Genre: AU, fantasy

Pairings: Sora+Kairi

Warnings: Memory loss, peril, action violence

Disclaimer: Don't own nothin' but these words

A/N: I kind of wanted to be horrible and torment you, my lovely readers, but fortunately I have no self control (plus, I wanted to see what was going to happen as much as you guys want to!).

Cloud had never seen his brother so . . . well, like he was right now. It was like the young Angel had grown up overnight. He no longer looked so young, innocent, and . . . well, young. He certainly didn't look jaded or bitter, but there was just something intrinsically different about him. Cloud couldn't even really define it, but it was there.

And right now, Sora was a mixture of frightened and angry. In fact, Cloud had never seen Sora angry, either. The boy stalked back and forth, one hand tightly clenching the key pendant around his neck, the other stiff at his side.

"It's like it knew we were there," he said in a strange, toneless voice. "It went right for her, Cloud. It completely ignored me. I've never seen the Darkness behave like that."

Aerith and Tifa glanced at each other, brown eyes and green coming to an instant understanding. They moved to flank Sora, stopping his pacing and each wrapping an arm around him. The young Angel stiffened at the initial contact, but he quickly melted. Cloud gazed at him for a time, trying to come up with some explanation for the Darkness's bizarre actions.

"I've never known it to actively seek a mortal," he said presently. "Only Angels. And certainly not a mortal with no darkness in her heart."

Sora gave his brother a look that spoke eloquently of his disapproval for that answer. Under normal circumstances it might have made Cloud grin—his little brother for the first time showing some teenage petulance. Right now it just twisted his heart. He truly wished he could give Sora a better answer.

"I could ask Aravis," Aerith suggested.

Everyone in the room looked at her.

"We could not trust that he'd answer truthfully," Cloud said eventually. "He's lied about everything else."

"Aravis seldom outright lies to me," Aerith said, shaking her head. "He knows I can sense it."

Sora fixed his brother with a look that clearly said, Do something, Cloud. Something that makes sense, something that will work.

This time, Cloud couldn't help it. He chuckled a little. "I doubt Aravis would be forthcoming, my love. We'll simply descend into the Darkness and find her. Tifa, you wait here with Sora—"

"I'll go with you," Sora cut him off.

Suppressing a sigh, Cloud looked at him. "You can't come with us. You can't fly."

Sora blinked as though just remembering something terribly important. "Actually," he said softly, "I can." And he extended his wings.

Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa all stared at the Dark wing flowing down Sora's back in direct opposition to the white one. They could not look more different, could not feel more wrong. That black wing was literally made of the Darkness. Which could only mean one thing. While Sora had not turned his back on the light, he had embraced the Dark.

Cloud hadn't even known that was possible until this moment. "Can you fly with that?" he asked. It was the only safe thing he could think of.

"Yes," Sora replied, raising both wings. The Dark one imitated the white one, shaped exactly like it. Only, there were no feathers, no contours, no . . . anything. Just visible Darkness.

It was extremely unsettling.

Cloud just nodded, taking his brother's word for it. "Then you can come, too."

o0o

Sephiroth wandered the twisted paths of the Darkness, searching for the human girl. He always watched the Darkness now, waiting to see what it would do. Trying to map its behavior would make it easier to destroy when the time came. He had never seen it actively pursue a mortal child.

Which meant the girl now soul mated to Sora was not a normal mortal child. It was the only explanation. He was tempted to return to Hell and talk to Maleficent, but why should she know? Although there were probably none with her extensive knowledge of the Darkness, she couldn't exactly read its thoughts. The Darkness had no thoughts to read. Sephiroth knew enough to know it wasn't a sentient energy force.

Deeper and deeper he descended into the roiling black, blocking out the hate and pain as it screamed and bled around him. Eventually he came to that place where the Darkness parted, held itself open as it worked to absorb its latest victim. There, suspended in the tangible black, was Kairi.

Something was wrong. Sephiroth could feel it the instant he stepped into that place. Energy seethed and boiled around him, but not an energy with which he was familiar. At least, not an energy he'd ever felt in the Darkness. It was not an energy that should be here at all, an energy the exact opposite of the twisted evil of the Dark.

This was the energy of the Lifestream itself. But why would those energies have penetrated the Dark? The Lifestream and the Darkness could not merge, so the Darkness always fled the Lifestream. As he stepped closer, he reached out a hand to touch one of the flows. Instantly, everything went away.

She watches with a curious intent, her eyes glowing in the dark as she moves. She has never before felt such a tumultuous time. The potential for change always hangs in the air now, and she has always been one to embrace change.

She has watched him for a long time now. Ever since the three powerful beings came into her world she has watched, curious as to what change they might bring about. They have sparked many, some for the worse, some for the better. But change is the precursor to growth, and she is always trying to learn and grow.

His birth brought about much change. His birth tipped the scales. She still does not know in which direction. But this momentous occasion has had her watching closer than ever, curiosity turning into the desire to affect change herself for once.

So for the first time in her long, long existence, she steps into the flows of her energies and takes a new form. A mortal form. She takes no memories with her, for what would be the fun in that? She wants to learn and grow as a mortal would, taking that short life feeling with her, the sense of urgency that will compel her to get as much as she can from a single life.

The Lifestream flows through her, surging powerfully, deeply alive. She loves to feel its enormous capacity, reminding all of the great beauty in life. For the first time since she created this world, so long ago, the spirit of the Earth dons a mortal form and steps out of the Lifestream.

Sephiroth's eyes snapped open, all the breath shocked from his lungs, the image of the Lifestream flowing through an incorporeal form to create a human body sharp in his mind. He couldn't seem to process what he'd just seen.

Kairi was the essence of the Lifestream!

BUAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Sorry. God I love this story.

God I love all of you who love me.

I LOVE EVERYTHING!

Except politics.

Sephiroth: You're an extremely random individual. I'm going to kill you.

Jewel: . . . okaaaayyyy . . . (he's scary . . .)