Story: Valiant Hearts II (chapter 2)

Authors: Fairytale

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Chapter 2

Title: The Presence I feel

Valiant Hearts II


Chapter II


The Presence I Feel


Back in Hollow Bastion, Kairi had just woken up and was a bit confused by last night's dream, and started looking for her cell phone.

After seeing the clock and carefully looking a second time, the girl jumped out of bed and hurried to get dressed so she could get on her way to the meeting point down in the canyon. She, of all people, had overslept. And not by just a bit.

“Ah, Yuffie's totally gonna pick on me for being a sleepyhead.”

Kairi rushed through the residential sector of Hollow Bastion, through the rough alley that connected the residential quarters with the Castle and the maw, and made it finally to the point where the recently unblocked keyhole portal was.

All of them stood before the portal. The universal links between worlds that only a single person and the Keyblade, along with a machine built by Cid, could open for a limited time. Each world had several of these gateways to make traveling between the worlds possible. It was the one and only way to leave a world or enter one. The unknown enemy probably didn't possess knowledge of this. The portal itself was just about as big as the fist of a grown man, therefore they were hard to find.

None of them said anything about Kairi being late. Aerith had probably informed everyone that the red-haired girl had been training nonstop for the past few days. Still a bit embarrassed, she looked at the others, and all of them gave her a short nod.

Kairi pointed her Keyblade, the Oathkeeper, toward the portal. For the blink of an eye nothing happened, but then the Keyblade emitted a small ray of light that flowed into the shimmering portal. The gateway grew and grew until it was the size of a barn door, big enough to let three of them pass side by side.

The path between worlds was a narrow one that didn't allow one to stray from it. It looked like a window that would lead into the darkness between the worlds itself.

First to go through was a miserable-looking Cloud, who had been found by Tifa at the last moment. He was followed by Cid, who was armed with a lance, a bag full of explosives, and other technical things. Next was the pair of Yuffie, who looked very excited, and Leon, who had the usual silent pondering expression. Last were Tifa and Aerith, who had the job of protecting Kairi in case of an emergency.

The corridor was extraordinarily long, but the most unusual thing was that there were no enemies, no Heartless, nothing along the way whatsoever. Since the paths were unprotected and out in the dark, they were usually filled with Heartless.

It was Tifa who first noted the emptiness of the path.

“Is it just me, or does this feel wrong? Usually Kairi and one of us have to slaughter through legions of weak Heartless who downright cling to those paths, waiting to enter a world.”

Not one of them responded. The answer was obvious.

After a timeless period—it could have been hours, or just a few minutes, for outside the worlds there existed no true time—they arrived in a world that looked different from anything any of them had ever seen.

It resembled a big town that was much further advanced in technology than even Hollow Bastion, but was seemingly deserted. There was no sign of life or movement as far they could see. According to Yuffie, there should have been hordes of the white creatures she had described. Yet there was nothing.

They all looked around, not too far away from the portal, but couldn't find anything that even remotely resembled those beings. The black-haired ninja was on a rampage and started to swear that she hadn't made it all up. Aerith, true to nature, reassured her. Yuffie wasn't the kind of girl who made such stories up just to get attention. Well…maybe she was. But this was real. It just seemed weird that nothing was there.

“Maybe it's a trap,” noted Leon, looking over to Yuffie.

“They probably found out a spy was here and deserted the place," mumbled Tifa, loud enough to let Yuffie hear it.

“So you're saying it's my fault? That I wasn't discreet enough? That I failed the mission?” snapped the black-haired girl.

Nobody said anything. Kairi wanted to comfort her, but she wasn't really happy about the fact that they’d all come here for nothing.

Yuffie ran away in a fury, tears in her eyes, and Aerith sent Tifa a disapproving glare. As her assigned partner, Leon had no choice but to go after her. After another sigh, he slowly walked after the hurt woman.

In the meantime, Cid had vanished somewhere else, probably looking for a computer terminal of some sort to access the technology here. If there was something new in terms of technology, the smoking man was like a wild beast. There was no chain or leash that could hold him back.

There was no sign of Cloud whatsoever. Most likely he had gone to look around, or more precisely, looking for a trace of his arch-nemesis.

Tifa and Aerith sighed, kind of disgusted that everyone was so careless and excited about this place, and stood still for a moment as they realized that even Kairi had vanished. Both of them were standing not too far away from the portal that had already closed, and so they began to look around. There was absolutely nothing here. It seemed more than just weird that this place was so empty. Both women slowly walked further into the weird world, in the direction of a skyscraper.

It was then that Tifa uttered those famous last words.

“Well, this place seems deserted. I highly doubt they will get into any danger.”

Just seconds later, something triggered her evasive sense and she realized that she should have known better than to say that there was no danger lurking around here.

More out of intuition than anything, Tifa jumped to her right, and in the blink of an eye something passed by the place she had been standing an instant before. That was no coincidence. They had been waiting for the group to split up.

Something had pierced the ground.

"Knives…damn it, we've been had," swore Tifa, and she glanced around to find the perpetrator of the attack.

Aerith was confused for a moment, but when she saw the knives still crackling with electricity, the woman knew immediately what was going on. Unfortunately she had a problem of her own that prevented her from looking for the aggressor who had ambushed Tifa.

A storm of flower petals was coming towards her at a rapid speed. There was no doubt in her mind that those weren't normal flower petals. Aerith blocked them barely in time with a quickly recited Firega spell, but the impact was strong enough to send her flying, giving the other attacker the opportunity to start their own fight with Tifa.

A woman, blond-haired, and dressed in the same black robes that Yuffie had described, was aiming at the martial arts specialist with another pair of knives that emitted enough electricity to make it visible to the naked eye.

“Zexion was right. These intruders are no amateurs. She was able to dodge my attack solely based on instinct!” the blonde told her partner over her shoulder.

Aerith was standing again. She first shielded herself with a reflect spell, then looked to see who had sent that huge petal storm.

A man with the most evil and twisted face she had ever seen was floating above her, aiming his next attack. He had wild, unkempt hair of a faint pink color, wielded a enormous scythe, and had a smirk that would cause normal people to fall ill.

“Do not worry. These are just small fries. The Superior will be pleased if we dispatch them. He will have trust in us again, and then our plan will succeed,” said the man. His voice was sharp and poisonous, even disgusting to the ears of the women.

This wasn't looking too good.

Tifa, in the meantime, had launched her first brutal punches and kicks onto the fragile-looking woman. Surprised by the speed and force the black-haired woman put into action, she tried to put some distance between Tifa and herself, but failed. She wouldn't have stood a snowball's chance in hell against Tifa if she hadn't been able to float.

“Larxene, what the hell are you doing?! Kill her at once!” roared the scythe-wielding man.

“That's easier said than done, Marluxia! She’s like some ridiculous speed and power monster!” the woman yelled back.

Larxene fled in direction of the skyscraper and upwards. She couldn't reach Tifa with her knives from here, but she could think over how to fight against such a deadly combination of speed and force.

Aerith had her own problems. The man—his name seemed to be Marluxia—had extraordinary spell power and seemed to wield his weapon just as excellently. However, he did not show even a single sign of defense magic. He had to avoid all of the attack spells that she sent against him.

Aerith dominated the fight. Marluxia wasn't able to fully penetrate her reflect spell, and seemed not to have any defensive magic himself. One clean hit from a powerful Firaga and he would probably bite the dust.

Which was easier said than done. Not only was he floating through air like a bird, he also had too much speed for Aerith to hit him with any given spell. She desperately looked for a opening but couldn't find one. Her only hope was to hold out until Tifa had finished her fight and kept the man busy so that she could aim with a very strong spell like Ultima or something similar.

Much further away, something similar was going on. Deep in the Castle, way beyond the skyscraper, Cid had penetrated quite a few security locks. He had found a room full of electronic devices, with side rooms and even a way upstairs. He had managed to access a computer terminal and had already broken the security passwords. The blond was actually downloading the complete database of this world. Current progress was at seven percent.

Not only the two women had been assaulted. A man with a giant shield that was staggered with spikes all over it, long blond hair, a really displeased expression, and the obvious black robe, had forced Cid to fight.

Since he had already initiated the download of this world’s data, he was ready for all-out combat, which was why the displeased expression of his enemy just got worse.

While the unknown man in black seemed to freely control ice and sent icicles at him and even morning stars made of granite-hard ice, Cid parried the first with just his lance and blew up the morning stars.

With the proper evil-villain smirk, Cid threw something in the direction of the other man and ran for cover. The shield-wielder took cover too, but nothing happened.

“Seems you're out of ammo, cockroach!” yelled the man with the black robe, and fell into roaring laughter. Now was his time!

He took down his shield and started to run towards where Cid had taken cover. Cid, however, smirked and drew a little device out of his bag. Moments after a quiet click and a small beeping sound, a veracious explosion shook the whole castle and sent the black-robed man flying across the room, where he hit the wall.

Aerith was still par on par with Marluxia. While he had been unable to penetrate her defenses, he was just too fast for her to take aim properly. She had tried to send Thunderga all over the place, but the man had protected himself with a barrier of flower petals.

On the other hand, Marluxia wasn't able to go near the woman to get a clean hit. The moment he did, she would blow him up with some ridiculously strong magic.

“Tifa! I really could need some help here!” called Aerith to her girlfriend. But Tifa had disappeared. Quite freaked out, Aerith looked for her, seeing her not too far away from the skyscraper.

In fact, Larxene was still on the roof of the skyscraper, and the martial artist didn't think it favorable to take the lift. She was running at her maximum speed in direction of the tower and aiming at the outer wall.

“Be GONE, damn tower!!” roared the woman, and set a Limit Attack on the tower wall. She had initially intended to save this up for the actual fight, but without a place to run, the blond woman wouldn't stand too long. With that, Tifa landed the most devastating punch on the skyscraper Aerith had ever witnessed.

The whole base level of the tower crumbled under the enormous force that was applied to its structure. The martial artist didn't think it was enough and set another immense punch after it, which completely destroyed the outer wall of the first two floors, shaking the whole tower.

By that time, Larxene noticed that her hideout was about to be scrapped and she jumped off of it, directly into the arms of something else.

“No escaping anymore!” yelled Tifa, and landed a direct hit with a brutal kick on the neck of the blond. Larxene dropped to the ground without any further resistance and stopped moving.

“Damn it, Larxene!!” roared Marluxia, now alone. He disarmed himself, dropping his scythe, and lifted his hands behind his head.

“I surrender. Don't kill me. I can be useful to you!” swore the man. He was hoping they were foolish enough to fall for the trick.

Tifa didn't seem to believe him and was about to beat the hell out of him when the crumbling tower sent massive fragments all over the place, forcing her to evade a big part of the wall in the last second, and she let her guard down for a moment.

That was the chance Marluxia had been waiting for! If it was only the spellcaster woman, he could still win this battle!

The man picked up his scythe and rushed with crazy speed in Tifa's direction. She wouldn't have the time to evade this.

“You're dead, WOMAN!!!” barked the man, and aimed his strike for her head.

Seconds before he could land the deadly strike, something massive came onto him, something no living being would be able to survive if it made a direct hit. Aerith had fired an Ultima spell on the man, hoping that her girlfriend was fast enough to get out of the detonation zone.

A massive explosion shook the place, making not only the skyscraper finally collapse, but also shaking the other buildings. Marluxia was, without a doubt, dead. Not even the black robe was left after the magic force vanished. Tifa somehow managed to get away, but still got hit by the result of Aerith's spell.

“Are you okay, Aerith?” Tifa asked in a quite anxious voice. It hadn't been in a long, long time that she had fired an Ultima. It was extremely draining and demanding.

“Somehow, yes. And you? I hope I didn't hit you with it. Are you okay?” Aerith was no less anxious. If Tifa had been caught up in that spell, she would most likely have killed her too.

“I'm fine. Somehow. But I'm exhausted to no end.”

A ridiculous explosion demanded their attention. It was strong enough to shake even the buildings around them, and they couldn’t even sense the origin of it. It must have been too far away.

“I guess Cid's experiments with those explosives were not for nothing,” said Tifa.

They all knew that the blond had been experimenting with explosives ever since they had sealed Kingdom Hearts. One time he almost blew up Merlin's house. Another time, he had actually increased the canyon's size.

“What about the woman you were fighting?” asked Aerith. She wanted to make sure that there wouldn't be any wicked surprises when they weren't looking.

Tifa waved in the direction of the now totally collapsed tower. Somewhere under it lay the woman.

“I most likely broke her neck. She didn't seem like the type that would survive such a kick.”

Unable to decide where to go, both of them decided to trust in the others. Their only concern was Kairi. “Will she be all right?” Aerith asked.

Her girlfriend waved it aside. “She is a big girl. Don't forget she was the one who beat the hell out of Ansem and sealed Kingdom Hearts.”

Aerith really wasn't sure if that was supposed to ease her worries.

In a completely different area, not so far away from Cid, Cloud walked through the Castle. He was looking for anything or anyone that could have a relation to Sephiroth. However, seemingly, there was not anything or anyone here at all.

He had arrived in a totally empty room. There was nothing but giant windows, and in the middle of this place was a cage But even that was empty.

When he tried to leave, someone was standing in the way. The robe’s hood was drawn around his face, was armed with a sword that rivaled that of Cloud’s in regards to size. The being leveled that sword—held with just one hand— at the blond man.

“This is your end,” said the unknown. It was a man, and on top of that, he had a voice as calm and confident as granite.

“I don't have the time to play with you. I'm looking for a certain someone,” replied Cloud.

A weird sensation, a pressure you would only feel if you fought someone as strong as you, a tension you simply could not ignore, floated through the room.

Shortly after, heavy sounds of swords clashing filled the air.

At the entrance of the castle, Leon and Yuffie had just finished their easiest fight in a long time. A man with blue hair, armed with…a giant book, and the same black robe the others wore, was lying dead on the ground. He was wounded at several points, from both the gunblade of the brown-haired man and also the oversized shuriken that the ninja used.

They both had been taken by a surprise attack which was awfully weak. It was, at best, a middle-class magic that even the man with the scar across his face would have been able to cast. They both couldn't believe that one of these new enemies was that weak.

He had been just all talk, babbling something about a great plan of creating the Heart of Hearts, their great ringleader Xemnas, how all of the others had probably been killed by his companions.

He died after both Leon and Yuffie had had enough of his arrogant attitude.

“If every of them is just as weak, the others have surely finished their fights already,” said Leon. He sighed and thought of what might happen to the others if their enemies were much stronger.

“We should look to see how the others are doing. Let's first check on the portal. It'll be fatal if we're trapped here,” proposed Yuffie, and without waiting for an answer, she ran past her partner in the direction of where the skyscraper had once stood.


---Valiant Hearts---


Further away than everyone else from the portal was Kairi. She had left the seemingly usual pathways of this world and had found, way beyond the castle, a tower, a fortress. Golden in color and oddly-shaped, she had found it to be just as deserted as the rest of this world.

However, there was something that had been driving her to get here. And now, it was calling out to her. It was calling out to her to come inside, to come all the way up to the top floor.

Kairi was hesitant about this. What if this was a trap? But she felt that she just had to go there.

The floors were deserted, made of blank white stone, and pillars lined the hallways. The actual floors were all made of lots of rooms, all somehow detached by a closed door. Each time the redhead reached one of the closed doors, she had to switch the keychains to find the right one. The doors only opened if they were beaten by the right Keyblade.

Shortly after the fourth floor, there was a change in the sensation that Kairi had been feeling since she entered the fortress. It was…familiar, yet strangely alien to her. No matter what was waiting on the top floor, she had to see it.

It took her not too long until the pattern of the doors became clear. Most of the doors opened to just one specific Keyblade. There were three different kinds of doors: red doors, white doors and yellow doors. While the red ones could be opened with Oathkeeper and Oblivion, both of which were Keyblades she linked to memories of her childhood friends, the others didn't show any reaction to those.

The white doors reacted to Monochrome only, while the yellow ones only reacted to Hero’s Crest.

“I've never heard of such a place…locks that only react to certain Keyblades. And why are there so many of them anyway?” Kairi asked out aloud. It was quite a weird place.

However, once she reached the tenth floor, a colossal earthquake shook the place for more than twenty seconds. Pillars crashed into the walls, making the hallway slowly crumble.

As the quake ended, Kairi found herself cut off from the entrance. It was completely buried by the fallen stone pillars.

To make it worse, some of the creatures Yuffie had mentioned started to crawl out of holes, while some just appeared out of the ground. Summoning Oathkeeper, Kairi was ready to fight.

There were two kinds. One that seemed fragile and quite weak, while the others were giant monsters, armed huge swords.

Not losing any time, Kairi started to thin their lines with Thundra magic. It worked better than she’d expected. The weaker ones instantly bit the dust, but the bigger ones didn't seem to take any damage from such an attack.

Five of those bigger ones blocked the way to the next floor. There was no way back.

With a sudden rush, Kairi hit the first with a frontal hit, followed by another line-up of hits, taking the beast by surprise. Not wasting the momentum, she jumped on its head and plunged the Keyblade into its back. The monster fell and vanished into nothingness.

But that wouldn't work against the remaining four. The Keyblade-wielding girl desperately looked for something that could be used against those things, then noticed the one she had just slain had dropped its sword before it vanished.

Without hesitation, Kairi lifted it with a Gravity spell and sent it flying in direction of the others. It smashed into the others, hitting them before dropping to the ground, and stunned them for a moment.

Not challenging her luck, the girl jumped over them and made her way to the next floor.

It was weird, because again, there was absolutely nothing. And when Kairi looked back, there weren't even the silver-like things she had just defeated.

“Something isn't right here,” noted Kairi, and started to run again. That is, she ran until another earthquake made the whole place tremble. There were terrible sounds, and apparently some of the lower floors began to collapse. The only way left to her was to go forward.

The hallways still looked the same, and it must have been the eleventh floor already. And now there wasn't even a way upstairs anymore. She looked around, desperately looking for something to escape from this wicked place.

And she found a way. Not so far away, there was another door that apparently led outside.

Kairi was standing on a bridge, high above ground—at least a hundred and fifty feet. There was no way she would survive a jump or fall from this altitude. However, on the other side there was a small tower that had been built separately from the original fortress. It didn't look like there were any actual rooms below this floor in there, but she just had to try it.

Slowly crossing the bridge, another earthquake, even worse than the first and the second, shook the place. The bridge wouldn't hold another quake!

Kairi hurried to the door, slamming her fists against it. Locked. It was to be expected. But this door, although white, didn't budge to Monochrome. No matter which Keyblade Kairi tried, the door didn't budge a bit. It would only be been a matter of time until the next quake came, and if she was still on that bridge, she wouldn’t be able to take cover anywhere.

There must have been a magic lock or something like that on that door. However, Kairi had learned that there was still another way in if a door was locked.

Very carefully, Kairi stood on the ledge of the bridge, climbing along the oddly-shaped outer wall of the tower, over to where she guessed a window was.

The quake came earlier than expected. Kairi held herself with all her might on the wall, knowing that a fall from this height would kill just about anyone. On top of all this, to make it even worse, the wall not far from her started to crumble.

It was a do-or-die situation.

Kairi swallowed and jumped, trying to reach the window that was about two meters away. It looked really bad, and in the same moment the red-haired girl got a hold of the windowsill, it broke off.

It was a weird feeling that suddenly rushed through her. She was falling, falling over hundred and fifty feet, rushing with terrible speed towards the ground.

Closing her eyes, Kairi waited for the impact.

However, even after a minute—and such a distance didn't take a minute to fall through—there was no impact.

When Kairi opened her eyes, she was in the same bright white room she had seen in her dream the previous night. Was this heaven? Or was this all still part of her dream? If so, it was the worst and most realistic dream ever. However, the room was the very same room from her dreams.

And no one was there.

Kairi looked around and walked slowly to the window. The view almost made her speechless. Just out of this very window was the very same castle she had been in a few moments ago, crumbling and some of its parts collapsing. It was not a dream!

But who had rescued her? Who?

“Who rescued me?” Kairi asked out loud.

And this time, there was an answer. “A friend did.”

Somewhere, someone, something in this room answered.

A gentle and calm voice. The voice of a girl. The voice that had screamed “help me” in her dreams.

Kairi moved around, looking into every corner, looking on the ceiling, the ground, under the table. There was no one there. Had she lost her mind?

“Is this a dream…or not…?” asked the girl, not expecting an answer, but to calm herself.

“It's very real. In fact, you almost died. You would have died if I not had asked my friend to save you,” answered the voice.

A very agitated Kairi moved aimlessly around the room. There was no one here! How could someone answer her?

“Who are you? Why did you save me? Why can't I see you? Who is your friend? What is going on here?” asked Kairi in a rush. She had to know, or else she would lose her sanity.

The voice giggled. It was kind of cute, and despite her situation, Kairi had to smile. It was a kind and cute giggle, not making fun of her, but amused.

“Who I am, I don't know. But you can call me Naminè. And I saved you because I felt that it was the right thing to do. My friend's name I can't give you, I'm sorry. But…I'm right here…” and with that, the voice ended her speech…

Something was there. Right in front of her. Kairi could feel it. It was…as if she were simply blind. Closing her eyes, she reached out with her hand.

And there was the body that owned the voice! She had soft, fair skin, and from what Kairi could feel, shoulder-length hair.

She was a bit frightened when the other girl—her name was…Naminè?—did the same, touching her cheek and starting to giggle.

It was an intimate moment, and Kairi would have asked a lot of questions if not for another quake that shook the room and let a part of the ceiling come down. Reflexively, Kairi jumped back, hoping that the other girl hopefully did the same.

“Naminè…are you all right?” asked the Keyblader in the room. There no answer for about a minute.

Then, a voice in her head answered. “I'm okay, but I have to go. See you again, Kairi.”

She hadn’t told the girl her name.

“How do you know—” Kairi asked, she but stopped midways. If that girl could penetrate her mind, it should have been an easy task for Naminè to find out her name.

“You need to go now. A friend will—” was the last thing the voice said before Kairi felt an unbearable pain in her head and lost consciousness.

When she got back to her senses, she was being carried. “Where…who…?” asked Kairi, still a bit dazed. She got her answer immediately. It was Tifa's voice, and it was also her who carried Kairi.

“A guy in a black robe carried you from somewhere. When we found him, he just handed you over and vanished into the dark. What the hell did you do?” Tifa seemed quite angry. Well, that was to be expected. Kairi had almost died two times in that wicked place, and they didn't even know that yet.

Not until now had Kairi noticed that they were running. Aerith, Yuffie, Leon, and a quite demolished Cloud were all running in the direction she believed the portal to be

“Why are we running?” she asked.

It was Yuffie who first broke out into roaring laughter, holding her side, gasping for air. Leon just sighed again, and Cloud was probably too exhausted to answer.

“Cid totally overdid it with his explosives. Apparently, he blew up some really important generator, and now the whole place is shaking, crumbling and what the heck,” answered a now even more angry Tifa.

Cid was the only one missing here. Kairi suddenly asked herself where he was.

“Where is he? Don't tell me…did he…blow…himself…?” stammered the redhead.

Yuffie laughed even harder, and Leon had to carry her the rest of the way. He didn't think it was that funny.

“He's fine. Just finishing some file download or something,” answered Aerith.

In the room with the computer terminal that Cid had been working on, the whole floor was covered and lined with ice shards and craters. Not so far away was the man in the black robe, lying in such a crater.

Cid had finally gotten him with a surprise attack and had stabbed him with his lance. He hadn't aimed for his heart or his head, but for his shield. He had impaled it, making the lance stuck on it. The smoker had put quite a few explosives in the peak of his weapon. With a terrible explosion, the fight had come to an end. Nobody could have survived such a detonation at point-blank range.

His downloading had taken some damage. The current progress had been at twenty-three percent and the explosion had canceled the download at this point.

Cid himself was running as fast as he could. During his fight, he had blown up a device that was close to the computer terminal and had triggered a chain reaction. A whole part of the wall blew up, leaving quite a hole in it.

Another mistake of Cid's was responsible for the explosive that flew through that hole and landed in a labyrinth of cables, absolutely impossible to reach. It was a matter of time until that thing's heat triggered the detonation process of Cid's bomb and sent the whole thing to hell.

The whole place would take fatal damage when that generator exploded. “I better hurry. I don't want to be here when that thing blows up.”

The others were already waiting in front of the portal, quite worried that their first trip to this world had been this bad. While Tifa and Aerith, in their role as parents, looked after an injured Kairi, Leon was busy with sighing, and Yuffie had passed out from laughter. Cloud just sat silently, leaned on a wall, and seemed to sleep.

It was Leon who first saw Cid, and asked Kairi to open the portal. He already knew the expression on the face of the artificer. It was the “Jesus Christ, this whole place is going to go kaboom” expression.

The whole group had heard that one line multiple times, and it was the signal to run as fast as they could.

Kairi was quite exhausted, and first off, she had even forgotten to change the keychain to Oathkeeper and tried to open the portal with the wrong Keyblade.

Cid, in the meanwhile, had made it back to the group in one piece and earned annoyed glares from everyone. He was quite offended by it and tried to justify his actions.

“Hey, I was attacked! Should I have let myself get killed?”

Nobody said anything and just continued to glare. The blond scratched the back of his head and shrugged. In the end, they all forgave him. In the end.

The portal was fully open when a colossal detonation demanded their attention. Far away, the castle they could barely see was obscured by the greatest explosion they had ever seen. Everyone looked at Cid for a second, then hurried through the portal.

Not so for Kairi. She just stood there, looking in the direction where she had found the fortress. She was suddenly worried if they had safely escaped. There was no guarantee that this world would survive this.

Way closer than before, another explosion occurred. It was seemingly a chain reaction.

Kairi, stunned by the thought that the other girl, that Naminè, might not have escaped, made the attempt to run back.

“Don't go there. I'm safe. Hurry through the portal!” said a familiar voice in her head.

She stopped, turned around, and jumped through the portal at the last moment. Just the blink of an eye later, and the next of the generator’s explosions would have blown her up.

The portal crumbled behind her and closed itself. This one was most likely destroyed and could never be restored. All of the others just stood there, saying nothing.

The group looked at her as if she just had done something infinitely stupid. Then Kairi realized what she had been about to do back there. A rather shocked expression appeared on her face.

“What in the world happened just now? Where did you want to go?” asked Aerith. She had a very worried expression, and even Tifa looked rather anxious.

“That was really dangerous, Kairi…never do that again, you hear me?” the martial artist warned her adoptive daughter.

Kairi didn't know how to respond. Would they believe her? That there was some invisible girl who apparently could read her mind and who was imprisoned in that white room and who saved her life twice? Even though she had no proof that she ever existed? She decided against that. They would probably think that she had lost her mind.

Everyone else was still looking at her, expecting an answer.

“I don't know. It was just a weird feeling that we forgot something important. It felt like I was missing something,” lied Kairi, and looked at the ground.

Seemingly, most of the group accepted that answer and now asked themselves if they had forgotten something.

Not Aerith, though. She knew that Kairi was lying but didn't want to force her to tell in front of all people. They were all exhausted and tense from their fights and the situation.

Cloud had already vanished from view when Tifa looked around, and Leon was still carrying the ninja. She sighed, for once thinking that this had been already too long of a day, and started to take over the commanding part. Leon was too lost in his thoughts to lead them anywhere.

“Let's go back. We can't stand around here forever, and we all need rest. Also, Cid, no rest for you until you fully analyze the data you gained. I hope for your health that there is something of significance in those files,” said Tifa, and started to move.

The others agreed silently and followed her, with Cid being the last. He maintained something of a distance between himself and the others. They somewhat worried that he would really blow himself up someday. Kairi had been treated by Aerith with a Curaga spell and was feeling well enough to walk on her own.

On the other end of the path, Cloud was already awaiting the others. He was looking quite impatient to get through. Kairi opened the portal, and when the blond vanished almost immediately, Tifa let out a annoyed sigh.

“Him and his stupid search for Sephiroth. Will that ever have an end? It's been getting on my nerves for years now!” complained the woman, and just ran off in the direction of the uptown sector.

While Leon carried Yuffie to her apartment, going to his own afterwards to rest, and Cid hurrying to his computer, Kairi was held back by Aerith.

“What really happened?” the brown-haired woman asked quietly. It wasn't really in her nature to force Kairi to tell anything that happened, but this one had been pretty bad.

“You wouldn't believe it anyway. I don’t even believe it myself. I'll tell you when I get proof of what really happened,” replied Kairi, and they went on their way home, where Tifa was probably already cooking something awfully spicy to erase her bad mood.

Back at home, the smell in the air was a sign that confirmed her guess about Tifa cooking some inedible food…probably something that would burn holes into the wall. Kairi just walked upstairs to her room and fell onto her bed, looking at the ceiling like she had the previous evening.

“Was that all real? But…I really got carried away by someone in a black robe…and I just can't think of her as…unreal. I could feel her skin, could hear her voice…” noted Kairi.

She really couldn't think of a rational explanation for all that. Why couldn't she see her? Invisibility magic? Not likely. Something wrong with her eyes? But she could see the room just fine.

To distract herself, she played a bit with her keychains. "Oblivion…Hero’s Crest…Mono…no, wait…" counted Kairi.

Monochrome was missing!

“Damn it. I must have lost it back there. Either when I climbed outside the room…or…when I evaded the falling ceiling…or that black-robed man took it from me…" Kairi cursed her own carelessness. How could she have lost a keychain?

There was no way she could tell this to the others. They would blame her for being careless. But they were not the Heartless after all. Most likely, the pendant was somewhere in the ruins of that castle, submerged under tons of white stone.


---Valiant Hearts---


In a totally different place, the topic was not even remotely as different.

“Are you sure it's okay to keep that? I mean, after all, it belongs to her,” said a man with a black robe.

He was speaking to a girl with fair, shoulder-length blond hair who was holding something and had a childish smirk on her face. She was wearing a simple white dress paired with white sandals.

“Yeah. I don't think she really lost it. I think it wanted to stay here, that it wanted me to find it,” said the girl, and looked outside the window. Her view was that of a happy and peaceful town.

“Do you think we are safe here?” asked the girl.

The man slowly walked to the window. Standing there, he gave her a nod. Yes, this was the right thing to do. And he didn't care about his orders anymore.

“I think so. But it's only a matter of time before they find us and we'll have to run again,” replied the man.

That time would come faster than he had ever expected.

End of Chapter II

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