"Hey. Hey! Aren't you ever going to get up?" said a voice. "Riku! Hello?"

The first ray of thought that filtered down into Riku's sleep-fogged mind was that he hurt everywhere, especially his left hand, which ached abominably; the second was that the bed he was lying in wasn't his own; and the third was that he should probably open his eyes to see who was yelling at him, and, if possible, make them go away so he could go back to sleep. When he did, he saw it was Sora sitting backwards in one of the chairs next to the bed, hunched over the back with his head resting in his crossed arms. "Fiiiiiiinally," he said. "It's almost five in the afternoon."

"Where are we?" Riku asked muzzily.

"The hospital in Sector 2. Don't you remember?" Sora said.

Hospital? Why was he in the hospital? He hurt enough, he supposed, but that didn't seem right. No…it was because of someone else, someone he cared about. Someone like…"AERITH!" he cried, and bolted upright as the vestiges of the mist obscuring the memories of the last day burned away.

"Woah…chill," said Sora, standing abruptly so he could push Riku gently back down on the bed. "She's gonna be fine. The doctors fixed her up as well as they could, and Kairi's probably doing the rest right now."

Riku exhaled very, very slowly and let himself relax into the pillows. If she'd died…it was almost unthinkable. "Shouldn't you be with them?" he asked.

"I was, for hours," Sora said, as he sat down on the edge of the bed and leaned over Riku, braced on the plastic guardrail. "But I wanted to be with you for a while—you got beat up pretty bad."

"Why? Aerith needs your help more than I do. I'm not so bad off…it can wait until she's healed," Riku said, looking away.

Sora's forehead crinkled in confusion. "What do you mean, wait? Riku, you're a mess and I should know, because I was the one that did it to you. You could barely walk when Kairi and I pulled you out of the helicopter. Please let me fix it. I feel awful."

He looked so dejected that Riku couldn't, in good conscience, say no. "Fine," he said, shrugging a little. Sora was so good at doing that to him, as open and guileless as a puppy, and just as difficult to refuse. No matter who he hurt or betrayed, consciously or unconsciously…none of it seemed to matter to Sora, who would follow him to the ends of the earth and beyond bring him safely home. To know he commanded devotion of that caliber, undeserving as he was, wove a sore little knot of unshed tears beneath his breastbone.

Sora took hold of Riku's left wrist, very delicately, and set to work. That slight motion sent the throbbing to an almost intolerable pitch, and Riku gritted his teeth to keep from groaning aloud, but quickly enough the pain melted away as the healing light of Sora's spell knit the broken bones back together. Deep cuts and bruises began to disappear under his hands as the spells filled the room with the subtle scent of unidentifiable flowers. It felt indescribably wonderful. His guard faltered the tiniest bit, and it let slip a solitary drop from the corner of his eye. He tried to wipe it discreetly away before Sora noticed, but wasn't fast enough. "Riku," said Sora, glancing up at his face when he finished. "Are…you crying?"

"You jabbed a bruise," he lied, and busied himself with pulling off the splint on his wrist so he wouldn't have to meet Sora's blue eyes, because if he did he would be in tremendous danger of breaking down and making a sniffling fool of himself. He continued to stare fixedly down on his hand, flexing it slowly to wring out the lingering stiffness.

Sora winced in sympathy. "I'm sorry I had to do that, but the Heartless were about to get through and I didn't have time to—"

"I know," Riku said. "You don't have to apologize. You weren't the one that failed last night."

"Failed?" he replied. "No, no, no, no…Riku, no one blames you for what happened. You got caught up in something a hundred times bigger and older than either one of us. Aerith told me there's absolutely nothing you could have done—she was surprised you came out of it in one piece, never mind anything more."

"But I—" he started, but was interrupted when the door swung open and Kairi peeked her head in.

"All done? Good," she said. "That means I can do this." She skipped over to the bed and all but pounced on him, knocking him back against the pillows with an enthusiastic hug. It seems Kairi was in agreement with Sora in the placement of blame, or rather, lack of. Over her shoulder, he spotted Aerith standing in the doorway with Cloud at her elbow, still very pale and with dark shadows under her eyes, but serene. At Aerith's other side he could just make out the tops of two round black ears over the bedside table. "Your Majesty!" he exclaimed, and Kairi let him go and turned to the door.

"The chair, if you please, Sora," said King Mickey. Sora hastily moved out of the way, and he leapt up on it to stand next to Riku. "I'm terribly sorry I couldn't come earlier, but I had pressing business to attend to elsewhere in the worlds. You seem to have made out all right without my help—I see my faith in you was well deserved."

Riku sighed inwardly. That sounded hollow, even from King Mickey. The rest of them were the heroes. This whole mess was mostly his fault in the first place. Nevertheless, Riku forced out a smile to accept the compliment. "Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Your friends are quite exceptional as well. I had no idea you had such a powerful sorceress of the Light in your midst," said the King, nodding regally to Aerith. She smiled modestly.

"We have a what?" Riku said.

"The spell she cast, Holy," said Cloud. "It cured you of Jenova's poison and saved us all."

"I feel like I'm looking at everything that happened last night through a dirty window," Riku said, rubbing his eyes. "I remember the battle, some, then Sora did something that broke her control for a second, and I tried to stop Kadaj, then…everything went white. Just…white. It felt almost like walking through the doorway that opened in Darkness after Sora and I fought Xemnas."

"It was indeed," said the King. "True magic of the heart—I could feel it all the way in the castle, and it destroyed almost all of the Heartless in Midgar, which is more power than even I have. I thought I knew all of the master mages in my kingdom, but I seem to have overlooked one."

"I'm not, not really," Aerith said softly. "Ever since I was a little girl I've been able to sense things no one else could, faintly, like trying to listen to a conversation behind a closed door. But as I was lying there in Clouds's arms I could feel myself coming closer and closer to their voices, until I could finally see their faces, each one. My mother was waiting for me, and her mother, and her mother, all the way back to the very first to come to this planet…they gave me their power. I was a channel, that's all."

"That doesn't make it any less extraordinary," he said. "We owe you a great deal, and I'd like to learn more about you and your people, but not now. Donald and Goofy will have a fit if I don't return soon, and I believe your friends have some festivities planned for this evening."

"Aw, man…you weren't supposed to tell her that, Your Majesty!" said Sora.