Riku and Sora were gone again, she should have been used to it by now but it still caused her insides to twitch, they were out saving the world fighting the darkness. She'd seen the darkness first hand, what it could do, how strong it was, how it would never, truly go away. It couldn't, for there to be light there must be darkness and darkness required light.
At first she'd gone with them, checking in on worlds, destroying the heartless and the nobodies, well they destroyed she kind of just stood back like a protected princess. Maybe that's why she stopped going. She could fight, she knew how but those boys wouldn't hear of it.
She could understand, not once but twice she'd been stolen away by some monster trying to control that which could not be controlled, should not be controlled. Twice she'd been the damsel in distress and twice they'd come to her rescue. Little weak Kairi, even getting her own keyblade didn't change that. She was still helpless, at least in their eyes. Maybe they were right.
Even if that were the case... she was done waiting. Every night she'd felt the pull from the island they used to play on, one of the testaments to the pains of the past. It was dangerous, they told her, the first time she started in that direction. She could get hurt, the fragile little doll. Like she hadn't been there constantly as a youth.
Tonight she wouldn't stop in the distance, she wouldn't pause at the entrance. She wouldn't even stall and turn around when the pull got so strong it was tangible. She never told Riku and Sora about this, the feeling that someone was calling her. She never told anyone. She was already weak, crazy would have just been the icing on a cake she didn't want.
Tonight she took the final steps into the cave that started it all, the one where the door first appeared, the keyblade, the one thing that had never abandoned her, her blade, firmly in hand. It was there, the door that was supposed to be gone. It was there and it was calling her.
One more step... and the world went white.
What had she done?
Every muscle hurt, every inch of her screamed for mercy at yet they still came, waves of darkness, countless nobodies. Where was Sora, where was Riku, why didn't she just stay safe and sound in that castle, surrounded by people happy to see her. Smiling faces and gentle touches.
They were right, she was weak, she was weak and now she was going to disappear. Crushed by her own stupidity. When she first woke up, she felt free, alive and for a few seconds the sun and grass and world around her seemed vibrant. Then it ended and they came in mass. She fought for what seemed like days... and now it was all she could to stay upright as she dropped to a knee as the last shadow from the most recent wave disappeared.
Her fingers wavered, the keyblade falling from them, her only hope falling to the ground before shattering into dust. And yet they came.
She closed her eyes as they swarmed in.
"I'm sorry... Sora... Riku... I'm so sorry."
She waited for an eternity or at least what she thought was an eternity. They hadn't been far away and yet... why was she still sitting here? Waiting?
The lost girl finally opened her eyes, expecting to see the armies that hunted her, what she saw was so much worse.
A figure stood in front of her, weapons held high. Flowing back and fire red hair.
"... Axel."
He was supposed to be dead, did that mean she died too? Hauntingly bright eyes turned her way just at the last of her strength left her and the world turned black. The last thing she heard was a muttered curse and the spark of flames.
"Stupid girl!"
Death, she decided , wasn't all it was cracked up to be. It was painful and slightly damp and smelled like old socks. Heaven shouldn't smell like old socks, flowers, maybe, but socks? It was with grimace she finally roused, one eye then the other. A ceiling, a normal, dirty ceiling, a ceiling that was dutifully glared at for a good few moments.
"Death sucks."
It seemed appropriate, at least until the muted laughter at her proclamation. She might have been glad, at least death wouldn't be lonely, but she knew that laugh. Kairi refused to look, refused to accept it. If he was here it meant she really was dead. On the bright side, at least everyone was wrong, nobodies go somewhere when they died. They went where ever this was, that vaguely smelled of socks. Hell perhaps?
"I thought you were supposed to just disappear, not got to my afterlife." Heaven? Hell perhaps? It was harsh, she knew, but she couldn't bring herself to care. She was tired and sore and weak.
The laughter stopped. "So did I sweetheart."
She was older now, wiser, she could walk into a bar and buy her own drink... ok maybe not that old but she wasn't a child anymore. She could look at the man in the room without shattering into pieces.
"So why are you here... where ever here.. is..." Kairi finally took stock of the area, single room, tattered curtain over a filthy window, dust everywhere. She was pretty sure she was on a mat of some kind, maybe. Definitely hell, heaven would be plusher.
''Dunno. Dun care."
Wasn't he just helpful? She finally turned to look at him, that same bright red hair that stood at impossible angles, how much hair gel did he have to use to achieve that? Ridiculously long dark lashes, she was sure the same bright eyes were hidden beneath them. He was leaned against the far wall, an arm over a knee, head lent back against the wall.
"... ok, why am I here then?"
"Dunno. Dun care." She could have sworn his still mouth quirked just a hint.
She wished he'd open his eyes, so he could see the frown she was giving him, the death stare all girls are supposed to naturally have. Though, maybe, just maybe it was better that he didn't. She was never very good at being intimidating. "... Ok. How did I get here?"
"Dunno. Dun-" There was definitely a twitch of his mouth, something that threatened to become a smirk when she interrupted him.
"-Care. Yeah, I got that already. I meant here, as in this room."
He opened his eyes and she suddenly wished he'd kept them closed, even years ago when she first met him, when he was supposed to have disappeared, even then those eyes seemed to drill straight into her soul. It took everything she had not to recoil, to hold her ground... or mat, per say. She must have managed a decently convincing facade because he wasn't smirking anymore.
"I carried you."
Her stomach sank. Was she to be bait again?
"... why?" That might have been more pathetic sounding then she would have liked, it was choked more then said.
One shoulder rose in a haphazard shrug and he closed his eyes again, falling back into the same pose he'd had before.
He didn't respond to her for the rest of the night, he just sat there, a statue. By the time morning came around, Kairi had nearly convinced herself she'd simply gone mad and her silent companion was a figment of her imagination.
Well, with everything that had happened so far since she was a child and the door first opened... it was actually pretty amazing she made it this long before she cracked. Kairi, nineteen years old and a basket case. On the bright side, there were worse looking monsters to have as ones personal ghost.