SORA'S HERO

- Prologue: Awakening -

From the very beginning—the day she washed up on shore—the two of them are as thick as thieves. At least, that's how Kairi remembers it. She knows that there must've been some time when they weren't, like those first few days she spent in a bed at the mayor's home, wracked with chills from her time in the sea. But what really matters is her earliest real memory of him (not counting the barely-recalled feel of his hands pulling her from the water):

"Hey! You're that weird girl from the beach!"

Well, okay, her first meaningful memory of him: "So, do you want to be my friend?"

Sora may not have gotten any better at introductions (blunt and slightly tactless as he still is, even after the almost ten years she's known him), but that pure and simple kindheartedness is enough to win anyone over. And even if he'd walked up to her, called her weird, and pulled on her short, crimson hair, he'd spent the better part of a decade making up for it as her best friend.

Even though Sora's known Riku longer, Kairi's proud to say that she's the one Sora likes better. A childhood of arguments with Riku and Sora always picking her side is proof enough. And, with the onset of their teenage years, even though Riku is slowly becoming the more attractive of her best friends, she can say that Sora's always held her affections, from the very first day they met. After all, when she was still the red-haired stranger from beyond the sea, when even Riku, the boldest of the islands' children, was wary of her, Sora was the first one to offer his friendship.

She'd even say that she might like Sora, in the way children just discovering romance might say it. Not that she'd admit to anyone, not even her best friends, especially if Selphie's whispered gossip about the islands' burgeoning heartthrob is true…

Not that it matters either way. As much as she likes him, and as much as that colors her perceptions, even she can admit that Sora, for all his open friendliness, is a bit thick when it comes to relationships beyond mere friendship.

Even though Kairi's perfectly willing to admit that Sora is her nearest and dearest friend, when Selphie, or Tidus, or even her parents wonder just what it is about the brunet that draws her in, she finds herself at a loss to answer.

Part of it—from the youngest, simplest part of her, the one that predates her time on the islands—is that he was her first friend on the islands. Even before the mayor—or rather, his wife—decided that she would live with them, that she would officially become part of the island's community, Sora had already made her his friend.

But that's definitely not all of it. Riku's been her friend nearly as long, after Sora forced the two to spend some time together (which, after spending the better part of six months glaring at each other, Riku because he thought she had stolen his best friend, Kairi because Riku had simply been an insufferable jerk about the whole matter, was easier said than done), so it's not simply the length of their friendship. And, after spending the entirety of fifth grade dealing with the fallout of the duplicity and two-facedness of the 'popular' girls, it's not simply the strength of his introduction, memorable as it is.

Even after she spends two days pondering it, Kairi finds herself no closer to an acceptably complete answer. She could list off some of Sora's sweeter and more adorable behavior when it comes to her, but even with her crush on him distorting her thoughts, that's too shallow and 'lovey-dovey' and not at all adequate to describe the breadth and depth of their bond.

Maybe it's his utterly unshakable faith in her. Even now, there are some who—though they wouldn't dare say it to her face, or to their parents'—lift their noses up in the air to look down on the foreign girl, the only one in their year not born on the islands. But after that memorable showdown the summer after fifth grade, Kairi knows that Sora—and by extension Riku—would kick the crap out of anyone who would dare express that sentiment. Not that she needed their protection—as the two black eyes and three bloodied noses she handed out would attest—but the thought was rather sweet and a tad charming.

Maybe it's his incredible kindness and nobility. She knows that she isn't the only one Sora's gone out his way to save (though none as memorably as her). All the schoolyard bullies know that while Riku's the strongest on the island, Sora's the most tenacious. And when something offends his sense of justice, Sora simply won't stop until the bully submits.

Or maybe it's that strange feeling she gets from him, the sense that, for all the normalcy and monotony life on the islands entails, Sora is meant for something more. Sometimes when she asks him something she thinks is perfectly simple and ordinary, he simply stops for a moment, then answers with the oddest tone of voice and the oddest look in his eye. Sometimes, that feeling thrills her. But sometimes, it terrifies her.

Like that time when they left the movie theater after watching the latest superhero flick, she had asked him if he were a hero, what he would give up to save a friend (she secretly thinks in her mind, what he would give up to save her).

It had only been an idle thought, and she had joked that she would give up her dessert for a year, but Sora had looked her dead in the eye and said, "I would give up my heart for you." The phrasing of his answer had confused her (how does one give up their heart?) but the utter seriousness of his tone—heavy with the sound of someone who has truly sacrificed their everything for the sake of others, when Sora obviously hasn't and couldn't have—was almost heart-breaking.

In her occasional nightmares, she dreams of a walled city in flames. The sounds of screaming and the tearing of flesh, the sight of crystalline hearts breaking and bodies vanishing into darkness—all of it roars through her mind, and she screams as she ends up alone as the earth shakes her home apart. Even when the city is nothing but ruins, and the dying world fades away, when is alone in the still silence and emptiness of darkness, the sound of Sora's voice comes to her, as grave and serious and full of pain as it was that day.

As much as she loves him for his selflessness and heroism, as much as she wants to see him achieve all the greatness he's meant to achieve, Kairi dreads the day when Sora will lay down his life and more for her. Because she knows she would do so for him, and that Sora would let nothing stop him from doing the same.

Still, those flashes of utter severity and graveness are few and far between. By the time Kairi turns fourteen, she can scarcely remember the sound of Sora declaring he'd die for her (but it persists in her nightmares). Her days with Sora and Riku are filled with laughter and trivial fun, with all the pleasures of the height of childhood.

Sora comes to her the day after her fourteenth birthday party, and announces that he wants to build a raft to go visit other worlds. The sheer ridiculousness of that statement nearly makes her laugh aloud, and she gives him the blankest, most deadpan stare she can muster.

Nevertheless, she hears him out, and when she hears that the raft is really Riku's idea, she doesn't hesitate at all to offer her help (especially after spending an entire childhood apologizing to adults for the messes Sora and Riku's harebrained schemes inevitably create). Sora, just as he had in all their previous projects, ends up slacking off day after day, often falling asleep on the golden beach.

But Riku, she sees, works with a single-minded intensity. Even though she offers all the help she can, Riku takes on all the work himself. Kairi knows that her silver-haired friend can be driven and focused, but there's something different about this time. He works not with the diligence of a student on a school project—as she's seen on late nights after he and Sora had left assignments off to the last minute—or the excited but unguided energy of a child on an improvised plan. There's a deliberate intensity in Riku's work, restless but focused—he works as if his life depends on it, with all the accompanying stress and fear poured into it.

As the raft nears completion, Kairi comes to realize that perhaps it does. She knows Riku's home life hasn't been exactly great, and that he's wanted to leave the islands since the age of ten. But she never realized how desperate he would be, and for all his focus, how little thought he's put into it (the day after she makes this realization, Riku hands her a list of supplies for their 'trip' on the raft, and she nearly faints at the inadequacy of it).

But she's Riku's best friend, and more importantly, Sora is his other best friend. And she'll be damned before she lets those two idiots get themselves killed on this journey.

The day they finish the raft, Kairi finds Sora sleeping yet again on the beach. She pokes him awake, like all the other times, but this time, he wakes up with a start and a grimace. Concerned, she drops to her knees onto the sand beside him, and asks what's wrong, but he waves it off, only mentioning a bad dream. Their conversation smoothly turns toward lighter topics, and their excitement about the trip quickly comes to the fore.

As the sun sets with their preparations complete, she proudly shows off the little side project she had been working on: her newly-made wayfinder charm. It had taken her weeks to find thalassa shells of roughly matching sizes, but it had been well worth it. Riku finds the two of them at their usual spot on the paopu tree, and the three look at the sunset together, resolute and ready to discover what lies behind the horizon (Kairi thinks she and the boys will simply head out to sea, and inevitably return home after finding a whole lot of nothing; she never suspects that this will truly be the last time for a long time that the sun sets on the Destiny Islands).

She heads to bed early, already dressed in tomorrow's clothes, to make as early a start in the morning. Kairi simply wants to get as much rest as she possibly can, but fate, it seems, conspires to do the exact opposite. She's plagued with terrible nightmares, the most vivid she's had since the fever dreams of her first night on the islands. She sees the city burn yet again, sees the people torn apart by monsters she can barely glimpse, prepares to be overwhelmed yet again—when everything stops, and simply falls away.

When Kairi comes to, she finds herself on a glass platform, the top of a pillar which, as she rises unsteadily to her feet, is alone in an incredible void. When she looks down, she sees that the platform is dominated by an image of her: her leaning on the paopu tree, new wayfinder in one hand, and the oddest weapon in the other. When she looks elsewhere, she's startled to find that though the foreground is clearly her on the Destiny Islands, the background isn't: instead, it's the city of her nightmares, whole and radiant, resplendent with flowering gardens and waterfalls.

Nestled next to her image are a handful of empty circles. She sees Sora's smiling image in one circle, and Riku's serious one in another, and wonders what then the empty circles symbolize.

Before she can ponder the platform any further, she's interrupted by a voice she's never heard before:

YOU MUST CHOOSE.

"Wha—," Kairi barely makes out before an object suddenly appears before her: a strange sword-like weapon like the one her image holds, but simpler, with a gold handle and silver blade, without the flowery accoutrements of the one in the image. She instinctively reaches out for it, and scarcely grasps it before three figures emerge from the darkness.

As weird as this dream has turned out, Kairi is unsurprised to see Sora on the left and Riku on the right; it seems no matter where she goes, her best friends will accompany her. But she is surprised to see the third figure in the middle: a boy, slightly older than her, perhaps Riku's age. What surprises her is not that she doesn't recognize him, but that she does: he's Sora, but not. Or rather, he has Sora's face: older, sharper with less baby fat, but the same basic features, the same blue eyes she's come to love. And a slightly tamer, more respectable hairstyle, with shorter, golden locks in place of Sora's outrageous brunet spikes.

She takes a step closer to inspect the middle boy, wondering what the voice meant by 'choose,' when she's interrupted again:

YOU MUST FIGHT.

Kairi doesn't even have time to be surprised, as Sora and Riku disappear, and the unknown boy convulses, falling to his hands and knees, face distorted as he makes a soundless scream. She reaches out to him, and shouts out, "Hey! Are you okay?" But a wave of foul darkness—darkness as terrible as that in the burning city of her nightmares—engulfs him, and suppressing a gasp of surprise, she covers her face with an arm as the dark energies roar past her, squinting and straining to see the strange blonde with Sora's face in the midst of that darkness.

When the energies die down, and the figure stands once more, Kairi does gasp this time. He still has Sora's face, but now it's in an entirely different way from the first boy: the first boy shared his coloring, and had been calmer than Sora, with a more serious expression, but the same kind energy and enthusiasm for life shone in his eyes. Had their hairstyles been the same, Kairi doubted if she could've told the two apart on sight.

There is no doubt in her mind that this second boy is as different from Sora as could be. The features are the same still, but now the coloring is wrong, very wrong. His skin is pale, almost unnaturally so, his eyes an unearthly gold, his hair, arranged in spikes more akin to Sora's than the first boy, pitch black. And he bears an expression of such cruelty that Kairi barely bites back an unreasonable demand for him to stop misusing Sora's face.

With a crackle, a burst of dark energy blazes around the dark boy's hand; with a flash, a key-sword weapon appears just as hers did. The boy's weapon is nothing like the simple elegance of hers: red and black, with unnatural curves and jutting lines, studded with a ghastly pale blue eye. A weapon, Kairi notes as terror begins to rise in the pit of her stomach, as a chill wind seems to pass over her even though the air is completely still, as cruel as its wielder.

She realizes what the voice meant this time, when the boy raises his weapon in a mocking salute and smiles even more wickedly, and charges her. Days of watching Sora and Riku spar come to her mind, and—disregarding her former disparagement of the two for 'wasting their time on pointless fighting'—she raises her own key-sword in a perfect imitation of Sora's block. Kairi staggers back a step as she intercepts her opponent's attack just in time, arms shaking and straining from the force of the blow. Just as she tries to force him back from where their two blades lock together, he leaps back suddenly, and she nearly loses her balance.

Already thrown off-guard by the boy's dazzling speed, Kairi barely has the presence of mind to raise her sword as he charges again. And so it goes, the boy dominating the fight, forcing her to always remain on guard, never able to retaliate against the boy's lightning fast strikes and charges. Arms shaking from exertion, breath coming in gasps and pants as if she had run a marathon (isn't this only a dream, a tiny part of Kairi wonders), Kairi fears what exactly the consequences of losing this fight might be.

The voice interrupts a final time:

YOU MUST ENDURE.

And just as suddenly as that proclamation, another memory of her boys sparring comes to mind, as the dark boy prepares to charge yet again. This time, Kairi raises her blade into a slightly different guard, and even as her opponent smirks with mocking confidence, she readies herself, arms, legs, and core muscles all prepared to face the might of his attack, despite her exhaustion.

The dark blade meets her silver one yet again. But now, instead of simply absorbing the force of the charge, Kairi slides her blade against its length, ducking around the weapon. The dark boy's golden eyes widen in surprise, and he stumbles forward another step, even as Kairi steps around his attack and into his guard.

A simple twist of her blade—just like Sora had done the one time he had beaten Riku in a head-on clash—and she brings her weapon up and slashes across the dark boy's exposed torso. With that one strike, her opponent falls to his knees beside her.

Kairi turns to face him, sword at the ready and prepared to fight once more, only to be dumbfounded, jaw dropping with shock, because the dark boy is gone. Instead, dressed in a black coat she has never seen before, is her Sora, with skin tanned by the beach sun, hair the same warm brown it had always been, eyes as blue as his namesake, and the gentle smile that is his default expression.

"Sora?" she whispers, unable to comprehend.

Unaware of anything but her friend, she is helpless when the darkness suddenly takes her, engulfing her completely, and Kairi falls, sinking into the platform itself. Blinded, she thrashes wildly, desperately reaching out for a handhold. Something—or someone?—grabs her outstretched hand, and she hears a shout.

"Kairi!"

"Sora!" she yells in reply, fighting to hold on, struggling to claw her way out of the darkness.

"Kairi! I need you!"

She awakens in her bed, shaking and in a cold sweat. Throwing off the sheets and slowly pulling herself up, Kairi wipes at her face, brushing off both sweat and tears. What on earth was that, she wonders numbly and hazily. Then she remembers the last part of the dream.

She leaps out of bed, not truly thinking, barely considering how her parents would respond, just desperate to get to her best friend, whose voice shook with unimaginable pain and fear in the dream. If Sora were truly hurting with all the pain evident in his dream self's voice, nothing, come hell or high water, would stop her. Kairi throws open the door, ready to run to Sora's house even in the dead of night—and comes to a complete halt, dumbfounded for the second time that night.

A massive storm rages in the heavens above the Destiny Islands, though there is no rain, only cold, biting wind. And the ground is alive with shadows, seething and writhing with impossible life. Kairi stands at the doorway of her home for another second, utterly stupefied. Then the shadows leap at her.

A/N: Well, here goes my first work of fanfiction. The plot bunny ambushed me in the middle of the night when I was trying to sleep, and demanded I complete it. So, this is the product of working at four in the morning, coupled with the pains of inexperience, and without the guidance of a beta reader. Hopefully, you find the idea as interesting as my addled brain did. Either way, lambast me with all the constructive criticism you can muster; I probably need it. Review away!