"I don't know how much more I can take," Kairi mumbled weakly, clutching her chest. The constant, throbbing pain in her heart had caused a clammy sweat to form across her skin.

"Kairi, let me fight," Naminé said. Kairi shook her head.

"No, I can feel that you're afraid to face him. I don't want to have to put you through that."

"But Kairi, you can't keep fighting like this!" Naminé argued. "Your heart's not going to last much longer!"

"What's the matter, princess?" Marluxia asked, mockingly. "It seems your heart can't take the heat of battle."

Kairi collapsed onto her knees, her Keyblade arm hanging loosely by her side.

The former boss of Castle Oblivion laughed. "Then allow me to relieve you of your pain..." Marluxia raised his scythe. "...permanently." Kairi could barely summon any energy to lift the Keyblade, let alone defend herself. Before Marluxia's "Graceful Dahlia" could claim judgment, Kairi's body burst with blinding light, revealing Naminé with a troubled, yet determined expression on her face.

Marluxia jumped back in surprise. "You!"

Naminé glared at him as she got up from her knees. "It's been awhile, Marluxia."

"You dare show your face after all this time?" Marluxia enunciated, rage hanging in each syllable.

"Yes, I dare, "Lord" Marluxia," Naminé taunted. "I've been wanting to fight you for a long time."

He pointed his scythe in her direction. "Really, witch? Then why did you wait until now?"

"Because Kairi didn't want me to fight. She figured she could take you down without involving me." Naminé narrowed her eyes. "She was afraid for my self-being. And I have to thank her for that." She thrust the Keyblade in Marluxia's direction. "But I'm not afraid of you anymore, Marluxia. This is where I finally destroy this painful memory of you once and for all!"

Marluxia laughed. "Are you actually deluded enough to think you can harm me?"

Naminé smirked. "Oh, get over yourself. We both know you're not invincible. And if memory serves, I owe you a beatdown for that whole "Castle Oblivion" incident."

"If you and that traitor Axel hadn't ruined my plan, the Organization wouldn't have been reduced to coded data!" Marluxia shouted.

Naminé's eyes flickered with surprise. "Wait, you actually remember all of that?"

"Of course, I remember! We all do!" Marluxia sneered. "When our bodies were destroyed, all our memories and personalities were transferred into this virtual prison! Now we're trapped here for all eternity, testing..." He stopped himself. "On second thought, I think it's best that you find out for yourself."

"Testing?" Kairi repeated. "What's he mean by that?"

"What did you mean by testing?" Naminé demanded.

Marluxia shook his head. "Since I have nothing else to lose, I'm not going to let my sense of chivalry get in the way of my sense of revenge." He rotated the scythe around his head. "I'll scatter your heart to the empty winds!"

Tidus' group was making their way across the Ravine Trail trying to find someone who knew where Selphie or Sora was. So far, it had been only Heartless. The Gullwings couldn't do much except flying in for a hit-and-run. Auron and Wakka were tearing through them left and right. Tidus was still inexperienced with a real sword, so he was easily impressed by Auron's ability.

"You're really good!" Tidus said to Auron. "Are you some kind of hero?"

Before Auron could reply, the unthinkable happened. Tidus accidentally cracked his sword against a cavern wall, shattering it in half. "Oh man! And it was a loan, too!"

Auron shook his head. He reached into his outfit and removed a spare sword. "Take it," he says tossing it to Tidus. "A gift from a close friend of mine."

"Are you serious?!" Tidus turned the sword curiously in his hands. "Wow, I've never seen a sword like this before in my entire life."

Auron squinted almost lazily at Tidus. "Just don't break it."

"Hey, I just thought of something," Yuna said. "Why don't we just go find the others for you? We can teleport faster than we fly."

Tidus scratched his head. "Well, I guess."

"We're on it!" Rikku chimed in excitedly. And with that the Gullwings flashed their "Charlie's Angels" pose and teleported out of sight.

"Think the others are okay?" Tidus asked Wakka.

Wakka shook his head in disbelief. "Come on, dude. You don't expect them to lose so easily, ya?"

"Besides, we've got more important concerns at the moment," Auron said.

"What do you..." Tidus began. His voice trailed off as he looked to the horizon.

Berserkers.

Auron gave Tidus a piercing look. "Irritating, I know. Or are you afraid?" He smirked. "It's all right."

Tidus only had two words for that statement: "Oh, foofie."

The arena's sky darkened as Marluxia vanished out of sight. Naminé's shoulders tensed as she constantly looked behind her. "Is he going to cast that spell on me, too?" she wondered. After a few nerve-racking moments...

"Above you!" Kairi warned. Naminé's head snapped upward to see Marluxia hovering a few feet above her.

"Get down from there and fight!" Naminé spat. Marluxia only chuckled as he waved his hand mysteriously.

"Naminé, run!" She broke her gaze away and looked down. A pool of darkness rippled beneath her feet forcing Naminé to leap out of the way. Seconds later, the darkness erupted into a geyser of blackness. Before she could turn her attention back to Marluxia, another pool started to rapidly grow underneath her position. "It's tracking your movements! You've got to run!"

Naminé was so focused on dodging that she almost forgot about Marluxia. Chancing a glance upward, she was met with the sight of his scythe barreling down on her. She whipped the Keyblade out in front of her, tucking her body in to make herself a smaller target. The scythe seemed to orbit harmlessly around Naminé before vanishing. When the onslaught was done, Marluxia reappeared laughing in front of her. Naminé glared at him with pure loathing.

Suddenly, his expression changed from malicious glee to astonishment as he stared at Naminé. Feeling a slight breeze pass across her body, she looked down and saw that her dress had both straps cut and numerous rips around its body. "AAHHH! My dress!"

Marluxia ran his fingers through his thick, wavy hair. "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"I think it was because his spell was only targeted at me," Kairi reasoned. "With you, I'm guessing that blade can actually cut you."

"Not a bad look for a battle diva," Marluxia observed. "I think you need to show more midriff, though."

Naminé stamped her foot. "Listen, 'Lord Perv!'" she angrily shouted. "What's the deal with trying to strip me, huh?"

Marluxia chuckled. "You think that's perverted?" he asked. "You obviously haven't faced Vexen yet."

"Oh gawd, not him!" Naminé cringed. "He's still alive?!"

"In a matter of speaking."

"Who's Vexen again?" Kairi asked, confused at Naminé's reaction.

"Trust me," Naminé said shuddering, "you REALLY don't want to know."

Marluxia started forward, swinging his weapon in a circular motion using a portal of darkness to sink himself into the ground. The scythe rapidly picked up speed, buzzing across the floor like a giant sawblade ready to split her in half. As it stalked around her like a shark circling its prey, Naminé braced herself.

"Your heart will become nothingness!" Marluxia cried as he popped out of the ground with the scythe over his head. Naminé planted her feet firmly and parried the blow from above with the Keyblade. While Marluxia was stunned from the impact, she spun around and kicked his outstretched hand, sending the weapon flying. With her opponent unarmed, Naminé wasted no time in giving him the beatdown he so richly deserved.

No, not with the Keyblade. With her silky, smooth, powerful legs.

Naminé's legs were a blur as she rapidly kicked him everywhere she could make contact with. Stomach, head, shin, face...she didn't care where she hit him. It just felt good to finally exact her frustrations against her former tormentor. Finally, as Marluxia staggered about, his left eye swollen, nose broken and blood draining from his ears, the scythe was heard making its return trip to earth. Naminé pirouetted into the air and caught it with her free hand. Marluxia's eyes widened in shock as Naminé twirled both the Keyblade and his scythe in her hands.

A satisfied smile appeared on the dual-wielding diva. Naminé rushed him with unleashed ferocity. Swinging both weapons with unrestrained fury, she pounded Marluxia's body with everything she had. In a spectacular finish, Naminé juggled him into the air and tossed the scythe back into him. "IT'S OVER!"

As the blade penetrated his person, Marluxia's form exploded into tiny data pieces, evaporating into nothingness. Bright light shined throughout the arena, the battle won. The girls blinked and found themselves back in the chamber; Marluxia's cove now a shade of pink.

"I hope my dress gets repaired as soon as I give back control over to you," Naminé said as she fingered a hole near her belly button. "I mean, sure it'd be cool to wear a two-piece outfit for once. Heck, anything would be better than this dress!"

"When we get out of this mess, we'll take Selphie and Olette to get a new wardrobe for you," Kairi replied as she felt control return to her. Opening her eyes, she was pleasantly surprised to see her entire outfit was clean and whole as if it had been professionally tailored and dry-cleaned. "Wow! This'll save a lot of change over at the laundromat!"

"You okay?" Naminé asked.

"I should be asking you that." Kairi massaged her chest, relieved that it wasn't aching anymore. "It seems you had a lot of issues with the guy."

"Hey, I was held hostage in that castle being forced to mess with your boyfriend's memories. Don't you think he deserved all of that?"

The mention of Sora as her boyfriend reminded Kairi why she was in Radiant Garden in the first place. She sat herself down, taking the weight off of her feet. "Oh, right."

Naminé heard Kairi's depressed tone. "What's wrong?"

Kairi sighed as she pulled her knees in toward her chin. "I was so caught up in trying to get out of here that I forgot that when this is all over, I'm going to have to marry Sora."

"Don't worry about it for now," Naminé said gently. "I'm sure there's a way out of it somehow. Right now, we've got more important matters to attend to."

Kairi nodded. "Yeah, like which idiot's butt we have to kick next."