'Lo everyone, thanks for your reviews. Chapter VII is here.
"An explanation would be good," Auron's double said.
Auron, luckily, remembered his lines. "The Fates control time, obviously. When you go through that door, ask them to send you back to the proper time to save yourself. Then just do as I did."
"That's how you knew the wall was coming."
"Yes."
"And why is it that the Fates are willing to help? I thought all they were willing to do was grant me an audience."
"Ask them yourself." To tell the truth, Auron didn't know yet.
His past self nodded. "Very well, then." Auron watched him turn and head to the black door, disappearing through it a moment later. After waiting two or three minutes to make sure his past self had been sent back, Auron walked back into Destiny's Grotto.
"Why are you willing to help me?" was the first thing he asked Clotho, Lakesis, and Atropos.
"You play an important part in the elimination of Organization XIII," Lakesis replied. "We do not normally weave threads to require direct interaction with us in order to achieve destiny, but your case is exceptional in more than one respect."
"What would that part be?" Auron asked, hoping for an answer but knowing he would not get one.
"You know what we will, or will not, say to that," Clotho chided him, prodding him with one of her forelegs. "You are already in a uniquely fortuitous position in that we are obligated by our own design to aid you. Do not push too hard."
Atropos made a hissing sound of agreement. "That made clear, warrior, we are prepared to bestow great power upon your thread in order to allow you to complete your role. If you do not make your demands too extravagant, I may reveal some of your future to you – as a sort of parting favor." She clicked her chelicerae together. "After all, we do not expect to see you again."
"I will need the ability to enter and leave the realm of darkness at will," Auron said. "And I am not keen on opening my heart to darkness in order to be able to do so."
With a hissing laugh, Lakesis ran the tip of her foreleg along the thread within the groove of her rod. Auron felt a rushing sensation of power and his spatial awareness expanded by what seemed like exponential degrees. There was so much out there, and he had access to it all… and there was only one place he needed to go.
The World That Never Was.
"The realm of darkness is deeply tied into the timeline," Clotho said, her beady eyes shining with Auron's reflection on their opaque blackness. "You can feel a sense of the way things will go now, yes?"
Auron closed his eye and tilted his head, feeling. "Somewhat. I can tell… I can tell that Sora…" He raised an eyebrow. "I can sense something like echoes of a scream, a confrontation. Sora, and Riku, whom I met in the darkness, and Xemnas – their voices are there. I can't hear what they're saying."
"If you could, as we do, then you would be able to determine the outcome of the battle," Lakesis observed. "But that is not a power you need."
"I think this is all I require," Auron said after a moment of thought. "I have to go, to confront Xemnas. It's a losing battle to be sure, but it's what must be done."
"I told you I would tell you something of your future if you kept your demands from being too extravagant, warrior, and so I will," Atropos interrupted. "It is Xemnas you go to face, but it is another that is your destined opponent. Do not make any mistake there."
Not Xemnas? That meant that Auron might have a chance to survive after all. If he was fighting someone whose future was not as clear as Xemnas's, he might defeat them yet. Still, the memory of his fight with Xigbar was still fresh in his mind, and he knew he would have lost if he hadn't had access to the Fates to send him back in time. A second stunt like that wouldn't work. The other Organization members' powers might differ from Xigbar's, but they were all undoubtedly just as lethal.
If there were two of him again… An idea came to Auron. It was a bizarre idea, stupid and risky, and he almost rejected it out of hand, but he scrutinized it, reconsidered it, and realized that the Moirae were all watching him very intently.
"You expect me to ask for this as well, don't you."
"I expected you to say that," Lakesis hissed. "I never anticipated a question." She ran her foreleg along his thread again. Auron felt no change, but he had a feeling, more than a feeling, knowledge of an absolute truth, that he was ready for what lay ahead.
He started to manifest himself a portal to the realm of darkness, then he stopped and turned back to the Fates. "I almost forgot. Thank you."
"Truly a moment in history," Atropos stridulated. "A cog in the machine thanks the one who makes it turn."
"True, but I should still thank you. After all, if you hadn't arranged for Xigbar to fight me, I never would have thought up the second power you gave me, and my fate would be absolutely sealed instead of merely uncertain."
Lakesis made an unpleasant clicking sound. "Indeed. Now go before we find ourselves regretting this particular course of events."
Auron nodded and focused. He reached into the void of his now-extraspatial awareness, tugged…
The portal opened up in front of him, swirling and oscillating in the dim light. With one last look at the Moirae – the three fat spiders sitting in the middle of the infinite web – he walked in and let the darkness take him.
In the sky, a massive heart-shaped moon glowed with an ephemeral light. The castle hung silhouetted against it, less than a shadow and more than an illusion. Upon its uppermost parapet, the Altar of Naught thrust itself up at the celestial spheres as if in a bold shout of "this is who we are." On the nonexistent altar stood Xemnas, gazing out over the city arrayed below him.
He felt rather than heard the portal open behind him. Footsteps sounded on the whiteness of the altar and Auron emerged, Kotetsu at the ready. The portal closed behind him and he said, "Xemnas. You know why I'm here."
Xemnas made no immediate reply, continuing to gaze out on the dead and nonexistent city below him.
"Answer me! Are you ready to fight?" Auron demanded.
"I see no reason for us to fight, Roxuan," Xemnas replied. "You will help us soon enough."
"Roxuan is not my name," Auron said, his voice low. "Call me that again and I will kill you where you stand, lord of all Nobodies or no."
"Besides," the Nobody continued as though Auron had not spoken, "you did not come here to fight – at least not with me. You came because you have questions, or at least a question: why you?"
Auron nodded. "That's right. I understand the sheer scale of this multiverse now – I can feel the focal nodes of power scattered throughout it, shining like beacons, drawing Heartless and Nobodies. One of them is –" he dropped his gaze – "is right down there, and he is angry."
Slowly, Xemnas's gaze skittered over buildings and boulevards to come to rest on a figure standing on the precipice of oblivion: Sora. He was staring defiantly up at the castle, and before either Auron or Xemnas could say anything further, the weapon flashed and a shimmering path exploded into being, leading up towards the bottom entrance of the Organization's stronghold.
"He is coming," Auron said, "and from what I have seen of him, he is not the sort to exercise discretion. We have until he gets here to settle our own personal issue, or he will meddle and make it impossible to get anywhere."
"So like the Keyblade to choose one of that nature," Xemnas murmured.
"Indeed. Why me, Xemnas? There are many others that the Organization could try to sink its fangs into. I do not endorse it, do not mistake me – what I want to know is why you display such interest in acquiring my Nobody."
"Such potential. Your power could be amazing if only you would allow yourself to unlock it. Instead you remain trapped in that wasteful shell, void of the strength that should be yours." Xemnas turned and strode to within two feet of Auron. "I am interested in you because of that potential. However, I was not the one that discovered you."
Auron narrowed his eye. "Tell me who it was. Was it Xigbar? Was that why he was so interested in me in the Underworld?"
"The Freeshooter had instructions not to kill you," Xemnas said, his lip curling. "He disobeyed them rather spectacularly in his attempt to stop you outside Destiny's Grotto. You also substantially drained him; his strength is barely at half of what it should be. I doubt he will be able to do much to slow Sora down, but he should give us time."
"Then who?" Auron demanded. "If not Xigbar, then who?"
Xemnas gave Auron a cold, unfeeling smile. "I could tell you, but we must all seek our own answers, and it is so much better to show you. Come with me."
He strode past the wary guardian and began to descend the winding path. Cautiously, Auron followed him, not removing the Kotetsu from his shoulder. They left the Altar of Naught behind as they continued to descend, entering a giant open space that seemed to descend all the way down to the basement of the castle. Various platforms were suspended motionless in space, and Xemnas picked out the nearest one and headed for it. He stepped into empty air and a crystalline path materialized beneath his feet.
Auron followed, then jerked and almost lashed out when four Nobodies appeared in a concentric formation around Xemnas. He had never seen this type before: it was little more than a flowing robe, its sleeves folding into one another as though its nonexistent hands were clasped. Around each Nobody floated hard extrusions of space, shaped into iridescent, vaguely red-colored cubes.
"Do not worry," Xemnas said. "They are merely my personal bodyguards. I can dismiss them if you like."
"No need," Auron forced out through clenched teeth. He could not let this get to him. They descended ever further, passing out of the huge chamber, walking down more white pathways, until they emerged into one of the strangest rooms Auron had ever seen.
From where he stood, it sloped sharply downwards in a series of rows that formed a kind of staggered stairs with a straight ramp in the middle. There were name panels embedded in the floor, most of them glowing red.
Auron descended to the first level, looking at the two names, one on the left side of the room and the other on the right. The one on the left glowed blue and showed a picture of a familiar projectile weapon. "Number Two, the Freeshooter," Auron read. He turned and looked at the panel opposite, which was glowing red. "Number Three, the Whirlwind Lancer."
"This is our Proof of Existence," Xemnas said. "It is no more real than anything else in this World That Never Was, but it is the only thing we have. Without these names, these nonexistent realities, we would be less than nothing. They give us meaning, allow us to function in at least some capacity as higher beings."
"I don't see your name panel."
Again came the cold smile. "This entire castle, this entire world, is my proof. I need nothing here." He turned and pointed at a keyhole-shaped portal that rose out of the floor, glowing a light blue. "There in the Addled Impasse is where you will find your answers. I look forward to seeing you again, Roxuan."
Auron felt his anger flare and he pivoted on his heel, swinging around in a lightning-fast blow to cut Xemnas in two, but the Nobody was already gone. The Kotetsu sang through empty air and Auron wrestled it to a halt, frustration pounding in his veins.
Still, he was so close, so very close. He stalked over to the portal and looked down at the name panel in front of it. It glowed blue, emblazoned with what looked like a claymore.
It read: Number Seven, the Luna Diviner.
Auron looked at the portal in front of him, felt something stir beyond its membrane. He took a deep breath and walked through it.
Auron emerged in a small hallway which opened up into a giant room, one side of which was entirely glass or some other transparent material. Through the glass shone a massive heart-shaped moon, and bathing in the light of the moon was a black-robed figure.
Something about the figure made Auron's pulse begin to race. His vision blurred and he blinked to clear it, stepping forward with suddenly-heavy legs. The man turned…
There was nothing recognizable in him. Violent orange eyes stared hatefully out of a pale-skinned face that might have been handsome if it had not been horribly marred by a crude pair of scars slashed across it between the eyes, forming a grisly letter x. The mouth smiled in a demonic grin but there was no emotion behind it; blue hair stood up in shocks on top of the head and fell past the shoulders everywhere else, with pointed, vaguely elfin ears protruding from it. One hand clasped a massive spiked claymore in a reverse grip.
"Auron. I suppose it's good to see you."
His head starting to swim, Auron leveled the Kotetsu at the apparition, the demon man in the moon. "Who…"
"Saïx," the man introduced himself. "Tell me, what was my real name, Auron? What was the name you knew me by?"
Nothing recognizable. And yet at the core of his being, just as he had known back in Destiny's Grotto that he was ready, Auron knew that what he saw before him and what he felt was the truth.
"Braska!" The name burst out of him, almost bending him double with the force of its falling upon the air.
"Was that it?" Saïx asked, slowly advancing. "Braska? Everything is clear to me now that I have the name. Pity that I doubt I could have formed a good name from it; it's just as well that by the time of my birth I'd forgotten it completely."
"How is this possible?" Auron asked. "You know what happened to Jecht, don't you? How could he be with me, in the Underworld, and you – or a part of you – be here?"
"Am I my former self's keeper?" Saïx countered. "I know what happened to him, but of him I remember nothing. It doesn't particularly matter. You are here, and that does."
"You're the one that wants my Nobody."
"Correct. I do not remember Braska the man, but I remember you quite well – quite well, Auron. Even from the earliest moments of my life, if one can call it a life, I felt that beyond existence and a heart, I was missing something. Could it be fraternity? Could I, a heartless and emotionless being, miss a former compatriot and comrade-at-arms, a man whose face I barely remembered?"
"I –"
"I listened to Xemnas's painstaking logic. We do not have hearts, though we remember having them, he said. We must truly exist, he said. We do not have emotions, but we must act as though we do to preserve their memory and our purpose for what we do, he said." His orange eyes flashed. "I played the role. I turned myself into the emotionless clockwork soldier. It was easy, Auron – I have no heart, after all. But this emptiness, this void… I cannot fill it with logic or comforting emotionlessness. That is why Axel escaped us, even when I was given orders to give him the maximum punishment – I let him go because I knew how he felt."
Auron felt himself instinctively backing away. He could feel Saïx's intensity from across the room, the barely restrained raw power, and he wondered if it was possible to win, even with his countermeasures in place.
"He wanted to see again the only man he ever felt any kind of connection with – Roxas, the Keyblade master's Nobody. I imagine Axel felt as though he had a heart when he was with him. This is all we want, Auron; we want to feel as though we are real, as though we have hearts."
"But you seem –"
The word real died on Auron's lips even as Saïx threw it at him. "Real? I am not real. None of this is real. The emptiness and pain I suffer every waking moment: it is the emptiness and pain of a nonbeing, a thing that has no right to existence, and as such it is useless and meaningless. I have no moral basis to try to ease this suffering because I should not be suffering in the first place, because I should not be in the first place." He hefted the claymore and slammed its head against the ground, the impact sending a shockwave through the ground around him. "Not two minutes ago, I sent the Heartless against Sora. I expect that Xigbar will be along shortly to try to slow the Keyblade master down; I doubt he will succeed. Not one minute ago, I received permission from Xemnas to stop the charade. How long I've waited to hear that, I said. How long I've waited to be able to stop pretending to be a husk, to be an emotionless shell of what should be a man!
"I will no longer shut my eyes and keep my voice silent. I will no longer willingly go deaf as the truth screams around me. I will no longer be forcibly insensate when there is a world to be experienced. If I have no heart, then so be it. If I have no emotions, then so be it. What I want has nothing and everything to do with these things. I am going to take back my right to feel, to be empty and alone and to want to fill up my emptiness with fraternity, and I am going to start with you."
Auron tensed as he felt the gathering energy, the attack imminent. He felt the dead air of the Addled Impasse pick up and begin to turn to howling wind as the power of the heart-shaped moon poured into the demon approaching.
"BRASKA!" Auron shouted over the gale. "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS! TRY TO REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE! YOU CAN COME BACK!"
The blow was like the world shattering around his ears. For a long moment Auron felt nothing, and then the pain hit him as he slammed hard into the window. The Kotetsu rang in sharp protest, pressed hard into Auron's torso from blocking the enormously powerful strike he had just been hit with.
"DO NOT CALL ME THAT!" Auron's opponent screamed. "I AM DONE WITH WHO I WAS OR WHAT I SHOULD HAVE BEEN! AGAINST EVERYTHING, I AM, AND WILL BE!
"I!
"AM!
"SAÏX!"