Song-fic based on 'Abraham's Daughter' by Arcade Fire; all credit to Arcade Fire for the original song lyrics and Kingdom Hearts for Xehanort, Isa and Ansem.
Xehanort took Isa's hand
And led him to the darkened place
The youth had no idea where he was being taken. Every corridor seemed to grow darker the longer they walked; he had tried to ask Xehanort where it was that they were going, but the other man would not answer him, except to say that the journey would not be long. Isa was beginning to wish that someone had come with him; the silence and solitude, while he claimed them to be desirable necessities, were slightly unnerving him.
He remembered the girl who inhabited the grounds; the one he had made a habit of sneaking out nights to talk to. What his mother would do if she knew he sneaked out, he didn't know; he knew Lea would approve, though.
The girl said she didn't have a name.
The girl said she didn't have a heart.
Despite all of that, Isa would not stop sneaking out to talk to her.
He knew it was stupid, and foolish, and all of those other things he was always warned about.
He wished she were here with him now…
While his daughter hid and watched
She moved so swift
And left no trace
The white-haired girl was like a shadow behind her father and the blue-haired youth; neither of them caught even the barest glimpse of her as she flitted after them down the many corridors. Her eyes were fixed determinedly on Isa's back; after all she'd heard of her father doing, she knew for certain that she would not let him touch her blue-haired friend, not after all the kindness Isa had shown her. There was no way that she could allow him to suffer the rest of his days as the same kind of emotionless wretch she had once been.
Just then, up ahead, her father and Isa reached a door. Faintly, she heard Isa's tenor voice asking "Is this it, sir?"
"Indeed," replied the deep bass voice of Xehanort. "Proceed inward, Isa Rain. Your journey is near complete."
As she watched, Xehanort pushed the door open, allowing Isa to enter first, then moving through himself.
Silently, she darted forward to the door just before it closed, slipping through herself.
Behind the door waited a large, dark room, lit only by a single window, through which poured the silvery light of an outdoor full moon. Shadows danced along the walls and floor, wavering ominously around the edges of the light. Xehanort, with a hand on Isa's shoulder, stood in the center of the room.
Suddenly, the silver-haired man began to speak, loudly. "Ansem, Seeker of Darkness; I offer another heart for you to claim. I present Isa Rain of Radiant Garden as tribute to the darkness."
The shadows began to coalesce beneath the window, slowly taking the form of a muscular, dark-skinned man with glowing amber eyes. He looked much similar to Xehanort himself, except that emblazoned right over his heart was an emblem that looked like a locked, heart-shaped keyhole. His own shadow took form behind him, and the girl gasped as a horrendous monster, clad in chains, rose to stand behind Ansem, arms crossed in menace.
"I accept your sacrifice," Ansem boomed in an intimidating voice.
Not while I'm around, the girl thought to herself.
Just as the Seeker rose for the slaughter
Xehanort's daughter raised her hand.
Ansem's blade was already in the air, waiting above the shocked and silent Isa, whose eyes were round and horrified as they stared in rigid fascination at the Seeker of Darkness.
"Don't you dare," the girl growled.
Xehanort's eyes narrowed fiercely. "What are you doing here?"
The girl ignored her father, her gaze fixing upon Isa, whose attention snapped downward as the pause between Ansem's drawback and his strike lengthened further. His face nearly collapsed in relief when he caught sight of her.
"Isa!" she called to him. "Isa, don't worry! I'm going to get you out of this!"
Ansem's laugh boomed around the small chamber. "Is that so, little one?"
She glared at him, straightening her frame proudly. "Yes, it is."
Then the Seeker asked her where her heart lay
She said "I have none."
Then he asked "How can this be?"
"My father never gave me one."
"No heart?" Ansem stroked his chin thoughtfully. "What are you doing down here trying to save him, then? You should not be able to feel without a heart."
The girl glared at him. "I couldn't feel, originally," she spat. "It was Isa who taught me how to feel without a heart. And I'm not going to leave him down here."
Ansem hovered in the air a moment, considering her argument.
A sudden cry from Xehanort caught all of their attention. "This is supposed to be a sacrifice!" the man screamed. "If you won't do it correctly, I'll do it myself!"
With that, he drew two long, thin blades from within his white coat and held them both at Isa's neck, uttering mystical words as he prepared for the final strike.
Then when she saw him poised for the slaughter
Xehanort's daughter raised her bow.
She wasn't the most proficient with the weapon, but it had been the only thing she could find, thanks to the stupid guards who'd wanted to play target practice with all the lances and javelins and use all the swords for sparring. The arrow she nocked to the bowstring was sharp as any knife, though, and she aimed it straight for Xehanort's throat. Her father paused, blades still held to Isa's throat, while Isa's eyes pleaded with her to do something, to intercede. Ansem hovered beside them, eyes amused as he watched the drama unfold.
Xehanort's eyes narrowed and he glared at his daughter. The rightmost blade drew a thin line of blood from Isa's throat, and the blue-haired boy gasped in pain.
"How darest thee, child, defy thy father?"
The girl's eyes narrowed in return; she drew the arrow back further, sighting along it toward her father's unprotected throat.
"Answer me!" Xehanort roared. "You dare to go against my desires? I am your father, you will do as I command! Leave this place at once!"
She only continued glaring at him, and in a voice so soft that it was barely audible, she uttered a single, final sentence.
"You better let my Isa go."
There was dead silence in the room for a split second; Xehanort and the girl regarded one another hatefully, while Ansem looked on in amusement and Isa watched with fearful eyes.
Suddenly, things began to happen all at once. Deciding he was not going to let his daughter have the upper hand, Xehanort drew back his swords to deliver the death stroke.
That was when the girl fired her first shot; not into Xehanort's throat, but into his left wrist.
The blade skittered and jerked, falling from his grasp as he screamed in agony and clutched his wrist with his other hand, which still held the other sword.
"Run, Isa!" the girl shouted.
Isa, stunned momentarily, began moving as if in a daze. Xehanort, unwilling to let his prize escape, struck out angrily with the other blade in two crisscrossing strokes.
Isa fell to his knees with a scream of pain, clutching his face where it began to bleed from two diagonal lines that traversed the bridge of his nose, forming a livid red X right between his eyes.
"Isa!" the girl screamed. Her eyes blazed with hate; this time, when she drew back, the arrow flew straight and true, right into Xehanort's chest, piercing the silver-haired man through the heart. He dropped without a sound, blood staining the spotless white coat bright crimson.
Ansem, meanwhile, had grown bored of the game. He decided that since he'd come for a sacrifice, he might as well have one, even if it wasn't proper.
"Let us be finished with this farce," he boomed; then, he swept down from his hovering position to take hold of Isa, or rather, his shadow's arms reached out to grip Isa's shoulders, hoisting the bleeding youth into the air.
"No!" the girl screamed, nocking another arrow, but it was too late. As she watched, the shadow's long tongue whipped out and straight into Isa's chest. With a horrendous ripping sound, it lurched back out, bearing with it something lustrous red and glowing.
Isa's heart.
Horrified, the girl watched as her friend fell to the ground soundlessly. Ansem's shadow swallowed the heart in one terrific gulp, grinning evilly.
"Farewell," Ansem intoned, before vanishing into the shadows once more.
"Isa!" She ran to his side, kneeling over him anxiously and putting a hand to his chest. No beat came from within; the thing really had taken his heart.
"Oh, Isa…"
Tears began to well in the corners of her eyes; she was just beginning to wipe them roughly away when suddenly, he sat up with a ragged gasp.
She shrieked and threw her arms tightly around him. "You're alive?"
He coughed. "I do not know… I feel alive, but… something seems to be missing."
His voice was naturally calm, but now it seemed more than calm, almost… flat.
"Your heart, Isa. Your heart is gone."