Disclaimer: All the chibis are back in Aries' house, covered with scratches and gasping for breath

A28: I told you not to go out there.

Chibi Riku: Fine, we'll stay. But only until the fangirls leave.

Chibi Cloud: And only to remind you to say that you don't own us.

Chibi Squall: If that isn't proof that fate is cruel, I don't know what is.

A28: Yes, Squall, it truly is a cruel world where I don't own you guys. But I don't.

Chibi Riku: I don't think that's what he meant . . .

Chapter 11

"Have a nice day, kupo!"

"Umm, you too!" She called back as we went back into the bright sunlight. Ug. Sunlight. I squinted, trying to make out the shapes around me, and saw Amaya looking up at me with concern, "You should get some sunglasses, Leon."

I grunted noncommittally, but started walking over to the Sunglass Hut.

A girl with dark hair and warm brown eyes greeted us. "Hello Mr. Leon! Looking for anything special today?"

" . . .What do you have?"

"Well, let's see, for your face shape . . ." she tucked her black hair behind her ear impatiently as she scoured the rows and rows of frames, "Here, try these on!"

I looked in the little mirror. Hey, not bad. She must have a good eye for this stuff. Well, she does work here. " . . .Sure, these work."

"Yay!" Her brown eyes glowed as I handed her the glasses and got my wallet out of my pocket. She must have seen my raised eyebrow, because she suddenly flushed and smiled sheepishly, "Sorry. I'm just excited that you liked the ones I picked out."

"It's okay," I looked at her nametag, "Samantha."

She giggled, handing him the glasses, "Come by and see me again, okay?"

I just took the bag and walked out. That smile—how did someone else have that smile?

"Did you . . .know her, Leon?"

I looked down at the girl by my side, "I don't think so. I meet a lot of people, though, so maybe." I looked around the square, "How do you want to kill the next hour?"

"Hm? Umm . . .I don't know . . ." she looked and saw a sign across the way, "Ooh! Look! Ice cream! I haven't had ice cream in so long! Let's get some!" She gave me a thumbs-up sign, "My treat?"

Why not? It was sweltering out here. "Sure."

"Ice cream!" She almost ran over to the little shop, me trailing behind. Wow, and here I was thinking she wasn't such a kid. "Ooh! Ooh! Should I have chocolate chip? Or mint? Or maybe one of the fruit kinds? It's been so long since I've had ice cream!" She bounced all over the store, generally making a nuisance of herself, and taking a good fifteen minutes just to decide what she wanted—a triple scoop strawberry sundae. She sat down in the chair opposite me, where I had been sitting, eating my ice cream while she'd been deciding. She giggled into the first bite.

"You have no idea how much I've missed ice cream!" She exclaimed around a mouth full of the sugary mess.

"I think I have an idea, now."

She gulped self-consciously, "Oops, sorry. It's just that's it's been almost a decade since I had ice cream. And I love ice cream!"

"I can see that."

"Oh, you!" She stuck out her tongue, red from the strawberry syrup.

I inwardly smiled; she really was the same little kid who'd followed us around back home.

We sat in a comfortable silence, just eating ice cream, watching the people walking by. "I think it's about time to go check up on that necklace of yours."

"Hm? Okay." She scraped the last bit of vanilla ice cream out of the bottom of the bowl and followed me out the door, thanking the people behind the counter one last time. Bright sunlight? Hah. If I'd been about, oh, fifteen years younger, I would have laughed at it. I've got my sunglasses now. Yeah, I'm cool. Except I'm twenty-six, not eleven. So I just put on my glasses and mentally mocked the sun as we walked back to the accessory place.

"Kupo-upo! Here's your necklace!" Mog went to go get the necklace, but stopped, and held it up, "Do you have any more stones like this one?"

Amaya shook her head, "No. I just came across this one by chance."

"Hmm, pity, kupo," he handed the necklace over, "It's such an interesting material, kupo!"

"Well, if we find any more, we'll let you know!" She smiled brightly, holding the necklace in her hand.

She zoned out for a minute, just staring into space, her hands mindlessly working the latch.

"Need some help with that?"

My voice seemed to snap her out of it, and she smiled brightly, "If you don't mind," she handed the necklace over and lifted up her hair. I carefully put it around her neck, fastening the latch. The little charm had gotten stuck at the back, so I moved to put it back in front. The second I touched that jewel, I felt an odd jolt go through me, though not an entirely unpleasant one. It was like feeling a whisper. I moved the charm back around to the front.

She bounced over to a little mirror the moogles had put on a counter, "Oh! It's beautiful! Thank you so much, Leon, I owe you one!"

I shook my head, still feeling the odd whispers, "It's nothing," I said, though I wasn't sure whether it was to her or to myself.

We'd decided to go home after Leon bought me my necklace. He's so quiet. He always was, but it seemed like a different quiet now. It really set me on edge. Especially the way he kept looking back at me like I was some kind of psycho.

"Umm, Leon? Is there ice cream on my face or something?"

"No."

"Then why do you keep looking at me?"

" . . ."

Great, thanks for being so informative. After a few more glances, I realized he wasn't looking at me—he was looking at the necklace.

"Is something wrong, Leon?" I asked, holding up the charm so he could see what I was talking about.

"Where did you get that thing?"

"Well, you just bought it for me," I said, feeling in a smart-alecky mood for some reason. I guess I just wanted to get some kind of rise out of him. I wanted to smack myself. Great way to get him to like you, Amaya, be sarcastic with him.

No reaction, "That's not what I mean. Where did you get the stone?"

I felt a moment of confusion. When had I gotten it? "I . . .it's weird, you know? I've asked myself that and . . .I don't remember."

"You don't remember?" It sounded more like a statement than a question, but I could hear the disbelief.

"I know, it's strange. I don't think I had it back in Hollow Bastion, or on that other world I was on, but I had it when I got here. It's not like we made any pit stops on the way . . ." A light went off in my head, "Wait! I can ask Riku!"

" . . .Riku?"

"He would know if I got it before or after I met him for sure!"

"Hm. Maybe."

We opened the door to get back home, "We're home!" A smattering of heys, howyadoins, and hellos came back, "Has anyone seen Riku?"

"Actually," Kairi answered, "He just went to Merlin's."

"Oh."

Aerith looked up, "Why don't you go to Merlin's house, too?"

I turned back to Aerith, "Huh?"

"He's a nice old guy. And besides, maybe he'll be able to tell you something about why it took so long for you to get off that world, and why you were there in the first place."

"Oh, okay. Umm . . .where is his house?"

Aerith looked at the ceiling, clearly following the route in her head, "You know where that little shrine is?"

I nodded, "Uh-huh."

"To the left of that, there'll be a short alley-way with one door at the end. The door will have a picture of a flame on it. Go in there, and walk on the stepping stones to get to the house."

"Got it. Shrine. Alleyway. Door with flames. Stepping stones. House."

"Right on." She gave me a thumbs up, and I sighed as I walked out that front door for what seemed the bazillionth time that day.

"So, you are the Riku I've heard so much about."

"Depends on what you heard," I said, weakly trying to make a joke. He looked like a harmless enough man, using his power for stupid things like flying teapots, but he was probably a lot sharper than he looked. He had to be—Ansem himself didn't mess with this guy. That's the only reason he hadn't pushed harder for the acquisition of Traverse Town. It would have been a huge accomplishment to conquer this place; it was the natural resting place for those whose worlds had been destroyed. If all those souls went to a world swallowed in darkness—

"Oh, not too much. Only that you are the friend of Sora and Kairi, but that circumstances led you to fight against each other."

"Circumstances."

His whiskers shifted in a smile, "I would hold on to them, were I you. They are good friends, that would be able to see through those circumstances to the real you."

I shook my head, "They don't see the real me. They never have. I'm capable of things they would never dream of doing," I wanted to punch a hole right through the wall, but that's not exactly a good way to make an impression. 'Not that he seems to mind holes in the walls' I thought, looking at the 'door', "Neither of them would have turned to darkness, no matter how bad they wanted something."

He sobered, "You are right. They wouldn't. But," he continued, "They would sell their souls to the light."

"Isn't that what everyone wants? A world of pure light?"

Merlin shook his head, "Both sides must exist together. We only know what light is by its contrast with shadow. Without that shadow, we cannot exist."

Theses arguments . . .they sounded too much like Ansem's. The darkness is a natural part of us. What do we gain from hiding from it, hiding it from ourselves? Nothing. Accept the darkness within yourself, Riku.

His voice grew firm, "I am not trying to harm you, Riku. Nor am I trying to take you back to darkness. I am trying to tell you that neither a world of light nor darkness can exist alone. They must exist together. We must—"

"Accept the light and darkness within ourselves."

We both looked up, startled to see Amaya, standing there in the doorway. "It was in that old book in the library. 'If you can find in within yourself to accept both your own light and your own darkness, the door will open.' That's what you're saying right?"

Merlin nodded sagely, "Exactly."

"Open the door? That's what Ansem was trying to do! You guys are nuts! Absolutely nuts!" I pointed at both of them, "That's why I closed the door again. It would have destroyed everyone to open it! Do you have," my voice cracked, "Any idea what's in there?"

"You're right, Riku. Opening it the way Ansem was planning to would have destroyed us all, because he was forcing it open. The door is not meant to be forced; rather, when it senses that the balance is to be restored, it will open of its own accord. That's why—" he stopped short, "My dear, what is that around your neck?"

She clutched at it self-consciously, "It's—it's nothing. I found it, and I thought it was pretty, so I had it set. It's probably not even worth anything."

"Let me see it."

She walked forward, but strangely, like she was resisting each step. She held up the stone for him to see. He took the little charm in one of his old wrinkled hands, "Do you know what this is?" He asked quietly. She shook her head mutely. He turned the jewel over in his hands, "It's such an odd stone. Like a summon stone but—"

"But . . .?"

"There's something wrong. The energy coming from it is . . .different. You must have felt it." It was and wasn't a question. It was clear that he thought there was no way she couldn't have felt whatever this energy was, and that he was just being polite, asking for clarification. Or maybe he was waiting to see if she would deny it.

"I . . .I have felt something, but . . .I don't know what it is. It makes me think . . .things."

"What kind of things?" He asked, quickly, dropping the stone back to its place.

"I . . .I get possessive over it. And, well, I don't know. Sometimes I think . . .this is going to sound crazy."

"Nobody thinks you're crazy," Merlin soothed, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"It's like . . .a whisper. I can't quite catch the words. But there's someone whispering."

He nodded, "That feeling isn't uncommon with a summon gem. But it doesn't normally feel like this. Most summons," he turned to include me in this explanation, "Are gentle protectors. They were too pure to fall when their worlds did, and so they became spirits, a jewel their only material bulk, that protect those still living. This one . . .it feels dark. Brooding. Angry. With feelings like those, how did it become a summon?"

He didn't seem to expect an answer, which was good, since I didn't have any.

"Who could it be?" He wondered. Amaya seemed to stare into space. Then she went very pale. Then she fell on her knees and started crying.

I ran over and knelt next to her on the floor, "Amaya! Amaya, what's wrong?"

She was just sobbing, shoulders racked with it. I didn't know what to do. I've never been good with crying girls. "How horrible, how horrible," she just kept muttering over and over.

"What's horrible?"

She looked at me with wide eyes, "I didn't mean to do it! I swear I didn't mean to!"

Okay, now I was scared. I had started to hug her at some point, and I guess it was making it better, since she was hugging me back, sobbing into my shoulder. "I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to!"

"Didn't mean to what?"

But she just kept shaking her head, crying, "I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to!"

Review Responses

Riku of Darkness: Whoa! That must have been the fastest update-to-review time in history! I think I got whiplash . . .hee hee, sorry for leaving you hanging, but I had to find someplace to cut the chapter off. And I didn't think you were ragging on me—you were adding constructive criticisms. Like my bio says, as long as it is a real, articulated concern, I don't mind.

Tenchi Kai: Well, now you tell me you want Amaya/Leon! Make up your mind! j/k, seriously, I'm trying to get some real plot going here. The fluff will come, I promise! (I'm guilty of always bugging my favorite authors for fluff)

Angel of Darkness and Light: Glad you liked it! Here's the new chappie!

Eyes: Out of curiosity, how did you choose your name? Ish very long, yesh. But not nearly as long as my time between updates! (Smiles sheepishly) Here's the next chapter!

Jen: Hee hee, yeah, that happens when you play Final Fantasy VIII too much. FFVIII was my first RPG, so I keep wanting to call him Squall, too. It's a way cooler name than Leon (no offense to anyone named Leon)