Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there were two children in a cave and a crossroad of fate in the shape of a door.
One path ventured, one path lost. One boy leaves the cave with a smile to greet the new friend outside while one is left behind in the dim light, just one step ahead of entering the light, only to be called back by the whispers lingering behind him.
Once upon a time there was a door.
Once upon a time a boy in silver crossed the road to the dark side and gained a future he never would have asked for. Thai time, his friend is the one who stays behind, the lingering doubt of a child who yearns to catch up to someone too dearly beloved chaining him down in the shadows, who turns around when he hears a faint whisper of please can you hear me and just one more smile and It can’t end like this .
Sora has never really craved power, but he has always wanted, yearned for something out of his reach, twisted into shapes of no and he is stronger than you and one day, he will forget you .
Once upon a time there was a door and a crossroad of fate and this time around, it was opened by someone entirely different.
And yet, some things stay the same regardless.
Destiny Islands falls, the children are separated, one boy joins forces with a knight and a mage and goes on a journey to find his friends.
Another boy wakes up in the depths of a world drowned in shadows, loss and remnants of a past cut from history. He stands up and ignores the whispers of another voice in the back of his mind, until necessity strikes and he finds himself entangled in a story meant for another.
There is another boy hiding in the mirrors of the castle and another heartbeat next to his own and Sora is too afraid to ask his name.
The keyblade fits Riku, Sora muses, in a way he himself never would have pulled off. The weapon is clunky, big and strange, the shape of a key simple, yet effective.
“See? He has replaced you with stronger friends, my child.”
He hasn’t.
“He has no need for you anymore.”
He asked me to tag along. He asked me to come with him. If only…
Sora flinches away from Maleficent’s touch and moves back into the shadows, his hands tingling from the memory of frail, gentle bodies in his arms, small hands in his and their screams of terror, betrayal, echoing in his head.
Ink drips off his fingertips and gathers at his feet, takes the shape of a little blue creature that runs around his feet and chirpy up at sora until he reaches down and picks it up. It dissolves instantly and Sora is left with the bitter taste of ash and failure in his mouth and something foreign, furious and not quite his own.
If only he had not believed this woman.
The keyblade makes Riku look like a knight and Sora has no right to stand by his side anymore.
Sora remembers a door, a small door in their secret place and Riku calling him from outside the cave. Sora remembers touching it, he remembers whispers behind it, in the shadow and faint laughter that would have been eerie, if not for the fact that, to Sora, it sounded terribly lonely.
“This world has been connected.”
Sora remembers opening this door, he remembers the open maw of darkness and the wind and Kairi fading in his arms, he remembers the terror as hands grab his shoulders and the black tendrils sink into his skin and the few seconds he remembers through a fog.
He remembers Riku calling for him and drowning in the dark.
Sora remembers waking in a world he doesn’t know, his elation at finding his place and the sheer loneliness when he turned around and found neither Riku nor Kairi by his side.
Maleficent was the one that found him, she had given him a room and offered him help in exchange for sora bringing him the princesses of heart. She only wanted to talk to them. She promised Sora that no one would get hurt. She promised.
Sora believed.
Sora helped.
Taking Alice had been easy, he had only needed to open her cage and take her out, bring her to the nearest shade and walk through, his smile gentle and kind and her eyes alight with gratitude at being saved. He had handed her over to Maleficent with a promise that they would help her as well, with the gentlest of nudges at her back. She had stumbled and giggled and the tall, tall doors had closed on him and he had not seen Alice ever since.
He had only needed to offer her a hand.
Sora had not questioned it, Maleficent had been kind to him, she would not harm the girl, so he had turned away and rushed off to the next world.
Jasmine had been harder, taking her from under Jafar's nose, without being seen. Maleficent’s task had been clear: Take Jasmine, let the keyblade’s chosen one handle the keyhole, get the princess out and do not be seen. After all, Jafar is still their ally, even if Maleficent does not approve of his tactics and she only wanted the princess safe.
She only wanted to help.
By then, the darkness had already gotten used to Sora, to his bright smiles and his kindness, the way he reached out and dared to pet the shadows. The many times one of the villains found the boy napping on one of the bigger heartless, nestled in the shield of a Defender, clutching onto a caprice, were numerous in the months after his world’s fall. Sora had treated all of them with the same bright energy, darkness twisting at his feet, stroking up his legs, birds on his shoulders, a yellow eyed dog at his heels, the little Flood perching on his shoulder, getting stronger with every passing day. It had been a vicious one from the start, the little creature that kept jumping in and out of Sora’s shadow, biting at all finger’s but the boy’s and hissing at anyone foolish enough to come too close to them.
Maleficent kept smiling. No matter what, Maleficent kept smiling and she kept being warm and giving and giving and giving and Sora never questioned her.
Until now.
Snow White’s fear still lingers in the back of his mind, her hands pulling at a handkerchief, glancing into every shadow, every corner, as she follows Sora further into the castle. It’s the acrid taste of pain and terror, one that bleeds into Sora himself and he asks is this enough?
Aurora’s raging, horrified “YOU!” when she sees Maleficent and her betrayal when she turns around and realises that Sora has brought her to the witch. Her tiny, breathless “How could you…” a nightmare on Sora's best days and a haunting image whenever he closes his eyes on his worst.
Maleficent whispers in his ear, her tone has shifted into something more sinister and Sora understands. He understands why the others have been cautious of what hides in the shadows, but there are shackles at his wrists now, black and thin and still little more than a casual weight, nothing but a warning. Sora should have gone with Riku.
But never as he is now.
When he comes back to his room, Sora breathes, Sora sobs, Sora falls. To the floor, to his knees, he is left with nothing but the ache in his heart and the hands stuffed into the dark, clutching his shoulders, tearing at him until he screams and smashes it into dust. The Flood scratches at his chest and at his hands until he is holding onto it, squeezing it close and regretting that there is no warmth left to be felt.
Maleficent gives him the task to find Cinderella later and Sora follows her orders with a mechanic quality that belies his obedience.
She takes one long, sad, understanding look at him and nods and walks with him until the doors close behind her as well and Sora is left with no words and no more tears left to shed.
He finds Riku and Pinocchio. And honestly, he only wants to talk to Riku, without his new companions, as kind as they seem. He watches Riku fight, graceful and brilliant and bright, his laughter, his taunts, the way he teases and prods at the duck. It screams back insults and Riku laughs and they are friends like Sora and Riku have not been in too long and Sora… Sora has seen him dance before and now it’s the same, only so much more breathtaking and deadly and precise, the keyblade in his hands has shifted and changed shape to something thinner and something much more fitting to the boy, so much more fitting to the man Riku is about to become.
He knows that it’s wrong, what he does. He knows it. But…
Riku has not looked at him in weeks before the raft, he has not talked to him in days and Sora is desperate to hear his voice, to talk to him, to touch his hand, his arm, his face and he wants again…
He wants so much, there are no words but this churning darkness in the pit of his stomach and the yearning and everything.
He just wants Riku to look at him . To see him .
Sora closes his eyes and the next time he opens them, he is holding Pinocchio in his arms and Riku is screaming at him, furious and demanding, his arrogance flooded by the worry in his eyes. Of course Sora lets go of the child. Of course he tries to get down and get to Riku, because he can see the beginnings of tears in his eyes and of course all he wants is to soothe and help, but. A lightning spell pushes him back and Riku is screaming at the duck and the dog keeps staring at Sora with something akin to worried caution, as if he knows exactly what Sora has done.
“I’m sorry.”, he whispers and meets the dog’s eyes, “I’m sorry.”
He falls back.
Turns to the nearest shade and drops back into Hollow Bastion, gasping for breath when the panic rises and crashes over his head. Darkness gathers around him and he hides in his room, ignores the whispers and the fingers carding through his hair until he falls asleep.
He wakes with a blanket and a shadow too solid at his back and Maleficent calling for him.
The little Flood is gone.
He does not remember kidnapping Belle.
He does remember a soft voice, deeper than his own, whispering “Leave it to me.” into his soul and the feeling of falling asleep.
Later, he finds dirt and maybe blood under his fingernails and darkness staining his pants, his legs, his arms in ways that seem feral even to him.
As if he went and ripped apart the heartless with his bare hands.
It’s an unsettling thought but the scariest part is, Sora is not surprised.
“I’m turning into a monster…” He breathes and he hides his face inside the hollow space of his hands and tries not to smell the sulphur and ozone of darkness that clings to him like a second skin these days.
He misses the sun of Destiny Islands.
He misses late night campfires with his best friends, falling asleep on Riku’s shoulder, the smell of the ocean around them and sand stuck everywhere. He wants to drop his feet in Kairi’s lap and ignore their fond, exasperated eye rolls above his head as he tugs at Riku’s hair and wonders what it would feel like to braid it.
He misses home.
So much.
So, so much.
“Sora.”
Riku sounds… broken, the way he says his name and Sora blinks away the tears in his eyes and squares his shoulders.
The waters rise into an arena of doom around them and Riku’s keyblade has shifted back into its first form, as if all the progress his best friend has gone through is null and void in the face of meeting Sora again.
“She promised me that she would help.” He whispers instead, “She promised me that the princesses would be safe, you know? But by the time I realised what I had done… I’m so sorry.” Somewhere inside the castle, the pods are filled with the motionless forms of the princesses, their faces serene in their sleep, the darkness still gathering around them and slowly taking shape in the form of a keyhole.
“Sora, don’t apologise, just come here, please.” Riku is reaching out and Sora remembers him only mere months ago, with the same desperate expression, the same desperate energy rippling off him and this very same hand reaching out.
Sora’s heart can’t do this.
It can’t.
He takes one step towards him, another.
Stops.
And runs, like the coward he has become, he runs .
But there is no rest for the wicked, no mercy for those forsaken and no salvation for the lost.
Maleficent throws Kairi’s lifeless body between them, the keyhole crackling behind her, a horrible sound that matches the sheer, utter anguish in Sora’s heart and both boys scramble forward, both of them pick and prod at their friend, Riku keeps calling, calling, calling her name and Sora.
Sora is home. Darkness settles around his shoulders like a cape and in his chest, a second heartbeat reacts.
Another voice, not the usual one, echoes through him, it’s not beckoning and deep and terrifying, but. Kind.
“Kairi’s heart is with me.” He realises and catches Riku's wide eyed stare and he knows what he has to do. There is a keyblade already forming in his hand, sleek and dark and nothing he would have liked to wield. “She’s been with me all this time. Riku, I…”
“Sora, what are you doing?!”
“I have to make this right, at least.”
“Sora, it’s okay. We can find another way. Don’t…”
It’s not. It’s not okay. He wanted to help but instead he made everything worse. The duck keeps staring at Sora with suspicion, the dog with caution and Riku is holding his hand over Kairi’s chest and when did that happen.
Sora knows what to do. He can’t let Riku stop him.
“Sorry.” He presses his forehead against Riku’s, blinks and shoves him back, “Close the door, okay? Tell the princesses I’m sorry. Tell everyone I have hurt, I am sorry, okay?”
Plunging the keyblade into his chest is the easiest thing in the world. It’s as easy as loving Riku has been. Like something he has been preparing to do all his life. He trusts Riku to fix this. He trusts his darkness to help him.
There is laughter ringing in his ears, wild and unhinged and it echoes, echoes, echoes as Sora falls into its arms. And as his heart is encased he thinks this is not mine. It’s not the right one .
He flickers.
He fades.
He wakes up.
There is a mouse staring down at him. Sora flinches away from his touch, uncomfortable from the light the creature is encased in and still too disoriented to function. There are the sounds of battle, bells and lightning, somewhere further away, someone screaming and someone laughing and in his head, someone whispers “Don’t do that again, dumbass. You are mine and no one else’s.”
It sounds like his darkness and not the other one, so Sora breathes something that could have been a laugh a long time ago and turns to the mouse, with the remnant of a smile. It feels fragile in his face, off kilter and weak, but he tries it again and again and again, until the other carefully grabs his hand and offers “You don’t have to smile if you don’t want to. It’s okay.”
His name is Mickey. And he needs help.
They find the keyblade.
“Riku!” He grabs the door from the other side and pulls. His fingers brush Riku's and longing flutters through his body but Sora holds onto his last shred of control and smiles at his best friend, “Let’s close this door, okay?” He can’t run and he can’t hide and he can’t keep following his heart when it’s as shattered as it is right now.
But this is something he can do. Thai is something he can help with and sometimes the right thing to do is not what your heart tells you to.
Sora’s heart screams for Riku and Sora…
“What about you?! Get out here! I can’t leave you in there, Sora.” Frantic, he sounds so frantic and it’s heartbreaking, but Sora shakes his head and the smile he plasters on his face is fake and difficult to maintain and he knows that his best friend knows that he is lying.
“We can only do this from both sides, Riku and it’s not like I’m alone.”
Mickey jumps on the small hill and brandishes his keyblade, Sora pushes at Riku’s fingers, “It’s okay! I’ll find another way back, I promise! I’ll come home.”
I’ll come back if you will let me.
There is a hand on his cheek, just for a moment, like an accident, and Riku’s eyes are too big, too wide, too lost, but the door closes before Sora can say anything more or Riku has the chance to answer.
“I’ll find you.” He whispers against the white wood and clenches his fist, “I’ll find you.”
Sora’s heart screams for Riku but the right thing to do is waiting in the shadows and that’s exactly what Sora will do.
Just one step away from the light, he will linger and wait.