consectatrix -icis f. [an eager pursuer , devoted friend].
Act III, Scene One: Consectatrix
"We're leaving already?"
"Yeah. I don't want to stick around and lead the Heartless here. C'mon."
"But where are we going?"
"Sora," was the man's simple reply.
They were standing in Kairi's hut. Ava had awakened a while ago and was currently adjusting her hair and makeup in the mirror. Riku was standing at the open doorway; he was worried any further exploration might result in breaking one of his friend's possessions.
"Oh, so you know where he is?"
"Not exactly, no."
"'No?'"
Riku shifted uncomfortably before reestablishing his wall of confidence. "Look, if Sora's not here, it means he's still trying to find the Door to the Light. We'll just go there and meet up with him."
He was preparing to exit as Avarielle scrambled to catch up. "Can we even get there?"
"It's where we've been heading all along, isn't it? Vincent told me that we could find our way by concentrating on the Light."
"I know that, but—"
"But what?"
Ava obviously wasn't in the mood for an argument. Was she tired or what? She sighed and tried to explain. "Riku, I don't really have a clear idea of what our mission is. I thought we were trying to figure out what the Heartless were doing."
"The Heartless and the Doors are all connected, aren't they? The Door at Kingdom Hearts is how we got to Caelestis in the first place, and the Door from the Darkness is how we got to Comptium and then here."
"But what about Sora? I thought you told me before he had sealed the Door and he and Kairi were living back here all content and happy."
"Then something else happened and things didn't go the way they should have," he snapped.
"Fine, fine," she said, not sounding hurt but, rather, indifferent and dismissive. "We have a new mission."
"Not a new mission. Just a clearer one."
"Take charge, do whatever. I'll just be the eyes." She touched his shoulder, patting it casually. It wasn't like her to sound like this. She…
"Grab your Key and let's get out of here," Avarielle ordered, nearly yanking her companion out of Kairi's house and down a wooden ramp to the sand and the sea.
Someone jogged up to keep in step with them, creating the pitter-patter of bare feet on hot sand. "Riku."
"Kairi?"
"You're really going to go? I mean, go find him?" Her voice didn't hold nearly as much despair or worry as it had before. The prospect of Sora coming home apparently had lifted her spirits considerably.
"Hey, I promised you, didn't I?" He smiled with renewed confidence and motivation.
"So…we'll all be home together," she said. "Oh, do take care of yourself!"
They stopped, something scraping Riku's face. He sniffed and realized it was the palm leaves from before.
Something else touched his cheek, and for some reason it hurt.
"Oh, sorry. It looks like you're sunburned," Kairi said, quickly drawing away her hand. "You got so pale while you were away."
Riku merely nodded. Somehow his freshly buried emotions began to stir within their graves. He realized how long it had been since the full tropic sun had beaten down on his skin. He realized how long he had spent in the dark…
"Are you okay? Something in your eye?"
"Yeah."
"Oh, I made you this," Kairi said. "I worried, er, you wouldn't be able to, um, notice any dirt or anything near your eyes, so here."
A long piece of smooth, cool cloth fell into his open hands.
"A blindfold?"
Kairi's warm hand touched his bare elbow very softly. "I'm sorry I couldn't think of anything else to give you. I…I'll make something special for when you come back."
Maybe all the doubt hadn't been washed away.
Riku pulled some of his hair away and tied the blindfold around his eyes. He realized he felt a little better when hot, unseen light was blocked out. He thanked his friend earnestly and received another touch on the elbow and a kiss on the cheek.
"You—You've just gotta come back!" Kairi cried as Ava took the man back through the trees. She really sounded like her fourteen-year-old self again.
Riku heard what sounded like fading sobs as bare feet pounded away down the beach.
"So we're heading for the Door to the Light?" Ava was speaking for the first time since they were at Kairi's house.
"Yeah. Just think about the light." Riku adjusted the ties of his blindfold on the back of his head. He really wished he could have seen Kairi's grownup self at least once. It was too much to ask, maybe.
The man began to feel a wave of magic energy as he had experienced around Ava before. He put his back towards the energy and accepted the now familiar feeling of a giant Key penetrating his body and physically unlocking and joining the shattered remains of his heart…
I'm so happy to see the sunrise he told me about. I see the brilliant colors spreading like ripples across the endless sky and ocean. I've never experienced anything like this before, but I am so thankful for this one opportunity.
He stands beside me, his eyes vacant but his smile enough to light up the rest of his face. We are both content and happy. The girl he knows from childhood, Kairi, is there too, but she has been watching me strangely since we met and doesn't seem very glad at all.
"Kairi, how's the sunset?" he asks her directly.
She returns from her daydreams and admits, "It is very pretty," but I don't think her heart is in it. She looks at Riku for a very long time before she cares to notice me. When she does, her thin eyebrows perk with suspicion and she promptly turns her head away.
Kairi's one of the most beautiful people I have ever met. I saw her before, in Riku's memories, but that was her as a child and she was merely cute. Now she has long hair, shiny and straight spreading down across her back. It's very deep auburn, almost brown, but the sun's rays reveal very red highlights. Her eyes are big and light, but not as large as they seemed in her youth. They are truly blue, yet seem almost green in the sunrise.
She's taller than me by half a foot, but still a lot shorter than Riku. I doubt I'll meet anyone taller than him. She's slimly built and wears a purple skirt and a white shirt and has gold bangles around her wrists, something that looks like a pearl dangling over her chest. I know she's a few years younger than me, only a kid when I'm already twenty, but I envy her beauty somehow, as a woman raised as I was is apt to do.
I want to leave the two old friends alone, so I ask if I might lie down. Besides, I'm very exhausted from practicing magic with Yuna and Eiko yesterday. I haven't slept much on this journey so far—not that I ever did sleep much.
Kairi takes me back across the island to her hut, which seems small from the outside but contains three entire rooms within. Before we leave this side of the beach, I look back and see Riku stretching out on the beach.
I'm surprised how short Kairi is with me considering the piles of fond memories of her Riku cherishes. I wonder how bitter and lonely she has grown in the time since Riku and Sora's adventures. I wonder no further when she glares straight at me.
"I don't know who you are, but don't try anything else with him."
I smile dumbly as if I'm confused, which I partially am. "With who?"
"Riku. Just…leave him alone. You'd never understand him…!"
I know there's no time to explain about Caelestis and the memory-swapping in the Portal of Thought—any of it. But I am certain I know more about Riku than she does, at least concerning what has happened since she last saw him.
"We're just partners," I say. "We want to figure out what's going on with the Heartless." She should at least know about the Heartless, right?
Her sky blue eyes widen. Yes, she knows about the Heartless all right.
"I don't want him in any danger! Can't you do it? Hasn't he been through enough?"
I find myself strangely saddened by the argument I'm having with Kairi. It's not just that I care about Riku and this is Riku's friend. No; it's something else. Maybe when all those visions of Riku's past whipped by me I took a piece of him into myself. Maybe it's like I'm fighting with one of my own best friends.
Except I never had any friends…
"You should be happy you're so ignorant…"
"I'm not! Shut up!" she screams and she's sobbing and slamming her own door shut in my face and I can see her running away from the window over the sink.
I find her bed and curl up on it, feeling miserable.
Sometime later I here Riku, Kairi, and some other unfamiliar voices enjoying a breakfast several huts away. They didn't invite me so I don't go. I sit alone, forgotten. I feel sorry for myself and I can't help it.
I wonder if I do know anything about Riku at all, and maybe the two of us are just strangers with similar pasts thrown together. Maybe I only love him because he was the only one around to love.
Maybe I'm ruining—
The images severed from one another and soon there was red-hot pain pulsing in the Portal instead of the tranquil, floating feeling.
It hurts!
What the hell is this?
Black shadows began to swirl, emerging from the depths of swirling pastel rainbows.
Heartless?
They're here?!
Were they waiting for us—?
Damn, I can't fight!
Riku…it hurts…Riku…
She found herself calling out to him as they dropped through the opening to another world. They had been driven off their path.
Riku realized they were falling again. He called for Ava in his mind and soon felt the woman's unconscious weight in his arms.
They hit water.
Riku struggled to stand, and with the muscles rippling in his legs he managed to stand with Avarielle still clutched to his chest.
He heard two clatters on what sounded like tile. He headed for the sound, stumbling on the hard surface beneath him. He almost tripped on something very sharp, managing to stumble and rip half his pant leg off.
"Great," he realized before swearing a few times. He'd stepped over his own Keyblade.
"Hmm?" Ava awakened slowly in his arms. She groaned quietly, as if she was half way submerged in a nightmare.
Riku guided her downward (and it was a fair distance from his arms to the floor).
She leaned on him heavily.
"What?"
"Be careful," he warned. "The Keys are down there."
"Oh!" She was more awake now. "What did you do to your leg? You ripped half your pants off…"
Avarielle was standing by herself at this point, reaching down to touch a sore spot on his sunburned leg. "Burned and cut. Let me take care of it." Energy pulsed through his whole body, even stronger than when she had fixed his broken arm.
He touched his cheek. "Hey, you got rid of the whole sunburn."
"You're really tan now, too. Guess that Cura is really something."
Riku's hand accepted the hilt of the Keyblade when the weapon was handed to him. He was surprised that, even with the blindfold, he could make out Ava's shining purple light with the weapon at hand.
"Let's put our Keys away," advised Ava. "And explore this castle—looks pretty interesting."
"Did you say castle?"
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well, tomorrow is the last day of my spring break *sob* i won't be able to update this nearly as much. if, like, miracles occur, i will figure out what's going on with the plot and finish (or avoid) my homework in order to have a chapter up tomorrow, late tonight, etc. we'll see. i don't happen to be one of those 'updates mondays' people. i update when i get a chapter written and edited. hopefully, my enthusiasm for this for this story will remain high long enough for me to see it swiftly to the end. i think act iii, the search for sora, will be the last act. if you're still reading at this point, do go ahead and review. jaa!
p.s. i have never heard of 'mary sue' until some recent reviews…crazy go nuts!