Note: Begins immediately at the end of KH3D. Spoilers for 3D and whatever elements of X and anything else I decide to include. This is a not!KH3 fic. For quicker updates, you may wish to follow the version at Archive of Our Own.

It was sudden, like the falling of a stormcloud across the sky. Almost as one, the Dream Eaters went silent. The Meow Wow Sora was petting shifted and, with a squeak, attempted to hide behind him. Sora looked up, following the collective gaze of the Dream Eaters, even as some of the weaker ones took off into the ever-night of Traverse Town.

There were two figures on the wall, both black, barely visible against the sky. Sora recognized the shapes of them just before the one with tighter, slimmer sleeves conjured a gun and fired.

The rain of bullets fell around Sora as he drew his Keyblade and rolled out of the way across the square. The Dream Eaters around him shielded him, were punctured by crystalline bullets, and fell, littering the square with the dream pieces they were composed of. When most of the crowd was gone, the second figure descended, stepping over the fragments of dreams like they were so much trash.

Sora didn't wait for Saïx to drop his hood before bouncing off the walls to strike at him, Keyblade leading the charge. As he'd mostly expected, Saïx caught the attack with his usual massive weapon and flung Sora back. It was an attack that would have thrown Sora's back against the wall the first time they fought, but he had gotten better. Sora landed instead with his feet on the wall, ready to spring back with another attack, but he didn't get the chance. Instead, he tumbled away from the bullets that rained on him from above, where Xigbar remained on the roof.

"Did you forget about me?" the man called, tauntingly, but Sora didn't have the breath to reply as he swung rapidly around a lamp post to redirect his attacks towards Saïx. Trying to catch up with Xigbar was useless, he knew; the best way to bring the sniper down was to reflect his own shots back at him, and that required staying still for much longer than was safe when Saix was crashing shockwaves across the ground.

Sora was more maneuverable, but Saïx was relentless, crossing the square like a force of nature with shockwaves and flung claymores, and Sora didn't seem to be the only one who had gotten stronger. There wasn't even a moon in Traverse Town's sky for Saix to draw power from, but he hit as hard as ever and the shockwaves he sent across the ground were, if anything, larger. It was quickly apparent that Sora could barely risk standing on the same ground as the man at all, his feet only touching the ground for brief, sometimes painful moments.

And the whole time there were bullets, herding Sora closer to Saïx whenever he tried to get some distance, though Xigbar certainly wasn't avoiding actually hitting Sora, either. Bullets ripped into his clothes, grazed off his limbs, no matter how much he tried to avoid them, and all the Cure magic in the world couldn't stop Sora from getting tired.

That, Sora realized, was probably their intention. Saïx could fight as he was for a long time; Xigbar, who was barely moving except to reload his weapons and occasionally change vantage points with a warp, could last even longer. And the only help he could call for was Dream Eaters, who got shot down practically as soon as they appeared.

He wanted to believe in his friends, but optimistic as Sora was, the odds of a second miraculous rescue were slim. There was no sign of any other life, not even when he was backed against the wall, Saïx approaching, Xigbar warping down from the rooftop. They were still separate people, but they moved oddly in sync, evidence of the hold that Xehanort had over them.

Saïx stepped back a little as Xigbar stepped forward. "If you'll do the honors."

"Think I will." The grin Xigbar was wearing was all him, though, nothing of Xehanort. Sora raised his Keyblade as steadily as he could in front of himself to attempt to defend, but to his surprise, Xigbar dismissed his guns and stood with his arms spread. "Hey look, kid, nothing up my sleeve - "

Sora braced - he wasn't sure for what, but a moment later he found out. The formation of a Keyblade in Xigbar's hand was all darkness, like a bullet shot from his wrist, leaving the shaft of the blade in its trail. It looked enough like his guns that there was no mistaking the wielder even if you saw the blade alone, and it made Sora's blood run cold to look at. Perhaps it was the teal eye on the crossguard of the blade, staring down the back of it so much like a sniper's scope.

"Whaddya think?" Xigbar asked. "Thought I'd save something special for the maiden voyage..." The good humor vanished in an instant, the tone of Xigbar's voice dropping. "And that's where you come in, isn't it?"

With no options but desperation, Sora charged, a wild rush to the door of the world and possible escape, an unfamiliar power taking hold of him as though he were a beam of light himself, bouncing around the square. "That's new!" Xigbar called, jovial again, as he and Saïx both dove out of the way. "For you, anyway."

He warped about the square, seemingly waiting for Sora to slow down, as inevitably happened all too quickly. The uncontrolled power of light left Sora further from the world entrance than where he started and disoriented enough that he barely got the chance to turn when Xigbar appeared behind him.

A thrust, and that Keyblade was inside him, the sniper's eye staring dead even with the crown pendant around Sora's neck, and he felt himself fragment, and something inside him fragment, as Xigbar turned it (as though Sora himself were a giant lock) and pulled it clear.

His last thoughts, as his body failed to grip his heart and he felt himself floating away, went something like, Sorry, guys, I really screwed it up this time.

After two days of having her ability with the Keyblade assessed, Kairi was given leave to do whatever she wanted for the day while Riku, Mickey, and Yen Sid stuck their heads together to discuss what they'd seen. Riku in particular hadn't seemed to know what to make of it, which Kairi had to admit made her a little bit smug. Lea, poor soul, had come back on the second day and was still nursing "payback for kidnapping" bruises even after the application of some rather strong Cure spells.

It was thinking of that that had led Kairi to what she wanted to do with her free day, and she'd eventually managed to beg Donald and Goofy (mostly Donald - Goofy was pretty agreeable) into taking her to Twilight Town. No one had told Hayner, Pence, and Olette that she and Sora were okay, she'd insisted stubbornly. Lea, also given the day to himself, had opted to remain behind.

Goofy had wanted to go with her, but he and Donald had had to take care of a few things themselves - Kairi insisted she would be fine, though, promising that she would stick to the public areas of the town until she found her friends. Yen Sid had thought it unlikely that Xehanort would strike again so soon, she reminded them.

And so that was how Kairi wound up on the streets of Twilight Town by herself, the unchanging afternoon sunlight making it impossible to tell the time. There surely had to be a way that the locals measured out the days - maybe she could ask. It was important to keep knowledge of other worlds a secret - Riku, Mickey, and Yen Sid had all impressed this upon her individually - but those three already knew, didn't they? So surely it would be fine.

Soon enough, she heard a voice - "Heeeeeeey!" And then others, more surprised - "Kairi?!" "You're okay!"

She turned and saw Hayner waving his arms about frantically from the entrance to an alley, Pence and Olette behind him with a bag of books and a more sedate wave respectively. Kairi grinned, waving back before running over to meet them.

"Hi guys," she said brightly as she met up with them - or at least with Hayner and Olette, Pence lagging a couple steps behind with the books clamped to his chest. "Sorry it took so long to come visit."

"Is Sora here with you?" Olette asked immediately, and Kairi had to shake her head.

"No, he's off on important Keyblade business," she answered with a laugh. "I know he would have wanted to see you guys, though."

"Too bad," Hayner said, with an exaggerated slump of his shoulders. "Man! I wanted a rematch!"

"We have homework," Pence reminded him gently, indicating the books.

"A rematch?" Kairi asked. Olette just sighed.

"You know Sora was here just after the Struggle Competition, right?" Kairi nodded, and the other girl went on, "Well, Hayner challenged him, later on, and got his butt handed to him - "

"I did not!" Hayner interjected.

"You kind of did," Pence agreed.

Olette sighed in exasperation at the interruptions. "Anyway, so Hayner's been itching for a rematch ever since." The look she gave Kairi was exactly the same as the one Selphie shot her sometimes when Tidus and Wakka were being unbearable with their ball game. Kairi stifled a giggle, supposing that some thing were just universal.

"Well," she said, "I'm not Sora, but you can fight me, if you want." Hayner's jaw practically dropped open, which just made Kairi beam. (Now even Donald couldn't say the day was a waste; he'd been the one lecturing her about training against different opponents, after all.)

"I can't fight a girl!" Hayner tried to protest, which seemed to entertain his friends more than anything. Kairi just put her hands on her hips.

"And why not? Scared I'll kick your butt, too?" She didn't get an answer to that, aside from the way Olette put her hands over her mouth to try and disguise her laughter. "And if I win, then you have to do your homework. No more complaining."

"Ugh, fine!" Now that he'd been wrangled into agreeing, though, Hayner was all energy. "But if I win, you have to tell us everything that happened after that guy dragged you off!"

"Deal," Kairi said with a smirk, and then followed Hayner down towards the sandlot, Pence and Olette trailing after them with amused expressions.

Kairi almost felt sorry for Hayner from the moment he put the foam sword in her hands - the kids on Destiny Islands fought with uncushioned wooden swords. Still, the time limit and point system of the struggle match were enough to keep her interested. She was used to just going until one party gave up, not something like this.

She was just trained enough to be able to tell the resulting difference in styles; Hayner was more sensitive to being hit, like she'd expected, but recovered quickly and struck fast before getting out of range again. They went a couple practice rounds before getting down to the fight that would settle the bet, both watching each other carefully while Pence kept score and Olette cheered from the sidelines.

Ultimately, Kairi chose to wait it out till the time was mostly gone, and she wound up being glad for the foam sword after all - the disarming strike she used on Hayner's hand was stronger than she'd thought it was, and he yelped hard as he dropped his weapon. Kairi didn't waste any time in landing a few more hits on his knee and shoulder before collecting her points, a few still scattered on the ground when the buzzer rang.

"Ow," Hayner complained, falling back to sit on the floor of the ring. "You didn't have to hit so hard!"

"That's what you get for saying girls can't fight," Olette said, climbing up to the ring to retrieve the fallen foam weapon. "Here, Kairi, I'll go put those away while Hayner licks his wounds."

"Thanks," Kairi said, handing it off to her before reaching down to help Hayner up. He made a dramatic sigh before taking it and letting her pull him up.

"Man, I lost, and now I have to do homework," he said, promptly putting his hands up in front of his face when Kairi gave him a look. "I'm not complaining, I swear! Geeze, is everyone this good at fighting where you come from?"

"Pretty much," Kairi says with a laugh, as they drop from the ring back to street level. "We only had that and swimming to do when we were kids. Sandcastles get kind of boring after a while."

"So you live near a beach?" Pence asked, and Kairi just nodded in response. "Don't tell Olette that, she's always talking about how much she wants to go. She'll probably try to follow you home."

"Well, she's right!" Hayner said loudly as the girl in question came back into sight. "The beach is awesome! I'd go right now if I could."

"Telling Kairi about our failed beach trip?" Olette asked as she came back up. "We kept trying to go last summer, but it never seemed to work out..." She sighed. "I haven't been to the ocean since I was a little kid."

"Aw, come on, cheer up," Hayner told her. "It'll be summer again before you know it, right? We'll definitely go then. Sora and that Riku guy too, right?" he added, looking at Kairi.

"Right!" Kairi nodded with a smile. "I bet your beach is totally different from ours." She'd only really experienced a few worlds, and Twilight Town was the most like the Destiny Islands, but the two were still utterly different.

"Then it's a date," Hayner said, giving her a thumbs up. Then he looked a little sadly at Pence and Olette. "Okay, guys, lay it on me. What kind of essay do I have to struggle through tonight?"

"Actually, we decided to put it off and have a look at the old mansion," Olette said, with a glance at Kairi. (The look on Hayner's face at the words was nearly enough to send Kairi into a fit of giggles.) "Your timing's really good - they fixed the old crack in the wall before we could go back and explore, so we had to find another way through."

"Or rather, Seifer and his gang found it for us," Pence added. "They came back scared once they realized where they were, though. The rumours about the ghost are going around again."

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Hayner said. Kairi could only nod along, a little nervous, but excited all the same.

She'd only heard a little about the old mansion from Sora and Riku, mostly the latter, but the walk through the woods was strangely familiar. She knew which way to turn even before the others did, but let them lead anyway, until the trees parted to reveal brick walls and metal gates. Then she rushed forward heedlessly across the little bit of open ground, putting her hands to the iron bars.

"So that's the place, huh?" she said as the others caught up with her.

"Yeah. Sora went into the computer there, and..." Pence rubbed the back of his head. "I don't really get it, honestly. I guess there's a data world that held a pathway he needed."

"Weird to think about," Hayner said, coming to stand up beside Kairi and peer through the bars as well. "I mean, a whole world made out of nothing but data? Sounds like something out of the stories."

Kairi found herself wondering, a little, what stories Twilight Town had about the split of the worlds, but she resolved that that would have to wait until later. "It must be real, though." Or at least as real as the other data worlds in the universe, like the one Mickey had told her about deep within a journal. "Otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get to the World that Never Was."

"Weird name for a world," Hayner commented, jumping her out of her half-reverie. "Come on! We're not going to find anything out by standing around at the gate." He shoved at his side of of the metal bars, and the gate swung inward with a somewhat distressing rattle. Pence followed him through the gap, leaving Kairi and Olette to look at each other and roll their eyes before following.

The inside of the mansion was mostly dark, only a bare minimum oflights, enough that they didn't trip. Olette dug a tiny emergency flashlight out of her pocket and Pence a larger one out of his bag, and they passed them around to whoever most needed the light as they searched. Whenever the others had the lights, Kairi swore that she would see flashes of white out of the corners of her eyes. Naminé? she almost called out once, before remembering that she wasn't there alone.

"You keep looking like you're expecting a real ghost to pop out," Pence commented at one point, as the four of them together moved a table out from in front of a door.

"Something like that," she said awkwardly, and resolved to try and not be so obvious about it.

The halls underneath the mansion, full of empty pods, gave Kairi the chills more than anything. She wasn't the only one, either - all four of them were pretty uncomfortable, but Kairi insisted on going all the way down to the room at the end of the hall, completely bypassing the computer that seemed to hold the attention of the others entirely.

The massive pod hanging in front of her was so incredibly familiar that she couldn't stop the words from slipping out, oh-so-quietly. "This is where Sora slept."

The other three exchanged weird looks as she shook her head, fighting off the strange memories. "Sorry," she said.

"You really do have to tell us the whole story sometime," Olette said as Hayner finished circling the pod.

"Someday," Kairi promised, hoping that she could. Hoping that someday she would know all of it, instead of snatched bits and fragments of someone else's memories.

"Come on," Pence said, trying to add some cheer back to the group. "There's still one more room!"

It was a room of white full of memories, with drawings, carefully sketched, littering the table, the walls, even the floor. Kairi barely glanced at them, even as the others expressed shock over the contents - Sora was the most common feature of them, along with Kairi herself and a figure she knew to be Riku even if none of the others did. Instead, as though in a trance, she walked over to the window, standing just out of sight behind the curtain.

How many hours did I spend here waiting? she found herself thinking, but, no - it was Naminé who had been waiting for so long. And for what? Not for Riku, Kairi knew that, but for someone else. She shook her head, and forced herself to look at the ground outside the mansion with her eyes, instead of memories.

What she saw had her running back out of the room in a panic, Keyblade half-formed and in her hand before she was fully aware of it. "There's someone on the ground outside the gate!" she called over her shoulder as the only explanation, and the trio she left behind dropped the pictures and tailed after her, Pence just as quick on his feet as the others when there was a crisis at hand.

The figure had been just a little familiar, before, but he was moreso on the ground, in a way that made Kairi's heart stop for reasons she couldn't explain. She'd only met him so briefly, knew him just in the shadows of her heart -

You're that girl he likes.

She stopped dead, Keyblade held out, even as Hayner barely slid to a stop behind her in time to avoid crashing. "Whoa!" he yelled.

"Hey," Olette said behind them. "Isn't that..."

Is this who you were waiting for, Naminé?

"Yeah - " That was Pence, in the rear but not by much, as they all crowded around Kairi, none seemingly willing to try and pass by her or her Keyblade. "That's Roxas."