A/N: The showdown between Light and Darkness . . .here we go . . .(crosses self) Eesh long, this chapter . . .

Disclaimer: Still don't own it. Just like the last twenty times I told you. I swear, next time I'm just putting one on Chapter 1 and considering myself done . . .Not like anyone believes that I own Riku anyway . . .(darn it)

Chapter 21

I'm not afraid of the darkness.

All I could sense for a long time was the darkness. It felt familiar, almost warm, to me. Like one more smoke months after you've quit. You know that it can't possibly be good for you, and that it's really bringing back a part of you that you've worked hard to get rid of. Strange how we love most the things that have the greatest power to harm us. Well, I have plenty of time to reminisce on that now, after the fact, but I wasn't wondering about the psychological and philosophical connotations of it at the time.

Instead I was just feeling it completely enveloping my senses. Imagine wrapping yourself in a thick, heavy quilt, and lying on the world's biggest, softest, most comfortable sofa, all wrapped up in a blanket, curled up, facing the back of the couch. Now imagine if all that was happening underwater, only the water wasn't wet, and it wasn't cold, and you didn't feel so desperate to breathe. Just imagine that everything is warm and comfortable, and you know in just a minute it's not going to be so comfortable anymore, because you're going to need to breathe, to move, to open your eyes, but for right now it's like you're being held in a tight hug from some friend or relative that you haven't seen in years. In a second, that hug is going to become too long for comfort, but for right now, it feels good to be hugged. It feels right. That's what being embraced by pure darkness is like.

I felt something tugging Amaya away and I loosened my hold on her. She didn't cling to me. She drifted away, into the darkness, and I couldn't bring myself to be worried about her. It was far too comfortable here for anything bad to happen. But it began to last too long. The blanket was too hot, but my arms wouldn't move to push it off. The hug lasted too long, and yet my embracer would not release me. I'd been under too long and I needed to breathe.

A river, I vaguely remembered, I can't breathe because I'm under a river.

And then I couldn't think anymore.

All I could sense for a long time was the light. I had only gotten glimpses of it before, quick flashes between the Keyblade and various doors I'd locked, visions of doors opening in my dreams, and the one time I'd seen the True Light, for just a second, before the Heartless completely covered it again.

It was like every nerve ending in my body, every cell in my brain, every feeling in my heart woke up all at the same time. I saw, heard, touched, smelled, tasted, thought, felt a million things, all so quickly that I couldn't even figure out what each thing was before another replaced it. It was a dizzying whirlwind of images and sounds, and thoughts that I was sure were mine while wondering how I could possibly be thinking all these things at once. It was invigorating and exhausting at the same time, and even as I told my senses to slow down, they continued going at the break-neck pace, whether I could keep up or not. I couldn't keep up. I couldn't shut my eyes, I couldn't cover my ears.

It all went white. And then I was gone.

If anyone could have looked on at the scene happening at the End of Worlds, they would have been bewildered. This huge, seemingly infinite, space was split into two halves; one side glowed with a purity that new fallen snow could not match; the other was drenched in a blackness that somehow managed to be as brilliant as the light before it. And on each of the sides stood two creatures, a man and woman.

Both sets were tall and noble, one was almost reminded of chess pieces with the way they matched each other. They were unlike chess pieces, however, insofar as that no one had been so impersonal as to chisel the same features into two different colors. The woman in white stood, sparks of light emitting from her long white hair, sparks almost seeming to emit from her pupilless eyes, a bow in her hands, shooting flaming arrows toward the darkness, opening her mouth in silent laughter when the shadows cringed from the brightness and heat of the flames. The woman in black narrowed her dark eyes and returned a volley in her own way; holding out a hand, she sent a stream of water flying into the side of the light. Her mouth turned up in a small smirk when the White Queen hissed, leaping to one side. The White Queen flickered like a flame. The Black Queen seemed almost to move without moving; her hair and clothing looked as though they were being pulled by a slow current, or perhaps like they were the current.

The two men were equally matched. The king in white swung his sword, and was creating terrible winds hurtling toward his opponent, but the king in black simply raised a hand, and the ground rose up around him to act as his shield. Similarly, when the Black King tried to send boulders and walls of earth toward the White King, the winds destroyed them before they got close. The White King's movements were quick, and unpredictable, the Black King never moved, beyond raising his hand.

The two sides battled for time uncounted, neither one ever gaining the upper hand. Until one of the four awoke.

Accept the darkness and the light . . .

Princesses of Heart . . .the purest light . . .

The one who can wield the Keyblade . . .

Don't be afraid, and the darkness cannot conquer you . . .

I'm not afraid of the darkness!

A small girl holding her hands on the ground, completely obliterating everything around her.

A small girl, hurtling through the sky, falling like a shooting star.

A boy, left alone in a strange place, a strange weapon in his hands.

A man, standing full of confidence as darkness came down upon him.

A boy, his eyes beginning to open.

I lost count of how long I'd been fighting. How many times I'd started fighting, and then gave up. How many times I'd wondered if I was only imagining it, and I'd never fought in the first place. How many times I wondered if I was just asleep and having a weird dream. But, if I was dreaming, I argued, it was time for me to wake up. So I did.

The light was blinding. I ducked and shielded my eyes behind my arm, and then realized that the light was only coming from the direction I was facing. I could look away. So I looked to the side, so that only the tail of my vision caught the light, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Then I realized what I was looking at.

Amaya, but not. The same way we could tell those light things were Sora and Kairi, this dark thing was Amaya. I could see it in the way she held her hand, her tiny little hand with its small fingers, out at Kairi, fighting. A wind started blowing through my hair I heard something rushing at me. Wait, if Amaya was fighting with Kairi, then I was fighting with . . .

A felt something hit me, and looked down at the freely-bleeding gash on my arm. No weapon. That guy was using a sword; he hadn't thrown something at me. Then I saw him swing the sword, and a sharp wind started up again. Air? He was hitting me with air? How the heck am I supposed to block that? I rolled quickly to one side.

When I looked back at Amaya, I saw something that I hadn't before. Not only was that stone glowing like a furnace, but there was something behind her. Something floating behind her. A man, I thought, with a brown hood over his face.

"Open yourself to the darkness. Become darkness itself!" I could hear him murmuring to her. If her appearance was any indication, she was trying her best to oblige.

"Amaya! Amaya!" She didn't respond at all. I grabbed her arm, "Amaya!"

She looked at me and, for the first time since we met, I think I understood what she meant about being capable of anything. I froze, with those dark eyes looking directly into mine. She held out her hand, and put it flat on my chest. Oh my God. She's going to kill me. She's actually going to kill me. But I couldn't move. Then, the eyes lightened to her own natural blue.

We're the same . . .

" . . .Riku?"

I nodded dumbly. She lowered her hand. "What . . .?"

"It's the—look out!" I quickly pulled her down and out of the way of another flaming arrow.

"We have to stop them!"

"Any ideas?" We dodged another one of Sora's attacks.

"If eternal light is your idea of heaven, I choose hell!"

"Onward, my people, the eternal light shall be ours!"

"It's the two from the stone!"

"What?"

"The king was fighting for a kingdom of eternal light. There was someone who got in the way, and the king had him executed." Another flaming arrow, "So he swore he would use his spirit to fight against the light with all his power. His anger turned him against the balance he once believed in and turned him toward darkness. They're just using us to fight their battle!"

I swore. Being used to do other people's dirty work was getting really old. First Ansem and now this—"You!"

There he was, standing calmly to one side of us, "Caused quite the commotion, haven't you?" Was all he answered.

"Caused quite the commotion? You're the one who started this whole mess! You're the one that opened up the worlds! You destroyed them! You tried to kill my friends! You tried to use me to do it!" I advanced on him. What I was going to do, I don't know exactly, since I seemed to have lost my weapon when the dark river fell on us. But I was ready to fight him however I could.

Ansem stood, calmly taking all my accusations, but dodged and caught my hands when I tried to sock him square in the jaw. "Fighting each other may not be the best option right now."

"She's your daughter! Your daughter, and you tried to use me to kill her!"

Amaya was saying something, but I wasn't listening. Ansem's face had gone incredibly sad. "I know."

"You know? That's all?"

"You wouldn't accept an apology, even if I offered one."

My mouth opened and shut again as I glared at him. But what could I say? No matter what he said, I wouldn't have forgiven him. I dropped my hands and settled for glaring.

He continued. "Believe me when I say that it was not entirely me, though I will take blame for what I did do. I was a scientist. I forgot that I was also a ruler, and a father, and for that, I cannot ask to be forgiven. But I am not wholly responsible for what followed, after Hollow Bastion was taken. The desire to see the heart of worlds was indeed mine, but the desire to destroy worlds was not. The League of Darkness was entirely his idea, not mine."

"So we're supposed to believe that you were being controlled?"

"Toward the end, I was hardly even present, in any sort of real sense. He used my image because his own was . . .unsettling, to say the least."

"What do you mean?"

"He looks the same as he did when he died."

Amaya gasped and put her hands over her mouth, "No wonder he keeps the hood up."

Ansem nodded, "You can imagine how the sight of a headless man might detract you from listening to what he says. Never mind that he shouldn't be able to speak at all, without a mouth."

"Never mind that, let's just—duck!" We all hit the deck, which I have to say looked pretty funny on Ansem. Amaya just continued as if nothing had happened. "Let's just find a way to stop them."

"How?"

"How did you stop me?"

"I just . . .said your name. And touched you." I grabbed her arm to show her, "I still thought you were going to kill me for a minute there, though. You looked like you were going to blow me to smithereens."

"How did you stop yourself?"

I shrugged. "I just woke up. I guess since I've been that deep in the darkness before, you know? I knew what it was and I knew I couldn't stay there."

"But they've never seen a light like that before . . ."

"There's got to be some way to reach them! I won't give up on them!"

Amaya touched my cheek, "I know you won't. And, somewhere in there, they know that, too. The trick's going to be reminding them."

"The eternal light and darkness, coexisting . . .you would think after all this time immersed in the darkness, I would understand the meaning of it. But still . . .why the light . . ." Ansem trailed off, once again lost in his own thoughts.

"We don't have time to think about that!" I yelled.

"He's right, Papa, we need to help them now!" Amaya almost begged.

He looked shocked, whether because we'd interrupted his train of thought or because she'd called him 'Papa', I don't know. "You're right," he finally answered. He looked at me, "I'm not sure how exactly you pulled yourself back out of the darkness, but you've always possessed a rare sort of self-awareness that does not allow you to be completely possessed by anything. Recall that even when the darkness possessed your body, it could not force you to kill your friends. That is probably what helped you retain yourself, and regain full consciousness. Your heart must have called to hers and reawakened it."

Amaya looked at me, and I swear she blushed. Ansem smiled in a way that seemed entirely foreign on his face. I swear he was about to tease her, and then give me a long list of rules to follow when dating his daughter. All while we're dodging blades of wind and flaming arrows, of course.

"So how do we call to them?"

Ansem frowned, "Well, they are your friends. But, then, they are on the side of light. They are spiritually opposed to you, and, as such, currently see you as opponents, not as allies. That could pose a problem."

"Yeah, we've kind of realized that," I snapped.

Ansem waved a hand as if my comments were both unnecessary and unimportant, "Perhaps thinking of memories, times you've had together, might help. Times before the destruction of your world, preferably, before the differences in you were clearly marked."

"It'll have to be you, Riku," Amaya said, "The only memories I share with Kairi are from before she went to Destiny Islands . . .she hardly even remembers Hollow Bastion. She was so young then. And I don't share any memories with Sora at all."

"Great," I ran a hand over my face. "Memories . . ." Have you ever tried thinking of something that should be totally obvious, but when you're trying to think of it, it totally disappears? Yeah.

First, I couldn't think of anything at all. Then I could only think of bad memories.

You were just the delivery boy . . .

Do you even want to save Kairi?

Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience.

Even when I thought about stuff from the island, they were memories that connected to the bad times.

Deal? Winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi.

Guess I'm the only one still working on the raft.

Sora, when we grow up, let's get off this island!

Finally, other memories started coming up. Sora's fifth birthday party, when, on a dare from Selphie, he'd plunged his face straight into the cake. He'd been picking icing out of his hair all day. Playing blitzball with Wakka and Tidus. The first time Sora admitted, in a sort of roundabout way, that, maybe, girls weren't completely and totally infested with cooties. And that, maybe, Kairi wasn't so bad. But that didn't mean he liked her! Along with these, I got images of Kairi as a little tiny girl, playing a hand-jive with someone I couldn't see. That must have been Amaya.

"You help, too," I heard real-life Amaya say. That brought out what was probably the most surprising image of all; a tiny baby, with a thatch of red hair, wrapped in a pink blanket, the tanned hand at her feet being the only indication of who could be holding her.

Kairi fitted another arrow to her bow when that last image flashed across our eyes. Her hand faltered; she hesitated. And then tears began to roll down her face.

Review Responses

1blondegamer: Oh, sorry, didn't mean to confuse you. My theory is that the ultimate light and ultimate darkness are constantly battling for control, creating the balance that is the universe. So, for there to be darkness, there has to be light. The light is the force that Kairi and Sora carry (hence it was attracted to them), and the darkness is the force that Riku and Amaya carry.

Idiotichobo: Did I go where you thought I was going? (Blushes) Well, I'm so glad to receive such a compliment! Yes, I did try to make Amaya a bit more realistic than your average OC—OCs don't have to be Mary-Sues, right? (Smiles)