Coolmegan123: Yep, nobody messes with Meli's man! Haha! I'm glad that you're still enjoying the story.


Snatching up my coat off the back of the bedside chair, I quickly shrugged it on and opened another corridor. I didn't know where Riku had gone, so I couldn't picture a specific place. But maybe it would work with a person instead. It was certainly worth a try. Closing my eyes, I thought of Riku, imagining him standing there in front of me, trying to feel his energy. Then I stretched out my hand, and to my surprise, a doorway actually opened.

The world that I stepped out into was dark, with even darker storm clouds swirling overhead. Skyscrapers and neon signs reminded me of my own city back home, but there were no cars or sounds or any real signs of life except for the two figures standing before me. Riku and Roxas, who had his hood drawn over his face, were standing opposite one another, each with a Keyblade in their hand. I didn't have time to wonder where Riku had gotten his, I was just relieved to seem them both alive and well, and not currently fighting one another.

"Enough about Sora!" Roxas shouted as I came closer.

"Do you have some kind of plan?" Riku asked him.

"I'll set Kingdom Hearts free!" Roxas replied, anguish in his voice. "Then everything will be the way it was! She'll come back, and the three of us can be together again."

Riku had mentioned Kingdom Hearts to me before, but I still didn't really understand it. All I knew was that it had something to do with the pink hearts that came out of the Heartless when they were killed.

"You mean Xion," Riku commented after a moment's pause. "It's a struggle just to remember the name now."

My mind jolted at the mention of her name. I had completely forgotten about Xion's existence yet again. I felt terrible about it, especially considering how important she obviously had been to Roxas. Despite his waning memories of her, he was still trying his best to bring her back.

"Roxas," I called out, choosing this moment to walk forward and alert them to my presence. Both boys spun around to face me.

"Meli?" Surprise was evident in Roxas' voice.

"Meli, what are you doing here?" Riku demanded at the same time.

"Wait, do you know this guy?" Roxas queried, now even more surprised.

"Roxas, I'm so sorry about Xion," I said gently, ignoring both of their questions. "If there was any way to bring her back..."

"I'm going to bring her back," Roxas answered through gritted teeth. "I don't care what it takes."

"There's no way to get her back now," Riku disagreed, reaching out his hand to Roxas. "Either way, I can't let you go doing anything crazy."

"I'm freeing Kingdom Hearts and I'm going to find Sora!" Roxas insisted. "I want Xion back. I want my life back!"

"If you try and make contact with Kingdom Hearts, the last thing you'll get is your life back," Riku argued, shaking his head. "The Organization will destroy you!"

I had no idea what any of the consequences would actually be, but I trusted that Riku knew what he was talking about. The most important thing to me right now was that Roxas was quite obviously in a bad state of mind, and needed to be talked down quickly before he acted rashly. "Roxas, please listen to him," I pleaded.

"Enough!" Roxas screamed, swinging his Keyblade violently. He started running towards Riku, ready to attack.

"No!" I cried, but no one was listening. I watched helplessly as the two boys traded blows. One, the first friend I had made in a long time, and the other, my best friend, whom I was pretty sure by now I was falling in love with. I had never imagined how terrible it would be to watch two people that I cared about trying to harm one another like this.

Sprinting forward, I summoned my own Keyblade, not sure how I was going to stop them, but knowing that I couldn't sit back and do nothing. When Riku came in for an overhead swing towards Roxas, I quickly swooped in and blocked him, taking him completely by surprise. I shoved his Keyblade away to the side, but sensed movement behind me and realized that Roxas was still coming after him. Spinning around, I locked my weapon with his in mid-air.

"Stop it, please! Both of you!"

Roxas growled and gave my Keyblade a shove, causing me to stumble backwards. "Stay out of this, Meli!" he ordered, going after Riku once more.

They moved away from me, still fighting, one occasionally leaping back away from the other to cast magic. I followed, trying from time to time to break in, but they knew my plan now and were avoiding me. The battle seemed to drag on forever, and I could tell they were both starting to wear down. Finally, Roxas was able to catch Riku off balance and knock him backwards to the ground. Roxas raised his Keyblade again as if to strike.

"Don't!" I screamed, flying to Riku's side. I skidded to my knees with my Keyblade held high.

Roxas halted his blade mid-swing, looking first to me, then back to Riku. Slowly he lowered his arm, and I let out a sigh of relief, dropping my own arms to my sides.

Riku rolled over and pushed himself up to sit. "Why?" he growled in exasperation. "Why do you have the Keyblade?"

Roxas glanced at his weapon. "Shut up!" Changing his mind about striking Riku after all, he swung suddenly from over his shoulder. Before I could react, Riku had picked up his own Keyblade and parried the blow with one that had to have been laced with magic. It knocked Roxas completely off of his feet, sending him flying through the air to land on his back several feet away.

Jumping up, I ran to Roxas, stooping down next to him to look at his face that I could now see for the first time. He was still alive, just knocked out. I heard Riku's footsteps approaching and looked up to see him staring down at his nemesis. I stood, watching him.

"Now what?" I murmured, emotionally exhausted.

Riku raised the Keyblade up by his ear, and for a split second I thought he was going to stab Roxas. Instead, he threw the weapon like a lance into the ground next to Roxas' shoulder. We both stood there for a long moment, just staring down at his fallen form, not speaking.

Then Roxas began to stir, and I heard Riku gasp in surprise. I took a step back as the blond boy sat up and immediately reached for the Keyblade that Riku had discarded. He acted like he would use it to pull himself up, but then yanked it out of the ground and sliced at Riku, who leapt backwards to avoid the blow. As Roxas began to run forward again, Riku shot Dark Firaga from his hands, but Roxas knocked it easily away. He tried two more swings, but Riku dodged both before jumping away again.

"Why don't you quit?" Roxas shouted, his face contorted with anger.

Riku seemed to think for a second, then smiled and spoke with a surprisingly casual voice. "Come on, Sora. I thought you were stronger than that."

I frowned, confused, but Roxas responded right away. "Get real," he countered. "Look which one of us is winning." As soon as the words were spoken, he gasped and put a hand to his mouth, as if he couldn't believe what he had just said.

"So it's true." Riku touched his chin thoughtfully. "You really are his Nobody. Guess DiZ was right, after all."

"What are you talking about?" Roxas demanded, his fist clenched. "I am me. Nobody else!"

Summoning his other Keyblade to his left hand, he advanced once more. I ran, too, trying to get in between them, but I couldn't quite catch up. Riku was able to jump out of the way of the first swing, but the second slammed into the arm that he was holding up to defend himself. My breath caught in my throat as he grunted in pain and dropped down to one knee, his hand to his chest.

"How many times do I have to beat you?" Roxas sneered.

"That's enough!" I interjected. "This has to stop!"

"Alright," Riku panted, his voice husky with pain. "You've left me with no other choice."

"What?" Roxas asked. I watched them both carefully, waiting for someone to strike.

Riku pushed himself slowly to his feet. "I have to release the power in my heart – the dark power that I've been holding back." Reaching up, he grabbed hold of his blindfold and pulled it away from his face, dropping it unceremoniously onto the ground.

"Grim, don't!" I exclaimed, realizing what he was about to do.

"Even...if it changes me forever," Riku finished, ignoring my pleas. Throwing back his head, he let out a roar. Darkness began swirling furiously around him as his feet lifted off the ground, quickly obscuring him from our sight. Roxas readied his Keyblades, but I could only watch with growing fear.

When the smoke cleared, Ansem's form had taken over, still floating a foot above the ground, and this time there was a hideous black creature with long antennae and glowing eyes looming behind his head. My eyes widened and I took a few steps backwards away from him. What had he just let loose?

Ansem-Riku vanished suddenly, then reappeared in the blink of an eye a few inches from Roxas' face. Before the boy could do anything but gasp in surprise, the creature had him in its grasp. It only took one of its huge hands to wrap around Roxas' entire torso. Roxas struggled, grunting and kicking his legs, as it lifted him up into the air.

"Stop it!" I screamed, summoning my Keyblade as I ran. I couldn't really hurt Riku, even in this form, but I wasn't at all afraid to chop off that monster's arm to protect Roxas.

Unfortunately, I never got the chance to try. As soon as I got near, Riku's arm lashed out and struck me forcefully across the chest, sending me flying backwards and rolling across the pavement. For a moment I couldn't move, couldn't even breathe. Even when oxygen came rushing back into my lungs, all I could do was turn over onto my side and curl myself into a ball on the ground. My physical injuries were limited to a few scrapes and bruises, nothing worse than what I often received in training. What kept me pinned there with my heart in my throat was a much deeper wound that had nothing to do with the fall.

He hit me. Riku, who claimed that he cared for me, who had promised that he would never, ever hurt me, had hit me.

I heard the clattering of metal hitting the ground and sat up to see that Roxas had dropped his Keyblades. The monster was still squeezing the life out of him, and Ansem-Riku was fully engrossed in his task, not even giving me a second glance.

"I have accepted it," he stated coolly in a deep voice that was definitely not Riku's. Considering that he had just basically turned himself into a Heartless, I had to assume that he was referring to the darkness. One thing was for sure, this was not the Riku that I knew. Or at least, thought I knew, though it seemed now that I had been just as wrong about him as I had been about Aiden.

I watched as Ansem dropped a now-unconscious Roxas roughly to the ground, but stayed only long enough after that to see my friend's chest rise and fall one time, confirming that he was still alive. Then, with tears blurring my vision, I scrambled to my feet and escaped through a dark corridor.