LostinWonderlandd: Thank you so much! I love to hear that people love Riku and Meli together. And thanks for saying it's your favorite, that's so encouraging!

Enamis09: We already communicated a couple of times through private message, but I just wanted to leave you another quick note to say that I'm glad that these stories can cheer you up on your bad days! Good luck on your Spanish test (tomorrow, I think?)!

xOneskyx: Haha I know what you mean about being glad you found a story after it was already finished! As a writer I love my cliffhangers, but as a reader it's so nice when I can just skip through them. It's so nice to hear that you love Meli and Riku's relationship. Thanks for leaving a review!

A/N: Psst...hey guys, guess what? I finished the first draft of Inferno's Edge. Eeek! Now I just have to, you know...write an entire second draft. Nbd.

This oneshot was technically requested by Enamis09 as well, but I had already written it when they requested it. In other words, I wrote this one first, before the last one! It runs pretty long, too, but it's another one of my favorites.

I was inspired to write it mainly because of several comments I received on Sorrow's Promise, imagining what Riku's response to Meli's condition would be. I tried to incorporate as much of his feelings on the matter as possible into the main story, but with it being from Meli's perspective there was only so much I could do, of course. So...yay for oneshots!

From the last oneshot, we skipped over Meli and Riku's second meeting at the castle, where he knocks her hood off and he and Sora refuse to fight her. This one starts off not long after that, during Sora's fight with Luxord.

Chapter 46/47 Remix

(Runs parallel to chapters 46 and 47)

Riku's Perspective

She was gone. She had disappeared again. Not only that, but this time it was definitely not of her own free will, and the look of complete terror on her face just before the corridor took her...it was haunting my thoughts still.

If only we could find where in this blasted castle they were hiding her! But instead, we were stuck dealing with yet another member of Organization XIII. Even worse, the guy had thrown around some giant playing cards and made himself and Sora disappear, leaving me here to berate myself for letting her slip away.

As soon as I saw her, my gut had told me something was off. She had always been thin, but it had no longer seemed natural. Then of course when she had started spouting off about working with the Organization, I automatically knew that she was lying. She had been struggling lately, sure, mostly thanks to me. But my Meli would never have fallen that far, to willingly join the bad guys. So why hadn't I figured it out? Why had I not been able to put two and two together, and realize that she was being somehow forced into these attempts at battle?

I kicked the balcony railing, thinking back on the moment when the truth had finally slapped me in the face. I would never forget seeing her eyes for the first time this day, seeing the evidence of whatever atrocities they had been inflicting on her. Grinding my teeth together, I leaned over and clutched the banister, digging my fingertips into the stone.

Where are you, Meli? What are they doing to you now?

At that moment, the giant playing cards flew by again, and Sora reappeared from behind them, without the Organization member.

"You okay?" Kairi asked.

"Yeah, no worries!" Sora grinned. "Let's keep moving."

We made our way back inside, down a long, curved hallway. Ahead, I could see Kingdom Hearts shining through floor-length windows. My attention was quickly diverted, however, when we walked out into the large, open room and found both Meli and the blue-haired man she had first appeared with standing in front of the windows.

I barely even heard the short exchange between the Organization member and Sora through the blood roaring in my ears. Taking a step forward, I stared the man down. "You need to let Meli go."

"Yeah, or you're gonna regret it!" Sora piped in.

"Let her go?" The man gave an evil laugh. "Why, she's welcome to run into your arms whenever she pleases. Go on, Meli, why don't you run and see your friends?"

She stood her ground, though I had no doubt by now she had been threatened in some way to do so. "I know you've done something to her. Don't try to keep pretending that she wants to be here."

"Oh, don't worry, I won't." A blue and gold claymore flashed into his hands. "She's only here now so that she can watch all of you die."

Sora already had his Keyblade at the ready, but before I could summon mine, a blast of wind nearly knocked all of us over. I saw debris flying towards us, and managed to tear my mind away from Meli long enough to turn and block Kairi from being hit. I couldn't hold my ground. I tried to dig my heels into the floor, but the windstorm blew both Kairi and me back out into the hallway.

As soon as I felt a break in the wind, I spun around to try to re-enter the room, but could immediately see that he had put up a barrier wall to prevent just that. "No!" I growled, slamming my fist into the nearly-invisible surface and sending a wave of blue light across it. "Meli!"

"It's gonna be okay." I looked back over my shoulder at Kairi, and she gave me a faint, brave smile. "Sora and the others are in there with her. They'll take care of that guy."

I turned back and rested my forehead against the barrier, exhaling sharply. I knew they would. I trusted them. But I wanted to take care of him myself. If this was the guy who had been hurting Meli, then I wanted to get my hands on him and make him suffer.

I didn't want Meli to be alone, either. Even if I couldn't be fighting her captor, I could have been at her side, helping her, assuring her that everything was going to be okay now. Looking past the epic battle happening in the middle of the room, I watched her, searching for any signs that she was in pain. Unfortunately, I could see them despite the distance. She was tense, afraid to move, her expression clearly distressed.

Hang on, Meli. Just hang on another minute.

Cutting my eyes back over to Sora, I watched anxiously as he and the others dealt their final blows to the blue-haired Organization member. There, he was done for. My satisfaction at knowing that he had met his just end was quickly replaced by impatience when he didn't just vanish right away.

"Why...Kingdom Hearts...where is my heart?" He stretched his hand out towards the glowing heart, then finally began to dissipate.

The barrier wall came down, and I was at a full-out run immediately. The cry that came out of Meli hardly even sounded like her, and made my heart leap into my throat. When I reached her at last, she was convulsing, gasping for air.

"Meli! It's okay. He's gone. You're safe now." I wanted to grab her up and hold onto her so badly.

"No! I'm not...I can't..." She still hadn't moved an inch, her body trembling all over. "It hurts!"

Despite already knowing this, her admission of it tore at my heart. "What hurts?" I would have done anything to make it better, to make all of the hurt go away. Stepping forward, I reached out to gently touch her shoulders.

"No, don't touch me!" Her shriek sent me backwards, but the acute pain that tightened her expression and the whimper that followed nearly broke me. I waited with my jaw clenched tight while she took deep, ragged breaths, collecting herself. "Please, don't touch me," she finally whispered. "You'll only make it worse."

My throat was too tight for me to even force myself to speak for a few seconds. "Meli, please. You've got to tell me what's going on, or I can't help you."

"You can't help me anyway." She closed her eyes, jaw twitching. After a moment, she spoke again, so softly that I could barely hear. "Under my shirt. It's under my shirt."

I stared blankly for a moment, then turned to look at Sora and Kairi for the first time. Sora was just staring back at me with wide eyes and raised eyebrows. Kairi, however, read my unspoken question and took a step towards Meli.

"I'm going to lift your shirt now, okay?" Gently grasping the hem, Kairi pulled it up slowly.

I didn't know really what to expect – perhaps a gaping wound, though there was no sign of blood. What I certainly didn't expect was the black that I saw. Just black, from the band of her skirt up over her ribs, wrapped all the way around her.

"What is that?" Sora asked, voicing all of our thoughts.

Meli still had her eyes closed, a few tears sliding down her cheeks. "I don't know...but it hurts. I can't...every time I move, it gets stronger. Saix had the controller in his pocket. That was the only way to turn it off or remove it, and it's gone."

No wonder she didn't want me touching her. With a pit in my stomach, I glanced over to where the Organization member – Saix, apparently – had disappeared, feeling renewed hatred for him.

"You're gonna have to just kill me."

The words caught me completely off guard. I turned back to meet her gaze, mouth open to respond though I didn't quite know what to even say.

"Please, Grim." The haunted look in her blue eyes pierced into me. "I don't wanna die, but...I can't keep going much longer. I would much rather it be you than this thing."

I swallowed hard. "I'm not going to kill you, Meli. There's got to be another way."

"What are you going to do, march up to Xemnas and ask if he has a spare remote?"

I didn't take the time to reflect on how she was being her usual stubborn, sarcastic self even now. While she was speaking, an idea had occurred to me. "If that's what it takes, then yeah. But first, let's try this." Flicking my wrist, I summoned Way to the Dawn, and the others around me stepped back. I held the Keyblade straight out in front of me, and just as I had hoped, a beam of light shot out from the tip and enveloped the device on her waist. It only took a few seconds for the hateful thing to click and drop to the floor.

Meli was falling. That was the next thing that my brain registered, and I released my Keyblade just in time to leap forward and catch her in my arms. As I knelt down on the floor with her resting on my lap, my brain flashed back to the mansion hallway so long ago. I had never wanted to see her in that much pain again, yet here we were.

"He said you couldn't save me. He said there was no other way." She was crying into my shoulder, soaking the black fabric of my coat.

I brushed a strand of her purple hair, looking much duller than usual, away from her face. "He lied. But it's okay. You're safe."

Oh, my sweet Meli. Whether you ever find it in your heart to love me or not, I will never let anyone hurt you like that ever again. I rocked her gently, rubbing her thin little arm as she continued to take shuddering breaths against me. If only I had gotten to her quicker, before any of this last pain had occurred.

"I should have seen it." I shook my head, furious with myself. "I should have seen that she was hurting, and pulled her out sooner."

Kairi dropped down to one knee next to us. "I knew they were doing something to her, every time they would take her out of the cell and she would come back hardly able to eat anything. I had no idea how bad it was, though."

"What is this thing, anyway?" Sora bent down and picked up the black band off of the floor, wrinkling his nose at it. "Do you think it was using some kind of electricity?"

I looked down, noticing for the first time the black lightning-shaped marks that were covering her skin where the band had been. Lifting the shirt slightly higher to see better, I felt anger rising up my throat again. "Looks like it could have been. There's something else, too, though. I smell darkness on that band, like there was some kind of dark energy involved."

Meli suddenly jolted, fighting to sit up, clawing at her shirt. I grabbed her wrists, tucking them between us as I pulled her back into myself. "Hey, hey, it's okay!" She grunted at me and remained tense, but didn't struggle anymore. Looking up at Sora, I indicated Meli with my head. "Sora, would you...?"

"Oh yeah, sure!" Summoning his Keyblade, he hoisted it into the air and called out, "Meli!" Green light fell down around us, settling over Meli's body before vanishing. Immediately I felt her relax, and her breathing slowed to a steadier rhythm.

It didn't take but a second for her to start trying to sit up again, but I still had my arms wrapped tightly around her. Glancing down at her stomach, I could see that the marks had faded, but they were still definitely visible. "Let's do one more...just in case. There's no telling what that did to the inside of her body."

This time it was Donald who cast Curaga, and this time I let Meli up, though reluctantly. Automatically I missed the warmth of her body against mine. After yanking her shirt back down, she dropped her gaze to her lap. "Thank you, everyone. I owe you guys big time."

"Nah, don't worry about it," Sora assured her.

Goofy stepped forward. "We're just glad we could help."

"I'm pretty sure it's me that owes you," Kairi added, smiling softly. "You've been giving me most of your food for weeks, remember?"

I felt a pang in my chest as I realized then why she looked so thin and sickly – though the pain she had obviously been going through probably contributed, as well. As I started thinking about it again, I tensed in renewed anger, my hands curling up into tight fists.

"That was...don't worry about that," Meli was replying. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"And we're just glad that you're okay." She looked up at me when I spoke, but couldn't seem to hold eye contact for long. "I wish I had been the one to give that..." I cut myself off before saying something I shouldn't, clearing my throat, then continued. "That psychopath the justice he deserved, but...the important thing is that he's gone now." And that she was safe. I had to keep reminding myself of that, that she was safe now. Though, sitting here looking at her, it was clear that it would be some time before she was actually okay again, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever forgive myself for that.

Please let me know what you thought in a review, and if you have any special requests, shoot them my way! Ideas for scenes can be as vague or specific as you want. I'll try my best to do whatever I receive!