Chapter X:
Falling Into Darkness
Waves of light and darkness clashed into each other, making the corridor a dim gray. Twilight. Mei had never been transported through a corridor of any sort before, but she assumed that Corridors of Twilight were very different from Corridors of Darkness. She had no idea where she was going, but there was constant movement around her that compelled her to keep moving forward. She trusted Sora, as well, and knew that his portal would lead her somewhere safe.
As Mei continued forward, the contrasting elements started separating, little by little. The darkness went to one side, and the light went to the other. A grey portal was ahead of her, one she guessed that would lead into another world. Not looking back, she took a deep breath and stepped through.
Light burst into Mei's eyes as she stepped onto soft, cold snow. The girl recoiled slightly and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, then opened them slowly to allow them to adjust. There was a swish behind her and the Corridor of Twilight swirled shut. Whether she liked this world or not, she was stuck here now. A breeze blew and she became aware of the frigid temperature. She wasn't really dressed for such a climate, so she wrapped her arms around herself and began to look for shelter.
She looked around the immediate area and realized that she was on top of a mountain. She shuffled through the snow to look over the cliff and see a city a few miles away. There was no snow down there, so she supposed that if she got down there, it'd be warmer and she could ask someone where she was. She looked to the right and saw a narrow path leading down the side of the mountain, so she followed it.
After the short trek from the peak of the mountain to about the halfway point, Mei saw there was a small camp. It looked like it was for some sort of army, and it seemed like it hadn't housed anyone for a while. Curious, she went up to one of the doors and knocked on it. A moment passed and no one answered, so she decided to continue down the mountain. She glanced back at the way she'd came, didn't see that anyone was following, and turned back around to continue towards the city.
The rest of the walk was rather uneventful. After a while, she'd left the snow behind and traveled down a rocky path, then found herself on a river bank. There were two paths now, one that led to the city and one that led to another camp. Since the city was still pretty far away, she decided to check this camp and see if there were people in this one. She crossed the stream and continued forward.
Once in this camp, she soon realized it was empty too. She stomped her foot in frustration, cringing instantly from the sudden pressure to her frostbitten toes. She clenched her jaw to stop herself from crying out, and waited for the numbness to go away. On the other side of the encampment, there was a small trail leading into a grove.
"I might as well see if I can find some food," Mei told herself, tired of hearing nothing. "And then I can come back and use of these tents to rest in before going to the city."
Mei really didn't know how long she was going to be stuck in this world, so she wanted to make sure she could survive if she couldn't find any inhabitants that would help her. The path she took led to a bamboo thicket, and as she was about to turn the corner, she heard voices. She froze up, immediately remembering Zexion from Traverse Town. Could these voices belong to Organization members too? She stayed quiet and listened close.
"Okay, so if we go into the Imperial City, maybe the Emperor can help us help us out," a boy's voice was saying.
"Yeah," a girl agreed. "It's not like Mei actually looks Chinese--"
"Come on! Let's go! Let's go!" a young boy's voice cried. Mei's face brightened as she recognized the voices, and she ran around the corner straight into Suki's arms. The violenette yelped in surprise, but the older girl kept a tight hold on her. After a moment, the embrace was returned.
"Mei!" Hiro shouted excitedly and ran to her, hugging her leg. "We've been looking everywhere for you!" The red-head let go of Suki to rustle Hiro's hair, then smiled at Paka before meeting Suki's eyes again. She hung her head, feeling guilty.
"I'm so sorry I blew up at you," Mei told Suki quietly.
"It's okay, Mei," the girl replied. "I should have told you… I was just so confused--"
"No… I understand. I… I talked to someone. He told me that friends lie to protect each other. So, thank you."
Suki was surprised by Mei's explanation, but she accepted it whole-heartedly. Paka then told her about how they'd borrowed a Gummi Ship from Master Yen Sid, and used it to look for her in Wonderland. He explained that they were unable to completely lock the Keyhole without her, and that they'd met Roxas briefly.
"What about you, Mei?" Hiro asked. "Where have you been?" The oldest teen hesitated, biting her lower lip.
"Well, I went to Traverse Town," she began. "I ran into some Organization members… and Sora. He… He's the one who made me understand. He got me here before Zexion could hurt me. I have no idea what's happened to him now." The other three stared at her in shock for a moment, then recovered quickly.
"Don't worry, he'll be okay," Hiro told her brightly. "Kairi's watching over him." Paka and Mei stared at him incredulously.
"Kairi?" Mei repeated, the name feeling strangely familiar as it passed her lips.
"Who's that?" Paka asked.
"Sora's friend, Kairi, don't you remember?" Hiro answered, cocking his head to the side. "We thought she'd been killed by that Heartless, like Riku!"
"She was killed by that Heartless," Suki muttered. "What are you talking about, Hiro?"
"Kairi helped me find you back in Wonderland."
Mei was confused. How come Suki and Hiro seemed to remember this Kairi girl, when she and Paka didn't? And if she really was a friend of Sora's that had been killed, why wouldn't he had said anything about her before? Still, there was something very familiar about her name. The question was, why?
"Suki…" she finally stated, looking towards her. "Who is Kairi?" Suki looked away, obviously thinking hard about something. Finally, she took a deep breath and reached into her pocket. She pulled out a folded piece of paper and fumbled it in her fingers nervously.
"Kairi is Sora's best friend--" she began.
"No, that's Riku," Paka interrupted.
"Kairi is too, or was, at least," she corrected. "She was killed by that Heartless with Riku. But… almost everyone's forgotten about herm even Sora. This girl I met… that I 'brought back'… she told me that because she existed, everyone would start to forget Kairi. I don't know why Hiro remembers her, but you two don't. That girl, Xion, gave me this." She unfolded the piece of paper and showed them the picture. Sora and Riku were sitting on a tree, but the space in between them was empty. However, there did seem to be some faint smudge in that space, one that vaguely looked like a girl with red hair.
"Kairi has black hair, doesn't she?" Hiro questioned.
"No. Xion does," Suki replied. "So… you didn't' meet Kairi. You met Xion, which makes sense because Roxas was with her. So, why do you remember Kairi?"
"Do you think… it has something to do with Sora?" Mei inquired hesitantly. "I mean, both Paka and I saw Sora, and we don't remember. But, you saw him too, and you remember…"
"No, I think you're right," Suki said. "I met Sora before everyone forgot Kairi. And Hiro never met him." She turned the drawing around and looked at it. "These are Sora's memories, so we are affected by them only if we're around him." She folded the paper up and pocked it, a determined look on her face. "When we find him, we might forget Kairi completely. If we want to help him, we have to remember her."
The other three understood and nodded.
"Well, first things first," Paka started. "We need to go to the Emperor and see if he can tell us where the Keyhole is." So the friends headed back towards the Imperial City, as Mei learned it to be called. They all informed her that they were in a world called The Land of Dragons. An old ally of Sora's lived here, and her name was Mulan. Although they had come here looking for Mei, they'd also hoped to permanently lock the Keyhole and try to get some help from Mulan. They'd just arrived, so the only thing they'd accomplished was finding Mei.
The red-head explained her short journey from the peak of the mountain to where she'd found them. She made sure to let them know she hadn't seen any people or any Heartless, despite all of the places that had seemed suitable for the both of them. They all agreed the world was strangely quiet, so something was going on. The quicker they got to the Emperor, the better.
It wasn't long until the four Key-Bearers reached the Imperial City. The square in front of the palace was very large and spacious, yet there were no people wandering around in it The Land of Dragons was eerily silent.
"This is bad," Paka muttered. "Where is everyone?" Mei shrugged in response, but pressed on. Suki, Hiro, and Paka followed her hesitantly and marched up the steps to the palace. When they reached the top, they could see that the large doors were wide open.
"Could there have been a war here?" Mei asked no one in particular. "There was that encampment back there… and I've seen a lot of weapons too."
"If there was, where are all the bodies?" Suki countered, grimacing slightly. "As gross as that is, there would be hurt and dead people all over the place. But everything's completely empty."
"So what happened?" Hiro asked.
"I dunno." The group fell silent as they walked into the palace, through the entrance hall, and into the throne room.
It didn't take much time to realize the room was empty, just like the rest of the world.
"Your Excellency!" Paka called out, hoping to catch the Emperor's attention so he would reveal himself. After a few moments of searching around the room, they came to the conclusion that the Emperor was gone.
"No Heartless here either," Hiro pointed out. "So his heart wasn't stolen. Maybe something scared everyone away, even the Heartless?"
"We don't know," Suki replied. "But what could scare a Heartless?"
"Beats me," Paka said. "We should find the Keyhole and lock it, though. We might as well since we're here."
"Okay," Mei nodded. "When I was coming down the mountain, there was that other little camp that I told you about. I didn't really look around too hard, so maybe the Keyhole's there." They all agreed to use Mei's plan and left the city.
With Mei in the lead, they reached the snowy cliffs of the mountain quickly. When they reached the buildings, they split up and searched high and low for the Keyhole. They met up back in the middle, having found nothing. Without exchanging a word between themselves, they started to head further up the mountain. As they started up the path to the ridge, Hiro stopped suddenly.
"Look!" he exclaimed. "A cave!" Sure enough, on the side of the path was a rock wall, and there was a large opening that led into the cave.
"Maybe the Keyhole is in there," Suki suggested, so they all decided to look inside.
The cave was considerably warmer than the snow-covered mountaintops. No snow could fall in its interior, so the ground was dray, much to Mei and her sandaled feet's relief. Inside there were torches on the wall that lit the way. Maybe they hid in here? the red-head thought, leading the way. Soon the cave opened up into a chamber. There were a few rock shelves covered with expensive-looking knick-knacks, like the spoils gained from a war.
"What is this place?" Paka wondered aloud. They stepped into the middle of the cave, trying to spot something useful, like a secret passage where the citizens or Heartless could be hiding, or the Keyhole. A flash of light caught their attention, and all four of their heads snapped to it. Over a raised rock platform between two of the shelves and on the wall, a light was shining. It dimmed as the group stepped forward, revealing the black hole that lead to the heart of the Land of Dragons. The Keyhole was completely opened, waiting to be sealed.
Paka, Hiro, Mei, and Suki all summoned their Keyblades and aimed them at the Keyhole. Just like before in Twilight Town, beams of light fired from the weapons' tips, colliding together to form one, thick beam that shot straight into the Keyhole and locked it with a loud click.
"Whatever trouble these people were having, hopefully we've stopped it now," Suki said, dismissing her weapon along with the others. "We've done all we can do, I guess."
"Right," Mei agreed. "So let's go to the Gummi Ship."
The small group left the cave and the mountain, making their way back to the Bamboo Grove casually. They weren't sure which world to go to next, then decided to back-track to Wonderland to keep the promise they'd made to lock its Keyhole. When they were about halfway through the canyon, the sunlight disappeared. They didn't find anything unusual about this, since they thought the sun had just been covered by a cloud. However, it continued to get darker and darker as they progressed, and by the time they got to the camp, it was almost pitch black.
Paka stopped suddenly, causing the others to follow suit and turn to look at him.
"Something's not right," he whispered. He looked up at the sky to see that it was covered in black. "What's that?" He turned around and looked back at the path. He could see only a couple hundred yards back, for the rest was completely darkness. It was as if a tidal wave was rushing over the landscape, swallowing everything in its path.
"It's coming straight at us!" Suki cried.
"Run!" Mei shouted, grabbing Suki and Hiro's wrists and starting to pull them down the path. Paka was quick to follow and they raced towards the Gummi Ship as the darkness chased after them.
Wrenching the door open, Mei pulled Hiro and Suki inside the ship. Paka hopped in and took a seat in the cockpit, punching buttons frantically in effort to get the vessel off the ground. The wave of darkness was almost on top of them by the time the ignition came on.
"How can this be happening?" Suki asked incredulously. "We permanently sealed the Keyhole! Did we do something wrong?"
"What is that thing?" Hiro gasped, pointing out the window. The two girls quickly came to his side and peered out the window. The ship was starting to fly through the air, but they couldn't tell due to everything around them being black.
However, there was a pair of huge, glowing yellow orbs glaring up at them.
"A Heartless!?" Mei exclaimed. "How is it so big, so close? Paka, what's our altitude?"
"36,000 feet," he answered, swallowing hard. "And the radar says there are no flying vessels or Heartless ships around us."
The youths' faces paled as they exchanged looks. This was that giant Heartless that the Organization had created. This was the monster that had killed Riku and Kairi.
If it hadn't been so dark all around them, they would have been able to see what the Heartless looked like. They were thankful when they left the Land of Dragons completely, leaving the giant Heartless behind without getting a good glimpse of it. The tense Key-Bearers relaxed slightly as the Gummi Ship sailed through space.
"Land of Dragons is gone," Suki spoke softly and with a great amount of regret in her tone, "consumed in darkness. We could stop that… that thing!" Paka came over -- having put the ship on auto-pilot -- and put his hand on her shoulder.
"There was nothing we could do, Suki," he reassured her. "Even Sora and his friends couldn't stop it."
"Hey, where'd all the stars go?" Hiro inquired. Sure enough, the sky was almost empty; practically all the worlds were gone.
"I think that Heartless destroyed them all," Mei answered. "I think… that Heartless can consume any world's heart, whether the Keyhole is unlocked, locked, or permanently locked. All the worlds -- at least the ones that are left -- are in danger."
"What do we do to stop it?" the young brunette replied.
"Well, we can't stop it on our own," Paka started. "And Sora and his friends couldn't beat it on their own. But I bet if we all work together, we can beat it."
"You're right," Suki declared, pulling out the drawing of Sora, Kairi, and Riku. "We've got to go remind the Keyblade Master what his job is." Paka nodded and took the controls of the ship to fly it manually. The vessel changed course in a new direction. They were headed to one of the last stars in space, the one world that was never supposed to exist: The World That Never Was