On the Edge of Daybreak

by Cori Shadowfang

Four friends, a key, and now a name. Skuld only had the smallest bits and pieces of her previous life, but she'd use them to find out who she was—and try to become someone more than 'Subject X' in the process. (Cross-posted to Ao3.)

11. The Truth

'Skuld returns to Radiant Garden.'

---

Chapter Eleven: The Truth

The day she met Lea and Isa had felt like just every other day. Xehanort had gone through some experiments with her, and she'd been exhausted. Her hands and arms were shaky, and her heart felt swollen, like it would explode inside her chest.

Xehanort had hovered in the doorway when he'd brought her in. After a few moments he'd stepped inside, murmuring, "Would you—"

"No."

Xehanort had reeled back, as if stung.

She had tried to reign in her frustration—her fear and anger and exhaustion—and curled up against the wall. "I'm sorry," she'd said. "I just—I want to be alone right now."

"I—alright. I can—I'll leave, for now." He'd still hesitated half a moment, looking uncertain, and then he'd finally stepped back out of the cell and let the door fall shut.

She breathed a quiet, shaky sigh and leaned against the wall. The metal was cold beneath her skin; that was uncomfortable, sometimes, but now it felt nice, almost. It soothed the heat that leaked off her arms and body and made things feel a little more bearable.

She didn't know how long she'd sat there before quiet voices drifted towards her.

"…think they have monsters down here?"

"Lea—"

"I mean, come on! It's weird, right? They've got to be hiding something."

"Lea, be quiet, or we're going to get caught."

"Pssh, you're no fun."

She tensed, listening carefully. Those weren't voices she recognized. Slowly she stood, wobbling a little, her hands braced against the wall for support. "Who's there?" she asked, and her voice was rough against the back of her throat.

Silence a moment. "…Hey, Isa? Did you say something?"

"No." The other voice was taut, an emotion in it that she couldn't really explain.

She pushed away from the wall and nearly fell. She wobbled, waving her hands a little for balance, stumbling forward until her palms smacked against the door. She peered through the barred window and nearly came face to face with a boy.

The boy gave a yelp of alarm, stumbling away from the door. He had red hair, spiked back, a bandana around his neck, green eyes stretched wide. Another boy stood beside him, blue hair and jacket, watching her with an unreadable expression.

She hardly noticed; her eyes honed in on the bandana. "I know that," she said, almost to herself, one finger sticking through the bars.

"…What?"

"That. Around your neck."

The boy had looked at his bandana with a funny scrunched expression, then turned to give her a baffled look. "Okay?"

"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you scientists?"

The red-haired boy still looked thrown, but the blue-haired boy was shaking his head.

"Are you…helping with the experiments, then?" The words felt like dead weight, and fell through the air, just as heavy.

"Experiments?" the red-haired boy squawked.

"Like the others. Or—I think there might be others. I think I can hear them, sometimes."

Neither boy said anything for several moments. After a beat the red-haired boy laughed, jittery and nervous, and braced a hand against the side of his head. "Oh, man. When I said they were hiding something, I didn't think it'd be this."

"Who are you?" she repeated, tension rising as she slowly started to realize that these were people who weren't supposed to be here. I should tell Xehanort, she thought. He needs to know if people are getting in.

"We're—explorers. Yeah, that's it. Just—just people checking out what's what around the town." The red-haired boy still didn't look like he knew what to do with himself, scrubbing his hands through his hair.

"We're…friends," the blue-haired boy said, quiet, careful.

"Friends…?" she repeated, skeptical.

The red-haired boy grabbed his companion's arm tightly. "Hey, Isa, can I talk to you for a second?" He dragged the boy away—far enough from the cell that she could only make out bits and pieces of what they were saying, and could only spot a glimpse of them if she craned her neck.

"…didn't know…do?"

"…tell someone…"

"…it's…no one will…"

"Our parents might…"

"What are you doing here?" she interrupted, hands wrapped tight around the bars. "Who are you? You still haven't answered me."

Her voice echoed through the hallways, and both boys flinched, then hurried back to her cell. "Hey, hey, it's alright," the red-haired boy said, moving his hands in a placating motion, and she scrunched her nose, baffled. "Names. Right. I'm Lea. This is Isa."

It didn't do much to put her mind at ease. If she yelled, she wondered if someone would come and find them. But then again—well, it wasn't like many people came down to visit her.

"…You going to tell us your name?"

Oh. "The scientists call me Subject X."

"That's not really a name."

She tensed, despite herself. "I know," she bit out, defensive. "But Xehanort says he doesn't want to give me a name until I can remember mine."

She belatedly realized that maybe she shouldn't have said so much from the way the boys' expressions shifted. "Xehanort," Isa said. "One of the Sage King's apprentices."

"My friend," she corrected, eyes narrowing.

Both boys tensed; she guessed they'd gotten the implied threat: Tell me why you're here, or I'll tell him that you were sneaking around. "Look," Lea said quickly, "we don't want any trouble, honest. We just wanted to see what was down here. We kind of snuck in when the guards weren't looking—"

"Lea—"

"—but we weren't going to do anything bad. I promise."

She still wasn't entirely sure she believed him, but she didn't press him on the matter.

"Why are you here?"

"Lea."

"What? Just making conversation."

She weighed the pros and cons of answering and figured it wouldn't hurt to respond; everyone knew why she was here, after all. "To find my memories."

"And the experiments you mentioned were—they were for that."

"Yes." It had surprised her that they didn't know; she'd thought it was common knowledge. None of the scientists seemed surprised by that information.

"Right. That's. Okay." He looked like he wanted to let out another awkward laugh, rubbing his head. "Hey, uh. Sub—you. Person. Girl. Uh. Geez, this is hard without a name."

"You can call me Subject X." It felt a bit like a lie; she didn't like being called Subject X, but it wasn't like she had any other name she could give them.

Lea pursed his lips. "Right. Just—do you think you could forget to mention that we were here? We really aren't going to do anything, we just—you know. Wanted to explore. And we'd probably be in real trouble if anyone found out."

Isa was watching her with an unreadable expression.

She glanced between the two of them, hesitant. She thought Xehanort should know, but—well. They weren't causing too much trouble. And—and she couldn't help but think of the experiments, and the pain, and her own anger, and— "You should leave. If you want to get out before the guards come."

Lea's expression broke into a relieved grin.

Isa nodded, but he seemed to hesitate a moment before turning and leaving with his friend.

She stared after them. It was—a strange experience, talking to people who weren't the scientists. Maybe that's why she called after them: "Wait."

Their footsteps slowed.

Now that she had their attention, she didn't know what to say. The words felt like they died in her throat, and she clawed at them desperately, anxious to make sure she didn't lose them entirely. "What's—out there?" she managed finally, and tried not to feel too foolish. Xehanort had told her some of this, when she asked. He usually wasn't hesitant to talk to her about the outside world. He said it would be a good reminder of what they were working towards; that once they both had their memories back, they could enjoy the world outside together.

"It's nice," Lea said after a few moments. "There are lots of flowers. And people. And—oh, there's this ice cream shop, it sells the best stuff—"

"Lea. The guards."

His voice died. "Right."

Her throat tightened.

The boys hesitated a moment longer. Then, slowly, their footsteps turned and headed back down the hall.

She sank slowly, her tired legs crumpling out from under her. It was—a change in her routine, she supposed. A chance to experience something different. She'd thought that would probably be the end of it.

It wasn't.

---

-Radiant Garden was…bright. Brighter than Skuld had imagined, from inside her cell.

(Maybe she should've known, because Lea and Isa had talk about it before, trying to describe their home in a way that she could picture.

"It's like—look, here."

A book, shoved up against the barred window, brightly colored and illustrating fields of flowers.

"It's like that?"

"Kind of. There are buildings and stuff, but lots of flowers. It's called 'Radiant Garden' for a reason.")

Skuld closed her eyes and breathed deeply. She'd imagined, sometimes, what it would be like to wander the town itself, outside of her cell. In her mind's eye, she'd pictured something a little like what Lea had shown her in the book, except with a couple of stray buildings scattered throughout. On bad days, she'd thought about what it would be like to wander those fields and have fun with Lea and Isa without worrying about experiments or her memories or—anything.

(In her earliest imaginings, Xehanort had been there, too—just as her friend, having chosen to give up on the experiments and let her free. She'd been almost hopeful then; that maybe, maybe, Xehanort would come to his senses and let her go and they could all just be together.

She knew now that it wouldn't happen. She wasn't sure how to feel about it.)

"Hey."

Skuld started out of her thoughts.

Right. Zidane and Jim. They were here with her, too. Jim looked mostly worried; Zidane seemed concerned, too, but there was something knowing underneath that. "You're shaking," he said, quiet.

It took her a moment to realize she was, her arms vibrating by her sides. Starlight was still in her hands; she couldn't really bring herself to dismiss the weapon. "We should start looking," she said, her voice tight.

She stayed where she was.

(She was here. She was finally here, in Radiant Garden, outside of the cell. But she couldn't relax, because Xehanort was here, too, and he'd never been confined to a cell, and even if she'd only ever seen him in the castle he could easily be wandering through the town and what if he came and found her and shecouldn'tdothis—)

"Hey. Hey, hey, hey, breathe. Breathe."

Skuld flashed wild eyes to Zidane and forced herself not to stumble backwards. She took one shaky inhale, breath stuttering as she tried to hold it, then let it slip out slowly between her teeth. She scrunched her eyes shut tight and tried to just—breathe.

(Another inhale. Exhale. The smell of flowers in her nose. The rush of a breeze against her cheeks. The steadying breaths of her friends beside her.)

"I'm okay," she whispered, even if she wasn't really sure that was true. "I'm okay."

"…Right."

"We need to—we need to find Lea and Isa."

"You know," Zidane continued, looking a little conflicted, "it looks like Radiant Garden's okay right now. Nothing weird seems to be happening." His voice turned gentle. "We can go back."

"But I haven't found Lea and Isa." Her voice came out more desperate than she thought it would, high-pitched and shaky.

"You need to see them to make sure," Jim murmured, quiet.

She nodded, tight.

"And that guy, from the islands. The one who knows about your past."

She nodded again, but there was something bitter and twisted and fearful winding in her chest. (Because she wanted her friends back. She wanted to know who she was, and she wanted to know that she was stronger than Subject X. But being back here, she kept thinking about Xehanort, and his insistence that they needed to find their memories because it would be the only way it would make things right.)

(The only way they could be friends.)

Skuld took another breath and forced her legs to move, rigid and awkward, through the streets. Wordlessly, the others followed.

It felt a little like someone else was puppeting her body. Her legs moved almost of their own will, stilted, her arms stiff by her side. There was a part of her that wanted to stop and look at the buildings and the gardens and the fountains (because it was new but it was familiar, and it reminded her of home), but she felt like she couldn't stop, her heart fluttering and skipping behind her ribcage, a jittery, nervous energy keeping her eyes darting about. (Because she didn't know where Xehanort was. She didn't know what he'd said after she disappeared. She didn't know if anyone else knew her or would report her and—

And it felt so much like back when she first got out that she wanted to scream.)

It took her maybe too long to realize that she was practically hugging the buildings, slipping through the shadows, trying to avoid the main streets and ducking away from people. When she did notice, something angry bubbled in her chest. You're a Keyblade wielder. If Xehanort appears, you can fight him now. You're not Subject X anymore, and you're not going to find anything by hiding.

"Do you have any idea where your friends would be?" Jim asked, voice hushed, and Skuld wondered if her own unease had spread to the others.

"I don't—I don't, really. They—" She paused, thinking back. Her memories of her time in the cell weren't quite as fragmented, but she'd still only gotten bits and pieces of Lea and Isa's home lives. "There was—they said they went to school. It's a big building with lots of gardens around it."

"Well," Zidane commented, sounding vaguely amused, "that describes just about every building we've come across."

Jim elbowed him.

"It had—lots of windows, I think. Lea described it as bright. They had to go during the day. It's where they got all their books from." She laughed, despite herself, and the sound came out a little shaky and broken. "Lea hated it. I think he would've given his books to me if—"

("I can't leave the books in here with you. The others would start to wonder what was going on. But I promise that I'll bring more to read. If nothing else, perhaps it will jog some memories."

"What if you get in trouble?"

"I can say it's an experiment." The ghost of a smile. "They don't have to know.")

"Anyway, it's—they might be there." Starlight shook in her hands. "Or—or they could be at their houses, but I don't know where those are. Lea said they looked boring. Isa tried describing them, a little. His had—it had ivy, growing on the side. It's—it's a climbing plant." A part of her knew that Zidane and Jim would already know what ivy was and what it looked like, but—well. She thought she needed this more for herself than anything. "He said Lea's mom had a lot of flowerboxes outside of theirs."

"…Okay," Zidane said. "Okay. So, we'll go looking for the school, and while we're at it we can see if any houses match those descriptions. Sound good?"

Skuld nodded, and tried to ignore how frustrated she felt that she couldn't manage this herself.

Zidane, as if sensing her thoughts, gave her a tiny smile. "It's okay. We're here to help, you know?"

She nodded again, not quite looking at him, and stepped back to let him take the lead.

They stepped out into the main streets, and Skuld's shoulders hunched near her ears. She couldn't help feeling like everyone was staring at her; their attention felt sticky, gazes gluing to her or her Keyblade, even as she tried to tear free. Her focus kept snapping to fragments of conversations, grasping at them, turning them over as if she could find out if anyone had noticed her.

"…helping with my garden this weekend…"

"…heard he left town…"

"Noticed some weird thing by the castle…"

Skuld took a deep breath and resisted the urge to clamp her hands over her ears.

Jim stepped up beside her and helped to block her from view.

Skuld gave him a grateful look. She didn't quite relax, but it was—it made things easier. She took a breath and closed her eyes, trying to steady herself. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay.

---

-(But the truth was this: being in Radiant Garden brought back memories, whether she wanted it to or not. It seemed inevitable, almost; memories had been what she and Xehanort had been searching for, ever since she had arrived here. She'd been grasping at them like straws for so long, carefully trying to collect as many fragments as she could to piece together some facsimile of a person. Now, it felt less like the rare, unsteady drip of water and more like a flood, memories threatening to sweep her away if she let them. Some of them were unpleasant.

Some of them weren't.

It felt as easy as breathing to slip back in time, to some indistinct memory months ago, when Lea and Isa had first come back.

She'd first noticed them by the noise: a faint shuffling sound, footsteps against the floor, cloth against metal. She sat up straighter, back tense against the wall.

After a few moments, there was a quiet knock on her door. "Hey," someone whispered. "Are you still in there?"

Her (Skuld, she had a name, that was her name—) Skuld's eyebrows furrowed. She pushed herself to her feet—slowly, carefully, still worn from the last experiments—and turned to look out the barred window.

Two people stood there, one grinning up at her, the other watching with a somewhat guarded expression.

"You're—Lea and Isa."

"You got it memorized, huh?"

Isa rolled his eyes, but his expression softened a little.

"Why are you back?"

"Because you seemed interesting to talk to! Besides, it's got to get boring, being alone in this cell, right?"

"I'm not—I'm not alone. Not always. Xehanort comes to visit me."

"But he's not here now, right?"

No, he wasn't, but Skuld still felt herself bristling almost defensively.

"You were asking about outside," Isa interrupted. "We thought we could tell you things. If you wanted."

Skuld started. "You—you snuck in just for that?"

The two of them exchanged glances. "Well," Lea admitted, rubbing the back of his head. "Actually, we snuck in because we were worried about you."

She felt…strangely thrown by that statement. "Worried?"

"Lea," Isa hissed, quiet.

"I know, I know, but—look, it's not going to hurt to let her know, right?"

Isa lowered his voice—low enough that Skuld almost couldn't make out what he was saying. Almost. "We have to be careful."

"I got that, but you know you're worried, too."

"Why are you—don't worry about me." Her fingers flexed a little, like they wanted to do something but didn't know what.

"Why are we—you're in a cell."

"It's—we're trying to find my memories." The words tasted like ash in her mouth.

"Yeah, but you can't tell me you're in there because you want to be."

Lea sounded a little angry, and Skuld felt herself growing slightly defensive. "It's just—easier to keep track of everything." Of me, some part of her whispered, but she tried not to think about it. It was safer. Less problems she could run into.

Lea looked like he was going to say something, but Isa put his hand on his shoulder, and he stopped.

Skuld glanced at him.

He looked troubled, she thought. His expression was more open than Xehanort's usually was. "You said you don't have any memories. Does that mean you don't remember anything outside this cell?"

Lea's breath hissed out between his teeth.

No, she thought, but it felt too personal to admit to, so she didn't. "You shouldn't have come," she said, brittle. "You're just going to get in trouble." She moved away from the door.

"Wait!" Something appeared in the gaps between the bars.

Skuld moved to catch it on reflex. A book landed in her hands, and she stared at it for several heartbeats, eyebrows furrowed.

"That's for you," Lea said, hopping up so he could peer through the bars.

"Why?"

"Because you wanted to know more about the outside world, right?" He looked almost sheepish. "Sorry about—you know. We don't have to talk about any of that. We can just talk about—I don't know, school?" He made a face. "Anything you want."

Skuld…didn't know what to make of that. She felt thrown, trying to figure out what the angle was and find her footing. "Why would…?"

Voices, from down the hall.

"Uh-oh," Lea hissed, tensing.

Skuld tensed, too, her shoulders going stiff, her arms clutching the book reflexively.

"We need to get going," Isa said, voice quiet.

"But—wait." Skuld started towards the door. "Your book—I don't—"

"Keep it." She thought she could almost hear a smile in Isa's voice. "We'll be back for it later."

She didn't know what she was supposed to say. She didn't know what she was supposed to do. So she just stood there, and stared at the door, until the boys had called hasty goodbyes and left. And then it was just her, alone in the cell, the book in her hands. She pulled it away from her, staring at the cover.

She was—okay at reading, she thought. She'd made a lot of progress on remembering, with Xehanort's guidance. And if she had the book—it'd be a waste not to look at it, right? After a moment's hesitation, she retreated to her cot and opened the book.

"Where did you get this?"

Skuld started. She lifted her head, and realized that Xehanort was holding Lea and Isa's book in his hands, a confused expression on his face. It took a moment for her to realize the memory had shifted, sliding into one somewhere in the future.

"I—" She should—she should tell him, she thought. If people were sneaking into the castle, then he really ought to know.

He turned to her, and something in her shied away.

"You left it here."

She hadn't even entirely meant to tell the lie; it came out mostly in a panic, something in her almost frightened of what Xehanort would do if he found out about the boys.

Xehanort gave the book a long look, frown pensive.

Skuld held her breath.

"I suppose I should be more careful."

She tried to keep her relief from being too obvious, but her shoulders still sank with the silent exhale.

"I can bring you more reading materials, if you want."

"Really?"

"Of course. It might help with your memory retrieval."

"Oh." She tried so hard to keep her voice neutral, but it still came out sounding disappointed.

Xehanort turned towards her, and his expression turned gentle. "You know how important it is to get your memories back."

"I know."

"I'm doing this for both of us. Once we have our memories—everything will be alright again."

Again?

Xehanort sighed and stowed the book away. "Are you ready?"

No, she thought, but she knew if she said that, Xehanort would drag her out, anyways. Better to just go by her own free will. She stood and forced her back to straighten, her fists clenched by her side. "When do we start?"

Xehanort gave her a tiny smile, and she thought that maybe that meant she was doing something right.)

---

-It wasn't that she hadn't known it would happen, really. She'd known she'd have to see the castle eventually. It was just—she hadn't wanted to. She didn't quite know what she'd imagined the castle to be; it had always been indistinct in her mind, some sort of blur of darkness and shadow, ever-shifting as it loomed, almost terrifying, over the town it was housed in.

The reality was…different. The castle was as brightly-colored as the town (as a town coated in daylight), warm and…not quite inviting, exactly, but it gave off a sense of protection. Like it would keep out anything that tried to threaten it. Skuld's eyes flicked across the gears, the spires, and felt strangely homesick.

She hated it. Staring at the castle made her feel like she was going to throw up, made her eyes burn, made everything in her lock in place—

Xehanort was probably in there.

"In where?"

It took her a moment to realize she'd spoken aloud. She tore her attention away from the castle to where Jim and Zidane were waiting for her. She thought she should answer, probably. She didn't know how.

Someone else answered for her: "The Sage King's apprentice?"

Skuld went rigid. The voice had come from behind her, but she couldn't turn to look.

Zidane glanced around her with furrowed eyebrows.

"I'm sorry," the person said, "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. But you said Xehanort, right? The apprentice?"

How many Xehanorts do you know? she wanted to snap, but her mouth was glued shut.

"That's right," Zidane said, taking over for her. "We're new in town and have heard quite a bit about him. We were just wondering if he was in the castle?"

The person behind Skuld laughed. "Oh, probably. A real serious study, that one. He's come out to town a couple times—didn't talk to people, too much, and if he did, it was usually with people who also didn't do much talking. Think he was a little shy."

Skuld wanted to laugh, because she could turn around and tell this person about the cell and the experiments and how talkative he'd been then. (And there was something in that thought that felt strangely wrong; like she should've been the one filling the silence and not him.)

"Ah, but you probably won't be able to see him, if that's who you're looking for. The castle's been locked up tight for a while now."

Skuld's breath came a little faster, and she tried to steady it.

Jim gave her a concerned look.

"Why's that?" Zidane asked, and if Skuld hadn't been listening so closely, she would've missed the wariness in his words.

"No one's real sure. The guards were asking about a missing person at some point—a ward that had disappeared from the castle, apparently. Poor dear was apparently prone to wandering off and they worried she'd gotten herself hurt or worse."

Now Jim was staring at her openly, and Skuld didn't know if she wanted to scream at him or the woman or—

"I need to go."

She could practically feel the woman's surprise, but she didn't wait to see a reaction; she forced her stiff legs to move, fists clenched so tightly that her nails bit into her palms. She pointedly didn't look at the castle, sliding around a building so that she could keep it out of sight.

And then she slumped against a wall, pressing her balled fists to her mouth and trying to stop herself from shaking.

Hurried footsteps sounded a moment later, a sharp thump-thump against the cobblestones. Skuld forced herself not to react—she could guess who had come after her, after all. "That's what he said about me," she whispered, and fury vibrated in her voice. "That I was just—" She broke off with an angry click of her teeth. "He should know better."

She didn't know entirely what she meant by that, but it felt right.

She lifted her head and saw the blurred form of Jim staring back at her. She scrubbed the tears from her eyes and asked, "Where's Zidane?"

"Just talking to that lady to get a little more information. He wants to make sure that—you know."

Skuld nodded, still too high-strung to really respond otherwise.

After a few moments Jim leaned against the wall beside her. "Yeah," he murmured, "Xehanort sounds like kind of a dick."

Skuld laughed, despite herself. It felt jittery and uncomfortable and she couldn't stop, and she didn't think it was that funny, really, but—it felt good. Just to have someone else say it. "You aren't the first person to tell me that."

"Your friends, right?"

Skuld hummed an acknowledgement.

(It was an old argument they'd had. Not at first—not when Lea and Isa had first started visiting her. She'd had suspicions, of course—neither Lea nor Isa had seemed particularly fond of Xehanort, and there were little barbs and snide comments here and there that were quickly hushed or brushed aside when she asked. There was something in her that was hurt and angry and tense at that, because Xehanort was her friend, and she thought that maybe Lea and Isa were friends, too, but how were they supposed to be friends if they hated each other?

When they'd had their first real argument about it, it had seemed like just a normal day. Xehanort had run another test, and Skuld's mind felt foggy, her heart thumping too hard against her chest, exhaustion dragging down her limbs. She hadn't entirely felt up to interaction, but she couldn't miss the chance to talk to Lea and Isa, no matter how tired she was.

When the boys had knocked on her door, she'd tried to stand and nearly fallen. Her fingers had scraped painfully against the metal, and she'd hissed as she tried to drag herself up.

Lea's hands had shot through the bars, grasping at her arms on reflex. "Woah, easy."

Skuld had jerked away, falling backwards with a surprised cry. Her back and legs hurt from where she landed, but she was too conscious of the burning sensation where Lea's hands had touched. She gripped her arms, checking them over frantically, and—

There was nothing. She wasn't hurt.

Lea was watching through the bars of her cell, looking stricken.

Skuld stared up at him and wasn't sure she had the energy to stand again. "I'm sorry. I don't think I can—I'm sorry."

"It's—it's okay." For a moment, the image had become fuzzy, and—she'd seen someone else, she thought. A face that was right on the edge of her memories, if she could just pull it up.

"What happened?" Isa asked, voice muffled by the door.

"She fell."

Isa scrambled to press his face beside Lea's.

"I'm just tired," she said. "And Lea startled me." Quieter, she added, "There were experiments today."

"…There were."

"We might be making progress," she said, and she tried to sound hopeful, she did, but it just—didn't come out right. "I can see—fragments of things, sometimes."

She didn't mention that sometimes those fragments felt like they were taking over the waking world, or that Xehanort's face kept blurring with someone else's that she couldn't place, or how terrified she was every time Xehanort came to find her.

"You're shaking."

She was, she realized, and she took a deep breath. "I'm fine. I'm just—the tests make me tired."

"Hey."

There was an angry sort of note in Isa's voice—controlled, mostly, but still there, and it made her glance up sharply.

"Isa," Lea hissed, quiet. A warning.

Isa didn't look at him. "You keep saying he's your friend," he said, "but he keeps you in a cage. He keeps running experiments on you. He's hurting you, and—this isn't what friends do."

Underneath the exhaustion rose something almost angry. "He's just doing it because it's what we have to do," she said. "There's no other way to get our memories back."

"What you have to—is that what he told you?"

"He's my friend," she said, more forceful, dragging herself into a siting position. "He's the only one who's been here since the beginning. He's the only one who understands this."

"He's just using you for—"

"Isa. Hey."

It was a rare moment when Lea was the one who was calm and Isa was the one who wasn't. But now Lea was resting a hand on Isa's arm, and Isa—still simmering—gave him a long look and then dropped from the door.

Skuld's hands balled into fists. "I think you should leave."

"…Okay."

It'd still taken half a second, filled with quiet arguing, for them to leave the castle.

It wasn't the last time they had the conversation. Both Lea and Isa were more careful about it, but their anger had shown through, every time they'd seen her hurt and exhausted.)

"Are you doing okay?"

Skuld blinked back to the present, giving Jim a tired sideways glance. "Not really," she admitted, "but better now that I can't see the castle, I think."

Jim nodded.

"Hey!"

Skuld stiffened, then relaxed a moment later as she recognized the voice.

Zidane rounded the corner and nearly skidded past them. "Geez. You guys hiding on me?"

Skuld gave him a tiny smile. "Maybe."

"What'd you find out?" Jim asked.

Zidane hesitated. "Well," he said after a moment, "the good news is, Xehanort's probably in the castle. So, you know. We shouldn't have to worry about that."

"And the bad?" Skuld asked, her fingers scraping against the side of the building.

"The bad," Zidane said, "is that maybe things aren't quite as normal here as they looked like."

Skuld straightened. "What do you mean?"

"You know how that lady said the castle's been on lockdown? She really meant it. Apparently, no one's seen any of the apprentices or this Sage King guy in about a month."

Skuld and Jim exchanged uncertain glances. "They could just be…busy," Skuld said, even if she didn't entirely believe it.

"But it's weird, after what that eyepatch guy said."

They fell silent for several moments. "I don't think I can go to the castle," Skuld whispered. "I just—"

"Yeah," Zidane said. "Don't worry about it. Besides, you've still got to find your friends, right?" He gave her a tight smile. "I can go in and check things out. Make sure nothing crazy is going on. Maybe they all just decided to be hermits."

Skuld couldn't entirely smile. "Will you be okay?"

"Yeah. Not the first time I've snuck into a castle, right?" He gave them a thumb's up. "I'll catch up with you guys, okay?"

"Okay," Skuld whispered as Jim gave a tiny nod.

Zidane jumped, scrambling up the side of a building and vaulting across the rooftops.

Skuld watched him and tried to tamp down on her unease.

"You ready to get going?" Jim asked.

Skuld took a steadying breath. "Yeah," she said. "The sooner we find them, the better."

---

-(The truth was this: Skuld's earliest memories were all from here. She had no idea who she was beyond Subject X—the girl who'd been trapped in a cell. She'd had every single thing stripped from her—her belongings, her memories, her name, her home and her friends—and left behind was the perfect clean slate to experiment on. It meant that all of her experiences were filtered through her interactions with Xehanort and the scientists—up until Lea and Isa came along. And then things changed—slowly, slowly, but enough to draw attention.

Because Lea and Isa came back. And then they came back again. And then again. And Skuld started to realize that maybe they would keep coming back, and that she might've added two new (her first?) friends to her life.

They expanded her world, bit by bit. They talked to her about their lives. They showed her things from their books. They told her stories. And—

"Not a good talking day?"

"Don't worry, Lea can talk enough for all three of us."

"Hey!"

And—

"I brought an icepack. I don't know if it'll help, but—you know."

"We tried to sneak some pain medicine out, but our parents caught us."

And—

"Do you want to talk about it? It's fine if you don't want to. But—you know. We can listen, if you want."

"I want—I want to see the world outside."

Lea fell silent. Isa hadn't said much today, but she could hear him shift.

She leaned her head back against the door of her cell. "I want to check out some of the—the restaurants you've told me about," she said. "And I want to know what flowers smell like. And I want to see the buildings and the sunlight and—!" Her eyes burned. "I don't want to be in a cell anymore."

Saying the words felt like opening a dam, and suddenly she was crying, hiccupping quietly and pressing her hands to her mouth to try and stop.

"We'll find a way to get you out," Lea promised, something steeling in his voice.

She hadn't believed him, really. Getting out had seemed impossible. But. It was a nice thought.)

---

-Knowing that Xehanort was likely in the castle made things a little easier, but it still didn't help entirely. She'd convinced herself to release Starlight, finally, in the hopes that she'd avoid drawing attention—but she still found herself listening in to conversations as they searched, trying to see if anyone was watching them.

"Another one? I thought that that had stopped."

"Yes, well, it was the strangest thing. He was just going to go for a walk—and then someone said he stepped into the shadows and was gone! Nothing left of him."

Skuld stopped abruptly.

("Did you hear that people have gone missing around town?"

Xehanort stopped fiddling with the machine to give her a long look. Skuld didn't mind; it meant that it would take longer for the experiments to actually start. "Where did you hear about that?"

Lea and Isa had told her, in hushed whispers: "One of the kids from school disappeared the other day. Said he was going to check out some ghost in one of the gardens near the castle or something. He didn't come back."

Isa had been silent, and Lea had continued with a nervous sort of joke: "I bet that if our classmates knew what we were doing, they'd think we weren't coming back. But I guess we're just too good to get caught."

She didn't want to admit to them how scared she was that he was wrong.

She blinked and forced herself back to the conversation. "One of the scientists said something."

Xehanort narrowed his eyes, and Skuld's heart stuttered, because what if she'd given them away, what if they were going to get hurt—

And then he looked away, back at the machine. "Rumors and nothing more," he said. "Don't let them distract you.")

"Skuld?"

She forced herself to start walking again. "It's nothing." I hope it's nothing.

---

-(The truth was this: knowing that something was wrong hadn't made her stop caring about Xehanort. He was the only one she'd had for so long, and she just—couldn't give up on that entirely.

"You aren't making progress," Xehanort said, sounding critical. He bandaged her arm, and she tried not to hiss at the pressure.

"I know," she whispered.

"We might need to push the boundaries of the experiments."

Her shoulders locked. "No." The word was out before she really had the chance to think about it.

Xehanort frowned. "There's no other way."

She wanted to argue, but her mind had gone fuzzy with fear, and all she could manage to whisper was, "It hurts."

"I know." His voice went gentle. "I don't want to do it," he said, and Skuld could almost believe him. She wanted to believe him. "It's just the only way."

Why? an angry part of her wanted to ask. Why does it have to be me? Why can't you be a part of these experiments, too?

…Is regaining your memories really worth all this?

But that thought felt fragile, because—because what was she supposed to do, if this was all for nothing? If they didn't get their memories back, then what were all of these experiments for? Why had she spent so long inside a cage? And if she didn't get her memories back, then—who exactly was she supposed to be?

Xehanort stood, turning to leave, and Skuld wasn't sure if she was relieved or panicked. "I'll be back later," he said. "Tomorrow, we'll begin again."

"Wait!" She scrambled to stand, hand half-outstretched towards him. It stopped halfway, hovering like a broken bridge between them.

Xehanort's footsteps faltered, and he turned to give her a curious look.

"When this is all over," she said, feeling slightly desperate, "can we have a fresh start?"

"A fresh…start?"

"Start over. I don't want—I don't want to remember this. I just want to be friends. For real."

"We're already friends."

She thought of Lea and Isa, and she wasn't so sure.

"As for forgetting—I know it's easier, but it's not always for the best." There was something angry in his voice, now, and Skuld was flooded with a sense of guilt she didn't entirely understand. "No one has the right to simply take memories from another person."

"That's not what I—"

"I'll see you in the morning." Xehanort turned, but paused for half a moment in the entryway. "Once we get our memories back," he whispered, "things will go back to normal. I promise."

It was something he'd repeated, over and over and over again. Skuld wasn't sure she believed it, anymore.)

---

-"Skuld. Hey, come on, slow down."

Skuld kept moving, fists balled at her side, eyes flicking across the buildings because they had to be here, she just needed to—

"They aren't going to just disappear, you know."

(There was something in the back of her mind screaming a warning. Something that said that Xehanort was supposed to be in the castle, but what if he heard about her and came out, what if he found out about Lea and Isa and they were in the castle now, being experimented on—)

The shadows moved.

Skuld snapped towards them, Starlight appearing in a flash.

There was—nothing. No movement, no flash of yellow eyes.

Skuld let out a slow breath. Starlight lowered, but stayed in her hands.

Jim hovered uncertainly beside her.

"I know," she murmured, "I'm too jumpy."

"It's alright," he said, but he still sounded a little off-kilter. "I think I would be, too, considering—you know."

The buildings of Radiant Garden felt like they were pressing in around her. She turned to stare at some point past them, her attention landing on a garden. Lea and Isa had been right; there were tons of them, lining the streets. "It really is beautiful here," she whispered.

"Yeah."

"I miss—" She broke off, her throat closing.

"Miss what?"

I don't know. The journal—still inside her jacket, pressed against her heart—felt strangely uncomfortable against her chest. "I just—this wasn't where I came from, but it's where I ended up. I should know this place, but—" She broke off, inhaling deeply. "I don't know how long I was even in that cell."

Jim didn't say anything. Not that she could blame him, really; she didn't know what she'd say, if she'd been in his shoes. She closed her eyes and breathed. The air smelled nice, filled with the scents of flowers and cooking things. Birds chattered overhead, but there was—there was something else. Something vaguely familiar.

"Really? That's what you're going to order for lunch?"

"It's healthy."

"It's boring. Now this—"

"Is a heart attack waiting to happen."

"You're no fun."

Skuld felt something catch in her throat. Is that—? She turned, and—

There they were. Lea and Isa, sitting at a table at some outdoor diner.

There was something almost surreal about seeing them again. She thought it might be similar to what it would feel like to find her forgotten friends—a warm feeling, spreading outwards from her heart, making everything in her feel brighter.

"Lea," she breathed. "Isa."

"Your friends?" Jim whipped around.

"Yeah. They're right over there." She took a half-step towards them and—

Hesitated.

She'd only half-imagined what it would be like to find Lea and Isa again, most of her running on adrenaline and hoping that they were safe. Now that she was actually here, and the two of them were right in front of her, she found she didn't entirely know what to do.

They look like they belong here, she realized, watching as they laughed and teased each other, and she was suddenly acutely aware of how out of place she felt, of the Keyblade in her hands, of the strange clothes on her back.

Of the fact that the last time they'd seen each other was through bars.

They seemed…weirdly calm, sitting there and eating. It dawned on her that they wouldn't have any reason to be scared, really; they knew about Xehanort, but they hadn't had any reason to draw his attention. And without her—

Without her, they were safe.

"Lea. Come on, or we'll be late."

"I know, I know, I'm coming!"

Late for what? she wondered, and it struck her, then, that their lives had moved on without her; that maybe, without the girl in a cell to visit, they had found other things to focus on. Safer things.

(And she wondered if her old friends had done the same; if, when she hadn't come home, they had found someone else to fill the missing space where she'd been.)

Starlight—usually a comforting, familiar weight—suddenly felt too warm, and she dismissed it, but couldn't get rid of the strange, disquieting feeling that made her fingers twitch. Her clothes felt ill-fitting, her skin too tight, like she was wearing the face of a stranger and, if people looked, they would see and call her out on it.

(If Lea and Isa looked—would they recognize her?)

They don't know my name. It felt like a silly thought, all things considered, but it suddenly seemed strangely surreal.

"Hey?"

Jim. That's right; he was still here.

"What are you waiting for?" Jim whispered. "Weren't you looking for them?"

Lea and Isa kept moving, chattering with each other over some project they were working on—some apprenticeship they'd both started, apparently. She wondered who it was with. She wondered if they'd ever thought about what happened to her.

(They'd known a girl in a cell. She'd known two boys in bits and pieces. Did any of them really know each other, at all?)

They're safe, she thought, and there was something numb in the thought. If I reach out to them, what if I—?

"Skuld, come on."

Skuld took a couple of steps back, into the shadows.

"What are you doing?"

"We should—go." The words came from a distance, almost; she turned, head lowered, and left.

---

-(The truth was this: Skuld had changed. Reluctantly, almost without her knowing. She had been someone, once, and then become Subject X when she lost her memories, and then became a nameless sort of person when she'd gotten to know Lea and Isa. She had changed, and everything she knew changed with it.

Except for Xehanort.

"Xehanort," Skuld said, and her voice had an echo to it—something that rang about her skull, reaching back from the past and digging into her mind. "I don't want to do the experiments anymore."

Xehanort stared at her, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing. "Of course you do. How else are you supposed to get your memories back?"

She didn't know if she wanted to laugh or cry or scream. Maybe all three. "No," she said. "There has to be another way."

"We've tried other ways," Xehanort hissed. "The heart is a complicated thing. It will not yield its secrets without a little persuasion." He gave her a plaintive look. "Don't you want to find our friends again?"

And Skuld had found herself hesitating at that, some old fear and grief rearing its head. Because the truth was this: she was scared. The longer she spent in this cell, the more she felt like she was losing hold of her loved ones. She had only the vaguest memories of four friends, and she clung to them with all she was worth, but it felt like trying to hold onto water, and it terrified that she might not ever be able to remember these people who had been so important to her.

And the truth was also this: the longer she spent her, the more she felt an entirely different friendship start to fracture.

She took a breath and rallied herself, voice strained. "I want to find the people who care about me," she said, "but I don't want to keep breaking myself to do it."

"What else can we do?" Xehanort asked. "If there was another way, I would take it. As your friend—"

Something broke inside her. "You aren't my friend!" she screamed, the words painful in her throat and on her tongue. "You've kept me locked in a cage since I've gotten here! Why do you get to walk free when I don't?"

"It's dangerous—"

"You don't have any memories, either, and it's not dangerous for you! You took anything I had from before—if you really wanted me to get my memories back, then why wouldn't I get to have them? Maybe they could help me remember something."

"I—"

"And the experiments hurt. You keep saying that we need to do them, but why do we have to do them this way? Why can't we do something else? Why can't I work with you instead of being your test subject?"

"Because there's no guarantee that the other methods will work," Xehanort snapped, voice rising above hers. "If we're going to get our memories back—"

"And who says we have to?"

In a flash, Xehanort was looming over her. She flinched back on instinct, and for a moment, she found she wasn't in her cell. She was in a strange room, the edges blurry, odd devices lined up to one side. Someone who might've been Xehanort or might've been someone else stood over her, a weapon trained at her heart.

"We have to," said Xehanort, said the specter, said the ghost of herself. "I thought out of everyone here, you were the one who would understand the most."

The wall was cold against Skuld's back. She hadn't even realized she'd moved until she hit it.

"I've seen you," he said. "I remember you."

"Of course you remember me," she said, and tried to ignore just how much her voice shook. "We've known each other for—"

"No. From before. You're in those fragmented dreams. Sometimes it's you and a boy with white hair. Sometimes I see the two of you talking to these other figures, and sometimes I see the golden-haired boy you were friends with standing with a blue-haired woman, and sometimes I see a black-haired boy that looks like another of your friends. Sometimes I see myself killing you. Sometimes I see myself killing that black-haired boy. Sometimes I see myself fighting to protect that golden-haired child against my former friend. Sometimes I see myself sacrificing my life for you and that white-haired boy and don't you see? My memories are so fragmented and confused that I can't make sense of them."

Xehanort's hands clutched at his face and ran through his hair, and Skuld realized, very abruptly, that he was crying.

"I don't know who I am," he said, his breaths coming faster, like he was about to panic. "I don't know who I am. Sometimes I stare at you and I feel like I'm grieving something I don't remember. Sometimes I look in the mirror and feel like I'm looking at the wrong face. Sometimes I look at the castle and feel like it looks wrong—like it should be a clock tower or a massive white dorm building or a hidden place covered in chains. There is an ache in my chest that never goes away, and it gets both worse and better when I look at you." He lifted his head, eyes wild and desperate. "I need to get my memories back. All of them. That's the only way this will get better. That's the only way I can fix myself."

You're wrong, she wanted to say, but didn't know how; it had been a while since she'd struggled to make her words work, but now she felt like she'd been set back to square one, her voice locked in her throat.

"You understand what that's like," he said. "I know you do. You're like me."

I'm nothing like you, she wanted to snap, but there was a quiet, terrified part of her that asked, Am I?

"You understand," he repeated, and he sounded almost desperate. "You do. You've seen the things I have. You said my name. The one I had before. The one you and that white-haired boy called me in my dreams."

She shook her head minutely, but she still couldn't get the words to work and she hated it.

"I'm going to get this back to the way things were," he said. "I'm going to fix things. All of my mistakes. And then everything will be alright."

Then start with these, she wanted to say. Start by realizing the mistakes you're making right now. Start by realizing we could actually be friends if you just stopped hurting me.

But the truth was this: she knew that wasn't true, anymore. And she knew that he was never going to stop.

"We're going to keep doing the experiments," Xehanort said. And then his expression softened, and she wanted to throw something at him. "But not tonight. I'll—leave you alone." He hesitated, as if he wanted to stay—as if he was still clinging to some phantom of a person he could remember and she couldn't. Then he stepped out, the door clicking shut with a strange sort of finality.

Skuld's legs gave out on her, finally, and she fell onto her cot, shaking and angry and tired.

She didn't want to be this person, that was too terrified of Xehanort to even fight back. She didn't want to be Subject X, who was nothing more than an experiment. She didn't want to be the person who still cared about Xehanort, despite everything. She wanted to be stronger. She wanted to be better.

…She wanted to find the people who actually cared about her, and didn't just pretend to.

Maybe I really do need my memories, she thought, shaking, curled up in her cot, because I don't know who I'm supposed to be without them.

It wasn't the truth. But it felt like it was.)

---

-Skuld's fingers trailed through the water. She sat on the lip of a fountain, staring at the flowers in the garden around her.

(It felt like her fuzzy memories of home. It also felt almost wrong, in a weird sort of way; like she was out of place, put somewhere she wasn't really supposed to be.)

No one else was out here at the moment, at least. No one but them. She supposed that was something; it meant she was less likely to be spotted and find herself in trouble.

Jim sat beside her, carefully.

She didn't quite look at him; her eyes mostly focused on their reflections in the water, watching as ripples from her fingertips distorted them. "They're alright."

"Yeah."

"So that's—that's good. That's all we needed to know."

Jim was silent for a couple moments. "You didn't say anything to them."

Skuld pursed her lips.

Jim waited. She watched his reflection shift, leaning forward so that she couldn't see it quite as well.

"They're alright," she repeated. "I don't think they—" She broke off.

The wind stirred the water. A couple small dandelion seeds landed in the fountain, floating across the surface; she caught one on her fingertip and watched as the wind pulled it away.

"Don't think what?"

Skuld shook droplets from her fingers. "When they first found me," she whispered, "they didn't—they were sneaking into the castle. I don't think they had any idea that anyone was down there."

Jim was silent, and—with his reflection mostly gone—she could almost imagine she was talking to herself, instead of him.

(Or talking to a friend; someone mostly forgotten, but whose imprint still existed in her heart and mind, something in her chest aching at the absence.)

"They didn't have to do anything. But—but they talked to me. Brought me things. And they came back. Over and over again."

"Sounds like they cared a lot about you."

"They could've gotten into huge trouble. If Xehanort had found out at all—if any of them—and they still could. If Xehanort saw me with them, then they'd—I don't know." The light reflected off the falling water, and it reminded her a little of Starlight. "And my Keyblade—if Heartless are attracted to it, then what happens if I'm around them?"

Jim didn't say anything to that.

Skuld's eyes burned, and she blinked rapidly. "And I'm also—I'm scared." She curled her hands together, clasping them in her lap. "I'm just—I left without telling them anything. What if they're angry? And what if—I'm a Keyblade wielder, now. I don't think I'm the same person as I was in the cell, but—" But I also don't know who I really am, yet. "So maybe we should—we should go. Or find the man with the eyepatch, if it's safe, but—" She broke off and shook her head.

Jim still didn't speak, and she was content to leave it at that, letting the silence fall between them.

But then he surprised her: "So you don't want to see them again until you've—what? Found your memories?"

"I guess."

He made a skeptical-sounding noise. "And when you find them—how do you know that's going to make you feel more like you?"

"Because that's—it's all I have."

"You really think that, don't you?" He sounded contemplative, like he was speaking more to himself than to her, but before she could respond he continued, "But the thing is, you're here now. So are they. Why not take advantage of it?"

Skuld bit her lip.

"I'm sure they'd want to know you're safe too, you know."

"What if I just mess everything up?" she whispered.

A pause. "I don't think you will," Jim said finally, "but if you do—you apologize and find out how to fix it. You talk things out." Another pause. "But you can't let that fear stop you. They're your friends. You aren't going to want to waste the time you can get with them. Trust me."

Skuld let out a shaky breath. She did want to talk to them, really. It just felt like a lot, after everything she'd been through since. She thought of her Keyblade and let out a jittery sort of laugh. "They're never going to believe everything that's happened."

"It's definitely a bit of a story," Jim said dryly. "But they might believe it if you pulled out your Keyblade."

Starlight appeared in her hands, as if called by the mention. Skuld ran her thumb along the handle.

"You're never going to know if you don't try."

Skuld took a shaky breath and nodded. "Do you think they'll still be there?"

Jim gave her a tiny smile. "They might be, if we hurry." He stood, half reaching toward her, like he was going to offer to pull her to her feet. He seemed to realize a moment later that might not be appreciated and pulled his hand back, rubbing his head awkwardly.

Skuld smiled back and stood. "Let's—"

A scream cut her off.

Skuld snapped around; Starlight came to life in her hands, vibrating against her palm.

"Do you know what direction that came from?" Jim asked, sounding just as tense.

"It's—"

More shouting—the opposite side of the courtyard, somewhere behind the buildings.

Skuld started towards it.

"Wait!"

"There are people who could be in danger." But she slowed, anyways, nearly stumbling over her feet.

"What if it's—" Jim broke off, as if realizing belatedly it might be a bad question to ask.

Skuld heard it, anyways: What if it's Xehanort? The thought made her heart and arms quake. There was a logical part of her that understood that it probably wasn't Xehanort, but—

(The experiments and the fear and she couldn't be trapped in a cell again what if he found her what if whatifwhatif—)

She jolted to attention at another scream.

"I can check things out," Jim said quickly. "If he's not there…"

"You shouldn't go alone, just in case." Her hands still tremored. She stilled them, one placed over the other. "And—he won't be there. He wouldn't jeopardize his standing with everyone else." The words tasted bitter, but there was a ring of truth to them that made her steady.

Jim studied her face and must've seen her resolve there, because he nodded, tight.

Skuld turned and ran.

As they approached, the shouting got louder; someone was yelling, "Get it off me, get it off—"

"What are those things?"

Things?

Skuld didn't entirely register the scene at first; she skidded around the corner and launched herself at the creature and its pinned captive, world blurring. She hit it feet first, then swung her Keyblade towards its head, and finally had time to notice the blue shield with the snapping head, the armored body, the familiar emblem.

Heartless.

Her momentum knocked the Heartless over, but the creature threw its shield outwards and forced her off. She landed and skidded to a halt, Keyblade held at the ready.

The person the Heartless had pinned scrambled to his feet and darted away.

The onlookers didn't; they kept a safe distance, but watched, almost transfixed. Skuld wanted to scream at them to run, and she wasn't sure if it was because it was dangerous or because she worried someone would recognize her or both.

The Heartless braced its shield against the ground, creating a barrier between her and it.

Jim rounded the corner and cursed quietly. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him reach for his weapon, strung to his waist—some sort of gun or laser, taken from the ship when they'd fallen.

"I've got it," she said, and swung her Keyblade around, magic on her tongue.

Something screeched overhead and nearly broke her concentration. Jim whipped his weapon around and fired.

Skuld tried to focus, channeling magic through her weapon. Zero Gravity.

A flash of purple. A strain as the Heartless struggled, shield caught against the cobblestones. And then the Heartless was floating, weight making it bob. Another screech; a quick glance gave her the impression of large, winged creatures, draconic heads and long tails, struggling in the field of the spell.

Breathe. In, out. She braced herself and lunged, aiming towards the nearest target: the shield-bearing Heartless. Her Keyblade arced in a cutting sweep beneath its guard. The first strike sent it spinning; the second was more powerful, half-strung with frantic magic, fire wrapped around the shaft and flaring from the tip. The Heartless crumpled into smoke and embers.

Skuld didn't pause; almost immediately a Collision Magnet spell caught one of the flying Heartless, and she braced herself and pulled, both hands clutched around Starlight's hilt. Without a way to steady itself, the Heartless yielded, flung at a rapid pace into the street below. Jim took care of the second flying Heartless, plasma shots ripping through its wings and chest.

The world fell silent slowly, the dust and smoke from the fight drifting across the street. There were a few scattered claps and cheers, but Skuld hardly heard them over the hammering of her heartbeat. Skuld met Jim's eyes and saw her worry reflected there. "Why are there Heartless in Radiant Garden?" she asked.

"I don't know." But his eyes flicked to the Keyblade, and Skuld had a sinking, terrified sort of feeling. What if they're here because of me?

The shadows shifted.

Skuld snapped towards them.

Small black creatures dragged themselves out of them; they twitched and shivered, jerking back and forth, bug-like and erratic.

The onlookers' congratulations died; Skuld could sense them slowly devolving into questioning silence, something almost fearful lapping at her neck. This time, she didn't hesitate to yell at them: "Go!"

Hurried footsteps; the sound of people shouting questions and half-baked answers.

Skuld got into position. She couldn't help giving half a glance towards the rooftops, hoping to see a familiar shape. "Do you think Zidane is alright?"

"He can take care of himself. We've got our own problems."

Skuld supposed that was true. She turned back to the Heartless and braced herself, then lunged.

The small ones were surprisingly easy to cut through; they fell with only one or two strikes of her Keyblade, dispersing into little bits of darkness. They created almost a haze, smoky shadows twisting around her blade and brushing against her cheeks. She waded into the middle of them, spinning and cutting, a constant wave of motion that kept her on her toes. Something slashed at her back, at her ankles, at her arms; she shook them off, twisting her blade around to try and keep them at bay, and watched as they dissipated.

A shadow fell over them; Skuld only noticed at the last moment, catching jagged claws and broad wings. She moved, Keyblade lifted, but it was faster; claws dug into her shoulders, and she yelped, feet kicking as she was suddenly wrenched from the ground.

"Skuld!" Jim fired a few shots after the Heartless, eyes wide.

Skuld twisted and struggled, watching as the ground drifted further and further away. Her breath hissed between her teeth, and she flipped the tip of her Keyblade around. Magic roared in her chest, molten in her throat, and Starlight burned.

A flash of light and heat. The Heartless screeched and let go; the roof of a house rushed towards her, too quick, and she hit it with a painful thud and a scrape. Her cheek and hands burned as she scrambled for purchase, Starlight disappearing. She groaned, dragging herself towards the top of the house.

And then she froze.

There were more Heartless than she'd initially realized, back behind the houses. In the main streets, creatures of all sorts—small, knight-like things, tiny shadows, large flying Heartless, strange chomping things that were more head than body—flitted about, chasing people, breaking into buildings, filling the streets in a terrifying hoard. Skuld's fingers curled tightly against the rooftop.

(Shadows, clinging to the walls of the Clock Tower, to the streets, to her friends. Something snapping at her heels and threatening her loved ones. A world that was slowly falling apart, dark, writhing things wandering the streets—)

Pain shot through Skuld's head, and she hissed quietly, placing one hand against her skull.

A screech, from somewhere. Wingbeats, throbbing like a heartbeat.

Starlight appeared almost on reflex, screaming as she swung.

The shaft of her weapon caught against the outstretched claws of a Heartless; she swept her Keyblade sharply sideways, and the Heartless struggled to right itself, claws sliding off the blade. Starlight spun, spearing the winged creature through the chest. The Heartless faded, crystalline heart floating towards the sky.

Skuld stared after it a moment, then took a breath and glanced at the chaos behind her.

"Skuld!"

Jim.

He was watching her from the ground, looking like he was about ready to climb up after her.

"There are more!" she shouted, and she could hear how her voice trembled. "A lot more."

Jim's face went pale.

Skuld looked at the Heartless, and a whole new fear tightened her chest. Lea and Isa. They're out in this. "I have to find them," she breathed. "I—" She glanced, frantically, at Jim.

His expression steeled. "Lead the way."

Something grateful welled in her chest, and she nodded, then shot over the side of the building.

She nearly landed on top of a Heartless. The creature seemed just as startled as her, jumping away from her sudden appearance. She recovered quicker, striking its back once, twice, three times, watching as it faded away.

She didn't know which direction she should head in; for as much time as she'd spent in this world, Radiant Garden was ultimately unfamiliar to her, and she found herself lost between the buildings. If Xehanort hadn't kept me trapped, she thought bitterly, then this wouldn't be happening. Then I would know where—

Focus. No time to think about that now.

She thought she might've had a vague idea of what direction Lea and Isa had been in, and she took off that way, sprinting across the cobblestone streets.

(There was a strange sort of buzzing in the back of her mind. This felt familiar, a wave of déjà vu crashing over her, and occasionally the streets would flash, changing to resemble brighter buildings, gardens shifting just slightly, a clock tower looming over the entire town instead of a castle.)

The wall beside her cracked and exploded outwards. Skuld kicked away, startled, as one of the large, shield-baring Heartless emerged from it. The dog-like jaws of its shield snapped and snarled at her.

(She hadn't seen this, she thought, but she'd seen something like it. The familiarity pulsed like a second heartbeat, making her head fuzzy and her heart ache.)

Skuld spun her Keyblade around, pointing the tip into the mouth of the shield. Heat flared along her arms and burst from her weapon; the entire Heartless was highlighted as her attack exploded, destroying the creature and leaving her stumbling.

Something moved behind her, and Skuld whipped around, lifting her Keyblade to defend herself—

And watched as the Heartless went up in smoke.

Jim stood nearby, weapon still lifted. He gave her an unreadable look.

Skuld sucked in a slow breath through her nose, then turned and kept running.

For a little while, everything blurred together; she kept moving, moving, moving, frantic as she searched, unable to stop for a second to pause and breathe and collect herself. The Heartless (Keyblade wielders) were on her constantly, and she fired off spell after spell until she felt like she was going to faint. Jim (Ephemer) was at her back, her side, a similar blur of motion, skidding through the chaos as they searched for (their friend) Lea and Isa.

"I've done this before," Skuld breathed, and it felt like it came from some other place—some other her. Someone she didn't know.

"What?"

(When she blinked, she pulled up images of a barren wasteland, littered with broken Keyblades. There were other Keyblade wielders, but they were blurred and faceless, as much like monsters as the Heartless. In the distance was the ring of metal and the crash of magic and the screams of people as they fought and bled and died. Her mouth tasted like copper and ozone and ash, and her legs and arms hurt, and there was a terrified hum of adrenaline in her limbs because—

That's right. She'd been here looking for her friend. She'd gone to—)

"Save them," she breathed. "I was—" One hand went to her head, and she rocked back a little, stumbling.

"Hey—"

She caught herself and took a shuddering breath. She blinked and the memory was gone, swept away almost as soon as it had come. (But it left behind echoes: a terrified sense of urgency, a sick feeling in her chest, something metallic in her throat and mouth.) "We need to keep moving," she said. "We have to find them before—"

The shadows moved.

Skuld snapped around; a Collision Magnet spell caught the Heartless and dragged it closer, right into the end of her Keyblade. Its claws scrabbled at the metal as it faded.

Her arms and legs were starting to feel shaky. She steadied them as best she could.

"Why are there so many?" Jim asked; one of the small ones reached for his arm, and he hit it away, stomping on it and firing a shot towards something Skuld couldn't see. "There were never this many before. Usually just one big one."

She didn't know. She didn't know, but—

(She stared at a falling world from the deck of a ship.)

Skuld swung her weapon, sending a Heartless flying, then funneled magic into her feet and launched herself after it. She struck the creature hard, sending it tumbling over and over itself towards the ground. It collided with the edge of the building, tearing off shingles as it thudded towards the street.

Skuld hit the top of a roof and kept running, eyes flicking across the ground, searching for any sign of red or blue hair. Please. Please, please, please, don't let me be too late.

A couple of Heartless sprouted from the shadows just ahead of her.

Skuld swept her Keyblade around and forced them aside. I don't have time to fight all of them, she thought, breath heavy in her chest. If I do—if I keep fighting, then I might not be able to find Lea and Isa.

But what about everyone else?

There were still people running frantically through the streets, fighting or trying to escape. Skuld landed awkwardly on the ground and wobbled, trying to avoid the people brushing past her. They can't fight the Heartless, she thought, feeling dazed. That's what Keyblade wielders are for.

(She was standing in a dark room, a group of people clustered around her. There were—other people, she thought, outside. People they were responsible for. People she didn't know how they were going to save, because—)

Something tore at her back.

Skuld barely registered the pain as she turned; she didn't even have time to see the Heartless before it disappeared, darkness stinging her eyes. She touched her back, wincing as her fingers came away sticky with blood. I'm just one person, she thought, feeling panicked. What am I supposed to do against—this?

(Lea and Isa were still somewhere in this. They were in danger. They were in danger. Because of Xehanort. It was always because of Xehanort.)

("This is why humans can never defeat the darkness.")

A heartless appeared from around a corner. Skuld reacted quickly, swinging her Keyblade around and smacking it solidly in the side. It crashed into a building, and Skuld winced, squinting slightly as splinters hit her face. No time. I have to focus.

She sucked in a heaving breath, looking around desperately, searching for Jim to make sure he was okay, and—there. Just coming around a corner, bracing a hand against his weapon and firing. It jammed after a moment, and he clicked it frantically, then cursed and threw it at a Heartless.

Skuld whipped her Keyblade around and released a Zero Gravity spell.

The Heartless floated. Jim flashed her a grateful look.

Skuld looked around wildly for a moment, then grabbed a piece of debris—a board, of all things—and tossed it at him.

Jim fumbled with it, then gave her a rueful look. "Guess there isn't much of a choice, huh?"

"We can't fight them all," Skuld said. "We have to—"

"I know."

Skuld wobbled a little. She stared at the Heartless, still floating. After a moment, she tore herself away. Lea and Isa. I need to find Lea and Isa. I need to make sure that they're okay.

And then she was running again, moving, moving, moving, darting through the streets in a desperate search, hoping that she would catch the familiar forms of her friends. She threw open doors, darted down alleyways, forced up bits of debris—anywhere she thought the two of them might've ended up. I should've just talked to them. If I'd said something—I would've been there when this happened. I would've been able to protect them. Please, please, please let them be okay. Let them be okay, let me not be too late—

(She thought she could see the echo of a past version of herself, running frantic through a different battlefield. This had happened before. The desperate search for a friend and the fear that she would be too late. A companion behind her, helping her ward off assailants. Running past people that she could help—should help—because if she stopped, she'd fall, too, and they had to find their friend because that was the whole reason they came back—)

(Who are you really looking for?)

Red hair, out of the corner of her eye.

Something hopelessly, achingly relieved flared in her chest, and she turned, smile on her face, a name on her lips: "Le—"

It wasn't Lea. The hair color was the same, but the style was different, long and straight instead of spiked upwards. The man wore different clothes, looking more like a mechanic of some sort, and he was older, the lines of age showing on his face.

Skuld stared, something in her chest crumbling.

A hesitation was all the Heartless needed, really; they dogpiled the man, digging at his back, swiping for his heart.

The attack forced Skuld into action; she moved, swinging her Keyblade sharply through the air, sending the Heartless flying backwards.

She wasn't quick enough; one of them tore open the man's chest, and Skuld—

(thiswasn'thappeningshe'dseenthisbeforetherewasawar—)

A heart, crystalline, inside the Heartless's claws. The man below, still twitching.

(There were Heartless blocking their way. They used to be like them. She wondered if she'd known any of them.)

Skuld didn't remember moving; one moment, she'd been staring at the man's body, and the next, the Heartless was fading, her Keyblade sticking through the place where it had once been. Two hearts floated towards the sky.

Skuld stumbled backwards, one hand flying to her mouth. She sucked in a shuddering breath, her eyes burning.

And then she closed her eyes and turned away, breathing in slowly through her nose. Lea and Isa could—if I don't—

I have to find them. I can process later. I—I can't stop now.

(She had done this before.)

Skuld turned and ran. (Don't look don't look don't look—)

Move and fire magic and swing her Keyblade and shout her friends' names until her throat was raw. Find a Heartless, dodge around it or send it flying. Duck underneath a lunge. Glance back to make sure Jim was still alright, fire a spell when he wasn't, dodge back to take his place, spinning around him in a blur, because she wasn't going to find two friends just to lose one, she wasn't—

(And Zidane hadn't come back. He could fight, but he was alone, and he might be trying to find them, and Skuld could get them all safely out of here but she wasn't because she still had to find—)

"Lea! Isa!" Skuld whipped around a corner, and—

She stepped onto a bright street, the hues of daybreak on the horizon. She slowed. This was—this wasn't Radiant Garden. This was somewhere else. Scala ad Caelum? she wondered, but it felt—wrong, somehow. Where am—?

There was a fountain, ahead. There was someone sitting on the fountain. They were—she couldn't make out their face. Staring at them felt like staring at static; it felt like there was a hole in the universe, right where they should be.

Skuld faltered. "I—what—"

The person stood. They said something; she thought it might've been her name.

Skuld moved almost without thinking, running towards them, hand outstretched, and—

She gasped as the world shifted, torn out from beneath her feet. She skidded into a Heartless, Keyblade lifted just in time to defend herself.

Her head throbbed. Her heart beat too hard, caught in her throat. The Heartless pushed a little harder against her blade, and—

And she was staring at static again. This was—a friend. She knew they were a friend, but there was—something wrong. Something was wrong. She swung her Keyblade and forced them away, stumbling backwards.

She was—she'd been doing something. She'd been searching for someone. "Wasn't I searching for…you?" She blinked rapidly. "No. Lea and Isa. I was—"

The Heartless lunged for her.

Skuld tried to snap herself back to the present, shaking her head wildly, and whipped her Keyblade around, a spell on her tongue—

But that was her friend. She couldn't, she couldn't, she—

Their weapons clashed a moment. Skuld fought, striking once, twice, just trying to keep them back. It wasn't them, she tried to remind herself, it was whatever was puppeting their body, but—but she couldn't bring herself to hurt them. Not really.

She side-stepped. There was an awareness, somewhere, that something terrible was going on. Red slowly overtook the sky. The buildings cracked and broke. The town crumbled around her, the cobblestones disappearing, the world tearing at the seams—

With a scream Skuld swung. The Heartless stood, almost stunned, as her Keyblade ran through its chest. Then it fell, slowly, breaking apart, trailing away into smoke.

Skuld shook. She stumbled backwards. It took her a moment to realize her cheeks were wet, and she scrubbed at them, trying to blink away the sudden tears. What's happening? she wanted to ask, but didn't know who she'd pose the question to. Why am I…?

"Skuld! Look out!"

Skuld moved, but she felt sluggish, her mind still grasping at something she didn't quite remember.

A Heartless loomed over her—a big thing, jaws stretched wide—

And then promptly disappeared, flung aside by what looked like a large metal pipe.

For a moment, Skuld could only stare.

A blond-haired man stood in front of her. He hefted the pipe with a grunt, spitting after the Heartless. "There. That'll teach you." Then he turned to Skuld, expression critical. "What're you kids doing out here?"

She blinked, trying vainly to process. "I—"

The man glanced at her Keyblade. "Got yourself a fancy weapon, I see. You training to be a guard?"

"I—no. I'm just—who are you?"

"Doesn't seem like the most important question right now," the man grumbled, "but the name's Cid."

"We've fought these guys before," Jim said from behind her; she could feel him come to stand at her shoulder, tense.

Cid scoffed and thumbed his nose. "Yeah, well, there sure are a lot of them."

Skuld forced her stiff head to turn.

No matter how many they fought, Heartless were still everywhere. There were less people, now, and Skuld hoped that meant that they'd found somewhere safe to hide and not something worse. Where would they go? some hysteric part of her asked, looking at the broken buildings and torn up street. Skuld tried to draw on her magic and winced as something in her chest ached. "What are we supposed to do?" she whispered. "There's—how do we fight them all? Are they going to stop?"

Jim had a stricken look on his face that said he was as uncertain as she was.

"Hey!" shouted a familiar voice, rising above the chaos, and Skuld whipped around, breathless with relief. "Hey, guys!"

"Zidane!" Skuld called.

"Nice to see you in one piece," Jim said, looking similarly relieved.

Zidane came as a blur across the rooftops, swinging from his tail as he sailed over the buildings. "Yeah, for now," he said. "But it looks like we have a bit of a problem."

"Well, that's an understatement," Cid grumbled.

"Who're you?" Zidane asked, squinting at him. He waved it off. "Never mind, it doesn't matter." He turned, and his eyes honed in on Skuld. "You saw the Heartless machine in Dali, right? What did it look like?"

Skuld's shoulders stiffened. Slowly, slowly, an idea started to click into place, terrifying and horrible in its reality.

("We just got the orders. That's all. Someone gave us the blueprints for a machine that's supposed to make them, but I don't think we built it right.")

"It was—big. Hidden underground. It had—there was a large, cylindrical part that the Heartless came out of, and a conveyor belt."

"Did it have this weird broken-heart symbol on the side?"

"The—the one that's on the Heartless. Yes."

"And there were plans to make more of them."

("Who sold you the plans for the machine?"

"I—I didn't get a good look at their face.")

"What did you find, Zidane?" she whispered, but there was a terrified certainty in her heart, because she knew what she was about to hear.

"I think that your friend was experimenting on more than just you and the other people in town."

("When the Horned King created his monster-maker and everything went wrong, I didn't know what to do. I tried to save everyone, but I couldn't; not even the Horned King could control those things. And the other people here—some of them have talked to me about feeling that way, too.")

"There are machines down there, Skuld. Hundreds of them."

Skuld felt like her world was shifting sideways.

"He's making Heartless?" Jim asked. "Why?"

("I shouldn't have used the machine so quickly. Not on you. I should've run more tests to make sure it was working properly. I'm going to find a safer way to test it.")

"Because of me," Skuld whispered.

"What?"

("I think I might have finally found a solution to our problem."

She lifted her head, giving Xehanort a long, tired look. She might've been curious and hopeful, once; now she just felt exhausted.

Xehanort hadn't taken her silence as a deterrent; he'd continued, unbothered, "I need to run some more tests, but I think there may be a way to outsource the issue. We won't have to take risks with the machine anymore. The experiments can be more refined."

"Because you don't want to risk losing your primary test subject."

Xehanort started, and she thought he looked almost hurt, but he masked it swiftly. "If that's the way you want to perceive it.")

"The experiments were dangerous," Skuld whispered. "He wanted to—he was trying to avoid losing me. That's why he was bringing people in and experimenting on them. But that was too suspicious, so—"

"So he made Heartless," Jim said, catching on, "so that he could test things on them."

"And then sold the plans to get more data." Zidane turned to give Jim a frantic look. "Would any merchants have—?"

"We didn't. But others definitely could've."

(Skuld barely heard them. Mostly, she heard Xehanort hissing, "I'm doing this for both of us," and she heard the screams of other people as they were experimented on, and she heard the aching silence where they'd once been, and she heard the thundering of her own heart as she wondered whether Lea and Isa would be next if they were caught—)

"What the hell are you three talking about?" Cid asked, sounding annoyed.

"There's—there are machines that make Heartless," Skuld whispered, and it sounded like her voice came from somewhere else.

"So you think that's where all these things are coming from, huh?"

Zidane looked grim. "The Heartless—if there are too many of them, they can bring down a world, right? That's what happened to—"

"Taran's world. Yes."

A movement in the shadows. Skuld whipped around, ready to fight, but Zidane was quicker; he leapt from the building, daggers flashing, and cut through the Heartless in one smooth motion.

Skuld stared at him, and then looked past, to the specters of the Heartless and the people running or fighting and the ruined buildings. "We need to destroy them," she said, numbly. "But they're—"

"In the castle," Zidane said, quiet. "Yeah."

Skuld rocked on her feet a little.

"Skuld," Jim said. "You don't have to go."

"How else are we supposed to stop this?" she asked, gesturing with her Keyblade. "We can't—I can't defeat them all. I'm not—" Not good enough.

(Aren't you supposed to be a Keyblade wielder?)

She took a breath. "Zidane. I need you—I need you to show me where these things are."

To his credit, he didn't protest; he just nodded, expression tight.

Jim had a pensive look on his face. "What happens if we can't destroy these things? Or—" He broke off, but Skuld still heard the unspoken words: Or if we're too late. "We need to get people to safety."

"I have a ship," Cid said, watching them carefully. "I can take some people, but I ain't waiting around forever, so I hope you guys got a backup plan."

Backup plan. It clicked, then. "The portals," Skuld breathed. "That's—"

"We could get some people out using them." Jim's eyes lit up, looking bright for the first time since this mess had started.

Skuld nodded, lifting her Keyblade, but— "I need to get to the castle," she whispered, hand half lowering. "I don't know if—"

"I'll stay with it."

Skuld snapped her attention towards Jim.

He gave her a long look, then sighed and shrugged. "I don't think I'm going to be able to do much on the machine destroying front. I don't have a weapon anymore, and I think your large-scale magic's going to do more than anything I'd be able to. But this way, I can try to guide people through. And if I really need to, I can slip through the portal, too. Maybe grab some backup."

It was as good a plan as any. Skuld gave him a tense nod, then aimed her Keyblade at some point in the distance. A beam shot from the tip; a portal crackled into existence, spitting and snapping.

Cid made an appreciative noise. "Neat trick."

"Good luck," Jim told the two of them, voice quiet.

Zidane took off, launching himself back towards the rooftops.

Skuld started after him, then hesitated. "I'm—I'm sorry I got you into this."

Jim's expression softened a little. "Don't be."

Skuld might've said more, but—they needed to get moving. With one last glance back, she followed Zidane.

The two of them ran through Radiant Garden, the world turning into a blur of motion and color. Skuld hurtled over debris and shot spells at encroaching Heartless and skidded haphazardly around buildings, eyes honed in on Zidane as he vaulted over the buildings. The world rocked a little, and she stumbled, hands scraping a wall. She pushed herself forward, shaking away blood and grit.

(One of her friends was standing beside her. She couldn't make out what he was saying, but she thought that maybe he was asking her to come inside. She couldn't, because she was still staring at the sphere in the sky, watching as the world broke apart around her. "It takes so much time and effort to create, but only an instant to destroy…")

Skuld rounded a corner, skidding to try and slow down, and found herself suddenly staring up at the castle.

Zidane didn't stop; he hit the steps and shot towards the entrance.

Skuld did. She stared at the spires (still bright against the dark sky, so bright for someplace where such horrible things had happened) and felt like her heart was going to beat out of her chest. Her mouth went dry. She was shaking, she realized, the keychain clattering against the metal of her Keyblade. Her heart hurt. Phantom pains flickered through her arms and made her shiver. She blinked, and—

(There was Xehanort, staring at her from the doorway of her cell. It was the first time she'd seen him—still cautious, but something almost hopeful was in his eyes, his fingers grasping at a connection between them.

And there—Xehanort, still, but a more familiar version, one that was a little more open, still willing to talk and explain his theories and help with tests that weren't quite so painful.

And there—Xehanort as he was at the end, tense and angry and frightening, and Skuld couldn't help feeling a sense of betrayal twice over.)

(This had happened before.)

"Skuld?"

Skuld blinked rapidly, feeling like she was trying to chase away ghosts.

Zidane had come halfway back down the stairs, a nervous sort of expression on his face.

"I'm—" She took a stumbling step backwards, hand resting against her head.

"Are you sure you're going to be able to do this?"

Her attention flicked past him. She stared at the castle spires and tried to ignore how hard she was shaking. "I'm going to have to."

"No one would blame you if you couldn't," Zidane told her, voice quiet. "You're just one person. You could help get people out, and I could go in alone and see what I can do."

"I'd blame me."

(A town crumbling around her. People down below that she could do nothing to help. A friend she'd tried so desperately to save and then lost anyways.)

Starlight was a comforting weight in her hands. She lifted it, staring at the castle over the top of her weapon. They can't keep me caged anymore.

Inside the castle was Xehanort. She wasn't naïve enough to believe that she'd be able to entirely avoid him or the others if they went inside; inevitably, someone would notice what was happening with the machines, and either she or Zidane or both would have to fight. I'm not Subject X anymore, she told herself. I'm not. I'm a Keyblade wielder. I was training in Scala ad Caelum to be someone who could protect the world from monsters. I was named after some sort of legendary hero, so—so I'd better live up to it.

She lifted her head and slid the image on like armor, trying to feel the part of the heroic warrior of the Keyblade. (Mostly, she just felt scared.) "Come on," she said, and her voice shook. "We have to get moving, or we—we won't be able to do anything."

Zidane studied her a moment, then nodded. He still waited for her to move, staying beside her as she walked, step by step, towards the door.

There weren't any guards at the top. That was probably a good thing, she thought; she wasn't sure what would've happened if she'd recognized anyone. (But she didn't know what it meant that they weren't there. Were they already out in the town, trying to help fix things? Were they involved with the machines? Or had something already happened to them?)

Zidane tugged on the door, then gave her an expectant look.

Skuld lifted her Keyblade. (The keychain rattled against the metal.) A beam of light shot from the tip. A faint keyhole formed in the air; the light struck it, and something clicked. The door swung open with a quiet creak.

The inside of the castle was quiet. The halls were strangely barren, devoid of much that said this place had been a home to anyone. No one came to greet them—not Heartless, not people.

It felt so normal that it was almost anticlimactic.

(There was an echo, there; some sort of memory, quiet, almost forgotten, buzzing in her ears like the whisper of a ghost.

"I can't believe the world is ending."

"Yeah. It's so quiet.")

"Where do we need to go?" Skuld asked, her voice hushed.

"This way." Zidane's voice wasn't any louder than hers—whether because her own unease had rubbed off on him or because he was wary of drawing attention, she didn't know. She found herself trying to soften her footfalls as she followed, sticking to the shadows where she could. She felt uncomfortably exposed here; she was a trespasser, she knew, no matter how long she'd spent within these walls. If anyone found her—she didn't imagine it would be much different than the last time she and Zidane had broken into a castle. But Captain Amelia won't be able to bail us out this time.

Despite herself, Skuld found her eyes flicking around the hallways. She wanted to know, she thought, what she'd been missing. She wanted to know what it would've been like to be a resident and not a prisoner. She had imagined, sometimes, what would've happened if she'd been an apprentice like the others, and when she blinked, she saw the specter of herself wandering these halls, chatting with Xehanort or discussing some sort of test with Even or even asking their mysterious master about what managing Radiant Garden was like. (Would I have taken part in the experiments, some part of her wondered, if I had been one of them?)

Zidane moved quickly, and Skuld tried to keep up, but she found herself slowing when her eyes caught on a half-open doorway.

It was a bedroom, she realized. There was much more personalization here than there had been in the hallway. The bed looked like it was still a mess, the nightstand covered in random trinkets. There were a couple of books stacked beside the nightstand, paint swatches on the wall, like whoever lived here had been thinking about changing the color and hadn't gotten to it yet.

Her eyes burned, and she tore them away.

(A whisper of something in her past, soft against her ears.

"Do you think they all got there safely?"

"Of course. Brain's with them."

"Yeah, he's always got a plan. Unlike someone I know."

"Hey!")

"Huh?"

Skuld blinked, then glanced at Zidane.

He was staring back at her with a funny sort of look on his face. "You said something about people being alright?"

"Oh." She hadn't even realized she'd said anything—but she found she didn't want to take it back, really. "I just—with the Heartless. What happened to everyone here?"

(Because the truth was this: she hated Xehanort, but he had been her friend, once. His specter loomed over her life, and she knew that, if the Heartless had gotten to him, she wouldn't have to worry about him coming to find her ever again. But she didn't really want him dead, some part of her terrified at losing someone she'd cared about, once.)

"I don't know," Zidane admitted. "Down with the machines, maybe."

"Maybe."

("I'll stay. I'm not even a Dandelion; I'm just here as your friend. So if you're staying, so am I. Besides, I don't want to have to wait around for you again."

"I'm not leaving you two here."

Listen, something in her whispered. Can you hear them?)

"If we do this," she whispered, "then we're probably saving them too."

"Yeah."

"But what happens if they try to make more machines?"

Zidane didn't really look like he had an answer.

The shadows shifted.

Skuld snapped towards them.

They twitched again. Glowing yellow eyes peered from the darkness.

("Once this starts, get in the lifeboat. One of us needs to survive."

"…Fools."

"What?"

"This is why people cannot defeat darkness."

You've done this before. Do you remember?)

Zidane's daggers flicked to his hands. "Great. More company."

Skuld shifted her weight a little, but—

(Can you hear me?

Stained glass, glowing beneath her feet. An image of herself, shifting slightly. A small, familiar fox, and a question she couldn't hear but knew, anyways:

Are you ready, Keyblade wielder?)

Pink flames licked Skuld's cheek. Slowly, slowly, she turned.

The fox watched her, patient, and it felt almost like she was staring back at a ghost. Ava.

"What's—oh." Zidane tensed behind her.

Ava lifted her head. Her flames flickered a little, glowing brighter.

(For a moment, Skuld found herself staring at a different figure: a woman in robes, a fox mask on her face, standing in front of a fountain and pleading with a group of Keyblade wielders to flee.)

"What do you need to show me?"

The flames spiked. There were Heartless still in the shadows, she knew, but the small space where they stood felt strangely calm.

(A shattered clock tower and red skies and the world crumbling around them—)

"Is there a way to stop this?"

The flames spread outward. The world flickered, and for a moment, the hallways were exchanged for the familiar, darker buildings of—

"Traverse Town," Zidane murmured.

Skuld's grip tightened around the handle of her Keyblade. "Are you saying there's nothing we can do?" she hissed, angry and brittle. "That they're just going to end up losing their home, anyways?"

Ava shook her head. She stepped aside, and Skuld realized abruptly that she knew where this was. "This is—the fountain." Light glimmered behind the water, forming the vague shape of a keyhole. "What's—?"

The image changed, and suddenly Skuld found herself back in that cave on Mos Espa, staring at a similar keyhole.

Starlight shivered in her hand.

Her chest burned. Energy thrummed through her limbs and made them shake. "The keyholes," she breathed. "Does—each world has one."

The image shifted again, and this time she saw what looked like a large chamber in a massive building, a keyhole gleaming in the back wall.

"That's Radiant Garden's, isn't it?"

Ava nodded.

"Starlight locked the one on Mos Espa. If I find the keyhole—will locking it stop this?"

Something like a grin stretched across Ava's face, visible even beneath the intensity of her flames.

The image wavered and faded, snapping out.

Skuld's mind started turning. "I can stop it," she breathed. "I can protect Lea and Isa and everyone and—" She broke off. "But—"

"I can handle the machines."

She turned sharply towards Zidane.

He had a feral sort of grin on his face. "You're the only one who has a Keyblade, and if you can stop this, you have to go. I know where the machines are, so I can see what I can do."

"But—what if you—"

"What, run into your friend and his legion of creeps?" Zidane shrugged, spinning his daggers. "They'll have to catch me first." His expression turned serious. "You think you'll be okay on your own?"

Skuld wasn't, but—she had to try. "I will." She gave him an uncertain smile. "I'll see you when this is over?"

"Yeah. Be safe."

"You, too." Skuld took a breath, then turned towards Ava, something steeling in her chest. "Show me where the keyhole is."

Ava lifted her head with a trill, then turned and bounded down the hallway.

The race through the hallways felt frantic, Skuld's veins pulsing with adrenaline. (Because they needed to find the keyhole, but Xehanort or one of the others could step out of any room, or the Heartless could reach out to attack, or—

Just keep moving.)

The corridors twisted wildly, and Skuld felt a little like she was hurtling through a maze. Ava seemed to have a sixth sense for where she was going, hardly even hesitating before whipping around corners.

The shadows moved. Skuld snapped her Keyblade around and shot a fireball at them.

One Heartless screeched, bursting into smoke. Another exploded from the ground, claws outstretched.

Skuld caught it with the teeth of her blade, twisting and slamming it into the ground. She jerked her weapon free and stabbed the Heartless through the chest; Starlight ripped free with a vicious tearing sound. Skuld didn't stop to see if the Heartless dissipated or not.

More Heartless, around the corner—creeping shadows, strange, knight-like Heartless that twisted and jerked when they appeared, and a large, armored thing with a huge shield. Ava seemed to pass right through them, disappearing and reappearing on the other side.

Starlight whipped forward. A Collision Magnet spell snapped from the blade, snagging the large Heartless at the back. Skuld tugged, jumping at the same moment. The spell snaked backwards, the larger Heartless pulled off its feet and slamming into the smaller ones in front of it.

Magic pooled in Skuld's legs. She swung them forward, bracing them against the top of the Heartless's shield and shooting off it; she landed somewhat awkwardly on the other side, stumbling and catching herself, shooting right back into motion. No time, she thought. No time, no time, I have to get to the keyhole—

Another Heartless, crawling from the shadows. And another, appearing in front of her; she ducked, skidding on her knees, and twisted long enough to shoot off a Fire spell. In front of her, an armored thing that she swiped sideways. Beside her, a large, beast-like creature that lunged, jaws open, and she sent spiraling towards the ceiling with a Zero Gravity cell.

Ava bobbed ahead of her, a bright light urging her onward.

Skuld's breath shuddered in her chest. She took a gasping inhale, and then another. She supposed, if nothing else, the Heartless were helpful for one thing: they helped keep her distracted, focused less on where she was and more on what she had to do.

Doors loomed in front of her. Skuld didn't even break her stride; she swung Starlight around, pointing it at the entryway. Light flashed from the tip; it struck the door, and something clicked. Skuld slammed into the doors shoulder-first, throwing them open.

Ava hurried across the room. In front of her was a large space, steps leading up towards some sort of pavilion in the back. In the far wall glittered a faint shape. The keyhole.

It looked diseased, almost; it flickered with a sickly light, darkness radiating from it in waves. Something cold and sticky tugged at Skuld's skin and made it prickle. A thrumming sound hummed in her ears and made her legs vibrate.

Skuld took a breath and steadied herself. For as uneasy as this made her feel, she was also achingly relieved; all she had to do was lock the keyhole, and then this mess would clear up.

Lea and Isa would be safe.

So would Xehanort.

Don't think about it.

Skuld moved, footsteps hurried, Starlight lifting—

Her shoulder jerked sideways. Half a second later she registered the pain. Something else hit her side, and suddenly she was falling, breath hissing between her teeth. She hit the ground and slid, cheek and palms tearing open. Her ears rang, but past that, she thought she could hear Ava's distressed cry.

And then came a familiar voice, low and dangerous, making her hair stand on end. "Can't go letting you do that, Dandelion."

Ava snarled and lunged.

A noise from somewhere over Skuld's shoulder; a purple streak shot through the air and hit the fox, breaking her body into trails of flame. "Stay out of this."

Footsteps crunched beside her. Boots appeared in her peripheral vision. The tip of something—a gun? A bow?—ticked the bottom of her chin and forced her head upwards.

The man with the eyepatch watched her, golden eye gleaming. "You're certainly good at finding your way into trouble, aren't you?"

There was something strange in his voice—an echo, almost. Something older. Something ancient. His words gripped Skuld's chest and made her bones creak. His eye pinned her, and for half a moment, she almost forgot to breathe.

And then she blinked, and the feeling was gone, the man stepping back and resting that strange weapon on his shoulder. "Guess it's good I got to you before you did anything too drastic."

He was breathing harder, she realized. His arms tremored slightly. There was a splotch of blood over his chest where his heart should be. He's hurt. Something happened. Did he—was it because of Xehanort?

Her mind caught up to his words, and she repeated, almost incredulous, "Drastic?"

"The keyhole, Dandelion. Do you know how long it's taken to get everything in place? Can't let you go messing things up."

"The key—but—that's supposed to protect the world. Isn't it?"

She'd almost expected a denial. She didn't get it. "That's right."

"Then why would—"

"Because sometimes sacrifices need to be made." The words landed like a weight on her chest. And then he smirked, rolling his shoulders like it wasn't important. "Look, I don't expect you to get it. You don't have the full picture. Of course you'd think sealing the keyhole would be the best thing to do. Got to save all those people, right?" His smirk turned bitter, and Skuld wasn't sure if it was directed at her or himself.

Skuld braced her Keyblade against the ground and used it to prop herself up. "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"It's not. It's just sentimental. And unfortunately for us both, that's not something we can really afford."

It struck her, then. "You don't want to do this."

He laughed, and the sound reverberated against the walls. "Oh, kid. It doesn't matter what I want. It never really has. But here, right now? I don't really care." His gaze swept the room dispassionately. "This ain't my home. Just some place I've been staying for a while. I've seen too many worlds fall for this to have much of an effect anymore. It's just another number at the end of the day."

Something angry burned in Skuld's chest.

The man's head lolled towards her. He looked…amused, almost. "You Dandelions and your angry looks. Can't seem to stop pissing you off, can I?"

She wanted to snap, Then stop giving us reason to, but her mind had snagged on the word before. "Dandelions."

The amusement slid off his face.

"You never answered about why you called me that. And now you're saying it like there's more than one." Skuld used her Keyblade to push herself to her feet. It creaked in her grip.

He gave her a lidded look. "That's not an answer you actually want."

"You don't get to decide that."

"Heh. Well. Guess you'll have to figure it for yourself, won't you?"

He's stalling. If he keeps me talking, then I can't get to the keyhole. And I can't afford to keep asking questions.

She was going to have to fight him, she realized. It wasn't an eventuality she'd entirely prepared for; she'd expected to have to face down Xehanort, not the mysterious man who'd set her free. Somehow, the reality made things both easier and more difficult.

Skuld moved before she had the chance to second guess herself, Keyblade drawn back.

The man parried her. He wielded his weapon like it was a sword, not a gun, and Skuld wondered, somewhere, if this wasn't actually his weapon of choice.

Was he a Keyblade wielder, too?

Skuld took a breath and tried to regain her footing. It didn't matter; she just needed to get past him, and the parry had given her an opening. Instead of trying to fight she sprang forward, snapping her weapon towards the keyhole—

And found herself torn unceremoniously from the ground. A Zero Gravity spell, she realized, but one far stronger than her own, leaving her feeling like she was being crushed as the man slowly turned her to face him.

"You're a real hassle," he said, and his grin was all teeth. "Not willing to give up even when you should. But I guess that's why Ava chose you as a Union Leader."

Union Leader. The word made something squeeze in Skuld's chest, sharp and painful and familiar. "What are you talking about?"

The man's grin broadened.

"You're—you're just trying to distract me. The Union Leaders all disappeared a long time ago."

"They did," the man agreed. "I'm so glad you know the stories. But the funny thing is, they never talk about where the Union Leaders ended up, do they?"

"They were ancient."

"And Brain still ended up in Scala, didn't he?"

The name made her head throb. For a moment, she saw—

(A feathered hat. Someone sitting at a desk.

"Are you still up?"

A quiet huff of laughter. "So are you." A pause. "What are you doing, Skuld?"

"Helping you. Two of us can get things done faster, right?")

She blinked rapidly, trying to dispel the sudden ache in her chest. "Nobody knows if he's the same one," she said, but the words still somehow felt wrong. "He could've just been claiming to be one. Or—or named after one of the Union Leaders. Like—"

"Like you think you were."

"You gave me that name."

"I gave it back."

The spell flickered. Skuld took advantage of the lapse and tried to swing her blade around.

The man lifted his hand and it tightened around her again. "Ah-ah. No running away, now?"

Skuld glared at him.

"What's the matter, Dandelion? You asked for answers. I'm answering. I thought you wanted this?" He gave her a mocking sort of grin.

"You're not answering. You're just stalling for time."

"Well, guess I can't get one past you, can I?"

Skuld wanted to shake her head, but the spell held her tightly in place. "I don't get you," she hissed. "The keyhole's right there. I could seal it. But you'd rather just let the world end?"

"Told you, kiddo, some things just have to happen."

"Why? Because it's—" (because it's written in the Book of Prophecies?) "So what? There are people dying right now, and they matter as much as anyone else."

The man didn't answer.

Somehow, that made Skuld angrier. "Just because you're afraid to do anything but watch—"

Very abruptly the world was spinning, everything a blur. Her back and side slammed into the ground, and after a dazed moment she found herself staring up at the ceiling. She sucked in a breath and abruptly found she couldn't inhale completely, a new spell holding her down.

"So kid," the man said, and his voice was low with a warning, "I think it's better that you don't talk about things you don't understand."

Despite the situation—despite the sudden thrum of fear, the way her heart jack rabbitted in her ribcage, the way her frozen arms wanted to shake—Skuld still forced a grin. "I'm right. You're scared."

She found herself jerked to her feet, the spell holding her suspended. Skuld wondered what kind of magic this man possessed, that he could do something like this. "Because you could do it, too," she said through gritted teeth. "You could seal the keyhole."

The man wasn't smiling now. His eye had a dangerous sort of gleam, sharp as a blade. "Not anymore," he said. "I lost my Keyblade."

Skuld twitched, trying to look back towards the keyhole.

The spell tightened again, and she hissed. "Oh, no, I don't think you'll be getting away that easily. In fact," the man flicked a wrist, and the darkness behind him tore open, "I think it's probably time that you left."

I messed up, she realized, and tried not to panic. I messed up, I—

I need to keep him talking. Until the spell wears off.

"How could you lose your Keyblade?" she asked. It was as much a legitimate question as a distraction; Starlight felt like it was a part of her, as integral to her being as her heart. She wasn't sure how someone could just lose it.

"I don't think you need to know that information."

Not good. Not good, not good, I need to find something that'll stop him—

He thinks I'm a Union Leader.

"You were close to them, weren't you? The Union Leaders?"

If she hadn't been watching him so closely, she might've missed it: the way his shoulders stiffened minutely, the slight twitch around his eye.

"Or—or maybe not close, but you cared about them. That's why you saved me. Because I'm named after one of them. Or—or I reminded you of her." She swallowed, something bitter in her mouth. "And maybe you just gave me her name because of that."

The man studied her. When he laughed, it was a sad, bitter sort of thing. "I didn't really know them that well. I interacted a little with Brain, but—well. He was just my first vessel, really."

An unexplainable anger welled in her chest, and all her plans disappeared as she hissed, "What did you do to him?"

"Saved his life."

Skuld faltered.

"He needed a way to get out of the falling Daybreak Town. The rest of you all needed to use the lifeboats. So I offered him a way out: I could take his body and send his heart somewhere else." He gave her a sardonic sort of look. "I'll spare you the details, but it's not so different to what happened to all of you."

"Falling…"

(The world was crumbling around her, and she felt a helpless sort of panic as she stared at the broken town.)

"Oh, that's right! You don't remember any of that, do you? Well, you'll be happy to know this isn't the first time you've watched a world collapse."

(She was watching Taran's world fall again. She was watching, and wondering why this all seemed so familiar.)

"All of you took advantage of these 'lifeboats' that were left behind. Could take you all across time and space, get you away from the chaos. Unfortunately, the seating was a bit limited. Only the five of you and a single Dandelion got away. There was no real way of knowing where the lot of you would land, but don't worry. I kept track."

(There was something there. Something on the edge of her memory. Something that looked a little like a dark room, filled with strange contraptions, a group of hazy people highlighted by a computer screen.)

"You already know about Ephemer, don't you? He didn't make it far, really. Not even sure if his worked, because he came out the other side in the ruins of Daybreak Town. He built Scala from the remains of that place—but I'm guessing you've heard that story."

(A fountain, in a town hazy with the dawn. A red scarf, twisting in the wind.

"What's on your mind?"

"Oh, uh—nothing, really."

"Ephemer, come on."

"Okay, okay! So I heard this story…")

"Ven—right, that's the kid that wasn't supposed to be there. Well, you'll be happy to know he ended up with other Keyblade wielders. Not that it did him much good in the end. All three of them and their master had some pretty terrible shit happen to them."

(A night in the Clock Tower. Golden hair and a kid who almost radiated light.

"Nightmares again?"

"Oh, Skuld!" A beat, and then a quiet, "Yeah."

"Do you want to talk about it?")

"Lauriam I haven't managed to track down yet. He and his friend have been a bit trickier—who knows? Maybe they didn't make it at all."

("Skuld, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Lauriam, don't worry about me."

"It's a little hard to do that when you're crying, you know."

"I know. It's just—a lot, sometimes."

A quiet hum of acknowledgement and a gentle hug from the side. "I know.")

"And then there's you. You ended up here. And man, talk about surprised. Everyone else I had to hunt down, but you practically fell into my lap. Just appeared in the middle of the courtyard one day. Xehanort was fascinated by you, and I figured—well, it couldn't hurt to encourage that, right? Could maybe keep one of you safe from everything. You know, like I didn't before. Because I was scared." His words had a mocking lilt to them, his lips curling in sarcastic mirth. "Too bad things didn't play out that way, huh?"

Skuld tried to shake her head and was relieved when she could move it slightly. The spell's weakening. Maybe if— "You're lying. There's no way—I came from Scala ad Caelum. I trained with my friends there. I—they're still alive. They're still here."

The man gave her another smile, but this one seemed strangely sincere. Gentle. Kind, almost, but in the unfamiliar way of someone who wasn't entirely used to practicing it. "They aren't," he said, quiet. "They're gone, Skuld. The Dandelions, the Foretellers—everyone. All that's left is us."

Skuld's arms twitched. Starlight hummed to life in her hands. "You're wrong." She jerked, snapping her hand upward with enough force that it broke through the weakening spell, magic buzzing on her tongue.

The man started with surprise as he was lifted by her own Zero Gravity spell; whatever sort of attention he'd been paying to maintain his spell disappeared, and Skuld landed awkwardly on the ground. She barely took the time to steady herself before spinning around to aim at the keyhole.

She was prepared for the shots this time, and whipped around to block them. They ricocheted off her Keyblade, small purple darts digging into the walls and floors and disappearing.

And then a wave of something flared out from the man; a shockwave of energy, hued with magic, powerful enough to dissipate the portal and make the energy around the keyhole flicker. Skuld tried to brace herself and couldn't, thrown from her feet by the force. She hit the steps, then glanced helplessly up towards the keyhole.

The man gave a harsh, broken sort of laugh. "Man. Guess I'm still a little sentimental, after all."

It took a moment for her to realize that she'd lost her grip on Starlight. It took a moment longer to realize that the man was picking it up. "What are you doing?" she asked, something twisting in her chest, terrified and on-edge.

"You know," he said casually, staring at her Keyblade, "Xehanort had the right idea of it. Your memories got all scrambled when the lot of you were thrown through time. They're locked away, deep inside your heart. All you've really got to do is pull them back up."

There was a terrified sort of understand there; a primal fear, pulsing behind her ribcage, and she scrambled backwards, instinctively trying to get away from whoever this person was supposed to be. "Who are you?" she whispered, shaking, reaching desperately for her Keyblade in the hopes that she could call it back.

The man gave her a long look. "Well, I've had a lot of names over the years. The missing Foreteller. The Lost Master. The Apprentice. Brain, of course. Braig. But what you'd know me best by is Luxu."

And then, before she could react, Starlight was sticking out of her chest.

---

…:) :) :)

Thank you Lacan Shinn for reviewing last chapter! For the review response: Glad you think I handled Skuld's troubles well in the previous chapter! Can't say much about the Xehanort thing yet, so…you'll see. For the trope thing, as far as I'm aware, a lot of times as it's used anymore it's just, "Something that's used to tell a story." Essentially, another word for a literary device. That said, I looked it up after your comment, and it HAS been used to mean cliché before, apparently.