The Tale of the Lost
PandaShadow
I Don't Like You
A/N: Hello there. Here's good ol' chapter three. I am currently a bit appalled by how short all of my chapters are. So, I combined chapters three and four. So now my story only has three chapters for now. But once I finish editing this, the next order of business is to continue onward with the plot! Which is truly a horrifying prospect to me, but I suppose I will have to get over it.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the newly combined chapters three and four, now only chapter three, and I DISCLAIMER: do not own Kingdom Hearts, and make no profit from this story. Do not steal Meera. I will cry. She is mine.
Enjoy!
"Yuffie, can you go get Sora, Kairi, and Riku? Tell them King Mickey is here," Cloud told Yuffie. She nodded and promptly left Merlin's house. Meera just sat in a comfortable, green armchair in one corner. The mouse guy, King Mickey, was talking quietly to Cloud on the other side of the room. Meera knew they were talking about her. She also knew that the mouse knew something about her, but didn't want her to know that he knew. It made her uncomfortable, as cozy as the chair she was in proved to be.
Meera looked away from her brother-like figure and stared at the dark brown, cluttered wall. She sighed and waited. And she kept waiting. How long had it been? Who was Riku? Why was she involved in whatever was going on? Those questions, among others, plagued her mind.
After what felt like hours, but was truly only about fifteen minutes, the burgundy-haired girl, Kairi, came through the door with Yuffie. Kairi looked frustrated, and Yuffie - still smiling - was giggling quietly. Meera stared at them blankly.
Kairi noticed Mickey standing with Cloud and her scowl was immediately lost to the wind. She then smiled and took a seat on a couch the same shade of green as Meera's chair – probably a matching set. "Sora and Riku refused to come. They said they wanted to talk about 'guy stuff' and talk to you later," Kairi told the mouse. He looked skeptical but nodded in response.
"That's fine. I don't mind repeating it for them," Mickey assured. Cloud took that moment to take a seat next to Kairi, observing the mouse in front of them.
"We have quite a situation on our hands. I believe the best thing would be to fully explain to you all that has happened. There is a Nobody that has been around for a little while now. His name is Zopyris, and the main information you need to know about him is that he is a merciless, sadistic murderer.
"We have no records of who he is the Nobody of, and no records of his appearance. We do know, however, that he has a vendetta against a completely innocent girl," Mickey explained. He quickly glanced at Meera, taking in her carefully blank expression before continuing. "I needed you, Sora, and Riku because this girl needs to be protected. And Meera, here, can help you." That bit startled Meera into attention.
"What? What makes you think I can help them? I'm nothing more than a normal, teenage girl," Meera demanded, growing slightly nervous. Mickey just smiled at her.
"But you can. You probably aren't aware of it, but you have special powers that are inherited from a gene in your bloodline," he explained. Meera's heartbeat sped up. No one was supposed to know about her power. "You can summon fairies, which I don't know much about, and you have access to the Keyblade World," Mickey continued. She composed herself when he didn't mention what she thought he would and stared at the mouse, clearly not believing a word coming from his mouth. "I don't know very much about your abilities, but I feel that you will be greatly helpful to Sora, Kairi, and Riku."
Meera rolled her eyes and inwardly let out a breath of relief that he didn't seem to know about her Healing Touch. That would have given her away. But those other powers? What was going on? Wouldn't she have known about them? After all, she had discovered her Healing Touch on her own. She came to the hopeful conclusion that he had gotten the wrong person somewhere in that mousy head of his.
"You must be confused. I don't have any kind of powers. Seriously. If I did, don't you think I'd know?" Meera inquired. Mickey merely smiled again, a glint in his eyes insinuating that he knew something she didn't know he knew.
"I don't know much about your powers involving the Keyblade realm, but what I do know of them I can probably help you with," Mickey said.
Kairi was staring at Mickey intently, interested by what he had to say. This girl clearly had powers linked to Keyblades, yet she couldn't wield one. It almost seemed like the Keyblade chose her, but she didn't… qualify? Before Mickey could continue, Sora came bursting through the door.
"Sorry I'm late, guys!" Sora exclaimed. Meera stared blankly at him, like she had been doing to everyone since that mouse began talking to them, and Kairi gave him a small smile. He closed the door behind him and walked forward a few paces. "What did I miss?"
"Well, that mouse over there has the delusion that I have some kind of special powers," Meera explained, clearly still not believing said mouse. One of Sora's eyebrows rose up before he looked over at Mickey.
"What kind of special powers?"
"I can explain them to you later, Sora. For now, I need her to agree to help you, Riku, and Kairi on the journey I need to send you on," Mickey explained. "I am sending the four of you on a mission to stop Zopyris by whatever means necessary. From the small amount of information we do have on him, I have gathered that he is working alone, other than with lesser Nobodies of course. However, we can't have him going around wreaking havoc in all of the worlds. It upsets the balance. I need you to find him and cease whatever he is planning now, other than revenge. I feel as though it is more than that."
After a few moments of silence, Meera abruptly stood up, her eyebrows furrowed in deep thought. "I'm not dealing with this," she muttered before walking straight out of Merlin's house.
As the door slammed shut behind her, a single tear ran down the right side of her face. She attempted to make her way back to the castle, but her eyes were so blurry from held back tears that she didn't see a person coming and ran right into their chest.
Sora stared at the door that just slammed shut, entirely confused. Having not been there the entire time, and seeing her storm off moments after his arrival, he was entirely bewildered by what the problem was. He took in the expressions of the others in the room.
Kairi looked worried and was on the edge of the couch, almost like she was about to spring up and go after her. Cloud looked worried as well, but not confused at all. He seemed to know exactly what was going on. King Mickey, on the other hand, had a small smile on his face. Sora stopped his examination to go and sit beside Kairi in the available spot. She looked toward him and relaxed a bit, giving him a small smile. "Okay, so-"
Sora's question was interrupted by a high-pitched scream. At that point, Kairi's worried expression came back on her face and she muttered "I'll go see what's going on" before running out the door herself.
Sora sighed and slouched back into the couch. "Uh, anyway. This thing you need us to do. Do you have any leads? Any idea of where he could be?"
Mickey, who was distractedly pondering something Sora couldn't imagine, snapped his head in Sora's direction almost like he was startled. "No, actually. I don't know what to tell you. Your best bet is to travel to worlds you know, and ask your friends if they have been having any problems with Nobodies recently. That should get you on the right path."
"And Meera is supposed to help us with this?"
"Yep!" Mickey answered enthusiastically.
"Alright. Well, I imagine she'll calm down eventually," Sora commented.
"Oh, before you go," Mickey interrupted as Sora stood from the couch, "I thought you should know that, while I did intend to speak with all of you, I did not send that letter to Destiny Islands. Be careful Sora, alright?"
"That's strange. But alright, I'll be sure to look after everyone," Sora responded confidently. "I'll be making my way back to the castle to get some rest. And find Riku. I mean, he was supposed to be coming with me, but I dunno what happened."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I-"
Meera's head shot up at the sound of that voice again and screamed at the boy before her. She quickly jumped back from him and sprinted, as quickly as she could, all the way to the castle, through some parts of it, around it, and to the lake in the back. She stood still for a moment, catching her breath, before sitting down on a bench.
She decided to lie down and close her eyes, hoping that the boy hadn't followed her out there. When she eventually opened her eyes, she looked up and saw Kairi at the fourth floor balcony, looking down at her. With a slightly confused expression on her face, she found a vine and carefully climbed down to where Meera was.
"You okay?" Kairi asked her. Meera shifted to make sure her dress was still covering her right shoulder. When she decided it was, she relaxed and nodded. She sat back up, allowing Kairi to take a seat beside her. Meera stared into the water, not moving a muscle when she heard footsteps and ragged breathing approaching them.
"Riku? What are you doing?" Kairi asked, looking from him to Meera, and back to him and his wind-blown hair again.
"Running, avoiding weird lifts that don't work, and running into doors, trying to apologize and see what that girl's problem is!" Riku exclaimed, gesturing toward Meera and taking a deep breath. "Who is she anyway?"
Meera looked over to the boy – Riku, apparently – before quickly looking away and staring intently at Kairi's face. Kairi raised an eyebrow, asking silently what happened. Meera blinked a few times, trying to think up a good thing to say.
"He ran into me and just startled me is all. I've had a bad week," Meera told Kairi. The burgundy-haired Keyblade Bearer smiled a mischievous smile and stood, pulling Meera over to the silver-haired boy. Meera bit her tongue before looking at him, then staring at Kairi like she was insane.
"It's simple! You both can apologize and forget the whole thing ever happened!" Kairi suggested. Riku glared at the girl, knowing that she hadn't screamed because he "startled her." He knew she was lying. He didn't want apologize for something that wasn't even the cause of her shriek of terror. Meera, on the other hand, could barely stand to look at the boy, much less speak to him.
Kairi cleared her throat expectantly.
Deciding to give in, Riku sighed before being the bigger person and apologizing for a problem that wasn't really the problem. "I'm sorry for running into you and startling you," he said, obviously not meaning it. Meera grunted and ground her teeth together.
Meera gathered all of the guts she could and looked up at Riku's face. Holding back a disgusted shudder, she stopped grinding her teeth to reply with, "Well, I'm so sorry that I was so rude. Oh please, forgive me!" Riku glared at her. She returned it just as fiercely, if not more so. Kairi sighed and separated the two, muttering something about "the best she could get" before sitting down with Meera on the bench again.
Riku made his way back inside and grunted, glaring at one of the three lifts that didn't work. He decided then that he would never trust the technology of a world other than his own. He walked up to the room he chose to stay in and lounged out on his bed, pondering why that girl had screamed when she saw his face, and then looked like she wanted to throw up when she saw his face again. 'Am I really that ugly?'
Meera and Kairi sat on the bench in a comfortable silence for about three minutes. Kairi looked at the girl with her, curiously. She didn't look like someone who could summon fairies and a vortex into the Keyblade world. But, then again, she also didn't look like someone Riku would have a problem with.
What had happened?
Meera had left Merlin's house, presumably to go back to Radiant Garden's castle, and somehow ran into Riku, who startled her to a near-heart-attack, and then she ran away. It made no sense to Kairi.
Meera, oblivious to Kairi's speculations, was looking at a group of crows flying around the general area. It intrigued her because, lately, she had seen crows every time she went outside or looked out her window. As she continued to stare at the birds, she mulled over her encounter with the silver-haired-teenager. She knew she was being paranoid and judgmental, but she just couldn't help it, especially when the reason of her paranoia ended up being a jerk anyway.
"I don't like him," Meera stated, still staring at the birds. Kairi's eyes widened and an eyebrow rose. She turned on the bench to face Meera completely, crisscrossing her legs.
"But why? You just met him a few minutes ago, right?" Kairi asked the red-head. Meera looked over at Kairi before staring at her lap. She sighed and mulled over how to answer the question. After a moment of hesitation, Meera looked back up at Kairi sternly, trying not to falter.
"Yeah, I just met him. I guess I just… He gives me this bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I just don't like him," she explained, looking back up at the birds. Kairi sighed and pulled herself off of the bench, placing her hands on her hips. She knew she would get no better of an explanation from the girl beside her.
"I guess I'll go see what Riku's doing," Kairi said. Meera nodded, clearly entranced by the crows that were still above them. Kairi gave the girl one last look and made her way around to the front of the castle. Once she walked back inside the large front doors, she noticed a sign on the lift to her left. Someone had clearly, but hastily, written that it was out of order. Kairi smiled and made her way over to the stairs.
As she walked, she thought about how strange things were. They got a letter from Mickey, when everything was supposed to finally be over. So, they followed the letter's instructions to a place Mickey hadn't even arrived to yet. Then, said mouse king arrived late and explained the weirdest situation Kairi thought she had ever heard.
That was a lie. It wasn't the weirdest. But it was certainly up there.
So then, this very random girl who clearly enjoys the colors purple and black ends up having powers to help Kairi, Sora, and Riku on their mission. But, after all of that, the weirdest thing was that Kairi felt like she knew the girl. She felt like she knew her as well as she knew Riku and Sora, which was precisely why she just wanted them to get along.
As she reached the second level of the building, she eyed the doors nervously, hoping she could remember which one was Riku's. She made a very lucky guess and opened one of the doors after a male voice answered her knock with a "Come in."
"Riku, you see…"
Meera was thinking about how bizarre everything was turning out to be. She had more powers? That was just plain odd. Why wouldn't she have known? And then the entire Riku situation didn't make much sense either. But, alas, her thoughts were interrupted when, two floors above her, she heard a familiar, masculine voice.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I NEED TO APOLOGIZE FOR APOLOGIZING WRONG?"
She looked up to the balcony above her and saw Kairi's burgundy head poking over the top of it. She had a pleading look in her eye, but then she went back inside Riku's room. Meera rolled her eyes after suppressing a slight shudder and proceeded to attempt to climb one of the vines that covered the wall. After a lot of hard work and a few cuts on her hands, Meera reached the balcony and clumsily walked inside. Riku was talking, but she didn't really care. She brushed some of the leaves off of her dress and looked up, straight at Kairi. She cleared her throat.
"It's okay Kairi; he doesn't need to apologize again. His apology was just as legitimate as mine," Meera explained a slight, sarcastic smile on her face. Kairi sighed as Riku glared at the girl like he wanted to rip out each strand of her hair one by one. She groaned, looking back and forth between the two.
"Guuuuuys, you HAVE to get along sometime! We're supposed to be going on this journey together! Can't you at least be CIVIL?" Kairi pleaded, exasperated. Meera huffed and looked down. Riku stared at Kairi instead of Meera.
"She's the one who screamed at me while I was trying to apologize," Riku explained, an unhappy expression on his face. Meera twitched slightly and looked back up at Kairi, her unhappy expression mirroring Riku's.
"I was obviously upset, and that jerk deliberately ran into me!" Meera combated, pointing a pale, accusing finger at Riku.
"She ran away and made me fall down an out-of-order lift while I was trying to figure out which way she went!" Riku replied, a bit louder.
"Well HE… Um… uh…" Meera trailed off, lowering her finger. She muttered something that Kairi couldn't hear while letting her angry gaze slide back to the floor.
However, all three of the people in the room were quite shocked when they heard a fourth voice that was very rarely angry.
"Would you two just STOP?" an upset-looking Sora yelled. Kairi turned around to look at him, seeing as how her back was facing the door, and her eyes widened at the bag of ice he held on his head. "My room is right next door and you, Meera, and you, Riku, are giving me a HUGE migraine, and I've never had a headache before in my LIFE. So please. Just STOP IT."
Riku bore a deer-in-the-headlights look. Sora had never yelled at any of them before. It was a very odd occurrence, just adding to all of the weird things happening since they received the letter from King Mickey. Kairi shot Meera a sympathetic smile before escorting the pained Keyblade Master back to his room, muttering about feeling her own headache coming on. That left Meera and Riku alone.
With a glare towards Riku, Meera declared, "I don't like you."
"Oh, yeah? Well I don't like you either!" Riku replied, glaring back at her. She huffed and made her way out to the balcony, resisting the urge to stick out her tongue like a child.
"Good riddance," she muttered, and she hastily attempted to climb down the vines she had used to reach the balcony.
A/N: Well then. That's all I've got. I'll make an effort to write more soon, and I hope at least one person will make this effort worthwhile and actually read it. Yeah. As always, reviews are appreciated!
C. E. Taylor