A/N: Welcome to Finale Speedrun Hours, have a comparatively short chapter

Everything happened so fast. Terra pressing a keychain into her palm—Master Xehanort's cryptic words—the ground surging upwards, knocking her away from her friends—

Standing and staring upwards, only to see Ven falling from the sky.

Cinderella's heart stopped, and before she could think, she was throwing herself into Ven's path. It wouldn't be enough—she wasn't wearing armor, how could she break his fall, he was going to break her—

But then the keychain in her hand burst into light.

"Drift!" The word tore from her mouth in a desperate prayer. It came from somewhere deep in her chest, a reserve of power she'd barely brushed before. Had it always been there? The energy buzzing through her felt almost like her healing light, but—

But her healing light couldn't suspend Ven over her head, mere paces above the ground.

"Wh-what?" She gasped at the floating boy. He turned in lazy somersaults as she stared. That seemed to be an effect of the magic rather than his own effort, as he'd been frozen solid again. But—but did that mean she'd done this...?

...And what was she holding high above her head?

"No," she whispered, lowering the gleaming white weapon to her eye level. The polished shaft reflected her wide eyes. "I—I'm not a knight, I couldn't..."

And then, before she could pinch herself to see if she was dreaming, someone was crashing into her back. No, not crashing. Hugging. Just—very tightly. Who would hug her? It couldn't be Terra; he was still on the plateau above.

"You saved him," a girl's voice said breathlessly. "You saved him. Light, thank you."

Cinderella pulled herself free and turned to see Terra's other friend—Aqua, he'd said. Her blue eyes were wet and swollen, as if she'd already mourned the friend she'd watched fall.

"I—I don't know what I did," she said honestly, dropping the—the whatever-it-was in her hand. It didn't belong to her.

That didn't stop it from flashing back to her hand as soon as it hit the ground.

"Wait a second, you can use a keyblade now?" Vanitas asked as he caught up to them.

Cinderella stiffened—especially when she saw the exposed part of his face—but the other girl didn't seem alarmed. If anything, she seemed to have anticipated the boy's presence.

"I… suppose so?" Cinderella held up the strange weapon again. Small turrets lined the piece around its handle. The tip bloomed into something resembling a snowflake, or maybe a star. And the keychain dangling from its bottom… was the same one that Terra had handed her.

"I think Terra let me borrow it," she explained. "I'll give it back, I promise."

Vanitas scowled. She was grateful she could see part of his face, even if it didn't bear a pleasant expression. Any face was less scary than that blank mask.

"That's not how keyblades work," he said.

Ven falling the rest of the way to the ground interrupted the questions Cinderella wanted to ask about that matter.

"Auuhhhh…" A low grown came from the back of her friend's throat. Cinderella knelt down beside him, but Aqua was faster.

"Ven, are you okay?" She asked frantically.

"Xehanort froze him, I think it's safe to say he's not okay," Vanitas said. Aqua turned his scowl back on him.

"At least he's alive. No thanks to you."

He bit his lip and turned away, but not before Cinderella saw the pain on his face. He—he wasn't faking again, was he? Aqua seemed to believe him, but Master Xehanort had said—

But Master Xehanort was the one who threw Ven off the cliff. No matter what Terra had believed, the man couldn't be trusted.

(After all, plenty of people had thought her Stepmother wouldn't hurt a child, too.)

"Terra's still up there," Cinderella told Aqua. "He's alone with Xehanort. Can you fly us to the top?"

She didn't know Aqua, but she'd seen her flying contraption—her glider. It was the only way Cinderella could think to reach Terra. She wasn't sure what she could do once she got there, but trying and believing had worked out so far.

"You want to come too?" Aqua asked, surprised.

"Of course. Terra's my friend." Her face warmed, though it was true. He was her friend, even if she loved him more than that.

She just hoped he would live long enough to hear her say it.

The sudden reality of her situation dropped on her. Xehanort had tried to murder a child. Terra was facing him as they spoke. She was asking to help face him. Weapon or no weapon, she wasn't a knight, and this wasn't as simple as standing up to Stepmother or even Vanitas. There was a very likely chance that she, or the people she cared about, could die.

Her hand tightened around the handle of her borrowed weapon. But I might be able to help save them.

"...Alright." Aqua nodded. "You have a keyblade, and we can use any help we can get. Ven will have to stay here, though. There's no more time to lose."

Ven made some vaguely frustrated noises, and Aqua gave him a sympathetic frown before tossing her keyblade through the air. Just like Terra's had on that fateful night, it returned as a magical glider. Aqua hopped on gracefully. Cinderella lifted her skirts and tried to follow, but dropped her keyblade—Terra's keyblade; it wasn't hers, she shouldn't get used to this—in the process.

"Here." Aqua helped her onto the narrow platform she stood on. "Hold onto the side. This isn't meant for three people, but we'll make it work."

"Alright…" She clutched the gray metal in front of her, nearly losing her grip when the keyblade appeared in her hand again. Well, that certainly was convenient.

"You too, Vanitas." Aqua's voice was considerably more intimidating when she spoke to the boy. He hurried quickly to stand on her other side. Cinderella didn't understand; what had Aqua done to make him change his mind about fighting them? Could they really trust him on their side?

It was too late to question it now. Terra needed them.

She held on tightly as Aqua's glider sped up the cliff.

XXX

"VEN!"

Before he could dive off the cliff after his friend, Master Xehanort summoned his keyblade and smacked him back. Terra skidded across the ground. The rough surface tore holes in the back of his tailcoat, but it was nothing compared to the hole in his heart.

Aqua had been right. Master Xehanort was a traitor.

"Why?" He cried out as he got to his feet. "Why would you do this?"

Xehanort's grinned in reply. "Let all that anger out, my boy. Give your heart over to darkness!"

"What?" He summoned his own keyblade and armor, helmet included. He didn't know what Xehanort was capable of, but he wasn't about to try to fight the Master in his tattered formal clothes.

"Still so blind. Was destroying your pitiful friend not enough incentive for you?"

No—Terra refused to believe Ven was dead. Even if a fall like that would be too far for his armor to absorb… there was still a chance. It wasn't over until Terra saw for himself.

"I'll never let you hurt my friends!" Terra roared. Red hazed at the corners of his vision. Power bathed Earthshaker's shaft, coated his armor, flooded his veins. But this power… it wasn't right. The violet glow flickered in response to his unease. This—this was what Xehanort wanted, wasn't it?

"Still so weak!" The old Master teleported forward, striking Earthshaker from Terra's hands. "You see how powerless you are to save them? Ventus, Aqua, your precious Princess—each one of them will meet their ends. And then the last light within you will die!"

"No!" He rose again, held out his arm, called forth his keyblade.

This time, when the raging darkness threatened to engulf him, he didn't fight it. It might destroy him—might even turn him into a monster like Vanitas—but there was no choice.

Ventus. Aqua. Cinderella.

He couldn't let Xehanort hurt them.

"Leave my friends alone!"

Darkness erupted from him. Red burned across his eyes, blurring Xehanort's wide grin.

"Yes, boy, that's it! More! Let your whole heart blacken with anger!"

Anger. The image of Ven frozen and falling to his death replayed in his mind, and the rage overtook him.

XXX

"Terra!" Cinderella dropped off the glider before Aqua had time to land. Her ankle twisted on the landing; she clamped her mouth shut at the pain. One borrowed magic weapon didn't make her a knight. She shouldn't be so reckless.

But seeing Terra locked in battle against his old Master, watching the darkness pouring off of him… Unlike his earlier fight with Vanitas, she had no doubt that Xehanort deserved the justice Terra intended to deliver. There were some people who were too dangerous to be left free.

Still, the violet glow surrounding Terra felt too dangerous—not just to his enemy, but to himself.

"Cin-Cinderella?" His aura flickered when he saw her. She could see one of his eyes through a sharp crack in his visor, and the rest of his armor was already scuffed and dented. "Get out of here! It's not—"

Her feet automatically ran forward when Xehanort called down dark lightning from the gathering clouds. The forking bolts struck inches from Terra's armored boots; sparks jumped to the metal. His leg spasmed in a way that made Cinderella's heart lurch. He still made an effort to run in the direction opposite her—but Xehanort didn't follow.

"Fight me, Xehanort! They're not the ones you want!" His darkness was flaring back with each second that the man ignored him. He tried to draw his attention with a volley of dark projectiles, like Cinderella had seen him use against the Unversed.

Xehanort caught the blasts on the shaft of his blade, sending them ricocheting back. A few caught Terra in the chest, and Cinderella almost cried out—but he barely grunted at the impact. Even damaged as it was, his armor protected him. Cinderella wouldn't have that luxury.

"Ignorant boy. Neither your words nor attacks can save them." Xehanort spun, and suddenly chunks of ice were flying from his blade towards her.

She was not getting frozen again. She dropped to the ground, but Aqua had already leapt in front of her. The ice shattered against a smaller version of her magical barrier.

"Be careful!" she called over her shoulder.

"She's never fought before," Vanitas said, every muscle coiled tight as he stepped forward to stand beside Aqua. "She shouldn't be here. None of us should be here."

Aqua glared at him. "Are you here to fight, or to get in our way?"

He stared ahead at Xehanort. Cinderella saw his throat bob as he swallowed. "Fight."

"Then fight."

He only paused for a moment before nodding and running after Xehanort. Aqua took a moment to help Cinderella to her feet.

"Thank you. I'm sorry, I… he's right. I've never fought before. I'm not a knight like you."

Aqua blinked at that. "I'm not—nevermind. I'm sorry you got caught up in this, but I don't think we have a choice anymore."

"I know. I'll try not to get in your way."

"You know magic though, right? Stay back and try some long-range spells. Vanitas, Terra, and I will handle him up close."

"Um, I don't—"

Before Cinderella could explain that she'd only ever used magic on accident, Aqua had already run back into the chaos.

"Magic… right." She frowned at her white keyblade thoughtfully. "What were those words Fairy Godmother used… bippity boppity boo?"

Nothing happened. Of course, fairy magic might be different from whatever she was capable of. She shook her head and gripped the weapon with both hands.

"Come on…" What had she done to save Ven? She'd held the keyblade high, and said… "Drift?"

"Gah!" Vanitas cried out as he suddenly floated and spun in the air. One of Xehanort's strikes shattered the remainder of his mask—and probably would have ended him, if Aqua hadn't been there to force the Master back. Terra was helping too, swinging his keyblade in powerful arcs that Xehanort was forced to block with a hand gloved in darkness.

"I'm sorry!" Cinderella called, desperately wishing that she knew how to aim.

Xehanort was still a teleporting blur between Terra and Aqua; even their combined efforts couldn't hold him off forever. Her floating spell might have been able to hold him still, if she'd been able to catch him with it. She didn't dare try again, though. Vanitas was right. She didn't know what she was doing, and simply believing couldn't solve everything.

She watched with her heart in her throat as the Master knocked Terra and Aqua back with a gusting sweep of his blade. His laugh cut across the battlefield, sending a shiver down her spine.

"Watch closely, Terra. Your friends are about to witness a true Keyblade Master's power."

XXX

That stupid Princess! Why had she insisted on coming? She couldn't fight, she couldn't protect herself—and now she'd trapped Vanitas in a Zero Gravity spell, where he couldn't interfere as Xehanort teleported away from Terra's slashing strike.

For a moment Vanitas was sure he would reappear behind Cinderella. The Princess was important to him, enough to have kept him in the Castle of Dreams for days—but Cinderella wasn't a pressing threat.

And Aqua was.

"NO!" Vanitas screamed as Xehanort flashed behind Aqua and grabbed her by the throat.

He couldn't move. No amount of struggling could free him from the Princess' wayward spell.

All he could do was watch in horror as his Master choked the life out of the one person he cared about.

"Aqua!" Terra's darkness flared again, like a bonfire soaked in oil. Stupid, stupid! She'd come here to save him and now Xehanort was going to possess him anyway, her sacrifice would be for nothing—

But Xehanort didn't possess the idiot yet. The fingers of his free hand clenched, and earth encased Terra's feet. Then, Xehanort's gaze unexpectedly turned to Vanitas.

"You could have done this yourself, boy. Then I would have given you all you wanted. Ventus. The X-Blade. A chance to be more!"

The one consolation of the Zero Gravity spell was that he couldn't flinch at his Master's words. He was wrong, anyway—Vanitas couldn't have the X-Blade. Ventus wasn't strong enough, or Vanitas wasn't dark enough… or Xehanort had lied.

But… even if it was possible… it wasn't all he wanted. Not anymore.

He watched Aqua claw at Xehanort's hand, slash and kick at his legs. When she realized her efforts were useless, the green light of a Cure flickered down her keyblade—but a pulse of darkness from Xehanort's fingers devoured the glow.

Bile rose in Vanitas's throat. That could've been him. It had been him, choking the life from her—she'd screamed then, but now she didn't even have the strength for that. She'd wasted that strength fighting Vanitas twice today; there was no way she would go down like this otherwise.

Right then he'd give anything to have the X-Blade, if only to destroy Xehanort before he could end her.

"Instead, you lied to me," Xehanort rasped. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you cared for her. But a monster cannot care for anything."

His grip tightened. Aqua's eyes rolled back in her head.

And Vanitas snapped.

"I. Am not. A monster!"

The Zero Gravity spell released him. He landed in a crouch and bolted forward, darkness streaming off of him in waves of half-formed Unversed. Hatred, fear, desperation, fury. The emotions didn't matter, so long as they gave him the power to stop Xehanort, to free Aqua before the unthinkable happened.

Because he did care, and he didn't come this far to let Xehanort kill her.

Xehanort dropped Aqua in a crumpled heap and turned to embrace Vanitas's attack. What—?

Terra had broken free; he was flying in on Xehanort's other side. Even Cinderella was rushing towards them. But the old Master was smiling.

That smile remained even as Vanitas's keyblade impaled itself in his stomach.

"I knew you still had some use left in you, boy. At last, the moment is here."

"Xehanort!" Terra snarled, baring his darkness-sheathed keyblade. "It's over!"

The Master laughed as a glowing orb floated from his chest. His heart.

"No, that is where you are wrong. This is only the beginning!"

Vanitas's mouth hung open. Numbness smothered his burgeoning Unversed. He'd known Xehanort's plan, and still he'd played right into it.

The Master had never needed to win. He'd only needed to die, near a vessel sufficiently tainted by darkness.

"Terra, run!" Vanitas screamed. "You're the one he wants!"

"What—?" But Terra still stood there, blazing with darkness. At some point during the fight his visor had cracked, revealing a wide blue eye. If he didn't move, that eye would soon bleed to gold.

Xehanort's heart shot towards him—

XXX

"No!" Cinderella's keyblade fell as she threw herself in front of Terra. Even as his darkness threatened to explode, her arms stretched wide in front of him. She knew that magic orb would strike her back, but she wanted her last moments to be spent facing him.

Terra's eye stared disbelievingly at her through the crack in his visor. "Cin—"

"Shh," she hushed him through her tears. "Terra, I lo—"

The spell struck. It thudded between her shoulder blades, knocking her forward into Terra's arms. Funny, she'd thought a magical orb would shoot right through her, maybe even burn her from the inside out. Instead it felt more like the time Anastasia had lobbed a high-heeled shoe at her.

"Cinderella! Are you okay?" Terra was shaking her. She drew in a sharp breath at his touch; the dark aura surrounding him burned her skin. Slowly it was retreating though, taking her pain with it.

"I'm fine," she said, burying her face in his shoulder. The warm metal wasn't particularly comfortable, but it was him, and he was alright. ...Probably would have been alright if she hadn't jumped in front of the attack, actually. He likely wouldn't have felt the impact through his armor. Why had Vanitas sounded so terrified?

"Of course you are, you're a Princess." Vanitas's voice startled her. "You're lucky. If you were anyone else, you'd be Xehanort's puppet right now."

"His what?" Terra asked, his arms tightening around her. Which she appreciated, but now hardly seemed like the right time. Xehanort certainly had more magic left in him than that one spell; what if he—

"No matter."

Still encircled by Terra's arms, she spun at the old Master's voice. His body had become translucent—what kind of magic did that?—but he still wore that same eerie smile. He stretched out a twisted hand, and the orb that had struck her returned to his palm.

"Terra was just one of many roads that I could choose to take. Trust me. I made certain of that."

Cinderella saw Vanitas's eyes widen, and then the orb sped towards him.

XXX

Vanitas took everything back. Dying would have been better than this. If Xehanort stole his body, paraded around in his skin, used his hands to destroy Aqua, while he was forced to watch helplessly from the inside—

He ran. He wouldn't be fast enough, but Void, he wasn't just going to stand there.

Two strides. Three strides. Four. Surely it should've hit by now. What game was Xehanort playing? His Master didn't make mistakes. He didn't show weakness, or mercy. Was he just waiting for Vanitas to turn so he'd see his Master's sick enjoyment as his body was taken over, his limbs no longer obeying his commands—?

He couldn't take it. He stopped and turned.

And saw Aqua kneeling, her hand outstretched to hold a barrier around Xehanort's glowing heart.

"Aqua!" She was alive conscious breathing and she'd saved him how—?

"You," she growled at Xehanort. His physical form was fading quickly, dimming with each second that his heart spent separated from it. "How dare you hurt my friends."

Vanitas's chest warmed. Was he included in those friends? ...Probably not. Saving him was a side effect of stopping Xehanort, nothing more.

For the first time, the Master's composure flickered. A sneer curled his lips.

"You think you can stop me with a measly Barrier? I have prepared my whole life for this—"

Her eyes narrowed in grim determination. "And I've prepared the last five seconds for this."

She closed her fist, imploding her barrier—and collapsing Xehanort's heart.

His body froze. Flickered like a shadow succumbing to the first ray of sunlight. But his snarling face was more terrifying than ever.

"You… if my pathetic apprentice had killed you like he was supposed to…"

Vanitas flinched, as if even now his Master would stretch out his hand to deliver punishment.

"But he didn't." Aqua's jaw was set firmly. Despite what the Master had done to her, no fear shone in her eyes. "Goodbye, Xehanort."

The last remnants of his shattered heart floated upward. His body dissolved like static, until there was no trace of the man Vanitas had feared for so long.

He stumbled forward, passing his hand through the space where Xehanort had been. Nothing. Sweet, empty nothing.

"He's… he's gone," he breathed. "He's really gone."

No more torturous training. No more threat of electrocution or scarring upon failure. No more… anything.

He collapsed to his knees, Unversed of exhaustion threatening to pour from him. He grit his teeth and reigned them in. He might still need the strength. Xehanort was gone, but that didn't mean Terra and Aqua would let him live.

He'd asked her to kill him. She hadn't refused.

When he felt her kneel beside him and wrap her arms around his neck, he was sure it was an attempt to strangle him. It would be a fitting retribution, after what she'd suffered at his and Xehanort's hands. But her now-armorless grip was too loose, too soft. And she was shaking as much as he was.

"He's gone, Vanitas," she whispered near his ear. "You're safe now."

...Safe? What did safe feel like?

Tears fell onto her bare shoulder as he leaned into her non-fatal embrace. She was… hugging him. Why? Didn't she hate him for lying to her?

"You're… not going to kill me?"

Her laugh came out mixed with a sob. She was crying too?

"No. No one's going to kill you."

His shoulders shook with the tears he no longer held back. Her hand ran through his hair, just as gentle as when she'd thought he was a normal boy. She wasn't going to hurt him. No one was going to hurt him.

As his trembling arms reached up to wrap around her back, he thought maybe safe felt like this.

A/N: rest in fricking pieces xehanort. I hope you rot in hell

Next chapter: characters will actually have time to TALK TO EACH OTHER! Yay!

There was probably something else i meant to write here but. Its midnight. Goodnight

Friendly reminder that if you comment i would probably die for you