"Tell me a story, momma," Hauru said, wrapped in her covers. Venra came in carrying a large book, bound in leather and bearing an intricate seal on the cover before setting it down. The nine-year-old Hauru looked at her mother and quirked her head.
"Okay, little one. Which one do you want to hear? The Azure Mage in the Land of Dragons?" Hauru shook her head and pointed at the book her mom brought in.
"That one," said the little girl. Venra met daughter's gaze with a shocked expression.
"Sweetie, that book belonged to your father. It's not really for little kids".
"I'm not a little kid anymore," Hauru said defiantly. "I'm turning ten next week. I'm a big girl". Venra giggled.
"I guess you're right. And you were already bequeathed my keyblade... I suppose you can handle this one without any nightmares".
"Of course I can. I'm gonna be a keyblade master someday, after all. Then I'm gonna find daddy". Venra set the book on her lap and sat beside Hauru's bed.
"Alright. Let's start at the beginning". Venra opened the book to the first page, and decided it was best to paraphrase for little Hauru's benefit. "A thousand years before the Keyblade war shattered the world into what it is now, there was a great leader named Alexander Corvinus. He was kind, and wise, and always tried his best to help those around him. Alexander was special. For he was immortal, and could not die or even age. He went on to have three sons. Marcus, William and Sandor. Only two had their father's gift, Marcus and William. The two were inseparable, as brothers and as best friends". Venra paused for breath and Hauru was clearly enthralled by her tale. "But everything changed for the two one night. Marcus and William decided to return home from a day of adventuring by riding their horses through a mountain path when suddenly..." Venra imitated the howl of a wolf, throwing her head back. It sounded almost too good, too real.
"What happened?" Hauru asked.
"The two brothers were attacked by a massive black wolf. Marcus's horse threw him off in terror and ran away. The wolf pinned Marcus down, poised to eat him up," Venra said, menacingly. Hauru clutched her blanket tight to herself. "But before the wolf could eat his brother, William wrestled the wolf off him. William tossed and tussled with the wolf, getting scratched up and bitten before he threw the wolf off the cliff. But before they could celebrate, William began to change. He was becoming something else, something new. He grew white fur all over his body and became more and more like a wolf with each passing moment. When it was over, beneath the bright full moon, he let out a terrifying howl. His transformation was complete. And irreversible. William Corvinus had become the very first werewolf".
"I thought werewolves were supposed to turn back when the sun came out," said Hauru.
"No, sweetie. Lycans do that. Not werewolves. Now, William was lost at that point to the darkness in his heart. And he went on a vicious rampage. On his way home to tell his father what happened, Marcus was bitten by a bat and became the very first vampire. Alexander gave Marcus a quest. Stop William by any means necessary. So, Marcus enlisted the help of a great general named Viktor, who would give Marcus his army in exchange for being turned into a vampire," Venra took a breath and saw that Hauru was still awake.
"So, William became a Heartless?"
"No, Hauru. Werewolves are bad enough without becoming Heartless. Where was I?"
"Viktor became a vampire, too," answered Hauru.
"Right. So, Viktor turned a warrior named Amelia and the two rallied their army and went after William. It took the three 600 years, but they finally found him. They came upon a village that had been ravaged by the first werewolf and made their way through to find him. The villagers all started changing and Amelia stayed behind to fight off the werewolves. Viktor rode ahead with his personal guard. Marcus followed, but had to deal with the occasional werewolf".
"Did Marcus ever find his brother?"
"When Marcus saw William again, he was already being chained up by Viktor's soldiers. Viktor told Marcus, 'Even you cannot control him. We shall lock him up, far from here. Far from you'. And so it was that William was entombed and put to sleep. To this day, he slumbers, locked up so he can't hurt anyone again. Viktor made two keys to Williams prison. The first was kept... close to his heart. And the other was draped around his daughter's neck. It is there, in some far off castle, that the first werewolf lies in slumber to this very day. The end".
"William must be lonely. Locked up for almost a thousand years," Said Hauru. "What if he wakes up?"
"Hopefully he won't," Venra said, clutching the necklace that her husband gave her.
"Maybe he just needs a friend and he wouldn't be so angry".
"Who can say for sure? But it's time for you to go to bed".
"Okay. Goodnight mommy," Hauru said in a yawn.
"Sweet dreams, Hauru. Don't let the vampires bite..."
Hauru awoke as the sun began to rise over the forest surrounding Beasts Castle. She had clearly dozed off after she managed to gather the monkshood she needed to prepare her special potion. She was never sure why it worked, or how. She once thought it would stop her change completely, but saving her mind from the ravages of her "gift" was about as much as she could hope for. Step two was to get to a moogle to synthesize the potions, which meant a trip back to Twilight Town, but ever since some boy sealed its keyhole, Hollow Bastion had been slowly recovering. Hauru remembered when it was known as Radiant Garden. A distant roar caught her attention. The castle's master, the so-called beast. If there was one thing he hated, it was intruders. Since his lady love, Belle, came back into his life, he has been calmer, gentler, but his wild instinct still raged. Hauru first thought him to be one of William's spawn, but their first meeting erased any possibility of that.
Hauru took no time in running out of the gardens. She had to fight the Beast once, and even in her altered form, she was no match for him. Could it be that the monkshood was also weakening her altered form? She shook such thoughts from her mind. She couldn't risk letting it affect her mind. Otherwise the rage of the wolf would invite darkness into her human heart. It didn't help that she still got flashes of things she did when she turned without her potion. What she did to Ventus still haunted her. If Terra had been just a few seconds slower, she could have killed Ven, or worse, turned him. She still remembered the look on his face when he saw her changing. "Times were better before then," she said aloud to herself. "If Ven hadn't seen me..." Hauru left through the courtyard gates to find a wide enough space to summon her glider and make her way back to Hollow Bastion.
When Hauru arrived, the town felt a lot less dead than it had been months prior, but it was far from ever being as grand as it once was. She, nevertheless, preferred it over Twilight town. Traverse Town was more densely populated and its sky was an eternal night, which made Hauru avoid it on principle. There could be all manner of vampires there and she'd never know. Hauru didn't do well with people or crowds, and Twilight Town had both in spades. She still went there, but never stayed long. Hollow Bastion, as it stood when she arrived, was perfect for her. She wandered through the alley with Starlight clutched tight in hand. Even though the keyhole was sealed, Heartless still found their way here. They weren't nearly the threat they had been, and there was a new security system in place that kept most of them from reaching the more populated areas. But it always missed a few. And Heartless killed by means besides the keyblade tended to reconstitute somewhere else. She learned that the hard way, and an entire world paid the price.
Six neoshadows dragged themselves up from the ground and surrounded Hauru. She grit her teeth and let out a low growl. She didn't ever really understand the Heartless. They are drawn to the hearts of those chosen by the keyblade. But that also put them in reach of the weapon most dangerous to them. To Hauru's amazement, the Neoshadows didn't attack her, but merely scattered and went off in another direction. Had they found easier prey, or a more worthy challenge? She couldn't say. All she knew was that she had the chance to head to the market square and get more of her potion made. She dismissed her keyblade and sighed. Her injuries had healed completely and she was eager for a fight after her humiliating defeat at the hands of the Luna Diviner. As she walked, she began to think. Is this what her life had become? Living from full moon to full moon hunting Nobodies and poisoning herself to keep others safe. To what end? Aqua and Terra might have had a point when she met them in Radiant Garden after they dispatched that gestalt Unversed ten years prior. Maybe she didn't have to go on like that. Maybe there was a better way. But she hadn't found it. Wandering the streets of what once was Radiant Garden, she thought back to the mistake she made. Xehanort, or some version of him, had saved her. But the things he had done since horrified her. And when their paths crossed at Radiant Garden, the wolf began to slip its leash and she cleaved him heart from body with his own keyblade. She thought she had murdered him and went into a self-imposed exile in the Unchained Realm.
When she returned to the realm of light, she had come to learn that she had, in fact, CREATED Xemnas through her act of retribution. Her thoughts were interrupted when she came to the stand run by a moogle. "Welcome back, Hauru, Kupo! Here for the usual?" Hauru merely nodded and gave the moogle the monkshood she's been carrying. "It shouldn't take too long, Kupo". Hauru smiled and went on her way. The Neoshadows were headed for the alley. Maybe that meant one of the Organization members was present. She knew that the Heartless were drawn to the Keyblade. And only one member of the Organization carried it. Organizarion XIII's number thirteen. Roxas, the Key of Destiny. Hauru gave the moogle some munny up front and ran off, following the scent of the Neoshadows and summoning her keyblade, swapping the chain out for Fenrir and leaping from rooftop to rooftop until she came to the alley's entrance. She saw the Neoshadows surrounding a boy in a black at and charged in. Hauru lashed in wide arcs that caught multiple Neohadows in their deadly reach. The boy in the coat was swarmed by soldiers and Neoshadows, fighting back with a wing-shaped blade. It wasn't Roxas. The boy was struggling as he fought, tiring from the battle of attrition. Hauru rushed to him, using wind magic to clear a path.
The battle ended after many blows. Hauru did the most damage by far, and the boy with the wing-blade lowered his hood and fell to his knees, exhausted. "Riku!" Hauru shouted, rushing to the boy's side. She helped him up to his feet, draping his arm over his shoulder.
"Hau…ru…" He said weakly. "How'd you…"
"I followed the Heartless," she said. "I was expecting to find Roxas".
"Sorry to disappoint you", said Riku. Hauru dragged Riku back to town. Whereas Saïx offended her for playing with the trappings of her condition, Roxas made her equally angry, as he wore the face of her old friend Ventus. A memory animated in flesh, or whatever nobodies were made of.
"So, this makes us even, then?" Asked Hauru. Riku nodded. "Score's one to one".
"We have got to stop meeting like this," Said Riku as they neared the market. Hauru set him down on a bench and went over to the moogle stand.
"Your special potion is ready, kupo. We've had no luck making anything that can stop the change, kupo. But we'll keep trying, kupo".
"I appreciate it," Hauru said as she collected her monkshood potions. She wlaked back over to take a seat beside Riku.
"What brought you to Hollow Bastion?"
"It wasn't always called that," said Hauru. The girl let out a long sigh. "It was once known as Radiant Garden. A city of light and hope. Its people were happy and prosperous. It was wonderful, once".
"So, how'd it turn into... well..."
"This?" Asked Hauru. Riku nodded. "Nobody's really sure. I didn't see it happen..." Hauru sighed. Could it have anything to do with what she did here all those years ago? She tried desperately to push such thoughts from her mind, but they returned, as they often did, with a vengeance. It was as if that other side of her, the side she had been suppressing with monkshood, had been trying to show her something. She remembered finding Xehanort in Ansem's lab, but he'd taken Terra's body and was standing over the lifeless husks of the other apprentices and security. She hadn't given Terra-Xehanort the chance to explain, nor would any explanation suffice. Hauru had taken his keyblade, No Name, and cleaved Xehanort heart from body. She didn't remember doing it, but her other side had. But the rage of her wolf side should have been calmed, suppressed, but the darker impulse to end Xehanort where he stood... Nothing could stop her and no part of her tried. Riku noticed Hauru spacing out and laid a hand on her shoulder.
"Hauru?" he asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine. Just... lost in thought, I guess".
"This is where it happened, isn't it?" Riku asked. Hauru's eyes went wide. He remembered. "That 'mistake' you made?" Hauru nodded, and hung her head.
"I couldn't save any of them... all I could do was make him pay for it. I..."
"You don't have to tell me," Riku said. "Not until you're ready". Hauru looked up at him and smiled.
"Do you... ever take that blindfold off?" Haur asked. Riku shook his head.
"It's so my eyes can't lie to me about the darkness I have to use... Is that why you have those potions? The purple ones". Hauru nodded.
"There's this sort of darkness that I've been fighting since I was twelve. The potion helps keep it from devouring my heart. It's... kind of like the darkness is in my blood rather than my heart," Hauru explained. She held up one of the small vials of purple liquid for Riku to look at. "This little potion keeps it there".
"Are you sure that's what it really is?" Riku asked. Hauru nodded.
"It's the only explanation that makes sense. I know what I'm doing. I only need to take it once a month".
"That's good, I suppose".
"Hey, Riku?" Hauru asked. Riku turned to face her. "Do you ever take breaks from this quest of yours?"
"Rarely, but I could use one soon. It's exhausting, sometimes. Maybe I should take some time away from it. You ever heard of a place called Twilight Town?"
"Yep," said Hauru. "I don't always like going there. I'm not a big fan of crowds..." Riku laughed.
"Don't think that's year-round. The Struggle tournament is a few months away, so you should be good. Assuming you take breaks from your... atonement, let's call it".
"I haven't since I got back... from the Unchained Realm. It'd be nice, though". Hauru looked up with a smile. A proper break was probably a good idea. She'd been running herself ragged hunting the Organization's members, and for Saïx to have wiped the floor with her when she was transformed... Maybe she wasn't fighting as well because she was exhausted, and not getting enough sleep, going from world to world and eating only what she needed.
"Then, meet me in Twilight Town in two days. We'll hang out, get some food, maybe see some sights while we're at it".
"That sounds wonderful, Riku," Hauru said with a smile. "It's a date". The second those words left her mouth, she regretted them, but Riku laughed it off. "I'll meet you by the train station". Riku nodded and Hauru left him where he sat so she could leave Hollow Bastion and make it to Twilight Town ahead of him. That was the last place she saw Roxas, and maybe he'd gone back there. Hauru donned her armor and summoned her glider through Fenrir. She got on and soared high above, smiling to herself, a knowing smile that meant she'd finally be getting time to de-stress. She'd denied herself that simple luxury, but maybe it was more essential than she realized.