.
CHAPTER 54:
ASHES OF THE STARS' FALLEN TEARDROPS
.
Author's Notes: The pieces for this Chapter are, in order of scene: 'The Girl Who Stole the Star,' from the CHRONO CROSS Original Soundtrack, Disc Three; and then 'Vector To the Heavens,' from the KINGDOM HEARTS: BIRTH BY SLEEP AND THREE HUNDRED FIFTY-EIGHT DAYS OVER TWO Original Soundtrack, Disc Three. The first piece can be found on Zophar's Domain, and the second in KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section.
Why did he even know he was resting with his head on a shoulder within warm arms, against a warm body, with two other pairs of warm arms wrapped around him from behind, and two other warm bodies against his back, and sides?
And why was the closeness of those bodies, and their arms, so surely soothing, and reassuring?
And, past even infinite measurements ineffaceably inexplicably more, how could they possibly still cause him to feel safe from the terror, and the boundless night?
And how did he still know to ask these questions?
Or who he was?
Or anything, at all?
"If he had met Sora, things might have been different."
"People will just forget the mistakes of the past and repeat them, and sever connections and warmth and kindness that you've safeguarded or restored."
Something far off, and faint, rippled through
Sora?
Was his name Sora?
Why was he remembering this, whatever he was remembering?
"Did they cause all this pain? What do you want me to see?"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"Well, there is one advantage to being me… Something you could never imitate."
"Really? What's that?"
"Having you for a friend."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"There was one last thing I needed in order to be whole again. A connection. Sora helped me find my way back here… to my friends."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"It's because understanding the pain that gives us valid reasons to kill, or hurt, others also means understanding more about what the pain is that we want to inflict upon others, or let others be hurt by; so that pain thus hurts us more."
"Just by being yourself, you enable people, and their hearts, to receive or fulfill their dreams.
"Can you please believe that yourself?"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"Typical. You can't do anything without us, Sora."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"Now wipe those tears, and let's go stop Master Xehanort!"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"You see? I had no doubts that you'd pull through."
"I told you, Sora. You're safe with me."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"But… I'll go wake Sora up."
"Riku."
"Look at his face. Sleeping like nothing's wrong – like there's nothing to even worry about. He's always been like that. The three of us would agree to work on the raft, and then this guy would go and take a nap on the beach. You see, it's my job to keep him on his toes."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"But you can't come along looking like that. Understand? No frowning. No sad face. Okay?"
"This boat runs on happy faces."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"Yeah, ya' gotta' look funny, like us!"
"All for one, one for all."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back."
"But… I promised Leon!"
Lanky arms tightened around him from behind him, and to his left, with inexplicably slightly more lightening protective reassurance, and a long, snouted body pressed closer.
"This experience has revealed many hidden truths, and we must gird ourselves for the great clash with darkness that lies before us. I believe we need a new Keyblade Master, one with a new kind of power. Sora and Riku, you both deserve the honor."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"Sora, we never got back to your question. Can I help?"
"Mmm, it's okay. I think I'm meant to figure it out for myself. I'll find my strength the way you found yours. Something to fight for… with all my heart. I guess you did have the answer."
"Sora, Donald, Goofy. I was plannin' to go get help from Ansem the Wise. But – now I know I forgot the most important thing. Helping others should always come before asking others for help. We're safe and sound – and free to choose!"
"Whenever you are in need, magic happens. That is your greatest strength, Sora."
"You make it sound like it's easy."
"What happens to the world?"
"In the end, it disappears."
"What!?"
"That's why your key is so important."
"Please lock the Keyholes. You're the only one who can."
"I don't know…"
"Seeing other worlds would probably serve you well."
"The worlds gave us this doorway. They want us to be the guardians of their destiny."
"You can move through time, but time itself is immovable. Today, all my selves throughout time were meant to gather here, and to welcome you, Sora, as our thirteenth member. These facts cannot be changed."
"What's… gonna' happen…"
"I have now told you all that I know. We are all here, and what the future holds in store is beyond my sight. I will return to my own time, and grow into the man who becomes all these others. While I know this future now that I have lived it, returning to my own time will erase the memories and experiences I have gained here. Still, my appointed path is now etched in my heart, which will first lead me to seek the outside world."
"Riku…"
"The light, the symbol of the World's hope, was devoured by shadow, leaving nothing but ruin… An utter failure. But, the first light – the light of Kingdom Hearts – it can give us a new start. An empty World, pure and bright…"
"It wasn't your decision to make."
"I'm a toy, so I know that you can hear me in your sleep, because toys were created from the dreams of imagination!
"Remember what you taught us the last time that you were here, Sora! The heart never lets go, so that means that you can still hold onto what you believe in regardless of whether light creates a sanctuary amidst the darkness, or darkness engulfs all of the colors of light!
"Children don't know that toys have hearts and awareness, and feelings and thoughts, but that doesn't make their love for toys any less genuine and sincere!
"Because, even though they're loving people who they just imagine are connecting with them, they still believe that the love we give them, and the love that they give us, are real!
"It doesn't matter how unforgiving and cruel people and reality are!
"Buzz, Jessie, Bo, her sheep, and the Little Green Men were able to establish, maintain, and repair connections with children even through the darkness that devoured them, as easily as just having faith in a connection that one side hadn't learned was true!
"Bo, her sheep, and the Little Green Men believed in those kinds of connections to the end, so even when inescapable darkness took them, the light still guided them until it was all over!
"Dreams don't need to be based upon reality! They can be based upon your imagination as well!
"If they couldn't be, they wouldn't be called dreams!
"So you don't need to stop trusting in them!
"Keep living through them, for the people who you love and for the world that you dream of, and keep trying to love those people, and everyone else, and bring about that world!
"So you can still hold onto, and not let go of, your dreams to the very end!"
"Whether you can or you can't create a better world, as long as you keep believing in your dreams and striving to grasp them, you can give people enough hope to keep their eyes on the world that you imagine.
"And you can still connect them to the sanctuary of your love and warmth and kindness and brilliance; and the warmer, kinder, more joyful, laughter filled world that you dream of!"
"Now, hand over the Kye-Blade, Xehanort."
"No. It is too late."
"For us, perhaps… but not for them."
"Enough."
"You know, this really is a beautiful place. But you'd enjoy it so much more with someone you care about. Before, when I was looking around with Kairi, I remembered how important it is… to share moments with friends."
"I'm sure she knows how much you love her."
"If anyone can help her, it's you."
"It'll be okay. They're strong."
"And now, it's our turn!"
"You're right. They have each other."
"You have to have a heart to cry."
"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."
"Then whose was it? The World needs someone to stand up and lead. Someone strong, to stop the weak from polluting the World with their endless darkness. Someone to dictate their destiny."
"If so… you're not that person, Xehanort. A real leader knows that destiny is beyond his control… and accepts that."
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"I… have to wake up…"
"Yes. Tell me what to do."
"The power of waking…"
"I can't. I still don't have it yet."
"You never lost it… It sleeps… until someone needs it… Call to it…"
"I am calling… with all my heart."
"How will I know where I belong, truly? I'm not sure I can promise you I'll come up with the right answer."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back.
"What, bad timing?"
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back."
"But… I promised Leon!"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
Webbed hands at the ends of thin arms tightened with admonishing, and rebuking terrified worry around him from his left, and behind him, a short form hugging him tighter from behind him, and to his right, and for whatever reason
was reminded with rising bubbles of effervescent foolish guilt why
shouldn't cry over spilled milk.
"Who am I? What am I… here for?"
"One…
"Zero.
"Your time has run out.
"And your meaningless existence along with it."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"How will I know where I belong, truly? I'm not sure I can promise you I'll come up with the right answer."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back.
"What, bad timing?"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"Nothing happens for a reason."
"The form of Christopher Robin who you see before you isn't my true form. It's no more than a perceptual phenomenon that I'm bending particles and waves of light to cast into your hearts and minds.
"I have no true form.
"The physical and ethereal body that you see before you, and I myself, am actually a Station of Awakening brought into the material realms from the horizon of dreams that divide sleep and birth or renewal, and death and despair.
"So I can trace the connections and currents of light and darkness more effectively than almost any heart.
"From this, you can be assured that I'm in all the position that I need to be to say this.
"Darkness is not the absence of light.
"Shadows appear to be cast by light, but this is no more than an illusion.
"It's the opposite end of the spectrum of the colors of light.
"Darkness, as much as light, is the energy of emotion and thought that gives hearts vitality and enables them to beat and live and surmount hardship and struggle and grow; so living by following the true guidance of your heart means that darkness guides your heart, and thus you, as much as light does.
"No matter how hard you try or fight, or for how long you strive or endure, people will never stop fraying or severing connections, and people and hearts and dreams and flowers will never stop fracturing and breaking, or freezing and withering away.
"It's time for you to throw away, and cast aside, your childish beliefs in daydreams, and grow up at last, Sora.
"Put an end to your dreams of living in a fairy fantasy where all hurt and pain occur for a purpose, and struggle and effort will sooner or later, in time, turn out to have had meaning and merit and a point and be worth having gone through. And even if you succeed in keeping love and warmth and home and kindness safe for the people who you don't murder or harm while you do so, or renewing it, once or a number of times, people's hearts will just commit the sins that they didn't learn from and shred or flay connections just as they did before. The happy ending and the shining tomorrow that you've fashioned for the people who you did love and keep safe while robbing others of connections and futures and warmth and home and hearth and kindness are just ephemeral dreams of sweet deceptive promise that vanish into the ruthless and brutal and remorseless and relentless light of day.
"Yes, hearts and people and love and life and dreams and hope are born from the light, and they and light will never stop existing inside the deepest and most abysmal darkness no matter how many times a heart gives into the darkness, or how weak it is.
"However, that doesn't change the incontrovertible and irrefutable truth that they've still been taken into, and imprisoned within, and consumed by, and snuffed out by, the darkness.
"In the end, no matter how bright the light is, the onyx black night will always devour all colors."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"How will I know where I belong, truly? I'm not sure I can promise you I'll come up with the right answer."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back.
"What, bad timing?"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"Is it that I'm not supposed to exist?"
"Well, what do you want to do, Xion?"
"I want… I want to be with you two."
"Then come back with us."
"It is unstoppable."
"You poor, simple fools. You think you can defeat me? Me, the mistress of all evil?"
"Kingdom Hearts belongs to me! The heart of all Kingdoms, the heart of all that lives. A dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must be my dominion!"
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"And so ended our journey to connect 'those' memories with 'these.'"
"Such a shame you understand so little of the darkness. The world desires its embrace!"
"Yeah, right."
"There is nothing in darkness. No sadness, no cause for hurt… In darkness, one cannot see one's mistakes, or the dreams that failed to be."
"You can't force the darkness on a world that never asked for it. That's just giving yourself what you want!"
"And what is wrong with that? After all, the Mistress of All Evil has the right and the power to see it done!"
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"…What should I do, then?"
"I can't make that decision for you. You're no puppet in my book. You're my best friend. Mine and Roxas'. Got it memorized?"
"All worlds begin in darkness, and all so end. The heart is no different. Darkness sprouts within it, it grows, consumes it. Such is its nature. In the end, every heart returns to the darkness whence it came."
"Every light must fade, every heart return to darkness!"
"Behold the endless abyss! Within it lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts! Look as hard as you are able. You'll not find even the smallest glimmer of light. From those dark depths are all hearts born. Even yours. Darkness conquers all worlds!"
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"Long have the fallen wandered."
"Now they shall serve the will of darkness."
"Rage… Hatred… Glitches to feed my darkness… And soon, hearts to sate my hunger!"
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"Your strength is vaster than darkness. I knew I never stood a chance. Part of me wanted to defy my fate… but when the others betrayed us, I found I did not care. And then, nothing else seemed to matter anymore."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"Did you find the right answer?"
"Yeah. I did. I'm on the verge of losing everything I ever cared about. I can't let that happen. Tell me what I need to do."
"Students do take after their teachers."
"I understand, though. Unlike me, you have a heart. And you're powerless to control it."
"I cannot feel – sorrow… No matter what misery befalls the worlds. No matter what you think, what you feel, or how you exist."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"That hurt will drag you into the darkness. You have to cut it loose."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"I feel… the emptiness where my companions once stood. I took them for granted. And now, I have… nothing. My first surge of emotion in years… for as long as I can remember… and it's… loneliness. Do you see? A heart is just pain."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"Namine, can you see my face?"
"Yes."
"What do you think I should do?"
"Today, all my selves throughout time were meant to gather here, and to welcome you, Sora, as our thirteenth member. These facts cannot be changed."
"What's… gonna' happen…"
"I have now told you all that I know. We are all here, and what the future holds in store is beyond my sight. I will return to my own time, and grow into the man who becomes all these others. While I know this future now that I have lived it, returning to my own time will erase the memories and experiences I have gained here. Still, my appointed path is now etched in my heart, which will first lead me to seek the outside world."
"Riku…"
"Your heart will sleep forever in the folds of darkness. And your body will be another vessel for me. So light gives way to darkness."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"So this is where my role ends…"
"What's so funny?"
"I told you. There's a high price to pay for all of this."
"And what price would that be?"
"I'll go back to my time, and live out my life. But Sora, you're done now. Your journey ends here."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"Roxas… I'm out of time. Even if I'm not ready… I have to make this choice. You have poured so many memories into me… given me so much… that I feel like I'm about to overflow. Look at me, Roxas. Who do you see? If you see somebody else's face… a boy's face… then that means I'm almost ready. This puppet will have to play her part. Roxas… This is him. It's Sora. You're next, Roxas. I have to make you a part of me, too. Don't you see? This is why I was created."
"You'll never be able to break these chains. They're our bonds. You have no power over me!"
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"No, look… You are too late…"
"Are we really?"
"I don't know."
"What's gonna' happen?"
"A purge… the World will be returned whence it started. The World began in darkness. And from that darkness came light. From the light came the people, and the people had hearts. Evil burgeoned in those hearts, begetting more darkness. And that darkness spread across the World like a plague. The light, the symbol of the World's hope, was devoured by shadow, leaving nothing but ruin… An utter failure. But, the first light – the light of Kingdom Hearts – it can give us a new start. An empty World, pure and bright…"
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"How will I know where I belong, truly? I'm not sure I can promise you I'll come up with the right answer."
"Well, the answer you come up with can't just be right for you. It has to be one that works best for everybody, you and your friends and everyone else."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back.
"What, bad timing?"
"Sora, don't chase the dreams. They'll lead you nowhere, just to an abyss you'll never be able to wake up from."
"I tried, but… there's nothing left for me here."
Innumerably immeasurably inexplicably both past all conveyance of encompassed, or potentially encompassed, or not containable, comprehension, far more lightening, and reassuring, and soothing, and assuring, and protective, and sure, warm lips pressed gently against his hair, and the arms of the body in front of him pulled him closer into a secure, close hold that caused enough of what wasn't there to recede
was aware
ached everywhere outside and within and
ruined, cracked broken tears brimmed and push against the backs of
eyelids
"This abyss… Am I in Sora's dream?"
"What?"
"A heart made from conflict? That can't be real."
"What was it you said? I only have to see it for it to become real. So, let's see it."
"What? You'd rather fight me?"
"Riku… You're safe! Riku!"
"Wait, haven't we got this backwards?"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"You'd kind of be in my way."
"My whole journey began the day I lost her. And every time I find her… she slips away again."
"Sora!"
"Sora? Funny… Just hearing that name kinda' makes me wanna' smile."
"Yeah. That's how he is."
"Whaddaya' know… Riku and Sora. The Sound Ideas you two set free joined together. And when they did, they made a great and powerful harmony.
"Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him."
"Wow! No wonder the music sounded like so much fun. But I bet he's got you to thank for that. Having such a good friend means he could really enjoy it."
"Huh?"
"It's like each of you is holding on to a little part of the other. Your hearts are always in tune, so they're free to sing."
"Sora!"
"Well, the answer you come up with can't just be right for you. It has to be one that works best for everybody, you and your friends and everyone else."
"Why, you're the key that connects everything."
"You have been able to create miracles whenever you're in need since Kairi transmigrated what the heart inside your Heartless had become back into the semblance of a natural human person, and you were able to call forth the light of the true Kingdom Hearts that day, because you'd just begun to tap into the energy that you'd forged within yourself during that hour.
"Energies that have continued to grow with every instant, every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every night, whether you wield a regular Keyblade or not.
"As soon as you first called to the power of waking, that energy became yours to harness as you will, though you haven't yet learned how to bend it to your heart, and channel it deeper than the barest feather light brush of its surface.
"Energy that sings with a vacuum so empty that no light, no matter how brilliant or loving or warm or kind, can escape its prison, or prevent that lacuna of total night from drowning anyone and anything that it knows no matter what the light of that heart wills.
"Surely, you must know now of what light and darkness I speak, and what your heart became when you unlocked it with the Keyblade of Hearts, and why you were able to control the true Kingdom Hearts.
"The Keyblade of Hearts amplified the darkness within all thirteen of these dark hearts that the pure lights of the seven hearts of the Princesses of Heart clashed with into pure darkness.
"You know as well as the rest of us that there is but one stage of existence that is capable of channeling the true form of Kingdom Hearts at the behest of our feelings and wills.
"As Kairi's heart dreamed within yours the whole time, so too was what Xehanort sought within his grasp all along.
"When you unlocked your heart, though it created a Heartless to bear it as all hearts that give into the darkness too deeply do, your heart itself became the very thing that Xehanort first failed to fully cast, and then he did completely forge only for it to be broken once more shortly afterwards.
"Once Kairi fashioned a new body for you from this, and threw off the shadows that had enmeshed you, the Heartless that had been restricting you could no longer contain you, and you wholly awakened into the heart that you had forged for yourself, with your own hands.
"You, your heart, your mind, and your body, are not person or Heartless or Nobody or Unversed or Dream Eater.
"You are what all life, all existence, all reality, all of the World, all of the cosmos, all stars, all worlds, all people, all hearts, of light and darkness, most yearn and reach and fight brutally and ruthlessly and remorselessly and cruelly and strive and dream and long for.
"You are the Kye-Blade."
"Behold the endless abyss! Within it lies the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts!"
"You want him to dive back into Sora's sleep? But Master, Sora's heart is down in the darkest abyss. If Riku's not careful, he might just get trapped down there with him."
"So it's all my fault."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back."
"You and Riku never came home, so I came looking for you."
"What, bad timing?"
"Clasping your trust in love, friendship, bonds, home, dreams, the light, and oaths close, with reverberating hope, and without skepticism, does what, perchance?
"Well, it's okay.
"You don't need to have just questioned what had happened to Ven.
"After all, you don't know how Ven died at Xion's hands.
"And you can't know that by sending that much of his light into Boo's, you just killed her, while you forced Kairi and Riku against their intention to participate in the murder of the innocent, helpless little girl you just committed.
"One…
"Zero.
"Your time has run out.
"And your meaningless existence along with it."
"Sora!"
"Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't."
"This abyss… Am I in Sora's dream?"
"What?"
"A heart made from conflict? That can't be real."
"What was it you said? I only have to see it for it to become real."
"There's more to light than meets the eye. As I told you."
"Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him."
"Promises to keep. I'll always be there to get my friends back."
"What, bad timing?"
"You've just gotta' trust me, Roxas."
"I tried, but… there's nothing left for me here."
"I don't."
All perception vanished, and even the close and assuring warmth of the three pairs of arms, and three bodies, holding
fled to the most distant far margins of known real existence and self
Lea
notAxelhecouldnevercallhimselfAxelevenifheseparatedintotwobodiesandbothdiedandwererecompletedmoretimesthanselvescouldlivetothinkofnumbers
's preferred element was fire, but at this time he might as well have been a vacuum where all that was there was infrared wavelengths, so he couldn't even feel ice, outside himself, or inside himself.
That was it.
The sole difference this time was it was Roxas twice, not at his hands, and not Xion.
But now it really was happening, all over once again.
Lea barely even remembered calling Flame Liberator into his hand, and springing up as fast as he could to whip around and hold it in a defensive position, standing in front of the now upright figure on its feet comprised of nothing but an Organization coat with light and dark thorny vines twining over its medium gray in the same pattern Riku had told him Xemnas' had during their final battle, nothing but empty blackness with ripples of clear air alternately rushing and gyrating and shimmering and capering as though they were a typhoon and surging and moving torpidly with haphazard chaos inside its hood.
"If you aren't Xion, this is the sole warning I'm giving you," Lea told the thing
itwasXionpleaseanyonesomeonetellmeit'sstillXion
in front of him.
The figure shrugged dismissively.
Lea barely remembered not to recoil as though he'd stepped on magma at
it'satleastXionit'sstillXionthatmuchistrueIcouldcarelesshowmuchpainthetruthbringsbecausethere'snopainthatisXionIbelieveitandIhavefourheartsworthofexperiencebelieving
Elsa was approaching them warily, her hands out to cast another ice curse.
Mare was now roughly between Roxas, and Xion, her No Name out in a neutral position with her stance as spread out as it could be to give her as much versatility in shifting her bodies, or bodies, as the need may call for.
Tidus was mostly behind Lea, but with his favored wooden sword he almost certainly knew wouldn't do him the least bit of good out in a neutral position of his own.
Don't lose track of him.
With what he told Xion, Roxas, Xion, and very possibly Isa, aren't the sole numbskulls you need to worry about making morons of themselves this time around.
Isa, though, was already rushing to Lea's side, claymore out and ready, with an assuring and apologetic determination that told Lea, this time, Isa, at least, wasn't his enemy.
Mickey, and Ephemer, were running out of another igloo nearby, their Keyblades out.
The voice that answered echoed with disembodiment, but it was still Xion's.
Her words weren't.
"I don't care," she said, every single inflection in her voice brimming with a contained, cutting and biting anguished hate so desperately distilled and unfettered each tiniest infliction should have yanked whoever was saying it inside out out of herself and hurled at him with enough potency to fragment all four of those hearts into grains.
"I have enough memories to know who my opponent is, and that's all I need to know."
Lea realized he was now looking at Ephemer's Kingdom Key Starlight clanging against Xion's
Idon'tcarewhoshebelievessheisshe'sXionthatwon'tchangenomatterwhathappensorhowmanytimesforhowlongwithhowmuchtimebetweenitanytimeanywhere
in a block.
Lea didn't know whether to be more upset her strike had been aimed at Mickey, or at how she'd moved so fast he hadn't even realized she'd done so until he'd seen Ephemer intercept her.
What this meant about their chances of defeating Xion's new semblance was beside the point.
He would bring her back before she became lost a second time.
And Roxas, as well.
Xion brought her Kingdom Key back, and moved it into an offensive ready position.
In Elsa's eyes, however, there was nothing but understanding.
"It's because, isn't it, while the rest of you all did your best to make something of a very bad situation, Mickey was then the one whose frozen heart just asked the brooms of Sora, Donald, Goofy, and others to cause an eternal flood everywhere, and so he left you all in the remorseless biting cold?"
Mickey started slightly.
But then all he did was close his eyes with much more of the familiar pain Lea had seen many times.
Even through the agony ripping through him at the reminder of what Xion had done to Ven, and the sentiments Lea once more wished with all four of the hearts he should have recognized he'd still retained, and could reclaim, he genuinely could remove from himself, hearing this brought feelings to the forefront Lea had barely acknowledged.
Nevertheless, he said, "I knew something had happened when I discovered I was all banged up, yet I didn't make any effort to remember, unlike Roxas."
But Lea knew as much as everyone else did that made no difference.
Ansem the Wise had gotten Mickey out from the realm of darkness long before then, and since then, Mickey hadn't even had a second Keyblade of Darkness to find.
All it would have taken would have been for Mickey to have remembered helping others came for asking for help before he'd reunited with Riku in the forest, or during that time, and for him to have then asked the right questions, or investigated what Riku had told him himself more actively, and Mickey really could have prevented everything.
The sole way Xemnas, and Isa, could have stopped Mickey from doing so, perhaps after waking up Donald, and Goofy, with their memories intact to assist him in doing it, would have been if Xemnas had intercepted Mickey himself; too many of the rest of the first Organization Thirteen had ganged up on him; or Young Xehanort had realized what Mickey was doing, and stopped journeying through time to intercept him.
And, since Mickey had been able to avoid that when Sora's continued travails had caused him to remember helping others came first, he could have done the same thing then.
Yen Sid had abandoned Ven, Aqua, and Terra, in order to prioritize Mickey's safety over theirs.
While Donald and Goofy had remained at Sora's side almost without fail, even when they'd needed to defy royal edicts to do so.
It had been Roxas, and Xion, and Isa, who had been Mickey's victims, when he'd followed in Yen Sid's footsteps.
What Lea now knew about the War of the Skies didn't mean that much more than what he'd already known about how Mickey's recklessness with Aqua, Ven, and Terra had influenced his beliefs to not just implement the world order not just on the cosmic scale required to minimize exploitation and colonization, but on such a personal one he wouldn't even reveal too much to his most trusted friends.
Placing asking others for help before helping them himself had no tie to issues such as how Axel himself had believed there were times it was better not to know the truth.
As wrong as he had been, Axel had still done that while actively attempting to do what was best for everyone.
With Mickey, even though it had been a result of impetuous naivete, and not snobbish noble foppery, it had nevertheless been nothing more than reclining in naïve entitlement while asking others to take responsibility for, and clean up messes, he could prevent from happening, or mop up, himself.
But Roxas, and Xion, and Isa, hadn't just been magically animated brooms.
While the Twilight Town clock tower, Memory's Skyscraper, the Struggle Tournament, and the Old Mansion had been innumerable gallons of water higher than one of the lakes that, for all his own flaws, even Yen Sid wouldn't turn a blind eye to.
Mare clenched her teeth tightly, while snarling at the memory of what Mickey's attempt to atone for his sins had put her through.
Lea pushed away the part of himself that wanted to agree.
What had happened to Mare had been mostly Namine's fault, but Mickey's assumption that data had no true hearts had been no different than his assumption Nobodies didn't, and DAnsem the Wise's words had been responsible for both misconceptions.
And Mickey had, at the least, treated Data-Sora, and Data-Riku, as people with a kind of heart, even if not a real one.
But, even though he'd heard Data-Kairi talk, just like Xehanort's Heartless had, he hadn't even treated Mare as even that much of a person.
To Mickey, as much as to anyone else, while ordinary data at least had a facsimile of a heart, even with all he, and Ansem the Wise had learned about Heartless, he'd refused to see what he'd believed to be a data Heartless of a data fabrication of no one other than Sora
whohadconvincedMickeyofhissinswhileMickeyhadjustletRoxasandX
as the equal of Xehanort's Heartless.
And because of that, and how Namine had repeated DAnsem the Wise's sins, Mare had become as condemned as Roxas, and Xion.
"How is that supposed to have made a difference?" Xion questioned back, her voice unchanged.
Butnoneofthehatewasdirectedathimandthatalmostmadefirenodifferentthancoldbecausehewastheonewhohadabandonedthemboth
"Even if you'd told Roxas the truth, and been there at the clock tower, or Roxas at the Old Mansion, what do you think would have happened if you had been the one to strike me down fatally that time?"
Lea started slightly, but he didn't see how that made that much difference itself.
"Even more so if the memories Roxas retained of me were the ones of you attacking me the first time, when all I'd done was point a weapon at Roxas without actually striking; or I hadn't had the new bodies from Xemnas I could more effectively sell my con with, and Roxas believed you'd been the one to murder even my legacy when you didn't even think I'd lost my sense of self, or one, or both, of you, knew for certain I hadn't?
"Most of all, Roxas' cry would not have been enough to gainsay me that time, if you'd left with him and then seen through my ruse at the clock tower."
Lea could just continue to register he was holding Flame Liberator at the edges of his perception now.
"Not as desperate as I'd become by that point, and as much hope as I'd lost.
"While the same thing would have happened if he'd been with you at the Old Mansion, to attempt to mediate between us.
"Regardless of whether one, or both, of you was still serving the Organization.
"Roxas had already been wrecked enough by how the two of us had once battled by choice.
"How do you believe he would have taken it if he knew I'd become the adversary of you both by choice, regardless of who was the one to strike me down, or what memories he, or you, or both of you, retained afterwards?
"My hands are no less coated than yours.
"There was no one other than Mickey who was in a position to stop what happened then, and he did nothing.
"I also retain enough of the memories I patched into when the Note Blade was nearly in readiness, and I saw Ira have a very similar conversation with Yozora.
"He told Yozora, if he didn't attempt to prevent the First Keyblade War from breaking out, he'd just be abandoning all the hearts of light in the World."
Mickey staggered back violently as though he'd been struck.
Before Lea could even begin to piece together something to say that had a good enough chance of challenging that, the same silhouette that had appeared over her in Scala ad Caelum began flickering over her once more, and it increased the speed at which it did until the flickers were occurring so fast the construct almost appeared to be utterly solid.
"So I at last understand.
"Where the last traces of glimmering hope for cutting the threads of the everlasting tapestry are concealed.
"The answer that's best for everyone.
"And that won't just force what I want for myself, and for them, upon them, as the seven obsidian hearts at the foundation of the heart of all my own World, my creators, Xehanort, Xemnas, Vexen, Young Xehanort, past Riku Replica, and Maleficent, sought to do for so long, and Maleficent still dreams of.
"It's at last over.
"I've found the answer I've been pursuing all this time.
"The endless spiral of the inexorable recurring darkness of history and the stars that began with Keyblade Master of Masters Yozora must be severed, now, and here, by snapping every single one of the connections of Sora's own first Keyblade Master.
"Relax, Mickey.
"For you're about to fall dead before me at my own hands!"
.
"All things are born into this world, and all those things die. And that's the simple and perfect truth."-Rau Le Creuset
"Then, are you saying that it's meaningless to have hopes, or to wish for anything?"-Gilbert Durandal
"Oh, no, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that it sums up what this beloved world, and those foolish creatures living within it known as humans, really are. No matter how long you live, or how you die. It's something that everyone knows, but everyone has forgotten. But I will not forget it. I will never be able to forget it. If my life has any value hidden within it after all, it's because I've never forgotten, even once. For every single moment, I've never forgotten a single time."-Rau Le Creuset
"But even you must have wanted to live for a purpose. Filled with defiance, and filled with longing. The moment that we realize our dreams will never come true, then what do we do? When we realize that this is our destiny?"-Gilbert Durandal
GUNDAM SEED DESTINY:
Phase 29: Fates