Chapter XXXI
"The ticket to the future is always open." ~Vash the Stampede (Trigun)
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We arrived back at the train station in Twilight Town. "Hey! I think we're almost there!" Goofy smiled.
"Huh?" Sora, Donald, and I asked.
"Gawrsh, aren't we here because of the picture?" Goofy asked. Sora and Donald exchanged questioning looks but I remembered what Goofy was talking about. "Look, I'll show ya!" Goofy presented us the picture that came with the box while we were in that dark void.
"Yeah! Goofy's right!" Donald nodded.
"C'mon, let's go fin this mansion!" Goofy encouraged.
"Yeah!" Sora grinned, figuring it out. He smiled, "Come on!"
Sora, Donald, Goofy and I went around Twilight Town, trying to find the Haunted Mansion. I didn't forget how to get there, trust me, I was cramped in that Mansion for months, I wasn't going to forget my way there. But, these three didn't know the way so I had to play along so I wouldn't get suspected of knowing more than I should.
As we traveled through town and into the woods, we finally found the mansion hidden behind the metal gates. But, just outside the gate were Hayner, Pence, and Olette. The three laid there, unconscious.
Sora ran over and shook Hayner awake, "Hey, are you all right? What happened?"
Hayner got up, wobbling as he stood up but fell down onto his bottom, "We came here looking for Kairi. Then those white things attacked us..."
"You gotta be careful!" Donald scolded.
"Yeah, you guys didn't have to go and do that," Sora added.
"Of course we did," Hayner snapped as he got back up. "Kairi's our friend too, ya know."
"You're right..." Sora nodded. "You know, I never thought of it like that before."
"Word is, this mansion gets a lot of really strange visitors..." Hayner explained. Pence and Olette came to as they stood up and we looked up at the mansion.
"We thought this place might be the gateway to some kind of alternate Twilight Town," Olette stated.
"What do you mean, alternate Twilight Town?" Sora asked.
"Hey, Goofy, do you think we could see that crystal of yours?" Pence said.
Goofy nodded as he reached into the pocket and pulled out the blue crystal sphere and the orange pouch. "I made that same pouch and I still have it," Olette pointed out. "So there shouldn't be two of them here."
"And this is the trophy Seifer gave you," Hayner presented the trophy. "You left it behind, remember?"
"It's the only one of its kind," Pence continued. "Sane for the crystals-red, blue, yellow, green-only one of each color. But you've got your own!"
"So...where'd you get it?" Hayner asked.
"The pouch is from the King," Goofy replied. "When he gave us munny for the train ride, he gave us the crystal, too."
"But then...where did the KING get it?" Sora questioned.
"See?" Hayner said. "There's gotta be another town out there like this one. That would explain how the King got that pouch and the crystal. Everything makes sense."
"It...does?" Sora blinked, looking unsure and confused.
"That other town must be where whatever's missing from here went!" Pence cried.
"Like Kairi," Olette added.
"I get it!" Sora nodded.
"Do you really?" I raised a brow.
Sira flashed me a dirty look, but not before Dusk Nobodies appeared. We all took a defensive stance as King Mickey flew from the trees and slashed one of them. "Watch out!" He yelled.
Sora, Donald, Goofy and I took out the small group with ease. Once the fight was over, with withdrew our weapons and all faced each other. "I got somethin' to tell ya'," King Mickey said in a hurry. "I found out where Ansem is-Ansem the wise!The real Ansem! He snuck into Organization XIII's stronghold."
"And we've figured out where Kairi is!" Sora yelled. "I'm pretty sure we're right."
"But why'd you all come here?" King Mickey asked.
"Someone gave us a clue," Sora replied.
"Who?" King Mickey said.
"Well, Your Majesty, Sora thinks it mighta been Riku," Goofy explained as Donald nodded in agreement.
"It's just a feeling I had," Sora stated.
"Welp, if that's what ya think, then it's probably right," King Mickey shrugged.
"You mean Riku's okay!" Sora cried.
"If that's what ya think..." King Mickey started.
'I've waited long enough, Your Majesty!" Sora interrupted, crossing his arms. "Tell Saki and I what you know!"
"It's not for me say," King Mickey turned around.
"But Your Majesty!" Sora protested. "Why?"
"I don't wanna break my promise," King Mickey sighed.
"You made a promise to Riku?!" Sora shrieked. I shot King Mickey a warning glance as he gasped and covered his mouth in shock. "So he's okay! I can see him again!"
"Huh?" Hayner blinked.
"Who's Riku?" Pence asked.
"My best friend and Saki's crush," Sora replied as I elbowed him in the side.
"That's IT!" Pence cried, a realization hitting him/
"Your Majesty?" Olette asked. "You got the pouch and crystal from Riku, didn't you? And you promised not to tell, right?"
"Gosh, guys..." King Mickey rubbed the back of his head in shame.
"That's enough!" Donald yelled.
"Yeah!" Sora agreed. "Let's go! Kairi! Riku! We're on our way!"
We headed right into the Haunted Mansion, entering the ransacked foyer with two staircases leading up to the second floor. "There's gotta be a computer somewhere," King Mickey muttered.
"A computer...do you think it's connected to that other Twilight Town?" Pence asked.
"It might be," King Mickey replied. "And there should be a way into the Realm of Darkness there."
"Riku told you that, didn't he?!" Sora cried as he quickly faced the King in an aggressive manner.
"Sora," I gave Sora a warning glance.
"Please, Sora," King Mickey pleaded. "I made a promise."
"Aha! I knew it!" Sora yelled.
"SORA!" I shouted.
"Hey! Stop pestering the King!" Donald demanded.
"Right. Sorry..." Sora sheepishly apologized as he placed both his arms behind his head and took a step back.
While everyone was looking around, I kept back upstairs to the room I stayed in while I lived here. As I opened the door, I see nothing has changed. The bed was still made when I made it last, my desk was dusty from the lack of care, and my closet looked untouched. I still looked around, thinking maybe Riku might've left a message here for me or something, I don't know. I searched my desk drawers and found a folder inside. Curious, but also hopeful, I took the folder out and saw on the side that there were quotations marks but they were empty on the inside of the quotes. I opened it, and out came spilling pictures.
I picked each and every one of them up, looking at them. They were just...empty. Not blank, they were just empty. It was just the environment that I took the picture of, but there wasn't anybody in the picture. That was strange, because I didn't take pictures of the scenery around me, but I was suffering from memory loss at the time, so what could I say now?
I took a closer look at the photos and realized that it wasn't just pictures of the scenery. One of them was at the doorway of someone's bedroom. They had an unmade bed, but it wasn't my bedroom. And another one at a ice cream shop, where the chair I presumably sat across from was pushed back and the shadows looked off, meaning someone was sitting there on the chair. I examined the other pictures and they all showed evidence that someone was there and I was taking pictures of them.
So where did they go? A person can't disappear from a photo unless you alter the picture, which I didn't have the tools to do while I was staying here. I examined the picture at the ice cream shop one more time, as I felt a special connection to it.
Suddenly, the taste of the sea-salt ice cream I had back in Hollow Bastion invaded my taste buds as I covered my mouth, a static forming over my vision as I saw myself sitting at the ice cream shop once more with someone across from me. The static concealed who they were, but I could see that someone indeed was there. I felt myself choke up as I struggled to remember who they were. Their name was on the tip of my tongue, I just needed to spit it out...
"X...X...Xi...on....Xion!" I cried out, eyes wide as a tear slipped out. I gasped and panting, dropping the photo as I clutched my throat, the suffocating feeling being lifted from my chest. I glanced at the picture I had dropped and picked it back up, examining it one last time as my fingers ghosted around the pulled out chair. "Xion..." I mumbled quietly to myself.
I didn't know of any Xion. I couldn't remember who they were, who they were like or what they looked like, but at least I had a name.
"Saki!" A voice yelled, coaching my attention. I jumped, rubbing my eyes so Sora didn't see I was crying and placing my photo back down on the folder a I turned around, seeing Sora standing outside by the doorway of my bedroom. "What are you doing in here, Saki?" He asked me.
"Oh! I was, um...looking around..." I stammered and scrambled to put the pictures back in the folder and put it back in the desk. "Just found some pictures that don't mean anything. That's all."
"Well, if you're done, than follow me!" Sora gestured for me to come and I did and he down to the library, with the floor still opened and the staircase out that lead down to the computer room.
We took the stairs down and into the computer room where DiZ's computer stood with its multiple monitors still on, not destroyed like the one back in the alternate Twilight Town. To the side, I saw the circular pad with the laser on top of it that transported Roxas to the alternate Twilight Town.
"There!" King Mickey pointed to DiZ's computer.
"We found it!" Sora cried as we all gathered around the computer.
"How does it work?" Donald asked. "I can handle it," Pence offered as he sat down on the chair in front of the computer. Pence pressed a few keys on the keyboard. "Okay..." he muttered. "Here we go...ah!"
"What's wrong?" Hayner asked.
"I can't go any further without a password," Pence sighed.
"Do ya have any idea what the password might be?" King Mickey asked.
Sora and I began to think. What could DiZ's password to his computer be? IHATENOBODIES? All in caps just to emphasize that fact? "Well, we only got this photo..." Goofy presented the picture again.
"And the salty-sweet ice cream bar!" Donald added.
"Yeah, the one Donald ate up," Sora snickered.
"It was in the box right next to the photo," Goofy said.
"Hey, that's it!" King Mickey cried. "Ansem the Wise loved ice cream!"
"Okay, what's the name of the flavor?" Pence asked.
"Sea salt ice cream," Sora replied.
Pence typed it in. "It worked!"
A the laser began to glow blue as it hummed, signaling it was turning on. "Let's go!" Sora cried.
"We'll be here to hold down the fort," Hayner offered.
"Thanks," I replied.
"Say hi to Kairi!" Olette smiled.
"You bet!" Sora nodded. He, Donald, Goofy, King Mickey and I stepped onto the pad as the laser glowed brighter and numbers began to surround us before consuming all of us in white, teleporting us to the alternate Twilight Town.
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