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CHAPTER 27:
ACCEPTABLE ABOMINATIONS
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Author's Notes: The pieces for this Chapter are, in order of scene: 'June Mermaid,' from the XENOGEARS Original Soundtrack, Disc Two; and then 'The One Who Is Torn Apart,' from the XENOGEARS Original Soundtrack, Disc Two. Both of these compositions can be found on KINGDOM HEARTS Insider.
Anna pushed away all of the horror and terror and anguish and self hatred and despair consuming all and nothing of what she was and didn't know at what Namine had just said, and even now she needed to keep from sagging with inexpressible relief that it was still easy to do so.
Anna pressed a kiss to Elsa's forehead.
"I'll talk to her," she said while her lips were still against Elsa's forehead, and as close to her as possible.
"You've done enough for now.
"Just rest, safe with me, in my arms, engulfed in my love all around you, where you can know that I love you and that it doesn't matter that Grandfather hates you, and where I won't let him hurt you at all."
Elsa didn't say anything back, and more tears appeared in her eyes and fell.
Anna looked up at Namine, and she shifted her hold around Elsa to become closer and tighter and more protective and secure, but she didn't stop rocking Elsa, or alter how she did so.
It wasn't just Elsa she was on her guard for now, however.
It was Sora and Kristoff, and Olaf and Marshmallow and Sven, and her other friends, and the people of Arendelle.
From everything that she'd heard about Namine so far, unlike Riku and Terra and Ansem the Wise, Namine hadn't learned from her mistakes when wielding the darkness as much as they had, and she just kept hurting people.
Anna wished that she could believe that she just didn't trust Namine because she was even more terrified for Elsa and Sora and Kristoff, and the others, and the people of Arendelle, than she had been when she'd first distrusted Kairi and Donald and Goofy, but she knew better.
After Sora had shone her way out of the darkness in Castle Oblivion; she'd assisted Ansem the Wise and Riku in imprisoning Roxas and Xion in virtual death.
Then she'd created Mare, as a data Heartless version of Sora and not even as a Nobody, for no other reason than to hurt two data versions of Sora and Riku as much as possible along with the rest of a datascape world and then die in the end and not even gain any happiness or accomplish anything afterwards; and even though Namine hadn't known that data beings had hearts when she'd done this, she'd known that they could feel pain, so that didn't make what Namine had done to Mare and the people of Jiminy's Journal the tiniest bit better than if she'd known that they had hearts.
Unless Anna could be guaranteed that Namine had genuinely learned from her mistakes as much as Riku, Terra, and Ansem the Wise had at this point, she didn't want Namine anywhere near Elsa and Kristoff, and Olaf and Marshmallow and Sven and her other loved ones and the people of Arendelle.
Anna kept her distrust of Namine out of her voice, however.
Whether she'd learned or not, she did regret her sins, so she didn't deserve to be taken to task for them unless Anna had proof that she still hadn't learned, and that someone needed to rebuke her for what she was still doing wrong now.
Roxas, still holding Elsa's hand as Xion was, gained a more sympathetic expression, no doubt recalling Elsa teaching him to not be too harshly critical of others for saying or doing something wrong.
Elsa had released Roxas from that service at Noon the following day, having been satisfied from how understanding and kind Roxas had been to other rioters during his public service guarding people from them that he was learning what Elsa had endeavored to teach him, though Roxas had offered to continue to serve Elsa that way.
"How widespread is the popular sentiment that everyone in Arendelle, the trolls, and the spirits, need to be exterminated?" Anna queried Namine. "If Elsa can provide the Treaty of Flames enough evidence that she might be innocent, will enough people be angry at Grandfather, Hans, and Weselton for declaring war and calling for genocide against us, and our allies, that they'll refuse to see Grandfather's and Hans' claims to Arendelle's throne as more legitimate than Elsa's?"
"From what I can tell from Runeard's connection to the memories of water, a very large minority is in favor of the extermination," Namine replied. "But enough of a majority are in favor of the war itself that, even if giving enough people reason to believe that Arendelle, the trolls, and the spirits aren't just inhumane people who deserve to die causes Runeard and Hans to lose their claim; they'll still most likely want to invade Arendelle and occupy it until they have irrefutable proof that Elsa isn't as much of a threat to them as Runeard maintains."
Anna sagged slightly, though she knew better than to hope that this meant anyone's death could be avoided.
Providing the Treaty of Flames with enough evidence of Elsa's innocence to cast doubt on Runeard's and Hans' genocidal warmongering would be hard in and of itself, and if Elsa and she let the Treaty of Flames occupy Arendelle, its people would still lose their sovereignty and independence and be oppressed under the rule of a coalition of authoritarian, intolerant nations.
It was far better than causing a lot of people to die in a war, but Elsa and Kristoff and Olaf and Marshmallow and Sven, and the other people of Arendelle, would still suffer until they had proof that Elsa wasn't dangerous, and a minority of people might still die under the judgment of the Treaty of Flames.
And this assumed that Elsa would be willing to let the Treaty of Flames occupy Arendelle, as that would make it far harder for its military to defend Sora and the others against the Foretellers.
And as much as Anna intended to try to convince Elsa not to pursue a war, and as much as Anna disapproved of how a large part of Elsa's motives for declaring war against them was to avenge how much they'd hurt her and Olaf and Kristoff and Marshmallow and Sven and the other people of Arendelle, and Sora and his loved ones; the Foretellers, unlike the Treaty of Flames, were a clear enemy to Arendelle and Sora and his companions, so Elsa had valid reasons to declare war on them.
Anna looked down at Elsa, but she still wasn't moving, so Anna faced Namine once again.
"Thank goodness," Anna spoke.
"Then we don't need to fight a military of fully aware people.
"We can just acquiesce to an occupation, and then prove Elsa's innocence."
Namine started, and Anna's guard went up slightly.
"That means a minority of your people might still be executed before the occupation is over," Namine replied.
"And it also means letting Elsa, and the people of Arendelle, and you yourself, lose your freedom.
"Take it from me; I wouldn't take that road.
"I've been through the latter situation, twice.
"Being imprisoned in an enclosure of any form, and mot being able to run through the breeze and the wind and feel the warmth of the Sun on your skin and the wetness of the waves on your toes whenever you want to, at any whim, is horrible.
"And you have no guarantee that the occupation will end if Elsa is fully cleared.
"There's a very good chance that you'd be setting yourself up to be conquered by the Treaty of Flames."
Anna suppressed a surge of defensive and protective irritation, and she kept all of it out of her tone.
"I know how terrible captivity is as well as you do, from how I've lived most of my life as a virtual prisoner in this castle with little contact with the outside town," Anna answered.
"But not being able to live freely is a better option than a lot of people dying, and we might be able to keep anyone from dying under the oppression of the Treaty of Flames if we're careful.
"The occupation will end in time.
"The people of the neighboring nations won't stand for an occupation of a country that didn't put up the slightest fight against them, or kill even a single one of their soldiers or civilians, once we've proved our innocence.
"The Treaty of Flames will have no choice but to withdraw, or face popular uprisings.
"They won't be able to conquer us, or even levy economic sanctions once it's all over, if we don't fight them at all."
"What about Elsa's wish to defend Arendelle, and Sora and Riku, against the Foretellers?" Namine questioned.
"She's putting them at risk."
Namine didn't sound angry, but she still should have known better than to ask that question with what Elsa and Riku and Roxas and Xion and Lea and Vanitas and Sora were going through, and the irritation surged even more strongly now.
Xion's face shifted, but Roxas' didn't.
"We can deploy our military to a remote location with instructions for how to operate from there," Anna answered back.
"That will make it far harder to clear Elsa of the accusations leveled against her, and the occupation will thus be harsher and last longer, but if I can't convince Elsa not to wage that war, we still have a means to do so."
But this did need to be asked.
Anna didn't let any of her distrust or defensiveness into her voice.
"Should I take this as meaning that you support an interstellar war?" Anna asked.
Namine winced, and her face shifted.
"I don't support it, because it will all but destroy the world order, and that will cause a lot more people to be hurt than the people who would be hurt if Elsa didn't wage this war.
"But it does put Riku and Sora and Kairi and Roxas and Xion and Axel at less risk, so as long as Elsa is okay with it, I can see some good as resulting from it."
That told Anna all that she needed to know, and this time she let the defensiveness into her voice.
Anna opened her mouth.
But Roxas spoke up before Anna could.
"I understand where you're coming from about both fronts of the war," Roxas said, and there was nothing but empathy and sympathy and understanding in his voice. "You're just trying to protect Riku and Sora and Kairi, and Xion and Axel and everyone else.
"But remember what happened the last two times that you believed that it's okay to sacrifice other people to keep others safe, or to undo harm that you did to them.
"Do you see the girl with us who looks like Kairi and Xion?
"She's Mare, her new name for Data-Kairi," Namine cringed, sick guilt and pain appearing on her face, "And she feels even worse about what you did to her than what you did to Xion and Axel and I.
"She's also immortal now," Namine's blood drained out of her face, "so she feels even worse now.
"Xion and Axel and I got through to her and convinced her to stop giving up, and trying to kill or hurt people, to find a way to stop hurting, but she still feels very lousy, and she won't guarantee that she won't return to wielding the darkness to free herself from her pain if we can't."
Namine's face became briefly neutral at the revelation that Mare might be willing to return to killing or hurting others.
Anna suppressed further protective and defensive irritation.
Namine had been through as much as Mare, Roxas, Xion, and Lea had.
Whether or not Namine had learned, Anna had no justification at all to feel judgmental about Namine.
"And, unlike with me and the data hearts, if Elsa wages war on either front, no one is going to temporarily, or fully, forget the pain of the people who they've lost, or their own pain."
Anna barely remembered to keep herself from stiffening slightly.
Namine had permanently erased the memories of everyone in the datascape of their lives and journeys, with the exception of Mare's?
After everything that she'd done to Sora, and then to Roxas and Xion and Axel?
What in the cosmos was wrong with Namine?
Riku and Terra and Ansem the Wise had learned from how terribly that they'd murdered and hurt the people who they loved, and so many people.
Why hadn't she?
"And it will be Terra's Lingering Spirit all over again.
"The people who die won't have their hearts separated from their bodies as they do, so their deaths won't be able to be reversed by the power of waking.
"Their hurt won't be able to be carried, or healed."
Namine screwed her face in agony.
"I know," she responded.
"But what choice do we have, if it risks even more people not being able to stay together, or return together after they were separated?
"I understand what you're talking about, but we're not almighty.
"We can't keep everyone safe, so the best that we can do is to keep as many people from suffering who we can, and lessen as much harm as possible."
"I agree that we're not all powerful, but that doesn't mean that it's okay to actively inflict death and pain to prevent others from dying or being hurt," Roxas disagreed.
"That's why I gave up in the end, and returned to Sora.
"I believed that it was the best way to hurt as few people as possible, but all that that accomplished was to further foment the Second Keyblade War and hurt Sora and Riku and Kairi and the others even more.
"If Xion and I hadn't returned to Sora, and you'd prolonged the time that Sora was asleep, we might have learned what Luxu and Xehanort and Xemnas were genuinely attempting to achieve, and prevented the Real Organization Thirteen from even putting the Second Keyblade War contingency into motion."
Roxas' face became neutral, and the neutrality didn't disappear.
"Xion might still have returned to Sora even if both of us had advised her not to, because she was draining my energy, but we might have pulled her back out a lot sooner.
"Axel himself kept trying to do what was best for all of us by believing that people need to choose who to give up on and who to protect, when attempting to be loyal to the first Organization Thirteen, and Xion and I at the same time, and that backfired as much as Riku's and your efforts to do so."
"That's not what I'm doing this time," Namine responded.
"I created Mare and your data version to teach Sora about hurt because I learned that lesson.
"I'm not trying to do what's best for everyone this time.
"I'm trying to do what's best for the people right in front of me."
"You still believe that some people need to be sacrificed for others," Roxas argued.
"That's the problem, not whether you're trying to do what's best for everyone, or for the people in the here and now.
His face shifted as though he'd made a decision.
"After Sora died by vanishing, Jiminy told me about what you said to Sora when you reunited.
"He believed that I might be the best person to discuss this with you, as Riku believes in Sora in the same ways that you do, so he couldn't be sure that Riku would be willing to fully see what was wrong with what you did.
"I told Jiminy that I'd discuss this with you if it looked like you were making the same mistake once again, but I believed that we should wait and see how much grown after regaining your life and freedom, and attaining the happiness that you'd wanted for so long."
Roxas let go of Elsa's hand.
He walked up to Namine's and took one of hers, and he squeezed it warmly and reassuringly; and he didn't relax the squeeze.
"I'm not angry with you about this, and I forgave you for it as soon as Jiminy told me about it, in the same way that I forgave you for what you did to Xion and Axel, and all of the rest.
"The same is true about how Mare became immortal.
"So can you please not take this the wrong way?
"The rest of us still love you even though you did this, and I still love you myself, and that will never change no matter what you say or do, or how many mistakes you make.
"But you're not even just sacrificing strangers, or people you barely know, for others, by believing in acceptable losses.
"Jiminy told me that you refused to tell Sora how you were going to try to enable Terra's Lingering Spirit to support us."
Xion jolted violently, and Lea's mouth opened.
Anna heard Aqua inhale sharply, Ven gasp in horror, and Terra inhale, though not sharply.
A violent chill raced up Anna's spine.
What did this mean about what Namine had done?
"This means that; because you believed that our choices are limited; you also knew from the beginning that Sora would need to abuse the power of waking to restore everyone's hearts but Kairi's and rewrite time and space, and you didn't tell Sora this, because you didn't want Sora to know what the price that he'd need to pay for abusing the power of waking was."
Anna was almost certain that she wouldn't have remembered not to stiffen if she hadn't been holding Elsa, and rocking her.
Elsa shifted within Anna's arms.
"Sora might have been willing to search for a different way that time, as you'd just told him that you knew that Kairi wasn't all but dead then, unlike when Xehanort killed her, so if you'd told Sora the truth, he very possibly wouldn't have strained his heart or died restoring Kairi, as he'd have known a better way to heal us."
"I'm going to rip your tongue out for that," Vanitas snarled furiously, and he sprinted over to Roxas and took his arm below the elbow, though far away from Namine's hand, and carefully pulled his hand out of hers.
Roxas didn't fight Vanitas as he did so.
Everything that meant Anna shrieked and screamed and howled and yelled at her to walk as swiftly as she could up to Namine, grab her by the shoulders, and shake her, but Anna suppressed the urge to.
She'd make things a lot worse if she did.
Anna knew that Elsa now believed that Anna, Olaf, Kristoff, Marshmallow, Sven, Roxas, Xion, Lea, Mare, and their other loved ones and friends, and the people of Arendelle and Arendelle, were now still in danger, however, and Elsa was ready to cast a spell if she believed that it was necessary to do so.
Roxas yanked his arm out of Vanitas' hand, and he gave Vanitas a look that told him that if he tried to do that again, Roxas would see him as a danger to Namine and respond accordingly.
Then he took Namine's hand for a second time, and this time his squeeze was protective and soothing as well as warm and reassuring, and he didn't relax it this time, too.
"I advise you not to use your tongue that kind of way yourself, if Namine doesn't specifically ask you to," Roxas informed her.
"She doesn't need people hurting others on her behalf either, or coddling her as though she's any less capable of standing up for herself than any of the rest of us."
Roxas looked back at Namine.
"I'm very sorry about that," he said.
"Did Ven tell you what you did for Vanitas?"
Namine gripped Roxas' hand back tightly, and with an amount of desperation.
"He told me that I'd taught him to accept his darkness at the same time as I did Riku, so he'd realized then, as I showed Riku, how to live with it as part of him without letting it rule him," Namine confirmed.
Vanitas stopped moving.
"I told Ven what I thought about his idea of taking me to meet Vanitas now in very clear terms, but I was afraid that Vanitas would feel worse if I refused to meet him after what Ven had told me, so I decided to come here with him."
Innumerable emotions, too many to decipher, passed over Vanitas' face at this, and then he spoke, voice devoid of all emotion, "Thank you for considering how I'd feel, but that was wholly unnecessary.
"There's no reason for you to worry about me any longer.
"I'll be on my way."
He stretched out one hand to summon a dark corridor.
"Can you please stay here?" Namine cried, the emotions in her voice also too uncountable to identify.
Vanitas stopped moving.
"I had no idea that I had another friend who cares about me as much as you do," Namine said, genuine and heartfelt, but desperate and terrified, gratitude and relief and pleasure and joy in her tone.
"Riku and Sora and Kairi aren't here, and though Ven told me that Riku Replica is still alive, I have no idea where he is.
"Can I please have the opportunity to spend time with, and get to know, another good friend?"
Elsa stood up out of Anna's arms now, and extricated her hand from Xion's.
"I'd like you to do that somewhere else," Elsa informed her.
Roxas' face lost all emotion.
Elsa looked at Namine then.
"Roxas, we permit you to leave with Namine, should you wish to, and remain outside of Arendelle for as long as you believe is necessary to succor the other people who you love," Elsa told him.
Roxas didn't say anything back, but he gave Elsa a grateful smile.
Elsa looked back at Namine, and she stopped speaking with the royal we.
"I understand, and empathize with, and sympathize with, what you've gone through, and why you're as pessimistic as you are about not being able to keep everyone you love, and other people, safe from all harm," Elsa said.
"But, if you were willing to let Sora strain his heart as much as he did when you knew that he might think that he had another reason to do so in the future, with everything else that you've done, I can't trust you in Arendelle.
"So, I'd like to officially request you to leave Arendelle within a reasonably short period of time."
"Can you please not ask her whether she'll try to remove me by force if I refuse?" Namine asked Vanitas right away.
"Or challenge Elsa in any other way?"
Vanitas didn't move, but he didn't say anything to Elsa.
"This isn't about jumping at shadows," Xion cut in.
"We need to stay united as much as possible, or the Foretellers will have an easier time turning us against each other, and one another."
"Defying our destiny won't make that much of a difference," Elsa answered.
"Don't forget, one of the easiest ways that people who know their future or futures end up fulfilling them is to become scared of them and try to avert them, and believe that they can be successful because they know their fates, and this fear forged confidence leads them to carry out their destinies even more effectively than they would if they didn't know about them.
"This has happened too many times to name throughout history."
"Yo–"
Anna pushed the memories as far away as she could register, and she clenched her teeth and squeezed her hands together tightly at the knowledge that she'd forgotten about this.
She wanted to draw blood with all of her nails from all of her palms, but she knew that that would hurt Elsa and Kristoff, and the others, even more, so she didn't.
Could they trust in Goofy's strategy, given how many times people had brought about their fates by trying to avert them since time immemorial?
Or were they just barreling and careening even more full tilt at them now?
And was that all that they would accomplish no matter what they said or did?
"Yo–"
Anna pushed the memories as far away as she could perceive once more.
"I assume that that's another one of the reasons why Yozora let the Foretellers know his fate for the realm of light in the First Keyblade War," Elsa went on.
"He never believed that they'd go along with the Books of Prophecies. He told them that they should comply with it, but he wanted them to try to deny that fate from the start, so they'd be afraid of it and thus even more determined to prevent light from expiring than they would be if they hadn't known that it was prophesized, so Yozora could thus more easily maneuver them into fulfilling it.
"This time, as he knows that we won't trust him, he's letting us figure out his destinies for us ourselves, but for the same reasons.
"So we try our hardest to defy them, and thus bring them about through those precise means.
"We can afford to be divided, to an extent."
"Perhaps, but there are countless other self evident reasons why we need to stand together," Xion answered.
"If you tell Namine to leave now, you'll do to her what you did to yourself when you were frightened of casting spells."
Elsa cringed, and her face shifted.
"That's one of the reasons that she has so little confidence that things can work out that well, and why she kept trying to do what was best for everyone, and she keeps trying to do the same things now for the people in front of her.
"She's also afraid of hurting people herself; that's another reason that she didn't tell Sora about the price of abusing the power of waking.
"She couldn't think of any other way for him to restore us from the Demon Tide, so she was afraid that she'd hurt Sora even more by telling him what the cost would be if he applied the power of waking to do so."
"I'm aware of that, but she already feels that way, and she'll continue to do so regardless of what I say or do," Elsa replied, contained, sick guilt and self hatred in her voice.
Anna reached out her hand and arm and started rubbing Elsa's back as potentially soothingly, and as reassuringly, as she could think of doing so.
"So I need to see to my people."
Looking as though he could barely take altering his body the most infinitesimally minuscule degree of a millimeter while he was in Namine's vicinity, indescribably immeasurably less to talk to her, or to communicate with her without words, Vanitas turned his head and body slightly in her direction, though he kept his face mostly turned away from her.
"In that case, there's something that Namine has needed to know for a long time," Vanitas spoke, his words entirely without emotion.
"You're not any less than any regular person, Namine."
There wasn't even any emotion in Vanitas' voice at calling Namine by her name the first time, and he didn't shift uncomfortably even a little.
"Look at what I can do.
"I can re-forge an incomplete Kye-Blade if I combine back with Ventus through his pure light and my pure darkness clashing, and for all I know, if I fully reunite with him that way and Ventus accepts me without any reservation whatsoever, that will fully re-forge the Kye-Blade."
Anna's eyes widened at the knowledge that she was now aware of an actual means of potentially re-forging the Kye-Blade once again, opening the door to the true Kingdom Hearts, and creating a New World of nothing but love and warmth.
But she refused to think about what she might be able to achieve with this knowledge.
"Yo–"
It didn't matter what had just happened to Elsa and Sora and Jiminy and Bo, her sheep, the Little Green Men, and the billions of toys of Toy Box; or what Namine had done to Sora; or what was most likely going to happen to Kristoff and Olaf and Marshmallow and Sven and the people of Arendelle and the people of the rest of existence and Arendelle and the rest of existence.
"Yo–"
She was not going to abandon and betray Elsa's, Sora's, and Kristoff's feelings and thoughts, or those of anyone else, or murder or hurt anyone.
"Yo–"
You already have, for almost all of your life.
"Yo–"
"Yo–"
What was important was that Anna not forget to address what Vanitas had just said to the others, and to Sora and Kairi and Donald and Goofy and Riku when she saw them again, if none of them had realized it themselves.
If Young Xehanort was still alive, Xehanort's failsafe contingency involving his own contingency, and Vayne's, almost certainly involved somehow successfully re-forging the Kye-Blade by forcing Ven and Vanitas to confront each other in combat once again, with all the horrible costs that the concept of a failsafe meant.
"Even if I can't re-forge a flawless Kye-Blade, as a Nobody who is even more distinct from how the World functions than Heartless, I myself can harness light and darkness a lot more effectively than the Heartless can, and I can create swarms upon swarms of Unversed and keep replenishing them no matter how many times they're beaten, or how many are beaten.
"I can even directly connect to an artificial Kingdom Hearts without a Keyblade, as Xemnas could.
"You're not less than regular people, you have unique qualities that you can be proud of having the same way that all other people can.
"That's especially true for you.
"You're the most talented, skilled, strong, and powerful Nobody of all of us.
"You can separate and reconnect the memories of not just Sora, but anyone who Sora knows all over the full realm of light, and trace the connections of his memories and the memories of people connected to him and affect people and hearts with them even when you're outside of the realm of light in The Final World.
"Even without trying, you can alter the chains of memories of people connected to Sora all over the realm of light and partially or fully send them into the darkness of their hearts, or supply another Nobody directly bound to Sora with those memories, or a replica directly bound to him with the ability to rewrite the chains of the memories of anyone everywhere in the realm of light who even sees her briefly.
"Who knows what else you can do?
"If you took up a Keyblade, as Roxas and Lea and I have, for all we know you'd have the capability of becoming an even more unbelievable guardian of light than even what Kairi can conceivably grow into if she learns how to fully utilize her abilities as a Princess of Heart.
"You have prodigious talents and skills, and strengths and powers, so you should be as proud of them as anyone else is in his or her or its talents and skills and strengths and powers."
"Thank you, but I didn't develop my talents," Namine answered.
"I was created with them, though unintentionally.
"I didn't gain my capacity to do all of the things that I can as a Nobody through making a lot of effort, and spending a lot of hard work, developing them from scratch.
"The same things are true for any other Nobody talents that I discover that I possess in the future, whether I become a Keyblade wielder or not."
"You're way off," Vanitas disagreed, his voice not changing at all even though Namine had just thanked him, and nor did he shift.
"Whether or not you had those talents from the start, or fashioned them later, you wouldn't be able to harness them if you didn't spend the effort to cause them to grow, and to realize them as much as you can.
"You don't lack anything that regular people have, and you have no reason to be afraid that anyone won't be willing to be your friend, or will leave you, temporarily or permanently, because you're supposedly less than a regular person and an abomination.
"So what if you were created because Sora defied the natural way of the cosmos?
"That just means that you were born differently, nothing less, and no more.
"And that you're a unique individual in different ways than how everyone else is a unique individual, as everyone else is a unique individual in different ways than how everyone else is a unique individual.
"As darkness is as much a part of the heart as light, and we need to accept it and harness it in order to live with it rather than reject it and fear it, the same is true for you, or anyone, Nobody or Heartless or Unversed or data being or Dream Eater, no matter how you come into being.
"You can still laugh and cry, and be hurt and smile, right?
"What you said doesn't just apply to darkness, it applies to all of who and what every single one of us is, and can be.
"We're all individual pieces of, and one with, each other and one another and a greater World, no matter how we're those individual pieces.
"You should accept yourself this way, and not be afraid of yourself.
"Not how you were born, or what you can do, or what you can become, or even where you come from and where you'll go when you die, as Riku Replica is.
"Your talents are no less a part of who you are and who you can become, than the talents of a genius musician who learns how to become a master at composing music, or a brilliant engineer who researches technology until he, she, or it is so well practiced with it that this person continually comes up with new inventions each day.
"I learned this, as well, and not just how to live with my pure darkness, when you taught Riku to accept his darkness so he wouldn't let it rule him.
"Yes, you hurt a lot of people, but that you're a Nobody is no reason to feel any more guilty about it than Riku, Terra, or Ansem the Wise does, or have any less faith in yourself and reality than they do."
Anna wanted to throw up herself at the knowledge that she should have realized herself that this was why Namine hadn't learned from her mistakes as Riku, Terra, and Ansem the Wise had.
"Yo–"
"I don't believe that you, or they, should feel guilty at all, but that's neither here nor there now, as I know that I can't convince you, or any of them, of that," Vanitas went on.
"But I have this to say to you, as proof that you're not an unnatural abomination, but you're as much of a person, and as much of a wonderful guardian of light as Donald and Goofy and Chip and Dale; even though you, like they, don't wield Keyblades."
Though Vanitas emphasized his next words, the sole emotion that his voice gained was contained and heartfelt gratitude.
"For around fourteen years, all that I'd known was a living nightmare that I'd lost all hope of knowing anything outside of for as long as I remained alive, so I'd given up as much as Mare and Roxas and Xion did, and I'd become determined to stop being me and live as part of the complete Kye-Blade and the true Kingdom Hearts. I longed for nothing but to die as myself and thus no longer be tormented by being aware with an identity of my own, and so I'd no longer be lonely because I'd be part of Ventus' heart, the Kye-Blade, and the true heart of all of the worlds and the World."
Namine went as white as the palest ghost, and tears appeared in her eyes and started falling down her face, and she began shaking and shuddering and trembling.
She gripped Roxas' hand so desperately and tightly that her knuckles went white, and Roxas held her hand back more comfortingly and securely and protectively and reassuringly.
"With all my heart, thank you for teaching me how to live how to live with who I am as a Nobody, and as a pure heart of darkness, and with my talents, and with my darkness, and accept them without letting them rule me. You saved me and protected me from around fourteen years of a living nightmare of torture and torment and pain and suffering and loneliness and apathy and predation and hatred and hopelessness and despair that was all that I'd known for all of my life from the instant that Xehanort created me."
Roxas' eyes went wide, doubtlessly the result of him perceiving something.
"You don't have any more reason to run away than Mare, Xion, and Axel do," he cried.
"You don't need to attack your recent memories to retreat into unconsciousness like Mare did."
Vanitas jolted violently.
But it was too late.
Namine's eyes closed, and she slumped forward motionlessly, and Roxas caught her in both of his arms.
.
"Keep talking to me! Don't let it take over! You're not a monster, you're one of us! D-mn you!"-Zack Fair
CRISIS CORE: FINAL FANTASY VII