I rushed into the infirmary's already open door and ran up the stairs as fast as I could. I started calling out for Garnet, Joy, ANYONE, but no one responded. I started getting desperate and running around from room to room, just looking for someone to help me. when I reached the last room on the top floor, I was treated to a sight that would haunt me for the rest of my days. There was blood everywhere. Joy was hanging by the neck from the ceiling with blood dripping from her lifeless mouth, Garnet was impaled on an iron bar sticking out of the floor, her legs barely touching the ground and her arms dangling below her to the sides, and Kazuki was laying on the ground breathing heavily through a bloody mouth, a figure in golden armor standing above him. When I saw that figure's face my heart skipped more than just a beat. It was-
"Terra..." Kazuki choked.
"Good to see you again, Aqua," Terra said to me.
"Aqua... Get the hell ou-" Kazuki was cut off, quite literally. Terra decapitated him with a sickening slash of his keyblade.
"I've come to take you back, Aqua. Back to the Land of Departure so we can start all over."
"Terra..." I sobbed. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking out the darkness, just as Master Eraqus wanted, Aqua. Have you forgotten?"
"You're senselessly killing people!"
"I am earning my retribution for surrendering to the dark. Never again will I succumb to the darkness-"
"YOU WERE BETTER OFF IN THE DARKNESS!" I screamed at him. He grimaced and shed a tear.
"Aqua... Why are you saying this? Has the darkness taken you, Aqua?!"
"Terra, STOP!"
"I can't let you live if you've chosen that path! Why don't you understand? Light is pure and good! Darkness is evil and must DIE!" He shouted, brandishing his keyblade. He looked at me with a depth in his eyes that only could have come from the REAL Terra. But why? Why was he doing this? And how is he still alive?
He charged at me with his keyblade and I dodged his attack narrowly. He turned around and rushed me again, and again I dodged, but I felt a rush of electricity fill my entire body. I dropped to the floor, feeling numb from head to toe. This was Terra, not some clone, and I was forgetting that when it came to combat, he always bested both me AND Ven together.
"Where's your keyblade, Aqua? Have you lost it to the darkness? Or have you lost your mastery over the years?"
"Terra... Please..." I begged him sobbing, crying, gasping for air. His expression didn't change. One thing that confirmed to me that he was in fact Terra was his keyblade. It wasn't golden like his armor, or like the Blutengels, it was his same old keyblade. It only made me feel worse about him being here. Terra was never like this. He was kind. Cold at times, but kind. He was a friend. This Terra was nothing short of a mortal enemy.
"It hurts me to do this, Aqua. It really does. I never wanted to kill you. But I made an oath to Master Yen Sid-"
"I think she's heard enough, Terra," I heard an elderly woman's voice command. I looked in the direction of the voice and there, standing next to where Garnet's corpse hung, where three fairies dressed in gold and white.
"Flora. Fauna. Merryweather. Leave her to me," I heard him growl through gritted teeth. He wasn't too happy about them meddling.
"Your affections are in the way, Terra," Said the skinniest one. "You can't do this."
"I said leave it to me!" He said more loudly now.
"You are weak, Terra. You gave away too much information because she still means something to you," Said the short fat one. "And Master Yen Sid HATES the weak-"
"Shut the hell up already!" Terra shouted, firing a Dark Firaga at the witches. I watched as they burned in dark flames, their fairy dust turning to ash as they screamed in pain. I then looked at Terra incredulously, and he simply stared back at me with an empty look in his eyes.
"I've gone back to the darkness... WHAT HAVE I DONE?!" He screamed.
"Terra..."
"THIS IS YOUR FAULT! AQUA, THIS IS YOUR GODDAMN FAULT!"
"Terra, please-"
"Shut the hell up!"
He prepared to stab me and I held my hands in front of my face with my eyes shut, expecting the keyblade to go right through me. I heard the sound of a blade penetrating skin, but it wasn't mine. I opened my eyes to see what happened and there was Terra, with a shocked look on his face and another keyblade sticking halfway out of his stomach. With a grunt, he fell to the floor in front of me. Behind him stood Vanitas, panting and bloodied, with a keyblade in his hand.
"Aqua... Are you... okay?" He panted.
"Terra... TERRA!" I fell to my knees beside Terra and turned him over to face me.
"Terra, please don't die, PLEASE don't die!" I wailed with a shaky voice.
"Aqua... You know what... they say... about seeing a... bright *cough* light when you die?"
"Don't say that, Terra, you won't die!"
"It's strange... The only light... that I can see... is... your eyes..." Saying that, his head went limp in my arms. Terra, my friend, brother, and first love, was lying dead in my own frail arms. No... This can't be... because it isn't. This isn't actually Terra, right? Must be a Blutengel... Definitely a blutengel...
"Hahaha... AHAHAHAHAHA!" I was laughing like a maniac. For a moment I was under the illusion that I was happy. Terra was still out there, waiting for me. He was at our house in the Land of Departure, waiting for me. I laughed and laughed. I remember vaguely hearing someone ask me if I was alright and ignoring that person because what he said didn't matter.
Because Terra was waiting for me.