CHAPTER 12 – TWILIGHT TOWN – INTERLUDE


It's funny. The memories that come back to you.


The cracking of a tree trunk resounds in the forest, yet the sound is easily drowned out. Crackling flames, harsh winds, and booming thunder accompany the sounds of a struggle. A fight. A match of the ages. Spell against spell. Blade against blade.

Lea opens a portal in the center of this—this chaos. He jerks back, tucking Xion behind him as a rogue lighting bolt strikes the ground nearby. Soon behind this, Sora slams into a tree, breaking the branch his back encounters. He doesn't seem to notice because in the same second of impact, he is back on his feet to parry a strike.

Roxas descends upon him like a force of nature. His attacks are relentless, yet Sora matches him.

"Hey!" Lea shouts at the two. "Knock it off!"

His words go unheeded as Sora uses the tree to swivel around so he gets to Roxas's side and attempts to sneak in a fireball attack. Roxas, though a moment too late to move out of the way, redirects it back. Sora jumps to the tree branches for higher ground.

Roxas crouches, but before he can follow, Lea rushes up, shouting his name. To his surprise, though he is so close and his shout of "Roxas!" is so loud, neither make the focused young man even flinch. A moment before Lea can reach out to stop him, Roxas is in the trees, following his adversary.

"Lea." Xion appears beside him, keyblade drawn, her face pinched with worry. "Lea, what do we do?"

Lea doesn't respond, not right away, his face strained. Then he turns to Xion. "Did you see their eyes?"

"Their eyes?"

"They're yellow."

Xion's own eyes widen. "No," her whisper inaudible over the noise of the struggle.

"We need backup," Lea states. "We can't help them without backup. You know what they're capable of."


Memories like this one day Roxas remembers back when they were all at Destiny Islands, and things were calm, and everyone was happy. He, Lea, and Xion were walking down a dirt path. As they pass the houses, others join them. Selphie and Namine. Tidus, Wakka, and Ventus. Aqua and Terra. One big group that descends upon Riku's home.

His mom greets them and shuffles them down into the basement where a couple of couches and chairs and plenty of blankets and pillows are set in front of the television.

Sora is the one randomly placing pillows and blankets. He waves one of the pillows in greeting. Riku is fiddling with the remote, frowning deeply at it, yet he holds up a hand in greeting and says, "Make yourselves at home." Kairi is beside the table in the corner, opening bags of snacks up and pouring them in separate bowls.

"Hi everyone!" she greets. "Good, you remembered the drinks."

Her smile is pretty.

Lea nudges Roxas forward because he has some of the many drinks they've brought. Him and Terra. They head over to the snack table.


Riku's face pales at the sight. Fallen trees, patches of ground scorched, slash marks everywhere. At minimum a fourth of the forest is ruined. And more of it is falling. He takes only a short moment to fully take in just what he has to dive into before turning to Lea, who had fetched him for help, and nods.

Lea turns back to Xion and says, "Keep everyone away from the forest. We can't have casualties in this fight. They would never forgive themselves once they're back to normal."

"Right." Xion rushes in the opposite direction of the fight.

"Ready?" Lea asks Riku who once again nods.

They draw their weapons and move.


"Hey you two!" Kairi greets cheerily. She is across the small round table from them. "What'd you bring?"

Terra holds up the sodas, "As ordered," and Roxas shows the sparkling, flavored water.

Kairi claps her hands twice. "Excellent. Thank you!"

Terra places his on the table and grabs the bowl of pretzels. He walks away despite Kairi's protests. He just smiles at her before turning back and handing it off to Ventus.

Kairi shakes her head but still has a small smile of her own. "How are you, Roxas?"

Roxas had been considering which snack to pilfer first when Kairi addresses him. "Oh, ah, fine, thanks. You?"

"Excited! I've been waiting for this all week. The summer's almost over and this is the first movie night we've had. That's just sad." Her smile grows when she looks at him. "At least you get to experience one."

Roxas blinks, then grins. "Yeah. I'm glad. It'll be fun."


"Sora, snap out of it!" Riku barely misses being flattened by the boat Sora has summoned. Sora doesn't hear him. Or doesn't want to. Riku can't tell. What he knows for sure is Sora's attention is honed in solely on Roxas who avoids the spinning boat with ease, as if he was expecting it. Lea trails him.

Restraining Roxas and Sora proves near impossible. The two have focus only for each other. Their speed, though impressive, is detrimental to Riku and Lea's goal.

"Roxas, buddy! Listen to me!"

Roxas, without even looking, ducks below Lea's outstretched hand. Maneuvering downward from the top of a tree, Roxas attempts to crush Sora's skull from above. Sora, in turn, after avoiding the strike, tries severing Roxas's legs, a strike which Roxas also dodges.

For all their ferocity, neither opponent has been able to land a blow.


"What's your favorite?" Kairi asks.

Roxas shrugs. "I don't know. I'm not that picky."

"It's not about being picky. Trust me. What's your favorite?"

Roxas glances at the spread of snacks before him. He takes his favorite chip flavor which, surprisingly, is one of the choices. He grabs a drink as well.

Kairi nods her approval. "Excellent. Now," she grabs her own drink, then grabs Roxas's elbow, pulling him back a few steps, "get ready to move."

"What—"

"Hey! Snacks are ready! Have at it."

At Kairi's announcement, the rest of the room simultaneously remembers the snack table and descends upon it like a hungry mob. Kairi and Roxas are a safe distance away from the fray.

"Smart thinking," Roxas compliments as Kairi walks with him to the sitting area.

"Why thank you. And now bonus number two, we get our choice of seats."


That is, neither manages to land a blow until they finally do.

They get into close combat. Lea is recovering from being slammed against a tree, and Riku is briefly occupied when he hears Xion yelling near the forest's edge and quickly moves to check it out.

By the time Lea and Riku turn their attention back to their friends, it's too late.

Barely—Roxas had barely managed to graze his blade against Sora's shoulder. Barely anything. But it was enough. Within three heartbeats, Roxas and Sora have manage to deliver several bruises to one another. The funny thing is, the keyblades disappear halfway through this. Sure, a few attacks reach their target enemy, but as if they both agree to it at once, Roxas and Sora lose their keyblades and delve into striking one another with their fists.

The flashy fighting vanishes. In its place are bloody knuckles, split lips, and bruises. Bruises everywhere. Something feral has taken over.


Roxas and Kairi end up sitting next to each other. Roxas takes one end of the couch, and Kairi places herself next to him. Soon enough the others shuffle into their spots and the movie begins. There's a lot of laughter and talking over the movie. Truth be told, the movie is not anyone's main focus, it's their time together.

Four people are sitting on a three-person couch so Kairi is squished against Roxas the whole time (to no complaint of his, she smells nice and it's kind of pleasant having someone so close). A jump scare occurs and Kairi jolts. Thankfully, Roxas has long since passed along the snack bowl so it doesn't spill. There is general laughter while recovering, and Kairi briefly hides her face against Roxas's shoulder.

"I'm pathetic. That wasn't even that bad."

"Nah, I jumped too."

Kairi raises her head. "You did not."

"Eh. That's what I'll tell people when you fear for your hardcore reputation."

They share a laugh.


One good thing occurs with this delve into brutal fighting. Lea and Riku finally manage to get a chance to separate the two. But the chance itself becomes difficult to grasp.

After taking an elbow to the nose, and before that several unintentional kicks to his ribcage, Riku manages to wrap both arms around Sora. His vice-like grip threatens to break from the nearly violent struggling, but Riku fixes that by shoving Sora face-down onto the ground so his mobility is practically nonexistent. Despite this, Sora still attempts wriggling out of the hold, all the while yelling undiscernibly at Roxas who shouts right back at him.

For his part, Lea gets what's likely a broken pinky finger and some hair pulled out with how fiercely Roxas is trying to free himself from Lea to resume attacking Sora. He actually ends up ripping some of Roxas's clothes when he uses every ounce of strength he has to yank his best friend away and twist both his arms behind his back. He follows Riku's example and puts his full weight on Roxas's back, though it barely manages to hold him.

It's as if no energy has been drained from the two of them as they continue shouting and struggling.

"What now?" Lea grits out. He is barely heard over the shouting.

"We wait," Riku bites back.

"Great plan."

"The King and the others are on their way. Any minute now."

"They better—oof—Roxas, cut it out—they better hurry!"


They're walking down the dirt road which leads back to their homes. Kairi's home is the first they reach—escorting the ladies home and all that. They are all still raving about what a fun night it was.

When they reach Kairi's house, they say their goodbyes. It is in this moment that Kairi looks at Roxas specifically and says how much fun she had and she can't wait to do it again. Her gaze does not stray from him.

Roxas feels himself get warm. Not just from the good time and the laughter.

He gazes back and says he can't wait.


This is the memory that comes to mind for Roxas.

When King Mickey finally arrives, when the others descend to help restrain the two, when the situation is assessed and it is decided it is best the two of them need a period of being shut off, when the sleeping draught is administered, and when the final moments happen before Roxas's mind goes quiet, it offers this memory.

In the darkness he is experiencing, and in the darkness he is about to experience, Roxas finds comfort in remembering Kairi's smile.


Suffocation. The crippling darkness has constricted around her chest making Kairi feel as if her heart can't breathe. Can't be free. Can't feel joy. She cannot feel anything. Cannot do anything. She doesn't know where she is or how to be.

It's…there's just…only darkness exists where she is.

But a flutter happens. A flicker. A beautiful, beautiful occurrence where she feels.

And it offers this memory—


It's over. It's finally over. Kairi can't believe it. They won.

She might cry she's so happy.

She wouldn't be alone because the others are feeling the same emotions if the tears running down their cheeks mean anything. Those tears are accompanied by smiling and jumping and shouting.

It's over! And they're all ok!

Kairi joins in with the bear-hugging and back-slapping and hand-shaking. It's a whirlwind of people. She tries to make sure she sees everyone, makes sure they're there because she can't quite believe it. Part of her still needs to double check.

That's when she turns and sees Roxas, the last one unaccounted for in her mental tally. It's in that exact moment he looks up and sees her. He has on the identical smile all the others wear.

And gravity pulls them together. Kairi rushes up and hugs him with all the enthusiasm she is experiencing. His arms are firm around her, even picking her up until her toes barely touch the ground.

"Roxas," she hears herself say, arms tight around his neck.

"Kairi," Roxas says in that soft voice of his.

And it's right.

It's just right.

Kairi can breathe easily for the first time in years. Because they're safe. He's safe. She's safe. They're together and everything is good again.

With a happy sigh, Kairi pulls away. Somehow, they don't fully part, their foreheads stay connected for a moment before Lea comes up and pulls Roxas into a headlock.

The celebration continues, and Kairi feels like there's something more she should be celebrating. Like something else has happened, but she isn't sure what.

She just knows she's glad Roxas is finally smiling again.


Author's Note: A shorter chapter before stuff happens and things get explained. I am excited to write the next one! Hope you enjoy this interlude in the meantime!