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CHAPTER 8:

THE BALANCE OF TORMENT

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Author's Notes: For this Chapter, the pieces are: 'Epic Poem To Sacred Death,' from the VALKYRIE PROFILE Original Soundtrack, Disc One; and afterwards 'The True Nature Of All,' from the VALKYRIE PROFILE Original Soundtrack, Disc Two; and then, lastly, 'Fragments Of the Heart,' from the VALKYRIE PROFILE Original Soundtrack, Disc Two. All of these pieces can be found on KINGDOM HEARTS Insider's MP3 section.

Kairi stepped out of the portal Aqua had created onto the narrow cobblestone back street of Thebes to see a boy with short brown hair about Kairi's age with glasses in front of brown eyes, wearing a black toga, a purple cape over his shoulders, and dark blue leggings looking in their direction, a plain staff formed from a tree branch held in his right hand.

To his left was a girl with long silver hair falling to her waist around the same age, wearing a gray shirt and leggings with a sword sheathed on the right side of her waist, to her left was a boy with short blonde-haired boy around her age wearing a red shirt and leggings and holding an unsheathed sword in his left hand, and to the brown-haired boy's right was a slightly older girl with black hair wearing a white shirt and leggings with a sword of her own sheathed at the right side of her waist.

Good.

Whether Hades and Sin had attacked Mount Olympus yet or not, at least there were still people with hearts in Thebes.

"See?" the brown-haired boy asked the older girl as the portal to the Lanes Between closed behind Kairi and the others, giving her an extremely irritated frown and an angry glare. "Alicia was as right now as she is most of the time. Clap down your regression into your pig-headed inanity and go back to believing that she knows what she's talking about."

The black-haired girl sighed in resignation. "You're right. I'll apologize to her when we're back home."

The brown-haired boy puffed up his chest, twirled his staff in an elaborate series of circles and arcs, and then struck a melodramatically overdone pose leaning diagonally forwards with the back tip of his staff in his hand and the staff thrust diagonally into the air.

"That's why I am Lezard Valeth, the supernal genius mage whose name is etched into the most profound depths of the very shimmering souls of all of Thebes and Olympus, and Alicia's number one most devoted doormat," the boy who had identified himself as Lezard announced with as much arrogance as he could put into his voice.

Regardless of how she felt, Kairi's lips curled up into a grin.

She wished Sora was here to meet Lezard, partially because Lezard's exaggerated identification of himself was obviously for her and the others as much as to make his point about a girl named Alicia to the other girl.

The silver-haired girl sighed in pain and looked away, and the blonde-haired boy put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it.

"We do have visitors," the blonde-haired boy said.

Lezard sighed himself, pulled out of his pose, and turned in their direction, after which he bowed to them politely.

"My apologies," he said as he straightened up. "Leone was being a typical hard nut about her younger sister, so I needed to give her a piece of my mind. As I said, my name is Lezard Valeth, the lessest of Alicia's lesser lesser servants in the city of Thebes. The stodgy wrinkled prune to my right is Leone Hrist Valkyrie, her oldest sister. The earnest idealist just to my left and my second closest friend, after the fantastic Alicia Silmeria Valkyrie, is Alicia's sister closest to her age, Platina Lenneth Valkyrie. The boy to her left, and Platina's and my mutual best friend, is Lucian Leingod."

"It's good to meet you," Aqua spoke up to Kairi's right, not wearing her Keyblade Armor and standing on the otherwise vacant street, not hovering above it on her Keyblade Glider.

"Was Hercules," a look of utter hatred appeared on Lezard's face when Aqua said that name, "Or Phil, or one of their friends, aware that we were coming, then?"

"Do not use that preening, strutting cesspool's name in connection to Alicia a single time again," Lezard hissed through clenched teeth.

Kairi blinked.

There was clearly something going on here, but it wasn't her place to inquire.

"Excuse me?" Ven spoke, not wearing his Keyblade Armor himself and standing on Thebes' stone pavement as well. "Last I heard, Hercules has saved Thebes, the Olympus Coliseum, and Olympus itself a number of times."

"Ven," Terra reproved him.

Lezard held a finger up.

"This Vain," Kairi stiffened slightly, "Just gave me the instigation I need, so I don't mind.

"Hercules is a self-centered, reckless peacock."

'Is.' Hercules was still alive, and he still had his heart.

"He continually puts himself at unnecessary risk for his two families, divine and mortal, his girlfriend, friends, his steed, and the people of Thebes and Olympus."

Lezard wasn't talking in the past tense. Hades hadn't unleashed Sin yet.

They weren't too late.

Thank goodness.

"And that's a problem because?" Ven retorted, not sounding at all upset at what Lezard had called him and just upset at Lezard's dislike of Hercules.

Lezard rolled his eyes. "Another one. Do Alicia a favor and keep your bathetic love of theater out of her house, or I'll keep you out.

"Whether you're a foal or a fool, you're old enough to know that, if you get hurt too badly when you're protecting the people who you lie about loving, or die in the process; you hurt the people you pretend that you care about as badly, or worse, than whoever's endangering them, because those people also care about you and don't want you to die or be hurt, or to lose you to death or pain."

"'I don't admire one guy leaping into danger if it means someone else might have to jump in to save him. You're all just lining up to lose out. Dooming others to take the fall with ya'. Oh, and you can spare me the usual party line. Yes, hearts are powerful when they're connected. But if you put too much of that power in one place, some of those hearts might end up breaking.'"

Kairi cringed.

That wasn't what she was doing to Sora.

It wasn't.

Lezard's face lost its hatred and he smiled brightly.

"Someone has her head screwed on," he said happily. "I can tell you're not sure one way or the other, but I'll see what I can do about that while you're here."

Xion walked to Kairi's right, Roxas to her left.

Xion opened her mouth, but Roxas spoke first.

"I recommend that you mind your own business," Roxas defended Kairi.

Kairi felt nothing.

Lezard scowled blackly. "Alicia's feelings and thoughts are my business," he responded. "Particularly with three nitwit fairies named Young, Ridiculous, and Pathetic fluttering aimlessly around Mount Olympus. My friend Mystina Traydor is keeping an eye on their whereabouts, so we can set up wards if they flit too close to our house, but the fact that they're even in the vicinity is causing Alicia enough pain."

Kairi assumed that Lezard was referring to Yuna, Rikku, and Paine.

Kairi held up a hand, attempting to end the argument before it got any worse.

"Okay," she told Lezard. "I'll hear you out while we're here, I won't talk about our situation if we're around Alicia, and I'll ask Ven not to stand up for Hercules."

Lezard smiled once more. "You actually care about other people's feelings," he replied approvingly. "Excellent."

"Get up and retake Sora's hand now. You don't get to decide what will hurt Sora the least. He does."

Kairi cringed, and pushed it away.

"Though the important thing is that that won't hurt Alicia," Lezard continued. "Leone has a different opinion, but Alicia wants you to stay with us while you're here."

"That was Platina's idea, too," Lucian interjected.

"Alicia brought it up, first," Lezard glared at him, and Platina cringed, her expression looking anguished. Lucian's hand was still on her shoulder, and he squeezed it once again. "Maybe she would have taken it back if Platina hadn't sided with her, but she did bring it up on her own. Acknowledge that, or Resphina will peck your eyes out."

Lucian met Lezard's glare and didn't look away, so Lezard rolled his eyes and looked away.

Kairi felt her lips curling up in another smile.

Lezard's obvious devotion to Alicia was heartwarming.

"Mystina asked you not to use that phrase, remember?" Platina entered the conversation, her voice a mixture of agony and determination. "Believe it or not, Gabriel Celeste really would have tried to do that to you."

"Iseria Queen wouldn't have tolerated it," Lezard disagreed. "That's another reason I've yet to confront Rufus."

"Are you talking about Rufus Shinra?" Terra questioned before Kairi could. There was no reason to believe that Rufus Shinra was on Olympus, and that he was the Rufus who Lezard was referring to, but given how many world travelers had visited Olympus in the past, it was a good idea to be cautious.

Lezard's expression altered into one of absolute, utter hatred, though his eyebrows were lowered and his glance was turned partially inwards, so Kairi knew much of this hatred was directed at himself.

"I'm comparing Kairi to Xehanort because he's her father."

It was like looking in a mirror.

Kairi had even more reasons to talk to Lezard now.

She understood how he felt, so whatever was going on, maybe she could help.

She couldn't take away anyone's pain, and could just cause it, but maybe she could still help people, at least if she understood them.

"I'm talking about the narcissistic dreg of sediment who appeared to give Alicia a kindred spirit who she could connect with and who enabled Alicia to gain an amount of confidence in herself and begin to move on from problems that she's had for most of her life; but who then, lying that it was to protect Alicia, sold his body to Hades as a spare vessel in order to restore someone named Auron to life, so, should Hades end up in a situation where he's mortal and about to die, he has a backup body his heart can survive in even though that means Rufus will lose control of his body."

That Auron was alive once more couldn't cause Kairi to feel any happier.

Not when she knew full well that Hades would take over Rufus' body if he needed to.

Leone's face had gained a frown as soon as Lezard had mentioned that Auron was alive again. She must not care for the concept of someone who was dead regaining his, her, or its life.

"Have you told Hercules about this?" Ven put in. "You may or may not know this, but he's had a lot of dealings with Hades before. He can fix Rufus' problem."

Lezard clenched his free hand into a fist so tightly his nails drew blood from his palm. "Even though I hate Hercules so much that I wish he'd drown in the Styx Maelstrom and sink to the bottom, and stay there this time unlike in the tale that Phil regaled us about after the Hydra ruined the Olympus Coliseum, I was going to, for Alicia's sake.

"Unlike some maggots, I care about how Alicia feels, not whether she's safe and sad."

"I'll keep you safe, Kairi."

"Let me keep you safe."

Kairi kept herself from cringing this time. If Lezard had any too much reason to wonder why she was conflicted, he might be worried that they shouldn't visit Alicia, and that would hurt him because Alicia still had enough confidence in herself left that she'd wanted Kairi and the others to follow Lezard home.

Kairi had betrayed enough people's feelings as it was.

"But Alicia asked me not to," Lezard ended. "She doesn't want to hurt Megara and Hercules.

"At any rate, I don't know a 'Rufus Shinra,' but I'm certain that I'd prefer to know him rather than the tapeworm that I do know."

"What's going on with Megara and Hercules?" Ven queried.

"Alicia doesn't want me to tell anyone," Lezard responded.

"Hades is a d–"

"If you're about to lie about how Alicia's feelings are less important than the needs of the many, I'm going to jam Ether Strike down your throat," Lezard snarled viciously. "I told you, I'm a genius. And all of Thebes knows that Hades was behind the Titan assault last year. I know what's at stake.

"I could care less. Hercules should leave Zeus and Hades well enough alone. Zeus and the Congressional Parliament of Gods implemented the negligent divine laws into Olympus' astral fabric that drove Rufus Esteed to give Hades his body, and Hades' view of a monarchical system of divine rule is one that encourages those living within it to be even more selfish than brutes like Hercules or Rufus.

Hades did Mystina the favor of wrecking the Coriander Academy of Magic that Mystina and I graduated from as adolescent prodigies, around the time the Hydra wrecked the Coliseum, and putting an end to the stodgy by the book stuffiness that choked our talents, but that's the sole good he's done anyone.

Zeus has done a lot of people good for a very long time, but his arbitrary laws about divine intervention, divine tithes, divine non-interference, and divine provenance have caused Olympus almost as many problems over the centuries as the Titans did before his revolution put an end to their gluttonous oligarchy.

"Hercules himself has thus far been unable to fully regaining his Godhood because the astral fabric that Zeus and the other Parliament Gods refuse to rearrange are preventing him from taking the last steps that he needs to become a true hero and returning home. Phil told us that he refused to stay with his father to be with Megara last year and that he knows that he belongs with someone who doesn't want him to abandon her, so sense might at last be beginning to sink into that muscle head's skull, but even had he chosen to, he wouldn't have been able to stay on Olympus for long.

"He never can.

"And it's his own father's fault. Zeus abandoned Hercules to serve the needs of the many, so Hercules owes Zeus nothing.

"As far as I'm concerned, Olympus would be better off if Zeus and Hades and all the other deities, and the Titans, and Hercules, took each other out of the picture through mutual slaughter, and left the rest of us alone.

"Alicia might be able to get a decent amount of peace and quiet then."

Lezard took a deep breath, then another and another, then a number more, composed his face into a mask, and adjusted his expression.

Aqua's expression was sympathetic but skeptical. "I understand what you mean, but what you want sounds like a child asking the Gods and Goddesses for too much of a paradise to me," she argued. "If you do away with any form of divine guidance, democratic, monarchical, or oligarchical; and deities and people don't work together and complement each other's weaknesses like any other living beings do, even if the sole time people and deities share time together is just in an afterlife and otherwise they just remain connected while apart; people can be happy, but the deities themselves are then the ones suffering, whether they're alive or dead, because they're looking to connect with others and be complemented as much as anyone else is."

Leone gave Aqua a grateful smile. "I keep telling Lezard that deities have hearts as much as people and we should obey their rules, but he refuses to listen to me. He agrees with the part about how deities and people should connect and complement each other, though just because Platina feels the same way and he's her friend, but he's convinced no deity thinks like Platina so he wants them all dead."

Lezard scowled blackly. "I want what Alicia wants," he said in a voice that made it clear that he was reminding Leone about something that they'd discussed many times in the past. "I'd just as soon wash all of Olympus' hands of all of the Gods and Goddesses myself if I could fit the last pieces together into my idea for how that could be pulled off, but since she prefers a world where–"

He cut himself off. "We have stowaways."

Kairi started.

She knew what that meant.

How had Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka–

Lezard didn't waste any time. He spun to Kairi's left and aimed Ether Strike directly forward and slightly low.

"Photons of the air, waves of the ocean, if ye shall receive the provenance of glory, then yea; let this refuge of aether surround thee! Celestial Star!"

The familiar group of mostly horizontal, slightly amber pillars of light surrounded by swirling amber feathers that Kairi was familiar with whenever she cast the spell that Aqua had taught her surged out of the air at the points of an octagon in the direction of where Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus were obviously hiding, and a large, rough, multifaceted amber gemstone of pure light much taller than it was wide appeared above one area of the street where it looked like there was nothing.

The air shimmered as it always did when Celestial Star imprisoned one or more people who had cast the Vanish spell Tidus or Wakka or Selphie must have seen Mickey teach her or Riku by the fallen paopu tree one day, and first Wakka, then Selphie, then Tidus appeared out of nowhere in the middle of the gem, staggered, and fell to their knees.

Kairi planted her hands on her hips, glared at them, and ignored how their frustrated and guilty looks changed into glares of defiance right back.

"Nice try," she informed them. "But it didn't work. You lucked out that Lezard was the one who caught you, though. If Lea had been the one to do it," Lea was looking at the three hitchhikers with an irritated frown, "He would not have been happy. Celestial Star isn't painful, but he loathes being responsible for any of his friends getting attacked, no matter how.

"I won't waste time arguing with you, since I know it won't work. I'm very sorry, and we'll discuss this later, but you're going home right now."

Aqua already had Master's Defender aimed at the air, but to Kairi's surprise, no energies appeared in front of the Keyblade or in the air a distance from it.

"Hades or one or more of the Foretellers knows that we're here and is somehow blocking you from opening the Lanes Between," Terra stated, the words no question.

Kairi's knees almost gave out.

No.

Not Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka, as well.

Aqua continued to aim Master's Defender for a number of seconds, and then pulled it back and dismissed it in coils of black and silver. "Apparently so," she said. "We'll need to find a pathway opened by Olympus or another world to send them home."

Kairi wanted to just kneel down on the street anyway and never move again.

She knew what that meant.

But Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka needed her to protect them now, even though she'd never been capable of keeping anyone safe, even though all she could do was cause Sora and her friends pain.

She turned to them.

"The enemy knows that we're here," she said, and Tidus smiled satisfactorily, Selphie gave Kairi a thankful smile, and Wakka looked guilty now that he'd gotten what he wanted, though partially relieved. "So it's too dangerous to leave you here, where you'll most likely be captured to use as hostages against us." Tidus' face rearranged itself into a challenging expression that told Kairi what he thought of anyone attempting to do that, but Kairi knew that he was hiding his fear. "But once we meet up with friends that we have here, you're staying with them."

"We know that this isn't a game," Tidus retorted defiantly, and Kairi blinked. She hadn't believed that she'd hear that. "We saw that Sora came back home. That's why we're here.

"I'm not letting you, or Sora, or Riku, take the whole burden on yourselves any longer. Lezard's right. I don't care if it's childish to just want a lasting peace and calm for your friends. I'd rather be a child than an adult who throws herself or himself headlong into pain when she or he doesn't need to keep sacrificing herself or himself under a burden. If our home is in danger, we should protect it together. I'm not just letting you and Sora and Riku throw yourselves away for us."

Kairi was a mixture of lighter and inexpressibly sickened. She was used to gaining support like this from Sora or Riku, but this was the first time that Tidus or Selphie or Wakka had connected like this with her since the day before the storm that had altered Sora's and Riku's and her lives forever. It was new, and as wonderful as any other new experience she'd had since she'd begun adventuring.

But she was no longer surprised.

They were no different than she had been before she'd accompanied Riku to the Mysterious Tower, exhausted and sick of watching Sora leave her four times and Riku three times, and each time return to her more tormented and anguished and agonized and weary than before while she'd been forced to wait helplessly, wholly and totally powerless to do anything to keep it from happening.

And she had put them through that as well, during all the second and third time she'd been a part of the struggle against Xehanort, and a number of times afterwards when Riku and she and the others had been searching for a way to bring Sora home sweet home.

How could she have been so consumed by her terror and worry for Sora and Riku that she hadn't seen this since the well over a year when she'd run into the dark corridor on the play island and arrived in Twilight Town?

She truly did do nothing but cause all of her friends pain.

She turned to Aqua. "They're staying with us," she said in a tone that brooked no argument. "The entire time that we're here." Selphie gasped in pleasure, Wakka's jaw dropped, and Tidus' eyes widened and then he grinned. "And they're accompanying us as close to Sin and Hades, and even the Foretellers, if one or more of them are here, as we can safely bring them, like I went with Sora and Riku in The World That Never Was. They're doing that afterwards, as well, if they want to. I'll protect them myself if I ca– need to, but they're staying with us."

Selphie's eyes were wide as well, now. "You're willing to let us near your enemies? We're not asking you to go that far. We don't want to get in the way."

Kairi suppressed the urge to cringe another time, and turned to Selphie.

"You will not get in the way," she said with a ferocity that surprised herself. "Like Lezard and Tidus said, friends don't get in the way of friends. We stand together, we run off hand in hand, we support each other and our burdens, and we take care of each other and our feelings and thoughts and memories and dreams, so none of us needs to sacrifice ourselves for each other."

Kairi forced herself to suppress her recognition of how hypocritical that sounded.

"This is our journey," she finished. "It began a long time ago.

"I'm sorry for running off recklessly and leaving you three to wait for me."

Tidus gave Selphie an angry look and then waved his hand dismissively. "That's Selphie and Wakka," he answered, and Wakka looked apologetic. "I'm not worried that I'll get in the way. You know what they say about the leading ace. He never dies."

Kairi forced herself to smile for Tidus' sake, and discovered that it was more genuine than she'd believed that it could be.

"Okay," Selphie put in herself. "If that's what you believe, I believe in you."

The lightness vanished and was replaced by all-consuming agony, but the agony lessened a tiny amount when she saw Wakka hide the uncertainty that he still felt behind an emotionless mask.

Good.

At least someone didn't foolishly trust her.

Tidus turned to Lezard and lifted his right arm and fisted it in a gesture that reminded Kairi so much of Sora that her heart twisted agonizingly and squeezed in a vise.

"Wakka and Selphie and I," he glanced at Wakka with an expression that said that Wakka needed to stop being skeptical of his ability not to get in the way, because he was involved in this as much as the rest of them were, "Will give this Rufus doofus," Lezard grinned, "A piece of our minds. And then the three fairies you told Kairi about, if I understand your implication that they think like Rufus does correctly," Lezard scowled blackly once again and nodded, "And this Auron if he's a moron, and this Hercules jerkules too."

"I wouldn't call Hercules 'jerkules' if you want to have a decent chance at slapping sense into his biceps," Lezard objected, though he was now grinning at Tidus' attitude. "I've felt like doing it myself a lot, but his trainer Phil said that Hades has called Hercules by that name, and as a proper name, a lot when he told Thebes that Hades was responsible for the Titan attack.

"Though not all the fairies do. Their leader, Yuna, does, but her cousin Rikku doesn't, and the third member of their Gullwing band, Paine, is on the fence about the issue."

Tidus grinned more fiercely. "Okay, then. First Rufus doofus, then Yuna lunatic, then Hercules herculoser," Lezard snorted and grinned, "Then Auron if he's a moron."

Kairi wished that she could believe that that would work, but she knew that it most likely wouldn't.

She couldn't justify giving Sora her heart once more after what Lezard and Tidus had just said, so she doubted that Rufus or Yuna or Hercules, or Auron if he felt similarly, could justify changing their mindset themselves.

But even if they could, Kairi couldn't.

They could stop hurting the people who they loved and wanted to protect and not betray their feelings.

Kairi had been abandoning and betraying Sora and Riku since she'd met them, and even before then, since before she'd been born.

She'd never be able to stop hurting Sora and Riku and abandoning and betraying their feelings, no matter what she did, so it was for the better that she stayed as far away from Sora as possible since she could trust Anna to take care of him.

Additionally, it was for the better that she stayed as far away from Riku as possible, as well.

"Who's Hades?" Wakka at last put in.

That reminded Kairi that they had no reason to stay here any longer.

"We'll fill you in on the way to Alicia's," Kairi responded, and looked at Lezard. "Are you ready to take us there?"

She wouldn't ask how Alicia had known that they were on their way if Alicia and Lezard weren't friends of Hercules. Whether Alicia was willing for them to know or not, Lezard might hurt less himself if she didn't ask him to tell them anything else about a girl who was clearly very uncomfortable connecting with others.

Lezard gave Kairi a thankful smile and inclined his head, showing Kairi that he was aware that she wasn't asking about this and why, and then raised it and adjusted his glasses.

He whirled with an overdramatic flourish of his cape.

"Though you do not know my incomparable talents as the guide of your path," Kairi wondered if Lezard was just referring to taking them to Alicia's house or whether he was indirectly saying that he was now hoping to support them in their adventure himself, but she knew that now wasn't the time to ask. Lezard undoubtedly wanted to return to Alicia's side to attempt to be there for her better, "You shall now be forced to know my inexpressible skills.

"Follow the beaver."

Several minutes after Kairi had finished telling Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka about the Keyblades, Xehanort, and Yozora; though not Xehanort's and Yozora's and their accomplices' worst atrocities, for how long and how tightly they'd been yanking people's strings, about what Kingdom Hearts and the Kye-Blade were, or how Xehanort was her father; Kairi stopped as a familiar white-robed figure with a snake mask walked out from a street to the left of the empty boulevard they were now walking down.

The others halted with her.

"I was going to pretend that I did not see you when we walked by," Lezard remarked blandly.

Invi didn't acknowledge him, and turned to face them.

Kairi brought her right hand up, seeing the others calling their Keyblades to their hands as she did, and Destiny's Embrace appeared in it in swirls of red and blue. She reached inside herself and felt her light and darkness.

Her eyes widened, and she clenched her left hand into a fist tightly, suppressing the urge to draw blood with her nails.

No way.

Her darkness was much weaker now, throbbing with a similar beat to the heat of her light. She must have just been able to wield it with the potency she had before because it had been so soon after it had been acting on its own.

She was a liability once more.

After mere hours of honestly believing that she could defeat Sin and Hades with little to no difficulty if she came with the other guardians of light to Olympus, and that maybe, there was a miniscule chance that she at least had the power to protect Sora and Riku and the other people who she loved from violent harm.

She hadn't believed that it was possible to cry any longer, but new tears brimmed in her eyes.

"You know what you need to do to get that power back," Invi spoke.

Kairi pushed away the knowledge that it might not be that bad of an idea to do what Invi was advising.

She nodded. "I do know," she responded. "That's why I won't do it."

Roxas walked in front of them and leveled Oblivion at Invi. "You must know that we're not going to trust a word that you say without a good reason."

Invi inclined her head. "I do. But the new balance must be retained as much as possible. I have a destiny of my own to fulfill, as many of you do."

"We've heard enough about destiny for one day," Roxas retorted. "Tell us your lies or take us on, and then get the heck out of our way."

"So be it," Invi spoke back. "I'm here to give you a choice similar to the one Anna and Elsa will be faced with."

Kairi pushed down on her emotions and made her face a mask. She knew that she wasn't going to like what she was about to hear.

"Then I can guarantee you that we won't be picking either option," Xion entered the confrontation verbally, walking up beside Roxas and shifting her Kingdom Key into a position that enabled her to attack or defend, Roxas or herself, quickly, depending on what the situation required. "Roxas picked one of Ansem's choices at first, but Sora enabled him to decide neither road. I chose my own option without saying a word to Ansem.

"We're not falling for these kinds of tricks another time."

"I'm talking to Tidus," Invi replied, and Kairi pushed down the horror that rose to engulf all that she was as far as she could. "He isn't a Keyblade wielder now, and he never underwent the bequeathing ceremony, but he has ties to Kairi, Sora, Riku, and Schala. He's capable of becoming a wielder the same way Sora did."

Kairi was barely aware that her mouth was opening, the horror that shrieked through her complete being was so powerful.

No. Adventuring hand in hand with them was one thing, but wielding a Keyblade was another. Tidus couldn't be dragged into the same nightmare that had destroyed Sora's and Riku's and her lives and put so many other people through years of indescribable suffering when he wasn't already a Keyblade wielder.

"That would mean being required to journey down a different path from Selphie and Wakka," Tidus replied, voice concealing whatever he was feeling, but Kairi knew full well what was tumbling and tossing inside him now. "Then Selphie and Wakka will be left out like Kairi and I were, and even if they adventure with us, that's one more Keyblade they won't be able to carry. It will still force them to watch us sacrifice ourselves to hurt that they can't share.

Kairi heard his blitzball uniform shift in a way that meant he was crossing his arms over his chest. "Forget it. I want to carry them, and connect Kairi's and Sora's and Riku's and their friends' dreams to Wakka's and Selphie's and mine. Not take part in their dream and carry their dream for them."

"As I said, you have two fates before you," Invi spoke back. "Tifa and Sephiroth were able to separate from Cloud without the three of them becoming Heartless or Nobodies in the process because they were in Sora's position. Cloud accidentally started to take a Keyblade from a wielder who was calling to it for the first time through Cloud's connection to that person's heart, but Cloud's effort was disrupted, and the result of Cloud trying to wield an instrument of Kingdom Hearts when he wasn't meant to be a wielder was for his heart to fragment into three, his own and two replicas created by the unfocused power of the Keyblade itself."

"Assuming that I can trust that you're not just flinging around that tongue of yours and you're being honest," Lezard interrupted from behind them, "Thank you very kindly for the information about how to acquire a Keyblade myself. This should provide me with sublime research, and the replicas you brought up should as well. I assume that they're similar to the statues that I've often animated here?

"If I could call a Keyblade and fashion two replicas, I'd dub them…"

Kairi heard his fingers snap in an exaggeratedly dramatic way. "Eggheads, throw yourselves headfirst into the mud before my boots and grovel and thrash in abject despair once again. The blindingly brilliant beaver dam head who is Lezard Valeth deserves another round of shrieking and volcanic reverberating ovation.

"The Keyblade's name is obvious.

"Ragnarok.

"But my names for the replicas have just shattered another megalith of diamond restricting the resplendent magnificence that is I, my me, myself, my self who is myself, myself who is me, and me.

"Hope, the Bhunivelze.

"Vanille, the Orphan.

"As for this Kingdom Hearts, it sounds like the same kind of mucky bog spraying swamp venom into astral fabric as the Gods and Goddesses. I'll add it to my tapestry of acid to hypothetically figure out how to wash Olympus and the cosmos of, as well."

Invi didn't acknowledge Lezard for a second time.

"The person who Cloud nearly stole a Keyblade from wasn't Zack," Invi went on, "But Hades has transubstantiated Zack's heart into the same state Cloud's is in and then sent him fully into the darkness without Zack choosing to give into it himself. In this form, Zack couldn't become a Heartless or a Nobody, so he is akin to Maleficent when Xehanort's Heartless plunged her into the darkness in Radiant Garden with the Keyblade of Hearts; an anathema to the balance of both darkness and light on the edge of becoming a Heartless and Nobody yet separate from that brink. In such an unstable state there are but two ways to free Zack from the Angel of Sin, put an end to it, and enable him to walk out of the darkness, without Zack dying in the process. One is for a Keyblade wielder similar to Cloud's who hasn't created another heart that is a true Keyblade wielder, such as Roxas, to connect with Zack's heart with his or her Keyblade."

"The other is for such a potential Keyblade wielder, who has not started to wield the Keyblade, to die by means that I'm not at liberty to reveal."

Most of Kairi's awareness of the reality around her vanished, and she felt her vision becoming hot with tears, but she couldn't be crying because that meant that she was distorting the concept of caring, and an anathema like her couldn't care, couldn't do anything but bring death and suffering to the people who she loved

Surprise restored Kairi's perception of reality as Platina ran in front of Kairi with her sword drawn and aimed at Invi.

"That's disgusting!" Platina hissed through clenched teeth. "Hurting yourself or giving your life for someone is bad enough! Choosing between hurting your friends and giving your life for someone is different! You're the same as the government officials Hercules saw thrown in prison after Hades attacked Thebes last year, for passing the laws for improving Thebes' economy, so it could be repaired faster, that allowed them to execute Lucian's parents for refusing to sell his younger sister, Rena, to a slaving ring, and that then allowed them to do it themselves!"

That was something Sora didn't need to find out about. He'd see that as his fault, too.

"And who forced my own parents to sell me to the slaving ring in the hopes that they wouldn't be executed themselves," Platina went on, "And then executed them, too, for just arguing about their orders to do so!

"Hercules didn't take Lucian, Alicia, Leone, Mystina, and I as his and Megara's first heroes in training," Kairi shouldn't have been surprised that Alicia, Lezard, and their friends actually did know Hercules. What other reason could Alicia have had for not wanting to hurt Meg? "At the new Olympus Coliseum for me to let you do this to Tidus!"

Six light blue angelic wings composed of feathers of pure energy detonated from her back and shoulders and spread to her side, and she rose into the air.

"Your sins lay heavy upon you, defiler of hearts! By the divine laws, I will see you returned from whence you came, condemned to oblivion, or obliterated!

"Nibelung Valesti!"

She threw her sword at Invi as though it were a lance, countless spheres of light blue of a similar color to her wings roaring and surging around the lance in a dance without a pattern.

As Kairi had seen coming, Invi didn't bother to take hold of her Keyblade.

She didn't need to.

She held up one hand, and a circle of white inscribed with a number of concentric sets of circles at different arcs that mixed together in places appeared before it.

Platina's Nibelung Valesti struck it, the sword shattered, and the spheres dispersed, but the sword reappeared in Platina's hand in a flash of more light blue.

"It will take more than that to break Glance Reviver," Platina informed Invi. "And you should see what Lucian's Angel Slayer, Leone's Empress Massacre, Alicia's Randgrid's Blade, and Mystina's Holy Wand of Telos can do.

"Come to me, my fellow Einherjar! Battle awaits us!"

Lucian and Leone ran to take up positions at Platina's side, Lucian to Platina's right and Leone to Platina's left, and six light blue angelic wings with feathers of pure light erupted from Leone's shoulders and back as well, and she, too, rose into the air to the same level as Platina.

Whatever Platina, Lucian, and Leone were capable of, Kairi knew that it wouldn't be even close to enough to defeat Invi.

Suddenly, she felt so exhausted everything ached everywhere.

Defeating Invi wouldn't protect Tidus.

"You can't beat her," Kairi told them. "She's a Keyblade wielder like us, and she has a lot more experience than we do. I'm not sure that the lot of us wielders, working together, can defeat her ourselves."

Platina's free hand fisted and did draw blood.

"But it won't change anything," Kairi continued. "Invi isn't doing this to Tidus. Hades and his Angel of Sin are. She's just pulling their strings, to hurt Tidus to hurt Sora and I, so we need to find a way to kill the Angel of Sin without taking Zack down with it."

Kairi extremely highly doubted that that was possible, but she wasn't going to give up without at least looking for an alternative first.

"The balance of destiny is doing this to Tidus," Invi corrected her. "All I am is but an agent of the current of space and time, as is everyone else in the realm of light, including you and Sora. Especially you and Sora."

"Get over your arrogance!" Kairi retorted. "No matter how many strings you pull or for how long you pull them, you and the other Foretellers are not in charge of destiny!"

"I didn't say that we were," Invi responded. "As I just said, I'm no more than an agent.

"But you're overlooking something important, that demonstrates how much you and Sora are catalysts of fate yourselves. You and Sora know this, deep down, but you've shut it from your hearts and minds because, even after what you've learned about your responsibilities to fate, you're unwilling to confront this truth. Sora is in touch with it, and it's one of the reasons he's so broken, but you yourself can't face it."

Kairi clenched her teeth.

Where would it stop?

She couldn't do anything to take away Sora's hurt, but she could at least learn this to be better able to understand his tears.

"That is?" she asked.

"You won't be seeing Sora for a lot longer than you've believed," Invi replied, and Kairi pushed away the rising surge of anguish. "One of Hades' destinies was to lure you here so I could lock the Lanes Between and separate you and the other Keyblade wielders from him for a decent period of time.

"It's not his fate to know this yet, but it doesn't matter when you learn it. This won't compel him to realize his fate, even though it's not yet his time to understand this, so there's no reason not to tell you. Luxu and the other Foretellers won't approve of me telling you before it's imperative that you know, and will see this as unnecessarily and unconscionably cruel,"

Kairi felt all the blood drain out of her face, and reality mostly went away once more. If even Luxu, after all that he'd said and done for so many millennia, would see what Invi was about to say unconscionably cruel if she revealed it before it was supposedly fully necessary that she know, the truth that Sora wasn't fully aware of must be terrible past all conception or lack of conception of imagination or perception of fact.

"But I don't serve Yozora. I serve the balance of fate. The other Foretellers, as Sora once put it to Luxu and Xemnas, treat hearts as bottles on a shelf, and toy with your feelings, thoughts, memories, and dreams.

"Your hearts are irrelevant to me."

"Then you are irrelevant to Thebes!" Platina shouted back, still hovering in the air, Glance Reviver in a neutral ready position this time. "Get lost out of it!"

Invi ignored her, and continued addressing Kairi. "So, if you want to know the truth that Sora must confront, you can."

Reality fully returned.

Kairi couldn't afford let anything keep her from being as fully aware of this as possible.

"You and Sora know that you and he are the sum total of the balance that has been woven for millennia," Invi began. "You know, as well, that we have hurt those close to you for years to cause you two pain, so if you neglect your responsibilities as weapons to be wielded all their suffering will have been in vain.

"As I spoke, we are agents of the inexorable march of destiny. This is about far more than the fate etched by the Foretellers. Everyone who has suffered for you has inscribed this fate into the irreversible convergence of space time; betray your duties, and you betray why you and Sora are who you are, for you and Sora are who you have been and will be from your conception on because your loved ones and friends suffered and died for you. Abandon your responsibilities as weapons, such as your responsibilities for their murders and torture, and all their suffering and all the loss of their lives will have been for nothing.

"This, Sora and you know, though you don't understand that even we, even Master Yozora, are toys of the fated balance.

"What Sora, and you, don't yet comprehend is that, because all life and hearts in the World died at the end of the First Keyblade War were born into it since the instant the realm of light was recompleted afterwards, for the sole purpose of carrying Sora to the convergence that casts the Note Blade, and you to the convergence of Synchronicity Perceptual; that Sora and you are likewise responsible for; and are likewise here in reality and are who you are, and will be who you will become for as long as you exist, as the wages of; all of the sins, all of the crimes, all of the bloodshed, all of the wars, all of the torment and death, that has engulfed every single heart of all of the realms of light of all of the worldlines of all of reality that have been brought into the World since Master Yozora the inception of the First Keyblade War, and that has flooded into all of the hearts of all of the other realms of all of the worldlines of all of existence since then as well."

There wasn't any reality any more.

Kairi didn't even know how she could process what Invi had just said.

Kairi didn't even know what the concept of processing verbal or non-verbal language wasn't not or not was.

She didn't care what this meant about how much sorrow and death was her fault now.

All she could feel, all she could think, all she could remember, all she could know, was how Sora would take this when he found out.

"You and Sora have much more brutal truths to learn, but one of the least painful truths that he has yet to confront is that Sora and you are the source and the confluence of all pain and suffering."

Kairi didn't truly hear Invi.

Even this wasn't the end of it, and was one of the least painful ways the Foretellers intended to hurt Sora in the future?

Furthermore, all she had been since before the absent lacuna of the beginning of unending time, all she was in the non never present now, and all she would be until the lacking gap of the cessation of endless space, was a weapon of genocide, slaughter, torture, and despair.

She wasn't truly aware that she had decided to move.

Almost before she was aware that she was doing it, she sprinted at Invi with Destiny's Embrace in an assault position and screamed.

.

"Come, my positron. You are an anti-U-DO weapon. My heart tingles with anticipation. A weapon need not feel shame for desiring combat. For all we know, humans themselves may be weapons created by the world."-Albedo 'Piazzolla' Yuriev

"You're right. I am a weapon. Every cell in my body is aching for a fight. They long to collide with their anti-existence. I've probably wanted to fight from the moment we were born."-Rubedo 'Gaignun Kukai, Junior' Yuriev

XENOSAGA: Episode 2:

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