*I don't own Kingdom Hearts or any of their characters.

Kairi clutched the gun in her hand and pointed it at the one who looked so much like the boy she loved. How could it have come to this? They were supposed to live happily ever after… she wasn't supposed to be the one who had to kill him!

It had been several years since it happened. The day that all of her dreams for the future came crashing down.

That day, she, Sora, and Riku were once again hanging out by the paopu tree. They were all sharing one last day together before Sora and Riku went to take the Mark of Mastery, and she knew that they'd be able to ace it. After all, those two had gone to the Realm of Darkness and come back! How could they fail?

Suddenly, Sora started to scream in pain and fell to the ground, rolling in agony. Riku had immediately started to cast every healing spell he knew, his eyes suggesting that he had done this before, and had ordered her to create a barrier around the small islet so that their enemies wouldn't take advantage of Sora's weak moment. Yet, as suddenly as it started, it stopped.

Horrified, she and Riku watched as Sora's hair slowly bled black and his clothes transformed into a suit straight out of their nightmares. The two of them summoned their Keyblades when the figure- for it was obvious to all that this was no longer their friend- started to laugh, an evil laugh that had a quiver of fear run down her spine. As he slowly stood up, he started to check out his new body with yellow eyes that were even more terrifying than anything the Organization could come up with.

Riku had been the one to rush towards their new enemy first… and paid dearly for it. The new figure waited until Riku was almost at him, then summoned a terrifying Keyblade of his own and made sure it had been pointing at the rushing silverette. Poor Riku couldn't dodge it in time, and the blade had pierced through his gut.

Never before had she felt so angry as she saw friend cough up blood. As she roared her own battle-cry, the stranger in Sora's body pointed his Keyblade at her.

"I don't think so, Princess," he sneered as a beam of darkness shot out from the tip. As it struck, he continued, "Enjoy being an ordinary girl!"

The pain consumed her enough to black out. She had later awoken to Pluto licking her face in an unfamiliar room. Apparently, the King had felt the disturbance all the way from his castle, and had dragged Donald and Goofy along with him to investigate. When they had arrived, they had found both her and Riku passed out still inside of the barrier that she had created and immediately took them back to the castle to treat their wounds.

As soon as she heard Riku's name, she had inquired as to his condition. What she heard shocked her. While he had managed to survive, he had become paralyzed from the waist down. The enemy's Keyblade had severed his spinal cord. Even Master Yen Sid and Merlin couldn't find a way to restore him, and apparently they had been working around the clock to find a solution to both his and her conditions.

Her blood chilled as she heard the King utter those words. What did he mean by 'her condition'? When she asked, he merely hung his head and shook it, unable to even utter the words.

It had been Master Yen Sid who had informed her of what the dark being, whom he called Vanitas, had done. She could no longer wield a Keyblade, and she couldn't access any of the abilities that came with being a Princess of Heart.

At first, she didn't believe him. However, she quickly learned that he had said nothing but truth when she had tried to access her Keyblade and her powers. When she found out that she couldn't access either, she had burst into tears. The hardest blow, though, was when she found that she couldn't communicate with Naminé anymore. Her Nobody had been silenced, and all the knowledge that she had carried was lost.

Riku had been the one to make her realize, through his own actions, that even though she had lost her special abilities it didn't mean she wasn't powerless.

"After all," he had pointed out as he wheeled his way onto the Gummi Ship bound for Radiant Garden, "just take a look at Leon and the gang. While I may not be able to physically fight anymore, I can still help by learning how to operate the computers that Cid normally works on. If I do the computer work for him, then he can go on the battlefield if he so chooses."

Stunned, she realized he was right. The people of Radiant Garden, even though they didn't have Keyblades, still managed to fight back the darkness day after day. She decided then that she would not be a damsel in distress anymore.

Merlin and Aerith together had taught her magic while Tifa taught her martial arts. However, it was the Gullwings who surprised everyone by gifting her with a pair of her own handguns that they had adapted to fire bullets made from her own magic, relieving her of having to carry bullets around everywhere she went. All she had to do in return was promise to give them any treasure that she found- which was easy enough, since she had no use for treasure.

Well, except for one thing- Sora's crown necklace, which she wore around her neck. That, she would never give up no matter what.

She had found it on the islet when she and Riku had briefly returned to the Islands to let their parents know of what was happening. Sora's mom was understandably upset at what had happened to her baby, and made the two of them vow to do everything they could to bring him back. Her adoptive father was surprisingly understanding about the whole situation, and had gifted them with some of the munny he had been saving for her college education. Riku's parents… while at first they had been reluctant to let their paraplegic son go headlong into what they perceived as danger, they had eventually come around to his side of things and wished them both the best of luck. When they had returned to the Play Island to wait for the Gummi Ship to finish collecting solar power, she had gone to the paopu tree one last time. It was there that she found the poor necklace shining in the sand.

Poor thing, she remembered thinking, it had been through so much with Sora, and now here it is, abandoned without a second thought. She immediately put it on herself, the heavy weight constantly reminding her of how far she still had to go. When she met back up with Riku, he had seen the necklace and approved, remarking that Sora would've definitely wanted her to have it.

It had been on the one-year anniversary of the loss of their friend when she had gotten the crown tattooed next to her right hip. Riku was the one who had come up with the idea, and everyone who had been close to Sora had thought it was an excellent one. The name of their resistance group had also been his idea- the Sky Warriors, so named thanks to the meaning of Sora's name. Every Sky Warrior now had the crown symbol somewhere on them, whether it be a tattoo or by having it sewn somewhere on their clothing.

The pain of getting the tattoo had been nothing compared to the pain she felt from losing Sora. Every day, she suffered, and grew stronger as a result.

On the two-year anniversary, she had become one of the most formidable fighters of the Sky Warriors. Even the King had a tough time trying to defeat her. It had also been then when Riku had (by hacking some encoded files with the help of Tron) discovered the secret room underneath the Computer Room, where they had found a Keyblade Kairi had remembered seeing from her childhood. Merlin had instantly realized the possibilities, and with the help of some computer simulations had come up with a way to bring the blade's former wielder back to the Realm of Light.

Together, Master Yen Sid and Merlin had performed a powerful calling while she and the King provided the memories of Master Aqua, and had succeeded in saving the blue-haired warrior from the Realm of Darkness. Surprisingly, Aqua had been helping a restored Axel fight in the dark realm, and thus the red-haired assassin had been saved as well. After everyone had filled the two in on what had happened since they had last been in the Realm of Light, Axel went back to being Lea and the Sky Warriors gained two new members.

Aqua, however, had been distraught when she had heard that Vanitas had risen again. After all, she knew that Vanitas had been the dark half of one of her friends, and the fact that he had managed to take possession of Sora meant that more than likely Ventus could never be saved.

Since she had gone through the same suffering, she had been able to help Aqua through her moment of sadness. Oddly enough, she felt a little better knowing that there was someone else who knew exactly how she felt. The two of them had then teamed up with Lea, who still missed Roxas, and together they had created a force to be reckoned with.

It had been shortly after they had become a team when they saw Vanitas for the first time since his resurrection. Seeing him wear Sora's face had made her so angry… and the hateful words he spouted didn't help. He taunted her with how he had dragged Sora into his subconscious and defeated him, which was what caused his agony in the outside world. Aqua, he taunted with how when Sora had sacrificed himself during his first adventure he had given Vanitas control over his and Ven's shared heart. Lea… well, the mere mention of how Roxas had become an unwilling pawn during the hostile takeover of Sora's body had been enough to set him off.

However, even in the depths of their anger they never forgot that they were a team. After all, Sora had taught them that with his strange ability to connect with everyone he met.

Together, they had managed to push him back, their anger fueling their drive to win. He had eventually fled when he realized that none of them were the same as they had once been, and would not be so easily swayed by his words. However, just before he fled, all of them could've sworn that they had seen a black-haired blue-eyed girl staring sadly at them through his eyes.

Lea, oddly enough, had the strongest reaction to this sight by having tears running down his face. When questioned about it by his teammates later that day, he admitted that seeing the girl had filled his heart with happiness, as if she'd been a long-lost friend. However, he couldn't remember who she was. It had been Aqua who had commented on how much the girl looked like the third member of the team, and she had to agree- if it hadn't been for her coloration, the strange girl would've been an exact copy of how she had once looked.

Since no one knew who the girl could've been, though, the Sky Warriors decided to only investigate the girl if they found any clues about her identity. Finding Vanitas came first.

And so, on the third year anniversary, it was with determination in their hearts that the most powerful team of Sky Warriors had set out for the Keyblade Graveyard. Once again, it had been Riku who made the discovery of the abandoned battlefield, and it was the instruments that he had designed which had picked up the abnormal amount of darkness filling that world. Everyone agreed that it could've only belonged to one person- Vanitas.

"Kairi, what're you waiting for? Shoot him!" shouted Lea, using his chakrams to create a ring of fire around the battlefield. Kairi shook her head to clear her mind, and focused once more on the bastard who had stolen Sora away from her.

Seeing her hesitation, their foe slowly smiled as he drawled, "There's no way that she'll shoot me. After all, if she kills me, she kills Sora!"

As the gun in her hand shook at this statement, Aqua noticed her dilemma and called out, "Kairi, you know Sora would want Vanitas stopped!"

"Well, Kairi, what are you going to do?" taunted Vanitas. "Are you going to pull the trigger? Will the light in your heart even let you kill me, knowing that in the process you'll kill the one you love?"

Looking into Vanitas' yellow eyes, suddenly the black-haired girl appeared once again. Kairi could hear a voice so much like her own saying, "You can do it, Kairi. Sora, Roxas, Ventus and I… we all believe in you." As the vision started to fade, she heard the plea, "Pull the trigger and save us!"

Kairi's heart clenched at the sound of the plea. As her resolve hardened, she glared Vanitas down.

"This is for Riku," she stated firmly as she fired. The bullet hit Vanitas' right hand, forcing him to drop his Keyblade.

"AHH!" he shouted in pain, cradling his now useless hand to his chest.

Ignoring it, Kairi continued, "This is for all the lives you've destroyed." The bullet hit his left knee, forcing him to kneel before her. As he looked back at her with growing fear, she shouted with tears streaming from her eyes, "And this… this is for Sora!"

The final bullet hit its mark right between Vanitas' eyes.

The three Sky Warriors watched as their foe fell to the ground, lifeless. As a light streamed out from the wounds and headed towards the sky, they all could hear the voices of their respective friends whispering, "Thank you for saving us."

A blood-stained Kairi could only smile sadly, tears still streaming down her face.

"It's finally over."

A/N: So, this was inspired by a pic over on dA. To view it, type in (w/o the spaces) http : / / animelover566 . deviantart . com / gallery / # / d4sewwn