I forgot that Beast was even here. I looked at him, and he shook his head.
"I'll stay here. Belle is bound to come here soon." I didn't know if I believed him, but I understood. Riku held my hand and we continued to walk away.
A couple minutes after we walked away from Beast, Riku stopped walking and turned to me.
"Mikaila, you know how I promised I wouldn't use darkness? I'm sorry, I had to. And I still have to keep using it. After this is all over, I will never use it again. I just need to use it this last time. I sense a battle coming on. Ansem's not going to give up easily," Riku told me. I was okay with him using darkness this time, because he didn't want to, but it was going to help the light in the end. I just didn't want his heart to be lost in darkness. If it was, I don't know what I would have done.
"Okay. I trust you with it," I said. He kissed my cheek. My cheeks turned bright pink. He laughed.
"It'll be over soon enough. I promise. This time, I truly promise."
Riku felt light-headed. His knees felt like jello. His legs fell out from under him. He felt like he was drowning in the salty water at the islands. He saw Mikaila look reach a hand out to him to help him up, but he couldn't move his arm. She reached out to grab him and pull him up, but he never felt her hand against his arm. He was in another place in a split second.
"You can become stronger." Riku saw a figure in a black coat. There were dark blue clouds surrounding him. Riku couldn't tell who the figure was. "The darkness brought you no fear. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness. Your heart will grow even stronger. Open yourself to the darkness. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself."
He didn't know whether to listen to whoever that person was. Their voice sounded eerily farmiliar, but whose voice was it. It could have been a friend; it could have been an enemy. He felt like he should listen, but was unsure. Well, he was already deep in darkness, what else did he have to lose? He immersed himself in darkness, just as the unknown being said.
He wondered if it was the right choice.
Beast stood there, not knowing what to do.
Then Sora's seemingly lifeless body gave off a light.
The sudden burst of light seemed to come from his heart. It traveled from his heart, to all the princesses' locked up in the castle, and to Kairi's. Kairi's eyes blinked open. Beast stared in awe. Kairi sat up slowly and looked around. When she found her hand in Sora's, she smiled. But when she saw that Sora eyes were not moving, and that he was not breathing, her smile turned to a distressed frown.
"Sora? Are you really-" she whispered into space. "No! I won't let him go!"
She lifted up his shoulders and shook him, trying to wake him.
"Oh, Sora!" she yelled into the air, hugging him. Tears flew down her face. Her sobs were loud. Beast didn't know how to comfort her.
Donald and Goofy walked through the door, as if looking for someone. When they saw Kairi and Sora, they ran over to them.
"Kairi? What-" Donald was about to ask what happened, but he knew perfectly well what happened, and it was all Riku's fault. He felt anger for Riku, but more anger towards himself for standing there and watching it happen without doing anything. By the look on Goofy's face, he could tell Goofy felt the same way, too. They all sobbed and hugged Sora as well. Beast was still watching.
Then Sora's eyes fluttered open. Slowly, but surely, they opened.
