Razer- Two words. TOLD YOU! -ebil laughter-

Inu-KagomeFan- Yes, it was a mean cliffie. Hee hee hee. I enjoy mean cliffies. Except when it's not my story, lol.

Fire Spirit- Your response is so special, it gets to wait until the end of this chappie! And no, you shouldn't scroll down without reading the chapter to read the response. That would ruin it. (Ha ha, Read your mind!)

Slinky Lover- Heh. You are lucky. I am updating now.

Next chapter! Hurray! I would have left you hanging longer, but Razer's EBIL MOOGLE PLUSHIES OF D00M...er...convinced me to update sooner. So... DON'T HURT ME MOOGLES! -runs away-

XxX

Kairi opened the door.

What she saw took her breath away.

It was Traverse Town. Or at least she thought. The whole town was covered in white fluff, that was also blowing into the cave and chilling Kairi's bare thighs. A freezing gust of wind blew into her face, granulated ice stinging her cheeks mercilessly as the snow swirled all around her. In Traverse Town, they had opened the door into a blizzard.

The mind is a strange thing, allowing you to feel multiple emotions at the same time, even if they are completely at opposite ends of the spectrum. It will even do this as questions formulate in your mind dealing with those emotions. This is what happened to Kairi now as relief and terror washed over her like waves. Relief, obviously, because it had worked. Believing, that is. This was Traverse Town. And terror as she realized that the town was so engulfed in snow that you could barely see the two lanterns not ten feet away from her. Concluding that finding Sora would be exceedingly difficult. If not impossible. All this while she noticed that Tidus was fading fast, meaning that they would soon have two functioning, fighting fit people in a party of five. And Riku and Wakka couldn't be medics for Tidus- or as she thought, herself or Selphie. So, in other words- the situation was hopeless. Even if she had managed to open the door. All these thoughts in less than three seconds.

So you all run to Traverse Town, her common sense retorted.

We can't leave Destiny Islands!

You'll die if you don't.

We'll lose everything we've worked for! Everything we've dreamed of! Everything except-

Our lives.

This hit her like a sledgehammer. If they didn't leave, they were going to die. Or, if you wanted to get technical, become Heartless. Which was a living death, anyways. Everything in Kairi screamed at her to leave. Get to safety. It was an island, for crying out loud.

But it was their island. Their home. It was where Sora was coming back to.

A yelp interrupted her desperate train of thoughts. Wakka was on the ground, a bruise beginning to show itself on his shoulder. His throwing arm. Now Wakka was more or less useless, too. Only Riku was left. Silently, Kairi cursed to herself. She was fifteen. And she was supposed to try to think of a way to save a world while her friends were struck down around her.

"Selphie! Got any ideas here?"

Looking pale, she shook her head, trying to keep a semi-conscious Tidus awake. "I don't know what to do, Kairi. I won't leave the Isles."

Thinking hard, Kairi rubbed her temples, trying to stimulate an idea. Any idea. Then, a spark.

"Selphie- Seal the doorway again!"

"Wha-"

"I don't have time to explain myself. Just do it!"

Shoving a rock into the tunnel, Selphie splayed out on top of it, emotionally and physically drained. "Rocks...are...really...heavy."

Riku sent the last Heartless into oblivion, then fell to his knees, his Keyblade resting on his shoulder and touching his back. Face pointed towards the sky, he took shallow, ragged breaths, trying to crush the surge of adrenaline rushing up inside him. It had been so long since he'd seen a Heartless, that he got lost in the fight. Sweat drenched every part of his body.

It was then that everyone noticed the blizzard raging not five feet in front of them. You could see the thoughts Kairi had earlier experienced running through their minds like whirlwinds. Riku summed up in one word everyone's thoughts.

"Crap."

XxX

Looking outside, Yuffie could hardly contain her excitement. Prancing around the room, she screamed happily.

"It's SNOW, Squall! Do you know how long it's been since I've seen SNOW?" Still jumping around, she started singing in a horribly off-key tone. "Snoooow, snoooooooww, how I love the snoooooww. Snoooow, snoooooooww-"

"First off, it's LEON. L-E-O-N. And second, snow is bad. It's a freaking blizzard. We're stuck inside until the ice melts off the door."

Getting inches from Leon's face, Yuffie smiled. "Come on, LEON. I know that you like snow! When we were little kids at Hollow Bastion, we used to play in the snow all the time!"

Heat spread down his neck as he realized exactly how close Yuffie was to him. "Yeah, I mean, well this is different, okay?"

Harrumphing, Yuffie turned away and started out the window blissfully. Suddenly, there was a slam and a crash.

"Cloud! Your sword hit the dishes off the counter!" Aerith's voice filtered through the wooden door. "Good thing that wasn't my best china, I suppose..."

Another slam. "Why's snow have to be so cold!" That must be Sora. "Man, we're stuck in here, aren't we?"

"Until it thaws a bit, yes. And don't even think about trying to use Fira right now, Sora." A small grunt. Aerith had read his mind. "The snow would just snuff it out anyways."

"Yeah...hey, why's there a broken plate on the floor?"

"Cloud smashed it."

"Hey! It was an accident!"

Yuffie looked at Leon. "We better get down there."

"Yeah."

Walking past him, Yuffie leaned over quickly and whispered into his ear. "Tell me if you change your mind about the snow."

Feeling red cascade over his cheeks, he watched Yuffie walk off. Was it just him, or was she putting an extra swing in her hips? He rose from his chair. It was just him. Probably.

XxX

"So what are we going to do?"

Kairi ran her hand through her hair, closing her eyes. "I don't know what we're going to do. I just did the other rock to buy us some time."

"If we close the door again, will we be able to open it back to Traverse Town?" Tidus asked, the initial shock of his arm wearing off. Selphie had ripped off part of her jeans (Designer, of course) and used it as a tourniquet to deter the bleeding with both Tidus and Wakka. But Tidus still wasn't completely coherent, and kept blinking drowsily.

"I don't know. I didn't even know this would work!"

Wakka offered a suggestion. "We could send a scout to go get help and keep the others here with the door. Maybe they'd get back before the Heartless get in again." Maybe being the key word there. Still though, it wasn't as if they had much of a choice.

"Okay," Kairi said, rising and dusting off her knees. "Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka, you two go and find help. Me and Riku will stay here."

Immediate objection. "You can't stay here! Riku has had a hard enough time defending us as it is. If anyone goes, you and Riku should." "Yeah." "I mean, that's just insane!"

Shushing the voices with an upraised hand, Riku spoke. "Kairi is right. Tidus can barely stay awake and Wakka can't throw. Selphie, you need to go with them to make sure they make it alright." He paused momentarily. "I can hold out until the calvary comes."

Selphie threw a look at Kairi. "She can't fight either. I should stay with you."

The redhead looked at the brunette, confidence radiating from her. "I'm a princess of heart. If there's anyone who can sustain Heartless, it's me." More scratching sounds from outside. They didn't have long. "We're wasting time. Go. Now!"

"But-"

"Go!" And with that, Riku shoved the threesome out the door into Traverse Town.

XxX

Heh, that chapter seemed to write itself- I had no idea how exactly this would end. And thanks to Fire Spirit- you unknowingly motivated me. If it weren't for your comment about how it would be way too easy for the door to just lead to Traverse Town, this story would have been a lot shorter and a lot more boring. So a special thanks to you! -gives you an extra cookie-

Okay...I'm not going to be able to finish before my hiatus, but I did get you off the EBIL CLIFFIE OF D00M. So don't expect any more updates until August 15th.

I told you that they'd be mild Squiffie. But sadly, that's where the most Squiffie will end. Because this is a SoraXKairi fanfic, after all.

Do I really need to ask you to review? Because you're probably tired of me telling you to push the shiny purple button. But than again, I'd push it just because it's shiny. x3

Akiko