Sorrow's Promise

Chapter 49

I gave the group a few minutes to make sure they had made it at least most of the way to their destination, then opened a corridor and found Riku. They were just climbing up the last staircase leading up to the very highest rooftop of the castle. Kairi paused in her ascent when I arrived and dropped back a couple of steps to offer a supportive arm around my waist.

"You okay?" she whispered in my ear.

I nodded, focusing hard on not falling over. "I'll be fine."

When we reached the top of the stairs, I found a spot in the back of everyone else to nonchalantly lean against the wall and pretend it wasn't the only thing holding me up. I could see Xemnas up ahead, his back to us and his arms stretched up towards the sky.

"Oh...my Kingdom Hearts...ruined," he sighed. "Now I'll have to start all over again." He brought his arms down by his sides and clenched his fists, then turned to face us. "Warriors of the Keyblade, go forth, and bring me more hearts!"

My eyebrows flew up in surprise. Did this psycho really think that we were just going to go out and keep fighting Heartless for him?

"No!" Riku, Sora, and the King answered him all at once, summoning their Keyblades to point straight at him. I was a beat late summoning mine, but I wanted to show my support even if I didn't have the strength to actually lift it right now.

"Denizens of light," Xemnas spoke again. "Answer this: Why do you hate the darkness?"

King Mickey lowered his weapon. "Aw, we don't hate it. It's just kinda...scary." I shot him a sideways glance. Did he know how much darkness Riku and I had in us? Were we scary, too? "But the world's made of light and darkness," the King continued. "You can't have one without the other, 'cause darkness is half of everything. Sorta makes you wonder why we are scared of the dark."

"It's because of who's lurking inside it," Riku replied. I had a feeling he was speaking from his own experiences.

"Then allow me another question," Xemnas responded. "You accept darkness, yet choose to live in the light. So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away by both light and dark...never given a choice?"

"That's simple." Riku dropped his weapon-wielding hand to his side. "It's because you mess up our worlds."

"That may be," Xemnas acquiesced. "However, what other choice might we have had?"

"Just give it a rest!" Sora exclaimed, echoing my exact thoughts. "You're Nobodies! You don't even exist! You're not sad about anything!"

Xemnas laughed. "Very good. You don't miss a thing. I cannot feel sorrow, no matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist." He threw his hands straight up into the air, and something that looked like flecks of light began to shoot up all around us into the sky. There was a bright flash, then suddenly both Xemnas and Sora were gone.

"Sora!" Kairi cried.

"Where did they go?" I exclaimed breathlessly.

"Hey, it's okay guys." Riku turned to face us and gave a half-smile. "This happened with that other guy earlier, remember? The one with the cards? And Sora reappeared in a few minutes and was just fine."

"Yeah, but this is Xemnas!" Donald pointed out.

"Yes, but it's also Sora," King Mickey countered. "I have faith in him."

The next several minutes were agonizing, waiting for something – anything – to happen. "He should have been back by now, shouldn't he?" Kairi asked, twirling a strand of hair nervously.