Just Passing Through

by Calcite

A year after the events of Kingdom Hearts, the Destiny Islands are suddenly visited by an unusual storyteller with far more than stories to tell.

PAUSE FOR BOURGEOIS LEGALITIES "Kingdom Hearts" and all characters and situations contained within are copyrighted trademarks of Square, Squaresoft Entertainment and Disney. Permission is hereby granted by the author to reproduce this document unless you try to make money off of it; if so, please contact me first at Calcite_McWhalen@hotmail.com. I may be a grown-up cartoon fan but I do know my way around Title 17.

This may or may not be the beginning of a series. Reader response will cue that.

****

"Just Passing Through"

****

It was another day in the Destiny Islands and, admittedly, that happened quite a bit. The kids were running around and tossing blitzballs and generally having a great time on the western side of the Islands, and the adults were tending to the latest shipment from the mainland on the eastern side of the Islands. The Islands were hardly self-sufficient; a cargo ship would stop by the far-flung Islands and drop off a shipment of foodstuffs and medicine in exchange for the rare paoru fruits and other exotic herbs and spices that could only grow in the tropical environment that the Islands offered. As could be expected, the arrival of the cargo ship called every able-bodied adult over to the larger docks to help the crewers, who were more interested in getting their feet on dry land than helping the people. One particular adult, by the name of Deanna, happened to be at the docks assisting in the unloading. Deanna at forty years old wasn't a head-turner at any street corner, but she had an earthy solidarity to her that some people could find attractive.

Deanna was the first person to spot the second ship, and she stared at it for a long moment, trying to determine just what it was. It was rather small and brightly colored, but that's not what drew her attention. She gave the ship a second incredulous stare because it didn't seem to be floating along the waters like every other ship she'd seen. This one was gliding smoothly over the surface of the waves, creating an odd, sprayless wake beneath it. She stared at it a moment longer before she found herself waving frantically and crying out to the others.

People were scrambling to and fro for a better glimpse at the impossible craft before it drew up suddenly. As it did, they all got a solid look at it; it was apparently constructed out of perfect cubes and the occasional slanted surface, and was a solid, sky-borne blue. The ship glided quietly right over the terrified adults' heads and cruised another few yards inland before picking an open spot and settling down, hissing slightly as it touched the sand. The adults - Islanders and sailors both - slowly walked over to it, a mixture of fear and curiousity drawing their reluctant attention. It wasn't until the front part of the thing, a translucent dome, cracked itself open that Deanna found the strength to gasp again, and that was only because a person emerged from the ship.

They couldn't tell at first glance anything about this person. He or she was completely covered in a dark brown pilgrim's robe with a hood drawn over his face. Tanned hands and legs with no shoes could be seen where his robe ended. Only his (as it turned out) intelligent, forceful voice distinguished him from any other pilgrim; he asked, "Have I arrived at the Destiny Islands?"

It fell to the village mayor, who'd joined the gazing mob, to answer. "Yes, you have. These are the Islands. Who are you, and what is your business here?"

The man turned his hooded stare to the mayor. "My name isn't very important. If you'll call me anything, just Peregrine will do for a name. I'm... what you might call a wandering storyteller. I carry tales from far- off lands, and will trade them for the chance to walk among you and learn new ones for my craft. I will, of course, pay for any food that I might need to the amount that you would name. All I desire is to learn."

Deanna found herself feeling more comfortable with the situation. This man was a bard - admittedly, a bard that traveled in a flying craft, but she'd heard of the sort from the sailors. Still, the thought of a stranger spending time in the village raised her hackles. "How long will you stay?" she yelled out to him. Secretly, an idea was born in that moment; it was too unformed for even Deanna to grasp but she felt it itching at the back of her head all the same.

He cut his hooded gaze over to her, and she felt completely speechless; there was a presence to this man, a deep feeling that even with his eyes hooded and despite his humble garb he was something to be respected and, to a degree, feared. "I will not stay longer than a week."

****

"Ow!"

Tidus shook his head again, for what seemed like the tenth time that day. "C'mon, Kairi, you're better than that. I've seen you move." He ran a hand through his messy blonde hair, frustrated.

"It's not like I'm trying to mess up here!" she said crossly, pulling herself to her feet with the pole he'd given her. "I really don't think that the sword's for me."

"Then what is?" the youth shot back.

"I don't know - weapons aren't exactly my thing!"

"You're the one who wanted to learn how to use them!"

"That doesn't matter - I came to you because you said you knew it all!" she sniped.

"We've tried whips, blitzballs, swords, fists and feet - we oughta run you by a scythe, just to be sure."

Kairi shuddered, seeing a mental image of the Grim Reaper flash through her brain. "I'll pass." She tossed the wooden stick aside. " All I know is that the sword just isn't my thing."

Tidus rammed his fist into the sand. He'd tried everything he knew and some things he just made up and still he couldn't find what she was looking for. The raw material was there, to be sure - she could move faster than he could and was quicker at picking things up - but she just couldn't find a weapon that spoke to her like Tidus's longsword spoke to him. "Alright then, Kairi. I'll look through the book again and try to find something that you'll like."

She nodded. "Okay. You know where to find me."

Since Tidus was watching her walk off, he didn't see Wakka come up behind him until he'd been picked clear off the ground. Wakka slung Tidus over his shoulder and dumped the squawking boy into the sand. "Hey, mon. You don' need ta be lookin' at 'er like that, ya?"

Tidus wasn't often caught off guard, but this time Wakka's relaxed banter crashed right through his mental shields. "I wasn't watching her like that!" he said defensively. "I was only trying to come up with something else."

Wakka shot him an easy grin. "Take it easy, mon. She's good watchin', ya?" He lowered his tone a bit. "Still can't find somethin'?"

"No," he said. "She's good but I can't find anything that goes along with her style."

Wakka cocked his head to the left, lifting an eyebrow. "What's her style like?"

"It's hard to describe," Tidus growled. "She's not like the rest of us - we use our weapons like they were part of us. We power our own attacks with our own strength, right? She's not like that at all. She runs more on momentum than power, and likes to spin and twirl when she attacks or defends. It's confusing for a moment, but it's easy to find a way to throw her off her rhythm."

"How'd she manage tha' with a blitzball?"

Tidus rolled his eyes. "You don't want to know. It wasn't pretty."

"Sounds like you gotta prob there, bro."

"Yeah, I do. You got any idea?"

Wakka stroked the loose stubble on his chin, and Tidus held his breath, daring to hope. Then Wakka shook his head. "Sorry, bro. I don' know any weapon that works like that."

Tidus glanced up. "Does anyone else on this island know anything about weapons?" he asked rhetorically. It wasn't meant to have an answer, but he caught Wakka's face quickly enough to see the light dawn.

"Yeh! I got an idea," Wakka exclaimed.

****

The stranger was settling into the inn when Deanna finally approached him. He hadn't changed out of his traveling garb; he still had the hood over his face, concealing it from view with such efficiency that she couldn't see even an outline of his head. He'd just dropped off a huge bag that looked as if it contained a week's supply of firewood when she caught up with him.

"Hey," she said hesitantly. He turned to look at her; then looked around. They were the only ones in the inn.

"Yes?"

"Uh..." Inwardly, Deanna cursed her own slowness. "How are you settling in?"

The man indulged her. "I've just brought in my possessions. The Islands certainly seem nice - they don't deserve the reputation that they've been given. I'd have to say that they are quite possibly the exact opposite."

Deanna was quite taken aback by this. "What do you mean?" At the man's frankly curious look she colored slightly. "I've never been off the Islands before..."

"Ah," he replied, in a casually enlightened tone. "The islands are considered by most people on the mainland continents to be places of both considerable beauty and considerable danger. In fact, the people on the mainland mention the Destiny Islands only in tales of an apocalyptic nature. Most of the time the people attempt to ignore the Islands entirely. Those sailors there," - here he indicated the port - "are by a great margin braver than most of the others, to come to this place."

She was shocked by the end of the tale. "That's not true!" she sputtered out. "My home can't be like that!"

"Think what you will," he responded, "because the rest of the world will do so as well. If it consoles you any, I would say that the islands hardly qualify as world-destroying material." He slung the huge bag over his shoulder, and turned towards the room.

"Wait!" Deanna said almost desperately. The man turned around again. "You've traveled the world, right?"

"I have."

"Why would you want to do that? Is it just for the tales?"

The man paused a moment. "I thirst for knowledge, my lady. It's my nature. But, yes, there is a particular nugget that I hope to unveil by traveling about."

Deanna shook herself. She was wasting time; she had to get to what was important! "Have you ever heard of a person named Sora on your travels? A young boy, 14 years old, messy hair and very enthusiastic?"

The man looked her way, and suddenly Deanna, an empathic person by nature, could suddenly pick up on a wave of something... alien to her. It was a complex feeling that she'd never had before, and the closest thing that she could equate it to was a deep and unrelenting sadness, with just a touch of surprise behind it. She took an involuntary step back at the unexpected strength of the feeling coming off of him.

"I... am not certain. I'll have to search my memory."

He again turned his back, to head to the room given him, when the unexpected happened; the doors of the Inn were tossed open and who should run in but Wakka and Tidus, the latter with the wooden pole he tried to equate with a sword flailing in his left hand. Wakka ran right up to the stranger, who towered over the island kid by more than half Wakka's height. "Sir!" the boy shouted.

Deanna turned hard on her heel, intending to scold the two rambunctions boys, but the stranger stopped her. He also spun to meet the boys, the feeling surrounding him dissolving like it had never been. "Ah, children!" he said, and dropped his bag. "What would you ask of me?"

"Hey, you're not from this island, right?" Tidus asked eagerly. When the stranger's head dipped down in a nod, the blonde boy continued. "Great! We've got this friend and she's got this huge jam - see, she wants to do something but she can't figure out how - and we thought maybe you could help because you know lots of stuff!"

He said all that with such a tone of confidence that the stranger couldn't help but laugh. "Well, now, if you'll let me get settled in I'll see what I can do for the young woman. Tell you what - before I start telling tales tonight, I'll take some time and a friendly villager," he said nodding towards Deanna, "and we'll see what we can do for her."

"Thanks, mister," the blonde boy nearly shouted, and he turned and ran outside. Wakka glanced the stranger up and down, taking his measure.

"We'll be on da' sands on da' western part of da' island," Wakka said. "We'll wait for ya, right, man?"

"Right," the stranger said confidently. That seemed to satisfy Wakka, and he turned and walked out of the Inn. The stranger then turned to Deanna. "Do you have any idea what I'm supposed to help them with?"

"Who knows?" Deanna said, throwing up her hands. "Why did you volunteer me there?"

"Call it an equal exchange. I'll search my memory and my journalings for this Sora, but the cost will be coming along and helping the boys and their mutual friend out of her problems. I'd call it quite fair, wouldn't you?"

****

The passing of a few hours found Deanna and the stranger outside at the western edge of the Islands, waiting for the boys to appear. They'd been there for the better part of an hour, Deanna finding herself enraptured by a tale from the mainland; the stranger certainly didn't seem to have any qualms about spinning one and the time passed so breathtakingly quickly that they didn't even notice that the afternoon sun was rapidly fading into the sunset.

Deanna was the first to notice. "Hey, where are those kids, anyway?"

"Perhaps they were detained?" There was a quiet note of amusement in the stranger's voice. "You can never tell, with boys."

"Yeah, you got that right, but I need to know where they are all the same." Getting up, she cupped her hands around her mouth and made to yell, but the stranger's surprisingly warm hand clamped down on her shoulder, both startling her and silencing her. She turned, to tell this strange man exactly what she thought of that but was stopped by one upraised finger in front of her face. She stared at it a moment, not comprehending, but he took the confusion away by pointing towards the little spit of an island that protruded out further west than any other point on the island. Sitting alone on top of a tree there, outlined in shadowed pastels by the setting sun, was a thin slip of a young woman.

"Who might that be?" the stranger said quietly, conversationally.

Deanna shook her head. Of course the boys would be helping her out. Never mind what happened last year to Sora. "That's Kairi," she muttered back. "A waste of time if ever I saw one."

Something seemed to had happened to the stranger; he was strangely stiff, not answering her simple observation with anything, even a twitch. Deanna turned, frowning despite herself. "Are you alright?" she asked carefully.

He pulled himself back into the real world with an effort. "I'll - I'll be alright. Merely thinking of the past - the girl reminded me of somebody I lost long ago. I would very much like to talk with this Kairi."

"Do you have to?" she asked him bluntly. "I don't much like that child."

"Why?" he asked, looking down at her. She still couldn't see the outline of his face, but she sensed that he was both confused and intrigued.

"I don't want to talk about it right now," she answered sullenly. "Just - alright, let's go."

The stranger straightened, gauging the distance from the beach to the little bridge above with his gaze. Deanna was all set to ask him what exactly it was that he had planned when he grabbed her left arm and jumped straight up in the air, carrying her with him. Her mouth dropped open; she stifled a shriek, looking around herself in terror as the ground suddenly got a bit farther away and the sky seemed to open itself up when -

They landed with a mild thump on the wooden bridge.

Deanna dropped to her knees, frightened, and the stranger gave her a moment to pull herself together. She managed to do so without making much noise, merely choking back a strangled shout and, shaking herself, got back on feet. "You ever do that again without asking and I'll cut your hands into so many pieces that you'll be picking them up for weeks," she hissed at him.

The stranger favored her with a raised hand. "It was faster this way. Come on, we don't seem to have disturbed Kairi."

He took a few steps forward, thumping the underfoot wood slightly. Deanna saw Kairi's head pivot around her black choker as the girl glanced at them, centering her gaze on the oddly clad stranger. She didn't move from her position on the limb. The stranger kept moving forwards, and he walked out to the tree. After a moment's pause, surveying the tree, he settled on leaning against the tree limb, keeping his gaze out to sea. Deanna stayed a few feet back, sitting down at the base of a coconut tree, watching warily. Kairi's head turned back around towards the sunset.

"Who are you?" Kairi finally asked, breaking a long silence.

"My name isn't too terribly important, but if you wish to know, I am occasionally called Peregrine, " the stranger answered. "I've been told that you're Kairi?"

"That's me," she murmered. Another long silence descended, one that was punctuated by the stranger reaching back and, for the first time since he'd been on the Destiny Islands, pushing his hood back and allowing it to drop limply behind his back. He ran a hand through his surprisingly long hair. From where she was sitting Deanna couldn't tell exactly what color it was, only that it rippled in the yellow-gold sunset like something alive. Then the stranger settled back to watching the sunset again.

Eventually, Kairi sighed a bit. "What is it?"

"You have a pair of excitable friends that wished for me to speak to you about some sort of problem. Would you mind sharing what that could be?"

She chuckled hollowly. "Name it. No: better yet, don't bother. Do you know how to fight?" Deanna started; she didn't expect that kind of question from that little slip of a girl. For one dreaded moment she thought that perhaps the boys were rubbing off on her like they did poor Selphie, who'd managed to break an arm a month ago roughousing with them.

"I've been called on to defend myself a few times," he answered slowly. "Of the art of combat, well, I know quite a bit."

"I'd..." The girl trailed off. "I'd like to learn how to fight. You know, with a weapon."

The stranger looked over at the girl. "May I ask why?" The girl chuckled a bit at that. Deanna picked up on the edge of tiredness and irony in Kairi's voice.

"That's a very long story."

"Long stories are what I do best," the stranger replied. "I'll listen if it will serve you to tell it."

"I don't feel like it."

The stranger nodded, accepting. "Very well." He straightened up from his odd half-lean on the tree limb and pulled his hood back over his head. "We'll be heading back to the village now, to allow your people to educate me on your stories. Join us if you will. Where can I find you tomorrow?"

Confused, Kairi turned toward the stranger. "Here at the beach. The boys won't leave me alone. Why?"

The stranger chuckled dryly. "Isn't it obvious? We'll select a weapon for you tomorrow and begin the teaching." He strode away, Deanna joining him once he walked past where she was sitting. She took one last glance at the short-haired girl, who was still watching the stranger. Her face was hidden from Deanna's searching gaze by the outline of the sun.

****

"Why do you want to help Kairi?" Deanna asked the stranger, on the walk back. Predictably, the setting of the sun was casting shadows all over the Island and Deanna's hackles raised themselves up at all of the darkness around her.

"Teaching Kairi how to fight is only half of the bargain," the stranger said, climbing up a ladder. "I hope to understand what has made that girl so resentful."

"I can tell you that," Deanna grumbled, and was about to launch into an explanation when the stranger held up a hand, motioning her to stop.

"Peace," the stranger said. "I wish to hear this from her mouth. I will be deceiving her if I were to know that which she chooses to keep a secret before she tells me."

Deanna barked out a short laugh. "You know she'll never tell you. She only told the Mayor, and that was only after we had been asking for days where she'd been and what she knew about -"

"Silence!" the man thundered. The sudden blast of sound, coming from the quiet stranger, was enough to startle Deanna into letting go of the ladder and falling a few feet to land on the wooden platform beneath her with a yelp. "You must not tell me what Kairi chooses to keep from me. Her trust is necessary if she's to be helped!"

Deanna was too surprised and frightened to respond.

The stranger calmed himself with an obvious effort. "I apologize for yelling at you. It was uncalled for. And yet, I will require for her to trust me to help her. Please, don't tell me anything that I don't ask for when we converse about Kairi." He extended a hand down to her and, slowly, she reached out and took it. He was still warm to the touch.

****

Kairi hadn't really thought that the stranger would be there when she got up the next day, but when she grudgingly walked out onto the warm sands of the western beach she was surprised to find him there, cowl pulled over his head, watching Tidus go through what he called his "warm-up" with great interest. Kairi took a moment to watch Tidus's graceful strokes; Tidus fought with one hand on his sword, concentrating his momentum in solid strikes, always pushing forwards toward his imaginary opponent. After a few moments Tidus wore himself out and had to take a break.

The stranger stepped forwards. "You fight with effective strikes, but your style wears you down as well. Using one hand to swing a longsword like that is very tiring. You must learn to focus your explosive energy into careful movements, rather than try and keep up that pace throughout an entire battle." Tidus nodded and the stranger continued lecturing. "Some of your movements are rather useless. Remember, the goal is to defeat the opponent, not try and impress him. You need to trim that which doesn't help you out of your routine. That will free up some of your rather limited endurence for necessary strikes."

"It can't be that bad," Tidus answered defensively, panting a bit.

"Hey, watch yo' mouth, mon," Wakka snapped.

"Calm down," the stranger said easily. "It takes a great deal of effort to offend me - our friend here won't manage it. And, yes, it can occasionally be that bad. You need to learn what's useful and get rid of the rest of the flair."

Kairi had been drawn down by this conversation, interested despite herself, and the stranger noticed the minute she moved from quiet sand to a grittier part of the beach, long since worn by Tidus and his constant escapades. He turned to her. "So, you've decided to join us, then?"

"When do I start?" she asked quietly. He glanced over at Wakka, who waved him to go ahead.

"Looks like we can begin immediately. Tidus is far too tired to continue for now." He motioned her to the center of the sand, then tossed her Tidus's weapon. "I understand that you've been trying to use the sword?"

"Trying is a good word for it," she responded caustically.

"I... see. Well, let's see what you're capable of." The stranger reached into his bag and pulled out, much to Kairi and Tidus's surprise, a pole identical to that of his own. He took a few steps back, settled into a relaxed stance. "Try and follow my actions, to the best of your ability."

He started to perform a loose, simple stretching exercise; a short series of careful slashes. Kairi wasn't having any problems following along with them until she went from a defensive stance to a more forward stance, overdid the balancing, and crashed right down on the sand. The rest of the little training bit the stranger put her through went much like that; she'd be alright for a few moments, then go down.

The stranger looked on, nodding slightly. "You need a weapon that'll help your balance a bit."

"I hadn't noticed," Kairi said, spitting sand out from the latest fall.

After that, they spent about an hour on the spear. The spear turned out to be far too large for the short Kairi; not only that, but the concept of thrust and parry wasn't being taken too well by Kairi, and by the time that the stranger finally gave up and put the spear away, she'd grown quite discouraged. The stranger, however, had only gotten more enthusiastic.

"I believe that I know what weapon will do you the most good," he said, rustling through his bag.

"This is the last one I'm trying," she said crossly, patience worn thin by a morning filled with failure. "This isn't working at all. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes," the stranger replied, his mouth muffled by the bag. Then, with an odd-sounding grunt of triumph, he straightened out and held the newly acquired weapon over his head triumphantly. Kairi took a quick step back; the boys both allowed their jaws to drop a bit. It was no training weapon; the stranger held above his head the most exotic weapon that the boys had ever seen. It consisted of a pair of thin, obviously sharp blades connected together by a solid-looking pole. The stranger brought the weapon down, setting it gently into the ground by one of the two points.

Kairi managed to recover first. "What... what is that thing?" she sputtered.

"This," he replied, "is a double voulge, otherwise known as a swallow. Something like a polearm and something like a staff. It's quite an exotic weapon - very few people are ever able to grasp how it works, and fewer still master it. I think that you have it in you to use this." He plucked it out of the sand and walked over to her, presenting it to her horizontally. It was longer than she was tall.

Cautiously, she took ahold of the weapon, and the stranger took a few steps back. Experimentally, she spread her hands apart on the haft, so that each hand wasn't more than a foot away from a blade. Behind her, the stranger became still, holding his breath; anticipation radiated from him, along with a cautious excitement. She did a short slash with the newly gained device, bringing the right blade forward and down -

- the momentum she got from that called to her, and she answered it by turning the other way, allowing the other blade to shoot out -

- she kept going, spinning once, both blades cleaving the air in front of her -

- and she managed to stop spinning, sliding to one knee in the sand.

She took a few deep breaths, trying to release some of the sudden euphoria. Dimly, she was aware of the boys' incredulous stares, but she dismissed that, trying to keep herself from laughing. She'd been trying to find a weapon that she could work with and grown more and more frustrated by each failed attempt; but this, this just sung in her hands. This - this might just, no - it could work! "Yes!" she yelled out exultantly.

It was about then that she remembered her audience, and she turned to look at the stranger. He hadn't moved a bit but was standing quite a bit stiffer than she remembered him being. His face was still hidden but she sensed an odd euphoria coming from him. At length, he said, "You certainly have the aptitude for it."

****

The rest of the morning flew by for Kairi, the stranger, and Tidus and Wakka in a flurry of blitzballs and poles and spinning Kairis. The stranger had quickly confiscated the real swallow, replacing it instead with a wooden one cut to the dimensions of the more lethal version. As it turned out by noon, she was far faster with her oddly shaped weapon than Tidus could match, with just as much hitting power to boot, as Wakka could attest. He was almost literally covered with mismatched bruises from when he insisted that Kairi work on her timing by countering his blitzball throws. As the others sat down to a bite to eat Wakka gingerly laid down on the sand next to the table.

At a sudden groan out of Wakka the stranger perked up a bit, glancing at the boy's exposed chest again. "Wakka, you are not in any position to continue like that."

"I'll be fine," he managed. "I've 'ad worse - you shoulda seen what Sora could -" The moment he mentioned Sora he realized that he crossed an invisible line; he tensed up immediately but couldn't match the speed at which Kairi did the same. Tidus's eyes narrowed briefly, shot back to their previous position. He immediately filled the empty air.

"What do you wanna do now?" he asked innocently.

The stranger slowly glanced from the tensed Kairi to the bruised Wakka right back to the convincingly innocent Tidus. "Well, right now I plan on fixing your friend up." He stood up and meandered over to Wakka, who hadn't quite managed to find a comfortable position.

Wakka glanced up at him confusedly. "How're ya gonna do that, man?"

The man extended a tanned hand beyond the reaches of his robe, splaying his fingers out wide. "Much like this." As he said that his frame seemed to glow mildly green from within; and before the wide eyes of everybody else there a light green glow effused throughout Wakka's being, and his bruises disappeared as if they'd never been.

The shock of it sat Wakka up on his rear. "Wha-hey! That was crazy, man!" He glanced over himself. "How'd you do that?"

The stranger's hood still covered his face but Wakka had the strange feeling that the stranger was smiling. "Oh, it's easy. It takes a little faith and a little work but really it's quite simple. I'll show you, sometime." Then he glanced over at the others, who were still staring at Wakka. "So - Tidus, the healing is complete but Wakka will need about an hour's worth of rest before he can quite manage the pace he set earlier. Can you run him back to his hut?"

Tidus nodded dumbly and, pulling the larger but woozy Wakka to his feet, they set off across the sands. The stranger's gaze cut over to Kairi.

"Would you like to talk?" he asked, and Kairi sagged a bit. She thought she'd hid it well enough but somehow he'd picked up on her tension after all. Dimly she wondered if she could hold out against this kindly stranger but she was pretty certain that she was done for. She'd just held everything in for far too long, and this mystery storyteller seemed to know where all the holes in her armor were.

"What about? We could talk about sand. There's lots of sand," she suggested.

"Somehow I don't believe that sand's on your mind," the stranger deadpanned.

"Why not? It's just as good as anything else."

"Even Sora?" At that, Kairi looked away from the sand and stared at the stranger. He didn't move away from her tense gaze.

"What do you want to know?" she said quietly. "I can tell you lots of things about Sora. I can tell you normal things, like how he liked only vanilla ice cream, how he and his best bud were always competing, how they were always wanting to build their raft, the - uh, the..." She trailed off, face stricken by her own memory loss.

"Highwind," the stranger supplied absently, focusing on her.

"Yeah - that was it. No. He wanted to call it Excalibur. I could tell you lots of crazy things, too, about other worlds and crazy monsters, but you wouldn't believe them at all. Nobody would."

The stranger stayed silent.

"But no, I'm not supposed to talk about Sora. He doesn't exist anymore, they all said." Kairi threw him a dark look filled with a quiet bitterness. "Did you know they even got rid of all of his pictures? Oh, I'm sure that his mom still has a few, but if he was in any other pictures the mayor had them thrown right out! They're all supposed to forget him, I'm supposed to just forget him, and you know what? Their little scheme is working." She laughed out loud, a joyless and miserable sound. "It's really working! I can't remember what his hair looked like at sunset anymore, and I can't remember how he liked his salads. I can't even remember what he named his raft! He put his heart and soul into that raft and I can't even remember that -" It was about then that her brain caught up with the conversation. "Hey - how'd you know?"

"About the Excalibur?" the stranger asked slowly. "I happened to overhear the boys talking about it earlier."

"Even those two morons!" she exclaimed. "Even those two can remember him better than I can!" She was steadily growing hysterical, and pounded a fist into the table. It shook but didn't splinter. "And if I can't remember him like that now, six months later, what's going to happen in a year? Two years? How long do I have to wait?!" She used both fists this time and the wood definitely couldn't take much more of that. Her eyes were tearing up, now.

"Perhaps you should-" the stranger started, but she cut him off.

"He should have been back by now! He promised he'd bring it back!" Done shrieking, she seemed to collapse inside of herself then, murmuring softly. "Where is he? Did he die? Did he get lost? He promised..." she managed, and fainted dead away, slumping off of of the table into the soft sand.

The storyteller was at her side in an instant, pulling her up into a sitting position. It was obvious that she wasn't getting up for a while. He glanced back at where she was staying in the village, off in a little hut by herself. He had wondered what she was doing there in a hut by herself, but if the villagers had chosen to cut her off rather than try and believe her...

He slowly picked her up, arms over his chest, body on his back piggy-back style, and began the short hike back to the village proper.

****

Deanna wasn't planning for anything to happen that day. Sure, she'd thought a bit about talking to the mayor over getting a little extra wood for her shack's new room, and she still had a bit of cleaning up to do out in the garden, but overall she wanted to do little more than rest and relax after the hard day of unloading boxes of grain and pursuing the stranger on his odd errand with that Kairi girl.

She shook her head. The stranger was wasting his time with that one. Deanna wasn't sure exactly what had happened to her Sora, but she knew that Kairi was involved and that Kairi was traumatized over whatever had gotten both Sora and Riku. In Deanna's opinion, they should have gotten Kairi, too. The girl was full of lies and stories after she'd suddenly reappeared after a week of being missing, stories about keys and princesses and other foolish fairy-tale things. It was all Deanna could do to tolerate the lying girl, who probably knew right where her Sora was and what had done him in. Deanna was sure about that part - her son was dead. She just wished that Kairi had the guts to tell her what had happened, so she could put it all behind her.

So it was something of a surprise to step outside, not exactly expecting anything to happen, and see the stranger carrying an unconscious and distressed Kairi into her hut on the far side of the village square. Even while asleep, Kairi was hanging onto some kind of odd wooden pole with one white-knuckled hand as if it was her only link to reality. The stranger quietly opened Kairi's door, went inside, and emerged a moment later without her. He closed the door quietly and got about another three steps before Deanna had finally had the presence of mind to call out.

"Hey! What are you doing over there?" The stranger looked up and then walked over to Deanna, who had gotten a few steps away from her front porch. Nobody else was in the square.

"I was putting her to bed. She's had a rough morning."

Deanna looked the stranger up and down carefully but couldn't tell if he was lying or not. "We all have rough mornings. She's a tough little girl - she'll make it through them."

The stranger shook his head. "I'm not so sure. Would you mind taking a walk with me?" Deanna looked him up and down again critically, but she hadn't really planned on doing much of anything anyway, and walking around the Destiny Islands could be very relaxing.

"I guess," she said. "Ain't got anything better to do, anyway."

"Good!" he replied. "We're only missing one member of our little party and then we can go." The stranger glanced around the square. "Do you know where Wakka might live? Tidus may still be there, and I have a favor to ask of him. It's rather important that you come along, too."

With Deanna leading the way, they stopped by Wakka's shack and picked up Tidus, who had just gotten through with tossing the much larger Wakka onto his bed. The three of them sauntered off on a long walk to the other side of the island. The stranger turned out to be full of questions on the history of the Island and how long she'd been there. As for her, she just answered as best she could and managed not to get lost in her ramblings too much. Tidus had stayed with them for awhile, but eventually he grew bored and sped on ahead, slashing carefully with his pole at branches and such. It took about half an hour to stroll down the side of the Islands to the natural waterfall and the beach.

The stranger stopped and took in the scenery again, while Deanna took a cautious step back. He saw her. "Relax, I don't plan on jumping again."

"Just being careful."

"I suppose so. Tidus!" The stranger glanced around for a moment, then yelled again. "Tidus!"

A sudden movement caught both of their gazes; Tidus was perched precariously on a wooden hut suspended on a thick tree branch over the open waters. The boy jumped down and made a perfect swan dive into the water. Deanna jumped about two feet into the air as he arced through the sky into the water, while the stranger merely chuckled once. Eventually, Tidus swam up to the shore and raced across to where the stranger and Deanna were standing. "What?"

Deanna started in on him. "Tidus! Show some respect when you're around your elders! You don't know how much you just scared me - do you know how shallow that water is?! You could break your neck! Then where would you be?" Tidus looked appropriately chastised, with his head now down and his ears pink, so she relented. "Just don't do that again. I don't want to ever find you out there hurt, got that?"

"Sorry, Mum-mum," he managed. The stranger turned towards Tidus, having given the two of them some space to talk.

"I want you to show me something, okay, Tidus?"

Tidus cocked his head slightly, no longer embarrassed. "What do you wanna see?"

"I want you to show me the secret spot." Deanna's brows furrowed together while Tidus suddenly got a lot more tense.

"Why do you want to see that?" Tidus answered. His hands clenched themselves open and closed once.

"I merely want to study the chamber itself. You see, I was talking to Kairi earlier -"

Tidus held up a hand to forestall him, suddenly much calmer. "Say no more. It's this way, okay?" He started off towards the center of the island followed by the stranger. Deanna trailed slightly behind them both, still quite confused.

"What's this all about?" she hissed to the stranger, as Tidus moved some foliage aside in a dark corner of the waterfall basin. He appeared to be concentrating deeply.

"It should become obvious here in a moment," the stranger said. "I've been told that there's something of a secret area here underneath the mountain itself, suspended by roots and hard shale. The children seemed to enjoy it, and I thought I'd take a look."

Deanna was horrified! "Under the mountain?!" she hissed back. "That's insane! We need to block this place off, not take another look!" Tidus interrupted their conversation with a victorious yelp and pulled some more bushes away from the mountainside to reveal a roughly hewn entrance in a tiny corner of the mountains. The stranger straightened up somewhat, giving the little hole another look, while Deanna stared at it skeptically. "That's so small! You wanna fit through there?"

"I'll manage somehow," the stranger said dubiously. "Why don't you lead the way, Tidus?"

The tunnel actually turned out to be much larger than the entrance had indicated, and after an uncomfortable game of squeezing into an opening that was a bit too small for an adult, the three of them managed it. The cavern itself was quite small, smelled of old dirt and roots, and made up of rocks and tree roots; it was actually completely hollow. Despite how small it was it was also quite high; even the tall stranger was able to easily stand upright. The cave was lit dimly from sunlight streaming in through the holes in the walls. It was also covered, from top to bottom, in chalked pictures: here a bright, shining castle was depicted, while on the other side a fierce beast roamed the land. One particular picture, of a pair giving each other shooting stars, had a piece of it that looked much newer than the rest of the place.

Deanna walked around slowly, disbelieving what her eyes told her; some of the drawings looked disturbingly familiar, sketched out by a hand she'd seen several times in her life and just as quickly scolded for not doing something productive. She'd seen them before alright. Sora's hand had sketched them out. Why had she limited his potential by telling him that his drawings didn't matter? So many regrets. She pulled herself out of her funk and glanced back at her unlikely companions. Tidus was glancing over the rocks himself, chuckling a bit at one marked with a rough representation of his name. The stranger, however...

The stranger had an intense stare locked solidly on the rear, darkened portion of the chamber. Whatever was back there was important, if the stranger's behavior was any indication. She stepped forward, gazing hard at the rear of the chamber, and was barely able to make out some kind of wooden thing imbedded in the far wall. She'd never seen it before but could tell that it was quite ornate; it was roughly rectangular with an oval defining a center point. "What is that?" she asked him.

He didn't answer at first and even Tidus stopped his wall-studying to look at the stranger worriedly. After a beat the stranger broke his stare and glanced at the ground briefly, muttering to himself in a language that neither of them had ever heard before. He then looked over at the two of them. "No, this room will not be sealed. You have too much history here to simply close this off."

Deanna shook her head. "No way! The kids shouldn't have been here anyway. This place isn't used by the kids anymore anyway!"

"No! This place is of a far greater importance than the history of the Islands. In fact, it is most likely the reason that this place has an exotic history in the first place." The stranger gestured emphatically. "You know nothing and thus can't understand the significance that was here and what you can learn from it -"

"Hey guys!" Tidus called from the wooden thing. He sounded much less certain of himself than either of them had ever heard him sound and they both looked over at him.

He pointed up at a small part of the wooden thing, one that both of them had missed before. It was located in the exact center of the oval portion; a small hole in the wooden thing, shaped roughly as an old keyhole, built for a chamber key. As they stared at it, it shimmered slightly, giving off a faintish light that even the magically inept Tidus was able to recognise. Both the stranger and Deanna stared, but for different reasons.

For Deanna, the little keyhole was the culmination of all of her hopes and fears. A large part of her absolutely believed that Kairi had been lying through her teeth or deluded when she told the village a wild tale about keys and strange monsters without hearts and Sora. But a very small part of her had hoped beyond hope that it was the case - that Sora was still out there rather than having being devoured by Sahags or something just as bad, and she stared at the keyhole like he could just jump out of it.

For the stranger, it meant that he'd miscalculated, and badly. He could almost kill himself over a mistake like that! To simply believe that the Heartless were gone and the other worlds sealed beyond his reaching without actually confirming that belief was not the way he had decided to live his life. And at the same time he was analyzing what that had meant: the Keyblade master had carefully locked all of the domains he could find - except for his home, which had been beyond his reach. Such a small thing, but such potential in it. There was a way out. But did he want to take it?

Deanna took a shaky step back. "What - what's that thing?" she asked thickly, as the little hole shined again.

"That," the stranger said grimly, "would be a Keyhole."

****

"Kairi?"

Selphie peeked her head inside the door of Kairi's little hut, looking past the dusty curtains and the shadows that permeated the place, looking for her best friend. She'd heard that the storyteller - Peregrine, he said his name was - had talked to Kairi, then brought her back to her hut. Some people had even said that the storyteller had carried her back to her hut on his back! If she hadn't broken her arm earlier she'd have already been out there

Selphie felt as if she was well behind things. She was still gimping around with only one arm, but she'd kept going from day to day by the looks that would be on the boys' faces when they saw her new Strange Vision, a nunchuku she'd been working on, and by Kairi's occasional visit. Still, that did mean that she had to spend a lot of time inside. She'd missed the stranger's arrival, Kairi's new weapon, and now this! Geez, being a girl sure was busy work, but she'd stay on top of it. That's why she was Selphie!

When she heard that the strange storyteller had brought Kairi back to her hut, though, she had to go see her best friend. She'd timed it right, carefully sneaking past her always-busy mom - her dad was still at work harvesting spices - and despite almost shrieking when she bumped her bad arm on a plank she had done a first-rate job of sneaking out. It had taken her about ten minutes to cross the stretch of sand between her house and the little hut that the mayor had put Kairi in, and now her friend was hiding in her little hut? She wouldn't stand for it!

"Kairi! Where are you?" Kairi wasn't on the little couch, and that was unusual. Kairi loved to read and she was usually on the couch going over some new fantasy book brought in from the mainland, but right now she wasn't reading. Selphie eased herself inside the first room, watching the floor carefully and glancing around for her best friend. A quick search saw that Kairi wasn't in the little room off of the living room and nor was she in the kitchen. Selphie reached the bedroom and, taking a quick breath, she shrugged off some sudden nervousness and opened the door.

The room was different from when she had last seen it. Kairi was a girl who loved the light and everything bright, and would never have put curtains up, but up they were. Kairi didn't fight or anything but there was an exotic weapon that Selphie had never seen over in the corner, looking a lot like Tidus's training sword but with two smooth heads seperated by a pole. And Kairi never slept on top of the covers, preferring the heat and warmth, but she was sprawled out on the comforter. Her face was tight, contorted. She was rolling on the bed a bit, dreaming restlessly. Selphie stared for the eternity of a second, than ever-so- slowly tiptoed inside. "Kairi?"

The sleeping girl didn't move. Selphie was at her side in an instant, checking her over. Maybe she was a dreaming romantic, but that didn't stop her from having a practical side. After checking her friend over for anything wrong, she shook Kairi gently. She got no response from that and shook harder. After a few seconds of vigorous shaking, Kairi slowly pulled out of her dreaming funk and slowly her face relaxed. She sat up gingerly. "Selphie?" she asked in a hoarse, shaking voice.

Selphie was immediately concerned. "Kairi? What's wrong?"

Kairi took a moment to compose herself before answering, climbing to her feet before answering. "I... I was talking to the storyteller and - you know what I told you?"

Selphie dropped a few color shades instantly. "You didn't." When Kairi slowly nodded Selphie put her hands on her waist and studied Kairi for a moment, who was looking dejected and at the ground. "You think you can trust Peregrine that way?"

"Peregrine? Yeah, his name. I think so. He's been after me anyway."

"What do you mean by 'after you'?" Selphie wrinkled her nose. "Has he been following you around, talking to you?"

"Well..." Kairi took a moment to think. "Not really. It just feels like that when we talk - like he knows that I'm not telling something and he wants to know it."

"Like Deanna does?" Selphie had seen more than her share of meetings between Deanna and Kairi. They could get pretty ugly; once she'd had to drag Kairi away from Deanna once, after one particular exchange became heated.

Kairi shook her head, sitting back down. "No. Don't talk about Deanna, okay? I don't want a headache."

"Sorry. But you know what I mean."

"The storyteller -"

"Peregrine." Selphie stuck out her tongue. "Why does he always wear a hood?"

"He must not want anybody to know what he looks like," Kairi answered absently. "More importantly -- where'd he come up with that name?"

"Maybe his mother named him that." Selphie managed not to giggle when she said that, but it was a close thing.

"Still, he has been asking me about myself."

Selphie perked up a bit. "So what did you tell him."

"This and that." Kairi shifted a bit in her seat, guiltily. "Stuff I've been holding in for awhile, that's all."

"About Sora and Riku?" Selphie asked hesitantly.

"Well... yeah." Kairi shifted in her seat again, but the change in posture was enough for the empathic Selphie to pick up on what was under the surface. Feeling the need to explain herself further under Selphie's burning gaze, she continued, "Not much about Riku though."

"Ohhh. I get it now."

Kairi darkened about three shades. "Uh..."

"Okay, I'll be nice. What else has been going on?"

Kairi nodded over to the weird thing in the corner. "That's a swallow. It's some kind of weapon, and you know how I've been on Tidus to find something I can use?" Selphie nodded, catching the ever-unspoken inflection; Kairi wanted to get close to her memories of Sora any way that she could, and learning how to fight herself was probably the best way to do it. Kairi didn't talk much about how it was to be inside somebody the way that she was, but after Selphie had wheedled the whole story out of Kairi she hadn' t wasted any time imagining how it was inside of Sora. Of course, it had taken Selphie a few days to really accept things but after seeing all of the new stars in the sky she had been hooked. Kairi broke off her train of thought. "Well, they asked the storyteller if he had anything I could use and out popped that thing. I like it."

"Just like that?"

"Not really. I had to embarrass myself with a long stick and Tidus's little sword thing before he showed me that thing."

"What's he like?" Selphie asked, eyes shining a bit more. Kairi could only shake her head and launch into a long narrative on the stranger.

****

A few hours later found Kairi sweating underneath the late afternoon sun, holding an awkward position with her legs, swallow raised defensively, her crouched underneath and behind it. Tidus's eyes were hooded by his hair, she couldn't judge where he was planning to go, and her back leg was already bruised from an earlier spar, threatening to give at any time -

Tidus leapt right, swinging his sword across his body in a descending arc; she bounced it off of the first blade, knocking his sword arm aside, and her body forgot its fatigue, helping her spin with the swallow as the centerpiece and bring up the other half of the swallow to rest about three inches from his left eye. He stopped moving abruptly, staring open-mouthed at the wooden 'blade' in front of him, and dropped the stick that served him as a sword. Realizing that he had relented, she drew back her swallow and, spinning it around with one hand carefully, she stepped back into the guarding position that the storyteller had taught her to use.

"Good," the stranger pronounced. "Tidus, you must learn to use less of your exotic 'style' when you attack. Kairi, you bet your survival on your spin time and Tidus's recovery time. If either had failed you, you would have been slain." He shook his hooded head. "Other than that, both of you performed well. Take a break and we'll continue then." Gratefully, they both collapsed on the sand, Kairi allowing the swallow to slip out of her grasp.

"This is... harder than... I thought it would be," she managed between gasps.

"Just keep going!" Selphie encouraged from the shade. "You looked great out there." Kairi nodded shakily in her direction and kept panting.

Wakka was helping Tidus to his feet. "She's good, Wakka," he gasped out. "I haven't been beaten like that for a long time."

"Not since...?" Wakka started. Tidus nodded. "Well, don't that just beat all," Wakka continued, musing to himself. "I didn't think she was that good."

"She's got the talent, all right," Tidus said. "She's only getting better, too. She's beating me after three days of training!"

Meanwhile the stranger had walked over to Deanna, who had insisted on keeping a watch on the children. Three days sitting under the shade of a nearby coconut tree, still in the unrelenting sun, hadn't convinced her that Kairi was worth all this attention, but she seemed to being getting better at swinging a pointed stick like hers. As for the stranger, he had only trained Kairi and the others during the day and listened carefully to the legends and the tales of the island at night. She wasn't sure, but it sure seemed like he didn't ever actually sleep at nights, preferring to watch the sunset and the moon. She had spent as little time as possible thinking about the Keyhole.

"She's growing stronger," the stranger mused out loud. Lately, Deanna had become a confidant of his, and he always told her what he was thinking. "It would seem that her earlier experiences with the Keyblade master have served her well; she has an excellent working knowledge of the ever-elusive mechanics of fighting. A week will prove to be more than enough to teach her the basics, and then I can test her and leave."

"Test?" Deanna echoed. "Why would you need to do that? And who exactly is this 'Keyblade master' you just referred to?"

"Kairi's skill is, right now, a block of unfinished metal. It isn't anything useful at the moment, and only Kairi can change that simple fact." The stranger's darkly tanned stroked his chin under his concealing hood, thinking aloud. "I must test her, if only to challenge her. She must face adversity before she is to become as powerful as her potential dictates, much like the formerly said Keyblade master, Sora."

He said that so casually and offhandedly that Deanna at first missed the meaning of that little last word. She half-stood from the shock of it, while the stranger quickly realized his mistake and turned away from her towards the children. Deanna could only stare at his back. Had Kairi actually told the truth? The stranger hadn't lied to her yet, and Kairi had been so adamant about her story. Now, to have somebody outside of their village confirm her tale... How quickly Deanna's world had changed.

In the meantime, damage control was the name of the stranger's game. "Wakka, can you get the others back to the village?" the stranger called out quietly. The boy's head darted up and met the stranger's gaze; after a moment, he called to the others quietly and, struggling to their feet, they saddled their gear and all headed back towards the village, Kairi lingering a moment before Selphie called out to her. Turning, the redheaded girl followed her friends slowly.

After a beat passed the stranger turned and considered Deanna. "How long have you known?" Deanna managed to say.

The stranger paused a moment, contemplating. "Sora's tale is something that has taken some time to piece together, and it deals strongly with both Kairi and the Keyhole we saw back there." Deanna opened her mouth to reject that - to deny it, to claim that Sora was dead, that Kairi and now the strange storyteller were both lying - but she found that Peregrine's voice held the unmistakeable ring of the truth, and that her voice didn't serve her anymore. "It would seem that the Keyhole is a passage to a world's center, designed for any entity to be able to enter, and the Keyblade, a weapon and tool crafted to both protect the user and seal these Keyholes, is the only device that can stop the darker powers of the worlds from conquering a world entirely."

Deanna's voice still didn't work, so the stranger continued after a pause. "From my observations, I have discovered that all worlds, not merely this one, contain a Keyhole. This keyhole is the door to the literal core of a given world - an energy field that seems to keep the world both vital and whole and seems to hold a specific world together, so that the inhabitants can enjoy their lives. As of late, a powerful and unquestionably evil force calling itself the Heartless has been destroying worlds by penetrating and corrupting - perhaps devouring - a given world's Heart, and the Keyblade chose Sora as a host to stop the assault of the Heartless. It also seems as if a sealed Keyhole forces a world's boundaries to raise themselves, keeping the world isolated from all of the others."

"You mean..." Deanna murmured. "Why Sora?"

"Simple. Sora's heart is as undeniably pure as the waters surrounding this island, and in its humility and meekness it is stronger than any force that would stand against it."

Deanna started gasping then - the story was too much for her, and she became caught up in the throes of a panic attack. The storyteller moved immediately, one hand leaning her back slowly the other steadied her descent. He might have even glowed green for a moment, but Deanna couldn't quite tell. The storyteller had her lay down on her back and breathe evenly, something that was quite the challenge for Deanna, but a few moments of the storyteller's patience later she was able to manage it. After a few minutes she got herself under control. From her prone position she looked up, eyes a bit glazed, and muttered, "I never thought that Kairi was telling the truth."

The stranger nodded once. "The truth is far more terrifying than the fiction you wished to believe."

"Sora... Did you know that he is my son?"

When the stranger shook his head slowly, she continued, saying whatever came to mind. "He is strong, that's for sure, but I always thought that the kids took their little raft and actually set sail for other places, and were taken by surprise by a Sahag or something. But to think that she was telling the truth..." Deanna trailed off. "How do you know about my son?"

"He and I have met." The stranger's voice was laced with a sardonic tone. "We weren't on the best of terms, but he impressed me regardless. His wisdom proved superior to mine."

"My boy, the master of the Keyblade." Deanna said it again. "The Keyblade master. How is he managing that, so far from home?"

"The Keyblade reinforces his strength. As an ambitious and crafty but foolish man once said, the boy's strength is not his own."

"Is he - is he in any danger?" Deanna's voice caught.

The stranger nodded again. "He battles creatures that rip out the hearts of weaker men and women, and he must be strong, all the time. Yes, he is in constant danger but he is also in constant company. He has two assistants, guides, and friends to always be at his side, and together the three of them have stood tall against things that even my imagination struggles to grasp. He is in danger but he is the Keyblade master, and as long as he holds hope in his hands and in his heart he will ever stand against the darkness."

She shook her head. "And I doubted Kairi. Did she tell the truth about what happened between my son and... her?"

The stranger chuckled. "I suspect so. After spending a few days with that girl, I can see that while she doesn't always say what she thinks, she can't lie even if she wanted to."

Suddenly Deanna surged to her feet, disregarding the stranger's cautious hand. "I've got to - no, don't stop me! I have to find her right now and - oh, Sora means the world to her and I suspect it works both ways! How could I be so blind?!" Pushing past the stranger Deanna ran towards Kairi, toward the village and her absolution.

The stranger stood and watched Deanna's retreating form for a moment, then threw back his hood and nodded once. His hair spilled out of the open hood, blowing in the gentle Destiny Islands breeze. After this night, he would no longer be needed. He would move up the testing. If she stood to his assault, now that she was reinforced with the hearts of others, then and only then could he leave with a clear conscience.

He resolved to never put his hood back into place.

****

Deanna caught up with the others right before they entered the village center, with the sun hovering somewhere over her right shoulder. On the way, her suddenly agile mind had thrown together a haphazard plan that might just win over Kairi's trust, but executing it would be hard with just herself to fall back on. Still, she'd managed far harder in her lifetime, and a bit of authority would go a long way in this situation.

It was as quiet as could be expected in the village center, and the children were roughly in single file with Kairi was keeping up the rear. She looked to be deep in her own little world, no doubt thinking about the events of the past few days. Deanna drew even with the her and, marshalling her bravery and as much of the commanding adult as she was capable, she called out. "Kairi, you need to come with me. The rest of you need to return home, right away. That means you too, Selphie."

****

He tossed the robe aside. Underneath it was the finely lined coat he'd always taken to wearing, tied at the middle with a sash. He dropped the hiding enchantment on his boots, allowing them to shine against the moonlit sea again. Tossing the hood aside, watching as it flopped quietly away in the gentle sea breeze, the man known as Peregrine reached into himself, searching for something he'd always had a connection to.

****

Kairi shot her an edged glare. "What do you want?"

Deanna drew herself up to her full weight and said crisply, "Don't you talk to me like that. You're coming with me, right now. You and I have something to hash out." Kairi looked back at the others, who each nodded their assent. She turned back to Deanna.

"I hope you don't mind my swallow," she said bitingly, indicating her wooden weapon, "because I'm bringing it along."

Deanna shot her a toothy grin. "If it makes you feel better, sure. Let's get moving, child. We've got a bit of ground to cover before sunset." Without another word she turned and started back the way she came. After a moment, Kairi joined her silently, curiousity getting the best of her. They traveled across most of the island quietly, crossing the risings of the rocky path without a word until finally they reached the far beach. The sun was still up, but it was getting to be a close thing.

"So what do you want to show me?" Kairi asked nervously. "I've seen all this before."

"I think you missed a detail in one place." Deanna said, and started away. "If you want to catch it, you need to follow me."

****

Peregrine abruptly made contact. There it was: it had been resting, gathering its strength since its battle with the Master, six months ago. He reached out and touched his lifelong friend, and it responded with a growl that shook his psychic mind. It was ready for battle once more.

****

Deanna angled right, towards the waterfall and its hidden cavern. Kairi followed quietly but slowed down quite a bit, stopping a few feet in front of the cave entrance. "I don't want to go in there." Deanna stopped and turned around, expecting to bring a bit of authority into the situation, only to find that Kairi had raised her swallow into the defensive position that Deanna knew so well from watching her spar with Tidus. "How do you know about the secret spot?"

Keeping an eye on the swallow, Deanna quickly answered, "The storyteller had Tidus show it to us, after you showed him. I want to show you something I found in there. Now I don't plan on trying to force you in, but I do think you should see what's in there for your own good." Deann turned and, forcing bushes aside, she entered the hole. Perplexed but no longer afraid Kairi followed Deanna inside the earthen hole, lowering her weapon as she did so. It took a moment to push through the cave into the hidden spot in the mountain hollow. Deanna straightened first, turning to look at the light, but she saw to her brutal dismay that the sun had fallen too fast; night was upon the Destiny Islands and its inhabitants.

Kairi pulled herself into a standing position next to Deanna. "So what's so great that you want to show -"

Kairi cut herself off abruptly because on the other side of the cavern, bright against the gathering darkness, a small blue-white glimmer of light showed itself to her, one that played at the outlines of a little hole in the far wall that was eerily similar to an old chamber-style keyhole. She stared, not quite believing what she saw, and when it glimmered again she slowly sank to her knees. "A Keyhole..." she uttered quietly, shocked. "Of course - he couldn't have locked this world."

It was all she could handle saying for a few moments; Deanna was quiet as well, and in the space of a few seconds a wealth of information was exchanged in the silence.

"So you believe me now?" Kairi managed, against something rising in her throat. She dropped her swallow. A pair of strong but gentle hands gripped her shoulders, turning her away from the shining Keyhole and toward Deanna's face. The moonlight played off against Deanna's face. It reflected the sadness and terrible regret in her face, but also the quiet acceptance, and maybe even a little love.

"I'm so sorry, Kairi..." Deanna whispered. "I won't ever abandon you like that again. You're my daughter now, Kairi, that's how Sora would want it, and I'll always trust you now." She warred against her own impulses to see how Kairi was reacting to the idea. When Kairi wrapped her up in a strong hug and started sobbing quietly into her neck, she knew that she'd done the right thing, and embraced her new child.

****

It was some time before they came out of the little cave. They had sat there, mother and child, and tried to understand what had happened. Sora came into the conversation more than once. Deanna finally allowed herself to think about her firstborn son again, and she filled Kairi's head with stories about Sora's rearing and the trouble he would get into. After some gentle prompting Kairi shyly told Deanna what she hadn't told the mayor and the rest of the villagers - she relayed the story of the events at the Heartless fortress named Hollow Bastion. Even as the one facet of the mother within Deanna grieved at the telling, another shone with pride at her son's strong heart and simple wisdom.

"And then I gave him an old keepsake - I called it the Oathkeeper. You know that little five-star pendent I used to wear?" The two of them had just crawled out from the old cave and were walking back, holding hands. Kairi had her swallow in her other hand.

"So that's where that thing ended up! I always did wonder where it went." Both of them couldn't keep mild grins off of their faces.

"Well, I didn't just want to send him off alone, but Leon said I couldn't go and so did Sora."

"Leon likes to control things, doesn't he?" Kairi skipped over a rock in her path.

"He can be a jerk, but he means well."

Another voice broke up their reverie. This one was distant, but very loud. "Squall couldn't imagine another way to go about things." Both of them looked up in surprise to see the storyteller framed against the moon, standing at the shore on the little island that he used to train the kids. He wore, rather than his usual robe, a stylized lab coat tied at at the middle by a black sash; against the moon his strikingly silver hair could be seen rippling against the wind. Unconsciously, Kairi stiffened and gripped both her swallow and her new mother's hand tightly.

The storyteller shook his head pityingly. "When the Heartless laid siege to the Bastion, he insisted that he fight with the men at the gate. He proved to be as strong as any three of them, but he was still inexperienced; he was baited into advancing out of the door. The hole he left behind was exploited by the faster of the Heartless, who used the hole to enter the stronghold. He never stopped blaming himself for the loss there - he even changed his name to get away from the more emotional Squall." He turned around, and his bright green eyes bore into Kairi's eyes. "Leon has since attempted to rebuild his life. Six months haven't done too much to restore his spirits, though."

"How do you know all these things?" Kairi asked, and then a stray neuron fired in her brain and she put a few things together. "And when did I tell you about the secret spot?" Things began to connect in her mind and she hurried up the ladder to the bridge, dropping Deanna's protective hand as she did so. Deanna was right behind her. She sprinted across the bridge, skidding to a halt at the beginning of the island itself. "How do you know things that you shouldn't know?"

He chuckled out loud. "Would you wish to find out?" Before she could respond, he lifted a tanned arm into the air. Abruptly a black glow lit itself around him and expanded, and out of the glow came a creature the likes of which even Kairi had never seen before. It had a large, sinuous body with a pair of enormous batlike wings stretching from its armored frame. Its face was rough and grim, reminding Kairi of a warthog, and it was branded with a rune. Despite its demonic appearance, the creature was completely silent. Instinctively, Kairi's swallow came up and she placed herself between the creature and Deanna.

The storytelling stranger said, "Defeat my companion and I shall tell you all that you wish to know, save two things." He then nodded. "On, guardian."

Faster than any Heartless Kairi had ever seen, the monster advanced, clawed hands reaching out for her. She reacted immediately - she pushed Deanna backwards with one arm and dived the other way, swallow in the air. The demon's claws rent the air but missed her, and she rolled forward underneath the creature. She stood up and brought the swallow forward, slashing up with one blade, but the monster simply glided to the right over the water and out of her reach. She assumed a defensive stance while it examined her carefully, and only now that it had stopped could Kairi see the more subtle features of the guardian - it was more draconic than demonic, for one, and had a wheel of sorts on its back.

The monster charged directly at her suddenly, and she was caught off guard; yelling desperately, she leapt left, putting a coconut tree between her and the charging monster. The monster pulled up short, dropping its legs into the ground and taking a long, almost casual swipe with its left arm at Kairi. She managed to keep moving backwards, giving ground, but the unfortunate coconut tree between the monster and her was immediately cleaved. The monster didn't advance immediately and Kairi took a moment to breathe, watching the monster. Some idea had sprouted in the back of her head, but she didn't have the time to study it.

Charging to the fore, Kairi ran slow and slashed upwards with her wooden swallow, whacking the monster solidly across the jaw. Its head reeled back, then snapped back into place as its right arm crossed its body, thwacking into Kairi's raised guard. Despite her guard it still picked her up off her feet and tossed her with the force of the blow, and she landed solidly on her rear, swallow across her body. The monster, suddenly finding Kairi out of its arms' reach, extended its wings and carefully lifted its legs into the air while Kairi stood up. She was dimly aware of Deanna running forward, trying to interfere, only to collide with an invisible barrier that had been erected right where the little island met the path. Deanna fell over from the force, but managed to get back up quickly.

The guardian, having gotten itself into the air, suddenly switched from careful thrusting to charging right at Kairi again. She threw herself to its right, sidestepping its attack, until it lashed out with a raised claw- arm and swiped at her left leg, gashing it. She yelped from the sudden onrush of pain and collapsed on her good leg. The guardian spun around in mid-flight, but she had pulled herself onto her good right leg and, ignoring the pain for a moment, she charged toward the guardian, whacking it solidly while it was spinning around. It dipped a bit in flight but didn't fall. Instead, seeing her right in front of it, it slowly extended its legs and dipped its wings inwards, preparing to land.

Given a breathing moment, the small itch of an idea suddenly grew to much larger proportions - her double-bladed weapon, the monster's thin legs and obvious effort in landing, and its slow reaction time to move all synched in her head into a solid idea. Her eyes narrowed and she quickly sprinted out of the monster's attack range, heading to the other side of the island, ignoring her screaming left leg all the while. It glanced around once it was on the ground, realized that she was all the way on the other side, and did the unexpected; it leaned forward, opening its draconic maw in a leering grin, while the wheel on its back began to spin. Arcs of electrical energy tore up and down the wheel as it spun faster and Kairi braced herself, unsure of what was coming -

The monster flung its head down, spitting out a solid energy beam that tore apart the ground where it hit. Then it jerked its head up, throwing the energy beam terrifyingly fast at Kairi. She spun on one foot to get away from the worst of it, but she wasn't fast enough, and her left side was touched briefly by the beam. It burned worse than any pain she'd suffered while in Sora's body and she screamed aloud, collapsing again due to the sudden tearing blast of pain running through her side.

The monster, apparently satisfied by that, slowly unrooted itself from the ground while Kairi gritted her teeth and slowly, painfully, ascended back onto her feet. She raised her swallow into a guarding position and strived to focus, to see what the monster was up to. Through a haze of pain she found her mindset again, and she saw the monster fly towards her, suddenly accelerating once it was halfway to her; but she was ready. She threw herself away from the creature again, but this time she rolled forward, underneath the guardian, straightening up before it was able to spin around and stabbing forward with one blade, swinging the other end around to hit it again, and spinning the blade upwards with her other hand. The monster staggered and, suddenly hurting, it lost its concentration and fell heavily to the ground.

She moved.

The wooden swallow became a brown arc in the air as it swept downwards, crashing on the monster's head once, twice, three times. After six hits the creature stopped trying to get back up.

Kairi backpedaled a few steps, shivering, and once she saw the creature's tongue roll limply out of its mouth she dropped the swallow. A thin pinprick of light suddenly emanated from the creature's chest, followed by a dozen more, and its chest expanded slightly with the sudden release of power before the monster exploded outwards, throwing her to the ground again and flattening the nearby downed coconut tree. The release of power shook several coconuts out of their trees, and one happened to land near her. Stunned, not thinking, she stared at it for several seconds while her body got itself back under control and her breathing began to steady, but her body was still reeling from the beating she had taken, and things grew slowly dim.

After that, she was vaguely aware of a worried, tearful adult face hovering over her, lifting her into a warm place, and then everything was swallowed by blackness.

****

"Kairi?"

A worried voice.

"Kairi!"

There it was again! She didn't want to wake up. Won't you go away? All she wanted to do was sleep.

"Kairi!!"

No choice, it would seem. Ever so slowly, Kairi opened her eyes to the world once more.

She was in a small room, lying on top of a bed. She could vaguely feel something pressing against her leg, and her left side stung mildly. A quick glance forwards revealed that she was in her room, in the little house the Mayor had given her. She pulled herself up, off of her back, and almost crashed into a person hovering just overhead; Selphie. How had she missed her? And why was the room spinning? She leaned back again.

"Kairi!" Abruptly, a pair of arms threw themselves around her, robbing her of what little mental ability she had left. "I'm so glad you're all right!"

Through the sudden mental haze that had sprung up around her she could vaguely hear a familiar chastising voice. "Selphie! She just woke up!" Selphie promptly backed off, releasing Kairi as gently as she could manage, and after a moment of head swimming Kairi managed to get things back in order again. Now leaning over her head was the weathered and concerned face of Deanna. Right then, there wasn't a more welcome face in all of the Destiny Islands.

Kairi managed a weak grin. "I'm okay, I think. My side still hurts, but it's nothing I can't handle. How long was I out for?"

"Almost three days, child. I was so worried..." Deanna trailed off, wiping at an eye. "Kairi, you promise me you'll never do something like that again! I don't want to... to lose you too."

A voice cut into the conversation. At other times, the voice had been quiet and gentle, full of an earned and measured wisdom, but now the storyteller's voice was strong and almost imperious. "She'll do nothing of the sort. If a fight is required Kairi will deliver." There was a faint victorious edge to the man's voice now. "She performed beyond even my expectations. You continue to impress, Kairi."

Her eyes sprang open and Kairi forced herself to sit up, confronting him. The storyteller, Peregrin, was leaning back in a stool near the door, but he didn't look much like himself. He was no longer wearing his robe; instead, a stylized lab coat cut to enhance his muscular frame was draped loosely over his figure, allowing his darkly tanned chest passage to the outside world. His silver hair fell in a loose cascade down to his shoulders, and while his eyes were now a mild green color they maintained the same cutting quality, one that hinted at a sharp and oft-used mind. She sucked in a breath at the sight of him, wondering vaguely why she hadn't recognised him in the first place. "You're not a storyteller at all."

"Wrong," the man replied. "I'm the purest form of a storyteller, for I have been to the extremes of the universe and returned with the knowledge contained there."

She shook her head at him. "No. You're nothing more than a manipulator who's been using a bit of magic and everybody's blind spots to get around without being caught. But the game's up, Ansem." She swung her legs out of bed and, disregarding Deanna's guiding hands she stood before the dark scientist, woozy but still straight. She didn't measure up to even the middle of his chest. "You don't belong here. Get out."

"I never intended to stay," Ansem replied. "Still, an opportunity is an opportunity."

"What's your goal this time?" she asked contemptuously. "I see that you got rid of your Heartless medallion. Did the mean old Heartless kick you out?"

She was hoping for a rise out of him, but he merely chuckled. "Do you still believe that my goal is that much different from yours?"

"You tried to destroy all of the worlds not a year ago," she deadpanned. "Yeah, we're pretty different, Ansem. I only want to see Sora again and keep on living. You want to have the Heartless kill us all."

He shook his head. "If you believe that, you prove that you know nothing and thus understand nothing." He stood up. "I may ask you for a favor someday, Kairi. Kindly keep in mind that your situation has improved greatly here, and repay your debt to me." With that, the scientist turned to leave.

Deanna held out a hand. "Wait!"

The scientist turned to her. "Yes, what is it?" he replied.

"Were you just acting, all those times we talked?" Deanna asked hesitantly. The scientist gave her a long, searching look, then slowly shook his head and departed.

Kairi glanced back at the door, then over to Deanna. "What does that mean?" she asked suspiciously. "Ansem is bad news, Deanna."

Deanna shook her head, still looking at the door, lips pursed. "Nothing like that, child."

****

It was sunny on the Destiny Islands a few days later when Kairi woke up, and that suited her mood quite well. She was slow to get out of bed, and slower still to get to the bathroom to clean up; Deanna had insisted that she put a brace on her left leg. After washing up, Kairi limped out of the house towards the beach, humming an old tune that had come into her head. She was so relaxed that she almost bumped right into Tidus. "Hey!" he said. "You're looking better. Wanna train for awhile?"

She pointed to her leg brace. "I'm out of things for a while."

"Where'd you get that?" he sputtered, staring at the bandage under the brace. "That's pretty big! Wait, was that why you were so sick?"

"Well, yeah, I guess so," she answered. "What happened to the storyteller?"

"He just up and left," Tidus huffed. "I didn't even get to say goodbye."

"That's okay. He wasn't really a storyteller anyway," she said casually, and walked off. She had an appointment to keep, and she left Tidus staring at her bad leg, wooden sword barely in hand. She did manage to repress the giggle. It wasn't far from her hut to Deanna's house, but she was moving a bit slower than usual so it took her almost ten minutes to cross the common. Fortunately, most of the village was busy unpacking and distributing the shipment from the mainland so she wasn't given any trouble. She had almost made it to the front door, through the well-kept lawn, when trouble found her.

"Hey!" a voice cried out from behind her. She wasn't ready and jumped a foot, coming down on her good leg and spinning around for a moment. She turned, about to give whoever was to blame enough vocal fire to burn a forest down, and was confronted by a wide-eyed Selphie. The girl was just bursting with enthusiasm. "I heard about you and Deanna!"

Selphie's surprise was forgotton. "What?" she sputtered. "How?"

"Do you remember how long you were hurt for?" Selphie squealed. "They wouldn't let me anywhere near you, of course, and I was worried too, but that's the rules, right? Anyway, you were in there for three whole days, and so was Deanna - I mean, she never left, Kairi! Three days and she didn't leave. How's that for being motherly? I bet she really likes you, no matter how she can act sometimes."

"I bet you're right," Kairi said, and knocked on the door. Selphie stared in mute surprise, mouth hanging open an inch, until the door opened wide and Deanna, apron over her usual T-shirt and jeans, motioned them inside.

"Kairi! You're early - I haven't got breakfast on the table just yet. Come on in, and you too, Selphie." She flipped on a light in the foyer and walked inside. Kairi strode confidently into the house with Selphie, close behind, staring at everything as she walked through. She almost tripped over a box on her way into the house, and had to walk around it carefully. It was marked, "Photos."

"Ooh! Photo albums! What kind of pictures do you have, Ms. Deanna?" Selphie asked, looking at the box carefully. Behind her, Kairi turned around quietly, but there was no mistaking the quiet hunger on her face as she glanced at the nondescript cardboard box. Deanna came out from the ktichen, distracted.

"That's for later, Selphie. First, we eat. Anybody here like bacon?" she asked. Selphie immediately shouted her assent and ran into the kitchen. After a moment of looking at the box, Kairi followed her slowly. The kitchen was much like the rest of the house - brightly lit, with plenty of windows opened to let in fresh air. It was a vital, beautiful kitchen, and Kairi felt better than she had in a long time, just sitting in Deanna's kitchen, letting herself absorb the quiet reassurance and love that radiated from Deanna as she tended to the cooking, chatting with the still- excited Selphie. She didn't say much; she didn't need to. After a few minutes of eating, Deanna started clearing the table; Kairi moved right along with her, picking up while Deanna washed. Between the two of them it only took a few minutes to finish up things.

Deanna looked over at Kairi. "You ready?"

"Yeah, I think so," Kairi said. She'd been gearing for this for the last few hours; in fact, she hadn't slept much the night before, after Deanna told her what she was doing. It was enough for her to toss and turn all night, stuck inside dreams that she couldn't remember when she woke up. "Let's take a look."

As Deanna left the room Selphie turned to Kairi. "Hey, what's going on here?" she asked. "You two have something planned?"

"Sort of," Kairi said. "Deanna has a lot of old photos, and I wanted to take a look."

"Oh. Old photos?"

"Yeah."

"How old?" Was that a twinkle in Selphie's eye?

"Um... pretty old, like from a few years ago."

"I see." That was definitely a twinkle in Selphie's eye. "How many of them have Sora on them, Kairi?"

Kairi looked away, coloring slightly. "Just a few. Really."

"It'll be fun!" Now that she had ahold of the idea, Selphie was getting excited. "I haven't looked at pictures of Sora and Riku since - well, you know. What are you two telling the other villagers?"

"We're keeping our mouths shut," Kairi said firmly, "and you need to, too. What happens if you tell somebody? They'll think you're crazy and put you in a little hut by yourself, that's what!"

"Oh," Sephie said. "Okay. I get that. But when do we get to look at the photos?!"

"Right now," Deanna said, bringing in the first of the three cases. It was marked "Childhood". "What say we start right here?"

The three of them dug into the boxes with a relish. It wasn't the most organized or professional of photograph collections, but nobody could deny the care and time and love put into each slighly blurred shot. As the woman and the two girls started to remember, to laugh and to sniffle a bit, nobody could deny the quiet joining that occurred between the three of them that day.

****