Epilogue; Reconnect
They say that all heroes follow the same story arc. It's always the same, every story you read. No matter what the hero wins. The heroes are always put up against innumerable odds that seem to be impossible to overcome. But no matter what, they do.
All alone in the realm of darkness X found himself wondering, what about the villain?
There was no guide book for a villain. No set story arc. They just had to oppose the hero, in anyway. They could want power, or redemption, or nothing at all. In their eyes, they could be the hero. But they were the ones who lost, every time. Was there ever more to the story? Did every villain come to this place? The place where they could only regret their decisions. Wonder where they went wrong. Wish they could go back and change it all.
Heroes had it easy, X decided. Heroes didn't know the feeling of falling, not really. Watching everything rush by so fast, you can trick yourself you're flying towards the sky. Everything is going your way, and you're invincible. Until you hit the bottom and lose everything in a split second. Until it suddenly dawns on you, that you lost the war before it even started. You never stood a chance. And then, you fall farther than the bottom. Crashing to the ground so fast you don't even know you've hit the earth. And you just keep going. You bury yourself beneath everything. The guilt, the shame, the anger. And eventually you lose the light of the sky entirely and have nothing but the earth around you, welcoming you into darkness. The place they say every villain belonged.
Sure, heroes took that one step that made it impossible for them to go back to normal. But villains, they took a bigger step. They could never return anywhere. They cast themselves out of existence, only to be remembered for losing. For being wrong. And eventually, they would be forgotten, remembered only as the evil queen, or the wicked witch, or the harsh king.
The path of a villain was not set in stone. But their ending was. Their story always left them in the same place. Alone.
It was no more than X felt he deserved. He destroyed so much, everything he touched. At least if he was alone he wouldn't hurt anyone. He could protect everything, if he just stayed away from it. He would exile himself back to where darkness belonged. Hidden away, out of sight. He would only show those who came to him a way to the light, nothing more. No kindness. No power. Just like darkness was said to have done. He would show all others the right way, the heroes journey. The safe journey. The journey that didn't end in despair and guilt.
X yawned leaning back on one of the rocks that faced the ocean. The realm of darkness had been getting weird lately. It was filling up with worlds that had once belonged to the light. But they were falling now. One by one.
X narrowed his cat-like eyes at the sound of the sand crunching. Someone was coming this way. He hadn't seen anyone in the realm of darkness before. Not even Aqua, who he knew wandered this place. He had thought he was alone.
"I don't know who you are, or what you want, but I don't care. Leave." X said calmly looking down with a sigh. He closed his eyes as he waited for the sound of retreating footsteps. Instead the footsteps stopped entirely.
"Such a sore attitude. Shouldn't you at least hear us out?" A lilting voice said. X's eyes snapped open as he turned to face the voice. Behind him was a teenage girl, perhaps a year older than him in appearance. She had bright red hair that fell past her shoulders and bangs that brushed across her forehead. Her bright gold eyes were focused on him playfully. Freckles dotted her pale skin. Beside her was a blonde woman with kind dark blue eyes. Her hair was tied back away from her soft features. Both wore a white hooded coat.
"Maru?" X asked looking the red haired girl. It didn't seem right. Maru had crystal blue eyes, not gold. But he knew that voice.
"Not quite." The redhead said, stepping forward. She smiled at X mischievously. X frowned watching her. "My name is Aryum. This here is Zaya." She motioned to the blonde woman. X looked at her and frowned. He had seen her. All those years before. She was like him. So that meant Aryum was like him too.
"Right, I remember her." X said, studying the woman. Her smile was more genuine than the one she had had the first time they met. Her eyes were warm, and filled with care. X wondered how hard that was for her to fake.
"I'm surprised to see you again, to say the least." Zaya said, keeping her smile. X frowned as he searched for meaning in those words. Had she expected him to die? Or did she just brush him off? X decided not to dwell on it and continued to look between the two with a calculating glare.
"What do you two want?" X asked softly. Aryum grinned at his question, daring to take a step forward.
"Have you heard of organization 14?" She asked. X frowned, his eye brows coming together to form a shallow v.
"No." X said.
"Well, now you have." Aryum said. "It's a gathering of elite Heartless like ourselves. We want to recruit you." She explained. X tilted his head to the side. He didn't trust that. Not even a little.
"Why?" He asked, glaring at the two in turn. People only came to him if they wanted something. If they wanted to use him. And he wouldn't be used again.
"No reason really. We just think we should stick together. We do stand a better chance together after all." Zaya replied. X focused his cold glare on her. He saw her shift nervously and glance away before looking back to him trying not to break eye contact.
"Better chance against what?" X asked. Zaya swallowed nervously before replying.
"It's been about ten years, but the keyblade has finally shown itself again. The wielder could come after us at any time." She explained. X frowned yet again. Only one? How strange. Usually they showed up in numbers at a time. But that didn't matter. It wasn't worth his time to worry about.
"So I join your club, then what?" X asked.
"You do missions and mind your own business. Work until we can all get our hearts back." Aryum answered. X's frown deepened. He didn't really care if he got his heart back. But if he could find out how to do it, maybe he could make things right. Maybe he could save her.
"Fine." X decided with a sigh. "I'm in."
Organization 14 was not a group X enjoyed. He had been with them for well over a year and he couldn't say he liked any of them. Except perhaps the newest member. She had only been there seven days. X hadn't heard much about her aside from the fact that she wielded two keyblades. He didn't think that was possible, but it would be interesting to see.
X stopped and leaned up against the white wall of Castle Oblivion. Aryum was not far away looking around the castle with a frown. X had been given the task of investigating the castle with Aryum. It was a pretty common task. For having access to the castle for as long as they had they knew very little about it.
"What's so important about this castle anyways?" X asked suddenly. Aryum turned to face him. She was frowning at X. He guessed she thought it was common sense. She smiled suddenly and looked away.
"It used to be a world meant for training keyblade wielders. Place called the Land of Departure." She explained. X froze and his eyes widened. He stepped away from the wall and looked around the halls. That wasn't possible, he had watched that world fall. Destroyed it with his own hands.
"You're kidding me, right?" X asked. Aryum raised an eyebrow in question. She watched as X looked around in wonder. He rarely showed any emotion, his surprise was strange.
"No, why would I be?" She finally asked. X stopped and turned to face her.
"The Land of Departure fell into darkness." He said. Aryum inclined her head and began pacing around ahead of him again. She looked up at the ceiling with a soft smile.
"It was saved somehow. Saved and turned into this." She motioned to the walls as she spun to face X again. X frowned at her motion. He turned away from her and began pacing the halls. Aryum watched him a moment before smirking and walking the opposite direction he did.
X wandered on his own taking in the halls. Ten years. It had been ten years since he had been here. And the last time he had been there he had betrayed the closest thing to a friend he ever really had. He had taken everything from him so he'd fall into darkness. And it had worked.
X stopped in front of a door way. He frowned as he looked up at them. They seemed out of place in the otherwise empty white hallways. There was something there. He knew it. X slowly reached out and touched his hand to the door. Much to his surprise the doors creaked open.
Looking inside X stepped back.
The room was white, just like most of the castle. There was a heart like symbol placed on the walls with glowing chains leading to a throne that had captured X's attention. Sitting on the arm of the throne was his sister. Her hand was reaching down holding onto the hand of the blonde boy X identified as Ventus. Y looked up at X calmly their eyes meeting. Her large doe eyes were no longer the warm chocolate brown they used to be. Instead they were bright orange. Her blonde hair was streaked with black, like the darkness was trying to claim her.
She stood slowly, taking a few steps away from Ventus. In her hand she summoned her keyblade. Light's Keeper. It was appropriate enough. She was still holding onto her light after all. X could see it clearly. She pointed her key at him a fire slowly beginning to burn in her eyes. X didn't move at all.
"Y." X said softly.
"X." Y said in return. Her voice was much stronger than his. X suspected that was the hatred talking. X didn't reply to his sisters greeting. He didn't know what to say. "Why are you here? You already ruined everything." Y spat. X chuckled to himself.
"I know." X said. He looked down at the ground refusing to meet with his sisters eyes. "Didn't know you were here. Never would have set foot here if I had known." He admitted softly. Y frowned watching him move. He was different than before.
"Why not?" Y asked angrily.
"I have no right to stand before you. I royally messed up. I should be the one suffering. Not you, not them." X answered. He kept his voice as quiet as he could but still be heard. Y frowned and watched her brother for a moment longer.
"How long has it been?" Y asked.
"Ten years, give or take a few days." X replied still refusing to look up.
"Ten years?" Y asked, dropping her keyblade a fraction of an inch. She shook her head and raised her key back to its original position. "That's not possible, it's not possible." She insisted.
"What exactly have you been doing this entire time?" X asked. He looked up at her out of the corner of his eye. She was watching him with a neutral expression. For once he didn't know what she was thinking. She could have been thinking anything.
"Sitting here. Waiting." Y replied. X snickered a small bit and looked away with a grin.
"And you didn't notice ten years passed?" He asked. Y frowned at him yet again. His soft voice was teasing. Not unkindly. It was more like they were kids again. Like they were back home and Y had done something X found funny. Like getting stuck up a tree or trip over her own feet.
"I thought maybe time was different." Y said softly. She was fighting the urge to smile at X. It really felt like old times. But looking over her shoulder at Ven Y steeled herself. It was probably another trick. Everything was his fault.
"It's not. You've been here for ten years." X said. He supposed it was better than dead like he had thought. But maybe she would have been better off dead. Maybe they both were. Being a Heartless wasn't a great thing.
"And what have you been doing? Celebrating?" Y asked acidly. X slowly shook his head.
"No." He said softly. Y frowned at him. Her eyes narrowed at him as she looked him over. Something really was different about him. But Y couldn't decide what. He couldn't really be regretting what he had done. He had to just be playing another trick on her.
"Why not? You got what you wanted, didn't you? Kingdom Hearts?" Y asked, her voice seeming only taunting. X rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"If we had you wouldn't be alive, and your friend wouldn't be sitting there at all." X said, nodding toward Ventus. Y looked over her shoulder at Ven quickly before looking back at her brother. The angry fire in her eyes had resurfaced, fueled by the fate of her beloved friends.
"So what? You gave up last minute?" She asked. X shook his head again.
"No, Ventus destroyed the key." He replied. Y smirked at him.
"Oh, excuse me for not weeping at your loss." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. X had forgotten she could be just as sarcastic as him sometimes. Worse even.
"Don't expect you to. You lost more anyway." X said. Y lost her smirk at his words. He wasn't acting at all how she expected him to. He should have been angry and cursing. They had taken his victory after all. But he wasn't angry. He just seemed, broken. "If you want to kill me go ahead." X said suddenly, startling Y out of her thoughts.
"What?" Y asked in shock, her keyblade dropping to her side. X looked up at her calmly. His purple eyes looked bloodshot. Y couldn't understand why.
"You said it yourself, I ruined everything. So go ahead. Kill me. It's the least I deserve for what I did to all of you." He said. Y blinked in surprise.
"You're joking, right?" Y asked. X laughed harshly and shook his head yet again. He looked at Y straight on for what seemed like the first time the entire conversation.
"Why would I be joking? I as good as killed Terra. I deserve to suffer the way you all are." X said his voice straining. Y let out a startled breath as a single tear rolled down the side of her brothers face. As she watched him, her lips parted in shock more tears followed the first. "But isn't that cruel irony. I'm not being punished at all. I'm walking free with only the guilt while you all live through hell. I'd give anything to trade places with just one of you. If I could go back and save you all I would. I was an idiot. But nothing I can do about it now, just have to pay the price." X continued closing his eyes as if trying to hold back the tears freely flowing down his cheek. He kneeled down suddenly, lowering his head. "So just kill me." He whispered.
"X... I-" Y began. Words escaped her at his actions. He was serious. He wanted to die.
"You hate me, right?" X assumed. He laughed bitterly though he was still crying. "No more than I deserve. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry. You don't have to forgive me. But you should know how sorry I am." He continued. Y banished her keyblade and took a cautious step forward. This wasn't a trick. She knew that now. X never cried. In all the years she had known them he had never cried once. Not when the seperated, not when he broke his arm. Never.
But here he was crying for her friends. Crying for his mistakes.
"Shut up." Y ordered. She walked over to him and dropped on her knees in front of him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close to her. She could feel him tense up in shock. But he returned the hug resting his head on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." X repeated with shaking breaths. Y smiled and shook her head. She closed her eyes fighting off her own tears.
"I know." She said. "And as stupid as this is, I forgive you. So just shut up."
"I'm sorry." X said weakly.
"I said shut up." Y replied with silent tears streaming down her face.
A/N: And that is it for the story, my friends. It was a great fun to write and I loved reading all of your reviews. Now, my original plan was to just continue on from here straight into Kingdom Hearts II. However, since the series is coming to a close soon, I've decided to wait until I have beat KHIII. Now, I will get the game the day of it's release internationally, I promise I will play it as often as I can until I beat it. I don't know how long it will take, but I will publish the next story as soon as I can.
Thank you all for your support, I hope to see you in the next one.