This chapter was a lot easier to write because I've been planning it for a long time… and to everyone who I'm going to upset in this chapter, I apologize in advance.

Once again, I don't own any of these characters, despite the fact that I put them through countless hardships and trauma… I'm sorry… *cries*

Incidentally, this is chapter 13... unlucky. How appropriate.

Sigh… brace yourselves, people, and enjoy… if you can…


Don't know what's going on
Don't know what went wrong
Feels like a hundred years, I
Still can't believe you're gone
So I'll stay up all night
With these bloodshot eyes
While all these walls surround me
With the story of our life
-
Three Days' Grace, "Gone Forever"


Riku slid off his chocobo and knelt to the ground, keeping low to avoid attracting the attention of the wide circle of guards around the mountain house.

It was cold here, a dramatically different climate than the desert. White flakes drifted down from the sky – snow, Riku knew, but it didn't snow in the islands where he grew up. The only time he'd ever seen snow – before now, anyway – was in the Land of Dragons, where he had warned the emperor of the dragon Heartless. And even then, he remembered, he'd had a heavy cloak.

He shivered in his sleeveless jacket, wishing he had that cloak now. Even another sleeveless layer would have been welcome – except Bruixe was still wearing his favorite vest, so he'd had to make do with a simple black undershirt instead of the thick leather.

"Have they moved?" Terra asked, returning from a scout around the mansion.

Riku shook his head. "They look bored to death. We could probably take them if we surprise them," he whispered back.

"Not likely," Terra said. "There are more guards around the back, and I spotted more moving inside the house. If they're warned, we might end up fighting them all at once, and they'd crush us by sheer force of numbers."

"But you're sure Isalena isn't here?" Riku asked.

"Positive," Terra confirmed.

Riku looked at his hands. "What if we didn't fight them, just… snuck in?"

"And just how are you planning to do that?" Terra wanted to know.

"Once upon a time, I could've used the darkness," Riku said wistfully. "Not an option now. But I mean… there has to be some way to take them out quietly, so the others aren't warned. If we can take them in small groups – four or five at a time…"

Terra considered that. "I see… nine here, a little more than I'd like to try, and… I don't know how many are inside."

"How many in back?"

"Six around the back entrance," Terra said, "which shouldn't be a problem… but there are more windows in the back. Which means we're more likely to be spotted from inside."

"Not if we wait till dark," Riku realized. "There are lights inside, right? And if you're on the side of a window that's lit up, you can't see through to the other side – all you see is a reflection."

"If we wait too long, Isalena will come back, and we'll be sunk," Terra pointed out.

"We don't have to wait forever," the younger man said. "Just until the sun drops below the trees, and there are shadows on the back of the house."

Terra frowned.

"You have a better idea?" Riku asked, exasperated.

"No," the Liberator admitted. "It just… makes me nervous."

"You and me both, man," Riku agreed.


Bruixe lay on the too-small bed, twirling Fallen Angel around in her hands, following the pattern of silver vines along the handle. Quite pretty for something that makes monsters, she thought.

Idly she tossed it up into the air and caught it again, wondering what would happen if she didn't catch it – if she just let it fall and pierce her shattered heart. Would she become a Nobody again? Or would she fade away, having blown her second chance at being whole?

The sun was setting outside, and she rolled over to stare out the window. Her reflection greeted her – yellow eyes taking her by surprise again. She wished she could break the window, too, but it was cold outside. And not seeing her awful eyes wouldn't make them go away.

Had this been how Riku felt? She remembered him telling her that in the beginning, before he became Ansem completely, he had used the blindfold to stay in his own form. Every time he took it off, he looked like Ansem – until he was forced to embrace Ansem's form completely, when he fought Roxas.

My eyes couldn't lie, he'd said. Neither could hers, anymore.

Bruixe sat up and took a corner of the black sheet into her hands, tearing a strip away until she was holding a makeshift blindfold, and bound it around her head. The fabric was thin enough that she could see through it, but when she turned back to the window, her eyes were completely hidden.

She smirked at her reflection. What now? she thought. You can't hurt me anymore.

A flicker of movement outside caught her eye, and she pressed her face against the glass, trying to see past the glare. Below, she could see the front of the mansion, and a figure walking towards the door, clad in a silvery grey gown.

"Great," Bruixe muttered to herself. "Mother Bitch is home."


"Great plan," Terra remarked sarcastically, rubbing the side of his face where he'd taken a hit from one of the guards.

"Hey, it worked, didn't it?" Riku answered, exhilarated. "Now all we have to do is find Bruixe."

"You're awfully optimistic for someone facing impossible odds," Terra said.

Riku laughed, the adrenaline rush charging him with energy. "Impossible? Heck, until a few hours ago I was pretty sure busting out of the manor was impossible… but here we are, right?"

He pushed open the back door to the mansion, slipped inside, and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Well, well, well," Isalena remarked. "What have we here?"

"I thought you said she wouldn't be here," Riku hissed.

"I thought I told you, we shouldn't wait too long," Terra retorted.

The Councilor wore a polite smile on her face, but her eyes were steely and cold. "Why, Terra! What an unexpected surprise. Pray tell, what brings you here at this hour?"

"I know about Danthus," Terra spat.

Isalena sighed theatrically. "A pity, isn't it? I was saddened that he had to die… but sometimes, in the course of events, sacrifices must be made for the greater good."

Terra shook with anger, and Riku put a hand on the bigger man's shoulder. "We can't fight her," he warned. "We don't know what she's capable of – she beat Danthus…"


Bruixe heard the door open, and soon after, snatches of conversation. She tried to catch all of it, but she was too far away. Opening the door, she was able to make it all out.

"The greater good?" an incredulous voice asked, and she recognized it immediately as Terra. Terra was here! So he'd gotten her cryptic warning after all.

"Easy," warned another voice, and for a second Bruixe swore her heart stopped in disbelief. Because Riku couldn't be here – it was impossible.

She crept forward, peering between the railing over the stairs, and sure enough, there were Riku and Terra, facing Isalena across the central hall.

"Of course," Isalena said. "Danthus was my dear friend and colleague. He needn't have died. But he had to go sticking his nose in business that was not his own. Much like two young men I know."

RUN! Bruixe wanted to scream.

"This ends here," Terra threatened.

Isalena just smiled. "I think not."

Riku tried to restrain him, but was too late – Terra closed the distance to the Councilor in a single stride, whipping his greatsword through the air as easily as a feather.

But fast as he was, Isalena was faster, and sidestepped gracefully, drawing her own weapon – a thin, rapier-like sword with an oddly-shaped blade.

Keyblade, Bruixe realized. Isalena – Isalena's a Keybearer?!

Riku was right behind Terra, lunging forward with an attack of his own, and Isalena parried easily, flicking Soul Eater away as if it were no more than an annoying bug.

Bruixe sprang into action, sprinting for the stairs, but was held up by three soldiers. "Kiss my ass," she snarled, not even hesitating.

Below, Riku and Terra were struggling, too slow to keep up with Isalena's quick, graceful movements. How can she be this good? Riku wondered desperately. Who the hell is this woman?

His limbs seemed to drag, and his sword arm was bleeding where Isalena had sliced him, but he refused to let it soften his grip on Soul Eater. Beside him, Terra was on the defensive, unable to get an attack in past Isalena's infallible guard.

As Isalena thrust at Terra's head, Riku closed in for a finishing strike, but Isalena was too fast again, twisting her arm up to ram the hilt of her Keyblade into Riku's abdomen. The breath rushed out of his lungs as he fell, Soul Eater skittering across the floor.

Isalena took a single step, then another, forcing Terra backwards, towards the door they had come through. "Had enough, Liberator?" she asked lightly, no more out of breath than she had been when she first drew her blade.

Bruixe dispatched the last guard and sprinted for the dueling pair, but she wasn't fast enough. With no more than a flick of her Keyblade, Isalena sent Terra's greatsword flying across the room. She lunged forward, snarling, and stabbed the Liberator through the heart.

A strangled cry escaped Bruixe's lips, and she threw herself at the Councilor's unprotected back, but Isalena simply turned and blocked the attack, slicing Bruixe from elbow to wrist. Fallen Angel fell from her grasp, and Isalena shoved her, sending Bruixe tumbling backwards on the floor.

Bruixe didn't even try to get up, utterly spent. Beside her, Riku was doubled over, coughing blood, and beyond him, Terra's motionless form lay facedown, staining the surrounding tile with dark blood.

"If this is all that the new generation of Keybearers is capable of," Isalena said contemptuously, "then I mourn for the fate of the worlds. It is no wonder Heartless roam freely, when such children are all that stand against them."

She looked down at Terra's corpse as if with pity. "And to think this man once defeated the mighty Xehanort."

Gone, gone, gone, Bruixe thought, clutching her mangled forearm. She would not believe it, could not – because Terra could not be dead, it was impossible – he was the strongest person she knew, and he was – or had been – the only friend she'd had, after her father betrayed the city.

Gone, she mourned, and she was glad that she was safe behind her blindfold, so that Isalena wouldn't see the rush of tears she wept for the man who had once been her friend.

"It seems we are in need of some new accommodations," Isalena said coldly, and walked away.


sniff… sniff…

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