Kingdom Hearts Trinity

_What you need lies beyond here---but in order to get it, you will lose something very dear to you, something very important._

###

It has been three months since they last saw the doors of Kingdom Hearts---three months since Sora has been with either of his two friends from the Destiny Islands and even longer since Donald and Goofy had set foot on the grounds of Disney Castle. It was crazy, really, thinking about everything that has gone on and the time that has passed---like it all happened so fast,only to become a handful of memories, quickly dispersed into the air and with nothing to show for hard efforts. Little has happened in the calm of this present world, among the unchanging, clear skies and the grasslands outside of the town. It was almost enough to make one wonder if the Heartless even really existed anymore, the trio having seen neither hide nor hair of the heart-snatching fiends for nearly sixteen straight weeks.

A few hours past noon, the group settled in the grass among the rolling hills. They were about quarter of a mile outside of the town, and had decided to take lunch outdoors. Donald and Sora rummaged around in the pack for edibles, arguing cheerfully over who would get what. Although their banter seemed a little silly, they were the sort of pair who would easily fight over the last cookie in the sack. Beneath them, the group's mascot Pluto slunk around their heels, waiting for some food to pass his way. Goofy sat on a nearby boulder, not feeling quite as hungry as his three companions, although it has been longer since breakfast than what would have normally beencomfortable. Rather, he was looking at Donald, the squat duck decked out in a light-blue sailor suit, and then at Sora as they lightly squabbled over their picnic---Sora and his boyishly cut face, a stark contrast to an almost entirely black outfit.****

The faintest hint of a frown passed over dog-like features before vanishing. Although it had been a peaceful three months...Goofy sometimes couldn't help but watch and wonder.

Donald may not have believed that anything went on in that brain of his. Frankly, Goofy wasn't afraid of admitting the fact that he may not have been the brightest one of their trio. He knew he wasn't exactly the most graceful person on the planet and that maybe it didn't make much sense that he was a knight of Disney Castle and still refused to fight with anything sharper then the flat side of his shield. Donald never failed to remind him of how, well, goofy he could be, but that was okay because he had never let that sort of thing bother him too much anyway. 

Still.

At least he knew when to trust his gut and his heart. To him, nothing was more important than friendship, and at least he could tell when something had gone quite different---wrong?---in his friends, even friends that happened to be Keyblade masters and were supposed to have the strongest hearts around. Friends like Sora. Looking at the fifteen-year-old right then, he thought that... maybe Sora was no longer quite the person he used to be.

Of course Sora really wasn't quite the same person. He'd grown a lot in the past several months that they'd been together, through the good and bad times alike. Sora had had to go through so much on their journey, and Goofy was not so naïve to believe that the kid was just going to grin and take it and never change. But that wasn't the same thing as what he was seeing then. 

At least, he didn't think so anyway**.**

It was easy for Goofy to remember what Sora had been like in the beginning: so bright, so energetic, so up-and-at-it! with his cheesy, tooth-filled grin. It would have been hard for anyone to forget what /that/ had been like. But then, sometimes it'd shown that, despite his best efforts, he was still just a /kid/---that he hadn't exactly chosen to get himself involved with the Keyblades and Heartless. Maybe that was why he and Donald had stuck by him so long. No matter what had come their way---gods or dragons or roulette-wheels of doom---Sora had simply plucked up his courage and faced it head on. It was hard not to like and admire a spirit like that.

Granted, it had been a bit of a surprise to discover exactly what the King's "key" had been: a child in over-sized yellow shoes with a large, blunt weapon. Goofy had been the quickest to accept this unexpected turn of events; he was the sort of person who accepted things that happened simply on good faith and whole-hearted trust. He had trusted his king and soon had come to put his trust in Sora. Donald had been skeptical of the worth of a little kid with a giant key, and Goofy supposed that Donald had been justified in his doubts, but he was glad that time had proved the short-tempered duck wrong.

The three of them had grown close together; therewas no doubt about that. Sora and Donald sometimes acted like it was impossible for the two of them to work together without fighting---as in the fiasco concerning their Gummi ship and a certain jungle world---but the two would always show in the end how much they valued each other as part of this motley team. 

Goofy chuckled inwardly at the memories.****

A team---that's what they had become, wasn't it? They all needed each other, whether they'd admit it or not. No matter how strong Sora got, he just couldn't face the darkness alone. Donald would never get anywhere if he didn't have Sora to keep his ego and temper in check, or if he didn't have Goofy to depend on. And Goofy...well, Goofy didn't know what he'd do without his friends on this journey to find the king, the door to the light, and Sora's old buddy Riku. The team had split uponce in Hollow Bastion---Goofy had sworn to himself that he'd never let anything like it happen again.  Regardless of darkness, Heartless, or promises to a mouse king, his friends were always foremost on his mind. Whatever happened, they were facing it together.

Goofy sighed.

So what did one do when they didn't know how they could help their friends or even if they were able? 

Then he wondered if his worries even had any merit, or if it was all just the imagination of a simple-minded dog-knight.****

He plopped clumsily into the grass, his lanky form leaning against the boulder. His eyes were still on his friends.

He didn't know what to do.****

###

A week had passed after coming to this world when it had happened. Out among the hillsides, underneath the night sky, they had seen the shooting stars, bright against the darkness. Goofy's shout of surprise, Donald's squawking and Pluto's loud barking had cut through the silence. Yet, even amid the noise, they had all heard it happen---Sora's startled cry, and the sound of his body falling to the earth.

Goofy had carried Sora to the closest Healer in the town, Donald and Pluto anxiously going with him. Nothing had seemed to be physically wrong with the boy---he just wouldn't wake up. His face had been so pale and empty---like Sora had simply gone, leaving his sleeping body in this world.

Sora didn't awaken through the next week. When he finally opened his sky-blue eyes, he looked so...lost, his eyes wide and vacant as they stared into theair.****

"I can't remember what I was searching for."

His voice was quiet, almost wondering. 

"What are you talking about??" Donald demanded worriedly.

"Yeah, Sora!" Goofy spoke up. "What happened?"

There was a moment's silence as Sora lay still on the bed.

"I don't know," he said at last. "There were cards, and my memories in a castle. I was looking for something." He paused, biting his lip. "The white-haired girl...she drew the castle, like in the Secret Place..." 

Then he stopped abruptly, brushing away his dreams and recollections.

"...it doesn't matter." He seemed to slowly be easing back into his old self, resolve visiblein the set of his mouth and bright eyes. "As long as I hold onto my friends, it's all right. As long as I hold onto my friends...maybe I'll remember."

Donald and Goofy exchanged confused glances.

"Don't worry, Sora," Goofy said at last, his words intense with feeling. "We'll help you!"

Donald nodded vehemently.

"Right!"****

They stayed on that world to retrieve the gummi parts scattered in the fields around the town by the meteor shower and to help Chip and Dale build a Gummi ship. It has been a slow and painstaking job, the fact that their tools for building said ship were pretty limited on this world not helping. And through the weeks, Sora has been slowly changing. In some ways very subtly...in others, not so.****

The biggest shock may have been when Sora decided to bleach his hair. At the time Donald had simply blown it off as a "teenage" phase, but Goofy sometimes wondered if maybe it hadn't been something more than that. Sora's chocolate colored hair, his red jumpsuit and yellow clown-shoes---maybe he was just being silly, but Sora looked so different now it was almost scary how much he'd changed. It wasn't just the clothes and the hair---although that helped in its own way---it was like---

Goofy had never been one for melodrama, but, looking at Sora now, it's like he'd lost something, but he can't quite put his finger on what it is.

Perhaps what had made Sora so special was because it'd been like the light had always been there to protect him. No matter what had happened, there had always been that bit of sincere purity in him.

Now...was it gone? Was it possible... was that light gone?

Goofy bit into a sandwich, barely paying any attention to the food he was chewing. Donald was sprawled beside Pluto, the two of them almost snoring as they took their after-lunch nap. 

Sora was lying in the grass in the field, staring up at the sky. His gold-blonde hair was like a halo around his face; the black of his clothes made his body like a dark shadow against the light-green blades of grass. He turned his head to look at Goofy. Some of the knight's misgivings must have been written on his face because suddenly Sora's mouth split into a grin---like he was saying everything's all right; don't worry about me. The gesture was so empty it hurt to look at him.

Goofy took a deep breath and smiled back.

###

The more important it is, the deeper you keep it in your heart until eventually you forget it. That includes yourself.

_Myself too?_

_You will lose the light in the dark and even forget what you lost._

_The light, in the dark..._

###

A/N:

Ending and beginning quotes from the translations of CoM scenes from the Ansem Report news site.

If you've read my other one-shot "Nihility," you know who the white-haired girl is supposed to be...^^


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