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For one moment, one glorious moment, Sora thought everything would be okay. Axel was alive. Badly wounded, but alive. Xion was saved, however unexpected and unplanned it had been. And Roxas? Roxas was finally whole again.
Except nothing in their lives, Sora thought with uncharastically sardonic humor, could ever be quite so simple, could it?
Careful not to injure Xion in his scramble to rise to his feet, Sora knew he had overlooked one important detail. Ansem and Xemnas had outright spelled it out for him didn’t they? That the Seekers would gladly welcome Roxas’s return.
“A pawn for a knight.” For a being who claimed to feel nothing, Xemnas was looking far too smug about this turn of events. “Vexen, in his bruised pride sought to undermine us, only to deliver one of our first choices to us instead,” he mused. “And Ienzo took for granted that the stolen replica had no darkness within now that he’s unable to sense it as well as he used to. How ironic.”
Yes… Sora certainly had overlooked such an important detail. As angry as he was, he ignored Xemnas and met the now-gold eyes of the boy he had come to think of as a brother. This wasn’t how he imagined his quest to save Roxas would end, Sora reflected. He’d expected something more… triumphant.
“Roxas,” Sora said. Whatever went wrong with the replica body, he knew Roxas’s heart still belonged to the light. He saved Xion, after all. Sora didn’t suddenly remember her name on his own.
“Roxas?” The echo was sharp and biting. “Maybe I am, but what does it matter in the end? All Nobodies are doomed to fade back into darkness after all. I’m no different.”
Sora gritted his teeth. This was Roxas at his worst, voicing the deepest, darkest fears in the depths of his heart. “That isn’t what she meant and you know it.”
Roxas glared. “Don’t I?”
Looking into those eyes, Sora could see better than ever the kind of hurt that could lead someone to darkness.
Or maybe it was just Roxas . The memories he entrusted to Sora made it easier to see. Easier to understand how Roxas could have fallen under the Seekers’ thrall. A moment of vulnerability. A moment where he felt so helpless and angry he would let himself be the worst version of him. That was all they needed.
Sora dropped into a fighting stance. He did not want to fight Roxas, but what other options are there?
Before either of them could move, however, an orb of light fired past his shoulder like a bullet, a projectile Roxas was able to reflect with ease. Sora’s heart skipped a beat as he realized what - or rather, who had caught Roxas’s attention.
Kairi.
Xemnas was nothing short of bored. “Just what difference can one little light make?” he scoffed, giving Kairi a dismissive look. “Take care of that, won’t you Roxas?”
Roxas looked at Kairi. There was reluctance in his eyes. Hope flickered in Sora’s chest ( I see myself the way you remember me ), but Roxas shook off whatever thought or memory that made him hesitate and charged.
Sora knew his blocking of Roxas’s opening attack was clumsy at best, but he knew it was better than letting Kairi face him instead. Sora had been barely able to win his one duel against Roxas in the past. Kairi, strong as she was, had just finished her training. She wouldn’t stand a chance against him.
In the corner of his eye, Sora saw the light of Saix’s Berserk aura.
But so did Xion. She tore her anguished eyes off her friend and shouted, “Leave Saix to me, Sora.” I have unfinished business with him. “Please, take care of Roxas!”
Sora could only nod at her retreating back before being forced to roll out of the way of Roxas’s next slash, coming out of the flip just in time to watch Xemnas teleport away. Where or why, Sora didn’t have time to ponder. Roxas was as relentless as ever.
Even with Kairi fighting by his side this time, Roxas was a formidable opponent. Having two keyblades allowed him to cover a wide area with swings neither Sora nor Kairi could afford. And his profinicy with the light element had not abandoned him despite him being a Seeker of Darkness.
It was a continuous push and pull of a dance with two partners instead of one. Sora and Kairi may have the upperhand in one moment, only for Roxas to regain it during the next. On and on it went. Roxas showed no sign of fatigue, having just joined the battle minutes ago. Sora and Kairi have already been fighting for hours now and sooner or later, it would show. A poorly aimed spell, a mistimed dodge...
Roxas has had enough. He released a shockwave of steel and light that sent Sora flying.
The impact of crashing against ruin walls was felt throughout his entire body. Winded and dizzy, Sora raised his keyblade and croaked “Heal”, basking in the temporary relief that was the spell mending his injuries.
It did not last long.
When his vision cleared again, Sora had a perfect view of Roxas looming over an unarmed Kairi, her keyblade pinned to the ground by Oathkeeper. Her face ( No, Sora corrected. Somebody else’s face ) was tearful and pleading as she said something to him.
Whatever it was she said, Roxas was not moved. He brought Oblivion down.
Sora barely realized the scream he was hearing was his own. Launching himself forward, he reached out, desperate to reach Kairi in time, to protect her, but knowing deep down that it won’t be enough.
And then, for the second time that day, a star fell from the sky, blinding them all in its light. When the dust settled again, Sora opened his eyes, dreading what he was about to see. Kairi, defeated. Kairi, dead. Kairi, struck down by Sora’s own Nobody.
That was not what he saw.
What he saw was not any better.
Another girl was lying on top of Kairi, holding her tight in her arms, shielding her with her own body even as she bled from a deep gash on her back, spanning shoulder to hip. At first, Sora thought it was Xion because she was wearing a black coat, but it wasn’t. He could still hear the sounds of combat on the other side of the battlefield. And besides, this girl had blonde hair, not black.
Roxas stood over them both, frozen in his finishing stance and golden eyes wide with horror.
Sora moved .
The struggle his Nobody offered when Sora managed to restrain him from behind could only be described as a token effort at best. Oathkeeper and Oblivion dropped to the ground and vanished among the dust and gravel as their wielder thrashed his head to side to side, muttering incoherently under his breath as his body began to give off tendrils of dark mist. “My heart belongs to me... I don’t feel nothing …!”
Kairi gingerly wiggled out from underneath her savior’s body. She didn’t need to speak. Her heart was crying out, just as Sora’s was. She didn’t even seem to notice Roxas and Sora struggling just feet away from her at all. At the moment, she only had eyes for-
“Naminé-!”
That strangled wail was nearly enough to unbalance Sora completely. The last of the darkness had evaporated from his former Nobody, but caution kept Sora standing firm. He wanted to rush to Naminé’s side as well, but Roxas…
Roxas had hurt Naminé, but even so, Sora’s first instinct was nonetheless sympathy.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. This wasn’t supposed to happen at all.
Naminé coughed. “Kairi?” she whispered with tears in her eyes. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Save your strength,” Kairi replied, shaking hands searching her pockets for a potion. “You’re going to be alright. You will.”
Naminé didn’t listen. “I’m sorry I made Sora forget about you,” she said with the desperate fever of someone who knew she was about to die. If the wisps of black smoke rising from her replica body were any indication, she probably was. “I knew it was wrong, but I did it anyway. I fixed it, but it doesn’t change the pain I’ve caused. Nothing I say will-” She cut off with a whimper as Kairi applied the elixir in her hand directly to the wound itself.
“It’s okay, ” Kairi said, her words as kind as her tone. “I forgave you a long time ago. You were alone and isolated and the adults around you took advantage of that. You don’t deserve to be punished for trying to survive. Heal .”
It was probably just Sora’s imagination, but he heard the sound of an ocean wave.
Naminé is going to be okay… Sora told himself as he watched the combined effects of the elixir and Kairi’s magic begin to slowly knit the gash on her back together. She’s going to be okay. She will. She has to be.
“Sora…” Roxas’s eyes were blue. “I’m okay. Let me…” Let me go to her. Please.
If things had been the other way around, Sora would’ve wanted it too. He dismissed his keyblade and stepped back, allowing Roxas to stumble towards the girls. Sora glanced over his shoulder and saw Axel holding the fading Saix in his arms as Xion stood nearby, keyblade at her side. Relieved that she had emerged victorious without help, he could focus all his attention on Naminé without guilt.
Kairi gently lifted Naminé’s head onto her lap as Naminé slowly opened her eyes. She turned her face towards Roxas, crouching close on his hands and knees. “Hello, Roxas,” she said, teasing despite the severity of her injury.
Roxas released the breath he was holding. “Naminé, I-”
She reached out and took his hand. “It’s not your fault,” she told him before he could apologize. Sora wondered how she could be so hard on herself and yet so forgiving of others. It was the same back in the Final World too…
Roxas looked as though he was about to argue, but he ultimately settled for saying, “Looks like we meet again. Like we promised.”
Perhaps it just wasn’t worth arguing about at the moment. Still, even if Naminé was right, Sora suspected it would be a while before Roxas could forgive himself for hurting her with a weapon that was meant to protect.
Sora knelt down next to Roxas and laid his hand on Naminé’s own. “Thank you, Naminé,” he said. There was no scrambling for words this time. He let the gravity of his words clarify for him: This isn’t the “official” thank you either. This is “thank you for protecting Kairi.”
Together, the three of them helped Naminé, still a little unsteady on her feet, to stand. She looked from Sora to Roxas to Kairi. For a moment, she looked as though she was about to cry.
Kairi moved first, hugging her tightly like a dearly missed sister. “I’m proud to be your Other,” she whispered, “But you are you. Nobody else.”
Sora smiled to himself. You make a good Other. Glancing sideways, he wondered if Roxas was thinking of the same thing.
Probably not. As soon as Kairi let go of Naminé - a patch of cloth on her shoulder looking a little damper than the rest - Roxas was more than ready to take her place.
Well, okay, Sora really wasn’t sure who moved first in that case. It could have been Naminé just as easily it could have been Roxas. Or they had both moved at the same time. Holding onto each other as though their lives depended on it, finally together again as their own people.
Sora didn’t see Kairi quietly coming to stand beside him, but he did feel her taking his hand in hers.
No, not everything was okay, not until Xehanort was defeated for good. For now, these small miracles would have to be enough.