What if the Darkling never died? What if Mal never came back to life? What if my ship never sank? (I'm team Alina and Darkling) This is my first fanfic.

"Don't let me be alone."

I was in tears, finally feeling empathy for the boy who never wanted to become the villain in my story. I was feeling a strange and very odd amount of remorse. He just wanted a safe place for Grisha. He just wanted no one else to feel the loneliness and insecurity he felt when he was a child. He's not a bad person:

As the blood ran out of his heart, I frowned. He wasn't dying.

The Darkling was still alive, still staring at me with his piercing grey eyes, and I was still wiping tears off my face.

The blood leaking out of his wound turned darker and darker, until it was black.

The Darkling sat up, with some difficulty, but not nearly as much as he should've with a knife in his heart.

"Alina, I can't die."

I frowned and my heart started beating uncontrollably fast. He couldn't die, couldn't die, couldn't die. It was all for nothing.

"Why not?" I asked, my voice cracking.

"Darkness never dies."

I couldn't stop the river of tears that leaked out of my eyes. "Light doesn't die either but I've lost it."

The Darkling tried to grin, but miserably failed, the loneliness of his life filling his eyes.

"You gave your power to the army using merzost, like how someone could give their life to someone else. I did die, but I took back my life from someone else." At those words, he really did have a small tug on his lips forming a smile.

I swore with every curse word I knew, staring at Mal. Mal, my childhood best friend. Mal, a lover who saw right through the Darkling. Mal, a whiny and stupid jerk who still meant a lot to me.

The Darkling saw the tattoo on them back of Mal saying "I am become blade" and snorted.

"Illiterate moron," he mumbled, and tore the dagger out of his heart.

It fell to the ground with a resounding clang and I felt as if my heart stopped. I panicked and tried to take it back to stab him again, but what the hell would that do? Maybe he'd take my life instead. Maybe I didn't want him to die. Maybe I still believed he could be redeemed. I dropped the knife with shaking hands.

"You can take it back," he said quietly, looking up at me. "The sun powers."

"I..." I couldn't bring myself to say that I didn't want them back. That would be a lie. I did want my powers back, no matter how selfish it might've sounded. "I..."

"You can make me a better person, Alina. You can get rid of the darkness that corrupted me. You can fix Ravka, and make it a better place." I shook my head. He stared at me. "Do you want to know why I was so excited to find you?"

I shook my head, refusing to believe anything that came out of his mouth.

He answered anyway. "Your light could get rid of my darkness. We can rule Ravka together, and I will never feel as alone as I felt from the moment I learned I was unique. Please, Alina."

I stopped shaking my head and my heart skipped a beat. "What about Mal...?"

His face darkened. "He didn't show you any love until you found me. He was cheating on you with Zoya but got angry at you when you did anything nice for me. He didn't like you when you became powerful and wanted you to be weak so he could protect you. Mal would have been better for a pretty peasant girl than for you. And let's not forget the cringe-worthy tattoo on his back with horrible grammar."

I couldn't disagree, and he knew it.

I sucked in a breath and felt a small storage of power still residing deep within my bones. I filled myself with the energy and the light from the army who had gotten my powers blew out.

I had taken my powers back.

"I'll fix Ravka with you," I promised. "I'll make the world a better place, and I'll fix you, too."