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CHAPTER 41:
MARGIN OF SOOT
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Author's Notes: The music for this Chapter is, in order of scene: 'Epoch – Wings of Time,' from the CHRONO TRIGGER Original Sound Version, Disc Three; and after it 'Magus Confronted,' from the CHRONO TRIGGER Original Sound Version, Disc Two; and after it 'The Red Wings,' from FINAL FANTASY IV, and after this 'Limestone Quarry,' from the VAGRANT STORY Original Soundtrack, Disc Two. The first three compositions can be found on Zophar's Domain, and the last piece can be found in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section.
"The tides of time don't wait," Yuna commented from where she hovered right at Tidus' left, as the blitzball ace stood on the porch in front of the door to the house Schala lived in with parents who Tidus now knew had adopted her; Selphie and Wakka on his right, and Yuna, Paine, and Rikku on his left.
Tidus grinned at what he knew was a double reference; to Xion's name, and one of her talents, as well as his own name, and the talents Kairi had convinced him not to draw upon.
"That's easy for someone with wings to say," Tidus responded with ease.
Yuna was waaaay too much fun to spend time with.
At this point; as guilty as he felt for not wanting to spend any time thinking about it, due to one of the reasons he'd befriended Yuna, he didn't care about what way it looked like they might best be able to bond.
He just wanted to enjoy joking around with her.
Partially to keep the sick terror and guilt about Kairi, Sora, Riku, and Xion as much at bay as he possibly could.
Particularly now, due to how Wakka had caught the figure in the black coat similar to the kind of coats Kairi had told him both Organization Thirteens had worn poking his, her, or its concealed guise in where it almost certainly didn't belong.
Pence had assured the three of them Hayner, Olette, Lucca, and he would be there soon; but Tidus knew his fleeting reprieve from attempting to connect Kairi's, Sora's, Riku's, and Xion's realms of torment and sadness with his realm of warmth and laughter was at an end.
"We do, if the people in houses don't have the time to answer a door bell right away," Tidus replied, still grinning.
Yuna tilted her head up at the star speckled early night sky above, and she rolled her eyes with exaggerated drama.
"Another quirk of human culture that is nothing but an oxymoron," the pixie sighed heavily with slightly grumbling irritation and annoyance.
"Correction: Whoever developed the concept of a doorbell is the ox headed moron.
"When bells sound, that means it's because someone has scored a treasure.
"Whoever hears a doorbell needs to soar at it like a rocket launched faster than the speed of all the lights that can radiate from the most effulgent pixie dust combined!"
Tidus found another grin causing his face to hurt.
"I can always introduce the door to the concept of hurt time," Paine cut in from where she was flying to Yuna's own left.
"Try to do that, and you'll be the one reminded what it means," Rikku said back in annoyance.
"Humans don't spend as much time as fairies do hiding from other living beings to keep people from attempting to take them captive and exploit them, so they like their privacy."
Tidus' stomach warped in new sick fright, this time for Yuna and the other two pixies.
"Have any of you been in danger of that happening to you before?" Tidus inquired.
Rikku's face lost all of its feelings.
"Just Rikku," Yuna replied.
"But that's her story to tell.
"All I can say is we've heard the phrase 'that time' before ourselves, in regards to why Paris and Auron met Megara in the first place; and that it will be heralded, 'When the Mother of the Maelstrom Moon gives the Dream of the Trust up through the Frozen Fayth, so the leopard and the young hag of time and the jester of apathy can gaze with fond benevolence upon what they have made when her daughter's offering of the pentagram becomes full wrought.'"
Tidus pushed back the hotness pressing against the backs of his eyes, at what that meant about why Megara had even been in a position to protect Xion from herself for the second time.
The terms 'leopard' and 'Frozen Fayth' were almost certainly references to the Foreteller Kairi had told Tidus was named Gula, and to Cloud's partial replica with the names of Tifa and Farplane; so that meant that even Hercules and Megara and Hades and the Titans hadn't had their destinies left to chance within the lines of Yozora's script.
Just how much had Kairi left out about how deeply their prophecies had been inscribed?
Rikku's face shifted, but then she said, "I'll save it for another time, unless I can think of a reason to believe the details may enable us to decipher the rest of the prophecy."
Tidus wanted to ask about them anyway, for Kairi's and Sora's and Riku's sakes, but he'd known the Gullwings enough by now to trust their judgment about how; if they believed he could assist them in piecing any, or the rest of it, together; they'd tell him.
A familiar older female voice called from inside the house, and Tidus heard footsteps walking rapidly in their direction.
"Janus needed to talk to me about how he just had an unusually strong burst of inspiration for another poem in his black wind cycle today at school!" Schala called; naming her foster Middle School aged younger brother, Janus, who she'd seen from the first instant her foster parents had adopted him around the time Chappu had died as as much her brother as a biological brother could be.
A number of seconds later, the front door opened; and Schala stood in front of them with her blue tresses with natural blonde hair falling down her back, and not in its usual ponytail; due to how she was wearing a plain dark purple nightgown, and she very likely would have been asleep in bed if she hadn't needed to stay up for Janus' sake.
"He was beaten up by a group of bullies again; because his poem didn't promote low life drivel such as senseless bloody violence, or two timing a love interest, as praiseworthy."
Tidus suppressed the rush of annoyance at the reminder of Zack.
But, Tidus at least had no reason to believe Zack was willing to sink as low as to two time someone he was in a romantic relationship with.
If he had, Tidus would have punched him in the face, albeit very restrainedly so as not to upset Kairi and Xion after what Zack had said and done when he'd been the host of the Angel of Sin.
Tidus had been willing to flirt, lightly, with more than one girl at once before he'd gotten to know Xion; but he'd never taken it past words, and taken her hand, kissed her cheek, or anything similar; and once he'd gotten to know Xion, that he'd even been willing to do that much once more caused his stomach to heave with revulsion at himself.
However; he had no tolerance whatsoever, and he'd never had any from the instant he'd become aware there were people who did this; for any boy, or girl, who so much as paid the most minute amount of attention to another girl, or boy, when he or she was already in a romantic relationship with someone else. He'd beaten up a decent number of his peers for discovering that person was actually two timing someone he, or she, was in a relationship with, and then that boy or girl had attacked Tidus when he'd denounced the filth for who, and what he, or she, was; with as much derision as he could think of calling upon.
He'd attack the person first, at times, if it was a boy; but not if it was a girl.
If the girl attacked him first, though; and she was in good enough shape for it, he'd fight back, and not just defend himself by blocking. He loathed the hypocrisy that it was okay for girls to attack boys, or even touch them in ways that weren't violent without the boy's permission; but, if they were in physical shape to endure a fight, it wasn't okay for a boy to defend himself with the violence she'd initiated. He wouldn't attack a girl first, as he didn't want to hurt her feelings in the event she believed in that double standard; but, if the girl was in shape for it, and she was petty enough to take things further than negative words, and she struck first, he'd give as good as he got.
Selphie sneered with utter hatred and loathing at what she thought of those concepts; and Tidus knew it was in reaction to the concept of two timing romantic loves supposedly being laudable far more than the concept of senseless violence being good.
Selphie had been afraid having a romantic relationship would interfere with her ability to have as many strong friendships as possible since she'd been a child, so she had yet to even become the slightest amount interested in so much as paying the tiniest attention to another person romantically; but she was still so kind and considerate she understood romantic connections better than most, and there had been many occasions when Sora, Wakka, Riku, Kairi, and Tidus himself had needed to physically restrain her from attacking girls without having been attacked first.
Tidus needed to have a detailed discussion with Selphie, sooner or later, about reconsidering her stance on romantic bonds; though.
Because he was fairly sure Pence was torn between her, and Olette.
Wakka thinned his lips in sympathy.
"Is Janus feeling better about his injuries yet?"
Wakka knew better than to ask whether Janus had even been hurt a little by the insults that had very likely also been made about his poem. Janus wasn't so petty he took any issue at all with childish name calling and insults leveled against himself, just against Schala; nor did he have the tiniest issue with receiving constructive criticism for any of his works. Another reason many of Janus' fellow teenagers disliked him was because, even as adolescents; they had yet to learn a concept as self evident and basic as how sticks and stones can break their bones, but names could never hurt them. So they attacked Janus because he ignored all of their harmless efforts to provoke him verbally, or with motions that didn't touch him; as no boy or girl could get any reaction out of him unless he needed to defend himself against violence.
Schala pressed her own lips together, tightly.
"His injuries, yes," she said with an unusual amount of uncertainty in her voice.
Tidus pushed down a rush of fear.
Had Janus seen the coated figure?
"But there's something else he's a lot more worried about."
"Then I suppose we ought to be the ones to elaborate on that, to be on the safe side," another male, adolescent voice, cut in from behind them.
"What do you think, Uxklus?"
The first name was said with two long 'u's.
Tidus spun, reaching behind his back to slide his wooden sword out from its makeshift sheath on his back and moving to position himself in front of Schala.
As they'd rehearsed; Yuna, Paine, and Rikku formed a triangle above and around him, with Yuna in the front; and Wakka moved to Tidus' new left to position the blitzball he was carrying in his right hand to throw it, if need be, while Selphie raced back to Schala's side.
"What's going on?" Schala questioned, her words a little scared and alarmed; but, as she usually was, she remained calm and composed.
However, Tidus was struggling to find reasons to keep his own terror contained.
Because standing before them, at the entrance between the two gardens to the walkway curling through the well kept lawn; were not one, but two figures wearing what Kairi had identified as an Organization Thirteen coat.
"I myself think you should be the one to tell her, Ceodore," a female voice spoke back from inside the hood of the second figure.
From this vantage point; Tidus could see that Wakka's face was many shades paler than his usual brown skin, but he kept his grip on his blitzball steady.
"Tidus, please, tell me something. Betraying some people's feelings while staying true to the feelings of others is one matter, but if you go through with this and die, you won't just betray some of us. You'll betray everyone's feelings.
"I mean literally everyone's. Your own feelings as well.
"Is this what you truly want yourself? Do you truly want to betray everyone and die? Doesn't this cause you to hurt, as well?"
Not this time.
Tidus suppressed the urge to shift his hold on his sword.
The first figure shrugged a little, and then he said, "Suit yourself.
"Janus doesn't have your talents, but that doesn't mean he's who he appears to be.
"We've been biding our time here since this morning, when the rest of the pieces were about to fall in place; so Janus picked up on that, and that's why he's worried that what he calls the black winds, and are otherwise known as the weft and warp of the astral tapestry, may be real."
Tidus' insides twisted as Schala inhaled with horror and shock.
"But you yourself should know that better than almost anyone else on the Destiny Islands.
"Do you want to be the person who tells Tidus; or are you determined to keep betraying him, and everyone else on the Destiny Islands, until the end?"
Wakka shifted uncomfortably.
The wood of the door frame behind them creaked loudly, no doubt the result of Schala gripping it tightly.
Tidus felt a violent chill chop up his spine.
Then Schala sighed deeply with far more exhausted resignation and fatigue than he'd heard from her any time he'd spoken to her since they'd first begun attending the same school, telling Tidus he'd very likely never genuinely known anything about her at all.
When she talked next, there was nothing but exhaustion and despair in her words.
"I've known everything the Xehanorts sought to bring into being; from the very night Xehanort brought Ven back to the Destiny Islands on the night of Sora's birth, and Sora repaired Ven's fractured heart; and, for the sake of Glenn Strife, I remained silent and said nothing all this time, even as I beheld every single string of their duplicity and scheming, and strategy and tactics, literally every single time I had a dream until I woke up this morning."
Wakka jolted violently.
Selphie gasped, jolting somewhat less violently.
Yuna fell a minority of inches before she corrected herself, and she now hovered stiffly.
Paine just became stiff for a short amount of time.
Rikku started violently.
All reality became suspended.
"I can't tell you why.
"All I can say is that, if I had spoken; Janus would have, and will still be, strung into doing something horrible to him, and the people he is closest to.
"To protect the younger brother I knew I would one day be given from the darkness, and every instant afterwards; I had no choice but to walk in darkness myself all this time, even at the cost of everything I could have prevented if I had spoken up."
A good amount of the sensations of terrified betrayal and sick agony shifted into an amalgamation of understanding empathy and knowing sympathy, for Tidus knew as well as Schala how hard it could be to protect a family member who you loved with all your heart and being.
"And, even though Cloud has lived most of his life for Glenn's sake; Glenn has already gone through enough.
"I couldn't put Glenn through any more adversity than he'd already withstood, and what he'll also be faced with if I let the Leopardus Union take me to my own fated place."
Familiar self hatred and guilt seared through all that was within Tidus at that.
"It doesn't matter what your blood father created you as!" he cried.
"Who you are isn't determined by how you were born any more than it is for a Nobody, or a replica! No one's identity and how they live out his, her, or its life; whether that person is natural or replica or Heartless or Nobody or Unversed or Dream Eater or anyone or anything, is set by how someone is born, or created! Who people are, and become, is brought about by the choices they make after they're born! Everyone, and everything; is free to choose who, and what, to be; no matter who it is, or how that person originates, in every potential fashion!
"So, that's as true for you as it is for Kairi, and Sora, and Xion, and Roxas, and Lea, and Ven, and Vanitas!"
"I'm not saying this because of what Dad created me to be, or because I'm darkness itself in a natural form," Schala spoke back, and the sole change to her voice was even more exhausted hopelessness.
"I'm saying this because I did make that choice.
"At first, I refused to believe I needed to choose between a brother who hadn't even been born yet; and my playmates. I blinded myself to my certainty of what I knew would result if I said, and did; nothing to change what I was able to see in the minds of each Xehanort since he realized I was here and woke me up to the scripts that lay before me.
"Then, though; Ven's heart melded with Sora's, and it was too late.
"Since then, the sole light I've had left was Janus.
"If I abandon him, and betray him, now, as well; I'll have lost the last glimmers of light within a darkness I did choose for my heart to retain while intact."
That confirmed Schala still had her heart, then; unlike how Xehanort's Heartless had retained his identity even though he'd chosen to become a Heartless.
And that also confirmed that what Schala had been born as, and one of the two things Lezard sought to morph himself into, and perhaps had by now; were a totally different entity than a Heartless, human or another form of natural being, or something else.
"Get a clue, will you?" Paine put in, with sarcastic irritation in her voice.
"You just said you're attempting to protect this 'Glenn.'
"Is that or is that not light?"
"From what?" Schala asked back; but there was no greater resigned hopelessness in her voice, even though there was no new agony or despair or fatigue.
"I'll tell you this much, now that my own first of the many hours I myself have been appointed to play my part has arrived; in the chance knowing where I'm coming from will cause you to be less inclined to stop me should I need to take action on my own to protect myself from the Leopardus Union.
"You wouldn't feel inclined to say I protected Glenn from anything if you knew the things the Solidors and Beoulves did when the Strifes and their closest friends were indentured families serving them both as serfs, and continually conscripted to battle the serfs serving the other family; until Cyrus of the Solidors and Cloud of the Beoulves met Larsa and Ramza and Vaan and Alma, and things at last began to improve for the Strifes and their companions and foes.
"Or, if you knew how Glenn forced Cloud to repay Scrooge for his generosity in buying both of them out of their serfdom under the Beoulves and adopted them both as his heirs.
"Light can't even flicker without dropping others into darkness. In order to protect one person, family, location, nation, world, or universe; another one needs to be erased or conquered. Light and darkness exist side by side because light cannot sustain without darkness there to smother something else. There is no difference between light and darkness at all.
"Dad learned this, and that the sole choice people have is between two forms of darkness; chaos and order. To defend the realms; Dad and Xehanort both believed order is the necessary lesser of the two forms of darkness, because it at least creates a structured blackness where people lower down one solitary pyramid of exploitation and hate are bound to serve one single darkness at the top of the pyramid. More pyramids of oppression and hate than can be counted drift in an ocean of nightfall's chaos, all of them at continual war with one another, and each other. With as much death and torment as dark order brings into being; a single structured demesne is at least unified, so there at least isn't constant war in addition to ceaseless domination.
"My role, though, is not to found a realm of dark chaos, as a new friend of Xion's and Roxas does," Tidus started violently in coalesced shock and terror and hope and relief, "Or a realm of dark order, as Maleficent seeks, Dad did, and as Xehanort once wished to cast; or even a realm where there is neither light or darkness, as Yozora dreams of.
"It is a realm where the scales of light and darkness are equalized by a corollary balance of both dark chaos and dark order, and even chaos and order themselves are unified as one."
Frozen ice raged throughout all of Tidus like a blizzard at the sound of that, and the kind of darkness a New World like that could entail.
"I see such a realm as an even more whimsical flight of daydreams than a realm of light that is separate from one of darkness, but it doesn't matter to me what part I play as long as Janus remains happy in his sanctuary of warmth and home.
"Yes, he will be safe there if I mold that world from the cosmos.
"I don't care what any of you think of me for letting Sora, Kairi, and Riku go through everything they did; and the three of you as well.
"But I at least hope this will convince all of you to apply my own methods, if it becomes necessary."
Before Tidus could think of anything to speak in return to Schala, her words at last gained vitality, with challenging and determined defiance; and Tidus could tell she was no longer talking to him.
"I chose which stage to act out my role on long ago, Lord Ceodore."
The hooded male snarled with revolted hate.
"I'm no longer a Lord," the member of the Leopardus Union known as Ceodore respond back. "Master Gula taught me how to cast off all of my own roles as the scion of House Solidor's and House Beoulve's joint Red Wings fleet, well over a year ago."
After what Kairi had told Tidus the Foretellers knew how to achieve, and what Tidus had heard with his own ears about them, he experienced no surprise that the Foretellers had been able to reach Ivalice Zodiac.
"As you, though; were a Princess for no more than hours before you lost the right of succession to your Uncle; you still have no authority over me!"
The next second, the glaring and light shifting shapes of a prism of colors burst out from Ceodore's two black gloved hands and swelled into globes of a flowing morphing kaleidoscope.
They disintegrated to reveal Ceodore was now holding a very long, curved nodachi Kairi had informed him was named the Masamune in his left hand; and a wide broadsword enshrouded in bandages Kairi had told him was called the Einlanzer single handedly in his right one.
Tidus suppressed a wash of terror at the sight of how Ceodore, whoever he was, was singlehandedly holding a broadsword Kairi had told him Cloud had partially given up his humanity in order to become able to wield.
As well as his terror at the danger Sora could be in because the Einlanzer and the Masamune weren't on Ivalice Zodiac any longer.
Tidus blinked the hotness brimming in his eyes away as fast as he could without it damaging his alertness of Ceodore, the other member of the Leopardus Union known as Uxklus, and their surroundings.
Schala, too; because Tidus couldn't trust her not to attempt to ambush one, or more, of them, herself.
"Tidus, please, tell me something. Betraying some people's feelings while staying true to the feelings of others is one matter, but if you go through with this and die, you won't just betray some of us. You'll betray everyone's feelings.
"I mean literally everyone's. Your own feelings as well.
"Is this what you truly want yourself? Do you truly want to betray everyone and die? Doesn't this cause you to hurt, as well?"
The plan Wakka and Selphie and Yuna and Paine and he had developed didn't involve any combat; just the need to distract whoever the Foretellers, or perhaps Maleficent, sent after Schala long enough to begin a coordinated flight with Schala, and perhaps Janus, and one or both of her foster parents; and continue it until they'd pulled it off.
Sacrificing himself, or letting Sora be hurt even more by whatever danger he was in from the Einlanzer and the Masamune; wouldn't even need to be an issue if they could get Schala away from the two members of the Leopardus Union, and one or more of them could then warn Sora that the weapons of the Assassin of Space and the Assassin of Time were no longer on Ivalice Zodiac.
"Glenn isn't the Strife who you need to worry about," Ceodore said, his tone calm, and smug.
"You should also be glad to know that Cloud still hadn't yet reclaimed Sephiroth when I took the Einlanzer from him," Tidus suppressed the urge to clench his teeth at that revelation, "Partially because I didn't take the Masamune from Sephiroth until after I'd made it very clear to him, if he didn't want to all but stay dead, to stop wasting effort after effort challenging me to futile duel after duel."
Tidus pushed down what was now just a wash of fright at the revelation Ceodore could defeat a swordmaster as skilled as Kairi had told him Sephiroth was with ease.
"We haven't found any traces of Farplane's location yet, but we're pretty sure we've picked up Ashley's, Sydney's, and Alma's trail. And, as you know a lot better than most, once we discover their whereabouts, it will be no more than a matter of time before we know those of the Frozen Flame.
"Vayne ad libbed as well as Xehanort did; but now that the time has come to fulfill his own role, you are going to learn the same as anyone else the only way to escape the dusk is the sanctuary of Synchronicity Perceptual."
The male hooded figure turned his hood so he was looking directly at Tidus.
"Tidus, please, tell me something. Betraying some people's feelings while staying true to the feelings of others is one matter, but if you go through with this and die, you won't just betray some of us. You'll betray everyone's feelings.
"I mean literally everyone's. Your own feelings as well.
"Is this what you truly want yourself? Do you truly want to betray everyone and die? Doesn't this cause you to hurt, as well?"
"Furthermore, because Xehanort's ad libbing prevented you from beginning to learn the lines you are meant to recite; it is time for you to learn what, unknown to any of them, you truly did to Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Xion the day the Second Keyblade War was waged in the Skein of Severance and the Sleeping Scala ad Caelum because you didn't tell Kairi about Sora, or meet Xion and Roxas that day on the play island beach, reunite them, and introduce Roxas to Riku when Xion first met him under different conditions; as well as the unedited lines for Master Yozora's script for the flashpoints leading up to the Second Keyblade War, and the Second Keyblade War itself."
Tidus was submerged from everywhere about him and around him by an incandescent pearl so blinding it was jet night, that froze him so icy he became molten lava.
"Kairi, you were great!"
"Oh?"
"You are different, Kairi, but I'm just glad you're here!"
"You and Riku never came home, so I came looking for you."
"I'm sorry."
"This is real…"
"Here."
"Huh?"
"Tomorrow's fight will be our toughest yet. I want to be a part of your life no matter what. That's all."
"Kairi, I'll keep you safe."
"Let me keep you safe."
"Sora."
"Kairi! I found you!"
"You see? I had no doubts that you'd pull through."
"The light in the darkness. It was you. You're the one who kept me from fading away."
"All I did was believe that you wouldn't."
"I feel strong with you, Kairi."
"The others are ahead. Come on. I told you, Sora. You're safe with me. You okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks, Kairi."
"Who's this new Riku and where's the old one?"
"New me?"
"Yeah. You're more like Sora."
"Should I be flattered? I try too hard to be the role model. It's more fun to just listen to my heart. Which is Sora-esque."
"Well, we still like you. Master, I came here because I wanted to help somehow. What can I do?"
"Riku, don't go!"
"Huh?"
"Kairi, what did you just say?"
"Riku."
"I'm no one – just a castaway from the darkness."
"Sora, come here. Say something to him. Here. You'll understand. Close your eyes."
"Riku… It's Riku. Riku's here…"
"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."
"This mirror of your memories is just an illusion.
"But truths can be found even in the midst of illusion. And when the illusion vanishes into a dream, these truths can continue to reverberate with the hearts of the people who you are connected to.
"You need to attempt to recall your former self. Recollect who you used to be. Recollect what you used to want. Recollect the love that you used to wish to share. Recall the happiness that you used to hold. Recall the tears that you used to shed. Recollect the dreams that you used to give others to clasp close to their hearts. Recollect the laughter that used to spill from your mouth.
"And ask yourself this.
"As the memories disappear and wash into reality, and reality vanishes and your dream has a chance to form, even though many of your dreams may have been born from memories of sorrow and have since faded into day, why are you who you are, what did you want to do with your memories of joy and warmth and torment and sorrow, and what dream do you want to change those memories into now?
"Are you who you are because you received the pain of others and your own happiness and you just accepted that pain and joy and lived with them, or are you who you are because you received that pain and your own happiness and understood what they meant so well that they encouraged you to dream of a brighter tomorrow?"
"My answer is:
"I am who I am because I value giving others happiness and receiving it myself, not receiving pain and hurting others even more.
"What I used to want, and what I still dream of, is to continue to receive pain, not because I want to cause it, but because I want to feel that pain in Sora's and Riku's and Tidus' and Selphie's and Wakka's place, and in the place of everyone else who I love and anyone else who I can, and cry so none of them need to.
"I dream of receiving darkness and transforming it into light."
"We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend.
"Now I will step forward to realize this wish."
"I'm not a hero. But nor am I a villain. Sora wields the light, and Riku wields the darkness.
"I wield both, as the connection between both sides of the heart, ethereal beings and people, with regular hearts or without, astral and data, love and pain. To bring all of them together into a rainbow of reality and dreams that mirrors the way home upon those lost in pain and despair who can't find their way to the safety and the warmth of home themselves."
"Sora! Riku!"
"W–We're back."
"You're home."
"You called on one of the New Seven Hearts. You must be desperate."
"What took you so long, Kairi?"
"We gotta' fight!"
"But – Kingdom Hearts!"
"Sora! Sora! It's really you!"
"Kairi!"
"You leave Sora alone! Sora–!"
"Take it."
"This time… I'll fight. You know Sora's completely hopeless without us! C'mon, Riku!"
"A light at the end of the tunnel…"
"Oh, your grandma's story, right?"
"That's right. We were together."
"You know what's funny? I looked everywhere for you, but you were with me all along. Finally, we're together, Kairi."
"When I turned into a Heartless, you saved me, remember? I was lost in the darkness. I couldn't find my way. As I stumbled through the dark, I started forgetting things – my friends, who I was. The darkness almost swallowed me. But then I heard a voice – your voice. You brought me back."
"I didn't want to just forget about you, Sora. I couldn't."
"That's it! Our hearts are connected. And the light from our hearts broke through the darkness. I saw that light. I think that's what saved me. No matter how deep the darkness, a light shines within. I guess it's more than just a fairy tale."
"Maybe… waiting isn't good enough."
"My thoughts exactly! If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?"
"Even if that's also true, the topic of believing in Sora better is itself a silver lining.
"Sora has made it through a lot worse then this, and he can do it again this time.
"A good minority of your fears and worries are the result of not knowing how tenacious Sora genuinely is.
"You weren't there with us most of the time for the majority of our adventures before Sora faded. You've been able to keep both of us safe every time, but as you weren't a part of it and you didn't protect us unless you were the only person who we knew that we could turn to, or until we'd already been through a lot until you did so, you didn't see what we endured.
"You didn't see what Sora endured.
"No matter what Sora went through, he kept smiling and laughing; so this proves that Sora can rebound from even this, even after what Ursula, Mare, Christopher, and Luxu did to him.
"You've just lost too much hope because of what Luxu said and did.
"In this case, if you believe in Sora, he genuinely will stay true to your faith in him."
"So that's how it is, huh.
"In that case, excuse me; for not being able to keep either of you safe, and for being unneeded and unwanted, unless you didn't have anyone else more dependable who you were willing to ask for support and protection; and for not being able to carry either of your wounds and tears until it was nearly too late to take them away, since you kept shutting me out because I was a liability.
"But since when does trusting in Sora's ability to pull through mean being okay with him crying?
"I thought that the idea was to keep him from shedding tears in the first place.
"You don't believe in Sora.
"You're just worried about having faith in yourself.
"You haven't learned anything from giving into the darkness.
"You just want Sora to tell you what to do with his example, and follow behind him as the shadow that he casts and the greatest Nobody of all, no matter how much pain you let Sora go through in the process; so, just like before, you can continue to trust yourself over your best friend.
"I was wrong about what I said to you when Yen Sid told us about Aqua.
"I don't still feel that way."
"You do believe in something. Your own feelings. As sad as your way of tracing hearts is, even you want to be happy and live on.
"But because you have no regard for anyone else's feelings, you're a danger to Sora and my friends, and maybe even my surrogate parents back home. If you just wanted to live by your selfish beliefs in a way that didn't hurt anyone else, that would be your choice and I'd accept that. Everyone has the freedom to choose his or her fate.
"But I won't accept your choice when you want to bind other hearts and their feelings to your fate when they don't want to be connected to you in those ways.
"So, I'm very sorry.
"But I reject your feelings, and I'm going to sever the connections that you want to extend to other hearts and other people, divine or a different form of person.
"I won't forget you, but this is goodbye."
"Sora, Riku, stay at my side!"
"You'd kind of be in my way."
"Sora? Is that you?"
"Uh-oh!"
"This time, I'll protect you."
"Sora!"
"Kairi!"
"Kairi, thank you."
"Even in your Heartless form, I knew it was you."
"Sora, are you really – No. He can't be! I won't let him go!"
"Kairi, you were great!"
"Oh?"
"You are different, Kairi, but I'm just glad you're here!"
"You and Riku never came home, so I came looking for you."
"You'd kind of be in my way."
"What took you so long, Kairi?"
"Even if that's also true, the topic of believing in Sora better is itself a silver lining.
"Sora has made it through a lot worse then this, and he can do it again this time.
"A good minority of your fears and worries are the result of not knowing how tenacious Sora genuinely is.
"You weren't there with us most of the time for the majority of our adventures before Sora faded. You've been able to keep both of us safe every time, but as you weren't a part of it and you didn't protect us unless you were the only person who we knew that we could turn to, or until we'd already been through a lot until you did so, you didn't see what we endured.
"You didn't see what Sora endured.
"No matter what Sora went through, he kept smiling and laughing; so this proves that Sora can rebound from even this, even after what Ursula, Mare, Christopher, and Luxu did to him.
"You've just lost too much hope because of what Luxu said and did.
"In this case, if you believe in Sora, he genuinely will stay true to your faith in him."
"So that's how it is, huh.
"In that case, excuse me; for not being able to keep either of you safe, and for being unneeded and unwanted, unless you didn't have anyone else more dependable who you were willing to ask for support and protection; and for not being able to carry either of your wounds and tears until it was nearly too late to take them away, since you kept shutting me out because I was a liability.
"But since when does trusting in Sora's ability to pull through mean being okay with him crying?
"I thought that the idea was to keep him from shedding tears in the first place.
"You don't believe in Sora.
"You're just worried about having faith in yourself.
"You haven't learned anything from giving into the darkness.
"You just want Sora to tell you what to do with his example, and follow behind him as the shadow that he casts and the greatest Nobody of all, no matter how much pain you let Sora go through in the process; so, just like before, you can continue to trust yourself over your best friend.
"I was wrong about what I said to you when Yen Sid told us about Aqua.
"I don't still feel that way."
"You called on one of the New Seven Hearts. You must be desper"
"Kairi, you need to wake up.
"I brought you t–
"Yozora's Heartless?"
"I've heard that name enough. My name is Empyreal. No one else."
.
"I'm making graves for Rubedo and Nigredo. It's just for pretend, though. I'm practicing so that when they die, I won't cry. If I link with U-DO again, I wonder if he'll kill me… I hope he will. He is our leader, after all…"-Albedo 'Piazzolla' Yuriev
"I… I wouldn't do anything like that!"-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev
"Of course you would! That's how you're built. Because we're the anti-existence of U-DO."-Albedo 'Piazzolla' Yuriev
XENOSAGA: Episode 2:
JENSEITS VON GUT UND BÖSE