-Sephiroth's Viewpoint-

"Don't take me wrong, Vanitas," I said to the spiky-haired boy, smiling. "I have absolutely nothing against going in there, guns blazing, but don't you think there's a smarter way to do it, minimizing the losses?" Cloud looked at me, wide-eyed at my statement.

"Since when do YOU care about minimizing losses, Sephiroth?" He said, half-sarcastic, half-incredulous.

"It doesn't matter," Vanitas said, dismissing us both. "The Unversed are infinite in number, since they come from my own emotions. Our army is quite literally infinite."

"But if you fall, so does the entire army, Vanitas. Are you really willing to risk it all for something we aren't even sure of?"

"I hate to agree with Sephiroth, but he's right on this one," Cloud said. "If you go right in there without any preparation, you're screwed."

"To hell with that!" Vanitas shouted, slamming his hand on the broken HQ table. "Aqua doesn't have much time, they're gonna kill her if we don't move in soon!" Silence fell on us. It wasn't the kind of silence you usually get when people are quiet, but it was dead silence. There was literally no sound at all, not even a ringing in our ears. Something was up.

And I didn't like it.

-Aqua's Viewpoint-

Ventus walked out of Yen-Sid's room, clad in a new suit of armor. It looked nothing like the one he was just wearing before I came looking for him; it was white and golden, with several black streaks along the sides of the torso. It also looked a lot like the armor this guard was wearing. That was odd. He never wore anything that... regal.

"Ven! Help!" I shouted to him. He only gave me a brief surprised look, and then his face turned to a frown. The odd thing was, he was frowning at me, not the redheaded guard.

"Aqua," He said coldly. "You shouldn't have come to my chamber. Now you've gone and upset Kairi, too. Foolish girl."

"...What?" I was completely bewildered. "What do you mean, YOUR chamber? Isn't this Yen-Sid's-" It struck me like a bullet. Something in my mind began to tick. His armor, his attitude, his choice of words, it just wasn't...

It wasn't Ventus. It was NOT Ventus standing in front of me. I don't know how it was possible, but it was definitely Yen-Sid standing there, clad in golden armor and carrying a gilded keyblade.

"Heheheheh... It looks like you've finally snapped out of it Aqua." I looked at his face, and everything suddenly flooded back to me. Yen-Sid was the enemy. This was 80 years after the last time I saw Ventus. Yen-Sid took his body, apparently. I saw the cracks, cuts and scars on his face, and I could hardly even recognize it as Ven anymore. I remembered the impending war. I remembered how the Spades were all killed. I remembered how Vanitas killed the real Terra, how I broke down. And then came the worst memory.

I killed Keres with my own hands.

Just when I made that realization, I was smacked in the side by Kairi's keyblade, knocking me down to the ground. Yen-Sid then walked over to me so that he was standing above my head.

"I was hoping to utilize you in the battle against Castle Oblivion-"

"How could you do this to me?!" I screamed at him, rolled back, and charged at him, but before I could reach him, I was intercepted yet again by Kairi. We locked blades and exchanged blows, her striking at me from the side, me striking her shoulderpads, and we went on like this for a few minutes, until Yen-Sid took a cheap shot at me and struck me with a Blizzaga when my back was to him, knocking me down yet again. I pulled an Ukemi just in time to intercept a double attack from Kairi and Yen-Sid, dodging it just before it struck me. I ducked, and then struck Kairi with an uppercut assisted by the handguard of my keyblade. I took the chance while she was stunned and unleashed a series of slashes on him, breaking chips off his armor here and there, and doing quite a bit of heavy damage on his keyblade. I knocked him into a stagger, but just as I was about to deal a finishing blow, Kairi interfered again. She struck my back, knocking me down once more. Her strike was so powerful that it knocked the air out of my lungs, and when I fell to the floor, I was desperately trying to breathe, and even when I could, I couldn't even move. How could I let myself be so careless?

"Before I finish you, Aqua, I would like to clear things up for you," He said with a smirk. "The Terra that Vanitas killed was, in fact, the real Terra. I would have saved him, but he killed my own favourites, Flora, Fauna and Merryweather. He was expendable. His death was actually rather advantageous to me, because if it weren't for that, you wouldn't have fallen into a state of trauma. That trauma assisted me in killing my most formidable foe, whom I was originally intending to use as a vessel for Riku. You know him as Keres. The Spades are all gone now, and so, after your death, no one will be left to stand in my way."

"Such a shame," Kairi said, sounding almost human for the first time. "We could have utilized you for the greater good. Too bad you had to come here, of all places. Now you have to-" There was a rumbling sound, as though something exploded nearby.

"What was that?!" Yen-Sid said. "Kairi, you go check on it, I'll finish this."

"Yes, my liege," Kairi said and ran off.

"Why?" I said in a sob.

"Why, you ask? It is simple. It is because the Darkness must be eradicated. Evil must be removed. Now prepare to die."

As Yen-Sid brought down his keyblade, I heard a new voice.

"That's just about enough, now."

-Cloud's Viewpoint-

It was a good thing the Blutengels still recognized me as a denizen of Light. That made it all to easy to reach Yen-Sid in time to stop him from killing Aqua. I'll be damned, Vanitas was right. I intercepted Yen-Sid's sword just as it was about to pierce Aqua's chest armor.

"Cloud, what the hell are you doing?!" Yen-Sid exclaimed.

"Stopping a madman from ruining the balance of the world," I answered coldly. Yen-Sid had lost his mind, and I was not about to let a batshit insane control freak control the balance of all things. "Isn't that right, Sephiroth?" At that word, Yen-Sid's face went from shocked to outright terrified.

"Wh-" Before he could even speak, Sephiroth slashed him right away from Aqua. While Sephiroth and he were busy, I helped Aqua up, giving her a piece of Materia so she could regain some of her energy.

"Are you alright, Aqua?" I asked her.

"Who are you?" She looked bewildered.

"No time, Vanitas is at the bridge of this ship, go to him!"

"But-" I cut her off.

"GO!"

She got up, gave me a thankful look, and ran off in the direction of the bridge. I then joined Sephiroth in his fight against Yen-Sid.

TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER XIII - PART 2