Word count for the chapter: 3,018 words. Aaaaah. XD

This chapter was fun though. The beginning scared me as I wrote it, and the middle and the end moved me to tears (even though it's my story XD). In this chapter, we find out the truth about Riku... if you haven't guessed, he is not all what he seems.

One more chapter and an epilogue to go! I hope to be finished by New Year's Eve!

Enjoy~

~Friday, October 28th, Destiny Islands High School, 1:54 p.m.~

Naminé stayed put in her seat when the second-to-last bell rang and watched the other students stream out the door, eager to get to last period. The class she had next – language arts – used to be Naminé's safe haven, but if she even set a foot inside that door, her eyes would naturally gravitate to Roxas's seat, which would be empty today because of what happened. A terrible lump started in her throat as she thought about the incident. If it hadn't been for her, Roxas would be worse than at home with a ripped-apart back, he'd be at home in the ground. Dead.

As she packed away her things and slung her bookbag over her shoulder, she knew she didn't want anyone else to get hurt. She'd never forgive herself if Kairi went after Sora or Riku…her sister and that ghost had to be stopped. Naminé couldn't even let herself think what Kairi's next target would be even though she knew already.

She sauntered morosely out of the room and into the bustling hallway with students talking in groups, checking lockers, or rushing to the last class of the day. Her locker was across the hall and a little ways down, and as she went to get her books, Sora bounded up next to her, a little less bright than normal.

"You miss him, Naminé? If he hadn't been so stupid as to get fall down the sidewalk… asphalt hurts, ya know!" A hint of a smile appeared on his face. Naminé couldn't believe Sora actually thought the cover story Riku had thought up of was the truth.

As she nodded grimly, she was glad Riku had called the Hikari twins' mom and made up the story before Roxas could spill about Kairi. Roxas had been walking down the sidewalk to see Kairi off after they finished their project, and he'd tripped and that's why there was blood and scars all over him. He'd managed to keep the blonde's ruined back a secret – there was no way he could think up a lie for that one. How did Riku know about the incident was what Naminé had asked when she saw the silver-haired teen that morning. He'd merely said Roxas had called him, told him the situation, and told him to help make up a lie. Naminé doubted it, but, however he knew, she was sure Riku wasn't doing any harm.

Sora wrapped an arm around her as they stopped at her locker. Naminé fumbled to unlock it, getting it open after several tries and pulling out her textbook, while Sora whistled jovially beside her. When she slammed the door closed, she was surprised to see Riku casually leaning against the locker on her right.

"Hey, Riku," she greeted. Sora stepped up next to the girl and gave a terse nod.

Riku didn't respond to her greeting. "Have you seen Kairi today?"

Naminé felt taken aback by the terse way her responded. No, she hadn't seen Kairi today – and she was actually glad for it. "No. Why?"

Riku turned, glancing pointedly at the other end of the hallway as the class-changing din started to lower ominously, and when glass shattered, the whole hallway grew silent, every eye trained on that slender, malicious, demented girl who had just smashed the window at the edge of the hallway.

Naminé gaped as she peeked around him, her eyes wide as she saw Kairi, thought it took a moment to register that it was her twin. Her hair, bloodied and limp, hung around her face in wet tangles. Bloodshot eyes added depth to a disoriented, twisted grimace of pain and hatred. Sweat made her clothes appear soaked and blood ran down her skin, marring her white tank top and shorts. Her scraggly breath and twitching as she held a baseball bat nearly scared Naminé to death, and as the glass started to cut into the redhead's bare feet, leaving a pool of red blood where she stood.

As she started down the hallway on unsteady feet, making horrible soft moans, her free hand rose to her throat, scratching it. It was ripped apart so badly her fingernails almost seemed to be only tearing the blood and muscle underneath her pale skin.

The late bell rang. Nobody moved.

Naminé could only follow Kairi with her eyes as her trails of blood followed the deranged girl across the hallway. She knew Kairi was crazy, but this… what had she been doing, torturing herself? Naminé glanced at Riku warily. What did Riku know about Kairi that he didn't tell her?

Kairi had reached another window, one where two girls in her grade cowered. Not acknowledging them in the slightest, she raised her bat, the shatter resounding throughout the hallway, glass raining over the girls' heads as their screams pierced the air.

Naminé raised a trembling hand to her mouth in a gasp. She couldn't form any tangible thoughts. This was… weird. Crazy. How many times was she going to say crazy?

Then she remembered: her sister was possessed.

Kairi turned away from them, leaving the girls crying in pain, as she made her way down the hallway, growing ever closer to the small group where Naminé, Riku, and Sora stood.

She took slow steps, her breath growing louder, and Naminé could almost make out two words.

"I'm sorry" her lips said.

Sorry?

But before Naminé could start to wonder who she was apologizing to, Sora had ran up and thrown himself out in front of his friend, shaking her shoulders and staring into her blank eyes. "Kairi! Kairi, what's –"

She pushed him away to the side effortlessly, as if he were nothing more than a fly on the wall. Sora slammed against the lockers, hard, groaning slightly and blinking as if he were about to pass out.

Kairi kept on for only a moment more, stopping and dropping the bat with a clang only a few feet parallel from Naminé and Riku. The bloody bat rolled to her feet, and Naminé winced as the smell of blood rose to hernose.

"It… hurts… I'm… sorry…" Kairi nearly screamed, clawing at her throat once more as she tried to balance herself. Naminé saw Riku lean in slightly out of the corner of her eye. With a jolt she realized what Riku was doing. Since Kairi was possessed, might this be the moment that confirmed it? That Xion and her necklace were making Kairi do these things? She was so up in arms about Roxas's she'd nearly forgotten Kairi. If she knew it was Xion that was possessing her sister, Naminé – and hopefully Riku as well – could end this once and for all.

She listened, not at all surprised by what she heard.

"Xion-sama… I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Xion-sama…!"

She knew she saw Riku's eyes flare. But maybe she was only imagining it.

But the big thing was that she'd – sort of – figured it out. Xion, the girl who killed her twin sister, Aqua because of jealousy and revenge, was possessing Kairi through the necklace Aqua had given her for her birthday. Kairi and Naminé were also twins, and Kairi similarly seemed to have an envious streak around her sister. The similarities were uncanny, that much was clear. All she needed now was a reason why.

She felt Kairi's eyes on her as her mind raced when piece by piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Do I dare glance up, the blonde thought, though she did anyway, her clear blue eyes locking on Kairi's darkened ones. Her sister spoke then, one ominous word that sent Naminé nearly reeling –

"Demon."

As Kairi lunged, Naminé started to dodge. Riku, faster than she'd ever seen him, was in front of her, spiraling around Kairi quick as lightning and striking her on the back so that the redhead landed, hard, flat on her face. As Kairi struggled to compose herself, Riku said, as if repeating lines from a play, "Don't let her control you, Kairi. Fight it. You know this isn't you."

"You don't know what's not me, Riku," Kairi sneered, flipping over and sitting up as her face contorted wickedly. "For all you know, I could be the one who decided this! You ever thought about that? Huh?" Kairi giggled crazily, "Don't try to mess me up with your little mind games. Xion's told me all about them and when you used that trick of yours on her, but as for me, it'll never work!"

Naminé pretended she didn't just hear that. How in the world would Riku be able to use his so called "mind games" on Xion when they weren't even alive at the same time?

Riku leered at her, almost jokingly, as she stood, ready to strike at him. But it took nothing more than one quickly timed strike on the back of Kairi's head to knock her out, her bloody body falling limp in Riku's arms. He looked up at Naminé. "Come on, let's get her to the clinic."

"But—"

"I'll explain when we get there," he replied, already running past the many gaping students. "Get Sora. Come on!"

Naminé glanced across the hall at Sora, who was just starting to stand up. Without a second thought, Naminé walked over to him, grabbed his hand, pulled him up with a jerk, and started dragging him down the hallway in the direction Riku had gone.

"Wha-?" Sora mumbled sleepily as he ran shakily along. "What happened? Where are we going? Where's Riku and Kairi?"

"I'll explain when we get there," Naminé replied, echoing the words of the enigmatic silver-haired boy who had a lot of explaining to do.

~Friday, October 28th, Destiny Islands High School clinic, 2:12 p.m.~

"Kai? Possessed? Hah, you almost got me there!"

Naminé crossed her legs at her ankles daintily as she sat on the bench outside the clinic, looking down and away from Sora. She knew outright telling him about Kairi's condition would only lead to the brunette denying the fact. But Riku had been so straightforward, so serious about it when he said it, if it had been Naminé in Sora's position, she would have believed him instantly.

Then again, maybe she wouldn't have, considering she never thought ghosts and possession were real things, not something out of fairy tales.

"I'm not kidding, Sora," she heard Riku say. "I'm serious. What other explanation do you think there could be?"

"Multiple personality disorder? Schizophrenia? She's bipolar?" Sora stood and shook his head, backing away. "I always knew you were a crazy genius, Riku, but this is way out of my league. Possession… it's just…" He paused. Naminé winced. "It's ridiculous. Right, Nami?"

Naminé swallowed and kept silent. She wanted to retaliate. She wanted to get Sora to see Riku was not lying. But her words were lost as soon as they had filled her head.

With a sigh, Sora turned around and put his hand on the clinic door, tensing as he did so. "You believe him, huh? Whatever… what Kairi needs is mental help, and not to be hanging around people like Riku. I wish… I wish you could see that, Naminé."

The blonde looked up into Sora's dulled blue eyes for a mere second before he opened the clinic door and slammed it behind him.

Naminé looked back down again, pushing Sora's rejection out of her mind and focusing on the big picture: Riku. He wasn't just the smart boy who aced nearly every class and knew a bit more than normal people about ghosts; he was something more than that. Unable to think of any questions, Naminé started off with a statement.

"You have a lot to explain, Riku."

"I know." He said this nonchalantly, as if he was expecting this moment.

Naminé bit her lip. "I mean… you were so calm out there. Talking to Kairi and watching her and knocking her out and stuff. You weren't even scared. It was like you'd done this before."

Riku gave a chuckle. "I have. A little over 200 times, counting Kairi."

"W-what?" Naminé's head snapped up, her eyes trained on Riku with a hard glare. What does he mean?

He dodged her question. "Now this part… the explaining… I've never had to do with anyone. Except you."

"What are you talking about, Riku? What did Kairi mean when she said that Xion's told her about your 'mind games'? You two weren't even alive… at the same time." As she trailed off, her voice went down to a tiny squeak. "Tell me everything."

"You wouldn't believe me."

Naminé smiled jokingly devilishly at him. "Try me."

Riku nodded, reaching into his back pants pocket and pulling out a crumpled, black-and-white photo and setting it in Naminé's lap. The blonde looked down at the picture, seeing a girl with short cropped black hair in a style similar to Aqua's. But the girl was too short to be the gentle ghost she'd met. So it had to be Xion. Xion was smiling, her arms clasped loosely around the neck of a lighter haired boy with long, spiky locks. The way he stared into the camera with those piercing eyes and barely any hint of emotion on his face was all it took for Naminé to realize.

That's… Riku?

"But—you—how—that was fifty years ago!" Naminé sputtered, her face growing hot as the picture fell from her lap. "You—her – I am so confused."

Riku patted her leg gently, his green eyes soft when they met her face. "I was her boyfriend. We were both sixteen. I loved her, more than I thought I would ever love a girl with such a feisty attitude as her. Those were the days, the days before she started to hate her twin – who you already know as Aqua – and mentally crumble because of being so terribly jealous. I broke up with her the day before she killed her sister. She was hysterical, practically drowning in her tears when I turned my back and walked away from her house. Sometimes I wonder if I had stayed with her until the end, she might have held on just a little bit longer…" He wiped away the tears collecting in his eyes.

"I'm sorry… Riku." She could only stare at him. Xion, the revengeful ghost that was driving her sister mad with hatred, was Riku's girlfriend at one point. That was a shock. A big shock. She grasped his hand and rubbed his palm with her thumb like he had done to her a week before. "How… how old are you, Riku?"

"Physically sixteen. Mentally I'm just a few years shy of a century." Before Naminé could ask how, he kept on. "Xion hated me after that, obviously. She hated me and Aqua so much that day she died. I don't know how she did it, but… when I was in bed early on the morning of her death, I could hear her calling my name, softly, but so angrily. In the darkness I could see her spirit, bloody, her face wildly crazy, her cleaver tight in her hands." He was silent for a few minutes, and Naminé nearly jumped when she heard his voice again. "She killed me. I woke up later, I don't know how much later. The same time, just in a different place. It was weird, because I knew I was dead. But I wasn't dead. I went and enrolled in school like nothing had happened."

Naminé pulled her hand away, noticing his had started to grow cold and shaky. Or was that her hand? She breathed in and out deeply, trying to pull herself together.

Riku wiped his eyes again. "That first time, I could still see Xion. Taunting sweet nothings in my ear everywhere I went. There would be times when she was gone, and I never thought anything about it until I heard two girls – twins – were killed. I knew it was her. It had to be. And they'd always be girls or boys at my school. And whenever the twins of that… time died, she'd come after me and kill me. And I'd wake up somewhere new again. I slowly began to notice a pattern. I'd die, wake up in a new place, see one twin succumb to insanity, the other I'd hear was killed, and then I'd die. New place. Over and over and over for the past several decades."

"You're trapped," Naminé concluded, "and Kairi and I are just part of the cycle of Xion's…" She struggled to think of a word. "… Xion's curse."

"That's one way of putting it." Riku smiled at her. "But this time is different. With you and Kairi, this is the first time the other twin has had the strength to fight back against Xion's controlling of his or her sibling."

"You mean me?" She pointed to herself.

"You."

Naminé smiled. It felt good to be special. She wanted all of this to end though. Riku's endless pain of having to relive the same life over and over because of his deceased girlfriend. She didn't want Riku to suffer; she didn't want anymore twins to suffer. "What can I do to help break the cycle?"

"Defeat Xion. Destroy that necklace of hers. Hopefully without getting you or Kairi killed. I'll be free, and Xion will be able to move on instead of being trapped in her self-created agony."

"Would you help me? Please? When I have to face my sister? I'm not sure if I can go through this…" Naminé sighed. "All by myself."

"I'll do the best that I can, I swear." The sun's rays lowered onto Riku's hair and made the silver shine with an ethereal glimmer. "Even if we don't succeed…"

"Oh, we will," Naminé said defiantly, standing up and glaring down at him. "We have to. Xion's not going to win against you, my sister, me… anyone else. Never again."

Riku only looked up into her blue eyes and smiled. "Then let's make it happen."

Reviews are appreciated! Check out my profile for information on the sequel!

~Lukia