Sitting at the top of the stair case, DiZ found Kaida. Her dark eyes like pits staring down at him. If it wasn't for her pale skin, he would have missed her in the dim lighting of the foyer. She enjoyed guessing his reaction to her appearances. His calm mellow voice took the fun out of it though, since it made his emotions harder to read. Still, she worked with what she had.

DiZ opened the conversation from his place at the bottom of the stairs."What brings you back so soon, Kaida?"

"I had to drop off a guest." She said off handedly.

"A guest?"

"Yes, she's a little upset right now though."

"Upset?"

Kaida placed her finger to her mouth to request silence, and DiZ began to hear the faint sound of someone banging on one of the doors upstairs mixed with cries for help. The voice he recognized as Kairi's voice.

"You locked Kairi in a room here?"

"No, just blocked the door with some furniture since she would be able to just open the door with her keyblade if I just locked it."

A loud scream for someone to help her out of the room followed by several louder thuds as a sign of Kairi trying to bust the door open.

"Are you sure she's alright?" DiZ inquired, arching an unseen eyebrow.

"She'll get over it." Kaida sighed and stood up. It was as if Kairi was just an angry toddler in time out and the sounds of her futile attempts to escape were merely annoying Kaida. "Anyway, we have a little problem."

"And what would that be?"

"They didn't accept my offer to go home." Kaida glanced to the door Kairi was trapped behind. "I need to finish this fight with Northex. Now"

DiZ pause for a moment before responding. "If you stay here you'll attract him and the Keybladers, eventually."

"I know..." Kaida said quietly.

"Why didn't you just send Kairi back?" DiZ asked in his scientific voice, as if he were analyzing a piece of an experiment that went slightly astray. "Surely Sora and Riku would have followed her."

"I thought about that, but then she would just be a sitting duck waiting for Northex to snatch and use as bait."

"And you think she's not a sitting duck trapped in a room here?" DiZ took on an unnaturally fatherly tone.

"Not if I'm here." Kaida said in her defense. "If I leave she'll be safe from Northex, unless he managed to round up minions of his own. If that boy is still with Sora and Riku, then they'll find Kairi in no time."

"So could Northex. He can turn the Keybladers against you." DiZ reminded her.

Kaida clutched her hands into fists. "Not if I fight him first. I'll come out on top."

"And if you don't?"

"That's not an option!" Kaida snapped.

"Kaida, stop this! You're stuck." DiZ words sounded final and absolute. It was as if they had been transformed into bricks and each of them were hitting her square in the chest. "You can't protect everyone on your own. Something has to give. Northex is strong, you know that your chances to defeating him are slim to nothing, especially after your last fight with him. You need your brother's help, Ichigo."

Kaida fell silent for a moment. Kairi's cries could still be heard. Mentioning her fight with Northex struck a cord inside her. A sense of dread came of her, a sense of no escape. Every option seemed hopeless. He was right, she was stuck. Still Kaida began to stiffen her posture and make herself taller, as if to give herself a boost of confidence. Yet, the words that came out of her mouth didn't match. "What difference will it make to him if I died? I'm not his little sister Ichigo. I'm Kaida, a girl he barely knows."

"It can make a world of difference, if he found out the truth." DiZ retained the same final tone.

Kaida laughed. "Funny... you say that after we've spent so much time hiding it."

"All secrets are revealed one way or another at some point in time. Mine were revealed. Riku's were revealed." DiZ and Kaida's eyes met again. "It's best if you tell them the truth yourself and let them hear it from you, rather than Northex with your dead body in front of them."

"If there's a body to show them." Kaida descended down the stairs to join DiZ at the bottom.

"You're running out of time, Kaida." He said solemnly. "You'll have to make a choice soon, before one is made for you."

"I know, DiZ." She looked toward the door. She couldn't look at him anymore. "I promised that I wouldn't get them involved. That I would protect them."

"I don't think Riku or Sora would want you to go after Northex alone again." DiZ kept his eye focused on the young girl before him. She seemed different and the same from the time they had first met.

"No, I don't think they would either, but I need to figure out some things first before I do something."

"Well, this is a first." DiZ commented. "You're thinking about your actions before you do them." Kaida glared up at the man. He turned serious again. "Kaida, you're also running out of strength too, aren't you? You haven't been wearing your cloak when you go in and out of the Darkness. It's draining your strength. The longer you keep up this disguise, the closer you'll come to losing yourself."

"This isn't a disguise. It's who I am now!" Kaida snapped. "Unless you know how to raise the dead and forgotten, DiZ."

His eye narrowed. "No, I'm afraid only you have to power to redeem yourself now...Kaida."

Kaida began to make her way across the foyer. Her silk slippers silenced her footsteps as she walked. "I don't know if I'll be coming back again, so thanks and good-bye, Ansem."

With those final words, Kaida left the mansion through the front door. It was the first time he had seen her use that door actually. Still, he didn't deny that this would most likely be their last meeting. What would happen next was all up her now. Should she decide to come clean, keep her secret, live or die. It was all in her hands. Even though so many things had changed, DiZ could faintly see the child that followed him anxiously all those years ago.

"Be wise, Ichigo..." That was all DiZ could say for her now.