Kingdom Hearts A:Side

Part 5 - Guilt

Kairi blocked Lightning's strike with her keyblade, she pushed the older woman off of her which distanced the two by a couple feet.

"Lightning! What's going on?! What happened to your eyes?!" Kairi screamed her questions at the spiky-haired woman.

Without answering, Lightning flips forward and begins delivering an onslaught of slashes towards Kairi who tried desperately to counter each swing with one of her own.

"Firaga!" Lightning screamed as she stepped back and tossed fire from her hand, Kairi dove to the left to avoid the incoming spell, she rolled back to her feet and then ran towards her pink-haired foe with full force.

Kairi jumped upward, landing an overhead swing on Lightning who was forced face first into the ground by the attack.

The red-haired girl backflipped away after her attack was a success, she then took a moment to catch her breath.

"Lightning! Stop!" Kairi exclaimed, her voice now radiating a hint of frustration as well as desperation.

"Not yet.....Not until you make me!" Lightning screamed before tossing herself to Kairi once again, this time Kairi saw it coming and did a flip over Lightning, landing behind her and delivering another successful swing.

"Knock it off!" Kairi pleaded once more, and once again her pleas were ignored as Lightning picked herself back up.

"Kairi Kairi Kairi....you just haven't figured it out yet..." Lightning chuckled as she straightened up and looked at Kairi with a murderous twitch in her eyes.

"I'm not Lightning...." She spoke out creepily as her body began to sizzle with darkness.

"Wh-What?!" Kairi squeaked out in shock.

The fake Lightning looked up with a grin as her ears began to elongate, horns growing from her forehead, and her teeth beginning to sharpen.

"To be fair, you were never really all that useful so I'm not shocked that you're also a complete moron." The false Lightning continued as her eyes turned a solid yellow and her hair lost it's spike and turned pitch black.

"Sora died because of you!" The twisted figure in front of her barked as her voice began to shift and distort "You get to be alive and he's dead! He's dead because of you!" She continued as her entire body began to become nothing more than a shadow.

Kairi's entire body trembled, her heart heavy and knees weak as she held back tears as this twisted being continued to mock her.

"You know it's true! Every last word I'm speaking is the honest truth!" The shadow shouted with an almost perverse excitement.

"SHUT UP!" Kairi screamed, turning her fear and shame into rage as she lifted up her keyblade to point it at the shadow "FIRAGA!" She called out in frustration while tears fell from her eyes, a radiating blast of flame shot from her blade and engulfed the false Lightning.

"Yes! YES! Burn me til I'm nothing to ash!....Just like how you let him fade into nothing!" The shadow screeched as she melted in the raging fire, eventually her shadowy figure faded away from existence, leaving only the small flickering remains of the flames Kairi had summoned.

Kairi panted in disbelief as she feel to her knees, her keyblade fading into light as she gripped the front of her dress as her heart beat rapidly.

Everything felt like it was closing in on her, her breathing began to pick up speed as she began to lose what little calm she had left.

She felt trapped, like she couldn't escape reality and the world felt like it was some kind of pressuring prison.

Her vision began to blur as her eyes welled up with tears which began to fall on the bricked ground beneath her.

"Kairi?" A voice said with concerned, Kairi attempted to glance up but she could barely make out who said it before she blacked out.

- Meanwhile at Radiant Garden -

Riku, Leon, and Yuffie had finally found the Garden of Assemblage after struggling through the Cavern of Remembrance.

Each doorway circling the room was glowing pink with a different symbol in each to symbolize a different member of the Organization XIII Sora had fought against during Xemnas's phase of their leader.

"This is the place?" Leon asked as Riku and Yuffie began to look around.

"It's got to be! Look at the terminals....they're like doorways." Yuffie said as she poked one of the gates curiously, shocked when her finger actually phased through the pink.

"Holy smokes! Guys! These are doorways!" Yuffie exclaimed excitedly, catching the attention of both Riku and Leon who quickly ran over to where Yuffie was.

Getting a closer look, Riku noticed that the symbol on the front was two keyblades crossing blades.

"This must be Roxas...." Riku thought out loud "...Who put all this here?" The white-haired man asked causing Leon to pause in thought.

"It'd have to be someone with knowledge of the Organization....Maybe Ansem the Wise." Leon answered.

"It is close by to his lab so it'd make sense." Yuffie chimed in.

"Seems there's a back exit over there, you two should go tell Cid and Aerith that we found it." Riku said as he pointed to the exit on the opposite side from where they came in.

"Right, use the terminal in the middle of the room to try and forward all the data to Cid's computer." Leon replied "Think you can handle that?" The older man added with a cocky smirk.

"Of course." Riku answered with a nod, and with that Leon and Yuffie were off, leaving the younger man by himself in this strange data lab.

"So Sora fought all of these?" Riku said curiously, he then turned back to the Roxas terminal and a smirk came across his face.

Riku walked through the gateway and found himself standing on top of a large stained-glass circle which had this really intricate Sora-centered design to it.

Looking forward, he saw the hooded figure of Roxas take shape in a flurry of code right in front of him.

"This is a Data fight, huh?...." Riku said as he pulled out his keyblade and took his fighting stance.

"If Sora could do it, so can I..." Riku boasted as he steeled his gaze towards his virtual foe "...Come on! Show me what you're made of." Riku exclaimed proudly before Data Roxas made a mad dash towards him.