notes – Terra-focused, with some Terra/Aqua on the side. I wanted to break down Aqua's character through Terra. The part about the princesses isn't in chronologic order because because.
Land Breaking
At times, just shy of star-gazing and the clash of keyblades, Terra can't decide if he likes Aqua or not. It's not like he does it on purpose – like he ricochets between two opposing feelings because he's fickle. If anything, he's the most straightforward and decisive of the lot of them. The thing is, Aqua has a habit of being both a wonderful and demoralizing friend.
She makes friendship charms that glow under the moonlight, ruffles Ven's hair just like he's used to, and smiles in that gentle, practiced way of hers. Everything about her is control – her emotions, her hair, her stance, her grip on the handle of a keyblade and the words she says. The last thing Terra has is control – he fights with all his strength and determination, charges ahead with his heart bursting at its seams, and if he's happy or angry he'll show it plain on his face because what's the point of hiding all that?
Sometimes, he envies Aqua's discipline, her perfect ability and how she does her backflips. At others, he can't help but feel sad for her because she doesn't understand the simple things like the fact that it's okay not being able to meet your expectations, that there's a limit to how much you can push yourself before you break the limit. Terra does his fitness training religiously, sure, but he likes it when he can just forget about all that and have an off-day with Ventus. They bound off to some field to talk and spar and do what boys do best: nothing.
Aqua is a girl in all aspects, the way she needs everything to be done in the proper method, the way she mothers over them and has to make sure that they've had three square meals. Terra laughs a little at her sometimes, it doesn't matter if she notices or not. It's just – she's amazing, and he probably wouldn't even be able to pick out these tiny flaws if he wasn't so obsessed with beating her to the Mark of Mastery.
He decides, on the whole, he likes Aqua more than he doesn't.
The Darkness isn't something he's particularly proud of. And the way Aqua looks at him seems almost hurt and betrayed as opposed to Ventus, who's just checking, with worried eyes, to see if he's fine. Terra appreciates their concern – feels a stab in his gut when he looks at Aqua's eyes again. Her gaze is frantic, bordering on panic, searching for the virus that's infected him so that she can get rid of it.
Terra breaks eye contact with her and shakes his head at the floor. She won't be able to find it, he thinks. It's been in him all along. It stays with him as he steps out of the hall, and it's still inside him when he sits down on the stairs leading out of the entrance. And he has to gain control of it somehow – use it in the right way, because this is just a milestone to the path of power.
Master Xehanort tells him that good, you're absolutely correct, with that dignified, advising tone. Terra doesn't question him. He doesn't want to go back and let Aqua and Master Eraqus prod at him through a microscope to pinpoint the problem – it's not a problem.
When the Master tells him to go and fight the Unversed and find Xehanort, Terra leaves immediately. Aqua lingers behind, and it's almost like she's listening to a dire secret from the Master, a frown set on her face. Terra looks over his shoulder for a moment, but doesn't wait for her.
The next time he steps into the Land of Departure, he'll be able to carry the title of Master, and he'll put a smile on Aqua's face instead of a frown.
Terra meets many females – princesses – on his travels through the Lanes Between. They are worlds apart from Aqua, and can't help but remind him more and more about her every time.
Snow White is a frightened little girl, who runs off the moment she sees the Unversed rise out of the ground. Terra stops to wonder if all girls are like that, but then he remembers Aqua and he remembers courage. Not everyone can be as steeled as Aqua, and he should be protecting people like Snow White, who can't help but have open hearts. He crushes the box in his hands and returns to the twisted Queen, only out of politeness. He knows he won't get a tolerant answer for ignoring her orders, but the last thing he expects is to be thrown into a mirror. He deals with it anyway.
Cinderella's dress is torn at the seams, wet with all her tears when he first meets her. Even though her eyes are red and her clothing is in ugly tatters, Terra can't help but find her pretty. It's kind of like how Aqua manages to look beautiful even if she's covered in bruises and scars, sweating or bleeding. He's never been good with girls, if Aqua is anything to go by. Still, Terra tries to help her, because someone who could look that nice in such a state must own a pure heart. When the fairy godmother arrives and smoothes out all of the feathers Cinderella has ruffled, the smile is back on her face, and she only dreams about going to the ball.
Terra bows after he escorts her, and the gratitude on Cinderella's face is all he needs to make him think – hey, he could still be a hero, just yet. He watches her waltz with the prince, who looks like all the stories say he does. Terra's mind stops thinking about the Darkness and the Unversed, Running away and Xehanort. All that he thinks just then is that, maybe, he could dance with Aqua like that one day too.
The girl with the sleeping face lies undisturbed and peaceful on her bed. If she knew what he'd done, she'd probably be wearing a different picture on her face. Terra says 'sorry' to her even though she can't hear, but it's the least he can do. Her hair, rich and golden, reminds him of Aqua when she had long hair.
That had been a couple of years ago, when she'd been precocious in early teenagehood, with soft blue hair that fell to the middle of her back. When she'd realised that her hair kept on slapping Terra in the face whenever she made an abrupt turn or somersaulted around him during their sparring sessions, she'd snipped it off without a second thought. The change had been immense, and it sent the Master into grieving hysteria for days, for he'd grown to love how Aqua's face had been framed and her hair.
The girl in question hadn't minded much. She said she liked the release of all the weight, and that it made it easier for them to spar now. Terra didn't speak too much. He told her she looked good when he saw her staring self-consciously at her reflection on the marble floor, and that had been the end of that.
And Terra also meets Maleficent, who is the antithesis of Aqua and all the sweetness in all the girls he's ever met. She embraces darkness, strokes it with one spindly finger and completes her whole occult look with a magpie and an orb on a staff. She awakens the bad things and puts to sleep all the dreams he'd ever had about being a gallant hero, and she smiles with an insane twinkle in her eye. The only purpose she serves is to remind him why he doesn't deserve to be anywhere near Aqua or Ven, not now.
When Ventus presents to them the free passes to Disney Town, the feeling that kind of just sparks in Terra's heart is just enough to make everything okay, for once in the longest time.
He imagines a nice sunny day in Disney Town, ice cream and fruit ball and watching the eccentric citizens race each other on the track – maybe join them. It doesn't sound like a bad idea. Nothing can be too terrible if it involves Ventus and Aqua, Terra has come to know this over his years with them. Maybe they can invite Master Eraqus along, because the old man needs some fun in his life, even though he doesn't seem like the type
– and maybe they can't, because the Master's Keyblade is screaming against Terra's Earthshaker, and he hears bones breaking but he doesn't know whose they are. What's the point of all this power if everything's spiraling out of his control again? Ventus is running away and Aqua isn't around to stop either of them, just like the first time.
He plants the soles of his shoes on the dry, parched ground, and watches how the clouds are so gloomy and grey in this place. The sun is nowhere in sight, and the air is only bitter and cold, it's everything the Land of Departure never was.
Terra doesn't have too long to think, to turn over his thoughts and appreciate the feeling on his skin against the Ends of the Earth. Aqua is already behind him, striding carefully up to the shadow he's cast. Had she been doing this all along? He'd never stopped marching forward, swinging his keyblade through the Unversed and the doubts, never given her a chance to keep up. Should he have done that? Would everything been better if he'd let her catch him by the wrist and bring him back to Master Eraqus?
He doesn't know, but maybe things were meant to be this way. There isn't any room for regrets now – he's been spending too much time stuck in a standstill of remorse. If he wants to protect his friends, he needs to leave everything behind and aim towards Xehanort instead of looking back over his shoulder like he's always been doing. Terra understands that now. There are many things he should be regretting, but none of them can quite compare to the fact that he hasn't apologized for making Aqua worry all the while, for not holding her hand when he'd had the chance.
He'll set things right after this battle.
She says I heard the Master was struck down, when what she means is that she's missed him and she's sorry that she couldn't have been there for him when he'd needed her. Terra can read her lips and sees the words to her eyes, but maybe it's just the darkness shrouding his vision.
Put an end to me, is what Ventus asks, almost pleading. The happiness of reunion is replaced with the brunt of reality, of broken keyblades sticking out of the dead, dead ground and the dark power Terra has learned to channel all this while.
Ventus gave him everything Aqua could not: a partner to do nonsensical things with, someone who wouldn't mind it if he overslept or forgot about little absentminded promises like coming home at six. He never blew things out of proportion the way Aqua loved to. Ventus was easygoing and contented with all the things that you couldn't catch with the naked eye. The boy treasured walking with them, liked the way they bantered and patted his head and how he could just feel their friendship, almost tangible in the air. He was a unique sort of person, and he'd taught Terra many things.
All of this made Ventus just as special a friend as Aqua, and Terra could never do something so heartless to a friend. He can't leave them behind or show his back to them or look at them and tell them they don't understand – because they probably do, somewhere in the expanse of their hearts.
He can't have done all these things to his friends, but he had, and Terra's face falls at the realization of it all. Perhaps even protecting them now won't be able to make up for it.
It's okay, Aqua whispers these words in that gentle, practiced way of hers, lips barely moving. Her expression is soothing – firm but understanding – and Terra finally believes that she means what she says. He doesn't know if she'd meant to say it to him or Ventus, but that doesn't matter. Perhaps he's not the only one how's learned something from all the trials he's faced. He nods.
The corners of Aqua's lips begin to quirk, but then Xehanort appears, and Terra doesn't get a chance to see if she'd really smiled or not.
The graveyard might be a metaphor for just about everything right now.
Terra tries not to think about it. He memorizes the sadness twisting in Ventus' eyes and the tears building up in Aqua's, and tells himself that it's because this is the last time he'll ever see these eyes again.
final notes – The title, many reasons for it. 'Landbreaker' is Terra's finishing move, which Aqua and Ventus can perform. Land breaking occurs when two crustal plates of the earth strike each other. The force is too much and as a result, land cracks and breaks. Terra's name means 'land'. And breaking, in general. Everything just breaks.