Category: Friendship Fluff
Characters: Ventus, Terra, Aqua
Terra awoke with a strangled gasp, fisting the damp sheets as he bolted upright in bed. Ragged, strangled gasps tumbled from his lungs, and cold sweat poured down his pallid, clammy skin. Slowly, the visions of darkness and icy rush of fear melted from his system, making him bonelessly flop against the headboard. He drew his palm across his face, catching the sweat in the ridges of his hand; he then dropped his arm against the mattress and tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling with an exhausted sigh. He traced the patterns of the rafters through lidded eyes, trying to occupy his addled mind with meaningless drivel as the fear and doubt and guilt tried to creep back in from the shadows.
The sharp claws of nausea pawed at his belly, making bile bubble up into his throat. Reconciling with the fact that sleep would not find him for quite some time, he tossed the covers off himself and slipped out of bed. The tiled floor was cold against the soles of his feet as he shambled barefoot out of the room, allowing muscle memory to guide him through the gilded halls of the castle situated at the center of the Land of Departure. He couldn't find his way consciously, as his mind was too spent from struggling with phantasms of past mistakes.
Moonlight streamed in from the stained-glass windows to dapple across his broad shoulders and throw dark shadows up in odd places. In a moment of lapsing mind, the darkness seemed to bulge up behind him in a hostile mass, latching onto his shoulders like a parasite ready to suck all the light left within him. With a strangled cry, Terra whirled around, unconsciously drawing his Keyblade. The hairs on the back of his neck rose to catch the sweat rolling down from his dampened brown tresses as he searched the darkness warily, terrified to find the glint of golden eyes lurking within. Only the pale starlight and the empty air of the long hall greeted him.
Terra groaned, rubbing at the clammy flesh at the back of his neck as he sheathed his weapon with a faint sparkle of light. He rubbed his face again, struggling to retain a shred of sanity. Ever since finally ridding himself of Xehanort's parasitic presence, Terra had grappled with paranoia and night terrors. It was just so hard to believe that the nefarious pariah was truly no longer plaguing the worlds; Terra would see visions of him, stalking in the dark corners of his vision and melting out of the shadows. He'd have to convince himself that it was only a trick of the mind, a mere ghost that couldn't hurt him.
The guilt was harder to reconcile with. If Terra hadn't been so reckless, so weak to the beguile of the darkness within him, maybe things would've gone differently.
"Ugh. Stop that, Terra," he chastised himself as he mushed the skin of his face with his palms. He teased into the fronds of his chocolate-colored hair and grimaced at the uncomfortable sensation of the sweat clinging to the strands. Suddenly finding the wide hall stifling, he renewed his pace to quickly exit the castle, stepping out into the starry night sky's wide, welcoming arms. The glittering pinpricks of the stars and the endless expanse of indigo blue brought a weary smile to his face. Anytime things got tough, he'd recall that promise the three of them made to each other beneath those same stars, an oath that took much too long to fulfill.
Terra strode out into the nighttime tranquility, the long grasses kissing the fabric of his pants. The starlight enveloped him like an old friend, bathing him in pale whiteness. Terra inhaled deeply, and as the cool air flooded his nostrils, he almost imagined that he was inhaling the celestial light itself, the stardust nourishing his bones and blood to lull him into a sense of peace. A gentle smile worked onto his face as he finally felt the tension melt from his shoulders.
Just as Terra made it to the iron-wrought fencing, leaning against it to gaze into the Land of Departure stretching on before him, he heard a sleepy, "Terra…?" He glanced behind him to see Ventus shambling tiredly down the sloped grassy hill, rubbing at his eye as a yawn split his face. "What're you doing up so early?" Aqua strolled behind him; her blue eyes narrowed in an acute sense of worry. Terra found himself chuckling. He'd escaped the castle to find some sense of solitude, but it seemed the universe had other plans.
"Did you have a bad dream?" Ah, Aqua, perceptive as always. Terra smiled defeatedly at the tall, lithe woman as she strode up, head cocked to the side in curiosity. There was no point in lying to her, so he just nodded. Aqua smiled sympathetically and leaned her side against the iron railing. The somber look in her sea-blue eyes told him that Aqua herself was no stranger to the night's unnerving terrors. Terra exhaled deeply and pressed down against the railing, pushing his weight down onto his outstretched legs as he balanced his crossed arms and torso onto the metal structure. His eyes reflected the glittering landscape of the stars, hollowly, like opaque glass.
"Ten years. Ten years I wasted as that man's slave," he breathed. His voice fogged in the air as if metamorphosizing into the ghost that his soul was that long, dark decade. "All because I wasn't strong enough." His head dropped as he uttered the sentence, chin thumping against his sternum.
"Terra!" Ventus interjected, jumping forward to grab onto the hem of his form-fitted shirt. Terra had to smile; spending ten years asleep as a fractured heart didn't make him any less childish. Ventus' blue eyes regarded him worriedly as he pawed at the shirt. "It's not your fault. It's Xehanort's."
"Yeah. I know, Ven," Terra chuckled and reached out to affectionately ruffle the younger boy's hair. Ventus' giddy smile was infectious, curling Terra's lips upwards subconsciously. However, the hollow shadow of doubt pulsed in Terra's chest. So how many times he tried to convince himself that the decades-long sequence of events resulted from forces out of his control. Then, he'd think back to the Mark of Mastery examination, to the flicker of darkness that intrigued Xehanort and made the old man zero in on his newest pawn.
Even if Terra had been pure and rejected the darkness completely, the guilt would have stayed. He failed to stop Xehanort, dooming a new generation of children to take up the mantle and shattering dozens of hearts in the process. If it had just ended there, the Organization would have never been created, nor all those souls twisted to darkness. If it had just ended there, Sora's world never would have fallen into ruin to plunge him into a harrowing and dangerous journey spanning the worlds. If it had just ended there, so much heartbreak could have been avoided.
I should have been stronger. No one else should've had to clean up after us!
"Terra." Aqua's voice called to him like the shining light of a lighthouse to a vessel traversing a perilous sea. His head swiveled in search of her soft voice, her pale face, finding her sparkling blue eyes regarding him warmly. Her hand slipped up the meat of his muscular arms to rest just at the base of his deltoid, the gentle touch soothing him in ways words never could. "No one blames you. Please stop blaming yourself." His eyes narrowed sadly as Aqua gazed intently at him. "If these long years have proved anything, it is that we cannot shoulder these burdens alone. It was always meant for us to come together to stop his great evil. The path to happiness is often paved with mistakes and heartbreak."
Damn. Aqua was always so poetic.
"Yeah!" Ventus grinned, shoving his head underneath Terra's arm to flash him a toothy smile. "So many cool things woulda never happened if things went differently. We never would've traveled the world and experienced all those things. Sure, Xehanort made the organization and split himself into two. If his Heartless was never created, Sora wouldn't have gone on his journey and met all his wonderful friends. If the Nobodies were never made, Lea never woulda met his friends! Roxas and Naminé and Xion wouldn't even exist. All of these connections and friendships that we can enjoy now would never have been made in the first place," he pointed out. As always, Terra found himself cheered by the boy's boundless optimism. Ventus giggled as Terra slung his beefy arm around the back of his neck and hugged him into his chest.
"Man, you're so right. You'd be stuck with us boring grown-ups instead of all the kids your age, huh, Ven?" The blond laughed mirthfully as he wriggled in Terra's grip.
"But I like you guys! You're my best friends!"
"It's okay, Ven. You don't have to make us feel better," Terra joked. Ventus pushed on Terra's ribs to pry himself free, head popping up to display his pout and the more-poofy-than-usual tufts of honey-blond hair sticking up at odd angles thanks to Terra's manhandling.
"I mean it! Anyway, why are you derailing from the conversation?" Terra snorted and resumed leaning against the railing, shaking his head. When he looked back up at the starry sky, the light had returned to his eyes, making his blue irises shine like the waves of the sea.
"I'm not. I'm just feeling better, I guess."
"Well, that's good," Aqua offered appreciatively. Terra only hummed in response, appreciating the brilliance of the celestial bodies flickering above. All those words contained within the stars, traversed by generations of Keyblade wielders in a chronicle far from over. He wondered what the next stage of their journey held, what chapter would unfold in the coming days. He supposed it didn't matter; as Aqua said, they were all tied by destiny, and their fates would unfurl soon enough.
Terra could now face the future bravely, bolstered by his two dearest friends in all the many, many worlds.