"37, 38, 39, 40, 41."
A slender figure burst to the surface of the water and took several deep breaths, wiping the salty water from her face with one hand.
"How'd I do this time?"
The sun was setting on the horizon, coating the cloudless sky above in the enamel of sunset. Tidus grinned as he looked at Yuna.
"Two minutes and forty-one seconds. How's that for a record?"
He held up a hand, and Yuna slapped him a high-five, laughing although also a little embarrassed.
"Practice pays off, right?"
"Right," Yuna agreed, still smiling. Tidus took her hand, and together they began sloshing back towards the beach.
She had said she was interested in learning how they held their breaths so long underwater, but it really was an excuse to do something with him. Tidus didn't seem to mind. There were a few tricks to it that Yuna had had trouble understanding at first, but now with a lot of practice, she could top two minutes underwater. She didn't have much free time outside of her studies with Miss Steena, not between her studies of healing, the teachings, her temple duties, and summoning. But whenever she could, she'd try to find an hour or two to wander down to the beach and find him.
"You work too hard, you know that?" Tidus had once said.
"You want to be a healer, maybe even a priestess like your teacher Steena. You want to make people happy." He hesitated, perhaps a little self-conscious about what he had to say next. "But, can't you take a little more time for your own happiness?"
Two minutes and forty-one seconds. A moment in the sunset with Tidus. It wasn't much, but for Yuna it was everything.
A quiet sort of happiness. For now, it was enough.
A girl on crutches hobbled down the beach towards the pair. Selphie had broken her leg the previous week while rough-housing with Tidus and Wakka on the paopu island. Behind the girl, Yuna could hear Wakka calling for her to slow down and be more careful unless she wanted to end up breaking the other leg. Which wouldn't have been too terribly surprising.
"Yuna!! Tidus!!!"
Selphie was desperately trying to wave and catch their attention, while at the same time keep a firm hold on her crutches. Both Tidus and Yuna could read the worry in her face, and they quickened their strides toward land.
"What is it Selphie?" Yuna asked when they had reached the sand.
Selphie gestured wildly to an indefinite point behind them.
"An angel! An angel just fell from the sky into the ocean!!"
Yuna and Tidus exchanged glances. Wakka scratched his head in confusion.
"An angel," Tidus echoed, skepticism in his voice.
"Yes!!" Selphie's voice was rising from panic. "I saw someone fall from the sky, and they had /wings/! Look!"
Selphie pointed beyond them towards the ocean. Three pairs of eyes turned to the area she was indicating. It was hard to see anything distinguishable in the glare of the setting sun and the tossing of the waves. Yet, after a moment, they saw the unmistakable shape of a human being dipped in and out of view, carried by the water.
"He's going to drown if someone doesn't get to him quick!" Selphie cried. "I'd do it myself if I could!"
"We won't reach him in time, no matter how fast we swim," Wakka pointed out grimly.
"Oh, you guys are being so useless!"
Yuna stared out at the sea, trying to find where the person was.
There!
"Everyone stand back."
Yuna's calm voice cut through the air, silencing her companions.
"I'm going to do a summoning."
Everyone did as they were told without speaking further, watching Yuna in awe. Summonings weren't done lightly, and Steena had never permitted Yuna to do one outside the temple.
Yuna closed her eyes, spreading her arms out, then pressing her palms together in front of her chest. An avian shriek pierced the silence, and a giant bird began to materialize above them. It dove towards the earth, clear as crystal at first, then gaining solidity and color as it neared the humans on the beach. Sand and wind blew upwards as the creature alighted beside Yuna, it's wings outstretched for balance.
"Tidus, get on Valefor!" Yuna ordered. "I'll tell it where to take you."
Tidus hesitated, then nervously climbed onto the summon's back, staring down at Yuna.
"You're not coming?"
The summoner shook her head.
"They'll be too many people for it to carry. Now don't waste any more time!"
Valefor pushed off from the earth, flapping powerful wings. With another cry, it turned and began to fly with its passenger across the waves.
###
Rikku of the Al-Bhed slid down the outcrop of dark soil and rock, then jumped lightly to the damp canyon floor. Light flashed from the early morning sun across the glass falls and their diamond surface, causing the young woman to squint for a moment as she surveyed the area. Her mouth curved into a broad grin as she watched the falls. It didn't matter how many times she had seen these magicked waters. The fact still stood that the Shatterglass was /gorgeous/, and Rikku knew how to appreciate the finer things in life. She took another moment to gaze at the cascades before snapping her mind back to attention.
Righto. Cid would have her hide if she dawdled around here all day, what with everything else that had to be done. It wasn't as if he had given her a particularly difficult job;) fix the lift by the base of the falls, then report back for her next duty. Apparently the lift had been broken for two weeks now, but hardly anyone ever used it, so fixing the thing had been put off until now. Rikku tugged idly at her hair-tie, then walked down the bank towards the waterfall, her shoes crunching in the pebbled soil.
Rikku jumped as two buttery golden orbs flashed for a moment from between two boulders before disappearing from sight. Her hands went instinctively down to the blades sheathed at her hips. Cid's gruff voice flitted unbidden into her mind.
~Don't forget to take some protection while yer down there! Wouldn't be wanting your sorry ass to be caught unawares if there are any Heartless
As if she had really needed the warning. Not after that attack on Verus. She shivered despite the warm sun on her skin, then started forward again.
~Come on Rikku!~ she tried to tell herself
~You can handle any stupid Heartless that might still be here-
"Ack!"
Her thoughts were cut off by her own shriek of surprise. A large, shadowy orb darted from its hiding place, claws outstretched. Rikku pulled the long, curved blade from its sheath, sweeping it upwards to cut into the Dark Ball in one movement. The Dark Ball fell back, stunned by the attack, and was quickly finished off with another downward sweep. Three Shadow heartless appeared from the earth. The first one vanished into smoke when Rikku kicked it into the river. The remaining pair was quickly dispatched in a flurry of Rikku's blades. Breathing heavily--more from anxiety than the exertion--Rikku sighed, sheathing her new weapons.
~Thank you Brother!
The blades had been a gift from Brother her last birthday, and man! was she thankful for them now. Humming now almost cheerfully, she strode again towards her target.
~Ne?
Someone seemed to be lying on the bank near the water. For the moment he was mostly hidden from view, except for a head of tousled silver hair. As Rikku drew closer, she let out a little cry of shock. Bright yellow eyes stared at her from beneath a fringe of white bangs, completely empty as they regarded the intruder. A pale hand was pressed to a gash on his chest from which inky black blood glistened.
"Eeep! Are you all right?"
Rikku scrambled down to where the young man was sprawled.
"Don't worry--I'm coming to help."
She did a double take when she saw his face.
"You're...you're one of the keyblade masters, aren't you?" she stammered. "Riku, wasn't it?"
Could this really be the same guy she had seen before? He looked almost like...like a heartless.
A keyblade master that looked as if he was half-heartless himself. Well that was certainly a kick to the head. And what was he doing back here? Rikku had seen to the off-worlders' ship herself. She bit her lip anxiously. This felt all wrong and totally weird, but she had to do /something/.
"Never mind. You know what, just hang on for a sec. I'm going to try to fix a lift near here, and then we can use that to get you to the castle and some medical attention. Do you think you can stand up?"
Riku didn't answer. Rikku wasn't even sure if he was paying any attention to her. The silver-haired man was looking away, using a knife to cut away at the material of his black shirt. She watched quizzically for a moment before realizing what he was doing.
~Another blindfold?
"Here, let me help you."
Rikku knelt down by his side, plucked the knife from his fingers, and began cutting a neat strip from the cloth.
"Looks like this shirt is ruined anyway," she muttered as she worked. "We can get you something new once we get up to the castle. We can get you a better blindfold too, but it seems like you're determined to cover your eyes /now/."
Rikku took the strip and helped him tie it over his face, then leaned back to examine the effect.
"Not too bad, if I say so myself."
She stood up. Riku was looking at her again, but it wasn't so uncomfortable with his unsettling eyes hidden.
"Who are you?" His voice sounded hoarse, and she could hear a trace of uncertainty. He looked around at their surroundings as if for the first time noticing them. "What's this place?"
"Well, I'm Rikku...and, uhh...that's spelled with two k's, not one like yours, and um--" Rikku suddenly felt very awkward, "--this is Hollow Bastion, in the canyon down by the waterfalls."
She studied Riku closely for a moment. Geez, it looked as though he'd been through a lot. And was he alone?? She didn't like the thought of leaving him alone like this, but...
"Like I said, I'm going to go fix the lift. This'll just take a minute, so don't worry, I'll be back. Just, don't move or go anywhere 'til I'm finished!"
Rikku turned before she could change her mind and jogged down the bank until she was completely hidden from Riku's view by the waterfall. The lift stood completely intact in its place, if a bit battered around the edges. She took out her repair kit and opened a latch near the bottom of the lift. Hmm...it seemed to be in much better shape than she had anticipated. A five-minute job, tops! Several wires were broken--which she easily mended--and she replaced the power box--which had been smashed due to the accident that had broken the lift in the first place. This completed, she gave the lift an once-over to make sure everything else was fine, then hurried back to Riku.
"Give me your arm--I'll help you walk."
She didn't wait for an answer, only grabbing Riku's arm and hauling it over her shoulders so that he was half leaning on her. She was light and small-framed by nature, making this task particularly difficult, but the two of them managed to shuffle onto the lift. Rikku set Riku down on the floor and then punched the coordinates on the control panel.
For the next few moments, there were only the sounds of rushing water and of the lift rising in the air. Inside, Rikku felt as if she desperately needed to fill the silence with some sort of conversation--even her own inane babbling if it got to that--but Riku made her too nervous to do even that. Funny. Not too many people ever made her feel really uneasy. Not even cranky old Auron.
The lift reached the first floor, and Rikku again hauled Riku to his feet.
"Thank you."
Rikku turned wide emerald eyes towards the young man leaning on her, surprised despite herself by these words.
"Sure. I mean-" Rikku was gaining courage at this gesture of friendliness. "-it's not like I could have just left you there or anything. It's no biggie."
She broke off at that as several nearby people noticed the pair and rushed towards them with exclamations of shock and concern.
"We need to get him to a Healer!" Rikku said loudly above the group's din.
"And, ah, could someone /please/ help me carry him?"
###
Darkness.
Riku was surrounded by a darkness so cold it numbed away his mind. His thoughts, his feelings, his body...it was almost as if they had ceased to exist. The darkness felt as empty as air, yet at the same time as soft as silk. He wrapped himself deeper in the darkness.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he realized he should have been afraid. He should have loathed this darkness that cloaked him and swept through his body. All of this, he supposed, /should/ have bothered him, but it didn't. It felt calming, serene. This emptiness of mind felt soothing, but, especially, it felt /right/, and that should have been the scariest thing of all.
And for a time, that was how it was. Until Sora's keyblade had awoken that old, distant part of him that still feared the darkness. With that awakening had come a flood of confusion. Those feelings made him fight, made his mind think and question everything that was happening to him.
~I don't understand
Didn't he hate the darkness?
~It's made me lose everything
Sora. Kairi.
Five years ago, he'd almost lost everyone who had ever been important.
~I'm sorry
He couldn't fight the darkness.
~Forgive me, Sora
And maybe...he didn't want to.
Riku laughed, his voice quickly swallowed up in the oblivion.
###
When he opens his eyes, he is sitting in the sand, ebony blood smeared on his hands and wet on his chest and shirt. Pain blazes from the cut on his chest, a steady, burning throb, but Riku isn't thinking about that. He is touching shaking fingertips to his cheeks, feeling the salty warm tears slide down his skin.
He is floating between his dreams and his reality. He sees the sun and the moon, the land and the stars. Day and night...light and darkness...
Footsteps crunch in the sand, drawing closer to where he is sprawled.
"Are you all right?"
###
For the first few moments, all he wanted to do was lie there. Every muscle in his body ached, and nothing felt better than snuggling beneath the soft, cool sheets of the bed, feeling the soft wind on his face and arms. If he inhaled deeply, he thought he could smell a slight, sharp trace of salt and sand.
The ocean?
At last his mind began rousing from sleep. He couldn't remember ever getting into a bed, much less one that was apparently near a source of saltwater. Where was he...? Sei opened his eyes.
And almost immediately gave a cry of dismay and shock. Ansem sat on a windowsill overlooking the sea, his long, silver hair glinting in the bright sunlight. He turned his head to look at Sei when he heard the noise, one brow slightly arched in disdain.
"You!" Sei sputtered, sitting straight up in the bed.
What a way to wake up in the morning.
"Yes, me," Ansem answered lightly, his mouth set into a tight smile.
Sei glowered at him with unveiled hostility.
"What in Hades is going on? How'd you--what are you-"
"Doing out here?" Ansem finished. He was smirking slightly now, enjoying putting his "light" into such a fluster.
"I grew weary of waiting for you to wake up, of course. This," he gestured at himself, "is merely a projection of myself using the energy of our heart, but surely you already knew that."
To illustrate, Ansem casually passed his hand through a pot of flowers sitting beside him.
Sei closed his eyes, silently drawing in a deep breath before opening them again.
"Fine, whatever."
What was going on? Sei tried to think back to the last thing he remembered. Sky, falling away at a dizzying speed...waves, hitting them like slamming against a concrete wall...water, complete unconsciousness...
Of course, none of that made any sense. Kairi's portal should have deposited all of them in Traverse Town. Sei looked down at himself, for the first time becoming aware of what he was wearing: a white shirt and cream-colored shorts. Both were at least two sizes too large.
"Where are we?" Sei asked, looking up.
Ansem shrugged. "Apparently an island of some sort. I'm not sure where or what it is called, but that shouldn't be too difficult to discover; we may be here awhile."
Sei was nonplussed.
"What?"
The sound of someone knocking on the bedroom door interrupted them. A brown-haired young woman opened the door, peering inside. She smiled warmly when her eyes met Sei's, and she stepped inside, clasping her hands together in front of her flowered skirt.
"Good morning," she greeted.
The sound of wood striking wood came from the outside hall, and another girl stuck her head in. This one had lighter brown hair that curled outwards at her shoulders and was wearing an orange dress. She grinned, waving a hand while clutching at a pair of crutches.
"So you're finally awake!" the newcomer said cheerily. She hobbled in, looking around with interest. After a moment, though, a few cursory glances drew an expression of confusion.
"Um...wasn't there, like, someone else in here? We thought we heard you talking."
Sei looked over at where Ansem had been just a few moments before.
"Yeah--I was talking to...to myself," Sei finished, feeling increasingly foolish even as the words came out of his mouth.
~At least you are being honest~ Ansem commented musingly. Sei could practically see the amused look on his face.
~Ha, ha, shut the hell up
"My name is Yuna," the first girl said quickly, seeing Sei's discomfort.
The second girl plopped down on a chair across the room, dropping her crutches unceremoniously in the corner beside her.
"I'm Selphie, pleased to meetcha!"
Sei smiled faintly. "My name is Sei."
"We rescued you from drowning out in the ocean last night!" Selphie said. "You've been sleeping since then. Yuna was awesome! She used a summon to send Tidus out to save you!"
"It was actually Selphie who saw you first," Yuna said. Her even, tranquil voice was quite a contrast to Selphie's animated chatter. "She said she saw you falling from the sky, with wings."
Selphie didn't look the slightest bit abashed. "You looked just like an angel, the way it happened--but," she shrugged, "I guess if you aren't, you aren't."
Yuna chuckled at her friend's sentiments. "And it looks like you don't have wings, either. I'm sorry, but Selphie's a bit of a romantic."
Selphie pretended to pout. "So? I think everyone needs a bit of romance in their lives. Makes things more interesting. Besides, romance or not, you know I could still beat anyone senseless with my nunchaku."
She brandished her crutches like said weapons, striking a rather silly pose. Yuna giggled.
"Did you really fall from the sky?" Yuna asked, turning back to Sei. She was only half serious, and so was very surprised when Sei nodded. "How did that happen?"
Sei held up his hands helplessly.
"I really don't know."
His expression became worried as he suddenly realized that the two girls had made no mention of Kairi, Riku, or Sora. "But was there anyone else? When you found me, I mean."
Yuna shook her head. "Tidus didn't mention seeing anyone else, and I'm sure Valefor would have known had there been. I'm sorry, but was there someone in particular?"
Sei hesitated.
"...yes, some friends of mine, but..." He shook his head. "Never mind."
"Hey," Selphie piped up. "If you've got friends, we'll keep our eyes peeled for anyone new on the islands."
Sei smiled. "Thank you both for everything. Where is this place, anyway?"
"Coeptus of the Destiny Island Archipelago," Yuna informed him. "It's not much--one of the smaller islands actually--but it's our home."
Destiny Islands?!? The astonishment must have been patent on his face.
"Was there ever anyone named Sora who lived here?" Sei asked.
Yuna and Selphie's eyes grew wide.
"You know him?" Selphie squeaked. "He and our friend Riku have been missing for five years. They say they're dead, but-"
She trailed off, thinking.
"And then Kairi disappeared a month ago," Yuna said quietly. She looked up to study Sei's face. "Your friends? The ones you mentioned earlier?"
"So they're still alive?!" Selphie looked as if she wanted to jump up and out of her chair when she saw the give-away expression on Sei's face. "Where have they been? How do you know them? What's been going on?!?!"
"Selphie, calm down. I think you're scaring him," Yuna said, a wry smile twitching at her lips.
Selphie frowned.
"But, Yuna..."
Selphie was obviously disappointed that she couldn't harry Sei until she had squeezed all the answers to her questions out of him. Or at least beat him over the head with a stick until he talked.
"That's enough," Yuna said, a sort of finality in her words.
"We'll be going outside now," Yuna continued, now talking to Sei. "Your old clothes haven't been cleaned yet, but we've brought you some that you can borrow."
She pointed towards a small pile at the end of his bed.
"So, go ahead and get cleaned up, and we'll have something for you to eat in the kitchen. Come on, Selphie."
Yuna exited the room. Selphie followed quietly, but not before throwing one last dissatisfied look at Sei. Sei shook his head, unsure of what it was he had just gotten himself into.
Once the girls were gone, Sei got out of bed and headed into the bathroom for a shower. His dark side reappeared when he had just finished drying himself and was getting dressed.
"Destiny Islands, who would have guessed?" Ansem remarked, lounging on a small dresser. "There's a certain irony to that."
"Hmph," Sei said noncommittally, twiddling with the ties at the collar of his shirt. "I'm wondering what happened to the others and why we were separated-if that is the case, of course."
"Why, not how?"
Sei glanced sideways over at Ansem before plucking a comb off the table.
"You know me better than that. How is irrelevant when it seems that everything that has been happening over the past fourteen years has happened for a reason, no matter how inexplicable."
Sei paused from attempting to untangle the snarls in his hair and stared at the comb, from which one tooth was now missing.
"You know," he said finally, "this is the reason I stopped letting my hair get any farther than my shoulders. Back when I was at Hollow Bastion, I could afford a little vanity. Now it's too much of a hassle."
He dragged the comb a few more times through his hair, then tied it back and slipped on a pair of sandals that had been left out for him.
There was no one inside when he left his room. On the kitchen table was a basket of freshly baked sweet rolls and a pitcher of clear water. The rolls were delicious, stuffed with fruit and a light, sweet syrup. Sei took two with him as he wandered outside into the bright, tropical sunlight.
###
"No way."
Tidus looked stunned as Selphie told him what she had seen and learned about Sei. Wakka stood up from the ground, holding the blitzball he had been playing with under his arm.
"And you say this guy's for real, ya?"
Tidus had been going over sword drills in the yard behind the house when Selphie came out, practically bursting with everything that she had to tell them.
"Completely, if maybe a little weird."
She lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "He said he was talking to himself before Yuna and I went into the room, but I could swear I heard someone else in there too--someone different. Yuna did too."
She made a face.
"He seems nice and everything, but there's something fishy about him."
"Where is Yuna, anyway?" Tidus asked.
Selphie flapped her hand impatiently.
"Went to pick up some food from Lenna's 'cause we haven't had time to cook anything this morning. She wanted to talk to Sonia too, tell her about Sora, but I told her we shouldn't tell anything to anyone." Selphie's voice went plaintive. "You /know/ what Sora's mum has been like ever since he disappeared. We /can't/ get anyone's hopes up until we know for sure what's going on. You boys both got that?"
She sounded almost threatening. Anyone else might have laughed, but both Tidus and Wakka knew her well enough to take this seriously.
"Right."
"Got it."