Oh man, here we go with a chapter that's INCREDIBLY emotionally charged thanks to me writing it while suffering from what I like to call Quarantine Insanity :) Either way this is a pretty slow burn chapter that, for reference sake actually takes place over the span of a month, so that's something you should keep in mind while reading it. Either way I LOVE how a lot of this turned out, like I said its really emotionally charged stuff that I kinda felt on a visceral level while writing, so I hope you all enjoy it too! Let's get started!


Chapter 22: Rise and Fall and Rise Again

Won't be long, won't be long, I'm almost here
Watch me cry all my tears

Never in her entire life has Kairi felt more lost in the shuffle than she does now.

Because there she stands, largely on the fringes of everything as everyone else rushes around Merlin's house at a frenetic pace, busying themselves with something she should be every bit as engaged in. That something is tending to Sora's various injuries, both external and internal. Given her skills and knowledge when it comes to healing, Aerith leads the efforts on this front, remaining calm and steady as she works in magic, potions, and elixirs alike. Despite her coolheaded focus, Yuffie and Cid are anything but as the former eagerly vies to assist Aerith in any way she can while the latter angrily fusses about Maleficent for what she'd done to Sora, sentiments that Donald and Goofy share every bit as adamantly. Leon does his best to quiet the noisy group down to allow Aerith to do her healing in peace, though his attempts do little given how heated and upset they all are. Emotions they can't really be too at fault for given just how much they all care about Sora and hate to see him so heavily hurt as he's so wrongfully been.

Yet for her own part, Kairi doesn't join the others stewing in their uproarious righteous anger, though she certainly doesn't try to quell it either. At the same time, she doesn't make so much as a single move to lend Aerith a helping hand in trying to heal Sora. Because really, as shellshocked as she currently is, the most she can do is stare at him from across the room in shaken silence. He's still just as comatose as he'd been when they brought him back from the abandoned castle, and even despite plenty of rounds of healing magic and potions alike, he shows no signs of waking anytime soon. There aren't really any clear signs that healing is actually working on him either as his veins are still glowing that ominous shade of green, something that confuses and unnerves Kairi even still.

And yet, all she can really think of as she keeps her sets set on Sora is how he'd been when they had first found him. He'd been monstrous, for lack of a better word. Drenched in shadows and held in Maleficent's thrall, he'd been dangerous, aggressive, violent even. But not only that, he'd been hurting, his heart aching with pain so raw and visceral Kairi swears she can still feel echoes of it even now as he sleeps. She had hoped that when she used her power to pull him out of the darkness that she had somehow managed to free him from that pain, but even if she had, that doesn't change the fact that he had felt it so profoundly in the first place. And the more she lets her thoughts linger on what he might have gone through, what he might have been forced to suffer to be submerged in such immense physical and mental anguish, the more she finds it's quickly becoming far too much for her to bear.

She lets out a small, harsh breath as she finally tears her gaze away from Sora's listless form, instead reaching for the nearby door that leads out of the house entirely. She doesn't bother breathing a word to anyone else on her way out, not that most of them even notice her slip out as preoccupied with Sora as they are. All the same, as she steps outside into the fresher, more open morning air, Kairi finally allows herself the heavy sigh she hadn't even realized she'd been holding in. She leans against the side of the house, a hand pressed lightly against her heart as she tries to make sense of everything that's just happened over the course of the past 24 hours alone. Had it really only been a day ago that everything had been business as usual? It feels like the very start of their mission to rescue Sora had been years ago, and that every minute that continues to pass by now feels like an entirely new year in and of itself. Minutes and years that are passing far too slowly, and far too quickly, all at the same.

As lost in her seemingly ceaseless thoughts as she is, Kairi doesn't even notice Axel approaching as he returns from the supplies run Aerith sent him on earlier. Though he certainly notices her as he comes to stand beside her, placing the box of potions, salves, and bandages he'd stocked up on at the market aside to take stock in his fellow student's wellbeing instead. "Hey, what are you doing out here? I thought you'd be inside helping everyone else out with… well, ya know."

"Y-yeah…" she lets out a diffident sigh as she hugs herself loosely. "I… yeah…"

Axel frowns as he poses a question he already knows the answer to. "...You ok?"

Kairi's hesitation immediately ebbs away at this question, her grip on her arms tightening as she sets her gaze on the stony ground beneath her. "To be perfectly honest? No, I'm not," she says with a genuine scowl. "One of my best friends was captured and trapped and… and tortured-" The word feels piercingly bitter the moment it leaves her mouth, but there's no denying that's exactly what happened. As painful as it is to even think about. "All because some crazy woman wanted to turn him into a mindless monster, which she did and then she just… got away with it. The only one who suffered in any of this is Sora, and it's just… not fair! He's done nothing to deserve to go through that much pain and fear and anger and I just hate that any of this happened and I hate her for doing this to him in the first place!"

"Whoa, hey now," Axel interjects, caught off guard by just how blatantly furious she is. "Hate's a pretty strong word."

"It's a pretty strong feeling too…" Kairi mutters, her already harsh glare deepening. "And it gets even worse because she's still out there, she could still find him and hurt him and take control of him and what then? I brought him back once, but w-what if I can't do that again? What if… what if I can't save him when he needs it most?"

"Oh, c'mon, Kairi, don't talk like that," Axel shakes his head earnestly. "After what you did back at the castle-"

"I didn't know what I was doing back there, Axel!" Kairi snaps, her hands in tight fists at her sides as she finally turns to fully face him. "I was desperate! I just… did whatever I could, but I had no idea if it would even work!"

"But it did work."

"Only because I was lucky!" Kairi retorts fiercely. "I was lucky, which means Sora was lucky. But if this were to happen again, if she does this to him again, then we might not be so lucky the next time."

Axel stays quiet for a long time upon hearing all this, offering Kairi an even, empathetic gaze all the while. When he finally does say something, his tone is much more solemn than it usually tends to be, a stark, calm contrast to the heated storm his fellow student had just exploded into. "Look… believe it or not, I get how you're feeling. You wanna protect someone who really matters to you, make anybody who's ever hurt them pay for even trying. And until you do, you keep on feeling like no matter how much you do or how hard you try, it's... never enough."

Kairi falters at this, allowing her former anger to dissipate as she realizes just how accurate Axel's description of her own current feelings really is. A description that could have only come from experience. "Axel…" she begins, wanting to pose a question she doesn't really know how to phrase.

"Of course, none of us want to see Maleficent get off that easily," he changes the subject, picking up his box of supplies once more. "But blindly running off to try to take her down a peg isn't gonna do any of us any good, especially not Sora. After everything that's happened to him, I have a feeling he's gonna need you now more than ever."

"...You think so?" Kairi asks, her spirits lifting somewhat. After all, even if she can do nothing else to help him, then she'll always be willing to stay by Sora's side, no matter what.

"Think so? I'm positive," Axel offers her a confident grin as he begins to lead the way back inside so they can assist the others, or more specifically Sora, in any way possible. "Heck, with you around, I'm sure Sora will be feeling better in no time at all."


"A fitting leash for my soon-to-be new pet."

"After all, I've never seen a Heartless that's capable of taking on the guise of a human…"

"When I'm through with you, I can guarantee there will be nothing left of you that isn't a Heartless… A Heartless that's completely, endlessly loyal to me."

"Don't fret, child. Your suffering will be over soon. And once it is, just think of the incredible strength you'll possess in its place. Strength that will be put to perfect use… in service to me."

"Your allegiance, your obedience, whatever remains in that empty head and heart of yours… swear it all over to me!"

A sharp, involuntary gasp escapes Sora the second he opens his eyes. The endless stream of hateful, haunting threats and taunts his cruel captor had thrown his way forces him out of whatever fitful rest he'd been having. His memories and thoughts alike are both scrambled to the point of being incomprehensible, but there are three things he does notice above all else. First, he's lying on a much softer, more comfortable surface than the frigid stone floor he's unfortunately grown accustomed to by now. Second, the shackles and chains he's also gotten used to no longer weigh heavy on his wrists and the magical vines that had coiled around the rest of his body are all but gone. But any semblance of relief he should have felt from that fact is quickly extinguished the moment the last immediately noticeable feature of his surroundings registers. Because the room he's now in is completely dark, somehow even darker than the dimly-lit cell he'd been locked in before. For several silent, breathless moments, the most Sora can do is stare up at the shadowy ceiling above him, feeling more and more engulfed by that deceptively peaceful darkness, just as he only barely remembers being during his last distant bout of consciousness before now. And right now, the mere thought of losing that precious consciousness once more, of being swallowed up by those practically inescapable shadows all over again is far too much for his exhausted mind and weary heart to bear.

So naturally, he does the only thing he really can at a moment like this: he panics.

Even despite his apparent lack of any restraints she has on him, Maleficent must still be somewhere nearby, keeping a close eye on him. After all, the chances of her opening what would ultimately be another false-hope escape window for him are quite low, but even if that is the case, he doesn't want to quietly wait around to find out. Amidst his growing dread, his breathing is already harsh and heavy to begin with, though it hitches in shock as he moves his arm only slightly upward. Hot, searing pain shoots through not just the limb itself, but through the rest of his body as well, to the point that he nearly fails to bite back a reactionary cry of anguish as a result. When he tries to move his other arm, albeit much slower and more carefully, that pain resounds in full force, only intensifying as he tries his hardest to force his way through it to properly sit up. His arms tremble violently from the strain, but still he tries using them to support his weight so he can actually get up, hoping that that unknown yet awful pain won't last much longer. Or at the very least, he'll get used to it enough to ignore it until he can find a way to rid himself of it entirely.

Yet, despite his best hopes, by the time he's halfway to sitting up, his left hand suddenly slips over the side of the bed he's on. Unable to react quickly enough to stop himself, he falls over the edge entirely, crashing hard onto the floor and accidentally letting out a heavy agonized scream as blinding pain surges through every single inch of his body in white hot waves of anguish, each somehow worse than the last.

That persistent pain is all but forgotten, however, as his cries die out and are instead filled in by the sound of approaching footsteps and voices coming from somewhere right outside of the room. Sora can't make out who they belong to or what they're saying, but when his immediate suspicion goes to Maleficent, his level of panic spikes just as much as the pain still sharply flooding through his veins still is.

As the clamor outside grows ever closer to the room's only door on the far side of it, Sora quickly realizes escape won't be much of an option, especially as incapacitated as he currently is. Fighting back isn't really much of a valid plan either, but he finds he still has one advantage on his side. With the chains and shackles gone, there's essentially nothing keeping him from summoning his Keyblade anymore, and though he doubts he can effectively use it right now, he still makes an attempt at calling upon it all the same. His hand shakes as he struggles to so much as hold it out to summon the weapon, and though it does briefly flash into his grip, it vanishes into thin air immediately after. Still, he keeps on trying, desperate to gain some way of finally, finally defending himself after having all of his defenses stripped from him completely.

His heart pounds with swelling fear as the door slowly creaks open, and all the while his Keyblade still refuses to remain tangible for more than a few fleeting seconds at a time. Even so he freezes up as it opened completely, light flooding into the room from the hall outside of it and revealing the obscured silhouettes of several figures standing within the doorway.

As startled and downright terrified as he is, Sora doesn't even bother taking a closer look at who these new arrivals might be as they begin to rush into the room toward him. Instead, he harshly flinches away from them, the internal din of his own immense terror blocking out whatever they're saying to him to the point that all he hears is unintelligible rumblings. A few of their voices do ring familiar, but he hardly cares as he closes his eyes tightly and shields himself as much as he can, dreading the all-new onslaught of pain and punishment that's sure to come his way.

"S-stop!" he chokes as loudly as he can, though his voice comes out as more of a hoarse, wavering whisper than anything else. "Just… just leave me alone, please…"

The cacophony of various muted voices grow quiet at this, though one of them persists, and for a moment he thinks he hears it-hears her-say his name. Then again, considering how desperate his frantic mind is for any form of relief right now, he finds it far more likely that he's merely imagining, simply wishing for her comforting presence instead of actually receiving it.

But then… a hand skims against his, both of which are currently protectively covering his head as he presses his face against the floor to avoid having to even look at his assailants. Yet the hand that touches him now is so gentle, so warm and soft and familiar that he almost dares to allow himself to hope that it actually is her somehow. Almost.

"P-please…" he mutters, pleads for mercy he knows he won't be given. "No more… I… I can't… I-I just… I-"

"Sora…" This time, he hears her, her voice, soft and sweet and real, breaking through his icy fear like the vibrant sunshine that she always radiates so brightly with. He stills, unsure of what else to do, as he finally allows her to break his feeble wall of defense, her careful hands steadily guiding his gaze up to meet hers. Even in the low light of the room, he can see her, her features filled with immeasurable worry and sympathy, all meant for him as she thumbs away his stray tears that he hadn't even realized were falling.

"K-Kairi…" his voice is still barely audible as he yearns to reach out to her in the same way she has for him, only for the pain still weighing his body down to hold him back.

"Shh…" she calms him, gently repositioning his rather prone body so that he can rest a bit more comfortably. "It's alright… no one's going to hurt you anymore… You're safe now, remember?"

"Safe…" he repeats distantly, the thought sounding almost too good to be true after everything he's been through. Still, he wants to hold onto the chance that it is true, that he's free and she's here and he's indeed safe and that it all isn't just a wistful dream that has no chance of becoming real. "C-can you stay with me…? Please?"

"Yes," she answers without a moment's hesitation. "Yes, of course, I can. I'm not going anywhere; I'll stay right here, with you. I promise."

A wave of contentment washes over him as he allows his returning exhaustion to overtake the pain that's starting to die down at least somewhat. "T-thank you…" he whispers just as his eyes slowly drift shut and his former dread finally ebbs away altogether. Because now, he has no problems falling back into the darkness of slumber as long as her comforting light will be by his side when he awakens.


"Are you sure you're ok with this?" Axel asks, offering Kairi a concerned frown she doesn't meet. Instead, she keeps her sights set solely on Sora as Leon and Cid carefully lift his unconscious form back onto the bed after his unexpected frantic episode. An episode that has, by all accounts, left everyone quite shaken as they realize just how much of a brutal mental impact Sora's relatively brief time in captivity has left on him.

"You know you don't have to do this on your own, Kairi," Aerith agrees with Axel, placing a steadying hand on the younger girl's shoulder. "We all agreed to help take care of Sora together, remember?"

"Which means we oughta all pitch in and take turns keepin' an eye on him," Goofy suggests thoughtfully.

Yet even so, Kairi shakes her head, set in her resolve. "No. I promised I'd stay with him, and I meant it. And if that's enough to make him feel safe again after everything he's been through… then that'll make more than worth it for me."

The others are all quiet for a moment or two upon hearing this, each of them looking to her with the same level of apt worry. Clearly, by now they must have noticed how exhausted she must come across, both physically and mentally after both the action of yesterday and the stress of today. But even with that exhaustion, she refuses to back down from her promise, especially not after what they'd all just seen. "You said so yourself, Axel," she continues, pointedly looking at her fellow student. "Sora's going to need me now more than ever, right?"

"...Hm. Guess I did say that, didn't I?" Axel sighs, scratching the back of his neck. "Fine, but only if you make sure to take care of yourself too."

"Which means, if you ever need a break or a breather, you know who to ask," Yuffie nods with a spirited grin.

"That's right," Donald readily, earnestly agrees. "We want to do anything we can to help Sora feel better, no matter how long it might take!"

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that," Kairi smiles warmly. She stands by as the others begin to file out to head back to bed. "If anything changes, I'll be sure to let you all know. Good night."

Everyone returns her nighttime tidings as they leave, until soon, only Kairi and Sora remain. The room sits once again dark and quiet, though Kairi is quick to diminish the former as she lights a candle to bring some sense of light for her to see by. She knows she won't be getting much sleep for the rest of the night, not that she really wants to in favor of keeping a dutiful watch over Sora, just in case he unexpectedly awakens again.

So instead, she pulls a chair up to his bedside, taking up what she had been working on before she'd gone to bed earlier: mending Sora's clothes, which had been terribly torn and tattered thanks to his time with Maleficent. Admittedly, she isn't quite able to weave the same protective magic into them that the three good fairies had when first making the apparel, but she hopes that sewing the holes up to the best of her ability will be enough to suffice. It's ironic, in a way, that she's been quite curious for quite some time now as to what Sora's new outfit looks like; but now that she's finally gotten a chance to see it, it's in just about the last way she ever could have wanted to.

Kairi tries her best to shake such grim thoughts from her mind as she instead focuses her attention back on patching up a rather gaping tear in his jacket. Every now and then, her gaze drifts back to Sora himself, now resting soundly as opposed to the anxious panic he'd been in not so long ago. Perhaps it had been a mistake, she thinks, to leave him lying alone in one of Merlin's empty guest rooms after Aerith had finished all she could do when it came to healing him earlier that day. True, they had been checking in on him regularly throughout the evening, but they'd slipped on that routine by the time everyone had turned in for the night. Still, she can only imagine just how cripplingly terrified Sora must have been to awaken in a strange place with no context at all, especially after how he'd been so viciously trapped and restrained only mere hours ago. With how much fear and agony she'd sensed in his heart before, she really wasn't surprised by his frantic outburst, made even worse by the effect the poison Maleficent had so cruelly inflicted upon him had on his body. But her heart still aches heavily for him all the same, because much like the lingering poison still flowing through his veins, his internal anguish and dread are things that no amount of magic can hope to heal, as much as she wishes it could.

Still, true to her word, Kairi is more than prepared to do whatever she can do to help Sora recover, even if the most that means is sitting by his side while he sleeps. She keeps her vigil faithfully, eventually letting her thoughts drift entirely as she continues her needlework in the calm quiet of the room. As the first rays of dawn begin to peek in through the window however, she feels her eyes finally growing heavy, her focus waning from her work as her sewing slows to a much more sluggish pace. Eventually, she finds herself unable to resist nodding off, at least for a few minutes, in the hopes of getting some semblance of rest that she's found herself deprived of for the past two days now. And yet, she ultimately forces herself out of that rest a moment later, only to see Sora staring directly at her.

She gasps, startled by his eyes more than anything else, which are still that strange amalgamation of his familiar easy blue mingled with a sharp, striking gold, and a bright, sickly green, each harshly clashing against one another. While his various cuts and gashes had been healed earlier thanks to Aerith, the emerald glow of the poison within him still marrs his skin, though his cheeks are noticeably flushed, adding onto Kairi's suspicion that he's suffering from a fever based on how dangerously warm he'd felt earlier. And yet, despite all this, his expression is surprisingly calm and reserved, his multicolored gaze intentionally focused on her in a stark contrast to the hysteria he'd awaken in just a few hours prior.

"Y-you're… you're awake…" Kairi notes softly, unsure of what else to say.

For his part, Sora doesn't say anything for what seems like ages as he continues to stare at her piercingly, almost as if he's trying to determine if she's real or not. When he finally does speak, his voice is small and quiet and so unlike how it should sound that it practically shakes Kairi to her core. "...You look different," is all he says; he doesn't bother elaborating.

In spite of the circumstances, the observation admittedly catches Kairi off guard but she responds to it all the same. "Uh… y-yeah. New clothes. Sort of like yours, see?" She holds up his mostly-repaired jacket. "It, um, it got a little torn up during… y-you know, so… I've been trying to fix it for you. It's probably not going to turn out as good as it was before, but-"

"It's perfect," Sora interrupts, his tone earnest though his expression doesn't change. "Thank you."

"Y-you're welcome…" Kairi briefly glances away, ignoring the slight rush of warmth filling her cheeks as her thoughts turn toward more serious matters instead. "Sora, I-"

"You cut your hair," he points out, completely derailing her previous train of thought once again.

"Yeah, I… uh, I did," she nods awkwardly, realizing that he's still focusing so intently on her, almost as if she'd disappear completely if he didn't.

"I like it," he says as softly as ever. He's still completely subdued, almost emotionless even, but she knows he meant it all the same. "It reminds me of how you used to look when we were kids."

Kairi can't help but crack a small, incredulous grin at this. "We still are kids, silly."

Sora's expression finally shifts as he pulls his gaze away from her entirely, something akin to a mix of exhaustion and yearning filling in his features. "Yeah…" he mutters wearily, his tone surprisingly hollow. "I guess we are…"

Kairi sighs as she absently folds his jacket up in her lap. She realizes that she might have to tread more carefully than usual with him, as not to upset him in the aftermath of the traumatic experience he's just been through. And yet, that caution completely goes out the window the moment she sees him making his initial attempts at sitting up, only to hiss sharply in pain the moment he so much as moves his arm to the side.

"W-wait, stop!" Kairi immediately jumps to her feet, her eyes wide with alarm. At the same time, Sora lets out another agonized groan as he tries to get up again, only for persistent pain spiraling through every part of his body to essentially keep him pinned to his spot on the bed. "Sora, you need to stay-"

He immediately silences her with a loud, pained, frustrated shout as his head ultimately falls back onto his pillow, his breathing heavy as a thin layer of sweat forms on his forehead from the strain of the effort. "I-I don't understand," he begins, suddenly, aptly distraught. "What's going on?! Why can't I-"

"Sora," Kairi hastily, anxiously places a gentle hand against his bare arm to halt his futile attempts at moving it. "You need to stay as still as you can. Moving will only make it worse."

"M-make what worse?"

"D-do… do you not remember what happened to you?"

"I-I… Yeah, I remember some…" His voice is tight as he closes his eyes, largely to avoid meeting Kairi's crestfallen, pitied gaze. "I let Maleficent capture me, a-and I almost escaped but… then… then she... "

As he trails off into a fretful sigh, Kairi ventures a guess to fill in the rest of the story when he's no longer able to. "Then she poisoned you…" she says, not daring to describe what happened to him after that point.

"P-poison…" he repeats, glancing down at his arms as much as he can. For the first time, he notices the unnatural green pallor his veins have taken on, a deeply unnerving sight in and of itself, though what makes it even worse is the fearful implication that comes along with it. "I-is… is that why I can't move…?"

"It's why you shouldn't move." Sora and Kairi are both equally startled as everyone else comes in to join them. Aerith enters first with Yuffie right behind her, toting medical supplies in for the other girl. Yet before Leon, Cid, and Axel can join them, they're essentially pushed aside by Donald and Goofy, both of whom frantically rush in and waste no time scrambling to their young companion's bedside.

"Sora!" Goofy exclaims with a bright, relieved smile. "You're awake!"

"About time!" Donald huffs impatiently. "You had us worried sick! Again!"

"I… have been making a habit of that lately, haven't I?" Sora frowns, though there's still a slight hint of playfulness in his tone all the same.

"Boy, I'll say!" Goofy chuckles as both him and Donald offer Sora a set of sincere smiles. "We're so glad you're ok, Sora."

"I don't know if 'ok' is the word I would use to sum up how I'm feeling right now…" Sora sighs, wishing he could actually sit up to greet the pair properly.

"Well, after what you went through, kid, who can blame ya?" Cid remarks with a genuinely concerned frown.

"You'll need to take plenty of time to properly heal up thanks to that poison, that's for sure," Leon nods, crossing his arms.

"Wait, what?" Despite it being the entire subject of discussion, Sora all but forgets about the poison entirely as he tries to get up yet again, only for the debilitating pain to hold him back once more. Kairi and a few of the others, namely Donald and Goofy, all hover over him anxiously upon hearing his heavy anguished cry, though he largely ignores them in favor of getting some answers. "W-why… why would I need time to heal? C-can't we just… get rid of the poison using like… a spell or a potion or something?"

"Normally, yes, but… that's just it; this poison isn't normal," Aerith explains. "We've already tried nearly every spell and potion there is to try and negate the effect it's having on your body, but none of them have worked. Whatever kind of magic Maleficent created it from must have been very powerful and very devastating, but… she definitely knew what she was doing when she cast it on you. It was meant to completely incapacitate and paralyze you and I'm sorry to say that it's working exactly as she intended it to…"

"S-so what then?" Sora takes another glance (or at least as much of a glance as he can) down at the discolored veins on his arm once more. "This is something that just… can't be healed? Is that it?"

"Oh, no, don't worry, you'll definitely get better," Yuffie assures, offering him a bright grin in the hopes of cheering him up. Even if it didn't work in the slightest. "But you'll have to do that part mostly on your own."

"From what I understand about this kind of magic, its effects do eventually fade away," Aerith clarifies. "But like Leon said, it's going to take some time, even before you can get back up on your feet again."

Sora lets out something of a disgruntled scoff at this, hating the thought of being helpless or immobilized in any sense, especially if he can't even move without being overwhelmed by indescribable agony. "How much time are we talking about here?" he asks, a bit harsher than he had means to. "A few hours? Days-if worse really comes to worst?"

Everyone exchanges a diffident glance, none of them certain on how to break the rather unfortunate news to him, especially given how poorly he's taking the details of his current condition alone. But in the end, Kairi is the one to step up to speak the truth, knowing that he deserves it, as much as he won't like it. "Um, actually… It's… looking like it might be more like… weeks."

"Weeks?!" On impulse alone, Sora makes yet another sudden, panicked attempt at sitting up, only to collapse back onto the bed with a shout of equal pain and frustration alike. Yet this time, he doesn't stop trying, much to the shared alarm of the others as most of them rush in to stop him, even despite his feeble efforts at pushing back against them. "No! No way! I-I can't be down and out for weeks! It's not happening!"

"Stop being stubborn!" Donald scolds firmly. "You need to stay put and rest so you get better!"

"No, what I need is to get up so we can get back out there and start looking for the Keys again!" Sora protests through gritted teeth, clearly struggling to simply pull himself upright at this point. "We're already wasted enough time with this whole mess as it is! If we just sit around here for weeks on end doing nothing, then the Organization is just gonna get even more of them on top of the one they already have!"

"A-and if we do leave with you poisoned like this, then the Organization might just end up doin' even worse than that!" Goofy reasons with a fretful frown.

"S-so?" Sora argues fiercely, but whatever little strength he has left sharply wanes against the poison-induced pain pounding through his veins. "A-after what I've just been through, the Organization is nothing! And if they even try to mess with us again, then I'll just-"

"Stop!" Kairi suddenly shouts. She forces Sora to finally be still again as she places a hand against his chest and pushes him back down onto the bed with a fair bit of force. "Just stop it! You're not going anywhere until you're completely healed and that's final!"

As caught off guard by her sudden severity as he is, Sora isn't so surprised that he doesn't still have it in him to dispute her demands. "Kairi, you can't just-"

"Yes, I can," she hisses, glaring down at him authoritatively. "You aren't thinking clearly, Sora. You almost died and you just… want to go running right back into danger even though you can't even run at all! But I will not stand by again just to watch you nearly lose everything all over again. Which is exactly you're staying right here until I think you're well enough to leave and I will not hear any sort of arguing about it. Do you understand?"

A long bout of uncertain, uncomfortable silence fills the entire room at this, none of the others daring to interject between the two as they stare each other down fiercely. But when Sora remains stubbornly silent, Kairi wastes no time in pressing her previous question upon him once again. "I said, do you understand, Sora-"

"Yes," his answer is surprisingly immediate. And yet, he doesn't meet her gaze at all as he gives it; instead, he glares in the exact opposite direction as he quietly, bitterly reiterates his response. "I understand."

"Good," Kairi looks back to the group that's watching their heated exchange intently. Now that most of her anger has fizzled out, she can't deny she feels somewhat ashamed for how harshly she's treating him, especially considering his current circumstances. And yet, she still stands by what she'd said; because if he has no intentions of protecting himself, then she'll just have to do it for him. "Um… you should get some rest," she says to Sora with a tired sigh as she motions to the others to take their leave. They do so solemnly, some of them sending quiet well wishes Sora's way, none of which he bothers to return. Kairi follows the procession, though she lingers in the doorway for just a moment, not to offer him the apology she really wants to, but to say something far less meaningful instead. "I-I'll be back to check on you soon."

"I thought you were going to stay with me," Sora says quietly, his voice and expression both rigid as he finally looks at her once more.

As she returns his gaze, Kairi can't help but feel that familiar spark of frustration, mingled with perhaps the slightest bit of pity, brimming up inside her. Because even though she had indeed made a promise to him, she feels no obligation to keep that promise if he isn't willing to at least meet her halfway. "And I thought you would be more careful," is all she says before she walks out and closes the door behind her.


The next few days pass in a quiet, uneventful way. A series of steady showers washes its way over Radiant Garden, ushering in a dreary mood both indoors and out. Between being cooped inside up by the constant rain and Merlin still being away on his trip, neither the Restoration Committee nor Kairi and Axel have much to do. That is, aside from doing what they can to help Sora recover, not that he really lets them accomplish that much to begin with. Donald and Goofy largely lead the efforts on that front, understanding their young companion's strong, if not stubborn, desire to get back to their search for the Keys. Yet, even their comforting company and continuous attempts to, at the very least, cheer him up do little to raise his diminished spirits.

Since the reveal of his lengthy recovery period, Sora largely remains as quiet as he is still as the poison shows no signs, physical or otherwise, of letting up, even as several days go by. In light of this complete lack of any progress, he grows both sullen and largely silent, only offering terse, soft spoken answers when necessary but otherwise not engaging in any sort of actual conversation at all, despite several tries at getting him to do so. He outright ignores Leon's questions about the finer details of what had happened while he had been imprisoned by Maleficent, as well as Cid's efforts to rebuff such grim inquiries with a bout of much-needed humor. He never reacts much to Aerith (with Yuffie's enthusiastic assistance) coming in for daily healing sessions that are little more than checkups than anything else, ones that do nothing at all to purge the poison from his system. Donald and Goofy's lighthearted discussions about what they'll do and where they'll go once he's better are all but lost on him as he starts to doubt if he ever really will get better at this rate. Even Axel offhandedly mentioning Roxas to him does little to spur any genuine response out of Sora, only adding onto the mounting mutual worry everyone feels for both his stagnant physical condition and his clearly deteriorating mental and emotional wellbeing.

For her part, Kairi hasn't really spoken to Sora since making her demand for him to stay put. She certainly visits him, several times a day in fact, though she's always accompanied one of the others when she does. And even then, she often stays on the far side of the room, averting his piercingly discolored gaze that's always, always on her whenever she's around, almost as if he's expecting something from her. She knows exactly what that something was too: her permission for him to get up and leave, permission that she won't give as long as he's still physically incapable of doing so to begin with. And yet, she can't deny that she understands his desperation and disappointment. Being completely immobile to the point of needing assistance in tasks as simple as even eating and drinking has to be maddening for anyone, but especially for someone as usually active and agile as Sora. As the days wear on without much of a change in his demeanor, Kairi steadily begins to suspect he's depressed, or at least on his way there, a notion she doesn't bother sharing with the others given the fact that it's easy to tell from his often exhausted, miserable expression alone.

Another suspicion Kairi has is that Sora hasn't been sleeping, even though he can't really do much else in his current condition. Though she doesn't relay the message to him herself, she asks some of the others to pass along that he'd heal much faster if he allowed himself to properly rest. Yet her secondhand advice doesn't seem to do much good as the circles under his eyes only grow darker and his silence becomes even more empty with each passing day. Even so, Kairi continues her firm, distanced stance when it comes to Sora, largely since she has no idea what to say or do to bridge that newfound, unwelcome distance, as much as she truly wants to. As much as she knows just how much both of them really need to at a time like this.

Yet still, the gap between them remains. At least until the night comes when neither of them can withstand what's keeping them apart any longer.

It happens a little less than a week since his rescue, but for Sora it might as well have been decades. He hasn't moved from his spot on the bed since that hectic first night, though that doesn't mean he hasn't tried in the sparse moments he manages to get entirely to himself without any of the others fretfully hovering over him. Those attempts are always put to a swift and agonizing end thanks to the poison, which hardly seems to be subsiding at all as far as he can tell. While the others all make lofty promises and assurances that he'll heal and be up and about again in no time, Sora quickly stares believing that such promises don't carry much weight at all. Instead, they're just another rather condescending endeavor to try and help him feel better, an endeavor he cares nothing for because he doesn't just want to feel better; he wants to be better. He wants to be able to do things, even the most mundane of tasks really, on his own again as opposed to needing to ask for help or relying on others to do them for him. He wants to get up and walk, to go outside and go back to normal. He wants to get back on the Gummi Ship with Donald and Goofy in tow and get back to what he knows they need to do: searching for the Keys and saving the worlds. And above all else, he wants to put all of this behind him, to pretend this horrific nightmare had never even happened to him in the first place.

When it comes to nightmares, however, Sora has been no stranger to them as of late. Just about all of them have to do with his recent captivity, with Maleficent often ominously and maliciously featuring to make him relive every horrendous second of the torture she'd put him through in reality. Given how he's already still vividly suffering in the aftermath of it all thanks to the poison she'd forced upon him, he isn't exactly keen on reliving the start of the torment that he's all-too powerless to escape even now that the worst of it is over. But he does, at the very least, have some power to escape his haunting nightmares and that power comes in the form of avoiding sleep altogether. Despite everyone constantly advising him to get proper rest, Sora knows he isn't exactly getting too much 'rest' whenever he sleeps to begin with, so he hardly sees his intentional lack of it to be much of a loss. Still, he doesn't waste his time at night like he's more or less forced to during the day. Because while the others all sleep and ease up their nearly constant watch over him, he uses the relative freedom allotted to him to do whatever he can to rebuild his largely lost strength.

He starts with his hands, flexing his fingers as much as he possibly can while trying his best to ignore the resounding sting viciously sparking up in each of them. Forming a fist is an excruciating challenge as the poison cruelly punishes him for even being foolish and brazen enough to try it. And he nearly blacks out completely from the unbearable pain that simply bending his arm just a few mere inches brings him. But still he doesn't stop, he refuses to stop. Because each and every tiny move he makes has to be bringing him one step closer to no longer feeling like a prisoner trapped inside his own immobile body.

Still, the relatively small scraps of progress here and there quickly cease to satisfy Sora, especially when he realizes just how insignificant that progress really is. As he spends his days boredly languishing and his nights only barely moving at all, his thoughts soon turn to walking, to running, to summoning his Keyblade and properly fighting again. All such simple things that he's grown to miss so much in such a short amount of time.

And the more time he spends thinking about those things, the more he starts to realize that the only one really holding him back from doing any of them... is himself. So he decides that if he can't be healed the easy way, then he'll just have to force himself to heal. No matter how difficult and agonizing it might be.

He waits until everyone else in the house is fast asleep before even starting his attempt; the last thing he wants is for any of them to rush in and stop him. While he does genuinely appreciate just how much they all care and how much they're gladly willing to do for him, he can't deny that their care is stifling to say the least. Which is why he wants to make sure they all stay out of the loop about what he's about to do. He makes good use of the spare rag he'd casually asked Yuffie to leave lying on the edge of his pillow, snatching it with his mouth and pulling it toward him to make use of it as a self-imposed gag. And as soon as that gag is in place, he wastes no time forcing himself into motion.

The pain is every bit as awful and immense as he expects it to be as he pulls his arms back alone, but it only intensifies tenfold as he positions them to pull himself up. Still, he swiftly silences whatever cry or scream might have escaped him by biting down hard on the rag, especially as his chest heaves with agony as he fully comes to sit upright. The entire process is slow and sickening, his vision blurring and his body trembling violently as he clings onto the edges of the bed for dear life to support himself. Yet all the same he forces himself to ignore the anguish, as intense as it may be, even as he swivels his legs to hang off the side of the bed. Even as his bare feet so much as skim the wooden floor he knows this is going to be the worst part by far, but since he's already made it this far, he refuses to give up now. Especially when the thought of being stuck in that bed for one more minute is nearly just as horrendous as the incredible pain he's enduring to get out of it.

So, for the first time in days, he stands, though not without needing to grip the bed tightly as his legs nearly give way both from the pain and from a recent lack of use. Even despite his gag, he still lets out a heavy, albeit muffled groan of anguish, involuntary tears starting to well up in his eyes as he does whatever he can to steady himself. Still, he isn't able to properly stand on his own as he instead stumbles backward toward the nearby wall, with each and every sudden step sending all new stinging shockwaves through his body. He falls into the wall much louder than he would have wanted to, yet it supports him as he leans against it desperately, his body and mind both in a frenzied haze as they share one sole, single mission: to keep moving, regardless of how miserable it makes him. He quickly ties that mission to a more specific goal as he spots the mirror hanging on the wall several feet adjacent to him. If he can just make it to that mirror, he reasons, then he can stop, he can take a break, he can rest just as his poison-addled body is practically begging him to do.

It should be easy, a journey of only a few short steps. Yet those steps feel like miles to Sora as he sets out toward it, each subtle movement he happens to make sparking up the equivalent of a thousand knives stabbing away at him all at the same exact time. He keeps his grip on the wall, knowing it's the only thing keeping him standing at all as he slowly shuffles forward in tiny, shaky steps, his gag only barely managing to keep his persistent sobs quiet. But even still he doesn't stop, knowing that if he can learn to suppress and ignore the pain that's been holding him back, then he can finally be better, just like he wants. Just like he needs.

By the time he finally reaches the mirror, it feels like hours have passed. He relinquishes his hold on the wall, only to sway forward toward the mirror itself, stopping himself by throwing both of his hands up to rest on either side of it. His breathing is heavy and shallow as he desperately tries to catch it, his head hanging low as he hopes the unbearable pain would finally die down now that he's mostly still. And yet, when he finally, briefly glances up at the mirror, what he sees in his reflection completely replaces all thoughts of pain and poison with a heavy wave of newfound panic instead.

Surprisingly, the least of his worries are his veins, even as the poison flowing through them casts a vibrant green glow bright enough to nearly luminate the dimly-lit room. But two other striking changes in his features terrify him far more than what he already largely knows about. First are his eyes, a bizarre, twisted mess of blue, green, and gold alike. The colors almost constantly shift and mingle with each other in different ways, none of which make any sense as they seem to shine as brightly as his veins do. But even more alarming than that is something he's shocked none of the others have noticed yet: a single, yet stark lock of pure white, contrasting heavily against the rest of his usually brown hair as it just barely peeks out from under his bangs. But it's there all the same, just like the gold in his eyes or the shadows on his hands or the cracks on his Keyblade or the scar on his chest.

They're all there, all proof, proof that he can't continue to ignore or deny or hide away any longer. Proof that his absolute worst fears are coming true, that his worst nightmare is already on its way to becoming a reality.

Proof that his heart really is falling into Xehanort's control after all.

And that, on top of the poison, on top of what Maleficent had done to him, on top of losing a Key, on top of everything else, all mounts onto a lengthy list of woe that's becoming far too much to take. As Sora steals another glance at the mirror, as he catches sight of that first piece of white hair and those haunting hints of gold in his eyes, he quickly finds he can't even stand the sight anymore. He thinks nothing of the sweeping pain flooding his every sense as he quickly raises his hand and, in a moment of sheer distraught panic and fearful desperation, slams his fist directly into his reflection at full force.

His self-made gag had already fallen out of his mouth the first moment he'd caught sight of his reflection, which means there's now nothing to block the loud, agonized cry that pours out as the mirror's glass completely shatters from the heavy blow. Certainly the combined clamors must have awakened somebody, but Sora hardly cares as he helplessly collapses to the floor, pain surging violently through his limbs but especially through his hand, which is bleeding heavily thanks to the shards of glass now piercing his knuckles. But even the immense physical anguish pales in comparison to the dread and despair that overtakes it, his mournful tears falling freely as he wonders what comes next, how long he has left, what will happen once he was finally-

"Sora!" Kairi's shocked gasp breaks through his manic thoughts instantly. Likewise, whatever barrier of silence and distance that has been standing between them is also shattered as she hurries to him, clad only in her night shirt and shorts, her hair a frazzled mess from having awakened so suddenly. Still, as far as she's concerned, Sora looks much worse off at the moment; he lies curled in on himself on the floor, surrounded by countless shards of broken glass as he tightly grips his hand, which is completely drenched in blood. His eyes are tightly shut as his breathing comes out in tight, choked gasps which are more akin to sobs given the tears steadily streaming down his face. As admittedly confusing as such an alarming sight is, Kairi finds herself overwhelmed with grief and guilt as she stares down at him, and though she's heavily tempted to call for help, she ultimately decides against it. Instead, she slowly kneels down to his level, taking care to avoid stepping on any of the scattered glass as she places a soft hand against his trembling shoulder. "W-what happened…?" she whispers worriedly, though he doesn't answer. In fact, he doesn't say anything at all as he instead draws away from her, almost as if he's ashamed to simply be in her presence, which, unbeknownst to her, is very close to the truth.

She waits a moment, determining that none of the others have been awakened by his outburst, before deciding to take matters into her own hands instead. It takes some time and some doing to finally calm him down enough to convince him to move at all, though her whispered comforting and gentle rubs on his arm and back finally soothe him enough to concede as much as he can. Even the tiniest of movements still cause Sora immense pain, obviously, and while she can't even hope to lift and carry him like Axel or Leon can, Kairi still allows him to lean heavily against her as she slowly, methodically guides him back over to the bed.

Once she's sure he's properly settled, she rushes downstairs to retrieve some of Aerith's supplies, namely wipes and gauze to stop the steady bleeding. By the time she returns, his agonized sobs have mostly turned into silent tears, though whether those tears are spurred by the pain or by something else entirely, she has no idea. Even so, she's as careful as she possibly can be as she takes his injured hand and begins to clean and dress the heavy gashes the glass has torn across it. All the while she lets her own healing magic flow through his wounds, said magic creating a soft, warm glow across the otherwise darkened room. They both remain seeped in a dense silence for quite some time, the only thing breaking through it being the constant quiet patter of the nighttime rain against the window outside. While Kairi tries to remain focused on her healing work, every now and then she steals a brief glance at Sora himself, though he never returns it. Instead, he looks away, his expression awash in obvious grief and woe, neither of which really convey whatever he might be thinking about. She nearly asks him, though she's torn between that and scolding him for the clearly painful trip he'd taken across the room that he hadn't been ready for at all. The mirror is the biggest mystery to her however, for with his hand as cut up as it is, he must have broken it on purpose. But as for what that purpose had been, Kairi knows he won't divulge it to her. Though what he does say to her instead caught her off guard just as much as anything else would at that point.

"K-Kairi…" he begins. The sound of his voice is soft and sorrowful and it brings a fresh spark of pity to her heart. Slowly, he turns the hand that she's been holding so he can grip hers, even though the small action alone is clearly agonizing for him. And all the while, his multi-colored eyes brim with tears as he stares at her pleadingly, desperately as he makes a simple, single request. "I-I need you to heal me… please…"

Kairi frowns, confused by such an odd plea as she glances down at his nearly-healed hand. "Sora, I-I'm already healing you…"

"No." He lets out a weak, mournful whimper as he squeezes her hand just the slightest bit. "My heart… I need you to heal my heart…"

"...Your heart?"

"S-something's wrong with it… I..." he hesitates, though ultimately what he lets slip by is a lie, even though he knows he can't really afford to do that now. "I don't know what, I just… I need your help, p-please, Kairi, this… i-it feels so-"

"Shh…" she quiets him, not needing to hear the extent of the anguish his heart is feeling. After all, she can feel it well enough on her own. "I… I'll do whatever I can to help…"

He sighs, closing his eyes as he accepts that help, trusting her, perhaps more than anyone else, with this problem, even if he knows he runs the risk of exposing such an awful secret if he does. Even so, he lies still, allowing her healing hands to move toward his chest as she brings them to hover just above his heart. Crisp, warm light blossoms over her hands once again as she gets to work, focusing in on the deep, lasting connection between them so she can reach out to him. She knows well that he hasn't asked her for any physical healing; the kind of healing he has asked for is something she's admittedly less well-versed in, something she's only accomplished once before, just a few short days ago, on him. And the moment her heart binds itself to his once more, she can feel that same sort of agony, rich and clear and unbearable in every way imaginable. Amidst that agony, there are plenty of other equally horrendous emotions: fear, guilt, dread, fury, and sorrow. Yet for as intense as all of them are, they're all tinged with something else. Darkness, a different kind entirely than what had overwhelmed his body, mind, and heart before. It's forign, yet familiar all at once as it effectively wages war against his heart, threatening to suffocate it and blot out every single speck of light that exists within it. It's aggressive, merciless as it completely ignores and overcame his courageous attempts at resisting it. Because the only thing it wants, the sole thing it craves, is to claim every last part of him, body, mind, and heart alike, entirely as its own.

The mere presence of such oppressive darkness is enough to shock Kairi to her core. Her focus immediately breaks, her eyes opening wide as she stumbles back, weakened from so much as even making contact with such a horrific force. She doesn't even realize she's trembling in genuine fear until she hears Sora's worried call for her.

"Kairi!" He sits up as much as he could, despite how much pain it clearly brings him. "I-I'm sorry! I didn't know-I-I… I didn't think that-"

"N-no, please, don't be sorry!" Kairi rushes back to his side to calm him down. "If anyone's sorry, it should be me. I… I tried, I really did! But… I don't think my light is strong enough to heal you..." "Or your darkness," she almost adds, but doesn't. Because he doesn't know, he said he doesn't know. And the last thing she wants to do is add onto his already palpable misery with such troubling thoughts.

That misery is largely forgotten, however, as Sora notices the remorseful tears starting to well up in Kairi's eyes as she looks at him as if both of them are broken. Which, by all accounts, they might as well be, albeit in very different ways. "N-no… Kairi, I… it's not your fault," he says, lying back down as he glances away from her guiltily. "I never should have asked in the first place…" After all, how could he possibly expect anyone, even her, to purify something that's already so deeply corrupted to begin with?

"B-but you're hurt!" Kairi protests earnestly. "You're badly hurt, inside and out, and all you wanted was for me to help you and I can't even do that right! Everyone keeps saying I have all of these amazing light and healing powers, but what good are they if I can't use them to help you when you really need me to!?"

As Kairi lets out a frustrated sigh, Sora remains largely silent, unsure of what to say to comfort her, as much as he truly wants to. Even still, he puts his own pressing worries and fears aside to at the very least try to ease hers in any minimal way he can. "Well," he says softly, garnishing her tearful attention. "I… I think I know something you could do that would help…"

Despite her initial confusion, it doesn't take her long to figure out what he's implying. "Oh, that's right…" she wipes a few of her fallen tears away as she offers him a slight smile. "I did make you a promise… didn't I?"

"Yeah…" he nods, relishing the simple comfort of her touch as her hand lightly comes to skim his. "A-and I hope you keep it tonight, because I… I really don't want to be alone right now…"

"And you won't be," she assures him as she squeezes his hand slightly. "But if I'm staying, then I am not sitting up in that chair all night. I'll be right back."

"Huh? Kairi, what are you-" Sora doesn't get an answer as Kairi slips out of the room entirely to go back to hers. Though when she returns a few moments later, she comes with her own blanket and pillow in tow. "Wait," Sora balks, his eyes wide as he watches her place both items on the bed right beside him. "Kairi, you're not-"

"What?" she interrupts with a soft chuckle as she comes to sit on the edge of the bed. "You, me, and Riku always used to do this when we were little, remember?"

"Yeah… when we were little…"

"So? What's the difference now?" she asks as she turns herself under her covers. "You lucked out with getting such a big bed, which means there's plenty of room for both of us."

Knowing he can't exactly argue with that logic, Sora lets out a small, relenting sigh as he turns his head to face Kairi as she comfortably lays beside him. While the bed is certainly large enough to fit them both, there's still only about a foot or two of space between them. Both barely enough and almost far more than enough all at once.

"Sora," she whispers, her tone sad and sincere as she absently places her hand onto the bed in that space between them. "I'm… so, so sorry that all this happened to you. You're the absolute last person in any world who would deserve to go through everything you've been through…"

He nearly argues this claim with a number of reasons as to why he does deserve what has happened to him, why it only makes sense for him to suffer like this in light of the lies he's told and the darkness he's harboring. And yet, he knows she won't want to listen to any of that, so instead he goes with the other, much more comforting thought that comes to him on the same beat. "Well, you know, it's not all bad…"

"Oh? And why's that?" she frowns, confused until he slowly slips his hand over hers.

Her confusion completely melts away into warm affection when, for the first time in what feels like years, she sees him truly, genuinely smile. "Because… I get to be here with you."

And much in the same way, for the first time in a long time, both of them finally fully sleep the night through, their hands remaining overlapped as they offer each other the best kind of healing either of them knows how to provide. The healing that comes with simply being together.


After a week of nearly nonstop rain, the sun finally returns to Radiant Garden, something that Kairi casually realizes when the first rays of morning light shining through the window awaken her the next morning. Yet what she notices before even that is Sora, sleeping peacefully just a few feet across from her. It's a welcome sight to say the least, though what makes it even better is perhaps the first clear sign that the poison is possible starting to subside. The green hue that had once painted the veins on his face has receded almost completely, returning some of the natural warm coloration of his skin. That dull emerald glow still traces its way down his neck toward his chest, proof that he isn't close to being in the clear just yet. But even so, it's a start, even if it is a small one.

Kairi would have been perfectly content with continuing to enjoy the view right in front of her, but soon enough the quiet calm of the room is interrupted by a sudden knock on the door. "Sora!" Donald calls as he and Goofy enter, the latter toting a generously-loaded tray of food.

"Up and at 'em!" the captain chimes in brightly. "We brought ya some breakfa-" The pair immediately stop short as Kairi bolts upright just on the other side of Sora's sleeping form. Her eyes are wide with alarm as she silently shushes them, though as she takes stock of their dumbfounded expressions, she quickly and awkwardly realizes exactly what this scene must look like without any context.

"Ah… u-um…" she whispers, stammering as she glances down at Sora beside her. Thankfully, he's still completely out of it, otherwise he might see the heavy rush of red that's already started filling her cheeks. "H-he's asleep," she anxiously explains as quietly as she can. "Actually asleep this time."

Donald and Goofy quickly ease up at this, both of them realizing the significance of such a feat as they rightly assume Kairi has been the one to accomplish it. Which was why they opt to let their young companion continue getting his much-needed rest as they file out of the room with allayed smiles. For her part, Kairi lets out her own relieved sigh as she lies back down, only to receive another burst of surprise when she spots the coy grin Sora, who is now very much awake, sends her way.

"Well, I was actually asleep," he admits wryly. "But I sure am glad I woke up in time for that, because even with my eyes closed the entire time, it was hilarious."

"Wha-Sora!" Kairi gasps, sitting up more as she playfully shoves her pillow into his face. Laughing, he easily pushes it away, though it's only as he does that they both realize he'd done so seemingly without any sort of debilitating pain at all. "Wait…" Kairi stills, staring at him incredulously. "Did you just…?"

"Y-yeah…" Sora looks to his right arm, just as stunned as he moves it around freely, even raising it high above him. "I-it doesn't hurt at all…"

"What about your other arm?" Kairi asks, almost a bit too eagerly. And yet when Sora shifts to start moving his other limb, a harsh hiss of pain escapes him as he uses his now freed hand to quickly anchor it back down.

"N-no, I… I guess I only get one…" he sighs, disappointed as he lays his now mobile arm across his chest.

"Well, one's better than nothing," Kairi offers him an encouraging smile as she places her hand over his.

"I owe it to you," Sora returns her grin slightly. "This was the hand you healed last night, right?"

"Yeah, but… healing magic doesn't work against the poison, remember?" Her tone grows a bit warmer, prouder at this. "That means you did this all on your own."

"...I spent a whole week doing nothing but lying in bed and all I have to show for it is getting to move just one arm around?" Sora asks, a hint of dry, annoyed sarcasm in his voice. "Great… That's some real progress right there..."

"Hey, again, it's better than nothing," Kairi reminds. "And it's a pretty good start at that. Who knows? This could mean that you're on your way to healing completely much faster than you think."

"I hope so…" Sora sighs, though he still smiles at the thought all the same.

"I know so," Kairi assures, nestling back into bed so they can both enjoy each other's company just a bit longer. "Just you wait; I'm sure you'll be back up and feeling better in no time at all."


As it turned out, Kairi ends up being far more right than she could have imagined. Because much to everyone's surprise, Sora finally starts healing at a much more steady, consistent rate when compared to the week before. Within the span of the next two days, he regains largely painless control of his other arm, though both of them are still relatively sore and weak from a lack of use. Of course, his physical condition isn't the only recent improvement; his mood turns significantly lighter and more upbeat, his former dejected silence replaced with an eagerness for conversation with the others whenever they drop in to check on him. True, he still does have his occasional dour moments of disappointment or despondency-which is certainly understandable given his situation, but for the most part, the others find that Sora is well on his way back to his usual self. And as miraculous as the sudden turnaround might seem, none of them have to take too many guesses as to what, or rather who, had been the one to spark it in the first place.

Despite both of them trying to keep it under wraps, it's really no secret to anyone that Sora and Kairi spend their nights together. While Donald and Goofy had really been the only ones to catch them in the act so far, everyone else knows the pair spends quite a bit of time together, both daily and nightly. Whenever any of the others come in to see Sora, they usually find that Kairi has already beaten them to it, not that either of them ever mind having any additional company. With her training essentially on pause while Merlin is still away, Kairi has plenty of idle time on her hands that she puts to good use by occupying Sora's. The two spend hours on what they haven't been able to properly do in quite some time now: simply talking and catching up, exchanging stories of the present (Kairi's from training and Sora's from Key searching) as well as anecdotes from the past (from their peaceful days back on the Destiny Islands). They joke and laugh and carry on every bit as much as they used to, any semblance of the anxious tension that had rested between them just a few short days ago completely gone. A welcome change of pace for them both given just how much they've missed being together like this after being apart for so long.

A few days after the first night they'd spent together, Kairi happens to remember a certain special occasion coming up very soon. And as soon as she does, she immediately begins planning, spreading the word to everyone but Sora as she devises a scheme meant solely for him. It comes just in time too as he'd recently regained the ability to sit up on his own again, his upper body now mostly mobile even if his legs still surge with pain any time he so much as tries to walk. Still, it's enough to satisfy Kairi that her plan will work as she puts it into motion as soon as she wakes up on the intended morning, knowing that this is something neither of them will want to miss.

"Hey, good morning," she greets brightly almost as soon as she opens her eyes, only to find that he's already wide awake beside her. Ever since he'd asked to have his bed moved closer to the window, it's become something of a pastime for him to casually watch the hustle and bustle of the busy streets of Radiant Garden down below, a pastime that she often joins him on in the early hours of the morning they spend together.

"Morning," he says, turning to her with a smile.

"I have a surprise for you," she grins as she sits up.

"A surprise? What is it?"

"Well, it wouldn't be a surprise if I just told you what it was," she chuckles while getting up out of bed.

"Aw, c'mon, Kairi…" he groans in faux exasperation. "Can't I at least have a hint?"

"Just be patient!" she scolds, smirking. "I have to go get something for it first. Be right back." So Kairi hurries off, leaving Sora in complete suspense for whatever she intends on giving him or showing him. She returns about an hour later, fully dressed and ready for the day as she rolls in perhaps the last thing he'd been expecting.

"It's… a wheelchair…" he frowns, somewhat disappointed by the chair itself as well as what it implies. Namely, the idea that he's still far more invalid than he wants to be.

"Hey, it wasn't easy getting this wheelchair, you know," Kairi protests, hands on her hips. "I've been pestering Cid to trade in some old computer parts for it for days. Besides, this isn't the surprise. It's just what's going to get you to the surprise."

"Wait…" Sora's formerly dubious tone shifts to anticipation at this. "You mean…?"

"Yep," Kairi nods as she summons her Keyblade. She points its tip toward the far side of the room as light surrounds it, and from her focus she forms a bright portal to some unknown location. "We're finally getting you out of this room."

Sora breaks into a huge smile at this, unable to hide how elated he is by the mere thought of getting out and seeing something other than the same four walls he's gotten far too used to by now. Yet even so, he does have at least one reservation about the plan. "Uh… can I ask where we're going?"

"No," Kairi answers simply as she pushes the wheelchair closer to the bed. "You'll see when we get there. Now come on; as excited as I am about this whole thing, I bet there's no one more eager to see you get up and out then, well… you."

"You can say that again," Sora readily agrees, doing what little he can to get ready for the trip. It takes some doing between both him and Kairi, and though some significant pain does come along with the transition, he eventually manages to slip out of bed and into the chair. And as soon as she's sure he's properly seated and comfortable, Kairi wastes no time in wheeling him into the portal she made, hoping that her surprise, for as simple as it is, will satisfy him all the same.

When the light from the portal clears, the pair arrives in a picturesque place, to say the least; a deep, dense forest of lush, towering trees, drenched in the fresh, bright colors of a springtime morning. Between the gentle breeze swaying the leaves, birds chirp their cheery melodies from unknown perches, creating an air of captivating peace and promise that Sora can't help but appreciate as he takes in a deep breath of the warm, crisp, clean air. "Whoa... " he says, absolutely fascinated as he looks around. "Where are we?"

"We're in a special world Merlin made just for me and Axel to train in," Kairi explains, smiling as she pushes his chair down a makeshift path through the woods. "But since we haven't really been training since he's been gone, so I thought it might as well be put to use somehow. I also thought that some fresh air might be just what you needed."

"You thought right," Sora sighs contentedly as he hangs his arms behind his head. "This place is amazing."

"It gets better," Kairi stops short just shy of arriving at the edge of the forest. "But… you have to close your eyes for this next part." Sora raises a curious eyebrow at this, but he ultimately complies when she insists. She says nothing as she wheels him forward a bit more, eventually bringing his chair to a stop in the right spot before scrambling to get the finishing touches ready.

"Will I get to open my eyes sometime today?" Sora asks teasingly, though he still keeps them closed as she had advised.

"Well, if you're gonna be that impatient, you can open them… now," Kairi says, watching his reaction with growing excitement as he gets his first glimpse of the stunning view before them.

Indeed, it astonishes him more than even the forest itself had; a vast, wide valley stretches out far before them, just as rich and radiant as the rest of the woods. And yet, what catches his attention almost as much as the view itself is what Kairi has set up beside him. "What's all this?" he asks with a curious smile as he looks over the picnic lunch she's prepared. It isn't anything extravagant, just a few sandwiches and snacks, all of which she's plated quite nicely. But what's most interesting about the entire set up is a single elegantly-decorated cupcake topped with a brightly burning candle at the center of it all.

"Surprise!" Kairi cheers, holding the cupcake up to him. For his part, however, Sora simply looks between it and her, absolutely bemused until he shakes his head in confusion.

"Ok, I give up," he says with a puzzled grin. "I have no idea what any of this is for."

"...Sora... " Kairi's smile swiftly disappears at this. "Do you… not know what today is?"

"Um… I could be wrong, but… I'm pretty sure it's a Thursday?"

"Well, yeah. But this Thursday also happens to be your birthday."

Sora starts at this, somehow even more bewildered by this news as he shakes his head slowly. "N-no, it's… it can't be, it's not even…" he stops short, his eyes widening as the realization finally strikes him. "Oh my gosh, it is my birthday…."

"Honestly, Sora, how did you manage to forget your own birthday?" Kairi can't help but chuckle at just how dumbfounded he is. "Especially since you never have any problems remembering mine or Riku's."

"Hey, can you really blame me?" Sora protests defensively. "After all, I don't really remember celebrating my last birthday either…"

Kairi's otherwise playful expression turns solemn at this as she realizes exactly why he lacks that memory, if what Riku had told her is anything to go off of. "W-well, do you at least know how old you're turning today?"

"Of course I do," he scoffs, though his confidence quickly drops off. "I'm… uh… mm…"

"16?"

"Yeah, that's right, 16," he nods before being caught off guard once again. "Wait, really?!"

Kairi lets out an exasperated sigh, placing the cupcake in his lap before taking a seat on a tree stump across from him. "You're absolutely hopeless," she smirks, though her tone soon turns wistful as she looks out at the expansive view before them. "You know, if we were back home, then I'm sure everyone would be throwing you a huge party right now. Especially since 16 is such an important milestone."

"Ugh, don't remind me," Sora crosses his arms, though he still smiles all the while. "My mom always used to tell me that when I turned 16, I'd become a 'man', whatever that's supposed to mean."

"It means you're all grown up, silly," Kairi laughs, amused. "And that's a pretty special occasion. Which is why I wish I could have done more to help make it even more special for you, but… I hope this is at least close to good enough."

"Are you kidding? This is great!" Sora readily assures her. His bright smile quickly fades however as he looks back down to the treat she'd given him. "Honestly, you might have even done too much. I mean, it's not like it's anything actually worth celebrating…"

"...What do you mean?"

He hesitates for a moment, but in the end he simply shakes his head and glances away instead. "I-it… it's nothing…"

"It's not nothing to me," she leans forward, catching his gaze once more. "Sora, if something's bothering you, then I want to hear about it. I told you before: I'll do whatever I can to help you. But I can't help if I don't know what's wrong."

He pauses, clearly anxious about divulging something so personal, but ultimately he folds, knowing that if there's anyone he can trust with what he's about to say, then it's her. "I… I don't think I deserve this…" he begins carefully, yet honestly. "Any of this. Everyone's been so great about helping me ever since all this started, but I don't get why. It's like… you all just dropped everything just for me, even though you could be doing so many other important things! Heck, you and Axel even stopped your Keyblade training because of me."

"Of course we did," Kairi says earnestly. "Because we care about you, Sora. We all do. If any one of us were in your place, wouldn't you do the same for us?"

"Of course I would!" Sora exclaims without a moment's hesitation.

"And that's why we're doing all this for you," she offers him a bittersweet smile. "Sora, you do so much for other people. You care so much about nearly everyone you meet. So… maybe it's time for you to start caring a little more about yourself too…"

"W-well, maybe that would be easier for me to do if I stopped making so many mistakes all the time!" he snaps, largely without thinking.

"Mistakes?" she places a hand against the side of his chair as she looks at him, concerned. "L-like what?"

"Well, like falling for a dumb trap and failing my Mark of Mastery exam for starters," he says, going down the lengthy list he's been keeping mental tabs on for quite some time now. "Then I just lost one of the thirteen Keys to Kingdom Hearts of all things, to a member of the Organization that wants to take it over and destroy everything! Then I agreed to let myself be captured and chained up and poisoned and the entire time the Organization could just be out there getting even more of those Keys and I can't even do anything to stop them! And that's all on top of losing my strength not just once but twice in a row, only now it's even worse because not only can I not even fight, I can't even walk! A-and…" A small, harsh sob escapes him, the weight of his multiple mistakes weighing heavy on his heart, especially the worst of those mistakes, one that he can't even bear to voice aloud. "And I just keep on making all these stupid mistakes over and over again when everyone's counting on me! I-I feel like I'm failing everyone who needs me… A-and that's exactly why I don't deserve this... "

Tears brim in his eyes as he shakily holds the cupcake out to her, silently begging her to take it away from him. And not just that, but the kindness and compassion that she and all the others have shown him right along with it, all in the belief that he's done nothing to earn it. That he should be cast out and hated instead of being cared for and comforted. And at that moment, Kairi has never wanted to prove him wrong more than she does now.

"No…" she gently pushes the cupcake back to him. "It's exactly why you do deserve it" He stills, looking to her in genuine disbelief even as she continues. "Sora… I wish you would see yourself the way everyone else does… Because if you did, then you wouldn't see any of those mistakes. You'd see all of the good you've done, all of the worlds you've saved, and all of the people you've helped. And I should know; after all… I am one of those people…"

"B-but I put you in so much danger!" Sora protests tightly. "All of you! You should have never gone to rescue me! You should have just-"

"Should have what? Left you there with Maleficent?" Kairi asks, tensing up at the very thought. "I don't think so. I can't speak for the others, Sora, but for me? Finding out that you'd been captured, that you were being tortured… It was one of the worst things I've ever had to go through."

"A-and you shouldn't have had to go through that!" Sora counters, still immensely distraught. "You shouldn't have to worry about me because I should be stronger than this! I need to be stronger than this, b-because if I'm not then… what good am I to anyone…?"

His last statement is so quiet she barely hears it, but it still nearly breaks her heart all the same. Because it's at that moment that she finally realizes exactly what his problem is: he has so much love in his heart to give to others, he always has. But he never bothers to spare any of that love for himself. Which was why, in place of what his own heart can't give him, she decides to give him some of hers instead.

"You're enough…" she whispers to him, kneeling down in front of his chair and taking his hands in her own. "You've always been enough…" She can feel the warmth of tears starting to build up in her own eyes now but still she doesn't stop; she can't stop. Because he needs this, more than he really knows. "C-can I tell you something? W-when I first started my training, I felt like it was... a lot to take in. Everyone expected so much out of me when I-I'd barely even used my Keyblade before. It's been getting easier but, still, there's sometimes where I worry… What if I'm good enough? I mean, stacked up against you and Riku and even Axel, I… I can't help but feel like I'm the weakest link of the bunch, you know?"

"K-Kairi, what are you talking about?" Sora asks, immediately placing all of his worries with her and essentially forgetting about himself in the process. "You're not a weak link at all! Once your training's done, I know you'll do great!"

"See?" she can't help but smile softly as she squeezes his hands a bit. "There you go again. You always know how to help everyone else feel better, but… all this time, you've just been… miserable on the inside, haven't you?" He says nothing, instead looking away from her morosely as she goes on. "But now I think I finally understand why. I thought I was under a lot of pressure, but you, Sora? You literally have the weight of hundreds of worlds resting on your shoulders! And it's not fair that you have to carry that weight all on your own. Especially since… you don't have to…"

"Yes, I do…" he sighs, closing his eyes solemnly. "Because if I don't, then who will?"

"I will," she answers immediately. "Riku will. Donald and Goofy will. Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and Cid will. Axel will, the king will, Master Merlin and Master Yen Sid will. So many people will and can help you, Sora. We all want to help you carry that weight. All you need to do is ask."

He takes in a deep, unsteady breath at this as he stares past her toward the rich blue sky above. "I-I… I'm not good at asking…"

"I know. That's why I've already made up my mind that I'm going to help you anyway, even if you don't ask. And you know..." She smiles, slipping her hands out of his as she places the cupcake back into them. "Even if you are technically a 'man' now, I still don't see any reason for you to waste a perfectly good birthday cake, now do you?"

A small, yet genuine laugh escapes him at this as he accepts the fork she offered him. And with it, the help that she's so ready to freely give him in both this moment and beyond it. "I can't say that I do," he says just as he blows the cupcake's nearly burnt-down candle out.

"Did you wish for anything?" she asks him curiously.

"Yeah…" he says happily, his gaze resting solely on her as he wipes the last of his tears away. "It already came true."


The sun is just starting to set over the forest by the time they leave it. As the day slowly, peacefully passes by, the rest of their conversation flows much more lighthearted than how it had started out (though the cupcake they end up splitting does raise their spirits quite a bit). And yet, they're soon met with an even more festive mood when they return to Merlin's house, only to arrive to find everyone eagerly waiting for them with a surprise of their own in mind.

"Happy birthday, Sora!" everyone exclaims in bright unison the moment they spot the pair emerging from the portal Kairi had made.

For his part, Sora is even more caught off guard by this surprise than he had been with Kairi's, especially when he notices the extent of it. They've decorated the entire house with countless colorful streamers and balloons, and have even gone as far as to collaborate on a sizable cake, one that is, sure enough, topped with 16 candles exactly. "Whoa! You guys did all this for me?" he asks, genuinely touched by their impressive efforts. "How'd you even know it was my birthday in the first place?"

"Kairi told us," Aerith informs with a warm smile.

"Oh, really…?" Sora glances back at her with a knowing smirk.

"W-well, someone had to," Kairi huffs, pushing his chair forward a bit. "It's not like you would have seeing as how you didn't even remember what today was to begin with."

"You forgot your birthday, Sora?" Goofy asks with a small chuckle.

"Why isn't that not surprising?" Donald adds, crossing his arms.

"H-hey! I didn't forget it!" Sora counters, flustered. "I just-"

"Like I said, you just didn't remember it," Kairi cuts in with a wry smile. "Which is exactly the same thing as forgetting it, but don't worry. None of us will fault you for it."

"Yeah, especially not when cake's on the line!" Yuffie quips with a spirited wink.

"Yeah, cake you didn't even help the rest of us make," Axel points out, raising a critical eyebrow at her.

"Aw, cut me some slack; cooking is not my strong suit."

"Clearly."

"Would you two cut that out?" Cid scowls, annoyed as he comes to stand between them. "I'm sure the last thing the poor kid wants to hear on his special day is you two runnin' your traps at each other!"

"I know I don't," Leon agrees dryly.

This elicits a small chuckle out of Aerith, one that both Sora and Kairi quickly join in on until soon enough, the entire room erupts into bright, genuine laughter. Once that laughter dies down, the party fully kicks off. While it isn't a particularly large get-together, it's certainly an enjoyable one, filled with talking, laughter, and of course, cake. They keep it going late on into the night, until all of them are tired yet content with the time they've spent together as they all fondly part ways to head to bed. As she usually does, Kairi stays with Sora, though as she climbs into bed alongside him, she can't help but notice the almost glowing smile he falls asleep with. It doesn't take much thought to figure out where that smile is coming from either. After all, he'd told her as much earlier that very evening and when he did, she could tell just how much he had really been needing something like this to begin with.

Because for the first time in a very long time, he'd been given a chance to feel less like the savior of the worlds he's expected to be, and more like the normal, now-16 year old he really is. And for the first time in a long time, he'd been given a chance to let the weight of the worlds he's forced himself to carry just wait, if only for a little while.


As restless as he still very much is, it isn't long before Sora insists on trying walking out again, albeit this time with supervision and assistance. The others are largely hesitant on allowing it for a number of reasons, mainly the poison, which still lingers if the persistent coloration of the veins in his legs is anything to go off of. It's only when he's on the verge of begging for a chance that Aerith and Yuffie end up being the first to cave and agree to let him try.

With a little help from Cid, the girls manage to set up a pair of rails for Sora to hold himself steady, something that easily excites him the moment they bring them into his room. Likewise, when they catch wind of what's going on, Donald and Goofy eagerly volunteer to take part in doing whatever they can to help, especially since they know just how much Sora has been wanting to walk in particular. After all, as he's reasoned to them before, walking will lead to running, which will lead to summoning his Keyblade, which will lead to fighting, which will lead to their search for the rest of the Keys picking up right where they had left off. Certainly a much more optimistic outlook than the rather hopeless one he'd had only a little over a week ago, one that his companions are more than ready to see come to fruition.

So the rudimentary rounds of walking practice begin. They take up a few hours each day as Sora clings onto the rails for dear life while trying to take even the smallest of steps amidst sharp, searing pain. Aerith and Yuffie supervise these sessions while Donald and Goofy attend just about every one of them, standing on the sidelines to cheer him on and offer him any support he might need. Today's session is particularly important, however, as Sora had already made it his mission to finally stand entirely on his own, without relying on anything to prop him up. Walking along the length of the rails is simple-if not somewhat agonizing-enough, but when he reaches their end he stops short to physically and mentally prepare himself for the moment in which he'll finally let go.

"Remember to take it slow," Aerith advises as she and Yuffie stand alongside Donald and Goofy. "If it's too much for you today, then don't worry; you can always try again tomorrow."

"N-no," Sora counters breathlessly. His arms are trembling as he grips the rails on either side of him tightly, both from the strain and from nerves. But still, he doesn't back down, knowing that this is a challenge he'd much rather face sooner than later. "I-I need to do this…"

"Not if it makes you feel even worse, you don't," Yuffie reminds with a concerned frown.

Sora doesn't reply to this as he instead puts all his focus into grounding himself as much as he possibly can. Once he feels his footing is stable enough, he forces himself into enough of a state of calm until he largely feels ready to try lifting his hands away from the rails. He does so slowly, easing his grip as he shifts his sense of support to his legs instead. In the first few seconds, he sways slightly, his legs weak and aching immensely thanks to the last remnants of poison within them. It's enough to nearly make him catch himself on the rails once again but he ultimately refuses to, knowing that he has to weather this, no matter how difficult it might be.

And, for a single, solitary moment, that's exactly what he does. Because there he is, standing, on his own two legs with nothing else to support him for the first time in weeks. And yet… a moment is all it ends up being. Because as soon as that moment passes, a rush of pain, intense and unbearable, speeds its way through him. A burst of pain that's all too similar to what he'd been forced to endure when the poison had first been forced into him, a moment he can't even stand to think about with how awful and agonizing and terrifying it had been. In fact, the mere memory of it alone is enough to knock him off his feet entirely as he collapses to the ground with an anguished cry.

"Sora!" Donald and Goofy rush to him, both of them immensely worried as their young companion remains lying still on the ground before them.

Even so, Sora hardly pays either of them any mind as he instead lets out a small, defeated sigh instead. "I can't do this…" he mutters, not bothering to pick himself up even though he easily could.

"What are you talking about?" Goofy asks incredulously, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Of course you can! You can't give up now, not when you've already gotten so much better!"

"Besides," Donald adds just as supportively. "You've done things that are much harder than just standing up on your own."

"Yeah, but I did all that stuff while I wasn't poisoned!" Sora snaps, finally sitting up to reveal his distraught expression. "All I want to do is just get up and walk again so things can finally go back to the way they used to be, b-but I can't even do that, no matter how hard I try! I-it… it's impossible…"

The pair exchanges a fretful glance as their young companion looks away from them dejectedly. Still, if there's one thing they can both agree on, it's that they have no intentions of letting him drown in his own self-doubts for too long. "Well then," Donald begins, his tone surprisingly casual. "It's a good thing this is you we're talking here, Sora. We see you do the impossible just about every other day. For better or worse…"

"What Donald's trying to say," Goofy interjects much more warmly. "Is that we believe in you, Sora. No matter how hard it might be or how long it'll take, we're gonna be here to help you get through this, and even after that!"

As Donald nods his unwavering agreement to this, Sora simply looks between the pair in sheer astonishment. Because sure enough, this is a vow they've already kept, ever since any of this had begun. They'd found him, brought him back, and have indeed stayed by his side through all of this, even when they really have no obligation to. And if nothing else, then the depths of their loyalty and friendship alone is enough to encourage and inspire Sora when he needs it most. "...Just like always, huh?" he asks, finally offering the pair a small, but genuine smile.

"Just like always," Donald agrees as he and Goofy extend their hands out to pull him up. Sora easily accepts their offer, leaning against both of them for support as they help him stand once more.

They continue to help him in the hours that follow, until finally he feels ready to try to stand on his own again. It's an unsteady effort, and all the while the pair remains close by to catch him if he falls. Yet this time, he doesn't. True, the poison still plagues him to the point that he can't stay on his feet for very long, but it's still a miraculous milestone all the same, one they all make sure to happily celebrate as soon as it happens. Because as the days go by, standing soon turns into steps, and steps soon turn into walking without any sort of assistance at all.

And soon enough, walking turns to the start of his crippled, broken strength, at long last, returning.


After weeks of waiting and steady recuperating, the poison starts to finally fade away entirely, any physical traces of it that had once marred Sora's skin disappearing right along with it. Still, for as eager as he is to get back to searching for the Keys, all of the others agree that he still has a ways to go when it comes to fully regaining his strength. Kairi in particular makes it quite clear that he still doesn't have her permission to leave until she believes his capacity to hold his own in a fight again is up to par at the very least. And though he initially protests the idea of having to wait another week, Sora ultimately has no choice but to comply.

Still, that hardly means that his time is spent idly. In the first few days after getting used to being up on his feet again, Sora takes to spending as much time as he can up and out of bed, taking short walks around the house and helping the others with their usual chores and routines the best he can. Still, it's clear that even though the poison is largely gone, it had still sapped away a great deal of his energy when it had run its course through him. Because even those short walks and simple tasks tend to easily tire him out, and likewise, despite his best efforts, summoning his Keyblade and making it stay for more than mere seconds at a time is a feat he's yet to truly accomplish since he's been out. Even so, the others do what they can to help him build his lost strength back up, though everyone can agree that Kairi is the one to come up with the best idea to do just that by far.

Springtime finally arrives in Radiant Garden in full force, and with it comes a wave of warm, pleasant weather. Given how much their trip to the secret forest had reinvigorated Sora before, Kairi has a hunch that even more fresh air will do wonders for him, which is why she starts inviting him on walks around town. Though Sora is all for the idea as soon as she pitches it to him, a few of the others, namely Leon and Cid, are much more hesitant, believing that Maleficent could still be waiting in the wings somewhere, intent on capturing her lost "pet" all over again. Yet Kairi assures them that she'll be ready and willing to do whatever she has to to protect Sora if push comes to shove. And given all of the great lengths she's already gone through for him over the past several weeks alone, they're all inclined to believe her.

So the pair starts going on their daily walks, most of them relatively short-just around the nearest block or so-though enjoyable for both of them all the same. Every now and then some of the others, usually Axel or Donald and Goofy, join them, but they have most of their casual strolls to themselves to enjoy the sights of the shining city together. During these walks, their conversations are usually kept casual, though on today's outing, Kairi finds that there's one topic she can no longer keep silent about, though not for a lack of trying for the past several weeks on end.

"Can I ask you something?" she suddenly speaks up, interrupting Sora as he recounts his time at Paradise Falls to her once more.

"Oh, uh, sure," he glances over at her with a smile. "What's up?"

She hesitates, knowing that even bringing this up will only bring him unwanted feelings and memories, and yet she knows she has to anyway. She has to know the truth for once. "...Exactly how long have you been lying to me and Riku?" she asks softly, not meeting his gaze.

Sora immediately stops short, his eyes wide and his heart suddenly racing as he watches Kairi take a few more steps forward. A familiar kind of panic swells up in him as he frantically wonders just how much she knows, how she'd found out in the first place. And worst of all, if she knows the one thing he can't bear to let anyone else find out, to the point that he's done all he can to tuck that single white lock of hair out of sight and hope against hope that the gold stains in his eyes will eventually disappear just as the green ones already have. "L-lying about what?" he asks, trying to play things as cool as possible. Even as his thoughts are practically surging with fear and dread over what might happen if she does know the truth.

Kairi sighs, closing her eyes thoughtfully. "I know about the scar. And the cracks in your Keyblade. Donald and Goofy told us about them."

"...Of course they did…" Sora groans, still wishing that neither of them knew about such things even long after those secrets have been forced out into the open.

"A-and… I also saw… w-we all saw what happened to you at the castle," her tone turns anxious as she recalls how he'd looked, how he'd acted, so unlike the Sora standing before her now. "Sora, you… every part of you, your body, your heart… it was all covered by so much darkness. It was like there was barely even a trace of you left. Y-you looked just like… like a Heartless…"

"A Heartless…" he repeats in a whisper, his dread practically peaking as he realizes what she's talking about. And how she'd even gotten a chance to see him like that in the first place. "H-her plan actually worked…"

"...Maleficent, you mean?" Kairi ventures worriedly.

Sora nods, his entire manner tense as he weakly leans against the wall they're walking near for support. "S-she wanted to turn me into… i-into that… monster," he shudders, knowing there's no other word to describe what he's like whenever his own darkness overtakes him. "A-and use her magic to take control of me s-so she could use me to take over worlds for her a-and she did! All because I wasn't strong enough to fight back!" He stops, glancing up to Kairi just as distraught tears begin to appear in his eyes. "P-please," he begs as she takes a small step closer to him. "Please tell me I didn't hurt any of you when I was… l-like that…"

"Y-you didn't," she lies, knowing that the truth won't do anything for him now. "D-do you remember anything that happened when you were…?"

"N-no," he glances down, wiping his tears away before they can fall. "I never do. W-when I'm like that, I… I never know what's happening a-and I don't have control of anything. It's like I just… disappear…"

Kairi falters upon hearing this, a part of her starting to understand why he'd kept this part of himself secret for so long. Because certainly, undergoing such a horrific transformation and losing practically all sense of self has to be more of a dreadful burden than anyone can hope to bear, to the point that she wonders how he's even managed to do it for so long to begin with. "H-how long has this been happening to you?"

"I don't know, for a while now, I guess?" he shrugs with an exhausted sigh. "I don't know why it happens or what causes it, o-or how to stop it. As much as I wish I could…"

"...Then why didn't you tell either of us about this?" Kairi presses once more. "Maybe we could help you-"

"Because I didn't want either of you to see me like that," Sora quickly cuts her off. "Ever. Especially if there's a chance I could hurt you without even knowing it…"

"Sora…" Kairi frowns, reaching a hand out to gently touch his shoulder. A hand she quickly retracts when she realizes she doesn't know what else to say along with it.

"And besides," he continues, letting out something of an aggravated scoff. "You finding out is one thing, but if Riku found out, I know just what he'd say: 'Oh, Sora, you know better than to hide things like this from me! How could you be so reckless? I need to be the first to know if anything goes wrong so I can be the one to rush in to save you again'."

"Sora, you know Riku wouldn't say any of that if he knew!" Kairi scoffs firmly.

"Then clearly you haven't talked to him lately," Sora scowls bitterly. "'Cause ever since he became a Keyblade Master, suddenly he thinks he knows everything. Including what he thinks is best for me…"

Kairi is more than ready to protest such a worrisome line of thinking, yet before she can, their entire conversation is interrupted by the abrupt ringing coming from Sora's pocket. And when he pulls the Gummiphone out, he's met with a call that's, by all accounts, incredibly ironic in all the worst ways. "I-it's Riku!" he exclaims, suddenly panicked given the circumstances. "I haven't talked to him since any of this happened, I don't even know-" He pauses, glancing over at Kairi, who's every bit as startled as the phone continues to brightly ring. "H-here!" he suddenly pushes the device into her hands. "You talk to him!"

"W-what?" she exclaims, looking down at the phone in alarm. "Sora, what am I even supposed to tell him?"

"J-just come up with something!" he urges anxiously. "But please, don't tell him anything about what happened with Maleficent or why I'm really here. He'd completely freak out if he knew!"

Kairi lets out a frustrated scoff at this, shaking her head at such a dishonest plan, though when Sora desperately implores her once again, she finally complies and answers the phone. "R-Riku!" she greets with an awkward wave when he shows up on screen. "W-what a surprise! How have you been?"

"Wait, Kairi?" Riku leans forward in his seat aboard his and Mickey's Gummi Ship, frowning in confusion. "What's going on? Why do you have Sora's phone?"

"Good question…" Kairi grumbles, scowling over at Sora.

"Is he there with you?" Riku asks, raising a curious eyebrow.

"Uh y-yeah, he is," Kairi replies, even despite Sora silently advising her against it.

"Can I talk to him? Please?"

Kairi pauses, still looking to Sora rather than Riku, watching as he anxiously shakes his head against the very idea. She meets his resistance with a stern glare, annoyed that he's even put her in this position in the first place as she decides to turn the tables on him. "Yes, you can," she says succinctly, handing the phone over to him.

Sora lets out a defeated sigh at this, returning the same scowl Kairi sends his way as he begrudgingly takes the phone back. "Um, h-hi, Riku," he says with a tight, forced smile. "H-how's it going?"

"Sora!" Riku exclaims adamantly, angrily almost. "I haven't heard from you in weeks! Where have you been? Why are you in Radiant Garden?"

"I, uh… I-I'm here looking for a Key, duh," Sora quickly lies, fully knowing that there isn't any trace of a single Key in this world whatsoever. All the while, he ignores the disapproving look Kairi sends his way as he goes against her advice to be honest with him, with both of them.

"Really?" Riku asks, skeptical. "Have you found anything yet?"

"Um, n-no, not yet," Sora shrugs, trying his best not to come across as nervous. "B-but that's why Kairi's here to help me look, right?"

He holds the phone out to bring her into the frame, even as she mouths her plea to him to not drag her into this ridiculous charade any more than he already has. Yet for some reason or another, she haphazardly decides to go along with it anyway. "Y-yeah, that's right," she nods with a fake, cheery grin. "We've… just been looking all over for that Key! I-I'm sure we'll find it soon…"

"I'm sure we will!" Sora reiterates much more enthusiastically. "Which is why we should probably get back to looking for it. Thanks for checking in, Riku. Talk to you later, bye!"

"Wait!" Riku interjects just before Sora can hastily hang up. "Before you go, do you mind telling me why you haven't even bothered to answer my calls for over a month now?"

"I-I've been busy," Sora says succinctly. "These Keys aren't out there finding themselves, you know."

"Ok, so if you've been that busy how many have you found?""

"...T-three…" he replies rather sheepishly. "Well, technically four, if you count the one the Organization has..."

"What?" Riku's tone turns incredulous as he hears Sora's last muttered statement. "You let the Organization get away with one of the Keys? To Kingdom Hearts?!"

"Hey, I didn't just let them get away with it!" Sora argues petulantly. "Besides, we're, uh… we're working on getting it back. And as far as I know, they haven't gotten any of the others yet, so there's not that much to worry about, right?"

Riku stays silent for a moment or two, offering Sora a dubious look as he maintains a wide, largely false, reassuring grin all the while. Kairi looks anxiously between the two, her worries lying with Sora and all of the secrets he still insists on keeping from Riku, who, as far as she's concerned, has every right to know about them as much as she does. Yet she still doesn't betray Sora's trust, even if nearly every part of her is screaming at her to.

"Fine," Riku finally lets out a tired sigh. "But, Sora, you really shouldn't be interrupting Kairi during her training. She has a lot of important work to do, just like you do."

"Oh, i-it's fine, Riku," Kairi assures with a small smile. "It's really no trouble, and besides, I'm glad to help in any way I can."

"Yeah, see?" Sora adds. "Everything's fine. Like I keep trying to tell you."

"It'd be better if you actually made more of an effort to stay in touch," Riku frowns, his tone no longer angry, but rather earnest instead. "I know you're busy, Sora, and so am I, but you going off the map like you did for weeks on end only makes me think the worst might have happened. It… it makes me worry."

"Something you do way too much of," Sora lets out an irritated huff. "I already told you, I don't need you to babysit me…"

"I know you don't," Riku admits with a thoughtful smile. "And I know you've got finding the Keys and dealing with the Organization covered, but… that doesn't mean we can't still care about what happens to you. Right, Kairi?"

"Right," Kairi readily agrees, offering Sora a warm smile that's finally enough to placate him. For now, at least.

"...Right," he finally nods, satisfying Riku and Kairi alike.

"Well, I guess I'll let you two get back to looking for that Key," Riku says, putting on something of a coy, knowing grin. "Try not to have too much fun without me."

"R-Riku!" Kairi blushes as Sora quickly glances away, flustered.

For his part, Riku lets out a small laugh as he finally bids the pair a fond farewell. "Stay safe, both of you. And remember, Sora, if anything goes wrong-"

"Then you need to be the first to know, yeah, yeah, I remember…" Sora huffed, rolling his eyes. "As if you'd let me forget…"

"Well, someone has to remind you between all the calls you missed…" Riku says in faux exasperation. "Kairi, keep an eye on him for me, will you?"

"Always," Kairi smirks, elbowing Sora playfully.

"Thanks," Riku says as he signs off. "Talk to you guys later."

"Bye, Riku!" Kairi replies brightly as the call ends, though Sora hardly does the same. Instead, he still wears a sullen scowl as he puts his phone away, one that persists even as she looks to him, concerned. "Sora?"

"See what I mean?" he crosses his arms sourly. "He's always on my case anymore! What's worse is he didn't used to act like this before the exam. It's just so… so suffocating!"

"Sora, you heard him yourself," Kairi says earnestly. "He's just worried about you."

"I know he is," Sora admits with a sigh. "But it's like he thinks I can't even take care of myself! I don't need him calling me every five minutes just to see if I'm still on track. And I definitely don't need him finding out about what happened a few weeks ago. He'd never let me out of his sight again if he found out I was captured by Maleficent, of all people."

"He's not that overbearing," Kairi points out, hands on her hips. "And I really think you should tell him what happened. Honestly, we should have told him about it from the very start. He deserves to know."

"Well, if you think he should know, why didn't you tell him?"

"Because this isn't about me, Sora," Kairi sighs. "It's about you; which means you should be the one to tell him the truth."

"And what? Distract him from his own mission?" Sora counters. "The last thing we need is somebody else getting derailed from what they need to do like me, Donald, and Goofy already have been."

"Fine," Kairi relents, deciding to meet him halfway. "Then you can wait until Riku and the king find Master Aqua. But after they do, you have to tell him what happened, Sora. For me, and for yourself."

Sora hesitates at this, the very thought of cueing Riku in on such a series of alarming events making him immensely anxious in ways he can't quite place. Though the one way he can place is the growing fear that the revelation of this one truth will lead to the reveal of more, even worse truths. Including one he doesn't want anyone knowing, a truth he doesn't even want to believe himself. "O-ok," he relents, though really only for the secrets that Kairi herself openly knows. "I… I'll tell him."

Kairi smiles at this, allayed as she begins pressing on to continue their walk. "Good. And if you need any help filling him in on this, then you can count on me."

"Yeah, well if he yells at me for being 'reckless' or 'irresponsible' then I'm blaming you," Sora teases, stepping forward to catch up with her.

She laughs at this, all the while looking forward to the day when everything can finally be freely out in the open between the three of them once more. When they can all be truly honest with each other, just as they've always been before. "Fair enough."


With his mobility more or less completely restored, the last obstacle Sora knows he has to overcome comes down to his Keyblade. Summoning it alone often takes him quite a bit of doing, along with a great amount of intense focus to make it stay. But even after mostly getting to the point where he can call upon it consistently, he's still rather out of practice with the weapon, as well as with combat as a whole. That's where both Leon and Axel step in to help. Given the fact that they both have plenty of experience in a fight just as Sora himself does, they both make for ideal sparring partners for him to practice resharpening and re-honing his skills on. Even if he's still somewhat frustrated by how basic that practice begins.

Instead of letting him get back to his usual advanced moveset, Leon insists upon Sora starting out with slow, simple swings instead. The thoroughfare outside of Merlin's house echoes with the dull clang of Sora's Keyblade bouncing off Leon's Gunblade at a sluggish, yet rhythmic pace. They've been at it for about an hour now, and every time Sora so much as tries to pick things up a little, Leon is quick to advise him against it. All the while, Axel stands by, observing on the sidelines, but even from there, he can see just how bored and annoyed Sora is starting to get by the largely tiresome process.

"Ease up a bit," Leon says as he lightly pushes the Keyblade away from his own weapon. "You shouldn't be focusing on hitting hard; just focus on landing your hits in general."

"Isn't hitting hard sort of the point?" Sora huffs, irritated.

"Not right now, it isn't," Leon disagrees. "You needed to get up and walk again before you could start running, right? Same principle applies to fighting."

"I guess…" Sora frowns as he slings his Keyblade over his shoulder. "But do we have to be so slow about it?"

"For now, we do," Leon counters evenly. "You haven't used your Keyblade in weeks. You need to get a feel for how to handle it again before you can really get back into the swing of things."

"Heh, swing of things," Axel speaks up with a small chuckle. "Nice one."

"Nice what?" Leon raises an eyebrow, not getting his own unintentional pun.

The bout of somewhat awkward silence that follows is soon broken as Yuffie pokes her head out of the house's window. "Leeeeeon! Can you get in here for a sec? Cid says he needs your help with something."

Leon nods as he puts his Gunblade away, though he briefly turns back to Sora before he leaves. "I'll be right back. Don't pull any stunts while I'm gone."

"No promises…" Sora mutters to himself.

"What was that?"

"Uh, I-I mean, yeah, I promise!" he quickly corrects himself, offering Leon a wide smile and a thumb's up.

Leon eyes him dubiously for a moment before ultimately turning to go back into the house. As soon as he's gone, however, Sora lets out a loud, frustrated sigh as he completely goes against his orders, swinging his Keyblade out as wide and fast as he can several times over, despite the somewhat painful strain it causes him.

"Whoa, you might wanna slow down there," Axel notes, still leaning against the house. "If Leon catches you doing that, he'll throw a fit. Or at the very least, give you a stern talking-to, and I'm not too fond of the idea of having to listen to either."

"Ugh, I can't help it!" Sora groans, exasperated. "All of this 'taking it slow' stuff is driving me crazy! I just wanna get back to fighting like I used to again. This might sound kind of weird, but… I really miss it."

"Hm," Axel can't help but smirk at this. "Well, if you want a real challenge for a change, I might be willing to give you one where Leon won't…"

"Really?!" Sora perks up, immediately excited by the prospect.

"Sure, why not? It's been a while since I've had any real practice myself since the old man's been away," Axel shrugs, summoning his fiery Keyblade. "Don't worry though; I'll make sure to go easy on you."

"More like I'll go easy on you," Sora counters as he eagerly takes up a fighting stance. "You're the one who's still learning the ropes, remember?"

"And you're relearning them," Axel reminds. "So I'd say that makes for a pretty even match."

"We'll see about that," Sora grins before he rushes in to take the first strike. Axel manages to parry it smoothly, making sure to not knock him back too roughly. Still, he's much more proactive in actually letting Sora practice his moves however he pleases than Leon has been, which is certainly liberating to say the least. With each successful swing he landed, Sora feels an undeniable burst of exhilaration, the kind he hasn't experienced in quite some time now. This is his element, one that fills him with a sense of strength that he's been longing for since the moment it had been so forcefully ripped away from him in the first place. And even if that strength has yet to be fully restored, the traces of it he still does possess is something that he relishes all the same.

"I gotta say," Axel notes as their Keyblades collide once more. "This is honestly kind of familiar."

"Familiar?" Sora raises a confused eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"Ah, that's right," Axel winces, realizing that he certainly wouldn't remember the first and only time they'd really squared off before now. "Er, n-nevermind. Instead of thinking about that, ya might wanna consider covering that opening you have there."

"Wait, opening?" Sora quickly glances to his side, only for Axel to end up catching him off guard by striking at him with the dull side of his Keyblade. Unable to react fast enough to block it, the blow pushes him back, causing him to lose his footing as he tumbles to the ground, his Keyblade falling out of his grip and disappearing as he does.

"Not too shabby for a beginner, huh?" Axel asks with a proud smirk. That smile quickly disappears, however, when he notices Sora, still on the ground as he nurses his now sore side with a disappointed scowl. "Hey… you ok?" he asks with genuine concern as he extends a hand out to help him up.

Sora only answers with a terse nod as he accepts Axel's help. For his part, however, Axel can easily tell he's far from satisfied with how their short duel has gone if his annoyed pout is anything to go off of. "You don't have to push yourself so hard, you know," he remarks earnestly. "You'll get the hang of it again eventually."

"Yeah, eventually," Sora scoffs, crossing his arms. "That's the part that bothers me."

"Well, it shouldn't," Axel says, his slight smile finally returning as he lets out a small, somewhat bittersweet chuckle. "You know who else always wanted to fast track everything?"

"No, who?"

"Roxas," Axel's smile widens somewhat as it takes on a nostalgic air. "The kid was always pushing himself way harder than he should have too. Now I guess I can see where he got it from."

At this fond mention of his Nobody, Sora completely puts aside his former disappointment for something far more sincere instead. "I-I… I've been seeing Roxas in my dreams, actually," he admits, making sure not to reveal too many details about said dreams.

"Really?" Axel perks up at this, intrigued.

"Yeah, he… I-I promised him that I'm gonna find some way to get him out of my heart," Sora says, remembering that vow, as well as the vow Roxas had made to him along with it. "And I mean it. He deserves to be his own person again and I'm not gonna stop until he is. No matter what it takes."

Axel pauses at this, unsure of how to express his genuine gratitude for such a noble ambition. Other than, of course, by deciding to take it up for himself too. "Well, if you're that set on getting him back, then I know he'd never let me hear the end of it if I didn't help you out at least a little," he says with a small, yet genuine grin. "So if you ever need anything when it comes to helping him out, just let me know. 'Cause believe me, I'm ready to do whatever it takes just as much as you are."

"Thanks, Axel," Sora nods warmly. "I appreciate it, and I know Roxas does too. And don't worry; we'll figure out some way to help him. I know it."

"So do I," Axel agrees before clearing his throat to lighten the mood. "So, you wanna go another round before Leon comes back out here to ruin all the fun?"

"Too late," Leon speaks up as he steps out of the house, wearing a slight disapproving scowl. "I spotted the tail end of your little 'spar'. What did I say about pulling any stunts while I was gone?"

"Hey, don't look at me," Sora says defensively. "Axel's the one who suggested it."

"Wha-hey! Don't try pinning this all on me, 'Mr. Over-Eager'!" Axel exclaims hotly as something of a brief, playful chase ensued between the two. Leon stands by, initially disinterested as he watches their antics, before he ultimately folds into a small, bemused grin.

"Well," he says, chuckling softly to himself. "Guess that marks the end of practice for today."


It's a question Kairi has been dreading for weeks now, one that she's known she'll have to give a definitive answer to eventually. And she realizes, as Sora poses it to her at the end of their latest walk, that answer will finally have to come today.

"Do I think you're ready to leave…?" she repeats the dreaded question, her heart sinking even as she does. "I-I don't know… Do you feel like you are?"

"Well… yeah," he shrugs. "The poison's all gone and Keyblade practice has been going great! I know I still have a ways to go when it comes to getting all my strength back, but I feel like the best way to do that now is to just… get back out there for myself, you know?"

Kairi sughs, looking away from him fretfully upon hearing this. She can't deny that he's right, his condition is much better than it had been nearly a month ago now. And yet, she still has a whole host of reservations about the idea of letting him go, even if she knows he ultimately had to for the greater good and for his own. "B-but what if something happens?" she asks anxiously. "I… I just don't want to see you get hurt again…"

"Don't worry," Sora assures evenly. "I've already talked everything over with Donald and Goofy. I'm going to be more careful, just like you want me to be, a-and if anything does go wrong, then we'll make sure to keep you in the loop. You do have a Gummiphone of your own, right?"

"Yeah, I-I do, but…" she falters, unsure of how to voice the other half of her hesitation. "Sora, I-"

"Kairi, I told you I wasn't going to leave until you said I could," he interrupts, seeming to understand exactly how she's feeling. "And even if I… really didn't like it at first, I stayed, just like you said. So… if you still think I should stay, then… that's exactly what I'll do."

She shakes her head sadly at this, knowing that her reasons for making him stay now would be far more selfish than they had been weeks ago. "N-no…" she relents softly, admitting the truth to both him and to herself. "You… you can't stay… After all… those Keys aren't going to find themselves, are they?"

"No, they aren't," he says with a smile so bright it practically shines like the sun. A smile that makes her heart ache with longing she shouldn't even feel in the first place. Longing for him to stay right by her side even when she knows he can't. "I guess this means I should go tell Donald and Goofy to get ready to head out tomorrow morning. Thanks again, Kairi!"

"Y-yeah…" she says with a fake, almost sorrowful smile as he hurries back inside the house. All the while cherishing every single, now-fleeting second she has left with him now that she's finally letting him go. "You're welcome…"


The next morning sees everyone waking up bright and early so they can see Sora, Donald, and Goofy off. They all gather outside of Merlin's house in an atmosphere that's bittersweet, to say the least, especially after the past month they've all spent together. Still, if there's one thing they can all agree on, it's that they're all overjoyed to see the full, miraculous recovery Sora has made in a surprisingly short amount of time. Almost just as overjoyed as Sora himself is to finally be getting back out into the worlds once again.

"Looks like you fellas are leaving town just in time," Yuffie notes with a smirk. "Today's the day Merlin's supposed to be getting back from his own world."

"Good," Axel says he crosses his arms. "That means he won't find out about that 'forbidden' rescue mission we went on a few weeks ago which means he can't get on our case about it."

"Well, just as long as none of us tell him about it," Cid notes.

"Which we won't," Aerith chuckles. "We already promised not to, remember?"

"You're sure you're ready to leave?" Leon asks Sora. "Because if not-"

"No, I am," Sora assures with a bright smile. "And I owe that to all of you. Seriously, I don't think I can thank any of you enough for-"

"You don't need to thank us," Aerith interjects with a kind smile. "We were happy to help."

"Now, you two make sure to keep him outta trouble, ya hear?" Cid says to Donald and Goofy.

"You bet we will!" Goofy readily agrees with a solid salute.

"Even if getting into trouble is basically a hobby for him…" Donald remarks, sending Sora a somewhat critical look.

"Is not…" Sora huffs with an insincere scowl. That scowl fades however as he spots Kairi, hanging at the back of the group, largely refusing to make eye contact with him or say anything at all as she simply looks down sadly.

"Now, don't be strangers, you three!" Yuffie chimes in cheerily. "You guys know you're welcome here any time, catastrophe or no catastrophe."

"Hopefully, it's no catastrophone next time around," Axel adds pointedly.

"Take care of yourselves out there," Leon says with a small, earnest smile.

"Safe travels!" Aerith bids them brightly.

"Thanks," Sora smiles, Donald and Goofy waving their own fond farewells as they turn to leave. "For everything. We'll see you guys again soon."

An exchange of final goodbyes and well wishes pass between the groups as they begin to part ways, though all the while Sora largely keeps his focus on Kairi, who still doesn't meet his gaze even as he waves to her directly. He falters, unsure of what to do or what to say as he briefly hesitates to leave at all until he's able to offer her one last goodbye. He finds he doesn't really have time to as Donald and Goofy have already continued on their way back to the Gummi Ship, and even if a part of him still doesn't want to quite yet, he ultimately follows them. At least, until she suddenly rushes in to stop him.

"W-wait!" Kairi calls, unable to risk missing her chance as she races toward him. Sora only has time to turn back toward her before she crashes into him, locking him into a tight, secure embrace. "I-I don't know how else to tell you this," she begins, leaning her head against his shoulder as her voice comes out in a whisper. "So I'll just say it: I-I'm going to miss you… a lot…"

"Kairi…" he starts softly, slowly moving his arms to envelop her in the same sort of hug she has him in. "I-I'm gonna miss you too, but… you know we can talk to each other any time we want now with the phones-"

"I know," she sighs wistfully. "But… it's not the same as you actually being here…"

"...No, I guess it's not," he admits. "But… don't worry. We'll see each other again sooner than you think, I know it. And hey, once your training's finished… maybe you could come along with us to look for the rest of the Keys?"

She lets out a small, warm laugh at this, comforted by the very thought of being able to accompany him on such a grand, adventurous journey. "I'd love that…" she says, content in his embrace. "Before you go… d-do you still have it?"

"Of course," he instantly knows what she means as he pulls her charm out of his pocket for her to see. "And as long as I do, then it'll be like we're together, no matter how far apart we might be."

"Yeah… it will," she smiles, even as they begin to part ways. "Be careful. And remember, I'll be there to help you whenever you need me. I promise."

"I know," he says, accepting that promise, treasuring it and everything it means. Their hug has dissolved by now and yet, even as he begins to step away from her to be on his way, it's though they're still as close as they could possibly be. "See you soon?"

"Yeah," she nods, her heart filled with countless unspoken feelings. "See you soon."

He offers her one final warm wave as he walks away, though she keeps her sights on him until the moment he disappears around a corner. And even as he does, she let her promise remain, her determination to be there for him, to protect him as he'd protected her before, shining brighter and stronger than it ever has before. A promise they've both made to each other, to continue to fight for each other, until that far off, happy, peaceful, yet possible day when maybe, just maybe, they won't need to anymore.


So there you have it! A very LONG chapter, but one I really had a great time writing all the same, especially given the implications it has for a number of things later on (plus I'm just a sap for angst and character interactions and Sokai so this really got me in the feels). Anyway next time around we'll finally be getting back into some Disney worlds, starting with a trip to a certain lost empire... ;) Until then though, don't forget to leave your thoughts in the REVIEWS! Stay safe and healthy out there too! Until next time! :D