Chapter XXXVI; Walk Among Tombstones

Yuki looked around her in wonder and disbelief. The area was desolate. The ground was dry and cracked dirt with no sign of life. Around her was rock walls that seemed to go up forever to meet with the sky. There were several dips in the ground that formed steps to a hollow. In the center of the hollow X and Y stood together. Yuki paced around slowly, taking in what was nothing.

"This place is a barren wasteland." Yuki said. She glanced over to the blonde twins. They were standing closer together than they usually did. Both were deathly silently, with a look that made it seem they would rather be anywhere than here. "Are you two ok?" Yuki asked. Y looked at X concerned, her mouth stuck in a frown that didn't fit her.

"I won't say we are." Y said in a soft voice. It made Yuki realize just how small Y really was. She was only a child, no matter how many years she had seen.

"What's wrong?" Yuki asked. Y looked towards a narrow ravine that led to a place Yuki couldn't see.

"This is where I lost my heart." Y said. Her voice was so quiet Yuki hardly heard her. She gazed at Y in shock. It must have been terrible, remembering the moment you stopped being human and having to return to the place that it happened. X stepped away from his sister, going towards the ravine.

"Let's get this over with." X said, sounding more reserved than Yuki had ever heard.

Yuki and Y followed X through the ravine. They came out in a vast open space. The sky overhead was overcast with thin clouds. Plenty of light was still escaping through the clouds. There was one path in the middle of what took Yuki's breath away. There were keyblades as far as the eye could see stabbed into the ground. There were even keyblades stabbed into the wall by the ravine entrance. There were a few rock formations that seemed out of place, blocking Yuki's sight line. Yuki stopped in her tracks, completely in awe.

"Welcome to the keyblade graveyard." X said bitterly. He swept his arm out over the land in a grand gesture. Yuki could hear the sarcasm in his voice and see it in his movement.

"Where did all of these come from?" Yuki asked. She really didn't like the use of the word graveyard.

"This is a battlefield." Y said simply. Yuki looked at Y in confusion and horror. A battlefield? X seemed to notice her look and took it upon himself to elaborate further.

"This is where the ancient keyblade war was fought." He said. Yuki put her hand up to her mouth to hide her gasp. So many keyblades. How many had died?

"This is horrible." Yuki said, taking in her surroundings. "How..?" She began to ask, but her question trailed off. She didn't even know what she meant to ask.

"The cross roads?" X asked glancing at her. "Or the random rock formations?" Yuki looked at him before returning her gaze to the graveyard.

"The crossroads." She said. That hadn't been her question. But it seemed like as good a place to start as any. X took a few steps towards the keys, his hands brushing over the handles of the ones closest to the edge of the path.

"The old story was each Union began in a cross roads, until the fifth Union arrived and tried to stop the war. Then the battle started, and this was how they fell. Each keyblade is a tombstone." X explained. Part of what he said was lost on Yuki. Unions? But whether she understood everything or not, it was a horrifying prospect.

"That must have been terrible." Yuki said. Y nodded in agreement.

"It must have." She whispered.

The group began to separate, each drifting slowly away from each other. Yuki walked down the clear pathway towards the rock formations, looking up in wonder. X walked into the keyblades, his hands brushing over the keyblades he passed by. Under his breath he was whispering. Y stayed as close to the entrance as she could, but tried to follow her brother, staying at least within his ear shot. Her arms crossed nervously across her chest.

In the midst of the keyblades X stopped walking. His hand rested on top of a blue keyblade with a cobra in its hilt. The guard was similar to that of a half moon, and a bright blue eye was in its chain. X closed his eyes, allowing a single tear to roll down his cheek.

"X." Y said, gaining his attention. X turned to look at her, disregarding the tear.

"What?" X asked. Y looked around nervously before replying. Like she thought someone would be close by, listening in.

"Do you think the organization will really give up after getting this Kingdom Hearts?" Y asked. X shook his head.

"No, he'll keep going until he gets the one he wants." He said. The organization was just a pawn in Xehanort's game. A game he wouldn't settle in.

"I'm not sure I want to help them anymore." Y said. X tilted his head to the side, looking at Y in interest. She usually wanted to help everyone. It was strange to hear she didn't want to help them.

"You mean you want to runaway?" X asked.

"Maybe." Y admitted with a shrug. "I just, it was so terrible. I don't want to see it ever again." She elaborated. X looked up to the sky, remembering the blue moon she was referencing.

"Where would we go?" X asked. He looked at Y, waiting for her answer. She shook her head.

"I don't know. Somewhere." Y said, a hint of frustration in her voice. X sighed looking to the ground.

"We need more of a plan." He said softly. Y didn't say anything. X took the opportunity to begin his pacing again. He let his eyes wander over the keyblades, searching for the most familiar of the collection.

"How did you stand training out here?" Y asked suddenly. X stopped to look at her again. "With a reminder of everything terrible this world is capable of?" She continued. X gave a small smile and turned back to the keys.

"I learned about the past. In hopes I'd never see it happen again. I walked among the keyblades, among the tombstones, and tried to find a link to their owners." He explained calmly. Y tilted her head to the side curiously.

"What did you find?" She asked.

"That one belonged to one of the Union masters." X answered, pointing towards the blue keyblade he stopped beside earlier. "A virtuous woman named Invi. She was struck down from behind. There's one over there that belonged to another Union master. A fearless man named Aced. It took several men to take him down." He continued, motioning to the other side of the path where he knew the key to be. Y looked towards the key in horror.

"How did you discover all this?" She asked. X shrugged.

"I had my ways." He said. He glanced around, looking for Yuki. He found standing at the base of one of the rock formations. She was looking up at it in interest, like she wanted to see what was on top of it. "I wouldn't go up there if I were you!" X called out to her. Yuki turned to look at him.

"Why not?" Yuki asked. X rolled his eyes.

"I'm not sure if it's just me he attacks." X said. Yuki frowned. That made absolutely no sense. Who could be up there?

"What are you talking about?" She asked confused. Y seemed to be looking at X in shock. Which from what Yuki had heard of their last conversation, only catching small bits of the keyblades owners, she could understand.

"He's...not?" Y asked. Yuki looked at her in confusion now. Had X's words made sense to her?

"Not really. More what's left of him." X said off handedly. Y blinked a few times and opened her mouth to say something. X silenced her with a look and a motion to the top.

Y darted forward almost faster than Yuki could comprehend. Reaching the wall she ran up the side jumping from ledge to ledge until she disappeared near the top. Yuki watched her vanish then turned to X.

"Are you going to just let her go up there?" Yuki asked. X shrugged.

"It's something she needs to do on her own. I won't stop her." He stated. His pacing once again continued. This time crossing into the next section of the crossroad. His hand brushed against a red and black that looked to be made of gears as he passed it, a small smile appearing on his face. Yuki followed him and stopped beside the red and black key.

"Do you really know who all theses keys belonged to?" Yuki asked. X glanced over at her, still pacing.

"Not all. Just a few." He replied. "The one you're standing beside belonged to a broken boy named Vanitas. And these two," He continued, pointing to a pink, yellow, and blue key with a fox in the hilt and a yellow gold one with a leopard in the hilt. "They belonged to two Union masters. A coolheaded boy named Gula and a prudent girl named Ava. They felled each other."

"That's awful." Yuki said looking to the crossed keyblades. Though she still didn't understand unions exactly, it still seemed terrible. Her gut instinct told her unions shouldn't fight amongst each other like that. It was wrong. X nodded in agreement with her words.

"They were great friends. Once upon a time." He said softly.

"Seeing this for myself, I'm starting to see why you don't like keyblades so much." Yuki said. X nodded looking around. He seemed to think for a moment before turning his back and continuing to pace.

"Y thinks we should leave." X said casually, wanting to see her reaction. Yuki looked at him confused.

"Leave? Like, as in leave the organization or just leave here?" She asked. X looked at her interest before once again turning his back.

"The organization. From the fact that you even guessed that I can guess it's been on your mind too." He answered.

"I- that's not-" Yuki started, trying to hide her thoughts. She sighed in defeat, realizing she had no hope of covering it up. "Where would we go?" Yuki asked. X smirked.

"I don't know. And Y didn't have a definite answer, just somewhere." He said. Yuki frowned.

"We'd need somewhere to go first." Yuki insisted.

"I can agree to that." X said with a smile.

On top of the rock formation Y had stopped to catch her breath. In front of her was what X had promised. Keyblade armor that belonged to Terra, kneeled down with his keyblade stabbed in the ground before him. Y took a wary step forward, her eyes watching the armor.

"Terra?" Y asked softly. She heard a soft creaking sound and metallic echoing. It took her a moment to hear the voice hidden in the sounds.

"Aqua...Ven...Y." The armor said. Y blinked in shock, stepping forward once again.

"Terra? Are you, still there?" She asked. The armor didn't reply right away there was a long pause before it began to creak and echo once again.

"...Y?" The armor asked. Y smiled softly taking one last step towards the armor before sitting on the ground before it.

"Yeah, it's me." Y said.

"I'm sorry...so sorry." Terra's voice said from within the armor. Y briefly let her eyes turn yellow to confirm what she already knew. There was no heart. Just a lingering will powering the armor.

"It wasn't your fault." Y said softly, her voice becoming thick as tears collected in her eyes. "Please don't blame yourself."

"All my fault," Terra insisted. He paused again before continuing. "Aqua...Ven." He said. Y couldn't tell if it was a question or he was listing what he blamed himself for. But it wasn't his fault. Not entirely anyway.

"They're ok. They're still alive. We can save them. Just like we'll save you." Y said stubbornly. The tears in her eyes sat dangerously close to spilling over. Her voice was wavering as she grew closer to crying.

"Sorry," Terra said. "So sorry." Those words tipped the scale. Tears began to stream down Y's cheeks. She missed having her friends so badly. And though she had new friends it didn't make her miss her old friends any less. She would give anything to have them again. To spend another night under the stars together.

"Don't worry, we'll save you, we'll stop him and bring you back...I miss you. Please hold on." Y pleaded through her tears. Her body shook with each intake of breath. The armor made its creaking sound again.

"Don't cry...please." Terra said. Y looked up at the armor and nodded, wiping her tears on her sleeve. She fought to calm her breathing to a point she could speak again.

"Right." Y said pushing herself to her feet. "I'll come back, and I'll save you. I promise." She smiled at the armor, though tears were still running down her face. She sniffled once last time before jumping down the rock face from ledge to ledge. The wind rushing past her face dried her tears.

At the bottom of the rock Y found X and Yuki walking amongst the keyblades. Yuki was silently staring around her, as if trying to comprehend the immense tragedy that had occurred. X was stopped in between two keyblades. One was black and white with a unicorn in its hilt. The other was dark in color with a swirling pattern making up its rod. He was watching her with interest.

"Let's get out of here." Y said. Yuki looked at her startled but nodded in agreement. X nodded as well, taking no time to walk away from the keyblades. He reached where Y was and gently took her hand and gave it a soft squeeze. Y squeezed his hand back. "Thanks." She whispered.

"Of course." X replied as he summoned a dark corridor out of the world.

*3*

Day 322- Should we go?
Today it was me X and Y out on a mission. We were in what X called the keyblade graveyard. It was really horrible. So many keyblades whose wielders had died.
While out X mentioned that Y thought we should leave the organization. I really think it might be best for us. But I'm not sure. Would they come after us? Or would they just let us be? There's only one way to find out, but I'm not sure we should go.