Author's Note

Well, here we are again. Life got ... bad and good. Mainly busy. So busy that this might be the first thing I have written in a long time. I feel very guilty about my lack of updates, but with this semester ending, I feel inspired to get back at it. I recently found someone that gives me great inspiration, and I hope that will continue driving me forward, especially to my university graduation in May. So, here I am getting some writing done.

Any updates? Learning Japanese in college, that's hard but fun. I have been addicted to FFXIV. Been recovering well form my surgery. But all of that aside, it's the same ol' me, just busy as always. I am no longer going to neglect this work!

A simple chapter here. It has some really strong characterization and writing in my opinion, but it is a little light on the plot. A good chapter to get us back in the swing of it, I believe.

As always, please read and enjoy the chapter! Leave a review and I'll get back to you at the end!

Chapter V

Darkened, Crested Dunes

Sora flipped the eggs. Pretty good, he thought. Pretty good.

"It's literally only an egg," Riku commented.

"But hey, I'm killing it right now," Sora laughed. He stood in Merlin's kitchenette in just his pajamas, hair messy and wild, face bright and full of energy. His wrist flicked the small pan, and the eggs flew white-over-yellow and slammed back into the pan with a light sizzle.

"Did you see that? I'm too good."

"Sheesh, Sora, save some talent for the rest of us." His best friend barked a short, quippish laugh before magically heating his coffee. The mug glowed a soft red as steam furled from the contents. Yuffie drooled onto the dining table, her cheek flat and spread out along the old, scuffed wood.

"Get it yourself, Riku." Sora flipped the eggs again, and as satisfied as he could be, he served them to Yuffie. She perked up quickly, and began to eat with swift movements.

"Mickey should be here in a bit to explain the missions," Riku said.

"I just hope it's exciting!" Sora replied, cracking open some more eggs. His body flowed to his own rhythm, cooking and fidgeting in the moment. Kairi passed through the threshold into the kitchenette. She wore her favorite outfit for adventure, the familiar pinks and reds laying one over the other. Sora glanced at her and smiled back down at the pan, and sneakily added an extra egg—just for her.

"Smells good in here," she said. Sora began to scramble the food.

"Yes, the master of food himself is at the helm. Please, take a seat and enjoy the show!" Sora proclaimed. The steel of the pan cracked against the oven. Salt and pepper rained lightly into the buttery, hot skillet. His friends' laughter was gentle, but not without enthusiasm. He lay a plate of scrambled eggs in front of Kairi before sitting down across from Riku.

"Do you think it'll be easy to rescue the princesses?" Kairi asked? Sora forked a chunk of sausage and ate it, juice dribbling over his lower lip and down his chin. Riku shoved a napkin into his face, forcing a giggle from both the girls at the table.

"Well, Kai …" he began as he wiped his chin clean, "I've never once had an easy time with Maleficent." She stared downcast into her food. He could read her words as they left her parting lips.

"Yes. We will win." The assertive resonance in his words made them feel like steel, as strong as the Keyblade he called his weapon of choice. Kairi's weapon was a fierce, unwavering heart. And Riku's was determination. The three of them shared a long glance, as if the bridges to their hearts needed a construction check-up. And when they had agreed, silently, that the wires holding the bridges together were up to code, they all smiled, and resumed eating.

Sora looked over with cheeks puffed out from too much food to find Merideth sitting at a window, looking out at the morning haze. Her hands lay neatly in her lap. It was hard to tell if she was even breathing. Sora wondered about her, and felt a familiar presence nagging at the far reaches of his mind. Her eyes, her stare, the way she acted like a doll without comfort … it all felt familiar to him.

Kairi! his mind shouted. She reminded him of Kairi when her heart had taken refuge within his own. Kairi was almost lifeless when she sat unblinking on Captain Hook's ship. And that's the feeling he got when he saw Merideth's blank stare into a window.

She's staring out of the window, Sora, not into it he told himself. But part of him wasn't so sure.

"Hey, Merideth! Do you want me to make you some food?" he called out. She blinked a few times, almost if he had woken her from a deep slumber. Her very long, blonde hair shifted along her back as she faced him. The corners of her mouth bent upwards in a small smile, and her eyes closed.

"Oh, no thank you, Sora. I ate earlier when only Merlin was awake." That smile of hers widened a bit. And the eerie feeling of remembering a lifeless Kairi doll left his heart. He smiled back.

"Geez, I couldn't wake up that early even if Kingdom Hearts itself were crashing through my room." They both shared a laugh, and in a few moments, her body twisted back to most definitely look out of the window, the laughter filtering out of her like a withering lung, and then she was a statue yet again.

His head jerked back at the counter where he had prepared the breakfast for the others. The pudgy brown of the wood was partially obscured by the young woman, swathed in her black cloak. Split ends of fabric riddled the cloak, as if the thing were nearly coming apart from the inside out. The edges were torn, and the thickness of it pressed heavily into Alexia.

"Oh, hey." Sora scratched his cheek. There had been no noise, and he was unsure if she had just materialized out of thin air. Her head turned slightly over her left shoulder, silver strands of thin hair falling lazily over the tops and back of her shoulders, but not much after that. She blinked a few times, opened her mouth, but thought better of it and continued to fixing her own breakfast. She ignored the sausage that was prepared and instead readied a simple oatmeal.

While Sora talked with his friends, and the Radiant Garden group were busy at work around the house, it almost seemed like a normal life, or even a normal adventure without the threat of Maleficent and the kidnappings. And he laughed, he smiled, and he ate into his breakfast bit by bit—as sloppily as ever—and wondered aloofly, like he was falling through clouds, just where the next leg of the journey would take him.

The chatter of the house was broken about an hour later when King Mickey arrived. The door scuffed open, bringing in a gust of harsh wind from outside, and then he shut it with a slam. He bounded to the center of the large living room, leaping from furniture piece to piece, and pressed a button along the wall. Cloud beckoned Sora to come over. Sora stood up, grabbed one last sausage link from the counter, and then was forcibly pulled in by Riku. All of them stood or sat around the room while Mickey stood on top of the circular coffee table. A projection of the worlds appeared, revolving very slowly. The lights went off. Sora's eyes traced the longitude and latitude lines of different worlds, watching them flare in different colors, different brightnesses, and then in horror as some vanished.

"So, the mission." King Mickey bowed his head. The soft cloth of his gloves rubbed against one another as his pulled lightly at the joints of his small fingers. He gave them all a long glance, sighed deeply like along wind passing through the cavern of his throat, and then began.

"The only princesses to have been taken are Snow White and Cinderella," he said with utmost certainty, and Sora felt uneasy with that. It was like his words were cementing truth into his bones.

"Then all we gotta do is save them, right? I've done it once before, I'll do it again." Sora clenched his fist tightly along his side, and his teeth gritted down. This was no joke to him, as he was normally the joking guy, but now he was serious, and seriousness meant lives were going to be saved. The fun of cracking eggs earlier was slipping away, being replaced by determination.

"It's not so simple, Sora." The cement covered more bones, and locked them harder. Both fists tightened now. "Maleficent has control of the Organization's old castle, and probably the largest army of Heartless ever imagined. She is more powerful than ever. Not only is she taking the princesses again, but worlds are also blinking out." As he said it, some specs of light within the hologram disappeared.

"We'll beat her." Sora looked straight into the black eyes of the king. He felt warmth from those dark eyes, warmth and hope that tried to fill him, yearned to believe him. Sora screamed at his bones to break through that cement and show the king—to show everyone that he was going to do this again.

"Besides, I have Kairi and Riku with me this time. We're unstoppable now." For a moment the grin returned. For a moment he swayed and nudged into Cloud. For a moment he really thought it was a done deal, that they had won before they began.

"Riku is staying here."

His word left without thought. "What?"

Riku, as if now realizing he was indeed a part of this mission briefing, blindly reiterated, "What?" Even some of the Radiant Garden gang shifted in their seats. Who didn't expect the three of them to go on this last journey together?

"I fear the worst. I believe this will be our final conflict with Maleficent, but I also think she will not go down without a war."

War was one of those words, Sora had learned, that you did not say idly. At three letters, it was one of the biggest words he knew, a word that brought with it many others, notably death. He felt the cement drag him further down, so much that he had to sit in a chair next to him. The old leather indented silently, the wood creaked slightly. War was something he never thought of.

"Do you mean she is going to attack Radiant Garden?" Kairi asked. She held a hand over her chest, her bracelet and lucky charm resting against her.

Promise me you'll bring it back.

"I don't know where she is going to attack, how, when …" King Mickey sat down harshly on the table, and the hologram flickered off, the lights coming up. "But we need to prepare."

"Sora, Kairi … you will take your Nobodies and Merideth to different worlds, seal the Keyholes, and save the princesses before they are captured. Riku, you will take Alexia and go on various errands between Radiant Garden, Twilight Town, and Destiny Islands. Gang," he said, turning to the rest, "you will stay here and start up our base of operations. This is what we're doing for the time being and I am going to go back to my castle and and make sure its defenses hold up."

The room was silent, each member of this force staring into their king. His voice shook into their bones, and the cement finally broke away, and Sora felt that regalness emanate from him stronger than he ever had before. He felt fire stir within him, licking at his muscles, pushing past his pores, releasing.

"Is that clear, everyone?"

"Yes, Your Majesty." It was unanimous and in sync. No one was going to back down from the call.

"I'm very proud of the determination you've already shown, just show more, and we'll get 'em for sure this time."

Promise me …

Under his breath, very shallowly, he breathed out "I promise" and locked his jaw. Mickey's mouth opened and closed, but the words sounded like ocean waves, crashing over him, through him. He had one thing on his mind, and that was to bring them all back. Every princess, and then when they were so indisputably safe that even Mickey himself couldn't harm them, then he was going to bring back the light and end Maleficent once and for all.

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THW
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Riku was the first to go through the aged, metal door and out into the back lot. The Highwind was resting there like a giant beast sleeping away the winter, and he felt that for just a moment, if he weren't looking, it would pounce upon him and take them both into deep darkness.

Of course it won't. It's not a Heartless.

Sora followed soon after. Riku looked at his best friend, who was smiling as if he were going to the beach, and not the aggravatingly hot sands of Agrabah. But that was Sora, and he always smiled. Riku often wondered if it was a perfectly constructed mask, something he has made with such scrutiny, that it would never falter. It wasn't like when they were kids. He almost never smiled then. Riku approached him.

"Sora … I—"

"I'm … I'm s-sorry, Riku." Sora was crying again. And Riku wasn't. Sora was holding the broken halves of a toy boat, no longer than half a meter, in both of his trembling, five-year-old hands. Riku wondered if each half could sail through Sora's tears, or if they would sink in the mess.

"Sora, it's okay." It wasn't, really. He had spent a few weeks making that toy boat with used popsicle sticks and glue from his aunt and uncle's workshop room. It was the kind of glue to repair furniture, and he thought that it had to be good enough for some simple popsicle sticks. It was definitely worth sneaking into the workshop at night, stealing a bit of glue, glob by glob, like it was some rare pirate's treasure, and then going back to his room to finish his boat.

"It … it is?" Sora's words choked through his tears, like his throat muscles were contracting randomly.

No, it isn't. "Yeah, Sora. It's okay."

Sora's tears slowly dried, just like the popsicle sticks after their ice cream had been eaten. Riku felt his first ever moment of sadness, mixed with anger. But he couldn't be angry at Sora for what was an accident. It wasn't in Sora's control, even if he wanted to believe it was. This was his best friend, and he realized now, at the young age of six, that being best friends meant that not everything was fun, happy, or without worry. Right now he also felt sadness, and anger because Sora had broken his boat. But it was also being best friends that meant you looked at the broken boat, and you say "It's just popsicle sticks."

It was just popsicle sticks.

"I-I can help you make a new one!" Sora said. A small smile crept into his face, but it slowly drowned to monotone. "But you don't have anymore popsicle sticks, do you?"

"No, I don't."

"Then what can we do?"

We don't need to build anything at all. Just let me build what I want. But he couldn't think these things, because he cared about Sora, like he was a little, annoying brother that cried too much. We don't need to build anything at all.

"How about we build a big raft? With logs and rope and everything. It'll take a long time, but we can do that." And if Riku had to be honest with his best friend, he would have said the idea kind of made him excited.

"Are you sure? It'll be hard … and what if I break something?" Sora didn't smile enough.

"C'mon Sora, you need to smile, be happy."

"Why?"

"Because a captain needs to be brave and strong and not scared or sad." And that was the truth to Riku. And while he wanted to be captain, maybe this wouldn't be so bad. Because when he explained this to Sora, Sora's smile broke out wide, wider than he had ever seen it.

"Okay! I'll be captain and you build the raft! I won't break it that way! And I will be brave and smile." Sora laughed. Riku smiled. This was his best friend that he was happy with, angry at, and sad that his boat was splintered down the middle, like a bolt of lightning had struck it from the bottom.

"Sounds like a plan, Sora—"

"Riku?"

Riku shook his head and looked to Sora. His friend had lowered the boarding ramp to the ship. The rest of their friends and allies spilled out of Merlin's house, all saying their respective goodbyes to Kairi, Merideth, and the ethereal visages of Roxas and Naminé. He blinked three times.

"It's nothing." Sora's smile slowly returned.

"Geez, Riku, you had me worried." Riku gave a weak chuckle and smirk. I am worried, Sora.

"You should say goodbye to everyone first," Riku said. Sora nodded sharply, and then began to make rounds, talking to everyone has he got ready to set sail. Kairi replaced Sora's spot, and pulled Riku into a hug.

"I'm gonna miss you, Riku." She held him firmly but with a subtle softness. He returned that sentiment. She still smelled of salt and sand, vanilla laced throughout.

"Take care of him, and of yourself, okay?"

"Of course. We'll all end this, once and for all. Do your part, okay?"

"As always, princess." And that chuckle was more real. She giggled and let go, going over to the King and leaving Riku alone. And then, it felt like the world quieted down, and in fact, that's what happened as the small crowd thinned into the building. King Mickey and Leon waited outside still. Merlin was busy magicking Sora, Kairi, and Merideth's belongings into the gummi ship. Sora came back to him.

And again, he felt this anger and sadness. But it also just wasn't Sora's fault this happened. Just like the toy boat all those years ago. Sora wrapped his arms tightly around Riku, a hug much more cementing than Kairi's. Riku held his best friend just as tightly.

"Be careful, Sora. Take care of them, and yourself."

"Well duh, I got this."

Riku wouldn't let Sora see his own tears. They were small and dried before the two boys let go. But that hug showed only love, and strong love like real brothers shared.

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too."

And when both felt their tears stop, and the love flow through both of their hearts, they broke away, and they both smiled. Be a strong captain. Brave.

"I'll see you soon, and then we'll kick Maleficent's butt!" Sora smiled as wide as when Riku told him he would be captain of the raft when they were six and five.

She isn't just popsicle sticks. None of this is just popsicle sticks. Why do you just have to leave … ?

"That's the spirit. Now get going." Sora smiled and nodded, bounding to the ramp and up into the ship where the two girls were waiting for him. Roxas melded with Sora as Naminé formed with Kairi.

"See you all soon!" Sora called out with a goofy wave. The ramp lifted and shifted into the ship before steam started to sputter out of it. Don't cry anymore, Sora.

And the ship sailed off, roaring like the beast it was. Riku watched it until he could no longer see it, or hear it. Don't cry anymore.

His cyan eyes didn't leave that sky for nearly ten minutes.

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THW
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Kairi snapped out of her chair in the cockpit. Cloud had tried to teach her the workings of the gummi ship, but the time they spent together had been too brief to accomplish any real groundwork in her brain. She had been unable to retain a lot of what he had said. And now they were on the way to Agrabah, a world Kairi had been very excited to see. She missed Jasmine, as well as the other princesses, and wanted to see the homes of them all.

"But I'm telling ya, Kai, it's so hot there," Sora complained. He shifted the ship into autopilot. Splattered on the navigation screen in big, blue letters, the travel time was estimated at a bit over three days. There was a quiet thrum that vibrated through the whole ship. It felt like a part of Kairi, like it was in the back of her mind, but always there.

"Then we'll dress accordingly and drink plenty of water. Don't tell me you wore your normal clothes in the desert, Sora?" She giggled softly at his expense. He threw his hands up in defense.

"It's not like we had time to go shopping for desert clothes, Kai!"

"For two years you never bought appropriate clothes for different places? You're almost seventeen and you can't shop for some simple travel clothes?" The giggles burst into laughter like bubbling water blasting into a geyser. Sora opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then huffed, crossing his arms and walking away. Kairi had to wipe tears from her eyes.

"I'm glad Merlin and Leon packed us some travel necessities like desert clothes," Kairi called out after him. The door that led in and out of the cockpit whooshed up automatically. Out in the "living room" of sorts was Merideth. She sat still on a very worn sofa, staring into a blank television.

"Hey, Merideth," Kairi said, taking a seat next to her. "Sora is clueless, you'll have to get used to it."

"Hey!"

"Yes, I see this."

"HEY!"

Kairi felt that the laughter was starting to hurt. Merideth smiled a bit, and Sora was off complaining to anyone or anything that would listen, mainly himself and the surrounding objects.

"Merideth, you're pretty quiet, aren't you?" Kairi asked. The young woman's blonde hair flowed around her like liquid light, sunbeams cascading over defined shoulders. And those dark, green eyes stared out like pockets of forest caught in the sun.

"I guess so. I remember being this way for a long time."

"Where are you from?"

"I don't remember. It feels like a part of my life is just … missing. I want to travel and find it." Kairi blinked in confusion. How could someone's life be missing? But then the sudden boldness from Merideth took her by surprise.

"Well, I am glad you are helping us while you try to find your answers." Merideth stared at her, or maybe it was through her, and then smiled more.

"I'll find my light." Kairi shared her smile for a brief moment. Then Merideth got up and walked over to the hallway that led to their bedrooms. Sora was over in the kitchen, still complaining to the air. And Kairi slumped back into the couch. It smelled like feathers, dog, and Sora.

"What a weird mix," she muttered quietly. She yearned for more of the Sora in it all, but broke from that, looking over at the real deal. He was, indeed, clueless.

"Sora, are you quite done over there?" He stopped instantly. His mouth was locked open in the middle of his sentence, his leg hiked up awkwardly, a punch cocked back and ready to punch an imaginary Heartless.

"Uh … no." And then he punched that Heartless before laughing and walking back to her. He plopped into the sofa hard enough to make it scoot on the floor. He kicked his shoes off and chucked them into a corner and then laid out on the couch, propping his legs on and over Kairi, his feet on the armrest. He had leg hair now, and it was fine and almost blond. She sighed and locked her hands together, resting her arms on his legs. He smelled of salt, sand, and some dark cologne she had never known the name of. Its name to her was Sora, and that's all it ever had to be.

"The princesses will be fine, right, Sora?" she asked. He rolled to his side so that his calves pressed into her stomach, and he bent one arm under his head. He reached onto the floor and grabbed an old remote, covered in dust and old crumbs. The television glowed to life, and it was just world news out of Radiant Garden. News about the world order being broken, and how panic was spreading.

"I'm sure they will, Kai. I haven't failed yet. And this time I already have you with me." He was watching the television, and she allowed herself to smile and blush. His face was blank for once. He needed to shave again already. She felt her heart beat in her chest like a drum in a parade, large and loud thuds in the cage of her body. Was this journey one long parade?

Don't be silly, we're not on a parade.

But they were definitely marching for something, to the sound of their own hearts. But something about Sora made her's beat a little harder and a little faster. Maybe it was because her heart had once taken refuge within his own, that that single act had linked them together. But that was wrong, she thought. She had always felt her heart flutter more quickly around him, since maybe they were eleven or twelve.

Her hands opened, and her palms rested on his hairy calves, the fingers wrapping very softly along the muscle. Her fingers grazed over small scars that curved along his legs like calligraphy script. "Sora, I—"

"Wait, Kairi! Look at this!" Sora had cut her off. He recently turned twelve, just a month after herself. She sighed and sat back down on a log, and leaned back against the small shed on their play islet. He darted inside, and there was shuffling, and the sound of wood knocking against wood. He fumbled back out, tripping over his own feet in his excitement. He kicked up sand with bare feet. His white shirt with blue trim, red shorts … it all made him uniquely him. It was Sora, and that's all he had to be, Kairi thought.

He was holding a wooden sword, hand-carved from driftwood. It was simple, with some twine wrapped tightly around the handle for a grip. He swung it goofily in the air a few times.

"Riku made it for me!" He stabbed forward, piercing the armor of some great warrior.

Kairi was impressed that Riku had carved it. Sora continued to swing it in different arcs and motions, and already he was rapidly controlling his form. And it was in that moment that she first noticed his body, that his old favorite shirt was getting too small for him, and that he was developing muscles like Riku.

And her heart fluttered, beating to a parade that had started some long time ago, a time in a secret cave unadorned by drawings. The parade, then, didn't have drums to guide it, but when Sora threw his arms overhead in a long strike, lifting his shirt up too high, she found the drums … and they were loud.

His calf muscle flexed under her fingers, pulling her out of her thoughts. He looked over his shoulder at her with just one eye as blue as the ocean.

"What were you saying Kai?"

We're not on a parade, Sora, didn't you know?

"I'm just glad we're together for this journey." Her words tumbled out of her mouth like cascading dominos, as if the pieces clacked together harshly. He simply smiled and looked back at the television, and his body shifted, pushing into her even more.

"I'm happy, too."

She smiled at that and felt her body relax, and her eyes grew heavy as if small beings were yanking them down. The television's sound droned through her ears and the world darkened slightly. Her hands lay on his leg still, and sleep took her.

Later, Kairi awoke with a start. The shadowed claws of Heartless that had pierced her abdomen faded with the nightmare. The room was dark save the flickering of the television. Her body had slumped over sideways and into Sora, who had curled in such a way as to allow her room. She realized in that moment that she had a death grip on his leg, and let go.

"That's not a Keyblade," she whispered to herself. She began to sit up straight, her mess of hair tangled around her face, but then stopped. His body was warm and somehow soft over his toned muscles, and she felt herself slide back to where she was, close against him, her head resting on his thigh.

That cologne is so good.

"Should I come out and smell? Or perhaps ask him what it is he wears?" Naminé said. Kairi's face flushed deep red and she went to yell, but closed her mouth instead.

"No, do not make this embarrassing for me." She answered. She felt a giggle resonate from within her heart and then fade. Kairi sighed out and closed her eyes, waiting for him to wake up first. Right now, she was too content to lay here on his legs and feel so attached to him.

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THW
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Merideth wrote in a tattered journal. The binding was coming loose, frayed bits of leather and twine popped out of the spine of it. She wrote with a pen as black as night, with a red, etched eye on the side. Every word she wrote quickly disappeared into the journal. They eye would glow, and she would hear a voice in her head answer back.

Keep a close eye on him. He is vital to my master's plans.

She wrote her reply on the pages, the color of faded straw. The eye glowed again.

Do not fail me, Merideth. I am targeting my own prey, and you must secure the boy for me.

The pen scribbled hard into the notebook, the fingers twitching back and forth violently. She had to lessen her grip, or else she would rip through the page.

Your heart? Your feelings? You can have those back when you have earned them.

And she wanted to cry. She even tried to. She threw the book away into a corner of her gummi ship bedroom. She threw the pen, too, watching the red eye fade. She tried so hard to force tears out of her eyes. She even clawed into her arms as hard as she could. But her heart couldn't will sadness out of her. It only bore frustration at the lack of any other emotion.

She sat there trying to cry for a good part of the night, but withered skeletons can't cry.

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THW
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A few short days later, Sora pulled the gummi ship to a complete halt. The last days had been spent training with both the girls, trying to get them more prepared for the journey to come. He had quickly surmised that Kairi was going to be very good at magic. And Merideth was a pro with her bow, able to take any target out he made for her. Roxas and Naminé had also trained with their newfound ability to become whole by the magic of their Keyblades.

Below them, twirling forever, was the mass of the world of Agrabah.

"We're finally here!" Kairi exclaimed. Sora nodded and went to putting the ship in hibernation mode. He pocketed the device that they would have to use to beam them back onto the ship as well.

"Do you guys have everything you need?" Sora asked as he got up. He was decked out in his favorite adventuring attire, slightly fixed to fit him better by Merlin. Kairi was wearing her favorite gear, too, and Merideth wore an assortment of black leathers. Her golden hair really stuck out because of it, like a sun in a lake of black water.

"Yeah," they both said. He motioned them to the beaming room, a small thing just off the cockpit. The three of them crammed in and the doors sealed shut.

"Well, Kairi, Merideth, our adventure begins. Let's go and secure Jasmine!" Sora smiled widely, and for some reason he felt the urge to grab their hands. He squeeze them firmly and looked between the two sets of eyes staring back at him. He felt fire and confidence swirl inside of him and burst out like an explosion.

"Let's kick Maleficent's butt and take back the light!" The girls smiled just like he did, and they all flashed in a blink of light.

Moments later, they appeared at the bottom of a dune, the harsh sands blowing all around them. Sora quickly wrapped his desert shawl around his face, and pulled some goggles out of his pocket and put them on. He looked to see if Kairi and Merideth were with them, and he was thankful that they were. Like him, they were wrapping up.

He motioned with his hand to follow him. They climbed away from the swirling sands and up a very large dune. The sand crumbled underfoot, making the climb a rough one. After a few labored minutes, they reach the top, and Sora felt his limbs go numb, his jaw go slack, and his hair prickle all over his body.

"What in the …"

The trio stood at the top of this dune, and all the dunes in front of them, the sand that spanned between them and the city of Agrabah, was fractured. Large gashes of purple and black streaked across the land. Sand fell like waterfalls into the open wounds. Purple smoke drifted from them, and darkness clouded the air like a fog. Kairi gripped his arm.

"Sora … look …" She held out a trembling hand. He followed her gaze and felt his mind stutter. The entire city of Agrabah was swirling in a bubble of darkness. He could barely see the palace's form behind it all. The sands crashed as darkness tore great rifts through the dunes. His jaw clenched tightly, brows furrowed.

Agrabah had grown dark, and they had been too late.

Post Author's Note

Well, there we have it! Another chapter done, and one of my favorite scenes in this current rewrite. I really enjoyed writing Riku's POV, and I want to take Kairi in a different direction than before. Same destination, but a different way of getting there. And I believe Merideth has improved so much since she was last seen as a "character."

Thanks for sticking with me my few loyal readers! I hope you enjoy this and look for the next chapter soon!

~TorNathan