The Time Break Saga 2: Silver Linings

by The Unplanner

Continuation after Dark Clouds. Riku and Lambda are back in the Realm of Light, but the Organization isn't through with them yet. Meanwhile, a LOT of time passed in the world of the Azure, and a connection between times has been forged. Xemnas and Terumi's plans collide, which is guaranteed to mess up our heroes' first date. COMPLETE!

30. Hearts are Power!

Silver Linings

Chapter 30: "Hearts Are Power!"

A/N: Here's the rest of the final battles! Sorry it took so long.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Destroy the World of Emptiness!

The dragon swooped past the tower, knocking out the last few supports. The whole tower began to tilt and crumble. A glider of some sort came into view as the remaining pair of heroes began to slide off the falling tower. Riku took a gamble and leaped into the driver's seat. "Sora!"

"Gotcha!" Sora jumped onto a platform for passengers on the left side of the purple vehicle. Neither of them had seen a craft like this before, so he had to ask: "Riku, do you know how to fly this thing?"

"No, but we don't have a choice!" Luckily, the controls turned out to be extremely simple. The glider automatically followed the dragon, perhaps because it was the largest threat. All Riku had to do was move a single joystick to fly the craft up, down, left, or right, and there were a couple of interesting-looking buttons beside that. One of them launched a salvo of blue, homing lasers, but they bounced right off the thick armor of the World of Emptiness.

"We need something with a bit more kick to get through that thing's armor. What do the other buttons do?" Sora summoned the Kingdom Key and stood at the ready. There was no seat or harness for the passenger on this thing, but Sora had fought Heartless aboard a much bumpier ride on the Magic Carpet in Agrabah before. He wasn't in any danger of falling off, and Riku's flying skills were actually really good for his first time.

"Let's try...this one." There were three buttons, labeled Laser, Drain, and Mega-Laser. The Drain and Laser buttons were lit up in white, but the Mega-Laser button wasn't, so Riku pressed Drain. A blue shield shimmered into existence around the glider for a moment, then faded away. "I guess the shield eats ranged attacks to charge the Mega-Laser."

"So all we have to do is wait for that thing to attack us?" Sora rolled his eyes. So many of his enemies could never have been beaten if they didn't attack in ways that made themselves vulnerable.

The dragon wasn't the first to attack, though - another group of four white-glowing Nobodies that Sora recognized from the Gummi Routes showed up. The small fighters shot streams of purple shots at the heroes' hijacked glider.

Riku punched the Drain button with the right timing to absorb the shots, which he noticed filled part of a gauge on the dashboard. Then he hit the Laser button, launching a volley of four blue lasers that homed in on the smaller Nobodies and shot them down. The downed Nobodies crashed into the dragon, leaving visible marks on its tail. "We hurt it! It's just a matter of time now!"

The dragon finally attacked. It fired rocket boosters from two cylinders on its sides; it swooped further ahead and looped around to face the heroes, then arced its tail underneath it and launched a swarm of missiles. Rather than take the risk of trying to use the Drain function on solid projectiles, Riku swerved up and then to the right to dodge the missiles. As the dragon went back to flying normally, another squad of fighters showed up. Riku absorbed their shots and shot them down, causing more damage to the tail, then checked the gauge. "Alright! We've got full power! Let's try this Mega-Laser thing!"

Riku punched the Mega-Laser button with a bit more force than necessary. Instantly, a blinding beam of multicolored energy blasted out from underneath the glider. The beam was larger than the entire vehicle! It bored into the World of Emptiness, cutting right through the four missile-launching nodes on the dragon's tail. As the Mega-Laser continued to fire, it split into two separate beams that moved gradually farther apart.

By the time the laser finally sputtered out, the dragon's tail was irreparably damaged. The missile launchers had been blown clear off, and the joints of the tail were fused together, preventing it from bending as the dragon flew.

Sora gave voice to both boys' opinion of the attack. "That. Was. Awesome!"

"No kidding! But it looks like we'll need to hit somewhere else to really stop this thing. How do I speed up... There we go!" Riku's foot found a pedal that caused the glider to accelerate. He eased off as they approached a large cylinder on the dragon's right side. Further along the dragon's massive body, it crossed its arms and swung them down with a mighty roar, summoning a glyph made of glowing Nobody symbols near the glider. Riku swerved out of the way; just as he thought, the glyph fired a blue-white laser where he'd been.

Another glyph appeared, then another. Riku swooped and dove and dodged them all. Just as he was getting tired of dodging, the glyphs stopped appearing. Instead, a pair of Nobodies with spiky wheels showed up and launched yellowish-pink, homing lasers. Riku caught them on a shield, noting that the pink lasers were much more effective at charging the Mega-Laser than the purple shots had been.

A group of three bomb Nobodies appeared around the craft, just like the last time they'd knocked a cylinder off a dragon. "Sora, can you handle the bombs?"

"No problem! Just get me in close!" With some fancy joystick maneuvers - Riku was essentially learning to fly a Gummi Ship, and doing so really fast - the glider swooped close to the bombs, allowing Sora to smack them into the dragon with his Keyblade. Just like before, the bombs did massive damage to the cylinder where the heroes' own attacks couldn't. Another pair of spiky Nobodies appeared; Riku absorbed their shots and fired another Mega-Laser. "Take that!" Sora whooped as the right cylinder was blasted off.

Riku climbed up and over the dragon, between its wings, and down to the left cylinder. The dragon spawned another series of glyphs, which Riku handily avoided. "Lather, rinse, repeat. Why won't Xemnas fight us himself?"

"You think this is Xemnas' doing?" Sora asked. Oddly enough, he hadn't really thought about why they were fighting a huge dragon after Xemnas vanished.

As he absorbed a salvo of pink lasers, Riku theorized, "He made those Absent Silhouettes out of the defeated Organization members, remember? I think he can do that with his own body, too, and put his own mind into the new body. He did it when you beat him before."

Sora realized the ramifications of that power. "What?! Then he could come back as many times as he wants! How do we beat him?"

Riku grinned savagely as he launched a third Mega-Laser. "Simple: we crush him so badly that he won't want to come back anymore."

"Whoa, Riku, when did you get so edgy?" Still, Sora whistled appreciatively as the left cylinder fell to the ground.

Riku smirked. "It's how I roll. You guys could use a supervillain on your team, especially against enemies like this." He boosted ahead of the dragon and looked over his shoulder to see where they should attack next.

"You're not a supervillain, Riku," Sora insisted.

"Maybe not, but I know how they think. I had Ansem...Xehanort's Heartless...inside me for a long time, remember? Then I body-snatched him. I've mind-controlled one of Lambda's enemies, made liberal use of the Power of Darkness in lots of other ways, and let's not forget those times I fought you a year ago. I've got a lot of bad powers, but I want to use the tools Ansem gave me to help my friends. And wouldn't that be the perfect revenge?" As he spoke, Riku swerved around a swarm of missiles from the dragon swooping overhead, then dodged a series of glyphs. "I wish Donald let me on the Gummi Ship back then; this is kind of fun."

The glider closed in on the dragon's left wing, and Sora started smacking some more bombs. "We only have three seats on the Gummi Ship."

"Oh. That makes sense. Why didn't Donald say so?" Riku enthusiastically launched another Mega-Laser. "Aaand click! This attack never gets old!"

"Donald is...you know." Sora braced his feet as the glider swerved around yet another swarm of missiles and lasers.

"Yeah, he's...Donald. Even if he did say something, I might not have understood him... Well, if you can put up with him, I can too." Riku moved in to attack the other wing.

Sora bopped some bombs. "He's really helpful in a pinch, and for all his talk, he would never leave the rest of us behind. Wait, how is that thing still flying with only one wing?!"

"I don't think the wings are what's keeping it airborne. But let's test that theory..." One final Mega-Laser severed the right wing. With a loud screech, the World of Emptiness crashed head-first into the city below.

Riku slowed the glider to a hover and watched the dragon crumple. "Well, so much for the theory. We've grounded the dragon. Now what?"

Suddenly, a storm of Nothing-energy swirled up around the dragon. Sora and Riku barely had time to look at each other before the glider was sucked into the vortex.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Defeat Xemnas!

Sora and Riku became aware of their surroundings again. There was a black void behind them and a distorted top-down view of the city in front of them. Between the heroes and the ground below them - er, in front of them - loomed yet another mechanical dragon, the World of Naught, seemingly pulling itself out of a rift in the middle of this strange space.

Several details had changed between the new dragon and the previous one, such as the shape of its wings and the addition of large plates on its arms. Most importantly, the World of Naught's head was open on top, so Riku swooped the glider in close to take a peek inside. Sure enough, Xemnas' armored form sat on a throne inside the dragon's head. Riku and Sora jumped off the glider into the throne room to confront Xemnas...but the glider was pulled away into the void behind them as soon as they disembarked.

"Rats. I wanted to keep that thing," Riku grumbled without much rancor. He wasn't worried about the outcome of this fight at all.

Sora wasn't, either. Instead of focusing on Xemnas, he mentioned to Riku, "I wanted to thank Namine...you know, like the note in the Journal said I should. But I just couldn't do it...not until everything's back to normal."

Jiminy Cricket startled them both by hopping out of Sora's hair. "Good to know you got some use out of my Journal, Sora!"

Riku had forgotten Jiminy was still tagging along with Sora at all, but decided not to say so. Instead, he readied his Keyblade and reminded Sora, "Let's beat this guy and get back home. Then you can thank Namine all you want. I have some thanks to give her, too."

"Right! Be sure to take notes, Jiminy - this is gonna be epic!" Sora readied his weapon, and rushed at Xemnas. He got in a few quick hits, then Dodge Rolled away to avoid the Superior's retaliation. Something about the Dodge Roll felt different - it was easier than ever to roll across such a long distance.

Riku dashed into range, surprising himself by managing a flash-step. "I thought I couldn't do that anymore. Is Kingdom Hearts empowering us, too?"

"Well, I'm not complaining!" Sora and Riku battered Xemnas with a flurry of combos, but the armored hulk sent them flying away with just a wordless roar.

The blast sent them flying all the way out of the dragon. They almost ended up falling into the black void behind them, but Sora caught Riku and did an Aerial Dodge to stop their momentum. Then he did another and another - he could do endless air-jumps!

Riku was getting kind of dizzy from the constant spinning, so he pulled away from Sora and began flying under his own power, the same way he did when he looked like Ansem. "C'mon, Sora, we've got a job to do!"

"Hearts are power!" Xemnas' voice carried across the void as the World of Naught roared and summoned a group of floating buildings all over the place. Several of the buildings tumbled in Sora and Riku's direction, but the heroes easily flew around them.

Xemnas roared, "Nothingness! Is! Eternal!" The World of Naught pulled its arms in front of itself, using new parts welded to the arms to form a round shield emblazoned with the Nobody symbol. Its new, segmented wings fired a salvo of red lasers upward, which then zoomed in Sora's direction. Another Aerial Dodge let him avoid the shots.

Sora started Gliding toward the dragon. "Hey, I didn't know I could do that! Maybe it's from the Final Form thing Roxas did? Or maybe from the first adventure? Then again, who cares?"

Sora weaved around floating buildings and approached the shield, but the shield bashed outward and sent out a concussive shockwave that knocked the hero right back to where he started. "Why do you despise the void?"

"Why do you worship it?" Riku looked around for other options. His gaze locked onto one of the floating buildings, which had been quite helpful back when everyone was fighting Xemnas at once. "Hey Sora, get over here! I've got a plan!"

"Sora...are you certain you can trust Riku?"

To both of them, Sora replied, "Sure!" Sora zoomed over to Riku, who was crouched on one of the floating buildings. "What now?"

"Now you need to hit me at that shield!" Riku faced forward and braced himself.

Sora understood the plan. "Got it. I hope you're ready!" With a mighty swing of the Kingdom Key, Sora sent the floating building rocketing right at the World of Naught's shield, with Riku riding atop it.

The building crashed dead-center into the shield, which split apart for a moment before slamming back together. "Riku...are you sure you're not jealous of Sora?"

"Shut up already!" Riku crushed the rebounding building with a heavy whack of his Keyblade, sending the fragments back into the shield like a meteor swarm. This time, the shield stayed down.

"Embrace...nothing!" A trio of glyphs appeared in front of Sora, and another group targeted Riku. They both climbed higher as fast as they could, outpacing the spinning lasers generated by those and two more sets of glyphs. Then they landed in the throne room to have another go at Xemnas himself.

Though Xemnas tried to keep the heroes away from his throne with walls of energy and rows of laser glyphs that traced lines across the room, he was sorely outmatched. Sora and Riku closed in and ripped up the Nobody's armor with their Keyblades. In desperation, he blasted the heroes out of the dragon and set up his array of defenses once more, but the boys dismantled the World of Naught's shield the same way as before. This time, it sustained too much damage, and the shield parts fell off the dragon's arms, leaving Xemnas defenseless.

The heroes dove into the throne room and drove their Keyblades into Xemnas' chest simultaneously, causing a wave of Nothing to spill out and drown everything.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Meanwhile, with Lambda...

Area: UNKNOWN (T-System Core)

Lambda had been separated from the others within the unstable Corridor of Darkness. A sharper sense of dislocation told her she'd been pulled through a Time Break as well - this was only the second time she'd crossed one, and it was the first time while she self-aware.

She looked around at a blank white space; her systems recognized it as Takamagahara, an artificial god created to manage the time loops in the Azure Timeline, but the AIs that were supposed to exist in this space were nowhere to be found. All that remained was an empty, white void.

Thankfully, their absence meant Lambda's preset directive to slay gods didn't take over, but it was still worrisome. What could have destroyed the Takamagahara System? And besides that system, who would use this space, and for what? Who would bring Lambda here, especially in a way that required such precise manipulation of space-time? Was it Xemnas? Yuuki Terumi?

In a way, the real culprit was worse than Lambda feared: Relius Clover. Lambda turned around and was confronted with the magenta-cloaked Mad Puppeteer standing right behind her. He was taller than her, and he paid no mind to her personal space.

The soulless lenses of Relius' opera mask had no pupils, but Lambda could feel them burrowing into her very soul as he loomed over her. He was scanning her through some connection to the Boundary, and whatever method he used wasn't designed to consider the comfort of the soul being scanned.

For five seconds, Relius said nothing and did nothing; he just continued to stare. Then he suddenly laughed with genuine good humor, though Lambda couldn't tell what was so funny. "Ha ha ha! ...Interesting! Very interesting! Number 11...I would never have guessed that Prime Field Device would be the original source of the Time Break anomalies. It was outright designed to fail at its original programmed tasks; it was built merely as payment for a small debt to Sector Seven for the use of their facilities. By all rights, it should have been consumed by the Boundary, tested to destruction by the fools of Sector Seven, or at least ended up in the already-unlikely role currently filled by Kokonoe's so-called '2.0' version.

"Yet, it seems it somehow fell into a hole in the established harmony and created a stable role for itself on the other side. Some parallels can be drawn to the anomalies displayed by Number 12, but this is perhaps an even greater find! That soul is a wonder; it's been altered piece by piece, and now it's changed from a Murakumo Unit to something almost entirely different. Such a disjointed, chaotic soul, yet it's more stable than even the beastkin's! By what means was this soul altered? ...Ah, I see! This power; it may be a counterpart to the power of the Azure that exists in the 'Heart Timeline'. What we have here is an extremely valuable specimen; why, by studying its structure, I may be able to use this power to stabilize my masterpiece!"

Lambda had been held rigid while Relius spoke about her as an object, musing to himself as though there were no other people present. Her body wouldn't obey her commands...only his. Relius Clover was the Architect of every Prime Field Device - he was the highest Master of their control protocols. Lambda hadn't been thorough enough in replacing his access with Riku's, and now her body was just another puppet forced to dance on the Mad Puppeteer's strings.

"Ignis." All Relius said was that name, but the magenta-clad combat doll that appeared at his side reached forward with its menacing claws to obey some unspoken command.

Lambda tried to move. She tried to attack. She tried to summon Murakumo. She tried to release the Power of Light within herself. If nothing else, she would have settled for fleeing, but nothing she tried did any good. "Error. Error. Attack not possible. Escape not possible. Useless...useless...Sending priority alert to Master Riku...insufficient signal strength." Ignis grabbed hold of Lambda's face and lifted her off the indiscernible ground.

"'Master Riku'? Ah, I thought there was defective code there, but it's deliberate: you've written a jury-rigged patch into the control protocol. I am here, asserting my position as Master, so the faulty logic sustaining that patch no longer applies. Subject Eleven, engage control protocol level four."

Lambda stuttered, "Control...control protocol...level...f-four...loading...loading..."

First action, then expression, then emotion - the control protocol was designed to lock down a Prime Field Device in cumulative stages. Levels one and two were Lambda's gift to Riku. Level three had helped save her from Hazama. Level four, however, could never be a good thing. It would erase Lambda's memories and personality entirely, and could theoretically erase her soul itself. Not only would this protocol utterly destroy her sense of self as "Lambda", it would erase the very same changes Relius hoped to research - her friends, her love, her free will. The machine, Number 11, would be all that remained - a sub-optimal amalgam of parts that would be useless to the Architect.

Lambda slowed the process as much as she could by reporting that counter-argument, by queuing up useless events like database searches, and even by deliberately overheating her processors to cause lag, but she could still feel the control protocol creeping up the queue, locking down her limbs, her emotional displays, her senses...

Physically, Lambda's face showed no emotion. In her head, Lambda cried for mercy, begged for it to stop, pleaded for someone to save her. She screamed for the ones who had helped her before: "Mickey. Yen Sid. Sora. Namine. RIKU!"

Priority alert for Master Riku...insufficient signal strength. Attempting to boost signal strength...failed.

What would Riku say? Lambda already knew. "Giving up already? C'mon, Lambda! I thought you were stronger than that!"

Boost signal strength...impossible. Attack...impossible. Escape...impossible. Accept defeat Y/N?

"NO! No, I will NOT accept this! It's NOT his choice to make!"

Control protocol level four: executing in 20 seconds...

A memory came unbidden to Lambda's mind. Even the Cheshire Cat had something to say about this... "That depends on your choice. What you choose is always the most important thing."

10 seconds...

Lambda herself had pointed out to Namine: "If that's what your heart's decided, then the only thing left is to do it."

5 seconds...

3... No one was coming to help her...

2... Lambda had to save herself...

1... And so she would. Period. End of discussion. All of Lambda's doubts vanished at once.

Your heart is the key that will create the future.

A bright Light shone from nowhere...or was it all in Lambda's head? Her vision was still offline.

Control protocol execution...failed.

With a gasp, Lambda suddenly regained control of her body. She felt something in her hand. Looking down, she saw what it was: a Keyblade!

Keyblade... Elysium... Keyblade... Elysium...

The theme of its appearance was definitely based on Lambda's old Battle Mode. It had a spiky, round handguard that looked like the hilt of Murakumo's sealed state, a meter-long length of steel shaped like an upside-down leg blade for the shaft, and four miniature Petals acting as the teeth of the key. A thin silver cord connected the hilt to a green Keychain shaped like Lambda's Distortion Drive crest, with all its intricate details scaled down to a tiny charm the size of her thumb.

Lambda could feel Elysium's power surging through her entire being: a shining Light that continued to burn away all the parts of her programming that could be activated against her will. The weapon raised itself to point firmly at Relius, who merely stroked his beard as though Lambda had become even more fascinating.

"Intriguing! It appears the stress of resisting my order has awakened yet another latent power within the subject. Unfortunately, the control protocol isn't responding, and I don't have time to recalibrate it right now. Ignis, collect Subject 13 instead. Then report to my new coordinates. There is one last experiment to run before I leave these worlds to my successor."

Ignis disappeared to go "collect" Nu-13...but why? The lenses on Relius' mask visibly flashed white as he Observed a new Time Break into existence - a huge one. Lambda was caught in the expansion and pulled back to the Heart Timeline with Relius.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

The Realm of Nothingness...

Sora and Riku: Defeat Xemnas once and for all!

Sora and Riku opened their eyes again; the scenery had changed entirely. Everything around them was white, off-white, or gray. Geometric patterns like those found inside the generic buildings they'd been demolishing swirled into circular voids, like water pouring down a drain. There was no floor, but the strange non-space was distorted beneath their feet; it seemed solid.

And of course, Xemnas was here, too. He wore a Black Coat, but this time with jagged black-and white designs all over it rather than the plain black cloth that had come to be expected.

Riku taunted, "What, you don't have any more dragons?"

"Ugh, don't give him ideas, Riku!" Sora rolled his eyes, but gripped his Keyblade and got ready to fight.

Xemnas proclaimed, "Heroes from the Realm of Light! I will not allow it to end this way...not yet. If Light and Darkness are eternal, then surely we nothings must be the same...eternal!"

Riku and Sora relaxed their battle stances to indulge Xemnas' need for speeches. Riku replied, "You're right. Light and Darkness are eternal. Nothing probably goes on forever, too. But guess what Xemnas? Despite your claims, you're not Nothing itself..."

Sora finished, "...So that doesn't mean you're eternal!"

Xemnas merely chuckled. "No more eternal than that radiance of yours." Xemnas summoned his Ethereal Blades, and the Keyblade wielders got ready to fight.

Suddenly, Xemnas was right in front of them. "Welcome to my Realm. You shall go together!" A swirl of Nothing thorns wrapped around the heroes and flung them upward (figuring "up" from the only floor in this place). Xemnas launched himself after them fast enough to catch Sora off-guard, raking along the boy's back with an Ethereal Blade. Then the Superior vanished again to attack from another direction.

This time, Sora was ready. On instinct, he did a similar trick to the special Reversal move Roxas used to dance around the Twilight Thorn, dodging another swing of the lasers, then a spinning kick charged with Nothing, then a spin attack...

Even as Xemnas launched this rapid string of attacks, he was also targeting Riku with similar strikes, moving fast enough to harry both Keyblade wielders at once. Riku followed Sora's lead, using Reversal around as many attacks as he could, but Xemnas managed to get in a lucky hit that sent Riku plummeting downward.

"Riku!" While Sora was distracted, Xemnas disarmed him with a hard whack against the Kingdom Key, following up with an axe kick that sent Sora rocketing downward after Riku.

Thinking quickly, Riku grabbed the Kingdom Key as it tumbled past his head and flung it back to Sora. Both of them smashed their Keyblades against Xemnas' next attack, pushing all three combatants away from each other.

Sora used Quick Run to approach Riku and cast Curaga. "He's way faster than before!"

"Yeah, we're going to need to step up our game, too." Riku launched a volley of Dark Firagas at Xemnas, and the Superior...fell over backwards and died?

"Riku, behind you!" Sora blocked the real Xemnas' spinning kick. Across the battlefield, the fake shell made of Nothing vanished. Sora retaliated, finally scoring some good hits against Xemnas, but the Superior swapped to another Absent Silhouette to escape the combo.

Riku growled. "I knew it. Well, Sora, we're going with my plan."

"What, 'group up and hit him until he dies?' Not much of a plan." Xemnas threw a hand forward, launching thorny Nothing streaks at Sora, who rode the currents of Nothing with another Reversal to get behind Xemnas again for an air combo.

His combo finisher sent him toward Riku, who started an air combo of his own. Each strike flowed seamlessly into the next, keeping Xemnas too occupied to create another Absent Silhouette. As Xemnas drifted out of reach, Riku blasted him with a Dark Firaga and flash-stepped back to Sora. "You forgot the 'keep doing that until he stops getting back up' part. We need to match his movement speed with our attack speed, too."

Xemnas appeared between the heroes. "If you have so much time to conspire against me, can you spare...a heart?" He launched a continuous beam of energy at Sora, holding the brunet suspended in midair inside a field of constant pain. Riku tried to interrupt Xemnas by attacking from the side, only to receive a brutal snap kick for his trouble. Riku was thrown an impressive distance away and had to do multiple handsprings to try and slow down his momentum; the last person who managed to kick him that hard was Azrael. OUCH.

"Hold on, Sora!" Riku now had to get back to Xemnas and somehow stop the attack before it broke Sora down. Setting his jaw in grim determination, Riku ran forward, only to have to jump sideways as a Xemnas doppelganger set a wall of energy in his path. Riku stunned the clone with a series of Dark Firagas as he continued to run, dodged another wall that tried to bump him sideways, and finally allowed the last wall to hit him and send him flying right toward the real Xemnas.

With no time to come up with a better move, Riku slammed into Xemnas' palms with his own left hand, shorting out the attack, but sending a painful shock up his own arm. Sora dropped limply to the ground. Enduring the pain, Riku swung Xemnas' whole body around in a circle and tossed him far away. "Is that all you've got?"

It was a bit of a bluff; that energy charge had hurt. But Riku had another borderline-insane plan to deal with that: "Heal!" Riku's healing spell looked different from Sora's, producing a blue sphere of intangible Light around himself and Sora rather than a swirl of green leaves and yellow petals, but it worked!

Sora picked himself off the ground and finished healing them both with his own Curaga spell. "Thanks, Riku! I owe you one!"

Riku took a second to catch his breath. "I'll remember the score for later, but this isn't over yet."

"Indeeeeed. Why don't you vanish...?" Xemnas flew around and flash-stepped repeatedly, leaving behind copies of his Ethereal Blades that hung in the air for a moment before launching straight at the heroes as laser shots. Sora found it easy to deflect them off his Keyblade, and Riku did the same as they both defended against a full ring of lasers while standing back-to-back.

Two copies of Xemnas appeared a short distance away and launched rapid streams of lasers; Sora and Riku pressed against the onslaught with their Keyblades. Once the barrage ended and the fake Xemnas disappeared, Riku and Sora closed in. "Sora, let's try Eternal Session!"

"Count me in!" Sora led the first move this time.

The two heroes rushed in for several rapid stabs, then swooped out to launch projectiles. The next series of stabs ended with them both activating Bladecharge and delivering several sweeping attacks.

"XIII Blades!" Sora constructed thirteen blades of Light and spun them in a circle as he and Riku flew around freely, shoving Xemnas ahead of them.

"Twilight Barrage!" Riku cloaked the swords in Darkness and sent them homing in on Xemnas.

Riku tossed Way to Dawn upward. "Time's up!"

Sora followed suit with the Kingdom Key. "Let's go!"

Blasts of Light and Darkness sprayed out of the two Keyblades, meeting in the center as an ever-expanding sphere of destruction. "ALL'S END!"

Xemnas took direct hits from every single attack, leaving his coat torn to shreds, his limbs mangled, and his hair burned short, but he simply swapped to another Absent Silhouette as soon as the string of attacks finally ended. Now in a brand-new body with no damage on it whatsoever, he hovered just out of reach of the Keyblade wielders.

Xemnas gathered two massive orbs of Nothing-energy in his outstretched hands and slammed them together, covering everything in pitch blackness. "Your Light is strong, but you cannot defeat me." In the all-consuming black, devoid of both Light and Darkness, red dots became visible in all directions, enclosing Sora and Riku in a dome of hanging laser blasts! "In this Realm, there's no such thing as the Light!"

One by one, the lasers rained down on the heroes. Individually, the attacks were easy to deflect with their Keyblades. The problem was the sheer number of lasers - hundreds and hundreds of them struck from every direction, and the barrage only grew faster over time. The lasers were slowly replaced as they were fired; eventually the barrage would run out, but Sora and Riku would have to survive until then.

Operating on pure survival instinct, the duo swung into motion, seamlessly deflecting each and every laser. When an attack came at one boy's back, the other would block for him. The way they swung their Keyblades was different; Sora's swings were fast and direct, bringing him right where he needed to be, whereas Riku spun his Keyblade around his hand and sliced in curved paths that dealt with multiple targets as he stayed in constant motion. Somehow, the two styles melded flawlessly. They never once tripped over each other's feet or locked Keyblades, nor did they ever end up trying to block the same attack.

The deadly dance only lasted half a minute. By that time, the barrage had sped up to the point where fifty lasers were fired in the time it took one laser to recharge. More by luck than anything, many of the reflected lasers ended up hitting Xemnas, and his concentration on the barrage finally broke. The field of blackness burned away in a cluster of explosions, leaving Sora and Riku on their knees, panting in exhaustion, back in the white-and-gray Realm of Nothingness. Almost all their strength and stamina had been spent just to survive that one assault.

Xemnas struck Riku, sending him tumbling away from Sora. Sora looked up at an Ethereal Blade pressed against his neck. "This is the end."

"Sora!" Xemnas' mistake was winding back his arm to strike; if he had simply pressed a little harder, Sora would have been decapitated right there. Instead, he gave Riku the split-second he needed to get back into the fray, knock the Ethereal Blade away, and shove Sora to safety, all in one motion.

Xemnas smirked as he brought his other Ethereal Blade around with the momentum of being blocked, scoring a brutal blow on Riku's back.

"Riku!" Sora watched as Way to Dawn tumbled from Riku's grip...and then Sora moved. He shot forward, gripped Way to Dawn in his left hand, and slammed both Keyblades into Xemnas' torso with all his strength.

Sora struck Xemnas over and over. Up until now, Sora had been pulling his blows at least a little bit; because he didn't really want to hurt anyone, even the nasty combos he'd dealt to the other Organization members rarely caused any visible, physical damage, but that was not the case here. "This is for Riku and Lambda! For Roxas and Xion! For Kairi and Namine! For all my friends from Disney Castle, and for all my friends EVERYWHERE ELSE!"

Xemnas was dragged into the air and brutally ripped apart, leaving his Nothing-forged flesh hanging in rough shreds. A scissoring blow from both Keyblades actually bisected the so-called Superior at the waist - his legs fell downward and faded away, while the rest of him was launched even further up! The pain from his brutal dismemberment was so severe that Xemnas couldn't even focus on creating a new Absent Silhouette for several seconds.

Sora used that final push to shoot back to the ground and land next to Riku.

Riku tried to come up with a plan. "We've got to seal his power away somehow, or he'll just fix himself!"

Sora got a brilliant idea. "Wait, 'seal'...I've got it! Riku, are you ready?" He reached down and offered Riku his hand.

Sora didn't explain, but Riku understood the plan perfectly. He grasped Sora's hand, sending as much encouragement as he could across that connection, along with a surge of Light. "Xemnas! Your power is as fake as that body! Prepare to lose it all! Now, Sora!"

"LIGHT!" Sora launched a beam from his Keyblade. Xemnas had just enough time to widen his eyes before the beam struck him right through his hollow chest, using the Keyblade's power - to release or seal any lock - to seal away Xemnas' power over Nothing.

Xemnas tried to jump to another Absent Silhouette, but found himself stuck in a single body for the first time he could remember, even when he was "Xehanort". Thus, for the first time ever, Xemnas knew true fear.

Sora passed Riku back his Keyblade, and the duo launched into the air, cutting through what was left of Xemnas in a cross shape. Nothing matter spilled out from his body in a rapid stream, washing his existence away until there was finally - finally! - no trace left of him. Not even Nothing remained.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

Sora and Riku: Keep going!

"We...we did it!"

Riku smelled something amiss. His enhanced senses pricked at his awareness, alerting him before the arrival of a massive horde of Dusks that had come to avenge their liege. "I wouldn't be too sure of that..."

Sora yelled at the Nobodies, "Why are you still after us!? You're free! Xemnas wasn't going to make you whole anyway! You can do whatever you want, so why do you want to kill us?"

Riku pushed himself shakily to his feet, yanking as much Darkness from his heart as he could still hold. He had enough for at least one last fight... "Sorry, weirdos, but we don't have time to talk." He summoned Soul Eater to his left hand (which was a trick he could still do), channeled all of his gathered Darkness into it, tossed the demonic sword into the air, and finally shot a Release beam at it from Way to Dawn. "Get down, Sora! SOUL BREAKER!"

Soul Eater exploded, washing the Nobodies away in a single, massive burst of Darkness. After the wave passed over the area, all the Dusks were eliminated, but this final, desperate attack had used up all of Riku's strength. He collapsed face-first.

"Whoa..." Sora marveled at the impressive attack and decisive results, thankful that the blast flowed around him rather than sweeping him away with the Dusks. Then he noticed Riku lying motionless on the ground. "Riku, are you okay?" He rushed over and hoisted the silver-haired boy over his shoulder. It wasn't the best arrangement, since Riku was so much taller, but it was what they had.

Riku started to say, "Sora...I can't-"

"Don't say another word! It's not over! It's just...not." Sora was trying not to cry again; what if Riku actually died here? No. Just...no. He wouldn't. Sora wouldn't let Riku run away like that again.

Riku couldn't keep the same level of stubborn optimism. The attack name he'd just coined, "Soul Breaker", wasn't entirely metaphorical; he had left a deep scar in his own heart with that attack, and he could already smell that invisible wound filling up with Darkness. He couldn't afford to use that attack in the future...if he still even had a future. "How can you say that?! Even if we could go on...look where we are." They were still trapped in the Realm of Nothing, even though their enemies had all been defeated.

"Aw, c'mon, Riku! You've been hanging out in Darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!" Sora was already transitioning back to the laid-back, friendly guy he always was when the worlds weren't in danger. The heroes of Light had won, hands-down. The threat of Organization XIII was over, bar the cleanup and journey home.

Riku couldn't say no to that earnest, puppy-like enthusiasm. "Well, I guess the Dusks couldn't have gotten in here if it were impossible to leave, so there must be a way out. Oh, and Sora?"

"Hm?"

"Get your hand off my butt." One of Sora's arms was around Riku's lower back to hold him up, but not actually that low. He was just trying to fluster the younger boy, just like when he used to needle Sora about denying the brunet's crush on Kairi. Of course, after Sora undertook two journeys specifically to save Kairi, that tactic wouldn't work anymore.

"Whoops!" Sora hastily shifted the hand supporting Riku's lower back a little higher up, then set off walking in a random direction, half-carrying Riku as they went. After all, nothing would change if they just stayed where they were.

After a while of trudging forward-ish, Riku spoke up. "Funny...I always thought I was better at stuff than you. All the stuff. But now look at me."

Sora just chuckled. Riku asked, "You're not mad?"

Sora grinned. "Nah. I...kinda always figured you were better at everything, too. After all, today's score for heroic saves and successful plans is 11 to 15, your favor. I'm still losing."

Riku craned his neck up as much as he could just to give Sora an utterly baffled look. "You were keeping track?!"

"Of course! At least for the stuff I've heard you did that helped us today. How else could I know how strong we both are? I'll beat you one of these days, you just wait! We're still rivals, after all!"

Sora had the weirdest logic sometimes. Riku sighed, "What I was trying to say was, I think you've already won."

"We've already won," Sora insisted. Suddenly, he pointed straight ahead. "Hey, what's that Light?"

"What Light?" Then Riku saw it: a tiny pinprick of brilliant, white Light, just barely large enough to distinguish from the Nothing all around it. As the boys watched, the Light grew larger and brighter until it was all they could see, washing them away to yet another uncharted world.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

[Heart Timeline]: Realm Between: The Crossroads...

Lambda: Stop Relius Clover's experiment!

The other end of Relius' Time Break opened high above the ground, dropping Lambda and Relius straight down. Relius descended slowly and touched down lightly, complete with dramatic ripples of wind in his immaculate cape, but Lambda crashed painfully into the dirt with her face. She pushed herself to her feet, thankful that she hadn't lost her grip on Elysium in the crash, and looked around.

Lambda recognized this place, although she'd only been here briefly, and only once before. This was the dirt crossroads through an endless field of grass where Riku had made his resolution to walk the road to dawn. Lambda and Relius had touched down right in the center of the four-way crossing. Above them, the spiky rift of the Time Break showed a distorted reflection of the T-System core, but since that area was completely white, so was the Time Break.

Relius turned away from Lambda, as though it was equally interesting to watch the endless grass grow as to face his rogue creation. "Ignis should be arriving...now."

Another Time Break appeared slightly below the first. It reflected what seemed to be a teenager's bedroom - the drapes were drawn and the lights were off, despite the sunny day outside, and various odds and ends lay scattered on the floor. Ignis descended through the Time Break, followed by Nu-13 in full Battle Mode.

As Nu passed through the Time Break feet-first, the rift began to visibly swell. The further she went, the faster it grew, as if trying to swallow her back up and keep her in the Azure Timeline. Still, the Thirteenth Prime Field Device outpaced the expanding Time Break. As soon as the top of her hair curl left the rift behind, the growing rift overlapped the other Time Break above it.

In a split second, both rifts were covered by static as though from an old computer monitor, and then that static was swallowed by featureless blackness, a darkness so deep that all sense of depth perception and three-dimensional shape was lost. The combined Time Break looked like a rip in a section of wallpaper; it was impossible to even tell how far away it was from the sky or ground.

Relius grinned and adjusted his opera mask. "Excellent! Just as theorized, the Collision Zone has formed! I was concerned when the Azure Timeline was re-written by the Man of Azure, but it seems the Thirteenth Subject is among the few souls who still possess any 'information' about the previous version - enough significance to properly hasten the degeneration of the Time Breaks into a true Collision Zone. Now it is only a matter of time - hours or less - before the Zone inevitably swallows all space and time on both sides, creating the perfect void for the creation of my new world!" Even now, the Collision Zone was spreading across the sky. Lambda couldn't tell how long until the ground on which they stood would be consumed as well.

Lambda asked, "Is there any way to stop it?" She wasn't expecting an answer.

Relius provided one, however. "Not so long as I, the Observer of the original Time Breaks, exist. I can rest assured that you will never stop me; not while you deal with Ignis and Number Thirteen." He didn't even gesture, but the two combat dolls in question turned toward Lambda and summoned swords and drills.

Lambda held her Keyblade on her right side in both hands, but she remembered her dream; she was not ready to fight even a Stalwart Blade in melee combat, much less a tag-team of Ignis and Nu. "I can't win if I fight them head on...but there must be another way!" She gazed at Nu, the girl with a face so similar to Lambda's own. Surely she could be helped like Lambda had been, right?

Lambda jumped to the side as Ignis rolled forward, with a pair of tassels hanging from its pink headdress to the ground forming a buzz saw-like wheel around the doll's body. Lambda stumbled on the landing, which luckily helped her dodge a pair of summoned swords from Nu. The "database" that had been feeding Lambda all those small bites of info suddenly pushed a series of impressions directly into her heart...

"Let's go even deeper this time, Ragna!"

"I was always dreaming...about you. That's why...Nu wasn't lonely."

"C'mon, Ragna! Let's kill each other over and over again!"

"We'll destroy the whole world, just you and me!"

"W-what? How did Ragna get so big and strong...?"

"'Save' Nu? Save me? Why do you say such silly things?"

"Die die die die die! You'll all DIE!"

"My dream is...to become one with Ragna...and destroy everything!"

"Ragna...there's no 'Ragna the Bloodedge' in this world. I have no purpose anymore."

"Orders...acknowledged."

...Yep. Nu's mind was broken beyond repair. Even if Lambda could unlock the control protocol, Nu would still be an insane psychopath with an endless supply of swords and only one desire - to cut down everything around her and consume it all until she found Ragna, which she never would. But if Lambda did nothing, the Collision Zone overhead would consume everything anyway.

Lambda took a gamble on less certain death. She called out to Nu, "Nu! Your dream, it's...terrible and wrong, not to mention impossible. But what Relius would make you do is even worse. Here, I'll throw you a lifeline: a chance to find a new dream to follow. A dream should be something no one else decides for you - not Relius, not 'Saya', not even the Azure should decide what your dream is! I'll open the door for you, but whether you go through...that's your choice to make. Make your choice, Nu!"

Lambda pointed Elysium straight at Nu's head and fired a Release beam. (She didn't question how she knew how to do that.) The force of the shot blew Lambda's loose hair around behind her. The beam scored a direct hit right in the single red eye of Nu's visor, shattering the mask and knocking the white-haired girl on her back.

Nu rolled over and pushed herself to her feet. Her sunken, red eyes were dull and unfocused, but suddenly she blinked, and there was a new sparkle in them. "Loading...loading...protocol execution canceled. Nu is...I'm free. But what's the point of freedom?"

Lambda gave Nu the warmest smile she could muster. "That's for you to decide. Oh...by the way, no pressure, but if one of us two doesn't do something about Relius, you won't have any more time or space to make such a decision."

"I...I want to find Ragna. But Ragna is gone. He...sacrificed himself. And he didn't want Nu anyway. Ragna...didn't have anything he wanted for himself. That dummy...always getting himself hurt and getting nothing out of it...but he won. He won something for everyone. Maybe...maybe I should be like that."

Lambda asked, while rolling away from Ignis' stabbing drill-arm, "Should you? Or do you want to be like that?"

Nu nodded slowly. "I...I do. I am Nu. I'm the one who remembers Ragna!"

Lambda pointed at Relius. "Well then, you've made your choice. Here's your chance to be just like him. If Relius goes through the Collision Zone now, he'll cease to exist, and so will the things he's Observing, including the Collision Zone itself. This is your moment, Nu. I'll make sure Ignis doesn't spoil it."

Nu stared at Lambda as though a pile of gold (or maybe Ragna wearing heart-shaped spectacles) had just fallen from the sky - an impossible miracle had just restored her faith in the world. "Thanks, Sis...ter? Yes, you're my big sister! I think I can do this!"

Lambda grinned. "It's okay. Don't just think you can. Believe it, and then do it...Little Sis!"

Nu turned to Relius and re-summoned Murakumo's visor. Like someone had flipped a switch, her posture, tone of voice, and attitude all changed. Now Nu was in full psycho-yandere Battle Mode, because some things just don't change. "So, 'Master' Relius Clover...come with me! I'll show you such a good time. We'll kill each other and kill each other until neither of us exists anymore! I mean, I'll still be thinking of Ragna and hating you for keeping me away from him the whole time, but I hear it feels even better if you hate each other!"

Nu giggled her psychotic giggle and launched three pairs of swords from the front, behind, and below the Mad Puppeteer. Relius blocked the attacks, but lost focus on Ignis, allowing Lambda to run the Detonator through with Elysium.

Relius, for his part, felt his meticulously-laid plans falling out from under him. "C-come, Ignis! Defend your Master!"

Ignis tried to teleport to Relius' side, but Lambda twisted the Keyblade in its torso, breaking through some important parts inside the woman-turned-weapon. "Nu's doing what her heart has decided; you and Relius can't interfere. That's the most important law of the Heart Timeline, as I realized almost immediately after arriving here. Now get out of the home I've chosen!"

Nu hovered over to Relius, laying a Gravity Seed underneath him, then launched a massive sword straight ahead to pierce his gut. "That's right...I got this move from the adjustments under Terumi; let your life be stopped on the Sword of Hades." Smaller swords appeared in a dome around Relius, then skewered him one by one. Finally, a sword of comparable size to Calamity Sword dropped on him from above, dispersing the other blades and bouncing the Architect off the dirt. Nu air-dashed to catch him with her bare hands, then stabbed him with her Petals and the blade in her hair. "I have you now, 'Master', and I'm never letting you go again!" Blood mixed with black oil spurted from Relius' mouth and got droplets on Nu's face, but she just giggled. "Go on, let it all out and come with me!" She hovered straight up with a Relius-shaped pincushion in tow, dragging them both through the Collision Zone.

The Zone wavered, but didn't close yet. Lambda realized what was missing; she swung Elysium upward with all her might, ripping Ignis off the blade and sending it skyward. Lambda overbalanced and fell on her back, but the move worked. As Ignis passed through the Collision Zone, the now-massive rip in space jerked diagonally and vanished all at once.

Lambda heaved a sigh of relief, looking up at the deep blue sky with a flotilla of puffy silver-white clouds. "It's over...it's finally over." She sat there for a few moments to catch her breath.

As peaceful as it was to just lie in the dirt and look at the sky, Lambda quickly grew bored. She got to her feet and looked around. She mused to herself, "Now if I remember correctly..." She looked left, "...that's the road to Darkness..." she looked right, "...that's the road to Light..." she craned her neck over her shoulder, "...that's the road to nightfall..." she faced straight ahead, "...and that's the road to dawn. But really, none of them suit me. I make my own roads." With a grin, she pointed Elysium at the ground in front of her and concentrated on the Power of Light within her, which was a lot stronger after her heart-to-heart with Nu earlier. She gathered it up the same way she used to make Corridors of Darkness, and the Keyblade fired a beam. When the beam struck in the middle of the crossroads, a black portal with wispy, white edges burst into existence - a gate to the Lanes Between that would lead her wherever her heart wished to go. Lambda focused on her feelings for Riku and stepped through.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

The Realm of Darkness: The Dark Margin...

Riku had a relatively short list of places he might have expected to be sent by a random burst of Light in Xemnas' final battle dimension. It could have led back home to the Destiny Islands, or maybe to someplace in the Realm Between, like Twilight Town or Castle Oblivion. Where it actually sent the two boys, though...how did a blast of Light send them to the Realm of Darkness? Even Wonderland would have been a better fit!

A beach of grayish sand stretched out forever to both sides. Behind them, a jagged plain of black rocks streaked with glowing blue cracks led into the infinite Darkness. In front of them was the ocean - a surprisingly normal ocean. Far out across the water, a bright Light was shining just above the horizon, obscured by a thick fog over the sea. Was it a moon? Kingdom Hearts? It didn't matter - there was no way to get out there to find out.

"End of the road?" Riku asked. Maybe Sora had an idea of how to get out of here.

"Looks that way." Apparently not. One way or another, they would never escape the Realm of Darkness without outside help, not even with their Keyblades - that was just how it worked.

Riku's nagging doubts started to rise up again. "Maybe...if this is what the world really is - just this - then maybe I should fade back into Darkness."

"No, Riku," was Sora's automatic response.

"But think about it. The Realm of Light is safe now. Xehanort and his Heartless and Nobody were eliminated; all the members of Organization XIII were either terminated or changed sides; and the Extraction Program was destroyed, meaning the Heartless will return to a manageable level." Really, all the loose ends seemed to be tied up...except Sora and Riku's happy ending.

"True...Kairi, Lambda, the King, and the others are still on the other side. They'll keep everyone safe. But I still don't think we should just fade into Darkness. I mean, they'll be looking for us. If we can't get out of the Realm of Darkness by ourselves, then all we can do is believe in them. You do believe in them, right, Riku? RIKU!"

When Sora turned to look at Riku, the taller boy had fallen over. "Don't worry, I'm fine...just tired. I did not get enough rest on this journey. I guess having to rest here for a while isn't the worst thing that could happen." Riku could already feel his eyes getting heavy...but there was one thing he wanted to do first. "Sora, could you carry me? I want to get down to the water."

"Sure thing." Sora hoisted Riku up and half-dragged him down to the water's edge. There, both boys sat with their feet in the waves and laid down to rest.

Riku closed his eyes. "At least the waves sound the same..." An indeterminate amount of time was spent in companionable silence.

After a while, Riku spoke up again. "Sora, what I said back there...about thinking I was better at stuff than you?"

"Yeah? You still are, by the way. My carrying you here makes the score 12 to 15."

"Right, right. To tell you the truth, Sora...I was jealous of you."

"What for? Don't tell me you were actually listening to Xemnas' taunts!"

This wasn't a new idea for Riku. "I wished I could live life the way you do...just following my heart. But I had to be the strongest fighter, or the coolest upperclassman, or the role model. And whenever I followed my heart, I ended up in the wrong place - falling to Darkness, running away from you, and losing track of Namine were the worst parts of this particular journey, I think. It took Lambda forever to yank me back onto the right track."

"But everything turned out okay, right? I mean, not perfect, but we won, and you got all kinds of cool powers and a Keyblade of your own! I still can't just fly wherever I want, and I've been at this twice as long as you."

"I can't fly anymore, and you can still rip through Heartless way faster than I can. Come to think of it, you lost your powers, like, twice, and you're still way stronger than me. But...I guess there is one advantage to being me - something you could never imitate." Riku left the idea hanging, waiting for Sora to take the bait.

Sora didn't disappoint. "What's that?"

"Having you for a friend."

"Aw man, I think the score's 12 to 16 now! But that's okay. I've got something similar you could never imitate, too. So I guess I'm fine the way I am."

"Yeah. Me, too." The two boys fell silent again, and eventually drifted off to sleep.

Some time later, Riku woke up when something other than gentle waves bumped his leg. Rousing himself from sleep, he sat up to see a glass bottle had washed ashore between his feet. He started grumbling to himself that even in the Realm of Darkness, there was junk in the sea, but then he saw the contents of the bottle: a letter. He opened the bottle, patted the bottom to knock the rolled-up paper out, and began to read. There wasn't a normal greeting line, but after the vague, free-verse poem, there was a signature he recognized: ~Kairi.

Well, this was one more job for the delivery boy, then. "Hey, Sora? I think it's for you." Riku passed along the letter, and Sora began to read it out loud:

"Thinking of you, wherever you are:

We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.

Now I will step forward to realize this wish.

And who knows - starting a new journey may not be so hard...

Or maybe it has already begun.

There are many worlds, but they share the same sky - one sky, one destiny.

~Kairi."

As soon as Sora finished reading the last word, a bright Light shone from the water's edge, blinding them. Squinting at the Light, they could see it formed a tall rectangle, like a door.

"Light..."

"The Door to Light..."

Riku snorted. "Seriously, just like that? Not that I'm complaining."

Sora jumped to his feet and held a hand out to help Riku up. "We'll go together."

Riku took the offered hand, but stood up and started walking on his own. "Sure. Let's call it a tie today."

Both boys walked through the Door to Light at the same time.

VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV

A/N: Whew! That's finally it for the battles! There will be one more chapter - a short, mostly action-free epilogue - and that, as they say, 's that. I hope you all enjoyed the Time Break Saga!

Of course, there's still quite a bit of potential for more, but knowing me, it'll take a long time before I even start chiseling away at the various options I've left open, some of which have been discussed in PMs with a few of my long-time reviewers.