Chapter Text
The beginning was rather innocuous: a sudden storm and a concerned parent questioning where Kairi was going. The delay caused her to arrive at the play island only 5 minutes after Sora and Riku. But with heartless now overrunning the world, a delay of five minutes meant everything.
It meant that Kairi wasn’t drawn to the door in the secret place, for the doorway was already covered in darkness too thick to go through. It meant that instead of heading towards the secret place, she headed for the Papou island instead, where Sora was reaching for Riku’s hand, both of them becoming overshadowed by the same darkness that had was protruding from the secret place.
“Sora!” Kairi called out, reaching for her friend. But it was too late, the darkness overshadowed him and he faded from her grip.
“Riku! What’s happening?!”
“The door... the door has opened,” Riku stated, his voice strange. None of the feigned haughtiness he often showed to everyone else, nor the soft vulnerabilities he showed to her and Sora only. His hand still reached out, even as the rest of him was fading into the darkness.
“What do you mean?” Kairi nearly reached out, but something stopped her last moment.
Something was very wrong here.
In that moment of hesitation, Riku vanished.
“Riku!” she called out, but then felt something touch her leg. With a shriek, she realized that the darkness that had swallowed Sora and Riku was now crawling to her waist. She screamed again and tried to run, but the dark tendrils tripped her and she fell. The tendrils changed shape to small black beings, with bright yellow eyes. They jumped. Flinching, Kairi raised her hands above her head.
A bright flash of light blinded her for a second. When she hesitantly opened her eyes, she found that the darkness and the beings were gone. Groaning, she sat up and felt a heavy weight in her hand. She drew back in surprise at the strange weapon in her grasp. A long reddish blade, decorated heavily with flowers and ocean waves.
She only had to wonder briefly what it was before a word echoed in her head.
Keyblade...
Around her, the world was shaking itself apart. She could no longer see the main island, and the ocean waves seemed to disappear before her eyes.
More creatures came. On instinct, Kairi swung her new blade and was shocked with the monsters disappeared, leaving only a glowing red heart that floated briefly before disappearing. Staring at the hoard of creatures before her, Kairi gripped her blade tight and ran into the mass.
But no matter the number of creatures that fell before her blade, the Islands continued to tear themselves apart, chunks ripping and floating towards a black hole that had appeared in the sky.
She held on for as long as she could before she too was thrown into the void.
Destiny is never left to chance. But the roles can be played with a bit.