Challenge [268]- If I Never Knew You

[myrrh-darkwing.livejournal.com]

Title: Together Forever

Challenge: 268- If I Never Knew You
Word Count: 597
Notes: I like this one quite a bit better, though it's still rough. Spoilers for the beginning of BBS.
 

The black-robed man smiled as he deposited the boy’s limp form beneath a gently swaying palm tree. “There, you see? An empty world, like a prison. I imagine you'll be right at home.” Ven’s heart reached out desperately, seeking something it could use to save itself, but all… all it found was a dark, empty void. His eyes closed, his head lolled back against the tree’s trunk, and the man in black turned away as he ceased to breathe.
A masked boy stepped out from the darkness and looked silently down at his other half’s body. “Come, Vanitas,” Master Xehanort beckoned. “Leave this useless hulk; perhaps he’ll even survive.”

“Hey, Kairi,” Riku called, racing across the white sands to reach his best friend. “I’ve got the rest of the things you asked for!” He skidded to a halt by their two little boats, the ones they were stocking up for what was hopefully going to be a long journey.
The redhaired girl turned; her face lit up when she saw who it was. “Took you long enough,” she giggled, and gestured to a spot beside their boats. “Just put it there.” He obeyed her, just like always (although she was the only person he did take orders from).
“When do you think we’ll be ready to leave?” he asked, staring out across the sea.
She shrugged. “Tomorrow? We’ve got just about everything, seeing as we started only a couple weeks ago.”
Riku grinned. As he ran off again, he shouted, “I’ll hold you to it!”

“Riku,” Kairi shrieked, “what’s that?” They had set sail that morning, and were currently headed straight towards a darkly swirling… thing, which she was pretty sure their boats weren’t strong enough to survive.
“A way out!” he yelled back at her, his eyes gleaming with a sort of mad glee. “Come on, let’s see where it leads!”  Since he was sailing straight at it, and she trusted him completely, Kairi followed.

Light, a voice whispered, echoing all around them.
Where? another one questioned.
Keyblades, a third (or was it the first?) murmured, and on this point all seemed to agree.
Keyblades, the voices chorused as Riku and Kairi crested a wave and disappeared into the void.

Xehanort’s Heartless snarled quietly to itself as it watched the host it had been trying to cultivate escape its grasp yet again. The boy just wouldn’t turn to the Darkness- something near him was too strongly Light. There was no other choice, then, it would kill the girl and take the boy for its own.

(Later it would learn why that had been a Bad Idea, as two Keyblades beat it back into the Darkness from whence it had emerged).

“Kingdom Hearts progresses nicely,” Saïx informed the Organization as they wandered one by one into the Grey Room (he knew full well he was the only one to pay attention at meetings). “The two Keybearers are doing their jobs.”

“There has to be some way we can bring them to our side,” Marluxia muttered to Larxene, who simply shrugged.
“They care about each other,” she suggested. “Kidnap one of them.”

(The girl was selected as the easier target, but a burst of high-level Blizzaga spells quickly brought an end to the fire-wielder sent after her, and no more missions involving them were authorised after that.)

“Riku?” Kairi ventured finally, some three or so years since they had first ventured through the dark door. “The worlds should be safe now… Do you think it’s about time we went back home?”

He had no choice but to agree.