Bruixe must have passed out at some point, because she opened her eyes not to island sun but to a white ceiling studded with stick-on pink and blue stars. She tried to roll over but her wounded side throbbed; Bruixe's hand jumped to it automatically, and she found that it had been neatly bandaged. Her wrist, too, had been set and splinted. Guess I found my healer, she thought.
It then occurred to her that a healer couldn't have bandaged her side without removing her clothes. Bruixe pulled the soft white sheets closer around her; she was completely naked, save for her black choker and rose pendant. Panicking, she looked around.
She was relieved to see her clothes neatly folded on a bedside table. She pushed herself up out of the bed, groaning. Sure is a strange healer's clinic, she thought as she pulled on her jeans, black halter top, and knee-high boots. The walls were babydoll pink, the door and window frame pure white. The white wooden furniture was painted with a design of baby blue flowers, some sort of island variety, Bruixe guessed.
The door opened. "Hey, you're awake!" said the girl who entered. She had straight red hair and wide, honest blue eyes. Her dress was the exact same color pink as the walls.
Bruixe nodded, starting to piece things together. "You're no healer," she said huskily, voice hoarse from disuse.
The girl smiled. She was Bruixe's age, maybe a little younger. "Nope. I'm Kairi," she said, as if that was an explanation for everything. Her eyes softened. "I was worried when I found you on the beach yesterday, all beat up. I brought you back here – this is my place," she explained, motioning around at the walls.
"You did this?" Bruixe asked, indicating her bandaged side and wrist.
"Yep," Kairi said proudly. "I've been studying healing up at the clinic, and Dr. Samber says I'm a natural. Don't worry, she came too, and was making sure I did everything okay. What happened to you?" She held up a hand. "Wait, nevermind. Let's start with your name."
"I'm Bruixe," she replied. She noticed Kairi's eyebrows twitch at the telltale 'x' in her name, the sign of an Organization member. "I, um… I… well, there were some people who wanted me dead, I guess. They never got around to finishing me off."
Kairi raised an eyebrow. "Is that all?" she inquired softly.
Bruixe was about to lie when a man's voice yelled, "Kairi!"
"Come on up," Kairi called back over her shoulder. "My friend," she told Bruixe. "He comes here a lot."
Bruixe's mouth fell open when she saw the young man.
"Roxas?!" she gasped, shocked.
Immediately the kid's face tensed, his expression hard. "Who are you?" he demanded angrily.
Bruixe couldn't answer. Now that she thought about it, this man's hair was different than Roxas's, and he slouched more than Roxas ever had.
"I said, who are you?" he repeated. This time a weapon – Keyblade, Bruixe realized – materialized in the boy's hand, and he leveled it at Bruixe's throat.
"Sora!" Kairi cried, and tried to push him away.
Sora?
"The other," she realized aloud, breathless.
"Sora, stop it," Kairi said, eyes hard but voice quivering.
Sora lowered his Keyblade, but didn't dismiss it. "You knew Roxas," he said. It wasn't a question, but Bruixe nodded anyway. "You're… one of them?"
Bruixe didn't have to ask to know what he meant. She held his gaze. She would not be ashamed of what she was. "A Nobody," she said, daring him to object. "Yeah, that's me."
There was no way she could take this kid in her current state. Some small corner of her brain noted that she didn't know where her kodachis were, in any case. Bruixe held her hands away from her body, palms up, a gesture of peace. "Hey, if I was still with the Organization I wouldn't be here," she pointed out.
Sora opened his mouth to say something, but Kairi cut him off. "Her name's Bruixe," she told him. "I found her on the beach, yesterday. Riku helped me carry her here. She was beat up really bad."
"How?" Sora demanded.
"It's a long story," Bruixe said, hesitating.
"We've got time," he retorted.
"Wait," Kairi interjected. "Riku should hear this, too. Bruixe, do you feel strong enough to go somewhere else?"
Bruixe shrugged. "I'm fine," she said. "Where's the rest of my stuff."
"I threw away your cloak," Kairi replied. "It was almost completely destroyed. Your bracers and knives are in this drawer." She opened the drawer in question and removed the rest of Bruixe's effects.
Bruixe took her things, pulling on her violet bracers – a challenge with her wrist in a splint – and sliding her sheathed kodachis into their slots on her black studded belt. Sora eyed her kodachis suspiciously, but didn't say anything.
"Ready?" Kairi said, and Bruixe nodded, following the two out of the room.