Chapter 8

Chapter 4 Twilight Town IN THE DISTANCE, THE TWO BELLS ON THE FAMOUS station clocktower were ringing to let the townsfolk know the exact time. This was Twilight Town, the place where Sora had once awoken from a long sleep, where Roxas’s long sleep had begun—and where a trio in black coats had eaten some sea-salt ice cream. Sora and his friends walked down the hill from the station to the plaza. “Gawrsh, we forgot to fill Master Yen Sid in on what happened. Should we go back?” Goofy folded his arms. “Typical Sora,” complained Donald, while Sora crossed his own arms in thought. “Hmm…” His two friends were referring to the run-in with Maleficent and Xigbar in Olympus. “No, the others have already got enough on their plates as it is. Why go stressing them out? The three of us know how to handle a couple of old adversaries, right?” “Yeah, I guess…,” Donald agreed as they walked down the avenue, bathed in the light of the setting sun. Goofy wasn’t convinced. “But doesn’t that thing Pete said bother ya?” “The black box?” asked Donald. Maleficent and Pete had been searching for something. “Come on, we’re talking about Pete. That means it’s probably no big deal.” “I don’t know…” Goofy didn’t seem ready to let the matter go, but then a tram whizzed by just as they reached the bottom of the hill. “Oh, cool! The trams are still here.” Sora took off running after it, much to Donald’s displeasure. “Sora, it hasn’t been that long.” “Feels like it,” Sora said uncertainly. To him, it really did feel like long ago. Long, long ago—and yet not long ago at all. Then Goofy said, “Maybe you’re feelin’ what Roxas feels because he misses home.” Oh yeah. This feeling might belong to the Roxas in my heart. “Actually, I ran into Roxas in the Sleeping Worlds,” Sora replied. “But it really has to be you.” He remembered what Roxas had said to him. “It was like…seeing into his heart for the first time.” Sora had felt so many emotions from the Roxas in his heart—so much regret. Donald and Goofy had some memories of him, themselves. “And he was in the datascape, too.” “Uh-huh. It was a test to see if your data version was ready to face the hurt that you carry inside.” “Was I ready? I do know hurt,” Sora asked as he slowly opened his hands and stared at his palms. “When I lost Riku and Kairi, and later when I lost the Keyblade, and you guys had to go on without me like that… Having no one to turn to was the worst kind of hurt. But that just shows how much you mean to me. Carrying around a little hurt can’t be all that bad. Hurting is part of caring.” Sora gazed at his two friends, while Donald and Goofy shared a look. “He sounds like Data-Sora.” “Of course. Any Sora’s still Sora.” The two of them smiled. “So wait… If Roxas feels something, then we’re in the right place. Roxas, I’m gonna find you!” Sora exclaimed, renewing his promise. But then… Do you seek our liege? Sora heard a strange voice, and he gasped and spun around. “Nobodies!” He got his Keyblade ready to fight the white creatures weaving toward him, and the battle that followed was quick. Was that voice…really a voice at all? It was more like someone talking to me in my mind. “Sora! This is no time for daydreaming!” Donald quacked angrily as he fired off spells. “Sorry!” “Be careful, Sora.” Goofy knocked Nobodies away with his shield. Sora nodded, then ran over to the last one and struck it with his Keyblade. It’s still bothering me, though… “Hmm… What was that voice? I know I heard it.” The fight may have been over, but Sora was still puzzled. Donald and Goofy glanced at each other. “I didn’t hear it.” “You sure it wasn’t the wind? Or somethin’ else?” Sora lapsed into thought. “I’m pretty sure…” Suddenly, they heard more voices, and these were definitely real. “Where’d they come from?!” “Get the ice cream later!” “What? Hold up!” Sora raised his head— He knew these guys! “See? Voices!” he said while his two friends just looked at him with concern. He quickly realized these voices weren’t the same, though, and turned around. “…New ones?” Hayner, Pence, and Olette were running toward them with a pack of Heartless hot on their heels. “Heeey! Sora! Hello, good-bye,” Hayner shouted as he and the other two ran past the trio. Sora planted himself in the path of the Heartless and yelled back, “Go! We got this.” Donald and Goofy prepared for battle, too. Nobodies, and now Heartless? The horde of Shadows congealed into a black current that hurled itself at the three of them. Sora blocked the attack with his Keyblade, but the force almost knocked him over. The Heartless used this opportunity to turn sharply in another direction, but Donald had a spell waiting for them. When the swarm was stunned, Sora and Goofy charged in and scattered it. After a few rounds of this, the Heartless were dealt with for good. “Nice fightin’! Thanks, Sora,” said Hayner. His two friends were with him, too. “Hayner, Pence, Olette,” Sora called. “It’s been ages!” “What? It hasn’t been that long.” Hayner shrugged. Donald looked up at Sora. “Ya see?” Really? It really feels like it’s been forever, though, thought Sora. “Donald! Goofy! How are ya?” Olette said with a smile. “We’re good,” Donald replied “Howdy there, Olette.” Pence jumped in the mix with excitement. “So does this mean weird stuff’s going down again?” “You kidding, Pence? When have we ever seen a tornado of shadowy blobs before? It’s not weird. This is underprecedented!” Hayner claimed, also worked up. “Hmm, I guess it is. The creatures from the last time were bright white. These things must be new. Man, I can’t wait to get to sleuthin’.” Pence’s interest was definitely piqued. The “shadowy blobs” were probably the Heartless, while the “bright white” things would be the Nobodies. “We’re already done with the school project, silly,” Olette chided, then turned to look at Sora and his friends. “Whatever’s going on, you wouldn’t be here without a good reason. Which is?” “Well, actually, we’re looking for Roxas,” Sora replied. “Roxas?” Olette repeated. Hayner paused to think for a moment. “That’s funny… I don’t know any Roxas, but the name sounds familiar.” “Maybe we bumped into him somewhere,” Pence offered. “Uh…that’s one way to put it.” As Donald considered how to fill them in, Goofy began rummaging in his pocket and pulled out a photo. “Actually, he mighta been friends with another version of ya.” He held it out to them, showing Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Roxas in front of a haunted mansion. “This photograph…,” Olette whispered. “Yeah,” Pence added. “We’ve got the same one.” The photo he pulled out was identical—except for the fact that Roxas wasn’t in it. That was enough for Hayner to put two and two together. “Oh yeah! The other Twilight Town!” Hayner and his friends had helped Sora and Mickey get to another version of Twilight Town using the computer in the old mansion—a datascape where Roxas could be put to sleep. Pence had hit upon the same idea. “It’s like one of those ‘spot the difference’ puzzles…except really easy. I guess in that town, we’re friends with this ‘Roxas’ person.” “Sora, let us help you track Roxas down,” Hayner offered while Pence and Olette nodded in agreement. “He seems like a pretty cool guy,” he added with a grin, looking at the photo. “Yeah. He is,” Sora agreed happily. “Great. Then let’s all go ask around town. If alternate-us knew Roxas, then maybe alternate-other folks did, too,” Pence suggested to Hayner and Olette. “Mm-hmm. Sora, you three should go to that place in the photo. It’s the old mansion. The three of us’ll cover places in town,” Olette said. “Thanks,” Sora replied with a smile. “Oh yeah!” Remembering something else, he dug around in his pocket. “I got this phone thingy that takes pictures. Want to snap a photo while we’re all here?” Sora pulled out the Gummiphone. Goofy took the picture, which was ultimately a somewhat silly one of Sora, Hayner, Pence, and Olette with a very grumpy Donald in the middle. Sora still thought that it would make a nice way to remember their visit, though. “Okay, we’d better start asking around,” said Hayner. “You start by checking out the old mansion. We’ll catch up.” “Got it,” Sora answered. With that, the trio set off for the mansion.