• Kiari stood back and felt for the chain around her neck, but realized in horror it wasn’t there anymore. Sora noticed she wasn’t behind him anymore and turned around to see her shaking. His eyes widened when he saw that hers had as well, and she was trembling violently, hand at her throat. He was even more shocked when he discovered why she looked so terrified. Her pendant was gone.

    “She’s gone…!” He heard her shout to herself. “Black Rose Dragon’s gone!”

    “What?” Yuffie looked alarmed, but found she was right.

    Kiari finally lost the strength in her legs, and fell to the ground on her knees, tears falling freely, and she was still shaking, muttering the same thing to herself over and over again as her heart shattered. “Rose, Rose, Rose.”

    Yuffie and Aerith picked her up and carried her into the Castle, though Kiari still possessed the haunted look in her eyes, leaving a disturbed and worried Sora. He had never seen her like that. Her eyes…her eyes were dead. They were usually so full of life, true, they usually held anger and annoyance, but for good reasons, and to see them so empty…it worried him to no end, and quickly caught up to them.

    They headed up to a room near the top, and Yuffie and Aerith set Kiari in a chair in the corner as she muttered to herself, “I can’t believe she’s gone…”

    Sora looked at her, pitiful and worried, and started to go talk to her, but was stopped by Aerith. “Sora, I need to talk to you.”

    His dark blue eyes flickered to the still-shaking Kiari, feeling guilty that she was completely traumatized but all alone in the corner. “Now?”

    Aerith nodded, though she bit her lip, and thought to herself, knowing she had to make this quick. She pulled him a bit farther from Kiari, and this honestly irritated him. “Sora…I know you’re going to go and talk to her, but there’s something you need to understand. Kiari just lost someone who was very close to her.”

    Sora’s eyes snapped angrily. “I know that! Look at her! She hasn’t stopped shaking like that since she realized her summon charm was gone!”

    “Sora, you don’t understand. Kiari was given that charm by her father years ago, before the Heartless attack. Rose is all she’s got left of her old life.”

    Sora raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you guys her friends?”

    Aerith looked like she was about to say something, but Yuffie stepped in. “We met her in Transverse Town, remember? We weren’t her friends before then.”

    Aerith nodded and continued. “When the Heartless took over Kiari’s world, they took everything from her-her father, mother, brother, all of her friends, her home-everything that ever had meaning to her-except Rose. Kiari was given Rose when she was four years old. And another thing…in Kiari’s world, dragons and humans bond quickly, they become apart of each other.”

    Sora’s gaze turned worried again after hearing this. He felt he could relate. When he lost Riku and Kairi, he had felt horrible. And when Goofy nearly died, he felt like that again, only worse. As he once told Aladdin, losing someone is bad, but not as bad as never getting them back. If Goofy had died, he wouldn’t have seen him again.

    “Sora, I’m not done.” Aerith continued. “There’s still more. When a dragon and a human bond, their hearts become connected. Remember when Kiari said Rose will only eat if Kiari feeds her?”

    Sora groaned. “Oh that’s right!” He thought of something else and looked sadly at the ground. “But if Rose doesn’t eat, she’ll…die.”

    “Exactly, but that’s still not the whole problem. When a dragon’s heart and a human’s heart become connected, they become a whole. In other words…if one dies…the other dies too, at the same time.”

    Sora’s head snapped back. “Kiari will die? She’ll die?” He asked, almost angrily.

    Aerith and Yuffie nodded, both of them looking like they’re about to cry.

    He turned on his heels, and looked at Kiari, and all of his anger faded. She was crying-hard too. The table was soaked, and her eyes were bloodshot and her face was red. He walked over to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder.

    “Kiari…I wanna help you get Rose back.”

    She turned her head towards him. “Sora, they didn’t take Rose from me. She’s always with me. We’re part of each other. But Rose won’t eat without me…” Her eyes snapped back to the table and she placed a hand on her forehead and leaned on her elbow. “And knowing that she could die…it’s what gets me like this.”

    And what if Rose didn’t die from starvation? She could just as easily be whipped to death, or turned into some kind of Heartless-Kiari would turned into one too-or they could just kill her.

    “Kiari…you do know that if Rose dies, you’ll die too, right?”

    “I know that. I’ve always known that.”

    Sora’s eyes went to the ground and thought for a moment before reluctantly removing his hand from her shoulder and walking away to join Donald, Goofy, Riku, and Kairi in Merlin’s house. “I’m getting that charm back.”

    Yuffie looked at him. “Sora?”

    “I’m not just gonna stand back and watch her die!” He snapped as he turned back to them.

    Kiari’s tears didn’t stop, but her eyebrows furrowed as she made an important choice. She stood up. “I’m coming with you.”

    Sora shook his head. “No, you’re not.”

    Kiari glared at him. “It’s like you told Beast. If Rose is that important to me, I’ve got to do it myself.”

    “Kiari, if you get killed, that’ll kill Rose too and I won’t be able to live with myself knowing that it was my fault. You’re staying here.” He crossed his arms over his chest. She bit her lip. He was staying firm.

    She sighed, knowing that he was right. “Fine. But if you die, I’ll hate you for the rest of my life.”

    He smiled at her, and nodded and turned, slamming the door behind him.

    Yuffie gave a sly smile at her. “He really cares about you.”

    For the first time in what seemed like centuries-time seemed to stop for Kiari without her summon charm around her neck-a smile graced Kiari’s rosy lips.