The Lost Princess
Chapter Six – Sparks and Snow
Riku couldn't help but feel guilty as he watched Xehan—no, Xemnas, summon Heartless after Heartless. He had never seen this type before though, because there had never been a need for flying Heartless in the past. To catch up to a train though, they needed to be faster than the normal Heartless.
Riku, while he had been trained in the powers of darkness for years, and had acted as a guardian to the dark Keyblade, couldn't help but feel horrible. He wished that he had never stepped through the portal leading to Xemnas. Kairi—Kari ('Whatever.') hadn't done anything wrong, none of the Hart children had. Yes, King Ansem had, in reality, let Xehanort take the fall for the barbaric tests involving hearts, and the Queen had been a manipulative woman from the start, but never once had the children performed Xehanort a wrong.
Now, watching as Xemnas sent the Heartless after Kairi and her companions, Riku wanted nothing to do with his former master.
He decided, then and there, that while he would still use the powers of darkness, he would walk in the light. He was on his way to the dawn.
VVVVVV
Roxas was looking over his traveling papers as he walked down the halls of the train, eyeing it to make sure that everything was fine. He had compared it to the real travel papers that had been given to him, and it seemed to be exact, but there was something nagging in the back of his mind about it.
He got stopped behind a woman and a man who also had their papers out. While he waited to pass them, he couldn't help but overhear their conversation, and what he heard made his blood run cold.
"Last month, the travel papers were blue, but this month, they're red."
He craned his neck around to glance at the papers, and couldn't help but gasp with horror when he saw that the papers were indeed red. The ones he had made were blue and he didn't have time to make new ones.
Tearing off down the train, he could hear a worker finally coming around to check the papers. He ended up running into a woman, but paid her no mind as he continued move. She huffed angrily at him and commented about disrespectful young people, but he didn't particularly care.
"Sora," he gasped out as he threw open their compartment door, startling his twin and Goofy. Kari stayed asleep, huddled underneath both her jacket, and Sora's.
"What? Sora asked, eyes widening with worry. "What's wrong?"
"I really do hate this government," Roxas said as he turned his traveling papers around to show his brother. "Because everything's in red."
"Red?" Sora asked as he stood up. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Roxas said with a nod. "I suggest we move to the baggage car."
"I suggest we get off of this train," the brunet said. Roxas quickly grabbed some of his bags, and Sora urgently shook Kari.
"What?" Kari snapped as she flung an arm out, catching Sora by the nose.
He let out a grunt of pain as he stumbled back, his eyes watering violently.
"Sorry," Kari said as she jumped up and moved closer to him. "Are you alright?"
Sora waved his hand before saying, "We have to move. Grab you're things."
She shot him a curious look and quickly threw her coat on while grabbing Goofy, who was barking at of the window for some reason.
Sora put on his coat and grabbed his bags while muttering, "I think you broke my nose."
Kari sighed as she followed him outside of the compartment and, to Goofy, she said, "Men are such babies."
Sora led the way towards one of the front cars on the train, shivering as he entered it. Roxas walked in behind him and he forced a smile to appear on his face. "There, this is much better."
"You're kidding, right?" Roxas snapped while eyeing his brother's nose, which had started to bleed, oddly. "She'll freeze in here."
"It's the best we've got," Sora replied as he wiped his nose, wincing from the sharp pain that followed.
Kari shut the door behind her and looked around with a rather amused smile on her face. She looked directly at Sora and asked, "The baggage car? There wouldn't happen to be anything wrong with our travel papers, would there, maestro?"
"Not at all. I just didn't think it was right for you to be mingling with all those common folk, your highness."
Kari grinned a bit as she set down Goofy and her bags. She took a step towards Sora and touched his nose gently. He winced and tried to get away from her but she grabbed onto his face and said, "Don't be a baby. This will only hurt for a second, otherwise it'll be crooked."
Sora let out a yelp of pain as she managed to push his broken nose back into place. She then used the sleeve of her coat to dab the blood off of his face. "Sorry."
Through watering eyes, Sora nodded and went back to silently cursing under his breath. Kari sighed again and muttered something about being a baby before sitting down on one of the boxes. "Really, why did we come in here?"
"There may have been a slight, small, little problem with our travel papers," Roxas admitted reluctantly.
"Oh?"
"They were outdated."
She shot him a suspicious look but said nothing more about the subject. Instead she turned her attention to Goofy as he growled and barked at the door they had just come through.
"What's you're problem you silly puppy?" she asked him while pulling him into her arms. Goofy ignored her though, and continued to struggle against her grip, barking viciously at the door.
Roxas moved from where he had left his bag and went to open the door, when a loud explosion rocked the train. Sora fell onto the floor and Kari toppled on top of him, followed by several boxes.
Goofy was barking loudly from under one of the boxes, and Roxas pushed himself off of the floor, ignoring Sora and Kari's squabbling. He touched the door, but it simply fell off of its hinges and onto the train tracks below. Roxas' blue eyes widened with horror as he said, "We just lost the rest of the train."
Eventually, Sora and Kari managed to get themselves off of the floor and both of them moved closer to the door, watching as the front part of the train sped away from the second half.
Sora bit his lip before running to the other end and throwing the door open. He could see the engine burning brightly in front of them, burning more than it should have been. He glanced at his brother and Kari and said, "Wait here!"
Although he did it while stumbling, Sora managed to climb up the side of the car in front of them and made his way to the engine. Kari and Roxas both waited with worried looks in silence, until Kari said, "We're going too fast!"
Sora suddenly appeared in front of them before saying, "No one's driving this thing! We have to jump!"
"Did you say jump?" Kari exclaimed as he rushed to the side and threw open the larger door. Kneeling down side by side, Kari found herself staring at a large drop below her. She shot Sora an annoyed look before saying, "After you."
"We have to detach the engine then," Roxas said. "Then well eventually coast to a stop."
"I'm pretty sure we'll go off the track before that," Sora pointed out.
"Better than speeding with a raging inferno in front of us," Kari said to him.
Sora nodded and moved to where the two cars connected and stared at the metal oddly. It had been fine when he climbed onto it earlier to get to the front car, and now it was melted together for some odd reason.
"I need a hammer! Or something!" Sora cried out to his brother.
Roxas quickly dug around before finding a toolbox. He pulled out a hammer and handed it to his brother, who started pounding away at the metal.
Kari knew that Sora would never be able to break the other car away, so she kept looking around for something that could help. Goofy was barking loudly, and she was about to turn around to tell him to be quite when she stopped. A grin appeared on her face when she saw what he was barking at.
"Good, smart puppy," Kari said as she petted him on the head and pulled a stick of dynamite out o the broken box. As if fate was trying to save them, a piece of burning coal landed a few feet away from where Sora was.
The brunet growled angrily as the hammer broke in two and said, "I need something else!"
Kari quickly touched the dynamite to the still burning hot coal, which quickly started to burn. She then passed it to Sora, who stared at it for a second before saying, "That'll work."
Roxas grabbed Goofy as the three of them rushed back to hide behind several of the crates. Sora pushed Kari to the floor, shielding her with his body as he said, "What do they teach you in those orphanages?"
She didn't have the chance to answer as the dynamite exploded, effectively separating the baggage car from the engine.
"There," Sora said, once he hoisted Kari to her feet. "Now all we have to do is wait until we coast to a stop."
None of them except for Goofy noticed several dark figures warp together into a large creature that effectively threw something at the bridge the train tracks led to.
The three of them looked over at the thundering crash that signified the bridge's destruction.
Roxas shot a disbelieving look at his brother and said, "You were saying?"
Sora shot his brother a quick look before looking around the remainder of the train wildly. They needed to find a way to slow it down so that they could jump off without killing themselves.
Suddenly, a chain and hook caught his eye. For a moment, he wondered what the odds were that they'd find dynamite and a hook and chain in the same baggage cart, but decided not to question it. For all he knew, this shipment was for the Head of State, Pence Lenin.
Instead, he rushed forward and grabbed it before yelling, "Roxas, I'll need your help!"
The blond nodded and tried to get over to him, but ended up tripping over some spare luggage and smashing his head onto one of the boxes. He let out a groan, barely conscious on the floor, but Sora didn't notice because he was already climbing down the bottom of the train.
"Pass me the chain!" he yelled up. Kari appeared above him with the chain and he said, "Not you! You could get hurt!"
"Roxas is busy bashing the rest of his brain cells at the moment," she argued, and he took the chain from her, knowing that there was no time to argue. He managed to wrap it around the bottom of the train securely. Sora started to climb back up when a piece from towards the front of the car snapped off, flinging towards him.
Sora tried to reach up and grab the door, but his hand slipped and he fell backwards.
Kari's hand shot out and grabbed a hold of him, using all of the strength she had to pull him back towards the door. He managed to grab onto the door to secure himself, just in time to see a tree behind them get impaled by the shrapnel that had flung towards him.
"To think that could have been you," Kari said with a raised eyebrow as he climbed back onto the train.
"If we live through this," he said seriously. "Remind me to thank you. Help me. Rox! Get up! We're gonna jump!"
Roxas groaned and managed to push himself off of the floor while holding his bruise and bleeding head. Goofy yipped loudly as the blond grabbed a hold of him.
Kari let out a grunt as she and Sora pushed the hook and chain out the back of the train car, watching it grapple onto the train track.
The force of the moving train caused the wooden tracks to shatter, but at the same time, the train also ended up twisting onto its side, a shower of snow and sparks igniting around them.
As quickly as possible while being tossed around. They all managed to get what few things they could find, and they jumped.
Sora let out a groan as he pushed himself out of the snow and watched as the car they had been in followed the engine off of the broken bridge. A loud explosion followed the crash, which Sora attributed to hot coal from the engine meeting the dynamite that had been loaded into the baggage car.
"Is everyone alright?" Sora asked with a groan. "Rox? Kairi?"
They both nodded, although Roxas was holding his head in obvious pain. He shot his brother a dark look and said, "I hate trains. Remind me never to get on one again."
Kari was breathing deeply, holding Goofy close to her, trying to hide the tears of relief that were falling down her cheeks. She had thought they were going to die then and there.
She looked towards where the remainder of the train had vanished off the side of the cliff, and stared at the visible fire.
For a moment, she was sitting in a beautifully decorated room. It was a child's room, a young boy's from the looks of it, but it was still magnificent. She watched a little boy with fiery red hair that was spiked backwards laughing happily and clapping at the burning curtains in front of him as several maids attempted to put it out.
The boy turned around, and looked directly at Kari. He smiled broadly and waved at her, but as he did, the rest of the room caught fire.
It raged, catching the curtains, the sheets of the bed, and any toys that were strewn around. She heard some rapid footsteps and quickly turned around, watching a red haired girl run passed. There was something so familiar about her, and about the elderly lady that ran passed her after the girl.
Kari wanted to run after them, but a warm hand on her shoulder broke her out of her stupor. She glanced up at Sora, who was sending her a worried look, and smiled at him reassuringly. She didn't want him to know that she was having strange, and in some cases, disturbing, hallucinations.
Sora picked up her bag and pushed his hand gently on the small of her back. She picked up Goofy and went over to Roxas, who was holding his head in his hands and sitting on his suitcase.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Kari asked him with worry.
"I'll live," he answered dryly. "No need to worry about that, Princess."
Kari nodded as he stood up and picked up the case he had been sitting on. He took a deep breath before glancing at his twin and asking, "What now?"
"We need to get to Twilight Town still," Sora said thoughtfully. "Either way, we're in the middle of nowhere, so we better start walking before it gets too late and we freeze out here."
Roxas nodded before saying, "Alright. I'll lead the way, and Sora, make sure nothing happens to her."
Sora shot his brother an encouraging smile and Kari gave them both a curious glance. As if reading her mind, Sora explained, "Roxas has an amazing since of direction. I don't feel like getting lost, so he might as well lead."
"Oh, okay," she said as they all started walking. She tilted her head with thought and said, "Why did you call me Kairi? When you were asking if I was alright?"
Sora seemed startled at the question, and in that moment she realized that he hadn't done it on purpose. He shrugged and said, "Well, I guess that's what we should start calling you. If you truly are the Imperial Princess, then you should be used to the name, right?"
"Well, I guess, but even if it really is my name, it's not like anyone would really expect me to answer to it right away, right?" Kari asked.
Sora shrugged and Roxas said, "Rumor has it that the former Queen is pretty stubborn about inconsistencies like that. I mean there's a small, slight chance that…well…even if you truly are Kairi, like we believe you are, she may not believe it. Frauds and imposters have been coming forth since the Princess was lost."
Sora rapidly shook his head at Roxas, who quickly stopped talking and concentrated on watching where they were going. Hopefully they'd find some sort of shelter before it became too dark out. He wasn't looking forward to spending the night outside during a Radiant Garden winter.
VVVVVV
Author's Note
So last Thursday my computer decided it'd be fun to die on me. Something about the Logic board or video card breaking. I have no clue. All I know is that I freaked because I had an essay due Friday and guess where the good copy was? Needless to say, I spent all night working on that again.
First off, I wanted to assure anyone of you who make think that this is going to continue to be overly predictable, that watching the ending of Anastasia is going to do you no good here. Hint one: Riku and his reactions towards Xemnas. That's going to be looked into more and built upon.
There you go Shire Folk. Pence Lenin. Seriously, I rewrote that tiny part in just for the laughs.
And there's once or twice Sora called Kari 'Kairi' instead. This is not a mistake, it was done on purpose. You'll notice that Kairi will slowly just start replacing Kari as the story goes on.
Thank you to Eragonmetal6, Topaz Tsubasa, Shire Folk, catharsis25, DAN88, Trainalf, chasingfireflies, Solarian Princess and Narwe.
I hope no screens were hurt in the process of reading this chapter (Topaz). Just so everyone knows, Maleficent won't be appearing in this at all. If anyone of you die due to double performances, I'm going to be very disappointed (chasingfireflies).
PS. Shire Folk – I gotta stop having long message convos with you. It causes a lack of interesting things to say in a review!
You guys are great! Hope you enjoyed this chapter too! I know the Heartless didn't REALLY make an appearance, but that's kind of the point right now.
Krystal Lily Potter