Notes: I noticed that a lot of people are wondering what happened to Kairi, so this chapter will consist of the events that happened before she disappeared, and then after. This is probably going to be a long chapter, because I will include Sora and Riku too. Hope you enjoy it, and bring on the reviews! I love 'em.
***
Kairi ways laying on her bed and stared up at the ceiling. She kept attempting to fall asleep, but it was no use. Her thoughts and worries kept re-occurring as the hours wore on. She couldn't help but feel that something was wrong…something in the air felt uneasy. She could feel the disturbance as thick as the air outside, as if a sudden weight had forced itself down in her mind.
Suddenly, she heard the shattering of glass, and felt the shards fall onto her bed. Immediately she sprung out of her bed and jumped back with an alert look on her face. She was in a defensive stance, and looked around for her invader. A figure in all black stood before her. Even though she tried to escape, the stranger grabbed her by the wrist and held her there. She struggled against it, but it was no use. No matter how hard she pulled at her wrist to be free, the figure's grip held firm. Swiftly, the stranger scribbled something onto her wall, and grabbed Kairi around the waist. The stranger jumped out of the window with Kairi and disappeared into the night…
***
The next morning, Kairi woke up with a splitting headache. Her head was spinning with the previous events of that night. She was lying on a hard stone ground; her entire body ached from being on such a hard surface all night long. She sat up, stretched, and had a look of her surroundings.
It was a dungeon-like place, with stone, gray walls and matching floors. The place seemed to be abandoned, so she let herself wander around. She looked for any sort of exits, and found a large opening at the far end of the room. As she began her way out, she felt herself run into somebody.
"I..I'm sorry! I was just," but then she paused for a moment, and saw who she ran into.
It was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. Her hair was a light brown with blonde streaks flowing through her waves. Her eyes behind her lenses were the deepest blue that she had ever seen.
::Almost as blue as Sora's…maybe even bluer.:: she admired.
The girl peered down at her severely, almost like she was trying to see right through Kairi. It made Kairi feel like she had done some kind of wrong-doing.
"What are you trying to do? You can not wander off from here," she said in a commanding voice. Kairi stepped back nervously.
"I'm…sorry…I didn't know. I don't even know where I am," Kairi said apologetically. She looked over the girl for a second, and suddenly realized something.
"Y-you! You took me away from my home, didn't you!" she exclaimed.
"Yes, I did. It was my assignment, after all," the girl explained.
"Assignment? For what?" Kairi asked.
"That's none of your concern," she promptly answered.
"I think it is! I want to know why I was taken away," Kairi commanded.
"I will not take orders from anyone except for my leader," she stated.
"At least tell me who you are!" Kairi exclaimed.
The girl looked a little alarm by Kairi's sudden statement. But she regained her serious composure and spoke to her again.
"My name is Danielle, if it is that important to you. My leader has ordered me to keep you as my captive."
"Can you tell me where I am?" Kairi asked.
"You are at the prison quarters of the ASHA HQ. Obviously, this is not your original world. It was necessary to bring you here from your own world," she said in a droned out tone that suggested she had to recite this many times.
"When can I return to my own world?" Kairi questioned.
"Whenever the master says so," she answered. "I ask you to stay inside your quarters for the time being. I will bring you to the master as soon as he wishes."
With that, the door that Kairi had not seen before had shut her out. She was trapped in this strange world, without a single sight of anyone she knew, and worst of all, she was in a world without Sora.
"Sora…wherever you are…I love you,"
***
For a while, Kairi kept sitting there, thinking about her home and Sora. Suddenly, the door opened again, and Danielle entered in. She was not dressed in the all black uniform(Kairi assumed it was a uniform anyways,) but in more causal clothing. She stood next to where Kairi was sitting, and gave her a warm smile.
"Hey, sorry for that bad first impression. It's our kind of 'official speech' thing that we have to give our 'prisoners'. Truthfully, I don't like constantly reciting it over and over," she explained.
Kairi did not know how to respond to this, so she looked down at the floor and seemed extremely interested in its rocky texture.
"I've had to look after many people. But you I really feel bad for," Danielle said. "I didn't like the idea of taking you from your own world like that and then suddenly plunging you into this forsaken place. So, I want to help you, if that's okay with you. Once our leader is done with whatever he wants with his prisoners, he usually disposes of them. Me, I try my best to save every one of my prisoners I watched over. Although, a lot of them I wasn't able to," she mentioned.
Kairi was a little alarmed at the last statement, but she felt like she could trust Danielle. Somehow, though she wasn't able to explain it, she could sense that Danielle was trustworthy. After all, if people really did get killed here, she might have a chance of survival if she placed her faith in Danielle.
"Thank you. I hope I can get back to my own world," Kairi said to her with a smile.
"Don't worry about it. For now, I have to follow my orders. Whenever we're outside of this room, I have to act like how I did before. But when we're in here, I can pretty much discuss anything as long as there isn't a prisoner inspection," Danielle assured.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I forgot to say who I am. My name is Kairi," she said. "I also want to know a few things. I need a better idea of what exactly I'm dealing with."
"I can tell you whatever you need to know. Just try to keep it down whenever you ask me something," Danielle cautioned.
"First of all, what does ASHA stand for?" she asked.
"I'm just a prisoner guard…I don't get told information like that," Danielle explained.
"Not even who you're working for?" Kairi questioned.
"Yeah, I know. It's insane, our leader's such a security nut that no one on the lower class knows about anything except what goes on with the prisoners. I, however, manage to at least find out what happens to my prisoners," Danielle said with a wink. Kairi grinned, and kept questioning her further.
"So, why does the 'leader' take prisoners?"
"Well, he usually has individual reasons for individual people. Usually, he wants to take the most important person out of their words and do whatever he thinks is necessary," Danielle answered.
"Most important person? But, I'm nothing important! I hardly have any strength at all, nor the power to protect anybody," Kairi mentioned. Danielle put a hand firmly on her shoulder.
"If the leader chose you, there has to be something important about you. There's always something important about everyone. That's what I had to learn since I've been working here as the lowest class besides the prisoners," Danielle said firmly. Kairi seemed a little uncomfortable by the touch, but didn't mention it. Besides, what she had just said was a really nice thing to say about her.
"Thanks…that was really nice," Kairi mentioned.
"No problem. You seem like a sweet girl, and while I don't know you too well, I think I'll definitely be able to."
"I have that same feeling. After you walked in here for the second time, I sort of felt like I can trust you," Kairi mentioned. She was a little unsure about admitting that sort of thing, and was wary of Danielle's reaction.
"Wow, really?" Danielle said, astonished.
"Yeah, I do," Kairi said, a lot more sure of herself.
"Wow…every time I captured somebody they always seemed to be afraid of me, even after I told them I was going to help them," Danielle said.
"Well, I was a little suspicious at first, but then I had this…feeling that I could trust you," Kairi explained. "It's a little weird, I know, but it's true."
"No, I believe you, I'm just still surprised. It seems like everybody here eventually becomes paranoid, and they feel as though they can't trust anyone. But, probably since I have only worked with prisoners, I don't feel that way."
"Yeah, some people may call it naïve, but I don't think easily trusting somebody is too ignorant. If you don't trust anyone, especially when you're in this kind of a situation, then you pretty much have no hope. If you're untrusting, then your alone. If you're alone, you have no hope," Kairi said.
Danielle was silent for a moment, as if she was thinking about what Kairi had just said. Then she spoke again to her.
"Too many people loose hope in this place. But you…you will probably survive."
Kairi just stared at her for a second. She wasn't quite sure what to think of that, but she also hoped that Danielle was right.
The strange thing to Kairi was, she wasn't afraid of what might happen to her, or if she would loose her life. She didn't even fear never returning home. She felt a lot more relaxed when she talked with Danielle like this, just asking questions and sharing opinions. Danielle wasn't anything like Selphie, who was extremely hyper, but very fun to be around. It wasn't like being with Danielle wasn't fun either, but she was so much more reserved than Selphie, even more than Sora. She wasn't quite like Riku, who was purely calm, since she was really outgoing and openly friendly. Riku was pretty outgoing himself, but not quite in the way that Danielle was. Growing up on the island had made her think that the only type of people that existed were like the other inhabitants, until she had listened to Riku questioning about any other worlds outside of their own. Then she began to wonder what everybody was like out there, how were they different from her own friends? After that, she had joined in with the enthusiasm of going off to other worlds that Sora and Riku shared.
"Thinking about your own world?" Danielle said, interrupting Kairi's train of thought.
"H-how did you…" Kairi was about to ask.
"I see plenty of people around here with that exact same expression on their face when they think of their home," Danielle said.
"God…that's awful…what kind of a terrible person would take people out of their own worlds without them suspecting it?" Kairi asked to no one in particular.
"Our leader is that terrible person…" Danielle said, but then covered her hand with her mouth.
"What's wrong?" Kairi asked anxiously.
"It's okay…I'm just not allowed to say stuff like that out loud about the leader," Danielle whispered.
"Are all leaders like that? I've never had any type of 'leader' in the sense that you do on my world," Kairi said.
"There are some good leaders of the worlds that are out there. Some run the order of the worlds, and some run the operations taking place in the worlds. Kind of how this is run. It's a system within the world that is run by one person. There are even more places like this one, especially on this world, and all are run by leaders just as poorly as this one," Danielle explained.
"I'm still not sure I understand the purpose of this place. What does it do for this world?" Kairi asked.
"I have no idea. This isn't my original world either, and since I work at the lowest job for this place, I'm almost as clueless as you," Danielle said.
"Oh! This is off subject, but I thought I saw you write something on the wall of my bedroom when you took me away. What did you write?" Kairi questioned.
"Oh, that! Yeah, it was something my master told me to write, all though I have no idea why," Danielle said. She pulled a sheet of paper out of her pocket and showed the words to Kairi:
NOS HABEMUS LUCET IGITUR ADVESPERASCIT
"Nos…what in the world does that mean?" Kairi said, confused.
"It means, 'We have the light, therefore, it gets dark' Personally, I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world when our leader translated it for me. It's pretty obvious it gets dark if you take the light. But anyways, it's a language that isn't even spoken anymore, from a world extremely far away. The language is called Latin, and it hasn't been spoken in centuries," Danielle said.
"Really? That's kind of cool," Kairi said.
And on the conversation went between the captor and the prisoner. Even with all of her worries, Kairi at least could have someone to confine in, and until she would get home, she would survive. She would deal with whatever this mysterious place threw at her, and she would live…if for anything, for Sora.
***
Sora woke up with the sun shining brightly into his eyes. He felt grains of sand spread out all over his arms and legs, and even some in his shoes. He opened his eyes, and let out a gasp of surprise. For a minute, he didn't know where he was, or why he was outside. But then he remembered what had happened before…the dream becoming real…and Riku had saved him…
The memory of being wrapped in Riku's arms as he was carried onto the shore still made Sora sigh dreamily. Thinking back to that moment, he realized how Riku would go to any lengths to protect him. He sat up and stretched. He dusted his arms off and shook the sand out of his shoes. Riku wasn't anywhere in sight, so he went out looking for him. He walked a little ways down the beach until he arrived at the now broken island.
He felt empty inside as he saw the remains of the place where he and Riku had often competed with each other, and had talked with each other so many times. Also, he felt a loss when he thought of the paopu tree now gone.
That tree…it was where he and Kairi had met often too. After hearing the romantic legend, he had wished to share one with Kairi at that time. He walked over to the island's remains, and shifted around through the bits of rock and dirt that still remained there. He managed to find one single paopu fruit swaying in the tides. He picked it up and held it in his hands. Then, suddenly, as if he had just realized what he was doing with Riku and that Kairi had disappeared somewhere, he started to pay the ultimate price of guilt that he knew would come sooner or later.
At that moment, with Kairi not there, he began to regret his swaying feelings. She had disappeared right out his life and he was barely sad…as if she meant nothing to him…as if just because he had another person to love she didn't matter anymore. The loss of the paopu tree felt like the loss of her from his life. He still loved her, she still held a strong place in his heart. It was as if her disappearance had been his fault because he began to love Riku too. It was his fault that Kairi had gone without a trace, and she would leave him forever. He would never see her bright smile or her shining eyes peering into his own because he had been so stupid and was abandoning his feelings for her.
Of course, it sounded pretty ridiculous in his head logically. But it hurt…the pain was only increasing. He felt his eyes burn with the sadness that lay inside of him. "What have I done? What the HELL have I done?!" Sora said, his voice raised and unstable.
That got Riku's attention, as he suddenly came to the spot where Sora was still kneeling over the broken island. He put his hand on Sora's shoulder, and was at a loss for words. Sora turned around and smothered his face into Riku's chest.
"She's gone, Riku. She's gone and I barely cared! It's all my fault," Sora cried.
Riku knew immediately who he was talking about and felt a twinge of jealousy and hurt rise up in his chest. But he ignored that for now, since Sora needed his comfort. He stroked Sora's hair gently and whispered in his ear words of comfort.
"Shh…it's okay, it's not your fault at all. We don't know what happened," he said gently. Sora tried his best to calm down, but he stayed in Riku's arms anyway. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, he wasn't sure if he should have been with Riku like this. He didn't think they should have been together like this at all. Yet, he wanted Riku's love and attention, just as much as he wanted to return it. He was extremely confused right now, and he wasn't sure which one he really wanted the most.
Riku held Sora to him closer and began to feel a little hurt inside. Sure, Sora had told him that he loved him, but he still loved Kairi. He knew that this was going to cause a lot of problems for them, but he had tried not to think about it. Plus they didn't exactly have a 'relationship' despite the fact they had both said they loved each other. He tried to tell himself that it was enough to have Sora actually love him, but a part of him wanted Sora's heart to belong only to him. It was a little selfish, but what if he decided that he loved Kairi more and abandoned Riku? That short-lived dream that his usual daydreams of Sora contained would end in the bittersweet reality.
"Riku…don't ever leave me," Sora whispered.
Riku was a little startled at first, but then smiled warmly at Sora and titled his face up.
"I won't, not ever. I'll do anything to help you find Kairi, if that's what you want," Riku said.
"Thanks, Riku. I love you," Sora said, making an effort to smile.
Riku returned that smile, but had feelings of uncertainty. He wanted Sora's happiness more than anything else in the world, but would it mean the end of he and Sora being together if Kairi did come back? If Sora did still want to be with her…if in the end he did choose her…
He sighed heavily and tried to tell himself that if Sora would be happier with Kairi, it was best for his benefit. It didn't help much to think this, in fact, he kept fearing that he would lose Sora just as quickly as he finally had him.
"Riku…I'm glad you're with me. Even though I sort of feel guilty about me doing all of that with you and I was still with Kairi…I don't regret any of it. I know now that I really do love you, and as long as I have you, I know I'll at least be okay," Sora said.
Riku smiled, and hugged Sora. It seemed like Sora could read his mind and knew exactly what to say to counter whatever depressing thoughts ran through it. As long as he had Sora right now, nothing else mattered.
~***~
Ending notes: Ugh, that was a PAIN to write. I might re-do some bits because my eyes are so tired. I hardly knew what I was writing sometimes O.o;. The bits about the ASHA are very very vague halfway because it's suppose to be since my OC doesn't know too much about it, and halfway because I have no clue yet what exactly it should be ^^;. Speaking of the OC…eep, risky to stick one in my first fanfiction, but I hope she wasn't too terrible. Also, how do you guys feel about girl/girl relationships for this story? Sorry I don't really have any straight couples in this story, but I probably will in later stories I may write. Also, don't worry about Sora and Riku, they are not going to split apart. I can give you that reassurance. I didn't have much Sora/Riku cuz of the whole thing with Kairi, and my eyes were just plain getting tired. But something is going to happen to them, too! I just…have no idea what. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for reviewing, and keep reviewing! ^^
Fixed the typo too ^^;;