DyingofFeels: Yay, I'm so glad you liked it! Thanks for all of the nice words and excitement! It's good to know that you'll miss the story. I'm trying my best to get the next story done, though it still has a ways to go! There will be a few oneshots in between, too, to help keep you satiated. And of course, like you said, ReMind! I'm ready for that to be here.

Nevquariel: Thanks! I'm so glad! Yes, there is definitely a oneshot planned for Riku's perspective. It may not actually cover the events of the last chapter exactly, but I definitely want to write about his trip through her memories to get there. I wanted to be able to include that in the main story somehow, but since it couldn't be from Meli's perspective it didn't really work.

A/N: So remember how I said on Wednesday that there were only 2 chapters left? Well, I lied. Not really, it was true at the time, but it's no longer true. Including today there are 3 chapters. The very last chapter was a monstrosity, at least comparatively speaking, almost twice the length of the average chapter in the rest of the story (even longer than today's chapter, which I'm pretty sure is the longest so far!). I had been wanting to divide it up since writing it, but never could find a decent place to do so. There was just so much happening in one chapter, and I wanted to give everyone a chance to absorb and respond to the stuff in the beginning and not just solely focus on the end. So yeah, I went back and looked at it again yesterday, and found a place to divide it. Now the last post will be next Saturday!

It was difficult at first to convince my eyes to open. Groaning, I rolled over onto my side and rubbed at them with the heel of my hand. I felt like I had been asleep for years.

"Meli? You back with us?" King Mickey's voice sounded from somewhere above me. "Take it easy, now."

"I'm okay. I'm just..." Finally prying back my eyelids, I shoved myself up into a seated position. "Hungover, I guess." Riku was lying on his back beside me, but he was starting to stir, too.

"That's understandable. It was a pretty strong spell." The King walked into view, and there was a guilty look on his face. "I'm sorry I had to do that to ya. It was the only way Riku and I could think of to safely stop you."

"Yeah." Now it was my turn to feel guilty. "Somebody needed to. I appreciate your help."

Riku sat up, shaking the remnants of sleep out of his head, and met my gaze with a soft smile. "You feeling okay?"

"Yeah." Scooting a little closer to him, I wrapped my arms around his neck. Even though we had just hugged only a minute earlier, this one felt better, out here in our real bodies. "Thanks, Grim."

"Always."

Footsteps pounded the ground behind us, and I twisted around to see Sora, Kairi, and Kaj running across the platform. "Mel!" Sora called. They skidded to a halt, happy faces turning understandably concerned. "Is...everything okay now?"

I nodded and got to my feet. "Thanks to Grim and the King, yeah. Are you...okay, Sora? I...barely remember what happened, but–"

"Nah, I'm fine." He waved a hand in dismissal. "I get hurt worse than that pretty much every day of my life."

"What about you, are you okay?" Kaj asked. "You were pretty banged up when you left."

"I was?" Surprised, I glanced down at the dried blood coating part of one arm and spots of my dress and leggings. "Oh, uh...I guess somebody took care of that for me." I threw a grateful look over my shoulder at my two rescuers, then turned back and stared down at my feet, picking at my fingernails. "I'm...really, really sorry, guys. That I turned on you, and...and hurt you, and...I never should have let it get that far, so I could be taken over like that."

"I think I speak for all of us when I say you're forgiven," Kairi replied, a smile in her voice. "We were just really worried about you."

My automatic reaction was to want to continue wallowing in guilt. I didn't know how they could forgive me so easily, but I knew it would be some time before I could forgive myself. However, Riku's words about worth came back to mind, and I forced myself to focus on that for now, instead.

"Thank you." Raising my eyes, I smiled a little at my friends. "For...caring about me. Even when I screw up royally. I don't...I don't get it, but...I appreciate it more than you know."

"Aw, come here, you!" Sora bounded forward and enveloped me in a hug, followed closely by Kairi. I felt Riku's body press into me from behind as he finished out the circle that was now almost smothering me. "Of course we care! We're all best friends, right? We can't stop caring just because somebody messes up, or else our friendship wouldn't last very long!"

"Yeah, especially if we're talking about Sora," Riku quipped.

"Hey!"

The group hug released with quiet giggles. Kaj took another step forward from behind Sora, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "I know you're mad at me right now, but...you cared enough about me to go kinda crazy trying to get me away from my old life. I just wanted to say...thanks. And...I care, too, even though I think you and I have a ways to go to get back to how we used to be."

I smiled at him. "Thanks. I suppose if all of you can forgive me for my mess, then I can forgive you for yours, too."

"Sorry to interrupt the moment." King Mickey strode up to the group with a smile. "But who exactly do we have left to find?"

Sora tilted his head in thought and started ticking off names on his fingers. "Let's see, we've defeated Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene..."

"My replica and Xigbar," Riku added.

Sora nodded. "Mm-hm, and Sai–" Cutting himself off short, he threw me an apologetic glance. "Uh...sorry."

Is he really, truly gone? A hazy memory of seeing him on the throes of death came to mind, and I was flooded with a tangle of confusing emotions. "It's fine."

"So that makes six...plus Vanitas is seven, and Xion and Terra both turned to our side, so that's nine," he finished definitively.

"Sounds like we've got Xemnas, Ansem, and Young Xehanort left...and Master Xehanort himself, of course," King Mickey mused.

"Does that make thirteen?"

Riku laughed and knocked him on the back of the head. "Yes, nine plus four equals thirteen, Sora."

Out of nowhere, a dust storm blew in from the far side of the platform. Wincing at the sting, I shut my eyes and covered them with one arm until it had slowed. When I looked up again, Ansem, the white-haired teen, and Xemnas had appeared, standing in a line opposite us. High up above on a rock column, Xehanort stood, also.

"The thirteen darknesses and seven lights have clashed nine times, yielding these nine keys." Xehanort waved his hand, and nine identical Keyblades appeared in a circle around him.

"Keys?" King Mickey echoed.

"We are four short...but those four keys will be produced here and now," Xehanort stated.

"Yeah, sure," Sora retorted. "And what makes you think there'd ever be any way we'd help you with that?"

Xehanort smirked. "You forget I plan for every eventuality."

Sora's face fell into an expression of confusion. "Huh?"

"If you do summon Kingdom Hearts, we will defeat you, and we will close it again," Riku declared as he stepped forward.

"Perhaps. That is...if you survive that long!"

On his cue, the white-haired teen drew his Keyblade, and Xemnas' hands began sparking blue lightning. Trotting up next to Riku, I leaned over to whisper in his ear. "So...who is that kid?"

"I think it's Xehanort, from the past."

"Hm. He, uh...may have had a hand in talking into this mess," I confessed.

Riku looked at me and raised an eyebrow. "Well, then, I will take special pleasure in sending him back to when he came from."

We were off, charging at Young Xehanort with our Keyblades at the ready, with Sora and Kaj taking on Ansem on our left, and the King and Kairi running toward Xemnas on our right. Any thoughts that this fight would be similar to the one we had already fought against this guy flew out the window almost immediately. The addition of six other people meant that the battlefield was absolute madness. Young Xehanort broke out his whip right off the bat, and it stung just as badly as I had imagined. There were red lasers shooting haphazardly across the platform, and blue heat-seeking missiles, and I had no idea who either of those came from. Xemnas' Ethereal Blades swung by much too close for comfort on many occasions, and Ansem was flying around in his laser cage again. Add to that having to dodge friendly fire, especially from Sora with his fancy new moves, and I was already gulping down my first potion not five minutes in.

It very quickly became a matter of "hit whoever you're closest to" rather than targeting any one enemy. I tried my best to stick close to Riku, like he had said, but somehow before long I found myself fighting one-on-one with Xemnas. Unable to use darkness or cast any magic, I was forced to duck under his blades and get up close. It worked for a minute. I got the jump on him and he couldn't quite get in a retaliation between my strikes, but soon he leapt back far enough that he was out of my reach, yet I was still within his. The glowing blade sliced into my left arm, leaving an almost mirror image wound from the one he had given me on the beach.

As I stumbled back, the whip cut into my shoulder blade from behind. I whirled around, unsure of which opponent I should focus on, but before I could even locate Young Xehanort something came swooping in out of the dusty sky, slamming into me and taking my breath away. Through the wind whipping my hair and the debris pelting my skin, I was able to gather that I was somehow flying.

"Meli!"

Looking around, I spotted Riku and Kairi, and was finally able to pinpoint what was going on. Keyblades. We were hurtling through the air at top speed on a bunch of old Keyblades. How, I didn't know, but I was assuming Xehanort had something to do with it.

"You okay?"

I opened my mouth, choked a little on dust, and nodded. "I think so. You?"

He nodded back. "Hang on tight!"

I didn't really need to be told, since our speed and ever-changing trajectory was quite terrifying. Thankfully it didn't last too long, and before I knew it we were being unceremoniously dumped back onto solid ground. I had barely even gotten to my feet when a Cure light surrounded me. Resisting the urge to scold Riku for using his magic on me, I instead threw him a smile, checking him over for any obvious injuries. He seemed okay for now.

Sora didn't seem to have been caught up in the Keyblade whirlwind, and was still fighting full force. Riku and I tried taking on Young Xehanort together again, dodging around his whip as best we could, though we both still caught a couple of lashes. My Keyblade clashed with his several times, with blows hitting their marks in between. Standing at a bit of a distance, Riku shot a couple of spells when I was clear.

Those blue missiles appeared again, above Young Xehanort's head, and honed in on Riku. So that's who those were coming from. He leapt and rolled out of the way, and managed to only get hit with one of them. While I was distracted keeping an eye on him, Young Xehanort managed to get far enough away from me to start lashing at me with his whip again. Gasping in surprise and pain, I held up my Keyblade to try to block it. Thin red stripes marred my arms. They burned like crazy, and I could feel one on my cheek oozing some blood.

"I'm sick of this guy," I muttered under my breath. I really wished I could use some dark magic on him – after all, he was the one who was so keen on getting me to give in. But seeing Riku clamber back to his feet and dive back into the fight gave me the strength to do so myself.

Riku must have been having similar thoughts about wanting this to be over with, because he attacked with a new ferocity. Diving under Xemnas' swinging blade, I joined him, and we pummeled Young Xehanort until darkness spiraled up out of him. As he fell forward onto his hands and knees, I bent over, panting for breath.

"Are you...laughing?" Riku asked the teen incredulously.

"There's a high price to pay for all of this," he replied.

I straightened, frowning. "And that price would be...?"

Young Xehanort pushed himself up to his feet and locked eyes with me for a moment. "I'll go back to my time, and live out my life. But not all of you will make it through. Someone's journey will end here."

Riku huffed and shook his head. "Like we're gonna believe you."

"Goodbye, Meli, Riku." Darkness began to shoot up around him again as he faded from sight. "You'll believe me soon en–" He disappeared before his sentence was complete, only a few wisps of black smoke indicating where he had stood.

Sighing heavily, I took in the rest of the battle that was still wearing on, trying not to let his ominous words get to me. It's like Grim said – there's no reason to believe him. He was just trying to psych us out. I pulled a potion out of my pocket, and caught Riku doing the same out of the corner of my eye. He gave me a weary smile, and we clinked the vials together before tipping them back.

The good news was that now the remaining two had been worn down a bit by the others, so maybe they wouldn't be as much of a problem. The bad news was before we had a chance to join in the fight against them, the Keyblade storm came back, knocking us off our feet and up into the air again. Clinging tightly to the metal beneath me, I made myself pry open my eyes so that I could look around for my friends. This time I couldn't see them, and that made me nervous. My stomach lurched as the roller coaster ride made a steep drop, then it was disappearing from underneath me and dropping me back into the middle of the battle.

Xemnas practically ran me over as he charged toward Sora, but I had my wits about me enough to jump out of the way and get a hit in as he passed. Chasing after him, I attacked from behind, hoping to gain his attention and maybe give Sora a little breather. He had been going nonstop since this had started, from what I had seen.

It worked. Of course I was immediately unsure of whether the plan had been a good one, since I was now attempting to block a flurry of angry swings. Some kind of spell struck him from the side, knocking him away from me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Kairi jumped in next to me to face off against him. Good, she's okay.

Simultaneously, we sprang forward and began swinging. If I had been able to stop and think about it, it would have been fun to finally get to fight alongside my sister. Her training seemed to have really paid off. The fight was now two blades against two, and unfortunately for Xemnas his attention was divided between us and he was taking a lot more damage. Sora came back in, too, throwing in some magic that sealed the deal.

When the column of darkness had cleared, Xemnas gazed down at his fading hands. "Bested...yet again."

"I know that you have a heart," Sora spoke up. "What do you feel? Was it worth it?"

Xemnas looked up at him. "I feel...the emptiness where my companions once stood. I took them for granted." He held his fists in close to his chest. "And now, I have...nothing."

I gritted my teeth, refusing to feel sorry for this guy. He had brought all of this upon himself, and he was probably around number three on my list of hated Organization members for orchestrating my whole capture.

"My first surge of emotions in years...for as long as I can remember...and it's...loneliness. Do you see? A heart is just pain." Xemnas turned his back on us, staring off into the distance.

"Pain is being human, Xemnas." Sora placed one hand over his heart.

Looking back over his shoulder, Xemnas smiled as the darkness returned to take him away. "Really? It must take...incredible strength." He turned his face up to the sky, then was gone.

Facing the others, I nodded firmly. "Only one left." I could see King Mickey locked in battle with Ansem in the distance, with Kaj throwing in his daggers on occasion. Lucky for him, the height difference made it easier to keep from hitting the King.

"Anyone who needs a break should take one," Riku declared, giving me a pointed look.

I waved him off and turned to Kairi. "You alright? You kinda got thrown into some major battles here without working up to them. Though from what I've seen, you've been holding your own." I kinda wished I had been able to watch her more. She had come a really long way from the first days of training with Merlin. There'd be plenty of time for that later, though, when our lives weren't at stake. "I'm really proud of you, you know that?"

"Yeah, you're doing great!" Sora put in enthusiastically.

She beamed. "Thanks, guys! I'm okay. It's been, um...a lot more hectic than I expected, but...I'm still alive!" She gave a nervous giggle, and winced as something pulled. "Think I could use a potion, though..."

"Here, have one of mine." Handing her the bottle, I nodded toward Ansem. "You guys ready?"

"Yeah!" Sora trotted off to join the fight, with Kairi right behind as soon as she finished the potion. I started to follow, but Riku stopped me with a hand on my shoulder.

"I know this one's important to you," he remarked solemnly. "And trust me, I want him gone, too. Again. But just...don't get carried away, okay? Be careful."

For once, the phrase didn't irk me. "I will."

Even as long as we had been fighting now, Ansem was still going strong. When Riku and I arrived on the scene he was chasing everybody down in his ridiculous laser cage, until Kaj stopped him with a well-thrown dagger once again. Sora jumped in for a few hits, then had to dodge out of the way as red spheres appeared and began shooting lasers sporadically.

Ducking under and leaping over lasers, I ran to the corner where Ansem was floating, with Kairi right at my heels and Riku sweeping in from the opposite side. We hit at almost the same time, but only got a few strikes in before Ansem drew his arms into his chest and started radiating red light.

"Get back!" I yelled.

Kairi managed to scramble to safety, but Riku and I were both caught up in whatever spell he was casting. It drew us in closer to him no matter how hard we tried to run away, our feet slipping uselessly in the dirt. Even nearby debris was being pulled into him. As we neared Ansem again at the center, I cringed and held up my Keyblade, expecting the worst.

He threw his arms out, and the red light erupted with streaks of darkness. I went tumbling head over heels through the air, landing on my side and skidding painfully across the ground. Blinking the dirt out of my eyes, I gritted my teeth angrily and pushed myself back up. That had hurt. Mostly, though, it just served to make me want him gone even more.

Apparently I wasn't meant to do it myself, though, because at that moment the Keyblades decided to make their return appearance, and by the time we made it back to the platform, Sora was staring down a fading Ansem. I must have been letting my frustration show, because Riku appeared beside me and placed a gentle hand on my back.

"Hey," he said softly. "Don't let yourself get too angry. That path is too dangerous right now."

"I know. I just...every time I look at his stupid face I see..." Daggers, flying at my chest. Messy brown hair getting in the way. Blood spreading across a blue t-shirt.

"Yeah. I know." He bent down and kissed the top of my head. "But he's gone now. Try to just focus on that." As Ansem turned away from the group in pain, Riku stepped forward. "Ansem..."

"What...a journey you and I have had..." he breathed.

"You know, it's strange. I think I'm gonna miss you."

The statement threw me off guard. Didn't he try his best to ruin his life? I supposed, though, that theirs was a relationship I would never fully understand. A piece of Ansem had been inside Riku for a long time, so maybe it was a little like losing a piece of himself.

Ansem stayed hunched over, one hand on his chest and the other emphasizing his words. "Your strength is vaster than darkness. I knew I never stood a chance. Part of me wanted to defy my fate...but when the others betrayed us, I found I did not care. And then, nothing else seemed to matter anymore."

"Ansem..." Sora almost sounded sad.

Turning his head, Ansem smirked at him. "What? It is time to move on, boy. There is more to seek...so go forth now, and seek it." The darkness began to engulf him, and he straightened to throw his arms out in one last dramatic gesture before vanishing.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply, staring at the spot where he had been. Somehow I had thought I might feel better once all those people who had wronged me were gone, but nothing had changed. Saix dying didn't make the trauma he had inflicted disappear. Ansem dying didn't make Zeph's death any less real. It still hurt just as much as it had before, and this time I couldn't shove the feeling away.

"Hey, you never know, maybe I've been exercising, too. You just can't see it past my...winter clothes, and...good looks!"

"You still have a lot of explaining to do, young lady."

"You are, without a doubt, the most totally awesome person I know!"

"I thought we said our meetings weren't gonna be so early from now on."

"Come on, do another one of your crazy portal things and let's go check out a parallel universe!"

"And it was just like, 'pow! pow! pow!' everywhere, it was freakin' awesome!"

"But you won't, because you love me."

"'s 'kay, Mel."

I shook my head violently to stop the stream of memories right there, grabbing fistfuls of my hair as the tears stung at my eyes. Kairi was in front of me almost immediately, bending over to try to look me in the eye.

"Meli? Are you okay?"

I nodded sharply, but the lie felt almost like shoving down my feelings had. There was no way I was letting myself get taken over again, even if it meant having to share more than I wanted to. "He...he killed my friend. Earlier today."

She gasped. "Not...not Zephyr?" When I nodded, she let out a watery, "Oh..." before wrapping her arms around me. I dropped my head down onto her shoulder, letting the tears come. Kaj stood a short distance away, watching. When our eyes met, he just bit down on his lip, nodded a little, and looked away as if to keep his own tears from falling.

A sudden idea crossed my mind, and I pulled back away from Kairi, impulsively unsnapping the purple bracelet on my wrist. Removing the fire emblem keychain from the end of my Keyblade, I carefully threaded the bracelet through the ring and fastened it again, holding my breath in hope that this would actually work. It did. Inferno's Edge vanished, and a new Keyblade appeared in its place. The handleguards were blue, and the shape of them reminded me of the Keyblade that Sora, Roxas, and Xion all shared. Two silver pieces made up the shaft, arching away from each other before crossing and forming a loop. At the top, there was an intricately shaped spear point, the edges of which were a mixture of purple and blue.

"That's really pretty," Kairi murmured.

"Yeah." I could feel the power of it humming from my hand to my heart. Perhaps it was the personal connection, but there was definitely something different about this particular weapon that felt stronger than the others.

Thanks, Zeph, for this one last gift.

A/N: Yay for group hugs, cryptic warnings, forever long battle scenes, and new Keyblades! You'll get art (and a name) for the new Keyblade eventually, but not until the next book.