"Thundaga!"

Kairi held her Destiny's Embrace keyblade in the air. A shower of lightning came down, striking all of the various floating objects around her.

"Well done, Kairi!" said Merlin excitedly. "You catch on very fast! You must be the best student I've ever had!"

Donald folded his hands and turned away, tapping his foot.

"Aww, someone jealous?" teased Hotaru. They were all at Merlin's study in Hollow Bastion, waiting with Kairi as she learned magic. They had only been there a week, yet she had mastered not only the basic attack magic but more advanced magic as well, such as Magnet and Gravity spells. She also liked to cast barrier spells a lot, and could keep one going for quite a while—longer than Donald, much to his chagrin. She had even begun to learn more advanced forms of magic, and to have greater control over her spells.

"Aw, phooey!" he said, turning away from Hotaru as well. Hotaru laughed.

"All right Kairi! Now, to do the magic bullets, you must focus the light within you!"

Kairi closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she raised her keyblade and started shooting bullets of light at the floating furniture.

"Well done! You have a natural talent for this!"

"Well, I am a Princess of Heart," said Kairi, blushing a bit but liking the attention. "Of course, of course; you heart of pure light makes an excellent companion with magic! Why, soon you'll be better than Sora!"

Kairi frowned upon hearing this. "Huh? Aren't I already better than Sora?"

"Well, you're just beginning, Kairi. You do have a natural talent for it, but Sora is quite skilled with magic as well. Most with keyblades are," said Merlin, glancing at Donald, "although I have heard that the king is useless at it."

"Huh. You wouldn't think Sora would be that good at magic," said Hotaru.

"I must admit, I'm quite surprised as well. Although he had an excellent teacher!" said Merlin now pointing towards Donald, trying to boost his self-esteem.

"I'm still mad!" replied Donald, turning again and facing the wall. A girl came in through the door.

"Ah, Rinoa! What brings you here?"

"Everyone else is out busy on their missions, and I heard you had a new pupil." She walked over to Kairi. "Nice to meet you. I'm Rinoa."

"I'm Kairi," said Kairi a bit nervously. "Rinoa is a powerful sorceress in her own right," explained Merlin. "She may even be better for teaching you than me!"

"Well, I'm not sure I'd say that," she said smiling. "So that's a keyblade…" she said, her eyes resting on Kairi's weapon. "It looks kind of…girly."

Kairi blushed. "It's stronger than it looks."

"Indeed. She's one of the best pupils I've ever had! She's progressed faster than anyone I've ever taught before."

"So, we have ourselves a prodigy here?" said Rinoa smiling. "Aw, phooey! I've had enough of this!" said Donald angrily. "I'm outta here!"

"Oh dear, Donald! Now be reasonable!"

Donald headed for the door, ignoring him. He reached for the handle when the door slammed open on him. An elderly woman came through the door, an urgent look on her face.

"Merlin! There are heartless in the city—" she stopped as she looked at Kairi.

"I'll stop them!" said Kairi, running out the door.

"Kairi, wait! Oh dear," said Merlin. "She may be good with magic, but I don't know if she's ready to start taking on heartless."

"Don't worry, sir! Donald and I are experts!" said Goofy. "We'll help her right—uh, Donald?" Hotaru snickered as the door came forward, revealing a crushed Donald. Donald quickly pulled himself together and started babbling incoherently.

"DON'T YOU LAUGH AT ME!" Donald managed to get out without sputtering too much.

"Come on, Donald! We gotta help Kairi!" said Goofy, dragging the still kicking and screaming Donald out the door. The old woman looked outside at Kairi fondly. "Our little Kairi…I never thought I'd live to see the day…"

"Think I should help them?" asked Rinoa. "I'm sure they'll make it on their own."

"…Are you sure?"

Riku and Sora ran towards each other. Their keyblades struck each other and the locked for a moment, staring into each other's eyes.

"Sorry, Sora, but you're going to lose this fight!"

"Yeah right!"

The two continued to battle each other as Yen Sid and Mickey watched. They were both sparring in a special room of the tower that Yen Sid had made for the occasion. The two had learned a lot in the week they had been there, and it showed. Still, Yen Sid could tell they were holding back—a lot. But it was only natural that they wouldn't want to fight each other, so he let it go. Instead, he regarded their battle styles.

Riku was physically stronger and faster than Sora, and he demonstrated this in battle. He was also good defensively, but Riku liked depending on his strength to win. Yen Sid knew that if this had been a real fight, Riku would be using more of his darkness. Yen Sid had taught him a bit about channeling his darkness, having explored it in his own youth. Although Riku knew how to use the darkness better, he wasn't using against Sora.

Sora on the other hand usually used powers of light to assist him in his fight. Yen Sid noticed that he wasn't using this power either. The difference in speed between the two wielders was very slight, and Sora was more agile, even if his strength was a bit less. Still, his strength was nothing to be taken lightly, and Sora his agility allowed him to easily dodge Riku's attacks. Sora was also the better swordsman, handling his keyblade expertly.

Even though they were using only a fraction of their strength, they both displayed considerable skill. Still, there was more to being a Keyblade Master than mere skill.

"That's enough!" said Yen Sid. Sora and Riku stopped immediately and turned towards him. "Neither of you seem to want to use their full power against the other," said Yen Sid, Riku and Sora shrinking beneath his glare, "but as I have seen your skills individually, I am confident that you are both powerful enough. However, strength of heart is what makes a keyblade master, and so we will move on to the next phase of the test."

Riku and Sora both nodded. Then Sora put his hand up to his head.

"Sora?"

Sora groaned and clutched his head with both hands. Then a hand went to his chest as he fell to his knees.

"Sora!"

The cries of Riku and Mickey faded away as Sora was overcome by a pain in his heart. What was this?

He looked up and saw a girl in an organization coat. She looked just like Kairi, but had short black hair.

Who is she? thought Sora. The vision of the girl faded away too and Sora lost consciousness.

Kairi began slashing at the heartless. Luckily, they were only shadow heartless—she was moving far too slow and hitting too softly to be able to take out stronger heartless. Donald and Goofy stood by, watching her take them out.

"Thundaga!"

Kairi called down a shower of lightning, destroying a few dozen of the soldier heartless surrounding her. More began to advance on her, and she jumped back.

"Uh…alright heartless! Prepare to be taken out by—ahh!" Several of the heartless pounced on her, pinning her down. Donald laughed. "Who's the best now?"

"Ugh—just help me!"

Donald raised his wand and began shooting his comet spell at the heartless. He got the ones on Kairi, and Goofy ran around destroying the rest.

"Oh, you were just showing off!" said Kairi, brushing herself off. Donald sighed. "If you can't take care of a few of those, I don't know what we'll do with you."

"Oh, come one Donald. Everyone starts somewhere!"

"Sora defeated a giant heartless his first time with the keyblade!"

"Yeah? Well…I'm just not use to combat yet! I'm sure I'll catch on soon enough."

"Kairi? Is it really you?" Kairi turned and saw an old woman with a sad look on her face. The old woman suddenly hugged her and wouldn't let go. Kairi didn't know what to say, and so sat there awkwardly and let the woman hug her.

"I'm sorry if I surprised you," said the old woman as she backed away, tears in her eyes, "but…I've been so worried about you!"

"Worried…about me?"

"Yes. Kairi, you probably don't remember me, but…I'm your grandmother.

"My…grandmother?"

"Is there an echo in here?" asked Donald. Hotaru bonked his head.

"Yes," she said smiling. "You were taken from us when you were only four!"

Kairi looked at the woman. This was too much for her. "I…uh…"

"Kairi!"

Kairi started and turned towards Riku's voice, a little relieved at the interruption but worried because Riku shouldn't be here. Riku was running towards her at top speed. He stopped and bent over panting in front of her.

"Riku, what are you doing here?"

"Something…happened…to Sora," he said, still panting.

Hotaru, Donald, and Goofy exchanged worried glances.

"WHAT!" said Kairi loudly. "What happened! Is he all right!"

"We're not sure. Right now, he's in a coma of some sort. We need you guys to come with us."

Kairi nodded. "Right. We'll go and—" she stopped and turned to her newly discovered grandmother.

"Home is where the heart is, and it seems that your heart has found its home," said the wise old woman. "I'm just happy you're safe."

"I'm sorry I have to leave so soon…"

"I was expecting it. Afterall, I can see you wield a keyblade." Her eyes rested on the weapon. "Do you remember the story about the children of light that I used to tell you about?"

Kairi nodded, the memory coming back to her immediately. "Even in the deepest darkness, there's always a light…"

"That's right," she said, smiling. "Trust in that light. That goes for all of you," she said, her eyes moving to Hotaru and resting on Riku. Riku frowned. Was his darkness that obvious?

"The keyblade is for helping people. Use it wisely."

"Wait…how do you know about the keyblade?"

She smiled. "An old woman hears many things." She turned and began walking away.

"Why are old people always so mysterious?" muttered Hotaru.

"Anyway, let's go for Sora," said Riku. She nodded, and the all set off.

I don't really follow Final Fantasy (dodges gunblade), but I heard there was a reference to Rinoa at the end of KH2, so I thought it would be nice to give her a little cameo. Putting her into the story really made me realize how lazy I am with character and place description, but there's the beauty of a fanfic; you should already more or less know everyone. I'm also a little lazy with dialogue...oh, sue me. It's not like I do this for a living.

Also, I think Kairi's grandmother would probably still be alive. And knowing her story about the children of light, I'm sure she'd also know something about the keyblade. Whether or not there's more to that has yet to be seen.

And I thought Kairi would have a preference for magic even before BBS came out. She's a princess of heart, not very strong physically compared to Sora and Riku, and now we know she's Aqua's spawn (for lack of a better word). So magic would be the way to go for her.

Finally, I've noticed this is may be my longest chapter; it has the most words (or maybe that's just this author's note :P) I don't know why I stuff so much into each chapter, but that's my style.