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Sora wondered if he was going to die. Master Yen Sid obviously didn’t think so, no one else seemed to either. But there was a small part of Sora that feared for his life. Maybe he wouldn’t actually die, but he may end up changed so much he might as well have died. Would he actually be ‘Sora’ any more...?
A small dark voice inside whispered in response. “Then you’d know how I feel.”
“Shut up Jerk...,” Sora mumbled to himself, momentarily forgetting where he was.
“Uh...?” Sora looked up and saw Riku looking down at him with a slightly worried, slightly hurt look on his face. “I’m... sorry?”
Sora felt his face go pale. “No! No... I... was talking to... uh....” Sora have a vague gesture to his head and his heart, not really sure where the voice had actually come from.
Riku have a sympathetic smile. “The dark one finally woke up huh?”
“Oh is that what that was?” Sore felt himself breath a sigh of relief. “Um... should I go... uh....”
Riku nodded, then shrugged. “If you want to. I mean, you’ll get to talk to him in person before too long....” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
Sora thought for a long moment, his hand slowly drifting to rest above his heart. “I think... I should talk to him now.”
Riku nodded slightly, hefting his keyblade. “Do you want me to cast sleep or...?”
“No, I want you to smack me with it again,” Roxas snipped. Sora blinked, oops. That wasn’t supposed to happen.
Riku made a face that roughly translated to “I’m going to regret saving Roxas aren’t I?” Then he sighed and raised his keyblade. Sora leaned forward, crossing his arms on the table, just like how they’d done before. Riku cast sleep, and Sora didn’t fight it, letting himself be dragged down into the dark abyss.
The falling was the worst part. It felt like sinking into deep water, getting dragged down by a rip current. Having grown up on the islands, the dangers of the ocean had been drilled into his head since he was old enough to understand words. The ocean wasn’t always friendly. Sometimes it was nice to play in but if you weren’t careful, it wouldn’t hesitate to pull you away from shore and out to open water. So, as Sora sank down into his heart, he felt the rising sense of panic inside his chest constrict around his heart.
Then, he touched down on the stained glass, hearing it echoing in the empty space around it. The glass walkways extended off in four directions now, instead of the three there had been the last time he’d been here. Each path stretched down from Sora’s platform, at varying levels. And each heart was beating, slightly out of rhythm, making a strange kind of soothing sound. Sora rubbed at his eyes, still feeling lethargic from Riku’s spell.
He looked down the blue path, that one was the tallest next to his. There was Roxas’s heart. Sora saw Roxas floating there, a few feet above his stained glass platform. His face was turned upwards, probably why he’d been able to snark back at Riku earlier. Sora really hoped the two of them could get along... eventually.
The yellow path lead to Xion. Her heart always hovered close to Roxas’s, or maybe his hovered close to hers. Her platform wasn’t as high as Roxas’s, but was pretty close. She was hovering a little ways off her platform, rolled onto her side like she was sleeping in an actual bed. Sora didn’t know a lot about Xion, just that when she’d disappeared her memory faded too. He remembered that Riku had told him she was Roxas and Axel’s friend, but he didn’t know much else. Sora hadn’t been able to talk to her like he had Roxas. He hoped Axel and Roxas would remember her when she woke up.
Sora felt an uncomfortable feeling shift in his stomach. Would any of these people sleeping in his heart remember him? Would he remember what it was like when they were with him?
Sora bit his lip and turned towards the green path. Ventus floated there, above his heart. He looked like he was falling, or maybe sinking. His arms and legs were spread out as much as they could be while still looking relaxed. Sora wondered if he usually slept like that, as he peered down at him from the edge of his own heart platform. He hadn’t talked to Ven much, but he’d made sure to know his story before they split. He had two friends coming, Terra and Aqua. The group back at the tower were waiting for them.
Finally, Sora turned to the newest walkway. This one lead down at a steep slope, but it would be manageable to climb up and down. The red stained glass lead down to a dark heart, one that Sora had seen before, but had always been unable to reach. He really didn’t want to jump and chance it. This heart hovered near Ven’s, except much lower down. It was hard to see the picture the glass made through all the shadows. Then, after he took a deep breath and squared his shoulders, Sora stepped onto the red walkway.
While Sora is on his heart’s surface, there’s not much difference to the others. But as soon as he steps off, to follow one of the pathways down into sleeping hearts, it’s like a piece of the sun split off and floated away into open space. When he descends to the hearts of the others, he reignites their light with his own. They feed off that light, need it to stay above destruction.
Sora finally stepped onto the red platform, looking around for the sleeping form of this heart’s sleeper. But instead, he saw nothing. There was no one there. “Hello?” He called, turning in place.
“What are you doing?! Get out of here!” A voice roared from all around him, echoing off the darkness surrounding this heart.
“Where are you?” Sora called again. He couldn’t see anybody there. There was no one.
“Go away...!” The voice growled again, a small note of pain in his voice.
“Are you hurt? Let me help you.” Sora stepped towards the center of the heart, stoping when he saw that the stained glass was covered in dirt and grime. It was chipped and scratched in places too. And as he looked further ahead, he saw that the rest of it that he’d seen from up above, most of this boy’s heart, was gone. The heart was fractured through, leaving jagged cliffs that dropped off into nothingness.
Then, Sora finally saw someone. There was the figure of a boy there, laying on the jagged edge of the glass heart, partially hanging over the side. Sora ran to him, grabbing him by the back of his collar and dragging him onto the stable part of his heart. “Hey... are you okay?”
The boy didn’t respond right away and Sora saw the body below him take a deep breath and let it out slowly. So he was still sleeping soundly. Then, the voice replied. “I’m fine. I’ve had worse.”
Sora felt a twinge of pain ripple through his heart. For an instant, he felt this boy’s pain. He was hurt by someone he trusted. He was ripped away from his own heart. Then rejected by it later. It must have hurt a lot... especially with only a partially intact heart. “What’s your name...?” Sora asked after a moment.
There was another moment o hesitation, then a response. “Vanitas.”
Sora smiled softly, lifting the boy up. The sleeping heart finally caught him, letting his body drift up and hover there as he slept. “Don’t worry Vanitas. We’re going to wake you up soon.”
Sora felt someone pushing on his shoulder, and realized that Riku must have been trying to shake him awake. He turned around and ran back to the walkway. He should be in his own heart when he woke up. That was important.
The boy, Vanitas, murmured softly just before Sora jumped onto the walkway. “Wake me up...? Why would you want to do a stupid thing like that...?”
Sora didn’t have time to stop and ask Vanitas what he’d meant, he felt the pressure on his shoulder becoming more present by the moment. He leapt onto his heart, skidding to a stop and finally let go of sleep.
Sora gasped as he woke up, sitting up too fast and slamming the back of his head against something. Riku groaned above him and backed away, holding his nose. “Oh... sorry Riku....” Sora flushed. So smooth.
“Haha!” Roxas cackled. “Take that!”
“Shut up Roxas...,” Sora muttered under his breath.
Riku shook his head, smiling under his hand. “Master Yen Sid said that he wants to talk to you... before... you know.”
Sora nodded, pushing himself to his feet. “Alright then. Wish me luck!” Sora grinned and cracked his back. He wondered if this was the last time Riku would see him, as he was now. Would Sora still feel the same about him after this? Would he be the same, or would he someone entirely different?
Sora stood in front of Master Yen Sid, a nervous jitter in his stomach. “No Sora. You won’t disappear.” Master Yen Sid was psychic!
“Umm... how did you...?” Sora flushed, wondering what else the old master had seen in his mind.
“Because you do not hide your feelings well from those who know how to read them.” Oh. So he wasn’t psychic. That was a relief. “Although the hearts sleeping inside yours may have influenced your growth, you are your own person. Just as they are their own people. You are not built out of their hearts Sora. Your heart merely took inspiration from theirs when it built itself.”
Sora felt like a ton of bricks had been dropped off his shoulders. He couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face or the tears that welled up in his eyes. “That’s... thank you. I....”
Master Yen Sid raised his hand. “There is no need to thank me, Sora. It is I who should be thanking you.”
Sora blinked. “Thank... me? For what?”
The master smiled. “For being you. Thank you for being a kind heart who shelters those with broken hearts. Were it not for you, many more hearts than just those four would have been lost. And many worlds along with them.” Master Yen Sid stood, taking off his hat for probably the first time Sora had seen. He set it on his desk and bowed his head. “Thank you Sora.”
Sora felt like something was twisting in his chest. His mouth opened and closed uselessly for several moments, even as Master Yen Sid put his hat back on and sat back down. “I believe the proper response is ‘You are welcome’.” The Master was smiling with a good kind of humor.
Sora felt his heart lift as he stood up straight. “You’re welcome Sir.” He gave a salute, feeling a grin spread across his face.
Master Yen Sid smiled, shaking his head slightly. “Go fetch the others Sora. It is time.”
Sora nodded, turning on his heal. He was feeling much better now. “Right!” He marched out the door, finding Riku and Mickey there, pretending not to be eavesdropping.
Riku gave Sora an encouraging thumbs up. “You ready?”
Sora nodded, his heart now feeling as sure as ever. “Yeah. Time for everybody to finally wake up.”