The World That Never Will Be Chapter 9

by the infamous and notorious tocasia

10/29/2018


CHAPTER 9

It shouldn't have been possible with him there.

But something was strengthening the darkness, and that something had a purpose, a questing mind... hungry to have more than a mind. A powerful darkness indeed. Swooping in for the kill. To strangle Aqua, to imprison her heart. How subtly the threads of its will rained down upon her, crawling, spreading, probing into cracks... pricking every scab of shame, cascading memories distorted. Rather artfully done.

"Give up."

Sephiroth narrowed his sight to discern the culprit, the other face behind hers. A deformed image, flowing languid through impurities of tortured glass. An older man, bald, tan skin, aged gray goatee. Yellow eyes teethed on wickedness. In the thrall of darkness, or its master?

"Let it end. There's nothing left."

It didn't matter. Aqua was clutching her head in pain, like he'd made Cloud do.

Sephiroth addressed the intruder, "Release her!"

His order was ignored?

Aqua's mouth moved, but her voice spoke with a different inflection, "The pain, it's too much. Admit it. You deserve to rest."

"Terra, help!"

"Terra can't help you now, girl."

"Mmmph! Let. Me. Go!"

Aqua was struggling hard. Sephiroth had never seen two people duel for control of a heart before. He was curious.

"You failed. It's time to stop fighting."

"No! I won't give up! Not now, not ever! One day, someone will take everything from you, like you took everything from me!"

"Took everything from you? Foolish girl. I gave you everything! Without me, you'd never be a keyblade master! You'd still be weak. But your time in darkness has made you strong. You owe me for that. And you've but one way to pay your debt. Submit!"

"No! Sephiroth, help! Please!"

"You will be one with the darkness!"

Sephiroth had heard enough. "Your words are wasted. She is under the protection of a higher power."

Yellow eyes refocused on him. "So... she is not alone? Who're you?"

"I am your unmaking. I will not allow you to take what you desire."

"Ah... the darkness hangs heavily around you. You are my natural ally..." a slithering suggestion, infused with manipulating magic. Impressive, but futile.

"I've no need of an ally such as you. Only she is worthy. Give her back to me."

Not-Aqua smirked at him.

Something cracked inside, and he was angry, his rage coiling into power, into wrath. Sephiroth lashed out with the will of his ascension, a psychic strike so strong none should survive it. Divine fury sparked within him. Because he decided so, the darkness that sought to bind Master Aqua twined instead around itself. The tendrils belonging to that foreign presence burst aflame and sagged like spent candlewicks; intricate entrapping mesh crumbled to dust. Concentric circles of blue-green fire radiated out from his feet, fusing the rock molten, winds ripping, blowing a vortex into the sky.

He floated over the blasted landscape, a cooling crater, and Aqua went limp in his arms.

The unnamed man laughed. "Temper, temper. It'll take more than that to get rid of me."

The stranger's darkness curled tighter, constricting, colliding with the shielding magic Sephiroth had cast upon Aqua. Scouring it away! Severing protection, melting into it, hissing composition altered, acid eating at chipped pottery, mercy's barrier rendered ineffective; process still incomplete, the shield was to be inverted...

Sephiroth knew then there could be no co-existence.

The darkness was his enemy. Not a plaything. A serious threat, to be eliminated, entirely. The scale of this necessity ignited new passion. Apathy dissolved at last. Drive reborn. Unstoppable, eternal. Rapturous, promised devastation... Not since Nibelheim was he so liberated!

Sephiroth struck again, no restraint, and it was the strangling darkness's turn to shatter. To run and leap and dive from his swift retaliation, in mortal terror no more repressed, coursing prey for his choice pursuance. Cowering screams of retreat, the darkness poured from Aqua and was gone, mid-swing.

He diverted his final attack, checked with precision, and channeled the unused precious power, its infinity regrettably unstable, into healing for his charge. His willing supplicant. His prize... his companion, with whom he would destroy the darkness.


Sephiroth cradled Master Aqua, steady, attentive. He'd never been this relieved to see someone's natural eye color. Soon she had them closed in sleep.

He set her down on safe smooth ground, where the Realm of Darkness had sealed its wound with standard amorphous malice, a viscous substance flowing back into its mold.

"I will witness the end of your journey. Fated success or unavoidable doom, I will remember you, brave Master Aqua. So when the time comes, in me you will live forever."

It occurred to Sephiroth that he was exhausted. Neither he nor Aqua would be able to actively protect themselves from the heartless already massing in the area, attracted to the extraordinary magnitude of darkness unleashed in the conflict. His reassuring words wouldn't be enough.

He summoned for them a defense, shimmering, spherical, extending underneath so nothing could burrow inside. A miniature memory of his power, of its anticipation.

Sephiroth vaguely watched the little shadows approach, rear up to pounce. Senseless, they battered themselves to death against his barrier; their phantasmal immolation spilling drifts of black ichor rather than motes of green life.


What else could he do for her?

He'd have to take a glove off first.

Sephiroth willed that barrier away to allow touch. How long had it been, since he'd let himself feel? He may have forgotten what Masamune's grip was made of; what turning pages of books was like. Heat, and cold, and how the spells he cast felt on his skin, weighty power in his hands... Even longer since gentleness.

He stroked her hair. Pretty blue, as soft as his.

...and caught himself trying to think of poetic things to compare the color to. Stormy seas maybe, or the darkened skies above.

For him an uncommon thought! He should laugh at it!

...but not a wrong one. He could do no wrong. If he decided Aqua was beautiful, she was.

Sephiroth readjusted his wing so she wasn't crushing any feathers, and recalled a song, his Mother's song... his lonely solace...


Aqua awoke, with a crick in her neck and supple leather stuck to her cheek. Weird. Was she leaning on someone...?

Xehanort had tried to...!

a nightmare, an intimate violation...
a bruising touch that would take
...and take and take
and break
until she became his thing, object, shell... empty heart, filled with hate...

like Terra...

"Sshhh," Sephiroth's voice was very close. Oh. He was holding her. "You are alive, will unbroken, your heart is yours, you are with me."

She'd been so tired.

She had to say it, to get the experience out of her head! "Master Xehanort said I could rest. He made it sound so tempting... I forgot. I forgot why I was here, forgot the point of existing. Everything was nothing; I had no reason to go on. I had failed, and I felt nothing, not rage, not sadness. Why should I? No one would come for me, and I had to accept it, and disappear..."

Sephiroth had saved her, banished the darkness, violently, blindingly!

"How did you...?"

There had been light. She could not forget the halos, and the lick of holy fire, wings aflame. Eyes aflame. A mental pressure to crush all to dust, to ignite or collapse the stars. The dream of absolute command; belief in it so strong he could convince reality...

"I told you, didn't I? You are under my protection. The darkness will not take you."

Her lips were chapped; her throat raw. "But..." she remembered his heart, his hope, "I thought you had no light at all..."

"Master Aqua," a fond look, for her? Smiling down, warm eyes aglow... "All the stars are my light."

"Thank you." She'd never meant anything as much in her life. He truly was her hero divine...

"My pleasure."


Groggy and confused, Aqua sat up; Sephiroth didn't stop her.

"So that was Master Xehanort," he said.

"Yes."

"I think I'm going to enjoy the challenge."

Wasn't Sephiroth even a little bit afraid? "I wish I shared your confidence."

"Oh, but you do. Your determination will change the universe. It has already begun."

Such grandiose declarations had become comforting, familiar.

"I will destroy him. Only screams will remain, until I silence his soul forever."

"Good." Aqua surprised herself. Shouldn't she have wrestled more with her response? No, she would not feel guilty! Xehanort deserved it. Like no one else, he deserved to die and worse. Her friends... it was her job to avenge them! Because Terra must be dead now. Otherwise, why would Xehanort want her as his vessel? Unless, Terra had prevailed, and was somehow safe? She had to hope, but it was smarter to assume...

Sephiroth glanced at her knowingly, "You understand what Xehanort intended for you. He did the same to your friend."

"Yes."

"I wonder what his grand plan is, that he desperately wants to cheat death to accomplish?"

"He..." Nope, she couldn't get a word in yet. Sephiroth rambled on, excited by tragedy's potential.

"I did not know hearts could die. What happens to them?"

"Hearts, bodies, minds, wills, souls, spirits... How are they connected?"

"Where do the memories of the Self reside? The ability to use a keyblade? Light, darkness, what else do hearts contain? Is it the same as...? How many steps distant?"

Sephiroth was easy to listen to, but enough was enough! She'd normally be helpful, but Aqua was hurting, and his unceasing tangent abstract curiosity about metaphysical arcana grated on her nerves! "Shut up, Sephiroth."

He tilted his head quizzically, and did, finally realizing he had to give her a chance to answer.

"Master Xehanort wants to restart the legendary Keyblade War to summon Kingdom Hearts for the power to alter the balance of the worlds in favor of darkness, since he denies its evil nature. He'll do anything to achieve this, just to see if he can."

"Keyblade War?"

Aqua sighed.


She told him of a history predating his world. A more complete version of a children's tale he'd ...picked up... from others he'd met. It explained the obsession so many had with Kingdom Hearts, a power immense, to reunite the worlds in a primal state of creation...

A power well-guarded by keyblade masters. Sephiroth was not a fool.

Near to tears, Master Aqua lamented the gaps in her learning. Master Eraqus would have known, she said.

She'd been through quite the ordeal; it was taking its toll. He should stop. It was selfish of him to demand answers at this time.

"You're upset. I'm sorry. I won't ask anymore for now."

"Can you cast your shield again? Please, chase the darkness away..."

"Of course."