A/N: I'M SORRY!!! Replies:

Mooncry: I'm glad to know I at least got one response that wasn't angry and full of yelling. :)

me: Of course I did, because the best way to end a story is with a character death. ;) I thought everyone knew that.

Oathkeepera: I'm sorry that it took so long to get this up, I'm sure it was horrible having to wait so long...

RubberDuckiesWhoLikePieAndCake: Well, I suppose everyone should know by now that I never end ANYTHING, so...

Angie-914: Once again, just letting everyone know that I never end ANYTHING... Well, I knew it wouldn't be a proper death scene if I didn't get even ONE all-caps angry review, so thanks, I really take that as a compliment!

Next to Nothing:

Epilogue:

And the first thing I felt was pain.

It rushed through my body like a million tiny needles, stabbing every inch of my body over and over again, before I realized that I shouldn't even be feeling pain at all.

I shouldn't be feeling anything, really.

Xemnas killed me. Right? It wasn't a dream. It couldn't have been. I had felt the blood, the life flowing profusely from my body as he stabbed me in my heart with my own weapon. I could still feel the wound now, couldn't I? I guess Xemnas was truly heartless, truly without feeling. I had one thought reeling through my head, circling through my mind like a song on repeat, a single question looping time and time again through my head, but I still had no answer.

How could he?

And why? Why would he kill me? I had been the one who had spared his life, or whatever I was supposed to call it. Avery was the one who was going to slit his throat with a chakram, if I hadn't stepped in. So why kill me? I figured that I was simply being used again. Xemnas killed me to hurt Avery. Right?

But then I realized that I shouldn't be thinking at all.

If Xemnas had killed me, what was I doing, feeling, thinking, and….breathing? Yes, I was breathing. I recognized the familiar up and down movement of my chest, the air rushing through my lungs, and it was comforting. But that certainly didn't make sense. That didn't make sense at all.

After all, I was dead.

And I mean dead.

No one, no matter how strong of a heart they had, could sustain a wound like that and live. It just wasn't physically possible. There had been blood, so much blood, it made my stomach queasy at the thought. I had never been one to stand the sight of blood, and I don't think I ever will be. But I had never planned to go into the medical field, anyway, so I decided that didn't really matter.

But then I realized exactly how much my life had changed, at the very moment I decided to speak to Avery. How my life would have been different, even preserved, if I had avoided Catássa's older brother like the plague. The Organization would have never noticed me, and I would have wondered how I could have done things differently, at Avery's tragic demise. Or maybe some other girl would have stepped in to try and save him, and some other girl would have joined the Organization. Would she have done things differently than I? Would she have gotten her and Avery's hearts back?

But all that was behind me now. As much as I looked back to the past and wondered 'What if…', I couldn't change anything. The decisions had been made long ago, and no one, no one could change the past.

I was dead, but I still felt curiously warm.

Was Between warm?

I could hardly remember. I struggled through my memories, but my mind was strangely fuzzy, cloudy and blank. What a strange sensation, I mused. I was still able to feel and think, but it seemed that I had no access to my memory. If this was how I was supposed to spend the rest of eternity, it would sure suck. If I have to be stuck in Between for the rest of time, I would at least like to be able to remember my days as living, breathing person. But it seemed I would even be denied of that.

"Larissa, please wake up…"

Huh?

"'Come, Larissa, I know you're in there somewhere!"

What was going on?

"What should we do, Avery? Do you think she'll be okay?"

"Oh, I know what will get her back."

Wait a second--!

As though I was being thrust into my body from somewhere else, I opened my eyes to see Avery, and as my senses returned to me, I realized that he was kissing me.

"Told ya." He said smugly, grinning, as he backed away from my body, and I found that I was lying on a hard wooden floor. I sat up slowly, and as I looked around, I realized that I was in my own home, back in Radiant Garden.

"But this is impossible!" I said, banging my fist on the ground, as if I didn't believe that it was really under me, after all. I looked around to see Avery, Aerith, Yuffie and Leon, all crowded around me, looking relieved.

"Not quite," Avery explained, "I've told you before. You forget, sometimes, that you brought me back to life, using a little bit of yourself. You gave what you had, when you didn't have enough, because you—cared for me—enough." I knew what he meant when he paused, but that was to be discussed later. And it was private, anyway. "So when Xemnas killed you, it was my turn. You saved me, so I saved you. I took a little bit of myself, and gave it back to you."

I smiled for a moment, a long moment, as I looked into Avery's emerald eyes, but it faltered. "Xemnas, he got away, didn't he?"

He frowned as well. "Yeah, he did." But his eyes lit up once more. "But if we caught him once, we can catch him again. It'll be our adventure, Larissa."

"Avery, you should tell her…" Yuffie said seriously, looking at Avery.

He creased his lips together in a thin, straight line, as if unsure of what to make of Yuffie's statement. "Rissa, we've—we've received news of your brother."

"Normin?" I asked, slightly startled. But I smiled. Avery was right. The time before us, it would be our adventure.

Our story was not over.

This was the beginning of the end.

A/N: I never end anything, do I? Well, if you paid attention to my author's note a while back (it's okay if you don't, it's pretty much all rambling anyway), you'll know that this is NOT the end, after all, and I have one more story coming. Titled 'The Beginning of the End' and aptly, if I might add. ;)