(AN: As usual, I own nothing but the plot. Also, IMPORTANT UPDATE AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER! Anyways, enjoy!)

Sora, Repliku, and Namine charged through the halls of Castle Oblivion, fighting heartless after heartless along the way. Namine was able to lead the other two on a certain path that she had claimed would lead right to Marluxia.

But when the trio finally reached the end of the castle, they were greeted by two figures, in front of a door. But the figures were fighting. Axel attacked Marluxia, and Axel wasn't doing so well. He simply wasn't able to withstand Marluxia's powerful blows.

The three keybearers leaped to Axel's rescue, and deflected Marluxia's next attack.

"What?! What is this?!" Marluxia demanded, jumping away.

"Yo, Sora!" Axel greeted. "You turned up just in time! I was trying to eliminate this traitor, but I wasn't quite prepared. Mind taking him out for me?"

"I won't do it for you. But I'll do it for my friends." Sora retorted.

"Good. Because I still have one more traitor I need to eliminate. The one who has been torturing your friend, Riku. The real one." Axel amended.

"Let me go with you then. It sounds like you could use some help." Repliku said.

"Sure thing…" Axel said, and transported both him and Repliku away. Sora turned to face Marluxia.

"So… You have made it this far. I did not really expect this when you began. Yet here you are." Marluxia said. "Namine…" Marluxia held out his hand, and snapped. "Return to me." Namine fell to her knees, then shakily stood up, and walked over, standing beside him.

"Namine… What are you doing?" Sora asked, shocked.

"Why, it's simple, Sora. I have control over Namine. And I will not fight what I can control." Marluxia explained. Marluxia, in truth, had no such power. But with a good actress like Namine, he could put on a convincing show for Sora. Sora growled.

"Rrrrgh! You control my friends! Erase their memories! Hurt and tear them apart! I… I will erase you!" Sora shouted. Marluxia shook his head, raising his hand up. A single glowing rose petal began floating down.

"You blame me… For situations that I did not create. You blame me for things you have done because your heart is weak. When I defeat you, I will have Namine remake you to her liking!" Marluxia responded, and the rose petal reached his hand, and turned into his scythe, Graceful Dahlia. "You, are unworthy to wield the keyblade. You will never defeat me!" Marluxia shouted.

********************MEANWHILE, IN THE BASEMENT*****************

"So where are we going?" Demyx asked. "Where can we go that the organization won't follow?"

"We go to a place that only I can create pathways to. A place where I have friends and connections." Zexion said.

"What… About Axel?" Xion asked. "Is he coming?"

"I do not know. He seems to be intent on destroying us all except you and Roxas. If he come soon, then he can." Zexion answered. "But first, I must open the gate. Zexion opened his Lexicon, which floated above his head, and Zexion chanted in a language none of the nobodies understood. The Lexicon emitted a pulsating light, and the pages rapidly turned, until a door began forming.

The door was not huge, but still, it was larger than most. It was colored many colors, and had odd designs, many depicting dragons. The door finally finished forming, and the Lexicon floated back down to Zexion. "It is time to go." Zexion said.

"Well, well, well." Came a familiar voice. "What an impressive show, Zexion. But I'm afraid it ends here." Axel approached, with Repliku, his Chakrams in hand.

"Axel… Please… Come with us. The organization wants to kill us!" Xion begged.

"Xion… You've been brainwashed by Zexion. Come with me, I can make everything go back to the way it was. I can even have Namine erase your memories of discovering you're a puppet, if you want." Axel offered.

"No! Xion, don't do it. If he erases the memories, who knows what he might do to you. To us!" Roxas said. "Xion, please. I love you too much."

Xion hung her head. "I'm sorry… Axel. I can't go with you."

"Larxene! Take the keybearers and go! Keep your hoods up, and when they ask, tell them Zexion sent you." Zexion ordered. Larxene nodded, and grabbed both keybearers by the arms, and pulled them through the door. "Demyx, you're with me." Demyx nodded, summoning his Arpeggio.

"I guess it's two on two then." Demyx said.

"Think again, Number IX." A cold voice came echoing from around the room, and Saix appeared.

"S-Saix?!" Demyx spluttered. "Oh no…"

"Stay strong, Demyx." Zexion said, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"How long I've waited for this day." Saix said. "Now, I finally have a reason to eliminate you."

But, before anyone could attack, the air shimmered, and the real Riku leaped through a portal, and engaged Repliku.

"What?" Repliku cried, as he began fighting Riku. "How?"

"I thought I smelled you near by. Now, I'll get rid of you, permanently!" Riku shouted.

"You're going down. Repliku sneered.

The four organization members turned back to each other. "Back to being two on two, I guess." Demyx said.

"Fortunately, it makes no difference. We will eliminate you regardless." Saix growled, summoning Lunatic.

"You fight for something that is wrong. But no matter." Zexion said. "I shall make you see!"

With that said, Demyx kicked off the battle with his favorite strategy. "DANCE WATER DANCE!" Unfortunately for him, Axel's flames could spread wide, and eat up Demyx's forms, and Axel effortlessly defeated them all. Zexion opened his Lexicon, and waited as Axel approached him. Axel immediately blasted fire at him, which Zexion absorbed. Axel tried throwing Eternal Flames, but Zexion absorbed both into the Lexicon.

Zexion pulled the chakrams from the Lexicon, and attacked the now weaponless Axel. Axel soon knew how painful his chakrams were to opponents, as Zexion attacked with them. Axel slowly retreated, trying to hold Zexion off.

Meanwhile, Demyx was doing a pretty good job of keeping Saix at bay. He shot balls of water at him, and whenever he got close, Demyx summoned water pillars to throw him up in the air. But finally, Saix had built up enough rage, and Demyx was unprepared for Saix's berserker mode. "AUUGH! MOVE ASIDE!" Saix roared, as he bared down on the Melodious Nocturne. Demyx began taking a beating, as he was knocked around by Lunatic.

Axel meanwhile, had regained his chakrams, and was back on the offensive. But Zexion was far from finished. From the Lexicon, he brought forth an apparition that looked like Lexaeus. The Lexaeus apparition began to attack Axel, and regardless of the attacks he hit the apparition with, it shows no signs of relenting, much like the real Lexaeus.

On the other side of the room, the Rikus battled for supremacy. "Why don't you give into me?!" Repliku demanded, as he and Riku blocked each other's attacks once more.

"Because I don't yield to fakes!" Riku shot back. Summoning his dark powers, Riku attacked harder, and Repliku summoned his to counteract Riku's.

Demyx finally freed himself from Saix's relentless rampage. "DANCE WATER DANCE!" He screamed in fear. Saix wasn't attacking them fast enough, but Axel came to his rescue, and defeated them. The Lexaeus apparition was now gone. Zexion yelled strange words, and a Lexicon appeared in front of Axel, and sucked him in.

To add to Axel's confusion, Demyx shouted "DANCE WATER DANCE!" Again, and Axel struggled to fight clones within the pages he was trapped in. Saix then turned his attention to Zexion.

"I guess you should have chosen a better reason to die for, Number VI." Saix growled. Zexion ignored this, and instead waved his hand, and over a hundred Zexions now we're in front of Saix. Saix merely sneered. "Moon, shine down!" He spoke to the sky above, and began brutally attacking Zexion's illusions, as the illusions blasted magic at him from all sides.

After freeing himself from Zexion's trap, Axel engaged Demyx, who didn't dare to use his special move again. But his water did seem to be counteracting Axel's flames quite nicely, until he started to attack with more melee attacks. Demyx tried his best to fight back, but he raised Arpeggio to slow to block most of Axel's attacks.

Zexion's clones were all but defeated, and Saix attacked Zexion directly, and the Cloaked Schemer had difficulty trying to fight back against Saix's power.

The Riku battle, had a new contestant. Mickey had finally caught up to Riku, and was helping him push Repliku back. Although Repliku knew all of Riku's moves, he didn't know the king's moves. "Huh, too chicken to fight me on your own, are you?" Repliku taunted. Mickey leaped into the air, as Riku dashed forward. Their keyblades connected with Repliku together, kicking him down.

"No!" Mickey protested. "He's lucky enough to have his friends beside him. Friends are what you don't have!"

Demyx finally seemed to get the upper hand on Axel, as he jumped into the air, and pointed Arpeggio at the ground. A large, forceful jet of water began blasting him, and Axel spluttered and gasped for air.

Zexion opened the Lexicon, as Saix stopped for breath, and summoned his signature attack, that rained meteors from the sky. Saix wasn't ready as they came raining down, directly onto him and Axel. One particularly large one hit him on the head, knocking the Luna Diviner out.

Demyx's water blast stopped, and Axel too, fell defeated. Zexion and Demyx caught their breaths, and stared down at their fallen comrades. "Why…? "Why you, Zexion?" Saix managed.

"Because Xemnas's true plan is evil. And I want to follow the plan he told us he would, not the one that he didn't say." Zexion said. "Next time we meet… I won't show you mercy." Zexion said, and without another word, he turned around, and led Demyx through the door, which vanished the moment it closed.

*******************THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR******************

It was extremely painful to fight Namine, but Sora was a better fighter than her. He didn't want to harm her, but every time he hurt Marluxia, she would heal him. So Sora needed to take her down first. When Namine did finally succumb to Sora's attacks, Marluxia glared at him. "How dare you harm Namine. I shall end you!"

"Like you're one to talk!" Sora retorted. The one disadvantage of fighting Marluxia, was that he had a massive reach that made it difficult for him to approach and strike him.

But Sora had something he knew made him more powerful. His friends. He was not just fighting for Namine. But Riku. For Roxas. For Xion. For… The other girl? For a moment, Sora had an image of a girl with red hair, but quickly shook it out. There hasn't been a girl like that on the islands, had there? "Your heart shall be judged!" Marluxia's comment cut through Sora's thoughts, as he dodged out of the way of Marluxia's petal tornadoes.

But Sora's biggest help in battle was that Marluxia attacked a little slowly, and was often vulnerable whilst doing his special attacks. Sora could see him slowly weakening. The final blow came from Sora, grabbing Namine's keyblade, and slashed Marluxia with both keyblades.

Marluxia fell backwards, as he spoke "This… This is the heart of a hero." Sora bared down on Marluxia as he fell. "You… Did well, Sora. You… Win…" Marluxia said. "I'm… Sorry, Namine. I… Failed, failed everyone…" Marluxia struggled for breath, as he choked out these last words. But Marluxia, despite his affinity with death, wasn't sure what was on the other side. So he let the darkness take him. Maybe, he would go back. This was Marluxia's last thought.

Sora rushed over to Namine, who got up, seemingly out of a trance. Sora helped steady her, and Namine fell into his arms, crying. "I'm… I'm sorry, S-Sora." She choked out. "I'm a-a-a horrible person."

"No, you're not." Sora protested, holding her. "It was all Marluxia's fault. I'm just glad I have you back."

"Y-you don't u-understand." Namine cried. "I… I was t-the one who m-messed w-w-with your m-memories. I put the f-fake memories there, b-because I was s-so lonely. I j-just wanted you, Sora. I w-wanted you to l-look at me like you l-looked at her."

"Who?" Sora asked, in confusion.

"K-Kairi. Your real s-special one." Namine explained. "I-I wanted to be y-your special one… But all I d-did was hurt you. Y-you, R-Roxas, and X-Xion."

"Namine… Please, don't cry. I don't care that you changed my memories. I forgive you." Sora said, softly.

"I...I…" Namine tried to form a sentence, but was too stunned by Sora's words. "Why? Why w-would you f-forgive me?" Namine asked.

"Because… Even if my memories of you are fake… I can tell that you're a good a person. No one is perfect. We all do bad things." Sora said. "But when we admit and rectify them… That is what makes someone good." Sora explained.

At this, Namine broke into tears again, and it took her several minutes of holding onto Sora to calm down. When she finally dried her eyes, Namine spoke again.

"Sora… If you want, I can give you back your memories. It would take some time, and you would have to give up everything I created for you… But you would be able to go back to who you were."

"Alright." Sora said. "I don't want to give up my memories of you… But I will. I know there are things in my old memories that I need."

"Right." Namine responded. "You'll need to go to sleep. I promise to take care of you, while you sleep."

"Thanks, Namine. Please, when I wake up, be there. And then, we can be friends, for real. Everything forgiven, and we can start anew." Sora told her.

"Sora…" Namine said. She then did something she had always wanted to do. She leaned forward, and kissed Sora quickly. Both she and Sora blushed, and Namine offered her hand. "Sora… Walk with me, one last time before you sleep."

"I will… Always." Sora said, and he took her hand, and she led him to the next beyond.

(AN: So, thanks as always for reading, and I hope you enjoyed! So, important update time! Today was my last day of summer! That means I am now returning to school for my final year of mandatory schooling. This means I may not be able to update my stories everyday, but I will try to. I am just saying, please don't be surprised if I don't. Anyways, I hope you continue to enjoy the story!)