Dare You to Live

By ElveNDestiNy

December 16, 2011

A/N: I'm sorry for taking so long. I actually had this written a while ago, but I never got around to editing it and then totally forgot that I never actually posted it. Anyway, this chapter and the last chapter refer back to the "Wings of Memory" arc, when Dark lost his identity and Daisuke had to search in Dark's imaginary world for ten feathers, held by people important to Dark. The last and tenth feather was held by Dark/Daisuke himself, but Daisuke took the ninth one from Riku. Some of the explanation of that here is paraphrased from what Daisuke says/thinks in the manga. Also, the quotes in italics here are taken from the Ice and Snow arc.

By the way, I actually STILL haven't edited this, so it's rough. You've been warned. I'm sure I'll come back and fix it up, but my priority right now is just to post this and the last chapter sometime hopefully before New Year's. I mean, taking from 2006 to 2012 for a story with only 15 chapters? Yikes! That's slower than a snail and really embarrassing.

- 14: Reflection -

If something were to happen and you were in danger, would you call for me or Daisuke?

Even back then, Dark had turned away before he could hear the answer. After all, he had already known what the answer would be. The girl standing behind him pretty much despised him. She had even admitted as much to Daisuke, never guessing that in a way, she was actually telling Dark to his face. Hearing it had stung at first, of course, but it didn't really matter in the end, since he'd started to remind himself that it was actually a good thing that she had no interest in him whatsoever.

It was a fact always hard to remember in the first few months after he "woke up" in the body of the next young male of the Niwa bloodline, but Dark was only living a small bit of someone else's life. He had no right to all of the things he enjoyed through the virtue of his host—no right to a mother's kind smiles, a best friend's banter, and especially the affections of a young and pretty girl.

He was, as he had told Daisuke, simply an existence without end. Dark wasn't even sure who he was or how exactly he had come into being. Being the phantom thief gave him a purpose, but sometimes he wondered if that was all he was and if that was all he would ever be.

He wasn't even human, but he had human feelings, human wants and wishes…the truth was, sometimes he had forgotten that he had more in common with the magical pieces of artwork that he stole than with Niwa Daisuke, whose identity he was borrowing. Not that it ever lasted all that long anyway—just that brief, always crazy period as the males of the Niwa family transitioned from youth to man.

And sure enough, that day came even with Daisuke. Dark was thrust back into the twilight of dormancy—the strange periods of meaningless time where he existed only in theory. If he was grateful for anything, it was that mostly to him, it was like he had fallen asleep. At least he was spared endless years of boredom and waiting. And who knew if there would ever be an end to it—if perhaps one day, while Dark was dormant, the Niwa family itself would come to an abrupt and unexpected end?

If Daisuke had not accidentally broken the seal by painting that magical portrait of Dark, Dark never even would have become a person in his own right. It was as if he were Pinocchio suddenly turned into a real boy. Oh, Dark was undeniably still a little supernatural, but what mattered most was that he was human enough—and finally about to "coexist" with Daisuke as they had both dreamed.

Dark had seen the portrait once, after he had been released by Daisuke. It was a painting of himself as only Daisuke could have seen him. It hand almost been frightening, almost a little grotesque. Standing in front of the life-sized portrait—how many months had it taken Daisuke to complete?—he could see half of his own face gazing back out at him, could recognize the reckless spark in his own violet eyes. Light illuminated the finely painted lines of his face and called attention to the animation and emotion in his expression. The colors Daisuke had chosen were soft and alive, bringing a sense of vitality to the painting, almost as if he could step out and greet himself.

But the other half of his likeness, wreathed in shadows, was smooth, cold stone. Not living at all, but flawless marble, the kind used for sculptures meant to endure through centuries. Daisuke had captured the haunting beauty of exactly one-half of the Black Wings—the half that had called Dark into existence.

Why had Daisuke painted Dark in such a way? Why had the magic spilled out from the portrait and broken the seal, releasing him but not Krad? After seeing Daisuke's work of art, sometimes Dark wondered if his transformation had been triggered because Daisuke had captured his likeness through the ultimate paradoxes of his existence—as something half human and half legend, half real and half art.

Until that unforgettable moment, Dark had never even seen himself. Whenever he had looked in a mirror, he had seen Daisuke, of course. Likewise, he had certainly never seen the original Black Wings, the mythical sculpture that had created Krad and himself.

It was a shock, but the vivid memory that immediately took hold of Dark was even more shocking. Staring at himself, Dark was taken back to that one day…

Please don't forget the real me, Riku… I don't want you to forget that I exist.

In Daisuke's voice and Daisuke's body he had asked her to remember. He should have already removed the memories rather than let her believe that it was all a dream from last night, but Dark had been too reluctant. Now he had to correct his mistake.

There was confusion in her gaze as he leaned forward, but she trusted Daisuke completely. His hand seemed to belong to someone else as his fingers reached out to brush her hair back from her forehead. Heart pounding and stomach twisting sharply, Dark gently erased his own existence from her mind.

That was the day when he finally realized just how much he wanted to be more than a phantom.

Daisuke's voice had been so gentle, so sympathetic, but Riku couldn't get his words out of her mind. Over and over she heard them, each syllable like a little hammer against her already cracking heart. He doesn't want to come back.

Fortunately, Daisuke's controlled calm overpowered her near hysterics at the news. She wanted to go see Dark right away, but the doctors wanted to check over her thoroughly first, to make sure than she wasn't suffering any brain damage from her concussion. The doctors won, since both of Riku's parents were there.

Riku wasn't sure what she had expected, but it was a shock. Of course they would have come when they'd found out that she'd been assaulted and injured, but in her mind, her parents had always occupied a different world—a safe, nonmagical one. Seeing them here, in Azumano, after everything that had happened, was almost as disorienting as learning that the cab driver and her stalker were actually the same person.

From Daisuke and Satoshi, she understood that Dark's part in everything had been left out, but everything else had been more or less faithfully rendered to her parents as the truth: the cab driver who had hit Risa had subsequently developed an obsession with the girl he had killed, and had followed Riku all the way to Japan. He'd lured her to the cathedral and then had assaulted her. Perhaps he had been driven insane by his guilty conscience over the hit-and-run, or perhaps he had always been mentally unstable.

Either way, Fukuda Kohei was dead and her parents finally had some closure at last for their daughter's death—but not in the way that they had wanted it. It was as if Riku's own close call with death had snapped something in her mother, causing her to realize that while they had only meant the best for Riku, they had only succeeded in pushing her away emotionally after Risa's death.

The next few hours passed in a blur for Riku as all the appropriate tests were run and all the paperwork properly filled out. It was Emiko, after all of it, who gently suggested that Riku could recuperate in the Niwa family's house while the Haradas regrouped, finally knowing after a week of worrying that their daughter would be all right.

"I'll be all right, Mom," Riku kept promising, and it was odd to hear herself so adamant. Half a year ago she had said the exact same words but hadn't meant them. She had resented her parents for forgetting Risa so easily, for begrudging Riku the time to mourn her twin's death. She had refused to forgive her parents for moving on and most of all, for expecting her to be able to do the same.

After all, her life had forever changed that day, too. Dark had understood that more than anyone else. Seeing how easily, how quickly, life had been taken away from her carefree, exuberant twin had made her afraid to live. She'd been punishing herself for having survived and in doing so, punishing her parents, too.

"We'll take good care of her," Kosuke told Riku's father. "It really would be best for Riku to stay with us…"

In a low tone, Emiko told her mother, "I'm afraid it might be too much for her to go back to her own home right now. The memories of being stalked might be very upsetting."

Ordinarily Riku would have said something to her parents to reassure them that she hadn't been quite that traumatized by Fukuda Kohei. But she desperately needed to see Dark, so she went along with it. "The Niwas have been so kind to me while I have been here. Please, Mom, Dad, let me go with them. I'll be home soon, but I feel safe there."

"All right," her mother agreed, seeing her daughter's resolve. "Riku, your father and I will go home and take care of the things we've put on hold, but we'll come by tonight."

"Anytime," Emiko told them both warmly. The families had obviously grown closer over the last week, during their prolonged hospital visits.

"Please get some rest, too," Riku said. Now that she really looked, she could see how exhausted both of her parents actually were. She couldn't imagine what they had gone through in the last week, knowing she was in a coma just as Risa had been…except her twin had never woken up.

Her mother hugged her once more, openly crying with relief, and something eased in Riku's chest—some hard, tangled knot that had been there ever since that terrible day when they had turned off the machines that were breathing for Risa. It was only now that Riku could accept that her parents had never meant to make her feel as though her grief had turned selfish. She had only felt that way out of guilt, because somewhere within her, she'd known it was true—she had clung to the pain and fear from Risa's death, and for reasons that only Dark had understood.

Riku was still so tired that all she remembered was lying back on her pillow and closing her eyes, and then when she opened them, she was in a dark and unfamiliar room. She vaguely remembered Daisuke effortlessly lifting her into his arms bridal-style, so they must have taken her out of the hospital while she had been sleeping. She was surprised the doctors had even allowed her release, but then again, she knew how persuasive the Niwas could be.

She sat up in bed gingerly, the pain in her broken ribs deterring her from any rash movements. For a moment, as her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she was sure that she was alone in the room. It was a sound that made her think otherwise—something that sounded like a choked cry, muffled against a pillow. Then there was the faintest rustle, as if heavy feathers were being dragged across cotton sheets.

"Oh god," she whispered involuntarily, her mouth going dry, and she knew. It took effort, but adrenaline spurred her upright. Thankfully the light controller was only a few steps from her bed. Even before she increased the level of light in the room, Riku knew what she would find.

But still, it was as if her eyes were deceiving her. Her eyes flew over the pitiful figure covered in bandages and curled up in the other bed, face turned away from her. Huge black wings were outstretched on either side of him, but only because heavy wooden splints had been tied to keep them in the correct position.

"No." The single word of denial came out in a shuddering breath as she tried to accept that it was Dark before her, the skeletal wooden framework bound to his wings looking like one of Leonardo da Vinci's flying machines. What was it that Daisuke had said? He's pretty hurt.

She had watched as Fukuda stabbed at Dark's wings. Although she didn't recall the impact of the earth at all, she could imagine how bad it must have been. In a way, it was supremely ironic as well as unfair. Risa had fallen to the ground, hit her head just so, and died. Riku had fallen at least five stories, but she had lived—because of Dark. She knew that Daisuke had told her Dark wasn't healing as he should have and that they weren't even sure if he would survive unless he woke up soon. Even so, nothing had prepared her for this.

"Riku?"

She turned so fast that dizziness swept through her and Daisuke quickly reached out to grab both of her arms as her knees went weak. He steadied her before gently guiding her back to her bed. "Daisuke, you didn't tell me that it was like this…" She sounded confused even to her own ears, as if she were a lost little girl shocked out of her senses.

"Riku, you shouldn't be up yet," her friend said sternly, but his crimson eyes were soft and sad as his gaze flickered to Dark and back. "You need more rest. You really shouldn't even be out of the hospital, but we thought…" He shrugged, embarrassed at having said too much.

Riku wasn't about to let it go. "What did you think?"

"Well, my dad thought that maybe Dark would be able to somehow sense that you were near him and that you were okay." Daisuke shrugged uncomfortably. "I know it sounds crazy, but the theory does makes sense, sort of. When we found you two after you'd crashed, Dark wouldn't let you go. He actually passed out before they could take you and put you on the ambulance stretcher."

"But Dark didn't wake up at all," Riku stated rather than asked, her stomach roiling with guilt. "He's been like this the whole time…the whole week while I was unconscious?"

Daisuke stood up and walked over to the side of Dark's bed, where he stuffed his hands into his pocket forcefully, as if stopping himself from doing something crazy. "The doctors at the hospital can't help him, Riku. We've done the best we can, but it just isn't enough." Daisuke paused for a moment, his voice thick, before he cleared his throat. "Towa-chan was the one who told us that Dark's hurt physically and spiritually."

Hearing it for the second time wasn't a single bit easier. The words tore through Riku as if they could actually cause her bodily harm. The guilt almost crushed her where she stood. If she hadn't hurt him so much, would he have ever left her that night? If she hadn't foolishly gone straight to the cathedral, would Dark have ever let Fukuda Kohei come close enough to her to hurt her? Only she wasn't the one who had been hurt, in the end.

She closed her eyes, hot tears squeezing out through her eyelashes, but she could still see it all too clearly: Dark shivering now at the sound of their low voices, crying out quietly, feverish and wounded. Beneath the wooden frame, his black wings were covered with bandages darkened with clotted blood.

Daisuke continued speaking, his voice even softer. "We all thought that maybe he was hurting because he thought that the fall had killed you—you know, that he hadn't been able to save you."

They thought—what? The sudden understanding was like a second blow to Riku. They thought that Dark wasn't healing because he thought he'd failed her. They thought he wasn't coming back because he didn't want to face her death.

Which meant that Daisuke didn't know. None of them actually knew the truth.

Of course, how could they have? Everything had happened so fast. After Riku had accidentally found the pages of Risa's diary, it hadn't taken her that long to gather together her courage to do the right thing. It felt like every word they'd exchanged was permanently burned into her mind, including the moment she had told him she didn't love him—and he had believed it.

He'd left in a fury of wind and feathers and she'd cried on the balcony alone until she had seen the letter Risa's killer had left. From that point on, everything had spiraled out of control. She had been so stupid to think that she could talk to Fukuda Kohei. Riku knew that part of her had gone to the cathedral not because she had truly believed Fukuda had caught Dark, but because she hadn't been able to stand another moment of doing nothing but replaying the look in his eyes in her mind.

So Dark hadn't gone to Daisuke or Satoshi after he had left her. She should have realized right away that he wouldn't have gone to pour his heart out to Daisuke about how coldly Riku had rejected him. That meant that everyone thought that the two of them had still been together—still bodyguard and sacred maiden and also more. They had no idea how she had intentionally and quite thoroughly broken his heart… They didn't know that she was the reason why he wasn't healing and why he didn't want to come back.

"Are you feeling all right, Riku?" Daisuke asked her, sensing how close she was to breaking down. "You should lie back down. You're far from completely well, so you should take it easy."

Riku just felt so numb, so disconnected from everything. Her eyes burned, but she couldn't even cry. "Daisuke…you don't know…" But she couldn't bring herself to confess it.

Daisuke misunderstood her. "Don't worry about Dark. He'll be all right, he always is." He took a seat next to her on the bed, clearly struggling to find the right words with which to comfort her. "Besides, he's had injuries way worse than this before. It's practically a scratch compared to what Krad used to do to him, remember? So Dark'll be back with us in no time at all. You'll probably laugh to think about how worried you are now when he's back to trying to steal kisses from you again."

Something about the way Daisuke said it was just the last straw. "I need to talk to him again," she blurted out. "You don't understand. I need to see him, I need to tell him…"

Daisuke hugged her and she pressed her face into his shoulder blindly, her whole body shaking with the utter desperation she felt. The truth was a heavy stone in her stomach but she couldn't bring herself to tell Daisuke. The feeling of his arms around her only reminded her of Dark.

"He has to come back," she said to Daisuke, not looking at her friend. Her voice trembled and she hardened it until what she said sounded like a vow. "I have to find a way to bring him back."

Just a week ago, things had been so different for Riku. Risa, Fukuda Kohei, and Dark had been the center of her world. Now all there was left was Dark, and he was missing, unreachable. Riku knew she didn't deserve to get him back, but if there was anything she had learned in all this time, it was that in love, as in life, it didn't matter who deserved what. The heart simply wanted what it wanted.

Daisuke had finally left her so that she could rest, but sleep came fitfully to her. Riku woke up again in the middle of the night with the feeling of sudden hope making everything crystal clear. Dark was there, just across the room. She could hear his breathing, which at least had evened out and deepened, sounding more as if he were truly asleep rather than self-imprisoned in his own mind. He seemed so close, even though he might as well have been a thousand miles away.

She made her unsteady way across the room until she was standing beside the edge of his bed, looking down at him. The sense of déjà vu was so strong that it felt almost dreamlike. Hadn't she hesitated just like this before, that night that they had shared a bed with each other for the first time? This time around, she was still afraid to climb in, afraid to crush his already broken wings or inadvertently cause him more pain from his injuries.

He had kicked off the sheets sometime during the night and now lay shivering. Despite everything, he was still beautiful, although his features seemed sharper now. He had lost so much weight already. It still hurt so much to see him like this, skin pallid and cheeks flushed with fever. Even if Daisuke told her that Dark's injuries seemed to finally be healing—albeit human-slow, rather than at an enhanced supernatural rate—he seemed to actually be getting worse.

Seized by some kind of certainty that she wanted to believe was magical, Riku lay down carefully next to him, instantly feeling the intensity of his body heat. She wished she could cool his body with her own, as if she could absorb his warmth. In the semi-darkness, she saw his eyes move beneath his closed lids, as if he were dreaming—or as if he were just waking. For a moment, she thought he would open his eyes right then and wake up.

Instead, her heart nearly stopped beating when he shifted closer to her on the bed and then even closer again, until all of a sudden his hot chest was pressed against her back. Her breath seemed to leave her all at once and she was afraid to turn her head to see if he was awake. Just as she started to look anyway, his arms came around her, hard and tight, and suddenly he was curled all around her as if he were a child holding a teddy bear.

Riku swallowed hard, her entire body going still with shock as the memories swept over her—the exact feeling of him holding her like this, gripping too hard, wrapping his body as much as he could around hers as they were falling. Time seemed to stretch and then snap, like a rubber band.

Dark was too hot and his hold on her was sure to leave faint bruises, but Riku closed her eyes and wished, hoped, dreamed. She could almost pretend it was that night again. He was wearing even less, this time—there was no black sleeveless shirt, just bandages and medical tape over bare skin. She worried about jarring his wings, but somehow it worked. It must have hurt to have her pressing so hard against his injuries, but Dark didn't loosen his grip even a fraction.

"I'm here," she whispered into the silence. "Please, Dark…come back to me."

But Dark was silent, and even with his arms around her, he wasn't with her. Slowly, so slowly, Riku turned her head. A few messy dark violet strands framed his face. Some of the tension in his features had eased, but even with his eyes closed, he looked as though he were grieving.

And he was still insensate, still in his own world.

He had stopped her that night because he hadn't been willing to settle for anything less than her love. Riku was the one who always hesitated and pushed him away. Maybe that was why she had been so sure it would work. She had been sure, somehow, that he would just feel it—that he would know, if her body was pressed against his, that it was her. That she was ready to give him everything—heart, body, her whole life. Some part of Riku believed, or hoped, that if she tried her best to sooth him with her presence, than he would wake up and be himself again. He would not be like this wounded angel, half animal and half wild, locked in his own mind, his own world.

As the minutes became hours, Riku's muscles relaxed, though Dark's grip never loosened. Despite everything, some part of her still hoped. Even as she slid into sleep again, she imagined the connection between them being reestablished. Maybe she would dream of him and somehow find entry into his magical world that way. Maybe she was just secretly hoping that when she woke up the next morning, Dark would wake with her.

She wished she could press him against her even harder, as if she could convey to him all the things she had denied before.

But if she dreamed, she didn't remember it, and when she woke up nothing had changed.

In the cold, grey morning, still held in his arms, Riku cried until she thought her heart would just stop from the pain.

No one said anything the next day, but it was clear that they had rested their hopes on Riku, thinking that her presence would snap Dark out of whatever it was that prevented him from waking.

Riku was glad that it was Daisuke who found them in the morning, and who physically extracted her from Dark's unrelenting grip. She was even more thankful to find out that she had missed both of her parents' visits while she had been sleeping. She didn't think she had the courage to face anyone other than Daisuke.

She was quiet all morning and then she went back to the bedroom in the afternoon, citing fatigue. No one was fooled, but Riku didn't care. She had watched earlier as Emiko and Kosuke changed Dark's bandages and attempted to make him as comfortable as possible. In the daylight, the skeletal wooden frame bound to his wings looked even more impossible. Then again, there was nothing ordinary about having a winged being lying in bed.

"I searched for him once," Daisuke said from behind her. He closed the door with a click and locked it, coming to stand beside the chair she was sitting in.

"What do you mean?"

"There was an artifact called the 'Wings of Memory.' The magic made Dark lose his identity…or I guess you could say it made me lose my identity. It was always confusing, but I searched in Dark's imaginary world for these feathers that would remind Dark of who he was."

Riku knew that Daisuke was telling her something that he had never shared with anyone else. "So there's a whole different world out there? A magical one?"

"It's not really another world and it's more like it's inside him," Daisuke tried to explain. "It was like he thought he was me. He was living in this house, going to our school, everything. He actually thought I was the crazy one when I showed up."

"So what happened?" Riku looked at Dark and then looked down at her clasped hands. "How did you make him remember with the feathers."

"There were ten feathers," Daisuke told her as he got another chair and joined her at Dark's bedside. He looked at Riku briefly, his expression thoughtful. "Basically, they were held by people important to Dark. I had to find and take them so I could return them to him. I almost ran out of time before I realized the last feather, the tenth one, was one that I held myself. But, Riku—the ninth feather was the one I took from you."

Her breath caught as Daisuke's meaning sank in. "You're telling me that I was that important to him back then?"

"You were very important to both of us," Daisuke said, his gaze still affectionate. "But in a way, since you were mine, Dark could never have you. I guess the same way that since Dark was Risa's, he could never be yours."

A sudden, frightening thought occurred to Riku. "Daisuke…are there other things that happened, that I don't remember? Were there other times when I was with Dark in some way?"

She saw the answer in his face, but Daisuke hesitated. "It's not my place to give you those memories back, Riku."

"So I didn't remember…but you and Dark did?"

"Well, yes," Daisuke said with reluctance. "But don't judge him so harshly for it, Riku. He didn't have a choice. There's so much I learned about Dark, and so much of it is…"

Riku blinked back tears. "I think I know what you mean, Niwa-kun."

"I realized something while I was gathering Dark's memories," said Daisuke. "No matter how much Dark loves someone, or how hard he tries to love, his search for love would never be resolved—"

"—because he was a phantom thief," Riku finished for him. "Because he could never be real enough for the girl he loved."

Daisuke sighed. "Then you do understand. I think that was why the magic brought him back as someone separate from me. The entire time I was painting that portrait of Dark, I couldn't stop thinking about how sad it was for him, because I remembered thinking, even back then, that maybe his "happiness" was only found in that world."

"You mean the world that he created, where he was like you," said Riku. "An imaginary world."

"Yeah, pretty much."

They sat together, each lost in their own thoughts. Neither of them said anything else, but perhaps there was simply nothing more to be said.

"You're—you're such a jerk!"

"You're mine, Riku. Remember when I kissed you?"

"You think that gives you anything over me?" She laughed scornfully. "As if you could claim me like an object just because your lips were the ones that unfortunately met mine first!"

"You liked it, you can't deny that." There was a gleam in his eye that pushed her too far over the edge.

"It's funny to you, isn't it?" Riku accused him, tears of frustration in her eyes. "Do you know how disappointed I was? My first kiss was with someone I hated...with someone the exact opposite of what I'd always dreamed of—someone kind and good, someone to make me want to be a better person! Do you know how much I cried?"

She heard his softly indrawn breath, waited for him to say something. It was a relief to let the bitter words out, to describe even in some small part how he'd always made her feel—as if she were a plaything, some insignificant being that would never be at his level…his equal.

It had hurt, and hurt so much, that feeling of inferiority. And she wanted to hurt him with it, to make him feel just the tiniest bit of what she did. She wanted him to understand.

"It made me feel so sick…" Just thinking about it brought it all back, the mixture of shame and disgust she had felt, the overwhelming disappointment over something that was both so trivial and yet so important to her. "I… I wanted my first kiss to be from Daisuke."

She finally turned around to face him. His expression gave nothing away, but his violet eyes were almost black, and utterly unreadable in any case. It was only his hands that gave away any emotion. They were tightly clenched into fists at his sides.

"Is that how you really feel about me, Riku?"

"Yes," she flung at him, and it was so strange—it was as if she could feel just how much it hurt him. Like everything between them, the hateful and hurtful words, were just his worst fears coming true.

He turned around and left without a word.

Riku was left confused. It was as if she were her, and she were Dark at the same time… Or maybe she was neither, because she felt her feelings and his, but she saw the whole scene playing out before her through two sets of eyes too. She was both sides of the argument.

All he heard from those words was the Riku of that moment so long ago who had thought him a perfect monster, who had wanted to wipe her mouth after that kiss.

And all she felt was that it wasn't really like that anymore, and she loved him. That was how she really felt about him, and she had to tell him. She had to tell him.

But she kept on confusing past and present, her role and his role, her feelings and his, just endlessly bouncing back and forth like a yo-yo on a string just about to break.

She didn't understand what this was. This had never happened—or had it? Was this one of the memories she had lost, but Dark had kept? There was a faint feeling, like all this was remembered, but it also felt oddly soundless, flat, strange—like it was a fragment of a nightmare.

But…not hers?

"Dark's," she said with a gasp, sitting straight up in bed and then almost mewling at the white-hot pain from her ribs. It wasn't her nightmare at all.

It was Dark's nightmare, and it hinged on that first moment that had started it all.

It was as if all the pieces suddenly fell into place and this time, Riku knew exactly what she had to do. She knew how to reach Dark, how to enter into his world, the only world where he could find happiness.

She would have to steal a kiss from him.

It only took a few moments, and then Riku bent over Dark and pressed her lips desperately against his, seeking the connection that would lead her to him.

Her heart beat once, twice—she started to fear that she was wrong about all of it—

And suddenly she found herself in Dark's world, kissing him.

tbc

A/N: The next (and final) chapter will be up ASAP. Really!