A Second Chance

Monstropolis

"This one is a blonde girl, with hair shaped like antennas."

Sora holds up a (poorly) hand-drawn picture of exactly what he just described – a blonde girl with bright green eyes and blond hair tied into tall pigtails. He also drew small knives next to her and some lightning bolts, you're guessing her weapons.

"Larxene," you recall.

"Good! Now this one is also blond, but not as mean. Also, British," Sora says as he holds up the next card with a blond man with a goatee holding up a deck of cards.

"Luxord."

"This one –"

"I think she gets it," Donald calls out, interrupting your study session from the cockpit. "She's gotten everyone right for the past hour."

"Besides, I'm pretty sure there's more you're forgetting. Since Dilan, Aeleus, and Ienzo are on our side now, they've gotta bring in new people, right?" Goofy adds.

"Oh! Duh," Sora laughs as he pulls out a blank piece of paper, quickly drawing in crayon a new face. "Here's one."

He holds up the card, a young man's face staring back at you. His eyes are gold and his hair silver, his skin a deep tan. Even though the drawing is pretty bad, you'd recognize him anywhere.

"Young Xehanort," you mutter, glancing up at Sora. "You met him?"

"Yeah, me and Riku did during our mastery exam. And just now, at Toy Box, he showed up. Said something about waiting on some final vessel," Sora tells you with a shrug. "Bit of a weirdo."

"I don't think anyone normal would time travel to help his old self collect hearts and vessels to destroy the worlds," you point out.

Sora laughs, though his expression quickly changes to confusion as what you said sinks in.

"You've met him too," he realizes.

"Yeah. He... showed me what happened to my family, kind of. I didn't really believe him until..." you trail off, not wanting to go into the research you found earlier that day. "Until I did. He also showed me what happened to Lea and Isa, and Terra. I always hoped it was a hoax, but... it's all true unfortunately."

You heave a sigh as you glance down at the drawing clutched in Sora's hands, the image of Lea and Isa dying flashing before your eyes, as you remain locked on the other side of the glass window, unable to do anything but watch.

"What happened to them?" Sora finally asks.

Giving a bitter laugh, you reach out and flip over the drawing, not wanting to look at his face.

"My family? Dead," you answer rather bluntly, causing Sora's eyes to widen. "They ran experiments, Ansem the Wise and the people who made up the Organization. They'd mess with hearts, until you couldn't take it anymore. Lea and Isa were experiments too, but they survived. And Terra... You heard what happened to Terra."

Sora places his hand over yours, gently squeezing your fingers with his as his warm palm envelops yours.

"All of those sacrifices are why we're here, [Name]," Sora reminds you with a soft smile. "It's all a game to the Organization. None of us really matter to them. And as for Young X, he was probably just trying to mess with you."

"Yeah, probably," you concede, though you can't help but feel he was telling you for a different purpose.

Almost to focus you, so that your attention is fully on the upcoming war and not on the past. But that would be an act of kindness, so maybe Sora was right. Maybe he was just trying to torture you.