Footsteps echoed down winding, white-washed halls. An endless castle labyrinth tunneling further and further into the ground and ultimately leading to a dead end and a room piled high with computers, one of them shattered and black from a vicious attack. A slight, feminine figure was now outlined in the neon blue light, her fingers tapping impatiently on the aged pages of a leather-bound book.
"So…I'm the last one left, am I?" The smooth, angelic voice smirked vindictively, the crisp sound of a page turning echoing through the candle-lit computer lab. "Hmph…how pathetic…" The girl's expression pinched and soured, her hand stopping just as it reached over to turn the yellowing page. She pursed and unpursed her lips in thought, her fingers twitching at the edge of the page. Cold blue eyes scanned the inked words from underneath the shadow of a black hood. For a moment, her eyes seemed to light up and a smile started to tug at the edge of her lips, but the effect dissipated just as quickly and she flipped to the next entry with a disappointed frown. "Ansem be damned…always speaking in riddles…the cryptic old coot was wrong to think he was so high-and-mighty!" She scanned the next page of Ansem's journal and as soon as her eyes left the page--her lips curled into a grin again. And this time, it didn't fade. "Hmph…I guess he IS useful for something…" She ferociously ripped the page out of the book and stuffed it into the pocket of her long black coat. "Too bad he wasn't useful while he was ALIVE…"
She glared at the shattered screen of a computer beside her--one that had long since been broken by the very key blade that had slain her fellow members. She whole expression twisted and her fist tightened around the journal entry crumpled up in her pocket. "Keyblade wielder…you're so much weaker than your previous incarnations…" Then she stood up so fast from the chair that it was knocked over, falling to the chrome floor with a metallic clang. "But I'll force you back into action…I'll FORCE you to realize the wrath of the fourteenth member!" Lonely, angry footsteps echoed down the hall as she stormed away from the old research lab, shards of glass slowly gathering dust on the floor.
"Hey! Sora! Over here!" Sora turned to the bubbly female voice and saw Kairi waving her hand in the air, the silver zippers of her pink dress sparkling in the morning sun. His eyes quickly scanned her delicate curves and paused at her lovely aqua eyes, as they did every time he turned to face her. "What are you doing, staring off into the ocean like that?" Kairi asked brightly. She was kidding, but there was just a hint of worry embedded in her voice, and Sora responded with a ten watt smile. "No, Kairi, I'm fine!" The warm sand wedged in between his toes and made him stumble as he made his way towards the red-haired girl in the distance. "Hurry up! Riku is LOADS faster than you!" That seemed to give Sora newfound determination, and he instantly brought on the speed, specks of sand flying everywhere as he wildly made his way along the shore. "Hey, Sora, you're still not faster than me, even after all these years..."
He suddenly noticed a deep, cocky voice commenting on his speed beside him, and Sora instantly recognized the silvery hair that was shining in the corner of his eye. "Hey, Riku! Who invited you to the race?" "What, I need an invite to race my best friend on the beach?" Sora just grinned even wider and ran ever faster, his counterpart easily keeping up with him with a spirited jog. "Haha! You still don't got it!" This made Sora's blood turn hot, and somehow he ignored the aching in his muscles and ran even faster, darting past Kairi so fast that the wind whipped through her hair like she was in a tornado. He could hear her cheering distantly behind them, and Riku's indignant "Harumph" as he was left behind. "Yeeeah! Go Sora! Whooooo!" Riku ground his teeth as they bounded off of the pier and into the water, not even pausing to roll up his pants as he usually had the time to do when they were racing. Even so, he shot Sora the obnixiously confident grin he knew he loved so much. "Haha...you've been practicing, haven't you?" "Y-Yeah...I...h-have..." Riku still sounded as comfortable as he had when they were all just lying idle on the beach, and this baffled Sora. Didn't the guy have some sort of limit? "Too bad you're still as dimwitted as you were the first day we raced..." All of a suddenly, the silver storm skidded to a halt, leaving Sora to blaze ahead. Sora briefly glanced over his shoulder at the boy in utter confusion, fixated mainly on his fox-like smile. "What are you talking abou–OW!"
Sora slammed into the wooden wall that surrounded a leafy platform, the one where they used to start their typical races all those years ago. Instantly, his nose began to throb, and he clutched it and moaned in pain as tears came to his eyes. "OWOWOWOWOWWWWWW!!" Riku laughed lightheartedly behind him, occasionally jabbing his finger exuberantly at the poor boy with his finger. "Hahaha! You sorry SAP!" He just clutched his stomach and nearly fell to the water laughing–actually, he did, only this time it was Kairi that pushed him aside. He went tumbling to the salty water and his face was roughly pushed into the sand. Needless to say, Riku wasn't laughing anymore. "Uuughh..." "Soraaaa! You need to be more careful!" Kairi sighed as she cupped Sora's face in her hands, chuckling nonetheless when she saw his utterly perplexed expression. "But Kairiiiiii! That platform-thingy came outta NOWHERE!" "You've lived here all your life, Sora...I think you'd know the layout of the island by now." "What about me?!" Riku interjected, miserably rubbing a good helping of salt water out of his eyes. "You just pushed me into the water!" Kairi rolled her eyes and shot him a smile, to which Riku couldn't help but smile back. "You deserved it!" "Oooow...I think I broke my nose..." Kairi grasped Sora's nose between her fingers and tweaked it a little bit and Sora uttered a pitiful squeak unfitting of the might keyblade-wielder. "Hmph...you're such a BABY..."
Kairi's fingers glowed with a green glow, little green leaves floating around them like they did when the keyblade cast a Cura spell. Sora seemed to be oddly used to it–he was the one that was always being injured, after all–while Riku seemed to be a little surprised and even slightly put-off. He frowned and warned her with a low, "Kairi..." "Oh, relax. I'm just fixing his nose..." The bone seemed to snap into place and with a final yelp, his nose was fixed, although his pride had been permanently bruised. The glow instantly faded and Kairi clapped her hands and smiled, despite Riku's disapproving glare. "Good! All better now!" "Thanks, Kairi...I dunno what we'd do if you weren't a Princess of Heart!" She proudly planted her hands on her hips. "Hehe! I'm just glad to be useful!" Riku easily leapt back up onto his feet, quickly wringing out his hair and brushing sand off of the bottom of his pants. "Kairi, just don't use your power so blatantly, okay?" "And why not?" "It's dangerous! It attracts attention, and it takes up a lot of your energy!" Kairi dismissed him with a flick of the wrist. "Relax, Riku! It's not like we have to deal with that Organization anymore, or anything..." Her eye twitched when Sora started to knock on the same wood he had broken his nose on behind her. "What's that for, Sora?!" "I-I dunno! For luck!" "Says the one who knocked his head against a 6-foot platform!" "Hey, guys, calm down."
Riku's firm voice shut them up instantly, and they both turned to him with leadership-starved expressions. Riku just sighed and rubbed his temples, and grudgingly, his face broke out into a weak smile. "Let's go back on the beach and spar a little bit, okay? I recall hearing Wakka and Tidus saying that they wanted a little practice...and I'm ready to whoop Selphie's behind any day!" Sora laughed and darted towards him, and Kairi giggled despite herself and followed them. "Yeah! Let's get going!"
When they returned to the beach, Kairi, Sora, and Riku were rather surprised to find their fellow threesome reading a small letter curled at the edges. A clear glass bottle sat on the sand behind them. Sora tried not to frown and immediately started to approach them, which was more than his two grim-faced friends could do. "H-Hey, guys...whatcha reading?" He said in a deceivingly cheery voice, his heart thumping wildly in his chest as he peered over their shoulders and saw the mouse-eared insignia at the bottom of the page. His mind raced with frenzied thoughts and as Riku and Kairi peered over his shoulders he was sure he could hear their hearts beating as well. Kairi whispered fearful words into his ear and his heart just about froze over. "Is...is that?" "The king's seal? I'm afraid so..."