Chapter 91: We Can Still Stop Him:
Unkown World – Unknown Location:
Cue Roxas (the song not the character, although he's still an important part of this chapter)
For a few minutes, Organization XIII's former number 13 just floated in midair, unconscious. For what felt like hours, he floated in silence. But as he began to regain consciousness, the silence was swiftly broken.
"Roxas!" a familiar voice called out through the darkness. Sora? Roxas asked back in his head, trying to communicate with his complete self, but to no avail. He groggily opened his eyes to find himself encased in a large white egg. The interior was lined with a grid of teal-glowing circuitry. He knew what this was: the pod that Sora had slept in during his coma when Namine restored his memories. But why did the workers at Dream Productions set this up? He wondered mentally. And how did I get back to the studios anyway? The last thing I remember is me, Xion, and Sora walking into Sora's Headquarters. But… what happened after that?
After a quick yawn, he absentmindedly put his hand on his chest and quickly jerked back in surprise. Cautiously, he put his hand back, unsure if he had imagined what he had felt. But it wasn't his imagination, to his surprise, real, genuine surprise, he could feel the pounding of a heartbeat inside his chest. For a moment he just floated there in shock, struggling to comprehend what had happened. He knew from what Xemnas had told Sora that he, Xion, and Lea had started to grow their own hearts but he'd never actually been able to feel his own heartbeat before. Even when he had been living inside Sora's mind, he'd never really been able to feel the beating of his own heart. But before he could question anything further, another voice called out, muffled by the thick metal of the pod.
"Roxas," a girl's voice said. Namine? He thought skeptically. How did you...? But another voice interrupted his thoughts before he could start figuring anything else.
"Roxas, wake up," called the voice of the girl he'd known almost as long as he'd been in the Organization.
"Xion…" he whispered happily. Tears of joy welled up in his eyes as he realized what was happening. Part of his mind remained in denial, refused to accept the fact that what was happening wasn't a dream. Those fears and doubts were silenced when the lights of the circuitry dimmed as the Memory pod began to open. Roxas wiped the tears out of his eyes as he looked at the exterior of the pod to find Namine and Xion standing at the edge of the green rings that surrounded the pod.
Roxas practically sprinted out of the pod as he leapt out and hugged the two girls. He started to cry as he realized that for the first time in almost two years, he was free. He was his own person, not just Sora's shadow. He looked up to see Sora standing awkwardly near the door leading out into the mansion corridor, unsure of whether he should be there or not. With a smile, Roxas motioned for his human self to come over and join in the group hug.
"Thank you," he whispered when Sora was soon entangled in the hug. "For never giving up on us."
Twilight Town – Mansion Computer Room:
"How long ago did he log in?" Lea asked as Riku frantically typed at the computer. Realizing that the portal to the World That Never Was remained open inside the virtual world, they'd raced into the computer room to find the computer running and the Digitizer beam to the simulated Twilight Town turned on."If it wasn't too long ago, we can catch up and stop him from doing anything stupid."
"It won't be the two of us," Riku replied as he checked the access log for the Digitizer. "If he's already in Never Was, we might as well bring everyone along."
"We're not ready yet," the Flurry of Dancing Flames protested. "We all need sleep after the battle in Cable Town. If we go in now, we'll all be massacred." Before Riku could come up with a witty and sarcastic reply, the computer beeped. The Keyblade Master turned back to the monitor to find a window popped up warning them not to touch anything because the transporter was in the process of digitizing something. In a swirl of glowing computer code, Sora walked out of the digitizer.
"Sora!" Riku exclaimed as his friend emerged from the Twilight Town simulation. "Where have you been? Hang on, let me turn off the beam first."
"No! Don't," Sora interjected before Riku could touch anything. "Don't touch anything yet."
"What? Why?" the older Keyblade Master asked, confused. Lea, however, was not. The redhead's eyes widened as he realized the real reason for the seventeen-year old's sojourn into the virtual world. We were afraid of him running off and getting himself killed trying to sneak into the Castle by himself, but what he was really trying to do…
"You actually did it, didn't you?" the older man asked, cautious about the answer despite the raging inferno in his heart telling him that he already knew the answer. Before Sora could say anything, the computer beeped once more, announcing another, larger, arrival from the virtual world. Did he really…? Lea asked himself, afraid to get his hopes up. In another cloud of coding, Namine, Xion, and Roxas walked out of the transporter and into the real Twilight Town. Before any of the trio could say a word, he rushed forward and pulled them in for a gigantic group hug. Many tears were shed and it took ten minutes before any conversations regarding the "how" of it all could be asked and answered.
The reason Namine was reawakened too was a both simple and complex at the same time. Basically, even though she was Kairi's Nobody, she was technically formed from Kairi's heart and Sora's body because Kairi's heart had been inside Sora after the destruction of Destiny Islands. When Sora used the Key to Return Hearts to reawaken Roxas and Xion, the link caused Namine's Heart to be reawakened from within Kairi's as well. As for how they were able to have physical bodies again, Lea didn't really understand the mechanics of it. All he could understand that Ansem's data was involved with creating bodies for them. Unlike the programs from The Grid, their bodies had become flesh and blood instead of remaining in the same voxel-makeup of the virtual beings of Radiant Garden's mainframe.
Ultimately, Lea realized, the specifics of how it worked didn't' matter. What mattered was that he had his friends back. Namine was a little hesitant to force herself into the group, but Lea insisted on including her, pointing out that prior to his kidnapping of Kairi, they had been on the run together for a while, so she was part of the group as far as he was concerned. He wasn't even remotely concerned about the fact that they were the exact same age they'd been the last time he'd ever seen them in person. He was too happy to care, and it's not like he had any ground to stand on either, since he'd only been reborn around six months ago.
Despite everyone's exhaustion over the recent events, Lea brought the newly revived former Nobodies upstairs to properly introduce them to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Just like Lea had been Roxas was touched by how easily they accepted them into their group. After living in the simulation with fake memories, it felt good to finally be friends with the people he knew from Twilight Town for real. They stayed up for a few more hours talking before everyone finally headed to bed. They only had eight hours until they stormed Xehanort's castle, and after the strain of being physically brought back from the dead, they needed all the sleep they could get.
Say it with me now, my faithful readers: Awwwwww! (author starts crying tears of joy)
Yes, the symbolic parallels between Sora's awakening in KH2 and Roxas' rebirth here are deliberate. I thought having Roxas be reborn in the exact same spot that he "died" would help enhance the emotion of the scene.
How Namine was able to be reawakened even when Kairi's body is in TWTNW is my own theory on the matter. The bit about Ansem's research data allowing for the creation of physical bodies for them is based on a fan theory I found on KHInsider that I felt worked. I just decided to be a little vague about the details because I didn't want to go on with the explanation for too long.
Before anyone starts badgering me about who I'm going to pair Roxas with, I'm not going to focus on the newly revived Nobodies' love lives until the sequels okay? That said, when it comes to pairing choice I come down on the side of Rokushi. Yeah, I understand the logic of pairing Roxas and Namine because they're Sora and Kairi's Nobodies, but
1) There was nothing in any of Roxas and Namine's interactions together that ever suggested that they would be an item.
2) The ship tease between Roxas and Xion in Days was much more indicative of mutual attraction.
With that out of the way, Roxas and Xion coming back the same age they were when they "died" was something I came up with, figuring 1) Ven hasn't apparently aged at all in the last 12-13 years since BBS and putting his Heart back in his chest is unlikely to change that. Plus, I thought it would make sense that Roxas, Xion, and Namine's aging stopped when they rejoined with their human selves, so when they were reborn, they'd pick up from where they left off.
The title of the chapter is a gender inversion of one of the songs from the Inside Out soundtrack. "We can still stop her" is the name of the tune that plays in the background during the scenes when (MAJOR SPOILER FOR INSIDE OUT) Riley is running away (SPOILERS OVER) and I felt that it would be both a great piece of battle music and an ironic pick for a chapter title. A happy chapter sharing a name with an emotional and intense song seemed like a fun little twist.
Unkown World – Unknown Location:
Cue Roxas (the song not the character, although he's still an important part of this chapter)
For a few minutes, Organization XIII's former number 13 just floated in midair, unconscious. For what felt like hours, he floated in silence. But as he began to regain consciousness, the silence was swiftly broken.
"Roxas!" a familiar voice called out through the darkness. Sora? Roxas asked back in his head, trying to communicate with his complete self, but to no avail. He groggily opened his eyes to find himself encased in a large white egg. The interior was lined with a grid of teal-glowing circuitry. He knew what this was: the pod that Sora had slept in during his coma when Namine restored his memories. But why did the workers at Dream Productions set this up? He wondered mentally. And how did I get back to the studios anyway? The last thing I remember is me, Xion, and Sora walking into Sora's Headquarters. But… what happened after that?
After a quick yawn, he absentmindedly put his hand on his chest and quickly jerked back in surprise. Cautiously, he put his hand back, unsure if he had imagined what he had felt. But it wasn't his imagination, to his surprise, real, genuine surprise, he could feel the pounding of a heartbeat inside his chest. For a moment he just floated there in shock, struggling to comprehend what had happened. He knew from what Xemnas had told Sora that he, Xion, and Lea had started to grow their own hearts but he'd never actually been able to feel his own heartbeat before. Even when he had been living inside Sora's mind, he'd never really been able to feel the beating of his own heart. But before he could question anything further, another voice called out, muffled by the thick metal of the pod.
"Roxas," a girl's voice said. Namine? He thought skeptically. How did you...? But another voice interrupted his thoughts before he could start figuring anything else.
"Roxas, wake up," called the voice of the girl he'd known almost as long as he'd been in the Organization.
"Xion…" he whispered happily. Tears of joy welled up in his eyes as he realized what was happening. Part of his mind remained in denial, refused to accept the fact that what was happening wasn't a dream. Those fears and doubts were silenced when the lights of the circuitry dimmed as the Memory pod began to open. Roxas wiped the tears out of his eyes as he looked at the exterior of the pod to find Namine and Xion standing at the edge of the green rings that surrounded the pod.
Roxas practically sprinted out of the pod as he leapt out and hugged the two girls. He started to cry as he realized that for the first time in almost two years, he was free. He was his own person, not just Sora's shadow. He looked up to see Sora standing awkwardly near the door leading out into the mansion corridor, unsure of whether he should be there or not. With a smile, Roxas motioned for his human self to come over and join in the group hug.
"Thank you," he whispered when Sora was soon entangled in the hug. "For never giving up on us."
Twilight Town – Mansion Computer Room:
"How long ago did he log in?" Lea asked as Riku frantically typed at the computer. Realizing that the portal to the World That Never Was remained open inside the virtual world, they'd raced into the computer room to find the computer running and the Digitizer beam to the simulated Twilight Town turned on."If it wasn't too long ago, we can catch up and stop him from doing anything stupid."
"It won't be the two of us," Riku replied as he checked the access log for the Digitizer. "If he's already in Never Was, we might as well bring everyone along."
"We're not ready yet," the Flurry of Dancing Flames protested. "We all need sleep after the battle in Cable Town. If we go in now, we'll all be massacred." Before Riku could come up with a witty and sarcastic reply, the computer beeped. The Keyblade Master turned back to the monitor to find a window popped up warning them not to touch anything because the transporter was in the process of digitizing something. In a swirl of glowing computer code, Sora walked out of the digitizer.
"Sora!" Riku exclaimed as his friend emerged from the Twilight Town simulation. "Where have you been? Hang on, let me turn off the beam first."
"No! Don't," Sora interjected before Riku could touch anything. "Don't touch anything yet."
"What? Why?" the older Keyblade Master asked, confused. Lea, however, was not. The redhead's eyes widened as he realized the real reason for the seventeen-year old's sojourn into the virtual world. We were afraid of him running off and getting himself killed trying to sneak into the Castle by himself, but what he was really trying to do…
"You actually did it, didn't you?" the older man asked, cautious about the answer despite the raging inferno in his heart telling him that he already knew the answer. Before Sora could say anything, the computer beeped once more, announcing another, larger, arrival from the virtual world. Did he really…? Lea asked himself, afraid to get his hopes up. In another cloud of coding, Namine, Xion, and Roxas walked out of the transporter and into the real Twilight Town. Before any of the trio could say a word, he rushed forward and pulled them in for a gigantic group hug. Many tears were shed and it took ten minutes before any conversations regarding the "how" of it all could be asked and answered.
The reason Namine was reawakened too was a both simple and complex at the same time. Basically, even though she was Kairi's Nobody, she was technically formed from Kairi's heart and Sora's body because Kairi's heart had been inside Sora after the destruction of Destiny Islands. When Sora used the Key to Return Hearts to reawaken Roxas and Xion, the link caused Namine's Heart to be reawakened from within Kairi's as well. As for how they were able to have physical bodies again, Lea didn't really understand the mechanics of it. All he could understand that Ansem's data was involved with creating bodies for them. Unlike the programs from The Grid, their bodies had become flesh and blood instead of remaining in the same voxel-makeup of the virtual beings of Radiant Garden's mainframe.
Ultimately, Lea realized, the specifics of how it worked didn't' matter. What mattered was that he had his friends back. Namine was a little hesitant to force herself into the group, but Lea insisted on including her, pointing out that prior to his kidnapping of Kairi, they had been on the run together for a while, so she was part of the group as far as he was concerned. He wasn't even remotely concerned about the fact that they were the exact same age they'd been the last time he'd ever seen them in person. He was too happy to care, and it's not like he had any ground to stand on either, since he'd only been reborn around six months ago.
Despite everyone's exhaustion over the recent events, Lea brought the newly revived former Nobodies upstairs to properly introduce them to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. Just like Lea had been Roxas was touched by how easily they accepted them into their group. After living in the simulation with fake memories, it felt good to finally be friends with the people he knew from Twilight Town for real. They stayed up for a few more hours talking before everyone finally headed to bed. They only had eight hours until they stormed Xehanort's castle, and after the strain of being physically brought back from the dead, they needed all the sleep they could get.
Say it with me now, my faithful readers: Awwwwww! (author starts crying tears of joy)
Yes, the symbolic parallels between Sora's awakening in KH2 and Roxas' rebirth here are deliberate. I thought having Roxas be reborn in the exact same spot that he "died" would help enhance the emotion of the scene.
How Namine was able to be reawakened even when Kairi's body is in TWTNW is my own theory on the matter. The bit about Ansem's research data allowing for the creation of physical bodies for them is based on a fan theory I found on KHInsider that I felt worked. I just decided to be a little vague about the details because I didn't want to go on with the explanation for too long.
Before anyone starts badgering me about who I'm going to pair Roxas with, I'm not going to focus on the newly revived Nobodies' love lives until the sequels okay? That said, when it comes to pairing choice I come down on the side of Rokushi. Yeah, I understand the logic of pairing Roxas and Namine because they're Sora and Kairi's Nobodies, but
1) There was nothing in any of Roxas and Namine's interactions together that ever suggested that they would be an item.
2) The ship tease between Roxas and Xion in Days was much more indicative of mutual attraction.
With that out of the way, Roxas and Xion coming back the same age they were when they "died" was something I came up with, figuring 1) Ven hasn't apparently aged at all in the last 12-13 years since BBS and putting his Heart back in his chest is unlikely to change that. Plus, I thought it would make sense that Roxas, Xion, and Namine's aging stopped when they rejoined with their human selves, so when they were reborn, they'd pick up from where they left off.
The title of the chapter is a gender inversion of one of the songs from the Inside Out soundtrack. "We can still stop her" is the name of the tune that plays in the background during the scenes when (MAJOR SPOILER FOR INSIDE OUT) Riley is running away (SPOILERS OVER) and I felt that it would be both a great piece of battle music and an ironic pick for a chapter title. A happy chapter sharing a name with an emotional and intense song seemed like a fun little twist.