The second Lea is through the portal, Aerith is taking Roxas from his arms and is placing him on the table nearby. The blond is barely responding and Kairi fears that he might not make it. She makes her way over to the couch, which no one had moved since they brought it out here, and gently lays Sora down on it. She gingerly checks for a pulse, barely relieved when she feels the slightest beat of Sora's heart.
Behind her, Leon and Aerith are trying to get Roxas to just breathe again and Kairi can feel herself shaking. Xehanort had been…terrifying. Way more powerful than she remembered him being. More powerful than Sora had said. He'd made mincemeat out of them.
How are we supposed to beat him?
She shakes her head, throwing the bad thoughts out. Sora and Riku had beaten him on their own. Surely their group could beat him now.
"Open his mouth." She hears Ienzo command, surprised because she hadn't heard him come in.
"Why?" Lea demands, probably with a little more heat than he'd intended.
"Because if we heal him like this, he still won't be able to breathe when we're done." Leon pushes Lea out of the way and forces the nonresponsive Roxas' mouth open.
Kairi looks away as Ienzo pushes a small tube down Roxas' throat. She turns to see Ven who looks more shaken than she'd ever seen him.
"Are you okay?" She asks, diverting his attention from his own thoughts. "Not…mentally, cause something went on back there, I don't know what, but I know something went on. But…you're not hurt? Bleeding? I know he knocked you around a bit."
"I…I'm fine." Ven nods, "But…"
Ven looks like he's going to cry so Kairi pulls him close.
"You can tell me when you're ready." Kairi runs her hand through the short hair at the back of his neck.
Loud coughing interrupts them. Not the kind that someone makes to purposefully interrupt a situation, but genuine coughing.
The two turn their attention to see Roxas curling up on his side, the tube now removed, and coughing while trying to – and succeeding at – draw in oxygen. But it sounds like he's actually getting air into his lungs, so Kairi feels relieved.
Then Leon turns away from Roxas with a cold expression, "What happened? Where's Riku?"
Ven chimes in, "That's a good question. Where is Riku?" He looks at Kairi, worried.
Kairi sighs, looking down, "We walked right into a trap. Xehanort…he…" Kairi sighs before sitting down on the couch next to Sora.
The world explodes in darkness and Kairi is sent flying. Riku catches her and breaks her fall. She looks up to see a white haired young man standing on the balcony above the doorway.
"Xehanort." Riku hisses, summoning his Keyblade.
Sora, on the other side of the room, does the same. Xehanort notices the movement and looks shocked to see Sora standing there.
"You really are quite tenacious, Sora." Sora glares at him and falls back into a defensive stance, his face displaying more rage than Kairi's ever seen.
"While it's flattering that you want to fight me again so soon, I'm not here to bother with you. With any of you." Xehanort, who looks so much younger than she'd imagined/remembered, looks past all of them and Kairi gasps when she sees Ven lying in a limp pile in the corner.
The blast had been aimed at him.
"What do you want with him?!" Sora demands.
"What is rightfully mine!" He smirks, "My X-Blade."
Riku dashes over to Sora so that the two of them stand between Xehanort and the semi-conscious Ven. Xehanort glances between the two of them for a moment before laughing.
"My, Sora. I didn't think you were capable of such a thing. Though I suppose you just took the idea from Ventus." He steps off of the railing and floats down to the floor.
Roxas and Lea stand behind Xehanort, who hasn't noticed them. Or perhaps he knows they're there but he doesn't deem them dangerous enough.
Kairi runs over to her best friends and stands on the other side of Sora, Keyblade ready in her hands.
Xehanort jerks his arm back, darkness swirling around it, before swinging it out in a wave and sending an arc of darkness careening at them.
Kairi darts out of the way, watching as her two friends do the same. As Kairi stands, she sees Xehanort block one Chakram and then another with his hands. Roxas charges at Xehanort, swinging Oathkeeper and Oblivion at the same time in an X.
Xehanort summons a terrifying Keyblade and swings upward, breaking Roxas' attack. He reaches out with his hand and grabs Roxas by the throat and holds him in the air. Roxas struggles and tries to swing his Keyblades at Xehanort, but the white haired man blocks it easily with his own Keyblade.
"I'm really just here for my spawn, so forgive me for not playing with you longer."
Kairi watches as Roxas' face contorts in pain. She panics and stands on shaking legs.
I have to help him! She panics.
But he flings Roxas away as if he weighs nothing and the blond crashes right into Lea. Kairi notices that something is wrong with Roxas immediately and Lea must notice too because he's hovering over Roxas with his back turned to the fight.
Then he turns to Sora and Riku, across the room from Kairi, and stalks towards them. Both of her boys fall into a defensive stance. Not surprisingly, Riku takes a tentative step in front of Sora.
Xehanort laughs, "Oh, do the two of you really think you'll be any more formidable?."
Sora glares at him, but neither of them respond to Xehanort's taunts.
Instead of attacking them, the silver haired man turns and starts walking to Ven, who is still lying on the floor but doesn't seem to be aware of anything going on around him.
Riku charges at Xehanort with Sora right behind him. But he sees it coming. Riku and Sora jump into the air and try to have gravity add to the force of their aerial attack, but Xehanort slams his Keyblade into Riku's side and sends him flying to the side. His move brings him out of the way of Sora's attack, and the brunet lands on his feet and spins to attack again.
Kairi races forward and swings her Keyblade at Xehanort, but he turns and blocks her attack as well. He blocks both of their attacks, despite the effort and fervor they put into them. Kairi can feel herself getting angry. She tries to not let it get to her, but it must because Xehanort finds an opening in her stance and exploits it by slamming the hilt of his Keyblade into her gut.
The wind gets knocked out of her and she goes sliding back quite a way, but her feet never leave the ground.
Kairi looks up in time to see Riku getting to his feet and Xehanort knocks Sora's Keyblade out of his hands. Kairi's not alarmed – she knows he can summon it back – until Xehanort grabs Sora by his shirt and hefts him into the air.
"You're all becoming very troublesome. I should just get rid of you. Permanently." He aims his Keyblade at Sora's heart.
"NO! SORA!" Riku yells as he gets to his feet.
Xehanort looks over at Riku and smirks. He dissolves his Keyblade in a swathe of darkness and smiles. It's disturbing and terrifying and Kairi never wants to see it again.
"But why kill you when I can incapacitate you both in one go?"
Kairi feels dread fill her heart when he lifts his hand in Riku's direction. Darkness quickly forms a puddle underneath Riku. Riku tries to get out of the way before he gets stuck but a large pair of black hands reach up and grasp at his legs, knocking Riku onto his stomach.
"Riku!" Sora panics and struggles in Xehanorts' grip.
Kairi runs over to Riku, hoping to banish the darkness with her light but another pair of arms surface and grab onto Riku, pulling him into the darkness faster.
She's almost there when she hears Sora's desperate cries, "No! RIKU!"
He's pulled into the floor and the portal disappears right as Kairi reaches it. She looks to Xehanort with rage in her heart but she stops short as she watches the life drain from Sora almost instantaneously. He's limp in Xehanorts' grasp with his head lolling to the side and his eyes are completely blank.
Sora hangs in Xehanorts grip like a rag doll as he shakes the brunet a bit.
"Did you honestly think that would work without being exploited?" She knows he's not talking to her.
She's starting to think he doesn't think she's a threat at all. It may be true, but it's still insulting and it pisses her off.
"What did you do to them?!"Kairi yells, clutching her Keyblade with a death-grip.
"He'd make an excellent vessel like this." Xehanort lifts one of Sora's limp arms and drops it.
Kairi charges forward and swings her Keyblade in an arc, only to be blocked by Xehanort's hand. She freezes in fear as he turns to look at her. A powerful force throws her back. She feels herself collide with a wall and the wall gives out.
Her world goes white for a bit, like static on her grandma's old television, before she blinks and the world is back.
"When I came to, Xehanort was holding Ven, so I charged him and made him drop Ven. Then Ven asked about his friends and what Xehanort could have done with them and he said something about a Master and a failure and it got Ven pretty pissed. Then Lea attacked him with this huge fireball and we ran."
Leon, Cloud, and Aerith all stare at her with a look of astonishment.
"Fascinating." Ienzo mutters.
That snaps the others out of their stupor.
"What is?" Leon asks.
"Kairi, were those his exact words?" Ienzo looks at her and she can feel the seriousness in his gaze, "As accurately as I can remember. It all happened so fast."
"It sounds right to me." Lea back her up as he sits next to Roxas and places his hand on the blond's shoulder.
He's probably still worried.
"Then I believe we've found the cause for Sora's feinting spells." Ienzo closes his eyes in thought, "The first time was right after Riku left to go get Kairi. The second was after Riku had gone to fight Heartless, and just now when Riku was taken into the Realm of Darkness. Assuming that's where Xehanort sent him."
"You're saying Sora's been feinting whenever Riku leaves?" Leon asks incredulously.
"I think so. If we can get Riku back, Sora should wake up. Provided that my theory is correct."
"But Sora didn't feint when Riku left for the Canyon, he feinted out of the blue." Kairi argues. She'd been standing right next to Sora. He hadn't feinted when Riku left.
"Perhaps he has to be a certain distance away?" Aerith comments. "Riku used a portal to go get you, right? Well when the portal closes it cuts off the connection, so Sora's connection to his heart was severed."
"Again, this is all speculation." Ienzo interrupts, "We'll have to get Riku back and test to see if Sora will wake up."
"And how do you suppose we get Riku back? He's kind of stuck in the realm of darkness, which is toxic to all humans. Which we are." Kairi wants to smack Lea for the sarcastic tone he's using.
"I think you're forgetting about me." Roxas pipes up from where he's lying.
Everyone turns to Roxas, who looks exhausted, in silence.
"What?" He asks defensively, "I'm a Nobody. And I still have my Organization XIII coat which protects me from Darkness."
"You are not going into the realm of Darkness alone." Lea snaps.
"You can't tell me what to do." Roxas glares at Lea as he sits up, "And Sora would do it for you."
"I don't care what Sora would do. The idiot has literally ripped his heart out of his chest TWICE."
"I don't have a heart to rip out and that's not even what we're talking about. I'm not at risk from the Darkness and I can easily take out any Heartless."
"Lea's right." Kairi interrupts as she folds her arms over her chest.
"See? Kairi's backing me up. That means it's a bad idea." Lea smirks.
"That's why I'm going with him."
Lea whips his head to look at her so fast that she thinks it has to hurt. She thinks his eye might be twitching, but she brushes it off.
"Are you insane? The Realm of Darkness will -"
"Do absolutely nothing to me." Kairi interrupts him.
"I agree with Kairi. Roxas shouldn't go alone and she's the only other candidate who won't be affected." Cloud stands beside Kairi, "She is a Princess of Heart, after all. No darkness to be found in her."
Lea looks like he's going to burst into flames out of frustration.
"I agree with you all, but Roxas has to rest first." Leon interrupts them all, "He's not going to be any help to anyone if he passes out and you're both stranded there as well."
That appeases Lea. Kind of. He looks less likely to explode than he was earlier.