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Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd I finally finished it. [prods it] No internet distractions = good for productivity. Or at least finishing what I start.
IN WHICH MORE FORESHADOWING HAPPENS. I think at this point what's left IS the Sequel of Doom and I'm. Er. Intimidated. 8D
Where No Shadows Hide
Kingdom Hearts 2 -- end of game spoilers/speculation; gen in a cornerverse with OT3 and Roxas/Axel established
(Alex cornerverse)
2609 words
Boredom is sometimes better than the alternative.
+++++
The gist of the problem: Alex is bored.
It's nothing against Destiny Island itself, not really, though it's so peaceful and balmy and beach-paradise that he sometimes thinks about setting a few fires, just for something to happen. People don't lock their doors at night, even after everything -- why should they? They've got Keyblade Masters setting up shop just down the street. Everyone knows everyone by name, and kids are allowed to roam pretty much freely, with only the loosest of restrictions. It's sleepy and slow-moving and a little out of step with the rest of the world, like a fat cat lazing in the sun and unconcerned by anything.
And that frankly drives him crazy.
He sits crouched on the roof of Kairi's beach house and watches long hot days turn into gentle balmy nights and--
As much as he hates to admit it, he misses the World That Never Was, the Castles and their madmen. It's not out of any sort of sentimentality, but those had been his people, the ones he'd made his business of knowing inside and out.
And at least they could give as good as they got in the game of counter and backstab and snipe, whereas the people here -- they look at him with their pleasant blank faces and they don't get it. They don't understand that just because he's smiling as he says it doesn't mean it's nice. But he's not so bored that he's gonna harass little kids, even the ones that gather anxiously at the door and hope for one of his appearances. He's got some pride.
Roxas, now, Roxas has settled in surprisingly well to this life; Roxas has taken to sharing Sora's heart and time like he'd actually been born to it. Alex has seen in his face, when he sits back and watches Kairi and Riku pick the beachside for shells: Number XIII is content. The Key of Destiny is satisfied.
Roxas is happy.
How much of that is Sora and how much of that is actually Roxas is hard to say, but that doesn't change the fact that Roxas likes to bury his bare toes in the sand and stand with the ocean breeze rippling past him and smile at the sky, like he's the only thing in the world and it doesn't matter, because there's a heartbeat in his breast and he is instead of is not.
But Alex looks down at his hands and lets fire twine around his fingers in brief snapping sparks and he's bored. He can feel himself growing stagnant and setting one of those ubiquitous palm trees on fire would be just what he needs.
And like someone out there's reading his mind, from the corner of one eye, he sees a patch of shadow twitch up into solid shape -- but it's just a regular low-level one, with beady yellow eyes and oversized bobbing head. They appear from time to time, like darkness is trying to send feelers out into a bastion of light, but never anything too high-level, like they shrivel before they can get this far.
Alex gets to his feet and spins a single chakram into existence. The Shadow looks at him.
"This is hardly worth my effort," he says, and he lifts his hand and hears:
Axel -- like a drawn-out sigh, like a man's dying breath -- aaaaaxssssseeeelllll.
A chill shivers down his neck, like cold fingers walking across his skin. He freezes. The Shadow continues to look at him, neither curious nor concerned by the action.
Axssssel, he hears again. Why? Why'd you run away?
It's lonely, Axel.
It's cold, Axel.
It's dark, Axel.
It's
Alex snaps into motion, and sheers off the Shadow's head in a single fast motion. It doesn't even flinch and as even as its body dissolves it looks at him -- it's the last thing to fade. Alex remains still as possible, and in his chest his heart is beating so fast he almost feels like it's ready to burst out of him. The thought is finally enough to break his paralysis, and he places his free hand over his chest, like he could cage his heart inside.
His ribs hurt.
Somewhere across the water a seagull lets out an echoing squall. When he turns his head, everything looks as it always has: a warm wide stretch of golden beach and deep blue water beyond it, a scattering of palm trees and the green patches of Kairi's garden. A moment later Sora appears over the dunes, whistling to himself, twirling a Keyblade with easy confidence -- Decisive Pumpkin, shedding snowflakes and grinning bits of jack-o-lantern light confetti with each pass. He stops when he sees Alex, and belatedly Alex realizes he still has one chakram out and held in place, in the same posture that had destroyed the Heartless.
"Uh," says Sora. "... New style of kata?"
Alex blinks again at his own arm, then drops it, letting the chakram disappear. He shakes out his arms, then crosses them over his chest; his heart is still going painfully fast. "Something like that," he says.
It doesn't work -- Sora continues to frown at him, stabbing Decisive Pumpkin into the ground and leaning on it. "You've been acting funny for weeks," he says. "Ever since that day on the beach."
"You're worrying too much," Alex says dismissively. "I'm fine. What's there to worry about? Life's good."
Sora doesn't back down, setting his jaw. He's still too young and fresh-faced for the scowl to work properly, but there's no hiding his irritation. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're not acting weird," he says. "You've been jumping at shadows and leaving the lights on everywhere. We're not stupid."
"Maybe it's better if you are," Alex says blandly.
For a moment Sora takes a half-step back, surprised, but then his face hardens -- ah, that's Roxas' favorite look, eyes narrow and sharp and the brows drawn together just so, and Alex knows that he's pretty much fucked. He's got a poker face that Luxord has complimented, but Roxas is good at worming things out of him once he finally decides to -- as often through violence than anything else.
Not that he'll just bend and give up the answers right away; there's no point in that, and even blunted, Roxas' fangs are sharper than anyone else on this damn island. Alex cocks a hip and sneers. "After all," he adds, utterly casual, "it's not anything that you need to worry about. Guy comes out of the darkness, he's bound to be a bit paranoid for a while."
Sora doesn't back down. Alex sees his fingers tighten on Decisive Pumpkin's hilt, and he knows that once the Keyblade changes -- once it's either Oathkeeper or Oblivion -- that'll be the time to bend and flow. But till then--
And then Sora says, "There were Heartless on the beach."
For a moment Alex goes still; it takes him a moment to remember to even breathe. "Yeah, so?"
Sora scratches his index finger against his cheek, trying too hard for casual. "It was weird," he says. "I could swear I heard them talking to me."
"Whoa." Alex puts up both hands and mimes surprise. "It's not my problem if you're hearing things, Sora."
"No," says Sora. "I don't think I am." And then there's the cue -- Decisive Pumpkin glows for a moment and then reforms into the wickedly elegant curve of Oblivion. Sora shifts his weight up -- he's no longer leaning on the Keyblade, but holding it ready. Alex isn't certain how willing Sora is to actually fight him. The kid's learned to bluff, and he's Roxas on some level; he won't pull his punches. "Alex."
Alex sighs and scratches the back of his head, swinging himself into a casual pace back and forth in front of Sora. "Man," he says, "talk about an audience that's difficult to please. "What makes you think they were after me? You've got a Princess to worry about."
"Kairi can take care of herself," says Sora. "Besides, they kept saying your name." His eyes are for a moment completely earnest, the kid looking through the hero for confirmation. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing," Alex says, as he's said before -- but even as he does he knows it won't be enough this time; Sora is frowning at him and behind that, Roxas is looking and the other thing about Destiny Island is that its slow, lazy way of existence sinks into your bones, until you're overwhelmed and you're blunted, and what should have been easy to ignore becomes like a punch to the gut. He wants to pull back and say something more, something that will punctuate this moment and give him the room to slip away, and instead hears himself say, "I'm sorry."
That surprises both of them -- all three of them, Sora, Roxas, Alex. Sora's hand relaxes on Oblivion's hilt and his brow furrows; the kid sort of looks like a puppy that's just been -- not kicked, but pushed back, denied something that it wanted. Alex looks away first.
"Alex?" Sora's voice is quiet. "Can we at least get a hint?"
He glances sidelong at the kid, Xemnas' coveted Keyblade Master, Roxas' other and the hero of the multiverse. Sora doesn't look terribly impressive, young and earnest and a little sad. His desire to help is almost a tangible thing, shimmering like a heat mirage in the air around him.
And Alex thinks: you've lost your heart without ever learning what it feels like to be alive and not have it, because the old man kept you asleep so you'd never know what it felt like. You don't know how profound the silence is, in the absence of a sound that you've always subconsciously tied to your very existence, or how it eventually drives you into a very calculated sort of madness, willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.
And to get it back, and everything else that you've thought your heart will desire ...
The truth is an ugly unkind thing, not like the shining light that you've lived with your entire life. Truth is a completely subjective thing, but even with Roxas inside of him Sora will not understand. The light plays its favorites, and will never allow its chosen one to have the need to claw and fight and rip his way back to just a semblance of normality.
But those less fortunate have to take what they can get.
Alex shakes his head. He spreads his hands. "I'd love to," he says, "but I don't think I can."
For a moment Sora recoils, like he's actually been hit, and then his expression hardens. For a moment Alex wonders if Roxas will appear, but it seems that Sora is holding onto control through sheer determination, scowling fiercely. His fingers tighten again on Oblivion, and then there's a brief metallic jingle and Oathkeeper is in his other hand. He crosses them and then rests on their combined support, and this is the Keyblade Master, this is the Sora that he rarely feels the need to display. Alex wonders who the kid is actually displaying for.
"Okay," he says. "Will it cause trouble?"
"Nothing you couldn't handle," he says. "Sora, so distrusting! I'm hurt!"
Sora doesn't play along. "Alex."
"I would if I could," Alex says, spreading his arms again. "But you know, I can't."
"I could help you," Sora says, and then corrects himself, "We could help you."
And he means it, Alex knows he means it -- that if Sora commits then of course there'll be Riku and Kairi and the mouse-king and his followers; there will be an entire universe that would move at this kid's command.
... Which, Alex thinks wryly, is exactly the problem. Sora has never actually dealt with the other half of his own legend, the part that the elderly remember still -- that a Keyblade Master brings about chaos and destruction just as easy as he brings peace in times of trouble.
"No," he says. "It's just one of those things, you know? Love to ask, you're sweet for offering, but it's a no-go."
"If there are Heartless involved, doesn't that make it my business?" Sora cocked his head. "It's my job to take care of them."
Alex looks at him, and then begins to laugh. It starts as a chuckle and swells up into a true sort of belly laugh, which he doesn't think has happened since he originally lost his heart. He almost doubles over from the force of it and he knows Sora is staring at him like he's a maniac and really, it's not that funny but he
(he can feel the shadows watching them from all around)
can't stop, not for a long time, and when he does he straightens with one arm holding his stomach and wiping his eyes with the other. Sora is scowling at him, but now he just looks like a kid with play weapons, unaware of what's looming just beyond the clean blue horizon of Destiny Island. Alex rubs his hands together.
"Sorry," he says again. "My hands are tied."
"Why should I trust you, then?" Sora asks, and ah, maybe he has learned a little, more than Alex has given credit for -- going for the throat, like any good little attack dog would. "We agreed to let you stay, because Roxas wants you around, but if you're acting like this --"
"-- we can't afford it," Roxas finishes quietly. Oathkeeper and Oblivion fade; the Bond of Flames rests loosely in Roxas' hand. "It's just not safe."
Alex stares and for a moment he almost laughs again -- but this time, it is funny. "Well well well," he says. "The kid's got teeth."
"Alex." Roxas looks more solemn than deadpan for once, and his eyes are darkened blue.
He almost laughs it off -- but there's nowhere safer than Destiny Island from what he's avoiding, and even if the place is so boring that he can feel himself aging and growing soft, he can't leave it yet. Among other things, which he still can't voice even to himself -- flickering little embers that breathe smoke in the shape of Roxas' face and crackle in his voice, and the thought that leaving now would make everything else ... rather not worth the trouble it'll become.
"Alex," Roxas says again, a bit more insistent, and there is unhappiness in his face, which presses his mouth to a grim line. "If you're not going to say anything--"
Alex holds up a hand to stop him, then puts the other over his heartbeat. "I'll swear," he says. "I'll swear by the heart I got back that I won't betray you. Either of you," he adds pointedly to Sora, whom he knows is listening. "Will that work?"
Some of the tension leaves Roxas at that. His shoulders straighten a little, and he's no longer gripping Bond of Flames so that it turns his knuckles white. He even smiles a little.
"Good," he says.
+++
Later, after Roxas has gone to sleep and before Sora wakes up, Alex lies on his back and holds up a hand to the ceiling, summoning enough fire to light the room in a dull orange glow, watching the shadows it casts, flickering and fleeting against the walls. In this place, which the Keyblade Masters and the seventh Princess of Heart have claimed as their own, there's very little room for anything dark or hollow.
Alex just hopes that when the time comes, he'll have absorbed enough of Destiny Island's sun soaked heat that he doesn't count.
--end--
IN WHICH MORE FORESHADOWING HAPPENS. I think at this point what's left IS the Sequel of Doom and I'm. Er. Intimidated. 8D
Where No Shadows Hide
Kingdom Hearts 2 -- end of game spoilers/speculation; gen in a cornerverse with OT3 and Roxas/Axel established
(Alex cornerverse)
2609 words
Boredom is sometimes better than the alternative.
+++++
The gist of the problem: Alex is bored.
It's nothing against Destiny Island itself, not really, though it's so peaceful and balmy and beach-paradise that he sometimes thinks about setting a few fires, just for something to happen. People don't lock their doors at night, even after everything -- why should they? They've got Keyblade Masters setting up shop just down the street. Everyone knows everyone by name, and kids are allowed to roam pretty much freely, with only the loosest of restrictions. It's sleepy and slow-moving and a little out of step with the rest of the world, like a fat cat lazing in the sun and unconcerned by anything.
And that frankly drives him crazy.
He sits crouched on the roof of Kairi's beach house and watches long hot days turn into gentle balmy nights and--
As much as he hates to admit it, he misses the World That Never Was, the Castles and their madmen. It's not out of any sort of sentimentality, but those had been his people, the ones he'd made his business of knowing inside and out.
And at least they could give as good as they got in the game of counter and backstab and snipe, whereas the people here -- they look at him with their pleasant blank faces and they don't get it. They don't understand that just because he's smiling as he says it doesn't mean it's nice. But he's not so bored that he's gonna harass little kids, even the ones that gather anxiously at the door and hope for one of his appearances. He's got some pride.
Roxas, now, Roxas has settled in surprisingly well to this life; Roxas has taken to sharing Sora's heart and time like he'd actually been born to it. Alex has seen in his face, when he sits back and watches Kairi and Riku pick the beachside for shells: Number XIII is content. The Key of Destiny is satisfied.
Roxas is happy.
How much of that is Sora and how much of that is actually Roxas is hard to say, but that doesn't change the fact that Roxas likes to bury his bare toes in the sand and stand with the ocean breeze rippling past him and smile at the sky, like he's the only thing in the world and it doesn't matter, because there's a heartbeat in his breast and he is instead of is not.
But Alex looks down at his hands and lets fire twine around his fingers in brief snapping sparks and he's bored. He can feel himself growing stagnant and setting one of those ubiquitous palm trees on fire would be just what he needs.
And like someone out there's reading his mind, from the corner of one eye, he sees a patch of shadow twitch up into solid shape -- but it's just a regular low-level one, with beady yellow eyes and oversized bobbing head. They appear from time to time, like darkness is trying to send feelers out into a bastion of light, but never anything too high-level, like they shrivel before they can get this far.
Alex gets to his feet and spins a single chakram into existence. The Shadow looks at him.
"This is hardly worth my effort," he says, and he lifts his hand and hears:
Axel -- like a drawn-out sigh, like a man's dying breath -- aaaaaxssssseeeelllll.
A chill shivers down his neck, like cold fingers walking across his skin. He freezes. The Shadow continues to look at him, neither curious nor concerned by the action.
Axssssel, he hears again. Why? Why'd you run away?
It's lonely, Axel.
It's cold, Axel.
It's dark, Axel.
It's
Alex snaps into motion, and sheers off the Shadow's head in a single fast motion. It doesn't even flinch and as even as its body dissolves it looks at him -- it's the last thing to fade. Alex remains still as possible, and in his chest his heart is beating so fast he almost feels like it's ready to burst out of him. The thought is finally enough to break his paralysis, and he places his free hand over his chest, like he could cage his heart inside.
His ribs hurt.
Somewhere across the water a seagull lets out an echoing squall. When he turns his head, everything looks as it always has: a warm wide stretch of golden beach and deep blue water beyond it, a scattering of palm trees and the green patches of Kairi's garden. A moment later Sora appears over the dunes, whistling to himself, twirling a Keyblade with easy confidence -- Decisive Pumpkin, shedding snowflakes and grinning bits of jack-o-lantern light confetti with each pass. He stops when he sees Alex, and belatedly Alex realizes he still has one chakram out and held in place, in the same posture that had destroyed the Heartless.
"Uh," says Sora. "... New style of kata?"
Alex blinks again at his own arm, then drops it, letting the chakram disappear. He shakes out his arms, then crosses them over his chest; his heart is still going painfully fast. "Something like that," he says.
It doesn't work -- Sora continues to frown at him, stabbing Decisive Pumpkin into the ground and leaning on it. "You've been acting funny for weeks," he says. "Ever since that day on the beach."
"You're worrying too much," Alex says dismissively. "I'm fine. What's there to worry about? Life's good."
Sora doesn't back down, setting his jaw. He's still too young and fresh-faced for the scowl to work properly, but there's no hiding his irritation. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean you're not acting weird," he says. "You've been jumping at shadows and leaving the lights on everywhere. We're not stupid."
"Maybe it's better if you are," Alex says blandly.
For a moment Sora takes a half-step back, surprised, but then his face hardens -- ah, that's Roxas' favorite look, eyes narrow and sharp and the brows drawn together just so, and Alex knows that he's pretty much fucked. He's got a poker face that Luxord has complimented, but Roxas is good at worming things out of him once he finally decides to -- as often through violence than anything else.
Not that he'll just bend and give up the answers right away; there's no point in that, and even blunted, Roxas' fangs are sharper than anyone else on this damn island. Alex cocks a hip and sneers. "After all," he adds, utterly casual, "it's not anything that you need to worry about. Guy comes out of the darkness, he's bound to be a bit paranoid for a while."
Sora doesn't back down. Alex sees his fingers tighten on Decisive Pumpkin's hilt, and he knows that once the Keyblade changes -- once it's either Oathkeeper or Oblivion -- that'll be the time to bend and flow. But till then--
And then Sora says, "There were Heartless on the beach."
For a moment Alex goes still; it takes him a moment to remember to even breathe. "Yeah, so?"
Sora scratches his index finger against his cheek, trying too hard for casual. "It was weird," he says. "I could swear I heard them talking to me."
"Whoa." Alex puts up both hands and mimes surprise. "It's not my problem if you're hearing things, Sora."
"No," says Sora. "I don't think I am." And then there's the cue -- Decisive Pumpkin glows for a moment and then reforms into the wickedly elegant curve of Oblivion. Sora shifts his weight up -- he's no longer leaning on the Keyblade, but holding it ready. Alex isn't certain how willing Sora is to actually fight him. The kid's learned to bluff, and he's Roxas on some level; he won't pull his punches. "Alex."
Alex sighs and scratches the back of his head, swinging himself into a casual pace back and forth in front of Sora. "Man," he says, "talk about an audience that's difficult to please. "What makes you think they were after me? You've got a Princess to worry about."
"Kairi can take care of herself," says Sora. "Besides, they kept saying your name." His eyes are for a moment completely earnest, the kid looking through the hero for confirmation. "What's going on here?"
"Nothing," Alex says, as he's said before -- but even as he does he knows it won't be enough this time; Sora is frowning at him and behind that, Roxas is looking and the other thing about Destiny Island is that its slow, lazy way of existence sinks into your bones, until you're overwhelmed and you're blunted, and what should have been easy to ignore becomes like a punch to the gut. He wants to pull back and say something more, something that will punctuate this moment and give him the room to slip away, and instead hears himself say, "I'm sorry."
That surprises both of them -- all three of them, Sora, Roxas, Alex. Sora's hand relaxes on Oblivion's hilt and his brow furrows; the kid sort of looks like a puppy that's just been -- not kicked, but pushed back, denied something that it wanted. Alex looks away first.
"Alex?" Sora's voice is quiet. "Can we at least get a hint?"
He glances sidelong at the kid, Xemnas' coveted Keyblade Master, Roxas' other and the hero of the multiverse. Sora doesn't look terribly impressive, young and earnest and a little sad. His desire to help is almost a tangible thing, shimmering like a heat mirage in the air around him.
And Alex thinks: you've lost your heart without ever learning what it feels like to be alive and not have it, because the old man kept you asleep so you'd never know what it felt like. You don't know how profound the silence is, in the absence of a sound that you've always subconsciously tied to your very existence, or how it eventually drives you into a very calculated sort of madness, willing to do whatever it takes to get it back.
And to get it back, and everything else that you've thought your heart will desire ...
The truth is an ugly unkind thing, not like the shining light that you've lived with your entire life. Truth is a completely subjective thing, but even with Roxas inside of him Sora will not understand. The light plays its favorites, and will never allow its chosen one to have the need to claw and fight and rip his way back to just a semblance of normality.
But those less fortunate have to take what they can get.
Alex shakes his head. He spreads his hands. "I'd love to," he says, "but I don't think I can."
For a moment Sora recoils, like he's actually been hit, and then his expression hardens. For a moment Alex wonders if Roxas will appear, but it seems that Sora is holding onto control through sheer determination, scowling fiercely. His fingers tighten again on Oblivion, and then there's a brief metallic jingle and Oathkeeper is in his other hand. He crosses them and then rests on their combined support, and this is the Keyblade Master, this is the Sora that he rarely feels the need to display. Alex wonders who the kid is actually displaying for.
"Okay," he says. "Will it cause trouble?"
"Nothing you couldn't handle," he says. "Sora, so distrusting! I'm hurt!"
Sora doesn't play along. "Alex."
"I would if I could," Alex says, spreading his arms again. "But you know, I can't."
"I could help you," Sora says, and then corrects himself, "We could help you."
And he means it, Alex knows he means it -- that if Sora commits then of course there'll be Riku and Kairi and the mouse-king and his followers; there will be an entire universe that would move at this kid's command.
... Which, Alex thinks wryly, is exactly the problem. Sora has never actually dealt with the other half of his own legend, the part that the elderly remember still -- that a Keyblade Master brings about chaos and destruction just as easy as he brings peace in times of trouble.
"No," he says. "It's just one of those things, you know? Love to ask, you're sweet for offering, but it's a no-go."
"If there are Heartless involved, doesn't that make it my business?" Sora cocked his head. "It's my job to take care of them."
Alex looks at him, and then begins to laugh. It starts as a chuckle and swells up into a true sort of belly laugh, which he doesn't think has happened since he originally lost his heart. He almost doubles over from the force of it and he knows Sora is staring at him like he's a maniac and really, it's not that funny but he
(he can feel the shadows watching them from all around)
can't stop, not for a long time, and when he does he straightens with one arm holding his stomach and wiping his eyes with the other. Sora is scowling at him, but now he just looks like a kid with play weapons, unaware of what's looming just beyond the clean blue horizon of Destiny Island. Alex rubs his hands together.
"Sorry," he says again. "My hands are tied."
"Why should I trust you, then?" Sora asks, and ah, maybe he has learned a little, more than Alex has given credit for -- going for the throat, like any good little attack dog would. "We agreed to let you stay, because Roxas wants you around, but if you're acting like this --"
"-- we can't afford it," Roxas finishes quietly. Oathkeeper and Oblivion fade; the Bond of Flames rests loosely in Roxas' hand. "It's just not safe."
Alex stares and for a moment he almost laughs again -- but this time, it is funny. "Well well well," he says. "The kid's got teeth."
"Alex." Roxas looks more solemn than deadpan for once, and his eyes are darkened blue.
He almost laughs it off -- but there's nowhere safer than Destiny Island from what he's avoiding, and even if the place is so boring that he can feel himself aging and growing soft, he can't leave it yet. Among other things, which he still can't voice even to himself -- flickering little embers that breathe smoke in the shape of Roxas' face and crackle in his voice, and the thought that leaving now would make everything else ... rather not worth the trouble it'll become.
"Alex," Roxas says again, a bit more insistent, and there is unhappiness in his face, which presses his mouth to a grim line. "If you're not going to say anything--"
Alex holds up a hand to stop him, then puts the other over his heartbeat. "I'll swear," he says. "I'll swear by the heart I got back that I won't betray you. Either of you," he adds pointedly to Sora, whom he knows is listening. "Will that work?"
Some of the tension leaves Roxas at that. His shoulders straighten a little, and he's no longer gripping Bond of Flames so that it turns his knuckles white. He even smiles a little.
"Good," he says.
+++
Later, after Roxas has gone to sleep and before Sora wakes up, Alex lies on his back and holds up a hand to the ceiling, summoning enough fire to light the room in a dull orange glow, watching the shadows it casts, flickering and fleeting against the walls. In this place, which the Keyblade Masters and the seventh Princess of Heart have claimed as their own, there's very little room for anything dark or hollow.
Alex just hopes that when the time comes, he'll have absorbed enough of Destiny Island's sun soaked heat that he doesn't count.
--end--
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