“You two. Come with me…or the girl dies.”

All that Sora and Riku could do was stare. Stare at the figure cloaked in shadow, holding a knife. A knife that was held to Kairi’s throat.

“You probably don’t want to do that,” said Riku. “She’s – “

“I know what she is,” the thing snapped. “And I don’t care. Princess of Heart or not, she’ll die just the same.”

Sora was silent. Then he looked down. “I’ll go,” he muttered.

The thing nodded. “Good, good. And the other?”

Kairi watched in horror as Riku stepped forward. The thing took its knife away, and pushed Kairi down. “Excellent,” it hissed.

The thing threw something onto the ground, and a beam of dark purple light appeared. “What do you want with them?” asked Kairi.

It sneered. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

The three of them walked into the beam of light, and were gone.

For several minutes after that, she just sat there on the beach. The three of them…all they wanted to do was visit that little island again. They’d never expected that…thing…to show up out of nowhere and take two of them with it.

What bothered her most was how it had used her to get to them. It had used her to make them go with it. What could it want with them, anyway? Why were they so important to it that it would do something like that, something that was sure to work?

Kairi wandered around the island, eventually ending up in the secret place. She looked at the drawings on the walls, and quickly found the one that she and Sora had drawn when they both were little. The one that they’d added to more recently.

In a way, she’d been surprised when she’d found it. But at the same time, she wasn’t. After being with him for so long, she knew how he felt about her. It was just seeing proof that got to her. And it was then that she’d realized she felt the same way about him. So she added to it as well.

Now, she put her hand up against the drawing, and started to cry.

After a while, she heard Namine. Please, don’t blame yourself, she said. There was nothing you could have done. It’s not your fault.

I know. But still…

Kairi stood up and looked around. What now? We don’t have a gummi ship on the islands, so how am I going to let anyone know this has happened? What can I do?

She sat there in the little cave for a while longer, then walked out and began to head over to the rowboats. She figured she might as well let their parents know what happened.

All of a sudden, she heard something. She looked up, and saw something in the air. It looked like a ship, but then again, she hadn’t seen very many before.

She watched as it landed a ways away, on top of a hill. She hesitated, then ran over to take a look.

It was definitely a ship, made of mostly white blocks. Kairi found the door, and waited for it to open.

When it did, she saw two…well, animals. One was a mouse, wearing a long pink dress. The other was a duck, wearing purple. Kairi had never seen them before, but she could guess that they lived at the castle, with Sora’s friends and the king. They had that same look to them.

They stared at each other for a moment. After a while, the mouse smiled. “You must be Kairi,” she said. “Could you get your friends? It’s very important.”

Kairi looked down, and started crying again. “They…”

“Oh no,” said the duck. “Did something happen?”

Kairi took a few deep breaths, and started explaining. “This thing…this shadowy thing showed up, and said it would kill me if Sora and Riku didn’t go with it. It meant it too. It had a knife and everything. So of course, they went with it. I…I’m sorry. There was nothing I could do.”

She sat down and tried to calm herself. “Looks like we’ve got something in common, then,” said the duck. “That thing took the King, Goofy, AND my boyfriend.”

Kairi looked up. “What?”

“That’s why we came here,” said the mouse. “We were going to ask your friends for help, but it looks as if we’re too late for that.”

She smiled. “I don’t believe we’ve met before. I’m Queen Minnie, and this is my friend, Daisy.”

Kairi stood up. “Well, you already guessed it. I’m Kairi.”

She looked confused. “But what are we going to do now? I mean, we can’t just let that thing have its way with them!”

Daisy nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “We have to do something, after all. They’d do the same for us. I’m not much of a fighter, but I know a lot of healing and defensive magic. And the Queen was required to learn to defend herself, so she knows some magic as well. What can you do?”

Kairi looked nervous. “Not much. I do have this, but…”

She held out her hand. Nothing happened. “You know, I thought I’d finally mastered this!” she groaned.

Finally, a pink, flowery, key-shaped weapon appeared. “There.”

Daisy stared. “You have a Keyblade? That’s surprising. Where did you get it?”

“Riku gave it to me in the World that Never Was. I don’t know where he got it, though. Sora’s been showing me how to use this. I’m still not very good, but at least I’m not completely useless.”

“So where should we go first?” asked Minnie. “We’d better get going as soon as possible.”

Kairi thought for a moment. “Maybe we should go to Hollow Bastion?” she suggested. “We could stock up on supplies, and see if anyone there would be willing to help us. I know that Sora has friends there.”

“Sounds good,” said Daisy. “Let’s go.”