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Summary: Kairi is plagued by dreams about her past, and finding her father. She wants to discover the truth of the matter, and learn who she is. Sora and Riku seem to know, but seem unwilling to tell her...

Writer: beckychan

Abandoned Princess

Part 1

It was an endless hallway, and every step she took led her farther from the start and no closer to the end. The hallway was filled with doors without number. Some were open while others were shut, and from the open ones streamed light and darkness, in no particular pattern, casting the hallway into a greyish gloom.

"Sora?" she called. "Riku?"

No answer, but the echoes of her own voice, and even that didn't sound like her.

Eventually, Kairi found a focus. She thought, at first, that there was one of the light-filled doorways ahead of her, but it turned out to be a vast mirror in an ornate frame, so large it took up the whole hallway and more. The walls and ceiling and floor fell away from her, but still she stood before the mirror. Yet her reflection wasn't her. It was someone who looked very much like her, but with blonde hair, garbed in a simple white shift.

Kairi reached out to touch the mirror, but just before her fingertips met smooth glass, the image rippled and became her. Or, rather, became who she was ten years ago. The little, auburn-haired girl looked up at her with impossibly innocent eyes, eyes that as of yet did not know about light and dark, of land crumbling away underfoot, of keyblades and heartless and nobodies and worlds beyond her own.

"Where did Daddy go?" the younger her asked.

And then, the mirror fragmented into a thousand pieces and burst, sending millions of shards towards and through her, sparkling like the stars, like pixies, and Kairi found herself in a dark room, lit from a great height by round stained glass windows.

The Princesses of Heart all stood there; Snow White, Cinderella, Aurora, Belle, Jasmine, and even little Alice, who wasn't properly a princess. She called their names, each in turn, so glad to have company at last. They smiled their gentle, friendly, trustworthy smiles, all of their eyes warm. A glow backlit each of the girls, and each stepped backward, back into her own world, leaving Kairi alone again.

"Wait!" she called after them. "Don't leave me!"

"Where's Daddy?" her voice echoed in a childlike taunt. "Where did Daddy go?"

"I... I don't know!" she answered her own echo. "I can't remember!"

"Find Daddy," her six-year-old self requested.

"But... I don't even know who he is..."

"Find him..."

The windows above her broke, showering her with shards of colored glass. No, flower petals! Then one began to glow, fell more slowly than the rest. Its glow increased until Kairi could no longer actually see it. But neither could she tear her eyes away from it. It's decent slowed further, but it floated directly down to her, and she held out her hand to catch it. It was warm and comforting, and had always been there. The glow subsided, and she opened her hand to find the gold ball pendant that she always wore. She reached up and touched her chest gently to verify that it actually wasn't there anymore...

Kairi's blue eyes shot open. She once again touched her chest, as she had in her dream, verifying the presence of the necklace. It lay there, near her ear and almost tangled in her hair. Morning. She only now became aware of the call of the gulls and the salty-fresh smell of the ocean breeze wafting through her window.

She'd been dreaming, but what about? She touched her necklace again, lost in a rapidly fading confusion.

"Daddy?" she called into the empty room, and didn't know why she'd said it. She'd meant to call for Sora or Riku. When had she last called for her father? When had she last seen her father? She couldn't remember. She couldn't remember his face, not even his name. Why was she even thinking about him? She closed her eyes and rubbed them, trying to either clear her head or set the memory of the dream deeper in.

Her cell phone rang, startling her. The cheerful tune was Sora's custom ringtone, and with a grin, she reached for it, the dream forgotten.