Disclaimer: I don't own Khearts…Square-Enix does (luckyyyyyyyyy)

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Last time:

"I know you…" Mia said, reaching out to touch the woman's face.

Now:

Lafarga caught Mia as she collapsed in his arms. Her eyes were closed and her face was pale.

"Mia! Are you okay! Mia answer me!" he cried, holding her close to his chest. "…I need you…please don't die…I need you to be here with me…" he whispered into her ear. He looked up and saw Goofy and Donald outside, yelling at a caped figure. The hood was covering his face. The figure was holding a chain that held a purple and pink striped lion.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Donald yelled.

"Calm down. There's someone here I need to talk to." He said, his voice smooth and calm.

Lafarga recognized the voice. He gently laid Mia down on a sleeping mat, and walked outside the tent. The figure turned towards him.

"Ah, there you are, Lafarga. I've been looking for you." He said.

"Is that you, Ferio?"

The figure pushed his hood back off his head, and there was Ferio. He tossed hid chin-length blond hair to the side.

"You've let your hair grow, I see."

"Yes I have brother, and now on to business..."

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Inside the tent, Mia was still dreaming. She reached out to the woman again.

"Who are you?" She whispered. "Your face...it's so familiar...like I dreamed it..."

The woman laughed softly. "You didn't dream this my dear, and you're not dreaming now." she said, holding out her hand. "Come with me."

Mia, still unsure of herself, took the woman's hand. She lead her down a long corridor of closed doors, and she looked at each one of them. But the woman didn't stop at any of them. She took Mia to a room at the end of the corridor.

"Why did we stop here?" Mia asked. The woman nodded towards the door.

"Open it and see for yourself."

Mia stood there, not sure. She was ready to run back down the corridor and forget all of this. But the woman looked at her with gentle but serious eyes.

"Yume, I would never do anything to hurt you." she said. Then it dawned on Mia who this woman was.

"...Okaasan (Mother A/N: I'm going to incorperate some japanese in this story from now on )" she whispered, and hugged the woman tight. She squeezed Mia in return and then, after they let go of each other, Mia reached for the doorknob. As she opened the door, a blinding light swallowed her...

Mia opened her eyes and sat bolt upright. She was breathing hard and tears were running down her cheeks.

"Okaasan...I won't let you down!" she whispered. Then she heard voices outside the tent.

"What are you doing here?" she heard Lafarga's voice say.

"Want? All I want is to see the princess, dear brother." A very familiar voice replied. Mia stood up and slowly walked outside the tent. She looked at the person talking to Lafarga and gasped.

"…F…Ferio?" she whispered. Every one of them turned and looked at her. Ferio smiled, like a cat that had caught a bird.

"Ah, Mia! Long time no see!" he said, stepping closer to her. She smiled.

"I'm so happy to see that you made it off the island!" she said, ran to her friend, and flung her arms around him. "I was so worried about you!" she told him. Somewhere in the back of Ferio's mind, he felt a pang of guilt. She had been worried about him... Not that it mattered. She'd be dead soon anyway. She unwrapped her arms from his shoulders and stepped back, still smiling.

"Now you can come with us!" she said. Ferio shook his head.

"I can't…I have a mission to complete."

"A…mission?"

He grabbed her by the neck and held her up in the air. She gasped for breath.

"F…ferio…why…?" she whispered, clutching at the hands that bound her.

"My father is VERY interested in the power that runs in your blood. And the only way to get it is to kill you."

Mia gasped for air. She didn't want to die this way. She could feel extreme heat running through her body.

Release your power.

Mia could hear the voice in her head. It sounded comforting and reassuring.

'Release your power…' It repeated.

'Power?' she replied, but before she had time to think anymore, Ferio pulled out a broadsword and held it to her neck.

"Die." he said pulling it back and preparing to strike. She pushed her foot against his chest and freed herself from his grip. After she landed on the ground, she summoned the Keyblade to her hand.

"You're not Ferio. The REAL Ferio wouldn't try to harm his friends." She said, pointing the Keyblade at his face. He just chuckled.

"This is going to make my job so much easier." He replied menacingly. Mia drew the Keyblade close to her body and lunged at Ferio. He raised his sword just in time to stop the Keyblade from slicing his face. The two weapons clanged together and sparks flew. Mia pushed against his sword, and Ferio pushed back. Mia was no match for her former friend, however, and the she had no choice but to lower the Keyblade. Ferio swung his sword at her and it she jumped backward. She felt a small yet sharp sting on her cheek, and put her hand on it. She drew it back to look at it, and there was some blood on it. She clenched her teeth.

Lafarga ran to his little brother and swung his Gunblade towards him. Ferio jumped back just as the Gunblade crashed into the ground.

"My, my, my. Such a temper Nii-san." Ferio said, and looked at Mia. "This isn't over! I WILL claim that which belongs to our family, Nii-san!" he shouted, disappearing into darkness. Mia sunk to the ground, her whole body shaking. Lafarga turned around and looked at her, the Gunblade still in his hand.

Complete the mission.

Lafarga felt a pain in his chest. 'No!' he replied to the voice. 'I'm not going to!'

Something started moving his body towards her.

Do it, or else, I will.

Lafarga stopped in his tracks. He just couldn't go through with this! Not now...because now he...

Mia fell to the ground, her whole arm was purple.

"Mia!" Donald, Goofy and Lafarga all shouted at the same time. They all ran to her and Donald rolled her over so that she was lying on her back. She moaned in pain. The purple venom in her arm was spreading to the rest of her body.

"What'll we do?" Goofy asked, his eyes filled with panic.

"The only thing we can do at this point is cut off her arm. But we shouldn't do that! She needs two arms to fight!" Donald said, his voice calm, but his hands shaking in fear.

Mia laid on the ground, her breathing getting very labored and weak. Sweat formed on her face and she squeezed her eyes tight, gritting her teeth at the unbearable pain.

'What am I going to do?' she thought. 'I feel as though I'm going to die...'

Lafarga ripped off part of his sleeve and wiped Mia's face very gently. They had to find a remedy soon, or else Mia would die! He lifted her in his arms and carried her into the tent. He laid her down very gently, and she nearly cried out in pain. Her chest heaved up and down as she struggled to breath. Lafarga grabbed her hand and held it tight, and she squeezed his hand in response.

"I'll go out and see if I can find any medicinal herbs around here, you stay with her." Donald said as he left the tent, taking one last look at Mia before he walked out into the wilderness.

Lafarga simply sat by Mia's side, holding her hand and whispering comforting things into her ear. Donald came back into the tent and administered the herbs, but they didn't seem to be helping at all.

After a while, Mia began to feel very weak. 'I should just give up...' she thought, and her breathing began to slow down. She lazily opened her eyes and saw Lafarga sitting next to her, his face, full of worry and concern, looking down at her. Mia closed her eyes and sighed, her hand releasing Lafarga's. They all knew that that was her last breath. Tears spilled down Lafarga's cheeks and splashed onto her delicate body. And, at the same time, they all realized the horrible truth.

Mia, Princess of the Hallow Bastion, and a friend to all,was dead.

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Mia felt her eyes open up very slowly. She looked around, everything was faded bya white mist.and saw that she was standing behind Lafarga, and that he was clutching something and crying. She walked around to him.

"Lafarga, what's wrong?" she asked, and he didn't respond.

"Lafarga?" she repeated. When she saw what he was holding, she gasped and drew her hand to her mouth. Lafarga was holding HER body! But that was impossible! She was standing right in front of him! She took another look, just to be sure, and yes. Lafarga was holding onto her body.

"But if he's doing that, then that would mean that I was..." she whispered to herself.

"Dead? No, you're not. Your heart has just been removed from your body by the venom in your system." a voice came from behind her. She whirled around and saw a small cat with pink and purple striped fur and big, yellow eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"I am the Cheshire Cat. A prisoner of this void between life and death, such as yourself. But, may I ask who you are?"

"My name is Mia, I'm the...Princess of...The Hallow Bastion." she said, the words coming awkwardly, as if she was struggling to remember them.

"Ah. So your memory is starting to fade then, is it? Pity." the Cheshire Cat replied, shaking its head sadly.

"My...memories?" Mia asked, wrinkling her brow in confusion.

"Yes. The longer you stay here, the more and more your precious memories slip away from you, until they're gone compltely."

"...so...if I can't find my way out of here...I forget everything, just like that?"

"Well, not exactly. The things you want to forget or memories that are new to you, you forget quickly. The memories that you hold dear or are old memories, go away slower, but they still do go away."

"So...do you have any idea as to how we can get out of here?"

"'We'?"

"Well, yeah. I'm not gonna leave you here if you still have all your memories."

"Oh. Thank you very much. Now, I suppose we need to figure out how we get back to the real world, huh?"

Mia laughed. "Yes, we should." Then she walked over to Lafarga and gently kissed him on the forehead.

"...Don't worry, I'll get back to you soon." she whispered as she and the Cheshire Cat began to walk away.

Lafarga felt a small kiss on his forehead, but from where it came from, he didn't know. He also could've sworn that he heard Mia's voice whispering to him.

"...Don't worry, I'll get back to you soon." it had said.

And he was willing to believe that Mia would come back.

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I would like to apologize to all my loyal fans out there, you know, for not updating for so long. But I'm back in school now, so I can't update as often as I could when I was homeschooled. I gave you this extra-long chapter as a little apology gift. I hope that you're not mad at me and will wait for the next chappie! Sayonara!

AnimaeGurl