Kingdom Hearts II Vol 2 Page 14

  What? What was it?

  I don’t know. At least, not yet.

  “Sora?” King Mickey said anxiously, as Sora stood there with his fingertips to the screen, his eyes closed.

  But when he spoke, his voice was clear and certain. “This is the other Twilight Town… Roxas’s Twilight Town.”

  “There’s gotta be a way into the realm of darkness somewhere,” said the king.

  Sora turned away from the computer and nodded. He knew where to find that entrance, too.

  It was in the next room…the bare rectangular one.

  He opened the door, and in the corner, he saw something like a hole in the air, a splotch of gloomy blackness.

  “There…” Sora stared at the widening dark rupture.

  “This is it,” said King Mickey.

  Sora nodded—and launched himself straight into the portal.

  Axel looked up, sensing a ripple in the strange space.

  Sora was almost here. “Riku! Kairi!” the boy called, his voice still far off.

  Axel ambled toward it.

  He could hardly feel the pain anymore. And it wasn’t that the wound was healing—no, this was just the end coming closer.

  Before he reached Sora and the other two, Nobodies appeared in his way.

  “Really, Saïx…?”

  Number 7 had probably sent them—but whether to finish him off or to keep that trio from coming any farther, Axel wasn’t sure.

  In the murky distance, he could hear them clashing with the Nobodies.

  Axel took a single deep breath and called the chakrams to his hands.

  Then he sprang into the air.

  “Don’t stop moving! Or the darkness will overtake you!”

  Sora and the others tore their eyes away from their fight for a moment, and there was Axel, blasting aside Nobodies.

  He might not want to destroy Nobodies, but there was no point in having any misgivings now. The end would be the same either way.

  Throwing a glance at Sora, he shouted, “Get going!”

  “What? Why?”

  They didn’t move but only stared at him.

  “Don’t worry about that! Just go!” A Nobody glommed on to his arm, but Axel shook it off and hurled a chakram at it.

  Right. Don’t worry about the why. I don’t even know the answer myself.

  As he tried to catch his breath, more Nobodies set upon him. Pain surged like a fresh blow from the wound Saïx had dealt him.

  “Are you okay?!” Beating back the Nobodies, Sora ran to him where he’d fallen.

  Axel looked up at Sora. “I…kidnapped Kairi. But she got away from me. And after that…Saïx caught her. He’s a member of Organization XIII. Saïx—got it memorized? Now go save her!”

  As he finished speaking, a single Nobody lunged at Sora.

  “Ugh, leave us alone!” The Keyblade gleamed in Sora’s hand, and he dispatched the Nobody with a single slash.

  Axel struggled to his feet, back-to-back with Sora, and readied his chakrams. He could feel Sora’s heat against him, the hint of sweat. It reminded him of Roxas.

  Sora leaped back into the fight. In the same moment, Axel sprang up with his chakrams in hand. Donald cast a barrage of spells, and Goofy ran to and fro bashing at the Nobodies.

  But no matter how many they eliminated, more Nobodies poured out as if from some inexhaustible source.

  Axel could remember fighting like this beside Roxas…

  He wanted to fight that way again. He wished they had talked more, about lots of things. About nothing. He wanted to talk to his friend again.

  But why do I feel this way if Nobodies have no hearts?

  His time was running out, thanks to Saïx. He could hardly move anymore.

  “Think I liked it better when they were on my side,” Axel remarked with half a grin.

  Sora noticed the expression and smiled back. “So, you learned your lesson?”

  “What lesson?” Axel shot him a look. “I can handle these things. Watch this!”

  There was no longer any need for hesitation, or escape, or uncertainty.

  Everything was for Sora, for Roxas…for all of them.

  With a running leap, Axel plunged into the Nobody horde.

  Nobodies were supposed to disappear. To go back to where they’d come from.

  Where we came from… Where we belong. Axel hoped that was with Sora. With Roxas.

  He spread his arms wide and turned his face upward.

  The last of your strength… Give it to me.

  Share with me the strength for the end…Roxas.

  Flames blazed all around him, surging into an immense wave of fire to sear through the Nobodies.

  “Whoa!” Sora marveled, running to him.

  But when Sora reached him, Axel no longer had the strength to stand or even move his arms. Tiny flames smoldered in the air—more like dying embers.

  “You’re…fading away…” Sora knelt down to peer anxiously into his eyes.

  “Well, yeah, that’s what happens when you throw your whole being into an attack… Didn’t have any better ideas.” A smirk curled one corner of Axel’s mouth as he looked up at Sora. Or tried. His sight was already going dark. “Not that a Nobody like me really has a being to speak of. But never mind… Look, go find Kairi, okay?”

  Sora was fixed on him, barely blinking.

  “Oh yeah…almost forgot,” said Axel. “I’m sorry for what I did to her.”

  “If you feel that way, then tell her yourself!” Sora scolded him.

  “I’ll have to pass… My heart just wouldn’t be in it, y’know? Haven’t got one…” Axel laughed dryly.

  I have no heart. I’m not even supposed to exist… So why am I doing all this? His thoughts rambled. It was all so funny. He only felt like he had a heart. But no matter what he did—outside of obtaining Kingdom Hearts—he could never have one.

  “What were you trying to do?” Sora asked.

  For a moment, Axel didn’t reply. He kept staring into space as he did. “…I wanted to see Roxas.”

  That’s it. That’s all it is.

  “He…was the only one I liked.”

  I liked him, that’s all.

  “When I was with him…he made me feel…like I had a heart…” Axel closed his eyes. Somehow, he had the feeling that Roxas was close.

  Terribly close. Right beside him.

  “I feel it…with you, too…” Then Axel weakly shook his head and returned his attention to Sora. “Kairi’s in the castle dungeon. Now go.”

  This was well and truly the last of his strength. The final reserves of whatever held him together. Axel lifted his hand and opened a portal to the Corridors of Darkness.

  “Axel…,” he heard Sora saying.

  And all the strength fled from his body.

  If I wake up…I hope I can see Roxas.

  I just want to see him again.

  No—I know I will.

  Roxas… Hey, wake up. Are you really in there?

  Didn’t we promise…we’d meet again in the next life?

  We were best friends. Weren’t we?

  And then Axel faded from existence, vanishing into nothing.

  A promise…

  We’ll meet again…in the next life.

  We did say that.

  I remember.

  I remember our promise.

  In the world that awaited them, through the dark rift that Axel had spent his last ounce of power to open, an enormous heart-shaped moon hung in the sky. King Mickey stood under its silvery light.

  “Your Majesty…!” The trio dashed up to him.

  He turned to face them with his arms open wide as if to greet them with a hug. “I was afraid you fellas wouldn’t make it!”

  Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at one another and all hung their heads.

  The man whose life had faded in front of them was an organization member, an enemy—and yet his passing filled them with sorrow.

  Deep in Sora’s chest, an insistent
agitation was clamoring, and he bit down on his lip.

  “Did somethin’ happen?” asked the king.

  “Axel helped us…,” said Goofy, still staring despondently at the ground.

  “Oh, I’ve met him. Where’d he go?” Intrigued, King Mickey leaned toward them.

  “He helped us, and now…he’s gone.” Sora couldn’t meet the king’s eyes.

  “You mean…” The king lowered his gaze, too. “Oh no…”

  “He was a Nobody in the organization…but he still…,” Sora mumbled.

  “And he helped me out one time before…” Goofy’s voice was heavy with sadness.

  “Gee… Maybe Axel was tryin’ to help us the whole time.” King Mickey turned away and raised his eyes to the heart-shaped moon shining over the skyscrapers with their own neon glow.

  Sora followed suit. “We’ve gotta help Kairi.”

  “Then let’s go!” The king ran in the moon’s direction. But as the others moved to do the same, Nobodies blocked their way.

  “Sora!” Donald and Goofy called out from behind him.

  Sora turned to see that Nobodies were already upon them. “Donald! Goofy!”

  But as he tried to reach them, the world blurred around him…

  “Huh?” Sora whirled around. A man in a black cloak appeared there, striding toward him between the looming skyscrapers.

  Light gathered at the man’s hand, and what took shape there was…

  “A Keyblade?!”

  Then the mysterious figure was dashing straight at Sora, Keyblade at the ready, and struck.

  Sora blocked it with his own. “Who are you?!”

  He hadn’t imagined anyone in the organization would have a Keyblade.

  “A denizen of the darkness,” was the cloaked man’s answer, and he lashed out with his Keyblade again.

  This time, Sora knocked him back. “You can’t be…Riku?!”

  “Riku… That was his name. The one I defeated.” The man leaped up, and their Keyblades clashed.

  Defeated? Is Riku okay?!

  But Sora had no chance to ask. The clang of metal against metal rang out over and over, until finally they both stepped back for a breath.

  “Tell me… Tell me why you’re the chosen one!” the other man said through gritted teeth and darted in past Sora’s guard.

  Whoever this person was, he was stronger than anyone Sora had fought before. Yes—maybe even stronger than Riku.

  He knocked Sora’s weapon from his hand. Sora dashed to where it had fallen on the ground—but his opponent beat him to it, planting himself in the way.

  The man already had his own Keyblade, and now he picked up Sora’s, studying it.

  Sora let out a hiss of frustration. He couldn’t win. This man’s power was overwhelming.

  But he couldn’t lose now.

  He had to help Kairi…and find Riku.

  Just as Sora raised his head, glaring at the man with determination, the Keyblade glowed and disappeared from his hand, returning to Sora’s.

  “What?!” the man started.

  Sora jumped to his feet and this time dealt a strike that disarmed his opponent. When the Keyblade hit the ground, it turned to a flash of light and faded.

  The man turned away. “So that’s why. Sora.” Then his hood fell back, and Sora could see his boyishly styled hair glinting gold. “You make a good somebody…”

  It was Roxas. He glanced back at Sora once before he vanished.

  In Twilight Town, the evening sun sank toward the horizon. Roxas was perched on the ledge, high up on the clock tower, watching the sunset and thinking of nothing in particular. He liked to sit up here where he could see the whole town.

  “Finally awake, huh?”

  Roxas looked up. “Axel…”

  His only good friend—his best friend—Axel had arrived with two sea-salt ice cream pops.

  “Or maybe you’re about to fall asleep. We won’t have long to talk like this—just our minds.” Axel took a seat beside Roxas and handed him an ice cream.

  “I’m going back… Back to how I used to be, aren’t I?”

  Instead of answering, Axel bit into his ice cream and gazed into the sunset. “I’ve been thinking—and Naminé was saying this, too… You do have a heart, don’t you, Roxas? And me and Naminé—do we really have no hearts?”

  Roxas lowered his eyes and also started in on his ice cream. “That’s… I don’t know, either. But Sora will find out.”

  With that, he took another bite. Sweet, salty, cold.

  The same ice cream he’d always enjoyed sitting on the clock tower like this, with Hayner and Pence and Olette.

  And…with Axel. Here eating ice cream.

  Had he come here with Hayner and the others to have ice cream because he’d done the same here with Axel? Or was it the other way around? He couldn’t quite tell.

  “But…a heart isn’t something you can see,” Roxas said aloud. “I’m starting to think it must be something you feel. So, then… Well, never mind.”

  “Hmm? What?” Axel prompted. “You’re just getting to the important stuff.”

  Beside him, Roxas kept staring at the sunset. “Sora will find the answers. Because he’s me.”

  A smile came to his face then.

  “Yeah. You’re right.” Axel smiled, too. “Hey, still got it memorized? When we first met, the day you got your name—we watched the sunset from here just like this.”

  Roxas gave a tiny nod.

  He hadn’t thought he would get to have ice cream here with Axel one more time at the end. He hadn’t expected they would get to watch the sunset together.

  The sea-salt ice cream tasted just like he remembered. The setting sun over Twilight Town was always so serene.

  No matter how much misery or pain he was in, the light here was warm and gentle, Roxas thought.

  “I’d better go.” He stood up. “Sora is waiting.”

  “Oh. Right… You really can taste the sea salt in this, huh?” Axel turned away, his shoulders shaking.

  If he had no heart, then what were these feelings welling up in his chest supposed to be?

  Sorrow and…happiness?

  Axel didn’t have a handle on it. But maybe not understanding these things was part of having a heart.

  “See you, Axel,” Roxas told him.

  He looked over his shoulder.

  It was a promise.

  Like we promised to meet again in the next life. We’ll make another promise.

  “See you, partner,” said Axel.

  Roxas gave him one last smile and vanished into the air.

  Moments later, Axel did the same.

  “Sora!”

  “Huh?” Suddenly, there were people calling him. He straightened his body.

  “Are you okay?”

  Sora turned to find Donald and Goofy watching him with concern. “What just…happened to me?”

  “Gawrsh, I dunno,” said Goofy. “You just disappeared, and me and Donald had to fight those Nobodies…”

  “Oh…” Sora looked up at the neon-lit buildings. “He said…he defeated Riku.”

  “Who said that?” Donald stepped closer, peering into Sora’s face.

  “That guy. In the black cloak.” Sora’s distracted gaze didn’t waver from the skyscrapers.

  Then Goofy leaned in, too. “Ya think anybody could defeat Riku?”

  “Yeah…I guess not.” Sora shook his head.

  Riku wouldn’t lose to anyone. But still… That guy was really strong.

  What if— What if…?

  “A black cloak means Organization XIII. I bet he was tryin’ to trick ya,” said Goofy, trying to cheer him up.

  “That must be why we didn’t see him,” Donald added.

  That startled Sora. “Wha—?”

  No one else had seen the man…? But then…

  “Maybe you’re just tired, Sora,” said Goofy.

  He didn’t reply and only regarded the skyscrapers one last time.

  “C’m
on, we gotta find a way into that castle!” Donald reminded them.

  “Yeah! And help Kairi!” said Goofy.

  Sora nodded and finally began to move, but Donald ran ahead. “Huh? Hey, Donald!”

  Sora and Goofy scrambled to catch up and found that Donald had led them to the king. “Your Majesty!”

  King Mickey was standing at the edge of a cliff, where the road between the skyscrapers simply ended.

  Beyond it, right beneath the heart-shaped moon, floated an enormous castle.

  “A dead end…?” Sora observed the far-off castle.

  King Mickey squinted resolutely in the same direction. “There’s gotta be a path somewhere.”

  Somewhere deep in the castle looming over Sora and his friends…was Kairi, with Pluto sitting protectively by her side.

  What can I possibly do…?

  She started at the sound of footsteps approaching. Through the bars of the cage, she saw Saïx.

  “What are you going to do with us?” she demanded.

  Saïx narrowed his eyes. “You are the fire that feeds Sora’s anger.”

  That was all he said. And then he vanished again.

  “I have to do something…,” Kairi murmured. “Sora’s in danger because of me…”

  Then Pluto jumped up, barking at the back of the cage.

  “Huh?” Before she realized it, she was on her feet, too, and she saw a hole in the air like the one Pluto had come through—a portal to the darkness.

  “This way!” It was another girl’s voice. She floated into view inside the portal—a girl with flaxen hair, wearing a white dress.

  “Who…?”

  “Just believe in yourself. Come on—hurry!”

  Naminé stretched out her pale hand from the portal, and Kairi clasped it. Light surrounded the two of them and shot upward through the castle into the sky.

  “Are you…?” Kairi began uncertainly.

  Naminé smiled. “I’m okay.”

  The light seemed to shine through the whole world.

  “Sora!” shouted Donald.

  One corner of the great floating castle was engulfed in brilliant light. The Keyblade, too, flickered as if in reply.

  “Is that…?” Sora lifted the Keyblade, and the ensuing beam from its tip took shape as a path through the air—one that would take them to the castle.

  “Kairi… We’re almost there,” he murmured, watching where the light would lead them.