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CHAPTER 36:
PROOF OF FOREVER'S RUIN
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Author's Notes: The Tracks for this Chapter are, in order of scene: 'Fight With Seymour,' from the FINAL FANTASY X Original Soundtrack, Disc Four; and then 'Black Omen,' from the CHRONO TRIGGER Original Sound Version, Disc Three; and then 'Ultima, the Perfect Body,' from the FINAL FANTASY TACTICS Original Soundtrack, Disc Two; and then 'Depths Of the Night,' from the CHRONO TRIGGER Original Sound Version, Disc Three. All four of these pieces can be found on Zophar's Domain.
Xion was too numb to feel more than a faint flicker of hope, barely even desperate, at the sight of Axel and Namine and Isa and Mare and Marshmallow.
Everything remained a starkly and crystalline clangorous needlepoint discordant sharp grotesque phantasm strewn before her and everywhere about her and without her and upon her and within her.
She just registered the anguish still tearing out from her broken wrists a minor fragment more; and she might as well have been as yawning of almost all feeling and thought as she could recall being when Young Xehanort had returned the first threads of her memory before Roxas, Axel, Sora, and Xemnas had given her back the majority of them.
The sole true difference she could perceive more than a little was the new water in her eyes and on her face.
But it wasn't enough she couldn't see the sheet ghost white terror on Axel's face and in his eyes.
And if he lost Roxas once again, it would be as much her fault this time as last time.
Xion didn't know why she cared at all any longer about losing him herself another time.
But she still made one last effort to attempt to move hands she knew would be unresponsive and push herself up, to attempt to assist Axel and Namine with whatever their plan was for reaching Roxas.
Pointless or meaningful, human or replica, winner or loser, heart or nothingness, darkness or light, traitor or committed, despair or hope; she was not going to give up this time.
But, as she'd known would happen, she couldn't move either of her hands at all.
Now even the numbness was barely there.
Was this, at least partially, how Riku had felt since Sora had vanished?
And if it had been, how much worse had Xion herself hurt him, now, as well?
But how much did even that matter?
When, for the second time, all over again; all she could do was rest somewhere, fully and entirely and utterly and totally and wholly and absolutely and completely helpless as Axel struggled with everything that was the composition of his heart to protect Roxas and call him home from the night, and Xion could do anyeverynothing?
Even not giving up hadn't made a difference.
Even not giving up hadn't given her the power to protect Roxas.
But if she was allhelpless and anywherepowerless to protect Roxas, and Axel; no matter what she said or did, how could she gain the ability to do so?
Xion knew she shouldn't even begin to think it, far less actually do so.
But if becoming determined to be a WINNER got her nowhere, and was threatening to condemn Roxas to a worse fate than he'd been sentenced to before; maybe Maleficent really was correct.
Maybe the sole true chance she had at atoning for her sins was to give into the darkness, and commit even more sins to at least avoid repeating the ones she already had inflicted on Roxas and Axel and Isa and Namine and Mare.
And after what she'd already done to Roxas, and Axel; could she really plummet any deeper into the darkness than she already had dived?
She was already the most onyx of hearts; a true Nobody, born of the horizon of the empty abyss, and a manifold traitor to both light and dark.
The darkness in her heart alone was equivalent in ways unmeasured to the coagulated light within the hearts of all seven Princess of Heart, even though no one but a Princess of Heart could throw the darkest shadow of all over anyone or anything.
Give in to darkness itself?
She already was darkness itself; in ways no Heartless, even Mare, or even a Princess of Heart if one did wholly give into the darkness; could once hope to catch even the most peripheral glimpse of.
Namine spread the fingers of both hands as though lightly grasping the links of chains.
Roxas stiffened violently, and Maleficent was able to slow the rate at which she was being dragged towards the Heartreaver a large amount, and gain a stance that was much more stable.
Axel whirled in Aqua's direction as she shifted to sprint at Roxas.
"Don't!" he yelled, his words almost a scream ripping his throat inside out.
"Roxas has stopped using enough darkness to endanger Ven; but if you interfere, you might put Ven in even more danger than he was before!"
Aqua moved into a defensive position where she was prepared to move at any time, her face a skeletal white mask of contained emotions.
Terra must have summoned adrenaline from somewhere, because he was now getting to his feet himself; but he stopped there in a neutral ready position of his own, his face a drawn mask but one that was relatively calmer in a number of important ways.
Maleficent just inhaled, clearly preparing to spew another emerald inferno at whoever she believed the most suitable target or targets were, depending on what happened next.
Elsa shifted to cast a counterspell once Maleficent made her move.
Xion did feel a fragment lighter now.
"Roxas," Namine spoke, her words tight and thin with terror and worry yet reassuring and comforting and soothing, "Can you please listen to me?
"I can't force you to pay attention to your light, but the memories I'm showing you now are Ven's from before Xehanort removed Young Vanitas from you."
Xion did feel herself shift a tiny amount at hearing that, but she didn't perceive any pain from moving.
Vanitas became motionless at hearing Namine say his name.
"They've been inside your heart since Sora created you, and Mare used her familiarity with datascapes to show me how to connect with them; because it turns out Ven spent a lot of his time in a datascape of Daybreak Town between the outbreak of the First Keyblade War and the time the original realm actually broke into darkness.
"According to Mare, I was the person who put them there, without knowing it.
"Because I was brought into being from Kairi in the vicinity of the Chamber of Sleep, and I thus tied my abilities to you enough to shunt them into Roxas.
"And because of that, I can assure you; while I don't know if…" Namine blinked back a number of tears, and when she spoke next her voice was chapped and cracked, "…Ven can be returned to a living form, Mare can sustain him indefinitely in living worlds, at no risk of being exorcised by any of the usual methods cultures apply to banish ghosts."
Aqua staggered violently and almost fell to her knees.
Terra needed to reposition himself.
Maleficent scowled.
Even now, Xion barely felt anything, but this time the tears did obscure her vision.
"I can't force you to pay attention to the memories I'm showing you, either. I could lock away your present memories and leave your mind empty of any memories but Ven's, as Lauriam once wanted me to do to Sora. But since you barely have any memories of yourself at this point, I know that wouldn't make a difference; you'd still retain enough awareness to refuse to look at them, or your light.
"So please, believe me.
"Ven will be okay, at least for now.
"I'll need to return his memories to him in order for Mare to bring him back from Halloween Town; and Mare will need to hack the datascape of the second Twilight Town and create a virtual space out of it around Ven for him to reside in, similar to a flurry Elsa used to keep over Olaf until she improved the enchantments maintaining him.
"But he'll be okay.
"And it gets even better.
"With Ven as a disembodied heart in a datascape and Mare's ability to assimilate darkness as Vanitas can cast it off, for reasons you'll see that pertain to Vanitas if you look at the memories; she can serve as a medium to link Ven and Vanitas enough we should be able to make it look as though they truly have merged once more, and we can then trick Young Xehanort into returning Sora without making the prisoner exchange he requires."
Kairi must not have been unconscious, for she shifted a decent amount.
Riku attempted to move one hand, most likely to push himself up, but all he was able to do was lift it and let it fall.
Donald jolted violently.
Goofy was able to get both hands beneath him before they stopped moving.
Anna sagged a lot.
But learning that there was a silver lining in what Xion had done meant the lack of a difference between less than nothing and nothing to her.
"So just look at the chains I'm showing you, and see the kind of treasured memories you've kept safe for him all this time."
Xion wasn't sure if she hadn't fainted briefly and then regained consciousness; but the next thing she knew, she couldn't see through tears that just kept coming no matter how many times she attempted to blink them away.
"Then you'll have a reason to pay attention to the light."
Roxas' voice was nothing but an edged mask.
"How will I know you're not lying to me yet again; like you have to Xion and Axel and Mare and so many other people so many times before, and I myself the last time you dabbled with my memories?"
Riku once more attempted to move his hand, and once more it fell.
Vanitas jolted violently and then scowled with lethal blackness.
But Namine's face just lost all expression.
"Because Vanitas can verify every single one of them," Axel put in, his voice reassuring, but contained fear in them; for Roxas had as many reasons to believe Axel was keeping things from him as he did Namine was.
"You most likely don't remember this, but Vanitas told Ven and Aqua he didn't originate from inside Ven himself.
"But he didn't enter Ven along with Yozora.
"Yozora must have at least come to his senses enough to realize his plan for Synchronicity Perceptual is as much darkness as any other kind; but when he initially decided to create a fake better reality, he believed he was a virtuous knight in shining armor waging a holy crusade against all darkness; so he forged a Keyblade of Hearts and drew all of his darkness out of himself to supposedly turn himself into nothing but brilliant light.
"Through means I don't understand, this didn't turn him into a Heartless; as it did every heart Xehanort pulled all the darkness out of during his experiments.
"It may have something to do with how this apparently wasn't the first time a being like Vanitas was created, and Yozora knows how it happens; but I have no clue where the other ones came from, or what happened to them."
Slight fear passed through Xion at hearing this.
A fifth faction of seekers of darkness.
Hooray.
There was no reason to believe they were adversaries and not potential allies, but Xion knew better than to believe it was likely they were allies.
"But Vanitas then figured out Yozora had hid inside Ven, in order to use something called a lifeboat to travel to the future by using the smaller localized conflicts on worlds that he inscribed in the Book of Prophecies for Luxu to nudge into being as waypoints. If not for these waypoints, he would have needed to sacrifice his and Ven's memories to reach the future; you need someone to remember you and a piece of yourself to travel to the future, or you need that piece at the cost of your own memories.
"So Vanitas tricked Ven into letting him take up residence in his heart," something flickered over Axel's face that Xion didn't miss, and that told her he saw no reason to know how Vanitas had entered into Ven at this time; but Xion trusted Axel enough now to know he'd tell both of them as soon as it wouldn't make things worse, "To attempt to avenge his rejection from where he was born by kicking Yozora out of Ven's heart.
"Ven, however, didn't care to allow Young Vanitas to roam around as he chose, and locked him in there before he could attempt to pull it off."
Then Axel looked directly at Maleficent.
"It was none other than the Vanitas right here who showed you how to return to the future."
Maleficent started slightly, but she didn't lose any traction.
"He was in Ven's heart much of the time he was a Dandelion, and the entire time they were hiding in a datascape version of Daybreak Town to take refuge from the devastation wrought by the First Keyblade War."
Vanitas' expression at last became truly animated once more, and he scowled with a lesser amount of blackness.
"You did not need to bring this one up at this time," Vanitas snarled in irritation.
"I was saving the details of that particular half truth I told Sora, and the knowledge she wouldn't even have made it back to this time, if not for me; to rub in her face for after Elsa and I had showed her what real darkness is and she was about to die or be thrown into the realm of light."
But then Maleficent gave a smug, wedge shaped grin.
When she opened her mouth, no flames came forth.
"Is that so?" she questioned.
Then Maleficent must have been surprised someone else had had the chance to address this before she was the one who first did.
"As I understood it, I thwarted your attempt to keep me from almost altering into a Heartless by harnessing it to ensure I reached the distant past, and not the near past.
"And you should know by now there must be a reason the true initial realm didn't vanish into darkness in around the same amount of time as worlds do once their hearts are corrupted enough, but it took long enough to cascade into the void what is now the body of Yozora's Heartless had the time to visit entire data worlds he hadn't before.
"It wasn't because the cosmos is much larger than a world.
"Rather, something happened at the end of the First Keyblade War of which you are unaware; and it is for that reason the original realm's downfall was an inexorable collapse, and not a dive into dark depths.
"What happened then had more than enough ability to enable me to return to the present on my own."
Vanitas rolled his eyes.
"Let's see here, what were those reasons again?"
He snapped the fingers of his free hand exaggeratedly.
"Oh, yes.
"Let me list them off.
"One, and in many ways the least important:
"The different Yozoras of the different infinite worldlines where the First Keyblade War, and that themselves divided into infinite worldlines; needed a decent amount of time after they'd all traveled outside the replicating timelines and debate in Gaes which Yozora would actually initiate Synchronicity Perceptual throughout all existence, and which ones would just sleep inside Ven until they could awaken after Synchronicity Perceptual was established."
Xion hadn't thought to take into account that it wasn't just the Yozora of their timeline that was endangering this realm of light; but, because Yozora sought to transubstantiate all the realms of all the timelines of the cosmos into Synchronicity Perceptual; every single Yozora was.
But apparently that hadn't been an issue, in the first place.
And that meant the Yozoras had very likely taken measures with the Maleficents of all of the timelines, as well.
"As well as to hunt down the Yozoras who had chosen not to travel into Gaes and stop replicating, and the minority who refused to coordinate; and murder them before they could step on anyone's toes."
Even through numbness that was itself almost not there, Xion had slight problems breathing.
Yozora was so terribly skilled that a colossal army of them had been able to hunt down an endless number of Yozoras that replicated every instant within a boundless number of endlessly replicating timelines?
"I still have no idea what heartfelt choice our timeline's Yozora made that caused him to be the one elected to create the New World of Synchronicity Perceptual."
Now Xion couldn't breathe briefly, for she knew that choice must have been something so horrific it practically couldn't be encompassed.
"Seco–"
Vanitas stopped talking and blinked.
Then he scowled another time.
"Fine," he snarled.
"I believed I remembered the rest because the emotions in the back of my heart are strong enough the memories clearly mean so much to my first version I should be able to, but I clearly don't. They must not be important enough to me.
"Laugh it up, whatever gives you gales of giggles."
But Maleficent merely smirked with vicious bestial triumph.
"Be that as it may," Vanitas went on dismissively, "You're just venting as the hag of wind you are with this one.
"The reason you could have made it back isn't what you're holding over me, but because you found out about this timeline wide witch hunt.
"Perhaps because all the alternate Maleficents who came up with the idea of returning to the start of the past must have been hunted down by this army around this time, too, to prevent more than one Maleficent from seeking to sentence all of the worldlines as you do; maybe for one or more other reasons."
"All in good time," Maleficent responded.
"If it behooves me to tell you at all."
Vanitas just rolled his eyes once more.
But then his visage lost all of its feelings.
"At any rate; yes, I can confirm Namine is telling the truth."
Roxas said nothing for several seconds.
"Then I'll just look at the light," he said.
Xion realized she'd just lost every last string of awareness of herself and anything else for a minority of seconds or more, but this time she knew she hadn't fainted.
"There's no reason for me to get in Elsa's way any longer."
Maleficent stopped sliding forward.
She inhaled once more, most likely so she could vent a storm of green at Roxas as soon as he was back in his regular shape and more vulnerable.
Elsa shifted into even more of a ready stance.
A few seconds passed.
Then Roxas screamed.
Roxas doubled over backwards, clutching the sides of his head so tightly it looked as though he'd crush his head to fragments with his palms, tears spilling down eyes that were wide and crazily shining.
"Get away from me!" he shrieked.
"Stop lying to me!
"You can't be real!
"You're not where I belong!
"You're not what I'm supposed to feel!
"Get away!"
Xion was too past horror that no form of horror could contain, and felt too sick everywhere inside her; to be able to tell whether her vision was swimming from new tears or new dizziness, or both.
Roxas shrieked so loudly he must have ripped his own throat inside out, and then he threw himself backwards faster than he'd moved when he'd distorted reality and smashed the back of his head into the stained glass of the Station of Awakening far behind him as hard as he could.
And he continued to smash the back of his head into it as hard and unrestrainedly as he could.
Axel broke into a sprint in his direction.
Xion almost couldn't register what she was seeing, it was drowning out all awareness so much now.
What had she done to Roxas?
What in all of the stars of all of the cosmos had she done to him?
But Roxas just threw himself as far away on the platform of the Station of Awakening as possible from Axel and then he resumed hammering the back of his head into its glass with as much swiftness and force as he could.
Axel staggered to a halt, just gazing at Roxas almost sightlessly now.
"Get it away from them!" he shrieked.
"It's not a warm home!
"It's incinerating them alive!
"It's incinerating me!
"Don't make me go back there!
"I'm not going back there!
"I'm staying here, where they're safe from me!
"I'm staying here, where I'm safe!"
"Stop talking like that right now!" Elsa interjected, her voice a cry of empathy and understanding Xion had never heard from her before.
"You know from what I did to Anna where this mindset leads!
"You're just going to make things worse if you run away!"
"I don't care!" Roxas shrieked.
"Just as long as I never need to go back again!"
Maleficent's eyes were a little wide with surprise, but then she smiled like a cat toying with a dying bird.
"You need but say the word, and I can ensure your wish comes true."
"You know she's lying!" Axel yelled to Roxas, a new kind of terror in his voice.
"She won't kill you right away, or she wouldn't need Xion to make it easier to take Oathkeeper! She just intends to wound you badly enough to disable you in this battle! So, for whatever reason, she needs you to give it to someone else first, like you did with Sora! But once she's convinced you to do that, you're a walking dead person!"
Black twined in front of Mare's right hand.
Xion didn't know why she was surprised to see that the Keyblade that appeared in it was the regular version of No Name; given who Kairi's father was and Mare's nature as a Heartless, even though she was a data one.
She aimed it at Roxas.
"You won't have to wait that long," she snarled, a drawn terror and desperation in her voice Xion still felt many times when she woke up in the darkness of the night in the new home she shared with Roxas and Axel in Twilight Town; unable to remember where she was or what had happened before she'd fallen asleep and convinced she was still in her room in The Castle That Never Was and Roxas was gasping a battle for his last wheezing breaths just hallways away as she siphoned the last threads of vitality and hope from him.
"If you take one step in Maleficent's direction, I'll take you up on your earlier offer."
Roxas jolted violently.
"Then please, do it!" he shrieked, and now there was a desperate begging plea in his voice even Xion couldn't brush the highest pinnacle of the surface of; but one that Xion knew would very likely have caused her to not just retch violently until she passed out from the exhaustion of dry heaving, but never be able to even think of food or drink without doing so once more until she fainted.
"So I can at least be there for someone while I keep everyone else safe!"
Mare's eyes widened, and the desperation of her own was now briefly flooded with longing before she snarled viciously.
"Not unless I have no other way to keep from losing you.
"You can barely remember me in this state."
"We'll still be together!" Roxas shrieked, shifting to begin banging the back of his head into the floor again.
"And you'll be safe from me!"
"So this is it, then?" Isa interjected, a mix of sympathy and understanding and empathy of his own, as well as contained disgust, in his voice.
"After everything you put Lea and I through, you're just going to do the same thing I did and give up on everything you believe in and live for; merely because you dabbled in darkness and you thus hurt and lost people important to you?
"It looks like I was right the entire time, then.
"Hearts do need strength, or they'll snap like twigs.
"Because after all the time you spent teaching Lea, Xion, and I we had them; you're throwing your own fragile heart away and making a mockery out of everything you have done for us."
Roxas started violently, and looked at Isa in shock.
A small amount of color returned to Axel's face, but he kept it a mask; clearly unsure how Roxas would react, given how he'd hurt Roxas in the past.
A new kind of desperation, hope Xion apparently could still want to win enough to feel, rose up to cause her heart to catch in suspension.
"You're not even an it," Isa sneered in what was now revulsion.
Xion suppressed the urge to wince, in the event she was capable of it.
"You're just a hypocritical coward. If you're willing to sink this low after all the effort and time you spent on the three of us, you weren't reduced to anything.
"You never were anything.
"You disgust me now.
"You spend months telling me, with words or otherwise, to let go of my hate for Xion; and then you turn around and do the same thing?
"If you really want someone to hate you, then fine.
"Follow in my footsteps if you want, but when you have; while I won't develop any new ill will to Axel or Xion; never ask or request me not to hate you again.
"Because when you have, you won't be you this time.
"You'll be me, as I used to be; much of what you most used to stand against."
Roxas said nothing for a large number of seconds.
And then white flowed and shimmered up his form from his feet.
When it dispersed, he was in his own human form, and he crashed to lie on his back on the paned glass.
Xion barely remembered she was the sole person who could remove them from Ven's Station of Awakening for certain in time to keep blackness from dragging her down into it.
Maleficent opened her mouth, green fire burning in her gullet.
But before she could launch it, in the form of one or more comets or a curtain; a thin coil of ice lashed out of the sickle still pushing against Maleficent's wings and curled upward and inwards to plunge down into her maw and into the flames themselves, where they must have been chilled to a specific temperature.
Because as soon as it touched the inferno, it all shifted into scalding steam that spread throughout the inside of Maleficent's neck.
Maleficent gasped in surprise and pain; but before she could react in time to prevent what Xion knew was the rest of Elsa's strategy, the other archmagus pulled her sickle and the remains of her mirror back from Maleficent's wings and sent the totality of the remaining force of a condensed eternal winter arcing up into steam now hot enough to alter all of that concentrated ice into steam of its own.
Maleficent must have attempted to let out a shriek of her own, but all that emerged from vocal cords that must have just been ravaged beyond repair any time in the near future were weak sounds of agony.
Axel broke into a run right at Maleficent, Flame Liberator appearing in his hand in swirls of orange and red, and he positioned it to chop her head off; knowing her neck had almost certainly been injured enough from inside a small number of strikes, and perhaps maybe even one, would slice her down.
But before he could reach her, a giant oblate shape of shifting purples and blackness appeared behind Maleficent, and she staggered back into it and it closed around her.
Xion forced herself to push everything else she could perceive away long enough to focus all of her attention on twisting herself until she could close her teeth around the handle of the Keyblade of Hearts.
Then the environment around them shimmered, and they were back in the alley.
Xion brought crimson and black curving around the Keyblade of Hearts, and then it was gone.
And then all she knew was how much she ached everywhere, and she didn't understand how she could still breathe.
"That was a surprise," a voice Xion had heard only one time before, when Young Xehanort had replayed the battle with the Demon Tide at the Keyblade Graveyard for her to review the guardians' tactics before they moved out, broke in.
She was too exhausted now, and too focused on staying awake at least long enough to ensure Roxas and Axel and Isa and Namine and Mare and Ven were as okay as they could be, to even start a bit.
But she still turned her head to see a familiar teenage boy with curly silver hair, wearing a red scarf; standing at the mouth of the alleyway and smiling at them with a mixture of sadly pained understanding and approval.
This time he was solid, not transparent.
He was additionally attempting to keep from looking at Kairi as much as he could.
"I've learned from what I know about what Skuld has been doing just how capable the two of you are," Isa went stiff and Axel jolted violently from where he was now sitting beside Roxas with his head in his lap, looking up at the person Xion knew was the founder of Scala ad Caelum, Keyblade Master Ephemer.
"But I was almost certain I'd need to intervene; and risk the Foretellers or Yozora's Heartless' true self, Empyreal, picking up on how I've finally made it back from where I've been.
"But you brought Roxas to his senses yourself."
"Have you spent any time with her?" Isa questioned, a different kind of worry and terror in his voice now.
"I've tried to locate her, but that's been rather hard to do given how she's spent most of the past over a decade traveling with the true Dandelion tracking down yours and Lea's Heartlesses, and the Heartlesses of the other members of Organization Thirteen; so if you Nobodies were defeated, you could be recompleted each time."
Axel's jaw dropped.
Isa's mouth opened.
Ephemer grinned, and to Xion's shock, even at a time like this, it was genuine and happy.
"You didn't believe Kairi was the sole person to learn about the concept of giving your all to fulfill your dreams, and going looking for people you love when they won't come home to you, did you?" he queried.
Axel grinned.
Isa smiled slightly.
"Mare's right about how she's fine," Ephemer continued.
"With the exception of the memory she lacks due to the method Brain used to send us to the future, yes. But I'm all but certain Lauriam and Elrena have most or all of theirs back by now, so it shouldn't be too hard to figure out how to jog hers."
Isa's smile grew a little.
But Axel just looked down at Roxas.
"You don't need ice cream this time," Roxas said, and his voice didn't sound that much different from how it usually did when he sounded tired and pained, but there was a resigned exhaustion in his voice that had never been there before.
Xion's heart somehow still had enough power to distort and squeeze tightly in a vise.
"It's just good to have you two back, before I did something stupid and lost both of you again for as long as last time."
"That's right."
But Xion could tell Axel's smile was as forced as it was sincere.
"No harm done this time."
"And this taught me how to create Unversed if I need to," Roxas answered.
Axel jolted a little.
Isa's visage lost any feeling.
Namine shifted a little.
Elsa thinned her lips together tightly.
Mare clenched her teeth together.
Xion didn't know how she felt about that.
"I'd advise against that, until you've been tutored in doing it extensively by Vanitas," Ephemer put in. "Vanitas picked it up as quickly as he did partially because he was already a dark entity before he became a Nobody; but as exceptional a Nobody as you are in your own ways, from what I've figured out about how it works by now I'm pretty sure it won't be as easy as you believe it is.
"And we can't take any risks right now.
"The Foretellers are uncertain because Maleficent ensnared Luxu, so this is our best chance to implement the plan the true Dandelion, Strelitzia, and I have been setting up for the centuries since I established Scala ad Caelum.
"If we're careful, we can end all of this within a few days; or at least put enough pieces in place Goofy's own plan will very likely succeed."
Anna gazed at Ephemer with a desperate hope of her own.
A more contained desperate hope appeared in Elsa's visage.
"That's why I'm here.
"Also to assist you in recovering Sora, because we're going to need him with us when we meet up with Strelitzia if we're going to have a good chance of pulling it off."
Vanitas was now glaring furiously at Ephemer, though.
"Ven and Mare and I can do that on our own, thank you very much," he said.
"I've been able to get in touch with Empyreal inside his own body from time to time when working with Yozora's Heartless, and you have no idea what you and Skuld did to him when you attempted to sacrifice yourself to enable him to escape the datascape to the future.
"I'm even more upset I didn't kill the two of you, or at least turn you into Heartless, before Ven sealed me away all those millennia ago.
"He lost everyone and everything he loved with the exception of you two in the First Keyblade War, and then when it was about to happen all over again you told him he was going to lose you two that time as well."
Xion needed to suppress the urge to cringe at that one.
"Even pure darkness has limits with what he, she, or it can stomach.
"How low can you two sink?"
Ephemer turned his face away until Kairi was as much outside of his field of vision as possible, but even now all of his cheerfulness didn't vanish.
"I don't want to talk about that now," was all he said, his voice keeping his feelings hidden.
"You mean, you don't want to talk about it with Kairi nearby in the event Ava is now awake inside her and will hear you," Vanitas replied with mocking, derisive scorn.
"Tell me, did you know Empyreal's Chirithy would still be waiting for him in The Final World if not for Sora?
"And, even though Empyreal's heart had long since recovered from being cast out of his altered body by Yozora's Heartless by resting in Xehanort's darkness; all that kept him from giving up all hope and fading into death along with Xehanort was because Strelitzia finally introduced herself to him when she rescued Skuld from the first Terra-Xehanort?"
But Ephemer didn't answer.
"I could have opened the lock on his memories of the First Keyblade War, but I decided to give you two one last chance to come clean.
"But if one or both of you, or at least Chirithy, don't tell him the truth soon; I'll do it myself, and then the two of you and Chirithy are on your own for however he takes it hearing it from me."
Ephemer said nothing.
Vanitas looked at Ephemer with whole and utter revulsion, and then turned to Mare.
Mare had been looking at Roxas with terror and worry, but she turned to include Aqua and Terra in her gaze as she answered.
"Give me a few hours in the Old Mansion," she said.
Aqua walked up to her right away.
Terra staggered unsteadily behind her.
"We're coming with you," Aqua said without preamble, her voice ruined and broken but determined.
Terra looked at her worriedly, but all he did was nod.
Ephemer at last reentered the conversation.
"I won't argue with you unless it looks like you won't be able to fool the Xehanorts.
"But since we'll need to make a pit stop at the true Symphony of Sorcery anyway for reasons I'll get into when things are more settled, we should at least consider visiting Ivalice Zodiac and asking the people they want if they're willing to make the exchange."
"We'll keep that in mind," Riku said from where he was now sitting against a nearby wall with one arm around Kairi, Donald standing on one side and Goofy on the other; his voice wary but willing to give Ephemer the benefit of the doubt he could be trusted.
Ephemer didn't meet his eyes, because that would have meant looking at Kairi too much.
"I'm going to Ivalice Zodiac, and very shortly; no matter what anyone says," Roxas interjected.
"It doesn't matter what's waiting for Sora there.
"Ivalice Zodiac is no danger to me, and I can't possibly make anything worse by going there if I just visit it myself.
"No one can be associated with a murder worse than Xion's. And the concepts of time and space don't pertain to me, because who I am isn't reflected by anyone or anything else.
"How I almost abandoned you two, and Hayner and Olette and Pence and Mare and Elsa and Isa and Namine, once again; no longer leaves any room for doubt about that.
"Other people don't define me, or show me I'm really here in reality.
"All I need as the simple and clean sanctuary that tells me how I'm defined, and who I am, and what my own inevitable and inescapable destiny is; is how I murdered Xion."
Xion knew she'd lost awareness of reality once more without passing out.
Axel was ghostly pale again.
Tears were in Namine's eyes, but not on her face.
Tears were in Mare's eyes, and falling down her face.
Isa's own lips were pressed tightly together.
But Elsa just gave Anna a resigned glance, telling Xion she'd known this was most likely going to happen.
"So, secondly, because of what I just did, I've made a decision.
"And I'm not going to think twice about it or conceal it and not feel it, so don't even attempt to convince me to reconsider."
"Sora, or Ven and Vanitas, can become the Kye-Blade; and the final darkness of a Princess of Heart can wield a Note Blade.
"But you can't commit much more of a darker sin than not just murdering someone, but forcing him or her or it to not just die but die forgotten by all history and knowledge.
"Sora became the Kye-Blade when I was born, and I have ties to Ven, so that means I can become one too.
"So I have my own plan for challenging our destiny now.
"If Sora could preempt Xehanort by becoming the Kye-Blade, I can do the same with the Note Blade.
"I'm going to become the Note Blade myself."
.
"You still probably don't notice
This quiet sky
I'll remember it always
But can't return anymore
.
"I still feel calm
And slowly realize
Someday, we'll start to see the kindness
.
"What's stopping me? I get stuck again
Is it really okay? It's never okay for me
What's got into me? I get lost again
Is it really okay? It's never going to be"
'I Wanna' Go To A Place… – Version One'
GUNDAM SEED DESTINY