Winds of Connection Chapter 7

“Okay, tell me again why you can’t just tell him how you feel.”

“Urrrrgh, Selphie!” Kairi whined, pleading with only a name and a groan for the more direct girl to please just drop it. A futile effort and she knew it.

“Kairi, I promise, you’re overcomplicating this!” the brunette pleaded. “You like him! That’s all you have to say! If he’s not interested that sucks but you put yourself out there, right? Maybe he’ll come around.” Not that he would need to since Selphie knew Ven totally was interested. Not that she would say that.

Nor would Kairi admit why things weren’t so simple. She wasn’t just a friend to him anymore. Now he was her teacher, or master, or whatever the title was. He would tell her she should call him her teacher but she couldn’t ignore how he preened proudly whenever she called him master. “I can’t do that.”

It was Selphie’s turn to groan in frustration. She was all set to be noble, to let her friend with the most obvious crush in the world get the guy they were both hot for. She could’ve been riding Ven’s dick right then but no, she had to decide on being a wingwoman and get Kairi’s cherry popped by a good guy who would treat her right! She wanted to strangle the redhead for being just so darn frustrating! She sighed through her nose, “Okay. Okay, how about this. If you’re too much of a wuss for the direct approach–”

“Hey!”

“Then how about something less direct?” She pointed out to the beach, specifically to one of the trees that dotted the beachfront. A coiling tree with golden, star-shaped fruit hanging from it.

Kairi’s eyes widened. “No,” she immediately started waving her arms. “No no no no no, no way! Selphie! People have used those for marriage proposals! Even weddings!”

“Yeah?” Selphie asked with her tone why that would matter. “Does he know that? So it’s a superstition some people take really seriously. It’s still just a superstition. You share one with him, have a really cute moment and then you tell him about it. If you can’t spit it out, then feed it to him instead! Genius, right?”

Kairi wasn’t so sure of her friend’s so-called ‘genius’ idea. But, “I’ll think about it,” she said. If only for the sake of getting Selphie to drop it.

It turned out to be true though. She would think about it. She would think about it a lot.

-(-)-

Another dream. Another visit to this place. He never liked these dreams, though they always so easily slipped away from his waking mind. But, whenever he found himself here again, he was always reminded of that same distaste.

They always confronted him with things he didn’t like to think about.

The stained glass platform lay below his feet. Though this time depicting not his own heart, but one his heart had touched so long ago. Lips red as the rose, skin as white as snow, hair black as ebony. Snow White in repose, a common theme with the other images he had seen recently. He remembered dreaming of Kairi’s recently, ever since taking her as his student.

Though if he had been seeing Kairi’s recently because he was teaching her, why was he seeing Snow White, a woman he hadn’t seen in a decade?

He felt fear grip him as he found himself no longer alone. Creatures rose, descended, he wasn’t sure. Slithering from the abyss that surrounded him were creatures that haunted his oldest nightmares. Squat, humanoid figures of inky black skin and beady yellow eyes. He knew them. They were his enemies. Creatures of the purest darkness. The keyblade flashed into his hand and he made short work of them, but he couldn’t ignore the omen of their appearance here.

He moved on as the glass paths directed him. Moving to another platform, a depiction of Cinderella, then another of Aurora and still the shadows chased him, the image of Snow White being swallowed by the abyss, then Cinderella, then Aurora as he moved on to the next. A brunette woman he didn’t recognise in a splendid ballgown of golden yellow. The shadows persisted, but they were weaker, fewer in number. And as he moved on to another, the image of a young blonde girl in blue and white, then another of a caramel-skinned woman in loose blue silks, the shadows stopped chasing him. The platforms stayed right where they were.

He breathed a premature sigh of relief. The path continued on, beckoning him to keep moving only for it to then split. One path upward as all the others had been, the other down.

And as he looked down, he knew which path he had to choose. There, far below lay the heart of the unfortunate boy, shadows swarming over it as though attempting to consume it with sheer mass. While the dreamer’s own once fractured depiction was the source of another kind of creature doing battle with the shadows. Sharp, angular creatures compared to the soft and rounded shadows. It was this battle that the dreamer threw himself into, supporting the unversed as they pushed back the foreign darkness.

It felt futile. Every ten slain, twelve would take their place. Until they began to pile up into a whirling pillar of dark creatures.

“What’s going on?!” the dreamer demanded aloud.

His question was rhetorical, asked out of frustration and fear. But he received an answer all the same. An indistinct voice, one that still lived inside him despite it all. ‘He’s coming. Can’t you feel it?’

“Feel what?! Who’s coming?!” The dreamer struck out against the pillar of darkness, only for his keyblade to be thrown back at him, for the great tower of shadow to tilt and drive toward him, consuming him.

‘Our despair.’

Ventus exploded into wakefulness, throwing himself out of bed to battle an enemy that wasn’t there. The treehouse didn’t care about his fear or anxiousness as he frustratedly ran a hand down his face. He couldn’t even enjoy the fact that the pain he had trained himself to ignore was mostly gone.

The details of the dream faded as quickly as they ever did. But one message held in his mind. Something was coming. He needed to leave. And soon.

-(-)-

A lone silver-haired boy sat on a low cliff at the edge of the mainland, watching the sunrise. He had woken up at dawn as he had so often recently. He needed to train himself. He needed to become strong enough to stand against him. Even as the sun cast beautiful hues on the surface of the sea, he couldn’t bear to tear his eyes away from that island for very long. The island that had haunted his life. The hiding place of the monster that stole his friend.

He was alone. But not truly alone.

“You face a truly formidable foe,” a voice, drifted into his ears.

“Get lost.”

“So quick to discard assistance before it can even be offered.”

“I’ve heard your offer before,” Riku grumbled. “Say it again and the answer will be the same.”

“Really? So you are at peace with things as they are now? Your friend’s life stolen by another, his very body inhabited by one who does not belong?”

“And I should let you do the same to me, whoever you are?” Riku asked sarcastically. “You’re just like him, aren’t you? That thing possessing him.”

The voice seemed to chuckle lowly. “Hardly. He is strong, while I am merely a shadow of my former self.” The source of the voice drifted into view, a cloaked figure obscured by shadow. “But you and I together? We may prevail. You will need strength to succeed against him. You will not have enough to face him before he leaves for good. But, with my assistance...” The voice trailed off, leaving the statement unfinished to let Riku’s mind fill with possibilities. “What would you give to save your friend? He’s still in there, you know. Still the same frightened child he was when that creature took him. Would you allow it to go on?”

The boy’s fists clenched, a determination he always carried demanded action. ‘Ventus’ had said he would be leaving one day and Riku had no idea when that day would come. “What do I have to do?”

It didn’t matter what he had to give up. That was his answer. He had to save Sora.

-(-)-

“Hey Ven!” Kairi greeted her master slash teacher cheerfully. Overly cheerful, she decided, feeling a sudden need to make her unusually large bag a little less obvious by pushing it behind her with a hand. Something that, were Ventus less distracted, would only have drawn attention to it. “I’m ready for training!”

“Huh?” the boy murmured, his mind a thousand miles away. “Oh, sorry, yeah. We’ll start with sparring.”

Kairi only pouted a little, hoping they would start with magic. But her train of thought quickly switched tracks. “Are you okay? You seem a little distracted?”

He forced a smile to reassure her. “I’m fine. Sorry, just been thinking.”

“About?”

“That doesn’t matter right now.” His keyblade flashed into his hand, held in reverse grip as always, Kairi’s own appearing in response. “Come on, show me your progress.”

The training was intense as it usually was. Though the redhead could feel some amount of unease coming from her master. He fought with a little less patience, choosing to push harder instead of fight tactically. Something he should have known better than to do against Kairi who was generally a more reactive fighter, punishing her opponent for mistakes or openings and never overextending like Ventus did in those spars. She did far better than usual as a result, but it didn’t feel earned. After that they took a break to continue her tuition in basic magic, something Ventus admitted as one of his lesser skills. Though the break and distraction of having to focus on teaching was just the thing to bring him out of whatever malaise he was in by the time of their next spar.

“Phew!” Kairi sighed in relief as she fell backward into the sand, her training done for the day. She didn’t know when she grew to enjoy the tingling burn in her muscles from that kind of exertion. Somehow the training had become fun in itself, even beyond being a magical key warrior. “I’m beat,” she said, smiling up at the sky in satisfaction.

“You just gonna lie there in the sun?” Ventus asked, though there wasn’t much sun left at the late hour.

“Maybe,” she regarded him with one eye before both closed, “Wanna join me?”

Ventus looked around for reasons he himself couldn’t explain. “Sure,” he shrugged. It wasn’t like he had anything else to do. The blond dropped down to the sand next to her, though he stayed sat up instead of laying flat, one knee raised for him to lean on.

“So?” the redhead spoke up again, her eyes once again open, looking at him with more curiosity and concern. “Are you gonna tell me what’s wrong?”

“What makes you think something’s wrong?” he asked in turn.

“Because you answered a question with a question?” she smirked, getting him to roll his eyes. “And because you’ve been super distracted since before I got here.” Her slight joking tone disappeared as she continued, “Is everything okay?”

He offered her a pensive smile. “You’re perceptive. As your teacher I guess I have to say that’s a good thing.” He looked away. “I’m thinking of leaving soon.”

“Huh.” She thought she would be more bothered by that. But while she knew she would miss her grandma, Selphie and Riku (at least when he wasn’t being a jerk), she knew they’d be happy for her going on such an amazing adventure (so long as Riku wasn’t being a jerk). “Okay. So when were you thinking we should go?”

He didn’t answer. For a long, uncomfortable few seconds, he didn’t answer.

His apprentice picked up on the unspoken answer immediately. “Ha. That’s funny. No, when are we going? Like, a few days? A week?”

“Kairi, it’s going to be dangerous. I can’t guarantee I can keep you safe. I’ll get back home, then I’ll come back as soon as I can with a way to bring you with me.” And maybe even a better teacher who knew how to teach. Aqua probably had a bunch more apprentices by now. Maybe even Terra would have a couple.

“You’ve been training me for danger, haven’t you? So you don’t need to worry about keeping me safe?” He still didn’t respond, so she changed her approach. “Let’s try this another way. I’m going with you. I can’t very well call myself your apprentice if you bail after only a couple months training. If you go, I’m going too.”

He looked uncomfortable as he gave her a real response. “Kairi, if I really don’t want to bring you, you can’t much make me.”

“No,” she smiled innocently, “But I do have this!”

As Kairi pulled it out of her pocket, Ventus heartbeat stuttered in his chest. In her hand was a familiar object. A five-pointed star made from pink seashells. The centre marked with a crude drawing of him.

“It’s a–”

“Wayfinder,” he finished for her.

Kairi could see the heartache in his eyes as he stared at the pendant. “You... You know what it is already?”

He nodded very slightly. “I used to have one. Part of a set of three. I... Lost mine.”

“Oh...” the girl uttered, cradling the charm she worked hard on in her hands. She had no idea it would bring back painful memories for him to see it. The friends he had lost, the friends he didn’t talk much about, the friends he was waiting to get back to. “You could’ve gone already, couldn’t you?” she felt compelled to ask. “You said you were healing, but you’re fine now. You could’ve just left but you didn’t.” He was staying because of her. Because he said he’d teach her.

Once again, he didn’t answer. He felt guilt, but he had no idea to whom. Whether it was for Kairi for offering to teach her when he wanted to be worlds away, or for Terra and Aqua for delaying even a single day in getting back to them.

But Kairi, she simply steeled herself, nodded and came to her decision. “I can’t stop you from leaving, but you know I have this now!” she declared. “This’ll always bring me back to you just like yours will bring you back to your friends, even if it isn’t in your hands! So if you try to leave without me, you know with this I’m gonna track you down and kick your butt for leaving me behind! And, and...” She quickly darted a little ways down the beach to her bag, returning with some chopped pieces of fruit. Screw that marriage, together forever romance stuff. This was more important! “This is a paopu fruit! There’s a legend on these islands that if you share one with someone you’ll be a part of each other’s lives forever! So we’re sharing one!”

“We are?” Ventus asked, bowled over by the redhead’s sudden and forceful enthusiasm.

“We are!” she insisted. “We’re going to share this and...” Her tone softened. “... And you won’t ever have to worry about being alone again. Because I’ll always be there.”

Phrased that way, there was no chance of him saying no. His stay on the island had been necessary. His being alone had been necessary. But he knew being here alone had been one of the worst experiences of his life, and he had plenty of terrible things to compare it to. And somehow, Kairi had known that, sympathised, perhaps even empathised with that feeling of loss and loneliness. She had felt the need to salve that feeling in him.

And she kept talking about needing a teacher. Even without him she’d wind up being an amazing keyblade wielder.

“So these are paopu fruit,” he chuckled to himself. “Can’t believe I’ve been eating these this whole time without even knowing.” He took a piece as Kairi took another, each placing it against the other’s lips to bite. The overly tart flavour of the raw fruit was far less important than the bond it symbolised and sealed between master and apprentice.

But, the pleasant moment was marred by the crack of thunder overhead. Both Ventus and Kairi looked up to see a heavy layer of clouds rolling in overhead. “Woah, that’s a hell of a storm!” the redhead exclaimed, shocked neither had even noticed as it came in from the east.

“You should probably get back to the mainland,” Ventus advised her. “You’ll end up getting stuck here if you don’t go now.”

She frowned, smelled the particular scent of an oncoming rainstorm. “It’s too late now,” she shook her head, giving him an impish smile, “Besides, I think I’d rather ride it out here anyway. Don’t want you to get any ideas about making a break for it.”

Ventus acquiesced. She would know seafaring and island weather better than him. The two took shelter in the treehouse, the place most secured against the elements. The shack by the shore was rickety and old and the caves would of course be less than ideal considering they all led down slopes, liable to flood in this kind of weather.

And so, the two huddled together in the small room, content to wait out the weather together. Kairi leaned up against his shoulder and slowly nodded off.

Naturally, she was less than pleased when right as she was drifting off to sleep, Ventus urgently shook her awake. “Ven,” she groaned. “What is it?”

“Something’s wrong,” he said, his eyes narrowed, his tone severe.

Something Kairi quickly picked up on, coming back to full wakefulness. “What?”

“I don’t know yet.” The blond stood, took slow, careful steps toward the treehouse entrance. And as he looked down at the beach, fear gripped him. “No...” Along the waterfront, on the bridge, by the pond, the island was crawling with the dark creatures that haunted his darkest memories.

And they were all, every single one of them, moving in the direction of the treehouse. “Kairi, we need to move.”

“What are they?” she asked from next to him.

“Creatures of darkness. They’re drawn to keyblades so they already know where we are.”

“Where do we go?”

An incredible question. One Ventus had not a single good answer for. If they were here, and in these numbers...

“Is that Riku?”

Ventus blinked at the question. But as he followed his apprentice’s eyes he saw the silver-haired boy Ventus had completely ignored in favour of the apocalyptic number of shadows coming their way. But, seeing him there, completely unbothered by the monsters surrounding him... And staring back at Ventus. “Kairi, I think your friend did something. We’re gonna go talk to him. I need you to stay close to me and be ready to defend yourself, okay?”

There was a beat of hesitation, but she swallowed and steeled her nerves. “Got it.”

“Let’s go.”

For as numerous as the shadows were, they were feeble creatures, as sturdy as their namesake. Even a novice like Kairi was able to destroy one in a couple of good hits with her keyblade. A reassuring experience for her as the first was smashed to bits, letting her cut through the rest alongside Ventus with renewed confidence. Before long, the two keyblade wielders were carving a path through the oncoming horde to make their way down to the bridge connecting to the islet further out. The place Riku was waiting for them.

“Riku,” Ventus shouted, to be heard over the pouring rain and howling wind than for any other reason, “What did you do?”

“I should be asking you that,” the silver-haired boy responded, “But soon, it won’t matter anymore. I’m going to put an end to you right here and now.”

“Riku, what are you talking about?!” Kairi demanded, cutting a shadow out of the air, “Are you responsible for all this?!”

“Stay out of this, Kairi!” he barked at her, dismissing her from his attention as a keyblade of dark colouring with the appearance of a bat wing flashed into his hand.

Ventus had no idea what Riku had done, but he had a guess as to why. If only his isolation had been for just a little bit longer. If only he hadn’t met this boy this one time and given him a clue as to what happened so long ago. But... All of that was just wishing he could hide what he had done, even if it was through no fault of his own. Telling himself he would make things right one day didn’t stop the suffering of the moment.

It was too late to change anything. But he couldn’t say nothing. “If I had a choice, it wouldn’t have been this way.”

But his words only angered the boy more. Riku threw himself at Ventus, his keyblade swinging down in a strike he had practiced a thousand times. One Ventus deflected with a spin, his own keyblade appearing at exactly the right moment to catch the other. Their weapons clashed again and again, Riku pulling out every move he ever imagined and then some. Ventus falling into familiar rhythms of battle. And perhaps that was what allowed the fight to go on for longer than a few seconds. Ventus had skill beyond Riku’s imagining, hard-earned experience in real fights. While for Riku, this was his first real fight. The first time he was fighting for reasons beyond a simple spar. It showed. Many mistakes were made that Ventus could have punished him for.

But he didn’t.

He couldn’t.

He understood.

And that was why for every mistake Riku made, Ventus would hesitate just long enough for the silver-haired boy to recover. For every moment Ventus could have ended the duel with magic or technique, he chose not to. Because if Ventus were in Riku’s position, he could see himself doing the same thing. The same as Aqua and Terra had done for him.

But as Riku found himself unable to exact his vengeance to save his friend, as Ventus struggled with his own self-loathing and empathy, the third person present was having her own difficulties. Kairi was left alone to deal with the tide of shadows gradually making their way up to the bridge. They were squat, awkward little creatures so they weren’t appearing in as great numbers as had descended on the path to the treehouse, but they were only growing in number. “Uhh... Blizzard!” Her key swiped horizontally before her, throwing shards of ice at the shadows jockeying for position. Several died. More replaced them. “Uhh...!” The blade kept moving, she continued to cast when she was able, did her best to thin out the numbers but they were never-ending.

And then the shadows started to gather together. To form into a writhing, singular mass. This could only be bad, she decided. “Ven!” she called out.

At his next opportunity, Ventus looked behind him to see why the redhead was calling his name. Then cursed inside his head. Repeatedly.

“Don’t look away from me!” Riku shouted, bringing his keyblade down in an overhead strike.

“Stop!”

Ventus stared up at the frozen boy for a fraction of a second. Understood the hatred in his eyes. And also understood it was not the most important thing in this moment. “I’m sorry about this,” he offered as his own blade swung at the defenceless boy three times finishing with a heavy strike before he turned around, dismissing his vengeful opponent entirely.

Riku unfroze, suddenly struck with the impact of three hits that cracked his ribs and sent his body tumbling along the bridge. The only thing that stopped him from flying into the sea was one of the trees on the islet at the other end. He gasped in pain, panted for breath through struggling lungs. Ventus was that strong?! He wasn’t enough. He still wasn’t enough! He needed more strength!

With a wave of his hand a dark portal appeared on the islet. Neither Ventus nor Kairi saw Riku struggle through it. They had their own issues in the form of a giant tower of shadows rising taller than the island itself.

“Wh-what do we do?” Kairi asked, pleaded, begging her teacher to have an answer.

Ventus looked at the monstrous amalgam of darkness. Watched it writhe and pulse and sway and surge. Watched it smash through the structures on the island as master and apprentice slowly backed away.

He couldn’t fight it. Not as he was now. Not with Kairi to protect.

It was time.

“Kairi, I need you to hold on to me, okay?”

“Ven?”

“Do you trust me?”

“... Yes.”

She shouldn’t, he knew. But this wasn’t the time. His keyblade changed shape into its glider form. “Just grab onto me, close your eyes, and don’t open them until I say, okay?”

Kairi had so many new questions but no time to ask any of them. The one she dearly wanted to ask was where they were going to go on that thing when everywhere was darkness. When the sky itself heralded the end of the world. But she said she trusted him and she meant it.

With new regrets to add onto the old, Ventus climbed onto the glider. Kairi wrapped herself around him, held on tight. And the two sped off, only Ventus seeing their path going directly upward, to finally escape the Destiny Islands as the tropical paradise was consumed by darkness.