The World That Never Will Be Chapter 19
by the infamous and notorious tocasia
5/8/2019
CHAPTER 19
In a quest to break monotony, Aqua trekked uphill to a different spot with a different view. Which... wasn't very different. Besides the dilapidated towers of Villain's Vale and the shining white ones of Radiant Garden, there wasn't much variety. The same blue stone chasms, ravines of all sizes, some so narrow the light likely did not reach the bottom; creating perpetual shadow where heartless nested, maybe. Other earthen depressions shallow, eroded, open to the sky. The place where they'd fought Cloud was nothing special. Was that natural, or Sephiroth's illusion at work? No landmarks would lead her back to the camp if she wandered off... No, it wouldn't be that bad. This landscape held no grudges against her. It might be fun to explore.
Rocks, cliffs, and chasms. Blue, blue, and blue. Up here, little yellow butterflies with cheerful orange margins on their wings.
Aqua remembered... she'd last seen butterflies near Snow White's cottage. But in the Realm of Darkness they'd been replaced by heartless. Biting, stinging, swarming, chasing. Noxious wings of spectral screaming faces.
...would she always look at normal and see nightmare?
Sephiroth was with her, but he hadn't said anything in a while.
Searching for a topic, Aqua commented, "Tifa makes good cookies."
"Oh? You like them? I'll remember that," Sephiroth answered.
"Is she a friend?"
"An enemy."
"You have a lot of enemies."
"I suppose I do."
Didn't that bother him? It would have bothered her. "You don't try to hide your darkness at all."
"Why should I? It's a convenient deterrent. People keep their distance and don't disturb me." He shrugged, and shot back, teasing, "You don't try to hide your light."
"Of course not!"
Sephiroth hmmed, emphasizing the double standard.
"It's just... not something I would do..." Aqua said. "Don't you get lonely?"
"..." His hesitation was telling.
"I know I do. I really miss everybody. It's hard. Because... getting out of the darkness was only the beginning of what I have to do. And I'm already tired. The goal is closer, but it looks farther away... Perspective is funny like that. It would be easy to get overwhelmed. I wouldn't mean to give up, but I wouldn't be moving forward..."
"What will you do, when you've found your friends?" Sephiroth seemed genuinely interested.
"Well... things probably can't go back to how they were between us. But we'll figure something out. I guess... I'll go on missions wherever I'm needed, or continue the training Master Eraqus had planned for me. I think this might be a special keyblade... and I might have inherited a task besides wandering the worlds."
Sephiroth was listening. In a fit of whimsy, Aqua indulged the chance for her own monologue. An affirmation.
"I will continue to fight the darkness, and help others fight it. To protect the light, so people can live happily. And I'll make more friends. I like helping people. I like showing people that someone cares. Even the littlest things can make a big difference. The worlds would be better if more people were kind."
Sephiroth nodded solemnly, pensively. "Kindness as a strength. Zack was like that, too."
"Hmm?"
"I admired it. It was not what I was trained to be. I could count on him to... I was never very good at pretending people mattered. He didn't have to pretend."
"You really cared about him."
"I did."
"...I'm almost jealous."
Sephiroth waited but Master Aqua didn't explain. Why be jealous of his one (lost!) friend when she had so many?
Was it only because her affection for him was such that she desired to be his sole attention? Or had she never had a close friendship? Did her friends not return her loyalty?
She changed the subject. "You've traveled to a lot of worlds, too, haven't you?"
"Of course! As soon as I learned it was possible!" He hoped his fervor wouldn't scare her.
...the universe was so much more than he'd dreamt of!
He could not sit still with the memory, and rose to pace, mindful of the cliff's edge. "I mostly observed. The variety is stunning... each world has its own natural laws! So many points of view, so many stories! There are many, many worlds, and many that fell to the heartless, and many that were assembled from the pieces. Towns of optimistic refugees in the Between..."
...an endless list of worlds to conquer, and no real need to do it! Exploring was enough.
...or at least, it had been a very good distraction.
What if... was that all it was? A trick of the darkness, misdirection? Implanting in him false contentment, to spare itself his wrath?
Joy soured on his tongue.
"Heh. I suppose I should be thankful to the heartless for expanding my horizons. But that will not change their ultimate fate."
He would take the utmost satisfaction in it. Nothing should be able to influence him. Nothing.
"Have you ever been... to the Land of Departure?" Aqua asked.
"The name doesn't sound familiar. That was your world?"
"It was, before Xehanort destroyed it."
"...how?"
"With his keyblade. With the darkness."
Destroy a world with a keyblade? ...I'd like to see that.
...a tasteless curiosity Sephiroth did not voice. His lack of reply went unnoticed; Master Aqua was absorbed in her beautiful fury.
"I'm still so angry! I'm going to punish Xehanort!"
"As you should," Sephiroth shared quiet approval, "And the darkness itself. Neither deserves our mercy."
Those sneering yellow eyes, mocking...
Darkness had a face now. In Xehanort, a concrete target. A gateway, an undefended front... no, he must not get ahead of himself. Xehanort was likely preparing for their conflict at this very moment. He'd be anything but undefended, unless he was an idiot, as mindless as the darkness. The overreaching entity would be weakened by Xehanort's elimination, deprived of either a valuable servant or cunning leadership. It was an important step...
An opportunity.
Aloud, Sephiroth wondered, "Sora was able to restore the worlds fallen to the heartless. Can you do that with your keyblade?"
"I don't know," Aqua admitted. "If he did what you say, he has a more powerful keyblade than mine." She frowned, "Oh. You wish I could bring your world back..." and glanced past her tightly-held knees, "I'm sorry."
Her guilt was unnecessary. "Don't be. It was... an academic question."
Aqua gave a wistful sigh, "...that would be nice, though, wouldn't it?"
"Perhaps."
"But anyway..." she spoke with tenacious cheer, "You probably have a lot of people you want to track down too. Friends? Lots of people who missed you? The people you said might ask you for help?"
He hadn't thought about it, beyond analysis of potential threat. "...not really."
"Oh," Aqua stifled disappointment. She'd hoped this line of conversation would cheer him up, not make him feel more alone.
Sephiroth elaborated, "No, there's... really no one I need to personally catch up with. Just Cloud. And he doesn't know as much as I had hoped. He won't tell me yet how long it's been. He hasn't met with Sora since the last time, and has never heard of Xehanort." Brows tensed in frustration relaxed, an effort at control. "I don't particularly care what Maleficent is doing if she doesn't interfere, and Hades... it's complicated."
"So... mostly we've got each other."
He looked worried. Like he was afraid it wasn't true.
"We do," she smiled her reassurance. "You and me. That's not so bad, right?"
The wind gusted cottonball clouds across the sky. The little yellow butterflies sought calmer pastures, but there was no sense of danger.
Aqua said, "You mention Maleficent a lot. Were the two of you... together?"
Sephiroth didn't sputter, but came close. Somewhere between a cough and a guffaw. "Ha! You do sound jealous, Master Aqua!"
"No, I..." Aqua felt herself blushing.
Sephiroth laughed, "No. We weren't. I'd actually never thought of it. I don't, usually."
"Oh."
They observed an appropriate awkward silence of appropriate length.
"Um... thank you, for listening to me."
He regarded her with twinkling eyes, rather mischievous, "My pleasure. I have not had someone worth listening to in a long time."
"That's what friends are for, huh," she said.
"Yes."