A/N: Note, there is a little bit of profanity in this, some blood and violence (because of battling). To some, Sora cussing might seem out of character, but I just can't write a guy who is too innocent. It's not in my nature lol. I kept the cursing to a minimum, but it's in there. Without further adieu!
Song: "Slip Away"
Artist: Alive Like Me
~x~
I have a hold of everything I've ever wanted
Will somebody please tell me what to say?
I'm lost for words and I can't seem to find a way
around the awful truth
Coming into the clearing, his friends trudging along behind him, Sora could see the tower ahead of him. Looming high up into the sky, it looked foreboding, almost sinister in the way the stones jutted out in angular directions. Inside, he knew someone was trapped and he only had a short time before the witch came and stopped him.
"Sora, look out!" Donald suddenly shouted.
A flash of light, and then suddenly there were countless Heartless standing before him. Two large ones with cotton heads roared and upon the strike of Donald's Thunder, hundreds of spores erupted from the depths of the fluff. Sora's Keyblade appeared with a slight tingle down his arms and then he lunged forward, spinning upward to meet one of the seed Heartless in battle.
Around him, Donald and Goofy fought with magic and might, eliminating all that stood in their way. But their strength combined was not a match to Sora's, the Keyblade Master. His corded muscles hardly strained as he hacked and slashed, spun and twirled with blade outstretched. Never once did his eyes leave the window of the moss-covered old tower, however, for he knew who was within.
The Heartless respawned a few times, but Sora dispatched of them quickly, running up to the tower and peering closely for any way up. Running his fingers along the rocks, her realized that they were too smooth. How was he supposed to get up there? He dismissed his Keyblade and turned to Goofy in question.
"Is there anything you can do?" he asked, panting slightly from the exertion of the previous battle. His cobalt blue eyes shone with anxiety. There wasn't much time.
"Gawrsh, Sora, I don't know," Goofy said sadly. "If you can't climb, I don't know how else to getcha up there."
"Donald?" Sora asked, arching one eyebrow. "Is there a spell?"
Donald hung his head. "Afraid not, Sora. Nothing that would reach, anyway."
Sora growled under his breath, balling his hand into a fist. The witch had told him someone important to him would be waiting in the tower. Rapunzel was gone because Sora had helped her to escape, so the witch took someone else. Riku had been in the tavern, waiting with Rapunzel for Flynn to show up, so who did that leave? Who else was so important to Sora that it would bring him clear out into the forest to retrieve them?
At the sound of a meek cry from above, his heart skipped a beat and he narrowed his eyes.
When he saw the witch again . . . He'd make her pay.
"You have to hurry, Sora," Goofy said as Sora's eyes scanned the moss. "The witch said she's hurt."
"I know that," Sora breathed, taking a step back and gazing up into the sky. His mind raced, and then he spotted it. Some vines twisting around the top of the tower. They weren't very long, but maybe if the person inside the tower helped . . .
Sora brushed his bangs out of his eyes and placed his gloved hands by his mouth.
"Hello?" he called loudly upward, hoping for the person who he hoped it wasn't to make a move.
Donald and Goofy exchanged glances, but remained silent.
"Hellooooooo?" Sora called again, and this time, he got an answer.
A small set of fingers appeared on the windowsill, as though someone was trying to pull themselves up. Sora's heart beat ever faster as dread began to creep its icy way through his veins.
A crimson-haired head popped up, and their eyes met.
"H-Help . . . Me . . ." she whispered, and then her head disappeared into the room again.
"Kairi's up there!" Donald cried, as if Sora wasn't already aware.
Sora's face turned in a snarl at the thought of the witch hurting Kairi. He hadn't seen her since he left for his Mark of Mastery exam, and he hadn't expected the next time he saw her for her to be in danger or hurt. This entire situation was his fault, because of who he was and what he stood for. Kairi would be safe if it weren't for him.
"Donald, cast a spell on those vines," Sora ordered, pointing up toward the side of the window. "Not all of them, just one part. I'm gonna use it to climb up."
Donald nodded tersely and then cast a Fire spell on the vines. The small burst of flame licked at the greenery, disintegrating the plants just enough to let them fall downward in a long rope. Sora stepped forward and tugged on them, seeing how sturdy they were. They seemed all right, but he knew he'd have to hurry, just in case they broke apart completely.
"Keep a look out for Heartless or the witch," Sora said, knowing he was ordering his friends around rather rudely. He wasn't trying to, it's just that when Kairi was in trouble, it had a tendency to turn Sora into a completely different person. He didn't know why, but the witch had gotten it right—Kairi was extremely important to him.
Turning to face the tower, Sora began to climb. He didn't think about the height of the tower, nor the fact that he could fall at any moment. He just kept his mind focused on getting to the window. As he got higher and higher, things got quieter and quiet, until the only things he could hear in his ears were the wind and the occasional cawing of a crow. He looked down once, seeing that Donald and Goofy were practically black dots on the ground. One deep, shuddering breath later, he finished his climb and grabbed onto the windowsill.
It was an easy task to pull himself up onto the sill, and when he saw Kairi sprawled out on the ground in a puddle of blood in a long, pink satin dress similar to Rapunzel's and a ridiculously long mane of red hair, it was even easier to clamber into the tower and go rushing to her side. He skidded to a halt beside her, faintly reminded of the time he found her lying comatose on the ground in Hollow Bastion, and then he checked her wounds with gentle yet deft fingers.
"T-The wit-witch spelled m-me . . ." Kairi choked out, blood gargling in her throat.
"I know," Sora said softly, seeing that the witch had indeed spelled Kairi. Her hair was as long as Rapunzel's, but it was bleeding so much that it made Sora cringe. It was like the hairs were pulling on her scalp, on her neck, on her entire head. Sora felt ill at the sight of small, bloody gashes on the base of her throat. It was like nothing he'd ever seen before, and he'd killed thousands of Heartless and Nobodies. He remained strong, however, because he knew he had to. For Kairi's sake.
"S-Sora," Kairi whimpered, her eyes squeezing shut. "It . . . Hurts . . ."
Sora threw his arm out to the side, trying to summon his Keyblade so he could cut the hair off, but it felt like something was blocking him. Apparently, magic didn't work in this room, not even Keyblade magic. He was going to have to try something else.
Tears began to slide slowly out of the corners of Kairi's shimmering cerulean eyes, and as much as Sora wanted to comfort her, he knew he had no time. The more the hair grew longer, the sooner she would die. At this rate, the spell would rip her head clean off. Sora didn't want to think about that.
Sora scrambled around the room, sifting through all of Rapunzel's drawers and cabinets, looking for some sort of knife or pair of shears. He tried not to panic, hearing Kairi's soft, garbled noises behind him. After everything he had been through, nothing had been this bad. This witch, this mother of Rapunzel . . . Was pure darkness incarnate.
Finally, Sora found a small razor in the back of a drawer and he hurried back of to Kairim beginning to cut. The hair was growing rapidly, though, so Sora knew that simply cutting it wasn't going to help. There had to be another way, something that the witch had said or done.
"Kairi, I really want to help you," Sora breathed raggedly. It was taking everything he had in him not to freak out. The thought of losing Kairi in such a horrible, gruesome way was threatening to undo him. His hands were trembling as he cut the hair in clumps, blood staining his fingers. "Did the—"
He stopped when Kairi burst out into gut-wrenching sobs of fear and agony, her normally pretty face scrunching up. "Sora, it hurts!" she shrieked, and her cries stabbed Sora deep within his heart. He had to hurry.
"Aw, don't cry, Kai," he said, though it sounded awfully callous to his own ears. "I'm going to save you. Trust me, okay?" He kept cutting her hair, tossing the strands away from him like live snakes. It just. Kept. Growing.
"I-I do . . ." she sniffled, struggling to regain her composure. She was nearing hysteria and the lacerations on her neck were getting wider by the second.
Sora finally tossed the blade aside. This was like when Hercules fought the Hydra—every time he cut one chunk of hair, two more took its place. As long as they were in this tower, the spell wasn't going to wear off. It was only going to get stronger.
"Fuck!" Sora swore angrily. Profanity wasn't something normal for him, but he was distraught. Then, a lightbulb flashed in his mind.
As long as they were in this tower.
"We have to get you out of here!" Sora exclaimed, tenderly slipping his arms under her shoulders and knees, lifting her up like the Princess of Heart she was and striding with purpose over to the window. Her head fell back with the weight of the hair, that awful hair, and she stifled a scream with the back of her hand.
Sora stepped up onto the windowsill. He had no idea if this was going to work, but he had to try.
"D-Don't . . . Let m-me die," Kairi gasped out, her eyes rolling as the pain swelled within her.
"I promised you I'd come back to you, didn't I?" Sora whispered back, his eyes shining with sincerity even as a blush stained his cheeks.
Kairi promptly fainted, and Sora leapt out the window.
As they fell, the hair still remaining in the tower with plenty of give for her to fall, Sora did the unthinkable.
Drawing upon all of the magic and power he had within him, he tried to remember what it felt like to change into a Drive form. He wasn't wearing the clothing that he used Drives with, but he hoped his heart was strong enough to remember the spell. As the magic rolled over his skin in hot waves, he gasped and let go of Kairi. For a moment, the two of them fell apart as Sora changed . . .
And then he was in Wisdom form, skating through the air on the winds themselves, catching Kairi in one arm and drawing his deadly-sharp Keyblade with the other. A second Keyblade materialized in the air behind his head. Drawing on all of the magic and courage he had inside of him, he projected the Keyblades outward. They made quick work of the hair, cutting it off and leaving Kairi with a raggedly-cut mess that probably would fall to her waist when they landed.
Sora held her close and drifted downward easily, landing in a skate and twisting around to face his friends. He set Kairi down, and Donald rushed to cast Curaga on her. Once the wounds on her neck healed up, leaving nothing but some purplish bruising, Kairi came to with a loud gasp, clutching her hands to her throat and sitting up.
Keyblades whirring and spinning behind Sora in his blue clothing, Sora smiled down at Kairi in relief.
"Told ya," he said brightly.
Kairi scrabbled to her feet and leapt onto him, throwing her arms around his neck and hugging him. He slid backward in the air a few feet and, flushing bright red, wrapped his arms around Kairi's frail, quivering body in a gentle embrace.
"Thank you," Kairi whispered, her voice sending a chill down his spine.
"Of course," he murmured back.
Donald and Goofy nudged each other, exchanging winks and secretive laughter, and for a moment, it felt like everything was going to be okay. Riku and Rapunzel were probably waiting for them at the tavern. If they hurried, they could regroup and discuss what to do about the witch.
Sora dismissed his Wisdom form and landed softly on the ground, one arm still wrapped around Kairi as he held his Keyblade, Oblivion, with the other. He opened his mouth to speak, but was silenced as the ground began to rumble beneath them.
"E-E-E-Earthquaaaaaaaaake!" Donald and Goofy wailed simultaneously as the rumbling turned to shaking, and then the shaking got so powerful that all four of them went crashing to the ground. Kairi grabbed onto Sora's hand as everything vibrated violently around them, trees crashing down and birds screaming in terror as they flew out of said trees. The ground began to split around them, and in the next second, Donald and Goofy were staying and Kairi and Sora were falling.
Kairi screamed in horror as the land they had fallen onto split from the rest of the cliff and started to crumble downward and apart. They slid down the rock face, dirt and twigs and all manner of things tearing at their clothes, but Sora did everything in his power not to let go of Kairi's hand. All he could think about was the fact that there was an earthquake happening at the oddest moment and . . . Uh-oh.
A load, screeching roar erupted and all around them, shadows swept over the land, blocking out the sun. The shaking and rumbling stopped, leaving Kairi and Sora teetering on the edge of a great drop, the land they were on barely standing. Between their spot and the place where Donald, Goofy, and the tower were . . . Was a dragon.
Maleficent's black, wicked dragon of pure darkness.
"How did she find us here?" Sora growled more to himself than to Kairi, crawling up and away from the dangerous cliff edge, pulling Kairi close to his side.
"Sorry to interrupt your touching moment together," came a loud, cackling voice from seemingly nowhere. "But someone has a message for you."
Sora glared upward, seeing the witch who had spelled Kairi riding atop the dragon's back. The dragon's claws, as big as Sora's entire body and sharp as swords, gouged the ground beneath it as it readied itself to blow fire. Sora felt the wind rushing past them as it sucked in a breath. He knew they needed to get off this spit of land, and fast.
"Tell Maleficent to bug off!" Donald shouted, raising his Save the Queen and preparing to do magic.
"Yeah!" Goofy added. "She's old news!"
"Silence!" the witch shrieked manically, waving her left hand. As she moved, the dragon's massive wing swept in Sora's friends' direction, sending them flying off into the nearby destroyed forest.
Angrily, Sora pulled Kairi to her feet with him and glowered at the witch.
"Leave my friends alone!" he cried, Oblivion reappearing in his hand.
"It's not those friends Maleficent is interested in," the witch said with gleeful evil. "It's the one standing behind you."
Carefully, Sora grabbed Kairi's wrist and pushed her protectively behind him. He lowered his chin and eyed the witch with dangerous rage flickering in his eyes. The witch wasn't getting near Kairi. Not again.
"Stay away from her," he snarled loudly enough for the witch and the dragon to hear. "Stay the fuck away from her, or I'll kill you."
Kairi gasped slightly behind him and he felt her small fingers gripping his tightly. Sora barely noticed it through his anger though. The ire was burning inside of him, filling his entire body and sending him close to a place in his heart he never dared venture. It wouldn't bother him normally, but now that he knew he could use Drive forms without needing the special clothing . . .
Anti-form was the last thing he needed right now, no matter how powerful it was.
"Touchy, aren't we?" the witch grinned wickedly. "Careful with the words you use, Keybearer—the darkness might take over."
"Shut up!" Sora roared, letting go of Kairi's hand so he could draw another Keyblade—Oathkeeper. Without another word, he leapt forward and onto the dragon's nearby foot. Behind him, Kairi took her opportunity and leapt the small distance to solid ground, rolling into a crouch as she landed. Sora leapt deftly up onto the dragon's back and running toward the witch with a savage roar.
On the ground below, the dragon tried to stomp on Kairi, but she was too fast for him somehow. She drew her own Keyblade, Floral Memories, and began to hack and slash at the dark creature's paws, jumping back and forth like a dexterous cat. Her waist-length hair, a ragged mess about her body, and her purple satin skirts swept out around her body as she fought, but Sora didn't have much time to pay attention to her newfound battle skills.
Shadows and Neoshadows spawned on the dragon's back, born of its pure darkness, and Sora was forced to fight them off while still deflecting the witch's expertly aimed spells. He was able to fend off the Heartless, but a well-placed spell caught Sora in the chest and he felt a shocking pain rippling through his body, followed by a warm feeling blossoming over his chest. He fell onto his back, Keyblades slipping out of his grasp, and went sliding all the way down the dragon's wing and onto the ground.
The witch's incessant cackling filled Sora's ears followed by the crackling of the dragon's flame as it tried to burn Kairi to a crisp. Kairi dodged it and then was suddenly standing over Sora, her eyes wild with concern.
She felt to her knees, let her Keyblade disappear, and placed both of her hands on Sora's chest. She pressed downward as hard as she could.
"H-How bad is it?" Sora managed to gasp out as more white-hot pain blinded his body.
"Not too bad," she said meekly, though he knew it was a lie. "You need Donald, though."
Donald . . . Was nowhere in sight.
The witch slid down the dragon's back and in a dark flash of shadows, the dragon disappeared and became the bringer of nightmares, Maleficent. The two beings, witch and sorceress, came to stand before the Princess of Heart and the Keyblade Master, both of them grinning wickedly. They believed they had won.
"What do you want from us?!" Kairi cried, still pressing down on the open wound in Sora's chest.
"Rapunzel," the witch said. "Where is she?"
Maleficent held up a hand for silence, and the witch looked cowed for a moment.
"While this fool here requires the location of her insufferable pig-child, I require something else. But what I require, cannot be given," she said, her voice echoing around the clearing. "What I require . . . Is payment."
"Munny?" Sora choked out, his breaths coming in deep wheezes. "Wh-Why would you want m-munny?"
"Not munny. Hearts." Maleficent's eyes went wide as she grinned wickedly. "Your hearts."
"Well, you can't have them," Kairi said, rolling her eyes. Sora couldn't help but smirk slightly through his pain. There was the Kairi he knew and l—what? He shook the thought from his head and turned his attentions on his wound. It felt like it was worse than he initially thought—he wanted to cast Curaga on himself, but he was losing blood so quickly, he didn't think he had the mana.
"I won't be retrieving them," Maleficent said darkly, still smiling. She gripped her staff in her hand and spread her arms wide. "You will."
Darkness and dark magic exploded from her body as she began casting a spell. Soon, Rapunzel's mother the witch joined in, and the power became too great. Kairi fell onto the ground, her Light cowering before their combined Darkness, and Sora felt Anti-Sora clawing at his heart, trying to get in. He screamed in agony as it burned through his consciousness, and his eyes rolled up into his head.
Sora fought. He fought as hard as he could. He knew Anti-Sora. His Anti-form was pure darkness. It thought of nothing but pain and death. Especially for Kairi. He hated Anti-form because Anti-form knew how important Kairi was to him—whenever Sora was in Anti-form, he thought of killing Kairi incessantly. In horrible, unimaginable ways. It was a nightmare.
"Let the darkness take over!" Maleficent howled, winds of Hell whipping everything around them into a tornadoish frenzy. "Bring me her heart, so that I may consume its Light and gain her powers!"
"M-my powers?" Kairi's hands, stained with Sora's blood, went up as a particularly powerful gust of wind nearly knocked her onto her back. She fell onto her rump and looked over at Sora, who was on his hands and knees, gasping and panting as he struggled to fight off the darkness.
'Why is this happening?' Sora thought in terror. He could feel the darkness coming, but he pushed it away from his heart as hard as he could. Around him, Heartless were spawning in the grass, watching him with curious eyes. All of this was going on, and he could only think of Kairi. Gods above, he didn't want to hurt her. Gods above.
All-of-a-sudden, the Heartless all seemed to collectively dash past Sora and swarm Kairi, cornering her against a boulder and causing her to have to draw Floral Memories to try to fight them off. There were too many of them though, and soon she went down, screaming in pain as their claws scratched at her. One of them pushed her onto her face and scraped its claws down her back, gashing holes into her dress and gouging deep into her back. She screamed loudly in anguish and collapsed into a dazed heap, unable to push the Heartless off.
Pushing past the darkness, Sora let out a wild snarl, unable to hold it back, and threw himself into the fray. The Heartless were unlike any he had ever fought or encountered with how vicious they were being, and he knew it wasn't very smart to jump into a fight like that. He was beyond rational thought now. He was livid; blinded by his rage and his desperate need to save Kairi's life. Sora didn't even notice that both of his Keyblades had reappeared, his strong emotions overcoming the blockade of darkness around my heart. Oblivion and Oathkeeper wove intertwining streaks of black and silver in the air as they sliced through the Heartless as easily as if they were made of water. Sora planted himself firmly in front of Kairi, his chest burning with pain and spilling blood onto the grass.
Behind him, Kairi was relying heavily upon the large boulder to give her support as the blood poured from her back like small streams of water. She whimpered in pain, but attempted many times to rise to a standing position. Sora resisted the urge to turn and help her, knowing that the Heartless would pounce if he was even the slightest bit distracted.
"S-Sora . . ." she said through gritted teeth. "Y-You have to stop . . . We have . . . We have to get out of here!"
But Sora wasn't listening. He was so filled with the raw, animalistic instinct to protect her that the Keyblade Master was slipping down a dangerous slope. A dangerous slope that Anti-Sora could easily climb. Already, he could feel the claws attempting to break the surface of the skin on his fingertips. If he could see himself in a mirror, Sora knew that his azure irises were probably shifting back and forth between their natural color and the golden-yellow that belonged to the eyes of the Heartless.
What was keeping him from changing? Or rather, who?
Sora detected the faintest sign of a second heartbeat, and knew that it was by the strength of Roxas, his inner Nobody, that he was still himself.
"Sora!" Kairi pleaded, stumbling against Sora's back and wrapping her arms around his waist. "Please, calm down! The darkness will take over, and they'll win!"
Sora felt his hands clenching around the Keyblades' hilts as Roxas and he both struggled for dominance against his dark side.
Sora knew he was losing.
Sora felt Kairi's heart beating against his back, pounding in tune with the song of her fear. Her breathing was shallow not only with trepidation, but also with her weakness. She was losing blood faster than he was; her wounds were way more serious. Sora knew that if he didn't get her out of here alive, nobody was leaving this clearing.
Sora turned around, feeling Roxas' and his combined powers flowing over his skin. The tiny pin-pricks of dark electricity coursed through his veins, weaving its way in and out of his pores. He looked into Kairi's terror-filled eyes with a determined look in his.
"I made you a lot of promises that I intend to keep," he said, "and I'm not letting the darkness win this easily."
"But—"
Sora shoved her backward with a slightly guilty feeling in his heart, watching silently as she tumbled backward over the boulder and lie still, most likely unconscious. Then, he turned around as his Keyblades began to spin, and all around him, his body seemed to inhale all of the sunlight in the clearing, until the only thing that could be seen was his glowing body and the Heartless' luminescent eyes. Sora slipped into his Final Form, knowing the dangers of doing such a reckless thing, especially when Anti-Sora was waiting patiently for the chance to take over him. Sora could feel his black excuse-for-a-heart beating beside Roxas' inside of him, struggling to find and take that chance.
But Sora wouldn't let his Anti-form have him, knowing that if he overcame his defenses, then he would most certainly hurt Kairi. And if Anti-Sora hurt Kairi, it would be the same as Sora hurting Kairi. Sora could never live with himself if he hurt her.
As the light exploded outward from his white-clad body, Sora felt the most exquisite pain that he had ever felt in his entire life. It was like the outburst of power was draining the same amount of energy from him as it was from the Heartless it was destroying. Sora screamed out in agony, falling to his hands and knees and gouging the Earth beneath him with the claws that had finally broken through his fingertips. Sora arched his back, feeling a shudder pass through him as Anti-Sora ripped through the defenses around his heart and Roxas's power, and surrounded it like a icy-cold blanket. Sora choked on the air he was breathing, feeling it rush in like a fiery inferno.
Sora could do nothing as Anti-Sora kicked the real him into the background, beside the haggard, weakened Roxas, and could only watch as he leapt about the darkness-charged area, swallowing the light like a happy kitten and tearing out the eyes of the other Heartless as simply as if they were the buttons sewn onto a jacket. Maleficent and the witch just laughed and laughed and laughed, watching everything occur like it was the entertainment of the evening. Darkness was everywhere—tendrils of it falling off of Anti-Sora's body; pools of it seeping into the grass and taking hold; particles of it latching onto the oxygen in the air and turning the clearing into a hazy, smoky bog of darkness. Sora felt like he was choking with each lungful that Anti-Sora swallowed.
Anti-Sora sat back on its haunches and raked his fingers through the grass, causing Heartless after Heartless to spawn in their wake. Soon, they filled the clearing once again, completely and utterly choking all of the light out of the area.
Sora had to stop himself from panicking, even though it was next to impossible. Kairi was still hidden behind the boulder, unmoving and unconscious. What would happen if she woke up?
Everyone knows that monsters can always find you in the dark.
Sora foolishly cursed himself as a mental picture of Kairi behind the rock spawned itself in his head. Anti-Sora saw, of course, and he smiled a wicked, fang-filled smile. He pranced over to the boulder, and inside his heart, Sora set about in fit of rage, trying his hardest to break through the shadows that cloaked his heart like a thick coverlet. He just couldn't let Anti-Sora get to Kairi. He could not—would not—watch her die by his own hand.
Roxas heaved himself up and began to help his Somebody. They scratched and clawed at the darkness inside Sora's heart that was Anti-Sora with their bare hands until they bled, and still they went on. Because Roxas knew that Naminé was inside of Kairi, too, and if Kairi died . . . Then so did Naminé.
By the time they even broke the surface of the darkness, Anti-Sora had found Kairi. He was frightening her, playing with her like she was a tiny mouse between his paws. He let her run away until she was almost into the light that surrounded our little hazing of darkness created by Anti-Sora, and then he manifested himself in front of her, causing her to fall onto her back and scream in pain as the sharp grass blades touched her wounds. Sora was beyond hatred and rage now—he was crossing into madness. Pure, cannibalistic madness. He wanted to rip Anti-Sora's head off with his own teeth.
Anti-Sora placed a single claw deep into the front of Kairi's shoulder, directly above her underarms, causing her to cry out in agony and attempt to pull the claw out. She, of course, was not nearly strong enough, and so Anti-Sora began to lift her into the air, watching with subdued amusement as she kicked and pleaded with him.
Roxas and Sora fought with renewed fervor, even though their energy stores were running low. They came up with strategies to conserve their strength on the fly, such as using one of them to cast spells on the darkness around Sora's heart and the other to hack and slash at it with the Keyblade until it started to tremble and come apart at the seams.
Sora felt Anti-Sora's alarm as it realized it was losing and suddenly, it decided it was time to stop playing with its food. It snarled at Kairi and threw her against a tree with ease, yet the strength of twenty men. She hit with a loud outward rush of breath, and she sank to the grass. She leaned forward on her hands and struggled to stand up. When she looked up into Anti-Sora's saffron eyes, Sora could see the pure terror. It was as if her eyes were calling out to the Keybearer to rescue her, as he had always done since this whole Heartless mess began.
Anti-Sora grated his razor-sharp claws down both of her legs, and she kicked out at him, biting her lip so as not to scream. As her blood began to well up, Sora could feel Anti-Sora's mind start to go wild at the scent.
Sora knew he had to hurry, or everything was going to go to Hell in a hand basket.
Inside Sora's heart, Roxas stood back as Sora spun the Keyblades around above his head and positioned them for the downward stab. The next split-second was a moment in Sora's life that he didn't think he'd ever forget.
The Keyblades stabbed so far into the remaining darkness that was Anti-Sora, that Sora felt as well as heard him scream. Anti-Sora lunged forward and sunk his teeth into Kairi's neck as a last-ditch effort. She uttered a loud gasp of shock and defeat and slumped forward against Sora as he sent Anti-Sora back to his rightful place, far in the back of his body. Sora came whamming back into his own body. He could feel Kairi's limp form in his arms, and he was frozen in grief and despair knowing that even though Anti-Sora had taken over his body, it was Sora's hands and Sora's teeth that had done this to her.
Sora heard a loud whooshing noise as the Light from his heart spider-webbed its way into the darkness and smothered it, shattering it into oblivion and filling the clearing with precious sun once again. The Light was so powerful that it sent Maleficent and the witch flying backward. The witch sprawled out a ways away, but Maleficent easily was able to open up a portal to darkness, stepping into it with one final malicious glare, and disappear.
The witch didn't move until Donald and Goofy came dashing up, looking haggard and bewildered, and kept their weapons pointed at her. They were obviously confused about what was going on, but Donald healed them both without asking questions.
Sora couldn't even look at Kairi. He had done a bad thing. A horrible, terrible thing.
He didn't think he could forgive himself.
Kairi walked past him and stood beside Goofy with her arms crossed.
"Serves you right," she said with a smirk. "That's what you get for trying to fight Light with Darkness. Light is infinitely more powerful."
The witch groaned, "F-Fool . . . Light cannot exist without Darkness . . . They are t-two sides . . . To the same c-coin."
"Liar!" Kairi cried, and then she looked to Goofy and Donald, giving them both nods.
"Wait!" Sora said, walking over. "That's Rapunzel's mother. We should let her decide what to do about her."
"Sora's right," Donald agreed. He cast a quick spell to knock the witch out, and then Goofy ran to the tower to pull some of the vines down and bring them back over. "We should split up—two to the tavern to get Rapunzel, Riku, and Flynn; two to stay here with the witch."
"Sora and I will go to the tavern," Kairi said decidedly, and Sora felt his heart flutter. H didn't know if he could be alone around Kairi right now—not when he could still see himself harming her. What if Anti-form took over again, took him by surprise? Sora could almost still taste her blood in his mouth. What if Anti-form consumed her?
"Sounds like a good plan," Goofy agreed. "We can watch the witch, a-hyuck!"
Donald nodded his agreement, and then Sora knew it was too late to change anything.
Kairi and him were going to have to go through the forest alone together.
They set off at a brisk pace, both of them feeling rejuvenated since Donald healed them, but secretly, Sora felt sick to his stomach. He kept hearing her screams in his ears, kept seeing her vibrant red blood spilling out all over the ground.
This was awful.
"I'm sorry," Kairi said into the silence of the forest, which was a little haphazard due to the earthquake Maleficent's dragon had caused.
"For what?" Sora asked, his voice sounding more gruff than he meant it to.
"For being weak," Kairi sighed. "None of this would have happened if I were stronger. The witch wouldn't have been able to take me."
"It's not your fault," Sora said incredulously. "And how did the witch find you, anyway?"
"Maleficent found me as I was leaving Twilight Town," Kairi explained. "I was about to go back to Yen Sid's castle for my lessons when she came and took me. Next thing I knew, I woke up on the floor of the tower and it felt like my head was coming off."
"Because it was," Sora muttered.
Kairi shot him a look and they kept walking for a bit. "I'm just glad you saved me, Sora. I knew you would never change."
"Well . . ." Sora inhaled deeply. "You asked me not to, remember?"
Kairi smiled but didn't look at him as they walked. "You remember that day? Jeez, that was so long ago. We were really naïve back then."
"Naïve? I wouldn't say that," Sora said. He tried to laugh, but found that a thick funk had settled over him. He felt so awful about hurting her that he could barely lift his eyes from the forest floor. "I think we were just adventurous."
"Sora, we had boats tied to the dock, and we were building a raft to sail into the ocean," Kairi giggled. "If that isn't the definition of naïve, I don't know what is!"
"I'll give you that," Sora agreed. "But I still don't think we were naïve. We were innocent, but not naïve."
There was a short silence, and then Kairi said softly, "And the drawing in The Secret Place? Would you call that innocent?"
For a moment, Sora had no idea what she was talking about and then all-of-a-sudden, it clicked in his mind. He stopped walking, a bright red flush staining his cheeks and neck, and he stared at her with wide cobalt eyes.
"You s-saw that?" he said quietly.
Kairi halted a ways away and turned to face him. Her hair looked odd, crazy and wild to her waist and her pink Princess-style dress was in tatters about her body, but she still looked pretty. Maybe she had always looked pretty to Sora. He didn't know. All he knew was right now, he was eighteen years old, and he was looking at Kairi in a whole new light.
"I saw it after we first got separated," Kairi murmured in a tiny, soft voice. She tucked her hair behind her ears. "I . . . Liked it."
"I'm sorry, I . . ." Sora turned his head away, embarrassed. "I know it probably freaked you out. I know you've always like, had a thing for Riku."
Kairi snorted. "Riku? Me? A thing? Sora, ew!"
Sora looked at Kairi in surprise and she was laughing merrily, hands on her hips. She clasped her hands behind her back and smiled gently at him.
"You don't like Riku?" Sora asked.
Kairi merely shook her head and blinked slowly. Her eyelashes were long, so pretty and long . . .
A sudden flash of Kairi's scream went through his mind, and Sora looked away again. He didn't even deserve to gaze upon her. Not after what Anti-form had done to her.
"We had better get going," Sora said awkwardly, and they resumed walking. They moved in silence for awhile, listening to the sounds of the birds chirping around them. Sora was lost in thought, beating himself up for not fighting hard enough. He couldn't believe he had allowed Anti-Sora to hurt her. After everything he had done to keep her safe . . . And he was the person who had hurt her the most. He felt disgusted with himself.
"I hope this isn't like, prying, but . . . Can I ask why you didn't pass your Mark of Mastery exam?" Kairi asked after awhile.
Sora shrugged and answered curtly. "I wasn't strong enough. I almost succumbed. Riku had to come save me."
"Ah," Kairi said. "Well, is Master Yen Sid going to let you retake the exam?"
"Yeah," Sora mumbled. "But I had to come here first to save you."
"Oh . . ." Kairi ran her fingers through her messy hair. "Sorry."
Sora mentally kicked himself. He was being an asshole, and he knew it. "No, I'm sorry, I . . . I shouldn't have talked to you like that. I . . ." He trailed off. He felt like crying. He just couldn't stop thinking about how he had hurt her.
Suddenly, he turned and punched a nearby tree trunk so hard that it nearly split his knuckles and left his hand feeling numb. Kairi stared at him in shock, waiting for him to explain himself. Sora shook his hand out and glared up at the sky, angry tears glittering in his eyes.
"Are you . . . Okay?" Kairi asked cautiously, folding her arms over her chest.
"Yes. I . . . No," he said truthfully, dragging his eyes over to look at her. "I feel horrible for hurting you."
Realization dawned in her eyes and she stepped closer, but Sora took a step away from her. Kairi looked down sadly.
"Sora . . ." she said carefully. "That wasn't you. It was the Darkness."
"But I'm the one who can see it in my mind!" Sora yelled, causing Kairi to flinch and making him feel worse. "I can still . . . Fell my claws ripping into your skin . . ."
"Sora," Kairi repeated, harsher this time. She took another step toward Sora, but this time, he didn't move away. He just felt so awful . . . "It was not your fault, okay? I know you would never hurt me. You tried to fight it, and that's all that matters."
"I know, but . . . I just want to protect you," he mumbled, angry with himself. "I want to . . . Take care of you . . ."
Both of them blushed and Kairi cleared her throat loudly. "I . . . Um . . . You do take care of me," she said sweetly. "You always come to my recuse, and you always make sure that I'm safe. The fact that Anti-Sora hurt me, doesn't mean that you aren't still my hero."
Their blushes intensified and Sora looked down at her. Her hero? She thought of him as her hero? As he gazed down at her, for some reason, he was noticing her pouty lips even more so than usual. He felt something tingling in the pit of his stomach that he never had before and he felt embarrassed by it.
"You know I'd never hurt you on purpose, right?" Sora breathed, his voice coming out huskier than he'd meant it to and causing him to feel even more mortified.
Kairi nodded and when she worried her lower lip between her teeth, it made Sora's heart flip. "I know," Kairi said. "I trust you with my entire heart, Sora. I knew when Maleficent first kidnapped me that you would come save me."
Sora felt like he was floating out of his body, he was blushing so hard. They were completely alone in this clearing and Kairi was just so . . . Cute . . . What was going on? Before he could stop himself, his hand was coming up to her heart-shaped face, his thumb gently and lightly stroking against her defined cheekbone. Her cerulean eyes gazed up into his, but she didn't say anything.
For some reason, Sora began to think about when he had first returned to Destiny Islands, after Kairi had sent that letter. It was addressed to him and he had read it aloud as if it were for him and Riku, but Sora knew in his heart that it was a letter for him from Kairi. Kairi had been waiting for him on the beach, as he'd known she'd be doing. She'd waved at him excitedly as he ran through the water to get to her, and he remembered feeling so damn elated at the sight of her sunny smile.
"You aren't . . . Scared of me?" Sora asked worriedly, eyes searching hers for any sign of fear. He was still touching her face, her skin soft beneath his touch.
"No," she said simply, her fists clenched at his sides.
Unable to stop himself, Sora moved closer, until he was less than a foot away from her. Trembling slightly and not really knowing what he was doing, his other hand came up and he was cupping her face in his hands. His gaze went from her eyes to her lips and then back to her eyes again. He couldn't decide which he fancied more.
"How about now?" he breathed.
Kairi's hands slowly brushed his elbows and pulled him closer. Her eyelids fluttered shut and Sora couldn't stop himself. He ducked his head down to meet hers, brushing his lips against hers with a lot more fervor than he had originally intended. Not that he had intended to kiss her. He'd never kissed anybody before, so this whole thing was new to him. He had no idea what he was doing, all he knew was the he was ecstatic that his first kiss was the girl he'd adored for his entire adolescence. The girl he'd do anything for, even give his life. His heart.
He pulled back for a moment, both of them looking into each other's eyes as their minds caught up with the moment. Sora was pretty sure they both were floating in a daze just then, and when Kairi closed the distance between them again, everything seemed to shift. Her hands slid up his chest and wrapped around his neck and she threw her entire being into the kiss. Every synapse in Sora's brain began to fire and his hands gripped her waist, pulling her tightly against him.
Why hadn't he kissed her before?
They kissed for what felt like hours, somehow having moved so Kairi's back was against a tree and Sora was kissing her with as much passion as four years of unrequited love could provide. Kairi was making noises he had no idea a girl could make and when he finally pulled away, she looked like she'd been in a spinning teacup.
"I like you, Sora," Kairi breathed, her eyelids slowly opening. Her hands gripped the lapels of his red-and-black jacket tightly.
"Aw, Kai," Sora chuckled, feeling ten thousand times better than he had before he'd kissed her. "I like you, too"
"No . . ." Kairi said, shaking her head. "I really like you."
Sora laughed heartily and pulled Kairi into a bear hug. He held her for a long time, almost feeling like everything he'd done for her since he was fourteen and first set out on that journey to save her had led up to this. He knew he wanted to kiss her more, but had a feeling that if he did, it would lead into territory he really had no idea about, and he didn't want to hurt Kairi like that.
"Don't we have something to be doing?" Kairi asked, sounding dazed.
Sora stepped away from her and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Uh . . . Yeah. We have to go to the tavern to get Riku, Rapunzel, and Flynn."
"Right," Kairi said, trying her best to fix her hair. It didn't work, but to Sora, she still looked radiant. "How do I look?"
Sora smiled warmly and reached out to brush his fingers under her chin. "Like a Princess."
She blushed and then turned, striding off with purpose. Sora watched her walk for a moment, and then she turned to look at him over her shoulder.
"Are you going to come with me or not, bigshot Keybearer?" she asked, smiling coyly.
As he gazed at her, every memory he had of them together from the time she washed up on the beach to the moment he first pressed his lips against hers flashed behind his mind's eyes. He could still feel the bite of the Keyblade as he plunged it into his own chest to save her heart when she had lost it. He could still feel her hand slipping out of his as their worlds split apart after he defeated Ansem. Could still feel her arms around his waist when she hugged him in The World That Never Was.
It was all so fucking worth it.
"Anywhere," Sora said, and he jogged over to her. He stood beside her for a moment, the two of them looking at each other shyly, and then Sora gently took her hand in his. He leaned down and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips one final time. Then, he began to walk forward through the forest, off to finish the tasks that they had laid out before them.
This time . . . Their hands didn't slip apart.
I have a hold of everything
I've ever wanted
I won't let it slip away
~x~
A/N: I'm soooooo sorry I haven't updated my other stories, but I'm going through major writer's block. After I watched the new KH-3 trailer, though, I just HAD to write this. And knowing me, I can't ever write anything that's too innocent, so I had to add that tiny bit of blood and violence. Anyway, tell me what you think?