I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

Sacrifice

In an instant, it was behind his eyes and in his lungs. Darkness was all he could see, taste, smell, feel; his ears were all that was left unclouded, and even then, all he could hear were Sai's hateful snarls and slurs.

Riku desperately clawed at his own neck, trying to pry the darkness away, but the smoke had already worked its way into his body, and the remnants simply slipped through his groping fingers. His mind worked fast to try to think of some way out of the crisis, but it was slowly becoming harder and harder to concentrate. Arms resting limply at his sides, he felt his body start to go numb.

Hope suddenly seemed foolish. Wasn't it obvious?

Darkness.

With fading consciousness, Riku relaxed his muscles. He opened his pores. And the dark creature rushed in, was absorbed into his skin all at once. Riku was dropped back to the ground gasping for breath. He could see puffs of it still surrounding him, still moving to stick to his body, but he had no time to recuperate as Sai rushed at him with his blade.

In one swift stroke, Riku was again on his back, groaning. The apprentice swung the dark weapon heavily with no coordination, and Riku barely had time to glide away before Sai could make another lunge. Bruises and slices were slowly covering his body. His shoulders and chest still heaved from the suffocation. Rubble and dust rained down from the ceiling, which was threatening to break to pieces any second. But he could feel his strength rising; the more he gave into the darkness's beckoning, the easier it was to fight back.

If it keeps going like this, it'll take forever to get past him, Riku calculated as he jumped to his feet. He watched his enemy warily for any sudden movement—the boy's skin was changing, and his eyes flickered from black to yellow, an internal struggle. He's not strong enough to fight like this—what's he thinking?

A distinct cracking noise suddenly filled the room, and the floor started to become wobbly. The heartless were just minutes away from tearing down the castle walls and foundation, oblivious to the warriors' urgent contest. Riku's friends, who were too preoccupied trying to eliminate the creatures to get involved in their fight, were suddenly sealed off from the duo when an entire wall came crashing down into a stone blockade.

When he saw Sai leap forward, Riku smoothly jumped out of his range, but not before a chunk of concrete from the ceiling could strike his shoulder. The riled apprentice seized his chance and swooped in for a series of swift hits, which Riku scrambled to deflect with his weaker hand.

"Argh, what are you—" Another slab came crashing down, which both boys moved quickly to avoid. "—thinking?"

Sai's eyes turned the golden hue again, and his words were incoherent: smothered by the darkness around him and reduced to ragged bellows. Finally, clutching his dripping wound, Riku switched back to his dominant hand and slammed his Souleater against Sai's blade with all the might in him. The apprentice was flung to the other side of the room, but landed smoothly on all fours.

Riku halted to regain his composure, his eyes still locked on the dangerous soldier before him. Sai was slow to get back on his feet, and his body was suddenly rigid. Riku could see him shaking, could see his posture falter and his hands grip the hilt of his weapon tight enough to strangle it. Then the boy clenched his eyes shut and breathed, slowly and deliberately. Inhale, exhale, uneven to even. His breaths were wispy, erratic puffs into the darkness. When he opened his eyes, they had regained their natural green hue, though still with a piercing undertone. The dark cloud thinned around him, and his body moved easily again with each breath.

Control, Sai thought, and tried to best his emotions. He gritted his teeth. Keep control. I can win this.

"You'll kill yourself if you keep this up—just let me get past before the whole castle collapses!" Riku implored condescendingly.

Sai felt his face heat up. Who was he to tell him what to do? The crumbling of the fortress didn't faze him—he vowed not to move from this room until his enemy was crushed by the power of his darkness.

The rumbling got louder, and finally the walls began breaking into pieces. Heartless sprawled all around the perimeter of the room, feeding off the destruction, swarming to take out the grey columns that helped support the structure.

Sai charged forward with his blade poised straight inward and continued to attack. Without his prompting, darkness flowed through his body and weapon immeasurably. He didn't think to question it; it was all for his benefit, after all. His speed was increasing and his power was growing, and his opponent looked more and more bewildered, trying to gauge the collapsing of the castle and Sai's lightning-fast blows all at once. He had this fight in his hands. There was no way to match the speed of darkness this deep. His enemy was a coward, he thought, and he wouldn't last much longer.

A piercing clang then reverberated throughout the room, and the air thickened to a vapor. Sai was momentarily paralyzed as his weapon of darkness shattered in his hands. He wasn't one to succumb to shock, but in that moment he couldn't move his legs, and was left wide open when Riku's blade hit him dead in the chest and knocked the wind out of him. He fell backward onto the floor without so much as a gasp.

Darkness lingered around Riku's torso and forearms, sticking to his skin. That attack had been risky; despite his acceptance of his dark powers, to give it that much of a hold on his body, even for the briefest of seconds… It was dangerous power with a cost.

He calmly and cautiously approached the boy, letting the darkness swirl around him, lest he be caught without protection. The apprentice didn't move. His eyes were wide open, staring at the ceiling, blinded by light from the impact. But when Riku took the initiative to run to the crumbling stairwell, Sai weakly tilted his head and conjured up darkness to block the way.

Riku skidded to a stop when the wall of dark magic rose up in front of him. The room continued to shake, throwing him off balance, and making the stairs start to collapse before his eyes. In a panic, he spun around to face Sai, who had managed to heave himself up from the floor. One hand clutching his stomach and the other, his heart, he glared up at Riku through black, enraged eyes. He had fallen to the enemy. All control was lost. A thick blanket of darkness covered him—not even aiding him in his injuries—growing, breathing, hissing as it fed off his anger. He couldn't stop shaking, not even when he threw an arm out and sent darkness bursting up from the cracking floor straight at Riku.

The Keyblade knight used a dark barrier to protect himself and struggled to stand his ground against the mild convulsions pulsing through the castle. When the dust and mist of the attack faded, Sai was still rooted to the ground in his parasitic temptation.

"Stop it—you're crazy!" Riku censured in the pause. "You could lose your heart fighting like that!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" he barked. His voice was mixed with the strain of madness, almost incoherent. He sent a blast of dark fire aimed at the silver-haired warrior, but Riku swiftly slashed it aside.

The heartless multiplied in number as they plunged further and further into the thick stone walls, taking out a second, then a third, leaving the ceiling above the combatants hanging by a thread. Riku glanced up at the cracking structure with wide eyes, then tried to incur his opponent's pity.

"Keiya's still up there—"

"Just shut up! I'll die before I let you get to her!"

With that, he pulled back his blade and rushed in for a charged hit. Riku's eyes narrowed and he confidently braced himself to block it, but as soon as he swung his arm forward, his keyblade disappeared from his hands in a quick, overwhelming burst of light. His eyes darted helplessly to his empty, grasping hands, and all he could manage was a gasp.

What's—?

"Haaah!"

When he blinked back up to Sai, he barely had time to stagger backward before the apprentice's blade plunged through the length of his body with its dark edge.

Pain; foolishness; white, hot heat. He could feel Sai's rage in the burn of the slash, could feel the sting of his distress. He couldn't move his body. Then the world seemed to collapse in on him all at once.

The floor cracked into two sinking halves, as if an earthquake had torn through it. Riku's listless body rolled to the wall as the foundation crumbled and the castle broke into pieces. He struggled to grasp onto the cracks and to hoist himself up, but couldn't stop the wrath of gravity and was sent plummeting into the stone-blocked stairwell with a muffled groan.

Sai was thrown to the other half of the floor, his flow of power interrupted by the chaos. He was knocked out of his adrenaline high and forced to catch his breath, and right away, the darkness that had seemingly been fueling him seized its chance and raged against him. His smug grimace was wiped clean off his face; his lips hung open, quivered, formed a debilitated, terror-stricken countenance. He felt his knees start to fail him and clung to the wall. The heat that had rushed through his body disappeared. The darkness clamped down on him and froze his veins, allowing him not even a gasp as it crippled him to the floor. His skin went grossly pale, and his hunger for power was crushed by the darkness's death-grip.

N-no… dammit…! His hand clutched his chest, fingers puncturing his skin-tight uniform, and his eyes squeezed shut. The realization was accompanied by nerve-numbing dread and a pulse of nausea. My heart is… on fire!

Riku made desperate and hasty attempts to pull himself up, but agony shot through him every time he tried to move. His thoughts were clouded by the pain; he didn't even think to see what had happened to his opponent. All he knew was that he had finally made it to the staircase, and he needed to get to the top. The whole passage was clogged with stones, but that didn't stop him from trying to push his way through.

After several attempts, he collapsed to the ground in a fit of gasps and sweat, and stared up at the blocked passage. She was up there—she needed his help. The castle would collapse any second. She could hit her head on the raining blocks of stone, could be buried in a heap of concrete, could be crushed… Blood drained from his face as he tried to devise some way to get to her, not allowing himself the luxury of slipping into hopelessness.

Then, without being called upon, his keyblade returned to his hand, coated in a blanket of light, and began firing bursts of magic straight from its tip toward the countless stones that blocked him from getting to her. In a moment's time, and before Riku could register what had happened, a clear pathway up the jagged steps had been unearthed. He sat in shock for only a second more, then he forced himself to swallow his pain and dragged himself up the steps, one by one, as fast as he could, clutching his keyblade so tightly, praying it wouldn't leave him again.

Sai watched him escape through blurry eyes. He was conscious of every beat of his heart, of every strain that made it tighten and lurch as the darkness wove into him, strangled the weakening organ, forced it to accept more, more, more until it would eventually burst. He was terrified. He was angry. He was unable to feel as the darkness lowered him to the floor on his side and stole away his vision.

But he was still breathing—he put all his being into it. Every remaining ounce of energy the darkness had not yet stamped out went into breathing and reclaiming what was his. She was right, crossed his drowning mind as he sucked in air like a fish out of water. If I can get out of this, I have to tell her… She was right.

~…~

When Keiya slipped into the portal behind her unsuspecting mistress, the utter silence of the new space unnerved her. They were in the highest reaches of the castle now, in Maleficent's private study, strangely unaffected by the quaking so far. The chaos was just a distant rumbling beneath them, but for some reason, away from all the adrenaline, Keiya found it harder to hold up her courage. She stood at the ready, hands discreetly gathering orbs of darkness, but couldn't shake the continuous doubt that lagged in her joints and made her body heavy to move.

She slipped into battle stance when her enemy made a sudden move, threw her staff out in front of her. However, rather than summoning up her magic, the witch thrust the rod into the floor with shaky hands, and suddenly sank to the ground, clutching the staff as her only support. She let out a choked gasp, unaware of her apprentice's presence, and suffered a series of hoarse pants and wheezes. She was a mess of shaking bones beneath a black robe, breathing hard and desperate, far from reclaiming her elegant composure.

Keiya took a step back and lowered her arms, unable to look away or comprehend. There was something else besides anger buried in the green-skinned woman's visage. It couldn't be… dread?

So preoccupied in staring she was that she failed to react when Maleficent suddenly turned in her direction. The witch's steaming eyes bulged with fright and she succumbed to an involuntary shriek of surprise.

"Y-you! Get back!" she ordered tremulously, struggling to pull herself to full height.

Keiya stayed right where she was, hands and body still brimming with darkness. Her face was blank as she absorbed the scene and the knowledge sank into her: I did this. I was able to…do this.

Maleficent hastily gathered her robes and tried to dismiss her momentary lapse of control. Her only power over her apprentice now was words, the ability to disillusion her, therefore she needed to remain poised. Despite her shortness of breath, she made her voice sharp and bellowed, "That's an order—stand down, Keiya!"

Seeing the concealed panic in the woman's eyes somehow brought a resolute calm over the girl. She stared at her mistress in bewilderment as the memory of what her powers had done—what she had done—replayed in her head over and over.

"You're… afraid of me," she concluded quietly.

The sorceress sneered at the insult despite her obvious weakness and asserted, "Nonsense! I will be rid of you!"

She took two steps back before preparing her magic, but Keiya wasn't alarmed or overconfident. Her powers worked with a mind of their own; when Maleficent fired a beam of green magic at her, her hands automatically produced a shield to deflect it.

"Then everything that happened…" Her eyes narrowed as she remembered her deference with every punishment, her lowly groveling when the witch had threatened to kill her unnamed lover, her hopelessness when they had twisted her insides until her baby had been suffocated and expelled from her body. All of that was for nothing; she could have fought back. With more conscious force, she threw aside Maleficent's dark attacks as they neared her and tightened her fists. "I could have even stopped you when you—"

Then the room shook, and the entire tower began tilting to one side with the terrifying sounds of cracking wood and snapping metal. Keiya gasped and glanced around the room in a frenzy, backing herself up against a bookshelf for support. Bricks were beginning to loosen from their cemented foundation, and through a hole in the opposing wall, she saw the main level of the castle swarmed with heartless, already missing a significant amount of ceiling. She caught a glimpse of Sora and the others fighting the monsters near the entrance, but saw no sign of Riku or Sai. What she did see was a tremendous pile of concrete, big enough to bury someone, and listening only to the violent thumping of her heart, she staggered across the room to get a better look.

Maleficent, meanwhile, took this chance to edge her way to her desk and feel around for something vital. Her enragement was far beyond physical shaking and glowering; it ran deep in her mind and cold through her blood. She refused to let herself stake too much to eliminate her problem—the girl wasn't worth the trouble, and her pride wouldn't allow it. She clutched a dagger in one hand and her staff in the other. One way or another, this would end.

The tower kept tilting; Keiya kept stumbling toward the lower, sinking half of the structure, her eyes locked on the window filled with dread and denial; and then the happy, unexpected auxiliary to her plan: The bookcase was loosened from the wall, and began a devastating slide straight toward the traitor.

Keiya turned around a millisecond too late, torn from her horrified trance when the rough wood scraped against the stone. Her scream was stifled to a yelp and her hands flew out hastily in front of her, as her feet were cemented to the ground like a deer caught in headlights. With a wave of the witch's hand and a twisted smirk, the heavy bookcase simply tripped over Maleficent's magic and toppled over the girl, crushed her to the floor.

Keiya felt every bone in her body crack and burn. It took a moment for the darkness to start to sooth the pain and patch up the holes, reluctant at first, then vicious as it weaved through her to replace the broken tissue. She had fallen on her side, her cheek now pressed into the ground, her eyes blurry and dotted with spots of light. She couldn't move her head, and as the enchantress approached her, all she could see was the slow, graceful billowing of her robes.

"So weak…" Maleficent derided coolly. "Why would I be afraid of you? Foolish girl…"

She prepared her staff, allowing it to gather power. Beneath her long sleeve, she concealed the dagger, but she was sure she wouldn't need it now; her apprentice was incapable of movement, probably shocked and in too much pain to think of retaliating.

Keiya's lungs struggled to take in air; she found herself almost suffocating under the immense weight of the bookshelf and the wrath of Maleficent's putrid darkness rushing to take advantage of her weakness. Her own darkness—the power she had summoned with her hatred—was fervently trying to push her mistress's aside, but in her debilitated state, the latter was winning out.

Maleficent's words barely reached her ringing ears, nor did she feel anything when the sorceress kicked an outstretched arm with her foot, waiting for a sign of life. But she strained her eyes to see: just beyond the witch's form was a window to the battle going on below. She watched with heart-stopping anxiety as Riku and Sai dueled back and forth, swung at each other with the breath of darkness pulsing around both their bodies. Riku was thrown backward out of her sight. Sai had the upper-hand.

Keiya whimpered and wriggled desperately beneath her prison.

N-no! I have to… help him…! Riku!

As her determination increased, her darkness grew stronger. It quenched Maleficent's lingering power over her, thrust it into the deepest reaches of her heart where it couldn't rise up. Each jerk and twist of her body freed her from its control. Suddenly, she could feel her limbs again, and the dense wood above her began to deteriorate beneath the darkness's crawling whisper.

Maleficent's eyes narrowed and she took a few cautious steps back, watching her apprentice closely. She refused to admit that the turn of events had her grappling for her eloquence and stillness; she was more than confident in her ability to slay her student—after all, she had taught the girl herself. She knew all her weaknesses and moves. She knew what to say to make her fall to her knees and beg for mercy.

When the pressure above her shattered into rotten chips of wood, Keiya took quick, shaky breaths before spreading her palms on the floor and pushing herself up. The darkness feasted on her heightened emotions: terror, distress, hate, revenge. It was drawn to everything that sickened her.

The tower bent another few feet, causing everything in the room to sway or topple. Keiya moved toward the makeshift window of missing brick and was overwhelmed to see that her view of the battle was now blocked. Her hands fidgeted as she looked all around the room for something useful, some way to get to him. She failed to notice the figure creeping up behind her, grasping a dagger, waiting for the precise moment to take a direct approach.

In her high-strung plight, Keiya whipped around as soon as Maleficent's robe brushed a fallen piece of paper. She instinctively conjured up a blast of dark fire and knocked the woman back, then kept the magic flowing, tossing bolt after bolt of darkness blindly in her tear-stained hysteria.

"Urgh!" Her darkness pierced the defenses her mistress tried to raise around herself. "I can't get to him!"

In a matter of seconds, she had the proud sorceress backed onto the floor, gasping with each hit and struggling to gain footing.

"He could be dead!" Keiya wailed indignantly, over the afflicted groans of her enemy. Maleficent's eyes shot burning hate through the blanket of darkness around her, but rather than falling into submission, Keiya matched it with a glare of her own. Her voice was very clear, "I hate you so much! Everything you've done, you've always used me—I'm ending it now!"

She didn't stop until the ground beneath her feet began to quake and the room began to break apart. Her eyes, previously a deep, menacing shade of violet, snapped back to normal, and her cold-blooded grimace was replaced by a terrified, wide-eyed stupor. Her magic had inadvertently torn apart the walls and ceiling, and the entire tower had started to crumble.

"A-ah!" she cried as she was thrown by gravity into a wall, one only half in-tact. Only then was she conscious of her uneven panting and the nauseating fear in the pit of her stomach. Her face pressed to the side of the stone, she watched helplessly as the bricks fell into the abyss one by one, closer and closer to where she now sat.

As soon as Keiya's guard was down, a trembling, seething Maleficent put on a dense cloak of darkness, straight from the black reaches of her heart. "This will show you…" she murmured hoarsely, and then she shot it all toward the girl in a mighty, deadly demonstration of her power. Her victim gave an involuntary shriek and created a barrier to defend herself, but the force was too strong, and she was sent sliding to the edge of the tower, where she was lucky enough to catch ahold of one last, lone brick still cemented to the floor.

Then the first half of the tower collapsed, and the two figures were left to flail and grasp at the hands of fate.

Maleficent smugly vanished to safety with a wave of her hand, promising to herself that she would be the only one to come out alive. Now that she had, with not much choice left, allowed the darkness to aid her, nothing could go wrong. And her victory would be worth it, for such a hefty price. She would make sure.

Keiya couldn't restrain her meager whimpers as she clung to the only remaining piece of wall left. She could hear the sound of crumbling slowly edging closer and closer toward her, and hugged the stone on which she was balanced with slippery fingers. Her body was dangling off the side of the tower, and through her peripheral vision, she couldn't help but watch single bricks tumble down next to her, taunting her, mocking her.

"Ri… Riku…" she pleaded to the sky. Tears rolled down the side of her face, off her cheek and down to the unknown below. Her breaths were light and fluttery, and her fingers, slick with sweat. "Riku…!"

One finger slipped, her other arm went numb. Her heart was beating out of her chest as more and more debris poured over the side of the tower. She buried her head in her shoulder as a violent shudder came over her body, bit her skin to keep any more whimpers at bay, and whispered a silent word of prayer before gazing back up at the sky.

"Save me," she breathed.

Then she let go.

For the instant that she was still conscious, she tried to pretend she was flying, and that the million shards of glass and stone raining down with her were birds. It's like freedom, she thought. Her eyes slipped shut.

~…~…~…~

Keiya awoke to a mouthful of blood and a searing burn in the side of her waist.

"Still alive? Stubborn girl."

Maleficent hovered above her, blurry in her vision. Keiya found her body paralyzed with pain and succumbed to a choked cry when she attempted to move. Every muscle was under attack—not by the darkness, but by plain, brutal stabs and gashes that she was unable to transcend. Left with no other option, she disgustedly tilted her head, spit and coughed the metallic liquid onto the floor next to her, and blinked her eyes out of their daze. She briefly noticed the scattered boulder-sized chunks of stone and the layer of rubble coating the ground. To her nausea, the castle was still shaking, but she had no time to think further as Maleficent used her staff to draw lines over her injuries.

"You thought you would defy me? Betray me?"

Maleficent traced the tip of her staff over the slice she'd made with her dagger, which was leaking both blood and darkness—the latter trying to patch it up. When the metal came into contact with it, however, the darkness fled its occupation, repelled by the magic. Then she gingerly lifted the rod, holding it loosely in both hands, and waited.

Like a flash of white heat, the poison broke into her bloodstream, and every wound in Keiya's body was on fire. Her eyes watered and widened as the green venom sank into every open crevice and chased off her own darkness, which had been earnestly working in her favor. Any pride that would have allowed her to withhold the agony from her face had been beaten down as well; her eyes showed everything, to the witch's immense delight.

"You thought you could fight me…" she censured icily. She poised her staff above her young apprentice's heart. "Overconfidence."

What Keiya should have been feeling—terror, remorse, regret—was filtered in her eyes as apathy, for her mind was too drunk with pain to comprehend her imminent death. With her voice rendered useless, her heart was what cried out: Please… not now.

When Maleficent raised her staff the necessary inch, Keiya sucked in a last breath and tried to relax her eyes, letting one more tear glide to the floor.

Then the brightest, warmest light touched her, vanquished the pain and forced her arm up. Her hand unconsciously wrapped around something heavy and solid, but it felt so easy to hold. Right as Maleficent's staff came down to impale her, a blade materialized in its way and guided Keiya to swing her attacker out of range.

Maleficent's shock was evident and genuine; at the appearance of the Keyblade, her face hardened and her grip on her staff tightened. There were too many twists in this battle—too many for her liking. Her patience began to waver. She'd gotten so close to killing the girl several times now; the fact that she had yet to succeed acted as inward humiliation. She could not lose to a beggar-orphan she found on the streets.

Keiya, meanwhile, was brought to stand with the Keyblade's silent beckoning. She recognized it immediately as Riku's Keyblade—Way to the Dawn. It washed away the misery brought on her by the torments and injuries, and though it couldn't make them disappear, it enabled her to keep fighting. She ran her fingers over its edges curiously and gratefully, but when she tested its feel in her hands, giving it a swing, it rejected her touch and vanished in a burst of light to its rightful owner.

He's okay… she grasped. She glanced down at her arms—they were covered in dirt and cuts, but an adrenaline high made her feel stronger than ever, made her alert and untouchable. And I am, too.

With newfound determination and a heart full of fury, Keiya locked her eyes on her enemy and glowered for all the years of her childhood she had corrupted, for all the people who had been hurt, for the life she couldn't live because of her. Her lips twisted into a hardened scowl, and she deftly eased into battle stance and called upon her magic. However, instead of the familiar dark orbs of fire, a blade of fine, white metal appeared in her hands.

The girl gazed down at it in awe. Its intricate carvings burned with a violet fire that stemmed from her darkness and gave it power—power she had never seen before. The thin sword had mysteriously always come to her in her moments of need, but it was always easily forgotten; never had she thought it was this powerful. She could feel it subtly pulling her forward, urging her to attack, and she obeyed. Meeting the witch head-on, Keiya lunged forward and began to strike. It was her weapon; it was driven by her strength and her darkness. Finally, it seemed to tell her, they could both reach their full potential.

She wasn't skilled with a blade, but her torrent of anger fed her darkness to make up for that lack. Rather than push it away, she let the darkness guide her. She let it spread enough to overcome Maleficent's influence still lurching and writhing within her. Tightened hands, strong, fluid movements that weren't her own, she slashed at her mistress over and over, backing the witch across the room.

Maleficent's eyes were wide with perturbation as she desperately clung to magic that wouldn't work. The darkness that she summoned was useless against the blade that could absorb and harness it. With an increasing heartbeat, she was forced to take unsteady steps back as she was pummeled by the enraged, rejuvenated warrior. She was indignant with her own fear; to think that she would one day be struggling at the hands of her own pupil! The thought of it made her sick.

With all the darkness in her, she expelled a monstrosity so dense it threw the riled girl off her feet and forced her out of her ecstasy. Keiya was still glaring hard when she fell, staring up at her attacker with no remaining traces of fear. All or nothing, she promised herself. No more giving up half-way through.

The darkness surrounded Maleficent as a separate being, begot from the depths of her heart which she had willingly, finally tempered for power. The ultimate darkness was born from this kind of hate, the sorceress thought. She could no longer afford to hold back or concern herself with her safety; this was what it would take, and so be it. She could do this quickly. She was untouchable in this state.

Keiya stood up and stumbled backward, trying to conceal the mild shock that was threatening to waver her resolve. But she had promised. Gripping and trusting her blade with all her being, she stood her ground and prepared herself to retaliate at the witch's next move.

"Enough!" she bellowed, inhaling deeply to recuperate. A tinge of madness set in her irises, and her voice, though only a murmur, was vehement and vengeful. "Now I will put you in your place!"

She unleashed a violent whirlwind of darkness that swept around the room, picking up stones and rubble in heaps. Keiya brought her arms up to shield her eyes as her hair whipped around her face. It was impossible to see in the thick black fog—impossible to see the enchantress's attacks as they raged at her from all directions: a swipe across her stomach, a painful stab in her back, sharp brushes against her arms and legs, and cuts of all sizes from the flying, broken glass and rocks. Her determination was all that kept her standing, but she was starting to feel weaker.

Ugh, I can't… find her! she panicked, looking all around for a sign of movement against the wind's grain.

When she bent over and cried out to accommodate a new burst of pain, that was when she saw her: the cloaked figure standing patiently still, waiting to see the effects of her attack. Keiya didn't even let herself think. She adjusted her grip on her blade, poised it to strike, and rushed out of the vortex with a fevered cry. Her weapon shone a vibrant mix of colors, the veins of purple warping with different tints and shades, until it finally settled: blinding light surrounding black veins of darkness. It was with this mixture of dark and light that she delivered the critical blow and sent her mistress to her knees.

The floor crumbled under the weight of the impact and the heartless' destructive fervor. Maleficent's darkness was rattled by the attack; it pulsed harder around the woman's lithe form, as if attempting to leech the life from her to save its own. She spit out hoarse murmurs and sputtered gasps, clenched her staff against the floor in defeat. Light and darkness were swirling together around her body, crushing her so hard, extinguishing her own power.

Keiya watched in astonishment, panting for her own exhaustion, as the two elements worked together to choke the life out of Maleficent and her darkness. The blade in her hands continued to glow, bringing out the darkness she formerly detested and the light she never knew she possessed. She looked down at it in wonder. It urged her to finish.

With only a brief, wrathful glance back at the pitiful woman, Keiya muttered, "Not so weak now."

She closed in and dealt the final blows: three long, slow slashes that cut through the darkness. The woman gave exasperated gasps and wheezes. Her eyes were now completely enlarged and bloodshot as her heart overloaded. She couldn't even get out a curse or a retaliation, no matter how flaring her pride. Hands clutched her chest, lungs collapsed as the air around her became too thick, and in a burst of black and white, Maleficent went up in flames. The fire was a mix of searing and freezing, and the combination spread the cracks in the floor, breaking it up even faster. As the witch disintegrated with a hiss before a motionless, wide-eyed Keiya, the ground shattered, and the warrior on her adrenaline-high was sent tripping over herself, sidestepping backward to avoid the opening crevice.

Over. It's… finally over, she thought, again and again. And now…

A huge quake ripped through the castle.

Keiya fell back against the wall, hitting her head on the concrete, and crawled along the side of the room as best as she could to avoid slipping. Her breath came fast with both excitement and anxiety, but as the fatigue sank in, her weapon suddenly disappeared from her grasp, her light and darkness melted off of her body, her eyelids felt heavy, and then something leaked from her heart. She couldn't place it at first, in her dizziness. It was foul and strong and merciless… Chills ran all over her arms and legs, the flush from the battle drained from her face, and then—

"Ah!"

She shrieked as the pain broke out, falling to her hands and knees.

Maleficent's poison.

Her limbs became heavy and her vision, cloudy. Every cut on her body burned anew, as if they had been freshly opened.

"Hnn, n-no…!" she stuttered shakily, her fists loosening to the poison's magic.

Slowly, she was lowered to the ground. Her eyes slipped shut. Her muscles clenched and unclenched with the bursts of pain.

No… no more… Her chest heaved violently as Maleficent's lingering darkness began to accompany the poison in its attack. Her heart was under immense pressure—it was beating too fast, too fast, and sometimes not fast enough.

"Ahh…Hahh, no!"

Th-thump, thump, thu — th-thump.

Her fingers punctured the fabric over her heart.

God, please, no more.

I can't see…

~…~

"Keiya!"

Riku went momentarily rigid before rushing over to her, racked with nausea already. She was on the border of the concrete ceiling that had collapsed to the main level—she hadn't fallen, he was immediately grateful. He skidded when he reached her and dropped to the floor. Blood and dirt tainted her soft skin; hoarse pants interrupted her usually light, delicate breaths. She was shaking and writhing, and her voice was reduced to whimpers.

He pulled her into his arms, ignoring any sense of caution or hesitation.

"Keiya! Keiya, w-what's wrong?"

Then he noticed it: the faint darkness wrapped around her body. His face changed completely—eyes widened, skin paled.

This is… Maleficent's!

"H-hang on! Keiya, oh God, just… hang on!"

He watched in horror as she struggled to breathe and tossed her head, and when he accidently brushed one of her wounds, her body jolted and she let out a sharp cry. All he could do was whisper a hasty apology and glance uselessly around the room for some clue as to how to end it.

He was given almost no warning when the rest of the floor fell out from beneath them. In a second's time, he squeezed her tightly and created a barrier to protect them from the rough landing. He hovered over her as all the rubble fell around and on top of them, safeguarding her with all he had, watching the way her face changed.

One beat skipped, her muscles relaxed. Two beats skipped, her lips ceased quivering.

"Wake up, Keiya!" he begged, shaking her by the shoulders to coax movement.

Too many beats. She was breathing desperately.

The poison, unbeknownst to Riku, had finally seeped into her heart, and was weakening it to the darkness's revenge. The darkness was what needed to be feared, and her heart was what was in danger. Her pulse was erratic, her body was weak—that was the invitation in.

From the other side of the room, unnoticed by the panicking boy, Sai watched the scene through his stubborn glare. The darkness was getting to him, too; his hands clutched his heart as if to yank the creature out, and his lips hung heavy, taking in huge gulps of air. But while he was steadily gaining back his control, Keiya, he acknowledged with pangs of terror, was far beyond hope of finding the strength in time to fight it.

She's in trouble. His mouth went dry and his eyes subtly began to sting, though he shook his head against it. It's not enough, he condemn bitterly toward Riku. She needs help.

Riku frantically fidgeted with his hands and scoured the room with pleading eyes. She was hyperventilating and sweating, and kept wiggling in his arms, as if she were up against a vicious fight.

"Sora! Leon! Someone, help! She's—"

Her body suddenly went limp against him, and the darkness began to spread like a second skin, from her chest outward, and from the pronounced insignia on her wrist. A small noise broke from her throat, like a strangled yell, almost nightmarish, and Riku tremulously stroked her cheek and sputtered a few unconvincing words of comfort. It became clear to him, at that moment, that she was losing. She was dying, though he refused to think the word. The darkness would swallow her while he stared hopelessly, watching it happen. With these thoughts clogging his mind, he was having just as much trouble breathing as she was.

"Just keep fighting, Keiya! Keep fighting… I-I'm here, I'll think of something!"

He felt more pathetic by the second.

He had to resist the urge to hold her, for his grip was too tight in his frenzied state, and he reluctantly laid her back on the floor. One hand in hers, the other rooting him firmly to the ground, he didn't tear his eyes from her. He couldn't. Every change was terrifying, but he needed to watch over her. She was gradually becoming less expressive, her face fixing into a meek state of pain.

Riku gasped when her breathing picked up dramatically, only to fall again in the next second, and pick up again the next.

"Leon!" he tried again with renewed energy. He hoisted himself up off the floor and took two shaky steps forward. "Leon! I need—"

Light shuffling noises cut him off.

"Idiot," a weak voice scoffed. Riku spun around to face the intruder, who was now limping against the wall, making his way over to Keiya. "I knew you were useless."

Riku sank back down next to Keiya and held her protectively, eyeing the boy with a threatening scowl. He unconsciously squeezed her tighter and scooted backward when Sai moved to kneel at her side.

"What do you want?" he deplored venomously. "I'm not fighting you, can't you see she's—"

Sai shook his head. "Just put her down. I can help."

Riku's glare softened a little in his dire need for help, but he kept her in his arms where he could feel the unsteadiness of her breathing. His suspicions were not consoled. When Sai reached for her hand, Riku flinched and pulled her out of his reach.

"I'm taking care of her," he asserted, trying to control the shakiness of his voice. Sai could easily see the uncertainty and apprehension in his face and his gestures, and was forced to acknowledge, despite his begrudging stubbornness, that at least this pathetic traitor cared about her.

"She's not going to make it, just put her down!" he demanded in his strained and breathless voice. He was still recovering himself, but he refused to let down his guard to this enemy. He was powerful, and he wouldn't let him forget it.

Riku reluctantly laid her back on the floor and succumbed to the fear beating in his heart. His hands had starting trembling; he clasped both of his in one of hers to try to calm the nerves. Keiya's breathing hadn't slowed. She was motionless now, but her lungs worked ferociously to take in air—it was never enough.

"…Keiya?" Sai tried fruitlessly. A crease of worry he'd not had since childhood formed on his brow—just like the first time he'd seen her, in the middle of a punishment much like this. He swallowed hard and pulled off his glove, then gently closed his hand around her marked wrist. She immediately cringed, and Riku cursed him and tried to push him away from her, but he didn't let go.

With more focus than he'd ever shown anything, Sai opened himself to the flow of darkness. He paused for a moment to take a breath, to savor the feeling of control he had, as well as the ecstasy the magic provided its willing host. But it could hardly be called ecstasy now, as he watched his childhood companion suffocate under that same magic's force. Tightening his hand around her wrist, he began to absorb all the darkness that was plaguing Keiya, diverting its path into his own body.

Sai's eyes clenched shut as darkness of Maleficent's brand rushed into his bloodstream. Hers was parasitic; it quickly triumphed over his own uncontrollable darkness. Right away, he doubled over, now grasping her wrist much tighter than he'd have liked. His rapid, heavy breathing began to match hers, but he consciously fought to keep his energy, to hold onto his mind. He needed to keep the flow going—that was his only goal. He wouldn't stop until every last ounce of darkness had been sucked from her suffering body.

Riku's eyes darted back to Keiya, who was now breathing more slowly—too slowly.

"Hey, what are you doing to her?" he demanded warily, jolting to pry the boy from his task.

Sai gave him a stern, competitive glower of warning, and dryly asserted, "Don't touch me."

Keiya's complexion had paled significantly, and her muscles had relaxed to listlessness. She was no longer audible. Where her heart had previously been pumping dangerously fast, it was now slowing to feeble thumps that Riku could barely feel pulsing in her wrist.

"She's hardly breathing now—let her go!"

"I'm saving her life," the smug warrior retorted. At a burst of pain—the beginning of deterioration—he choked to catch his breath, then murmured, "You have a problem with that… or can I continue?"

Riku was taken aback for a moment, then kept quiet, watching his enemy's skin take on the greyer hue, his breaths turn ragged and forced. He's… saving her? He briefly thought back to all the times he'd asked Keiya about this comrade of hers, how vehemently she'd seemed to despise him.

She hates him, and he knows it. But he's still…

"Thank you," he said breathlessly.

Sai scoffed, never once lifting his eyes from the girl's form. "I'm not doing this for you."

Riku only nodded.

As the darkness began to make itself visible around its new prey, Riku's eyes widened and he couldn't help but lurch forward.

"Hey, w-wait!"

"I told you, don't touch me!" Sai spat hoarsely. He coughed uncontrollably—it was becoming harder to talk.

"You'll… you'll kill yourself—let me take over!" Riku offered. "If we both do this, then we can—"

"Hha… n-no!" he strained. "I… I've got this."

Riku was not convinced. "It'll destroy your heart!" he exclaimed coolly. When he reached over to where his hand touched her wrist, Sai let a growl break from his throat and smacked his hand away.

"I said no!" he snapped, the darkness whirling in excitement. "She wouldn't want you to get hurt! She doesn't care about me, so just let me do it!"

Riku reluctantly backed off, both skeptically and guiltily. He didn't like feeling like this: weak, useless… And this boy, he had been trying to kill him just minutes ago, and now he was telling him to keep on living, to take care of her. He was giving his permission, and giving up.

Sai lowered his head to suck in heavy gasps of air and recuperate from his outburst. His arms wobbled, sweat dripped down his face. But strangely, he felt calm. He glanced down at Keiya, whose skin was starting to regain its pink hue, and couldn't hide a small smile.

When he opened his mouth to speak, it took a few pants before he could spit it out: "Y-you know… if you don't take care of her, I'll… I'll—"

Riku nodded eagerly. "I will."

Sai didn't respond. It was becoming harder to concentrate; the pain was nagging for his attention, and it was impossible not to think about it. The darkness ripped his muscles apart, thickened his blood, drowned his heart…

"I'll make sure to tell her what you're doing for her," Riku promised.

"Don't—ungh—d-don't bother," he muttered bitterly. He became distant, tinges of sadness gleaming through in each unwilling crack of his voice. "I owe her a life. I'm just… hha…" a shudder and a gasp, "…paying my due."

Suddenly, the convulsions in his body became unbearable, and he began to let out more audible cries of agony. Without much choice, he let the darkness lay him on the floor and curled onto his side, still holding her wrist, still cleansing her of the parasite. But it was too much, too much pain; he wasn't sure how much longer he could concentrate. It was squeezing his heart so hard, and he could hardly see, his mind was racing…

Riku jumped to alert and watched the last of the grey fog vanish from his lover's body. She was listless and sickly, and her pulse was still weak and erratic, but the monster was gone. All of Maleficent's darkness—Sai had purged it from her body. She was finally free.

When Sai let her wrist go, his hand was covered in blood from her wound, and had printed on it the mark: the heartless insignia. Keiya's wrist was completely clean. He felt the darkness move to block his airway, and took deep, exaggerated breaths to try to fight it. Riku's pitiful gaze would have angered him, had he been able to see it clearly.

"Get… get her help. There's still the poison. She can't… fight it on her own. You have to… g-get it out," he instructed urgently. "I-I can't do that…"

"I got it."

Sai looked back at Keiya, blinking his eyes to keep them from clouding.

"I guess… we both got what we wanted, h-huh?" he whispered shakily. "You're finally free from the darkness, and I'm… drowning in it."

Riku, meanwhile, had stood up and summoned his Keyblade. He walked around the sleeping girl to where Sai was writhing and scraping at the ground.

"Do you want me to?" he asked, eliminating all expression from his voice for the boy's sake.

Sai still managed a choked, self-spiteful laugh. "B-by you?"

Riku had already lowered his weapon and was about to turn around when he heard him answer tremulously, "Make it quick."

It was quick, like the flash of a camera or the break of the water upon a free fall into the ocean. The pain climaxed to a mind-searing height, even slicing through the darkness. He could swear for a moment he did see light. Then it dwindled. His thoughts became peaceful, his body, pleasantly numb. He was floating. And then it was over.

Riku watched him fade into the darkness, wanting at least to give him that last respect. It swallowed his body in a vengeful frenzy, seeking possession and power, but the search was in vain. His heart was now off limits, already slain useless to any intruder. With nothing to sustain it, the darkness was left to disappear, and the boy's body, to be dragged down with it. Both darkness and flesh burned away before the solemn, grateful audience.

Before Riku turned away, he caught sight of Sai's glove still sitting neglected on the floor. With pangs of appreciation, he picked it up and tucked it into his pocket. If she wanted to hear it, he wouldn't deny her.

He then turned back to Keiya, who was still afflicted by the venom deposited in her wounds. His stoic countenance reverted back to one of dread as he drank in her appearance all over again. Scars, stains, bruises… And she was turning pale again. The poison was working quickly to weaken her, and without the darkness's help, she had no means of fighting it off by herself.

"H-hang on… I'll get you out of here."

Suddenly, the avalanche of stone that had fallen to divide the room in half was blasted to pieces behind them. When Riku jerked his head around to investigate, the gummi ship charged forward and the crew jumped to the ground.

"Riku!" Sora exclaimed. He, Kairi, and Leon rushed over to meet them.

"Quick, Keiya needs help!" he exclaimed desperately. He stood up with the girl in his arms. "She's poisoned—I need to get her inside!"

"I'll say; this whole place is going to collapse any minute!"

Riku walked as fast as he could while still taking care not to disturb any of her cuts. Before he climbed up to the cockpit, something on the other side of the room caught his eye: something glittering and colorful.

"Sora…" he started.

The younger boy saw what he was looking at and nodded. "I got it!"

On the ship, Aerith hurried to place wet towels over all her injuries—hopefully, she said, this would draw the poison out.

"Keiya, can you hear me? Please… wake up." He held her tighter and tilted her face into his chest. Despite the churning of his mind as he worried over her recovery, he smiled at the disappearance of the darkness's scent. "Listen, I promised someone that I'd take care of you from now on, so you'd better cooperate."

Cid put the ship in high gear. Once everyone was on board, he let the accelerator have it, and they blasted off into space just before the castle turned to dust.

~…~

Author's Note: I was playing the most intense battle music from KH II and BBS while I wrote this chapter, so I hope any pinch of drama from that seeps into this chapter while you guys read it… (I was seriously getting adrenaline rushes, but no more fight scenes for me!) I also hope that parts of it didn't seem too extraneous. I write from a movie in my head, so I feel the need to put a lot of detail, and sometimes this stuff takes completely different directions as I work on it. (Like the bookcase thing. No idea where that came from, I swear.)

Thank yoouuu for supporting this story all the way to the climax! :D Two or three more chapters of story left, an epilogue which I've already planned out, and a bonus chapter for anniversary number three! (Because it will come to that, unfortunately.)

And clearly I'm anxious for reviews. I've been dying to write that last scene for thirty-five chapters now, so please tell me what you're thinking!