Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 11

A/N:  Sorry this chapter is a little late...for all 2 of you that are reading this, haha.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SLIGHT TRIGGER WARNING FOR THIS CHAPTER. SEE CENSORED VERSION BELOW DOUBLE LINES.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taking one last glance back at where Sora slept, I followed Riku and Naminé out of the room and back through the basement, my mind and emotions swirling. I was going to find out what was going on here at last, but after what I had just seen, part of me was now rather scared to know. We traipsed in silence up the stairs to the library, then down the hall to Naminé's room, each of us taking seats at the long, white table.

Then Riku began to tell their story, starting at the very beginning. A beginning that I knew well, with three happy kids who spent their days playing on the beach. But then he told of a restlessness, a lust for more. Of strange creatures appearing, and worlds collapsing into darkness. False promises whispered in the ear of an already troubled boy, and manipulative lies turning one best friend against another. A friend in trouble. Arguments over how to bring her back. Heroic acts by a boy with a Keyblade, fighting to defeat the Heartless and bring the worlds out of darkness. A hunger for even more power, not knowing that requesting it would lead to being possessed by the Heartless of a man named Ansem. A battle between two friends, a door to the Realm of Darkness, an ending, or so it seemed.

Then he began to tell me about the Nobodies, a group of people with no hearts and therefore no emotions or morals. The story continued at a strange castle, full of conjured memories and an Organization of Nobodies who wanted both friends dead. Naminé entered the tale for the first time, forced by those in charge to tamper with the memories of the hero until he couldn't remember the most important person in his life. In the end, the Organization was forced to turn tail and run, and a stranger wrapped in red took charge instead. Two choices were made. One, by Sora, to sleep until his memories could be put back together. The other, by Riku, to stand watch over his friend and make sure that nothing happened to him while he slept.

"Organization XIII is still out there," Riku concluded. "They may have been weakened by Castle Oblivion, but not much. We don't know for sure what their plans are...or at least, if DiZ knows, he's not saying. But we have to keep Sora safe from them, no matter what." He looked straight at me for the first time since we had sat down. "That's why you can't ever tell anybody about his location. Not anyone. You never know what side someone might be on."

I nodded vigorously. "I won't. I swear." Twiddling my fingers on the table, I tried to sort out my racing thoughts and decide what questions I wanted to ask the most. "So, when you're up here in this room working all the time, you're working on putting Sora's memories back together?" I questioned, looking to Naminé.

"Yes. The process has taken much longer than we originally thought it would." She glanced at Riku as if for permission to continue, and he nodded. "Some of his memories ended up inside of his Nobody, and others are escaping through the Nobody into a third person." She paused before finishing, "It's proving difficult to get them all back."

"Wait, Sora has a Nobody?" I exclaimed. "But...he's alive, and has his heart. How does that work?"

"Sora briefly became a Heartless when he sacrificed himself to give Kairi back her heart," Riku elaborated. "That's apparently when his Nobody was born. Somehow Kairi was able to bring Sora back, though, so his case is unique."

I had a sudden thought and turned back to Naminé. "So, are you Kairi's Nobody, then? That would explain why you look like her, right?" Riku had hinted at her being a Nobody during the story, but no one had mentioned it outright.