I heard them calling, all of them. Sora and Kairi even checked the cave. I heard her explain to Sora how I wasn't human, and about the mirror and me running.

I held stock-still when I heard them come in. After Kairi's explanation, Sora was quiet for an instant, "If she's not a person, what is she? What else is there?"

"She didn't say… But we don't know much about other worlds. I mean, without memories, the same thing could've even happened to me."

Sora laughed, "C'mon, Kairi, we both know that's not right! Both of you gotta be people, she must have hit her head or something."

"Haven't you been watching her, Sora? Even after she suddenly got confidence, she moved almost too fluently. I think she's telling the truth, but even if she's not human, she's still a person."

Humans, so that's what they are… What I am…

"Yeah, you're right, Kairi," I could almost hear Sora's smile.

After they had gone, I fell asleep crying.

~Kairi, Riku & Sora~

Sora and Kairi walked up to Riku, who was still calling reluctantly. When Kairi looked at him hopefully, he just shook his head. The three traipsed up to the smaller island, sitting on a bowed tree-trunk, looking out to the ocean. The sun was fading, its reflection making the water blaze with glory, the lapping waves making the mirage look even more like true flame.

Sora sighed, looking into the distance, "Both their homes are out there somewhere, right?"

"Could be," Riku said, aloof. "We'll never know by staying here!"

Sora leaned forward to look at him, "But how far could a raft take us?"

"Who knows?" Riku waved one hand nonchalantly, "If we have to, we'll think of something else…"

Kairi looked at him, smiling, "So, suppose you get to another world, what will you do there?"

"Hmmm…" Riku glanced down to his crossed arms, "I…haven't really thought about it… It's just… I've always wondered why we're here, on this island. If there are any other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And, suppose there are other worlds… Then ours is just a little piece of something much greater. So, we could have just as easily ended up somewhere else, right?"

"I dunno," Sora lazed on his end of the tree, putting his hands behind his head, strange star-shaped fruits dangling above his head.

"Exactly!" Riku said decidedly, "That's why we need to go out there and find out!" He stepped out, glaring out to the ocean. "Just sitting here won't change a thing… It's the same old stuff, day after day! So let's go."

Kairi turned to him. She'd never felt so nervous around her friend before, or less comprehending. "You've been thinking a lot about this, haven't you?"

Riku turned to her, "Thanks to you. If you hadn't come here, I probably wouldn't have thought of any of this…"

"Kairi?" His green eyes pierced into her blue for an instant, "Thanks."

They walked along the bridge, the eyes shifting to remain unnoticed.

"What about Cynder?"

Riku's eyes hardened again, "If she doesn't want to be found, we won't find her. Maybe she'll come out in the morning."

The others couldn't argue.

~Cynder~

Slap, slap, slap…

The sound of Sora's gargantuan shoes slapping stone woke me. I peered tiredly out of my hole. Everything hurt… Apparently humans weren't supposed to sleep curled so tight.

Sora paced to the other wall and laid his hand against what looked like a rather abstract doodle of Kairi's face, and began scribbling. I didn't find this terribly interesting, and I didn't want anyone to know where I'd spent the night in case I wanted somewhere private later. So I stared at him scribbling for a long time.

A rustle and I stiffened; the all-too-familiar smell of tainted darkness permitted the air, fogging up all other scents. I shuffled slightly, prepared to leap out of my little place if need be. The smell was even stronger than the General! Nothing Sora could handle alone, that was for sure.

"I've come to see the door to this world," A voice echoed through the cave, hard, sharper than old steel.

"Huh?" Sora looked around for the speaker.

"This world has been connected…" I tried to pinpoint the voice, but it was like it was coming from everywhere all at once, infused with the shadows that lay draped about the cave. I shivered; the thing knew I was here.

"Wha—what are you talking about?" Sora was immune to the evident smell of tainted darkness, and I edged myself quietly out of my little hole, careful not to make a sound.

"Tied to the darkness… Soon to be completely eclipsed…"

I stood behind Sora, looking at a cloaked figure, not a touch of skin showing. His black cloak almost blended into the darkness everywhere.

"Stop freakin' me out like this, huh," Sora yelped, clenching a fist.

I paced up next to him, eyes on the figure. "Calm down, he's not actually here. His spirit is, but I can't smell anything besides the reek of shadows. Don't let him upset you."

He looked at me and nodded, trusting my sense enough for that. I raised one eye-ridge—er, brow?—at the thing, "So now, where did you come from? Obviously you're a spirit, but how you're this visible, I don't know."

Ignoring me, not one of my favorite things, he continued, "You do not yet know what lies beyond the door…"

Sora stared, "So, you're from another world…"

"'Course he is," I snorted, "can't you smell it? He doesn't smell of anything from here, just tainted darkness. In a place like this, so full of light, you'd be hard-pressed to find anything like him."

"There is so very much to learn…" The monotone continued, "You understand so little…"

Sora started to respond, but I held a hand up, signaling him to stop, "Oh? That's what learning's for, you great oaf. Everything's a constant mystery, that's why life's so interesting."

Sora looked at me, "Yeah! I'll learn what's out there! Just you wait and see!"

"A meaningless effort… One who knows nothing can understand nothing."

I snorted and bared my teeth; a leftover habit I suppose. "That s'pposed to scare us, cloak-boy? Sometimes we don't know anything … But that doesn't mean learning goes to hell! Naivety is something that rarely lasts forever."

Sora glanced at the aged door that rested in the wall, and I did as well. Could it possibly lead me home?

I knew he was gone when the smell dissipated, though Sora turned to look. I was busy shivering; the air was crackling with tension.

There's going to be a storm tonight, and it won't be completely natural…

I sighed, "Tell Kairi I'm okay, will you? I think I'll spend the night here again… There's something I need to check."

The air of tension… It was disturbing, reminding me of the few days before I'd been washed away by shadow. Maybe it was nothing, but the quiet place in the cave… It felt like the eye of a brewing storm, but still the source of it.

"You know you could come to one of our places for the night if you wanted to, right? Especially Kairi's, she's been worried sick."

"All day? What time is it?" I was used to sleeping outdoors, or at the least somewhere with windows—so I always rose with the sun.

He looked at me, "Were you in here all day? It's nearly sunset! Aren't you hungry?"

I shrugged, "Nah, I caught food a few days ago, I should be good for at least another we—" I was cut off by my stomach growling like the General as it let me know it didn't agree with that statement.

I blinked down at it in confusion, "Apparently not…"

He couldn't help but laugh, "I dunno who or what you are, but humans try and eat daily! C'mon, Kairi has food with her." He steered me out of the cave and to a little cove, where Kairi stood on some sort of semi-boat resembling thing.

She looked so relieved to see me, even though I'd just met her… Her face broke into a relieved smile, and to my shock she hugged me—to which I didn't know how to respond. I just stood there, blinking.

"Um, I'm sorry I broke your 'mere-roar'," was the only thing I could think of to say.

She blinked, as if she'd forgotten the thing completely, "No, it's me who should be sorry! It's my fault you ran off!"

…How'd she figure that?

Kairi and I sat on the worn wood of the raft as Sora went to finish finding provisions. I looked at the calm sea and a chill crawled up my spine.

Something bad was going to happen, if only I knew what…

Time passed in silence; I didn't really want, or know how, to break it. I wasn't one to chat while stressed, and besides the whole furless ape thing, the chill in the air was creeping under my skin and into my bones, making me twitchy.

"We're heading back soon, Cynder," Kairi looked at me, "Do you want to stay at my place for the night?"

I shook my head, "No thank you, I'd rather stay here…" I looked down at the armor covering my feet, "Um, but can you help me with something first?"

"Sure, anything!" Kairi gave me an odd look.

"Erm… This armor, how do you go to the, er…"

Awkward, very, very awkward…

After a minute of me studying my whatever-they're-called, Kairi's eyes were laughing, and a tinge of pink was crawling over my cheeks, so much more evident on pale skin. She explained, giggles at my misfortune interrupting here and there, not that I could blame her… This whole situation was utterly absurd. I nodded thanks, and they left.

I did my business, a whole level of awkwardness I am so not going into, and paced back to my makeshift-den. I curled up again and drifted into sleep. The "clothes", as Kairi had called them, were annoying and cumbersome, but when I asked why her kind didn't just ditch the stupid things, she'd looked at me like I was some alien monster. Granted, I pretty much was.

…

I was falling, falling into darkness… I wasn't afraid, though. My stomach wasn't lurching, and instinctually my wings reached out, catching air, and I landed on my two feet.

Wings? Two feet?

Blinking, everything seemed to be coming to me slowly, surreal, like in a dream. I looked up, sunlight filtering through water, causing it to ripple over my skin… I was standing, breathing, in water. Reaching my hand back, I felt my shoulders, finding nothing. Everything was shimmering blue…

Suddenly, stone formed beneath me; I was in the temple, and there was Spyro!

"Spyro!" I called and he turned, his eyes sad. As I raced forward I was sinking, sinking into solid stone…and he was gone.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. This was surreal, dreamlike… I was underwater, and I wasn't frightened. But suddenly, the water was darkening, becoming pitch-black. Stars began to blink into existence, covering me with a golden radiance. I wasn't falling; I was drifting down, gliding like I had wings, though my shoulders were bare… The stars were warm, shimmering like diamonds on fire.

Then the stars flashed out, their radiance fading with me into black oblivion.

Suddenly, my feet were pressed to smooth glass, and the blackness warped into birds, a millennia of ravens flying away, melding into nothing to reveal the beauty of the thing I stood upon. A flat disc of radiance shone beneath me, silver, with a white form in the middle, jagged pink gashes weeping ruby tears of blood. She looked out a window where a single star shone on a purple sky.

Around the circle were smaller ones—each gold and, in the middle, emblazoned with a purple butterfly.

"This can't be real." I stared at the inaccuracy in the thing. Myst's eyes were normal, blue shining with sorrow.

But then, come to think of it, I never knew what color her eyes were before the poison took effect.

"So much to learn, so little time…" One of the voices from before…but where was it coming from? "Take your time, and don't let fear cause your feet to drag…"

"Where the hell am I?" No answer.

"The door is still closed, concealing what lies behind…"

"Well, duh. You can hardly see through doors," I griped, crossing my new arms. Habit: ignore pushy figures you don't know—still present.

"Your power sleeps within you, give it form and it shall return to lend you strength, if not in the form you expect…"

Three pillars erupted from the ground, forming a triangle around Myst's portrait. One held a staff with a blue gem resting on top, one something pointy and sharp with a handle, and one a shield. I looked at them apprehensively.

I paced towards the sharp thing, and came to a halt as the voice talked again.

"The power of the warrior," light enveloped the sword, "Invulnerable courage; a sword of terrible destruction."

No. I paced back, tensely edging towards the shield.

"The power of the guardian, kindness to aid friends, a shield to repel all…"

Better, but still not me. Shields reduce speed, even when you are trying to defend someone. No use having one when you can't get there fast enough. I'd seen some apes with the things, and they'd spent entirely too much time hunkering behind the things.

I stepped toward the last podium.

"The power of the mystic… Inner strength, a staff of wonder and ruin…"

A smile, small but true, graced my mouth. Something about the words made me think of my situation. It wasn't like I had any other 'strength' left, in any sense of the word. I stroked the side of it, and the color changed in a flash. My reflection, pink and useless was overshadowed by my true self, light sparkling off my scales.

The black and pink in my reflection blazed, covering the glimmering staff in shimmering black, green, white and silver.

What once was a round grip now wrapped my hand, white spikes arching forward from the silver handle then wrapping it. A long black shaft ended in what looked like the end of my tail and a key all at once—and finally, along one edge of the shaft was a smooth slash of ruby, spiking into a one-sided blade.

Where the hilt met the shaft a glorious emerald sparkled, exactly the color of my eyes. From the pommel, a short chain sparkled, a familiar silver flower hanging at the end.

My new hand flashed to my throat, finding nothing but my bag-strap. I mentally slapped myself; I hadn't even realized it was gone!

With my free hand, I reached to caress the silver lily.

Are you even there now, Kaboa? You've protected me from everything as best you could, and now I finally realized I felt you there all along… But now, I can't feel you. You're gone… And I'm alone.

Tears slipped from my eyes like starlight, running down my cheeks.

I keep trying to lie to myself, believe everyone's alive, that I didn't see my own world destroyed before my eyes… But I can't lie to myself anymore; it really happened…

Cool glass hit my knees as I fell to them, hands hitting the floor.

"I know what it's like to lose everything…" I whipped my head around, a blue human specter meeting my gaze, but not the ghost I was looking for.

"I made a promise to someone I'd come back to help them… Cynder, you don't know me, but I know you. Remember me when the time comes… And don't give in like we did, stay strong for all four of us… There's a fire inside you, never let it burn out."

Then she was gone like smoke, and I just blinked, cursing myself for crying in front of a stranger. Again.