I'm not done yet!

Nope, this isn't going to be the last chapter!


"Please… please, Demyx. All I wanted was to be with you…" I didn't think Luxord could hear him, but I tried to block the sound from my own mind, as I slammed my fingers on a string, and plucked as hard as was feasible to keep with the tune. The water raged forward. Mr Slater didn't scream. He wanted to go with dignity.

But that wasn't the plan at all, the plan, albeit loose, was certainly going well. The water surged forward, drenching the white marble corridor, froth and bubbles splashing back. Xigbar was forced to levitate to avoid the splash back, even though the water wasn't directed in his direction, whereas Luxord simply allowed himself to get wet, to make sure he could concentrate properly Mr Slater's death.

But that wasn't the plan at all.

As the hundreds of merged water figures rushed at him, he was in for a shock. He'd braced himself for death, regardless of the circumstances, but what he got was not water, but air. The water, rather, was whipping around his body like a mini typhoon, and returning from the u-turn at me, and joined the fountain emanating from an invisible source above my head. It was still going round him, him barely getting wet, and I could even feel the delighted surprise on his face, unable to see it through the water.

Right now, the water level should have been decreasing, but wasn't. In fact, the water wasn't even moving! Unaffected by gravity, the previous momentum of the water was irrelevant also, and stayed where it was. I turned round, hoping Luxord and Xigbar hadn't caught on, but they weren't moving either, despite the water almost lapping up to the Gambler of Fate's knees. I flipped my head back round once more, and saw Mr Slater gliding through the still static liquid, as though it were nothing but a funny coloured air.

He approached me, a wide grin, but also a look of utter miscomprehension etched across his striking features.

"What did you do?" he asked, hugging me in a tight embrace, and kissing my neck. I pulled away, quickly, though.

"I don't know. The water avoiding you was me, but I don't know what on earth is happening now." I confessed, furtively glancing to see whether or not my old colleagues were moving, yet. They weren't. Their eyes were unblinking, and I knew they couldn't see or hear. "You need to leave, as soon as you can. I'll make them go, and distract Xigbar from the portal. You can return here in a week's time, and be safe. You'll have to stay here, because if you are seen or if I am caught with you, we are both for the chop. When I get my heart back, I'll-" The tip of Mr Slater's right forefinger glowed, and I gasped. He touched my chest with it, delicately, and I felt inexplicable warmth all over and all inside.

"A heart…" said Mr Slater. "Come here the moment you're done throwing Luxord and Xigbar of the scent. We can stay here forever, then. And then we'll find that girl, and return her heart, too." As if to back up his proposal, another finger began to sheen with gold, but I shook my head.

"No. I'm sorry, Mr Slater. I won't love you with this heart. I know it's his. I know it's Luxord's. I will love you as Luxord loved you. He did not love you at all, and the whole purpose of getting my heart is to love you." He looked down, so I grabbed one of his hands, and held it with one of mine, another on my chest. "But I will keep it safe. And when Luxord gets his new heart, he can choose between them."

He smiled.

"How do I get out?" He asked. I don't know how I knew the answer.

"Their portal barrier won't be effective now, but the moment you go, they will awaken. They won't remember anything."

"And we have until they do?" He asked, and I nodded. He reached forward, wrapped an arm across my back, and one lower across my front, and pushed me back. He held me, and leaned over, kissing me on the lips, and I answered his passion with a little of my own.

The amount of time we spent there could have been a minute. It could have been an hour. It mightn't even have taken place within time. But it was perfect. And I wanted more, the moment our now wet lips parted, even though I'd had more than enough. He whispered his farewell into my ear, but it was there I realized. I wouldn't see him for a long time. A single tear trickled down one of my cheeks, but he caught it, with a finger lying in wait on my face, and returned to the typhoon end of the hall.

How I remembered where we were both standing, I don't know, but I did, and through a choked voice, directed both he and I to stand in the correct place. He waved at me, and summoned a portal. The moment it was gone, the waters began again, and I picked up the exact moment in the song, a slow 'rall' that decreased in speed progressively. I forced a kind of twisted grimace onto my face, as both Luxord and Xigbar approached me, both with words of comfort, congratulations, and in the case of the latter, clapping me on the back.

I pretended to relish in it, as they took me back to the sustained portal like a victorious gladiator, and back to the World that Never Was.

I went straight to my room. I lay on the waterbed, crying for a timescale beyond my measure. Suddenly, something occurred to me. I still had that warm glow in my chest, despite the hollow feeling that joined it. Standing up, I crossed the room to the briefcase given to me by Mr Slater. I unfastened the clips, and opened it. I pointed my index finger inside, and allowed the warmth to make way for the hollow numbness, and leave me, through my finger. It did so, and a golden light shimmered over the velvet lining of the case, forming a golden entity I knew to be a heart…

Before I made the mistake it seemed I almost certainly would, I slammed the case up, and buckled it, thinking desperately of what to do with it.