Chapter 7 - New Meeting

“So anyway, we have to tell Uncle D. that we found you guys! Sora has been looking for Kairi for a really long time. It’s about time she showed up!” Hewey, Dewey, And Lewey were still talking, with Roxas at their side. He told the three ducks,

“Well, we should really be going guys, we are going to check out that mansion back there!” Roxas pointed to the crack in the wall. The three nodded and turned around back into the main area. Roxas turned to Kairi, noticing she was staring at her hands. “What’s wrong?”

“The swirling stuffs…the Keyblade…stained glass…crows…Riku… None of it was real?” she looked up, tears staining her cheeks. “Tell me it was real!”

“Kairi…” Roxas had a pained look on his face, “You were here the whole time, and you never left. Come on, let’s go to the mansion.” He took her hand and led her through the crack and into the wood. They walked to the mansion in silence, the only noise coming from the slight sniffling of Kairi. The two reached the gates of the mansion. They were jammed shut, just as they had been when Kairi arrived. “Come on Kairi, were climbing over.”

Kairi stuck her foot between two of the iron bars on the gate and grabbed hold of one of the ones above her. Climbing over onto the other side was the tough part because of the vines that grew along the whole gate. By the time she was on the other side of the gate, Kairi was bruised and banged. Not quite as graceful as she had hoped to be.

Eerie crumbling statues filled the weedy lawn in front of the manor. Roxas and Kairi walked to the front door and opened it. The mansion was not quite as glamorous as she had pictured it. The foyer ceiling was collapsing, letting in spots of sunshine from outside. In the center of the room was a glass box, or at least what used to be glass, which held a small model of something. Two large staircases led to an upstairs. Kairi ran up one and followed a short hallway to a room. Roxas ran up the other one, and down the other hallway to a different room. So now Kairi was by herself. She tried the door, which was unlocked and pushed it open. White, white walls, white curtains, just white, blinded her. Scribbled pictured littered the walls. Kairi walked up to one of them. She could make out a doodle of two black-cloaked figures, hand in hand. One had spiky brown hair, and the other one had blonde hair, not quite as spiky though.

“That’s Roxas and Sora!” exclaimed Kairi.

There were other pictures too. One showed a white haired girl, in a white dress, with a red haired girl next to her.

“Is that supposed to be me?” thought Kairi. But she wondered who the other person was. She reached out and peeled off the tape that held the picture to the wall. After carefully folding it, she put it safely in the pocket of her skirt. Then she took the picture of Sora and Roxas and did the same. Kairi walked to the window and pushed the white curtains aside.

She was startled at what she saw. Colors of orange, pink, white, red, and purple were blending into each other, creating a plane of different shades. Obviously, the mysterious statues and the wood were not there. Kairi whipped the curtain closed and opened it again. The wood and the wall and the clock tower were all in position.

“What was that about?” thought Kairi. She shrugged and sat down in on of the white marble chairs that surrounded a pale marble table. A vase in the center of the table held thirteen red roses. Sketchpads beleaguered the surface of the table, some open, some closed.

“I wonder who drew these.” Kairi leaned over and picked up one of the pads and flipped through the pages. Her eyes caught a picture that was in about the center of the pad. It was more detailed than any of the other doodles. An egg shaped thing was in the center, and the same girl that had been in the picture next to Kairi was there. The walls around them were dark, and looked like metal, though she couldn’t tell because it was just drawing.

Suddenly a feeling of guilt fell upon Kairi. She snapped the pad shut and placed it back on the table. She then stood up and pushed the chair in. Basically she put everything into the same position that it had been in when she entered. Kairi pulled the two drawings out of her pocket unfolded them. She grabbed an almost empty sketchpad and a pack of worn down colored pencils that were on the floor. She pulled out a few colors and began to trace the doodles that she had found. When Kairi was done, she held them up to the light to compare. They were almost the same. Hopefully whoever had drawn them would not notice the difference. Then she took the old tape that had held the original pictures up and taped the new ones up in the spots that they had been in before. Kairi walked to the door, and glanced behind her. Everything looked about the same as when she had first come in. She walked into the hallway and silently closed the door behind her. Then ran down to the other end of it and walked into the same door she had seen Roxas enter. Around Kairi was a library, with hundreds of shelves that must have held thousands of books. She walked to the side of the room the one of the bookshelves and ran her fingers along the titles of them, scanning to find one of interest while she waited for Roxas. Kairi found a peculiarly small book. The binding was practically falling off. She pulled it out of the shelf and searched for a title, yet there wasn’t one. Kairi flicked open the cover. The pages were torn and shabby at the edges. As far as she could see, the whole book was empty. Only on the third page in, there was a worn away title that Kairi could barely read. It said: Simple And Clean.

“Simple and Clean?” thought Kairi, “What kind of title is that?”

Since it was blank, and was so small, she took the book and placed it in her pocket next to the two drawings. Kairi highly doubted that whoever lived here would miss this simple little black book with nothing in it. She pushed the other books into the gap that her mini one had taken up, and made it look even. Then she placed the book in her pocket next to the two pictures and looked around the room. The ceiling curved into a half sphere and was decorated with ornate carvings. Other than that, nothing was of interest. Kairi decided to walk to another shelf and scroll the books there.

“I wonder where Roxas is.” She thought as she read the titles, “I know that he came in this room, I saw him.”

She shrugged. Kairi had come to find that often people disappeared and showed up when you least expected it, but so far that had not gone for Sora. But it had gone for Riku, where ever and whatever that was…Roxas was probably in the foyer waiting for her or something. She turned around to leave the library, assuming Roxas had found it just as boring as she did and headed for the door, all except that she tripped over a book. Kairi picked it up. Unlike Simple and Clean, this book looked new. The pages were crisp and fresh.

“Kingdom Hearts, huh?” she found a title on the front of the book, and then found an empty space on the bookshelf and shoved the book in between two titles, Finishing Procedure and Forever. Kairi smiled at the placement. It basically said “finishing procedure kingdom hearts forever”. Suddenly, the ground fell out from under her feet. Kairi landed with an unpleasant bump and looked up. She had at least fallen six feet. Rubbing her back, she stood up. Half of the library floor was standing, but the other half was replaced with a chrome staircase leading down to the gray metal walls and floor. In front of her was a door, half way open.

Kairi didn’t want to get into anymore than she had to, so she decided to turn around and go back to the foyer and wait for Roxas if he wasn’t there, or if he was, just leave. The mansion was pretty weird. Whitewashed rooms? A library with a hijacked floor? She didn’t plan on coming back here again. Kairi headed for the chrome stairs, and a gray silvery thing appeared. It swayed down the stairs and suddenly sped up and slashed her shoulder, leaving a bleeding scratch.

“Ow you jerk!” she said. Kairi clutched her shoulder, the blood seeping through her fingers. “Come on Certain Destiny, come through for me now…” She closed her eyes and waited for the familiar tickly feeling in her hand, but it never came. Kairi opened her eyes to find her hand without a Keyblade. Then she remembered, hadn’t somebody taken the Keyblade from her when she was in the dark world? But Roxas had told her that that never happened…

Another half dozen of the creatures popped out of portals, heading right at her. Kairi looked at her arm, still bleeding from the hit she took before. It hurt badly. She glanced at her empty hand, and up at the approaching monsters.

“I can’t do this. Not now.” She muttered, and ran inside the half open door she saw before, her only escape. Jamming the door shut, she heard the crash of the monsters hit the outside of the door and flinched. She hoped they were gone… Anyway, she wondered why her Keyblade was gone...things were once again confusing her.

Kairi looked up to the same material walls that were in the library and poor lighting. She was in a small hallway, blue neon streaks of light running down the walls about every six feet in turning patterns. Starting down the hallway she noticed a green glow and heard a strange whirring. Kairi found the container of this sound and glow when she reached the end of the hallway and faced a many monitored computer, and Roxas.

“There you are!” exclaimed Kairi as she ran towards him. He turned around and faced her.

“I don’t feel so good.” He whispered, and fell down.

“Roxas!” she rushed over to him and kneeled down, shaking his shoulders, “Say something!” He was motionless. Kairi sighed. “I am having really bad luck today.” She pushed him into more of a sitting position and stood up. There were two doors, the one that she had just come through and another one. She didn’t want to take the chance of leaving the same way she had come in, just incase she met those monsters again. Maybe that other door was another way out. Kairi walked up to it and tried the handle. It was locked. “Crap.”

Instead, she turned around and looked at the computer. There was a strange keyboard and about a dozen screens. Kairi tapped a few buttons at random, having no idea of course what would happen, but she couldn’t resist the temptation to play with it. Suddenly, on one of the screens it said, “Memory Pod room opened.”

“Memory Pod Room?” She shrugged, but guessed that that meant the door was opened, and walked over to try it. Relief spread over when she realized it was unlocked. Kairi pushed open the door to a white room with three pods in the middle. She glanced behind her, Roxas still on the floor, only he was almost dissovling into the air.

"The drawings..." she half said, half thought. Then she realized something that she wished she had realized before. A complete wave of memories that she had forgotten rushed into her mind. Everything was together, every puzzle peice that had been missing. Sora, Riku, Malificent, Xemnas...everything. She then noticed something important...if Sora was here...and Roxas dissappeared...were they a part of eachother? Kairi decided she couldn't clutter her mind with all of these things...she knew that eventualy everything would come together, but she wished that it was sooner than later. When she heard a low moan, and noticed one of the white pods was opening, she turned her attention back to the room.

The pod that was in the center was the one that was opening, emitting a blurry fog. When the process was complete, she saw a figure. Blue eyes, brown spikey hair, and red shorts that looked like they were a few years grown out of. "Sora!" Kairi exclaimed. She sprinted into the room, only being stopped by the voice that came from out of nowhere.

"Oh I don't think so Kairi."

Everything happened so fast then. Kairi had stopped for the split second because of the voice, but then kept running. She had closed her eyes to keep any tears from pricking up in her eyes when she met Sora. Someone was hugging her.

"Sora..." She opened her eyes to look at Sora's face, but it wasn't Sora who was there. Kairi pushed away, revolted by the person who held her. Xemnas. "You freak!" she shouted, "What are you doing?"

"Well, I just needed a hug," Xemnas said in a fake whining voice, "because I was just so happy that you fell into my trap! Can I have another one?"

"Ew! NO!" Kairi kicked him in the shin, turned around and ran.

"I don't think you will get very far in here my love." he smirked.

Kairi glanced behind her, seeing Xemnas disappear into a portal. He was right. This world, place, whatever it was, she had never seen before. Actually...She had.

"Riku! Are you here?" she shouted into the void. This place didn't have the stained glass, but had the same swirling blues, purples, whites, and blacks. Was there some small chance that maybe Riku could be here? She stopped running and plopped down on the ground, often like the way children do when they are confused or disappointed. What could she do here? She had herself in a perfectly terrible situation, and didn't even know where she was. She lied down on the surface of the whatever-it-was area and stared at the sky, or ceiling, she wasn't sure.

"I have to think of a plan. All I do is run most of the time. I don't want to be saved, I want to save. It's no fair. Just because Malificent kidnapped me and all that stuff, everyone thinks that I can't do anything by myself anymore. It stinks." she called for Riku one more time, again with no reply. Kairi was still laying on the ground, reminicsing her old memories, when she heard echoing footsteps at a fast pace coming her way. First she was startled, but then relaxed when she heard the tone of voice.

"Kairi! I heard you..I'm here. It's ok."

"Riku! You are back! Where were you? Are you okay? All those monsters..." Kairi shuddered. Those monster things were weird. Riku came up to her and ruffled her hair.

"Don't worry your pretty little head about me Kai, you need to worry about yourself." he smiled and grabbed her hand. "Come on, lets go find Sora."

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