I don't own anything associated with Kingdom Hearts or Silent Hill. They belong to Square Enix/Disney and Konami respectively.

Chapter 18

A bloody trail marked where he had tread. It was suspect, because Terra was pretty sure there was no blood on him.

Terra wiped a finger across the bottom of his shoes. When it came back muddy but free of blood, he sighed and continued onwards, attributing the phenomenon to one of this world's oh-so-amusing tricks. Would it kill this force to think up something that wasn't so obvious?

He held the Wayfinder in one hand, hoping to feel its pull. Instead, his heart fluttered like a caged bird, bashing against his ribs in an effort to escape. He had a feeling that some property of this prison blocked its power; it only fit the theme, after all.

The scent of an ocean breeze met his nose. Cautiously, Terra peeked around the next corner. Yep, there was a nurse walking (staggering? He didn't know what to call that twitchy movement) down the corridor, a rusty knife in one hand. Impatiently, he waited for it to pass into another junction, and then stepped into the corridor himself. The nurses, he found, like heartless, were attracted to his keyblade. As long as he kept it hidden and didn't wander into their vision, he could generally avoid them.

The corridor stretched out long before him, and although he walked for a long time, he never reached the end. Oddly though, when he turned around, it took him less than ten seconds to return from where he had come. Clearly, he wasn't meant to go that way.

He backtracked, finding a junction and taking a new path. As he did, he marked the wall with a Fire spell. He was going to get out of here even if he had to explore every passage.

This time, he entered the cafeteria. Long tables, two rows of five in total, were there. In the wells where food once sat, only dust lay now. However, he noticed that a couple of the wells were filled with red, dripping chunks that Terra did his best to avoid looking at.

He glanced back at the tables, and then nearly gave himself whiplash as his head swivelled around to stare at a place he had sworn was empty. Someone sat there, a white hood concealing the upper half of his face as he brought a steaming cup of tea to his lips. Like Xaldin and Xemnas, this man wore a cloak that fell to his ankles, but opposite in colour. The stark white was blinding compared to the dreary surroundings around them. Terra was suddenly hesitant to approach, feeling that the grime coating him would somehow taint this man.

But he approached anyways. The man paid him no mind, sipping from his teacup. Terra stood awkwardly for a few moments, then slid onto the bench across the table from the man. The man paused, and then continued to drink.

"What are you doing here?" Terra said bluntly, too stunned to remember his manners.

In the silence that followed, Terra realized how unfriendly that sounded. Sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck, he offered the stranger an apologetic smile.

"My name is Terra," he said. He extended his hand for a handshake, noticed the mud crammed into his skin's lines, and withdrew it. Wow, he was not making a good first impression. "I'm trying to find my way out of here. Could you help me?"

The man sipped.

"This is an odd place, isn't it?" Terra said, disliking the quiet. His words echoed through the wide room, loud and filled with notes of unease. "You're the first person I've seen. What are you doing here, anyways?"

"Watching."

Terra blinked, trying to make sense of the answer. The man set down his empty cup, and slowly rose to his feet.

"Wait!" Terra cried, standing as well. "Tell me how to get out of here."

Instead of doing that, the man asked his own question. "Do you deserve to?"

"What? What kind of question is that?" he snapped. There was an air of superiority around the man, as if Terra's outburst had just proven his point.

"Look," Terra said, forcing himself to be calm, "my friends are out there. They need me."

"A heart like yours, do they really need that?" the man said. "Torn between the dark and the light, how long until the indecision drives one insane?"

"I know which one I want," Terra said firmly. "Now tell me how to get out of here."

The man raised a crooked finger. "If you must, go that way."

Terra's smile probably looked like a dog's snarl. Keeping his rage in check, he turned away and stiffly headed towards the indicated exit.

"Terra." Terra stopped. "You say that you have already chosen, but are you sure it is the correct choice?"

Terra ignored him and yanked the door open.

The door did not lead outside, but at this point, Terra didn't expect anything else. It swung shut behind him when he stepped into the hall, but that was normal too, and he still had the means to escape if he wanted to.

Iron bars slammed down.

Oh. He didn't have a plan for that.

Clink.

He froze at the familiar sound. Looking over his shoulder, he saw the soldiers. They were lined up on either side of
the hallway, bladed arms rigid at their sides. They were still, like a procession preparing to march. When Terra waved his hands, they did not react. They remained where they were, waiting for something.

Or someone.

A bang on the door startled him into moving. He accidently stepped between two soldiers, then jumped back and summoned Earthshaker in anticipation of an attack. But the soldiers did not move.

Sweat rolled down the side of his head. He would have liked it better if they just sprung. Instead, he was forced to tiptoe between the ranks, his breath hitching every time he thought they stirred.

When he was in the center of the hall, they did move. Stomping with their left foot, their arms bent up at the elbow and stayed there, like knights holding swords at the ready. Terra had frozen while this was happening, and part of his mind wondered if he should go ahead and make the first move.

He released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. No, not yet. Not until he was closer to the end.

The dread grew with each step. He was standing at an angle, trying to see everywhere at once. His arms shook with tension, the muscles clenched so hard they began to hurt. He had to remind himself just to breathe, and the breaths he took seemed small and muggy.

He made it down all the way to the end, and they still hadn't moved. However, when he grasped the doorknob, that's when they stirred. Pivoting around, they flung at him. Terra glanced over his shoulder, his eyes widened, and he nearly tore the door off its hinges. Desperately, he shut it behind him.

The blades stabbed through the wood, so that bits rained down onto the ground and there were holes everywhere. But although they were clearly capable of breaking it down, they did not. The blades went away, and did not come back. Peeking through one of the holes, Terra saw that the soldiers had returned to their original positions.

He was in another wide room. It was not just a room, he realized, but a courtroom. The gallery was empty, with thick cobwebs extending between the benches. Dividing the would-be audience from the trial were iron bars, much like the ones that had locked him in the hallway. There was one passage through the bars to the other side, and that was in the center through what appeared to be a glass tunnel. He felt the edges of the opening on his side, finding that the tunnel had no doors. Odd, but maybe they had been removed right before this place was abandoned.

Eyeing a door beside what used to be the judge's seat, he walked into the tunnel. It was quite surreal; through the glass, everything was warped. The walls and ceiling met at an obtuse angle; the judge's stand seemed to extend forward and touch the glass. They snapped back to their normal places when he approached the end of the tunnel, and he backed up a step just so he could experience the oddity again. It really was quite cool, and he bet that Ven would have loved it. But there was no way that he would ever allow his younger friend to set foot inside this place.

As amusing as this was, there were still his friends to rescue. He moved forwards again, intending to exit.

Instead, he walked straight into a wall of glass.

Baffled, he felt around for the exit, slamming his fists on the wall when it failed to show. Okay, he thought to himself, so there's no door on this side; I'll just have to go back and find another way.

He turned around and headed back towards the gallery, but that way was blocked too. His blood ran cold. He knew there wasn't glass here before. Panicking, he lifted Earthshaker and drove it into the glass. All he managed to do was give himself a nasty shock as the force rebounded.

He was trapped, like an animal in a cage.

A gavel banged.

Suddenly, the room was lit, and he could feel the lights on him, the intensity amplified by the glass. Through the tunnel's warped picture, he could make out a blond-haired person sitting at the judge's stand, a black robe around his shoulders.

"Order in the court!" the person, evidently male, shouted. His voice was young and enthusiastic, nothing at all what Terra expected a judge to sound like.

Terra glanced around. There was no one else here, and he hadn't been making a fuss, so he wasn't sure what the judge was talking about.

"Terra the keyblader?"

He blinked. "Yes?"

"Oh, so that is you," the judge said happily. "It was hard to tell through the glass."

"Err, likewise," Terra said. "Look, could you –"

"Guilty!" The gavel slammed down.

"What? Guilty of what?" Terra demanded.

"I don't know," the judge said, "whatever the crime is."

The judge leaned back, stretched, and his arms seemed to wobble like a disturbed reflection. The part of his grin that Terra could see eerily reminded him of the Cheshire Cat – not a figure he would ever want on the bench if he was on trial.

Terra banged against the glass. "You can't put me away if nothing's happened! And even if something did, you don't have any proof it was me."

The judge tsked, waving a finger. "But we do have proof, Terra, all the proof we need!" He banged his gavel again, in a rhythmic fashion that, had this not been a serious situation, Terra could tap his feet to. "Yeah, feeling the beat!"

"Proof, what kind of proof? Hey!" Terra knocked on the glass. "I'm talking to you."

He marched up the tunnel to where he could see the judge properly. What he found was a young blond rocking his head to his made- up music, completely disregarding the person locked up before him.

Terra drove Earthshaker into the glass.

"Wah!" The judge fell backwards, his black robes floating behind him. One hand appeared, groping around the edge of the stand for a grip, then the other. Cautiously, the judge peered over the stand at the irate Terra, shrinking back at the heat of his glare. "Come on," the judge said, "don't be mad."

"Tell me about this proof!"

"Okay, fine. No need to be rude." The judge pulled out a piece of paper from his robes, nodding to himself as he scanned it. "Okay, here it is: studies indicate that subject A – that's you," the judge pointed at Terra, "has a large amount of darkness in his heart."

Terra waited for the rest. Instead, the judge crumpled the paper into a ball and threw it over his shoulder.

"And there you have it!" the judge announced.

"What kind of proof is that?"

The judge beamed. "The best."

Terra growled, pressing his forehead against the wall of his prison. He always knew his darkness would come back to bite him, but he never expected it to be in a courtroom with an absolute idiot!

"That's no proof," Terra said, "it doesn't show that I've actually done anything wrong."

"Objection!"

Silence rang through the room.

"Oh, yeah, oops." The judge blushed. "I forgot I was the judge and not the prosecutor. Anyways," he said loudly, "no good can come from darkness, so it must prove you've done something wrong."

Terra flinched at the familiar words. "Look, I'm telling you I haven't done anything!"

"Maybe you haven't, but you will." The judge waggled his finger. "Darkness always leads to evil."

Settling back in his chair, the judge remarked, "Boy, all this justice is a lot of work." From out of nowhere, he pulled out a stringed instrument and began to play.

"Any requests?" he asked.

"Let me out," Terra said flatly.

"Sorry, no can do!" There was a creak as a door opened. "Oh goody, here's our witness!"

Terra groaned, turning to see what kind of person this stupid judge had . . .

No. No, it couldn't be. He was dead, Terra watched him die!

But standing in the doorway was Officer Fair.

"You got him, Fair?"

"Yeah, he's holed up under here. Hey, just relax, kid. We don't want to hurt you; we're the good guys!"

Terra massaged his head, gasping for breath as the memory replayed itself. Officer Fair walked up to the witness box, looking like a child lost in a big store. His expression was carefully wiped blank when he met Terra's eyes, and without a word, he took a seat.

"Now, Zack Fair, is it?" Officer Fair nodded. "Great," the judge grinned, "now in your own words, tell us what happened the day you died."

The witness shrugged. "I was on duty with my partner, patrolling the streets, when we saw a young boy . . ."

"Stop! Who's there?"

The story had just begun, and already Terra wanted to cry.

Although it was a horrible disservice to the person he already killed, Terra couldn't bring himself to listen. Every word was a knife driven into his heart and sooner or later, it would hit something vital. So he sat hunched in a corner, hands clamped over his ears. But that didn't stop the memories from rewinding, nor did it stop the tears. They fell down his face freely, unchecked, unnoticed.

"Alright, does the defendant have anything to say for himself?"

The hand swooped down and he reacted –

Terra did not, and even if he did, it was doubtful he could get the words past the tears.

"In that case, double-guilty!" The gavel slammed down, marking the delivery of the verdict. The judge was beaming, but Officer Fair did not seem happy. He didn't look like he was feeling anything.

"What happens now?" Terra rasped.

"Let me check . . . shoot!" The judge dove behind his stand, where he soon remerged with the paper he had previously crumpled into a ball. "Let's see, imprisonment for the rest of your life. That seems fair, doesn't it?" The judge laughed. "You're lucky, you know that? If it were up to me, I would let the Bogeyman have you. No good ever comes from darkness."

Then the judge's smile faded. "But," he leaned forwards, "it wasn't the darkness that did this, was it?"

Terra bowed his head. Eraqus always told him it was, but he had also told Terra that it was okay, that he could redeem himself. Now, he didn't know anything. Maybe this sentence was for the best.

Aqua . . . Ven . . . Master . . . I'm sorry.

He frowned. What about his friends? How would they get out of here without him?

"Great, that's finished!" The judge clapped his hands together. To Officer Fair, he offhandedly said, "I think Ventus is next."

Terra's head snapped up. "What about Ven?"

"He's next!"

"For what? There's no darkness in his heart!" His voice was raw with panic.

"Wow, Terra, I didn't know you were so interested in the law!" The judge fumbled in his robes, before pulling out another piece of paper. "Okay, let's see . . . Oh, he's guilty, too!"

Terra stared in horror, and the judge continued, "And I actually get to hand him over to the Bogeyman! Man, it feels like forever since I've been able to do that."

"NO!" Terra punched the wall, wanting nothing more than to see it crack. "You can't do that; he's just a kid!"

"A juvenile delinquent! Seriously, Terra, get with the program."

His nails dug into his palm. Terra could hardly breathe, so consumed he was with rage. Earthshaker began to glow with a dark light, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

"Touch him," he snarled, "and you die!"

"Threatening a figure of authority? Terra, you are not making a good name for yourself." The judge leaned back completely, his feet going on the stand. "I see where Ventus gets it from. Hmm, Ventus. . ." He stroked his chin. "I think I'll just call him Ven –"

"You will not!"

The roar left him in a giant gust, leaving him empty of breath afterwards. The nails had come away from his palms and clawed at the glass instead, leaving shallow marks behind.

"Sorry, Terra, but it's my job. Seriously though, calm down." The judge gestured with his hands as he said that, as if it would actually have an effect. "It's not that big a deal; one swing and – "

All of Terra's rage, all of his fear and desperation, exploded out of him. Darkness crashed into the glass. For a second, it held, but then it shattered completely, and a hail of razor-sharp shards flew through the air. The judge squawked and dove behind his seat, cowering. Officer Fair didn't move.

Like a dragon emerging from its cave, Terra stepped through the dark mist and into the open. Arcs of black sparks ran up and down his arms, and his blue eyes were filled with shadows. The power came to him freely, responding to his unspoken whims, and swirled around him in a vortex.

"Madman on the loose!" the judge yelped. He took off through the door by which Officer Fair had entered, shouting, "Run, run away!"

The door shut, and it was only him and Officer Fair.

"You didn't look like that when I died," the dead man remarked.

Terra said nothing.

"I don't think they're actually going to bring your friend here, if that's what you're worried about."

"Why not?" Terra growled. "Everything else in this town is trying to kill him."

He turned away from Officer Fair, focusing on the glass tunnel. It was hard to protect Ven when he had no idea where he was, but he could at least make sure he wasn't trapped like Terra had been.

He snapped his fingers, and tendrils of darkness beat at the glass. Everywhere it touched cracked. Terra watched, but that wasn't enough to soothe the storm inside him. Ordering the darkness to withdraw, he started to tear it apart himself, ignoring the sting as the edges sliced through his skin. Unbelievably, Officer Fair joined him, and together, they dismantled the tunnel and crushed it into tiny pieces.

At the end, they were both covered in sweat. They stared at each other, unspoken thoughts flying between them. There was some sort of camaraderie between them now, unmarred by their bloody past.

"I was going to stay behind," Officer Fair said, "for Ventus. What's going on here, it isn't right. I know I should have done something to free you, too, but you were the guy that killed me, and I was really confused . . ."

"Don't be sorry," Terra said, "I think I may have deserved it."

"No," Officer Fair shook his head. "I've learned to live and forgive, Terra. Well," he grinned, "I guess in my case it's haunt and forgive. But you need to forgive yourself too."

"Are you a ghost?"

"No." He smiled sadly. "More like a memory. But I don't know what he was thinking when he brought me back. I wasn't a vengeful monster when I was alive; I'm not going to start being one now." He laughed. "You think he would have learned after his mistake with Naminé."

Terra blinked, and Officer Fair laughed some more and patted him on the back. "I know, it's hard for an outsider to wrap his brain around. But stop worrying about it and go find your friends. Whatever the town has planned for them, it isn't pretty."

Terra nodded. "Thank you."

He turned to leave. At the door, he paused, and then turned around. "Officer Fair," he began.

"Hey, just call me Zack!"

"Zack." His lips formed the word, enjoying the simplicity. "What did you see when you died, if it wasn't the darkness?"

"Well, like I said, when you pulled that weapon out, it wasn't darkness I saw. Actually, it looked like a lot of light."

Hopefully, everyone could tell who the judge was. Originally, it was just going to be an OC, but then I couldn't resist.