A/N:
Disclaimer – I am not involved with the copyright/s for Kingdom Hearts or any of its affiliates. I am not making any monetary form of profit off of writing this.
Just some imaginings of what could be if the Seven of Light change the past so that Xehanort never becomes evil.
Kairi whacked the standing bag of sand with her training sword, breathing heavily.
Whenever she felt sad, or went through one of those days where it all felt so wrong, she would practice in the basement. It made her feel better for some reason; and after her grandmother had died, Kairi hadn't had anyone she could run to about it, someone who could understand except for Lea and Isa. The first day she'd taken a swordfighting lesson (after begging her parents for days, no less) had been the best day of her life.
Somehow, the endless repetition – of undercuts and backhand swings and the occasional hand-to-hand – pushed all of that unhappiness away.
Until it came back again, of course. It always did. And Kairi didn't know when the feelings would ever stop; her heart told her that the psychiatrist, despite how caring she was, didn't have the answers.
Kairi fought the sack dummy in hot, focused silence until she heard the door above her open.
"Kairi?"
"Yes, Mom?" she said after a moment, pausing to lean against her sword.
"Lea's at the door, dear."
"Okay. Is he coming down?"
"Already here," said a voice behind her mom. "Your dad let me in."
"Then get your butt down here already!" Kairi called. "Geez."
She could hear Lea's chuckles from down the stairs, and her mom asked (Kairi could hear the anxiety that was really there), "Do you two need anything?"
"No, Mom, we're fine. You can go."
"If you're sure." Steps receded.
Kairi almost felt bad for growing so distant from her mom recently, but she couldn't understand – and she knew that her mom listened to the psychiatrist and not to her heart like Kairi did.
She turned to see Lea hopping down the stairs. "What's up?" he asked. "Feeling down again?"
"Yeah." Kairi looked down at her sword before moving to put it away. "Why'd you come over?"
"I had one of those dreams," Lea said quietly.
Kairi glanced over her shoulder at him and pursed her lips. She nodded and rolled the sack dummy back into its place by the wall.
Lea and Isa were both eight years older than her; they'd become instant friends after meeting at a support group her psychiatrist had recommended, and both of her parents had been uncomfortable with the idea – their fourteen-year-old daughter hanging out with college students? (Surely it wouldn't help her status as a social pariah, they said out loud; surely these boys would be a bad influence on her, they said behind the bedroom door.) But her parents had eventually grown resigned to it after her psychiatrist's advice to let them stay around, and now everyone was just... used to it. Not that they weren't still nervous about leaving Lea and Kairi alone together, of course.
"What happened in it?" she asked.
"Just the same people. The four brothers. The blue-haired woman and her friend. The guy with silver hair too." Lea sat down in the sofa nearby, running a hand through his hair. "There was something new though. They're... getting closer. To us."
"Getting closer?" Kairi sat down beside him and took his other hand. "How?"
"I don't know, it was a dream thing. I just knew."
Kairi made a noise of frustration, but she didn't mean it at Lea. She let go of his hand after a brief, instinctive squeeze and brought her legs up, holding them to her chest.
The two were close – much closer than Kairi was to Isa, at any rate. She'd also had ideas in her head, once. But she realized a long time ago that it wasn't right, in the same way that they knew their lives weren't right (and besides, he was eight years older than her). Lea had never felt the same way anyway.
"So they're getting closer," she said aloud. "Does that mean... we'll really find out? If we're really... if there's really something wrong."
"Maybe."
The two sat together in the basement, leaning on each other and hoping that they were right to believe in what their hearts told them.
. . .
Master Aqua, Master Terra, and Master Ventus were finally back home together. They smiled at each other sadly as they piled the dirt on their mentor's casket and said their goodbyes. They could've had it finished before then with magic, but Master Eraqus deserved more than that.
When the job was done, Aqua made sure to pat the soil down firmly while Terra and Ventus watched. She then leaned on her shovel, looked down, and pressed her lips together tightly.
"Someone get the packet of seeds," she finally said.
Ventus left, and during the time it took him to find the sack of grass seeds, Aqua began crying silently. Terra embraced her, unable to hold back a few tears himself. Their faces were drying by the time Ventus returned, whose face was also red around the eyes.
They took the packet of seeds and sprinkled the fresh soil of Master Eraqus's grave with them. Eventually, no one would be able to tell the difference from the rest of the grassy field. A small stone marker rested atop it with engravings enchanted to never wear away, one amongst the many other stone markers of past Masters gone by.
The three stood for a moment, contemplating life.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Ventus finally asked, hopelessly.
"He said," Terra replied quietly, "that we have to find apprentices, after... he was gone. To carry on the legacy."
"The worlds need their Keyblade Masters," Aqua echoed.
She knew, at that moment, that this was a turning point. For such a long time, everything had felt... off. Aqua knew that Terra and Ventus had never noticed somehow – not really, except in their darkest nightmares. She had always been the one more attuned to these kinds of things anyway. (She still remembered that heavy sense of relief at Master Xehanort's own funeral, even though he had been such a kindly, wise old man.)
But it was too late, Aqua knew, for any such thing as 'setting things right'. She wouldn't want that to happen anyway – life had gone on for far too long in this 'off' state for any wise person to want it differently. But these future apprentices...
They were the answer. And – she knew this in her bones – all of them together would finally be able to shine a light on the 'why'.
"I think I know where to go," Master Aqua said aloud.
The other two Masters turned to look at her. "Where?" Terra asked.
She looked over – past them, past the mountains, and up towards the sky. "Two places," she whispered. "A town filled with flowers, and..."
. . .
Two young men watched the sun set from a tree on an island, by two bigger islands floating in a bright blue sea of infinite possibilities.
Sora stood up on the trunk – a tough but familiar feat on his flip-flops – and plucked a paopu fruit from the tree. He took a bite out of it right then and passed it to Riku, who did the same. The fruit's ability to connect people forever was an almost sacred belief on the islands, but Sora and Riku had been doing this as a weekly tradition ever since they were kids. It helped make the world feel better.
They shared the fruit for a few more bites before Riku finally tossed it out into the sea, only half-eaten – another unspoken part of their ritual. They watched it float farther and farther away, bobbing until it was a distant speck of yellow in an ocean of blue.
Sora looked over at Riku, who was lying back on the trunk like he usually did, with his hands behind his head. "Hey, Riku."
"Yeah?"
"Does it ever feel like someone else... is supposed to be here?"
Riku sighed. Sora asked this question so many times in a day, and yet... "Yeah. Yeah, it does."
The two watched the sea again for a while.
"Riku," Sora said suddenly.
"Yeah?" he asked, looking up at where his friend sat on the trunk.
"Something's going to happen. I can feel it."
His friend had received revelations like these before, but something in Sora's voice made Riku take his friend seriously this time. "Really? What?"
Sora shook his head. "I don't know. But... it's something big. Super big."
"Well..." Riku looked up at the sky. "Whatever it is, we can deal with it together. Like everything else."
"Definitely. And this time... I think she'll be here too."
Riku glanced at Sora, startled, but his friend only grinned at him in wonder.