Chapter One
Other Half
(Xehanort/Terra POV)
"Xehanort, is something wrong? You seem distracted today."
Ansem the Wise stopped at his best apprentice's desk and raised one eyebrow, voice a genteel mix between fond and curious.
Xehanort looked up from the diagram of the heart he was working on, starting slightly. "My apologies, sir. I did not sleep well last night."
"Perhaps you need a break." Ansem touched Xehanort's hand lightly. "It would do you no good to doze off here. We all know you have been through a traumatic experience, my boy."
"Yes. Thank you, sir."
"And you still have no memories of your past? Before you were found here?"
Xehanort looked down, closing his eyes as if fearing the bright orange would slide and change, becoming the deepest ocean blue and betray him. "No, sir. None."
"All we found was that armor." Ansem chuckled. "Like a baby in a basket delivered onto a doorstep in the dead of night, it is the only mark of who you were."
"Yes, sir."
Ansem peered down at him. "Are you unwell, Xehanort?"
"No, sir."
The white-haired youth stood. "I will be in my chambers. I hope to return by dusk, as soon as the fatigue leaves me."
"Very well." Ansem nodded. "And if you could bring some sea salt ice-cream with you on your way back, it would be much appreciated."
A small smile touched Xehanort's mouth. "As you wish, sir."
Xehanort wandered through the gardens that surrounded the castle, unsure of where his destination truly was. Going back to the rooms that had been assigned to him, stuffy and high up in the castle, seemed a poor choice.
"Lea!" A slender, blue-haired boy ran past him suddenly, panting slightly. "Lea! Where the hell are you?"
The boy stopped and turned to look at Xehanort. "Have you seen Lea?"
"I'm sorry." Xehanort shook his head. "I do not know the one you speak of."
"Oh." The boy huffed slightly. "Are you Ansem's new apprentice? The one who they found?"
"I am."
"Well, that explains it." The boy nodded to himself, unsmiling. "Everyone here knows Lea. I'm Isa, by the way."
The boy gave an odd, two-fingered solute before continuing his mad dash where he left off, sprinting across the gardens and yelling for the boy, Lea.
"Isa." Xehanort said quietly, wincing as the name doubled in his mind, as that other voice that sometimes still whispered struggled for a similar three-letter name.
"Ven…"
Xehanort pressed his hand against his temple, panting slightly. Sometimes it was all too easy—this was his body, no one else inhabited it. There was no double-whisper in his mind or a shadowy second heart that seemed to beat next to his own.
Sometimes, it was like he was being pushed out of his own head. All night last night, he had dreamt of that forsaken world, the Land of Departure. What had become of it, he didn't know. It was lost with its apprentices and master. But that didn't stop him from dreaming of it constantly, painfully. And in those dreams, he was not himself, but his cursed Other Half.
Terra.
Xehanort sighed and walked on, deciding that he would meander through town. See if he could run into Braig, his fated cohort. The man had recognized him instantly and they had continued their alliance. Though what Xehanort was working for now, he wasn't quite sure. Changing bodies had been more of an intense process then he'd originally planned, and he needed a long period of time to adjust. Braig was growing impatient. Well, he'd have to wait. The man was a pawn, anyway. Nothing more.
As he walked into town, that longing that seemed a part of him constantly hit him again. He wanted to know where that armor was. The girl's armor.
Aqua…
Ansem had taken it to be looked at, examined. To see if could unlock any secrets of Xehnort's past, which of course was folly. Xehanort had two pasts, and could remember both perfectly. He just couldn't tell either to Ansem, or any of the other men he worked with now. How Xehanort yearned to see it, to—
"Yo, Xehanort."
Xehanort suppressed a sigh as the familiar, grating voice of Ansem's daughter struck him. The poor girl was cruel and vapid. Cunning enough to torture whomever she was in the company of, but not quite smart enough to work with her father in the laboratory.
He turned to see her standing a few feet behind him, hands on her hips. She was a tall, bony girl with shoulder-length blond hair pulled into two insect antenna-like pigtails and piercing green eyes.
"Hello, Arlene." Xehanort sighed. Ansem had asked his daughter to keep an eye on Xehanort, probably to keep the girl out of his hair.
"What're you doing in town?" Arlene licked a sea salt ice-cream (the shared favorite of father and daughter). "Aren't you supposed to be in the lab with my dad?"
"I was…feeling unwell. Your father said I could take a break."
Arlene made a face. "Whatever. I'm just looking for Lea. You seen 'im?"
Why was everyone asking him that today? No, he hadn't seen the blasted boy. He'd actually never even seen—
"Arlene, are you bothering people again?"
A sarcastic, obviously adolescent voice came from behind him yet again. Xehanort turned to see a tall, frightfully skinny boy standing behind him. The boy had brilliant red hair that spiked up around the crown of his head. He was wearing the most ridiculous clothes, and a small shield was dangling lazily from each hand.
"Lea!" Arlene skipped over and grabbed the boy's vest and tugged it violently. "Where have you been? You're such a moron, always hiding!"
Lea frowned. "I'm hiding from Y-O-U, Arlene."
Arlene narrowed her eyes. "Who's Y-O-U? Someone I should know about? IS IT A GIRL? OMIGOD YOU CHEATER!"
Lea sighed and looked at Xehanort as if to say: can you believe what I have to put up with?
Xehanort took pity on him. "Lea, I met a friend of your earlier who was looking for you. Isa."
"Isa?" Lea's face lit up. "Where'd you seem him? That dope totally ditched me this morning!"
"In the gardens."
"Thanks!" Lea started to move away from Arlene, who is response tightened her grip. Lea winced. It certainly looked painful.
"You're always with Isa." Arlene whined. "Why don't you spend some time with meeee?"
"Because," Lea jerked his arm away and started backing up, holding his shields up slightly, "Isa's my best friend, not you. And honestly, you annoy me. Got it memorized?"
With that, the red-haired boy ran so fast Xehanort could barely follow his movements. Arlene huffed and stamped her foot. "What a jerk!"
Xehanort turned to look at her. "Is he a friend of yours?"
Arlene smiled. "He's my true love. Well, he will be. Sometimes boys just need some time. And a few sound beatings."
Xehanort frowned, and he felt a twist of displeasure deep in the recesses of his mind. The Other One disliked this girl as well. Perhaps because she was so unlike the delicately strong, vividly beautiful girl that they both longed for. Xehanort, because she was the one this body wanted.
"I need to return now." Xehanort bowed slightly. "I shall see you soon, Arlene."
"Yeah, whatever." She slurped her ice-cream. "Just tell daddy that if I catch that creepy Ienzo snooping around my private garden again, I'll kick his little ass."
Xehanort nodded noncommittally and started walking, glad to be away from Arlene and her abrasive personality. He didn't really care what Ienzo did; the boy was quiet and if he every spoke, it was only polite. Even took good care of the child, so it was hardly a bother.
Honestly, whatever annoyed Arlene wasn't a concern to Xehanort. The only thing that worried him was whether or not Ienzo would actually be harmed by Ansem's ferocious daughter. The poor boy didn't deserve it.
"Aqua?" Terra walked through the dark void, each step utterly silent. "Ven?"
A glimmer of light seemed to glow in the distance, but no amount of walking ever put him any nearer to it. He desperately wished for his body back—to able to walk in the light again. He couldn't find his friends like this, trapped in a limbo of dark and light, dead and a live.
"I'm so lost." He clutched his heart, head bowing. "Master Eraqus, please help me."
As usual, nothing changed. Terra walked on, wearily keeping his eyes on the light. He has to keep going that direction.
He had no other choice.