The night was dark, almost black, but that didn't bother Kairi any. Because he was sitting next to her. It's all okay. She smiled.
"Sora?" Her voice was quite, but in the silence, it seemed loud. She heard a bit of movement and felt him move closer to her.
"Hm?" They were sitting outside, leaning against the wall of the barn in the coral. Kairi stared up at the sky.
"This world doesn't seem Heartless…" She observed. She grinned in spite of herself, knowing how dumb she sounded.
"How do you mean?" Sora asked, his hand catching hers, his fingers wrapping around hers. Kairi smiled.
"I dunno, I just think that this place seems too nice to be ruled by a goddess with no heart…" She said. This was a rather depressing thing to be talking about, but she was still inexplicably happy.
"I guess so. Elazul wasn't too nice though. Neither was that guy from the temple in Gato…Reuben." He decided. Kairi smirked.
"Maybe. But that's just him. I like this world. It's so….funny." She couldn't think of any other word to describe it. It was nice and it made her happy, but it was unbelievably odd. "Reuben…you can't really blame him for being kind of nasty. He was about to be killed…." Her voice trailed off. Her inexplicable happiness was fading. She'd been the only one, other than his murderer Sandra, to have witnessed it. She'd pulled out his heart. How horrible. Then again, he didn't really have a proper heart in the first place. There was this race of beings on Fa'Diel called the Jumi. They didn't have hearts, they had cores instead, made from precious stones. They'd discovered just too late that Reuben was the Jumi of the Ruby. Sandra the Jewel Hunter wasn't just any jewel hunter, she stole the cores of Jumi. Elazul and Pearl were Jumi as well. That explained why Elazul was so worried about Sandra being after Pearl. Elazul had told them all this afterward, when they'd gone to Domina. He also said that, while he was grateful for their help, the Jumi needed to deal with Sandra themselves. Kairi understood, and so did the others. The Jumi had their own adventures to dicover, their own challenges to overcome, just like Kairi and her friends did. They'd wandered through the jungle, they'd discovered a lake called Lake Kilma, which had been inhabited by Penguin Pirates. They'd discovered a city of night, lit by the beautiful lamps of a siren in love, each one unique. They'd also found themselves a new pile of Artifacts. One that particularly intrigued Kairi was the Bent Spoon. She didn't know why, but there was something about it. She almost felt as if it was the place they needed to be to find the Mana Tree. Maybe the Spoon was the Tree they were looking for? She sighed, letting her mind wander, wondering about what might happen to them next.
………………..
The group had a very busy day the next day, placing the Tome of Magic, which created a beautiful city based around a college of magic, and the Coral Torch, a beautiful harbour hotel called Polpota, and the Rusty Anchor, which was a pirate ship manned by Penguins. And, the Bent Spoon had been placed. Kairi had been expecting some wonderous new place, where perhaps they would meet a new Sproutling, or another Jumi… but instead, in was a dead field, the flat grey only broken by a jet black tombstone, ancient and crooked. It was huge, a very impressive tombstone, but still, the Bent Spoon was disappointing. Indeed, there wasn't anything there. Rikku looked up at the huge carved stone, and sighed.
"Kaiiiii…. I thought you said that there was something cool in here…." she whined, pouting. Kairi frowned.
"I thought there was…." She admitted half-heartedly, clearly disappointed. Rikku sighed again and reached out to lean on the stone, but as soon as her hand came in contact with the black granite, she let out a scream and disappeared into the stone itself. Gippal spun around to look at the stone and stared.
"Rikku! Where'd she go?" He asked, panicky. Another figure melted out of the stone and bowed. He looked almost wolfish, and was wearing blood red armor. His mannerisms seemed to radiate the internal war he was constantly fighting against himself.
"Not to worry. The girl will be fine. I am Larc, the dragoon." He spoke smoothly, and rigidly. Gippal glared at him
"Where's Rikku? What did you do to her?"
"I've done nothing. She is in the underworld. She went there of her own accord."
"I'm pretty sure Rikku did not want to end up in the land of the dead!" Gippal argued, nearly shouting. Still, Larc didn't flinch.
"She touched the tombstone. She went of her own accord." He explained patiently. Gippal growled and pushed him out of the way.
"Then I'm going too!" He announced defiantly. With that, he touched the tombstone and disappeared. Paine crossed her arms.
"Great. When do you suppose they'll manage to get back?" Paine asked, not worried, just exasperated. Larc shook his head.
"I don't suppose they ever will." He answered. There was silence. Finally, Yuna stalked up to him, clearly angry.
"What do you mean, they won't ever get back?" She asked, her face flushed. Larc shrugged, still maintaining the uncaring air he'd had since he got there.
"Once one enters the land of the dead, you do not return. It's the law of nature." He explained. Yuna's face fell.
"But being sucked through a tombstone isn't the most natural way to die in the first place!" She complained. Larc shrugged again.
"I'm sorry, but it is the way of the world." He answered. Paine groaned and pushed by him.
"Fine. If you're not going to help us, we'll go get them and find our own way out." She decided. Tidus went pale.
"We will?" He asked, surprised. Paine nodded.
"We managed to get you out of Zanarkand without too many problems, didn't we?" She asked. Tidus nodded, looking more resolute. Paine touched the stone and disappeared, followed closely by Kairi, then Sora, then Baralai, then Tidus and Yuna.
Kairi groaned. She felt like she fell a long way, she felt utterly bruised. Sitting up, she saw the others getting up off the ground as well, in conditions similar to hers. They were in a huge cavern, with red tinted light playing off the walls, coming from the gaping hole in the middle of the room that looked like it dropped into a pit of fire. Gippal grimaced.
"You think this place is…hell?" He asked, peering over the edge of the hole. They all looked at each other, not liking the idea of being stuck in hell. Standing up, Baralai spotted the doorway and stared through it. It led down a long hall, and then down a set of wide stairs. Larc was standing at the bottom of the stairs. Rikku glared at him.
"Who are you?" She asked. Gippal glared at him.
"This is the guy who got us stuck here." He answered angrily. Larc frowned.
"I did no such thing. If you should like, I'd be willing to aid you in your quest to leave this place. Perhaps my master will be willing to strike some kind of bargain with you." He offered, leading them down another hallway, this one full of doors. He opened one of the doors and led them inside.
"Where is this master of yours?" Tidus asked, looking around at the interior of the room. It was a cavern, just like the other room, but there was no floor, it was covered in a heatless blue flame. All the way around the outside was a wide ledge, and on the other side, stairs that led down into the center of the flaming floor.
"He is in the deepest depths of the underworld, at the Pulpit of Eternal Flame. You are not dead yet, so you must be baptized with this fire so be proclaimed properly dead and to allow you to access the Pulpit." He said. They'd walked all the way around the outside and he was now walking down the steps towards the fire. Gippal recoiled.
"Wait a minute! I thought the point here was to be alive again, not be proclaimed dead!" He stated, confused. Larc nodded.
"You will, providing you please my master. You won't be able to even see him to speak with him if you are not baptized." He explained. Still uncertain, the group of the walked down the steps towards him. He took a torch from a hook on the wall and dipped it into the fires. He pulled it out and stared into the flames for a moment. The others watched him intently, apprehensive and almost afraid of what he would do next. Suddenly, he tossed it into the air and it burst into a million pieces. There were a number of shrieks and shouts as the fires began to rain down on them, only to have them find that the fire didn't burn. It felt almost like water that disappeared on contact with their skin. After a moment, and when they were sure the rain of fire had stopped, they looked at each other.
"….I don't feel any different…" Tidus observed. Sora gasped and everyone turned to look at him. He was staring at Kairi, looking worried.
"Kai, you okay?" He asked, put his arms around her and hiding her almost completely from the view of others. She smiled at him.
"Sure, why?" She asked, slightly confused. He sighed, running his thumb across her lower eyelid.
"Your eyes…" He murmured, his voice trailing off. Kairi gasped now as well, looking horrified.
"They're not…" she breathed, not finishing her sentence.
"They're like they were after you fell out of the tree." He told her quietly, looking over her, still worried. Kairi frowned.
"I don't feel panicky…" he told him, sounding a bit nervous. Yuna watched with concern.
"Hey, are you guys okay?" She asked after a moment. Sora nodded.
"I think we'll be alright. Kairi's got a…..bit of a problem." he told them. She came into their view, keeping her eyes glued to the floor. When she looked up at them, she cringed at their muffled gasps. Rikku was the first to speak.
"Kairi, what's up with your eyes…" She asked, her voice barely louder than a breath. Kairi shrugged.
"I went without a heart for a long time, so it kind of affects me sometimes…" she said vaguely. They didn't ask for any more of an explanation, for which she was thankful. Larc didn't seem to have noticed anything. He took them to a door that none of them had realized was there before (Larc said it was because they hadn't been baptized yet) and took them down another set of stairs. The mazes of stairways and hallways seemed endless, and Kairi was constantly looking over her shoulder, seeing fleeting shadows and feeling as if she was being watched. This underworld was not a good place to be in, she decided. Just when the halls seemed to become endless, they entered a room not like any of the others. It was a long room, and the walls were covered in carved faces. Larc started to lead them across the room, but stopped when a spirit appeared in front of him. He glared at it.
"Hitodama. Get out of my way, I have important business to attend to." He growled. The spirit glared back at him.
"Larc. You know the newly-dead aren't allowed in the Shrine of the Silent Faces, much less in the Pulpit of Eternal Flame." it said in an unearthly voice.
"These are different, they are the ones who will free us." He answered. Hitodama laughed, and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
"That's what you said last time. And that's why I'm here. To ensure that master doesn't have to deal with any less than competent dragoons and wanna-be heroes." It mocked cruelly. Larc brought himself up to his full height, furious.
"What did you say! You are the incompetent one, you puny Shadole!" He roared. Hitodama was angry now too.
"Puny Shadole, is it? We'll see about that!" With that, he disappeared and the eyes of the faces all began to light up. Then, all at once, the eyes shot a ray of some kind of magic out at them. Each one yelped and leapt out of the way.
"We're not afraid to fight you, Hitodama! Are you too afraid to fight us? Will you hide in the faces or will you have the courage to face us?" Larc shouted, looking around. Hitodama appeared again.
"Fine, have it your way." He said. Larc took a swing at him, but the spirit stepped nimbly out of the way. Suddenly, he froze. Kairi's disk was sticking grotesquely out of his back. He glared at her.
"Nice shot." He spoke mockingly. With a grimace, he pulled it out and tossed it to the ground. He snapped his ghostly fingers and fire jetted out at her. She ducked. Sora smirked, helping Kairi up. He spun, and shot a series of icy blasts out at the spirit from the end of his Keyblade. By the time his attacks had finished, Hitodama had faded into nothing. Sora grinned at Kairi, who matched his smile.
"Nicely done." She congratulated him, sounding impressed. Sora shrugged.
"I'd say you didn't do too bad yourself." He answered. Larc looked surprised.
"I'm very impressed, it took only two of you to take Hitodama down. Well done. I'm sure my master will be pleased." He beckoned for them to follow him, and they immerged into an immense room, surrounded completely by a river of fire. When they spotted this great 'master', Rikku nearly laughed out loud. He was only about 4 feet tall! A little man dressed in an overly large red robe and a matching turban walked up to them and bowed.
"Good evening, I am Drakonis." He said looking at each of them. He turned to Larc. "Who are these newcomers?" He asked.
"These are the ones who will aid us in returning the powers the dragons stole from you." Larc answered confidently. Drakonis nodded.
"How do you know this?" He asked. Larc straighten up and continued.
"Two of them defeated Hitodama faster than I've ever thought possible." He answered, almost proud of their achievement. Drakonis nodded.
"Very well. It seems you have deemed yourselves worthy of returning to the surface." He stated. They all smiled at each other, the relief clear on the faces. "But…"
"Of course there has to be a 'but'…" Paine muttered, crossing her arms.
"But you will be doomed to wander the earth as half souls until you fade into nothingness. That is, unless you help me. If agree to aid me, I will return to you your full lives." He stated. Paine frowned.
"Help you do what?" She asked suspiciously. Drakonis sighed melodramatically.
"I was once the emperor of the dragons, but the three most powerful of the dragons grew jealous, stole my powers, and cast me into the underworld. I need you to aid me by returning the stolen mana from those dragons." He answered. It seemed easy enough.
"We'll do it." Kairi answered. Drakonis beamed at her.
"Wonderful. Here, this may help you on you mission." He handed her a Skull Lantern, another artifact. She took it, and inspected it, finding herself already wondering where it may take them. With a flash, Kairi blinked and rubbed her eyes. They were back outside, the tombstone towering over them once again. Rikku stared at her.
"KAIRI! Your eyes!" She shouted. Kairi frowned.
"No, their not still red, are they!" She asked, fearing the worst.
"No! Their back to their normal colour! Yay!" She shouted. Kairi grinned in spite of herself and walked to the edge of the graveyard. The nothing darkness was everywhere, but she didn't mind. Throwing the artifact as hard as she could, it landed, with the expected explosion and flash, and she looked at the place in created. Her eyes went wide. It was a huge skeleton of a dragon, of such immense size that it seemed that a long time ago, someone had made it their palace. There was a huge field in front of it, bustling with school kids from the magical college in the city of Geo. The whole skeleton was intertwined with any coloured flowers. She smiled slightly. Now this is more like it.
………………
Whoooooo! Finally got around to doing more important juicy plot! This is signifying dun dun dun the impending end of the fic! WOW! I'd say….hmmm… oh we've got six chappies left? Give or take one. Plus the epilogue. But don't fret, there will be a sequel! Review guys!