Chapter 3

Of Amber Lights

"Master Xehanort," Kairi said. "He's the one that caused all the worlds to plunge into darkness."

The assembled men and women around the table listening to Kairi exchanged looks. Some were pensive, others thoughtful. A curious sense of anticipation could be seen on all their faces however as they waited for Kairi to further elucidate.

"Xehanort is, was, a keyblade master," Kairi said. "He had this idea, that the worlds had become imbalanced because the light was too strong, that in order to restore the balance he needed to unleash the darkness. And that's what he did. But Xehanort was wrong. About the darkness, about the balance, about everything. Darkness isn't something that's overwhelmed by light, it's something that exists because of light. That the stronger the light, the greater the hidden darkness. And when he tipped the scales, he unleashed a tidal wave of darkness that overwhelmed everything, including him."

"So, does that mean this Xehanort is, gone?" Hope asked.

Kairi pursed her lips. "I, don't know, to be honest. When I escaped with Chip and Dale, basically everything around us was being engulfed. Those lost to the darkness, I honestly don't know if they were, lost, or were turned into Heartless."

It was a difficult topic for the girl, that the others could clearly see. But Kairi was determined to press on, if only so her new companions would have a proper grasp of the calamity they all faced. So she did her best to answer their questions, even if those answers stirred within her a numb pain.

"Would almost be a shame if the old bastard did kick the bucket," Snow said. "Would have liked to give him a piece of my mind for the fine mess he left behind."

"Snow," Hope chided.

The man gave a grunt but refrained from any further crass remarks.

"If Xehanort was able to unleash the darkness," Hope turned the conversation back to a more relevant matter, "is there a way we could reverse what he's done? Bottle it back up?"

"I don't know," Kairi said with a slow shake of her head. "I'm not even sure what exactly he did. The messages we got from King Mickey and the other guardians was, garbled. We barely made it to the gummi ship before the Kingdom itself was swallowed up, and we had to make a blind jump to escape the collapse."

"I see," Hope said, then smiled gently at Kairi. "I had no idea your escape was so harrowing. My apologies, for making you recall it."

Kairi took a deep breath. "It's alright. If it can help us fix things, if there's something I know that can help us get things back the way they were, it's alright."

Determined as she sounded, it was almost as if Kairi was trying to convince herself of that as well.

"So, I don't know what exactly Xehanort did," Kairi continued, "but I do know what were some of the key pieces of his plan. One was the X-blade." The girl drew the letter on one of the sheets of paper before her. "The primordial blade from which all other keyblades are modeled from. And the second piece is Kingdom Hearts." She drew a heart shape next to the letter. "The heart of all worlds, said to be the source of ultimate power. Both are necessary instruments for carrying out Xehanort's plan. And both will probably be needed to undo whatever it is he did."

"And do you know how we could acquire them" Hope asked.

Kairi grimaced. "The X-blade is supposedly something that can be recreated, when seven hearts of pure light clashes with thirteen hearts of pure darkness. Or at least that's what Xehanort believed. As for Kingdom Hearts, I honestly have no idea. Xehanort, or his other selves, came up with all sorts of weird plans to get at Kingdom Hearts. They were always stopped though, until this latest one, whatever it was."

"Other selves?" Alyssa remarked. "What do you mean by that?"

Kairi puffed out her cheeks slightly. "Oh boy. Okay, this is going to sound all sorts of confusing and weird, but I'll try."

A few chuckles rippled amongst her listeners. Then again, weird had been the order of the day since the light vanished.

"I've talked about how when someone loses their heart to darkness, that heart turns into a Heartless," Kairi continued. "And if that heart was originally a strong one, the body left behind can retain a form and some degree of will, becoming a Nobody. Well, Xehanort had a strong heart, whatever his craziness, and at one point he allowed himself to turn into a Heartless. This also created a Nobody, and the two of them each had their own plot to try to gain access to Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort's Heartless, he called himself Ansem, he tried to do it by consuming the heart of entire worlds and using their combined power to open the doorway to Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort's Nobody, Xemnas, he unleashed Heartless upon the worlds and used the hearts they released upon their defeat to build his own Kingdom Hearts."

That was a lot of information to absorb, and from the expressions staring back at her, at least some of her listeners were more than a little lost. Hope of course had no trouble picking out the salient details.

"The former is untenable," Hope said, "even if we were willing to ignore the ethical shortcomings, which I am not. The latter though, I have to wonder. The cie'th, and presumably these Heartless, are going to attack us anyway. Could we perhaps use their defeat as the seeds to resurrect the light?"

Kairi grimaced again. "That, the hearts that are released, they're being freed from the prison of darkness that previously bound them. I don't know if it'd be right to trap them again like that."

"I see," Hope said, then nodded firmly. "I had not considered that angle. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

Kairi gave a slight smile. "Xehanort's methods, I won't argue that they don't get results. But I think it's because of the way that he did things. He took shortcuts, regardless of the consequences, and now we're left to deal with it all."

"Wise words," Fang said approvingly. "Good thing we have a resident princess of light to keep us on the straight and narrow."

The weak smile returned, though at least this time Kairi did not protest the appellation. She might not have been an actual princess, but she was still a princess of light. And with the light that shone within her, she was determined to light the path that would see all of them to salvation.

"So the ship moves by drawing in particulates in the lanes in-between and expelling them to create propulsive force," Hope said. "And that would be why you do not need to store large quantities of fuel to maneuver."

"Yup yup!" Chip said. "Course that's just the primary engines, we've also got a gravity core for when we need to move around real empty space! It eats up a whole lotta power though."

"How fortunate then that your ship's reactor seemed to enter that burst mode," Hope said.

"Would be kinda nice to know how it did that though," Dale said, scratching his head.

Three sets of eyes glanced in Kairi's direction but the girl gave a helpless shrug. While the chipmunks were fairly certain Kairi had been responsible for boosting the gummi ship's systems, even they could not begin to explain just how that was achieved. Something to do with her status as a Princess of Light, probably, however that worked.

"Our own ships require propellants to maneuver, hence their range is restricted to close proximity of the Ark," Hope continued chatting away with the chipmunks. "We do have gravity cores, but they're all part of the Ark's own propulsion system, so we can't exactly go mounting them on our smaller craft."

"They're hard ta get your hands on," Chip said with a nod. "We only ever got the one or two."

Which made it all the more remarkable that the ship one of those cores powered had been entrusted to an outsider so readily by King Mickey. Then again Sora did have Donald and Goofy minding him during his journey.

"So fuel reserves for your ship are not a problem?"

"Nope, she's topped off and ready to go!"

Which led them to the actual matter of the day as Hope turned to face Kairi.

"I would not ask this of you, but under the circumstances, well…"

Kairi offered a reassuring smile. "It's not a problem. And it doesn't sound too difficult either. Just a short hop to pick up some of the wreckage from the battle, right?"

As had been explained to Kairi, not that she was able to grasp the fullness of said explanation, the Ark relied on what amounted to a miniature sun to keep its systems powered. That sun required matter, any sorts really, to stay on. And while under normal circumstances the Ark held enough reserves to last for thousands of years, its recent exertions trying to escape Bhunivelze had drained those reserves to a troublingly low level. Not enough that they were in imminent danger, but still without any idea when they might next have an opportunity to refuel, it would behoove them all to do so now.

"Our ships won't be able to provide any support while you're actually tethering the debris," Hope continued, "but all you need to do is fly the ship. Leave the actual salvaging to the experts riding along."

"Got it," Kairi said with a nod.

Thanks to the gummi ship's bigger on the inside characteristic, it could actually ferry a significant number of people when needed, as well as carry quite a bit of cargo. Both would be required to successfully tether the broken fragments of Bhunivelze that the Ark intended to use as raw materials.

Within a few short hours preparations for the expedition were completed and the gummi ship gently lifted off with Kairi at the helm. Even though there were many arguably more skilled pilots than the girl herself, the gummi ship's controls were still locked to her and Chip and Dale were not as yet prepared to lift that particular restriction. The precaution made sense, seeing as even if they were ostensibly amongst friends the gummi ship served as their sole lifeline. It was also a precaution that met with the open approval of the Academia leadership when Kairi gingerly brought it up.

"Phew, gotta say, this ride's pretty smooth all things considered," Fang remarked.

"Well, I'm not really doing anything fancy right now," Kairi said, "so the, inertial compensators, they don't have too much to uh, compensate for."

Just because one knew what a thing was did not necessarily translate to knowing how it did what it did. The keyblade itself was an excellent example thereof.

"So long as we don't get smeared across the window," Fang said, flashing a playful smile.

"That shouldn't happen," Kairi said, "hopefully."

Chuckles sounded even as they all kept a watchful eye on the sensors. So long as they continued showing nothing, they were good. It was only when something registered that the gummi ship would need to be put through its places.

"We should be there in another hour or so," Kairi announced as she finished setting the autopilot.

A low whistle sounded from behind the girl.

"Damn, it woulda taken us days to cover the distance in one of our ships, even if we had the fuel," the large man adorned with a fuzzy afro said admiringly.

While the battle against Bhunivelze had taken place only a few short days before, the velocity at which the Ark traveled meant it had covered a significant amount of distance in the intervening time. Its mass also made it difficult to slow down, not to mention the energy expenditure necessary to do so, and there was also the possibility that the rogue god was still pursuing them. These factors only added to the urgency of running this salvage mission as quickly as possible, since the distance between the debris and the Ark would only grow ever greater the more time passed.

"Still no sign of the old monster, Sazh?" Fang inquired.

"Nada," the man answered. "Maybe the bastard's licking his wounds."

"Would be nice for a change," Fang said. "Still, if we've got an hour to while away, mind indulging me a bit, Kairi?"

The girl spun her chair around to face the others.

"Sure, what did you need?"

Fang gave a bemused sigh even as the edge of her lips quirked upwards. "Always ready to jump head-in, I see." Then more seriously. "You said that keyblade of yours can do all sorts of things, from banishing the darkness to unlocking a person's heart. I've seen you do the first one, but what did you mean with the second?"

Kairi tilted her head thoughtfully. "It's, kind of hard to explain, but I'll try. Umm, so, when I say heart, I don't mean the physical heart that beats within me. I guess a better way to describe it would be to call it one's soul? Anyway, a person is composed of two halves. Our body, the physical form that we inhabit, and our heart, the essence of our being. The keyblade lets one touch a heart, your own or another's. You can use it to separate a body and a heart, or to put them back together. Or you could use it to waken a sleeping heart. To be honest, it's very powerful ability, and a dangerous one at that. It's not something to ever do lightly, and it was not something that my training got around to."

Listening somberly to Kairi's explanation, her two copilots exchanged knowing looks.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Sazh said.

Fang gave a nod, then back at Kairi. "You said it had the power to waken sleeping hearts."

Kairi's eyes narrowed. "That's, a very advanced skill. In fact having that power marks you as a keyblade master. And, I'm just a novice."

Fang pursed her lips. "I see."

"Is there, someone you wanted to wake?" Kairi inquired.

Fang smiled slightly. "You could say that. A friend, who sacrificed herself to save us all when we were evacuating on the Ark. We, recovered her, but she's in a form of crystal stasis that we haven't been able to waken her from."

That saw Kairi tilt her head. "Hope mentioned crystal stasis, but he didn't really explain it in detail. What is it exactly?"

"You recall what we told you about l'Cie, no?" Fang responded.

A nod. "People branded by one of your gods, given a focus to fulfill."

"Right," Fang continued. "Those that fail their focus become cie'th, their hearts plunged into despair and darkness and their bodies twisted into crystalline monsters. A l'Cie that completes her focus though, her fate's not much better. She gets turned into a crystal, consigned to an eternity of slumber." The woman flashed a grimace. "Some call it a form of eternal life. Personally, it's not all it's cracked up to be."

The girl's eye widened. "Were you, also in stasis?"

"For a very long time," Fang said. "I got lucky. Some others I know, didn't."

Kairi took a deep breath. "I see. And you were right, your gods really were jerks."

That elicited barks of laughter from the other two.

"Oh girl, you have no idea," Sazh said. "We thought we'd gotten rid of all of them after the Ark launched, but then Bhunivelze had to show his shiny ass and come chasing after us."

Fang snorted. "That's the thing about gods, they always overstay their welcome. Anyway, yeah, I was in stasis myself. Twice actually. But Hope and his gang, well, they can be a very determined bunch. The second time around they managed to thaw me and my girl pal out. But we've got one more still stuck in that crystal prison, and nothing we've tried has worked to wake her. When you said your keyblade could reach a person's heart, well, I thought…"

Kairi silently mulled the issue for several long seconds.

"The keyblade might be able to do it," she finally said, "but I'm still a novice. I wouldn't even know how to try. And if I mess up, it could end up really hurting your friend. Or even, killing her."

"I see," Fang said with a slow, understanding nod. "Well, it was worth a try."

Kairi took a deep breath. "But, the gummi ship's computer has a lot of records. Maybe there's something in there that could tell us more about the power of awakening. Something that'll show us how to do it right."

At hearing that a look of noticeably optimism lit up in Fang and Sazh's eyes. Kairi offered a determined smile.

"I don't know if there is, but if it is in there, I'll find it, I promise," she declared.

The actual process of tethering the broken off fragment of Bhunivelze entailed someone actually going outside to anchor the tethers. This task was certainly not for the faint of heart, and while Kairi was certainly possessed of a sturdy resolve, the salvage crew accompanying her had absolutely refused to countenance her participating in the void walk. This was not merely a case of them being overprotective of their savior, there was also the very practical point of Kairi lacking any of the necessary training to perform the act. Kairi was at least wise enough to not try to argue that point, instead focusing her attention on watching after the salvage crew as they drifted out of the airlock.

"How's it looking, Sazh?" Fang asked over the radio.

"So far so good," came the response. "Everything's nice and quiet, just the way I like it."

Considering the difficulty of actually trying to fight while performing a void walk, Sazh's sentiment was shared by all involved.

"Now that I'm seeing it up close, we sure this ship can haul something that big back?" Fang inquired as she gazed out the domed window.

"Chip and Dale seemed to think so," Kairi said. "We'd have to take it slow though, to avoid snapping the lines we're using to tether the wing."

The two chipmunks had made a short presentation with a bunch of numbers explaining their calculations, though most of it had gone way over Kairi's head. Hope and his assistant Alyssa seemed convinced however, with the former signing off on the mission. Kairi had understood enough at least to know the estimated distances involved lined up with how far the gummi ship's navigation system indicated they had traveled, so things were going to plan thus far.

"Still no sign of any of those monsters on sensors," Fang said from her station. "Hopefully that means we really are all by our lonesome out here."

"Yeah, well, just don't go jinxing us," Sazh said dryly.

Fang flashed a smile, not that the man could see it. "Who, me?"

Kairi joined in the chuckles that sounded, then glanced back at Fang.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, not like we've got much else to do," Fang said. "What's on your mind?"

"This, god of yours," Kairi said. "Bhunivelze. Can you tell me about him?"

"Hmm, well that's all sorts of complicated," Fang said, "but I'll try. So, what do you want to know?"

"Well, I suppose, is he really a god?" Kairi asked.

"Oh definitely," Fang responded. "An arrogant, intolerant despot of a god, but a god nonetheless."

"What is it that he wants then?" the girl asked next.

"Control," Fang said. "Bhunivelze is a perfectionist, and he wants the world, and all its people, all neat and tidy. Anything that he can't understand, has no place in his world."

At hearing that Kairi felt a chill run down her back.

"At least that's what he used to want," Fang continued, "back when Gran Pulse was still around. But that world's gone now, swallowed up by the chaos. And for all his power, Bhunivelze couldn't stop it." The woman flashed a wry smirk. "Probably because chaos is basically the human heart untamed."

That saw Kairi tilt her head slightly. "The human heart, untamed?"

"Or perhaps the human soul is more apt," Fang said. "In our legends, the bodies we're born in spawned from the blood of Etro, another goddess in our pantheon, and basically the only good one. Our souls however, that which drives the stirring of our hearts, come from chaos. That's why we say chaos is the human heart untamed, raw."

"I, see," Kairi said slowly. "Then, does that mean if the chaos were to be somehow, unleashed from a heart, it does bad things to the world?"

"Got it in one," Fang applauded. "That's exactly right. When the chaos is contained within a heart, it helps us feel life itself. It's why we can laugh and cry, fell joy and sorrow both. But when it spills out for whatever reason, it plays all sorts of merry hell on the world. And that's ultimately what happened to our original home, Gran Pulse. The chaos spilled out, uncontrolled, and not just from people's hearts either, but from the great beyond where it came from in the first place. And when it did, it turned Gran Pulse into a wasteland."

Kairi pursed her lips thoughtfully. "That sounds just like what happens with the Heartless. If enough hearts are consumed by darkness, an entire world can be torn apart."

"Is that right?" Fang said. "Though we seem to be getting a bit off-track, you were asking about Bhunivelze after all."

"Oh, right. Umm, you said Bhunivelze couldn't stop the world from being consumed?"

A nod. "Don't know if the chaos is just that powerful, or if he thought a world tainted by it ain't worth saving. Either way, when the end came, we had to pull ourselves out of the fire. Thank goodness Hope and Academia had been working on the Ark, though I don't think anyone ever dreamed we'd end up using it to travel through the void like this."

"Or be chased by your jerk of a god."

Fang gave a snort of laughter. "That too. And as for why the old bastard's after us, honestly, none of us have a clue. Maybe he has some grand plan that needs us all put down, or maybe he's just plain pissed we all decided to leg it. Either way, we've got to get him off our backs if we're ever gonna be safe. And until you showed up, nothing we'd thrown at him had worked."

"Well, that was more the gummi ship than me," Kairi said modestly.

"Sure, if you say so," Fang said, though the smirk made clear she at least was certain Kairi deserved equal if not greater credit for the feat. The smirk disappeared into a slight frown. "Well, I guess that's not entirely true. There was one other person that did manage to stand up to Bhunivelze."

Kairi noted the way Fang's eyes fluttered. "Is that person, the one that's now in crystal stasis?"

Fang smiled wryly. "Smart girl. That's right, Lightning's the one and only person to have ever stood up to Bhunivelze. And the damn thing is, she might have even won too, that's how strong she's gotten."

The girl tilted her head aside. "So then, Lightning, would that have made her a goddess?"

To that Fang let out a loud bark of laughter and held her sides. "Oh goodness, I can just imagine it! Hahahaha! The Church of Lightning! Has a nice ring to it." The woman flashed a wide smile. "She would have hated it."

Kairi smiled back, getting a general impression of this mysterious Lightning from Fang's description, as well as some hints as to the two's relationship.

"Lightning," Fang continued, "she started out just like everyone else, branded l'Cie due to the capriciousness of one of our former gods. We fought our fates together, and we overthrew those very same gods by turning their power against them. Lightning though, the others say she disappeared just when we should have won. And that she came back, wielding powers beyond anything we could have imagined, to face off against Bhunivelze when he tried to stop the Ark from launching."

The older woman sighed, as if to catch her breath even.

"I wasn't there," she explained further. "I was still in crystal stasis, but I've seen the videos of the fight. Of her fighting. All those familiars and cie'th Bhunivelze sent against us? They all fell to her blade. Then she went and charged Bhunivelze himself. Hell, when the old bastard went plummeting down to Gran Pulse, we thought she mighta knocked him out for good. But, no, he's still out there, trying to chase us down."

"She sounds incredible," Kairi said softly. "Like a real heroine."

"Lightning would never call herself that," Fang said. "She'd just say she was doing what needed doing, but that's just her being overly modest. Me? Gotta agree with you, girl. She was a bona fide heroine." The older woman eyed Kairi speculatively. "I think she would have liked you."

Kairi cocked her head aside. "Really?"

Fang nodded. "Yeah. Lightning might have put on that whole stoic, strict demeanor, but she had a soft spot for earnest kids that were trying their damndest. Just ask Hope."

"Hope?"

"When we first met, he was just a scrawny little kid, scared out of his wits. Now he's probably the biggest shot on the Ark and the one we all take our marching orders from." She sighed. "Light'd be damn proud of him."

"Well, maybe she'll get a chance to tell him that in person," Kairi said with a slight smile.

"That'd be nice," Fang said, returning a wider one.

The radio crackled and Sazh's voice intruded upon the moment.

"Hey ladies, tethers are dug in. Can you fire up the engines and see if they hold under flight?"

"Uh, right," Kairi said, spinning about in her chair and taking hold of the helm. "Starting up, make sure you're all clear of the tethers themselves."

"Ready when you are, little lady."

With great care, Kairi began to gently nudge the gummi ship moving again. She kept an eye on the engine output, making sure no spikes occurred that might wrench free the lines. Slowly, the gummi ship began to move, at a snail's crawl, but it was moving nonetheless while pulling along the giant wing. After several minutes building up velocity, Sazh called in again.

"Everything looks good here. You can let the lines go slack now, and we'll come back in."

"Roger," Kairi responded.

Pulling the severed wing back to the Ark did not require the gummi ship to be actively hauling it along. Within the void of the lanes in-between, there was no air to offer resistance and slow down moving objects, so once something had started it would keep going until another opposing force appeared to stop it. That was now taken advantage of by the salvagers to basically point the wing in the desired direction and let it fly on its own towards the Ark. And without needing to actively pull, they reduced the risk of the tethers coming loose during the journey. Only once they approached their destination would the gummi ship actively maneuver to shift the wing's trajectory to one that matched the Ark. All these considerations, things that Kairi would never have even thought of. As much as Kairi's powers seemed to be boosting the things she used, there was clearly much for her to learn to make the best use of them. Hopefully, there would yet be time for her to do so.

"I don't know," Snow said with a sigh. "You sure you aren't just grasping at straws here, Fang?"

The woman raised an eyebrow. "I'd've thought you of all people would leap at the chance to try to unfreeze Lightning, considering she's our only lead on what happened to Serah too."

Fang was not the only other attendant to this meeting, Hope was seated next to Snow while a young woman with orange hair tied in bunches was parked next to Fang. While the four assembled did not constitute the formal leadership of the Ark, they did represent some of the key decisionmakers when it came to the Ark's overall safety.

Snow grimaced. "That ain't it. If there's even a sliver of a chance of getting Lightning back, with or without Serah, I'd take it. And Kairi, she's special. That much's been obvious since she set foot on the Ark. But aren't we kinda going overboard here? I mean, what makes you think she could crack Light's crystal stasis? When we're still not entirely sure, no offense Hope, how we managed to defrost you and Vanille?"

"None taken," Hope said with a wry smile. "And I don't mean to get everyone's hopes up either, but the things we've learned from Kairi, Chip, and Dale so far, there's an entire field of study that we didn't even know existed. From their gummi ship to that keyblade of Kairi's, some of the feats they've shown themselves to be capable of, I'm not prepared to suggest even this would be beyond them."

The grimace did not disappear from Snow's expression, but the man's face softened ever so slightly.

"Alright, I'll grant that much, but-"

Before Snow could finish whatever further reservation he had, the doors to the conference room slammed open and a young man with messy hair and wearing large baggy pants entered.

Hope frowned at the intruder. "Noel? What are you doing here?"

The young man now standing before all of them was not part of the Ark's guardian council, but he was part of the circle of confidants the council could rely upon if there was a problem needing resolution. That suited one Noel Kreiss just fine, as despite his many talents the young man possessed a certain reluctance to shoulder the responsibilities that came with leadership. At the same time, whenever something worked its way into Noel's head, few things could stop him from charging straight ahead.

"We gotta talk," Noel declared, making clear this was one such instance.

"I'm sorry sir," Alyssa said, hot on Noel's heels. "He absolutely insisted on seeing all of you and wouldn't take no for an answer."

"That's alright," Hope assured his assistant. "You can leave us."

The guards accompanying Alyssa spared Noel a single glance before obeying. The look Alyssa shot the youth was more openly annoyed, but she too acquiesced and withdrew, closing the doors behind her.

"So," Hope said, sitting back down. "What is this about?"

Reaching into his bag, Noel pulled out a green polyhedral and set it upon the table.

"An oracle drive?" Hope said. "I thought all known drives were locked inside Academia's vault."

For good reason, too. Oracle drives were, like their name suggested, artifacts that held recordings of prophetic visions experienced by a seeress known as Yeul. The events foretold by these visions always came true, and while such foresight might seem like a boon, it was in truth also a great curse. Such information, if misused, could become the seeds of great calamities. Because of this, all of the surviving oracle drives were kept under lock and key in one of Academia's secure vaults, or so it had been believed.

"This one was dead, so I hung onto it," Noel answered without a hint of regret. "At least, I thought it was dead. Thing started working a few days ago, and you all need to see what it recorded."

The others exchanged looks before giving Noel a nod of assent. They could discuss his withholding of the drive later. Raising his hand, Noel activated the drive. A burst of green light erupted, from which fragmentary images coalesced together. When the projection focused, it showed a young woman whose pink hair was tied into a ponytail and wearing a black, frilly dress.

Gasps sounded around the table as all recognized the girl being shown, or at least the very striking resemblance.

"The hell?" Snow shot up. "Serah!?"

The girl was moving quickly however, the vision having trouble keeping pace with her and making it difficult to get a good, detailed look. Then the image fritzed and sputtered.

"What's going on?" Snow demanded. "Bring it back!"

Noel grit his teeth, apparently having trouble getting the drive to work. After dimming slightly, the green light surged once more and the projection resumed. The woman that appeared to be Serah leapt back, and a familiar looking floral blade suddenly sliced through the air where she was but a moment ago.

"Wha!?"

The redhaired girl that appeared actually lingered in the field of view, more than enough for all present to identify her.

"Kairi?" Fang exclaimed in shock. "What is she doing?"

A blackish smoke suddenly swirled around Kairi, but the girl held out her keyblade and let the eruption of light blast it all away. The scene then shifted, though to when was hard to say. What they saw now was the pink haired girl once more, but from behind. She was on her knees, a dark mist seeping off her form. As she struggled to stand, suddenly a silver spike pierced through her chest and burst out her back. Her form began to collapse before a gust of wind blew away the black smoke she had seemingly crumbled into. Standing in the now vacant space was Kairi, her hands gripping a silver keyblade whose keys glint with a dangerous light. Slowly, Kairi lowered the weapon and began turning around.

The image jumped again, though this time it seemed to be immediately after or very close to the previous sequence. Kairi was looking at something, a visible dullness in her eyes. The same keyblade she had used to seemingly strike down the Serah lookalike was gripped loosely at her side, far from looking ready to be brought to bear. That detail took on a particular significance as suddenly an armored figure, one whose pink hair matched the shade of the girl previously struck down, launched herself at Kairi. As the blade came down, the drive shut down and the image disappeared.

To the still air where the projection previously was, an equally still silence descended. Predictably, Snow was the first one to break it.

"What the hell!?" he demanded. "What did we just see!?"

"Was that, Lightning at the end there?" Hope wondered softly.

"And Serah at the beginning?" Fang said.

All eyes fell upon Noel.

"Well!?" Snow demanded, his patience already worn thin.

"That's all the drive shows," Noel said. "I've tried playing it multiple times, but it's either damaged or the vision itself was incomplete. But what we saw speaks for itself, no? Kairi, that girl that arrived, she's trouble."

Fang's eyes narrowed sharply. "Careful there, Noel. I'm not going to take lightly you badmouthing Kairi just because of some spotty pictures."

"I'm not saying she's at fault here," Noel responded levelly. "But she's going to do something, something that puts her in Lightning's sight. And that something looked like her cutting down Serah."

Snow's fists tightened and he growled. "I don't believe it."

"You saw the-" Noel began.

"I know what I saw!" Snow snapped, fist slamming down. "But we don't got the whole picture. You said it yourself, what we're seeing isn't complete. There's something else going on here. People don't just vanish into smoke when they get stabbed, so how do we even know that was Serah!?"

The young man closed his mouth, knowing Snow had a point there. Indeed, there was only one person that they got a crystal-clear look at, and that was Kairi herself. The rest, supposition. Perhaps firm supposition, but supposition nonetheless.

"People don't disappear like that when struck by Kairi's keyblade," Fang said in a thoughtful tone, "but cie'th do."

The others now looked over at her.

"That's right," Hope said. "She accompanied you to deal with those intruders after her arrival."

Fang nodded. "I watched her slice and dice the cie'th like they were made of nothing. So could what we're seeing, be some sort of cie'th? One that merely looks like Serah?"

The others fell silent at that possibility, even Noel. After all, the young man knew little of Kairi and her abilities, all he had to go on were what he saw in the vision.

"But," the woman seated next to Fang finally spoke up, "have there ever been cie'th that looked so, human?"

All eyes fell upon Oerba Dia Vanille, Fang's dearest companion. When placed together, many would presume Fang to be the one that held the initiative in their relationship. No one actually acquainted with Vanille or Fang would make that mistake however, knowing as they did the steely will that could drive the former.

"There have been cie'th that retained some aspect of their previous appearance," Hope said, "but nowhere to that degree."

Vanille glanced over at Fang. "You mentioned Kairi speaking about the enemies she faced before she found us. Heartless, she called them."

The other woman nodded. "That's right. Beings formed when a person's heart succumbed to darkness, was what she said they were."

"Did she talk about what these Heartless could look like?" Vanille continued her line of thought. "Whether they could look, human?"

"Huh," Fang murmured. "You know, that never came up." She grimaced slightly. "We could try asking her."

Snow grunted. "And if she asks why we suddenly wanna know? Or are we gonna be dancing around the issue with her as well?"

"Snow, no one is suggesting that," Hope began.

"No, but I can see the way this is heading," Snow cut him off, sparing a slight glare in Noel's direction. "Kairi saved our asses when she showed up and blew bits off Bhunivelze. She saved some of our boys when she went down with Fang to clean out the stowaway cie'th. And she might have saved us again when she let us use her ship on the salvage run. We owe her. So if we're gonna be asking her questions like this, we owe her the goddamn truth. All of it."

Of those gathered in the room, Fang was the first to give a firm nod. Vanille's indicated her deference to Fang's judgment on this matter, and Hope also acquiesced after a moment of thought. That left just Noel, whose consent was hardly required, but would still be useful. The young man frowned.

"But what if she really is hiding something?" he persisted. "What if everything she's done is just a front?"

"Oh c'mon!" Snow snapped. "If this is all some elaborate plot to screw us, someone's trying too hard. You're in the trenches down there, Noel. You know how bad things were getting. A few more months of us trying to run from Bhunivelze, we'd have run out of fuel anyway. And without fuel, we've got no light, and without light, it's just a matter of whether we freeze or starve first. But Kairi? She's brought us light, and a whole lot of it. That's not something to be scared of, that's something to be thankful of."

Noel flinched ever so slightly at that last bit. Fear, that was very much what this was all about. Fear of what the recorded vision portended, fear of losing yet more. And fear of never making up for his own role in the many losses they had suffered. Taking a deep breath, Noel let out a resigned and still somewhat apprehensive sigh.

"Fine, we'll try it your way. But don't say I didn't warn you."

Snow chuckled wryly. "As if you'd ever let me."

End of Chapter 3

Starry Night has been more difficult to write than Crown, simply because I'm having more trouble pacing it. I generally know what I want to happen for the first and probably second arc of Crown and how to link it all together, but Night is proving more troublesome. I have a general idea of what I want to happen, but the linking together bit has been far more problematic.

It's rather interesting how easy it has been to make the chaos that appears in the FFXIII sub-series into a pseudo-Heartless thing. The ways I can play around with it are certainly enticing. And it could even be foreshadowing something deeper. Ahem.

I have to remember that not everyone here has played the FFXIII trilogy, which means I really do need to make sure to explain certain things in the story. And even those of us that have, the worldbuilding was, dense enough that there are a lot of details that we might never have gotten to. That being said, if you have questions, feel free to ask in the reviews and I'll answer them as best I can.