Teiku 5 (MrsGrizzley)

Mickey now sat in a chair in the middle of the foyer of the Old Mansion.

He hoped Kairi would come. What he had planned was important.

No Keymaster could ever hope to be truly powerful, unless they experienced the Awakening. Without that, their power would remain dormant.

He'd chosen this place because it was so secluded, but it wasn't in the best shape. Cobwebs hung from everything, floor and furniture were caked with dust, and the floor was unsatble in places.

He avoided using his Castle, because of the trouble everyone would go to for his guest. What he had planned required focus.


Sitting there, waiting for Kairi, he was patient. This was a big deal. It'd take a fair bit of time for Kairi to build up the nerve to come.

((Okay, I know, I know. I'm layering threads. Oh well. I'm bored to tears and I want to do *something*. Right now, I don't care what. This takes place . . . I don't know when. After the beach . . . eventually.))

Kairi walked quietly into the old mansion. She had put this off long enough. She was terrified, so scared that she was surprised that she could still stand, but she managed to put one foot in front of the other and her knees didn't give out on her and send her tumbling to the floor.

The mansion was ancient, and falling apart, and dusty, cobwebby, and blessedly empty, except for a chair. She hoped, for some unknown reason, that King Mickey had gotten tired of waiting on her so she would have an excuse to run as fast as she could back to the Destiny Islands and the beaches there. She knew that she had to do something, though, to learn how to use her Keyblade, or she would never feel like she had the right to stand beside Riku.

And standing beside him, not behind him, meant the world to her.

Mickey wasn't facing the door. He was facing away from Kairi.


The entire mansion began to shake, as Mickey spoke in a strange, new voice. Kairi knew what he was saying, and understood him perfectly... But she never HEARD a word of it.

"So much to do, so little time..."

The distinct sound of wood warping and snapping could be heard. The chandelier fell, scattering its crystals across the floor.

"Take your time. Don't be afraid."

For some reason, the King's voice was very calming. As if one could trust every word. Even with support beams falling, floorboards snapping, and all other manner of chaos, the King's voice rang clear and true. Reaching out over the chair, Kingdom Key D materialized, the tip against the floor.

"The door is still shut."

The moment he stopped speaking, he turned the key. From every fissure around them, Darkness rushed in.

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In reality, none of this occurred. She'd fallen asleep the moment she stepped in the door. In her mind... No, her heart... The Awakening began. Within this dream world, everything would look and feel very real.

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She'd feel as if she was falling. Falling, Falling, into Darkness.

And, as suddenly as it began, it stopped.

The surface she'd now been gently lowered onto felt hard and cold... It was glass.

A soft light shone through, steadily growing stronger...

The glass was stained. It depicted a top-down view of Sora, Riku, and Kairi, as children, asleep on the beaches of Destiny Island. The image was bordered by a Paopu tree, severely curved, into a circle, a massice Paopu Fruit obscuring the base. The voice of the King, still known and understood, but unheard, rang out, with no visible source.

"Now, step forward. ...Can you do it?"

As the Mansion began to shake around her, Kairi felt sheer terror bolt through her. What was happening? What was going on?

Only the voice of the King kept her from screaming herself hoarse in fear. She had to trust him. Surely he knew what was going on, that there was a purpose to this.

She didn't know how long she was falling, until she found herself standing on the glass. She looked at the image, at herself and her friends, and had to blink away tears. This was for them, as much as for herself. She had to do this . . . for them.

Her heartbeat pounding in her ears, she took one hesitant step forward.

At that step, three stone pedestals materialized. On each one, an item.


To her right, a longsword. In the hilt, a red jewel, emblazoned with a Hidden Mickey.

"Power sleeps within you."

To her left, a staff. Golden, topped with a bright blue Hidden Mickey.

"If you give it form..."

In front of her, a red shield with gold trim. A Hidden Mickey adorned its center.

"It will give you strength. Choose Well."

The Staff in particular glittered enticingly.

Kairi looked around at the pedestals, and the items on them. She looked at the sword, and the shield, and at the staff.

Somehow, she knew that the choice was more than a choice.

A sword . . . a weapon, offense and attack. Something she wasn't particularly good at.

A shield, defensive. She had friends to stand beside her, even if they were not in this place. She had never stood to defend anyone else.

A staff, magical and arcane. Power. She had seen Sora throw the Blizzard spell. Even without training she could use a little magic of her own. It was something she was good at. Maybe . . .

She swallowed carefully. She had to make a choice and she didn't dare take as long with this one as she had with the more difficult one she had already faced.

She walked up to the staff and took it into her hand. She needed the power if she were going to be of any help to her friends at all.

"The power of the mystic. Inner Strength. A staff of wonder and ruin."

Just seconds after she laid hands on the staff, it vanished in a flash of light, much like her own Keyblade.


"Your path is set. Now, what will you give up in exchange?"

The shield began to wobble, as if it was off balance, while the sword stayed steadfast. It showed a fair bit about each path. Leaving the shield alone would create an imbalance.

But, in the end, the choice was Kairi's.

Kairi looked at the two remaining items.

She needed to fight. That was certain. She had to be able to stand at the side of her friends.

She didn't need to defend them. They were stronger than she was, anyway.

She took a deep breath and walked over to the shield, putting her hand upon it to keep it from falling. She had made her choice. Hopefully it was the right one.

With that, the stones sank into the floor, the glass mural shattering beneath her.

As she fell through the darkness, the next platform became visible.

Bordered by a swirling vortex of Darkness, the scene was of Hollow Bastion. Sora and Riku were deadlocked in combat, Soul Eater holding back the Kingdom Key. Kairi lay unconscious in the background.

"You've gained the power to fight. Use this power to protect yourself and others. When the time comes when you must fight, you must keep your light burning strong."

Behind her, a deep red, shadowy being rose up from nowhere. Sharp, clawed hands, glowing gold eyes... A Nextshadow.

"Behind you!"

The very moment se was warned, Nextshadow lashed out with a heavy punch.

((Eeep! And I'm probably going to mess this up somehow, but here goes my *very* *first* attempt at melee combat in this type environment. *sigh* I hope I don't do too terribly bad.))

Kairi turned to see the Nextshadow and screamed in surprise.

She probably shouldn't have, but she did.

She quickly started backing away from it, and stumbled on her own feet, falling backwards to land on her rump. Desperate to get some space between her and it, she kicked wildly as she crawfished backwards until she could rise to her feet.

Still, she could only go so far, and running wasn't going to do anything about this challenge. She wasn't here to learn how to run away. She already knew how to do that.

She took a deep breath. She was here to be able to use her Keyblade, wasn't she? She was here to learn how to fight. She put her hand out and found that the weapon materialized for her to grasp.

She would learn how to do this. She would stand and fight, for Riku, for Sora.

She swung the Keyblade at the Nextshadow in a downward stroke, hoping to catch it right above the eyes.

The Nextshadow, not expecting the attack, took it straight to the forehead. Stunned, it staggered around, hopelessly dazed.

"In times of peril, or opportunity, the Keyblade will drive your impulses. Let it happen, and your enemies shall fall. Here, for example. If you allow it, the Keyblade will guide your movements. It will bring you into the air, catch the Nextshadow by it's antennae, spin it midair, and slam it into the ground. It is a powerful technique called "Wind Dance". ...Can you do it?"


This would be... A but disquieting, at least! A weapon that could guide your actions?

But the voice had not led her wrong yet. Anything she did would have to be soon. The Nextshadow's mind was beginning to clear, as it leered at Kairi with all the malice and hate in its dark body.

Kairi had nothing to lose by following King Mickey's voice. She could feel the pull of her Keyblade and she let it pull her up. She jumped, reached to catch the Nextshadow by one antenna and pull it up off its feet. She would spin it around and then let it slam down.

The move should work exactly as King Mickey and the Keyblade were directing her.

It was decidedly odd to be directed by her weapon, but she supposed that there were worse things in the world, like having a weapon and no direction in using it.

She felt her heart beat faster as she started to warm to the experience.

...It couldn't have been PLANNED better.

The Nextshadow slammed into the stained glass. Dissolving into the darkness, the platform Kairi was on, the Station of Tragedy, followed. The darkness consumed her, pulling her down. The texture was not unlike tar. Truly the most frightening transition, the pain would have been immense. Mickey protected her true body from any harm, but she'd feel it all: the hot fluid scalding and burning her skin, burning into her eyes, filling her lungs, painfully suffocating her.

...And, as soon as it had begun, it was over. Not a trace of the darkness on or within her.

The scene depicted this time was framed by black and white lightning. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Backs facing the glass, stood ready to fight a cloaked figure with blazing red blades. The Station of Unity.


There was nothing there, save for an off-white door with stained-glass windows. Muc like the Door to Darkness. It just begged to be opened.


(Just so you know... It doesn't.)

((Aaaand, I lost the reply I typed out last night . . . Ugh. The *one* time I forget to copy before I hit "send" . . . Oh well, let's try this again.))

Kairi looked at the door for a long time. Opening doors that were closed was a tricky business. Sometimes they were shut for a reason, sometimes they needed to be opened for a reason. Opening a closed door was what had caused all the chaos which had led . . . to this precise moment.

Kairi took a deep breath. "Alright, I'm here."

She shook her head at her own hesitance and walked up to the door and pulled on the handles. Nothing. She frowned slightly and tried again. Still nothing.

"Okay, your Majesty, what's the purpose behind this?" She looked around again to see if there was anything she had missed.

"Hold on. The door won't open just yet. First, tell me more about yourself."


With that, the darkness around the pillar gave way to a light, misty landscape.

Many thousands of colors drifted in the mist...


...They were between worlds. In the realm of the Traveller's.



(Okay. Take it away, Maracae.)

((Wow, this turned out better than I expected.))

The light cleared after a moment and Kairi found that she was looking at a forest, sort of, only it was surrounded by crystal walls. There were trees, and grass, and stone benches along stone paths, but beyond the trees were glowing walls of faceted crystal that threw off bits of blues and pinks and greens and all the colors of the rainbow.

She could hear voices amongst the trees, a woman's voice. "Oh don't you dare! Oh don't you dare!" She was threatening, but she was laughing at the same time. Then Kairi heard her burst out in gales of laughter. There was a rustling, and then the bushes parted and a woman emerged, running, her face flushed with exertion, but she was smiling, too.

She was beautiful, as beautiful as any of the princesses that Kairi had met. She had very long, blonde hair and there was a streak of white in it, bright white against the gold. Her eyes, though, her eyes were the exact color of a gold coin, and they looked like liquid gold at that. Her clothes were fine, with lace, but she was not wearing a gown. She wore breeches and a tunic, almost like a prince in one of the stories.

The woman's smile faded slightly, turned softer, as she looked at Kairi. "Oh, so it's you, Little Sister."

She looked curiously at the woman. "Ma'am?"

The woman laughed at Kairi's question. "Oh, Little Sister, how little you understand yourself or why you are here."

Kairi frowned slightly. "I think I'm here to see something about me. I want to use my Keyblade . . . so I can stand with Riku and Sora."

The woman nodded. "Why are you so afraid?"

Kairi looked down. The question demanded complete honesty, and she wasn't certain she was strong enough to give it. "I'm not like they are. They're warriors. I'm a Princess of Heart."

The woman smiled at her and lifted her face with gentle fingers at her chin. "I wasn't born a warrior either. I learned to be one, through a great deal of trouble, because I wanted to stand by those I loved, too." She met Kairi's eyes with good humor and understanding. "I remember the days when I stood between two friends that I loved more than anything else in the world."

Kairi flushed. "Sora is like my brother."

"The kind of love doesn't matter, the strength of it does. So you love him like a brother, you would still fight for him, ache for him, want to know that he was safe and whole. It does not matter that to you one is a brother and one is something far different. You love them both. I have loved brothers so strongly that their darkness almost destroyed me, but I still loved them." She ran a hand along Kairi's head. "You and I are so alike, Little Sister."

Kairi shook her head. "No, you're beautiful. You're not afraid of holding your friends back."

The woman smiled again, as if she found some joke in Kairi's words. "Oh, we are more alike than you give yourself credit for. Let me show you."

She led Kairi over to a place in the center of the crystal encased forest, where a pillar of crystal rose up from the ground. She pulled Kairi closer and winked at her as she reached a hand out to gently tap the pillar. It began to hum with the vibrations, the sound spreading until all the four walls, the forest floor, and the ceiling above, were resonating with the sound of the crystal.

As Kairi watched a glow appeared on the woman's chest, right above her heart, as if her heart were shining with the same light as the crystal. The glow became bright enough to actually illuminate a shard of crystal where her heart should be. "I am a Shard of something much bigger than myself, but as with fire, any soul is all soul, any crystal is all crystal." She smiled gently. "Look for yourself."

Kairi looked down and blinked twice in surprise as she saw that a similar crystal was glowing within herself. "Me?"

The woman nodded. "Yes, you, Little Sister. Listen to your heart, listen to the waves, and you will learn to fight in a way that is not Sora's, not Riku's, not even King Mickey's, but your own. Listen to the crystal shard within you and learn to flow, like water, through battle. You can do it. The knowledge is already within you."

After several moments of listening to the singing of the crystals and the resonance in her own heart, Kairi nodded. "Yes, Big Sister. I will listen."

((Okay, now it goes to you, Mickey.))

The beautiful landscape faded out, as she once more returned to the Dive to the Heart.

The Station of Choice. Two Keyblades were bent into a circle around the border; the Kingdom Key, and the Way to the Dawn. Kairi stood in the middle of the stained glass image, being close up enough that her height reached the Station's full diameter. To her left, there was an image of Light, Sora silhouetted against it. To her right, a background of swirling Darkness, with the image of Riku, in full color.

A fair bit away, floating in the pitch blackness of the Station, was a throne. There sat King Mickey, robed in black. His voice came again, but not in that mystical tone. It came from the Mickey that Kairi could see.


"The day you shall know the truth is both far off, and very near. There is much danger in your quest: For even as you approach the Light, it will blind you, consume you. The Light is far too strong with no Shadow to counteract it. I offer you a choice: Soon, your Awakening shall be complete. But, unless you face the full force of the Light, your Awakening will be no more than a waking dream. Do you look into the Light, and face its wrath? Or do you turn away?"

Kairi looked at the shadowed Mickey for what seemed like a long moment, at least to her. Then she firmly lifted her chin and faced him. "I have come this far. I am not about to turn around with this half-done and let my friends, let Riku stand alone in my defense. I came here to face what you have to show me. I came here to be able to use my Keyblade so that I can stand equally at their side."

She reached a hand out in preparation to summon her keyblade. "So, what is it that I need to do to make that happen?"

The glass beneath her shifted...


...They were back in the Station of Innocence?

Leaping down from his throne, Kingdom Key D came to life as the cloak faded. On the end of the Keyblade, a ball of light.

"Simple. Defeat me."

With a mighty swing, Mickey sent the Pearl flying at her, hoping to hit.

And, even if she didn't, he could just bat it back at her. She wouldn't have the technique to do anything he couldn't manage.

Kairi felt the crystal shard in her heart chuckle at her and uncurl a touch of a memory. She smiled. She'd seen her friends playing something like this on the sandy beaches of their island. Sometimes she'd even played along, running and laughing and hitting at the ball that Wakka would throw.

The smile became a grin as she summoned her keyblade to her and held it two handed for a moment, drawing back before swinging at the approaching Pearl like it was a baseball. Only she wasn't going for a home run. Oh no, she was aiming straight for the pitcher.

Redirection was something her crystal understood, and so within a moment of sending the Pearl back to sender she was moving again, running forward, just a little behind the speeding Pearl. Her aim was to catch him just after it hit, grab him, and spin-toss him to the floor. It should leave him dizzy and disoriented . . . with any luck.

((Okies, hopefully I've got this figured out. Lemme know if I need to edit anything.))

The Pearl connected, Mickey being shocked that she could pull such a well-timed maneuver already.

Grabbed by the wrist, he thanked Kingdom Hearts that HE couldn't feel pain here. Impacting into the glass, it shattered beneath him, which allowed them to fall to the morbid Station of Tragedy.

Not even waiting to land, he reared back, slinging the Keyblade at Kairi with all the force he had.

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In the real world, Mickey was very impressed. She had already grasped the concept of turning your opponent's power against them. But... As the Stations progressed, and Dream Mickey fought harder and harder... How would she fare?

...He'd eventually get wise to her game, after all.

They were still falling when Mickey threw the Keyblade at her.

For a bare moment, Kairi wasn't certain what to do with that Keyblade coming towards her. Then the crystal in her heart flashed to life for a moment and she chuckled softly. She could learn from her friends after all.

She twisted in midair and managed to get her foot onto the flying Keyblade, and used it to jump from, twisting again to land on her feet, where she slashed through the air with her Keyblade, sending a thin crescent shaped blade of Light speeding towards Mickey. She hoped to hit him, but she wasn't holding her breath. He had years of experience on her.

((And that is the special ability of the Windwave. *grin*))

Mickey smiled as he saw Kairi use Kingdom Key D as a springboard. By the time he landed, she'd launched a strange light blade at him.

The speed was incredible. It was all he could do to summon his Keyblade, to block the attack. The force of it pushed his lightweight body back a good ten feet.

But the King wouldn't be so easily bested. Breaking into a run, he leapt at Kairi, blade held high over his head, ready to strike in a move known as a Helmbrealker. The blow to the head would certainly disorient her, and set her up for a combo.

If it actually connected, the remaining speed in him would send him behind Kairi, where he would be free to attack. A slash across the back, then a thrust to the back of the knees to bring her to the floor. Once that occurred, all that would be needed was a well-placed Pearl to knock her out.

If she managed to block, however, he could use the force of the strike to "pole vault" off Windwave, and, once in the air again, another Strike Raid-esque throw. From that angle it would most certainly catch her in the back, if it connected.

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The actual Mickey, back in the mansion, applauded Kairi. Lord knows Sora would've been beaten already.

((Sorry it took so long, life has been one mess after another.))

Kairi saw Mickey leap for an overhead shot, so she responded in the only way she knew how, she tumbled forward, rolling under him as he passed her, and then came up on her feet, her Keyblade ready in front of her. She was not going to win this fight, though, by simply acting defensively and only reacting to what Mickey threw at her.

She went on the offensive, moving into a flowing attack as she moved the keyblade through the air, slashing at him. She would not let Mickey defeat her. She had to win. She had to earn her place at her friends' sides, her rightful place at Riku's side.

She would master the Keyblade. She would.

(Long as you allow me the same liberty.)

...A DODGE ROLL!?!

Bewildered, Mickey fell facefirst to the floor. As he got up, the strike slashed cleanly across his back. Quickly rolling forward to keep her form comboing him, he had a "flash" of inspiration as he lit up a Pearl.

"You're good. ...Too bad you're no threat when you're blind as a bat!"

Sw8ning the Pearl at her, he spun, putting his back to her. He'd aimed just inches in front of her feet. When the Pearl hit the ground, the resulting flash of light would blind her, and leave her wide open for attack.

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Now, truth be told, Mickey had very little control over his dream self. So, suffice to say, he was nothing short of impressed with its tactics.