the KH world so this is the end. It's up to you if Sora completely disappears. Thank you for all the reviews/faves/follows; they really helped me to keep on.
Edit 1/9/18: Though it's been awhile, I wanted to update this chapter. I think it flows a bit better now with the added dialogue and death. By what I've heard of the x-blade, it seems like it's the original and a legendary weapon. The creme da la creme so it's my opinion then that it would wreck the competition. It's like putting a real weapon against a Dollar Store plastic sword. After all, it's what started the Keyblade War and what Xehanort wants to open the real door. So... yeah it's gonna be major overpowered~ Poor Ventus and Lea...
Until we meet again~
- Zehava