As The Months Pass By [Solo]

[Erik Stoneking]

Present Day

Staring up into the sky it was the same as any other day, another star blinking out, another world disappearing. What this meant was that soon more refuges would be making their way to Twilight Town dazed and confused. It was best if someone would greet them, usher them to the relative safety of the camps that had popped up as people gathered together, but Erik had grown tired of that role. He was exhausted and beat down from encounter after encounter ending badly. No one would listen to him, and truly that was his fault after a while, but not in the beginning. People all had their own goals and many simply did not wish to believe their world was gone.

The cool concrete on Erik's back as he lay splayed out allowed for much more sobering thoughts to enter Erik's mind, such as,

What have I even been dong these past few months?

It was a good question, after all if you looked back on the progress he had made, it was minimal if existent at all. Weeks, months even, had passed by with Erik doing nothing but going through the motions of existence. Scavenging, fighting heartless, and until recently greeting refuges. What had sapped his enthusiasm?

Shit, it must have started when that string of newcomers began showing up.

That must have been it, truly thinking back Erik had began to lose his temper during greetings more and more with the appearance of that man who shot out electricity. Did he even get his name?

A Few Months Earlier

"Listen, the sooner you accept what I say as truth the sooner this is settled. Just look up at the sky and you'll see that the stars are missing! Your home is gone!"

"Look, I'm sorry you've gone through this but you need to accept that there's no going back. Drop down into hopelessness and realize that your friends and family are gone. Once you do that, come find me and we'll work on a way to get that lost hope back and how to find them."

"Now, don't even think about coming into town until you've calmed down, there are many people there wiser and stronger than me. I know you're not dangerous, rather just confused and angry, but don't try anything."

Erik walked away, no longer back towards the home he was initially walking towards, but instead back towards the ruined part of the city to do more exploring.

--
I sure handled that well didn't I. He was aggressive, but I don't think he deserved to be yelled at.
--

As he pushed on towards the city, Erik allowed his heightened mood to affect his choice of path. Though not consciously, he began heading towards where the Heartless gathered. Though the anger hadn't affected him too much earlier, Erik became less and less aware of where he was heading as time passed on. He was tired of being the bad guy to every refuge that came in and was even more tired of being the target for misplaced anger. It was likely the reason he walked away before he could take out anymore of his anger on the man he had met. The man had been displaced, as many were, and while he had been aggressive towards Erik, he didn't deserve to have any more grief given to him after already losing his world.

Still, this sentiment is Erik's mind didn't stop him from getting angrier as he traveled further from the man he was trying desperately not to displace his anger towards. Lucky for him, there was a universal enemy he could kill a few of if he got too heated. This time seemed different though, Erik had let too much resentment build up and was at this point simply running on primal urge to harm.

Turn back.

What rational thought Erik still had urged him not to get lost in the rage, but it was already too late. A few meters to his right something began to pop up from the ground, a little black bulbous headed creature, like an insect. A shadow. Erik smiled and unsheathed his swords from their respective holsters on his back. His right hand sword brimming with the power of its fire augment, and his left hand sword just as sharp as ever.

Running forward Erik let lose his first slash against the shadow and quickly slaughtered it. His fire sword had been the one to make contact and with his built up rage it was an easy task to funnel his extra energy into the attack. Something was off though, Erik was not using his practiced forms, he had simply attacked the being with animosity and killed it.

Run, turn back now.

That voice again, what did it know? Erik was having fun and didn't plan on stopping.

Two more beings appeared behind Erik, almost as if they sensed the death of their friend and came for revenge. This meant nothing as Erik was ready to dispatch anything that came his way. Again Erik rushed forward and slaughtered the beings. He put his everything into those swings caring nothing for conserving his energy or for the forms he had carefully practiced. All Erik was doing was launching his arms forward with all the might he could muster and allowing his swords to follow in the momentum.

Please. This is your last chance

"Shut the fuck up!" Erik yelled out as four more Heartless appeared.

--
I-I don't remember what happened then all too well... I shouldn't lose control like that.
--

Erik's thoughts devolved into urges.

Kill

More heartless appeared.

Slaughter.

Once again, more heartless.

Punch.

--
Punch? Had I dropped my swords?
--

Scream. Bleed. Fall.

KILL

Too much anger had built up. There had been chances for Erik to release it, but he had never taken any. Now he found himself in a situation that he might not make it out of. Not that he had any earthly idea of that, he was just enjoying the fight. The taking and delivering of pain as he functioned as a temporary vessel of pure rage.

BITE

It was no use of course, there were infinitely more Heartless than Erik, but he continued fighting until he was overwhelmed. More and more would appear just as the wounds on Erik's body tallied up. Blood flowed freely form the bites and scratches inflicted by the Shadows until eventually Erik found himself flat on the ground, his back resting on the cool concrete as numerous Shadows rushed on top of him looking for their pound of flesh from the boy who decided he wanted to take on the world.

Concrete, cool and sobering, almost as sobering as the feeling of claws and teeth sinking into nearly every inch of flesh Erik had.

"Help!" Erik screamed out. He screamed it using every fiber of his being as the rage subsided and all that was left was the concrete and pain.

I'm going to die here.

Erik's voice grew hoarse as he screamed out a mixture of pleas and painful cries. All that was around him was darkness, even more so than the normal darkness that Twilight Town had become. The swarming black mass wouldn't need much time to tear him apart and steal his heart, but time seemed to drag on anyway. Were they toying with him? Were these beings capable of such a thing?

I became one of them, and now I'm going to pay the price.

Erik realized the truth, in losing control of himself he had been no better than these Shadows all over him. Now he was going to become one of them. Or at least, he thought he was.

As time dragged on more and more Erik realized the pain while still there was no longer the same sharp pain of a new wound being inflicted. All of the agonizing pain that was left was what had already been done to him. His blood dripped, but nothing new had been shed. Slowly the blood drained from Erik's ears and he began to hear the sounds of battle.

"Ba- o- th- bo-"

"Gr- h- q-"

Voices were clear, but he couldn't make out any of it. Instead Erik relied on the sense of vision he had left and savored the limited light left of the sun as it visited his eyes, possibly for the last time. Even if this strange figure or figures could somehow take on the horde, Erik's wound would soon make sure he was dead. At least he wouldn't have his heart stolen by these beasts. The kind strangers had saved him from that fate.

Erik closed his eyes and thanked every cosmic entity he had ever even once heard about that he would be saved from the cruel fate of losing his heart. Resigned to die he took as many deep breathes as his pain would allow and waited for death... and waited.... and waited.... and waited... until at last...

"CU-"

A radiant feeling overcame him. The pain was gone and Erik passed out. In his mind to pass on to the next life.

--
I sure am glad I was wrong about what that feeling was.
--

The next morning Erik awoke in a bed that was foreign to him and was shocked that the afterlife felt so similar to what life felt like. Taking stock of his body there was no instance of scars or marks that would indicate the battle he had previously been in. This cemented the idea that he was dead inside his mind, but the next thing he felt was a wave of exhaustion over him.

You can still feel tired in the afterlife, eh? Well, this can all wait then. I'm going to sleep some more.

And that's what he did.

--
Good thing they were gracious hosts, otherwise I might have been kicked out after they made sure I was healed.
--

Another day passed by before Erik awoke again. This time he steeled himself and hung his legs over the side of the bed. The only pain left was in his memories, and so Erik felt he should explore this new afterlife. Beginning with walking out of this bedroom and seeing what else was in the building. He didn't get very far though before seeing his swords sitting on a table nearby in their back holster Erik often used.

"I get to keep these?! I really thought I would be saying goodbye to them when I died."

Erik began to pick up the holster with the swords inside to tie it onto his back before he heard a chuckle nearby.

"You're not 'saying goodbye' to them because you aren't dead."

Erik jumped in surprise at the sudden presence of a voice before registering what was said.

"I'm.... not dead," he said more to himself than anyone else. Looking over his body once more Erik surveyed the absence of scars and then returned his attention to the voice he had heard. "Then how do you explain this?" he questioned while gesturing to where the wounds should have been.

"You've never been the subject of a cure spell before?"

Once he heard this it all made sense to Erik, he knew about Cure, but it had never been used on him, and he didn't realize it had such strong effects.

"Oh..." with the pressing matter of whether he was dead or not out of the way, Erik actually paid attention to the person behind the voice. It was a girl who looked to be about 28 with long red hair and a lean body that stood only a few inches below Erik. Unsurprising, considering anyone who was alive anymore was lean due to the constant fighting of Heartless. "Does that mean that you're my savior, Ms...?" Erik prompted for a name.

"It's Rachael, and only partially. It was me and my husband Dom, he was the one who used that spell on you to heal you up," Rachael said while gesturing towards Erik's general body.

"Well, thank you, Rachael. I'm grateful... if there's anything I can do to repay you and your husband's kind-"

"Tell me what you were doing out there," Rachael interrupted.

"Wh- What?" Erik stammered back.

"Dom's not here right now, but that's what he wants to know too. You were pretty deep in the ruined city and you were swarmed by them. That doesn't happen if you're paying attention. So, are you an idiot, or was something going on?"

Erik looked away nervously and blushed. She was owed the truth as she had saved Erik's life, but he was ashamed to say it. After a few seconds of Rachael waiting though Erik could no longer stand the silence and mustered the courage to reveal the truth, "Someone was rude to me, and I needed to take my anger out on something."

A few seconds passed by

"Ah"

Rachael walked up to Erik and reached up to pat his head, like a mother would to her son, for a moment before she wound up her hand and slapped him across the face.

Erik was awestruck, "Wh- What do you thin-"

"So you are an idiot. Dom said, 'If he gives a really stupid answer, please slap him. We wasted a lot of energy saving his dumb ass so he better have had a good reason for being out there. Though honestly, with that answer I don't think I would have needed him to tell me that. I would have slapped you anyway. Do you not realize what type of situation we are in here? You can't be acting like a fool every time you get heated up. We need people who can fight to protect those who don't and you can't go getting yourself killed over something so asinine."

Erik realized she was right, he had known even before the verbal scolding, but he had been ashamed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize to me. How about this, you want to do something for me and Dom you do your damn job as a capable fighter and help those who need helping. It's why we rescued you, not because we wanted some favor from a hot headed child, but because it was the right thing to do. And if someone is 'rude' to you, you find a way to deal with it that won't get you killed. OK?"

"Ok," Erik didn't know what else to say, he was being chewed out like he was a young boy again and he had done something he shouldn't have. Just like then, he knew what he had done was wrong, but that didn't make the pill any harder to swallow.

"Now, clean yourself up and rest a bit more. When Dom gets back we're going to have a meal, and you can leave if you want then, but don't let me hear anything more about you going out and getting swarmed by Heartless because somebody was 'rude' to you."

"Yes ma'am," Erik said as Rachael treaded out of the room and left him by himself. She was right and Erik knew it. He had been an idiot, and why? Because someone who was lost and confused had misdirected a little bit of anger towards him. What right did Erik have to be angry? He still had his world, his home, and his family.

Present Day

God, I owe them my life. And yet I still haven't really done anything for that promise.

Erik felt around on the ground beneath him before find a solid spot to push himself up to a sitting position.

I've really only spent this time wallowing in self-pity.

It was true, though Erik found himself still helping out scavenging for food and items for those who needed it, he hadn't gone back to the goal he had set out for himself. The goal he knew he needed to achieve. Getting off this planet was the first step towards finding a way to get back the planets of all the refuges. There was only so much he could do here in Twilight Town.

"Alright!" Erik exclaimed as he quickly pushed himself to his feet. Looking back over his memory gave him a renewed vigor. Though he had previously lost his enthusiasm to interact with a lot of refugees, he knew they were who he needed to look to if he was going to find the information he needed. If they were 'rude' to him, well, he would just need to take it and accept that he had his world while they didn't, they had every right to be mad, and Erik wasn't going to rest until they had their worlds again like he had his.