A/N: Sorry about the wait for the update—I've now played KH2 through twice, and it was really hard to get back into this when Axel had hijacked my brain. Probably won't write anything about him, though . . .I just like to keep him in my mind for my own imaginings . . .kukuku . . . .

Disclaimer: Ya da, ya da, ya da, don't own Kingdom Hearts, ya da, ya da, ya da . . .

The Light and the Darkness Within

Kairi wavered, color fading in and out of her face and body. Patches of red appeared in her hair, only to be replaced with the shimmering white. Her tears burnt tracks of color down her face, but even as the light was washed away, it returned with a flurry of sparks. Her hand dropped to her side, as if to drop the bow, but then she would raise it again, sighting along the arrow. The silent tears kept pouring down.

Sora had stopped the constant sword swiping when he noticed Kairi's hesitation. He tilted his head to one side, watching her indecision. She opened her mouth, releasing a broken sob.

That sound, the first that either of the beings of light had uttered, sent Sora over to her. She dropped her bow on the ground. He touched her face uncertainly and looked at the color that washed over his fingertips. He touched her face again, and let his hand fall down her arm, leaving a swipe of color in its wake. He leaned down and kissed her wet cheekbone.

The change was instantaneous. The color spread from her cheeks across her nose, down her neck, through her hair. His lips pinked, color threading its way outward across his face. When he took his lips away, blue spokes showed in the white irises, and when he laid his head on her shoulder, it was brown hair that brushed her cheek.

She brought her arms around him, " . . .r here."

"Yeah, I'm here," he answered.

Before anyone could celebrate their return to humanity, the ground started shaking violently, and there came an almost animalistic scream that ripped through air like a dagger through silk.

Riku grabbed my hand and took off running toward Kairi and Sora, not intending to get separated from them again. I looked behind me, but my father seemed to have disappeared without a trace.

"Papa? Papa!" I tugged on Riku's arm, trying to make him let go, but he gripped my hand so tight I nearly winced.

"We can't go back now, Amaya."

"But my father—"

"Would want you to be safe," he insisted, dragging me along. I have wanted to ask him what he knew about it, but as the next tremor sent me nearly careening into him, I thought that this might not be the best time for bickering.

"What's happening?" Kairi grasped Riku's sleeve in one hand and held Sora close with the other.

"I don't know," he answered, working to be heard above the ever-increasing rumbling. "I think refusing to play their game made them mad."

"Ya think?" Sora answered, looking around as though he expected something to fall on us. What, I'm not sure, since we seemed to be on an endless flat plain.

I suddenly felt a scorching pain at my chest and flinched, bringing up on hand to try and find the cause of the pain. The chain around my neck was taut as a high wire; brushing my hand against it did not move it at all. The burning grew worse and I yelped, tearing my hand away from Riku's and clawing at the chain, frantically trying to move the hot stone away from my skin. It stayed solid. I pulled with both hands on the chain, but it was as if the stone was a part of me—if the temperature was anything to judge by, it may have melted to my skin. I screeched, pulling at it with both hands. The heat was unbearable. I fell to the floor, writhing, knowing I must be frightening them, but desperate to escape the agony of the jewel that blistered my skin. I felt Riku's hands join my own, trying to pull the searing gem away from me, and through tearing eyes, I could see my friend's faces bathed in sickly purple light.

"What's happening to her?"

You. You thought you could conquer sorrow? A cold laugh shivered through my mind, like a treacherous undercurrent in deep waters. You are pitiful.

A fresh stab of pain seemed to go through my heart, and I gasped, unable to make out any other sort of noise, back rising off the floor. If the others were still there, I was insensible of it. You know nothing. You understand nothing.

Help me . . . I wasn't sure if I said these words out loud or just thought them. I didn't even know who I was pleading with. Riku? Father? This angry spirit? I didn't care who it was, as long as they made the pain stop.

This pain is nothing. I have been trapped here for thousands of years, and no one is keeping me here any longer!

I felt an enormous weight, as if someone had decided to sit on my chest. I couldn't breathe. I saw stars as the stone pushed down so hard that I was sure it must embed itself into my flesh. Release me!

Go, I wanted to say, Do whatever you want, just make the pain stop. Make it go away. But I was stronger then that now. I wasn't the little girl who had run barefoot through the monster-infested halls crying for someone to help her. I wasn't the little girl who forgot her sister, forgot everything but saving herself. I wasn't the little girl who killed an entirely planet simply to ensure her own safety. I wasn't the little girl who used an outsider to break down a shield that she could have taken down herself. I wasn't going to be weak, I wasn't going to hide behind anyone, and I would not—

Yield.

No.

I was insensible to anything happening outside myself and the stone. Even the blazing stone that had my body writhing in torment seemed somehow farther away. All that existed now was this. I must not give in. I must not.

My vision went dark, and I saw before me the king again, his wavy dark hair falling past his shoulders, but his eyes sparked with anger, rather than flooded with remorse.

What are you doing? He hissed. Release me! Release me immediately! There is a new world that waits to be crafted!

No.

He bared his teeth in a viscous snarl, and leapt forward, his face inches from my own, his breath, smelling strangely sweet, blowing against my face as he spoke. You will release me. Now. Or, heaven help me, I cannot be responsible for what will happen to you.

So you say, I managed to answer, at least in thought, But still I cannot release you.

The hands moved to circle around my throat. They pushed. Not hard enough to cut off my air entirely, but enough to make breathing very difficult. You would leave me to burn in this hell forever? You are selfish. And cruel.

I am neither; letting you out would destroy us all, including yourself.

Destruction would be blessed after torment such as this.

That is why I cannot release you.

He growled, but stepped back. I caught a breath, feeling the bruises on my neck. His hair lengthened and became white. His eyes became a bright gold. Amaya, you would leave me here?

I would not, if I had a choice.

You have a choice. Simply release us.

I cannot. Please, understand that I cannot.

Why can you not?

It would mean the end. The destruction of everything.

Do you think I would do that?

Whatever part of you got stuck in this place would.

His face turned thoughtful. Would it be so horrible? After all, life is simply a temporary state. Why not dispense with it? Stay in the eternal, whatever that might be?

I know that is wrong, and if you were yourself, you would know that, too.

Release me. Amaya. My daughter. Release me.

Tears squeezed out the corners of my eyes. No.

My father disappeared, and in his place stood the one whose face I could not forget. Whose face would always look at me, blank-eyed from the bloody floor of a shrine for a long-forgotten deity. Release me.

That line's getting really old.

We've been in pain for so many years. The light burns. Let us go to the shade. Let us go to the darkness and sleep.

Just the sound of his voice, just the suggestion of rest, made my eyes feel droopy, and my limbs leaden. The burning at my chest eased. I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak.

You've brought us this far, darling girl. Rest. Close your eyes and rest.

I felt rather then saw him come closer. His arms wrapped around me, not in anger, as the king's had, but softly, cradling me against him, allowing me to pillow my head on his shoulder. Rest. Come to the darkness and rest.

I knew this should feel horribly wrong, but I couldn't seem to remember why at the moment. How could it be wrong? It was so comfortable to be held like this. And I was so tired. So very tired.

Rest, love, the voice spoke, so close that his breath tickled my ear and sent shivers down my spine. Rest.

Rest sounded so good. He would protect me. I wouldn't have to worry about anything, not with his arms there to keep me safe. Rest, love, rest.

My eyes flew open. Love? I felt the arms around me and suddenly felt ill. I tried to break free.

What is wrong?

Let me go.

His arms tightened around me. Let me go.

You know I can't. Not until you believe in the balance again.

How can I believe in balance when he believes only in light? I must fight back with the dark to achieve balance. Don't you see?

But it isn't balanced. The light is going out. You must see it.

The pendulum must swing both ways before it can return to its center.

Last time the balance was upset, your world was split apart. What will happen this time? Will the worlds keep splitting, into smaller and smaller pieces, until they are too small to live on? How will that solve anything?

We cannot put it back together! He retorted angrily.

Yes, I was suddenly struck with an idea. Yes, we can. For the first time since I'd fallen to the floor, I remembered my friends. Riku! I called. Kairi! Sora!

" . . .maya?"

I must have managed to speak out loud, if they'd responded. Emboldened, I tried again. The worlds. Remember them. Every one you've been to. Remember them. Think about them now.

Images flooded in, of the many worlds that Riku and Sora had visited. A sea. A jungle. A night sky where children flew through the air like birds. A desert. Traverse Town. A white-sand island. I added my own images of Traverse Town, and of Hollow Bastion before the Heartless invaded. And the barren, nameless world I had spent half my life trapped on.

You cannot put it back together.

Yes. I. Can. I felt my knees touch the ash that stood on the ground, inches deep. My hands had hit the ground to help me catch my balance. I sat for a moment on my heels, bracing my weight on my hands. I moved my hands so that the space between my first fingers and thumbs became a rough circle. Then the circle began to glow.

You'll never have enough power. You can't do this.

At first, it appeared that nothing was happening. Then, a few tentative bits of green began to push out of the ground. I laughed, and watched as the space between my hands grew into lush grass.

That's hardly the entire planet.

Just you wait and see! All my muscles tensed as I pushed everything I had into the ground. The circle widened, to five feet across, to ten feet across. Green shoots continued to push out of the ground, grass, and clover, and just to the left of my pinky, a small wildflower unfurled its petals. I continued to push, but the circle wouldn't get any wider. Almost unconsciously, my jaw dropped open, trying to bring in more air. My eyes squinched shut. The circle pushed out a few inches, but no more.

"Don't give up!" I felt a hand touch my shoulder.

I shrugged it off. I can do this alone, Riku.

He put his hand back, completely unperturbed. "But you don't have to."

Another wave of power came surging through, pushing the circle out further. Small saplings began to shoot out of the earth, unfurling leaves so fast the eye could hardly follow. The green spread out further and further. In the distance I could see more trees and bushes taking over, rather then grass. The trees grew taller, until the light suddenly dimmed. I looked up and realized that the trees had grown tall enough to create a shady forest, if it was yet large enough to be called that. Still, the power kept coursing through me, and I pushed the circle bigger, so big that I could no longer see the edges of it. But it was my magic, and I could always feel the edges of that even when I could not see it. That's how I knew when the edge of the circle reached the water, and regrew the plants there, and when all the fish that lived in or off them returned. That's how I knew when the circle bent in a half-sphere over us, and when it touched the sky, banishing the slate-gray clouds that had continuously occupied it since the day all the things were first burnt.

We have power, you and I, I thought, looking backwards at the concentrating face of the one kneeling beside me. We have power. And it can be used to do good things.

I felt the circle close in on itself, revitalizing the world. Giving back the life that I had so callously stolen. Life-taker. Yes, I had taken it. But I had given it back.

The images played before my eyes again and I heard a noise greater than any noise I had ever heard in my life. It was like every thunder head that had ever been or would ever be exploded all at once, like every firecracker in all the worlds had been simultaneously lit, like every instrument that anyone had ever played was being played now, at its loudest possible volume. And yet, it did not occur to me to cover my ears. Instead, I moved toward Riku, the two of us holding each other against the light and the sound.

If we fall, we fall together.

Everything went white.

Review Responses:

Natty1991: Sorry this chapter took so long! I hope you liked it:)

TigerKiss: Hope the story lived up to your expectations! Now, quickly, the epilogue!

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1blondegamer: Glad you liked!