Scar

Kairi walked up to the Old Mansion. She had been wandering through the woods for about two hours and she was hungry, tired, and sore from being pricked by thorns, hit by branches, and bitten by bugs. But that didn't matter. She had arrived at last.

"Yes!" Kairi called to no one in particular. She pushed the rusted gates aside. Walking among the ruined columns, she opened the large doors. Kairi was a girl on a mission. She had stayed up all night perfecting the plan to separate Roxas and Namine from their bodies. There was a lot of technology around from Ansem the Wise when he used this place as his hideout. Some of it must regard Nobodies. Kari planned to use it to separate their Nobodies. That way they could be free of each other forever. She smiled as she walked into the ruined foyer.

Why Kairi? asked a voice at the top of the stairs. Kairi turned to see Namine step out of the white room. She looked both hurt and angry. I promised that I wouldn't ask any more favors of you, all I wanted to do was see Roxas again. And you agreed.

"Well, I lied" said Kairi. "If we can't always agree on things, then I want you out of my body. I have to be the dominant mind here. The thought of having someone else sharing my mind and body who doesn't agree with what I say---I just can't stand it."

That's how you think of me? Namine demanded. You think of me as some parasite that lives within you?

Kairi was silent. "I'm not ready for a relationship with Sora yet. It just wouldn't be…it wouldn't be fair to either of us. It wouldn't be fair to you or Roxas. That's why I want to separate us. Then you can have all the time you want to have a relationship."

With no hearts to do it with Namine said bitterly.

Kairi gritted her teeth. "I don't know what to think anymore. I---" Kairi broke off in a fit of coughing, having inhaled the dust of the old place.

Are you alright Kairi? Namine asked.

"You should know" Kairi said. "But alright, I'm willing to try. Try. If it doesn't work out, I will separate us."

Namine nodded. Then she looked up, her eyes widening. Kairi! Behind you!

"Well, if it ain't the Eighth Princess" said a voice behind her. A familiar voice. Kairi looked to see Axel walk through the very doors that she had come through.

"What do you want?" Kairi asked, summoning Welcoming Garden. She pointed it at Axel's chest.

"What do you think?" he asked. "I'm not here to kidnap you. I'm just here to give you a message." He continued toward her. "I want you to do something for me" he said. "I want you to give Sora a message from us."

"From Organization XIII?" Kairi asked. "Why don't you give it to him yourself? I already sent one of your dogs back to the pound. Why don't you just give up?"

Axel laughed, but it was a high, unnatural laugh. Kairi looked at him and realized that the handsome Nobody that had kidnapped her a year ago looked like he had been through a whole world war. He was pale and there were dark circles under his eyes, obscuring the tattoos.

"It wouldn't be the same if it didn't come from you" he said and continued to walk to her. Kairi bumped up against the wall.

"What's the message?" she asked.

Axel grinned crookedly. "Tell him to give the experiment to us, or else there will be more of this."

"More of what?" Kairi asked. As an answer, Axel kicked her in the stomach. She fell to her knees. There was a sharp pain in her head as the Flurry of Dancing Flames picked her up by the hair.

"More of this" Axel breathed. His breath smelled like burning wood. He summoned one of his chakrams. Kairi was suddenly very afraid. He wouldn't kill her, but he might do something very nasty. With amazing strength he pulled her head back, while holding one of the weapon's blades to her face. Kairi felt its sharpness against her nose. Then sizzling pain followed as he ran the blade across her nose upward between her eyes, and to stop right before it reached her forehead.

"Ahhhhh!" Kairi screamed. She clutched both hands to the slash and fell to her knees on the floor. She could feel her cupped hands filling up with warm blood.

"More of that" said Axel. "Tell him that if he doesn't…if he doesn't---" Axel's voice began to break up as if he were crying. Then he began to speak almost too fast for her to understand. "What's that Uncle Winston? Did you see? I used the chakrams Father left! Did you see? Did you?" he walked around the room, waving his hands in the air. Then he stopped and seemed to gather himself. "I-I'm sorry about that" he breathed. He tried a laugh and failed. "I wouldn't have done that if I didn't have to" he said. "It…it's just that Xemnas, you know…? He's…he's on me and t-there are these dreams, and…anyway, it shouldn't be too…"

"You're not sorry" Kairi sobbed, tears and blood dripping down her face. "You're a Nobody. You have no emotions!"

Axel staggered back as if he had been slapped in the face. "Well, if that's the way you want it" he said and disappeared into a Dark Corridor. But before it vanished, Kairi thought she heard him say, "Do you think they'll let me in the City Guard?"

Kairi stumbled to her feet. She looked at her splintered reflection in the shattered glass of the display in the middle of the room. The injury was bleeding so much that it was hard to tell how long, wide, or deep it went. Kairi could see it was much like the injury that Leon, that man at Radiant Garden had. It was a little longer. Kairi fled the Mansion, tripping over roots and bushes in the woods. She fell through the hole in the wall of Twilight Town, got up and still kept running. Kairi didn't know where she was going. All she knew was that she had to run.

People gave her wide berth. She realized that it must look. Her face was horribly pale and covered with blood. Blood had spattered down the front of her dress and neck. She looked like someone escaped from a nightmare asylum. She ran into the alley near the Usual Spot.

Suddenly she bumped into someone. "Kairi!" said Riku's voice. "Watch where you're going, what---God!" he burst out when he saw her condition. "Kairi what the hell happened to you?!"

Tearfully, Kairi told him what had happened at the Old Mansion, leaving out the part about Namine.

Riku was positively shaking with anger and hate. "They'll pay for this" he said. "Damn! I shouldn't have listened to you! I should have just taken us to the Islands!"

"No Riku" said Kairi. "It's alright; I was the one who insisted we come here. But we have to find Sora. I have to tell him the message they gave him."

Riku sighed, but gave in. "Fine, but let's get you cleaned up. If I showed you to him looking like that, he'd be off take bring down the whole Organization---after beating me up for letting you get in that condition!"

That made Kairi laugh a little bit. She hesitantly touched the injury on her face. It burned and stung like a bad paper cut. The blood had mostly stopped flowing and a large scab was forming. It was going to scar, Kairi knew. She could tell that without any doctor. That was why they had done this to her. To show Sora what could have happened. Axel could just have easily poked the blade into her brain. She began to shiver, and could not stop.

"Kairi! Are you alright?" Riku shouted.

Of course I'm not Kairi wanted to say, but her mouth wouldn't move. She fell to her knees, just like at the Mansion. "…..I'll be fine" she said, recovering her voice at last. "One of the healers at Radiant Garden can tend to me when we get there." She pulled herself to her feet. "Let's go."

"Without saying goodbye to Hayner, Pence, and Ollette?" Riku asked.

"Just get in the ship" Kairi snapped as they teleported to the waiting Gummi ship.