As Sora led them through the rest of the forest, Kairi kept stealing glances at Lea, paranoid that either she hadn't healed him fully or that her healing secretly held side effects. However, Lea appeared stronger and more healthy with each passing minute.
Flynn and Max were nowhere in sight no matter how far they went, and Sora was the only other person who knew where Rapunzel's tower was. So they followed him. As Kairi's worry over Lea subsided, her concern over Sora's pain and anger returned. The closer they got, the more tense his expression became, and she could practically feel heat emanating from him on her glider.
But she pushed it down. Rapunzel needed their help, and Kairi promised herself that she'd be there for Sora when he needed her. No one would be leaving each other behind if Kairi had any say.
They found their way to an open clearing and landed on their feet, but as Kairi and Lea tried to find their bearings, Sora had already taken off towards a large vine-covered cliff face.
"Sora!" Kairi ran to catch up, but instead of crashing into the rock, Sora disappeared behind the curtain of vines.
"This way!" he shouted.
She pulled them aside, and sure enough, the greenery had concealed an entrance to a cave. No wonder Rapunzel had been so easily hidden all her life. One would have to stumble through the path by accident in the middle of the forest.
Lea followed quickly and summoned his Keyblade, lighting the uneven ground and keeping the dozens of awakened and irritated bats at bay. Soon, a bright light at the end of the tunnel signaled their exit. Kairi's heart jumped when she heard Max's whinny from the outside. Sunlight revealed both Heartless and Nobodies to be the source of his distress.
The horse was holding his ground, but the mob was blocking their path forward regardless.
"Ugh, go away already!" Sora shouted.
In unison, the three of them summoned their Keyblades, but Kairi's eyes soon focussed on something else. A short distance away, on the top of a small hill within this hidden clearing, sat a tall, narrow tower with a pointed roof and a single window.
They'd made it to Rapunzel's tower, but Flynn was still nowhere in sight.
"Flynn!" Kairi cried, and Max whinnied and stomped a hoof towards the tower. "I need to get there. If Marluxia is trying to corrupt hearts with Darkness, I might be able to reverse it."
"Go, Kairi," Lea said. "We'll take care of the small fry."
Sora nodded in agreement. "Be safe. We're right behind you, promise." A moment later, he turned back and rushed at the enemies. Lea threw flames at the flower-like Nobodies, giving her an opening.
Kairi bowed thanks to her companions and swiftly traded her Keyblade for her sail glider. She evaded the flying nobodies and flew straight towards the single open window at the highest room in the tower.
The first thing she noticed upon launching into the tower, however, was the black coat.
"Welcome, Princess," Marluxia towered over her.
Kairi instinctively pushed herself back against the window, but still faced him. At Marluxia's feet near the window, Flynn lay on the floor, gripping his side. Rapunzel's suppressed scream brought her full attention to the far side of the room, where she was muzzled, restrained, and being pulled by the hair into a trap door by a cloaked woman with dark graying hair.
Kairi did the first thing that came to her mind and resummoned Destiny's Embrace. Before Marluxia could move in on her, she held it straight in the air and yelled, "Light!" A bright flash illuminated the room, sending both Marluxia and Rapunzel's kidnapper stumbling back.
Rapunzel tried to run forward, but the woman's grip maintained on her hair. Kairi couldn't imagine how much that would hurt, even for magical hair. The woman's malevolent gaze turned to Kairi. She instinctively stepped forward, prepared to wrestle Rapunzel free herself, but Marluxia stepped in her way, easily towering over her again.
"Quite a small space to fight, don't you think?" He asked.
Kairi ignored him and yelled to the woman past him. "We don't have to fight. As you can see, I have Light too," Kairi paused, and the woman, who previously had paid her no attention, snapped her eyes in Kairi's direction. "The same that lives in Rapunzel's hair, and alot of it."
Rapunzel shook her head at Kairi, though she couldn't speak, her eyes begged her not to continue.
She continued anyway, "If it's Light you need, use mine instead." She released Destiny's Embrace. "Let Rapunzel go. I know she's not really your daughter."
She'd piqued the woman's interest, evident by her widening pupils. "Call me Gothel, and Rapunzel has always been mine, because that light is mine. With it, I am forever young, forever beautiful." She paused to eye Kairi up and down, yet still held Rapunzel's chain taut. "How does yours work?"
"Don't do it, Kairi!" Rapunzel shouted, having managed to free her mouth amidst the struggle.
"It's okay, Rapunzel, you can help Flynn." With a knowing glance that tried to communicate, Trust me, Kairi hoped it was enough and turned her attention back to Gothel. "It works the same as hers." Kairi stepped forward. "I don't even have to sing."
Gothel's eyes darted across the room, from Kairi to Flynn and back to Rapunzel.
"Very well," she released Rapunzel, who immediately darted across the room to Flynn's side. All she needed was to give them a little time. If she could heal Flynn, they'd have a fighting chance.
Kairi approached Gothel. "Let me help you," she extended her arms forward, palms facing up, "take my hands."
Instead of taking them gently, Gothel pulled her back to the dark corner. Though her skin looked young, it felt unnatural, like leather that was ready to crack and fall off. Maybe she'd get lucky. Maybe she could rid the Darkness within her heart. She took her hands, and focussed her Light into Gothel's heart.
Coldness overtook her senses before she could even begin. Whereas whatever Darkness had infected Lea's heart had been new and easy to uproot, here Kairi felt like she'd just stumbled into a place where she wasn't welcome. A place long since corrupted, much longer than Marluxia could've been there. Kairi wasn't sure if any Light lived within her at all anymore. An icy sting pushed back into Kairi, forcing her to withdraw her hand.
At the same time, Gothel pulled away. "You witch!" she hissed. "You think you can trick me with your lies?!" With surprising force, she pushed Kairi back.
Kairi had failed again.
Gothel rushed at the couple on the floor, and Kairi moved between them. If she couldn't heal the woman, the least she could do was keep her at bay.
But before she could move, Marluxia grasped her arm. "You've interfered enough," he said before throwing her back, right back through the window. With nothing to grip, she fell backwards out of the window she'd jumped through only moments ago.
Her failure made her fall even heavier, but still, now armed with the knowledge that Gothel couldn't be reasoned with, she had to try again. She turned and dug the flowery teeth of Destiny's Embrace into the stone wall to slow her descent, unsure if it would be enough.
"Kairi, I've got you!" Sora's energetic voice was music to her ears before a swirl of air apparated just beneath her feet. The updraft was just enough to stop her fall, allowing her to float safely to the grass below.
She found her savior running towards her, with the area now cleared of visible enemies.
"Thanks," she smiled, which he eagerly returned.
Lea joined them. "What's going on up there?"
"I couldn't heal Gothel- I mean Rapunzel's captor. The Darkness in her heart was too old. Flynn's hurt, and Marluxia-"
"Marluxia's in there?!" Sora cried, almost all of the joy she'd seen before now gone. "I need to get to him."
"Oh, that won't be necessary," the voice that had whispered next to Kairi's ear moments before echoed from behind them. She turned, and there the man stood, only a few feet from them. "I figured it's time I face you myself, rather than sending my subordinates."
"You!" Sora yelled. "You're the one who made me forget about Kairi."
Marluxia chuckled. "Oh, I did no such thing. I merely encouraged the process. It's good to see you again, Sora."
Sora's scowl deepened, and Kairi placed a hand on his arm and stepped forward. "You're done using people to get what you want."
"You had me fooled for a second, Princess," Marluxia said. "I actually thought you'd give your Light to spare Rapunzel."
"I would have. She has no part in this, so leave her be."
"You what?" Sora turned to her, his stance faltering before he gripped the Kingdom Key tight and faced Marluxia again.
"Enough, Mar!" Lea shouted. "What is it you want?"
"It's not about what I want," Marluxia said. "It's about what's necessary for us to succeed. That girl may not be a Princess of Heart, but a piece of Light still resides within her. Better yet, her own mother had already yielded so easily to Darkness. What better way is there to control a Light than to use her own mother under the pretense of love?"
"She's not her mother, and it's not love!" Kairi shouted. "It's kidnapping and manipulation! No one deserves that, even in the Organization."
"But you all aren't above holding people hostage, now are you?" Lea stepped forward and summoned his flaming Keyblade. "Leave, Mar, you're outmatched here."
Suddenly, a flash of light burst from the tower window above. A frail scream followed shortly after. Out of the window fell Gothel, though she wasn't visible beneath her cloak. Her screams grew muffled as she fell. Sora ran to catch her, but there was no longer a body for him to grab. Only a cloud of ash dusted the grass below them, and Sora dropped her cloak in shock and stepped away.
Kairi remembered the connection between Rapunzel's hair and her mother's youth, and a new panic came over her. She looked up to Sora, hoping her eyes communicated enough.
"Rapunzel!" Kairi shouted. She moved to throw Destiny's Embrace, but Marluxia rushed up and restrained her hand over her head.
Lea came to her aid, but Marluxia teleported away before he could connect a hit.
"I think I'll stay," the man's voice echoed from near the tower, "especially now that I can have a little more help."
They turned to find Marluxia standing where Gothel had fallen. With a flick of his hand, her cloak and ashes began to rise, soon becoming engulfed in a large dark void. A great wind joined in the fray, swirling in towards the figure.
What emerged from the small storm of Darkness looked nothing like Gothel, but a monster nearly half the size of Rapunzel's tower. If the Darkness that Kairi had felt within the woman's heart was any indicator, then this surely reflected the dark heart of Rapunzel's kidnapper.
She took on the form of a plant-like Heartless, with bark skin and a tail that resembled a long flexible trunk. Branches and leaves sprouted from behind her head, and four clawed arms protruded from her body. She floated like a ghost high into the air before fixing her unsettling gaze upon Kairi and her friends. On sight, she let out an ear-piercing scream.
Kairi looked to her companions and found reassurance in their determination.
She caught movement to the side where Marluxia had once been, and dodged out of the way just as his large scythe swiped over her head. Suddenly, the appearance and fighting style of the Nobodies she'd encountered in this world made perfect sense, and she hoped that her experience in fighting them would pay off against their creator as well. Destiny's Embrace arced up to counter his blow, but missed its target.
The man rushed back in but was interrupted when Sora shoved him to the side. The rage on Sora's face hadn't faltered. In fact, it had grown even deeper, and despite being outnumbered, Marluxia still wore a mischievous smirk.
He was taunting Sora, attacking Kairi just to rile him up.
"Sora, stop!" Kairi yelled.
She ran to pull him back, but a large vine whipped between them. Kairi then came face-to-face with the large Heartless emblem that marked whatever Gothel had become. She couldn't let Sora face Marluxia alone right now, but she had to get to him.
Lea. Where was Lea?
She got her answer when a wave of fire shot from the side and blasted the tree-like Heartless. It recoiled as its face, along with several leaves on its head, erupted into flames.
Lea ran beside her and smirked. "Finally, something I can actually set on fire!"
Kairi rushed in while it fought off the flames and flashed the Light from her Keyblade. It fell back again, colliding hard with the ground. She wasted no more time in chipping away at the thick bark that acted as its barrier, and Lea quickly joined her. She needed to help Sora, but she needed this thing to be out of her way first.
It let out a loud shriek again, only this time painfully close to her ear. She could do nothing but drop her blade and grip her ears as the pain reverberated throughout her entire body.
When she opened her eyes again, the Heartless was far above them, summoning an angry flock of ravens from its mouth. The birds dived right for them, and Kairi and Lea barely raised their blades in time to fend off most of the flock. A few caught her legs, but she held her ground.
Lea grumbled, "You wanna play hard-to-reach, okay then." A moment later, he summoned his rider and flew up to the Heartless to deliver another heavy blow of fire.
Kairi turned to find Sora fighting against Marluxia alone and ran for him. She wedged herself between the crossed Keyblade and scythe and sent a blast of Light in Marluxia's direction. He shielded his eyes and stumbled back, but his composure remained.
"You won't win against us," she said.
Marluxia huffed and twirled his weapon in hand. A moment later, a pool of swirling Darkness appeared beneath Sora and Kairi's feet, forcing them apart. Kairi felt a force pulling her in towards Marluxia and found Sora under the same pull.
"Sora!" She cried before casting her spell of protection on him.
Just as she thought, Sora jumped in front of her as Marluxia brought his scythe down. The strike ricocheted off of Sora's back and sent Marluxia falling down the hill. Before he could recover a wall of fire erupted all around him, and Lea landed to flank his other side.
"You really thought you could face three guardians?" Sora shouted.
Kairi froze. Despite the anger still in Sora's voice, hearing him acknowledge her as a Guardian of Light made her heart flutter. She turned her gaze to him, took in the hard determined lines on his face, the teasing smirk that had never left even in the heat of battle, and the glint in his eyes. He didn't even notice her staring, didn't pick up on the effect that his words had on her.
So she merely smiled, grateful that Sora could still be his same old self even if Marluxia got to him, and faced their adversary once again.
"Give up now," Lea said. "Some from the old Organization have changed. You could have the chance too."
Marluxia chuckled. "Perhaps you're right that I can't face you all, but I'll pass on the job offer. Some among us are doing quite well, I'm sure you're dying to see."
Lea growled, and the wall of fire around him doubled in height.
Marluxia addressed Kairi before Lea could retort to him. "You're quite strong, Princess, stronger than Xehanort thought. But you're too late here. I'll leave you to deal with what's left of Gothel and your friends."
With that, Marluxia conjured a dark portal and disappeared, and Lea dropped his wall of fire with a frustrated yell.
"Ugh, what's wrong with him?!" he shouted.
"We'll talk later," Kairi said, pointing back towards the tower. "We still have a couple of problems."
Atop Rapunzel's tower, the Heartless had coiled it's long tail around the spire. It cried out again, though thankfully less painfully from such a distance. Vines began to grow along the ground and attempted to entangle Kairi's feet. She stepped out of the area, but a large thorned cage closed her in.
"Kairi!" Sora shouted.
"I'm fine, don't stop moving!"
Both men, though visibly frustrated, nodded in agreement. They turned and made their way towards the tower, avoiding more vines and cages that tried to slow them down.
She hacked at the brambles crawling up her ankles with Destiny's Embrace and broke her feet free. Without another moment to waste, she threw her Keyblade into the air to transform it once again and hopped on. Escaping the narrow space was difficult as her glider scraped the edges of the thick plants, but she breached the top before it could fully close in on her.
She sped towards the Heartless, and the sound of her glider alerted its attention from the two men approaching from below. She'd never brought her Keyblade back to its original form midair, but there was a first time for everything. Flying high above the massive form, she leapt from her glider and began to freefall, calling Destiny's Embrace back to her hand at the same time. Her blade found purchase on it's trunk-like face, cracking the shell where Lea had already burnt it.
The Heartless lost its grip and began to plummet.
Kairi skidded along the roof tiles, but the angle was too steep for her to stop. She gripped the edge of the roof and glanced down to find Sora and Lea putting more cracks and scorch marks in the monster's hide. It wouldn't last much longer against all three of them at once.
She took a deep breath and loosened her grip. As she fell, she directed her Keyblade down, aiming her blade right for its exposed body.
"Incoming!" she shouted.
Just before she could strike, smoke began to pour from its wounds. With a loud crack, her blade sank deep into the bark, as did Sora's and Lea's from the sides. A moment later, the Heartless burst into a cloud of flames and familiar inky Darkness, throwing everyone else back.
Kairi fell against the stone wall of the tower. When she stood, Sora and Lea's voices echoed up to her from downhill, and soon Lea's vibrant red hair appeared over the crest.
"You okay?" he asked, absorbing the remaining flames back into his blade. "Sorry about the fire. Got a little carried away, I guess."
"Guys, that was…" Sora paused, giving her a look unlike any she'd seen from him before. It flustered her easily, and she wished she had something larger than her Keyblade to hide her face behind.
Lea nudged him forward, which seemed to break Sora out of his stupor. "A-amazing. That was amazing!"
Kairi giggled, "Thanks, so were you both. We make a pretty good team, the three of us."
The brief moment of reprise suddenly ended when Kairi recalled their other companions. "Rapunzel and Flynn!"
"You guys go," Lea said. "I need to collect my thoughts, and I don't think they want any new faces up there."
Kairi nodded, and her and Sora quickly mounted her glider and flew up to the tower window. Her second entrance was slower and more steady this time.
The sight was grim, causing Kairi to freeze before she could take another step inside. Rapunzel cradled Flynn's limp form on the cold tile floor, weeping desperately onto his chest. Her long hair had turned from golden to a dark brown, having been severed at her neckline. Gothel's deterioration suddenly made sense, as well as Rapunzel's sorrow. Her only means of healing Flynn had been taken, and the broken glass shard resting inches from his open hand told her who had cut it.
For a moment, their presence wasn't acknowledged.
"No," Sora muttered.
Rapunzel's head didn't move, but she spoke. "He cut it. Said he couldn't let her use me. But now he's-"
Kairi slowly approached and, for the second time that day, closed her eyes and focussed on each heart around her.
Rapunzel's Light was still strong, despite the Light no longer saturating her hair. Flynn's heart was still there, though both the Light and Darkness within it were fading quickly. Now more than ever, Kairi wished she could heal more traditionally.
When she withdrew her hand and opened her eyes, she found Rapunzel watching her hopefully.
"I'm sorry," Kairi said. "I wish I could-" she stopped herself. The last thing Rapunzel needed was for Kairi to pity herself, so instead she merely bowed and retreated to give them space.
Rapunzel's expression fell, but there was no sign of defeat on her still. She took Flynn's face within her hands and turned him towards her, resting her forehead against his. The scene felt too intimate for Kairi to witness, so she turned herself away.
Only to collide with Sora's chest. He made no motion to move or jerk away from her, so she acted on instinct and wrapped her arms around his waist. Soon she felt his warmth around her shoulders.
"We're too late," she muttered into him.
For a moment, he just held her. It was the longest she'd stayed in his arms since their reunion, but now there wasn't any joyous giggling or spinning. Still, it was more comforting than she could imagine.
Suddenly, his head perked up. "No we weren't."
Before she could ask why, his arms gripped her shoulders and turned her around. With her face buried before, she hadn't noticed the golden glow illuminating the room from the fatal wound in Flynn's side.
"That...wasn't me," Kairi muttered.
The light grew brighter until Kairi had to shield her eyes. She knew the radiance of Kingdom Hearts' pure Light anywhere, having felt it within her heart numerous times. Rapunzel never recoiled from Flynn's side through the transformation, and as the room faded back to normal, every eye was on the unconscious man.
The faintest cough escaped from his lungs, and Kairi's heart flooded with relief. She nearly collapsed back into Sora.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel exclaimed.
Eugene?!
Despite their company, Flynn's attention immediately went to the woman who'd saved his life. His hand raised to comb through her short, darkened hair.
"Did I ever tell you, I've got a thing for brunettes?" he croaked.
Rapunzel embraced him tenderly, and now Kairi really felt like she was intruding. To Sora, she nodded toward the still open hatch in the floor, and they quietly made their way down the winding staircase, seemingly unnoticed by their two friends.
As fresh air met her face again outside the tower, Sora's hand found hers and held her back.
"Kairi wait," he said, and she turned to find his head hanging low. "I'm sorry you had to see me like-" he stopped himself, his eyes betraying his search for the right words. "I've never felt so angry before, and it got the best of me."
"Sora…" Kairi stepped closer and held his hand between both of hers. "It's okay to be angry, especially at that. I won't lie and say I didn't feel heartbroken myself," she paused, and his eyes widened with worry. "-But not because of you, Sora! None of that was your fault, and…" Now she was the one trying to articulate. "I did see more Darkness within your heart, Sora, but that doesn't take away from who you are."
She took a deep breath and summoned the courage to say one more thing. "It doesn't take away from the boy I spent the lantern festival with."
Sora blushed, and Kairi was glad she'd taken that bold step.
"Kairi, what did you mean earlier when you said you'd...give up your Light?"
"I tried to use it to help Gothel, of course with no luck."
"That was reckless." His words held judgment, but his tone did not.
She giggled when a smirk cracked his face. Stepping first back into the sunlight from the creaking dust-covered staircase, her hand never left his. "Sounds like someone else I know."
The journey back to the Kingdom felt relatively short, in no small part due to the lack of Heartless and Nobodies hiding in the forest. The further they travelled, the more Rapunzel clung to Flynn - now Eugene - nervously. Kairi could practically hear Rapunzel's thoughts, questioning whether her real parents would recognize her, whether Eugene's previous crimes would be forgiven. But like always, Eugene's easygoing nature always calmed her.
The look in their eyes had changed drastically since their first journey as well, especially towards one another. Kairi knew it to be love, even if they never said so out loud. Everytime she caught the two gazing at one another, she found her thoughts drifting to the Keyblade bearer beside her. Her childhood friend, her sanctuary, whose smile could lift her heart in an instant.
She'd brought him back with her own Light. Could that mean she...?
Even though a royal guard's horse was with them, it took quite a bit of persuasion to convince the guards to not arrest Eugene on sight, and even more charm to suggest that the brunette woman with them was the missing blonde princess. But after a very awkward and tense escort to the castle, all they could do was wait.
When the doors finally burst open, the look on the King and Queen's faces made the entire journey worth it. Kairi was prepared to leave them to a private tearful reunion, but after Eugene was pulled in for a hug, no one else could resist participating either. Thankfully, the three Keyblade bearers were forgiven for breaking into - and out of - their prison.
All too quickly, the time for their inevitable departure came. Through teary eyes, Kairi embraced Rapunzel, and the princess assured her. "You and I aren't so different, Kairi. I know you possess an incredible destiny on your own."
"I'm glad we met," Kairi smiled, "and I look forward to seeing how your kingdom flourishes with you."
Kairi ushered the elusive Lea to join in on their goodbyes. "If it weren't for Lea, we wouldn't have known what went wrong so quickly."
Eugene patted his and Sora's shoulder. "You all helped me get to Rapunzel in time, so thank you. Come back soon so I can show you the ins and outs of the Kingdom without hiding."
Lea chuckled, obviously uncomfortable with all the attention. "Well, Kairi healed me, so I guess it all comes back around."
Sora spoke up last. "I came here to look for Kairi, but she ended up finding me here." He shot her a quick smile before hugging Eugene and Rapunzel tightly. "I'm grateful to have met you all."
As Sora's smile quickly won over both guards and royalty present, Kairi found her answer.
She did love him.
A/N: Thank you so much for reading! We're through with Rapunzel's world, one of the worlds I was most excited for, both in KH3 and to write for this story! I hope you enjoyed, and there's plenty more story to come soon!
Whether or not I'm able to crank something out for SoKai Day, I'll still be celebrating SoKai right alongside this talented community.