Okay. Third and final chapter to the fic.

Several hours had passed, and Lexaeus still never returned. Xaldin didn't leave the room, either; although he expressed a desire to do so more than once, and Kairi didn't deny him the right to leave, he eventually found some reason or other to remain with her, such as pointing out that someone might discover her whereabouts if he were to leave her alone.

Kairi initially didn't understand why it was a problem if someone found out where she was--until Xaldin explained that only four of them were in on the plan to sacrifice her heart to Kingdom Hearts. While he knew he probably shouldn't have been sharing that much information with her...he knew she wouldn't use it against him and take it as a chance to escape. She was more than willing to give away her existence to benefit in the reconstruction of others', and as unusual as that was, Xaldin was grateful for it. It left them with no complications.

Eventually, Kairi drifted off to sleep. The events of the evening understandably drained her of stamina. Her sleep was a quiet, peaceful one. Xaldin didn't understand how someone could look so peaceful; someone, nonetheless, who knew the terrible fate to become of them. Xaldin stifled a sigh, ignoring a foreign, once-familiar sensation very similar to guilt welling up within him.

When the door finally swung open, Xaldin panicked, fearing that the details of their idea for Kingdom Hearts had been revealed. To his relief, the man standing in the doorway turned out to be none other than Lexaeus.

"What took you?" Xaldin demanded to know, his back still against the wall.

"Forgive me. Number II requested a training session. I could not pass up the offer without coming off as suspicious." Lexaeus' eyes swept throughout the room, finally landing on Kairi--still fast asleep, with her head on Xaldin's shoulder. An eyebrow raised inquisitively as he looked to Xaldin for an explanation.

Xaldin didn't seem to want to give one. Indignant, he pushed her off--but carefully enough so as not to wake her, nor harm her. Lexaeus noticed the deliberate care in her removal and, once again, silently demanded to know the cause for Xaldin's odd, uncharacteristic--thus far--behavior.

"She fell asleep." The third-ranked Nobody rose to stand, approaching Lexaeus by the door. "So what? You're taking over from here? Watching her, I mean."

Lexaeus nodded. "I don't suppose there is anything to really watch, but that is my part in the operation. You should return to the lower levels of the castle. A few of the others, especially Number X, have been questioning your absence in their affairs."

Which was the reason why Lexaeus was chosen to guard Kairi in the first place--less conspicuous. Xaldin truly hoped their plans weren't sabotaged due to the slight change in schedule. "I'll get out of here, then," he mumbled somewhat gruffly.

Lexaeus moved into the room, giving Xaldin room to exit. He paused in the doorway and turned to look over his shoulder at what he assumed to be the still-sleeping Kairi, only to find that she had quietly awakened. Her arms were around her legs for warmth; her eyes, following him.

It felt like a dreadful confirmation to leave her...like it would be the last time he ever saw the person who, just by being near him, gave him back half of his heart--even if only temporarily. It felt like he was walking away from his own humanity, or something he held even more dear than it.

Kairi didn't know what was wrong, but it was as if she knew something was. She gave him a light, reassuring smile. Somehow, that only hurt even more. Shutting his eyes briefly, Xaldin whirled around and walked away from the room in which she was held, with Lexaeus closing the door after him.

The minute the door was closed, the hurt was gone. So was the guilt, the shock, the enchantment...everything he'd experienced in her presence. It was just as he knew. Somehow, being near her made him able to feel...and walking away from her took that ability away.

The only thing Xaldin could feel now was jealousy, and that was at the idea of Kairi possibly--unconsciously--sharing her heart's warmth with Lexaeus the way she did with him. Xaldin didn't like the thought of that happening. But somehow...after he thought hard on it...he was confident that it wouldn't happen. That whatever happened was something that could only occur between the two of them--whatever it was. Her smile as he parted left him with the belief.

But now, Xaldin was cold again. Empty.

And just as he had done every other day, he stalked off down the hall, his eyes on his gloves to avoid the blinding white color of the walls around him. This time, it was like the dull, stinging white could speak to him; it was telling him of everything he'd done wrong. He found it necessary more than ever to keep his eyes on the black fabric of the gloves covering his rough hands.

His paranoid conscience left him prey to the imaginary belief that they were stained with blood.

Xaldin shook his head and sank down into the newly-existent shadows, re-emerging outside the castle.

It was still dark outside, and the silence accompanying the dim light of the stars was mildly soothing. Or it should have been. To Xaldin, it was only an added insult to his solitude. He shook his hair out, preparing to summon forth his spears for training, when unexpected music met his ears.

Peering through the darkness, Xaldin was met with the image of a blonde-haired Nobody sitting atop a ledge, his gloved hands awkwardly plucking at the strings of a blue sitar. Xaldin had never before encountered Demyx outside of the castle walls, and doing so for the first time was jarring to the senses.

Xaldin stepped forward. "Hey."

The soft music continued as Demyx nodded his head in time to the tune, his eyes sealed shut and consciousness whisked away.

Being ignored irked Xaldin. He raised his voice. "I SAID HEY."

The sitar dropped to the ground. Demyx shrieked and fell over the ledge backwards. This gave Xaldin some sense of satisfaction.

"Oh, hey!" Demyx's hands gripped onto the ledge as he hoisted himself back up and swung himself over the side, grinning brightly. "Haha, good one, Xaldin!"

"Yeah, whatever." Now Xaldin remembered why he never approached Demyx of his own will. There was something positively...quirky, about the kid.

Demyx leaned over the side of the ledge with his hands on his knees, a grin still on his face. "Well, what's up? Hey, forget that; wanna hear this song I was working on? It's called 'I Got a Heart,' and the--"

"No," Xaldin interrupted. Then-- "Wait...what's it called?"

"'I Got a Heart'! I wrote it 'bout us! I mean, all of us. So you wanna hear it?"

"To be truthful...no." Xaldin looked puzzled. "If the song's about us, why would you name it that? We don't have hearts."

Demyx pursed his lips together, as if contemplating the meaning of Xaldin's words, then leaned down to pick up his sitar. Thankfully, Demyx merely rested the instrument across his lap. "You know, Xaldin...you guys saying that all the time sure does confuse me. What makes you think we don't have hearts?"

"How about the fact that we were there when they were stolen from us?" Xaldin glanced over at the ledge Demyx sat on, wondering whether he should sit down; after all, this was bound to take a while... He decided against it and remained standing.

"Well...yeah. Okay, our hearts were stolen." Demyx looked like he was thinking so hard on the subject that his brain would collapse from the effort necessary to form the thoughts. "But what makes a heart? I mean...don't you think you can still feel? 'Cause I know I can." His hands inched closer to the sitar strings, twitching before coming into contact with them, like he was forcing himself very hard not to pluck them. "I don't think being a Nobody means you're just not there anymore... I think it's all about making yourself a new heart. Finding out how to feel again on your own, and finding what makes you able to do just that."

The low-ranked Nobody let out a sigh, like he'd been holding his breath in all along. Xaldin, on the other hand, was completely taken aback. He never would have expected something like that to come from someone like...Demyx.

"So?" Demyx asked, evidently proud of himself. In more ways than one, he was a lot like a child. "Whatcha think, Xaldin?"

He didn't know what he thought. But whatever that was, he knew one thing for certain; Demyx completely knocked down all his prior beliefs. Or, if not knocked them down...he at least challenged them. What was Xaldin supposed to think now, with logic as convincing as that? Demyx frequently claimed the Nobodies had hearts. Maybe--just maybe--he was right. They obviously couldn't be tangible hearts, like the ones they were born with before having them stolen away...but they were still hearts in their own right. The ghosts of their old hearts, or maybe--just maybe--the beginnings of new ones.

If it was truly as Demyx said, then Xaldin was certain he'd found the potential source of his new heart; the being who would trigger its construction. And sacrificing that being to regain it in a quicker way was taking the cheater's way out.

"Question," said Xaldin. "If you truly believe all this, then what on earth are you doing working under Xemnas' orders?"

"Oh, that?" Demyx balled up his fist for a brief moment of thinking, then raised his hand and grinned. "Aw, easy! I just want somewhere to belong."

"Got it." Xaldin turned away from him. "...I hope you find that place someday. I don't think this is it."

His declaration made Demyx frown. "Well...okay...if you think so..." Instantaneously, he perked up. "Hey Xaldin! How about hearing my song now? It's called 'Swim This Way.' I swear, it came to me in a dream..."

Xaldin stopped only to look at Demyx over his shoulder. "No. I already told you; no."

Instantly, he paused. "...Would you grant me a favor? I need help distracting someone..."

X X X

He couldn't believe he was doing this. Everything--all the decisions he'd made thus far, and all the events soon to follow--they took place over such a short amount of time. For Xaldin, rapidity was normally a welcome idea...but not when it was something as important as this.

He came upon the Altar of Naught and stood still, knowing very well that the demon guarding the makeshift Kingdom Hearts would be able to sense his arrival. Sure enough, Saix turned around, drawing his eyes away from the heart-shaped moon to lock his yellow eyes onto Xaldin's blue ones.

Saix was a chilling sort of Nobody. They all claimed to be filled with nothingness; to function off of emptiness and exist in uncertainty, wedged uncomfortably in-between light and darkness. But they all mimicked thoughts and feelings they were once capable of having.

Saix, however, did not. He was so cold, so detached, that he was practically robotic. He displayed no emotion whatsoever--not even in imitation or effigy. The closest Xaldin ever saw the man depict when it came to sentience was when he entered into Berserk mode, and that was nothing but savagery. Xaldin always assumed it was because he couldn't remember what feeling...felt like. It must have been so long ago for the Berserker, especially as it was common-known knowledge in The Organization that he was well over a couple hundred years old.

"Three." It was possibly meant to be a greeting, but as always, there was no depth to Saix's tone. "What do you require?"

"I came to tell you about something." Xaldin folded his arms behind his back, as was customary for him to do. "I thought you might want to stop it."

Saix blinked, calm--emotionless--as ever. His silence signified that he was waiting for the details of whatever was to follow.

"Some Nobodies intend to interfere with Kingdom Hearts' construction. They have their ideas all planned out and everything." Part of him was screaming at the other part of him, demanding to know what he thought he was doing. But during the time Kairi allowed him to spend with her...Xaldin was given the opportunity to feel again. To share her heart. Even if it never happened again, he wasn't going to let the other three harm her. He owed her that much.

"They're going to sacrifice the heart of one of the Princesses. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this is against Xemnas' orders...which makes it treason..."

Saix's eyes flashed dangerously. "Names."

X X X

Xaldin returned to the floor Kairi was on, advancing towards the door. He came to a stop as he heard the familiar voice of the Nobody he would now admire for the rest of eternity accosting the overbearingly tall form of his superior.

"Hey Lex-us!" said Demyx, mispronouncing Lexaeus' name as always. He jumped up and down on alternating legs the way he did whenever he was in trouble. "Can you help me? I locked myself outta my room again and I need you to knock the door down! Again!"

Lexaeus squinted at Demyx, then looked up and over at Xaldin, requesting with his eyes that he take over his position, for the time being, as the one guarding Kairi's door. Xaldin discreetly nodded; Lexaeus stepped away from his post and followed Demyx down the stairs.

Xaldin watched the both of them until they disappeared from sight. Relieved, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Kairi looked up the moment he walked in, a cheerful smile lighting her face. "Is everything okay?" she asked, concerned.

"It's about to be." Xaldin swept across the room and snatched her by the arm, forcing her to rise with him and stand. "You're going home."

Kairi was confused; and she had every right to be. "What? But I thought..."

"What part about 'going home' don't you understand?" Xaldin snapped testily. "We're not going to be sacrificing you. Simple as that. Now quick, before somebody realizes we're leaving..."

"But your heart..." Kairi's eyes fell to the floor before flitting back upward. She was still as selfless as she was to begin with. "What about that? I want you to get it back..."

Xaldin glanced over to the door, then turned back to face her. "I know you do. That's what I found out about you. But you don't have to give yours away in order for me to get mine back... Someone just told me something, and now it makes sense. We're reborn as Nobodies...not to slaughter others for our own sake, but to learn how to rebuild our hearts on our own."

After trying his hardest, he found himself able to smile. It was a small smile, and not filled with as much compassion as he would have liked, but it was the best he could come up with. That part of the whole process...he was still getting accustomed to. "Or maybe it's not reconstruction. Maybe we end up with completely different hearts at the end of all this. I'd like to think we're new people... Maybe it's true."

Once she'd taken in everything Xaldin said, Kairi raised her eyes onto his once again and smiled. His words encouraged her; she truly felt happy for him and his new discovery. "But, just so you know..." She giggled, clasping her hands behind her back. Placing their arms behind their backs was a very similar habit that the both of them had; and it was possible that Kairi had developed hers after watching him do the same, for so many years. "You were never bad to begin with. You have nothing to be ashamed of, Di--"

She was silenced by his index finger sealing itself over her lip. Her eyes crossed to follow his finger, then straightened themselves out as she gazed silently at him. She hoped against hope that she was only imagining her face burning.

"I'd appreciate it if we forget that name, and leave it to be buried with the person whose body it belonged to." Xaldin fixed his attempt at a smile onto his face again. It wasn't the real thing, but Kairi saw it as a smile regardless. "Dilan betrayed a great man. Xaldin won't betray his daughter. Besides...if it hadn't been for your heart, I would never have remembered how to feel again."

Kairi's amethyst eyes rounded, misting over with the traces of what threatened to become tears. Xaldin removed his hand from her lips, only to cradle her face.

Whatever fear Kairi had...wasn't even worth paying attention to anymore. She let her eyes close as she quietly leaned her head against his chest, daring to hug him. The action caught Xaldin off guard, but filled the empty space within him--the space that would one day become a makeshift heart of its own, and was well on its way there because of her--with warmth. Light.

Holding onto each other, they sank down into the shadows.

X X X

"Come..."

Xaldin rushed down a new hallway, his hand tightly clasped around Kairi's. "I can't teleport to another world; just to places in whichever one I'm in at the time. But there's a room in this castle that allows you to switch worlds. That's where we're headed..."

Kairi nodded, running her fastest to keep up with him. "You--" Her speech was broken only by her panting. "--Should come...too...to the islands..."

He quickly flung a door open, only to hesitate before entering. "...I don't know."

Due to the rate at which they came to a stop, Kairi found herself flying face-first into him. Xaldin helped steady her; Kairi placed her hands on either of his arms to regain balance, then looked up at him and smiled. "You would like the islands!" she assured him. "It's so nice there...so peaceful, and happy. I think it's a place for people to start over. And you said you're starting over...right?"

Xaldin nodded. "...Yeah...why not? I guess there's no reason not to--"

"GUYS! GUYS, RUN!"

Both Xaldin and Kairi turned to face the direction in which the screams were coming.

Demyx was running towards them, chasing after Lexaeus--whose tomahawk was out and extended. Xaldin's eyes widened; so, too, did Kairi's, but with horror.

"Dunno how much longer I can distract him...Lex-us!" Demyx thrust his fists forward, dousing Lexaeus in an ample amount of water.

Lexaeus blinked, then growled, shaking his head out to rid his hair of water. Even with Demyx's best hose attack, he rounded his attention on Xaldin and Kairi. Xaldin, noticing this, promptly threw open the door to the Other World room and shoved Kairi inside, summoning two of his six spears to his sides.

"Hold him! Just a little longer!"

"Right, right...uh...oh boy..." Lexaeus charged forward to ram his tomahawk into Xaldin. Demyx chose that moment to smash his sitar over the giant's head. The action caused Demyx's sitar to break, as Lexaeus' head was considerably hard; but it stalled Lexaeus. In his rage, he redirected his onslaught onto Demyx, whose eyes were widening with panic. He knew he couldn't take him. But at the very least, he'd bought Xaldin time. Glancing over Lexaeus' shoulder, he grinned at the first--and last--friend he felt ever made, giving him the thumbs up and nodding vigorously.

Xaldin mouthed a "Thank you" in return, wondering if Demyx ever even saw it. He rushed into the room Kairi would undoubtedly still be in, staring around for any signs of her.

He should have known things wouldn't be that easy. When he found her, she was already held tightly in Zexion's grip.

"Ah, hello..." Zexion greeted without any warmth, managing to sound completely disinterested. "I was just telling her about the way in which Vexen plans to kill her. Or...I should say planned." Eyes narrowing, he tossed the girl down to the floor and gave her a swift kick, approaching Xaldin with fury. "Want to know why I corrected myself? Because Saix somehow got it into his mind that Vexen was a traitor. And now he's dead."

Xaldin could tell Zexion knew that he'd betrayed their plans to the Luna Diviner. Shaking his head incredulously, Zexion slapped himself in the forehead. "We four were assistants to Ansem the Wise...together, we overthrew him, placing his authority into Xehanort's hands. We've always been in everything together... Now why the hell would you go and tell a neophyte like Saix what we were up to?"

Kairi flinched at the names mentioned, even while lying face-down on the floor. Xaldin scowled. "Pity...even Demyx is smarter than you."

"Well. Anyway," Zexion went on, as if he couldn't hear him. "Vexen was good for something after all. Used his last dying strength to alert Lexaeus, who went on to alert me. Now, I suppose I'll just have to kill you myself...which is a shame. I so hate dirtying my hands."

As if things couldn't get worse, Lexaeus emerged into the room shortly after. "Little pest..." His one-handed grip on his tomahawk tightened as he raised the weapon above him. "You will not have to. Take the girl, and I'll kill the traitor in your place."

"You don't get it, do you? You asshole!" Zexion rounded on him. "We can't go through with the sacrifice now. Xemnas is going to kill us! We'll just take these two down with us..."

If there was going to be a fight--and Xaldin now knew that there was--he didn't believe Kairi could defend herself. Xaldin was more than capable of killing a man; even two. But Lexaeus' brute, unrivaled strength, matched with Zexion's manipulation of the shadows, did not make for a good combination in an opponent. Not only that, but Kairi would only get in the way. Rushing, he forced open a portal in the air behind him, motioning towards it with a spear. "Go in! I'll catch up with you!"

Kairi obviously didn't want to leave Xaldin behind on his own; despite her inability to fight, she despised the idea of abandoning someone in trouble... "Xaldin..." She struggled against the tears threatening to form of their own accord. Zexion's arms were bathed in swirling shadows; a poisonous look in his eyes alarmed her. He was dashing straight towards her--

She had no doubt that Xaldin could defend himself long enough to break away from the two. But if she remained in his presence, she would only be a distraction; a hindrance to their battle. She threw herself out of the way of Zexion's attack, skidding along the floor. The physical pain was unimportant at present... She forced herself up and dove into the portal, disappearing from sight.

Xaldin sealed off the entryway to the Destiny Islands, finally at peace. She was gone...she was safe now. He'd returned the favor. She gave him the ability to feel again, when in her company; she made him realize that he didn't need Dilan's heart to become a Somebody again. That he could work on it, on his own...and possibly, she was willing to assist him.

For that, he owed her his soul.

X X X

Kairi couldn't believe the sun was rising. She should have been exhausted; she could feel that she was supposed to. Somehow, her panic over Xaldin's well-being kept her wide awake, and prevented her from rowing back to the mainlands.

Since this was the spot he directed her in, she assumed this was the spot he would arrive in, too. Obediently, Kairi sat down in the sand, her hands in her lap and eyes on the ocean, its surface beginning to shimmer with the light from the rising sun. It instilled calm within her; it lent to her the idea that everything would be okay.

It seemed incredibly strange to Kairi, but true...when she realized that this was the spot she'd waited in, day after day, for Riku and Sora--but now, she sat waiting in that spot for Xaldin. She gave into a calm, peaceful laugh, hoping neither one of them would mind if they ever found out.

Kairi was happy that Xaldin would be coming to the islands. He was a connection to her last life; the days of happiness that drifted on by before all of that was brought to an abrupt end, only to be spiraled into an even better happiness. Yes...life here on the islands, waiting for Riku and Sora, was what she would have chosen at any given moment (only topped by life with Riku and Sora), but still...she'd learned that it was nice to remember your past rather than smother it. And once Xaldin was on the islands, she could talk with him about that past. They could reminisce over the days when her father brought back huge stacks of Sea Salt ice cream and forced all the inhabitants of the castle to try the various flavors they came in... She especially wanted to ask him if he remembered the days when Ansem would choose an assistant, at random, to entertain her in her childish games--hold tea parties and play dolls. With a grin, Kairi resolved to admit to Xaldin that he had been her favorite playmate out of them all.

Hours passed on by as Kairi waited for his arrival; the only way she could tell was from the intense beating of the sun down on the back of her neck, which came across as sudden to her. She hadn't realized so much time passed between her return to the island and...now.

When she did come to the acknowledgment that Xaldin was taking long, she began to panic all over again. Did battles take hours? Kairi knew that battles such as the ones in wars did, but Xaldin only intended to distract his two adversaries long enough to follow her home...

Although afraid to do so, Kairi closed her eyes, her hands seeking refuge upon her heart. Before...she hadn't been able to feel Xaldin's heart. But her own, now, felt connect to his soul--it felt connected to all the souls of those she grew to hold dear to her. It was the only way she kept tabs on Riku and Sora while they were so far away; by feeling if they were okay. Desperately, she begged her heart to reveal to her if Xaldin was alright; if he was free from harm...

She had to search deep within herself to find the answers she sought. It was harder, when the person you'd connected yourself to had no heart to reciprocate the connection. But she finally found it.

Her heart crunched.

Letting out a soft, painful gasp, Kairi's eyes squeezed more tightly shut than before; and she doubled over in the sand, her tears flowing freely.

Even they hurt.

Thank you for reading! (Oh, how I love my sad endings.)

Yep. Vexen, Demyx, and Xaldin all died in the same chapter.

I swear I didn't do that to piss off the guy I wrote this for.

Crap, strike-through doesn't work!

Anyway...thanks again, and take care!