A/N: Sorry, yet again, for the delayed update. I have been busy with work, getting my reading assignments done before classes start the 27th, and of course… playing with my new Nintendo Wii. Oh yeah… I'm cool, I finally got a Wii. lol

But alas, I finally found the time to write the next chap!! My goal is to get this fic finished BEFORE I go back for my LAST semester of nursing school!!! hahahahaha Simply because my schedule will be crazy busy after that with clinicals, lectures, and other things of that nature. Nursing school really is a bitch I'm telling ya….

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Broken Barriers

"Sora…"

Kairi. Her voice… It resonated through the darkness surrounding him as he fell, spiraling down in an unnatural slow motion. He opened his mouth to respond, call out to her… but he found his throat dry and unresponsive against the thin air that encompassed him.

"Sora…"

Underneath him, a familiar pillar of land… the look of stained glass… the image of himself crouching in the center… half dark… half light… The single glowing yellow eye pierced through the black void, and it seemed to lock in on him as he fell closer and closer to it.

All at once, his sneakers connected with the pillar of land as it lit up to illuminate itself, shining underneath him like a beacon. He looked around, trying to peer through the darkness… looking for her…

"Sora…"

He took a step towards where he thought her voice was originating from as a faint outline of a human-shaped form took shape several feet away. He tried once again to call out to her, assure her that he was there… but his voice was lost to the black oblivion. As he made his way over towards the black outline, his feet seemed to drag behind him, the ground unrelenting as it kept him from her. Each step felt weighed down and it expended all his energy just to walk the few feet to where she was standing…

Her crimson hair shown brightly in front of him, her back turned towards him. An inexplicable light seemed to emanate from her entire body, casting her in an angelic glow. He reached out a hand to her, unexplained tears forming behind his sapphire eyes as his heart reached out to her as well. Just before his palm connected with the back of her shoulder, she slowly turned towards him…

"Sora… Your light is fading." Her voice was airy and smooth, and it cut through the void and melted his heart. Although his throat was parched and weak, his expression conveyed his confusion as he shook his head and wrinkled his brow.

"I can not carry the light for us both much longer… You must defeat your Shadow… Time is running out…"

He heaved the thin air in and out of his lungs, trying to muster the breath to respond. "I… I don't... understand…" he managed to say.

"Darkness prevails in the absence of light…" she answered monotonously. "You must regain your light before all is lost."

Tears flowed freely down his cheeks as the glow encapsulating Kairi slowly began to dim, her form fading before his eyes. "Time is running out…" she repeated as she dissipated into the void…

"Kairi!" he cried into the oblivion as he collapsed onto his knees, reaching out to the spot where she had been standing just seconds ago. "Kairi!"

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"Kairi!"

Sora's eyes flew open, a cold sweat dripping across his forehead, hysteria etched into his expression as he tried to slow down his breathing. The room around him was dimly lit by the television that was still on, but he could easily make out the outline of the cheap hotel furniture. As he slowly began to focus his awareness, he breathed a sigh of relief as he felt Kairi's sleeping form still nestled into his chest. A dream… it was only a dream.

He relaxed back into the pillow, careful not to wake the sleeping Princess that he held so close in his arms. He looked down at her, tightening his grip around her ever so slightly, relieved that she was still there and had not disappeared into thin air as she had in his dream.

As he reached up his free hand to wipe the sweat from his brow, he looked over at the blinking clock on the night stand beside him… 12:00, midnight. Where the hell are Riku and Shai?

"Oh Fuck-up, do you really want to know?"

Just as Sora opened his mouth to quietly tell the Shadow in his head to mind his own damn business, he heard the jingle of a key in the lock at the front door.

Seconds later the door swung open quietly and Riku tiptoed into the room.

"Hey man," Sora said in a hushed voice.

"Holy shit dude!" Riku breathed as he shut the door behind him, "I thought you were asleep. You scared the piss out of me!"

Sora chuckled a little as he carefully unwrapped Kairi's arms from his waist and pulled out of her embrace, she moaned a little and reached for him as he got up from the bed. "Just woke up a second ago…" he answered as he gently laid her back onto the pillow he had been leaning against.

"So…?" Riku crossed his arms across his chest as he eyed Kairi and then Sora. "What happened?"

"What?! N-nothing!" Sora answered quickly. "We just fell asleep, t-that's all!"

Riku rolled his eyes as he uncrossed his arms, "I can see that, Dumbass. Get your mind out of the gutter… I mean, did you tell her?!"

"Oh…" Sora blushed a little as he rubbed at his neck, "Um… yeah. I, uh… I told her everything."

"Good," Riku nodded understandingly. "Well… guess you better get her back over into her own room. We've got a long day again tomorrow."

"Yeah…" Sora's face softened as he returned his attention to his sleeping Princess. "Kai…" he whispered as he tucked a stray wisp of hair behind her ear, "You awake?"

She moaned tirelessly and stirred a little.

"You always were a heavy sleeper…" he laughed quietly as he wrapped his arms under her still body and lifted her up off the bed. She groaned softly and nuzzled her head in the crook of his neck, "Hey Riku, can you get the door?"

Riku nodded and pulled the door open that connected their room to the girls' room. He knocked lightly on the girls' side of the door before Shai opened it slowly from the other side.

She smiled when she saw Sora holding Kairi asleep in his arms, "Oh! Oops… did I lock Kairi out of our room on accident? Silly me…" she giggled as she gave Riku a knowing smile.

"Yeah," Riku winked and smiled along with her as Sora squeezed past them to lay Kairi down on her bed, "Silly you…"

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"We must work on putting up a barrier in your heart. So to keep your light in your heart safe from the darkness in your heart…"

"A barrier… To keep my light safe…"

"A separation of light and darkness… to protect the light still left in your heart from being consumed while you tap into your darkness…"

No more secrets. No more lies. The walls in Sora's heart had finally fallen and the boarded up feeling that he had been carrying in his chest for over two and half years had finally vanished. And for the first time in a long time, he was truly happy…

As he awaited the start of their first semi-final round, his fingers itched with impatience. The warm feeling in his heart may have clouded his mind and fogged his vision to the point that all he could see was Kairi's smiling face… but his natural reflexes still honed in on his impending battle, so that his entire body was restless with anticipation without him even realizing it. He wasn't even completely aware of the flag that dropped to the dirt signaling the start of the battle until Riku's voice pierced his thoughts right before Tetsu's sword jabbed at his side. Instantly, his reflexes took charge and he back flipped to dodge the attack, narrowly missing the blade of Tetsu's weapon as it lunged forward.

"Sora!!" Riku yelled as Way to Dawn sliced the air at one of Tetsu's teammates, "Get your head out of the fucking clouds dude!!"

Tetsu… The blond menace… The chocolate-eyed scumbag that had tried so desperately to come between Kairi and him… Sora had surprisingly almost forgotten about the jerk, being so caught up in recent events. With Riku's words grounding him back to reality, he snapped out of his thoughtfulness… a dark glare replacing the distant look in his eyes, his jaw set in determination.

His fingers tingled with excitement as he met Tetsu's chocolate glare with vigor, "I'm surprised you didn't 'reschedule' your team again, Tetsu," he smirked as he summoned Oathkeeper in a flash of light. "Finally decide to come back for the rest of your ass-whipping?"

"Don't humor yourself, I'm finishing what I started," Tetsu growled as he twirled his sword in his fingers, the sun reflecting brightly off its silver blade.

Sora snickered and rolled his eyes at his attempt at intimidation, "Whatever you say dude…"

Sora's nonchalant attitude towards Tetsu's threat only caused his brow to furrow deeper and his glare to darken. His knuckles blanched as he tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword. Without retaliating verbally, he lunged another attack at Sora.

Sora backpedaled, easily shielding himself with Oathkeeper as Tetsu's strength waned with each hit. "Is that the best you got?!" Sora yelled, an eerie smile spreading across his face.

Tetsu growled in frustration, pausing his attacks only briefly to regain his ground and plant his feet more firmly on the sandy arena floor.

Sora saw his chance and quickly swung the Oathkeeper in a series of unrelenting combos, some colliding with Tetsu, others not. The manic laughter in Sora's head went unnoticed as he finished his last combo and retreated to the other side of the arena as one of Tetsu's teammates had come to his friend's aid.

As Sora battled with the young man that had come to Tetsu's rescue, he faintly heard Kairi's cry as Tetsu's sword pierced the skin just under her right arm. With her scream, Sora's world stopped.

He turned to the source of her cry, his face in a panic as he watched her collapse to the sand, blood pouring between her fingers as she gripped her side in agony. "Kairi!"

Tetsu sword dripped with Kairi's blood in long sticky streams that sifted with the sands below him. He had gone after Kairi… And not only that, but he had hurt her…

For Sora, the next few moments were a blur…

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A/N: Okay, so I'm thinking two, maybe three, chapters left… I know… it's super sad.

But! Have no fear… for I have already posted the first chapter of my next exciting fic, "I'll Be Seeing You", staring none other than Sora, Kairi, and Riku!! TADA!! Check it out, it's golden.

AND!! Give Brightshadow 5 some love on his new fic, "Kingdom Hearts: The Angel Experiment"