-o- CHAPTER FIVE o-


the ruined kingdom


It felt like I had only just managed to make myself fall back asleep when I heard Sora and Riku shuffling loudly around me.

"We're here," Sora said softly beside my ear. He gave my shoulder a gentle nudge. "The gummi ship's landed at Radiant Garden."

Sleepily, I pulled on my jacket and lagged behind the crew as we filed off of the ship. The sun was white and harsh in a cloudless cerulean sky, glittering on the busy streets of Radiant Garden's inner city. The edifices that lined the narrow streets seemed freshly thrown together, though the gray stone bricks they were made of were centuries old. It was a city that had once been great, and another time, had been destroyed, and then found itself simply struggling to put together the pieces.

I trailed behind my companions in a sort of daze as we walked through the city, examining every shop and alleyway as if I expected to see something familiar. But the notion was absurd. I may have been born in this place, but I had no memories of it. It was strange to even be here, thinking that if it weren't for a dramatic change of events, this is where I would have lived my life. I'd had a mother here, and father. I was supposed to be their princess. This was supposed to be my kingdom.

But when I looked around me, I felt nothing. Even if I could remember a single moment from my childhood here, that Radiant Garden was long gone. The World was being rebuilt. All I saw around me were strangers and rubble.

Blindly, I continued following Sora, Donald, and Goofy as they trod through as comfortably as if they had lived a lifetime in this place. We wandered up a long inclining pathway, wrapping around the enormous castle at the center of the city. Its gorgeous sandstone walls loomed over me. I tried to picture myself as a little girl, running freely through this huge castle.

The incline stretched on until we found ourselves on a low balcony outside the castle. I smiled at the familiar sight of Leon, Yuffie, and Aerith. They were the ones who had watched over me for a time, while I waited in Traverse Town for Sora to save the world.

"Are the others here yet?" Donald asked Leon.

The broad shouldered young man nodded to the duck. "Goliath made it here just before dawn," he announced. "The others radioed in just now. It looks like they ran into some trouble just outside of Wonderland. They won't be able to make it until morning."

Donald clenched his feathered fist. I knew he had a short fuse, but he seemed even more tense than usual. "Well, that's just great. Now we've lost another whole day of travel."

Leon threw up his hands in apology. "It's not ideal. But the sooner we've assembled our full numbers, the stronger a force we'll have on our hands. Little hiccups won't slow us down so much when we're a solid thirteen. In the meantime, we have more than enough room and accommodations for everyone to be comfortable here in the castle. You can all follow Aerith to the kitchens, if you like, to find a little breakfast."

"No argument here!" Sora said happily, rubbing his stomach. "I'm starved."

Aerith smiled. "Right this way, you three," she said graciously.

As we followed Aerith towards the castle entrance, I noticed Donald and Goofy hanging back. They stayed on the balcony, huddled with Leon, speaking in hurried, hushed tones.

-o-o-o-

"We've made so much progress on the Restoration since your last visit, Sora," Aerith told us as we walked through the castle corridors. "The city is looking more and more like the Radiant Garden I remember from my childhood. Next year we plan to move on full steam ahead with our parks project."

"If you aren't starting all over again by next year," Riku muttered. He had a sincerely sour look on his face as he glanced up and down the ominous stone walls.

Aerith frowned. "Well, we always try to hope for the best. Hope is what makes the light in our hearts stronger."

"Sure, sure." There was a tone of apology in Riku's voice. "Sorry. Being here just, you know, it reminds me so much of Maleficent. I remember, the room at the end of that hall just ahead… that's the Chapel. That's where Maleficent and the other villains used to discuss their schemes."

I felt the heaviness in Riku as his eyes glazed over with memories from the days he'd spent at Maleficent's side, her faithful servant. I could hardly believe he had been so close with one of our greatest enemies. Looking at his solemn face, it was obvious that he could hardly believe it, either. I remembered the nightmares he had ever since we came home to Destiny Islands, and wondered what terrible things he must have seen alongside Maleficent. I imagined the guilt that ate him alive, as he contemplated the things he himself had done at her bidding.

"I believe in hope, too, Aerith," Riku pressed. Like he was trying to convince all of us. Like he was trying to convince himself. "But I have to face my enemies realistically, too. We have to humble ourselves, and remember that Maleficent is a force to be reckoned with. We can't underestimate her. She'll die a thousand deaths and still come back hell-bent on taking over the world. I've seen it up close and personal."

"That's why this time, we've got to stop her for good," said Sora with a quiet kind of firmness. He gave Riku's shoulder a reassuring pat.

"And this time we're together," I offered. "The three of us. We've been separated for all these battles, and she's never had to face us all together. That's got to mean something."

Aerith nodded. "That's the spirit. Not to mention how powerful we'll be when the King's Thirteen has finished gathering together."

"What exactly is the King's Thirteen?" asked Sora.

"King Mickey is organizing armies all over the Worlds to launch an attack on Maleficent. But one of his most important projects is a unit made of thirteen specially chosen warriors."

"And we're with the Thirteen?" I asked, mildly stunned. I suddenly became aware of just how much my tiny voice echoed in the enormous castle hallways; of just how small I felt surrounded by all this bigness.

Aerith smirked and tousled my hair. "Of course you are! You're a part of something very special and very important. The King's Thirteen will be the final and most crucial line of defense in the coming war."

Oh, good, I thought. So no pressure.

-o-o-o-

We helped ourselves to a full breakfast and after our stomachs were thoroughly pleased, I suggested that we fill our empty afternoon with a few rounds of sparring. Sora pouted, and Riku let out an exasperated groan, as if I were a small child that never stopped nagging.

"Sheesh, you sure are in a hurry to start fighting," he teased, giving me a slightly-harder-than-playful shove.

I sighed. This argument, it seemed, was never quite won. "You already made a deal with me, Riku. You promised to spar with me daily, and it seems pretty counterintuitive to stop our training routine now of all times, when I've actually got real battles ahead of me."

Riku rolled his eyes. "All right, Kiki, let's lose all the hundred-dollar words, kay? We're a loooong ways away from school, you know. Vocabulary's not going to get you any bonus points on the battlefield."

"Well, okay then, my point exactly. So why don't we get a little training in? I'm not saying a lot… just maybe two, three hours?"

"Three hours? What am I, your slave? You're the one who's the newbie here, friend. Why should I have to do all the work to whip you into shape?"

"You promised!"

Sora coughed gently, looking for a good spot to edge into the argument. "Hey, guys, chill," he said carefully. "There's plenty of time for us to relax today and get some training in. Why don't we give all that breakfast time to settle and meet back up in a few hours?"

"Sounds good to me," Riku agreed quickly, grinning smugly at me.

"But… why not get it out of the way now and rest later?" I argued.

"There's no rush, Kairi," Sora insisted. "We'll be here all day and we've got nowhere else to be. I was thinking that… maybe right now, you and I could… go for a walk."

"A walk?" My voice could not have sounded any less enthused. All these two wanted to do was goof off, but I was seriously starting to feel the pressure with all this talk of, you know, war and saving the worlds. "What's the point of a walk? How about a run, at least?"

At that point, Riku burst into explosive laughter.

Sora's cheeks turned bright pink as he tried not to look at Riku. He scratched his head and stared carefully at the ground. "I just… there's something around here I saw on my last visit, and I kinda wanted to show it to you. Nothing special, I just… I thought you'd like to go on a walk. And I could show it to you. Just to see."

Riku's own cheeks were now pink as well, from trying unsuccessfully to stifle his laughter.

And then, of course, embarrassingly late, I caught on. A walk, he meant. A walk with just me and Sora. Just me and Sora alone. Like, a date. Duh. Man. Having my two closest friends be boys all my life sure had conditioned me to ignore those kinds of cues. I had been "alone" with Sora tons of times in our childhood… but now, I supposed, us being alone meant something different.

"Um, well… sure," I said awkwardly, hoping for a smooth recovery. "I guess sparring could wait. We could… yeah. Go for a walk."

Sora audibly sighed in relief. Riku managed to catch his breath, wiping a tear from his eye for good measure, and slapped us both on the backs. "Well, that sounds pretty nice, actually. Mind if I come along? You won't even know I'm there."

Sora's cheeks dove a deeper shade of fuschia. I glared.

Riku laughed and slapped us again. "Kidding. Sorry. You guys make it so easy! I'll, uh, leave you kids to it. Let's see if I can find any trouble to get into on my own around here. Shouldn't be too hard…"

I found myself listening too carefully to the soft plod of Riku's boots as he walked away. The sound of his boots signaled something too enormous for me to really deal with. There I was, alone, with Sora. His cheeks blushed pink as he blue eyes looked at me.

"So, it's this way," he said, stretching out his hand.

He led me down the crumbling alley, through the rubble of what had once been part of the castle's bailey. Beyond the ruined fortifications were winding tunnels of crag, a precarious walkway carved into the cliff that gave way to the crevasse below.

"Here," he said at last. He reached out his hand and I awkwardly roped my sweaty fingers through his. He walked me to the edge of the cliff at a naturally terraced opening, and my breath caught in my chest.

"It's incredible," I said, gazing outward. I could see for miles and miles into the countryside of Radiant Garden, barren hills where life had not yet returned. It was breathtaking, but also horrifying. What had this ruined kingdom been, before Ansem's experiments? How many cottages and farms had once filled this countryside, only to be swallowed up by Heartless?

How could this place be my kingdom?

I returned from my wandering thoughts to the moment at hand, remembering the boy beside me who held my hand. I could see that Sora's chest was rapidly rising and falling. I could almost hear his racing heartbeat. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He smiled softly. "I'm scared, I guess." He pulled me closer to him, facing him now.

"You're scared? You have no idea. I mean, last night I talked to Goofy and he's worried about his son and now being here, remembering everything that's already happened and poor Riku and his nightmares and just all the pressure…."

"No, I mean… Nah, I'm not scared about that kind of stuff. I'm scared of this. You know, you. I don't know what it is."

"Come on. You're never scared of anything."

"I'm scared of this." He placed his free hand on my hip, leading me closer and closer to his body. I could now feel his heavy-breathing chest on mine. "I've... You know I've had feelings for you for so long. Even during all the battles, all the journeys, all I could think about was getting back to you."

I blushed and my stomach squirmed. Loving Sora had always come naturally to me, but this kind of love... physical love, passionate love... I guess I was just as scared as Sora was.

Timidly, I reached out and placed my hand on his face. I looked into his eyes; I had never been this close to them before. It was strange, I thought, that if you got close enough to someone's face, it suddenly looked brand new. The cracks and contours of his skin seemed like foreign terrain up close.

I had no more time to contemplate when he dove forward and kissed me. A slight shudder went through me as he tightened his hands on my hips. I dipped my head slightly, resting the weight of my body against his. I wrapped my arms tighter around Sora.

Far away from us, children were enlisting in armies, Donald was keeping secrets, and Heartless were eating souls whole, as we made out in the high noon sun.