Seek the Stars

X

“It’s Xemnas, but it’s not.” Zexion repeated, arms folded over his chest as he cocked his head toward the childlike man asleep in the hospital bed. “Physically, it’s Xemnas. Mentally, it’s someone who calls himself Xemnas. It’s not the Xemnas we knew.”

Kairi leaned over to Naminé and whispered, “How many more times do you think he’ll say ‘Xemnas’?”

Naminé almost choked on her milk. Roxas shot them a mild glare.

“So who is it then?” Saïx asked, face emotionless.

Zexion shrugged. “He says he’s Xemnas.”

“That’s a load of help.” Xigbar muttered. Marluxia elbowed him, sightless mulberry eyes narrowed at a point close to Xigbar’s face.

“Until I gain access to his memories,” Zexion said, “that’s all we know.”

Kairi stretched as the group left the infirmary and hurried after Naminé, Roxas, Tenkuu, and Kaoru who seemed to be much calmer now than he had been a week ago. There hadn’t been many incidents and they hadn’t gone off-world again. The five of them had played on the beach, the boardwalk, and caused general mayhem when Kaoru had introduced Kairi to paintball guns. That had gotten them all scolded by Rufus, but Kairi had seen the happiness in his eyes.

She wondered if Sora and Riku would want to play paintball when they got here.

“We can’t,” Kairi heard Tenkuu say. “If we got caught, we’d be in so much trouble.”

“What are we getting in trouble for?” Kairi asked. Kaoru smirked at her.

“Naminé wants to go to Twilight Town.”

The Sunrise Town Princess blushed. “I ran out of markers. Sunrise doesn’t sell what I need.”

“Why do we need permission?” Kairi asked. “Seems like a simple trip to me. Besides, I’d like to see Pence, Hayner, and Olette again.”

“Because if we get permission we’ll go in a Gummi ship, which means an Order member will likely come with us.” Roxas said, smiling at the mention of his old sort-of friends.

“And you don’t want that?”

“We don’t need to be babysat.”

Kairi shrugged. “And the other way?”

“We use a Dark Corridor.” Kaoru said. “It’s dangerous, but fast. With any luck, we’ll get there and back within an hour.”

“Doesn’t sound that bad to me.” Kairi said.

Tenkuu rolled his eyes. “It’s forbidden for anyone but the Order to open a Dark Corridor.”

Kairi looked at Kaoru. “You can do it, can’t you?”

“I could.” Kaoru replied. “But we’d have to move fast because the Leader is attuned to my powers.”

Kairi’s blank face didn’t get any immediate answers. “So what’s the worst case scenario?”

“We get eaten alive by Enigma.” The four deadpanned.

“Of course,” Roxas stated, “there’s always the off-chance we get caught before we actually get anywhere.”

Kairi frowned. “So what are we waiting for then?” she grinned. “Let’s go for it!”

Naminé laughed. “Certainly getting dangerous, aren’t you?”

“Well,” Kairi pondered for a moment, “I need SOME story to tell Sora and Riku to make them feel bad about taking so long.”

Tenkuu and Roxas winced. Kaoru rolled his eyes.

Naminé clapped her hands. “Okay. We’ll need Ethers and potions. Probably would be a good idea to get some other recovery items, too.”

Kaoru nodded almost absently. “You guys take care of that stuff. I have to prepare.”

“We have to go where there’s not a lot of people.”

Kaoru canted his head slightly. “That ruined old church by Outworld Falls could work.”

“We’ll meet there, then.” Roxas said. “One hour. We all have to be there or no one goes.”

Kairi jogged after Naminé. “Seems silly to do something this dangerous for markers.”

Naminé smiled a little too conspiratorially. “If I told them why I really wanted to go, they’d be against it.”

Kairi blinked and grinned. “Devious little witch. So why do you wanna go?”

“The old mansion where Ansem, Master Ansem, that is, kept me, has a secret lab that Sora and his friends were kept in while I rebuilt their memories. Ansem had a lot of books and one was a photo album. If we find that, maybe we could get Xemnas to remember.”

“They’re going to be so mad at you.” Kairi grinned. “We’re going to be in so much trouble.”

Naminé just smiled. “What’s the worst they can do, ground us? Come on, we have a task to do.”

Kairi laughed and hooked her arm around her Nobody’s shoulders, enjoying this newfound freedom.


Cid’s cigarette flicked from the left to the right side of his mouth. “You’re telling me I know that red-eyed bastard?”

Sephiroth fought against casting Meteor on the idiot pilot. “Yes. That’s what I’m saying. You know him from Before.”

“Before what?”

Was Cid really this dense? Sephiroth wanted to throttle the man, to rail at him that if he didn’t remember Vincent they couldn’t go anywhere because Cid was being a stubborn old goat. It was Cloud that pulled Sephiroth away from Cid with the help of Leon, a brunette young man that strongly favoured Sora. Sephiroth fought down the snarl and turned his attention on a target that could and would take the kind of abuse a SOLDIER could dish out.

“He won’t remember.” Cloud said. “Not like we do. The memories of his Other self have probably all but vanished.”

“We can’t go anywhere until he remembers Vincent.” Sephiroth did snarl this time and he watched Cloud’s Mako blue eyes darkened as some memory passed at the name.

“Why don’t we just steal a Gummi ship then?” Leon put in before Cloud could retort. “Sora’s a good pilot.”

“Unfortunately, there’s only Cid’s ship.” Cloud told the brunette. “And that thing is locked down tighter than…well, tight.”

Leon made a noise and looked toward Cid. “Maybe we could get him smashed.”

“That’s about as easy as getting Yuffie to sit still,” Cloud muttered. He looked to Sephiroth. “There’s no other way?”

Sephiroth shook his head.

“Then we’re out of luck.”

Sephiroth looked over to Cid and frowned. “I guess we are.”


Riku quickly darted past Sora when the brunette waved his hand. The two were being as sneaky as possible in trying to get to the Gummi ship Highwind, hoping they could get the thing away before anyone noticed they and the ship were missing. They had planned it all out, every step, almost agonizing over the plans until they were as perfect as they could be. Sora dove into a roll to get against a large create as one of Cid’s handymen walked by and looked at Riku, grinning at those aquamarine eyes. Riku smirked back and gestured, bringing Sora forward. They were almost there – a few more feet and they could make a dash for the gangway. They hadn’t told anyone because they would have been stopped, but they had a clue and had to follow it. They needed to get Kairi back. Who knew what bad things were happening to her, anyway?

With the gangway of the Highwind down, it meant the alarms were off. With the alarms off, the Gummi ship could be taken. The engineers turned their backs soon enough and the two raced for the gangway.

Sora slammed hard into the Nobody before he had even crossed the first few feet. He fell back and gave a choked yell when he looked up into crimson eyes. Riku backpedaled and came to stand protectively in front of Sora, glaring at the Nobody for the little effect it had.

Vincent sighed. “Stealing the ship isn’t the way to go about getting the girl back.”

“You have a better idea?” Sora snapped, getting to his feet with Riku’s help.

“Perhaps.” The immortal answered.

“Then what is it?”

Vincent gave Riku a long silent look. “Go ask your father.”

Riku looked about to snap at Vincent but seemed to think better of it, and took hold of Sora’s arm. Despite the protests the brunette gave, Riku dragged him away from the hangar, leaving Vincent alone before the Highwind.

“I’m sorry, Riku.” Vincent said softly. “You’re just not ready yet. Neither you nor Sora are ready yet.”

Sighing, Vincent turned to look up at the Highwind and entertained a memory of a time long ago, giving the ship a little ghost of a smile.

Perhaps some things just weren’t meant to be.