Wings of Avalon: haha yeah many things with Nobody Meli are a bit awkward. I wanted to make the whole 'we have to kill you' reveal dramatic, but it's rather difficult when she just...doesn't care. There will be plenty of drama to come, though, don't worry.

coolmegan123: I'm glad you love the little bits of humor that I try to throw in! Gotta make up for all the angst in the past somehow haha.

Forgot it was Saturday for a hot second. My kids usually watch a Disney movie on Saturday mornings, and that's when I'll work on uploading this. But recently we discovered a website where we could download a bunch of old computer games (like, 90s and early 00s) that my sisters and I played as kids and have them work on a modern computer, and the girls have been obsessed with them. So they used their screen time for games instead of a movie.

Chapter 22

Perspective – Riku

I hate making phone calls.

"Ah, Riku. Nice to see you again." Ienzo's face filled the screen of my phone, and I adjusted the angle of my own picture so that it wasn't looking up my nose.

"You, too, Ienzo. How is everything in Radiant Garden?"

"Oh, just the same as usual, I suppose. Even and I are making progress toward having the last replica ready for Naminé, though it's not quite there yet. How goes the search for Meli?"

I couldn't help but break into a smile. The news was still such a relief, even after a few days with her. "We found her."

Ienzo smiled, as well. "Fantastic! And was she in a world that she had visited before?"

"No." I shook my head. "We found her hiding out in a brand new world, actually, that none of us had ever been to, not even Sora."

"Fascinating."

"She is missing most of her memories, as we suspected, though she gets more and more of them back the longer she's around all of us. And even though she tries to deny it, I'm pretty sure that she's eager to get the rest of them back, by being recompleted. Which...brings me to the reason for this call." Ienzo nodded, ready to listen, so I took a breath and continued.

"Do you know of any way to recomplete a Nobody...without them having to be...killed?"

His expression immediately became serious, contemplative. That's what I liked about Ienzo, he was always willing to listen to any ideas thrown his way and give them serious consideration. I didn't need to worry about being brushed off or ridiculed for even suggesting an alternate method might exist.

"Well, I can tell you right away that I've never heard of another way, nor has such a thought come to mind. That doesn't necessarily mean, however, that there isn't one..." He cupped his chin in his hand, brows furrowed beneath his bangs. "Thought nothing immediately presents itself. It seems, from the evidence we have, that the Heartless and the Nobody must cease to exist individually in order to regain their full existence as one being. So that question would be, how could a Nobody cease to exist without being killed?"

"Yeah. I...guess it's probably impossible, huh?" I ruffled the back of my hair, trying not to feel too disappointed in the lack of a good answer.

Ienzo looked away from the screen, and his face brightened. "Oh, Lord Ansem! This is perfect timing. Here..." The phone was shuffled around, and before I could protest I was looking up at the chin of Ansem the Wise.

"Riku was just asking me if I knew of another method for recompletion besides killing both the Heartless and Nobody," Ienzo continued from off screen. "Is that something that you have researched at all?"

"Hmm. Well, it is an interesting question, but –" Ansem seemed to have been ushered by Ienzo to direct his answer to the phone, because he frowned, looked down at the camera, then smoothed out his expression and adjusted the device so that it was actually held out in front of him. "Ah. You must pardon me, I am not quite up to date on all of this new technology just yet. Hello, young man. I was hoping that I would get the opportunity to speak with you soon."

My voice seemed to be stuck in my throat, and I had to clear it twice before any words would rasp their way out. "Um. Hi." If I had known he was gonna be there, I wouldn't have called. Kairi and the old Meli probably would have slapped me for trying to avoid my problems.

"To answer the question, no, that is not something that I have researched, and I have not been made aware of another method. The first thing that comes to mind is to bring the Heartless and the Nobody into the same place, and experiment from there to see if they can be brought together. Perhaps there is some kind of magic spell that a mage would know of that would work to reunite them."

"Well, um..." I tried to swallow down the anxiety that was still clogging my throat from his unexpected appearance. "The only problem with that, sir, is that Heartless is already dead." Did I screw up by letting them kill it?

"I see. Well, it was only conjecture, anyway. I've no idea without actually experimenting and talking to a mage whether it would be possible. My instinct says no, that only both parties dying would result in a true recompletion." He paused. "I presume this is about Meli?"

Hearing him say her name caused a flash of anger to flare up inside of me. He had never really liked her being around, back in the mansion, complaining several times to me that she was 'too nosy' or 'a liability'. It was only my insistence that she was helpful to my missions that had kept him from kicking her out.

"Yes."

He gave me a look that I would have called pitying if I didn't know any better. "I'm sorry, Riku, that I can offer nothing more. Ienzo and I will certainly look into it, and apprise you of anything new that we come across, but...at this point, it may be best to instead try to decide on the...death...that will cause the least mental and physical trauma."

Ienzo poked his head into the corner of the screen. "Yes...excuse me, but I feel I must point out that...the recompleted person will retain the physical trauma from the death of their Nobody. Not to the point of fatality, of course, but they will likely require healing when they awaken."

My grip on the phone tightened. Great. As if it isn't bad enough that one of us has to kill her, I have to watch her die again, and she has to feel the pain of dying...she'll still be in pain when she wakes up. Just great.

On the outside, I merely gave a tight nod. "Okay. Thank you both for your input."

"Riku, I'd like to speak with you a moment longer, if I may." Ansem glanced in Ienzo's direction, then seemed to walk away, the bit of background I could see changing from the walls of the lab to the hallway.

"Um. Okay." It wasn't like I really had a choice, other than abruptly hanging up on him, and I wasn't quite that desperate to get away.

Clearing his throat, Ansem looked straight into the camera. "I have made many apologies since returning to this world, and have tried to make amends as much as I can, though I know that nothing can truly fix the wrongs that I have done. There are still some apologies yet to be made, however, and one of those is to you."

Surprised and uncomfortable, I averted my eyes from the screen. "You don't need to do that, you didn't really –"

"Please, allow me to do this. If not for your own benefit, then for that of my conscience."

I couldn't really say no to that. Inhaling to steel myself, I met his gaze again and nodded. "Okay."

"Perhaps you do not see yourself as one of my victims. However, I used you, young boy that you were, as a tool for my terrible plans of revenge. Yes, our desires may have lined up for at least a time, but I was dishonest with you, not revealing right away my true goals, and became no better than those whom I warred against in the way that I treated you and your friends. I still owe apologies to many of them, as well, but for now let me say to you that I am aware now of how horribly I behaved, especially toward those who were Nobodies, and that I influenced your views of them with my behavior. Most of all, I should not have sent you after Roxas in the way that I did, causing calamity for both you and he...and Meli, I believe."

Pausing, he drew in a deep breath. "For all of this, I deeply and humbly apologize."

I was so taken aback that for a moment I didn't even know what to say. Never in a million years had I expected any of that to come out of his mouth, and some of it I hadn't even realized was an issue until just then. I had been so focused on my own problems and shortcomings during that time of life that I really hadn't defined everything about DiZ – Ansem – that made me so uncomfortable. There was no denying, though, that hearing him say all that released some of the anxiety inside of me that seeing his face again had brought.

"I...thank you. I really appreciate it. And..." Pressing my lips together, I stopped to make sure I really meant it before I said it. "You're forgiven."

His face relaxed into a smile, his eyes crinkling until they were barely open. For the first time, I noticed how much he looked like a kind grandfather. "Thank you, Riku. That means more to me than you know."

.o.0.O.0.o.

"Guys, I'm so excited, this is gonna be so cool!"

I smirked down at Kairi, who was hanging from my arm. "Really? I never would have been able to tell from the way you've been bouncing around all day." She tried to punch me in the arm, but thankfully telegraphed it enough beforehand that I could jerk back out of the way.

"I'd be more excited if I wasn't so tired," Sora moaned, dragging his feet.

Kaj grunted. "Same. Kairi's almost as much of a drill sergeant as Yuffie."

Turning her nose up, Kairi sniffed indignantly. "Well, somebody has to keep you boys from goofing off."

"What about you, Mel? Are you excited?"

Meli had been trudging along silently slightly behind the rest of us. She had been quiet, in fact, since I had broken the news about recompleting her, though quiet was pretty normal for her lately so it was hard to say whether it was related. Now she looked up at Sora with as neutral of an expression as was humanly possible. "I don't get excited."

Scrunching his nose up, Sora stuck his hands down in his pockets. "Right."

It didn't seem like she had told the others about her aversion to the new doppelgangers. Which was probably for the best, honestly, since it might have spoiled their excitement, and I hadn't yet been able to figure out whether or not there was a just cause. I had not personally had any issue with them the one time we had met, but I didn't want to dismiss her concerns, especially when Meli sharing how she felt about something was so rare. Instead I decided to go into this meeting planning to enjoy it, but keep my eyes open for anything weird at the same time. Maybe she had really seen something that I hadn't.

Invi, Gula, and the others were already at the cafe waiting, and we ended up walking up at the same time as Aqua, Terra, and Ven. Introductions were made all around, only slightly chaotically.

Terra's doppelganger's name was Aced, a burly man with what seemed to be a permanent scowl on his face, much different from Terra's usual pleasant expression. His brown hair was shorter in the front, falling around his face, but long and pulled into a low ponytail in the back.

The other new member of the group was Ira, mine and Kaj's doppelganger. He was a bit taller than I was expecting, leading me to believe that perhaps we had another growth spurt ahead of us. Like Aced, his expression seemed to tend toward solemn, though he did smile occasionally. His hair, silver like mine, was almost like a combination of mine and Kaj's hairstyles – longer, like mine, but hanging straight down, like Kaj's.

We were such a large group that we had to take two separate tables. I wasn't sure who was doing the arranging of everyone, but before I knew it, I was being ushered into a chair, and found myself seated with Ira, Invi, Aqua, and Kaj. Glancing over at the second table, I saw Meli sandwiched between Kairi and Aced, and smirked a little at the near-pout that was on her face.

"So, Riku, was it? You're a Keyblade wielder, correct?"

I brought my attention back to the table and nodded at Ira. "That's correct. I made Master just a few months ago.

"Congratulations," Invi smiled. Her long blue hair was down today, spilling over her shoulders as she leaned forward. "And you, Aqua? Are you a Master?"

"Yes." Aqua smiled brightly in return. "The when is...a little complicated, but I guess it'd be safe to say...less than a year?"

That was weird to think about, that Aqua hadn't really been a Master in practice for much longer than me. Of course who knew for sure how long she had been in the Realm of Darkness on her end, but up until then I had seen her as so much more experienced than me. It was kinda nice, knowing that I wasn't the only one who was new to this.

"So I take it that neither of you have taken an apprentice yet?" Ira asked.

Aqua shook her head. "No...well, not technically, at least. Though I have been helping Terra and Ven continue their training, since the passing of our Master."

Invi offered her condolences, which Aqua politely accepted, then they seemed to be looking to me to say something. "Oh. Apprentice. Uh, no. Unless...well, I did help train Meli. But that was actually before I was a Master."

"That's rather unconventional," Invi remarked.

I huffed a laugh. "Yeah, well...pretty much everything about our lives has been unconventional for the last few years." I waved a hand in Aqua's direction. "Aqua, Terra, and Ven were trained traditionally under a Master. The rest of us got our Keyblades in the middle of a war, and kinda just had to train ourselves and each other as best we could."

The waitress arrived to take our orders then. Once she was gone, Ira cleared his throat and focused on me again. "You mentioned a war. What kind of war was this?"

"Well...that's a long, complicated story." Over the next few minutes, I did my best to give a concise synopsis of both the war against the Heartless, Maleficent, and Ansem, and the wars against Organization XIII and the True Organization. Ira and Invi mostly stayed quiet, nodding and looking interested, and occasionally asking clarifying questions.

"It sounds as if the darkness has spread even more here than back home," Invi sighed once I was done. "I remember a time when there was no darkness to worry about. Everything was light, and beautiful, and everyone was happy." A wistful smile played at her lips. "What a wonderful universe it was."

"I want that." Aqua leaned forward with more passion in her voice than I expected. "It sounds so..." Her eyes drifted shut, as if she was imagining it. "Even when we were training under Master Eraqus...as light as that world was, he still was constantly warning us against the darkness. I wish we would be able to know true peace, like you did."

Ira nodded sagely, his thick silver eyebrows pulled together. "It is unfair, really, that people like us and like you must labor so hard, always fighting against the darkness, but it never seems to be enough."

I was pulled into his words as soon as he opened his mouth, as if he was speaking directly to my soul. Anger rose up, simmering in my gut. Anger at the darkness, at all those who had wielded it against us and against the worlds, at the wars we should never have been forced to fight, at the way it had torn our lives apart. "You're right, it is unfair. And it's never ending." I leaned back in my chair and ran a hand through my hair. "Every time we defeat one darkness-bent enemy, another one pops up. I'm honestly just waiting to see what we encounter next."

"As long as things continue the way they are, unchanged, then it's likely it never will end. But our Master envisioned a better world for all of us...a time in which the universes would no longer need to battle against the darkness." Clasping his hands together on the table, Ira looked earnestly at both Aqua and me. "It is this world that my friends and I hope to help bring about."

The anger eased just a bit. "Sounds good to me." I would believe it when I saw it, though. "It doesn't feel like we're ever going to get ahead of the darkness the way we've been going."

"This wouldn't just be 'getting ahead' of the darkness, though," Invi put in, her focus still on Aqua. "This would bring back that world you're dreaming of, the universe full of light and beauty and happiness."

Aqua smiled softly. "If I could experience that kind of world, I think I could truly be satisfied."

"When the Master disappeared, he left behind his plans for how to do exactly that. That is the reason that we are here, in your universe." Ira paused. "Can we count on you to help us when the time comes?"

"Of course."

Aqua nodded, her face solemn. "Yes. Just let us know anything that we can do."

Invi relaxed visibly, as if a weight had been taken off of her shoulders. "We will."

A/N: I thought about attempting to draw the modern-day foretellers, but I currently have no drawing motivation and it prob wouldn't turn out how I wanted, anyway. If anybody else wants to go for it, please do.