A/N: This was a hard desicison, this chapter shows that there's to Aros than meets the eye.

Chapter Five: The Death of a Queen

Sora tried his best to maintain his breath, but he felt his intestines slowly clench together as he heard a terrifying scream behind him. He turned to find Kairi trying to defend herself from a soldier looking heartless, Aros slapped his across the face. He was taken aback by the sudden hit.

"Sora! Save Kairi! Save the princess!" she shouted.

"What about you?"

"Don't worry, I can defend myself." she jumped from Sora's arms, Sora spun around and bolted at light speed to where Kairi was now desperately trying to flee from the creature. He drew his Keyblade and struck the heartless with a single blow but unaware to him another heartless settled its sights on him. A Invisible came storming at him swinging its giant sword, it struck Sora behind the neck. Sora knelt down in pain, he felt his blood leave his body and slowly oozed its way over his neck but that didn't stop the now pissed off teenager. With one quick jab from his Keyblade he destroyed the heartless.

Sora realized they were surrounded by a swarm of mixed breeds of heartless. He spotted Aros, what he saw almost made him vomit. Aros was being pummeled by heartless left and right, her blood was being poured onto the floor like water thrown recklessly around. She was continuously being lifted and dropped onto the floor. She screamed in agony. Sora couldn't watch anymore, but before he could react he noticed Aros pulling herself to her feet. Two heartless noticed Sora's distraction and soon joined each other to pin both him and Kairi to the pavement. He watched helplessly as the girl who claimed to be his wife, the person he was starting to form a relationship with, the girl he begun to love was dying before his eyes. He couldn't summon his Keyblade and both he and Kairi were being attacked by flying heartless. Aros was screaming loudly as her skin was being pierced by the sharp claws of countless heartless. Her body fell to the floor hard, when it did Sora nearly fainted.

"AROS! GET UP, DON'T DIE ON ME!" he shouted. As soon as his voice gave way, his chain began to glow a crimson red just as it did the day he met Aros. He looked at Kairi, her hand was glowing all the same. His mind stopped when he realized Aros's bracelet around Kairi's wrist. A barrier formed over the two, the heartless soon released their grasp as a sign that they were being injured by the barrier. But when Sora tried to exit the protective shell, it simply didn't allow him. He pounded on the see-through walls but nothing happened. Aros was standing but just barley, she was arched over in pain as she held her chest. Blood was seeping through her fingers, she gave Sora one final look before she was impaled by a large sword through her abdomen. She let out one final whimper of agony before the Invisible pulled its sword out of her, blood spilled onto the sidewalk. Aros dropped to the floor.

"Aros! AROS!" Sora screamed at the top of his lungs, tears escaped his eyes and flowed down his cheeks. The barrier Sora was being held in sudden grew to a massive size, devouring every single heartless in its grasp. With one touch, all of the darkened creatures were obliterated.

Sora and Kairi rushed to Aros who wasn't moving. Sora knelt down by her head and laid it in his lap. Kairi also knelt down, trying intensely not to cry.

"Aros, please. Don't die." he let out a few sobs, he swallowed his pride. "You can't die, I need you. The fate of the worlds need you, I can't do this myself." he placed a hand over her chest and pressed firmly on it.

"Cure!" he yelled. Aros laid motionless, not at all affected by the reviving attempt. "Cure!" he yelled again.

"CURE, DAMMIT, CURE!" he sobbed. Nothing happened.

"That stupid bitch!" yelled Kairi who was desperately trying to withhold her tears from escaping her. Sora looked at her with watery eyes trying to understand Kairi's sudden outburst.

"What?" he whispered.

"That bitch! She knew this was going to happen! This bracelet doesn't help coup with lost feelings. It protects you from danger!" Kairi couldn't hold in her emotions any longer and let out a burst of tears. "She knew I would be the one to continue the legacy! She wanted me to survive, she wanted me to live. SHE WANTED ME TO LIVE!" Kairi wailed in despair. A bright glow formed over the now deceased Aros, her heart lifted from her chest. She was pure, she was the light. Her heart glowed a brilliant gold, it hovered over her body and soon rocketed to the sky. Her body disappeared into a veil of gold sparks. Aros was gone, the Queen of Kingdom Hearts was dead.

Two months slowly passed since the incident. Kairi sat quietly in front of her bedroom mirror combing her now long hair. Her features were now pale due to the fact she hadn't left the house since. She calmly slipped on a pearl white night gown and sat back down in front of her mirror hoping the girl in the mirror would hold any advice. But to her disappointment, she had none to offer. To numb her false sense of security she slowly began to rethink of her days events: She awoke, got dress, called Sora, the occasional visit to the cemetery, and back home where she moped around her house trying to find something to with her free time. She hadn't been the same since Aros passed away. Her eyes immediately trailed off to her bureau drawer, which in its wooden grasp laid the bracelet that she forsake and despised. Soon enough she found herself opening the small drawer and retrieving the bracelet. Maybe just this once, she'll try to be happy. She placed it onto her wrist and to her dismay it didn't seem to glow as it once did. Tomorrow she would have to talk to Sora about Aros. This depression had to be taken care of.

Sora laid awake in his darkened room, tears falling slowly down his eyes. He missed it when Aros would come into his room and hang around for no apparent reason. He'd missed that damn perfume she would always put on that Sora hated to admit drove him wild. Why did she have to go? He rubbed his chain hoping that it would glow that color he'd also missed. He also wanted to be with Kairi, first he was destined to be with Aros but now all he ever wanted now was to be with Kairi. He just wanted someone to be with him. He stood up in the darkness unaware of what he was doing and hit his light switch with one quick motion if his finger. He opened his closet and immediately he smirked, there in his closet he examined Aros's wardrobe.

She had been staying in a local hotel but soon moved in with him, he willing slept on the couch while she honored his bed with her beauty and grace. Frustrated he punched the side of the closet door when he did something came flying from one of Aros's shirts. He stood in the doorway for a second to analyze his findings, he knelt down and finally spotted a small book or diary? He clutched it tightly with his feeble hands and held it close to his chest. This was basically the last thing he had to remember her by, surely it wouldn't hurt to see what she wrote in three weeks time? He opened it and when he did, his eyes widened in terror. He dropped the diary and stood, his legs barely able to keep him standing. There was much more to Aros than meets the eye, for most people it would take a while to realize this. For Sora it took him all of ten seconds.

"Sora?" a voice called to him. Sora awoke with a jolt as his head quickly examined his bedroom window. Kairi sat patiently on a tree branch, lightly swinging her legs to the spring breeze, although this wasn't out of happiness, it was a normal sort of nervous tick she had that was very difficult to get rid of. Sora very slowly crawled off his bed, his eyes held large darkened marks indication of sleep deprivation. He opened the window, and greeted his girlfriend with a peck to the cheek. Kairi noticed his eyes, a few months ago they used to glow a brilliant cobalt but now all that flowed through them was a hefty gray. She crawled in and seated herself on a small mesh chair that was seemed to be tipped over and never picked back up. She placed her hands neatly over her lap and stared miserably at them, hoping Sora would break the gloomy atmosphere with one of his cheesy smiles. No such luck, considering he was also staring at his hands miserably, well at a small book that he clutched in his hands. Kairi perked her head up and stared at the small parcel he held, Sora noticed her and sighed.

"Last night, I couldn't sleep so I found this. You probably don't want to open it, it's not a pretty sight." he warned. Even so he tossed her the book which Kairi fumbled to catch. She eyed the front cover and touched it gently with her long fingers. Aros's name was engraved on the cover, littered with small decorations that gave it color. She's wished she listened to Sora because the second she opened the small diary, she held her mouth to keep her vomit from exiting her. She dropped the journal onto the floor and fled to the bathroom (I'm cruel). Sora sighed and hung his head solemnly. This was getting freakishly disturbing. Sora glared at the opened journal, there was an enormous amount of dry blood that swept each page, giving it a dull red color. It happened to be open to the journal entry he had the guts to read, reluctantly he found himself reading it with clear eyes. Slowly he read:

March 14, Monday

It's getting worse, day by day. Why must I suffer? Is my only refuge to except my fate and perish? I'm going to have to stay a little longer so I can assure her of her survival, I have to go knowing that she'll be safe. My legacy must live, the Kingdom cannot go without someone to guide it. I feel... unsure of my future plans. My throat is sore, my stomach aches from the pain I have endured for the last few weeks. My life is dipping itself into darkness... (Sora tried his best to read the last bit of words that were smeared from a large drop of dried blood. Sora chipped some of it away. He squinted)... I can no longer see the light...

He read it repetitiously but he couldn't understand what she was getting at. He looked back at the date and gasped, why hadn't he realize it before... March 14 was the day he had first met Aros. And from the look of things she had written prior then, something was bothering her. Like if she was being tormented, it sounded like she was running out of time.

He jumped when he noticed Kairi pop back into the room, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. She sat quietly back in her chair, her gaze settled back on the book as she realized Sora had finished reading god knows what was in there. Her blue eyes glared at Sora who then closed it and threw it over his shoulder.

"Read anything interesting?" she rasped clearing her throat in the process. Sora shook his head and stood, walking passed Kairi and heading his way downstairs. Depression had kicked both of the two teens in the head and hard too. Kairi stood to follow Sora but stopped shortly after feeling a strange sensation around her wrist, she rolled her jacket sleeve up to reveal the crown shaped bracelet, to her astonishment it glowed crimson again. She tried to move but was unable and quickly arose to a slight panic. The brace around her wrist began to pulsate heavily as she felt her senses quickly evaporate into the environment. Her body felt numb and she had no way to call to Sora. His room began to spin rapidly, her skull began to feel intense pressure as her lungs began to feel compressed. She tried to yell but all that came out was Aros's voice. She closed her eyes and when she came to open them again she gasped as she was no longer herself but in the body of Aros. She was casually seated on the floor as Sora laid conformably on his bed reading what seemed to be a sports illustrated magazine. Kairi didn't have any control over her shell as it seemed to make her talk and move against her will. Her head turned in the direction of Sora as she was looking through the eyes of Aros. The whole thing seemed like a movie in first person.

"Sora, do me a favor? Can you go downstairs and find me a fruit so I can start analyzing it?" she said seductively. Sora did as he was told and scurried off to the kitchen. Kairi mentally raised a brow and felt a sudden confusion left her mind. But before she could analyze that gesture, Aros's body moved frantically to the bathroom and knelt down over the toilet. Kairi didn't know what was going on until she felt a torrent of blood leave her mouth. The warm tasteless substance rocketed out of her mouth, burning the walls of her throat. What the hell was going on? Aros's body coughed up even more phlegm and mucus that sprayed onto the sides of the toilet bowl. Kairi's chest felt tight and dry as she tried her best to attain air through her now burning nose. She desperately reached to the lever and pulled it, the toliet hissed as it ingested the large quantity of blood. Kairi's eyes lost focus as they soon blacked out.

Kairi awoke quickly to the sound of a door creaking open, she sat up and discovered she was in Sora's bed. Sora entered and sat at the foot of the bed watching her perplexed expression. Kairi leaned forward to explain the recent events only to have Sora place a hand in the air to stop her.

"I... I think Aros is trying to tell us something." he said waving a small video tape cassette in his hand. "I found this buried behind the VCR in the living room, I'm guessing Aros is trying to explain to us something." Kairi heard the sorrow and quivering in his voice as he finished his sentence. He stood and shoved the tape inside his own VCR and pushed play, almost hesitant. Kairi pushed her legs toward the side of the bed and sat upright to prepare herself to the worst.

The screen buzzed and whizzed until a young women popped onto the screen. Aros sat calmly in to what seemed to be a café. A mug of steamy coffee sat patiently in front of her, Sora sat with his hand over his eyes. Aros sipped from the mug and settled it back down before clearing her throat.

"Sora, and I'm also assuming Kairi is there with you, I believe there's much to explain." she sighed and wiped away almost invisible tears from her eyes. "First, I want to apologize. For keeping this very dark secret from you."

Kairi turned to find Sora leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, his features hidden under his spiked brown hair. Kairi turned her gaze back to the television screen where Aros was trying to hold onto her tears.

"Sora, I don't have much time. And by this I don't mean that this tape only had thirty minutes of film left. I don't know how to explain this but... I'm... I'm... " she swallowed hard, trying her best to fan herself. "I won't be able to live to see you take your first right as King of Kingdom Hearts. In other words..."

Kairi inched closer to the edge of the bed, her mind trying to think of what was going to happen. Her fear had been realized.

Review. This chapter almost made me depressed. Almost.