Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction ❯ Treaded Steps ❯ I. ( Chapter 1 )
The circle of fate starts turning to bring the youths of so many worlds together.
Anime/Manga: Fullmetal Alchemist Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Adventure / Comedy / Drama / Psychological / Angst | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 11.28.2005 | Pages: 3 | Words: 14.5K | Visits: 306 | Status: Work In Progress
So without further adieu!
I do not own Kingdom Hearts, nor do I own Full Metal Alchemist
Only spoilers that can possibly come from anywhere is if you have not played KH, or seen the episodes of FMA on Cartoon Network (asides from my spoiler-filled note up top).
And everything after Monstro in this fanfic will not take place, and so therefore makes this story an AU, as Kingdom Hearts does the same to any world it goes to, the same applies for FMA.
There will be more then likely shounen-ai between Riku and Sora, and as well as Roy and Edward (though that will be very less implied, as I will try to keep them as canon as I can possibly can).
And on we go!
Treaded Steps
I.
"AGH!" The loud panicked yells of the only three occupants of the gummi ship flung foreword from the sudden shot from the large whale known as Monstro. Sora tried to gain his balance as he stumbled around in the newly built gummy ship, but failed extremely as the sneeze that Monstro had used to force them out. More yells continued throughout the ship as Donald was flung to the side that boosted the speed of the ship and as he slid down the wall with a pained grunt, the level to control such a thing came flying down as well. Goofy and Sora soon joined Donald to the side of the ship, their yells continued to wane through the air. It wasn't before too long before the power started to run out, a quiet sound of the engine stopping completely (which made all three fly foreword) showed that the power for the gummi ship had been completely exhausted. Sora was the first to get up and moan, coursing a hand through his dark chocolate hair.
"Darnit!" Came the curse from Donald's mouth as he went to survey the conditions of the gummi ship, and in anger Donald kicked the control panel. Yells came as the ship flew upside down (or it may have been right side up, Sora wasn't sure from that terrible tumble) as they fell down from the floor they were on a few moments ago.
"Owwww..." Sora couldn't help but complain slightly, as his neck got a slight crick in it as he stared at the galaxy upside down. Sora's feet, legs and everything thereafter soon followed him as he fell into a comfortable position. Sora frowned a bit, staring at the stars that were in front of the small window they had for the gummy ship.
"Hyuck, where do you think we are?" Goofy's voice came slightly, of which Sora decided to ignore as the stars looked strange to him.
"I don't know." Donald replied to him, the usual gruff manner that he would, sounding angry from such a question. Sora had finally decided to get up and looked closer at the strange stars.
"Hey look, there's a world nearby!" Sora pointed out the faint outline of a broken sphere far from where the gummi ship actually was. Donald scoffed lightly, looking down at the broken looking world, and Goofy stared with his usual dull look of contemplating. "We can probably stop there for awhile."
"Why would we need to do something like that?" Donald spat out, his gaze narrowed slightly angrily at the thought as Sora pouted at the short duck.
"We'll need to stop for food you know? We can't stay up here waiting for the fuel to recharge!" Sora complained back, pointing out a point that he usually never would, "Besides, the heartless's ships will find us sooner or later."
"Well we can just blow them away!"
"You know we haven't been able to grab more missiles from the other ships like we always do, all the ships were like decoys or something!" Sora argued, his mind mainly on his stomach for the moment. But Donald was as stubborn as Sora, and knew that going to the world, even to wait in it, would somehow do some meddling in the world. It was bad enough that they've meddled with the four worlds beforehand, so who was to say what would happen down there?
"No way." Donald repeated, folding his arms stubbornly with a glare away. Sora groaned with emotion and turned away, repeating Donald’s stature, and said nothing but did have a strangely ugly look on his face. Goofy looked at both of them very slowly, as though he didn't quite get what the argument was over, they both held really good points, so Goofy voiced his opinion.
"But Donald, what if the king is down there?" Donald gave a big phooey, to him it would be like the last time they had this type of argument, a big wild goose chase. Sure, they had found a lot of gummi's for the building of the strong ship they had now, but it was all incredibly frustrating and no King Mickey!
"Well at any rate-" Sora started, but then froze as there was a loud booming noise to the side of the ship, making the three fly. Panicked yells came surrounding the inside build of the ship once again as repeated missiles of the heartless. It took a few moments but Sora stood up to start turning the wheel to fire what few missiles they had, if they were lucky the blow from the missiles unto the heartless ships would blow more missiles for them to grab and defend themselves. IF they were lucky. Sora started to test his luck, gripping at the wheel tightly as his friend's bodies went flying around, as he struggled to turn. The force of the missiles and the strength of the gummi ship did not last long. The ship started spinning round and around, Sora didn't fly with Goofy and Donald as he kept a tight grip on the wheel as the damage to the ship was starting to make some of the gummi pieces fall off. "You guys! Grab unto something!" Sora managed to cough out, concerned for the two, fear starting to build up in his eyes.
The rest happened so slowly and yet in real time was so fast that Sora wasn't sure if it really was happening in the first place. Heat surrounded the ship, as the ship had stopped tumbling around and the gummi blocks that had fallen from the ship created a large hole. Fear built up in Sora as missiles came flunging foreword into the hole, cries of pain surrounded Sora's ears as he was forced against the window. Sora watched, terrified as he saw a most horrible sight, as well as cries of such pain that Sora slowly tried to convince himself this wasn't really happening. Before he knew it though, the glass under the window started to break, the threatening sound of its cracking and foaled very quickly with the loud shuddering noise of it breaking all while being sucked into the gravitating space, Sora followed after it. The last thing he was aware of was three small targeted missiles, flying to him, each hitting a point in his body and he had blacked out at the terrible mass of pain that gathered in his senses. Sora fell to the new world, the gravity being extremely strong, the overbearing feel of heat against his skin and the terrible aches in both his legs and left arm. Sora closed his eyes and kept them closed.
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Well this was getting better...really...
Sure Riku had to convince himself very badly that these words would keep him going, but his inner voice sounded stupid to even himself. Riku sighed inwardly, trying to shove off all of his emotions so the tricky heartless wouldn't dare try to steal his heart. Riku was not weak-hearted or wanted something like revenge against some power of the light, Riku was very different then the people he was currently on board with. Well at least he had basic control over them and their idiocies, really for being twice as old as he is, Captain Hook was a complete and utter moron. Riku sighed this time outwardly, and felt the strange presence of the heartless crawling around in him, wanting to be let out, or perhaps something else. What it was really, Riku didn't know, nor did he really care, he would manipulate the darkness to save Kairi.
Who was lying down straight next to him, there were no looks of emotion nor barely a body move to even show she was alive, but Riku was hopeful...like he had been for Sora. Riku then growled to himself outloud, angry as he felt a sudden clench within his heart, which the heartless (from what he could sense in his mind) seemed to enjoy the strange emotion they hadn't seen. Riku felt betrayed, he had told Sora that he had found Kairi, but still Sora kept with those stupid idiotic half-brained MORONS!!! How could Sora do such a thing to him? After all the years they've known each other...it was terrible, and the heartless relished the frustration that was building within Riku's tense heart. Now that Riku took the time to think about it (since he really had no choice, unless he wanted to listen to the stupid pirate talk of Captain Hook's crew), why was he given these powers in the first place? What good could come out from him having the power of darkness within his hand and grip? Didn't they know he was an all-around good guy? That after he managed to find Kairi's heart, he would just leave?
Didn't they realize that?
Riku pushed his very beautiful silver hair a bit away from his eyes, frustrated about the subject and turned to stare at Kairi, for the strange reason that looking at her comforted him. It made Riku laugh as he thought about the time they all had spent on Destiny Island, oh it was kind of funny how he and Sora would fight over her because she was like the little sister they had always wanted. Riku frowned suddenly as he felt the ship give a jerk to a direction that he knew wasn't planned for the trip. Immediately Riku got up, his slight impassive self-showing face as he walked up on board.
"What's going on?" Riku demanded, holding himself as the ship gave another unpleasant jerk into a weird direction.
"Nothing of course," Captain Hook smoothly said (his hook buried into the wall besides him, Riku noted), "Why don't you go back down to the resting quarters?" Riku suspected him immediately of course, but said nothing as he walked back down, hoping that the pirate could at least commodore his own ship properly. But...just in case...Riku looked down at Kairi's near corpse and lifted her as softly as he could, handling her package tenderly because he didn't want her to maybe wake up in discomfort. Riku opened the couch that she had been lying down on to reveal a small cramped space that would fit the two if they squeezed in well enough. Riku privately begged Kairi for forgiveness and made his way in. Ow, what a comfortable pain. It was very silent as the creeks and other odd miscellaneous sounds of the ship were outside of the comfortable zone of the cramped darkness. If they had been moving in a strange fashion, Riku was positive that he wouldn't be able to feel it because of the cramped space. It wasn't long of course before he started to hear panicked yells of Captain Hook's right-hand man, Smee, wasn't it? Riku didn't know nor did he really care, but tried to listen at the shrieking voice,
"Captain Hook! Captain Hook! The wormhole is pulling us towards it!"
"I know that Smee! Pull us away!" Captain Hook's panicked replied back angrily and Riku couldn't help but imagine the dark-haired pirate bandishing his hook to Smee and the poor short plumb man's glasses would be shaking off of his nose.
"We've been trying as hard as we can captain, but the winds of the wormhole have been pulling us in." Captain Hook scoffed angrily. Well of course the winds of a wormhole were strong enough to pull a ship into it, especially since there's no real wind in space, the only pull is gravity and that of wormholes. What was wrong with a wormhole anyway? Riku had been through one once and it wasn't even that bad, it just teleported him somewhere.
"Well try harder! You know very well that the structure of this vessel won't hold up in a wormhole!" Oh...Well that would indeed explain everything. How incredibly stupid. Well the panicked cries of...well...panic continued outside the small darkness, Riku wondered if he could possibly cast Aero to protect the small bed space. Riku wasn't panicking but he kept in the confined space just in case something bad did happen. This was the best place for any type of protection. Riku though, had to admit that he froze in slight fear as there were tormented yells and a strange feeling that he had felt before when traveling through a wormhole. The sudden feeling of just being separated into tiny atoms and then the feeling of a sudden reassembling, but this time, it felt much worse and far slower to reassemble. Riku hissed at the terrible feeling that coursed through his entire being and froze even more as there was a seldom feeling as though they had stopped, and everything had been stripped away from him...very strange feeling.
Riku didn't dare move though, his eyes concentrating on Kairi through the darkness and then he felt another strange feeling as though they were being pulled somewhere. The even stranger feeling was that he could feel the heartless somehow encouraging this move, trying to protect them...strange, and suspicious. Riku sighed, keeping a very tight guard up but then was shocked as he was actually swung foreword within the cramped space, asking once again for Kairi to forgive him silently for the touchy-feely moment and flung the door of the bed, immediately expecting the worse...but found himself in a wide open like desert. The sun shining down upon his head and they were barely flouting upon the yellow/golden sun known as the sand. Riku stared and saw no civilization for miles, so he could only think of one thing that any normal person would,
"Where the hell am I?"
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It had been a whole week since she had found him, buried underneath some sand just barely outside of the town. The poor boy was really lucky she had found him in time, there really was a strange spectacle that whole day, and even though the light was out like always everyone could see stars in the sky and fireworks exploding in a spectacular way. The girl busied herself, her heart quickening as she offered her daily praises to the Sun God. The priest Cornello recognized this event as a blessing and symbol to the Sun God and implored all of the town people to do more that they could to show their humanity and have the Sun God bless them with more offerings. The girl smiled to herself hopefully, maybe she would hear his voice again...
"..." The pink/brown haired girl turned in surprise as she heard and saw blankets falling down from the boy’s form standing up slightly. The tan girl grew extremely happy,
"You're finally awake! Praise Leto!" The girl clapped happily, a grin that seemed permanent on her face. The boy looked at her, one of his blazing blue eyes covered with a bandage as he had earned a wound on that side of the face. The boy looked at her strangely, but then again, the girl surmised, he probably thought he was gone for good. "I'm really glad." The girl finally came closer to the boy, brushing down her light tan dress and grinned again, "I'm Rose." The boy stared at her silently and his face looked disconcerted. "Is something wrong?" Rose asked, noticing that look and becoming concerned immediately.
"..." Rose saw the strange brunette boy start to open his mouth, but then a look of pain spread to his face and his mouth shut immediately. Rose's eyes widened, thinking that maybe he was a mute.
"Oh I'm sorry!" She immediately apologized, her concern building up even more, "You probably don't even know where you are! You're in the Church of the Sun God Leto, on the outskirts of Loire." No look of recognition came to the boy, instead he stared at Rose with the same tormented look. Rose frowned, unsure of what she could do to help out her visitor, "Are you hungry?" She asked, maybe hoping to see a gesture that maybe he recognized. The brunette stared for a second then seemed to nod very slowly, his stomach growling to help answer him. Rose couldn't help but smile cheerfully, "Okay then! I'll go get you some food!" Rose puffed up her chest proudly and moved out.
Sora watched the strange girl walk outside the room, it took awhile for Sora to get it through his brain that he was somewhere new, but...As much as Sora would like to try to think, he kept drawing blanks in his head. Rather large unfulfilled blanks that made him a little upset, earlier when he had tried to speak...he couldn't remember how. Large blanks that made no sense. Sora stared down at the makeshift bed he had been sleeping in, then turned slightly to get up...he fell. Sora's eyes widened, struggling to get back up now on the bed seeing as he could not move anywhere else but found the strength of only one hand helping him up. Sora stared at his right hand, seeing that it was still there, no problem but then...he slowly tore his gaze to his other arm and bit back a scream. Completely gone, the only remainder of there ever being a limb there was his shoulder and dressed wound. Sora could feel himself shaking, had the same thing happened to his legs? What-what could he do? Sora's shaking got worse, he noted as he swollen his Adam’s apple hard. It wasn't long before Sora saw darkened spot on the floor come out of nowhere, he placed himself down carefully and stared at the spots, curious on what they could be.
Tear drops. Sora noted suddenly and fingered his face with his right hand, he could feel the watery raindrops dripping from his eyes. Sora had started to try to calm himself down, breathing timidly but his frame continued to shake and his face continued to cry.
"I'm back!" The cheerful voice was slightly warming to Sora's heart but then there was a gasp from the girl, "Oh no! Are you okay? You shouldn't try to move in your condition!" Rose seemed to try and stern across Sora's mind. Condition? Condition!? What 'condition' did she mean? Sora looked up though, and Rose felt heart-broken as she saw that strange face racked up in such pain and terror, she started to feel very sympathetic. Rose struggled a smile at him and helped him back on the hardbound bed, which grew soft underneath Sora because of the blankets on top of it. "You probably don't even know that, do you? When I found you, I took you the medical examiner right away and your legs and left arm were completely shot." Rose frowned slightly, trying not to look cheerful about this, she wasn't at all, but struggling with a smile like this just seemed...wrong..."And they had to cut them all off." Rose finished slightly and followed to see Sora's eyes, they were very fierce blue, such a scary blue that made Rose think he was a child of the sky.
Silence overcame the two and Rose tried to find the right thing to say to the strange boy in front of her...maybe..."Since you're awake we can take you to an automail engineer, I'm sure she would give you a pair of legs and an arm. We couldn't get them to you before because if you perform automail on someone sleeping it could damage their nervous system." This didn't seem to calm Sora down any at all and Rose felt very uncomfortable. So, not thinking of anything else she gave Sora the small plate of food and walked out, closing the door. Sora stared for a few seconds...then remembered something else. Crying, now he remembered what those tears were even more and he leaned against the pillow and racked up tears. He hadn't had a good cry in a long time...or had he? He...really couldn't remember...anything...Rose closed her eyes and decided to get more of her daily offerings for the shrine, a frown appearing upon her face as she moved out from the church.
So the day went on, Rose bought her offerings and smiled, telling everyone the refugee she had found a week ago had finally woken up, the ones that heard the tale was happy for Rose and told her congratulations. Rose nodded and then walked out, she would make the stop at the very small automail shop they had in Loire but stopped a few moments as the Priest Cornello's daily prayer came blazing all across the town, Rose grinned slightly and continued to walk. Soon she came across one of the many small concession stands (as they called themselves) and smiled at the man she knew.
"How have you been doing Rose?" The proprietor of the stand grinned at her and Rose smiled back, telling the tale,
"I've been doing fine, thank you. Oh, you know that boy I found on the outskirts of the town? He finally woke up!" Rose said very excited, her grin brightening despite herself.
"That's great news Rose! Tell me, how is the young lad?" It was that time that Rose took the time to look at the people sitting at the stand, several villagers she knew of course but there were two strangers at the edge of the stand. When Rose stared at both of them, she had to keep herself from not staring out of pure shock and curiosity. There was one male and one female, the male had shoulder-length bright silver hair, which seemed to highlight within the sun painfully, his eyes were a piercing kind with a strange color surrounding in the iris, he also wore the strangest clothes she had ever seen. Then there was a girl, she seemed to be sleeping on the male's shoulder, with the lack of any other action in the girls body. The girl had the strangest piercing amber-red hair that she had ever seen and was also wearing strange clothes. "Rose?" Rose stepped out of her daze and smiled at the keeper,
"He's doing great, though he was very shocked because we had to cut off his limbs."
"Ah, how is he taking it? And did he tell you why that happened in the first place?" Rose bit her lip and became silent,
"I think he's mute..." A silence overtook the small stand before a small nod came,
"Okay then, well you say hello for me, will you Rose?"
"Of course, thank you. See you!"
"Hey wait! Rose!" The girl waited for a second, turning back to stare at the older man, "These two have just arrived in town and need a place to stay, can you give it to them?" Rose smiled gently and walked over to the two he had signified. Just as she thought, it was the silver-haired man and the girl. The other picked up the girl, who moved a bit in his arms,
"Hello! I'm Rose!" Rose spoke, trying to prevent from a cold silence. The boy looked at her silently and nodded,
"I'm Riku, and this is Kairi." He pointed to the one he was holding and made a look for Rose to go on. Rose nodded and started moving but then frowned,
"I have to make a stop at a shop for a quick second, I have to get automail parts for my guest." Riku nodded and Rose was slightly impassive because he had just really no emotion, it was weird to stare at. So they made it to the shop and Rose did her best to ask for the parts and then went out and lead the way to the church. When they had reached the church, she noticed Riku staring at it very strangely, but thought he was just enjoying the landscape. Rose soon led Riku and Kairi to the guestroom and happily offered them the room, while walking off. Fear slightly came to her though, the way Riku was so impassive and how Kairi only moved if she was moved in her sleep was...like the dead...Rose shook her head of such thoughts and continued with her daily rituals.
Riku stared down the room, there were several benches and some makeshift beds (of which he immediately placed Kairi down on one of them) and examined the room. It took Riku awhile to release the tense feeling he felt surging through his blood and the clench of the heartless upon him. Riku took it upon himself to explore the room, but he was very surprised to see the guest of Rose.
"Sora!" Riku cried out, despite himself. The boy didn't move, his head looking down at his right hand blankly and Riku couldn't help but flinch as he saw no arm attached to Sora's shoulder. Riku immediately became overwhelmed with concern for his ex-bestfriend (that is what he told himself) and walked up to him carefully, "Sora? What happened to you?" Sora didn't face him for a few seconds, he just...played with his right hand. Riku could feel himself getting a bit impatient but continued to stare, waiting for Sora to pay attention. Sora then looked at Riku, and Riku was slightly stunned to see a bandage over his right eye and a misty blue eye that seemed to be full of fear. "Sora?"
"S...So..." Sora tried to repeat his name, his throat straining itself and Riku couldn't help but stare at Sora.
"Come on Sora! Snap out of it!" He scorned the younger but Sora seemed to hate these words as his face cautioned in pain.
"Soo...ra...?" Sora had finally managed to repeat and he looked up at Riku, in hope that the boy would stop yelling at him. Riku stared, recognizing that look nearly immediately, the look as though he was lost and couldn't find his way...that same desperate look...A long time ago, the legendary trio were still in a very young age and thought they were indestructible. Kairi was rather hungry and really wanted to know what a Gullwing's egg tasted like, Sora knew where there were plenty of Gullwings were and vouched to get the egg. Riku and Kairi had followed Sora to the place and Riku remembered staring up at Sora who was grinning happily and continued to climb until he got on the tree. Kairi tried to beg for Sora to come back down because she started to get concerned for the boy. Sora just replied with a 'I'll be okay' and found the egg, when he did he stood upon the top of the three, grin with victory but then his balance was completely cut off guard as an abrupt wind started building up. Riku could remember both he and Kairi screaming as Sora fell with a sickening thud and the egg following after. They immediately went to get help, crying the whole time as Sora stayed out for the entire day. The next morning, Riku and Kairi was relieved and happy to find that he was doing okay...except he had forgotten everything, even how to speak. His face...now resembled that terrible face that Sora would show before.
"Sora...do you remember me?" Riku asked calmly, pointing to himself as though the boy would need emphasis on this sensitive subject. Sora stared at him, his eyebrows knotted in worry and his eyes squinted slightly as he looked like he was trying to prevent himself from crying. Fear built around Riku's heart, not caring when the Heartless inside seemed to relish the delicious emotion, "What about her? Do you remember her Sora?" Riku asked, pointing over to the dead to the world Kairi, the same look came, though this time it looked more pathetic as Sora bit his lip.
"Sooo...raa..." He wailed, not knowing how to say anything else at the moment and he held his arm out, like a little baby child wanting to be picked up by his mother. Riku stepped closer and found that Sora had flung his arm around him, and the boy was now sobbing against his shirt. Riku froze for a second, the strange clench of desperation in his heart and he dared himself to hug Sora back, wanting to make the boy feel better. What the hell had happened to him to make him like this? Where the hell were those idiots, what was their name...Goofy and Donald...WHERE!?
"Shhh Sora..." Riku tried to comfort him, as a strange feeling of rocking him back and forth as the boy hugging him with the one arm continued to cry, feeling very sad and pathetic.
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"He's not a mute, but he has amnesia?" Rose asked, staring over at Riku as the boy ate the rations that Rose had offered him.
"Yes, this happened to him when he was younger, last time it went away in a day or two," Riku couldn't remember, he just remembered the fear of Sora never being able to talk again, or the fear they wouldn't be able to play the same way again because Sora would probably think he and Kairi were complete and utter strangers.
"Really?" Rose asked as she frowned a bit. Riku stared over at her carefully, recognizing the dreaded tone,
"Yes...why?"
"It's been over a week since I've found him." Riku stared blankly at the strange girl, silently hoping that this wasn't the truth...if that was so...then maybe the effects were permanent this time? The simple thought made Riku's hair stand on end. Rose saw this look and nodded simply to answer the boy's silent question, frowning in concern. There were a few moments of silence then Rose started to speak again, "His name is Sora?"
"Yes."
"And you know him, well?" Riku nodded to answer this silently. Rose stared quietly then dared herself to ask, "Do you know what happened to him?" Riku kept silent for a few more seconds then stared up to the girl,
"No." Rose felt herself being frightened for some strange reason, the volume of that simple word was quiet but the tone to back it up...scared her for some really strange reason. Rose nodded carefully,
"Well the automail engineer should be here soon." She cheerfully said, averting the strange colored gaze of the other boy. She felt really nervous under his gaze, like God was judging her himself, but that wasn't possible, right?
"I've been meaning to ask, what is automail?" Riku asked casually, not knowing he shocked the other girl. Rose looked over at him with slight shock, Riku muttered slightly giving an excuse, "Where we used to live never managed with such a thing." Rose stared, though slightly shaken she nodded carefully,
"Well Automail has a lot of its uses, I don't know what they all are, but more commonly they're used as artificial limbs for people who have lost them." Rose carefully said, trying to test Riku. Riku nodded simply and looked away, over to stare at Sora who was just paying attention to his right hand again.
"How much will it cost?" Riku asked, willing to spend any munny that he had to replace for the cost for Sora. Rose blinked slightly then shook her head,
"I'm sure that the engineer wouldn't mind giving Sora the automail, so please don't worry about it." Riku simply nodded and turned to ignore Rose and walked back to Sora. Rose furrowed her gaze slightly, this was really so strange, only a week and there seemed to be human disasters around her, but...maybe if she continued praying, it would get better. Rose just nodded, desperate to try and make it all feel better. It wasn't that long when the engineer came, a grin on his face as he held up crafty parts of automail, and some medical stuff for preparation of the operation, the town wasn't all that prosperous, so they couldn't afford the cleanest way of attaching automail, but it would do. Rose then frowned a bit as the engineer explained that he would need someone to hold Sora down because the process of attaching the nerves to the skin was extremely painful and he needed Sora to stay down. Riku volunteered and Sora looked confused as Sora forced him down, gently but kept him down harshly. Rose ran out of the room, not exactly anxious to see a screaming Sora and Riku holding him down. Rose wondered silently weither she should have gone to get Kairi, but the girl seemed dead to the entire world when she was asleep.
It was moments later when Rose felt her heart clench as there was a loud overwhelming scream, pained yells came to attach themselves into the memories of Rose, she had never heard of such a frightening noise. This noise carried on for hours, Rose was surprised that she had just stood there, leaning against the door with a trembling body. Rose was more then surprised when the engineer came out, wiping his face out from sweat that built up,
"Job done, it's not the best job I've done but he kept jerking around," The man sighed slightly, "If there's any problems, tell me, alright Rose?" Rose nodded timidly, not showing the fact she had been there the whole time. The man left and Rose crept into the room.
"Sora." Rose blinked to hear the brunette speak his name in a slightly annoyed way, facing Riku with what appeared to be anger but more of a pout then anything else.
"I know, I know," Riku replied back, patting the boy on the head, "But isn't this better? You can move around now, and honestly, I wasn't going to carry you around everywhere, you are as heavy as a rock." Rose didn't quite understand this sentence and neither did Sora from his confused stare at Riku. The silver-haired man just rolled his eyes carefully then frowned slightly at Sora, pointing at himself, "Sora, do you remember me yet?"
"..." The pained looked appeared on Sora's face once again and Riku sighed, but Rose was surprised to find the impassive boy patting Sora's head,
"Don't push yourself, I'm sure you'll remember."
"Sora..." Sora replied back cutely and Rose almost giggled. She was slightly surprised as the stranger smiled at Sora, a strange and true smile as she could tell...Rose then walked in carefully, congratulating Sora for going through three automail attachments at once.
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- < p>"Hoo hee, hoo ha, haa." Riku stared at Sora with semi-wide eyes, never realizing how strange the boy was until that moment. Sora came lanking towards him in the room, holding up both of his hands and placing them on Riku's chest, "Riku, hoo hee, hoo ha, haa." A replaced look of a small smile overtook Riku's face, they had been staying there for awhile in Loire, at least until Riku felt Sora could travel correctly. Last night yesterday, Sora had remembered Riku's name and was jumping about happily at the fact that he remembered something as trivial as a name, but that didn't make Riku any less pleased. And now Sora was spouting out nonsense that he could not understand for the life of him. "Riku!" Sora jumped on Riku then, hugging him tightly and Riku felt a little dizzy as he could feel the lack of oxygen from Sora's tight automail arm.
"Ah...yeah Sora, hoo hee, hoo ha, haa." Riku tried to repeat to get the brunette off of him but only encouraged the boy to hug him tighter. "Ah...Sora..." Riku tried to tell him off but the lack of words came to him for the moment as Sora cuddled against Riku's chest happily. Riku sighed happily when Sora had finally let him go, Riku then watched Sora as he crawled down to Kairi to stare at the girl with wide eyes. A short smile came to Riku's face as Kairi's body seemed to react to the staring of Sora's piercing blue eyes. "Sora, do you remember her?"
"..." Sora grew silent again, though this time instead of becoming a pained look, a strong determined look focused on Sora's face. Riku smiled as Sora was trying to remember...but he knew better then to push it, so he patted the child-brained boy and just replied, "You'll remember eventually." This seemed to make Sora as happy as a puppy as he surprised Riku by jumping on him, with the heavy automail limbs that Sora had, they both fell to the ground, Riku being slightly crushed. There was a slight creak to alert Riku that someone was entering and he stared ahead, expecting Rose but still being on his guard, for all Riku knew, Maleficent and her gang of minion idiots were trying to find them. Riku didn't care right now, but he would have to use them later, he supposed. Luckily it was only Rose, accompanied with a rather small-looking blonde with bright gold eyes like his hair and someone walking in suit of armor. Sora seemed to sense the presence of the new guests and jumped up, stretching his automail limbs and Riku rolled his eyes as he heard the miscellaneous creaks of a bad job done.
"We weren't interrupting anything were we?" Rose asked curiously as Riku got up to stop Sora from stretching anymore. Riku shrugged and Sora just replied cutely with a great grin,
"Sora!" Riku stared more closely at the newcomers, paranoid as he was when he first met Rose. The blonde was short, Riku guesstimated 4'9 with gold blonde hair that was far brighter then what Riku remembered of Tidus back at Destiny Island, and there was a part of the boy's hair that stood up, bringing the other's height up to be a little taller, Riku recognized the golden eyes set into a permanent narrowed stare, he also studied his clothes, a red jacket that seemed to have a hoodie attached to it while he wore black underneath the jacket. Riku slightly smirked as he saw white gloves on both of the shorter's hands, it seemed gloves were also a sort of passion here as well. Riku looked up at the much taller person in the armor, the armor was a basic blue-green tint of full-plate with a white loin cloth to block out unnecessary sightings of appendages but Riku noticed that the armor was decorated with a red symbol on the left of its shoulder with a strange symbol.
"Well, this is Edward and Alphonse Elric," Rose introduced the two right asides from her, "They're here to stay for awhile like you three."
"Sora!" Sora introduced himself quite cheerfully, though he received a slightly odd look from Edward but it didn't seem to be offending.
"This is Sora," Rose laughed happily, pointing for the boy casually then she looked over at Riku who had gone to sit near Kairi, staring closely at the new strangers. "That is Riku, and the one sleeping is Kairi." Edward grinned just as cheerfully,
"Nice to meet you." He said politely thought Riku wasn't really fooled by the tone he may have heard from the blonde's voice, then again, he might have imagined it. Sora jumped up again, this time towards Alphonse, seeming to be curious about the armor. Alphonse, inside the armor seemed to be slightly embarrassed by this somehow, Riku rolled his eyes slightly as Sora's clunky automail echoed throughout the small chamber.
"Sora?" Sora asked, looking at Alphonse in confusion and curiosity, Riku then proceeded to think it was because Sora hadn't seen someone in armor before, even before his memory got shot. Alphonse seemed to panic a bit, shyly trying to speak back to Sora but Sora didn't seem to get the idea that Alphonse was becoming uncomfortable. Riku stood up then but was a bit surprised to find that Edward had pulled Sora away from his brother and pointed simply back at Alphonse,
"Al." Sora grinned back at Edward and Riku couldn't help but think that the brunette and the blonde could get along very well.
"Al, Al! Hoo hee, hoo ha, haa!" Sora jumped cheerfully and Riku noticed that the boy seemed to be most comfortable flying in the air.
"Uhh..." Alphonse tried to speak, looking (well if an armor could look like) like he wasn't completely sure on how to handle the situation but didn't seem at all hostile. Riku continued walking, placing his hands within the new clothes that Rose had given him as they had been donated, a long tan white shirt and boring tan pants.
"Sora, leave Al alone." Riku said kindly to the brunette and the boy replied with another jump and settling next to Riku, hiding behind him now as though he was more curious of something but was too scared to try and ask. Riku smiled tamely then faced Rose, "Isn't it time to clean Sora's bandage?" Rose blinked then panicked a bit,
"Oh goodness! I had almost forgot! Excuse me," She bowed to Edward and ran outside the small storage room for people and they were left alone. Riku stared over carefully then a careful smile came to his face, Edward seemed to return it as they both seemed to be the higher thought within the room.
"Sora?" Sora asked, tugging on Riku's short sleeve, looking confused because of the quiet stares they gave each other. Riku looked back at Sora and just smiled calmly,
"Well, we'll be taking our rest," Edward casually said, shrugging his shoulders up and Riku sensed something inhumane about him for a second as the heartless cooed at the doubts and fears they continued to feel around the city. Riku became very paranoid at that moment but still sat down, on the ground next to Kairi's makeshift bed. Sora seemed to sense the fact that there was a very uncomfortable silence and Riku wanted him next to him, so Sora ran to join with Riku leaning against Kairi's make-shift bed. Rose quickly came back with a bandage and changed Sora's bandage that was still covering his eye, Riku didn't stare, not wanting to make Sora feel uncomfortable and then Rose went to the small shrine in the room and started to pray. Rose seemed to be a very religious girl, not that Riku really cared, it's just he had never seen anyone so dedicated to worshipping and proving their faith. Riku then noted silently as Edward spoke silently, "Give worship and pray everyday, and you'll be able to resurrect the dead?"
"Yeah, something like that." Rose turned back to the questioning blonde, an eager smile upon her face. Riku stared, a bit surprised by Rose, she was trying to resurrect the dead? Now that was never a possibility that Riku had never even thought about, then again, he had never really lost anyone important in his life. The only time the trio had witnessed some type of death was Sora's father when they were seven. Sora was never really the same after that, but he would cover the thought with just playing with he and Kairi. "You know, you should come and listen to Priest Cornello's sermon, I'm sure it would help you understand a bit more, and if you started praying you could probably grow taller!" Rose said cheerfully, being just a few inches taller then the boy. Edward twitched and Riku was a bit taken off by a temper that he had never seen even from Maleficent's goons as Alphonse held the blonde back from doing something that could cause damage to the religious girl. "You should come too Riku and Sora." Rose suggested, bending down a bit to stare directly at the two. Riku was about to respectfully decline but then Sora grinned and hugged the girl,
"Sora!" Riku held his head, already seeing Sora's trouble-making personality was drifting back to his normal self. Rose seemed to be as cheerful as Sora and Alphonse had managed to calm Edward down enough for the two to still be sitting on their bench, staring over at the four.
And so after a few hours of resting, Rose dragged all of them (except for Kairi, who Riku said she was still really tired) to the outside of the temple, where Priest Cornello (A tall old looking man with his eyes set on a permanent closed position) was standing at the front of the temple. There was a loud mass of people gathering to watch the priest and Riku just folded his arms, for once grateful for the black gloves because he would have pierced his skin otherwise in annoyance. Sora was standing still, watching uncharacteristically quiet. Riku observed Edward standing upon some strange trunk that seemed to be there, while Alphonse just stared carefully and Rose was still smiling. Riku couldn't help but jump a bit as the priest made a small flower into a mid-size tree, what a strange kind of spell!
"Brother, do you think?"
"That's definitely alchemy." A scowl crossed the blonde's face and it was then Riku noticed that the boy had long hair in a braid, well that was funny...
"Alchemy?" Rose asked before Riku could, though the fifteen-year-old was grateful for it inwardly.
"Yes, Alchemy is a science based on equivalent exchange, like when I fixed that radio earlier, I was able to fix that because all the parts were there to be form the radio again." Alphonse said in a tone for Rose to understand, thankfully this was also true for Riku. Well that sounded interesting.
"And that hack job up there is ignoring the first rule."
"First rule?" Rose asked as Alphonse sighed within his armor.
"Like I said earlier, alchemy is a science built around equivalent exchange. The first law is that if you want something, something must be taken away to counter it. What my brother means is that your priest is ignoring this rule."
"Well did you ever think that he may have the blessings of Leto?" Rose crossed her eyes angrily, seeming to be upset about this. A scoff came from Edward as he seemed to refuse to believe this.
"It's that stone." Edward replied, a fire suddenly starting in his eyes, a fire that made Rose frown even more. The priest was then offered a dead bird, Riku unwarily flinched as he could barely see the dead body, but then the priest covered both his hands over the limp body and uncovered his hands, revealing a fresh and alive bird. The bird took off, giving off gasps within the audience.
"Well Edward, how about that? It's a blessing from Leto." Riku doubted, and from the looks on Edward's face, so did he. But Rose seemed quite angry with this, Riku sighed, about to go back into the temple but he turned and found no Sora at his side. Immediately he panicked,
"Sora?" He asked, turning his around and around to try and find the spiky-haired brunette. Rose, Edward, and Alphonse seemed to sense the strange sense of urgency and looked over the crowd to try and also find him, it didn't take long before they found Sora right in front of Cornello with a fierce expression on his face.
"Hm?" Cornello stared carefully at the youth, who continued to look very determined and was surprised when the youth had grabbed both of his hands (of which he tried to yank away but the presence of the crowd made him feel uncomfortable) and place them on his forehead.
"Mem...mem...mem-o...memories..." Sora spoke quietly, struggling with every syllable and the whole crowed stared. "Memo...ries..." Sora was shaking, begging for Cornello to perform this strange magic and give him back the blank spots within his head, give him the knowledge of knowing confidence in speaking. Sora then stared up, his eye still very fierce, "Memories." The whole crowd of spectators seemed surprised by this as Riku calmly started to walk for Sora. Cornello was surprised at first, but then just smiled,
"Child, the reason your memories have left you is so a lesson is taught to you from God, and I'm afraid I can't take back a lesson that God is trying to teach you." Sora's hands slipped from Cornello's and the priest retreated the hand with a ring on it while patting the sad youth on top of the head. There seemed to be sad 'awws' within the crowd but Riku wasn't fooled as he walked asides to Sora, grabbing the warm human hand. The only reason he wouldn't do it was because he could't do it, liars disgusted Riku. Riku pulled Sora away from the priest and he saw Sora's gaze very down, as though he was trying to cover the miserable look Riku knew he had.
"Don't worry, they'll come back to you, sooner or later." Riku saw Sora's pierce blue eye look at him, a strange look of frustration he had only seen when he defeated Sora in sparring,
"So...soo...sooner." Sora replied back, very determined and Riku couldn't help but smile back as Sora struggled with it. Sora was really trying so hard, wasn't he? That was kind of relieving, but Riku was slightly afraid of what would happen if Sora regained all of his knowledge back...But no need to worry about such a thing right now.
"I'm sorry Sora," Rose said as they reached back the way to the group, Sora not moving from Riku's grip on his human hand as the boy just grinned back at her. Riku then blinked as Sora gripped his hand tightly, a sudden hostile look appeared on Sora's face. The entire group seemed to be confused by this but Sora pushed Riku down as a strange large fireball appeared out of nowhere, just stopping where Riku had been seconds earlier.
"WHAT THE HELL!?" Edward, along with several adults in the audience yelled as the remainder of the fireball was a small sized rock. Riku recognized that type of rock immediately and glared over at the large heartless, the evolution of the fat body heartless. Riku got up, ready to take care of it but was surprised to find Sora charging in immediately. Riku almost hit himself as it seemed that Sora's heroic personality was still a deep part of him no matter what. The heartless that came originally from Agrabah puffed his breath up and fired another fireball, this time though Sora blocked it with his left automail arm, ricocheting it back as a counter-attack. Sora ducked under and rolled slightly and out of nowhere, the similar tune of a keyblade swung itself many times against the back of the heartless's head. Sora overtook the heartless with many air-combos to the head with the strange blade called Three Wishes and not before long, Sora had overcame the heartless and it disappeared in a mix of purple and pink mist. Everyone stared at his or her new strange hero who stared over what the heartless had left and looked back up at everyone.
"Sora, what the hell were you thinking!?" Riku couldn't help but yell at him, stomping up to the boy angrily, slapping his head once in anger, "What if you didn't have the keyblade!?" Riku yelled, momentarily forgetting the boy didn't have his memory. Sora stared at him with deep-settled confusion, rubbing his head in pain, hadn't he done a good thing? He protected him and even defeated the enemy...though whatever this weapon came out of nowhere, it made Sora feel slightly comfortable. Sora stared back at Riku though with a slight puppy-eyed stare, confused on what he had done wrong.
"Oh Sora, thank goodness you did that!" Rose came up though, interrupting whatever response Riku was going to give back to the brunette, she held Sora close to her, hugging him out of gratefulness. Riku looked over to Edward and Alphonse, a suspicious set curious glare was coming from Edward's eyes and Alphonse simply stayed at his brother’s side.
"What kind of weapon is that?" Edward decided to finally question, his eyes continuing to be narrowed and as a paranoid that Riku couldn't help but recognize.
"A special weapon Sora made a long time ago," Riku smoothly lied, "He managed to make it possible to gather materials around the weapon to make it a full blade." Sora seemed to frown at this for a second, but Riku just held him still, tempting the other not to do anything that would spoil the lie.
"Really?" Edward asked, an eyebrow raising up, still in a suspicious fashion and Riku just simply stared back. There were a few more moments of angry silence and contemplating before Rose screamed, four heads whiplashed to her screaming voice as a shadow from the ground held tightly around her ankle. Rose immediately tried to wretch her ankle from the creepy hand that was holding her but its strength was too much. Riku frowned, beckoning to the heartless inwardly, willing it to disappear, and holding Sora tightly in one place. The shadow heartless's grip went slack and slipped back into the shadows, Rose falling down as though in exhaustion.
"What are those things!?" Rose demanded, looking up to Riku, as though he would know the answer. And Riku did, but he couldn't answer that question, otherwise he would give away a part of himself.
"I don't know." Riku replied, lying through his teeth easily, turning around a bit, "We should probably head back to the temple."
"Will the temple protect us?" Rose asked, then looking around, concerned as she saw the villagers standing there, inwardly panicking while a lot more of them were asking Cornello for safety.
"Probably being inside a building period will keep them away, but who knows?" Riku replied simply, gripping Sora's hand tighter, of which the boy whimpered slightly and started walking towards the large church, regardless if anyone listened to him or not. These heartless were coming from a different source then him, a weaker source...but still an annoyance. He would have to leave as soon as possible, and when he and Sora got some time alone, he would have encourage Sora to not summon the keyblade ever again, if the two were going to fight, it would be only he to fight. Not at all too long as Riku reached where he wished to and he felt his heart clench tighter as Sora whined,
"Riiikuu...ow..." Riku did not like causing pain to his friend ('EX' Riku reminded himself, clearly in denial), but it had to be done if he were to keep Sora away from the strange heartless. Riku sighed slightly, sitting down by Kairi once again, Sora following him, and tuned the world out as the light clanks of the temple doors and the slightly louder walking of Alphonse in the armor.
"You know, he's just using you." Came the muttered voice of Edward and an angered response yelled back at him,
"I don't care what you say Edward! I believe in Priest Cornello, he's brought life to this broken town, and he's resurrected many people before Cain! It's not 'alchemy' as you say it is! It's God's will!" Rose just simply yelled, refusing to hear the blonde and she ran out. A loud sigh resonated from Alphonse armor,
"Niisan, did you really have to..."
"It doesn't really matter to me," Edward just grunted back and Riku heard Edward's thick steps lightly coming towards them and Riku stared evenly at Edward's short legs. Riku's stare hardened, there was something the way his right leg moved...that was what made the other seem inhumane, maybe...
"Hey Sora," Edward addressed the brunette and Riku glared rather protectively, "Do you mind if I see your weapon?" Luckily, Sora still had the weapon, it had just been lying next to him as he had placed it there earlier, not knowing what else to do with it. Sora just looked up almost cutely then gave the blade to Edward. Riku's gaze narrowed even more as Edward examined it quietly, as though trying to figure on what made it work, especially with the lie Riku had used earlier. Riku almost smirked though as Edward tried to see how to handle it, he wasn't doing so very well at it. Sora had begun a rather lost look on his face as Edward continued to stare at the blade.
"I believe Sora doesn't want you touching it anymore." Riku simply said, as he saw Sora's face knotted in slight worry. Edward blinked back but then handed it carefully back to Sora (who seemed exhilarated to get it back) and turned to start walking back to his brother, but left with the quiet words,
"Interesting." Those words made Riku darken considerably.
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Not even a few hours had gone by, and Riku had learned that the Elric bunch, were the biggest troublemakers he had ever seen in his entire life. And that would defeat even prankster wits of Wakka and Tidus! But my god, Edward and Alphonse Elric were so much more smarter with how they played their tricks. Of course that doesn't really explain what happened, well earlier through that day slowly turning into night, it seemed that Edward had somehow bugged Rose. Somehow bugged her to the point of where an ambush was placed on the two. Originally it just started with the trio, with where they usually were and Rose stomping angrily into the room with Edward following after. Riku was aware of a conversation going on between the two, probably of the same matter they had argued about earlier, when a strange sound echoed throughout the whole room. Rose screamed, and Riku stood up immediately, telling Sora to keep down, immediately getting ready for a battle. Riku was beyond shocked to see Alphonse's armor head spawled by the ground and Edward in a very defensive mode.
"Why are you doing this?" Rose asked, fear tensing in her voice, it was then Riku followed her stare and found the one who shot at Alphonse, probably from the back and with something Riku had only encountered with Captain Hood, a gun. Though a far stranger model then Hook had.
"Cornello has told us that Leto has said to take them out, he says they're sinners that need to be taken care of."
"But...but why do that to Alphonse!?" Rose asked, in hysterics and Riku started to tread closer, completely ready to summon the power of darkness he knew he could take advantage of.
"Heh, so the priest is worried about us, eh? Good." Edward commented, smirking over at the minion, of who smirked,
"Don't be so confident, you'll be joining your brother soon." Edward didn't seem to be at all shocked as he pointed the gun directly at him, in fact there was the surprisingly smooth sound of Alphonse's voice and the surprised gasps,
"So the priest thinks we're trouble, hm?" Riku knew he was staring wide-eyed, as was Rose but Edward went on fairly normal, and kicked up Alphonse's head and conveniently threw it into the direction to Alphonse, but ended up knocking out the man with the gun and Alphonse almost cutely ((A/n: Ahhh, sorry! I just had to! I love Al! -n-n-)) said, "I got it! I got it!" Riku stared quietly, though very stunned and Rose voiced her opinion as she stepped back, shaking terribly,
"Wh...what?" Alphonse attached the helmet back to the rest of the armor to complete the set,
"This is the way I am Rose."
"But...but...how is that possible!?" Rose almost demanded, but her voice was soft and her body was shaking so much. Sora stood up carefully, looking more confused then ever and just stayed right behind Riku bashfully.
"This is what happens when you try to cross into God's territory, don't you see Rose? You will never be able to resurrect the dead." Edward replied back to her, his yellow-golden stare trying to get the point across to the refusing girl. Rose stood there for a few seconds and then she ran off, Riku could see the faint drip of tears following after her as in footsteps.
"Ah! Rose!" Alphonse yelled after as the two Elric brothers followed after her. Riku frowned, how very strange. So did this mean that Alphonse did not really have a body, was he like the heartless? Heartless do not have any real bodies, they were made as though they were tools, darkness formed illusions of bodies and made them solid to the hit by the strength or lack of, your heart. But the strangest thing was that Riku could not sense any sign of darkness within the 'illusion' of the metal body as it clanked away...wait a minute, there was only one type of armor that clanked away that way...
"SORA!" Riku couldn't help but yell, running after the boy, who was intent on chasing after Rose as the other two were, "GET BACK HERE!" Sora ignored him, which Riku didn't find all that surprising. Riku cursed to himself and at Sora many times, of which the brunette continued to ignore and try to out race his friend. Now before, they were pretty evenly matched when it came to running, but it seemed that the new automail legs of Sora's made him run even faster, then again, maybe that's because they probably didn't feel the strain of running outright as they were right now. Riku flinched as Sora turned with a very loud screech, grabbing on the wall with his automail hand and swiveling to the left, where Riku assumed that Sora was still following Edward and Alphonse. Riku followed after easily, not having to do any actions like Sora had too with his light limbs and tried to stare ahead. Nothing but darkness, how could Sora tell if he was still following the Elric brothers? Riku supposed he would have to trust with Sora's sense of direction...On the other hand...Sora's sense of direction was as good as a person trying to find their car keys when they're going to be late for work, Riku's pace fastened. Riku found the travel down the strange dark hall very monotonous except for the loud clanks of Sora's automail ahead of him, but Riku followed faithfully, when Sora turned he would turn. For some reason this pathway seemed to take a long time, at least in Riku's mind. The scented voices and coos of the heartless begging to him to be let out, especially when they sensed the keyblade so close by. Riku refused of course, his heart strong enough to thwart off the illusions of the heartless within his mind. Riku's attention was drawn away as Sora had finally fell, moaning at his faulty turn.
"Sora..." Sora moaned, his lanky automail parts creaking even more as Riku had finally caught up. Riku sighed and helped the boy up,
"We shouldn't concern ourselves with such things Sora," Riku replied back to him, as Sora started to brush off some dust he had gotten from the fall...now that Riku was thinking about it, the hall looked very old and unused.
"Sora!" Sora complained back and Riku imagined that Sora was trying to convince him that they had to do something, as though the situation had called for such dramatics. Riku frowned back, folding his arms clearly, and as he was about to speak there was a loud roaring sound throughout the entire church. The two both sensed trouble and took the same way, dashing down the hall until they saw a door half-way open, the only problem was that there was a huge load of sand blocking the entry-way...well that wasn't a problem for Sora. Riku stared, bedazzled as Sora started to wack the sand away, clearing a pathway as soon as Sora rushed in. Riku couldn't help but stand in the sand sprayed mounds that had built by the sides of him for a few seconds, then he simply walked in, summoning a wicked blade that was in no doubt a real sword.
"What's the matter? Can't sink your teeth into me?" Riku blinked very slowly as he witnessed the sight of a very large lion looking thing (Riku wasn't all too sure, it had parts that weren't that of a lion) attached to Edward's right arm, his arm stuck out entirely just as the lion was chewing it.
"But that's impossible!" Riku's eyes narrowed as he saw Cornello high above on some type of stand with Rose right next to him, both looked very stunned, "The only way that could be possible is-" Edward smirked up at Cornello and threw his arm away, the lion thing jerking with it and kicked at it harshly with his left leg. The lion thing was thrown away, whimpering at the kick...strange. There was a strange loud ripping sound as Edward tore his jacket away (not that it had been damaged before) and revealed...his right arm was automail and a strange glint from the few bulbs electricity revealed that Edward's left leg was also automail.
"Unless I have automail, right?" Edward smirked confidently then stared up to Rose fiercely, "Do you see now? This is what happens when you try to resurrect the dead! Are you willing to sacrifice it? Are you?" Edward questioned just as fiercely as his glare. Rose stared with wide eyes and Riku wasn't exactly sure what was going on, but he didn't sense anything good from it, the only good thing about this situation was that Sora kept close to him, for once.
"HAHA! I get you now Elric!" The priest laughed out, "You did the most forbidden thing, you tried to perform human alchemy! And this is what happened to you, for crossing in God's territory!" The priest then quieted for a bit, "I had always wondered why the state would name someone that had the stance of a child the Full Metal Alchemist, but now I know that it is literal! You are the Full Metal Alchemist!" Cornello yelled out, as though victoriously but Edward didn't seem amused by this. The slight clanks of Alphonse joining in his ranks (Where had he gone?) soon came as an echo came across,
"Well now that you know, we'll ask you again, hand over the stone." Stone? Riku was getting more and more confused by the moment, and being confused irritated him more then anything else. But he didn't voice his opinion and continued watching the scene taking place right before him, Sora was a bit less timid as he stepped out of the shadows of Riku's back. The conversation carried on, and Riku carried upon himself to actually listen intently, curious about this 'stone' as Alphonse had put it.
"What stone?" The priest decided to play innocent and the whole room either grew in silence or annoyance, Riku wasn't sure of which but the disturbing crossed his mind and tended to lead him into agitation.
"Don't give me that crap!" Edward yelled back, obviously growing angry at the incorporation of the priest. "The Philosopher’s Stone! There is only one way you could possibly ignore the law of equivalent exchange, and that's with that stone!" Edward yelled, looking a bit desperate, at least in Riku's opinion.
"Oh you mean this?" The priest held up his left hand, showing a ring with a large red stone built into it. Riku recognized a look of wanting and obsession cross over Edward's face,
"Yes, that's it, now give it or we'll have to do this the hard way." The thought was entertaining in itself, seeing Edward fight would be entertaining but as the conversation was about to carry itself, Riku heard the familiar click of a gun and one of the shots was against the back of his head. Edward seemed to hear these clicks as well as the Elric turned around furiously, not expecting back up. Riku sighed and looked over at Sora's shadow, for some strange reason, he knew he had power over only Sora's shadow. Riku had been testing out the shadow powers yesterday night and he found that he could form Sora's form out from his shadow, but only Sora's. Riku thought it may have been because Sora had the keyblade, he couldn't have all throughout protection, there had to be something that could betray him, and that would be his shadow, or at least that's what Riku thought. That strength, Sora's weakness would come very handy right...about...
"NOW!" Riku yelled, hoping that Edward had the intent on running somewhere as he did as Sora's shadow formed in a true physical sense and flouted in the air, blocking one shot to his other self and the other shot to the back of Riku's head with the anti-keyblade. The men grew afraid as the Anti-Sora seemed to grin with the very creepy yellow eyes. They started to fire at the heartless, ignoring the now running Riku (dragging Sora with him) behind a running pair of Elric brothers.
"And where do you think you're going? There's no way out!" Edward seemed to shrug and he clapped,
"Well one of my mottos is if there is no door," He then clapped to the wall ahead of them (of which Riku hadn't noticed, paying too much attention to the whining Sora) and an open doorway was created, "then make one." Edward grinned over his shoulder as the priest seemed abashed from this action. After recovering himself he yelled immediately,
"AFTER THEM!" Keh, good luck. Riku thought in his mind, it would take more then guns to even make a dent in the life-points of Sora's shadow, let alone the shadow wouldn't let them out of his sights. Riku wasn't too worried, heartless mainly only digest hearts that had gone way to corrupt, the really only time they went after innocent was if they really had no other heart nearby to devour. But that priest would surely get some attention, Riku smirked within his mind confidently. So they ran, Riku had no idea where they were running but didn't ask, rather actually feeling more lost then he had before. Oh crap, he had nearly forgotten about Kairi!
"This is where we split off, good luck." Riku said rather quickly, making sure Sora followed him. Edward threw him a look that Riku swear he didn't like but dealt with it as the two crossed away from a two path. Riku was positive that Edward wanted to inquire Riku about a certain heartless back fighting the gun-toting idiots but decided against it and continued to run. Riku was glad to find Kairi, still lying there in her coma state and picked her up. Sora was rubbing his human hand with his cheek, seeing as he didn't have anything else that showed flesh.
"Soraaa..." Sora complained, looking very confused at the same time. Riku sighed and moved over to Sora to explain the truth, the truth they had to get out of here...and probably fast.
"Here they are!" Riku sighed, it seemed that Anti-Sora had returned to the darkness from where it came from. Riku slowly turned to the many minions of the priest and their guns, "Where did the Elrics go?" Riku shrugged,
"We split up half-way." The one that seemed to be the leader (Riku noted that it was the same guy that Edward had kicked Alphonse's helmet earlier, which was showing especially well with the red-bruise from his face) motioned most of the lackeys to run off and find the Elric brothers while he remained. "Is something wrong?"
"There's something not right about you." The man replied back, rather bluntly on which Riku didn't resist the urge to give a death-defying glare.
"Oh? And what is that?" Riku asked, he could feel the back of his hair brushing up just a little in reaction to his anger, small heartless starting to build around the ill-lighted room. Sora frowned at this, and stared at Riku, unsure of what to do at all. The heartless started to crawl around carefully and silently, Riku felt weird as he took small delight in the fact he knew the man in front of him would be gone soon.
"Riku..." But the heartless were drawn away as Riku felt his heart clench tightly in a strange way as Sora begged Riku to stop in his own way. Information seemed to walk into Sora's mind that one moment, Riku had control over the heartless...what the heartless were and how Riku had control over them, Sora didn't know, he just knew it had to be bad. He knew he had to make Riku stop somehow. Riku looked over at Sora slightly, frowning as the man came closer, yes, Anti-Sora was back where it belonged, as Sora's shadow, watching carefully and golden eyes twitching at the thought of another battle.
"We caught them!" One of the many priests came by, a grin upon his face as their threatened had stopped his rampage.
"Good news! Tell Priest Cornello!" The man grinned and left the room to see this capture in his own eyes. Sora gave out an apparent sigh, very happy that they had been so lucky.
"Sora, let's go." Riku said to him, as though a slight tone of demanding but Sora could tell that Riku had just wanted to escape this place...but for what reason? And couldn't he say good-bye to Rose first? Good-bye...good-bye...what did that mean again?
"Goo...good...bye...?" Sora asked first, hoping that Riku would explain it to him, and was extremely grateful when Riku turned to him to tell him,
"Yes Sora, good-bye. It's usually said to someone else when they're going somewhere."
"Rose...good...bye...?" Sora asked, his eyes knotted in slight depression, especially when Riku nodded.
"Yes, but we need to get out of here Sora, there's darkness here that will corrupt the town soon, besides, I don't think I'm welcomed." Sora seemed saddened by this, but nodded slowly as though understanding clearly, so then followed Riku quietly down the halls, avoiding the faithful men of the temple. When they had reached outside, Sora found it strange to see that one of the statues were gone from its point of origin. The trio (one carried) continued to walk through the town, it was an amazing beautiful blue color at night and Sora found himself staring up to the many worlds...Worlds? Another strange piece of his mind that he had forgotten, what were those sparkling lights in the night sky? What was another world? Very...st...wait a minute. Sora tore his gaze from the strange blue sky and stared very blankly as Alphonse tried to creep around, well as well as a big suit of armor could creep around. Sora tugged on Riku's sleeve, pointing in the direction Alphonse was. Riku seemed to pause at this and follow Sora's finger and seemed disconcerned until Sora decided to take matters in his own hands and walk after Alphonse. Sora heard the loud groan from Riku's mouth and the slight light footsteps to signify that Riku was following him. Wasn't Alphonse and Edward captured (whatever that meant, Sora thought)? What was Alphonse doing now?
"Al!" Sora decided to voice out, seeing how Alphonse didn't seem to notice them at all. The large set of armor jumped up as though very surprised and his long white string followed his jump,
"Ah! Oh...Sora?" Alphonse said carefully, his voice very quiet. Sora got the idea and lowered his voice as well, dunking down deeper into the dark streets of Loire,
"Sora." Sora replied simply, looking at Alphonse in a rather confused way.
"Where's Edward?" Riku asked, voicing in Sora's question, looking around rather dully, as though to keep an eye out.
"He was captured, but he has a plan, as usual." Alphonse seemed to voice with a little annoyance.
"Oh?"
"Yes...but I have to help him prepare for it, please excuse me." Sora looked torn apart as Alphonse started moving away to help his brother. Sora looked at Riku and back at Alphonse's moving figure and back to Riku many times. Riku sighed, recognizing that very sad look and grunted not too eagerly,
"Hey, do you need any help?" And those words it was set off. Riku was stunned to find out that Edward got caught intentionally to show the town of the priest's intentions. A few hours later, Riku, Sora, Alphonse, a still very sleeping Kairi, and a saved Rose were all on top of the rather large temple and Cornello was confessing his deadly deed unknowingly as he talked to Edward, down in a small dungeon that he had made within the temple. Riku had covered his mouth as he watched all the stunned faces, hearing the proclaimed confession from Cornello and Edward showing him what he had done. Cornello tried to convince the not-so-easily-swayed crowd that it was a trick as he ran out to the overbearing masses. A short fight broke out between Edward and the priest and Riku was aware of the temple moving around a little as statues moved out from their built in place and many people started to have a religious conversation. Riku wasn't really sure of what the point of the argument was, but whatever the reason, Edward seemed to disagree with the crowd and clapped his hands and crowds screamed as an even larger statue crawled out from the inner most chambers of the temple and burst out.
"Not even the Philosopher’s stone can bring something that big to life!"
"You see Rose, my brother has worked to be the way he is, we aren't anything really special, we don't get our power from fancy watches or anything else from that matter. My brother has the power because he's worked for it." Rose seemed to nod quietly at this, though she looked very sad about this.
"AUGH!" Came the anguished yell from the priest as he was attacked to the side by the large statue of the Sun God Leto. Edward missed him purposely, Riku frowned in dislike,
"Now, are you going to hand over the stone, or not?" The priest recoiled, holding over his hand and screaming back in anger,
"No! Never!" There were even more anguished screams and cries of surprise as the priest's hand burst out weirdly, Riku couldn't exactly recognize what happened to the priest's entire arm but it still wasn't any good as their was a strange piercing sound within the air.
"...All this time...all of this damn trouble...and it was a fake?"
"Niisan..." Alphonse said softly from the rooftop and Edward just looked up, a very angry look upon his face as he yelled loudly,
"GIVE ME A BREAK!" And he happened to kick the priest to relieve some of the stress of what had happened. Alphonse sighed and Riku couldn't help but frown as Sora seemed to also think this was a bad thing.
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"Why did you even come here?" The four stopped for a few seconds, looking back to the harshly breathing Rose, "The people were happy. Cornello gave us hope, how could you do this to us!? He gave this town life!" Rose's body trembled, tears pouring down her face, "Why? What am I going to do now!? The only thing that kept me going was the hope that I would hear his voice again! What can I do now Edward!? WHAT!?" Rose demanded, hoping to get an answer from Edward, "And...why are you leaving?" She directed this question towards Riku, who just shrugged her question off easily.
"Whatever you choose to do, at least you have a pair of two strong legs that can carry you there." Edward simply said, then moved on foreword, Riku followed him as the two had agreed silently that they would follow each other until they reached a better choice of civilization. Alphonse and Sora stood behind for a few seconds though, staring at the rather blank Rose.
"Rose...I need to tell you, I need to tell you so you don't make the same mistake we did..." Rose broke away, tears pouring from her eyes fiercely, "Alchemy is not magic, it is a science, and because it is science it has to follow the laws of nature." Rose started to shake, continuing to cry and then she ran off. Sora looked after her, feeling rather sore but then looked back to Alphonse. The armor seemed to smile at him privately and they walked to follow the older ones, who had everything in their hands.
Really...there was nothing else to do...
I screamed myself to death during the writing of this fanfic. I kept saying, that's nothing like what Riku would do, or what Edward would do! I'm so sorry my fellow readers as I have torn off the easily delicate table of canon and character of our beautiful characters! I shall commit seppuku very soon in honor for everyone who has actually taken the time to read this! I know it had to be quite repetitive, especially since if you seen the FMA episodes. You must think it'll be like the entire series, well...yes and no. Since Riku and Sora is there, they'll actually interfere somehow with the story-line, and yes, Kairi will wake up sooner or later, more later then sooner but she will. I know I had many things to answer if there were any questions, at least for me, but now it's all gone...so if there are any questions, please, ask them, I will try my best ability to answer them all. So...erno...that was chapter one, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope I didn't bore you. Also, this might be the longest chapter you will see in this fanfic, I'm truly and deeply sorry. I'm trying to do character development, but I...I suck at it, don't I? So please forgive me! So I hope you enjoyed it and if you wish to, please review and ask questions! Also, I am honestly sorry to make Sora so…well…the way I made him. I didn’t mean to make him seem so weak, especially with the lack of anything he can say, it must have been annoying to read Sora speak his name over and over again, again, I am completely sorry.
Chapter: 13,389 words.