Sora was the last one to the beach. The others had already started a bonfire and were gathered around it. He joined Riku near a card table Wakka had set up.

"How's she doing?" Riku asked, not looking up from the fruit he was slicing for dinner.

"She's okay," Sora replied with a shrug. "She's worried about us, but no more than usual. I think she knows it's almost time for the big fight."

"Did you tell her that?"

"No, I think she can just tell. Mother's instinct, maybe."

Riku nodded.

Sora appreciated his concern. Riku had always been close to Mei. He and Sora had practically been brothers growing up, and Mei had treated him like her own son.

"How about your parents? Are they okay?"

"They're fine." Riku replied simply. "Worried, but fine."

The memories of Riku had never been erased, so his parents had lived for almost two years thinking he was dead. When he finally returned, he and they were so different that they'd never really become close again. They got along fine, but they'd all moved on from where they'd been when Riku disappeared. As a result, Riku didn't come home very often, and when he did, he spent most of his time alone.

"I think everyone is worried," Riku said. He looked at the group. His friends were having fun around the fire. Wakka was telling a story about surfing, and everyone was watching and laughing at his expressive storytelling. "Deep down, I think they're all a little uneasy."

"Well, that's why we're here, isn't it?" Sora asked in his usual upbeat manner. "To take our minds off things and have some fun."

"Yeah," Riku replied. He looked at his best friend. "What about you, Sora? Are you worried?"

"Me? Come on, Riku, you know me. I don't get worried."

"I know," Riku said knowingly. "So when you do get worried, I notice. What's going on Sora? You haven't been the same since the exam."

Sora sighed and looked at the ground. After a while, he answered. "The exam was the first time I failed."

Riku waited.

"I've never given in to the darkness before. That was the first time it ever got a hold on me." Just thinking about it brought the memories back. The cold sensation of the darkness tugging at his heart. The lull of sleep as Xehanort's plan threatened to consume him. "I'm afraid. I'm afraid I might not be enough to stop what's coming. Afraid I might not be able to protect what's important." He looked at Kairi, sitting in the sand, the glow of the fire reflecting in her blue-violet eyes.

Riku punched him on the shoulder. "Come on Sora. You know we're not gonna let that happen." He smiled. "Xehanort beat you. It happens. It happened to me. It happened to Mickey. But guess what? We've beaten him too. We stopped Ansem the heartless, and we stopped Xemnas. And now, we'll stop the old man too. And we'll do it together."

Sora took a deep breath, letting go of his worry. Riku's words helped more than he'd expected. "You're right," Sora finally said. "We're gonna be okay.

They watched the group around the fire for a while in silence until Riku spoke.

"Sorry for what I said about the paupu fruit in front of Kairi."

Sora turned to Riku. The apology was unexpected. "Don't worry about it," he replied after a moment. "It's not a big deal."

"No, it is," Riku insisted. "I shouldn't tease you like that. I know how you feel about her."

Sora felt the heat rising in his cheeks again. "I don't know what you mean." It was a weak protest, and he knew it.

"Fine," Riku said with a small smile. "Maybe you don't know how you feel, but I do. I'm not going to tease you about it." He paused. "Well, not much, at least."

Sora looked at Kairi again. As he watched her, she laughed, her smile big and her eyes bright. With the sun setting over the ocean behind her, she looked like a painting, but better.

"No, I know how I feel," he said in a shaky voice. As nervous as he was about it, it felt good to say out loud.

Riku nodded. "Good. Now you just need to make sure she knows it too."

Sora shook his head. "I can't do that," he protested. "What if she doesn't feel the same?"

Riku laughed. "Come on, Sora. Her letter to you found us all the way in the Realm of Darkness. I'm pretty sure that tells you everything you need to know."

Sora thought back to the letter. He still had it tucked away in his belongings. He'd taken it out during training and read it every few days. It reminded him of her.

He thought about all the time they'd spent together when they were young, the promise he'd made to return her lucky charm in Traverse Town, the letter that had rescued him from the darkness, the way she'd come to rescue him from the Organization. Through all of that, he came to a realization he'd subconsciously known for a long time: she was more important to him than anything. Being with her was what he wanted more than anything in all the worlds.

He took a deep breath and looked at Riku. "I'll do it. While were still here."

"Good," Riku said with a smile.

The bonfire was fun. The friends made kababs and s'mores, trading stories from their home worlds. They stayed until the stars came out and the fire died down, then made their way back to where they were staying, agreeing to meet on the play island the next day.

When Hayner, Pence, and Sora arrived at Sora's house, they crept inside so as not to wake Mei. The three of them went to Sora's room and changed into their boxers and pajama shirts.

"That was a good time," Hayner said. He was laying on the couch in Sora's room, arms tucked behind his head. "You islanders know how to party."

Pence sat on the air mattress, sorting out the pictures he'd taken that day and evening. "Yeah, it was a lot of fun."

Sora sat on his bed. He'd grown so much that it was almost too small for him, but he still fit if he curled up. "Wait until you guys see the play island. That's where the real fun is."

"Can't wait," Hayner said excitedly. He turned to Pence, who'd stopped on one picture and hadn't moved on. "Watcha' got there, Pence?" He snatched the picture away.

"Hey! Give it back!" Pence scrambled onto the couch and tried to grab the picture back, but Hayner was too agile.

"Well well," Hayner said excitedly looking at Pence. "I must say, I'm impressed."

"What is it?" Sora asked eagerly.

Hayner flicked the picture at him while Pence sat down on the couch, defeated.

Sora caught the picture and looked at it. It showed a lone figure: Rikku, the gullwing from Radiant Garden. The picture had been taken in front of the fire that night. Rikku had been sitting on a log alone, laughing, the light of the fire casting a soft orange light on her.

"Rikku?" Sora asked.

"Please don't say anything!" The look of desperation on Pence's face was so sincere, Sora felt bad for holding the picture. He handed it back before Hayner could take it again.

"I won't, I promise," Sora said reassuringly.

"I'm proud of you," Hayner said, clapping his friend on the back. "'Bout time you got a girlfriend."

Pence's face went beet red. "She's not my girlfriend," he said insistently.

"Not yet," Hayner replied confidently.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pence demanded nervously.

Hayner smiled. "It means you're going to ask her out before we leave, and she's going to say yes."

"What!?" The color drained from Pence's face.

The pink dawn sunlight streaming in through the open window woke Sora. He opened his eyes and sat up, stretching his arms and letting out a yawn. He'd slept better than he'd expected, and his dreams had been unusually peaceful. Pence and Hayner were still asleep, so he rose quietly and threw on a light shirt and shorts. He left his room, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, and crept out of the house. He did a few stretches, then began jogging towards the beach at a brisk pace. As he approached the pier, he heard another set of footsteps approaching from behind.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Kairi said cheerfully as she caught up to him and matched his pace.

"Hi," Sora said with a bright smile. He was glad she'd decided to join him today. They'd done a little training together under Master Yen Sid since he'd returned, but not as much as he would have liked. She'd gone running every morning with Riku as a warm up, and Sora had joined them as soon as he'd come back. "No Riku today?" Sora asked.

"I waited for him by his house, but he never came out. He must be sleeping in."

They reached the beach only to see that Kairi was wrong. Riku was there already, running along the waterline. Sora and Kairi sped up to catch him. His long strides meant Sora and Kairi had to move faster in order to keep up, but he didn't let up his speed.

"I was wondering if you two were coming," Riku said through controlled breaths.

"Sora overslept," Kairi said teasingly.

"Hey!" Sora objected. "You caught up to me on the way here. I got up at sunrise." As if to emphasize his point, he let out another big yawn.

Riku and Kairi laughed, then the trio continued their run. They ran up and down the beach until the orange sun was well above the horizon. When they finally slowed, they all took a few minutes to catch their breath. After a while, Riku held his hand out and summoned his keyblade. "How do you want to start," he asked, taking a few practice swings.

Sora summoned his own keyblade and spun it around a few times. "Your choice," he said, looking at Kairi.

She already had her blade ready. She thought for a moment, then decided. "Combat spellcasting."

Riku nodded and Sora smiled. Since she'd begun her training, Kairi had proved to be an adept mage. She had a talent for casting spells and loved to practice. Merlin had taken to training her and he suspected she would easily surpass Sora and Riku in terms of spell mastery before long. Her expertise with magic, however, only made her shortcomings in swordsmanship all the more apparent. She was more than a match for most low-level heartless and even held her own against any dusks they could find, but when it came to dueling she had serious problems. Master Yen Sid said she would get there, that it was only a matter of time and experience, but it still frustrated her immensely. She practiced her swordsmanship with Riku and Leon constantly, desperate to improve. When Sora had returned from his own training, he'd watched her struggling and had suggested a new approach. Together, he and Riku worked out a way to train her to integrate her spellcasting into sword combat. The techniques weren't especially innovative, Sora and Riku had mastered most of them a long time ago, but the training was helpful to Kairi and it made her a much more powerful duelist. She'd proven to be exceptionally creative when it came to mixing magic and swordplay, and both Sora and Riku were impressed with how powerful she was becoming.

The three friends lined up so they were facing down the length of the beach. "Okay," Riku began, raising his sword into his fighting stance. "We've already covered elemental strikes by infusing your keyblade, and we've talked about covering your body in power and using it to charge into combat. Now we can combine them." He raised his blade, and Sora watched as light energy gathered in the blade and around Riku's arm. Riku swung the blade downward, and in a sudden burst of energy flew forward. He somersaulted through the air, his blade cutting a swath through air and sand and the energy emanating from his body propelling him forward. After travelling a few meters in the blink of an eye, he stopped. The energy he'd gathered suddenly shifted from light to darkness. He reversed the grip on his keyblade, then began his somersault charge again in the reverse direction this time. His charge stopped where he'd initially started. The energy around him dissipated and he dropped to the ground in his ready stance. "You got it?"

Kairi stared at him, mouth agape.

Riku looked at her and started to laugh. Sora joined in.

"It's really not that hard," Sora said reassuringly. He raised his own sword and focused. He reached out for magical energy and felt it surge through him. He channeled it as lightning, forcing it into his arm and keyblade. He thrust his blade forward, releasing magical energy to push himself forward over the ground at an impossible speed. He flew a few meters forward, then planted his feet and brought his blade up in a lighting-fueled slash meant to knock an opponent off balance or into the air. Then he summoned a vast amount of electrical energy and poured it into his keyblade. He brought the weapon down, stabbing it into the sand and releasing the energy he'd gathered. Lightning discharged all around him, scattering imaginary opponents. The whole technique had taken less than a few seconds. Sora stood and looked at Kairi. "See? I know you can figure it out."

Kairi looked between him and Riku questioningly. "But what am I supposed to do? You guys did totally different things."

Riku shrugged. "What you do is up to you. We each have our own techniques." He planted his keyblade into the sand and held his hands in front of him for demonstration. A ball of light energy gathered in his right hand, a ball of darkness in his left. "I tend to use darkness and light in my techniques. Keeping Xehanort's heartless at bay, I learned how to control both." He lowered his hands and the energies disappeared.

"And I based my attack on one Riku used against me when we fought in Hollow Bastion," Sora said, remembering their fight before the final keyhole. "Then I combined it with some of the techniques Cloud uses."

"The point is," Riku said, picking his sword up again, "your techniques can be whatever you want. We can show you the basics, but you should experiment and play around until you get something you like."

"Okay," Kairi said after a moment, clearly still unsure of what she should be doing.

"You'll get it," Riku said confidently. He lowered his hand and his keyblade dissipated. He began to walk away toward the pier.

"Where are you going?" Sora asked.

"Mickey wanted me to call and check in every day," Riku replied coolly. "I need to call him from the ship. You stay here and help Kairi practice." As he passed, Riku threw Sora a wink and a smirk, nodding in Kairi's direction.

Sora felt himself blush.

Once Riku had left, Sora and Kairi were quiet.

"So, can you explain how to begin one of these moves?" Kairi asked.

"Sure," Sora replied, eager to have something to focus on. He raised his sword and began to gather magical energy. "Start by pouring your magic into your keyblade, like you would when you want to do a thunder strike."

Kairi raised her own blade, copying what he was doing. He could see energy beginning to collect in her weapon.

"Now at the same time, you put some of your magic into your own body, like when you are preparing to do a charge attack." He hoped he wasn't sounding like an idiot. He'd never been properly trained, so he wasn't very good at putting his thoughts into words. Riku had always been the better teacher.

Kairi copied him, splitting her magical energy into her body and her weapon.

"Now," Sora said, "this is the part where you get creative. You need to release each of the energies and direct it to get the result you want." He crouched, then jumped, releasing the energy stored in his body to push himself several meters into the air. At the same time, he brought his keyblade around himself in a circle, releasing the energy stored within as a burst of flame. The resulting attack was a spinning jump wreathed in flame. It would have had limited use in the field, but it was good for practice. Sora fell to the ground and watched Kairi.

Kairi crouched as he had done, then jumped and released her bodily magic, jumping even higher than he had. As she rose, she tried to bring her sword around in the same spinning motion as he had, but she got a late start. As a result, she was near the top of her jump before she started to twist around and she hadn't finished by the time she landed. Unable to come out of her spin, she lost her footing on the loose sand and fell down.

"Not bad," Sora said with an earnest smile. He walked up to her and held a hand out to help her up.

"I couldn't do it," Kairi said, disheartened.

"Neither could I at first," Sora replied.

Kairi looked up at him.

"It's true," Sora said. "It took me weeks to figure this stuff out. Donald didn't think I'd ever get it." He smiled, remembering the duck's face when Sora had finally gotten the move right. "You're learning a lot faster than I did."

Kairi smiled. "That's because I have such good teachers."

Sora grinned his goofy grin and rolled his eyes. "Well, I didn't want to say anything, but I am pretty amazing."

Kairi smacked him in the stomach and laughed. Then she took his hand and pulled herself up.

They returned to practice. After another dozen attempts, Kairi was able to time her jump and strike together so she could replicate Sora's move.

"Very good," Sora said brightly after she successfully performed the maneuver. "I'd say that's a good spot to stop for today. Tomorrow you can work on changing up your movements and spells. I bet you figure out a technique all your own before we head back to see the King and Master Yen Sid."

Kairi smiled and joined Sora as they headed towards the pier. "Hey, Sora?"

He turned his head to look at her. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for what you said earlier. I really needed to hear that."

Sora smiled at her. "You don't need to thank me. It's true. You're really good at this."

Kairi smiled. "Thanks." As they walked along the beach, she looked out over the waves. "It's just, sometimes I worry about what's coming. I look at you and Riku and I see what you guys have done, how strong you've become. I want to help. I know I can help, but I look at what we're up against and I wonder if I can really get strong enough to make a difference."

Sora stopped and grabbed Kairi's arm. "Kairi, you already have made a difference." He turned so he was staring directly into her eyes. "When I was in Castle Oblivion, you fought your way in and found me. You got all the way through that castle without a keyblade, then you got one and fought the heartless with me and Riku." He smiled, remembering seeing her call out to him before he defeated Xigbar, remembering how she inspired him. "And before that, in Hollow Bastion, you brought me back from being a heartless. I don't know how you did it, but you gave me back my light." He had to suppress a shudder as the memories of that time as a heartless threatened to come flooding back. "Kairi, you're one of the strongest people I know. I know you can help us."

Kairi had listened to all of it, meeting Sora's gaze. Her face was bright red when he'd finished and she turned away.

Sora was quiet, waiting for her to respond.

Kairi turned back with a warm smile. Her eyes looked wet. "Thanks, Sora." She threw her arms around him in a hug. "You always know what I need to hear."

She pulled away from him and started walking towards the pier again.

Something stirred inside Sora's heart. "Wait, Kairi."

She stopped and turned her head.

"I, uh…" Sora tried to spit out his words. "It wanted to say…" I love you. He struggled to say it. He could hear the words in his head. He tried to force them out, but they wouldn't come. He met her eyes, and he could tell the moment had passed. He sighed. "I just wanted to say you're welcome."

She smiled. "Come on. Let's get cleaned up. I'm sure everyone's up and ready to have some fun by now."