Yep, almost done with these exams. Then it will be that other fanfic's turn. You know the one. For now, let us head straight back into Riku and Kairi's perspective, shall we?


Chapter 33

Eyes That Know Only Darkness

In an incredibly small way, Kairi wasted no time at all in blasting off about how she had made the strange connection that it was tears that made the difference. Riku suspected that it was just a lucky guess and had even questioned her confidence after she had finished explaining but she dismissed it all too quickly.

"Well that just makes it even more suspicious!" Max pointed out. His mouth had been hanging open from the moment the cup had turned to gold.

"Oh, you guys are just a bunch of pessimists. Can't I at least take the credit for once?" Kairi asked grinning.

"You can have it." Riku smiled before looking at stairs carrying on into the darkness. "Where do you think this leads?"

"Well, I might have some idea. It's how I figured out what to do," Kairi said. She went on to relate the idea of the chalice turning gold to that of alchemical transmutation of base metals into gold. She had read up on it during her time in Radiant Garden's library while looking for something on Atlantis. Therefore her conclusion was that the secret passageway had to be connected in some way to the alchemy that Frollo had been seeking. With the evidence piling up by the second, Riku and Max found it hard to dismiss as coincidental.

"So anyone want to take the first step?" Max regretted saying these words immediately when Riku and Kairi looked at him. He soon found himself in front leading the three of them down and down into who knew where.

When at last their feet found straight horizontal ground, they were completely surrounded in darkness. They must have come down a long way, in fact Kairi estimated that it had taken them three minutes give or take a few to finally reach the bottom.

"I can't even see anything. Maybe there's a switch around here of a torch… huh? What's this? It feels… squidgy?"

"Riku! Those are my-"

"Oh god, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean-"

But it was apparently too late for him to talk his way out of it. Max heard the sound of a sharp smack and moments later a glowing light from Kairi's Keyblade illuminated the area to reveal a totally humiliated Riku on the ground.

"Hey Riku, it's not all that bad. You've gotten closer than I ever have," Max tried to console him only to receive a dangerous glare from Kairi. He gulped and distracted himself from her stare by helping Riku up.

"Well it wasn't intentional." Riku brushed himself up and tried his best to hide his blush before looking around. "Wait a second… are these the catacombs?"

"Cata- what now?" Max asked.

"The catacombs. They're like a network of tunnels that run throughout the city. There must be hundreds of tunnels that probably haven't been discovered yet like this one. One of the tunnels took us to a place called the court of miracles. If that took us there, then where does this one lead?" Kairi asked.

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Riku said, although he was somewhat hesitant to given what had just happened.

Onwards they travelled with seemingly no end in sight. Several times over just like its counterpart in the graveyard, they'd felt as if they had stepped over something rather… crunchy. The best case scenario was that it was the snapping of a twig or something as equally irrelevant but that was incredibly unlikely given how deep they were under ground. They knew exactly what it was, and it took a well compacted mind to ensure that they didn't freak out over it too much.

After a good long while filled up by conversing to lighten up the mood, they arrived at a door at the end of the passage.

Riku grabbed the handle and turned to Max and Kairi. "You ready for what's up ahead?"

Kairi nodded but Max seemed slightly more afraid if his quivering was anything to go by. Kairi put a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him. Max looked back into her eyes, perhaps searching for the origin of her confidence, before eventually nodding back.

"Y-yeah, I'm ready," he said.

"Okay, on three then. One. Two. Three!" Riku pulled down the handle and pushed.

They were in a laboratory it seemed. Dusty and cobwebbed but clearly a secret lab. Shelves on the room were lined with dusty books as well as various supplies for chemical experiments. What really grabbed the trio's attention however was the table in the middle of the small room. On it laid a beast, its char black body sprawled out and limp, its arms and legs hanging off the table almost lazily. It was dead but still as frightening as it probably would have been if alive.

"It looks like a humanoid Neo Shadow, but its eyes are blue?" Riku pointed out observing the dilated pupils. "It looks as if it was afraid of something. Is it a chimera?" He quickly made to lift up the arms.

"Are you actually touching it?" Max squirmed uncomfortably.

"No, I was just considering what kind of pedicure I'd give it," Riku replied sarcastically. He retracted his hands as soon as he had touched the arms and looked down at his palms to see some kind of black ink-like substance oozing from his hands. "Urgh! What is this stuff?"

"You better not touch me with that stuff!" Kairi warned.

"Again, I told you it was a mistake, alright?" Riku said while rubbing the strange substance onto his jeans.

"I'm sure it was. Hey, there's something else on the table!" Kairi walked closer to the table trying her best not to look at the weird creature. She swiped her hand back and forth across the table until the barely noticeable inscription became more legible. After reading the words to herself several times over she couldn't help but look at the creature. Her heart was beating much faster than it should have and her hands had started shaking. Surely it was a coincidence… yes, that's right, it had to be…

"Riku." She could only just bare to call out his name. It came out as more of a whisper.

Riku peered over her shoulder and remained expressionless for a good while. He was no doubt thinking the exact same things as Kairi, and it was only until he read the words out loud that the nature of what they were dealing with became all too clear.

"Her final resting place. May her dreams be free of neither walls nor ceiling. Alice."


Astra parted her lips slightly and gently tipped the cup of hot coco into her mouth. She closed her eyes and grinned briefly as the sweet liquid ran down her throat before opening her eyes again.

"You make some mean hot chocolate, and you're blind," she complimented Rhea who had sat down next to her on the sofa.

They were currently in the lounge room, a kitchen in the adjoining room where Rhea had just been. Also in the lounge was a bar with a wide variety of alcohol behind the counter, a few magazines, books and tabletop games spread out on the table in front of them, and a pinball machine near the exit. To anyone on the outside it would look as if this were a life of luxury. It couldn't have been any farther from the case. Their missions kept them on their toes and left Moira's Crescent very little time to do much of anything.

"Are you insinuating that blind people can't make a mean hot chocolate?"

Caught off guard at Rhea's question, Astra blushed and buried her head into her free hand. "That… wasn't exactly what I meant."

Rhea chuckled at this and felt around a bit before finally finding Astra's shoulder. "Don't worry, I understand what you meant. As with everything in life, it takes a little bit of practice but eventually you get the hang of it. It just so happens that I have to work a little bit harder than the rest though."
"You must view the world in a completely different way from the rest of us, right? I couldn't begin to even imagine…"

Rhea smiled gently. There was a graceful innocence about the way she did everything, no doubt shaped by her disability. "I don't think I'm any different from anyone else really. We all have our perceptions of the world. There are borders that we draw up to suit our interests, paths we ignore and turn away from… I don't think anyone's quite the same when it comes to how we see the world or it would get quite boring."
"You can say that again? But I'm interested in your perception nonetheless. Were you born…?"

"Blind? Not exactly, more like I was fated to lose my eyesight from the beginning. I found my eyesight gradually getting worse. I was scared and everything was happening all too fast for me to comprehend it. I can easily remember the day when I looked up at my parents and saw nothing but swirls and patterns instead of their faces. It was Christmas Eve, I was seven. By the next Christmas my eyesight had completely gone. I was jealous of those around me. I could hear them from my bedroom, children my age playing outside by the park near my house. They could see… they knew what their friends looked like and they'd probably never given it a moment's thought as to what their life would be like if one day they were to wake up and never see their friends' or family's faces again."

Astra nodded throughout Rhea's story and took another sip from the cup before setting it down on table. "I'm so sorry. My own dad and me, well we never got on. I would have been glad to step outside my house and never see his face again. My mother… well, I never knew her. The only thing I have of her to go by is the photo album that my grandmother gave me. I've always tried to picture who she was, who my father was, by looking at the photographs. I had my gran's description of her to help me obviously but it never was enough. I felt that any type of depiction I had of her was a fake. It's kind of like having a copy of a famous painting. It's not quite close to the real thing," she said.

Rhea smiled. "Why I do believe that's the first time you've ever really told any of us about yourself, Astra. Is this a change of the seasons?"

Astra furrowed her brow and turned an amusing shade of red. It was true, the only person she had ever really been open to had been Luna. "Whatever, I was just empathizing. Just continue with your own story."

"No need to be so embarrassed. Anyway, I think the worst part was that I could never read expressions. My parents told me that they loved me no matter what but I couldn't see that love. Then one day, when I was sixteen years old, I met Kohle and you know what the first thing he did was? He bought me Sea Salt Ice Cream."

"Not this again," Astra groaned. "You and Luna would make the best of friends, really."

"I look forward to it," Rhea replied delightedly. "But there was a meaning behind it. When I took a bite, the first thing he asked me was how it tasted, so I told him it was salty but sweet. 'So you know what it tastes like', he said to me. He then brought me somewhere else and asked about what I could smell and hear. I could hear birds singing and flying off somewhere. The smell was… flowery and green. I asked if he had taken me to the meadow nearby and he answered yes. 'So you can hear, smell, taste and I'm sure you can feel', he told me as he took hold of my hands. 'I'd say you're pretty lucky, wouldn't you? As long as you stay true to those things and believe in them, your heart will do the seeing for you.' That he'd gone out of his way to fill a person he'd never met with more confidence than she'd ever hoped to have gave me a joy I hadn't felt in a long time. I was lucky. These senses were my own and I'd make the most I could out of them. So I dedicated myself to learning to listen to them. Gradually, my senses became enhanced, and I could do so much more than the average human could even though I was one sense short."

"That's amazing. And your Keyblade?"

"Kohle and I met several times in between my training. I was training independently by the way and it was during one of my sessions that the Keyblade suddenly came into my hands. I didn't know what was happening at the time. In retrospect though I think I know what awakened it. I could feel the hurt of others, their joy, their fears and frustrations. Their burdens became my burdens. One day I couldn't take it and I fell unconscious. Some point during that was when I received the Keyblade. When we met the… fifth time, Kohle told me about my power. Feeling as if I were indebted to him, I asked if I could join him to help keep the world safe."

"And that power you have. Feeling others' emotions… do you…?"

"Oh no, I can't control it now thankfully. It does come in handy but I'd never be so curious as to look into another person's heart and see their secrets," Rhea assured her. "And if I ever were to open my heart out to others as much as I did when I was unable to control it, it would probably kill me."
"Whoa whoa whoa wait a minute. Going back to Kohle, was he travelling alone at the time?" Astra asked.

"Yes, I was the first person to join Moira's Crescent. That was also part of the reason. I didn't need to look into his heart to see how lonely he was. I could tell from his voice. Everyone needs a companion, right?"

"That they do. Makes sense as well seeing as you're second in command. So in a way, I guess you probably know him better than the rest of us do, huh? He also carries himself pretty well for a guy who's been wondering around by himself for a good while."

Rhea shook her head. "We're close, but he still hides things. Perhaps it's too hard for him to remember those things. You've probably wondered why the name of our group is called Moira's Crescent."

"I just assumed it was named after a former girlfriend or something. Not sure I'd want to remember that kind of stuff personally," Astra said.

"Well, that's what I assumed. He told me when he first came up with the name that it was based on someone he had known. I found it quite odd that he used the past tense as opposed to present so I figured that it was someone he had lost. He never told me anything else though. At one point I tried to… no, it's nothing."

"Okay, well now you have to tell me. At one point you tried to…? Come on, spill the details girl!" Astra begged.

Rhea hesitated before smiling. "Did you know that the name Moira means fate or destiny? That's what I found out during my research in the study. So it's almost more like Fate's Crescent or Destiny's Crescent."

"Well that's… interesting, I guess?" It wasn't really, but Astra had just felt as if Rhea had tried to change the subject.

"Right now, I'm sure half of Moira's Crescent don't know how they feel," Rhea continued. "After we heard from you that Sora freed you, I think we're having second thoughts about how we want to approach this. Do you trust him Astra?"

"It's not about whether I trust him or not. It's the fact that Luna does. I can't go against her. I won't." Astra shook her head defiantly.

"Then don't. If it comes to where we have to take this boy's life, then you shouldn't have to walk through hell like the rest of us. Just continue to do the missions and don't bother yourself about Sora. It's our burden to bear, not yours. And don't worry, I promise we'll do everything in our power to keep Luna safe."

At first, Astra had no idea how to address Rhea's advice. Yes, she could take the risk and allow them to go after Sora, in which case she was sure that Luna would fight to the death to protect him. There was no possible way they could guarantee her safety. The more she thought about it, the less of a choice it seemed. She had promised to be there for Luna and the best way to make sure she was safe was to be close to her whenever possible.

She took another sip and stared into the swirling muddy brown. "That's not something you can promise."


Sora breathed heavily as he watched the Chimera lift its weightless form into the air before flying off. He along with Donald, Goofy and Robin had thrown everything they had at it and it still wasn't enough.

He turned to look at the others. "Are… you guys… okay?"

"Ugh, he got away!" Donald replied in frustration.

"Then we're… just gonna… have to track it down again… before it can harm anyone," Sora breathily responded before waiting to recover his breath. After doing so he gave a nod that spoke quickly about his worry for Luna to the others before setting off down the path that she had taken.

He was soon to find out that she had not wandered that far off. Hearing the muffled sound of crying only a minute after going into the forest, he spun around and saw her underneath a tree. She was curled up into a ball and rocking back and forwards slowly while burying her head into her knees.

Sora sat down next to her, brought his arm around her shoulder and drew her in closer. As far as he could recall, he had never really been in a situation where he had to comfort someone like this before. He didn't even know what to say. Should he wait and allow her to cry until she felt better or was it better to try and console her now?

But thankfully it was Luna that talked first. "When that thing looked at me, it was as if it was telling that we were the same. I thought I could overcome things like this if I trained with Neuge, but apparently not."

"You've been through a lot. These things take a while to get over and no amount of training can prepare you for what's really out there. I think that's why Neuge gave us this test. In a way, you have more to prove than anyone," Sora said.

"I want to be ready. I have to be with Moira's Crescent and Kefka right around the corner. I want to be stronger, but I… it's so hard, and it doesn't get any easier," Luna said from in between her knees.

"I know. No one said it would be easy, but we have the tools to overcome it. Neuge made sure of that. But I can't do this by myself. I need you alongside me if we're both going to prove her efforts weren't wasted. Just keep telling yourself that you can do this, and you'll be fine."

Luna looked up at him, wiped her tears away and nodded up and down while repeating the words. "I can do this… I can do this… yeah, that's easy to remember. I'll keep my eyes forward and my heart open. Alright, let's do it then."


Luna cleared the table quickly of its various objects and watched as Astra assisted Kit in laying Sora down on the table. She gently took hold of his hand and gave it a squeeze while Kit quickly parted Sora's eyelids to check something.

"We need to remove his clothing so I can disinfect and clean up these wounds. They look pretty deep from the look of things so we have to act quickly," Kit told them. Luna pushed the fact that she was pretty much undressing her male friend out of her mind and nodded quickly before getting to work on helping Astra take of Sora's shirt. In a way, she was fortunate that Desiree had apparently only done damage to Sora's upper body. She either hadn't cared where she hit, or she had targeted certain parts of his body very calculatedly.

Aunt Kit set off to clean Sora's wounds immediately. Luna offered to help and when Kit gave a silent affirmative, Luna raced into the kitchen and returned with a clean cloth.

"Be glad you arrived when you did. Any later and I don't think he would have made it. You see these?" Kit showed her some faint cuts on his body. "They're resealed wounds. I'm not sure how that happens-"

"Magic," Astra answered for them. Kit paused hearing the word at first, clearly not yet attuned to the prospect of other worlds that Luna had mentioned to her, before continuing to clean the deeper wounds again. "She probably cut him and cured his wounds before doing it again. Doing something like that probably isn't good for the mind. The body itself is healed, but the scar is still there like a ghost or something. It's something that you can probably feel even if it's not there."

"And yet you're still protecting a sadistic person like that?" Luna yelled. A glare from Kit stopped her from going any further and she left it at that.

"So what happens now?" Astra asked after a while.

"We bring him back to Radiant Garden. They have one of the best medical facilities- well at least better than they have here, plus I'm sure he'd want to be around familiar faces. One of the people we've met works at that hospital so I'm sure she'll take great care of him," Luna said.

Another silence followed which saw Luna and Kit concentrating on Sora. After a few more minutes, the last cloth hit the water basin and a sigh escaped from Luna's mouth. She remembered something that she needed to do and carefully reached into Sora's pocket to retrieve Kairi's wayfinder. She thought of Kairi for a good while before speaking into the object.

When Kairi's voice responded back, Luna quickly brought her up to scratch on what had happened. She didn't even need to tell Kairi to come over since the auburn haired girl had already decided what she was going to do from the moment she heard the words "Sora" and "danger".

"Well, all we can do is play the waiting game then," Luna announced after ending the transmission.

"Maybe you two should get some sleep. I'm sure it's been a stressing day for the both of you," Kit advised but Luna shook her head.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Do you want some coffee aunty? Astra?" Luna asked them both.

"It's okay, I'll put it on," Astra said somewhat absentmindedly. She was trying her best to warm her way back into Luna's heart but Luna was still angry with her. Thinking back on it now, Luna knew that she couldn't fault Astra for what she did. It was wrong for Luna to expect Astra to do every single thing that Luna asked of her, controlling even.

Luna returned to holding onto Sora's hand and looked at his crown necklace that Kit had set next to his head.

"I suppose there's no way to make you stay, is there?" Kit asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

"I just don't want to see you hurt Luna. Looking at your friend here, whoever you three are dealing with probably isn't a very good person-"

"It's more than one."

"Even more of a reason to stop whatever it is that you're doing. That whole time we were cleaning your friend's body, I couldn't help but wonder what I would do if it was you in his position, and once I started thinking about it I couldn't stop. You know I want what's best for you dear but I value your safety just as much," Kit said.

"I'm sorry," Luna started sadly. "More than anything, I want us to be a family. I want to help you around the shop like I used to and I want us to go to retirement homes and help the elderly and I want to go to the Ice Cream parlor with you and I want… well I want so many things but… I can't give this up now, not when I'm finally happy."

Kit looked at her for a while. "You're just like your mother, you know that?"

"So I've been told a million times, by you and dad," Luna said with a slight smile.

"Well it's true. She was incredibly courageous and bold, just like you… and a bit clumsy, just like-"

"Okay, I get the point."

"Well, if there's any mantra that your mother had when she was "Keep your eyes forward, and your heart open". Sounds simple enough, right? Well you'll be surprised at how effective mantras are. You define yourself by a word or a phrase and it becomes your key for motivation. All of a sudden the impossible seems possible and the glass ceiling above you becomes the ground underneath you. Since you're quite stubborn, which is more your dad's trait, then I hope you at least take what I'm saying to heart when you do go."

"Then, you don't mind me going?" Luna asked.

"Of course I do, but it's not really my life either. I'd just hope that can hear from you every now and then so I know how you're getting on," Kit grinned and for a moment Luna saw a flash of her own mother's smile in Kit's.

"Thank you. I'll make sure to write a ton about my travels and I won't leave anything out. I'm not sure how I'll get them sent yet but I'll figure something out," Luna said, finishing just in time as Astra came in carrying two cups.


After meeting back up with Donald, Goofy and Robin, the latter suggested going back to his campsite where everyone else would be waiting. He didn't exactly go into detail about who everyone was, but they were soon to find out that everyone pretty much meant all of Robin's friends and more people that Luna had never seen before.

"Oh, Stephanie, over here!" Luna waved having spotted the girl among Skippy and his sisters.

The eight year old grinned at them and made her way to their side. "I was helping Lady Kluck evacuate everyone. Boy am I tired."
"She was a great help, quite a bundle of energy, that one. She's with you then?" Lady Cluck asked after having heard her name mentioned from nearby.

"She is. We're Sora, Luna, Donald and Goofy," Goofy introduced pointing to each of them in turn.

"Ah, well you two are wonderful parents then," Lady Cluck addressed Sora and Luna. The two looked at each other in complete bewilderment for a few seconds.

Eventually Luna asked, "What?"

"You are her parents, yes? You look the same."
There was a dismal silence and awkwardness that followed this inaccurate assumption in which Luna and Sora were both slow to register what she had just said. They gave each other another look again before simultaneously jumping away from each other.

"Oh no no no, you're mistaken about that. I mean, we're not… like that," A furiously blushing Sora stumbled over his words.

"Right, and besides Stephanie's not our daughter, she's someone else's. Does she really look like me?" Luna raised one eyebrow and started eyeing Stephanie up close.

"Well you can be the next best thing then. I've always wanted a sister!" Stephanie proclaimed with a suggestive wink.

"Ah, then it's settled. I am officially Stephanie's big sis. Well, maybe unofficially until your mother accepts me into the family," Luna said ruffling Stephanie's hair.

"Yay!" Stephanie exalted jumping around ecstatically. Luna was also incredibly happy. Stephanie wasn't the only one who wished for an extension of familial ties. It wasn't even a wish for Luna, but more of a craving. She couldn't explain it but it was almost like there was a desire to protect this girl, something that had been buoyed by what she had done to her parents. Was she hoping for redemption by keeping Stephanie safe or did she just desperately need someone to call family so she didn't have to feel so alone?

Robin was to interrupt her thoughts when he returned to them with Maid Marian at his side.

"So you're the brave heroes who fought along with my Robin. I would award you with a medal if I could but-"

"No need. We're not that kind of hero, and I'm not exactly…" Sora paused and cleared his throat. Luna noted the slight frown on his face that disappeared almost instantly but was enough for her to catch it. She would have to talk to him about it later, she reminded herself. "We were just doing what anybody else would do."

"Is that so? You see, if I had a coin for every time someone dared to step up to the Sheriff and Prince John, well… let's just say I wouldn't be very rich," Marian said with an exuberant laugh.

"Well even if you don't want to admit it, at least celebrate along with us. I see they're already starting." Robin laughed as Little John started to entertain his audience with a satirising song about the prince. "Go ahead, enjoy the night while it's still young. Meanwhile the fair maiden and I have some catching up to do."

Robin gave a flirty growl before he dashingly scooped Marian up into his arms and headed off for the nearest tent available. Luna and Donald exchanged knowing looks before following Sora, Goofy and Stephanie over to the campfire. Luna sat down next to Stephanie and smiled as the eight year old leaned her head against Luna's shoulder and let out a yawn.

"It's been a long day, hasn't it?" Luna asked while playing with her hair.

"Is it always like this for you guys?" Stephanie asked.

"Pretty much," Luna said. She watched as Sora, Donald and Goofy started singing and bobbing their heads along to Little John's song.

"Good. I don't want it to end," Stephanie said letting out another yawn.

"Me neither," Luna agreed letting out a yawn of her own. "Now look what you're making me do? I guess they really are contagious."
Stephanie giggled. The night drew on with their unsuspecting minds oblivious to the gloom and despair that was about to beset them the next day.


So now Luna's got a little sis as well as aunt to add to her family collection, but will that be enough to replace the hole that's been left in her heart? Well as always you'll have to stay tuned. Please feel free to leave a review and/or favorite and I'll see you for the end of Robin Hood's world in the next chapter. Also Kingdom Hearts Unchained Keys... I might finally have a game to play on my smartphone :D