Chapter 11

Riku fell at Roxas's feet, a gaping wound across his chest. Roxas stood over him, paralyzed with terror. He stared down at Riku, dying at his feet. Roxas threw his sword to the side and fell to his knees.

"Oh god, no! RIKU!" he yelled picking up Riku's body in his arms, "what have I done? WHAT'S GOING ON?"

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The man attacked Riku and Sora. He twirled his canes around, swinging them at the two men every chance he got. Riku and Sora where quickly knocked back, unable to keep up with the man's attacks. He attacked at them from different sides, but as soon as they would block and attack, he would vanish and reappear on another side. No matter what they tried, they could not land a single hit.

Riku stabbed the man's chest, but he vanished in a cloud of smoke. Pulling back his keyblade, he felt a tug on his wrist. Looking down, a rope was wrapped around his wrists. He couldn't pull them apart. He heard a cackle from behind him. He spun around, just in time to see Sora block an attack meant for him.

"Stay on your toes!" Sora laughed as he twisted around and sliced through the bonds around Riku's wrists.

There was a flash, and the man appeared and attacked from Sora's right. Riku dove forward and blocked the attack, and at the same time Sora swung over Riku and hit the man in the chest. The man staggered back and vanished.

Kairi and Namine stood back against the wall watching the fight. Kairi studied the battle intently. She held her keyblade in one hand, and held Namine's hand in the other. Namine clutched the blood stone from Roxas; it hung from its string around her neck. She didn't watch the battle at all. She only stared deep into the red heart shaped ruby in the center of the stone, she felt like she could look into another world through it. She almost became lost to her surroundings. Forgetting all about the battle, she just stared at the stone, memories washing over her, wave after wave.

The flow of the battle changed, Riku managed to hit the man again. Kairi grinned and tightened her hold on Namine's hand. Namine gave a start as she was shaken out of her trance. She looked up just in time to see the man's staves transform into a pair of swords. Then, as if in slow motion, she saw the blades come down and slice Riku across the chest.

"NO!" Kairi and Namine both cried out. Blood spattered the ground as Riku looked down at his chest. There was blood everywhere, soaking his clothes, and slowly spreading out across the floor. Riku slowly looked up at Sora, his eyes wide and terrified. Their eyes met for a second, and Riku fell to his knees. He looked back down at his chest and dropped his keyblade as he brought his hands up.

With a flash, the man appeared next to Riku on the ground. He preformed several quick hand gestures writing something in the air next to Riku. There was a flash, and a burst of air hit everything. Riku was thrown from his knees, and flew across the room. He hit the wall next to Namine and Kairi with a sickening thud. Then he fell to the ground in a crumpled mess.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the man said with an evil grin towards Sora, "was he your friend?" The man cackled again. Sora yelled as loud as he could. He then ran at the man. Just as he got close the man swung his sword at Sora's head. Dropping down, Sora slid across the floor, and grabbed Riku's keyblade as he passed. The man looked down, surprised. Bringing up the keyblades, Sora went to sever off the man's arms, but with a flash he disappeared. Sora quickly jumped to his feet and braced himself for the next attack.

Kairi and Namine both tended to Riku, he was still breathing, but he was getting weak. "Oh god, not again," Kairi stammered as she held Riku's face in her hands. "Don't die on us. We can't loose you too."

Namine studied Riku's chest, the cut was deep…very deep. She leaned over to get a better look at it when the blood stone fell out of her shirt, and landed on Riku's chest.

Riku cried out and doubled over in pain. A trickle of blood ran from the corner of his mouth as he began coughing. Namine recoiled, horrified at what she had done.

"NO!" Riku coughed in a raspy voice. His eyes shot open and his pupils where so tiny that he looked half mad. His hand shot out and grabbed the cord that the bloodstone hung from around Namine's neck. He dragged it and Namine back to him.

Namine cried out as she began choking. Riku pulled her closer, his eyes rolling in his head.

"Riku! Let go of her!" Kairi yelled grabbing his hand and trying to force him to let go, but he was too strong. He pulled Namine and the stone to his chest, as the stone made contact with his skin it began to glow bright green.

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Roxas sat under his favorite tree on top of the hill. Mitsuki sat at his side, hugging his arm. Her face sparkled in the light through the leaves of the tree. She was smiling and resting her head on his shoulder, as Roxas was holding his new baby son in his arms.

The baby was laughing as Mitsuki tapped his nose with her finger. He reached for her finger, but she held it just out of reach. It giggled and put his fingers in his mouth as he watched Mitsuki's finger hanging above him. Then she tapped his nose again and it began giggling even harder.

Roxas looked at the baby with amazement; it had never really hit him until just now. He was a father. He grinned happily as he cradled the baby.

Mitsuki leaned her head his shoulder and looked at him and smiled warmly. He really did love her. He leaned in and kissed her. The baby watched them and wiggled its legs wile sucking on its hands. Roxas slowly pulled away and looked back down at the baby.

Sighing deeply he looked up at the scenery around him. It was not the best place to be; the world was in the middle of a war. There where reports of attacks every day, but today everything was clear. The hill overlooked a whole city below them. He could see the harbor below, and the ocean sprawled out in front of them.

At his side he felt Mitsuki stiffen. "What's that," she asked, pointing up into the sky.

High above them something was falling. Roxas and Mitsuki watched the thing far in the distance. When it hit, everything went red.

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Riku pulled Namine and the blood stone close to his chest. As soon as it touched his wound, the stone began to glow green. The gash on his chest began hissing, and the sides of the opening began steaming. Riku cringed and clenched his teeth. He tightened his hold on the necklace around Namine's neck.

Namine was only inches away from the gaping wound, her face lit up by the green light from the pendant. Right before her eyes, the wound began to heal itself. She saw organs knit themselves back together, and shattered bone mend. Riku's muscles reattached and pulled the wound closed, and his skin grew back together, leaving only a thin scar.

With a gasp, Riku let go of Namine's necklace and they both fell away from each other. Riku was covered in sweat and was breathing very heavily. Namine was coughing and gasping for air, Kairi sitting next to the both of them in shock.

Riku swallowed, and took several more gasping breaths. He rolled over and crawled to Namine's side. He sat down, still gasping and picked her up. He put his hand around her neck to see what he had done. Her whole neck was red, with a welt where the cord had dug into her skin.

"Oh God, Namine, I'm so sorry," he whispered, his eyes watering up. He began gently massaging her neck.

"It's…" Namine broke into a fit of coughing, "its ok" she wheezed. She managed to smile feebly.

"Oh God," Riku cried picking her up and hugging her. "I'm so sorry!"

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The King sighed and leaned back in his chair. He and Merlin sat in the library of The Castle, pouring over all the information that they had received from Sora and his family over the past few weeks. The new information they had just received from Roxas that morning made everything even more confusing.

"Don't worry sire," Merlin said, straitening some of the many papers that covered the table. "I'm sure we will figure it all out soon."

"I'm afraid that by then it will be too late," The King said. He sounded as worn out as he looked.

"I'm sure that if we go over it again out loud it will make more sense," Merlin said reassuringly. "We can't give up hope after all. They are counting on us."

"You're right," Mickey said, sitting up, "they are counting on us, and I won't be the one to let them down. Ok Merlin, where do we start?"

"There we go!" Merlin said with a smile. "Now let's see," he began shuffling through some papers on the desk. Finally, he pulled out the one he was looking for. "Here we are," he said waving the paper with a little flourish before him. "Hmmm…" he scrolled down the page with his finger, all the while mumbling to himself.

"Ah! The source of the darkness and who is behind it all!" Merlin said triumphantly, "and I'm pretty sure we agreed upon the fact that it is the Quean of Hearts behind it all."

"No," Mickey said, trailing off.

"What?" Merlin said surprised. He put down the paper and stared expectantly at Mickey.

"No," Mickey said a bit more resolute. "I don't think it's the quean."

"Erm… your majesty…" Merlin stuttered. "Didn't you tell Roxas that you where sure it was the Queen and King of Hearts?"

"I did say that, but that is not the true power behind this. Someone or something is controlling all this. Who ever this is must be very powerful. They may even have control of Kingdom Hearts already. Whatever we're in…. it is getting worse by the day."

"Someone controlling the Queen of Hearts?" Merlin said, with a look of complete shock on his face. "That's impossible!"

"Well apparently it's not; nothing else would drive her into this action besides someone pushing her into it."

At that, Merlin folded his arms and slouched in his chair, thinking hard. Mickey stopped pacing and just stood staring at the wall, also deep in thought.

"This is getting us nowhere," Mickey said, "what's the next thing on the list?"

Merlin perked up a little as he reached for the sheet of paper again. He scrolled down the list with his finger till he found the next item. "Um…. The Knights."

"Ah yes. The Knights, I have met with them before…" Mickey said trailing off.

"You have?" Merlin said astonished.

"Yes, long ago." Mickey said with a little smile. "They weren't the same knights that we know today." With a sigh Mickey crawled back into his seat and sat down with a plop. "I still miss them."

"Miss who?" Merlin asked.

"Hmm?" Mickey said emerging from his thoughts, "Oh, the first group of knights."

Merlin was now very interested, but he didn't want to pry too much, but soon his curiosity got the better of him. "Who where they?" he asked hopefully.

Mickey sighed, and leaned back in his chair with a little smile. "They where part of an organization, a band of brothers, sworn to protect Kingdom Hearts. I knew two of them especially well. This was back before the Great War, just before the King and Queen of Hearts tried to take power."

"But that was hundreds of years ago!" Merlin stammered.

"Let me finish," Mickey said, holding up a hand. "Now this band of brothers was all chosen representatives of their own worlds. The most capable human from each world was trusted with the keyblade of that world. Once they where entrusted with the keyblade, they where sent to the Brothers Organization to be trained. After there training, they became knights, protectors of Kingdom Hearts."

"Yes, yes, I know of the Brothers Organization," Merlin said, growing impatient, "but who where the knights that you knew personally?"

"I'm getting to that," Mickey said with a smile, "now all these knights where very pure hearted, and they ranged from ages 10 to 50. The ones that I knew personally were very special." Here Mickey paused and stared at the ceiling with a little bit of a smile on his face. Without moving, he continued his story in a wistful voice.

"They where both my good friends, they had both came from different worlds at very young ages. I was the first one they met when they both arrived at the guild. His name was Serif, and she was Alerna, and they were both 9 years old.

"Because they where the youngest, they stuck together. Eventually they became very good friends, and as they grew up, I watched their friendship deepening. After many years, they decided to get married, but because of situations with guild, they where unable to be married in a timely manner. The King and Queen of hearts had revealed themselves about that time. The guild was working as hard as they could to keep Kingdom Hearts away from them. They where so busy that they did not have any free time to perform a wedding.

"Shortly after that Alerna became pregnant, and this caused a problem with the guild. She was one of the best knights of the order, and now she was useless. They where very unhappy about this, but there was nothing that could be done. Serif was called out to help fight the ever increasing number of heartless that where appearing around the worlds, so he was forced to leave Alerna's side. He didn't want to, but he had no choice.

"I helped hide Alerna from the guild throughout her pregnancy. Serif would return to us every now and then to check up, but then he was forced to leave shortly after.

"Then just when the problem with the King and Queen of Hearts was reaching its worst point, Alerna gave birth to a baby girl, but the happiness did not last long. A few days later, the King and Queen found Kingdom Hearts. Every member of the organization was called to defend it. Alerna said she needed to go. I tried to force her to stay, but she wouldn't listen.

"She knew what she was going to do, and she knew what might happen if she went. So just before she left, she took the baby; she kissed its forehead, and gave the baby to me. I remember it so clearly; tears where running down her face as she looked at the baby in my arms. Then she gained control of herself and gave me a serious look. I will never forget what she told me on that day. She said, 'I need you to take the baby. Protect her, raise her, and love her. I know what I'm going to do, and I know that I'm definitely not coming back. When I became a knight, a prophecy was told to me by the guild. They told me everything that was to happen. They told me how I would die, and what would become of my daughter. You need to take her into the future. She is destined to grow up far away from here.'

"I asked her what she meant, and how I was going to do it, but she wouldn't tell me. The last thing she told me before she left was the baby's name. Then she stood up and looked determinedly at the sky, and looked at the baby one last time. Finally she put her helmet on and turned away. She paused for just a moment, and took off running. She took the first ship she could find and just left.

"I returned with the baby to the guild, but it was deserted. But I found a monitor in one of the control rooms that was showing the battle field. It was terrible; there were Heartless and Guild Knights everywhere. After some quick work with the controls I managed to find Alerna. She was in the middle of the battle, and at her back was Serif. They where fighting together, protecting each other.

"Then something about the battle changed. The Heartless all stopped fighting. The Knights took the chance and took care of all of them, but something was wrong. Across the field of fallen knights and heartless was a man. He had a beard and a black heartless at his side that looked like a black knight. That man was the King of Hearts. All the knights realized this and attacked him, but he was too powerful. He cut down every knight that got in his way, whether with his keyblade, or with magic. Every time someone stood up against him, the black knight at his side would attack from behind and kill the vulnerable knight.

"They seemed to cut a path through the Knights, but every Knight that he cut down did not stay down. They rose again, this time possessed by evil. These reanimated Knights attacked their former friends and the flow of the battle went from bad to worse. Soon almost every knight had fallen and come back, all except for two. As the King went to strike down the last of the Knights, his attack was blocked. It was Alerna. As she stood with her keyblades locked with the kings, the dark heartless attacked, but its blow never landed on Alerna, Serif had blocked it, and together they took on the King. They fought beautifully together, every single attack they failed to block, the other covered. Every move they made was in sync, they fought as one.

"They pushed the king and his heartless back across the field. Then after a long fight serif dove in between the king and the heartless. He cut the back of the King's leg, causing him to fall to his knees. Not wasting a second Alerna twirled her keyblades and with a quick slice decapitated the King. As soon as she did this, every reanimated knight collapsed to the ground. But she had not won, for as the king fell, he revealed behind him Serif who was lying on the ground, a keyblade through his stomach. Alerna cried out as she ripped off her helmet and threw herself at his side. She pulled his helmet off, and lifted him off the ground."

There was a long pause. Then Merlin started out of his trance. "Your majesty?" he said, concerned.

Mickey wiped away a tear and sighed. Merlin reached into his robes and pulled out a handkerchief and handed it to Mickey who took it gratefully, and blew his nose.

"Anyway," Mickey continued with a deep sigh, "as she held Serifs dying body in her arms, the black knight appeared behind her… and … he ran her through with his keyblade. I remember her face so well. She didn't show any pain. She was smiling as she died. She and Serif died in each other's arms.

"Well after that I had no idea what to do. I was young back then, still new to everything, and I started to panic. The guild was destroyed, totally wiped out. I was really the only remaining member, and now I had a child that I had to somehow take to the future.

"I could think of nothing to do. I just sat there staring at the computer monitor with Alerna and Serif's dead bodies on it for hours. As I sat there, I knew I could not just leave them, so I took the baby, and got in a gummy ship. I flew to the wasted battlegrounds. I have no idea why I did this, but I went in search of Alerna and Serif. Eventually I found them, still in each others arms, with a keyblade run straight through both their bodies, sticking them in place. I fell to my knees next to them, while the baby started crying. I tried to comfort it by rocking it back and forth, but it didn't work. Then Alerna's arm moved. I froze; the baby's shrieks still filled the air. Slowly Alerna reached out her hand to me. I stared at the hand in shock, and I reached out and grabbed it. Our palms grew warm, and then when the warmth died, her hand fell limply to the ground again.

"I looked down at my hand, and in it was a bloodstone. I stared at it transfixed. I got to my feet and walked around Alerna's body to see her face. I reeled back in horror. Her eyes were wide open, and a trickle of blood had run from the corner of her eye, but it had dried long ago. I turned away not wanting to look at what had once been my friend. But I had to look back. I placed the baby on the ground, and found a keyblade that would do the job I needed and dug two graves for both of them. I put Alerna in one, and was about to put Serif in the other when something caught my eye. I lifted up Serif's hand that was on his chest. Under it was another bloodstone. I took it, and finished burying them.

"I then returned to the baby. I sat down on the blood-soaked earth and picked it up again. Then, reaching in my pocket, I pulled out the two bloodstones. I looked at them in the light, they looked the same, but at the same time, they looked completely different. I looked at them for a minute more, and gave them to the baby. As soon as the baby touched the stone there was a bright purple flash and everything around me went black. I looked up and saw a beam of purple light shooting towards me from the sky. I panicked and tried to get out of the way, but it was too late. The beam hit me, and I vanished. When I came to, I was in Hollow Bastion. Leon was waking me up wile Yuffie comforted the baby. I had traveled to the future. That was 35 years ago, and that was the end of the knights that I knew." Mickey said with a long and wistful sigh.

Merlin dabbed at his eyes with a hankie as Mickey finished his story. There was silence for a long time after that. Neither of them said anything. Finally Merlin asked one more question. "What was the baby's name?"

Mickey paused for a long moment, said quietly, "…Kairi."

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Sora blocked attack after attack from the man, but he was losing. He was being pushed farther and farther back towards a wall.

Riku was dead… his son was dead. All that was left was his wife and daughter… and he was going to protect them with everything he had.

Roaring, Sora pushed forward, knocking the man back. As the man prepared to strike again, a keyblade seemed to grow out of the center of his chest. The man looked down at it, a little surprised. Without a word, he fell sideways. As his body hit the ground it exploded into a fine mist that dispersed in the air.

Sora looked around wildly for who had helped him but saw no one. Then he heard a scream. Spinning around, he looked back to where Namine and Kairi were. Standing behind Namine was a knight. It had its razor sharp keyblade to Namine's throat.

"WHERE IS ROXAS?" the knight yelled. It stood a little bit taller than Namine, the shape of the armor showed that it was clearly female.

Sora dropped his keyblade to ground and put his hands in the air.

"Don't put that down! I SAID, WHERE IS ROXAS?" She yelled again.

Namine stared around wildly. She could see everyone standing around her, but no one doing anything. She held on to the bloodstone as tightly as she could.

"Roxas…. save me…." She though. Suddenly, the bloodstone erupted. A giant flash of white light briefly lit the area. When the light vanished, Namine hung limply in the knight's arms.

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Namine stared around her, confused. She was standing at the base of a hill. Everything around her was a burnt red color. The sky was red and cloudy, and there where stray fires everywhere. She was terrified at what could have happened here. At the top of the hill stood a tall oak tree, half of its leaves where burnt wile the other half where gone. The air around her was still, no breeze ruffled the charred leaves of the tree. She began climbing the hill to look at the area around her when she spotted someone under the tree.

"Hello?" she called as she began running to the figure. When she was a few feet away she froze. The figure in front of her was holding a woman in its arms. The woman was covered in blood and her skin was slightly burned. She was clearly dead. Next to it on the ground was a bundle of bloody rags.

"Oh my God…" Namine whispered. She took a few steps forward. "Are you ok…" she started to say when she reeled back in shock.

"ROXAS?" she cried out. Roxas never looked up. He just held the woman in his arms to his chest.

"Roxas?" she said quietly putting a hand on his shoulder. He pulled away, shrugging off her hand.

"Just get out of here Namine!" Roxas yelled. Namine stared back at him, shocked.

There was silence. The dead air didn't move at all. Namine stared at Roxas for a long time; he looked different than he had only a few hours before. He looked older, more grown up. The woman in his arms had blond hair, and she looked slightly familiar, but Namine had never met her before.

The woman's eyes where closed, and she hung limply in Roxas arms. Slowly Namine began to understand, little by little. It didn't make sense, but the evidence was right in front of her.

Roxas stared down at Mitsuki's face. A tear ran down his face as he brushed a lock of hair off her face. They had been married for 3 years; it had been 5 since he came to this place. It had taken him so long, but finally he had remembered everything about his family. He remembered Namine, Kairi and Sora. Everything was a little fuzzy, but he had remembered it all.

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Namine's form went limp as the knight dropped her. The knight staggered back, as though shocked. She dropped her keyblade and put her hands up in front of her as though she was trying to reject the fact that it had just happened.

"I didn't mean… I didn't do…" the knight said, still staggering back.

Kairi dove forward to catch Namine's falling body, while Riku got to his feet and squared off against the knight, ready to fight.

"No! Please!" the knight said, holding up her hands, but Riku wasn't listening. He grabbed his keyblade and attacked the knight. He swung at her head but she ducked, all the while stammering that she didn't mean to. He attacked again and again, pushing the knight backwards. When she was against the wall Riku's keyblade connected with her head. The visor of her helmet shattered. Riku went to strike again. The knight cringed, ready for the blow. There was a cracking sound, and the knight looked up, afraid. Riku's keyblade was buried in the wall over her head. He still held on to it, but he was staring into the shattered visor of the knight.

The knight looked back at him, terrified. She had deep blue eyes, deep with emotion and remorse. This was not a heartless or even any other enemy… she was human.

Riku pulled his keyblade out of the wall. The knight flinched again, but he did nothing. "Take off your helmet," he commanded, and she quickly did so. She had dark blue hair, and a very pretty face. Riku guessed she was about 19 years old.

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Riku said in a stern voice.

"I don't know my name" she stammered. "But I'm looking for Roxas. I hope he can help me."

"Well you're out of luck," Riku said. "Roxas is dead."

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"You loved her," Namine said from behind him. Roxas said nothing. He just wanted to grieve alone.

"Oh my God Roxas, I'm so sorry," She said in a rush. Roxas turned around slowly. In Namine's arms she held the bloody bundle of rags. She had pulled back some of them to reveal the baby's face. She looked at it for a wile, rocking it back and forth as though it was still alive.

"Namine…" Roxas said slowly in a controlled voice. He laid Mitsuki on the ground and got to his feet. "I'm dead. I died years ago." He took the baby from Namine's arms, and pulled the cloth over its face again. "Why are you here? How are you here?"

There where tears in Namine's eyes as she looked at Roxas. He was now much taller than her. He looked to be in his early 20s. He turned away and placed the baby next to Mitsuki on the ground and turned to face Namine again.

"Come on, why are you here?" he repeated.

"I….. I'm so sorry," she said. Then she threw herself into his arms and hugged him. "I've missed you so much," she whispered. Roxas hugged her back grudgingly. Then he pushed her back and held her at arm's length.

"Why are you here," he said in a stern voice. Her eyes where red as she looked back at him.

"You died," she said in a choked voice.

"I know I'm dead, but you aren't. Why are you here?"

Namine rubbed her eyes and then looked back at him. "We need you," she said, "We all need you, Mom, Dad, and Riku. We all need your help. We're in trouble and you are the only one who can save us."

"Namine!" Roxas said giving her a little shake. "I'm dead. I can't help anyone. And even if I could…" he trailed off as he turned around to look at his dead family. "Even if I could… I wouldn't." He dropped his arms from her shoulders and turned away.

"Roxas! Maybe you can!" Namine said desperately. "Maybe you can go back. There is nothing left for you here anyway!"

"DON'T SAY THAT!" Roxas yelled back. "Don't say that…"

"Look Roxas, I'm sorry, but your family here is gone." Roxas flinched as these words struck him. "But your living family still needs you!" Namine continued. "Your real family is still alive and they need your help now."

Roxas was silent for a time as he studied the brown grass around the base of the tree. "Even if I wanted to go back… I'm dead. I died years ago. There is no way to bring someone back from the dead."

Namine looked down, the bloodstone still hung around her neck. "I think I know a way." She said quietly.

Roxas looked up, surprised. "How?"

Namine walked over to him and held out the bloodstone. "This. It's how I came here. Maybe it can help get us home."

"How does it work?" Roxas said studying it.

"I don't really know," Namine trailed off. "But I'm sure it can do it. So… will you come back with me?" Namine looked at him hopefully.

Roxas studied the stone, and looked back at his family. He sighed deeply. "Just a moment," he said. He turned away and walked over to Mitsuki and the baby on the ground and knelt down to both of them. Namine watched him as he kissed both of them on the forehead. He stood back up and looked at them one last time, then turned back to Namine.

"Ok. If that thing can do it, then make it work." He walked back to Namine and took hold of the stone she held out. There was a bright flash of light, and when it vanished, so had Roxas and Namine.

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The Great Hall flashed with a bright light. When it dimmed a little, Namine stirred in Kairi's arms. In the center of the room the lights glowed blue. It began glowing brighter and brighter until it vanished. Roxas fell to the ground in the middle of the hall gasping.

"Roxas!" Namine called. "Are you ok?"

He coughed, and called back, "yeah!"

"Roxas?" Sora said surprised. In moments Sora was at his side. "Roxas? ROXAS!" Sora was smiling as wide as he could. Roxas was still breathing heavily, but he managed to look up at his dad and smile back.

Sora's smile dimmed a little as he saw Roxas's face. "You've changed," he said quietly.

"Yeah," Roxas said still smiling. "It's been a long time where I was."

Suddenly something blue hit Roxas in the chest and he was thrown backwards. Sora ran forward and tried to rip the woman off Roxas, but just as he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her back Roxas yelled for him to stop.

Sora froze his hand still on the woman's shoulder.

They where looking at each other, Roxas and the woman where staring deeply into each others eyes. They knew each other. They studied each other's faces intently. Slowly Roxas brought his hand up and touched her hair. Then he brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. Slowly he began to smile.

"…Mitsuki?" Roxas whispered.

To be continued … again.