'And so, as foretold, darkness prevailed, and light expired…'

It was all gone.

They were all gone. Sora…Kairi…Roxas…everyone. They'd passed on into Kingdom Hearts, alongside the hearts of the trillions who perished. Even Xehanort and the rest of the thirteen darknesses were gone. The only life left was the hearts within the Final World, and Naminé's own heart could only drift amidst the clouds and sky as they too eventually faded away. She envied them for their cessation from this place, and if she could she would have cried bitter tears once the last of them left her behind.

How long had she been here? Months? Years? Was this to be her repentance for the lives she ruined? Spending all of eternity aware of her failure to atone for the hurt she caused? To be all…alone?

Loneliness was not unknown to her. From the second she came into being within Castle Oblivion to her last moments of independence, she was alone. Unlike Roxas and Xion, she'd never known true friendship, had never been a part of a group of people who loved each other and would fight against the confines of fate if it meant a single more day together. Those she could have called friends were those she hurt the most, and she could never apologize to them now.

She was well-acquainted with being alone, but it never got any easier. Maybe she deserved it. Maybe someone had to pay for failing the World, and who better than the outcast, the outsider? The one nobody would miss.

If she thought of it like that, she could almost find it in herself to accept it.

The only upside to any of this, she discovered, was she retained the ability to sleep, likely due to the Final World's connection to the Realm of Sleep. She spent as much of her time as she could asleep, or what passed as sleeping anyway. It was when she slept that she didn't feel any guilt or grief over what she lost, for she wasn't aware of anything at all. No nightmares, no dreams.

At least, that was how it'd been until now.

The endless sky had morphed from its bright blue hue to a dark purplish-blackish cast. The clouds were replaced with an infinity of stars, glimmering in tandem with each other.

It'd been so long since she'd seen stars.

Naminé's breath hitched-and she realized with a start she was no longer a disembodied heart but corporal once again. She stretched out her arms, wiggled her fingers. She looked down at her sandaled feet and hesitated before taking a step forward. This simple movement felt foreign, and she had to clasp her knees to keep herself from collapsing.

Her chest heaving she straightened herself up and slowly roamed throughout the starry expanse. Where was she? How did she get here? She doubted this was Kingdom Hearts.

She croaked out, "Hello?"

No response.

Out of the corner of her eye, there was a flicker of starlight. She turned to examine it, and stared as the stars began to glow brilliantly. She shielded her eyes from their intensity, and when she brought down her hands she saw a bridge of thousands of shining stars had been placed at her feet.

The bridge stretched from beyond her and towards a large, incandescent mass of light-a light that hadn't been there previously. It was miles away, yet Naminé could feel it beckoning her as if she were right by its side.

She closed her eyes and basked in the warmth. For a brief moment she thought she could feel a hand caress her cheek. The sensation shifted down to her own hand and gave it a squeeze and a tug. She opened her eyes and allowed herself to be led on.

Every single one of the stars making up the bridge burst with each step Naminé took forward. The ones surrounding her twinkled. Her stomach plunged with a deepening sense of anticipation as she got closer and closer.

Finally, after what felt like both seconds and a lifetime, she reached the end, poised to step right into the light. She winced, bringing her hands back up to her face to shield her gaze. As if in response, the light dimmed down.

She could hear voices. They were faint and muffled, yet she could make out someone screaming. She tried to take a step back, but felt something behind her keep her in place. She whipped around, but there was nothing there.

Swallowing, she returned her attention back to the voices.

"Get them out! Get this thing out of me!"

Someone was calling out for her.

She didn't know how she knew that, but she did. For a split second her heart flared with hope, but just as quickly something deep within herself told her whoever was calling wasn't someone she knew. And for a moment, she considered ignoring the call altogether.

"What's happening?"

"Something's-something's wrong-"

"-My baby-"

But where would that leave her? Trapped in the Final World, doomed to an eternity of solitude.

And she was used to being alone, but oh, how she hated it.

She took a deep breath. Exhaled.

And she dove in.

Sarai screamed as another contraction hit and her baby refused to come out in spite of her pushing. The midwife was speaking, but she couldn't make out what she was saying. All she knew was pain and terror.

"My baby-" she panted. "Why won't they come out?"

The midwife said something else Sarai couldn't make out, but she could see the distress on her expression clear as day, along with the tempered panic in her own sister's body language.

"Do something," Sarai pleaded. "Please, don't-you have to do something. Help them!"

Another wave of pain. She pushed with all her might, driven by sheer will and desperation, and she felt something shift inside her. Then she heard something beautiful.

Her baby's cries.

"It's a girl," the midwife announced with relief over the newborn's wails. "And a strong one, too, judging by those lungs."

Sarai struggled to sit up on her birthing mat. "Give her-give her to me," she demanded, reaching out her arms as the midwife wrapped a blanket around her daughter. "Let me see my baby."

She acquiesced, sliding the baby into Sarai's arms, and Sarai felt like she could finally breathe again.

She was pink and wrinkly like all newborns were, with a small tuft of black hair, and she was the prettiest baby Sarai had seen since Callum. She was also, Sarai noted with a hysterical laugh, as loud as he had been.

"There, there," Sarai cooed to her daughter. "It's alright. Mama's here."

Her baby continued to cry, and Sarai let out another laugh. "Yeah, you show 'em," she said as she herself began to cry. "You show 'em."

Amaya grinned at her. "Better late than never, right?" She signed light-heartedly, but her relief was obvious.

Sarai grinned through her tears and said, "Can you go get Callum?"

Amaya nodded and left the room. She returned with her nephew, who lit up upon seeing his mother.

"Mama!" Callum cried out. The toddler wrenched his hand out of Amaya's grasp and sprinted over to Sarai's bedside. "Mama, you okay!"

"Oh, sweetie, don't," Sarai said as Callum tried to climb up onto her bed. Amaya came over and grabbed Callum by his underarms, hoisting him up on one hip. "You have to be careful."

Callum pouted. "Sorry, Mama."

"It's okay, Callum," Sarai assured her son. "Now, do you want to meet your new sister?"

Callum nodded. "I wanna see, I wanna see," he squealed.

Sarai and Amaya exchanged amused glances. Very carefully, Sarai shifted so there was room for Callum to perch himself on her lap. Amaya placed him there gently, and Callum immediately moved so that he could peer down at his sister's face.

He frowned. "She's squishy," he said, looking up at his mother in alarm.

"That's normal," Sarai said. "You were squishy too when you were born." Callum gaped at her. "Nooo," he protested. He turned back to the baby, who at this point had quieted down and was now staring up at him with bleary dark brown eyes. "What her name?" He asked curiously.

"What do you think her name should be?" Sarai asked.

Callum put on what Sarai called his 'thinking face'. His eyebrows scrunched together with the tip of his tongue sticking out. A full minute passed before he nodded seriously. "Miwa," he said confidently.

"Miwa…you mean Mira? From storytime?" Callum's father used to tell their son stories before tucking him into bed. Callum's favorite by far was of the human mage Mira, who traveled all over the land in search of adventure. Callum used to draw pictures (scribbles, really) of what he thought Mira looked like, though recently he'd been doing it less and less. Sarai had honestly thought he lost interest in it. Apparently not.

Callum bobbed his head up and down excitedly, and Sarai hummed. Truth be told, she'd already picked out a name, but Mira fit the babe in her arms just as well. In fact, it might even be better.

"Okay," she said decisively. "Mira it is."

The newly christened Mira took it upon that moment to yawn and drift off to sleep.

(And so Naminé slumbered.)