This story is from the FOURTH rp that I and Aurora have done, but it's vastly different than the previous ones.
Disclaimer: Kingdom Hearts belongs to Disney and Square-Enix. Cloud and the world of Final Fantasy 7 belong to Square-Enix. Terra from FF6 belongs to Square-Enix as well. Aurora belongs to well…Aurora.
A/N: Technically, this story takes place after Legendary Hurt, but it's an alternative universe to the storyline of that story. I don't think there are any major spoilers until later on into the story. I also have never played FF6 (or FF3 I believe, here in the US.) So if I get Terra's personality or her speech wrong, sorry.
Italics thoughts
Legendary Hurt: Another Side
Prologue
It's been said, there's two sides to every story. Well, I'm here to tell you, in a weird sort of way, it's true. One side is the lie of what could have happened, the other…the truth that tore everybody apart. We had to play our roles or risk losing it all early in the game. But in reality, it didn't matter one way or the other. We had lost the game and paid the price dearly.
I stand in a dark corner, looking out the broken window at the muddy path out front. A week had passed since that horrible day. And not once had it stopped raining. A soft patter could be heard on what little of the roof remained and a curtain of it was falling into the middle of the church to hit the flower bed that remained intact despite no one taking care of it. Lying right next to the flower bed, was a young woman who had been unconscious the whole week, never stirring and never subjected to the horrors of the last week. On the other side of the door, opposite of where I was standing was a slightly older man that utterly hated my guts. Not that I cared anymore. My body was cold, my broken heart colder. I avoid his blue eyed glare, just watching the rain hit the ground outside. A faint stirring behind me alerts me that the woman was waking. The man's glare turns harder and I finally glare back at him, angered that he's acting on me when she's only just awakened. We both move away from where we've been sitting and he lets me walk in front of him as we go over to the waking woman. I hear something moving behind me and turn, just as she opens her eyes to hold my talons to the man's throat.
"Don't mess with me Cloud. In this state I would gladly steal your heart." I growl harshly, my claws glowing a bit black to emphasize my point.
"Cloud…? Kinno?" I hear a very familiar voice question.
I heard her voice and though it was a ray of light for me, I still couldn't face her. But when she called out to me again in confusion, I couldn't bring myself not to answer the voice of my currently closest and only friend. I turn away from the man and turn to look at her. She had no visible injury on her, for which I'm glad but I couldn't say the same of myself. I walk away from her and the man, finally walking into the little bit of light that's coming through the roof along with the rain. My feet talons sink into the mud of the flower bed as I slowly lift my head up to let the rain fall onto me.
"Kinno! What the hell happened!" She gasps.
I never wanted you to suffer this pain Aurora…
I don't answer her question. But I'm not surprised at her reaction either. I had barely healed gashes all over my body. My leather wings were torn apart, preventing me from flying away from the despair that had been crushing me. Plus the fact I was in my heartless form and though she was used to it by now, it was the fact I was willing in it that probably caught her by surprise.
"Kinno…please tell me…"
Aurora tries to move closer to me but I move away, stumbling over my own feet. If she didn't sense anything wrong with me now, other than my injuries, she would as soon as she touched me. But I couldn't keep up the charade. My heart had been shattered into pieces, my body pushed beyond all limits to keep up with my depression. I sway on my feet and finally fall forward, my body shutting down in defense as the last reserves are ate up. I feel gentle arms catch me though before I hit the mud and I drift off, suddenly feeling safe and secure.
Chapter 1: Horrific Memory and Decision
Dream
I'm again standing in the clearing in the forest though I'm human now instead of a heartless. That familiar tension that's become a part of our daily lives has come to hit us again. Sora had been showing strange signs lately and we had finally decided to confront him on it while Aurora slept. We find we're glad we did. Riku lets me be the one to talk to him since Sora always, for some reason, was a lot softer to me than to him and it wasn't just because I'm a girl. As I walk closer to the silent boy, a strange prickling sensation goes down my neck and spine, causing me to stop and look confused. An enraged growl escapes Sora and he forms the dark keyblade, tackling me. I offer no resistance as I fall on my back, looking up with wide eyes at the boy whose dark blue eyes are even darker with wild anger.
"Sora! What are you doing!" Riku calls as Sora holds the keyblade to my throat.
"You will not get in my way." He hisses.
"Get in the way of what?"
"To kill the heart feeler…"
"No!"
He jumps off me, heading off towards where Aurora sleeps. I get up to follow and Riku runs closely behind me. We catch him just before he jumps out of the bushes and tackle him to the ground. In his desperate struggles, he creates the gash that cuts down the length of my arm and it bleeds heavily.
"Riku…Stop him…Before he kills Aurora…" I murmur, falling back as blood loss quickly takes hold.
Riku is quick to bring Sora down and help him calm down, than they set to work patching my arm back up. The next morning, Sora wouldn't even look at Aurora, ashamed of losing control.
End Dream
I wake up with a sharp gasp, breathing heavily with the remembered pain. Aurora was sitting next to me, gently running her hand over my cheek and forehead in an attempt to calm me down. It finally works and my breathing returns to normal as I sit up.
"You were dreaming weren't you?" Aurora asks.
I nod a bit, my torn wings twitching a bit and sending fire through my body, but I ignore it.
"You were talking…"
Damn. I always had this unique ability to see my dreams in vivid detail and remember them with the same clarity when I woke up. It usually left me in a tight spot and had made me a sleep talker more than once.
"Kinno…what really happened?" Aurora asks.
It took Aurora a bit longer to coax me to finally tell her the truth in what's gone on. Everything, including the passing week while she had been unconscious. It all started the night the Islands were destroyed all those years ago. Something changed that night that drastically changed what we knew. Instead of my twin falling to the darkness, it was Aurora's brother and my twin instead had fallen to the light. But that wasn't how it was supposed to be. So a charade had to be played…Here I faltered and it ended up getting Cloud on my back again.
"Tell her." He growls harshly.
I growl back in answer, flapping my torn wings in intimidation to get him to leave me alone. He swings his sword out and I move my left hand up to block it with my talon. It cuts through the scales a bit but I take no notice as I growl, my growl coming from the back of my throat and sounding deep.
"Cloud…please let her talk…" Aurora requests and Cloud just glares before stalking off.
Cloud's hatred of me wasn't surprising in all honesty. Despite being a loner and very quiet, he had a deep sense of honor from all that I had seen and I had broken that honor.
"What charade did you play Kinno?" Aurora asks, strangely calm, a hell of a lot calmer than me.
"We had to make you think everything went as planned. So Riku stayed with Malifcent while Sora stayed with us. We tried to make you think nothing had gone wrong…until one night…"
So I told her about the dream I had just had, including the fact that Sora had withdrawn from us in his shame. But not for long. I continued to tell Aurora that pretty much everything that had happened was all true…in a skewed sense of the word. The events were true but the roles were different. She was actually pretty calm until it came to what had happened to our brothers. It had only taken her until than to question where they were. I wished she had never asked and it sets my despair off again, enough to visibly sink into myself as I moved away from her.
"Their dead…Both of them…" I murmur quietly, just barely loud enough to be heard over the rain.
I flinch at her shocked gasp and curl in even more. But she comes to me, holding me tightly as the floodgates open and I break down crying. It hadn't been the first time in this week nor would it be the last. But now Aurora was awake…I didn't have to try to hide my despair anymore. When I finally calmed down, Aurora just gently wipes my tears away and speaks soothingly for me to tell her what happened, so I finally just muster up the courage and do it.
Flashback
All four of us were standing in End of the World. I was shifting nervously as I watched the sudden rising tension between Sora and the rest of us. The brown haired boy was struggling and losing badly. Out of no where, there's a flare of magic and Sora vanishes. He appears behind Aurora and hits her squarely in the back of the neck. Without a sound, she falls back into his open arms and he gently lays her down.
"I won't hurt her…I don't want her to see this…" He says his voice noticeably harsher and darker.
Riku instantly forms his now gold keyblade but Sora doesn't even wait. He leaps in to start the battle and starts attacking me first. The battle quickly heats up from there and we're hard pressed to keep the darkness possessed Sora at bay. It hurt…to be attacking the boy I was crushing on, but we had to or risk throwing the worlds into chaos. Than again they already were.
After a while of trying to push Sora back, it all went downhill. I still haven't figured out what happened but the next thing I knew I'm pushed away from the fight and thrown onto the water. Before I could get back up and get back into the fight, I hear a pained gasp and look up in shock to see Sora's keyblade plunged into my brother's chest. In my chest, I feel a sudden sharp piercing pain that last only a brief second as Sora rips his keyblade from Riku's chest.
"Riku!" I scream as he falls to the ground.
I get up and run over to him, ignoring Sora who moves his keyblade in a threaten manner. I get down next to Riku and gently move a claw over his cut cheek. He looks up through hazing eyes and smiles faintly. More connected to my heartless form than before, I make a keening noise in the back of my throat, close to crying as Riku's eyes dull than slowly close as he dies right in front of me. Than all I see is red as I attack Sora in a mindless rage. Giving into my heartless instincts and falling into my insane state, I attack him for all I'm worth, not caring about exhaustion or injuries as I keep him on the run.
Normally I don't remember anything that happens when I fall into this, and I go completely blind, reacting only to vibrations and sounds. But this time I remembered but it only hurt all the more. I only completely come out of it when I plunge my claws into Sora's chest, breaking his heart. That sharp snap comes from within my chest again as I let Sora go and he falls back, dying almost instantly.
End Flashback
"I killed the only family you had left!"
Aurora only holds onto me tightly as I break down crying again. I couldn't help it. We were alone now because of that fight.
"I wanted to die after the battle. Cloud stopped me right before I did the deed and brought both of us here."
I cry harder and violently push away from Aurora, stumbling away from her. Exhausted beyond belief from lack of sleep caused by depression and suicidal thoughts, I stumble over to the flower bed and eventually trip over my own feet, landing in the middle of the flowers. Tears flow from my eyes, gently hitting the flowers around. The rain falls on me as I lay there, despair flowing through me so more. I couldn't keep going like this and someone was watching over me, over us, someone other than Cloud. I finally push myself up, looking to the sky and still crying. Out of no where, a gentle hand suddenly touches the middle of my shoulders. Normally I attack anyone who touches there, but I was too exhausted to care. And the touch spreads warmth that helped calm my body down to the point I collapsed back on the flower bed, drifting off slightly.
"You know…I remember I had a spell book that might be able to help us….But it's in Traverse…" Aurora speaks up.
But I don't completely hear what she's said. I start when I feel a gentle touch on my shoulder and I look up blinking.
"Sorry…what was that?" I ask my throat raspy and a bit embarrassed to notice I drifted off a little.
"I took a spell book with me from Hollow Bastion to Traverse. It might have something in it that might help us." Aurora says again and I nod a bit.
"I wouldn't try teleporting Kinno, not with your injuries." Cloud speaks up.
I wanted to help, after all that had happened. So naturally I growled in defense to his declaration.
"I agree with him this time Kinno."
Yea, that might have been true but I didn't want to admit it out loud. I would probably burn myself out and not make it. But they don't leave right away, something seems to stop them. The gentle hand comes to my forehead and I find my muscles relaxing completely, to the point I can actually fall asleep and feel safe again. So that's what I do.
Normal POV
Aurora looks confused as Kinno drifts off to sleep without a word. Than again she figured it was for the better since it's painfully obvious that the older girl hasn't gotten much sleep lately. Not many of her wounds have healed and she looks on the thin side, more so than usual. As Aurora turns to Cloud so they can head to Traverse, a bright flash of light appears, blinding both of them temporarily. When the light clears, a transparent image of a woman is kneeling next to Kinno, gently brushing her hand over the girl's hair. Aurora looks closely at the woman than gasps in shock.
"Terra!"
The woman looks up at the calling of her name and her sea green piercing eyes fall on Aurora and Cloud. She smiles a bit in greeting, settling next to her daughter.
"But if you're here…than maybe…"
"They cannot. I'm only here to help her stay calm…They cannot because their hearts aren't pure anymore…Granted mine isn't either…But the previous owner allowed me too…"
"You make it sound like…" Cloud speaks up in a tone of disbelief.
Terra looks sad, nodding a bit.
"She is…Everyone who used to live in the Castle are dead."
Aurora looks down, looking ready to cry and Terra looks down to the sleeping Kinno. Her pony tailed light green hair gently falls to brush up against her cheek. She gently moves a ghostly hand across her daughter's cheek again and smiles faintly as Kinno seems to instinctively turn to her, still seeking the comfort.
"Terra, I have a spell book that might help bring our brothers back to us." Aurora suddenly says with a tone of conviction.
Terra looks up a bit in surprise before nodding her ascent and smiling.
"If you can bring them back…You might even be able to undone everything that has been done." She says and smiles a bit as Aurora does.
She watches in silence as Cloud takes Aurora's hand and teleports her off. Terra remains sitting beside Kinno as the girl sleeps on. But the peace won't last forever.