Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. At all. Period.

Chapter 10: Healing Old Wounds

Fox's PoV

No…No, why did she have to show up now? Why'd she have to show up ever?

Jen was my friend, back when I was caught between the light and the dark. To be honest, we were both incredibly screwed up even then; I've already explained my damage, but she had a different kind of damage altogether.

Jen was ostracized from the moment she started interacting with others her own age, isolated because of minute differences that separated her from others. It twisted her, made her bitter and prone to anger, and I was drawn to her as a friend because of that unbridled angst.

But while she was nothing but good to me, I took advantage of our friendship. When I became aware of my abilities as a Prism, I…practiced on her. I took the yellow and the red that I took in from my parents and forced them on her, refining it for the battles I would later have with the people who took away my innocence. It changed her. It…hurt her. I hurt her.

And look what came as a result. Jen came back into my life, hell-bent on revenge. And as much as I want to, I can't run away from this. I've got to make up for what I did, or else I'll never be able to forgive myself.

"Well Fox? You ready to suffer like nothing you've ever felt before?"

I wanted to help her, to make right what I had done wrong, and that was enough to bring the strength of my indigo back. My hand behind my back, I formed a small sphere of indigo in my fist. "I'm so sorry, Jen. I'll try and fix this, I promise."

The smug look on Jen's face melted away to a deadly serious frown. "Wrong answer, Fox," she droned, giving me just enough time to bring the orb of indigo in front of my chest before she blasted me again with the yellow.

The yellow never made contact. Instead, it stopped in midair, and then siphoned itself off into my indigo orb. "I can't let you do that, Jen. Let me help you."

"HELP ME?" Her face contorted into a twisted rage, which was reflected in her colors of yellow and now red. "YOU USED ME!"

I darted out of her line of sight, a wise course of action, seeing as she began to attack everything in said line of sight. "YOU MANIPULATED ME, USED ME IN ONE OF YOUR STUPID GAMES! YOU'RE JUST LIKE THEM, FOX; YOU'RE JUST LIKE YOUR PARENTS!"

My heart ached listening to her; she was right, I had used her. But maybe, if I could just get closer to her…

She turned around to find me, howling like a diseased animal. This is why you should never become dependent on the red rage; it turns you into this. "I swear, Jen, I don't want to hurt you. Just let me in—"

She laughed—no, cackled—at that. "Why not, Fox? It's not like you ever held back before!"

And so it continued for what felt like hours, but I'm pretty sure was less than ten minutes. It's funny, how when you're fighting with someone, time just sort of takes a break and sits on the sidelines until all of the fighting is over with. She would attack, I would dodge; I would try to reason, she would spit some reply back. The circle of fighting continued on and on, achieving nothing, solving nothing…until, finally, I made one mistake, tripped up my footing only once. And she dove for it.

Before I even realized what that misstep had cost me, Jen had me trussed up in a web of solid yellow, a red scythe fully formed in her hands. Try as I might, I hadn't gotten through to her at all.

"I told you, Fox; you manipulated me for far too long. Guess all the mind games made me pretty good at manipulation myself though, huh?" She brought the scythe close to my neck, close enough so I could feel the heat pouring out of it. Then, she turned it over, so that the flat of the blade was parallel with me—and pressed it against my cheek. I screamed for a lifetime as the blade made my flesh boil and burn, until I couldn't feel anything on my check at all.

After an eternity of pain had come and gone, Jen finally took the blade away. Tears were streaming down my face; I couldn't feel the left side of my face at all anymore. "Well, as much as I'd love to listen to that song for a few months more, I do have a schedule to keep. After all, my benefactor only allowed me my power boost in exchange for yours and that Riku's heads." Benefactor? "So, I guess I have to finish you off here and now. Say good bye, Fo—"

"STOP HURTING HIM!"

Before either of us could even react, a violet blast of light shot out at Jen, eventually engulfing the entire pipe in its intensity and making me to black out from the strain.

Riku's PoV

When I opened my eyes, all of the fighting had stopped. Everything was silent. Strange. The two of them had completely forgotten about me during the fight, but in the end I was the one to end the fight.

The entire stretch of pipe was covered in a rocky, crystalline coating of violet constructs. I couldn't believe that I had just created all of this; all I wanted was for Fox to stop hurting, and that was enough to make this beautiful, glowing cavern of crystals.

I looked at Jen; she was trapped in an ornate casing of the crystals, a coating of small rocks literally encasing every inch of her person. As small as the rocks seemed, they were incredibly tough, so tough that the only part of Jen that could actually move were her eyes. They were filled with a glowing red, but she couldn't burn her way through the violet.

Wait. Red, burn. Oh my god, Fox!

I ran over to Fox, hoping I could to dig him out of the violet crystals in time. The yellow webs holding him had been transmuted into violet, but they were still holding him trapped. Even more than that, the violet had formed a huge crystal around him; easily transparent, but from the looks of it completely solid. Fox could be seen inside, eyes barely open as he slipped into unconsciousness.

"Hold on Fox hold on c'mon you can do it just stay with me stay with me…"

I started clawing away at the crystals—only for them to crumble the minute I touched them, fading in a sparkling dust. I stepped back, calmed myself down, and pressed my palm against the giant crystal around Fox. It immediately shattered and dissolved into dust, leaving me to attend to Fox's wounds.

"Fox! Are you ok? Say something!"

"R-Riku…Ow…" That was all he could say; open his mouth anymore, and the burn would start to bleed. His eyes had this glassy look to them, like he wasn't all quite there. I was surprised he was still conscious, his wounds were so bad. His cheek looked like a cross between a glass bottom boat and a tanned cow hide; it was a sickly beige color, and I swear I could see veins running just under what was left of the skin.

"Fox, I'm so sorry. I promise, I'm going to get us out of here alive. This will never happen again, just hang in there…" I brought my hand up to try and wipe off some of the blood from his face, and my hand began to glow the violet light again. The violet jumped off my hand and began to run across Fox's face, weaving its way across the burn. By the time it was done, the individual strands had formed a patch across his skin. The strands began to merge, spreading out until they formed a single panel covering the wound. The light grew stronger, and stronger…until it shattered, revealing a perfect new layer of skin in its place. It was as if the burn had never happened.

"You see, Fox? I told you we'd be fine. Now let's get you out of there." I traced Fox's outline in the crystal with my hand, dissolving enough violet to get Fox out. As soon as he was out, he dropped down and took hold of my arms, gasping for breath. "Feel better?"

"It…It hurt…so much. Burning, and burning…" He put his hand up to his cheek, feeling the new skin. "I shouldn't be able to talk. Why can I…" He looked up at me. "You used the colors, didn't you?"

I smiled. "Something to keep in mind for next time, Fox; violet light heals wounds. Not to mention…" I motioned over to Jen, still trapped in the crystals. Her eyes were completely covered with the boiling red, but it couldn't break through the shell.

Fox crept towards her, looking more afraid of hurting her than being hurt by her. I can't imagine what he must have put her through to make her like this; I'd played his games before, but they were only a fraction of what he could evidently do.

"We need to help her. If she could just make contact with the indigo, learn to let go of her anger…maybe she can be saved." He turned back to me, stepping aside to give me easy access to Jen. "You wanna give it a try?"

Well, I couldn't really say no to that, could I? Not after the last display of power I gave. "Alright, hold on." I focused my mind on what Jen had gone through, the pain she must have felt, and it brought the indigo glow back into my hands. I stepped forward, preparing to make contact.

"How do I do this again? One hand on head, the other…?"

Fox smiled. "Well, in your case, it would be the right hand on her head, the left by her heart. You're right handed, right?" I nodded. "Then you should be okay. Give it a try."

I closed my eyes and lowered my head, taking a deep breath and clearing all thoughts from my head. If I was going to do this, I couldn't give her any fear to work with. Then, once I was completely calm with my position, I reached out and placed my right hand as close as I could to her face. As long as I kept the indigo running, my hand wouldn't break through the crystals, so there wasn't any risk of Jen breaking free. Then, I placed my left hand on the crystals around her chest, took a deep breath…and took the plunge.

...

When I opened my eyes, it looked like I was back in Fox's world. The colors were all around me, and that same feeling of weightlessness kicked in from before. Fox had prepared me for this though; I focused my energies on making something solid below me, imagining its size and shape and texture, until a solid green circle formed below me. I let myself drop down to the platform, and as soon as I established a sense of gravity, I stood up and took a better look around.

It may have looked like Fox's world at first, but at a closer glance…it was just so alien in comparison. With Fox, the predominant color had been the indigo, spreading out in all different directions, and there had been sparks of other colors moving all throughout the space. Here, the world was literally enclosed in a hurricane of yellow and red, spinning in an angry torrent that threatened to consume everything in its grasp. Thankfully, I had landed in the eye of the storm, so I wasn't hit with either color, but to see the two raging around me…it was mindboggling.

I looked down (or at least my version of down, are so topsy turvy in these places) and found what I was looking for; several yards below me was Jen, huddled in a ball in the empty space. She looked…different here. Shorter, softer. Her hair was neatly combed back, revealing what was actually a pretty face behind that long black hair. Her eyes were squeezed shut, with tears spilling down her face.

"Hello? Jen, is that you?" I let the platform drop down to her level.

"Leave me alone."

Well, she was friendly. I figured I'd better get to the point, in case she went off again. "I know it's hard, but you have to trust me right now. I can see that you're in pain, and I can help you. Do you want help?"

She opened her eyes and looked at me. She had green eyes, the kind that look like they can pierce you just as easily as a sword can. "Uh-huh."

"Then take my hand." I extended my arm towards her, extending little indigo waves from my fingers.

"Why should I trust you?"

"Because I know what Fox is capable of, and I can promise you that he will never hurt you again." All of it was true, though I knew it was a promise I didn't need to make; Fox was better now, but the promise was necessary to earn Jen's trust.

"You can?" Her head rose expectantly.

"Yes. Just take my hand, and I can make the pain go away."

She hesitated, debating whether she should take the leap of faith. Then, slowly, she reached out her hand to touch mine. As she did, the indigo wrapped around her hand to bond it with mine, and it shone with all of the light it had, forcing all other colors away and engulfing us in its brilliance.

Fox's PoV

It didn't take him too long to get the job done, but I got tired of waiting around pretty quickly. Actually, it was pretty boring, waiting on the outside for once. When Riku went in, he just sort of closed his eyes, an indigo glow coming from his entire body. Interesting, especially since I had never seen anyone else use the indigo before, but really nothing that you could focus on for longer than a few minutes. While he was in there, I took the time to clean up just a bit, taking in any unnecessary violet and storing it where I could use it later. To be honest, I was just a little jealous of Riku; I could never get the violet to do what I needed it to, and he managed to use it full throttle his first time out. Well, I'd get the hang of it sooner or later, especially with the amount of processed violet Riku had provided.

Anyway, after a while, Riku finally pulled the indigo back out, opening his eyes as he stepped back. What was left of the violet around Jen finally faded away. Her eyes fluttered open for a moment before closing again as she collapsed on the floor.

Riku turned to me with a solemn look on his face. "She'll wake up in a bit. I took most of the yellow and all of the red out of her, so we don't have to worry about another attack, but honestly? I don't think she did this alone."

I walked over to Jen, brushing the hair out of her face. "I could have told you that. The Jen I knew could come off as bitter and surly sometimes, sure, but she was never this vicious. I could see her being self-destructive, maybe make a show out of it on the way down, but she would never willingly hurt anyone the way she tried to hurt me just now." I closed my eyes; I could still feel that scythe on my cheek. That was going to take a while to get out of my head.

"My thoughts exactly." He brought up some of the red flames, which jumped at the first sight of air. "The yellow was naturally there, but someone put the red in there. It's trying to fight its way back to wherever it came from."

Poor Jen. No matter where she went, someone was always using her for their own means. I was going to make up for it though, starting now. "Later. Right now, we need to get her somewhere safe. Think you can keep that red locked up tight till we get back?"

"I'll do my best." He brought the red back inside, and crouched down beside me. "C'mon, think you have the strength to lift her out?"

Lord, THAT took forever to write! I kept going back, editing and adding more detail. I think I'm getting good at this!

As always, PLEASE REVIEW!