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CHAPTER 31:

WHAT COMES TO PASS

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Author's Notes: The piece for this Chapter is; 'Shion ~Emotion~,' from the XENOSAGA Episode One Original Soundtrack, Disc Two. This composition can be found on KINGDOM HEARTS Insider.

Anna sat on the couch outside the makeshift chamber under the train tracks Pence had called the Usual Spot, one that Lucca had brought from the Epoch, Elsa on her right, and Kristoff on her left.

Olaf was sitting in Elsa's lap, with Elsa's arms around him as she held him close against her torso, while Sven stood guard in front of Kristoff, and between Anna's left and Kristoff's right.

Marshmallow was standing an equally quiet watch facing the Twilight Town streets.

And the others; save for Roxas, Xion, Lea, Isa, and Mare; who were still inside the Usual Spot; and Namine, who was asleep in a small storage room near the alley entrance to their left with Vanitas standing in front of the closed door with his arms crossed with wary protectiveness while trying to appear as though he wasn't partially looking at Ven; were seated on another couch Lucca had placed against the wall of the structure on the opposite side of the alley.

Pence, Hayner, Olette, and Lucca themselves had left for the Tram Commons; in order to purchase as many medical supplies as Lucca believed Mare might need, in the event that the injuries she'd taken during the battle earlier couldn't mend as easily as her immortality.

Even with Elsa on one side and Kristoff on the other, their presence was barely enough to keep new tears out of Anna's eyes at what Ira and Mare had done to Sora, Goofy, Donald, Kairi, and Riku; and everything else.

But for Elsa's sake, and Kristoff's, Anna was determined not to cry, at this time.

"The Nobodies have spent too much time inside," Terra said from where he sat on Ven's left, with Aqua on Ven's right; contained worry in his voice.

"Speaking from my personal experience, even for someone who used to walk in the darkness, I have a hard time believing that Mare hasn't rallied enough from the knowledge of what she became to have awoken."

"Keep in mind that Mare didn't just give into the darkness," Ven answered.

"She's actually a Heartless.

"A Data-Heartless, yes; but she's a Heartless, all the same."

"Even so, she still has a heart," Terra pointed out.

"That means that she thinks and feels the same as anyone else.

"And, unlike how Xehanort used my body, and my body's Heartless and Nobody, to slaughter or torment centillions of people all throughout the realm of light; Mare tried to murder a number of people and eradicate a data-world, but she didn't actually succeed in causing that many people, or locations, lasting harm.

"Mare should have awoken by now.

"Something else must be going on."

Ven's forehead shifted in skepticism.

"How can you be so sure?" Ven queried.

"You didn't become a Heartless, and Riku almost did.

"But Mare actually is one.

"I get that she has a heart, and I know that she's as capable of choosing light or darkness as anyone.

"But; given how many problems most legitimate Heartless have remembering their former lives, for all we know, Mare's heart and mind are so subsumed in darkness that she's barely able to process the concept of guilt; and there's another reason that no one is telling us what's going on."

Aqua shifted uneasily.

Terra started a small bit.

Vanitas stiffened violently, and then he scowled.

Anna's stomach twisted a little, but she knew that Ven hadn't actually meant anything antagonistic by what he'd said.

"Ven, that's being too harsh on her," Aqua reproved him.

Vanitas rolled his eyes.

"You're as naïve as usual," he spoke, a mix of fury at how Ven had involved Namine in this directly, and for Vanitas' sake, and about what Ven had just said about Mare; and sarcastic amusement, in his voice.

"Even though we're all free to choose our own paths, there are depths of darkness that can never be atoned for.

"Say what you really mean, why don't you?"

Ven blinked twice.

"I didn't realize that I was talking about that, but why shouldn't I believe that?" he questioned back.

Now an amount of blood drained out of Aqua's face.

Terra shifted himself.

Vanitas snorted in derisive amusement; and he turned his chin, and face, and head to look at the opposite wall of buildings from where he was standing, pointedly keeping as little of his gaze as possible on Ven.

"What you're saying is all too similar to what Master Eraqus believed when he tried to kill you," Terra reminded Ven.

"Remember how you felt when Master Eraqus betrayed you.

"Do you want Mare to feel that way?"

"I agreed with Master Eraqus," Ven replied.

"Young Vanitas and Luxu most likely wanted Ven to believe that Aqua and Terra had fully betrayed and abandoned him, so when he returned to Eraqus at Xehanort's behest and Eraqus betrayed him and abandoned him as well, Ven would give into the darkness himself, defeat Eraqus himself, and then let Young Vanitas reconnect with him and re-forge the Kye-Blade."

A violent chill, incommunicably colder than the most frosty ice spell Elsa could cast, crawled searing up Anna's spinal cord.

If Sora had been right about the rest of Xehanort's and Luxu's duel of subterfuge, it must have been Aqua who Luxu had intended to save Ven, then.

But that didn't mean much to Anna now.

Aqua's jaw dropped, and she now looked almost white.

Terra appeared similar.

Vanitas, however, just snorted derisively a second time; and this time he lifted his chin, head, and face and turned to his left, so he couldn't see Ven at all.

"Why do you think I didn't fight back? Why do you think I agreed to duel Vanitas at the Keyblade Graveyard when he threatened the two of you, when you two wouldn't murder me to prevent me from forging the Kye-Blade?"

Elsa reached over and grasped Anna's right hand, squeezing it with as much safeguarding and closely tight reassurance as possible, and Kristoff grasped Anna's left hand and did the same to that one.

Anna gripped them back similarly, barely remembering to suppress the urge to do so with desperation.

Mickey hadn't told them about this.

Vanitas sniffed.

"So you are a hypocrite who believes that there's a black and a white, huh?

"Why am I not surprised?"

Ven now turned to glare at Vanitas with a small amount of irritation.

"It has nothing to do with hypocrisy; and blacks and whites versus shades of gray, or shades of color, or both," Ven responded.

"I was a danger to Aqua and Terra, as were you.

"I was just trying to protect my two best friends from profound darkness."

"Because asking those friends to be responsible for your death doesn't make you a hypocrite with profound darkness dwelling in your own heart," Vanitas rolled his eyes.

"Whatever you say.

"Wake up and smell the morning dew, Venty-Wenty.

"Seeing anything dangerous to Aqua and Terra as dark is black and white in and of itself. As much as you're bereft of your wits, even you should be able to see that much."

"That kind of perspective also makes you a threat to Mare," Roxas' voice entered the conversation, and Xion turned to see him standing at the entrance to the Usual Spot, a dark orange curtain currently closed over it, with Xion on his left and a set expression of protective and angry challenge on his visage.

"I'll be direct about this.

"If you're willing to try to do to Mare what Eraqus tried to do to Xehanort, and Ansem the Wise did to Xion, Axel, and I; we might as well have it out right here and now."

Aqua jolted violently, and she turned to glare with a cutting, furious challenge at Roxas that caused Anna's insides to warp with sick unease.

There was far too much in that glare that reminded Anna of the looks that had been on Elsa's face when Anna had provoked her into casting the eternal winter; and far too much that was so much angrier and more desperate than anything that Anna had seen on Elsa's face throughout all the years, unknowingly to Anna, she'd been tortured by her spellcasting talents.

"I wouldn't try to lay the tip of a single one of your nails on Ven," Aqua said, her words at a regular volume, but every single one of them, and every single syllable, a lethally deadly desperately lengthy lance point of contained pleading fury.

Ven now shifted himself.

More of Terra's blood drained out of his visage.

Vanitas snorted another time, and turned back to watch the argument with an amused look on his face.

Xion stepped in front of Roxas very swiftly, and met Aqua's gaze with a set, challenging look of her own.

"You're talking about sinking as low as Eraqus yourself, now," Xion addressed Aqua.

"If you try to hurt Roxas merely because he wants to protect Mare from Ven, it's not Roxas who you'll need to worry about beating Ven up.

"That will be enough," Elsa interjected, her voice mostly calm but commandingly imperious.

"Roxas, we sympathize with your dedication to your friends, but do not discount that Ven, Aqua, and Terra are your friends as well; and how much they themselves have suffered as a result of Xehanort's crimes, and not just Eraqus.

"In addition, do not forget that, by becoming wary of Ven and Aqua, you are giving the Foretellers an opening to sow strife amongst us; and that they perhaps played Mare, and Vanitas, to create this opening.

"Distrust of Ven and Aqua has a much greater chance of putting Mare, and the people dear to you, in danger; than Ven and Aqua are to her."

Roxas' expression lost a decent amount of its anger, replaced by guilt and understanding.

Xion's, though, didn't.

Anna had valid reasons to believe that she needed to enter the conversation.

"Take it from what I put Elsa through last year," Anna reminded Xion.

"Aqua went through something a lot worse than Elsa, for a similar amount of time.

"She needs people picking at scabs that are just barely starting to heal as little as Elsa does."

Aqua gave Anna a pained, thankful smile.

Ven gave Anna one that was just thankful.

But Xion's expression just became neutral.

"I'm aware of that, but as far as I'm concerned, that's irrelevant at this time," she responded.

"I already destroyed Roxas' and Axel's lives once, while letting Xehanort and Xemnas and Ansem the Wise contribute to it.

"Now that I have the Keyblade of Hearts, and the power to stop them from being hurt like that once more, anyone who tries to hurt them will answer to me."

"Forms of darkness that appear to improve your capacity to take care of others mean doing so by choosing one or more people over one or more other people, whether in the ways that I just brought up, or others. It's also selfish; it's saying that the people you yourself value are more important than the people others value."

Against Anna's will, this time, hot wetness pushed forward into Anna's eyes.

None of it fell out of her eyes, however.

Anna didn't know whether she was bothered, and terrified, and worried, and horrified; more by the memory of Sora's words, what Xion had just said, and her explicit use of the word power, or by how much she wanted to agree with Xion herself.

"All of you, we're getting ahead of ourselves," Kristoff said.

Anna suppressed the urge to sag at how neither his grip, nor Elsa's, had changed around her hands; and how there was nothing in his voice that gave Anna any reason to believe that he was aware of what she felt, and what she was thinking.

"Power can bring about a lot of good things, yes.

"Elsa's ice magic caused Anna and Elsa to meet Sora, Olaf, Sven, Marshmallow, Donald, Goofy, and I myself; and exposed two corrupt politicians from two neighboring countries.

"But that doesn't mean that power is nothing but beneficial.

"I'm not as familiar with what's going on outside of Arendelle as the rest of you, but from what I am aware of; Xehanort should be all the proof that you need that power is one of the easiest things that people can misuse in ways that hurt the people and places around them, and over a long period of time and a large range elsewhere."

"Indeed," Elsa contributed.

"As the future Queen of Arendelle," to her credit, Elsa's voice barely wavered, "Mom and Dad," Anna caught the small amount of wavering in it anyway, and squeezed Elsa's hand more closely and firmly reassuringly, and Elsa returned the gesture, "reminded me repeatedly that people who have power are given it because others around you, and in other places and times, trust that you understand how to use that power responsibly; to provide for, and defend, them.

"Leaving aside all the flaws in the approach of supporting others with strength, and not compassion, for now; strength isn't to be used merely to provide for, and defend, a small number of people important to you yourself.

"Wielding power that way is no better than wielding it purely for yourself.

"Strength and power are given to others by their fellows, or the world, for the sake of anyone in need.

"Not for a select few, or for no one other than you yourself."

Anna's insides contorted at the reminder that, even if she was willing to wield darkness, at the entire worst, she should at least be thinking of doing so for everyone anywhere; and not just for Elsa, Sora, Kristoff, and, to a lesser extent, the other people who she herself loved.

Xion inclined her head slightly to Kristoff and Elsa in acknowledgment, but she didn't say anything.

Anna wished that she could believe that that was a good thing.

"Mare woke up briefly, and then fell back asleep, and now Axel and Isa are watching her," Xion informed them.

"But before she did, she informed us that Sora just learned something very bad."

Anna felt new wet hotness push into her eyes.

Now what had happened to him?

And she still hadn't told Kristoff what Christopher had revealed about him.

She knew that, if she didn't, Kristoff would find out in so much worse of a way from the Foretellers, or Christopher, that no ideas or concepts could put it into encompassment.

But Anna couldn't do to Kristoff what she'd done to Elsa last year.

And, this time, with full knowledge of what she was doing.

Anna barely kept new tears from brimming in front of her eyes.

No matter how hard she endeavored, no matter how long she tried; there was no escape for Elsa, Sora, Kristoff, Olaf, Marshmallow, Sven, Goofy, Donald, the people of Arendelle, the people of existence, Arendelle, and existence.

"We need to put this in perspective," Olaf put in.

"As bad as it is that the truths the Foretellers keep throwing in our faces are relentless one after unforgiving one, learning new things is an essential facet of growing up.

"That was driven how to me when I was introduced to how yucky reality can be before I even became one year old.

"Bearing weights is part of what it means to be an adult."

Anna wished that she could smile.

She really needed to convince Olaf to spend a lot of time with Goofy.

Goofy was as talented as Olaf at getting to the center of an issue; even though, like with Olaf, at first impressions, he was so easygoing that he looked to not have the capacity to see into people, and the surroundings, that keenly.

"Does she have any idea how he's taking it?" Elsa questioned on Anna's behalf, before she could.

"She passed out as soon as she told us; so no," Xion answered.

Anna suppressed the urge to throw up.

"And Lea and Isa?" Kristoff asked.

"They're staying with her, for now, in the event Mare wakes up once again soon," Roxas replied.

Then he turned his glance to Vanitas.

"Kristoff just looked in on her," Elsa said before Vanitas needed to say anything, her face giving both Roxas and Ven an expression with a large number of meanings.

"She's still asleep."

"But we're still going to do as we said, and return to Arendelle once we're sure that the messes we've more directly made are really beginning to get back on their feet," Kristoff spoke himself.

Anna barely remembered to suppress the urge to cringe violently at how Kristoff still had no idea what those messes were.

"Isa still won't need to worry about us risking the world order any longer than when Namine awakens, and Mare wakes up; and it looks like it will last."

She couldn't put it off any longer.

And there was solely one way she might be able to lessen the blow of what Kristoff was about to learn, if just a minuscule bit.

Her heart clenched with a sickening squeeze and contorted with coiling agonized constriction, as it wrenched in a savage immovable vise, at what this could do to Sora.

But Sora and Kairi were back together; and even if they broke up once more, and went through who knew how many on again, off again phases in their relationship; they'd at last begun to fulfill one of the dreams that they had most cherished and held the closest to their hearts for most of their lives.

Even if Sora returned Anna's growing feelings for him, at least a little; it was still extremely unlikely that he'd choose her in the end, no matter what happened with Kairi; and that Kairi and he wouldn't discover a way to enable their relationship to last, sooner or later.

This was one of the best chances Anna had to choose between Sora or Kristoff, and hurt Sora the least, in the small chance he did return her feelings.

Anna kept new tears from pushing into her eyes, as a small amount of lightness swallowed all of her self.

This way, at least, she could love and care for and protect and cherish someone.

And one of the three people who was the most important to her.

Elsa shouldn't be this much a part of this, so she tugged her hand inside Elsa's to tell her that she wanted Elsa to let go of it.

Elsa did.

Footsteps sounded from the alley entrance, and Anna turned to see Donald and Goofy walk into it; Riku staggering unsteadily and leaning the right side of his waist against Donald's hand with his face so transparent it could have been opaque, while Kairi's face was streaked with dried and falling tears as she partially walked, partially all but collapsed while leaning against Goofy on her left, her eyes red and bloodshot.

Goofy's fur was as see through as Riku's, and the white of Donald's feathers reflected even that white.

The warmth of Elsa's hand was close and warm and protective and soothing and tightly reassuring around Anna's once again, but barely anything else.

"Is Sora on his way, or did something bad happen to him again?" Roxas questioned, his voice drawn and acute with terror and concerned and worried horror.

Kairi's mouth opened, and she started to emit a laugh of harsh, broken, agonized, hopeless ruin.

But then she closed it, cutting it off.

"You have no idea what happened to Sora this time," Riku spoke back, his voice a desolate vacuum of breathing horror and terror and anguished hopelessness and broken torment.

"Among other matters, Ursula revealed that Kairi turned Sora into the Kye-Blade during our first adventure; and Sora promised to let Young Xehanort study him as an experiment in a science lab if he was still alive, and reunited with Kairi.

"He and one of the other Xehanorts are still alive, and they accepted those terms, and met with Kairi, and Sora turned himself over to them to confinement and torture as a laboratory resource."

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"Hey, Fran. Something's written on the wall."-Vaan

"Engraved by someone, it seems. It's quite old. 'Lo', seeker in days unborn. God-Blade bearer. Know you: This tower challenges the sky. Ware the Watcher, the Ward of the Three Waits. Soul-hungry, unsated. He without power, want it not. He with power, trust it not. He with sight, heed it not. Rend illusion, cut the true path. In blood, Raithwall.'"-Fran

FINAL FANTASY XII