Terra didn't quite know what to make of the entire situation. Truthfully, he was just happy to have his body back and be completely in charge of it. Why he'd ended up on the beach that looked like a typhoon had hit it he could only guess at. He suspected it was because that that was where Xehanort had fallen.
He didn't really know anyone there personally, but he did remember snippets from Xehanort about the little mouse-king and even some of the current Keyblade wielders. The white-haired boy was the one he'd met once and had given his own power to. The girl was his friend, and the kid on the ground completed their trio.
He could sense Xehanort in the prone kid, and he could practically feel the battle taking place there. The moment he figured that out, he knew he would do anything to help the kid because no one should be put through that. No one should have to lose their bodies and become nothing more than a slave inside their own minds (or outside of it as the case may be).
And then light had exploded from the kid's chest and Terra's senses felt overwhelmed. He couldn't see, couldn't seem to hear (or everything, including the ocean, had gone deathly silent) and suddenly felt far too much. Xehanort was still there, but someone else—no, several someones—were there too and something was floating away but Terra felt a connection there too and...just what was going on?
It took him what felt like several hours to calm down, but was in reality probably not more than a few seconds or minutes. He doubted anyone else had reacted like that, but then they didn't have connections to Xehanort like he did—they weren't tainted.
"Hey, you shouldn't think that," a voice admonished from behind.
Terra spun around towards the presence. It felt familiar somehow.
He blinked in surprise when he saw the boy from the beach—the brown-haired one. He opened his mouth to say something and noticed his surroundings. His jaw closed with a clop, and then almost immediately fell back open in shock.
The last time he'd seen this world, it had been in shambles because Master Eraqus... And yet, here it was, whole and light and lovely. He was home, and it was a home that shouldn't still exist—that hadn't for over a decade. They stood in the training grounds he'd spent hours upon hours practicing, and off in the distance he could see the peak of the castle he'd grown up in.
"This is nice. I can see why you like it," the boy he'd almost forgotten about spoke again and Terra looked back at him incredulously.
"How is this possible?"
The boy smiled a cheesy, cheek-splitting grin and said, "This is what your heart remembers. So in a way, it will never be gone until you drive it from your heart yourself."
Terra tried to wrap his mind around that. "So...we're inside my heart?"
The boy's grin grew (impossibly) wider. "You seem pretty smart."
"Just educated and jaded," Terra corrected with a sad smile. The experience he'd gotten had come at such a high price—his friends, his freedom, his master and the worlds at large.
"You know," the boy broke through his thoughts, "you brood worse than Riku." And his smile had turned mischievous, almost challenging.
Terra wasn't really in the mood, so he frowned and crossed his arms. "Who are you?"
The boy seemed to blink in surprise, as if he'd just remembered something and then he reached a hand up to rub at the back of his head sheepishly. "Oh, right. Sorry. I'm Sora."
The moment he said his name, flashes of memories that didn't really belong to him came back—of fighting the same boy, albeit much younger, in the realm of darkness; of a castle of bright white and the boy, his white-haired friend and the girl were there, as well as the little king and his two subjects; of a vast expanse of nothing and just the two boys there now; of a white room filled with enormous chairs of varying height; and finally, a flash of the boy racing towards him, Keyblade held high, a ruined beach behind him.
This was the boy who had defeated Xehanort.
This was the boy who had given him everything.
"Sora," he said after a moment, not liking how broken his voice sounded. Then, he managed to gather himself and reached out to shake the other's hand. "I'm Terra, and I think I owe you some thanks."
Sora's sunny smile had returned. "Don't mention it."
The taller boy shook his head incredulously. "He more or less makes it possible for me to become whole again and he says it's no big deal. Have you met a guy named Ventus? Are you related to him by any chance?" Because Ven would totally play down something like that. He liked to actually accomplish things more than get recognition for his successes.
The brown haired kid looked up in surprise. "Yeah. He...well, I've been kind of harboring his heart for the last few years."
Terra blinked and his smile vanished. "Wait, what?!"
Sora suddenly looked sad. "When he fought Vanitas, his heart had only just begun to sustain itself after being torn in two. He more or less had to destroy half of it a second time and that shredded what was left all over again. His heart had bonded with mine before, that time because of desperation and proximity. He would have died—ceased to exist even—otherwise. When that almost happened again, he came back and has been with me ever since."
The older wielder could only stare at the younger boy. That...convoluted didn't begin to cover it. He knew Ven had had a problem with his heart, but this? Torn to shreds? Ceased to exist? He'd be lying if he said it didn't scare the light out of him.
But Sora was just standing there, looking so accepting and innocent and...
Terra took a deep breath and tried to focus. He had so many questions...so he focused on one.
"Why you?"
Sora grinned again. "Good question."
Terra couldn't help but grunt in annoyance. "You don't know?"
"Oh, no I do," Sora assured him. Terra wanted to roll his eyes. All he needed was another sassy kid in his life. "I just wanted to say that you chose a good question. The reason why is because I'm the X-blade."
Wait...
"WHAT?!"
Because the implications... How could the ultimate weapon they'd been searching for be a boy? A human boy.
"Yeah, kind of surprised me too."
This was getting a little too overwhelming. Terra tried to sort it out and didn't succeed that well. Probably just him not used to having an actual mind again. Yeah. He'd chalk it up to that for now.
"So you're the X-blade, even though you're a kid, and the ultimate weapon that Xehanort," he practically spat the name, "has been looking for to destroy the universe and you saved Ven from obliteration."
Sora seemed to think about that for a minute. "Yeah. That sound about right."
The taller boy couldn't help but be surprised that he'd managed to grasp the important points. It really left only one question for Terra to ask.
"Why?"
This time, Sora frowned. "Why did I save Ven? Why wouldn't I? He's a Keyblade wielder, and a good one at that."
"No. Why are you the X-blade. Or how, I guess. I mean you're...um..."
Sora raised an eyebrow, his expression somehow looking both dry and amused. "A human?"
Terra nodded in relief, glad he understood. "Yeah."
"I...could go into the details if you want, but the short version is I knew that if I didn't hide myself that there would be another war."
It was Terra's turn to dryly comment, "There's still a war."
The look Sora gave him didn't fit on his young face. It looked old and tired and so, so sad. It almost broke Terra's heart (again) just to see it.
"Not like last time. If Xehanort manages to get a hold of me..."
And right then, Terra was sure he didn't want to know...and really, that scared him more than it probably should.
So he focused on something else. "Right. If you're here, where's Ven?"
Sora closed his eyes and turned his head away in shame. "Fighting Xehanort."
"WHAT?!"
The shorter boy raised an eyebrow again, folding his arms. "You like saying that, don't you."
Terra brushed the comment aside. "If Ven's fighting him I have to help! He can't take him on his own!"
"He's not alone."
Terra blinked. "Who's with him?"
"His nobody, Roxas, and a girl named Xion."
Which made about as much sense as the rest of this conversation, which is to say almost none. "How can someone fight along side their nobody?"
"It's a mindscape. My mindscape, actually." And he really didn't look happy about that.
"So how do I help?" Terra asked, fists clenching in determination.
Sora regarded him for a few moments before smiling sadly. "You believe in him. And in me, I guess."
Part of Terra wanted to demand why he should trust someone he just met, even if he was an ancient weapon, but then he remembered the look on his face when talking about Ven and his protests died on his tongue. Sora cared. The X-blade cared about them. Maybe Terra couldn't understand the hows or whys but he could see truth when it stared him in the face.
"Is that all I can do?" he asked, his voice quiet.
"For now, yes. He's stronger than you think."
The older boy (was he really older? He didn't know anymore) stared the other down for several seconds as if judging his words. Then he nodded. "Then I'll do it."
A light shot out of his chest and his Keyblade—his Keyblade, not Xehanort's—appeared before him. A narrow stream of light connected it to a light above Sora's chest.
"Thank you," was all the other boy said before a white light engulfed everything around them.
When Terra's eyes opened again, he was standing on the typhoon-beach. In his hand, his 'Ends of the Earth' Keyblade looked as if it had been made of glass and filled with a mist of white that glowed just about every color possible as it moved.
He stared at it for a minute before his hand tightened around the hilt (it felt just as solid as it ever had) and he strode forward, towards Sora. "Sora, Ven, I believe in you." Despite how cheesy it sounded, he put his whole soul into the words, and then sat down. He put his Keyblade across his knees and mentally prepared himself for whatever was to come.
xXx
She was so tired of the darkness. It permeated everything, the strange structures around her, the very atmosphere she breathed...even her thoughts. It seemed to be all she remembered anymore. She'd even begun to wonder if her vague memories of the light were real or some imagined fantasy. Still, she fought to hold onto them—fought the shadows that attacked her because if she let the thoughts of light go, she would have given up, and she didn't want to know what would happen then.
The shadows sensed her tiredness somehow. She knew they did because they'd redoubled their efforts lately. They locked her into a never ending battle that chipped a little bit of her off with each strike. It was getting so hard to just move sometimes, but the memories of her best friends—her brothers—were the only memories that hadn't faded and it kept her going.
She didn't know how long she'd been down here. It felt like centuries, and yet she couldn't find a way out. It had been so long and she really was so tired...
She'd just defeated a group of shadows for what seemed like the millionth time when the Keyblade in her hand glowed and she felt a tug. At first she'd been afraid something had finally managed to get to her, but then she'd had to shield her eyes from the brightness that grew. It had hurt, and she'd cried out in pain because she hadn't actually had to deal with such things as her eyes adjusting to the light in who knew how long.
When she opened her eyes, she couldn't help but gasp. Not only had the pain vanished, but she was home in the Land of Departure before Master Eraqus' fall had practically ripped it apart. It...couldn't be...could it? It was too good to be true...right? Tears came to her eyes as she surveyed the training area where she'd spent so many hours.
Now if only...
"You won't find them here," a voice behind her caused her to jump and she whirled around to see a boy inspecting some of the training equipment. At first, Aqua thought it was Ven. Then she realized that it couldn't be—his hair was too dark—but he did look familiar.
After a moment, it came to her and her eyes flew wide. "Vanitas!" she accused, calling her Keyblade to hand. It flashed into place and she gripped the handle, focusing on her stance and the figure in front of her.
The boy blinked at her for a few seconds, taken aback at her hostility. Then he raised a hand to the back of his head slowly and rubbed it. "I guess he really did look like me then."
Aqua frowned. So this boy was claiming that he wasn't Vanitas?
"If you're not him, then who are you?" she asked after a second. He didn't feel menacing, but she'd been fooled before. She kept her guard up but decided to at least humor him for a moment. Maybe he'd reveal something?
"I'm Sora," he said with a grin that would never have worked on the face she remembered Vanitas having. It, more than anything, convinced her that he wasn't lying.
Then she remembered her recent conversation with the man on the dark beach.
"Sora?" she asked, trying again to not let her heart believe it. This really was too good to be true and it would hurt too much if she indulged her wishes only to have it ripped away from her a second time.
"Yeah. And you're Aqua, right?"
Aqua blinked. Yes, she was Aqua. Somehow, she'd almost forgotten her name!
"Y-yes," she said as she put a hand on her chest, liking how right that sounded and felt and—
"What means the most to you?"
The question caught her off guard and it was her turn to stare at the strange boy.
"I'm sorry, what?"
Instead of being annoyed, like Ven would have been, he just shook his head in amusement. It reminded her more of Terra, actually.
"I just asked what means the most to you."'
Well that was a no-brainer. "Terra and Ven."
Sora nodded as if he'd expected that. "And what would you do to help them?"
This was starting to annoy her, but she answered anyway. "Anything."
He paused and somehow his whole countenance changed. When he spoke again, his voice had changed as well, sounding more like a thousand people speaking at once. And his eyes...what had happened to his eyes?
"Even continue to fight?"
She took a step back, hesitant for just a moment. All she really wanted to do right now was lay down and sleep for a decade—rest and forget all of this had ever happened. But, she could never leave Ven and Terra to their fates. They would fight to find her just as hard, she knew.
So, even though her stomach felt like it would drop through her chest and into her legs, and even though the very idea had her wanting to just roll over and try to shut everything out, she looked straight ahead with her chin held high.
"Yes."
The boy smiled. "Good."
A light formed above his heart, suddenly. Aqua stared at it for several seconds, unsure of what to make of it. Then it shot towards her. Instinctively, she threw her Keyblade in front of her. The beam of light hit it and everything faded to white.
When she opened her eyes, she actually had to close them again. It was still bright and the light still hurt...more than before, actually.
"Ow, ow, ow," she muttered, sinking onto the ground below her. Wait, was that sand?
"Aqua?" a hesitant baritone spoke up. Aqua's head shot up, not caring how much her eyes hurt at the moment. She whirled around and found the person she'd honestly thought she would never see again standing there, whole. He had brown hair and blue eyes and sat on the beach in a meditative position. He also looked like he'd just seen a ghost.
"Terra?" she asked, not quite sure she should believe he was there.
"Aqua!" he gasped as he stood and rushed over to her, enfolding her in a hug that felt both familiar and not. "You're safe."
"You're...back?" she replied, still trying to wrap her head around that fact.
He stepped back and smiled that soft, warm smile that was so Terra. "Yeah." Then he looked to the side and Aqua saw several people watching them. They all had Keyblades that glowed. No, glow was too calm a word for it. Shone. They shone, even in the bright sunlight streaming down on them.
Then she noticed her own. It matched theirs.
"What—?" she started, but Terra cut her off, obviously noticing her confusion.
"We're back thanks to them. Especially him," he said as he nodded down at the boy laying prone under a shield of some sort. Then his expression hardened. "Now it's time to get Ven."
This time Aqua's heart leaped in her chest. This was real. The nightmare and darkness was over—finally! She closed her eyes for a moment, savoring this feeling. It felt so good after being alone and in the dark for so long.
Then she opened her eyes, smiling through the tears as her fist tightened around her Keyblade. "Yeah. Let's get Ven."
xXx
The nice thing about a mindscape were the sheer possibilities it presented. A generous mind could conceive just about anything, and thus no boundary really existed. That power was, however, extremely limited when working in someone else's mindscape, especially when confronting a madman who seemed to have far more power than he should.
Still, Ventus, Roxas and Xion continued to battle Xehanort without either side really gaining any ground. Actually, Ven was convinced that neither side could gain any ground because all of them had more or less conjured nigh impenetrable armor. Ven found the whole situation utterly frustrating, and he wasn't the only one. The problem was, neither side was willing to back down or compromise. If Xehanort had Sora's power and body...well, they could kiss the worlds (and the light) goodbye. However, the madman had come in sight of his goal and he wasn't about to back down now.
They didn't know for how long they'd been fighting, but every now and then they'd take breaks to step back and regroup. During the third such break, Roxas, Ven and Xion were conversing quietly, each keeping tabs on Xehanort who seemed to be contemplating them a fair distance away.
"We have to take him by surprise," Roxas insisted, and frankly Ven agreed.
"How?" Xion asked. "He knows all of us are here and he'd notice if any of us disappeared to try and sneak up on him. Do any of us have the power to create images or body doubles?" Ven and Roxas shook their heads.
"Larxene could," Roxas muttered, "and I can use speed to leave an after image, but he wouldn't fall for that."
"No, he woul—" Ven started to agree but then something pulled at him. He frowned and tried to identify the feeling.
"Ven?" Xion asked worriedly, eyes searching Xehanort's figure angrily, as if he were the source of Ven's sudden discomfort. No, not discomfort, but still...
"Someone's calling me," he muttered.
"Who?" Roxas asked.
Ven scratched his chin. "I think you know who." Because he didn't want to say his name aloud with Xehanort nearby. He studied the other man who returned his gaze steadily.
"Can you two handle him without me?" he asked, trying not to move his lips.
Roxas and Xion blinked and exchanged glances. "Yeah, I think so. Don't know for how long though."
"Right," Ven acknowledged. "Then you might want to distract him."
The other blond grinned and Xion looked highly amused. "You got it," they said simultaneously and stood to rush the parasite.
Deciding not to waste a second, Ven closed his eyes and followed the tugging.
The next thing he knew, he stood on Destiny Island (or what was left of it) facing Sora's prone form. Well, 'stood' implied that he had a body, which he most certainly didn't. At this point, he would probably just appear as nothing more than a ghost.
He frowned and studied the body for a moment before turning around.
And his eyes almost popped out of his head.
Two figures in very similar positions as he (and with very similar expressions on their faces) both stood with their mouths dropped open.
"A-aqua?" Ven heard himself say breathlessly (which really, made absolutely no sense at all whatsoever when he didn't have lungs). "T-t-terra?"
"Ven," they both muttered at the same time.
"Hey, Aqua," a new, familiar voice said and Sora appeared right next to him, also as transparent as a ghost. "Why don't you go get Ven's body while I have a talk with him?"
If anything the older two Keyblade wielders seemed even more incredulous. "Huh?" The others scattered around the little clearing all cried out in various forms of surprise.
Instead of saying anything, Sora just winked and grabbed a hold of Ven's arm. Apparently apparitions didn't have any problems interacting.
The next thing Ven knew, he'd appeared in the middle of a desert and realized exactly where Sora had brought him.
"The Keyblade Graveyard," he murmured to himself and looked around. For miles, Keyblades upon Keyblades stretched into the distance. "I always hated this place."
"Really?" Sora's voice inquired from behind him. Ven spun around, scowl set firmly on his face.
"What was that all about?" he asked, waving his hands in a wide gesture.
Sora just shrugged. "I figured it would be easier to have a reunion if you had a body. I also needed to get you away from Xehanort, and I couldn't exactly come back in there myself...not yet in any case."
Ven just sighed in frustration. "Yeah, about that. I have to get back. We're not making any progress against Xehanort and I—"
"You can't." The voice wasn't loud, but it seemed to echo all around him...seemed to come from the Keyblades around him. He jumped and whirled around, trying to find the source of the voice.
"Huh?" he asked.
"You will never make progress against him inside that mind because he has already begun to integrate himself into it. He holds more power there than you do and thus you cannot win."
He'd stopped spinning and searching for the voice and looked back at Sora. For the first time he took notice of what the other boy was doing. He floated a few inches off of the ground and remained in his transparent, spectral form (no surprise without his body), and yet, his hand rested on the Keyblade in front of him, thumb rubbing back and forth along the edge of a the dirty, silver key.
He also noted the look of utter sadness on Sora's face.
"Sora?" he asked, more than a little put off by the strangeness of the situation and how different the boy he'd watched for so long was acting. Sora looked over at Ven and smiled. Ven gasped, because that smile did not match the tears running down the other boy's cheeks.
"They call to me," he said as he stood and gestured around them. "They still have power left, but not enough. Even with all of them..." he faded off and glanced around them, almost as if he'd forgotten Ven was there. It startled Ven that the voice seemed to originate from Sora. It didn't sound like him at all.
"All because I let my guard down and allowed him inside my mind. I could have beaten him otherwise. If only I'd known..."
And suddenly the whole situation and the weight of it all seemed to hit Ven.
"You really are the X-blade," he said. He hadn't wanted to believe it before, even with Sora reacting to Xehanort the way he did. But now...now he couldn't. He could even hear and feel how his own blade seemed connected to the boy in front of him. Why hadn't they noticed it before?
"Yes."
Ven tried to wrap his head around that. He really did. His hands somehow moved to his hair as if to cradle the thoughts racing through his mind, but it didn't help the circular process his train of thought seemed so determined to make.
"Why?" he finally managed to ask.
Sora's smile somehow (impossibly) became even sadder. "Because of you."
At that, Ven blinked. "Huh?"
This time the expression on Sora's face resembled a grandfather smiling tolerantly down at a young child. It didn't fit on his face.
"You agreed to your master's wishes to undergo the training without really understanding what it entailed. Your heart was torn in half—light and darkness. Both halves struggled to remain in the world, but were slipping away. However, you had already gained your Keyblade and I felt the rending. I could sense Xehanort's intentions though his own Keyblade and I knew the time had come to hide myself."
"Hide yourself?"
Sora nodded calmly. "Yes."
"As a human?"
"Yes. I had to hide my mind and my powers even from myself. I'm afraid I did my job a little too well. Even after subconsciously calling Riku's Keyblade to me I acted more like a Keyblade wielder than a Keyblade myself." And with that, he put a hand up to rub the back of his head in a very Sora-like expression of embarrassment. It didn't fit with the words. Too many things about this didn't fit and Ven was doing all he could to keep up with the developments.
Then his expression turned serious. "Xehanort has found me, now. He has begun to access my power by integrating with the body I myself took as a vessel. If I do not stop him, it will only be a matter of time before he succeeds. "
Ven thought about that, about how no one would be safe and about how whoever got in Xehanort's way would be crushed (or worse). If Xehanort had his way, everyone would be under his influence and no one would have freedom...
And that was no way to live.
So he clenched his spectral fists. "Then how do we win?"
Sora got a far-away look in his eye that made him look centuries older than his body and form suggested.
"You. It all comes down to you."
Ven's fist relaxed in his surprise and confusion. "Huh? But just barely we couldn't even make a dent on him! My heart isn't even whole! You said so yourself. So..."
He faded off as Sora held out his hands, fingers open and palms down. He'd closed his eyes and took a stance similar to when he opened or closed a keyhole. For a moment, nothing happened. Then Ven jumped as he felt something thrum through the ground around them.
No, not the ground, the Keyblades, he realized.
A wave of energy suddenly shot out from Sora. In moments it had passed further than Ven could see. As it touched each Keyblade, they lit up for a moment. Ven watched in astonishment, wondering what in the universe was going on, and then he turned back to Sora. He'd changed stances. Now he stood with his feet together and one hand behind his back. The other, he held out in front of him, and his blue eyes fixed on the empty space above his palm.
Ven opened his mouth to demand an explanation, but then he felt the thrum again and the energy wave came rushing back, closing in on Sora. Ven leaped forward to try and get the other boy out of harm's way, but he knew he'd be too late. It proved to be rather pointless anyway as the energy seemed to condense in on itself in the area Sora's gaze had focused on and a little ball of light appeared there. After a few seconds, the light faded, leaving a strangely luminescent ball of...something that shimmered like old oil glinting in the sun.
"What's that?" he asked warily, unable to take his eyes off of the sphere.
Sora looked up at him sadly. "Vanitas."
Ven's eyes widened in shock and he actually took a step back.
"Or, what's left of him," Sora added as if in afterthought.
The blond felt his brow furrow. Vanitas was a part of him, the part he'd defeated and destroyed so long ago. He couldn't help but be drawn to his other half, and yet, part of him liked the idea of being a creature of pure light. And he had so much baggage when it came to his other half.
"No matter how you feel about him, he is still a part of you," Sora reminded him. Ven cringed, even as the brown-haired boy continued. "He can heal you."
"But," Ven started unsurely, "do I have to take him back?"
Sora withdrew his hand, now looking rather surprised himself. "You...don't want to heal?"
The Keyblade wielder shook his head. "No, it's not that, it's just..."
He faded off and Sora's expression softened. "Bringing him back into your heart will give you temptation and anger and darkness, yes, but overcoming that is how you will become strong enough to exist on your own again. Unless you always want to remain harbored in my heart..."
Ven cringed. "Not really. I mean, you took me in and because of that I know true peace and sanctuary (I can't thank you enough), but I do want to be able to live on my own again. It's just, I...guess I wasn't really expecting this. I mean, I thought he was gone for good and that I'd never have to even see him again—good or bad. How could you just collect him like that?"
Sora glanced at the graveyard around them. "The Keyblades respond to me. I am of them and they are of me, just as yours is. When you defeated Vanitas, his half of your heart was shattered and left here. Fortunately, no heart can truly vanish with time—not even half of one. It can only move. Sometimes it will grow, other times it will shrink or shrivel and become more and more difficult to collect, but it will never completely vanish, even if one does not know how to retrieve it."
He glanced at Ven with a hesitant expression. "It is yours if you wish. I know this is not a decision to take lightly, and it will not be easy for you, but..." He let the possibilities hang in the air as Vanitas stared at the little sphere.
"What will happen to him if I don't?"
Sora looked away. "He will slowly fade into the Keyblades here again and eventually become so scattered that even I will not be able to bring him back. Bring you back."
"But if I take him back, I won't be a being a light anymore," Ventus muttered.
The other boy smiled softly. "You were never meant to be. You were always meant to be human, with the choice of light or dark. Some people choose the darkness, but while I hate that, it is a choice I would not take from them even if I could."
"Why?" Ven asked heatedly, hands slicing in harsh gestures as he spoke. "Without the darkness Xehanort wouldn't have hurt us or anyone else! He wouldn't have killed or torn people's hearts out of their bodies and Terra and Aqua..."
"Wouldn't have ever met you. They may never have even existed. Without darkness, there would be no need for light. Human kind always grows the most while struggling. I can hope for the light, help the light fight, pray and work for peace...but to take away someone's choice...well, that's what Xehanort wants. He wants to control everything. Is that right?"
Ven frowned. "Well, no, but someone besides Xehanort—"
"Would eventually become corrupted. That kind of power and control...humans were never meant to bare such a burden. Would you place such a heavy responsibility on someone? On Terra or Aqua? Even on Master Erqaus?"
Ven closed his mouth because neither Terra or Aqua would do well with that much responsibility, and really, his own master had broken his trust at the end. He'd had problems and was just as human as Terra and Aqua. Ven certainly knew he'd never want that kind of duty himself. And really, he wouldn't choose to give it to anyone who would want it. Controlling other people's thoughts and actions...as nice as the result sounded, it also seemed wrong. He wouldn't want anyone else controlling his actions.
Was that what it boiled down to? Freedom or peace? Couldn't they have both?
"It is possible," Sora cut in, apparently having somehow read his thoughts. Ven glanced up at him again, trying to ignore the creepiness of someone being able to read him like that because, well, it was Sora...mostly. "But only if people keep working towards it. There will be wars and points of disagreement. There will be wrong decisions and people who purposefully choose badly—who are even predisposed to do so. But that possibility of having both freedom and peace...isn't that what we're fighting for?"
Ventus thought about that for a moment. Then he looked dryly at his counterpart. "Fighting for Peace?"
Sora rolled his eyes in mock exasperation. "There are different ways of fighting. Going against the wrongs of a society and even just speaking up, can be a way of fighting. Not giving into hate can be a way of fighting. Not allowing the fear of the unknown—of people who are different than you—to rule your actions can be a way of fighting. Sometimes fighting is the most loving and peaceful thing anyone can ever do."
"Sometimes it's what Xehanort does," Ven pointed out grudgingly.
Sora nodded. "And sometimes it's what Xehanort does. Sometimes it causes more pain than you can imagine and hurts more people in more ways than anyone thought possible. People who initiate such fighting either don't understand the reaches of their actions, don't feel they have another choice, or have chosen to live as an evil person who merely wants to see others suffer."
"But that's what we struggle against," Ven finished, noting Sora's beaming smile out of the top of his eye. His head hadn't turned from the sphere in Sora's hand. "The darkness and other's suffering."
"Darkness isn't necessarily evil. It shouldn't be unquestioningly embraced either. It just is. What we do with it is what will shape the world."
Ven closed his eyes with a sigh and finally fixed his eyes on the other boy. "You know, you don't sound like Sora at all."
The Keyblade personified shrugged. "I am Sora and I am not. I am all Keyblades and I am none. It is...difficult to explain."
"But he's still in there, somewhere," Ven concluded.
'Sora' nodded.
The blond looked away for a moment, studying the dirt on the ground beside him and how it moved with the small breeze that wound through the graveyard.
"Nothing's ever going to be the same again, is it. Not for anyone."
The brunet cocked his head to the side in contemplation. "No. And while that's sad, it can also be a good thing if you let it be."
Ven blinked and glanced back up at the boy who had saved his life—his very existence. The boy who had done so much all for he glanced at the sphere of not-light and his face hardened. Determined, he reached forward and grabbed it.
"Then I guess it's time to heal."
With that he shoved the sphere into his chest, willing himself to be open and to receive it.
Then he knew nothing but pain.
xXx
Thanks again to Lexik!
