A long time ago, Riku had attempted to use the heart of a charmed puppet to save Kairi's life. Ultimately, his plans had been thwarted by Sora's intervention, but since then he had made amends with the marionette and his "father", Geppetto. The toy maker still lived in Traverse Town with his now-human son, and this was where Riku, Kairi and Sei were now.
They had been walking past Geppetto's shop when Kairi stopped and claimed to sense a glimmer just inside the building. A fold of black cloth twitched as Riku raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"I'm impressed." He sounded like he meant it too. "You're abilities have improved a lot since we started all this.
Kairi grinned, pleased.
"Thanks. So um, do you want to go in now or wait until some other time?"
Riku glanced past her towards the open glass windows consideringly.
"I guess we could check it out now and see what we can find." He said at length.
They walked through the door, a bell ringing as the entrance opened and closed. A black and white cat slept lazily on the window display, barely opening one amber eye at the intrusion before returning to its nap. A goldfish swam lazy circles in a glass bowl next to a rack of clocks and dolls, and a boy ran out to meet them.
"Hi Riku!" Pinocchio enthusiastically greeted the blindfolded young man and then his two friends.
"Father is working in the back of the shop- if you decide to buy anything, just tell me and I'll get him for you."
"Sure," Riku answered. "Thanks kid."
As soon as Pinocchio was out of hearing range, Sei spoke to Kairi in a low voice.
"So where did you sense it?"
Kairi was already busy seeking the glimmer out.
"Over here somewhere-"
She pushed aside a painted blue and red harlequin. Then paused.
"-here, I think." She muttered, and then glanced questioningly at her other friend. "Riku...?"
Riku looked where she indicated. "Yes, I see it."
After this confirmation, their conversation was abruptly broken off as they waited for a suitable moment on which to act. Kairi occupied herself by examining a set of exquisitely painted dolls that sat together on a carved wooden bench on the shelf. She had never had much interest as a small girl in playing with dolls, but these seemed far more suited as ornaments than playthings.
An old, male voice called Pinocchio out to the back of the workshop, which Pinocchio quickly answered. Riku waited as the footsteps left the room, and there were only the three of them left. He glanced at Kairi, waiting.
"If you're going to open it, you'd better get it done with quickly Kairi."
Kairi nodded and drew out her heartkey; a familiar shot of white light was released from the baton and then they were gone.
They stepped out into an immense marble throne room, the heels of their shoes clicking sharply on the smooth white floor. Red and gold banners hung from the ceiling, matching the velvet-cushioned throne on the upraised dais at the front. The chamber was empty, with the only exit an enormous set of carved double doors at the far end. The doors were their first targets.
"I don't think we'll be able to get them open," Riku said at last. "At least by ourselves."
Actually, it was doubtful the doors would even budge with a dozen other people helping them. Upon closer examination, the doors looked several inches thick, and ran all the way towards the top of the vaulted ceiling, maybe five, six stories up. It was also painted a rich shade of lavender.
"So we're stuck in here?" Kairi asked in dismay. She was willing to bet the doors weren't even locked. Then again, they wouldn't have to be.
Sei walked behind the two of them to investigate the other end of the door, and lightly placed a hand on one of the carvings. Riku and Kairi turned their heads just in time to see a normal sized exit pop out from the paneling, revealing a brightly lit hall on the other side.
They stared at it for a long moment, and then Sei laughed.
"I'm guessing," he said, still chuckling, "whoever designed this castle had a strange sense of humor."
Kairi still wasn't sure what to make of all this.
"...no kidding."
Tall glass windows along one side of the hall revealed a flower and hedge garden outside. Red carpeting covered the floor. This passage was empty as well, but after a few minutes they met someone walking in their direction; a female mouse in a pink, satiny dress. She stopped as soon as she saw them.
"Oh my goodness! I don't believe I've seen any of you here before." A friendly smile lifted at her lips, one that was returned awkwardly by her guests.
"Are you new to the castle?" She didn't allow them time for any reply before continuing with light exasperation evident in her voice. "Oh, I told them to let me know if there were any visitors."
The mouse shook her head, tsking under breath. The three exchanged glances, wondering at their next move from there.
"Um, excuse me, ma'am-" Kairi ventured.
The mouse-lady didn't wait for Kairi to finish.
"Goodness me, where are my manners? I haven't even properly introduced myself yet." She curtsied with practiced grace. "I am Queen Minnie."
Kairi's eyes widened as she looked again at the mouse. *Really* looked.
"Queen Minnie?!" Kairi cried.
"Wasn't this the lady married to Sir Donald and Goofy's King?" Sei asked, clearly as astonished as Kairi.
Riku nodded knowingly as his companions sputtered in surprise.
"We must be in Disney Castle."
Minnie regarded them with slight puzzlement. "That's right. Were you here to see my husband?"
"Yes, as soon as possible," Riku replied.
Minnie considered this.
"Well, he's rather busy at the moment- it may be a while..."
"We're willing to wait."
"All right then." The queen started down the hall. "If you will please follow me."
She took them to a room several corridors farther into the castle and told them that the king would be informed of their presence promptly. In the meantime, some refreshment would be sent up. She waited to make sure that the three were comfortably settled in and then left. The quiet of the room was not long kept.
"I can't believe this!"
Kairi happily bounced onto one of the sofas, hardly able to contain her excitement. "Finally, after all this time, a real lead to Sora."
She fell back onto the soft cushions in a sprawl, grinning.
~Maybe he was here already...?
Riku sat down more carefully across from her, and Sei took the seat beside him.
"Try not to put your hopes up to high." Riku cautioned. "We don't know for sure that Mickey knows anything about where Sora is right now."
His words made sense, but Kairi was too excited to really attend to what her friend was saying. She couldn't help it; all she could see in her mind was Sora's happy face as they finally found each other again.
~It's been too long, Sora
She wondered how much he had changed over the years, how he would look, and what he would say. With so much time having passed, the idea of Sora finally returning to them seemed almost unreal, like some sort of wonderful dream-only it wasn't a dream! Caught up in her own thoughts, she barely noticed when a rabbit-girl came after a few minutes with a tray of juice and various pastries and candied fruit. She set down the tray on the small table in front of them, curtseying politely before she left, murmuring something about that these esteemed guests of the Disney castle would be seeing the king shortly before hurrying away.
Sei picked up a pastry and nibbled a little bit of it. Each of the pastries had been carefully glazed and decorated with icing and fruit. They were probably delicious...but he couldn't taste anything at all.
"What's on your mind?"
"Huh?"
Sei looked up, startled.
"You're holding it to your mouth, but you're not eating it," Riku pointed out calmly. "Are they really that bad?"
"No, no, I just--" He put the pastry down on a napkin, deciding he wasn't hungry after all.
"-I just have a bad feeling about all of this."
Riku gave him a sharp look, but kept his tone light.
"Hey, don't worry. These are good people; they'll help us."
"It's not that." Sei glanced over at Kairi and Riku saw it. A shadow fell over his face.
"I see."
Kairi would be devastated if it turned out that something was wrong, especially here of all places.
"I'd hate to see her hurt." Sei said quietly, his hands on his knees.
Riku leaned back into the chair, crossing his arms over his chest as he considered all this.
"If this makes you feel any better, I've known Kairi a lot longer than you have and she's stronger than she looks; she's not going to lose hope, no matter what happens."
He reached for a square pastry with coconut and white confectioner's sugar sprinkled on it, keeping his own emotions in check within himself.
"So try to relax, okay?"
Sei tried to smile, to reassure Riku, but even he could guess that it probably looked weak. Then he remembered Riku wouldn't have been able to see the smile anyway. He groaned inwardly. Sometimes they forgot that Riku was partly blind, and then sometimes it was all too obvious. He wondered if Riku still minded what had happened to his eyes, or if it was simply something he had grown to accept.
Mickey arrived at the room fifteen minutes later; they all looked up as the door clicked open and in stepped the legendary sovereign of Disney Castle. Behind him stood Minnie, as well as an elegantly dressed female duck, and two very familiar faces.
"Donald! Goofy!" Kairi stood up in amazement.
"You're here!"
The mage and knight that had accompanied Sora were at Disney Castle... she remembered how close they had grown. Surely they wouldn't have separated in the time since the closing of the doors of Kingdom Heart. Could this mean...?
"Where is he? Where's Sora?"
The hope and expectancy she had tried to keep restrained broke loose of its walls, and he was all she was thinking of.
~Finally, finally, after all this time, I can't wait any longer...
"Sora?"
Donald's voice was surprised, hesitant, and also... pained? Kairi faltered; both duck and dog had acquired similar looks of discomfort on their faces
"Well, err-" Donald stammered.
"You see, umm-"
They hated to finish that sentence, anyone could tell that; both refused to look her in the eyes, and were stalling as best they could. Finally, Goofy decided to just let know her straight off.
"Garwsh, we're sorry Kairi, but we haven't seen Sora. Not since-"
They didn't need to finish; she could already hear the words playing inside her mind.
Five years ago.
They hadn't seen him since five years ago.
Something inside her shattered. She couldn't begin to describe the emotions that began to storm inside her...sorrow, anger, fear...all bottled up inside so that she wanted to scream or cry or *something*, just to let them loose so they'd stop pounding away inside...
Suddenly, she felt so small, empty, and tired.
~You've waited this long
A voice inside her tried to whisper consolation.
~Surely you can wait just a little longer
She refused to listen.
Kairi sat down, and allowed the tears to silently stream down her face.
~Oh my god...Sora...
They didn't last very long. After a while, she just stopped crying, like she felt that enough was enough and that she couldn't let herself fall apart like this. Not if she wanted to help Sora. She brushed aside Riku's and Sei's attempts to comfort her and asked in a surprisingly strong voice for the knight and mage to tell her exactly what had happened. Here was the story according to Donald and Goofy:
After the sealing of the door in Kingdom Hearts, everybody had been returned to their own worlds, right?
Well, almost everyone.
Donald, Goofy, and Sora had been, for some reason, trapped in a world that they had later discovered to be called by its inhabitants Sperare. They had been walking along a countryside road for a while when they came upon the dog Pluto and a note from the King. It had been more or a "good-luck on your journey" sort of thing, but had also included some information; it had said that, although the walls between the worlds had been re-established, there would still be ways that they could get around this problem. Something about loopholes and certain hearts or whatever...
Anyway, it had also told them that there journey was far from over- Ansem was the very least of the troubles concerning the Heartless and that they had better be prepared for the worst, especially Sora.
So they had continued their travels on that world until, at last, they found someone who told them he could help them. Who had it been? Riku asked. Donald informed him with regret that they didn't know, as the person's face and identity had been carefully hidden.
The person had claimed to know a spell that could send the three to another world, if that was what they desired. They took a vote, decided to take the anonymous man's offer on the count of "what choice do we have?" The decision had been to be sent to Disney Castle, where presumably King Mickey had returned.
It turned out the man had been telling them the truth... sort of. Goofy and Donald had been sent back to Disney Castle. Sora hadn't. Whether or not this had been the man's original intention, Sora was gone.
A gloomy silence fell over the gathering as the account ended. They were about as close to finding Sora as when they had first begun.
So many worlds-
How many more would it take before they even caught as much as Sora's shadow?
"Have you been to Hollow Bastion yet?" Mickey inquired.
They shook their heads. "Traverse Town in huge," Riku explained.
"And all the glimmers we've found look the same: there's no way of telling where any will lead. But you're right; besides this castle, Hollow Bastion would probably have been our best bet for finding anything."
Mickey thought for a moment.
"Try the cathedral in Third District; I have a feeling that you may find something there."
Mickey's advice was not questioned; it had been simply accepted long ago that he 'knew' things.
Riku, Kairi, and Sei might have taken off right there and then to begin anew their search, but Minnie insisted that they rest awhile at the castle. At length they accepted the invitation, but made plans to leave first thing in the morning.
Disney castle was a capricious place in its own right, and a stay in its cheery atmosphere did help to sooth the strained nerves of the travelers. Kairi took long walks by herself through the bright corridors, watching the castle's animal inhabitants go about their daily activities. She also spent time in the music room, listening to the students practice their various instruments. Some of the children even tried to convince her to try learning how to play with them, rather than just sit by herself at the back of the room.
Meanwhile, Riku was with the King Mickey, who told him of the current events occurring in this world, and then of the king's own story of what had happened to him before their meeting at the doors of Kingdom Hearts.
As for Sei, he spent some time conversing with the duck and dog that had once been two of Sora's closest friends and allies. At first glance, they seemed absolutely the last people who could get along together: Donald was prone to wild fits of tempter, while Goofy could at times seem almost simple-minded in his speech and manner. Yet both were good people, loyal to a fault, and they remembered Sora fondly. They related to Sei some of their adventures with the boy, and the unbreakable bond that had grown between them as time had passed.
"Oh, but that's not to say we didn't always get along so well." Donald admitted. "Especially in the beginning. Sora just looked to be too much of a kid, unfit for the quest that we were supposed to undertake."
"But Sora proved himself to be quite a hero, didn't he Donald?" Goofy remarked with feeling. "Strongest heart I'd ever find in, well, anyone! We went through a lot together, and I never knew him to let any of us down."
"And then we betrayed him at Hollow Bastion." Donald looked ashamed at the memory as he stared down at his feet. "And abandoned him for the 'true keyblade master'."
Goofy affirmed this seriously, adding, "In the end, though, we realized that we couldn't leave poor Sora-not after all we had been through together. It just wasn't right. We were a team, and as a team we'd stick through it to the end!"
Donald strode to where Sei was sitting, mage-staff in one hand, and heaved himself up onto the railing beside the young man.
"So when you find Sora, tell him that we made it back fine," Donald told him firmly. "And that--"
"--we'll always be here to cheer him on," Goofy finished for Donald.
"And when this is all over, he'd better write or he'll be sorry when I get my hands on him." Donald added sharply.
###
They set out early the next day, leaving after a quick breakfast with their hosts. All of them came to say goodbye and to wish the three good luck on their search for Sora.
The morning in Traverse town was a clear, bright one, the air crisp and refreshing to the three world-travelers. The cathedral itself was very large and a magnificent building: all gray stone with sweeping, grand columns, and ornate carvings and statues running atop its walls. Light danced from enormous stained glass windows across the alter and polished, worn seats. Each step echoed ominously in the empty hall. They had been there before, on one of the first few days of Kairi's arrival and hadn't found anything then, but perhaps this was due to the fact that they hadn't really been looking.
Riku paused to glance back at Kairi as they entered. She tried to stay upbeat and optimistic for their sakes, but he could tell that last night's deep disappointment had taken its toll on her. He wondered how much more of this could she take. Where was Sora, really? What could have happened to him, all those years ago? These thoughts ran inside his mind, even as he walked down the aisles and opened his senses to their surroundings.
Kairi hesitated at a small alcove with a statue of an angel, then made a small motion with her hands. She silently mouthed the words to a fleeting prayer.
~Please, give me the strength to go on
Sei stood quietly behind Kairi, regarding the statue. Kairi looked back in surprise when she noticed him, than quickly tried to walk away, feeling embarrassed.
"It's all right if you wanted to pray." Sei informed her, catching up in only a few strides. "I've just never seen show much interest in that sort of thing before. Was it about Sora?"
He at once winced, wondering if it had been a good idea to bring up the subject but Kairi answered readily.
"Yes."
Sei paused, then added. "I'm sure he's still alive, waiting for you to find him."
They stood together, bathed in white, gold, and orange light.
"No matter what happens... we'll be here for you, Kairi."
Silence; Kairi was staring ahead at the cathedral altar. Was she going to cry again?
"Riku talked to me about this last night too."
Sei glanced at her questioningly.
"He informed me that there was no way that Sora would die on me now; like a light, he will always be there, no matter how deep the darkness may seem. And the darkness does seem pretty endless right now." Kairi admitted. "You guys really are the greatest."
She said this in a rush, flushing somewhat.
"Although I may not have known you as long as some other people, I know I'll never have any better friends than the two I'm with now."
She smiled up at him, a frail one, but he was glad of the gesture.
Another period of silence.
"So..." Sei flailed about mentally for something to talk about.
"...what kind of gods do the people of your island worship?"
Kairi giggled at his sudden awkwardness, but proceeded to detail some of her homelands major deities and shrines.
"-there was a girl, Yuna, who took care of the shrines and always helped with the ceremonies on religious holidays. She really was more of a Healer, though, and it looked like she and one of the guys on the islands, Tidus, were forming a very close relationship." She sighed wistfully as she thought of all her friends back at the Destiny Islands.
"I wonder how everybody is doing now..."
She broke off as she noticed Riku gesturing to them on the other side of the room.
"I think Riku's found something; come on."
They followed Riku up flight of stairs into another, much smaller room. This one obviously served as some sort of storage area, with dusty boxes and crates, several chairs stacked up into short towers, and a tall mirror propped up to one side. The only light was through a thin slit of a window in one wall.
Kairi didn't need any prompting. She quickly drew out her heartkey and opened the glimmer. Riku entered the door first.
Riku hadn't been altogether sure what to expect when they arrived; in five years things were certain to have changed, especially with Maleficent's removal from the castle. Even so, the welcome he did receive caught him completely off guard.
That is to say, a sharp blade at his throat.