I nearly stumble out of the "negative world" the Professor went on about, which is essentially a portal. The hallway leads into a bigger room which is dimly lit so I'm barely getting light in here. It's as cold as the laboratory in this unfamiliar hall. I crouch down and at the same time my watch buzzes and lights up. "Professor I'm in."

"My God there's unreadable data everywhere!" I'm sure she's watching me from the big screen in her laboratory, analyzing everything around me. "Find Mia yet?"

"No but I'm heading down this hallway and I need silence."

"Before you turn me off, down the hall and turning left will bring you to a huge mass of unreadable data. I'm assuming that's where Mia is."

"Got it." I turn the watch off and skulk down the pitch-black hall swiftly, staying close to the walls. Wherever Mia is, she had better be alive-this reminds me too much of my experience with Luke. Running in that cave teeming with Heartless, finding Mia dead on the stone table, and Luke's anxiety of seeing Mia for the first time, it's all fresh in my mind as if it happened yesterday. Should I still keep his secret? I already broke his promise, I failed to keep Mia safe so is there any point of hiding secrets for him? When I bring Mia back I'll tell her about Luke. I stop skulking and I crouch down when I almost reach the corner where I'm supposed to turn left when I hear voices conversing among themselves.

"…do what you couldn't earlier."

"You've prepared me for this when you sent me down there so I can do this." I recognize the first voice to belong to the dark man but it takes a while for me to remember the second one. "Are you sure about that?" the dark man asks.

"Master, trust me." It's that Seth kid Mia talked about when she became angry, the one she constantly defends. He sounds very tensed up and high-strung; it sounds as if he's going to start screaming in a moment.

"My trust can only be stretched so wide. Don't fail me this time. And take care of our mouse problem."

"Mouse problem?" asks Seth curiously.

"The mouse in the corner hiding, he's a special one." Shit, he knows I'm here but how was he able to find out? I'm an expert at this, I practiced with Topaz who knows how to step silently. "Take care of the matter." I have to catch him before he leaves again, he's the only one who knows where Mia is. Getting to my feet, I make the left turn and sprint to the dimly-lit room, my rings jingling faintly. When I reach the next room, it's not as spacious of a room as I imagined, it's smaller than the Professor's lounge on the eighth floor and is filled with training dummies.

"You're the mouse Master was talking about," observes Seth at the opposite end of the room. Leaning against one of the dummies is Mia, unconscious and looking quite peaceful despite the hardship she went through twenty minutes ago.

"If she's dead then I swear I will rip your head off," I warn him casually, walking towards Mia but he steps in between us. "Move."

"You haven't changed."

"Neither have you, still arrogant I see. Now before I hurt you, you need to step away."

"Before you do that, I'm going to take away Mia's heart. You don't want that do you?" his eyes flicker when he hears me mutter a curse. "And she's not dead yet, Master only slowed down her heart rate to make the next job easier." In Seth's hand a reddish black cloud abruptly appears and a miniature lightning bolt strikes his hand but he doesn't flinch. When the cloud evaporates, the ebony blade that I remember Luke had before he died is revealed. But that blade disappeared along with Luke, why did it come back? "That blade-"

"For your information it's called a Keyblade, the only way to unlock the hearts of people," he says snobbishly, and then in a high-strung tone he adds, "And when I get rid of you, I'm killing her." Suddenly I remember when I found Mia unconscious in the park. She asked what made me strong because she wanted to be strong enough to defeat this unstable boy. The dark man Seth called Master said, "…do what you couldn't." He must have been talking about the park then, which means that Seth was supposed to kill Mia then and there but he didn't. Neither of them is strong enough really. "Why do you want to kill her? She doesn't look like the kind of person you would have a grudge against."

"Hmph, I wouldn't expect a moron like you to understand."

"You're wrong, I understand the situation impeccably." I lower my hands that were ready to fight but now I know I can talk this out with words. "I could've sworn you two were friends the way you looked at each other that day you and her were reunited." The statement deepened his scowl. I think that was the only time I saw her smile. "Or something more."

"Like I said, a moron like you wouldn't understand," persist Seth, pointing the key-shaped blade at Mia. "She ruined me."

"What did she ruin?" No answer, only a deepening frown from Seth. "I'm curious to know what a twelve-year old girl who I always find unconscious can do to ruin you."

"She-she held-I don't have to explain myself to you," he finally says, lunging at me while brandishing the black blade. I easily duck and kick him in the ribs up towards one of the lights. He smashes one of the lights and while descending head-first, he backflips and lands back on his feet but shakily. Blood is splattered on the floor as he coughs some out.

"I'll explain it to you then. She's still under the impression that you are friends and she's still confused as to why you don't want to return to your world with her. For some reason she still has hope in you. You're obviously done with her but she's too naïve to grasp it. She's too kind for you," I explain in a surprisingly lenient tone. He's just a warped kid who's afraid, whether it is the dark man he called Master or of what the future holds or the "power" inside Mia. "You're lost too, I can hear it in your voice, you're not sure of what to do with yourself."

"What you say isn't going to stop me. Mia's got the power to make stronger than I am now," he spits blood out and wipes away more, leaving a dried streak from his mouth. "Master told me that killing her will be better for everybody." Turning away from me, he raises the sword he called a Keyblade and takes the plunge before I can move. "Shit!" I mutter as I rush towards him. I reach to snatch the tip but astonished when I see the tip frozen, an inch away from the center of Mia's chest. The wielder is shaking fervently and brusquely drops the sword and cries out loud, his pupils dilated. He grabs for his hair and without a struggle, he yanks a blotch of dark brown hair out and throws it on the floor. Before he snaps, I kick the Keyblade away from his feet. As suddenly as he started, he stops his inner tempest and drops to his knees, looking dazed and confused. He seems unaware of where he is but when he sees Mia he frowns sadly.

"Did I do that to her?" asks Seth harmlessly, rising to his feet, then looks at me. "Did I?"

"I don't know what you did."

"Sorry, I did do this. I wish I could take it back," he replies regretfully, a tone I'm very familiar with. The anxiety in his voice is gone and filled with sorrow. "Can you do me a solid and get her out of here? I don't care where…just away from me." I scoop her under my arms and then sling her over my shoulder. Holding his temple and sulkily dropping his head, it seems like I'm talking to a completely different person. "Darkness has a way of changing people when you can't control it. What's your name?"

"Why?"

"We've never had a normal conversation, you and I. You know my name, what's yours?"

"Don."

"Don, you seemed to understand the war going on inside me. I'm gonna turn back into that Seth again so just get her out of here before I change again. Mia's an idiot for keep trying to save me."

"She really is. Her heart's open to the worse kind of people. Like us."

"Once I told her that she was the light in my darkness," he says with a faint smile as he squats down. "No wonder I still feel something for her." I nod to him politely and run back to where I came from. The Professor said the opening should stay open for another couple of minutes but I know I can make it, even with Mia slowing me down a little. Holding her like this makes me realize that I don't have to bring her back to a prison cell. I never would have to tell her what Seth said and I could run away with her and fulfill Luke's promise properly. An enraged roar echoes down the tight hallway, interrupting the trivial thoughts that are wandering in my head.

"I had to kill her, I had to!" the Seth I know all too well must have returned. How long will he struggle with himself?

' ' '

"Well done Don-is she dead?" the Professor wonders, aghast when she sees me enter from the layered opening. It collapses when I make it out and the machine she used earlier turns off.

"I've been told otherwise but I can't say for sure." She comes down the stairs and examines Mia's pulse as I still have her over my shoulder. "No, she's sleeping. She'll be up soon and be ready for more testing. Hey, what happened in there?"

"Nothing important."

"Your fists are clenched. And you can put her down you know."

"Oh," I open my palms up but still cling tightly to Mia's body. What Seth said to me earlier, "she was the light in my darkness", and his feelings for her-for some reason it infuriates me. He doesn't deserve any of her kindness or her for that matter. Mia was right, I am selfish.

J.G.P.

And more drama on the way. You actually won't hear from Mia for a while but I hoped you liked this story.