Chapter 83

The Dark Margin

Kairi cast Curaga over herself and her friends as they stopped to catch their breaths after the strenuous battle. Sora, Riku and Goofy stared nervously at the Dark Hide's crumpled corpse. To their bewilderment, it had not dissipated upon its demise. They quickly surmised that it was one of the rare creatures that would have proven edible enough for Aqua to survive off of it, but the sight still disturbed them.

After a few moments, Aqua began to laugh. At first, the others were confused, but they soon realized why she was laughing and began to laugh along. It had been so long since Aqua had had friends that she could count on.

Kairi smiled and held her arm in front of her. "Okay, Aqua. Ready to get out of here?" she asked.

Aqua gasped as she remembered something. "Wait! We can't leave yet," she said, a look of worry crossing her face.

Mickey gave her a confused glance. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"There's… There's someone else here. In the Realm of Darkness. We should get him out, too," Aqua explained.

Mickey looked around uncertainly. He knew that it could be a long shot finding this person in the savage land, and he did not want to take too many more risks. They had been in the Realm of Darkness for too long as it was. However, he did not want to leave anyone else trapped. He decided that he should determine if the objective was a lost cause or not.

"Do you know where he is, Aqua?" he asked.

Aqua nodded. "He's on the beach. It should only take us half an hour."

Mickey traded glances with Sora and Riku, then turned to gauge Donald, Goofy and Kairi's expressions. They all seemed to support the plan, Sora and Riku more so, for some reason. He turned back to Aqua and nodded. "Alright. Let's go find him," he said.

They got out of the Dark Hide's den in much the same way that they had gotten in, with Kairi helping out on Mickey, Donald and Goofy's ladder. After that, Aqua led them west through the terrain. Heartless appeared every few minutes to attack them, but they defeated the enemy each time.

As the party made the trek, Sora and Riku reminisced on their last time in the Realm of Darkness. They had found themselves on a beach overlooking a pale sunset. They had concluded that they might never get out and spent an hour sitting by the water, when they had found the bottle containing Kairi's letter.

On that gray sandy shore, they had found that a light will always be able to shine through the deepest darkness.

Soon, the party walked between some large rocks and they found themselves on the beach. Some of Roxas' memories told Sora that the Organization had called it the Dark Margin. As they approached the shore, Aqua looked around and pointed to the right. Less than a hundred feet away, they saw what appeared to be a rock with a tall, thin extension on the front end, though by squinting they were able to make out the outline of a cloaked man. The party walked along the sandy beach to approach him. As they drew near, they saw that the man was wearing the same type of black coat that they had donned before entering the dark realm.

While the others stopped a short distance away, Aqua walked up to the man. As he heard her approach, the man turned his head to look at her. Sora and Goofy tried to see who the man was, but they could not make out his shadowed face.

"Ah. Hello again, Miss," the man greeted the bluenette. Sora, Riku and Mickey gasped as they recognized the voice. The man heard the interjection and noticed the six individuals behind Aqua, though he did not seem to recognize them. "And I see you brought friends. Might some among them be the friends that you wished to find?"

Aqua shook her head. "No, they're not. But they are friends," she replied.

"Well, then. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Would you care to introduce yourselves?" the man asked.

"A-Ansem?!" Riku blurted, shocked.

"Hmm… I must say, you don't look like you would be an 'Ansem'," the man said, without a change in tone that would otherwise imply that he was joking.

Mickey looked at him in concern. "Gosh, Ansem? Don't you recognize us? It's me, Mickey," the mouse pleaded.

Ansem sighed. "The name does ring familiar, although I can hardly place it," he said sadly. "I fear that my memory is not what it once was."

"Gawrsh, it must've happened when his machine blew up," Goofy guessed. "He did say 'anything could happen'. It blew up Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts, and it turned Riku back to his real form."

Ansem nodded. "Ah, yes. I do recall having a conflict with a man called Xemnas, as well as the pain I caused in the war I waged."

Sora crossed his arms in contemplation. "How about I try? If he remembers his previous actions, he might remember working with my memories." He approached the man in the black coat. "Ansem? Do you remember me? I'm Sora."

There was a moment of silence, and Sora was not sure if it worked or not. Then, Ansem nodded. "Ah, yes. Sora. The boy with the Keyblade, who spreads hope wherever he goes." Sora blinked in surprise, amazed that he truly did remember him, and so vividly at that. It was a particularly interesting case considering he could barely remember his close friend King Mickey and could not even remember his own name. He could not help but grin with pride at the way that the former sage king had described him. "But what brings you here, young man?" Ansem asked.

Sora blinked at the question. "Oh. We came to find Aqua and bring her back to the Realm of Light," he explained. "She's been stuck down here for twelve years, and we figured it was high time to get her out. But then, she asked us to help you out."

"We had no idea you were here, Ansem," Riku added. "Everyone topside thought you had died in the explosion."

Ansem chuckled. "Very interesting. It appears as though the powers that be have greater plans for me yet. Or, they merely offered you another soul to grant salvation."

"Would you like to come back with us?" Aqua asked.

There was a long silence as Ansem considered the offer. Finally, he nodded. "Perhaps there is more that I can do to help your world," he said. "I had become so lost in my darkness, fueled by my hate and rage. Maybe now, I will be able to redeem all of my past sins. Thank you. I shall accompany you."

Mickey smiled and nodded. "Maybe your old apprentices can find a way to get your memory back," he suggested. Ansem did not respond, though he did raise an eyebrow curiously, obscured by the shadow cast by his hood.

"If you don't mind me asking, by what method were you able to make this journey?" Ansem asked. "Something tells me that none of you would be able to open a Corridor of Darkness freely."

Riku scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah. I lost that power after the Encoder exploded, and I still haven't quite been able to get it back," he admitted.

Kairi held her arm out and allowed Naminé to curl her own arm up. "But Naminé can do it just fine," she said. With that, Naminé snapped her fingers, causing a dark portal to open.

Ansem chuckled. "Fascinating. You and your Nobody have made a pure union in symbiosis," he observed. He turned to Sora. "As have you and yours."

Sora and Kairi nodded. They beckoned for Aqua and Ansem to step through. "Well, the Realm of Light awaits," Kairi said.

Aqua nodded and stepped through the portal. Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy followed after, and Mickey walked through alongside Ansem.

They stepped out into the street in the downtown area. The coordinates had apparently been off, somehow. But none of them cared, glad to be back in the Realm of Light.

Aqua looked around, seeing the buildings and bustling people of Radiant Garden. She listened to the afternoon chatter. She felt the cool midday breeze tickle her skin and blow through her hair. She looked up and felt the sun's warm glow, a smile forming on her face as she closed her eyes to bask in the serenity of sensations that she had almost forgotten about.

I'm out, she thought. I'm here. No more constant battles for survival. No more wallowing in loneliness. I'm free. I can finally…

Riku and Kairi caught Aqua as she collapsed from exhaustion. Sora, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy jumped in surprise and looked on in concern, but smiled and chuckled when they realized that she was just tired.

"She can have this nap," Mickey said. "She deserves it."

A/N: Okay, this was shorter than usual, but before I decided to just do one at a time so I could get more of a lead in writing (a lead which had started to dwindle), I planned to just put this and last week's chapter together and post both at the same time. Let me know what you think of all the recent developments.

Also note that I'm catching up to the point where I had planned things out ahead of time, so I would appreciate some more suggestions on what worlds you would like me to use and what you think I should have done in those worlds. I can't guarantee I will use all of those worlds and all of those scenarios, but I would like to see what you say, especially since I haven't gotten many suggestions beyond the first couple weeks since first posting that request, despite asking multiple times since. Please offer your suggestions in either a review or a PM. Thank you.