Yes this chapter is late. I know. I've been busy. I'm sorry. Really. I'll explain later. Here is the chapter folks.
Chapter 29: Revelations
… I was stunned beyond words almost. Sora was in a fucking wheelchair. Kairi was pretty badly injured as well. Intelligence actually knew their heads from their asses for once? They actually had intel that was right? And up to date! And this intel actually said things that worked to our advantage instead of our disadvantage?… What the hell is going on here?
And … they wanted to negotiate a peace? … Has the universe gone completely bat shit insane while we were on that shuttle? I mean… the Heartless and basically everybody else in the universe are naturally at war with each other I thought. We are polar opposites, destined to struggle for all of eternity. You cannot have peace with your polar opposite! It just cannot happen! The laws governing the universe mandate it. Polar opposites shall always struggle, keeping each other in balance. If either one of us opposite were to become too powerful, then the entire universe could tip into a chaotic state of disarray or end in an apocalyptic display of explosions and either infinite darkness or light depending on which side becomes over powerful. Everybody knows that. Its been the basis for half of the fucking RPG's ever made on any world in any universe ever! If that many people believe it to be true, than by virtue of popular belief its true! It works all the time with religion and politics, so why not with vague philosophical concepts that are turning into actual working science at an astoundingly fast rate?
"… you want to negotiate a peace… with us. … Are you crazy? I mean really, are you guys out of your minds. We have always been at war with each other since the first day heartless existed. Before that even, if you consider us to be avatars of the darkness in people's hearts." I said in a shocked manner. This was insane. Completely, utterly, totally insane.
"If that were the case, then Nobodies would be the light within people's hearts, and we all know for certain that they are not. And humans have both light and darkness in their hearts, so when a heartless is created, if it was truly the darkness in a person's heart given life, then wouldn't the light in that person's heart form a being as well? There is a reason that the Princesses of Heart have hearts that are perfectly balanced between light and darkness, instead of wholly one or the other. And that cannot be the Nobodies, as they don't have hearts per say. They can feel emotions, that belief that they cannot is false.I would know, considering that I am a Nobody. Ansem's research in that aspect was wrong. But he was right in the aspect that Nobodies do not have emotions we feel are in the mind, not the heart. Anyway, as Nobodies are not the light inside human's hearts, then the Heartless cannot be the darkness. " explained Namine as we made our way towards the table at which they were all sitting, our bodies acting on auto pilot as our minds raced to make sense of all this information we had suddenly received.
"So what you are saying is that the heartless are not the representation of the darkness in peoples' hearts? That we are the entire heart given a physical manifestation? That we are not darkness incarnate, that we are actually whole beings in some way?" asked Vergere in a curious, questioning manner, her initial shock immediately replaced with a burning desire to know more. I decided to let her do most of the talking as she knew the most about the Heartless, the Nobodies, and humans out of all of us Heartless here, so she was the most likely of us to actually know what she was talking about. Or so I hoped. Of course, my being too shocked to really even speak also effected that decision somewhat. Heartless not being darkness? What is this bullshit!
"Exactly. And, as we all should know, the Nobodies are made from the body and spirit of a person after his or her heart is separated by some means from the rest of their body. Now, there is no proof that the heart and the body and spirit are opposites in anyway. In fact, all available proof points in the complete opposite direction, towards the heart and the body and spirit both being completely neutral towards one another." Explained Namine, pleased that at least one of us was able to understand what she was getting at and happy that the rest of us weren't arguing vehemently against her or killing her for her statements. My thoughts there probably somehow inspired Vestara to start arguing that point, though she would probably have done it on her own at that point anyway even if I hadn't thought that thought.
"Wait. If the heart and the body and spirit are neutral towards one another, then why are we at war in the first place? Why is it instinctual in Heartless to attack Nobodies and vice versa? Why did everyone assume that the Heartless were the darkness in a persons' heart?" challenged Vestara, obviously not pleased with the idea of her not being darkness and evil incarnate due to her nature as a Heartless.
She probably already is due to her personality, but I am not telling her that. If I want a psychotic magic user to deep fry my ass in ten and a half different, magical, painful, explosive ways for saying something that is both true and that she wants to hear, I would tell Xion that she is the most powerful mage ever and that I would like to see what her and Riku's, or, Kingdom hearts forbid, her and Sora's children would look like.(An. Blame my idiot friend for that rather creepy image. He kept on getting Sora and Riku confused as he is not a fan and… let us just say that conversation made me throw up in my mouth several times per minute and made my brain feel like it was on fire.) She would be so creeped out by my statement that she would concentrate on killing me as fast as possible with no regards for making the experience painful for me. Vestara would prove my point by going out of her way to prolong the process and make it as painful as possible for me.
"Well, for starters, the war with the Heartless originally began over the same thing that most wars start over: land. When the Heartless first appeared in large numbers, they had no worlds of their own, no land what so ever. So the war started like that and it just hadn't stopped. Of course, humans also thought you guys were evil. Various sized odd looking creatures armed to the teeth with magic, weapons, and natural weapons like claws and pure body mass that were created in an experiment to give physical form to the darkness with in peoples' hearts are usually considered to be evil. However, we are now pretty sure that you guys are the whole heart, not just the darkness, and the Heartless have quite a number of worlds, enough that you will not need more, so I think we can negotiate a peace." Said Roxas in the exasperated tone that has been used by teachers all over the many worlds when students need to be explained things that they think should be obvious.
"So… what are your terms for this peace?" I asked, surprised at how strong and confident my voice sounded considering I was extremely afraid on the inside. What if they were terms we couldn't accept? They vastly out number us here. I mean, there are the children of the original heroes here, there are the new versions of those heroes, and there's a shitload of Nobodies and keyblade wielders to deal with. We could kill Sora and probably a few more, but we would die in the process and enrage their forces to the extent that I am pretty sure they would try some sort of extremely risky move that has a chance of ending the war in one fell swoop in Sora's name. Considering that we wouldn't be there to stop the plan from succeeding, it probably will, resulting in a peace similar to the one we are discussing now, except with almost a hundred percent less Heartless. That would be fucking great, wouldn't it. Me and my friends causing the downfall of the Heartless. … if there was a Heartless Heaven, they would probably go out of their way to transplant a small piece of Hell there just for us. Or better yet, a piece of Nobody Heaven that would constantly spawn Nobodies that we would have to fight for all of eternity. Like Valhalla, except we are not Vikings and this is a form of punishment, not a reward for dying valiantly in combat.
"How about we run a small test to see if the Heartless are made wholly out of darkness or not first to see if this peace is even possible? If that is ok with you." Asked Namine politely. I can't help but like her. She was such a nice person to everybody, even us Heartless. I don't think she could be mean to anybody. She just doesn't have it in her. Seeing her treat us with respect and dignity gives me some hope for this peace after all.
"No sense in having that argument over the terms of peace, coming to an agreement that leaves both sides rather mad yet willing to try and make it work, only to discover that it was all for naught due to the universe needing balance between light and dark which couldn't be achieved if the avatars of darkness are at peace with those who are supposedly supposed to represent light. Both sides will just prepare for war again during that very short lived peace, and one side, if not both, will probably develop a one shot, all or nothing strategy that would end the war immediately, and there goes one of the sides along with the balance between light and dark and once that is gone the rest of the universe is basically shot to hell." Explained Roxas in a tone of voice that reminded me of a shrug, in that what would happen would happen.
So how do you do this test? Will it be painful?" I asked. I wasn't afraid of pain, but it is usually wise to find out if something will be painful beforehand so that one doesn't embarrass oneself. For example, the first time I used a dark portal, nobody told me how cold the thing was on the inside. So for the 5 seconds it takes to go through the portal, on both sides of it all that could be heard was me cursing out the cold with some rather obscene terms and phrases. I said things that Cid Highwind wouldn't have used to insult his poor wife back before they were married. Needless to say, everybody within earshot was laughing hysterically at me. So, to prevent a similar situation from happening, I always ask whether something will be painful, or cold, or something along those lines before I actually do it.
"It will hurt if it is positive for light and darkness. If there is just darkness within you, it will not affect you in the slightest. And we have calculated that there is a 95 percent chance that the Heartless contain both light and dark, so you should feel pain. If not… then we will have to kill you. I am really sorry, but we have no choice in the matter. " Said Namine in an apologetic voice that made me feel a great deal of sympathy for her. She actually didn't want to kill us. She would only take part in our deaths if she had no choice in the matter, and even then I had a feeling she might regret doing so afterwards.
"… just get this damn thing over with then.'' Said Vestara, fuming mad about the fact that Namine pwned her in that argument right there. … It was quite funny in a sad way, like watching a clown fail at something like juggling really sharp knives and getting hurt by it. I felt bad about snickering, but it was just too damn funny, like a child pouting about not getting her way. I
"As you wish." Namine snapped her fingers and suddenly a small remote like device appeared in her hand. She pressed a button on it and suddenly the Macarena started playing all around us. … it was the most horrifying thing I have ever heard in my entire life. The same could probably be said of the others as well. All four of us moved at the same time, aiming to attack that horrid remote control, somehow moving in time with the music. Vestara cast a thunder spell, I slashed with my sword, Vergere… well, she attacked that shit somehow, though exactly how I may never know, and Domovoi threw his shield at it, which I honestly had no idea Invincibles could do but whatever, as long as it ends this fucking torture I could care less. Our attacks hit at the same exact time, just at the down beat where the dancers are supposed to rotate 90 degrees. Not a single one of our attacks hit Namine in the slightest, I was careful not to hit her. The controller exploded into gouts of shrapnel that would have hit and probably killed Namine it Domovoi's shield hadn't intercepted them in midair as it curved bask to him like a boomerang. Not a single shard of shrapnel, amazingly, hit her. It was a miracle. And I am pretty sure we did it intentionally too. I know I did.
"Congratulations. You pass the test. You would have to be made out of pure evil to stand this song for more than ten seconds. And the destruction of the remote without killing me, thank you by the way for that, shows that you can show mercy and compassion even while destroying something. You're not pure evil." said Namine, smiling a small smile of relief and joy that she was right. "Now… on to those Terms."
That's the end of this chapter. Sorry I took so long but life got in the way. Not sure when I will be able to update, if at all. Life just threw me one hell of a sucker punch and I don't think I will find the time now to write. Or I might find a whole load of time to write. I don't know. Life is really complicated right now. … Elen, if you have the time, could you possibly message me? We haven't talked in some time and I would like to know how you are doing. Anyway, that's it for this chapter. Adios till next time, whenever that may be.