I woke up, finding myself in a large, soft bed. I mustered what strength I had, and turned my head sideways, overcoming my weakness for a moment. Sora was sitting there, obviously asleep, his hand holding mine. Smiling, I woke him up by squeezing his hand.
"Sora, you lazy bum"
"Kairi!" he grinned, his special grin that he reserved for me.
I smiled up at him, and noticed tears starting in his eyes. "Why are you crying?"
His grin still on his face, he replied with "Because I was worried about you"
That's Sora for you, always caring about others. I pushed myself up, with some effort, I might add, and leaned in towards him.
Our lips were about to touch, when . . .
"Me want food!"
As we broke apart, I got a good look at our guest. It was a huge, almost spherical thing, wearing bright pink clothes and an enormous chef's hat. Its face looked like a clown's mask, and the tongue that was now flopping around outside its mouth was half as tall as it was.
Sora gestured over towards a pile of equipment and items. "Go ahead, Quina, but knock next time."
Quina, with her? his? mouth full, looked at Sora like he was speaking another language. "I do what I want! You have problem?"
"I think, Quina," another person said from the door, "that he wants you to tell him before you eat his food"
Our new guest was a handsome man, a little taller than Sora. He looked average, until you realized he had a tail!
He nodded casually to us, before turning back to Quina. "Anyway, the pizzas have arrived."
"Pizza!" Quina dropped everything, and barreled through the door, narrowly missing the monkey-tailed man.
"Sorry about that. Quina's still learning 'tact' and 'privacy.'" He shrugged "Quina just thinks that they're a new type of food."
A laugh burst from my mouth, and Sora chuckled at Quina's actions.
Our new friend walked up to us, and held out a hand. "I'm Zidane Tribal."
I reached up and took the offered appendage. "Kairi."
"Nice to meet you." he said, before bending down and kissing my hand.
I blushed as I let go, and Sora seemed to be halfway between angry and repressed laughter.
"You know, your wife would kill you if she saw you doing that." He mentioned. Zidane just shrugged.
"Old habits die hard." He sat down in another chair. "So, you were knocked out, huh?"
"I don't know why" I responded. "I was just . . ."
"You made a choice." Zidane said, his face turning grim and serious. "Our minds aren't made to handle choices.
"But . . . I've made choices all my life."
"Not really. Everything that you did, everything that you've ever said, absolutely everything, is part of the 'Plot line.'"
"What is this 'Plot line?'"
"It's the thing that allows this-" he gestured around "all of this, to exist. Without the 'Plot line,' I wouldn't be here, you wouldn't be here, and probably we wouldn't even exist. See, a universe like ours is not a real place, but is somewhere written into a program. (A/N: Sorry if this seems a bit too "Matrix", but I couldn't describe it any other way.) Whatever any of us says or does is already decided."
"Destiny Islands." Sora muttered.
"Exactly. Destiny, you might say, is always in the 'Plot line.' There are many copies of this universe, all doing exactly the same thing. Mickey left to investigate the stars in a hundred universes. Kairi's heart was inside yours one hundred times. The Keyblade of darkness was created one hundred times. Riku fell into darkness one hundred times."
He watched our expressions change, and kept talking. "Don't feel bad, there was nothing you could do . . . until now."
As our heads popped up, he smiled warmly. "Since you couldn't make choices before, you couldn't do anything. But, now that you can make choices-"
"We can find Riku!" Sora shouted, his old enthusiasm coming forth again.
"Exactly." Zidane smiled. "Just hang around for a couple more days, and then you two can leave."
"Wait . . . aren't Donald and Goofy coming?"
"No. They already left to find the king. Just stick around for a day or two, and you'll be ready."
* * *
"Good. So far, everything could fit with the sequel."
"Should we change anything?"
"No, leave it as it is. Let's see how this plays out."
