Smooth strokes of the pencil went across the page. Bright blue, radiant red, alluring yellow, all came together to create her drawing. Kairi watched it go on, like a movie slowly unfolding. "Perfect," she said when she finished. The perfect sunset in the background, with herself, Riku, and Sora in the foreground, sitting around, talking and watching the sun dip below the horizon.
"That's amazing, Kairi," Sora said. "I didn't know you could draw so well."
"I guess I really don't like drawing for everybody to see. I have some other ones, that are much better. Then sometimes, I'll get addicted to something, a theme of some sort." She flipped through the pictures in her sketchbook. "At one point during the year that you and Riku were gone, I started drawing buildings a lot. Castles, skyscrapers, more castles." One of the castles looked a bit like Castle Oblivion to Sora. "Then just recently, I've started making these mirror-image drawings." She showed a drawing to him, showing a mirror cracked down the middle. One half of the face in it was Kairi's, the other half Naminé. She started to go back to an empty page, when Sora stopped her.
"What's that one?"
A heart was in the middle of the page, surrounded by darkness. But it looked almost as though the light of the heart was beating back the darkness. In the middle of the heart, the two of them were back-to-back, both of them appearing to be sleeping. If one looked close enough, they would see the words, "Our light will find us through the dark," hidden in the black.
Sora sighed. "Kairi, I haven't been completely honest with you," he admitted. "I'm not alright. I can feel darkness pressing at my heart. But when I'm around you, it goes away. When you're not here, it strengthens itself. And I didn't feel it before I found my memories."
Kairi didn't speak. Suddenly, something occurred to her. "Sora, you said that Naminé had the power to change people's memories, right?"
"Change, alter, rearrange, destroy, create, yeah. So?"
"Let me try something. For some reason, I think that there's a link missing in your memories, or something's been altered in your heart, allowing the darkness to enter." She took Sora's hands, and closed her eyes. She allowed magic to wash over her, enveloping her.
While her eyes didn't see it, Kairi felt her hands tracing along Sora's memories. Each one felt perfectly intact. Except for one. A flaw of some sort, within the memory. She reached toward it, and suddenly, she was enveloped by it . . .
---
The closer you are to darkness, the greater your shadow becomes, said an invisible voice. Sora looked behind him, and saw his shadow long on the ground. It rose from the ground, and Sora tried to run from Darkside. He stopped just before falling off the platform.
Instead of the keyblade appearing, like Kairi expected, a red shield appeared in the younger Sora's hands. He fought off Darkside with it, destroying it within minutes. That's where things changed. An invisible force hit Sora, and sent him flying off the platform . . .
---
"That's it," Kairi realized. She sent light magic into the memory, forcing the darkness out. The memory changed back to what it once was, the first time.
Kairi opened her eyes, and took a deep breath. "Sora, are you back to normal?"
He smiled wide. "Thank you, Kairi." He pulled her into a hug.
"Yahoo!" somebody cried out. The both of them looked around for the source of the voice. "Man, I thought that nothing could be as annoying as normal Sora, but emo Sora definitely beat it out." Sora and Kairi looked up, to see Xion hanging upside-down.
"How long have you been up there?" Kairi asked.
"Long enough. Don't worry, I won't tell anybody about your mushy-gushy moment. And just so you know, I have no clue as to how I got up here."
At that moment, Ven chose to walk in. "Am I interrupting something? Looks like it. So, anybody feel like playing charades, and getting mad at Aqua when she starts using magic to cheat?"
Sora shrugged. "Sounds like fun."
"Hey, what about me!" Xion exclaimed. "I don't know how I got up here, I don't know how to get down, and now all the blood's rushing to my head!"
"I suggest jumping towards the floor, then flipping around in midair. Works for me every time," Ven said. Eyes turned to him.
"You've ended up hanging upside-down from the ceiling?" Kairi said skeptically.
"More often than you'd think. I think it's some sort of glitch in the artificial gravity," Ven stated.
By the time Xion had gotten back on the floor, and gotten over her dizziness, the others had already given up on charades, with Oro not getting it and shouting out what he was trying to mime. Not that it mattered, since nobody understood a word he was saying. Besides, with Donald and Goofy having gone with the King(1), it wasn't very fun. Goofy attempting to act something out, and tripping over his feet, then Donald getting mad, and zapping Sora and Goofy with lightning.
Now, the guys were comparing bruises and scars from fighting(2).
Terra pulled his sleeve up a bit, to show a black-and-blue mark on his left shoulder. "Ironhide clipped me before I sliced its arms off."
"That's nothing!" Riku exclaimed. While he normally would never get involved in this kind of contest, he actually seem fairly happy with Sora back to normal. "Look at this one." He pulled up his pant leg to show a long scar along his calf. "Lexaeus," he said by way of explanation.
Ven scoffed. He pulled down the collar of his shirt to show a deep purple bruise that apparently went down his ribcage. "The Gargoyle hit me with one of those magic blasts."
"That little mark?" Sora said. "I got a worse bruise stubbing my toe on the dresser when I got up this morning. This is a scar somebody can be proud of." He tore off his vest and undershirt, inadvertently showing off the muscles he certainly did not have so prominently two years previously. He turned around, to show a long scar running down his spine.
Riku swore, Kairi gasped, and basically everybody else averted their eyes.
"Where did that come from?" Xion asked.
"Can't exactly stab yourself with a dark keyblade and expect to come out unscathed," Sora said, as he pulled his shirt back on. "It's not usually that prominent. In fact most times, it fades away almost completely."
Ven cut in. "Whatever. Aqua, show off your talents. Sing something!"
Aqua sighed. "What are you looking for? Something to fall asleep to?" Ven nodded, and murmurs of agreement went around the room. "Okay then get comfortable. Don't want to fall asleep when you're lying on hard floor, least I don't." There was a flurry of movement as everybody tried to get a comfortable seat on a couch. Aqua cleared her throat, and started to sing. Sora wouldn't ever say it out loud, for fear of getting blasted to bits by King Triton, but Aqua sang even better than Ariel.
"When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. Anything your heart desires, will come to you." Yawns went around already. "If your heart is in your dream, no request is too extreme. When you wish upon a star, as dreamers do."
Everybody who knew the bridge sang along. "Fate is kind, she brings those who love, the sweet fulfillment of their secret longing."
As Aqua finished off with the final verse, plenty of the travelers were at the brink of sleep, others completely asleep. "Like a bolt out of the blue, fate steps in and sees you through. When you wish upon a star, your dreams, come through."
Out the window, Sora spotted a star shining brightly. "I wish, that eventually, there could be peace in the universe, and that I could go home without being dragged away by evil," he wished quietly. The next moment, Sora descended into the sweet bliss of sleep.
Author's Note
(1) Right, what can I say? I felt that I really couldn't do Donald and Goofy well, and also, if you've ever heard of a game called Kingdom Hearts: Coded, you'll know what they're doing.
(2) Inspired by a scene in Brisingr.
Yes, Aqua is an amazing singer. She just seems like that kind of person to me. Plus there's the voice actor I've established for her, all are as follows.
Aqua: Taylor Swift
Ven: Jesse McCartney (duh)
Terra: Richard Epcar (Xehanort)
Xion: Jordan Pruitt, but with more attitude
Yuppers, that's how I've got them. I'm going to try and work on finding guys that would work for Oro and Jessie, but I'll likely forget to do it. Whatever. I've got a ton of time, since I'm on Spring Break! Yahoo! C U L8R.
Badhraa -- You can say that again.