Author's notes: Hey all! Thank you for your patience; I've had some troubles getting certain document files transferred to my new computer, but trust me, this chapter will have been worth the wait.

Also, this chapter is dedicated to a very, very dear friend of mine. Presie, your face comes to mind when I hear the word "strength". Thank you for the hope I see in you; it encourages me.

Chapter thirty-six… Redemption

The Knight of Darkness' eyes narrowed sharply. "I told you not to move," she shot at him. "Be still or this sword will cut through more than just skin."

One lone droplet of blood coursed down Mako's neck like a tear would fall from his eyes. He felt it slide underneath his collar and run itself out on his chest.

For the first time, he noticed just how tightly that metal was pressed against his throat, and immediately he felt scared. The Knight of Darkness was serious, dead serious, about Keilin, and she certainly wasn't lying about being all-powerful in a soul she had been given. She would not tolerate too much provocation before she made good on her word.

Over the Knight's shoulder, he watched silently as Keilin allowed herself to take comfort in the Rune God who had organized the deaths of at least a fourth of Cephiro's population, and his own words came floating back to his memory:

"I'll kill him. I will kill Cail if I have to hunt for him the rest of my life. So help me, I'll take that devil down with me if I have to, I don't care, I will kill him the next time we meet."

Mako clenched his hand into a fist at his side, so tightly that his nails pressed hard into his palm. Even now, knowing Cail's true identity, trapped inside a hopeless soul, his life at the mercy of despair itself, he was going to find a way to get at the monster who had killed all those people.

For one split second, there was silence.

And suddenly, a burst of fire from somewhere to Mako's right—all four heads whipped around, startled—the Knight of Darkness yanked her sword from Mako's throat and leaped forward as the curtain of flames dropped to reveal Li Kimoi, Magic Knight of Fire, standing with her triple-lashed whip at the ready.

Keilin stands dazed.

She is having trouble processing everything that is happening all at once. She is somewhere dark, but familiar, and there are people, just a few other people—she doesn't know who they are, and her fuzzy mind doesn't have the energy to think about it—but the one thing she can register for certain is the arms that are holding her gently.

A few times, she thinks she's heard her own name being called, but every time this happens, those arms tighten ever so slightly, drawing her unstable attention.

"You belong with me."

How she's wanted to hear those words, the one phrase that could pierce her sorrow and bring light to her soul.

"You belong… with me."

The voice seems to be prompting her, and slowly, she murmurs, "I belong with y—"

But before she can finish, there is a burst of light, a reddish-orange light that sends a wave of warmth over her, and her head snaps up.

That light… is fire.

The arms pull her close, almost with a sense of urgency, and those words are repeated again, but her gaze is fixed on the leaping flames… the most entrancing thing she's ever seen… and she cannot look away.

The fire dies almost as quickly as it came, leaving in its stead someone who looks like they were born of the flames. Someone who still seems to radiate that comforting warmth. Someone… who is tugging at Keilin's heart in a way she cannot describe.

Fire lifts her head, and in a voice that seems faraway but strong she cries, "Mako!"

Keilin feels a face draw so close to her own that they're nearly touching, and the clearer voice of Cail insists once more: "You belong with me, Keilin!"

Her lips part as she struggles to respond. After a moment, she manages, "Mako…?"

That name… is so familiar.

"Mako!" Li blurted, tripping over herself a little as she tried to learn to move by willpower. "Mako, are you alright?"

The Knight of Darkness stepped in front of her, poised to attack. "Stay back!"

Mako took a split second to focus his will on the dirk gripped in his hand, then threw it as hard as he could. The knife struck the Knight directly between her shoulderblades, and she yelped once, then fell to her knees.

Li managed to scramble over to Mako, her attention immediately going not to the Knight of Darkness but to the light cut on his throat. "Thank God—the bleeding's stopped already."

Mako touched it lightly. "How did you—"

A wordless cry from the Knight of Darkness cut him off, and both he and Li looked up to see silvery-gray threads of light protrude from the Knight's back and shoulders. Repulsed but fascinated, they watched as these threads plucked the knife from the Knight's body, broke it and cast the pieces aside, and began to mend the gash in the Knight's shoulders and clothing.

"Keilin?" Li asked. Mako shook his head. "This is her despair," he explained quietly. "This is what's been inside her soul this entire time."

As good as new, Darkness rose to her feet and whirled around on them, then raised her sword and rushed forward.

"Garnet Storm!" Li yelled, and immediately the Knight of Darkness crouched, crossed her arms and cried, "Cloak of Shadows!"

The whirl of fire broke over a grayish bubble shield, and Darkness rose unharmed—and barely a second later, she threw out her arms and yelled, "Devil's Scythe!"

Mako leaped forward and grabbed Li around the waist, taking her down with him as he fell—he shoved her underneath himself and tried not to scream as the attack grazed him—every nerve on his shoulders, his back, seemed to be on fire—he pushed himself to his knees, wincing, hoping the Knight of Darkness didn't have another counterattack ready.

"Lap—Lapis Deluge!" he managed, feeling the twin columns of water rise and fly forward.

Darkness leaped into the air and stayed there, hovering over the Magic Knights—and as the water attack changed its course to come directly at her, she summoned the bubble shield again.

Li stared at her in dismay. "Great—how are we supposed to hit her now?"

"We follow her," Mako said, and, ignoring the pain biting at his nerves, he willed himself to move again—except that instead of trying to imitate walking, he now focused on pulling himself upwards. Shakily at first, but quickly picking up speed, he rose.

Li stared at Mako as he simply floated upwards, feeling more than a little stunned at the ease with which he remained stationary high above her head with nothing to support him.

Is this even possible? she wondered for a second, then shook her head briefly. Of course it isn't possible—but how many other things that aren't possible have I seen since I arrived in Cephiro?

She was just about to try lifting herself, too, when a quiet voice caught her attention.

"There's a light."

Li turned around—and found herself locked in eye contact with Keilin.

The blonde was still holding on to Cail, but her eyes were wide, frightened, and her gaze was almost blank. She didn't quite seem to know where she was.

"Keilin," the Rune God of Darkness implored quietly, "look at me."

"You leave her alone, you jerk!" Li snapped, pointing her whip at him.

Cail gave her a steely glare. "Who are you to think you have any right to take her from me?"

"I'm one of her teammates," the Fire Knight retorted, and she thrust out her hands to attack—but Rayearth stirred in her soul and pressed on her heart:

No, young one. Not here, not now. You cannot face him yet—not while he still influences Keilin Makawa's soul.

Li was suddenly aware of the sheer sense of power in Cail's gaze alone. She took a shaky breath, then forced her reluctant arms to drop.

Cail looked at her disdainfully; then, making it plain that he did not regard her as a threat, he turned his head back to Keilin, whose empty eyes were still fixed on Li.

"Look at me, Keilin." He cupped his hand under her chin and gently began to direct her face towards his own… and then, to Li's horror, he continued softer still, "I love you, Keilin—doesn't this matter to you? Keilin, I love y—"

"Flame Dagger!" Li cried, but she directed the fire that exploded from her arms straight up.

Keilin's head turned sharply out of Cail's hand, and her eyes seemed to focus on the flames.

"There's a light," she murmured. "I see it. I see a light."

Mako had to spend a few seconds figuring out how to stabilize himself, but once he'd gotten the hang of it, he kept himself aloft easily.

Darkness floated before him, her gaze hard and cold. "You kid yourself, boy. You have no chance in the world to defeat me."

"As if I haven't heard that one before," Mako said.

The Knight of Darkness produced her sword and flew at him. He dropped underneath her and spun around just in time to see her gathering what looked like silver electricity in her hands.

"Leviathan Blade!" he cried at the very same moment she yelled, "Shadow Blast!"

It was unbelievable just how fast that electric energy could explode—it hit his own attack before it had even left his body, and the water conducted the electricity into him. He jerked, momentarily losing control of himself and staggering backwards, and then fell like a stone.

The Knight of Darkness flew after him, her sword ready to plunge into his chest.

And from out of nowhere, a jet of fire streaked straight upwards, catching Darkness off-guard and blowing her backwards.

Mako finally caught himself, steadied himself. He drew a few shallow breaths, trying to ignore the pain that came every time his chest expanded, and looked down below him.

Had Li done that?

"Keilin," Li almost shouted, "can you hear me?"

Cail glared sharply at her. "Say another word and you die, Fire Knight," he growled. "She is mine!"

"Keilin doesn't belong to anybody but herself," Li countered angrily. Never in her life had she wanted to attack someone this badly, but Rayearth continued to whisper a gentle warning in her heart, and she forced herself to stay where she was.

"You," Cail said, his voice low, "are blind."

He turned Keilin's face towards his again and kissed her.

"Keilin!" Li cried, starting forward—and she felt the Rune God of Fire actually tug on her body a little, heard him insist, Do not attack him!

Keilin remained blank and unresponsive for a few seconds before blinking twice and seeming to realize where she was, what was happening.

Li yelled for her again even as Keilin lifted her arms and returned both Cail's embrace and his kiss.

Mako felt like he was about to drop out of the air again. This couldn't be happening. Ciela had said Keilin wanted to come back with them. What was going on?

He was so lost in shock at the scene below him that he didn't hear the Knight of Darkness coming for him—and then before he knew what was happening, he felt something snare his legs and his arms, and then his chest and his neck as well, he was being grabbed by those same bizarre silvery threads that had protruded from Darkness' skin, he couldn't move, they had him everywhere, he couldn't move at all, and now he was being lifted, but not by his own will—

He was spun around to face the Knight of Darkness, out of whose palms the threads came this time. Her mouth remained a flat line, but her eyes glittered with exhiliration.

"You see?" she said, except her voice was no longer Keilin's. As if she were made of clay, she began to shift, bend, be rearranged, even as she spoke: "Even your precious Pillar could not forsee this. Keilin has chosen, and she cannot turn back. You have failed, Water Knight. You have failed Keilin, you have failed Ciela, you have failed everyone." The transformation complete, a dark copy of Mako held the Magic Knight of Water motionless. "Your will is broken… and now you will die."

The threads jerked Mako up even higher and then flung him down, ready to crush him against the darkness below.

Li felt her mouth drop open slightly, and try as she might she could do nothing but stand and watch.

What now? she wondered.

Almost as if in reply, her mind raced back to the sight of Keilin, the Knight of Darkness, bound by light to the wall and waiting to die. The feel of the knife she and Mako held together. The sound of their footsteps as they walked forward to plunge that blade deep in Keilin's heart.

You promised you could save her, a voice murmured in her brain. But you can't. You're going to have to kill her anyway.

"No," Li whispered aloud. "There's… there's got to be some other way…"

This was the other way. No other choice. Attack them.

This voice, oddly familiar but so unrecognizable, seemed to sap the strength straight out of Li's body. The girl swayed once, then fell to her knees.

"She's my friend," she protested weakly. "I can't."

You were so eager to do so beforehand.

"I wasn't eager."

Attack.

"I… I can't, I can't hurt her."

Then what good as a Knight are you?

Li felt something cold brush her fingers, but it didn't register in her mind until the sensation had crawled up her arms. She looked down.

That dark mist again, the same that had almost taken her earlier, the same that had taken Cirrus, here, on her, slowly gaining a foothold.

And as she watched it, it began to boil and shift, folding, collapsing, solidifying…

…until a pair of arms were holding her own.

Legs, body, head now—and within seconds Li was staring into her own face.

A Knight of Darkness in her own likeness.

This new Darkness cupped Li's face in her hand and leaned in close, too close—Li tried to pull away, but the hand kept her where she was.

Darkness' voice was Li's own, but with a mature, husky quality the Fire Knight could not have imagined herself capable of. "Come with me."

"No," Li forced out, and Darkness leaned even closer, put her cheek on Li's, whispered directly into her ear: "The Keilin you knew is dead. Mako Keines is dead. Cephiro is dying, begging for someone to release it from its suffering… come with me, and you will not be alone."

Time seemed to slow as Mako felt Darkness plunge him to his death.

This was it? All of this, and he was just going to die here?

He'd found Keilin, but he hadn't freed her. He'd met Ciela, but he hadn't been able to keep his promise to her. He'd saved Li, had even developed feelings for her, and now he was abandoning her. The people of this world were going to die. Cephiro itself was on the brink of destruction. And Riuki…

He had promised to catch her… but now, who would be there to catch him?

You've failed them all, he heard Darkness say directly to his heart.

Failed them all… well, his death would see to that.

But he wasn't dead yet, not quite yet, and he had no intention of just leaving this entire world to just fend for itself against the force of a Darkness that turned against the very heart that had spawned it.

Ciela… help me… help me so I can help everyone else.

With everything he had, he screamed, "CIELA!"

Cail knew. The moment Keilin came back to him from the recesses of her tortured mind, the moment her lips responded to his, the moment her arms embraced him gently, the Rune God knew.

Keilin drew her head back and met his gaze with steady eyes, tears silently coursing down her face.

"I love you too," she whispered, "but Cail… oh, Cail, I'm sorry, I love you, but I want to know the light."

Cail stroked her hair. "Even after leaving the others to come with me? Even after donning me as your Rune God?" A pause, and then, "Even knowing that the darkness will give you a place to belong?"

Keilin nodded slowly, maintaining eye contact. "There's a light," she whispered. "All this time, I felt like I was going in circles… anger, bitterness, resenting myself, resenting everyone who's hurt me, resenting the world for finding happiness when I was so lost… lost in my pain, my hopelessness, my darkness. At first I didn't even realize there was a light. Then I tried to live without it. Now I've tried to destroy it. But, Cail… that isn't what I want. I want to know this light."

She looked away sharply then, her shoulders heaving slightly as she began to cry freely. "I want to know what it's like to live with purpose… to be a whole person… Cail, I want to know what it's like to be healed!"

A flash of green light.

Li wearily lifted her head. Had she just seen…?

Her eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open slightly. She was imagining things, she had to be… she had to be… right?

A flash of green light.

Mako had braced himself for the impact that would crush his body, but that light chased all thoughts of death from his mind. He looked up.

And he saw hope itself before him.

Cail tilted Keilin's face upwards and looked into her eyes once more, a sad smile on his lips. "This, then, is what you have decided?"

"Yes," she managed softly.

"I love you," he murmured, wiping a tear from her cheek with two fingers.

"I love you too," she whispered.

He pulled her close to himself one last time.

And then, without once looking back, Keilin slipped away and ran into the light that was shining from overhead.

Ciela, the source of that light, hung in midair, dressed not in royal palace robes, but in an outfit not unlike the one Keilin wore.

"Cyclone Sword!" she cried, and wind from nowhere surged to her side, solidifying somehow and settling into the shape of a broadsword twice her size. She swung it easily, and the solid wind absorbed the extra momentum, peeling off the makeshift weapon and flying at the intended target with deadly force.

Li felt a sudden strong wind blow her hair and clothing straight back, and Darkness began to scream in pain, clutching the Fire Knight's arms even tighter as she thrashed wildly.

Li's eyes watered involuntarily from the moving air, but she squinted, trying her hardest to keep Ciela in view even as she was jerked along with her counterpart… there was something else, she knew, something else that she wasn't quite comprehending…

Darkness cried out again, pushed her away, and vanished into the void below them, and immediately the wind died down. Li wiped her eyes and stared at Ciela again.

Mako had sensed himself less than two seconds away from impact when he felt this wall of air wash over him, severing the threads that plunged him into the void below. As he spun crazily in its slipstream, he heard screams of pain, one at first and then another, and just as he was beginning to get a little sick from vertigo, he tumbled into Li, knocking her over—but at least he stopped moving.

For a moment, he was too disoriented to stir, but the Fire Knight struggled to sit up and immediately began to untangle him from her blood-red cape. "Mako," she said urgently, "look, over there, something's happening."

Mako dragged himself up and looked where she was pointing.

Darkness was there, between them and Ciela—but Darkness didn't just resemble Mako anymore; he could see a figure of Li there as well, and now the two were losing distinction from each other—exactly like smoke, they shifted, billowed, and then swirled into one. Within seconds, Keilin's own darkness stood before them again.

"Come on, Ciela," Mako breathed. "Finish her off."

But Ciela did not move.

And three seconds later, the real Keilin ran into the scene, headed straight for the Knight of Darkness.

Her heart pounding, Keilin willed her legs to carry her as fast as she dared to go. She skidded to a stop in front of the Knight who now wore her face.

Darkness looked at her with extreme dislike. "You intend to try and reclaim yourself?"

"I don't want a part of this anymore," Keilin said, chest heaving.

Steely-eyed, Darkness quoted, "Familiarity, even if it's darkness, is a comfort."

"Partial comfort," Keilin corrected. She swallowed hard, then continued, "But light offers completion."

The Knight of Darkness confidently strode forward and reached out one arm to cup the side of Keilin's face.

Without warning, the girl felt her mind fill with screams of terror, memories of threats and insults crowding out everything else, the pain of fresh bruises rising, throbbing—

She screamed, long, hard, loud.

But her hands rose, grasped the Knight of Darkness' wrist, and pulled the hand off of her own face. Immediately, her mind cleared.

She had to kill her own demon, but she had no magic, no escudo weapon, couldn't even touch her counterpart without seriously damaging her own mind.

She mentally sent a quick plea for help to no one in particular—and it was at that moment that she realized she was holding Cail's dagger.

How it had gotten into her hands, she would never know, she didn't stop to think about it, she just lunged forward and thrust it deep into Darkness' chest, pushing it in all the way to the hilt, twisted it, then yanked it out and did it again, again, again—

The dagger exploded in a burst of white light that seemed to go straight through her, and she felt herself fall backwards into nothingness.

Standing in the glow of that bright white light, Ciela, dressed once more in her royal robes, studied the stunned girl lying sprawled on the ground, then closed her eyes. She has done it.

Yes, came the reply. She chose. Keilin Makawa is free.

Ciela felt her eyes well with tears of happiness. There is hope for Cephiro yet. She reached forward and took hold of Keilin's hand, raising the girl to her feet.

Keilin took a moment to orient herself—and the second she realized who was standing before her, she clapped a hand over her mouth, then fell to her knees.

"P-Princess," she choked out. "I… I can't… Ciela, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry—"

"Keilin," Ciela said gently, touching her on the shoulder, but Keilin shook her head and continued, "I've hurt so many people, I've helped Cail kill so many people, I tried to kill you, Ciela, I am so sorry, please hear me out, I am so sorry—"

"Keilin," Ciela interrupted again. "There is nothing to apologize for."

The girl pressed her lips together, valiantly trying not to cry.

The Pillar lifted her to her feet again. "What is it you are looking for?" she asked. "What is that thing you have been chasing, fighting for? What are you willing to do anything to obtain?"

Keilin's voice broke as she answered: "I want—I want the light you have… I want to be able to help the people I've hurt."

Ciela smiled. "Welcome to the light, Keilin."

She stepped backwards and clasped her hands together as she had done for most of her life, and Windam rose from her soul, spreading his majestic emerald wings over her.

Keilin staggered backwards a few steps, wide-eyed, a small bubble of fear rising in her heart.

The Rune God's deep eyes regarded her knowingly, and he spoke in a gentle tone of voice: There is no reason for apprehension. You are no longer in league with the enemy of this world, and above that, you have displayed before me the proper mindset and strength of heart to pursue me.

Keilin's fear vanished, and she stood transfixed before this great phoenix.

You have said, Windam continued, that you wish to know light, healing. Now I ask you something besides: do you desire my assistance?

"Th-they're the same thing," Keilin whispered, almost unable to get the words out.

Windam seemed either pleased or amused by this response—perhaps a little of both—and he paused a moment before answering.

You finally seek me… and now, you shall don me.