I feel like I should be doing something else here.

Larxene: Does Biology assignment ring any bells?

No shhshshshsh never mind I'm not forgetting anything it's okay.

Kairi: Jessica doesn't own Kingdom Hearts.

Kairi: She's also probably going to fail Biology.

Chapter Twenty-One: Kairi

'Sometimes things can be scary, but it's important to stand up and face those fears'

Kairi still felt rather confused about everything that had happened and everything she had been told, but that didn't change the fact that when she saw her friends get attacked by the Organisation, she instantly moved to help them. She ran towards Sora as she saw Xigbar confront him but was stopped by a light flashing briefly in her eyes before the ground in front of her was set on fire.

She recoiled from the now flaming spot and felt a presence behind her, turning sharply to see who was there. Number XII was standing there, a sneer on her face and electricity crackling between her fingertips, "we don't want to interrupt their fight now do we?" she asked, a gleam in her eyes, "you know, Xigbar's been wanting a chance to get at him ever since that whole incident with the half-blinding," her smile widened, "now there's a good memory, though Xigbar whined like a baby for months after."

Kairi backed away slowly, eyes trained on the other girl as she spoke, she could feel her boredom and her aggression, her scorn was evident, her feelings tinged with interest at the prospect of a fight. Kairi winced, the feelings of everyone on that battlefield rolled into her making it hard to concentrate. She could feel the fear and desperation in many of her friends, along with a grim determination to win; there was satisfaction from many of the members, in some – such as the one-eyed gunman nearby – there was a sort of morbid excitement, anticipation, as though they had been waiting, as Larxene has said, for this chance to fight for quite a while.

"Oh come on, let's not try to run away, that's so boring," Kairi stopped backing away, "I'm not," she answered confidently, "why would I do that?" Larxene gave a sickly sweet smile, "my mistake, of course you wouldn't try to do something as silly as running away, even with a power as contemptible and useless as feeling emotions," Kairi frowned, normally, she was able to push the emotions that flooded into her towards the back of her mind, but when there were people around experiencing particularly strong emotions it was like a pointed stick driven straight into her mind and right now, almost everyone was going through quite a few rather strong emotions. So Larxene was probably right in her words though Kairi was reluctant to admit it, if anything, this particular power of hers was putting her at even more of a disadvantage; too many negative emotions coming at her at once could be rather disabling.

At the same time, she might be able to manipulate Larxene's emotions, if she could do that she could have a chance, maybe if she made her feel incredibly frightened of the girl, or made her feel hopeless? Emotions on their own are enough to completely bring a person to their knees, in many cases they present a greater challenge to people than any actual physical fight.

If she could just- electricity suddenly fizzed through her entire body causing her to shriek sharply, pain contorting her expression. She fell to her knees as the jolting pain stopped, releasing her; she was trembling, her limbs twitching sporadically. Larxene walked forward and crouched in front of her, she had a falsely friendly smile on her face as she spoke, "sorry did that hurt?" Kairi didn't say anything and Larxene's expression shifted slightly, "do you know what happens when I touch someone?" she asked, an eyebrow rose, "do you want to know what would happen if I were to take off my gloves and hold someone's hand?"

Kairi didn't answer and Larxene reached up, slipping one of her black gloves off her hands; one slender finger poked Kairi's arm and it was as though she had been struck by lightning. The red head fell back convulsing as electricity ran through her body, she twitched, body contorting as she gasped and nearly passed out from the pain. After what seemed like an hour but was likely no less than a minute, the feeling faded away and Kairi was left staring up at the blue sky, vision blurred and body numb. Kairi's entire body seemed to fizzle, she couldn't remember how to move again now, everything was spinning around and she never thought she had experienced such intense pain before. She couldn't speak, darkness appeared at the edge of her visions and she felt as though she were floating.

But she kept her focus on Larxene.

Because even in this state, she could sense the oddest emotion coming from the girl, one she had never expected to relate to her in any way, one that completely contradicted the emotions she had been feeling only moments ago. Sadness.

"I've never been able to control it," the blonde spoke in a soft manner that was quite unlike her, "I couldn't hug my friends, I couldn't have a boyfriend, I couldn't give my mother a kiss on the cheek, I'd probably kill them if I were to try. The Superior said that he'd find a way to help me control it, I do have better control over this, I can send it out at people, attack them, kill them, but I still can't seem to get rid of this thing that's fizzing around inside of me," Kairi doubted the girl was even addressing her any longer, she was speaking in a sort of reminiscing tone, "I don't want to stay like this, I don't care what I have to do to others," the darkness began to spread and Kairi heard her say one last thing that made her realise the blonde had turned to her again, "so you really shouldn't have bothered trying to go against me, because I had no intention of going easy on you."

When she was little, Kairi had a tendency to unintentionally turn people away from her. It wasn't that she wanted to, but she had always seemed to be able to tell what someone was feeling, someone might be upset about an argument and she'd turn to them and ask why they were sad. Naturally, a four year old being able to tell how you feel when no one else could, can be quite disconcerting. So for a long time, Kairi had difficulties with making friends.

But after some years, as all with magic eventually do, she learnt to hide it from others and finally, she began to fit in with others. Until one day it all came crashing down around her ears.

She doesn't remember how the fight started; it was one of those silly ones that started out from something small than escalated to monstrous proportions. It got to be so bad that she stopped talking to her best friend completely, given that she was the one she was fighting with. They happened to run into each other outside of school and, as expected, they began to argue, passing bitter words back and forth as each tried to hurt the other the most. Kairi turned to leave, sick of the girl's constant snark, but her ex-best friend grabbed onto her, angrily shouting at her more about how she has no right to just walk away. And Kairi felt angry.

In most case, when people argue, they insult each other because they want to hurt the other person, to Kairi, the desire to upset her friend was still set in her mind, the girl had given her a lot of grief over the past few weeks and Kairi had not been inclined to let go the grudge she felt towards her. So when the other girl grabbed onto her arm, Kairi wished vehemently that the other girl would realise how much she hated her at that moment, the burning, screaming feeling coiled in her chest made her want the girl to suffer. And to her surprise, the hatred in her seemed to uncoil and slip away, rushing away somewhere else; where, Kairi did not know. At least not until her ex-friend suddenly screamed and let go of her, falling away, her shrieks never ending.

Kairi still doesn't quite know what she did to that girl, but the experience made her realise how truly dangerous emotions can be, her past friend was never the same after that moment, she avoided Kairi like the plague as well, and soon others began to follow the girl's lead, pulling away from the red head, casting fearful glances in her direction as she walked down the hallway as though they knew of the power she possessed and feared she would turn it on them. And Kairi had never been more terrified of anything in her life than this power she had never wanted to have.

When Kairi was taken by the Organisation she still couldn't bring herself to like her powers more, if anything, the occurrence increased her fear, as it was, after all, because of her powers that they took her.

She disliked using her magic, she disliked even thinking of it, she didn't like to consider the ways she could cause people harm with such a skill.

For a long time she hadn't understood what had particularly drawn her to Riku, he was quiet and pensive a lot of the time, she had always thought his silver hair looked rather nice, matching his aqua eyes so perfectly she might have thought God made the two traits appear the in the boy himself. Despite this, she didn't really think she would have befriended him in most cases.

It wasn't until many months later that she was able to gain an idea as to why she had sought out the silver-haired boy's company. His magic was very similar to her; people with similar powers often seem to enjoy one another's company more than anyone else's. She sometimes wondered if that was also why Roxas and Sora got along so well, if they didn't just imagine the similarities between the other boy and their brother as a result of the shared magic.

But she had no way of knowing whether that was the truth.

And in the end, it wasn't all that important anyway.

When Sora had come to the Organisation she had instantly taken notice of him, and (thanks to his willingness to talk about his power with her once he learnt she too was magical) this time, she knew it wasn't because of any shared abilities.

It had taken her a week to decide that out of everything she liked about Sora, she liked his smile the most.

Then of course she turned right around and thought that his eyes were maybe the sweetest thing about him.

It tended to change nearly every week.

But she was allowed to be indecisive.

They were all going to die anyway.

Sora made her wonder if maybe they could get away after all.

Then she'd shake her head and realise all over again how impossible that was.

Everyone wanted to escape, were certain they could.

Kairi felt herself beginning to believe it might be possible.

They tried to get away after many years at the Organisation.

As she feared, it didn't end well.

When Kairi next opened her eyes, the first thing she was Sora's worried face.

And when – even in her confusion – her heart swelled, she realised how wonderful emotions could be as well.

And after everything, after the sadness and the pain, the fear and horror; that simple thing was able to wipe her mind clear. And she decided that she would be okay with using her powers, if it was to help those she held dear to her.

So she couldn't lose.

Kairi opened her eyes.

Her entire body screamed at her in pain, the sun above seemed too bright, like it was burning her alive, energy seemed to fizzle through her still, but it was bearable. Just.

Her eyes slid to her left where she saw to her surprise that Larxene was still seated, she supposed she hadn't been unconscious as long as she had initially thought. As she watched the blonde girl pull on her black glove – her attention on the battlefield lay out around her – she realised that it was probably nothing short of a miracle that she had survived. There was no way she would be able to survive another hit.

As inconspicuously as possible, she cast her gaze around, searching for something she could use as a weapon, maybe a heavy branch she could knock the girl out with. It was clear Larxene thought she was finished.

She could rely on the element of surprise and – if she were lucky – she just might be able to stop the girl before she could get another attack in.

She couldn't see anything nearby.

Carefully, she tried to move her hands, see if she could feel around for something that could help her. Panic swelled up in her when he hands didn't move, fear coursing through her body as she attempted to move something, anything, to prove to herself that she hadn't been rendered immobile by the blonde's attack.

After a moment she forcefully made herself stop, taking in a deep breath to try and calm herself, her heart was beating so loudly that she experienced an irrational fear that the other girl might hear.

She turned her gaze to Larxene to see the blonde getting to her feet, apparently having decided on her next victim. Terrified for whichever friend was now under threat from the other girl Kairi tried to move again, 'go slow, you've just forgotten for a moment, you can do it, just move your hand,' she felt the relief like a cool splash of water, washing over her gently as her fingers began to move as she wished them to.

But Larxene had begun to move.

Concentrating more, Kairi made herself move her hands, lifting them from the ground for a moment before lowering them again. She moved her arms; slowly stretching them out, ignoring the way the burnt skin seemed to stretch, no longer trying to be subtle. She rolled over onto her stomach very slowly, it seemed once she was able to move one thing again, everything else started to work as well.

But Larxene was getting further away.

Kairi determinedly got to her knees, following the blonde's eyesight to see her gaze was set on Roxas and Xigbar, both battling ferociously with one another. Realising her intention, Kairi panicked, pulling herself to her feet and ignoring the pain that caused her body to tremble.

There was no time to find a weapon.

There was no time to come up with a plan, so she did the first thing she could think of.

On unsteady legs she charged at the girl; Larxene seemed to sense danger coming from behind and she turned just in time for the red head to collide with her. The two girls tumbled to the ground and taking this chance to place her hand on the Larxene's forehead Kairi felt the electricity spike through her body, more painful than even before it seemed.

But she ignored the pain with fierce determination.

Focusing all her desperation, anger, fear and sadness into one tight ball before letting it flow into the girl she was holding onto. The second that was complete she let go, falling back with Larxene's scream echoing in her ears. As she fell, warmth seemed to envelope her body and she smiled.

And her eyes closed.

Bluh.

Are you all enjoying these chapters.

Also, Dean Winchester is literally number one most perfect character ever.

Sora: What about me? *puppy dog eyes*

Uh... I love you too Sora.

I also love my reviewers so... *hint hint*