This is my first Narnia fic, but I love the stories a lot, and I've wanted to write this for some time. I hope you enjoy it. It is set one year after the end of The Last Battle.

Redemption- Chapter 1: Truth

She lay in bed sobbing, her dark hair fanned across her pillow, still wet from having just taken a shower. She heard footsteps, so she wiped her eyes, and tried to pretend that she hadn't been crying.

"Su," the gentle voice said. "Are you still mourning them after a year has passed."

Susan turned to face her cousin Anna, who was about 17; she had sat beside her and was hugging her. "Yes Anna. I feel so horrible about it, and I can still remember that day so clearly. Earlier that day I had an argument with Peter, Edmund, and Lucy. I yelled at them so terribly. They left then, and went on that train…"

"Oh Su, I'm sorry. This year has been horrible for you. You lost so many that day."

"It wouldn't have been as bad if I hadn't said the things I did."

"Like what?"

"I told them that they were children to still believe in Narnia, and that it wasn't true."

"You said it was when we were young. I know you stopped believing in it, but for some reason I never thought it wasn't true."

"You had greater faith than I. And I saw Narnia with my own eyes, you only had our stories."

"I believed you though. I still do."

"Don't you see how much worse that makes it?"

"Yes, I do."

"Look in my bureau, the top drawer, in the back, there's a box, will you bring it here?"

"Sure."

So Anna got up and walked over to the bureau. After sifting through the clothing, she finally brought out an ornately carved wood box. She ran her hand along the carvings; she could feel the magic that permeated it.

"It's beautiful. Where did it come from, what's in it? I feel…"

"Like it's pulling you to another place," Susan finished. Anna sat beside her again, and Susan continued. "The box was in their belongings when I identified them. Inside it are rings. According to Professor Kirke's story of Narnia, they take you to a wood where there are pools leading to various worlds. He called it 'The Wood Between Worlds'. The wood is Narnian as well; it came from the same tree The Wardrobe was made from. He had kept a few trinkets in it, but when we stayed there he gave it to Peter. Peter is the one who carved the pictures."

"What are the pictures of?"

"Our first trip to Narnia," Susan's voice broke, but she continued to tell her cousin what each of the pictures was of. "Here is Lucy and Tumnus the Faun, there is our coronation. This side shows our travels to Calormen, Archenland, and the other lands around Narnia."

"And in the center, what is that of?"

Susan hesitated, she hadn't looked at that picture in some time, it frightened her. "It's of the White Witch being killed . . . by Aslan."

Anna's eyes went wide when she heard the name. "You've mentioned him before, Lucy did too. I've always felt such joy when hearing that name."

"So did I once, but for a time it only filled my heart with hate and dread."

"And now?"

"The hate is gone, but the dread and fear is still there. I wish I had your faith, so pure and untainted. Like Lucy."

"When we were children I often envied that Lucy had been to Narnia, but we were the same age, so jealousy was not an unexpected thing. So it wasn't exactly pure, but I've grown up."

"I tried to, be grown up. It thought that meant acting like a lady, but it's not. I was more grown up as a woman in Narnia than I am here."

"Than why don't we go there?"

"I was told that I could never go back, so was Peter. The group was going to use the rings to go back, because they had all claimed to see a Narnian man. When they told me, that's when I yelled at them. I was so afraid that it was true, because I didn't want to be different."

"Do you want to use the rings now?"

"I'm afraid."

"Don't be, fear is more dangerous than trying, because it prevents trying."

Susan nodded, and together the girls opened the box, and looked at the rings. Anna touched a ring, and suddenly they were pulled away from earth. The next thing they knew, they were standing in a large silent wood, surrounded by pools on the ground. The box was still in their hands. Anna closed the box held it under one arm. The two looked around, and to one side they saw a very large golden form. Susan trembled beside her cousin, as the figure approached them.

"Aslan," the girls whispered one in awe, the other in tears.

TBC, but only if I get reviews.