Work Text:
“A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts.” Sora murmured to himself, frowning thoughtfully as he stared across the grand room to the dark Keyblade Riku had dropped. “I wonder . . .” If the only way to finish the keyhole was to wake Kairi up . . . and the only way to wake Kairi was to free her heart . . . and if Kairi's heart was inside him, inside his own heart . . .
It had hurt when Riku had tried to do it earlier. It had felt like someone was trying to rip him apart from the inside out. But for Kairi, for this world, a little pain seemed a small price to pay.
He shut his eyes for a moment, letting out a breath as the weight of his decision settled over his shoulders like a blanket.
This was the right thing to do.
“Sora?” Goofy asked in confusion and concern as the boy passed him, walking away from the glowing portal formed by the unfinished Keyhole. Sora crossed the reddish-purple floor and stopped beside the black weapon. He bent over and picked it up off the floor. He held the weapon up, the sharp tip pointed at the ceiling as he stared at the shaft, blue eyes running up the gleaming black metal. It was so very different from his own Keyblade despite the similarities.
“Sora, hold on!” Goofy exclaimed in horrified realization, begging for him to stop, clearly having put together what the boy intended to do.
“No! Wait!” Donald cried out in matching fear and desperation.
Sora turned and look back at them and then flashed them a wide grin. The canine knight and duck wizard had proved to be good friends, just as precious to him as Riku and Kairi.
He was grateful for everything they had done for him. He was glad he wasn't going to have to do this alone.
Sora flipped the Keyblade around and shoved the sharp tip deep into his chest. The Keyblade sprang out of his suddenly numb hands, rebounding like a rock hitting rubber. Pain burst out from the point where it had entered him, shooting in all directions through his torso like a shockwave. It shot up his neck and down his arms and shook him down to his toes. It was sharp and electric as it cleaved deep inside him and tore something free from within his chest. The pain paralyzed him preventing him from being able to do anything but stand there as golden-white light burst from his chest, splitting his helpless body open and carving him out. It was mesmerizingly beautiful and terrible at the same time. Looking at it filled him with an uneasy terror like the first time he'd gotten a cut bad enough to bleed. Seeing his own blood and knowing it was supposed to be inside him and having no way to put it back had terrified him. This was worse. This was his soul. Seeing it hurt far worse then any bloody cut ever could. But, no matter how much he wished to, he could not turn his head aside or look away. His body wasn't obeying him anymore.
A concentrated point of light, like a star with a coruscating halo, darted out of him. It was distinct from the rest of the glow leaving his body and it drew his eye. Looking at it made him feel happy and a little shy. Kairi. This was Kairi's heart. She was free. He had saved her.
Her heart flew away, leaving his line of sight. 'It's heading back to her body.' he realized distantly. 'Back where it belongs.'
'I think mine is leaving'
A strange sort of cool numbness swept over him. Like the tides sweeping over a sandcastle it overwhelmed the pain filling him. It was cold and complete, not unpleasant but not very nice either. Though Sora wasn't really capable of forming even the most basic opinion anymore. The numbness had taken over everything. All his senses, his emotions, his very ability to think, even his very sense of self, was nothing more then a featureless lump of sand on a beach that had once been the culmination of many hours of work, reduced to nothing before the unstoppable force of the sea.
He could feel himself falling, falling backwards. It was slow, very slow, almost like floating. But he was most definitely falling.
Falling.
Falling.
F
a
d
i
n
g.
GONE
The lights disappeared, along with the walls and ceiling of the room in Hollow Bastion. It all faded into nothingness. Deep and total darkness. He kept falling, head first with his feet above him. His eyes were open and staring as he fell endlessly into the murky nothingness. It never stopped, continuing to pull him down. The darkness closed in around him on all sides. It wrapped around him, bubbling and seething. The darkness sank its teeth into him, consuming him, eating him up until nothing was left, the last vestiges of self washed away.
“Sora!”
The voice tore through the darkness like a clap of thunder, shaking the nothingness to its core. Blue eyes snapped open, blown wide with shock.
“Kairi?!”
The darkness was suddenly replaced with brilliant blinding light. It exploded outward and torn through him, ripping him apart and flinging him wildly about. His hands brushed something solid and he latched onto it instinctively, wrapping his arms tightly around it. He clung to it like a lifeline, an anchor in the sudden squall that threatened to tear his last scraps of self to shreds.
Then everything settles.
His feet settled once more on firm and solid ground.
Sora stood in Hollow Bastion once more, light fading around and his arms wrapped around Kairi in a tight embrace. She was warm and solid and ok. He was back, himself again.
“You save me.” he whispered, tears of gratitude stinging his eyes as he hugged her tighter and nuzzled into shoulder, squeezing his eyes shut.
Kair hugged him back, arms wrapping tight around him, and for the first time in a long time everything felt right.