AN: Yeaaah, this one is another doozy lol. xD Prepare your buttockses! :D
Wandering Port Royal hoping that the Keyhole would reveal itself to them was a fruitless endeavor.
So the group moved on - went further inland. Into the vast jungles and marshes, past the mountains.
However, besides running across the occasional alligator or four, there really wasn't anything too overly worrying or threatening in the swampy jungles. It was just a hot, gross, long trek through a dark, damp place where you couldn't really see much around you. Nothing worth seeing, anyways. It was just hour after hour...of this.
"Kairi, are you sure your Heart wants us to go this way?" Sora said to Kairi as he trudged through a mud puddle - and got his foot stuck. "I know you have the strongest connection to the worlds and their Keyholes than any of us - being a Princess of Heart and all, buuut..."
Kairi looked back at him, giving a toss of her head and a small grin. "Yes, I'm sure. This is the way to the Keyhole, I just know it!"
"Heh, okay. Still, why don't you ask your Heart how much longer till we get there?" Sora said, grinning back as he gave a great tug and pulled his shoe free. He stumbled and caught himself on a tree.
Kairi nodded, gazing around herself before putting hand to heart. She breathed, she felt...
"It's not much further now," she stated, letting her arm fall away. She continued on, gesturing. "Come on."
"Only if you promise," Sora said playfully, starting after her.
"Hehe - I promise!"
"Great!" Sora beamed.
On they all went - through tangled vines and deep wading waters. Until finally, they stumbled out into a clearing. Dry dirt, a small mound, atop which sat an old, ruined stone structure. It was tall and rounded, like an obelisk or something. A monument?
Kairi gazed at it intently. She gasped as she saw a glistening yellow keyhole appear in the stone...and then it just faded away again!
She turned back to the others, gesturing. "Did you guys see that?"
"Considering we're all Keyblade wielders - yes, we all saw it," Aqua nodded. She paused, glancing over at Riku, a tinge to her cheeks. "Well- ah- almost all of us - I'm sorry."
Riku laughed, shrugging. "Hey, I think everyone knew how you meant it - and I still sensed that. I saw the Keyhole to Destiny Islands once, when I was little. Sora and I...it was our first visit to the Secret Place. The same night that-" He suddenly stopped, his head bowing. Fists clenching briefly. "Sorry..." he threw out, his head rising again - turning to Kairi, as if he was actually looking at her.
"The night I washed up on the islands," Kairi said tightly. "The same night as that meteor shower. You guys thought I arrived in it, like some kind of angel or spirit." She gave a small smile, shaking her head.
Sora laughed, hands behind his head. "I still say it wasn't a coincidence. We know you came from another world now - from your home world. You couldn't have just happened to come in a meteor shower!"
Kairi looked away, off into the trees. She clenched her fist at her side. "Well, I still say it was."
"I guess we'll never know," Riku said ruefully. "Some things are just a mystery..."
Aqua cleared her throat, stepping forward and raising her Keyblade to the stone obelisk thingy. "Can we stay on track, please, children? This is all interesting, yes - fascinating - but we have a job to do here."
"You have no job to do here at all..." a voice suddenly echoed around them. It was a low, raspy voice of a woman's, Kairi thought.
Everyone tensed; several more Keyblades appeared in multiple flashes of light. They all looked around themselves.
"Whoever you are: show yourself," Aqua stated.
"Of course."
To the left of the obelisk, a figure appeared in a swirl of black smoke. The transparent image of a woman, all right. She had long, stringy blonde hair that reached her waist, and fair skin. She was clothed in tattered, dirty pants and a frilly blouse. There was long-dried blood on her form - a big blotch of it right beneath her breasts.
"Speaking of spirits..." Kairi murmured, staring in awe. "Who are you?" she asked the woman.
The woman gave a smile - and Kairi noted she had at least one missing tooth. "My name is Sidney Barlow, and in my life I was an adventurer - and a seeker of the supernatural. The Curse of Davy Jones and the legends of the Flying Dutchman, the Skeleton Queen Raven Nightshade, the Lantern of Light, stolen from Captain Currington's personal stores..." She trailed off, seeming lost in thought. Or maybe in nostalgia of life. She shook her head, absently brushing back her hair. "But now...now I safeguard the ultimate discovery of the world." The ghostly woman turned to point at the obelisk. The Keyhole.
"You guard it?" Aqua said, lowering her Keyblade at last.
Sidney smiled at her, nodding. She drifted sideways and then put out an elbow to lean against the obelisk casually. "That's right. The very heart of my world. Even when it changes its location, I move with it. And when dark forces want to come for it...I have ways of warding them off."
"Well, we're here to lock it, so-" Kairi began.
The woman raised a hand, that smile still there. "I've already told you: there's no need for that."
"How can there not be?" Aqua questioned, staring.
"It's simple: the Keyhole was already sealed ages ago - it must have been over a century or more, by now...but it was," said Sidney. "It was on the other side of the world, during a troubling time of earthquakes and storms; a group of Keyblade wielders much like yourselves came here and locked the Keyhole to protect it."
"That's great!" Kairi smiled. "We'll just go, then. Thank you!"
"Wait. No offense, but we'd like to check for ourselves," Terra spoke lightly. "Keyblade Master's duty - I'm sure you understand that."
"Of course," Sidney responded. She straightened up in the air, turning away to float into the trees - disappearing.
Terra gave Aqua a nod. Aqua stepped forward, aiming her Keyblade at the obelisk and concentrating...
The Keyhole reappeared, the hole flashing with a blue light, then it vanished again.
Aqua's expression softened. Her weapon was lowered, and it vanished. "She was telling us the truth, then."
"She was," Terra said simply.
"Well, that was a nice change of pace!" Kairi giggled. "No fighting a giant Heartless, no convoluted bells that change fountain murals, and no pushing ridiculously heavy stone slabs!"
"Hehe, got that right!" Sora grinned. "Still..."
"What?" Kairi said.
"Nothing," Sora put his hands behind his head, giving a wistful look. "Just wish I could have had a chance to lock one - now that I've got my own Keyblade and all!"
"You'll get your chance," Kairi assured. "There are plenty of Keyholes to go around - too many worlds to count that still need saving. This one just isn't one of them! Which means our job here is done."
"It shouldn't matter who seals a world's Keyhole," Aqua said, frowning slightly.
"If it doesn't matter, what's the problem?" Terra spoke lightly.
Aqua gazed at him. "No problem, I suppose, then. We should return to the ship and move on to a new world." She turned and strode off into the jungle, back the way they had come.
"All right, everyone: let's go," Terra called, striding after her and beckoning the children.
"Do we really have to walk all the way back?" Roxas spoke up, grumbling. "You and - Master Aqua - have those gliders, and I can make Dark Corridors for us-"
"No!" Aqua said harshly, turning sharp eyes on him. "We are not using those-"
"I think what she's getting at is that they're too dangerous for those of us without any protection," Terra spoke across her, his gaze finding Roxas as well. "You might still have your coat, and Aqua, Ven, and myself have our armor - which similarly provides protection from darkness - but that still leaves Xion, Sora, Kairi, and probably even Riku to get hurt by raw exposure."
"Actually, I'm a Princess of Heart, remember?" Kairi said quickly. "Darkness has no effect on me."
"Geez, Kairi, it's kind of funny how you only pull that card when it's to your advantage," Sora teased.
Kairi stuck her tongue out at him. "I was just stating a fact."
"Suuuure..."
"I had a black coat too," Xion said, hesitant. "When I was first...sent to Traverse Town. It could still be there in the store - in Second District."
"Why would you have a black coat...?" Riku said slowly.
Kairi looked to Xion in surprise (ignoring Riku). "Are you sure you'd want to wear it again, sis?"
Xion smiled, nodding. "If it can do something to help me, yes - Roxas still has his."
"Well, we can go look at the lost and found bins when we get back there - whenever we do," Kairi said simply.
"Okay, children: forget these 'Dark Corridors!'" Aqua said loudly. "We won't need to wear those coats because no one is going to be walking through hallways of pure, concentrated, suffocating darkness!"
Everyone stared at her.
She stared back, her lower lip trembling. Then she turned and marched off into the trees, disappearing from sight.
"I'm cool with walking again," Sora said quickly, giving an awkward grin.
"Let's just go..." Terra sighed.
After a long march back to Port Royal, they boarded the Purple Pestilence again at last.
It was almost dark, by that point.
Kairi, Sora, Xion, Roxas and...Riku went into the captain's cabin together, while Aqua, Terra and Ven remained out on the main deck.
Kairi, Sora and Xion settled down on the long, lush red couch on one side of the room - while Roxas dragged the high-backed chair over from the table. Riku, after a moment of deliberation, sat himself down right on the floor next to Roxas (on the nice red carpet rug, at least).
They sort of just sat together like that for a minute. Most of them relaxed - one or two of them maybe not so much. Then-
"I used to have a black coat because I was made by the Organization," Xion spoke to Riku, looking down at him, her hands in her lap. "I'm a Replica. I was made to look like Kairi - to use her Keyblade - and I was made to fight her. But I'm not really a girl-"
"No, Xion, you are still a girl," Kairi said firmly, grabbing her arm. "Just because you're a different kind of girl doesn't mean you aren't still just as much of one as I am! There are all sorts of girls - remember? You're just a whole new kind of one. But whatever stuff you're made up of doesn't change who you are in your Heart. And if you're a girl in there, then you're a girl - end of story! Got it?"
Xion looked away, then down at her lap. She nodded, and she raised her head to meet Kairi's gaze again. "Okay. I...I've got it, yes. I'm still a girl - but I'm not human."
"Plenty of people we've met around the worlds aren't human - that's not a negative either," Kairi refuted, smiling.
"Well...I-" Xion struggled, then fell silent. "I'm still a Replica."
"And that still doesn't mean shit, sister," Kairi said fiercely. "It just means you're special and different. But you're here, and you're you, and that's what matters. Nobody even cares except you at this point, Xion!"
"Hey, Xion..." Riku said suddenly, quiet and- a little awkward. His head raised to her - right at her. He took a breath in, let it go again. He spread his hands to her.
"What?" Xion said, even quieter than him. Like a mouse.
"You want to know what I - uh - 'see' when I...um, 'look' at you?" Riku went on.
"Okay, not liking where this is going," Kairi told Riku in warning.
"Kairi, come on, gah - just - I was going to say a Heart, all right?" Riku exclaimed in strangled tones, his face red. "Your Heart in there, Xion, to me it's- it's the exact same as Sora's, or Kairi's, or Roxas's! I mean, I can't see Kairi's too well since she's like a living sun over there with all the light she's putting out, but-"
"Wait, what did you just say?" Roxas gasped, twisting in his chair to gaze down at Riku.
"Yeah, what did you just-" Kairi froze. She stared at Riku too. "Wait what did you just say?! Roxas has a Heart in him?"
"Wait so did we clone Ven, or...what does this mean?" Sora said, flabbergasted.
"U-uh- yeah, I've b-been- seeing it every time I sense you guys around me..." Riku stammered out, holding up his hands now and shrinking away. "Sora's Heart, Kairi's Heart, Xion's Heart, and Roxas's Heart. What's the problem?"
"No...problem..." Kairi breathed. "Maybe - possibly - RoxascomewithmeweneedtotalktoVenandtheMasters!" she rattled out, leaping up and stalking forward to seize the boy's arm. "Come on, come on, come on!"
"I have a...Heart inside me...?" Roxas said blankly, looking overwhelmed as he let her pull him from the room.
Their entourage burst out of the Captain's room, out onto the deck of cool air and a fading sky.
"Hey guys, what's-" Ven began, waving and getting to his feet.
"Riku says Roxas has a Heart in him!" Kairi yelled, dragging Roxas forth and holding him before Ven, Aqua and Terra (who had both gotten to their feet now too).
"That can't be possible - Ven is right there," Aqua gaped.
"I am right here," Ven confirmed, with a little grin and a raise of his hand.
"Riku, are you sure?" Terra asked. "You're still new to this ability."
"I'm sure," Riku said, as calm as he could. "I've been practicing it all day today - sort of had no choice, if I wanted to get through the hiking trip from hell - and that Heart's always been there with the rest of yours. It's consistent."
"What does this mean?" Roxas said, a bit fearful now. "What's going on with me?"
"Either there's someone else hitching a ride with you, or...you have a Heart of your own!" Kairi said joyfully. "It's the only possible explanation! Sora's Heart is there, because he's his Heart, and Ven is right there because he's his Heart too! So that only leaves you in Sora's body - the only Heart that can be...is your own!"
"But Nobodies don't have Hearts..." Roxas replied, frowning deeply.
"It does seem contrary to the basic definition of this kind of being," Aqua said slowly in agreement. "A Nobody is the body left behind, memory and mind continuing on with a will of its own. And if there are no memories...a clean slate of a mind is what persists. But there can't possibly be a Heart in there. Not now. It's impossible."
"But it is possible, because Roxas has a Heart!" Kairi said firmly. "And- and I can prove it!" she went on excitedly. She turned to Roxas, taking deep breaths and putting hand to her Heart.
"How are you going to prove something like that?" Aqua said.
"Shut up, I need to focus!" Kairi said instantly.
Aqua looked affronted. Terra put a hand on her arm, and she settled for a disapproving glare.
Kairi ignored her for now, just focusing on Roxas. Staring into his face, those eyes, reaching out with her Heart...her light...her powers as a Princess of Heart...
It was so easy, so simple...
Roxas startled, gasping.
Kairi saw a glowing outline form around him - and then she was seeing double. A second, static image of Roxas appeared overtop his actual body...and then it faded away.
"It's confirmed: he has a Heart - you have a Heart!" Kairi beamed. She pulled him into a hug and squeezed him! "I saw it, I sensed it! It's real!"
"But that isn't possible..." Aqua breathed.
"Maybe we should just stop saying that," Terra said humorously. He raised a hand and tapped his chestplate.
Aqua sighed, and she smiled, bringing her hands to her chest. "Yes. Maybe we should," she laughed freely. She startled, her hand rising to her mouth. Her hand fell, and he smile widened. "Alright, Kairi, you might want to think about letting him go before you do him serious harm," she told Kairi lightly.
"Sorry!" Kairi said instantly, letting Roxas go free.
The boy stumbled back, shaking his head of messy blonde hair. He looked at her, then to Sora (who was standing a ways back from him). Then, he looked down at himself, raising his hands before him. "I...really have a Heart? But how?"
"I doubt we'll ever know," Kairi giggled. "So let's just do what we do and chalk it up to a miracle, and go from there, how about?"
Roxas smiled at her, dropping his hands. "Okay. But I still want to figure it out someday..."
"Wait, if Roxas has a Heart, do you have one too?" Kairi said, rounding on Terra. "Riku, have you ever-"
Riku frowned, turning his head aside. He shook it reluctantly. "I- uh- look, if he does it's hidden under all that armor. The...armor is all I - 'see.' It's like you, Kairi. Your light's so strong I can barely see your Heart in there. But I do see yours. Terra, though..."
"It makes sense," Terra said simply, nodding. Seeming totally unconcerned about the idea. "I'm even less than a Nobody. If anyone was going to not spontaneously have a Heart of their own somehow, it was going to be me."
"The whole point of miracles is they can happen to anyone," Kairi refuted. "Give it time, and I bet you'll have one too!"
"Yes, but the odds of two miracles happening in the same group-" Aqua began lightly.
"Hmph. To see you all here, fighting so futilely against the darkness..." A deep, familiar voice rang out.
Everyone turned and summoned their weapons nearly simultaneously.
"Ansem?" Kairi spoke, horrified.
"No way..." Sora gasped, holding his Keyblade in two strong hands, looking all around himself. "That guy was toast, we beat him!"
"Maybe not..." Riku said quietly. "Darkness has a way of clinging on to whatever it touches..."
Darkness swirled to their left, toward the back of the ship, and Ansem appeared there on the main deck.
He faced them all, arms crossed. Imposing, muscular-
"Seriously, why do you have an open shirt like that?!" Kairi shouted at the man, brandishing her weapon. "Is it that important to you that all your enemies know they were killed by a- fucking beefcake?" Immediately after the words left her mouth, she mimed throwing up. Partly, anyway; she really almost did.
Ansem's arms uncrossed, his face showing pure bafflement. Then he scowled at her. "I'm not here to entertain the trivial whims of the mind of a teenage girl. I am here to-"
"To kill us all? To destroy more worlds? Set the Heartless loose? Try and get another shot at Kingdom Hearts? Have you talked to Xemnas lately - how's it going with that, by the way?" Kairi rattled off, interrupting the man. "Because I think you suck at this whole evil overlord thing...Xehanort!"
Ansem's face flickered with shock, then he narrowed his eyes at them. His gaze found Ven, then Aqua, and then...Terra. His hands curled at his sides, and darkness began to grow in them like burning purple flames.
"That's right, Xehanort!" Kairi yelled out gleefully. "An old, evil Keyblade wielder who was after Kingdom Hearts! We all know exactly who you are! The game's up! You failed ten years ago, and you failed again with your Door To Darkness - and Xemnas is going to fail too! it doesn't matter whose body you take, it doesn't matter what you do - you're always going to lose! Because you're just bad at this!"
Ansem - Xehanort - whatever, cocked his head at her. Then he gave a broad smirk. "Hmph. I admire your fire and confidence, Princess of Heart - truly. But...it is you who will lose."
"That's all you have? 'No you?'" Kairi laughed. "Now I know you're just blowing smoke at us. Oh, by the way - I see you're still a Heartless. A Heartless who brought himself right to a Heart of Pure Light - again. How do you think this is going to go any differently from the last time Alice and I blasted you into nothing? You might cling on like a cockroach, but eventually we'll stamp you out for good! Still your biggest mistake!"
"I indeed underestimated the powers of the Princesses of Heart," Ansem responded. "But I've grown my powers, as the darkness across these worlds has grown. You won't find yourself capable of replicating that feat now - least of all because I see only one little Princess before me. However, more to the point..."
Darkness erupted from Ansem as he floated up high into the air above them all, and a big, muscular Heartless appeared behind him. It had no legs, had a heart-shaped hole in its body, and had long antennae. Its chest and neck were wrapped in bandages that looked like they were fused with its skin. Its mouth had crisscrossing bandages across it, as if to bind its jaws shut and keep it from speaking. Its forehead and the base of the antennae were covered in blue highlights - rich lines of color that almost glowed. Like the glowing yellow eyes it had.
It was so...striking, so- outright symbolic!
Kairi stared into that face, and she breathed, and she put a hand to her chest...as she reached out for it. For them.
Who are you...? Show me, come on, please...I can help you, just help me see you...
She pushed her light against that figure, into that darkness, pushing and parting and diving in to search...to feel...
Come on, come on, where are you...where's your light, where's your Heart? Show me, guide me...help me find you, so I can save you...
Suddenly she gasped as, in the dark abyss of her mind's eye, a golden light burst to life.
She pushed forward, faster, wading through it all, determined, hand stretched out!
She drew closer and closer-
And then that light flared brighter, resolving itself into a familiar visage.
A young man, of long brown hair, and blue eyes.
The darkness around her suddenly burned away, revealing a shining orange platform of stain glass, full of all kinds of familiar images. Faces, and charms...
Kairi hovered there above it, staring down at it for a moment. Then she raised her head, meeting the man's gaze.
The man, floating before her, surrounded by a golden outline. Light itself casting off of him. From within him.
"Kairi...?" he spoke. "You found me again?"
"I did - and I'm here to bring you back!" Kairi told him firmly. "But I need your help to do it. All this darkness around us, all of his darkness - Xehanort's - we need to purge it, so I can put you right again. Human again. Can you do that?"
Terra looked shocked, for a moment. Caught off guard. Then he nodded, giving a small smile. His hand went to his chest, where a new light was beginning to glow. "Yes. We can."
"Okay. Then let's do this. Aqua and Ven are waiting for you, right now!"
Kairi reached out a hand to the man, palm up.
He took it gingerly.
They both looked around themselves at the swirling darkness now threatening to close in on them again. It was swallowing up that stained glass platform below them.
Sora, Xion, Roxas, Ven...Aqua - and- other Terra - sorry - and...Riku...some outside help would be appreciated too! Kairi thought fiercely, hand to her own chest. Then she breathed, let it go, and burned her light bright.
More and more, greater and greater, side by side with Terra.
Together, their light cast out to repel the darkness, to reveal that stained glass platform again in full.
Slowly, they continued to push it back.
Tendrils flew out for them, melting away on getting close.
And then, Kairi saw seven points of light appear all around her, from within, from beyond that darkness. From beyond the abyss itself.
Those seven points shined brighter and grew larger, helping to burn away the darkness from an unexpected place!
But the darkness intensified, it fought back, it held on - it didn't want to let Terra go. Xehanort didn't want to let him go...
Beside her, Kairi suddenly saw Terra...sag. He slumped over, and he let go of her hand. The light around his body dimmed.
"No, come on, keep fighting - we're close, we can do this! Ven and Aqua are here, they're right here!" Kairi urged him, grabbing the man's arm.
"I...I can't...I've been like this for so long, I've tried, I..."
"No! This is it, this is the end, we're going to free you, save you, just - one more push, just-"
"C-can't..." Terra shook his head, gasping, and the light faded entirely. And then he began to fall. Down, down toward the stained glass platform that was now being consumed by darkness again...
And those points of light were getting smaller-
"NO!" Kairi shouted, diving down for him. "We're right here, we've got this, just...!"
Terra's eyes closed, as darkness began to cover his body itself.
"No, no, NO! TERRA, WAKE UP, COME ON - YOU CAN'T SLEEP NOW, YOU LAZY BUM! WAKE UP, GET BACK UP HERE, AND LET'S SHOW THIS EVIL JERK WHO'S BOSS!" Kairi yelled out, reaching desperately for him.
A ball of fiery orange light suddenly came flying down from above, zooming past Kairi to hover in front of Terra. Terra's fall halted. That orange light expanded suddenly, like a sun going supernova, surrounding him. Kairi couldn't even see him, couldn't-
She raised a hand to her face, blinking and staring hard.
The fiery sphere diminished, closing in on itself - and Terra was there, awake again, and surrounded by a fiery orange glow.
He looked up at Kairi, a blazing look to his eyes. Then he looked around them at the darkness, and he raised a hand-
A Keyblade appeared.
It wasn't exactly the same as- the armored Terra used.
But it was similar...
Terra readied his weapon in both hands, that orange glow transferring to his Keyblade. The sword vibrated, burning like a sword on fire. Then he whirled around, swinging it with all his might.
A huge wave of orange energy expanded outward in all directions, burning away the darkness like it was nothing - those seven points of light burned brighter than ever, only adding to it - and then-
Kairi blinked, suddenly finding herself standing on the Pestilence's deck again.
She looked around herself, at the others. They all had their Keyblades raised, ends glowing - all pointed at Ansem, who was hovering in the air, looking shocked and even afraid. Among them was even...Riku? He had a Keyblade - a simple one, thin, with a silver blade and a golden-yellow handle. The other difference that drew her eye was not so positive: Terra- armored Terra- was gone!
"What happened?! Where's-" Kairi gasped.
Her attention was torn away by a guttural scream from above her head. She looked up at Ansem, just in time to see a huge beam of light slam into his backside. A beam of light cast by a young man with brown hair, wielding a huge Keyblade who was hovering behind him - exactly where that muscular Heartless had once been!
"I-impossible-!" Ansem roared out, his body trembling, disintegrating, as he tried to turn to face Terra. He hardly managed to turn his head before...the light punched through him, and it exploded from the inside out, blinding everyone.
When it faded, Ansem was gone - and in his place now...was a girl with dark skin and dark hair, wearing a simple tunic and pants.
Terra let his weapon go, flying forward to catch Nysa, and carrying her down to land on the ship's deck. He touched down gently, immediately laying her down on the ground. He remained there, kneeling over her, gazing into her face.
Kairi hurried forward, throwing herself down before Nysa. "Nysa! You're okay, you're safe, you're back. Come on, wake up, come on-"
Nysa's eyes snapped open, revealing eyes of bright yellow. She sat up in an instant, thrusting a hand out at Kairi with a scream: a blast of dark red energy erupted, throwing Kairi back across the deck to hit hard and roll into a heavy box that had been being used as a chair. The force of that blast was so great that even Terra was thrown back away from her!
"N-Nysa...?" Kairi gasped, struggling to push herself up again.
Nysa stood there, red tendrils of dark energy casting off of her, erupting from beneath her feet - it wasn't like anything Kairi had even seen before! Nysa grunted and growled, almost like an animal. She seized her head, her hair, tearing at it, turning this way and that like she was just- possessed- but she couldn't be anymore, she was free and safe!
"NYSA!" Kairi called out, racing forward once more, reaching for her. "Nysa, it's okay, we can help you!"
Nysa's golden eyes raised, snapping right to her. She screamed, and red light flashed as darkness flew out to cover the deck like oozing sludge. Energy burst and crackled, red light flashing all over the place - like an electric charge in the air. It burned hot in Kairi's nose, it set her hair on end. Everyone retreated from it as fast as they could. Nysa threw her arms down at her sides, and then...it all just changed on her face. There wasn't some inconceivable rage, or agony, or whatever this was - it was just...calm, and pure bliss and peace.
"Nysa..." Kairi gasped, raising her hands to push against the darkness, wading her way forward still. It was like fighting through a storm... "Nysa, I'm here, I've got you, I-"
"Are you going to save me this time?" Nysa spoke, quiet and calm. Eerily calm, despite the raging storm she was the epicenter of. The cause of...
Kairi froze. "Nysa...?"
"You sent me to that hell, with those dark monsters. You let him have my body - and I let him have it again to escape it," Nysa spoke on. "You put me there, and you never came for me afterwards. Some hero, girl..."
"Nysa, please, I was trying to save you when I-"
"Well, you didn't," Nysa interrupted. "Great work." The girl lowered her head, and she suddenly sank down into that dark red sludge. Straight down, no fear, no expression but that eerie calm. Until she disappeared completely.
The darkness evaporated, that energy in the air dissipating.
It was...over...
But Nysa was...gone.
"No, no, no!" Kairi raced forward, falling to the deck where Nysa had vanished. She slammed her fist down into the wood. "NYSA, I'M SORRY, I'M SORRY, PLEASE!"
Sora came to her, pulling her back from there and into his arms. Into a tight, warm hug.
"We'll find her," Aqua spoke, hard. "We will save her, I promise you. This is not her, this is not her fault - I know, better than anyone, what that place does to you. Even what it did to me, a Keyblade Master. What it could do to a lost, scared girl...a place of horrors, where even time itself has no meaning anymore..." she went on, her voice cracked and strained. Aqua came forward, fell to her knees, and she took Kairi into her arms away from Sora. "We'll save her, I swear we will..." she whispered to Kairi.
"But, hey, we saved Terra...?" Sora said uncertainly, his gaze rising to the brown-haired man standing apart from them all. "Then again, we kinda lost a Terra...? Or-"
"Not quite," Terra said. His first words, a first breath exhaled into the world again. He strode forward and rested down on one knee. His gaze found the place where his crumpled armor lay. "It was my...lingering will's sacrifice that allowed me to get the strength to break free of Xehanort's grasp at last. His unyielding will to resist, to fight, filled my Heart and gave it that same burning desire again." He raised a hand, clenching and unclenching his fist. His eyes swept over them all, and he smiled. "No, it wasn't just him - it was all of you, together."
"Sooo...are you like - you-you, or are you- you and him, or...?" Sora puzzled out, giving a small grin.
Terra grinned too, and he laughed softly. "That last one, I'd say." His blue eyes found Riku, and they were shining now. "I remember everything my Heart's been through the last ten years - and now I also know everything that...he went through the last ten years as well. Riku-"
"Yeah...?" Riku said hesitantly.
"You finally called your Keyblade. And your first act was using it to save me - free my Heart from Xehanort. Thank you...and I can't say how proud I am of you."
Riku flushed, turning away quickly. "Y-yeah...? Thanks. I just- knew what I had to do, in just a single moment. So I did."
Terra nodded. He finally looked to his friends. To Aqua and Ven alone.
Aqua let Kairi go, and she and Ven went to hug Terra together.
Kairi looked at Sora, and then she reached out and took his hand. He startled, but then he smiled, and he squeezed her hand tight.
Neither Aqua, Ven and Terra, nor Kairi and Sora needed to say a word in that moment of connection.