Ok, here it is. We're finally going to Hollow Bastion! And yes, my dear readers, it is time for the death of one of our beloved musicians. I try not to make it tear-jerking but sad nonetheless. Enjoy.

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"So…we're here…now what?" I said as we arrived in my old town.

"We test Sora," Demyx replied. "Jeez, Xarene, don't you pay attention in meetings anymore?"

"Very funny. But I mean what exactly do you plan to do?" I asked.

Demyx walked a few feet away from me and looked out at the barren wasteland that made up the world. We were about halfway between my old castle and Maleficent's new home. Below us in the valleys were thousands upon thousands of Heartless swarming around. "Look at them," he said quietly.

"You think we can win?" I said standing next to him and glancing up at his face. His mouth was a line and his green eyes were narrowed into half slits.

"The Nobodies are more powerful," he said simply. His expression didn't change.

"What makes you think that?" I asked.

"Light and Darkness—they're pretty much even, right?" he said turning to me. I nodded. "Well, just think, us Nobodies are both Dark and Light, therefore, we have the advantage of both, right?" I nodded again. "Then we'll be fine," he concluded looking away.

"There's just so many of them," I said looking at the Heartless as they started to fight the Dusks that were appearing. Leon, Cloud, Aerith, Yuffie, and the others were out there somewhere too.

He looked down at me once more. He smiled. "Not to worry, Sora won't hurt us. If it seams that he's gonna hurt us, we'll leave," he said.

"Why do we fight him? If we kill him, our goal is kinda put on hold until the new Keybearer is born, right? I mean, it's not like I can complete Kingdom Hearts with my Keyblades, can I?" I said looking up at him.

"No you can't," he said. "You, Roxas, Sora's King, and his friend—none of you can control the awesome power that he does. Sure, all of you guys release a captive heart when you kill a Heartless, but if we were to just trust you with the task, it would take like ten times longer to complete Kingdom Hearts. You weren't the chosen wielder and that's the only reason why."

"Oh…so you guys are just fighting him to get him prepared to fight more and more Heartless?" I asked.

He nodded. We both turned to look out at the fight below us. "And so begins the War of the Realms…" he said quietly. "It's a sad thing what this all has come to."

I agreed and we both stood there for a few minutes just watching.

"On a happy note…" I began to say. Demyx looked down at me curiously. "…I can feel again," I said.

"Excuse me?" he asked tilting his head to the side.

"Nobodies are able to feel just to an extent, right?" I said looking out as the battle went on.

"Yeah…"

"Well, I could always too. Then when I became a real Nobody a while ago, I began to lose all emotions. I seriously couldn't feel anything. When Axel said a funny joke, I couldn't laugh—if I thought about sad times, I didn't cry. I also couldn't actually feel anything when I touched it. Axel tried for a while to see if I could sense if I touched something when I had my eyes were closed—there was nothing I could though. It should've gotten worse as time went on, and well, it kinda did. But just suddenly while we were standing here, I could feel—emotions and all. Isn't that great?" I said. I kept my eyes on the horizon as I spoke.

"It is great, Xarene. But you don't seam very happy about it," he said next to me.

"I don't know why it happened. It's worrying me—that's all," I said.

It was quiet for a while. The only sound was that of metal clashing down in the valleys.

"You ready to go and see Sora?" he said. I nodded. A portal surrounded us. As it began to disappear and we found ourselves at the base of my old castle at the town's edge, Demyx said, "Just let me do the talking, ok?"

Sora and his two buddies had run up just as we exited the darkness. Demyx stepped out of the portal nearly tripping on his own feet. "Hey there, guys!" Demyx called over.

"Get outta the way!" the duck yelled back.

"How'd two wimps like you and Mullet-boy get into a group like the Organization?" Sora said.

Wimps. I had nearly killed him. I had let him get away. Demyx jumped in mock-emotional pain. "You know what, man? That hurt me right here," he said patting the place where his heart would be. He then laughed and turned to me, holding himself up from his giggles by placing and hand on my shoulder. He whipped away invisible tears with the other as I giggled too.

"You guys have gotta be the worst fighters we've ever faced!" Sora said placing his hands on his hips.

"It's not nice to judge people by their appearance," Demyx said waving his fingers at Sora.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy all summoned their weapons and got into a fighting stance. Demyx turned around and face me. "This isn't right," he said. He was slightly bent over.

"What's not right?" I asked getting in front of him.

"That's Roxas in there. Listen to what he's saying!"

"Roxas isn't saying that stuff—it's all Sora," I argued.

"What's the difference? They're the same person!" he hissed.

"Demyx, Roxas wouldn't say stuff like that," I said calmly.

"It's Roxas I know it is…" he hissed more softly than before.

Behind him Sora said something that I didn't catch.

"We do too have hearts, Sora," Demyx said standing up and turning slightly. "Don't get upset about it though."

"Yeah right, Nobody!" Sora said crossing his arms.

Demyx turned back to me. His eyelids lowered over his eyes. He clenched his fists and he began to tremble slightly in frustration. "Demyx, calm down," I said soothingly.

"Roxas will pay for causing all of this to happen," he said through gritted teeth.

"Demyx?" I said looking at his face more clearly.

"When he left, everything changed. I want it to go back," he spat.

"Demyx? Buddy?" I said getting frightened by his behavior. He trembled a little more. The anger was building up inside of him. "Demyx?" I called. It was as if he couldn't hear me.

"Well?" Sora called from behind Demyx.

Demyx spun around and pointed his finger threateningly at Sora. "Silence, traitor!" he spoke with pursed lips and slits for eyes.

I grabbed Demyx's arm as he summoned his sitar. "Get outta here!" he yelled at me, not taking his eyes of the brunette. I didn't let go though. Demyx threw me to the side and then shot a jet stream of water at me. I was knocked past Sora and to the other side of the opening we were in. I stood up just as Demyx held his hand out, palm facing me. He moved his fingers and a huge circular wall; at least thirty feet tall surrounded me.

"Demyx! I yelled at him. He ignored me and started to fight Sora and the others. 'This always happens to me,' I thought to myself. 'First it was Axel with the fire and now it's Demyx with the water. Sheesh!'

After several minutes of calling his name out with no answer I attempted to watch the fight. Attempted. I leaned in closely trying to see through the upwards-rushing water. Unfortunately, I got to close to the water and my nose came in contact with the fast-moving current.

"Oww!" I yelped jumping away from the wall.

"Nice try, Xarene," I heard Demyx call from somewhere in front of me as I rubbed the sore spot on the tip of my nose with the palm of my hand. I then summoned one of my keyblades and stuck it in the wall of water trying to create an opening to escape through. The keyblade was ripped from my arm and tossed over the wall, landing a few feet away on the ground. I grabbed my now sore arm and then summoned it back to me.

I looked out once more through the water, being careful not to hurt myself this time. I was able to see more clearly this time as I concentrated deeply. Two blurs that were Sora and Demyx continued to fight for about ten more minutes—it seamed like forever though. Suddenly, the shorter of the two blurs hit the taller one then stopped. The taller one stumbled back and froze. Demyx!

I waited anxiously for the water wall to disappear from around me. When it fell, I ran through the crashing droplets and dashed over to him. I pushed through Sora and Goofy who were watching the musician. "Outta my way!" I came to Demyx just as he collapsed. I caught him in my arms and then I carefully lowered him to the ground holding him slightly in my lap.

"This can't be happening…" he whispered.

"Shh…" I cooed. "It's gonna be OK," I replied back smiling. It would be. This couldn't be happening.

"It can't be happening…" he said even softer.

"Don't say anything. Ok? We're gonna get you back home and then," I sniffed, "we'll get you some medicine and then you'll be fine. You're gonna be fine," I said softly burying my face into his chest and sobbing quietly. Suddenly I felt small soft things tapping my face. I looked up and saw that slowly, Demyx was fading away. "This can't be happening…"

"Raene…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry," he said trying to sit up some but failing and falling back into my arms.

"Sorry? Sorry for what?" I asked.

"Sorry that I couldn't have been a better friend to you. I—I always wanted to be friends with you and everyone but all I did was try to impress the superiors. I'm just sorry that I couldn't have been there for you when you needed someone and no one was there."

"What are you talking about?" I said. "You were more then a good friend to me, Demyx! You were one of the best friends I could ever ask for."

He smiled and I smiled back. "I don't wanna go, Rae," he said frowning suddenly.

I squeezed my eyes shut trying to keep in the tears. "I don't want you to go, either Demi," I said opening my eyes.

"Promise me something?" he said.

"Anything."

"Promise me that I'll always be in your heart," he said.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tightly. "Always," I whispered. "As long as I'm in yours."

He smiled and pulled my hand to his chest and flattened my palm on the spot where his heart would be. "Forever and ever, I promise," he said. I smiled "And we'll always be together, right?" he asked. I nodded.

"We'll be together again soon, don't worry."

It was quiet for a minute. "It's time to go, Beautiful," he said. I shook my head. "What?"

"I don't want it to be time. I don't want you to stop calling me that. Why can't this moment last forever?" I whined.

He chuckled. "I don't want to leave either, but it's my time. I have to go home now," he said.

"Home is with us, with your family," I said.

"You forget. Half of our family is out there somewhere. It's time for me to join them, just like all of us will one day," he said smiling. It was quiet again. "What's wrong?" he asked after I made a strange face.

"I wish there was some way to say goodbye what wouldn't make me start crying again," I said softly.

He thought for a second then smiled. "I thought of some thing, Beautiful. Just something that will keep me happy until you join us in the next life."

"What's that?"

"A kiss."

I stared at him for a moment. The flakes of black were beginning to fly away faster; I only had a few seconds left with him. "Okay," I said. I leaned down and placed my lips softly on his. They were warm and soft—just like in the dream I had about him. And just like in the dream, all I wanted was to be held in his arms forever—except I didn't have those feelings for him—I just didn't wanna lose him. I held my lips on his with my eyes closed until I couldn't feel them any longer. I opened my eyes to find him gone and my arms empty. He was gone.

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There! I did it! He's dead! I'm sorry if any of you really hate this. But as I told Akito, we have to go by the book. Anyhow, I thought forever on what to say for the very last thing and all I could come up with was that he was gone.

To be honest…when I first thought of this chapter and started planning this event way back last year, I didn't expect it to end this way. To be honest, I was gonna have Demyx get kinda angry because he liked Raene and all she cared about was Axel and if he was okay or not. So he kinda just—died. Yeah, that's how I planned it. I'm glad I didn't though. That would have been a bad way to kill him off. I didn't want Raene to seem like she had all these guys and that stuff.

Sorry for the late update guys. I truly didn't mean it to take this long. I was outta town and then I was busy with school work and make up stuff.

By the way, chapters 1-6 have been fixed. Thank you for everyone's support so far. I'll soon have next chapter out.

Love, Sarah