Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Sora woke up slowly in a white room. Almost blindly white. Maybe if he covered his eyes he could catch a few more minutes of rest before Donald and Goofy tried to get him up.

“Finally awake, sleepy head?” he heard a girl giggle.

Sora lazily opened his eyes to look for the source. A blond girl with a white dress was staring down at him, bending at the knees. Why did she look so familiar? Sora was sure they met somewhere he just couldn’t remember.

Maybe just as important: where was he? And where was Donald and Goofy? Sora rolled to a kneeling position and made to get up and look around for his friends.

“Whoa there buddy!” the girl said, he knew her name he did what was it, “you don’t wanna get up too fast! You were asleep a long time.”

The girl helped him to his feet anyway and kept supporting him while the room stopped spinning. That was nice of her for just meeting. Or did they just meet.

“Where…” Sora made to say but the words were slow to come. I was never this slow a voice that wasn’t quite his echoed in his head.

“Donald and Goofy said they would wait for you outside.” The girl answered his unasked question. “Guess they didn’t much like waiting in the castle. Can’t blame them.”

The girl looked sad at that and Sora wanted to ease the expression from her face. Before he got the chance she was stepping away and gesturing to a door on the far side of the room.

“It should be much easier to leave than it was to get here.” the girl says and hey how did he get here?

“Uhhh,” Sora says smartly “thank you.”

Sora starts to leave the room but the girl doesn’t take a step.

“Arn’t we leaving?” Sora turns to her and says. The girl looks genuinely surprised he would want her to leave with him.

“Oh! You want me to…” The girl starts but looks away quickly, “I actually have a few more things to finish here but I feel like we’ll see each other again soon” She finishes with a small smile.

Sora can’t help but feel pride at making her smile as he walks out the door.

There’s a long gray hallway and then a door. Then another white room with one door on the other side of the room. Then the same room. Then again.

Sora starts to feel crazy by the 5th room. But he also has a growing eire sense that he's been here before.

In the 16th room there’s something different finally.

“Well well well.” a man with an eye patch says as he enters. “I didn’t think you had it in you Roxas but you really did abandon us.”

Sora jumps into a fighting stance. The man is wearing a suspicious black coat that makes all his hair stand on edge.

“Who the heck is Roxas?” Sora yells back at the mystery man, “my name’s Sora! Who are you?!”

The man rolls his eye at that like he’s taunting Sora.

“Oh I am well aware of who you are.” the man brings his fist up to his chin and tilts his head to the side. He is taunting Sora. “Do you really think you're gonna make it out of here?”

Patchy (Sora’s deciding to call him) has the same tone someone would use to talk to a kid and it's really starting to make Sora mad. He's fought worse guys than this punk! He’s not even half as big as Ursula! He can take him!

Sora lunges towards the guy with a yell. He easily jumps to the side. That's fine he just needs to work up to fighting again. Sora lunges again and just barely misses Patchy.

He goes again and again and again. Each time just missing the man. Almost like he’s letting Sora get this close.

This goes on too long. Every swing, every spell, every attack just out of range.

“Uuugh!” Sora grunts in frustration as Patchy laughs. He was starting to get tired running after the guy around the room and he looked like he wasn’t even winded.

“Ha you tired already!” Patchy taunted across the room, “I’m starting to think Roxas wasn’t half bad if this is what you fight like.”

Sora could feel rage nip at his heart, suddenly missing his friends all the more. Missing Donald’s explosive magic and Goofy’s well timed shield throws.

“Now let me show you how to fight.”

Sora should be embarrassed with how fast he was taken down. He really should. He couldn’t get a single hit on him in the five minutes he tried but Patchy had him bloody on the ground in less than a minute. Turns out that crossbow does a lot of damage.

“Tisk tisk,” Pachy mocked as he strided over to where Sora was barely able to kneel, putting most of his weight on the keyblade. “Maybe you should let the darkness in, Roxas was way better at fighting.”

Sora was tired of Patchy comparing him to some guy he didn’t even know. Tired of that stupid crossbow. Tired of being alone.

He was tired.

“What a shame.” He said as he kicked the keyblade from Sora’s hands.

With nothing to support him, Sora fell on his hands barely able to lift himself up.

He felt a sharp pain in his side, something like a boot colliding with his ribs.

He collapsed completely on the floor. Barely able to get his hands under him. Barely able to scoot back as black boots marched over to him.

He slid on the floor till he hit the wall. He desperately looked for an escape, something to help him.

Then agonizing pain on his head as a hand ripped him up by his hair to be eye level with the squatting man.

“Well at least there’s plan B.” the man said chearily and slammed Sora’s head on the ground.

Chapter Text

Sora wakes up to hands yanking him around.

“Xemnas said to make him real comfy.” His arms were being pulled up over his head and cold metal cuffs were pressed to his wrists one at a time.

“Yeah but man ain't this a little extreme?” A guy with a long ponytail and side burns was saying to Patchy. Ugh again with this guy.

“At least I patched him up.” Patchy shot back, sliding something metallic around Sora’s neck.

“Covering his wounds, that you caused, with bandaids is not ‘patching him up’ “ Sideburns chastised as Patchy stepped back to look at his handy work.

Sora’s arms were already strained from holding this position. His feet were barely touching the ground but he could at least take some pressure off his arms by standing fully. He could feel dried spots of liquid all over his body, was that blood, and his ribcage and head were killing him.

“Ah! He awakens!” Patchy shouts overly cheery as if they weren’t in some kind of dungeon. The shout makes his head hurt even worse and it must show on his face because Patchy smiles wider.

“Don’t worry kid,” Sideburns interrupts, “we won' t be hurtin’ you any more today.”

And Patchy slouches at that.

“Where-” Sora feels an electric shock around his throat.

“Ah ah ah!” Patchy reprimands, “No talking for you! That collar will only get stronger with each word.” Sora would swear there’s a gleam in his eye as he says it. “But like he said, we arn’t messing with you today so!” And they turned to leave him just standing in their wake.

“Hey you jerks!” Sora screamed, ignoring the shock at every word, “get back here!”

Sora watched their retreating forms with anger building in his chest.

He screamed.

He screamed until the shocks stopped him. He pulled on the chains until fresh blood dripped down his arms. He kicked the air, the bars dividing the room just out of reach, until his muscles ached.

Until there was the cold solid sound of a door scraping shut.

And he was alone.

The hours ticked by slowly. Or at least time seemed to be moving slower.

No one came to visit. Or ask him questions. Or even hurt him. There was just Sora. Alone.

Sora started to drift off every now and again. At least Riku was right about one thing: he could sleep anywhere.

He would stare at the wall past his cell and wait. Until his vision blurred and the colors melded together.

Then he would wake up to aching arms barely holding his slumped form.

And repeat.

Sora realised there was absolutely no sign of life in the cell he was in. Just a repetition of black bricks making the walls. And even those seemed like they were new with no signs of wear.

The chains seemed new too. Maybe Sora was their first prisoner.

How lucky.

There were two other sets of shackles attached to the ceiling in Sora's cage. Like maybe they were preparing to take more prisoners. Maybe his friends.

He refused to think of it.

Sora thought a good idea to keep track of time would be to count in his head.

He got to 56 before he gave up.

Finally, finally, he heard the squeak of the door at the end of the hall.

Finally, he heard footsteps walking towards him.

Maybe it was Donald and Goofy coming to rescue him.

Maybe it was Riku or Kairi.

Maybe-

A black cloak came into view, no longer blocked by the wall. Crossed the long stretch to the cell door. Slowly unlocked the door. And entered.

It was Sideburns holding a piece of bread.

“Enjoying the amenities.” he gruffed out.

Sora didn't dare speak, throat still tingling from the screaming.

Sideburns held out the scrap of bread just in range of Sora. Did he- was he expecting-

Did he want Sora to bite it out of his hand???

There was no way.

Sora looked at him puzzled until he shoved it in his face again.

“Come on kid I ain't got all day.” he sighed irritated. Like he was so inconvenienced to have to feed the prisoner.

Sora lunged at him trying to bite the bread and his hand but he was just out of range. Sliding his hand away before Sora could get a second chance.

As soon as the bread was in his mouth Sodeburns walked away, locked the door, and strolled away from the cell.

“W- wait!” Sora shouted at him the bread falling to the floor, “wait!” was all he could get out.

But the steps retreated.

And the squeaky door opened and closed.

The bread was still on the floor.

And if he cried there was no one around to see it.

Sora thought he would leave the bread on the ground until someone came to give him more food. But time kept ticking by and his stomach kept growling more and more.

When the pain finally became too much he had to try and pick the food back up. He couldn't use his hands, obviously, so feet it was. Tarzan would be proud.

It did hurt his arms a little to hang from the chains, and it definitely didn't help the cuts. But he muscled through and was able to toss the bread up and into his mouth.

He was quite satisfied with himself.

See Riku he thought to himself, chewing the bread carefully so it didn’t fall again, playing with my food did have some use!

He would have to tell him when he finally broke out of this jank cell. Maybe challenge him to a dead hang contest. He would definitely win now. Thinking of Riku brought a little ache to his heart but it didn’t compare to the physical aches, so he could mostly ignore it.

Chapter Text

There was another long stretch of time before he heard the door open again. Finally, more food! That bread they gave him did not fill him up enough to wait this long between meals. Frankly it didn’t fill him up enough to drive off any hunger but at least they were coming back. 

A man with a buzz cut and a goatee came into view strutting very calmly. 

“Well lucky lucky, you're awake.” Buzz said singsongy. “Let's see if that luck continues.” 

Buzz unlocked the door and plopped down in front of him. Sora was confused as he seemed to settle in, every other time it was like the Black Cloaks couldn’t wait to get out. 

“The game’s simple kid,” he said almost in a chuckle, “Find the Queen of Hearts.” 

What? How could he do that chained up was this guy stupi- oh he's pulling out cards. Right the card Queen of Hearts. 

There were three bent cards and Buzz flipped them over to reveal two A cards and one Queen. He shuffled them around for a bit. Sora was trying to follow his movements but the room wouldn’t stop spinning as he looked down. 

Buzz stopped shuffling the cards and gestured to them with great showmanship. Next he pulled out a basket full of loaves of bread. Sora’s mouth was watering just looking at them. He almost didn’t see what the man pulled out next. 

A basket of little throwing knives. 

“Guess right,” and he gestured to the bread, “just hope your luck hasn’t run out.” and he gestured to the knives. 

Sora gulped trying to remember which card it was. Trying to repeat the movements in his mind.

“Tick tock.” the man berated moving his hand closer to the knives. 

He stuck his foot out and taped the middle card. Buzz flipped it over with a grandiose flourish. A of pointy thing. 

“Oooh bad luck.” Buzz taunted with a smirk. 

Before Sora could flinch a knife was flung near his head cutting his left arm just below the elbow. It was a shallow cut and probably wouldn’t bleed for long. Sora had a feeling the rest would not be so nice. 

Buzz flipped over the cards one at a time showing Sora and shuffled again. He watched the cards bounce back and forth, back and forth and stop. Sora chewed his lip thinking hard before kicking the right one. 

A of fluffy stuff. His right arm stung before he could even register the knife being thrown, this time above the elbow on the side closer to his head. Sora was right, this one struck just marginally deeper.

“Come on kid this is easy stuff!” Buzz mocked, “Just follow the card! This one here!” he pointed to the blasted Queen, “and then you’ll earn your bread.”

He started shuffling the cards again, agonizingly slow. Like Sora was a baby. Like he was stupid. 

He followed it this time left, right, middle, left, middle, left. It was on the left. For sure. He had followed it diligently and when Buzz did his gesture Sora didn’t hesitate to point to the left.

“Ouch Ace of clubs again.” the knife clipped his ear. “Maybe you’re just stupid. You know you’re looking for the red one, right? You only got two misses left.” Buzz hefted a great sigh. “If you don’t get this one you might just be a lost cause.”

Yeah right he was! He wasn’t going to let some old fart tell him he’s stupid when he’s the one that accidentally folded the corner of the Queen. Sora breathed a small sigh of relief as he watched the corner jump back and forth. And when they stop Sora points to the one with the folded corner. 

A of freaking fluff. 

“Damn! Maybe- yknow maybe this is just too complicated for you!” Buzz sighs, flinging a knife at Sora’s leg slicing his calf, “maybe I should make it easier.”

He moved the A of fluff over by the basket of bread, that Sora still hasn’t won any of, and shuffled two cards.

Back and forth. Back and forth.

“Come on kid, 50/50 shot here.” Buzz says as Sora just looks between the two cards. 

It should be easy. It's just two cards. 

But what will happen when he- IF he picks wrong. There's one knife left. What if he loses and Buzz doesn’t give him any bread at all. How long will he have to wait until his next meal? What if he loses and Buzz just kills him there? At least his arms wouldn’t hurt anymore.

Sora closes his eyes. Takes a deep breath. Opens them and points to the left card. 

The last knife is buried deep into his side.

“AAh-!” Sora’s shout is cut off with a shock. Sora hears Buzz sigh and he pries his eyes open to track his movements.

He leans back, resting on his hands as he looks forlorn at the cards in front of him. He shakes his head almost dejected and starts to pick up the things he came in with. 

“Yknow for some reason I thought you would be smarter. Or at least luckier.” Buzz sighs again. 

He gets up and ambles back down the hall. Not leaving a scrap for Sora. 

Maybe he really is stupid. Because of course they wouldn't feed him normally. They barely check to see if he's alive. Why would they bother to give him food. 

The knife is still in his side but the pain is nothing to the most recent swell of hunger that rakes through Sora’s body. His stomach felt like it was trying to eat anything it could, even if it could only get to Sora. It felt like there was a burning pit trying to consume Sora whole. 

His limbs felt numb and the room refused to stand still. Or maybe he wasn’t standing still? He felt the chain dig into his wrist and looked up to see he was definitely standing at an angle now. 

Everything felt distant but the hunger. 

The cell door opened, (How did he not hear her walk down the hall?), and a woman with stupid looking antennae bangs walked in, took one look at him, and scoffed. 

“Geez and I thought Roxas was lame.” She huffed and threw something at him. 

Sora flinched just in time as something hard hit him. He waited until he heard her fully retreat out of the hall before chancing a glance at what she threw. 

Bread. 

Beautiful bread. 

It looked like the best thing he's ever seen. 

He repeats the same move he did before to get it in his mouth. And it may take a few more tries and his arms may be trembling. But he gets it and he can’t eat it fast enough. 

And his stomach growls but now it has something other than him to eat.

Chapter Text

Sora figures they aren't feeding him at normal meal times. Even if they were feeding him three times a day the one piece of bread wouldn’t be enough. He also doesn’t want to think of the possibility that he’s been here only one day.

They could be feeding him every day. That would mean he’s been here three days. Three whole days alone.

That doesn’t feel quite right either but it feels more accurate. 

He’s been having waves of hunger. It gets really bad for a long time. The hollow feeling in him grows and grows until it's all he feels. Until he’s sure he’s going to die. Then it slowly, oh so slowly, fades to the back of his mind. Fades until he thinks maybe he doesn’t need food at all. 

Until his stomach growls and the torturous cycle starts anew. 

He’s found a game he can play to pass the time when he’s not sleeping. The lines on the wall in front of him all connect. He’s been having fun imagining a little guy running from one end of the wall to the other. Side to side. Bottom to top. Sometimes he’ll imagine the guys fighting heartless on his track. 

The loud scrape of the door jerks Sora from his sleep. There’s the click clack of someone walking down the hallway and Antennae walks into his cell.

“Aw man you’re awake already.”  she sighs resting her head on her closed fist in disappointment. 

Her hand closed around a knife. 

“You remember me kiddo?” She says “kiddo” mockingly, Sora just glares back, “Ha! You look just like Roxas like that! Keep it up- that’ll make this fun.” 

Antennae meanders over to Sora twirling the knife. And something about the motion does feel familiar. If only he could think past the hunger. She tilts her head back and forth and suddenly breaks into a smile. 

“You know what kiddo! How about we play a game? You liked Luxy’s game right?” She’s practically beaming as Sora’s practically shaking thinking back to the cards, the flipping, the knife still in his side.

She reaches up and slowly grabs the collar around Sora’s throat. He flinches back but her grip on the thing keeps him in place. And so so slowly she undoes the clasp.

And the shock collar falls to the ground.

Sora’s reeling with the feeling of the collar gone. The lack of pressure on his neck. The ability to speak. 

He should ask a question. Why was he here? What did they want? How long has he been here? How long will he stay? Any question come on Sora!

He opens his mouth to ask something for the first time in days when antennae interrupts.

“Now if you make it through this without making a noise I’ll give you this!” She pulls out a plate full of food. Meat potatoes and asparagus. He’s never been so happy to see vegetables. 

“Let’s start with this!” and she rips out the knife in Sora’s side. 

Every muscle in his body strains with the attempt to hold his tongue. If this is what it took to get food, he wouldn’t so much as breathe loudly. 

“Impressive,” Antennae sounds bored already. 

She takes the knife she came in with and runs it along Sora’s arm, sending a shiver down his body. When she makes it to the end of his arm the knife turns around and she makes small cuts as she moves the knife back to his wrist. There’s a sting with each one but fighting heartless hurt more than this so he easily keeps his mouth tightly closed. 

She takes a step back, assesses, and throws the knife that was in his side deep into his thigh. His whole body tenses to hold back the shout of pain. 

She steps back up to him and grabs his ear, yanks it so far forward Sora strains against the shackles. She giggles a little as she slices the lobe off his ear. He has to bite the inside of his cheek to stop the scream building in his chest. He closes his eyes and thinks about how good that food is going to be.

“Wow! Just goes to show what the right motivation can do!” Antennae boasts. He will not let her win. He may not be lucky but he has always been good at hiding his pain. 

She does the same slide slash to his left arm and he barely feels it over the screaming pain across his body. 

And then there’s blinding pain in his stomach. On the opposite side from the first stab. 

Twisting. 

Stabbing. 

Blinding pain. 

His jaw is so tight, tongue bit so hard, he belatedly realised he managed to not scream. 

The room was spinning more so than usual and when he opened his eyes to look at Antennae his vision was blurring at the edge. 

“Ha I guess that didn’t hurt as bad as I thought.” 

She pulls out the knife achingly slow. And Sora thinks it's done. Thinks he won. He breathes a sigh of relief.

And then a stab.

A twist.

And darkness. 

Chapter Text

Sora wakes up on the ground. 

Sora wakes up on the ground! 

He scrambles into a semi-sitting position quickly to take stock of why he’s on the ground. Apparently too quickly because the whole room tilts until he’s laying on his side again. 

When the room stops spinning and his vision clears a little, Sora slowly shimmies up and leans himself against the wall. 

He looks around. First looking down his body to assess the damages. His wrists are still in the cuff but he can see the scabs are starting to heal into scars. There’s dried blood streaks down his arms intermixed with small slashes. At least those aren't bleeding anymore. 

Sora cranes his neck to get a view of his stabbed abdomen. He can feel the collar digging into his throat as he bends it. He unzips the front of his outfit to get a look at the stabs on both sides of his stomach. 

The first one seems to have barely healed at all. When he unzipped the wound started leaking a fresh stream of blood but it didn’t seem too concerning. As long as his shirt kept doing whatever it was doing to keep the blood in, Sora was happy. He had to remove the knife to get a good look at the second one. He grit his teeth through the pain and when he finally got it out a much more concerning amount of blood leaked out. The twists caused a lot of damage to the wound. It was bigger and Sora wanted to pass out again just looking at it. 

He quickly zipped his shirt back up and turned his focus to his legs. Out of his whole body they seemed to be the most well off. Besides the small cuts and stab, they weren’t damaged that bad. His feet were in agonizing pain from all the pressure they were under and his muscles ached but Sora figured that wasn’t an immediate threat to his life so it could be ignored for now. 

In the end, he decided to leave the knife in his leg. It was probably the only thing stopping the blood. All his assessment led to one conclusion: 

He was screwed. 

They didn’t care about his hunger, sanity, or his health. And they were going to make his death hurt. He couldn’t even bring himself to break down and cry. He was just so tired. 

Wait. 

Wait! 

What was he doing??? It’s not like he doesn’t have a magic sword that can unlock any lock or anything. Sora held out his hand summoning the Keyblade and mentally preparing to make a break for it. 

Just had to summon his Keyblade. 

Just think about the Keyblade. 

Why wasn’t it summoning?!? 

Maybe he just had to be standing? Sora started the slow crawl up the wall until he was standing up right. He focused with all his might and even closed his eyes to envision it. But it still wasn’t appearing. 

There had to be something wrong. This had happened before, he remembers but how did he fix it? Someone helped him. There was someone last time who helped him get back his Keyblade. 

Who was it again? Ugh! Why was it so hard to think?

Sora opened his eyes, giving up on the Keyblade and the memory. Maybe he was just too hungry. All of a sudden he remembered that sweet sweet plate Antennae had promised him. He looked around frantically and saw it on the floor by the door. 

Thank goodness they left him with something. He was gonna enjoy this. 

Sora figured it was too risky to try and walk over to the plate so he slowly lowered himself back down (careful of the knife ) and scooted across the floor to the plate. 

He started with the potatoes. They were light and fluffy and the best thing Sora had ever had. He downed them in less than a minute. Next was the asparagus. He never really liked vegetables but at least it wasn’t bread. They were easy to eat and a little juicy. Last was the meat. It was stringy and chewy and by the end of it Sora’s mouth hurt but it was so good. Like the ocean on a hot day. Like the breeze before a storm. Like food after weeks of starving. 

A distant voice in the back of his mind said he shouldn’t have eaten so much so fast but the growing sense of fullness was louder. It took him maybe 10 minutes to finish the plate. 

He shuffled back to the wall he was resting on and felt his stomach stop growling for the first time in forever. He enjoyed the sensation of feeling more and more full. Until he felt too full. Until the food felt like it was trapped in his throat. Felt like it was going backwards. 

Sora lurched to the side as he threw up. 

His growing disappointment at losing the first real meal he’s had in days was drowned out by a growing numb feeling. His arms and legs were tingling and he didn’t feel the ever present stab wounds anymore. Blessed blessed relief from the pain. 

He curled up, away from the vomit, and the numbness spread until he fell asleep. 

It was the first night he dreamed. Riku and Kairi busted through the door. Blasted the cell wall and brought him away from this retched place. They ended up in a place that felt so familiar he could cry. The town below them bustled about as they sat up on the clock tower. Enjoying their ice cream after a successful rescue mission. 

They were laughing at something Kairi said when Sora heard footsteps. He wiped around to see a boy in a black robe. He launched to his feet prepared for a fight when the boy said in a calm even voice,

“You shouldn’t be here.”

Sora woke up with a start. 

His whole body felt like it was on fire.

His stomach felt the worst. 

Nothing he did lessened the pain so he just laid there trying to breath. 

Of course the food they'd given him was bad. What else was he expecting? To have good food without consequences? Of course not. 

He wants water. Wants a bath. Wants Donald and Goofy.  

But he won’t get any of that. 

He’s just going to die here. Alone. Forgotten. Week. 

He wallows around in self pity until he hears the squeak of the door. 

“Hey! You ate all your food. I wasn’t expecting that.” Patchy says as he strolls into the cage. “Oh but you couldn’t keep it down, ay?” he looks down at the vomit and slyly over to Sora. “Ya’know if you can’t keep it down, we aren’t gonna feed you anymore.” 

He pushes his foot into Sora’s side and he sees stars. He can’t help the gasp of pain. 

When he opens his eyes, Patchy is so close to his face Sora can make out the bright yellow of his eye as it scans his face. Huh he’s frowning. Sora thought he would be happy he was finally kicking the bucket. 

“Damn it!” Patchy mutters, taking off one of his gloves, “Xemnas is gonna kill me.” 

He sighs as he presses his hand to Sora’s head. He flinches back but is too weak to actually move away. Patchy tisks and suddenly Sora’s in the air. 

He tosses this way and that but whatever magic he’s using to hold Sora up is keeping him in place. 

He carries Sora out of the cell and down the hall. If Sora was ever going to have a chance to escape this was it. 

They walk out of the door at the end of the hall and down another hallway. This one has white on the upper half of the walls. It’s nice to see something other than black. 

Sora is brought through another door and they stop in a completely white room. There is equipment scattered around the room and a table in the very center. 

The table has straps that if someone were to be on it, their wrists and ankles could be bound. 

He drops Sora on the table unceremoniously, and painfully. Sora’s barley holding back a sob at the sudden sharp pain when he feels something on his wrist. Then the other. Then his ankles. 

Sora hates when he’s right. 

The zipper on Sora’s shirt starts to go down and his stomach drops. There’s no way he’s gonna make him bleed to death right on this table, right? He can’t. Surely. 

Sora opens his eyes when the zipping stops. Patchy has his back turned and he’s digging through one of the draws next to the table. 

Maybe he’s getting a knife. Maybe he’s tired of how slow this is taking. Maybe he’ll take him out right here and now. 

Patchy turns back around with a smooth white device in one hand and a very big needle in the other. Sora tries to get as far away as he can. But his hands are tied down. And he can’t move. And he’s getting closer. 

Patchy roughly grabs Sora’s side and forces him closer. Pain rips through him and he can’t hold back the sob anymore. The pain is all consuming and he can’t take anymore. 

Then sharp rapid stabbing along the length of the stab. He can’t breathe. It’s too much. Too much. Sora’s going to die. 

And then it stops. 

Hands move to the other side. 

And the stabbing is back. And Sora’s head feels fuzzy. But every click, every stab, brings crystal clear focus back to him. 

And then it stops. 

Sora wants to cry. Sora is crying now that the blinding pain has stopped, he realizes his face is covered in tears. He wants to beg for it to finally be done. But he dares not speak. 

There’s another stab in his arm and he wants to throw up. 

This is too much. 

He wants to go home. Wants to see his friends. Wants to be anywhere other than here. 

And as the needle is taken out of his arm, everything goes black.

Chapter Text

Sora wakes up on the ground again. His body is sore and he’s so warm. But at least he’s not on fire. Or held up by his arms. 

“Oh good, I thought you were dead.” Patchy is sitting on the other side of the cell. “At least you didn’t mess that up.”

Patchy stands up and crosses the cell to him. Sora scrambles back as fast as he can as far into the corner as his body will allow. 

“Aw, where are you running to, little fella?” Patchy chuckles, knowing he has nowhere to go. 

Patchy grabs something from behind his cloak and Sora reflexively shields his face from whatever pain is coming. 

But nothing comes. 

Instead he feels a gentle tap on his arm. Sora cautiously lowers his hands to see a cup thrust into his face. 

“Come on kid, if you don’t want it just say, don’t waste my time.” Patchy says in a huff. 

Sora yanks the glass out of his hand and downs it. Beautiful water finally passes his lips. It tastes a little funny but it’s so much better than just having Watera cast on him to hydrate. His mouth actually feels like it has moisture in it for the first time in probably days. 

And to Sora’s utter bewildered amazement, Patchy doesn’t stop there. He actually pulls out a bowl with real food in it. A beautiful stew with thin slices of meat, diced potatoes, and carrots that easily break when Sora pushes them with the spoon Patchy left in the bowl. 

Sora gapes up at the man with a combination of trepidation and wonder. He can’t really be just giving Sora food and water. He hasn’t earned it. Patchy just pushes the bowl a little closer to Sora as if giving permission. 

Sora brings the bowl to right under his chin and starts shoveling soup into his mouth.

“Woah woah there buddy.” Patchy puts his hand between the bowl and Sora, stopping his movements. “Don’t wanna have another mess up now do we.”

Sora was about half way through the bowl now and he was starting to feel a little warmer and fuzzy. Maybe he is eating too fast. He lets the bowl rest on his stomach as he focuses on his tummy.

He still feels the pit in his stomach, but it seems to be a little satiated from the soup. He also feels like his stomach is in one piece which is nice. He doesn’t feel like his guts are gonna spill out if his clothes loosen. 

He feels better than he has in a long time. 

Patchy gently pushes the bowl again and Sora takes his cue and continues eating. Maybe he could survive until he was rescued. Maybe if he kept getting good food like this. He could do this! He could take whatever these stupid black cloaks threw at him! 

Sora finished the stew and set the bowl down. He rested against the wall as he started to drift. Somehow getting actual food in him made him more tired. He almost felt like he was floating. Far far away from the cold cell and cold chains and cold captors. 

A hand in his hair jolted him back to his body in an instant.

But instead of yanking like he expects there’s gentle pressure. A soothing carding motion through his hair. Like how a parent would comb their kids hair with their fingers. A comforting back and forth motion that brings Sora closer to sleep. 

“There you go kid, just relax.” A voice above him says, “Just give in. Accept the darkness.” 

And Sora falls asleep.

__________

Xigbar carded his hand through the sleeping boy’s hair. Loosening the knots and folding the strands into place. He’s sure if the boy wasn’t so preoccupied he would hate having his hair this long. 

To be honest, He’s surprised Sora is still alive, but he’s glad he is. If he were to die at this point in their experiment, that would be it. He would just die. No heartless, no nobody, just dead. 

No, they were planning so much more for little Sora than simple death. 

Xigbar figures he’ll leave the kid on the ground, at least for tonight. The drug had done its job of letting the kid actually eat without throwing up, so he’ll probably shake off this fever by morning. He was planning on just using it when they needed to make him eat or sleep off whatever injury he had accrued. But this added side effect of Sora relaxing to his touch, of Sora bending to his will, made him want to use it more. 

Yes, he had big plans for the sleeping boy in front of him.