Disappearing Act

By the time night fell, Vega had been waiting for several hours, and she was ready to move. Her plan was coming together quickly; all the pieces were in place. Though she disliked operating around so many people, the prize was far too great to pass up the opportunity. The power of the Keyblade was close enough to taste.

She had been hiding in an abandoned house near Sora's neighborhood. Island legend had it that this house was cursed. Every time somebody moved in, they had something terrible happen to kill them. One resident was murdered during a robbery, the next fell off his roof while making repairs, and another asphyxiated when he left the stove on. People often joked about how much they wished a spark had blown the house up, because the final resident was found decapitated and surrounded by satanic symbols and ritual markers. After that, even demolition crews refused to even go near the house. Even islander children, who were crazy by any reasonable standards, were horrified of the house. Vega could reasonably assume she was safe there.

Though she was not superstitious, Vega was anxious to get out of the house. If it truly was cursed, it was by an ancient form of black magic in which even she didn't dare drabble. The power required for such a deadly curse was immense; more than almost any modern magician could muster. However, if it was just folklore, the mere thought of such stupidity drove Vega away from the place.

Once the sun sank below the horizon, she made her move. Stealth was no concern while she was on the cursed house's property, so she merely walked to the front gate and opened it, strolling out into the night. Once she got closer to the town, though, she had to remember her stealth training. When it came to infiltration, few were better than Vega.

She hopped a fence into a field of wild grass, where she sank below the brush and quietly moved towards the far end. She hardly left a trail in the fragile grasses as she silently continued onwards. At the far end of the field, the field abruptly turned into a forest of pines and firs. Though they normally only grew on the mountain slopes of the island, this small patch had ventured down onto the flatlands near the town.

Pine needles and sharp branches posed no threat to Vega's lightweight armor, allowing her to run through the dense forest underbrush unhindered. Even in the thick forest floor vegetation, she moved with deadly speed and intent. It seemed that even the mighty forest was afraid to oppose her, lest she destroy it tree by tree. Thickets that would have stopped even the most experienced outdoorsman posed no obstacle to her.

The black blur was indistinguishable from the myriad of other movements in the forest. She came across a group of teenage couples sitting around a fire, blankets draped over their shoulders. Even though it was late summer, the nights got cold on the island. Vega was able to see her breath in the cool, wet forest air as she passed by the gathering.

Eventually, the forest began to thin; game trails and secret back routes gave way to paved bike paths and wide dirt walkways. Vega looked around for the landmark she had memorized: a warming shack next to a very large fir tree. Finding it, she consulted her mental notes. Her objective was two kilometers from here, directly to the west. She turned towards the purple-stained sky and continued her advance.

The sound of cars became louder and louder, telling her that she was heading the right direction. When she came to the edge of the forest, she could see the town straight ahead. The main thoroughfare of the area ran straight in front of her, blocking any kind of stealthy approach. However, Vega was not one to let something as simple and predictable as a road stop her. She concentrated on a spell she had learned long ago, funneling her energy into it.

When she felt the spell complete itself, she looked for her hands. When she couldn't find them, she smiled in delight and ran across the road, unseen by motorists. Venturing past the very edge of town, she walked within inches of people, completely unobserved. The odd comedy of her invisibility made her smile as she galloped past large groups of people congregating in the shopping district. Every once in a while, she could swear she nicked a passerby, but they continued walking, dismissing the minimal contact as an unexpected breeze.

Once she passed the brightly lit stores of the shopping district, Vega found herself entering the residential area. Small houses had yellow lights illuminating the lower level as people began to settle down for the day. Some houses only had the flickering blue glow of a television, while others were completely dark. None of the occupants had any inkling of the powerful dark sorceress as she ran through their backyards and vaulted their fences.

At long last, she came across the house she had set out for. As she had expected, the lower level had dim lights on, while one room on the second floor was glowing brightly. That was her target. All she had to do now was ascend to that room and incapacitate Sora. The first was easily accomplished thanks to stone inclusions in the brickwork of Sora's house. The second would be done with one of Vega and Daq's malevolent inventions.

She felt a slight tug on her control of the invisibility spell and knew she had to act quickly. In minutes, she would no longer have the magical energy required to continuously bend light around herself. If she suddenly materialized in Sora's field of vision, even a magician of her caliber wouldn't last long against the Keyblade master.

She climbed the rock edges that stuck out from the brick and hoisted herself to the window. Grabbing the windowsill, she pulled the first of her tools from her belt: a composite-fiber crowbar. She wedged it underneath the window, careful to only open it as much as she needed. As she replaced the crowbar, a movement from inside the window caught her attention.

Sora was on his bed, facedown in his pillow. Vega wondered what purpose his odd position served until she saw his entire form shudder as if he were being violently shaken. It stopped momentarily, and then began again, only lasting a few seconds at most. When Vega finally realized what it was, she was startled at how degraded her own humanity had become.

He was sobbing.

What happened next caught Vega unaware. She hadn't felt this feeling in the longest time. It was vaguely familiar, and yet she couldn't remember what it was. It certainly wasn't the feeling she usually got when her enemies were on the ground weeping; that was sadistic pleasure, and she loved it. This was something new, something she couldn't remember the word for. There was a word for it, wasn't there? Surely some lesser people felt this more often, likely the source of their weakness.

She reached for the next tool on her belt, only vaguely aware that she had forgotten what pity felt like.

It's that damn transmitter, she thought. The signal must be affecting me too. I never feel anything but joy when my enemies fall. I should call Daq and tell him to turn that thing off and start charging the capacitors.

Her next tool was an ultraviolet cutting laser. Because no visible light was used, the laser was invisible. The only way it made its presence known was when it began burning through something. Very few materials stood up to its destructive beam. Before she and Daq had started work on their masterpiece, they had been working on a weaponized version of it. Surely the window latches in Sora's room would quickly fail.

Inserting the opening in the miniscule opening beneath the window, she began to burn through the brass latches keeping the window shut. Sora, his face still buried in his pillow, didn't notice the slight acrid smell that began to permeate the room.

The laser kept cutting. Within seconds, both latches were nothing more than molten slag. Vega carefully slid the window up, making sure to not create any sudden noises. She crept into the room, drawing a syringe full of a clear fluid. As she crept closer, she felt another pang of sorrow for the young boy. She still didn't know what it was. All she could concentrate on was how close her ultimate power was.

She readied the needle. Inside was a synthetic microbe that attached to nerve endings, cutting off voluntary impulses, the effect of which being total temporary paralysis, save for automatic signals to the heart and lungs. Sora would be completely helpless soon after injection. The only drawback of the microbe injection was that it only had a total effective time of fifteen minutes before the body's natural defenses wiped it out. She would have to act quickly.

The needle plunged into Sora's shoulder, quickly releasing its contents into his bloodstream. He jumped and yelped at the sudden pain and turned to face his attacker. However, his combat posture quickly faded as he collapsed on his bed, immobile. Vega picked up his limp form and hoisted him over her shoulder. She picked up the transmitter she had clipped to her belt.

"Daq, I've got him. Shut off the transmitter. It's starting to have effects on me now."

"What? That can't be, it's been precision tuned to only affect Sora's heart-"

Vega cut him off quickly. "It's doing something weird to me. Just turn it off. We don't need it anymore anyway."

Though the transmitter was now off, it would take several minutes for the tail end of the signal to race through the void and reach the Destiny Islands. Eagerly awaiting the end of the signal, she climbed out the window again, shutting off the lights as she did so. A quick glance at Sora's digital clock revealed the time to be 9:19. Perfect. She could make her getaway before his parents made their hourly check-in on the half-hour. Regretting her inability to use dark portals, she jumped down from the sill, landing gracefully on the grass.

The ocean was nearby, and that's where she planned to make her getaway from. She carried Sora to the dock and untied one of the boats. Picking up the oars from the bottom of the hull, she pushed away from the rickety wood construction, sending the two of them into the small segment of sea between the main island and a smaller island just a bit offshore.

When she was satisfied that nobody could see them, she sent a signal to her Gummi ship orbiting high above them. A pencil-thin line of blue light struck the Keyblade master and her captor, and they both vanished, leaving the boat floating in with the tide.

***

"Gone? Where to?"

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be here asking about him!"

Kairi awoke to her adopted mother's tiny voice and Riku's deep tones. Even in her half-conscious state, she could tell that Riku was concerned about something. From what little she could process, 'he' was gone, whoever 'he' was. And whoever 'he' was, he was certainly driving Riku up the wall.

Rolling over under her covers, she resolved not to worry about it unless Riku came barging in her room as he had done once before. Early that morning, Sora and Kairi had snuck into Riku's room and covered the floor with rubber snakes and spiders, Riku's two greatest fears. He had later gone to Sora's house and, to the amusement of Sora's parents, beaten him over the head with one of the spiders.

He had also gone to Kairi's house, but he never intended to hit her. The only thing planned for Kairi was a bit of revenge in the form of putting the spider right in front of her face for her to wake up to. However, Sora had sent a preemptive text message warning her of the impending attack, so she had time to get dressed before he came sauntering into her room. His trespassing had earned him a punch in the gut.

Other than that, though, Riku more than respected her privacy. It verged on a pathological fear of being labeled insensitive to girls' needs. He was always hesitant to enter her room, even when Kairi invited him in. Once inside, he was never comfortable, much to Kairi's amusement. However, being a good friend, she never kept him there long.

Sora was similar, only he actually did have a pathological fear of being labeled insensitive. Kairi found this humorously ironic, considering he had captured her heart with his awkward charm and quiet sensitivity. He almost flat-out refused to enter her room. When asked about it, he said that he had always thought of her room as her inner sanctum, a place not to be intruded upon. Kairi had to verbally grapple with him whenever she wanted to cuddle or just have some privacy. Her parents were a bit overprotective.

So Kairi merely lay there, enjoying the morning light. She always slept late, getting out of bed mid-morning. The sun was already up, the birds were already singing, and the Saturday morning cartoons were already over, so she could watch something decent without her younger brothers hogging the television.

To her surprise, there was the sound of footsteps rapidly ascending the stairs. Was Riku really going to-?

Wham! "Kairi! Get up get up get up! Come on!" Riku yelled, slamming her door open. He went to tear the covers off her bed, realizing just in time that she might be wearing little clothing or none at all. He retreated under Kairi's angry glare as she pulled the covers up above her neck.

"Riku, you've got two seconds to explain why you're here."

"Sora's gone!"

The words shot through Kairi like an arrow. She immediately began to panic. Gone? Gone where? Had he run away? Why? To leave his life behind? To kill himself? Had he been taken? Where? What would someone want with him? Or was he just out for a walk and nobody knew about it? Or was there another possibility?

Riku paced around her room, babbling to himself. "He couldn't have just left us, could he? I mean, he's been acting strangely recently, but running away? It's not his style; he'd have left a note or something. And there's no way somebody could have taken him, is there? He's the most paranoid person in the universe!"

A rogue thought crossed Kairi's mind. "His depression has been unusually bad recently. Maybe he'll come back when it gets a little better. Right?"

Her uncertain tone left Riku unconvinced. "I doubt it. If he's gone, he doesn't want to come back and he doesn't want to be found. I knew it would come to this. We should have made him talk to us. Talk to someone. Take the medicine. Anything. It would be better than having him disappear forever."

Kairi considered Riku's tangent. Maybe he was right. Though Sora was usually resistant to force, he may have seen the light eventually. But what she noticed most was how much Riku had changed, too. He was never such a worrier. Regret was simply not in his vocabulary. He used to be wildly impulsive, and while it had gotten him in trouble before, it made him who he was. This new strung-out Riku was not the boy she used to know. It seemed that everyone she knew was affected by Sora's sudden decline.

In fact, it seemed that Riku and Kairi had switched roles. Usually Kairi was the one to worry and regret ant try to cover every small possibility until it drove her insane, while Riku tended to react quickly at first but then slow down into a more controlled state. Now Riku was losing his mind and Kairi was doing the calculated thinking. Something was seriously out of place.

After a few moments of calming down a psychotic Riku, the boy a year Kairi's senior left her room, allowing her to dress for the undoubtedly long day. She hadn't used traveling clothes in a very long time, but she kept a few sets just in case. There was one that she favored above the rest, and she thought it brought her good luck. Hoping the charm would last, she extracted the outfit from her closet.

The bottoms were white capris, laden with pockets and zippers. They often looked a bit excessive, but they became infinitely useful on long trips when she needed to carry many small objects. Ending just below her knees, they allowed for contact with fresh air and mobility. Whoever had made this pair had coated them with an experimental chemical, creating a near-magical barrier that repelled dirt and oil, making them always look freshly washed.

Her top was a plain pink tank top under a white t-shirt with a zipper in front and a hood. The hood seemed to be in the same 'excessive' category as the pants' zippers. While its official purpose was facial concealment, it mostly looked good, which was Kairi's top priority after utility. Both the tank top and the t-shirt had been coated with the same chemical as the capris.

As she examined herself, she realized how much more white she had been wearing since Naminé had begun sharing her body. Though there were no physical changes, there were subtly psychological alterations; her sudden affinity to white was one of them. She wondered what Roxas had done to Sora.

She walked down the stairs to find no trace of Riku. Sensing her impending inquiry, her mother informed her that he had gone home to get into his own traveling clothes. He wanted to meet her halfway between their houses and then go to the police station to get a missing person report filled out and sent as far and wide as possible. No doubt reports of Sora going missing would spur some serious activity in most major worlds.

Giving a quick goodbye to her mother and assuring her that she wouldn't be gone for more than a few days, she walked out the door and headed towards Riku's house, ready to begin what would definitely turn out to be a long and difficult search. Even though she knew she should be despairing at the disappearance of her dearly beloved, she was surprised to find herself feeling better than she had in months. In fact, the last time she could remember feeling so generally good was before the Heartless had arrived. It was a strange phenomenon, but she wasn't going to question it. She was just thankful that her own slide into depression was cut short.

***

As Vega had predicted, the tropical storm had hit the island right as she was landing, making a smooth touchdown nearly impossible. Rain and winds buffeted the Gummi ship, sending it dangerously lurching right and left near the ground. After much difficult maneuvering, the ship set down on the pad. Vega opened the canopy and pulled a drugged and hog-tied Sora out along with her.

The rain soaked her hair, but it couldn't permeate her armor, so she didn't mind it. However, they'd have to let Sora dry before they put him in the machine. It took all of Vega's self control to stop herself from disregarding Daq's warnings and simply putting the kid in immediately.

She threw him over her shoulder and walked in through the double doors, sealing the rain outside. When she entered the main chamber, Daq turned around and stared in awe.

"Is… is that… really…?"

Vega smiled malevolently. "In the flesh. Maybe not the mind anymore, though. That trick with the transmitter had him sobbing into his pillow when I got there."

Daq let out a low whistle. "You know, I thought I was prepared for this, but… to see him in real life… it's surreal. I hope the transmitter hasn't sent his heart so out of whack that our creation can't do its job."

Chuckling, Vega put the soggy Keybearer in a chair to let him dry. "I doubt that a heart as strong as his would be broken by false emotions transmitted from a million miles away, no matter how well tuned the antenna is. We should be fine here. If you absolutely must, you can run a diagnostic while we're waiting for hi to dry."

Thinking that Vega's suggestion was a wise one, Daq placed some electrodes on Sora's body and hooked the up into a computer on the wall. Vega was confident that he would find nothing out of the ordinary. It took a great deal of patience to simply sit down and stare at the greatest source of power in the universe.

So close. I can feel its power in his presence. It will be mine before this day is done!