Chapter 42 Kairi's New trip

Inside the Castle of The World that Never was, a certain red head was going through the laundry room. He looked into the dryer and smirked as he pulled out a black coat.

"Nice timing. Fresh out of the dryer. Don't know who's coat this is, but it's mine now!" Axel cheered as he changed the new coat with the one, he was wearing. Despite Namine's attempt to fix the rip Roxas made, it wasn't very stable. As a result, going through a Corridor of Darkness was rather risky since he didn't have proper protection.

Axel headed for the door, when he noticed a security camera on the wall, much to his annoyance and fear.

'That wasn't there before. Must have put it up for me.' Axel thought as he quickly made a break for the door. Though as he did, Nobodies swarmed him from all sides.

"Crap!" Axel cried out as he summoned his chakrams to fight his way out.

'How ironic. I used to be the Organization's top hitman. Back at Castle Oblivion, I took out Vexen as ordered, and let Namine go, giving Sora the advantage he needed to take out Larxene and Marluxia. I even took out Zexion for Saix. And I felt nothing when I did all that.' Axel thought as he fought.

"We're Nobodies. We don't feel anything." Roxas's voice rang through his head.

'I said those words to him once, and he said them back on the day he left. Despite everything I said to him that day, I wanted to go with him…' Axel thought as he slashed away another dusk. An opening to the exit was made, and Axel took his chance. He sprinted to the door and out of the castle.

'Why is this? I don't have a heart. Why did I feel sad when he left? Why did I feel angry when he refused to come with me in that data world? Why do I hurt so much?' Axel thought as he escaped from the Dusks in pursuit.

Once he was out of sight, he quickly used a corridor of darkness to escape the World That Never Was.

Inside the lane of between, Axel caught his breath as he finished his train of thoughts.

'I want to see you again…And to do that I would…' Axel thought as he started to walk. He knew what he had to do to see his best friend again. Already, he was formulating a plan, and he knew exactly where to start.

Back in the Castle:

"Axel had returned?" Xemnas asked as the remaining Organization members held a meeting over the security breech that just happened.

"Yes. Though it seems all he did was steal a coat out of the laundry room. After that, he fled." Saix reported, having watched the security footage.

"He took my last change of clothes!" Demyx cried out.

"I think there's some of Marluxia's old coats laying around somewhere, just use one of them." Xigbar waved off.

"Uh…no?" Demyx muttered.

"Back to the topic at hand, I think I know what he's after." Saix spoke up.

"Then I leave Axel to you Saix." Xemnas ordered and Saix nodded.

Back on Destiny Island:

It had been about a year, but Kairi was visiting the island she and her friends used to play on. She had finished her training for the day and was now standing by the shorelines where their old raft sat. Still there from a year ago.

"I still haven't gotten a response from Sora yet. I wonder if he even got my letter." Kairi muttered to herself before thinking. "Then again, I don't know what I was thinking in sending a letter out to sea would reach a guy traveling worlds, but after last year anything's possible."

Kairi was silent for a few minutes before speaking up again.

"Maybe waiting isn't enough." She muttered.

"My thoughts exactly." Axel said appearing next to Kairi in a corridor of darkness. "If you have a dream, you don't just stand around and wait, you get up and act. That's one of life's little rules. Got it memorized?"

Kairi looked rather baffled at the strange man that appeared right beside her. It was clear that this guy wasn't from this world, but he was giving her some bad vibes. Him coming through darkness didn't help ether.

"Who are you?" Kairi asked.

"Axel. I happen to be an acquaintance of Sora's…Kairi." Axel said with a small bow.

"You know Sora?" Kairi asked.

"I do. Why don't we go and see him?" Axel asked holding out a hand.

Suddenly several Dusks appeared around Kairi.

'What are these things? Heartless? No. They seem different.' Kairi thought looking at the Dusks.

One then approached her causing Kairi's instincts to kick in. She shot a fire spell at the face of one of them causing it to back off.

"You and I have something in common Kairi. We both have someone we want to see. Why, I feel that we are friends already." Axel said.

"Friends? You aren't acting really friendly." Kairi spat.

"Oh? And why's that?" Axel asked in a teasing voice.

"Oh, I don't know, these things?" Kairi retorted pointing at the Dusks.

"These guys? They're actually not too bad when you get to know them. Much friendlier than Heartless." Axel said patting one of the nearby Dusks on the head. "But sometimes, they don't know their own strength."

With the snap of his finger, the Dusks flew towards Kairi.

"Thunder!" Kairi shouted as a blast of Thunder hit the Dusks stunning them.

"Impressive." Axel commented.

Another Dusk came at Kairi.

"Fire!" Kairi shouted.

To her surprise, the Dusk dodged it with its slim body. The Dusk then moved behind her and gave her a kick to the back.

"GAH!" Kairi shouted as she fell to the ground.

"Come now Kairi. No need to-GAH!" Axel shouted suddenly getting tackled by something.

Axel looked to see a strangely familiar yellow dog on his chest barking at him, but then soon went to licking his face.

"GAH! Stop that! Where did you even come from?" Axel cried out trying to push the dog off him. 'And why does he look familiar?'

Kairi managed to get back on her feet as Pluto jumped off Axel and ran to Kairi.

"Where did you come from?" Kairi asked.

Pluto just ran past her and stopped in front of another Corridor of Darkness that was a few feet away from her. Pluto turned to her and barked.

"You want me to follow?" Kairi asked.

Pluto nodded and ran through the corridor.

Kairi started to follow as Axel got back up.

"Don't you dare flee! I'm warning you!" Axel shouted.

Kairi simply turned and stuck her tongue out at the Nobody as she ran into the corridor with it closing behind her.

Inside the Corridor:

"Man. This is freaky." Kairi muttered looking around.

Pluto barked as he ran towards a white light up ahead.

"Wait for me doggy!" Kairi called out as she followed Pluto.

As she reached the light, to her side she caught a glimpse of a figure in a black coat like that Axel guy was wearing, though his hood was up so Kairi couldn't see his face.

Though before she could question anything, she was engulfed in the light.

As Kairi started to come to, she noticed three silhouettes. What looked like to be people around her age. Two boys and a girl. The larger boy was quick to get in her face as she awoke.

"What's your name? What planet do you come from? Do you speak English?" The boy asked.

"Huh?" Kairi asked confused. What was this guy talking about?

The girl then pushed the boy out of the way.

"Don't worry about him. Are you alright?" The girl asked.

"Oh…Yeah. I'm fine." Kairi said.

"That's a relief. My name's Olette. The other two are Hayner and Pence." Olette said.

"My name is Kairi." Kairi said.

"What's the dog's name?" Hayner asked as he petted the dog.

"I'm not sure. I just kind of ran into him." Kairi said.

"Well, do you mind answering how you got here? You and this dog just came out of a hole in the wall." Hayner said.

"I did?" Kairi asked and the three nodded. "Oh. Well, I sadly don't have any idea how I did that. I'm just looking for a friend of mine. Sora."

Kairi took a seat in the usual spot as she told her story to the three.

"Me, Sora, Corrin, and Riku all grew up on the islands. The four of us would always find some game to play. But we had always wanted to see what lied beyond the seas of the islands. So, the four of us built a raft. Though looking back, it was rather childish." Kairi said with a soft smile.

"Eh, I can see what you mean. We can really only go as far as the train takes us." Hayner admitted.

"But on the night before we could set sail, some things happened and Riku went missing." Kairi said trying to be discrete about the Heartless and the other worlds.

"So, this Sora guy went to go look for Riku?" Pence asked and Kairi nodded.

"Yeah. He and Corrin went to go look for him a year ago, but never came back. Knowing those two, they probably got sidetracked." Kairi said with a sigh at the end. "Now they're looking for Riku, and I'm looking for them."

"Hang on a second. Wasn't Sora that weird kid we saw at the festival a little while back?" Hayner asked.

"What?" Kairi asked surprised.

"Oh yeah. The guy that saved you from Seifer." Pence said.

"I COULD HAVE TAKEN HIM!" Hayner shouted.

"Does Sora have brown spiky hair and a silver crown neckless? And does Corrin have white spiky hair, pointy ears and a golden crown neckless?" Olette asked.

"Yeah! That's them!" Kairi gasped.

"Well then, why don't you just hang around here? They said they would come back." Pence offered. "Though he didn't say when that was."

"Oh, I couldn't intrude." Kairi denied.

"It's no problem. You can stay at my house. My parents won't mind and we have a spar room." Olette smiled. "At the very least, stay for a little while and get yourself prepared for your own quest."

Kairi was weighing her choices. She really didn't want to intrude, but at the moment, she had no means of going to other worlds. From what she remembered from her time inside of Sora's heart last year, she would need something like a Gummi Ship to travel the worlds. Something she didn't have. Not to mention, she was kind of on her own since the other world thing had to be kept a secret. The only people that would come to mind that could even help Kairi was Leon's group, but this place didn't look like Hollow Bastion, so there was no way she could go to them for help.

Plus, apparently Sora was here recently and he promised to come visit these guys again. And Sora always kept his promises so...

"Okay then." Kairi relented.

"Great!" Hayner cheered. "Schools are closed for the moment due to some kind of investigations going on. At the very least that means we can all spend some time together."

"Just as long as we don't fall behind on our school work. I am NOT bailing you out again like last year." Olette scolded as Hayner groaned.

"There are some odd jobs available at the moment. You can take a few of them to get some munny for your trip." Pence added.

"That sounds great." Kairi smiled. 'Sora. I'll find you soon.'

And that's a wrap!

Yep! Kairi was the character I was talking about. If I wanted to get technical, I was supposed to wait until after the next world with her since after you finish ether Agrabah or Halloween Town for the first visit is when Axel arrives on Destiny Island, but whatever. Kairi's little journey is starting now.

On that note, the next several in-between chapters will be focused on Kairi's time in Twilight Town. At least leading up to Sora's return to Twilight Town, three worlds from now. I know some of you really want to see the Fates characters back in Corrin's home-world again, and maybe I might do a piece on Ryoma's mindset, but I need to take a break from them for story progress, and there are some things I want to try with Kairi.

As for those wondering about Silas and Azura, they will appear. I promise. I already have in mind when they will show up.

Anyway, on to some news. After looking back on this story, I'm not really satisfied with how some of these chapters came out and I want to rework them. Now before any of you worry, I am NOT discontinuing this and rewriting it like I did with Golden Emblem. I am just going back and revising and maybe rewriting some chapters. Though sadly until I finish, this fic will be a bit on hold. I apologies, but I need to do this. Plus, I could use a bit of a break after writing that Pirates world. I will post a new chapter when I am done though.

Next chapter, the group will return to Agrabah where Sora and co run into a familiar face. Stay tuned.