Hey, everyone. Yes, it's been a while. Sorry. Really. I mean, it was not my intention to go two frickin' months without updating. It just… happened.

Anyway, there's a voice-actor joke in this chapter, so make sure you know who's who. No, I'm not going to tell you, because that'll spoil the fun.

Also, if you didn't read Silver Eyes, shame on you. There's a little reference to it in this chapter. If you don't remember, go read Chapter 16 (Mysteries). It was epic. (If I do say so myself. And I do.)

I don't remember these things
So, would you teach them to me?
What does God look like?
And angels' wings?
And when you lie down to sleep
I'll protect you
From demons of the night
-Stone Temple Pilots, "A Song for Sleeping"

Bruixe opened her eyes to a cloudy night sky, grey and black, devoid of stars.

She pushed herself up off the ground, forgetting for a second that her arm was injured, but there was no protest of pain – she looked down at her right arm, and there where her wound used to be was only a faded scar, as if it had been months since she was cut and not days.

With sudden shocking remembrance, her hand flew to her chest. Isalena had stabbed her – straight through the heart. She should have died.

I did die, she thought.

There was a scar here, too, irregular, almost star-shaped, but no pain whatsoever. Her shirt wasn't even torn from the former Councilor's Keyblade. As good as new.

Bruixe stood up, looking around. This was no place she recognized. The ground was silvery-white, almost like snow, but it was not cold here. Ahead of her, a single pathway stretched out, leading up over a grey hill.

Where the hell am I?

She walked warily along the path until she came to a white door at the crest of the hill, out of place in this barren grey field. She tugged at the handle. The door was heavier than she expected it to be, and bright light streamed through.

Disoriented, she had to blink several times before she could see again. The scenery had changed – now she was in a long, white hall, with raised platforms all around, like bowers.

A figure rested on a dais far down the hall, and before Bruixe knew what she was doing, she was racing down the hall at full speed, feet pounding against the hard white floor, echoing around her like the footsteps of a giant.

She'd have recognized that silver hair anywhere.

Then her head caught up with her heart, and with the return of logic came the devastating realization. Riku was dead.

She looked down at his lifeless form, her horror-vision all over again. But this time it was real, and not an illusion conjured by Isalena's Keyblade. Riku's skin was white as snow, and just as cold. His eyes were closed as if in sleep, but Bruixe knew better.

She collapsed to her knees, wishing she had tears left to cry, but seeing him here, like this, seemed to be the closure she'd never had. She stroked the side of his still face, fingers brushing over his cheekbone, his jaw.

"Riku," she whispered.

His eyes snapped open.

The shock froze her in place, and she couldn't even blink as she registered the dark orange color of his eyes. "Riku?" she squeaked, and all of a sudden she was thrown backwards, her head cracking against the neighboring dais, Riku's Keyblade at her throat.

"Who are you?" he demanded, one knee pressed into her abdomen, pinning her to the ground. Stars winked in and out of existence in front of her eyes, her head throbbing. Something sticky coated her hair and skin where her head had hit stone. Blood.

"I – what are you talking about?" she managed, conflicting emotions racing through her like lightning. Boundless joy – Riku was alive. But also fear. "It's me!"

"I said who the hell are you?" he growled.

"B – Bruixe," she said, still confused. "Riku, what's going on –"

"How do you know my name?"

For some reason, he couldn't remember her. Well, that was okay. She'd take an amnesiac Riku over a dead one any day.

"Because I –" love you,Bruixe started to say, but judging by the fact that his blade was still pressed against her throat, she changed her mind. "I know you. I've known you for almost a year and a half now. I guess you don't remember, but you – I – we're friends."

"That's a good one," Riku said scornfully. "Clever. You Heartless are getting smarter, is that it?"

"Heartless?" she said, confused. "I don't understand –"

"The hell you don't," he spat. "Don't try to fool me with your lies. If you weren't a Heartless, you couldn't be in the realm of darkness."

The realm of darkness?!

Bruixe peered up at Riku's eerie orange eyes and murderous expression, and suddenly things began to fall into place. Sora had said Rondot killed Riku with the darkness. But Riku could never fall to the darkness, she realized it now.

This must be the Riku she'd never known, the Riku who wore the darkness and didn't care who he hurt. The ruthless, coldblooded Riku that would fight his own best friend for the darkness.

But she knew from Sora's experience that her Riku must still be in there somewhere.

"If I were a Heartless," she pointed out, "would I be bleeding?"

He seemed taken aback by that, and his eyes flickered to the stone behind her. "Human?" he muttered. "But how…"

"You're human, and you're here," Bruixe told him.

The pressure pinning her to the ground vanished as Riku backed away, and she sat up gingerly, rubbing the back of her head.

"And I'm just supposed to take your word for it, that we're friends?" he scoffed. "Prove it."

"Your best friend's name is Sora," Bruixe said. "You grew up with him, in Destiny Islands. You live there with your friend Kairi, and you always wanted to see other worlds, and the three of you built a raft to try and leave the islands. You did all the work. You liked Kairi, but Kairi always loved Sora more than you. You were so angry that the darkness came to you, and destroyed your world. You spent a year – two years – repairing the damage. You were possessed by a man who called himself Ansem. But you beat him, with the help of King Mickey, and now you can wield the darkness without losing control."

Doubt flickered in Riku's eyes.

"You embraced the darkness even though it meant having to become Ansem, because you wanted to protect Sora. When you learned that he needed his Nobody to be whole, you went after Roxas without even giving it a second thought," she went on.

Something occured to her, a few pieces of the past that seemed to fall into place.

"On the fourth day after you put Roxas in a virtual world, you fought a member of the Organization on the roof of a building above the square. She was faster than you, but smaller. You knocked her off the edge of the roof - but you couldn't let her die. You pulled her back up at the last second."

He blinked. Bruixe took his moment of hesitation to stand, reaching up to hold his face between her hands. He flinched, but didn't pull away.

"Riku," she whispered. "It's me. It's Bruixe. The darkness is making you forget, but… you can fight it. I can help you. Come back to me."

"I –" he began, but his sentence trailed off as Bruixe called the darkness to her, coaxing it out of Riku and into her, its energy surging through her arms. Riku's eyes lost focus, glazing over as the irises faded from orange to aquamarine.

Bruixe held her ground until she couldn't take the darkness anymore, and finally broke away, sinking into a sitting position on the dais behind her, head swimming.

"Bruixe?" Riku whispered.

She looked up at him, and there in his eyes was the old Riku, the one she loved, the one who had helped her through everything. She was glad she'd finally been the one to do the helping. "Hey," she said, and realized that she was crying.

"Wh-What's wrong?" he asked, immediately sitting by her side.

She shook her head and wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his shoulder as the tears exhausted themselves in his shirt. "You asshole," she choked.

"Now, that's not nice," Riku told her. "What did I do?"

"You died," she answered.

He laughed. "Do I look dead to you?"

She shook her head.

"That story, about me fighting the Organization member. That... that was you?"

Bruixe smiled. "I just figured it out. They sent me and Axel together. After you saved me, they wouldn't let me go back in. They said I'd be compromised."

"Would you have?" Riku asked.

"Probably," she admitted.

He touched the back of her head with gentle fingers, examining the wound he'd given her.

"Sorry," he apologized. "I didn't… I didn't recognize you."

"Yeah, I noticed," she said.

Riku shivered involuntarily, and Bruixe pulled away to examine his face. "What's wrong?"

"I didn't recognize you," he repeated. "I hurt you. I would've killed you."

"But you didn't," Bruixe pointed out.

"I lost control," he said. "The darkness… wait. How long have I been here? Sora and I fought Rondot, and then – wait! Sora! Is he okay?"

"One thing at a time," she chuckled. "Sora is fine… I think. Actually, I don't really know – I've been out of the loop, too."

As best as she could, she told him what had happened since the fight with Rondot – how she and Sora had escaped Isalena, how the Councilor now had the power to create even more Chasers, how Ren had tried to go back to the Room of Awakening, and finally, how Bruixe had heard a mysterious voice that had sent her here.

"I went a little nuts," she admitted. "I thought I'd lost you."

"You're not one to talk," Riku told her. "You're the one that went and died."

He pulled the collar of her vest aside to brush his fingers along her newest scar. "That's quite a scratch."

"Mm-hm," she agreed.

"Did it hurt?"

Bruixe considered this. "Um… I don't really remember."

"That's good," Riku murmured, sliding his hand up to cup her chin as he kissed her, long and slow.

"I'm glad you're not dead," Bruixe told him. Understatement of the century.

"Me, too," he agreed. "Come on, let's go. We have a maniacal ex-Councilor to kill."

"Hear, hear," she said darkly.

Hanna ducked a swing and reacted automatically, plunging her shortsword up to its hilt in a Chaser. As it screeched its death, she was knocked off her feet by another, and the sword flew out of her hand.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! she berated herself. Never drop your guard! Never let go of your weapon!

Before the second Chaser could take advantage of her failure, Sora was in the way, decapitating the monster with a single slash of his Keyblade.

"Thanks," she panted, retrieveing her sword.

Sora didn't answer, leaping past her to engage another Chaser. Just how many of them are there? Hanna wondered, panicky.

She and Sora had come alone because they'd been told there were five Chasers outside the Wind Gate. But clearly it had been a trap, because there were way more than five Chasers here.

"Sora, there's too many, we've got to go back," she yelled.

"Like hell," he replied between parries. "I'm not giving up. You go back if you want."

Hanna scowled and fought her way to his side. "You idiot," she told him, "you promised Bruixe you'd take care of yourself."

"I am," he argued.

As if on cue, three Chasers leapt at Sora together, sending him tumbling to the ground. Hanna cursed and threw herself in front of him, but she wasn't the warrior Sora was, and three opponents were too many for her – one managed to clamp its jaws around her left wrist, and she shrieked as she felt the bone crunch.

A silver blur came flying out of nowhere, and then it was the Chaser who was screaming. Hanna looked up in time to see a second blur catch the second Chaser in the shoulder.

"Need some help?" said a familiar voice.

Bruixe walked calmly to the spot were the Chasers had vanished and retrieved her kodachis, smirking. Half a step behind her was Riku, unmistakable even though Hanna'd only met him once, for about five minutes as they fled Isalena's manor.

"You should know better than to attack when you're outnumbered," Bruixe went on.

"You hypocrite," Riku retorted, not unkindly.

It was like a vision from a dream, but somehow Hanna instinctively knew it was real. The two of them stood there like they'd never been gone, tall and proud, the heroes the Eternal Kingdom had embraced and mourned.

"Holy shit," Sora gasped, pushing himself off the ground. "I see dead people."

now don't tell me I don't take care of my characters.

besides, I couldn't leave Riku dead, I wuv him too much. :)

review? pls?