Nov 26, 2010 14:48
With breakfast finished and a new acquaintance made, the Scarecrow's mind turned to his other friends. The disappearance of Depth Charge's friend had brought back memories of how he'd felt when Kaiji went missing: helpless, useless, as though he should have and could have done something more to find him. If only he had his brain, then maybe he
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leela,
kirk,
s.t.,
gambit,
tsubaki,
anise,
minato,
the doctor,
goku (dragonball),
niikura,
taura,
claire bennet,
peter parker,
snow,
lunge,
lana skye,
ruby,
mello,
soren,
brainiac 5,
xemnas,
minako,
stefan,
tsukasa,
watson,
mele,
damon,
two-face,
erika,
tifa,
the scarecrow,
matt,
maya,
ishida,
yukari,
zack,
kratos,
rubedo,
haseo,
jo,
bella,
scott pilgrim,
kaito,
aigis,
elle,
izaya,
austria,
claire littleton,
sora,
prussia,
chuck,
leon (so2),
buzz,
dean winchester,
guy,
kairi,
venom,
depth charge,
kibitoshin,
ilia,
lightning,
rita,
castiel,
katniss,
riku,
yomi,
aerith,
sai,
yue,
claire stanfield,
edward cullen,
ema skye,
mccoy,
scar (tlk)
It seemed like most of the people in the club had done a decent job last night -- some had gotten farther than others, but most people had at least gathered supplies. It didn't sound like Kairi and Riku's group had gotten so far, but that was because of the whole mess with the shadows.
He didn't even want to imagine what Riku had had to hear last night, but he hoped that his friend was okay. Sora was glad that so many people were willing to sign up again for tonight, but he was worried that they would eventually lose interest. But if he kept them well-supplied and continued to give them tasks to do, then it would probably be okay, right?
Having found an open couch, Sora got comfortable on it and kept an eye out for one of his friends. He'd like to talk to at least one of them about everything that had happened. While Woody had been a good distraction, now that the boy was on his own again all he could do was worry.
[For Kairi.]
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That was why she instantly chose to go to the Sun Room. Kairi knew that Sora would be patrolling the bulletin board, so it only made sense. He was running a club now, after all! He had to be alert, in case anyone else wanted to help them with whatever they were doing that night.
Needless to say, seconds after entering the room, Kairi instantly spotted a familiar head of spiky hair, and she smiled. His back was to her at that moment, so she took the opportunity to sneak up behind him. Standing behind him for a second, she finally bent over the couch and placed her hands over his eyes. "Guess who!" she chirped happily, pulling away before he could answer. Moving around the house, the princess looked to her friend with a smile. "Good morning, Sora. Want some company?"
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Kairi's voice was instantly recognizable, but that was probably why she didn't even given him the chance to guess, instead circling around to come stand before him. She looked like she was doing pretty well even if she'd run into some trouble with Riku last night. Kairi hadn't mentioned having her own shadow, but Sora could guess that having to hear what Riku's said had been bad enough.
Either way, she was putting on a strong face, and so Sora decided to match that. "Morning! And hey, how could I ever say no to you?" He motioned for her to sit down with him. "You look unhurt! I'm glad. Are things okay now that the night's over?" He couldn't help showing some of his concern, but Kairi had probably anticipated that.
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After a few moments, she finally leaned back against the couch, her confusion over last night finally appearing on her face. "What happened last night?" she asked in a hushed voice, her smile turning into a small frown, "I've never seen anything like that before. It was ... well, it wasn't pleasant, to say the least. And I didn't even have a shadow."
Which, she supposed, was good. However, if her friends did ...
"What did your shadow say to you?" Kairi asked Sora gently, not wanting to distract the attention of the nurses. Two long time patients sitting together? Surely they would get suspicious if it looked like they were talking about something serious. But then again, she never knew; the nurses were tricky like that.
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Even though Kairi wanted to know what had gone on the night before, Sora wasn't sure that he had any better of an idea about it than she did. He pulled his legs up onto the couch, hugging onto them as he stared forward at the floor. "I'm not really sure. Mine... it looked just like a Heartless, but it wasn't exactly the same. They aren't supposed to talk."
It was all sort of off, and that was why he couldn't put his finger on it. Maybe Landel was just trying to mock them. It wouldn't be the first time, right? Still, most patients wouldn't take as much meaning out of a shadow version of themselves as he and Riku had, would they?
He was a little shocked when his friend asked him directly what his own shadow had said. That wasn't really the sort of thing he wanted to discuss with anyone, let alone someone whose opinion meant so much to him. Still, he knew that Kairi would be on his side either way, and so he decided to be straight with her instead of avoiding the question. "It... it talked about how I had darkness in my heart, and how I'd taken out all of the Organization members. Ever since I had to talk to them here, I've been thinking more and more about all that." He sighed and dragged a hand through his spiky hair. "But it's not like I can fix it now." And what other way could he have stopped them, if he were allowed to go back and do it all again?
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Sora mentioning his own shadow had the Princess on edge, her body growing rigid at the mention of Heartless. She didn't want to think about them, especially after what happened to her that night -
But it wasn't about her problems, now. Kairi pushed her own insecurities back down, once again listening to Sora as he spoke about what his shadow had done. At once, anger raged through her, and she found herself glaring at one of the nurses that walked by, but she soon turned back to Sora with a sad smile. "I'm sorry it happened it happened to you," she whispered to him, reaching out to gently put a hand on his shoulder. "It's not fair. What you did, Sora, was help. If you hadn't stopped the Organization ... they would have killed plenty of other innocent people. And who knows, they might have killed me, too. What you did was try to help."
She knew her words probably wouldn't help. Just like her words hadn't been able to help Riku when his shadow had spoken to him. All she could do was stand and watch as her friends were hurt all around her, and there was nothing she could do or say about it.
Then do something about it, a voice in the back of her head whispered, fight for them.
Kairi's hand remained on Sora's shoulder, and she looked up at him, scooting closer on the couch. "No matter what that shadow said to you, it doesn't change who you are, Sora. To me, to everyone else who has met you. You're still the same Sora I met all those years ago, and no matter what, you're still the same. Those shadows we saw last night ... I'm sure they were sent to break us down, to try and weaken us so we can be picked off just like everyone else who has left us. You can't let Landel win, you know?
"And besides," Kairi added with a smile, "No matter what, you'll always be one of my heroes. I promise."
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For a moment, when he saw that angry look on her face, Sora worried for a second. Was she mad at him? Did she think he'd done the wrong thing, too? But then her hand landed on his shoulder and he relaxed. Even though he knew that everything that she said was true, it still bothered him that he had to spill blood (even if they were just Nobodies, they still bled...) to do the right thing. Maybe that was just a truth of life, but shouldn't there have been another way?
Having Kairi's own life brought into the equation made him feel a little better about what he'd done, and he knew that Riku would agree with everything that the girl was saying. But still, the guilt was hard to live with, especially when it was shoved in his face like that. Usually Sora did his best to not think about it, but...
As Kairi drew closer, Sora glanced up and looked into her eyes, blinking at her as she continued to speak from her heart. It was no shock that Kairi had no darkness in her heart (or at least, she hadn't up until Landel had gotten his hands on her), with the way that she acted, and that was enough to make him smile. Sora knew that he'd helped far more people than he'd ever hurt, but it was always good to be reminded of it.
And Kairi was right. This was all a ploy by Landel, a way to unbalance them so they wouldn't be able to fight as hard. So he wasn't going to let it get to him! With the girl's last sentence, that smile of his became even warmer.
Placing a hand over Kairi's, which was still on his shoulder, he nodded, letting spikes of hair fall down to cover his eyes. "Thanks, Kairi. I think I needed to hear that."
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Well, now that Sora was in a happier mood, so was she. Sighing, Kairi leaned back against the couch, pulling her hand away from her friend's shoulder after one final squeeze before stretching her arms over her head and her feet out in front of her. Letting out a content squeal from the stretch, she turned back to look at Sora. "So, what are the plans for tonight? I mean, you have to have some already lined up, right, Mr. Leader?"
Mostly this was in jest, but still.
"I'm exploring with you tonight, remember?" she reminded him with a grin. "I won't go easy on you!"
She had enjoyed wandering around with Riku; after all, she saw less of him than she did Sora, and she wanted to catch up with him. However, when the shadow appeared and things took a turn for the worst ...
She didn't want to think about that now. She had to plan for what they were going to do tonight.
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Watching her stretch out like that only made Sora want to do the same, and so he followed suit, ending up in more of a sprawl on the couch. It was actually pretty comfortable, even if being stuck in the institute for so long was suffocating. He'd almost gotten used to it, though his homesickness increased as each day went by. Sora had just accepted that he might not see those shores for a while.
But then Kairi put him on the spot about what they would be up to tonight. Seeing how he was going to have the girl with him, he had to be more careful about his plans. "Well, I want to keep following the radio. He wasn't much help last night, but that was probably because the shadows screwed everything up. Until the radio goes off, though, we can explore wherever we want!"
One group last night had gone upstairs while the other had gone out of the institute toward the forest. Sora didn't know where the best place to head tonight would be, but he wanted to see if Kairi had any opinion about it.
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"Radio, okay!" Kairi said with a smile, nodding her head. "Honestly, I've never really listened to the radio," she told him with a sheepish look, "Even though it's helpful. I don't know why I haven't before. I suppose I should start listening, huh?"
All she knew of the radio currently was that instead of a man, there was ... a woman. Hadn't something happened to Mr. Radio? Her memory was hazy.
But that wasn't the point.
A calm look passed over her face then, and Kairi shut her eyes, lost in a memory. "I remember before I went to sleep, Axel and I listened to the radio, and it led us to a gun in the refrigerator. To think, we were right over the entrance to the basement and we never even knew."
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"Yeah, well, you can start now," he said with a small smile. "Riku's pretty set on us making sure we get all the information that we can, and that's one of the only ways to get it." Even then, it wasn't much, but it was still better than nothing, right? "The guy who's doing it now seems pretty good. My... old roommate met him face-to-face, and he thought he was worth trusting."
If anything, Sora was even more willing to listen to those broadcasts now that Hanatarou was gone. It was a way to carry on his memory, or something along those lines. While he knew the boy likely wasn't dead or anything, he might as well have been for the moment...
He let out a sigh and shook his head, catching up on what Kairi was saying at a slight delay. "The basement, right... did you want to head that way, upstairs, or outside tonight?" Sora that that all of those areas had their merits, so he was willing to let Kairi make the final decision if she wanted to.
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