To further clarify on the shipping issue: I'm not shooting anything down either. I'm not writing any of these friendships with romance in mind, but everyone is free to interpret things however they'd like. :) Maybe there are some crushes here and there. Just know there won't be any kissing or confessions in the future.

Chapter 34: Lingering Will

"Darkness rules your heart—it gives me control. Muscle and sinew that once obeyed you now rebels against you. How you can remain here at all confounds the mind."

The cloudy grey void around them extended into eternity, growing progressively darker until it became utterly black. A faint golden aura outlined the two in the center of this pocket of space as they spoke. The older one could not hide his arrogance as his ancient, cracked lips formed the words.

The younger one simply shook his head in response, his long brown hair waving slightly. "It's still my heart. You think you can just come in and take over? I'm not gonna sit by and let that happen." A fist clenched.

"Hmph." The slightest smirk came to the ancient man's face. "Don't even entertain any notions of escaping me, boy. In the end, your heart will be engulfed by mine forever."

"Wrong." The old man frowned at the young man's simple, calm response. "You're gonna get shown the door, old man."

The smirk returned, a definite smugness behind it and accentuating his voice. "As I recall, you couldn't even handle your own darkness. How, then, will you triumph over mine?"

He chuckled softly and shut his eyes. "You'll find out soon enough."

"Oh?" The older man's glowing golden eyes widened and then narrowed. "So that's how it is, is it? Someone else has set foot in your heart." The younger man couldn't hide a smile, confirming the elder's suspicions. "Eraqus, you sly fox..."

The young man raised his arms. "I'm not afraid of what the darkness holds now." A hand moved over his muscular chest, interrupting the X pattern strapped across it. "Even if you do wrest control of my heart from me—even if you cast me into the deepest, darkest abyss—you'll never sway me from the one cause that pushes me to keep on fighting." Another smile; he showed no fear. "Whatever the cost, I'm ready to pay it."

"Brave words, to be sure," the older man responded. "But I'm a patient man. We can take as much time as we need to settle this little property dispute. However, know this: you are just one of many roads that I might choose to take." The younger man's eyes narrowed as he spoke, a frown crossing his face. The older man grinned. "Trust me. I made certain of that."

x-x-x

"…and then Olaf pops his head off his shoulders just so we pay attention to him, while telling Kristoff 'You hesitated" in the most deadpan voice I'd ever heard."

"His whole head?"

"His head! He just took it right off!"

Riku had been grinning at Xion's story as they left the castle's kitchen, and now he finally burst into laughter at the mental image of a little showman holding his head up with spindly twig arms. Xion grinned beside him, turning around and stepping backwards so she could get a good look at his smiling face. Riku noticed that as his laughter died down and he quirked an eyebrow while his grin turned into a smirk.

"Something up?"

Xion flashed a toothy smile and spun on one foot, walking forward now. "Just glad to see you in a good mood."

Riku chuckled again. "I think the two of us have pretty firmly established 'it feels good to laugh' quite a bit by now, huh?"

"Well, maybe it needs even more testing!" Xion replied over her shoulder as they turned a corner in the long carpeted hallway.

Riku shrugged. "Hey, if you got any more stories."

Xion brought a hand to her chin and hummed thoughtfully, but wasn't thinking it over as much as she was pretending to. She had shared him most of the funny moments over cake—red velvet with vanilla icing, courtesy of the castle's chef Gus. Turning to Riku, Xion said, "What about you, hm? What happened while you were on your own?"

Riku's eyes grew downcast for just the slightest of moments; Xion barely noticed it, in fact. Before he could respond to her question properly, footsteps came down from the far end of the long hall they were in. The approaching figure was dressed in a violet gown and wearing a golden tiara—and most notably, a duck. Xion thought she looked rather familiar, and as she grew closer it registered. During the last visit to Disney Castle, this was the same duck woman who had called Queen Minnie out of the audience chamber to help with some problem or another.

She smiled as she saw Riku and Xion, the kind of smile someone has when they find what they're looking for. Picking up the pace, she hurried the rest of the way down the hall to the two of them.

"I'm glad I found you!" Her voice was clear, not at all scratchy like Donald or his nephews.

"Daisy?" Riku questioned. Xion looked at him with a bit of surprise. They'd met?

"Hello to you too, Riku!" Daisy replied. "It's so good to have you back at the castle after all this time. Oh! Sorry, I didn't come here just to catch up." Riku and Xion exchanged glances at each other while Daisy cleared her throat and stood with her back straight. "The King requests the two of you join him at the Hall of the Cornerstone. It's something important to your mission."

Riku and Xion looked to one another once more, and Xion read the confusion evident on Riku's face. Did her own expression match, she wondered? Well, if King Mickey wanted them at the Hall of the Cornerstone, then that's where they'd go. Xion turned back to Daisy and bowed awkwardly back at the noblewoman.

Riku did likewise. "Thanks, Daisy," he added almost as an afterthought. Xion had to suppress laughter. A royal atmosphere just did not fit him—or her either for that matter!

Daisy turned to watch the two of them as they moved down the halls, toward the stairs that would lead them up into the colonnade. When they had rounded the corner and left her line of sight, she laughed lightly and shook her head. "Those royal decree things just aren't me!"

The hallway led to a large foyer as Riku and Xion continued down it. A balcony stood partway up the high-ceilinged room, with two twisting staircases descending down opposing walls to travel up, and it was all decorated with sparkling white railing to prevent anybody from falling off. If one looked closely, the railing was embedded with the three circles representing the King on each post, and the three chandeliers hanging high above the foyer mimicked the royal sigil.

As Xion and Riku moved to the stairs, walking past animated brooms and the occasional dogman musketeer, a droll, monotone voice caught her attention. It was coming from the first floor, in a side room. Motioning to Riku to wait for a moment, Xion hurried over to the room in question, opened the door a crack, and peaked inside.

"To review, all triangles have three sides and the relations between these sides are known as ratios. Trigonometry is the branch of mathematics that deals with the properties and…"

It was a classroom, and the teacher a horse. Xion didn't recognize most of the students, not that there were many. This must have been a private class, which'd make sense at the castle. But one she did notice was Max. And he saw her too, waving…then pointing at his lips and motioning at her?

"Max," the teacher called in that same monotone. The boy flinched and looked back to the front of the classroom. "If you could give me your full attention. Name the three secondary trigonometric ratios. You may begin."

"Um, uh, ah…" Max mumbled, growing red in the face.

Xion snickered and silently wished Max lucked as she closed the door quietly, the teacher never having noticed her. Still though…what had Max been trying to say to her? Xion brought a hand to her lips and her fingers met something white and creamy. She wiped across her lips then pulled her hand away, staring at it for a few seconds before registering what she was looking at.

"Frosting?"

Riku's chuckles came from nearby, and she turned to see him grinning at her from the bottom of the nearer staircase. He had noticed it!

"Why didn't you tell me?" Xion asked, her angry glare countered by her actions as she licked the treat off her fingertips.

"It was funny!" Riku replied.

Xion groaned and rubbed her face. "Ugh, all the castle workers saw me with lunch left on my face..." Especially Daisy, who she had been face-to-face with. Riku snickered again and she punched him in the shoulder as she started up the stairs. "And you'd have had me meet with the King like that too!"

"Come on, Mickey wouldn't have cared," Riku said as he walked up behind her.

It did not go unnoticed by Xion that Riku called the King by his first name instead of using his title; in fact, he did that back at the library too. They must have been close. "No, I guess not," she admitted. "But still, he's a king..."

"Alright… Sorry then, Xion."

The conversation trailed off there, Riku and Xion opting to look around at their surroundings instead. Xion was sure both of them had the same thought going through their head: what was the King going to talk about at the Hall of the Cornerstone? There wasn't much use speculating, though; it's not like it was days away or anything.

No parts of Disney Castle could be called dark, but things brightened up considerably as they ascended the stairs and came up to the ground floor. The sun was directly over the central courtyard, its rays shining brightly down onto the grass and into the colonnade; so brightly, in fact, that Xion had to shield her eyes. As she looked away from the sun she turned her head down the corridor and frowned. The carpet looked messed up, like something had been running frantically down it. No, wait; more than one. It was too messy for just one person. Xion glanced up again, and saw Riku carefully scanning the far end of the colonnade's loop around the courtyard. He had noticed too. Would whatever had messed up the carpet come by for another lap?

Loud barking followed by an angry screech came from their right, and Xion and Riku whirled around just in time to see a little black blur zoom past their feet. It had some trouble turning at the corner and skidded around, scuffing up the carpet more.

"Was that a cat?" Xion asked, dumbfounded at the sight.

"I-I think so?" Riku added, dumbfounded. He tugged on a lock of his hair for a moment, thinking. "Queen Minnie has a cat named Figaro, so—"

More barking interrupted Riku, coming from the direction the cat—Figaro—had just abandoned. Something yellow and on four legs, not as fast as Figaro had been, came barreling down the colonnade and making folds in the carpet behind it. Its running was clumsy, and instead of turning the corner it slammed right into the wall.

"Pluto!" Xion and Riku exclaimed at the same time as the dog climbed into a sitting position and shook his head in a daze. Xion glanced at her friend for a moment, and then shook her head. Of course he knew Pluto; he had traveled with the King.

Xion moved over to the dazed dog and kneeled down to get a good grip on his neck for scratching. "Hey there, boy," she said with a grin. Pluto barked happily, his earlier chase forgotten as he reunited with Xion. She giggled at his wagging tail and gave him a quick hug. Dogs were great. "Was that the Queen's cat you were after?"

Pluto barked in affirmation, but then lifted one of his ears and tilted his head. His curious gaze moved past Xion, behind her—to Riku. Immediately he jumped up onto all four legs and ran right past Xion, barreling into Riku and knocking him onto the floor. Xion's heart stopped for an instant; was Pluto attacking him? Why? Could he feel Ansem inside him…? Was there part of Ansem left?!

But her fears were unfounded, as Xion soon learned. It wasn't an attack; Pluto's tail was wagging so fast that he could probably fly, and it wasn't his teeth he was shoving into Riku's face—it was his tongue. Riku was sputtering as Pluto licked him frantically and sat on his chest, waving his arms and trying to shake off the hound.

"Hey!" Riku spat out some dog slobber from his mouth. "It's good to see you too, boy! Come on, get off!"

Xion broke into laughter at the sight. The calm, collected Riku losing his cool with a dog was just too much—not to mention the payback! If Xion almost had to deal with almost seeing the others with frosting on her lips, then Riku would go in with his face soaked in dog slobber. That's just karma.

Pluto finally gave in to Riku's pleas and hopped off his chest, then bounded back over to Xion. Still chuckling, she scratched him behind the ears. Riku groaned and pulled off his jacket, rubbing his cheek with it. When his face was visible again, he was shooting Xion another glare. Xion bit back more laughter; his face was glistening with Pluto's spit.

"Something funny?"

"You could say that."

Shaking his head, Riku climbed up to his feet and his gaze shifted from Xion to Pluto, whose tongue was hanging out of his mouth and whose tail was still wagging. The teen cracked a smile. "Ah, I can't stay mad at you." Pluto barked in approval.

"Great!" Xion said with a grin. "Come on, let's keep moving. Pluto, you coming?" Xion didn't glance back at Riku behind her, certain he wouldn't be as forgiving with her as with the dog. But as she and Pluto moved down the colonnade, Riku's regular footsteps followed behind without further comment from him. There were grunts, though, as he continued to wipe his face. But eventually those grunts gave way to soft chuckles, and Xion smiled as she glanced down at Pluto beside her.

Xion came to a stop as they finally arrived at their destination: the massive pair of doors leading to the audience chamber. Pluto walked up to the smaller door embedded within it and sniffed, then turned around and sat on his haunches to face Xion and Riku. Xion raised her fist to knock on the door, but Riku's question stopped her.

"Why are we here?"

"Huh?" Xion lowered her hand and turned around to face her friend.

Riku scratched the back of his neck and shook his head. "The audience chamber—why here? Aren't we supposed to be going to this 'Cornerstone Hall' place?"

Xion blinked and tilted her head, confused. What did he mean? This was the way. "Oh…" Then it clicked. "You've never been to the Hall of the Cornerstone?"

"Uh…no," he said carefully. "Should I have?"

Xion smiled. "Just stand back and watch." She turned around again to open the door, but Pluto jumped to the task before her. With his backside still facing the door, he raised up his thin tail and knocked it against the purple wood in a rhythmic pattern: one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three-four-five.

The doors creaked and the faint sound of gears turning came from within the thick wood. The smaller section swung open, allowing them to pass through comfortably if they ducked down ever so slightly. The audience chamber was empty, and the three pairs of eyes fell on the throne at the far end. It was not in the center of the room; rather, it and the elevated ground it sat on moved aside, revealing a staircase leading down below.

Riku stared at it, his eyebrows raised in slight surprise. Xion and Pluto continued onward, walking down the exceedingly long carpet and toward the staircase. A moment later she heard Riku jogging to catch up.

"This hall is beneath the audience chamber?"

"The King really never took you there?"

Riku shook his head. "No, never."

"The Cornerstone of Light is apparently made out of a piece of the true Kingdom Hearts," Xion said, recalling what King Mickey had said during her first visit to the castle. "It keeps darkness out of this world. Heartless can't enter."

"I see…"

Their footsteps echoed when they finally came to their destination, the vast chamber that was the Hall of the Cornerstone. Pluto ran ahead with a bark, greeting King Mickey happily while he stood near the Cornerstone itself. Donald and Kairi were on the other side of the large orb of light, with Kairi reading off instructions on a paper to Donald while he focused magic in front of him. Goofy and Sora were watching, but their heads turned to Riku and Xion when Pluto caught their attention.

Xion bit her lip as she looked at everyone—all of them were here, and they had been waiting for the two of them. She bowed slightly. "Sorry, if we had known we were the last ones we'd have come quicker."

King Mickey laughed and patted Pluto on the head. "Not to worry, Xion. We're still waitin' on one more person!"

Xion's concerns were calmed somewhat, but still she rubbed her arm and mumbled an apology. There was an awkward silence following that, so she scanned the room for a subject to switch to.

"Um, what's Donald doing?"

Sora looked over his shoulder at the two spellcasters, watching Donald struggle to hold the magic in front of him stable, then turned back to Xion with a grin. "Trying to open a door to another world. Kairi's reading him some of Master Yen Sid's notes on it."

"Yen Sid?" Riku asked. "The guy you told me about?" That must have been after she left the library, Xion figured.

Goofy laughed. "Oh right, Riku hasn't met'm yet! Well—"

SHOOM.

"Wak!"

A wave of light radiated out from the Cornerstone, illuminating the entirety of the Hall and for a brief moment making everything blindingly white. The wave collided with Donald's magic spell, throwing the spellwork into chaos and knocking both him and Kairi away.

"No!" Donald shouted, jumping up to his feet and waving his staff. Sora, meanwhile, was at Kairi's side immediately and helping her up. "I gotta get it back under control!"

Sparks and rays were flying from the blue-white light that undulated and contorted. Waves of power surged out of it, creating winds that made it impossible to advance toward the center of the arcane storm. Donald let out a cry and dived toward his collapsing work, trying to salvage some of it before all that effort went down the drain, but Goofy grabbed him and pulled him back.

The chaos began to stabilize somewhat, taking on an elliptical shape. Xion narrowed her eyes; it was rather reminiscent of the corridors of darkness, but blue and white and surging with a brilliant light.

"The Lanes Between?" Mickey called out over the chaos. Immediately the Kingdom Key D was in his hand; and, Xion realized a moment later, her own Keyblade had formed in her grip without her willing it to. Beams of light fired from the tips of the weapons, as well as Sora and Riku's which had been forcefully summoned alongside Xion's, and converged on the chaotic portal. The effect was immediate; the blue light gave way to a shimmering gold that blended with the white, and the portal began to contort and stabilize into a different shape—a keyhole shape.

"It's a Gate!" Xion gasped as the storm died down. Yes, golden keyhole-shaped portals meant only one thing.

Blue robes shuffled across the floor as the tall, imposing figure stepped out of the Gate, his pointy blue hat just barely passing under the upper limits of the portal. A stern, but not malicious, look was on his face and accentuated by his large eyes.

"Master Yen Sid?" Donald asked. He strained his neck to look at the closing Gate behind the aging wizard. "Did I open that Gate?!" His face was beaming as he locked eyes with Yen Sid, but Yen Sid smiled and shook his head.

"My apologies for the light show; are your eyes unharmed?" Yen Sid chuckled lightly, though a bit of worry shone in his eyes. "I felt Donald attempting to open the Lanes Between, but much like the worlds the Lanes hold darkness within them, and I knew the Cornerstone would react violently. I tried my best to turn the spell into one to open a Gate, though it seems I was a tad slow. Luckily the Keyblades stabilized the Gate, or else that could have been catastrophic."

Donald's face fell and he grumbled, kicking at the floor. As Xion watched Yen Sid's arrival with confusion, it clicked; he's who King Mickey said they had been waiting for! …But why?

Before the King could greet his old Master, Riku stepped forward instead. "So you're Yen Sid?" he asked, a gruff tone in his voice, but nonetheless bowing his head slightly.

"Riku, show some respect!" Kairi admonished him, but Yen Sid took it in stride; he simply smiled lightly and stroked his beard.

"Indeed I am," the old master confirmed with a nod. "And you must be Riku, I take it. I am glad your friends found you safe and sound—and that all of you escaped the Symphony of Sorcery unharmed. I apologize; I had not stopped to consider Chernabog's appearance."

"Aw, it's fine," Sora said while moving his hands behind his head. "No one got seriously hurt." Yen Sid simply nodded in response.

Goofy finally released Donald from his grip and then scratched his head. "Well uh, what are you doin' here, Yen Sid sir?"

"Mickey sent me."

All eyes were on the little King, who nodded with a serious look on his face. His Keyblade vanished from his hand and he walked up to Yen Sid. "Ya said you have somethin' important to say, Master Yen Sid. It sounded urgent."

Yen Sid stroked his beard. "Indeed… In fact, everyone should hear of this."

"'Everyone'?" Kairi echoed, confused.

"You shall understand in a moment."

Yen Sid held his hands up before his chest, and sparkles of light began swirling in. They spiraled down from all directions, coalescing into a sphere of light held between the old wizard's hands. The orb continued to spin and Yen Sid moved his hands closer together, shaping it into a disk. Then, finally, he let the disk fly. It caught itself in the air and grew, flipping vertically as it did so until it was a large oval-shaped hole in the middle of the Hall of the Cornerstone. Xion squinted; she could almost make out something through it…

"…th' hell is this thing?"

Everyone but Yen Sid reacted in surprise, for a gruff, rude voice had just come out the spell that Yen Sid had cast. Goofy and Donald looked around the room, possibly searching for some newcomer, but there was nobody to be found.

Sora took a step forward. "Wait a minute, that's Cid's voice!"

As if in response to Sora's declaration, the gap in the middle of the oval shimmered and became clear, revealing a blond man who needed a shave staring back at them. As they reacted in surprise, so too did he. Cid fell back into his chair, a cane clattering at his feet, and the 'camera' of Yen Sid's strange spell zoomed out to reveal Merlin's house—or what was left of it after the attack before. An entire half of the building was covered in scaffolding, with stray tools lying around on planks of wood.

"Well, well!" Merlin said, walking over to the window through space and investigating it with a small adjustment of his spectacles. "Master Yen Sid, is it? I knew I recognized your spellwork!" Yen Sid nodded in acknowledgment of Merlin but said nothing.

Before Merlin could add more, a black blur shoved him aside. Yuffie stared at the window with awe, then broke into a wide grin. "Hey, you guys! Wow, we can see all of you! What world are you on?"

"The King's castle," Riku responded, slightly awkwardly.

"Hey, you found Riku!"

"Sure did!" Sora said with a grin.

"Great," they heard Leon grumble. Yuffie turned around and moved aside, allowing Leon an uninterrupted view of the window. "So are you guys ready to take on Maleficent now?"

The King nodded. "Yup. That's why I gathered all of us here—though I didn't expect Master Yen Sid to let you guys hear the conversation, too!"

"Coulda' just used a radio, no need for this magic bull," Cid muttered from his chair.

Yen Sid stroked his beard once more, but then shook his head. "Actually, Mickey, I did not do this for the sake of Maleficent."

"What?" Leon and Mickey both asked at the same time, and everyone else immediately turned to look at the wise old sage as well, both those at Disney Castle and those at Hollow Bastion.

Leon's brow creased and he glared at Yen Sid. "What do you mean? You're not going after Maleficent after all she did?"

"Maleficent is a threat, to be sure. But there is a larger one waiting just around the corner, right under our noses, and he is a far more immediate problem." Yen Sid kept calm as he spoke, even as Leon's expression gradually darkened.

"Do you mean Braig?" Xion asked. "Or Vanitas?"

Yen Sid paused, as if considering something. Then, shaking his head, he uncrossed his arms in front of him and his hands fell to his side. "I am speaking of Xehanort."

Shouts and gasps rose up from everybody, a cacophony of noise where it was nearly impossible to make anything out beyond one, overwhelming question: "What do you mean?!"

"Master Yen Sid, what d'ya mean?" The King stepped forward, speaking with a shaking and confused voice. "Xehanort's two halves are gone. Ansem, who led the Heartless; Xemnas, who led the Nobodies—Sora, Xion, and Riku defeated 'em!"

"They're dead and gone!" Cid added, with Yuffie nodding beside him. Beside those two, Cissnei slipped through a door and—after a bit of surprise at seeing the window to Disney Castle—stepped over to Leon whose own expression had grown even harder at the news.

Yen Sid nodded in agreement. "Yes, and they were hard-fought battles to be sure. But you must understand, by defeating those threats—and they were threats—we may have unleashed an even greater one."

"Enough being vague; tell us!" Riku practically shouted.

Yen Sid did not seem to hear him and continued undaunted. "Xehanort's heart, once seized by his Heartless half, is now free. And his body, which had become his Nobody, has been vanquished." A moment's pause. Xion raised an eyebrow; what was new? "Both halves can now return to the whole. In short, this means Ansem the Wise's wayward apprentice Xehanort, who destroyed Radiant Garden and let loose the Heartless, will soon return!"

Another explosion of sound, much louder than the last one. People were screaming, and Xion couldn't even hear her own voice as she questioned Yen Sid. Xehanort returning?! That was unthinkable, unbelievable—but it all made sense! That's why Braig had encouraged them to kill Xemnas, and why he had wanted Ansem out of the way back at the Symphony of Sorcery. Braig—and Vanitas too—wanted Xehanort to return!

"That explains it," Cissnei said when the sound began to die down. When she noticed all eyes were on her, she stood straighter. "I just got back from recon at the castle, and the Heartless are everywhere. If Xehanort really is coming back, then Maleficent must know about it too. They have to be assaulting the castle!"

Leon clenched his fists. "Then we hit two birds with one stone." Turning his attention back to Yen Sid's window, he nodded with a determined expression on his face—accompanied with a smirk. "All of you get down to Hollow Bastion ASAP. We're taking the fight to Maleficent, and to Xehanort."

King Mickey nodded. "And this time, I'll be right there beside ya!"

Despite the surge of reassurances, Xion took in a deep breath. Xemnas and Ansem, as strong as they were, were only half of this man. Could they face him? With any luck, they'd get there before Xehanort's revival was complete. Because if not…

Sora clapped her on the shoulder. "Xion, let's get going."

Xion looked to Yen Sid's window as it began to close, then turned back to Sora and nodded.

"Right!"

x-x-x

"Hello, Terra."

The young brunet man turned around slowly, already glaring daggers at the man who spoke his name even before he saw him inside the darkness. But he did see him eventually, walking out of the black fog with a faint golden aura around him—much fainter than it was before. He was incredibly ancient, with his skin wrinkled, his head bald save for a silver goatee, and his back crooked. He rolled his broad, hunched shoulders as he continued out of the fog, as if they were stiff from lack of movement. He wore a long black coat, and under it a white waistcoat that stretched down to just above his knees and was held by two belts. Hands clad in white gloves reaching nearly to his elbows came out from behind his back as his black-booted feet slowed to a stop. A sinister smile crossed his withered features, exposing his teeth as his golden eyes shined brightly.

The man responsible for all of the trials in Terra's life and in those of so many others': Master Xehanort.

"I must say it's a surprise you are still here," Xehanort continued. "I had thought for sure you were engulfed years ago."

Terra stared down at his hands, not giving Xehanort a response for a good, long while. A soft, faint glow surrounded their bodies, just barely visible against the black. The last thing Terra remembered was another conversation with Xehanort in this same place. The glow had been much, much brighter back then—for one reason in particular.

"I almost was." Terra's voice cracked in response. How long had it been since he had spoken? "But back then you failed to account for anyone besides me, and that was your biggest mistake."

Xehanort's fist's clenched at his side and he moved them back behind him. "I see… So the noble Eraqus gave you his own light to keep you from fading, did he? You've just barely clung to existence for over a decade because of the sacrifice of some fool. But you know he is not with us now."

Terra kept quiet. Xehanort's brow creased before he spoke again.

"And would that he were. After all, we are now at a quite critical juncture for the two of us and you could use his help. Don't you wonder why it is you have awoken now, of all times?" That caught Terra's attention; the young man locked gazes with Xehanort and Xehanort smirked. "The two halves have been reunited, and rebirth is on the horizon. Soon our battle of wills will begin anew."

"You didn't win last time." Terra crossed his arms over his chest. Xehanort shook his head and let out a nostalgic chuckle and Terra bristled at the sound.

"No, I did not. But neither did you." It was true. After the battle with Aqua, Terra had been on the verge of retaking his body from Xehanort. Xehanort wouldn't have that and stabbed himself with the Keyblade, locking his heart and memories with it. Terra and Master Xehanort had both fallen into slumber that day, and a new Xehanort had been born instead—albeit one influenced by both of his past selves. "I only woke up a few minutes ago myself, but I have seen much in my dreams. And I know you have as well, Terra. Tell me—when the time comes, will you be able to look in the eyes of all of those people that the men wearing your face have wronged?"

Terra took in a deep breath. It was blurry, and like a dream already fading away into his subconscious, but he had indeed seen the actions of the ones called Ansem and Xemnas. Still, even if it was his face, even if it was his body, it wasn't his will. Yes; he could face them.

"You know… I thought you'd be angrier, boy." Master Xehanort's voice was soft, and when Terra glanced at him the old man raised an eyebrow.

Terra smiled. "Well like I said, it's still my heart. And if I remember right, you were already shown the door." Xehanort's face hardened at Terra's comment, and Terra suppressed the urge to widen his grin. "Now you just need to go through it and leave this place for good."

"It is your heart no longer, boy," Xehanort said in an icy cold tone, his voice dripping with venom. "My own consumed yours long ago, and what you are now is just the tiny ember that remains in the ashes." He narrowed his eyes, and Terra responded in kind. "You won't put up nearly as good of a fight this time as you did before. Trust me on that."

Terra shut his eyes, still smiling. "Well may the best man win."