Sorry I didn't update for awhile peeps! I've been very… lazy lately. So, I'm making up for it with an uber long chapter….
Well, here ya go!
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Sora looked into the grotesque, black eyes of a heartless that he had never seen before. It looked somewhat like a cross between a Behemoth and a radioactive slug. It had four legs with bulging muscles, but instead of being a pretty purple color, it was dripping with an ooze-substance that Sora didn't even want to fathom what it could possibly be.
"Sick…" He heard Kairi mutter behind him, as she clapped her hand over her face. Not only did it look horribly gross, but it smelled bad too.
Sora drew his keblade, and as he did so, the monster let out a dangerous, low growl. "Stay back Kairi, I'll handle this." He said, as he started to rush at the Heartless.
Kairi watched in curiosity, wondering what he would do.
"Fire!" He yelled , once he was in range. A huge blast of flames went soaring straight at its eyes. Well, they were headed there, anyways, but then the heartless did something that neither Kairi nor Sora expected.
It opened its' large, slimy mouth, and ate it.
"How the…?" Sora retreated a few steps, as the thing sent its front leg smashing down at him. It slammed down so hard that the whole church shook, and the roof that they were on started to form small cracks everywhere.
"Shit." Sora muttered, before turning back to Kairi, who had the whole blanket wrapped around her, looking surprisingly calm.
"We've got to get off!" he yelled quickly, as the rampaging heartless started to thrash aimlessly, causing the roof to crack even more.
Going down the stairs the way they came up was out of the question, the huge heartless was blocking the exit. The only way out was by jumping…
Sora ran over to her. "Here! Kairi, hold on to me, and I'll carry down!" Sora extended his hand to her. But she just kind of looked at him and smiled.
"I can manage." She said, while looking down to the ground, which was about three stories below.
Sora looked confused. "Kairi, I don't think you under-"
But Kairi had already leapt.
"Noooo! Kairi!!!!!!!!!" Sora yelled after her. But he barely had time to grieve her before she somehow landed gracefully on the ground. And, not wanting to be eaten by a slug hybrid, Sora jumped after her.
She was smiling when he landed. "Glad you made it." She said. Sora was about to talk, but Kairi's face suddenly turned to seriousness.
She was looking towards the roof. And then, a split second before it came crashing down…
"It comes."
It was like a scene from a horror movie, as the thunder roared at the same time the huge, horrible heartless landed on the ground only a few feet from Sora, while letting out a huge battle cry. (it sounded king of like a water deprived elephant) Normally, this would have woken everyone up, or the church being almost destroyed would have, but the people here knew the drill- If anything abnormal sounds, lock yourself in your basement until further notice. Such a nice, peaceful town…
Sora gave the heartless an angry glare. "I LIKED that church." He said, before chucking his keyblade at it, using strike raid. It slashed the monster's cheek as t went by, and continued to soar. The monster was obviously very stupid, as it saw how shiny the keyblde was, and tried to chase it. And, naturally, the keyblade turned around to return to Sora and hit the monster square in the face. It was probably trying to eat it.
Sora laughed, this thing reminded him of Goofy. "Did you see that, Kairi?!" Sora called, catching his blade with ease. "Kairi!?" He turned around, expecting to see Kairi applauding him or something. But she was nowhere to be seen. "Kairi!?!? Kairi!!!!" He yelled as loud as he could, turning to look every direction he could. But he didn't have time to look or even worry, because he had angered the beast, and it wasted no time in attacking.
"Oof!" He grunted, as he was swiped at with one of the monsters' legs, and went soaring right into one of the walls of the already damaged church.
He had gone soaring so far that the monster was now on the opposite end of the district, but that was the only upside to that attack. He had slammed into the wall so hard, he couldn't feel his left shoulder, and he felt a trickle of blood travel down his brow and into his eye.
"Er…" He tried to focus his now blurred vision, only to see a big purple-blue object far off. He tried desperately to stand, but found that there were many rocks and bricks from the wall scattered on top of him. He slowly started to move them with his arm that wasn't numb.
The heartless soon spotted Sora, and let out another earsplitting cry. It faced him, and reared its back leg, as it preparing to run…
Sora's eyes widened with shock and realization.
"No…" He whispered, before frantically trying to get the rocks off of him, not caring about his numb arm.
The heartless broke out into a run, headed straight towards him… It was going to ram him….
"No!" Sora yelled as he was just ridding himself of the last rock. He stood, almost wobbling. There was no way he could run in time.
"A-Aero…" He managed to get out, holding his keyblade as best he could. He felt the magic energy leave his fingertips, forming itself into a shield around him. He fell to his knees in a defensive position. He doubted that it was going to be enough…
He closed his eyes, not wanting to face the end…. But it couldn't be the end… not yet…..
It was mere feet from him, Sora felt his breath leave him, as tensed all of his muscles, thinking of Kairi's smile. Then, he heard another earsplitting cry…. This was it….
Then, wondering if he was dead yet, he slowly opened his eyes. He was shocked to see the heartless, less than a foot from him, thrashing madly. "What the…?" he thought out loud. He quickly looked up, to see that someone was on top of the thing, holding the handle of the gunblade, which was sticking out of the monster's head. The heartless was uselessly trying to get the sword out, though it was already doomed.
Sora squinted in order to see the figure. "Leon…?" He said it as more of a question then a statement.
They pulled the sword out, and leapt off of the creature. They had jumped so high that it was like they were immune to gravity.
The monster crashed to the ground mere inches from Sora, ooze seeping everywhere from now more than ever, probably because it was dead. The figure landed shortly afterwards behind it.
The huge heartless slowly disappeared, taking most of its disgusting goo with it, dissolving in several different colors. A heart floated upwards towards the sky, leaving to rest…
Sora slowly sat up, looking around for Leon. He was covered in a big black cloak, which was covered in ooze. They slowly shed it…
Sora almost jumped in surprise, well, he might have if he could have, his body ached too much.
Kairi tossed the blanket off of her. "Sick sick sick." She said, as she tossed the blanket a good five feet away from her. She ran over to Sora, who's jaw seemed to be stuck hanging open.
"Are you okay!?" She asked worriedly, as she kneeled down next to him. (his shield had worn off) "I'm sorry I left like that…"
"Kairi… how did…." Sora tried to get out, but Kairi quickly shut him up.
"Don't talk." She said. "You're hurt."
"But…"
"I SAID shut up." Kairi started to examine his wounds, smearing the blood off of his face from the cut above his brow.
Kairi pulled a potion from her pocket. "Here." She said, opening it. Before Sora could even say anything, Kairi opened his mouth wider, and poured the potion in. Sora almost choked on it because he didn't expect it, but managed to swallow it.
He closed his eyes as he felt the pleasure that he had felt many times before, as he felt some of the color return to his skin, and most of his cuts disappeared or reduced significantly. His shoulder started to gain some feeling back to it.
"That's better." He heard her voice say. He opened his eyes to see Kairi smiling at him, as if this was an ordinary thing.
Sora was speechless for a moment.
"How… how did you…" he stammered.
"How did I get the gunblade?" Kairi finished for him. Not what he was getting at, but still a valid question. "I saw that thing, and didn't have a weapon, so I grabbed the gunblade from the small house. I think I might have woken Yuffie up, but oh well. I also grabbed a potion, just in case. Good thing too." She smiled again.
"Oh…" Sora said stupidly. "What I meant was… I didn't….. nevermind."
"Hm?" How did she always manage to look so cute?
"Nothing. Nothing at all." He quickly got up and dusted himself off, running his hands through his hair as a futile attempt to make it look neater. Thunder roared above again, only this time a light rain started. He started to laugh a little.
"What's so funny?" Kairi asked, a little confused.
Sora stopped to look at her. "It just figures." He said. "I just wanted to talk, but no, Yuffie has to interfere, and then a huge heartless from God knows where shows up, and now it's raining!" He kicked one of the boulders that was burdening him just a few moments ago.
"Oh…" Was all Kairi could say. "That doesn't matter. I like the rain… It rained on the island all the time."
Her voice suddenly got quiet, and her eyes looked distant.
"Kairi…" Sora got a sudden idea. "Come with me." He grabbed her hand yet again, this time leading her to the alleyway.
"Now where are we going…?" She asked as he led her away.
He looked back at her and smiled. "You'll see."
Kairi sighed as she was taken down the alleyway and to the edge of the sewer entrance. But it wasn't really a sewer, I guess….
He pulled her through the dark entrance way, which the bars still hadn't been replaced. Inside, the water was so deep it went up to their elbows.
"I can't believe I'm walking in a sewer." Kairi joked, as they stepped up on the rocks that led to a little boulder-platform. It looked exactly like it did that day.
"You remember…right?" Sora asked, as he took both of her hands in his.
Kairi almost looked offended. "Of course I do! How could I ever forget!!??" Sora laughed as she pulled him into a hug.
"Just checking." He said.
After they hugged for a few moments more, the two sat down with their back leaning against the wall, Kairi was using his chest as a pillow, and their legs were intertwined like some newly married couple.
And they finally got to talk.
Kairi was started to play with his hair, and before he even had to go through the awkwardness of asking, started to explain about the island.
She went into detail about the door, about how she could never open it, (but she didn't tell him about her obsession, she didn't want him to worry) and about the heartless, how there were so many… and then she got to the part where the island wasliterally being ripped apart.
"You see," She continued, "there was this big black… thing. I can't really describe it. But it was sucking up everything around, tearing the island apart… And there was this guy, in a coat…"
Kairi froze for a second. She couldn't tell him about the guy that she kissed! Duh!
"A guy in a coat?" Sora asked curiously.
Kairi gulped. "Yeah," She said, "He told me that I grew up since he last saw me… and then I was sucked into the black thing…"
"Hm." Sora looked like he was in deep thought. "I think I know about the black thing you saw, I saw something like that too. But the guy in the coat…." He remembered Ansem when he first met him, in a black cloak that covered his entire body.
"You didn't see anyone back then, did you?" She asked.
"Er… no." He had a feeling that he shouldn't tell her about Ansem, he didn't want to worry her.
"Too bad…" She said as she snuggled closer, she was starting to get really cold. They were in a sewer at night during a storm, after all. (plus they were wet. I'm surprised they're not dead or something.)
"Cold?" Sora asked. But before she could answer, he pulled out his keyblade and used a fire spell. Instead of hurdling towards an enemy, however, the fire formed a little ball that hung in the air, a few feet away from them. They heat rushed over them in seconds.
"That's amazing…" Kairi said, admiring the beautiful orb.
"That's magic." Sora responded, ego swelling slightly at how impressed she was.
"Yeah, magic. Why didn't you do that sooner?" kairi teased, though she was a little serious.
Sora thought for a second. "You know, I'm not sure."
Kairi tugged at his hair while saying "You're a loser, ya know?"
And then she pulled him into a kiss.
And, just like the first time, they fought for dominance. Sora almost completely forgot that she was the same girl that was in the cloak earlier.
He ran his hands through her hair, deepening the kiss, refusing to lose. But she seemed to have the same thing on her mind. Their tongues intertwined around each other for what seemed like hours, until the need for air overtook them both.
They separated for about two seconds, panting heavily, before Sora attempted to kiss her again. But Kairi put a finger to his lips.
"Hm…? He said, confused.
"Wait." She said back, pushing him away. "You never told me what YOU'VE been doing for four years.
Disappointment must have shown all over his face, because Kairi laughed. "C'mon." She said. "I've been stuck on an ISLAND for four years. You OWE me!"
"I guess…" He said jokingly, before getting in a comfortable position once again, with Kairi leaning on him. "Well…. Basically, Donald and Goofy and I went all over to random planets, saving them from heartless infections. And EVERY planet has some heartless, it's insane. It's at least ten times worse than before! Which, is weird, because Ansem hasn't come back, and if he has, he's been very sneaky about it. Which I doubt. Plus, we haven't found Mickey or Riku yet. We don't even have a clue, actually. We keep hoping that we'll run into them by irony, but at this rate, that'll never happen. When I was fourteen, I thought that there were maybe ten worlds out there, tops. But there's millions, if not trillions….."
His voice trailed off sadly, leaving a worried Kairi.
"You'll find them." She said reassuringly. "I'll help. I really want to see Riku again. I want us to be friends again."
Sora smiled. "You'll help?" He said, almost jokingly.
"Yeah!" She yelled back. "Why not? I… I can fight now, I've been learning…"
"Yeah, I know." Sora said.
"How?" She was a little confused.
"Well, duh! You fought me when you first saw me, and you killed that heartless. But, Kairi, that's not nearly strong enough. You only got the better of me because I was off guard at first, and then you started to kiss me (he blushed a little here) , and you only beat that heartless because it was focused on me! I would have beaten it if you hadn't run off!"
Kairi was shocked for a moment. "You thought THAT was fighting?" She said angrily. "THAT was child's play. I was just fooling wth you, And I DO believe I saved your ass. I COULD have let you get squished." She stood up and got in a fighting stance. "I'll prove it!" She looked down at him with a glare. "I challenge you, right here and now!"
Sora laughed. "Don't get so worked up, I was just playing. And besides, I couldn't fight you…" he hadn't even bothered getting up.
"Why not?" She said dangerously. "Cuz I'm a girl?"
"No," He answered. "I've fought girls before. I couldn't fight YOU though…."
He stood up and walked over to her. Kairi got in a ready position.
"Because I love you…."
Kairi was so taken aback by him saying this that he caught her off guard. He quickly kicked her by the ankles just enough for her to fall, and then caught her before she hit the ground. He leaned in so his face was about an inch from hers…
"I win.." He whispered, before going in for the kiss.
Kairi moved her head back as far as she could. "You cheated." she said through clenched teeth.
He smirked. "revenge is sweet…." Kairi smiled as he kissed her, and she rapped her arms around his neck.
And then….
SLAM!
She had slipped both her feet under his (he just thought he was getting lucky) And kicked so hard that he flipped over, and she wound up lying on top of him.
"I believe I win." She said as she tossed her hair back.
"I dunno." Sora said suggestively. "I kinda like this position…"
Kairi laughed before getting off a disappointed Sora. When Sora got up to follow her, her expression changed.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"I just now noticed." She said, "but you have a realy nice tan… what planet did you get back from…?"
"Huh? Oh…. Dune…."
And he explained about Dune, about the Frenon, and the water of life they gave him.
"Water of life?" Kairi asked.
"Yeah," He answered. "It's this water, that if you drink it, you'll live forever. But only if you have a strong heart… If someone weak hearted drinks it, they die."
"Then you should have no problem" Kairi pointed out. "you're the keyblade master."
"Yeah,,, but I don't know. I don't want to waste it or anything."
"Ah."
"But hey… You have a pretty nice tan too.." Sora said lazily.
"Um, island?"
"Oh yeah… Listen, Kairi….. I'm really Sorry….." Sora's voice got serious and calm.
"What for?"
"For breaking my promise… I said that I would come back for you on the island, but I never did… I never thought that the heartless would go back to destiny island, and I kept thinkg 'just one more planet, I bet Riku's on the next one', or 'I've got a good feeling about that one.', and before we knew it…."
His voice trailed off, leaving a cold silence.
"…..It's okay. I took care of it…" Kairi said quietly after a few moments. She looked up to see Sora's eyes filled with, but not shedding, tears, and quickly leaned her head on him again, pretending not to see. She knew that guys were proud like that, they would never admit it though.
"It's okay…" She put her arm around his waist, and pulled him closer.
"No, no it's not… that's why you shouldn't come with me… I wouldn't be able to stand it if I let you down again….."
"Sora…." Kairi wasn't sure what to say. "We'll… we'll decide that later. For now…. Let's just pretend that we're happy…."
Sora smiled. "But I am…" The two snuggled (haha… snugged….) even closer, as the fire dimmed down just a little.
"Sora…?"
"Yeah?"
"Thanks…. For keeping your most important promise….."
"Which was…?" Sora asked a little confused.
"You never changed…."
The image of him and Kairi on the dock on the island came flooding back to him. T was the last image in his mind, as he fell asleep with Kairi by his side and a smile on his lips.
---
About an hour later, a noise woke Sora up.
"Who's there…?" he called lazily, looking around the small cave that was dimly lit by the fire.
"Oh, just me." A voice sounded, right in his ear, even though he didn't see them. Suddenly, a figure appeared in the middle of the cave. They were wearing a black trench coat, and had flaming read hair that spiked out all over. His eyes were a piercing green, and he spoke in a low, sarcastic voice.
"Who are you…?" Sora was still half asleep, but he clutched Kairi to him harder.
He looked offended. "I'm hurt that you don't remember me…. But you wouldn't, would you? With whats-her-face and all…Well, the names Axel. Don't forget it."
Sora gave a puzzled look. "I've never met you before. What do you want?"
"Getting straight to the point, hm? Don't you want to discuss the weather or something first?"
Sora gave an angry look.
"No…? Fine. I'm here with a threat, actually. You see… we know you're secret. The one you're keeping from this girl. And we WILL tell her, keyblade master."
Sora's eyes widened in shock. "How did you….?"
"Easy. All we had to do was ask around. How did you manage that at ATLANTICA? Honestly, you remind me of me…." He gave a short laugh.
"Don't you DARE tell Kairi. Just… what do you want?" Sora was full awake now, and there was a scowl in his voice.
"Ah, now you see, we could have delayed this if we had discussed the weather first. But noooooo."
"Shut up! What do you want?!" Sora was easily pissed.
"Shhh, do you want to wake her up? Poor, poor girl… she has no idea…." Axel ran a hand through his spiky hair.
"Ooooh, you just try to tell her, because I'll kill you if you try! I'd get up and fight you now, if I, well…." Kairi slept soundly with her head resting on his shoulder.
Axel sighed. "So naïve. But soon enough, you'll be on your knee, begging for my help… I'll just tell her then."
"What ARE you talking about?" Sora's teeth were clenched in anger.
"You went to Dune, right? Stupid move. You're addicted now…"
"Addicted to what?"
"The spice."
"The what?"
Axel laughed again. "You really are like me. Honestly. I guess I'll explain… you see, foolish boy, dune is inhabited by spice, a drug that is in the atmosphere. Once you've had it once, you're addicted for life."
"I never had spice…"
"Oh, yes you have." Axel smirked. "Just BEING on Dune gets you addicted. You are right now, and if you don't have more spice soon…."
"Then….? What'll happen?" Sora forgot his anger for curiosity.
"We aren't sure. Some people go crazy; other people lose control of their bodies' and give into…urges. We aren't sure what would happen with a keyblade master…. But we have the antidrug. And soon, you'll beg us for it. Trust me. And then I'll tell her, unless I get impatient and decide to tell her sooner." He laughed evilly. God, he loved this job.
"I can just go back to Dune." Sora sneered.
Axel laughed some more. "If you do that, young master, you'll never be able to leave."
Sora looked horrified. "Why are you doing this….?" He said slowly.
"Someone above me gives the orders kid, and I can't tell you…. I would say I feel for you, but seeing as this is your fault, I don't… I feel more badly for HER….
"Well, I've got things to do. I'll see you in a few days, I'm sure, when you decide you need us, come to… Oh, let's make it Hallow bastion, just for kicks." His eyes gave a weird flash when he said 'kicks'.
"No! Don't go-"
But Axel had already left, leaving a stunned Sora.
Kairi just now moved in her sleep.
"Didja say something, Sora…?" She muttered.
"No, nothing… go back to sleep…."
He combed her hair with uneasiness until he, too, fell into a deep slumber.
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Whoa! This chapter is 8 pages long! EIGHT PAGES!!! That's a lot! Ok. I'm over it. So… what is Sora's secret? What happens if he ignores his addiction? WHO KISSED KAIRI ON THE ISLAND!?!?!?!? Find out next time (well, eventually) On Not just a strong heart! See you there, kids!
I don't own kh. yeeeeeah.
