Dedicated to readers and authors of Crack! couples.

Author's Note: I wanted to do a follow-up on Lights and Sounds. Here it is.

Copyrights: Characters, back story, and settings are copyrights of Square-Enix and Disney. The title comes from the Yellowcard song 'Believe', like 'Lights and Sounds'.

Disclaimer: If you're dying – not 'if you're going to die' or 'what if you died tomorrow' or 'we all die eventually' – what would you do? Where would you go? Who would you find? What secrets will you tell?

XXX

βe∫∑ïvE

1 – road to YOU

It was awfully quiet in Castle Oblivion. One should wonder why, having seen the kind of chaos the great castle was subject to. The thirteen floors shook violently and the thirteen basements echoed as two precocious teenagers charged up and up and up to meet their destinies. Riku was coming. Riku was running up the stairs from the very bottom, haunted by Maleficent and Ansem, guided by King Mickey and a man who smelled familiar, incredibly familiar.

But not familiar enough.

Zexion stopped pacing so constantly and tapped his chin. He looked around but the gloomy walls did nothing to raise his spirits, whatever they were. He sighed. Although they felt nothing, the Organization was full of general excitement as Sora and Riku stepped into Castle Oblivion and initiated their plans for the two Keyblade Wielders. Zexion felt beyond dark, beyond despair. It was a sense of emptiness that went beyond being a Nobody. The only word he could find was despair and despair was what he felt.

In this gloom he kept seeing her, smelling her, touching her, hearing her, tasting her. She wouldn't leave his mind. At times he'd stumble out of his chair, half-asleep, thinking she was around, thinking he heard her voice in the shadows of the basement. And when he would sleep., he would see her on that one dark night, the one night Ienzo reached out for someone with a heart. The Princess.

"Why? What is despair? I'm a Nobody; I can't feel such things as despair. I-waaah! Riku!"

From the shadows Riku stepped forth but his clothes were different, of a darker cast, with the Heartless insignia emblazoned on it. Following him was Axel, and it clicked.

"Oh…oh, yes, of course. Vexen's replica. G-good thinking. We can use this Riku to defeat the real one. Axel?"

He was pacing again, plans shuffling further and further into the back of his mind. Eyes filled in, blue eyes, light in the darkness.

"Say, Riku, it must be hard now that you know you're not real. I bet you'd like to be real," Axel said, looking at Vexen's replica.

"Yeah."

Zexion froze, turned to Axel and the Riku Replica. Axel looked demonic; the Riku Replica was angry. The Princess faded from his mind.

"Well, you can. All you need is strength that the real Riku doesn't have. Get that, and you can be a new person, your own person," Axel continued, his eyes fixed on Zexion while he turned to the Riku Replica. "Not Riku, not anybody else. You won't be someone else's copy. You'll be you."

Zexion suddenly realized what Axel was doing with the Riku Replica. Horrified, he whirled on the Nobody and yelled, "Axel! What are you telling him!"

Axel blatantly ignored his remarks, but as he looked at Vexen's replica, his green eyes went back to Zexion. "You know, I bet he's as good a place to start as any."

No…no, no, no, no, not yet, no, not this! Axel, what do you think you're doing! Axel!

"Have you lost your mind!" Zexion demanded, stepping forward. He could feel his time was near, but he didn't want to fight it. He didn't want to use his weapon, his power. He wasn't that kind of person. But still, was Axel finally losing it?

"Sorry, Zexy," Axel said with a shrug and a smile. The Riku Replica stepped forward, sword in hand. The Soul Eater. He stepped back, horrified. No, Axel did not, he didn't…Zexion heard about what was going on upstairs but what hand did Axel play in the deaths of Marluxia and Larxene? "Saving you doesn't seem half as entertaining as observing Sora and Riku."

Another step forward. Zexion swallowed, stepped back again, but he was shaking violently. This wasn't how it was supposed to end! Not for him! Not yet! Not until he's met-

The Riku Replica shot forward, the Soul Eater pointing at his chest, at his soul.

"No…STOP!"

XXX

Kairi gasped, sat straight up in bed, then sank back down, feeling lightheaded and awful. Her mind was ringing with the vivid imagery that woke her, the bizarre dream that told her nothing except Riku was strange. She knew Riku anywhere but she couldn't understand his attire, his weaponry, why he was taking orders from a man with red hair, and why he'd attack…who was he attacking? Kairi rubbed her eyes but all she saw were fireworks behind her eyelids. She looked briefly at the clock next to her bed.

Five twenty-three.

Sometimes when she'd dream, she wouldn't remember the people or the settings. That really annoyed her but what bothered her more was a dream that had no storyline. The dream was obviously showing a sequence of events but none of it made sense. She had no idea what Riku was doing there, what the redhead was talking about, and what that obscured third member was doing.

But that was only one dream. She read somewhere long ago – or heard it from someone – that people dream three or four different dreams a night. She wondered if she could remember any of those that she had before the most recent one. The sky was tinged pink. She decided to close her eyes and block out the color. Suddenly, though, her hands clenched the bed sheets while she gasped in astonishment at herself. No sooner had she closed her eyes was she bombarded by a familiar place. There were tall palm trees and a waterfall, a beach and a wooden dock. Destiny Islands. She was dreaming it was night there and there was nobody else and she had met someone there, someone she couldn't remember. She wasn't sure what happened between them but she suddenly felt something press against her mouth, and yet there was nothing but air around her.

Could she have kissed a total stranger in one of her dreams? That was a bizarre thought, plausible but not for someone like her. This was Kairi, after all. She doesn't have dreams of making out with fake people. She was hallucinating.

She peered out the window again and wondered if anybody was on the beach this early in the morning. Sometimes she'd go down to the shores and dawdle, kicking at the quiet cold waves. Once, she knew, she was caught by the one lone sentry who took it up as his duty to uphold a town law – nobody was to be on the beach between midnight and sunrise. The Mayor once told her of something horrible and accidental that took place between those times on the beach, which was why the ridiculous law was put up in the first place. But while the sun wasn't up yet the sky had color so she could pretend this time that yes, she thought the sun was rising.

Maybe I'm too sleepy. That didn't make sense.

But she had this incredibly strange urge to get out of her bed, climb out of her window, and go down to the beach. Suddenly she wanted to smell the early morning salty air and watch as the sun rises in all its splendor and shines down on Destiny Islands. Sometimes, when she was out that early in the day, she could hear children's laughter in the wind, her, Riku's, and…

I can't remember your name. I can't remember your face, your voice, your name. But I hear laughter, and it's not mine and it's not Riku's. Is it yours? It must be…right?

She slid out of her bed and went to her closet, pulled out a large heavy dark bluish purple jacket. She pulled it on over her pajamas, both which were of thin white material, then pulled out her pink shoes from the closet. She blearily shoved her feet into them, then shuffled to the window and unlatched it. She leaned out as sea air whipped into her slightly hot room, instantly cooling it and bringing her to awareness. She sighed, closed her eyes, and smelled the brine as it and the cold wind woke up her mind and her senses. Then she was pulling herself out of the room and clinging to the ledge, then jumping to the scraggly tree that grew near her window. She climbed down, careful not to scratch herself on the rough bark, and gently let go to land softly on the dirt around the roots of the tree. It was mixed with the sand from the beach.

She jammed her numbing hands into the pockets of her jacket and trudged downward to the roiling waves. The sticky air slapped in her face, pulling and playing with her red hair as she stopped where the dry sand ended and the wet sand from the high tide began. Finally finding solid footing, she stood there staring across the sea to Destiny Islands, knowing with all her heart that everything was beautiful in the wee light of dawn.

He was there, running alongside her and Riku, laughing with them. She couldn't stop wondering at this mysterious person, this someone whose name she couldn't recall but knew so well with all her heart. She chewed on her bottom lip, working her mind furiously but there was still a dull buzz where her brain should be. It was far too early in the morning for her to start working her brain so hard so soon.

And then…and then there was that weird dream she had, the one where…

Kairi scuffed at the damp sand with her shoe, scowling. She wanted to deny it so desperately but she knew that hallucination she had at her bed was no dream. It wasn't a hallucination, not a dream, but something…no, it couldn't be, could it? She touched her lip but it wasn't like that that sensation she had. It wasn't simply something pressing against her lips; she felt something alive. But she never recalled kissing another person.

How could her memories be lying to her? Was that possible? Maybe she was mad in the brain. That could be possible, couldn't it?

A shadow suddenly cloaked the blushing dawn and she shivered. It wasn't a bird flying across the dawn; there was nothing of the size that could block out a sunrise. But it was gone and when Kairi looked up there was not even a gull in the lightening heavens. And then again, she could be imagining it. She could have started dozing on her feet and everything could have gone dark and –

The sky went dark again. She quickly looked up but the there was nothing she could see that would explain the abrupt morning darkness. Then the sea began to roil. There were no wind but before her eyes the already dark sea was becoming black, and the waves began to foment. Kairi stared, stunned but unable to move. She wondered if that was her numbed brain that kept her from running back to the house and diving into her bed, hoping everything was just a very strange dream.

Then it was bright morning, sun climbing higher and higher, and there was a white wisps of a cloud in the sky. The sea was bluer and the waves were lapping at the beach. Kairi pulled her hand away from her mouth, gulped in salty air, and felt her heart calm itself. What had just happened? One minute everything had gone dark and stormy, then just as quickly it was clear morning and there was that old man making his rounds far, far down the beach, too far away for her to worry.

She looked the other way, scanning for anything abnormal, anything strange and suspicious and out of the ordinary. Nothing-

The white foam slid around a black lump meters down the beach from where she stood shivering from the cold sea breath. For a moment she thought it was a sea lion or something; it glistened like something slick, but when she took several steps closer, she saw it wasn't anything remotely like a sea lion. It was something else.

She crept closer, daring herself, taking slow carefully measured breaths. Perhaps it was cast-off tarp or trash floating in from far beyond the horizon. Junk, perhaps, it could be junk. But as she peeped over to the other side, the side hidden from her, she gasped and staggered back, fell into the soaking sand. Kairi tried to scream but her throat clenched, silencing her. Then she scrambled back to her feet and ran to the other side. She fell to her knees, jolted when a wave came in and washed over her dirtied pajamas but all that was forgotten when she saw how the white foam formed around the face.

A person. A castaway, perhaps, someone who survived a shipwreck far, far away and made it here to the shores of the mainland. Yes, that could be it. But there was no word of a ship that sank nearby.

She tilted her head slightly and studied the face. It was of a young man, more feminine than most she had seen. The face looked drawn and there were angry red welts all about his face but she…she wondered if 'beautiful' was a word to describe it. Maybe handsome in a boyish sense, with the damp silvery blue hair splayed out, flattened by the saltwater. He was wrapped in a black material, a coat with metal beads and zippers. He looked like he had just collapsed in the sand, like he staggered out of the waves. Now that she thought about it, he didn't look like the survivor of a drowned ship at all. He just…appeared out of thin air.

Kairi hesitated a bit – he could be dead for all she knew – but then she reached out, tentatively, and let her numb fingers touch the side of his face. He felt so cold but somehow she knew, she just knew, that he wasn't dead yet. Somewhere in there, there was still life. If only she could pull him out of the waters.

Kairi looked around but the sentry was still too far away and she didn't want to wait, so she grasped the young man by the waist and, summoning all her pitifully small strength, pulled on him. He resisted but when the next wave came in he seemed to flow to the shore with it. Kairi bit her lip at the heavy weight; she knew the black clothes were weighing him down but she couldn't exactly strip him, not with these early morning elements at play.

After a few more minutes of groaning and grunting and mild cursing and straining muscles she pulled him far enough from the waves that the white foam couldn't touch his black boots. She sat down in the sand next to him, stared at his wholly black attire, and wondered why she didn't find him weird. She knew she had never seen anyone dressed like this before but she didn't feel out of place with this complete stranger. She felt like she had seen someone wear this kind of coat before.

Her eyes wandered to his face and the ugly red lines and the ill pallor, but she could see slight puffs of breath that immediately dissolved under the gentle rays of the dawn. Kairi pulled herself closer and gently slid her hand under his face. She shivered again – he felt so cold! – and pulled his head and his neck and part of his upper body onto her lap, and she cradled him, stared at him half with curiously and half with puzzled familiarity, while she waited for the sentry to come so she could ask him to get help.

"…Miss Kairi, what have you there this early in the morning! You weren't out late, were you-"

Kairi looked up and saw the sentry was indeed nearing. "No, I just got here. I need help, sir! There was someone down by the sea. I just found him. He's hurt. He needs help!"

The old man nodded once – his eyes wouldn't deceive him and Kairi wouldn't lie about something like this – and went up through the dry sand inland, to go to his little lookout booth and dial the local hospital. She watched him go, then gasped when she felt the body jolt. Then she heard the man take a deep pain-filled gasp and looked down.

Dark blue eyes stared up at her, eyes so dark and pained that her heart hurt to see him awake. He was taking shallow breaths now, and his cracked lips were moving slightly, trying to form words. She leaned down, tried to encourage him to speak but it wasn't helping much.

His hand gripped her arm tightly and she winced but she didn't try to pull away. The man moved his mouth again, and she thought she heard him say something about the salt and the sea. But she couldn't tell; it was mostly gurgling to her. She felt sorry for him then, because she didn't have water for him or anything to help him convey his thoughts.

"…I…"

Maybe he didn't need water just yet. Kairi leaned down even closer, until she could feel the lukewarm air escaping his mouth. His breath didn't stink. She wondered why she noticed that.

"…I…I finally…finally found…I finally found…you…"

Her eyes widened. What?

His eyes were fixed on hers, pulling her in. They were so dark, so intense; she couldn't help lean in closer.

He smiled. "I…I finally found you…Princess."

Princess.

She stared at him, shocked, then demanded, "How did you-"

He gripped her arm tightly and pulled himself up, pulled her down, and crashed her mouth against his. Kairi panicked, tried to push him off, tried to pry his clammy fingers off her upper arm, but he held on, held on like there really was no tomorrow. She thought a heart attack had finally come to her; her heart was beating its way out of her body.

But then she knew somewhere deep inside that she had felt lips like these, dry and salty as they were, against her mouth before. And with that thought she felt herself sliding into a trance, and her eyes closed slowly as he slid his mouth against hers.

And then he fell back, his eyes darkening into the world of the unconscious but they were smiling. Smiling.

"…rather a kiss…than a lonely…a lonely death…" the young man whispered, then drifted away.

XXX

Author's Endnote: Sometimes you need to write a shorter story to help launch you back into writing your other stories. Dedicated to the readers and authors of Crack! couples. I love you guys!

Please review.

Arigatou gozaimas'.