I know that you're hiding things, using gentle words to shelter me.
Your words were like a dream, but dreams could never fool me.
Not that easily.
Darkness continued to shroud Hollow Bastion, but not the unnatural blackness of the Heartless. No, far from it. The deep blue of midnight kept the ruined castle and city in its embrace, the stars twinkling high above in numbers too high to count.
Amidst the rubble of the town square, Leon, Cissnei, and Yuffie looked out over the destruction. Leon's jaw was set tight and his fists were clenched. He hadn't seemed to hear Yuffie or Cissnei as they attempted to grab his attention, and they had long since stopped trying.
Up above, the wind picked up as the Shera returned from its trip to take everyone home, landing in what remained of the old hangar. From within came Aerith, Cid, Tifa, and Cloud, the latter using Tifa as support. Their expressions matched the others': distraught, hurt, worried…
"So what now, boss?" Cid asked Leon.
"Now…?" Leon held his hand up at the sky, fingers spread out before the moon, and then clenched them as if grabbing at the light in the sky. "We're alive. We'll rebuild, as we did before."
I acted so distant then, didn't say goodbye before you left.
But I was listening.
You'll fight your battles far from me, far too easily.
Finishing his second ice cream of the evening, Tron allowed the stick to dissolve into pixels and polygons as he looked down over Twilight Town from a rooftop. He was watching a small alleyway partway up the mountain, where four friends were saying goodbye to each other before they turned in for the night. Two boys playfully shoved each other and then waved to the other two as they headed home, while the girl lingered behind for a moment and then quietly and sadly said goodnight to the last.
The boy, Roxas, had been under Tron's watch for some time now. While the other three were certainly far from okay, Roxas had not recovered emotionally since Sora removed Xion from this simulation. Where others would dismiss them as mere programs, Tron couldn't help but feel a certain kinship with Roxas. Still, it was against his code to intervene directly. He'd continue to watch, even if all he wanted was to go down there and give the poor lad a hug.
Shouting might've been the answer.
What if I'd cried my eyes out and begged you not to depart?
But now I'm not afraid to say what's in my heart.
"Boy, I sure am glad I wasn't here to see whatever did all this damage."
Pete backed away from the cliff's edge overlooking the wasteland of the Keyblade Graveyard and turned to face Diablo, Garland, and Maleficent, who were examining the earth at the top of the highest mountain, now empty of the combatants who had waged war here mere hours ago. He walked over to join the others and rubbed his chin as Diablo ran his hand along the dirt, searching for something.
"This soon after things calmed down, and it's already covered in dirt. Do the sandstorms ever cease here?" Diablo muttered.
"Uh…" Pete shrugged while Diablo moved to a different spot. "What is it we're lookin' for exactly?"
"The answer to all our prayers," Garland replied. "At least, so says the sorceress." Maleficent shot the two of them a glare, and while Garland remained stoic Pete gulped and back up.
"That so?" he stammered. Maleficent was still in a sour mood after being defeated by the King's goons, and he didn't want to get on her bad side. "Well, if that's what you say, Maleficent, then it must be!"
Maleficent rolled her eyes and turned back to the plateau. "Hmph, indeed."
Then, Diablo grinned and clutched something in the desert sands. "I have it." He stood up, dusted off his clothes, and then held his hand out to give the treasure—whatever it was—to Maleficent.
Maleficent's stone-cold expression gave way to a malicious grin as she gently, almost reverently, took the treasure into her hands. "At last…" As she looked at it in her palm, Pete risked a glance over her shoulder but couldn't get the perfect angle. "This is what the tome has promised."
"Tome?" Pete echoed. "You mean, like a book?"
No one answered him. Maleficent grinned and held her hand up, letting the treasure slip from her grasp. It only fell a few inches before stopping, dangling in the air by a chain held between the witch's fingers. At the end of the chain was a silver token with a blue eye embedded in the center. "It all begins here. Soon, the power that the Book of Prophecies spoke of will belong to me!"
As Maleficent began to let out a malicious cackle that resounded across the empty world, Pete noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He turned just in time to see a short, hooded figure in a black coat disappear with a blue flash and a sound like the ticking of a clock.
Though a thousand words have never been spoken, they'll fly to you.
Crossing over the time and distance holding you.
Suspended on silver wings.
Slowly but surely, heavy eyelids opened to see a gradually brightening sky. He took in the morning light without quite registering what it was he was seeing, then slowly sat up to see palm trees, wooden buildings, a dock, a beach… and a blur of blue that quickly obstructed all of his vision.
"A-Aqua…?" Ventus croaked out.
"Ven! Oh my god, Ven, you're awake!" She hugged him tightly, and though Ven couldn't see her face, he could feel the tears dripping onto his shoulders and the way her body shook. "I am so, so sorry, Ven. But you're finally awake!"
"Was I…asleep?" Ven shook his head, not quite sure what Aqua was getting at. The last thing he remembered was battling Vanitas, and the next thing he knew he was here. He did know something else, though: he was extremely tired. That battle must have taken more out of him than he thought.
Aqua pulled away from Ven and wiped the tears on her face. "Don't worry about it. I'm just so happy to see you safe."
"We both are!" came a squeaky voice. Ven turned to see a familiar grinning face topped by two big round ears.
"Mickey? Hey, I like the red outfit. Looks better on you than black."
"Oh, gosh…"
Ven looked around, taking in his surroundings once again. He knew this place; this was the island where Vanitas had confronted him before he ventured to the Keyblade Graveyard. What were they doing here? "Oh!" Ven looked back to Aqua, who was still sitting in front of him with an almost disbelieving smile. "Aqua, where's Terra? He's safe, right?"
Aqua's smile faltered for a moment. "Terra is…" She looked at Mickey, who didn't say anything, but their expressions were enough. Ven's heart fell.
"He didn't…"
Aqua sighed. "Ven, Terra is—" A sound from above stopped her.
The three of them looked up to see a figure standing on the ledge above them, armor rusted and cracked but undeniably familiar under all that battle damage. The figure looked down at them, lingering a long moment on Ven, but never saying a word.
"Terra!" Ven and Aqua climbed up to their feet, but the armored figure looked at them for only a moment longer before turning away and walking into the dense jungle, light glinting off of something orange in its hands.
And a thousand words, one thousand confessions, will cradle you.
Making all of the pain you feel seem far away.
They'll hold you forever.
"Easy there, you were out for a long time."
Kairi nodded at Riku's words as she rested against the side of the Highwind and closed her eyes. Her face was in her hand and she took several deep breaths, taking in the sea air, to keep her body from shaking. "I'm okay, Riku. Really, I am."
"You gave us quite the scare," she heard a scratchy voice. Kairi smiled and slowly opened her eyes to look over at Donald and Goofy, who looked at her with just as much concern as Riku beside them.
She smiled. "I'm glad you worried about me, but you didn't need to. Sure I was terrified, and Braig threatened me and Naminé, but he never hurt us. I could see everything going on the whole time. So, you don't need to—oh!" Kairi's attempt to stand up straight was met with her legs giving out under her, and she was caught by Riku at the last second. "Thanks."
Riku smiled and flicked Kairi in the forehead as she returned to leaning against the Gummi ship. She slowly slid down its side, resting her back in it as she sat in the sand. Riku leaned against it himself, crossing his arms and looking down on her. "So, a Keyblade, huh?"
Kairi grinned widely and looked down at her hands. "Yeah! How cool is that?! Though I can't seem to get it to pop out again." She whipped her hand around as if holding the weapon and swinging it through the air. "Come on! Appear! Appear!"
"Don't tire yourself out, Kairi!" Goofy admonished.
"I'm fine, I won't—" In a flash of light, a bolt of ice shot out of the orange blade that suddenly materialized in Kairi's grasp and froze one of the nearby palm trees. "Oh." She examined the flower-clad Keyblade for a moment and then grinned up at Riku. "Say, I don't think you and Sora could train me, could you?"
The dream isn't over yet.
Though I often say I can forget, I still relive that day.
You've been there with me all the way.
I still hear you say...
"You doing alright?" Lea asked softly.
Sitting on the curbed paopu tree that faced the ocean, Sora nodded, but barely. "Yeah… I don't feel weak at all, even though Xion isn't with us anymore." He held a hand over heart and looked down at his chest. "I guess it must be because I merged with Roxas at the end there, so I took back the last of my power—Roxas's power—that Xion held. We don't need to stay together anymore."
Lea's response was silence. He leaned against the tree with his arms crossed, his eyes focused out at sea. Sora was fine with that, really. They didn't need to say much of anything. Sora, in turn, just looked up at the sky with an unreadable face, his hands resting on his legs. Finally, after several minutes without a word between them, Lea spoke again.
"Hey, Sora." Sora let out a hm? and turned to Lea, who was still looking out at the sea. "Bet you don't know why the sun sets red." Sora shook his head, and though Lea couldn't see the gesture a nostalgic smile crept up onto his face. He nodded his head out to the water; though the sun was rising, not setting, it was low on the horizon nonetheless. "You see, light is made up of lots of colors. And out of all those colors, red is the one that travels the farthest."
"Like I asked, know-it-all." Lea paused a moment at Sora's words, then broke into a light chuckle.
"Yeah, guess you didn't." His chuckling gave way to a slow breath as he uncrossed his arms and pressed his back further against the tree. "Sorry, Roxas; we couldn't keep our promise."
Sora's heart fluttered for a moment, as if Roxas was reacting to Lea's words. He looked down and place a hand over his chest. "Huh?"
"Oh, just thinking out loud." Lea turned his head to look down at the beach below the cliffs of this smaller island, where the others still stood. "A long time ago, Roxas, Xion, and I promised to all go to the beach when we got the chance. Now here I am, but…" His shoulders shook slightly.
"You okay?" Sora leaned forward to get a better look at the redhead, but Lea turned away from him.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just got something in my eye, is all." Lea's voice wavered slightly, but Sora didn't comment further.
"Well, if it's any consolation, she was at the beach every day while she was here." Now Lea turned to look at Sora, who was staring at the water as the tides gently lapped against the sand. "She was so much more than my best friend. I miss her so much already, and the pain probably won't ever go away. But I know I'll see her again, some day."
"Don't get all sappy on me." But Lea said it with a smile. He stood up straight and slipped his hands into his pockets, then shut his eyes. "Though, yeah… Same here. For now, though, I should probably be going."
"You got a place to stay?"
"I'll make arrangements with Squall, I guess. Aqua and Ven probably need somewhere to go, too." Lea moved away from the paopu tree and stood on the edge of the cliff. "I'll see ya when I see ya, Sora. Get it memorized."
With a wave back toward Sora, Lea jumped down onto the lower beach and landed on the wet sand. His hands still in his pockets, his head low and his heart heavy, he began walking up the beach toward the Highwind. But before reaching it, he slowly came to a stop. Frowning, Lea turned to look back at the water as the tides went out, the gentle waves pulling away from the shore.
"Who…were we talking about…?"
Because a thousand words call out through the ages.
They'll fly to you, even though we can't see.
I know they are reaching you, suspended on silver wings.
Remember the Tides III:
On the Way to a Smile
And with that, Remember the Tides II: The Tides Go Out is officially, finally over. I hit a lot of road bumps while writing it, a lot of times I didn't want to, and we ended about a year later than I had expected, but it was a ton of fun and I wouldn't trade this experience for the world.
I feel like this story went on too long, though. Not to say I regret writing it, but at 71 chapters and over 450,000 words is a lot to take in for new readers. If I could travel back in time, I'd probably split this into two fics after Xehanort was revived. But you know what they say: woulda, coulda, shoulda.
I've had a lot of fun writing The Tides Go Out though, regardless of how long it became. There are times when I didn't want to write, I'm not going to lie, but in the end I'm glad I started this saga back in 2013. When I first sat down to write chapter 1 of Remember the Tides, I didn't plan anything past Xemnas dying except for a vague idea of where the final battle would be held (the starry arena in 70). I didn't think it was ever going to get a sequel, let alone that I'd sit down and plot out three whole sequels. Not to mention all the backstory and headcanons for the different worlds, most of which is probably never actually going to see the light of day.
It's a bittersweet ending to be sure, but bittersweet endings leave the option open for happier ones down the road. I'll see all of you in part 3, coming soon!