Chapter 34: Loss of Me


Genesis stalked into the viewing room above one of Hojo's labs, right up to Sephiroth who was impassively staring down as doctors worked over Kairi's charred husk, and demanded, "The hell hasn't she been treated yet?! You texted..."

"Her flesh was too burnt for the syringes to go through, the needles broke or couldn't even jab through," said Sephiroth mildly, "They had to cut into her lungs to get a breather into her or she would have suffocated hours ago. As it was, the mako pump system from the reactors was damaged from one of the summon's bombardments. It took time to get enough mako manually drawn for the mako shower."

Genesis gritted his teeth, a snarl on his lips...

Angeal caught up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Easy Gen, easy. Sorry Seph, he's been in a mood since the half-way point back to HQ."

"I imagine that was roughly when Kairi was caught in the summon's death throes," said Sephiroth mildly, "Tell me, Genesis, do you have any idea how she challenged the summon at its full strength when she couldn't handle Miss Verdot empowered with it?"

Genesis stood next to him, staring down achingly at Kairi, or well, the mass of doctors, and the abominable Hojo, crowding around her. "She pulled us in, drew strength from each and every one of her children, and me."

Sephiroth takes in a sharp breath. "She can pull power from those with her cells?"

Genesis nodded.

Sephiroth frowns. "I... see. That would be... considerable. Over a hundred SOLDIER's power shoved into one body."

"And the Mother persona as well," said Genesis uneasily, "We felt it, like a malignant taint, Kairi drew that in as well. The girls will have questions I imagine once this blows over."

Sephiroth nods. "I assume taking in the 'Mother' is how she figured out the wing and that strange energy."

Genesis shrugged. "I'm... not honestly too sure. When I mean we were all drawn in, I mean like what Hojo had done when he demanded Kairi go into my head, except... more. There was almost no confusion, just... just one ca-joined mass, one dominant personality, just Kairi."

A pensive look crossed Sephiroth's face. "...And you are alright? No side effects?"

He nods. "None that I can tell."

"The others?"

"Most of the girls are... relatively alright, save for the few who died."

"The process killed them?" said Sephiroth sharply.

"No, Kairi was fatally injured during the fight, thirteen of the girls bled out their own consciousness, their lifeforce, and fed it into Kairi to rejuvenate her," said Genesis softly, "Legend shall speak of sacrifice at world's end. The wind sails over the water's surface, quietly, but surely."

"Not that I would want anymore causalities.. none sacrificed themselves for this?" said Sephiroth, motioning down at Kairi.

"No, from what I could feel... the Mother personality somehow split the merge shortly before the explosion," said Genesis icily, "Almost intentionally if I had to guess. It was... more conscious than the rest of us in that state. Most of us were just... there but not. The thirteen who sacrificed themselves were the ones she whispered the knowledge of how to do so to."

He gritted his teeth. "Kairi loves them, that abominable persona couldn't have cared less. Even if Kairi wouldn't have lived without it... that persona prepped them for the slaughter. None of the rest know how to do more than clumsily allow Kairi to reach for their power, which she can't do unconscious, otherwise I would expect foolish sacrifice when we have a solution ready to be used here."

"Its hard to remember sometimes, that Kairi has such a darkness living in her," muttered Angeal, "As much as I wouldn't wish her pain, its good that the enhancement was delayed until all three of us were here, incase she... relapses into the persona."

"I have a theory on that which I would like to test," said Sephiroth, "Each enhancement or mako booster, she has been thrown into a violent situation after. If we merely order her to rest and sleep..."

"Perhaps the beast will lay still, hmm?" said Genesis.

Sephiroth nods. "Assuming of course that she survives. Hojo has voiced his surprise more than once that she is even alive at the moment."

Genesis grimaced. "She's a burning mass in the mental web. Hurts to even focus her way."

Sephiroth sighs and rubs his face. "...and how is the rest of the female division taking the losses, compared to last time?"

"Its... muddled, muted," said Genesis awkwardly, "Without Kairi everything feels... sluggish. Numb. The web is in disarray. I'm... not actually sure how many retained the knowledge or realizes that there were casualties. Especially...

He hesitates. "Especially since they're not dead like young Gale was. Ripped away. These thirteen... fed their lifeforce into Kairi. Its like they're gone but not gone. There is no 'them' anymore in the mental web, their presence and identity are gone, but it doesn't actually feel like they're gone, just..."

He looks down grimly at his apprentice. "Just that they're a part of Kairi."

Sephiroth... doesn't look like he quite gets it. Its hard, for someone not connected to the web, to understand. After all, dead or alive was a distinction most lived by, especially someone like Sephiroth who wouldn't know any form of religion if a holy book smacked him on the back of his head. Dead-in-all-ways-that-matter-but-not isn't quite a state of existence most would understand.

The conversation ends when Hojo waves up to them, the doctors part...

Genesis grimaces. They had to cut away much of the burnt flesh, and all of her clothing that had been seared into her. Its... not a pleasant sight. The doctors put her on a gurney and cart her away. They move to the mako showers. Its not often used, 1st Class is a special promotion very rarely given out. 1st Class must be earned. In this instance, not only is it needed to save her, but killing that summon definitely earned her the right. They move into another viewing room above the showers. Kairi is set down on the floor, glowing vials are injected into her body, the doctors pull out the breathing support, leave the room, then the showers start and Mako pours down onto and into Kairi's exposed flesh.

At first there is nothing for a long, agonizing minute.

Then the twitching starts.

Then her agonized consciousness flares to awareness.

She wails, not aloud, her throat isn't healed enough yet, but it rips down the web, making Genesis gasp in pain. It doesn't take too long before she starts screaming and howling aloud either. Slowly, her flesh starts to mend, she writhes and twists on the floor of the showers. The sight of her squirming along with her flesh slowly stitching itself together and spreading back over her body is nausea inducing, he has to hold back a retch. He is mildly surprised that even her hair grows back. Within fifteen agonizing minutes, Kairi is physically resorted. Wing included. The last of the summon's damage washed away.

Mentally though, he's not sure where Kairi's head is. Because her consciousness is all over the place, disoriented, and very, very confused. The Mako surely isn't helping either, the longer it rains down on her, the more skittish and delirious her mind feels. Finally, the allotted time passes and Hojo flicks a switch, shutting them off. Genesis notes one of the doctors holding a spare uniform, a 2nd Class one, but that's fine, she'll get to design her own if she wishes. Otherwise she'll get the standard 1st class uniform to work with.

For now, Genesis merely grabs the uniform from the doctors and thumbs downward to his friends. Sephiroth and Angeal nod, following in behind him. If Kairi gets violent, or the Mother persona surfaces, they will restrain and immediately knock her own. Assuming they can even stick a head injury to her long enough to render her unconscious anymore that is. He walks down, into the room, and cautiously approaches his shivering apprentice.

"Kairi?"

She lolls her head towards him, blinking slowly, no recognition on her face.

"Come apprentice, lets get you clothed," he said, kneeling down and helping her.

She reflexively, if but clumsily, slots her limbs through the appropriate holes. Her wing is... difficult, so he merely cuts a hole in the back of her uniform. Its not like its something to hide anymore. He already had seen videos circulating the web on his PHS on the way back, zoomed in as much as they could on the titanic struggle above Midgar. The videos he has seen might not be the clearest, but he's certain one will be cleaned up enough to identify Kairi. A redheaded female SOLDIER with a wing going toe to toe with a summon that rained death down on Midgar and made quite the lightshow isn't something that can be hushed up. Not where it happened at least, and not with the damage and death.

The President literally can't.

The public was already going to be baying for blood over the loss of Corel and Gongaga along with the Junon and Midgar casualties. The President has to offer up AVALANCHE on a platter, a clear picture that wont even really be lying. He doubts they'll give Felicia Verdot as a name, most likely just sticking with AVALANCHE Leader Elfe. AVALANCHE will, rightly, be painted the villains. Kairi, the valiant hero who struck their ultimate weapon down. How they spin the wing... he's not quite sure. Its not his job to do so anyway. He is however content to keep his own hidden for the time being.

"N-n-no v-v-oice shish t-time," slurs out Kairi.

Genesis frowns. "Voice?"

"W-wana... w-wana...," she struggles, "S...seee... Ssssoooraaa."

That name, where had he...

"Want... I want... to see...," she struggled, eyes going in and out of focus, "Sora."

She holds up a hand, and it glows with light.

His eyes go wide with recognition. "Oh not this again!"

"Genesis what...," begins Angeal.

The light surges from her hand and engulfs them all...


The place Genesis finds himself floating above is not the same as the last, when Kairi did this during her 2nd Class Enhancements. Instead, he, Angeal, Sephiroth, and Kairi, float above a desert wasteland, and a battlefield. Those black humanoid monsters from before are there teeming in the thousands, and in so many more shapes sizes and forms than before. All of them surging for a group of warriors in a circle formation around a group of six woman/girls...

He squints down.

...who look like they haven't had a proper meal in months, skin and bones and weary, and so, so crushed by the world, bandaged and bruised. Protecting them are seven warriors wielding... key like weapons? He recalls the boy Sora that Kairi had known doing so and thought it weird, but all of them? And... and one of them was a bloody humanoid MOUSE of all things flipping through the air with such mobility that it would make 2nd's jealous. It is dressed in a black zipper vest, red pants, and very oddly big shoes. Genesis stares at the oddity for a moment long before a powerful explosion of magic draws his attention.

A graceful blue-haired woman cartwheels away from the energy blast, a shimmering shield of some kind of barrier surrounding her. Wearing a black/blue halter top with pink belts crossed over her chest. Gloved, with odd scraps of armor here and there across her body, and her very oddly pointed armored shoes compared to the rest of her cloth clothing. She burns though, with magic intensity Genesis can feel. She swings her key weapon and energy shoots out from it, bolts of lightning, blasts of fire, gravity-like-magic that sucks in and obliterates hordes of the monsters coming for her.

"XEHANORT!" she screams, exhaustion in her voice, "Any last ideas?!"

Genesis's eyes go to the responder. "At this point Master Aqua, any idea is a moot one. The Doll was my last idea without being able to create the Kye-Blade, and it utterly failed to replace the missing princess."

The voice belongs to a young man. Silvery hair, piercing yellow eyes, his top a tight black shirt with red straps over it, his bottom an almost Wutain samurai-like clothing, hakama maybe? His key-weapon is... menacing compared to the others he sees, black and silver with a wicked eye glaring out of it. Dark energy surrounds the man, and he wields it expertly, surging through the air with powerful swings of his weapon. Shooting off energy. Sinking into the group and coming up in the middle of a pack of the monsters with a giant purple hand that collapses and obliterates them.

"I... I'm sorry," half sobs half squeaks out a young voice.

Genesis's head turns... is that Kairi? No... the girl looks so similar to Kairi when she was a young teenager, just... black hair instead of red. Garbed in a full body black coat, she wields a key-weapon much like she recalls Sora's being. She strikes and surges at the monsters near her, but she doesn't take on the full brunt. She is between the distance separating Xehanort and 'Master' Aqua, cleaning up any that get through.

"Enough Xehanort, Xion tried," comes a sharp voice of a young man, "We asked of her what no one could do. When nothing else we tried did anything more than delay the inevitable, what did you honestly expect?"

There is another silver haired young man. Perhaps related to the first? Not sure. He's dressed in absolutely hideous yellow vest that clashed horribly with the blue jeans. His key-weapon is somewhat similar to the menacing one. Red and black, but with an odd blue wing at the end as its teeth. He holds himself grimly, determined, but with little tolerance to his own health. He fights as recklessly as Kairi does, just without her healing factor. Genesis pegs him as the first to give out in the warriors, if only because the man will want to go out fighting.

"Way to be a downer Riku," comes a somewhat familiar voice, and then he sees the boy Sora again. Same clothing as before, though its looser on him. He's not nearly as fed as he had been last time Genesis had seen him. All of them looked like they needed a date with a dinner table to be frank. The Sora boy is somehow oddly cheerful despite the impossible odds coming for them. No less lethal then before though, in fact, there is much more form in his strikes now. Properly trained compared to the sloppy self-training he had before.

"Sora...," comes Kairi's whisper, looking down at him blankly.

"Sorry loser, but the downer is right," comes a voice that Genesis can practically hear the sneer in.

"Piss off Van-Ven," calls out Riku.

"Don't fucking call me that! I AM VENTUS! More than either of them ever were!" is the snarled reply.

Genesis locates that one in the bloody mass of dark monsters. Its a blond haired teenage boy with yellow eyes in a skin-tight red and black body-suit duel-wielding two different key-like weapons. He has an entire section to himself, throwing around power recklessly, obliterating his enemy in hoards. Definitely not a team player that one.

"Yeah? So what, the only loser here is you Mr. Couldn't-form-the-blade."

"Turns out a willing merge doesn't do the trick, the fuck was I or them supposed to know?" snapped back Ventus.

"Enough!" called out the Mouse, "Focus on the battle at hand, nows not the time to be at eachother's throat.

"Well your majesty," mocks Ventus, "When else are we going to? I don't see us getting out of this one. Unless you can pull a scheme out of your ass or a miracle happens, we're toast. How bout for once you wipe that happy-go-lucky grin off your face Mickey and accept reality?"

"Where there is light, there is always hope," countered the Mouse.

"Genesis," says Sephiroth, floating closer to him, "What is going on? What is this?"

"I... don't fully know how to answer that," admits Genesis, "I might have left out that this happened once before. Different place, the only one I recognize is the Sora kid that gives Zack Fair's hair a run for its money."

Angeal snorts. "That's true."

Angeal surveys the battlefield grimly, amusement gone in an instant. "Is this... real? Some kind of hallucination we've been dragged into?"

"Not sure to be honest," said Genesis, "Never figured it out, shoved it to the back of my mind, had a war going on to deal with after all."

Then a scream sounds.

Genesis looks down to see Sora lose his key. A tide of the monsters overwhelming him and dragging him to the ground.

"SORA!" screams Kairi, and Genesis feels her presence snap into intense conscious focus.

She surges downward, blazing with light. Genesis sighs and calls out, "Apprentice! You could do nothing before..."

Then Kairi touches down, slams her light infused fist into the ground, and obliterates all the nearby monsters in a massive explosion of light.

Genesis's jaw drops. "Or not."

Kairi rises to her feet, wing extending, fury on her face. A high pitched whine fills the air, energy shimmers around her hand, and a key-weapon appears in her grasp. Blood red length, white teeth, a handle made of countless interconnecting links with what look like names etched into each one, impossible to read at the distance. What looks like a Keychain dangles from the end of the handle-grip, a blue-heart symbol hanging from it. A green and red vine oddly snakes around the blade and handle, almost like it was trying to strangle it. Despite never seeing the weapon before, he hears a name in his mind.

The Mother's Key.

"K-kairi?!" exclaims Sora, shocked and so very evidently seeing her.

"Genesis! Angeal! Sephrioth!" she roars, "Defend the survivors, square formation, give them a breather and show no mercy to these things!"

Genesis hesitates for a moment, but the others don't. Angeal surges down, drawing his buster, and lands near Aqua, swinging his might blade and severing through hordes of the monsters. Aqua stumbles back, wary and alarmed, but smartly doesn't attack. Sephiroth goes to the opposite end, near the Riku boy, who is giving him disbelieving looks as if he can't fathom either why he is there, or why he is fighting for them. Strange, something to dwell on later. Genesis makes himself known by raining fireballs from the sky and landing in front of the Mouse who squeaks in surprise.

"Well Ven, seems a miracle happened," said the Mouse.

The utter cheek.

He wants to keep the sassy little thing as a pet.

"A temporary one at best," said Xehanort, a quick turn of his head sighting all but Sora retreating to the center around the six woman/girls to take a breather. Sora still stays on the ground, staring up at Kairi in shock, "Stretch out and feel, they aren't truly here. Their forms are projections, powered to the near physical by the Princess if I had to guess. I suppose she heard you in your time of need, Sora, but it won't last."

Princess? Were they referring to Kairi?

"Kairi!" sobs Sora, rising to his feet, "I... its been years... where...?"

"Another Realm," is all Kairi says grimly, briefly looking down with confusion at her key-weapon before turning and cutting down the nearest monster coming for her, "I don't really know how I got there, I don't know how to get back home. Honestly... I... I had kind of given up hope on it. But I'm not leaving you, not this time."

Sora sucks in a breath, lets it out, and grabs his key, moving to support Kairi. Its... odd. They've never fought alongside one another before, but from the brief flashes Genesis gets when he spins through battle, they fight with a synergy that should have taken years to form. He also has questions for his apprentice. The hell does she mean by 'Realm?'. Genesis brushes it away as he returns to mindless slaughter. These beasts aren't difficult for him, but they are numerous, and some of them don't fall to single blows despite his own great physical and magical power. It is far difficult to hold the line against such odds here than it was against the Wutai.

"Okay, anyone want to tell us why Sephiroth of all people is both alive again and fighting for us?" asked Riku.

"Kairi asked," answered Sephiroth simply, briefly glancing back at Riku, "I was not aware we had met before. Nor that I had ever died."

Riku cocks his head, eyebrows furrowed. "You... aren't him, are you? You look similar, voice is almost the same, just... less insane really."

"Somehow, I think I don't want to know," said Sephiroth mildly.

Genesis abruptly feels like he's being yanked. Half lifting off the ground before settling, nearly getting swarmed before he waves his hand and obliterates the shadowy monsters with a chain burst of Fire3.

"What was that?" said Angeal sharply, "Feels like something just reached into my chest and pulled."

"Like I said," said Xehanort, "You aren't truly here. Your projections wont last. If I understand what the Princess meant, you don't exist in our realm, no, our reality, and somehow, neither does she. It would explain so much, why we could never find her, why another wasn't born in her place. The power was taken and not replaced."

"Prin... Kairi, apprentice dear, you're royalty?" called out Genesis.

"Hell if I know," she called back.

Then another yank, only this time, Genesis's form starts to lose solidity, and he loses the ability to harm his opponents. "Blast it."

"NO!" screams Kairi.

Genesis rises into the air along with Sephiroth and Angeal, the Key Warriors moving to ready themselves, grim.

"NO NO NO!" wails Kairi, her key-weapon flickering out of existence.

Sora is briefly overwhelmed, taken to the ground by the monsters, surprised by the loss of his partner all the sudden.

"NO!" screams Kairi, briefly solidifying again to banish the creatures with a blast of light.

She helps Sora to his feet, then her form starts flickering, tears are streaming down her face. "Sora..."

He reaches forward and pulls her into a desperate hug. Genesis feels a twang of sorrow at the sight. They won't be returning. Even if Kairi could induce this... 'event' again... no one will be alive to find. This ontop of the loss of her thirteen children is going to be brutal for her.

"I WON'T LEAVE YOU!" She roars.

There is another sharp, intense pull...

A scream sounds...

A horrific, almost tearing sound fills the air...

Kairi's form seems to rip apart...

And a massive nova of light erupts from her body, going on for miles and obliterating each and every one of the shadow monsters as far as the eye can see, far off into the sky. When the nearby light clears, Kairi is floating in the air, staring down at Sora...

Who has a very real blonde haired girl garbed in a raggedy white dress in his arms where Kairi had just been. The girl blinks, confused and bewildered, and turns to look up at Kairi. Catching sight of her face, he sees someone so similar to Kairi, like that Xion girl, the eyes just the same as his apprentice's. The young woman stares down at the young girl, and there is a sense of knowing that Genesis feels come from her.

Kairi smiles softly at her. "Take care of him..."

She pauses and then gives a name. "Namine."

Genesis, Angeal, Sephiroth, and Kairi begin to float into the air and fade.

"WAIT!" screams Namine, "Wait! Kairi! Please! Don't trust her! Don't trust Je..."


Genesis snaps back into his own body with a groan, face first in a small puddle of mako in the shower room. "Apprentice, why does the most absurd things happen around you?"

"I don't know," comes her voice, quiet.

He looks over at his apprentice, sitting up, and their eyes meet...

Something is missing.

Gone from her.

He doesn't see any of that little girl she had once been in her eyes anymore. Her presence in the web is... firm and strong as always, yet... not the same. There is no more innocence in those eyes of hers, difficult as it had been to see it anymore after Wutai anyway, nor her presence. She looks like a SOLDIER through and through. Yet it still makes him ache. The child she had once been had been left behind.

Literally.

How the hell did that even happen?

"Does anyone," said Angeal slowly, coming to his feet, "Want to explain what the hell that was?"

"I might not be from this realm?" Kairi offers sheepishly.

"Which means what?" demands Angeal.

"That silver haired man referred to it as reality," corrected Sephiroth, staring at Kairi with intense fascination.

"Okay, this is getting way too ridiculous for me," said Angeal, sagging a bit and rubbing his eyes, "Was any of that actually real?"

"It was to me," comes Kairi's hard voice, "I didn't know the others, but I knew Sora and Riku, I grew up with them."

"I find myself academically curious about the whole thing," mused Sephiroth, "I have read articles on the potential subject of alternate realities, timelines, and the like. Hojo considered it all worthless speculation without foundation, so..."

"You read it out of spite," said Genesis, chuckling, before humming, "So... I heard you had an insane version of yourself out there, hmm?"

Sephiroth grimaced. "I didn't want to ask more than I already had."

He looks at Kairi again in consideration. "It would explain a few oddities I suppose."

"I was under the impression she was an alien, but your words, I suppose as ridiculous as it is, explains a great deal," comes a dreaded voice, "What happened this time, if it was like the last?"

Hojo is there, standing in the doorway, eyes locked onto Kairi.

"None of your damn business," snapped Kairi, "It doesn't matter anyway. I'm not going back again... I... she will take care of him, of them. Its time I left home behind..."

She stands up, brushing hair out of her face. "I have a new home and family here after all."

She moves past Hojo without another word.

"Kairi," called out Sephiroth, "Bedrest for the next day at minimum."

Kairi looks back, scowls, but gives a nod of assent and leaves.

"An alien," said Sephiroth flatly, eyebrow raised at Hojo mockingly, "Really?"

"Her genetic structure was similar to humans, but different in certain areas, I thought perhaps she was a half-breed of some kind..." said Hojo mildly, before he scoffed, "I suppose it doesn't matter. Another reality... pah. I couldn't even begin to guess or fathom how such a crossover happened, or if it can be replicated without proper framework of how Specimen K came through."

"I do believe you have enough concerns here for the time being Professor," said Sephiroth flatly.

"I suppose I do," agreed Hojo, "Including checking you over for any side effects of that little venture I imagine you had. I suppose I should look over Hollander's Failures as well for comparison purposes."

Sephiroth sighs.

Genesis agreed with the sentiment.

It was going to be a long day.


Kairi... Namine... whoever she is... stands in the dusty landscape, staring up in horror at where her Other... her true self had faded away from. Without Jenova's taint, without her presence in her mind, in her thoughts, everything is so terribly, horrifically clear. Connecting the dots from observations over the years where thoughts defiant of their supposed 'Mother' had been shoved down along with the innocence lost murdering those defending their homeland in Wutai. Innocence lost in Hojo's labs. Its not a full vision, but its enough to understand that Jenova is a monster, and she intends nothing good for Kairi. The hints Jenova had given or slipped up on...

"So she stands in then? In place of the Princess of Heart?" posed Xehanort.

"It would appear so," said Aqua tiredly, "Or at least enough to bring some kind of balance back to the Realm of Light."

Xehanort huffed. "Well, at least the original plan worked, just instead of the puppet we needed a real piece of the Princess."

Xion bows her head, saying nothing.

Namine can't stop shaking. "She... she left me... she needs me... she NEEDS me. Jenova... Jenova is going to..."

A hand gently rests on her shoulder, and she turns to look into Sora's eyes. "You're... Kairi called you Namine?"

She nods with hesitation. "I... I guess?"

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I... no... no," she said, shaking, "Nothing feels right, its like I'm missing... missing part of myself..."

"The Princess of Heart separated herself," mused Xehanort walking up a way to stand behind Sora, arms folded across his chest, "This girl both is, and is not, Kairi. Not quite like Vanitas and Ventus, nor like a Nobody. I'm not sure how to define her existence I suppose."

"Who is Jenova?" asked Aqua, moving to stand next to Xehanort, giving him an uncomfortable look before refocusing on Kai... on Namine.

She swallows thickly. "A monster. No, monster doesn't describe... I... I don't know where to even begin."

"Gosh, from the beginning usually works," said the Mouse, smiling at her.

"Later," interrupts Xehanort, "We need to get off this world and regroup. I've had my fill of the Keyblade Graveyard for a lifetime. The Princesses need proper medical attention as well. Losing one after gaining a stand in for the lost one would be... disappointing."

"We should see how many survivors we can find too," agreed Riku.

"And food!" exclaimed Ventus, "Fuck, I don't know about you all, but I'm..."

"Starving, yes, we know, watch your mouth and we'll find food to stuff in it," said Aqua flatly before glancing at Xehanort, "And perhaps... renegotiate a deal..."

Xehanort huffed. "Not likely. Terra was the price to be paid for our alliance. He agreed to it, bought us several years for us with my wisdom. I will not give up this second life, you have no grounds upon which to demand that I do. Even if I for some reason agreed, his heart willingly faded into mine, he is gone Master Aqua, leave it be."

Aqua gritted her teeth and looked away, fists clenched.

"Before we go, I have to ask," said Sora in the awkward silence that followed, "Namine... you're scared for her... is Kairi going to be okay?"

"No," said Namine shakily, "Not unless she realizes just what Jenova plans for her. Its... that thing is..."

She thinks long and hard, on memories buried deep down that Jenova had smothered away. Notions it had nudged away. At hidden memories of nearly murdering Genesis. At what Jenvoa said...

"Sleep my child. Sleep and fret not. I will take care of your body for you. Leave everything to Mother dearest, sleep forever in my depths."

"Kairi? My daughter sleeps for now, not forever, not yet."

"Alone. Isolated. Susceptible only to MY will."

"Once she is mine, and this world consumed..."

"She will meet Sora again, oh yes she will, but like the Ancients of this world, when he greets me as his dead lost friend like they did, I will deceive and devour him. And thus, will the cycle continue as it always had."

"Its going to consume her," whispered Namine as it all came crashing down, voice trembling, "It will kill her, wear her flesh as its own, and use her to kill everything and everyone she's ever known or loved..."


Review Responses:

The Unplanner:

-Kairi is not at the peak of her own solo powers yet, she doesn't know much about using the Light, using her powers of Calamity, or how to knowingly call her Keyblade (Which she may or may not have lost access to after losing Namine). She does not truly know/understand her ability to warp her own body/appearance either. She is stronger than before, yes, a tad stronger than when Jenova was possessing her VS Genesis. So... she'd currently be a bit under Genesis/Angeal in power not factoring in her absurd regeneration nor her ability to 'link' with her children and Genesis.

-Very few people have ever even heard the word Calamity as in a reference to what Kairi/Jenova are. No one but Jenova or Minerva/The Planet have a true idea of what that means. So they don't exactly 'know'. The Public Relations Department however is going to have fun with managing the Wing and this whole mess.

-Sephiroth is not Jenova's main focus at the moment. Jenova has an "in" with Kairi through her mind that she doesn't currently have to Sephiroth. Not to mention hyper regeneration is more ideal than pure raw power to a being like Jenova. If you can't wipe her down to the last cell, Jenova will come back. So Kairi is the juicer choice even if Sephiroth will be a great deal stronger (not including the 'linking'.)

As for an actual battle between Kairi and Sephiroth? Who knows...

Patrick the Observer: Aerith will have one more scene with Kairi before the end of book one, maybe next chapter or the one after. You'll see her reactions there. I don't particularly plan to have a religious reaction happen from the people. For all they know its some kind of materia, magic happens all the time via that after all.

Spellflame: Not nudging as in mind control, but nudging as in 'here is how you can save your precious mother', seductive and just what they'd want to do. As for Limit Break, google it? Its a mechanic in FF7 that I carried into the story. Heightened emotions turn into a super powerful move.