The World That Never Will Be Chapter 8

by the infamous and notorious tocasia

10/21/2018

CHAPTER 8

What traveler didn't have the fear of being stranded?

They'd left the bikes behind once the darkness's whimsy reduced them to valiant, hollow husks and crushed brief hope of a parched desert journey eased. But it wasn't such a bad omen. Being floor models, they'd had only a little fuel to begin with. Sephiroth didn't seem worried.

"We're here," Aqua announced, under the scorching midnight sun.

The lightwell was like a campfire. Aqua warmed her hands by it, appreciating cooling contrast. Sephiroth sat nearby, stretching his wing and frowning.

"It should not have been able to get to me."

She understood and could comfort. "It's alright, the darkness can get to everyone..."

His small smile acknowledged her effort while his words proved it ineffective. "You shouldn't feel sorry for me. What I have should be enough." Conviction dwindled to a murmur, "How... foolish of me, to ever think my ambition sated..."

Seeping through her tiredness, his voice was nice.

"I'm glad you were there, Master Aqua. If I were alone, I would destroy that illusion."

Something was strange. The ground shifted a fraction.

"I would practice my control over the shadows until I could level it with a thought. I think it wouldn't matter to me how long it took to do. Centuries even. But... we don't have that kind of time. We need to get you out of here, so you can heal. Your friends in the Realm of Light are waiting."

Centuries...?

"Heh. In a way, you did rescue me."

Of course she had. She was always rescuing people. Sometimes that made things worse...

I hope you're okay, Terra, wherever you are.

To Sephiroth she said, "None of us... has as much control in the darkness as we'd like. Come sit by me, where the light is."

Aqua trailed a finger through the soothing glow. Fairy motes, foxfire; it danced an aurora in her hand. Sephiroth wore a politely confused expression. She wished he'd scoot a little closer... and on the other side, so the feathers of his great wing could tickle her back, or maybe he'd even wrap it around her...

"You still don't see anything?"

"I don't."

"And you don't think it's real."

"No. But I didn't want to tell you. I thought you needed hope more than truth."

She ought to feel betrayed, not this uncaring numb. What if he was right? "You must think I'm crazy."

"Aren't we all?" Sephiroth shouldn't grin like that. He reminded her of a cat she'd met once, full of riddles.

"Then why are you still traveling with me?" Too insecure! Did she want to push him away? Relax, Aqua.

"You need my protection, and I am... content... to search for the Door to Light with you until my return. Even if we wander blind."

"Your return?"

"Yes. My enemy will eventually summon me back to the Realm of Light. It's inevitable. Probably."

"Can you take me with you?"

Please... Don't leave me alone...

"Maybe. I've never tried before. It will be dangerous; I don't have control over when. There will be a short window, during which I must open a Corridor of Darkness, and he'll be waiting at the other end to attack me."

Why hadn't he mentioned this earlier? Aqua swayed with blurry, spinning wariness, laced with weird distrust. Sephiroth would trick her, take her somewhere worse...

Ha! Somewhere worse than the Realm of Darkness?

Discarding doubt, she captured his gaze. "I'll help you then. Against your enemy."

Sephiroth seemed to consider, and that was a genuine smile. Beautiful gorgeous terrifying, not a smirk, soft lines of secret cruelty absent this time, and his dark aura crashed into her, a rush of emotion she had caused... his hope, absolutely glorious, enticing, torrential, the shadows fled from it! and yet... there was no light there in all that power...

Breathless and calculating. "No one has ever helped me against him before. He's always had the advantage of allies, whereas I convinced myself I didn't need them. I was almost correct. I never thought of asking. And then, once Zack was gone, I had no friends left to ask."

Aqua shared redemptive joy. He did need her help! "I'll be your friend, Sephiroth. Friendship sustains the heart; it's the best weapon we have against the darkness."

Deep, silken amusement. "Then I was wrong to forgo such strength."

In a land of giant lotus leaves, they climbed, often in desperation, dodging the deception of peaceful rest. Platforms proved far from safe; thorned razor sharp, hosting living hooks that writhed to impale. No flowers, only deadly green halos crowning a rising mire of bubbling muck while more dripped from the sky.

Sephiroth bent the toxic rain around himself. Master Aqua maintained her reflective shield. Ha! So much for protecting her with his wing. But it was good she had the energy to do it herself.

He followed her carefully, prepared to catch her in the unlikely event she should fall.

If he was being honest, they stumbled together. For she wasn't in her right mind, and after Midgar, he supposed, maybe he wasn't either.

Something was obviously bothering Sephiroth. A new, wavering uncertainty. As if... he wanted to tell her something that he didn't really want her to know. Like Ven keeping a secret, worried he'd get in trouble.

Aqua waited.

"What does the heart of a god look like?"

"What?"

"When you saw into my heart, what did you see? I don't have a keyblade, so I wouldn't know..."

Aqua didn't have a lot of experience with gods. Except for Hades, who was rude.

Sephiroth had just claimed such status, unflinching. She wondered if it was an explanation for, or a symptom of, his arrogance.

"I saw..." Revisiting the memory was hard. She didn't routinely attempt to unlock the darkness in people's hearts! Her momentary loss of control was sickening! She had no true frame of reference...

...A darkness cruelly tamed, demanding freedom. It had been everywhere.

Everywhere also was... the shining barrier, within, without, woven in voices and song, a spell tangled in his name. The love of so many, pleading, who had given everything, lingering because it had not been enough, in grief promising him forever. Cast not with hearts; a foreign magic.

She'd been jealous, and angry, of the love he possessed. She'd wanted to punish him for it.

She'd felt sorrow. Compassion, because... everyone... everything that had ever tried to touch his heart was dead.

She'd recoiled from something, dread more terrible than any heartless.

He had barely escaped her hatred, possibly saving them both from what she'd almost done.

Aqua said, "Darkness, and love, and something I didn't understand. I was afraid."

Sephiroth's response was guarded, "Interesting. I thought more would be revealed."

"What does it mean?" she asked.

"It doesn't matter. Thank you, Master Aqua, for answering my question."

Relief displaced irritation. She didn't want to dwell on it either.

They floated over a coral reef made of pyrite; above a hive of enormous eel-like heartless that snaked longer and longer. Millions of gulping teeth as lustrous as their home, each as long as Sephiroth's ridiculous sword.

Aqua didn't have to breathe. It was thought-swimming, and their determination was stronger than the suction of the monsters' mouths. It was pointless to fight them.

Within a dreaming blink, the Realm of Darkness changed again.

A dry, desolate chasm, narrowing, herding them onward. In the air a sweet fragrance. The walls were layered slabs; fossilized underwater sand ripples, a violent angle of upheaval. High winds eroding. A desert that screamed with every step.

The confined space brought Sephiroth concern. He wouldn't be able to swing Masamune effectively. Although... he might not need to. Aqua seemed to be doing better. She hadn't talked to herself in a while. He missed knowing what she was thinking.

"You cannot escape the darkness."

The winds stole sound, perhaps twisted it also. "What was that, Master Aqua?"

She turned to him with white hair and yellow eyes and somebody else's smile.