Not Terra
Spoilers: I don't own ANYTHING associated with Kingdom Hearts.
AN: I'd like to thank LadyScyte from KHInsiders for helping me write this fic. Hope you enjoy it!
Step after step, step after step...the same thing for what seemed like years. Yet it was unfitting for a Keyblade Master to give up. Thus, Aqua pressed on, never losing faith...always hoping that she'd find a way out. Exhausted, Aqua fell to the ground. The girl hopelessly looked up, wondering if she'd see some end to this road of darkness. Yet the path never ended...it twisted and turned for eternity.
"What's the use," she muttered. "Ven won't wake up, and I don't even know what's become of Terra."
Terra. Her friend, fellow Keyblade apprentice, and most importantly...lover. She had always loved him. Not like a sister or dear friend, but like someone who she wanted to spend her whole life with. But she didn't know how he felt. The two never kissed or talked about their feelings toward each other. They acted like friends, and that's all they may have been. Aqua didn't believe that though. She occasionally noticed the way Terra stared at her. Once he realized she noticed his gazing though, the boy would look away.
That didn't matter anymore. Terra probably wasn't himself anymore. When she last saw him, he told her that his heart had been eclipsed in darkness. Yet he didn't seem like himself. His hair, eyes, and skin were all different. Not to mention his Keyblade. Strangely enough, the Keyblade was Master Xehanort's. Did Terra give into darkness, kill Xehanort, and nearly kill her? No, there had to be another explanation. She wasn't sure how, but the person who attacked her couldn't have been Terra. Someone or something must have possessed him. Though she had no idea who would do that or why.
Her thoughts were interrupted by footsteps. She turned to see a man with long silver hair...and a face much like Terra's.
He smiled at her. "I've finally found you...my friend."
My friend? Aqua questioned what he meant by that statement in her mind.
She narrowed her eyes on the silver haired stranger. "Who are you? And why do you like that?"
Aqua didn't understand what she was seeing. He looked like Terra! The skin tone, eyes, and hair were all different, but the face was his! Is this a trick, an illusion from within the dark realm to fill her heart with guilt?
Her hand twitching to summon the Keyblade of her master but something was stopping the bluenette master. For whatever reason, she didn't feel threatened by him.
The two stared at each other. The girl seemed genuinely confused...yet the man was smiling.
"Tell me, do you recognize me?" he asked.
Aqua narrowed her eyes. "I do and I don't. I've never seen that hairstyle, and your eyes are orange. But the face..."
"It reminds you of Terra, doesn't it?" Xemnas inquired.
She looked at him, her eyes gleaming with hope. "Terra...is that really you?"
Xemnas sat next to her. "I'm what's left. Or...maybe I'm all there really was."
The statement was true. Xehanort, his former Somebody, was completely gone, and his Heartless shared no traits with Terra. Xemnas was the only thing left of Terra. He had the same appearance, and sometimes, similar thoughts.
Aqua smiled. "So...you're really him?"
"I'm not the same as I used to be," Xemnas answered.
The girl nodded. "I noticed that a while ago. When we fought at Radiant Garden. Why did you attack me anyway?"
Xemnas raised an eyebrow. "You mean you don't know?"
She shook her head and he sighed. "Forgive me, but I don't have all of my memories. I can't remember WHY I attacked you. All I know...is that I did."
The Keyblade Master looked at the ground. "I see. It must be hard to have missing memories."
"They aren't gone," he argued. "They're just locked away. But no matter what I do...I can't seem to open them. And they're not only Terra's memories. They're from other people...Eraqus and Master Xehanort."
Aqua widened her eyes. "Really? I never heard of someone having somebody else's memories."
"I'm the only person I know who's in this situation," Xemnas said.
The two sat there in silence for a little while. Aqua couldn't believe what was happening. She'd finally done it...she found Terra! But he was so different. Not only his appearance, but his personality too. The Terra she knew would have made a joke by now or hugged her. But this man...it was like he had no emotion at all. If nothing else though, he looked as sexy as Terra, albeit a bit older. She wondered what he had been doing all this time. Though the man mentioned that he finally found her.
"Were you searching for me?" Aqua asked.
He nodded. "For a long time."
She looked at him with confusion. "But why?"
The man smiled. "To see that pretty face of course."
Hearing that empty comment, Aqua joyfully hugged him. "Oh, Terra...I'm so glad you're here with me."
The Nobody returned the embrace, but stopped smiling. "Though there is more to it."
She stared at him in confusion. "Like what?"
"Can you still wield the Keyblade?" he inquired.
The girl summoned her master's old weapon, and Xemnas grinned at the sight. "Excellent. This could work after all."
The Superior turned his attention to the female again. "Aqua, I need your help. If you would, I'd like you to destroy the Heartless, beings of darkness that threaten our worlds, with your Keyblade."
She smiled. "Sure. I'd be happy to."
"Once you've killed enough, we can move on to phase 2," he said.
The girl raised an eyebrow. "Phase 2?"
Xemnas pointed to her weapon. "Each time you kill a Heartless, you release a captive heart. When enough of these are assembled, Kingdom Hearts is formed, which will give us the ability to reshape the universe as we see fit."
Aqua stared in confusion. "I don't understand. Why should we reshape the worlds?"
"Because they're unstable," he said. "There's an imbalance of darkness and light. As long as that imbalance exists, so will the Heartless, in an attempt to even it out."
"What would we need to do to balance it?" she asked.
"Some worlds would have to be consumed in darkness," he said. "Others can remain filled with light."
Aqua stood up in defiance. "No. You can't alter the worlds like that!"
"It's the only way to balance the universe!" Xemnas argued.
She shook her head. "I don't care. I've already seen what darkness did to my world...to OUR world, Terra. Do you want the same to happen everywhere else?"
"It doesn't matter what I want," he said. "This HAS to happen."
"Well I won't help," she told him. "And the real Terra would never do this."
Xemnas summoned his red, ethereal blades. "I'm not afraid to fight you again."
Aqua entered a battle stance. "Neither am I."
Her eyes locked on to her new opponent. The Keyblade master was confident she could handle this horrid incarnation of Terra.
She stood her ground, ready for Xemnas to make his first strike towards her. Aqua could hear the material of her glove gripping the Keyblade of her fallen master.
The muscles in her legs tightened in the midst of the tension. She glared at him. "It doesn't matter who you are, I will stop you."
"We shall see…old friend," Xemnas replied.
The girl shook her head. "That ploy won't work against me. If I really was your friend, you wouldn't fight me."
Xemnas charged at Aqua, extending his arms. With his blades in hand, the Nobody began swinging at the girl. Yet she held her own, blocking every attack with her Keyblade. The two locked their blades, pushing against each other. Aqua kicked his legs, knocking Xemnas down.
"Take this!" she yelled.
The girl fired a blast of ice at him, yet Xemnas flipped into the air, totally avoiding her technique. He held out his hand, gathering electricity in it. Thrusting his hand forward, the man shot a dark ball of energy at Aqua. The Keyblade Master blocked it, and pushed it aside. Holding out both his hands, Xemnas began to continuously blasting the spheres at her. Aqua summoned her reflect shield, and kept the shield up as the dark blasts continued to bombard it.
After a few dozen though, Aqua was growing tired. Xemnas, exhausted as well, noticed this, leading him to continue his attack. Finally, the Nobody held both his hands together, this time releasing a ball twice his size. Fearing the worst, Aqua put all her being into maintaining the shield. On contact, the sphere's energy exploded, breaking the shield and throwing both fighters back.
Aqua stood up, now dashing towards Xemnas. The Nobody got to his feet, just as Aqua prepared to strike him. He blocked her attack with one of his blades, and struck her head with the other. Aqua slid back, and looked up to see Xemnas rising into the air. He shot black and white beams of nothingness at her, which she easily sidestepped. Aiming her Keyblade, she shot dozens of fireballs at her foe. Xemnas summoned a reflect shield, yet they easily broke through, knocking him to the ground and burning off part of his coat.
Angry, the Nobody rose.
"ARM!" he yelled.
The area grew even darker, and hundreds of lasers surrounded Aqua.
Smiling, Xemnas closed his fist. "FIRE!"
Shocked, Aqua saw the beams accelerate towards her. Summoning a reflect shield again, Aqua began to deflect the attacks. Yet there seemed to be no end to them. None the less, Aqua did her best to hold the shield. Yet she could feel it...her guard was weakening. As the lasers finally began to run out, Aqua's shield fell, and the lasers began to pound against her body.
"AHHHH!" she screamed.
Aqua fell to the ground, and Xemnas approached her while laughing.
"How sad, I expected better from you," he admitted.
She angrily looked at him. "I was trying to go easy on you."
He laughed. "Why? Are you afraid that you'll destroy the last bit of Terra left?
The girl was silent, leading Xemnas to believe he was right. He shook his head in disappointment. "How pathetic the heart is. It can be so easily deceived by the simplest illusion. You do realize that I'm nothing more than Terra's body, right?"
"So…he's really gone?" she asked.
The man nodded. "Forever. And soon, Ven will be next."
Aqua gasped in shock. "No! There's no way you could have found him?"
"Why is it so hard for you to believe?" he innocently inquired.
"Because I transformed the Land of Departure!" she exclaimed. "I sealed him in there!"
Rather than continue bragging, the Nobody chuckled. "I guess Eraqus's memories were correct after all. I admit, I only suspected this were true…but you've just told me everything I need to know!"
Feeling the tears form in her eyes, Aqua glared and charged at the man. Yet before she could land a single hit, he vanished in darkness. Staring at the spot he had been standing in, the broken girl cried. She never would forget this moment. And what pained her most, what ate away at her heart, was that Terra no longer existed. And that being was NOT Terra, regardless of if he wanted to be.