I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of the characters.

Comatose

Tyler groaned, opening his eyes and slowly pushing himself up, looking around. He found that he was in his room on the ship, and wearing a clean, unripped set of clothes. He pulled the covers back, turning and setting his feet on the ground, feeling his body protest as his stomach twisted into knots. Suddenly, the door opened and he looked over at it, seeing Vanille standing there.

"You're up," Vanille said. "Good."

"What happened?" Tyler asked.

"You lost a lot of blood," Vanille said. "We were afraid you'd be comatose, but I guess we were wrong."

"How long?" Tyler asked.

"A day, give or take," Vanille said.

"And the world we were in?" Tyler asked.

"The cy-bugs were all killed by the volcano," Vanille said. "Vanellope managed to save Ralph using her glitch and everyone escaped with their life. Once everyone was safe, Felix fixed the finish line so that Vanellope could get her memories back. Turns out she was the princess of Sugar Rush. She chose to remain as a racer, though. After that, everyone went back to their own games so that none of them would be unplugged. Felix and Sergeant Calhoun got married, and Felix turned the bricks in Ralph's dump into buildings, houses for both Ralph and for the homeless game characters that Felix and Ralph brought in as part of a bonus round they added."

Tyler nodded. Vanille had ignored one thing.

"Is Lightning okay?" Tyler asked.

Vanille remained silent for a moment, staring at the ground. Then, she shook her head slowly. "I was able to arrive in time to heal you, and when you stopped her healing spell, you saved her. But she had used up so much magic...attempting the spell pushed her over the edge and..."

"She's comatose," Tyler finished, Vanille nodding. "In her room?"

"Yes," Vanille nodded again.

"What about Sarah and Alice?" Tyler asked. "Are there any leads on them?"

"Our mysterious pilot was able to use Sarah's residual energy from the necklace Lightning found in a tracking device, but it's still scanning," Vanille said. "There wasn't much energy, so the tracker's taking a while. As soon as we find a hit, we'll go there. It shouldn't be much longer. Maybe a day at most."

Tyler sighed, nodding and pushed himself up, his muscles protesting. Almost as soon as he regained his feet, he collapsed, Vanille catching him.

"Hey, easy," Vanille said. "You're not strong enough to walk yet."

"I want to see Lightning," Tyler said. "Please."

Vanille sighed and nodded. "Alright. But you gotta promise me you'll take it easy. You need rest still."

Tyler nodded and Vanille helped him out of the room then down the hallway to an open door where Fang was seated beside Lightning's bed, Lightning lying in it as though she were sleeping. Fang saw Vanille and Tyler coming and moved, Tyler sitting down heavily and groaning before staring at Lightning. She looked peaceful now, unlike the panic he had seen in her face before. He reached out, trailing the back of a finger over her cheek, Lightning not responding. He sat back int he chair, staring at her. This was his fault. He had vowed to protect her, and instead, he had let her fall into a coma. He stared at her, unmoving, paler than usual, likely from lack of magic energy, and deaf to the world. She could almost be dead.

A sharp pang shot through his chest at the thought and his chest constricted. He knew he was going to cry. He couldn't hold it back. Didn't even try. Vanille and Fang left, closing the door before he could start and Tyler almost instantly broke, holding Lightning's hand to hie forehead as he sobbed quietly. Fear coursed through him thicker than his blood. he couldn't lose her. She was all he had left. She was everything to him. He couldn't be losing her. He still owed her. She had saved him and he had done nothing but cause her trouble since. He owed her more than he could ever pay. She couldn't die.

Finally, the tears stopped falling and he sat there, holding her hand in his lap, gently stroking his fingers over the back of her hand. After a few minutes, the door opened and he turned to look, seeing Noel watching him. He gently set Lightning's hand back on the bed as Noel walked in, leaning against a dresser.

"You know...her sister Sarah...she's the reason I started this journey," Noel said. "Sarah and I were...friends, in our world. She had a fiancé then, Snow Villiers. He was one tough son of a bitch. I used to fight him to test my strength, and I'd always lose, even with my blades. Snow hated weapons. Only ever used his fists. Everyone always said he'd be more badass with a gun, or a sword, but the truth was he didn't need them. His Ice Magic was on a whole other level from the rest of us, and his strength was monstrous. Then, one day, the Heartless came, in force. Our world fought them, unified for the first time in our history. And for about a month, we held them back. But then, the Heartless just kept getting bigger, kept getting stronger.

"By the time our world fell, the giant ones like you fought in your world were the weak ones. Our group tried to run, but there were so many. We couldn't escape, until Snow stayed behind. He had always played the hero, and on that day, he exceeded the title. He picked up a gun for the first time, used it along with his strength and magic, and he obliterated anything that came after him. But our ship got damaged. Sarah fell out and was swarmed. Snow shielded her, but in doing so...he got hurt. Bad. Kept fighting, though. Fought right up until the end. Until the moment when when a Heartless bit his upper body off. Sarah...she just broke. Wouldn't run, wouldn't look at us, just sat there and cried. Me and Lightning, we tried desperately to get to her. We gave it everything we had. But we weren't Snow. Even together, we couldn't get to her. Our pilot showed up and destroyed the Heartless that were about to kill us, then forced us both back onto the ship and took off. The last thing we saw of Sarah was darkness swallowing her."

"Sounds like your world was a lot different than mine," Tyler said. "A bunch of basic heartless was enough for my world to collapse entirely."

"I know," Noel said. "Not all worlds can handle heartless."

"Was there a point to this speech?" Tyler asked.

"I'm in love with Sarah, in case you didn't guess," Noel said. "I lost her to the Heartless. Lightning may not be captured by Heartless, but she is lost, at least for now. I know how that feels, more or less, so I'm going to do everything I can to help you bring her back."

Tyler watched him for a moment before nodding. "Thank you."

Noel nodded as well before turning, leaving the room again. Tyler turned back to Lightning. How was he supposed to bring her back? Nothing could cure a coma except for time, right? And even then sometimes nothing. He sighed, resting his head in his hands. He didn't know what to do. He almost wished it was all just a dream, and he was going to wake up back in his world. Except, that then he never would have met Lightning, so he'd prefer to stay asleep, just change it to where she was awake.

"Tyler," a voice said over the loudspeaker suddenly. "Come to the bridge. We've found a few possibilities."

Tyler sighed, standing and placing a feather-light kiss on Lightning's forehead. "I'll come back soon. Please, don't leave me."

Then, he turned, leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

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