Chapter 4 – Mine

Hey, sorry that this took as long as it did, and sorry that the last chapter was so short. Anyway, this chapter takes place in the Castle that Never Was, around the time of Kingdom Hearts 3D.

If anyone's wondering why Terra's alive, I think it would be decent to assume that Ansem is his heartless, and Xemnas is his Nobody, therefore, after they were both offed at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, he would be alive.

(Terra's POV)

I was awoken by the sound of high pitched shrieking. The door to the cell was thrown open, and a young girl, who couldn't have been older than ten was thrown in by one of the men in the black coat. She looked at him in horror and shrieked, "Give it back! Give me back mom's star! Give it back… please…"

The man only replied with, "Fine. Take it for all I care," he chucked something small and blue in the little girls direction, and she caught it, sliding it carefully into her pocket, "You're all the proof I need. If your appearance doesn't give away your identity, nothing will."

She shouted, "What did you do to my mother!?"

No reply for a moment, "I assure you, child, your mother has not been harmed, at least not yet."

She seethed angrily at him, "Monster!"

"As are you," he replied, shaking his head and leaving the two of us alone.

As soon as he had vanished from sight, the little girl burst into tears, sobbing her eyes out into her knees. I couldn't blame her, the girl had to be scared, sad, and angry. All that emotion wouldn't hold well in someone so young. I crossed the room from my relatively secluded shadows in the corner of the cell, and gave her a small pat on the head.

She instinctively flinched as I did, jumping up and backing away slowly, calling a lavender keyblade with blue curving around the edges and forming the teeth of the blade. She held it up tremblingly, but with surprisingly impressive form. I wondered idly who trained the child before carefully crossing towards her.

She was small, her wide dark blue eyes, so strikingly like my own, were sparkling with fear and tears. She quietly asked, "Are you… Are you going to hurt me too?"

I called my blade and kept it level with hers, noticing that her eyes grew even wider then, so wide that almost all of the white of them was visible. My own keyblade was double the poor thing's size. I unsummoned it calmly, offering her a smile, which felt weird as I hadn't smiled for a very long time, "It's okay, kid, I'm not going to hurt you," she looked a bit calmer when I said that, "My name is Terra. What's your name?"

She lowered her blade tentatively, still wary of me, "River."

River, huh? What a strange name… I wonder who gave it to her. Oh well, I should try to calm her down first. She seems horrified. I can't imagine what Xehanort and his lackeys put her through.

I came closer to her, and she took a step closer as well, seemingly intrigued by me for some reason. I spoke to her calmly, "So, River, you have a keyblade. You seem to be good at using it too," she nodded shyly, "Who taught you how to use it?"

"My mommy taught me," she said calmly, twisting a strand of her pin straight, slightly spiky crystal blue hair around her finger, "Mommy's good with a keyblade."

A suspicion was starting in the back of my mind about the little girl in front of me, but I shook it off. What were the chances that this little girl was the one who I'd been dreaming of meeting for the past twelve years?

She spoke up again, "Um… Mister Terra?"

I smiled at how formal River was, "Yes? Oh, and there's no need to be so formal. You don't have to call me 'Mister'."

She nodded quietly, "Okay then, Master Terra. Is that okay with you?"

My heart stopped beating for a moment, "Why would you say that?"

"Well, I thought since you were an adult and you had a keyblade that you are one," she shrugged, "Why is it bad that I called you that?"

She seemed much more at ease with me now, so I figured confusing her with my complicated past would be a bad idea, "It's alright. You can call me what you want to call me."

The corners of her lips turned up the slightest bit, but a moment later the image was gone, so it seemed as if I was simply imagining it the whole time, "Anyway, I was wondering, why is your hair that color?"

That was probably the weirdest question I had ever heard. Brown hair was common on people, wasn't it. Maybe she grew up in a family that all had blue hair or something? But the more I denied it, the more my subconscious was pulling me towards the truth about River, "You mean brown? It's a normal hair color," it occurred to me then that maybe she didn't come from a very nice place, "Where did you come from River?"

She frowned, thinking for a moment, "The… the realm… um…"

"The realm of darkness," I suggested curtly.

She nodded a little smile returning to her face, "Right, that's what it was called!"

Reality was hitting me like a ton of bricks at this point. I still couldn't be sure, could I? No, I was convinced then and there, but my brain denounced the existence of the beautiful creature in front of me.

The beautiful creature I had helped to create…

I shook off the feeling that I should be hugging her and crying. I had only a few more questions to ask, "River, do you have a father?"

She looked at me curiously before sitting in front of me and motioning for me to do the same. I slowly joined her and she happily asked, "Before I tell you, can I sit on your lap, the floor is really uncomfortable?"

I nodded, letting her come and sit there. She seemed almost ecstatic that I was being so nice to her, or maybe it was just because she hadn't met someone new in her entire life. She looked up at me happily, her blue eyes sparkling and I couldn't help but smile back at her innocent gaze, "Well, mom said I do have a daddy, but something bad happened to daddy so I can't see him. She said," she paused for a moment like she was putting the pieces together like I was doing, "Mom said that dad had my eyes."

There was a long pause, and she seemed to realize the truth about our relations together during it, "You… you have the same eyes as I do."

My heart was pounding in my chest, and I think she could hear it. I had to look away from her, "So we do."

She hugged my arm gently at that point, and I was positive, she was convinced that I was her father, just like that. I still needed to hear one more thing…

"River, what's your mother's name?"

"Mommy's name is Aqua," she responded softly, "Why do you ask?"

That was the moment my heart shattered to bits, "I-I…"

She hugged me, her face hidden from me, because she was so little, that even when both of us were sitting like this, she wasn't any taller than my chest, "Hi, daddy."

My already broken heart melted with a strange and newfound caring for my daughter, and tears started streaking down my face. I was a horrible father… I'd let her live for ten years in the darkness. Now look at us… Some family reunion I'd given her, trapped in a prison cell. I shook my head, hugging her back, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I should've-"

She whispered softly, "Shh… It's alright. I understand. There's nothing you could've done."

We stayed like that for the longest time, until I felt her drop her blade from her suddenly limp arms, which were still loosely embracing me, "River?"

Silence. She was breathing softly, her eyes were closed. I smiled gently though I was still overcome with emotions I can't even begin to describe. My little girl was here, sleeping, safe. Soon, I'd find her mother, and Ven. I'd keep my promise. We'd be a family again…

…And slowly, I let myself doze off as well.

The End

If anyone's wondering 'Why didn't you do anything with Xemnas?', it's because I have a theory about Xemnas, or well, I think it's the truth. Certainly, Xemnas is influenced by Terra in some of his actions, hence his visitation of Aqua's armor in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix +, however, I don't think that they are one and the same. In fact I definitely don't believe they are one and the same. I have two reasons behind this.

The first reason has to deal with nobodies. Yes, I believe that Xemnas is Terra's Nobody, and Ansem the seeker of darkness(aka heartless Ansem) is his heartless. Being someone's nobody does not make you the exact same person as them. You can look to Sora and Roxas for proof of that. Sora and Roxas do not look or act alike in any way shape or form. Even if you consider Roxas more closely related to Ventus as a character than Sora, there are still major differences between the two's personalities, which can be seen as Roxas being quiet until he opens up and Ven being more forward, a bit like Sora, when it comes to meeting people.

The next reason is relatively simple: Xehanort. There's not much to explain here. If a small part of Xemnas is Terra, than the rest of the picture is Xehanort. If his role as a villain in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 3D don't prove that, I'm not sure what does.

Actually, that's also the reason that I'm not a big supporter of Xemnas x Aqua, only Terra x Aqua, because in my eyes, they really aren't the same person, and I think that Aqua would be smart enough to notice that.

Sorry to rant about my theories(there will probably be a lot more of that in the future…), but I felt like getting that out of the way so I wouldn't have to explain it again.

Wow, it's late here, but I really wanted to get this done tonight. I'm not sure why, I just felt incredibly motivated to finish this story.

I hope you enjoyed this last chapter. If you're ticked at how I left it off like this, sorry, HazardHorse paid me points for a four chapter story. I'm also not currently taking commissions, so I'm afraid that's not an option.

I also hope you enjoyed the story. Leave a review if you'd like to, but please don't flame me.

Thanks

-Pikachu203