Destroyed
~
~Chapter 15: Truth
~
~
"Sometimes what I see in your eyes,
Is never heaven at all.
Sometimes, when all your silence cries,
Down the lies all fall."
~ Original Poetry, by Bhryn Astairre
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The door was here.
The time was now.
As the old saying went, there was no time like the present, and this time was all his for the taking, most assuredly.
Ignoring the strange sea of shadows, he gave himself finally over to the darkness and lit his own soul at the bonfire of vanities, let himself be washed away and consumed by all his hate, his fear and his anguish, just waiting for the small meagre parts of him to fall down with disgust and dsigrace, for now he had become something else, something more. He was..
He was close to being a God.
He understood so much.. and now the door just needed him and the Keyblade Master.. that annoying little boy and his animalistic sidekicks who were simply waiting to have their proverbial stuffing get knocked out of them by him and all his all consuming powers.
This place was darker than Hollow Bastion's depths had been, shadowed with the blood of innocents and pitted with skulls and cracks and dark deeds. Yes, he belonged here, in this dank place. The walls of his confines seemed non existant and about him he could create any world he so desired to make and behold, his own small fantasy of his choosing.
Sephiroth had only dreamed of this day.
He would never understand.. he would never own this power and place.
"Do you hear me, Sephiroth?!" he laughed madly, lifting his hand to the darkness and it swirled like milk in water, a concocted smoke that drew about with sudden raw flashes of colour, painting a landscape.
It was here that the child's body he was using, this place the child would remember best and be more at ease in, more easily susceptible to failure and disgrace and chuckling to himself he watched the skyline become a soft pale blue, lit with hidden highlight of gold. The ends of his vision took on the roiling green and blue of a beautiful sea, the world under his feet becomign soft, pale gold sand that rustled faintly. Behind him it drew up in rich mounds of brow, forming a walkway and the small pathways up to the high treehouse, around to the secret place at the base of the tree where the children had imagined a monster lived.
In there lay the door, to this world.
Still laughing, his insanity deeper than any outsider would care to guess.. but he felt sane, incredibly sane and in control of all his faculties.
Soon, he promised himself, soon they would all know the truth, and he would be...
Victorious.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"I'm ready," he said, looking down at the girl whom he was fighting for.
The keyblade chain his weapon now wore, had changed it into a long, spidery looking weapon with incredible power, the prongs of the keys waiting with malice for the next fight and glistening in the strange light which Traverse Town lived by.
"Are you sure, Sora?"
"Of course, Kairi!"
She however, drew her eyes down from his.
They stood in the secret cave with Leon used for his sword training when he had been here but the kindly magician, Merlin, had shown him the way into the cavern, telling him Kairi had found it much easier to be there and by water. The cave itself was pockmarked with water aging, and the many slash marks of Leon's gunblade. The wals glowed softly, as if in response to Kairi being there, the very power she appeared to exude from her skin and left everyone speechless.
The water pooling close by also seemed to glow with strange intensity, but it was clear. Much clearer than any water Sora had ever seen in his life, and giving he and Kairi some space, his friends Donald and Goofy were sat by the water's edge away from them, skipping stones across the surface.
"I'm afraid, Sora," she confessed softly.
"Why? I saved you, didn't I? Well, Riku did most of the saving but I helped some and now you're alright so you don't have to be afraid any more.."
"I.."
"Please, just smile once for me?"
She looked up with her pretty, heart shaped face and then gave him a dazzling smile which as ever, set his heart to thumping faster than he had thought possible. The hair crowning her head was it's soft plum red, her eyes bright with some unspoken emotion and suddenly he knew she was afraid.. and nothing he would say or do would ever take that fear away from her beautiful eyes.
What was the Princess of Heart so afraid of?
Catching himself before he asked that very question, he let himself blush slightly and tucked his arms behind his head in his old fashion. A memory of the past, a small reminder of who he was and still was underneath the Keyblade and the responsibility it fostered within him. He was still Sora, running down beaches and falling in the water, dreaming shared dreams of building a raft and going away.
"Thanks," he said, gruffly.
Kairi laughed and covered her mouth partially with a hand, looking cute as a button when she did that.
"Hey, well.. promise me you'll come back."
"Alright, I'll come back, when it's all over.. you, me and Riku.. all of us."
"You really promise?"
Sora opened one eye and looked curiously down at Kairi who was digging her shoed toe into the sand and drawing strange patterns.. then nodded, "Yeah, I really promise."
"Well, then.. this is for you."
Something slid into one of his hands, and moving his arms from behind his head, he opened his white gloved hand to get a better look at what it was. Kairi now had her back to him and was staring out over the water, leaving him free to study the strange item.
"A keychain?"
"Yeah, it's mine.. so, you have to come back to give it back to me."
"I.." he closed his hand firmly about the keychain and nodded, "of course. I won't be long then.. be safe for me, alright?"
Kairi said nothing, dipping her head in a brief nod. The light of the cavern illuminated her with a steady, pale green glow, but she never once after turned to look at him. Was she afraid he would die, that this look at him would be her last one?
Afraid of what he was now thinking, Sora gestured to his friends who looked at one another, then also stood up, and trudging through the water to the opening, they all made their way back up to Traverse Town, and their own paths.
Left behind, Kairi sank to her knees and softly began to cry..
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~*~
I feel so lost..
I think I am meant to be here.
I've come so far from whence I began, all those days ago on my own, slipping through the strange backstreets of a city I was used to using to my advantage, my size slender and my movement's barely noticeable. I think it was then that I knew I would never be a strong fighter physically, I was a mage.
Born of the magic, waiting to return to the powers that had formed me from the earth.
My childhood was a strange blur. In one half of my dreams I am laughing and enjoying childhood with Elmyra, going to school and being neither popular nor truly lonely. I had a few close friends and they were always more than willing to spend time in the playground with me, just beyond sector seven. I was happy.
In the other dreams, I am strapped to strange cold tables, I am jabbed and stabbed and punctured by needles and knives, waiting for my blood to drip and leave me and I am always crying in pain. I am subjected to mako poisoning and horrific experiments, and I try to forget those dreams of agony for they torment not only my nights, but sometimes my days.
Growning up, I learnt of what I was despite my outward denials and eventually I laid to rest my worries. Elmyra, my foster mother, grew older and less able to help pay the bills so after I managed to finish school I took up a regular job rather than go onto further education, which would have refined my botany skills as well as my own talent for magic.
I became a flower girl.
My magic was born from the world about me, so I found it easy to manipulate energy and life, bringing about sweet and dear creations of flowers in the ruins of a church. I don't know why they grew much stronger there, perhaps the church was a ruin from a time when the cetra ways were still being practised, and as such the grounds were hallowed and more responsive to my own innate magical powers.
Whatever the reason, it was enough for I managed to help us get by.
One day, from the sky, fell a handsome young man and my life changed. I had purpose now, the pain I had been feeling turned quickly to a sense of belonging and without a doubt I knew this man was going to change my life.
I followed him through Shinra and out into the world.
I felt alone, but more at peace, for the voice of the Planet was less garbled and slowly instilling in me a sense of responsibility and duty. I was the Last Ancient. I had a duty to fulfill, and as time went on it became clearer to me.
I had to protect my friends and family from the fiend and menace that was Sephiroth, a mistake of the Jenova blood.
I went to war.. I lost my life.
I spent a long time floating in the lifestream and thinking about life. I had already prayed for Holy and it's soft blue light tantalised me from where I hung motionless. Distantly I knew that sooner or later I would have to move in order to give my friends access to the great powers I had given my future up for.
Cloud killed Sephiroth.. and unleashed Holy to stop Meteor.
But it wasn't enough.
I took action.
Trapped inside pain and recrimination, I moved to save the lives of Tifa and Cloud, my best friend and my second love, of my friends and family. For the very planet.
I would not let Sephiroth win.
I drew up the energy of the world and threw it with myself against the Meteor, pushing it away and vacillitating the quickened Holy Judgement.. and as it passed over the world with incredible force, I remember the voices about me.
~ Look.. Look at what we have done! We deserve a chance to...
~ I have come so far and learnt so much, I am not ready to give up yet! I have been given a second cha...
~ I still have my daughter to care for.. so many mistakes to corr...
~ The planet chooses what is good or bad.. but we have stood for the planet..
And mine, lifting my dissipating eyes towards the stars swirling about me..
~ I have done it. I have set them all Free.. I found a way.. ~
And now, in a strange twist of fate here I am again, going through the motions I have once walked over and now I know with all surety that I think I know a way to set them all free again. I can do what you asked Tifa.. I can save them.
Forever.
~*~
*Still talking to yourself, Aeris?*
She looked up from the floor of her prison, eyes reddened but nothing more. "It is better than talking to you."
*Ansem has moved, You felt it?*
"Yes."
*Good.. and now, we move too, upwards. Closer to the end.*
"And end," she mused aloud, "end it shall.."
(( heh, I keep writing.. it's getting close to the big finale. Wanted to say another big thank you to anyone reading and reviewing, and anyone reading and not reviewing, well.. why not? Review me, tell me if you like it or hate it, if I should change stuff in my next one? blah blah.. usual.. actually, prefer to get the non hatey ones :) Thanks everyone: Bhryn xxx ))
~
~Chapter 15: Truth
~
~
"Sometimes what I see in your eyes,
Is never heaven at all.
Sometimes, when all your silence cries,
Down the lies all fall."
~ Original Poetry, by Bhryn Astairre
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The door was here.
The time was now.
As the old saying went, there was no time like the present, and this time was all his for the taking, most assuredly.
Ignoring the strange sea of shadows, he gave himself finally over to the darkness and lit his own soul at the bonfire of vanities, let himself be washed away and consumed by all his hate, his fear and his anguish, just waiting for the small meagre parts of him to fall down with disgust and dsigrace, for now he had become something else, something more. He was..
He was close to being a God.
He understood so much.. and now the door just needed him and the Keyblade Master.. that annoying little boy and his animalistic sidekicks who were simply waiting to have their proverbial stuffing get knocked out of them by him and all his all consuming powers.
This place was darker than Hollow Bastion's depths had been, shadowed with the blood of innocents and pitted with skulls and cracks and dark deeds. Yes, he belonged here, in this dank place. The walls of his confines seemed non existant and about him he could create any world he so desired to make and behold, his own small fantasy of his choosing.
Sephiroth had only dreamed of this day.
He would never understand.. he would never own this power and place.
"Do you hear me, Sephiroth?!" he laughed madly, lifting his hand to the darkness and it swirled like milk in water, a concocted smoke that drew about with sudden raw flashes of colour, painting a landscape.
It was here that the child's body he was using, this place the child would remember best and be more at ease in, more easily susceptible to failure and disgrace and chuckling to himself he watched the skyline become a soft pale blue, lit with hidden highlight of gold. The ends of his vision took on the roiling green and blue of a beautiful sea, the world under his feet becomign soft, pale gold sand that rustled faintly. Behind him it drew up in rich mounds of brow, forming a walkway and the small pathways up to the high treehouse, around to the secret place at the base of the tree where the children had imagined a monster lived.
In there lay the door, to this world.
Still laughing, his insanity deeper than any outsider would care to guess.. but he felt sane, incredibly sane and in control of all his faculties.
Soon, he promised himself, soon they would all know the truth, and he would be...
Victorious.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"I'm ready," he said, looking down at the girl whom he was fighting for.
The keyblade chain his weapon now wore, had changed it into a long, spidery looking weapon with incredible power, the prongs of the keys waiting with malice for the next fight and glistening in the strange light which Traverse Town lived by.
"Are you sure, Sora?"
"Of course, Kairi!"
She however, drew her eyes down from his.
They stood in the secret cave with Leon used for his sword training when he had been here but the kindly magician, Merlin, had shown him the way into the cavern, telling him Kairi had found it much easier to be there and by water. The cave itself was pockmarked with water aging, and the many slash marks of Leon's gunblade. The wals glowed softly, as if in response to Kairi being there, the very power she appeared to exude from her skin and left everyone speechless.
The water pooling close by also seemed to glow with strange intensity, but it was clear. Much clearer than any water Sora had ever seen in his life, and giving he and Kairi some space, his friends Donald and Goofy were sat by the water's edge away from them, skipping stones across the surface.
"I'm afraid, Sora," she confessed softly.
"Why? I saved you, didn't I? Well, Riku did most of the saving but I helped some and now you're alright so you don't have to be afraid any more.."
"I.."
"Please, just smile once for me?"
She looked up with her pretty, heart shaped face and then gave him a dazzling smile which as ever, set his heart to thumping faster than he had thought possible. The hair crowning her head was it's soft plum red, her eyes bright with some unspoken emotion and suddenly he knew she was afraid.. and nothing he would say or do would ever take that fear away from her beautiful eyes.
What was the Princess of Heart so afraid of?
Catching himself before he asked that very question, he let himself blush slightly and tucked his arms behind his head in his old fashion. A memory of the past, a small reminder of who he was and still was underneath the Keyblade and the responsibility it fostered within him. He was still Sora, running down beaches and falling in the water, dreaming shared dreams of building a raft and going away.
"Thanks," he said, gruffly.
Kairi laughed and covered her mouth partially with a hand, looking cute as a button when she did that.
"Hey, well.. promise me you'll come back."
"Alright, I'll come back, when it's all over.. you, me and Riku.. all of us."
"You really promise?"
Sora opened one eye and looked curiously down at Kairi who was digging her shoed toe into the sand and drawing strange patterns.. then nodded, "Yeah, I really promise."
"Well, then.. this is for you."
Something slid into one of his hands, and moving his arms from behind his head, he opened his white gloved hand to get a better look at what it was. Kairi now had her back to him and was staring out over the water, leaving him free to study the strange item.
"A keychain?"
"Yeah, it's mine.. so, you have to come back to give it back to me."
"I.." he closed his hand firmly about the keychain and nodded, "of course. I won't be long then.. be safe for me, alright?"
Kairi said nothing, dipping her head in a brief nod. The light of the cavern illuminated her with a steady, pale green glow, but she never once after turned to look at him. Was she afraid he would die, that this look at him would be her last one?
Afraid of what he was now thinking, Sora gestured to his friends who looked at one another, then also stood up, and trudging through the water to the opening, they all made their way back up to Traverse Town, and their own paths.
Left behind, Kairi sank to her knees and softly began to cry..
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
~*~
I feel so lost..
I think I am meant to be here.
I've come so far from whence I began, all those days ago on my own, slipping through the strange backstreets of a city I was used to using to my advantage, my size slender and my movement's barely noticeable. I think it was then that I knew I would never be a strong fighter physically, I was a mage.
Born of the magic, waiting to return to the powers that had formed me from the earth.
My childhood was a strange blur. In one half of my dreams I am laughing and enjoying childhood with Elmyra, going to school and being neither popular nor truly lonely. I had a few close friends and they were always more than willing to spend time in the playground with me, just beyond sector seven. I was happy.
In the other dreams, I am strapped to strange cold tables, I am jabbed and stabbed and punctured by needles and knives, waiting for my blood to drip and leave me and I am always crying in pain. I am subjected to mako poisoning and horrific experiments, and I try to forget those dreams of agony for they torment not only my nights, but sometimes my days.
Growning up, I learnt of what I was despite my outward denials and eventually I laid to rest my worries. Elmyra, my foster mother, grew older and less able to help pay the bills so after I managed to finish school I took up a regular job rather than go onto further education, which would have refined my botany skills as well as my own talent for magic.
I became a flower girl.
My magic was born from the world about me, so I found it easy to manipulate energy and life, bringing about sweet and dear creations of flowers in the ruins of a church. I don't know why they grew much stronger there, perhaps the church was a ruin from a time when the cetra ways were still being practised, and as such the grounds were hallowed and more responsive to my own innate magical powers.
Whatever the reason, it was enough for I managed to help us get by.
One day, from the sky, fell a handsome young man and my life changed. I had purpose now, the pain I had been feeling turned quickly to a sense of belonging and without a doubt I knew this man was going to change my life.
I followed him through Shinra and out into the world.
I felt alone, but more at peace, for the voice of the Planet was less garbled and slowly instilling in me a sense of responsibility and duty. I was the Last Ancient. I had a duty to fulfill, and as time went on it became clearer to me.
I had to protect my friends and family from the fiend and menace that was Sephiroth, a mistake of the Jenova blood.
I went to war.. I lost my life.
I spent a long time floating in the lifestream and thinking about life. I had already prayed for Holy and it's soft blue light tantalised me from where I hung motionless. Distantly I knew that sooner or later I would have to move in order to give my friends access to the great powers I had given my future up for.
Cloud killed Sephiroth.. and unleashed Holy to stop Meteor.
But it wasn't enough.
I took action.
Trapped inside pain and recrimination, I moved to save the lives of Tifa and Cloud, my best friend and my second love, of my friends and family. For the very planet.
I would not let Sephiroth win.
I drew up the energy of the world and threw it with myself against the Meteor, pushing it away and vacillitating the quickened Holy Judgement.. and as it passed over the world with incredible force, I remember the voices about me.
~ Look.. Look at what we have done! We deserve a chance to...
~ I have come so far and learnt so much, I am not ready to give up yet! I have been given a second cha...
~ I still have my daughter to care for.. so many mistakes to corr...
~ The planet chooses what is good or bad.. but we have stood for the planet..
And mine, lifting my dissipating eyes towards the stars swirling about me..
~ I have done it. I have set them all Free.. I found a way.. ~
And now, in a strange twist of fate here I am again, going through the motions I have once walked over and now I know with all surety that I think I know a way to set them all free again. I can do what you asked Tifa.. I can save them.
Forever.
~*~
*Still talking to yourself, Aeris?*
She looked up from the floor of her prison, eyes reddened but nothing more. "It is better than talking to you."
*Ansem has moved, You felt it?*
"Yes."
*Good.. and now, we move too, upwards. Closer to the end.*
"And end," she mused aloud, "end it shall.."
(( heh, I keep writing.. it's getting close to the big finale. Wanted to say another big thank you to anyone reading and reviewing, and anyone reading and not reviewing, well.. why not? Review me, tell me if you like it or hate it, if I should change stuff in my next one? blah blah.. usual.. actually, prefer to get the non hatey ones :) Thanks everyone: Bhryn xxx ))