I spread through the Heart, an endless tide that swept its way into the deepest depths of the Heart. I am corruption, the twisting change. I am chains, binding, and I am Darkness, drowning.

But I am more than my nature. So I do more than a mere Heartless would, and I reach for the Soul, too. My claws are sharp, terrible things, and in this moment where I'm embracing my nature, they're more than enough to pierce. I grab tight, claws cutting Soul, and My Darkness follows through like a poison. I dig my way right into the core of the Juubi's being, and I feel-

Pain, at having my soul pierced

Fear, at knowing that I am about to die

Hate, at this terrible thing that hurts me

Anger, at the fact that I was stopped so close to my victory

- so many things, from this Heart and Soul.

Potent, both. And yet, evil too.

My Darkness finds a Memory, and follows the chain even as it consumes it. That Memory becomes Me, and so does the next, and the next, and the next. This consumption affords me knowledge that I was not previously privy to. This Heart was formed of two; one of simple power born from blooded ground, and the other of prideful and spiteful complexity.

The first was called the God-Tree. Kaguya Ōtsutsuki was name of the second.

I am, for a brief moment, grateful. Nagato ruined the Juubi more than he knew when he revived it so early and in such a state. The Juubi I fought was a creature of beastial cunning and fury. The Juubi, in its complete form, was just as intelligent as any other Bijuu, perhaps even more so. Even now, right on the edge of this final death, that part of the Juubi slumbers deep, only transiently aware of herself, even as she is consumed.

My Darkness consumes her, her Memories, her existence. They become me, flashes of thought and emotion running through my mind, but I pay them no attention. Not in the midst of this act.

I feel for the connections that tie this Heart to all others, the empty Zetsu. There are so many of them, though some have already been released, their connections to the Juubi weaker and fragile. I flood through the stronger connections, but not the weaker ones, reaching for the Hearts and Souls of those who had still been trapped inside the Juubi and taking hold of them.

Fear, in turn, makes itself known to me. These diminished creatures can sense the Soul of the Juubi, and know the pain I have brought to it. Their fear is that they are next.

A fear, perhaps, well-founded.

Nevertheless...

I have no more need for the Juubi.

My claws are sharp, terrible things. They parted Heart and Soul just as easily as they cut the Skin of a World. In any other circumstance, where I had not just fought for eleven days against the greatest monster this world had ever known, I might have considered a kinder fate. The Heartless in me suggests drowning. Logic suggests death. Emotion leads to a crueler choice.

I attack.

The Heart rends, breaking into pieces, and I stab those, too, breaking them into fragments that I tear yet again into shreds, and then those into specks, and then that into nothing. The Soul shatters, and I drown it, smother it, burn it away under My Darkness. I rip into the Juubi's being until there is nothing left of its being, only an empty shell that I quickly set ablaze, purple shadowy flames bursting into existence along this corpse-moon. They flicker and dance with malevolent glee, consuming all too thoroughly the Body on which they rested.

The sound that it makes goes beyond description. I recognize only a single part of that cacophony; the low keening wail that followed the destruction of Souls and Soul fragments. The rest of it is simply impossible to describe, much as trying to describe a colour that cannot and has never seen. It was the sound that came from the destruction of a Heart, and that was the limit to the words I could put to it.

I can describe the feelings it leaves me with much more easily, however. A vague sense of horrified intrigue, disgust and fascination all at once. If I had skin, it would have crawled. If I had a spine, I would have shivered.

What the Juubi suffers is not Death, it is Cessation.

I, after all, am fully aware of the what potential complications might arise when a being strong of Will loses its Heart. Against this creature, I will not take any chances. Allowing a Nobody to arise just because I wasn't thorough in my victory would have been the very height of foolishness.

But, nonetheless, the deed was done. The Juubi rendered down to nothing, only existing in memory. It is... not impossible to come back from that, but it is certainly a lot more difficult than it could otherwise be. To return would require nothing less than the direct intervention of this World, and even then...

I shake my head.

I have other things to be doing, after all. A promise to keep. I let the gravity prison dissipate, and what's left of the corpse begins to fall.

Most of it will not make it to the ground. I simply teleported the rest of way, finding a relatively intact spot, before reaching out to those connections which I had shoved My Darkness into.

I tug, and pull the captured Hearts and Souls to me. Fear hangs in the air like a cloud, growing stronger as I shift my Darkness, pushing them into visibility. Hundreds of thousands of Zetsus surround me from every direction, and I don't hesitate to dive into them, running My Darkness into the centers of their Hearts and Souls, and then deeper into those places where forgotten Memories hide from the Heart itself. I thread myself around them, gently, and pull them from that abyss-

"This is not who you are."

- and just like last time, the Zetsu shatter as if they're made of glass.