Chapter 10
Kairi stumbled towards the window, eyes fixated on Kingdom Hearts and the heart flying up to it, soon too small to see. She placed a hand on the window, and something in her touch made it respond and move aside so that she could step out onto the balcony to be closer, but he was gone.
Ice shattered behind her. Sluggishly, Kairi turned to see Riku helping Naminé from the ice block she had made, before he turned to her, keyblade aimed at her as a dark orb gathered on the tip, taking in all light around it and darkening the area. A cloud had moved over her mind, and by the time she realized the danger, she only had enough time to summon her armor before he released the attack.
It struck her, and though the darkness could not reach her through the armor, she was thrown over the balcony, past the chasm and into the dark city. The armor absorbed the force of grazing a building and skidding across the street into a wall, so that she only felt its new dents breaking into her skin, but even that hardly registered as she stared through disturbed dirt and a cracked helmet at the Kingdom Hearts above. She tried to sit up to better see, ultimately having to dismiss the broken armor, allowing her to see the moon more clearly and feel the darkness that spread from it.
When Riku and Naminé stepped out of a Corridor of Darkness down the street, the power grew more intense, aggressive almost. The two showed no sign of surprise when she pushed her aching body to its feet. It seemed she was the only one surprised, because she could not fathom what she was rising for. They had Kingdom Hearts, and she was the only one left. Perhaps it was because of her own fatal stubbornness that she stood, or, perhaps, because of the quiet voice that whispered, "Don't let him go."
Riku teleported in front of her, fist aimed for her temple. Despite his speed, avoiding him was not too difficult, since her trembling legs were hardly supporting her to begin with. The challenge was in staying upright after she ducked away, and then avoiding the next punches. He withdrew when she summoned Stormfall, but his own dark sword appeared in his hand. In her slowed state, he easily pried the keyblade from her grasp and tossed it aside. Before she could call it back, he dismissed his blade and placed his hand over her heart, darkness curling on his fingers.
Though there was no force behind the attack, the darkness pressing against her heart sent Kairi lurching backwards with a cry. The haze vanished from over her mind, but her body still refused to listen to her, spasms wracking through it as it forced the darkness out again. She was on her side, unable to even make herself sit up. In the seconds that passed, she waited to be faced with unconsciousness, to wake up facing whatever the Organization could possibly have left for her, but it never came, and instead she heard scuffling in front of her.
Warmth and green light surrounded her, chasing away the spasms and her injuries. A hand took hers, pulled her to her feet, and Kairi found herself looking into the blue eyes of a Keyblade Master. "Are you okay?"
She was still alive, so she nodded. Aqua turned back to Naminé and Riku, who Kairi saw were trying to break out of a barrier that had been placed around them, more powerful than any Kairi had ever made if they could not simply teleport out of it. Aqua lifted her red, white, and black keyblade, but Kairi touched her elbow to get her attention. Even if she had been planning on fighting them before, that was when her life was the only one left on the line. "I don't think we can fight them. They're not their normal selves, they're possessed by darkness or something, and there's more of them."
Aqua glanced to the pair. Naminé was muttering under her breath, casting to break the barrier. She looked back to Kairi. "Do you know a way off this world?"
"A Corridor of Darkness, but I'm not sure where the portal opening is, otherwise I just have the glider, but that can only take one of us," she rambled, nervous in front of the keyblade master. Perhaps because she knew this was her guardian angel that she had been admiring from afar for so long. Or maybe because Riku and Naminé had broken the barrier.
"I can get us both out on the glider. This way!" Aqua began to run back in the direction she came, but stopped when Riku teleported in front of her, and the two locked blades. Kairi looked back to Naminé and lifted another barrier to block an ice attack, though it nearly fell with her cringe at what a similar attack had struck a few minutes before.
By now accustomed to Naminé's charging while she had a barrier up, Kairi jumped over the barrier to land on the other side of it and Naminé, then cast blizzara at her. Naminé was caught in another block of ice. Kairi moved around the ice block to see Aqua and Riku clashing keyblades. She aimed her own keyblade at Riku and called "Gravity!"
Riku stumbled as he was pulled towards the ground. All his movements became jerky and slow. Aqua dashed to Kairi, took her wrist, then threw them both into the air and onto the nearest roof with an Aero spell. A barrier was placed in the air over the street so that Riku and Naminé could not easily follow them, then she looked to Kairi. "Can you fly it? If not, you'll need to give me-" Aqua cut herself off and pushed Kairi to the side. With her keyblade she blocked a glowing arrow that had almost struck the back of Kairi's head. Her gaze hardened in the direction it came from and she lifted her keyblade to guard. "Why are you here?"
The one she spoke to was crouched on a near ventilation pipe that stretched over the roof, an arrowgun in each hand as he smirked at them with a gleaming yellow eye. "Did you have fun in the Realm of Darkness? Can't say it's a vacation I'm jealous of." Xigbar then looked to Kairi. "Kudos for not dying yet, Princess. Thank you, though, as we do need you mostly alive."
"What do you want?" Aqua snapped.
"You have Kingdom Hearts and you don't have hearts yet," Kairi noted as she glanced up to the moon, but her chest constricted and she quickly looked away.
"Good on pointing out the obvious. I thought you'd have figured it out by now. At least, you always portrayed yourself as being brighter than this." He disappointedly shook his head before shrugging and shooting at them. Aqua reflected the attacks back at him, though before any could connect, he teleported away.
Before Kairi could see where he would reappear, she saw wisps of darkness out of the corner of her eye and turned to see Saïx coming at her with his claymore. She jumped back from him and onto the ledge of the building, glancing behind her to see the barrier was still there, and Riku still releasing Naminé on the street below. She glanced back to Saïx again as he swung his claymore once more. She leapt backwards onto the barrier, searching it with her own magic energy to sense where it would end and strengthen it so it did not break under her.
Saïx brought his claymore down on the barrier, shaking it, cracking it. Kairi glanced down below her again to see Riku and Naminé waiting for her to fall. She looked up as Saïx brought his claymore down again. Before the barrier could shatter, she leaped over Saïx's head, landing smoothly on her feet, but Saïx twirled his claymore around him horizontally so that it crashed into her back. She stumbled to where Xigbar teleported to next. Xigbar grabbed her keyblade arm, but Kairi took her keyblade with her left hand and pushed it into Xigbar's shoulder. He stumbled away from her, spewing profanities as a hand went up to his shoulder to press against the bleeding wound.
Kairi stepped away, still standing only by the grace of adrenaline, and switched her keyblade back to its proper hand, eyes darting around to make sure Saïx did not hit her by surprise. He had switched his attention to Aqua, however, who had lured him out onto another barrier she had made in the air. As soon as he was standing on it, she threw herself back onto the building and took the barrier away.
Xigbar lifted his good arm to shoot at Aqua as she landed, but Kairi swung Stormfall upwards and knocked it so that his shot went far above Aqua's head. She took another swing for Xigbar, aiming to break his last arm he could shoot with, but he teleported away.
On the opposing rooftop he appeared, shooting at them again. The girls dove behind the ledge together, the shots going over their heads "What do we need to do?"
Aqua dwelt on this a moment before holding her hands out to Kairi. "I can use a spell to protect you, but I need the armor."
Kairi hastily passed it over. "It's kind of broken though."
"It fixes itself," she said as she slid the pieces onto her arms. A hand found Kairi's shoulder as she focused on her. "Is there anyone else we need to get? The boy who was with you?"
"There's. . ." Kairi's voice cracked, and her eyes drifted from Aqua's face to the moon, chest constricting again. "He's. . ."
Xigbar teleported to the neighboring rooftop and began to shoot from there. As he did, Saïx appeared on the roof again and swung upwards at the girls crouched next to each other, aiming to knock them off the building. Aqua blocked Xigbar, Kairi put up a barrier in front of Saïx, but his claymore broke through it, slowing only enough that they knocked into the ledge and collapsed to the side instead of tumbling over it to the street below.
Saïx lifted his claymore for a last swing. He hesitated, however, when a Corridor of Darkness opened behind him. He looked to it and instead brought his claymore down on the one who ran out of it. The claymore caught on two keyblades, then Roxas spun, prying the claymore from Saïx's hand and throwing it across the roof. Saïx stepped back from the follow up swing, but was too close to the roof's edge and a swift kick from Roxas sent him over.
Roxas dropped to one knee so that Xigbar's shots would go over him and extended his hand to Kairi. "Come on!"
"Ven?" Aqua asked in surprise. Roxas apparently did not realize she was talking to him, for he did not respond and only snatched Kairi's hand and pulled her through the portal. Kairi herself was struck still of voluntary movements. The portal closed as soon as Aqua stepped through after them. Roxas opened another portal and pulled Kairi out through it, Aqua still following, into the concourse under the Twilight Town train station.
The corridor closed, and the three evaluated each other in silence, save for Kairi and Aqua trying to catch their breath from the battles.
"You're not Ventus," Aqua finally said, though there was a hint of doubt at her own words.
Roxas gave her an unreadable look, then shook his head. "I'm Roxas." He looked to Kairi. "You okay?"
She opened her mouth to respond, but no words would come out. She was not sure which words she wanted to say, or which ones would be true. The battle was over but her heart continued to race. She struggled to take her mind off of the two people staring at her, to not think about their expectations of her response, to process what had just happened. How did she get from her old bedroom with Sora to Twilight Town with Roxas and Aqua?
When she failed to respond, Roxas put a hand on her shoulder, nearly making her jump. "Are you okay?"
Their stares were unnerving her. They needed to stop. They needed to go somewhere. "Yen Sid's." That was a good place, right? That was where they could regroup to… she was not entirely sure what they could do, and judging by the hurt look in Roxas's face he did not like the idea, but for what reason she could not figure out.
A Corridor of Darkness opened, and Kairi prepared to summon her keyblade until Roxas started walking into it, gently pulling her along. Aqua stopped them. "It's not safe to keep using those."
"Then you can take the long way," was his short reply before walking through it, Kairi following if only because their hands were still holding each other's. Despite her disapproval for the corridors, Aqua followed them, a distinct frown on her face that only increased Kairi's discomfort.
Before she could decide what she thought of this, they were on the other side of the corridor in Yen Sid's study, avoiding a thundaga spell and a flying shield sent their way. Just as quick as the attacks had come, calls of "Kairi!" came. Stormfall finally appeared in her hand before Donald and Goofy could get too close, and she faintly registered looks of surprise and hurt, but could not bring herself to care.
Yen Sid did not notice, for instead he rose from his desk with rare emotion on his face and the surprised declaration of, "Ventus!"
"Roxas," was the annoyed mutter in return. The final in their party stepped out of the portal, and Yen Sid announced her in the same way. Aqua started speaking with him, but now sure no one was going to touch her, Kairi dismissed Stormfall and tuned out the world around her. There was too much too fast, but even deliberately neglecting to take new information in, she found she struggled to think about what had happened (and really, she did not want to).
When she felt the nudge on her arm that made her jump, she had gotten nowhere in her thinking, and the interruption had only brought back whatever panic she had managed to subdue. It was Roxas that had touched her, and though she feared to find him angry, he was only watching her with concern. Annoyance was there too, but she could feel it was not directed at her, only at where they were and the people there with them. He hated it there and yet for whatever reason had still brought her there on her request. Why?
He did not know that she had abandoned him.
She quickly looked away from him before the weight on her heart could become unbearable, only to find the alarming sight of four other pairs of eyes watching her expectantly. She froze, something stuck in her throat, forbidding her to do or say whatever it was they were expecting of her.
"Kairi," Aqua's gentle but wary voice reached her. "Can you tell me what happened?"
"Where's Sora?" Donald added, and Kairi decided to ignore him. Silently, she was grateful Aqua had specifically asked to tell her, since she was henceforth ignoring Donald and Goofy, her shame would not let her look at Roxas, and Yen Sid was still far too imposing and untrustworthy, his tall stature now that he was standing only solidifying this in her mind.
She kept her eyes trained on Aqua, praying her voice was clear and not shaking. "We got separated from them," she said, gesturing to Donald and Goofy with a lean of her head, "Then found you. They put is in the dungeon. A girl named Naminé got us out, but Saïx separated us. They tricked him into unlocking Riku's heart. Then, we looked through a magic mirror. Kingdom Hearts was finished, the Organization was there, and Naminé and Riku. Everyone had yellow eyes. Sor—We tried to leave, but Riku and Naminé stopped us."
She knew what happened next, she did, but maybe if she did not say it out loud it would not have to be real. Even with everyone's gazes willing her to say something, she kept quiet, poring over the moment, looking for some hint or hidden truth to tell her she had seen wrong. Naminé had sent an ice attack at her, she had dodged, captured Naminé in ice, turned around. . .
Not giving any a chance to question, she breathed out a faint excuse and hastily walked to the door. The moment it shut behind her she was running down the stairs, and did not stop until she was at the bottom and sure no one had followed her.
As soon as she stopped running, she regretted it, for the panicked energy had nowhere to go and released itself through uncontrollable sobs. She slumped against the wall, failing to breathe, failing to focus on anything but the image of Sora impaled with the ice that had been meant to hit her.
A/N I have moved into the dorm! Huzzah! The wifi. . . actually works. . . I'm not sure what to do with this. Aside from upload chapters.
Thanks for reading, and special thanks to those that reviewed! I love seeing your reactions. They make my day.