Final Fantasy XV - Kingdom Hearts
Part 25
Summary: Two warriors of Light, the Chosen King and Keyblade Master, face an unseen Darkness.
*Cosmos*
'SHITSHITSHIT!', was all that sprouted from Cindy's lips as she couldn't take her eyes off her current predicament. Where once outside the dome she saw the desert canyons, the blue sky with fluffy clouds scattered around the sky and the golden sun beaming down on her.
Now all she could see were stars with several space rocks all around her, huge mountain-like spaces with multiple planet-sized rocks with the sun looking closer and much bigger than it was from home. The woman almost had a full-blown panic attack the moment the ship had FINALLY stopped blasting in top speeds and just mostly remained stationary. Cindy tried to figure out any means of getting back to Eos, but none of the controls were labeled to inform her of, well, anything.
Even the instructions Donald had left for her didn't do much for her, most of them were just the barest of bones of an explanation of how any of this worked. The duck didn't expect her to accidentally make this ship blast off into space.
Credit to him, she certainly didn't expect to do it herself.
'Come on…there's gotta be something to that explains how you fly this thing!', Cindy said to herself, looking at all the buttons and levers this ship had. The monitor that sealed her fate was now just showing what appeared to be readings on the ship's overall systems, the life support, engines and everything else. Luckily for the mechanic, they were all in the green zone so at the very least she didn't have to worry about losing oxygen.
And despite what her Paw-Paw said, aliens do NOT indeed breath oxygen.
Cindy was extremely apprehensive of touching any more buttons, the last thing she wanted was to blast off into a space rock. Strangely enough, when she was in space the ship stopped moving and the previous destination she was about to be taken to had been declined, as something had muddled up the guidance system of the ship. Carefully the woman sat back down on the chair and looked to monitor.
Looking at her seat with a frown. 'Gosh dang it…how much farther can you be from the monitor?', she sighed. Suddenly the seat lurched forward closer to the monitor, Cindy nearly banging her face on the monitor. Sitting back up properly with a gasp, pushing her hat upwards. 'Alrighty, that works', she mused with a huff.
Looking at the monitor and with caution rivaling a sabertusk crossing the road, Cindy touched the monitor screen with what looked to be a map, or star chart, thinking it may explain where she currently was. Once her fingers touched it, the screen showcased the star cluster she, well really Eos, was part of. Her eyes widened with awe when she could her world in planet size despite seeing Insomnia almost equally in size with Niflhiem on the other side of the planet in equal size.
Not only that but she sees other worlds around the cluster, one looking like an academy with a phoenix, another looking like a Halloween themed world, a city beneath the earth, it blew her mind. 'Dang, there's so many places out here', she said, eyes wide. 'Can only imagine how Paw-Paw would react to all this…'.
Cindy then started to go through the logs of the ship, maybe Donald wrote down some instructions for newcomers or something akin to that train of thought. Biting her lip as she scrolled down through the logs, she found nothing relating to the ship's performance or how to fly it, which in turn she closed the log and resumed her nosing search. She pressed on the monitor again and found what looked like contacts.
No faces though or any names added to the contacts. Rolling her eyes, she closed that window as well. There was no sense in contacting a total stranger, for all she knew she might end up calling Sora's mom.
'Come on…there's gotta be something…', she huffed, closing that window. Her gloved finger touched the monitor again, and this time it changed into what looked to be a map history of sorts. Maybe with this, she could have the ship backtrack to Eos she thought as she started to press against the screen again to see if she could confirm her desired destination. Then as she was about to click to Eos, there was something that shined in the distance.
Looking up from the monitor, her eyes widened with shock as what looked to be several oddly shaped space ships that started to surround her ship. 'Oh crap…the aliens found me!', she cried in terror. However upon a closer look, she could see that heartless emblem Sora and company warned her about was plastered all over their ship's bodies, also she could see purple energy channeling around what appeared to be their cannons.
'SHIIIITTT…', she gasped as she started to press every button on the control panels, desperate to find anything that would either blast her away from the heartless or better yet blast them into oblivion. She wasn't going to be picky with the method that would preserve her life. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing that had a clear indication that was what she desired now, and one more glance upwards she sees the cannons of the heartless were to be deployed.
They fired a barrage of purple blasters at her ship and her best response was to duck under the control board in terror. The ship was rocked left and right with alarms blaring as she heard explosions and dents being created from the heartless. She tumbled on her back as the shakes of the ship grew worse and then the monitor started to blare and flashed red. Quickly scampering to her knees to see the monitor, her eyes widened with terror when she sees what damage the state of the ship was now in.
Critical condition.
Before Cindy could say her final prayers as the heartless was starting their next barrage that would very likely do this ship in, next thing she sees was a chain-link of explosions along with the heartless, exploding in sparkles of light that Cindy dropped her jaw at it. Looking outside more, she couldn't believe her eyes when she sees what exactly had caused them to go boom. She could see someone, literally a human, using what looked to be a hoverboard and skating around the cosmos.
'What the heck…?', she gasped but then flinched when she heard another explosion near her that made her fall back. Multiple explosions popped around the control board along with several more alarms warning her the ship was on its very last legs. Then she heard a heavy tap on the glass dome above her, and when she looked up, she sees the hoverboard driver hitting the dome. He was armored predominantly sporting shades of green and gold. The armor on his knee is gold and bears a sharp, upward-pointing hook on the outer side of each one. The helmet has a notably different appeared more squashed and flatter at the top with two prongs on either side of his head which point backward and angle diagonally upward. Sporting steel blue, gold, and black with several red lines decorating it.
He pointed at one of the big buttons on the control panel that wasn't on fire. Following his finger, Cindy threw all caution to the wind and slammed her first on it, next thing she knew the same belts wrapped around her and yanked her back into the chair as the ship sped off once more into the cosmos.
*?*
As the warp drive finished, the GS slammed into what seemed to be an island in the middle of clouds in an endless sunlight. It landed near the edge of the island with a heavy crush, digging up much of the earth with it as it fully died. The dome crookedly opened backward before ultimately the hinges opening it snapped and fell off to the side, the dome cracking. Cindy climbed out of the ship and carefully hopped off it, falling onto the ground.
Taking several deep breaths that helped alleviate some tension that she felt in her back, swallowing pockets of air before she settled on her hands and knees, sweating with nerves racing wildly. She didn't even pay attention to the sounds of something moving in the air and the feet landing on the ground. A flash of light shined ahead of her, based on the light that shined bright enough to reach her from the rim of her hat.
'Wait a second…you're not Aqua…', a voice said. After calming her nerves enough to face her saviour, Cindy looked up to see a young boy who looked very similar to Sora.
He wears a jacket of the Yin and Yang symbol. The collar of the jacket is red and pleated. Underneath this, he wears what appears to be a grey vest with a single button and several white, angular patterns on it. He wears a third layer under this, in the form of a plain, high-necked, black shirt. He also has a chunk of dull green and grey armor on his midsection that appears to be under his vest, and another piece of armor on his left shoulder.
His pants balloon outward slightly before closing about halfway down his legs, like caprice pants. These pants are colored in shades of grey, black, and white. He also wears an ornate, dull green and grey piece of armor on his upper left arm, along with a black and white checkered wristband that is, She sees he wears two crisscrossing straps on his chest, on which he wears a silver emblem, she didn't know what it meant. His resemble an armored version of normal street shoes in shades of dull green and grey.
His hair was golden brown tussled and spiky like the wildest bed hair she had ever seen, with blue eyes breathing youth and innocence. He knelt before her, tilting his head. 'Who are you?', he asked, not at all afraid of her or even suspicious. Cindy slowly got to her feet shakily, but before she could answer him…
'Ven!'.
They both looked to see two people running towards the boy, and just when Cindy didn't think things could get any weirder…
The first one was another human wearing a black coat with black gloves and boots with sleeves close tightly around his arms. Almost like Kairi's hair, his own is shoulder-length, bright red hair styled into slicked-back spikes and emerald-colored eyes.
The other was…a mouse. An anthropomorphic mouse with black fur, round ears of the same color, and a thin, long, black tail. Wearing a short-sleeved jacket with white lining with the top half of this jacket is black, while the bottom half is red, and two yellow straps are dangling in front of it. Red pants and sport a zipper going down the front of each leg. Each leg also has a yellow pouch with a black strap that partially covers the zipper, as well as a blue strap on the outer side of each pant leg.
'There you are! What part of wait did…you…', the man with red hair started before he fell to Cindy, and blinked, confused. He looked behind her seeing the ruined ship, then back to her. 'And who's this?', he said.
'I dunno…never seen her before?', "Ven," said with a shrug. 'But I don't think the others are on board'.
'Gosh, then maybe she knows where they are?', the mouse man said, his voice was hi-pitched. He looked to the now visibly pale mechanic. 'Hi there, I'm Mickey Mouse, what's your name?'.
And the next thing Cindy knew, she was falling backward and losing consciousness, fainting.
*Eos, Cape Caem*
Closing his right arm repeatedly to try feeling any aches or strains, Riku grunted in satisfaction with a smirk. 'Great, no more stains', he hummed, rolling his shoulders. After the team had left Caem, Riku spent at least six hours recuperating until he downed the two potions Aqua had left for him to drink.
As capable as he is when it comes to using magic his variety left much to be desired, mostly when it came to healing. Sure, he had some idea on them during his Mark of Mastery exam, but ever since he passed, he never got to work on practicing on the other tiers of it, unlike Sora and company. Sadly, this had finally came to bite him in the backside. After downing the potions, he was restored to full power.
Stretching to pop his muscles that hadn't been in use, Riku let out a satisfying grunt and tied his boots to finish off getting dressed. Leaving his room and the house entirely the master took in the fresh air of the place with a hint of sea salt, a nostalgic sense washing over him as he leaned on the railings of the house. Folding his arms on the rails, he started to think about what he could do to pass the time for the others to return, seeing as he had no means of transport or traveling, plus he had no clue where they had gone to.
Contacting them wasn't much of an option either, as he tried texting Sora earlier during his recovery to check up on them, but he heard nothing back from the boy, which gave the young man an idea they either must have horrible signals or in a cave. With no means of contacting them, and having neither transport nor idea where they went, Riku had to accept he was stranded. 'So much for getting better and joining up', he sighed, pushing himself off the railing.
Looking around the woods ahead of him he started to debate if he could just do some training while he waits for them to come back until he heard something. Looking to his right he saw Iris planting something in the freshly hoed earth. Curious the silver head walked over to her with a friendly wave when she raised her head to him. 'Hey, you're up', she greeted standing up. 'How are you feeling?'.
'Stiff, but other than that I'm up and going', Riku said, looking at the soil. 'What'cha up to?'. Iris gestured to the soil that he sees some of the soil already had some disturbance in it, showing she may have been at the planting for quite some time. 'Just doing some gardening, one of the guards told me this soil is pretty rich for growing vegetables and other food', she explained. 'I figured we might as well put it to use by planting and hopefully grow our own'.
'Not a bad idea…nothing better than freshly grown food', Riku confessed, recalling back home. 'Need a hand with anything?', he offered, looking at how dirty the girl was. She giggled and explained she was just finishing off the planting and had already hoed the ground, any more work done would only delay the growing or worse halt it altogether. 'It didn't take long, but it's pretty tiring', she said with yawn.
Riku could imagine as he watched her finish off her small task before clapping her hands and brushing the dirt off them. 'And that should do it, hopefully, we'll see something tomorrow', she said. 'So soon?', Riku asked, surprised. He wasn't a farmer but even he knew crops could take weeks, months even to grow produce. 'Yup, the seeds here grow fast and the soil's condition speeds things up with proper water management', Iris said with a smile.
Crossing his arms, Riku smiled at the girl. 'You know your farming, ever done this back at Insomnia?', he asked, making small conversations. 'Nah, mostly flower work. But after staying in Lestallum and seeing how hard everyone works there, I guess I wanted to try my hand at it and be productive', Iris said with clasping her hands behind her back. 'Seeing as everyone else is doing their own thing to help, I wanna try and pitch in, you know?'.
'Yeah, I get it', he nodded with approval. 'But what about you? Ever done something like this back home?', she questioned. Riku could feel his guard rising immediately at the question. After disclosing everything to Noctis and the others he and the others were adamant nobody else knew about their worlds and the other sensitive topics. Despite how much he trusted the girl, she was Gladiolus' sister, after all, he still felt the need to keep her in ignorance.
'Oh, well not farming exactly, but I was mostly taught how to fish back home', he said, picking his words as carefully as possible. Iris raised a brow at him, brown eyes glowing with innocent curiosity. 'Really? Like with nets and all that?', she asked. 'Yeah…well me and Sora anyways', he chuckled, recalling the times they would get caught up in the nets and it took their parents hours to free them. Sora more so would get so caught up in it his mom wandered if he'd use it as a cocoon for napping.
'Our dads taught us a few tricks about wrangling them up, but we never really took up jobs for it', he said. "Our world going to the darkness and then getting involved in a battle between light and darkness certainly took our attention", he thought back. 'What about Kairi?', she asked as they started to walk in no direction. 'Oh Kairi? She was more into crafting than fishes, she couldn't stand the smell', he laughed, 'Have you ever smelled a pile of fish before?'.
'I can't say I haven't had the opportunity', Iris giggled, crinkling her nose at the imaginative smell. 'But what did she make?'. 'Oh, all kinds of stuff. Give her some wood, shells, cotton, and rope, and you're gonna get something awesome', he said with a smile, 'Sheaths for our two swords, toys, miniature ships, and even sailor lucky charms'.
'Whoa, that's neat!', Iris praised.
'Yeah, she had the artist trait between the three of us', Riku said. A part of him wondered if that was one of the reasons Naminé drew a lot. 'Do you plan on doing anything?', Iris asked, looking at him. 'Well if I had transport and any idea where the others went, I'd probably try and go for them but seeing as I have none…', he mused, rubbed the back of neck, 'I guess I'm stuck here until they get back'.
'Least you can take it easy', she suggested, and while he wasn't looking, grinning excitedly. 'I guess…', he concurred hesitantly. 'Just…I've already spent pretty much two days in bed, need to do something'.
Iris hummed before clicking her fingers. 'Well if you're that bored, there's a wood not too far from here', she said, 'Maybe we could go see if there's a royal tomb for Noct or even find some materials for you guys'. Riku hummed in response, appealed. It would certainly be beneficial to the team if there was another royal arm nearby, or they could sell some materials for profit later. However, he narrowed his eyes worriedly. 'Wait… "we"?', he asked.
'Yeah, you and me? You see anybody else here?', she giggled while putting a hand on her hip. 'I know the way, and I can take care of myself'. Riku did not doubt if this girl is Gladiolus' sister then taking care of herself wouldn't be so farfetched, however, he also knew there is a massive difference between being able to take care of yourself and then there's heartless. Not to mention daemons or nobodies, and then the wildlife.
'I dunno about that…what if more of those white monsters show up?', he said, but then her smile turned sweet. 'Well if they do, then you'll protect me, right?', she asked. He opened his mouth, but ultimately relented when she did point out his nature. If the nobodies were just on their own without Xigbar or anyone else, then certainly they'd provide little challenge against him, and keeping Iris safe shouldn't be too taxing on him either.
'Alrighty', he said, smiling tiredly at her, 'Then lead on'.
*Woodlands*
As the day was slowly starting to turn to dusk, Riku and Iris had already started to backtrack to the entrance to the wood where their chocobos awaited them. Their search had ultimately proved fruitless as there was no royal tomb in the area and the materials, they found were enough certainly but nothing that'll compared to likely what the others will bring back.
Yet despite the setbacks, Riku truly did have fun.
It was nice to just be able to explore without worrying, seeing what this world had to offer him. The moment they had arrived here he felt like a small kid again running through the woods, taking in the sights and even having a few races with Iris. For a girl who likely didn't receive training like her brother, she was no greenhorn either. Heck, she won some of the races despite his athletic body and she came close to several races that forced him to try and win.
They found a pond during their explorations, even caught a frog or two before he had to convince her to not adopt one. Gladiolus wasn't joking at all it seemed…
They hung around the pond for a few minutes to take a breather from their reaches, before the girl messed up her footing and almost fell in. Luckily Riku's quick reflexes caught her…only for him to lose his footing and both went into the water together with yells. When they got back to their feet, instead of groaning at the state of their clothes, Iris initiated a water battle between the two, and Riku couldn't remember how long it had been since he had harmless fun like this.
During their walk back to the entrance, while his clothes dried fast thanks to the magic within them, he noticed Iris shivering slightly from the damped clothes. Unfortunately for her, Riku was certain if he attempted to use any magic to warm her up, he may do more than dry her clothes. So, he did the sensible thing, and likely what Ignis would say, gentlemanly. He took off his jacket and slipped it on her, startling her slightly before she smiled in gratitude and thanked him.
He didn't notice that gentle hue of red brushing on her cheeks nor see her tugging the jacket closer to her smaller frame.
As the day grew darker Riku decided it'd be safer if they picked up the speed. He dismissed her Chocobo and when he got on his, he offered his hand to her. The girl took it, not looking at him like a shy schoolgirl, and hopped on board. Unaware of the girl's fantasy of a handsome prince that she once saw with black hair, was now blended with silver instead. They managed to get back to the house with only a few daemons appearing near them that he quickly dispatched with the keyblade.
Arriving back home, they shared some laughs when they entered the house. Neither hungry enough to stay off the tiredness that tugged on their bodies, Iris promising to make pancakes tomorrow as a thank you to the boy. They stood at her door, about to bid each other goodnight. 'Thanks for today, forgot how fun it was to just explore and not worry about monsters', Riku said with a smile. 'No worries hope we can do it again', she said, still wearing his jacket.
She was about to slip out of it but he lifted his hand. 'I'll take it tomorrow, use it for tonight', he offered. Then he tensed up and coughed awkwardly, rubbing his neck. 'I-I mean…its, it's just it's pretty cold tonight, so you could use it stay warm…the-the sheets are pretty light…'. Iris giggled profusely at him, smiling beautifully at him which made the boy freeze. Was it him or did Iris always look so, cute?
She then pecked his cheek, quietly said "goodnight" and then went into her room, leaving a blushing Riku alone in the hall. Placing a hand on his cheek, the boy blew out a breath of "wow" as he zombie walked back to his room. Inside and as he laid on his bed, his mind wandered to the girl, somehow unable to think of anyone or anything else.
'…what have I done?', he asked himself…
*?*
Her eyes shot open when she felt herself being able to move, Kairi almost fell back when she regained control over herself. Looking around her new surroundings she sees she is no longer in the dark corridor, but rather a place she swore she had been to before.
Surrounding her was multiple pipes emitting magical electricity and steams from broken bronze pipes, the darkness was so thick and suffocating she almost forgot to breathe in fear. 'W-Where…is this?', she asked herself, looking around for anything to help her remember this place.
'Sora! Hold on!'.
'No wait!'.
Two familiar voices cried out from behind her, Kairi turned around. To her shock and horror, she saw herself laying down on the ground, asleep but that wasn't all. The Kairi before he is much younger than her wearing familiar clothes, ahead standing before a gateway shaped like a heart with dark red, green and blue colors with lightning crossed into an X, was Donald and Goofy with pure horror and despair in their eyes.
Ahead, just a few steps from her comatose body was Sora, again like her younger and nowhere near as powerful as he is today, holding a keyblade that was black and red. He turned to Donald and Goofy, flashed them a cheesy grin, before turning the keyblade's tip to aim at his heart.
Her own heart sunk as her blood turned ice cold. NOW she remembers this day, the horrible day she was thankfully spared the sight of witnessing the lengths Sora would go for her.
The day, Sora died.
'SORA! NO!', she screamed, a hand reaching out to stop him. But it was too late, Sora pierced his chest with the tip of the key touching and unlocking his heart. As the keyblade broke into nothing with several hearts fluttering free from it, a single heart floated out of him and slowly like a snowflake descended onto Kairi's body. When the sphere touched her, her eyes opened immediately as Sora smiled one more time before those beautiful eyes closed for the final time.
Kairi stood there with tears running down her eyes, shaking on the spot as she watched Sora slowly fall backward as his body glowed in light. The day she awoke from her slumber, the day she finally reunited with the boy so close to her heart and now the first thing to happen is her losing him forever. By the portal she could see Goofy fall to his knees in absolute despair, tears running down as Donald ran to catch Sora, crying/screaming his name.
Younger Kairi slowly got to her feet in time to see her best friend fall, cried his name and racing to catch him she couldn't even touch him one more time before his body evaporated into light. As the light flew the empty black void above them, Kairi could only watch in dismay as her younger self watched in bewilderment and hear Donald desperately crying for Sora to come back.
Kairi fell to her knees, her strength seemingly disappeared, and she couldn't hear anything else as the world around her went dark, even Donald's cries went mute. Shaking her head, tears ran down her cheeks in rivers. She clutched her head and let out a cry in the void falling onto her arms, crying. 'Why…? Why did he do that!? Why!?', she screamed, head pressed against the ground as her tears fell.
'Giving up your heart to save someone else…takes a lot of guts'.
She didn't even raise her head to face the voice, knowing if she did, she would have torn that man's head off. 'To awaken the last princess of heart, her heart must be returned to whence it came, and unfortunately for our hero, the only way to free it was to destroy the cage holding it'. Master sauntered around the fallen princess, almost unaware or worse uncaring, to the fact she just watched her love die for her.
'Heh, it's more tragic when you think about', he said, hands out like he was presenting something. 'If he hadn't done that, most of Ansem's plans would NEVER come through!', he said with glee, 'Sure the princesses would forever be sleeping, but the final keyhole would never have opened, Kingdom Hearts would still have been closed and Sora would still be around, the heartless wouldn't have stood a chance against him'.
Kairi could feel the bile rising in her chest, almost sobbing at this point as more of the Master's words cut her deeper and deeper. In a sense she knew he was right; Sora didn't have to do it if it meant the final keyhole would forever be incomplete and Kingdom Hearts would never have opened. Shaking her head as the words struck her, once more she was used to hurt her lover, he gave up his life for someone who ended up being the final key to their enemies' goal.
'But…he knew that…and still not only did he forsake it, he did so with a smile on his face', the Master said, and unless Kairi was mistaken, she could hear a semblance of respect and remorse in his tone. 'That kid…not chosen by the key, heck wasn't part of the grand scheme…yet this is what we got'.
He turned to Kairi as she finally raised her head to face him. '…and then you brought him back'.
Kairi let out a scream as suddenly the surface she knelt on turned into nothing and down she went into the void, falling and falling.
Next thing she knew as she fell, she was back on her feet as if she had been standing on solid ground the whole time. Looking around once more, she saw Donald and Goofy fighting off the heartless while she stood in front of a shadow, protecting it. 'This time, I'll protect you', she promised. The shadows that surrounded her leaped as she turned and embraced Sora into a protective hug, crying his name.
As the darkness nearly swallowed them, a burst of light blasted the heartless into nothing and now standing with arms around Kairi was Sora. 'Kairi…thank you', he said, softly and warm. Kairi reached out to touch him, almost unbelievingly before Master cut in. 'When somebody loses a heart, they're stuck as a heartless until it and the nobody are both destroyed, yet you somehow purged his heartless state and brought him back to human form', he said.
The world around them changed again as he vanished and Kairi felt as if something had grabbed her and is pulling her somewhere else. Her vision is distorted with places she had never seen or been to, faces unknown to her until she came to a stop.
She rolled and tumbled onto the ground, but instead of the invisible ground, it was dirt belonging to a wasteland. Blinking as she felt and heard the wind, she tried to get to her feet but suddenly her body was in agony, pain shooting up every nerve she had before she fell onto her arms. Looking up to see a blackened sky as rain fell from above in light droplets.
'W-What's going on…?', she gritted. Looking up to see where she is, she bore witness to a living nightmare.
Before her, she saw Aqua being struck down by Terra, his keyblade slashing her and her master fell to him and on her side, lifeless. Donald and Goofy were by a boulder, unmoving and their weapons broken, Axel having a single beam of laser pierced through his chest courtesy of Xemnas, Ventus pinned down by that boy in the mask, King Mickey held up by his neck by Ansem.
Riku losing his heart to Xigbar as his body laid before the man, all the while heartless swarmed over the heroes like a plague. She shook and paled as white as a ghost as she looked to her own body to see she was covered in wounds and marks, ahead her keyblade laid broken into scrap metal. 'T-This…this can't be…this can't be real', she gasped, her voice so fragile and weak it didn't even register to her it was her voice.
'Oh, but it is what think it is, princess', Master said appearing near her. 'The fateful battle between the light and the dark, where the light will falter and be swallowed by the dark'. Kairi struggled to get up, yelling: 'NO! T-That's not true! W-We won't lose!'.
'Is that right kiddo? Well, you've got quite the obstacle ahead of ya', he mused. A pair of boots stood before the princess, and as she slowly raised her head to gaze upon her would-be slayer, her heart broke into pieces. Before her with darker skin, silvery-white hair and yellow eyes, smirking at her with nothing but malice and smugness.
Sora.
'Isn't it amazing? What could have been had Riku, Mickey, and the others not intervened?', Master mused, looking over Sora-Nort like he was a work of art. 'The last vassal, the perfect one in fact…and sure enough from the way the fight went he would've been perfect!'. Shaking his head as Sora raised his keyblade to finish Kairi off, he clicked his fingers. Kairi once again fell into the dark void, not even having the strength to scream this time as she watched Sora-Nort disappearing into nothing but a horrible memory.
She stood upon the ground again, her wounds vanished like they never happened as she now stood in a place she knew from before. The world of the nobodies, a world that was never meant to exist. 'Sora's an interesting case for a lot of reasons, you know. But that strength of his comes from, his friends…', Master's voice lectured on. 'And you know something? He's proven that fact multiple times, heck he beat both the heartless and nobody versions of Xehanort'.
'But I've also seen, it is also his greatest weakness…and way too easy to exploit'.
Kairi finds herself standing on a collapsed building-bridged between two floating rocks, where she saw herself and Riku just walking slowly, but Sora, looking oddly younger than the two was running to them, trying to catch up to them. Yet no matter how fast he ran, he wasn't getting closer to them, and even when he did Kairi and Riku turned to Aqua and Terra.
'So desperate to see his friends again, that strength that spurred him on no matter what came, was so easy to manipulate and bring him to the spot where he would've become the true threat', Master said, standing beside Kairi. As the scene unfolded before the girl, watching Xemnas and Xigbar reveal their plans to the boy, how he would become their final piece to their grand plan, and yet despite it all, Sora remained resolute.
'I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger...the people it did choose. My friends. They are my power!', he said, summoning his keyblade and charging to the two nobodies as they all vanished into nothing.
'Why are you doing this…?', Kairi asked, looking at him, 'Why are you showing me all this!?'.
The master turned to her before the world around them disappeared and changed into the wasteland once again, no Organization member, no Guardian of Light, just her and him. He clapped his hands. 'Sora's strength comes from his friends, Riku's redemption, Aqua…well we'll see soon, won't we? If she can bring back that strength that helped her survive all those years', he explained. Kairi glared at him as she summoned her keyblade.
'Whoa there, what's with that look?', he asked. 'I just showed you what you needed to see!'.
'What I needed to see!?', Kairi shouted, beyond enraged, 'Seeing Sora die for me!? Watching my friends die!? Seeing what those monsters tried to use Sora for!? I needed to see all that!?'. Never had she felt such anger towards someone, not even to Saix all that time ago. This man, whoever he is, had single handily earned her ire so quickly she wanted to hurt a person beyond defending herself. The Master laughed mirthlessly at her, almost amused. 'Jeez kid, read between the lines, would you? What did you learn from what I showed you?'.
Kairi furrowed her brow in thought before she looked at her keyblade and then going back to Sora. 'His strength…their strength…', she said slowly. 'Bingo, those two, and soon enough Aqua, will have that strength for what comes next…but what about you?', he asked. She watched him walk around the field, almost in his little world. 'Where do you draw that strength from? Your friends? Redemptions out since, ya know, and I highly doubt you'll make master any time soon…', he chastised.
Kairi looked down in thought, thinking back to the day she wanted to train, to be helpful. To have the power to protect her friends and not hold them back. Having enough strength to keep him safe…
'You're starting to see what I mean…but here's the problem sweetie', he said, clasping his hands together. 'You're still too weak to even compare to that kid'. Kairi glared at him. 'What are you talking about? I can-
'Keep up with Sora? PFFT! Kid, have you *seen* what he can do? Sure, you've gotten the hang of Form Change, but shocker of the day? So has Riku! Probably Aqua too! Hell, Terra and Ventus could do all that too! What makes you so special?', he asked with a full snarky tone. Kairi gritted her teeth as she started to channel magic, but Master suddenly reappeared before her. 'Nuh-uh kiddo…magic doesn't count either…', he cooed. 'And if you're thinking of attacking me in some vain hope, you're gonna win, let me give you a bittersweet taste of reality'.
With one flick of his finger, Kairi was suddenly blasted away as if she had taken a full punch from a runaway train. She flew a hundred meters off the ground before she bounced and thrashed on the ground, bouncing on her back, shoulders, and sides. Even slammed into a huge boulder that the force was enough to send her through it with such speed the boulder didn't even collapse upon impact and when she fell onto the ground fifty feet from the boulder, it then collapsed.
On her side in complete agony, Kairi couldn't even muster the strength to move at all, it was like every bone in her body was destroyed. Flinching she cracked her eyes open to see Master standing a few feet before her, casually walking over to her. 'Warned you kid', he said cheerily. Kairi whimpered in pain, she heard him sigh. 'Come on kiddo…you can do better than this', he lectured. 'Maybe…we'll try the "sink or swim" tactic'.
He clicked his finger, a faint green light shined around the girl, healing her to an extent but Kairi barely had any strength left in her despite the alleviation of the pain. However, Kairi found herself being swallowed by darkness and slowly started to sink deep within it. Panicking Kairi tried to scamper away but the darkness latched onto her legs and arms, and even one wrapped around her neck.
'So are two endings of this little story kiddo, and lucky you, you get to choose!', he said, folding his arms as Kairi sunk into the dark. 'You can either submit to the darkness, lose your heart and fall into oblivion, leave your loverboy and leave a slot in the seven princesses forever empty', he said. 'Or…you can reach that strength…and see what you're capable of'.
Kairi's final few of the man was him turning away and walking off into the wasteland, her world went dark.
As Kairi sank into darkness, she felt as if she was drowning. No word could escape her mouth, she couldn't even swim. The invisible chains around her dragged her down further as she clutched her neck trying to get some oxygen. Slowly her struggles slowed and lessened as her vision grew darker and hazy, slowly falling deeper into oblivion.
Her thoughts went back to her friends, the journey she had in Eos, her training days with Axel. And more importantly, Sora. 'Sora…', Kairi gasped.
Then, something within her filled her with light.
Her eyes opened wide as she looked up to see one circle of light in the ocean of the darkness, and she could feel her strength returning to her and the chains that held her loosened. With one powerful tug of her right arm, Kairi broke free of the invisible chains. Summon her keyblade, she aimed her keyblade at the circle. A single beam of blue light shined brilliantly upwards to it. What sounded like something unlocking, a light so bright like the sun shined down on her.
The chains disappeared from her form, and no more did she feel like she was sinking into the darkness. She held the keyblade in both hands and pressed her head against it, she let out a cry: 'Rays of Light!'.
Pointing her keyblade upwards, seven rays of light raced from the tip upwards to the circle, swirling and mixing until they all combined into one golden beam of light, piercing the circle. The small circle in the blackened sky expanded and slowly swallowed up the clouds and bathing Kairi and the world below her in light. It was as if she had cleared the dark skies and brought a clear blue sky to her home.
Closing her eyes as she slowly began to drift off, her keyblade disappearing as she descended. As she fell into the light, Kairi heard Master one more time…
'Well done…kiddo'.
*Cave*
'K…ri…'.
'Kairi?'.
'Kairi!'.
Blinking weakly, Kairi slowly opened her eyes to see a very worried Sora, looking down at her. Only when she let out a weak groan did he show finally some sort of relief on his face. 'She's awake!', he said, looking to the others likely.
The girl tried to speak but she felt Sora laying her on the ground while resting her back against a wall. Her vision was still blurry a degree, she felt dizzy and weak but most of all exhausted. A gentle hand was placed on her shoulder, startling her lightly before she could see the familiar spectacled man Ignis gently placing a potion her hand. 'Its an elixir Kairi, please drink it', he said softly.
Weakly and with some assistance from Sora, Kairi weakly consumed the drink and felt every ache and dull pain evaporated instantly. She coughed and accidentally spat out some of her salvia and the potion, almost gagging. Sora immediately took her into his arms to help her as she shuddered weakly into him while Ignis rubbed her back soothingly.
'Take your time', he assured, 'You've just woken up'.
Soon she was assisted back to her feet by Sora while Ignis was watching her. She rubbed her head and let out a breath. 'I…w-what happened?', she asked. Kairi looked to Ignis and Sora before she took note that they were now back at the entrance of the cave. Ahead of them, she saw Noctis with Prompto, Donald and Goofy talking to Aranea. 'How did we…', she whispered before Ignis patted her shoulder. 'After we regrouped with Sora, we found Aranea carrying you during our search for everyone', Ignis explained.
'She said you just suddenly fainted, wouldn't wake up no matter what she did and had to fight off the daemons and heartless', Sora said, not even hiding his worries. 'We carried you up, but you didn't move or make a sound'. Kairi looked down in shame before Sora then enveloped her into a very tight hug. Kairi hugged him even tighter, burying her face into his neck, closing her eyes and just relishing in his warmth. After everything she had seen, just holding him helped push those memories back.
'Ummm…'.
Sora and Ignis looked to see Prompto awkwardly approaching the others with a weak wave. 'What is it Prompto?', Ignis asked, stepping forward to allow Sora and Kairi to have their moment. 'Aranea said Ardyn has told her she's to give us a lift back', he said shyly. Ignis nodded, but then turned Sora, Kairi now paying attention. 'It would seem we have a ride out of here', he said.
'Just as well', Noctis called out, Donald and Goofy joining him as he approached the group. 'We need to get back Lestallum'. 'Why what happened?', Sora asked. 'Holly, one of the technicians from EXINERIS Industries. She just contacted me and said somethings going on at the power plant', Noctis explained.
'Then we need to go and see what we can do to help', Ignis said, looking to Sora. 'If there is indeed a situation regarding the power plan, the damage it could incur would be catastrophic'.
'Right…lets go then!', Sora said.
As they all boarded the airship with the vehicles stored in the ship, Kairi couldn't help but continuously watch Sora as he spoke with Noctis…and question just how much pain she had put him through…
And wonder if she deserved to stand by his side…
A/N: WELL this went on a LOT longer than I thought!
Sorry for only one chapter done so late in the week, but I do intend to try and getting at least another out.
As always, if you have questions ask away!
Q1: Did I go a bit too far with Kairi?
Q2: How was the Master?
Q3: Was Iris and Riku done well or do you think there could have been more?
Q4: Who's happy to see Axel?
Also if anyone has gone back to chapter 18, there is a slight change. The summon charm was removed, due to constantly forgetting it and not having an idea what to do with it.
Next, we're going back to Gladiolus and Aqua. Thanks for reading, as always stay awesome but most importantly stay safe!
