Prologue: In Darkness Cast

Her cheeks were dry, but it was not from lack of tears. Indeed, she had spent so long crying that all her tears had been emptied, leaving her eyes a pale red instead of their usual sapphire blue. For someone to see the difference however her eyes would need to be open. Right now however they were closed, hidden beyond not just lowered eyelids but the knees that she had curled up behind. Grief was a powerful thing, its hold of immense magnitude. But the depths of sorrow were called that because there was a bottom, and from that bottom the only way to go was up. Slowly, Kairi opened her eyes, gazing out the window at the black void beyond.

Where the Ocean Between was previously filled with the glow of gas and dust, now it was devoid of any light whatsoever. Little wonder that, seeing as the fragments that spawned such light came from the worlds that were no longer there. With no more worlds, there was no more light. No more anything. No more Riku, or Sora. Indeed the only lights now were the ones blinking on the controls of the gummi ship. Even if all that blinking did was tell her there was out there.

Slowly, Kairi unfolded her body, as much from the stiffness of her joints as pure simple exhaustion. There was certainly plenty of space in the chair for her, though that was little enough comfort considering whom used to occupy it. And the two seats behind, now that her thoughts were not so clouded in a gloomy fugue. Her mood was hardly improved by such clearness of mind however. But with that clarity, she now needed to make decisions instead of simply moping around. Reaching out, Kairi turned on the comms.

"Chip? Dale? Are you there?"

The screen in front of Kairi lit up, showing the two chipmunks deep within the bowels of the ship. Despite the hectic air about them, both came to an abrupt halt before the receiver.

"Kairi!" Chip called out. "Diddya need something!?"

The girl nodded slowly. "Yes. I'm sorry for worrying you two so. I'm, a little better now."

"That's good to hear," Dale said. "Anything you need, you just gotta ask!"

That elicited a slight smile from Kairi. Despite everything that had happened, despite their own losses, the two gummi engineers were still determined to lend her a hand and try to keep her spirits up. The least she could do was set aside her own grief, enough to at least return the favor.

"Thank you Chip, Dale. I don't need, no, that's not true." Kairi took a deep breath. "I need your help." The grief on her face disappeared, to be replaced by steely determination. "I need to learn about this ship. How to pilot it, what it can do."

"No problemo," Chip declared. "We helped design it after all! We can answer any question you throw at us about how it works!"

Kairi nodded. "Okay then. How long does this ship have then? How much fuel, and food?"

"Ah well uh," Chip began.

"We've got enough fuel to last us awhile," Dale said, "specially if we're just floating out here. Food's another matter though. We've only got a week's worth, but there's none out here, so we need to go somewhere, and that's gonna take fuel. So, depending on how far we gotta go, uh, we might not be looking so good for fuel either."

"I see," Kairi said thoughtfully. "But, where could we even go to find more food?"

"Uh, well…"

"Hmm, that's a toughie…"

Indeed it was. None of the routes that the ship had traversed before existed anymore, as the worlds they previously connected to were no longer there. The question then was if there were any worlds left at all, along with how to get there. The darkness outside would suggest otherwise, but surely something must have survived. They were still here after all, surely they could not be the only ones left. Could they? Kairi shook her head. She could not let despair overtake her again, not when there was so much to do.

"Alright." She reached out for the console. "Walk me through how to use all this stuff."

There was a lot she needed to learn, and only so much time to do it all. She needed to be careful too, lest she do something that would drain the ship's limited amount of power. Fortunately Chip and Dale were good teachers, warning her of not what to do as much as they told her how to do the things she needed to do. This was not the first time she had used a computer, such things existed back home in the Destiny Islands after all, but Kairi could not claim to be the most technologically inclined person to start with. But perhaps, that was also a good thing now.

"So this is how the gummi ship plots its course?" Kairi asked.

"That's right!" Chip said. "But, none of that data works anymore. The worlds, they keep moving around, so they're never in the same place for very long."

"But every time they move, they also leave a little something behind," Dale put in. "If we go where they used to be, maybe we could find something we could use!"

Kairi considered the suggestion. That was the rationale thing to do, to tread upon the paths already taken. There was in theory less risk involved, and maybe, just maybe they would find something more than just fragments or remnants. But her instincts, her heart told her otherwise. They were here now because they had tried the safe path, the known path. If there was an answer to be found, it would not be anyplace they had looked before.

"This is the list of all the places this ship has gone before?" Kairi asked.

"Uh huh," Chip affirmed. "So we've got lots of places we could try!"

Were that what Kairi was going to do, that was very much true. As she looked down the list, Kairi could not help but wonder just how many people had lived on all of them. How many people Sora had met and whose lives he had touched. How many counted him as a friend, and he in turn. Kairi's fits tightened. How many lights which were now snuffed out because they had failed. Perhaps that was the real reason she did not want to try finding some fragment of them, so that reminders of the loss would not stain her heart more. Kairi took a long, deep breath. No, that was not the reason. Her heart was not as brittle as that. One day, she would go searching for those worlds, to reignite their hearts and give back these people their lives. But to do that, she needed more power. More knowledge. More, everything. And to start with, she needed fuel and food, to keep the gummi ship running and herself and the chipmunks fed.

"How," Kairi began. "How would we make a jump to someplace not on this list?"

"What's that?" Chip responded. "To someplace new? But, but, where would we even go?"

"I don't know," Kairi said. "But Sora, when he and the others first started traveling, he couldn't have known where all these worlds were. So how did he find them?"

"Well, it wasn't like we didn't know nothing about how to get to other worlds," Chip said. "There was always at least one world we could get to. But now there's, there's…"

Even the usually chipper chipmunk was feeling the strain of things, Kairi could tell. She offered a comforting smile, trying to bolster their spirits much as they were doing their best for her.

"Don't worry, we'll find something," she said. "But to do that I'll need all the help you two can give me, because we'll only be able to do this together."

"You can count on us!" Dale declared. "Right Chip!?"

"R-right!" Chip managed, then gave his entire body a good shake. "Right, we can do it!"

The smile widened ever so slightly. It would take more than mere belief and hope to see them through this, but without it they stood no chance at all.

"Okay, lemme think," Chip said. "Back before, we could just kinda fly around looking for the routes that link the worlds. Things traveling between them would carve a path. But, ain't gonna work now."

"How about giving the old keyblade a try?" Dale suggested.

"The keyblade?" Kairi said quizzically. "It can do that?"

"Well, we don't know that it can't," Dale responded.

That only caused Kairi's befuddlement to deepen. Despite her training, Kairi could not claim to have mastered the strange weapon's full suite of abilities. Indeed she was still little more than an amateur, able to swing the blade and hold her own, but it was painfully clear there was much more for her to learn. Now though, there was no one to learn from. If she were to ever master the keyblade, she would need to discover for herself what it was capable of. Holding out her hand, the floral form of Destiny's Embrace appeared in a flash of light.

"Can this really show us the way?" she wondered aloud.

And even if she could, how did she actually use it to do so? It was not as if she could just point the keyblade and expect a hole to appear. Could it? With nothing to lose, Kairi did just that, aiming the blade out the window before her.

"Open, the way?"

Nothing happened, not that she would have expected it to. After a few more moments of that nothing, Kairi lowered the blade.

"Well, it was worth a try," Dale managed.

"But it was just the first try!" Chip added. "There's lots more we can try too!"

"Yes, that's right," Kairi said, looking down at the keyblade. "This is a key, but it's only a key when there's something for it to unlock. So we just have to find the lock, don't we?"

As if responding to her words, a warm glow enveloped the keyblade. Kairi's eyes widened, and on the screen Chip and Dale began jumping in excitement.

"Oh boy, something's happening!"

"Hurry Kairi! Before it disappears!"

"R-right!" Kairi said, quickly raising the keyblade once more. "Open, the way!"

Again nothing seemed to happen, nothing obvious at least. Or at least nothing involving what Kairi was actually trying to do. Instead the light of her keyblade grew brighter and brighter, indeed the luminous blaze was such that Kairi was forced to close her own eyes. There was no sound accompanying the eruption of light, no heat or any other force either.

"Kairi!"

Despite her closed eyes, Kairi could still see light leaking through the edges of her eyelids. No, not just through the edges, it did not seem to even matter that whether she looked away or had her eyes open versus closed. The light was all-encompassing, piercing the darkness in totality.

"Something's happening to the engine! It's power levels are, they're through the roof! Or the hull! Or whatever!"

"We gotta burn some of it off! The ship can't take much more of this!"

"Kairi! Start the engine!"

Unable to see anything around her, Kairi reached out and through pure touch shoved the throttle to full. The gummi ship lurched forward, causing Kairi to tumble back into her seat. Cries sounded over the internal comms as Chip and Dale were similarly thrown off their feat, but Kairi was in no position to help them as she was pressed against the chair. Even so, somehow she kept her keyblade up, letting the light blossom forth ahead. If nothing else, something told her she needed to do that much. And that much she did, even if she could remember nothing else of the journey.

"-ri!"

Kairi groaned, feeling another sort of pain now. These aches were almost refreshing compared to the one in her heart however.

"Kairi!"

Slowly opening her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of two very worried looking chipmunks standing over her on their short stubby feet.

"Kairi!" Chip said in relief. "You're awake!"

"Ugh," Kairi said, rising slowly. "Wha-what happened?"

"The engine went into overdrive," Dale answered, "and we went faster than we'd ever gone before!"

"So, it worked?"

The two chipmunks looked at each other.

"Well, we're not actually sure," Chip admitted.

"Oh, I see," Kairi sighed.

"But that doesn't mean it didn't work!" Dale quickly followed up.

Kairi chuckled slightly, reaching over and giving the chipmunk a scratch on the head.

"Thanks Dale. And you too, Chip."

"We're with you kiddo," Chip said. "All the way."

"That's right."

Kairi favored the two with another smile, then rose and looked about. She was still in the ship's cockpit, and the ship itself was still in the empty, dark avoid. Little wonder Chip said they were not sure if her little stunt with the keyblade had worked. Indeed from the looks of it, it had not.

"You said that the engine was in overdrive," Kairi said. "Did we, use up any fuel?"

"Oh!" Dale said. "Actually, we're completely topped off! So we could probably fly around for weeks on end without having to worry!"

"That's good," Kairi said.

Of course if they really did end up needing to do that, their food would be long gone beforehand. Kairi shook herself. Best not to dwell, and focus instead on things that she could do.

"So, we're still not picking anything up," Kairi said as she looked at the consoles.

"Well, no," Chip said as he hopped up to join her. "But look at it this way, if there is something out there, they'd have no trouble finding us!"

Kairi blinked. "Huh? What do you mean?"

"The light that put the engine into overdrive," Dale clambered up as well, "it's still going strong. Right now the ship's lit up like a flare! Or maybe even a star!"

That caused Kairi's eyes to widen slightly as she considered those words. A star. In the blackest of nights, no light could be seen because the clouds obscured the stars that shone. But even so, there was still the light that you yourself could shine. It might be only one light, and it might pale compared to the blanket of stars that would otherwise cover the sky, but it was still a light.

"You're right," Kairi said softly, and a gentle, almost relieved smile appeared on her face. "You're right." She looked out the window. "Darkness might be all we see, but we don't need to wait for someone else's light. We can make our own, so that once we do find someone else out there, we'll have light aplenty to share."

End of Prologue

I should not have written this. I should not have published this. Except I needed to get this damn thing out of my head so that I can focus on other things.

So the premise of this story is basically a bad-end occurring sometime in KH3. Where/when that bad-end diverges from the canon timeline is something that will be revealed in future chapters, whenever I get around to them. Needless to say however Xenohart has succeeded in his ambition, sort of. Things are a tad more complicated than at first glance, and exploring the ramifications of it all will play a major part in this story.

Now, why did I bother starting this story? Well, part of it is in pure frustration at how limited Kairi's role has been throughout the franchise. She's supposed to be a main character, but you sure couldn't tell that based on the things she's done. At times it genuinely felt like the only way she'd get to shine was if basically everyone else was removed from the board. Which got me thinking, well, why not write a story where exactly that happened? With only Kairi (more or less) left, she must rise to the challenge of rekindling the light. And in so doing, maybe I'll be able to tell a good story.

Technically speaking, Kairi isn't actually my favorite character of the girls in the KH franchise. Best girl would be Aqua, and yes, you can expect her to show up at some point. I do however have a soft spot for redheads, as anyone that has read my previous works can attest to, and I also enjoy the challenge of taking relatively underutilized characters and turning them into something much more. I also have a tendency to, even if I provide happy ends for my stories, make the characters in my stories work to get those ends. Just how happy an end Kairi will get in this story, all of you will have to wait and see. Time will tell if I can make mine as impactful as the one in KH3.

Drop a review to let me know what you all think. That may or may not affect the priority of which story I update next, seeing as I probably have one too many stories going on already.