Kairi stood next to Demyx as he glanced at wares throughout the market, quivering with fear. The fear was not of the large and muscular men who leered at her, but of the seemingly scrawny man who was next to her. Not too long ago, Kairi thought she understood exactly what kind of person Demyx was: carefree, immature, thoughtless, and shallow. However, there was also a gentleness and humanity Kairi thought she saw and she warmed up to him.

Now, however, Kairi was in doubt. The chill she felt when Demyx's usually bright eyes turned cold remained in her body, and she was unsure of what to do. She was stupid for trusting him, regardless of what she thought he was still just using her to get Sora, and he was just trying to keep his duties while being lazy by bringing Kairi with him.

Demyx seemed oblivious to Kairi's discomfort as he cheerfully looked at the wares of the various booths. His eyes brightened when a woman waved to him from her booth and he pulled Kairi over to her. “Well, well, well. If it isn't Demyx,” the woman grinned at Demyx, “I haven't seen you in ages.”

“Sorry about that babe,” Demyx grinned, “I may make it up to you depending on what you're selling.”

Kairi shot a glare at Demyx and mentally added “playboy” to her list of things he was. This didn't go unnoticed by the woman who looked at Demyx questioningly, “Your girlfriend?”

Demyx looked at Kairi for a second and laughed, “Please. You should know better than anyone that skinny girls aren't my type.” Kairi glared at Demyx and for the first time noticed the larger bust on this woman. What kind of relationship did these two have?

“I don't know Demyx...” the woman examined Kairi thoughtfully, “I think she's pretty. Such unique hair,” the woman grabbed one of her own locks, a dirty brown with split ends. The woman shook her head, “Moving on from your sex life, I think I may have what you're looking for Demyx.” The woman leaner her elbow on her stand and gave a coy smile, “Can you afford it?”

“Munny's no problem,” Demyx puled out a munny bag, pure black with the Organization's symbol on it. “Now show me the goods.”

“Demyx!” Kairi yelled at the man, “What in the world is wrong with you?”

Demyx stared at Kairi in confusion but the woman just laughed, “Don't worry sweetie, I'm not stealing your boyfriend.” Kairi turned red and tried to spit out a denial but the woman continued, “Demyx here saved my store a while back and I owe it to him. I have no interest in being the sort of salewoman most of the girls are, so relax.”

“Can we please just move on to the orb?” Demyx was gripping his bag tightly (AN: that sounds wrong to read aloud o.O) as he stared at the woman. Kairi looked back and forth between the two. She still had no idea what anyone was talking about.

“You are so impatient,” the woman clicked her tongue and pulled out a red velvet bag. She reached into the luxurious bag and pulled out what looked like a glass ball. However, when Kairi looked closer at it she saw what looked like clouds floating inside of it. The woman grinned, “Here we are: I call it an Empusa, took me a while to find it I'll tell you that.”

Demyx was gazing at the ball, “Is this the genuine thing?” He asked, though Kairi could tell by the hopeful tone that he was sure it was.

“Indeed,” The woman smiled, “It's warm to the touch and you can feel the soul circling around.”

Kairi's eyes widened, “Soul?” The woman turned to explain it to Kairi, but she was interrupted by Demyx.

“How did you get this?” Demyx was looking at the ball thoughtfully, “By all rights it shouldn't even be here.”

“By all rights it shouldn't even exist,” the woman reminded Demyx, who nodded. Kairi's confusion grew and the woman explained, “This is an orb used by certain magicians to gather life force from the environment, forming a sort of 'soul' with an unpredictable nature.” The woman looked at the orb thoughtfully, “I chanced upon it in my travels, and the man selling it was ignorant to it's true purpose and sold it cheaply as a nick-nack. It naturally takes in it;s environment, so there's a small amount of energy in it. However...” The woman's eyes glinted at Demyx, “Someone with the proper abilities could use this orb to create a being with whatever nature they desired.”

“I'll take it,” Demyx grabbed the Empusa and tossed the woman the bag of munny. “Keep the change.”

The woman opened the bag and rose an eyebrow at Demyx, “This is more than just 'change' sweetie. Even a greedy wench like me can't take this much munny without a bad conscience.”

“Fine!” Demyx sighed and leaned on the booth, “I'll buy something else. Any suggestions?”

The woman smirked at Demyx and pulled out a small box, “Just the thing for you. You can share it with your girlfriend.”

Demyx turned red and hoped Kairi didn't see that. He didn't hear a protest this time, so he made a joke: “I guess we must really be on a date Kai-” Demyx turned to look at Kairi, only to see not even a trace of her.

“Yeah, she's been gone for a while,” the woman laughed.

Demyx turned to the woman quickly, his eyes cold, “Why didn't you say anything earlier?”

The woman blinked in amazement, she'd never seen this side of Demyx before, “I wanted to see your reaction Demyx. It seems cruel the way you're leading her on.”

“Damn it all!” Demyx ran off and yelled back at the woman, “She'd better not be hurt!” The woman watched as the shape of Demyx mingled in with the crowd until it disappeared.

The woman sighed and noticed with a smile that Demyx didn't forget to grab the box she put out as as well as the Empusa. The woman's smile vanished and was replaced with a frown as she muttered, “I'm sorry I had to do that to you two, but progress would have been slow otherwise. Fear not, however,” the woman's eyes glowed an unnatural shade of red as she growled, “any damage either of you undergo shall be returned tenfold on whoever is foolish enough to attempt to hinder my plans.”

...

Kairi walked through the town confidently, ignoring the men watching her. Okay, so maybe I'm not back home or anything, nut at least I'm away from Demyx! Kairi giggled with excitement, who said she was useless? People who didn't walk into dark alleys like she did just now for one.

Kairi turned quickly when she heard a large man walk up behind her, and she kept her eyes narrowed. The man sneered at her boldness, “Such a pretty young thing shouldn't be alone in this part of town.” Kairi held her tongue and glared at the man, “What's wrong sweetie? Cat got 'yer tongue? Lemme find it for ya.” Kairi didn't even have time to gasp before the man roughly grabbed her shoulders and pressed her against a wall before forcing his tongue into her mouth. Without even thinking, Kari forced her teeth down, and tasted blood. The man pulled away quickly, and Kairi was thankful that she didn't bite the organ off completely.

The man however, seemed undisturbed by her counter, “Feisty, ain't cha?” Kairi was tempted to yell and scream, but before she could do that she obeyed her basest instincts and did what she should have done to Axel, Saix, and Demyx for good measure. She brought her leg up as hard as she could between the man's legs. The man groaned, but didn't release his grip on Kairi. He then grinned at Kairi, “You're just my type: maybe I'll keep you as my woman.” The blood drained from Kairi's face and she struggled in vain against the man. While Kairi was more naive than the majority of women in this world, she wasn't stupid. She knew that if she became this man's “woman” then whatever happened to her wouldn't be a one-time incident.

“Get your hands off her,” Kairi heard a growl and she turned her head, seeing Demyx standing next to the man, his eyes seeming to be pure ice. The man seemed startled for a second, but laughed and ignored Demyx. In return, Demyx grabbed the man's shoulder and gave him an icy glare, “I said, get your hands off her!” Demyx pulled the man off of Kairi easily and pulled her close to him.

“What do you think you're doing with my woman,” the man growled at Demyx, who seemed unfazed by his insanity. At his silence, the man only turned more animalistic, “I said-”

“I heard you,” Demyx interrupted with a growl, “the problem is...” Kairi's eyes widened as Demyx suddenly kissed her. All of the fight in her from the earlier man seemed gone and she didn't try to stop Demyx. His head rose slowly from the kiss and he glared at the man, “Whose woman?” The man glared at Demyx for a moment, before deciding he had better things to do than fight over Kairi.

When the man left, Demyx turned his ice blue eyes onto Kairi with a glare, “Are you really this stupid?” Before Kairi could answer, Demyx grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the alleyway, still talking, “I told you to stay with me, and what do you do? Run off. Do you really want to have your first time with some perverted old man?”

“H-how'd you know it'd be my first time?” Kairi pulled at her wrist, but Demyx didn't even notice.

“It's obvious,” Demyx spat back, his anger just as obvious. “Now I can't return to the World That Never Was, I used too much energy keeping you from being raped.” Demyx pulled Kairi to a hotel and jumped onto the balcony, nearly pulling Kairi's arm out of its socket in the process.

“Energy?” Kairi massaged her shoulder and looked at Demyx questioningly, “You were just looking for me, how does that use a lot of energy?”

Demyx glared at Kairi, “Do you really think that man backed off because I kissed you? That's a laugh.” Kairi was getting a little more used to this angry Demyx and kept her ground as he continued, “I was using my powers to adjust the waterflow in his body, therefore manipulating his emotions. The kiss was just a distraction.”

“Of course,” Kairi pulled her wrist out of Demyx's grip and glared at him, “That's the only reason you'd ever kiss me after all.” Kairi wasn't 100 why she was so angry, it probably had something to do with woman's pride. “Such a skinny girl isn't worth your time after all.”

Demyx stood there silently before grabbing shoulders and pulling her close to him, their faces an inch apart, “Would you prefer the alternative?” Kairi bit back a scream as Demyx threw her on the bed. Kairi tried to squirm away, but before she could even turn over Demyx was on top of her, his hands on either side of her shoulders and his legs straddling her hips. Kairi gazed up at the man above her in fear. When they were in the alleyway with the other man, Demyx seemed small and scrawny. Now that he was easily stopping Kairi from even being able to move, he didn't seem so small anymore.

Kairi bit her lip and gazed up at Demyx, staring at his bright blue eyes. After staring at him for a few minuted, those eyes closed and Demyx chuckled, “You're really gullible.” Demyx sat up and stepped off the bed, covering his eyes as he laughed. “I said you aren't my type, didn't I?” Kairi stared at Demyx in confusion, before clutching at her chest. Demyx seemed to find the entire thing a joke, but Kairi could still feel her heart racing. She bit her lip again and struggled to fight back her tears. Since the shock wore off, she could feel something inside her break. “Go take a shower, you reek.” Kairi nodded and walked towards the bathroom. She refused to look at Demyx, and if she did she might have noticed that he was still covering his eyes, even though he wasn't laughing anymore.

Only when he heard the latch of the bathroom door did Demyx remove his hand from his face, revealing a torrent of distortion in his eyes. He sighed and fell back on the bed, gazing up at the ceiling, How far would I have gone if I didn't see her eyes? Demyx scolded his loss of control and closed his eyes to calm himself, before he eventually fell asleep to dream of a red-haired young girl and how she might look while smiling at him. A warmth spread through his body and Demyx smiled in his sleep.

Meanwhile, a familiar brown-haired woman walked through a familiar alleyway. She glanced back and forth, as though looking for something. Her eyes narrowed as she saw a stain of blood on the ground. She knelt down and ran her finger along the dried speck, her eyes closed in thought. They opened again, a bright red once more. “Good, it isn't Kairi's or Demyx's.” The woman blinked and her eyes turned blue again. She stood up and touched the wall, unsurprised when a portal of darkness appeared. She walked though the portal, leaving behind no trace of her existence besides the two items currently in Demyx's and Kairi's room.