Kingdom Hearts: Corda Nostra

I am Silence.

I am a dream, so far lost, that the hands that reach for me only seem to become more distant with each passing moment.

Was this our choice?

Is this the will of a being beyond us… A God?

For us to forever locked in the guises we wear, unable to cast our cloaks into that peaceful night, never to see what lies beneath the shrouds we wear?

For us to excuse our faults, for us to condemn our enemies, for us to shatter, and rip, and tear apart from the inside the thing we call our heart?

For us to always be in this struggle, this war, between the Light and the Dark?

… Do we have a choice…?

… Can we go our own way…?

… Are we all truly on the correct path, this path so torn by conflict, by hate, by suffering… By lost hearts, by nothingness, by the desire to make everything absolute, pure, perfect?

… We are not.

The Crystal City

I stood, looking back down towards the small village below, surrounded by tall, pointed trees that always held their deep green color despite everything. The village where I have always lived, under a sky that was coveted by a layer of dark clouds, keeping it's soft blue love and the warm sun all for itself. The clouds constantly shifted from varying shades of blue and purple, a curse from what is perpetually shined on it from below. surrounded by tall, pointed trees that always held their deep green color despite everything.

It was gone. Two hours ago, it was alive and simple. I was as I always was; content. Happy. Everything was fine. Now, soft fires burned, adding hues of orange and yellow to the clouds above. Most had burned out already, leaving ash and burnt out husks in their place. The wooden homes could not resist the flames, nor could their occupants put them out. Their fate was far worse.

Into the air, from the town below, flickering petals of light rose into the sky. A snowfall, in a beautiful reverse. To one who just arrived, the scene would be one of beauty; the light, the colors, everything blending in a horrible harmony. Those little petals were what was left of everyone. As their bodies began to fade away, turning into what I now saw with my eyes. The horrible message they carried was all I could think about. They were people… What was left of them. And soon, even those would fade out and die.

Those people… The Keyblade… Took everything from me. They took my home. They took my friends. They took my family. They took everything I knew, everything I cherished. I should have been with them. But I ran. I ran, and didn't come back. Not until the screaming stopped.

I was alone.

I turned my back to the desolation, out to what was beyond the cliff I was standing on. From nearly a mile below, crystals rose from the ground, each like a tower in some fantasy city. The Tears. They were all a pale purple, radiating a perverted light from everywhere inside them at once. Everyone knew the stories told about them. To those who in life found themselves on the path of darkness, their hearts would end here after they met their end. Frozen in darkness, an eternal sense of no pain, no fear, no joy, no love. A bedtime story, to steer children from being wicked. This is what we all thought it was. But today, I see them differently. People came from outside our world. They attacked, they killed everyone, swinging Keyblades of light and striking everyone they could. If this could happen… if those stories were true… then these were as well. And that's what I hoped. No pain. That's what I want. If I die here, on the Tears, surely my heart will go there. To a place with no pain. To a place I won't have to live with what a useless coward I was. To a place I wasn't so alone.

I stepped over until I was hovering near the edge, not even a hair length from oblivion. This is what I wanted, I thought, allowing myself to slip. This-

The collar of my shirt suddenly pulled back, temporarily crushing my windpipe and throwing me to the ground behind me. I rolled, hitting my forehead on a small rock as I did so, sending a brief flash of pain through me. Certainly not what I had wanted to happen. "Only a fool would even think of bloody touching those," a woman's voice said, words pronounced easily understandable but completely different than what I knew. I looked over in the direction to who spoke, my eyes falling on a pair of simple black boots with what looked like bandages going up the legs. I stumbled to my knees, raising my hear up to look at who it was who had pulled me from the edge. A woman stood there, hair like the color of a raven falling straight and unknotted down her body, stopping above the chest and parted by her forehead. She wore what looked like a very short black kimono, her right sleeve nearly hiding her hand while the other sleeve, changed around the shoulder to a dark blue color, didn't even reach the elbow. Her right bicep had a sigil on it, something that looked like a heart, but where it normally connected between the two bumps, instead cut short on the left side. But none of that mattered to me. All I could notice were her eyes. They were a brilliant shade of yellow, gold even, so vibrant and full of thought and self that they seemed to glow with their own light.

I stared, locked in a state of mixed confusion and awe at the person standing in front of me. She narrowed her eyes, frowning. "Are you stupid or something?" she asked in her way of speaking, leaning in towards me. Her eyes locked onto mine, seeming to be so much more than just eyes, seeming to drown me in them until she broke our gaze, looking me up and down. "They didn't drive you into insanity, now, did they? That would be my luck, honestly. First survivor, and they turn out to mentally dead. And a child, at that. That's just cruel."

"I… No, I'm… I'm fine," I said, finally coming back from the shock and confusion of somebody so completely alien, after everyone I knew had been killed.

She clapped her hands once, smiling. "That's wonderful," she said, rubbing them together.

"… What do you want…?"

"Oh! Yes, right. I'm sorry, rather new to the whole… This. I'll… Well, what happened here?"

I bowed my head, the memories of the Keyblade wielders still fresh in my head. "People… People came, holding-"

"Never mind, I already know what happened. I suppose you don't, however. I'll explain. Your world, this world, was attacked by the Consortium. Keyblade Wielders. Guardians of light. Protectors of the worlds. The heirs of the legacy that the Heroes of the Second Keyblade Crisis began. Those sort of people. They travel worlds, searching for darkness, waiting to purge it from existence. With, of course, extreme violence. There's very little conflict anymore, so they have plenty of time on their hand. Those crystals, the 'Tears' or whatever, they're dark. The Consortium decided this world was tainted by them. And thus, they purged it. Wiped it clean. Destroyed any possibility of darkness form escaping. What better way to do that than making sure nobody survives? Of course, they failed this time… thankfully. And no, this is not the first world this has happened to. You're not the first victim. You're not the first survivor. And this won't be the last."

She spoke quickly, as if addressing an audience that already knew what she was saying, and was only a prelude to an event everyone was waiting on. Her eyes drifted as she spoke, hand waving in motions that somewhat went along with what she was saying. A habit, I would suppose.

I turned to look back down at my village, fighting back the tears that demanded to fall. "That's not an answer to what I asked…"

The woman's eyes flickered again for a moment, almost searching for some sort of excuse to make it seem she hadn't heard what I said. Her shoulders slumped however, and I heard her let out a breath. She lowered herself to the ground, sitting cross legged in front of me as I was still kneeling. Her eyes looked up to mine, now conveying sorrow and loss rather than the vibrant feeling of life that she held before. "Yes. I did. 'This is not the first world that this has happened to. You're not the first victim'. You aren't… The Consortium has been around for years. They have done this for years. They won't stop, and nobody seems to want them to. But… it's so bloody wrong. How can't they see that? How can't anyone see that? And all in the name of 'light'. Their precious light. Damn it all."

She let her head fall down, allowing a serene sort of silence to stretch between us. I didn't know who she was. She was older than me, clearly. But she didn't seem to care. Between us, we felt the same thing. Anger. Sadness. Loss.

"But I… But we don't need them," she said, standing up, now with a sort of determined attitude around her. "I'm sorry about what happened here. I really am. And I promise you, it won't go without penance. I know you're young; what, nine? Ten? I don't need to know. But I need you to make a choice right now. And I mean right now. There will be time for you to mourn later, and I'm sorry for that I need to ask it in this manner. I can grant you power. I can grant you a way to someday get revenge. To someday make up for the wrong that has been done to you. But to do that, you need to be mine. You need to listen to me. You need to obey me. And I can assure you, that you will suffer. But never to what can't be endured. And in the end, I will make you more than you are. … Right now, I need you to say yes or no." She, once again, forced her stare on me, golden eyes staring down into my heart without any sort of effort. "I can give you purpose."

I didn't think. I didn't. Should I? It was what I… What I wanted. And it was this, or throwing myself off that ledge in despair. I nodded my head once, swallowing. "Yes".

She looked at me, questioning, but seemed to be satisfied. She held her hand out in front of her, almost making it seem like she wanted me to take it, but it was high up and upside down. From her palm, a flash of black and blue sparked out, bolts of what looked like electricity suddenly sprouting, covering an area from view. Then it faded, leaving something in it's place. I could see it was a weapon. It had a guard around part of the handle, though part of it went farther. The blade was nearly four feet long, of a flowing pattern that couldn't be described; A dragon wing, feathers, water, so much so it seemed more a work of art than anything else. From the tip going inwards were prongs, separating from the blade itself for reasons I couldn't understand. It was the first time I had seen this, yes. But it's shape, it's intent, I already knew.

"That's a Keyblade," I seethed, hatred for the person in front of me taking root in my heart.

She nodded once, raising the blade vertical into the air. "Yes. A Keyblade. But not like the ones you saw. This… This is a Keyblade from the darkness."

"Darkness?" I silently asked, unsure if that somehow made her holding a Keyblade better or worse.

"Those of the Consortium are Keyblade wielders of light," she said, looking at what she held. "I don't hide what I am. My heart is black. I control the shadows, and I am a part of the darkness. What you feel, you feel as it was how you are raised. But the darkness is not what you think. I won't explain it now. Over time, given time, yes." She flipped the large weapon with her one hand, gripping it by the end and holding the handle out to me. "In the light, this is a ceremony. A ritual. But… I see no reason to do that. Take this. Hold it, and set firm in your heart what your desires and dreams are. 'And it's wielder, you shall one day be made.'"

I looked at the horrific thing in front of me, a symbol of what had been done to me. My desire? My desire was to slap it away and start crying and screaming. But that would solve nothing. I would regret this, I thought to myself. I reached up, gripping the handle inside the circular guard, as the woman let go of the weapon. It's weight was far too much for me to suddenly handle, and it fell to the ground, even as I held it. She made a clucking sound of disapproval. I closed my eyes. My dreams. Think about my dreams.

"Oi, boy, what's your name?" she asked, making me look up at her.

"Um… Solus."

"Solus…? Oh dear. That's… telling." She raised her hand, making a quick gesture, and a mass of darkness suddenly condensed a short distance away. It was pure black, nothing to be seen inside or beyond. She moved over to it, and turned to me. She held our her hand again, this time with the palm facing upward. The Keyblade in my hand disappeared in the flash it came in, startling me and making me fall back from it. The woman chuckled silently. "My name is Amare," she said, giving me a soft smile. "Now, let's go." Then…

I took her hand. I went into the darkness.

And everything began.