Chapter Twenty-Four
The sight that greeted the group's final ascent almost took Kairi's breath away. The yellow, heart-shaped Moon of the Organization's False Kingdom Hearts floated above them, a massive crater blasted past its surface and deep into its core that glowed a dull pink-purple that bled into the heart's aura. But more than that, Kairi could feel a faint, harsh resonance from the massive structure, as if the hearts that comprised it, the few that were left, were wailing in torment.
"Ohh ... my Kingdom Hearts … ruined," Xemnas said in his monotone baritone, not even bothering to turn and face them. "Now I'll have to start all over again." He paused. "Warriors of the Keyblade!" He finally turned to address the group of five who had come to vanquish him. "Go forth, and bring me more hearts!"
"NO!" Kairi's defiant shout and the summoning of her Keyblade was matched in perfect unison by Sora, Riku, and King Mickey.
Xemnas seemed utterly unperturbed at the display. "Denizens of Light, answer this: Why do you hate the Darkness?"
Kairi hesitated for a moment, but Mickey was quick on the draw. "Aw, we don't hate it," the King explained. "It's just kinda … scary. But the worlds are made of Light and Darkness. You can't have one without the other, 'cause Darkness is half of everything." Kairi couldn't help but think back to her philosophy discussion with Queen Minnie, in which she had expressed similar beliefs. "... Kinda makes you wonder why we are scared of the Dark," Mickey admitted.
"It's because of who's lurking inside it," Riku picked up, smooth as a river stone.
There was another pause. "Then allow me another question," Xemnas said. "You accept Darkness, yet choose to live in the Light," he gestured at them to emphasize his point. "So why is it that you loathe us who teeter on the edge of nothing?" Kairi mentally scoffed at Xemas's continued use of gestures to support his words, creating some semblance of buried emotion. She had to admit, he would have been a great actor. "We who were turned away from both Light and Dark — never given a choice?"
"That's simple," Riku said without hesitation. "It's because you mess up our worlds."
"That may be …" Xemnas admitted. "However … what other choice might we have had?" Seriously, did this guy ever stop talking?
"Just give it a rest!" Sora said. "You're Nobodies! You don't even exist! You're not sad about anything!"
Kairi had just enough time to glance at Sora in surprise before Xemnas … chuckled. That, though, was a poor term. The sound Xemnas made was a hollow, meaningless thing; a mockery of laughter. "Very good," Xemnas said. "You don't miss a thing. I cannot feel … sorrow. No matter what misery befalls the worlds." Kairi braced herself alongside everyone else, readying her Keyblade and magic.
"No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist," Xemnas finished, raising his hands to summon what was clear to Kairi's honed magical senses a tidal wave of power.
When the wave passed, everyone seemed to be fine … wait. Where was Sora? Kairi looked around as fear gripped her heart. 'Guys?' Sora's voice echoed in her mind, and the minds of everyone else given their collective wince.
Kairi forced down her panic and tried to think. How could she find him? Wait, the bracelet! Kairi looked down to her wrist to find the blue bracelet from the three Good Fairies … flickering. What?! The bracelet had slowly grown brighter as she had drawn closer to Sora … so what did this mean? Was he … here, but … not here?
She shook her head and decided the how and where didn't matter. What mattered was contacting him. And there was one way she was certain could do that. Kairi took a deep breath and took her pendant in her hand. She focused on the enchantment that had been lain upon it, as she had so long ago to try to contact Master Aqua. But rather than follow the source of the magic … she focused on the one it had binded her to. To Sora.
With her mind as oriented as she could muster, she sent her thoughts careening into the air and void around her. 'Sora! Where are you?' Suddenly breathless from the mental effort, Kairi cast her gaze around her and hoped for an answer.
"Sora, answer me!" Riku shouted. Clearly everyone else had been calling out to him the old fashioned way. With a gasp, Kairi felt a surge of the same power from before and turned to find Sora crashing back to the balcony surface.
"You're okay!" the King said happily, speaking what they were all thinking.
"Where's Xemnas?" Sora asked. Everyone looked around, but it was Donald's squawk of surprise that drew their attention.
"Hear me, Kingdom Hearts!" Xemnas intoned, glowing with power as he invoked the power of the false Light above them, the Moon swirling with hearts. "It seems we must begin anew. Ah, but know this: I will give to you as many hearts as it takes. Mark my words! You can no more be complete without me, than I without you! Heed me, Kingdom Hearts! Lend me your power, so that we may be complete! The power to erase the fools that hinder us."
Kairi felt like she was going to be sick, both her magical senses and her innate sensitivity to the heart as a Princess being assailed by the sheer … sacrilege before her. This Nobody, this truly heartless shell of an already horrific human being, was trying to cajole a collection of stolen hearts to wreak destruction and carnage. To channel a false entity of light and Darkness to serve his — its! — twisted ends! It was revolting!
"Xemnas, no!" Mickey cried.
"Hearts quivering with hatred …"
"Xemnas, don't" Sora pleaded.
"Hearts burning with rage …"
"You'll never win!" Kairi felt herself scream in defiance.
"Hearts scarred by envy …" Xemnas continued, utterly ignoring them. "That fool Ansem said the heart's true nature was beyond his understanding. But it's not beyond mine! Hearts are the source of all power!"
As if in reply, the faux-Kingdom Hearts blazed with white light, everyone covering their eyes or else be blinded by it. And just as quickly as it had come, the light disappeared, as had Xemnas.
"Xemnas, you can't hide from us!" Sora shouted. Kairi smiled grimly at his unwavering determination, but she was realistic enough to know that following the leader of the Organization would be no easy task.
"We're not gonna let him get away now!" Mickey said.
Kairi stiffened at the sense of a powerful force, one similar and yet very different from the force that had taken Sora mere minutes ago. She instinctively honed in on its source and pointed. "Look at that!" Just where she had sensed that otherworldly power manifested a massive pair of ornate metal gates, just floating before them a bit off center from the false Kingdom Hearts.
"What's goin' on?" Goofy asked.
"Kingdom Hearts," Mickey answered confidently.
"Let's go," Riku said. "Xemnas must be inside."
"The worlds gave us this doorway," Mickey said, awe in his voice. "They want us to be the guardians of their destiny!" Sora nodded, clearly ready for whatever may come. How did he do that?
"Once we go through, there's no turning back," Riku surmised. 'It's victory … or oblivion. So, everyone …" he cast his gaze to them all, but lingered on Sora, "are you ready?"
Kairi took a deep breath and centered herself. "The longer we wait, the stronger he'll be," she guessed. "We don't have much time to waste." She quickly checked over herself, preparing potions and ethers for quick and easy use. She glanced up as everyone else did the same. Donald was kind enough to cast a wide-area Curaga on all of them, which Kairi smilingly repaid with an ether from one of her pockets.
"Kairi's right," Mickey said. "We have no time to lose. Let's open this thing." He gestured for all of the Keybearers to join together, all of them summoning their weapons and holding them out to join the tips of the blades. Energy began to gather there and, acting solely on intuition, the four lifted their Keyblades to pint upward and release the energy in a powerful beacon … one that unsealed the gateway to swing open to reveal a swirling nimbus of white and grey.
"Get ready, Xemnas!" Sora shouted. "It all ends here!"
The walk through the nimbus had been uneventful, but it revealed a scene from Kairi's craziest fever dreams. A striped replica of the city beneath the Organization's stronghold lay out before them, and at the far end a massive fortress connected to what looked like two massive cannons. And perched atop that, in the impossible distance, stood the unmistakable silhouette of Xemnas.
"So … it seems your hearts have led you to obliteration." his voice echoed from all around their surroundings, as if the cityscape itself were mocking them. "Perhaps it doesn't pay to be too loyal to one's heart. I will have to be sure and remember that."
With those last words, the group looked up to find an entire building falling down at them! Kairi yelped and cartwheeled to the side, avoiding it like everyone else. She grit her teeth and summoned Destiny's Embrace, the familiar weight of her Keyblade a comfort. "Let's go!" she shouted.
The group charged, but a series of barriers rose to block their path. Before anyone could react, Sora darted forward and disappeared. A moment later, three distinct slices in the barriers became evident as they slid apart to reveal Sora beyond them. Wow …
"Show off," Riku smirked before charging to follow.
This led the group to what resembled a loading bay into the void, leading straight to Xemnas's floating fortress. The fortress seemed to react to their presence and drew nearer, a platform beneath the group rising to have them meet it. Everyone scattered as another building flew toward them, others of its kind perched in midair to follow. "What ever happened to this thing called 'gravity'?" Kairi groused.
In another ostentatious display, Sora leapt an impossible distance upward to slice two of the buildings in half. He didn't stop there, either — he kept cutting them into a disjointed pathway!
"C'mon, guys!" Kairi cried. "We can't let him have all the fun!" Using her training in parkour from Master Yen Sid and intuitively adjusting to the unstable gravity, Kairi leapt for the first building-turned-stepping stone and began making her way across the expanse to the fortress.
When everyone had landed at the base of the fortress, the structure began spawning things that resembled Nobodies; like antibodies fighting off an infection. With no other course of action, everyone began attacking them and Kairi fell into her familiar dance of destruction.
As they finished off the horde, a warning klaxon began to sound. Trading quick glances, the group leapt for a nearby platform as the cylinder was riddled with internal explosions and crumbled into the void below. Everyone landed on the second cylinder and the antibodies appeared again for the process to repeat itself almost exactly. With the second cannon destroyed, they all made their way to the center of the structure.
As they dove in through the main entrance, the group found their path through the corridor barred by something Riku called an energy core. Everyone began to focus their efforts on destroying it, Kairi internally wondering at the piecemeal logic of this place, before the core was surrounded by a protective shield and Assassin Nobodies appeared to defend it.
And so the pattern went. They would attack the core until it erected its protection. Nobodies would appear, which they would engage and vanquish, bringing the barrier down for them to attack the core again. And again. And again. And again.
Finally, they seemed to deal enough to cripple the core, which flared and transported them to the pinnacle of the fortress ... and to Xemnas, who was dressed in a suit of armor and a cape of reaching clawed arms, sitting on a massive throne and holding a massively long, jewel-like sword.
If Kairi had thought the battles with Axel and Saix had been intense … she was proven wrong, now. Though stationary, Xemnas wielded the powers and weapons of every Organization member encountered thus far, along with a powerful Barrier and swinging that monstrosity of a sword. It was a struggle just to get near him, much less attack him.
But with six against one, they made due. Riku's Dark power, Sora's numerous skills, Donald's magic, Goofy's shield, and Mickey and Kairi's Light and Keyblades did their work — and their numbers meant Xemnas could only do so much to hold them off. It took quite some time, but soon enough Xemnas cried out a wail of agony and his armor dissolved into thorny strands of Nothingness. The throne room around them dissolved into a platform identical to the place they had left to enter this realm, and as before, Xemnas faced them, collapsed to his knees and clutching his chest.
"I need … more rage … I need more … hearts …" the fallen Superior grimaced.
"Xemnas," Sora said calmly. 'There's more to a heart than just anger or hate. It's full of all kinds of feelings. Don't you remember?"
"Unfortunately," Xemnas said passively, "I don't." And with that, he faded away into the Darkness.
Kairi giggled then laughed in triumph. They did it! They won! Goofy and Donald congratulated her on her performance, which of course meant she had to congratulate them on theirs. Even without Keyblades, these two had not only fought and contributed to the defeat of Xemnas, but had followed Sora across dozens of worlds and defeated who knew how many powerful foes. As they excitedly discussed the battle, Kairi glanced back and saw Sora talking to Riku, no doubt cheering him from one of his self-loathing moments.
Kairi smiled at their unbroken bond, but it was wiped away when the platform, and the fortress beneath it, shuddered. "Hurry!" Mickey cried.
"I'll open a path," Riku volunteered, holding his hand out. Kairi felt a flare of Darkness …. But it was far smaller than what she had felt from previous Dark Corridors. And seemingly insufficient, as not even a wisp of it forged an opening into the Dark Realm.
"You don't belong in the Dark Realm anymore, Riku," Mickey smiled.
"So how do we get out of here, Your Majesty?" Donald asked. Mickey crossed his arms and considered the problem. As he did, a faint light caught Kairi's eye and she looked down … to find her white bracelet glowing. That meant …
Kairi looked backward, as did Sora, to find the see-through image of Namine watching them. The girl held out her hand as Riku had, and a Corridor of Darkness manifested for all of them. Mickey and Donald rushed to check it out, and the image of Namine vanished in their wake.
"Who did this?" Donald asked.
"Whelp, I'm not sure," Mickey answered. Kairi blinked at the question and answer. Had they not seen her? Then how could she and Sora? "But we'd better hurry and get through,'' Mickey finished his thought.
Kairi's train of thought was broken by the sound of very familiar barking. Pluto bound from out of nowhere, barking happily as he circled Mickey and Donald and then jumped into the portal with no hesitation. "Wait for me!" Goofy called, diving in as well. Mickey nodded to them and followed. Donald urged them to "C'mon," before following, and as he entered the vortex, Namine's image returned.
"Thank you, Namine," Kairi said, trying to convey everything she was thankful for in those simple words.
"Sure," Namine smied, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. She looked to Sora with a smile. "See? We meet again, like we promised." Sora stepped back in surprise at her words before another familiar voice answered. One Kairi had heard only once before.
"You said we'd meet again, but when we did," the image of a blond boy in white clothing, who resembled Sora just as much as Namine resembled Kairi, stepped from Sora to address Namine, "we might not recognize each other." Aha … this was Roxas.
"I did … didn't I?" Namine replied.
"But I knew you," Roxas said with a faint grin.
Namine nodded in agreement. 'It's strange," she admitted.
"I think I understand," Roxas said. "I see myself the way you remember me," he gestured to himself, and then to Namine. "Just as you see yourself the way I remember you."
'It all comes down to memories, doesn't it?' Kairi thought sadly.
"I always thought Nobodies were doomed," Namine said sadly, "to fade back into Darkness …"
"Yeah," Roxas agreed, "but you and I didn't. We got to meet our original selves."
"So we can be together again!" Namine smiled.
Roxas moved and took a place to Namine's left, both of them facing their Other. "Right," he said. "Anytime Sora and Kairi are together."
"We'll be together every day," Kairi said, her tone a promise to Roxas and Namine, to Sora, and to herself. "Right, Sora?"
"Uh … yeah!" he said with a smile. Typical goofy Sora.
Kairi looked to Namine and drew closer, holding out her hand. Without warning, Destiny's Embrace appeared in her grip, the tip glowing with gentle power. Namine smiled and took Kairi's offered hand, her image flaring with yellow light and vanishing into motes of energy. Kairi's body flared for a moment with the same light as Namine faded away … and Kairi could feel her in her heart.
Sora was staring slack-jawed at the display before Roxas barked, "Look sharp!" and flared into blue light that resonated with Sora before he vanished as well. With all of this done, Riku deigned to join them, having presumably kept his distance to give the Nobodies and their Others a bit of privacy.
"Don't worry. You're all still you," he assured.
Kairi walked toward the somehow-still-open Dark Corridor and called out to the boys. "Hey, let's go home!" The boys nodded with matching smiles and approached. As they drew closer, Kairi's smile faded as she felt something wrong. Sora and riku stumbled backward just as they entered the Corridor. "Sora! Riku!" she cried in fear …
… As the Corridor collapsed.
Kairi wretched as Darkness surrounded her and drew her further into the Dark Realm, speeding her along for an impossible instant and eternity until it reopened and dropped her into familiar warm sand. Kairi shook her head and looked around to find herself back home for the first time in over a year.
She was home in Destiny Islands.
But without Sora and Riku … it wasn't right.
"Kairi, what happened?!" Mickey cried out in shock.
"Something happened," Kairi said, her eyes burning as she struggled to hold back tears of frustration. "Something closed the portal before Sora and Riku could come through!" Kairi paced in the sand, mind scrambling for anything she could do. She needed a way to transport between worlds, but how?
Kairi stopped in her tracks and dug the Star shard from Yen sid out of her pocket. In all the craziness since her capture she had forgotten all about it! Kairi squeezed the gem in both hands, willing it to activate and send her hurtling toward her best friends. She grit her teeth, every muscle in her body taut as she sweated from the force of her concentration.
But the Star Shard remained inert.
Kairi scrambled and threw the Shard further into the island before resuming her pacing, out of breath but unwilling to just sit and wait yet again! She mumbled to herself as idea after insane idea came together in her mind before her reason shot it down, only to be replaced by another to be picked apart.
As she was thinking, she ignored how Mickey, Donald and Goofy watched with wide eyes and no small amount of concern. They looked at each other, silently communicating as only lifelong friends could.
"Kairi, calm down," Mickey ventured.
"I CAN'T CALM DOWN!" she shouted, her emotions finally boiling over. "I promised them both I wouldn't be a burden, that I would help this time! And now they're out there somewhere, facing who knows what, and I'm right here waiting! Just like-"
Kairi stopped in her tracks, her frustration doused with the icewater of an epiphany. She stared at the King and thought of someone else. Queen Minnie … She had been waiting for Mickey to return for well over a year. And yet in the short time the queen had mentored her, Kairi had felt nothing but patience and understanding about her husband's duty.
Queen Minnie had faith in her husband. Just as Kairi needed to have in Sora and Riku.
Kairi sighed and gripped the pendant from her childhood. And then her eyes shot open as she had one last idea … one that might work. She would be patient, but that didn't mean she had to just sit around!
Kairi sat in a lotus position and removed her necklace, centering it in her right palm, her right hand sitting in her left palm and all level with her sternum. She cleared her mind of all distractions, just as Yen Sid had taught her for a year, and focused on the enchantment on her necklace, just as she had in the stronghold when Sora had disappeared. Just as she had to contact Master Aqua.
The enchantment acted as a bond to Sora, one that her heart could sense. After all, her heart had spent weeks inside his own during that first adventure. She opened herself to that channel and followed the tenuous thread of its course. She had no sense of time, but she soon felt the warmth of Sora's heart responding to her own. Across her mind's eye flashed images of Xemnas's armored form and Sora attacking it alongside Riku. Then she saw a blank, swirling void and Xemnas clothed in a silvery coat, forming a hailstorm of energy blades that rained down upon her friends — and Sora and Riku spinning and whirling to deflect every single one without a single scratch.
She saw Xemnas steam in outrage and denial as he finally faded away for good. She saw Sora supporting Riku as they walked into a shining light … that led them to the place where she had met Master Aqua. The Dark Margin. She saw them sitting at the dark shore. And then a bottle washed up to Riku's feet. He opened it and pulled out a sheet of paper and passed it to Sora.
'No … I couldn't be …' Kairi thought.
Thinking of you, wherever you are, Sora began.
We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts may blend. And now I will step forward to realize this wish. And who knows: Starting a new journey may not be so hard, or maybe it's already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky — one sky, one destiny.
And with those final words, Kairi felt Light suffuse her being. She felt herself link with Sora's Light … and with that connection came the opening of something marvelous. The Door to Light had opened for them. For them to come home.
"We'll go together," Sora said, holding his hand out to Riku.
"Yeah," he said, taking the hand and pulling himself up. Together, the two best friends strode into the opening Door and back home.
So focused on their path, neither saw another figure emerge from the Dark Realm. Her eyes widened in shock before her body reacted faster than she could think. She ran harder than she'd ever run before, and just as the Door began to close … she passed through.
Kairi opened her eyes and looked toward the setting sun to find two glowing, silvery comets falling toward the sea … and she had no need to check her bracelets to make sure it was them She knew! The comets splashed into the seawater and her best friends emerged, sputtering and dazed.
"Sora! Riku!" she shouted with every ounce of joy in her being, waving as they turned toward her voice. Sora laughed in equal joy and led the short swim to shore, laughing all the while. Kairi couldn't move as she was overwhelmed with relief. He was here. He was here!
Apparently, Donald and goofy had no such restraint. They bolted into the water and crashed into Sora, hugging him tight. Mickey met with Riku in a friendly embrace as well. And when the duck and dog had hugged Sora tight, heh looked up to her with unmistakable awe. She smiled wide and removed a simple treasure from his pocket: her lucky charm. The symbol of his promise to come back to her.
And as Sora looked up to her again, Kairi felt a familiarly alien presence within her heart draw to the forefront. She saw Roxas's image in place of Sora's for a few brief moments for the blond to chuckle with contentment, felt herself giggle in Namine's voice … before everything returned to normal.
"We're back," Sora declared.
Kairi held out her hand. "You're home," she replied. Soar took her lucky charm and clapped it into her palm, which she used to pull him up and into the tightest hug she could muster. She poured all of her fear, her worry, her heartache and longing — her joy, her warmth, her endless love — into him. And she felt him squeeze back in equal reply.
He was home. Finally.
Kairi wanted to stay in this perfect moment forever … but her pendant warmed for just a moment. Sora pulled back a bit, as if sensing her confusion. Enough for her to look at the horizon once more … and see another silvery comet fall into the sea, to emerge as a woman with short blue hair!
Kairi gasped and looked at Sora, who seemed confused, but happy that she was happy. Gripping his hand and weaving their fingers, Kairi drew back and waved once more. "Master Aqua!" she called. Her Predecessor looked and seemed stunned. Taking hold of her magic, Kairi wove an enchantment to form a sea wave to bring her to shore. The wave swelled and brought her first Master riding to gently settle in front of her and Sora.
"Kairi?" Aqua asked, still shell-shocked.
"Yes, Master Aqua," Kairi whispered. "It's me." She looked to Sora. "And Sora." She pointed a bit into the water. "And Riku."
"And me," Mickey said, walking closer with unbelieving eyes. "Aqua, is it really you?"
"Yes," she answered. "I- I'm-"
"You're home," Kairi finished. And on the edge of her heart, she felt Yen Sid's approval and pride from across the universe. She smiled at her Master, at her best friend, the King and his friends, and finally at Sora, the love of her life. "We're all home."
OH MY GOSH! IT'S FINALLY DONE!
Thank you so much to everyone who followed and supported this story, even with its long gaps between updates. I finally found the time and will to finish this work - and I'm so HAPPY with how it turned out!
*I've planned from about a third of the way through to have Aqua return early to the Realm of Light, and the revelation from KH3 that Ansem the Wise was "rescued" by one of the Seekers only made it a certainty. I truly wish they had spent more time and effort on fleshing out her relationship to Kairi, and here I was able to do that.
*It's up to all of you what happens next: when they rescue Ventus, how they reunite his heart to his body, how they rescue Terra ... it's up for your own interpretation.
A special thanks to PhoenixDowner and their endless creativity, who helped get this fic off the ground and has provided a sense of support all through its run.
If you liked how this ended, leave a review! I'm finally finished and I can be a little more at piece knowing this work has reached its conclusion. Be well and be happy everyone! Think positive, and may your determination in all that you do never waver!