11

Guts and Glory

A very daunting sight met our eyes when we arrived in the entrance hall.

There were Heartless everywhere; Heartless screeching and screaming as they ran, hopped, and flapped at anyone who dared defy them. Their numbers were seemingly infinite. I'd never seen so many different varieties of them, either. It was like a battlefield.

I could only stand there, gaping. The air was filled with screeches and cries; broken furnishings littered the floor.

"Come on!" Sora called, rallying the troops and bringing me out of my stupor. We joined the throng, and Sora plunged into the depths of the Heartless with his keyblade extended, a hard glint in his eye that I wasn't sure I'd ever seen before.

For about thirty seconds, I managed to keep close to his side, ducking and leaping whenever necessary. But quite suddenly, a large, hovering black and purple Heartless spun around and struck me across the face; lights popped in front of my eyes. I fell on my back and lay there for a long moment, too stunned to move. The creature swooped down on me, and I could see its evil yellow eyes widen as it lunged for my heart. I gasped and threw an arm over my face to shield myself; it was my only defense at that point.

But just before the beast struck, a warm, tingly sensation spread through my fingers. I clenched them together reflexively, and to my astonishment, there was warm solidity in my grip.

Again? Could it be?

I leapt to my feet and swung the keyblade around. The Heartless suffered a sharp blow across its ugly head; it fell away from me with a moan.

Wide-eyed, I examined the keyblade. It was gold in color and decorated with waves and multi-colored daisies: the exact same model that I'd used in the headquarters of Organization XIII. I could still remember the sense of familiarity that had coursed through me that first time I'd held it in my hands—a feeling that engulfed me once again, as though I was greeting an old friend from some past life of mine, a friend who knew me perhaps even better than I knew myself. A friend who was part of me.

"Kairi!" Sora slashed a few Heartless out of the way in a desperate attempt to reach me. "Kairi!"

"I'm alright, Sora," I called, raising my keyblade high. His eyes widened with surprise.

I brought down another Heartless with several quick, lethal swipes, and though the keyblade was heavy, my arms did not grow tired. I lost track of the many others who fell under my blows, but as I fought, my determination welled up inside me until I seemed to be gaining energy from the demise of each new foe. Clouds of black darkness encircled the places where they fell, never to rise again.

I looked around and saw people pressing the monsters of the darkness backwards, away from the light. They wore the most glorious expressions on their faces as they fought onward, never pausing to let fear enter their hearts. A deep, glowing pride burned in my chest as my eyes roved over each of them.

And then I saw a spiny, silver creature go sailing overhead—A Nobody! I heard Sora's shout from somewhere within the twisting mass of bodies. He would take care of it, I knew. Time passed as we fought on—and I wasn't sure if it was minutes or hours.

More Nobodies descended, and these were harder to fight than the Heartless had been. But the heroes of Radiant Garden battled on.

A group of white Dusks were pressing in on me, and as I fought, I was forced to back away from them. Suddenly, my back came in contact with something very warm—most unlike the clammy, cool surfaces of the monsters I was battling. I turned my head, and saw that it was Sora's back.

He half-turned too, and grinned at me as we fought onward, back to back. I laughed as I fought, enjoying to thrill of it all, and (mundane though it may have seemed) the sensation of his shoulder blades poking into my back whenever he swung his arms.

Even though we were both slashing, ducking, and stabbing into the throng of creatures that surrounded us, Sora and I soon found ourselves in a crowd so thick that we could feel their clammy, putrid breath on our skins. I looked up at him anxiously, but caught only the manic glint in his eye that proceeded a quick and merciless destruction.

And then quite suddenly, an anticipatory smile spread across his face. He elbowed me to get my attention; I whirled around quite promptly.

"Watch this!" he shouted over all the noise, then bellowed, "THUNDER!" pointing his keyblade skyward, and a with a loud BOOM, multiple shafts of bright white lightning shot to the floor and eradicated the Heartless around us.

I smiled broadly, flipped my long, dark hair over my shoulders, and faced an oncoming group of Heartless. There was no time to celebrate the little victories; no time to congratulate him. There were always new foes to face. Sora knew that.

I started a little when I felt his hands on my shoulders; he spun me around to face him so abruptly that it took my breath away.

I stared at him, bemused. His eyes were wide and bright with the thrill of the battle; he wore the excited, lopsided grin that I knew and loved so well. The chaos, the shouts, and the screams seemed to fade as he quickly lowered his face to mine. He let his keyblade fall to the floor with a clatter.

He kissed me roughly, hungrily, and his hands quickly found my face, my shoulders, and my neck. I held onto him as tightly as I could and responded just as eagerly, leaning into him and shaping his frantic lips in my own. My tongue brushed his, and his skin was hot against mine as we clung to each other amongst all the wild screams and battle cries around us.

I felt a rush of wind as a winged Heartless bore down on us. Sora released my lips and, without looking away from my face, thrust his keyblade into the air and cried, "Defense!"

A bubble of shining, sparkling light surrounded us with a sound like two keyblades clashing together. The winged Heartless clawed against it, but with another clang the bubble not only repelled it, but sent it spiraling backwards with a howl of pain.

With a crooked smile on his bright, flushed face, Sora caught my lips once more. We were really in our own world now, completely separate from the battle that raged on outside our half-sphere of light. I was pressed tightly against his body, my arms wrapped around his neck while my fingers frantically clutched at his face and neck. He held me to him by my shoulders and my waist. His fingers were pounding their way into my flesh, and yet I was still starving and aching to be closer, always closer, to him. I could feel his muscles quivering beneath my rough, desperate touch.

"Sora!" Leon's voice shouted in warning, and I realized with a jolt that the shield had faded and large, spiked Heartless was swinging an arm toward us. Sora immediately leapt and struck, and I barely escaped its surprise attack by falling flat on the ground. I felt a gust of wind lift my hair as its attack missed my head by inches.

I picked up my keyblade and leapt up to help Sora. He was striking the enormous creature in midair, slashing and stabbing at it again and again without falling. I ran at it and struck too, and the warmth of the keyblade in my hand filled me, once again, with the thrill of the battle.

Suddenly the Heartless was swinging at us again, and this time I knew I wasn't going to be able to get out of its way.

Then Sora's arms were around me, and he was running me as fast as he could out of danger's way. He leapt into the air, thrust his keyblade in the monster's direction, and shouted, "Fire!" A large ball of hot, bright light shot toward it and engulfed it in one swallow.

We came back to the ground. "Hold onto me!" he shouted, slinging me over his shoulder like a backpack, and I hastily wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

He ran through the crowd with me on his back, swinging and slashing his keyblade. Clouds of black and purplish darkness filled the air around us. I swung my own keyblade now and then, if any of the enemies came too close from behind.

Suddenly there was a colossal explosion of cold air, filled with fragments of ice. We were blown into the air and toward the staircase. Sora grabbed onto the railing with flailing arms, and I dangled from his shoulders.

He pulled himself onto the railing, then twisted his body around and grabbed me around the waist. I let go of his shoulders, and he pulled me over the railing and onto the stairs. I landed on my side, gasping for breath.

"Sheesh!" he said, laughing and kneeling down beside me. "That was close."

I would have laughed too, and maybe taken a moment to recover, but the sight of his bright, laughing face so close to mine instigated a chemical reaction within my body. Quite suddenly, I flung my arms around him and pulled his lips to mine. He released the railing, surprised, no doubt, but apparently pleased, and cradled my face in his hands. Our lips continued their wild dance as his body compacted mine against the railing. I pulled my hands through his hair and traced his burning skin.

"Sora!" someone was yelling. "Sora, come over here!"

But his lips were too busy to answer. I held his head to mine, as unwilling to release him as he was to release me. I was suddenly aware of every crease and hard fold in his clothing as it pressed into my body, and his every movement between us sent waves of ecstasy over me. I shivered with delight as he pulled me closer. This was all I needed. All I needed for the rest of my life.

"SORA!"

His arms were pulling at the flesh of my back, arms, and waist in his desperate attempt to encompass me as entirely as I wanted to encompass him. We were hardly kissing anymore. Rather, my jaw was wrenched open by his, and my tongue slid quickly across his slick, smooth teeth as his trembling fingers danced across my cheek.

Suddenly there was a loud, deep thud and an earsplitting crack. The marble stairs beneath us trembled, but I hardly noticed it. It would take a lot more than that to reach me where I was. Sora's hands were pulling at my smooth, bare legs, and I was shaking so hard that my teeth were almost rattling against his.

The marble beneath us shuddered and began to lean. Some part of me knew that I should move; that there was danger, but my brainstem seemed to have been severed. And my body was in complete control.

"Move it!" somebody was shouting.

With a gasp, I tried to pull myself away from him. But his long, strong arms wouldn't let me budge an inch. And frankly, I didn't have the willpower to contest that.

"Damn it, Sora!" the same voice growled, and Sora's body was yanked away from mine. My eyes sprung open as something caught me by the arm and began to drag me backwards. I noticed, then, that the staircase was crumbling, and the piece that we were sitting on was about to fall to the floor below.

The something that held me dragged me over a thick crevice to safety. I turned and saw Sora stumbling to his feet. He looked just as startled as I was.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Cid's voice demanded, and I turned to see the hard-faced blonde man standing behind me. He looked furious. "Can't you see that the whole staircase is gonna fall over?"

Sora and I exchanged shocked glances. Our eyes then raked over the dangerously teetering chunk of marble.

Sora blushed and looked at the stairs beneath his feet, a sheepish grin on his face. "Uh... wow," he said quietly.

"I'll say," Cid barked. "You couldn't have found a worse place to mack it."

Both of us were blushing, now. Sora smiled nervously and placed a hand behind his head.

Cid yanked me to my feet. "Come on, we've got to get off these stairs!" His hold on my arm was painfully tight, though it was nowhere near as tight as Sora's had been.

Sora reached over and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of Cid's grasp; the latter glanced at him, but didn't seem to object.

The three of us ran down the stairs and back into the fray. With a bellow similar to a moose's, Cid lunged at a Nobody. Sora and I were alone again in the chaos.

"Um... sorry," he said, flashing another sheepish grin in my direction.

"Don't be," I said, fighting another unruly urge to reach out and touch him. "It was kind of my fault, actually."

Still watching me, he reached outward with one hand, and the keyblade materialized in his grasp. I did the same, and was startled to see that it worked for me, too.

We were quickly separated, which made me anxious. I was twirling my keyblade and ducking beneath the roaring, hopping, leaping monsters, which seemed to be pouring in from every direction now no matter how many we destroyed.

As I fought, I bumped into a lot of other people, but something caught my attention when I brushed Yuffie's shoulder. She was bleeding out a long gash in her arm, and her teeth were gritted together and her nostrils flaring.

"Yuffie!" I cried, swiping at a Dusk.

"Hey, Kairi!" she called back, imitating the movement. "Some fight, huh?"

"Are you okay?"

She grimaced and sent a Heartless to its doom with her long, sharp shuriken. "Never better."

"Where's Aerith?"

"I don't know. She healed me just a couple minutes ago, though," Yuffie gasped as she took a heavy blow from the Dusk I'd been trying to subdue. I leapt after it and gave it a sharp jab. It disappeared with a sigh and a flash of white light.

"Where are all these things coming from?" I wondered.

"There was a security breach," Yuffie said through her teeth, and I could tell she was hurting somewhere. "And now there's a steady flood, just like the Hallow Bastion days. I don't know how we're going to stop them, but we have to try!"

I spun across the ground and knocked a Shadow Heartless off its feet. "Could we fix the security system?"

"I don't know!" Yuffie wailed. A huge, fat Heartless with wide yellow eyes was galloping toward us.

With a clang of metal, Leon leapt in front of us and blocked the oncoming charge. "Are you alright?" he bellowed above the sound.

I nodded. "Leon, can't we fix the security system?"

"Merlin's working on it," he said quickly, eyeing a group of oncoming Soldiers. "But I don't know if he'll be able to do it."

"How can we help?" I asked, jabbing my keyblade into a Dusk's bony chest.

"By keeping the city safe!" Leon answered. "We can't let any of them get past us. And I think that should be fairly simple, because it looks like they're only coming here—thousands of them!"

"It's because of Sora," I realized. "They're always following him."

"You're probably right," Leon said, slaying three shadows with one blow. I couldn't tell if he resented that fact or not, because at that moment he was suddenly very busy. Heartless swooped down on us, they crawled along the floor beneath our feet, and they charged in from all directions. A deep gash in my forehead was pouring hot, stinging blood into my eye. I did my best to wipe it out and persevere.

I was feeling weak with pain and exhaustion when a high, calm voice said, "Heal!" Suddenly a strange tickly sensation swept through me, followed by a surge of relief as all the pain from my many injuries was gone. I reached up to feel the gash on my forehead and was startled to find that it had vanished.

"Thanks, Aerith!" I said as she ran to us through the wild crowd. She gave me a very solemn nod, which I found somewhat unusual. Then she ran off again.

"Where's she going?" I wondered aloud.

"To heal the others," Yuffie answered.

I looked around. With a sickening stab of guilt, I realized that there were fallen warriors everywhere, lying on the cold stone floor as though struck dead. I watched as Aerith healed one, and the grateful teenage boy clambered to his feet and continued the fight. She was healing them all, one by one, as fast as she could.

"Will they be alright?" I moaned, forgetting the glories of battle for a moment.

"They'll be fine," Yuffie answered over all the noise. She hesitated for a moment, then said, "Most of them."

I struck a Heartless down, then cried, "What do you mean?"

"The ones who have lost their hearts can't be healed," she explained, rejoining the fight.

That hit home. "Oh no!" I wailed, and tears stung my eyes. "This is all my fault! What have I done?"

"It's not your fault, Kairi," Leon said, appearing once again from the mass of bodies around us. "The breach would have happened anyway. And they would have fought to defend their home, either way. They wouldn't blame you. No one does."

"I've put all of you in danger!" I wailed. "You should have never come here!"

"Don't be stupid," Yuffie snapped mid-attack.

But tears ran down my face as I fought onward. My heartache turned to anger as I turned to the creatures that had taken so much from my good people. And my anger drove me onward, fiercer and stronger than before.

I had never thought of myself as much of a warrior. I was delicate, fair skinned, and petit—and always had been. So the thrill of battle and the strength that I felt coursing through my limbs still felt fresh, though the fight had been raging now for a long time now and many Heartless had already fallen under my blows. Each one that faded in a cloud of darkness was a victory that I had never imagined myself able to win.

As I was fending off a large round Heartless with yellow eyes and three long, distorted limbs, I noticed something in my peripheral vision that made me do a double-take. It was a lone figure, shrouded in black, slinking through the crowd and seemingly indifferent to the surrounding chaos.

As I stood there, staring, the Heartless caught me in the back of the head with one limb. I saw stars for a couple seconds and felt cold stone beneath my palms. When everything stopped spinning, I realized that I was kneeling on the floor and the enormous black monster was leering down at me. I gasped as it lunged.

Suddenly, there was a clang and a flash of steel, and the creature was sent sprawling.

"Riku!" I cried as the tall, wispy-haired figure turned around to face me. His eyes were bright and intense.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded heatedly.

I gave him a confused look. "Um... I live here, remember?"

"No, I mean what are you doing here?" he said sharply, gesturing to the mayhem all around us.

Oh. So that was the card he wanted to play. "Defending my people," I said, raising my chin defiantly. He'd have to be insane to think that I was going to leave the fray now.

He rolled his eyes and groaned. "What is wrong with him? He must be an even bigger idiot than I thought."

"No," I said sharply. "This is my fight too. I'm not a little kid."

"Oh yeah?" Riku growled, whirling around and slashing a couple of Dusks out of the way. "You nearly got creamed a couple seconds ago."

"So what?" I said, a little offended. I jumped to my feet and swung at a Heartless. "So what if I get hurt? Others have already fallen. It's still my fight."

Riku gritted his teeth and battled on, taking his irritation toward Sora and I out on his enemies. "I asked him to take care of you," he snapped.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with a certain sense of déjà vu, but didn't know where it came from.

"Yeah… I know you did…" I said slowly.

He looked surprised. "How would you know that? You weren't there."

"I have no idea," I answered honestly, biting my lip.

Riku raised an eyebrow at me, obviously as confused as I was. "Well, he isn't doing it," he finished after a moment, turning away. "He isn't taking care of you."

I chose not to answer that, because we happened to have conflicting opinions on the subject. Instead I asked, "What are you doing here, Riku?"

He leapt in front of me to shield me from an oncoming attack. With a clang, he blocked a pulsating ball of light with his keyblade, and it shot back toward the Heartless it had come from. The monster shrieked and disappeared in a cloud of darkness.

"I came back because..." he glanced at me, then looked away. "Because I thought you might be in trouble."

"Why?" I wondered, trying to catch his eye.

"I heard that someone was planning something dark in Radiant Garden," he said, finally looking at me. "Something big."

"Who was it?" I asked, eagerly.

"I don't know," he murmured. "But I couldn't just... ignore it. I had to make sure you were... safe."

I paused to watch him. His expression was generally difficult to read, but now the pain was close to the surface. It was odd to see on such a beautiful, usually glass-smooth face.

We fought onward for a while, but I didn't stray far from him. I thought about what a great sacrifice it must have been for him to come here. How it must have hurt his pride. Just to protect Sora and I. Because we still meant so much to him, even though we'd hurt him.

I walked calmly through the fray over to the place where Riku stood, tensed and ready for his next challenger. Tenderly, I placed a hand on his back. He flinched and whirled around to face me, his eyes wild until they met mine.

"Don't do that," he said, his eyebrows pulling together. "I could have killed you."

"Sorry," I said hastily, "I just wanted to thank you."

"For what?"

I shrugged and smiled softly. "For coming back. For caring."

He looked at me for a long time. "I'll always care," he said softly. Then, "I wanted to be mad at you, you know. But I couldn't do it."

"You should have been," I agreed with a laugh. "I deserved it."

"Yeah. You did."

Both of us chuckled and fought on, side by side. Suddenly, I caught another glimpse of the black-clad figure, ducking and racing through the crowd. It was heading for the staircase, now.

"Riku, look at that!" I said sharply, pointing.

His quick eyes caught sight of the figure immediately. "Who is it?" he wondered.

"I don't know. Organization XIII?"

"No. They're toast, remember? Plus it's not even the same robe," he said, eyes narrowing. "And I would know. I'm going to follow him."

His keyblade disappeared in a flash of light. With a single lithe bound, he was off.

"Me too," I said, following his quick steps in the direction of the mysterious figure.

Quite suddenly, Riku turned around and put his hands on my shoulders. "No," he said sharply.

I grabbed his hands and pulled them off of me. "Yes," I said firmly.

"Kairi," he growled, "I don't have time for this! Just stay next to Leon and the others where you'll be safe. I've got to catch this guy before he gets away."

"No!" I said, tossing my head angrily. "You don't have to do everything alone, Riku!"

He glared at me. "Yes I do. Now stay here."

He turned around and dashed after the black figure. I stood there for a moment, debating. I knew that he only wanted me to be safe, but this really was my fight. I wanted to do what I could. Why didn't Riku have any faith in me?

As soon as he was far enough away that he wouldn't see me, I trotted off after him.

The staircase was collapsing, and huge chunks of stone were scattered all over the floor below. People and Heartless alike were slipping and sliding on the crumbly, clattering pieces. I slipped and slid a little before I reached the bottom steps, which were badly scarred and cracked.

I could see Riku nearing the top, leaping over areas where steps were missing or heavy cracks were forming. He was in such a hurry that I doubted he would notice me. I ran up the stairs as fast as I dared, being careful not to fall through where the marble had been blasted away. I had to hurry, or else I would lose sight of him.

"Kairi!" Someone screamed from below. Yuffie.

I whirled around. A giant, winged Heartless was sailing toward me, its jaws open wide enough to swallow me whole. I raised my keyblade to defend myself, but as I struck, the monster caught me around the middle and pulled me into the air. I gasped as the sharp ends of its talons poked my skin. The staircase disappeared beneath me in a whirl of color as we soared through the air.

I swiped at it with my keyblade, but could only reach the spindly claw that held me. The monster screeched and cawed as I whacked at its leg, but its grip never loosened.

Suddenly I heard a loud cry from below, "Gather!"

And then there was swirling light all around us, and we were pulled toward the ground and then spun around in circles, as though we were inside a slow-moving tornado. Everything was a whirl of color and sound. The Heartless, obviously startled, released me and flapped frantically at the unseen force.

A pair of wide, strong hands caught me around the middle and yanked me down. Suddenly the spinning was gone, and I was looking up at Sora's face. His eyes were wide with anxiety.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded, rather numbly. "Um... yeah... what just happened?"

"Sorry about that," he said quickly. "I had to use a spell to get you down, or else that Heartless would have carried you off."

I kept nodding. "It's okay, I'm fine."

It was then that I realized that he was holding me, that one of his arms was under my knees and the other supporting my back. I reached up and stroked his cheek wonderingly, and his eyes closed halfway like a contented kitten's. He leaned forward and kissed me tenderly. I shivered with delight as his calloused, battle-worn fingers began an only moderately hesitant journey across my bare thighs, to the hems of my shorts.

Suddenly there was an explosion of soft, sparkling light, and Merlin appeared about three feet away from us.

"Good gracious!" he said, noticing Sora's hold on me. "Put the princess down this instant, young man! We have some work to do!"

Sora blushed and set me on my feet.

Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith came running over. "Merlin!" Leon said. "Did you have any luck?"

"Yes, yes, I've managed to seal things off quite nicely," Merlin said excitedly, tapping his wand against his hand. A shower of red and green sparks fell from it.

"Really?" Yuffie cried.

"Yes. Now all we have to do is clean these up, before they do any more damage," Merlin said, gesturing to the surrounding mayhem.

Leon was smiling widely. "That, we can do!" he said eagerly.

"Wait," Sora said sharply, "There has to be more to it than that. We have to stop whoever let these Heartless in."

"I saw—" I began, but Leon cut me short.

"Nobody let them in. There was a breach."

"Are you sure?" Sora asked shrewdly.

Merlin gaped at him as though he'd never considered such a thing. "Fairly sure, my boy. I don't believe anyone did it intentionally."

I tried to muscle my way in. "But I saw—"

"Come on, let's finish this!" Leon said, whirling around and raising his sword. The others spun and ran too, before I could say another word.

"C'mon, Kairi," Sora said, grabbing my hand. "We can take these guys, don't you think?"

"Yeah, but Sora, Riku's here and—"

"Riku?" he gaped at me. "I thought Riku left."

"He did, but he came back because he said he heard someone was planning something dark in Radiant Garden!" It all tumbled out in a rush.

There was a giant crash and bits of marble tile went flying. Sora shielded me from the worst of the shards.

"Let's take care of this first," he said, and his eyes narrowed as he whirled around to meet another Heartless.

We fought on, though the people were exhausted and there was wreckage and ruin everywhere. Though my muscles ached, Heartless after Heartless continued to fall beneath my blows. Sora and I fought side by side, and I made sure it stayed that way. I didn't want to be separated from him again.

Before long, I noticed that the sea of monsters was beginning to recede. Each cloud of darkness drove them further and further back. More and more human heads were visible in the crowd.

It was getting difficult to see after a while. I wondered if something was wrong with my vision, until I looked at one of the large glass windows in the entryway and saw that the sun had set and night was approaching. Had the battle really lasted an entire day?

Finally, the last of the Heartless were cornered. They glared at us, unafraid and uncaring of their fate, and we glared back at them even more fiercely. We slaughtered them, quickly and unceremoniously.

A high, wild cheer rent the air, and then everyone was cheering and leaping up and down. Weapons were thrown to the ground. Victory was ours!

I cheered too, and Yuffie ran and shook my shoulders joyfully. We grasped each other's hands and danced around in a circle, laughing and shouting. Aerith leapt up and down and clapped her hands together. Cid grabbed Merlin's hand and shook it roughly, saying all the while, "Yeh did it, yeh crazy old lunatic!"

"We all did it!" Aerith cheered.

Leon stood there with his arms folded and trying not to look too excited. Yuffie released me, ran over to him, and gave him an enormous bear-hug. He looked so startled that everyone laughed.

Suddenly Sora's arms were around me. I looked up at his face, and his wide blue eyes were so warm, so beautiful that I could have just stood there and stared into them forever. He seemed to be glowing.

And in that moment I didn't care that we weren't alone. I didn't care that Leon, Yuffie, Cid, Aerith, and Merlin were watching us. All that mattered was that he was here with me, that his arms were wrapped tenderly around me, that his eyes held mine like an anchor. My hands found his face, and he kissed me tenderly, yet joyfully.

"Hurray!" Yuffie cheered loudly, and we broke apart, smiling. "Hurray for Sora and Kairi!"