Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or FairyTail

Part 3

I faced darkness with courage. I wouldn't let it have its way with my friends. In my right hand I summon Oblivion. The black blade gleamed as I held it in front of me in defense. Darkness gave a cold laugh. "You really think you can beat me?" It asked.

"I won't let you get away with whatever you've planned for my friends!" I yelled angrily.

"Don't let that anger take hold of you or I might have your heart sooner than later." It said using reverse psychology.

"Don't play games with me! I'm sick of your games!" I said, still mad.

Darkness walks up to me and puts a hand on my blade. "It's you that plays games with me, Sarah." It said, "For I am nothing but a pawn in your mind."

"Huh?" I asked, confused.

"You're the one that keeps letting me in." It said.

Keyblade still in hand, I hold my head in frustration. I'm letting him in? Why would I do that? He's darkness. I thought.

"What is it that you want from me, Sarah?" It asked.

What do I want from him? I want him to leave my friends alone. I've accepted my answer but the question kept turning in my mind. What do I want from him?

xxx

Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Happy admired the decoration of the entrance of the castle. It was something they'd never seen before other than Magnolia's cathedral. As Happy examined one of the pots in the room, a tremor sent a vibration throughout the castle causing Happy to knock it to the ground. The pot had broken and appeared to have had small green orbs in it. Happy picked one up and was about to put it in his mouth when Lucy slapped it out of his hand.

"You don't know where that came from, Happy!" she whispered angrily.

"But it came from that pot." Happy explained, pointing at the shattered pot.

Lucy looked at the mess and then back at Happy. "I mean you don't know what they are so they could be poisonous." she said.

"Oh, okay." Happy said flying over to Erza, who was by the door to the lift stop. She peered into the dark hall cautiously.

"It's clear, I think." said Erza turning to her comrades. Gray and Lucy walk up to her.

"Are you sure, Erza? You don't just think something and say that it's clear." said Gray, degrading Erza for her knowledge of things.

"I am sure." said Erza looking angrily at Gray, "Don't humiliate me ever again, Gray."

"Yes, ma'am." Gray said, realizing he'd spoken badly of Erza.

They enter the hall into the lift stop and keep heading up.

xxx

Natsu found himself in the entrance. He had felt the tremor and foreboded what was going to happen next. He saw a door a ways from the lift stop entrance and walked through it. He was trapped in a short little area by bookshelves. There was some books missing from the shelves. Natsu found one and picked it up. It was yellow with decorative binding. He walks over to the shelf with dark yellow books and sees a red one. Maybe if I put the books on their right shelf, the bookcase will move for me. He thought, taking the red book in his other hand and walking to the other shelf.

Placing the red book on the shelf, the bookcase moves as Natsu suspected. He does the same with the other bookcases, getting confused between the two yellows, and having fun while he did it. He ends up revealing another secret entrance and finds another treasure chest. Since he didn't have a metal rod for this one, he went back into the library and took the lamp from the desk.

Tapping the lamp lightly on the chest, it opens. He looks inside to see useless junk that he doesn't need. Throwing the chest away and the lamp, he gets on a lift that takes him to the center of the lift stop. Another treasure chest is there but Natsu doesn't bother opening it. Instead he goes back and enters the upstairs part of the castle entrance. He looks down at the bottom floor and sees a broken pot that he didn't notice before. He also sees the little green orbs within the mess. He jumps down from the second level of the room and walks over to pick one of the orbs up. After smelling that it was safe, he pops it into his mouth. He instantly feels his body strength come back to full health. Now I'm ready to find my friends. He thought, heading towards the entrance to the lift stop.

xxx

What do I want from him?

Darkness looked at her, eager for her answer. Getting impatient, it gives her another question. "Let me make this easier for you. What do you want that always brings you here?" It asked.

What do I want? That always brings me here? What does that mean? What I want is here? In Hollow Bastion? "What do you mean by "here"?" I asked. I didn't entirely know what it meant. Did I want something that always brought me to Hollow Bastion?

"I meant "your mind" when I said "here"." It replied.

"My mind? What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, still lost.

"Are you really here, Sarah? Where are you right now?" It began its explanation with two questions.

Where am I? What kind of question is that? Am I really here? Is this a dream? "Are you saying that I'm dreaming?" I asked.

"Dreaming. You're dreaming but you're awake." It explained.

I'm dreaming but I'm awake? Then I can wake up and all this will be over. I closed my eyes and pinched myself to wake up, then I opened my eyes to find that I was still in Hollow Bastion on the High Tower. I sighed sadly. "I'm not dreaming. If I was I'd be awake by now since I did that." I said.

Darkness smiled. "Then consider yourself in a nightmare that you can't escape." It said.

I stared shocked at what it just said. Am I really in a nightmare? Then I have to destroy the monster-and that monster is darkness. I swung my blade into action, positioned for battle.

Darkness foresaw what I was going to do and turned into his battle form- Sephiroth. He pulled out his blade and pointed it at me, which was so long that it almost touched my nose. "And in a nightmare you could die." It said before it started attacking.

xxx

Erza, Gray, Lucy, and Happy found themselves on a lift just outside that was bigger than the other lifts. It slowly began to move them across to the other platform. Happy began humming to himself while Lucy stood with her arms folded and foot tapping. Gray stood without his shirt for some reason while Erza looked out at the scenery which was so foggy that you couldn't see Fiore at all.

It wasn't until they were halfway there when Happy was swallowed up by darkness all of a sudden.

"Happy!" screamed Lucy in fear. Just then, she was swallowed by darkness too.

"Lucy!" screamed Erza.

"Happy!" screamed Gray.

They stood there in shock wondering what happened to their friends. The lift stopped at its destination and they got off. Erza, sensing the tension between them, said, "It's best if we move on, Gray. Lucy and Happy would want us to find Natsu."

"I can't bear to lose them. They were trusted friends." Gray said sadly.

"I know. I trusted them too." said Erza.

They moved on up. Getting to the High Tower, they heard fighting going on the other side. They ran to the other side to find Sarah fighting a guy with long silver hair and a long sword. They also saw Sora lying on the ground a ways from the two who were fighting.

"Sarah!" Erza called out to me. I looked over to see Erza get swallowed by darkness.

"No!" I scream, angrily throwing slashes at darkness.

"Ice make: Lance!" commanded Gray, joining in the fight.

"No Gray! This is my fight, alone!" I call out to him to stop fighting. Darkness slashes at my chest, attempting to wound me again. I dodge his attack, barely missing his blade.

"I won't leave you behind!" yelled Gray amongst the clashing of steel and ice.

"Go find Natsu and the others!" I literally scream the orders at him. I block an attack from darkness's steel cold blade.

"But the others disappeared into nothingness! I can't find them!"

"You'll find them! I know you will! Just head on up to the Grand Hall! I have a feeling that they're there!" I jabbed my blade at darkness but it deflected it.

"How intuitive you are, Sarah. You knew where they would be without asking me." said Darkness, its blade clashed firmly against mine.

"They're in the Dark Depths, aren't they?" I asked, putting all my strength into keeping his blade from cutting my skin.

Darkness says nothing as he smiles ruefully while backing away and swinging its sword at me. Gray backs out of the fight thinking, Dark Depths? Where is that? She said to just go on ahead so the Dark Depths must be in the Grand Hall. He heads on up to save his friends, worried that he might get swallowed by darkness too.

xxx

Natsu makes his way to the High Tower and sees Sarah fighting someone he didn't know.

"Sarah?" he looked at me confused.

"Natsu!" I said rather exhaustedly as I took notice of him. "Gray is up in the Grand Hall! Go to him!"

Natsu looked towards the giant steps then back at Sarah. "What about you?" he asked.

"I'll be fine! Just go save your friends!" I reassured him.

"And take me with you! I could be useful in saving your friends!" yelled Sora, who had gotten up and was now standing as if nothing bad had happened to him.

I and Natsu looked over at Sora, surprised that he'd woken up already. Since I looked away, darkness took the opportunity to stab me in the chest.

"Sarah!" screamed Natsu and Sora both.

Natsu ran up to it and Fire Dragon Iron Fisted darkness in the face while Sora ran to Sarah's side and held me like how I'd held him before my fight with darkness.

"Now the door to darkness will be complete!" Darkness said, disappearing as Natsu's fist came in contact with it.

"Sarah…" Sora said softly as tears leaked from his eyes this time. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have yelled that when I stood up."

I looked at Sora with a smile on my face. "It's okay. It's not your fault." I turn my head to where I'm looking over at the giant steps. "Now I know what I wanted from darkness."

Sora's eyes widened at the mention of her wanting something from darkness. "And what's that?" he asked, face wet with tears.

I looked back at Sora, the smile still on my face. "Friendship. I wanted it to be my friend. That's why I kept letting darkness in. I wanted to be its friend."

Sora stares at my wound, which was letting out too much blood. "I could cure you." he said, willing to attempt to try his best.

"No, Sora. You can't cure death." I said with my final breath. I then went limp in Sora's arms.

After setting me down nicely, he turns to Natsu. "Let's go save your friends." he said, already heading towards the steps.

"What about…" began Natsu but stopped when he saw Sora shake his head. They both headed up to the Grand Hall.

xxx

Gray stood in front of the heart-shaped portal in the Grand Hall as Natsu and Sora ran up to him.

"Gray!" Natsu called him, which seemed to get his attention as he turned to face his friend.

"Natsu…" Gray said as he was swallowed by darkness, disappearing into the depths of the blackening portal like entrance.

"Where did he go?" asked Natsu, proving he didn't see where Gray went. He turned his head left to right as if searching for him.

Sora pointed to the giant heart-shaped entrance in front of them. "They went in there." he replied.

Natsu walks toward it and tries to look at what's inside. "I can't see a thing with all this dark stuff floating around." he said frustratingly.

Sora walks past him and through the entrance into the Dark Depths. There he saw Erza, Happy, Lucy, and Gray. They all stood happily right next to each other. He then noticed the keyhole and walked towards it as Natsu finally came through the entrance. He saw his friends and happily ran towards them.

"Happy, Erza, Gray, and Lucy! I've finally found you guys!" he said excitedly. None of them looked at him or even said anything back. "Guys? What's wrong? Why can't you hear me?" he asked.

Sora's keyblade appeared in his hand and he held it out in front of the keyhole. A beam of light emitted itself from the blade and a locking sound could be heard as the keyhole was closed.

Natsu's friends disappeared right in front of him and he didn't know why until he heard familiar voices outside. He ran out to find his friends looking right at him.

"Natsu!" said Happy excitedly as he flew towards his friend and gave him a big hug.

"Happy! I'm glad to see you too." Natsu said with a smile.

Everyone was happy to see each other again that they didn't notice the castle slowly start to disappear. They found themselves back in Fiore on one of its highest mountains with Sora and Sarah.

Sarah was still dead and Sora was knelt down right next to her. Natsu and the others came over to him.

"At least she survived for so long, right?" asked Natsu.

Sora just nods his head then looks down and sadly cried. They all stood silently in respect for the dead until Natsu just thought of something.

"Wait a minute! Sarah's not dead!" he exclaimed proudly.

They all looked at him, confused looks on their faces.

"We're always in her heart, right? So, she'll always be in our hearts forever." said Natsu.

Sora stood up and patted Natsu on the shoulder. "Nice saying, Natsu. She will be forever in our hearts no matter what." he said with a smile.

With that they parted ways and every now and then they thought of her to keep the memory alive.

The End of Part 3 and the story