Sora had talked him out of doing it.

At least for that second.

"There's only one way," Riku said. Sora stared at him throught the misting rain.

"I'll have to go find her myself. I'm the only one who can."

"You aren't actually thinking about just handing your heart over like she did, are you?" asked Sora.

"What do you mean, like she did? I did it once before, Sora."

"I know, I know, it's just that..."

"I was there when it happened. I'm not sure... if she chose to or not, but I think I know what happened," continued Riku.

"Tell me, buddy," said Sora, tilting his head at Sora like a puppy.

Riku leaned against the postern wall and thought.

"Well, it's like... she was really, really upset before I even got there. She tried to cover up the fact she was crying when I found her. She knew I had spent a lot of time with her father... Ansem, Diz, whoever he was.... and she asked me to tell her what happened to him."

"And you told her," said Sora. "And she was hoping with all her heart that he was still alive and looking for her somewhere."

"I didn't even have the heart to tell her that Ansem never mentioned her. Never thought of her, from what I can tell. Back when we were in the virtual Twilight Town, when I first met Emi, I noticed she looked kind of familiar. She looks a lot like her father, have you noticed?" said Riku.

"Yeah, I guess so. But she has Saila's eyes and hair," said Sora, with a chuckle. "So, what happened after that?"

"I told her about the explosion when Ansem was trying to collect data from Kingdom Hearts. I think... I think it broke her heart. She just kind of screamed and the next thing I knew she was shooting dark magic at me and jumping off this wall," sighed Riku.

There was a silence. The only sound was the rain splattering against the stone and grates.

"We really should get back to Merlin's," said Sora, trying to convince his friend to come on.

Sora was pretty sad about Emi, too, but he knew that he needed to try and get past the sadness and try and find her.

He didn't understand that was exactly what Riku was trying to do.

"No," said Riku, rejecting Sora's idea. "I'm going to get her. You go back to the house. I don't want you to see me do this."

Sora grabbed Riku's wrist and jerked him around. "I don't want to see you do this. You are coming with me and we are going back to Merlin's so we can find a better plan."

"This is our ONLY option, Sora! I was in her shoes once, I know how she feels. That pull of that power is stronger than the pull of your friends. Let me go! Let me go get her!" Riku screamed, struggling against Sora. Sora didn't let go. He started dragging him back to Merlin's house. "Save it as a last resort, please, Riku," he begged quietly.

Riku gave up the struggle and Sora left his wrist drop. Riku and Sora walked solemly back to Merlin's in the rain.

Riku was formulating a plan... Sora should have never let his wrist go.

~

Karen was sitting on the edge of her bed, a scraggly blanket around her shoulders. Yuffie sat next to her, trying to cheer her up with jokes and funny stories. Aerith gave her a kind smile and a cup of hot tea. Karen accepted the tea with a quiet thank you and a blank stare at the floor.

Yuffie looked at Aerith, with a slightly worried look.

"Come on Karen," said Aerith, sitting next to her on the opposite side of Yuffie. "Where's the cheerful smile that you had when we first met you?"

"Emi took it with her when she jumped off that wall," said Karen gravely. Aerith patted Karen's hand softly and Yuffie said "Everything will be okay."

Karen looked at her with an expression that said "How could you say that?", and was about to speak but Sora and Riku pushed the wooden door open. "Hey, you guys are soaked. Go get dried up, don't drip on the equipment," said Merlin. "Hey, don't slip," said Cid. Leon threw a towel at Sora, who briskly dried his spiky hair.

Riku stood beside his friends and his eyes flickered over to Karen as she sat solemly in between the two other girls.

Sora noticed the look. "You'll have to tell her sometime. The longer you wait, the longer we have to wait to look for her."

Riku looked dismally at Karen, her normally bright eyes dull and ringed with red.

He motioned for her to come over to him. She glanced at Aerith and Yuffie and then stood up and walked zombie-like up to Riku, who took her hand and said "We need to talk privately. There's something I need to tell you."

Karen blinked up at Riku, as he dragged her away from the other people. Back outside. The rain drops soaking her hair didn't seem to phase Karen a bit. Riku bent over a little, to her level. She was so small.... "Karen..."

Karen stared right through him. They were making eye contact, but Karen's eyes were dead.

"Karen... I... first I want to apologize."
"For?"

"I uh.... well. I'm going to be very honest with you. I went and found Emi at the Postern. She begged me to tell her about her father. After all the stories I'd told her about him, about me spending so much time with him.... she wanted to know where he was. I had no choice but to tell her."

"...what did you tell her?"
"I didn't lie to her. Her father died in an explosion, trying to gather data from Kingdom Hearts. He was just trying to do the right thing, make up for all the mistakes he made. The machine he was using overloaded and exploded. I was thrown back into my true form, and he just... dissapeared."

"So he COULD still be alive?"

"No. I think I know where he is. And I think I know why Emi did what she did."

"Where? Why?" asked Karen, her eyes sparking.

"I've had a lot of time to think in the year I've been home," started Riku. "Mostly about what would've happened to me if I had died in the World that Never Was. Ansem and I were so much alike. It made me think... is there a place that people made of both dark and light go? We don't deserve the World of Darkness, nor the one of Light. Maybe there is some sort of purgatory."

"You think Emi's father... Ansem... went to purgatory?"

"Yes. Maybe. And I also think Emi tried to follow him."

"She killed herself to look for her father?"

"There's one more thing, Karen," said Riku.

Karen swallowed. What now?

"Before she jumped...." Riku sighed heavily. "She just gave up."

"What do you mean?" asked Karen, panic rising in her voice. "Oh no... you mean she...?"

"Yeah. Gave her heart over to the darkness."

Information flooded Karen’s mind. Her theroy.... it was true. And proven in her best friend.

The Door to Light was still open... darkness from the other side seeping in and contaminating the hearts of the weak...

"What if I’m next?" sobbed Karen as she slipped to her knees. Riku tried to hold her up, but she hit the ground and turned her face to the heavy gray sky.

"TAKE ME NEXT!" she screamed, putting her hands over her ears.

Riku called for help. "Hey, Sora! I need you out here!"

Sora came running, and with a quick glance at the scene, ran up to Karen and took her arm.

Karen looked up at him, water dripping off their hair and eyelashes. Riku watched from the side, guilt eating away at his heart.

Karen turned and sobbed into Sora’s chest. Sora wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

She felt so much like Kairi it was scary. But it wasn’t Kairi. It was Karen. A friend in need of comfort.

"I have t-to g-go look-k for her," Karen hiccuped. "Maybe the darkness will take me too. My heart is just as weak, isn’t it? Isn’t it? Isn’t that what that stupid journal said!?"

"Your heart isn’t weak. Ansem cured the sickness. You remember what caused the sickness you had when you were a kid? You have such a pure heart that the darkness in your world started eating away at you. Ansem put you in a clean place and you were healed. You met Emi there."

"What if the darkness is coming for me now? What if it does the same thing it did when I was little?"

"It won’t. The heart is a very strange thing. Yours knows it’s on a mission. Ansem said it himself. You’re the Keyhole to the Door to Light. Your heart wouldn’t just give up like that. Everyone in this whole universe is counting on you to be strong," said Sora, over the sound of pouring rain.

And while Sora was comforting Karen, Riku slipped away to the Postern, his mind set on fixing this and seeing Karen’s bright eyes again.

~

The noise of Emi’s back slamming against the marble wall reverberated deafiningly. She refused to scream, even though it felt like her spine had just snapped in half.

A few feet away, Zexion was putting away his weapon. "That’s the sixteenth time you’ve done that, Emi," he said cooly.

"Don’t you think I know that?" said Emi, wiping away blood dripping from her nose. "You’ll have plenty of bruises, but you’re improving. You learn fast. You show promise."

"Thank you," Emi said, just as cooly, standing up and brushing herself off.

"Let’s take a break from combat practice and try ablility training. I think I’ll teach you a new one today."

Emi was being trained in combat, and learning abilities from Zexion. She’d already learned how to Dash, which she had been trying to incorporate into ther combat training just a few minutes eariler. But Zexion was always faster, and ended up slamming her against the wall every time.

Today, Zexion would teach her a very unique ability. "For you, we’ll call this one Dark Tracker. Do you understand?"

"Yes, master," said Emi, rolling her eyes. Zexion blew it off. "Come here," he said, holding out a pale hand.

Emi walked over to him with a slight limp. Zexion stared at her.

"Should we heal your injuries first? Especially your nose..."

"No!" said Emi, straightening. Zexion shook his head. So stubborn.

"Fine. Okay, first thing. Close your eyes and clear your mind. You have to be able to pick out one scent from several and it takes concentration."

Emi found her self sitting in high backed, plush chair. Her fingers curled around the black velvet on arm rests. Her eyes were still closed as Zexion went to work, searching her mind for a place to put the ability. THE place to put the ability. He found it, deep in the blackness of her mind.

"I'm going to send a little of my ability into your mind," said Zexion. It ws so surreal. The voice wasn't an audible voice, more like a thought shimmering around Emi's mind.

She knew what he was doing. Putting a tiny part of the ability he had into her, where her mind would take it and make it grow.

With a small pop and a rush of heat, Emi could use the Dark Tracker ability. "Come back now," said Zexion, a shimmering dream.

Emi's eyes fluttered open, and she was bombarded with scents. She could pick out her own. Her insticts told her the slightly acidic, almost too sweet, smell was hers. And the other, an almost minty smell with a metallic touch, must be Zexion's. But there were so many other fainter scents.

Emi squeezed her eyes shut and Zexion said "I'll help you filter and identify each scent. Are you well?"

"Depends on what you mean by well," said Emi, trying to ignore pain and a barrage of scents. "I think you cracked a vertebrate. And my nose stings..."

"I think we can stop for today, Emi. Just sit there, I'll heal you up."

Emi's hands relaxed on the arm rests. She smiled.

There was someone behind her, touching her shoulder. Not Zexion, the closest scent was different.

Emi opened her eyes as the person behind her walked around the the front of the chair, moving his hand from her shoulder down her arm.

"I will heal the girl," said Xemnas. His scent was like blood and cinnamon. Not wholy unpleasant to Emi's new mind.

Zexion nodded, stared hard at Emi. Was that regret she saw in his eyes? No. It couldn't be.

He opened a portal and left the place.

"Do all of you have a touch of blood in your scent?" asked Emi.

"I do not know. Only Zexion can tell you such a thing," he answered.

~

His heart thumping in his chest was deafining.

It was all he could hear.

"I'm coming for you," he whispered to the ground under his face.

He lay splayed on the ground at the Postern, the rain pouring down on him.

It was so easy to just slip away... back into the dark, cool shadows.

~

Sora walked Karen back into the house. Yuffie made her a cup of cocoa, and Aerith wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.

"You're soaking wet," Aerith said, sitting the girl down in an arm chair. Karen just sat there and shook. Sora sat with her, patting her hand.

"We're going... to look for her..." muttered Karen.

"That's right, Karen. We are going to find Emi," said Yuffie with a smile, handing over the cocoa.

Sora noticed something was missing. Riku. He looked around the room for his silver haired friend.

He wasn't there. Sora sat up on the arm rest of the chair and called his name. Everyone else looked around as well.

"He never came in," said Cid.

Sora got up and rushed to the door. He jerked it open, and looked out into the rain.

"Riku! RIKU!" he called, stepping out of the door.

~

He could hear Sora's voice somewhere far, far away.

He wasn't sure what to make of it, because now he was floating away into the purple black darkness.

~

Sora was running, the rain puddles splashing around his feet, screaming for Riku.

He knew EXACTLY where he was, and Sora was running to get him before it was too late.

It was too late. All that was left of his friend now was remnants of purple-black smoke.

~

Emi felt something tugging at her.

The last bit of green from the healing spell floated away and Xemnas suddenly jerked around.

"You feel it too?" asked Emi, standing up out of the chair.

"It's time for your first mission, my dear," said Xemnas, turning to look at Emi.

Emi bowed low. "I will do my best."

~

Riku found himself lying against a cold, marble floor. A familiar place.

He lay in silence for a long time. They were ignoring him.

Until...

"Riku. You came to get me didn't you? Moron."