Resolution

A Kingdom Hearts II Story

A/N: A one shot (because I have many unfinished multichaptereds). It's got humor, Sora angst, Trinity moments, and Tron. Not much else to say. More notes about this fic's creation at end.

"You showed me what friendship is truly all about. And I'll never forget it."

Another day found the chosen Keyblade wielder gazing out the window of Merlin's house. His cerulean eyes remained focused on a single spot in the sky, a world shrouded by...not darkness. An opaque mass. He would never use that word again, not after his battle with Ans-the heartless of Xehanort. Anyway, that world called to him, even now. He knew Riku and Kairi were waiting there for him. And he would return to them, of course. But not right now. He wasn't ready right now.

Sora's heart told him that the three warriors were close to the end of their journey. This time, there would be no trip along an unknown road. Finally, the three would be reunited with their dearest friends. Sora was so close to returning to his island with Riku and Kairi, and Donald and Goofy longed to reunite with the King, Queen, and their families. This was the end of their travels together. And Sora didn't know if he was ready to let go just yet.

But before that moment of goodbye even came, there was still unfinished business to take care of. The remaining members of Organization XIII continued to pose a threat to the harmony of the worlds, and the mystery of this Roxas person still needed to be solved. There was still work to be done. And Sora needed to be prepared to do that work. Wouldn't it be tragically ironic if Sora's heart was lost to darkness in the final stretch of his journey? He had confidence in their ability as a team, but still, he could not afford to be reckless.

At the moment, however, all was well in their little world. Sora remained hunched over the windowsill by the door, Donald attempted to nap, and Goofy placed a phone call to his son Max. Peace lingered in his heart for this brief moment. If life could be like this for just a little longer, he seriously wouldn't mind just knowing that his friends were nearby. They trusted each other with their lives and their hearts.

Sora's buzzing mind lapsed into silence as he listened to Goofy's chatter. "Now Maxie, don't you forget to make yourself presentable for your new ladyfriend, alright? Make sure your shirt's ironed and the car is clean. And would you take some pictures for your old man?" Sora's knowledge about Max was limited to what Goofy had told him as they flipped through old photo albums together. Apparently, Max was a normal teenage boy close to his age with quite an overbearing father. Sora sympathized with the boy, knowing what Goofy tended to be like.

Donald, however, appeared to lack Sora's patience with their friend. He raised his mage staff from the couch threateningly. "Will ya quit your yammering, you big palooka!"

"Gawrsh, Donald, I only wanted to check on my little Maxie here!" Sora could hear Max groaning in frustration from the phone. "You can go sleep somewhere else, Donald."

Donald quacked in frustration, crossing his arms and saying nothing. Sora's thoughts slipped into the end of their journey again. He knew he had to trade Donald and Goofy for Riku and Kairi. Even though they had promised that their hearts would always be connected, an unbreakable barrier between them would still hurt him. But what would happen to the others? Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, Cloud, Cid, Tifa, the Gullwings, Hayner, Pence, Olette, the King and Queen, Ariel, Pooh, Aladdin, Mulan, Hercules, Auron, Captain Jack Sparrow, Jack Skellington, Simba, and Tron? Would they all forget each other after this final mission?

Of course, fate could not allow Sora to continue pondering his destiny. Yuffie burst into the room without warning, causing the Trinity to snap their heads upward at her.

"Guys, you've gotta come quick! The computer system's acting up again!" She appeared to be out of breath and a bit amused. This caused Sora to wonder. Had someone managed to mobilize the Heartless from within the computer again? It didn't seem likely, why would Yuffie be smiling if that were the case?

"What's it doing at the moment, Yuffie?" Goofy hung up the phone silently, his hand unconsciously reaching for his trusty shield.

"There are clowns spawning all over the place! Leon and Aerith have already tripped over a few of them. And Cloud's gone into a bit of a panic.

"Clowns? That doesn't sound too serious." Sora appeared to be relieved by this. "But why is Cloud panicking?"

"Apparently Cloud has an intense fear of clowns. I caught him cowering in a corner when they arrived. He says there was an incident with a clown in his childhood involving being set on fire."

"That's...strange." commented Donald. "But we'll do what we can to help, right guys!"

"Right!" affirmed Goofy and Sora.

With their mission for the day in place, the three friends prepared for another journey into the world of Ansem's computer network. This turned out to be fortunate, because Cid and Merlin returned some time after they left, still engaged in a war over which one was the old man.

Inside Space Paranoids

The Trinity arrived in the pit cell once more, an aura of depression hanging over their heads. This room was full of memories of their dear friend Tron. Together, the four of them had freed this network and enabled the King to gain access to Ansem's data on Organization XIII. They had participated in a lightcycle race of doom, de-rezzed hostile programs, piloted a solar sailer, and put an end to the sinister MCP. They had even helped Tron learn a few things about friendship along the way, but those days were over. Tron merged with the system the last time they were here, ensuring that the data remained free, but he sacrificed his ability to be a free program. The rooms were empty without their friend physically present.

"He promised that we'd see him again..." whispered Sora. Donald and Goofy instantly knew who was being referred to.

"We did see him again, remember?" Goofy reminded him that they could still communicate with their friend from the outside, but their contact was limited. It just wasn't the same as the four of them being together.

"You know what I mean, Goof." Sora lapsed into silence again for a minute, surveying the room one last time. "Come on guys, we need to find out where this clown problem started." He led the way out of the pit cell, the confident Sora face once again slipping over him.

And so their investigation of the mysterious clown incident began. Donald used his limited knowledge of technology to attempt to use the I/O tower, examine the central computer core, and push buttons in the dataspace. The trio failed to recover any useful information.

"You know guys, maybe there's a way we could communicate with Tron from here..." thought Goofy. No, Goofy would never give up a mission no matter how high the odds were stacked against them.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Donald's irritation was quite obvious to all four people present.

"I suggest you turn around, for starters", commented a voice from behind the Trinity. They spun around within seconds, causing Goofy to lose his balance and sandwich Donald with the ground. Sora remained on his feet, his jaw hanging open.

"T-Tron!" Sora brushed his hand across his eyes to ensure that this was not an illusion of any sort.

"Yes, Sora?" He seemed to be amused by the trio's antics. Things hadn't changed very much, had they?

Tron did not receive a verbal response from Sora. Instead, he received a surprise test of balance as the Keyblade wielder flung his arms around his neck excitedly. This greatly surprised Tron, for he had encountered a strange reaction when he had attempted to hug Sora before. Nevertheless, the issue of balance needed to be solved, so Tron embraced Sora and steadied both of them. 'Users and their illogical methods...' he thought. Despite the fact that their actions made no sense, Tron enjoyed their company.

"I thought Users did this when they were sorry to say goodbye?" Tron pondered this thought once again, remembering what had transpired during their last visit.

"We also do it when we're glad to say hello!" chirped Sora. Users and their self-contradictions.

"I'll remember that." Tron released Sora after a few more seconds, still chuckling. This was quickly stopped as Donald and Goofy tag-team-tackled Tron.

After another round of laughter, Sora helped his three friends to their feet. "We're really glad to see you again, Tron, but we were wondering whether you knew anything about a massive invasion of clowns in the town?"

"Clowns? Can't say I have. Although that seems to be a bit less dangerous than the Heartless from before..." Tron thought on it for a moment. "But I did catch a strange blip on my security radar a few microcyles ago. That could be worthy of an investigation."

"Okay, thanks for your help. We're going to ask Leon if he knows anything new about this-"

"Would you three like to stay for a bit?" Tron's sudden offer caused a smirk to appear on Sora's face.

"Of course we'd like to stay, right guys?"

"Oh yes, continue to waste our tim---" Donald's not-so-nice opinion was quickly interrupted by an affirmation from Goofy.

"Donald, you don't talk to friends that way---"

"Goofy, we have a mission to complete---"

Sora and Tron exchanged a glance, shaking their heads. Those two were always squabbling about something or other, weren't they? Tron removed his ID disc from his back, glancing questioningly at Sora. Sora gave the thumbs-up, and so Donald and Goofy were soon sporting identical frisbee-shaped bruises.

A few microcycles later...

"So how are things in the User world?" asked Tron.

"We've still got a few more baddies left to fight, but the war is almost over. Once this is done, the three of us are finally going back where we belong." Sora folded his hands behind his head, images of Kairi and Riku filling his mind's eye.

"Back where you belong? Is that what you Users call a home?" Tron contemplated Sora's statement for a few moments. He had never known anything similar to a User's concept of home, being a slave to the MCP for most of his life. He had finally broken away from that engagement with the help of a User who was like Sora in several ways. Tron and his fellow blue programs had enjoyed a happy digital existence until the arrival of Ansem the Wise. Tron had been upgraded, yes, but Commander Sark and the MCP had also been restored. He had been forced to fight the MCP alone, his old comrades de-rezzed or missing in action. Fortunately, Sora and his friends had arrived.

"Yes, home. But I'm not really looking forward to going there all that much."

This revelation shocked Goofy, Tron, and Donald. "Why not?" they asked simultaneously.

"Riku and Kairi...I miss them, but if I return, I'll be separated from so many other friends. Donald, you and Goofy will return to your King and your castle. I'll be back on my island, and you'll be here running this town, Tron. It's unlikely that we'll ever meet again after this is over." Sora felt two pangs in his heart and a wave of regret that he could not explain. For some reason, his memory drifted back to Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town. They would be separated from him too.

"That's true, Sora, but our hearts will always be connected. You know that." Again, Goofy remained the wisest member of the trinity.

Sora raised his head to smile at the four of them. "Of course they will. But what happens if our memories disappear?"

Tron's thoughts were stirred by this statement. After Ansem had taken over his network, he found bits of his memory slowly fading. He couldn't even remember the name of his first User friend anymore, but he knew that they had been through as much as he had with Sora. That friend had first introduced the concept of friendship to his world, and Sora had taught him more. Tron knew that he would never forget that. Logically, Tron assumed that such 'feelings',. as Users called them, transcended the concept of oblivion.

With his mind made up, Tron lifted his head to speak. "Sora...you won't forget. You may forget our names, or what we did together, but there will always be a part of you that remembers the bond you shared with your friends. The links between hearts are permanent, it's written in Ansem's files. I think what Goofy was trying to say is this: that the things you've showed me, what friendship is about...those things are not subject to deletion."

"That's absolutely right", said Donald in an unusually insightful observation. "Come on, Sora. We've come all this way, and your friends are close."

"Right...thanks for the reminder, guys." Sora chuckled and flashed the group a sheepish grin. His expression

quickly became serious. "But now we have to solve the mystery of the clowns. Tron, where would they be able to upload the data?"

"I think the I/O tower would be a good place to investigate." Sometimes Tron wondered just how large a User's capacity for retaining data was.

"But Donald, Goofy, and I already checked there!" Another pout appeared on Sora's face. He would feel really stupid if Tron solved the mystery without their help.

"Maybe you missed something. It's certainly possible from your height." Of course, Tron just had to pick on his height. Even Kairi was probably taller than him by now. He took comfort in the fact that Mickey and Donald would forever be shorter than him. And the Gullwings. Wait a minute...

"Tron, didn't you say that you saw a tiny blip on the security radar before?" An idea was formulating in Sora's mind. Perhaps those three had figured out how to use the digitization device and were messing around with the system, able to evade detection because they were so small...

"That's right...actually, I'm getting the same signal from the dataspace at the moment. Let's move!" The quartet immediately set off for the dataspace, where they found...

"Don't you think this is a rather pointless idea, Rikku?" Paine would forever be sarcastic and cynical, of course.

"Of course it's not! That meaniehead Leon deserves what's coming to him for not having any treasure! And I love to see Cloudie squirm..." As Sora had expected, the three fairies were uploading bits of data to the User world. Rikku was performing all the technical work, Paine was complaining, and Yuna was supposed to be keeping a lookout...

"Rikku!"

"What is it, Yunie? I'm a bit busy at the moment." She was gleefully inputting commands, oblivious to the four intruders in the room.

"We've been caught red-handed", stated Yuna gloomily.

"I believe your hands are blue, technically", commented Tron. He was correct, the trio were wearing blue outfits matching the other four in the room.

Sora stood on his toes to whisper to Tron "It's a figure of speech!" Silly Users and their lack of logical reasoning...

Frustrated by the immobility of his friends, Donald purposefully waddled over to the guilty Gullwings. "We order you to stop this silliness at once!"

"Whatcha gonna do about it, duckman?" Rikku taunted him playfully.

"This!" Donald raised his mage's staff, summoning a block of ice to freeze the mischievous fairies. He gathered up the block of ice, set it in front of the terminal, and pressed a few buttons. The Gullwings returned to the User world in a flash.

"I can't believe it...just how far would those three go for a little revenge?" Sora had to hide the smile from his face. The mystery had been solved and all was well again. "Donald, Goofy, let's go back. We've got to help Leon clean up their mess."

"So we won't meet again?" Tron appeared to be dejected.

"We will...real soon", promised Goofy. "Say, maybe we ought to make that promise again."

"Right", chorused the other three. Sora grabbed Goofy and Tron's arms while Donald charged into the pile, knocking the four of them to the ground in a group hug. More laughter ensued.

Eventually, they managed to untangle themselves and the Trinity reached the terminal. "See ya later, Tron." Sora's famous smile had emerged once again.

"Don't forget", was Tron's only reply. They waved to each other once more before the Trinity vanished in a beam of light.

Back in the User world...

Aerith stumbled upon the large ice block in Ansem's computer room, staring at it curiously.

"Now how did this get here?" She giggled girlishly and stuffed it into the cooler she was carrying for a picnic with Cloud, Yuffie, and Leon. Later, Yuna finally thought to melt the ice with her magic. The Gullwings ate Aerith's potato chips in an act of spite.

"And who knows-starting a new journey might not be so bad, or maybe it has already begun."

The End

A/N: I am extremely happy to have this done, especially since this is my second time writing it. You see, I had all five pages of this typed up in Microsoft Word, and when I went to save it, I got an error box and Word closed on me, taking my writing with it. Grr. So I ended up writing all of this in WordPad. Anyway, I hope this pleased a few people.