A/N: Okay, it seems the writing bug is back for a little while. Not promising anything, but I'm hoping to have a chapter up every other week or so. I'm tentatively setting the finish date in April. Thank you for all your patience and support.

Chapter 15

"So . . .all the worlds were once one. That explains why they keep trying to connect to each other. And with the world's end being such a violent one, it's not surprising that he would ally himself with forces aimed toward the darkness."

I bit my lip and looked away. It was disturbing to hear my father, my beloved Papa, spoken about that way, like some sort of evil monster.

"It is clear that the stone was in Ansem's possession for a time, but why did it pass to you, I wonder?"

From the way he looked at me, I wasn't sure if he expected me to have the answer or not. I took a deep breath, "Because I was there, at the destruction of Hollow Bastion. And because I, myself, am responsible for the death of a world." Had I heard him gasp? "It wasn't what I had in mind to do at the time, but the fact that I thought only of myself did mean the destruction of that world."

" . . .You are magically talented, are you not? Have you been trained?"

I was surprised that he knew, though I'd heard that, for experienced mages, it was possible to sense magical talent in another. I shook my head, "Almost everything I know is self-taught. When Hollow Bastion was destroyed, I somehow got myself to another world. It must have been some sort of teleportation, but I did it with no goal in mind."

He frowned, "That's extremely dangerous."

I nodded, "Well, Hollow Bastion wasn't a safe place to be, either. And, really, I had no idea what I was doing while I was doing it. I only knew that I had to be away. Anyway, when I landed, I was still so frightened that I tried to erect a shield, not only around myself, but around the entire planet. Obviously, that took a lot more power than I had; it destroyed all life on that world. And, during the nine years I stayed there, nothing ever grew back, except for a small area near my own dwelling."

He nodded, "Mages tend to have a stronger life force than most people. The plants must have been reacting to that. Elsewhere on the planet, there was nothing to draw on; everything was being directed toward that shield. The fact that you teleported here, though, means that you must have broken your own shield." He smiled, "It might have been easier to just take it down."

I laughed a little, "Well, I didn't know . . .it is . . .rather difficult to take shields down once you've put them up, isn't it?"

"If you still fear what it is on the other side, yes, very difficult. Remember that magic, more than any other skill, is tuned in to your own feelings and emotions. It is nearly impossible to do a magic that you do not want to do."

"Because to work magic, you must believe in another reality."

He nodded, "And it is difficult to believe in a reality that we do not want to exist, isn't it?"

We sat in silence for a little while. Someone walked down the hallway, but it was a different door that opened, so I relaxed again.

" . . .Merlin. There's something else I must tell you."

He nodded, as if he'd been expecting me to say that. I continued.

"Ansem is . . .was . . .my father. And Kairi's as well."

"What are you doing?"

My heart stopped.

"What are you doing?"

I turned quickly and found myself face to face with Leon's chest. I looked up, "Ah . . .hi Leon."

The door cracked open and Amaya's face peeked out. She looked at Leon, then me. Her eyes started spilling over and she ran past me, down the hallway. By the time Kairi asked her what was wrong, the door had already slammed shut behind her. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, could I not wonder about something? Just this once, could I leave it alone? No, of course not.

"Riku was listening at the door."

"What? You have no proof!" Leon raised an eyebrow, "Okay, I was. But it's only because I was worried, you know? I wanted to make sure she was okay." Leon continued to stare at me. "Okay, okay, and I wanted to know why exactly she was sending us all out of the room, too, but mostly because I was worried! I mean, what could have been so serious that she would keep us all out of there?"

Leon closed his eyes, sighed, then started walking toward his own room. He went to the door he'd opened earlier, but had apparently never entered. 'Well, duh, Riku, that's because he saw you listening at the door.' He turned, hand on the door and stared at me before gesturing impatiently for me to come forward. Oh crap. Don't get me wrong; I'm pretty good with a sword, but fist fighting against Leon? They were gonna have to scrape me off the floor. And Aerith would just cry about carpet stains. I tried to look confident as I walked past him into his room, and as he shut the door behind him.

"Sit." He pointed at his bed, setting against the opposite wall. I tried not to look at how scarily neat the room was, or how the bed was made with hospital corners.

" . . .You listened at the door when she clearly wanted only Merlin to hear."

"I'm sorry, okay? Like I said, I was worried about her!"

He shrugged and leaned against the closed door, "I'm not the one you need to apologize to. But, I do need to know what you've heard."

I didn't know whether to laugh or be angry, "You wanna know, too!"

He shook his head, "She sent all of us out of the room because she did not want to look any more suspicious then she had to. I'll admit, I do not know about these dreams, but they probably related to other things that I do know about her. Things that she asked me not to tell you, Kairi, and Sora. I gave my word, and I am keeping it. If you heard what I believe you did, however, I must ask that you keep it from the others."

"And what do you think I heard?"

He just looked at me for a long moment. I never understand that phrase. Long moment. Doesn't a moment mean a short period of time? The fact that I have time to comment on this tells you what a very long moment it was.

" . . .What did she talk about?"

"What do you want to know?"

There was another long pause. I didn't get it. If he just asked me for everything, he could have made me tell him. It sounded like he already knew the most important part anyway. She was the daughter of Ansem. If she had been from Hollow Bastion, Leon had to know that already.

" . . .She said the stone had memories of Ansem. Did she speak of him?"

Ah, he did know. And he wanted to see if I knew or not. "She said that Ansem was her father."

He closed his eyes, "I was afraid that was what you heard. She was most adamant that you not be told. She really didn't want any of you to know, but she was most concerned about your reaction. So how are you reacting?"

His eyes met mine, and I was suddenly glad that he didn't often make eye contact. They were a steel blue, hard and cold. It felt like I was some bug being pinned to a collector's board.

"Amaya's Amaya. It doesn't matter who her dad was. I mean, you can't help who your parents are. And quite honestly, I don't know why no one's gone after her yet."

He nodded, "Okay." He stepped away from the door and opened it. Before I stepped out of the room, a windbreaker hit me in the face.

"Traverse Town; you don't like the weather, wait a minute. It's started raining."

I fought the jacket off my face, searching for sleeves, and saw Leon putting on one as well. "It's Cloud's, so it'll be a little big on you."

"Wait," I pulled on the jacket, tugging at the sleeves, which were falling way over my hands, "Where are you going?"

"To look for Amaya. Where are you going?"

"I'll take second district, you take third?"

I swear for a second he almost smiled. "Meet back here in a hour. If we still haven't found her, we'll wake Cloud and Sora and try again."

"Will do," I said, and walked out the door into the rain.