This was...a bit too much. Of alone that is.
The air certainly wasn't fresh. It was thick with uncomfortable warmth and foreign smells he didn't know existed. That wasn't a compliment either. It smelled horrible. But he shouldn't have been surprised since the whole place as far as he could see was covered in piles of dirty, disgustingly brown garbage.
At first he thought he'd landed in the world's dump. It just seemed like the most logical answer. But, no. When Sora peered ahead, he saw that there were actually SKYSCRAPERS made of garbage too. And as he walked closer, he noticed that they weren't haphazardously piled together; they were cubes, all stacked neatley on top of eachother, with a path winding down the buildings. Whoever built the buildings sure did have a lot of time and patience on his hands.
But the thing that disturbed Sora most weren't the rows of garbage or the horrible smell, but the intense silence around him.
Normally when he landed in new worlds, there was some sort of commotion going on somewhere near him. He would ask what was going on, they'd more than likely mention Heartless, than he Donald and Goofy would take them out. Rinse and repeat for every world. But Sora had probably been wandering around in circles for hours in that lonely world, and he saw no one. He didn't even hear anyone. Nor was there any wind(though that was probably good since he didn't know whether or not the skyscrapers truly were stable).
Sora probably wouldn't have minded the silence as much if there was at least one sign of life, but this world just seemed to be the pure definition of DEAD. Did everyone in this world get consumed by the Heartless? No...Then there would be masses of them everywhere around him. Another confusing thought. Why were there no Heartless? Were they able to tell the difference between ugliness and beauty? Then they were probably smarter than Sora gave them credit for.
He came down to think. Just to clear his head. To take a break for a little while. Maybe come up with a plan to find a non dangerous route to the Organization's stronghold, but his mind kept drifting back to curiosity: 'What happened here? Is anyone alive? Who made the trash buildings? WHY would they make trash buildings?' Finally leaving his circle, which was growing a dent from where he walked, he decided to check for any more signs of life. Though he had the feeling that he wouldn't be having that much luck. Then again, he thought with a smile, that was just him. He always had to find a positive side to things.
Then, much to his surprise and relief, he spotted movement from the corner of his eye. Turning so he could see it clearly, he quirked an eyebrow in confusion.
He'd been expecting a human or animal, instead, in the distance, there was a pearly white egg shaped...THING levitating off the ground, steadily gazing at its surroundings. Its head was also floating about an inch off of its body, and on the front of the head it had a black screen that displayed two blue oval shaped LED eyes, but no mouth. And on its body, floating an inch away from each sides, it had smooth flat white metals that were obviously its arms, though they lacked fingers. It certainly didn't look human, but it was pretty easy to tell that it was made of metal, so Sora just dubbed it a robot. It seemed a little out of place in this world, though. A sleek spotless robot like that didn't fit in well with the dirty land.
The point was, it was someone. This world wasn't without souls.
"Hey!" Sora shouted, waving his left hand in the air. "Hey, you! Are there others nearby?" It didn't show any sign that heard him. Instead, it emitted an eery blue light from its "chest" on the ground. For a few seconds the light was focused on it, then there were three beeping sounds, followed by a negative "diiink" that reminded Sora of the sound a computer makes when access is denied to a certain website. Starting to feel irritated, Sora called, louder, "At least tell me why the world looks like this!"
Still nothing. It was busy scanning something else with the blue light, but again with apparently negative results. Wondering if he was just too far away to be heard, he edged closer to where the robot floated, his footsteps echoing through the thick air, making it sound like someone else was walking very close by.
The robots' back was turned now, and it was again scanning something miscellanious. "Hey," Sora said, "Where is-"
Faster than Sora thought was possible, the robot whipped its entire body around to face him, its right arm pointing at him. But its arm was no longer an arm-it had shifted into a gun, and fired.
BAM!
Sora was knocked back with a shout of surprise. It didn't hurt all that much, but it left him feeling stunned and shaky, like he'd been hit by a tazer. So it wasn't any regular gun. Sora silently thanked God that he'd had experienced worse things than that blast. If not, that probably would've killed him. After falling on his back and shaking the cobwebs out of his head, he immediately leaped back up and glared at the robot. And the robot glared at him, its oval shaped eyes were now curving downward in cold, half moon shaped glower. It still had its gun out, and looked like it would fire again at the first sign of defiance.
"Hey! What was that for?" Sora demanded. "I was just trying to ask where everyone was!"
To his surprise, the robot spoke back. "Who are you?" The voice was as cold as its expression, and though it was hard to tell since it sounded so metallic, Sora actually caught the sound of a FEMALE voice. It just sounded like a woman speaking through a computer. Maybe that was why, now that Sora thought of it, it looked kind of feminine. It WAS a woman. A robot with an actual gender...
At least he wouldn't have to call her "it" anymore.
"Who are you?" She repeated in the same tone. "Who are you?"
Sora didn't even realize that he'd drifted off in his own world. The anger surged back into him, along with a new dose of suspicion. "Why do you want to know?" When someone got Sora angry, it was normally pretty hard for him to stop himself from getting into a fight. But really, this robot would deserve it. In fact, she probably wasn't even a "good guy" for that matter. Yeah. More than likely, she was an enemy. That would explain why she didn't look like she belonged in this world. Maybe she even allied herself with Maleficent and came to lead the Heartless to the "Heart" of this world. Maybe that was what she'd been scanning for.
One thing was for sure: She didn't like Sora.
With a little smirk, Sora summoned the Keyblade into his hand, and crouched into a fighting position. The robot obviously took that as a challenge, because she fired another shot at Sora. This time, Sora rolled out of the way in the nick of time, so the shot only left a trail of dust kicked up in its wake.
"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you get!" Sora declared, running straight toward her, ready to smash his Keyblade onto her metal body.
"NO!"
All of a sudden, Sora felt himself fall over and tumble across the ground in awkward somersaults, covering himself in dirt in the process. Someone had tripped him. He felt it. And it definitely wasn't the robot who stood before him, now staring at him with a somewhat amused expression, he eyes now curled into upward crescents.
Sora turned around to see what he tripped over...A box. A tiny brown box that he swore hadn't been there a few seconds ago but was there now was what rudely interrupted his fight. Did somewhat throw it? The voice that shouted "no" didn't belong to the white robot.
One second of staring at the box later, his question was answered. Underneath the box, two yellow and brown treads shakily folded out, and on both sides of the box, long skinny arms came out, attached to three fingered hands that looked like shovels, and on top of the box unfolded what appeared to be binoculars. Another robot, Sora realized, watching the binoculars peer at him shyly. He could see on the inside of the binoculars that the box-robot was trying to focus his eyes to train on Sora, though he only succeeded in tilting the binoculars downward, making a sad and scared expression. Unlike the egg robots' cold and chilling blue eyes, the box's deep dark eyes were innocent and warm, mixed with curiosity and wonder. Its dirty rusterior and body made it look much more like an inhabitant of the world. Sora could feel himself immediately soften upon seeing the box's pitiful eyes. Odd. A few seconds ago he just wanted to pummel whoever decided to trip him.
"Hey, there." Sora greeted it gently. "Uh...Who are you?"
Sora's relaxed voice must've calmed the robot down. Immediately, he stuck one of his shovel hands out and shook Sora's own.
"W...Waaaaaalllleeeeee..." Its voice was masculine, and it too sounded like someone speaking through a computer, only more high pitched like he swallowed a touch of helium. Sora took his hand back and awkwardly wiped the dirt from his hand on his shirt. "Nice to meet you. I'm Sora."
"Sssssooooorrr..." He stuttered out curiously. Sora involuntarily grinned. "Sora." He repeated.
"Soooorrraaa." Sora chuckled a bit. So there was a friendly source in this world. Well, there goes the "finding a companion" part of his regular world visits. Though he still didn't understand why "Walle" had tripped him.
"Say, why did you stop me anyway? That robot behind me-I think she's dangerous."
"...Eeeevvvaaa..." Walle stated, actually sounding wistful. Then he rolled forward, past Sora, and right next to the egg shaped robot. He pointed at her again and said excitedly, "Eeeevvvaaa!" To Sora's shock, she started giggling!
"You know her? Er, you know Eva?" Sora asked. "Eva" turned to look at Sora, the happiness again replaced by her cold glare. "Eve." She said sternly. Sora glared back again. Walle seemed to like her, but that didn't mean he had to. Though that was a little interesting-Walle didn't seem like the type to befriend someone like Eva-er, Eve. Sora figured she'd blast anyone to pieces, no matter how friendly. But the way she laughed with the way Walle said her name(didn't even mind him getting it wrong, so what was wrong with Sora getting it wrong?), and the fact that she wasn't pointing her gun at him was enough to convince Sora that they were friends or something like that.
"Well why did you attack me?" Sora asked Eve. "What are you even looking for?"
"Classified." She turned herself away from Sora, her eyes now neutral ovals. That just fueled Sora's suspicion.
"Do you know anyone named Maleficent?" Okay, so that was a stupid question. If Eve was with her, why would she give that away? But at that point, it was the best way of getting the truth out that Sora could think of.
However, Eve didn't ignore him or answer with an innocent "no". Instead, she looked very bemused.
Well, that was good enough for him.
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
A horrendous loud beeping sound filled the air, and Sora saw a red blinking light that was going off on the top of Walle's boxed body. He looked past Sora and Eve with a look of horror on his face.
"Eva!" He kept gesturing wildly in different directions, and stuttering out his and Eve's name so quickly and desperately. He knew something that they didn't.
"What is it, Walle?" Sora asked. Walle was still panicking and waving his arms all over the place. Eve seemed to think that he was trying to attack, because she drew her gun out again and aimed it threateningly at Walle. Sora couldn't help but roll his eyes. Did Eve NOT notice how scared he sounded? He didn't even look like he was armed with any sort of weapon, and mere seconds ago she was smiling at Walle like they were long time friends. She seriously needed to take a chill pill...
Sora finally turned around to see what Walle was going crazy about, and his eyes widened in horror. Coming toward them at break neck speed was a gigantic cloud of dust and sand and flying garbage, so thick he couldn't see anything past it. Since Walle's annoying alarm still kept beeping, Sora assumed that this was a very common occurence. But Walle was a robot-he wouldn't have to worry about breathing any of that in, or getting the sand caught in his eyes or anything else that Sora would have to worry about.
It was coming closer. Sora tried to make a run for it, but the sandstorm was quicker. It enveloped him with its violent winds, blinding him with dust and debris and choking his lungs. Sora closed his eyes, which were tearing up, and closed his mouth in a vain attempt to prevent any more damage to his lungs. A twinge of fear started to spread through him when he realized that if he stayed in the sandstorm any longer, he'd die. But he couldn't call for help. He couldn't open his eyes to find a shelter. He couldn't do anything.
"WALLE!" Eve was screaming. Oh, sure, now she wanted his help. At least SHE didn't have to worry about breathing or dying. "WAAAALLEEEEEE!" Sora wasn't sure if Walle could even hear her now. He wasn't surprised if he had already found shelter somewhere. Oh, why did he decide to take a break in THIS world of all the other ones? Another one of his stupid mistakes-go to a world that he Donald and Goofy had never heard of, do a little thinking and come back. He should've just gone to Radiant Garden, or at least brought Donald and Goofy with him. They probably would know what to do, and now he was going to die and fail his heart's desire of finding Kairi, saving Riku, and returning home. Damn it, he couldn't stop then. He didn't want to die. They would die too. The worlds would fall, his friends, everyone...No. Someone save him NOW-
A hand gripped his arm. A cold, rough, dirty, metal, three fingered hand. It started trying to drag him, lead him somewhere. Too weak to fight back and so desperate to find shelter, he obliged and pushed himself to follow the hand, rapidly running out of air.
He scarcely heard the sound of something opening, like a garage door, then he felt himself being pulled up a metal ridge, then across warmer, steel floor. Behind him he heard that garage noise again, only this time, the sandstorm started to sound a little muffled, so he figured that the door was blocking it out. Sora finally took his chance to breathe a generous gulp of air before coughing up violently all the dirt and sand he swallowed. Blinking his eyes open, he saw, to his relief, Walle was in front of him, staring at him worriedly. When he saw Sora's eyes open, he let out a happy coo and then moved to his side. Sora turned and noticed that Eve was right next to him, staring around in wonder and awe.
Sora also glanced around curiously, admiring some of the objects before him. He seemed to be in an old truck or garage of sorts, with racks upon racks on either side of the truck filled to the brim with odd knick-knacks, toys, and decorations that Sora would've taken for granted on any other day. Attached to the ceiling were rows of christmas lights, lighting up and giving a warm and inviting atmosphere that calmed his soul and made him feel safe and sound, like he was back in his home world surrounded by his dear friends. Walle himself treaded to the back of the truck and held his arms out in a humble "welcome" pose.
"This is where you live?" Sora mused, picking up a broken train off of one of the racks and tinkering with its wheels. Walle nodded and beckoned Eve forward. The latter was still looking around, wondering what objects were in the racks, what they did, where they came from, and why Walle seemed interested in them. Though Eve was very interested in them too since she'd never seen them before, she just figured that since Walle'd lived there for years, he'd know all about everything in the room.
Sora saw Walle first pluck off one of his own eyes, which Sora now noticed was slightly cracked, before pressing a big red button that was next to the left rack. The rack started to rotate forward so that another rack came forward instead, and Walle picked up another binocular eye to replace the broken one. As soon as the new eye was attached, he shifted his binoculars until they were evenly matched and balanced. Probably to maintain focus. Then he took out a rubix cube and a lightbulb from the right rack, handing the light bulb to Eve and the rubix cube to Sora.
"Uh, thanks I guess." Sora stated awkwardly, twisting the cube's knobs in an attempt to solve the puzzle. He was never good at those things...
Next to him, where Eve was floating, there was a bright light. Sora turned around to see that Eve was holding the lightbulb-and it was lighting up.
"Whoa!" Walle exclaimed, taking the light bulb back for a second and poking it curiously. It didn't come back on. He gave it back to Eve, and it lit up immediately on contact with her fingers. Sora failed to suppress a whistle of impressment. "Okay, I'll admit that it is pretty cool...Hey, can you solve this?" He handed Eve the rubix cube, and she started tinkering with it like Sora did earlier. But in matter of two seconds, she'd already solved it. "Wow..." Sora took the rubix cube back and examined it with slight amazement.
Walle, who had just grabbed a tape from the rack next to him, handed said item to Eve before taking the rubix cube from Sora, also examining it with amazement. Sora had to admit, she was pretty smar-
"AH!" Sora nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Walle's terrified squeal. Looking at Eve, he saw what the problem was: Eve had stretched the cassette right out of the tape. Walle snatched the tape out of Eve's hand and rewound it hastily back inside. Sora felt like yelling at Eve again for messing with one of Walle's things when she obviously should've known better, but he stopped himself upon seeing Eve's sorry expression that was directed at Walle. Walle gave her a nod, his own way of saying "it's okay", and placed the tape inside a VCR which he happened to have at the very end of the room, tapping his hands together nervously.
The static of the small TV screen atop the VCR was replaced with lively people dancing and singing in the streets to a cheerful tune.
"Put on your sunday clothes when you feel down and out..." The lyrics flowed through the room, lifting everyone's spirits-especially Walle. He was just relieved that the tape wasn't broken. Eve, when she glanced at the screen, let out an "ooh..." of wonder and her blue light started scanning the screen. Sora stared at her in confusion. Did she just think that whatever she was looking for was trapped in the TV?
Walle and Eve were busy interacting with each other and not paying any attention to him, so Sora took that as a good opportunity to try and sort out his thoughts.
The song that was playing sounded eerily familiar to him- it could've been from one of the tapes that Kairi had begged him and Riku to watch when they were very young. She'd had a thing for musicals, and there was one in particular that she claimed was "the bestest of them all!". After days of constant begging, pleading, and whining, Sora and Riku had finally obliged and came to her house the next day to watch. Sora, during some parts, felt like dozing off since he couldn't understand what all the people on the screen were talking about anyway, but whenever a song came on...It was actually pretty fun. Most of the songs were very cheery and upbeat, and Kairi'd be jumping up and down trying to match the rhythm. Riku and Sora giggled at her, and she'd stuck her tongue at them playfully.
As the song he listened to played on and on, he was sure of it-that was the movie that he and his friends had been watching...Sora bit his lip and unconsciously patted his pocket where the thalassa shell charm lay, safe and sound. Now more than ever he wished that he could find them. Kairi was still alive-but she was trapped by the Organization, having no idea where she was or how to get out. She wasn't as safe as he hoped. And Riku could very be dead. Though he'd recieved hints that he was alive, prowling around worlds leaving hints of where to go, there was a nagging at the back of his head that filled him with dark thoughts. The same dark thoughts that clouded his head while he was out in that sandstorm. That was why he'd been panicking earlier-if he died, his friends could too. And it would be all his fault. Even beyond death, Sora would be overflowed to the brim with guilt and sadness that he'd let the most important people in his life die.
Now Sora felt like he was wasting too much time-he had to get out, now, and start back on finding them again. But no, he couldn't. The sandstorm was still raging outside, and he had no way of contacting Donald and Goofy when he was inside a shelter of any kind. It blocked the homing signal from his Keyblade. He had no choice but to spend the night.
Not wanting to depress himself, he decided to see what Walle and Eve were doing now. Eve had just picked a cigarette lighter off one of the racks, and flicked it open. Then she pressed on a button, and a small flame erupted. "Ooh..." Both Walle and Eve appeared to be entranced by its light and warmth, and just kept staring at it like it was a treasure.
"And that is all...that love's about..."
Sora looked back at the VCR. A different scene was playing this time. A man and a woman were staring at each other lovingly, and holding their hands.
"And we'll recall...when time runs out..." Sora felt a new memory awaken in his heart-another that had happened back when he Riku and Kairi had been watching this movie. When they came upon the very scene that was playing in the truck, Kairi had started tearing up and had her left hand over her heart. Sora had rolled his eyes and turned to Riku, sticking his tongue out and pointing to his mouth. Riku chuckled lightly.
Then, much to his surprise and embarassment, he felt something warm and smooth grip his hand gently. He turned around and saw that it was Kairi-she was still staring at the screen with watery eyes, but her right hand was holding Sora's as she watched the couple in the film do the same thing. The warmth of her hand holding his along with her loving expression was enough to send Sora over the edge: he blushed deeply and involuntarily squeezed her hand back-but not too tight. He felt sweat form on his face and he was very sure that Kairi's dad had cranked the temperature up a couple hundred degrees. When he turned to Riku with a desperate expression on his face, Riku just smirked.
When the scene finally ended, Kairi had sighed dreamily and then stared at her hand in Sora's. For a few seconds, her expression appeared mixed, then it broke into a radiant smile along with a light blush appearing on her cheeks, and she took her hand out, but not before stating: "Never forget that it only takes a moment".
Even now, thinking about that memory sent conflicting feelings of chills running down his spine, yet having warmth creep into his face.
Trying to shake the embarrasing thought out of his head, he focused on Walle and Eve again. Walle, instead of focusing on the flame, was now staring intently at Eve's hand. Sometimes, he would look back at the TV where the couple was holding hands, then unsurely look at Eve's hand. Eve didn't seem to notice-she was still gazing at the flame. Walle slowly inched his own hand out, though it was shaking uncontrollably with fear. The couple in the movie was doing it to show companionship and love. If he did the same to Eve, maybe she would love him back. It just had to work...Just a few more inches...almost there...
Eve suddenly looked at him, saw his hand approaching her own, and abruptly slid her fingers back into her edgeless arm. Her eyes were expressionless now, if not slightly accusing. Walle awkwardly drew his hand back, tracing nervous circles into the floor.
Sora recognized that look in Walle's eyes. It was the exact same look that Kairi had given him all those years ago, only it seemed to be magnified and mixed with loneliness. He didn't just think of Eve as a new friend-he was in love with her. Head over heels in love. Sora gave Walle a look of sympathy. Eve didn't appear to return the feelings. She did appear to like him, but not in that kind of way. She seemed more dedicated to searching for...whatever she was searching for. Sora found himself glaring at Eve again(this time she didn't notice though, she was looking at the TV with interest). Whenever he had a mission to do, he always put his friends before anything else. He knew that protecting the worlds were important, but he always found himself caring more for his friend's safety above all. Eve looked like the exact opposite: Mission always comes first. But how could she ignore how alone Walle was?
Sora was snapped out of his thoughts by a loud CLANG. Walle was searching for another object from one of the racks, and a trash lid had landed on his head. Sora chuckled a bit, and Eve did the same.
Finally, Walle found what he was looking for: a boot. Sora raised an eyebrow in confusion. Why in the world would he collect something like THAT? Sure the other objects in the truck weren't very interesting to humans, but Walle didn't seem to have collected a bunch of smelly boots besides that one in particular.
But upon closer inspection, Sora noticed that it wasn't the boot that had taken Walle's interest, but what was IN the boot. Walle was touching it delicately, like it was fragile doll that would break unless he was extremely careful. And Sora could understand why: it was a plant. A tiny little sapling, green and growing and perfectly healthy. Sora would've skipped over it had he been in any other world, but since this planet was covered in nothing but garbage and no colors but brown, the green plant stood out like a shining beacon of hope. The world wasn't completely dead, it seemed to say.
"Ooh..." Eve also saw the plant, and she began scanning it.
Beep, beep, beep...dingdingding!
Sora zipped around to Eve. Her scanner, instead of making a negative "diiink", was instead beeping like crazy, and there was a green light that was blinking on her chest. Eve's eyes, instead of neutral ovals, were now impossibly wide circles, like she was in shock. Then her body suddenly grew incredibly stiff, and her chest slid open like an automatic door, and a blue light appeared out of it and circled the plant. An inhuman whirring sound came out of Eve, and the plant was lifted into the air and placed in Eve's chest. Then the "door" slid shut, along with Eve's arms and even her head, that snapped against her body, now full giving her an egg shaped appearance. Her black screen was completely black, no LED blue eyes to show that she was still awake. The only sign showing that she was still alive was a green blinking light on her chest that also showed a plant emblem.
"...Eva?" Walle looked hopelessly confused. When Eve didn't respond, he started to look scared. Sora felt a little bit of that too. What the hell just happened? Did they break her? Why would she react to the plant like that? Was she...was THAT what she was looking for? Great, she found it. Hooray. But what why did she just shut off?
"Eve?" Sora asked as well, hoping for a response to at least cheer Walle up. Seeing Walle so scared and sad just stirred pity in Sora's heart. "Eva?" Walle's voice rose in despair. "E-E-Eva!"
Sora sighed hopelessly. It looked like he would be delaying Kairi and Riku again. As much as he wanted to find them, he didn't want Walle all alone without someone to interact with. Judging by how lonesome everything was in the world, Walle and Eve had been the only two souls to walk the planet. Even if Eve didn't return Walle's feelings, the robot still needed a companion more than anything else. Walle saved his life. He was kind to him. He offered him and Eve shelter and asked for no reward. Giving him a companion was the least Sora could do. Besides, it wasn't like he never got sidetracked in any of the other worlds he visited. Sora gave himself a firm nod.
"Don't worry, Walle." He said. His voice was firm. His mind was made up. "I'll help you get her back up."
Walle gave him the utmost grateful look Sora'd ever recieved. Sora smiled back reassuringly.
Seeing Walle happy again would be very well worth the wait.