(Alex’s P.O.V)
Man, this place is as huge as I remember it.
The moment I woke up, I was in my old mansion. Yeah, I just said mansion. Here’s something you probably don’t know about me, in our own world I come from a rich family.
I know what you’re thinking. “He’s probably just a spoiled rich boy that got everything he ever wanted.” Well you’d be wrong on that.
I kept walking through this big, empty house, like how it always was. As I was walking, I passed by the door to my old room. Without anything else to go by, I enter hoping to find a clue to what my exam is supposed to be.
“Yup, just how I left it.” I said to myself as i look around my huge room. My room was pretty much every teenage boy's dream room. It was two levels high, skate board ramp, basketball hoop, Foosball table, Wide screen T.V, the whole nine. But none of this really meant anything.
‘You have everything you could ever ask for, why are you complaining?’is probably what you’re asking.
I couldn’t take being in here anymore, so I just continue to explore through the mansion.
While I keep walking through the mansion, I couldn’t help but feel how I always felt walking through these halls, lonely.
I guess I should tell you my life story since I got nothing else to do. Well I already told you I come from a rich family. My Father ran a very successful pharmaceutical company, and my mother was a doctor.
You could ask, “How do they manage to do their jobs and take care of their child?” The answer is simple. They didn’t. They hired butlers and nannies to do it for them. Throughout my entire life, I could count the hours total I spent with my parents on my fingers. And my rich status kept me from making friends at school. They just avoided me, calling me a rich brat.
I was always being taken care of by the people they hired to take care of me. I knew that they were only here cause they were being paid, so I never really paid them much attention. The only butler I was ever close to was the head butler, Benson. He was the only person I had that was a parent figure.
My walk lead me to the in home gym. I remember this place. When I got frustrated about why my parents weren’t around, Benson decided to teach me fencing, which he won an Olympic medal for.
This was also the day I threw all of my pent up emotion at him. I remember it like it was yesterday.
(Flashback begins)
*Tink!*
A young me fencing a larger man. Who if you haven’t guessed was Benson.
I fell over in exhaustion and ripped of my helmet. My face was covered in sweat and frustration.
Benson removed his mask, revealing a middle aged man with grey hair and a mustache. “Good work for your first time young master. You’ll be a pro in no time.” He said with a smile on his face.
Though I was to frustrated to care. “Why are we doing this anyways?” I asked.
“I’m teaching you because we need to find a good way for you to let out your frustrations. Keeping all of your emotions inside isn't good for your health.”
“Well don’t I have a right to be frustrated?!” I gave him what he wanted, I exploded in emotion. “They pretty much abandoned me! Dad loves his company more than his family! Mom is always away taking care of other people! I don’t even have any friends because of them!”
Benson gave me a stern look. “Young master, must I tell you again? Your father needs to maintain his business to feed his dear family. Your mother has an obligation to save other people. They sacrifice their time with you to make sure that you are taken care of, that’s their duty! Don’t you have a duty as well?”
“And what duty do I have when I have no one! I’m alone!” I yelled as tears started to stream down my face. “And why do you care? You’re only here cause my parents are paying you to be here! Why don’t you just do what everyone else does, and leave me alone!” With that, I ran out of the mansion. With only my anger guiding me.
(Flashback End)
That day, I’ve never felt so angry, so alone. I just wanted to cry alone somewhere.
Suddenly, I heard steps echo through the gym. I look up, too see a man in a fencing uniform.
“Benson? Is that you?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything, only raised his hand in the air and Leopardus appeared in his hands.
“What are you doing with my Keyblade?!” I tried to summon it back into my hands, but all that appeared was a default Starlight Keyblade.
“What?! This is so basic!” I yelled.
The fencer struck the starting pose for a fencing match.
“Oh, so you wanna play like that huh?” I struck the same pose. Time to put Benson’s training to use. As if on cue, a buzzer went off, and we both begin the match.
I try to strike him first, but he parried me and struck my shoulder.
Ow! Man, this hurts a lot more with a keyblade then a foil.
The match went on for a few moments, this guy was good. He was on the same level as Benson. I manage to score a few hits on him, but he got more on me. The match got even more intense when he stepped it up and wanted to make more fatal attacks. This turned from a fencing match into a battle of the blades.
I backed up to gain some distance. I panted heavily due to fatigue and damage.
“You’re pretty good.” I said.
“I could say the same thing about you.” He finally spoke. His voice was familiar, but I don’t know who it reminded me of. It definitely wasn’t Benson.
“So you finally speak. Who are you, and what do you want with me?” I asked.
“It hurts being alone doesn’t it?” He asked. “ You hate your parents don’t you. You feel abandoned so you latched on to the first thing you could, and that was your friends wasn’t it? You cling to them because you have no one else was going to deal with you.”
“Shut up!” I charge straight for him.
“Thunder Surge!” His body was covered with lighting as he charged towards me. He swiftly ducked under my attack and struck me on the abdomen.
Electricity surged through my body and stunned me. I couldn’t move!
“You will always be alone. Now you will die alone!” He raised Leopardus, ready to end me.
Is this really how it ends?
I guess this is it.
I’m sorry every one.
‘Don’t you have a duty as well?’ Benson’s words rung in my head.
Duty?
(Flashback Begins)
After I ran off, I found myself at a bridge over a river. Without anything else to do, stayed there and cried. In the midst of my crying I decided to just water run by to ease my mind.
“Don’t do it!” I heard a voice yell and rapid footsteps. I look towards where the voice came from.
*BAM!*
But I was tackled to the ground by something small and fast. I look down and saw a young Kira on top of me. Then young Lan, Crow, Jenny, and Alex followed behind.
“Hey! What’s the big deal?” I asked annoyed.
“You can’t jump! You shouldn’t throw your life away just like that!” Kira said with tears in her eyes.
“I wasn’t going to jump you little half wit!” I yelled.
“You weren’t?”
“Of course I wasn’t!” I shook her off and stood back up. “Plus why would you care if I actually do it? I don’t even know you.”
“What about your family? Wouldn’t they miss you if you jumped?” Crow asked.
My expression fell, “What family? Not like they would even notice if I were gone. Maybe it would be better if I did jump. Maybe I’ll have people that care about me in the next life.”
*Pow!*
I was suddenly punched in the face by Alex. Before I could respond, he hefted me up by my collar.
“Don’t talk like that! You think you’re the only one who’s felt alone?” he let me go. “It may not seem like it, but all of us know how it feels to be alone. That was until we found each other.”
He held his hands out to me.
“Sure, your family may not seem to care, but you can still find people that do. There will always be someone in this world that will miss you if you left. That’s what my friends taught me. Do you want to be our friend?”
They were a complete group of strangers, but here they were, telling how much I mean to them. They showed me the kind of caring that I wanted from my actual family.
(Flashback End)
I can’t die here!
I mustered all of the force I could and broke out of my stunned state, and rolled out of the way of the attack.
“I won’t let you defeat me! I have a duty to my friends to make it out of this alive!” I stood tall, readying my Keyblade. “I have a duty, an obligation as a keyblade wielder to protect the people of all worlds, as a friend to stay with them through thick and thin! I know that my friends will always be with me, I am never alone!”
Leopardus returned to me as my Foreteller cloak forms around me.
“You might find this next move shocking!”
Leopardus started to surge with electricity as it started spinning. It levitated just above my hand as it spun faster and faster, with more and more electricity surging.
“Rolling Thunder!” I threw Leopardus towards the masked fencer. It stuck once before circling back around to strike again. This repeated three more times before it returned to me, and I delivered a devastating final blow.
The masked fencer was stunned and heavily damaged. I approached him slowly.
“You were wrong about me.” I said calmly. “I may still feel lonely, but I do not hate my parents. Benson was right, they worked hard to provide for me, and I will never resent them for that. I just wish I could tell them that.”
He suddenly heard a sniffle come from the masked fencer. “Thank you, son.” He removed his helmet, and revealed my father.
“Dad?” I said in disbelief.
“Is the fighting over? Can I come out now?” another voice said. From behind another door came my mother.
“Mom?”
“Hello Alex.” She said with a smile as she stood next to my father.
“What? How are you too here?”
“God reached out to us, to help you with this Exam.” Dad said.
“It was hard to believe since he left a copy of you and your friends back on earth, but we chose not to question God.” Mom said.
“Son,” Dad started, “We’ve neglected you, we were never there for you.”
“And we tried to fill the void for you by buying things. And we are so sorry.” Mom said with some tears in her eyes.
“But that doesn’t mean we love you any less.”
They both pulled me into a group hug, and I couldn’t help but let loose a few tears. After a good few minutes, we separated.
“*Sniff* Alright.” Mom said, “And now for me to be a mother.”
*Stretch!*
“Ow! Ow! Mom!” She started pulling on my ear.
“Your behaviour towards women as of late is unacceptable! I swear you get that from your father.” Dad just looked away avoiding the conversation. “But, at least you found a nice girl like that Pinkie.”
“Wha! How did you-?”
“God has also been showing us how you’ve been doing in your new world.” Dad wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “And I must say, good work!” He gave me a thumbs up.
“Honey.” Whoa! I’ve never seen a dark aura like that, except in anime.
“G-Good work on finding such a nice girl!” Dad said nervously. Then, their bodies started to dissipate. “It seems out time is up.”
Mom gave me a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “We love you Alex. We’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you guys too. I love you.” I said.
Just as they were about to fully disappear, Mom said one last comment.
“Oh! And I’m expecting grandchildren out of you two!”
“Mom!”
Finally, they disappear. In their place, a door appeared.
“Did I pass? Well, there’s only one way to find out.”