cutegirlmayra
More Sokai?! You bet'cha!
Prompts are on shutdown! Don't send any in until the grand reopening is announced :)b
Prompts:
"The light of our hearts…" The mysterious man walked towards Kairi, who just recently, was still within Merlin's training but had to flee when it was momentarily compromised.
She adjusted herself and summoned her keyblade.
"Is weak when we're apart." The black-hooded man finished, seeming to quote something as his mysterious keyblade began to slowly burst out hazy darkness out of it, growing rapidly as he continued. "Though they say that's not true… I'd like the vow to remain. Let's let light die within the dark… if we're ever too far from its spark."
He finished and gestured to Kairi to listen, "This poem was written by a depressed lover. I find it rather… touching… to disappear within the void of loneliness than to be too far from love's light."
"I… I don't understand. What do you want!?" Kairi bundled a hand into a fist, placing it on her chest as she readied herself to fight if needs be.
"What? Not a lover of poetry?" the man shrugged, but then chuckled. "Shame… I need you to bring someone to me… someone who would come if you were separated from him… I need him to surcome to the light. Wouldn't be so bad if you did too. I'd reunite him with his light… through the darkness swallowing you both." he flung his keyblade back, then rapidly dashed towards her.
She went to strike, unafraid, but the image disappeared the second she did so.
"What..?" she looked around, not sure what was going on before something jammed into her side.
"AHH!…Ahh…haaa…" she collapsed as the darkness that had surrounded the strange and unfamiliar keyblade seeped over her body.
Leaving the Keyblade in, the figure stood up straight, snapping. "One down…" He looked over his shoulder, "One to come…"
-Yen Sid's Tower-
"Ah! Kairi!" Riku, upon the door opening to reveal Kairi laying unconscious with a strange keyblade stabbed into her side, immediately dashed towards her and gripped the side of the table. "Kairi! Kairi, open your eyes!" When she didn't respond, his shoulders slumped and his body began to shake, turning violently to Yen Sid. "Who did this!? What did they want?"
"Calm yourself, Riku… A keyblade wielder has trapped Kairi in a never-ending nightmare realm within her heart." Yen Sid closed his eyes, "I'm afraid if we were to remove the keyblade… her heart would be lost, and the darkness would corrupt her physical form left behind."
He reopened his eyes and placed his hands into his long sleeves, "It's unclear… how exactly he was able to summon the power. A forbidden poem triggers the cursed realm, but one can't simply just utter it to bring it forth… we're dealing with a powerful new enemy… one who seems to want mischief more than simply just chaos."
"Isn't that the same thing!?"
The two now looked to Axel, walking into the room, looking even more hostile than Riku had been.
"Whoever this loser is, I've never seen his keyblade before. EVER!" he swiped a hand out, clearly upset. "Which means he's not apart of the organization. At least, not officially, anyway."
"They can't recruit?" Riku glared, but Axel flinched back, a little hurt by his expression.
"Hey! Don't pin the blame on me! How am I supposed to know what's going on inside those crazy ol'coots minds now!?"
"Enough. Both of you. I know you care about Kairi… but this is no time to panic." Yen Sid looked kindly to both men, as they did take heed to his words, and looked down in frustration.
"Is there really nothing we can do? Without risking her heart?" Riku spoke up then, unable to make eye-contact with anyone. He kept his anger fixed on a point on the ground, not wanting to upset Yen Sid again, or inadvertently make Axel feel bad.
"There is a chance… But who knows where Sora has gone off too." He seemed to be a little hopeless on that last part, but Riku quickly looked up.
"The gummiphone?"
-The Gummi Ship-
"Sora! Look out!" Donald cried out in his signature duck's voice.
"I'm trying! Err… Hyah!" Steering through the universe to get to another world, Sora's pocket suddenly came to life with sound.
"Hey, that's that there Gemmiphone, right?" Goofy bent his head down to look but Donald quickly corrected him.
"Gummiphone!" he quickly jumped out of his chair, but Sora moved the ship and he was squabbling across the floor, sliding to slam his butt against the side of the ship. "Heeeyy!" He let out his infamous anger and swung his fists around.
"Gwosh." Goofy put a finger to his mouth, then looked back to Sora.
"Kinda busy!" he admitted, before finding an astroid to hide behind as he sighed. He put his keyblade down, something he was using to guide them towards the world, then pulled out his phone.
"Riku? Is everything alright?"
"Not really. Before me and Mickey could start our search for Aqua, something came up."
"Woah, Riku looks pretty serious." Sora lightly stated to Donald and Goofy, who had come up to look over and down at his Gummiphone.
"Sora… I don't know what's going on with you right now, but… It's Kairi."
Sora's eyes widened, bulging at her name.
"What was that? Riku, what happened to Kairi!? Is she alright? She's with Merlin and Axel, isn't she!?" He leaned more and more towards the Gummiphone, his worry overtaking him as Donald and Goofy looked to each other, seeing him lose his composure.
"D'wah…", "Ohh…" the two seemed to share the same reactions.
"Not… quite…"
"Huh? Axel!"
Sora saw Axel enter the frame, scratching the back of his head as Riku adjusted the Gummiphone and tilted it towards him.
"We were compromised. Only for an instant, mind you. Merlin sent us through different portals and the guy followed Kairi, coincidentally."
"The guy..? Wait, where's Kairi!?" Sora gripped the phone, his emotions getting the better of him.
The two looked to each other, almost sharing Donald and Goofy's expressions.
They turned back to Sora, as if making a decision.
"It's best you head to Master Yen Sid's, Sora. We think your power could help… it's got to be you, Sora." Riku nodded firmly to him.
"My… Power? Ohh…" Sora looked off and let one of his hands go from the phone, looking at it. "But my power's not back yet… I don't even know if…" he formed a fist, shaking it as he closed his eyes and tilted his head.
"Don't worry, Riku! Axel! I'll be there faster than you can say 'Sora's here!'." He gave a confident smile, but once the Gummiphone was off–and after Riku and Axel nodded to his statement–he felt his whole body fall into the Gummi Ship's chair.
"What if… I can't even save Kairi?" He felt his head hang low.
Donald and Goofy shared a look again, before changing it to a fierce look of conviction. "Sora!" Donald stomped a foot down, bundling his fists together in front of him. "You can do anything, Sora! You just gotta believe you can!" he stepped back as Goofy also gave it a go, encouraging Sora as well in his own words.
"Yeah, that's right. We wouldn't be able to do half of the things we can now without each other. I'm sure Kairi trusts you to help her too."
"Yeah, we'll do this together! Like everything else!"
"D'ah! You said it, Donald!"
Sora weakly looked up to them, "Donald… Goofy…"
After giving his friends a quick look, seeing each of their smiling and confident faces towards him, he smacked his hands into his cheeks and perked up a bit. "Right!" he threw a fist up, "Kairi's saved me so many times! I can't let her down now!"
"Yeah!" The two cheered together, also raising their fist.
-Back at Yen Sid's Tower-
It was a minute before Sora and the gang arrived, and when they did, they came bolting in like lightning, heading straight to Kairi.
"Kairi!" Sora raced by Riku and Axel, who let him pass as he barged into the heavy table and looked over Kairi's state.
The darkness was swarming all around her in a moving, living smoke. The keyblade was securely in her side, but there wasn't any blood. It was strange… even it's design was something Sora had never seen before.
He fell to his knees, spending a moment to feel before doing anything further.
Just like Axel and Riku, though… anger filled him and he stood back up, reaching for the keyblade.
"No!" Riku swung an arm out.
"Don't touch that, Sora!"
"I can't use the power of awakening just yet-! But I can use my own power to save her!" he gripped the keyblade's handle.
Yen Sid stood up, "Sora! Halt!" he was about to cast a spell when he noticed Sora suddenly overcome by the darkness as well.
"I… I don't feel… my strength…" Sora, losing his fight, suddenly leaned his head back and collapsed over Kairi.
"Sora!" Everyone cried out, racing to his side.
Then… They all heard snoring.
"Wha?" Donald stepped to the side, shaking Sora's body before noticing he looked asleep.
"He… Couldn't pull the keyblade out?" Riku looked to Yen Sid, "What's going on?"
"How… interesting." Yen Sid lowered his once raised hand, "After being alerted of Kairi's predicament, I thought he might act hastily. However, I never truly expected him to completely abandon trying to awaken her, and instead, diving into the realm himself…"
"He what!? Listen, not one of the things coming out of your mouth is the same as the other words that came from it just a few moments before." Axel slightly complained, but Yen Sid seemed relatively calm by his reaction.
"The unusual keyblade tore into Kairi's heart, which is why her physical body was unharmed. But by means of the curse embued in it, that left Kairi's heart punctured with darkness that took her mind into another realm within her own heart. This is the reason why she seems to sleep… But her training was not all in vain, as she is filled with a powerful light." Yen Sid began to explain, which captured everyone's attention. He looked back to Kairi and Sora, "Kairi possesses a strong, kind heart. I worried that if we were to remove the keyblade, it may cause her to falter to darkness. I took this as an opportunity, although unfortunate, to see if her peril could lead Sora to regaining his lost power."
"Hold up, you're telling me you used the situation to your advantage?!" Axel burst from his quiet listening, bending his body as though ready to fight. "You're just as bad as the organization!"
"Bite your tongue, Axel." Riku looked back to Axel, scolding him.
"What?! You can't seriously say you stand to reason for this guy!?" Axel swung a hand in frantic gestures, "What has the world of light come to, huh!?"
"I know it sounds kinda harsh… but it's true. We need Sora's power." Riku looked down, seeming ashamed to admit it, but forcing himself too.
Yen Sid looked down as well, "I know it sounds unorthodox, but any way to help Sora regain that power as soon as possible… is crucial to our purposes in this war."
The others remained silent, but Axel fumed quietly to himself, turning away from everyone and folding his arms. "Hmph. Nothing you say will change my point of view."
Sora began to speak in his sleep, and the others quickly turned to listen in.
"Kairi… Wake up… I have so many… adventures… to tell you… zzzz."
Riku suddenly summoned his keyblade, going over to free their hearts but Yen Sid threw his arm up again, "No, Riku! If they do lose their hearts, it's over."
Riku lowered his keyblade, "So we have to just stand here and do nothing!? My friends are trapped in an endless nightmare!" He gestured back to them. "My heart's already been inside the darkness, maybe I can-"
"I'll not lose another light." Yen Sid shook his head, "We must believe in Sora and Kairi's light. There is a second poem to the first, written by the woman before the first poem was ever conceived. She created it as though knowing her beloved would succumb to torment at her lost."
He began to recite, as Sora's heart glowed from the words. "Though light seems to dim and fade, never is it darkness made. Though our hearts be long gone from this world, I still believe in the eternal flame. Light connects even within the night. Let stars collide, and a path be made bright."
Sora's heart burst and suddenly he woke up on a stained glass window beneath his feet. It looked like… "Kairi's heart?"
"Sora!"
He quickly looked up and gasped, a Darkness jumped at him and swiped, as he was knocked back away.
Shaking it off, he looked up to now blurred vision. The floor seemed to shift into many scenes of Kairi's life and adventures, before being swarmed in darkness and then broken through light.
"What's… going on?"
Kairi swiped her keyblade at the horde of darkness that quickly formed again after the explosion of Light from Kairi's heart.
She looked exhausted, as though she had been fighting for a long time.
"Kairi… she needs me…" He slowly gathered the strength to get up onto one knee. "Kairi!" he called out, desperate to help her. "I'm coming!"
He fell again as another darkness attacked him, then another, and soon he was piled on by a group of them that kept pummeling into him, ripping at his back.
He tried to endure but just like before, the floor became swarmed in darkness, and then a memory from Kairi's past broke through the last depiction and burst into light.
For a moment, relief. Sora looked around, seeing there was no more horde and quickly got to his feet, dashing to Kairi who stumbled a moment to stay balanced on her feet.
"Sora…" Her eyes seemed distant, but she reached out to him.
He immediately grabbed her, holding her close as their light combined.
""You called me out of darkness once…" He stated as the darkness hordes grew in number again. The last memory was being overwhelmed in darkness again, and it seemed as Kairi kept summoning new light from herself, it was quickly overcome time and time again by the darkness.
She was running out of happy memories to sustain herself…
Sora looked to the horde, gritted his teeth, and summoned his keyblade. He moved Kairi behind him, letting her lean a little on his shoulder and back, as he glared the massive force of dark enemies down. 'I can do this.' he took a deep breath, 'No matter how long it takes..! I will do this!'
He readied himself for a showdown, his typical positioning of his bent knees and keyblade off to his side in both hands.
"It's my turn to return the favor!"
"But… Sora… You're powers…" She worriedly placed a hand on his shoulder, sliding it to touch his neck as he looked down. "You still have them… don't you?"
"I… I don't know how to awaken your heart, Kairi." Admitting that almost broke him. He closed his eyes, unwilling to see what kind of disappointed expression she might make.
But instead, she giggled.
He opened his eyes in shock and turned to her, knowing the horde was about to pounce at any second now, their numbers overwhelming at this point.
"I've missed you, Sora." She lightly smiled to him, then tilted her head in a cute sense of trust. She was unworried, how could that be?
"I meant your other power,… don't you know? The one you never can lose."
"H-huh?" Sora tilted a little more towards her, his ear now right up by her mouth as he didn't notice the proximity at the moment.
The horde jumped forward.
"You really don't know? It's your smile, Sora… Darkness just can't stand to be around it."
In that moment, light overwhelmed the darkness, and Kairi and Sora's combined light began to lift them out of the dark nightmare realm that seemed to loop in a continual struggle, due to Kairi's unfaltering heart.
With Sora's added strength, the mysterious keyblade began to wobble as though floppy, then stiffen and shift before disappearing in balls of twinkling light.
Sora was the first to wake up, shaking his head before Kairi got up too, placing a hand on his head and grinning kindly to him.
"Good morning, sleepyhead."
"Ah… Kairi!" his eyes shone at the sight of her.
They embraced.
It was bittersweet though. Although everyone celebrated that the first poem was the counter-spell, Yen Sid still reminded everyone they needed further training, and to be careful.
Merlin put an even more powerful spell, thanks to Yen Sid's instructions, and hid Kairi and Axel better for their training.
At least it wasn't the organization… but before they all left back to their tasks, Sora and Kairi spent a second to say…
"You have to continue the fight, Sora! I'll complete my training, just you wait and see!" With that never-ending supply of positivity, Kairi was bubbly with energy.
"Heh." Sora flicked his finger under his nose, "You never change, Kairi… Though you do get stronger every time I see you. It's hard to believe that just a little while ago, you had a keyblade sticking out from your side."
She confidently put her hands to her hips, mimicking her younger years, and leaning towards him, accusingly. "Are you saying I should be complaining?"
He shook his hands out, "No, no! It's just… I'm kinda torn." He looked down, admitting how he really felt.
Kairi straightened up, dropping her playful act a moment and listening to him.
"You want to stay… don't you, Sora?"
He nodded, "Who wouldn't want to be… with the people they love more than anything?" he seemed to be referring to Riku too, and she smiled at that innocence.
She didn't take it the wrong way, but… she knew the feeling… and knew what more to say.
"Tell me all about your adventures when you get back. Don't miss a detail, okay? I want to know everything." she put her hands behind her back, tilting her head with a modest nod.
It was heartbreaking, but also sweet.
Sora, wishing he could give her one last hug, stepped forward to try for it but then harshly pivoted, ducking his head from her view to hide the painful realization that if he did so, it may hurt them both worse…
"I promise… Wait for me, Kairi!" he shook a fist and then looked up to give her back a overly happy grin.
""Will do!" she chimed before taking a step forward… and then rushing into him with a big hug.
He was taken aback… maybe they were both stronger than he thought.
He hugged her, knowing she was his true strength.
"So long… Sora." Was she… gripping him tighter?
He knew exactly what she was feeling now, and pulled her even deeper too, digging his head into her shoulder. "Em… Wait up for me."
"I'm always with you… in your heart… Sora." she pulled away, but it was hard for the both of them.
It took them a moment, but they finally looked back into the other's glossy eyes.
"And I with you… Kairi."
He began to let her go… slowly… before dashing to the Gummi Ship.
She lingered in the moment, watching him rush up the lowered panel that lead into the Gummi Ship before stopping abruptly… looking back, and giving her an energetic wave.
She giggled, waving back just as much. 'I'll always miss you, Sora…'
'I'll never, ever forget the strength of your light… The presence of your heart… Kairi.'
They both slowly lowered their hands… their eyes turning kinder, before the two headed off.
"You, uh… You didn't want to give him the letters?" Axel, feeling a bit like a third wheel, still had a hand up and behind his head.
"They're more for me, remember?" She just walked right passed him, a smile still apparent on her face. She nodded cheerfully, but he could tell there was a quiet sadness there.
"You know… you don't always have to be so strong." He walked after her but stopped when she paused. "Just saying. You'll miss him, right? So it's okay to have… a shoulder to cry on." he patted his shoulder with the hand that was behind his head, winking slightly as though to keep everything light.
The wind of the Gummi Ship taking off blew her hair gently back…
She turned around with a sly look, "You say that as though I need to cry." She then looked up after the Gummi Ship, "But I know we'll be together again… maybe not now, or even soon… but we will. We're connected by an unbreakable bond… Our hearts are always filled with the connection of light. We won't shut them out in fear of losing that connection, that path towards each other…" she shook her head, closing her eyes a moment in the sunlight, "I'm not sure what darkness thinks it can do… but darkness strives to sever the connection of hearts… that's why, nothing good can dwell in it."
As she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see Axel staring at her in the way he used to when reminded of something he forgot.
"What?"
"Oh, nothing! Sorry…" He looked away.
"Axel…" she lightly scolded.
"I mean-! It's just so wholesome." He faked it off, pretending it wasn't the thing he couldn't remember, but Kairi just smiled and followed after him.
She didn't look back.
She didn't need too.
Sora was right here… in her heart. She touched it lightly, and Sora–sitting within the Gummi Ship–touched his too.
Neither would succumb, because love can't exist in darkness.