End of the World
Kairi had no idea what happened, all she knew was that she had jumped into the portal that Sora had summoned and had gone with him. Was it foolish of her, perhaps, but she wouldn't stand on the sidelines when she had missed out on the entire adventure.
No! Not this time, she would be there for him before the end, and she would make a difference herself for missing out.
If only she knew where she was.
In the middle of a small narrow cave Sora, Donald and Goofy found themselves laying on the ground. Everything was completely silent and the air was thick and cold. Sora shuddered as he got up, his body ached. The last thing he remembered was being pushed into the portal and seeing someone very familiar looking back at him from his backside. Suddenly, he remembers who it was and turned around instantly to see Kairi slowly getting up, holding a bow and arrow in hand. It took him a few minutes before processing just what had happened.
"Kairi!" He shouted eyes widening in shock as he figured it out.. "What are you-how are you?"
Sora looked like he was trying to think of the proper words to say but he was so stunned that all he could do was merely mutter indescribable words. Kairi just stood there arms folded tapping her foot impatiently waiting for him to quiet down before speaking.
"I came here with you dummy." Kairi said dusting her skirt off. "I wasn't about to let you fight Xehanort all by yourself."
"I told you not too, though." Sora chastised. "And you said you wouldn't!"
Kairi huffed. "Yeah, well, I changed my mind."
"Kairi you-
"Look Sora!" Kairi said glaring at him fiercely, "I spent the entire time asleep, and I wake up to find out you and Riku had a falling out, almost tried to kill each other, only for him to lose himself to darkness and you become a big hero and I spent the whole time doing nothing! I don't know what kind of girl you think I am Sora but I'm not just going to sit around and do nothing while you go out their and sacrifice yourself! I'm here now Sora, and I'm helping! I don't know how, but I'm going to, okay!"
Sora wanted to argue yet he couldn't think of the proper words. He sighed in defeat knowing it wouldn't do much anyway. Suddenly his concentration was pulled elsewhere as Donald and Goofy got up, both of them looking quite shocked to see Kairi here.
"Kairi?" Donald said.
"Yeah," Sora sighed in annoyed grunt, "she's joining us."
Goofy smiled waving back at her. "Well glad you see you on the team Kairi."
"Thanks, Goofy." Kairi giggled.
Sora glared back at Goofy before sighing, he knew full well that he wasn't going to win this argument.
Kairi smirked, she wasn't going to miss out on this final moment, she missed out on too much, but not this, not the end.
Speaking of which.
Now that the introductions were over, it was time to move forward. Slowly Sora moved forward out of the caved to look out into the distance. In front of him he saw a large sea of darkness all around him, large chunks of rocks floated above and made little platforms. Carefully, Sora dipped his toe and noticed that he was able to walk above the water. Somewhere here Xehanort lied, he wasn't sure but he knew that the best course of action right now was just move forward.
Donald, Goofy and Kairi stood by his side as they gazed at the surrounding area. They had no idea what to make of it, only that this was definitely a place teaming in utter darkness and destruction. Kairi seemed to be the most horrified by this place, she put her arms over herself and shuddered, she was cold, very cold, near freezing.
"What's wrong?" Sora asked putting his arms around her.
"It's just -really cold." Kairi said, shuddering. "Nothing feels natural here."
"The darkness." Sora said looking up at the sky. "That must be it."
"Darkness is cold." Kairi muttered
Sora nodded. "Yeah, I've felt it. Trust me, it can get a lot colder than this."
Everyone stood there unsure what to do as they gazed on their earthly surroundings. In the distance, a large swirling void continued to glow before then leading to a unknown. This world looked like nothing they ever saw before. Any sign of life looked as if it was completely decimated, even more so than Hollow Bastion. All that was left was rock and casams. The sky glowing a sickly purple reflecting off the water below them was sickly shade of pink.
It was a true hellscape of darkness.
Kairi felt chills just looking around the place moving forward. Just standing here he could feel the weight of depression coming around him, any positive thought she might have had was completely lost. It was a horrible feeling to have, everything about this place was just so unnatural to her. Part of her wondered how everyone else felt? If she was feeling this bad, what about Sora, who had gone through so much already.
She turned to him and saw him just looking out into the distance, he didn't look scared, if anything he looked determined. That was enough for her to recover her bravery.
"So, all the worlds will be restored when we beat Xehanort right?" Sora asked looking at Donald and Goofy. "But, if the worlds are restored, then what will happen to this place, and to us?"
"Well this is a Heartless world so maybe it'll just disappear." Goofy then stood next to Sora now, his faze calm and comforting. "But no worries, even if this place goes poof our hearts ain't going nowhere. I'm sure will see our pals again, yep I just know we will!"
Kairi walked by Sora's side and took his hand smiling.
This gave him a mighty boost, and he needed it. He not only had to make sure that he survived this world but he also needed to make sure that Donald, Goofy and Kairi all made it out alive to return home to their families. It was a great responsibility and even though he knew they could take care of themselves, he still felt that if anything happened to them it would be on his conscious.
Once again Jiminy Cricket looked out of Sora's pocket, shocked at his surroundings as quickly pulled out his journal and began to write in it, making sure to get every single detail as he possibly could with great haste and speed.
"Gee Jiminy, you're still writing even though we might not come back?"Sora said shocked.
Jiminy looked up and nodded. "Of course Sora, you don't think just because we might not make it back I'm giving up my sworn duty as chronicle of this adventure to just let things go past the wayside. Everything I write in my journal is precious, every memory important. In fact it's gonna be our memories that mean the most to us."
"Yeah, I can see that." Sora thought as he pushed forward.
Kairi nodded, "We're going to do this...Together"
-000-
Down, down through the open ocean of this strange world. They didn't even track water on their shoes. Kairi kept close by, she seemed a bit taken out. This was her first world outside of Hollow Bastion that she had any memory of. Being asleep and traveling didn't prepare one for adventure sadly, yet she was brave despite her fear. She wasn't about to let that stop her from continuing on from stopping Xehanort and being there to help.
"How you holding up?" Sora asked keeping close to her as well.
Kairi smiled meekly. "Find. A bit nervous, but I'm fine."
"You didn't have to come." He said looking almost guilty.
"No I wanted too, in fact, I felt like I needed too."
"Why?"
Kairi fiddled her hands a bit before sighing. "Well when I had a chat with the Princesses of Heart they said they were holding back the darkness-"
"Yeah, I remember they told me that…."
"Let me finish!" Kairi interjected. "They told me they were holding back the darkness, but they said we had powers to also repel it. It's sorta a Princess of Heart thing I guess, I don't really know I've never seen any powers myself."
"Well, if you do have powers I hope that can help us out."
Kairi didn't know much about this whole Princess of Heart thing. She wasn't related to any royality as far as she knew. Something about having a heart of pure light felt strange, shouldn't everyone have equals light and darkness within them? Regardless if she had any poweres she hoped she could put them to good use right now, because Sora seemed like he was on the verge of having a panic attack. Sure he didn't show it, but she could feel it.
Looking at his friends they seemed relatively calm. Sora was surprised thinking they'd be more nervous right now. Perhaps their training gave them an edge and allowed them to hide their true feelings, which was good because right now Sora could use a bit of confidence. He couldn't afford to panic.
Yet still Kairi could sense that something was wrong. Sora's mind echoed with the thought of Donald and Goofy not returning home. He promised to keep Goofy safe for his son Max. He couldn't shatter that, shatter him. What about Donald's nephews also, that's losing the person who raised them? Then a worse thought occurred, what about his own mother? She'd be left without a son, she'd return only for him to no be there to be by her side. Though he hoped Kairi would look after her it wouldn't be the same.
Maybe that was part of her princess of heart powers being able to tell one's feelings, or maybe it was good intuition. Right now was not the time to dwell they still had much of this hellish scape to go through.
Above them several orbs of light formed and went straight down into the ocean.
"Wonder what those are?" Goofy asked as he saw one of the orbs fly down.
Kairi sniffed. "I don't know but they stink!"
"Maybe they're big balls of darkness?" Sora wondered as he saw another fall down, this time a bit closer towards them.
"Well whatever it is, it's heading this way!" Goofy points upwards.
Sora saw one of the balls of darkness head straight towards them engulfing them all in darkness. Everything turned to black for a few seconds before his vision returned. He opens his eyes to find himself it what looked to be some sort of arena made out of a blue rock and purple stone, the exits were sealed off by a magical dark flame. Heartless began to appear one by one surrounding the group.
"Well, no one said this was gonna be easy." Sora muttered summoning his Keyblade and taking his defensive stance.
Sora charged forward as the Heartless struck. The ones he fought this time were like nothing he ever saw. They were taller, more human like in appearance. Some carried swords and were able to fight back against his blade. Many of them looked as if they spawned from demonic pits, Sora practically smelling the darkness with little difficulty.
Donald and Goofy tried to help but they were easily overwhelmed by the Heartless to make any real effect. Kairi stepped back and took a defensive position steading her bow and arrow in hand. She observed closely trying to make out the Heartless tactics trying to see if there was any sort of pattern to their attacks. She noticed that many of the were solely focused on Sora and tended to swarm over him. It made them easy targets when so close together.
Kairi took a deep breath as she aimed. "Okay, I can do this. It's now or never."
She fired managing to hit two in the back wounding them leaving Sora the opening.
"Sora use magic!" Kairi shouted.
Sora nodded. "Thunder!"
A giant bolt of lightning struck back the Heartless causing some to vanish and release the Hearts they had. A few others staggered but this allowed Sora to strike them down with ease. Kairi taking a out a few with her bow and arrow. Eventually all the Heartless vanished and the dark flames vanished. All had returned to calm as a tiny green chest appeared before them.
"Wow, good work Kairi!" Sora smiled helping her up.
Kairi blushed. "You think so?"
"Yeah." Sora nodded. "You are pretty good with a bow and arrow back there. Plus, you helped me realized I could use Thunder against the Heartless like that, made things rather easy back there."
"Well I just saw and I went for it." Kairi snickered.
Donald and Goofy walked up to them now as they all noticed the chest in the center of the room. Sora gently tapped in causing it to open consuming them all in a giant bright light. Once the light had vanished they all returned back to the giant pink ocean standing right where they were just moments before.
"Gee what happened?" Goofy asked looking around.
"Guess we just have to avoid the orbs." Sora said.
That would be rather difficult for every few feet they went they would be consumed by the orbs around them. Again and again they would find themselves in these tiny arenas fighting off hordes of enemies. Kairi though got better at combat, managing to help Sora out of trouble. Her manner of observation along with her cover fire with a bow and arrow helped when Sora went full on charges against his enemies. He was able to better take them down by striking them with his magic or own unique Keyblade abilities. She even directed Donald and Goofy to take certain defensive positions to help better round the Heartless in a more efficient manner. The more this went on, the more Sora wondered what life would had been like if she had been helping him out sooner. Already it was an upgrade compared to Riku. Yet he wished that he could have all three friends by his side, knowing that together they would have made an unstoppable team against the Heartless.
"Sora use fire! Donald, Goofy, make sure to help him up, he's looking tired." Kairi instructed as she shot down a few flying angel-winged Heartless.
"Heal!" Goofy shouted.
Donald seemed more hesitant. "I'd rather wait to use my magic."
"Just help out when you can!" Kairi shouted back.
Sora struck down the Heartless one by one. The ones with their own swords were a bit trickier, they were good at defending and blocking his attacks. Kairi did however managed to knock out one of their weapons allowed Sora to piece the creatures chest.
Kairi pumped her first "Great Sora! Look out!"
Sora turned around but he was knocked back by one of the demon Heartless into the flame. He screeched as as he hit the wall and landed on his face Kairi quickly rushing over to his side to aid him. She pulled out a potion she had with him to quickly heal him. Carefully, Sora got up looking weak as the demonic Heartless stood before them.
The Heartless knocked out her bow and arrow leaving them defenseless.
Kairi looked up at the Heartless defiantly and held out her hand. "You won't hurt him!" She barked. Then suddenly without warning a bright light burst through her hand attacking the Heartless, causing him to screech until he vanished into shadow leaving the arena empty once more.
"Whoo!" Sora said as he slowly got up. "Belle said the Princesses of Heart had powers, but I didn't know you could do that."
"Me either." Kairi replied. "That was something."
"Yeah." Sora blushed.
Again they were freed from this arena and were able to head out. Finally, they had reached the end of this vast sea of darkness that had completely engulfed them now and stepped before the great vortex that laid in front of them. Sora hesitated to move another round closer. He could smell the Darkness emanating from the other side. He held everyone back in preparation for what was to come.
"BEHEMOTH!" Sora shouted as they saw the giant beast before them now running towards them.
Sora had heard of the Behemoth from Leon and the others during their assault on Hollow Bastion. But he couldn't imagine something that massive in his life. Yet here he saw it, with it's crooked harms and large lumbering body, walking straight towards them, each step it took made a loud booming sound. One wrong step and they would easily be squashed by just how massive it was.
"Sora, be careful!" Kairi shouted pulling him away from the monsters. "You can't attack it directly, it'll squash you."
Sora sighed looking for something. "There's gotta be someway I can hit it."
"Let me think." Kairi looked around for sort of opening. "I got it, try getting up it's back and hitting it around the neck."
"That thing is huge, how am I supposed to get up there?" Sora asked.
"Think of it like climbing a coconut tree. You can jump high, can't you?"
Sora bit his lip thinking, the beast was massive really thick. Yet he still went along with it and ran. He ran as fast as he could and jumped as has high as he could managing to hold onto the edge of the massive beast. He could feel himself moving as the beast continued to move albeit slowly. This allowed him to climb up without being noticed. Pushing up and bending his knees he slid up towards the Behemoth's back, it's skin was slippery though and it stenched of something horrid.
"Oh, you stink." Sora muttered finally managing to find balance on the Heartless back. "Okay, now lets see."
Sora put one foot forward yet leaned back as the creature continued to move this time more violently. It sensed that Sora was walking on his back and tried to knock him off. The beast began to hop into the air and leap causing Sora to now hold on for dear life, his movement being violently jared back and forth.
"Hang on, Sora!" Kairi shouted turning to Donald and Goofy. "Is there anything you can do? Magic?"
Donald thought. "Oh, I have an idea. STOP!"
A giant clock appears before the Behemoth causing him to freeze. Sora looked up and noticed that it stopped moving.
"Go Sora! Hurry!" Donald shouted.
Sora realized what happened and quickly got up running up to the beast neck just as the spell ran out. With a loud thud, the Behemoth landed back on the ground causing Sora to fall grabbing onto it's horn and dandling on as it kept running. Jiminy popped out from his pocket and hung on as a small bag landed on the ground.
Kairi tried to think fast on her feet, she never had to deal with battle before. Riku was always far better at this and by the looks of things Sora had definitely become a fight of these sorts of monsters. However she wasn't just going to sit there and hide, she had to do something. Looking around she tried to think of a strategy something that would help out. It wasn't until she remembered something from the memories Sora had on his adventures did she manage to think of something.
"Sora!" He shouted.
"I'm trying!" Sora shrieked.
Kairi ran up towards the bag and held it up, it was soft and jingled. "What's in this?"
"Pixie dust." Goofy remembered. "Peter Pan gave it to Sora, a bit of it can be used to fly."
"How do you use it?" Kairi asked.
"Just gotta think of a happy thoughts and sprinkle some on, I don't think Sora is close enough though to get some on him though."
"No, but that doesn't mean I can't help." Immediately she opened the bag and took out a handful, thinking of the happiest thought she could possibly muster. "Come on, Kairi, you can do this."
She threw a bit of Pixie dust up into the air and instantly started to find herself flying into the air. However she found herself unable to control it and was aimlessly floating. For a brief moment she was amazed to actually be up in the air, feeling a sense of euphoria. However once she saw Sora she immediately felt the euphoria die as she quickly straightened herself to rush in after him.
"Kairi!" Sora shouted.
"Come on Sora, reach for my hand."
Sora grabbed it and dropped, Kairi desperately clinging on, managing to float thanks to the magic. "Your heavy!" She grunted.
"Sorry!" Sora looked around and tried to bend his knee around the Behemoths horn using his Keyblade for support. "Okay just a little to the left….
Kairi tried to position Sora funding him left and right until he was around the beast neck.
Sora managed to just barely get on, right on time too for Kairi lost her the pixie dust magical affect and began to float down. She found herself falling until Sora caught her with his Keyblade. She dangled for a few moments as Sora attempted to pull her up.
"Got it?" Sora asked helping Kairi up.
"Got it, now come on!"
Sora nodded and lifted his Keyblade and plunged it into the beast's neck causing it to be consumed by light and collapse onto the ground. Sora and Kairi began to shake and find themselves sliding off the demons back landing right onto the ground as the creature vanished into thin air. A giant heart emerged and floated all the way up into the sky.
"Wonder were those hearts go?" Sora asked as he got up helping Kairi next.
"I don't know, I like think they go back to the person they belonged to. At least, I hope they do."
Sora smiled. "That's a good sentiment to have."
-000-
A brief pause and they group just stood there in that empty void of silence. Taking this breather Sora looked at Kairi. She seemed so unfazed, she dusted off her skirt and smiled as she looked around the empty area. Most people Sora knew, if they saw a giant beast like a Behemoth and had to fight in this hell scape, would probably be terrified right now. Even he, who had a Keyblade to defend himself with, was still scared. Yet not Kairi, she was tough as nails, strong, and determined. Almost inspiring yet she did look tired after that battle.
Slowly Kairi sat down and took a deep breath, Sora quickly ran up to her looking worried.
"You going to be okay?" he asked.
Kairi nodded. "Yeah, I'll be fine." She got back up. "You?"
"Yeah, now to just find out how to get out of here."
That question was answered rather quickly for a bright light consumed them transporting them away from the void and now into a descending chasm. A deep chasm each row of rocks going deeper and deeper into a black rocks around them paraded through the walls and large strings of ooze linked the various rocks together creating the only land mass in an otherwise endless sea.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi stood on one of the rock platforms looking around trying to find the proper direction forward.
"So uh, what do we do now?" Goofy asked. "Go down?
"Dive into the most dangerous place and you will find him." Donald pointed out.
Sora, Kairi and Goofy slowly turned to Donald in shock, they've never heard him say something that wise before, if not ever.
"What? I have stuff to say sometimes."
Kairi looked to Sora who shrugged. "Well, it's going to be a bit of a ride down."
"We should probably be-" Sora couldn't even finish his sentence before he saw Kairi climbing down the rock already, her legs dangling on the edge before she let go and landed on the platform below her. "Kairi! What are you doing?"
"What does it look like I'm doing?! I'm climbing down!"
Sora slowly began to climb down far more cautiously than Kairi was Donald and Goofy near by to grab him in case he fell.
"Don't look down, don't look down, don't look down." Sora muttered to himself again and again.
Kairi raised a eyebrow. "I didn't know you were afraid of heights."
"Yeah, you've been up high places before." Goofy replied.
Sora sighed. "Yes but this is my first pit of darkness."
Tired of waiting Kairi headed of and continued to climb the rocks without him. She was quick fast, practically hopping from one rock to another not even bothering to take her time as Sora hobbled behind her, Donald and Goofy not that far. She was going quite fast making it difficult to stay close by. She hopped from platform to platform with great speed, while the others tip toed just to reach the ground.
"Gee, Kairi sure is brave." Goofy said.
"Or really reckless." Donald muttered.
"Yeah, Kairi can be a bit stubborn, but that's why I like her." Sora snickered continuing to climb down at a slower pace.
Jiminy popped in from his pocket to see what was going on. "Well as long as we aren't being thrown around, it's all fine by me, thank you very much."
They continued to head further downward into the pit. Sora kept a close eye on Kairi as she lead the way.
"This place is so bizzare." Kairi responded as she landed on the next platform. "Nothing here makes sense, it's like the apocalypse hit and this is the aftermath."
Sora snickered. "We've been to some pretty bizarre places before Kairi, but I agree, this place takes the cake."
"Yeah, we've seen it all." Goofy said.
Donald sighed. "And not in a good way."
"I wish I could have been there." Kairi frowned. "You, me, we've could have seen it all."
"You were though, Kairi." Sora said as he landed next to her on the platform below. "In a way, you were with me in my heart the whole time."
"I guess." Kairi chuckled. "Guess that means I have all the experience you do."
Kairi took another step forward and slipped barely managing to catch onto a nearby vine and sliding downward against the wall landing on her back when she hit the last platform. Quickly, Sora lept into action landing down right beside her lifting her head making sure she was okay. Her eyes looked a bit dull at first before quickly recovering.
"Kairi! Kairi!" He said in a panic gently patting her cheek to help her get back up.
Kairi groaned as she gently sat up pushing him back, Sora kept hold to make sure she was stable. "Oh, Shouldn't have done that." She stood up but felt a pain in her chest. "Oh, I think I hurt something."
In a panic, Sora took out his Keyblade and lifted it up shouting "Heal!" A green aura covered among them now. Donald and Goofy looked impressed, shocked even. Kairi was able to get the pain seeming to have subsided.
"How did you do that?" Kairi asked. "I mean, I know that's magic but I don't think you've ever healed before with it."
Soar looked at his Keyblade shocked. "I-That's actually the first time I've used a heal spell before. Donald's told me about them, but I've never mastered it. Normally they just treat small injures, but maybe the Keyblade has a bit more power to it."
"Yeah maybe." Kairi said rubbing her head. "I guess I need to be a bit more careful when climbing down these things."
"Hey at least we're making progress right?" Sora said.
"Yeah but how further do we have to go to find Xehanort?" Donald asked. "This place has been crazy so far."
"Hey, we've been through worse." Goofy replied. "Remember Wonderland, or Agrabah, Atlantica, Halloween Town? We've been through all these places and made it through. Sure, we've struggled but we got through it together. So as long we continue that way then will get through this one."
Sora nodded and smiled.
Once Kairi was confirmed to be okay they carefully made their way down to the bottom and towards the next area. Sora made extra sure though to make sure she didn't fall again, always hovering over her just a bit to make sure he could jump into action quickly.
"You know you don't have to watch me all the time." Kairi muttered stepping down.
Sora sighed. "I know, but I don't want you to get hurt."
"You know I can take care of myself, right?"
"Yeah I know, doesn't mean it's not a bad thing to have someone watching your back."
Kairi paused and nodded. "Okay."