Chapter 60 End of the Beginning
A lone man stands at the center of the square in Radiant Garden. His eyes are closed and the only thing that moves is his silver hair as it blows across his face in the wind. No one else is in the square when Aqua enter, her eyes going wide at the sight of him.
She runs to him and reaches out to embrace him, but pulls back and asks hesitantly, "Terra?"
The man's eyes slowly flicker open and Aqua gasps at their yellow color. She starts to back away, but she only takes a step when he reaches forward and grabs her around the neck. Darkness starts to come off him as he lifts her into the air with one hand.
She gasps and struggles to free herself, but his grip is too strong. "Who...am I?" The man asks, tilting his head to look at her in confusion.
"Such a terrible...darkness. Fight it. Terra, please!" Aqua says still trying to get free.
"Terra you say." The darkness disappears from around him and he drops her to the ground.
Aqua's knees buckles and she stays down for a moment to regain her breath. When she lifts her head she sees him gripping his head in pain.
"Aqua…"
It is Terra's voice and she jumps to her feet. "I'm right here Terra," she says putting her hands on his. "You have to fight him Terra."
"Aqua...you have to run...I can't…"
"No," Aqua says shaking her head. "I'm not leaving you again."
"Aqua please-"
He suddenly stands up straight, pulling out of Aqua's hands. His arms fall back to his sides and he says in a voice that is no longer Terra's, "Terra's heart has been extinguished, smothered by the darkness within him."
"You're lying!" Aqua shouts summoning her keyblade. She is slightly surprised to see it is not her own, but Master Eraqus'. Terra-Xehanort summons his keyblade as well and swings it at her forcing her to jump back. She stands out of striking distance glaring at him. "My name is Master Aqua," she says pointing her keyblade at him. "Now return my friends heart or pay the price!"
Terra-Xehanort merely smirks at her words and still glaring she charges him. Her keyblade swings down at him but he intercepts it with a swing of his own forcing her back. He lunges after her forcing her to spin away from him to avoid being hit. She turns back to face him and for a moment freezes, seeing an image a Terra's smiling face and his blue eyes always so happy to see her. The illusion is broken as Terra-Xehanort slashes at her again and manages to leave a long gash on her arm before she knocks his keyblade away.
Ignoring the dull throb in her arm, she throws her keyblade overhand and it spins through the air at Terra-Xehanort who makes no move to stop it. Before it can hit him, a being of darkness, larger than Terra-Xehanort, springs from his chest and takes the hit for him.
Aqua's eyes are wide as her keyblade returns to her hand. She stares at the dark guardian that hovers protectively over Terra-Xehanort and it glares back at her with its arms crossed. Terra-Xehanort teleports across the distance between them and Aqua tries to strike him on the side. The guardian jumps in front of him again, taking the blow and sending Aqua stumbling back. She regains her footing and starts to charge Terra-Xehanort again only to have to stop as the guardian' as it lashes out at her with its sharp claws.
She manages to block the claws, but the guardian is quick and before she realizes what it is doing, it has her held in its hands, squeezing her tightly. She tries to free herself, but the hold is too strong. She wants to swing her keyblade at it, but her arms are pinned to her sides. The hands around her get tighter and she struggles to breathe. Dark spots appear in her vision as her struggles become weaker and weaker.
"Let her go!"
Aqua hears Terra's voice and sees Terra-Xehanort stab the guardian through the chest, but her sight goes black a moment later and she is falling.
…
Opening her eyes slowly, Aqua finds herself standing on a large circle of stained glass. It looks to be Terra's heart with his sleeping body resting on one side of the orange circle. The opposite side is half covered by tendrils of darkness slowly creeping into the image and darkening Terra's heart.
"Aqua."
She looks up and gasps, seeing Terra kneeling at the center. She runs to him and he smiles despite the black eye and split lip he has along with other injuries. "Terra," she whispers hugging him tight. He hugs her back, his hands rubbing soothing circles. "I thought I'd never see you again."
"Aqua…" Terra says and he pulls away from her with a sad smile. "This is a fight I won't win." He gestures to the darkness creeping across his heart. "But I can buy enough time for you to get away."
"No," Aqua says. "I can save you. I promise I will save you."
"He has taken over my heart Aqua," Terra says sadly.
"I don't care," Aqua says giving him a fierce look. "There has to be a way for you to fight him off."
"I've tried Aqua, but I'm so tired."
"Please," Aqua says taking one of his hands and holding it tight. "Please don't give up."
He gives her a sad smile and looks past her. She turns to see the guardian appear on the other side of his heart. "Go," Terra says rising to his feet. He sways slightly and nearly falls, but Aqua holds him up. "Go," he repeats pushing her away gently. "I'll do my best to hold him off."
Aqua reaches out to him, she doesn't want to leave, but she doesn't have a choice as everything goes black again.
…
Aqua opens her eyes to find herself back in the square in Radiant Garden. Terra-Xehanort is still standing as well, but he appears to be held rigid by a soft golden light that surrounds him. He struggles and snarls in anger, but he can't move. "Stop fighting back!" he shouts and Aqua knows he isn't talking to her.
"Terra," she says and Terra-Xehanort glares at her. "You can do it Terra."
"Your heart will succumb to mine," Terra-Xehanort says, but his eyes blink and when they open, they're blue.
"This'll teach you," Terra-Xehanort says in Terra's voice. He summons Xehanort's huge keyblade and holds it pointed at his chest. "Get out of my heart!"
"Terra no!" Aqua shouts, but it is too late. Terra-Xehanort stabs himself in the heart with the keyblade as Aqua starts to run to him. The guardian appears behind Terra-Xehanort for a moment, but its outline gets hazy and it falls to the ground creating a dark portal. Terra-Xehanort starts to fall back as his eyes roll up in his head. His back hits the dark portal and he starts to fall in. Aqua reaches him just as his hand slips under and she dives in after him.
Darkness.
It's everywhere. Blinding her. Wrapping around her. Making it hard to breathe. And Terra was there below her, sinking into the dark abyss, his eyes closed and his body limp.
Aqua pushes back the darkness and summons Master Eraqus' keyblade. It turns into her glider as she activates her armor to protect herself from the darkness. She wills her glider to go faster and slowly she starts to get closer to Terra. "The darkness can't have you," She says stretching out a hand.
She strains, reaching out to him as they fall further and further down. Her hand grabs his and holds on tight. She pulls him onto the glider and hugs him close as she does a 180 to face back up where the spot of light they had fallen through is slowly shrinking. Aqua urges her glider to go as fast as it can, but its not going to be enough. "I have to do something or we'll both be lost."
She takes a long moment to think about what must be done before closing her eyes and turning her glider back into Master Eraqus' keyblade. She opens her eyes to see her armor wrapped in a hug around Terra as they both float in the darkness.
Taking off the chain on the keyblade shaped like the Mark of Mastery symbol, it reverts back to her own. She places the keychain in her pocket and slips the her keyblade into Terra's hand. "I'm with you," she says kissing his forehead gently. She pulls away from him and uses all her magic as she shouts," Go!" Her keyblade glows with the magic and sends Terra and her armor flying up and out of the darkness.
Aqua smiles to herself as she lets her eyes close and her body sink peacefully into the darkness.
…
"Right this way," Braig says leading Ansem the Wise and his other apprentices to the spot where the man who looks like Terra with silver hair lies unconscious with Keric keeping an eye on him.
Ansem kneels beside him and Keric moves a few steps back to stand beside Braig. "It's Xehanort," Keric in a low voice and Braig looks at him surprised.
"As if," he says in a similarly low voice. "Xehanort is ten times older than that guy.
"Young man, what ails you?" Ansem says lifting the man up as his his yellow eyes blink open. "Can you speak? Tell me your name."
"Xeha...nort."
"Xehanort?" Ansem repeats and Keric smirks at Braig.
"Told you."
Xehanort collapses unconscious once more and Ansem signals to Braig and Dilan who hurries forward. "Quickly, get him to the castle," Ansem says and the two of them hasten to obey.
"Keric, get those for me would you," Briag says nodding towards the blue armor and keyblade lying discarded a few steps away. Keric nods and picks it up with the help of Even and Ienzo and the group moves quickly to the castle.
…One week later...
Tifa comes down the stairs slowly, cradling the tray of food in her hands. All the lights are off in Zack's room, but the glow from the TV is enough for her to see. As she reaches the bottom of the stairs, she hears ominous music followed by a girl's over dramatic scream of terror. She walks down the short hallway at the bottom of the stairs as the girl's scream stops and an evil cackle replaces it.
"Zack," she says quietly as she enters his room and turns to see him on the couch in front of the TV. He is sitting in the middle with his knees drawn up to his chest and his head resting on them. He doesn't react to her calling his name and keeps his eyes on the movie, Casper the Unfriendly Ghost. His face is expressionless despite the bloody massacre the little ghost boy is carrying out.
"Zack." Tifa tries again. "I brought you lunch. It's pizza. Your favorite."
"Not hungry," Zack says his eyes never leaving the screen.
Tifa sighs and put the tray of food on Zack's desk in case he decides to have it later. "Do you need new bandages?" She asks trying to draw out more than a few words from him. "Aerith said to change them every 12 hours to keep the cuts clean."
"They're fine."
Tifa looks at him and sees how tightly he is hugging his legs to himself. Despite every inch of his face being expressionless, she can see every muscle drawn tight. But he doesn't want to talk and she can't make him. Trying to smile, she hugs him gently and leaves a kiss on the top of his head before returning back up the stairs to let him have his time alone with nothing but the B rated horror movie to keep him company.
Casper's murder spree continues after Tifa leaves and ends, as always, back at the haunted house with the frat boy foolishly going inside. Zack doesn't even blink when Casper appears suddenly behind the boy and cuts his neck open. Casper's cackle fades into the credits which roll as Zack slowly uncurls himself. Holding his fist out, he opens it and stares down at the small pin he had been clutching so tightly it left a mark.
It is the pin Zack had given Ven and Ven had given back to him. There is a smudge of blood still on it. Zack's own blood. The sight of it takes him back to the alley. He had tried so hard to protect Ven, but he'd lost him in the end.
To remember me by.
Ven had said it so finally. He had said it with no hope of coming back.
A tear falls from his eye onto the pin and Zack wipes it with his finger, taking most of the blood off. Now the words 'Sexy D' are readable again and Zack's lips twitch up, remembering Ven's red face and his embarrassed smile.
More tears fall and Zack feels a sob rising in his throat. He clenches his fingers around the pin again and brings the fist to his mouth to muffle the sounds. His body shakes, causing pain to shoot across his chest from the half healed cuts left by Vanitas. After a minute, his tears dry up and the sobs stop. He looks up to see all the credits had rolled and the screen is back on the main menu. He reaches down and picks up the remote from where it had fallen on the floor.
He presses the play button and leans back on the couch with his knees drawn up to his chin once more. Zack stares without expression as the opening credits begin again.
…
"It's been days, Cloud."
"I know."
"What are we supposed to do? There's been no word from Aqua or the others, Zack hasn't left his room, he won't talk to me, and we're suddenly responsible for three little kids-"
"Tifa…"
"I just don't know what to do."
"We do our best and we hold onto the hope that they will come back."
"I don't have much hope left. It has been too long. I don't think they're coming back."
Tifa and Cloud's voices in the bar go silent and Sora, Riku, and Kairi shift away from the kitchen door they had been listening through. The three children exchange wide eyed glances and Kairi asks in a small voice, "They...aren't coming back?"
"Cloud says he thinks they will come back," Riku says, but he looks worried.
"Yeah, but Tifa said it's been too long and we haven't seen them for days," Sora says. "Why wouldn't they come back?"
"Maybe something bad happened," Kairi says sadly. "And they can't get back to us."
A depressed silence falls on the three of them as they try to wrap their heads around the fact that this stay in Traverse Town may become permanent. Sora closes his eyes and ducks his head a moment, but when he looks back up he has a big smile on his face.
"Well, if they can't find their way back to us, than I'll just have to go find them."
Riku and Kairi slowly begin to smile as well. "Yeah, me too," RIku says with a confident smile.
"Me three!" Kairi says. "Cross my heart." She puts her hand to her heart at her promise and the boys do the same.
"Oh there you are," Tifa says opening the kitchen door and looking down at the three of them. "Are you three ready for lunch?" The three children nod quickly and thoughts of their promise leave their minds as they help Tifa make sandwiches.
...
The worst thing about the Realm of Darkness is the silence.
It is cold, draining, infinite.
It presses on Aqua with a weight large enough to wear down even those with the strongest hearts. It tries to stop her, to force her down and take her hope, but she walks on. The soft crunch of the ground under her boots is the only thing to hear, the only thing to keep her from losing to the silence.
As long as she can walk, she can hope.
But her steps are slow and heavy, each one harder than the last. It is not her body nor her mind that tires, in the Realm of Darkness there is no need for rest or sleep, but it is her spirit growing weary.
The sameness of the Realm wears on her like the silence. The gray path she is on is forever winding its way through the dark abyss. There is nothing ahead of her and nothing behind, just more of the same.
She keeps her eyes on the path, afraid to look at the darkness and see yellow eyes watching her. She hadn't seen the heartless when she had first found herself in the Realm of Darkness, but slowly their eyes had started to appear out of the darkness and move closer as if sensing her fading hope.
She finds dark thoughts floating in her mind. Thoughts of giving up, of fading away, of losing herself to the darkness so as to find something other than this silence. What scares her most is how she is no longer pushing those thoughts away. She wants to hope, to believe in the light, but she finds her spirit broken and her eyes turn to the darkness around her.
She stops walking.
A large head of swirling darkness and yellow eyes looms over her. Two others just like the first join, looking down at her. Out of reflex, she tries to summon her keyblade, but it's gone; given away in an attempt to save Terra. With nothing to defend herself against the sharp claws heading straight for her, Aqua bows her head and waits for it all to end.
But in the distance is a light.
Two burning streaks, one of orange and one of green, are vibrant despite the darkness and shoot through the heartless' chest. Aqua raises her head in surprise and gasps seeing Terra and Ven's keyblades cut through the remaining two heartless. As the heartless fall, the keyblades race away from Aqua.
"Wait!"
Her shout lifts the weight of the silence off her shoulders. She starts to run, her boots beating a quick rhythm on the ground. The lights of her friends' keyblades stay far ahead of her, but close enough for her to follow. She chases them through the Realm of Darkness and soon the sameness fades as she finds herself standing on a sandy shore, looking out over the water at the small pale moon. She stops and lets out a sigh of relief.
Here, the silence is beaten back by the sound of waves.
For a moment, she is sad to see Terra and Ven's keyblades gone, but she smiles knowing they had saved her. She reaches up and touches her lips. "I guess it's been so long, I almost forgot how to smile."
A small smile still on her face, she moves to the water's edge and sits. She sits there for a long time watching the waves. Their sound brings her back to a memory of another beach, this one with stars overhead, and Terra beside her.
She closes her eyes remembering his smile and the way his lips felt so gentle against her own. He'd been so understanding when she'd been too scared to follow her heart. He'd been so happy when she kissed him despite her fears. There had been a perfectness in the way they would hold each other that made her feel like they were meant to be together. Now in the Realm of Darkness, his touch is what she misses the most.
And she feels a hand squeeze her own.
Startled she opens her eyes wide, but there is no one there. It was just her imagination. The hope that had flowed into her fades, but out the corner of her eye she spots a light. Terra's keyblade is hovering at the beginning of a new path, waiting for her.
She slowly stands and as she does so, the keychain from Master Eraqus' keyblade falls from her pocket. She picks it up and looks from it to Terra's keyblade and then back it in her hand.
"I'm sorry Ven," she says crouching down. "I am not the one who can wake you." She half buries the small charm in the sand. Master Eraqus' keyblade is not for her, it is for the one with Ven's heart, and she can only hope that somehow the right person will find it here.
Leaving it behind, she crosses the beach to Terra's keyblade which fades as she approaches. She looks back one more time to see the small speck of silver poking out of the gray sand of the beach. The moonlight reflects off it slightly causing it to sparkle. Turning back to the path in front of her, Aqua begins to walk.
The beach far behind her, she finds herself once more in silence, but this time her her hope is fueled by determination and is too strong to be broken. She isn't going to let Xehanort win. She will find a way out of the Realm of Darkness. She will make sure her friends are brought back. But most of all, she is going to keep her light burning strong, no matter what.
And here we are at the end of The Dark Seeker Saga: MEKA.
Thank you so much to everyone who has favorited and followed this story and an extra special thanks to everyone who left a review along the way.
As I've been saying all along, this is not really the end because there will be a sequel.
But I've been keeping a secret from all of you.
The Dark Seeker Saga won't stop at just two stories. Yep that's right. The sequel I've been teasing you all with will have its own sequel and a sequel after that. In total, there will be 4 stories in the series.
And now you might be thinking, "Holy crap! I just read a 200,000+ word fic and I'm going to have to read three more to see how it ends?"
The answer is yes. I'm telling you now in case anyone wants to bail before they get in any deeper, but if you're in it for the long haul I promise it will be worth it. I have lots of tricks up my sleeve and enough angst and suspense to keep it interesting.
So now let's talk about what happens next.
The next fic in The Dark Seeker Saga is going to be called…...The Dark Seeker Saga: Those Seeking Answers.
What's it about? Here is the summary (still a work in progress)
It has been ten years since Aqua and Ven left Sora, Riku, and Kairi in Traverse Town and never came back. Now Sora is searching for answers, but he won't find them at home. The only thing to do is to run away. "The answers you seek await you. Proceed if you believe you are strong enough."
In addition to beginning Those Seeking Answers, I am also almost done with a oneshot called A Man Named Ansem. It will take place in between MEKA and Those Seeking Answers. Basically it's how Xehanort creates Organization 13 by killing Ansem the Wise's apprentices and some others. Here's the summary (again still a work in progress)
"Guess what we're doing today." Isa knows when Lea greets him like that he is about to get dragged into something that will ultimately get them in a whole lot of trouble. Still, he joins Lea on a seemingly harmless prank of breaking into Ansem the Wise's impenetrable castle. This prank takes an unexpected turn when they witness and become victims of the acts of a man named Ansem.
So here's what I'm going to do. Once I have posted BOTH A Man Named Ansem and the first chapter of Those Seeking Answers I'll post a short note on this story so you'll get a notification if you've favorited or followed MEKA.
And finally, I am going to ask all you wonderful people out there who have read all the way to the very end of MEKA to leave a review on what you thought of the story. What was your favorite part? Your least favorite part? What do you want to see more of or less of in the sequel? Don't be shy. It doesn't matter if you didn't review any other chapter or if you're reading this a year after it's posted, I would love to hear your opinion.
Alright, that's all I've got to say for now. Be looking out for A Man Named Ansem and The Dark Seeker Saga: Those Seeking Answers in the next couple of weeks. :)
-Nexanda-