Disclaimer: (growl) you know what I own and don't own.

Alex's POV: The Crystal Blade… It became so, so heavy. I felt it dragging me down, down into some dark place. I felt the darkness flood through my hand. The Crystal Blade was dark… It was consuming me, I could feel it. I tried to scream, but no sound came. I saw where I was. It felt like a dream, but my pain was very, very real. I was in a glowing, seeping, dark mass inside a clear, purple dome. The darkness was leaking out of a heartless symbol- shaped hole in the dome. Wait; was this the inside of Lat-Reia? Was it like this all a long?

As all the dark stuff drained out, I felt it come into myself. I tried to move, but I found myself bound by thick black chains. Then I heard Ansem's voice in my head.

"You have escaped death, darkness, and me for the last time. Let me drag you down to the darkest depths of darkness where your heart will never escape! Before I gave Lat-Reia to you, I gave its deepest depths some of my darkness, where it has been growing since you first laid your hand on the package. Let the darkness consume you, Chosen Alexandra!"

His voice was terrible and piercing. I tried to cover my ears or scream, but I couldn't. I felt tears roll down my face. I was alone. I was alone in the darkness where I could never get out. I was alone. I wished for anyone, even Ansem to be here where I could see him. I felt my heart slowly consumed. My memories were fading; I could barely remember my own name. I wasn't going to survive this and no one could save me, or even be here with me. Then I heard something. What was it? It came again and again, each time louder and clearer. It was a voice!

"Alex!" it yelled.

"Alex!" It was so familiar… It came again and again. Suddenly all my fading memories came back to me. I found that I could speak again.

"CRYSTAL!" I yelled as loud as I could.

Crystal's POV: I ran to her and held her back up.

"Alex!" I yelled, shaking her. I kept yelling her name, hoping she would respond. Then I had an idea. I tried to take the Crystal Blade out of her hand. It wouldn't come out, but I kept trying and yelling her name. After a long time, I pulled on the sword as hard as I could and it flew out of Alex's hands.

"CRYSTAL!" she yelled, sitting bolt upright.

"I'm here," I whispered. Suddenly she had a look of pain on her face and she fell back down.

She clutched where her heart was and whispered, "I'm sorry. You were too late." She smiled and disappeared.

"No!" I yelled.

In her place was a Shadow Heartless. I shakily stood up and looked at Ansem hatefully.

"What did you do to her? What did you do to Alysia and Laska?" Ansem smiled and crossed his arms.

"I thought you would know. Didn't Elleinad show you the picture? Didn't you see it before she fell?"

I looked down and said, "Yes. I noticed that she was weakening while she held the Crystal Blade. Laska too. Why?"

"Why? It is because Alexandra is one of the Chosen. As long as one of the Chosen holds one of the Card Crystals, their power is unstoppable…nearly. I had already planted my power in Lat-Reia before I gave it to her, not only weakening its power, but also weakening the Chosen one and Laska, who is connected to Lat-Reia. It was one of my most ingenious plans, if I say so myself." Ansem said with an evil smile.

"Shut up!" I growled.

"You should respect me more, girl!" He swept his hand in the air and I was knocked back.

"Ouch…" I groaned. I heard a crackling sound. I got up and looked to where it came from. Alysia was struggling against something, teeth gritted. The sound came from white lightning around her.

"Darn those old wizards. It's said that time stops when a Chosen falls. There's magic in the crystals that makes us freeze like that. It's so stupid… It'll wear off soon, don't worry," Alysia grunted. She froze again exactly as she was before. For some reason Ansem looked confused.

"How could she have done that? She's supposed to be weakening because I have some control over Aier-Tal…"

"WHAT!" I screamed.

"I did what I did to Lat-Reia. Soon you'll end up like Alexandra. But how could Alysia resist the spell…?"

"Well, Ansem, there's a little thing called time. Alex had had Lat-Reia for days, and Crystal has had the tainted Aier-Tal for a half an hour," Blackheart pointed out. Ansem grumbled and looked away: he didn't like to be proven wrong. They hadn't noticed that I had followed the Shadow Heartless. I whacked it, not hard enough to kill it, and it cringed and scampered away, leaving Lat-Reia. I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

"Don't run away!" I heard Blackheart's voice behind me. The platform floated over to me, followed by two Secret Weapons holding two struggling Crystal Angel Knights.

"Alysia! Laska!" I yelled. I ran at the Secret Weapons. They had to have a weak point. Nothing was truly invincible, what hadn't been tried? Wait, Link had been able to scratch it, because Nayru's Love was unbreakable. What if…? I pulled out Lat-Reia.

"I hope this works." I had to make it up from here. Lat-Reia felt like a cold, lead weight in my hand. I closed my eyes and drew in the air with the tip of a crystal bat wing. I drew a very large circle.

'A shield,' I thought, 'unbreakable shield of darkness only being destroyed by light.' I drew a much smaller rectangle in the center. 'To put the Crystal Blade through, but not shatter the shield.' I pulled Lat-Reia away and opened my eyes. A circle with a rectangle in it was in the air drawn by a purple line of light. It slowly turned into an elaborate black shield with a slot in the middle, perfect to slip a sword into. I put Lat-Reia back into my pocket.

"Never knew I was going to use something this dark…" I muttered. I took a deep breath and charged towards a Secret Weapon.

Laska got out of the way enough not to get hit by the incoming shield. Although it turned grey, the weapon flinched badly and let Laska go. I pushed as hard as I could against it. It was flailing, trying to keep the protective color on. I saw the grey fade away slowly. It had no choice, the grey was fading away and it couldn't live with it much longer and it was exhausting to keep it on. It couldn't reach over and knock me off; the shield was much too big for that. The grey disappeared and the Secret Weapon was too exhausted to even lift its sword. I slammed the Crystal Blade into the slot. I heard a screaming sound and the Secret Weapon died.

"No!" yelled Blackheart, filled with fury. "Those are supposed to be invincible and it's hard and takes long to make one!"

"It looks like the Card Crystals can do almost anything," I said. All of the Secret Weapons disappeared.

"Not worth losing any more of them…" muttered Blackheart.

Ansem turned to her and said, "Blackheart, we shall destroy Crystal together! We can have the Chosens out of the way, seal the Crystal Angel Knights, and rule the whole universe if we want to." Blackheart raised an eyebrow.

"What's with all the 'we' in this?" Ansem took a step back, shocked.

"But Blackheart! I gave you your evil dark power, your Darkblade, the Heartless, everything. You would not be like this without me! For all these years I've been alone with whatever I've done. I feel like it's time to share something with someone again. Please, Blackheart?" Blackheart looked at him in disgust.

"You make me sick." She took out a sword. It was the darkest thing I've ever seen in my life, even the air around it was dim.

"Goodbye, Ansem. I work alone," she said, pointing the sword at Ansem threateningly. "This is my world, so you do what I say, you old geezer!"

Anem looked angry. "I shall leave then, and take the Heartless with me. Keep your useless creations." He disappeared, along with all of the Heartless. I put the shield down and willed Lat-Reia into a sword. It listened to me now, but it was weighed in darkness: that Crystal Blade was heavier than the other.

"So it looks like it's just you and me," Blackheart said to me.

"And us!" Alysia pointed out.

Blackheart looked sideways at them menacingly. "No, only Crystal will be fighting me."

"No, we will be fighting too," said Laska.

Blackheart waved her hand and they were encased in large cages of darkness.

"Hey!" they protested.

"Don't even try getting out of there, there's nothing you can do for your precious little Chosen anymore." They looked down sadly. Blackheart walked towards me, dark sword pointed to me. I held the very heavy sword in a defending position. I had no idea how Alex could fight with this thing. I'd fall down if I swung it, heck, I could barely lift it.

Blackheart smiled wickedly, "It's over!" She swung her sword across my head, but I ducked just in time. I should have done something, I had an opening! But then a black booted foot slammed into my stomach.

I recoiled and would've fallen over if I hadn't have slammed the tip of the Crystal Blade into the ground and held on. The wind was knocked out of me, and Blackheart was already attacking before I could fully catch my breath. I blocked with the Aier-Tal Crystal Blade. I hardly had the strength to lift the other one, which put me at a disadvantage. That black sword was longer and thinner than the Crystal Blade, and it could easily snake past my shorter, broader sword. And I had only been fighting with a sword for a few hours and using two powerful tainted crystals I barely knew how to use.

I really was at a disadvantage even if I could use both swords. Blackheart was taller than me by quite a few inches and she probably could control her powers better than I could. And she really wanted to kill me. We fought and fought (in truth, it was more like her striking and me parrying blows), until the hilts of our swords were locked together. We were pushing against each other, trying to best the other. Her superior height helped, not to mention she was a little bit stronger than me.

"Give in!" she commanded. I slowly began to realize I just might have to. I could feel my strength deteriorating; I wouldn't be able to keep this up.

I pushed my sword, until my strength could hold on no longer. I submitted and Blackheart threw me back triumphantly. The Crystal Blade landed far away. I had fallen down quite a few times today, but nothing was as bad as this. I was thrown back, skidding on the bumpy blacktop of the street. I could feel my back being scraped through my t-shirt. I was sprawled on the ground with the other Crystal Blade not far away, but there was no way I'd be able even to lift it. I was wasted, I couldn't even move. I was breathing heavily and was helpless as Blackheart walked over to me. I could hear Alysia and Laska's voices yelling out my name, encouraging me. Those two were very powerful; I doubted they had ever felt the way I did now.

Blackheart walked over, completely ignoring the two others' voices. She held her dark sword out, ready to give the killing blow. "See you in hell," was what she said to me. Everything seemed to go in slow-motion. Dark sword coming down. Blackheart yelling. Alysia and Laska's voices. Dark sword, the bringer of my doom. My life actually flashed before my eyes. Was this really the end? Was all hope lost for the Card Crystals, the world, the future of the universe, for Alysia, Laska, Elleinad, Link, and Alex, and the Kingdom Hearts people? For me?