- Kairi
Sora was back from Olympus training with Hercules, same with Riku coming back from the Realm of Darkness. I was in the library of the lower levels when I heard the news from Fauna. I almost dropped the books I was carrying to study while Lea in his new gear was leaned back on the desk taking a nap since we were studying magical theory since the sun came up, or at least I was. I sprinted up the spiral staircase turning off all the candles on the wall. I haven't heard from them in weeks. My heart was ramming in my chest, realizing I never got to congratulate them on becoming Masters. I reached the ancient chamber door to Yen Sid's office. My muscles didn't strain as much as they did when I came here to train. I was trying to look around for a new face that Riku was charged with saving. A Master lost in the Realm of Darkness since we were kids. Aqua was her name, and it sounded familiar in the back of my mind, but nothing came to mind, not even a face. Hazy around the edges, yet her back was turned away from me in my memory.
But instead of finding her I found both boys including the King, empty handed, and badly injured in their new gear. Deep welts and gashes all over their face and body, smelling like smoke from the Realm of Darkness. No, that smoke was from someone else. A Dark being of some sort...could it have been her?
"What happened?" I demanded, guiding them to face me, my hands already wrapped in a cool air as I casted Curaga with little effort now, and without a weapon. I kept it a secret from everyone at first but... I had to let them know eventually.
"How are you doing that?" Sora asked amazed, not looking away from me to the point I had to break eye contact, or I would lose focus on what I was doing.
"You answer my question first. What happened, where is she?" I repeated.
"She's still back there, she's been in the Realm way too long to talk sense into her." Riku explained lowly, wincing as he tried to stretch. My hands almost dropped in shock, I looked at his hands as I found splinters of looked like his weapon embedded into his skin.
"Is that...did she break Way to Dawn?" Now my hands were trembling, she was so strong she could break a Keyblade in half? I waited for an answer but Riku couldn't look me in the eyes. The welts disappeared as well as the scars healing into the skin again, only leaving little white lines. I noticed the King didn't have his weapon either. Trying to cough the Darkness out of his lungs. "We tried our best, but it wasn't enough." He explained solemnly. My chest felt tight and I had to remember to breathe even though my mind was going at light speed. Three Master's couldn't bring her back. Yet she couldn't stay there, not in that condition, then she would be lost, we needed her to find her old Master's castle. She needed to find her friends, but there was no way she could do that if she's stuck there.
And I was done waiting. I added a little effort into having Curaga tend to their other injuries without moving my hands to other areas that were injured, as their muscles relaxed and with a simple tap to the chest with an Arcane magic I was studying under the table King Mickey finally took a good breath of air. I didn't know what I could do of all people, I was still training, but I had to act. I was tired of everyone doing everything all the time. I was tired of being stuck in one place after another waiting for the next move, not doing anything to contribute. More annoyed with myself than anything I excused myself from the room to go down the hall to my quarters. The old metal bed frame near the wall by the arch window with my walk-in bathroom. Everything bathed in ancient white tile with magic runes for protection. Some of which I copied and started to embed in small multifaceted orbs on black cords that the Fairies gave me to make to pass the time. I took a pair of sewing scissors, welling up the magic in my hands murmuring the verse to make this rune work. "Be that as it may, be that was it might, by my hand we will do what is right." My long hair getting in my eyes and blocking the view of what I was doing. It got to the point with me not being able to see, being upset with myself that I couldn't help my friends out or even the King that I almost started to cry. But that wouldn't help anyone either, and the one thing I was tired of the most, is people trying to feel sorry for me, or trying to watch my back. Stealing a glance from the mirror leaning on the shelf on the wall. My hair almost reached my shoulder blades since I started training with Lea. The horology spell Yen Sid used made time slow down for us, but everything else outside flowed normally. The boys were a little taller, more refined and toned...yet the only thing I noticed with me was my stupid hair. I grabbed the scissors, gathering it over my neck and started to cut, leaving a giant auburn mess on the floor, falling in thick piles, I cut until I knew it wouldn't get in the way anymore. Little bit above my collarbone, I cut my front framing pieces away from my eyes to where it wouldn't interfere what I was going to do. It felt freeing, nice, a little choppy but it's something I fixed shearing out the layers that looked too thick. I looked a little younger, yet I didn't care, long hair wasn't good in a fight. I shook out any loose strands smiling and laughing. I adjusted my black choker, the belt I had with the suspender loops, my pouch now filled with anti-corruption charms, not like I needed it. I buttoned the piece by my collar bone tight leaving my chest free and my torso secured by a zipper to my sternum. My pearl necklace showing with my white tank, still with a magical shimmer I don't remember ever casting a spell on it. The Fairies worked hard on my original outfit, but it didn't have shorts like I needed to fight. Because there was no way that I wasn't going to help in this final battle, not by a long shot.
So, the outfit I made was a little more practical. A sleeveless jacket dress which the skirt billowed out into a high low style, leaving room for shorts and a belt with suspenders to house magical items and healing potions. I even switched to sneakers to make it easier for me to move around in. Compression sock high on my knees. As well as my arms would I doubled up with gauntlets filled with bracelets I enchanted. This was a crazy idea, I barely knew her, at least in hindsight. But something about her name tugged at my chest to the point where I had to act. If she couldn't be talked to...
I'll have to blind her with reason then.
I took one last look at myself in the mirror, since studying and practicing magic I could have sworn there was this little gold shimmery light in the violet hue of my eyes. My face got a little skinnier from the haircut I just gave myself, muscles more toned, taller. None of the guys would approve of this, but I had to move quick. I walked out of the room in a rush when I saw all of them walk down the hall toward me. All their jaws dropped at my cut hair, even more so when I summoned Destiny's Embrace with gold shimmery ribbons. The form of the weapon familiar with all the petals of a home I never knew or remembered. Before they could say anything, I spun my Keyblade around a few times by my side before asking the air to rip open.
Take me to the Dark Margin. Take me to Master Aqua. I wasn't familiar with the cast yet, nor was my body, it felt like my blood hardened and splintered into ice shards in my arm willing the Lanes Between to appear. I couldn't meet anyone's eyes except for Sora's who now was running, no, sprinting with an outstretched arm and hand to get me away from it. If this was two years ago, I would have taken it. I didn't develop bravery enough back then to do anything on my own. And I can only imagine the amount of pain I caused him, or anyone. His body, his mouth yelling my name, everything about him just pleading not to do whatever it is I'm going to do. Yet there wasn't enough time to argue, I could feel the Lanes' entryway shrinking rapidly. I didn't turn around and have my back to him, rather I jumped backwards into the cold wind of the Lanes and into the Dark Beach before it collapsed in on itself...before Sora could grab me back. The light of Yen Sid's hallways and windows disappeared in an instant and cold and the smell of smoke enveloped around me enough to trip me into the sand. Everything was damp and freezing to the point I could see my breath. The wind was erratic, yet I still didn't hear it howl in the air. No sound carried in this place, no light no warmth except for a pale moon on the horizon of a shoreline, filled with the same black sand and water lapping on the shore. Glassy, jagged obsidian rocks that had splinters and deep cuts and gashes along them started to come to view the more I walked. From the tracks in the sand I could that they were fresh.
Did she slam them against the rocks so hard they cracked? I covered my mouth from making a sound. I had no idea where she was, but I could only guess she knew someone else was here with her, for her. I tightened my grip on Embrace's handle, only using it on practice targets, yet here I was thinking I could use it on another person, and a Master? There was one thing that gave me the advantage here. The dark can't corrupt me here, nor could it ever. But the density, the silence and chilly air mixed with ash, knowing that your friends can't come and find out...that would bring out the worst in anyone. The loneliness, the heartache, I couldn't imagine being in here for a long period of time. And I remember Sora describing the beach to me when he came back home, yet what I saw compared to what he described was so much more menacing. The obsidian rock even in the water with a tall lean figure floating above the water, probably from the magic she still had within her. Yet that wasn't the disturbing thing about this whole scenario. With the wafts of smoke burning her hand so badly her fingers looked red. Her clothes tattered and worn to the point they matched the color of the sand. Her hair leeched of color of that dull gray I knew so well. But the thing that terrified me the most, is there was not a mark of effort from the guys on her. Not a cut, a bruise, nothing, they didn't even get near her.
I know that this is a bad time to chime in but Kairi, I think I finally know why she seems familiar...you met her once, in your old home, before you went to the islands. She saved you from some creatures. She's the reason why you can wield, I also think she's the reason you went to the islands in the first place. Naminé explained hushed within my heart as if Aqua could hear her. And I wouldn't put it past her for thinking that. My eyes went towards a split open Way to Dawn, slammed into the sand as if it were trophy of some kind she won. How much force did she use to break it, did she even need force to do it?
"I feel something warm." The Master finally spoke nonchalantly, like she was expecting someone else to try and spar with her. Effortlessly she twirled around in her armored boots to look at me...no, down to me. Eyes a dull gold color, just like a Seeker.
She seemed interested or even surprised I was here. "I know those eyes, it's been a while, little light." She tilted her head and have an off smile. I almost forgot how to breathe, and there was a hard lump in my throat I couldn't get out.
Kairi, you have to move! Naminé screamed, yet she sounded so far away in a tunnel. The Master sauntered up to me from the shore line, looking down on me still, as if I was less than her.
"Your stance tells me you chose the path of magic." She stated simply, unfurling her fingers giving wafts of smoke and ash mixed in with frost now covering her hands. She suddenly grabbed my wrist and pulled me closer to where my face was by hers. "If you aren't careful, that magic of yours could end you, just like it did to me." The frost biting into my skin and almost my bone marrow it felt like. Tears started to well up in my eyes from the pain, but I didn't dare cry out. She took a hold of my necklace and peered into it. "It's a shame Sora had to end the fun early, but I guess you will have to do." She sighed the frost now numbing my arms and almost headed towards my chest.
You leave me no choice. Naminé said sternly, soon I felt lighter as she went to the forefront of my heart, taking reigns as my good arm started to move on her command to grab a hold of Aqua's to lessen her grip.
"What would Terra or Ven say about you doing this?" Naminé spoke out but it was my voice, pleading and a rhetorical question hung in the air.
Aqua's fingers lessened around my wrist for a brief second, her eyes sparking back blue, almost like she was trying to remember them. Before Naminé retreated from taking charge, I almost lost my balance from her doing that, but I had to act quick, enough to summon whatever light magic I could into my arm to try and purify her skin at least. The ribbons started to curl around her arms and almost made it towards her chest before she panicked and somersaulted away into the water again. I twirled Embrace within my hand and thought about floating on the water as she did, gathering enough magic within my feet to stand above the waves as her.
"Now, now little light, just what are you trying to do?" I straighten my back, and narrowed my eyes tilting my chin up the way she was doing to me.
"This 'little light' is going to help get some sense back into you. This is also for Sora, Riku and the King." I replied with a bite of anger in my voice. Yen Sid told me in the old days before the War, when Keyblade wielders used to point their Key at the chest of their opponent, it meant serious business, a duel of the heart. And that's exactly what I did, I pointed Destiny's Embrace the Keyblade made from my heart, the one Aqua gifted to me, whether she knows it or not...and pointed it right at the thing that needed to be saved
"Surrender there is no way you'll win against me."
"I won't, if we go down, we go together." I bared my teeth and she mirrored the same. There was no way I am dying in a place like this, and for her to live out her life this way. My legs charged on their own towards her using both of my hands to grip Embrace tight as it collided with King Mickey's Keyblade that she must have taken. The purple and gold star pattern on the hilt sparked against my pure gold one, I matched her as best I could hit for hit, recognizing her pattern to attack quickly. She dodged into and out of my vision. Casting ice shards sharp enough to cut skin. And barely dodging them on time, my skin started to splice open from the hits, making giant tidal waves I could use to my advantage. I wasn't well versed with ice or blizzard spells, but I could manipulate water very well. Defending right now until I could find an opening was my best bet. With the hilt of Destiny's Embrace, I splashed up water enough to drum up a tide to throw her off balance and enough to manipulate the dark water into a wall to hold the glacier blows.
"Look I know there is some light left in you, I am not your enemy here, I want to help!" I yelled spinning on the balls of my feet, avoiding her blade from my chest as much as possible. It was good she wasn't a heavy hitter, neither was I, but I could tell her hands were turning scarlet from magic overuse.
"Now you want to help, after all these years in here alone?!" She yelled, she switched to use the base of her blade and popped it outwards to meet my nose and my lips. I could taste rust in my mouth as dark red blood filled my mouth and spilled into the black ocean.
"Trust me, if I had my memory, and if I would have known I would have come for you! I owe you that much." I didn't mean for my voice to sound soft, but it did. Whatever extra blood was welling up in my mouth I spit out, trying to gain my composure. She backed up a few yards away, creating shadow copies of herself whispering to them, planning their next attack. More than likely they were all going to converge at different angles to find a weak spot.
For the dark to rise and the light to expire, I'd rather see the black go down in a funeral pyre. I recited within my head, it wasn't a traditional spell, not even a spell within the books I read, I made it up on queue. The glass like charms around my wrist started to clink together like music and hum with magic. I rolled my shoulders back and sprinted, making photokinetic copies based on the moon's light to fight with the others while I focused on the main body. Getting a good hit in wasn't a priority to me, wearing her out was. To be able to speak to her was the goal. She matched me blow for blow with a few hits and misses from both of our ends. Bruises and cuts started to take shape, form and color on our bodies, but we continued.
Naminé, I know you don't like doing this, but I need you to peer in for me, I need something else for her to anchor on to from her memories.
Those memory chains are filled with smoke, I can't see anything.
Anything is better than nothing, I'm not getting anywhere with just fighting her head on like this! She needs to be reminded of something!
Her...promise to Ventus, that she would be there when he wakes up!
"Aqua, listen to me! I need to get you back, so you can be there for Ventus. Try to remember!" I pleaded.
"He isn't going to wake up, and Terra isn't coming back." She said lowly. The tip of her blade met my palm as I tried to bring a Barrier up to guard a fraction of a second too late.
That's when I screamed, not because it cut my hand, but because she did something to me when it happened. Destiny's Embrace shattered in shards of light into the air around us, unable to materialize again, and I fell to my knees still hovering over the water. Black lightning strikes snaked its way up my dominant hand and arm. I tried to summon my Keyblade again however something shocked the inside of my heart and in my bones the magic biting back at me. I sucked in air through my teeth in pain and groaned. I didn't have a weapon. Yet that didn't mean I couldn't fight back. Without giving much of a magic trail I numbed the pain I was feeling in my arm enough to where I could stand. I sicced my photokinetic copies to keep Aqua busy until I tried to come up with a plan. I accidentally lost my footing and tripped within the water below me, the temperature icy as the surface. Using whatever arm strength, I had left I hit the surface creating large geysers of just with my hands alone I started to lose feeling in my limbs from the cold and from the magic burns. I pulled myself to the surface and started running towards the shore and Aqua was doing the same. Throwing out volleys of dark fire towards me but the range was too wide, so it started hitting the shore rocks instead and melting the sand into black glass. I started to make light-based mirrors breaking them and throwing them to slow Aqua down, each part of her bare skin covered in cuts. Which was working but also wearing me out. When Aqua disarmed herself, I stopped in my tracks to look at her, my breath coming in thick clouds of smoke.
"I am so tired of this." Aqua choked back a sob. "I should just fade here.". I stumbled over to her, "no you shouldn't, I stand by what I said." I said. "You deserve a second chance, just like anyone else who lost their way." There was a small shade of blue within her eyes. Aqua's bottom lip quivered looking at all the bruises on my arms and the lightning scar in the hand I dominantly wield with. "I hurt your friends, I hurt you too when I was supposed to keep you safe, that spell I used didn't work." The Master was full on crying now.
"What spell?" I asked, confused. Aqua motioned towards my necklace, surprisingly gentle. "When we first met. You gave me flowers as a thank you, and in return I casted a spell on that pendant. Hoping your light would lead you to the light of another." She explained softly, I noticed my charms started to burn my skin.
But they were etching purity runes within Aqua's arms, making the darkness fade, even to the point her hair was changing color. A gorgeous blue that reminded me of the ocean. "Did you find it? That person to keep you safe?" She asked. I nodded once, trying not to have her mood change as the gold ribbons were almost to her chest. "I don't listen to him as often as I should though." I tried to laugh but my voice cracked.
"It's a boy? It's Sora isn't it?" She started to reel back. The tendrils of smoke started to eat away at the progress again, the blue in her eyes started to grow small. Now I was in trouble. The charms and my hand started to grow hot with light. This wasn't the smartest idea, of course really none of this was smart. Method untested, not even sure if this would work. I had to try though, or she would for sure be the end of me. Something hot and blinding from within my hand, illuminating the area a few yards in either direction, escaping from the gaps of my fingers. I my eyes made a beeline to where her heart should be, taking a deep breath to steady myself.
"It is, and I think it's time I returned the favor Master Aqua, sorry I don't have a better way to do this." I muttered staring dead in her eyes as I started to sprint bringing my fist to her chest, knocking the wind out of her, I could hear and feel the bones in my hand break is displace. The gold sparked within her chest over her armor emblem. Princesses of Heart from what I read had the ability to strength and purify the hearts of others. No better time to try something out than the present. I wasn't strong or intimidating in any sense of the word. To offset the pain, I decided to yell the word into existence. I needed to heal her one way or another, I couldn't leave Sora to do everything.
"PURIFY!" I heard her scream as the tendril of darkness dispersed in the air, away from her hair, skin and eyes before they rolled back, and she collapsed to the sand head first. Taking me down with her. She had the same skin tone as me. Hair brilliant blue, even in the dark, her armor plates still on her sleeves glimmering in the waters reflection. Her head in my lap as I sat upsright, looking out into the water of the Margin. I kind of wanted to join her in this rest. Six hours of fighting didn't leave room for much else for your body to do.
"Kairi! Where are you?!" Sora screamed out from a distance. I didn't have the energy in me to scream, only to turn my head around. Seeing his crown necklace jump to a stop around his neck. Surveying the dark fire still kindling in the sand near us, gold magic flecks embedded in the obsidian rock. The shore still filled with erratic waves from our water endeavor. It looked like a war zone. Pretty sure he didn't expect to see me still here in one piece.
"Is that…" Riku drifted off, noticing the change in her appearance, my magic still shimmers by her heart, making its way into every crevice. Every memory good or bad, she was safe, for now.
"I got her back." I smiled weakly.
Sora
After what seemed like hours of debating. His majesty believed that Aqua should rest with Queen Minnie at his castle. Which we all agreed to no contest, they both did a number on each other. The dark lightning marks on Kairi's pale skin looked sinister and didn't heal as easily as the other things. Merriweather handed me salves in different tins to drive and lessen the marks and the appearance of scars. I looked insane having all these salves and glass bottles of healing potions I couldn't pronounce on the desk and nightstand in Kairi's quarters. After another long almost hour debate on how she could heal herself her finally let me treat her wounds. I think she let me win because she knew I was angry. She stripped down to her tank top tucked into her shorts, shoes, socks, sleeves gauntlets sent back to the Three Good Fairies for repair. She still smelled like ash and smoke from the Margin, bottom lip swollen with a gash from Aqua's handle to her face. Her entire left arm was blood red from magic strain, cuts all on her arms, legs, torso, and her chest. I was trying to work gently as I could, but my callused fingers made that harder than I thought.
As angry as I was, I had to give Kairi this: taking a corrupted Master down alone was incredible. The thing that scared me the most about it was, before she walked backwards into the portal. There was this look in her eyes that I still couldn't shake even now.
The look of "I have to do this" that look I knew all too well. There was no fighting or trying to talk her out of anything once she gave me that glance. I knew she was waiting for me to look at her, opening her mouth to speak, but I stopped her each time for about twenty minutes. Working bandages over her bloody knuckles, balms and salves over her cuts and burns.
"You could have gotten killed, you know, that right?" I explained quietly. Still looking down at her hands, not as soft as I remember them being. "And I could have never lived with myself if that happened." My voice was becoming more strained. She tucked her lips into a fine line and nodded once.
I held her hand in mine, tapping it softly. Trying to choose my words carefully, but I threw that idea out the window.
"Don't you ever do something like that again." I stressed, finally meeting her eyes. Her hand reeled back guarding her chest and necklace.
"Kai, I'm serious, promise me." It sounded way too pleading, if this were any other situation she probably would have laughed at me. But her violet eyes were staring down into me, trying to find a bluff or a reason. She bit her lip a little, looking guilty, "okay." She finally spoke.
"No, I need you to say it." She stared me down for another couple minutes, knowing I was serious, and I never was with her.
"I promise."