[Corrupt Disruption]
[Ven and Van rivalry, partial pairing]
Tick-tock, tick-tock. The clock is ticking. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Not much time left. Everything is happening to quickly. Go, go, go; it never ends!
Stop. Hault. Cease. All movement reduced to nothing. Time stills. Time runs out. Nothing is left. No seconds, no minutes, no hours. The glass in the hourglass has shattered, the chasm split wide open, the sand pouring out. It ends. Finally, it ends.
A sinister smirk formed by thin, lightly tan lips. Gold eyes digging into his very soul, piercing, burrowing deep. Black spiked hair casting a shadow over a face framed by helmet fragments.
They are together. They are one. It burns, it aches! The scars sink in, the Darkness creeps into the crevasses, and everything is molten lava and icy blackness and pain.
Breathing becomes difficult. The χ-Blade forged, grasped between fingers that used to belong to Ventus, but are now in control of Vanitas.
Ven releases a hoarse scream. It happened. It actually happened! No, no, no, no, no! He must fight this. Vanitas can't win, he simple can't –!
Vanitas laughs. In their now shared awakening station, two figures – so much like yin and yan – hand in the balance of the circle of stained glass. Ven stares down at it, then across at his Dark counterpart.
"I told you that I would get you someday soon," Vanitas grins wickedly. "And that day is today. Now I have you. You're mine." He holds up the χ-Blade. "Isn't it beautiful? This is what we're capable of, Ventus. This is why we were born."
Ventus whips out his Keyblade and charges, the fear ebbing away, giving way to rage. He thrusts the weapon at Vanitas, but the source of Unversed simply evades the toothed edge.
"Tsk, tsk, Ventus," Vanitas scolds darkly. "You shouldn't be so rude. I was marking our triumph."
"This is no triumph!" Ven retorts, spitting the words back venomously. "This is an abomination! We could start an apocalypse, we could –"
"Exactly," Vanitas nearly purrs and he leaps forward and pins Ven to the glass surface of the giant pillar below them. "And it'll be a marvelous thing, Ven, if you allow it. Master Xehanort told me all about it. You'll see; this will turn out perfectly in the end."
For a split second, Ventus thinks about it. He thinks that perhaps Van is right, and this could be a good thing. He tries to see it from his Dark half's perspective, tries to understand. But in the next moment, Terra and all that the older man has suffered because of the Darkness comes rising into Ven's consciousness, and he knows for a fact that this can't work. This can't be good at all, ever.
Blood surges through Ven's veins. Strength rises in the pit of his stomach. He emits a battle cry, throwing Vanitas's body from his, and erasing the lingering sensation of lips muttering against his ear. He shudders and holds the handle of his weapon out to the side, the blade poised behind him.
"I'm going to destroy you and that stupid χ-Blade. It can't exist!"
Vanitas growls. "Do you know nothing, Ventus? If you destroy me, you destroy yourself. You and I are one now. The χ-Blade is part of us as well! Destroying it will also tear you apart, and me along with you. We are all connected."
The blond ignores this warning. He steels his heart and mind, bracing himself for what's to come. "If it will save Aqua, Terra, and the worlds, then so be it."
Vanitas withholds a conflicted tear from slipping down his cheek. He, too, tenses to brace himself for collision. "Fine, be that way. We'll see who succeeds."
And as they run at one another, on the outside, Aqua is tossed to the ground by Ven's – Van's – hand.
Even locked in battle, regret somehow manages to seep into Ventus's bones.