Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, except Amaya, the Dark Summon and his world, and the story line that my diseased brain has deemed worthy to inflict upon you. If you sue, all you'll get is half a cup of ramen and a squished jellybean.

A/N: Well, all and all not a bad response for Chapter 16 . . .I was going to write it out completely, but since my beta had read that chapter about six months before any of the rest of the story got written, she seemed rather peeved when I suggested it. Go figure.

Chapter 17

Help me . . .

What?

Help me . . .

Who are you?

Help us . . .

The king with his dark hair looked at me with his tragic eyes. Begging for understanding, begging for forgiveness. I stopped breathing when I looked in those eyes. There was a deep kindness, almost a love, in his eyes that I had not seen during the dream. Forgive me . . .please forgive me . . .

I closed my eyes when I felt a hand brush against my face, but when I opened them, it was no longer the king of light, but my father looking down at my face. His eyes had always been a golden color. Lion Eyes, people had called him when he was younger. And I almost started crying when I saw him look at me, because he was seeing only me. Just me. Not looking past me, not seeing Mama or Kairi, or anyone but me. I'm so sorry . . .you are too much like me .May you not share my sorrow . . .

I wanted to ask him so many things, to tell him so many things, but before I could, he melted away into that other figure. The one whose face is forever burned into my memory, rolling about on the temple floor. May you not share my sorrow . . .Stop me before I cause more sorrow . . .Those that were there . . .Bring them here . . .

I woke, and found the stone glowing, clasped in my hands, the chain slipping through my fingers. I cried out and flung it far from me.

"Amaya?" Kairi asked sleepily, but I was already on the floor, picking up the stone.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have thrown you. I'm sorry."

"Um . . .Amaya? You're talking to a rock. A rock that's already made you have some sort of kooky dream. Are you sure there's not sort of . . .damage?"

I turned to her, the stone once again clasped in my fist, "Let's get everyone together. We need to talk."

"So let me get this straight," Leon rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Together, the people in this stone are responsible for the separation of the worlds, and the slow destruction of them. And we want to . . .help them?"

"Yeah, this is sounding kind of backwards, Amaya," Sora said around a piece of toast. "Here, Aerith, have some toast." He offered her his second slice. When her nearly comatose body didn't respond, Cloud reached around her to accept the toast. He tried to put it in her mouth for her, only to have it hang in her mouth, unchewed. He rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Amaya.

"Everyone deserves a chance at salvation?"

She nodded, "That's right. They're stuck in their own cycles of anger and loneliness and they need our help to end the cycle."

"But who were the ones that were there? And where are we bringing them?" I asked, having finally abandoned the bedspread and looking more like a human being than a burrito.

"Are they the ones in the stone?" Yuffie asked, helping herself to some raspberry jam.

"Hmm . . .somehow I think it has to be more than bringing the stone somewhere . . ."

"Those in the stone cannot rest until the balance is restored." Merlin spoke.

We all took a double take, "How did you get here?"

He shrugged and grabbed himself one of Yuffie's pieces of toast with jam. "Mm, raspberry. In any case, that is what they want, correct? So I would guess that you need not only the stone, but also the ones meant to restore the balance—representatives for them."

"It looks like I'm back on the case!" Sora announced a little too cheerfully, taking a long drink of his juice.

"Not only you, Sora. While you are the keyblade master, you are a representative of one side only." He moved over to Riku and put a hand on his shoulder. "He must go as well, to represent the darkness."

He pushed his hand aside, "That's not who I am anymore."

He shook his head, "That is who you are and always will be, Riku. Remember when we spoke? The darkness is not inherently bad, nor is the light inherently good. Instead, it is the balance between the two that creates goodness."

"What about Ansem? How do we get a representative for him?" I asked.

"Well, Amaya's his daughter, right? I mean, it's okay to talk about that, right?" Yuffie said, uncertainly.

"Either way, you've said it now," Cloud rolled his eyes again. Aerith still sat there with the toast have in and half out of her mouth. He tore it off and took the rest of it for himself. "She could do it."

"But that leaves us dark-heavy." Merlin thought aloud. "Perhaps Kairi ought to go to balance that out. Especially since she was the Princess of Heart for Hollow Bastion, and so can double as a representative of Ansem."

I just wanted to hug the old man right then. Thank you. Thank you for not letting him leave me behind again.

"Alright, then the party is decided." Leon said, "Sora, Riku, Amaya, and Kairi."

"But where are we going?" Riku asked.

" . . . . ."

"The Heart of Worlds, I would imagine. If the worlds all began as one, that must be the place where the original world stood in space."

"And this time . . .things will be the way they are supposed to be?"

"Well, yes. But they won't be the way they were. We should be reconnected as one big world again. It will be a big change, but everyone should be restored."

I took a shuddering breath. " . . .Okay then."

"Well, no huge hurry." Leon said from his spot on the wall. We all turned and stared at him. He raised an eyebrow, "Well, I'm not saying put it off forever, but you can finish your toast first." But contrary to that statement, he immediately left the room. A few minutes the front door opened and closed again. Yuffie started to get up, but Cloud put a hand on her arm.

"Leave him." She looked like she wanted to say something, but she obediently sat back down.

" . . .It's been a long time, huh?"

Cloud nodded. I felt out of the loop, but figured if it was a place that his friends wouldn't go, trying to go there myself would get me decapitated. For now, I just had to think about my own problems. I was going, this time. And I wasn't going to be a burden.

The cool air on my face was a welcome reprieve from the warm kitchen I'd left behind, the darkness a respite from the too-bright morning above. I took out my gunblade and started practicing various swings, imagining Heartless around me. But instead of banishing my thoughts like the exercise normally did, it made them louder.

Again. I was useless again. I was sending a bunch of kids to do a job that grown men would be terrified to do, and I couldn't even help them. Because the keyblade hadn't come to me; it had come to a kid, too young to even swing it properly.

Come to that, why the hell was I even practicing? If everything went according to plan, the Heartless would no longer exist. There would be nothing left to fight. I couldn't even remember what I'd wanted to do before I'd been thrust into being the unofficial leader of this town. Once this town was gone, I'd be useless again.

Swing. Slash. Swipe.

No matter how many times I swung, more kept coming. The crowds were so thick, it was hard to tell how many of these things there really were, or where they were coming from. Then the pressure at my back disappeared.

I turned in panic only to see her fading as she fell, until there was no body remaining to hit the ground. There'd just been a look of shock on her face, blood running down her temple, looking at me. Why did this happen? Why didn't you save me?

I threw my gunblade down on the ground and sat on a convenient rock. I buried my face in my hands and tried to remember how to breathe. Would she be back? Would they all be back and together again? Would they all hate me, for not saving them, for letting them die? Would they think that those that had lived had been more important to me? They hadn't been. Squall Leonhart didn't call anyone a friend, not out loud anyway. But, no matter how much they had heard my sharp sarcasm, they'd been important to me. As much as it killed me to admit it even now, they'd been important. They'd mattered. And I'd mattered to them. If they all came back . . .would they even know who I was anymore? Would they be able to understand Leon?

Because the things that made Squall and Leon different were more than the way they spelled their names. Squall was already reticent and taciturn—Leon was a stone wall. Squall had been a teenager, still in school, with hardly a care in the world. Leon had an entire city to care for, and a long list of people he'd failed. Squall was 17. Leon was 26. Leon should have been stronger and smarter than Squall, but he wasn't.

And even if they all did come back, and even if they didn't hold it against us that we hadn't saved them, they would still be back in that world. They would want to go back to being happy-go-lucky teenagers again. I hadn't been very good at that the first time; it was going to be impossible to do it now. For Aerith and Cloud, too, things would be different, though they had each other. Even Yuffie, I think, would have trouble adjusting to having people her own age around, people who had never known what it was like to lose everything and still, somehow, be alive. She may act more carefree than the rest of us, and in a way she is, but she's still seen too much for someone her age. For someone her age . . .I wanted to laugh. She was the same age now as we had been back then.

Rinoa would be that age if she came back. She'd still be 17 years old, looking forward to prom, still wanting to talk on the phone with Tifa and Aerith for hours and hours, still wanting to have sleepover parties and still wanting a boyfriend who expected a girl to be this way. Instead she'd be coming back to . . .

Me. What was left of me. I guess I just kept thinking that when the worlds were restored, everything would be fine, but it won't be that easy. Even if Rinoa is just the way I left her, I'm not just the way she left me. And I can't go back to being that boy again. My morning alarm beeped on my watch, and as I turned my wrist to turn it off I laughed.

I had a date with Samantha in 12 hours.

Review Responses

Pussycatdoll101: Why can't they make up their minds? Because I say so, that's why. (Grins cheekily)

Riku of Darkness: I'm glad you liked the chapter. Honestly, this story has grown so far beyond my original plans that the chapter almost didn't fit, so I was pretty worried.

Idiotchobo: High praise indeed, thank you very much! D

sorasbro13: Oh, really? I must have misunderstood your review. Thanks! (Reads further) Really? Well, what do you say, Amaya? Amaya: (Blushes 17 shades of red) Um . . .uh . . . A28: The decision is, unfortunately, left out of her hands since, as far as I know, the world of Kingdom Hearts does not have telephones. Amaya: (Blush fades just a tad) Oh . . .right . . .