Take the Pieces - Build them Skywards

Disclaimer: I own no part of Kingdom Hearts, Square Enix or Disney, nor Biffy Clyro's "Machines" lyrics.

Forewarning for spoilers and speculation theories based off of KH, KHII, CoM and BbS.

You've been warned. Feel free to back it up to the index before you ruin the game for yourselves like I did (those patiently awaiting the US release as of right now).

::Broken Fragments::

It was an early morning. The ocean waves brushed against the mainland of the Destiny Islands, a crisp, fresh sensation lingered in the air as the tide retreated back into endless blue. The sun was just rising, bringing new life to the day. The plants, the people, even the seagulls woke sooner than the normal hour. But for one resident in particular, this was more than any ordinary day.

Sora

The young, spikey-haired brunet stood at the very edge of the mainland, his gaze fixated on the far-off Island he knows only too well. He can hear the footsteps of his childhood companion, Riku, off in the distance, coming closer and closer as his mind wanders.

There are still sad people out there… and they're still waiting.

I have to put everything back together… that's connected to me.

It was a commitment Sora had pinned down on his own shoulders.

"And it's one I'm going to keep…"

"Sora," Riku called again, putting a firm hand on Sora's shoulder. "You awake there?" he laughed, turning his comforting grip swiftly and stealthily into a headlock.

"Yeah…" Sora grinned, pushing Riku off. "C'mon… cut it out. Is that any way to treat a hero?"

"Some hero, sitting on the sidelines while there are people waiting for your glorious rescue," Riku joked, his laughter eventually joined in by Sora's, and then Kairi's. Both boys turned their heads, noticing her approach.

"Riku… Sora," she greeted, smiling.

"Hey Kairi," Sora responded, noticing something she was holding behind her back. "What's that?"

"Hm?" She looked confused at first, but then pulled them out. "Oh… right," She giggled, handing them to Sora. "They're for the journey," she explained, as both boys observed the colorful bouquet of orange, yellow and pink flowers. Sora took them from her, cocking his head to the side.

"Thanks… but… what for?" Sora asked, unsure what good would come out of them. There was a long pause before Kairi could answer him.

"Really…? … I don't know… I just…" she thought silently for another moment, Riku and Sora exchanging confused glances in the meantime. "… Well, to be honest…" She stopped, the other two waiting for her to continue. It wasn't long into the silence until a jolt of overwhelming emotion struck all three companions.

"… What is it?" Sora asked once more, Riku experiencing the same reaction. And it seemed to catch them all by surprise.

"… They're… not for you in particular, to say the least…" she continued, unsure of where to go from there. "But…" she looked up at him. "… There's someone… I met a long… long time ago." She stopped, looking down at the flowers. "… I don't know why… but this feels… right…?"

… Was there any better way to say it? The idea behind her reasoning may make no sense to anyone else, but for whatever reason, it made perfect logic between these three. And despite their understanding, it still confused them nonetheless.

In ways even they couldn't explain.

"All right," Sora smiled, taking the flowers and putting them in the bottle along with the letter from King Mickey. "Thanks, Kairi."

More silence… but it was a peaceful sort of quietness.

"… Well… I guess it's time to head off."

"Yeah…" Riku nodded, handing Sora the oar to his boat to the Island.

"Be careful…" Kairi warned, giving Sora's hand a squeeze before letting go, watching him jump into the boat. "And come home soon…" Both she and Riku gave the boat a push off the shore in the direction of the Island, waving off to him as he disappeared over the horizon. Sora waved back until he could see them no more. It was at that moment he pulled the luck charm that was given to him from his pocket, squeezing it tightly in the palm of his hand.

::

The Island was tranquil when Sora arrived. He walked silently along the shoreline, noticing the sunrise off in the distance.

'It's pretty, isn't it?'

The sudden voice made Sora jump in surprise, but as soon as he turned his head, he noticed Roxas' figure appear beside him. Roxas smiled.

'Sorry… I couldn't help myself.'

"Uh... … s'okay… but…" Roxas turned to face Sora, noticing the other's questionable glance. But rather than explaining why he was projected outside of Sora's mind rather than inside, the blond's eyes wandered directly toward the flowers sitting in the red pocket on Sora's belt.

'She'll like those…' he remarked, catching Sora way off guard.

"… What? ... I mean… who?" Sora stuttered, trying to interpret what Roxas was saying.

'Yeah…' he muttered, scratching his chin. 'Hah… … where did that come from?' he laughed, shaking his head. 'It just came out. I don't know.'

"Can't say I get where you're going with this either…" Sora shrugged his shoulders, both boys standing still for a few moments.

"…"

'… He's waiting for you.'

"What?" Sora glared at his alter ego, crossing his arms. "She? He? Just who are you talking about?"

'… The King?' Roxas responded, not being able to resist a chuckle.

"Oh… right…" The brunet felt Roxas' ghostly hand pass through him, as they merged, heading in the direction of the Secret Place.

-

"Here it is…" Sora announced, stopping right in front of the mysterious door: The door that started it all.

'… Well?'

"Well what?"

'… Are we going to go through it?' Roxas asked, splitting his image from Sora's once more.

"Of course we are!" Sora smiled, summoning his keyblade. He swung it about, making a sharp aim for the keyhole on the door. "Let's see if this trusty blade can work the magic…" A bright beam burst from the tip of the key, unlocking the magical seal on the door. The two boys stood before it, as the door swung open, filtering the tiny area with light.

"Let's go."

'Ready when you are…' Taking note of the tenacity in Sora's eyes, Roxas could only be inclined to feel the same. He couldn't quite figure out the reason why he was so scared.

… Why…?

And with that, they merged once more, walking through the light. Once Sora's image disappeared, the door shut…

And disappeared into nothingness.

::

Footsteps echoed through an empty hall. The silhouette of a short figure with two large round ears moved through the dark corridors, growing as it approached the nearest door down the hall. Slipping through the entryway, the hooded figure revealed itself to a rather impatient Donald, and to no ones surprise, a dazed Goofy.

"A-hyuck! Your Majesty!"

"You're late!"

The two greeted their King in unison, Mickey calming Donald down with a pat on the back. "Now, relax, relax… Sora's not here yet." Even with a reassuring tone, nothing could possibly calm him down enough to keep his feathers unruffled.

"But Your Majesty! What if he couldn't make it!?" Donald quacked, Goofy scratching his forehead.

"Well, gawrsh, Donald! Of course he made it! A-hyuck! He's the bearer of the keyblade!"

"Then why isn't he HERE!?"

"Why isn't who here?"

The intrusion of the familiar voice of the fourth person seemed to bring that argument to an end, both Donald and Goofy tackling the one who just arrived.

"Sora!"

"Hey hey, hold your horses! I just got back from the realm of light… and that's one heck of a trip!" Sora returned the affection, giving them both hugs as they straightened themselves out once again.

"Sora." Mickey approached, watching as the keyblade's chosen dusted his clothes off as he stood. "I'm glad you're safe." He was smiling, but it eventually furrowed into a sadder expression. "… But you know too well why I called you here…" The energy in the room suddenly died down, and Sora nodded.

"… I want to make things right. For everyone."

"I know, Sora." The King turned, walking toward the window looking down upon the courtyard. "There are still people… Waiting for a hero to save them." He turned in Sora's direction, pointing his golden Kingdom Key in his direction. "That hero is you." Donald and Goofy both turned to their friend, a flush of red dousing the brunet's cheeks for a moment.

"And I'm up to the task! I just… don't know where to start."

Good job, hero.

Mickey smiled, quite fond of Sora's determination. "I knew you would say yes!" he then turned to his desk, picking up a small journal. With a gloved hand, he dusted it off handed it to Sora. "Sora… There are three people… Eleven years ago, something horrible happened to each of them. If my predictions are correct, they are still waiting to this day…" he explained, flipping the first page to the first task. "In order to set things right, we need to find these three people first… and bring them together again. Reconnect their fragmented hearts."

Sora glanced down at the page. He gasped, or something within him causing him to do so, staring down at the image before him. He stepped backwards, catching himself before hitting the wall.

"Sora!"

"Sora, what's wrong?" Goofy asked, helping him regain balance, standing upright once more.

"It's…" The one in the picture before him captivated his eyes. "… Who is that?" Silence followed his question, and Donald and Goofy turned to the King.

"… Sora, you know her?"

Sora was silent a moment, his eyes closing as he took a deep breath in. "She just looks… … vaguely familiar. Like I've met her somewhere before… " His reply was blunt, but with all the more empathy present in his pitch. "Riku and I… we both met her, I think…" He paused to think to the back of his mind. "… I feel like there's something more…" He put his hand over his heart, clenching his fist slightly. "… I've known her before… It just feels that deep."

"Sora…"

"What's her name?" He demanded this time, his soft tone much more brasher than before.

It was almost as if it wasn't Sora speaking at all… as if it were someone else.

"… The one in the picture… Her name is-" Before the King could respond, a crash was heard outside the castle. Immediately, Sora and Mickey summoned their keyblades, running out to the hall and to the courtyard. Donald and Goofy would have followed behind, but they were blocked from leaving the room by a crystallized barrier.

-

Outside of the castle, there was a giant black sphere wreaking havoc through the garden. Several mysterious creatures began emerging out from seemingly nowhere. Mickey raised his blade, but dropped his guard as a devastating thought perplexed his mind.

"… Unverse…?"

Just the uttering of the name caused Sora's gaze to break from the dark sphere, onto the King.

His eyes were no longer those of his familiar blue ones, but of another's. And as the sphere grew larger and brighter, Sora's appearance slowly began to alter within the rays it produced. As Mickey turned to see him, no longer was it Sora standing beside him… but just another figure of the past.

Ventus

And in a flash, Sora disappeared completely, the sphere also disappearing and all of the Unverse that had followed it. If not completely caught by surprise, Mickey would have chased Sora into the portal to the Dark World. Instead, he simply stood and stared at the debris of leaves that invaded the once neat and orderly courtyard.

"… Mission one, person one… Good luck, S— …" he paused, closing his eyes, letting his keyblade disappear.

"… Keyblade's chosen, Ven…"

::

Sora lay face down against the dark sands beneath him. As he began to come to, he couldn't help but remember this place following his battle against Xemnas. And just as the name of the leader of the Organization entered his mind, it began to make his heart ache in ways he couldn't even explain.

"Xemnas…" The brunet shook his head, though the voice he heard was definitely not his own.

"What happened to you…"

As Sora looked on ahead into the moonlit ocean in front of him, he couldn't help but notice a figure at rest in the shallows. Knees brought up to the chest, the figure was slim, most of the face was difficult to make out with a few locks of blue hair were covering the figure's eyes. But it wasn't so much the presence of the figure that caused such a disruption, but the garments that the figure wore. Two long pieces of lavender colored fabric hung down at her thighs with two large white bows overlapping each one. She wore a black corset with white strings that criss-crossed underneath the breastplates over a dark blue halter-turtleneck like top. Rose-colored straps crossed over both layers of clothing, a silver heart-like pendant pinned where the lines intersected. Black stockings covered her legs from over the knee down to her ankles, silver armor-like boots finishing it off. And the very sight of it made Sora's heart stop. Suddenly, Roxas-… Ven's, form split from his other as it did before, walking slowly toward the figure in the tide. And even though it was the former keyblade wielder in form, he still adorned Roxas' attire.

Reconnect…

The broken fragments

"It's… impossible… it can't be…" Ven stuttered, wariness in his eyes. He then shook his head, face angled downward. "I refuse to believe it…" He looked up once again, catching another glance at the person before him. The reality of who it was had yet to sink in his mind.

Suddenly, a tear fell from his blue iris. "After… all these years…" And as the first tear's trail was made, another followed in place of it. "And all this time, you've been here…" Eventually, his cheeks were soaked, his expression in complete anguish. "… And you never came back… to find me…" He clenched his teeth, his knees too weak to lock him in a standing position. Sora wanted to help his other, but stopped…

And watched the reunion unfurl.

"You secluded me in that goddamned castle… To protect me?" he continued, trying to brush his tears away, but they continued to fall in spite of his efforts. "You said… we would never be separated… All three of us…" he paused, waiting for a response. When he didn't get one, he continued. "… I didn't know… I eventually lost that piece of memory with you… and him… but even after all this time, I never really forgot… Those memories never really disappeared…" he then closed his eyes tightly, recalling all of the memories that were once lost to him.

"I didn't know what happened to you!"

The figure in the water finally turned around, revealing none other than the lost Master of the Keyblade.

"Ventus…" She spoke softly. Just the sound of her voice triggered the younger of the two key wielders to collapse into a mess of choking sobs to the sand beneath him. The blue-haired one then shifted her own self closer to the other, gathering him up in her arms.

Aqua

Sora was silent, watching the scene unfold before him.

So his name is Ventus… he thought to himself. Though his interest was focused solely on Aqua. … So this whole time… they were connected…And I brought them back together again…

"... If this is my job, I think I can live with it..."

The blue-haired woman gently stroked Ven's hair, just as she did eleven years ago before she left him in Castle Oblivion. He wrapped his arms around her waist, as if she was going to disappear again if he ever let go. "Ven… I never meant to leave you alone like this…"

"But you did… and you disappeared…" Ven felt like a child who just dropped his ice cream in the sand, crying to his mother hoping she could make it better. "Why did you leave…?" She was silent a moment, letting him rest his head against her breast right over her heart. He could hear it beating slowly, his shallow breathing slowly becoming silent cries in between deep breaths.

"I didn't leave to abandon you… … or Terra…" The mentioning of the third person's name made both Aqua and Ven uneasy. "… I wanted to help guide Terra back to the right path… But by the time I saw him, it was too late…" She sighed deeply, as Ven lifted his head to meet her gaze. "After we fought… I followed him as he fell into the Realm of Darkness… The only way I could save him from being trapped there for eternity was by allowing him to use my light to guide him out…"

"Which is how you got here…" Sora intervened, both Aqua and Ven turning to the brunet. Sora smiled. "Hey… Aqua." The name came to him out of nowhere. He then knelt down beside the two of them, unsure of what else to say. "… Long time no see?" he remarked, signature grin gracing his distinct facial features.

And although in a state of equal confusion, Aqua returned the smile, ruffling his spikey hair. "A long time, indeed… Hello, Sora." Then, Sora remembered. He pulled the small bouquet of flowers from the bottle in his pocket, handing it off to Aqua. "Oh… these… these are for you." He offered them to her, not entirely sure why he did, watching as she took them from him. Ven blinked, looking to the flowers as well. Although he was in Sora's mind when he was given the flowers, he must not have remembered being given them. A few moments following silence, Aqua laughed. Her brilliant blue cerulean eyes met Sora's sky blue ones, the same genuine smile never fading from her lips.

"And how is the lovely Kairi?" For whatever the reason, her knowing Kairi didn't surprise Sora too much.

"She's fine." He grinned, stretching his arms. "She's living on the Destiny Islands… with Riku and I." Aqua was overjoyed to hear of these familiar names.

"Riku… how is he doing?"

"Great!"

She laughed again. "Still training, I take it?"

"As always." All three of them, Aqua Ven and Sora, were enjoying the worry-free conversation. Ven then closed his eyes, resting his head against Aqua's shoulder.

"I wish…" he paused, Sora and Aqua looking down at him. "… I wish things could return to the way they used to be…" Aqua and Sora looked at one another, then back down at their friend.

"Things can only get better from here, Ven. You just have to have faith." She reassured, patting his head gently. Things began to quiet down again, but the silence was broken once again by Ven.

" Hey, Aqua…?" he began, his eyes staring at the silver moon before them. He didn't even need to finish his sentence, when Aqua's arm around his shoulder brought him closer to her.

"I know…" she closed her eyes, tears beginning to blur her own vision.

I miss him, too…

Terra

::

Chapter II coming as soon as it gets done. Please leave a review if you'd like. All feedback is greatly appreciated.